Project LV One – Volume 4

Project LV One - Vol 04-01

 

So that is volume four published…only 8 more to go…such fun (actually it is).  You can find the latest volume at the link below…enjoy

http://blur.by/1u3ISsC

 

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Project LV One – Day 133 – Bankside

City of London from Tate Modern

Yesterday I spent the day in London at the Tate Modern, a converted power station opposite the City of London.   Most of the building is empty space which is probably the best metphor for much of the artistic endeavours held within.

It is supposed to be one of the most popular or visited art galleries in the world.  Whether that is true or not I cannot say but it certainly was busy yesterday.  The purpose of the visit was to see the Henri Matisse exhibition – The Cut Outs.   This was supposed to be a once in a generation exhibition and I’m sure it was.  However, as Matisse works so well known the whole thing felt under whelming.  The purpose of such exhibitions is to educate you on the artists work and I’m sure if the gallery was empty then this would be the case, however it was packed and so, for me, the whole thing lost any of its passion.

A far far better exhibition to visit, if only because there was hardly anyone there, was the fascinating extensive retrospective Malevich – Revolutionary Russian Art.  This explores the life and time of the artist and the chilling effects of totalitarianism on art.   A much better exhibition all around compared to the hype that was Cut Outs.

Tate Modern Extension Roof of Tate Modern - London People Walking Members Lounge - Tate Modern 20140903-IMG_001657 20140903-IMG_001654 20140903-IMG_001653 (1)

 

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Tate Modern

Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Project LV One – Day 132 – Pano function and street photography

Clock Tower and Gallowtree Gate - Leicester

Walking around Leicester this morning you realise that this is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Britain.  It might not have the numbers of say London but it is a real ethnic melting pot – but then again it has always been that way.

The image above is the modern Gallowtree Gate/Clock Tower and is the centre of the city.  However, it is the also the line of the old Roman town wall – in fact the road running out of the shot in the centre of the image is called Eastgate because, well, it was where the eastern gate of the Roman wall was.  Just to confuse matters the clock tower is also were Belgrave Gate, Church Gate, Gallowtree Gate and Humberstone Gate meet.  The gate place name element doesn’t mean there was a series of openings into the city wall but rather is the Old Danish for road or way.  This comes from when Leicester was overrun by Danish vikings in the 9th century.  So for at least 2000 years what became the City of Leicester has been dealing with influx of immigrants and settlers from all over the place.  Some things, it seems, never change.

Leicester Market from Cheapside - Leicester 20140902-IMG_001651

I also discovered if you move the iPhone quickly the Pano function is really quit good at capturing people in the image and you only have to make a few corrections in Photoshop.  However, what it is like with a really packed scene might not be as successful – I guess I’ll have to test it out.

20140902-IMG_001650 20140902-IMG_001649 20140902-IMG_001648

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This is first… I agree with Polly Toynbee… Whatever next?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/trotskyites-right-wrecking-tory-party

Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Project LV One – Day 131 – Icons


Peter Capaldi

I’m not sure why these two images go together but I somehow feel they do.  I guess tomorrow I may well have a different view – such is life.

Marylyn Munroe

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Project LV One – Day 130 – Clara

Clara Oswald

Curse this virus infection!  A couple of weeks ago I had a week of feeling pretty rough and I thought I was over things.  Well today I feel lifeless – not ill just in need of a good kick up the bum.  This always happens when I get one of these virus things.  There really isn’t anything I can do about it but sit back and be a pain – nothing new there.

So with feeling a bit off it I decided to sit down and just draw and this is the result which worked out a lot better than I thought it would.

20140831-IMG_001642As a means of cheering me up here is photo from Calke yesterday…

 

It’s only rock n roll but I like it.

 

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Project LV One – Day 129 – Another in the occasional series – Walks through National Trust lands

Calke Abbey House from Park

Another wonderful early autumn Sunday, another wonderful day for walking around another gem of the National Trust properties – Calke Abbey.   This property has had a direct and indirect influence on my family for generations.  Back in the day this was a rather strange Downton Abbey many of my ancestors would have been poaching on the Harpur-Crewe land and no doubt were a pain in the side of the local game keepers as well.

Now their descendent can walk freely through the parkland and fields that surround the main house.  How times change.

Calke Abbey 20140831-IMG_001647 20140831-IMG_001646 20140831-IMG_001644 20140831-IMG_001643 20140831-IMG_001641 20140831-IMG_001640

 

Next to the wonderful Calke there is the wide open water’s of Staunton Harold Reservoir. Now I am old enough to remember this reservoir being built which is nearly 50 years ago – dam this time thingy!

staunton harold reservoir

All in all a great place to visit at any time but when the weather is forgiving even better – I guess that is the same for most places.

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So the sky is about to fall…

(The Times 30th August 2014)

I woke up this morning to this bone chilling headline and wondered what the hell had happened over night? What new outrage had taken place to suggest that the ISIS hoards were about to storm the ferry ports at Dover? Well it turns out nothing has changed. ISIS or IS are still as over blown fanatics as they were yesterday. They are blood thirsty and driven. They use all the modern organs of social media to try and portray their message of hate and violence – joins us or die a horrible death. I have no interest in their views nor do I believe they are anything other than the latest manifestation of terrorists who try to impose their will on the unwilling.

I have no idea what it is that seems to attract ‘ up to 500 ‘ muslims from Britain to want to go over to Iraq/Syria and fight for ISIS. I cannot say how much a perversion of the message of Islam they’re ideology is. What I do know is that in time they will fail because you can only keep up the intensity for so long before it starts to eat itself. After all we are told that ISIS itself morphed out of other terrorist groups. They are violent and media savvy but that is it, they may even inspire some crazed person to do something outrageous but in the long term they are no more a viable threat than any of the other groups that come before them.

So what has changed? What has made these people such a greater threat in the last three days? Well the Home Office is unsure. In the same article they were unable to point to any specific intelligence that might warrant the change of the threat level. Yet yesterday it was raised.

So has anything else happened in the last three days to perhaps make the Prime Minister feel compelled to make the British people suspect they are just a little less safe in their homes. Perhaps it is the unfolding war in Ukraine – Russians have been found out yet again by satellite photos showing tanks and guns inside Ukraine. However, these are video game images according to the Russians not the product of a multi billion dollar spy satellite system which can just about spot a Russian squadie picking his nose. If this wasn’t so tragic it would comic.

So not Ukraine, no new intelligence what else could have happened in the last three days? It couldn’t be that one of the awkward squad on the Tory right has just defected to UKIP causing great embarrassment to Prime Minister. Now that would be a very low view of politics for a Prime Minister to try and defect bad domestic news by making an outrageous fuss over something that hasn’t changed in any significant sense. To be far to the Prime Minister he is not the only politician who has pulled such a stunt and I guess he won’t be the last. It is just so unnecessary, that is unless ,of course, you are facing an out of control right wing to your party and an election in just over 6 months time which you are looking less likely to win. Goodness only knows what demon he will try and pull out of his hat should the Scots vote for independence.

So there we have it. A politician running scared for his job and a terrorist group and their followers, Both desperate for their story to get out and in some perverted way keen to make the terrorist group a much bigger threat than they already are. And they wonder why we don’t trust the whole political class. Can’t wait for the general election campaign to start….

Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Project LV One – Day 128 – Something Light…I think?

female Sketch Woman in black top

After the hard work of the past couple of days just a bit of fun doodling in a sketch book…there are worse things in life to be doing.

Just help yourself…

 

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