View allAll Photos Tagged optimistic
Parker: This dude is really creepy!
Izzy: No worries. We got this!
Izzy The Optimist.... in most of the Dreamzz episodes, Izzy is so optimistic. She quickly became one of my favorite characters for that reason. Here she's teamed up with Parker to try to capture the Nightmare King at the Haunted House and keep Lego City safe on Halloween :-)
Around sunset, a couple days ago.
We moved to our new apartment this month and this was a nice way to celebrate the photographic possibilities from this 15th floor point-of-view. We didn't have any serious storm that day, despite the alert in the morning... Spot the rainbow.
Stitched pano from about 23 photos, taken at around 30 mm. In hindsight, I should have just used a wider lens. I had another layer of photos for the clouds above the frame but didn't account for how fast the wind was moving them and how quickly they were changing. That was a nightmare to stitch in post and in the end I just had to give up on that top strip of clouds, which in my opinion was the most dramatic :(
Sometimes when the times are at their darkest point, the brightest pictures come to light.
November last year wasn't my finest time. But even when I know I wasn't happy and everything was sort of crumbling down I feel optimistic when I look at my past self here. There isn't sadness in my eyes, and somehow, that tiny little stupid thing makes me feel so strong.
I try to be an optimistic realist…seeing what could be possible but realizing it will usually take real work and effort to get there.
So here I am back out and about…nothing too amazing… but I’m doing it again.
The day was mostly uneventful as Becky's days go. Most stores still have their dressing rooms closed here, so I didn’t find much fun in just touring the racks, as these days I like to see how something is going to look on, before I buy it.
It has been rather warm, so long outdoors activity was also a bit limited. I could have gone to the city, but I was looking to end my day up in the Walnut Creek area and meet up with my friends from the DVGs for dinner and socializing.
But it was nice to be back out and I got a nice boost from a long time friend who, after talking with me for a few minutes, stopped mid-sentence and, Said “You look really good today”…”not that you don’t look good usually but you look very nice, your make up….”
When she was done…just a short set of comments, I stopped her. “Thank you” I said. “It’s not that I need a lot of complements, but today that hit very deeply, as I’ve been struggling to feel like I’m getting back on track again, so thank you very much.” And we continued chatting about some other thing unrelated to TG things.
I didn’t take her comment to mean I looked gorgeous or anything like that, but just that I looked very put together, comfortable and natural and I was back being the nice, friendly, calm and confidence woman she had come to know over the last decade or so. (Just for the record, she was in male mode, but joined us anyways.)
So, I think I’m back…a little older and heavier than before the COVID pandemic hit, but I’m back. I look forward to getting to spend some more femme time soon. It might be a little bit, because I have lots of things vying for my time right now. Family, friends and more that all got set aside for a bit last year.
Anyways you all be well and I hope things will be opening up for you all soon as well.
On a side note: We are now at 82% of folks over 12 vaccinated in my county. Something I quite happy with, but things have really slowed down here, which means we still have nearly 1 in 5 people who have bought into the stupid and self-destructive COVID hoax movement that still exists here. By this point we could have had nearly everyone over 12 vaccinated and the pandemic would be gone here, but because of these stupid and ignorant folks, we are still being held back from really getting back to normal.
The really irritating thing is these are mostly the same people who didn’t want to help stop the spread when COVID was raging last year and they will cause additional unfortunate death and grief, for really no reason at all. Its free, its available, it works amazing well and there is little risk or side effects.
Another sign of the truly insane times we are currently living in.
Be well, Hugs, Becky
During the early optimistic days of ownership by the Thai-based company SSI UK, GB Railfreight-operated Di8 class diesel-electric loco No.820 'Poppy' draws a loaded torpedo wagon away from the Redcar Blast Furnace on 31st October 2012. The 'Di8' class was previously used for freight traffic by the Norwegian railway company CargoNet. Twenty locos were constructed in 1996-97 at the Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) plant in Kiel when it was part of 'Siemens Schienenfahrzeugtechnik' and GB Railfreight acquired ten for the Redcar contract. SSI UK went into liquidation during October 2015, resulting in 1,700 job losses at the plant alone. Further use was found for most of the Di8 class locos at Scunthorpe Steelworks, and it wasn't until August 2021 when the first demolition work of the plant commenced in earnest.
© Gordon Edgar 2012 - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
optimistic about gods
and I do believe in good
but as autumn gets closer
it gets hard to keep the mood
- Frosted July -
The story of the abandoned Taborian Hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi is told in the attached article from the Mississippi Business Journal:
MOUND BAYOU — A block down from Kennedy Johnson’s new barbecue restaurant sits a boarded-up symbol of a Delta town’s haunting past and optimistic future.
Taborian Hospital was one of the first modern medical facilities in Mississippi that was built, owned and operated by African-Americans. The old medical center here has been shuttered for three decades, but the “no trespassing” signs will soon come off.
“I made a promise to my mother in 2002 that I would work to get Taborian Hospital restored,” said Johnson, who served as the town’s mayor for 12 years. “Even though she is not here to see it, I made good on that promise.”
The hospital, later renamed Mound Bayou Community Hospital, closed in 1983 due to increased regulations, competition from new clinics and hospitals and federal cutbacks. The long effort to revive it by Johnson, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and descendants of the hospital’s founders paid off when the town received a $2.9 million federal grant in 2011.
In July, crews began working to turn the old hospital into the new Taborian Urgent Care Center. Officials hope the center is the shot in the arm needed to trigger economic development in the 126-year-old town.
Mound Bayou is a place with a storied past. Isaiah T. Montgomery and his cousin, Benjamin T. Green, both born into slavery, founded the town in 1887 during the post-Civil War era when many were debating how to mitigate “the Negro problem.”
The phrase was a crude way of questioning the place of black people in American society. Some advocated the back-to-Africa movement. Many worked for integration. And others, like Montgomery and Green, supported all-black townships where African-Americans lived in self-sufficient cities that provided some insulation from the racial violence of the day. While some former 19th century black townships now boast diverse populations, Mound Bayou remains 99 percent African-American, according to recent Census figures.
“When I was first elected mayor, the town had a $1 million debt; we were suspended from receiving state and federal grants, and the town’s water ran brown and was undrinkable,” said Johnson, who lost his bid for re-election two months ago to another man named Johnson. “We cleaned up these problems, but the town still needs jobs. The urgent care center can bring much-needed jobs and training for those jobs, and also attract other businesses just like the old hospital did.”
The historic Taborian Hospital came to life about 72 years ago, after members of the fraternal organization the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor launched a fundraising campaign to build the facility at the urging of the group’s Mississippi leader, Perry M. Smith.
“Papa told the story that when he visited one of the members of his order at a hospital in Jackson, that they were treating black people in a dirty basement,” said Smith’s granddaughter, Myrna Smith-Thompson.
“When he came home, he went to the members in the Mississippi chapter with the idea of building a hospital for the black community where we could come through the front door — not be left to die in a dirty basement.”
Members paid annual dues of $8.40 for adults and $1.20 for children, which entitled them to 31 days of hospitalization and a burial policy. Leaders also went to meetings held in churches from Benoit to Yazoo City, where sharecroppers and farmers bought into the dream of a hospital to call their own.
“They were poorer than poor,” Smith-Thompson said about the sharecroppers. “But they paid for the memberships because they wanted to be treated with dignity and respect at a hospital.”
After raising $100,000 over 12 years, the Knights and Daughters of Tabor opened Taborian Hospital in February 1942.
Smith-Thompson, 64, was born there seven years later.
She remembers that the hospital on Edwards Avenue was a hub of activity in downtown Mound Bayou and helped the town rebound after The Great Depression.
“There were people coming to town to see the doctor or going to Norman’s Pharmacy or eating at the restaurants that opened when the hospital came to town,” she said.
“The hospital served as the catalyst to bring back the economic growth,” she added. “We see the urgent care center doing the exact same thing today.”
Smith-Thompson, who for more than a decade has fought to get the old hospital restored, was hired as the center’s educational development director.
