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

ßénchplayer · live at the BEAR CAFE in Todmorden

live at the BEAR CAFE in Todmorden

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

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

Love To Mothers

 

 

We Saw & heard live music this week!

ßénchplayer · sandy

audio:Sandy Denny live :

 I saw heard her live once at Krumlin

England's finest singer!

In other news, I get my first Covid jab on Monday

Hazel of the Rocks (Nawglan , the Sacred Nine )

ßénchplayer · Hazel Of The Rocks

Many thanks to Matt Steady was sent me this promotional c.d. this week., with his blessing to share a track here.

All grand music ( ten tracks) Spoiled for choice!

Here is some info on Matt https://mattsteady.bandcamp.com/

Clementina from Cheti

I took this photo in italy a few years ago.

 

The Lamp Of Memory in Todmorden Park

 

2 pictures I took. 

"1921 by Gilbert Bayes. 2 small sculptures are of children in Portland stone one called "THE LAMP OF MEMORY...

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1314108

How To Confuse Priti Patel ?

 

My Grandmother Helen

 Who Died in Childbirth, So even my Mum never knew her........

Linda Thompson ( of Richard & Linda Thompson fame) said this was "Amazing" when I posted on facebook today.

Memo to Sir Keith

 

love will tear us apart again

ßénchplayer · trades club hebden bridge

NOUVELLE VAGUE: Academy 3, Manchester, UK; May 21, 2007.

 

If dreams were lightning

 

This Week.

Me outside a window of the Hope Gallery in Hebden Bridge.

 Making an Exhibition of myself.......

ßénchplayer · Making An Exhibition of Myself

audio: John Prine 1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine 

and a bonus! we bumped into the lovely Bea in Hebden!

Cragg Vale : a diamond as big as your shoe

ßénchplayer · Under The Red Sky

a photo I took walking up to the sulphur spring on Tuesday

 at " Stinky Hole"

doesn't look like me at all

ßénchplayer · A Girl getting a Tattoo in East London ( 1960's )

what's the message here ?

The paint was still wet & I got purple paint on the back of my jacket.......

ßénchplayer · I Walk On Guilded Splinters

lockdown

 

ßénchplayer · lockdown

in Hebden Bridge today

 

No boat's gonna row

 

Just checked my feet and the Levee did not break today!

Below, a tv reporter & cameraman today in Mytholmroyd.............

 

The last few days have been daft down the Valley 

Because of Covid restrictions , the only people on the streets are TV Reporters.

 I have seen at least 3 different channels reporting here . Not here to help, only to "feel our pain" and photograph it !

trying to remember Amherst....

ßénchplayer · Vashti Bunyan

liberal smiles.....

Mr Corbyn refused to have dinner with Trump. but Johnson backed him for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

 This is all you need to know about the UK establishment and liberal politics in general. 

Saying that , today I bought a great big greasy tub of Brylcreem . The first time in 20 years.

 "The Starmer Effect"?

 

Happy New Year

About 13 months ago I was canvassing for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party.

 During Which , In Todmorden ,I remember passing a graveyard and seeing this statue 

I thought i must come back later and photograph it. 

This week I did.

(some of ) my best photos of 2020

View large & download here: 

 https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Photos-2020/

Los Ojos de Pancha

 

 

 

Veronica Fernandez Zimnoch lives in Argentina.She's a Lawyer in Buenos Aires  She's my Great Grand Niece.

Her Grandad, & my Uncle, was  Antonio Zimnoch (my namesake) . He was ten years younger than my Dad. They last saw each other in 1939 when my dad was conscripted into The Soviet Army ( later to desert and join the Free Polish Airforce  in UK.)

After the war, my uncle married an Italian lass and moved to Argentina.

Apart from the occasional letter , they never contacted each other.Although ,oddly , they died within weeks of each other in 1984.

I still keep in touch with Veronica via facebook.

Antonio Zimnoch : my namesake.

Christmas Sorted

Our Mouse

cs&n '68 Ken Kersley in Halifax on Tuesday.

 

The History Of The Labour Party

x

Dance Cards

August 3, 1979

ßénchplayer · LOCKDOWN DECEMBER 1

So the swimming pool, Gym and Libraries are back open. That leaves only Gigs:Theaters: Saunas and Movies to tick off my dance card.....(probably other things also, that i have simply forgotten!)

Rave On : John Steinbeck and Miles Davis

 

So i took this photo at a Christmas Bash at The Hebden Bridge Trades Club 5 years ago.

 At the time it looked so "old and Great Depression Era" Looks fairly contemporary  now....... 

I guess we dress up in the clothes we really want to wear?

ßénchplayer · 1971

7.5.1971 Fillmore West

The Top Of Scout Rocks

I took a nice walk up to Scouts Rock this afternoon .

 Here is a photo I took of the ßénch at the top of the walk up there .

 The sun was just going down..... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scout_Rock 

 

Some of my recent "Walking Pictures"https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/INNOVATION/

 

Lockdown Two

𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘈𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘦, 𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢 𝘔𝘦𝘴𝘢, 𝘊𝘈; 𝘈𝘶𝘨𝘶𝘴𝘵 18, 1989.

ßénchplayer · Lockdown 2

𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝑳𝒆𝒆 ~ 𝑳𝒆𝒗𝒐𝒏 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒎 𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒅 : video: