Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: November 25, 2005

camera boy

crispin shot this of me in harajuku last night...he's got a sharp eye.

after an inappropriate 4hr sleep, got up to start the day at 6am.
i was feeling pretty good, but the morning was tainted with the certain knowledge that at some point i'd be hurting.
kicked about the love hotel district taking pictures: the first time in a week i've had opportunity to do this.

realised that anyone slightly criminally minded could clear up in this town.
during my morning walk i must have seen over 200 newish push bikes just left outside people's houses with flimsy locks, not chained to anything at all.
same for motorbikes and scooters (zoomers): not locked at all.

checked out of our hotel.
moved to olie's room as he'd left back for england earlier.
checked out of olie's room a couple of hours later.
moved over to cerulean towers and met underworld and crew.
bus to makuhari (an area outside of tokyo full of new hotels and exhibition centres).
feel like utter shit on bus: feeling sick with exhaustion.

checked into prince hotel (a 50 storey high rise) into a corner room on 26th floor looking out to sea on two sides.

shot underworld's soundcheck in the vast venue/aircraft hanger that is the electraglide festival.
returned to sleep and caught an incredible sunset panorama.
slept 6pm-9pm.

had dinner and some drinks in our hotel bar on the 50th floor.
met haruo and his friend koiji, who were very kind enough to bring me my canon battery charger from tokyo: the image stabiliser on the 70-200mm lens servo is caning battery like i'm not used to.

venue full: 23,000 people.
such a different vibe to an english festival though: on the perimeter of the dancing, there are people leaving their bags and coats neatly, unconcerned about people stealing their stuff.

met chris cunningham who is doing his 2nd dj-vj set ever, but missed his show as it clashed with underworld.
everyone's moving to osaka for day two and the sets don't clash so will catch it there.
on first impressions, he's kinda scary looking: like he might wear white eye shadow...either that or he spends too much time in the dark.
but he's got an infectious laugh and seems to spend a lot of time laughing.
he is obviously a genius though: massive respect.

also met rob from autechre and also missed his set and will see in osaka.

photographed tiga's set a bit.

and photographed underworld's 3.5hr set from 1.30am till 4.00am (this morning).

met 'karen o' (of the yeah yeah yeahs) in the VIP bar, who had been visiting family in korea for her birthday and who was checking out tokyo/ doing press.
she's got shoooort hair just now.
she didn't recognise me...said it was because my hair was different and as i wasn't wearing glasses...??
she also complained that when i took the definitive pictures of the 'yeah yeah yeahs' (her words not mine) i 'sun'-burnt her back with the ringflash i'd been using.
i said 'sorry...i thought you liked it'.
for some reason our conversation wasn't connecting.
perhaps my sense of humour was off...could be the lack of sleep...could be i'm just not funny.
i like 'karen o' though.
she's friends with the cunningham.

buying a bottle of champagne in the vip lounge (i didn't although only they were only £40 a pop) got the cute bar-girls (from the 'milk bar') to scream, jump and clap and then all hug the buyer.
working this out, several bottles of champagne were purchased: it's a good gimmick: an interesting sales technique

underworld's show was non-stop greatness: the kids went wild.
karl ended the show wearing the (sensational) outfit that i photographed him in for underworld's press pictures last time (can't spoil it by telling you what it is).

after a stomping encore karl pulled me into the front of the stage and said 'this is our favourite photographer: perou' which was very kind/nice/unexpected and i must have looked pretty sheepish but i took the bow.

i couldn't see the audience too well anyway: i hadn't been able to focus for the last hour of the show.
the camera's auto focus doesn't work in live stage conditions (darkness or flashing lights) so have to focus manually...the last hour's pictures might be a bit 'arty' (aka soft).
i thought that even though i couldn't see there would be a bit of focus less soft than others but it was all soft no matter how i tried.
need sleep.
body clock is broken.

tom (frances' would-be brother in law aka our model from the last fashion shoot here) came to the festival too.
we was carrying on into the morning and going straight to a shoot back in tokyo for 9am.
back to our hotel for 5.30am just as the most amazing panoramic sunrise was kicking in and i knew i was done as i couldn't get it together to photograph it.