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The view from our favourite restuarant in Kalami, Corfu. Eating at the edge of the beach is a delight. Actually, its location coupled with the delicious food and friendly service makes it one of our favourite restaurants anywhere.
200206xx
Pentax ME 35mm,
Kalami Beach Taverna,
Kalami,
Corfu, Greece,
Pictures ©Nic Hamilton.
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Can you tell what teen Kay got me for Xmas? Definitely one of my favourite pressies......
20071226 14:20
You'll remember the Bruce Ticket of questionable authenticity that I received for my birthday from Mrs.Planarchy, I'm sure (it was only a couple of posts down the page what with the sporadic posting we're having here these days). Well it got me in to see the man last night at the Do⊀me. Was he any good? No, to use the title of his recent album, he was Magic! That was the short review. The longer one follows:
I last saw Bruce live at Wembley in 1985. It was one of the best concerts of my life (bettered only by the Clash at the Lyceum on my 21st birthday I think). So it was with a mixture of antici---pation and nervous trepidation that I slowly trudged into the Dome last night. Could he be as good as I remembered? How well would the new material stand up against the old (and I ask that as someone who loves the latest album).
I needn't have worried. From the opening chords of "Radio Nowhere" it was obvious that this was going to be another very special live performance. He wasn't here to go through the motions. Neither was he here to throw in a few new songs but stick to the old material in the main. He was here to rock our socks off with a very well crafted show which included most (all?) of the current album as well as much of his back catalogue. "Radio Nowhere" lead straight into "No Surrender" and so for the first 15 minutes or so he barely drew a breath and certainly didn't stop between songs longer than it took to throw his telecaster to a roadie and retrieve a replacement. Then we got a short hello London break and it was off at a full throttle once more. The highlight track at this point being a wonderfully re-arranged version of "Reason To Believe". The pace then reduced gradually as we moved into some of the moodier pieces from the 911 inspired "The Rising". There was still very little between-songs chatter other than the occasional jibe at George Bush (loud cheers) "But what are we gonna do about it?" He asks,"We're gonna sing songs, that's what. We're musicians, that's what we do." So, wanting to get his politics clear but not taking himself too seriously, a good sign I think. The pace then gradually increased once again as the man seemingly had no thought of stopping rocking. And the rest of the E Street Band? Well, Little Steven looked more like mother Theresa than ever, the Big Man was bigger than ever and Nils Loffgren remains one of the few plank-w@nkers I actually enjoy listening to. The rhythm section and keyboards remained as stable as ever, indeed the whole group continue to convince as a tight outfit and not just as a bunch of gang members following the boss. Much praise also due to "Sister" Susie on the violin, a new recruit to the E Street cause (as far as I'm concerned), and doing some excellent work.
The main part of the show finished with a sterling version of "Badlands" but within only a couple of minutes the whole ensemble were back on stage for the encore. This started with "Girls in their Summer Clothes" and then straight into "Jungle Land" before the house lights came on to the riff for "Born to Run" which pumped along like never before and made me supremely embarrassed that I ever covered it in my 'umble band days. I was certain that must signal the end of the show, how else can you leave an audience than with your greatest not hit, one of rock's all time anthems? But no, not Bruce. With the lights still up they (ironically?) lead straight through into "Dancing in the Dark". From there the harmoniums came out for a rousing rendition of "American Land" and now surely the end. But then Santa hats are given to the band, apparently, from my vantage point, by members of the audience. Little Steven's is the most comical and Bruce's is the closest to cool you can get in a Santa style hat (a Red Cowboy hat rimmed with white fake fur) so maybe this is not just something to come about by chance. When Bruce hollers "Do you believe in Santa Clause" I am in doubt as to where we're going next. "Santa Claus is coming to Town" as only Bruce and the E Street Band can manage is duly delivered and we are finally satiated. A two and a half hour show without a dull second. Truly excellent from start to finish.
He's back in the summer apparently and I hope I'm there again.
Full set list here if you're interested (and even if you're not, it's still there).
20071220 17:23
..and how else could we follow a Bruce story than with one about cars. As readers of Ham's London Daily Photo will know, yesterday was the day of the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Rally for cars built before 1905. Ham asked if I'd like to accompany him down to Hyde Park Corner yesterday morning to see the start and, since I was going to get up at just after 5am anyway (well, who doesn't on a Sunday), I said yes I would. So off we cycled, and I'm very glad we did.
There was a lovely atmosphere to the event and it was wonderful to see these ancient vehicles setting off on their journey to the coast. There were, apparently, three electric vehicles amongst the throng (nothing new is there?) but I didn't manage to catch any of those. I did spot at least two steam powered ones, one driven by Royalty (Prince Michael with daughter Gabriella), one driven by dogs, some Hungarians, French, American (I think, it's not obvious is it?) and even GB drivers. Some were making an effort for authentic period costume whilst some seem to have come straight from the piste, but hats off to all. There were three-wheelers and at least one interloper and at least one for Chris Paltrow.
Alternatively for those with RSI or who just can't be bothered with all that clicking, there's a slideshow. Share and enjoy!
20071105 16:04
Amongst the presents I received from Mrs.Planarchy for my birthday t'other week was a ticket to see Bruce at his forthcoming show in London (the first time I've seen him live since 1985!). I'm not an expert on concert tickets but there seems to be something possibly dodgy about this one.....and anyway, is Bruce actually playing at the Jellyfish?
20071102 10:47
.....and about time too!
Today is my first day alone at home (which is also my office) for what seems like several years. Teen Dee finished her GCSEs in June (or was it February?) and only finally started college today. Kay was back at school last Thursday but Zee was on holiday until this morning.
One of the problems with working from home is that one's office is everyone else's home too and no-one else treats it like it's a work place when they're there. So, though it's lovely to be able have long luxurious breakfast/coffee/lunch/ afternoon tea breaks it does mean not a lot of work gets done. No excuses now.....thousands of photos to process/caption/keyword/market.
Quiet though.
20070910 17:35
Happy Anniversary to us!
Sixteen years ago on a somewhat similarly balmy hot day, Mrs.Maiden Name became Mrs.Planarchy. Who'd a thunk sixteen years later my hair would be such a different colour (I don't wear ties anymore either)? Happy days...still. May there be many more.
20070907 16:16
My main PC's system disk died this morning.
I've seen it coming, there have been a couple of times when the system has hung recently which had never ever happened previously on this two and a bit years old PC. Luckily I have clones of my system drive so I just slid one into one of the rather wonderful Icydock multi-hard drive bays, no need to even open the PC. I booted up and then copied over what little data is kept on the system drive from the previous night's back-up courtesy of Acronis True Image(which also did the disk cloning) and before you could say Jack Robinson a few times everything was back and running as though nothing had gone wrong at all.
I'm actually quite glad it's happened, I knew I had a system in place to handle such eventualities and had tried simulating a failure to check it worked but there's nothing like the real thing to confirm it really does get one out of a hole. Smug? Yes, maybe a little...but it does serve as a reminder to all of you out there in interwebland the importance of backing up and not just the obvious photo files....backup everything and then you will be safe!
PS: Two posts in a week!!! What on earth is going on? Fear not, normal sporadic posting service will almost certainly now be resumed.
20070824 13:40
So, off to the Dome to see the Rolling Stones (apparently one of their last ever live dates) last night courtesy of my brother, DeeJay.
I've always liked the Dome and am really glad to see back in use again even if it has been given a molecular name in the process. Apparently the venue can hold up to 23,000 but it seemed somewhat more intimate than that, even to us up on the eerily steep sides where slight vertigo sufferers such as my brother and I clung to our seats like de-winged gannets. Or something.
Anyway, that you can get so many folk into such a space and not have it feeling cavernous is a triumph I think. The Stones? Well, they were the Stones...a somewhat strange eclectic selection of songs I thought, not the most obvious but with a set that includes ""Sympathy For the Devil", "Tumblin' Dice", "Honky Tonk Women", "Paint it black", "Satisfaction", "Brown Sugar" and "Start me Up" to name just a few one can probably forgive the omission of "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown" and "Get of My Cloud" and the occasional bit of scrappiness. A very pleasant evening, thanks again to DeeJay.
The photo....well, just from the mobile phone....and though it appears to show UFOs firing lasers at Mick and Co and the band going up in one almighty fireball asa result, this isn't actually what happened. Far too many lights on that moving stage for my 'umble little PhoneCam to be able to cope (not able to go into manual to set the exposure you see).
Here, for even more fun is a short snatch of one of the songs.....your guess is as good as mine as to what it might have been before the Motorola got its recording algorithms to work on it.
20070822 13:29
We were in Leicester Square last night. Fear not, we weren't there to try and spot any of the Harry Tosspot crowd, though they were all out in force.