She now lives in Illinois but commutes monthly to Mound Bayou, a Delta town of 1,500 residents 100 miles south of Memphis.
The federal grant is also paying for computers and the video conferencing equipment for a distance learning medical training program through Coahoma Community College. Now, students studying medical billing and coding won’t have to travel 40 miles to the course in Clarksdale. Ten residents have already completed a health care sanitation class in a separate Workforce Development program.
The idea to turn the old hospital into an urgent care center was conceived by Margo Christian-Brooks, who wrote the grant that secured the federal dollars for the hospital’s restoration.
Since the mid-20th century, Mississippi has received a generous portion of federal dollars. Today, for every dollar its residents pay in federal income taxes, the state collects more than two dollars of federal funding, which includes money for military spending, farm subsidies and industrial development. Yet, for years, the federal projects pipeline had bypassed Mound Bayou despite its anemic economy and median household income of $20,000 a year.
“The grant was for $6 million, and we asked for approximately half of it and we received it, which did not sit well with others that also applied for the money,” said Christian-Brooks, hired by the town to serve as the contract administrator and project manager for the urgent care center.
When it opens next year, the center in Mound Bayou will be the first one in Bolivar County. Currently, the closest urgent care is 80 miles away in Batesville, Miss.
The center is just the beginning of economic redevelopment for the area, said newly elected Mayor Darryl Johnson, who envisions opening a museum to showcase the town’s unique history.
“President Theodore Roosevelt called Mound Bayou, the ‘Jewel of the Delta’ after a trip here,” added Darryl Johnson. “Well, we are pulling that jewel straight out of the dirt, cleaning it off and we are going to make it shine again.”
I already purchased the pots & aquatic soil for my sprouting water Lotus/water lily seeds. I will just have to add water & hope the cats don’t mess with them. The pot has a magnolia design.
Photo of the Similkameen River captured via Minolta MD Zoom Rokkor-X 24-50mm F/4 lens and the bracketing method of photography. Okanogan Highlands Region. Inland Northwest. Okanogan County, Washington. Early February 2018.
Exposure Time: 1/250 sec. * ISO Speed: ISO-100 * Aperture: F/11 * Bracketing: +1 / -1 * Color Temperature: 6650 K * Film Plug-In: Kodak Portra 160 NC
A couple days after my first trip to the desert, another optimistically-romantic and even-younger dude wanted to take me to see some small dunes (the dunes-only shots turned out unphotographable with my crappy film). Small, because the big ones are touristy, and also the small ones were near his village. A very weird evening motorbike ride into the desert to drink terrible whiskey on the dunes, watch the sunset, and get eyeballed suspiciously by his family.
Maybe better in color, while the guy was wearing my turban from Mali that happened to match his t-shirt.
Graffiti that used to be at the entrance to the Royal Victoria Park, Bath. Taken from the first ever B&W film that I learnt to process myself (many years ago.....)
Despite a very optimistic weather forecast, yesterday ended up rather overcast. Still an opportunity for fresh air without too much fresh rainwater.
Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal and T-22 75mm f/4.5, Ilford HP5 Plus in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 min @ 20°C and digitalized using kit zoom and extension tubes.
Thank you everyone for your visits, faves and comments, they are always appreciated :)
I had read about the new RSPB reserve opening and decided to take a look. It opened on the 25th of May. When we arrived there were only 2-3 cars. The visitor centre overlooked a lake, stunningly bleak view but with no birds to be seen. No birds and no people yet the RSPB staff and volunteers appeared were so cheery and optimistic. Once out onto the reserve and onto the hilltop you get a beautiful view of the reserve and hear the sound of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Blackcaps and Whitethroats. When you descend you see the birds and also hear them. I would recommend it as a place to visit. I was very impressed!
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/staidans/
St Aidan's is a perfect place to get close to nature and relax, unwind or exercise in a stress-free environment. Just outside Leeds on the banks of the River Aire, it's a big new space to walk, run, cycle, or ride your horse and enjoy the wildlife that surrounds you.
It has a wide range of wild plants and animals, and is home to thousands of birds, brown hares, roe deer, wild flowers and insects - all living in a stunning landscape of vast reedbeds, grassland, woodland, lakes, ponds and islands.
With a variety of circular paths of varying lengths and large areas of open grassland, St Aidan’s is a great place for families to enjoy the outdoors, share a picnic and play together.
Over 7.5 miles (12 km) of footpaths, bridleways and cycle routes connect the surrounding communities, with links to national footpath and cycle networks. St Aidan's is a fantastic place for locals wishing to explore the wider countryside or as a destination for people who love nature.
Opening times
St Aidan's is an open access site. Opening times apply to the visitor centre and car park. From March-October they're open from 9.30 am to 5 pm. From September-February it's 9.30 am to 4 pm. They're closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Entrance charges
Entry to the site is free but donations to help us continue our work are welcome. There is a car park charge of £2.50 per car for RSPB non-members. RSPB members and disabled badge holders park for free.
Information for dog owners
Dogs are allowed on the reserve as long as they are kept on a lead in the appropriate designated zones. There are some less sensitive areas within St Aidan's where dogs are allowed off the lead. Please check with staff before letting dogs off the lead.
Star species
Our star species are some of the most interesting birds you may see on your visit to the reserve.
Bittern
Bitterns are brown, secretive herons, camouflaged to hide amongst reeds. Visit in spring to hear male bitterns 'booming' or summer to watch the parents making feeding flights.
Great crested grebe
Watch the amazing courtship ritual of great crested grebes on the open water in spring. You may see pairs performing their 'weed dance' when they present one another with weed and patter across the surface of the water together.
Little owl
You may be lucky enough to find one of these compact owls perched in a tree or on a fencepost. They become very active at dusk and you may hear their shrill calls.
Marsh harrier
Look for marsh harriers gliding over the reedbed with their wings held upwards in a shallow 'v'. In spring, pairs perform their breathtaking 'skydancing' displays high in the sky.
Skylark
Spring visits will be enriched by the beautiful song of skylarks. They rise up into the air from the grassland until they are barely visible and only their song can be heard
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/staidans/seasonal_highli...
Seasonal highlights
Each season brings a different experience at our nature reserves. In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. In summer, look out for young birds making their first venture into the outside world. Autumn brings large movements of migrating birds - some heading south to a warmer climate, others seeking refuge in the UK from the cold Arctic winter. In winter, look out for large flocks of birds gathering to feed, or flying at dusk to form large roosts to keep warm.
Spring
Look out for marsh harriers displaying over the reedbeds, great crested grebes performing their elaborate courtship dances and returning swallows skimming low over the water and grasslands as they collect insects. Listen out for skylarks filling the air with their song, the deep booming of male bitterns, male snipe 'drumming' as they vibrate their tail feathers to attract females and lapwings calling as they perform their aerobatic displays. Enjoy the fusion of colour as wildflowers burst into bloom and a host of brightly-coloured butterflies and dragonflies take to the wing. Spring is also a great time to see kestrels. You can often see several hovering around the site at the same time as they hunt for voles in the grassland. Kestrels have also been seen nesting in the huge dragline.
Summer
Watch overhead for herons and little egrets dropping into the reeds to feed, female bitterns flying low over the reedbeds as they seek out food for their chicks or marsh harriers passing food to each other in flight. Keep an eye on the open water for lines of young ducklings paddling along behind their parents or young great crested grebes riding around on their parents' backs and admire the abundant lilypads on the lakes. Stoats, weasels and water voles are often seen at this time of year as are basking butterflies and dragonflies hawking the waters edge. Thousands of black-headed gulls set up a colony at this time of the year filling the air with their calls. Summer is the best time to spot the elusive black necked grebe as it will have its fluffy youngsters in tow. Avocets also nest at this time of year. St Aidan’s is a good place to spot this iconic bird that is the logo of the RSPB.
Autumn
Autumn sees the arrival of migrant birds, such as black-tailed godwits, ruffs and green sandpipers. Local birdwatchers will also spot a few rarities such as spoonbills and pectoral sandpipers. Huge flocks of lapwings arrive to spend winter with us and can be seen around pool edges and on grassland. Short-eared owls hunt over the reedbeds and our winter wildfowl begin to arrive. Look out for flashes of blue as kingfishers flit up and down the river.
Winter
Waders and wildfowl such as lapwings, curlews, wigeons, teals, shovelers and goldeneyes gather in big numbers, roosting and feeding across the grasslands and pools. Water rails can be spotted feeding on frozen pools, or you can listen out for their strange, pig-like squealing! The elusive bittern is also drawn out into the open at times. One of the most awesome spectacles in winter is seeing massive flocks of roosting birds panic and fly into the air as peregrines hunt over the site. Look and listen out for overwintering stonechats. Their calls sound like two pebbles being knocked together!
Facilities
Facilities
•Visitor centre
•Car park : There's a car park charge of £2.50 per car for RSPB non-members. RSPB members and disabled badge holders park for free. We have cycle parking and a height restriction of 2.7 m (8' 10'') for vehicles.
•Toilets
•Disabled toilets
•Baby-changing facilities
•Picnic area
•Group bookings accepted
•Guided walks available
•Good for walking
•Pushchair friendly
Nature trails
Bowers Bimble: Starting from the car park, this 0.9-mile (1.5 km) flat trail takes you on a short walk around Bowers Lake then through grassland and wild flower meadows. Great for a relaxing stroll (20-30 minutes).
Lowther Loop: For a walk through shady woodland glades and along the banks of the River Aire, venture onto this 1.3 mile (2 km) flat trail. In wet winter months, it’s a welly boot walk (60 minutes).
Hillside Hike: For stunning landscapes and panoramic views of the nature park and surrounding areas, t ake a hike onto the hillside. This trail is 1.3 miles (2 km) with some steep hills and inclines, which wind through the trees and grassland (40-60 minutes).
Reedbed Ramble: To explore the magic of the whispering reedbeds, take a walk on this 1.7-mile (2.8 km) flat route that runs around the edges of the reedbeds and loops back to the main entrance (40-45 minutes).
As the new custodians of St Aidan's, we are aiming to improve the accessibility of our paths as soon as we can. Please contact us for updates on footpath and bridleway conditions.
Refreshments available
•Hot drinks
•Cold drinks
•Snacks
•Confectionery
By train
The nearest train stations are Woodlesford (3.2 miles), Castleford (3.2 miles) and Garforth (4.3 miles). If you're going to be walking or cycling from the station to St Aidan's, choose Woodlesford station. Turn left out of the station then left onto the main road. When you get to the bridge over the Aire and Calder navigation, cross it, then turn right and walk along the riverbank until you reach St Aidan's. If you're going to take a taxi from the station to St Aidan's, head towards Castleford station as it's easier to get a taxi there.
By bus
The nearest bus stop is just outside the entrance to St Aidan’s, on Astley Lane. The Number 167 Leeds to Castleford bus stops here and is run by Arriva Yorkshire.
By road
Reach us from junction 46 of the M1. Follow the A63, signposted Selby and Garforth. At the roundabout, take the fourth left for Wakefield A642, Swillington and Oulton. Follow the A642 for 1.5 miles then turn left on to Astley Lane. St Aidan's is 1.8 miles on the right.
From Castleford, follow the A656 (Barnsdale Road) north out of the town centre for 1.4 miles. Turn left onto Station Road towards Allerton Bywater and travel 1.2 miles. Turn left onto the Leeds Road (next to the yellow corner shop). St Aidan’s is 0.5 miles along the road on the left.
Other ways to get to the reserve
It's easy to get to St Aidan's by bike. The site is bordered on its south-east edge by the Trans-Pennine Trail central section (Route 67). This runs north all the way to Leeds city centre, and south to join the main east-west route near our Old Moor nature reserve at Barnsley. There is also a local cycle route called the Linesway Greenway (Route 697) that runs between Garforth and Allerton Bywater with a spur at the Allerton Bywater end that links into the site. St Aidan's is also bordered by the Leeds Country Way. Maps of this route can be found on the Leeds City Council website. There are also many other local footpaths and bridleways that link into the site from the surrounding towns and villages.
Is there anything as optimistic as a young buck (or a young man just about to head out into the world)? Their beauty and confidence are inspiring.
Our Daily Challenge: THE COMMON GROUND
Evidently, my light estimation was a bit optimistic when taking this photo. And: using a step-up ring on a wide angle lens is not always a good idea (if you're not crazy about vignetting).
Still a somewhat spooky-cool shot, I think.
Yashica-J5, Super Yashinon R 35mm f2.8, Ilford Delta 100 Prof.
Developed with Ilfosol 3 (1+14).
I came across this beauty on a walkabout near Capitola, CA. Copyright: Sweezey Pictures - Ken Sweezey.
Perhaps a little optimistic, but at least it's forecast that it's going to warm up over the weekend! Have a good one!
A little about our stay at Hotel Chocolat, for those who're interested...
For anyone who's familiar with the brand of chocolate "Hotel Chocolat" this is the hotel, restaurant and plantation where it all begins. We were lucky enough to meet co-owner Peter Harris on our stay, a fascinating guy who started the business as a mail order chocolate company and has worked to create something virtually unique. I've not met many true entrepeneurs before, but what I found most interesting is that I got no sense that he'd built this for the money. It seemed much more about creating something very special, realising a dream if you like. It seemed clear that the workers here are getting a good deal. The plantation works to promote agriculture and to help farmers set up their own crops, with a clear focus on education and providing a fair return on the cocoa! If ever you're lucky enough to visit St Lucia, I cannot recommend this place enough. It makes you see your chocolate in a whole new light, and I doubt you'll ever grumble again at paying a couple of pounds for quality bar of dark chocolate once you've seen the work that's gone into it!
Current mood: Optimistic
Current song: Signs
Two ravens in the old oak tree, one for you and one for me
Bluebells in the late December, I see signs now all the time
The last time we slept together, there was something that was not there
You never wanted to alarm me but I’m the one that’s drowning now
I could sleep forever these days because in my dreams I see you again
But this time fleshed out fuller face in your confirmation dress
It was so like you to visit me to let me know you were ok
It was so like you visit me, always worrying about someone else
At your funeral I was so upset, so upset,
in your life you were larger than this
statuesque
I see signs now all the time that your not dead your sleeping
I believe in anything that brings you back home to me
Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.
"Roy T. Bennett",
.
.
.
#bangalore #bangalore_insta #sobangalore #bengaluru #streetphotographyindia #vidhanasoudha #nightclicks #Light #heartofcity #creation #creative #inspiration #inspirational #inspirational_attitude #inspirational_life #inspirational_quotes #inspire #inspiring #life #lifeandliving #life_lessons #life_quotes #living #optimism #optimistic #positive #positive_affirmation #positive_life #positive_thinking #worry
On marriage
Marriage is a way of life;
Marriage is so natural;
Marriage is the better way,
For two, to reach Heaven.
Copyright by Dr John Celes 3-7-2006
For We're Here! who are visiting Optimistic Cloudgoats. I survived this encounter and really need to find a better place to hike.
