Up Against The Wall XVI: I Wuv You!

I wuv you!, originally uploaded by mithering.

Obscene, angry and pointless graffiti has been a bit thin on the ground recently, so here are some sweet, fluffy, bunny-hugging scrawlings in the snow outside the Lowry Hotel in Salford. Just because it's Christmas and all that. Back to the rude stuff soon.  Merry Christmas.

Ice Ice Baby.

Redwing, originally uploaded by purplerabbits.

I've been on twitter since February 9th this year.  It took me two days to realise its potential for list-making/diarising.  On the 11th of February I listed the birds I saw on my walk into work between the car park in Salford University (where my wife works, and I get [or got - more later] a lift to on appropriate days) and work.  It became a regular habit, and later I added my other route, the one I take when a lift is impractical or impossible, the 96 bus into town. The two routes eventually settled down as Peel Park to Dolefield and Boddies to Dolefield.  Last week I did my last Peel Park to Dolefield.

Today, snow-willing, I probably did my last Boddies to Dolefield.  It was, appropriately, and weirdly, the day I saw more species than I had on any other day when taking that route.  The highlight was seeing twenty or thirty redwings in a tree opposite the berry-laden bushes which skirt the cheap carpark seated where Boddington's brewery used to be.  It even outweighed seeing a gorgeous drake goldeneye on The Irwell.

Thanks to purplerabbits on flickr for this fantastic image of a redwing guzzling berries in Edinburgh.

I'll edit this into coherence over Christmas. Posting drunk after spending hours wrapping presents is not a good thing.

Nine to Five. Overtime.

Mistle Thrush, originally uploaded by NEdwards1.

Following on from the theme of the post from November 24th, the shifting pattern of bird dominance has seen the mistle thrush lurch into the limelight recently. There are a particularly beautiful and prominent pair who hang about in and around the hidden little park between Chapel Street and East Ordsall Lane in Salford. The recent bright sunshine brought them both out into the trees, onto the balcony of the flats opposite and, one morning, onto a street lamp high above the Chapel Street morning rush hour traffic.

Thanks to NEdwards1 for the photo.

Disco Inferno.

Is this possibly the first ever 18-rated video game based upon a poem?

We were in The Arndale yesterday (fifth level of Hell; inner-city shopping centres on any Saturday in December) and EA Games had a promo stall set up, from which The Eldest picked up a brochure.

Had a quick look through it last night and all the usual things were there - football games, tennis games, boxing games, Sci Fi games, war games - and this, "based on part one of Dante Alighieri's classic poem 'The Divine Comedy', Dante's Inferno is a 3rd person action adventure game that takes Dante on an epic journey through Hell as he seeks to rescue the soul of his beloved Beatrice."

In a way it makes sense - death, destruction and levels. Measureable, achieveable levels of activity. It's almost a no-brainer. "Just like the poem, players will descend through the nine circles of Hell: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery."

The perfect Christmas gift for the poetry fan in your life.

Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken (Alt)

I'd had this idea, that I've been mulling for a while, that I would post something about 'Indie' Answer Songs. This came about because I've been listening to a lot of Camera Obscura lately - mainly since My Maudlin Career was released. Before then, they'd been almost unknown to me, lost in the endless sea of music I never get the chance to really sit down and listen to. However, 'French Navy' acted as the catalyst and on hearing the LP, 'Swans' became a big favourite. Since then I've moved backwards and hit upon Let's Get Out Of This Country which opens with the track above, which gave me the idea to write about Answer Songs. Or, to widen it out a bit, songs about or referencing other songs, but not cover versions.

I thought that the average 'Indie' (I know it's a devalued word, but I take it to mean bands or acts who should be on labels which record and release music without direct influence from the majors, whether they are or not. If you know what I mean?) mindset would lead to loads of them. You know, that impossible to ignore urge to quote, parody, pastiche and copy songs you love. A hidden code of reference and sub-reference. A great example is Edwyn Collins dropping the 'guitar solo' from Buzzcocks' 'Boredom' into 'Rip It Up' and letting us all know that his favourite song is entitled ‘Boredom’. (That 'Rip It Up' then went on to become Orange Juice's only real hit single foregrounds that reference, but it's one we all know).

