Tuesday, June 19, 2018

with Phil & Ken in Halifax

https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Halifax18th-June-2018/

 In February 1985, British birder David Hunt led a tour around India.
One of the stops was Jim Corbett National Park, in Uttar Pradesh, which has a large tiger population. The park provides an armed guard to each group of visitors, and they’re required to stay on the trails. As his party explored the park, though, Hunt heard an unknown call and walked a short distance off the track. Minutes later there was a scream. When his friends rushed to help, they discovered his mauled body in a clearing nearby.
His friend Bill Oddie wrote:
"When David’s body was recovered, so was his camera. Later on, the slides were developed … The first one is a nice close-up of a Spotted Owlet sitting on a branch … Then he must have heard a noise behind him, or maybe just sensed that he was not alone. Keeping crouched, he turned and saw a tiger pacing to and fro at the edge of the clearing.
 The next slide is of the tiger. It is some way away, walking to the right. On the next picture it is walking to the left. In the next one, it is facing the camera. In the next, it has begun to move forward, still looking straight at the lens. 
The next is closer. Then closer. And closer still. The final picture is of a frame-filling shot of the tiger’s head, eyes blazing and teeth exposed in a snarl.
 “If David had kept shooting on his motor-drive, the whole thing must have happened in barely ten seconds,” Oddie added. “Crouched behind a camera, looking through the viewfinder and especially when using a telephoto lens, you don’t realise how close your subject has got. Neither, at the time, do you care. All you are focusing on is the picture. Press cameramen in war situations call it ‘camera blindness.’ It has proved fatal before.”
 (From Oddie’s Follow That Bird!, quoted in Stephen Moss’ A Bird in the Bush, 2004.)

"leaving the stage door": Victoria Theatre, Halifax.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/a-bird-in-the-bush-by-stephen-moss-754874.html

Saturday, June 09, 2018

Thursday, June 07, 2018

at the movie pictures

"Avid photographers celebrate the viewfinder as a means of helping us see the world anew. 
But psychology research has shown that under some conditions taking a photo of something actually makes it harder to remember.
 One possible reason is that we give less attention to an experience when we know that it will be safely stored in a photograph. 
But in a new paper in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Julia Soares and Benjamin Storm from the University of California show that the photo-taker’s memory will suffer whether they expect to keep the photo or not..........." The British Psychological Society

Thursday, May 31, 2018

i blame the hippy at southport station who came up to me & said he knew where I could buy some "cheap grass".......



" Despite all this, I have sympathy for the obsessive photographers........ it’s easy to feel that a memory isn’t evidence enough that something happened. It’s too dreamlike......."
Me & Chris on the road through  Sheranozy (photo taken by Cathy)

The French are so full of shit.
The two most famous things about France are "The  Guillotine" and The   Champs-Elysees,
. right?
Turns out, they were both stolen from the English. 
The Guillotine was invented in
Halifax Yorkshire.
The  Boulevards of Paris  were the brain child of  Louis Napoleon who was exiled  in Southport in 1838. 
He lived near   Lord Street , and when he returned to France he remodeled the city to look like that bit of Lancashire!
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/apr/25/guardianleaders





Two further twists for me.
  • I was born on Lord Street in Halifax.
  •  Once, when visting my Dad's birthplace in Eastern Poland my family proudly showed me the village's one & only Historical Landmark.
 "Look" they said excitedly.I looked where they pointed, but saw nothing but a barren ,empty dirt track. "that" they said "is where "Napoleon's Army marched through on the way to Russia..."
Sometime, you cant see history?

Friday, May 25, 2018

"You're only young once, they say, but doesn't it go for a long time? " Hilary Mantel.


 A few days after the Manchester Bomb 12 months ago a young Muslim lad called Baktash Noon walked into Manchester City centre..........
He then blindfolded himself.
He stood perfectly still. Arms outstretched and proceeded to offer hugs to the other grieving people of Manchester.
With a felt pen, he had written  on a bit of cardboard:
 "I'm a Muslim + I trust you.do you trust me enough for a hug?"
He then  stood alone,  blindfolded, for over an hour.
He was met with hundreds of ,all positive , returns of affection.
A wonderful display of mutual trust.
An example to us all.(I wouldnt ,as a wimp, have had the balls to do that!)
 St Anne's Church in Manchester is currently holding a display of paintings recording this event .
Me & Cath  went to look at this on Wednesday afternoon & to lay some flowers in memory of the 22 people ( the majority ,children)who were murdered.
https://www.manchester.anglican.org  Cathy turned 60 this week. As well as this visit to Manchester on Wednesday, on Monday we went to Liverpool to see the newly opened John & Yoko Exhibition.http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/double-fantasy/
 Here are a few photos of this week.
You can see all these individual images here at https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/
You may view in hi-res: download & share to your hearts content!(You may do this freely, in any manner desired, even without naming the source)




