Several weeks ago I recorded a rather good documentary on the life and works of Edward Hopper. As I was getting my hair trimmed this morning I watched the documentary again and the imagery stuck in my mind.
As I sat down after my stylist had done her work I saw this image and had to capture it. Now I have no idea whether Hopper or the Film Noir mentioned in the documentary or both or neither had any effect on me seeing the image but I suspect they did in someway.
A young friend of mine asked me the other day if I had any graffiti images and I immeadiatly said ‘…yes, yes of course I have… ‘ However, when I checked my system I discovered to my horror that whilst I recall having a large number of images I don’t seem to have indexed them as I only had four. I guess this is just a little bit of hubris on my part along with a large helping of old father time playing havoc with my memory! Don’t laugh it will come to you as well.
Over the past few days I’ve found that I haven’t really made anything creative. This morning I had good old doodle
Some times you just have to do something…this afternoon I just had to make a few images of a jar of tulips. I have no idea why but something within my head said yes…so here it is… for whatever it is worth
The proof reading is now finished now just time to procrasternate over the intro page and it will be time to launch the site – almost 20 years after the original site was launched.
Now I’m not really a spiritual man but there is something about Coventry Cathedral that moves me in ways that other religious spaces doesn’t. Whether it is because this is perhaps the finest installation of post war British art or whether because it was all built at one the everything has harmony with one another or whether the John Piper Baptistery window is the closest thing I have ever seen to a human depiction of the Devine or none of those things. I just find the place a wonderful place. If you ever get the chance you really should go there I think you will find it worth it.
One other thing I discovered whilst wondering through the cavenous space – the limitation of the iPhone 5s camera. It is great in half decent sunlight but when dealing with the dime lighting of the cathedral it just gave up the ghost. Still now I know and with a little work in Lightroom I was able to recover most of the detail.
Over the past few days the First Minister of Scotland appeared to be acting like a spoil brat. Told on Thursday that there is no circumstances whereby an independent Scotland can retain a currency union with the rest of the UK he has refused to accept this. Instead of coming up with cogent reasons why the rest of the UK should join with Scotland he has instead insisted that he knows best and to say otherwise is just wrong.
I have never understood this need to enter into a currency union in the first place. I thought that the whole idea of independence was just that – to be independent of the rest of the UK or actually to be independent of England which is legitimate goal. Then one of the first acts independence is to join England in a currency union which, by it nature, gives up sovereignty. Mr Salmond seems to assume just because he thinks something is a good idea then every one else must do as well – that includes the 50 odd million who live in England. I am no expert on these things but this would seem to be something that would need to have a referendum over and I doubt very much any one in England will support it. In short it is not viable and the so called £500 million in transaction charges that are supposed to be created by a lack of union doesn’t seem to be an obsticle. Companies will just insist they are paid in pound sterling and the charges will fall on Scotland. Failing that they will move away from Scotland as a base of operation – probably to England.
There appears to be a lot of guff, which I guess this blog falls under that heading, being written about it is also Scottish pound and many Scots have contributed to the success of the pound and so it be automatically their right to continue to use the pound should Scotland gain independence. This is really quite silly as the Pound Sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom and as Scotland has left that country they no longer have access to the support of the Pound. This same argument has been put forward about automatic membership of the EU. At the moment people in Scotland are EU citizens, through their UK citizenship and so, the argument goes, this should continue after they leave the UK. But of course they no longer will be citizens of the UK but citizens of a new independent county with all the freedoms and limitation that comes with that and as a new country they are not members of the EU.
I am not against Scottish independence, far from it, it just seems that if you are an independent country you act as such. You don’t immediately give up that independence. I also believe that My Salmond is right in that should the vote go for independence there will be some sort of accommodation will be sorted between Scotland and rest of the UK. I don’t believe it will be plain sailing and many of the things will take a long time to sort out – certainly beyond the two years allowed and in the end it will all come back to money, whether it is Pound Sterling, Euro or groat.
More from the studio session
Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk
WARNING: This contains no spoilers…I Hope
The internet is a wonderful thing at times. It allows you to indulge all manner of personal prejudice as well as pleasures and satisfies many less savoury needs…yes we now know what Frank Underwood’s needs are…I can say no more. In the past I might have thought my staying up until 5 am in the morning just watch all of the House of Cards season 2 episodes a little bit self indulgent but it turns out I’m not alone. I believe that the season was released around midnight in the States – I could be wrong on that detail – so many Americans sat up at that time and watched as many episodes as they could. Fortunately midnight in States is at least 5 am in the UK so even if you wanted to do that here you got some sleep.
I on the other hand started to watch around 1pm local time, went out in the evening and finally finished watching the whole season when I got back in. It was worth the sleep deprivation. The story starts just as Frank is about to become the Vice President and then…well can’t say anymore. As to where this fits into the original House of Cards chronology is a mute point, again not wishing to mention key points etc… However, what can be said is that this season feels a lot more sure of it self and is certainly an awful lot darker than season one. The pace is relentless and I’m going to watch the whole season again just to pick up on some of the finer plot points. Perhaps the best character in the second season isn’t Frank but rather his wife Claire who I thought in the first season was a bit wishy washy and didn’t add to the story. You can’t say that here. She is as vicious and manipulative as Frank and then some. In fact I once watched the whole season by fas forwarding through her parts and didn’t miss a thing.
There are no missteps either on each of the episodes – such as episode 8 in the previous season. The new characters work and even the asides are now more suitably placed into the action. I guess the one overriding differnce between the US version and the UK version is that on deals with a super power on the slide and the other at about the zenith of its power. As the whole series is about the acquiring of power this is very very important. For all the claims that America is in decline they aren’t really and the President really does matter … far more than just how rich you are.
So if you haven’t got a Netflix subscription it is well worth it just for this or otherwise you’ve have to wait for it to come out on DVD. For me that would be an intolerible weight so Netflix it is.
Go on you know you want to….just switch the phone off, put down the iPad and waste a day on this wonderful example of what can be done when creative people are allowed to do their stuff. Now I have to weight until next year for the Season 3…how am I going to be able to do that?
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