No, we were there to see "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten". An excellent film in my opinion, as a major Clash fan. Mrs.Planarchy who only knows the Clash from having to listen to them also thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's not a normal documentary by any means but somehow Julian Temple's bizarre mix of Joe's own dialogue with friends reminiscences around camp fires, shots from 1984, Animal Farm, If, Clash documentary footage and other sources just about stays the right side of completely weird and somehow makes for a very compelling telling of the tale. Does it need to be seen in the cinema? Possibly not, though the extra volume is all part of it...I'd have had to turn it down at home.
Also excellent was the meal we had before at Woodlands, an indian veggie restaurant, we had beforehand and the smoke free pub too.
20070704 19:42
Ever since I was a very small planarchist I have been around half deaf in my lefternmost ear. It's never been a major issue for me, it means I can sleep on my good ear whilst the shite ear misses things that would keep other folks awake. There is a slight problem in group conversations or where there is a lot of background noise as the nature of the deafness (not all frequencies are equally suppressed) means that in such situation the background noise quickly swallows up everything else. Since planarchists are anti-social type creatures (particularly since they gave up working with other people for five days a week) this is perhaps less of a problem than it might be for those suffering from the more gregarious aspects of the human condition.
But, over the last couple of years it has been getting worse and worse due, it has been confirmed, to massive wax build-up. My alternative versions of what is being said to me are no longer funny...it's time to do something about it!
For most this would then just be a simple case of getting the ear syringed. Sadly the last thing the E.N.T. consultant I saw in 1975 said to me was that I shouldn't get it syringed. The damage already done to my ear drum meant standard syringing could result in the wax being propelled through the ear drum, down the Eustachian tube and very possibly straight to my heart where it would block the aorta in a most inconvenient manor (or something like that, it was a long time ago). No, what I had to do was make an appointment to see an E.N.T. department who had a special machine that would zap the wax with megatroid radiation (or something). So I went to my GP and he arranged a referral. My only confusion is this little segment of the letter:
"...please bring a first early morning specimen of urine..."
"Perhaps," said Mrs.Planarchy, "they're going to use it to slosh out your ears."
Hmmmm.
20070618 17:27
...so finally to the third in our series (with thanks due once again to Ham)..
Welcome to the first released photo of my latest installation....."A Lawn of Two Halves". It is a major new work fully questioning the nature of turf in an East London garden. It's not laid on the walls of a gallery or on an internationally famous paved square but simply in a garden. Admit it, you're speechless, aren't you?
Alternatively, you might choose to believe that, a couple of months ago, Ham had some spare turf that he let us have to patch up the very ragged lawn at Planarchy Towers. Can you tell which is the new turf?
20070531 17:32
..and the second part of Turf Wars Trilogy comes from the National Theatre (with thanks to Ham for telling us about it). They've put turf on two of the walls, as you do (it's called FlyTower). And standing atop is one of Antony Gormley's life size casts of himself. There are 31 or them on roof tops and at street level around the area. I may get round to showing you some more photos of those some other time but if you can, I do recommend going to see them yourself, they're only there until August.
Here's another more photo of the grass, with a taxi. And the bloke who gets to water it. And with an earlier effort?
Tomorrow (or the day after)...possibly the pièce de résistance of the Trilogy.
But possibly just some more turf.
20070525 18:07
So, Trafalgar Square has gone all green....just for a couple of days. The skies were a bit grey when I visited this morning and had to fight my way through the local TV news crews.
It looked great, shame it's just for two days. Here's the view from the National Gallery.
20070524 17:40
I was most surprised to learn earlier this week that Masterfoods have decided to turn Mars Bars, Milky Way et all into meaty products no longer suitable for vegetarians. Not a great eater of any of these products anyway but it does seem a very strange move to be making in these days of more awareness about what is in our foods.
20070517 8:57
As a result of circumstances that I'm not going to go in to here, I found myself spending quite a lot of time in one of our local Police stations over the weekend. The Police folk I encountered there and closer to home earlier on were all wonderful and most helpful and clearly doing the best under very difficult circumstances. But, decay of society aside, they really don't stand a chance.
I don't know which department's office I was sitting in but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Crime Prevention Unit. Yet all the staplers and hole punches etcetera had "C.P.U." tippexed onto them.
If stationery equipment isn't safe inside a Police Station what hope is there for the rest of us?
20070417 20:35
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