choose your own adventure magazine issue 1
DESCRIPTION
Choose Your Own Adventure Magazine is a youth culture publication based in London. CYOA features is showcases interesting art, fashion, music, travel, photography and adventure and hopes to inspire others to join in with the creative revolutionTRANSCRIPT
Choose Yourown AdventurePhotograPhy, art, Music, Fashion, travel, Food and adventures.
marseille.charlotte x c sullivan. london urban golf.eating out.freezing in fressin. wild flowers. youth in revolt.toshokan design.photos.high street fashion.t-shirt-party.fashion styles.haw-lin.album reviews.videos.
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Contents.
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Travel.Travel.
marseille.There is one website that all young people looking for adventure should have bookmarked and check regularly. Yes you’ve guest it, it’s aviation magicians Ryanair. How do they get those prices so cheap? Many people complain but if you can fit everything you need in to backpack and you remember to bring a packed lunch who cares about everything else your going to marseille for 1p.
On this holiday we managed to book a hostel for just £5 a night, transport to the centre was cheap enough and €1 pizza round the corner.If your inventive there’s always plenty to do.
Just don’t get too drunk and wake up in hospital after being mugged like I did.
5 4
Art.
Prints made with ink in soapy water by artist Charlotte X. C. Sullivan.
www.hybridfloaters.com
Art.
charlotte sullivan.
7 6
London urban golf
Urban golf is seen by many as social commentary on the nature of golf and its traditional opinions and attitudes. Considering golf pompous, dogmatic and quite often inaccessible, urban golfers worldwide have adopted many different urban environments as their new course to engage in this recreational pastime. Commonly, urban golf organisations tend toward using disused or under utilised urban areas to play golf, not just to reduce the risk of damage or injury, but also as a statement toward the development and reuse of the city. 9 8
thesecretrestaurant.
Food.
Not technically a restaurant, ‘The Secret Restaurant’ set up by Ethan Knechel in New York is just an example of a growing trend of make your own restaurant springing up around the world. The idea is you open up your house to the general public (although it will mostly your friends), serve some good home cooked food and have a great night like no other.
thetreehouse.Excellent food, stimulating environment. Contemporary and ethnic art & furniture, The Treehouse does not disappoint.
High quality, high style dining, using only the finest ingredients, the TreeHouse Restaurants’ menus are changing regularly, with daily specials cunningly devised by our chefs, using the freshest ingredients available.
Starting with a rustic bread and oil we then moved to a delicious swordfish steak coupled with a cheese encrusted mash and red cabbage. Followed by a chocolate soufflé with strawberries and orange sauce. A great atmosphere, interior and food. As well as being easy on the wallet makes The Tree house one of the best restaurants in London.
11 10
With the release of their self title debut EP, Freezing in Fressin are set for a great 2011. This Southampton duo, who met only 2 years ago at college, are set to make waves with there indie acoustic mix of heart felt love songs.
ChooseYourOwnAdventure: Hey Tom, How you doing, anything eventful going on?Tom Brain: I’m doing well cheers. To be honest everything has gone quiet since last Sunday after a pretty productive Summer we have just played our first proper gig and ‘sold out’ of our first EP. But we have started writing for our follow up EP.
freezinginfressin.
Music.
