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| Views from Manchester Town Hall Clock Tower 23rd December 2013 |
Tuesday, 31 December 2013
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
Friday, 20 December 2013
Still Life
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| Creating The Illusion: Animation In The North West Museum Of Science and Industry Manchester 30th October 2013 |
Somewhere In My Heart
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| St Luke's Old Street London 25th October 2013 |
"I'm attracted to decay, I suppose; in a way to ugliness, too. A derelict house gets me... I've been going to London once a month for fifty years...but I did almost no work in London except one of St Luke's Church, Old Street. I'd been told it had the ugliest spire in the world. So naturally I had to go and look at it."
LS Lowry
(From 'LS Lowry', Michael Leber & Judith Sandling)
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Hymn To Grace
“The whole thrust of 30 years, it doesn’t matter if you’re skint, you have to plough your own furrow. I’m not an artistic person but if you don’t understand that it’s about the fucking art then I’m not interested.”
Grace Maxwell
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/features/306472-baubles_labels_sliding_doors_kid_canaveral_interview_edwyn_collins
Grace Maxwell
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/features/306472-baubles_labels_sliding_doors_kid_canaveral_interview_edwyn_collins
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Memory Of The Future...Somewhere...Here
“Hullness was the word that they kept using...
“It’s about having the passion, the hunger and the creativity for something and getting on and doing your own thing no matter what anyone outside thinks.
“It’s about recognising that Hull has a great past but also that’s it’s also time to move on to something new and exciting.
“It was the same feeling when Liverpool bid to be European City Of Culture, and the same feeling we got from Derry when they bid to be City Of Culture back in 2010.
“It was a belief in their own city and a desire to tell the world a new story about what there city had to offer.
“Hull is the next one to take on that baton – and it will be hard work.”
“There was real understanding and appetite from all four short-listed cities for the sort of transformational change that a year of culture can bring,” he said.
“But ultimately it was the unanimous verdict of the panel that Hull put forward the most compelling case based on its theme as ‘a city coming out of the shadows’.
“This is at the heart of their project and reminds both its people and the wider world of both its cultural past and future potential".
Phil Redmond - City of Culture judging panel chairman
Read more: http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/City-Culture-status-transform-Hull-says-Culture/story-20105785-detail/story.html#ixzz2lEMu5rtzhttp://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull-s-UK-City-Culture-victory-benefit-Mail/story-20104568-
detail/story.html
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
My October Symphonies
"I never dreamt that I would get to be/The creature that I always meant to be..."
http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/music/40-pieces-of-wisdom-from-pet-shop-boys-lyrics
http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/music/40-pieces-of-wisdom-from-pet-shop-boys-lyrics
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Monday, 23 September 2013
Times Like These
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| Hull Heritage Open Day 2013 Trinity House Chapel From the outside...
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*Caleb's Place houses an antiques centre which is open all year-round
The photos below are are of the stained glass windows in Samman House, formerly Hull Chamber of Commerce, on Bowl Alley Lane. The Heritage Open Days brochure describes them as "the first (photo) depicting shipping through the ages while the second set of four panels were installed 30 years later as part of the city's contribution to the Festival of Britain in 1951, and were gifts from the paint, seed crushing and wholesale grocery trades and depict in detail the processes and places involved in these trades". It was poignant to recognise some of those trades and places and those that have disappeared, in a building whose own use has changed with the times, and will hopefully remain a testament to them.
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Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Tales Of Us
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Goldfrapp Tales Of Us World Premiere Manchester International Festival Albert Hall 17th July 2013 |
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Salford Rainbow
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| Peel Park, Salford - 6th July 2013 (Left: Salford Art Gallery, right & below: Royal Technical College) |
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As I write, Autumn seems to have arrived with a vengeance, and appreciation for the abruptly departed Summer feels oddly overenthusiastic to me, given that it only actually arrived 2 months ago, when I took these photos (only one of the many vivid memories I have of that weekend). Sunshine - in Salford. What would Mr Lowry, who immortalised these very scenes in his art (as well as studying at the Technical College) have made of that pastoral idyll, I could only guess. I can imagine Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, who met and studied at the College too (not at the same time as Lowry though...what a class that would've been!) finding sensuous pleasure and inspiration for their designs on that balmy evening there though...
