Ten Photos

A '50 Thing' task I've been working on for a while is number 8 on my list  'Explore your neighbourhood in 10 photographs'. I live in a town called Paisley, which doesn't have the best of reputations. Over the years I've discovered the beauty of the town, which I hope will be reflected in some of these photographs.

Arts Centre

I love the Arts Centre building, a converted church (The Old Laigh Kirk), with graveyard still intact. I used to go to life drawing classes here and have also been to gigs/plays/dance performances at this arts venue. It's a great little place and one which I should make more use of. I used to also love the Haunt Bar upstairs, which sadly is no longer there...

Thomas Coats Church

Thomas Coats Church has got to be one of my favourite buildings ever - such amazing gothic architecture. The more I look at it, the more intricate detail I notice, and I really want to just sit for a whole day sketching parts of it. My Postgrad graduation ceremony was held here. I don't think I fully appreciated the beauty of the building back then.

Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey is another amazing building, so it deserves to be showcased in 4 photos. I've been to a service in here and it was amazing sitting listening to an organ playing in a building like this, with sunlight streaming through the stain glass windows. I love the corridor you walk along to lead into the main part of the building (If you turn right it takes you into the little gift shop and cafe). The year a medieval festival took place in the town there were lots of stalls outside the Abbey and I think an alchemist type stall was set up inside (I vaguely remember an old man holding something up in a jar...). Another year when the Witch Trial Reenactments Day took place, a woman dressed in old clothes told old witch stories in a corner of the Abbey (mainly to a group of children, plus me and two friends!).

Park

The Fountain Park is a great little green haven for me. On many a sunny day I have sat under a tree reading a book. Just outside the park is a cherry blossom tree - I always love seeing that in bloom, particulary because it signifies my favourite season, Spring. I took this photo a few weeks ago, just before the trees in the park turned to yellow and red.

Old Bedroom

Sma' Shot Cottages

A couple of months ago I visited the Sma' Shot Cottages for the first time. The cottages at the front were used by Weavers, and this part of the building was originally built in the 1740s. When you walk through the gardens you are taken to cottages 100 years on, which were used by Mill workers. Volunteers act as tour guides, explaining the history and little details of the times as they show you round the rooms. I was told that a woman who was a member of the Old Paisley society made sure the cottages were restored in order to preserve an important part of Paisley's history. The attention to detail in all of the rooms is amazing, with old hair pins laid out on dressers and button up boots by the beds. It truly felt like stepping back in time and is well worth a visit. There's also a nice tea room and shop.

I'll end this blog post with one of my favourite photos that I took about three years ago now, early one morning when it had been snowing heavily overnight, just as the sun was rising...Who knew my little town could be so pretty...

Possibility

I've just realised it's nearly the end of September and I've yet to write a blog post this month. So, returning to an old aid of inspiration, I put my MP3 player on random, choosing to use the song it stops at as a theme... The song I landed on was 'Possibility' by Lykke Li.

And that got me to thinking, is it ever really possible to 'live in the moment', completely in the moment, without thoughts of the past or the future, clouding our judgement, or expectations?

I don't think I'm particularly good at 'living in the moment', though the older I get, the more I appreciate simpler things, which kind of controls your expectations. I'm quite fond of the word 'possibility' as it holds a certain exciting sense of anticipation... But if you believe the buddhists, true happiness is found if you learn to live in the present moment, without dwelling on the past, or worrying about the future.

That got me to thinking some more, and I came to the conclusion that I probably am happiest when I get totally lost in a moment. This can happen when I'm engrossed in artwork, writing, watching an enjoyable film, listening to music, and most powerful - when engaged in conversation with someone who truly engages me - that sensation where the rest of the room disappears and you're only aware that you're experiencing the sensation if someone tries to cut in on your conversation.
To me, those are the times where I know I'm truly living in the moment and it's a good feeling.

This weekend I watched a couple of interesting documentaries about the West Memphis Three (a brief summary: this is a famous case where three teenage boys were convicted of murdering three young boys, based on a lot of flimsy circumstancial evidence). I don't want to go into too much detail about the case, as that would take a whole other blog post, but I really liked this quote, which Eddie Vedder from Pear Jam (who supported the accused), read from Damien Echols' (the one sentenced to life) journal:

'There's no such thing as time.
There's no such thing as the past, it only exists in the memory.
There's no such thing as the future, it's only in our imagination.
If our watches were truly accurate the only thing they would ever say, is now.'


I'm going to end with an extract from T.S Elliot's 'Four Quartets' as I really like the last line:

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope,

for hope would be hope for the wrong thing.

And wait without love.  For love would be love,

of the wrong thing. 

Yet there is faith.

But the faith and the hope and the love, are all in the waiting.

And the darkness shall be the light

and the stillness the dancing. 

