Wednesday, October 24, 2018

the leaves are just the colour of your eyes.......

So me & Chris went walking on The Tops again today. 
Up Cragg Vale.
I wanted to show him the route I took on my 30th Birthday , doing The Pennine Way with Phil the Ex-Fireman ..i thought it might help........
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragg_Vale
 I have always thought it a strange,particular, place.
 Last week's post   showed  it's magical spaces ( deer;mushrooms:holy wells ).
 But  (this week) it feels to have  sinister elements too......
The Cragg Coiners tried to hide away there , from the government...but they got themselves found and hanged eventually.....
http://www.mytholmroyd.net/features/coiners.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragg_Vale_Coiners 
In more recent times, Jimmy Savile was a churchwarder at the local church. He lived in a campervan in the church's grounds........
He Put on lurid costums & gave sermons from the pulpit.
How'a about that then? 
https://bitsofbooksblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/savile-and-st-johns-in-the-wilderness/ 
For 3 weeks over my 30th Birthday, me & Phil 'did' The Pennine Way , including our passing through Calderdale & Cragg Vale.
 I remember turning '30' being quite traumatic for me.
. It's funny. '18':'21''40' even '60'! never really bothered me....
But '30'.wow! a shock....
 I remember the night I turned 30. We were camping in some Godforsaken village in North Yorkshire. I got terribly pissed.
I started chatting-up up some woman in a local pub ( even though her boyfriend was sat right next to her at the time).
 He got a wee bit angry & was going to thump me.
 Luckily Phil ( home on leave from Northern Ireland) whisked me out of the pub sharpish. It was closing time, anyway....
" A Lucky Escape" I remember Phil saying as we went back to the empty field we had put up our tent.
. The next morning. Hungover, we crawled out of our tent , to find the couple had (in the night) pitched their tent right next to us.
we made our excuses, & left rather fast....

Saturday, October 20, 2018

jaw bones and tooth rattles........

Look.To begin with, I know my opinion about anything  is irrelivant  .
(But I'm full of cold, and have fuck all to do but rant here today......)
You might be surprised to know that I think this march today in London is just plain wrong
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45925542.
I do not agree with it.Infact,I think  it dangerous.
The idea of going on a March in support of neoliberalism ( which  is what got us into this mess in the first place) is a wee bit daft IMHO.
I voted "Remain" , and would do so again.However, when the Brexiteers say that a "Peoples Vote" (in effect a 2nd referendum) would undermine our democracy, i think they are right.
We must respect the result of the Referendum ( even though I think it's leaders ;Farage:Boris;Rees-Mogg et al are all twats). Besides which, if there was a second referendum, the 'Leavers' would most likely win it again.
I find it depressing that the whole Brexit debate has been framed in terms of nostalgia.
The Brexiteers wishing for a return to the 50's. The Remainers wishing it was 1969 again. It's neither.This never can be.
Personally,  I would be much happier with a "Jeremy Corbyn Red Brexit" than a "Chuka Ummuna  Remain".
A photo i took during The Peoples Assembly March in Manchester in 2015. 80,000 marched. see all my photos here https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-Lr9ZhK/

Saturday, October 13, 2018

peterloo

Cath & Red Saunders  today.   ( Red's Bio )
 It was taken today at Moston Community Arts & Music Centre A grand place (eg live music & cinema).
It used to be the bath house for Moston Coal  Pit .
I remember 'Old Jim' ar Rochdale hammam talk of it......
below are my photos.
https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Red-SaundersPETERLOO-MASSACRE-RECREATION-TABLEAUX/ 
Also you can see itv's News report 
  We remembered those murdered at Peterloo_Massacre
As the itv video explains, several of  us  cast today were direct decendants of some of those killed at Peterloo , including the pregnant woman pictured in some of the pictures with me.
Back-in-the-day ,Red Saunders was the brains behind setting up Rock Against Racism & The Anti-Nazi League
 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/20/popandrock.race
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Saunders_(photographer)  Chris is still very poorly.(it's 2 months now.....)Dont be fooled by the smiling.It's only acting(and denial.....?)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/17/maxine-peake-hope-corbyn-people-power-peterloo-radical-legacy

Sunday, September 30, 2018

golden slumbers


Llyn Cwm Bychan.
 Llanbedr . A week's stay in a really remote cottage up Snowden.....
After a long strange journey (through a place I didnt know) we were greeted by  a home baked cake the owner had left us..
Crumbs!
 Keep checking back here for my photos of our travels throughout the week ( + a few images from last week)
.https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Llanbedr/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanbedr


 
Doigellau.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

a postcard of the hanging.


We go see Julie Hesmondhaigh (formally of Accrington) in a play in Manchester next Thursday.
 https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/whats-on-and-tickets/the-greatest-play-in-the-history-of-the-world-2018
Then we bugger off to Mid-Wales for a week  in a rented cottage .......i may take photos?
to give you an idea of what me & Cath might look like in Red Saunders 'Peterloo' might look like.....this is one he did earlier...  
William Cuffay and the London Chartists, 1842 
"The 1832 Reform Act had extended the vote to more men with property but the working class still did not have a vote. A nationwide campaign involving men and women called for change and they became known as The Chartists, the first mass working class movement in Britain. The People’s Charter of 1838 demanded votes for all men, constituencies of equal size, the abolition of the property qualification, annual parliaments and salaries for members of Parliament. Portrayed is a meeting of the London Chartists in Whitechapel, in 1842, with William Cuffay, the son of a slave and the elected President of the London Chartists. He was transported to Tasmania for his endeavours, later pardoned, and continued to be politically active there."
http://redsaundersphoto.eu/1842.html