CYOA: Tell us about your debut ep.TB: Although physical copies are gone it still available from our bandcamp and last.fm pages. It’s basically the three tracks that we have been most proud of since Rory and I started writing together, it started quite slowly with just a track every now and again when we had time around other commitments but just before this Summer things started to gain pace so we decided to put this out to have something to show and try and get our name out
CYOA: Do you have a favourite song on there?TB: Well I think lyrically I’m most proud of Everywhere With You but most people who ever give us praise say they enjoy If You’re A Bird, I’m A Bird
CYOA: How do you get your inspiration for your songs?TB: I always draw on personal experience for every song (I don’t see how someone can want to sing about something that has absolutely nothing to do with them, but that’s just my personal opinion) but yeah the personal experiences are mostly about relationships and all that jazz
CYOA: Do you find it hard to share the songs with people as they are personal?TB: I did at first, the first couple of songs I wrote for Freezing in Fressin I kept to myself before even asking friends to help write the music, then a few friends caught on with what was going on and shared it around college. I was really scared that people would laugh or worse, know what I was talking about. Now it doesn’t bother me. I write for myself first, then if people like it, that’s great and if they can relate to it, then fantastic
CYOA: So do you feel you are finding your stride as a musician?TB: Oh yeah definitely, I never really saw myself as a musician for so long, just a fake that would get caught out at any second but I’ve definitely felt a maturity in my work over
the two years we’ve been doing it. I still find old scraps of paper with stuff I wrote down and I piss my self laughing but it’s also good to just keep writing because between all that rubbish there might be a gem of a song. But now I’m always proud of what I write even if it is shit, and some of the stuff I have been writing for our new EP I think “shit did I really write that?” Not in an arrogant way but just I use to see other musicians being able to describe how I felt in song so well, now I feel I capture how I’m feeling pretty well if that makes sense.
CYOA: How did freezing in fressin start?TB: Well Rory and I met in the first year of college through some mutual friends. But Freezing in Fressin started after I took a trip to Fressin in France with my parents. It was this beautiful little village but I was pretty bored spending a lot of the time on my own. So I just wrote a song or two whilst I was out there- all my friends had been in bands (including Rory) I was the only one who had never been in any band that hadn’t had anything to show and I thought one song was good enough to have a go at recording so I asked my friend Will Doyle (Doyle and the Fourfathers) to help me out, he did and then helped out with a couple more. After that Rory said if I wanted any help he’d be happy to. We tried out a song and it just worked and that was when we wrote “If you’re a Bird...” and decided to keep going as a duo
CYOA: So how does the band work? TB: I can’t play guitar, although I’m not slowly learning so I was always going to need help. But I’ll write lyrics and often have a melody in mind and Rory is fantastic at taking that and running with it and he often takes it to a new level that I wouldn’t have even though of, but as we have developed and with our writing pattern becoming more and more fluent it’s not always the same routine now
Music. 13 12
Wild Flowers.
CYOA: How would you describe your sound?TB: Going with the Flow I guess, I mean I can tell you our influences and most of them are folk, Americana and alternative indie rock or whatever you want to call it so I guess you could throw us in there.
CYOA: Tell us who are you influences.TB: Well Andy Hull for me if just fantastic ever project he seems to touch has been inspirational. I also wouldn’t have got into music if it wasn’t for Jimmy Eat World so they are a big deal to me and recently. I have been listening to a lot of music by Beirut and Basia Bulat. With the new stuff I have noticed the stuff I was brought up on appearing on my playlists more and more so I guess Fleetwood Mac and The Rolling Stones have influenced me too.
CYOA: So your first gig, how was it?TB: Well as soon as I stopped feeling sick it was great fun, it was so nice to get a good turn out when at first it didn’t seem any one was going to show. But we had a fantastic time and it was a great venue to play with two fantastic bands.
CYOA: Did performing come naturally for you, some times bands find it hard to come from the studio to the stage?TB: I guess it kind of did, I didn’t seem to have to much of a problem, I was pretty quiet just because of the nerves but the crowd seemed to enjoy it so that’s what counted, I just didn’t want people to pay good money and then me to cock up, which thank fully didn’t happen so I’d call it a success
CYOA: You have already mentioned the second ep, what can we expect from that?TB: Well from the early batch of songs I think it’s safe to say that you can expect a slightly more serious and darker side to our song writing. We have three in the mix so far and we played two at the show and they went down well.
CYOA: Any idea when it will be out? And is there an album in the pipeline?TB: Hopefully we can finish recording over the Christmas period so it’ll be out early next year, we were going to try and self release it but now we are going to try and pitch it to a record label and see if they would be interested in releasing it just so it gets a bigger release and a wider audience. We thought this next EP might turn out to be an album but we figured we should keep it fairly short and sweet whilst we are still growing and once we have a firm fan base then maybe look to release an album.
