Blogger Break

As some of my regulars are probably aware, I'm taking August as a posting Sabbatical. It isn't a European thing (many Countries seem to take August off) although I will be fitting in a holiday to Spain during the month. I'm particularly looking forward to a visit to Barcelona- I've had a fascination with the style of Antoni Gaudi since seeing photos of his works in my youth and I'm looking forward to taking the Kodak up the Basilica.

Thnking back over a hectic July, the highlight for me was the Dean Friedman Concert in Morley. I planned it really carefully so that the show would go well technically and theatrically. There was only one problem- the Turn was late for his sound check. Eventually, I prowled the perimeter of the building a couple of times and, standing looking expectant in Queen Street, an Estate car pulled up and a silver haired troubador wound the window down and said "Are you Ian?" I said I'd hop in and get him round to the back of the Town Hall (as it is all one way there) at which point I realised the Guy was practically living in the car, or certainly using it as a travelling Restaurant. He handed me a couple of boxes, scraped assorted detritus onto the floor & into the back then I eased in. (I'm sure his Jewish Mother would have disapproved- "My Son, the International singer/songwriter, brings disgrace on our family with his shitpit of a car!"). As we navigated the One Way system two thoughts suddenly struck me- he was touring all by himself- and he was having trouble with the gears. Flashback to Northern Telecom in the 80s, where it was Company Policy that all Company Cars had automatic gears as the Canadian Wives struggled with having to drive on the "wrong" side of the road and have to wiggle the wand of power and pedal of slippage as well.

Getting to the Venue, he opened the Boot to reveal a Guitar, a Ukelele, and a suitcase- full of CDs. We unloaded and he moved the car as he didn't want to risk the wrath of double yellow line guardians. As he drove off, another car pulled up on the lines and the Morley Mayor & Deputy got out- unworried about the Wardens.

He eventually reappeared and the sound check was surprisingly short as he only had accoustic instruments. We sorted out various details of the running order and he agreed to pop upstairs and visit the Mayor in her Parlour (which he thought sounded rather quaint) whilst I nipped home for tea.

Later on, we opened the doors and the expectant crowd arrived, although by 7:55pm Dean hadn't. Suddenly struck by a thought I nipped round to the side entrance, opened the crash doors- and there he was trying to work out how to get in. To preserve the theatricality, I took him the concealed route backstage (down into the smaller Morleian Hall and through the platform doors) rather than through the audience. I showed him his Dressing Room (labelled Ladies Chorus, the Mens Chorus also led to the Custodian Office so there was the possibility of passing traffic in that one) and left him to prepare, limbering up his vocal chords with some type of Yiddish chant and giving him a chance to put his showbiz togs on (a change of shirt!). At 8:05pm I went down to call beginners please
and he said that if I wanted to introduce him that would be fine. That caught me out slightly, as my mate Lincoln had joked that he wanted to make the offstage announcement & big build up before he found he couldn't get a pass out but if I'd thought about it I would have arranged for a Mic in the Wings. Anyway, I switched off the house lights, faded up the PAR Cans to 6, nipped on to an expectant silence and made my entirely unscripted announcement for posterity:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Morley. Sorry we don't have a Bar but we have some cans at the back for the interval which will be 15 minutes. Anyway, enough from me, lets have a big cheer for the main man: Dean Friedman!!!" Cue applause and cheering...


Scurrying back, he gave me a warm smile and a twinkle as he walked on and I returned to the Wings to give him the Cans at 10. Wow! I thought, it is finally here, Dean is playing Morley and the crowd love him already. Finally, I can enjoy the show!

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy August because I can devote time to the other important thing in my life- my family. I'll still be around keeping an eye on other Blogpower blogs and my other regular haunts but I won't feel the need to come up with postings. Instead, I'll mentally file away any experiences and thoughts, hopefully returning energised in September.

Shades of Grey won't be Tumbleweed though- a number of Blogpower Bloggers have agreed to put some posts up in my absence and I look forward to seeing what has appeared on my return. This is what I see as the spirit of Blogpower, it wouldn't even have occurred to me six months ago, or have a happy band to call on.

Bye for now.

Guest posters, start your engines...

Cinema Ephemera

This is something rather unusual. Fred Fullerton used to be the Chief at the Empire Leicester Square and he had a passion for presentation. About twenty years ago I visited the Empire to see their new laser show that preceded the feature. It had three variants and we were treated to all three. Fred has documented it along the way on a YouTube video which you can watch below. (You also get to see his cat!)

The current Empire was a rebuild of an old theatre and was an early conversion with a Club in the Stalls area. What you can't see from this is that the Empire had three colour neon cove lighting in the auditorium and that was also controlled as part of the show. The contour curtain was something special, the only other place I knew had one was the Talk of the Town and Radio City Music Hall (New York). You get to see it rise during the third laser routine. Also look closely at the canopy above- it was fitted with twinkling fibre optics.

Photo from Cinephoto.uk, lots more at the other end of the link.

Finding life hard?

Liz, this is especially for you. I stumbled across it tonight looking of something else and I hope you enjoy it. A lovely song and a few words from your favourite book ;-)

Militant charity shops?

We went round Morley's Charity Shops at the weekend, Karen looking for clothes, David looking for Annuals, me looking for Media (books, CDs, DVDs, Singles etc.).

Morley is well served by Charity shops, there being at least half a dozen, both national and local. Some retailers, however, have expressed annoyance to me on occasions, as some of them sell certain new goods in semi-direct competition (items like cards, flowers and branded goods). When I have pointed out that competition is healthy, they generally grouse that the shops don't pay business rates so their cost base is much lower. (They don't have to pay most of the assistants either as they are volunteers but the retailers don't have an answer for that).

Shopping in charity shops is normally a benign experience but I have noticed two trends that I don't really like. The first one is social- shoplifting seems to be a problem in charity shops as well as everywhere else and many of the changing rooms have implemented systems for tracking the number of items in and out. (All shoplifting is wrong of course but robbing a charitable concern seems particularly low, it is not as though the prices are high, except in perhaps Harrogate).

The other one is the in your face approach some charities seem to adopt to fund raising and campaigning. Many of the shops were actively encouraging Gift Aid and I hate to think what army of volunteers and Civil Servants are kept busy validating my 99p video.

I recently joined Diabetes UK and the week after I sent off a cheque for £400 in fund raising I was called by a "TeleChugger" (made up word, but it fits the bill) who tried very hard to persuade me to sign up to small ongoing Direct Debit payments. I'm made of sterner stuff to get suckered by cold callers but I imagine lots of people would feel pressurised into agreeing to it as a few quid a month doesn't sound much and after all, they are a charidee...

Britain used to have a great tradition of charitable giving from all social levels (most of the NHS started off as charitable organisations) but the Welfare State kicked the soul out of it. We still have some outstanding organisations like the RNLI who still do what they say on the tin, but some others seem more intent on getting money from the Government for their work or indeed campaigning at the trough of state influence through the relentless process of scope creep from the founding fathers' visions.

Speaking of Scope (with a capital S, formerly the Spastic Society), their shop had huge posters about their "Time to get equal" campaign, which I think has actually been and gone, at least the week of action has. It also had many signs decrying something they call disablism. (I had to look it up, I'd not heard of it before). Something felt not right about this, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Getting my head round it afterwards with a trawl around on the web pulled up a good article by Tom Shakespeare on the BBC Disability website- Ouch! which voiced and reflected my concerns. The campaign actually makes much more interesting reading than the hectoring tone of the shop slogans. Maybe it is because we are British- we don't want our Churches making a fuss, and perhaps we don't like our charities doing it either! Is polite indifference no longer acceptable, do we have to care about everything?

There are a massive number of different disabilities and no one person can realistically grasp the specific needs that an individual has without making assumptions, frequently wrong ones! The person who I knew the best with a serious disability was my Father who was mostly wheelchair bound in the last five years of his life. he was, however, strongly against compulsion in the need to make everywhere retrospectively "disabled friendly", regarding it as a socialist plot to put small businesses out of business and get everyone working in the public sector. (He had seen Reds in the Bed everywhere throughout my formative years!) I have always had the view that it makes good business sense to make any enterprise as accessible as possible to customers and that people should be hired for what they can do, not what they are.
The only type of "ism" I approve of has the word "individual" in front of it...

