London burning...a native perspective of the riots...

At this point it seems the whole world knows about the riots in London. I have a number of friends, both new and old, that live there and have been keeping my own eye on the situation via our news outlets. Knowing that the story is deeper than what is portrayed, I had to reach out and get the perspective from someone I know from, and living in London. They will remain anonymous, but I found the perspective interesting:

"Yeah the riots, I got a new TV and Xbox now :) ...only joking.  Nah for real, It's getting crazy out here.  The youth who got shot didn’t fire a gun at all, much less fire at police.  That became the last straw in people's eyes – Its been bound to happen for a while now.  The youth are out there like ‘fuck it’.  They don’t feel they have anything, so there's nothing you can take away from them.  You can see that by the way its been sparking off randomly all over the country – I've never heard of that happening.  Yeah, it started in the more deprived areas, but it's spreading all out. I can see it getting worse."

I am an MSNBC faithful, and today I even had to side eye the 'Morning Joe' group today. They really said that this riot was caused by people who are bored with nothing to do. Damn near smearing my makeup all over my face I was furious as to how they just 'forgot' that an innocent man very literally got his head blown off by the cops, in the light of peaceful demonstrations. I know that's something us NYers know all too well,but we also know complacenecy all too well. Though I do not condone lighting the entire city on fire...dare I say, at least they have fire. One thing I have always preferred about Europe, to America is they are not scared of their government, and when they don't like something they take to the streets...

The images are gut wrenching. To think I just got an email asking if I was still attending post-grad there this coming Fall. A decision I postponed from last year. To all my friends out there, please be safe and keep us posted. The video below really blew my mind yesterday, as I know it's been circulating.

Nomad•ness gal: Abigail Tarttelin's London bite

 

Nomad•ness gal Abigail Tarttelin is the first noted woman we've given this title to where it's difficult for me to write about her because I simply don't know where to start...

In an attempt, let's start on one afternoon in July 2006, Paris. It was the afternoon to shoot my short film, and I'd wanted Abby in it after using her talents for my mise-en-scene exercise earlier in the month. In the dark, with just she and I, and my DP, Batool, we created one of my favorite pieces of art below.

It wasn't until one of my very last nights in Paris that I realized in 2006 that Abby had just finished high school in London and decided univeristy wasn't for her. She's was making a b-line straight for her craft, and thus far everything has worked in her favor.

Her travels, mainly for work as an actress, had led her all over Western Europe, even attending the Cannes Film Festival, as well as within the United States with bouts of time in both New York City and Los Angeles.

Starting off in independent shorts, such as mine above, she eventually progressed into full length features like "The Butterfly Tattoo" and "Schrodinger's Girl" which premiered in the Official Selection of the independent film festival at Comic-Con 2009.

Her life, already, is a whirlwind. More recently to add to her list of achievements, Abigail just got her first book publishing deal and the official release of her debut novel, "Flick" will be released in April 2011. You can preorder HERE ON AMAZON.COM! Check her blog out HERE!