dickcherryheadspace

are you free to do that which does not occur to you to do?

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:18:00 +0000

side of the tracks

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:50:00 +0000

Shortish weekend this weekend after acting as a judge at a young people's drama competition this Sunday, at the high school '18 Уилям Гладстон'. Didn't go far today. Down the tracks, East from Poduyane Station. i went a bit further and i think i may have been in a Цигански квартал down at ул. Владимир Минков-Лотко. Turns out i was really close to the airport. Anyway, no ill effects. Set upon by four territorial dogs at one point, but no bites.

more Restaurant Majesteux

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:25:00 +0000

Garçon: Bonjour, Jean-Pierre, vous êtes un homme difficile à trouver. I just want to see if I can help you prepare for the bi-annual kitchen inspection we've agreed for tomorrow evening.

Jean-Pierre: Ah. Malheureusement, you will have to postpone the inspection. I am unwell.

Garçon: Ah, je suis désolé, Jean-Pierre. But your health is our first concern. Stay at home and rest tomorrow. I will arrange for someone to work for you. Je m'excuse... as you are a freelance chef, we are unable to pay you for hours not worked.

Jean-Pierre: It will be unnecessary to cover me. I will be here tomorrow.

Garçon: Jean Pierre, je ne comprends pas.

Jean-Pierre: Monsieur, I am sufficiently well to continue preparing food in the kitchen tomorrow. However I am not well enough to be inspected while doing so.

FIN

apes 'n' astronauts underground

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Brent and Nova step out in style, Queensboro Plaza subway station, 3979 AD

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) may be my favourite of the POTA movies. In it, astronaut Brent lands on earth 3979 AD chasing after Taylor (Charlton Heston) from the previous (1968) movie. Whaddaya know but after crashing his spaceship the first person he bumps into is Heston's girlfriend Nova. She's still kickin' around.

New York Public Library

About Nova: in the first movie Heston said of her 'You're not as smart as Stewart (ie. the chick he brought with him, who died) but you're the only girl in town'. This was a bit harsh on Nova, who was actually quite hot, and a nubile plaything at 23 for the saggy old sleazebag Chuck, 45. Interestingly, Stewart (who never said a word in the movie and gets less than 10 seconds of screen time) was played by two actresses - one of whom was an 83 year old woman.

NY Stock Exchange

So anyway, Brent and Nova head off through the 'forbidden zone' in search of Chuck 'NRA' Heston. Brent, who looks okay without a shirt and gets through most of the film in a loincloth, was played by actor James Franciscus who later went on to die of emphysema.

Radio City Music Hall

The interesting part of the film is where we find ourselves in the post-apocalyptic subterranean remains of New York City (surprisingly well lit despite being underground). There, Brent and Nova discover the mutant telepathic remnants of human civilisation who worship a nuclear bomb as their god.

This was the only one of the 5 original POTA films in which Cornelius / Caesar was not played by Roddy McDowall (though baby Caesar was briefly played by an actual chimp in the third movie).

Brent and Taylor are old mates from NASA

economy class passenger of the planet earth

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:41:00 +0000

my bedroom for the night, 07.04.2013

sleeping arrangements. note snow on ground outside

Flying back to Bulgaria from Vietnam recently, 'frequent traveller' dick was compelled to stay overnight at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. i would have gone and spent the night in the hotel if i'd had room in my passport for a Russian transit visa. The other people on my flight managed to make it from Hanoi to Sofia in one day (see passenger information).

i complained to my shite travel agent, Hornit OOD, about this. They didn't bother to answer. i emailed a man i work with (my company uses the same travel agent) to point out their poor service.

He didn't bother to answer.

this week dick is listening to

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:02:00 +0000

the will to fail

vaguely disturbing pictures of children interfering with animals, Hanoi, Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:59:00 +0000

pleasant ways to die #24: drowning in sweetened condensed milk

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:49:00 +0000

time out

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:50:00 +0000

not so small change

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:23:00 +0000

this is news?

