Pig Sty Avenue

127 Roll Film

2012-01-26T08:45:00.001Z

If I get a Kodak Brownie Reflex, (my first camera), I'm going to need 127. I think I've still got the Ilford Sporti 4 around, somewhere, too. Anyways, these are the best prices I've seen for 127.

GEM camera bag

2012-01-24T14:00:00.002Z

Arrived this morning. It's got the F, the FED2, the Isolette 2, the Holga, nine rolls of film, flash with ttc cable... And room to spare. There's space for a laptop, too. Splendid.

The Elms, Saltcoats

2012-01-23T15:42:00.001Z

1st time in years. A wee bit cheerier than I remember it.

A Flickr Epiphany

2012-01-23T14:01:00.000Z

I've never blogged about it much, but a fair chunk of my internet time the last seven years or so has been spent on Flickr, and especially the DMU groups and their various offshoots. Enough. I won't go in to the details, but having this post from Jeremy Nichols' blog, (now on the blogroll) drawn to my attention this morning was definitely the last straw.

I would need to deconstruct the twists and turns of internet discourse, the dealings one has had with the painfully inadequate sociopaths who people or have peopled the DMUs, over the course of these seven years to explain it all, but that blog post crystallized it: there's photography on planet Earth, and there's photography in cyberspace. And frankly, most of the latter is gash, and to be avoided in future.

Flickr's ok for checking on details, chatting with and staying in touch with the handful of genuine pals I've made there, but that's it. You judge a man by the company he keeps.

Photography: Next

2012-01-22T12:13:00.000Z

I'm going to Russia next month for a few days, so I got the FED2 out and remembered having a downer on it, or its Industar61 lens when I used it last summer - but I looked at the photos, like the one above, and they're ok, for Fuji Superia and Dock Head St shop processing. And then one thing led to another and I got to thinking about the cameras I have and want to keep and wtf I'm going with photography.

Anyways, the Nikon F will be the main camera for now, though I might get an F5 later in the year. All manner of lenses and filters, too, of course. I'll keep the FED2, also, having mended its light leak and bonded with it somewhat in the process. I'll maybe get some better LTM lenses for it. For MF I'll manage with the Agfa Isolette folder until I can afford a Hasselblad 500. And of course the Holga, the one I paid over the odds for in China, I love it - strong vignetting yet very sharp in the middle of the image. The Ilford Sportis were a wee college course in themselves, I'll keep them.

I've bought a rucksack camera bag (it also carries a laptop) this morning, and I'm looking at a slightly ropey Manfrotto tripod on eBay. So the equipment situation is sorting itself out.

I need to learn lots more, and get some new ideas. My mate Cliff put me on to this Vimeo site, Develop Photo. The Bicycle Cart People will probably be the first project with the F, when I'm back in Shanghai.

Wratten Numbers

2012-01-19T20:10:00.001Z

I've bought a couple of sets of cheap 52mm filters, and altogether I've now got five colour ones for B&W, a UV, a PL, and a purple one, (to use in fluorescent light). I can't believe now that I gave away or ebayed all the good ones I had, when I went all Leica and medium format, swearing I'd never get an SLR again. Heigh ho. But now I'm back with and SLR, and I need to get to grips with this whole subject. The only ones I really understand are Red, UV and PL.

Learning the Wratten numbers, and watching out for Hoyas and B+Ws on eBay will be a good way into it: the learning process, I've found, is enhanced when the concept you're learning about is embodied in an object you're going to shell out for with some of the old hard earned. Pre AI lenses, ditto.

#Vada a bordo, cazzo!

2012-01-19T14:37:00.001Z

Where can I get the T-shirt?

Nice lighting

2012-01-18T11:09:00.001Z

On train Edinburgh to Glasgow.

Stuff SOCA

2012-01-18T09:51:00.001Z

Anything supported by that bastard Murdoch can't be good for you.

