ghost town

whilst the politicians and big corporations are living it up, at a certain London sports event, this is what the reality of life and sporting facilities are like for real people. empty shops on the high street, sports areas fenced off from the public, run-down public facilities that date back to another century. no £1 million pound double-decker buses on our high-streets, or common people being given huge sponsorship deals.... music is by the excellent soap operatic society the voice is Helen Highwater of The Ritas the lyrics are by me, written over a day on twitter, when i was feeling particularly annoyed with the corporate schmooze-fest. the original footage and images, were taken during a very wet and bleak friday, and partly inspired by The Clash film Hell W10. anyhoo, here's the lyrics, as originally written:

I'm claiming ownership of #lumberin2012borelimpics #lumberin2012borelimpics will be the penultimate festival of TheNewBoring, featuring a 200ft statue of Adele, 1000 LiamGallaghers... ...There will be a TributeToXfactor tribute act, 30 sensitive singer songwriters will impale themselves on flaming accoustic guitars... 25,000 footballers wives and reality TV stars will lead a procession, headed by FernCotton dressed as TheQueen and Nickleback will perform.. there will be a marathon 48 hour edition of "8 out of 10 cats" where #seanlocke will insult a guest, with the same put-down, over and over. Meanwhile, I'll be out of the country, somewhere interesting. Enjoy. #lumberin2012borelimpics #lumberin2012borelimpics Banksy to unveil new mural of an albino hamster, in a baseball cap, smuggly listening to a DJShadow compilation cd. #lumberin2012borelimpics the EDL/UKIP to host ThePalaceOfTheEmpire and bang on about invading foriegners, whilst dressed as Crusaders... #lumberin2012borelimpics there will be no hoodies, no smoking, no drinking, no dogs, no Irish, no free-speech, but there will be a McDonalds #lumberin2012borelimpics in the skies, chrismoyles and 100 lesser #radio1 DJs will do a fly-past, bouyed-up on their own hot-air... #lumberin2012borelimpics on day 2: 100 boybands will reform as tribute acts, and then release cover versions of classic boyband songs. #lumberin2012borelimpics a large inflatable DavidCameron head will float across the London skies, spitting soggy "BorisBalls" at the locals. #lumberin2012borelimpics everyone gets complementary cans of Carling, UnionJack hats and a cd-copy of "Simon Cowell Sings The Hits of Oasis' #lumberin2012borelimpics Argyle & Bute do the catering but no one's allowed to photograph anything. #lumberin2012borelimpics Starbucks and Carling to serve-up a special boring drink - "The Lageraccino" that gets you both drunk AND sober. #lumberin2012borelimpics for 2 weeks only, every day will be a Tuesday. #lumberin2012borelimpics all the different Bristish street tribes will get together and tell each other they aren't "authentic" #lumberin2012borelimpics James Blunt+Elbow to team-up and write a song lasting 36 hours, about a woman who's really sad about something. To celebrate the #lumberin2012borelimpics Adele will release her own brand of socks, to be sold in the Co-op. To celebrate #lumberin2012borelimpics Ford will release a new model, called "The Car", which will basically be a car. During the. #lumberin2012borelimpics every episode of Eastenders, will be filmed on the moon. For security reasons, during #lumberin2012borelimpics Police will be allowed to arrest groups of people, found to be congregating on buses. The #lumberin2012borelimpics Official Programme, will have no words, just pictures of BorisJohnson reading emails at his desk. The fortnight long #lumberin2012borelimpics will last for 365 days, weather permitting. During the fortnight of #lumberin2012borelimpics all PCs bought will have Windows 87 installed, whether you want it, or not. During the #lumberin2012borelimpics Ed Sheeran will think really hard about a song, but not actually write it, and have a cup of tea instead At #lumberin2012borelimpics Coldplay will change their postcodes Live-Onstage in front of 1000s of adoring fans. During #lumberin2012borelimpics Noel Gallagher will be offsetting his carbon footprint, by smacking himself everytime he has a song idea. In celebration of #lumberin2012borelimpics DaveCameron will claim he's going to pose nude for Playboy, but deputises the job to NickClegg The #lumberin2012borelimpics weather will be: sunny spells, temp of 28 degrees, untill 11:00am, followed by heavy rain for rest of the day During #lumberin2012borelimpics LillyAllen will reform ...twice. In celebration of #lumberin2012borelimpics MickHucknall will star in a reality TV show, but not actually appear on it, as he's on tour. On TV during #lumberin2012borelimpics TimeTeam will bury the body of a 2000 year old archaeologist, in Nuneaton. #lumberin2012borelimpics DizzeeRascal and RossKemp to star in a soap-opera about "grime". #lumberin2012borelimpics Lloyd Grossman to host a show about non-famous people called "Bryan Ferry". Depeche Mode to reform with an all-new line-up, and to re-write a cod-reggae version of WalkingOnSunshine for #lumberin2012borelimpics This must be waht life is like in SponsoredTweetLand everyday #lumberin2012borelimpics #lumberin2012borelimpics wayne rooney, wayne rooney,wayne rooney, wayne rooney, wayne rooney, wayne rooney, wayne rooney, wayne rooney.