CYOA: Finally, have you any messages for your fans?TB: Thank you for your continued support it’s been greatly appreciated and any words of praise keep us motivated to keep doing what we doing so just a big thank you.
www.myspace.com/freezinginfressinfreezinginfressin.bandcamp.com
Music. Photos. 15 14
A wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet “wildflower”
meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term “wildflower” has been made vague by commercial
seedsman who are interested in selling more flowers.
Photos. Photos. 17 16
OK, so your a student living in
London, and you are now faced with a 5
and a half month summer holiday from
uni. Dream scenario you may say, bare
in mind you have no money, no job and
everyone around you is moving home.
What do you do? The answer, go on a
month road trip around France with
your equally as skint housemates of
course.
Adventures.
Youth
In
Revolt.
a month around
france
As it goes it started as most holidays
do. A late night of packing followed by a
chaotic early morning full of excitement
and lack of sleep induced crankiness.
And of course the continuous passport
checking. Burdened with heavy,
awkward shaped bags, the 5 minute
walk to the bus station was probably the
hardest part of the day. (I should explain
we didn’t actually have the car with us in
England, that was all the way in Jersey)
Although we complain about getting up
early this was actually really enjoyable,
there is something about being awake
when no one else is around and it is light
out, the birds are singing and it cold but
you don’t mind as your still warm from
your bed. So wearing our straw hats and
other such items of clothing not really
appropriate for the British climate we
boarded the bus bound for Croyden.
Surrounded by the usual commuters we
looked very out of place. After making
our connection with the train we arrived
at London Gatwick with time to spare.
Getting though security and having a
boot’s meal deal breakfast you quickly
run out of things to do in an airport
Although we had been eating almost
all Sainsburys basics products while
at home. These 3 or 4 days of amazing
food (including the Mrs George’s best
in the world chocolate brownies) made
it a big shock when facing the reality
of the coming road trip. After waiting
in line for what seemed an eternity to
take a very expensive ferry, we finally
arrived in France. Ready to explore
France in Will’s tiny Peugeot 206 (later
to be known as ‘Percy’). First stop, la
Supermaché! OK for the record french
supermarkets suck. They are expensive,
they have rubbish food and they look
horrible. But with a lack of quaint little
food shops they were where we got most
of our food from.
if you don’t have money to spend. We finally boarded the plane to
Jersey where Will &
Becky promptly fell asleep and within the hour
we landed. In beautiful sunshine we cramped in to Will’s M
um’s Mini
with tetris style packing, the top down we cruised in style to their
beachside flat before going out for breakfast. Being there with Will’s
Mum &
Dad, treated basically like kings was amazing, especially
when you think about what we had to come. I had such a great
time and we did so much. Going swimming almost everyday (and
being able to have a shower afterwards). Getting bikes and going
on a massive 2 hours each way bike ride up long winding hills and
sandy beaches. But my favourite experience from jersey was going
coasteering. Coasteering is basically jumping off rocks into water
then swimming round the corner and doing it all over again. I tell you
it is so much fun, once you get over the ‘Oh shit! What am I doing?’
Feeling of course. It definitely gets your heart pounding and you do
get battered and bruised, we all had various cuts and scrapes dotted
around our body although you don’t feel them till later because of all
the adrenaline.
Adventures. 19 18
Adventures.
Our first
stop w
as Mont s
t Mich
el, an amazin
g wall c
ity si
tuated
in th
e middle
of the s
ea. F
ull
of littl
e nooks a
nd crannies
, war t
orn w
alls and...
Japanese
touris
ts. T
his was a
pictures
que place
to visit
and well
worth
seein
g but only
go if yo
u can bare
walking painfully slo
w up a hill beh
ind
a very
fat, ster
eotyp
ical A
merica
n touris
t. Afte
r eatin
g our very
expen
sive i
ce cr
eams w
e hit t
he
road again. W
inding our way t
hrough th
e roads o
f north
ern w
as grea
t and yo
u realis
e why p
eople
prefer
France to
Brit
ain. Very
little
traffic,
glorious s
unny wea
ther
and rollin
g country
side.