Escaping the ordinary

Bradford STIR was a four day event taking place this weekend and we briefly touched on it in our travels. As we passed through the main square, a silent rave was taking place, people dancing to apparently nothing.
They all had headphones and were listening to BCB Radio, the music being mixed from the milk float in front of the town hall.

A number of these strange structures were scattered around. They had been a former art installation along the length of the M62 at motorway service stations. Visitors could write a message onto thin metal sheet and tie them on with a ribbon to form a shrine to anything anyone wanted it to be. This one was near a number of art stands near the former police station where lots of interesting works were on display and could be bought.

Lots of curious things were going on in the St. Georges Hall scattered all round the building. The event was called 12 squared and it was to turn into a Gig in the evening. I snapped a shot of the ceiling on long exposure under various wiggly lights. (It might have been an installation, but it looked pretty standard fare to me, not doing anything particularly innovative)

In the Circle Bar, I found Being 747 performing Amoeba TO Zebra. It was too loud for David so I didn't have time to work out if it was good, clever or just cak. (The introductory video & spiel sounded a bit pretentious but it could have been irony, they seem to get good reviews).
Meanwhile, the hug the Odeon event has been airbrushed from history, all the chalked messages of support have been painted out. All of the canopies have been cut off and the large signograph structure has also been dismantled. (Good job really, it was becoming a hazard). The building is now revealed looking what it was when it opened, other than that doorway cut in below the upper windows so the projectionists could change the fluorescent tubes. There is a bit of a tide mark, though!

Bradford's Media Museum

Interested in historic TV & animation?

Thunderbirds

Wallace & Gromit

Zippy & Bungle

Jemimah, Hambel, Humpty, Big & little Ted

Gordon the Gofer!
Ever fancied reading the news?
Ever wondered how they project Harry Potter in IMAX?

Ever wanted to appear with the Teletubbies?

Or on Coronation Street?

Ever wondered how they filmed The wrong Trousers?
Or just want to chuckle at wierd and wonderful old tellys?

(I think Jason King had the round white one in his groovy pad).

I had one of those Philips V2000s! It looks huge now!
The Bradford National Media Museum is a fascinating day out and it is free! Lots of stuff about photography too. As recommended by the Greys...

Have you seem my Rs?

As seen in Bradford yesterday for an Arts event.

This got me to thinking about a Saturday job I had in my mid teens working at a Garage in Newcastle, cleaning out trade-in vans. My dad worked there and it was a Ford main dealer. There was a new product launch of a range of light trucks, known as the "A series". To support this, seven huge boxes arrived, which when unpacked, were found to contain huge white polypropylene letters spelling "A series". Once the sales Manager had gone home, however, they were re-arranged in the showroom window to spell "Arses".

After five minutes or so and getting lots of car horn toots, we put them back. I wonder if anyone ever took a photo?

Getting more hairy

Six weeks since I cropped my locks. It just looks like a rather short haircut now at about 2cm all over, except the top front and temples where is a bit thinner (and had been for a while but the longer hair concealed it somewhat). It changed from a hedgehog look at about four weeks, where it started lying on the head rather than sticking out of it. It doesn't appear to be any greyer than previously so I mustn't have frightened it too much after the recent trauma.

I will be taking a blogging break during August, returning with a vengeance in September. In the meantime, I have lined up a number of top quality bloggers from Blogpower to guest here so that it does not become too much of a tumbleweed gulch.

Going to the Dogs...

We went to see the Greyhound racing last night. It was held at Kinsley Stadium, Kinsley being a small village between Wakefield and Doncaster, classed as being near Pontefract. It is a fairly small stadium, without Stands as such but holding 3000 spectators. There are two large buildings housing a Restaurant, Cafe, Bars and Tote windows. A large shed-like structure encloses the Bookies area and the outdoor tote office. There appears to be a lot of construction work in progress although it is too early to be able to work out what is coming.

The last time I went to the Dogs was in Slough back in the late 80's. It was actually Saturday 21st March 1987, as it was their closing night. I enjoyed the evening with good company, although the races seemed to be rather short! Karen used to go to Belle-Vue Dogs as a St. Johns Ambulance First Aider and she much preferred the Dogs to stock cars or speedway.

The event is promoted as a great day for a family outing, although as it revolves around eating, drinking, smoking and betting, this is slightly questionable- they don't even appear to have a Children's menu. Despite this, however, David had a great time, particularly as he befriended a number of Grannies, offering them Chips and being offered prawns in return.

Betting is the raison d'etre for most visitors. There are two approaches to this- Tote or Bookmakers. The Tote works on the basis of a lottery- all the money goes into a pot (after a cream-off, of course!) and is redistributed to the winners in proportion to the stakes and combinations. On this basis, the punter has no idea how much he will win until it is declared. This is known as Totaliser, or Parimutuel Gambling.

The Bookmaker, however, gives fixed odds at the time of the bet so the punter knows how much they might win if their dog comes in. It is fascinating to watch the bookies in action and how much they collaborate. The systems may be manual or high-tech but it is simple enough- you pay them, call your dog and get a ticket, with the odds being transcribed into the book.

Odds never got above 3:1 last night for the first six races and went down to 5:3, the other common variants being 2:1 and 5:2. The bookies didn't put up the odds until a few minutes before the race so a small crowd of expectant punters (including me) hung around to find the best odds. Three of the Bookies had a minimum bet of £5 so I stuck to the Tote when I couldn't read the form too well.

Each race follows a time honoured ritual. The six dogs are brought out acros the oval sand filled track with individual handlers and are paraded whilst announced. The starting numbers are pre-ordained and the colours worn to reflect which trap they will go in. The dogs are then led down the course to the starting traps, mostly muzzled (and some stopping on the way for a call of nature). The course has two sets of starting traps, a regular (465m) race being a straight and a lap. The main trap box is to the left of the stand, the finishing line to the right. (For the longer 655m races, the second set of traps are used on the rar right of the oval). The dogs are loaded into the traps, the course official checks them then raises a signal paddle at which point a claxon sounds to acknowledge it and the dogs are under starters orders.

The electic hare starts up from the mid point of the left hand bend and scoots past the traps as the doors fly open and the dogs give chase.

The dogs whizz past in a blur and again down the home straight. Less than thirty seconds after the off, the winner crosses the line and it is all over. The dogs peter out on the opposite side of the course, the electric hare is covered (an Outside Swaffham McGee, apparently) and the lucky punters go to collect their winnings whilst the losers tear up their slips. Then it all repeats again fifteen minutes later for another twelve or so races, three times a week.

Greyhound Racing has a devoted following and it is much cheaper to own a Greyhound than a Racehorse. However, the prizes for the owners are sub- £100 here so it is perhaps the Sport of Plumbers rather than the Sport of Kings. As animals are involved, there is inevitable contoversy about the well-being of the animals, although Kinsley stresses that it complies with all NGRC requirements and actively supports adoption of retired dogs.

Here is a race in full. It doesn't take long! How did I do? Won two, lost four, made slightly more than the admission price but not enough to pay for David's Sausage Roll & Chips.

The Dogs is unostentatiously working class, as is bingo. Some people get dressed up for a night out but many don't and nobody cares. The place has the feel of a working mens club and is a bit shabby but I prefer the honest feel of the place to the fake chic of a Casino. I enjoy the odd flutter and don't have any hangups about gambling- it is a mugs game, although some people seem to do better than others (& I'm not one of them, other than winning minor prizes in raffles). (Previous racing post here, (including a rude word!) and a bingo post here.) What generally puts me off is boredom- betting and playing bingo gets a bit tedious after a while.

Alphabetism

The final Policing post from the West Yorkshire Police Ops Support open day is the CBRN team. CBRN stands for Chemical, Biological Radiological and Nuclear. This is the team that responds to incidents that could be terrorist related, or possibly industrial accidents causing hazards. Their main role is for initial assessment at unknown substance incidents in conjunction with partner agencies (undefined, but presumably the Armed Forces and Agencies like the National Radiological Protection Board which became part of the Health Protection Agency in 2005. The team demonstrated a range of their equipment for detection and protection, including protection suits and gas masks.

