Kekulé's Serpent

[See this picture at a larger size in the Dead Things section of the gallery.]

Okay, so in lieu of anything properly new here’s a variant of the shot from a few posts back, from a stray roll just discovered at the bottom of my bag. Think I prefer this one.

Now, onto important things – a few words about Thomas Pynchon (“oh here he goes again” cry people who know me too well). Here’s the most recent sighting.

I’ve just started on Against the Day, which the lovely Katherine gave me for Xmas – a slightly daunting prospect, not just because this is a long book even compared to Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason & Dixon, but because entering a Pynchon novel is like going on an expedition to the foothills of an unknown land. Luckily this time I have the Pynchon Wiki as a guide – wish such a thing had existed 10 years ago when M&D came out!

And if that wasn’t enough – out recently is Zak Smith’s illustrated Gravity’s Rainbow, due to a legal dispute now rather amusingly called Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow – catchy! 750 illustrations, paintings and (look – on topic!) photographs – a colossal undertaking. (See it online here). They’re often verging on the abstract, but just turning through a few pages now I spot: the banana breakfast (pg.10) at which “it is not often Death is told so clearly to fuck off”, the Pavlovian dogs (pg. 78), Grigori the Octopus (pg. 113), Mrs. Quoad’s Disgusting English Candy Drill (pg. 118) and so on and so on. I’ll probably have to re-read GR again now…

Heavy Metal

It occurred to me recently that I don't have many photos that I'm happy with from around Manchester - don't know why this should be really, I do find the place constantly stimulating, but maybe just too visually familiar...

I'm also aware how badly I'm doing with keeping the blog up to date, working on new pictures, etc ... mainly due to my platinum printing adventures. It's all turned out to be quite the challenge (or the digital negative portion of it at least) and I must admit to becoming a tad obsessive about cracking the problem. I've probably had a few too many late nights peering into trays of potassium oxalate now.

More posts & more pictures soon - honest.

No Danger

[See this picture at a larger size in the Empty Places section of the gallery.]

This is a photo that I thought was a bit of a throwaway really … but it seems to have stuck in my mind, so here it is. I think I quite like the starkness of it.

Anyway, I hope everyone managed to suck every last bit of marrow from the bones of 2006, and all your heads aren’t throbbing too much in the tender dawn of ’07.