Its th
e
middle age d
ream. A
fter a
heavy
day of d
riving w
e stopped
in a sm
all town ca
lled St J
ust and fo
und
a campsit
e. I t
ell yo
u after a
long day d
riving th
e last
thing yo
u want t
o do is tr
y to put u
p a tent in
wind. The n
ext d
ay was a
nother
driving day,
although it
was worth
it all a
s we h
ad reach
ed th
e
west co
ast in a ci
ty ca
lled Saint-N
azaire
, it w
asn’t t
he pret
tiest
place but p
rogres
s none t
he less
.
After g
etting lo
st in its
commerc
ial fish
ing port and sp
ending an hour t
rying to
find the r
oad to th
e
bridge w
e were
on our way a
gain.
Adventures.
Our frien
ds were
trave
lling aro
und
Europe a
s the s
ame tim
e as u
s, when
we
found the c
ampsite i
n Bisc
arrosse
we
gave th
em a ca
ll and th
ey ca
me to jo
in
us. Eve
ryday w
e would w
ake up at 1
0.30
(it w
as a w
eird co
inciden
ce, w
hatever
time y
ou wen
t to bed
you w
ould always
wake up at 1
0.30) a
nd make t
he short,
5
minute tri
p to th
e bea
ch w
here w
e spen
t
the d
ays sw
imming in
the h
uge crash
ing
waves o
r sunning ourse
lves o
n the
almost
empty
beach
es. T
hose days
were
the e
pitome o
f free
dom. There
were
no
restra
ints, w
e could do w
hat we w
anted,
when w
e wanted
. Most
nights we w
ould
go for lo
ng walks o
n the b
each
and gaze
at the s
tars (th
at were
brighter
than I
have ev
er see
n them
) or d
rink our c
rate
of 33 c
ents
lidl b
eer w
hich, su
rpris
ingly
wasn’t t
hat bad, a
nd do things li
ke try
to
fry a pizz
a.
That night we spent in a car park in La
Sauzaie, cooking soup on the beach.
Sheltering behind rock for cover from
the wind. That was until we realised
that the England game was on, so we
quickly pack up our things and speed off
into the night, trying to find the English
bar we had driven past earlier that
day. After racing back up the coast we
eventually reach the bar, greeted by the
most horrible sight, Brit’s on holiday.
Surrounded people wearing England
flags as capes with fluffy red and white
cowboy hats we ordered our 50cl beers
and sat down for what was on of the
most boring game I have ever seen. The
next day we reached La Rochelle and
Royan, getting there too late for the
market, so just stopping to get lunch and
a cheeky ice cream before heading off
again. We were across La Gironde that
afternoon and found a good place to stay
that night. A carpark on the beach, although this place was different,
the beach was scattered with old concrete bunkers covered in graffiti.
The good kind not just scribbles. We played around on these before
cooking some steaks and watching a perfect sunset over shimmering
waters. That night however was not so good. Two random cars drove
around the carpark for about an hour with their boots up, It was very
weird. We had our very first swim on french soil the next day, we
immediately regretted this decision. Although we needed a wash,
swimming is not the most pleasant thing to do in patchy sunshine, and
I actually think we got more dirty from the amount of sand that stuck
to us afterwards. Smelling of the sea, we kept on travelling down the
coast, trying to stick to the rural roads as much as possible, like we had
done the whole way down.
Eventually we reached a place near Biscarrosse plage, a free campsite
for camper vans and cars, which we luckily found when Will was trying
to find a turning for a giant sand dune. The only down side to this place
was not being able to put tents. This place was perfect, it had normal
toilets, showers, deserted beaches as far as the eye could see. Obviously
they would be packed as soon as the French holidays started, but for
the moment they were our playground.
21 20
Adventures.
