Paul Schiernecker

Photo Credit: Tony Winter Photography

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  • My First Pride

    I’ve always thought Pride was important. Pride with a capital P but pride is also important. That’s why I felt very lucky yesterday when I got to take part in the London Pride parade alongside a number of my fabulous new work colleagues.

    It was such an incredible and moving experience and one I wanted to take the time to share. We all met up early. I had to travel up incognito because unfortunately we still live in a world where side-eye all the way up to actual homophobic attacks occur against people just because they are standing up for who they are, who they love or both. I met up with everyone at King’s Cross and we drank gin and tonics and covered one another in glitter.

    We joined the parade at Regent’s Park and impatiently waited our turn, dancing along to every truck that went by, music blasting from exposed speakers. I saw a lot of incredible costumes and many beautiful people enjoying themselves and being themselves. I danced to all the Madonna I heard and I proudly waved my flag, screaming along with the rest of London and having the best goddamn time. I can’t thank my friends enough for making me feel so loved and welcome.

    I cannot emphasise how important Pride is and will continue to be. In the year we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots it’s important to look at the amazing efforts that have been made towards equality but the bizarre amount more that needs to be done.
    I still saw people protesting. There remain countries where you can be fired for being gay. There remain countries where it is illegal to be gay. There remain countries where you can be killed for being gay. I march for all of those people, everyone that came before me that made this possible and anyone who will ever march. This is us.

  • I’m No Superman

  • 35mm Costa Rica.

    This photo was from my first day in Costa Rica, where I wandered around San Jose, made friends with Joey from Denver, and read most of a book while sipping iced coffee high above street level.

    I was drunk. We were drunk. This was a real bonding experience for the five of us. Later, I would jump off the deck of that boat into the sea.

    An immensely hungover walk through the jungle with my new friends.

    Living at the foot of a volcano in a town called La Fortuna, because they were yet to be wiped out by molten-hot magma really went to our heads.

    This cemetery was something else. Keats and Yates are on your side.

    A moody sky over the coffee plantation. A humbling look at beans.

    The only way to get to our penultimate stay was by water taxi. I was all for it. So were the crocs.

    We hired bikes for the day and rode around Puerto Viejo like straight up gangsters. If you look closely, you’ll see my big pimpin’ mates coming round the bend.

  • Catching up

    A good friend of mine moved away two months ago to take up an amazing opportunity, the selfish bastard. It’s strange to realise just how much a friendship can come to mean to you in the space of a year.
    This weekend was the first time we were able to hang out since he moved away and it was just fantastic.
    I guess, as ever, my point is to appreciate the time that you have with people, because it will only ever be fleeting. That being said, there is no animosity present and I adore him. We caught up, which meant watching YouTube videos and saying ‘I love you’ a lot and then getting milkshakes and driving around in the dead of night. I am so proud of everything he has done and will just have to hold onto the time I do get to spend with him.

  • Taking Time

    I’ve got into a terrible habit in recent years of stretching myself too thin. I can’t help but agree to things. I’m something of a yes man. What I found in Costa Rica was that I enjoyed not having anything too concrete in the way of plans, and not being at everyone’s beck and call because I was off the Internet and away from social media. I appreciate this is very much a “First World Problem” but what else am I ever likely to know?

    Since I’ve been back, I’ve taken more time to myself, and I have to say, I am really enjoying it. I had some plans for today but they cancelled. Usually I would then pick up on my second offer for plans. There is always something I am missing out on because I have agreed to do something else. My diary is booked out on a first come, first served basis.
    Instead of doing anything else today, I’ve made the decision to not get dressed, to eat as much leftover party food as I am able and to watch all four Shrek films.
    Sometimes it is good to just take the time to yourself.

  • Costa Rica – week two

    My second week in Costa Rica has just meant more adventures. We visited a coffee co-operative where I learnt about the ridiculous amount of work that it takes for a cup of coffee to end up in front of me. Then I had a cup and saw into the future. The best goddamn coffee I’ve had in thirty years. We got picked up by tractor and taken out into the rainforest to spend two nights in a lodge. I got a nice break from the rest of the world, swam in the rivers and went out on bird-watching hikes. I wandered around with no shoes on, connecting to Mother Earth and getting all hippie and spiritual about things. We were given lessons in making empanadas and I watched rain pour as I sat inside with a good book.

    Back in the world, we visited Tortuguero, a town built on the edge of the river, only accessible by boat. We hired kayaks and found cayman living on the banks. I gave up and finally had to do some washing. We hiked up another mountain, looking out for jaguars and I tried eating termites – would recommend. I had too much to drink at extended happy hours and gave fashion a good kick in the teeth with my mismatching outfits. We moved over to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast where I politely declined all offers of drugs and rode bikes out to the beach. Later, I got hammered on tequila and sang Mr Brightside at karaoke.

    Every day felt longer than any I had ever known. I was up before the sun but in time for the howler monkeys. We moved around and saw so much that it felt like the trip was never going to end. Then, before I knew what was happening, I had to get in a taxi at four in the morning to head home. I will never forget the things I saw, did, or most importantly ate while in Costa Rica. I met some lovely, funny, interesting and dynamic people and cannot wait for my next adventure.

