snowball in Hell

Strange Face in Halifax.

Me & Cath went to Square  Chapel    Halifax  last night to  see  Strange face: Adventures in a lost Nick Drake recording
A full house .
Watch below a you tube video for background of the project.
Michael Burdett is a lovely bloke who talked and held the audience comforably for over two hours.
Ironically Amusingly.I had wanted to take a photo of Michael talking during the show ,but such things it seems are copyrighted...........
Instead ,I share a photo of me in Halifax in the early 70's (channelling my 'inner-drake' )I was one of those (very) rare souls who actually bought a Nick Drake album (Pink Moon)  in his lifetime.
Below ,some photos from  the past 2 days...........

View all this gallery here /

You can "borrow" this book for 14 days .Simply go here: for free download (it's copyright free)

sepia saturday 407

I take this week's sepia saturday    to be about bicycles. 

The sepia movie   was shot in 1952 (the year i was born & christened "Karol") 

Its called "how friendly are you?"
 It Stars a young lad called Karl

I imagine its purpose   was school/education -related?

A splendid evocation of that period.

Charmingly innocent.(although I worry slightly about all that "fudge"!) 

Whatever.An important & timeless topic.

I can imagine it was a good way into a subject that kids will always find difficult to acknowledge.

It's a pity nobody filmed the audience resposes......that would have been even more interesting than the film itself.

 https://archive.org/details/0038_How_Friendly_Are_You_14_48_41_20  

John Perry Barlow

https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/5-lessons-john-barlow-taught-world/
This week, Grateful Dead lyricist and digital rights activist, John Perry Barlow passed away. Although we mourn the loss of a great visionary, we will forever remember his lessons of free speech, personal growth, and marketing tactics. Here are five lessons we learned from the digital rights activist.
1. Freedom of Speech is important 
 Barlow believed that the world should be a place that “all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth… a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.”
 This is probably due to Barlow’s humble lifestyle on a cattle ranch. Here the idea of being free and having a wide-open space for oneself developed. Barlow was an advocate for net neutrality and believed that the internet was where people could speak openly, having that wide open space as he did on the ranch.
 As he himself said, “there is a lot of room to define yourself. You can literally make yourself up.”
2. People appreciate familiarity 
 Barlow was not only passionate about self-development through the internet, but believed that putting one’s digital goods out there for the world to see and hear was the best marketing strategy.

 As the lyricist for the Grateful Dead rock band, Barlow developed a marketing strategy in which he let people bootleg the Grateful Dead’s concerts so people became more familiar and would flock to the music they learned to love. He believed that the secret to marketing was in the availability and familiarity of the product.
3. Live freely and without fear
  In 1990, Barlow took a stance against the government and created the non-profit organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). https://www.eff.org/
Here, he fought against the government for individual’s freedom of speech and personal liberties.
 He believed that people should have the opportunity to express themselves freely and that the internet was a great place for this purpose. It was because of this that he went to every measure to do so.He took a stand against the government and authorities for what he thought was right.
 4. Security matters 
Although Barlow strongly believed in the internet and all the good the internet had to offer, he was not blind to the darkness of the internet.
 He believed that people needed to have secure communication methods. He therefore provided, as part of the EFF, security measures through tips, tools, how-tos, tutorials, and software for safer online communications.
5. Stand up for what you believe in 
Barlow believed in an open internet, a free internet, and he held that belief until he died.  It is through Barlow’s strength and stance with the government that today we have the safety, security, and free music and movies to listen and watch. 
Today, as he can no longer do so, we must take the stance for ourselves and stand up for what we believe, just like he taught us to do. There must be someone from your friends or family who deserves to know what John did for our internet freedom.
 Share this post to let them know. https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/5-lessons-john-barlow-taught-world/

The Almighty Sometimes

[I quote here a piece Cathy has written]

"On the 15th Feb ( a significant date , for Cathy  )   we went to see a play at the Royal Exchange in Manchester,

 * a review of the play in today's Guardian*

 Daily Telegraph  

One of the actor's is Julie Hesmondhalgh 

She is on a branch of the family tree ( Cathy's side of the family).originating from Accrington/Clayton-le-moor.

[plus:] Saturday's Guardian Magazine

ßack from Lancashire.

A photo I  took  of Cathy in The Shoulder of Mutton in Mytholmroyd tonight at 9 pm.

We had just returned from Lancashire,visting a relative.

Report & tons of photos soon. 

Isnt life exciting!

Bill Boards is Innocent

a London Poet uses billboards to get his message across. I like the idea and ,more importantly ,I like his words.
 I lived these streets for 4 years in the 70's 80's (mainly Newham) living in grotty East End bedsits and teaching in the schools there.It was so rough there,even the Kray's had to walk around   in pairs.....
"he who is tired of London..etc.etc.."(as Sam once said).
I still have (nice) dreams about where i used to live.......
 Also .Something else I came across today.
Can I give a wee plug to The East End in Colour 1960 - 1980 by David Granick . (£16.95)

This is one of my 'temporary posts
In a couple of days ,me & Cath go over the Pennines to see someone on her ( and my) Family Tree.
  ♪ ♫just like my dreams they fade and die.....♪ 
 As well as 'billboards' I also talked about R.D. Laing  last week
. This movie 'about' him  .starring David Tennant looks rather groovy
 ( I wonder if  they will show  Mary Barnes  smearing her shit  on any walls?  I suppose if they do , it will have to be multi-coloured and  psychedelic in this Post- Weinstein era........)

i might be wrong but the building shown at the start of this clip looks to me like Ironmongers Row swimming pool & turkish baths in Islington?

the name is "Zimnoch". (barking up the wrong tree.........)

