Sydney & International Fashion and Style Blog with photography by Kent Johnson. Travel, Art and Events, Fashion from the Streets and into the Clubs. The lifestyle blog you love to share, Thank you Sydney XX to the world.
It's OFFICIAL - HeadOn Photo Festival is off and running with the big launch tonight at UNSW Art & Design (COFA). Felt a bit like I was back in the B&W darkroom; which I actually miss quite frankly. Now was that a special nofd to analogue photography? Here's my candid portrait of some young people in (and) the crowd with my (on loan) Fujifilm Australia X100F. Looking forward to the shows over the weekend it's going to be busy!
FOXFIRES (KITSUNE-BI)
I kicked of HeadOn with a pre launch show by photographer: Luke Hardy at Stanley Street Gallery. It's a little bit Red Riding Hood meets Japan, or perhaps its more the the other way around. Beautiful wor and on until the 11th of May. There was a dramatic performance piece during the launch, Luke was working the follow spot, and there was Japanese flute and Korean drum accompaniment.
#PartyUp indeed. Street Fashion Sydney had the privilege of attending the Ultimate Ears, BOOM 2 2016 launch at Carriageworks in Sydney. And it certainly was a cracker of a party. First shot as you scroll down you just can see the countdown to the launch projected on the left; the curtains opening to a massive industrial space, illuminated 'robots' drawing back the curtain on a colour and sound filled spectacle, in we all go... And I am wondering, how will they showcase, 'illuminate' a small 18 cm personal speaker?
So we had a great light show, including projections some light and flame performances, cool DJs spinning tunes; then about 30 or 40 minuets into the night, the head of UE/Ultimate Ears made the totally bold announcement that they were going to switch from the great sounding music PA.. and go to the 100 linked, BOOM 2 and Mega BOOM speaker cross boom above our heads; cue - light up the boom - and as you can see from the size of that space it was a huge call for tiny speakers! How did it go? Well a LOT better than I expected. The music filled the room, loud - distortion free, it did BOOM that's for sure, it was pretty damn impressive. Now it was not as clear as the 'real' PA - but it was quite amazing, and these small speakers are not really meant to power such a ginormous party space but they did. At the end of the night I was gifted a BOOM 2 and have been testing/using it for a few days now - so keep scrolling down for my REVIEW below towards the end of the pictures. Do I know what I am writing about when it comes to audio? Well for a few years I ran an online-retail called Vintage Audio .Com .Au (now disbanded) and we did pretty well & were pretty well known and respected, so I will be giving it my VA equipment review best. The old site is down but if you are interested the old VA blog is still online, here, http://vintageaudioaustralia.com.au/2006/my-cd-player-or-my-amp.html
The 100 Mega Boom & Boom 2 - Cross Boom - It worked!
Party wigs and Glasses - Best after a few drinks.. -
Me and my BOOM 2 - Review below - Pic by vivalaViv.
So what is a BOOM 2, what does it do and do you need one? Lets start with what it is.
The BOOM 2 is a small 18 cm tall 6.7 cm diameter portable, waterproof (for 30 min to 1 meter) wireless/Bluetooth active/self-powered speaker. What that means is it's a speaker with a built in amplifier so all you need to do is supply the source-music via your phone or tablet or device-with-Bluetooth connection. Being waterproof it is basically a take anywhere sound source, a 'boom box' without the size. Power is supplied via Li-Ion battery, up to 15 hours per charge is claimed; this would no doubt depend on how hard you run your sound.
I have been testing my Boom 2 in a small but not tiny studio apartment; first music was early 80s classics on YouTube - Psychedelic Furs, Blondie, Talk Talk, Thomas Dolby, which all sounded somewhat better than I remember hearing them when they first came out.. well TV's didn't have very good sound back then anyway. So even though YouTube is a compressed sound format, the Boom 2 had the music sounding pretty good. I then went for Diana Krall Live in Paris which was my key 'test CD' for most Vintage Audio systems I reviewed. The great thing about this album is I know were systems excel or fall down. Now there is no way a small single speaker is going to reproduce a full stereo sound stage; and I certainly don't expect it too. What I would like if I can get it is rich sound, a feeling for the base, clarity, sibilance on cymbals and high percussive notes, no distortion, fast dynamic response. The BOOM 2 delivers, it delivers surprisingly good sound regardless of it's size.
As I sit here typing this review, I have gone over to full uncompressed music files, Roy Hargrove Crisol Habana, all Cuban brass, percussion and piano and the best thing I can possibly say about the sound is that I am forgetting what it is coming out of, where it is coming from; I am just enjoying the music. For some more contemporary bass heavy tunes I went with Angie Stone's Mahogany Soul, which sounded, great, with full rich sound.
But wait there's more! There's an App for the BOOM 2 too.. of course there is and it's pretty useful as well. There is a 5 Band EQ (I knocked the treble back one notch) and if you have more than one Boom speaker you can set the system up for true stereo sound - now that would be interesting to try; OR if you and your friends have more Booms you can hook them up together to spread the sound, increase, the output, which is essentially what was shown to us at the lunch event with 100 hooked up playing together and that was a LOT of sound.
So should you buy one? Well I think I will be taking mine along on small studio shoots in the future, at least I can be sure of the sound quality and how it works. In fact great for taking on any jobs where you want some music & if you use the phone/App it can double up as a speaker phone too, which caught me by surprise yesterday. I have even seen someone working on their motorbike out in the street (before the launch) and thought that's better than boom boxes used to be! So if you like portable sound, I can recommend the BOOM 2. Would I choose to go BOOM 2 over my stereo, no it's a completely different scenario each with benefits of their own, but it's turning into a great second sound source, to enjoy listening too, with pleasure.
Raffles Fashion Designers at The Design Residency.
So Wednesday evening Vivienne and I hit The Design Residency Oxford Street to check out this years 'Showcase Designers' fashion which will be hitting the runway in the penultimate show at MBFWA at Carriageworks. So this was a little preview and some drinks and nibbles and an opening launch speech by the Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and Principal of Raffles, Steve Rawlinson. We mingled with everyone and learn't a little of the direction the different designers were taking and so on. I won't go into grand details! There will be another blog and pictures AFTER the SHOW! Keep scrolling down, there's bloggers and party peeps and then my series of portraits of the designers, sorry if I missed you; at least everyone is in the group shot with Clover. If you cant wait to learn more, you can check out the designers at The Design Residency from the 12th til the 29th of May.
P.E Nation launched last night at the General Pants flagship store in Bondi Junction with an 80s style dance party and more 80s tunes than I have heard since, well the 80s! It was almost like clubbing at the Terminus back in Brissie back in the day.. but I was in a retail store instead; will wonders ever cease? Anyway I think the new P.E sportswear range from Pip Edwards and Claire Tregoning looks pretty cool and is doing the Fitness is the New Fashion thing with a bit of a throwback to the, yes yes you guessed it, the 80s! Well why not it was pretty good then.. and I love that top Pip can be seen wearing below, the stripes remind me of cycling's word championship stripes re-imagined. Congratulations Pip and Claire, and thanks for a great party :-)
P.E is that Physical Education, or Phys Ed as we called it or is it Pip Edwards's initials on a sportswear range?
![The dramatic performance piece during the launch of Luke Hardy 'Foxfires [kitsune-bi] Photo by Kent Johnson for Street Fashion Sydney.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLxSp-Lt_6jxe9E4_R4ozH6ec2TKbDXTKKKPBf8YWzgCxTOjxrftC18o0wxo1FZqgKIua_5_rYWQ7Kb5EEBvBLXmjDJSZDaLU6sA3zPhyphenhyphen87TtVHskE4_P7cTug8l94O-AONitDQumk2Oz/s1600/1600lo-AdjSECrp-F1248.jpg "The dramatic performance piece during the launch of Luke Hardy 'Foxfires [kitsune-bi] Photo by Kent Johnson for Street Fashion Sydney.")
![The dramatic performance piece during the launch of Luke Hardy 'Foxfires [kitsune-bi] Photo by Kent Johnson for Street Fashion Sydney.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspt-rPnkr8uq3QkVrzGc2BANl0OWsRY3rKEHVKR-YmBLEcdvFR9VpHnWQDeDg_P8Oa27jG1GTgiFF25vOPUhLnMNiH3UE__gxN8R9Ep0mrXpVVccTZrAm8kIkKM2J38k3bOCBwi6MEPUK/s1600/1600-AdjSECrp-F1278.jpg "The dramatic performance piece during the launch of Luke Hardy 'Foxfires [kitsune-bi] Photo by Kent Johnson for Street Fashion Sydney.")
