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Is today just another mindless excuse to drink? Another day where drinking from mid-afternoon is acceptable (just like that other day).
In pre-Christian Ireland there was the Druidic “fire festival” called “Samhain“. In the year 835 Pope Gregory IV changed the date of All Saints’ Day from May 13 to November 1 so as it would coincide with the Pagan festival and so it would be overshadowed. Supposedly.
“On Halloween night in present-day Ireland, adults and children dress up as creatures from the underworld (e.g., ghosts, ghouls, zombies, witches and goblins), light bonfires, and enjoy spectacular fireworks displays, despite the fact that such displays are usually illegal.
It was believed necessary to dress as a spirit or otherworldly creature when venturing outdoors to blend in, and this is where dressing in such a manner for Halloween comes from. This gradually evolved into trick-or-treating because children would knock on their neighbours’ doors, in order to gather fruit, nuts, and sweets for the Halloween festival. “
The good old days? This is part of my confusion, since when did it become okay to dress up as stuff that just ain’t scary. Comic book characters are not scary! Sexy cop, sexy nurse, sexy pirate, cat (generally sexy), spiderman, princess, angel, fairly, bumble bee, cheerleader, clown (debatable?), doctor, penguin, playboy bunny, school girl, batman, wolverine, the list goes on… When did any of these examples of outfits become ’scary’? I have no problems at all with any of the ’sexy’ outfits. But this is not ‘Fancy Dress Day’, its Halloween. I’m not scared!
My Granny asked me recently if I would be calling round to her house on Halloween night: she had found a photograph of me ducking for apples in her house as my cousins and I would do every year when we were younger.
Those were the days… A bright colourful apron, a large basin in the kitchen filled with apples - DUNK! Ah yes to be six again…
As I got older my dad would paint my face before I went out trick-or-treating. White, with a few nasty cuts and scars. He even used home-made latex, which turned out to be quite painful to remove and my friend came out in allergies. Most years I have done something similar; an amateur goth impression if you will.
This year and last year I didn’t bother. I would like to do it well, and maybe I will next year, though with being on a tight budget at the minute and with work in the morning it seemed very appealing.
This evening I did, however, go to the biggest fireworks display in Belfast ever. I mean EVER! Wonder if it will be bigger next year… Great advertising it may be, with such a pretty word like ‘ever’, but surely everything just gets bigger each year anyway.
I followed the crowds towards the odyssey; family fun and entertainment for the kids. Street performers, the City of Belfast Youth Concert Band and fireworks from the top of Harland and Wolff cranes.
It first started about this time last year. Though it didn’t last too long thankfully, shortly into the new year the problem subsided, temporarily it would seem. But it has begun again. It has even led to one of my house-mates commenting that I “watch a lot of T.V”. I wasn’t sure how to respond. I still like to think that I don’t.
When I was a lot younger I watched a lot of tv. Even jotting in my little notebook each Saturday what I planned to watch in the week ahead. Eventually, the internet was free for as many minutes a month (dial-up), then broadband came along. Television was a thing of the past.
But then…
In the last few years good shows started being made, or I started discovering them: Family Guy, Green Wing, Black Books, Boomtown, The Shield, Will & Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond and The O.C.. But most importantly; Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy, and up until the last year, ER, but I don’t find it so appealing anymore - Since Dr. Carter left it just hasn’t been the same.
I still stand by the fact that I don’t watch T.V. as such. I watch only quality shows. No advertising, no shite. No reality shows, no soaps, no talk-shows, no game shows. Computer, DVDs, Joost. There is no need for a Television set. Really no need.
Right now, Grey’s Anatomy is taking over. It began around this time last year. By that time I had caught up with each episode to be aired to date. Once I got my new camera it stopped. No time for T.V. But in the last couple of weeks it has begun again? Have I more time? No. Maybe it’s because my job is pissing me off more and more each day I need time to really chill out.
Grey’s Anatomy is by far the greatest show on T.V. in a long long time, and still to be beaten - though Heroes is a close runner. It is filled with such emotion, great friendships, complications, drama, humour and the occasional bit of doctory stuff.
It can sometimes be too emotional. There has been a tear in my eye on far too many occasions. I sometimes yearn for such a life, even a little drama would make things interesting. But as a friend once said with the scenario of The O.C., [paraphrasing] ‘It may seem sunny, they are rarely happy’.
Now to watch the final episode of Season 3 of Grey’s Anatomy.
