no really, it's true

"In this broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection."

-Walt Whitman


The photos are an especially fitting accompaniment to the Whitman quote I think - they're taken by Mike Brodie aka The Polaroid Kidd, who rides the American rails and documents a group of people who wade along on the periphery of society - squatters, drifters, what have you - capturing their lives, character, authenticity and faux-authenticity. Perhaps I think Brodie's images illustrate Whitman's view of the world so well since my own association with such folk has been so wonderfully refreshing.

for my squatters in bloomsbury

"No one who has lived - even for a fleeting moment - for something other than life in its conventional sense and has experienced the exaltation that this feeling produces can then renounce his new freedom so easily.” - Andre Breton


The very appropriate picture (it quite reminds me of the new place of the "video basement" squat) by the avante garde Czech, Jiří Kolář.

Welcome home!

Nickelodeon Nožisková

Kasey created this mini character montage to show to a group of squatters in Soho whom we want to include in our latest documentary endeavor. We'd been pestering them/periodically visiting/hanging out with them at the squat for nigh a month, yet they were still trepidatious about how we might make them look.

After they saw this, however, they said "yes."

Na zdraví!

NOTE: For some bizarre reason my blog lops off a huge portion of the viewing screen - to propertly watch our little reel, go here. Enjoy!

i'm going to become a squatter

british landlords are the *worst* on the planet.

the multitudes of uk's squat folks have it all figured out. seriously, if you can't beat these land-mongers, don't pay them...

- photo of graffiti art (which is much in accordance with my own philosophy) as seen at a squat compound near Westferry in East London