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 06:39:00 +0000

Bold move from maverick new Pope, Frank. And no doubt very effective.

Q: What is wrong with this screencap?

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:12:00 +0000

A: What isn't wrong with this screencap? Very few of the above pixels are not in some way deeply, deeply disturbing.

The wheelchair-dodging DMs have ditched the rootsy analogue sound of four years ago and reinvented themselves as a guitar band, again. Ugh. Witness the pitness for yourself.

The dream of synthpop is over. Shite, half-arsed "rock" is awake.

Google Street View comes to Bulgaria: talk a walk around

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:59:00 +0000

One of the coolest things on the internet is google maps street view. i've used it loads of times to walk down street i grew up in, around the house i was born in, and so on.

1. just drag the little man where you want.

2. then use the controls to walk up and down the street.

The latest country to get coverage on street view is Bulgaria. Yes!

Now anyone can take a walk down the streets i've come to know so well here in the land of Yoghurt and Roses.

Let's start off with some recent photos of mine.
Where is this place? Check it out right here.

Remember this? Put yourself in the picture. Stand in the shadow of that pylon. Take a walk around. Here.

This is a (not my) photo of 'dom na energetika', a community centre in Kozloduy. For 6 months in 2006 my classroom was in this building. Check it out, take a little walk around.

Before that, you could find me in the place on the right here. Actually, you can find me there most days now. Walking around the nearby streets you'll notice there's nothing much good to get for lunch.

visual muz-ecch

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:59:00 +0000

consider this waiting music while i'm stuck between floors in life's elevator.

new 'picture of the week'

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 05:44:00 +0000

The Meaning of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Wilkes) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:58:00 +0000

a short play for two goldfish by Ronald Wilkes

Bill: Oh hi... umm...

Leonard: Hi Bill. Leonard here.

Bill: Hi, Leonard. How you doing?

Leonard: About the same as the last time you asked. Not so bad, thanks.

Bill: Oh, cool. That's cool. Hey, look at that... what's...?

Leonard: That's a deep-sea diver, Bill. It's okay. It's just an ornament in the goldfish bowl we live in.

Bill: Right.

Leonard: Bill, you know I've always liked you.

Bill: Cool. That's cool.

Leonard: Do you ever think about stuff, Bill?

Bill: Sorry, your name was..?

Leonard: Leonard. Listen, Bill, do you ever think about why you're here?

Bill: Of course I do. Uhh... or actually no, not really. Why I'm... ahh... what was the question again?

Leonard: Why you're here.

Bill: It depends, really. Where are we?

Leonard: In a goldfish bowl, Bill, see?

Bill: Yes, of course. Umm.. But just a second, what's that? That is the oddest thing...

Leonard: That's a deep-sea diver, Bill. It's okay, it's just ornamental.

Bill: This place is full of surprises, I tell you. Sorry, where were we?

Leonard: In a goldfish bowl. What's the meaning of your life, Bill?

Bill: The meaning of my life? Gosh... I'd have to think about it for a moment, I suppose... umm...

Leonard: I only ask because I've been thinking, and I really want to talk to someone about...

Bill: Look, you know what, I'm sorry, but I'm being distracted by something strange over there...

Leonard: That's a deep-sea diver, Bill. It's an ornament.

Bill: Right. Right. Thanks, umm...

