London - A View Through Time

My photograph of a view from the London Monument 1961 has been included in a short film "London - A Journey Through Time" by James Fox.

It can be viewed on YouTube.

A contribution to Wednesday Waters.

When Johnny Sang the Blues

A couple of my photographs The Emerging Mersey and Liverpool Skyline are included in this video.



Check the original you-tube post at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pli9cSw7J3Y

Flanders & Swann: The Slow Train

Gee Cross Well Dressing 2009 Video

Yesterday I went up to see the Gee Cross Well Dressing Ceremony.



Photos from my visit can be found on Hyde DP Xtra.


I didn't follow the band or visit all the sites this year.

For more about the Well Dressing ceremony, read my account of the 2008 Gee Cross Well Dressing and my photographs of the 2006 Gee Cross Well Dressing.

Magic with Balls

This post originally showed a brief video clip of a local magician. Although taken quite legally and with verbal permission I have since been informed that the artist's agent now owns his image and I will be sued if I do not remove it. I can't be doing with the hassle so have removed it - it's his loss not mine.

End of the Bang

The B of the Bang, erected in 2004 outside the City of Manchester Stadium, was designed as a tribute to the 2002 Commonwealth Games and was named after British sprinter Linford Christie's famous saying: "I'll be gone by the B of the Bang."

See my photograph of the sculpture under construction.


The 184ft (56m) sculpture, designed to look like a fireworks explosion, was made up of 200 solid steel columns. Welders spent several hours securing five of its 82ft (25m) tapered legs to the ground.

I took this close-up shot of the centre of the sculpture in February 2009.


In February 2009 it was announced that it was to be taken down after being blighted by safety concerns and a legal row. One of its 180 steel spikes was dislodged within two weeks of its erection and 22 have since been removed from the sculpture.


Work has now started on dismantling the sculpture. These last three photographs were taken on Monday 18th May, 2009.


I don't exactly know what the workmen here were doing but I saw flames coming out from what I assume was an acetylene torch.

The short video clip below was meant to show how the spikes were vibrating in the wind. It is clear on the original, but not so clear on this reduced-quality version uploaded through blogger. I still need to learn how to edit video clips.

One Man & His Dog? Not Exactly!

The Perils of Tea

I mentioned recently somewhere that I was being advised to cut out/down on drinking tea.

My news prompted a response by Big Titty Angel and a warning about the perils of Orangina.



At the moment I am trying to acquire a taste for Jasmine - that's the green tea not the murdering bimbo in Emmerdale.

BHS Yorkshire/Lancashire Group

The Yorkshire/Lancashire Group of the British Haiku Society now have their own website at http://web.mac.com/garycunliffe/haiku/.

One of the first things to be published there is an 8-minute video of a walk in the Japanese Garden at Walkden where the group met in June.

In July JSNW held Japan Day 2008 in the Mountford Hall of Liverpool University, with a wide variety of stalls and demonstrations. The group attended and some pictures from the event can be viewed at http://gallery.me.com/chris.boultwood/100016.

A Haiku Video

Poem Studios in association with Brooks Books brings you the first full length feature film about English Language Haiku and The Short Poem. The film features Sonia Sanchez and some of the top haiku poets of the 21st Century.



This is just a trailer for a full length DVD and book, HAIKU: The Art of the Short Poem a film haiku anthology edited by Tazuo Yamaguchi & Randy Brooks, published by Brooks Books, who also produce the magazine Mayfly.

Video of Gee Cross Well Dressing.

June 20th was the Well Dressing Ceremony at Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire.

At 2pm the Adamson Band led a procession around six well-sites.

At each site there was a blessing, followed by a verse and chorus of Onward Christian Soldiers. Afterwards there was a short service, entertainment and light refreshments in Hyde Chapel.

Photos of five of the sites can be found at Gee Cross Well Dressing 2008.

More about the history of the ceremony can be found on the Tameside Local History Forum website.