The New Look in Manchester*
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Gallery of Costume: Platt Hall, Manchester June 2013
I felt very scruffy photographing these very elegant ladies in the rarefied surroundings of Platt Hall. I could only imagine what they got up to when the museum is closed. And yet, looking again, the above photo has quite a forlorn air, as they are lit ethereally by the natural light of the window, yet can't see anything. Even if I can never reach their glamorous heights, at least I am thankful I have a head. And eyes...
*(No, not that one)
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Preparing for 'Transmission'
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| New Order at Jodrell Bank The day did come - on 7th July - when New Order played live at Jodrell Bank, ably supported by fellow Manc music hero Johnny Marr, who was joined by Electronic partner Bernard Sumner for a 'did I dream this?' performance of Getting Away With It, before he returned with NO. I lost my internet connection just before and have only just been able to access it again, so it's a bit incongruous to be posting this photo of the band before the gig, 2 months ago (from the Live From Jodrell Bank website)...But then the photo itself is pretty incongruous (is that Hooky's New Order book they're proofreading? Or Bernard's?!) and New Order themselves have never been ones to do anything to deadline, have they?! |
Monday, 20 May 2013
Little Bird
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| View from the London Eye 20 May 2011 "Like the wind that leaves the trees all standing Shy and naked as their leaves are landing Who knows where, carried on the air Life lends a hand and then it all starts again" 'Big Ben', Roddy Frame |
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
To Me You Are A Work of Art
For anyone else as gutted as I am that the Bowie V&A exhibition is completely sold out (I'm told 'limited tickets' are available at 9am each day, but anyone who's booked cheap train tickets to London online will probably sympathise with the improbability of booking train tickets 3 months in advance and just turning up on the off-chance)....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/the-northerner/2013/may/07/david-bowie-photographs-brian-duffy?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
...and anyone who saw The Times They Were A Changin' exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery might be amused by Mick McCann's article describing the Aladdin Sane album cover as "the Mona Lisa of album covers", given that that very album cover, and accompanying poster, were in that exhibition, and were replaced by a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/the-northerner/2013/may/07/david-bowie-photographs-brian-duffy?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
...and anyone who saw The Times They Were A Changin' exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery might be amused by Mick McCann's article describing the Aladdin Sane album cover as "the Mona Lisa of album covers", given that that very album cover, and accompanying poster, were in that exhibition, and were replaced by a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition...
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Biba and Beyond
Some photos I took at the Biba and Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery....
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| Barbara's Audrey Hepburn drawings |
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| Brighton Biba - 1966... |
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| and the same shop today |
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Now My Heart Is Full
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| West Pier - Brighton Easter Bank Holiday 2013 |
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| Brighton Pier Easter Bank Holiday 2013 |
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Nature Boy
"I was packing a bag and leaving home...I filled up my holdall and I shoved two albums down the side: Pin-Ups and Ziggy Stardust. I was 15. I wasn't sure where I was going or if there would be a record player there. But all I knew was I couldn't go anywhere in the world without Bowie...
His lyrics are in my soul and have been since the age of 10. Like an imprint that always makes me feel stronger. More romantic, more creative, less mad and more special."
'Oh no love you're not alone.
No matter what or who you've been.
No matter when or where you've seen.
All the knives seem to lacerate your brain.
I've had my share, I'll help you with the pain.
You're not alone...
You're wonderful.'
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
From Rebel, Rebel by Tracey Emin (Harper's Bazaar April 2013)
Friday, 8 February 2013
"Yes, I'm a lady bird"
"Lady bird come on down
I'm here waiting on the ground
Lady bird I'll treat you good
Aw, lady bird I wish you would
You lady bird
Pretty lady bird..."
I'm here waiting on the ground
Lady bird I'll treat you good
Aw, lady bird I wish you would
You lady bird
Pretty lady bird..."
'Lady Bird' - Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood
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