Month: March 2020
An All Seeing Eye
Skylight, Edinburgh Waverley Station
The restored ceiling and glass work of the ticket hall at Edinburgh’s principal rail hub is a wonder, that escapes due attention as travellers scurry for their trains, or the exits.
If they do glance up, it is only as far as the electronic schedule boards announcing arrivals, departures and British Rail’s inevitable delays.
My own hurried phone photograph was an exposure fail, but it serves to emphasise the ceiling’s stunning design.
In silhouette, the dome appears as a great eye.
All seeing.
Omniscient.
I wonder how many sojourners have passed under the skylight’s gaze?
How much motion silently observed from above?
I didn’t have time to look up again, but am glad I did in that moment, before moving for the exit, eyes ahead.
So, Now We Just Wait…
‘So, Now We Just Wait…’
Boats on a tidal shore at Kinghorn, Scotland (shot last October).
Each waiting for the tide and an able captain.
Waiting – it’s never easy.
And uncertainty is a prick of a thing…
Ghostly
Auckland’s a ghost town in lockdown.
Spookily quiet, with the threat of disease and death the back drop to every muted scene.
The hanging aerial roots of a coastal pohutukawa tree add to the spectral vibe…
New Day Rising II
‘New Day Rising II’
First light on the Tamaki River yesterday – another day, another beginning, another version…
And a previous blog version is to be found here: New Day Rising .Last time around I shone the light, so to speak, on the album cover of Husker Du’s ‘New Day Rising’. This time you can check out the title track below.
Unlike the serenity of the photo, this is one of the most ferocious slices of rock and roll ever committed to tape, so you stand warned.
But I am happy to start the day either way, really…
I Am The White King
‘I Am The White King’
Male greylag goose sits pretty, and comes over sorta regal.
(for more avian sightings, see Squawk )
Squawk
‘Squawk’
A black-backed gull tells it like it is!
Pandemic Triptych
Pictures from the last three posts presented as a triptych – three separate panels but meant to be taken as an entirety.
Sort of like the coronavirus pandemic itself – separated, isolated events which, in the end, affect the whole.
Anyway, I hope there is something in the images to interest or inspire you; I am grateful if it does.
Most of all, people – stay safe, have courage and be kind!
Dis-ease: Fight Or Flight
‘Dis-ease: Fight Or Flight’
(the final picture post of three dealing (non-medically of course) with the Coronavirus pandemic. See also Gone Viral Blues and Panic In The World ).
Gone Viral Blues
Panic In The World
‘Panic In The World’
The Truth And The Facts
“The truth and the facts aren’t necessarily the same thing. Telling the truth is the object of all art; facts are what the unimaginative have instead of ideas.”
– A.A Gill
I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night
It has been a week of vivid and bizarre dreams for me, some nightmarish.
Perhaps coming off antidepressant medication has something to do with it , as that is an apparent side effect.
At any rate, the surreal shit of my dreamland continues apace.
You couldn’t make it up and you certainly can’t control it.
I’ll wake up from one weird episode and then plunge straight into another one, and so it continues till the dawn.
Deep REM sleep is supposed to be beneficial; maybe, but it is bemusing also.
I don’t even try to analyse the nocturnal art house cinema I am being served up involuntarily on a nightly basis.
What would be the point, really?
But I do have the ideal soundtrack to it all:
The Electric Prunes’s “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”. A thoroughly groovy 1960’s garage/psychedelic rock classic.
YouTube link below. Stick this in your pipe dream and smoke it, good people!
“I’m not ready to face the light…I had too much to dream last night”
Trio
Red Hibiscus, Summer Fading
‘Red Hibiscus, Summer Fading’
Papering Over The Cracks
Vintage embossed wallpaper in a country pub just south of Auckland, spotted last weekend.
Complicated!
Sumptuous and symmetrical.
It is art in its own very repetitive and expansive way.
Wallpaper performs a decorative function, but of course hides what lies behind it.
God knows, I have papered over my own cracks at times, working feverishly like “a one-armed paper hanger”, to borrow a phrase.
Most of the time the people in the room had no earthly idea of the unsightly mess beneath…
Blue Guitar
Through The Trees
‘Through The Trees’ Hanmer Springs, NZ. July 2013
wooden shafts
shafts of light and air
run parallel
then merge
in memories
Birdland
This very evocative wood carving/ painting got me thinking of some favourite bird things….
My Avian Awards
- My Lucky Bird – Kingfisher
- Best Song/Call – Tui (NZ endemic)/Magpie =
- “I Rule” Strut – Magpie
- Coolest in Flight – Hawk/ Swallow =
- Beadiest Eye – Seagull
- Bird my cat fears – Pukeko (NZ endemic)
- Best Song with a bird theme – ‘Birdland’,Weather Report (listen below)/’Fly like An Eagle’,Steve Miller Band =
A modern jazz classic!
Agapanthus
Ebb Then Flood 