This is for those of you who have been asking for a pitiful photo of me doing my impression of a one armed bandit. I went under the knife on 24th July to have some pretty arcane slicing and dicing done on my shoulder called a Arthroscopic Subacromial Decompression and ACJ Excision. To cut a long story short, I had some bone shaven off the shoulder bone and my bicep tendon cut, shortened and screwed into a hole drilled into my upper arm, Nice!
The surgery isn't for the faint hearted, but thank the stars for modern pain killers! But after years of injury and reinjury and the final straw being a snowboard accident at Xmas, which has left me in constant pain for the last 7 months, there weren't many options left open to me.
With my days dominated by the all important pill popping at 12 noon, 6pm, 12 midnight and 6am I began to feel almost normal, until that is I try to do basic maths, remember a telephone number or talk to people on the phone and notice what a struggle it all is and how slurred and labored my speech is! good drugs! Closest thing to a religious experience I've ever had!
Only 5 weeks one armed to go! Not looking forward to the physio though.
For those not squeamish click on the 'Read more...' link below for the graphic shot...
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
A Religious Experience!
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Birthday Bash Pics!
Finally I have gotten around to finish downloading and editing the pics from my birthday party back in March... I know I know its been 4 months but I've endured a post party hangover from hell, lurgy my Canuk friends brought over with them, various other Canadian visitors, my old computer going to silicon heaven, work going all crazy busy and life's generally getting in the way of late.
It's finally taken surgery and enforced recuperation leave to get me to this point, so its been tough being 40 thus far... It's hard being me!
The pic is the full size version for those of you that want to print it out as a souvenir.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
G20 London
[After much scanning of web forums and the internet I have decided to pixelate the faces of the police officers in the above photo. As far as I can tell UK anti-terror laws now prohibit the publishing of photographs of police officers for whatever purpose, I therefore have no option other than pixelate or remove this image to comply with UK law]
The G20 meeting in London has been hailed as a success by the media, but what if anything has improved for the ordinary people who have lost their jobs and face the prospect of being long term unemployed and having their homes repossessed?
A protest to the Bank of England on April 1 (nick names ‘Banking Fools’ day by the protestors) attracted a mostly peaceful crowd and a festival atmosphere until a few anarchists, and other trouble-makers bent on causing damage, took events to another level, daubing graffiti and attacking the Royal Bank of Scotland on Threadneedle Street adjacent to the Bank of England. The protests were nothing like those seen during the Poll Tax riots of the 1980s but they received similar press coverage, and probably rightly so given the magnitude of the G20’s importance and there were a lot of issues at play here, with the rhetoric from environmentalists, anti-capitalists and anarchists (to name a few) promising some degree of conflict.
Many protesters were wounded and arrested as the police seemed to employed a strike first strategy (after the crowd swell became threatening by its mere size) that saw hard core protestors, innocent bystanders and media alike pulled into the scuffles. Targeted extractions of individuals by snatch quads of police in riot gear also raised the heat and seemed to increase the resolve of the few trouble makers to cause more damage by setting fire to a mannequin of a banker hanged from a traffic light and a newspaper recycle box – obviously not your confident anarchist, resorting to acts of defiance rather than protest and taking a public stand – but they did achieve some of what they were after – by making a nuisance of themselves and attracting the media’s attention (at times it seemed like photographers, official and unofficial, outnumberd the protesters). After several hours waiting to be released from their open air detention, some protestors resorted to building a campfire to keep warm in the increasingly chilly evening.
The exit from the imposed open air detention began around 9pm in the evening. All those contained were let out through a narrow corridor of police vans in single file, past police cameras and police dogs. Protestors identified as trouble makers, challenged authority or organising and inflaming the crowds were arrested (including those who started the camp fire).
Did the media attention incite the protestors to act out? I think no, there were more photographers and media in the crowds at the time of the troubles than there were protestors. From my witness of the few vocal trouble makers, they were intent on doing their will with or without the media in attendanceand the media were targets of the protestors violence too. The biggest threat to the media and photographers were the protestors direct threats and attacks, they were not seen as a tool, but one of the guilty targets. Would there have been the same conditions for the few hardcore protestors to use the crowd as a tool and as a shield between them and the police if there where less photographers in the crowd? I think maybe not.
