July 2003 Archives

Hi,

I hope everybody is good�.

As you may have already seen, there are new images on my website:

A new category about sk8 and bmx, and a big summer cleaning!! I made a selection among all the images of the surf comps I shot last year, to keep only my very favourite ones�

There are new pictures in the Music category and in the Seen on Earth category�
The Music category is now a mix of bands I have shot, and let me introduce the new ones online on the website:
Poney Club and Cypress Hill. Well there is only one picture of Cypress Hill, and I bet most of you already know who they are, so let�s talk about Poney club!!
It�s a really good French band, who is playing a kind of post- rock music� well first I didn�t like the expression �post rock� but then I realized it�s really fitting them� so �
You should check their website:

www.poney-club.org

And what else� yes new links� and of course you can email me to share your impressions!!

i was on a longboard contest last week end in Biarritz (south west of france). then i drove back to my grandma's house, to leave my car for sale and i came back today here, in Orl�ans by train.
i am leaving on friday to England... i am going to the urban games in London and to the board masters in Newquay (a surf comp).
i hope the conditions would be good... i can't stay long on this surf comp so i really hope the weather and the waves would be perfect while i'll be there so i can take all the pictures i want!!! well i know i don't take action pictures so you must wondering why i need perfect waves and stuffs... well, if the ocean is flat then they will cancel the comp until the day after and so on until the swell would come in... and i can't stay long, so i really hope everything gonna be perfect!!

Take care, thanks for reading,

No�mie.

fantastic, huge, great, fabulous...
i am talking about the radiohead show of last monday night at N�mes!!
one of the best concert i've ever seen (with fugazi's). the kind of concert you see once or twice in a life! really really great.
it's rare. rare to see a band with this level of intensity and who have everything. they are all good musicians, they have good songs, a good attitude, good lights on stage... everything.
it makes me wondering something...
Have you noticed that all of the biggest rock'nd roll bands who became big myths were from the uk????
U2, the Beatles, the rolling stones, the cure, joy division, the clash, blur, radiohead, Pink Floyd, David Bowie... it's weird! Maybe drugs and a too small island make people crazy??
And most of them have kept their original line up all along... like U2, the Beatles and Radiohead... Is it my narrow European vision of the world that makes me notice that??? Also I've noticed that the only very big & famous Americans bands who are playing altogether for a long time are the red hot chilli peppers, sonic youth and nine inch nails (but to me it's not a band, but a boss and his employees). And none of them have its original line up... Most of the US bands don't stay altogether long: or one of them dies, or leaves, or is fired or replaced and then they split after a tour... weird...
Is it true? Or is it just that I am ignorant and don't know anything in Americans big bands who became myths???? I am not talking about the indie scene, I know on the indie scene bands stay longer altogether, but they often split though and form other bands... Ummmm.... I am really wondering...
i have submitted these thoughts to an english friend of mine and to an american one ... and the english replied "yes english rock", i am now waiting for my american friend's opinion... big discussion!!

thanks for reading,

no�mie.

i am going to N�mes tomorrow (south east of france) to see a gig of radiohead,
well if the concert is not cancelled...
because of the strokes with of all the technicians, musicians, actors... a lot of cultural events are/ have been cancelled in france (plays, concerts, a lot of the summer festivals...) so we'll see what's gonna happen!
all the guys who work in the spectacle scene are trying to defend their jobs all over france, they try to awake the public opinion about the fact they are really in danger... but it's hard, people don't give a damn, they go to see plays and shows but they are not really interested in knowing how it works backstage.
I really understand all the technicians, actors, musicians and i am 666 % agree with them so i won't blame them if the french technical crew of radiohead decide to cancel the show on monday... even if i badly want to see them for years and if N�mes is that fare away... these guys have nothing left to lose, if the government take all these decisions to change their status the half of them will have to find another job to survive... they have the chance to get a job they like, and that's very important! so they are right to try to defend it!!
so... to be continued!!
after N�mes i'll come back here for a couple of days and then i'll drive to england. i'll have to put my van on a ferry, so i have spent the last days trying to find the cheapest way to cross the Channel, but it seems the cheapest way is: swimming!!
the ferries from Calais to Dover are sooo expensive!! this is really scarry!!
i am thinking of ways to turn my van into a "batvan"... a van that would become a submarine if i press a purple button... but it's still a project!!
if you have any tips to turn a transporter volkswagen van into a batvan, please email me, all your ideas & suggestions are welcome!!

thanks,

no�mie.

kingpin magazine is gonna use one of my pix of the snickers big skate, which is really cool, because to me kingpin is one of the best sk8baording mag... the funny thing is that they are not using a sk8boarding picture, but an "ambiance image"....
i have spent some times submerged in my archives of the surf comps of last year... because Richard, a friend of mine who is a surfer psychologist is preparing a book and has asked me to select some pictures. so i made him a selection among all the pics which are not on my website and it was interesting to re discover some forgotten stuffs...
some cool portraits, specially of the female surfers... but the matter is that on most of those images they are wearing rash vests, so it spoils a bit the picture to have a big ad on their top... i am wondering if i should use photoshop to erase some of the sponsors names... well i can't erase all of them or it would mean that i live in wonderland, where the surf scene wouldn't be "obscured by the strong material influence of the business of surfing"!!! i don't want to change the reality nor to show a fake reality...so i think i am just gonna play with their names, erasing some letters... i'll see.
i have selected my favourites websites about surfing to add them in my links, it should be on line soon... there will be a link to Rochelle Ballard website... it's the first time i put a link to a pro surfer website... it's not that i don't want to do it, but most of them don't have a website, or there are full of advertises... but this time i have many good reason:
1/it's a good website, without advertises
2/she's one of the most influential women surfers of our time, one of the greatest female surfer ever (she's the first girl to have surfed Pipe!)
3/she has done so much for the development of the women surf scene
4/she's a great person...

so i think it's enough to deserve high consideration!!

there will be also a link to Richard Bennett website (the surfer psychologist who is preparing a book) and greatest websites about surfing...
well i am not saying there are the best ever, because i don't know them all and there a lot of websites about surfing... but i think these ones are interesting!
i am preparing my trips for the comps of this season...asking accreditations and stuffs...
i am gonna start with england at the end of this month (some sk8 events and a surf comp, the Boardmasters in Newquay) then i'll come back in france for the french/ spanish surf comps... if they are not cancelled because of the oil!!!
there are a lot of oil in the ocean and on the beaches for like a month now... and quiksilver has already cancelled a girl event in june... so nothing is sure yet!!
that really sucks!! the french government is telling lies for months, with this silly tv ad which says that everything is ok in south west of france, but it's not!!!
i've been swiming in saint jean de luz 3 weeks ago and my swimsuit top is now spotted with some black oil stains... and i met some guys who were coming back from a surf... they told me they stayed only half an hour in the water because they were surrounded by oil!! and their boards and wetsuits were spotted.. so let me give you a piece of advice: if you really wanna go surfing or swimming in the atlantic ocean in south west of france or in spain this summer, take your oldest swimsuits, boardshorts, wetsuits and boards, and bring a bottle of olive oil with you, it's good for skin and it would help to remove the oil from it!
that's really too bad!!
thanks for reading,

no�mie.