Bénch

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

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

ßénchplayer · live at the BEAR CAFE in Todmorden

live at the BEAR CAFE in Todmorden

the photo is of the blossom in Hebden Bridge Park 22nd March

audio is of my friend Gareth Scott , from the album "The Basin Stone"

https://garethscott.bandcamp.com/album/the-basin-stone-3

Thursday, March 18, 2021

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

Saturday, March 13, 2021

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 .............