A few of my favourite things

Here's three grabbed shots of things that caught my eye, bounded by painterly stokes in varying strengths, all supplied by the yellow line man. The first kicks off a series of extreme littering (watch this space for more), apparently sponsored by Red Bull. These seductive deep blue and silver cans really seem to be popping up in the most unlikely places, maybe it is the increased arm strength supplied by the power drink that contributes to the far reaching impact of these little urban souvenirs.


Next up is a picture of a sunlit circle atop a boiled sweet-like remnant of dark beer, spoilt only by the now well documented fag but floating like a rat in a water tank. And the scene is all set in a geometry of swishing lines, changing levels and different materials that are individually unremarkable but occasionally conspire to make satisfying combinations.


And finally the yellow line man's best friend, the fluorescent spot painter has been at work here. Rarely seen, he creeps about with his can of high powered colour and discerningly adds an accent to make a 'just right' addition, a modern Jewel-like detail within a mundane scene, he knows exactly what he is doing.

Berry berry nice

Came round a corner at the bottom of my road the other day and found myself squidging through an immense and abundant carpet of beautiful Yew berries. These cloudy red products with their poisonous pips are from one of our oldest trees. They are from what is almost a street tree, overhanging from someones front garden and not a particularly grand example, but I hope a least a few of its progeny will result from this dramatic drop.

Fluttering Eees

Came across this moment in a residential part of London the other day. I'm not sure what the carved capital 'E' in the granite kerb stone is for or why it is set at such a casual angle. The chance meeting between it and this fallen leaf seemed to perfectly symbolise the yin and yang relationship between permanence and ephemerality.

The Art of Product Placement

Now I think I've alluded to my weakness for urban shelves before and here's a small selection that caught my eye recently. The top one is a wonderfully grand improvised plinth for a contrastingly modest supermarket beer bottle. It really doesn't deserve this perch but somehow rests happily there, clearly abandoned, but with some care. It draws attention to the stone gatepost and provides a dash of red to set off all that green, a nice touch.


Next is the old fag packet on utility cover routine. Of course if there were some cigarettes in, it would be a case of lost property, if on the other hand it is empty, then we are probably looking at a case of 'last fag, sling and go'. There is casual impulse at play here, 'I may come back, this is my regular puffing spot, that's where I keep them don't you know'. An extension of someone's in-door, personal space spilling out onto the pavement arena.


Last up is the 'berries on the box'. What we have at play here are a number of factors, one being the artex textured grey box, probably an anti-graffiti covering, but it is not ageing well and puts me in mind of rented accommodation and bad landlord repairs. The saving grace to this installation is the retro, bulging red indicator light, (although it could do with a rub from a clean cloth). And of course the smattering of berries that have dropped from a nearby street tree and whose presence atop this rather ugly platform turn it into a display of winter morsels for little birds.

This Country Needs More Knolls

I walked past this hump today and thought it would be a topical subject with it's smattering of Autumn leaves. It's really just a rather modest knoll, set amongst an avenue of trees, but it always tickles me. Not shown to its best advantage in this photo, I wonder whether it is naturally occurring or man-made and if anyone has stood on top and and uttered forth - it's a real invitation for any passer-by to get on their soap box. I can't help thinking of the 'grassy knoll' made famous by the JFK incident whenever I pass this one (perhaps because it is situated next to a road). I am going to be looking out for more organically adorned, hump shaped wonders on my travels, so this may be the first in a series of sightings.

Video Nicey

Pulling up at a queue at traffic lights recently I opened the window and glanced out to be confronted by this exploding nostalgic scene. Since then I've passed this top-loader regularly, marooned on one of those 'no-man's land' strips of public space that appear to be beyond any one's responsibility and hence a sanctuary for things that don't belong.

How did it get to be here? Was it a trip to Cash Converters gone wrong? Or even an case of that modern phenomena 'technology rage', caused by an intermittent, fault that got this relic flung from an unhealthy height. These things aren't exactly portable which suggests it got here with some degree of intent. No doubt it will remain a contemporary mystery and I'll be left trying to work out the ethics of whether this is a case of radical outdoor museumology that qualifies as an addition to the cultural landscape or a 'tip of the iceberg' example of a new advance for public dumping which is a subtractive blight on society. But I have realised that I've grown to like it in some hard to describe way and when it does eventually get removed (as no doubt some company has the contract to clean such left over land near to highways) I'll remember this slice of video-graphic history fondly.

Passive Smoking May Harm Your Buildings

They say society is crumbling, well, it bloody is. I'm liking stone at the moment so imagine my surprise when this so called permanent material that is holding up civic land turns out to be coming apart at the seams.

First I saw a little bit that had fallen off, to leave a soon to be rounded edge where a sharp block had previously been. Well you know, ce la vie, I thought. I'm privileged to see a bit fallen off I thought, probably only happens once every 150 years, might be the frost? Next thing I know there's another big bit lying on the ground, nice bit of detail, gone to the dogs. Now I'm thinking this isn't natural selection, something more sinister is at work. Could be all that acid rain, but I'm not sure were getting so much anymore. Could be some of those careless delivery drivers with their sack trucks banging into things and knocking chunks out of the fabric of the place? For a moment I imagined some teen goths with their big reinforced shoes bouncing them off the walls.

And then I noticed all the fag butts, everywhere I looked, millions of the damn things and I thought oh yeah, all those toxic fumes, nicotine crazed smoky joes puffing their semi industrial waste matter all over the place, maybe that post-ban invasion of the streets could be having adverse affects. It's certainly a phenomena of sorts, and its quite charming at times to see them all chatting away under streetlamps with a hint of that elusive Parisian cafe culture wafting past. But a plague of cigarette butts ten times worse than locusts and battling through clouds of smog worse than in the industrial revolution takes the romantic edge off it a bit, and now this.

Anyway not too sure about the science of all this but it raises some important questions about, well global warming and that. If its in the natural order of things for bits of buff stone to flake off, well that's okay. But if it's being precipitated, accelerated, then, you know, maybe something should be done about it before the walls of the city come tumbling down. So it got me thinking, maybe we are witnessing the first signs of the grand downfall of man (people-kind) and we're just hurrying by, thinking well, maybe it's supposed to be like that.

Shep

On my way home I spied this little fragment attached to a car park fence. The bit that's left of this ripped down WARNING sign suddenly becomes rather charming in a 'one man and his dog' kind of way.

Careful observers may notice the strands of grey wire running horizontally behind these railings. They are in fact what remains of a fake electric fence complete with lightning bolt hazard signs that frightened passers-by and protected the boundary of what was a yard for a swanky car showroom. Which seems a little bit nazi, especially if a little kid pokes their fingers through the fence while their mom is distracted, so lets hope that wasn't future proofing but just a bad case of call my bluff. That all makes this newly designated dog walker all the more approachable as he swaggers along with one hand in his pocket and faraway thoughts under his hat.