Wednesday, January 22, 2014

in a stable condition....

Neil Young:Live in Japan:1976:Heart of Gold.


this week's speia saturday 212 is looking at  snow. It's excess & it's absence..........
One of a Series of photos taken by some of the Anglo Saxon side of my family in the early 20th century in Lake Saranac in up state New York  ..To some extent,I am recycling These previous posts
{Me Thinks our ancestors enjoyed & gleaned more fun out of extremities than we do now?Just a Thought........}
Thankfully ,we have had no snow here yet this winter.Here is a photo Chris took up the road last Winter......
I am getting over my recent illness.Saying that, Im not 100% in as much as I get tired very easily still.
I'm now on stronger steroids for my asthma (flutiform instead of beclometasone) A fairly minor ajustment ,& still ,i feel, only moderate in terms of heavy-duty asthma (?).
I'm still not that sure what i would do differently if it happened again?
it was all so quick.
In the space of 48 hours I went from Hero -to-Zero. New Years's revellery to the back of  an Ambulance with an Oxygen Mask on......
It was   lower respiratory tract infection {pneumonia?} which in turn triggered a bad Asthma attack.........Hey-Hoy .
My asthma is controlled at the moment ,and I only feel a little hoarse as i type this post........... [above:Bob Dylan "see you later Allen Ginsberg".Basement Tapes Outakes.]
Here in Calderdale ,we are in the middle of the weeklong Wyrd Britannia Festival.
The festival rolled into Hebden Bridge Library tonight.
Andy Roberts gave a talk on LSD in Britain & the band Magpahi also played.
Andy is a great advocate of the drug.
I took it several times in the 70s and I fully support his plea for understanding
.A groovy night was had by all!
 
 
Roll on John:Blackpool 2013 :Bob Dylan.
those wacky Anglo-Saxon Zimnochs......

 
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Wednesday, January 08, 2014

the 3 ghosts of zimnoch { غزل‎ : an audio post}

"Once More we come like dust adance in air........" (Rumi:Ghazal :1720)
1962 school photo.

 
Two old men are sitting in a cafe. Gideon says to Dave , "Did you come on the bus?" Dave  replies, "Yeah, but I made it look like an Asthma attack."

As it happens, the story begins only a few hours after the photos in previous post..... taken on New Year's Eve....
At 5am on Friday 3rd January 2014 i was in the middle of a severe asthma attack.Over just 2 days this had developed into something scary.I was afraid.
When I was ten ,an older lad in the swimming pool (Woodside Baths)had put his big hand ontop of my head ,and pushed me down ,my head underwater...& held me there.Maybe he had attention-deficit,because he seemed to forget about me...but his hand didnt........
.I can still remember my childhood panic.The situation returned on Friday 3rd January 2014.Nothing ever really leaves us does it?
That same year (it must have been 1962?)I swallowed a big boiled sweet whole..Had I been alone, perhaps i would have died?Luckily,my big Brother Ziggy was nearby & he manage to get the sweet out.
Heimlich maneuver or a simple kick in the bollocks I cant remember.it doesn't really matter in the end.The main thing is it worked.
So i was rushed by ambulance to A&E in Halifax.I stayed  in hospital for 3 days.I was proper poorly.Perhaps not as sexy as a Stroke or a Heart Attack....but serious enough to these old bones..
I'm home now ,still on gardening leave & swallowing a shed load of antibiotics & steroid tablets (where is that damn Heimlich when you need him?)
I,ve been wallowing in my excitement on facebook .i know i tend to get manic & obsessive when something important happens to me.I also dislike the way i insist on turning everything into some sort joke or jolly caper.It's a way of avoiding i suppose
Anyway..........what i tell here for the first time,is 3 linked portraits/vignettes about my stay on the ward .Things that happened in our 4 -man sideward during my weekend in hospital.
Although not directly to do with my illness (you must be sick of hearing about it)Some extremely poignant  things occured.Some  ghosts past ;present & future.arrived.A reunion of sorts.The whole affair seemed like some  planned  Pagent's rehearsal.................
click bar directly below to hear the post /dont forget to turn on your audio:
You know ?I havnt walked out of doors since 1a.m. on the 1st of January 2014.......
3 Little Known Zimnoch Hospital Facts:
1962 was  the last time i ever stayed in hospital (6 weeks in traction with a fractured femur)
1965 in Poland.The only time I ever met my Polish grandmother.just the one occassion, on her hospital deathbed in Białystok
1952.six of the first nine months of my life were spent in hospital in Huddersfield. with Meningitis .


Me in 1960 (?) in a Leven,Fife  garden.From my Auty Brenda's photo album..
This is a Sepia Saturday post.


Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Happy 2014

I used to believe that something magical happens on New Year's Eve.I know better now..but still a good night.Thanks X

Thursday, December 19, 2013

what good am I.


The Gentle Author is reading a racy new book called "The Best Of Sepia Saturday" why dont you buy it and feel the pulse!You can purchase it here . Then you can meet 46 Gentle Authors! It's published,printed & written by Alan Burnett . He asked if he could take one of my posts (I still have to pay for my copy!)
I have not been around much of late.This should be my final post of the year,so I will be around visiting all my neglected friends over the next week.
May i wish you all a very Happy Christmas . I hope 2014 is sepiatastic for us all.
This is a sepia saturday post.
The audio is the actual live recording of Bob Dylan at the Winter Gardens Blackpool on November 22nd this year. Me Cathy Margaret & Don where in the audience......
.................What good am I then to others and me
If I’ve had every chance and yet still fail to see
If my hands are tied must I not wonder within
Who tied them and why and where must I have been.....................?

click here to hear this extremely rare,very good quality(from the soundboard),highly illegal  bootleg recording of the performance we saw  :

I'm having something of a gallop through my year in photos.To say I've not been abroad, or had any sort of extended holiday,it's been an interesting year!


[to see all my photos you can view my image website  {here} .]

As this is some sort of a review of 2013,here are 2 videos I took at Hebden Bridge Trades Club this year at my 61st Birthday Gig........the music was provided by British Sea Power a band i have supported here for many years.In my opinion,the best British band of the past ten years.....(I really care little what the accountants & beancounters might say.....)
.

I am attending this in January.should be fun.

Friday, November 29, 2013

He was long and tall, had plenty of cash, He had a red cadillac and a black moustache~Bob Dylan

This is a Sepia Saturday post.For your theme you can go with swimmers, trophies or rather fine moustaches, or - as always - any interpretation you care to adopt............
I have never had a moustache in my life.The nearest was as one of the Village People on a Stag Do in Benidorm a few years ago'(even then,because of the heat & cheap spanish glue,It kept dropping off...I'd have made a rotten spy,non?)
My Grand Father did tho! The top photo was taken in Poland in 1938(He is pictured with my Granda Ma & Aunty Helca).Taken shortly before my Dad went to War.........my Dad never saw him again..........I did  meet  my GrandMa,in 1965, although (literally), it was on her 'death bed'.
.Helca I knew.I spent time  with her a couple of occasions....she was a lovely soul.and kept the most beautiful garden in Bialystok.......
So! Two Zimnoch Moustaches! Can you spot the family likeness?

 
“The sense that you were given some space on the Internet, and allowed to do anything you wanted to in that space, it's completely gone from these new social sites,” said Scott. “Like prisoners, or livestock, or anybody locked in institution, I am sure the residents of these new places don't even notice the walls anymore.”
Above is a quote from this interesting piece The death and life of great Internet Cities A treatise of sorts on how blogging has declined in the face social sites such as facebook.
I've been blogging since the year dot.com.I've changed my habits here on Bench.I dont write as much;i dont post as much & i certainly comment& interact as much......which is a shame......
The article talks of old blogs in archeological terms..lost civilizations & cities ......and their  need to be excavated [.n.b. i hope to be back up  to speed here again soon!]

Saturday, November 23, 2013

ßoß plays ßlackpool.

Me & Cath went to see Bob Dylan play The Winter Gardens in Blackpool last night.
We stayed overnight in a hotel in St Annes.directly outside the hotel :on the Prom:facing the sea was a statue of the geezer pictured.
He does remind me of His Bobness in his John Wesley Harding period.Can you see the likeness.........? (dont know who the chick with him is.....)
I took along a compact camera &amp a cheap HD pocket camcorder to record some sound
.The results would hardly worry Cecil Blount DeMille.But,hey ! This is a souvenir not a document.
See the slideshow for some pictures...in a strange way they caputure the grainy obliqueness of Bob (that's my story & I'm stcking to it!)
I captured 80% of the concert on audio.As the clip above suggests, its not brilliant quality.'Might slap it on a cd and try to clean up the sound at some point.
Big Thanks to Don & Margaret who got us the tickets.& a we ate nice Italian meal with them before the gig.Lovely.
The Winter Gardens is a fine old place.Great Sound & great views.
A beautiful night.Ive never seen&heard Bob so well before.The man continues to surprise & delight.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Good Luck Jackie Leven

Jackie Leven died { 2 years ago tonight.}Still & Forever Missed X
You know Don.....on so many levels.....I should have taken your suggestion (Bury/the week meMam died). I should have gone spoken to him...........

Phil's Birthday

  My friend of 60 years Phil got married just a week ago to Iris . (He died last Sunday ) .  Today was Phil's Birthday . We went o...