Category Archives: Urban scene

Aug 21 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The Corniche, West Beirut

Monday 19th August 2013, 2.00pm (day 725)

Beirut corniche, 19/8/13

So, here I am in the country that used to be known as Phoenicia. If it wasn’t for these guys, the Cornish wouldn’t ever have had a tin industry. This is my first visit to Lebanon, nearest I’ve been to here before is Cyprus, and that remains a European place with a hint of Asia, whereas this felt more the other way around. It has maybe the most concretized ‘beach’ culture of anywhere I’ve been, but I couldn’t argue with the weather — or the hospitality (see tomorrow’s post).

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Aug 11 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Große Freiheit, Hamburg

Friday 9th August 2013, 9.40pm (day 715)

Grosse Freiheit, 9/8/13

Although it has managed to sneak onto the ‘Best of the Rest’ page thanks to an aerial photo (of Frankfurt) this is Germany’s first proper appearance on the blog: and this is probably its most notorious street, the heart of Hamburg’s red-light district. Well, why not. You gotta do these things now and again. Actually compared to Amsterdam’s it’s rather tame, though interesting. Clare’s sat to my right as this picture was taken, in case you were wondering.

The neon guitar in the background, by the way, marks the site of the Kaiserkeller, one of the host venues for the Beatles’ now-legendary Hamburg gigs in 1961. Probably if you counted the number of people who claimed to be there, it’s in the several millions by now.

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Aug 11 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Having dinner outside Whitelocks

Thursday 8th August 2013, 7.15pm (day 714)

Whitelocks, 8/8/13

You saw Whitelocks not so long ago but, well, here it is again. The channellng of the sun down the alley to hit the blonde hair was too nice to resist. This was the prelude to a long weekend away, which I’ve just returned from, so there’s some catching up to do.

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Aug 07 2013
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

One way only

Wednesday 7th August 2013, 5.55pm (day 713)

One way only, 7/8/13

Another little corner of town. No symbolic intent, I just like the aesthetics of the shot. This has been the most Hebden Bridge-bound passage of the blog, since mid-June.  However, I’ve finished the first draft of the book, am having two weeks off and travelling a great deal more over the next month. So perhaps the arrow does have a symbolic meaning after all.

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Aug 06 2013
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Sweeping up, Old Gate

Tuesday 6th August 2013, 8.35am (day 712)

Sweeping up, 6/8/13

This demolition site — old industrial premises — in the centre of town has been close to getting on the blog for a couple of weeks now, today it’s made it. Seems a bit strange to be sweeping up at the start of the working day, but I’m just a sedentary intellectual type, what do I know.

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Aug 04 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Car boot sale, Halifax

Sunday 4th August 2013, 7.05am (day 710)

Car boot sale, 4/8/13

What makes this post somewhat exceptional in the general scheme of things is not so much its aesthetics but the time of its taking. I mean…. on a Sunday? And this place was packed at that time. We’d gone down to offload a bunch of Joe’s old toys, but nearly couldn’t get a plot despite getting up at 4.45am and arriving there an hour later at most. And at 6am people were turning up demanding to know whether we had any PS3 games. Blimey. Free-market capitalism, eh. I guess it works at this local scale.

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Aug 03 2013
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Walking back from Elland Road

Saturday 3rd August 2013, 5.15pm (day 709)

After the match, 3/8/13

The new Championship season kicked off. for me, Joe and about 33,400 other people, at Elland Road this afternoon. I enjoyed the first 15 minutes or so.

L. S. Lowry painted a famous picture in the 1930s called ‘Going to the Match’, showing people flocking to Bolton Wanderers’ ground amid a sea of cobbles, factories and back-to-back housing. There aren’t many grounds left where you can still get that kind of vibe 80 years later, but Elland Road is one of them.

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Jul 31 2013
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Portrait, Stranger

Mother and daughter, Calder Holmes Park

Wednesday 31st July 2013, 2.55pm (day 706)

Calder Holmes Park, 31/7/13

It’s been raining again. Perhaps it’s not a blip, maybe that’s the end of the whole hot weather thing. Still, we’ve all got to get out of the house when we can. You didn’t want a photo of my laptop now, did you.

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Jul 30 2013
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Lloyds TSB Bank, Hebden Bridge

Tuesday 29th July 2013, 5.20pm (day 705)

Lloyds bank, 30/7/13

If I’m to keep this blog going, and non-repetitive, I will have to keep finding new slants on the familiar territory of my home town. Particularly at the moment, where I am spending days on end just sat in my office at home, writing the first draft of the book. So here we go, one of the town’s stranger buildings I think. For some reason this shot looks like it might be taken in the USA, the architecture just has that look to it, I can almost see old trams running down the street too (as they used to, a century ago). Here, for once, I don’t think the phone wires detract from the shot.

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Jul 29 2013
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

The clouds burst

Monday 29th July 2013, 4.35pm (day 704)

Near flood, 29/7/13

I have been trying to prevent repetition on this blog but today cannot avoid it. After a fairly ordinary day, a terrific rainstorm makes yesterday’s picture seem like a portent. Showing how well they have learned the lessons since last year’s flooding, blocked drains and manic car drivers turn a heavy, but otherwise manageable thunderstorm into a near-flooding. Poor drainage has hit the cellar of the Railway again and yet it’s all so bloody avoidable.

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