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.
Couldn’t take lots of photos at this happy event because I had an official role to play: it would not have done to have been snapping away from up on the stage while reading out the names of the many graduates celebrating their achievements this evening. (Reading the names out is a harder job than it looks, I can assure you.) This was the best shot to encapsulate the most important thing about the day however – it makes people happy.
I would say, somebody please tell our government that higher education remains a public good, but we have done so, and they don’t care. Very soon Fei, and I, will sod off to work and study in a country which still values the notion of higher education as something which benefits everyone, not just the student. And we will take all the expertise and economic gains that it represents with us. Their loss. I hope it never happens, but we teeter on the edge here in the UK system, right now.
Solidarity, brother 🙂
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.
Well, this is certainly the earliest time yet for a daily pic, by a margin of some 110 minutes. Still, it could have been worse. It could have been Sheremetyevo airport. (This wry comment of course means nothing to anyone unfamiliar with the pleasures of Russian airspace.)
Today I was the University of Manchester’s representative at the graduation ceremony of our partner, the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. Like all graduates these guys have worked very hard. Like all of us they face an uncertain future, but hey, that’s what futures are. Good luck to them all. This was a good day.
Day off today. I went to see some excellent art in the Pushkin museum, including a Caravaggio exhibition. Now I don’t know a great deal about art but Caravaggio seems to me someone who really knows about lighting and movement. His paintings are 400 years old but look like they could be freeze-frames from modern movies. He’s a long way ahead of his contemporaries. However, for most of the time after his death in 1610 he was forgotten.
This, on the other hand, is Tsereteli’s monumental statue of Peter the Great by the Moscow River. It cost millions of roubles and can be seen for miles around. it looks like something my 8-year-old son would draw and every Muscovite I have spoken to about it, hates it. Tsereteli is a big mate of the mayor of Moscow, Mr Luzhkov, which may, or of course may not, explain why this monstrosity exists.
Somehow I suspect that in 400 years’ time, only one of these artists is going to be remembered.
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.
A full day travelling. Today’s photographic challenge then: make airports/air travel look interesting or attractive. Here’s my best attempt.
The Juke Box Is Your Friend.
This one’s pretty good. There’s no Joy Division, Spiritualized. Ministry, Santana, LCD Soundsystem, Pink Floyd, Lard, or Can. But there is plenty of Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Stones, the Doors, Bowie, and occasional outbreaks of the Temptations, the Sex Pistols, Primal Scream and other positives. I invest three or four quid a week in it. It’s money well spent.
Being 42 