Beautiful days, sad lives

I was in town this morning and a section of it was closed and taped off, apparently someeone was threatening to jump from the one car park that is more than 2 storey’s high. It’s a beautiful day, the sun is out and the birds are singing, yet someone feels so sad and down that they want to kill themselves… it seems to me that everyone needs at some point someone they can talk to. I hope that whoever this is,they can find some peace and tranquility, and that they come down safely.

A couple of flowers for you today:

 

rules,rules, rules

was working today with a stickler for the rules, no deviation allowed, no flexibiliy, no fun…I know rules need to be there but sometimes there are ways around situatuions that allow people to have a good day. Along with the usual ‘This country has gone to the dog’s’ and ‘things aren’t what they used to be’ comments it was an interesting morning, then I receive a message from a friend saying that she was in bed reading whilst I was listening to the afore mentioned homilies…not fair, not fair at all…Oh for the languid day’s of yore when I was in Amsterdam…I keep hearing stories now though that the local council in Amsterdam is tightening up the rules there…window’s in the RLD (Red Light District) closing and being turned into fashion display’s, the no smoking rule will be in there in July, everyone is waiting to see how it will affect the Coffeeshops. They have even banned people sitting outside on terraces after midnight…a rule by the way, they have had in the suburbs for ages…people ae complaining, mainly tourists who don’t actually have to live there and have to get up for work…it’s as if their playground is being ruined and maybe they spend a couple of weeks there a year. I’ve seen people on forum’s say things like ‘Well they shouldn’t live in the centre of town if they don’t like noise’…some people have no choice they have to live there…where has  the tolerance gone…the good old utopian dreams of living in Amsterdam in the 70’s a distant memory…

here are a couple of images from the Golden city…the first is a saddlebag on a bike and the second is one of the typical streets not easy to traverse after a few Jenever’s…

 

 

Strange people and loud people

Last night I watched a very strange program on Channel 5…it was about men who love their cars, not in the usual way, these people really LOVED their cars, to the point of sharing their man juice with the car…weird or what, they were American’s, next week we shall see women who love objects…objectaphilia!! Which will include a woman who ‘married’ the Eiffel Tower, makes me feel quite normal!!

Today, I made photos of a carnival, in the Library over the past 2 days they have been holding a drum workshop for the kids…hve to say the old notion of quiet in the Library was well and truly out of the window…still the kids enjoyed themselves and the old people had a good moan…Oh how Libraries have changed, I remember going into the library when I was young and being told off for walking too loudly…now we have mobile’s, kids screaming, phones ringing, we’ve even had someone shouting to their mate on the first floor… 

 

Text, Lies and photographs

Today I received the Welsh translations back from ‘the boss’. For those of you who know these are for an  exhibition I’m putting on for Refugee Week. It’s going to be held in the Library and one of the conditions is that everything must be bi-lingual. I have no problem with Bi-linguality, my ideal would be to have it in Sorani ( Kurdish), Pashto (Afghanistan),Arabic and a few dozen other languages that represent the diverse population here in this town. Obviously, this is impractical, space constraints for one thing, and we’d never get all the languages and there would always be someone who would request ‘clingon’ or something equally esoteric. So, my 5 pages of text has turned into 10, which leaves precious little space for the images, I think 5 images and 5 blocks of text will have to suffice…The skill is trying to get the facts over whilst telling a story with the images. The important thing here is to try and dispel the lies that people believe about Asylum Seekers and Refugees. We shall see…

Hopefully this ‘little’ experiment in myth busting will expand into a a longer term project culminating in a dvd comprising of interviews along with more images and other perhaps musical pieces from refugees…

So, today has been spent in front of the computer, good job the weather has been abdolute crap!! Meanwhile this is what summer is supposed to be like…

 

This was made in Rhyl last year, a lot of regeneration, more over-priced ’apartments’ no doubt, is going on and the builder’s hoardings had been painted in the style of the good old saucy seaside postcard. By the way, some might say that the figures represent friends of mine, I couldn’t possibly comment!! (eh Olive?)

Chilled Sunday’s

Took a trip to Alexander’s in Chester today, where on Sunday afternoon they have a free music afternoon. Today it was a jazz quartet, they were very good. The company was good too, ‘A’ who came to pick me up is a great laugh, kind of bohemian, she likes to shock, not in a bad way, she’s just an individual and doesn’t like conformity.  My other mate ‘J’ came too although he left because he has to go and buy shoes for a trip to the ‘disco’ tonight he’s off with a couple of 18yr olds, he’s 40 odd and wants to experience club life once again…rather him than me.

There is something good about a chilled Sunday, the kind that can set one up for the week. Last week another friend ‘Olive’ was telling me about this bed she’s bought, it’s huge apparently and necessitated a re-decoration of the bedroom before it arrives. She’s very excited as she’ll have a huge new bed to play in…

I’m back in love with my camera’s again, after a period of indifference, I now love carrying them again. I have this love hate relationship with them, soemtimes it feels I have to make an image a day…I can’t seem to get the balance right, Like writing a diary I guess, although I’ve long since stopped stressing about having to write every day…

Sitting in the pub the other evening I made a couple of images of their Tulips, they are on the way out now, mine have long gone…enjoy!

 

Life,Death and mundanities

I spent today planting some spring Onions, Lettuce and Gourds. I decided to have a go at planting some salad stuff, I’ve put them in  pots so I hope they see the light of day.

The Gourds(see below) are an indulgence, I want to photograph them. I’m not sure that I can do anything with them other than use them to keep water in and photograph.       

I heard some news today that got me thinking. There was a man who used to get on the bus, he was old, often he smelled of alcohol, he died the other day and because he lived on his own wasn’t found for a couple of days. I remember when I was young,  I read about a man who had been lying dead in a flat for 6 months, they dated his death by the newspapers found lying around him, these were the days before the wonderful CSI forensic wonders that abound today. I remember thinking at the time, that’s going to be me, someone, somewhere will think ‘Chris hasn’t been bugging me for a while… I wonder…’  and there I’ll be wrapped in the Amateur Photogrpapher magazine dreaming of that Leica lens I’ll never afford. The perils of living alone and being an only child, and some might say being a grumpy old git.

Also today I made a DVD for one of my friends who is going back to Germany after working here for a couple of months, we got together a few photos and I put them together and added a music track. I went and photographed some of the cultural experiences she has savoured whilst here, these included the local Nightclub and the various fast food restaurants she loves.

I’ve figured out what this place is lacking, it has no river, I love flowing water, I’d like to live by the sea, or at least a fast flowing river. My local pub, has a pond and that does the job for the moment.  

 

This is the view from the place I had lunch yesterday, its great, and the food’s not bad either. I can’t believe it’s the bank holiday again this weekend, Where is the year going? I’ve got nothing planned so far, other than going to Alexander’s in Chester on Sunday afternoon for a chilled out free jazz event. I noticed last week that Peter Tork ex Monkee’s is playing there on June 10th, might be a good chance to photograph a legend, or a least see one, its a shame its not Michael Nesmith, he wrote one of my favourite songs ‘Chow Mein and Bowling’ if you get a chance listen its really funny…

 

Other Blogs

I find myself here after a while on blogspot, if you want to see the blog there see www.kopstoot-ramblings.blogspot.com . Over the last month I haven’t been able to post there, and this blog thing is addictive. I’ve kept a diary since I was 14 or so, and it is now a natural thing for me to write about my day…so now I will continue here.

Today I visited Llangollen to deliver a foto cd to the Europe Direct office I photographed an event they had last week on Cultural Diversity in my town.

I made a couple of images of a caravan which has been decorated, I have a caravan in my driveway and it is in desperate need of a makeover, after a few beers one night my mate John and I were thinking of what style to paint it and we came up with Mondrian, for those who don’t know the style see http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/mondrian_piet.html  this will then be known as the ‘Mondrivan’!! As yet I haven’t finalised which of the Mondrian styles I’m going for…watch this space…

For now have a look at this, made in Llangollen today and beautiful…