Updated Blogger Interface

2012-01-16T20:10:00.001Z

And dynamic views? Shite!

Good to be back. I've been trying to puzzle out the updated UI for weeks. Can't do anything I want, like chatting with my mates in the blogroll, and using The Avenue as a reference. Normal Service Has Been Resumed.

EDIT 19/01/2012: Chris, I don't know wtf is happening with that comment you left, but everytime I try to comment in reply, I get a page lock, back-button won't work, the whole thing. Is this some mad anti-linux thing blogger are pulling, or what?

Filters

2012-01-15T19:51:00.000Z

Thanks to Ma®tini for this link to a test of all kinds of UV filters. I've paid £14 for a set of the five main colour filters for black and white photography, and was wondering about the enormous price differences between them and well known brand names. So this is a note-to-self to look at the results of those tests, when I've time. And I'll assume that whoever makes the best UVs makes the rest of their filters as good.

More F-ing fun

2012-01-14T13:25:00.000Z

That's the converted church in Dockhead St, Saltcoats, now without a tenant. It's on Fujicolor 200iso. I'm using the F in all kinds of situations, with cheap colour film developed at the shop, until I get the hang of it. And then get back to b&w and my own developing, with a range of films from 100 to 3200iso. I'm going to need a good bag and a tripod. And at some point this year I might go all the way and get an F5. Or maybe an F4, because, if I'm skim-reading things right, I could use both old pre-A1 lenses, and the newest ones, and everything in between.

My mate Stewy

2012-01-11T22:05:00.001Z

In a pub in Victoria.

You can't get much work done on these Virgin trains...

2012-01-09T18:18:00.001Z

Not when they keep plying you with free drink. Forsooth.

You Sent Me Flying

2012-01-08T22:11:00.001Z

Amy Winehouse. Yesterday in the evening; 5.20am; and again around midday, suddenly blasting out from the new HTC Wildfire S phone. It's not a ringtone or alarm, and the music player isn't running. The only way to stop it is to switch the phone off.

Me and My F

2012-01-08T13:47:00.001Z

Me and My F, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

That's from the 2nd roll with the F. Couple of things: first, I really don't like Kodak Ultra Max 400iso - very grainy, and the colours shifted noticeably for the better when I hit auto-correct in PS - which shouldn't happen with good film. I'm thinking of giving up on this flirtation with colour and concentrating on Neopan.

The second thing is, I'm not getting the focus right when there's a narrow dof, when I'm at f1.4. I've just found out from my mate Martini that the eyepiece-thread on modern high-end DSLRs is the same size as the F3 - and presumably the F. So I can buy one of these reading-specs style eyepieces and actually see what I'm snapping properly, which frankly I can't do now, with or without the specs.

Infra Red

2011-12-31T10:58:00.000Z

This has been on the agenda for years, and I can do it now with an SLR. Here's some craic.

Nikon F 1st Roll

2011-12-30T22:09:00.001Z

Nikon F 1st Roll, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

First roll was mostly portraits of the bairn, and family Christmas morning stuff, so I won't be publishing any of them except this one.

But I'm content for now - the light meter seems to be working. It wants a good old run out in different conditions, though. And I need to see about getting an eyepiece, maybe a slightly magnified one, so I don't need the glasses. Not sure, at the moment, if the eyepiece thread is the same size on the Fs as the Ds.

The hockey puck has hit the back of the net

2011-12-20T15:21:00.001Z

I've had a couple of hours to look at all the settings and play around with them. What a beaut. Not as heavy as I'd thought, but nontheless the most substantial camera I've ever held. Against all expectation, the meter seems to work - though I won't know for sure until I've had a film through it, of course. But the wee needle moves in neat wee steps as one opens or closes the aperture, or shifts the shutter speed. And the photomic finder isn't as ungainly as it appears in photos. I've had a look at the batteries, they're Kodak, alkaline, 625. I've a feeling I'll get them when I'm back in Shanghai. Sorted. If only I could get out and buy a bloody film. The only 35mm I've got are the three rolls left over from the Old Film Project, and I want something more stable to check the light meter. Patience!