Friday, September 14, 2018

ferryman has hands of stone.

https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2016/08/31/the-bridestones-near-todmorden-west-yorkshire/

Bride Stones, Todmorden
One of the people at Ken's birthday Do last night in Halifax was Jason Foster.A lovely bloke .Above is one of his works. His website is here https://www.360cities.net/profile/jasonfoster
Jason Foster.
Meanwhile.In other news..
.this STV programme about the late great Jackie Leven was uploaded onto youtube a couple of days ago.

fish

I'm afraid I will have to go for the 'and surprise us with an old photograph of your own choice.....' option for this week's sepia saturday 
So!
Dear sweet Sepians.This week I give you the solitary sport of 'French Fishing'........
This postcard is one of a dozen or so similar ones  being sold at Hebden Bridge Antique Centre
.All cute kids: All individual portraits.
French fish must be very patient and helpful...........?

On Monday Me , Chris & Cathy went to Harrogate. I had a session at it's Turkish Baths .
It must be three years since I last went! It's still a bit like heaven for me ( 160 degrees in the top room).
On Tuesday we went to see the surrealist photos of Lee Miller They were great . It's the first time I have been to The Hepworth. Very disappointed in the building itself.Its an ugly Stalinist mess.

On Wednesday we went to Crawshawbooth Quaker Meeting House . It's over 300 years old & is the oldest Quaker building in the World.It's beautiful & caretaker Phil told me it has a ghost.
 How Cool! A Quaker Ghost......
We spent a couple of hours talking with the caretaker , Phil. Lovely bloke. I hope to visit again ( it's up near my friend Bob in Bacup).
On Thursday I met with Ken in Halifax to drown his birthday.
You can see some of my photo of the week here........
You wouldn't know it from these photos, I suppose, but it's been a very cruel week for me personally.
 view/examine these new photos here https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Harrogate-Wakefield/

Thursday, September 06, 2018

oh! qu'est beau.

See  here ,other contributions to this week's sepia saturday
Mine is a postcard I found at http://www.hebdenantiques.co.uk/
"steps" certainly."flowers" i think too? (In the lady's hat...?)

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Mother, yon lion's et Albert.............

This is a sepia saturday post.
  The  week's suggested themes are MUSIC : SINGERS : GRAMOPHONE : RECORDS.
I looked through my own old photos and struggled.....the best I could find was the photo below which  I took of the Canadian singers Kate & Anna McGarricle when they  played Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in 1975.
I got my first record player on my 6th birthday (1957):
 It was,even then, an antique.A big brass beast:a windup affair! You had to change the needle ever time you played a record!
Fortunately I was only given one 78 record to go with it.It was Stanley Holloway's monologue about a lad called "Albert" who goes on holiday to Blackpool with his Mum & Dad and gets eaten by a lion in the zoo.
were my mum&dad giving me a message...? (we went to Blackpool most summer holidays)
 Anyway.Listening to it again now, it's still quite funny.......Northern Humour... Albert & The Lion:lyrics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Holloway 
Aged 11.My brother Zyg bought me my first 'proper' record player & my first LP.("The Buddy Holly Story") The first record I bought myself was "The Folk Blues of John Lee Hooker". I fell in love with Tupelo Blues........... Which was a bit 'hard-core' for a young Yorkshire lad who also quite liked the Monkees & Beatles..
*John Lee Hooker would have been 101 on the 22nd August 2018.(6 months older than my own Dad).Rest in Peace both XX*
john lee hooker – tupelo blues from directors guild on Vimeo.

I dont seem to have any other photos that relate to this week's theme.
I did find the above  in Hebden Bridge's Antique shop.Not a jolly crew...but they  do have an solitary instrument in view.
 The photo's  origin is French, I think.
They look like they have just spotted  a lion......?

Monday, August 20, 2018

Peterloo 2018:

Me, Cath & Martin attended the Annual Peterloo Memorial in Manchester on Sunday.
.It's the 4th year we have been present.
We also took part in casting for the  Peterloo Massacre Tableaux
See all my photos here:

Thursday, August 09, 2018

a great light creates deep shadows........

The post title was taken from a book I'm currently reading "The Sorrow Of Angels" by Jon Kalman Stefánsson
"We're in a leaky rowing boat with a rotten net, and we're going to catch stars".
This post was originally intended for last week's Sepia Saturday theme.(  Illusions:trick photos: big& small) But I was too late submitting, so.......I'm thinking  it can equally apply this week instead?
To see other people's contributions , visit http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2018/08/sepia-saturday-431-11-august-2018.html

I took this photo on 30 August 1997.In Howth near Dublin .It was the weekend Princess Dianne died in Paris.
 I was with Julie Boardman and her friend His Drayness (who i went to teacher training college with) Julie said "take a photo of me squashing this man" ( a sepia display of 1900's images..this one being   The Giant's Causeway in Ireland's 'Six Counties'.)
So I did!
  This week we booked seats at Manchester Royal Exchange to see  this: play in September.It's currently playing the Edinburgh Festival and stars Julie Hesmondhalgh.
Quote of the day (again from the Edinburgh Festival) .
Frankie Boyle "..has acid words for anyone who is worried about plastic in the ocean when there are refugees drowing in it..." (Independent)

iglu

 Doing daft stuff ( again)  This time at iglu in Hebden Bridge --->    details