Category Archives: Urban scene

Dec 30 2011
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene Gallery

Calrec Audio (as the cover of ‘Physical Graffiti’)

Friday 30th December 2011, 4.20pm (day 127)

Calrec Audio, 30/12/11

This has not been an active couple of days. I have spent almost all of both of them at home working. Fortunately I have yet to exhaust the photographic possibilities in the immediate area. This is the factory across the street (see also 5th September, for instance), looking to me like the cover of Led Zeppelin’s finest moment(s), the Physical Graffiti album. But perhaps it’s been a long year, not to mention 33 hours in the house on my own not talking to anyone, and I am starting to hallucinate.

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Dec 15 2011
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Landscape Gallery

Moon over Hebden Bridge

Thursday 15th December 2011, 8.30am (day 112)

Moon over Hebden, 15/12/11

I don’t feel I’ve been here much lately. However, I’ve now got four weeks at home – more-or-less – so get used to photos of this place (and occasionally Manchester). On mornings like this, it’s no hardship – though the rest of the day was rather worse.

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Dec 12 2011
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Daily Post, Urban scene Gallery

Manchester Christmas market

Monday 12th December 2011, 8.50am (day 109)

Xmas supplies, 12/12/11

Back to Manchester. Xmas market still full of stuff this morning. Isn’t it a little late to be expecting to get rid of a few dozen Christmas trees and ten reindeer seemingly made out of compost? Maybe, but what do I know.

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Dec 08 2011
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Daily Post, Urban scene Gallery

Moon over Moscow

Thursday 8th December 2011, 6.00pm (day 105)

Moon over Moscow, 8/12/11

I do own a tripod, but I’m not lugging it to Moscow on the off-chance that I might need it for a night shot. So I did my best to get this one without too much hand-shake. The ‘mountain’ in the distance is the ‘Monument to Corporate Failure’ depicted also on this blog post. Can’t argue with this view of it however. It’s been a beautiful winter’s day here (unlike the weather at home, I’m led to believe) and so it went into the evening.

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Dec 01 2011
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Daily Post, Urban scene Gallery

Urbis and the Arndale Centre, Manchester

Thursday 1st December 2011, 9.35am (day 98)

Urbis and Arndale, 1/12/11

December 2011 dawned pleasantly mild – rather different than the 1st December 2010, the defining characteristic of which will be clear from a quick look at this Facebook album. The light this morning was really good: a good sign of that is when you pass a scene you see two or three times a week, on average, and see it in…. well, see it in a new light. As here.

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Nov 30 2011
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene Gallery

Stubbings School, Hebden Bridge – closed

Wednesday 30th November 2011, 9.55am (day 97)

Stubbings is closed, 30/11/11

The public sector comprises people like teachers, refuse collectors, immigration officers, police officers, nurses, gravediggers…  performing those tasks which are essential to the functionality and health of a society but which are difficult to ‘market’, unglamorous, dangerous, non-profit-making or all of the above. The UK government has, since taking power in a right-wing, private-sector-led coup that followed the inconclusive May 2010 general election, launched a sustained raid on the pensions funds of these groups, using the proceeds to pay off bankers who privatise and tax-dodge with their profits, but nationalise their debts – the perfect scam – and spending them on nuclear weapons that will never be fired (see October 3rd commentary).

The public sector unions responded by today calling a widespread strike, which will be excoriated in certain right-wing papers tomorrow as a matter of course, despite being supported by 61% of the British public, according to one opinion poll. Had Joe’s school been open – it was not – I would have kept him off anyway as a show of support. I hope there are more. Something has to make the bastards crack. They’re a Coalition for heaven’s sake, all it takes is the Lib Dems to stop pimping our arses while the Chancellor stands behind, shafting away.

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Nov 28 2011
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Daily Post, Urban scene Gallery

Site of the new Høgskolen i Bergen

Monday 28th November 2011, 5.00pm (day 95)

Building site, Bergen, 28/11/11

Those of you who are visiting regularly at the moment (and I know there are a few – for which, thank you) might be wondering where the fjord is. Well, it’s not that I didn’t get a good picture of one – I didn’t even see one. A landslide at Myrdal rail station last night, up in the mountains, led to the cancellation of my day trip. Oh, I get my money back but it’s still disappointing. Four trips to Norway have now passed and I’ve still yet to see the reason Slartibartfast got his award (and if that means nothing to you, you’ve not read The Hitch-Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy).

So here’s a picture of a building site instead. However, there is a connection – this is the site of the new Høgskolen i Bergen (Bergen University College), due to open in 2013 (or is it 2014) and, indirectly, one of the reasons I am here: the work I am doing here, in part, is helping prepare the library to move from having five separate premises into one big new space. So there is a point to the picture. But a fjord would have been so much nicer. Not this time though… or the next two (January & February), come to that.

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Nov 27 2011
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Daily Post, Urban scene Gallery

Mount Fløyen, Bergen, Norway

Sunday 27th November 2011, 3.25pm (day 94)

Mount Fløyen, 27/11/11

So here I am in Bergen again, and being a tourist for a couple of days – in all this run of visits to what I firmly believe is the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited, I have not had the chance before now to really look around (and see a fjord, particularly – which I will do tomorrow).

If anything I am slightly disappointed with the haul of pictures taken today (others can be seen in a Facebook album); none of them quite captured the glories of the view. This one is the best but there’s flare to the right of the image. But never mind, it was worth braving the freezing gale that was whipping in from the North Sea this afternoon. And it also becomes the first black & white shot on this blog, on its 94th day.

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Nov 26 2011
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene Gallery

Burst water main, Market Street, Hebden Bridge

Saturday 26th November 2011, 10.05am (day 93)

Burst water main, 26/11/11_low-res

So we move into the second trimester of this blog. End of November, December, January and most of February – the winter months. Expect lots of pictures of the cold and wet. I get several trips abroad in this period but they’re all to Norway (to where I head once more, tomorrow), Russia, the Netherlands – you won’t be seeing any winter warmth.

This picture was the only really interesting thing to happen today but is deceiving. The flood has been caused not by rain but by water flooding out (literally) from a burst mains pipe and drowning the road.

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Nov 21 2011
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Daily Post, Urban scene Gallery

Oxford Road, Manchester

Monday 21st November 2011, 9.50am (day 88)

Oxford Road, 21/11/11

Although my work location varies, as you can tell from this blog, Monday is most commonly a Manchester day, spent among the dreaming spires…

Dreaming spires? Well, not really. The University of Manchester campus is split in half by one of the country’s principal A roads (this is the A34 which starts here and ends in Southampton, having passed through the centre of England on the way – including Oxford, hence the name Oxford Road). It makes it the noisiest and most crowded campus I have ever visited, and believe me I’ve been to a few. My bosses are spending millions on new buildings but if you ask me a better investment would be simply to pay for a ‘university bypass’ and then grass this over to create a long garden. Who knows, one day we might realise that cars subtract from life more than they add to it and it might even happen.

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