Despite all the interesting stuff with dogs, horses, hi-tech gear & choppers, this is a reminder that it is all for a serious purpose and often ties in with violent behaviour, really horrible incidents and sometimes death. The Police need to be able to handle most things thrown at them, expected or otherwise.

The centre at carr Gate had lots of other teams dealing with motorway patrols, logistical support, a VIPs, collision investigation, motorbikes and even a wildlife officer. It is a little village with several buildings sprawled across the site and it is rare that the Public would get an opportunity to go there. The site had been earmarked for a new Force Headquarters building a few years back but all of the likely Force merger plans (that came to nothing) scuppered that.

No doubt all 43 Police Forces in England and Wales have similar arrangements to a greater or lesser extent (some Forces share Helicopters, for example). I found it re-assuring- I didn't feel that the facilities were ostentatious (far from it) or neglected, giving us good value from taxpayer money. If you need to do a job, best to do it properly.

Dive... dive... dive...

The Police underwater search unit are used whenever water is involved, whether searching in boats or diving for search & recovery of victims or evidence. At the Carr Gate open day, they had their large incident support van, some canoes and a large container tank with viewing windows (hired in, presumably they have other training facilities that are not so eye catching to the Public. Officers are selected with a one week suitability course then an eight week national diving course.
Looking into the tank (which had a number of fake knives and pistols in it), the submersible camera swung round and came to the window and faced me. I waved and it flashed its lights back at me! It was capable of very delicate movement and had a claw arrangement at the front, although it proved not very adept at picking things up and needed a bit of help from the diver.

Looking in the support van, we found the mini-sub operator. The picture on the control box screen was very clear and sharp indeed, although in murky water I imagine it is a bit harder to see, especially as the thrusters will shake up the sludge on the bottom.



I'm always interested in the minutae of other jobs and seeing these storage bins, I was curious to know what strops are. (I thought it was something that you did with a razor blade on a leather thing, or something that people throw when they are very grumpy. It turns out it is a type of Lanyard).
Here is a demo of using a lifting bag, notice the mini-sub camera mooching round in the background.

Armed and extremely dangerous...

At the Police Open Day at Carr Gate, members of the Firearms Support Unit were on hand to show us their equipment, let us hold them and ask questions. Needless to say, most of the audience were boys. The Officers showed us their protective wear, including flak jackets with removable ceramic inserts for absorbing the impact of high velocity rounds. They also had baton rounds, also known as "rubber bullets", although they are generally made of plastic. I've seen them before but they are surprisingly large, blunt and apparently painful. (If used incorrectly they can be lethal).

In order to become a Firearms Officer the Police have to undertake intensive and vigorous training and the use of weapons is always regarded as a last resort. Police don't shoot to kill, they shoot to stop- aiming for the central body mass. (Of course, that can be lethal if vital organs are damaged. Someone asked about shooting people in the legs but the reply was that it was hard to hit people in the legs, you had to be a very good shot.) They had two types of weapons on show, a Glock pistol made in Austria and the short semi-automatic gun that had the legend "for law enforcement/ military use only" engraved in the side. (That'll frighten off the criminals).
Interestingly, the weaponry on show varied when we walked past as it had to be locked in the Police Car Safes when the assigned Officers were on breaks. Two other more mundane items were also part of the armoury- an immediate method of entry door buster (a sort of in-line hammer/battering ram) and an extensive first aid kit. No bullets were in evidence other than the baton round, although paint balling was happening nearby. What was creating some interest, however, was the Taser. (According to Wikipedia, Taser stands for Thomas A Swift's Electric Rifle, follow the link to see why). The tazer looked a bit like a toy but the Officer assured me that it was the most horrible experience you could have in life. He had received it once in training and he had no desire to do it again. To use it, a clip on disposible blue box is fitted and when triggered, it fires two tiny barbs which drag tiny filament wires behind them. When they make contact, a very high voltage (about 30,000 Volts but a very small current) temporarily disables the victim. The BBC have a video of the Chief Constable of Manchester agreeing to be tasered in 2005, you can watch it here. With the cartridge off, the officer demonstrated firing the weapon and large sparks jumped between the terminals. The advice from New Scientist to avoid getting tasered is to wear medieval armour, although they haven't tried it!

Keith Emerson's Piano

Pure Rock Theatre...

I don't think we had the budget to do this with Dean Friedman at Morley Town Hall...

Every cloud has a silver lining

We had some sporadic torrential rain today, delaying David's return from a trip out to Sundown, (a place worth a blog in its own right) when the wipers packed in on the double-decker bus. After an early evening storm I was delighted to see this magnificent rainbow, the vividness of the colours not entirely carrying across to the digital camera.

Whilst I watched, the main rainbow disappeared whilst the final bit leading to the crock of gold (somewhere in East Ardsley) grew even more vivid vibrance and the white fluffy cloud grew ever brighter.
Then the colours saturated, the view pixelated and started pulsating as the acid contaminating the Morley water supply kicked in.

(OK, I made that last bit up...)

Four legs good, six legs better...

The Police Mounted section provides a strong tactical option during outbreaks of disorder, potential or actual. They are regularly used at football matches and assisting with searches over large areas.





The riders have a 16 week basic course and get regular refreshers on public order training. Surprisingly, the riders don't need to have any previous riding experience. Everyone is allocated a specific horse but will ride and care for all of the horses.





At Carr Gate, there are a number of stables arranged in a U shape around a curious circular structure which appeared to be the horse version of a hamster wheel. In it, a number of horses could be seperated into curved corridors in the quadrants and the innards appeared to be able to rotate. I forgot to ask what it was for but I imagine it is to get the horses used to noisy jeering crowds without anyone getting harmed.
The courtyard also leads off into a large training arena and seeing the soft soil I immediately thought of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Disneyland Paris, despite it being outdoors without a roof, seating, lighting or Red Indians.





We were able to watch a training exercise where the horses trotted around the ring and the front one would veer off to join the rear. (The Horses have to overcome the urge to follow the leader when this happens). A more complex arrangement of going down the centre and then alternately turning left and right was also carried out.


The Tack rooms were less shiny than some, being working horses rather than show horses. (No polished brasses, but the horses do wear the West Yorkshire Police emblem below their necks and some pendants were evident on the walls). Each one was named with a white board on the stable door for any special instructions (mostly about damping down the feed). Police Horse boxes are very large, the size of furniture vans. We saw at least three, one you could look in and two others parked in a side street.

colourless food

I recently bought some ice pops at ASDA, two boxes of twenty for £2. In the UK, an ice pop is a tube of flavoured ice sealed into a plastic (originally waxed paper) tube. It is not a Popsicle, we call them ice lollies if it has a stick. (My favourite childhood one was the Jubbly, now available again).

The odd thing about these ice pops (or freeze pops, as some makers call them) was that they were not only sugar free, they were totally colour free as well. They tasted normal (they certainly were not flavour free) but they took a bit of getting used to.

This took me back to when I was about Fifteen and took part in the Newcastle University Theatre Young People's Festival. I was on a 10 day sabbattical from school to attend the theatre as part of the technical team. Every morning there was a show called "Betty in Bodgerland" which featured a large pedestrian operated milk float as the Bodgermobile. (Bodgerland was a pun on the then Artistic Director, Michael Bogdanov (who courts controversy on occasions). During the run, I got to operate the lighting desk for most of the shows, a Strand Electric Three Preset SP80 similar to this one. Whilst it was a manually operated desk, the cues had been created in such a way that it could be done using the six master faders in combination without needing to reset any individual faders.

What has all this got to do with colourless ice pops, I hear you ask? Well, before every Betty show, a performance artist blew up a number of interestingly shaped inflatables on the nearby lawn for the kids to have fun with. (Having fun extended to the little horrors trying to push one over railings onto a crowd of other children at a lower level, it took all of us to pull it back from the brink). This performance artist was also interested in doing unusual Banquets as art installations. Using food colourings, he would dye the eggs purple, the mash green, the bread orange and the chicken blue. He'd then let the Public loose who would tentatively nibble then eventually eat with gusto once they overcame the strangeness. I never saw one but read about it.

Strange, the odd things that float around in the recesses of the mind waiting to be unearthed.