Maybe not.What are your alternative sources of protein then? Not meat, or even fish, but something like soy or beans or even eggs?If you are a vegetarian or vegan, this is a daily concern. And even if you are not, it’s good to eat something different once in a while, right?But some people don’t have this luxury, and in the not too distant future, you might not either.Do you know how many people are on the planet right now, and what that number will look like in 2060? According to a recent article in the Guardian:The world’s population stands at a little over 7bn; by 2060 this will have risen to perhaps 9.5bn, and that is a fairly optimistic scenario.So that is a lot of people, and growing by the minute. However, let’s take a deeper look at the need for protein which is one of the biggest issues we will have to face in the future.As the population of the world also gets richer, so too does the demand for meat. And the same article from the Guardian claims that meat demand will more than double by 2050. But why is this such a problem?Producing beef, chicken and other similar meats is extremely inefficient and produces a lot of problems at the same time. Here are some of the statistics that make Western style meat farming such a wasteful and harmful idea:Meat production causes 5% of global CO2 emissions, 40% of methane emissions, 40% of various nitrogen oxides (FAO.org).Growing beef uses four times the food to produce the same amount of meat (compared to insects) (The-Scientist.com).Growing beef uses four times the food to produce the same amount of meat (compared to insects) (The-Scientist.com).Animal protein requires 100 times more water than protein from grain (TheConversation.com)/li>So as you can clearly see, the production of meat is not an ideal way to use our resources to produce protein. Especially when we are looking at double the consumption in the not too distant future.What Are The Existing Protein Alternative Sources.In 2015 we have a wide range of protein alternatives, many of which you have probably never heard of. Let’s take a look at all of the alternatives, including those you already know.Common Protein Alternatives.In 2015 we have a wide range of protein alternatives, many of which you have probably never heard of. Let’s take a look at all of the alternatives, including those you already know..Common Protein Alternatives.When you are thinking about protein, all of the following probably come to mind:Red Meat (Beef, Pork, Lamb. etc)White Meat (Chicken, Turkey etc)Fish (Salmon, Tuna, Sea Fish etc) Eggs How about eating insects for protein then?Red Meat (Beef, Pork, Lamb. etc)White Meat (Chicken, Turkey etc) Fish (Salmon, Tuna, Sea Fish etc) Eggs.Milk Products (Yogurt, Cheese etc.)
Beans (Lentils, Kidney Beans, Black-eyed Peas, Chick Peas etc) Nuts and Seeds Soya Products (such as Tofu) .As the consumption of protein is not a new problem, there are already some interesting options which Forbes wrote an great piece on last year:Forbes wrote an great piece on last year:
Seaweed Pea protein based products Soylent (Liquid food)
Chirps (Cricket Chips) And then there are the more fringe ideas such as laboratory or “fake” meats which have not yet become viable alternatives.How are insects being used in the western world as protein alternatives right now? Let’s take a look at how some people are eating insects for protein.
4ento.com/2015/01/26/insects-as-a-protein-alternative/
In praise of slowness to change our habits polluter.When Ann Parkes decided to swap the elegant shops of Bond Street for the earthy delights of a snail farm in France, her friends thought she was mad.Ten years later, Mrs Parkes, a former general manager of the jewellers Mapin and Webb, is a fully-fledged heliculturist – and the only Briton in France to farm snails professionally."Never in a million years did I think I'd be doing this," she said. "Everyone told me we were crazy to even think about it."I had no interest in snails whatsoever. I'd eaten them many times, but hadn't envisaged rearing them."With her husband Mike, 64, who also worked in the jewellery business in London, Mrs Parkes farms up to 150,000 snails a year on the meadow behind their Provencal farmhouse, which they turned into a boutique hotel.Related ArticlesAsian hornets could invade Britain 25 Feb 2011The French shell out for organic snails 06 Aug 2007Slow route to riches 31 Jan 2005Your dinner's on the wall 28 Oct 2006The couple manage the entire operation themselves: putting the three-day old snails in the park in May, feeding and watering them over the summer, and then picking them in September. "Everything is done by hand, and it is very labour-intensive," she said.But now Mrs Parkes is retiring and selling the business, and France risks losing its one and only British snail farmer.The hotel, nine miles from Avignon, is set in four acres of landscaped gardens and is on the market for €2.45 million (£2.1m)."Running the hotel and farm has been very enjoyable. It'd be wonderful if other Britons wanted to follow the path I've carved," said Mrs Parkes.The sales particulars for the property, Les Carmes, lists its seven suites, inner courtyard for al fresco dining and its swimming pool in glowing terms before adding - almost as an afterthought - "and a working snail farm."The new owner of the property does not have to take over the business, but Mrs Parkes said they would be very welcome to do so.Yet the thought of an Englishwoman taking up such a quintessentially Gallic profession did, initially, leave a bitter taste among her French fellow farmers."It's bizarre that an English person took up snail farming," said Alphonse De Meis, a snail farmer in the nearby Provencal town of Saint-Rémy. "They British don't have a natural affinity for snails."But eventually outrage turned to acceptance. "When they first found out that a Briton was farming snails, they were absolutely shocked," said Mrs Parkes, 58. "Especially as it was a woman. They couldn't believe it, and were horrified."At the markets, several people were very taken aback, and asked why on earth I'd done it. They couldn't imagine a British person studying snail reproduction."Gérard Dupont, the president of French Culinary Academy, said that it had been "brave" of Mrs Parkes to enter the trade."England is not a country that automatically understands heliculture," he said. "But what matters to French consumers is quality, and it is good she has made the effort."The Parkes farm "Gros Gris" snails – the same species as garden snails, but slightly larger. After being harvested the snails are taken to a nearby state-licensed laboratory to be kept for a few days without food, to cleanse them internally, and dried out before being killed and frozen, for use in the kitchen."We serve our snails with garlic butter, with an aperitif," she said. "American guests love them, and so do the Belgians. The British often say they've never tried snails, but then always seem to come back for more."The Parkes' son James, 29, runs the kitchen, and his signature dish is snail ravioli. "Keith Floyd came to do a programme and he said it was the best snail ravioli he had ever tasted," said Mrs Parkes.They sell their surplus snails in the markets of nearby towns such as L'Isle Sur La Sorgue, where trestle tables laden with olives, brightly-coloured vegetables and local cheeses display the finest in Provencal produce. Twelve of the Parkes' finest snails will retail to French gastronomes and adventurous tourists for around €5 (£4.30) and make a popular starter served in a garlicky butter with crusty bread.French consumers eat an estimated 35,000 ton of snails a year, according to the French snail producers' union. But only around 1,500 tons of those are produced in France, with the rest imported from eastern Europe, where they are picked in the wild.There are only 200 professional snail farmers in France and to qualify as one of them, Mrs Parkes spent three months studying snails' reproductive cycles, the grains on which to feed them, and how to set up an electrically-fenced enclosure.The couple had never imagined acquiring such intimate knowledge of a snail's anatomy when they decided to move to France and renovate the crumbling Provencal farmhouse as a small hotel. But they discovered to their dismay that, in order to qualify for a business permit, they had to use the land to farm."A huge black cloud descended on our dream," Mrs Parkes said. "We didn't know what to do. But then I found out about snail farming. And so I signed up for the course."Christophe Simoncelli, who runs the snail producing school in the Alpine town of Chambéry where Mrs Parkes studied, said: "I was really surprised when she turned up to our classes. But maybe the British are finally losing their gastronomic inhibitions.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8320336/...
Phew! Insects AREN'T the future of food: Crickets may be nutritious, but they're not a green alternative to meat, researchers claim.
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3043876/Phew-Inse...
I can well imagine that the thought of cooking and eating snails may seem a forkful too far for some people, but snails have a long and illustrious gastronomic history. The Romans were very fond of them, and introduced snail farming all over their empire. Ever since, the snail has been a regular part of the diet of many European countries, including this one. The main varieties of snail for eating are the Burgundy, otherwise known as the vineyard or Roman snail (Helix pomatia linne), and the petit gris (H. aspera), which is smaller than the Burgundy but regarded as slightly finer for eating.Not only are snails delicious to eat - and you'll never know if you like them until you've tried - but they have a fascinating sex life, too. All snails are male until they mate, which is when something pretty strange happens. Below one eye, each snail has a type of penis that emerges during mating. This links up with the corresponding organ of the mating partner, and remains joined for up to 10 hours while the two politely exchange semen. One or other of the snails will then be inseminated, and will set off to lay several hundred eggs. Snail caviar, as the eggs are known, were quite fashionable in gastronomic restaurants in the 1980s, but to tell the truth they do not have much flavour. They look a little like grains of tapioca, and "pop" in the mouth, a characteristic that won't appeal to everyone.Anyway, assuming that the eggs don't end up in the mouth of some discerning gastronome, each will hatch into a snail, which will form its shell as it grows. When they are about six months old, they are ready for the pot. Of course, many people (some of whom will never even have tried one) are quick to dismiss the snail as being not much different from a bit of rubber, cooking wise, but properly prepared they are really pretty tasty. You can buy them in tins, ready prepared, though I recommend getting them through L'Escargot Anglais (01432 760218). Tony Vaughan, who runs it, retired as a photographer for the SAS to breed snails for the table. And that is an even bigger career change than mine from credit controller to chef.
