Week Thirty-Four A Pro Shoot at Last!

I was ICE Editor of Max Power for four years, until the then editor decided to ‘˜new broom’ me when she got the job. I wazzed off to Fast Car and was their Ice Editor for seven years until the Internet Revolution saw me become unaffordable. We stayed chums though and this very week, I am in Fast Car once again. (I was also doing their ICE pages for a few months, just before they got sold by Future Publishing.) The Steve Meade Tahoe is their main Ice feature of issue 360, out 21st August and indeed, there is even a pull out poster in the middle. One advantage of no longer being ‘˜perfect bound’ at least!
For that job, Fast Car’s editor Jules Truss sent snapper Conor Surdi to take the pictures, as he is in Seattle these days (after many years in Japan, I gather) and Steve Meade is in California-but-not-the-seaside, meaning Sacramento. However, the one thread running through all my work at Max Power and Fast Car, was Spike. Steve Brown, who is Blue Feather photography. He took the Ice Car feature and product photography.
Clarion’s fabulous Fairlady Z demo car, in the shape of the adorable Amy Slade, was given the benefit of a full professional shoot by Blue Feather photography just last Saturday and the video work I did on the day was edited and flung onto YouTube late that night. We will have the feature with you good and soon.
It was lovely to work with the old ape, even if we are both greyer. His talent has become even more polished clever git.
And grumpier. Guru said that I was definitely more grumpy these days..and he has a point, as I suffer life’s casual injustices far less easily these days. Indeed, there are those that say my Facebook rants are hilarious. I have a classic for you this week. The thing is, for all of the folklore about traffic wardens (I love that bit in lock stock and two smoking barrels by the way) the London Borough of Camden really truly had a problem. Wardens were being crooked. Issuing tickets willy-nilly. Last time I was there, I paid for my parking and got in the face of the nearest traffic warden demanding he verify I was legally parked. Like a condom, prophylaxis.
Meanwhile on my local parade, I have done national radio about how we had no warden enforcement at all. It was brilliant. Nowadays on my local high-street, it is 20p for an hour or you just press the button for a free half-hour display-in-window ticket.
And we have wardens.
I had one ostentatiously sashay up to my car and pose like a loon, trying to look like a Village People tough guy in Aviator reflective shades and lots of equipment, as I returned with my ticket. It was a blatant nasty. The kind you cannot normally complain about. He wanted to inflict a bit of fear and loathing. And I don’t like that.
So I gave him the Full Brian Blessed, (A ‘˜Hoodling Roar’ to quote A.A. Milne, wherein I made it clear I would not be impressed if he was trying to issue a fraudulent ticket) then got in my car and immediately called the council to ask someone to have a word with the fool and tell him he wasn’t Judge Dredd.
But no, they insisted I put it in writing.
Then they ignored me
Drive carefully, enjoy your tunes, don’t get nicked.
Adam Rayner On Line Editor!