One other thing I recall about the Theatre Festival- there was this huge green soft toy snake that must have been 20' long and 15" diameter. It kept appearing in unusual places- in the Auditorium Bar behind the counter, inside the Director's Office, hanging outside the Theatre suspended from the roof. The guilty party consisted of Laurence Southon (Technical Manager, who had all the keys)... and everyone else!

Is that a cyclic stick in your hand or are you just pleased to see me?

To fly a helicopter, it is necessary to manipulate the collective control stick (or handbrake), cyclic control stick (gearstick) and tail rotor pedals (clutch and accelerator). In order to hover motionless, it is necessary to keep all three sets of controls moving in an incoherent fashion. Once you get your head round that, the rest is easy...
This is the Humberside Chopper, the West Yorkshire one not being at Carr Gate for some reason. From this angle, it looks rather sinister, the instrument tubes looking somewhat like weaponry. The slogan "Protect, Help, Reassure" seems to conflict with the militaristic feel.

A longer range shot shows the helicopter to look a lot less threatening. Notice that there is not a tail rotor, this is known as a NOTAR design.

The compound was temporarily closed to visitors due to incoming Aircraft. This turned out to be the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which is stationed at Carr Gate. (The Charity is in the process of obtaining a second Helicopter to be stationed in South Yorkshire).
Up close the air ambulance is festooned with sponsor organisation logos, including a Square and Compasses of the Yorkshire Freemasons below the exhaust. It seems that the small boy on the step was in need of some genuine first aid as he was being bandaged as we walked past. The Charity needs all the money it can get- according to the Website it costs them £6,900 every day to keep the Helicopters flying and it is funded by mostly voluntary contributions, not the NHS.
The Police Helicopter took off and landed very neatly onto this trailer platform, presumably to be able to stow it in the nearby Hangar. My eye was caught by the searchlight assembly which is used to track suspects at night, it being remote controlled for pan and tilt.
A look at the rating plate showed it to be rated at 1600 Watts- being a discharge lamp this is about the equivalent of about 6,000 Watts of regular lighting, tightly focussed into a near-parallel beam.

The Force Helicopter is looked after by the Air Operations Unit and it is manned by 24 hour shift based a crew of three, the Pilot and two Police observers, one of whom sits in the front to communicate to the Pilot and the other in the back to work the cameras & equipment. They can record normal and infra-red (thermal) cameras with recording both on the aircraft and by a downlink to the ground when required.

Other unexpected items of equipment are a vehicle tracker monitor, a full length stretcher, a siren and PA speakers. It is used for searches, suspect pursuit and crowd control. It can fly for 90 minutes at a time and is only ten minutes away from everywhere in West Yorkshire. The Police seem a little coy about the specifications but it seems that it can fly at up to 175 MPH. The Police have taken the trouble to create a pair of quicktime views, here and here.

We hear the helicopters fairly regularly and even occasionally see them at night with searchlights on. Apparently the NOTAR design makes them much quieter than regular non-fixed wing aircraft, but it doesn't feel it at 2am! It was reassuring, however, to actually see them, know what they are used for and talk to the people that make it happen. These mechanical bumble-bees cost more than 3 Million Pounds to buy but the Police presumably make a good case to Local and National Government as to why their Forces need them. This Pilot's Forum makes interesting reading, ever wondered how Rotorheads land on a lighthouse?

Canine capers

(Some details from the open day info packs, and the website.)

The Police have used dogs since the 1890s and they remain crucial for certain types of police work. The West Yorkshire Police dog training team train both dogs and their handlers. The general purpose police dogs are trained to track search and detain, not always by biting. They behave in pasive crowds and will react to disorder. Firearms support dogs can carry remote cameras in the case of armed suspects. Drug search dogs do what it says on the tin, as do explosives search. It is stressed that the dogs are not used to eliminate suspect packages! The team also has a specialist body recovery dog, used to find bodies, but also victims in collapsed buildings.

The favoured general purpose dog is the German Shepherd (Alsation), whilst Spaniels are used for sniffer duty.

At Carr Gate, a sort of multi-disciplinary operational village, there are a number of inside and outside kennels, a couple of dozen at least. On our visit, a number of the younger dogs were roped off on the basis that they are not fully trained and will bite! They get between 8 and 14 weeks of training and once they are accredited they live at home with the handler and stay with them afterwards as pets once retired from active duty.

Surprisingly, the Police are always on the lookout for people to Foster puppies until they are 12 momths old, when they return to the Police for training.

Evening all...

On Sunday, we got a chance to visit the West Yorkshire Police Operations Support Division located at Carr Gate, near the M1 Junction 41 on the fringes of Wakefield. It wasn't open to the public but anyone with a tenuous connection to the police could go (Officers, support staff, friends, relatives, neighbours, but not criminals!) so that is probably a significant proportion of the County. It was very child friendly, the kids being able to sit in bikes or in cars and do what they all wanted to do- turn on the blues and twos.

This is the exciting bit of Policing- it encompasses a number of specialist areas such as dog handling, horses, divers, helicopters, weaponry and VIP escorts. Rather than write a long rambling post or over-precis these interesting topics, I'll come up with several posts over time. This made me chuckle though- WYP are an equal opportunities employer, even dogs can get promotion.


I learned several new words yesterday, including one nothing to do with Policing- Grasscrete. You can see it in this Video of the Force Band. This being Yorkshire, it wouldn't be the same without a Brass Band...

Dean does Morley!

Well, Dean Friedman played Morley Town hall on Friday, making a tiny bit of Morley history in the process. He surprised us by touring light, all he had was a guitar, a Ukelele and his merchandising. He used the venue Piano that was just about up to the job (although a bit jangly when played with gusto) and the PA sounded sweet, due to the diligence of Jack the sound man who spent ages equalising the room as well as he could, (mainly by counteracting the settings of the gear behind the locked panel!).
As I was working the lights and I only really had start/interval/finish/encore cues, I discreetly milled about the venue, snapping shots for posterity. In reviewing my snapshots, this one struck me as suitable for Liz's Photo Hunt "Tiny" theme, from the back of the circle with Camera in wide angle. He was a well behaved "turn" and made sure he stood in the light! When he was seated at the Piano, the open lid cast a bit of a shadow on his face but I was somewhat restricted for locations to hang the lights and it had been fine before we moved the Piano round at a more jaunty angle in the sound check.

Out in the entrance lobby, this events board showed the vast array of shows to be enjoyed during the month of July ;-> Sadly, the Alexandra Hall is somewhat underused in the showbiz stakes. It is highly regarded accoustically and lots of Brass Band Concerts are recorded there, for which purpose the Town Hall Clock is muted. The local Operatic Society produces an annual pantomime and they have also started doing their summer shows there. The Grey household is looking foreward to the Musical Extravaganza in September, the last one was excellent.



Backstage consists of two dressing rooms under the stage, one for Men, the other Ladies. The rooms are also available to the smaller Morleian Hall below. At the top of the sub-stage staircase is this cupboard which still contains all of these Gas valves. The building is Grade 1 listed so this sort of thing must not be removed without permission for historic value. Although the Town Hall had a dynamo back in 1895, it would appear that gas was still widely used as it was probably more reliable!
These are the light switches for the hall. No dimmers, apart from the two I brought for the two PAR cans. There are four spotlights front of house, but none of them worked. Five of the six stage circular floods worked but I consigned them to Workers as they do what they say on the tin- flood light all over the place.

This is a snippet of the sound check- at the Piano playing "Ariel"...

...at the Guitar Mic playing "Woman of mine"...

...and being put off somewhat by an enthusiastic and somewhat out of tune audience member joining in with the chorus while Dean was still singing the Verse!
This is a snap of the crew outside after the Gig, just after we had cleared the Hall. We thought Dean had gone but he took the trouble to seek us out. They are:- Shades (Stage Management, Lighting, Announcer & refreshments) Dean (The Turn), Stewie Mac (Box Office and Merchandising) Jack (Noise Boy extroadinaire), taking the picture was Caroline, Jack's Personal Assistant and Cable Coiler.

It was a remarkable evening and the only thing that would have made it better was more people. There were a hundred or so in the Stalls and it didn't look too bad. What it lacked in numbers was counteracted by enthusiasm and there was much between-song banter back and forth. Dean enjoyed it as well and was somewhat bemused to be invited up to the Mayor's Parlour and get the grand tour. Here he is with the Mayer, Deputy Mayor, Caroline and Jack in the Council Chamber.

