Pig Sty Avenue

Nanjing Lu 3 , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . I can't get access to Pig Sty Avenue tonight, the tunnel has gotten very leaky as it passes under the Grating Funwall of Cherubina. I don't know if it's been tweaked or wtf paranoia is felt at the tribulations of Colonel Mustard. But I can still, I think, blog photos from Flickr, (which is more stable here than even taobao, ffs). So here goes. This is the first proper "street" photo. It wants a little better lighting, which is why I need a Holga 120N with a telephone-cord lead to the flash. But I like the composition. The foreground couple were the subject, the tall man to the right and smiling woman to the left are a sheer gift. I've got the negs, of course, which is just as well because the Lomography shop didn't do the full frame as I'd asked. But I'm not carping because they did a good job with a five year out of date roll of film, which must have been rather curly. The description...

date palm and half built house , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . It's to the west of the capital, too far away to be part of Tripoli. If anywhere was home to me in Libya, it was here in Janzur, the first place I stayed. It seems impossible that people are being shot there, it was so respectable. On Thursdays I would go to the internet cafe, print off the best bits of the Guardian website, and read them in a cafe with a burger. I had my first shisha pipe in another cafe, on the main road, which I later realised was knocking shop. I was there when Tony Blair's motorcade went whizzing by. And people are being shot there.

So that's it, they're all on drugs, agents of Al Qaeda, or the CIA, or the BBC, or WTF, sneaking around the homes and cafes of Libya, spiking the kids' drinks, the dirty dogs.  And notice his attempt at a bit of product placement?  Obviously keeping open his former-dictator money-making options open there, a new departure on the CV.  The murdering bastard.

Note to self, for when I get the time.

Khadijateri's blog is not responding this morning, which is probably no coincidence.  And when the regime gets that wanker Saif to speak on its behalf , slouched in his chair, pointing aggressively at the Libyan people whilst he blames drunks and the BBC for the country's current troubles, well, you just know that they're in big trouble.  Good luck to all the good people I know out there.  Stay safe. 

A friend of mine, who'd lived in Thailand for years, suggested I check it out.  A lot of it was shut at 7.30 in the evening.  But you could tell even the closed shops were mostly digital.  And of course, browsing in peace isn't an option in Bangkok: You waan sexy movie? I didn't, I wanted a Holga 120N, thanks very much, but I wasn't going to get it here. And it's hard work to walk anywhere, what with the tuk-tuk drivers hassling you every five yards.  What are they expecting you to say?  "Actually, I was enjoying my evening stroll, but as you mention it so nicely, and your tuk-tuk looks so inviting, I'll come with you!" When I'm safe back home in well-ordered Shanghai, I'll start exploring Taobao , where I can get a 120N for less than 150RMB.  I want the 120N because of the hot shoe.  And I want the hot shoe because the Bruce Gilden approach , after nearly two years of thought, is the way to go, but with a Holga .  So I need one of those t...

I got a bottle of ILFOSOL 3 and some Ilford Rapid Fixer.  Also polythene cover thingummy's for the negs.  And five rolls of Shanghai GP3 120. But on the way home, I shot the roll of HP5+ that I had in the camera.  I get what it is with this Street Photography now.  It's easy in a city like this, which always has a number of numpties and tourists about the place with cameras, and everybody's minding their own business.  I got the whole twelve on the way home, and then mixed up the gear and devd that roll this evening.  I was guessing with the temperature, mind, because I'd forgotten to get a thermometer.  Anyhoo, that first roll is drying now, at first glance I've got it underexposed.  The Measurements were a bit dodgy for the chemicals.  I had two 500 ml containers, White Kat washing up liquid, and the peach-brandy, I think it is, bottle, which has a label with the picture of a sad faced man in the middle of it.  They were 500ml, but...

Best gif I've seen since I don't know when. 

That's about 4' from the earth to the tip of that highest leaf there.  It was going begging at work.  I don't know anything of its history.  Getting it home in the taxi was a bit of a struggle.  I waited ages for a taxi outside the office, I couldn't exactly decide to try my luck at a different spot.  Anyway, a taxi duly came, and the driver thought it was funny, anyhow.  We were nearly back, turning into Shaanxi Lu, when it tipped over.  It just lost a bit of soil, the plant was fine, but there was this wee patch of earth on the offside passanger's floor.  Meanwhile the taxi driver has driven up as close as I can persuade him to the apartment entrance, and the security guard comes up to give him a bad time, so I pay him in the midst of this, and he gets away before noticing all the soil off the plant.  I feel a bit bad about that, but you know, taxis. Anyway, I don't know what you'd call it, and therefore can't google for its care.  I...

underneath caoyang lu bridge , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . It took me ages to find this on the map for Flickr, which isn't very detailed at all for Shanghai. But the satellite is ok, so I went between google maps and the map on Flickr until I worked out where this bridge was. Coolio. Which, by making things a bit difficult, will actually help the process of getting the bigger picture. Or something. This is quite near the flower market. The satellite photo as of today is a bit old, there was demolition work there, with the church surrounded by cranes .