You also see my photographs of the 2006 Well Dressing.

One special photo of the band Reflection in Silver is on my photoblog.

Skywatch for Jean

This week's skywatch picture is dedicated to my sister Jean. I wrote about her in this earlier post.

On Monday she was cremated at Pontefract Crematorium. The service was led by a chaplain whom Jean had met on frequent visits to the Prince of Wales Hospice. The music chosen was Charlie Rich: "Most Beautiful Girl"

The funeral was very well attended. Afterwards we all went up Marl Pit Hill to the Kings Croft Hotel next door for refreshments. The photograph is taken from the hotel carpark looking at a field of poppies inside the crematorium grounds. In the far background can be seen the TV mast at Emley Moor.

The weather was beautiful. On our way home we stopped briefly at Wessenden Head - see my haiga on Summer Haiku 2008.

Listen to and enjoy the music.

Please note that comments are not compulsory - please do NOT say "sorry for your loss" - I've heard it said too many times on CSI and other programmes and the words come across as a hollow and inappropriate cliche - even if well meant.

For more Skywatch Friday posts visit Wigger's World.

Out with Tom on Early Bank Road

This morning I was out with Tom Wigley on a photographic expedition around Hyde.

At one point he took us up Early Bank Road. I hadn't intended taking a video but somehow this little movie got shot. Having taken it, it makes sense to share it.

This video clip was actually taken after the end of the more hair-raising section of the road. I haven't edited in any way at all.

Most of the fifty photographs I took this morning will end up on this or other blogs at some future date; the majority on Hyde Daily Photo.

Herbert Kuhner reads poems by Alter Brody

Herbert Kuhner reads poems by Alter Brody and poems on Artie Shaw and Sol Yaged.

Filmed in New York.

Read Five poems by Jozo T Boskovski translated by Herbert Kuhner.

Read a memory of Jozo T Boskovski by Herbert Kuhner.

Read Three Long Island Poets, Charles Fishman, David Axelrod and George Wallace, translated into German by Herbert Kuhner.

A video of Qaqortoq

I just discovered this brief video flyover of Qaqortoq.

My ABC Wednesday - Q post was about Qaqortoq; our visit is documented on my cruise journal 2005; a series of haiga can be found at Haiga online and the full set of 27 photographs at Qaqortoq 2005.

First video: Robin

This is the first bit of video footage I've taken with my camera, so this is just an experiment. It is 17 seconds and shows a robin on the bird-feeder; it was quite windy, so the feeder was swinging a bit.

The file on my camera was 23Mb so how it will run on blogger, I don't know. Comments welcome, but bear in mind this my first ever attemt at this sort of thing.

Loading the file up into blogger took about 20 minutes so how it downloads/plays remains to be seen. [I'm typing the post up as I write this]

You can continue to edit your post during upload, but can't close this window or publish until it's finished.

writes blogger.

Now it says

You can save your post and return to publish when processing is complete.

Processing took a few minutes only.

Song from Dublin

This video is of a poem by Chester poet, Maureen Weldon.

I also found on YouTube this excellent video of Chester featuring a busker with an acoustic violin.

Wandering the Hills of Tenerife

Here is another video of Tenerife. It is less hair-raising than the previous one of the road to Masca and has a very pleasant musical soundtrack.



Thanks to Pamela of Secret Tenerife for tracking this down.

Masca and hairpin bends

Pamela of Secret Tenerife led me to this short video of driving around the hairpin bends to Masca.



If you want to know more and watch a longer video about this once remote village, visit her post on The road to Masca.

Tallinn

I've now completed the Tallinn section on my Baltic 2006 blog.

I recently came across this video by Dileep Bhandarkar on YouTube.

Dileep visited Tallinn a year before us. He went to some places I didn't get to and concentrates on the livelier parts including the Town Hall Square which I passed through as quickly as I could. His video does give one a flavour of the place.