He said he'd like to come back but he'd prefer to see it full. I now have two treasured possessions- a signed poster that he insisted on giving me (I had asked for one for Lincoln who had loaned me the Mics) and a very sincere thank-you Ansafone message when he thought that he had missed me.

Thanks Dean. Now where is this new Album that I paid you for in advance last year? Don't give me any more excuses about being busy with radio scotland!

He still has a number of dates during July and August- see Deanfriedman.com.

Sculpture

David brought home this curious sculpture last week. He made it with a couple of others a year or two back but it has been in the IT Suite ever since and the school always have a big clear out at the end of the year. He tells me he painted it himself.
I have vivid memories of making a Papier Maché sculpture for Art "O" Level. It consisted of a large cheese shaped centre piece with surrounding tower blocks, the central shape being topped by a light bulb lamp, 15W pygmy, I seem to recall, or maybe a candle lamp. It returned after marking looking like an earthquake had hit, several of the tower blocks had collapsed and the lamp was shattered. Needless to say, I didn't pass! (The only artistic creative talent I can muster is with a lighting rig). This sculpture reminds me somewhat of the very strange Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama, although David says it isn't him. Not enough face tendrils...

Interlude

I'll be a bit busy the next few days, so blogging will be light.

I did find a nice bit of dry ice though- Squeeze on Kenny Everett.


I couldn't find the original Potters Wheel on Youtube, but I did find this...

Sock Puppets & "Darleks"

I was going to blog more about energy saving light bulbs but I was listening to Dean Friedman's Real American Folk on t'internet and heard this lot guest doing a very funny version of Letter from America. This isn't it- but it does involve Dr. Who...

Gazpacho Soup

I bought some Gazpacho Soup today, the featured soup of the month from the Covent Garden Food Company. I noticed that the box said it was delicious hot or cold. That immediately made me think of Arnold Rimmer, the intensely annoying character played by Chris Barrie in Red Dwarf. He had something known as a Gazpacho Soup moment. It is recreated here in this fan Youtube...

I had my own Gazpacho Soup moment back in the Summer of 1980. I had been invited to a celebratory meal after supervising the installation of a 1500 line phone system for ESSO in Victoria. (It was the first SL-1 VLE for the PABX anorak).
After the dessert, the waiter brought round expensive cigars and I chose a suitable one, possibly a King Edward. I had trouble lighting it, however, and had to bite off the end to get any suction. After creating a small heap of straggly leaves on my saucer, the waiter turned up with an implement and said "Oh..."

Here is another Arnold Rimmer Video, the spoof dark ride including the Rimmer Munchkins.

Saving energy

I've noticed snippets suggesting that dimmable compact fluorescents are on their way. Early days yet, but a welcome development.

(Found floating around in the drafts folder...)

Straw and Steel

I've been in the garage testing the Dean Friedman lighting rig- two 1000 watt PAR cans. A PAR stands for Parabolic Aluminized Reflector, a sealed beam fixed angle lamp not dissimilar to a car headlight. The good thing about them is that they are extremely bright, the bad thing is that they are fixed angle. I have a two channel portable dimmer unit so there will be at least one lighting cue- from dim to bright as Dean walks onto the stage.
Being of theatrical persuasion, one will have light straw (warm) and the other steel tint (cool). I could have blagged much more lighting equipment but I'd have to get it all back again to wherever it had been scrounged from and the lamps cost £20 each! I'm more interested in it sounding good really. Switching off the house lights will take be back thirty years to my City Hall days as it is one way of getting the audience to start cheering. No smooth transitions in Morley- just switches. (The three electroliers, under balcony soul destroyers, balcony brackets, ceiling cornice). The City Hall had one main dimmer but the cornice and under-balcony lights were switched. There was a reason for this- it had been designed to suit the Northern Sinfonia and the switched lights stayed on so that the audience could read their programmes.

Addendum- I'm not using Roscolux, I'm using Lee. This swatch book was prettier though.

In the soup

Every picture tells a story. This is a Polaroid snapshot of the special effects crew underneath the stage risers at the back of the Albert Hall for some long forgotten show. Linc (with the specs) runs the business and the other two were crew (as well as myself). It was for an 1812 Overture performance and three of us were in the three sections of stage which opened out into the two Bull Runs, the sloping performance entrances at platform level.

We were armed with Dry ice machines, Gauntlets and wearing Headsets (with boom Mics) so that we could communicate. We were using Pea Soupers which are the industry standard dry ice fog machine.The Pea Souper is a large box which contains boiling water and a chip basket affair worked from a side handle. You plug it in (but not into the BBC sockets, there is such a thing at the Albert Hall) and load up the basket with dry ice chips. You fix the lid back down, then lower the handle on cue. This makes clouds of low hanging beautiful white fog which pours out of the front, along tubes (if fitted) to where you want it. For this show, we had two cues, requiring a re-stocking of dry ice after the first plunge. (there are two soothing pieces of music in the 1812 before the big fight starts). The first cue went fine and Linc commented that the stage coverage was beautifully smooth. We always have a bit of banter at these events and we had been named numbers 1, 2 and 3 (Stage Right, Centre and Stage Left as per his view to the sides up in the Balcony BBC box). I was number three and was pleased that my contribution wouldn't be referred to as number two! As soon as we were told to raise our handles at the end of the first cue, I unscrewed my lid and tipped my second pile of freezing cold chips in, getting a cloud of residual steam and fogging up my specs in the process. Undeterred, I got the lid screwed on (not without a little bit of effort, as the residual pressure was fighting against me) and was ready for the next cue. Linc called it, then questioned why number 2 hose wasn't giving out fog. "The f***ing lid's come off!" came the reply, and looking to my right, I was greeted by the astonishing sight of a wall of dry ice fog pouring out of the staging sides into the Voms (& downwards to backstage) whilst accompanied by a string of profanities over the headphones as number two struggled to find the lid and get it back on again.

We managed to regain our composure for the Finale' (& we were just passengers then, Linc was doing the bangs in time) and we were rewarded at the end by the Compere, Richard Baker, giving Linc's Company a plug. (I think Linc had nobbled him in the interval).

I took a look on YouTube to see if I could find some really good dry ice stage effects (think Swan Lake). I did find this though, which is ... erm... odd.

Funny Cartoon

I admire people with skills I would like to have but have no talent for. One of my lacks of talent is in drawing, particularly cartoons. My eye was caught by page 18 of this week's Spectator. It shows a horizontal roller coaster, blaming health & safety. Wondering who "Royston" was, I quickly found that Royston Robertson is a freelance cartoonist and the story of the coaster is on his blog, Back to the drawing board. It is very entertaining, one for the bookmarks!

Getting older

Balloons in the front garden are always a blatant clue that there is a party on.Posters in car windows clarify the birthday girl, with the semi-compulsory embarrasing childhood photo.

We are now starting to come to end end of the 40th parties and moving into the 50th season. Last night we tied up with Sandra in Cheshire who has her birthday in a couple of weeks but wanted the party yesterday for convenience. Being married to a gardener, she has a lovely back garden including a couple of Chimineas and this very pointy hanging basket.(Our hanging baskets contain fruit and bathroom toys!)
The birthday cake gives the game away- a Banshee member, a group of girls who are celebrants of the God Bacchus.
Sandra lamented that when she was a kid, as her birthday was always in the school holidays, she never got party bags. To put right that perceived injustice, she made sure we left with party bags, something David was delighted about.

A colour and a fruit

David's favourite colour is orange. He was delighted to find Coca Cola with Orange in ASDA thi smorning, he said it smelt like Fanta but tasted like Coca Cola- with Orange in. (Well that's what it said on the tin bottle).
He has previously assured us that he doesn't want a house, instead he will live in an orange car.
If he wants to decide his career based of a colour theme, he could do worse than this...
(When looking for a photo of an RAC van, I found this!)

Some miscellaneous images

It seems I have more than 26,000 images on my hard drive, although most of them are from Office and Paintshop. I did have a rummage though, and came up with these: 13 pictures for Friday 13th.

This Lady watches serenely at Blackpool Grand.

The Doncaster Gaumont bracket handle lighting Board backstage.