More Photomic Meter Craic

2011-12-20T07:45:00.000Z

This thread in the Nikon_F group on Flickr gives some illumination. One poster reckons the problem is "the ring resistor which is of a design that if cracked or worn thru stops functioning". Naturally, he gives no source for that, but maybe it's this page on the somewhat eccentric Michael Liu F site, where he says the "universally reviled" ring resistor informs the meter of the aperture, and that it "is irreplaceable if it gets dirty (and scratched) or cracked.".

Although the meter is/was a very good one, it wouldn't be the end of the world if it wasn't working. It's aesthetically dubious, and anyway using a meter is overrated. No doubt a meterless (or eye-level) finder (or prism), can be gotten in due course. That's part of the point of getting an F, the modularity.

Nikon F Photomic FTn & a 50mm f1.4

2011-12-19T23:55:00.003Z

My Flickrpal Cliff tipped me off to a bargain on Ffordes today, and I was soon hitting the "confirm" button. It has the f1.4 lens with it, and that was the clincher. Camera and lens should be here tomorrow. There were a few other Fs on Ffordes, more expensive, with the warning that "meter not working", whereas mine said "meter irratic [sic]". I'm keeping my fingers crossed it can be fixed, because the meter sounds like an absolute peach, (click through on that link for instructions on setting it up). The batteries are the obsolete 625s, but adaptors can be had here, so you can use 675 hearing aid batteries.

The camera in the photo isn't the one I bought. It belonged to Don McCullin, and is on display in the IWM in Manchester because it saved the photographer's life when it took a bullet from an AK47 in Cambodia in 1970. You can see the damage, but it still looks just about usable with bit of repair work. That's the kind of camera I'm getting.

An F-ing mine of information...

2011-12-19T10:05:00.000Z

...is to be found on Richard de Stoutz's site.

Analog

2011-12-13T14:53:00.001Z

A Nikon F. A turntable. Digital's shite. It's one of those weird things, my kids seem to agree with me.

I'm thinking of settling down with a proper camera...

2011-12-11T13:17:00.013Z

...like the hockey puck. Since I went back to analog, it's been rangefinders, MF folders, 1960s plastic, and Holgas. Now feels like the time to get an SLR again. My first one, was a Nikon EM, and for reasons too complicated and lost-in-the past, I had hold of it and took a few snaps for the first time in twenty odd years lately. It really is, I can see now, "beginners level". The F would, on the other hand, be a real pro camera, but a stylish one with its place in history. Dependable in all situations, which I can't say for any of the other cameras I've been using lately. But mix them all together and maybe you'd get the Nikon F. I've also missed the ability to use a PL filter.

It's one of those things, I'm asking myself, why didn't I think of this before? A quick scout around eBay suggests a price of £150 - perhaps including a lens, if I'm patient. And all the lenses and other bits of kit, won't break the bank one at a time... A Leica M might have the edge photographically speaking, but those prices, eyebrows would get raised, domestically speaking. Apart from the financial aspect, there must have been good practical reasons for press photographers preferring it to Leica during the 60s. AND, in The Rum Diaries, camera and Nikon are synonymous.

The Nikon_F group on Flickr isn't particularly populous or noisy, which is odd, as 7 to 800,000 were made, and you'd have thought more floating around still, as they're said to be so tough. Any number of reasons for that one.

Fuji Provia 2nd 4

2011-12-10T11:07:00.001Z

Fuji Provia 2nd 4, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

I took this with the Holga a few weeks ago. There was some weird quality in the light, with the moon behind cloud - you often get that in Shanghai.

I thought I'd made a note of the exposure time, but I can't find it.

Strange how I've fallen out of love with Shangahi the last few months, and haven't taken many photos. Been busy with work, too.

