Posts

Close Encounters?

-
Image
Yesterday evening at twilight, expecting a delivery of a small leather pen case to safely house my Parker Duofold Maxima fountain pen [blog posts passim], I twice wandered into the conservatory/wintergarten/lean-to that fronts our place, to see if anyone was on their way down the lane. On both occasions I imagined that I could see someone approaching our gate, only to discover that the figure had vanished into immateriality before I could open the door. This happened twice, and I simply put it down to my next door neighbour returning from unloading his car. The delivery duly turned up after dark, and so I forgot about the false starts, but when I woke this morning, the incident was still lodged in my mind; and after the lucid dream I had just awoken from - twice - I wondered what exactly was it that I had I seen the previous evening: a ghost? A glimpse into an adjacent dimension? Dementia? Anyhow, the memory of the manifestation faded during the day's machinations and I little cons...
Post a Comment
Read more

RIP David Lynch

-
Image
Well, here we are: another one down in the pantheon of our creative heroes. David Lynch is no more of this earth. Requiescat in pace. My first exposure to his canon was The Elephant Man of 1980, which I watched with my late friend John Kyte on an early visit back to Birmingham some forty-odd years ago. He had one of the early VCRs - a Sony Betamax - and had managed to get a copy of the film, somehow. In those days, legal release copies of feature films cost a small fortune, hence the proliferation of video hire shops that began in that era. Anyhow, we watched the film in silence and we both ended up in tears over the plot - go look it up if you don't know the story - but the main takeaway for me was the cinematography/direction/foley axis: particularly the sound direction; never mind the wonderful performances of the principal actors of the piece: the surreality of the mix - a glorious spectacle in itself - lent the narrative poignancy and fixed its historical placement for me. A y...
2 comments
Read more

Constitutional

-
Image
  Jane and I went over to Church Island for our customary constitutional there. A lap around the island, out along The Belgian Promenade, and passing under Menai Bridge [pictured from near Eglwys Sant Tysilio - Saint Tysilio's Church] into Porthaethwy itself. It's a gentle forty-five minute stroll, and the weather today has been glorious and nowhere near as cold as of late: a full fifteen degrees warmer than last Wednesday, and no black ice around on which to injure myself, as I did then. Fortunately I heal well and there's only a faint scar left on my cheekbone to give away that I'd kissed the tarmac at a rate of knots. Here's looking forward to Spring...
Post a Comment
Read more

Java Jive

-
Image
  Pictured, my recently-acquired darkroom changing bag and System Four developing tank. I'd decided that getting a lab to process my speculative test films from unknown-quantity old film cameras was getting a bit expensive, so I focussed on getting back into my old haunt of developing my own stuff, which I have done professionally in past lives; and as the prospect of building a pukka darkroom is fast joining the morass of projects unlikely to get done, I relented and bought the above. I've got some conventional chemistry down in the studio, which I might as well use up for the initial few test rolls, as they will at least give a standard output by which to judge the cameras rather than the film/dev combo. But as these days I'm more into the serendipities of the photographic process, I'm going to investigate the alternative world of Caffenol: film development based around coffee. The ingredients involved are all household and non-toxic, unlike most, if not all, traditi...
2 comments
Read more

Humanity 1, AI 0

-
Image
I read in today's FT - with a measure of disquiet, I have to say - about the Prime Minister's stated aim '...to make Britain "the best state partner" for artificial intelligence companies in the world...'. Firstly, I'm not even sure I can see exactly how we can make that work, given that all the major players in the game have pretty-much limitlessly deep pockets from which to draw in development: something that currently the UK just doesn't have. Secondly, his USP of the UK's "values of democracy, open commerce and the rule of law" really won't cut it with the current batch of technoligarchs and their venture capitalist buddies-in-arms, who are now moving into the disturbingly uncharted waters of complete, global, financial anarchy: they just don't give a shit for law and order or democracy, and as for open commerce, they would rather that all anti-trust laws and corporate taxation were expunged from the world economy once and for...
2 comments
Read more

Telling Porkies...

-
Image
  I wasn't going to foist another dinner post on you after last night, but roast pork with proper crackling has fortunately occupied my time this afternoon/evening as Sunday supper is my sole responsibility. I had taken some pics of the work in progress and my plated-up results, but Apple's algorithms and systems seem to have got their collective underclothes in a twist and refuse point-blank to let me edit anything: so here is the aftermath of the carving, the pic of which needed no edit. Note - and please forgive me, anyone forbidden to eat pork, or those of a vegetarian disposition; I apologise, but I can't help myself, as I was raised on the stuff - the crisp, salted crackling and just beneath, the layer of silky, lardy fat. The meat was tender, but as is always with this particular cut of pork, a tad under-flavoured: I guess a locally-reared pig would provide something tastier. However, as I always say, the star of the show is the skin and its layer of soft fat just b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not A.I. Chicken

-
Image
OK - I'm doing a Sunday food post on a Saturday for no other reason than I haven't got my act together for the post I kind of intended to make, as I've just got swamped in stuff that seems relevant but is so wide-ranging I need to think a bit longer about it before I scribble a post on it. So, pictured are some air-fried chicken drumsticks which I marinated in the following [US measures as they seem to be pretty universal these days]: 2 tbs Greek yoghurt (the real stuff - at least 5% fat and whipped), 1 tbs rapeseed oil, 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder, 1 tsp generic curry powder, 1 tsp Garam Masala, 1 tsp garlic paste, 1 tsp ginger paste, salt and black pepper: a good grind each. Get the chicken schmooshed up in the marinade until well coated and chill for at least an hour, covered. Pre-heat your air-fryer, then whack in the chicken for 25mins at 190C, turning halfway through and basting with the remaining marinade. Rest the meat for ten minutes and eat. I've no idea wher...
Post a Comment
Read more