The renowned Bergen Warehouses.

BloggerWife Karen at Alnwick Garden.

Sumo wrestlers at Efteling.

Richmond Kinema panorama shot (Odeon Screen 1) Not my image.

Temporary toilets at Theatre Royal Newcastle

Lobby ceiling Detail TRN.

The Alnwick tree house.

Morris Dancers on St. Georges Day, Morley.

An Elgar Cartouche at Blackpool Tower.

Wet sponge treatment for Morley F.M.

Morley's Scatcherd Park looking striking in Spring.

Chocolate Moustache

Yum Yum! Afters!

Shades goes to Springfield

Hat tip- The Splund. Design your own character here.

The things children write...

Today David brought all his (school) work books home. It seems a little premature as there are still four days left at school, although Thursday is "toy day" but not of the electronic variety.

(I used to love taking stuff in on the last day of term, Ker-Plunk, Mouse Trap, Ouija Board...)

Flicking through the book you are reminded of the world through a child's eyes. I liked his rule of the house.

"Bedtime at 7:30pm on school nights
Don't get presents out of the cupboard at Christmas
Put on my school uniform tidily
Don't push my Dad on the big bed
Eat Celery
Do my homework on Saturdays
Be good in class
Go to MacDonalds twice a year"

He is also trying to trick me into revealing the rude (Rugby Song) words to the Yogi Bear song I didn't actually realise there was a clean version!

Data protection

There was a bit of fuss on the news yesterday, about how badly business take care of our personal data. By a stroke of irony, I was asked to fill in a business satisfaction survey online for one of the big four Mobile operators. When I clicked on the URL, I found the (none too favourable) comments of the previous respondent!

I'm happy to provide personal data at my own discretion- unless it is for something that will work out very dodgy indeed.

Taking my Mum down memory lane

I took my Mum up to Tyneside a couple of months back to give her a chance to see how places had changed (or stayed the same).

We started in the West End, where she had lived with Neil (and eventually me as well) after getting married in the mid 50s. The West Road is a secondary retail area and some of the shops were still going, ran by the youngsters of the original tradesmen. It wasn't a wealthy area and still isn't, but it felt vibrant and on the up, especially with the increased cultural mix. We got some Black Bullets in Walkers the Newsagent, reminisced about Spicker the Optician (still going as a Partnership, I probably still have the odd glasses case with M.C.M. Spicker FSMC FBOA (Dunelm) engraved on it). We looke din the window of Jimmy Quinn the butcher (I burned my finger on his motorbike manifold and broke my Avengers John Steed plastic sword (in an umberella) with his Dad's knife sharpening stick in an "ON GUARD!" moment). We went to look at our old flat (plural, upstairs and downstairs, now amalgamated into one) and she reminisced about her friend who had a flat over some of the shops, different smells in every room!

After driving down to look at my first school (much bigger than she remembered it) we checked out the council estate where we moved to and where she ran a Goldfinch Wines shop for a number of years. (It did a good trade in draught sherry, bring your own bottle!) We went up to the smaller Leech Estate where we subsequently moved to (& they both lived in for another 15 years) where she was pleased to see the garden looking fine.

We then went over to Gosforth, where she had been the Manager of Moods, a Fancy Goods store. This was her first disappointment, the High Street looking bleak, grubby and uncared for. The shop had to go to make way for the Regent Centre, which felt so empty and bereft of shops that it almost had Tumbleweed rolling through the malls.

We finished off the day down by the "NewcastleGateshead" Quayside, an area that has improved by leaps and bounds. Pat wasn't really up to climbing Dog Leap Stairs but enjoyed the Baltic and the Millennium Bridge. The Sage Coffee Bar was a bit overpriced though, so we went to Scotch Corner Services instead on the way back to Leeds.

(This way to the egress...)

Purgatory made tolerable

I like mellow, thoughtful music. Christopher Cross helped me get through 12 months of a dreadful job in the Gulf back in 1982. He released his debut Album in 1979 but it was the theme tune to Arthur that encouraged me to track his music down. I've just found his web site, it wasn't hard, I just needed to look. (He's even got a (rather dormant) Blog!)

I'm slightly stunned to find out that he has released seven Albums (and a compilation) without me noticing. I hope they are good because I feel some eBaying coming on. He'll be playing in the UK in October at The Sage, Gateshead. I think I'd rather like to be there.

Deano does Morley

Ten days to go before Deano plays the Alexandra Hall in Morley Town Hall. I'm his local man on the ground and we had been in regular contact until he left for Ireland. (He's playing Wexford tomorrow).

I suggested he play Morley originally for his Leeds venue (he has previously played the City Varieties) but I assumed that it would be a dry hire with him touring lighting and sound. He was hoping the venues were geared up for low key tours...

Fortunately, the Town Hall has recently invested in a new sound system but I have had to arrange to get it augmented beyond the minimalist provision of one mic stand and two lectern mics. Similarly, the lighting is somewhat inadequate being intended for Brass Bands (indeed most of the lamps had blown when I checked there recently). It helps when you have a friend who is one of the best Cover Band noise boys around and another with a hire company who likes Lucky Stars!

I also had to track down a suitable electric piano for him & suggest decent Digs but that is all organised now.

One problem I have had with Dean is communication- whenever I've asked him questions he has only answered one or two of them! I appreciate that he has a 25 date tour to worry about and he is a creative type but a couple of things have become a bit difficult and I've had to be evasive with the Press on fairly basic things like how much the tickets will be on the door (or indeed who will be organising it).

I've also come to realise some of the pitfalls of a Concert Hall over a regular Theatre apart from the obvious one of having a Platform rather than a Stage. The first one is ticket sales- no Box Office. Deano has been taking bookings online but a walk-up window for technophobes shifts tickets from casual and targeted trades. Box Offices also have Mailing Lists whereas independent Musicians from Peekskill New York only have a Fan base and funds for small Sunday Paper Ads.
The second one is a Theatre Bar. Somewhere to go to at the Interval, but the Town Hall does not have a license so it is necessary to apply for one. It doesn't even have regular Usherettes and Tea Ladies- most shows are staffed by volunteers from the various Clubs and Societies.

Anyway, it will be a great show and I hope there is a big enough crowd to make him comfortable. In the meantime, here are a couple of snapshots of the alexandra Hall with the glamour turned off.
The view from the Stage- looking surprisingly intimate for the 650 seat capacity.

The Platform, mostly bare. Notice the Piano just in shot to the left? I it is a large Grand and I looked to see the maker. I was very impressed to see it was a Steinway, then subsequently puzzled to notice it was (or had been) a Player Piano

A cake made of liquorice?

Pontefract is a large market town about 15 miles due east of Morley. This week they are celebrating the Liquorice festival with Licquorice day being on Sunday 15th.

There is loads on, plenty of eccentric stalls and there is even the chance to try unusual products like Licquorice beer.

The town is home to the celebrated Pontefract Cake originally made by Dunhills, the business now being owned by Haribo

This year, I'll watch where I'm going and try not to fall off the pavement into the road.

The King is dead... long live the King!

I'm ditching Delicolor in favour of Shades as my Blogger comment name. A certain Ian took the hump a bit when I had the nerve to use my name when joining Blogpower so I revived Delicolor so that we could be told apart.

However, I get a little fed up with people asking me why it is spelt incorrectly!

Shades is a rather cool nickname, a bit like Ace, Big Man, Duke and Ironballs... but not Bonehead.

(I've revealed before that I was known as Prof. at school which I never regarded as cool!)

Footnote: I'll be staying as Delicolor on Technorati though as otherwise it will muck up all the history and ratings. It is all very odd- my authority is creeping up (now 163) but my ranking is going down (now 30,192 but better than it was. It used to be 29k+ but got worse a couple of months ago).

Demotivational Posters

Via Onyx Stone, I found this great site with demotivational posters. My last workplace had some of the motivational ones that this series was inspired by and I came across a smaller set a few years ago.

My favourite three:





(OK, so I lied. Four...)

Thanks James...

I'm putting this up here because I can't get it up in my sidebar by deep linking.

(I was one of several million guest posters whilst he took a short break).

Mr. Higham seems to be renaming his blog every time the whimsy takes him. He has also renamed himself Lord Straf Dresden as well, that threw me the first time I saw a comment of his- I thought who the f*** is that, he seems to know me?

Songs of praise

I have alays enjoyed a good Hymn, belted out by an enthusiastic crowd. We sung them all the way through school and I preferred the traditional ones with a good tune to the more modern wishy-washy ones.

However, liking religious music is not enough to get me to church. All this malarkey about worshipping God strikes me as rather silly. Religion is entirely a man-made construct and I think it is a conceit of mankind to think that God is remotely interested in our trivial little lives let alone expect adoration. Religion encourages a value system, certainly, but I'm firmly of the view that an atheist can have an equally valid value system (and some religious people some rather duff ones).

What religion is good at is theatre, the performance of ritual in a way that is rewarding and satisfying for the participants and audience. I have no problem at all with people being religious, provided they don't try to impose their values on me.

Today we went to a family service, principally because David was going to be presented with a small prize for excellent attendance at their Sunday school (acually held on a Saturday). The theme was sheep and we learnt during the session that the Pastor's Wife's middle name was Agnes and her Maiden name was Hogg, both of which had derivations from Lamb and Sheep in other languages. She also did a magic trick with a picture of a sheep- a Brownie painted it black and the words "The Lord is my Shepherd " appeared. In the process of being painted, however, I misread it as "The Lard"!

What I do enjoy about church is the organ music which sounds so much nicer than recorded sound. This Church does not have a regular Organist but someone from over the Pennines was playing today.

We sang five Hymns, only one of which I knew- The Lord's my Shepherd (Psalm 23) set to the traditional tune. Looking through the Hymn book I was impressed to see that there were a total of 798 Hymns, carefully indexed by first line. However, I gather that it is an old edition, Complete Mission praise now having more than 1,000 entries. The Organist played several more recognisable tunes during the proceedings.

Liza M & Sammy D J

I mentioned them in an earlier post, here is a bit of YouTube footage.




Click through to YouTube for more background on these great Videos.

Robert Anson Heinlein

From the Adam Smith Institute Blog, I picked up that the Sci-Fi author Robert Heinlein would have been one hundred years old today (he died in the late 80s). This reminded me of a 2nd Life Conversation with Tom Paine when he asked me to recommend some books of RAH. (Heinlein sparked my interest in the Libertarian world view)

Here are my top five in no particular order, reviews borrowed from Amazon.

Stranger in a strange land

Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs. The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the sixties to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, and provocative, as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck

Time enough for love

Follows Woodrow Wilson Smith's odyssey through time as he manipulates situations to suit his purposes and extend his youth. (Gosh, short!)

Friday

In a Balkanized North America of the near future, threatened by imminent extinction, a strikingly beautiful and resourceful interplanetary secret agent--an Artificial Person named Friday--tries to survive a gigantic human comedy.

The Moon is a harsh Mistress

On Luna, an open penal colony, a rebellion is being plotted. The conspirators are a strange assortment - an engaging jack-of-all-trades, his luscious blonde girlfriend, and a lonely talking computer. Their aim is to overthrow the hated Authority, but things don't go according to plan.

The roads must roll

This is a short story found in many compilations. The hyperlink goes to the Wikipedia entry and this book contains it.

Note that Amazon often has many versions of similar books, this link searches on all RAH works they have or hope to get.

This promising new power technology sounds familiar- I hope it gets named the Shipstone.

(Hat tip:- L'Ombre de l'Olivier)

Access all areas- Princess Diana remembered

I'm sitting here vaguely watching the Live Earth Concerts. There is a certain sameness to them- probably because the UK venue is Wemberley, as used for the Concert for Diana last Saturday. I saw last week described as a bit of a Curate's egg, particularly by Havering On. I felt the TV production was a bit sloppy and the interspersed tributes to Diana eventually became tedious, somewhat like the non-funny bits on Comic Relief. (Thank you Sky Plus!)

We never got to see beyond Rod Stewart as the Skybox didn't record it properly (Curse you Sky Plus!) but the obsession by the Director of televising the reactions of the two Princes seemed over the top. There was a chuckle moment though, when an Artist asked for a big clap for them and when the camera cut to the royal box, one was clapping. The other one leant forward and obviously said from the lipreading "You're clapping yourself there."

One act I did get a little worried about was Roger Hodgson, who I am going to see on tour later in the year. He struggled with a couple of high notes, seemed a little out of it and from his comments it was almost as if he didn't seem to realise that Princess Diana died ten years ago. I'm sure he did, of course, and having to make small-talk to tens of thousands with more millions watching must be a challenge, especially as he isn't really a stadium act these days and it seems he may have been poorly. I was suddenly struck by the thought that he was performing a sort of high end greatest hits that happens in numerous small clubs and holiday camps by former big names still clubbing it (Think Mud, Darts, Barron Knights, Searchers et al...) I wonder if singer/songwriters get sick of their songs even though they are often their pension funds as well? (Slade and Roy Wood at Christmas).

Diana wasn't a Saint but she was massively admired and indeed loved with movie star status. I was in London the weekend after she died and I remember vividly being blown away by the mountain of flowers outside Kengsington Palace. I also remember being at Gatwick for a two minutes silence and the place totally stopping , falling eerily silent, even quieter than Memorial Sunday.

I once nearly got to meet her in a line-up, being part of the crew for a big show, Liza Minelli's tribute to Sammy Davis Junior. It was at the Albert Hall and whilst being in the line was off & on for days beforehand we were advised to wear Dinner Jackets just in case. I had to be the all time smartest Stage Electrician changing lamps in music stands!

I did go up to the gallery for a quick look at the Royal Box during the show. She had an elegant black dress and a very sparkly tiara. Whilst it is a vast place there was no mistaking her, she was graciously poised and watching the show with rapt attention.

It also took me back to 1969 when our class traipsed out to Ponteland Road to catch a glimpse of Princess Anne visiting Newcastle for some reason. They were somewhat late but the driver slowed down so that she could wave to us and whilst she isn't a beauty by any means she still gave the impression to 11 year olds of grace and poise, smiling happily from her official Roller with the big windows.

I've seen the Queen twice, once in Stavanger in 1981 (with Prince Philip and King Olaf of Norway), then again in 2005 at Ascot Races (at York that year) where she was very well received.

I'm not particularly a Royalist but I'm not a Republican either. I think the Queen fulfills her role well and I gather that she effectively brings in more revenue from tourism and such than we fork out with the Civil List. A few years ago, there was a web site justifying the Royal Family as better than a Republic but when I read it I was struck that with the arguments presented it only really applied with our current Queen and a successor could easily be so much less effective at it.

The Queen has her own website- www.royal.gov.uk.

Unusual dates

Ellee Seymour points out that today's date is 07/07/07, an interesting one for marriages.

That reminded me of the sixth of June 1966, when our primary teacher, Mr. Atkinson, pointed out that the date was 6/6/66. He said we would remember it the rest of our lives, and he was right! I don't remember that particular day being special, but I can recall us looking at a partial eclipse reflected in a bucket of water that school year.

Today is a slight fudge though, the 11th of November 2011 fits better without bodging the leading zeros.

Going for Gold

David enjoys swimming and has been having lessons for a number of years, working through his various Leeds Dolphin badges (from a Tiddler to a Barracuda). At Easter he got his ASA Challenge Bronze badge and last week he qualified for his Silver (after only one term, helped by his long arms and legs). He didn't get a certificate, however, as the instructor didn't have any of the yellow slips handy. Today he got a scribbled note on his class transfer slip but reception were out of stock (awaiting delivery). David was laid back about it but I did see a couple of disappointed small faces as children do enjoy a sense of achievement.

Having said that, children are also perceptive enough to know when certificates don't celebrate achievement at all, but are of the "all shall have prizes" variety. He received a "highly commended" certificate signed by the Lord Mayor for a poster entry he did for Leeds in Bloom but seemed surprisingly blase' about it. This was because he had worked out that everyone else he knew who had entered had been highly commended as well...

Sassa Frassin fricken fracken

I'm a bit of an airmiles tart. Whilst I'm not obsessive about it, I enjoy the occasional trips that the points can subsidise. (I say subsidise, because you still get stung for landing fees).

