record collection

thanks again

2007-03-26T23:59:00.000Z

It seems like only yesterday that I was last over there in that Southwest of France. But it is now more days than weeks before I will be back... and boy am I looking forward to it. I am in need of a break, having spent the past couple of months getting a house ready to go on the market - no time for blogging - and thinking about working on another one. There is a whole lot more work ahead. But what a lot of fun it is to be setting up a new home! New shelves for CDs, new places for Tobias to play, a new backyard...

So extremely belatedly I would like to say thanks to some people before we see them again. And let them know that we are looking forward to a brief re-union. To all the great people that made Linzi and I feel welcome in Toulouse for New Year. Especially Yohan for sharing his home, giving me his copy of Agora Fidelio's stupendous new record and telling Murray to have a holiday. Also to Pauline for being cool and providing a great subterfugepartyvenue and the lovely Emilie for loaning Murray her car to pick us up and for being so complimentary of my photographs - I am glad that you enjoyed them and I am looking forward to seeing more of yours!

And yes, there will be pictures of a very special band. Alors, a très bientôt!

like a cat's breakfast

2007-02-16T21:50:00.000Z

Well I am doing quite well with just putting some pictures here occasionally. It is quite easy, but helpful. I am near the internet more often again, mainly at a different house, and I feel at home blogging.

I am thinking a lot about pictures at the moment. I do at the best and the worst of times, but this is slightly different, because right now I don't have a job. OK, so I do go out each morning and sit in an office. But rather than an actual job, it is nothing but a way of earning some money, or trying to pay bills as I mainly think of it. Not great then, not how I want to continue for a minute further than is absolutely necessary and more to the point, not how I intend to live anymore. Whether here,

or here.

Indeed anywhere really.

I want to take pictures. I need to not just find a new job, but turn around how I combine working and living. Because to tell the truth, I have never felt more satisfied than when unemployed of late - hey, are they the times when I get to do what I want?... - and there is something not quite right with that. Have I put my finger on something? I have had time to think, time to use a camera, time with loved ones. There are a lot of dark colours and deep shadows in these photographs. But I think it is a just reflection of the season, of things that have to be worked through. Spring is almost within reach.

And Tobias likes the idea. So long as I don't stop getting up on time to get his cat-breakfast.

cat food

2007-02-14T11:51:00.000Z

Tobias would like to congratulate his cat friends on their off-season hunting prowess. He however is plotting with bigger prey on his mind...

invitation

2007-02-10T18:47:00.000Z

It is not true. The world is far from being a small place. It may not matter whether friends, family, close ones are an hour down the road or in a different country because we can jump in the car, get on a plane, pick up a phone or write or read a blog post. But none of that is like spending real time with them. Time to just sit and drink coffee before a day starts properly. Time that doesn't have to be measured, time to do stuff in a day as the fancy takes and there is always tomorrow if it doesn't all fit. Time that includes long evenings and mornings and then more. And when there is time like that to find a bar and sip a beer or just drive a bit further up the valley, as far as a ruined abbey or a signposted cave, it can be the best time in the world.

It was so good to spend a bit of time like that with my brother for the first week in January. We struggle to stay in touch, busy lives, different countries and suchlike. Equally we both had a hard time last year. But now is time to be different and I hope he feels as optimistic as I do about this year.

February and I think that I should really be in gear for 2007. So here is to more contact... I know you called last night and I will try and get you at home tomorrow. I hope to see you over here before too long Murray too, come and see Hull. I'll check to see when Fonda 500 are playing.

soonish

2007-02-01T16:12:00.000Z

This is where I was at the start of the month, happy days, clearer air. I have a clearer head too, full of plans and excitement for 2007. And this is a promise to return to relatively regular blogging. Soonish then, when I spend more time near an internet connection. There is plenty to tell, pictures to share. I am looking forward to it.

greetings

2006-12-29T09:45:00.000Z

It is true that I didn't write cards this Christmas. There are reasons for that, in my head they are good enough so that is fine. But to those who thought they might get a cheery greeting through the post from me this season, I apologise. I have good intentions for the New Year, you will hear from me and hopefully more than just

Merry Christmas
&
a Happy New Year

scribbled thoughtlessly several dozen times in haste. I should have started sooner, I know. But weekends filled and I have more to say than just that. I am going to France now to see in 2007 and when I return, I will get out my pen. Until then.

time

2006-12-13T20:44:00.000Z

Is it all really relative? Time that is... I have driven, I have been on buses, I have been on trains oh a lot of trains and it seems like a long time since. I have been in Hull, in the same few houses, but I have also been to York and Doncaster and London, to Kings Cross a lot of times, and for all manner of reasons. So I have been round in circles and up and down in straight lines, but in the same place for very long? Well, no. It all seems like really rather a long time since I accomplished half of the things I set out to do at the start of any given week.

But what is new there? Most of the time has been spent having far too much fun for that, which is fine. This evening though, a proper winter cold windy evening, it feels like time to write again. So here is a short post, a few words to see if it will come back.

The months have been happy, full of plenty. I have new friends. So does Tobias. I have tasted real ale, been to the coast to see the sea and into the Wolds seeking a warm fireside. I have enjoyed dinners out and meals in, entertained eight round my table, or set it just for two, spent time with my family and met the family of others, watched fireworks from a rooftop or stayed in with the Xbox.

And just as things seemed already busy, the festive season is now upon us. And there are gifts to buy, cards to write, places to go, people to visit. Sometimes it all seems so much, like there just isn't time enough. Truthfully do any of us really have enough time to give to those we love? There are always half a dozen people jostling at the back of my mind and I wish the day was longer so I could see them all and tell them. But right now I am tired, weary from another day of work that came in addition to the joys of life, and my fine friends will have to wait patiently while I go to my bed.

I do think of you all, a lot of the time. Hey, you all have my phone numbers too...

Thursday is usually hobby night, but I have enjoyed it by my self this evening. Usually that means post processing photos from the past week, though the weather and work means that there aren't many exciting new pictures to sort through. There are plenty in my head though, both of the past couple of months and of the months to come... I will just have to take some of those and I will do my best to share them here soon.

afterthought

2006-10-31T13:01:00.000Z

Time to write again? I am sure it should come more easily than this. Or maybe it is just that I am too busy to sit back and reflect? Anyhow, it has been a good week or so and, ooh look, we are already well into another one.

At the weekend I decided that going to the seaside not-in-the-summer (I didn't want to call it winter yet - it is not that bad) is a lovely thing to do. We strolled on the firm damp sand and had a pot of tea with fish and chips and the grey sky was quite fitting for the run down air that Bridlington sadly has these days.

The buildings along the sea front are worn out and shabby - paint work peeling, windows empty, colours washed out - so running Bridlington through the CS2 lomo action from CODA throws away any pretence of subtlety or reality even and instead offers an alternative - saturated, colourful, kind of like fast food. I like the perverse idea of taking pictures with a relatively expensive camera, then using equally pricey software to make the pictures look like they are from a cheap Chinese Holga. And this is the sort of thing that you end up with when you turn it up to 11:

I guess it makes me think a little further about photography as an expression of my individual vision of the world - a conversation I was having the other evening. A few days ago I posted a similar but totally different picture to the one above on my other blog. That black and white version is pretty much what I felt like saying that day. It was a beautiful autumnal Saturday afternoon, with dry, crisp light. I saw contrast and shapes and shadows and took a handful of pictures of Skidby mill that I thought captured that, kind of.

And then this morning I was looking for pictures and an excuse to write and my interpretation of that day seemingly changes. We now have super saturated blue skies in winter, dream like clouds all glowy and without depth and blown out detail that - this morning - just doesn't matter. Maybe nothing to do with what really happened, nothing to do with how I feel about it now either... but just because it is possible to see the same thing in many different ways.

OK, I just like taking pictures.

sway

2006-10-25T01:19:00.000Z

I do like words. Putting them together to make sense of ideas that are sometimes just vague shapes of thoughts in my head. And I kind of know who reads this - and even when they are reading it - thanks to the ooh so creepy voyeuristicity that is the tracking code written into the html of the page template (hey, you read about my life, I know where and sometimes who you are, what computer you are sitting at, which web site you came from...). There are passers by out there, coming in from all over the world, Canada, India, France all the time. There are occasional visitors, some of whom I know and some who are total strangers please say hi if you pause to read me catching a glimpse of this description of the aspects of my life that I choose to portray - and who knows how real that is? Then there are the regulars, those that I know - mostly by real name and face too, which is a nice thing. So when I want to say something in particular to one of them either I can call them on the phone or suggest it here for all to see.

But sometimes I find myself making a decision; whether or not to write about things that are private. Not necessarily things that I don't want others to know about, but perhaps just that I don't want to express inadequately. I am an open person and I don't really have secrets, though there are times when no words seem good enough.

But there is a place in my life right now. A lovely place that I like to go and for which I might just have found a description. It is the very apex of beauty, I can almost feel it within my grasp as I write, and it is very nice indeed. I can't wait to be there soon, so until then, goodnight. Goodnight.

a tuesday in history

2006-10-19T13:43:00.000Z

What a blissful way to start the day...

It made a wonderful, misty October morning even more magical. And then I hear on Radio 4 that it was 'One Day In History' day and that the whole country is invited to blog about their day and how it relates to history. History, as in a narrative of events that have happened, I suppose is essentially about how you tell it. And my Tuesday? Well it was an exceptional day, supernormal, a day to be narrated about in the future even. Even by breakfast time there were funny anecdotes to store away for sharing maybe, one day, a fuzzy warm feeling more special even than that inspired by Bod's overdriven bass sound, and soon after, a short drive through rush hour where sitting in traffic was calming, serene, and I hope set the opening lines of a new chapter.

The nice thing about days like that is when it continues and starts to turn into a week - and I am having a fine week. Funny how things turn round. Oh, and do listen to Mogwai's EP +6 because there are moments of sheer brilliance. And I used to wish I was a Superhero of BMX, but now there is no need.

suspense

2006-10-13T09:30:00.000Z

Life is good. At the end of last week I had a few days in a city that is totally new to me with the fellow who introduced me to GusGus by getting me lie with my head at same level as the bass speakers of the floorstanders he had crammed into his small student room and playing Polyesterday at the appropriate volume (amongst other things). Bristol meant lots of music, conversation, a few photos and a little spot of red wine. Thanks H, it was a great couple of days and I will be back to see the new house. Question is, will Bob get to go too?

But there is real life to return to, and as the 230 miles back up the road north passed motorway trance I had chance to think, and actually get rather excited about what the future seems to be bringing. After three days of fun, the return was no anticlimax.