the town where time stood still

aston fire station - such a great example of art deco in birmingham(built in 1934), some good photos from 2008 of the interior, taken by one of those handy urban explorer types here. me, i could have gotten into the building, as i waved to the "security guard", who obligingly let me in, but i figured if a senior found me on the premises, he'd get in trouble, so i at least introduced myself, and got no further. still managed to grab this usefull shot of the courtyard, with that amazing tower...

neatly avoiding an early morning still-drunk student, i wandered around the aston campus(where i used to work, in the art-house cinema, that final vestige of the arts lab press) and found some dynamic art-deco imagery of the main building.

lonesome rhythm blues

headed out early on bank sunday, to get some street photography in... although i could've done with the sleep!
on the way to my destination(more to come from that session), i thought i'd grab an impromptu shot of a pizza-emporium in the street... more so because the light was pretty good at the time, but the shop itself is fairly striking in that it's an oldschool fast food joint, selling chips and such with some neon and 195o's decor.
there is a good bit of perspective, that i managed to pull from the corner view too...


and this old lad was waiting around at the bus-stop in carrs lane(that's the arse of the bullring just out of shot, round the corner), and again, the light was favourable for some shadow-play, so i grabbed the image before it was lost forever!
more in the next post, as to where i was heading... a less than salubrious suburb, which had a location for the next printed collection(details to come...).

i walk the line

the first birmingham photowalk was probably a resounding success, then...
i spent saturday morning in a mood of trepidation, sure... nearly 30 people had signed-up but a few had already dropped out, citing other appointments that would drag them away... which in itself is fair enough, as that's what happens.
so i dawdled around in a record shop beforehand(although to be honest, it felt more like a funeral home... neil young has that effect on me, i suppose), before heading up to the arranged meeting point.
what brought me here to begin with... well somewhere, back in the distant past i remember reading about scott kelby's great worldwide photowalk, where photographers all over the world would just get out and walk a pre-arranged route together(like a parallel flickr meet), so i mentioned it on birmingham flickrmeet and someone suggested i set it all up and get it up and running(think globally - act locally).
so weeks later, i've got maps, and contacts and i'm stood around the iron man on new street, waiting for no one to attend or to be arrested for organising an illegal gathering...
thankfully - one by one, people emerge out of the crowd and identify themselves as being here for the walk... it's slightly intimidating to see just HOW MANY have turned-up from quite far away - i can't take any credit for this though, as the walk was seeded through various forums related to digital photography and photoshop(both of which i use all the time, but never go on forums about).
there's some older people with cameras(i talk to one old boy who spoke about shooting photographs in the city back in the 60's... which was very interesting to hear about), as well as a few people who'd brought their sons along to take photos (excellent idea!).

regulars from the flickrmeets arrive to bolster numbers, and i hand out maps, before heading off.

being a flickrmeet veteran i guess just how long it will take us to walk the relatively short distance along colmore row, knowing how distractions will appear(i swear i didn't organise the group on stilts!), then a slight pause at snowhill to take in the new buildings and after a quick regroup at masshouse(where i crack a joke about an approaching policewoman, glancing at us and the skateboarders and not knowing which social menace to arrest first...), it's down bull street(which is very busy) and through a tight little alley into a small urban park that leads onto moor street (i'd arranged this, as a contrast to dale end).
we hung around on moor street, regrouped and cross moor street to catch the interesting building on fazeley street.

i shoot a few frames off, and sneak away to the nearby park/graveyard to catch an image of the bullring, but i notice there are some lushes in the bushes, so i make a hasty exit back onto the route.
park street was a little uninspiring i have to admit, too much traffic and narrow paths to really get anything(although i did get the porno cinema with a billboard advertising a family day out), and then through the underpass onto digbeth...

