Ginger Kids

“While the rest of the species is descended from apes,  we redheads are descended from cats.”

~Mark Twain

Firstly....I'm not a stalker, I'm an artist...there is a distinction.....sometimes.

I have a few friends back home that are red heads. I've seen a fair number in my life I suppose. I don't have a particular obsession or fetish about them, but i decided to do a blog about them simply (red) because I'm in Scotland...the mother land of the Ginger kid. I have to qualify that statement to say Ireland is as well. Both Ireland and Scotland boast an estimated 10-12% of their population as being Copper tops. This is the highest concentration of awesome orange in the world.

The last few years there has been a nasty trend toward bullying these fair individuals. So I thought I would give some reverence for a change. 

Here's a lil' info on the genetics of Red hair:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair

Famous Red heads:     

http://listverse.com/2008/10/12/top-25-famous-redheads/

Upon landing in Scotland I quickly realized the sheer number of strawberry blond to bright red haired individuals, so I thought I would look into the matter. I decided to either make friends with or stealthily photograph, as many as I could just to show you how many I see. I have captured only 1/3 of the ones I have seen on film, as I am a little quicker on the trigger now, (bare in mind, I've only been here for 14 days as well.) Often I will see them while I'm on the train or the bus, as I am passing. A few of them I have stopped on the street. A few of these kind souls have been keen to connect, other's are shy of the camera, but majestic just the same. 

Ginger convergence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmN0PMcVmoI 

I have also cheated a bit, because i also wanted to give mad props to the ones I know already, so there are categories.

Friends back home

Alice: AKA "The Ginga Ninja" Is the mother of Ruby* Also on list.
Her super power is the ability to "bring the light up in a room". Funny, clever, foxy, and clearly good with the chocolate fondu!

Bryn: Awesome artist, mad-cap spray bomb genius...lover of Bob Ross (but who isn't?), his work dons the halls and walls of many! His super power is "all in his wrists an finga tips...woooooot". Keep makin mad shit.

Brian: His humor is greatly valued in my friends circle. Always a sensitive and compassionate human, his awareness of the human condition is what makes him the type of person you could see writing a really good book someday. His super power is: "making people realize how silly they are being about trivial shit".

Natasha: She's a keener, always willing to muck in and help out. She never has anything negative to say about anyone. She owns her own shit. Maturity this one. She seems to have energy to spare, and an open mind. Her super power is:"showing people how to give of themselves".

Ben:  Ben is rad. He spends most of his time being a super hero. He raises money for charity, and sets world records. He is amazingly kind. His super power is:"Inspiring others to find 'the super hero within'".

Love the BOOOSH

Ruby!: Ruby is a bit shy. She's still a young n', So she's a superhero in training. Give her time, and she will show 'em who's boss. Ruby was my student for a while. We made weird art projects together. I appreciate her unique ideas. This is certainly her super power. Smart as a whip this one.

Matty Cakes: When I first met Matty, I was working away in my open studio, when along came this fellow with a small sketch of a 'my little pony unicorn' addressed to me.

I'm not one to shy away from ponies, so I kept it pinned to my wall. Two years later I saw him in Victoria, and said "Hey it's you! Unicorn dude!" and he said "What the fuck are you talking about?"
ahhhh yes...good ol Matty. Your super power is:
"Forgetting ponies" heheheh

Kyle: He's a kick ass artist! ...and he puts his art on PEOPLE. He tattoos them! Holy. That is a pretty intense deal. It's there forever, so he means it, you know?
 No messing about there. His super power is: "to make people pretty with ink".
That's pretty magical actually.

John: He is a sensitive kind human, very aware, very compassionate. He has an amazing singing voice....AMAZING....somebody should sign this boy on a label. I'm not kidding. His super power is:" music."

So that's my peeps back home. I'm prolly forgetting some, but it's not that they are forgettable, just that this list is ongoing...so If I forgot you....remind me and I'll add you loves.

New friends in Scotland

These are the kind folks I was able to distract from their busy day to talk and photograph and exchange emails. They had the time....and so, here are my new friends:

Gavin: I sense by his headphones and easy going nature, that this boy likes to rock out. He was more than happy to make time for us, which is very admirable since it is a bit of a strange request we were making. "Hi, we're collecting photo's of Scottish Gingers, do you want to be in our blog?"  He seemed game immediately, which to Amber and I, signifies that he is in fact the true "King of the Scots". And with a mighty mane like his, he really should be. His super power is: "Being the once and future king".


 Cheers Gavin!

