Went to the cinema tonight to see a superb film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly — if you’ve never seen it I highly recommend it. It was being shown as a charity fundraiser, which meant we were obliged to listen to the speeches beforehand, hence this picture. But I am being unfair — it was for a good cause. And did I say it was a very good movie?
Another work trip to London — I have several of these coming up. No real opportunities for photography during the day, I’m afraid, but while waiting in the pub after work for my friend to turn up I started taking photos of the other customers. I’m not particularly satisfied with this shot but it’ll do, I guess. I like the guy’s look, though. Sort of like a 1970s revolutionary crossed with Carlos Santana.
One assumes that he fitted through the window on the way out, so will also fit through on the way back. Otherwise, he’s in difficulty — there is nothing below him except a ten-foot drop to the Rochdale Canal.
Staffing the ‘welcome desk’ halfway through the last day of the conference is not the most exciting job in the world, I am sure.
Last day in California — it’s been an interesting and enjoyable week. Can I take the weather home, please?
Definitely don’t think I did San Francisco justice with yesterday’s shot — must have been the jet lag. This is much better. I apologise to the good people of the East Bay — Oakland and Berkeley — where I spent most of the day, but I have to go with this shot today. Could they have posed any better if they’d meant it? And love the cable cars too, one of those beautiful anachronisms that civic activism has preserved, and the world’s a better place for it.
So what’s in the carrying case? Inquiring minds want to know.
There he was, playing the theme from The Godfather. And happy with it. I make this only the second busker to appear on the blog.
Perhaps I could have got a photo to mark Joe’s birthday, 12 years old today. Never mind, let’s mark it anyway.
What was in the boxes I do not know, but if they started out full then clearly she’s had a good day’s trading. Perhaps that’s what she’s texting about. But perhaps the stall just sells the boxes. It’s that kind of market.
The Watchtower is the magazine with the largest print run in the whole world, some 53,000.000 copies each month, apparently. All distributed for free. (Though it seems even the servants of God’s kingdom on Earth are not immune from having to adapt to the Internet, with the magazine having gone down to 16 pages and more emphasis placed on the digital edition these days.) I guess you need a large and voluntary distribution network to handle a publication like that. And so without addressing irrelevant questions of ‘faith’ — that’s what the Witnesses are: unpaid labour. They have to put in timesheets like the rest of us, but instead of getting pay now, they believe their redemption will come when the world finally ends (which according to them has been about to take place since 1914).
None of this persuades a great many people to stop and take a copy.
Being 42 