i shoot a few images of the bullring building (i was only being polite here... i deleted them afterwards...that's for being so precious about your ugly building...), and then a quick stop-off near the markets(where one photographer gets shoo-ed awayby a stall holder), and we congregate by the tiny lifts to ascend to the top floor(some hardy people used the stairs, but i'd done that at the previous flickrmeet, and ended-up ascending 180 steep little bastards!!!).

major revelation once we reach the roof, it's wide open and a relief from the throng down below (possibly my favourite moment!), and people gladly get in loads of images of the 360 degree views that we get...
a couple of bored security guards pass thru but spy the camera gear and leave us alone.
nice way to end the route, and i've got about 4 shots left on my memory card.

i wore my sunglasses at night

not easy getting-up for 2:30 on a saturday after a whole day at work, but somehow i do, and find myself in an early morning cold taxi(a reference to the who there!), and i amuse myself by spinning a yarn to the taxi driver, that i'm on the way to london for an important meeting and i absolutely have to be there for 9 0'clock...
oddly i'm leaving the house, just as my party-loving neighbour gets home and cranks up the stereo!
getting out at new street, and walking across the concourse - my heart is pumping, it's 3:15 on a saturday morning and i'm wandering about with camera gear surrounded by early morning revellers, so i'm going to stick out like a sore thumb.
i get a few shots off before walking up the ramp to the brass bull - i'm first to turn up as no one else is around, so lurk about in the shadows taking some shots of moor street(i had planned this loosely through the week - lesson one in a location shoot is to think about what you are going to photograph beforehand)... then one by one people appear from the shadows carrying tripods:

i get worried that on CCTV we will look like a paramilitary group carrying sub-machine guns, causing all sorts of armed response unit mayhem... but make a mental note not to wear my camo john deere hat again and remind myself that paranoia is symptomatic of lack of sleep.

karen strunks is picking people up on the way, so as she is late, we head off to new street station and congregate at the front entrance - she turns up, we have a quick health+safety talk from the staff and are let loose on the station(literally, the whole place is ours for about 30 minutes...).
i get some edward hopper "nighthawk" inspired images:

and some interesting 4 second exposures:

then it's off to the wholesale food market:

on the way i manage to drop my flash unit from the back of my slingshot - although i don't notice it's lost the clear plastic in front of the unit until later(doh!), tired and sleepy...


i knew we were going to the wholesale food market, i kind-of thought it was going to be wandering about in the yards - but what i never expect to see is everyone piling into the hall where all the stalls and pallets are... costermongers eye us suspiciously (if we'd tried this at the barras in glasgow - there would have been whole scale lynching), someone shouts out "it's the DHSS!" and "look it's bob dylan!" possibly in reference to my 1950's buffalo-check woolrich jacket(which kept me toasty all through this, so i don't care)...

i get into dodging forklift trucks and trying not to get in the way, whilst shooting off some photographs, and i see this odd structure in the middle of the hall, which appears incongruous to see the least:

i'm glad to get out of the way of people working though, so head off into the darkness once more at the back of the market, where i find a tunnel marked "do not enter", so i'm in there, and find an underground storage area -

it's a great opportunity to trawl through the city at night, all much appreciated, thanks to 4am project for this - working out of my comfort zone, seeing sites i've never seen, it all feels very surreal, the air is much cleaner at night minus the traffic, there's a random man juggling down by the market(maybe he heard that we'd be there on midlands news)...

we all meet-up in stan's cafe after the walk... one by one people sleepily drift in to warmth and light and hot cups of strong tea... a few foolish souls buy the big breakfast:

which turns out to be a huge serving of four sausages, piles of mushrooms, four eggs, half a side of bacon and a tin of beans served on a steakplate with yet more doorsteps of toast... a real working man's breakfast!
the cafe was the topic of much discussion - huge plates of warm nutrients served-up with gusto(or without, if you ask first), for an excellent price... they were inundated with requests for sustenance as we got there!

4amproject Brum 51
Originally uploaded by aquila tv

this is me at 5 am - propping up the bar waiting for hot food...
walking back through the early morning light as the sun was coming-up, was still very eerie, birmingham felt like a seaside town(must have been the unusually fresh air and the smells from the fish-market)... i was going to climb onto the roof of a multi-storey carpark and take some photos of the sunrise, but the cloud had come down... adding to the seafaring atmosphere.
all very different to the usual feel of the city-centre, now i know what karen strunks was talking about.
if i start to falter and my steps get shorter, wash my face in ice cold water, carl!

sunday now, i've recovered, the 4am project was a success for karen strunks, and i'm uploading stuff to flickr, which has a direct load onto the 4am website: