tony ʑimnoch

Rumi

2012-01-28T23:19:00.009Z

Didn’t I tell you
that they will kidnap you from the path?
They will steal your warmth,
and take your devotion away.
I am your fire, I am your heartbeat,
I am the life in your breath.
[fuck yea rumi]

Lady In Red

2012-01-21T22:48:00.009Z

Before my sepia-mojo kicks in........Please go visit Rock Mother.She is back blogging:She is Awesome!

This week's Sepia Saturday is around the theme of "doll".Now I have already shown this photo of my Mum....But,what the heck, it's a bonny picture.My Grandma died in childbirth, so my Mum is holding on tight here!

I Guess We never really lose our dolls (or Action-men!) as we grow older.We merely internalise. They may seem like ghosts, but no,not really....they are just old toys we become embarrassed about ......Anyway. Here are a couple of Swedish Dolls I listened to this week

Look .This all feels very tenuous ,but bare with me.One facebook site I visit every day is Old Photos of Halifax.
I am often surprised and delighted by what i find.For example, I once found This Photo of my late-Mum.I had never seen it before:never knew its existance.All rather existential (albeit in a Yorkshire kind of way)
This Week I saw a mighty photo on this site that shows the distruction caused by a German Facist Bomb dropped on the Hanson Lane Area of Halifax , West Yorkshire during WW2.(11 people were killed)
Now Hanson Lane is near where I grew up as a child with my Mum & Dad.I delivered newspapers there as a teenager. I worked for several years for Social Services just around the corner....anyway........I knew little of the previous drama...........
If you want to read
this thread you will learn many things about the aftermath.
(1) One person on facebook said her Mum met her Dad only because he was a bomb -disposal chappie drafted from Sheffield.If the bomb hadnt dropped she would never have been born! (come to think of it, if it hadnt have been for Hitler ,My Dad would never have met my Mum!)
(2)Someone else on the thread reported that they had shown this photo " to my dad and he was at school (Battinson Road) with Eric Pearson - My dad was in the Cosy Corner Picture House, Queens Road at the time it dropped !!............
............ And he has just added the film he was watching was called The Hurricane and they didn't know about the bomb till they were leaving and the box office lady told them :)"
(3) Three of the people killed were drinking in the West Hill pub. One of the other drinkers who survived was a lass called Ivy.She " had a mustard coloured coat on and it got covered in blood. Because she could not afford a new coat she had to dye it red!"
We Dress Our Dreams (& Dolls) In the pragmatic cloth available.Non?

The Road to Sheranozy

2012-01-13T22:06:00.082Z

1994.Me & Chris on The Road to my Dad's Village in Poland.I love this photo.I always imagined Chris was shyly holding the whole Globe under his arm...........

Uncle Lenny has this new album out at the end of the month.(And probably a new hat too!)My Dear ßenchers I really am not very well this week... I even cancelled a night out in Halifax last night with Phil The Ex-Fireman & Ken! Totally out of sorts.Cold:Chest:Not Sleeping.......I feel older than Len...........his music fits the bill perfectly!

here are my 2008 photos of Unky playing The Opera House in Manchester.I stood in front of Jarvis Cocker as we went into the auditorium!How Cool was I !

This is a Sepia Saturday post.The Theme this week is "Hats"As a bonus ,here is me & Chris outside a Mall near Northampton,Massachusetts in 2005.
.You Know,I just spent half an hour looking at THIS SLIDESHOW & it really cheered me up! It's several years since I looked at these photos.Happy Memories of MA! And,by pure coincidence,100's of American Hats!Me & Chris were guests of our Turkish Friend Ayse.We stayed on campus in Mount Holyoke College.

Chris wears a Boston Hat.

la vita holiday workshops

Celestial Swimmers

2012-01-07T19:59:00.003Z

"Celestial Swimmers" © Allan Renshaw.

I have been talking by email this week with Allan Rustad-Renshaw .
.Allan is one of the strongest men I have ever met.

Several of my regular silent readers will remember him when he used to go to Rochdale Hamam I havnt seen him in maybe,what, 14 years?
He now lives in North Wales.He is an artist. You can see some of his work & writing on his website here.

I shared with him some photos of him from the Olden Days at The Turkish Baths.I also share them with you too..............dont I look young & rather handsome ?(Rather than the mature George Clooney-figure of today)

(by the way,my Sepia Saturday post is on my Hebden Bridge blog this week.)

do not cease swimming in the seas of love,

rising with the wave, then descending;

now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it;

love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

RUMI

My Best Wishes To You All In 2012.

2012-01-02T11:27:00.001Z

‘In 1915 (photographer) Leon Gimpel befriended a group of children from the Grenata Street neighbourhood in Paris who had established their own “army”. He began to visit them regularly on Sundays, helping them to build their arsenal from whatever was to hand, providing direction in “casting”, and recording with his camera the army’s triumphs over the evil enemy, the Boche.
Gimpel was charmed by these children and came to know each of them well: the “chief”, the eldest in the garrison; his friend, who was conscripted to play the unenviable role of the Boche; and Pépète, who was “small, slightly misshaped, rather scrofulous, looking somewhat like a gnome” but who nonetheless played the part of an ace aviator. At the end of each session, Gimpel would reward the troops with barley sugar, causing all to shout with one voice, “Long live the photograph!”‘
see more of these photographs
Hey Kids, if your wanting something new to read, why not move over to caravan of dreams A rather good Sufi blog.

2011 : in my photos:

2011-12-26T17:26:00.019Z

British Sea Power - Living Is So Easy

[2010 photos here]["Living Is So Easy"lyrics]

Sinead O'Connor - I ßelieve In You (Live Royal Albert Hall 1999)

2011-12-25T00:43:00.035Z

I'm just back from gallivanting!Hey That's probably the best Dylan cover I've heard.Happy Christmas everybody.
ße Happy!
Blogging has a strange afterlife.Minutes ago,someone just posted this comment from a post I made nearly 4 years ago (!) about the Great American Blues singer Champion Jack Dupree who lived some of his later years in my hometown of Halifax,West Yorkshire.
[Anonymous said...]
"Nice to see Champion Jack remembered in his adoptive town. I think both Louis Armstrong and Champion Jack are likely to have been in the 'Colored Waif's Home' in New Orleans at the same time. Louis was sent there in 1913, whilst Champion Jack was two when he was sent there- 1910, 1911 or 1912 depending on the settled date of birth of Champion Jack. An interesting thought.
I remember seeing Champion Jack several times at the Farmers Inn, Thornbury Bradford in the 60s and not long before he died at St Georges Hall, singing with Chris Barber. His kids were sat directly behind us and were clearly extremely proud of him."

Champion Jack Dupree was the embodiment of the New Orleans blues and boogie woogie pianist, a barrelhouse "professor". His father was from the Belgian Congo and his mother was part African American and Cherokee. He was orphaned at the age of two,his parents killed by the Klu Klux Clan, and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs (also the alma mater of Louis Armstrong).
I can remember Jack driving around Halifax in a big 2nd hand Cadillac in the 1970's.And Phil The X-Fireman [who was also an x-postman!] used to deliver Jack's mail to his his Council House in Ovenden.You just never know who your neighbour might be ......!

clay jug

2011-12-23T21:46:00.016Z

Oh Go On! [if you must] Have A Lovely Christmas My Fine Readers.
It's been a funny old year.A year of waving flags [and banners & suchlike].Even I Got Into The Act.I guess we shall have more of the same next year.Actually, if you have any more last-minute Christmas presents to buy this afternoon, a nice shiny new flag would not go amiss............I wonder if Marx & Spencers stock them?
I got home drunk last night & posted this video here.My laptop was mute, so I have only just realised that this video was about "British Sea Power" itself.Not the Pop Combo. by the same name.Hey-Hoy, confusing times!

This is a fundraising film from Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre for the Bexley Warship Week campaign. Military units, men and women of the civil defence services, march down the streets of Bexleyheath together with boy scouts, girl guides, Sea cadets and military bands.

This Is A Sepia Saturday Post.

THIS CLAY JUG

by Kabir

Inside this clay jug there are canyons

and pine mountains, and the maker of

canyons and pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside, and

hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is there, and

the one who judges jewels.

And the music from the strings

no one touches, and the source of

all water.

If you want the truth, I will tell you

the truth:

Friend, listen:

the God whom I love is inside.

2011-12-23T12:50:00.004Z

My laptop seems to have healed itself.....normal services will resume shortly........

I'm gonna meet John & the angel band.............

2011-12-17T23:45:00.004Z

Slight Lap-top problems at the moment...I can go on for short spirts, but longer stuff like reading other blogs & comments is difficult ....Stay tuned....I normally read & return comment from previous posts...but from the 24 comments left on my last post I only got to #6 & it crashed repeatedly......I will get get around visiting you all soon.Computers really drive me nuts sometimes!i type this expecting to vanish at any second!

Me & John last night at the last ever "Rochdale hamam Xmas curry".

I felt a wee bit sad last night.I have been going to The Rochdale Turkish Baths on a Friday night for 30 years.It closes in April.They knock my history down to make a Car Park! See my photos from both last night & the past 30 years here
P.S.I Think This Photo Of Me & John is the reverse Of last week's one of Alex & Martin! Non?

come sail your ships around me....

2011-12-10T19:33:00.015Z

Uncle Alex was a coal miner in 1950's Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire.His nephew Martin looks on.I wonder what they saw?I suppose the question defines the limit;boundaries + edges of photography.

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Dont Forget My Latest Posts on my Hebden Bridge Blog!

Incidentally, I hope ,in 2012, to create a similar blog for the Italian village of Pennadomo ...where I own a ramshackled old property.(it cost £6000!)Very Similar to Uncle Alex's Shed .............
No current news re:Italy, Other than I will be going over in February .+A Good Italian Workman is putting a new front door in for me on the 15th of this month. .. The village already has a blogspot you can view by clicking here.
I Met Bob From Bacup yesterday in Haslingdon.He is coming over to Pennadomo next year.Can Someone please try & persuade him to start blogging again?!

a bit of a german market

2011-12-08T00:53:00.024Z

We went to the German Markets in Manchester yesterday.Some photos here.

[by happenchance, should you want to sing-along?]
How is our glorious country ploughed?

Not by iron ploughs

Our lands is ploughed by tanks and feet,

Feet

Marching

Oh, America

Oh, England

How is our glorious country sown?

Not with wheat and corn.

How is our glorious land bestowed?

What is the glorious fruit of our land?

Its fruit is deformed children.

What is the glorious fruit of our land?

Its fruit is orphaned children.

are we dreaming?

2011-12-03T13:54:00.014Z

This week's Sepia Saturday is around the theme of "nurse".When I was just shy of 16 I left school & began work as a "cadet nurse" at Stansfield View Hospital in Todmorden.A bit grim! An old Workhouse.Ontop of the Pennine Moors.Miles from Civilization [or what passed for it in Lancashire!]I left after 18 months.Disgusted by the random violence (patient on patient:staff on patient)But it did have some happy times.This photo was taken on a "Sports Day".
The music features the late-great English singer Kevin Coyne.
Himself a former psychiatric nurse in Preston.

........Early in his career, Coyne turned down a meeting with founder of Elektra Records Jac Holzman (Coyne's band Siren were on Elektra in America) to discuss replacing Jim Morrison in The Doors. "I didn't like the leather trousers!" was Coynes' alleged reason....... [wikipedia]
www.kevincoyne.de

is It An Age-Thing?These Days I Usually Wake Up 2 or 3 times a night.It's so predictable now that I have developed my own Ritual around my nocturnal toilet visits.This includes grabbing a yogurt from the fridge & eating it before I go back to sleep........
Anyway! I had an ultra-vivid dream this week.I dreamt Me & my Son Chris were visiting my late-Mum in Halifax.We went to the street where she had lived, but walked on..I knew she was somewhere else now......A strange row of houses just beyond.Out popped her smiling head from behind a front door!

Michael Harford [ A.K.A.Coffee Messiah ]

It was one of those dreams where you half-know you are dreaming.I thought I must find& remember the name of this strange street.It took some finding,but we finally found the street sign."Wainansh Avenue" it said.
On waking up [again!] i remembered and wrote down the address.
The next day I even searched Google Maps.Such a place exists nowhere on Earth! Just goes to show,not everything can be found on The Internet.
Speaking Of Ritual.At Least 6 to 8 people go with me for the Annual Rochdale Hamam visit to The Manchester German Markets. here Are Last Year's photos.If you wish to join the booze-up.Meet Under The Clock at Victoria Railway Station .2pm prompt next Wednesday.

The Dream Laboratory by Gardener on Mixcloud.........

.........a mix of lush electronica mixed with spoken word

samples of people having their dreams analyzed by

scientists in a secret laboratory as well as children

talking about their nightmares.

Oh and some other stuff, all recorded live on the show

using a MW radio to link some sections no overdubs!

how to hate the working classes

2011-11-25T22:48:00.050Z

Details of the T.U.C. Day Of Action:30th November Personally , I think the focus on just "pensions" is a far too narrow one.It's more complex than that....but,hey, what do I know....? I support, but it's disingenuous for both sides say it's 'just' about pensions.

Do you think David Cameron's hair is starting to turn gray? Wouldn't it be cool if peoples hair turned sepia instead of gray........

"Yes, I remember Tommy Cheese-bits very well. I can see him now, pushing his cart around. If he saw a group of youngsters he would often turn around and walk away, frightened of "getting a stone on th'heed", I heard him tell..........."[Read More]
This is a Sepia Saturday post.

