Although about as technologically gifted as a gorilla’s bum, The Leither (a local magazine I occasionally contribute to- if only in loud hand gestures and stilted opinions) has signed up to Twitter this month. This is a piece I wrote to celebrate this move. Although technologically akin to turning up late to a student party with three empty bottles of blue nun in a ragged paper bag we’re tweeting…

twitter is the latest online service to be hyped to such a lofty a lofty degree, in a rash of himalayic superlatives, that you could be forgiven for thinking it offers a cure to swine flu, a solution to toxic debt, or the answer to life’s persistent questions. it does not.

twitter (once you’ve signed up at twitter.com) lets you share a few choice words with friends. think: “anyone fancy a film tonight?” don’t think:
“anyone fancy a beer with the editor?” your message is limited to no more than 140 characters known as a ‘tweet’.
tweets can be trivial “i’m at the beach, mmh Seafeild”, or it could be a link to an article you’re reading, a photo of your new puppy. simple stuff you’d like to share. once logged in you can find and add friends near and far (you can choose to ‘follow’ bands, there’s a few celebrities on there… @BarackObama) their tweets will appear on your homepage where you can reply to messages or just keep an eye on what’s happening. friends can choose to follow you by searching your name or through invitation. by connecting with these other twitter users you create a global conversation, accessed easily through your phone, IM, mobile browser, or old- fashioned web. at home at work at play.
Read On »

Eliot Shepard’s photos on Slower.net were always an inspiration for my early party photography, his back catalogue begins (or, rather ends) here. Well worth a peek if you’re into oddly beautiful street photography with a dash of genius in his messy (and fairly spontaneous, you’d imagine?) compositions.

I snapped, this [above] slower.net-esque photo on Friday at the Leith Festival programme launch (that’s right there’s a launch for a glossy booklet). The photo is not my style, anymore, but it’s fun. Don’t-cha-think, and hey that tray is 4 years older than me!

Ian McDiarmid (who played darth sidious / Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars) lives around the corner from me in Leith. My boss and I were discussing him the other day after she’d watched New Hope; had recognised him previously from Morse and thought nothing of seeing him hanging about Leith Walk… but the man is an utter (and I don’t normally use such slack-phrases) utter legend. “great disturbance in the force” and all that. If I see him in the street I will gush.

The folks who run The Skinny are game. A young crowd turned up to one of the most miserable Saturday’s I’ve spent outside– and to the Skinny’s “Boat Party” on Cruz (Leith’s nice but not homely floating restaurant, nightclub-bar combo) and it was barry. Yes, ‘barry’ is Leith for ‘pretty fekkin’ nice’. An all-day DJ set moving through hip-hop, jazz, soul and a little latin inspired thingy in the middle sums up most of the stuff i nodded along to… an ambitious idea i suppose; keep 400 (I’d say 150 max turned out) punters bouncing along all day and night- but it was a good laugh, and the free drink helped (it lasted… a short time) free BBQ too.

I had a kind of press-pass (involved saying to the door-men “yeah, i’m with the Leither… look there’s the editor across the road- ‘ave a word with him” –the editor promptly disappeared leaving me to wrangle myself in on the basis that I had a big camera and knew the owner of the boat) the orginisers were a pretty good laugh and the uncomfortable early moments of turning up sober to a gig where you know no-one passed quickly. met and had a laugh with the lee, photo editor for the skinny, and some fella named ian who’s an event manager and has an incredibly optimistic take on most things manufactured a waterproof ceiling for the promo girls from Kopparberg who stood in the pouring rain handing out free pear-cider.

There were pirates. Dead of course, and they did some stuff with fire which was nice, made for an interesting photo set; dj’s, rain and fire. On a boat, in Leith. Went home early after a great campari-esque cocktail, which I helped Esmeralda (possibly not her real name) the Cruz’s newest foxiest barmaid, invent. Doug showed up and we had a few drinks in an old man pub across the street where I complained about the mad-house we’d just left with the locals “aye, i said calm down ya loon– t’won of these pirate lads”. bloody pirates, eh.

So. this is my new attempt at keeping you a’breast. I’m no William Rennie but i really should start drafting these or taking this psudo-journalistic spree seriously, just a little. First stop: English for beginners. Stay with me! Photos are with The Leither- if you’ve found yourself here via my scribbled notes whoever you may be.

recently i helped out on the photography side of things for the Leither magazine. in this month’s issue you can see my snaps from the Leith Festival, a traditional / eclectic week of music, dance, arts and culture with its heart and soul in the east of edinburgh. photos here. felt like a successful event– the free food and drink resulting in what felt like longest hangover of my life was very much worth while. incredible group of passionate well-meaning folk running the festival which can only grow and grow. and i’m sticking around to see what happens, that week and the characters i encountered confirmed that leith is the place where i want to be, i’m staying-put in my current flat even planning a trip to ikea too. how sad.

So, the photos from Leith Festival are here and i’ve changed my email address too, add @gmail.com to callumalden. If you fancy any of those shots contact me or The Leither Magazine.