2011-09-19T16:09:00.000+01:00

There were people tonight, in orange jackets, going around the wee road in front of the flat, shining torches backwards and forwards across the ground. What else were they looking for but frogs? There are plenty around just now, with ponds nearby. And are they, like, municipal workers, collecting the frogs to put them helpfully by a pond? Or are they operating for a firm that supplies to a restaurant in the French Concession? I really need to learn Chinese, so I can ask about this stuff.

Seven Spheres Conceptualize a New Jerusalem

2011-08-27T15:34:00.001+01:00

I'm putting David Harvey's blog on the blogroll. I've just finished the book, The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism. It's an analysis of the current crisis which owes a lot to, but is not uncritical of, classic Marxism. Made a lot of sense, though I want to chase up some of what's said. The model he puts forward of "different but interrelated 'activity spheres'" is interesting. They are:

techs and organizational forms
"social relations"
admin and institutional arrangements
labour/production processes
relations with the Earth.
"reproductions of daily life and the species"
"mental conceptions of the world"

The central thesis is that we can't understand capitalistic processes, including the ones that led us to this current crisis, without understanding its operations across the activity spheres. It follows that any revolutionary movement intent upon expropriating capital must work across all seven. Which is to simplify it somewhat, because this all takes place against a background he likens to watching, by satellite, worldwide weather systems playing out across the globe, with storms here and calm spells there, just as capital moves around the globe.

And the activity-spheres is a great conceptual model to take out for a drive when you're reading the news and thinking WTF?

2011-08-20T17:11:00.001+01:00

That's from the last roll of b&w I'm going to be using in a while. I quite like the way it looks, though - it has a 1950s feel, which is appropriate to the anachronism of Marx and Engels standing there so proudly in rampantly capitalist Shanghai, 2011.

I used to love b&w, and I still do in old photos. But for the times we live in, I've just gotten bored with it. Bruce Gilden said, (in the youtube linked here) that he thinks in black and white. I don't. I even dream in colour - and I certainly do think in colour. And cross processing approximates to the way I do that - true colours just don't correlate with what I think we see in our imagination and in our dreams.

Nevertheless, I won't be using Fujichrome Velvia anymore. I've tried overexposing somewhat, but I'm still getting too much red:

I like the way it's got the green of her bag, but the rest is just far too red. I bought five rolls of 100iso Provia in London. I used one there and that's in the Lomography shop in Shanghai getting developed. I got five rolls because it's no good dotting around with all different films - cameras, ditto - I'm going to concentrate on the Holga and on Provia for the next several months, until I get the hang of them both.

Meanwhile, my New Big Idea is for portraits where the subject holds the flash themselves. I've taken a few and I'm starting to refine the concept. The flash is too strong for 100iso. But I'm going to ask the subject to put something over the flash - a bit of paper from their pocket, a handkerchief, or whatever. The reason for that is that, like holding the flash, they're collaborating in the process, not sitting passively. I'm also going to ask them to put their other hand in the frame, too. What they do with it is up to them.

"I don't have a problem with a brief temporary shutdown of social media "

2011-08-13T10:18:00.000+01:00

Idiots like Louise Mensch (and her increasingly rabid and stupid looking boss) really just don't get it, do they? If there's really no problem shutting down social network sites to stop rumours circulating, then why not close down the mobile phone system, switch off domestic broadband, even impose a general curfew? People elected to represent us really should think before blethering.

Babylon's Burnin'

2011-08-09T20:44:00.000+01:00

Well, Muifa may have passed by with little effect in Shanghai, but here I am now in London and it feels like a war zone. A taxi driver told me 30 cabs were torched last night, and a driver was dragged out and robbed. He didn't sound like a gobshite. Banks shut in the City. A pub I went to in Holborn, the barman was lamenting their lack of shutters, and weilding a big old docker's crowbar in jocular fashion. The hotel bar has stowed it's picnic tables from outside. There are rather naive looking coppers on the streets. Plenty of hurry up wagons chasing around with sirens going.