There are mixed reactions to the new arrival to Belfast City Hall. Firstly, many people don’t even realise it’s there.
I was told about it on Saturday afternoon, before the actual wheel was put in place. At first I was in shock, then I was scared that the look of the city hall would be ruined by such a monstrosity. It was also the idea that the council were so openly whoring out the city to tourism.
When I actually saw it, later that evening, still without the wheel, I got excited about getting to see the city from such a height. Then I saw the poster stuck to the city hall gates with the words ‘Opening Soon’ in large letters. Below this the web address of the company who won the tender to operate the wheel: www.worldtouristattractions.co.uk.
After much delay, the wheel, which cost £3.5m and rises 60m (196.85ft), is to open to the public at the end of October. There are 42 air-conditioned capsules, each carrying up to 8 people, and costs £6 for 3 rotations, which takes 13mins.
The official opening is set for 19th Nov, with the Christmas lights switch-on, the following day, and continental market, which I look forward to once more.
I’ve found that the only way to possibly get an early night on a Sunday is by not going to sleep on Saturday night. A little Tony Hawk’s Underground, some crap late night tv, then the whole of Weeds season one (great show!), some photo editing, an episode of Robot Chicken, and finally an episode of The Shield which I haven’t seen since I bought season one on dvd about three years ago. That just about took me through the night, with plenty of coffee of course - coffee makers rule!
The reason for this seemingly weekly lapse of insanity is quite logical really. On a Friday and Saturday night I rarely go to sleep at a time that would be deemed reasonable for most days of the week, this brings disastrous results. Namely, that I rarely get out of bed before 12 noon or 1pm on a Sunday afternoon. Most of the day is spent in a haze, overcoming tiredness and/or a hangover. Due to rising at such a late hour, I would rarely be tired at a reasonable sleeping hour on any Sunday night for the nightmare that is waking for work in Monday morning.
A solution I have found: Don’t go to sleep. Eliminate that stage of waking up so late in the day, spend much of the day tired enough that I will almost fall asleep on my feet by late evening that waking early won’t be such a problem. Its a perfect plan - even if it doesn’t always work…
The past week was a relatively quiet one. Much of Monday to Thursday was spent indoors allowing my ass to melt into the imitation leather sofa as much as possible. The week before, not too dissimilar, with one or two more events slotted in.
On Tuesday, I met with the guys at General Fiasco for what could almost be considered drunken behavior, though no alcohol was involved. It’s great to see a band so willing to look silly for photos. They are smart enough to realise that they photographs won’t look silly when it’s all done.
After playing the Wii for the first time we headed to Up In The Attic. Two Door Cinema Club really know what they’re doing, with some cracker tunes.
I had only heard Joe Echo two hours prior to him getting onto the stage, not realising then that this was Ciaran Gribbin, ex-Leya frontman, who have parted ways in the recent months. With a different name and quite different sound Joe has got me looking excited to see him play again and forthcoming releases.
Thursday 11th October was an exciting, stressful and tiring - but mostly a lot of fun. With two excellent gigs on the very same night how does one choose? So naturally I went to both. I saw seven bands/artists compared with four or three depending on whether one chose The Empire or Laverys.
In The Empire was Gifted with four of the best bands in N.I.
In Lavery’s, another Oxjam gig as part of a very busy month of gigs around Belfast raising money for Oxfam.
It was a full week before another gig popped into my schedule of putting that sofa to good use. Though only the best will do. Radar, at the Speakeasy in Queens Students Union.
Friday, another Oxjam gig, and the most successful so far, in McHugh’s.
Finally we come to yesterday. A lack of blank cds, lack of ink, lack of ink cartridges in cartridge shops. It didn’t start off too well. Later, another Oxjam gig, this time in the Oh Yeah Music Centre on Gordon Street. The major difference between this gig and just about every other live music event was that it was an all ages event. Yes, lots of hyper, rude, trendy kids. No 20-something wants to be in the same venue as this crowd, though it is a good thing that underage kids get opportunities to see live music and to have somewhere to hangout.
Before the final band of the night we went to The Duke of York, where we spotted The Fools busking
Fighting With Wire are full of raw energy, lots of loud, fast and heavy songs. Many comparisons can be made between them and Nirvana, though in a good way. Between jokes about shit, front-man Cahir tells the crowd that they are almost ready to release the release date for their forthcoming album.
Everything’s going pr-etty well for me. I received some great news at the weekend, which I won’t divulge at this time - but soon. I also found out that I haven’t been receiving mail sent to my “@philokanephotography.com” email addresses. If you sent me something recently and I have not replied, that is the reason.
