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Think outside my box
My body, my choice
Never again
National Day of Action to Defend Women's Rights. Rally at Dallas City Hall, July 15, 2013.
de Auguste Rodin (ParÃs, Francia, 1840 - Meudon, Francia, 1917). Bronce con pátina verde y negra. Fundición de una edición limitada por la Fundidora Valsuani, en el Museo Soumaya de la Ciudad de México, que "respeta los derechos morales del Museo Rodin de ParÃs".
For everyone who knows Supertramp you certainly know "Take the long way home"! Here is a photo of mine that I always think of when I listen to that song.
'Take The Long Way Home' has a quality about it that just makes me feel warm inside. I don't know if it's the harmonies or the melodies, or whatever, but I never get sick of it. I always saw the song a little ambiguous. It's on two levels. I see 'home' as being internal and external. It's kind of a play on words. Definitely part of the song is about the shallowness of success and getting caught up in a world and success and chasing, being popular, or whatever, is taking 'the long way home'. Because I think 'home' in its deepest sense is inside, is being at peace with oneself. Again it's ambiguous - 'if you're not around' means… you're dead or you couldn't settle down - you couldn't take it and you're off looking for things that are more important. It's a fun song! I remember having a lot of fun writing it but never really having a clear picture of it. It was more… often when I write songs, I go by gut instinct. A line comes to me and they usually do come to me… the best lines come to me rather than me trying to think them up consciously and I just feel they're right and I go with them whether I totally understand the meaning or not.
—Roger Hodgson, Supertramp
I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I had fun taking it!
Comments are always welcomed.
I think it'll look better in 10 pounds or so ... but I do like it already. :)
Started: August 2005
Finished: 22 September 2005
Yarn: Cotton-Ease, Candy Blue with Blueberry trim
Pattern: Bad Penny by Stephanie Japel
Frankfurt
Shot with an Cindo Paris 85mm Series 62.5mm (ø of the barrel) cinematic projection lens. (Petzval design) on a Nikon D800.—Setup: Cindo 85mm cinematic projection lens set in brass focussing mount ; filter step-down and step-up rings 72-67mm, 67-72mm, 72-67mm, 52-72mm, 39-52mm into the M39-Nikon F adapter.— As part of the Antique Camera Simulator project.
Postprocessing: Nikon RAW to JPG conversion in Nikon View NX2 with minor focus and levels adjustment.—White frame in CS3.
© Dirk HR Spennemann 2014, All Rights Reserved
Access all my images via the Collections Page
I think one of the reasons I liked Luxembourg so much was that it had a lot of green space. Limited to places I could reach by rail, Luxembourg was the closest thing I had found at this point in my trip to being away from tourist crowds and large buildings since I was in walking along the River Taff in Wales on my way to Castell Coch.
The people were polite too; while I was framing my shot I noticed a runner had simply stopped and was jogging in place patiently until I was done. And this happened several times between this shot and the previous one I posted.
Overall Luxembourg was a great change of pace from the tourist centers I sought out through my trip.
I never wanted to be a fireman, but if I had, I think I'd rather have been a cool one, in Trumpton, than a cheesy Hollywood one in Backdraft.
I think I've solved the mystery of Kidderminster and why it is like it is. I don't have any problem in getting my hands dirty and ruffling a few feathers occasionally, so playing with stuff like depth psychology, for example, isn't a problem. The advertising industry are quick enough to use it, so why shouldn't I, so long as I don't end up doing to people and places what they're clearly capable of doing.
But now that I think I understand Kidderminster and the people, here, miles better, I can pull back from thinking so hard about the place and its culture. Probably wise, as well. It's hard to imagine keeping on thinking the type of stuff I think you need to think to figure some things out. And now that's done and the fire I had to go into is out, I can chill a bit and even empathise to a certain extent with the situation and the people here and maybe just let it be.
It is a mess, this town, and that mess runs pretty deep, but I think I've got a good idea what could fix it. The problem I knew before I even started playing this latest game of 'reform or die' is that not enough people here would even begin to listen to me, anyway, I don't think, especially not in the long-term, when you think of information, networks and power, in context.
Officials in the town, then, think that the culture and mindset here haven't progressed since the 1500s. I can't verify that, but I do get a sense, after really thinking hard about the issues around the town, that these issues have been around for a long time and will probably continue for a long time.
I met Rob in a pub across town. Rob was into sociology and psychology in the 80s. He really believed in making a difference, back then, as a few of us did who went into education. He was a great guy, a really great guy. Today, I spoke with him and I realised that while he's still a good guy in many ways, he's not the Rob I knew in the 80s. Our minds and our eyes didn't connect as much as they once did. Nowhere near. You might say 'that's life', but it's not. It's the result of a bullshit mainstream culture that doesn't value life as it should.
Take my former friend. He recently came to Nero's trying, yet again, his evident skills at misinformation and manipulation, trying hard to make them work so he doesn't face up to the man he's been for a long time. This guy's got a supposed passion for open source software and a picture by his fireplace of Fonda and Hopper in their prime in Easy Rider. I think he's the biggest fraud I've ever met, by a long stretch, a disturbing character, now. The lies are so tragic.
But there's a story. Isn't there ever? It's a story I can't tell here, but, in Nero's, I looked as deep as I could into his eyes and I knew, that the friend I'd had since my teenage years wasn't there any more. The personality he once had was effectively dead. Pretty shocking experience, but evidence from elsewhere in the community is compelling and quite a few people talk about how there's something very wrong about this guy that points to an individual who surrounds himself with a myth while he'll almost certainly try anything he can, like people have confirmed he has done to me before, to simply avoid admitting what he's become. And he'll try to do it at my expense, partly because I confronted and exposed him.
Even though it's a painful experience, it's a good one, that, in a way, in seeing self-interest at perhaps one of its extremes, demonstrating what unscrupulous people can do with information and networks for what ends. That said, you've still got to try to get your head around that especially when you lose people in such ways. Such knowledge can have a big influence in your own psychosocial well-being. That situation will continue, but I understand it and I can deal with his behaviour unless he incites people to violence. I don't rule it out, but I'm not going to let that worry me, because there's nothing I could do about it, anyway. If it happens, it happens, sort of thing. It's just part and parcel of having once had a friend who's become something I don't particularly want to remember.
I expect many of the dramas in Kidderminster to continue. Just because, like with my former friend, I think I have a level of understanding of this town that's comprehensive and accurate, partly because I put the effort in to actually find out stuff and think effectively about it, that doesn't solve the problems of this town. Nowhere near.
There's probably loads of ways to look at a solution to put the main fires out in Kidderminster. I think the one that really takes out the problem is to get people to understand who they are in context and understand their environment in context. There's complications in achieving that, but they're not insurmountable. I've done it and, partly because I'm not perfect, I think if I can do it, pretty much everyone can, with the right information, communicstion and relationships. I'm certain that you can forget the other proposed solutions you hear off many people, or have them as icing on the cake, but let people find themselves beneath all the layers of bullshit in themselves and their environment and the rest will pretty much click into place, because really, really deep down, beneath all the psychosocial and cultural problems I can see in too many people, if you can get people to their core, you'll win them over.
That might never happen. I think mainstream culture has a lot to do with that and I'm sure that an effective social media strategy can be designed to tap into that.
But many people, I think, are also scared of examining themselves, partly because there's so much to prevent us from seeing ourselves in context, partly because no-one has attempted to really tell people the truth about how the mind can work in the face of it all and that it can be all cool if you really think about it.
I'm sure that'd have a knock-on effect, too. Sometimes, I'm pissed off and I can waste no time telling people they're thick. But I'm certain that this thickness is mainly down to people not being able to reach their full potential because the bullshit can so easily get in the way. That, compounded by so many factors in mainstream culture is what needs to be looked at.
So, I think I've slain the Jabberwock in Salem, the main fire is out in Kidderminster and I'm all cool again, till my next mission, whatever that is. You never know what's coming next, but whatever comes next in this town, I know, if I so choose, I can see and place it in the broader context it needs to be seen in. So, maybe I really will, now, have the ability to enjoy my coffee and fag at Caffe-Fucking-Nero, even though it's easily the craziest and most bizarre place I have ever been.
Be careful out there...
I think this was taken in June 1988. It's a shot of the old Baltic Mill, Gainsborough (demolished about 1993). This was an old riverside building (from the 18th Century), and was pulled down to make way for a new "Litton Tree" pub. More than 10 years after demolition, the site is still empty. For those who don't know, the site of this building is more or less opposite the old Wilcos building (now a sports retailer). I took this photo from the other side of the River Trent using my East German Jenaflex AM-1 camera.
The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), Barbary ape, or magot, is a species of macaque unique for its distribution outside Asia and for its vestigial tail. Found in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco along with a small population that were introduced from Morocco to Gibraltar, the Barbary macaque is one of the best-known Old World monkey species.
Skull and brain, as illustrated in Gervais' Histoire naturelle des mammifères.
The Barbary macaque is of particular interest because males play an atypical role in rearing young. Because of uncertain paternity, males are integral to raising all infants. Generally, Barbary macaques of all ages and sexes contribute in alloparental care of young.
Macaque diets consist primarily of plants and insects and they are found in a variety of habitats. Males live to a maximum of 25 years while females may live up to 30 years. Besides humans, they are the only free-living primates in Europe. Although the species is commonly referred to as the "Barbary ape", the Barbary macaque is actually a true monkey. Its name refers to the Barbary Coast of North West Africa.
Source: Wikipedia