                                             T.S. Elliot

Challenging my creativity

Underwater (V.Gemmell)

I've been working my way through a couple of more tasks on my '50 Things' list this weekend. Number 7 on my list reads, 'After watching Andrew Thomas Huang's Solipsist, challenge your creativity.'

Solipsist is a short, 10 minute film, which can be found on the artist/film maker's website. You can see it here:


It demonstrates amazing film making; so creative and inventive. I absolutely love the last 3 minutes or so, where the colours explode. Huang's website also features a 'making of' extract and a couple of interesting music videos. The Sigur Ros one is especially worth a watch, mainly because his visuals really suit their haunting sound towards the end.

I noticed at the start of Solipsist that the females had paint on their hands so that got me to thinking about how I'd wanted to paint a picture consisting mainly of a blend of colours for a while, ( I really love Darren Waterston's work - he does dreamy colour canvasses very well), and how using my hand to create a base of colour might be interesting. The results are in photos below: 

Painted hand

The base by hand (literally)

Rubbing the paint across the canvas using the palm of my hand was a messy and freeing experience but I have to say I enjoyed building up the colour and texture more when I swapped to brushes. The end result, Underwater, is at the top of the page.

And this is what it looks like with an Instagram filter on it, to intensify the colour:

With instagram filter

I've got an idea for a photograph too, but that one requires a lot of tea light candles and a companion to ensure I don't set my local park on fire. I'll keep you posted on that one...

Up a mountain

 

View from near the top

Views from the top of Dumgoyne

A while back I blogged about receiving a list of ’50 things to do this year’ from a complete stranger somewhere in the world. I thought it was time to start focusing on it again or I’m never going to complete everything before the year’s up. So this weekend I ticked off number 39, (I’m not going through the list in order – I’m not that far on with it!!), and ‘went on a mountain hike’. Even although I live in Scotland, where there are plenty of mountains/hills, I’ve never been up a proper big hill – no matter how many times friends/family have tried to persuade me otherwise. For about ten years I’ve stubbornly refused, saying I’m happy enough just enjoying the views from their photographs. So haha, stranger from somewhere in the world – you’ve finally broken me and introduced me to a new experience, which was the whole point of this 50 task thing really... 

I have to confess I went to a lot of bother questioning which hill I could get away with calling a small mountain in order to complete this task. Dumgoyne, on the edge of the Campsies, fitted the bill for me as some online blurb refers to it as a ‘mini mountain’, and a seasoned hill walker (accidentally I think) referred to it as a mountain. According to Wikipedia Dumgoyne is 1,402 feet - a reasonable enough challenge for my first attempt (see that use of ‘first’ attempt – my subconscious is already telling me to get back up another, bigger one).

So off I set with an experienced hill walking friend in tow, who mocked my rubbish hill walking (sorry mountain walking) attire – ie. jeans (they were stretchhhhy) and no waterproof (it was sunny when I left my flat). The walk up to Dumgoyne is very pleasant; up a winding path, past a few farm houses and through a field with weird and wonderful trees, up over a fence and stream...then the real walk began.

Dumgoyne is a rather steep climb. I was grateful for the worn ‘footholds’ imprinted into the hillside, as there were a few moments where it would have been easier to slide backwards, than move forwards. One of my favourite things about being up high was being able to see which towns in the distance the rain was falling on; it formed blankets of mist, curling down from the clouds, and it spurred me on to walk faster . ‘Get to the top before the rain reaches us’, was my half beat mantra. The rain caught me before I got to the top of course, probably at the steepest point of the climb, (the part of the climb where I was a bit out of breath and wondering why people did this for fun). It was a horrible drizzly rain that seeped into my jersey hooded top. Seasoned hill walkers probably saw me coming a mile off, wondering what the hell I was wearing and why I was half clinging, half walking up the mountain at this point.

But then I got over the steepest point, and the top (the end!) came into sight and I turned to look at the view behind me and it felt good, clambering up this mountain, with only miles of trees, lochs, fields and clouds in the distance. Reaching the top felt even better- as I climbed the last steps I was rewarded with a hauntingly beautiful image of mist surrounding the hills to my right. Here’s a photo of me at the top to prove I really did complete the walk!

Me at the top

I was stupid enough to think that getting up Dumgoyne would be the hardest part, but actually getting down was more difficult, due to the steep drop. I did that thing of half sitting, clinging onto grass, attempting to slide down some of the way on my bum etc, to avoid falling head over heels and rolling all the way back down to the car. My ankles bent at such strange angles it reminded me a bit of a painful snowboarding experience from years back.

Once I was upright again at a decent angle, the walk became pleasant once more. I’d half joked earlier to my walking companion, “Ha, can you imagine mountain biking down a hill like this?” and couldn’t believe it when we passed two teenage boys on their way up, carrying bikes. 