Sometimes I am lost for words, not really sure what to write, because it is difficult to build a sentence or two that summarises just how I feel. But I also know that it is quite alright to reflect and just know that everything is going to be OK. Monday today, and that is a good thing.

denouement

2006-10-12T00:40:00.000Z

Well it is a long old hike from the Lamp to My House, but this evening every step was like strolling through, er, hay or something. And it is time to draw things to a conclusion in some ways, so here is an end to the Clerks plagiarised post titles of course there is a reason for everything. Yes I stole them all...

Was it because after a damp, misty, sad kind of a day, the glowy warmth of the Lamp was just what I needed to pick me up? Was it because the company was exceptionally good this evening? Was it because Fonda 500 were on rare ontheedge form, living the rock dream to each feedbacking fuzz bass climax? Well probably all those things...

So thanks guys, we tapped our feet, it was nice to hear you all properly, we had a rather lovely time. Wednesday rocked in just the way that I hoped it would. Shame the pictures aren't quite up to scratch, but you can't get everything right...

Soy un perdedor
I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?
(double-barrel buckshy)

harbinger

2006-10-10T00:20:00.000Z

What a nice couple of days it has been for meeting up with new friends and hearing unexpectedly from old ones. One thought long lost in East Anglia, another freshly returned from the southern hemisphere... Sometimes that makes you think about choices that you make along the way. Life could so easily be different, other stories would be told, other memories shared with those we know or are about to meet.

The group round the table, my Vans high tops, a bag with a large camera, a bike ride home, a music collection built over the years that tells a thousand stories, young Tobias cat waiting by the back door. They are all things that make me who I am. Acquaintances, gifts, accumulated stuff, choices, accidents, the things that make a person, that help mould their future, that define a lifetime. And I am happy enough with how it has turned out.

Not only is it going to be an exciting restofweek, with a trip south to visit this chap, listen to hip hop, go to drum and bass gig, talk about Macs, take pictures but it will be equally exciting to come back and see one of aforementioned long lost friends.

And the other things that I did over the weekend? Sunday evening was special because there was interesting music and sitting round that table at the Lamp. The series of Seeds & Bridges gigs that are happening through the autumn are turning out to be rather wonderful. We have seen insane theremin playing roller skater Pamelia Kirstin, Fonda 500 sitting down and last night The Rocky Nest even more unplugged and shambolically folksily popsically charming than ever and McWatt combining upright bass and accordion not unlike Mogwai combine warm beauty and utter noise in making you want to cry into a pint, or a cup of tea, or a shoulder. But for once just this once mind I was not so sure that the sad songs were the best songs.

Let's see if Puplet posts any pictures, as I didn't just this once mind have my camera. Any shots small dog?

Wonder what tomorrow will bring? Or Wednesday for that matter...

syntax

2006-10-08T14:38:00.000Z

Amongst other things this weekend I found out a little more about this beer.

It turns out that the reason it is traditionally served in a distinctive tall glass (one with a rounded bottom that will not stand up un-supported), is that it was sometimes served outside to coachmen who struggled with a behandled mug when wearing thick coachman gloves. Good old Pauwel Kwak realised that having mugs of beer sliding about and coachmen who couldn't get hold of the handle anyway was just not good enough and not content to being a brewer of fine beer, he also designed tall, slim glasses that hung on a hook on the side of the coach. What a guy.

So drinking and driving is clearly not a recent invention. Oh, and Kwak is really rather wonderful by the way, as is the equally lethal Tripel Karmeleit from the same brewer.

whimsy

2006-10-06T13:06:00.000Z

OK, I finally sent some pictures off to Imogen Heap's Moblog. I was in two minds (who would want to upset purist mobloggers?) as my pictures are not strictly speaking mobile phone pictures. But I don't think that was a reason to not share... For anybody that comes from there, thanks for passing by! Here is a last picture from that night.

It was good to hear from Immi's webmaster (check the comment on the M62 songs post below), with his view on taking pictures at gigs. Thanks James for taking the time to comment - I do understand that any artist would want control over what pictures are taken. Of course I am simply a dedicated fan, happy to share a few pictures with others.

On a more modest scale, last night went over to the Wellington Inn to catch Emma who it seems had to break out of a house to get there. Luckily she made it on time, was lovely as always, shame it was such a short set. It was also great fun to see Joesolo who put on a lively performance after a very enthusiastic and well deserved welcome.

So in total agreement with him, it is the simple things that make you happy. The Wellington was cool, at least in terms of their choice of beer - not quite like being at L'Ancienne Belgique, but I didn't think I would ever see Kreik on tap or a four page list of bottled beers in such an unassuming looking Hull pub. It turns out I was right in yesterdays post - it turned out to be a great day. There were even some shoe pictures taken later on at the Lamp... but I did once make a promise.

lamentation

2006-10-05T10:18:00.000Z

Today is a sad day. Just another Thursday for me this year, but that wasn't always the case. Times change. And while autumn rain comes down outside, reminding me that leaves will soon be falling, evenings closing in, Tobias and I decide what we are going to do for the rest of the day. Or for the rest of the week, or just 5 minutes.

I voted for drinking tea, enjoying a surprise packet of magic biscuits, listening to the patter on the window in safe cosy dry indoors. That will do for now.

Tobias is content with his towel (because he did get wet earlier) and a new perch atop the laundry basket.
Could be worse then.
In fact, it is going to be a great day.

purgation

2006-10-04T00:08:00.000Z

"I'm just trying to work out how sober Andy is".

It is an interesting concept to me, that of level of perceived sobriety in relation to perceived ability to drive safely. I grew up - at least for the interesting learning-to-drive-stage of my life - in the most rural backwater that south western France has to offer. Where road traffic is a concept only vaguely embraced and never really fully understood. Where wild boar and falling rocks are as common as other motorists on an October evening drive up the valley. Where the night clubs are miles from anywhere - so as not to disturb civilisation - and where drinking and driving I fear is as likely as picking a bottle of black Cahors wine to accompany a piece of magret de canard at your favourite restaurant.

But yesterday evening I left my car key behind and walked home. I had a marvellous afternoon and evening in the company of friends and there was no way that driving would have been the right way to get back down Cott Road. Oh and then there is this:

Because while the next morning dawned bright and promissing, my mood was somewhat dampened - again? what now? - by this modification to my car's paintwork. Maybe I shouldn't have driven in the first place? Or maybe there are just some people who should not be allowed to roam the streets. Why such bitter resentment in this world?

M62 songs

2006-10-02T12:11:00.000Z

Well at just after 1am I was at home, still with the smell of smoke in my nose, the sensation of movement from the car M62 homebound and many happy memories of Imogen Heap in Manchester earlier that evening. What a beautiful gig.

But I nearly got thrown out, because my camera was too big apparently. Not because it flashed distractingly, or because it makes an irritating, artificial shutter releasing sound. No, just because it was of too high quality for a simple member of the public to be wielding.

Was it because security thought that I was taking shots that should be reserved for members of the press? Because holding such a large camera was preventing me from enjoying the performance more than if I was struggling to get a decent picture with my phone? Who knows? But while it was just fine for the dozens snapping away with digicams and phones all around me, I was firmly beckoned from my seat (in the middle of a row, disrupting everyone I had to push past...) by a sternly officious looking security-usher who then asked me to put away the D100. Because the artist had requested that 'professional cameras' not be used in the theatre.

Because Immi only wants grainy, blurry shots on her Moblog?
Because she hates nice kit?
Is taking pictures of a performance rude? OK, maybe we should just sit back and give 100% of our attention to what is going on? But perhaps part of the fun is taking something other than memories away?

I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyway, I didn't get my kit confiscated. And nor did it stop me from enjoying a wonderful set, by an artist whose albums have me totally captivated, and whose intimate live performance was a step up from that, just out of this world. Not least because of her mastery of the piles of kit on her stage, or because she mutters to herself in a most endearing way between songs. How nice to see another great artist who so loves playing for her fans.

flash back

2006-09-28T01:55:00.001Z

Good like the old days is what we said. And now I remember just why I liked going to see Emma Rugg play so much two or three years ago when I first saw her down at the Adelphi.

Because Wednesday evening’s gig was a classic. Not because of any mystical note perfection set list choice venue atmosphere alignment, but just because it was brilliant in the way that a solo artist should excel.

It was being in a room with someone singing songs just for you.

Thanks Emma, because playing guitar and singing is something that a lot of people can pull off convincingly. But your sets are special because there is more to it than that and on Wednesday you captured something magical. Because while it is hard to stand up there and be nothing but yourself, it is just what you did. Armed with those deeply personal songs, with your Taylor that is more of a friend than a tool of your trade, a set list at your feet that morphs into whatever you want to make it and hopefully an audience that made you want to sing from your heart... It was good to be there and I look forward to next time.

inconvinience

2006-09-27T13:33:00.000Z

They say misery loves company
We could start a company and make misery
Frustrated Incorporated

Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you'd pay to see

Put me out of my misery
I'd do it for you, would you do it for me
We will always be busy making misery

We could build a factory and make misery
We'll create the cure; we made the disease
Frustrated Incorporated
Frustrated Incorporated

Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you'd pay to feel

Put me out of my misery
All you suicide kings and you drama queens
Forever after happily, making misery

Did you satisfy your greed, get what you need
Was it only envy, so empty
Frustrated Incorporated
Frustrated Incorporated
(Put me out of my misery)
Frustrated Incorporated
(I'd do it for you, would you do it for me)
Frustrated Incorporated
(Forever after happily)
(I know just what you need)
Frustrated Incorporated

Soul Asylum, Misery, from Let Your Dim Light Shine - 1995

See, I said there would be something to cheer everybody up... Saw Clerks II on Sunday, it is slowly sinking in. I am not sure that I entirely agree with Lee on this one, but all in all I was glad that Dante and Randal are OK in the end. I love those guys.

Everything will be OK in the end. Even if it takes a decade to get there. And that is quite OK.

and back to Hull

2006-09-26T14:43:00.000Z

It is always nice to go somewhere new. Sunday evening I found myself with a select group at the Santiago Bar in Leeds accompanying good friend Emma Rugg who was playing at their Sunday Session. Having offered to drive should Emma get a booking outside of Hull, I was glad to be of assistance. Hoorah for being useful.

It reminds me of evenings in Cahors back last century, when it would get to 9pm with nothing to do and Toulouse was just a 160kph hour down the motorway. Though it turns out that Leeds on a Sunday night was decidedly less exciting. No tapas restaurants open til 2am, no lively crowds milling in the streets, it was even quite easy to park and Burger King was closed by 9. Did we miss something? Oh, probably.

The Santiago was a cosy little bar but had the darkest stage ever, with just a few chandeliers to light the room and no stage lights at all. Without resorting to flash, the only way I got any pictures at all was thanks to f1.8 with the 50mm. Yes I am glad that I got that little lens. Light is kind of important to making photos, and the 50mm doesn't need very much of it.

