pete mcgovern

 

Today it has been reported that as a result of a newspaper sting an MP resigned after lobbying for Fiji (of all places), a story that seems to amazingly overlook the fact that all three leading parties in the UK (and both in the US) devote themselves fastidiously to Israel's interests day in day out. In another news item US Secretary of State John Kerry " called on Russia not to upset the balance in the region by providing weaponry to the Assad regime " as it would put Israel's security at risk.

website here

There is an anxiousness to trespassing which is similar to going out in public x-dressed.  I think part of it is a subconscious anticipation of confrontation, of being challenged for simply being there - and yet there is a feeling of liberation, too,  exploring somewhere that all the signs say is off limits.   And returning is a similarly ambivalent experience.  Having re-scaled that perimeter fence and jumped back into the outside world there is some wariness (at being followed) but there is an almost exaggerated assertiveness at now being within the law and untouchable.  One consequence is that while walking home in the middle of the night, dressed darkly with a tripod slung under my arm, rather than feel vulnerable it's the other way around, and I sense that occasional passersby seem almost spooked by my presence on those streets.  

It is quiet. There is the scent of elderflower. "A super full moon occurs when the moon’s closest approach to the Earth (lunar perigee) coincides with the phase of full moon."      

From DLK

Auction sale report from DLK   and:  'Dawn #1, 2008

It's night and bright out, and soon a super full moon is coming

DLK blogged "The New Jeff Koons, from 1980, sold for $9405000" & Sotherby's link

geek girl  

' Taxidermy gave life to you ' - The Associates  

link to exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery

Richard Ansett/Irving Penn

I woke up with the image of a two hundred feet high Russian doll in an English landscape in my head.  And later that day was pleased to see, through the window of the coach I was on, a six foot high one outside the doorway of a shop.

When set designers place photographs in films I'm always thrilled when it proves difficult to 'read' the photograph.  I don't mean that it is glimpsed in such a way as to make it hard to see it properly, but to get a pretty good look and still not be able to make much sense of it.  I like the fact some unknown person has deliberately chosen not to pick a 'straightforward' easy composition but have instead gone for something more complicated. The best possible mise-en-scene has the said 'difficult' picture sneaked in two or three times during a scene, for a few seconds each time, perhaps behind a character speaking or listening, and yet despite having the opportunity for decent scrutiny it still remains problematic to be clear about what is going on in the photograph.  That would be far more exciting than whatever is going on back in the world of the film narrative. Anyway. I am still a regular visitor to Flak , and clicking through to contributor T

"On Sunday 26th August a couple's reported sighting of a large cat like creature in the fields surrounding St Ostyth near Clacton-on-Sea, Essex provoked a massive police response..." Richard Ansett's Lion Hunt blog: link here   ( Richard in Highgate Wood , May 2013)

Link to The Guardian : In a show of solidarity with the Palestinians’ plight keynote speaker Stephen Hawking has joined the boycott of Israel, a move initially covered up by Cambridge University, his academic base, presumably for fears of funding withdrawal, commonly used as a threat to institutions who do not toe the pro-Israel line.

from kottle.org Many Russian cars are outfitted with dashboard cameras to protect drivers against insurance fraud. These cameras have caught all sorts of crazy happenings -- car accidents, low-flying jets, insurance scam attempts, meteors, and plane crashes -- leading many to believe that Russia is a place where crazy shit pretty much happens constantly. But Russia's dash cams have also captured many more tender moments -- people hopping out of their cars to help old ladies across the street, looking after little kids who wandered into the street, pushing cars out of snowbanks, etc.

link here

Todd Papageorge talks about the work of 70's American photographer Garry Winogrand currently on show at the SFMOMA retrospective: link here There was a Tate Modern retrospective for Robert Frank a decade or so ago but Winogrand makes curators in the UK recoil and although this show will tour across Europe, it won't be shown here. Todd Papageorge knew Winogrand and in his talk gives a glimpse of how exasperating and funny and inspirational he could be.  He also makes clear that Winogrand's street photographs are far more than crooked snapshots.  One highlight is when he refers to John Szarkowski's reading of this photograph of two men (taken when Garry lived in Texas and would shoot the Stock/rodeo fortnight every year),as of 'one who has had his land taken from him and the other who was taken from his land' .