Is this what we dreamed of?

meeting up in Manchester the end of next week

 

in Halifax

 

Lucinda Williams :San Francisco 1989

 

This week : a haircut, some gyms & swims , and a Manifesto !

A Todmorden Bookshop

 

Audio: Jerry Jeff Walker : Texas 1991 

As I have already said here , I am no longer in The Labour Party . 

I am , currently, much taken with the new Northern Independence Party .

 How they  pan out is unclear. It's very early days. 

They only have 5 candidates standing in the coming local elections ,plus Thelma Walker the former Labour MP for Colne Valley, who is standing for them in the Hartlepool by-election .( who will be lucky not to lose her deposit)

They are (like me) Corbyn Refugees .Socialists. I can't fault their logic. I hope they establish themselves and ( at the very least) give the Starmeristas a sharp nudge and stand candidates in every Northen seat ( they even talking of standing a candidate in Holborn , Starmer's seat)

Anyway ,its a long-term thing .Much will change before 2024 

They pubished their Manifesto this week.Read it  here .Personally, I can find no fault here https://www.freethenorth.co.uk/ourfuture

Newcastle ,during the minute silence for Prince Philip.

 

Thelma Walker campaigning in Hartlepool this week.

Thelma's CV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Walker

The Northern Independence Party

 

More Info : The Northern Independence Party (NIP)

Hells Angel of The North

 Today,this biker in Hebden Bridge had just been moved on by a Traffic Warden for parking in a dangerous
place.and  he saw me taking photos of that exchange.

So, seconds later, he aimed his machine
at me.(Nearly got my toes seconds after this photo was taken ! )

"Social Distancing"is a thing of the past!

. 

audio is Polly Harvey in 2000.

 

x

In other news, I left the Labour Party last  May.(12 months ago I had an email from The Labour Party saying I was "under investigation":n.b. I wasn't suspended, but the treat was there. As I given so much time to the party over recent years it felt like a slap in the face . So I jumped, rather than waiting to be pushed)

 Today ,I  dislike Starmer more than Johnson . I certainly will not be voting Labour in the coming  local elections and I am seriously thinking of joining this lot instead with a view to 2024. . 

I have voted Labour in EVERY local & national election  on for 50 years . That it has come to this is incredible. (is this  how Labour lost Scotland?) So Sad. I don't really take any pride in the situation .

The Northern Independence Party (NIP) are mentioned in The Guardian today.True Socialists.in a Corbyn -fashion.but , it turns out, maybe Starmer's bastard child? ..... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/03/northern-independence-party-electoral-british-politics?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1617444975

Strange Days.........

 

more Bear

https://www.inspirock.com/united-kingdom/todmorden/the-basin-stone-a1373200851 having some subscription "issues" with my Soundcloud audio player atm; 

so I'm using an alternative platform this week

 

In Hebden Bridge this afternoon. Cath had her first Covid Jab yesterday

so, the first sunbather of the year........

 

Live ( pre-Lockdown ) at The Bear Cafe in Todmorden.

ßénchplayer · live at the BEAR CAFE in Todmorden

live at the BEAR CAFE in Todmorden

𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂 𝒁𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒂 𝑴𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒓

This week's audio is from The Seldom Scene: soundboard from the Lisner Auditorium, Washington, DC; January 28, 1973 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seldom_Scene

So I had my first Astra Zenica jab early Monday morning . i havn't been out of the house since ,until I went into Hebden Bridge this afternoon. 

i've not been very well ( in a 'man-flu 'kinda way ) Headache: sore arm : dizzy and (strangley ) 

I have been really adverse to loud sounds of any kind.

 So.Anyway. I arrive in Hebden Bridge to be greeted by some Opera Lass doing her level best to make my ears bleed...........

ßénchplayer · It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐍𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐠𝐢𝐚™

 

So my 14 day free trial of Deep Nostalgia™ has finished and i have cancelled my account https://www.myheritage.com/deep-nostalgia 

the photos i have tried with it have been interesting , but with unpredicatable results. Some have been splendid ( i have shared a few here already e'g my Grandmother Helen; view here 

https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/COLOURISED-IMAGES/i-5wDh4Zn/A)  

Others have been either poor or plain weird!

 Anyway , before my trial finished i tried uploading a few more. Here is one I like. I took this photo in Havana in 1997. It's of a lass called Norby ,and was taken in The Hemingway Bodega https://theculturetrip.com/caribbean/cuba/articles/an-introduction-to-la-bodeguita-del-medio-cubas-most-popular-bar/ 

I stayed in Havana for about a week. I was lucky in that for much of the time I was a guest of Norby and her Mum and family . She introduced me to the wonderful city. 

They had some interesting contacts ! She introduced me to the then Auxiliary Bishop of Havana (!) who showed me ,one afternoon, around Havana Cathedral 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_Cathedral 

Despite what you may imagine , the authorities seemed ok with religion. They dont do the churches any favours, but it seemed tolerated. 

My Polish upbringing has made me a bit of a sucker for graveyards and Havana has a massive one right in the middle of it. Colon Cemetery is superb and Norby showed me Amelia Goyri's grave which is a bit of a legend

.https://havanatimes.org/features/amelia-goyri-cubas-miracle-maker/ 

She also took me to see a "weeping Statue" that scores of Cubans visit, once a week, to watch it weep and say prayers. (no, i saw nowt)

 Three final vignettes:

 • On the first day there , I was sat in a Cafe and asked the waitress for a "Coca Cola" . She immediately , at the top of her loud booming voice , gave me a two minute lecture about how Coca Cola was something "US /capitalist" and they didnt sell it there .In future I must ask for "Cuban Cola". I suitably blushed & stuttered.• 

• One day I said to Norby I wanted to go to the beach ( Havana didnt seem to have any i could find) she took me to one she said "local people couldn't use". We arrived .It was nice enough but deserted . A soldier stood guard and asked to see my passport . Once on the beach I sunbathed alone for a while .Then suddenly I saw a nurse (in white) cross my eyeline ,pushing very slowly a pram along the sand.(not easy to walk in nurse-shoes pushing a pram on sand i guess.....) It was like a scene from some slow-motion 60's Avant Garde movie .

 Norby later explained that there was a nearby hospital and the Cuban Government took in a quota of children who were victims of the Chernobyl Disaster.• 

• My final memory .The best! was being sat in a square in the city listening to Buena Vista Social Club's debut cd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buena_Vista_Social_Club_(album) 

i had bought it in Manchester Airport . Some local kids must have heard what i was listening too and one asked to listen himself .Within 5 minutes I had a huddle of a dozen kids passing the headphones around singing and dancing around along to the music. They just didnt seem to sell cds in Havana .Rare as hens teeth At the time I felt a little proud , although it seems a little sad now....... 

To compound my sadness , on my final day, I found ,in the corner of a "Revolutionary Bookshop" the only cds in the shop. I bought all 3 (of Cuban Music ). I bought all of them. And probably flew away with all the cd's in Cuba in my baggage .............