On a more general scheme of things, well, I am just deciding what to do next. And what I should do next and why I want to do it. And Monday has not been helping, having brought rain and general melancholy. Yes I realise that this blog is a little downbeat at present, so my ambition for the next post is to write about happy things. I promise that I will be back with something nice to talk about. Really. Oh and we are going to see Emma play at the Tiger's Lair on Wendesday. Come on, it will be fun.

50mm

2006-09-14T17:36:00.000Z

Thanks Den's brother! I have just got a new lens to play with. A lens, had my love of photographs stretched to real cameras, say 15 rather than just 10 years ago, that I would probably already be familiar with. But I am of a generation of photographers of which many have never owned a prime lens. It is a very small thing on the front of a D100, but then it just does the one job. I guess the theory is that while only doing that, it should at least do it rather well.

That is the idea anyway. I will test that later on at some almost but not entirely random gig at a shabby bar on Beverley Road. It will be interesting - I do like taking pictures in the dark and up to now that has meant a combination of 1000ASA, holding my breath and sheer luck. And I do love the tiny depth of field thing that f1.8 creates, like being able to cut out all those things you don't want to really see. Which once again confirms to me that taking pictures is not about what is actually there in front of you, but rather which bits of it you like.

Oh, a bit like real life then.

the night

2006-09-11T02:21:00.000Z

Why is it that 2am just seems to be the right time to write a blog post? Daylight doesn't seem to help. Yesterday evening I went out to kill some time, stretch my legs, will the morning closer. Armed with a tripod and no deadlines, a car and just the edge of the city to aim for, I set out to take some pictures. I drove past unlit houses, where people no doubt asleep were dreaming the same dreams as I.

Just an empty road ahead, the city was soon behind. I always love to stop the car and stand out in the middle of the night. Breathe in the space, take in the sound of darkness. Eyes slowly acclimatise and start to capture details that a camera, shutter open for 10 seconds, allows you to take home.

And again there was beauty in all this ugliness. Maybe next time I will get far enough away from light polution to see the stars? One day I will tell you all about lying on the cliffs above St Gery looking at the night there. Where you can see the milky way strike clear across the sky, follow satellites as they trawl from one horizon to the other and in the summer wait, trying not to blink, for shooting stars on which to make a wish. Ooh, and the glow worms and the chorus of insects, it is magical. The night sky is something precious, I think of open topped cars and stopping in the middle of nowhere, bike rides by moonlight, growing up sitting on bridges, sharing a bottle of wine... I guess I miss it.

Now the car is outside, ticking hot in the cool air, my shoes kicked off in the hallway, and it is time for sleep.

03:53

2006-09-10T02:59:00.000Z

Come on a road trip. An adventure down a long road, that takes us far beyond the poplar trees on that hill to who knows where. Saturday night, Sunday morning, headlights cutting through the 3am mist, time to escape beyond the horizon.

thanks for coming

2006-09-06T17:49:00.000Z

It has been a day. A day of the kind that leaves me wanting to do what I do best, that is to say cook chili and drink red wine. And eat chili and drink red wine and listen to loud hip hop like a white boy. But oh, I love the bass lines...

thanks Den, sunroof shots...

Good things happened; I have a job interview on Friday. My car is now faster than it was, which it eagerly proved to me by lighting up the (admittedly cheap nasty) front tyres on the dry roundabout round the corner without clutchslippingantics (and the throttle didn't jam open this time, reassuringly and more to the point, life preservingly). So the Alfa is starting to be a fun car now the wonderful enthusiast mechanic I found is working his magic. Oh, and I ate chili and drank Rhone valley red and listened to A Tribe Called Quest in an old skool fashion.

Magic car.

car park, with a car in it, now faster than before

Equally, it has been quite bad. I thought maybe a month ago that life couldn't get any more complexly messed up, but the past week has proven me wrong. I just know that at this present time I like to write more than anything else too. And knowing that all there is to do is sit back, wait, and just walk away if that is how it is to be makes me wish that things could have been different. So nothing new there then for the 2006 'Shit Happens' season.

OK, Goodnight. Goodnight Dizzy Dustin, Young Einstein and Andy Cooper, goodnight Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, goodnight MC Guru and DJ Premier. And thanks for coming.

predestination?

2006-09-02T09:54:00.000Z

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what if they haven't got their glasses?

That would be a problem, and one that photographers often don't so much as face, but actually create. Because we are fond of trying to pick fights with aesthetes everywhere we go. To most it is just a rusty gate, but I see texture, symmetry, a story (like why is there a gate? who wants to keep me out?). Indeed I would say that I saw beauty.

Just as Calvin decided that playing in the mud made him an aesthete - because it annoyed his mother (that is Calvin is as in Calvin and Hobbes, the small boy and his tiger, rather than the 15th century theologian). I would like to think that pulling a striking image out of a '60s tower block in Hull city centre is something that the eyes of the beholder alone would struggle to accomplish. But with a D100 and a dodgy copy of Photoshop CS2, anything is possible.

Blogs really are for writing a load of crap.

where did summer go?

2006-09-01T00:38:00.000Z

It is the last day of August and how life has changed of late. Thursday morning, just before 9. But not the usual rush where is my laptop, which shoes today, is it cold outside to leave the house. No, I could sip coffee in bed because I am unemployed. I wrote a letter, using a pen. Then took photos of it and e-mailed it to save time. My washing machine broke. It has been another strange day.

But other than that it has mainly been business as usual. Earlier this week, Monday night, it was down to the Tap and Spile on Spring Bank - an old fashioned Hull pub - to see Emma. And it was wet and dark, but Emma was in good spirits. And although a potential trip to France to gig with Aeria fell through due to unforseen debts (and now my washing machine has broken down too), we had a good chat about doing something similar soon. With plans, and dates set up and cheap tickets booked in advance.

And thanks Emma for standing outside for seemingly three hours waiting for the taxi that you called for us. At least we met this kitten. Den took a picture with my camera, but I don't think he will remember very clearly...

So, at the end of this strange day, what else is there to do other than listen to clunky Icelandic analogue house music just loud enough to be noticed by neighbours who have spend all week hammering in their bathroom? Perhaps time for an early night?

homeless

2006-08-29T11:36:00.000Z

OK, so summer is drawing to a close. The evenings are shorter, days cooler and actually increasingly miserable. However, it is not too late to sit outside and watch the world go by with a friend. But what the hell have they gone and done to the 'garden' at the Gardener's? Noooo, Den and I are just lost now. It feels a bit like being homeless.

point?

2006-08-21T18:00:00.000Z

I have got myself stuck a little. No posts in a while and I invariably get thinking, 'oh, better have something really interesting to say to come back with'. Well I don't. And do I have any interesting pictures to put up? Nope, not really either.

So, here are three random images from the past few months. They are not really significant, they don't tell a story, they are not even that interesting. Just three snippets of me, clippings from a scrapbook. And I will try and think of something more to tell you next time.

In the meantime, make up your own story. I hope you like the colours though.

Of course life has been interesting. Really interesting these past couple of weeks. But that would be telling.

a guitar

2006-08-14T18:55:00.000Z

Like cement, that is what it feels like. Like cementing firm a friendship before the time comes to say goodbye, to move on in life, perhaps in terms of geography or perhaps just because it is for the best really. And maybe this is what the term lovesick is for? Not the real obsessive compulsive, manic, tearfully full-on psychological definition. Simply the pop song summertime heartbreak version... and no one will really understand and that is probably for the best too.

So, as therapy, this evening I finally restrung the Jazzmaster (with strings that are long enough). And though we are still in the horrible tuning-all-over-the-place stretchy new strings stage, there is something so beautiful about the sound of brand new today strings. A single note becomes a chorus of angel twinkling harps, the bottom end is pianoey and warm and the top sparkles like the dew of childhood. But as time wears on we forget just how beautiful beginings can be. Like a fresh dawn becoming mid morning indifference or the warmth of bread from the oven that slowly goes dry. And just as that happens it is easy to get used to something, like retuning our ears to dull, over-played guitar strings.

I don't know if there is a point to this. Sometimes ideas spill out and turn into sentences, which is probably why I started record collection. But perhaps the thought is something along the line of 'don't let the intoxicating excitement of novelty - a new record, a new pair of shoes, a new lover - make a mockery of reality'. Because true love is not the strings on the guitar, it is the guitar itself.

goodnight (and go)

2006-08-08T00:02:00.000Z

And he is just sitting across the landing, having a drink from his bowl. He is the most beautiful, the calmest, the grandest and finest of cats that ever could be. It is just him and me in this world sometimes, but that is fine, because we are OK with that. We can get up in the morning and go to bed at night and be just as we are. Don't ever worry about us - because there is nothing that makes us anything that we are, other than each other.

I love Tobias just for what he is. A fine cat. And I am a perfectly good cat father that he loves too. There might be something - indefinable in his small cat mind - missing from our world, hard to put a finger or a paw on maybe... but we love each other more than you can understand.

And this evening, as well as booking tickets, we Limewired some new stuff.

There, there, baby
It’s just text book stuff
It’s in the ABC of growing up
Now, now, darlin’
Oh don’t kill yourself
'Cause none of us were angels
And you know I love you, ...

And Tobias loves Immi too.

hit me baby...

2006-08-04T00:05:00.000Z

one more time.

And it has been commented that things might have been getting a little dark on this blog. A little too serious for comfort perhaps. There has been no talk of cute kittens setting out to discover the exciting newness of life, no tales of drinks on the pavements of southern France, or even of an engorged though dissapointing rocky monty. So is life all brooding skies, like a week of Tuesdays or a month without weekends? Have I been limiting my listening time to the most downbeat music I can find on the shelf?

No, of course not. For those of you who know me, should know me better. There is always sun behind that heavy cloud cover, and just to give an example, later on that Monday brought candle lit chilled out wine drinking socialising with some fine new friends time. Magical moments in a tall town house nearer the city centre, conversation, songs, happiness and more answers and questions about the mysteries of light sensitive media - more of which at a later date, as that seems quite important at present. And I was myself, a happy man. Wonderful.

Of course there was opportunity for pictures (and since then a chance to work out exactly what to do with all these photos taken in the dark). There even came a time, late into the evening, when Dennis and I finally sat down and made tentative covering sounds of that Spears hit. But not for very long.

I must confess I still believe...

eternity

2006-07-31T19:17:00.000Z

Tobias has just gone out into the grey, and stopping on the step at the back of the house, he is now staring up at the overcast sky. The heavy gloom hanging over our rooftops is like the low ceiling of an early autumn. And all because I have been listening to Anathema this evening.

So take me far away...