Sunday, May 13, 2018

live at the deaf institute

One of the videos I took .I'm having problems downloading videos files at present(?) So I,ve had to reduce file size & the quality isn't currently as good as it could be/will be.........anyway......
 Thursday night, me & Cath went to Manchester's deaf institute
to see  Simone Felice .
It's the third time we have seen him in the past four years. If you don't know his music, one of his songs ( "Radio Song") was featured on the soundtrack of the recent Oscar winning movie "three billboards"...
Cath  in the downstairs bar.
you can see all the day's photos here: https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Simone-FeliceManchester-Deaf-Institute10-th-May-2018/
I have 3 better videos I will add later once I,ve sorted out my "file-size problems".................
http://www.simonefelice.com/ 

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

"when I speak to kids I tell them the best kung fu move is to run ,dont fight"~ Benjamin Zephaniah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Zephaniah  Apologies.i need to catch up with my comments soon......
Lovely sunny weekend in England.
 see slideshow below for my photos. Me &
Cathy go to Manchester on Thursday to The Deaf Institute to see Simone Felice. https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/May-Day-Bank-Holiday-weekend2018/

Thursday, May 03, 2018

Shall be the maws of kites.........

This week's  sepia saturday ,; seems to be around the themes of people;bathing:seaside; sand; etc
Today I visited (for the first time) Hebden Bridge Antiques Centre well worth a general look around.But what especially pleased me was a big buckety -thing selling old/random sepia photography! Hundreds...!
 Its very unusual to see this nowadays.50p each .Which I thought "not bad".
 it would take me hours to look at them all (must go back next week) but I did find several concerning this week's theme.
 Here are two.(no notes on the back)
the maws of kites (at the seaside!)

On the subject of seachanges , Me & Cathy voted this morning in the UK Local elections. We voted again for Jeremy Corbyn's socialist Labour Party. In addition, I went out canvassing for the party this evening.Here is Cathy pictured with fellow Party member Rodger.
You, my American visitors,remember the name Jeremy Corbyn .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Corbyn 
Think of him as a scruffy, slightly more radical   Bernie Sanders, who rides a bike & grows his own veg...!
He could well be Britain's new Prime Minister within the next 12 months. 
Cathy with Roger O'Doherty.




Friday, April 27, 2018

Evuna

(l/r) Brother Zyg:Me:Sister-in-Law Jean:Jean's sister Mary:Cathy.

A lovely day in Manchester today with my brother Zyg: sister-in-Law Jean: & her sister Mary.
A grand Spanish meal at Evuna on Deansgate.
We also attended a Lunchtime Concert at Chetham's School of Music 
Zyg;Mary;Jean & Cathy Zimnoch.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

hall of mirrors


One figure jumped straight out at me from this week's sepia saturday prompt photo. the elderly lady above (in black )looks very much like my great-grandmother from Perth in Scotland
 I never knew what she looked like until I found an old 4 inch X 4 inch negative among my Mum's effects after she died in September 4 th 2008. I developed that negative. It was rather disturbed by it at the time.

Now I know that genetics pass on similar physical features. But this was more , this lady looks identical to my Mum (albeit , a rather austere version).
The woman in black in the prompt-photo isn't identical in the same way...but certainly near enough to comment on ..................
My Mum, the year before she died.
San Francisco; November 16, 1980

Saturday, April 21, 2018

“Not only the thirsty seek the water, the water as well seeks the thirsty.” [Rumi]




The 2nd bloke on the left, in the photo-prompt on this week's sepia saturday , has a jacket similar to mine !
 A totally pathetic attempt to link, but the best i can come up with, as I haven't contributed for a few weeks.......forgive me!
Me at Leith Docks;aged 10 & fake plastic Marlon Brando jacket!
The post title is given by the beautiful Muslim Poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī  جلال‌الدین محمد رومی(30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi Me & Cathy walked along the canal path between Mytholmroyd & Hebden Bridge yesterday.See the full gallery here https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Mytholmroyd-Canal-Path-April-20-2018/
Also. We have arranged to go around Manchester next Friday with my Brother Zyg &My  Sister-in-Law Jean.
We introduce  them to Chetham Library   http://library.chethams.com/
 & attend a music recital at the Stoller Hall http://stollerhall.com/
So.We go see/look/touch/ Karl Marx's desk
And the burn mark of the devil's hoof!
 "......Dee lived in Chetham's School - then Christ's College, home to the priests of the Church - and a table from Dee's time there still exists in the Audit Room. 
 It bears evidence of a story which blew up around Dee and eventually put paid to his term as warden. Upon it is a circular burn mark - a mark which, it is said, was made by the hoof of Satan, after Dee summoned him to seek advice and wisdom....." [read more]
the burn mark of the 'devil's hoof'! another link to the photo prompt!!!!

