Fieldwork updates?

Howdy all. Just thought I could follow up on Kelly's post and that we could use the MAVA blog to share things, like updates or ideas or techniques or anything like that. I'm still kicking around in Manchester. I leave the UK on the 29 June (hopefully) after I will have gotten my Russian and Kazakhstani visas. Route is as follows: bus London to Krakow (26 hrs), then trains Krakow to Kiev, Kiev to Moscow, Moscow to Astana (capital of KZ), Astana to Almaty--5 days in all. Hey, Paul suggested that I emphasise the 'journey' aspect of it, so I'm doing it all by land.

I just went to Prague last weekend, where I learned how to walk backwards, uphill through the city centre, dodging tourists. It was so bloody difficult to keep the camera steady. My Kazakh subjects were rapping. I wasn't too sure of the quality of the sound or image (if it can stand on its own as a scene), so I had the main guy repeat the rap the next day in an interview in case I need that to cover my wobbly observational camera-work.

In the meantime, I'm now filming a cool homeless guy I met today named Danny. I asked about his situation, and when he heard that I do film, he asked if I could make a film about him. He's definitely one of the most interesting people I've met in a very long time SO I'll be spending a night or two on the streets with him later this week... seeing as I'm getting chucked out of Moberly. It will hopefully be a piece of somewhat shared anthropology where we'll both contribute to setting up scenes and scenarios where he will, essentially, act out his daily life.

That's my update. Who else would like to share how things are going so far?