But later, in a minute, I am going out. To catch up with friends and go to a party in a different house, on a different street where there will be laughter, happy songs, piano or guitars maybe. So hang on, let's not get too down about all this. It is going to be a great evening.

surviving the years

2006-07-26T23:46:00.000Z

I am surviving. Thanks to my friends, and my friend, my D100. It was an interesting Wednesday evening. Den phoned just after 10 and while he biked over I walked round to the 7-11 (sorry, just watched Clerks again) to get some beer. And that is the sort of thing that makes it all OK for now.

mmm, lomo

His brother has blown just into four figures on a new D200 body, as an upgrade from his D70, and Dennis and I had chance to spend a little happy time over 1664 comparing some early shots from the D200 with my D100 and his from the Oly E-1. So the D200 is a 10 megapixel camera, and I am not going to even try and give a comprehensive review, but I think it makes sense as the way to go from a D70. However we looked at some portrait shots taken with each of the three cameras that we now own, and from very different bodies come very different results - though not the ones some of us would no doubt like to see.

a D100, a tree

So actually the 10MP sensor did not seem to make that much difference, at least from the first pictures that we had to play with. I stand to be corrected, bring on the real shots and prove me wrong... I am feeling at the moment that the camera I managed to pick up at the start of the year for a fraction of it's original cost (once upon a time this was a $2k camera) still has a whole lot of potential that I have yet to open up. 'Just' 6 megapixels and without some of the features of the new model, and indeed a far less sturdy CF card door, does not seem to hold me back to any real extent (yet?).

And it is perhaps at this point that it is useful to step back and think a little. I think that the camera that I have, while not a full on professional model, was often used as a second body/back up by some pro's. And so then here I am thinking that there might be even the remotest of reasons for an amateur D100 user (like me) to upgrade. No, absolutely no, no need! I mean, these shots from the E-1 clearly demonstrate how good the thing can look, here is a typical D100 user just a few weeks ago:

A D100 user, somewhere, taking pictures

And despite it being a whole 4 years since it was launched, there is of course little really to differenciate it from newer models. There is a relatively steep curve in terms of dSLR R&D going on and new models appear to have more to differentiate them from outgoing ones in relation to film cameras. But both in terms of how the thing hangs on the end of an OP/TECH strap and how the pictures that come out of it look, only the eyes of a camera nerd would spot-the-difference when more than a few feet away. So the D100 can't do 5 frames per second, so it doesn't have the broader ISO capabilities of the D200 (but in terms of how I manage light, I feel that there is a lot some wider f-stop lenses could bring to my pictures. And while bodies come and go, the glass will remain the same...) and I don't feel the need for 6 more autofocus points. So who am I to complain, for there is little in my mind that gives one more of a sense of purpose in one's stride, than a high quality dSLR in one's hand?

Thank you to Puplet for all shots featuring D100s and D100 users on this blog. He is a fine, yet small and soft (but not that way inclined) dog and it is always great to chat about cameras with Den and him.

my friend Puplet, pastis time, (the third beer is of course Den's)

Yes I love my D100. We can stop the world in its tracks, controlling light and indeed darkness to make something that suits us. Is it real? Who cares? For no matter how much of a liar any camera is, what really matters is knowing what it is likely to fib about.

even more

2006-07-22T19:27:00.000Z

Last weekend I was on the south bank of the Humber and as I looked across the great estuary I was thinking of all that is good about Hull. I could see the hot July sun shining on The Deep, Holy Trinity church and a parade of tower blocks, the docks and refineries in the distance.

And then I wrote "OK, so Hull is not exactly a city that lines up great achievements, monuments, attractions and cultural diversity." Oops, so I was a little mean about Hull in my last post and if there was ever a place that needs to be a bit more upbeat about itself, to throw a better light on the assets that it does have in order to pull itself up with other great cities of this country, then Hull is it. Grumpy foreigners like me don't really help.

Hull has a wonderfully colourful, eventful history. It has been a hard working city, but has suffered some of the worst bombing any city has ever suffered and is rebuilding itself to this day. Equally, Hull is recovering from the loss of traditional industry like many other places in Britain and possibly struggles because of its' location at the end of a road to nowhere-else' (even if it does have a huge bridge that links it with the vast expanses of Lincolnshire and a port link to the rest of Europe). But although there is a perfectly formed museum quarter, in the cobbled streets of the old town down by our underdeveloped waterfront, where on a fine day it is a pleasant stroll from the historic Olde White Harte pub (where, in 1642, the English Civil War was triggered when Sir John Hotham decided to bar King Charles from entering the town for a pint of Wold Top) to one of the country's most successful millenium celebration projects, The Deep, far too little is actually made of all these attractions.

What we need is an enthusiastic Hull blogger to take on the mantle of a Hull Picture A Day, where we see the beautiful buildings that survived the Luftwaffe and the 1960s, the lively covered market and probably Blueberrys on Trinity House Lane, the finest restaurant for miles, possibly years. There are things to shout about, stories to tell I have no doubt. So I am sorry if I my blog has given the wrong impression, I don't dislike Hull, but I fear that it does that job itself sometimes.

So, perhaps this week will bring more goodness of Hull? While we think about it, how about a friendly beer at The Lamp?

more Hull

2006-07-16T22:56:00.000Z

So, there has been a bit of a mission going on in my head over the past few days to ascertain what really is good about Hull. And I mean genuinely about Hull itself. Just what does make it unique, the things-that-are-not-to-be-found-anywhere-else-in-the-world kind of goodness?

OK, well in addition to Emma Rugg there is always Fonda 500. (Can you see a theme developing here?) Yes I love music and especially live music and especially-especially when you see a band that plays with as much conviction, enthusiasm and genuine enjoyment as Fonda 500. Creators of not just slightly retro (without being derivative) synth-rock, we are talking a full on Casiotone workout, fuzz-bass, programmed loops and dirty guitars with simple lyrics that make it very clear that the band is not about taking themselves seriously, but even in this macho, posturing, media-enslaved world of pop and rock, actually having a good time. They play real tunes, that - if there was any good taste in this world - should be what the charts are full of (except their recorded material is a totally different deal and not the same genre of foot tapping, head nodding, instant hit material). They know how to put on a simple but very effective show. And I especially like that one of the guitarists plays a Fender Jazzmaster – what fine taste…

I saw them play last weekend in a very hot field at the Humber Bridge Bash – the 25th anniversary of Hull’s very own white elephant (which is rather special in terms of magnitude, but is really pretty useless in most other ways, other than for going to see Jenny And Jason and perhaps getting one of those fine Barton Upon Humber curries. I did sit under it in my car late one night a couple of months ago, that was quite good too. Good for being depressed by, maybe because I felt it could empathise).

Oh my how it looks different in the sun...

OK, so Hull is not exactly a city that lines up great achievements, monuments, attractions and cultural diversity. But it has been a good home and home to many a good friend over the years. One day no doubt I will move on and wherever I go, there are good times to look back on. However it will always be the case that it only costs £1 to cross the Thames at the Dartford crossing (should I want to get to, say, France via the ferry crossing, or perhaps just Kent, the Garden of England), yet at the same time it costs me £2.70 to cross the Humber (so that I can get to, say, Scunthorpe).

And it would only take me 20 minutes longer to go via Goole...

At least it was a fine excuse for some quite loud music.

for the record

2006-07-13T13:54:00.000Z

Well I think that this blog and this blog are going to become members of Hull Bloggers that the friendly Lostariel blueskiesfade Aybara has been orgnaising over the past few weeks or so. Hull itself is not a topic that often features here on record collection, so as a kind of tribute and to set things rolling in an appropriate manner, here is one of my favourite things about living in Hull.

Ahhh yes, going to see Emma Rugg play. I usually have such fun and it is great to see and support local artists. Last night was no exception and I went down to the Tiger's Lair with Vanessa and of course Dennis, Ute and the now infamous 50-200mm. There is something nice about hanging out with musicians, especially musicians on a working night. I guess it reminds me of being young and in a band, perhaps on the night of a gig. It reminds me of being in Toulouse with my brother back stage at a Phi One gig, the relative calm in the practise studio with Aeria, or braving the aural assault of the huge levels of amplification involved in a Floid rehearsal ('the second loudest sound, ever'). All quite different experiences, but with a common, passionate singularity. Live music, whether just a singer and an acoustic guitar, or the physical onslaught of a metal band, is possibly my favourite thing ever.

What proved to be the real fun yesterday came after the gig, as Emma was due to appear on the Late Licence just after midnight (some guy called David on Radio Humberside). And despite everyone being very tired - or perhaps especially because everybody was very tired - we lent our moral support and all crowded down to the BBC radio studios. Hi, good evening, yes coffee please. It was all a little sureal for a Wednesday evening (er, Thursday morning actually) but isn't that how the best moments in life should be?

I would like to say a special thanks to Emma for playing For the Record, which might just be my favourite track of hers and bodes really rather well for the new writing that is going on. So as I sit writing this the following evening, failing to get an early night, it is comforting to know that there really are some nice things about living in Hull. Like friends who are determined to stand for what they believe in and who create something beautiful in the process. I can't think of anything that means more to me about Hull than the people that I know through my time here. And they are simply wonderful.

legends of our time

2006-07-10T09:54:00.000Z

I have been hoping to post these guys for a while now, and after an exciting afternoon round at Pup's place I finally stole the pictures.

This guy has always worked in camera shops in Cahors. He sold me my Pentax MZ5N 8 years ago. He clearly loves photography. Not only that, but we have seen it out head to head in local mountain bike races years before that even. And when I was there last month, he gave me some sound advice about Skylight filters for the D100 as well as a friendly discount. Pay your money, make your choice...

Only a couple of readers will know who this guy is, though it should be clear from just this photo that he is another legend in his own lifetime. Introducing, Mr Poujade, film star and all round nice guy. It was good to see him.

Thanks for the photos.

exit, escape

2006-07-09T01:43:00.000Z

Marching pylons, open skies, super smooth grey single lane tarmac of the kind I adventured along on my Raleigh Grifter as a child. The flatness just outside Cottingham reminds me of where I grew up in Lincolnshire. On Friday evening, we (D and I) were there on a mission.

One: to take pictures. I hadn't taken any photos all week and that is not a good thing really. It is bad because I have a D100 that just needs using. It is bad because I won't get any better if I don't keep taking pictures - hundreds and hundreds of them. It is bad, above all, because I love taking pictures. So, based on the fact that we were heading to Cottingham anyway, I decided that we should set out along Park Lane and escape into a nearby bit of countryside. Even though it is dominated by pylons and a huge substation.

Two: to buy curry (because it is open late at night). When I picked D up, J just mentionned that she fancied a curry and that, maybe, if we were heading in that direction and given that she would provide the funds, might we be able to pick up an order? And this is just an excuse to post a picture of Alishaan, the best source of curry within hot food driving distance of home that we know of. And now that the Rajasthan(i) in Toulouse seems to have gone down hill, that Murray might need a new source of superior quality Vindaloo. hi Murray, come for curry sometime

And so at the end of a long day, a long week - one that brought all that could make a man weary of the world - the open skies, verges full of cow parsley and wild grasses, fields of barley,... even the buzzing pylons and all that is beautiful and ugly, made it all seem OK.

What it is to be free.

And that was only Friday evening...

just a load of steps

2006-06-25T00:09:00.000Z

Time for some France pictures perhaps? Having said that I would post some, other than saying that I would, I can't think of a clever reason to do so right now, with a nice story that goes with my best shots of the trip. I guess the problem is knowing where to start, with just over 1,000 images to still sort through (having thrown away the best part of another thousand).

So, anyway, in no particular order

Puplet actually suggested that our talent is wasted posting on obscure blogs while frittering away our time in Hull and considering that Cahors hosts an annual summer photography festival we should be showing our work out there... He has a good point, when we were there we saw this exhibition:

and decided that we could do better. In ten minutes. And still charge € 80 for prints.
Back to Cahors next summer then?

finir a toulouse

2006-06-21T21:54:00.001Z

that could well be the case. Yet again Agora Fidelio slapped me nicely round the face while I was in France. An EP released to keep fans, music lovers, patient or impatient people everywhere happy while they perfect that difficult third album... An EP that without trying, imperceptibly, and entirely as expected became my record of the week. And this week. And probably next month too.

Difficult to find at HMV, but forget that, it is available through iTunes.

I have to give a special thanks to Yohan - merci beaucoup - for letting me steal his copy on a flying visit to Toulouse. I hope that Murray has replaced it already. I only wish it was possible to get a copy of the first album. One day maybe?

and pictures?

2006-06-20T22:26:00.000Z

I drove back down Cottingham Road, through the orange-lit trees under a deep blue storm sky. And the power that music has to change an instant into a moment lasted 3.44 seconds (track 3, "Lived in bars"). Sitting on the comfortable creak of red leather with a soundtrack that makes the mundane memorable is rather grand. I did wonder (briefly) if I could extend that feeling to the rest of my life with the use of leather trousers and an iPod.

Probably not.

I had just been round at Den's and we looked at some of my pictures from our French trip. Then we looked at them again. Then we got into this a bit in a rather nerdy way and looked at the same pictures on his (identical) PowerBook. Then we looked at some of his and then we looked at them again on my (identical) Powerbook and we understood. We understood that even when you have uploaded a clever third-party tone curve using the special Nikon software and then decided on the optimum in-camera sharpening (yes, do read the instruction book...) and then traded up from a rather awful Sigma to a rather good Nikon lens. And after working out that the 99p UV filter is doing far more (nasty dingy, yellow tingy, light sucking) harm than good and going all out (after a nice conversation with a friendly mountain biking camera selling old acquaintance in Cahors) for a B+W replacement, that at the end of the day looking at pictures on any old monitor just will not do.

Den's monitor is carefully calibrated using a fancy bit of hardwareandsoftware technology trickery. Mine is straight from the factory. And whereas I was still - yes, after all of the above - a little dissatisfied with muddy tones and blue casts and lack of detail and definition in really dark colours and saturation on the brighter end of things... was it just down to the manner in which the monitor was showing me everything? Having seen the same pictures on a same but different laptop, I do think so to some extent.

And so it all comes round to not simply the question of what makes an image great rather than good, but whether it is actually possible to make it perfect. And despite technology and trickery and fine technique and wonderful subjects to shoot, I could put a picture up here on my blog and it might look to you, wherever you are, nothing like the image I thought that I created. Goodness, it might look rubbish.

But wouldn't it be sad to let that stop me sharing pictures with you? So just as the camera does lie, so does the monitor... and to end a silly post, a silly photo.

Or is it three?

All just an elaborate excuse for imperfect photography then? Just how does it look to you?

de retour

2006-06-19T20:39:00.000Z

Well, back in Hull and having had a first day back at work and a catch up dinner, I feel that it is time to blog. And I would most of all like to thank all those who welcomed me so warmly on my travels. Friends who I might not have seen for months and even years, but with whom - as always - it was if we had only just said fairwell.

It made me realise just how much time with friends is precious to me. Because true friends know the real stories enough to see beyond those months of events rapidly related to know what is really happening. And I am sure that wherever they might be now, distant or close, just the knowledge that they are at the end of the phone, a click of 'reply' away, makes the lives that we live so much more worthwhile.

And of course, there is always time for fun stuff - and that should always be at the centre of any friendship. So here is to all my friends. Those that I saw in West Norwood and Dulwich and Limehouse and Guildford this weekend and those who are elsewhere or otherwise engaged. Thank you for just being who you are and I look forward to seeing you soon or in a year or whenever our paths may cross again, I love you all enormously.

France came and went in a thousand (or two or so) images and there will be some of that in the posts to come. It was fine there too.

au revoir

2006-06-04T20:31:00.000Z

Well I am off to France tomorrow, so I am not sure when I will get to blog again. Not that it matters, there will be far more exciting things to do... In particular I am looking forward to seeing my brother, Murray. Here are some pictures of his band in rehersal that I took when I was over in Toulouse earlier in the year.

They were difficult shots with the dingy Sigma 18-50, in an ill-lit, dark yellow-walled rehersal room. But it was fun to hear Aeria play and I hope to see them again in more attractive surroundings one day soon.

I am leaving behind a Hull that is full of bitter sadness at the moment so it will be great to have a change of scenery. But I guess that Hull knows I will not be far away, especially in my thoughts. So long for now.

two cat street

2006-06-04T01:08:00.000Z

Tobias was quite upset to look out of the window when I got in, only to see that Friendly Other Black Cat was sitting right against the glass. He actually growled. Quite a lot, but in a funny way.

The main thing that I discovered was that it is virtually impossible to take a picture of two black cats, on different sides of a window, in the dark. Yes these are bad pictures, but ones that also highlight the need for lower f-numbers. I also found out that once Tobias was happy that his growling had seen Friendly Other Black Cat off his windowsill that enjoying a good lie down in the comfort of his home was just fine. He was not really that bothered about the Other Black Cat, so long as he could sleep undisturbed in the comfort in his own bed.

Goodnight.

1997

2006-06-01T22:43:00.000Z

Is this the best album ever? Probably not, but if I had to pack myself off to a desert island right now without an iPod full of stuff, this would be the one record that I would chose. It is why the best music has to be played loud, why the electric guitar was invented, why I am happy enough to just sit here and listen. Despite everything.

red

2006-05-27T00:00:00.000Z

The month of May has been special in many ways. Not least of which has been the excitement of the first monthly photo contest between my not at all competitive colleague and I and indeed anyone else who might care to enter.

I have prepared my three entries. Here they are as a taster of the huge talent that I am sure will be on display.

Any other entries are welcome dear record collection readers. Please send them in.

Good luck then.

the weeping willow

2006-05-20T23:12:00.000Z

Just discovering Grandaddy. They are one of Koryne's favourite bands and now I know why...

I wanna sleep underneath
the weeping willow
as it cries all night quietly
it's tears all around me
I'll sleep there so soundly
until I'm allowed finally
to wake and be happy again
to wake and be happy again

(from The Sophtware Slump, 2000) Shame about the crappy willow picture, though at least I had taken one at all.

shoes of the rich and famous

2006-04-16T22:44:00.000Z

OK, not really.

But it was another pleasant day of rest. Originally the plan was to see Emma Rugg at the Lamp this evening. Then D found out that it was an early afternoon ('Sunday Roast') gig, so I met him down there after a midday bacon sandwich. It was a nice little gig, though I don't think that Emma was really in the mood for playing in the middle of the day, daylight streaming through the skylights... Still it was nice to have a chat afterwards while Puplet took pictures.

Here we can see a selection of interesting footwear, including Emma's little black tall shoes and the loafers of DJ Scalliwag. Emma told me that playing standing in such shoes is trickier than it looks.

The rest of the day was mainly spent eating. When D and I got back to his house we had an avocado, coffee, a cold trout and some cookies and cream ice cream. This was followed a few hours later with a beautiful Sunday roast of our own that lovely Mikol made for us. Life in Hull is nice really. There are things to take pictures of, friends to do that with and though the winter is long and dark, spring is on its way again today.

D sent it, so to close I should really post it. It is the shoe picture to end all shoe pictures. There will be no more.

...unless I get some exciting new shoes anytime.

more shoes!

2006-04-15T22:32:00.000Z

There has been a rumour on a certain blog that I might have this thing for taking pictures of feet. Or even footwear and suchlike.

So I can see where that comes from. But I am not so sure that I am the only one.

Anyway, don't shoes tell such interesting stories? Where someone has been, perhaps more to the point where they would really like to be going. I think that any shoe is probably worth a thousand words.

bank holiday

2006-04-14T21:42:00.000Z

(or Convincing Murray - part One)

Well it has been a funny old day, but perhaps the Perfect British Bank Holiday. It started late. It has been a long week with Mikol away so I had some lying in to do before I felt at all ready to take on the day. But what a glorious blue skied sunny one it turned out to be once I had got going (coffee on, shower, eventually toast and honey...).

I decided that having proved a faithful companion through much winter comuting and having suffered abuse, foul weather and a terrible lack of real singletrack, that the Inbred deserved a bit of a going over with a greasy rag. At least.

So that was the next four hours happily filled. And a few of you readers will know that there is little more therapeutic than a day spent faffing around with a bike, a bucket and various types of grease, oil, and a large tool box. So from grime encrusted to as clean as can be expected we went. It became obvious on the way that it has been far too long since I have done this kind of thing... removing the chain was a painful experience that went through the destruction of my suposedly bomb-proof Park Tools chain tool before I got the old pin out of the chain. In the end though, the bike looked and felt a lot nicer as confirmed by the obligatory spin round the block. I don't know what it is - certainly purely psychological - but clean a bike and it feels taughter, smoother, more responsive. Like rattle free cable runs, squeaky clean tyres, like an altogether different bike.

That is a thing of beauty.

And meanwhile D & J had been round for coffee. We sat in the sun in the back garden and it wasn't cold. We had cheese and biscuits, we took some more pictures, Tobias showed off and - quite possibly inspired by a message from Kenny - we decided that it was the sort of spring bank holiday that would soon involve drinks at the pub.

So just a little while and a stroll down the road later, that is where we found ourselves. The Gardeners Arms for the second time in a week. But this time in daylight, outside, soaking up the sun (OK, so it did get too cold eventually, but this is Yorkshire in April...).

And after that D was kind enough to take pity on our hunger and offer to share the Barnsley lamb chops that he had waiting in his fridge. So I gladly played sous-chef to him and we had great food as usual. The short walk home at the end of the evening, past trees in blossom, the scent of a new spring, under a clear sharp sky was all that we needed to round a perfect bank holiday. And there are three more days of this weekend to go.

today, someday, anyday...

2006-04-04T20:52:00.000Z

It is a while since I have posted about photography (I think). Then I guess that it is a while since I have blogged at all. Today I have been trying out a new custom tone curve now that I finally managed to get the Nikon Capture software running. But I was also thinking about having taken plenty of pictures through my past few months of D100 ownership. Now I am even posting a photo a day on this other nearby blog... and what I realised was that although fancy cameras, tweaked with clever software and even a taste of better, more optimistic weather have all helped me take nice pictures, what really made a difference has just been taking hundreds and hundreds of images over the past months.

Carrying a camera as often as possible is the best way of starting. Looking through a viewfinder, the world through the lens - even a shabby third party zoom - is a different place. And actually looking about and observing what is special about the everyday or the essence of what you see comes with that. The simple act of lifting a camera to the eye and shooting over and over again and thinking about aperture and where the light is and composition and timing. And then not thinking about aperture or where the light is or composition or timing and just letting instinct take over... all add up to images that mean something.

I am not that interested in photography really. I just like pictures. Especially pictures of places or things or moments. I will let you know how the Fotogenetic Point-and-shoot curve goes. It should improve the detail and colour saturation of my midtones and shadows. It could be the answer to some of the muddy colouration that I have been getting with this camera... it could win me prizes and make people tell me to go professional - yeah right. But I don't think that it will tell stories like shooting day in day out will.

I get far more satisfaction and indeed excitement from a picture shot randomly from arms-length, focus and metering entrusted to clever Nikon boffins I guess, but the real quality of the picture in the hands of something altogether harder to define, than I do from a carefully composed and considered photo. The nature of a still photograph seems to fit far better this chance grab at capturing something of a moment in time. But doing it every day certainly seems to help get luck on your side.

Thanks to Puplet's friend for sending this shot of me, taken at the weekend on top of the Wilberforce Building.

about rocket ships and aeroplanes

2006-03-13T21:13:00.000Z

Well done Murray, you are officially recognised as an expert on planes again. A bit different from the encyclopaedic insideout knowledge of the Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II book that you used to show when writing your Battle of Britain autobiographical diary novel at the age of 11. But not very far removed.

I took this picture from the departure lounge at Toulouse airport last Tuesday morning, waiting for our flight back to Gatwick. In it is an Airbus Beluga transport plane that moves parts of Airbus planes to the 'factory' at Toulouse. This plane does actually fly. I saw it. Further in the distance is a new A380 airliner. I don't think that the photo shows just how large they are. Murray could tell us a lot more, including just how large.

Perhaps more interesting is the appearance of the French Pyrenees just over the top of the buildings. It is hard to believe that these mountains are probably about an hour and half away by car... they look quite near really and I haven't often seen them so clearly from Toulouse.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi to Murray. This is you and you are great...

ride a bike

2006-03-11T22:18:00.000Z

This is my Inbred. After a day out on some gnarly North Yorkshire singletrack from the look of all that dirt... but no, just after regular dirty winter weather commuting actually. It is so filthy out there, but as ever there is something just right about riding a bike anywhere. No matter where really.

And turning up at work in this state is always a little bit fun.

thought for the day

2006-02-20T16:00:00.000Z

garage bands

2006-02-18T21:25:00.000Z

Well what a nice Saturday. Although there is no doubt a good month or so to go before the real thing, spring is in the air today. The sky has been clear, washing on the line - rather than in the tumble drier - and it has been warm enough to open windows and venture outside without a coat. At last some good weather for pictures perhaps? Tobias certainly enjoyed it and got out on the garage roof to soak up some of the surprisingly warm sunshine.

So, what did I do? Prance through the open countryside of East Yorkshire with the sun on my cheeks and the wind in my hair? No, I think I proved that I am a real man after all by tidying my garage.

Mmmm, toolboxes, old things that we might use one day... and a spare freezer for Kenny. So satisfying. But whatever happened to dEUS?

not enough cat pictures?

2006-02-12T16:14:00.000Z

Who would have thought that months would go by and there not be a single cat picture on this blog? The reasons are many, some along the lines of Tobias is black and it is winter and black cats are difficult to photograph at the best of times. But just to catch up on what he has been up to and perhaps gain more of an insight into the work of cats, here are a couple of cat pictures.

Cats do spend a lot of time looking for things. They don't always seem to find what they are looking for but that doesn't seem to matter. It might be a mouse, or just a leaf that looked a bit like a mouse from the corner of the eye, though that doesn't really seem to matter either. If it moves, it is worth having a good look at. Maybe even a chew.

A lot of the time the things that they look for are in places that they can't quite seem to reach. Quite possibly so that they don't look too stupid when they can't find it. Or remember what it was. Oh, and there is something more interesting over there anyway...

Apart from his magic key wielding, broomstick piloting abilities, Tobias is no exception to the fascination that cats have with looking for things. As for me, I need to practise photographing fast moving black cats.

old skool

2006-02-09T18:07:00.000Z

They were in the top 10 Christmas presents of all time. They are so cool, they are old skool, they are the ideal form of footwear. I now want to get a BMX or some other teeny tiny kind of bike and feel some big spikey pedals dig into those waffley soles.

I can't believe then, that I left them in Guildford last time I was there. The only consolation is that someone is looking after them... and not just anybody. So this post is a special request.

Please, please dear Pirouette Girl will you bring my old skool shoes with you when you journey north next week.? We will rendez-vous in historic York. By the way, I think that they might also be the perfect footwear for super heroines.

sunshine

2006-02-03T18:49:00.000Z

Hull needs some sunny weather so that I go somewhere and play with my new camera.

Sun like this

and not horrible spirit sapping uniform light sucking grey like this

would be very welcome for giving it a fair test. So come on cold winter sun. Bring me some challenging yet interesting light conditions, some deep long shadows and stark harsh contrast. If you do I will do my best to make the most of the incongruous combination of equipment that I have at present.

So, let me see...

take it easy badger

2006-02-03T16:12:00.000Z

In no way is this blog meant to become an inane tribute to Badger. But he has found a further use for crystal webs' wonderful iPod covers. They do make perfect Badger sleeping bags.

We (badger and I) have heard on the grapevine that there is a non-organic organism webring in the offing. Of course we don't want to be jumping the gun here, but it is something that he and a number of other smaller friends are rather interested in. There are stories to tell and sights to see and such a forum would be welcome in non-organic society.

emma rugg's guinea pig - part II

2006-02-02T13:59:00.000Z

"If the best photography is about presenting the world as you see it, what's the use of a picture that depicts the world as you've never seen it?" These shrewd words of my good friend Puplet - who for such a young dog, says the wisest things - struck a chord, particularly in light of my last post.

Maybe the dog has a point about this new Olympus E330. An SLR with a live view function? Preposterous, because that is just not the point of an SLR is it? And the fact that you can tilt the screen up to allow shooting from difficult angles without guesswork or contortionism adds to the if you want a digicam then just get one argument. I would however like to remind Puplet that he is about two inches tall and getting shots like Emma's guinea pig must be a lot more accessible without the kind of bruising that us bigger people might suffer from.

In fact I am sure that we are actually writing of the same thing in terms of "presenting the world as you see it" or the "mind's eye sketches (...) seen through the plastic view finder" of the point and shoot box of my youth. I am glad that we wrote about the same thing in our last posts, because Puplet just confirms how important and yet how easy to forget this key aspect of photography actually is.

Of course cameras like the E1, my D100 and even that preposterous E330 make that sooo much easier than we deserve. But the challenge remains... recreating what someone else would never see if we didn't manage to pull it out of the plastic box and onto the monitor.

I took this shot with my D100. I didn't lie in the mud by the Humber estuary. I pointed the camera in the vague direction, took a guess and checked the result after the shot. And it turned out OK, even though I don't have a 90 degree variable angle screen with live view function. Enough is enough.

long time, no inspiration

2006-01-31T22:41:00.000Z

So, 2006 hey?

Well it has taken me long enough as you can see. And probably because this blog has been posing me the thorny question that blogs do when you think about what they are about when actually they are about nothing.

So I was thinking, and this evening my good friend Vanessa came round and we talked and then I thought about it some more. The question was, why do I so love gadgets and technology? Well I don't. I don't think that I am - come on nerdy friends, correct me if I am wrong - the most technology obsessed of people (my phone doesn't take pictures, never mind video, I don't own a PDA, Hannu is the iPod owner in the house...). I do however love what technology can do for me.

I was thinking back to 10, 12 maybe almost 15 years ago. To the days when my camera was a plastic point and shoot affair, won in a school summer fair raffle. To be fair, it did an amazing job considering the amount of time it spent in a back pack bouncing down the side of a large rock strewn hill, through streams and extreme heat and pouring rain, shooting cheap film in difficult light conditions to be developed at the local supermarket... But they were long summer days of perfect vistas from hard earned hilltops. Flawless skies glimpsed through oakey forest canopies from faultless singletrack. Dark and dappled moments grabbed, a wheelie, a bunny hop or a crash and the undergrowth. Such challenging tasks for any camera. And so these mind's eye sketches would be seen through the plastic view finder, projected onto the film more through enthusiasm than photographic ability and the patient wait for the prints to return would be so long. And though the results are still marvelous today - pure atmosphere of innocent days - how it would be frustrating to not see what was projected through that view finder.

And today. Well even yesterday actually, a small silver plastic box not so far from what we used to carry around. But this time with a magic screen on the back that gives you instant results. A chance to correct, to narrow the depth of field, to crop out what is superfluous to the real image, to push up the contrast under the trees... How it is easy to take the shot that you actually have in your head. You see what you are going to get, you can blow it up and crop it or process it straight away and then e-mail it to your friends and amaze them. So here we are 2006, probably around the period that the 21st century is starting to be different from the last.

So, 2006 and technology is good. As for inspiration I am not so sure, but I have a shiny new camera to take the best pictures ever with so maybe there will be some of that too. Time to stop going on then...

22

2005-12-05T21:08:00.000Z

We put the Murray and Elsa decanter to ideal use today. We had wonderful port after an incredible meal (D roasted 19lbs of beef in our oven and J found us some tasty German poppy seed cake). I found out the following about port - because it is not something that I have had chance to try much. So, according to the Wine Doctor; "probably the two most important declared Port vintages of the 1980s are 1985 and 1983.

Taylor's Vintage Port 1983: This is quite a pale colour for vintage Port, with a red, raspberry tinge to it. On the nose it seems quite delicate and pretty, with some red fruits. On the palate, however, it demonstrates more power, with a strong spicy character, firm acidity, plenty of tannin through the mid- and end-palate, together with a lush richness of fruit. A sweet, lingering finish. Drinking well now, but will easily go another ten years. This was a very good vintage for Taylor's. Excellent."

I couldn't have put it better myself really.

ps: prends ça Curehead!

Chevelle - Closure

on the inside

2005-11-29T22:03:00.000Z

Hannu bought herself an iPod for Christmas... lovely hey? But that is not the point. I am just sitting in my own little musical world, rediscovering the joys of the headphone experience. (Ah those many years of hours on the school bus with my Walkman and Rage Against The Machine, Silmarils and Soundgarden).

Badger really likes the black iPod - like me, he is not a purist and anyone who says that iPods should all be white just deserves a black eye. He does however think that some more badger friendly headphones would be welcome... must speak to Trevor then.

Like really loud music without it having to be really loud. Like being in a room with some musicians.

Kent - Elite

summer I love you

2005-11-29T13:40:00.000Z

I keep wondering what should really be on this blog, thinking that it should all be up to date and All New. But then there are all those times that I haven't written about at all even though they were great and worth seeing again.

Like back in the summer, in France, where I used to live. Hannu and I took our best friend-cousin down to the Lot with us and we took pictures and drank wine and ate duck. It was marvellous. One evening, a good friend invited us along to see a torch and candle-lit tour of the gothic cloisters of St Etienne cathedral in Cahors that she was giving. Because of Sue we got in early and had the place virtually to ourselves to take pictures.

But other than seeing the cloisters in a totally new perspective, what I enjoyed so much - in a no-guard-rail, use-your-own-commonsense, health-and-safety-is-somebody-else's-problem kind of way- was that flaming torches were just handed out to random tourists. Old and young alike, anyone was welcome to brandish an 18" torch in the middle of a small group of holiday makers. And did anyone bat an eyelid at being handed such social responsibility? Well most there were French and most looked like they had already handled burning torches on previous cultural visits. It was relaxed. Relaxed like the Lot valley.

weezer - perfect situation

autumn

2005-11-28T15:12:00.000Z

it is all over for another year. I'll just have to wait for spring again now, for things to start happening. For the weather to make me want to get out and actually do outside things. For longer days so that I see the outside of our house other than at the weekend. Oooh, optimism and good weather and all sorts.

I took this picture a few weeks ago when it really was autumn. I was walking back from Puplet's, having enjoyed steak and fine red wine and I really wanted to capture the colours and the movement of a draughty autumnal evening. The picture looks OK if you don't look too close... I was just holding the camera against the tree trunk, so camera shake was inevitable. But it was just too late and too cold to go back out again with a tripod. And Tobias wanted to play games on the stairs and then go to bed.

So now I will have to wait until next year to try again. But spring will be here before too long and with it a wider choice of colours.

if

2005-11-14T15:58:00.000Z

I concentrate very hard I can almost get there. It is not November but August and though it is now dark outside, that is because the sun has set over the St Gery cliffs and summer heat has given way to evening warmth.

If we try to eat outside this evening in Hull we will probably die of exposure, something to actually keep the cold out is probably much more appropriate. Tonight I am going to The Lamp with some friends to watch some short films (Monday night, undemanding... they have Leffe on tap). Winter has definitely arrived. It is feels bitterly cold here after a mild season so far.

This 1993 Chateau Montaiguillon was rather nice on Saturday evening - another welcome treat from our inherited wine collection. It is the sort of thing that brings cheer on dark autumn evenings when combined with a hearty dinner. Right, soon time to go home... what to cook tonight?

return of Badger

2005-11-11T14:52:00.000Z

So what has Badger been up to since his previous near miss with a heavy goods vehicle? Well here he is with his pair of X A50s. Apparently they keep him warm when they get turned up and he is thinking of establishing his badger set just behind them.

Puplet will of course understand where this badger came from. But for everybody else I shall just add that one of this fellow's distant family members wasn't so lucky one night in August... and should really have looked both ways more carefully before crossing the road.

And he wasn't even carrying his donor card.

what's in a name?

2005-11-09T11:13:00.000Z

So, altitude zero, what is that all about? Well, when this collection started sometime in summer 2004 it was already my record of the year. That is no mean feat for someone as indecisive as me, but Agora Fidelio touched me in a rare way. How to do justice to the one album that I would pick out of a whole 12 month period? Those that know me at all will know that – given the volume (ooh, double entendre) of music involved – it is something indeed for me to say that. But it doesn’t mean that I can tell you what it was to hear that record
- on the way to hear Phi-One play with Manimal
- by a log stove in a wintery St Gery
- chilling with Vanessa on Finkle Street
- relaxing with old friends in French summer sun
… essentially as a record for many different moments.

It is an outstanding album, that goes through the full rollercoaster of emotions that 2004 was for me. It is like Toulouse’s mogwaiesque take on proper guitar music and that means a lot to me. Ah, the Frenchness, yet the perfectly produced post-rockness of it, not to mention the pure Frenchness of it all. Simply wonderous.

I am not sure if it is available in the UK, I don’t think so unfortunately. But next time you are in Virgin on the Champs d’Elysées or maybe the FNAC down in Toulouse you really must get a copy. I have heard that they are excellent live (one day, one day...). Get on over there will you then.

praise, thanks

2005-11-08T12:22:00.000Z

A good friend of mine, as well as being a good friend, is an excellent photographer of things that I also like. His work has already appeared here and here (although the latter is his take on my classic-Motoconfort-outside-a-restaurant picture) and I would like to say a sincere thank you to him for retrospectively (now that the personal experiment is going public) letting me use those pictures.

It is over a year now since I first stumbled (not literally) on Blogger, having found it in the course of my work in online marketing. I am now in a different place - new job, happier, less stressed, more time and energy for this - and this stuff here is some of the things that I have been thinking about since then.

like sunsets over St Gery Cliffs,

or just nice things that happen at the weekend...

So I hope that Puplet might be a new friend of this blog. And that all those passing through here might drop by his collection of small kittens and interesting lomo conversions. Cheers to you Puplet and thanks for the excellent gin and tonic last night.

two rooms

2005-11-06T22:57:00.000Z

...well just about done another room. It has been a long weekend of being in the smallest bedroom. Mainly up a ladder.

OK, so it is not very rockandroll. But then again neither is a 1930s terrace house.
Today smells like winter. Hull is getting colder - probably about time now we are into November. Right, I am just going to publish this now.

old stuff

2005-11-03T13:26:00.000Z

Words are just symptoms of ideas, side-effects of thoughts, an inept expression of images, morning after memories of dreams that you don’t want to wake up from, but out of which day light drags you, mumbling and stuttering into the real world, incapable of saying why it was so good, so attractive so... . In the end you can but give a pale sketch, a shadow of the true beauty stretched to shapeless oblivion by a setting sun, a silhouette lost to obscurity. Perhaps I gave up through frustration (or gave up being frustrated), perhaps I ran out of things to say, perhaps as age goes on everything becomes more and more mysterious, less and less definable. Perhaps it is best that I don’t really understand… .

meanwhile, under the stairs...

2005-11-02T14:50:00.000Z

use of

2005-10-27T14:10:00.000Z

Redjetson demonstrated the ideal application for the electric guitar at the Adelphi on Tuesday. I saw them there last year when they played with Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies and were brilliant. They were astoundingly good considering the poor scope that the PA offers down De Grey Street and certainly provided considerable fuel for the debate on how many guitars any band can use to genuinely good effect.

They were dulcet to raging and the guitarist with the moustache (I remember the moustache from their previous appearance) has clearly perfected the ringing, chiming Telecaster tone saturated with reverb (...how close to perfection did Leo get in 1950, for the instrument to be used virtually unchanged and unsurpassed in 2005?). I would recommend them to many more people live than I would on record. Live they are simly glorious, though I guess that with the right hi fi and understanding neighbours, their first album is rather impressive too.

OK. Go and see Redjetson wherever they are next. And buy New General Catalogue. Or a Telecaster. Right, I'm just going to publish this now.

wallpaper II

2005-10-23T21:17:00.000Z

OK. This weekend progress is starting to be apparent in the Small Room.

Using this

and maybe this,

but we are not sure yet because it might not go with the wallpaper that we have. I will have a look at it all tomorrow in daylight.

takk

2005-10-17T08:49:00.000Z

Monday morning could be far worse than this. As peaceful a drive as a 15 year old Golf with a Scorpion exhaust will allow (if only the commute was longer – sometimes). But the main reasons for feeling good about this particular Monday was the combination of autumnal sun, that allowed the sunroof to be opened and with warm feet, fresh morning air above and some music to start my day in one of the best possible ways. I should write more about driving - alone - to work. There have been some memorable moments in my car, travelling through morning traffic. It is a time of privacy, a moving cocoon of course, but in which I am free to mull whatever thoughts pass through this constantly stimulated and slowly waking brain. It is not like sitting alone on the sofa, where thoughts can drift off into nothingness and probably the Simpsons, but a far more involved form of just leafing through the mind, the catalogue of thoughts, partially triggered by the rolling vista from the drivers seat. And what better soundtrack on an early autumn morning than Sigur Ros?

Although the new album has had great reviews it is not my favourite of theirs (yet). There is no doubt that it is a good record. Their use of feedbacking, seemingly living tendrils of guitar created noise as a backbone for whole songs is enough for me and needless to say, there is a lot more to their music than that. But this morning it all just made me enjoy the fact that the sun was out and that life is good - even though it is Monday morning.

coffee break

2005-09-28T10:23:00.000Z

The only form of coffee break worth having... clearly at least 50% gallic.

accidentally foreign?

2005-09-22T08:45:00.000Z

I think that I will start telling people that I am half French. Just not sure which half, though I would say it is the half that feels that this is How It Should Be:

Not faceless highstreets, not microwave food, not shrink wrapped, not uptight about health and safety but unconcerned over quality or substance.

hoorah

2005-09-13T15:33:00.000Z

“It is a tragedy that something as powerful and wonderful as personal computing should be in the hands of a rapacious businessman like Bill Gates rather than a creative individual. Gates has sold the world the idea that he’s a geek and he’s not. I don’t think he’s written a line of creative code in his life. This is a man who, in the early ‘90s, said he saw no future in the Internet. Gates is an absolutely rapacious, brilliant businessman and like all of them since Rockefeller he has anti-competitive instincts and fundamentally terrible taste. If you have a monopoly of personal computing, as he has, then it is unforgivable to design something so… bad. So badly designed, shoddy at every level, the icons and the interface are achingly inadequate, It’s without thought, without care, without love, without passion, without emotion, and that is unforgivable.

The genius of Jonathan Ive, who designed the iMac and the iPod and all the other things that people love so much, is that he understands there’s nothing wrong with having an emotional view on these things you use every day. Beauty is not an added extra, it’s fundamental.”