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/nov/08/foodanddrink...
On Monday.....I will be a corporate slave no more.
Gone are the deadlines, staff meetings as well as the 15th, 30th and the paid VL's
Now I answer to no one except the ONE above.
Optimistic.....I am (of this endeavor).
The enviroment....I am not sure of....
I'm hoping to put color into it....one pixel at a time.
All rights reserved © fairuz 2011
Sometimes it seems your ever-increasing list of things to do can leave you feeling totally undone.
160910..
20" x 20" acrylic and ink on wood panel.
My piece for Stoked Sessions (a benefit and fundraiser to support Stoked Mentoring) with The Clayton Bros, Bigfoot, Chip 7, Porous Walker, Richard Coleman and many more.
www.stoked.org/stokedsessions2010/art.html
Stoked Sessions 2010: Predictions invited the best street and fine artists to depict their vision for the next decade through their art. Takes place during Culver City ARTWALK.
Пара интервью с вокалистом Felt.
• их главный хит Primitive Painters спродюсировал Робин Гатри из Cocteau Twins, и на бэк-вокале с его подачи там спела Elizabeth Fraser;
• сингл Primitive Painters попал на вершину UK Independent Singles Chart, чего не удалось достичь ни The Smiths, ни Cocteau Twins;
• когда песня взлетела в топы МакГи из Creation и Cherry Red решили снять видео на этот сингл, но МакГи (был на мели) не заплатил ребятам (Cherry и Creation изначально договаривали разделить расходы пополам), поэтому они смогли снять только полклипа (!), из-за этого Lawrence собирался уничтожить видео, к счастью копия была не только у него (группа как раз перешла из Cherry на Creation);
• Робин очень любил эту группу и старался им помочь по мере сил, но для сведения альбома они заставили их вокалиста (по имени Lawrence Hayward) подписать бумажку, что он никаким образом не будет вмешиваться в сведение записи, потому что были наслышаны о его характере, он очень страдал что не может повлиять;
• видео сняли спустя пару лет после выхода альбома, в доме Фила Кинга (в будущем басиста Lush и The Jesus and Mary Chain) в Hammersmith, он тогда играл в Felt; штатным басистом Felt был Marco Thomas, так что Phil King даже не отмечен ни на одной их пластинке, хотя и снялся в их самом популярном видео;
• Martin Duffy сыграл на клавишах на этой пластинке, когда ему было всего 18 (а пришёл он в группу вообще в 16 лет), после распада Felt он примкнет к Primal Scream (на днях скончался /RIP);
Felt discography
1982.01 — Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty (Cherry Red)
1984.02 — The Splendour of Fear (Cherry Red)
1984.10 — The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories (Cherry Red)
1985.09 — Ignite the Seven Cannons (Cherry Red) - Primitive Painters отсюда
1986.06 — Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (Creation)
1986.09 — Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (Creation)
1987.06 — Poem of the River (Creation)
1988.05 — The Pictorial Jackson Review (Creation)
1988.07 — Train Above the City (Creation)
1989.11 — Me and a Monkey on the Moon (Creation)
compilation
1987.09 — Gold Mine Trash [Cherry Red]
1990.04 — Bubblegum Perfume [Creation]
1992.04 — Absolute Classic Masterpieces [Cherry Red]
1993.10 — Absolute Classic Masterpieces Vol. II [Creation]
1993.10 — Felt Box [Cherry Red]
2003.05 — Stains on a Decade [Cherry Red]
singles
1979 — Index
1981 — Something Sends Me to Sleep
1982 — My Face Is on Fire / Trails of Colour Dissolve
1983 — Penelope Tree
1984 — Mexican Bandits / The World Is as Soft as Lace
1984 — Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow
1985 — Primitive Painters
1986 — Ballad of the Band
1986 — Rain of Crystal Spires
1987 — The Final Resting of the Ark
1988 — Space Blues
• Уникальный саунд Felt — заслуга гитариста Maurice Deebank (Lawrence его друг детства) и он покинет группу сразу после альбома «Ignite the Seven Cannons», 1985, он говорил в другом интервью, что на первых альбомах учил всех играть на инструментах, там все самоучки кроме него (и даже после его ухода, они играли так как он их научил), Maurice признавал что Lawrence великий поэт, но они разошлись т.к. парни перестали слушать его советы по поводу саунда, плюс им вскружил голову успех Primitive Painters — Джон Пил и все остальные там подпрыгивали от радости когда её включали и они реально остановились в полушаге от глобальной популярности, но эта же песня стала их последним большим хитом;
Phil King играл в группах:
The Servants (1986)
Felt (1986-1987)
Apple Boutique (1987)
Hangman's Beautiful Daughters (1987)
Biff Bang Pow! (1988-1989)
See See Rider (1989-1992)
Lush (1992-1997, 2015-2016)
The Jesus & Mary Chain (1997-1998, 2017-)
(удивительно конечно, что я посмотрел живьём и Lush и JAMC хотя даже и не мечтал о таком!)
Felt одна из самых недооценённых британских групп, как и McCarthy.
...
An interview with Lawrence: “‘Primitive Painters’ was this great big statement, Felt were going to be massive.”
— Michael Bonner @ Uncut, 24.07.2015
www.uncut.co.uk/features/an-interview-with-lawrence-primi...
— Where were Felt just prior to Ignite the Seven Cannons?
— Honestly there’s so much. I don’t want to blab on and on. Originally I wanted to continue with John Leckie after The Strange Idols Pattern. He didn’t want to do it. I was writing these trademark pop songs at the time, short 3-minute things. Leckie said, “They’re all the same, they just seem to start and then stop, there’s no beginning.” Things like that. He was reluctant to get involved. But I said, “These are just a few rough demos that you’re listening to, the songs are nothing like that really. They’re quite expansive, there’s a lot going on.” But he wouldn’t give it a chance. So he passed on it anyway. We were trying to get Tom Verlaine as well.
— Did you approach Verlaine?
— We did, yeah. He said – oh God, his quote was classic – he said he didn’t want to get involved himself because he felt the guitars were playing all the way through the songs. That’s the gist of it. They would start and continue, like a long solo. The songs, they weren’t arranged. Like most would start and then continue all the way through the song. That’s a lot to do with me, because Maurice [Deebank] is such a great guitarist that I encouraged him to play from beginning to end, especially on my songs. That’s something Tom Verlaine picked up on. It was a good criticism, I suppose, in a way, if you were trying to write conventional songs. But we weren’t. At the beginning of this chat my point would be that these people didn’t give us a chance to see what could happen in the studio with this.
— How did Robin Guthrie become involved?
— Cocteau Twins had approached us to play with them live because we were Robin’s favourite band. We didn’t know them, they got in touch with us, and Robin said they were doing a small UK tour – well, for them it was a massive tour. It was 5 days on the trot I think, or 6 days. They took us with them in their mini bus and they paid for everything. They were very kind to us, and we became great friends on this tour. So, I thought, “Maybe I’ll ask Robin because he seems to know what he’s doing in the studio.” He wasn’t known as a producer then, he’d only produced Cocteau Twins. Now he’s known as more of a producer. I wanted to work with a musician. Robin liked us a lot, and he agreed to do it as long as I wasn’t at the mixing. I had to sign a contract to say that I wasn’t allowed to be at the mixing, because he thought my presence was too overpowering. There could only be one person mixing the record, and that would be him.
— Is that just how he works or was that about you personally?
— That was about me personally, absolutely. Because I was in control of every asset of the band. I had a comment on everything, even a shoelace, for example. I was in to everything, and I was completely obsessed. I think he thought, if he was going to produce, he’d want to produce it his way. He’d probably heard stories of me in the studio before anyway.
— What sort of stories?
