Saturday, September 13, 2014

he's the hairy handed gent who ran amuck in Kent

It was Ken Kersley's 62 birthday today.We went into Halifax tonight for a few drinks  to examine the Olden Days.......
Here are some pictures of that.......
Happy Birthday Comrade Ken!

 By the way.... Jack The Ripper was NOT Polish !The media,she tells lies..... (read the truth  here)

Friday, September 05, 2014

An Architect's Dream.



The audio is of Kate Bush in London on August 26, 2014.
She is singing
"An Architect’s Dream".

The image is a still from a video I took today on my Hebden Bridge Patio. (for some reason I cant upload it here.You will have to be my friend on facebook to see it,I'm afraid)  The video is of an Ice-Bucket Challenge i did.The money is for Cancer Care.
Phil the x-Fireman's daughter Rowena asked me to do it.
Phil himself has cancer.He started a 5-week radiotherapy & chemotherapy course of treatment this week at NHS Cookridge:Leeds .
Please pray for him.
[ps Thanks Clive :the Polish CD arrived today,Much Thanks Sir.] 
If anybody wants the entire 3cd set of Kate Bush's opening night,just let me know & i will run you off copies.(This includes 2 video clips!)
.Never Forget ,All Property is Theft!
 I was a bit bemused by all the media hype about her  last week.
You would have thought that Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley had been brought back to life! 
I like the lass well enough.(but  ,why no Northern Dates?)
To me,she is Peter Gabriel in Frock  (this is not a bad thing........)
+I suspect she is one of Cameron's Babe's .Non? 
Saying That,if someone had have given me a free ticket,I would have gone see her! In any event...here she is Climbing That Hill

Friday, August 29, 2014

now all the bonny birds have wheeled away


Danko, Fjeld & Andersen: Live at Skitz & Roll, Bagno di Gavorrano, Italy, December 4, 1994. {source:}

Saturday, August 23, 2014

our feet get bigger as we get older(who knew?)


r
A photo of Len presenting me with one of his old string vests.It was to be part of my 'costume' as The Polish Builder in The Village People on a Stag Do in Benidorm

A personal best today!
 I swam two miles in Sowerby Bridge Pool before 930am!
The reason for my being there was that ,next door to the pool, was my NHS Podiatry.I was later visiting for an ingrowing toe nail.
My Foot Nurse  told me that ,as you get older,your feet tend to get bigger.Imagine!
 I told her that it was nice to know that something got bigger when you got older (she looked at me as if I was a bit  soft.......)

These photos I took in Rochdale tonight.Some of the lads from The Rochdale Hamam met for a drink
.A nice night.Thanks for the organisation,Martin (& your photos of Carter Lane Youth Hostel ( where I lost my virginity)
I was sorry to hear about the death of Len from Marsden.
Len fought the 2nd World War in North Africa ,The Middle East  then up the spine of Italy. I knew him in his later years  at The Rochdale Hamam. Rest  Yourself Now, In Peace , Len X



Saturday, August 16, 2014

behind garden walls

Evinize gelen yeni bireyden ötürü sizi kutlarız!
I hear from Ayse that she gave birth in Montreal this week! Welcome Baby Zehra ! Much Love From Tony   X

A wee timeline to inform this post:
*February 16th 1968 saw The Beatles,Mike Love,Mia Farrow,Donovan travel to India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh.

*July 12th 1968 saw The Belfast Orange March .(which was to be the last trouble-free  march for 30 years)

*5th 1968  saw the start of Northern Ireland's "Troubles": {"The Troubles:1968-1998"}

My brother Ziggy gave me & Phil (the X-Fireman) a lift in his car to catch the Heysham -Belfast ferry. It was 1968.
This was my second holiday without my Mam & Dad.The previous year, 5 of us from School had hired a caravan in Great Yarmouth.
This time only me & Phil.  As i write this I realize that , for the first time , Belfast was the  only occasion we have ever been abroad together.He nearly came to my house in Italy a couple of years ago..but because of his mother's illhealth ,had to cry off at the very last minute .)
Anyway......I knew nothing about Northern Ireland politics..I didn't know it was going to blow up only months after we had been there.
In fact Belfast harbor itself 'blew my mind'.A big beefy Policeman glared at us as well walked off the ferry.A big fat gun on his hip....It looked more like a Chicago mobster movie to me...I felt like Elliot Ness on a Mission....
Phil's dad Bob was a Protestant Ulsterman.  His family lived on the Shankhill Road. Phil had never been before,so we had to walk with our rucksacks through the terraced streets .They all still had the archways & bunting & dates& King Billy scrawled on walls from the previous month's Orange March......Seriously fucking weird.
Phil had primed me beforehand."Dont talk about religion" "tell 'em your CofE";We were hitching from Belfast to Dublin afterwards.The agreement was we swapped religion at the border.
(Strangely.Phil would join The British Army a couple of years later & patrol those same borders again.)
His family made me very welcome .Being both Cof E & an English accent gave me browny -points i guess..........
After as couple of days we set of out of Belfast.Camping &hitching our way to The Free State.
Eventually we got to Dublin.Staying in a Youth Hostel opposite Mountjoy Prison
After that we walked inland........eventually  staying  in a pretty rural Youth Hostel on the other side on Bray.It  had a   Graveyard  with  bodies of Germany Navy sailors from World War 2.
we stayed for several  days R&R....& meeting new arrivals.  It was like a scene from Easy Rider! This American dude & beard rode his motorbike into town with a very young girlfriend in tow (she must have been 10 years his minor).
The Irish wife of the hostel warden was scandalized ( she looked like the housekeeper from Father Ted).But she let them stay a night (saying something to the effect of 'Good Riddance' as they rode off into the horizon the following morning)
He was a really friendly bloke.Said they were from California .They were just touring Europe for a few weeks on their own.
Thing was.He looked like Mike Love from The Beach Boys.We were too shy to ask him more......Now this may have been an opportunity missed?But ,on the other hand, our silence then allowed us to dine out on the possibility ever since!
A few weeks after returning to England, i happened to be reading in the NME that Mike Love had spent August 'holidaying in Europe'.......who knows? Perhaps....? From this distance , its nice to imagine that Me & Phil might have had a couple of walk-on parts in the The Californian  Dream.
Phil The Pre-Fireman  in 1966

Say a prayer to any gods you know.My best friend Phil is going through hard times at the moment.I have known him since we went to school together in 1963. He is like a second brother to me.I have many tales to tell.Watch this space! The Summer of 65 ,on hearing I was going with my family to relatives in Poland,he asked me to "Bring Back A Piece Of The Iron Curtain".I have been trying to do that for him ever since.......we shall call it unfinished business..
{. Sandy Denny & Fairport Convention: Like An Old Fashioned Waltz :Live at Clark University, Worcester, MA; April 27, 1974. }

Ken,Tony ,Phil & Iris: This Afternoon in Halifax.
Some photos [here] from this special meeting today in Halifax.Much Love is Here. No doubt,I will talk later about this all .....

Saturday, July 26, 2014

retail therapy [shop till you drop]

Visit www.bdsmovement.net to get more info on how you can to support Palestinian commercial rights.

I attended this day of action in Manchester today  to protest about the murder of ,now, 1000 Palestinians by Israel.
Last week had seen an even  larger march in Manchester.
today's march was smaller ,maybe because of the "Direct Action" element?
Today was a walk  through the city centre.Stopping off at Banks & businesses that support Israel.
It ended at the Kedem shop on King Street.
Kedem has now been targetted for 7  days.Today we were met by a couple of hundred people who supported the shop.They waved Israel flags & union jacks and were not happy (they lost another whole day's trade today..Ironically their 'friends' helped to prevent any shoppers going  anywhere near the place)
Kedem is an upmarket beauty product shop that sells stuff made in Israel & sourced from the Dead Sea.
One of the Kedemians  was rather rude to a young Muslim woman who had brought her young children on the protest.
"You should be ashamed of yourself bring children to such a dangerous place" she spat in the Muslims face.Which is rather ironic.Non?

Thursday, July 24, 2014

So mournful that the dove just laughs the steadfast gasps


Oh, to be not anyone
Gone this maze of being skin
Oh, to cry not any cry
So mournful that the dove just laughs the steadfast gasps

Oh, to owe not anyone
Nothing to be
Not here but here
Forsaking equatorial bliss

Who walked through the callow mist
Dressed in scraps
Who walked the curve of the world
Whose bone scraped, whose flesh unfurled

Who grieves not, anyone gone to greet lame
The inspired sky amazed to stumble
Where God's get lost
Beneath the southern cross

Friday, July 18, 2014

rocking in the free world


Photo taken in Burnley by Michael H Gregg In the meantime please consider this......
.Neil Young's Israel Concert Cancelled To Not 'Put People In Gaza Rocket Range At Unnecessary Risk'
.Indeed .Poor Zion..
I took these photos in Burnley Municipal Cemetery this morning.
I had given Chris a lift for an Interview he was having with Burnley Council's  Parks & Garden Dept.(he finds the result of this within the next couple of weeks)
Quite a surreal place to have a job interview ! But a pleasant wait for me.

































Burnley has it's own muslim area of burial.
This morning I  said  prayers for the murdered innocent men,women & children of  the current  Gaza Ghetto Uprising
 May they rest in peace
 & may their Israeli murders find some apropriate  punishment. somewhere down the line.....
Plus,Burnley has  a fine War Memorial for the British dead in two World Wars
.Also,a surprise, a memorial for The Hapton Valley Colliery Disaster 1962
To my shame,I had never known about.......
The new Hapton Valley Colliery soon acquired the name Spa Pit on account of the discovery of a mineral spring around 1818 by Ambrose Eastwood a local farmer. The spring was close by the new pit, and the name adopted. The method of coal extraction at this time at Hapton Valley would have been by pick and shovel working the pillar and stall method of extraction........
....The most fateful day in the collieries history of course was the disaster of March 22 nd. 1962, when a total of nineteen men perished...........
"The Ship Song" Nick Cave: Live at the Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany; February 13, 2013.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

may you never.....

Ciao Pennadomo! Possiedo Via Caldora n.43.
I currently work three days a week. (Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday).So when I approached my line manager  recently to ask if "I may work Thursday 10th July in order to go on Strike" She thought it a pretty fucking stupid idea.
Which i guess it was!
 Anyway,today i wasn't technically  withdrawing my labour...But I was there anyway.
The Gentle Author & Pauline ,from Work,picket the Halifax Council Buildings during today's National Strike.

JOHN MARTYN "May You Never" Live at the Teatro Antoniano, Bologna, Italy; May 18, 1977. John Martyn ,you will recall, pissed on my shoes in a gents toilet in Liverpool in 1979.Read all about it[ here ]



The Rolling Stones:Live at the Ernst-Merck-Halle, Hamburg, Germany; September 13, 1965
.SATISFACTION.
 Sir Mick sounds drunk/stoned/Outatune!

Friday, July 04, 2014

up the junction

Squeeze:Live at the O2 Academy, Glasgow, Scotland; November 23, 2010. [soundboard]
Me & Cath spent a couple of days in Harrogate.We returned home tonight.
Harrogatians  are gearing up for the Tour De France, which starts tomorrow
Here are a few of my photos.
The Tour comes near  my house in Hebden Bridge on Sunday.Hopefully some more photos from that next week?
.Two  intial thought.....
The hotel me & Cath stayed in last night cost us £89.
We stopped in the St George's Hotel
[On the other side of the road, was where we saw T-Bone Burnett & Elvis Costello play live at in The Royal Hall on the 9th November 1984 .]
Tonight the same room will cost some poor soul  £325 per night!(Le Tour goes through Harrogate both days.It's something of a "hub")
Plus,my house is 50 yards from the Hebden Bridge route on Sunday,what a shame I didnt get me a UKIP flag during the recent elections.Had I one,I would wave it with vigour this weekend....
This weekend in Yorkshire Bike Riding appears to be "the new Rock & Roll" (as opposed to football or tennis...*sniggers*) Only fair then,I should share the best ever Rock N Roll video about Cycling.I give you Wild Billy Childish and The Buff Medways...............
..............Eat Your Heart Out Bradley Wiggins..

We have talk of 30,000 folk turning up in Hebden Bridge on Sunday to watch the tour de france.Hebden Bridge is known as "the lesbian capital of Britain".It is illegal for women to take part in the Tour.[DISCUSS] [above-press to play]Elvis Presley/Heartbreak Hotel:Live at the Freedom Hall, Johnson City, Tennessee; March 17, 1976.
n.b. you can hear the entire (good quality) Johnson City 1976 concert here

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Sometimes Hebden Bridge tries too hard:Sometimes it becomes a parody of itself..........

here are some random photos taken in Hebden Bridge today.
+Me and Cath went to the Birchcliffe Centre.Can I say some nice things about PoesCeramics.Very Good & Very Well Priced.Buy ALL Your Christmas Presents from them this year!

Friday, June 27, 2014

cant find my way home.


Really Nice To See Bob from Bacup  & Noj & John & Jim in Hebden Bridge at The Eastern Spice with Ken & Phil the X-Fireman.Thank You All.Again soon I think. I am blessed with friendship.

The main audio is Steve Winwood recorded Live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Telluride, CO; June 20, 2014.Just 7 days ago!{An old Blind Faith song ,as I recall....] The second audio here (press to play) is Fleetwood Mac/ Peter Green live in New Orleans,; January 30, 1970.Who knows where the time goes...?
Finally. I've been really interested in Edinburgh's Young Fathers.They first appeared to me in January.They are so good.I love everything about them.
They are trying to break America.Good Luck Guys!The Music they make is rather special........If you like what you hear,give me a shout & I will run you off a copy of the latest album.The ghost of Jackie Leven lives on!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

I'm Ready To Go Anywhere........

Image by Arthur Tress.
Audio by  The Byrds
Me & Phil the X-Fireman and Ken went supping in hebden Bridge on 18th june 2014. Here are some photos.....

Thursday, June 12, 2014

the small man builds cages for everyone.~Hafiz خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎

"The past is not just a foreign country, but also one we are all exiled from. Like all exiles, we sometimes long to return. That longing is called nostalgia. Whether it is triggered by a photograph, a first kiss or a treasured possession, nostalgia evokes a particular sense of time or place. We all know the feeling: a sweet sadness for what is gone, in colours that are invariably sepia-toned, rose-tinted, or stained with evening sunlight.

The term “nostalgia” was coined by Swiss physicians in the late 1600s to signify a certain kind of homesickness among soldiers. Nowadays we know it encompasses more than just homesickness (or indeed Swiss soldiers)......." {read more}
{Don ;a mile & a half today in Halifax swimming pool! a personal best! hurray!}

I'm "off-on one" again........This,I can confidently say, is the only blog in the whole wide world that you will ever experience (in a single post!)  combined memories of 1960/70/80's Rugby League: an audio of good+rare live  Americana music (the late Levon Helm):the existential angst of late 17th century Swiss soldiers: 14th century Persian poetry:the early days of Dr Who; a critiqe of British kitchen sink movies of 1963;a positive Muslim spin (in these rather stupid Islamaphobic days.....) :and good toilet etiquette while visiting the Ladies in Asda's loo in Halifax.Good for me ...Hurray!
Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī (Pesian خواجه شمس‌‌الدین محمد حافظ شیرازی‎), known by his pen name Hāfez (حافظ; also Hāfiz; 1325/26–1389/90), was a Persian poet.
His collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran. who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day. His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-fourteenth century Persian writing more than any other author...........[ wikipedia]
This Sporting Life:Rotten Tomatoes


Richard Harris & Dr Who  in the movie "This Sporting Life" which was filmed at Thrum Hall.


You can  listen here to The Rugby League Oral History Project's entry on Thrum Hall. .
Maybe you might also read the wikipedia entry on Thrum Hall.
When Alan described this week's Theme, he suggested it might be "...... one thing on top of another. It's straight lines fading into infinity. It's the stations of the cross. It's whatever you want it to be...".
I chose to interpret it  as this one   location, but at  different times.
The composition of these photos are by no means exact .for example,they are not at  the  same angle.But they are near enough.(nb had i stood today in  the exact spot, I would have had to whip my camera out & stand  ontop of  a toilet  seat in Asda'a Ladies lavvy!)
Its all quite near enough tho.The terrace housing you see in the 3nd photo is part of the same terrace you also see in the 4th photo.
The 3nd  photo was taken in 1979.The 4th photo i took this afternoon at Asda supermarket in Halifax.
Objectively, 2 totally different scenes.Only someone old enough to remember the Thrum Hall Rugby League ground would know it had ever been there.
I find it very strange how my architecture keeps evaporating.I always expected people I knew to die and disapear from me .I never (for some reason) expected my physical world to disapear like smoke too..
(I've already mentioned here the importance of Thrum Hall to me. ...........)
n.b. this was a pre-season summer "friendly" game.Hence the weeds & sparse bodies. The ground's capacity & highest attendance was 29,000.


This is a Sepia Saturday post.
 

Saturday, June 07, 2014

I've seen Pretty people disappear like smoke..............


A cool couple of days.I went to see John Renbourne & Wizz Jones at the Band on The Wall in Manchester on Thursday night with Cath,Don & Margaret.
Then on Friday me & Cath went to Sowerby Bridge for a Work's knees-up. Some pictures. Clive.Thanks for the mail.I will reply & also send three Blackbushes!

Friday, May 30, 2014

“I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.” ~RUMI.

[n.b.click to  read more about the mighty Muslim Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī ]
Meanwhile.........Sepia Halifax Gives You A Permanent Wave............
This is a Sepia Saturday post.
Lets not talk about why I'm not posting much words & thinking here at the moment!
 I,m not sure why! But-hey!-I'm here today.......[smiles]

Photo Cube





This week's Sepia Topic is "Hair".And here is mine.I guess I wore it long between around 1971 to 1978.The  colour photo above is of me at Lancaster Uniy in 1978.(I look a bit of a plum.'Was still stoned from the night before-as i recall........)
The black & white ones (in the cube) are inbetween  i.e.the end of my time nursing in Todmorden:Youth Hostel Wardering in London; & at college in Liverpool 73-77.
It still stayed long post 78 but was in severe retreat!

By the way, If your Stateside, I know you sometimes get British TV series. If a show called "Happy Valley" . appears anytime, try and catch it.It's rather good good! Plus its shot 100% on Location in Calderdale (Halifax,Hebden Bridge,Sowerby Bridge,et all) If you like the photos both me & Alan share (eg the one above) you can see more here.
"Halifax Noir" I believe the future may call it (thow nose).......

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

I used to make phantoms I could later chase ........

If you wish to see these images all together Click Here

It is Cathy's birthday today.
On the strength of which,we caught the  train to Manchester  for a meal & a look around.
If we had known the weather would have been so hot ,'have gone somewhere greener& cooler.
Shame on you, BBC weather forcasters! The sooner UKIP get in Power & give us back our English weather the better!
Here are some photos from our visit to The Peoples History Museum and The John Rylands Library :[Both New To Cath.]
The only sadness of the day was our sweaty walk to The 8th Day veggie cafe near the Uniy on Oxford Street.Rubbish.Avoid like the plague.It nearly spoiled the day.....

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Walk Like A Giant.

The Government wants to close my local Accident&Emergency Unit in Halifax.
I went on a March yesterday to protest.
Here are some photos I took.
Neil Young joined the protest in my head.........
.
*Also in my head was the thought that we passed within 100 yards of the birthplace (in 1900) of Halifax's greatest author/soldier/Marxist , Ralph Winston Fox on Rawson Avenue.*

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

the travellers rest .



 
Sometimes it simply is not your fault.You dont change, yet change still happens all around you anyway.But,as the I Ching would say :"No Blame".
On  odd occassions (since the demolition of The Rochdale Hamam) I now stop off at St Peter's swimming pool in Burnley for a sauna.Its actually part of the NHS Trust.It's a newish complex.
I cant say I care for the sauna there too much.The facilities are fine enough.Big steam room:Big Swimming Pool:Big Sauna:Big Jacuzzi.But ,typically,the  architects & designers forgot about the most important (yet most intangible ) thing.The sociability of the people who  use a building!
The experience for me there is spoiled by the lack of les Craic.
For me,the best saunas or turkish baths are those where people  sit in a communal area..face to face, and talk.Much like a good pub (minus clothes& alcohol!)
Burnley has none of that.All you get is a long horizontal row of plastic chairs outside the sauna& steam.With your back pressed against  a large glass brick wall that backs off to the swimming pool.You see nothing but a wall facing you.You dont even have  enough room to  stretch your legs.
It's like some  clinical waiting room corridor.No good at all for talking (your more likely to get whiplash than a conversation from such daft  poses......)The seats are squashed so tightly together you couldnt even move them (even if you had somewhere to move them too) .
Its strange how a building design hampers behaviour.Its almost designed to stop people staying too long......
Anyway.On Tuesday night I took this photo from the  car park there.Another example of buildings not being able to talk to one another?
The reason i took the photo is my interest in  "Ghost Signs"
Can you makeout the word  "HOTEL" ?
Yet you cannot  access this building  from the car park.The iron ladder you see runs to a deep,dark narrow canal below.......with no bridge across to it.
Who the hotel was actually meant for,I do not know.The other side of the building is now fast foods On t'other side , it  runs onto a dual carriageway .
Perhaps in the Olden Days  different roads & different buildings might have interested a person to rest their head .... sadly not any more...........



This is a sepia saturday post.
"...dancing, folk traditions or very silly poses..." is the prompt this week.Here you see one of my Aunt Brenda's Essex College photos from the 1920's.I dont recognise Brenda in it.Perhaps she was behind the camera....?
 
 
On Monday I attended the funeral of my neighbour of 28 years,Paul (pictured below).
A humanist service.Not a vicar ,priest or wreath in sight.
The service was led by Eileen O'Brien an actress who also lives on our road.
Anybody who is familiar with British telly will recognise her face.eg she's been in Coronation Street:East Enders;Brookside;Emmerdale.
The Service was very moving.Standing room only at Park Wood Crem.
No hymns or suchlike.Rather about a dozen or so of Paul's family & friend read out their favourite memories of his life.
(I must say, I would be intrigued if my funeral was like this.i dread to think what might be said!)
The music for the service included the Sandy Denny song Who Knows Where The Time Goes. And Tom Paxton You are Love.
R.I.P.PAUL.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Halifax Pubs 10th April 2014

I am being very lazy recently.
Ken Kersley.Mixenden.Halifax.Woodbrook Mixenden Clarences Halifax Percival Whitely College Exley

Phil's Birthday

  My friend of 60 years Phil got married just a week ago to Iris . (He died last Sunday ) .  Today was Phil's Birthday . We went o...