    For now, I’ve got a lot of washing and some saving to do.

  • Costa Rica – week one

    I don’t know if I’ll be able to sum up what I have done and seen in the last week. It feels like I’ve been on the road for a lot longer than is possible. Every place I have visited has been beautiful in its own way, from the city of San Jose up into the mountains of Monte Verde and across the river to La Fortuna, a town named after surviving two volcano eruptions.

    I’ve met some incredible people and pushed myself to do things I never thought I would. I’ve been canyoning, zip lining, white water rafting. I’ve fed fish and monkeys. I jumped off the top deck of a boat while rum drunk. I have failed to adjust to the time difference. I have thrown myself into waterfalls, rivers and hot springs. I bought sun tan lotion with bronzer in it by accident. I’ve stumbled along with the few Spanish words I know and a little bit of charm. The food is absolutely insane. I’ve got peeling shoulders and sleepy eyes and dirty feet and I am very, very happy.

  • Body Worlds

    Body Worlds

    For my birthday I was given tickets to the Body Worlds exhibit off Piccadilly Circus. It’s the travelling exhibition of turtleneck and Birkenstock-loving cadaver enthusiast, Dr Gunter von Hagens. The exhibition is spread over a number of floors high above the city and it made me weep. 

    When I was in school I had very little time for the formalities of education. I got by, (two A’s at GCSE thank you very much) but I didn’t appreciate how incredible it can be to learn about shit. Now, I get it, but I don’t have enough time.

    What an amazing thing the human body is. What wonder it is capable of. What tiny little miracles we are all performing every minute of every day. It made me love and appreciate my body for getting me this far, and also made me look at the damaged cartilage in my knee in a different way. They don’t allow photos inside, which is probably for the best, because I would have taken the piss, but I thoroughly recommend giving it the once over if you get the opportunity. The floors are split by different aspects/systems of the human body. It was the respiratory system that really got me. How wild it is, what is going on inside me all the bloody time and I act like a real jerk about it. My casual smoking habit really doesn’t align with my desire to treat my body like a temple and to eat nothing but mung beans and rice and spend eight days a week doing naked yoga. I really felt like I was letting the team down, and it’s a team of one.

    I also got taken for brunch, had lunch in Chinatown and bought gelato on the South Bank. What a wonderful place London can be if you’re not dragging yourself to and from it on a work day. Thanks Jaz for another lovely day out.

     

     

     

     

  • I love you man

    This week I lost a friend who has gone north of the wall. I’m actually very bloody annoyed about it.
    You reach a point in your life where you’re pretty sure you are done with collecting friends and that you’re therefore set for life. Then on a frozen day in March 2018 you end up stuck on a delayed train with a very tall man who appears to have absolutely everything in common with you.
    You go to the cinema.
    You go for brunch.
    You make wild plans to create great things.
    You support each other through all kinds of modern-life-is-rubbish shit and then they get the job of a lifetime and move to Leeds.

    Fortunately for me, the last time I got to see Lewis was a beautiful memory that I can carry with me until I get my shit together and go to visit him. We got to perform in an improvised comedy show together for the first time. He made me laugh and it would be fair to say that in the last few months he’s also made me cry a fair number of times – I’m still not over my birthday present.

    For now though, this isn’t goodbye, it’s just au revoir. I love you man.

    Photo by Film Free Photography.

  • Thanks Keith.

    The first time my brothers and I saw the video for Firestarter, we lost our shit and I don’t think we ever found it again. The Prodigy were the first band for us who crossed over from dance into rock enough for us to get behind.

    We would sit and watch this cartoon punk of a man gyrate and stick his tongue out on TV, mad piercings all across his face, hair spiked and these wild eyes caked in makeup. I didn’t know what he was but I liked it. The most important thing was that he was from Essex. Famous people weren’t from Essex. They were from Hollywood or Liverpool or Ramsay Street. Here was this band who made a lot of noise and freaked out my mum and although we had no idea what the songs were about, they served us in some way. It felt naughty. It felt like we were getting away with it. As we got into our music and as music videos were such high profile things we became obsessed with theirs, particularly Smack My Bitch Up. No prizes for guessing why. 

    Then I started going out, “clubbing”, and heard Charly, Out Of Space and Breathe in the context they were intended. I lost my shit anew on dance floors across the county and then I got the chance to see The Prodigy at Bestival. I remember jumping up in the air at the start of their set and my feet not returning to the ground until they had left the stage in a haze of feedback and destruction. The crowd were a blanket and a riot. I was carried and dragged around like I was caught up in the undertow. I had never experienced anything like it. 

    I guess my point is that I want to say thank you to Keith, and the rest of the band of course, for providing such a ferocious soundtrack to important parts of my upbringing. I was deeply saddened by the news yesterday morning but more than anything I just thought “oh fuck, another one”. How many more people I admire am I going to lose this way? It’s absolutely gutting and more needs to be done to help people who feel that there is no alternative. Please, take the time to check on the people close to you. And if you’re feeling low and you’re able to reach out, then do so, because this alternative is no alternative at all.

    Thanks Keith.  Peace. 

     

Paul Schiernecker

I'm Paul Schiernecker, who the hell are you?

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