I found this place on the way back from church a couple of weeks ago.  It was staffed by French speaking adolescents.  Eventually I got someone's attention and found that they did processing.  120?  Yes.  Cross-processing?  Indeedy.  Black and White?  Of course.  Wow.  So I went back this morning this time en-route to church, with an exposed roll of Fujichrome E6.  And, as you can see it was shut.  Well, it IS a big holiday. Someone at work had told me about a big photographic market, and coincidentally it's quite near St Peter's.  I'd gone looking for it a couple of weeks ago, no luck, but I've sharpened up my Shanghai streets/google map skills since then, so I found it fine this morning, about 3/4 of a mile south of the church on Luban and Xietu Lu. Three quarters of it was shut, presumably because of the hols, which was probably just as well as I'd have been there all day.  It's amazing, like all the camera shop...

I walked past it at first, but that was ok because it meant that I found a market which was like the Tripoli Souk meets a slasher movie on acid, with chickens, carp, eels and crabs, all on death row. And then I found a lovely park, crowded with people.  I was the only westerner there, so far as I could tell.  There was a lady singing, people dancing, people milling around.  I can't find the name of the park now, (google maps is great at telling you where the nearest mcnumpty's is, but not the names of parks). I can tell you there's a wee bus terminus which it shares with The East China Unversity of Politics and Law, and that the 921 bus will take you there. Anyway, I retraced my steps back from the park, and got my bearings again from the river.  It's interesting how our spatial sense of topography needs two or three passes, from different directions, to get us oriented.  And then I found it, lurking behind a car park, almost opposite the church I blogged abou...

wanhangdu lu church , originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue . I'm trying to crop to the golden ratio, but this looks a bit skinny, so maybe I did something wrong in photoshop. I don't know what denomination this church is. It looks as if it's being maintained, though perhaps mothballed as it's on the edge of huge building site. The two churches I've been into in Shanghai, St Theresa's and St Peters, both Catholic, have been divided into three floors, so that the actual church is now up in the roof. I think that's because they were turned into factories during the Cultural Revolution, and presumably didn't need all that height. And when they became churches again, maybe someone thought, hi, this is ok as it is.

It was good to have been here at New Year.  You realize how much of Shanghai's population is made up of migrant workers who went home for the holiday when you see how many flats are in darkness, nights.  And the streets are quiet, just the foreigners and Shanghainese. It reminded me of being in Barcelona in August, it gave a sense of belonging. And the year really has turned, New Year's day itself was the mildest and sunniest day we've had since I got here in December.  This morning, the third day of the year, with a 4% waxing crescent moon, it's lovely and sunny and mild and I've not put the wee electric bar fire on for once. I'm going to check out the flower market at the end of Wanhangdu Road, see if there are plant pots and compost for the herb seeds I brought from Scotland.  A previous occupant of the flat had left a load of twigs, over a yard long, tied to a pipe in the utility room. One's a woody, a bit like birch, and the rest are green and stick...

Check out Boy's latest thing, Just the Universe . The Mandarin voice over is coincidental in any direct sense to my current location.  I'm told that the young lady is a fan of Tom Waits.  Or something.  Enjoy.   

To employ the initialisms beloved of ex-pats.  This makes any fireworks I've seen before look paltry, and I once lived in Blanes, Catalunya where they have a firework festival.  It seems that ordinary people go out and set off displays that would only be available to the city council back home.  And it's been non-stop since dusk.  The firecrackers in the street are seriously heavy duty, I wish there was some way to get them back home and impress our teddy bear neighbours come Guy Fawkes' night. 

...as a big rubbery kind of wall, that you keep bumping into, and being bounced off, and then you fall through it, and over it, and under it and then find you were in the same place all the time, as if you'd been on mushrooms.  Or something.  Even with a service tunnel, f**k***k and twa**er are still unobtainable, though these posts seem to be getting through to them, thanks Anna.  Not that I'm complaining, mind, these things go with the territory, but being a blogger I need to blog about tinternet stuff.