— I don’t know, the usual. You always hear stories about people in the studio that are kind blown up out of all proportion. I don’t know what he could have heard, there are so many. He’d probably heard that it’s very hard to work with me. I signed this piece of paper anyway. There was a production contract and there was an extra contract for me to sign saying that I wouldn’t be there at the mixing. I can’t go into the whole thing, we’d need a whole book. But, what happened was, as we were recording the album, I was more and more reluctant to go along with this. I wasn’t sure that I shouldn’t be there. It got to the point where we had 11 days to record and five or six days to mix. We did it in Palladium studios in Edinburgh. Robin knew the engineer, the guy who owned it. Jon Turner I think his name was.
— Do you remember when this was?
— Let’s remember the weather… I reckon it was spring. It was coldish but there wasn’t any snow or rain. I’d say spring we did it. Definitely spring, yeah. Loads of Eighties bands went to Palladium, especially Scottish bands. Paul Haig and people.
— What was it like?
— It was residential which is the first time I’ve done that, and I didn’t like that at all, being away from my own surroundings, and sharing a room, we were all sharing a room. Like a dormitory it was.
— Who did you share with?
— I had my own room. I think that was part of it. I had to have my own room. I think we threw someone else in together, three of them together, so that I could have my own room. I think that was my one diva moment. It was awful for me, it was in the middle of nowhere. About a 45 minute bus ride into Edinburgh. It was awful, in a country lane, there was like a tiny little village down the lane. I got attacked by a dog, had to go to hospital. Like a wolf it was. It attacked me one day.
— Why did it attack you?
— I don’t know, just saw I was scared. It didn’t attack anybody else. I was on my own. Had to go to hospital. I hated it. And also I hated the food, and the whole day was geared up to “Is he going to eat or not tonight?” It’s all like that.
— What kind of food did they serve, if you don’t mind me asking?
— I can’t remember. But I didn’t eat anything. I didn’t like any meals, it was always a big deal. His wife was cooking the meals for us, of course, and you tend to be polite in those situations, but I couldn’t eat the food. Robin, he thought it was wonderful that all this was going on, and he’d make a big show of it to the wife, “He’s not eating it again, he doesn’t like your food.” All this kind of stuff. He’s quite the joker, Robin is. Everything’s based around a joke and japes with him. He sort of revelled in my idiosyncrasies.
— I want to talk more about Robin in a minute. But this is Duffy’s first record. How did he come into the picture?
— He joined late ‘84, straight from school. When we did Ignite… he was probably 16.
— How did you find him?
— I put an advert in Virgin for a guitarist. This was during one of the periods where Maurice left. This guy who worked there came up to me and said, “Look, you’re in Felt aren’t you? I know this great keyboard player.” That was Martin. I rang him and it was as simple as that. That was it really. Very lucky. I was thinking about a keyboard player anyway, because Maurice is so hard to replace. I got Martin in, we worked on all songs that were on Ignite the Seven Cannons – apart from “Primitive Painters” and Maurice’s solo song. In between then and starting the album, Maurice rejoined. He’d always leave, then he’d rejoin. Me and Gary [Ainge] would carry on on our own for a few months, and then we’d come to a low point, go round to Maurice’s house and beg him. We’d stay up all night with him and plead with him to come back. He took a lot of persuading, he wasn’t bothered about being in a group at all. So anyway, the next time we got Maurice back, Martin was with us. One of the reasons Maurice was quite happy to come back was the fact that we had a keyboard player. He thought it would be better for the arrangements.
— This was Maurice’s final record, though?
— Every record he came in and left really. That’s why he’s never in a lot of interviews, because he’d left straight after recording. But what happened this time was he’d got married to a girlfriend, and what should have been his honeymoon was spent recording Ignite the Seven Cannons. When we delivered him back to his flat in Birmingham, he got out the van and said “I’m finished now, yeah that’s it, I’m finished.” I knew he meant it that time. He left soon as we’d finished recording.
— When did you start writing “Primitive Painters”?
— When Maurice rejoined, he bought the music for “Primitive Painters”. It wasn’t like a fully formed song, it was like a cyclical riff. We arranged it together, and I put the verses in so it was a joint collaboration. But he wrote all the music to that and he brought his instrumental track, “Elegance of an Only Dream”. I wanted there to be lots of Maurice songs on that record. But he wasn’t interested, or he just found it too hard to work on his own, I think. When we wrote the songs together, we would sit opposite each other, parallel to each other, in my bedroom or flats that we subsequently got, and we’d just sit there and work on them. I’d play the chord sequence while he’d work out his guitar parts. I think he liked the camaraderie of that better than sitting on his own in a cold room trying to come up with songs, which I didn’t have a problem with. The poet in the garret was made for me. I was quite happy to be on my own composing and writing the words and writing the music, just waiting for fame. I was very prolific, but Maurice wasn’t. He wrote I think one on the first album, “I Worship The Sun”, and he wrote a song called “Spanish House” on the third album, and “Primitive Painters” and the “Elegance…” song. I was quite happy for him to present a whole album worth of stuff. We were partners and it didn’t matter who wrote what bits. We were songwriters’ together, joint songwriters. And of course, he came up with the best song, “Primitive Painters”.
— Where did the lyrics come in, do you have books of lyrics?
— I was sitting in my kitchen in Moseley doing it. The lyrics, I don’t know how they come about. That would’ve been the last song on Ignite the Seven Cannons, because I had all the others written. So that would’ve been the last lyric I wrote. I can’t say there was any special moment that made me come up with it.
— Can you explain the song?
— “Dragons blow fire, angels fly, Spirits wither in the air/It’s just me I can’t deny I’m neither here, there nor anywhere”. It’s about wanting to be in a select group. “Primitive painters are ships floating on an empty sea, gathering in galleries”. Imagine groups of really cool kids hanging out in galleries, not pubs. That was my sort of conception.
— Was that you?
— Yeah, that’s me. I’d always find myself in a gallery on my own, y’know.
— Can you talk us through how you worked on the song in the studio?
— We’d work them up in a practise room. There was no improvising going on, so we knew exactly what we were doing. Then we set up like a band in the studio. They were layered afterwards. They were very simple, very traditional big group concepts, just like everyone did. You’d set up live and you’d get the bass and the drums and the keyboards down, and the rhythm guitar, and you’d layer it from there, adding lead guitar and vocals afterwards. It’s quite boring, that aspect of it. But it was done really quickly because we didn’t have enough time to ponder, so we just did them all live.
— What was Robin like in the studio as a producer?
— While I was there, he was capturing it all with the engineer. He didn’t make any arrangement suggestions because it was all set in stone before we got there. I was very pedantic like that. But he put effects to tape, which is something you don’t do.
— Could you explain what you mean?
— You should record everything dry, and then you decide what effects to put on afterwards so you have the choice. That’s why that album sounds so impenetrable and dense because all the effects went down, so by the time of the mixing there was nothing to change. I suppose that was the way he recorded the Cocteau Twins. It was a massive mistake, and I’m sure he would never do that now. Over the years I’ve collected some of the master tapes and on the reissues that are coming out, I’ve tried to extract the Cocteau Twins from my record. You can’t really hear Maurice’s guitar leads. Okay, skip forward to the end of the mixing when I finally got my tape. I was horrified, I would never have made a record like that. I was like beside myself with anguish. The thing was in those days, you couldn’t remix an album. But Robin quite rightly said “Primitive Painters” has to be the single. He went on and on about it, and he went to Cherry Red and he told them, he persuaded everyone. I didn’t think it was a single, I thought it was too long. I went with him to a studio in London and we remixed it together. And that’s why that’s the best song, ‘cause I was there in that mixing. I went with him to Barry Blue’s studio in Camden. Remember that guy Barry Blue? He had some hits in the ‘70’s? He was like a teenybopper. His studio in Camden was by the Roundhouse. We spent an afternoon there and we remixed “Primitive Painters”. I think we should’ve done an EP with Robin; that would’ve been the best outcome. It would’ve been a different story. But, anyway, we were lumbered with a whole album. And it was 11 tracks as well. That’s something I could never get my head around because I like everything symmetrical. That hurt me a bit, straight away, before I’d even listened to it.