However, when push came to shove I hit a massive brick wall in trying to think of more than a tiny handful. The two above and 'I Can't Get Bouncing Babies By The Teardrop Explodes' by The Freshies, in fact. So, instead, I’ll not write about them.

A Dazzling Array of Talent.

Reed Bunting posing, originally uploaded by Steve_C.

As the FC United game against Kendal was called off yesterday due to a waterlogged pitch at Gigg Lane we all headed off to Pennington Flash for a bit of a walk and some birding.

It's a great place for The Kids as there a number of accessible hides, a small play area and a chip van, so it's possible to get them interested without seeming to hit them over the head.

The easiest and most 'spectacular' hide is The Bunting Hide, in front of which food is left out in Winter. This leads to a parade of some of the most beautiful birds we have out there - the Bullfinches in particular looked as if they just been into make-up to have their colours touched-up. There were also the usual sights - bright robins, greenfinches (there was a dead one on the floor of the hide which provoked some interest from My Young Ghouls), chaffinches, dunnocks, blackbirds and even a pair of mute swans which had made themselves at home in what can only be described as the small puddle underneath the tables.

It was all wonderful to see, but there was a feeling that I was shooting fish in a barrel. Not to the extent I've felt it at some nature reserves, but it still felt as if seeing birds there was not as satisfying as when I see them 'on the hoof' and in an urban setting. I think that a large part of the joy I get from seeing birds in Manchester or Salford is the knowledge of how run-down, dowdy and poisonous the areas had been in the past.

Six months ago I wrote, with breathless excitement, about seeing a Kingfisher shoot under Victoria Bridge adjacent to the site of the old Victoria Bus Station. On Friday, my perceptions heightened through the use of my Kingfishervision super-power, I leant over from the Salford-side, old tax office to my rear and looked down into the scrubbage which has grown on the bank down there, inaccessible to all. From towards Albert Bridge something approached, and my first thoughts were that it was a blue tit, as I've seen them hopping to and fro on the weeds. Instead, it was another Kingfisher, which landed just below me and proceeded to stare into the water.

It was raining quite heavily and a cold wind, aided by the intensity of my staring, forced tears from my eyes which made it difficult to watch, but I persevered for a few minutes until it upped and flew under the bridge. I crossed and looked down again until I spotted it. This time I was able to use my small, cheap binoculars to get a look straight at it. Unromantically, it squirted out a shot of white feces, then dropped briefly into the water. After it emerged empty-beaked, it headed off again, up towards Chethams.

I headed off to work.

Thanks to Steve C on flickr for this lovely shot of a male Reed Bunting, which was part of the dazzling array of talent on view at Pennington Flash.

Nine to Five.

Papa Blackbird, originally uploaded by LuLu Witch.

If I opened up the BBC News website one day, and discovered a link to a story which said that scientists had conclusively proved that birds operate a shift system I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit surprised. It was something that I first started noticing when I was pushing my eldest son around Heaton Park on a daily basis, back in the Summer of 2001 when he was brand new and all that.

On different days and at different times there would be a noticeable surfeit of one species of bird in particular. One day it might be blue tits, other days, robins, twittering across the paths, breaking the daytime silence. Half an hour later, another species would be in the ascendancy. I’m sure that there’s a logical and no doubt scientific explanation for it, but it always felt like they were taking turns, clocking on and off duty, as the day went by.

I was put in mind of this early today when walking to work between Salford University and Manchester House I was confronted by a small army of blackbirds. Male, female, on paths, in bushes, up trees, static and scattering to the four winds as I passed by. Normally, I may see one or two, but today was definitely their day at the coalface.

I also had happy encounters with a pair of Little Grebes - a male by the abandoned footbridge, and a tiny female bobbing up and down into the water by The Old Pint Pot, and a Kingfisher skirting the Manchester bank of the river as I peered over the metal and wood-barrier round the back of Café Rouge in Spinningfields.

Thanks to LuLu Witch on Flickr for this great photograph of 'Papa Blackbird' in Sheffield.

Between The Wars.

Ghost Poster IV - Salford., originally uploaded by mithering.

Spotted at the end of Greengate, Salford, near the old Victoria Bus Station, ghosts from the past. Dating from the time of the Miners' Strike (1984-85) , nearly twenty-five years on they've almost faded away.



This poster refers to the Wapping Dispute of 1986, another to a May Day Rally of 1983.