Leonard: Leonard. Look, Bill...

et cetera

the end

to North Park, Sofia, 04.03.13

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:00:00 +0000

The spectre of unfinished work (work, work) cast a pall over the weekend despite blue skies. Still, finding myself unable / unwilling to actually do any of that unfinished work, i set out for Sofia's North Park. As Sofia's parks go, this one is definitely the poor cousin, unless i missed something. i didn't know where i was most of the time, and only checked later on google maps. i found a nice place in Nadezhda for a шкембе. The most interesting place i saw was a suburb under a bridge which passes over a sad little railway station (which turns out to be ЖП гара Връбница). The neighbourhood, which stretches west from ул. Адам Мицкевич, is pretty poor. i didn't hang around there long - i felt chicken after spooky hints of danger from Bulgarian readers. Need to get my Urban Explorer mojo working better than that...

fifty seven hours and twenty minutes

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:04:00 +0000

where has cherry been now? 24.02.13

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:53:00 +0000

Well, it was one of those one-day-weekends this weekend, so i made sure i got out of the house for a while on the trusty steel horse. But where?

i followed the train lines west from централна and discovered a truly quirky old part of town. Cobbled lanes, quaint tumbledown houses, and possibly the scariest подлез in Bulgaria. Where was i? i guess the last picture will give it away. Fascinating to still be finding secret corners of the city after all this time...

died on their birthdays

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:30:00 +0000

Popped their clogs on their birthdays

train to Pernik 18.02.13

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:15:00 +0000

Do you have weekends? i often do. Often, Sunday is my Saturday. Monday is my Sunday. Other times i'm less lucky. i'll be at work at 9.00 am this 'Sunday', for example. Hooray! i can't fucking get enough of work (pardon my French).

So last weekend i tried, as usual, to get out of the house briefly. i decided on a train trip to Pernik. Only 20km (45 mins by train) from Sofia, it is the 11th largest city in Bulgaria.

To be honest it doesn't really have a lot to recommend it. It's an interesting train trip though. Quite near to Pernik the train passes through a disused and partly demolished industrial area. Corroding metal, crumbling concrete, decomposing factories and houses. Loss, ruin, abandonment. A perfect place for those of us who are perversely interested in photographing urban decay, anyway.

So i alighted in Pernik and started walking back the way i had come, looking for the post-apocalyptic landscape i had seen from the train. But i went the wrong way, and didn't find it. Oh well, Pernik is not going anywhere.

More interesting though is a part of Sofia through which the train passes on the way. The area is the Gypsy ghetto in Sofia and is incongruously called факультета (The Faculty).

If the outskirts of Pernik look like a war zone, then The Faculty looks like a piece of the Third World. i'm not sure about the spirit in which this slideshow is offered, but it does give a rare glimpse inside that secret part of the city.

For a long time now i've wanted to visit Факултета, but i haven't really known where it was or even what is was called. i want to do a photo expedition there, but i'm guessing my Bulgarian readers will have something to say about that...

sphinxs. sphinx's. sphinxes.

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:53:00 +0000

For a yellow piece of pie, here's your question: Which 20th century political leader was responsible for more deaths than any other?

'something like the sun fell' 15.02.13

noreply@blogger.com (The Krell) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:52:00 +0000

object crashes into earth / russia

object 'whizzes past earth'

'Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, and revolving at nine hundred miles an hour...'

Gough Whitlam not dead !

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:09:00 +0000

The Whitlam Years - National Archive

this is not a love song

noreply@blogger.com (dick cherry) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:55:00 +0000

Well, it's looking pretty bleak for good old dickcherryheadspace. The site no longer attracts anywhere near as many comments, even from formerly longstanding visitors.

Despite the exodus, the site still draws around 300 pageviews a day, mostly from click-through visitors - just passing through. The sheer volume of content built up over the last 6.5 years ensures that someone lands here from time to time, by accident.

By far the most popular post on this blog is this one with a staggering 17,285 views. In second place with 5264 views is this. In third place at 2721 views, and finally with some original content, is this.*

So anyway i'm thinking i may as well monetise this blog - get some ads on it. i figure if it makes a dollar a day, that's a case of beer and some change for christmas. the only problem is, this blog isn't about anything. Oh well. Greg Fidan looks pretty happy.

i'm going over to the other side
i'm happy to have, not to have not
big business is very wise
i'm inside free enterprise