They smiled hello and I stared at them. “You’re not seriously going to cycle back down are you?” I said, like I was their mother.  “Yes,” They scoffed. Haha, stupid me-of course. Enjoy your suicide mission, boys. We didn’t stick around to find out if they made it. How they even managed to keep balance to carry their bikes up there I don’t know...

So one of my favourite parts of the day, I have to confess, was going to a great little cafe afterwards and drinking this amazing chocolate milkshake.Yum!

Milkshake

One mission complete, only another oh, 40 odd to go...

Barcelona

Casa Batllo

La Pedrera

Sagrada Familia

This is turning into a bit of a travel blog of late, but one of the fun parts of having a blog is being able to re-live enjoyable trips through constructing posts such as this! Last month myself and a work bud headed off to Barcelona for 5 nights where we sampled lots of tasty food, cocktails, sunshine and a little bit of culture... This was my fourth trip to Barcelona, (all brief encounters), and I never tire of this vibrant city. There's something special about the mix of art/culture, beach life, and general buzz which makes this place indefinable.

During past trips I'd visited the spectacular Gaudi buildings (Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, Sagrada Familia) and was happy enough to snap the exteriors this time without venturing inside. Taking the tour bus one morning provided interesting angles to capture photos of these buildings. I personally wish they would just stop adding to Sagrada Familia and leave it an unfinished building as I always feel the scaffolding/cranes detract from the breathtaking architecture. I attempted to zoom in on some of the detail and cropped out the construction work!
We hopped off the bus at the Park Guell stop as this Park is a must see for anyone visting the city and we got some tasty pasta salads for lunch in the restaurant there.

Parc Guell

El Bosc de les Fades

On this trip we came across some quirky places; topping this list was the amazing bar, El Bosc de les Fades. I'd read about this online, then someone later told me that it was a must see, with the chance of witnessing a lightning storm in the bar...The bar is beside the Wax Museum (Musue de Cera), just off La Ramblas. The exterior of Museu de Cera is worth a look itself  (spectacular architecture with superman poised to fly off the top of the roof.)

Fairy Cave

Stepping inside El Bosc de les Fades is like stepping into another world; with lantern lights strung between the branches of fake trees, a fairy cave hidden around a corner- complete with a wax work of a fairy crouched beneath a waterfall. To the rear of the bar we stepped through a curtained door, walking into what looked a Brothers Grimm vision of a child's bedroom. The photos capture more than my words ever could! There was also a 'haunted mirror' hanging on the wall where an image of a tudor man would fade in and out of view and a flickering chandelier. Unfortunately there were no lightning storms during our visit.

Weird bedroom

Our hotel (the amazing Barcelona Catedral ) was situated in the Barri Gotic area, just across from the beautiful Barcelona Cathedral (hence the name of the hotel...). I love this part of the city - it's full of little winding streets with quirky shops, gothic architecture and lots of great cafes/restaurants and bars are within walking distance. A highlight of our hotel was the spectacular roof top pool - very welcome after walking around in the sweltering heat!! Below are some photos of this area.

We found the quirkiest sweet shop ever just a few minutes from our hotel called Happy Pills. It was a tiny sparkling white shop, with rows and rows of sweets laid out like pills as if it was a sugar themed medical centre! It was great - such a simple, yet unique idea. The sweets tasted great too. Here's a snap of the interior below:

Happy Pills

One of my favourite bars we visited was called First Bar, a very small and funky place, situated down a side street off Las Ramblas. The walls were plastered with drawings and notes scribbled onto post-it notes by customers from all around the world. The owner made me the most amazing frozen Strawberry Daiquiri. Cocktails in Spain can be dangerous as they free pour their measures - the younger guy who made my second Daiquiri looked like he poured in half a bottle of rum...yum!
Here's a photo of a skeleton hanging above my stool in the bar and our post it note added to their wall...

Barcelona is very hot in July, although the breeze from the sea takes the edge off a bit. A couple of afternoons we couldn't face the long walk from the beach back to our part of town so we hopped onto the handy Rickshaw 'tours' which are offered along the port side. A guy pedals behind whilst you sit in a carriage at the front - it's a quick and fun way to save yourself from a long, sweltering walk. One of our rickshaw 'drivers' was a very friendly man from Venice, who was eager to tell us lots about Barcelona during our 15 minute journey (I think I caught about 20% of what he actually said!) Here's a photo of us on the Rickshaw, after our beach trip:

Ah, Barcelona! Already I want to return...

End of an Era

A few months ago I heard the sad news that Cafe Cosmo at the Glasgow Film Theatre was shutting down, to be replaced by a new Cinema 3. Unaware of the actual construction date, I was too late a few weeks ago to have a last drink there, arriving to find doors boarded up and the cafe gone forever.