— How did Liz Fraser come to be on the record?
— Liz came with Robin to work on her own lyrics and songs and that, so she’d be upstairs in the bedroom, in their room, working on her lyrics. She had a bed full of books that she was poring though, reading and writing. Anyway, when we’d recorded “Primitive Painters” and we listened back, Robin said “I’ve got a good idea.” He ran upstairs and he said to Liz, “I want you to sing this song.” He just played her the end section. I wrote the lyrics out for her on a piece of paper, she went in, listened to it once on headphones, and then just improvised around it. It was as real as that. It was a remarkable moment. When you listen back to something like that, we knew we’d got it.
— It was on the cusp between the 7-inch culture of the late ‘70’s and the 12-inch culture of the Eighties.
— Yeah, I wanted it to be a stand alone release like Wild Swans’ “Revolutionary Spirit” and Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” which were 12-inches. “Atmosphere” was on 7-inch, but that was that French label so it didn’t count. Songs that were too big to hold on 7-inch, they were big. Cherry Red wanted to do a 7-inch edit of “Primitive Painters”, but I wouldn’t let them.
— Talking of Cherry Red, what was your relationship like with them at that point?
— Michael Alway was the A&R guy who signed us to Cherry Red. He formed a new label with Geoff Travis and they went to Warners and they started Blanco Y Negro. He always promised that he’d take us with him. He took most of the Cherry Red rock stuff, and he left us behind, because Warners just wouldn’t entertain the idea of having Felt. So we were on a label that we didn’t want to be on. But we all made friends and we had two albums left to deliver so we did Strange Idols Pattern, and then Ignite the Seven Cannons. I’d been speaking to Alan McGee at this point so I knew we were going to Creation after this last album. There was no animosity there, we were all friends and I’ve never fallen out with them, we’d been friends for years and it was just business.
— You made a video with Phil King a couple of years later. How did that come about?
— We were on Creation when we did it. What happened was, I don’t know why but it was mooted that we should do a video for “Primitive Painters”. It got half made. Cherry Red and Creation were meant to pay for it together, pay half each. Cherry Red came up with their half because they initiated the project, and McGee didn’t pay his half. So we did half a video with Phil’s friend Danny. What you see on YouTube is half a video. We were meant to do another half and join it together, have stuff superimposed over the top, have extra scenes. But all you can see really is me and Phil in Phil’s house in Hammersmith, just standing around. It’s ridiculous. I was so embarrassed when it leaked out. So we put it to bed, and it lay there until somebody scooped it up and put it on YouTube or leaked it on a VHS probably first, it was probably a leaked VHS first.
— Yeah, it’s got that slight tracking wobble you get every now and again on VHS…
— I should’ve been more attentive and got hold of it and cut it up or something. I was very meticulous about ‘there’s no extra tracks’ and things like that, no demos or extra tracks hanging around. But with this for some reason it went wrong. I can’t remember why it was resurrected I’d say about a year and a half later. Maybe together McGee and Cherry Red were going to do something.
— Where do you think now the song fits into your body of work? Is it a song you still feel proud of?
— Oh yeah, oh wow. It was great that we went back – at that time you never went back and revisited anything – and we spent an extra afternoon getting it right and perfecting it. It was this great big statement, Felt were going to be massive. I was prone to short pop songs. My thing was, I’m going to break in to the mainstream by doing a short pop song. I was totally off the mark. We nearly had a hit single with a six-minute track that was not a traditional pop song, let’s put it that way. I reckon that if it would’ve been in the ’90s, it would’ve been a Top 10 song – because the independent movement was ready to promote songs like that. In 1985, there was no apparatus for a song like that, to take it to the mainstream. Even The Smiths would only get to 23, and the Cocteaus would only get to 38. I’m really proud of the song, I’m really proud that Maurice got his moment. I’m proud of the fact the Cocteaus are on it. I suppose it was the high point of the first days of Felt wasn’t it?
...
Trash ascetic. The minimally-monikered Lawrence - driving force behind Felt, Denim, and now Go-Kart Mozart - lives like a monk but dreams of pop stardom, drawing inspiration from the 'middle-of-the-road underground'
• The Guardian, 8 Jul 2005
www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jul/08/1
When the cult pop star Lawrence was 12, he saw a film of Gary Glitter disposing of his old life as Paul Gadd by putting all of his possessions on to a boat on the river Thames and floating them downstream. "I said to myself, 'I'm going to do that one day,'" says Lawrence, who began the process by disposing of his surname. "I'm going to put one life away in a box and start a new one."
Although he hasn't quite reached Glitter's levels of fame or infamy, Lawrence has succeeded in reinventing himself several times. For most of the 1980s, he was the sensitive leader of the influential indie band Felt. Then he re-emerged in the 1990s with Denim, whose wry wit and celebration of 1970s pop culture proved too far ahead of its time for commercial success. Now he is back with Go-Kart Mozart, and a roster of perfectly formed pop songs that he hopes will be recorded by some of the biggest stars of the day. He's setting his sights on Charlotte Church, but whether she will add Um Bongo (about the Rwanda genocide), and Transgressions (about a trend for spraying Lynx body lotion on to your tongue for a cheap high) to her repertoire remains to be seen.
"I got a letter from a fan the other day who said that I was the only true talent left, now that Stephen Duffy is writing for Robbie Williams," says Lawrence, who lives in near poverty in a featureless flat in Victoria. "But I'd love to write for Robbie Williams! I think I write hit singles anyway; it's just taken me a long time to master them because I'm a slow learner. I couldn't tie my own shoelaces until I was 12."
Lawrence manages the unlikely feat of existing as both pop star and monkish hermit. He eats as little as possible because he believes that creativity comes from being hungry - if pushed, he will admit to pigging out on the occasional sausage roll from a stall on Victoria station - yet he is in love with glamour. He likes the Norwegian singer Annie because "she's a gorgeous girl and I'm into beauty. I could never listen to that big fat oaf from Pop Idol [Michelle McManus] because she's over-indulged herself. My whole thing is about not doing things, about being as thin and as minimal as possible. Ideally I'd like to wear brown robes, eat a bowl of rice a day, and go into a trance as I stare at beautiful album covers."
Then there are the records. In the corridor of the tiny flat Lawrence has a shelving unit with his French pop and 1970s glam albums. He's heavily into what he calls the underground middle-of-the-road scene. He has two copies of his favourite ones in mint condition "just in case", and visitors are only allowed to touch them once they have donned special protective gloves. "I don't want fingerprints on the laminated covers," he explains. Asked about his prized albums, he presents the solo debut by the 1960s/70s Israeli pop star Abi and 1973's Aquashow by obscure glam rocker Elliot Murphy.
Lawrence plays an emotional version of David Bowie's Life on Mars by British choral group the King's Singers and follows it with 1973's Dee Doo Dah by the actress and singer Jane Birkin. "And get ready for this," he says, unsheathing a poster of Michel Polnareff depicting the flamboyant French star proudly displaying his bottom. The poster was banned in 1972 and Polnareff was fined 10 francs for every copy printed. "I go mad on Polnareff. In the 1970s, he moved to the penthouse suite of a hotel in Los Angeles and as far as I know he's still there."
His only other significant possession is a book collection, shelved under a durable polythene dust cover and containing true-life accounts by heroin addicts, a few cult novels like Hunger by Knut Hamsun and Ask the Dust by John Fante, and an entire set of the Skinhead novels; the violent pulp books written by Richard Allen in the early 1970s. "I would say that real accounts by junkies are my favourites, and I'm not into fiction. I have everything by Jack Kerouac but his novels are about real life anyway."
Lawrence does dream of riches, despite currently living as an ascetic. "I love prison cells - if I had the money I would definitely build one of those cement beds that extend from a wall - but I'd really love a circular penthouse flat in Mayfair," he says. "I have a jewel case full of hits ready for ransacking, but I'm also in the market for a rich wife. She can be late 20s to early 30s and if her dad's in Who's Who, that's a bonus."