Saturday, April 14, 2018

the projector

Mytholmroyd at 1pm today.Watching Mr Corbyn.I'm actually there (behind the big bearded bloke taking a photo....stood next to my mate Nigel) It's just that you cant see me for Corbynmamia!.......


*Just a couple of days ago peoples momentum
launched their new website*
Friday the 13th ;Simone Felice released his new album.
Saturday Me & Cathy booked tickets to see him play at The Deaf Institute in Manchester on May 10th.It's the 3rd time we will have seen him play..... Today I went canvassing for the Labour Party in Mytholmroyd.
Its the first time I have knocked on doors since 1983.
I had got an extra email yesterday saying a "special guest" might appear at Mytholmroyd Community Centre during our Saturday's lunch break .
I wondered if it might be Jeremy Corbyn?
.It turned out I was right (throughout the morning we wondered if he would actually turn up,given the overnight bombing of Syria)
But he did(via Huddersfield) Even though it was short notice & secret 'word of mouth'
The hall was packed. A fine man who will be the next British Prime Minister. He had a few choice words for Mr Trump.
A Video of Jeremy Corbyn entering the building just 200 yards from where we live .
 Jeremy Corbyn told us today in Mytholmroyd that Theresa May had rung him late last night to say she was bombing Syria immediately........
"What do think?"She asked him
 "What do you think I think?" he replied...........
Ancoats 2015 
Hebden Bridge 2014 

Saturday, April 07, 2018

vote labour

Me & Cathy went to a Labour Party Fund Raiser at Arden Road ,Halifax on Friday night.
14th April I will begin canvassing for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party in Mytholmroyd.
My teeth are on the mend........

A massive Shout Out to The Outsiders from Leeds.
Who were the first of the night's 4 acts.
They sang probably the best political song I have ever heard live.
Bravo!

Sunday, April 01, 2018

abscess makes the heart grow fonder.........

Once Brexit comes, we can,finally,  make those "Pedostrians" fuck off
yea?
Thank you Cathy for taking this photo & thank you for your vigilance 
.Dont you ever let those  bastards grind you down.......you are worth a  million of them.

One of the things I miss most about retirement is not being able to moan at work about being "a bit poorly"
.I was never off-sick.
Instead,I used to find comfort in going into Work and whinging to everybody about what a brave soldier I was.......!
 'cant do that no more.
I will have to blog about it instead...you lucky buggers!
This week I seem (i think) to have developed a tooth/gum abcess.I guess  i need to do something about that. .......
Anyway. I renewed my Labour Party membership last week.I dropped down to £2 a month as I'm now an O.A.P.
Given all this bollocks against Mr Jeremy Corbyn I must begin to be more active in the local party and  join Momentum
By the way Don.Thanks again for the Bob Dylan 'jesus' CD's.
I guess you saw BBC Arena .?  It was even better than I had expected it to be Bob Weir & Phil Lesh.Radio City Music Hall, New York: March 3, 2018
A few photos of when me Don & Margaret went to hear/see  Bob Weir in Manchester (what year was that? no date on the album)  [here:]

perfectly aligned with the zeitgeist

(above)The Labour Party & the MSM.
(below)

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

the British monarch is descended from the Prophet Muhammad

Cathy's Spring Flowers - Rainbow Tulips.



"QUEEN ELIZABETH must claim her right to rule Muslims.” 
So ran a recent headline on the Arab Atheist Network, a web forum. 
It was only partly in jest. According to reports from Casablanca to Karachi, the British monarch is descended from the Prophet Muhammad, making her a cousin of the kings of Morocco and Jordan, not to mention of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader. 

 The claim, first made many years ago, is gathering renewed interest in the Middle East. Why is not clear, but in March a Moroccan newspaper called Al-Ousboue traced the queen’s lineage back 43 generations. Her bloodline runs through the Earl of Cambridge, in the 14th century, across medieval Muslim Spain, to Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter. 


