Football in the hot sun, followed by some gardening in the hot sun, followed by playing with the kids in the hot sun, followed by rescuing my daughter’s cross-stitch kit from the jaws of a reluctant-to-give-up-a-cross-stitch-kit beagle (in the relative cool of the evening), has left me knackered.
More tomorrow. When I have time, inclination and energy.
Quota photo time (because of braai and weekend task commitments) and I’ve chosen a view of the London Eye taken last month:
A touch of monochrome drags the pale blue from the winter skies, but also accentuates the extraordinary engineering work that makes the London Eye so incredible.
Also present – one (or more) of the ubiquitous vapour trails from the planes flying over London. We don’t see them in Cape Town because nothing flies high enough over here to produce them, for the simple reason that there’s actually nowhere to go from 37,000 feet over the bottom corner of Africa.
Brian has been photographing photographers for a long time now, and when you do something for a long time, your ideas around the subject tend to evolve:
At first, my photos of photographers were just photos of photographers. But soon I was subdividing that huge category, into photographers taking selfies, photographers looking at the photos they’d taken. Recently I have found myself making further subdivisions, often of photos I have been taking for some while but which I had not been putting into a separate category in my head, if you get my meaning. So, above, in addition to all the photos of photographer’s camera screens, we see contributions to the photographers taking selfies category (subdivision: couples taking selfies), to the photographers looking at the photos they have just taken category, but also a good addition to the bald blokes taking photos category, and two for the photographers with interesting hats category.
Those photos mentioned above are here. And (much like Brian, as it turns out) I was immediately drawn to this one:
That’s near professional composition right there. The guy with the phone has spotted something in the London dusk, but then Brian has added the extra elements of photographer and phone screen and made it very special.
Great shot. The only thing missing is an interesting hat.
Three short quotes:
Oldham Athletic have decided against signing convicted rapist Ched Evans following threats to the club’s “staff and their families”.
Whatever your views are on employing rapists and their rehabilitation – sending rape threats doesn’t give you any moral high ground.
— George Smiley (@364690) January 8, 2015
The problem comes when their minority point of view is immediately assumed to be the correct and rightful standpoint simply because of their loud and threatening behaviour.
What a shocker.
UPDATE:
The Irony Is Strong In This One:
disgusting re Evans. 1 board member was told the address of where his daughter works, and was told she'd be raped if the club proceeds.
— Natalie Pirks (@Natpirks) January 8, 2015
Utterly disgusting.
And boy oh boy, do I want to read the full story on this one?
Yes. Yes, I do.
It’s the synopsis of what’s in today’s Manx Independent newspaper: and, as ever, there are a number of cutting edge issues affecting the Isle of Man:
Three established ferry companies are interested in providing services to the Isle of Man, the Manx Independent reports this week.
Given that the ferry is the Island’s lifeline, this is important.
There’s some light-hearted road news:
After the Christmas and New Year lull, there seem to be roadworks everywhere. We ask why.
And some vexing questions about why remedial work “down north” is falling short:
We also look at Laxey, which is undergoing some regeneration work and point out some areas that could do with improvement but which which won’t be touched.
None of that really matters though, because then there’s this gem:
The main story on page one is about a company director who went missing, has been found and has appeared in court. The mystery of his disappearance was the front page lead story two weeks ago.
He was found by police crouching in his bedroom. The paper tells the full story.
The paper had better, because there are a lot of gaps in that story. Who is he? Which company is he a director of? Why did he go missing? Why did he appear in court? Why hadn’t the police considered looking for him at his home previously? Look, I’m not a police officer experienced in searching for missing people – I recognise that – but I’d have to say that “at home” would probably have been the first place I’d have tried looking. It would certainly have been in the top three.
But then there’s quite a bit of random detail too: “He was found by police crouching in his bedroom.” As if the body position was important in some way. Not sitting or kneeling, certainly not lying, but then nor was he standing or even slightly stooped – this was definitely a crouch.
But then there’s me presuming that it was him and not the police who were doing the crouching: and when you read it again, it’s actually not absolutely clear if that is the case.
Perhaps that’s what’s got me intrigued.
This story alone is a whole lot more provocative than their usual round-up of the newspaper content.
If this marks a new, more interesting approach to the Manx Independent’s synopses for 2015, then I for one fully welcome it.