But it feels like, if a large enough number of people decide to go late night shopping with manhole covers, who's to stop them? The police, as the kids know, are lying, cowardly bullies, who appear to maintain law and order by means of an age old confidence trick. Perhaps the bluff is being called.

More Fun With #Muifa

2011-08-06T17:32:00.001+01:00

Here's the BBC.

The wind's picking up now, late Saturday. The white clouds, orange in the streetlights, are racing across the sky, in a southerly direction. Work has stopped on the apartment block over the way, but the workers are still in their tin accommodation. We've cleared the balcony of everything except the big planter which once had mint, but now has a solitary borage plant: it can handle a typhoon. Car alarms keep going off.

#muifa

2011-08-06T08:01:00.000+01:00

There's an unusually strong breeze, and, even more unusual, it's cool. When it drops, the temperature feels only a little lower than normal. There's a strong charge of electricity in the air. Some emergency cropping is being done on a tree in the carpark. But Jing'an's a place with a lot of trees, all heavily in leaf. It might be my imagination, but there was more eye contact and cheeriness when we went out for lunch and then shopping just now. We've got plenty of stuff in, especially water, porridge, eggs, noodles.

Typhoon Muifa

2011-08-05T13:09:00.000+01:00

Men were unloading sandbags at the apartment block this afternoon. The building work on the block across the road has had all of its tarpaulins taken down, and there's some welding going on tonight, which I've never noticed before. There was a car passing down the road, with a woman's voice through a megaphone. My Chinese is negligible, I'm sorry to say, so it could have been a government warning, or just someone selling something. But it sounded like the former. We got an email from work, advising us to stock up and then stay in. I need to get all the plants, window boxes, and wee table and chairs in off the balcony, tomorrow. It's due to land on Sunday. What larks, eh?

Drawjerky...

2011-08-05T02:42:00.002+01:00

...has gone The Way of All Blogs.

But now there's Linouke.

Who's Going to Spill the Beans?

2011-07-17T14:59:00.002+01:00

Given their profession, I suppose most of the alleged malefactors in the Murdoch implosion will write memoirs exculpating themselves and blaming others, a process that begins when a person is being interviewed under caution. Brooks has been arrested today - by appointment, but arrested all the same, under suspicion of intercepting communications, and on suspicion of breaching s1 PCA 1906, which last is heavy, if it's true.

You must wonder if anyone of those in trouble is going to make a clean breast of it, and dob everyone else in for good luck, in behopes of their remorse giving them a bit of credit when it comes to sentencing. After all, these aren't people whose loyalty is likely to linger on once the legal shit hits their own liberty's fan.

The Daily Mirror 9/11 victim story does look extremely flimsy. On the face of it, guy A in bar tells guy B that he's an ex copper PI, and some limey reporters rang him back in the day wanting to get 9/11 victims' numbers, and he told them to take a flying fuck.... and yeah, I'll have another, and the next morning guy B rings an old mate at the Mirror. I'm not saying that's how it went, but it might be as slim as that. On the other hand, it might be true, and guy A might decide it's in his interest to to co-operate with the sharp looking people from the FBI who want to talk to him. In which case, the game's up.

Frankly, though, the best we can hope for is that marginally more scrupulous capitalists pick up the News Corps pieces. And maybe that Milliband has grown a pair, meanwhile. Best of all, if Sky is owned by someone else, I can give up my boycott and watch more football of a weekend.

The Botanist; the ruinous cost of deving in Chelsea; more fun with flash and x-rays

2011-07-12T00:30:00.000+01:00

The doorman at The Botanist tonight wouldn't let me smoke a cigar outside the front of the pub because people didn't like the smell, "neither do I", he said, even though he'd just been smoking a cigarette himself. I asked the two young Frenchmen standing there if they objected, and they seem nonplussed at the very idea. He made me stand around the corner, where two City blokes seemed unhappy with the cigar, unlike the Frenchmen. It was annoying, but more interesting as an example of arbitrary use of power. I think his accent was eastern European, and I'm normally resident in China, and we find our way to Sloane Square to have this dispute.