[The Economist] 

Saturday, March 24, 2018

mainstream negroes that look like Jesus....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Fathers
 In Manchester last night at The Ritz seeing Young Fathers x

Mainstream negroes that look like Jesus. 



the sounds a bit tinny on my video here.But the picture is ok.A Lovely venue (full-house,1,500 souls)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ritz_(Manchester) 
https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Young-Fathers-23-rd-March-2018Manchester-Ritz/  a Shout Out to Halifax couple Maciek & Anna Platek who me & Cath met up with in Manchester at this gig.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Those Feng Shui at Stinky Hole ßlues

Nothing much new to show this week.
It been fucking boring.
The most exciting thing to happen these past days has been my  trip up to " Stinky Hole " to draw some fresh sulphur spring water for my eczema.
 I'm not even convinced it does any good.
But at least the smell takes my mind off scratching. .................
Hopefully my next posts will be more interesting. 
Friday/Saturday me and Cath go see Young Fathers at The Manchester Ritz. 
The following Thursday ,about ten of us from the various Halifax/Rochdale & Bacup Tribes meet up in Manchester's Chinatown for a curry ( a rearranged date, due to snowfall on March 1st)
Yesterday I was chatting to the Estate Agent we are renting our current flat/apartment from.
 He told me that the former tennant here was a 70 year widower.An ex-Labour Councillor and Model Railway Enthusiast 
He lived alone  and used to run a railway track throughout the 2-bedroom/2 bathroom flat.
 I'm am still trying to 'process' this information....
I dont know what to make of it?
 I cant help thinking it would have totally fucked - up the Feng Shui.......?

Friday, March 16, 2018

Trivial Pursuits

So.
1970.
 I was 18.
And working as a nursing assistant/'Cadet Nurse' at Stansfield View Hospital in Todmorden.
Then,one weekend ,I was off
so.....
I wanted to go to " A  Festival"...........



......which  all started so well for me! 
having  grown my hair: got meself all the 'right'clothes:had watched "Easy Rider" a couple of times:and was in the middle of my first Herman Hesse novel.
So I felt like a
Debutant,entering 'Society'  for the first time.

The first thing that happened to me was a young 'hippy'with a London accent walk up to me   to ask
"Where are the toilets ,Man"?
 I had arrived.I  had been recognised as one of the tribe........



"When the Humblebums appeared on Saturday evening it started to rain even harder and because the stage roof was flat , water quickly collected and poured through onto the musicians . During the course of their performance the drummer played with an umbrella up and there were constant interruptions due to workmen coming on stage to drill holes in the floor to let the rain out. ..."
The above photo is from 1970.In Barkisland ,near Halifax.It is during the  Krumlin Festival
It was billed to be "England's Woodstock" .
A bonkers Idea!  High up in moorland...A torrential storm......Horrible Weather.By the second  night ,the police were handing  out waterproof -sheeting to us baby hippies.......One band ( John Mayall?) had to abandon their set for fear of being electricuted.
One person died overnight from exposure...
Krumlin was abandoned halfway through this 2 day  storm.
Between making drug -arrests,the police helped us evacuate.....
The promoter , a  Local   Halifax Lad   called  Brian Highley
vanished alone on foot into the stormy misty moorland.He was 
.".....owing large sums of money to all and sundry or to have wandered off in a fugue-like state , tramping the moors for several days before being rescued in the nick of time before he expired from exposure and dehydration......."[read more:]
  It wasnt all bad though!
For example,it was  the first time I heard & saw live rock music (other than seeing The Troggs a few years earlier at Halifax's Victoria Theatre)
On Krumlin's   first night (before this freak weather came ) I heard Sandy Denny sing :England's finest ever folk voice......It was worth it ,for me,for this alone.
+The Pentangle played live too !
.And a young Elton John made his 'big audience' debut ( handing out bottles of brandy to some in the crowd to keep them warm)
Brian Highley   later went on to invent 'Trivial Persuits ' and script write on British t.v.'s 'Spitting Image'.
Such is life..............
This week's  sepia saturday is around the themes of :
  • RAIN ✔,
  • CHILDREN  unless you count us "children trying to get back to the garden...."? 
  • POLICEMEN ✔,
  • NIGHT:


a section of the 25,000 crowd.Maybe I am one of them?
*vibes=MICHAEL NESMITH & THE FIRST NATIONAL BAND

Sunday, March 11, 2018

is this what your missing ,the diamonds and the gold?

You may need to write this down/ copy&paste/feedburn/whip out your crayons/ etc
...... and tell people?
Exactly 3 years ago, me & Cathy saw Young Fathers play live in Rochdale.
  here: are my images + videos from that night.
We go see them again at the end of this month in Manchester.
 They have a new album out this week.
This is the Guardian Review
You may download "Coca Butter" here:
a photo i took of  them in Rochdale.
 


Wednesday, March 07, 2018

" I used to dream as a child whenever I passed that shop of trying that spaceman looking helmet on and going to the moon lol "

above.....a quote by someone on facebook this week about Scott & Varley
Continuing on from my sepia saturday post last week here is a photo i found today (not even scanned:see my thumb!)
I'm kind of "there"in the photo.But you cant really see me.Maybe an ankle/leg?This is perhaps a reason I have never bothered before with this photo.
I'm in blue.With my back to camera .In the middle of the "scrum".[you will just have to take my word for this!]
Still .It meets a critera for this week's theme of "Sports Fields".

See this week's  other sepian posts  here:

My photo must have been taken in 1966. I played for Clare Hall School, Halifax. We were unbeaten that season.I played in every game as "hooker".[The bloke in the middle of the scrum who has to win/gain the ball for his team]
. The game you see in this photo is being played on Savile Park (aka "The Moor"}.I think it is  Haugh Shaw School we were playing that day.
I seem to remember I got my nose bloodied that day.Sadly I have no photographic record of the exact moment  i lost my good  looks.......... Less than a couple of miles from where this photo was taken in 1966 was Scott & Varey 's Antique Shop on Prescott Street in Halifax.
Antique Shops were an usual thing in 60's Halifax.(everybody then wanted "new").
The shop had opened in the early 1960's .For  a hundred years before ( built in 1862.)It had been the town's  Co-Op/Industrial Society shop.
Scott & Varley's stopped trading  in the early 1970s.
It had been owned by 2 brothers.
One died.The other remained,living above the shop but keeping  the shop below shut.
The strange thing is ,the window display & items for sale have remained unchanged for over 40 years.
The doors are always locked.Nobody asnswers if you knock.
Sometimes,at night, you can see a light on in the back of the shop. Shades of the Twilight Zone!
Its one of those things that if something remains the same for long enough ,you forget about it!
It was only from me reading a facebook discussion this week, that i remembered about its existence .
I  took these photos yesterday
. Incidently.I attended Clare Hall School  between1963&1967 and is only half a mile from Scott& Varleys.
Which means they are displaying the exact same items today, as they did when i was a pupil
it's nice to know some things dont change!
https://zimnoch.smugmug.com/Scott-Varley-Halifax/
A team photo taken straight after the  game on The Moor.(that's me ,extreme right of the bottom row)
I had some nice news today .
The date has been fixed for the 50 th Aniversary of the opening of Carter Lane Youth Hostel in London.
Carter Lane is the old Choirboys School opposite St Pauls in The City of London.
https://www.yha.org.uk/media/blog/hostel-week-archive-london-st-pauls 
 I left school in 1968. I then worked as a nurse in a mental hospital in Todmorden (Stansfield View) In early 1971 I jacked that job in and moved to work at Carter Lane.
I had a ball! Sex Drugs & Rock N Roll!
 I have posted here previously: about some of my adventures!
So.The weekend of 25 th July I plan to attend that weekend reunion!
 We get to look around the building ,then tour the local old pubs inThe City.(a couple are mentioned in Dickens).Meet up with some people I used to work with then( & have kept in touch with since)
(Nine years later I returned to London as a teacher in the East End )
 a feast of nostalgia awaits!

Thursday, March 01, 2018

all and sundry.




This week's sepia saturday holds the theme of "groups".

Feb: 1965.
My brother Zyg's 21st Birthday Party in a club on  Clare Road ,Halifax.
Top Row.(l/r) Uncle Gordon ( ex-RAF prisoner of war in Germany for 3 years):Zyg:Me (stood on a box):my Dad Wladylaw (ex-Polish Air Force /got a gong inThe Battle of Arnheim).
Bottom Row (l/r) Aunty Brenda :My Mam,Marjory : Aunty Dot :Cousin Pat.
1967:
Huddersfield   Road,Halifax.
 (photo by Halifax Courier)
Clare Hall School Rugby League team.1966/67 season.
 That's me 4th left/back row .I dont think it looks much like me ? Behind the cameraman were members of the girls hockey team .I think I was attempting to appear hard  !
1996. me with my Transpersonal Gestalt Oasis  Group in Boston Spa. That's me on the floor 'looking a right spangle!


1999? Rochdale Turkish Baths. Me:front row middle.

"The Shining" meets Hitchcocks's "Birds"................caught by Cath this afternoon in front of our new  Living Room  window..
As I create this post  I listen to this .At the end of March me & Cathy have Tickets for Young Fathers! 'lovely Band!
Finally i found  here:  a mystery photo..............just because everybody is looking at you...doesnt mean your paranoid.

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...