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‘I’d rather be a tramp than reform my old bands’: Lawrence on life as British music’s greatest also-ran
• The Guardian, 27 Jul 2022
www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/27/lawrence-interview-...
His fans range from Charlie Brooker to Jarvis Cocker, yet the auteur behind Felt, Denim and Mozart Estate never found fame. He explains why it was all Princess Diana’s fault
The most uncompromising figure in British pop has an urgent question: “Do you need the loo?” This is Lawrence (no surnames, please), the mastermind responsible for the coruscating beauty of Felt, the knowing glam-rock of Denim and the bargain-bin ear-worms of Go-Kart Mozart, now renamed Mozart Estate. As we walk to his high-rise council flat in east London, I promise him that my bladder is empty. “Are you sure?” he persists in his Midlands lilt. “Do you want to try going in the cafe?” No one is allowed near his toilet. “A workman was round the other day, and he used it without asking. Oh God, it was ’orrible!”
Lawrence is wearing his trademark baseball cap with its blue plastic visor and a vintage-style blue Adidas jumper. His skin is pale and papery, his eyes small but vivid. He is 60 now and has been dreaming of pop stardom since he was a child. “I used to sit in the bath and pretend I was being interviewed: ‘So what’s it like to have your third No 1 on the trot?’”
Only one of his songs has ever charted: Denim’s It Fell Off the Back of a Lorry, straight in at No 79 in 1996. Summer Smash, a BBC Radio 1 single of the week, might have made good on its lyrics (“I think I’m gonna come / Straight in at No 1”) if its release in September 1997 had not been scrapped following a certain Parisian car crash. As Lawrence shows me around his ramshackle flat, which he has been decorating for the past 12 years or so, I spot a grotesquely bad portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales stowed in one corner. “My story is pinned to hers forever,” he says glumly.
We perch on wooden stools in the cluttered, dimly lit living room. Around us are piles of books and vinyl, assorted knick-knacks (feather duster, magnifying glass) and a mustard-coloured Togo chair – a rare extravagance – still in its plastic wrapping. The white blinds are pulled down; a leak has stained them urine-yellow like a child’s mattress. “I don’t think anyone’s had as much bad luck as me,” he says. “It just goes from one disaster to another.”
And yet Lawrence of Belgravia, the 2011 documentary about him which is now being released on Blu-ray, remains stubbornly inspiring. It’s the story of a born maverick who refuses either to abandon his dreams of success or lower his standards to make them a reality. “You see so many musicians reforming their old bands,” he says. “I can’t do that. You’ve got to move forward.” He knows what it’s like to be disappointed by your idols – “I couldn’t get over it in the 1980s when Lou Reed had a mullet” – and is determined never to sully his own legacy, no matter how much cash he is offered. “I’d rather be a tramp than reform Felt or play my old songs,” he says.
He has put his lack of money where his mouth is. “There came a point where I learned to live on nothing. I’d have two pence in my pocket, and I’d find a bench on the King’s Road hoping someone would sit next to me so I could ask for a cigarette. No one ever did because I looked so rough.”
Lawrence of Belgravia alludes to addiction issues and legal woes: we glimpse bottles of methadone and piles of court letters. At the start of the film, he is evicted from his previous flat. But it is still a fond and hopeful study of someone for whom fame – as symbolised by limousines, helicopters and Kate Moss – has never lost its allure. “It’s such a shame it hasn’t happened to me,” he says. “I’d love to try fame on for size, see what it’s like.” How close has he come? “There was a period in the 1990s when I could get a taxi. That was as good as it got. There’s a fame ladder and I’m near the bottom. I always have been, and I accept that.”
The documentary has helped a bit. “It’s a proper film, and that took me up a couple of rungs,” he says. “It legitimised me.” He has rarely wanted for respect: he counts Jarvis Cocker and Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch among his fans; Charlie Brooker chose Denim’s The New Potatoes, with its Pinky & Perky vocals, as one of his Desert Island Discs. He has also started being recognised in the street – “which shows you’re getting somewhere”. But he has a little grumble: “The people who come up to me are all listening to my stuff on Spotify. I tell them: ‘Buy a bloody record!’ Some of them haven’t got a turntable, so I say, ‘Put it on the wall.’”
His hard-luck story began when Felt failed to win favour with the DJ John Peel. “If you were an indie band in the 1980s, you couldn’t make it without Peel’s support,” he says. When Lawrence formed Denim in the early 1990s, he seemed ideally placed to ride the incipient Britpop wave. “Except I made one super error,” he points out. “I thought live music was over, so we didn’t play live at first.’” He believed it would add mystique if fans couldn’t see Denim in the flesh. “I wanted to be a cartoon band. But it turned out to be the beginning of the live boom. Indie suddenly went mainstream. I didn’t spot that coming.”
If the hard-gigging likes of Blur stole a march on Lawrence, it was another Damon Albarn outfit that pipped him to the post with the “cartoon band” idea. “I couldn’t believe it when Gorillaz happened,” he splutters. “I was like, ‘That’s what I wanted to do!’”
Soon after the Summer Smash debacle, Denim were dropped by EMI. “We had to go down to making records for nothing, getting favours from friends.” Go-Kart Mozart was intended as a stop-gap but the songs, many of them musically upbeat and lyrically harsh (When You’re Depressed, Relative Poverty, We’re Selfish and Lazy and Greedy), have kept on coming for more than two decades. The name-change to Mozart Estate reflects, says Lawrence, “the tougher times we live in”.
Even he was taken aback while checking the lyric sheet for the new Mozart Estate album Pop-Up, Ker-Ching and the Possibilities of Modern Shopping, which is to be released in January. “Every song has something ’orrible,” he says. One track features the line, “London is a dustbin full of human trash.” Another is called I Wanna Murder You. “I’m never going to get any PRS money for that,” he says. “Still, it’s very catchy. Breaks into a lovely chorus.”
It’s all too much for some people. When the first Go-Kart Mozart album came out, he received a call from Alan McGee, his Creation boss from the Felt days. “Alan said, ‘What’s this song Sailor Boy, then? Jean Genet going down on you? I don’t get it, Lawrence. I don’t get what the fuck you’re doing!’” He looks pleased as punch.
Paul Kelly, the director of Lawrence of Belgravia, thinks the singer is in a healthier and more optimistic state now than during the making of the film. Production took eight years, largely because Lawrence kept disappearing for months on end. “First I’d be frustrated, then I’d worry,” says Kelly. “When he finally turned up, he’d act as though nothing had happened. He has that disarming personality so you always forgive him. I think he had a fear that when we were finished, there’d be nothing else. He didn’t want to let the film go.”
These days, Lawrence has fingers in umpteen pies (Felt reissues, a limited-edition folder of collectible bits-and-pieces and a 10-inch EP, all ahead of the new album). He is bubbling with ideas: he wants to write a play for the Royal Court, collaborate with Charli XCX, be directed by Andrea Arnold. “Do you know her?” he asks hopefully. “I want to be in one of her films and write a song for it.”
His greatest enthusiasm is reserved for the larger-than-life-sized pink marble bust which the sculptor Corin Johnson is making of him: “He came up to me at a gig and said, ‘I’d like to do a statue of you.’” A month’s worth of sittings later – including one spent with straws in his nostrils while his head was encased in plaster of Paris – and it’s almost ready. Nick Cave, one of Lawrence’s heroes, has been working in the same yard on a ceramics project about the devil. “He keeps saying, ‘When are you going to bloody finish that?’”
Even on Lawrence’s rinky-dink, old-school mobile phone, which is no bigger than a Matchbox car, the pictures of the bust look imposing. A hood is yanked up over his baseball cap, sunglasses are clamped to his face, his expression is surly and defiant: it’s a literal monument to his artistic purity. “This should push me a few rungs up the fame ladder,” he says, marvelling at his marble doppelganger. I think he’s in love.
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📼 Felt - Primitive Painters [feat Elizabeth Fraser] (1985)
Producer: Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins)
video 1987 - Lawrence Hayward & Phil King (in Phil’s house in Hammersmith)