At Snappy Snaps on the King's Road, I learned that it costs £9-something to dev a roll of 120, and the same again to scan it. So the roll I've got in the camera will wait until I get back to Shanghai, as will any others I shoot here. That roll in the camera has been through the x-ray on the Shanghai subway, Pudong, KL and Heathrow airports, and it'll go through Heathrow and Pudong again. Which is a good reason for not spending nearly £20 on deving it. It's also an experiment.

The Hard Rock Cafe in KL charges 20-odd ringgit for a beer, which is about £4. There were some pseudo bikers in there, and one of them threw up all over the floor with the drink. He must have spent the equivalent of a working class local's wages for a month to get into that state. Whilst there, though, I got an idea for using the flash for portraits. Watch this space for the results of that, and the x-rays.

"The amazing News of the World team..."

2011-07-09T15:52:00.000+01:00

There's a picture of them here.

And this is how those "amazing people" operate.

Kuala Lumpur

2011-07-09T12:49:00.003+01:00

The symposium ended at lunchtime on Friday, yesterday, and we were advised to head for the airport straightaway, even though our flight wasn't until 1am. That seemed a bit overcautious, but we did go at 9pm. And got straight there, the driver going very fast indeed. The airport was like any other airport, late at night. I'd been out for a dish of humus and a shisha pipe at the Egypt Cafe on Bintang Walk in the afternoon, walked there, and got the metro back to the hotel, and there was no atmosphere, just tourists. But I didn't go anywhere else. The night before, in the same street, there was some shouting, and some police showed up, but I couldn't see what was happening, and it died down. That area seemed to have a lot of Arab and some western tourists. Friendly place, well, the Malaysians at the symposium, waiters and taxi drivers were all friendly.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43694046/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

Too loud, man.

2011-07-07T18:00:00.002+01:00

Getting There

2011-07-03T14:28:00.000+01:00

This is I took when I came out of the camera mart place with the new telephone-cord flash lead. I have no idea what was going on. Five lassies who looked like they'd been at some dream of a dressing up box, and a load of chimpers snapping them. I don't know where the gadgie on the left came from, but I don't think he was as threatening as he looks. The eyelines are a gift. I'm not sure about the top third of it.

This was early afternoon on a cloudy day. There were other flashes going off, so it might not be a true indication of how this flash works.

But I'm happy if it's like this. The furthest figure is about 10ft from where I was standing. The nearest is about 4ft, and the light's a bit strong there. Or is it? And this was 100iso, mind... Difficult to draw any conclusions the noo but it's looking promising.

This goes to show the received wisdom that xpro colour shifts are less pronounced with over exposure and with flash. I don't know what was done when this was dev'd and scanned - as little as possible, probably. Which is interesting.

The next roll in is Provia. And it went through the x-ray machine at Jing'an Temple subway station this morning, as did another roll of Velvia which was already exposed. I mention it now as a note-to-self - see if they come out foggy or not. Never had foggy film going through airports.

Shanghai Cycling: Hardcore

2011-06-18T04:13:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago, because it was raining, I decided to take a taxi. Of course, all the other fair-weather cyclists had the same idea, so I hung around ages waiting for one, and got to work late, stressed, soaking wet and breakfastless. Never again.

So a couple of times this week, I've had to deploy the rain cape. Yesterday in particular was a real subtropical downpour. It was fine, though. Less bikes than usual, and everyone was being slower and more careful. I've realised, though, that the rain cape is a bit too small for me, and why does it have sleeves in it?

And this bloke is supposed to be in charge of education...

2011-06-18T02:36:00.000+01:00

He just opens his mouth, and stuff comes out. Whose law of thermodynamics?

Tuk - Tuk

2011-06-15T17:12:00.001+01:00

Tuk - Tuk, originally uploaded by g!ft.

But look at this one! Velvia 50, no flash, hardly a red to be seen. Wonder what time of day it was?

B68848_12

2011-06-15T16:42:00.002+01:00

B68848_12, originally uploaded by nadangergeo.

I've had an evening of it, trying to get the flash to work on the Holga, it's an FN, mind. It's not going to happen. So I've gone mad and paid over the odds for a 120N online. See, I've got a 1970s flash gathering dust in the cupboard, and I want to use the three rolls of Fuji Velvia that have been in various fridges across the world.

This nadangergeo is using a 120N with flash but with Provia xproed. Be interesting to try double x-ing a white person with dark hair and clothes, to see what occurs with Velvia. More redness, probably, but let's see.

holga st weird shit happened here

2011-06-13T15:12:00.001+01:00

holga st weird shit happened here, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

The flash hasn't been working either. I've just read this thread on flickr. Tin foil and tape it looks like. It's a weak wee flash I know, but it should be enough to illuminate faces a bit in daylight.

Holga Modification - do it yourself how to

2011-06-13T14:58:00.001+01:00

Holga Modification - do it yourself how to, a set by The Daily Ornellas on Flickr.

Seeing as it's the only game in town, I'm learning to love the Holga. This is a great set on Flickr with the mods. I didn't even know about this thing with the aperture until tonight.

What a Numpty!

2011-06-08T21:58:00.000+01:00

All that gobshiting about the Agfa, and I went and left it hanging from a chair in Saltcoats.

No good crying over spilt milk. I'll get it in due course, and learn to love the Holga again meanwhile. Speaking of which, its weak flash might just be enough to illuminate faces in daylight in the street.

Agfa Isolette II

2011-06-05T09:23:00.000+01:00

The camera would appear to be unusual, in being an Isolette II with a Solinar lens and a Prontor-SV shutter, (with a 1/300 top speed) . I gather from the references online that the lens is high-end, but not the shutter. Considering its age, it's in remarkable condition.

I've already had 7 rolls of black and white film through it, (EFKE and HP5) and the quality's consistent. My mate Cliff sent me a roll of Fujichrome Velvia a while back, and I've loaded that. I've got another three rolls of the same in the fridge in Shanghai. I've used Velvia before, and was disappointed with the dominant red hues, but I'm going to try overexposing and/or using flash.

This will be THE camera, until further notice.

W.Germany 1 - 0 USSR

2011-06-04T08:43:00.000+01:00

One big advantage of the FED2 is that it's 35mm, which means I can get it dev'd in Dock Head St, or ASDA, or wtf, when I'm home. But mostly, we're in Shanghai, and I've not noticed anywhere doing cheap hassle free 35mm dev'ing. And I've been looking at the old photos on Flickr: the ones I like best are the Agfa Isolette II: sharp enough, and the flash works. The thing is with the Agfa, it ain't no point-and-shoot: there's the door to open, the film to wind on, the shutter to cock, the flash to put in the shoe and plug in, the distance to estimate... The FED2, on the other hand, can be used much more quickly and casually. But I'm developing a notion to get into a situation with a good background, and see what Shanghai throws into the foreground: in other words, to wait for the subjects to come to me. In which case, it's more appropriate to take one's time. The Visible Photographer and all that. Also, I don't think I'll take the scanner with me, I'll go to the Lomography shop: a Shanghai apartment is a dusty place to do processing.

still not got my photo-mojo back

2011-06-02T22:29:00.000+01:00

This was about the best of a bad roll. Fuji Superia, 400iso. Very grainy. KB6 filter, which I found in a drawer, and used just because it was there. I took a few shots of the highly photogenic Melbourne Cafe, but none of them made it past photoshop. I've got the f-stop/shutter-speed/iso automaticity back with the FED2, but not I'm not able yet to compensate for the inaccuracy of the frame size you get through the diopter - the frame is actually bigger that what you see.