 Barry: Barry was, technically, besides Amber, our first Ginger. He and his friends were very friendly and helpful. He liked the idea of our project, and recommended that we go up to Northern Scotland "where there is more of us", he said. He was very good humored. His friend ALSO had a kick ass do. His super power is: "Rolling with whatever comes his way...cheerfully".

 Liz: She was also recommending that we spread our search area to Northern Scotland...apparently they have a bumper crop of gingers in the highlands...spoze that's the next part of the journey. Liz has been to Canada before and I caught her days before she was off to Toronto.
Have a great trip Liz!
I'd have to say Liz's super power is her outgoing nature.

This is the nice fellow at the airport: His super power is making the greatest latte I have ever known this side of Oso.

This is Barry#2, technically our last Ginger for the project...funny that he is also a Barry...
His super power is keeping a brave face despite sitting next to Amber...heh heh.

This is Amber, who you've heard of before, but Who's picture I couldn't seem to get to the top of the page due to my inexperience as a blogger.
Amber's super power: "The ability to take all lemons and to make the BEST lemonade." Metaphor intended.












         STEALTH MISSIONS:

I stop at 98 simply because the remaining photos were too blurry. I wish I could have talked to all of them, but it's hard to get people to stop and chat in da big city. Busy bees.

Ah but these two (who work together in the outdoor/mountaineering shop) Were also more than happy to pose, and hopefully they too will keep in touch with us...hey if your out there...let's go hiking!

 SO...

 Let's hear it for Gingers!!!

So ends the Ginger Kids project. I admit that now, whenever I pass a red haired person, I will reach compulsively for my camera (knee jerk reaction to any prolonged exposure to one subject), to capture the majestic ginger in their natural habitat, but alas, it's over now. Until the next project...which is a secret.HA!

"Doing chores, and meeting the neighbours"

So here's Amber again in one of my artsy shots. I am cheaply mimicking the documentary style shots of National Geo to bring you images of the peeps of Paisley...and I will try and also bring the language into it as well. ...also on the cheap cheep cheep.  So the above image is of Amber and groceries. She is walking through the hallway through the bottom half of her building which opens up into a courtyard which is overgrown with weeds. The hallway smells like an even mix of dog, cat, and human urine.  A heady yet nostalgic odor which brings to mind  Hastings street in Vancouver in the summer time. The concrete is cracked and heavily textured by time and neglect. I dig it, even if it does smell of wee.

Amber lives here because the rent is very cheap, which helps her save money for school. She is taking international development. So really, this is the ideal anthropological environment for a student learning about such things as she is.






Today, we are doing laundry.... This is the washing machine. It is teensy. It fits on the kitchen counter like a mix-master or a slow-cooker. It uses very little water and energy, and leaves my trousers smelling of flowers. We put the washing in on the right, and spin it dry on the left. Amber paid about 100£ for it, and it seems to do the trick! We do small batches, and hang everything to dry in the kitchen. We could hang it outside, but NEDS* (non-educated delinquents) steal shit all the time.

This is what the power meter looks like, and you get this key thingy which is kind of like a credit card and you can put money on it almost anywhere and then you come home and put they key in it and you have power. With two of us, washing and living...it takes about 1.20£/day.

I like this system, because it teaches you to turn the lights off when your not using them (among other things), which is a good habit.  It makes one conscientious of power use habits.

This is what the power bar for our computers looks like. Each plug has it's own switch.  I like that. Again....efficiency.

Now on with the neighbours. This is Shawn. He lives downstairs, and is a nice quiet fellow, he's prolly about 27 and works at a bar/lounge at the Glasgow airport. He's very soft spoken and unassuming. In this photo, he is looking very skeptical about how this machine is supposed to make him look more like a man.

 On this perticular morning, he and Paul* see below, have been trying to get the damn thing going so they can remove the weeds from the pavement, some of which have reached over and above a foot in height.

While they have been deciding what to do about that, I have cleared Amber's section with a flat shovel. Now I have a lovely little spot to do my tai chi in the morning. Hopefully, it can remain a NED free zone....but I think I am delusional in this case.

Here we have Shawn (in red), and Paul(in blue). Paul is the commander. Captain Paul. He is good at delegating various laborious aspects to his neighbours and directing their actions forthwith. On this occasion, not only did he manage to get Shawn to weed-whack, but also, he managed to finagle the fellow across the street (Alec) to mow the lawn for him....truly a Jedi master. Amber was quick to point out that their shirts had brand names like "Everlast" on them, which was ironic considering how long their chore escapade 'lasted'.

Does this not look like a Jedi master to you?  Light saber in one hand (ciggy or fag), and the other doing the Jedi salute.