Cafe Cosmo holds lots of good memories for me. I worked there for over three years during, (and a bit after), my student days and I couldn’t have asked for a more fascinating place to work really, when I think back on it. When I try to recall memories from that era (thirteen years ago- eeek), it feels like a lifetime ago, almost like I dreamt up all of the weird and wonderful characters who frequented the bar (and that was just the staff). 

I worked alongside some really great people – there was always a mix of creative individuals on the staff; media/film students, art students, english students, artists, writers, musicians, actors...Having so many creative people working together in such close quarters made for some interesting conversations and nights out. One of my favourite parts of working in the cafe/bar was getting to chat to all the staff from across the cinema when they came in on their tea breaks (and if they were really lucky I’d make them a cheese toastie).

We had nicknames for a lot of the regular customers, like the Russian Prostitute and Mr Beige. One old guy used to come in a bit worse for wear, sometimes drunk, sometimes playing a guitar. Other times he’d come in, hair slicked back, glasses on, notebook poised, saying he was an artist and penned portraits of us that Picasso would be proud of.

I served a lot of famous and not so famous people from the media during my time there; I was usually oblivious to a lot of them, (it took me a year to recognise Peter Mullan - he was always very friendly and unassuming). I was sadly never working a shift when Ewan McGregor dropped by, but his Mum did help me clear tables after a function for one of his films. 

I remember having to serve at the premiere of Late Night Shopping (a cool little indie film) looking ridiculous in an extra large promotional T-Shirt (as the promoters had kindly not sent any smaller ones).

There were quite a few stories about the bar being haunted (and the cinema in general) during my time working there. A common 'haunting' was bar staff hearing their name being called - this happened to me twice, once when I was by myself and it sounded really loud in my ear. A customer also experienced this- coming up to me one evening, asking if I'd been calling his name. He came back to me later, hesitantly saying he wasn't crazy, but he had a 'gift' and told me there was a young girl haunting the bar - she apparentely 'told' him she felt she'd died too young! 

I can only imagine what you might experience when Cinema 3 arrives – possibly the icy fingers of the ghost girl creeping up your neck, wondering why you're sitting where her bar used to be...

Au revoir Cafe Cosmo, you will be missed.

New York Part 3 ~ Greenwich Village

 * I've also done an update on My Creative Corner page of the blog - with some new photos *

Washington Square Park

I didn't intend to leave such a long gap before posting my third and final instalment of my New York trip- so here it is at last!
Seeing as I went on a two hour walking trip of Greenwich Village (and because it's such a cool part of the city) I thought it deserved a seperate post. The photo above was my first view of this area of town, Washington Square Park, which was particularly lovely in the sunshine. It's a great park to sit in and people watch.

We went on the walking tour later in the week when it was raining and quite cold (this was also the day we did the 2 hour bike tour round Central Park - both were pre-booked so it was just unfortunate that they fell on the one rainy day of the trip. But we're Scots, so we could handle it...) If you're ever in NY I highly recommend checking out the Free Walking Tour website (The expectation is you will tip generously and you will want to as it's really informative!). You can choose which part of the city interests you most then book in a slot and you meet your tour guide at a set time/place.
Our guide was great and really knew her stuff. She gave us a fascinating run-down of the history of Greenwich Village- the locals here fought to keep out the large sky scrapers dominating downtown (and it's all the prettier because of that).

The Village is now dominated by celebrities, probably because they're the only ones who can afford the accommodation (which is now into the millions!) The hazy photo above is the swanky private court where Benedict Cumberbatch lives (the guide said she saw him moving in during one of her tours - just my luck it wasn't our tour!).

A lot of artists and writers used to live around this part of town. She showed us where Edgar Allan Poe used to live (and the medical centre he attended). His house was converted into a school and people fought to keep part of the original wall so that it wouldn't be completely lost.
We walked past the famous Minetta Tavern (below), which was in the Beatnik part of the Village. Writers such as Ginsberg and Kerouac used to hang out here. There's a sense of stepping back in time walking around this part of town. If I return to New York I think I'd like to spend more time here, sitting in one of the famous bars.

Another great little building was The Cherry Lane Theatre (below). Our guide told us Barbara Streisand started her career here, starting off working behind the scenes for years, before getting her lucky break. It would have been great to see a play here. It still attracts big names.

She also showed us the last wooden house to exist in New York (below) and also the building which was used as the exterior shot for Friends (the one on the right, below). One important stop for me (which we returned to on our last day) was the famous Magnolia Bakery (made famous thanks to Sex and the City!). I'd heard it does the most amazing cup cakes and I was not disappointed - the frosting on top of the cake was so soft it was like eating ice cream. A perfect last treat before leaving the city:) Ah New York, I love you.

Wooden House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              

Friends Building