At last

People getting out to show their disgust with the (unelected) government's policies of cutting everything of any value. At the very good natured demo organised by the TUC yesterday there were all sorts - some organised groups like the choir above, and others making their own, individual statements.

Pussy Riot found guilty

The pompous judge is still reading out a long diatribe against freedom of speech as I write this, so I don't know the sentence yet. I feel disgust and outrage at the guilty verdict and hope that the sentence will take into account the time already spent in custody so that these three women can walk free today. I feel that's a slim chance. Meanwhile I'm trying to think of any Russian goods I can boycott, but it's hard. I guess I definitely won't be driving a Lada any time soon.

This is the band that should close the olympics!

Thanks to microdot at the brain police. I agree with him that the three band members should be freed now. Then fly them in to play the closing ceremony. Who needs the Spice Girls?

In the UK you can use a text message to add your name to a 'Free Pussy Riot' petition. Details on the Amnesty International site. For other countries check your local Amnesty.

UPDATE
There are also a number of petitions to free the band members on change.org. This one seems to be the biggest with 97,930 signatures when I signed it.

Whipsnade zoo

and a chance to try out my new camera

Although I'm not yet fully familiar with it, I like some of the results, more of which can be found here. A lot the shots I took using the 'dumb photographer- intelligent camera' auto setting, but I also experimented with taking control of the shutter speed and aperture, and I look forward to becoming more familiar with the possibilities and using them in a more adventurous and creative way.

I almost forgot

I just saw a feature on water voles on tv and that's when I remembered . . .

. . . having a drink on a boat at Spica when I was in Ljubljana, and seeing a coypu. I took a few photos with my phone, and the bar tender obligingly threw some bread into the water to prolong the photo-op.

I'd forgotten all about the pictures when I downloaded those from my camera, but having been reminded, here are a couple.

Day One

of mindfulness meditation following this book.

It promises to help you "find peace in a frantic world", and I could do with some of that.
So, having read all the preliminary chapters, I'm going to start on the first exercise today and aim to keep going till I've done the full eight week programme. 

Better late than never

Although I'm posting this days after the event, I was recently in Ljubljana, and those who know the city might recognise the outside of Bikofe in the photo above. If you don't know it but are going to pay a visit sometime, I recommend this place for morning coffee or an evening beer.

Also present at the meeting, in addition to the photographer and the two above was a character who preferred to stay under the table.

Serpentine Desecration

This is a picture of the new view from the Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park.

I assume that this ugly monstrosity being built has something to do with the upcoming olympic games. I can't understand how they can square this with the idea of the park being a public space. (N.B. this is not in the Kensington Gardens section of the park which, being a Royal Park, we, the public, are given kind dispensation to use by the monarch.) My objections are: this totally spoils the view across the lake, and when the events that these stands are set up to view are taking place, the stands will not available to members of the public. I suspect they will be used to make money for the organisers or to bring glory to the hideous sponsors. 

If you need a doctor today

I suggest you take Little Feat's advice and go to the rock & roll doctor.

NHS doctors in the UK are taking industrial action today. I would like to make it clear to this unelected, coalition government that I support the doctors' case. Those ridiculous politicians should stop trying to privatise our health service and get their hands off one of the best assets this country has.

Back to Little Feat for a moment, "two degrees in be-bop and a PhD in swing . . .". Now there's a thought for my next direction in study.

Just over the road from Chiswick Park station

is Gunnersbury Triangle. You enter from a busy road and it's hard to see the potential at first, as you appear to be headed for a railway line. In fact, once you have turned the first corner, you come onto a path like the one in the photo above. This little piece of land between two railway routes is a nature reserve which provides a habitat for many species that are otherwise crowded out of our city.

As well as the shrub, flowers, and trees there are a few ponds and I saw plenty of tadpoles swimming in this one.

There's also a duck hiding under the tree there.

There's a plan to develop along one edge of the reserve, and many people think that this will spoil things. I'm less worried about building outside, as long as the current nature reserve survives as a place where anyone can wander in and experience this rare corner of wilderness. If you want to make up your own mind about the plans, follow the link for more information and a petition.

Dog Picnic

Our local park - it's a tiny patch of green really - hosted the Dog's Trust in an event for humans and their four-legged friends.

We don't know what to do . . .

. . . with our shoes - so we leave them lying around everywhere.
But Monika, who came to clean today, knows what to do.

She built this pyramid with them.

Street Theatre

I was taking advantage of a temporary lack of rain and walking home from Hammersmith when I came across a performance of Alice in Wonderland.

 There were some deck chairs, but they were all taken so I stood and watched till the end. It was such a joy to find something like this going on in austerity Britain.

Back to its roots

Just when it seemed I had forgotten, the topic of the street we live on returns (cue shark attack music from jaws). As the photo shows, they've decided to resurface it. Compared to some roads I have to drive on, ours didn't seem to be in too bad a state. But it's going to be a nice, new, shiny surface in a couple of days.
Going by my previous experience of these things, it will only take a couple a weeks until the gas, water, electricity or phone company realise they have to dig a big hole in it for one reason or another.

In memory of a wonderful man

I met Patrick Bashford (1929-2011) when I started to learn classical guitar at school. The love of the instrument that he expressed was an inspiration to me from the first lesson. As I became a more competent player, I realised that as much as he loved the guitar, his real devotion was to musical expression, and that he would never be satisfied by mere correct playing of the notes; he would encourage each student to discover an interpretation that balanced musical understanding and emotional content. He started me off as a teacher of classical guitar by suggesting  I take over some of his duties when the popularity of the instrument in the early 1970s led to a surge in demand for guitar lessons. I had always been aware that he had a great gift for teaching, but at this stage I was able to appreciate how creative his approach was. When we discussed a technical problem that a student was experiencing, he would delight in exploring that difficulty and coming up with a unique exercise that addressed it. Sometimes these exercise were of such worth that they were incorporated into the general programme for all students, while others were so specifically tuned to a particular problem that they would only get used to overcome that particular stumbling block.

I was privileged to be able to get to know Patrick well enough to count him as a friend as well as a teacher and colleague. He was warm and generous, had incredible charisma and masses of charm. He threw open the door to music for me, and, through his decency, kindness and humanity, also taught me a huge amount about life and how to live it.

Tribute to John Cage

After my last post I was going to keep the political theme going but then . . .

. . . while on the way to my morning coffee, I passed a gallery where the bright sunlight was producing an image of the other side the street on a glossy black chair. The chance combination of this natural phenomenon and the (unrelated) arrow on the wall struck me as more interesting than any of the works on display.

Democracy

I went to a meeting at the House of Commons yesterday. It was arranged by Unlock Democracy on the topic of reform of the House of Lords. The most impressive speaker was Paul Tyler who is in action in the photo below. He's in the House of Lords but is a democrat of such conviction that he sees that it needs to be reformed into an elected body.

While I also see the need for reform, and would love to see a totally elected body, I came away more convinced than ever that the party system is real problem with our democracy. Unless we fix that we'll have a second chamber of self-servers (sorry Lord Tyler - you are one of the few exceptions) and very little chance for independent voices to be heard.

I've heard it said

that Zastava didn't make the most solid cars in the world. The evidence above shows that one, at least, is still going strong after all these years. The 'A' registration prefix was issued in 1983.

Vertical Garden

I admired this on the corner of Edgware and Marylebone Roads

I fancied

a walk along the River Brent in Hanwell,while I was having my car MOTed.

But as I didn't have my swimming things with me I had to give this part of the towpath a miss.

John Cage Musicircus

was one of the most enjoyable music events I have ever attended. ENO put on this performance to celebrate what would have been John Cage's 100th birthday. The piece is essentially an installation of a number of performances that the public is able to walk around. Today's version involved a huge cast of musicians, actors, chess players and a mycologist, and used many of the spaces within the Coliseum (such as foyers, landings and bars) that are not usually associated with performances. As a result we got to experience these parts of the building in a new way.
Co-ordinating the various sections involved the performers looking at their watches a lot . . .

. . . but the timings had been, true to Cage's philosophy, determined by chance. The order in which the material was performed was also a matter of chance, so there was a lot of dice throwing, coin tossing and card selecting going on. As an audience we were also able to choose: which event to watch and how long to stay there before moving on to the next - although that didn't stop sound the sound from several performances blending to create strange aural worlds that encompassed more than the sight before our eyes.

There's no way that a couple of photos can give any idea of the scope of events so here's a link to some more, although altogether they are but a tiny flavour of the whole. No photos, video or recording could capture the variety on offer and one of the great and unique features of Cage's piece is that each visitor has their own individual experience which they are, to some extent, in control of.