Friday, July 31, 2015

It was my Birthday yesterday.
Me , Cathy & Chris went for a meal at The White Lion in Hebden Bridge.
Afterwards, we caught the train into Manchester's Royal Exchange to see Maxine Peake in The Skriker. Here are some photos i took of the day.

Friday, July 10, 2015

I can't compete with the riders in the other heats

David Byrne :Psycho Killer
 (Also featuring) Joe Henry, Greg Cohen and Duisburg Chamber Orchestra 
Live at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, Germany, August 19, 2006.


Cath took this photo of me in Hebden Bridge last Sunday. I really dont smile a lot, do I ?
What is that all about ? Bad Teeth ?Slavic personality ? a chronic  lack of humour  & empathy ...?
Its a mystery......


But!this week's sepia saturday   is about "unsmiling faces"  So it kinda fits the bill.Non?

the last time my smile was ever captured on camera was here, 15 years ago, entering a club toilet in Blackpool.So perhaps its better i dont make a habit of it......?


Click [HERE] to see other sepia saturday posts this weekend ..... 


The Rolling Stones;Start Me Up:
 Live at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, Indiana; July 4, 2015.

Saturday, July 04, 2015

ظافر يوسف‎. may your hands be full of nothing.

Fuga Hirundinum (Birds Requiem Suite):DHAFER YOUSSEF ظافر يوسف‎. Jazz à Vienne, Théâtre Antique, Vienne, France; June 29, 2015
 Tunisian Dhafer Youssef is a composer, singer and oud player. He developed an interest in jazz at an early age and clandestinely listened to it during his education at a Qur’anic school. He later left Tunisia to start a jazz career and has lived in Europe since 1990, usually in Paris or Vienna
.[ - wikipedia]
 Some random photos I took in Hebden Bridge today.
Patti Smith:Live at Glastonbury, Pyramid Stage, Worthy Farm, Pilton, UK; June 28, 2015.
 Smith explained that it was the spiritual leader’s 80th birthday on July 6.
 “We are grateful to him for all his love of humanity and making people aware of the importance of saving the planet,” she said, before reading a poem she had written for him.
 Glastonbury’s Emily Eavis then brought The Dalai Lama onto the stage to huge cheers from the crowd. “I think it would be nice if Glastonbury wished The Dalai Lama a happy birthday,” said Smith, before leading the audience in a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’.
 The Dalai Lama then blew out a single candle on a cake made of fruit, before cutting it.
 “Thank you, thank you,” he said. “Dear brothers and sisters, I really appreciate so many people’s expression of warm feeling.”
He then went on to joke about the age of Smith and her band. “These singers and musicians have white hair, but they look very youthful! That gives me encouragement, I should be more like you - more active!”
[click below  to listen}

Friday, June 26, 2015

Zy plays a trick with his teeth

I admire this series of photographs from the Hotel Austerity.


Brian the Poet .
This week's sepia saturday is around "hotels".
Me &Cathy went to Bury Met with Don & Margaret to see Robin & Bina  Williamson play
.[Robin is ex-Incredible String Band.]
 I love the music.
 Robin has a refreshing lack of Ego & a grand sense of humour.
He comes from Portobello  , just outside Edinburgh..where my Mam came from.
In one or two of these photos i fancy he looks a  little  like me.........Something genetic :)?
Here are some of my photos from day (unfortunately,my audio recorded didnt work..I would have like to have  shared their music here   tonight ...but some fine pix none the less)

Thursday, June 18, 2015

"its not always like what we see on the surface......" (quote from the dvd)

Wisconsin Death Trip

By sheer chance on Saturday night (2oth June) i sat down to watch the dvd Wisconsin Death Trip .
The visual motif that  punctuates the film  throughout  is that of the local newspaper Editor  typing out his news reports. .....
[I got this film out from Hebden Bridge Library.Part  of their current "American Gothic" promotion]
At the same time,i borrowed the book of the same name..
it's stuffed full of glorious sepia photos.Something of a Sepians Bible .






Tricky one this. Sepia Saturday this week has the topic of "typewriters"
. I have no photos of them.....
 .I suppose in the those olden ,sepia, days folk were more economical with their film.? Typewriters were ubiquitous & we thought they would live  forever.We thought them immortal as we were .....ha! fools, little did we know........
 The nearest I have is this photo taken in my late-20th century office in Halifax with my work colleague  Calla.
I like Calla, she is my type of woman.......

See other sepia saturday  posts {here}


Finally.check out the ever excellent lost gallery blogspot for gallons of sepia typewriters......

And the sheer bonkersness of Wisconsin Death Trip makes me think of similarity with this photo of my grandparents life in Saranac ,New York State. see more here

Thursday, June 11, 2015

ßeñeath the southern cross

 More developments since last week's post concerning my stable~ come~ £6000 Italian Ruin......
I found out this week that the 'mystery offer'comes from an Italian government/EU initiative to regenerate the region.(details below) .
It's a bit like a 'compulsory-purchase'.


Nominally , the price is negotiable .
However (because my & some other buildings  are rundown /that's why I got  it cheap in the first place) if i don't negotiate a selling price ,I will be ordered by the commune to bring it up to a certain (new) standard. This will be expensive.
Basically it's double or quits.
Which,realistically means that the cost would have to make it become my first & only home.
Now, even before any haggling, they seem to be offering me a fair price (just above what i paid  initially plus any legal costs involved in the
selling....).
Take the money & run?
I,ve no idea yet what time deadlines are involved.....
 ....... it does feel a bit like selling a dream.
I always suspected the area had potential.I guess it will have to develop without me.
A shame.
*
in other news....I booked tickets to see Simone Felice at St.Michael's Church in Ancoats on 8th October ( Manchester's "Little Italy") {buy TICKETS}
Today Me Chris & Cath buried Chaz's Ashes in the Yorkshire sun above Hebden Bridge.
It felt like Italy a little..........

Friday, May 15, 2015

love never came


.........in case  you didn't know,the Tories got in again.Britain is not happy.Mr Cameron has grounded us.Sent us to bed early,without our supper........It shall  end in tears........
Really ,the British election can be summed up quite easily.The Scots want to become more Scottish:the English want to become more American........
 Life, they tell  me, goes on.....So I went out in Hebden Bridge last night.
Its never happened before , but one of the people with us drinking throughout the night   is rather famous .(Listen to his music!)
Richard Bedford came drinking with us in the Fox&Goose & Railway Pubs!
We sat in the Railway  and Ken  said "is that you on the jukebox?".Richard said "yes".
You can see his photo below& above  if you look  ( and know your onions...}
Richard is a very lovely bloke.
A nice night. Hopefully we will do this again soon.
Richard Bedford:Official Website
We BOB DYLANt White Dove [Dandelion 083/84, 2CD] Live at the Irving Plaza, New York City, NY; December 8, 1997. 

Saturday, April 11, 2015

miscellaneous manchester

Well .We had planned to go by train to see the new Whitworth Art Gallery.
 But, on getting off the train, we needed to go for a piss,so nipped into The Royal Exchange Theatre to use their loos.
While in there, we heard they had cheap seats going for the Saturday Matinee
.So we had a spot of Tolstoy instead of going to The Whitworth (another day now i guess).
 We saw Anna Karenina.I dont know why..It;s not like she ever came to see us..........
 It is,of course,theatre-in-the-round & our cheap seats were right at the front on low benches, so we got to see it all up close.
Ive never seen the Boy Tolstoy before ,but i thought it rather good.
Fine acting & it was quite funky having a Afro-Caribbean Karenia.
I recommend it.Its on until 2nd May.
Above are some random photos I tookbefore & after.

Thursday, April 09, 2015

live at Zeppelinfeld, Nuremberg

My take on the theme this week is old posters.
This is a British Labour Party poster from 1948.
 If the Tory Party wins the UK General Election in May,it will sell off our free National Health Service.And turn it into a USA-style paying system.
Its as brutal as that.
It's important the Tories lose. 
For a fact ,if Labour don't get in power I will lose my public sector  job.Really.It's as personal to me,as that...........
This is a sepia saturday post.



Went Indian Mealing in Hebden Bridge's Eastern Spice tonight. 
With Bob:Noj,John .Jim & Ken.Hurray!
Bob Dylan:Live at the Zeppelinfeld, Nuremberg, Germany; July 1, 1978. The show is imbued with additional meaning since the Zeppelinfeld was constructed in the ’30s and was the site for the Nazi Party rallies between 1933 and 1938 and can be seen in the film Triumph Of The Will. That a Jewish artist such as Bob Dylan preformed there 40 years later provides a special irony for the setting.

Balloon

If you love the Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout, Go-Betweens, Michael Head and all that good stuff, then you should give this a listen..........  ...