Thank You Stanislav Petrov

"Peace" is the Theme this week..So how to photograph it? Surely it's more than an absence.Maybe it's the look  of contentment ? I suppose we are always in transit.....we know the moment will pass.But this photo (taken by my late Mum) tries to defy the moment.Looking at it now,it still work for me.It's not vemödalen  to me.
Although I do remember the circumstances behind the image. The four of us had been walking through this olive grove/marble ruin. I noticed the neat dappled- effect of the sunshine on the leaves.
I gave the camera to my Mum & composed the picture accordingly!
 Chris ,you can see, is shouting & gesturing to Me Mam to make sure she points the camera in the right direction!

1990.Zante.Greece: Me & Cathy & Chris.

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Perhaps follow the link below? We have this  Russian to thank for our memories:our children:our sepia images ........

Thank You Stanislav Petrov

Станисла́в Евгра́фович Петро́в;

http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/ 

oh i wish it could ße Christmas everyday..........

Some people might be getting this as a Christmas present this year.The full concert.1st Class Sound.

You can hear a pin drop (plus me cough & clicking my camera!)

 No Jazz Home should be without one!

ße nice to me & I will make it worth your while.

See {Previous Post} for more detail.

here is a video of Krystal performing for Steven Spielberg, singing "Miss Celie's Blues" Taken from the film "The Color Purple" .Just Imagine at Xmas she might be performing just for you! a wee preview of a small portion of the concert (quality nowhere near as good as the cd but 'will give u a flavour)

forget me not..........

Me & Cath went to see Krystle Warren at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club last night.We met up with Marguerite there.It was nice to see her.
 If you like the audio sample above, (i seemed to have sorted out my starch problem!) I have recorded the entire concert!
Email me at zmnsnt@aol.com with your postal address & I will send you a copy!

flying man.......

Me and Cathy went to see Jim White at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club last night.
I took this audio: strangly scratchy sound.....the recorder was on my knee.I must remember not to put so much starch in my jeans in future! But ,never mind! It still gives a certain flavour of a fascinating night..
..Man! Jim White is James Ellroy meets Johnny Cash ! A 3 hour gig .....The best concert  I've been too for a rather long time.

See some pix here

+Read here a Review from a London gig a few days previous.....A Wizard:A True Star!

Manchester Northern Quarter

Jim ,click [here] to view to old photos of Rochdale Turkish Baths.

a little like water, only it's grass.............

This week's theme is around boats and such......older readers will remember that  my Mum's side of the family had certain sailors,but my Polish Dad's family had none.The Polish Navy is hardly famous.Their  armadas had always to set sail on dry land...............

 Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
no light and no land anywhere,
cloudcover thick. I try to stay
just above the surface, 
yet I'm already under and living with the ocean 

{Rumi}

Sepia Saturday's prompt this week is "Some times you just need to be alone. You need space : space to think, space to breathe, space to contemplate your place in the great scheme of things..."
And so I thought  about my brother Ziggy in 1965. Look!He is sunbathing on a deckchair in true Hank B Marvin fashion on our front garden at Savile Crescent ,Halifax. A   little like water,except it's grass..........

Last weekend I went to a Garden Party in Cheshire.It was at my friend and ex- teaching colleague Barbara's house.
I lived and worked in Cheshire for 3 years in the early 80's.
For those that dont know,Cheshire is Rural,Posh,Well- Heeled,very quiet..and a relaxing place.Quite how i got to Cheshire {& subsequently left,} is unclear to me (!) Just one of the many random things I peppered my life with.
I arrived in Cheshire  after working in a rough n.tough, inner- city East London (East Ham & Plaistow).I swapped Ian Dury for John Constable .I swapped The Sweeney for The Archers.......
My visit last weekend made me realise I dont fully remember the person I was then & the person I might have become .Most odd
.For those of us who travel,we leave bits of us behind us as breadcrumbs.We leave a  trail,in  case we need to find a way back.....
Maybe Cheshire was my "space to think, space to breathe..."?
The rural flat farming landscape is the nearest I ever came to my Dad's childhood Polish village .Maybe that was it........?
As well as landscape,I,ve always been attracted to extremes. My Mum came from Upper Class roots:My Dad was a working class mill worker.Chalk & Cheese but it worked for them.Ive always felt fairly classless.Accepting all, but always  (to some extent) an outsider and observer..

last Saturday lunchtime in Church Minshull.

dont old people look sweet?

My mate's addicted to drinking brake fluid but he reckons he can stop at any time........

Phil the Ex-Fireman's Mum ,Madge,died a few weeks ago.Me & Ken took him out drinking in Halifax to cheer ourselves up.
Tuesdays are very quiet in Town during the week.As we sat in Cookies Bar nursing our Pints,a lovely young lass (Zoe, a vague friend of Ken's) started putting 40's Music on the jukebox.A discussion began about the merits of Doris Day & the erotic appeal of petticoats.She insisted we all danced with her in turn.It was nice to see her put a smile on Phil's face.
Later in the evening,as we listened to Phil & Ken sing Small Faces songs, i leaned over to Zoe and whispered "arnt old people sweet!". She gave me a slightly dismissive look.This i interpreted as her thinking i looked much younger than Ken & Phil.....& i shouldnt poke fun at my elders.Point Taken!
See all the night's photos here

at the scrying well......

{press here to receive some sort of explanation ..}

free hugs from Hebden Bridge

http://www.artsmill.org/

I went down to a Private Viewing of  Mick Kidd & Annie Lawson 's "Wooly Yarns" this afternoon. what a lovely time! Its on until 11th October.If your in town,please go visit & say hello.Lovely exhibition/lovely people.
I went to see an old friend of Clive's ,Mick Kidd (aka Biff) Famous textual cartoonist of Guardian fame.What a grand  chap.
Here are a few photos ( a 10 minute video of him reading from his new book-that mentions Clive..will follow here tomorrow /its proving a Pig to upload/sorry) It was the Real Deal .Most odd.....I walked into Hebden afterwards & the 'Free Hugs guy'seemed like a cartoon...........
You know,back in the day,one of the biggest insults the counter culture could throw at you was that you  were a "weekend hippy".These days Hebden Bridge seems to have perfected the art of "The Bank Holiday Hippy". Not knocking, but if its worth doing,then why not ALL the time:Why not everywhere?


Clive up norfth..........

Wanda Sikes Boyd-where are you?

I get worse & worse at visiting:reading & replying to your comments.I am sorry.I will visit & be social again before my next post here! (that was ,obviously a lie! BUT! I shall return soon!)
Those of you who use facebook will know that ,if you click "messages" & click again on another subfolder ,messages (usually from unknown people) are stored there.Sometimes I dont think to look there and a message can sit  unopened/unread  (in my case,for up to 6 months!).
By chance i looked there this week & found this message.It's a bit of a mystery because (a) I cant recall the photo mentioned(b) I dont know Wanda(c) it was impossible to reply to her (she wasnt recognised by facebook-and even a Google search of her proved zilch....... )
So.Wanda Sikes Boyd..if you read this..get in touch again,but not via facebook!!!

Dream walking in York

"To dream that you are at a picnic represents a happy and peaceful domestic life. To dream of seeing a picnic basket hints of an opportunity to gain knowledge then impart your thoughts and insights to others"{from:} .Oh.OK..............

".....There were many families in attendance and there had been a picnic atmosphere prior to the attack..."[read more}

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

People seem to Walk a lot at the moment? For example The Rochdale Ghost Walks .sounds like fun,i must try that one!            And I've been on a couple of John Billingsly's Walk through Heptonstall recently.

While in Surrey (where,admittedly ,everyone in Bonkers) a group of Unremarkable men walk 40 miles for no particular reason My heart warms to them when they describe the planning of their walk .......

Ian said: "Simon came up with the idea of calling it 'Beach to Bench 2013', so we found a random bench on The Nower which was not special in any shape or form."It was falling apart a bit and half buried in a hedge. If it had had some redeeming feature I think we would have shied away, but because a few slats were missing we thought, 'This is perfect'."

BUT!What I really want to do is go the York Dream Walks  Imagine!Walking people through your dreams!
 
Taken in Halifax.other details unknown,But I am minded to think they are off for a nice picnic....?
If you read my post the other day you will know that today we travelled to Manchester to remember those murdered there.To lay wreaths and such. Here is a video I took of the actress Maxine Peake reading out the names of 3 of those who died.......
{this is taking ages to download for some reason?As soon as it's downloaded,i will embed it here..} To know that Martha Partington was "Thrown into a cellar and killed on the spot..." somehow seems to worse...?

Margaret Downes was murdered with a sabre.

Some recent Photos I have taken.See My full image Album by clicking [here]
A bit of a 'political' few days for the gentle author! Tonight I attend a meeting (the first) of a new Calderdale anti-fracking group in Hebden Bridge.
You may remember ? my recent post which mentioned The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester . Well ,tomorrow , Me,Cathy ,Chris (& meeting Capo Martin there?) go to Manchester for a ceremony to mark the 192nd anniversary of that event. (hopefully , my photos & videos of it shall be be planted into this post  afterwards)
 Here is some background about the campaign to get a suitable monument built in the city to remember the dead (& the birth of the right to vote). As to the Anniversary itself,other events are being held over the weekend (eg in Oldham & Rochdale).
The Manchester event tomorrow will include wreath laying & the public naming of the dead ( read out by the Mayor of Manchester & the actressMaxine Peake Kick Off is 1pm (near the Radisson Hotel).There is also a walking tour of battle sites ,leaving The Midland Hotel at 11am..but I doubt our train will arrive in time for us to go to that?.

Invasion of the baby-boomers

Look! your gentle author is now an eco-warrior!

This is a Sepia Saturday post.
This first photo is taken from a private collection of early 70's in Halifax I entitled Invasion Of The Baby-Boomers And why the devil not?

"....all manner of strange or unidentified contraptions. And if you are fresh out of contraptions there is always cars or people sat in ridiculous positions....."

A Family photo taken in upstate New York in the very early 1900's.Taken by my great grandfather.A whole series of these photos can be found here
I have a new flash looking photo album here  .It looks better than before...but I havnt got the hang of the settings yet ..So no photo badge at the moment(does it still have that option?who knows.....I dont!)
Anyway....... ...... here are today's new photos..mostly taken by Cath at Hardcastle Crags where the BBC are filming a new costum drama /follow up to Pride and Prejudice with a host of B-List British tv eg Trevor Eve (who someone once said I looked like.....) & the purty young Dr Who sidekick (joy!)......

 
 
PJ Harvey has released a song to highlight the ongoing detention of the last British resident held inside the US prison at Guantánamo Bay. The track, called Shaker Aamer was recorded by the Mercury prizewinning songwriter to help maintain pressure to have the 46-year-old, whose family live in south London, released back to Britain.
Aamer has been detained in Guantánamo for more than 11 years, despite being cleared for release in 2007, and remains imprisoned without charge or trial. He has a British wife and his four children -- the youngest of whom he has never met -- were all born in Britain. They live in Tooting, south London.
The British government has stated repeatedly that it wants him back in the UK and last week, under escalating international pressure, the US announced it is to restart transfers from the prison. Concerns remain, however, that Aamer might be forcibly sent to Saudi Arabia and imprisoned there instead of being reunited with his family in the UK. Aug 2013

Read About Shaker Aamer [Here]

who is Elegbara?

press play to hear my post

Robert Johnson & Johnny Shines

"In Africa, almost every cultural group has its own version of the crossroads god. Legba, Ellegua, Elegbara, Eshu, Exu, Nbumba Nzila, and Pomba Gira are African and African-diaspora names (in several languages) for the spirit who opens the way, guards the crossroads, and teaches wisdom. ........" [read more about Crossroad Lore Worldwide]

This is a Sepia Saturday post.OK this week's post is about blokes in hats (& indirectly boats).

My photos& Videos from John Billingsley walk in Heptonstall here

"As trickster, Eshu is associated with disorder and destiny in the Yoruba pantheon. As "orisa orita" or "esu orita", orisha of the crossroad or the corners, Elegba represents the transitional or center point of the crossroad where one must make a decision. In this position, Elegba represents all the bewilderment and confusion one faces when attempting to make the proper choice. Once the choice is made, he is involved in the consequences and through his own devices guides us towards and along our proper path....." Who Is Elegba?

a photo i took in 2009 on The Albert Dock in Liverpool.

REFERENCES:

Crossroads Burials

Slavehistory Tours

Robert Johnson:wikipedia

youtube:alleged footage of Robert Johnson

www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org

61 Bi-Polar Bears (sod the 99 red balloons...)

I am 61 on Tuesday.

If you want to help me celebrate you might want to know I am PAYPAL;WONGA & CHURCH of ENGLAND ®. compliant.
To celebrate my birthday, British Sea Power rode into Hebden Bridge on Friday.(they brought a couple of their Bi_Polar Bears with them!) See my photos HERE