Stephen Fry in Word, October 2005.

boats and trains

2005-09-13T13:22:00.000Z

Boats are good. We don't use them enought these days. There should be more use of water based travel and transport, just like all the closed Victorian branch lines should be re-opened.

I would rather travel to work like this:

Yes, boats should be everyday transport - after all we live on a small damp island.

Equally, I would like to travel from Hull to Skegness via a ferry over the Humber. I don't want to go via Doncaster, though Goole would be OK.

the thing about a blog

2005-09-08T10:15:00.000Z

is that there isn't one. It is not my job (on the contrary), it is not a habit of mine to air my personal thoughts that (or this) publicly. I don't really think that there are more than about seven people out that there who would really care anyway - and I see them more or less often in real life anyway so that is not even an issue.

No, it is just about writing isn't it? Like a diary is just about writing things down and like writers like to just write.

I am just re-adjusting back to work after a holiday somewhere Scandinavian. It was good in an almost unexpected way. It made me consider my love for the place that will always be my rooty home (spiritual? In a way - just not that one), the place that will always be to me the most beautiful I know

... about the dust settled on a Cannondale downtube, the insect humm and rattle and intense summer heat reflected in a ray of low evening light before the last manic downhill home ... the wave of burnt oak gold slowly falling canopy that rolls away over several horizons ... the village woodsmoke that perfumes the air and you realise that the evenings are closing in for winter ... the early spring mornings blanketed in mist that you know will clear to crystal light and fresh new blossom... the way that words do no justice to being there and feeling at home

but Norway was new (OK, so I've been before - just not to explore like this time) and stunning and so generous in proportion for such a 'small' country. What with the last trip to France, it was all enough to inspire me. To get me excited again about ideas that I am almost sure that I have. To maybe make me write again - even though I didn't realise it while I was there - so here I am. Blogging would you believe it?...

wallpaper

2005-09-06T14:39:00.000Z

Hull is still here. Back from our second summer trip, that it is for now.

Ahead is an autumn of making our home special. We have lots of plans and more to do than we will get done,... but we are determined to make some progress on this project before Christmas arrives.

velo LOMO

2005-08-09T14:45:00.000Z

We have just been to France.

warm and fuzzy

the first Monday of october brings heavy rain and wind and on my way to work for eight o'clock dark has not yet passed.

2004-10-04T08:31:00.000Z

but inside the Media Centre it is warm.

The silent dance around the coffee making equipment. Another week...

what is good about Monday...

2004-09-20T10:55:00.000Z

is that once you start, it is not as bad as you think it is going to be.

It is just not as much fun as some days of the week like Saturday or Sunday, and because that is what you have just been doing for the past two days then obviously Monday is always a bit of a let down. Just not all that great... but probably not really bad either.

The worst day of the week is actually Tuesday. The weekend is now a distant memory, the euphoria of not having to get up so early, not being tied up for most of the day, being able to do what when you wish faded away. And there is still most of a working week to go until next weekend. Now that is not a nice thought to wake up to.

Tuesday should become a day off to ease the pain of the return to work.

outcome

2004-09-01T16:24:00.000Z

I am waiting for H to finish on the phone so that I can ask him a question so that I can send an e-mail and then go home. He has been on the phone for 1/2 an hour...

Hannu didn't get that job. She was offered a consolation prize, improved version of the work that she was going to be doing anyway - so that is good news. The only shame is that we are not suddenly double income, disposable cash happy, paying off credit cards all of a sudden. Of course we will have lots of stress free time together because she will not be working all hours and probably enjoy a different though equal Quality of Life because of this.

At what cost money hey? I would rather not think about it too much thanks, not until I am faced with the immediate problem of having more than I know what to do with.

I answered my own question... I'm off home now

what is wrong with Hull?

2004-08-31T10:47:00.000Z

Would you believe that there is - apparently - no one else on blogger who will admit to being from / in / at Hull? I find this shocking.

It is unfortunately not a place with a very prepossesing reputation. In fact, probably most people who are not from round these parts will think negative, grim thoughts when the name is mentionned. Added to this is the attitude that many of the locals have with regards to their city. Namely that it is a hateful scum hole that they are quite eager to get out of (if only they had some GCSE's - sorry, did I really make that sweeping pigeon-holing statement? Surely not...). They obviously just don't know where to look, or is it that they haven't actually been anywhere else and therefore don't realise that it is just most of England that is not that nice anyway?

But there are so many good things about it. Honest. I just don't have the time to write about them all right now. That one is for later.

Promise.

back to the future

2004-08-31T09:11:00.000Z

Hannu's back at home.
We are a complete household. And today (like a previously unexpected but none the less pleasant bolt from the blue) she has a job interview. For a potentially good if rather intensive job.

This is very exciting, though we are both - not very successfully - trying to not get too excited. Just in case she doesn't get the post. She is as good, secretly far better of course, as any of the candidates and in my opinion definitely deserves the opportunity. It would be marvelous beyond words to have two real incomes for a while (12 month contract), to not have to worry about end of month overdraft limit scraping and to be able to get on with sorting out the above mentioned home.

One thing bothers me though.
Why am I writing in that stupid style that seems to have become synonymous with blogging? The stilted sentence, with the almost unexpected stop. With the same idea continued in a further possibly unnecessary sentence. It is a style that would probably annoy me as a reader, so I will try and avoid it at all cost. In future.

The interview is at 2:45, then dinner at D&J's.
What will be will be (no, I'm still not even convincing myself).

return

2004-08-18T10:48:00.000Z

Wednesday morning
Just before lunchtime
Quiet ambient piano music across the desk from Martin's pc...

I am now Home, in Our House and feel that I should be doing something more than just going back to it after work. Doing something useful, unique, that I can do while I am there on my own to be productive.

There is no tv (well there is the old portable, but I am resisting the occasional though not too strong urge to plug it in), so that means time to turn into something. But there is no computer and I would like to write stuff and be creative in that sense.

Ah well, how about resorting to the old ink pen and trusty note pad?

news

2004-07-26T15:47:00.000Z

The exciting (for me) news this weekend is that I get to move back into my house on the 8th of August.

This is good in that I will no longer be sleeping on my friend's sofa-bed, will have a lot of my own things back and be able to do what the hell I want when the hell I want to...

What is bad is that I only know because I called our tenants, who apparently informed our letting agent a week and a half ago that they are off. Marvellous. Why can't there be a little more honesty in this kind of business.
Perhaps more to the point, why the hell can't people just do things the way that they should be doing them.

I wonder if it will all be that straight forward.
I am going to Guildford this weekend anyway, so I don't even have time to worry about thinking about sorting out what needs to be done for then. ...in good time

uh huh her

2004-07-22T15:53:00.000Z

In a day or two I will get paid and then (and probably only then - it was a heavy month, I bought a car and travelled from France to England to France to England and things), I am going to but the new PJ Harvey album.

I have read great things and know besides all that media stuff that she is an outstanding artist... I know that it will make me want some real hi fi back though.

Ah, hi fi...
I am going to Guildford at the end of the month and I will be pilling a load of stuff back to my friend's flat (where I am currently staying until I get my own house back). The main items of interest to me being our 'spare' hi fi that has been at Grinding Halt for safe keeping (rather than in our loft like our frying pans, Jock the dog and a Pioneer mini system, or in France where all our Important Stuff still is). I can't wait to have it, even if it is a collection of relics and cast-offs.

Luckily I still had enough money to buy some food.

counting the days

2004-07-21T16:39:00.000Z

Hannu has booked a flight back to the UK for the 8th September. That is when I will next see my wife and that is a little scary.

But not anything that we won't live through and remember it in years to come as 'the sort of thing that we do'. I don't think that we are unusual in that we have spent quite a bit of time apart in the - almost five now - that we have known each other. But I know that there are mostly good reasons for it all.

Like making some sacrifices in the present in order to live how we want to live in the long term? Maybe. Quality of Life is one of my favourite things and for me that phrase does not always seem to meet with practicality... and that is absolutely OK.

I am at work, finishing some things off and kind of waiting for the right moment to have someone let me out.

lull

2004-07-19T14:12:00.000Z

I'm back in the media centre... it's really quite nice.

More when there is a moment.

Journey to Anywhere

2004-07-12T14:40:00.001Z

OK, let me get this straight. Right now I am in France. It is the second week of my two week 'visit' back to where I grew up and where I have been living with Hannu since Christmas. But I am returning here from a month spent in the UK, where I have just started a new job. There, although we own a house (I am sure there will be more about number 42 at some point later), I had to stay with a friend as our property has been let while we were out of the country... and I was not expecting to be back so soon.

So I was in a familiar city, wearing my same old clothes and seeing the same lovely friends. But the rest of life suddenly leapt into a different dimension.

Having a totally new job is great. In fact I cannot believe that such a beautifully insane place to work would suddenly appear to me just when most needed.
But it is just mind bendingly odd to live on the uncharted territory between all that is familiar... and driving past the end of 'my street' but never turning down to our front door because someone else lives there. And well, none of the cars that I have been driving have been 'my car'. Because I work in a somewhat rural area, I have had to just buy another (UK based) car so that I can get to work and back. And I have to settle back to this new life and sort out my mobile, yet give out someone else's contact details and pretend that they are mine. It is kind of like being a secret agent and having to erase a past life (well, for a couple of months at least). Or pretending to be amnesiac and not remembering what I should really be doing.

I am of no fixed abode.
And Hannu will be in France until September.
... I think it might be another odd summer.

So long as I can take more of my record collection with me when I head back North again.

set out

2004-06-02T19:50:00.000Z

So here's the deal. I am in France, where I Grew Up (became me etc.), but I would really rather like to have a proper job and that is not going to happen here because we live in a luscious rural backwater that is great for mountain biking and not a lot else.

On the other hand I would quite like to enjoy the summer weather that is just starting to arrive here, especially as we have lived through the longest most miserable winter that I have known since moving here in 1991...

But this morning I had a good feeling about a job application that I sent off to a place near Hull (my other home, East Yorkshire... long story). And that was confirmed earlier this evening when I got a call from the director of HR asking when I could get over for an interview.

So this time next week I have a feeling that my future will have been changed. That the Next Stage will be maped out and ... well after that long winter of discontent it is mad for everything to be going off all at once.

My wife is in England right now. We are going to cross paths and I will end up there while she is here. Not exactly as we planned our lives, but since when has planning your life ever really worked out?

de la route à faire

2004-06-02T14:37:00.000Z

Wednesday, the end of a tired (3am is too close to 8am for comfort... I really shouldn't do that when I am working) day.

I feel that there is something in the air. That all is about to change. That a new era is upon my life. And so I felt that it would be a ridiculous idea to put some of it on here for the world to see.

Just a thought. Maybe it is the dull weather and the fact that I should really be doing something more important.