I've had a NatWest airmiles credit card for a couple of years but recently NatWest decided to part company with the Airmiles Company and start up their own scheme This happened pretty much automatically, but Lloyds TSB also wrote to me offering their new card, or more accurately- pair of cards. Their Duo scheme has both an Amex and a Mastercard associated with the account and the Amex racks up the airmiles much more quickly (twice as fas as the other card). There is a sting in the tail however, as after six months the Mastercard earnings fall to one fifth which is somewhat poor in the points earning stakes.

In the UK, Mastercard and Visa are widely accepted and I havent seen anywhere for decades that takes one and not the other. American Express is somewhat less common (but the major High Street chains accept it as well as most hotels) and Diners Club is something of a rare breed.

Now, my nice shiny Duo cards turned up when expected, but Karen's did not. At first, I thought it might be triggered by activation/first use of my card but it stubbornly refused to come. I eventually contacted customer services, or more accurately tried several times, getting fed up with long waits and repeated announcements valuing my patience at "this busy time". "This busy time" seemed to be any time of the day within their opening hours, however! I also rang other numbers regarding internet access and direct debit, encountering the same quality of service- frustratingly poor, with long holding times costing me money on 0870 numbers. (I never got answered more quickly than eight minutes).

When I did ebventually get through the call handlers were very good but they were convinced I hadn't requested a second card (not that they had the forms, of course) and so arranged for more forms to be sent. This resulted in three letters, two of which were for the same purpose but phrased in a different order. The Bank also wanted some address ID for Karen, giving a list of acceptable items that it was not possible for us to fully comply with. (The main utility bills are not in her name, for example).

We cobbled together what we thought would hopefully be acceptable to them but I took the trouble to also let them know that I wasn't very happy and stuck all the forms in the pre-paid envelope (& put the ones that needed stamps in the recycle bin).

If they still aren't happy then we won't bother and just stick with the Nat West cards. Having said that, they aren't that good either.

(The title is what Muttley the dog used to mutter when he wasn't happy)

Hug a Cinema

My ISP email is giving me big problems at the moment. However, via the web interface, I caught a glimpse of an event happening on Saturday week.

The BORG are organising a protest in Bradford where everyone that turns up will surround the building and give it a hug, showing the Bradford Development bods that it is a still much loved building despite them wilfully neglecting it.

I've blogged about the building before here which includes links to lots of internal photos.

It will take a huge number of people to surround the building (as it is huge)and it could potentially be a big flop, particularly if it is chucking it down. However, it could be a huge success if local feeling is really strong on this.

Now if the building was private property, I'd be of the view that it is entirely up to the owner to decide what to do it. However, it actually belongs to Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency (not with the intention of restoring it, of course!)
I'll post up the blurb when I manage to download the email.

UPDATE: now downloaded. I actually noticed these posters on the outside of the Odeon yesterday but couldn't see what they were.

Blackpool remembered

This fantastic 1924 silent film has great footage of the Virginia Reel, a ride I would have loved to have gone on if I'd had the chance. It is filmed by the celebrated William Freise-Greene.

(I went there in the early 70s with our Boy's club but have absolutely no recollections of the Reel. I do remember the Fun House, River Caves and my first travelator though.)

Hat tip Paul who provided two other links from the 50s, here and here.

Another school crisis

David is praying for rain tomorrow. That is because some thieves got in at the weekend and stripped most of the lead off the school roof. Being less than two decades old, it is a modern building with concrete tiles but the flashing has been somewhat problematic for many years now and major remedial action is imminent as piecemeal repairs no longer suffice.

As a consequence of the most recent "modifications", any downpour becomes an internal deluge and apparantly the Staff Ladies Toilet suffered a major ceiling collapse.

So, the school is at risk- any bad weather over the next few days may mean enforced closure. We have a letter from the head but it is a little short on the important stuff, like how long it would have to close.

However, the school suffered a creeping disaster last September, which I blogged about at the time. Bloggerwife was considerably more displeased than I was and asked me to raise it with the Governors.

I recently stood down as a Parent Governor as I was it finding it too tiring (indeed I have stood down from practically all of my activities) but in my most recent meeting I did question what would happen if the unthinkable happened (such as a major fire) and was assured that Education Leeds would step in and arrange for the continuing education of the children by bussing, re-allocation and use of spare premises. I suggested that it might be a good topic for discussion at the Morley Family of Schools as agreement in principle from others would lead to hopefully some creative solutions through a crisis. However, it seems I may have misunderstood the purpose of the Morley Family of Schools, it is actually more about inculcating socialism.

The photograph is a celebrated 20's movie star Gloria Swanson standing in the partially demolished lobby of the 1927 New York Roxy Theatre in 1960. For some reason, it popped into my head through free association of rain and collapsing roofs.

UPDATE: The senior management team have assured us that closing the school is an absolute last resort and would only be for a maximum of one day. That is a very positive reassurance and they are working hard to tackle the issues as they come up.

The saddest girl in the whole wide world

Ahh...

I can't hat tip where I saw it because it would compromise his/her anonymity or something wierd like that. (S/He'll know what I mean). Instead, I'll credit it to a hardly read anonyblogger who needs the traffic. ;-)

The post title relates to Poor pitiful Pearl

The truth behind BlogPowerGate

A certain Chip Dale has been putting it around that I gave him a piece of anatomy during the blogpower awards. (It is buried in his Free Bryan Appleyard (one with every Premier Second Life account) campaign).

It was patently obvious from his avatar that he had all the pose value of Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday (even with the aid of two golf balls). I asked him if he had considered getting himself some tackle but he said he had no money. (Obviously waiting for that book deal to come to fruition). So, feeling of a generous disposition, I had a rummage through my inventory, where I had a spare penis given to me by Bag Ranter. (It was a very typical penis, you could give it to as many people as you wanted but you still got to keep it afterwards! ;->)

I had been advised by Bag that it was better than his real one, as it had three settings. I can't say that I had actually played with it to explore the possibilities but as I gave it to Chipster, I suggested he save it until after the awards. Chip being Chip, however, he immediately activated it, although rather than attach it in the proper place he selected wear and Second Life decided to place it on his arm joint.

I wish I had given him a pair of buttocks, so that I could have made the witty observation that he didn't know his arse from his elbow.

The real shocker from the whole sorry affair, though, is that Chipster wasn't wearing a thong at all. He was wearing what looked suspiciously like M&S Knickers.


Just to put the post back on track, here is the pre-awards drinkers posing for a photo opportunity...

...and here is Bag's tactical nuclear deterrent.

Definitely NOT safe for work!

The EU has an area on TouTube called EUTube and has made a porn film! Is it art or is it filth? Ask your mum...


Well, that is certainly one way to get people to watch propaganda.

Hat tip: The Croydonian who critiques other output from the Ministy of Truth.

Hunk of the month

This is Andy, Mr. Batley Round Table July 2003 naked Calendar man. He had a carpet & bed shop in the area but now lives in Golden, Canada. Back then, he was the Area Councillor.

(To see back-issues of this meme, search on Calendar Boys)

Blogpower Awards!

After a couple of Second Life freezing hiccups, the awards ceremony passed quickly and with good humour, attended by many Blogpowerers and others.

When I went up to collect my award, I seriously overshot, managed to end up out on the balcony and bumped into everyone getting back. Then, to top it all, I accidentally pumped instead of bowed, due to nerves ;->. (we must ask Jeremy Jacobs how he deals with Podium Flatulance).

Here I am, posing for the camera in the airship bar afterwards.
Well done, James and Tom!

Beavis and Butthead gas attack

The Register has a very good analysis of this weekend's London unpleasantness, coming to the conclusion that the bombers were fuckwits.

(Well, obviously, they are fuckwits, but particularly ignorant ones).

Story here.

Hat tip- Chicken Yoghurt who helped me find it two days early. (I'm a weekday Register reader).

Beavis and Butthead do terrorism.

Today is the blogpower awards day!

If you want to be there, click the picture at the top of the sidebar. It is being held in Second Life at 2pm UK time and whatever happens we are making Blogger history.

Afterwards, we will be partying aboard the biggest airship in the (virtual) world. We have been practicing for it for a while now, you can catch a glimpse of our inter-continental shenanigans below.


PS I have no idea why it is playing at double time (at least). Jocko never even broke into a sweat...