This week,a couple of photos& comments from Old Photos Of Halifax
Our first man is Tommy Cheesbits (outside a 1970's shop.I'm on theme by accident this week!).Tommy was one of those "characters" who,in retrospect, are remembered by a community."You dont get any characters these days" people say.I'm not so sure if thats true?Maybe we only recognise 'character' in retrospect?
I remember 2 other local characters from my youth in the 60's..70's.....80's...[hey! I had a long youth!].Sadly I dont have any photos of them.One was a guy who dressed up as a Roundhead Soldier..& used to ride around The Pennine Moors on his horse.I know not why.I remember once,driving along Blackstone Edge in thick fog..and suddenly he appeared silently (from shrubs & grassland) like an extra from The Twilight Zone.
Another chap I remember was someone who seemed to spend his life walking up& down The Calder Valley.Dressed as a monk....in bare feet.

I never stopped to talk to them.Je regrette..........

One bloke I did know was Donald John.As a child I lived near a Salvation Army Hostel near King Cross Street (it closed during the reign of Maggie Thatcher & became a winebar called "Salvations").Donald was a kind man.I used to meet him & his mates in Peoples Park on Sunday morning when (aged 11) I told my parents I was going to Sunday Mass..but sat in the Park for an hour instead talking with him.

I loved this guy,i used to tell him where there was any scrap,visited him in hospital when he had throat cancer, I also attended his funeral which was very well attended, I think he was one of the last of the Cowburn totters, I miss the old characters of hx,when Donald died the Courier ran weeks of eulogies about him. Donald John R.I.P.............[Ken]
.............. he used to go to Butterly Bricks in Elland every night my grandad was kiln man there and my grandad used to let him sleep near kiln where it was warm........[Karl Gledhill]
Ken was telling me recently about another Halifax character I had never heard of ,a certain "Mrs Cheesebits" [no relation] who in the 70's used to sit cross-legged on a pavement all day [often sat immodestly] selling day-old copies of The Halifax Courier.Rumour had it that if she didn't bring home enough money,her son would beat her up in the evening.....that's the way it goes.............
just like millions of other British Public Service Workers , I will be taking part in a Day Of Action on Wednesday 30th November.

Luke Haines :"How To Hate The Working Classes".
A Link via:Danny's blog
DAVID CAMERON:biography
"rode a Shire horse whilst wearing full armour..... committed suicide 10 years ago - decapitation by train wheels..... a very sad loss of one of the areas eccentrics........"
"Met him one day on Heights Road, he warned me of the raping and pilaging happening in Heptonstall(it was the umpteenth annivesary) we had a lovely chat and he rode of towards Midgley.I saw him a couple more times when I was riding around the moors we would stop and admire the others horse, he was a real eccentric... very sad loss!"
[read more]

Dave Shorrocks AKA Captain Helliwell.AKA Reverend Padgett.

Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings: Manchester Apollo:21st November 2011

2011-11-22T12:39:00.005Z

What do Tony Zimnoch & David Cameron Have in Common? Both saw Gillian Welch play live this week...

First Of All.Thanks To Margaret & Don for their company at this gig last night.Also,Thanks for the lift back into Manchester after the show.
Unusually , I took no photographs myself.Partly because of keen Security.Partly because of a fraught journey over the moors.My photo-mojo wasn't working!
Instead,this morning, I stole the above image from flickr.The photographer commented 'Couldn't get too many shots because of the Apollo security nazis. Hastily snatched .......'..Which i agree with, but the photographer then , paradoxically, slaps a copyright notice on their photo.[Preventing downloads etc] So, by publishing this photo ,here ,I must be breaking 2 sets of Copyright?
Gillian&Dave Gave a very slick,professional & wonderfully moving show.Bravo!See them Live on Jools Holland tonight & repeated Friday.
P.S. check other flickr photos here.
Don.Incidentally. On the subject of Amoeba, here is a video of Dave & Gillian.

[from jools]

"like licking dreams from the blade of a knife" ~Jackie Leven

2011-11-18T22:44:00.013Z

On Monday we go see Gillian Welch at Manchester Apollo.
I have provisionally penciled~in ~~Thursday 1st December~~ Wednesday 14th December for this year's annual visit to The Manchester German Markets .I will be ringing around the usual suspects this weekend.Here are my photos from last years's bash.
on the 7th December,Me & Cathy plan to go to Tate Liverpool to see the Alice In Wonderland Exhibition.

A Good source of old photos is If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,
There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats [into it's 8th year]Here's one i found there.Joan Crawford i believe......

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

[with regard to the photograph below]

"In 2001 , history teacher Matthew Rozell established an oral history project documenting stories of World War II. His pupils unearthed the story of the American 30th Infrantry Division’s discovery in April 1945 of an abandoned train near the town of Magdeburg, Germany. Tank commander Carrol Walsh told how the train’s freight wagons had been jammed packed with Jews, many emaciated , ragged and originally destined for death. Walsh, now a Californian-based retired Supreme Court judge, said there had been scores of children in and around the train........."[from:]
It's a powerful image.My eyes were drawn to the Mother & Child in the forground...but look also at the lady further off in the background in on the left!The Smile Of Life!

"................the metaphorical power of the "atheist's fig" found in a Watford graveyard. Germinating from the last meal of a deceased, it burst through the corpse's gut and out through the coffin lid, eventually reaching the light in vigorous affirmation of life after death. From plants we came, and clearly to them we shall return" [from:Wild Flowers Are Nature's Anarchists]
Has anybody heard before about the Atheist's Fig? I read this today...'never heard of it before.A Google search doesnt help.

August 2010:Los Lobos:Will The Wolf Survive?

"First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. He then adds layer after layer of blood until the blade is completely concealed by the frozen blood................"[read more about how to kill a wolf]

"a city with my name on, i will enter in disguise"~ Jackie Leven

2011-11-16T00:37:00.066Z

Jackie Leven's Funeral

Jackie Leven playing Hebden Bridge Trades Club,August 2010.Phil The -Ex-Fireman lends an ear ,far left of the photo.

Jackie Leven [wikipedia] died from Prostrate Cancer on Monday night at 8pm.

[In a Shivering Blaze by Jackie Leven]
Usually ,media announcements of death leave me cold.To mourn a passing you must,i think, have some physical connection.Only friends & family have the right of grief.
Look .I like Bob Dylan.I have seen him play often.But when he dies i doubt if I should really care.I have never had a wish meet him.[I suspect he's as mad as a bucket of frogs]
I will mourn Bob's back catalogue.I will mourn the fact that it indicates my own mortality.But, Bob's Pulse itself doesn't really touch me individually .

Jackie is different.in the late 70s in my grotty East London ;Acid-Soaked bedsit, i had developed a fairly eclectic taste in music.[I talked about this period of my life in this old post ].The likes of Nick Drake,The Only Ones, & a couple of LPs by a punkish band called Doll By Doll graced my turntable... I knew little about Doll by Doll:never saw them play. +Eventually I forgot..........
In the middle 80's i was introduced to a cd by Jackie.I was attracted by the Leven /Fife connection.My Mum had lived as a child in Leven.It was only later I realised Jackie was the Voice of Doll by Doll....so it goes...
My first Jackie Leven cd had contributions from the likes of Robert Bly & the whole Mens Movement thing.
At this time I was having all sorts of Stress & Depression Problems with my teaching career . Jackie helped me find my balls again.
[Defending Ancient Springs by Jackie Leven]
From then on I was hooked.I saw him play live 5 times at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club & once at The Bury Met.It was at Bury in 2008,with Cathy,Don& Margaret, I saw Jackie play the week between my Mum Dying & My Burying Her.

Unknown to Jackie, he told a wildly funny story about him trying to scatter his own Mum's ashes.In a very counter-intuitive way, I laughed for the only time that week...it really helped me to cope with my own loss.

'Elegy for Jackie Leven'-Interview(+LivePerformance)Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club Oct 09 by Harknessian on Mixcloud

I only took up 2 minutes of Jackie's Life.
Twice I talked to him in The Hebden Bridge Trades.Once ,just a simple "Good Gig Jackie".The other time, we talked about how Jackie had had a "dodgy curry in Bradford" the night before...and his fear of having to leave the stage midstream to go to the bog..........(a conversation held appropriately ,during the Interval,in The Trades Club toilets)
God Speed Dear Jackie.I Love You but,for fuck sake, say well away from that Jimmy Savile! X

----------------------------------

*Daily Telegraph:Obituary

*Klatsch-Tratsch:Obituary

Chris Bell:Grievin At The Mish-Nish

**a 2nd Daily Telegraph Tribute**

Shield Gazette:Obituary
*Glasgow Herald:Obituary

*Caught By The River:

The Metro

Scribbling For Bread

**WILDMAN[pdf]

*The Guardian: Obituary

*The Times:Obituary

Lord Levy:The Rock&Roll Years

*INDEPENDENT;Letter 18/11/11

*Tromsø daily newspaper Nordlys (in Norwegian !)

*Der Spiegel:Obituary

The Australian
*Frankfurt Allgemeine:Obituary

The other side of the mountain:A Tribute

*Frankfurt Allgemeine:Tribute

*Doll by Doll:The Perfect Album

A Blog Tribute

*Neil King

*The Independent*

Right Place.Wrong Time

The King of Love has Died

**the arts desk:Obituary**

Leven's Lament

BBC:Stuart Bailie
**On Formosa Street**
**The Granville Chambers:Obituary**

*The Scotsman:Obituary

Der Tagesspiegel:Obituary
*a 2nd,amusing,Obituary in The Independent
---------------------------------------------

Jackie with Princess Di.She was the patron of the CORE TRUST that he help set up for addiction.She was one person who encouraged him to return to singing+performing after he got his throat cut.

Below another of my photos of dear sweet Jackie in Hebden Bridge...........

watch my empty silhouette

2011-11-09T21:09:00.012Z

This post celebrates the 100th Sepia Saturday. I love old photos .Not for the information or answers...but for the Mystery & Questions they create.Well done Alan for steering the ship.You are a sepia Jack Sparrow!

Below is a photo I took in The Cemetery in Chieti.

Isn't Clementina Francia a pretty one! She looks like a movie star. If I stared at her photograph long enough,I swear we would fall in love...........But,on reflection, that's a bit daft. It's a little like looking at the cover of HELLO magazine.I'm sure her bones now are no prettier than the others scattered inside..........

........which brings me ,mysteriously , to a video of Peter Gabriel on a bike........going around in circles......... Norman Tebbit on Acid!?!

another of my Chieti photos.

goodbye dear old stepstone

2011-11-04T12:08:00.016Z

Well , You Can see a couple of guitars in this photo so its "On Theme" for this week's Sepia Saturday.
The Photo was taken at The Guild Hall in the City Of London in the summer of '71.The occasion is the wedding of Claus Friehe and Barbara Thierfelder.They both worked with me at Carter Lane Youth Hostel. You can See Me In The Photo[ Or the top of my head at least......2nd left;back row;behind the Japanese lady].
The people in attendance were a mix of Youth Hostel workers &USA hostellers .
If your a resident of The City,The Guildhall is where Registry Office marriages are held . I guess this was a pretty "far-out" wedding by City standards!
"The City " is home to Big Business:The Stock Exchange & was,in 1971, still The HQ of the British Press on Fleet Street.It's a State-within-a-State.To this day it still has it's own Police Force & undemocratic political system.A secular Vatican for Fat Cats.
The Youth Hostel itself is just across the road from St Pauls Cathedral.

Holland by Cold Specks
I told this blog about some of my personal experiences in an old post entitled "how I lost my innocence & virginity on the roof of St.Paul's Cathedral Choirboys School....."
St Pauls has been much in the News recently due to the Occupy London Movement.You can read about the ongoing Occupation here
Of Course I fully Support Them......by the way, I was gobsmacked to learn that these days St Pauls charges £14.50p per person to enter the Cathedral!Obscene.

cold specks: reference#1
reference#2
reference#3

Friday Night Update: Me & Cathy Went With Don & Margaret to see Hot Club Of Cowtown at Bury Met tonight. here are a few photos I took.

They are from the USA.Earlier In The Day, Stuart had told me."You will like them, they are kinda like a psychedelic-hillbilly band". And,yes, I guess they were......I have never seen a whole band smile so much .Throughout the whole gig!.It was like walking into a Dental Convention......' kind of unnerving at first......being part-Slavic I have a problem with smiling.The Russians smile.The Germans smile.This is not always a good thing......It was only halfway through the first set that I realised they were not trying to sell me a new pair of dentures.They were actually happy!A Great Night.Check These peoples Music Out!Claus Friehe Lübeck Hansestadt, Schleswig-Holstein

Julian! Eat Up Your Greens!

2011-10-29T00:36:00.029+01:00

"Koichi Andoh - who came from Japan to work as a chicken sexer in Hebden Bridge in 1935 ..........."

[click here for my latest Hebden Bridge Blog post]

Me & Cath went for a meal to Greens Vegetarian Cafe In Hebden Bridge on Friday night (And very nice too) .Who Should walk in after us butJulian Cope:[wikipedia] !He walked in with half a dozen mean looking leather-geezers .All Tats & leather (his band?).......They looked like they had been eating raw meat for a decade.I thought the guys deserved a break.
He was playing Hebden Bridge Trades Club later that evening. [The gig was sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on sale .I had no chance,]
I don't know an excessive amount about his music, but it would have been interesting to see him had i got a ticket.

What is doubly strange about my relationship with Mr Cope is that we were in the same year at C.F.Mott Teacher Training College in Liverpool. I remember seeing him a lot at College but we never really moved in the same circles .He did English.I did Sociology & Special Educational Needs.
I wanted to rush over and reminisce about our none -existent friendship ,but it hardly seemed the place........
We seem destined to continue eating on separate tables.
Never Mind! I nabbed the above blurry photo as a memento.............

Above,Julian .Below (restoring a certain Zimnochian balance),one of Chris's Videos from this September.

After Greens, Me & Cathy went to the monthly Story Telling at The Stubbing Wharfe Pub A Ghost-Themed Evening. Very Nice.Being Halloween, lots of ghost stories & things that go bump in the night...Cath introduced me to Ursula one of the organisers of Story-Telling in Hebden Bridge.Cath said Ursula used to be in Emmerdale.Ursula said they had "killed her off 5 years ago".
It told her "she was looking good on it......."

[Ursula Holden Gill:wikipedia]

`If I get lost, look for me in Cuba`Federico Garcia Lorca

2011-10-26T23:06:00.006+01:00

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

In 1997 I went to Havana .I took a Mini-Disc Walkman with me.I took loads of recordings .I haven't listened to them for years.......This week I dug my discs out & had a listen.
My problem with sharing them here is that (although crystal-clear digital recordings) the machine does not transfer them digitally to computers!Unless I buy an expensive bit of new hardware,the only way I can do it currently is to record them on video via a pair of headphones linked to the Walkman.Not ideal, a sharp loss in quality.
Never mind! This is Norby (pictured) singing a Cuban love song.Norby was a guide for me during my visit.I visited her home & met her Family & she even introduced me to The Bishop Of Havana!

Maybe.One Day.I will work out a way making an audio file of the original digital quality.

here also are some photos I took in Habana.
The top photo was taken inside "Hemmingway Bodega".i remember...it was 50 degrees that night......
An interesting coda to my visit.I also took a portable CD player.CDs were impossible to find in Havana.I remember visting a revolutionary bookshop that only stocked 2 discs.I felt very guilty reducing their stock by 50% when i bought a cd of Cuban music.
Leaving Manchester airport I had bought the newly released Buena Vista Social Club. CD.
I remember one day in Havana , Norby would gather total strangers around my disc player to listen to that music.Dozens of Cubans would pass my headphones around like a joint,listening to it!They would shout "Hey! I Know Him"..........

Something of a South American flavour here this week.My Uncle's grand-daughter Veronica Farnandez Zimnoch keeps in touch with me on facebook.
Infact I found her via facebook.
My Dad had 4 brothers & a sister.After WW2 he stayed in England.Another brother left for America.A third married an Italian lady & went to live in Argentina.
Her Grandfather was 10 years older than my Dad.They hadnt seen each since before the War.They simply lost touch.I knew nothing of them until 6 months before my dad died.Out of the blue they established contact via a few letters.Then My Dad died suddenly ..my Mum wrote to tell them.....Silence.We thought this strange...it was only later we found out that my Uncle had also died..within weeks of my dad's death.
Via facebook me & Veronica have revived contact between the two branches of the family.She even sent me several photos of my Dad I had never seen before!

Veronica Farnandez Zimnoch

She is a Lawyer in Buenos Aires.

The Traitor Doge,The Blind Doge,The Prophetic Doge.

2011-10-22T19:14:00.009+01:00

I own a lovely book called "Venetian Legends And Ghost Stories" by Alberto Toso Fei. One of my favorite tales in it is The Traitor Doge,The Blind Doge,The Prophetic Doge.

Essentially, Its a scary story about 3 ghosts who share the same patch of Venetian Canal Bank for eternity.......But it's a funny story because although all ghosts ,they are eternally unaware of each others existence ! So every time they bump into each they scare themselves! [Imagine the irony, being a ghost who is scared of other ghosts!]
I am thinking a lot about ghosts myself this week.My old,loyal longtime readers will be aware that I am a regular user of The Rochdale hamam.I have been going to it since 1984.The old place is falling to bits.Things dont work too good these days.It's due to be knocked down early next year.A wee bit of my history will disappear.......
Someone visiting it for the first time today will only see a sparsely populated tatty building.To Modern eyes it looks,I'm sure, unimpressive.But to my eyes, it is rich in memories & ghosts.
I invited Ken there yesterday for the first time.In his innocence, Ken said .."A Lot Of Bloody Doors In Here......."
Now ,although Ken is not a Ghost, he represents another strand of my life over 40 years around Halifax.I am one of those people who tend to compartmentalize my friends+situations.Things seem to be seeping through more now.
Anyway.Yesterday.I thought it would be fun to mix two distinct parts of my history together.
It was.

..a few photos from my week..i look a bit ropey & trippy because I have had a bad back & am on (for the first time ever!) painkillers [Naproxen]......

Last night, having a Whitworth Curry,Cappo Martin showed us his Photos from his recent Charity visit to Nepal on behalf of Comic Relief .Also, thanks for the online album [one photo above].I have to say that your own photos are as good (better, infact) than the "official" ones!Martin,you are far too modest!

While making this post I got The Above facebook message from Veronica in Buenos Aires. The beautiful South American branch of my family will be the subject of my next post.

The Poor Law

2011-10-17T07:32:00.019+01:00

The riot squad they're restless. They need somewhere to go.............

B.B.C.:Dale Farm Evictions

".......The residents' fight against eviction has been lost......now 400 people, including 100 children...... lose their homes, and see their community torn apart..........."

Broken Barnet

"I know this one of St John's Hospital (the old Poor Law Workhouse) has been on before but John Eastwood raised a question about the Workhouse yesterday and it got me to thinking about the inhumanity of the old Poor Law system.
I used to work with a chap who'd been a Poor Law Relieving Officer for the City of Nottingham. He told stories about the corpses of suicides being washed up on the banks of the River Trent. This meant that the ensuing funeral would have to be paid for by the Nottingham City Poor Law Commissioners, coming out of this chap's budget.
So, to avoid this, he would go to the river by night with a long pole and a boat and push the corpses out into the middle of the river, hoping they would wash up on the opposite bank so that the funeral would then have to be paid for by the Nottingham COUNTY Poor Law Commissioners thus protecting his own budget.
It seems amazing now but the Poor Law wasn't repealed until 1948 and one bit of it still actually still exists as part of the National Assistance Act 1948. Section 47 of that Act concerns "Removal to suitable premises of persons in need of care and attention", which means that the authorities can still remove people who are ill and can't look after themselves and who are living in insanitary conditions and force them to go into hospital (no longer the Workhouse!). It's not used very often but the power does still exist unchanged after all this time."

TONY MARTIN

[from:facebook:Old Photos Of Halifax,West Yorkshire]

I Have New Posts On My Hebden Bridge blog.

An email+ link sent to me today from my friend Ken ( I go with him to The Rochdale Hamam this Friday.)
"This is something I did in collaboration with the Plastique totale several lifetimes ago,it is v v rare,and George from the Ukulele of GB just found and sent me, see what you think
ey up kidda
twas great to see you, hope you're in good shape
i never thought i'd hear this again....................................................."
Ken worked with Davy Walklett in the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on this.Read More About The Project here
From "Auto Da Fé / La Semaine D'Une Somnambuliste" Cassette (Unlikely Records, 1985)

One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker the other is in his pants.......

The Ballad of Janet's Finger

2011-10-14T23:23:00.004+01:00

This Is A Sepia Saturday Post

Where Are Your Now "Janet Hatto"?Maybe,Some Day In The Future You Will Google Search Your Own Name And Find This Post?Who Knows?
On The Rare Occasions I Think Of Her, I Remember His Drayness Ringing us early one morning. "Have your heard the news?"He said."Princess Di has died". we switched on the telly to see the News reports.
This sepia photo was taken later that day in Dublin (via my first ever tango with Ryanair).

Janet Hatto must have got fed up up of me photographing her .

"Take A Photo Of This " She Said. "I've squashed him!".
On Returning to Planet Yorkshire, I Remember Consoling Myself With This Bob Dylan Song..........

the answer is blowing in the wind

2011-10-08T23:28:00.013+01:00

If your loved one works on Wall Street...this could be their ideal Christmas present........
"Designed for the office worker who would rather crash out of a window from the 93rd floor than wait for a potential rescue, the Evacuchute is your workplace emergency parachute evacuation system of choice."

[from:]

Apologies to Steve:Tony T. & The Jolly Boys.I Missed The Rugby League Grand Final tonight at Old Trafford.I feel really poorly & feverish.The Change In Temperature.We seem to have gone from Summer to Winter in a few short moments...........

The Krumlin Festival has the unfortunate reputation of being on the receiving end of the worst weather to ever hit a British rock festival, which more or less devastated the festival site, leaving only the stage standing by Sunday morning .

I Have Mentioned Before, That I Attended The Disastrous Krumlin Festival of 1970
" Rod Marshall (Anchor Inn Brighouse) brought in lorry load of beans. He had old copper boilers in which he heated the cans and you bought a can, opened it with can openers attached to the bar by string and he gave you a plastic spoon. Unfortunately he did not get them on sale or return and was eating beans for many years after Krumlin."

Old Photos Of Halifax:facebook

Pentangle:who I saw play Krumlin : they blew me away.............

From Mysterious Letters : New Shelton Wet/Dry

.............As long as he kept on playing, everything would be fine.

2011-10-05T20:36:00.009+01:00

Rest In Peace Bert Jansch X

I'm back from Italy.I had to stop work on my house temporarily as it appeared I didnt have all the necessary planning permissions! Lucky for me I will have the help of my Good Friend Mick Goggins who knows everything about such matters.You cant be too careful. There are some right dodgy people about! For example..........................
I bought this old photo from a junk shop in Lanciano last week. I was as pleased as Punch to find dozens of brilliant old photos & postcards.(one, a 1932 postcard from Havana to Italy)I thought I had enough to last me the rest of the year here in Sepialand.
To my dismay, when I asked the old crook who ran the place how much they would cost me he said they were 5EUROS each! So I sadly had to settle just for this one .
I'm not sure what's going on in the photo.Its Italian soldiers? Its Winter (somewhere).I wonder what is going on here? Any ideas?
They Look To Me Like A Crack Team Of Cross-Dressing Italian Archaeologists.........
I am getting into local Abruzzo culture.The area around Lancianco was The Manor of The Frentani Tribe Well Before Either The Romans or Silvio Berlusconi or other touchstones of modern civilisation............The Frentani had some interesting ideas about the use of jewellery .Consider "The Presentosa" ,a star-shaped pendant with one or two hearts in the middle..[ Frentani chicks would wear one to protect the heart].or consider "Sciacquajje" ,earrings that jingle in order to ward off evil spirits...Maybe the origins of jewellery were not forsake of Vanity but for Spiritual Survival purposes ..............Kinda makes sense.Non?

This is a Sepia Saturday Post.

"..................................................... As long as he kept on playing, everything would be fine."
Bert Jansch:A Tribute.

they mistake your weakness for drama

2011-09-25T15:02:00.020+01:00

I am wending my way home from Misteri.Here is a photo I took from my hotel room in Rome last night.[Near the main Termini Railway Station].
I say "hotel"......but their idea of "en suite" was being able to piss in the sink.......
Anyway.......
I was watching this gentleman for half an hour.He was asleep with his 2 bottles of wine under his head........Then along came his mate & stole one..The Sleeper woke 5 minutes later to find his stash depleted.An image for our times............?

Never Trust Anyone Who Wears Socks with Sandals...........
I'm Still A.W.O.L. In the meantime, some [updated] photos from "Misteri".here.A thought to juggle with! It was taken from a book I was reading on the bus from Roma."........they mistake your weakness for drama........"

Ry Cooder~Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down

My Thanks To Clive for the information..If you click the "Marketplace" widget above,you can hear the entire new album from Ry Cooder!

[Clive on the left]

I Fly To Italy Next Saturday 24th.Will Return Thursday 29th.
I had a dream last night.Me & Chris were traveling in Italy.we got lost on a bus & eventually, we arrived in a little unknown town.It was towards dusk....we didnt have time ,that day,to move on........So we found a hotel for the night.The town was called "Misteri".It Seemed a mighty nice place [albeit a bit dusty]....................!
On awaking, I searched Google for it.I was pretty sure of the spelling because it was written on a timetable inside the bus station.
I couldn't find any towns with that name, but Trip Advisor told me about Hotel Misteri near Pompeil.

Italian telly is doing a nifty commercial at the moment.It's for the Italian mobile phone company WIND.It encourages Italians to "Passa A Wind" .And why not?

Over recent weeks, I,ve been rubbish at blogging.Sorry. ~~So, I've disabled comments on this particular post to~~ give me [please]time to catch up with you all.

In the meantime, I will be posting photos from my week.

First off, I went to the new BBC Media City in Salford with Don.

We Also Went To See An Exhibition At The Imperial War Museum War Correspondent: reporting under fire since 1914 & Warhol & The Diva at The Lowry.

Later in the week I will be ~~being currified in Whitworth on Friday~~ & out Drinking in Halifax on Saturday.Watch this space for more photos of these.I will keep updating.[n.b.all photos taken with my new blackberry.]
My Thanks to Don& Margaret. for the tickets for Gillian Welch (Manchester Apollo ) & Hot Club of Cowtown (Bury Met) .Plus the new Ry Cooder:Gillian Welch cds + 4Xcd "Anthems Of Eden" set.Christmas comes early in Salford!

An exploration ......................

2011-09-09T01:25:00.022+01:00

[computer problems:'can only get on for short spells:will be back visting soon]

It was only last week that I was sat in The Fox&Goose pub in Hebden Bridge with my oldest friend Phil The Ex-Fireman.[We started School together in 1963.]We both agreed I had a shocking memory.
We couldnt work out if this was a good or bad thing ,should either (or both !) of us come to suffer from Alzheimer's in the years to come.............................

Sepia Saturday!!!!!

Ladies & Gentlemen! I Give You The Fabulous Dino & The Travellers. I never saw them live but I remember My Older Brother Zyg & His Mates Talk Of Them In Hushed Tones.In An Alternative Universe, I'm Sure They Became Bigger Than The Beatles.
They Were A Big Item On The Halifax Scene Between 1963-1965.

In 1986 They They Reformed & Were Filmed Outside Halifax Library.' doing A Pastiche Of Abbey Road.
Then ,On The Library's Roof ,having Their Own Personal Let It Be-Moment.

Most Strange,

By 1986,The Lead Singer Was The Mayor Of Halifax, And You Can See Him Here Dressed In His Robes!Another Member Of The Band Was In Charge Of Education in the Town.
Watch Their Weird Video Here
And, Should You Want To Know What They Sounded Like In Their Pomp Listen Here

All that is solid melts into air~ Karl Marx

2011-09-03T20:13:00.012+01:00

This Is A Sepia Saturday Post.

a Halifax Soil Cart.

Born In Time by Bob Dylan
'This chap came round up to the late 1920s in Halifax to empty the shared tub toilets (no mains water then). Bet he didn't smell too fresh at the end of a working day.'

Old Photos Of Halifax,West Yorkshire

Well, I dont know if this bloke was a Council worker or an entrepreneur? [ i would have loved to see his pitch on Dragons' Den!]

If he was a Public Sector Worker, then thankfully , The Good Lord managed to invent Sanitory Plumbing before making David Cameron.
Otherwise ,Halifax folk would be up their necks by now........
my Thanks to Don & Margaret for getting me the Gillian Welch tickets.we all go see her in Manchester, 21st November.

As we Fly back headlong Into The 1930's Can I recommend for any budding 21st Century George Orwells the free itunes App iWiganese. some essential translations to be had.For example
" Jafot pay gerrinere?"[ Is there an entrance fee for this establishment?]

The best of Sandy Denny's music inhabits the shore or the riverbank, or drifts upon the sea in the company of it's dislocated sailors

2011-08-28T23:41:00.025+01:00

Read my latest Hebden Bridge post by clickin here.

The Internet .She is taking over my life. [now that's a point .is the internet female or masculine?Is it "Le" or "La"?].Yesterday it was my mirror:today my reading companion..........................
"When I write songs,I often picture myself standing on a beach or standing on a rock or a promenade or something. I just put myself there sometimes and without realising it I find myself describing what I'm looking at and often it's the sea.I keep promising myself I'll put myself somewhere else when I'm writing songs but I really can't imagine anywhere that's nicer than that........." Sandy Denny~ 1973

I'm busy reading my Folk Book (see previous post)
Sandy Denny:Wiki; 6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978:R.I.P. I saw her play at Krumlin in my yoof.
Anne Briggs :wiki

[n.b. This is a companion to my The Legendary Lost "Carry On Hippying" Movie Script! post.]

Linda Thompson:wiki

On the subject of Folk Music ,my thanks to Kimy for pointing me in the direction of the fine American Smithsonian Folkways site.Free Downloads & much magic can be found!
I came across these two photo sites.Some striking Images of the London Riots.

blog.julesmattsson

www.dankitwood.com

Nick Drake, new glasses and old maps. : Very Nice.

2011-08-26T22:26:00.009+01:00

Sorry Folks..A Busy Week.I Will Come A Visiting Tommorrow (Saturday).In The Meantime, why not visit some other great Sepia Saturday Posts.

Nick Drake - Things Behind The Sun from Phil Bebbington on Vimeo.
i'm in the middle of reading the splendid Electric Eden.A lovely romp through the history of British Folk Music & Culture.William Blake,Nick Drake,Morris Dancing & Beyond. Many of the people mentioned I have seen/loved.Plus hosts of characters new to me.A Real Treasure of a Book.
I heard last night that Capo Martin is off to Nepal in October! I am jealous !
(Not That I'm vain, You Understand?) I bought 2 new pairs of glasses today.Here I am trying trying them on this afternoon. I'm using my blog as a mirror.Which is the bestest pair I wonder.....

New on the web is The Gough MapThe first map of Britain from the 14th Century.You Can View it Online.Below, a detail of Manchester (couldnt find "Hebden Bridge" other than something looking like the craters on the Moon)

[A Cryptic Map of sorts...........]

not fade away

2011-08-22T00:38:00.011+01:00

In 1911, Bobby Leach survived a plunge over Niagara Falls in a steel barrel.

Fourteen years later, in New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel and died.

“We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.” — John Steinbeck
“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” — Will Rogers
“Where is the Life we have lost in living?” — T.S. Eliot
[via]

In the olden days,people had to make their own trees?

2011-08-19T21:37:00.025+01:00

i share here a free download i got from Sunday's OBSERVER .It's Tinariwen playing Live............ Help Yourselves to 8 free tracks here!

Today I Give You 2 Sepia~Riddles.2 unsolved mysteries . Read The Body on Somerton Beach
And, The Missing Beaumont Children

~~all I know is that this photo was taken in the Halifax area.No other explanation was given~~ on facebook's "Photos Of Old Halifax".A huge bonfire erected on Mount Skip above Snow Booth Farm, Old Town, brought to an end a day of festivities marking the Coronation of George V. 23 June 1911.

Add caption?

At the Suggestion of Kim, this is a Sepia Saturday post.

My Latest Hebden Bridge post.
(& i blush just to mention this) I came across the delightfully named fuckyeavictorians which has some old photos & stuff.Worth a peek.
I,m rather surprised to learn that John Grant plays The Doghouse at Paris Gates in Halifax on Sept 9th. Providing I'm not in Italy I fancy going .He Sounds a Jolly Fellow.Rather high profile for Halifax, it was only last year that the likes of The Guardian:MOJO & UNCUT were creaming themselves over songs such as this (+ Paris Gates is 'only a spit& a fart from my Mother-in-Laws house!)

Tonight is the first time I have paid his music much attention.More than Americana...he has something of the Gordon Lightfoot [video] about him?Albeit a depressed Gordon Lightfoot..............

A photo I took of The River Calder in Hebden Bridge.June 2009.

23 Savile Crescent,Halifax.

2011-08-13T12:06:00.011+01:00

This is a Sepia Saturday post.
Alan mentioned Google Maps today, so that set me thinking.....here is a photo from "Maps" of the house in Halifax I grew up as a kid.The house on the left.Top window (nearest the road)was my bedroom .I still,to this day ,have frequent vivid dreams about this road.Welcome to my world!
Its only a matter of time before Google find a way to photograph the inside of our houses!
In the meantime, here are a couple of photos I took of a corner of my bedroom.I guess 1972.I had just returned from a year in London (working in The Carter Lane Youth Hostel).I went back to Further Education college in Halifax to get my O & A Levels (in just one year!! I had left school at 16 with no qualifications...so I was playing catchup).Within 12 months i would be at Teacher Training College in Liverpool.
Essentially this was a shrine to the London Hippy Life I had left behind.Free Festivals:cannabis:LSD; & Opium and OZ marches
Ken sent me these photos this week.Some of them capture the era quite well.

[click image for biggary]

Manchester 10th August 2011

2011-08-10T15:03:00.018+01:00

Some things can only be seen in negative, some bodies only become perceptible in the interference they create.John Burnside:A Summer of Drowning

[Image looted in a non-threatening way from http://www.ou1.com/

The UK government is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.
Despite "nervousness" in Downing Street at the prospect of testing the national mood the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked to produce measures to implement David Cameron's long-stated ambition of gauging "general wellbeing"...........
[read more]
My Car's had a bit of a funny sqeak for the past week.On Monday I booked it in the garage in Hebden Bridge this morning with a view to catching the train into Manchester for a few hours while they checked it.
While I was in Manchester I took these photos.You will notice several taken in Picaddilly Gardens.Hundreds of [mainly ]Young Folk [via facebook] can been seen collecting brooms to sweep up the broken glass & debris from last night's riot.I say "riot" but Im not sure that's the correct word?"Riot" implies some sort of Purpose + Aim...........
Dont get me wrong.Things are bad in Britain at the moment, and if they had looted Buckingham Palace or Downing Street or Harrods I would have had some understanding,But,really, it is bad form to shit in your own backyard.
Manchester Evening News report
+Views from fine Manchester bloggers ....here & here

defending ancient springs ©

2011-08-05T12:09:00.038+01:00

I am not I.

I am this one

walking beside me whom I do not see,

whom at times I manage to visit,

and whom at other times I forget;

who remains calm and silent while I talk,

and forgives, gently, when I hate,

who walks where I am not,

who will remain standing when I die.

Juan Ramón Jiménez

This is a Sepia Saturday post
This week I have a question for you.Here is a photo Chris took this morning of my hands, using my camera.
Who might claim copyright to it?Chris?Me?Horacio Guzman ?Maria Rosa ?Or the (unknown) photographer of the original photo?
In a recent Sepia Saturday post I showed you a photography taken by the Spanish photographer Horacio Guzman. The image he took showed a lady called
Maria Rosa,
Taken in an Old Folk's home, we see the 83 years old.hands of Maria next to a photo of her aged 18.
" I Could not attend school due to the civil war. Worked at a bar. The happiest day of her life was when her son was born...."
A very striking image.
I was a bit surprised to receive an email from Google the other day telling me to take the image off this blog as it was breaking copyright.You can see the email in the post's comments here
I deleted the image yesterday.
I never really can get my head-around "copyright law".
For example:
Who owns the copyright of a photograph? the "subject"?:the photographer? The owner of the camera?The person who buys a photograph at a later date?
Also, in this case, you actually have 2 photographs! A photo of a photo ! Who owns the copyright of the photo of the 18 year old Maria? Does the original photograph override the later one?
Can you claim copyright of another person's life?
I guess it is the nature of capitalism that what was always Yours for Free is taken off you & then sold back to you at a "price" ;at a Cost.
A few weeks ago I heard a bloke on the radio (he worked for a online retailer) saying that the only reason the Internet was "free" was because commercial firms subsidized it with their Adverts!
Seems to me,somebody is trying to put a cheap pair of gloves on Maria's hands!

REFERENCES:

F.A.Q.

here is a blog full of stolen Bob Dylan photos!

12 Born In Time by Bob Dylan
Oh Mercy! am i breaking copyright again? This is a Dylan track taken from a bootleg cd i bought some years ago.In for a penny, in for a pound [euro?]..it would be rather cool to get an email from Bob's lawyers! "I will see you in court",the trial was bad enough but.............
OK ,below,a bit of music from the wonderful Jackie Leven.This is one of the songs i would choose for my 'Desert Island Discs'. The first 2 minutes are a mess of ugly loud unpleasant Industrial noise (Glasgow working class shipbuilders?)but it then [as in life ]if you have the patience to endure, you are rewarded by greatness.Jackie finishes this song by reading the poem by
Juan Ramón Jiménez that i quote above. Defending Ancient Springs:Jackie Leven

Jackie Leven:Wikipedia

I have seen Jackie play live several times.I've chatted to him a couple of times in the toilets at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club.I know enough about him to tell you that he wouldn't give a monkeys about copyright (providing all my American readers go out & buy ALL his future albums!)If you read the wiki link you might find he worked with Princess Di on a drugs project once......
[p.s. I'm sure I will have to take the Bob Dylan track off here soon, so copy it while you can! I have a full cd i can send you if you send me your details.OK? I love this audio player!.I hope to transfer some sounds i grabbed in Cuba in 1997 on a dusty old Mini-Disc player & share them here on a future "sepia saturday".Watch this space! ]

touch!

2011-08-03T23:39:00.005+01:00

I have a new post on my Hebden Bridge blog.

I listened today to this rather good BBC 5 Live podcast .An Interview with Adam Ant..He talks about Mental Health issues and suchlike.......
"Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe, New Mexico native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. Their first performances were in New York in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar. The music combines elements of Eastern European and Balkan folk with Western pop music, fusing the American mainstream and indie-rock culture and the World Music market................"

download a free+legal full DVD of early Beriut here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beirut_(band)

From 1913, John Alfred Charlton Deas, a former curator at Sunderland Museum, organised several handling sessions for the blind, first offering an invitation to the children from the Sunderland Council Blind School, to handle a few of the collections at Sunderland Museum, which was ‘eagerly accepted’.
‘They were so successful that Deas went on to develop and arrange a course of regular handling sessions, extending the invitations to blind adults.’
( Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums)

[from:]

All Aboard The Brighton Line

2011-07-30T20:31:00.023+01:00

It's My Birthday today! Looks Like I'm travelling The Brighton Line for the next 12 months!
I got to Harrogate Turkish Baths at 9 am this morning.Above is a photo Chris took of me there.
Last night I went with some of the Lads from The Rochdale Hamam for a Birthday Curry in Whitworth.
[This Time next Year Rochdale Turkish Baths Will have been knocked down.I have been going there for 28 years..what will I be doing then?]
This afternoon I went with Cath & Chris to The Stubbin Wharfe Pub in Hebden Bridge for a meal.

Click here for some more photos.

Postcards From Italy by Beirut

Italian Mick was due to finish my plumbing today in my place in Italy.Now it's already 80% complete (even before today) which might sound fine , but 20% missing is a worry if you need a "#2" when you go powder your nose, if you get my drift............
Once that's sorted out ,I can invite people over to stay in it + help.Me & Phil The Ex-Fireman should be going over to Pennedomo late August..to start internal decorating.
The 3rd week in September I return again to Abruzzo to help Mick & Shelley with a LA VITA Italian Workshop.

If Push Comes To Shove; I Love This Bit Of Popery Above All Other.Think Of It as A Birthday Gift To Myself.............Is this the power peace
Or merely the connection ?

read about Gene Clark's :"No Other"

My Sepia Saturday post is on my Hebden Bridge blog this week.

.........In Sociology, the Harrogate Effect pertains to occasions where something awful happens to someone in the company of a group, but no one does anything to help. The phenomenon was first observed by the renowned sociologist Jeremy Clarkson on a visit to the town in 1987. On that occasion, a child laid dying in the street whilst Clarkson and a number of the town's residents stood around giving the child a severe ticking off for increasing traffic congestion and lowering house prices. .........[read more]

Gravity Is A Wonderful Thing

2011-07-22T23:18:00.011+01:00

Jeeze.These Images Are Blurry.They Look Like They Have Been Faxed From Outer Space.
The Photo Below Is Of Me & My Big Brother Ziggy.
This Week's Sepia Saturday theme is in & around the subject of Space Travel.
I have no family photos of such things.West Yorkshire in the 1960's was a tad short of Rockets & such like (except in our heads!)But I remember following all those spacecrafts and stuff......it seemed to me, Russians;Dogs;Americans;Everybody was going up there.I pondered, maybe everyone was going there & pretty soon , I would be left alone here on Earth! Happily , they all seemed to return (in one fashion or another) Gravity Is Such A Wonderful Thing!

So.What Else Is Happening On Planet Zimnoch? Well.This Week My Twitter Account Got Hacked By Bugs&Trojans & little green men from Mars. Being Lazy, I just deleted my account & open This New Account You can Dock there with me if you wish.
I,ve been full of Flu.My Sister-in-Law Susan had her 50th Birthday in Paris last week.She came back last Saturday with a Cold.We went to see her & her partner Paul whose band was playing at The Fountain Head pub on Pellon Lane, Halifax. here are the evenings photos.Anyway........Sue must have given me her Cold.Does this mean I have Frenchman-Flu?
Finally. I still havnt got bored of my new-other blog.You Can Check It Out Here to see today's post.

Robb Johnson:wiki

Finally for today, Here are some book buying ideas for the Sepian in Your Life......................

Maria R.

2011-07-16T10:46:00.008+01:00

I found several examples this week of Artists who work with Old Photographs.Let us consider...........

Photobooth Animations

The Work Of Greg Sands.

click here for more Greg Sands

The Misconception: When your beliefs are challenged with facts, you alter your opinions and incorporate the new information into your thinking.

The Truth: When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.....[.Read More]

halt!

2011-07-14T16:58:00.011+01:00

During the Black Hawk War, Abe Lincoln was leading 20 men through a field when he saw they’d need to pass through a narrow gate.

“I could not, for the life of me, remember the proper word of command for getting my company endwise, so that it could pass through the gate,” he later recalled.

“So, as we came near, I shouted, ‘Halt! this company is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again on the other side of the gate.’”

from:Futility Closet

Me,Phil The Ex-Fireman ,Bryn & Mick The Italian went into Halifax tonight for Drinks.here are some photos taken.

Hacked With Permission & Thanks From ou1

For North American Readers , Here Is Some Of The Backstory.

A Video Chris Made.Nothing To Do with Rupert Murdoch!

she is watching the detectives!

2011-07-08T23:55:00.027+01:00

It's been a funny old week.My head is full of Murdochgate©.

For Example, I read that "9/11 victims 'may have had mobiles tapped by News of the World reporters'" [Read More]

Halifax's "Pythagoras Squares" pictured around 1967/68

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

"With the close proximity of Halifax being only a 45 minute drive from Manchester there were a great many of the city's groups who crossed the Pennines in their clapped out old Commer vans on the A58 or the A672 to perform in the town.
The likes of Johnny Peters and The Crestas, The Toggery Five, Stylos, Phantoms and The Cyclones were all regulars in the early Sixties. Along with the local Halifax groups and bands (including Moon- Trekkers, Tree, Pythagoras Squares, The Calderbeats) these lads were the lifeblood of the dance halls from the early group days of Twist and Shout to the advent of soul and blues, followed by progressive, psychedelic and heavy metal bands in the later 60s...."

[from:"Pearl Palin:Small town Saturday night"]

"Palins" was a local dance hall in Halifax in the 1960's.I was to young to attend, but it was always a direction to aspire towards.......I heard the name 'Pythagoras Squares' whispered , but never saw them play.I wonder what they sounded like?They look a groovy crew.Non?
The photo was taken in People's Park in Halifax.
Not far from the park is Manor Heath.Bruce Foxton of The Jam lived there for a while (& was often seen drinking in The Upper George in the middle of town)Bruce once wrote a song about The News Of The World newspaper.The paper has been detecting British life for 168 years old. It will print it's final edition this Sunday (ummm....looks like I will have to begin to start buying toilet rolls for the first time in my life!)
here is a potted history of those whacky 168 years!
Do Americans know about This Story? Basically , That Evil Bastard Rupert Murdoch.The Prince of Darkness:The Enemy of Light.BOO! Hiss!!! (He owns FOX NEWS i Believe?) Well old Rupe has been caught with his trousers down in England this week.
My thanks to Martin for reminding me that the late-great British Dramatist Dennis Potter named his terminal pancreatic cancer "Rupert" in honour of the great Australia Media Baron!

."Read All About It" as they say.........

Each morning our key to the world comes through the door
More than often its just a comic, not much more
Don't take it too serious - not many do
Read between the lines and you'll find the truth

Read all about it, read all about it - news of the world..........["News Of The World":THE JAM]

Read About The Most Hated Woman in Britain ,this week, here

Ed Milliband ate my hamster

2011-07-05T22:03:00.022+01:00

The Northern Echo
Here Is Rebekah Brooks announcing that the News of the World and the Sun were being integrated: last week.

A first class article from (of all places!) The Daily Telegraph this (Thursday) morning here.
One of the many thoughts raised was that the reason Cameroon refused to condem (sic) Rebekah Brooks was that she holds too many secrets about the workings of the government machine.Better she is inside the tent pissing out.............?
Can I be the first person to coin,use & copyright the term "Murdochgate"? The comments under the piece are even better (i must have too much time on my hands if I'm reading the Telegraph website !) For example................."The closed world of the Liberal elite now firmly in control of this country has more than a whiff of pre-revolution France about it. They bask in their largesse while we the people are expected to absorb even more pain and misery........."
Orff with their heads...........!but,while we gather our knitting, here is how to Contact advertisers to get them to pull ads from The News Of The World this Sunday

here

Jeremy Hunt has just said he'll allow Murdoch to own all of BSkyB. We have just three days to flood the government's public consultation with requests to stop the deal.

We've done it before -- in the last consultation Hunt said our avalanche of 40,000 messages delayed the deal as his officials had to read each email carefully, fearing a legal challenge. But the government is pushing the deal through despite the hacking scandal of murdered Milly Dowler -- the latest grim episode that shows how Murdoch's media tramples standards and ignores ethics.

Murdoch already controls more of our media than is legal in many countries – and is notorious for using his power to skew our politics. The official consultation ends this Friday -- let's tell the government we don't want his media empire to control our largest commercial broadcaster. Send a message now -- using your own words to make it stand out -- calling on Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron to refuse Murdoch's BSkyB deal until there's a full Competition Commission review and a full public inquiry into phone hacking.
If you have a UK postal code, click this Link to an extremely easy way of sending a quick & effective message of protest to The Powers That Be.

beam me up in sepia

2011-07-01T21:01:00.011+01:00

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Only a quicky this week.We are off to Castleton for the weekend to celebrate Kathy & Steve's recent wedding.We Stay in this posh hotel,The Norton Grange ! Im looking forward to trying it's Spa.It has an "Ice Room"!While I'm gone ,please ponder (people don't "ponder" near enough these days)

Victorian Star Trek

Boy Texting in 1911 [via:]
“Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.” — Samuel Butler
“Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.” — William Hazlitt
“Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.” — Joyce Carol Oates

[via:]

Martin,I had a really vivid dream last night.I dream t you owned the (only) Bar in Pennadomo .Me, Haydn ;Phil The Ex-Fireman: et al had arrived in The Village & you had put on a grand spread to welcome us.[I forgot to ask if you served Lemon Tea.!]

Dearest Not Fade Away

2011-06-26T22:26:00.023+01:00

When I Was 9 my big brother Zyg bought me my first L.P. It was "Buddy Holly's Greatest Hits".This was the early 60's ,after Buddy died + just before The Beatles & puberty kicked in )
These days, Holly reminds me of Short Trousers:Chilblains (whatever happened to them? when I Lived In A Cardboard Box In The Middle Of The Road, some nights,they were all I had to keep me warm......):Being in love with Anne Haw (what A name!)who sat in the desk in front of me at Saint Mary's Primary School (i had the "hots" for her in a very pre-puberty/Catholic way):Rugby League:National Health Service glasses (those wee ones like John Lennon wore): etc etc.
ah Nostalgia!
As I lost my religion, sat in Confession , I didn't hear Latin no more ,the voice from that old rugged cross was Buddy Holly & His Chirping Crickets !
Anyway, out at the end June is this album of Holly covers.Featuring Lou Reed;Nick Lowe;Paul McCartney:My Morning Jacket:The Black Keys (above);Pattie Smith;Fiona Apple ;Julia Casablanca: & many more.Here are Florence & The Machine singing "Not Fade Away".

My Best Wishes To The Teachers who are having the first of their one day strikes next Thursday I was an NUT rep in Bradford in the mid-1980s when that Evil old whore Maggie Thatcher (spit)was La Maîtresse Principale. Ah Nostalgie!

hebweb hebden bridge

Why did the Hebden Bridge chicken cross the road?

2011-06-25T00:27:00.015+01:00

This Is A Sepia Saturday Post

Hey Folks! It's my Aunty Brenda again! [2nd right] .This photo she labeled "Weekend Camp".I'm guessing wildly but I think it's in Essex (where she was at college) Maybe late 20's \Early 30's? A time when England still had an Empire & people rehearsed by putting on uniforms & prepare for another invasion.
I am currently reading "The Resurrectionist" by James Bradley. Interesting reading.I quote this about when the Brits first arrived in Australia and how they appeared to The Locals....
"'They thought us spirits once' he says,not turning in his saddle 'they took the colour of our skin for the pallor of the dead and imagined us their ancestors,lost and wandering in the living world once more."

My mind turned to Iraq+Afganistan
And So It Goes........................

I have created a new blog this week.With Inevitable originality , I am calling it HEBDEN BRIDGE. You are welcome to visit it.I don't know if anything will come of it.I would like,eventually ,it to be as good as Joanne Casey's I Have Seen The Whole Of The Internet .She searches the Internet for interesting,quirky,amusing items & reposts them in one nice place.I would wish to do the same albeit specific to my hometown.

I live in Hebden Bridge.But,despite mentioning Hebden hundreds of times this blog,it doesn't seem to have touched the local internet-radar.For example ,if you visit Chris Radcliffe's hebdenbridge.co.uk local "Blogs & Columns" you wont find my blog.

As I move beyond Hebden Bridge (Im thinking of my semi-move to Italy) I would like my vanity & fascination with Hebden seen just a little bit more........
So the idea is to have a separate blog.One that Google will recognize.Showing the quirky side of a quite particular place.Ideally.Eventually.Hopefully .it would be nice if ,whenever someone includes the term "Hebden Bridge" in their Google Search,one of my alternative Hebden Bridge stories will be in the top ten results. Maybe it will one day..although,in the great scheme of things W.T.F.!
Hebden Bridge was a dead on its feet Yorkshire mill town in the 1960's.Then the hippies moved in.The place is now the Islington of the North.We have a split community.We locals found ourselves aboriginals .....our culture dismissed by trendy articulate middle class Southerners.[ a.k.a Bourgeoisie]
If you think I'm exaggerating ,check out the movie Shed Your Tears And Walk Away[2011] About a split community & how Hebden Bridge has one of the highest teenage suicide rates in Britain.
The local trendy Orange Book liberalz are so articulate that their alien culture just drowns out the indigenous community.

And So It Goes...............

Ironically+ Hypocritically ! I was drinking posh coffee in Hebden this morning with Shelley (over from Ireland).
'Helping her & Mick Promote their business in Italy. Today,we set up new facebook & twitter pages.She told me that ,a week on Sunday, they are placing a 4 week national advert in The Observer .It all looks good & I am happy to help.Watch this space.

A poptastic music video shot in Hebden Bridge. in 1986 Interestingly enough,me&cath moved into Hebden from Halifax in April 1985.But (before you ask!)That aint me on the Space-Hopper!

I don't know what it is but there's definitely something going on upstairs.....

2011-06-17T22:31:00.024+01:00

hebweb

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

In 2003 Cabinet magazine held a completion for "to find the building which most resembled a human phallus"..Some Japanese building won.Other nominations were from Spain & The USA.It was like a F.I.F.A. of Phallises.....
I wonder what the collective noun for phalluses might be........?
And,dont you think, The Phallusi sound like some obscure Old Testament tribe.....?
Anyway.......for my money, you cant beat a Good Yorkshire Phallis!
Personally ,I would have nominated Wainhouse Tower .
Wainhouse Tower in Halifax is "Tallest Folly in the World":wikipedia From the top, on a clear day,you can see Blackpool Tower...............[over 60 miles away]

This dark stone folly, rising some 75 metres above an overgrown cemetery, was erected by John Edward Wainhouse in the 1870s. It was meant to serve as a chimney for the dyeworks he'd inherited on Washer Lane, some 100 metres further down the valley slope. The dyeworks were sold off before construction was complete, and Wainhouse had the octagonal structure topped by an ornate observatory, reached by 369 steps winding around the chimney flue. Some reckon this was his intention all along – to build himself a platform where he could overlook the estate of a local rival. Some versions of the story say Wainhouse wanted to spy on his rival's wife. Some give his monument the name of the Tower of Spite...... From "The Haunts Of The Halifax Slasher"

I went drinking across the road from The Tower on Wednesday night.I Went with Phil The Ex-Fireman:His son Bryn & Kenny.We went to the fabulous BIG SIX PUB HALIFAX. It's like stepping back in time.In the middle of a row of terraced houses.It's like drinking in youir grannies Living Room.Superb & Friendly.In these days of "Heritage" & "Retro" It's nice to sup somewhere that is just the same as it ever was...........It's in The Savile Park area.Lord Savile was the local landowner.A Teetotaler. (in the late-great 19th Century)He had no Pubs in His Manor.Soh......They must have snuck the Big Six in between the wee terrace houses when he wasn't looking!
By the way "Big Six" refers to Cricket not willies!

Ken Outside in Doctor Who Fashion....

More Of My Week's Photos HERE

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Chris Ratcliffe,hebden bridge,Chris Ratcliffe,pennine pens, hebweb,

it only rained a little bit!

2011-06-12T02:21:00.012+01:00

Yesterday was The Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade:2011.

here are my photos.

http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/blogosphere/index.html

HEBDEN BRIDGE WEB

Chris Ratcliffe,pennine pens

HEBWEB

Hebden Royd Town Council."Hebden Bridge".

raining on our parade?

2011-06-09T15:05:00.022+01:00

Here is a still from a 1924 black&white silent movie of The Hebden Bridge Carnival.Click Here to Watch It.
Over the past 4 years it has morphed into The Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade.
The weather forecast for this year's parade on Saturday isn't that clever. 11 15 degrees & rain!Keep your fingers crossed that it ain't so!

2009

I will add my photos from this year's Parade here over the weekend.In the meantime here are My photos from 2010 & 2009
This Is A Sepia Saturday Post.

I heard from Leanne (left) this week.We worked together a few moons ago in Halifax.She now lives +works in the Deep South.
She & other good people from Barnsley Social Services are taking part in
The Barnsley Kilimanjaro Charity Trek 2011 helping to raise money for a local Hospice.Good Luck To All Concerned.
For my music this week I was going sneak in Dylan singing about being
"I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it....................." Until I Saw This Rather Groovy Parody...........

2010

Finally,Some Sepia Poetry..............
In the drinking-well

(Which the plumber built her)

Aunt Eliza fell–

We must buy a filter.

***

Little Willie, in the best of sashes,

Fell in the fire and was burned to ashes.

By and by the room grew chilly,

But no one liked to poke up Willie.

***

“There’s been an accident,” they said,

“Your servant’s cut in half; he’s dead!”

“Indeed!” said Mr. Jones, “and please

Send me the half that’s got my keys.”
***
Father heard his children scream
So he threw them in the stream
Saying, as he drowned the third,
"Children should be seen, not heard!"

Harry Graham[1874-1936]

update

the laughing victorians

2011-06-03T18:59:00.051+01:00

[Don,I got an email this afternoon telling me PJ Harvey plays The ManchesterAcademy2 in September.we are thinking of going.You&Margaret interested/available? I will email details in due course.]

Do you fancy doing a little Market Research for me? This website appeared on the web about 24 hours ago.It's more-or-less finished, but it needs a bit of tweaking in terms of colour/font/layout etc.I would appreciate anyone taking a look & giving some critical feedback.(truly) how do you think it looks?Dont Worry! I didn't do it so you wont hurt my feelings!
You might know I bought a small/cheap place in Italy.Well Mick & Shelley (see website) are starting a business there in the splendid Abruzzo Region..Painting:Photography:Creative Writing Residential Workshops.(They already have a Painter from Hebden Bridge on board to deliver some Courses).I said I will help a little .Both with the courses themselves (I will be paid a salary for this) Also, out of the kindness of my Heart, I am organizing advertising;promotion & suchlike.It's kinda nice because it ties in with my Abruzzo Caper and I am not investing/risking any of my own monies in the venture.Let Me Know Your Thoughts.
This Week's suggested theme at Sepia Saturday is 'Trains' but I don't really have any old photos with them featured.The nearest is this one of my son Chris in The Dominican Republic when he was wee.

Instead.Consider this............
When Joseph-Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph in 1828, his photographic plate required an exposure of eight hours. That exposure time was drastically reduced across the course of the nineteenth century, so that by the 1890s the Collodion process had cut exposure times to two or three seconds.

Nevertheless, a three second exposure meant that subjects had to stand very still to avoid being blurred, and holding a smile for that period was tricky. As a result, we have a tendency to see our Victorian ancestors as even more formal and stern than they might have been.Retronaut

see more photos here & here

LA VITA-HOLIDAY WORKSHOP EXPERIENCES

*** **

On the other hand............ This is clever — in 1974 Cecil Slemp invented shoes with reversed soles, to leave footprints that point in the opposite direction.
So now your bloody tracks will lead to the murder scene.Of course,one year later, Bob Dylan released the album!
*** **

"Train" is mentioned (somewhere!) in the lyrics of the video below.
"If the clouds don’t drop and the train don’t stop........."Bob Dylan:Basement Tapes

POSTSCRIPT in this old post I tell you how I am related to George Stevenson the very famous Victorian railway geezer! They even have a statue of him outside Euston Station in London.Although,as I recall, he's not even smiling ......

a cool cat with a hat.

2011-05-27T06:31:00.033+01:00

Sora van Brummelen

My photo is taken from a blog called Vintage Photography that I came across this week.

(Not to be confused with the livejournal blog Vintage Photographs that has been previously mentioned on these pages.)

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

What I want to know is who took the photo & where were they standing?

Me & Cathy went to Manchester Art Gallery today ( plus another delicious-albeit it wind -inducing meal at The Manchester Buddhist Center )
I was fucking blown away by the Grayson Perry Exhibition.Bloody Brilliant! I laughed out loud while looking at it ( turns out, he used to take Acid.I think ,on my part, it was the shock of recognition?)............Previous to today, I only knew him from the telly.I thought him some sad old bloke in bad makeup & frocks, but Mr Perry is a Wizard.He is a True Star!
Grayson Perry's 7ft by 2ft etching "Print for a Politician" has been bought by the contemporary collection at the House of Commons..." Read More>>>>
You can see my photos from the day here

Below.a very small detail of Grayson Perry's "Print For A Politician" I took a photo of...........

A Word To The Wise. FOPP are currently selling PJ Harvey's LET ENGLAND SHAKE CD For £5!

As You Will Gather ,I am much taken with Miss Polly.I Have Been Embedding Her To Death Here Recently ! Enough...........! :)
Meanwhile & Finally, back in The Land of Sepia..........
.."In the late 1880s, the body of a 16-year-old girl was pulled from the Seine. She was apparently a suicide, as her body showed no marks of violence, but her beauty and her enigmatic smile led a Paris pathologist to order a plaster death mask of her face.

In the romantic atmosphere of fin de siècle Europe the girl’s face became an ideal of feminine beauty. The protagonist of Rainer Maria Rilke’s 1910 novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge writes, “The mouleur, whose shop I pass every day, has hung two plaster masks beside his door. [One is] the face of the young drowned woman, which they took a cast of in the morgue, because it was beautiful, because it smiled, because it smiled so deceptively, as if it knew.”

Ironically, in 1958 the anonymous girl’s features were used to model the first-aid mannequin Rescue Annie, on which thousands of students have practiced CPR. Though the girl’s identity remains a mystery, her face, it’s said, has become “the most kissed face of all time.”

[via]:

If I were very clever I would suggest that the above tale was a cunning metaphor for the Tory changes to the N.H.S. .........
"Hebden Bridge Website","Hebden Bridge Blog".

KAZ

2011-05-21T12:39:00.044+01:00

[above:outside a junk shop in Lanciano]
Can I point you in the direction of the Koast to Koast Kaz Fund.It's a sponsorship journey through Northern England in memory of Kaz. who died in March.Money raised by blog following fan Rodger will go to the Ovarian Cancer Charity.Please give here if you can.
Kaz was a Lovely Liverpool Lass (+ Everton supporter) who lived in Manchester & was a daily commentator here.,back in the day.Sail On Beautiful Lady.
I am now back in Hebden Bridge..I flew back into Leeds Bradford Airport at 3pm on Thursday.By 8pm Me & Cathy were sat in Bury Met watching The Fairports [[my photos:] A jet-setting Rock N Roll lifestyle non? Thanks To Don & Margaret.
I'm very tired.Apologies to Ex-Cappo Martin & those at the hammam.I was due to go to Tony Ts Birthday meal late last night..but far too knackered.
Work progresses on my place in Abruzzo
.But so much still to do.I seemed overwhelming at times . View Some Of My Photos Thunder in the Mountains over last weekend forced me to stay inside and work.I stayed 4 nights in the house .I want to get to a stage where it is fit for friends (eg Phil The Ex-Fireman) to be able to come over and help......but until the basics are in place I wouldn't want them to have to stay in a total tip.It's nearly ready to invite them over.Me & several people should be going over next month.
The village is very quiet.I found it quite spooky staying on my own there.I was alone for 90% of the time.Although can I thank Sora for feeding me one day (the best Dutch Risotto I have ever tasted!:).Sora is staying 3 weeks at Iona's house in the village.
I also met up with Mick Goggins& his his new squeeze Shelley.
I spent the best part of Wednesday in Lanciano sorting out paperwork .A special thanks to Massimo at the Bank for ,with great patience,walking me through the dark art of Italian Internet Banking.Also to Piero who explained & sorted my Water,Electric & Council paperwork.Both are good teachers!
here are a few photos I took this time in Italy.

It's Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday next week.Out of respect for His Bobness, here is a video I took in Hebden Bridge at the recent anti-royalist street party.A band (i know not who) sing the opening riffs of 'All Along The Watchtower.''

P.S. Don.I bought a copy today of "Grateful Dead:Broadcasting Live" DVD if you don't have, I will runoff copies.We watched it tonight (2 discs) Rather suburb! A stunning "Knocking On Heaven's Door".
Finally.I just found this video on Youtube. It was posted 3 days ago. I minute of ".....the only known (existing) professionally filmed Sandy Denny footage with Fairport Convention...."Enjoy & Weep.

Finally............I found this rather strange carnival video from the village in which my house is ! Check the video here
It's an Isolated mountain region.Cut-off historically from the rest of Italy.Frankly, it shows that here...........!
Shot in March this year.............looks like some outakes from The Wickerman

Pennadomo :Wikipedia

P.S. watch the News over the next couple of weeks.Italy is about to come the next Southern European country to go belly-up financially. Remember.You heard it first here!

Shelley-Anne Crawford.Sora van Brummelen
Piero Nasuti

how I listened to one of Berlusconi 's placemen give a speech & made a pretty Italian lady blush..........

2011-05-14T23:27:00.005+01:00

I'm in Italy at the moment (13-18th May) I have broadband connection but it is poor......I'm sorry for not keeping up with you'all......[I will visit on my return.]Check here each day for updated photos.Above, a photo of one of the acts at the rally.[the look on that bloke's face is priceless!] It's rather odd......because I couldn't understand a word the politicians were saying, i didn't know if i should applaud or not once they had finished!

Last night I went to a political rally in Lanciano.It is their local elections this weekend.Rather a groovy affair.In Italy,it seems, they have generic rally's. They put Rock bands on in the square.They have a bar& food & all the local candidates speechify in-between. Each party has it's own table at the side of the stage.. where you can sign stuff:.collect literature & chat.Most bizarre , Berlusconi's Crew (who all looked like Maggie Thatcher) had a stall next to The Communist Party (who all looked like me).

I am up in my house in the mountains tonight.[It cost me £6000 & is the size of a very big hotel suite.......] You have a pretty lass in the Office of Vodaphone in Lanciano to thank for this post.She got my dongle up & running. I told her "you speak English very well" She blushes & spent the next 5 minutes pointing at me to her fellow workers, telling them what I had said.Hey-Hoy.more tomorrow I hope........

Nature Is Cool

2011-05-07T13:39:00.008+01:00

A video made by Chris.Taken this week in Hardcastle Crags, about a mile from where we live.

Also, here are some of his photos from there.

Thirst by JohnSiddique

John Siddique

sometimes the songs you sing come true............

2011-05-01T10:51:00.020+01:00

(my thanks to Ian Bone for directing me to the first video)

I'm aware that a lot of people that read this blog are from North America so I thought I would share what Ive been looking at on the Internet this morning. [here] The Royal Wedding was this gigantic fantasy that everybody seems to have bought into.Now, fantasy can come at a cost.This is a little peek behind the facade .................
Another thought.................Dont You Think The Police are getting younger?

[A cartoon from yesterday's Guardian]

Read More at 4therecord.org

Lost in Manchester: An invitation: "An invitation to express your feelings (recently removed from the Mancunian Way/Oxford Road)."

The Halifax Runaway Bus Drama of 1958

2011-04-29T21:47:00.001+01:00

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

A few weeks ago I showed you a photo of Eddie.Some asked me how he got that bandage on his head.?If you click on the images, you can read of his drama in May 1958.The cause of his injury
He got £100 compensation.He bought his first telly with the money.

Had Eddy's Telly Been American , He Would Have Been Able To Watch Wonderful Commericals Such As This...........

orf with his head!

2011-04-28T12:52:00.009+01:00

Friday Update: click here to see some photos I took this afternoon at Hebden Bridge's "Not The Royal Wedding Street Party"

I used to work very near Gibbet Street in Halifax.It's always been a part of town ,where immigrants settle when they first arrive in West Yorkshire.When I was a kid it was also where I went to Catholic Primary School & attended Church.
In those days it was full of Poles&Irish& a few Italians. These days its mostly Kashmir folk who live there.
They still have this replica Gibbet.
I was giving someone a lift one morning on the way to work, & I stopped the car & got them to take this photo.A good start to any working day!

........the Gibbet could be operated by either cutting the rope holding up the blade or by pulling out a pin which prevented it falling. It is reported that if the offender was to be executed for stealing an animal, the end of a rope was fastened to the pin holding the blade in place and tied to the animal, which was then driven off, causing the pin to pull out and the blade to drop. Otherwise, the bailiff of the Lord of the Manor or his servant cut the rope.The Halifax Gibbet Law gave the Lord of the Manor of Halifax the power to try and execute any felon for thefts of the value of 13½ pence or more:If a felon be taken within the liberty of Halifax ... either hand-habend (caught with the stolen goods in his hand or in the act of stealing), back-berand (caught carrying stolen goods on his back), or confess and (having confessed to the crime), to the value of thirteen pence half-penny, he shall after three markets ... be taken to the Gibbet and there have his head cut off from his body.............[wikipedia]

"On the night of July 16, 1918, at the height of the Russian civil war, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, their daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, and their son, Alexei, were herded together with four of their servants into the cellar of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg, 850 miles east of Moscow, where they were being held prisoner, and shot by their Bolshevik captors. ................... It was later discovered that the four grand duchesses were wearing special corsets into which jewelry had been sewn -- an immense fortune in precious stones, which acted as a shield and robbed the girls of a quick and painless death........" Romanov Bones

Marie Antoinette was called Madame Deficit and blame was placed on her for the country's financial problems. As she matured, Marie Antoinette became less frivolous. She tried to change her image by wearing simple gowns and posing for portraits with her children, but her efforts had little effect on the brutal public. In October, she was tried by a mock trial, as was her husband. Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason and sentenced to be guillotined. On October 16, 1793 she was taken through the streets of Paris in an open cart. She maintained her dignity until the bitter end. On the scaffold she accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot, and her last words were, "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose."

The Execution of Marie Antoinette

My hometown of Halifax's name is believed to be a descendant of Old English hāliġfeax (literally “holy hair”). The town is said to have received the name from the fact that the hair of a murdered virgin was hung up on a tree in the neighborhood, which became a resort of pilgrims [from:]

It is with a great degree of civic pride that i can tell you that Madame Guillotine was invented in Halifax.in 1286
From here ,the idea was taken+ used ,first in Scotland,& later taken up by the Revolting French.
Halifax has always had something of an edge about it. A dark side.What citizen could not be proud of (the never caught) "Halifax Slasher" in 1938 ?
As a kid the secondary school I attended Clare Hall.We didn't have many role models but at least we could aspire to one famous old-boy,
John Christie the serial killer of the 1940's&50's.Proof to our young minds that we did indeed live in a meritocracy where , with a little application, it was possible to make your way in the adult world.............

the colour of the earth that day

2011-04-22T00:29:00.029+01:00

A photo I took in a graveyard in Chieti

“‘There really are fictional heroes’ sounds true, but ‘Fictional heroes really exist’ sounds false.”

– James Cargile, Paradoxes, 1979

"There is no record that Jesus ever laughed." [from:]

I have been AWOL!Have A Groovy holiday!Here is my Easter message, about a man (Louis ) who was crucified once.Hey,It Happens....
I have spent these last days in my English garden instead of blogging!I am behind in my correspondence! I shall return once the weather here breaks!England is unusually warm.Rochdale is hotter than Rome I believe! I should have been going to Italy yesterday, but Ive changed that to May now.Things have developed.The house in Abruzzo is nearly finished & we are starting a wee business there in Italy perhaps? More details soon............
[+My U.K. readers should know,The Unthanks & P J Harvey are both on Joolz Holland next week!]
My Thanks to Steve &The Jolly Boys in Royton ,Oldham for a nice meal at The Halfway House pub on Wednesday night.

“Medicine makes people ill, mathematics makes them sad, and theology makes them sinful.” — Martin Luther

"MARJORYS BIRTHDAY PARTY AT BIRCHLEA 1932 LEVEN"

2011-04-15T11:09:00.011+01:00

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

I've mentioned My Mum often enough here ( e.g.)
Here is a photo I found (while clearing out the attic this week)of her Birthday Party ..
My Mum always spoke of her childhood as a lonely desert of a place,.My grandmother had died in childbirth.My grandad (pictured here, top/middle) was a sailor ,away from home & who had little to do with my Mum.She spent her childhood in the care of aunties in Fife & Edinburgh.She thought it a lonely existence I think.
All the more strange, then, to see this photo.It must have been her 6th birthday .Here she is , right in the middle with cake+doll.All those people around her!Even her dad!Although, I dont recognize anybody else in it.Maybe a school affair?Was "Birchlea" a school? I just dont know...........
Maybe this is the opposite of last week's post ?Just another way of "covering things up"? The camera never lies? Maybe this was just staged - managed? A cunning ploy to convince her she wasn't really alone?Am I being cynical? I'm sure ,objectively , it was more complicated than that..................
One thing for sure........most of the photos I have of her childhood , she appears clutching a doll of some kind.

photos in Halifax tonight . Tracy's Leaving Do . A Special Thanks to Nick & Dave for arranging the evening for us all+ making it all possible......

but why are the pictures covered?

2011-04-08T12:42:00.008+01:00

Did someone die? where they decorating? Some sort of minimalist art movement? Or did they simply know that I would be coming eventually ? Whatever, this photograph was taken from vintagephoto. & this is a sepia saturday post.

Above The Unthanks in Liverpool last night.they play the final gig of their world tour next Tuesday in Hebden Bridge.Unfortunately , it's sold out.I have no tickets (although I did my hardest tonight to get one ,sat next to someone who did!)Anyway, I've seen them twice now.I must not be greedy!
Someone I haven't seen ,but would love to is Polly Harvey......

Davy Cameron is doing wonders for my social life.A leaving do last week:another tonight.& yet another one next week in Halifax.

Infamy!Infamy! They've all got it in for me..............

2011-04-02T22:47:00.027+01:00

This is a Sepia Saturday Post.

the The Halifax Courier emailed me Monday to ask if they could feature me as their "Facebook Friend Of The Day". I agreed, thinking it would be placed on their own facebook site.Imagine my surprise when I found myself on page 2 of the newspaper today! Not that i mind.I happened to be in Halifax today.People stared.People applauded.They gave me their babies to kiss & bless. Just another Saturday for me...........it doesn't seemed to have changed anything........

I also met Mick & his Irish/South African partner in Hebden Bridge at lunchtime.Mick, you might recall, is helping me renovate a £9000 house in Italy. .The 3 of us are planning more,new & different things for this year.I will expand on this in coming weeks.No money involved, just lots of hard work (yuk).I will be off to Italy soon to do more clever things.Watch this space.
Do You Remember This Photo I showed here a few weeks back?Several people have asked me how he got that big bandage on his head.?
Today I gave Brian's wife a DVD of his working class 1950s photos as a present for Mothers Day.She told me he got his injury in on Thursday15th 1958 a bus ran out of control in New Bank and overturned on North Bridge in Halifax.I found the detail in Malcolm Bull's excellent website that lists everything that ever happened in Halifax.No doubt, my ascendancy into Halifax today will also (eventually) be recorded there too?..............
...............Anyway.Eddie (the bloke with the bandage)
had rescued some people trapped.in the disaster.Hence his wounds.
He received £200 compensation from the Corporation's Bus Service.[a tidy sum for 1958].With the brass he bought his first TV set!The rest is Mystery........
Above is one of Brian's photos.Maybe this was the very telly Eddie bought with his money?

[from]

almost lost my hair

2011-03-31T17:08:00.010+01:00

It was most strange.Me and Cathy arrived back at midnight on the last train from Manchester.We had been to see The Unthanks at the Cathedral.Before bed, i looked on twitter to read any comments about the concert.
What i had not expected was to see This Photo that someone behind us in the audience had posted. It features the back of my head (Don just to my left).If you look real close, i appear to have a baldy-patch!
I showed the photo to Cath this morning.She said that i have always had it..its just that it cant be seen unless my hair is cropped short (like it is at the moment) .Is this good news or bad?
It was a very good concert.Very different from when I saw them 15 months ago at The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge. More Calm.More Introspective somehow.Maybe it was that,this time, God was in the house?
We got right to the front (again) Just by chance...but Don wondered if The Unthanks read my blog? Maybe they think I am a stalker?
Rachel Unthanks is over 7 months pregnant.They play Hebden again soon.I wonder if anyone has ever given birth live on stage? Now, that would be the ultimate encore!
So.A Splendid day in Manchester!Me & Cath got into town early afternoon and visited Chetham Library.The Library must be the oldest building in Manchester (built in the 1400's).It's just between the Cathedral & Victoria railway station.
Its a very atmospheric building.Full of old cloisters dark staircases.Quadrangle Shapes +Shadows. It reminds me a little of old Oxford or Durham .Its the oldest working library in Britain (dating back to the 1600's).You can sit at the desk that Karl Marx used when he lived in Manchester.The ancient books are either locked in bookcases or chained to the shelves.It's like a Mausoleum for the written word.
Here are my photos from The Unthanks in The Cathedral.
Here is a video someone else took of The Unthanks last night.
Here are my photos of Chethams Library.
Don & Margaret thanks for a nice evening.I looked on their website today.I'm afraid the Hebden Bridge Concert is sold out. Tis A Shame.

I found this great photo on the facebook page Old Photos Of Halifax.

Heptonstall 1921

Trade Unions March

2011-03-27T06:02:00.015+01:00

.....Breaking News......

LONDON 27th March 2011:“The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will feature two cakes........”[B.B.C].

I just got back in Yorkshire from London! I'm a wee bit high!
What A Brilliant day!500,000+* people marched (*a figure estimated by The Mail on Sunday, so it must be true) . I am so proud to be a Socialist
.A Big Thank You to the Union Stewards (especially UNISON) & (yes!) The Police who were all fantastic.
Forget all the rubbish you might come across in the media (a few spoiled kids pretending to be Ethiopians?Or some Young Conservatives on a wrecking-mission?).

It was a friendly+ angry crowd. We are just ordinary people trying to survive ...... Here are a few of my photos.

Thank You again to my 500000 friends today.............

Above a photo of Sonia & Lawrie from Todmorden Sauna who travelled down from Rochdale.Also, Special Thanks to Peter from Hebden Bridge who goes to the sauna & who shared the March with me.We should have made a banner proclaiming the "Todmorden Sauna Popular Front" !

you aint going nowhere...............

2011-03-20T02:44:00.015Z

Ladies & Gentlemen! I Give You Kentucky's Finest! Mr. Sid Griffin !

Big Thank You To Don & Margaret For A Fine Evening Yesterday.We Went To See Coal Porters At Bury Met .Here Is A Video I took With My Wee Compact Camera.

I'm In The Mood For Dancing!

2011-03-18T21:41:00.000Z

...nobler in the mind to suffer the swings and roundabouts of outrageous fortune.....

2011-03-17T23:28:00.009Z

I Wonder.All the instant communications we have now.Does it serve any purpose.?I mean, we could see Japan last week & this.Does is help us do anything with that information? And next week, thousands will be killed in front of our eyes.in Libya & Japan. We sit passive.

So my mind has drifted to personal substitutes for the pain.......

My family lived on the other side of the border with The Soviet Union.But only 50 miles from Chernobyl. In 1994 I remember my Uncle telling me how they awoke in their Polish village to a thick oily-green film covering everything.Nobody ever told them what it was.They carried on eating the local meat & drinking the wellwater.They reckoned lots of unexplained cancer + death resulted.But nobody could pin the cause down.........Nobody admitted anything....
And, this week, I think of my life in 1971.I met a Japanese lady.She got pregnant, by me, but then left suddenly.I always wondered if I had a unknown child in Japan?
Bizarrely.I then turn   to a memory of 1997....
I was in Havana. Sat on a Government Beach. It was for tourists only.You had to show your passport to a soldier before they let you enter it.Imagine! At that moment, I had an entire Caribbean Beach to myself!
I sat on it,looking at the blue sea.(Like a black-&-white French Art House Movie) 2 Cuban nurses (pretty & dressed in crisp white nurses uniforms: pretty wee hats) Started pushing a pram along the beach in front of me.oh là là !It was a pram with a covered child inside it.
I found out later that they were from a local hospital.The Cubans had set up a programme to help Russian survivors of the Chernobyl   Disaster.
All very self-indulgent of me........but how else can i make sense of these strange weeks?
Anyway.I have finished upolading Brian's Photos.Next, I must make that DVD for Mother's Day! Above is a photo he took  in Highroad Well Park in Halifax.

"Later that morning, Clésinger made Chopin's death mask and a cast of his left hand, to which Chopin had given prominence in his compositions. Before the funeral, pursuant to his dying wish, his heart was removed. It was preserved in alcohol (perhaps brandy) to be returned to his homeland, as he had requested ."{wikipedia}

You might remember, a few weeks ago,I scanned & developed some old Middle East negatives for Dianne at Work. As a reward she has given me a 1953 photo souvenir booklet from Mallorca in Spain.20 photos in it,many relate to Chopin ,who lived briefly on the island in 1839.
This is a Sepia Saturday post.
On Saturday,Me & Cathy go with Don & Margaret to see Sid Griffin at Bury Met.Expect Photos here on Sunday!

Clark & Pougnaud

2011-03-12T21:33:00.018Z

Some photographs from this weekend's International Women's Day : in Istanbul. This blog is a wonderful daily photo journal of the city.

The survival of the individual spirit, despite the environment or overwhelming circumstances, is a pervasive theme often expressed in art and literature. In 1998, French photographer Christophe Clark and painter Virginie Pougnaud, became two of the most recent artists to collaborate on work about the feelings experienced when introduced to a different culture, and how people choose to prevail in their daily existence.............................. [read more]

Set to the music of The Unthanks.This song is from their new album.[out next week]

Me & Cathy go see them in Manchester Cathedral on the 30th of March.we saw 'em play Hebden Bridge Trades Club in Dec.2009. here are my photos of that.
And here is a tired Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show followed by P J Harvey.Which, in turn,reminded me of some old photos of Me & Chris in Istanbul 5 years ago.Also in the photos are Abdula , Mine & Ayse [my Sufi teacher!], who were our hosts.

By the way, the wooden building in one of the photos above, was (i think) where Leon Trotsky lived when placed in exile in Istanbul.

And here is a site dedicated to Old Istanbul Postcards.

a kiss on the hand may be quite continental........

2011-03-09T22:13:00.007Z

P.J.Harvey:Wiki

Another Bloody Man-Cold! That's 3 now this winter.Plus what I'm sure was Man-Gastroenteritis in January.
It's affected my sinusus as well this time.This morning , blowing out of my nose, was this beautiful fluorescent -yellow day-glow mucus
It,truely would not have looked out of place in The Beatles Yellow Submarine .
Anyway , I havn't been visiting other blogs or answering comments yet from last weekend.I will catch up soon.
I am reading Fred Vargas's French novel Have Mercy On Us All.
On page 142 I read

".Rich folk died much less of plague than the poor because their better made houses were less attractive to rats than paupers' hovels.Most of the dead were the poor. And that lent credibility to the idea of jewels.Poor people didn't wear rubies and so they died. The top model was diamond. It was the ultimate antidote."A diamond worn on the left hand is reputed to counter all kinds of becomings".which is why a wealthy man would give his beloved a diamond to plight his troth, so as to save her from the scourge.the habit's stayed with us ,but nobody has the faintest idea any more why we buy diamond rings....."

"The man, he left a diamond flush, Willie didn’t even have a pair ......."

"Rambling Gambling Willie" Bob Dylan

Today in my neck of the woods, Senoir Church of England,Catholic & Methodist Clergy in West Yorkshire issued This "Prayer of Penitence" for "the victims of public spending cuts" in the county.

Prayer of Penitence

"........Attune our listening, we pray, to hear the cries of those deprived of work and of those bearing the burden of working long hours; to know the anger and the angst of people who feel pushed to the margins by those with wealth and power; to catch the whispers of our neighbours who feel they have been silenced, whilst others shout more loudly........."

love thy neighbour?

2011-03-04T11:22:00.007Z

I must have downloaded over 400 of Brian's negatives already in the past 2 weeks!
As I told previously , these are negatives taken in the 1950's in Halifax.Because Brian died suddenly, he never even saw most of these photos himself
.I am scanning them & presenting them as a DVD to his wife for Mother's Day.
Here is one I did this week. These 2 are not family.I dont know who they are! Perhaps neighbours of Brian? Anyway...... this photo gives me the willies..In part, it's Brian's use of flashbulb, that casts thoselong shadows on the back wall.
Mainly though, it's to do with the smile on the lass's face.
I am being a bit cruel to this poor innocent stranger. here is a more flattering photo taken from the same session.........Still........
that smile!It is familiar.The words "clegg" & "nick" spring to mind.............

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

It was My Mum's Birthday this week. Today (Saturday) I went to Stoney Royd Cemetery in Halifax to lay some flowers on her grave.Although my Mum has nothing to do with Brian's photos, this Nick Cave song somehow still seems appropriate .Something about Mother's & Son's?

anyone got a spare kettle I can borrow?

2011-02-27T02:45:00.027Z

click to read.........
"Police prepare for more kettling at cuts protest" [Guardian:March 1st 2011}

This is lovely! Cornershop are from the English Midlands.
Leicester I believe.
British born.They view the Muslim experience from England, without compromise.......
I also posted this video on facebook and my friend Astrid Edwards wrote."New album out soon and I am directing a vid for one of the tracks! Excited and frightened all at the same time...I think it's called creative fear."
I also posted the Polly Harvey video (Let England Shake) there.Another friend (she actually knows Stuart from Todmorden Sauna.I just borrowed her to improve my numbers!) She,(Sally Dwyer) wrote "Knew her in Bristo, back in the dayl. Least said, soonest mended."
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ♪♫•*¨*•.¸♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸..'C'est la vie', say the folks, 'it goes to show you never can tell'"............♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ♪♫•*¨*•.¸♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸..
A great big interview with The Unthanks in today's Observer.
The writer trotted out the usual " idyllic Yorkshire village of Hebden Bridge" .Why do people always say that? He has,obviously never had to catch the last bus back from Halifax.Pissed & with a full bladder & had to urinate in the Park bushes out of sight of all the shady characters that frequent the place. in the dead of night.......
Hebden is fairly pretty..but a lot of the people here are rather precious these days.If Butlins ran Holiday Camps for Guardian readers, Hebden Bridge would be it's template.
When i first came here in the 80's it still had an "alternative" feel to it.The place has gone down since I moved in.......................
Anyhow. The Observer
Article is worth a look.I loved the description of an Unthank CD as being" like eaverdropping on a fantastically harmonious victims' support group"

because he was a bonny lad

2011-02-25T20:26:00.022Z

Me & Cathy Go see The Unthanks play Manchester Cathedral fairly soon.And they have a new album out too! If you wish to click here you can watch them sing the old Alex Glasgow song "Close The Coalhouse Door" which is on the new album.The video was recorded recently in Australia.
Below, another Unthanks song,with the artwork from the new album.

i don't know if your the same?When I'm in the middle of a good novel I sometimes slow down my reading towards the end. I want to postpone the ending.I never want it to finish!
I am like that at the moment with my processing of B's photos.I have now scanned well over half a ton
another half ton to go.................
Saying that, I do need to scan them all soon & transfer them as a DVD for B's wife as a Mothers Day present.
It goes without saying, but I am well impressed with his work.You can tell a lot about a photographer
by the expression & body language of his subjects. People liked & trusted him I think.
The photos also challenge a few of my own opinions & memories of 50's & 60's Halifax.
First off.I remember it as being mucky,+smoky in industrial West Yorkshire.At this time the woollen mills were still belching out smoke.Yet the photos show a trim & clean environment.Look at People's Park in this photo.
The flowers look wonderful.The local council must have had money in those days!
And, look at how relaxed the children are with adults in those innocent days before we knew about
Peodophilia
and Moors Murders
i also remember endless Sociology books at College .telling me that working class men in the 1950s left all the childcare&love to the women.'Sorry Professores, but after looking at these photos ,it no longer looks that way to me................

A single photo alone cannot tell a full story.consider this photo It's of one of B's neighbors with some of the local kids on the street.Cath told me that,many years later, he died in hospital with Alzheimers. One of those children in this photo grew up to be a nurse, and cared for him in his final days

This is Sepia Saturday Post.

Let England Shake

2011-02-24T01:47:00.018Z

Old Readers might know I have had worries about about my Council Job recently..well,
[not wishing to give any 'disrepute' heaven forbid! ]

I was drinking in Halifax with Phil the Ex-Fireman & Ken last night,
During which, I received a text to report a rumor of another on my grade taking early-retirement.

It sounds like I wont lose my job in April..

Rejoice!

Why am i only slightly reassured?

ghost riders in the sky

2011-02-17T23:51:00.012Z

I am sure I have told you about my ex-late father-in-law Brian.He died young & suddenly in the early 1970's.He was a keen photographer.

Several years ago I shared his wonderful photos of working class Halifax in the late 50's
What is especially poignant is the fact that ,because he died so suddenly, they remained just negative & he never saw the results of his work. Up until I grabbed them, neither had anybody else.
anyway,due to family politics & suchlike I never got hold of the full collection of his work.Until today.When I was given all the negatives .I have begun scanning & downloading a few new random ones tonight.Below you see [#1] Cath & Teddy Bear Plus [#2] Granddad Eddy & Martin .
For those who know old Halifax,you can just see the Thrum Hall Cricket Scoreboard.[Click for biggary].

I have scanned& uploaded 28 59 tonight .About 400 still to be fed to my new negative scanner.Stay tuned!

[Brian was a big Duane Eddy fan.This one is for you Sir!]

This is a extremely proud Sepia Saturday post.

SUNDAY EVENING UPDATE: Where did the weekend go? I'm really sorry,I have been so busy uploading these negatives (143 so far!) That I havnt been visiting anybody.Sorry.I will catch up soon.Hey! Dig the expression of this lad's face!

in the doghouse

2011-02-12T14:33:00.020Z

"Explore Manchester’s hidden past - a labyrinth of alleyways and slums, interrupted only by the huge mills casting shadows below. An eerie underworld, lit by gas lamps where police officers were kept busy apprehending unsavoury characters of all ages."
Mark went to the Greater Manchester Police Museum on Tuesday and took these photos.he promises more soon...some shots of him in the Police Mortuary & Cells....more dead good photos to come.......
On Friday night I went to The Doghouse in Halifax.We saw local Halifax band A Rookery.
Mighty Fine!
Nice to see live music back in Halifax.The town has a rich history of Live performance.[example:].

The likes of Ian Dury;Joy Division:Edwin Starr, Genesis: Joe Strummer;John Peel:Roxy Music all played the town in the past. here are my photos from The Doghouse last night.and here are a professional photoblogger's view of the evening.

"To give it its full name, it was The Plebeians Jazz Club. The Plebs as it was affectionately known by the faces who went there, or dismissed with a sneer by those who would never set foot in the place. Or simply The Jazz Club. It was the only outlet for our desires and hopes back then in the early 60's in Halifax. A town of stifling dullness and middle-aged pessimism, ingrained in people's consciousness by centuries of struggle trying to get out of that depression in the Pennines. Here, the Jazz Club was our Eel Pie Island. Our Kings Road. Our St. Germain. Our soul city.........."Julian Moseley:"Style and chic in '60's Yorkshire"

No Sepia Saturday contribution this week.I will return to it next week.

who's in control?

2011-02-05T13:14:00.010Z

A Very Quick Sepia Saturday Post this week...I'm off to Illingworth for a Birthday Party today!
This photo is titled " Workhouse or childrens' home, c.1880's"
I liberated it from http://community.livejournal.com/vintagephoto/
Dont be put off by the warning on each photo link that reads " You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors."Its not porn! Although, a few photos can be disturbing (ancient executions:autopsies:Parisian whores:and such .....)
♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ♪♫•*¨*•.¸♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸"..........I'm A Big Fan Of The Local Library.I Just Read A Book, But That's Another Story....."♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ♪♫•*¨*•.¸♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸.

nearly reach the sky

2011-02-03T22:21:00.009Z

I'm still trying to get my head around this "21st Century" Thing. This is another "Prague Spring " only, this time, We play the role of the Russians..........

I lived & Worked in East London many moons ago. for 3 years As a result,I have always had a soft spot for West Ham United..I always follow their results. West Ham fans have a tradition, when things are going well, they sing Forever Blowing Bubbles

I'm forever blowing bubbles,

Pretty bubbles in the air.

They fly so high,

Nearly reach the sky,

Then like my dreams,

They fade and die.

Fortune's always hiding,

I've looked everywhere,

I'm forever blowing bubbles,

Pretty bubbles in the air.

Me Phil The X-Fireman & Kenny went drinking in Halifax on Wednesday night. Both Me & Phil are supporters of West Ham United (bottom of the league this season) They were playing in Blackpool that night.We hoped we might be able to watch the game live on tv in a Pub.But they showed another game instead.

Towards fulltime we found a small empty pub, and pleaded with the landlady to search for Sky:teletext:whatever to find the final score.She couldnt for some reason......eventually ,out of kindness , she put on Sky News & phoned someone to get the score for us.As we sat in this empty pub,that smelled of cat-piss "

["do you have a cat?" Ken asked the landlady."No.cant stand them" she replied.as she was phoning.]

She talked,hushed on the phone,looking across at us as we watch the broadcast.A minute later,looking relieved (?) she shouted over "West Ham won 3-1!"

Here Is A Video of us breaking into song at the good news.

I cant work out this video.Is it biting political commentary or momentary drink -induced immature cynicism? I bit of both I guess!

[photo from:]