Rest  Well John Perry Barlow

• a fine Guardian Obituary

•  a John Perry Barlow Archive

In the Shepards Rest in Sowerby Bridge tonight with my Godson Bryn.

Me & Cath went to Hebden Bridge Picture House this morning to see 'Three Billoards Outside Ebbin Missouri '.
I sat there imagining , if someone gave me 3 billbords ( in ,let us say ,the middle of Halifax ) to give the population messages for 12 months...what would i chose to display to relect my concerns.....? 
 At this moment in time, I think I'd pick a few ditties by  R.D.Laing

 That's the "Laing" who was a psychologist,not the "Laing" who is a gay country & western singer (that's K.D.....)
Not that that's a bad thing.only....she never wrote Sanity, Madness & The Family  like wot Ronnie did.....
Anyway.........today's film  should well win a shed load of Oscars .

It's the first great movie of The Trump Era ?

The ending , in particular , could have been The Rust-Belt going off to vote...... 

 I dont understand the Guardian's comment that
"......the critical backlash to this film: a feeling in some quarters that for all its powerful and compelling female lead, the movie appears obtuse on race and blackness by making it a subsidiary function of the white characters’ moral journey...." [read more:]  
 I dont get that at all.......I mean,it doesnt have anything to say about Polaks either.So what?
Bravo Performance,Frances McDormand .

Then I went out on the lash in Sowerby Bridge tonight.

ßréxitérs aré as thick as fuck

 

Buy T-Shirt Here:

If your a bit thick,here are some of my previous posts you may also enjoy:

• slow train coming (2013)
• in the olden days , people had to make their own trees? ( 2011)

If your very thick, you will love this video.Taken from my 2011 post how to hate the working classes
Some people are ultra literal,arnt they?
They dont see things in a wider context .
Anybody who reads my blog knows i dont "hate" the working classes ( if I did ,I would not  say so,would i?).
In my book. If you cant see irony,context,third-party views..then,yes you are as thick as pig shit ,non?

• For the record. I,m not a "Remainer".

•  I believe the E.U. is deeply flawed.

• I dont wish for a second referendum.

However "Brexit" is different from"Leave".

Brexit has been hijacked by a bunch of right wing/nationalsocialists such as Farage

& Mogg. Now I dont want to be ruled by "faceless beurocrats from Brussels".

But I neither do I want to be governed by Trump.

 OK .I,ve explained myself. You cunts  can all go and just fuck off  ,s'il vous plaît

buyhere:

Although , you would be a bit soft to pay £15 for any T-shirt....and even softer to wear it in Public?

"A seemingly pregnant woman would not be suspected of stuffing her clothes with pamphlets, Resistance newspapers, or even weapons."

Italian women  partisans on the Castelluccio front (1944) .Waiting to go on patrol with the US  5th Army.

Italy, Women in the Resistance during World War II

Late in the winter of 1943 ,three British SAS soldiers were dropped into (still) fascist occupied Italy.deep in a remote mountain region.

The  3 Brits were sheltered by villagers& partisans  in the remote hamlet of Gessopalena

One local must have  'grassed' on them?
Anyway, they were soon arrested, taken away & tortured by the Germans.

As punishment for trying to protect these English Squadies, on 21st January 1944 the  Luftwaffe bombed Gessopalena and completely destroyed  it.
Now ,perhaps different nations react differently to grief?

The Poles In Warsaw, they rebuilt an identical copy of their city after WW2.
However ,Italians( seeming to love ruins.)... kept Gessopalena's damage complete & intact......

They did bury  the bodies ,but otherwise  did nothing.....other than to move the undamaged  church bell .
To this day , nothing else  has ever been  moved!
 Clothes, toys furniture ,books ,mirrors....etc.remain  in exactly the same spot they were on the day the Luftwaffe called..
Somekind of  permanent record of what  " normality." might once have looked like for the victims.?
These days ,its rather weird when you hear that original  church bell call  the new villagers  to Mass in the new church in "new" Gessopalena which was later built a 100 yards away...............
I scratched my head and tried to  work out which was the "real"village and   which was the "replica"......

My son Chris.    Our friend Mick   & myself in Italy in 2010

 ( i briefly owned a ruined cottage in the Abruzzo mountains at the time ) Damien Rice: Montreal 2017(famous blue raincoat):Jackson Browne: Osaka, Japan; October 23, 2017:(late for the sky)
This is a sepia saturday post.The themes this week are Dance : Performance : Costumes : Stage

i found this photo in 2009 in a junkshop in Lanciano.I was told these are firemen .....Ironically!  looking like a bunch of girls........!

https://theconversation.com/forgotten-resistance-the-italian-freedom-fighters-dropped-from-our-history-books-34891