You're in my seat ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the 'then and now' shots I took during my UK trip was this one at the corner of Liverpool Road and Alexandra Road in Eccles, where I photographed my Dad over forty-five years ago. I put my shadow into the spot he'd have been standing, just to connect ..

I also went into The Grapes, the pub that was my Dad's 'local' for many a year. It's been done up with a nice bit of leather upholstery now, but this was his seat when he wasn't in the 'snug' with his mates. I can still see him sitting there, half a Guinness and a whiskey and lemonade on either side of an overflowing ash-tray. (Nice) ..

Writing this, it occurs to me that forty-five was also my Dad's age in this shot. (People looked a lot older in 'those days', didn't they?) He was a hard-working, hard-drinking Irishman and you'll have read many times in this blog how much I thought of him. Incidentally, there's a character quite like my Dad in a book I wrote .. 'Page 99, by Joe Bancroft'. Gives a little insight into the pre-mobile phone world of a man that finds himself alone after years of happy marriage .. 

  

Smoke gets in your eyes ..

You know I hate smoking, and I've had quite some cause for dismay at some of the Weddings I've photographed lately when I've seen the number of young people smoking outside the venues. I remember one guy who sat in his car whilst I was shooting group shots outside a church, and he smoked four cigarettes in that time, helpfully throwing the butts out of his car window so that I could count them! At another recent Wedding I had to move a group of smokers from a covered area I needed for a photograph, and had to wait until the cloud of smoke dispersed so that I could use the space. The stink they left behind was disgusting. I, for one, will never figure out why people do this to themselves. Anyway, to the point..

At one recent Wedding I was arranging a group of the bride's friends, and there was one young lady in it who was smoking a joint! Right there, in the middle of the Wedding! The funny thing was, she just wouldn't stop smoking it .. not even for the photograph, and she almost bit the Best Man's head off when he offered to hold it for her! "That.." I said, shaking my head "Is getting blogged one day!.."
And so it was ..

Up in smoke ..

"I hate smoking" ..
"I know you do.." said the guy I was talking to "I read your blog!"..

Well that was a nice surprise though, sadly, the reason the subject had cropped up was because I was telling him that my aunt had just died - yet another of 'the clan' who's succumbed to smoking-related illnesses (Note the plural!) ..

It's such a disgusting habit and, despite the indoor smoking ban, there's still no getting away from it. There are empty fag packets all over the place, and you can't walk more than a couple of feet before you come across a discarded cigarette end. Even the doorways to the shopping centre where I have my studio is 'guarded' by two bloody great big ash-trays at the entrances. Very classy!..

So, to the three schoolgirls from Culcheth High School I saw smoking the other day ..
Please, for your sakes - and mine - stop!..

Smoke & Mirrors ..

More SEO 'bs' yesterday, with two epsiodes concerning Google to tell you about. Firstly, I was contacted by yet another of those magical 'We can get you up the rankings' companies, whose first line to me was - and I quote - "I was going through the leading sites in your sector when I came across you, and wondered if you’d like a Complimentary Website Review." Hang on! I come up in the 'leading sites'? Isn't that 'Job Done' then? So why do I need my site reviewing if it's, by their own admission, already doing its job?  And, as if to prove it, I was phoned straight afterwards by a company who'd Googled photographers in Warrington, and who've now booked me for a PR job on Friday! Eat yer heart out, complimentary website reviewers!

I was on a PR job the other day - you may have seen the link to some of the pix on Facebook - which was actually in the car park of the company, as it was a motor-cycle training event. In a corner of the car-park was the 'smokers' hut' - the pong-palace where people came out for their fag-breaks. Man, I could not believe the amount of young people coming out for a smoke. It was depressing! Speaking as someone who doesn't have a single friend that smokes, it comes as an ever-more shocking site to see people gathering in huddles to suck shit into their lungs. The message is not getting across, is it?

Cancer sticks ..

Yes, folks .. it's another Then and Now from Eccles .. the 'now' being shot on Saturday evening as I left the gallery to go home, and the 'then' from about about '78! Well, some things never change, and I don't mean the blocks of flats or the old cinema building. I mean the smoking! Man, you could die of passive smoking in Eccles! EVERYBODY smokes! Ok, don't pick me up on the accuracy of that statement, but it bloody well feels like it, I can tell you! Kids smoke, grannies smoke .. even the guy selling the fresh farm eggs at Saturday's Farmer's Market smoked! And because I live in a world where no-one smokes - and, these days, don't have to endure pubs full of smokers - the stench and sight of the hunched, grey-faced huddles, ludicrously and desperately sucking on rolled-up, burning tobacco leaves is made all the worse. I bring this up because I've been approached by a (non-smoking) chap from some sort of a Salford NHS working party, who wants to use some of my archive 'Salford - Down the line' shots in a new 'Look after yourself' kinda health campaign - something along the lines of 'Look after yourself and you'll still be here in 30 years time!'

It doesn't stand a chance!..

God, I hate smoking!

Ugh! Cough! Splurt! Yuck!...

I had to go into a flat yesterday where FIVE people were smoking! God, it was awful, and absolutely astonishing to think that smoking indoors in a public place was the norm right up until recently! As in days of old, of course, it meant that my clothes stank, and thus went straight into the wash once I was home. My nose still feels yucky almost 24 hours on, too. I won't go into detail..

So just what is it with smoking? Why would you do it? And why the f*ck do you all drop your empty cigarette packets in the streets, you inconsiderate, lazy bastards? I grew up in a world where everybody smoked, and I've hated it with a vengeance from an early age. Years on, my Dad's popped it from smoking-related illnesses and, whether by chance or design, I do not have a single friend that smokes. At a Wedding recently it was raining so hard that no-one would go outside to be photographed. They'd go outside to smoke, though! Didn't matter how wet they got, they still went out for their fags! I allowed myself a wry smile and a nod of approval that the venue hadn't supplied them with their own area in which to smoke under cover! Still, it's the non-smokers that get it in the neck, having to squeeze through those disgusting door-way huddles of foul-smelling smokers to get into pubs and the like. The object is defeated, too, when a door opens and a foul cloud of shit wafts in to a room, all the more noticeable because of its previous abscence! Oh, and a word of advice, dear smoker. Chewing gum does not stop us all knowing you've just had a fag! Your breath still stinks! So there!...

God, I hate smoking!

Johnny Foreigner..

Good to be back in England after my holiday, back in the bosom of my countrymen and away from all those bloody foreigners! Let's hear it for the jubilee and hip, hip hurray for my fellow Englishman! Or not! Jeez, I only needed to get as far as the arrivals hall at Manchester Airport to be reminded of all the bloody oiks in this country. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be British - English! - and I do love my country but it's just a shame I can't stand half the people in it! That majority 'underclass' that's proud to show its ignorance! You know the types! Ugh, I shudder when I think that the Sun is the biggest selling newspaper in the UK. So, out in Greece we may have shaken our heads at the occcasional loud American and elbowed back at one or two surly, rude French, but we could only grimace in despair at the utter ignorance of some of the British there. No wonder we get a bad name abroad! At least there's one good thing about the UK - you can't smoke in a bar anymore, which was the one thing we hated more than anything whilst we were away.

Anyway, ranting aside .. have a look at my holiday snaps!      :-)