Pig Sty Avenue

Feeling a bit off colour.

, originally uploaded by Elinesca . He's had his fun, and now his basket, and his blanket awaits him...

This took me back. Feeling nostalgic about a nostalgic telly programme.

What with the name and the history and all that - not to mention the price - you'd expect it to be pretty impressive, eh? And then you look at the results in Flickr ...

Safe way to Gas yer Jalopy up******* ;)) , originally uploaded by BillyWarhol . I read somewhere that a struck match can ignite a bucket of petrol 50 yards away. He isn't aware of that, or doesn't believe it, or doesn't give a shit. Good for him. It's possibly a big philosophical point: are our high health and safety standards symbolic of anything? And am I foolish to look fondly on an age when firemen smelled of whisky and it was weird to be a non-smoker?

Like, hurry up , originally uploaded by miloinredfern . Flickr's made worthwhile when somebody jumps out of the blue, taking real photos. Like this.

Bonty Night , originally uploaded by PigStyAve . Living in Catalonia, I was, at first, stunned by what seemed like a suicidal attitude to fire and fireworks. In a suburb of Barcelona I saw young lads with fireworks strapped to the old, thick coat they were wearing, dancing about. Here, the authorities are much more shitty-arsed about such fun. NB: this photo - of a bonfire on Guy Fawkes night on Calf Close Estate - shows that taking pics of fires has a knack to it which I haven't quite mastered yet.

Not Stopping , originally uploaded by PigStyAve . At Fellgate metro this morning.

Not taken many good photos lately. One reason is, even though I take the camera most places, it usually stays in the bag. So I'm going to take half a dozen photos every day: experiment with light, composition, colour, post processing. See what happens. I had some stupendous news today: will blog about that later.

...about that car boot . Thanks Al!

A link which might help in the future - when I've time to develop the germ of an idea conceived recently.

This is very handy.

pushupglases.jpg , originally uploaded by shveckle . Another classic from shveckle in Brooklyn.

This looks like fun. But surely it will bugger up the flight path?

Your bank manager or a smarmy bully ? I'm delighted, really, that Johnny Boy seems to be about to throw his bunnet into the ring: we should get a right laugh.

That saying pisses me off. It implies that somebody's gotten up before you, and MADE the coffee, whilst you're lying in bed, like Bertie Wooster. This , however, is a great piece of cinema. (You can get it in English, here .)

Jesus, Mohammed and the Buddha walk into a bar, and the barman says, "What is this? Some kind of a joke?" Thanks to Poseypal for the idea .

No, it's a really sharp suit, isn't it? I've always imagined a family resemblance...

There's been some internet blether about San Francisco Values lately, with the Congressional elections imminent. Meanwhile we've just had episode 10 of Series 6 of The Sopranos, with Fat Vito headed back to New Jersey, and all the homophobic gangsters knowing the truth about his sexual preferences. Well, I got to thinking, Tony Soprano could solve what's now become a morale/personnel/equal rights issue by making a call to his Friends in San Francisco, and maybe getting Vito a start over there. He could extort and be a loan shark by day, and go to discos dressed as a short fat member of the Village People by night. What would be wrong with that?

burn , originally uploaded by PigStyAve . We had a right laugh in The Forth on Friday. 5olly had the idea which led to this photo.

, originally uploaded by Chris&Oli . Look at them! Great stuff. Chris&oli's an idiosyncratic photographer. This is one of his/her/their [wtf?] best, imo.

...Please can I have a Nikkor 18-200mm VR II for Christmas? I'll be good. That'd be a brilliant multi-purpose lens. And with the 50mm f1.4 for low light, that'd be me, sorted. For now.

highiso001.jpg , originally uploaded by shveckle . Another gem from my Flickr-pal, Shveckle in Brooklyn. So here's a thought: is New York more photogenic than Tyneside?

The LSC's new priorities sound good. That article ignores the fact that provision for ESOL is going to be severely curtailed . Indeed, the books will now balance nicely. Johnny Boy "The Enforcer" Reid talks tough . But one can wonder whether he had any influence on the LSC's funding decision. During the summer, I spoke to dozens of would-be students from Poland. They were very keen to get free English classes. And if that meant doing a shit job in a strange country for a couple of years, so be it. Romanians and Bulagarians won't get the same chance next year. Well, the Editor of the Daily Mail would no doubt say, Why should the UK taxpayer provide free English lessons for immigrant workers? Well, they'll come here to do the shit jobs, we could give them something useful, the English language, couldn't we? Surely it'd be a Good Thing if ordinary Europeans could communicate with each other. And we wouldn't have to learn Bulgarian. The cha...