I’m off to get more coffee :)
That is, according to a study by three doctors in KS Hegde Medical Academy in Mangalore, India. The study asks: “Are lung cancers triggered by stopping smoking?”
So basically they took 312 lung cancer patients they treated during a four-year period of which 182 recently quit. They had all been smoking for more than 25 years. Theres more to it I’m sure, but the bottom line is 58% of patients had quit yet they still got lung cancer.
“A biological mechanism that protects smokers against cancer, that gets exercised and strengthened by years of diligent, heavy smoking. As in habitual marathon running, the body becomes accustomed to suffering grievous damage, and develops habitual ways to fix up whatever breaks down. The smoker’s body becomes a sort of lean, puffing, self-damaging-yet-self-repairing machine.”
Having said that - I am doing the smart thing, and once again attempting to quit the nasty and expensive habit.
Could it be what the Boathouse lyrics are all about in the song ‘Johnny and Ruth Story’: “She knows he’ll never quit”?
Lots of people seem to think these ideas work. Whether they do or not I suppose it isn’t a bad idea to have that huge sense of community; thousands of people thinking about and writing about the same thing.
Today, October 15th, is Blog Action Day. Today we will all write thousands of blogs have been chosen to write about the environment, so that many more will be able to read about the environment, in turn creating awareness in a variety of ways, about the environment. I think it’s dying or something.
I have decided that we should all switch of lights ‘cos I heard that helps the environment.
And so I did. I switched off my light. You should try it.
Do it lots of times.
It’s fun.
Tomorrow, do not think about the environment. I wonder what we will be thinking about this time next year?
So where did I leave off. Ah yes, day two in Boston, Massachusetts. Its hot, the sky is blue, decent people, a personal feel, easy to get around, lots of culture and a heck of a lot of history.
On this particular morning, I stopped at a little coffee shop for some coffee and a mousse - the most awesome moose ever! Then we headed to Harvard Square once more. On the ground I found a brilliant piece of art work that really touched me. Unfortunately I didn’t see the artist about.
From here we headed to Au Bon Pain, unknown to me at the time, but this was the site of one of the scenes of Good Will Hunting - but more on that a little later. As we sat eating out sandwiches, or sipping on sumptuous (yes I just used that word) soup, we were entertained by a busker who enjoyed singing off spontaneous songs about articles from free newspapers picked fresh from the various newspaper vending machines behind him. Some songs were terrible - though he knew it, more often they were so stupid that they were funny.
Just outside the seating area for Au Bon Pain are permanent chess tables and sitting either playing, or reading a newspaper, is the ‘Chessmaster.’ Murray Turnbull in a in the top 1% of chess players, as he says in his own words. A master indeed, he has been sitting here making his living since 1982 playing chess and offering lessons between seven days a week between May and October. Hear him tell his tale on YouTube.
After lunch I was excited to look around Harvard University. Walking through the yard we saw a large crowd sitting on the steps to the Memorial Church. It one of the student-led tours. We joined on. The next stop on the tour was the The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. This is the main library of the university and was founded with the $3.5m given by Harry Elkins Widener’s mother to commemorate the life of the Harvard graduate and book collector who died in the Titanic disaster.
The next and final, and probably most interesting, stop on the tour was the Statue of John Harvard, or the Statue of Three Lies, as it is commonly known.
The inscription on the side of the statue reads “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.”
When the statue was created, by Daniel Chester French there were no known images of John Harvard, so a student named Sherman Hoar was chosen randomly by French and dressed in the style of the seventeenth century so he could model for the statue.
The university was founded in 1636, and not by John Harvard was only contributed to it; donated half of his estate and of his library of around 400 volumes.
For some odd (or maybe its more odd that so many people do exactly what their tour guide tells them) reason visitors and tourists rub the shoe of the statue for good luck. Although it seems that, almost as a rite of passage, it is tradition to urinate on the foot before graduating, leading to speculation as to the yellowy discolouration. Often in a drunken state in the early hours of the morning. It seems, if blog comments and message forums are to be believed, that there are students out there who actually have done this, or claim to. Besides finding it totally nasty, I can’t help but be impressed that they can reach.
The statue is more subject to various hacks (The word ‘hack’ at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and “ethical” prank or practical joke), including the recent Halo transformation to celebrate the release of the latest game.
