I was walking home from Portobello tonight, up Ladbroke Grove, and at the point where the road crests the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, saw the full moon rising in the east. I'm always kicking myself for not carrying the camera at this time of year, this spot is perfect for sunsets over Wormwood Scrubs and the moon rising out of Maida Vale.
So I stood there for a good ten minutes enjoying the starlings homing in on Kensal Green Cemetery and the grave of Steve Peregrine Took; with a pair of coots doing some late afternoon shopping under the arc lighting at Sainsburys. Arrived back home to find that Ace Blogger Sid Smith had been looking at the same scene 300 miles due north.
Going to get tucked into the lengthy jazz posts below; already got some tickets booked for the London Jazz Festival but feel this could be a full-on, swinging month.
6 comments:
Beautiful picture. And Happy birthday? (belated - you were being quite subtle about it, and, you know, I'm american, we don't get subtlety)
Just hearing the word portobello...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqY1lHJYIgY
TY: Your mention of the Scrubs and the moon reminds me of a poem by a good friend in Jamaica. His name is Oku Onuora, aka Orlando Wong, he's one of the original dub poets. He told me that 'he took up a gun, a rifle, because he was no longer going to put up with de' system' He was arrested, charged, and sent to Gun Court in Kingston for several years. If you don't know about Gun Court Wiki has an informative page.
He told me about a poem he wrote whilst there, it was called 'Last Night'. Here 'tis:
Got a peek
at the moon
last night,
an didn't think of lovers.
Got a peek
at the moon
last night
an saw
a man with a load on his back.
Got a peek at the moon
last night
and cried.
He cried from joy because he'd just spent 2 years in solitary in a cell without windows, it was the first time he's seen it in a long time. He has a hard to find CD of his poetry with reggae plus a couple of books of poetry, I don't know if either are still in print. There's also a Wiki page devoted to him.
I had one those books that came with the 45 of Bedknobs & Broomsticks, for some reason I never knew the title. Maybe it was in French, and maybne it was actually my brother's. I had a few of those record/books, loved the sound of Tinkerbell's chimes when you were supposed to turn the page.
just as a point of interest, whereas we see a "man" in the moon when we look up at those craters, the Japanese quite clearly see a rabbit making rice cakes!! It's what you want to see I suppose.
When I was 'banged up' for skinny-dipping on Crete in the early 70s, the compound we petty-crims were put in was open to the sky.
We could see the moon when it came over, and it was a big event. All these rough old farmers and taxi-drivers and english hippies would crowd the windows of our barracks, for a glimpse.
But in the end, it was the weekly visit to the Governor's Office that delivered the biggest thrill. It was the view, past his head, of a simple scrubby hillside. His window out onto the world was the real punishment: he had it - we didn't.
Thanks for the Bedknobs link steenbeck. Hadn't seen that for years; all that dancing, no wonder we never get any work done. We do still wear our kilts on a Thursday though. Yes it was my birthday on the 31st; Me and Mrs TY should move to the US because hers is on the 4th July. We'd never be short of a party ;)
The Scrubs is still a bleakly atmospheric corner of West London, bound in by railway, canal and prison. Great place for (jail) birding. I've got a map from the 1930's which shows a rifle range and an airship pylon on the site. Not a place that Johnny Cash ever visited ... but Mick Jones has ... to play 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' ... what a tease ;)
Part of Billy Bragg's Jail Guitar Doors project.
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