Experience and buildings

As I moved through Manchester on a train, I noticed the startling juxtaposition of affluence and poverty. I enjoy Manchester. I like to see the mix of the contemporary and the traditional. I appreciate the enormity of the buildings. Cities evolve over time, so architecture is never likely to conform to a pattern. Old and new will be mixed together. I believe that it’s a part of a city’s beauty.

However, as the train slowly transported me across and over the streets of Manchester, my mind connected with something that Friedrich Engels wrote in 1844. Engels, a communist and friend of Karl Marx, was interested in the working class condition. He spent time in Manchester and wrote about the working classes whilst there. He commented that the dwellings of the poor were often a stones throw away from the dwellings of the rich. Yet the two areas were entirely separate, particularly in terms of the life experience for the people that lived in these spaces. Though many changes have occurred in Manchester and elsewhere since the time of Engels, some things remain. Poverty still exists. The working class condition may be seen as improved but the patterning of some building in Manchester remains similar to that of Engels time. We see grey high-rise blocks of flats only streets away from expensive houses with gated car park areas. The stark contrast of these buildings, so close in space yet so far apart in tenure, condition and symbolism, reminds me of poverty. It reminds me that poverty does not just describe the lives of people from far flung places, a plight that is simultaneously hidden and shown by the silver screen. It reminds me that poverty exists here in the UK.

Isn’t it time that poverty ended…..

Playlist of the last few days

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Soulwax - Much against everyone's advice
Oceanic - Insanity (Dream tripper mix)
Orbital - Dr who
Tim Hardin - Reason to believe
Ennio Morricone & Joan Baez - Here's to you
Ennio Morricone - Chi mai
Manic street preachers - Slash 'n' burn
Two lone swordsmen - Tiny reminders
Dave Angel - Tales of the unexpected
Rod stewart - Handbags and gladrags
Rod stewart - Reason to believe
Cher - Reason to believe
Benga & coki - Night

I could go on. There have been many tunes over the last few days. With thanks to Mark's expansive musical taste, my knowledge grows every day. Each day is a musical education and takes me further along wonderful musical journeys.

Staring through rain

Staring through the rain
Wrapped in you
Stillness enfolds us
Lost for you

Is this the moment
Holding onto you
On life’s precipice
Love to you

Aimless and fearful
Crazed for you
Perpetual hope
I’m for you

Life is not knowing
Shined through you
A sea of emotion
Dive into you

Staring through the rain
Images are you
You are the rain
The rain is you

xxx

I once travelled to reality

I once travelled to reality. You know, that place that many people inhabit, often referred to as the ‘real world’. My life is firmly rooted in the world of fantasy. Sure enough I was born in a town, go to work, study and live on planet earth but the very fibre of being lives elsewhere. My soul resides in Neverland, a fairy kingdom, planet strange – take your pick really.

Back to reality – I travelled there once. I wanted to fit in so I travelled there in disguise, although I’m unsure why, no one would have recognised me. My passport was stamped, I stepped off the crazy plane and briefly embraced my new environment. I returned to pastures well-trodden and joyously odd relatively unscathed through my brief dance with reality.

Always be true to yourself. Don’t conform. Embrace your inner oddness. Have a kind heart. Uphold justice. Have love. Change the world so that all can live free and happy lives. Do all this whilst remaining firmly rooted in your own interpretation of a fairy kingdom. Avoid reality, it is but a silly place (a quote from Python’s Holy Grail tagged onto the end of my own).

Love to all,

Hazel

xxx

Beautiful oddness

My lovely mum just sang a nursery rhyme at me whilst waving the legs of a cuddly toy about. I should point out that I’m a tad old for nursery rhymes. I should also point out that she is a grandmother so nursery rhymes and cuddly toys are common occurrences at the house of my childhood. Beautiful oddness it seems is entirely hereditary. See the rest of my blog, if you desire confirmation of my oddness.

xxx

Cold

Despite losing it on Finkle Street

Despite Losing it on Finkle Street - get yourself involved, buy this book. The author is Samantha Priestley. Fab reviews. Get reading!

I'm off to buy my copy tommorrow.

http://www.bebo.com/Finklestreet
http://www.myspace.com/sampriestley

xxx