Friday, October 26, 2018

day by day......

 Shirty got his nickname because he walked around with his long hair flowing,
his shirt-tail hanging out.......
 I always remember at least four or five young girls following him everywhere
.A babe -magnet!
As a 15 year old, i wanted to hate his charisma.But  he was such a nice guy. It was hard......
A nice photo taken tonight in Sowerby Bridge.
It was taken by 'Shirty 'Whitehead's daughter,Ellie, (she works behind the bar at The Shepards Rest) It was her birthday yesterday......
Shirty was in the same class as me at school.

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

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..........  ...