Here's Paul (he's a welder by trade), in "Galvie" the shopping cart, which he was quick to point out was "useless" for using as a barbeque because of the neuro-toxin created by the burning of the nickle plated coating, which would give you "flu-like symptoms before a horrid death". ..called "The Galvie Flu"...I learn something new every day...apparently they use shopping carts for barbeques here?...................again with the Jedi salute.

Part of our chores was trying to find out the fowl stench that was following me everywhere I went. It was first noticed by Chris who said "There's an aweful smell, familiar but aweful, and it's coming from you , but i can't tell if it's you, cause you usually don't smell like that". Then I kept smelling it, and the smell followed me all the way here to Scotland, and pretty soon I felt like I truly had earned the nomeclature "Smelly Kelly" until one day I picked up my new belt and inhaled what I expected to be the aroma of new leather, but which actually was the aroma of 10 day rotted whale carcass. BINGO! That was the stench....so Amber and I thought it might be wise to soak it in hot water to see what it would do. It shrivelled up in our holy water...due to it's allegiance to the dark stinky lord.....it stank up our kitchen, so we chucked it. No more belt.

So once the chores were done Amber and I headed down to our local cafe "The Grumpy Monkey" which is a partially misleading name being as they are not curmudgeon there, but being humans , like me, they are part of the great ape family. It is owned by my other new friend Paul and his brother. They seem pretty nice as well....I should warn them about galvanized shopping carts however...

Till next time.....avoid barbecuing with carts made of unknown metals.

 Next: "THE TOP SECRET PROJECT"...creeper value rating: HIGH

First impressions of Paisley, Scotland

How to begin...well, at the very beginning...

 First: This is Amber.

Amber and I have been friends since we were toddlers. I remember the day we met. She was wearing gumboots and a diaper. She figures that's how we will be when we're 80. It's partially her doing that I am here. She gave me the subtle hint that I should go traveling, by purchasing a ticket for me the minute she got wind that I had even the notion of traveling.

It actually all started with a dream I had. Often, I will experience super strong vision-like dreams. Vivid, bright, memorable... The kind I wake up from and say "Wowee what the hell was that about?" This particular dream will come back into the story later...when I get to Germany...I digress.... 

So yes, Amber bought me a ticket and got my ass moving. So I gathered all my things into storage and high tailed it over here to Scotland....Paisley, Renfrewshire to be exact. Just outside of Glasgow.

So, here I am....I have landed on the moon...which is not made of cheese, but of Haggis, and everyone talks like 'grounds keeper Willy' from the "Simpsons". So when I got off the plane, things were immediately hilarious. We took a cab back to her flat from the airport, and slept for a bit due to retarded case of jetlag.

When I woke up, I went on a picture taking frenzy of all the stuff I LIKE about Paisley...you only get a few pics...so there.     

Here is the place I am staying. It's pretty cool, and the people are swell. And every morning I get to hear the dulcet tones of children yelling expletives at each other on the way to school, and at night the operatic coherent gibberish of drunks threatening to punch each others heads in. That's entertainment...specially for a gal like me who lives in a Siddhartha bucolic place like Nelson, BC.

This is the view from the back/kitchen window. It's on to a street called "Ferguslie Walk" or as the locals call it "Figgy Walk"...apparently a good place to hang out if you like breaking into cars and  hanging out of windows yelling incoherently. I admire the pale sandstone qualities of the architecture....and the strong vocal abilities of the tenants. There's no talk of '2012 prophesies' here...I noticed. Also most people here have never heard of 'gluten'. An allergy to beer in this neighbourhood would be tantamount to a Shakespearean tragedy.

So, for the first few days I walked around snapping pictures. It's a very photogenic little town with a rich history, some of which you can read here:     http://www.paisley.org.uk/

So here is a few of the pics I snapped of my favorite areas of Paisley:       

This is a building that is down on of the main-ish streets. I like that it's red. I think it's red sandstone, so it looks quite stunning against a blue sky. A lot of these spaces are for rent as offices apartments and studios, and are close to all amenities....blah blah blah...I dig it.

Here is what a typical Paisley street looks like with shops on it. I like. Often there will be loudly dressed females with big hair teetering about on high heels around with prams (baby strollers). How they do this on cobblestone is a nationally held secret.

Here is "Hogwarts School for Young Wizards". I didn't see any students lurking about when I slunk by, but I'm sure they're in there...the dirty little buggers. 

Here is one of my favorite alleys.Super steep, and fun to walk up.  There are so many strange hidden places here. It would take a while to discover all of them...So if you get a chance to come here...walk around aimlessly as much as possible. Aim for high ground, because you get great views of the town below, from a quiet vantage point.

     

 

I noticed that this lovely maiden holds an artists pallet in her  left  hand. So I adopted her as my patron saint...I call her "Saint Awesomeness".

This was an old water mill, and next to it is a small waterfall. It was super cute, but a wee bit polluted. The swan didn't give a turd about that though...he seemed pretty chill about stuff. Also, there were people fishing for stuff there...not sure what lures they were using, but I am going to assume that old tires and shoes will be on the menu...woooooweeee.

Here's what is so nifty about Paisley. A place where super awesome buildings are totally available for renting to do weird projects. The red one to the right in the picture was totally boarded up but totally ready to rent. It was a fair size building. I looked at that one for a while, fantisizing about options.  There are so many fun buildings here. I can see why folks would want to stay. Also, I appreciate the fact that there are no hands on the clock at the top...that's my style for sure!Here's a bit of flag fer ya!

OK! So that's the first installment of photo's. Next up is...."Doing chores, and meeting the neighbours"...then after that...the "TOP SECRET" project.....oh gosh, there is so much to see here...I just couldn't show it all...

Love you peeps

~K

Pavement to Pavement...why I love airports and flying

To me, the fact that a big ol' can of metal and glass filled with meat and upholstery, can fly through the air at about 1000km/hour and go above the clouds? wowza. THAT in itself is amazing.

(you will notice me using 'also' a BUNCH.)

Also:  The culture around flight is amazing. The design of everything you touch in an airport and around planes is fantastic. Maybe we all take it for granted...well I don't. Everything about it seems beautiful.
 Despite the obvious setbacks of such inventions which would be kicking a dead horse to mention, flight IS TRULY nifty.

First: Airports.
 Pavement...the entry point. Millions of feet touch this pavement. Nervous sweat, happy/sad tears, wads of unconsciously spat gum...a lot of unconscious use and intention. People not wanting to go, people in a hurry to get the hell outa Dodge..it's all tattooed right there..in the pavement.



What does the sidewalk in front of your house look like?

I likes me an escalator. I used to play on the escalators in the museum in Victoria when I was a kid, with my best pal and her twin brothers. We got in a lot of shit for it....but I know...secretly......every adult wants to.

  poor fuckers


also:  They shine with the chromey goodness of a thousand pit mines.



Yet another prime example of technological awesomeness and design prowess.

I always think of how many people have slept on these...and still...despite this, these little chairs have a look of elegant retro simplicity that makes my couch look like a piece of crap.

I like all the little car/traktor/choo choo trains they have out there on the pavement...where we aren't allowed to go. Where they have secret bumper car races and play "hot potato" with our luggage.


Dang...how I wish....to play "Hot Potato" with your packages.. I wonder if they ever play "Hey what's in here?" and make bets about it only to have their hopes dashed by a very boring x-ray of said package....in fact, I wonder if they get to play with the x-ray machine. I mean really, beside riding the little car thingies there's gotsa be some perks.

The pilots were kind enough to let me into the "cockpit". The term is most likely related to the sailing term for the coxswain's station in a Royal Navy ship, but I just assume it's about dick.



These guys seemed super nice though. They weren't dicks, but I am assuming they have them.

For those of you who don't believe me....poo to you!


Here's me grinning like an kid with one of the pilots.

I love when it rains...makes everything just that much shinier.

Calgary looks a bit like a circuit board hey? Lovely...

Now we go real fast so the plane lifts up off the ground and we don't have an embarrassing moment at the end of the runway....a messy and embarrassing moment involving A large can of meat...and fire.

Now we are in a whole new world. The light is different here.
The air is cool and recycled, the seats are cramped and retarded.

 It's here that we experience free booze and easy conversation, and single serving packets of things who's extra ingredients we cannot pronounce.









They gave me "Excalibur" spoon of kings since the dawn of time. See how it glistens in the sun as if made from hyper alien super metal...when really it is plastic. Plastic......plastic......plastic......plastic

What I love most about flying is the illusion of safety. Like these well designed stylish belts will keep our meat bag bodies all in one piece when the apocalypse comes. Like a hurtling ball of flaming metal can't hurt us if the safety belt sign is on...."ding"...the roast is done.

My view of Iceland's freshly vomited volcano is obscured by normal boring

Cumulo-stratus booo to you clouds...way to ruin my drama fun.

 

Anyone who looks this up and corrects me is an asshole that needs a hobby.

 And here's Scotland. Which looks more like a quilt than a circuit board...

 And Scottish airport pavement. So begins the adventure.

 Next: Paisley...yes Persian amoebas

 

 

http://vimeo.com/4432217