It was only after asking our excellent tour guide about my favourite film Good Will Hunting, did I find out that no parts of the movie were filmed on campus. In fact, much of it was filmed in Toronto, Canada! According to our tour guide, no films are allowed to be filmed on campus, after the last production decided that the actual Harvard students didn’t look enough like real Harvard students, and so they were replaced with extras. Naturally, the university was not happy and filming has been banned.
The McLaurin Building, where Will (Matt Damon) works as a janitor is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Also used in the movie is the Bow and Arrow Pub off Massachusetts Avenue, now gone, and Woody’s L Street Tavern, 658 E 8th St, which is still thriving and bringing further customers thanks to a sign stating its part in the film.
On our return to the great underground (harvard subway) we yet another busker. This time it was a cello. Only it was different. Not your typical classical pieces. This guy was playing Black Sabbath, and it sounded good.
This time we made our re-entry in Copley Square, in Back Bay, one of Bostons most upscale and desirable neighbourhoods. Here, we inadvertently found many more ‘attractions’ that I had originally noted. First, was the quite spectacular John Hancock Tower, or Hancock Place as it is officially named. Completed in 1976 it is the tallest building in Boston, the tallest building in New England, the 45th tallest building in the United States, and the 135th tallest building in the world.
Next was the The Boston Public Library; the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The library was officially established in Boston by a city ordinance in 1852. The building, however, was designed in 1888 and opened to the public in 1895.
Facing the Library is Trinity Church, making up part of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
From here we walked to The Public Garden, another location from Good Will Hunting. Although we didn’t see swans, as are spotted in the movie, we saw squirrels. Amazing, tame, squirrels. In fact, it was something I noticed all around Boston, that squirrels can be seen everywhere, even crossing the road. And so, here are the photographs. Wild, Wild SEX!
The horny critters were lovin’ it!
And so that will be all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this odd mix of history, geography, arts, culture and biology. There will of course be more at the weekend.
Sorry if you’re just here for the wild sex, as promised yesterday. Just one more day to wait.
I am in no way sick of my photos of the US and trying to relive in my mind the experiences and get them down on paper (virtual paper). Though it has meant that I have slightly neglected other photographs and projects I have been working on since my return. This entry will be as a brief overview of what i’ve been up to the last 3 or so weeks since my return.
The first few days were spent at my parent’s house as I tried to overcome the jet lag and get at least one decent nights sleep. Then I lost my sought-after BT9 postcode as I to my wonderful new house with my wonderful house-mates, who had been residing here for 3 weeks before my arrival and made things look pretty
It wasn’t long before I was back in a bar among live music. I discovered that while I was away BruisedFruit had been at it again. They have started a new weekly live music night called Free The Noise in the Rotterdam Bar - and its free (see what they did there!).
The following day I moved house. Its great!
It wasn’t until six days later that I went to another gig. Instead, taking a little time to be with nature…
The next gig, however, was to be something quite exciting. Three highly recommended bands in one night. How I cope I will never know. General Fiasco, Cutaways and Skruff.
Then just two days later I was blown away again by one of the best bands in Northern Ireland right now; Swanee River. Though even before that was Soundstone, with their very sexy, very topless lead singer, and good music.
Then September was over, though not before a family party with free drink - of course. On the first day of the new month I was back at the Rotterdam, this time for something a little different. Kitty and the Can Openers played a split set, between them was a comedy act called Creem Nuts - Dave, Johnny and Ray, or The Trio as we used to call them - and Geoff Gatt, then more Kitty and the Can Openers.
Two days later I was back at the Rotterdam, after getting some snaps of Gabriel who has started an African Music School in the Oh Yeah centre in Gordon Street.
The lineup for this week’s Free the Noise was excellent. Three acoustic singers. Three very different voices. Dee McKendry, Donal Scullion and dAVID dRYDEN.
Thursday 4th October was the unofficial launch night of Oxjam, a month of 15 gigs, 40+ bands and much money to be raised for Oxfam Ireland.
I personally hope to get to as many of the gigs as possible as there are just so many great bands playing. I also want to see the film Black Gold, although I was told recently that although it does a good job of putting across what goes on in the coffee trade and the “unbalanced struggling between poor coffee farmers in Ethiopia and greedy multinational coffee companies to do “fair trade,” it’s a crap film. Though I guess thats not really what its about - rather, about the message it gives to viewers. It is being shown in Common Grounds Café on 12th October.
On the unofficial launch, there were three acoustic acts, Dee McKendry, Amy McGarrigle and Mary’s Great Idea - complete with new member, Curly Chris on bass.
Finally Friday, time to chill out. After work I took the camera around the city centre while there was still light and that awesome sky.
Of course it just wouldn’t be right if my safety was not threatened by spides even just once. As I was taking the shot of the Millfield campus of the Belfast Metropolitan College, below, I heard, before I saw, a can of pepsi (I hate pepsi!) which I had seen this youth drinking just seconds before it had been hurled across the rush-hour traffic to the traffic island I was standing on. Thankfully it missed me, and the camera.
That brings us to Saturday 6th October. The last ever Iconoclastic gig. There was a tear in my eye. However, Paul knows how to go out in style and did just that at the end iof the set; smashing a pretty green guitar.
Then there was dancing. Too much dancing. I even had to offer money to stop girls dancing around me!
Finally, yesterday. Woody Guthrie 40th Anniversary tribute day in The Empire. Beginning at 3pm, through to 9pm there was great folk/country music, including covers of Woody songs. Artists performing included Bap Kennedy, Juliet Turner, Arty McGlynn & Nollaig Casey, Brian Houston, Broken String Bluegrass Band, The Delawares, Chad Dughi (USA), and Maeve Dunphy. All proceeds of the day were collected for Huntington’s Disease Association (NI). A long, though thoroughly successful day. Big up to Errol Walsh for organising it all.
Its been a hectic few weeks, but I just can’t get enough of it. There is just one thing I would like to ask of you. I need to get my website (www.philokanephotography.com) up and running, and I’m not happy with how it looks at the minute. Unfortunately I cannot design websites and so I need the help of someone who can. I will be willing to offer a monetary reward for the best designed website, if necessary!
Thanks for reading :)
Before heading to Boston we spent the day doing a little more of the usual. Ronan went to church, while I had a pint of Harp (bad idea).
After the very nasty pint I sat on the church steps and watched people for a while. I could do this for hours, especially in this jungle of a city.
Shortly after a few more slices of pizza we headed to the New York City Library where I registered for Internet Access - I even got my photo taken. A queue system is run for access to the global datasphere, we didn’t have time to wait.
Back to the hostel, collect our belongings, then to Port Authority bus terminal. We arrived 10 minutes early for our 7pm bus to Boston, but there was no bus. It had left without us as it was full. In line we stood and sat for 2 hrs until the next bus which would bring us to South Station at 1:30am.
It often helps to know what there is to do and see in a city before arriving. Knowing how to get from the beautiful suburb of Allston to any central attractions is also a bonus. The Farrington Inn was only a short walk, or bus ride from Harvard Square.
Each morning we had breakfast in a small coffee shop/café on Harvard Ave and Brighton Ave. Breakfast = Pancakes! Yummy! Especially with banana, accompanied by some amazing banana milkshake. I looked forward to going there every morning.
After breakfast we headed to the Internet café. I made a list.
Trinity Church
Faneuil Hall Market Place
Boston Common
North End (Italian Area)
Fenway Park
Old State House
Newbury Street (shopping)
Cheers - 84 Beacon Hill
We saw everything, often accidentally, except the Cheers bar (the original bar used as inspiration for the T.V. show). But lets start at the beginning. On the first morning we walked to Harvard Square, passing many Harvard buildings, including the football field, where the team appeared to be practicing. That morning, it was exceptionally hot. Not a cloud in the sky, just the sun.
Harvard Square is a wonderful place bustling with activity, on their way to the train and bus station, to college, shopping, or just chilling out at the Au Bon Pain.
We took the subway to North Station where we met some friends.
From there we headed to Quincy Market for desert after dinner in the Purple Shamrock, complete with purple neon shamrock! It was outside this bar I met a ‘war veteran’ asking for money: “You don’t get any more Irish than me,” he said in his Boston accent.
Later we had a drink in Boston Beer Works. This bar/restaurant is full of huge containers and pipes, making it seem like they are producing the beer right there. I find it hard to believe that would be possible. With so much beer on the menu, they were out of the one I picked, ‘Boston Common’. Though how does anyone choose beer from a carefully worded description. I judge a beer by how much it tastes like those I know, Harp, Bud, Stella, Carlsberg, probably not the best beers in the world, but its all I got to go on and I sure don’t know the ingredients. So if i walk into a bar with specialty/home brewed beers I want to be presented with tasters of at least five different beers. Only then will I choose the one I want.
Tomorrow: Wild Sex!