Friday, 27 March 2009
40 Isn't Old, If Youre a Tree!
It’s with great surprise and a characteristic lack of pride that I can reveal The Dougal has made it to the ripe old age of 40 in one piece. I'm in that inbetween world where I'm not young enough to know everyting nor old enough to not care anymore. I seem to have found that inbetween worlds niche for myself for much of my life, so why be any different now?
I have the acne scars to prove I was young once (Who told me my teenage acne would eventually disappear? Blatant lie!), a lot less hair and the psychological scars to prove I’ve lived, loved and lost; not necessarily in that order.
It’s probably a cliché, but when this picture was taken I really didn't think I would ever make it to 40. I'm a bit of a thinker, with even that simple and (if you think about it) bizarre concept of that most human of activities, car travel, causing years of thought - we do after all hurl ourselves at incredible speed down strips of tarmac in a tin can with a tank of highly flammable liquid strapped to the back... What?!?! So the concept of living with myself (trust me, its not that easy) - still a scary thought - for another 20 years was a daunting and somewhat incredible idea.
But here I am all the same. With all that define me, my acne and psychological scarring, enough eccentricity to infuriate my friends (my rule is I only have eccentric or plain mad friends anyway so they have no room to talk! – normal people are so unpredictable!) and a lot less hair.
The big bash was a success (thus breaking the 40 year tradition of trying to ignore my birthdays by hiding), so thanks for all for coming along and making it one to remember - especially Dino and Gilbert for flying in from Canada. Look out for the pictures I add here in the next few weeks, once I've found the time to root through and put the mosaic of everyone’s drunken portrait together.
Here's hoping I make it to the next big one without losing any more hair and let’s hope I can stand living with myself for that long, because it is hard being me!
Monday, 2 February 2009
Joseph Grimaldi
The most famous and popular of all the clowns in harlequinade and pantomime was Joseph Grimaldi. Despite his Italian name and family origins, he was born in London in 1779, dying in 1837.
To this day he is commemorated annually by clowns in their own church, Holy Trinity in Dalston, East London at the beginning of February.
There were a selection of clowns, old and new, good and bad, professional and part-time, and a unique opportunity to grab some images of some unusual characters.
This particular clown was an older clown who caught my attention. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time and chose the right camera angle to make this shot work in a room packed with clowns and public waiting for the clown show to begin. Thanks Mr. Clown.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Is Capitalism Broke?
I remember, 6 years ago, being immersed in a book called 'The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy' by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw.
The book considers the shift of assets from central governments to private enterprise in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and analyzes how such changes as deregulation and privatization will affect economic power in the world. It predicted a new model (although it didn't say what that model way) to replace the bankrupt Communist model and the future discredited Capitalist model, or at least our current version of Capitalism.
A very convincing read at the time, I was sympathetic to its predictions. I am not sitting here amazed the predictions are now being realised I am only amazed that its predictions of the fate of the current Capitalism would be realised so quickly and so dramatically.
With the world dependent on banks to generate capital to fuel the capitalist production and consumption, which underpin the capitalist model and the economic mechanisms put in place to support the capital markets, came speculative market practices and the new pariahs of the marketplace, derivatives and short selling.
Marx wrote of the alienation of the human species from the objects of capitalism - materialism, wealth, greed... and philosophied that the human species would only realise its true progress through abandonment of those values.
Many risk hungry bankers, driven by materialism, wealth, greed or just plain arrogance, have made their millions and are now asking for money from you and me to pay for their mistakes.
It doesn't matter how you look at the mess, our current Capitalism didnt work for the ordinary men and women who work just to get by - and Communism didn't work either... what next? A friend of mine says Anarchy should be the next model of choice but I say that's what we've had that already in the markets for the past
two decades and that didn't work either... any ideas?
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Protect the Human
Geogre Galloway MP
Tower Hamlets and City Amnesty held its annual Summer Festival at Christchurch near Spitalfields Market on 14 September. The event, a fund raiser and vehicle to raise awareness of a number of campaigns, with the main focus on Human Rights in the War on Terror, was opened by John Biggs, member of the London Assembly and closed with an impressive and pationate speech by George Galloway MP.
Both John Biggs and George Galloway rolled the dice and found themselves on the wrong side of the War on Terror, spending time in the cage to promote the new interactive website http://www.protectthehuman.com. All the detainees photos can be seen on www.protectthehuman.com in the 'Tower Hamlets and City Amnesty Summer Festival 2008' gallery.
John Biggs AM