World cup fever had hit Biscarrosse, well when I say that I mean we were going to watch the England game. Walking to the nearest town would have been easy enough however we forgot that tarmac gets very hot. Even thought it was only a mile or two it certainly takes it out of you. We arrived in the town and began our search for a bar with it on, this was surprisingly hard, all trip we had noticed that the world cup had not been advertised that much, not like in the UK where pizzas, beers, crisps and other such bloke foods all had football themes packaging. After running around for half an hour we finally found a place and sat down to watch another very poor game. I could go on for pages and pages about are crazy escapades but I won’t. Instead I will just summarise the keywords.
Skinny Dipping. French Soap Opera.Batting Bugs.Naked French Ladies. (Yay)Naked French Men. (Boo)Sun Burn.Sunday McDonald.Jerome. (The Giraffe)Angry Car Park Officials.Fit German Girl.Europe’s Biggest Sand Dune.Sand and Hot Feet.Broken Camera.
And there it was, time to go, most of our money had gone but we had a brilliant time and managed to stay a week longer than we had budgeted for.We headed up to bordeaux and then following the beautifully dordogne, crossing it many times and finding picturesque villages and towns along the way. After a long day driving we made it to La Chatre a small village in the heart of France. We managed to find our friend’s parents Barn where we stayed for the next two nights. We all had an amazing time there, and the food was especially great, everything was delicious even the things we wouldn’t even touch if we were at home. It was traditional french cuisine with the added British twist of things like cheddar cheese and marmite. I tell you after 3 and a bit weeks with an absents of a good mature cheddar, a cheese sandwich is all you want to eat.
We left La Chatre and headed for the town of fontainebleau just outside of Paris. A shorter journey time than our last drive we arrived quite promptly at the destination (that was helped by the fact that absolutely nothing is open on a Sunday apart from McDonalds). Having time to kill, we ventured in to national park near by which was full of massive boulders and huge trees. Jumping from rock to rock and discovering hidden pathway in the forest was the perfect way to stretch your legs after a long drive. Finding a secluded carpark to stop for the night, we set about making our dinner. Unfortunately, as it had been quite a hot day we had used up most of our water, this was especially bad as the only food we had was dried pasta. So we decided to use the lesser of 2 liquid evils that we had (out of wine or cheap coke) to boil the pasta. When people say they like rose with their meals they don’t mean it like this. That night we all cramped into the car to watch “He’s Just Not that In To You” and then got an early night in preparation for are hardest and last day of our trip.
Paris, every art students dream. However the reality of the capital doesn’t match up to the romantic view everyone imagines. We awoke at the earlier time of 9 o’clock so we could make the most of the day. However we didn’t take in to consideration the morning commuter. After 2 hours we had made it to the circular around Paris, but with a lack of clear signage we though lets just go for it and took the next road to take us in to the centre of the city. Zigzagging our way through suburbs of Paris we joined in with the locals seeming drag race to the next set of red light, not on the map at the moment we thought we would just follow everyone else. We finally found our way on to the map and joined to dual carriageway along the Seine towards the Eiffel tower. Then BOOM! The bounce and then a grinding sound, we had mounted the curb and punctured our front left tyre. Breaking down in the middle of a very busy Paris street was the last thing we needed. Donning the safety equipment that we had luckily brought when we got to France I went out to check the damage. Managing
to reverse the car off the street we set about changing the tyre. Eventually we got the spare on, although it was a temporary tyre so we were only allowed up to 50mph. After this our timings for the day had been totally messed up. At this slower speed we had to leave Paris quite quickly, but not before going round arc de triomphe, a quite lunch and a look at the Eiffel tower. It was a good job we left early, the trip out of Paris was worse that the one in, 3 hours through solid roadworks. We realised that at the speed we were going we weren’t going to make the ferry. Then it got crazy, excitement pumping through our veins as we screamed through the countryside of northern France, reaching speeds of up to 130 on empty rural roads. We were cutting it close, it was time to board and we had just got to the outskirts of Calais, trying to navigate its complex road system. We all feared the worst as we reached the gate very late. But we had made it. Boarding the ferry we could relax. With an easy crossing and a smooth drive up the M20 we were home. No longer than an hour of being home we were already planning the next big adventure.
Adventures. 23 22
Design. Design. 25 24
Design. Design. 27 26
Design. Design. 29 28
31 30
Travelling through the centre of France this summer, we stumbled across a ‘Grande Ventre Emmaüs.’ Emmaüs being Frances biggest charitable organisation they were holding what we would call a giant jumble sale. Selling second hand items from farm equipment and household furniture to vintage clothing and soft toys.
Making are way through the endless video tapes and discarded McDonalds toys, we finally made it to the book section, where, amongst the intricately decorated bibles and french novels we found these. A lovely set of very old souvenir pictures of the Pyrénées. A bargain for one pound (well the euro equivalent).
Handsome farmersNAVY COTTON SKINNY CHINOSTOPMAN £19
NAVY COTTON SKINNY CHINOSTOPMAN £19
DOG RECOMMENDED BUT NOT ESSENTIAL
RSASKL STRIPE KNEE-HIGH SOCKAMERICAN APPAREL £8
VINTAGE LEVIíS DENIM SHIRTROKIT £25
SCOTCH & SODA CHECK SHIRTJOHN LEWIS £75
WHITE MIDDLE OF PRINT T-SHIRTTOPMAN £16
LEATHER ANKLE BOOTSTOPMAN £85
33 32
Parisian
CROSSED CHECKED BLAZERZARA £80
BLUE DENIM HOTPANTSTOPSHOP £25
VIBRANT BALLET PUMPSTOPSHOP £16
RED LAUNDERED CHECK SHIRTTOPMAN £28
WAFFLE OVER THE KNEE SOCKSTOPSHOP £8
CONTRAST STRAP SATCHELTOPSHOP £45
KNITTED STITCH TRIM CARDIGANTOPSHOP £25
35 34
tshirtparty.
Fashion.
T-shirt Party is a very simple concept. 1 T-shirt a week, 52 weeks a year, every year (well that is if it gets that far). These T-shirt designs are timeless simple text and image,and the themes change with current event and trends. They bring in guest designers and each T-shirts is accompanied with a video. All of this for just £10 a shirt including delivery makes T-shirts party a welcome alternative to shops like topman and urban outfitters.
37 36
colourful white 39 38
41 40
autumn in arizona
Haw-lin.com is a totally image blog finding coolest pictures on the internet. Regularly updated, so every visit is a new experience. Haw-lin is full of vintage, ironic, fashion, design and everyday photos that will be able to inspire anyone. Whether your looking for inspiration or just killing some time haw-lin will not disappoint.
Photos. Photos. 43 42
Music.
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl Record CollectionAs well as a host of his famous buddies, his persecution complex in pop form is full of surprises - what’s to hate?
The Naked and FamousPassive Me, Aggressive YouElectro-indie crossed with pop. Definitely worth a listen, but upon repeat it loses some of its charm.
The XXXXUrban tales of heartbreak and adoration from four sensitive south London souls
Freezing in FressinFreezing in Fressin (EP)A beautiful and heartfelt EP which flows from song to song. An accurate portrayal of the traps and pitfalls of modern relationships.
Music.
Arcade FireSuburbsArcade Fire explore the past and make bold steps forward for their ambitious but accessible masterpiece.
TubelordTezcatlipoca (EP)Ratchet is a really good song and keeps this EP together.
YeasayerAll Hour CymbalsMuch of this sounds like it fell off The Lion King soundtrack. Ghostly “whooo”s draw you into opener ‘Sunrise’, underpinned by tribal drums, hand-claps.
FoalsTotal Life ForeverForever challenging, the Oxford fivesome’s second album reveals a band slipping comfortably into their obtuseness and paranoia.
45 44
If you’re looking video of the year contenders, look no further. I can’t even begin to explain everything this video manages to convey, but let’s start with the obvious: a Hispanic Carl Sagan launches a golden cassette tape off a cliff, a crow helps a woman light a cigarette, a fat man with a
gun plunges into a pool in slow motion, and there are bubbles, topless women, explosions and sparklers everywhere. And if that’s not enough, it’s shot on what appears to be 70s-era film stock. And the song, needless to say, is incredible.