Category: sheffield

On The Edge

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I’ve said before that taking good photos in Cape Town really isn’t difficult. And I also mentioned that the standards are therefore raised; that to be exceptional, your pictures have to be… well… exceptional. For me, Stanage Edge near Sheffield also falls into that category. The place is so picturesque, the views so outstanding, that you could just point and shoot and get something decent.
Like I did in November 2010:

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Nice. But not exceptional. (In my defence, it was too cold to hold my camera and there was about 120kg of Rottweiler pulling me precariously close to the cliff edge while I was trying to paint with light). But it seems that Mat Robinson didn’t have ice or dog issues and thus, the photos on his blog should be appreciated. They’ve gone beyond “good”, beyond “nice” – they’re exceptional:

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There’s lots more where that came from – just click the link above. Or visit his Flickr, for fewer words.

Tessellate – Alt-J

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Incoming from Cambridge band Alt-J who apparently played at the Tramlines Festival in Sheffield this year.
I’m not sure how long this has been doing the rounds overseas, but it’s a relative newcomer to SA and I’m really enjoying it. That probably has more to do with the heavy piano chord introduction and the messy percussion throughout than the fact that the lead singer looks a bit like Howard Moon from The Mighty Boosh.

Probably.

The official video is here, but it doesn’t do much for me.

Apparently:

The painting on which the video is based “The School of Athens” shows the brightest and best of their day, the people lauded as great, who commanded the most respect in society. The contrast is to show what has become most respected in out society – money, women, empty fame and bravado, these are the things argued over and lauded now. The LA Gangster schtick works well as visual shorthand for this.

Since I agree with the sentiment, maybe I just don’t like looking at chavs.

Who knew?

Arts Tower Views

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Another Other People’s Photos post.

It was a few (ten) days ago when I spotted some twitpics by Sheffielder @arepeejee taken while he was at the top of Sheffield University’s Arts Tower. (You may remember him from such blog posts as Better by tomorrow and What were the skies like when you were young?.)

Anyway, at the time, he promised that there would more to come from his “big camera”; and he wasn’t lying.

I love the architectural congestion in the foreground of this panorama, especially when it’s juxtaposed with the freedom of the blue sky beyond. And there are loads of other great photos to enjoy including two great panoramas here & here, some tiny trams here and what’s left of the hospital I was born in here.

All in all a bit of a tear-jerking reminder of my hometown.

Do take the time to go an persue the rest of his flickr stream.

Credit: Thanks to arepeegee for permission to use this photos.

Gone up

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A landmark day – literally – for our kids today, as we took them up Table Mountain for the first time.

It’s such a part of Cape Town life that I’m amazed and a little embarrassed that we haven’t done it before.

Still, it’s done now and I’d share more photos if I wasn’t going to play Hide The Black Label in Constantia this evening. More tomorrow, including some (or more) mentions of Sheffield United’s winning start to the season.

Beyond Pathetic

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Slightly belatedly, but still amusing in the extreme is this Time.com article: The Worst Ever Opening Ceremonies. As they state:

The goal is to put on a show that wows the world and doesn’t embarrass the host nation.
But that doesn’t always happen.

Please enjoy then:

  1. The 1988 Seoul Olympics, when they incinerated the doves of peace.
  2. The Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, when a Canadian sporting legend was grounded.
  3. The infamous World Cup in 1994, when Diana Ross missed a penalty, despite having the world’s biggest goal to aim at.
    and:
  4. The lesser known 1991 World Student Games in er… Sheffield, where Helen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, fell over and dropped the torch, extinguishing the flame.

Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any readily available footage of that last one, which unlike London 2012’s efforts, really was beyond pathetic.