I've just done a quick search, and it would appear that I've forgotten that the FED2's flash isn't synching. Bugger. Looks like I'm going to have to take it apart after all. Heigh ho. It ought to be worth the effort: a Soviet camera in Communist China's bizarrely capitalist and biggest city. And I've still got a couple of rolls of Tito era EFKE somewhere. If that can't get the photo-mojo back, nothing can.

Home

2011-05-31T08:24:00.000+01:00

Freedom, as someone once observed, is like the taste of potatoes.

Fuxing Park

2011-05-29T21:24:00.002+01:00

Being at the utter limit of the baggage allowance when I first went to Shanghai, I could only take the Holga, and of course I had the camera-phone I took this on. On a visit home I'm picking up the FED2 with its Industar 61 lens. And I'm going to go Street and Somewhat Surreal. I'm going to revisit this scene, for starters.

Also, I've been through the Flickr account and privatized most of the content, publishing only the ones I like, and they are SSS. And I've left all the annoying groups. Voila. This feels somehow significant, photographically speaking.

Chelsea - v - Newcastle United

2011-05-14T03:19:00.000+01:00

I'm just looking at our team sheet, and you know, next season's going to be fine. Just look at that injured list, man. Get those lads off the sofa, with a half-way decent new striker, and we'll be away with it. As for tomorrow, a point at Stamford Bridge would be nice. I won't get to see it, because it clashes with Shenhua v Tianjin, which I'll be watching irl.

Snotty Nosed Polis

2011-05-12T13:08:00.000+01:00

Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think this is specific to Jarrow. It means and officious, bad-mannered person, little Hitler, is equivalent in Standard British English. The story from my dad is that Jarrow was the place where all probation coppers were sent to finish their training - I don't know if that was before or after the Northumbria police were established. So the town was infested with nervous, aggressive young people in uniform who didn't belong-Jarra.

There was also the phrase, half-a-polis, an insulting term for a park keeper or any official in uniform.

The first syllable in polis has a short vowel, like Polly, and the second is schwa + /s/ . [I'm buggered if I can remember the keyboard shortcuts I set ages ago for the IPA. Which is interesting in itself.]

A Lengthy Stay in a Tripoli Hotel

2011-05-07T02:28:00.000+01:00

Felt a bit like this. Of course, I wasn't a journalist, and there wasn't a war on back then, but there was still a vast craziness. Like the hotel clerk, sitting chatting to his friend, would see you coming and start to write in a ledger in front of him. As you asked him for the key to your room, or for an extra blanket or whatever, he'd carry on writing and ignoring you. When you asked again, without looking up, he'd shout "Passport!" Happy days. Whoever could want such a lovely regime to change?

Gonzo Language Testing

2011-05-06T14:22:00.001+01:00

The reason to allow a candidate to hear a sound text twice is, that's what you do in real life. If someone says something to you, and you weren't paying attention, it's ok to ask them to repeat it, once. Think about it. To need to hear it a third time would be tiresome and inappropriate and indicate hearing impairment.

Shanghai Balcony Gardening V

2011-04-27T14:04:00.000+01:00

The parsley showed up a few days ago, but no sign whatsoever of the sage, rosemary, lovage or lavender. Basil's very slow. The mint is 90% dead, and four or five of the borage have germinated. The thyme, I'll prick out next weekend. This weekend I did the geraniums, I've got seven altogether. I bought at bag of garden soil from Mr Mint. 35 kuai, (which seemed a bit steep); about half a hundredweight, more than enough to be getting on with. Mr M suggested a packet of bonemeal, 5 kuai, so I got some. I think he's got perlite there, too, but that's for another day - I was heavy laden with the bag of earth.

The paper cups I was using for seedlings are no good - they get waterlogged and slimey round the bottom. Now I've got translucent plastic cups, half filled with soil, holes with a kitchen knife in the lower rim, the bit nearest the water. My theory is with them, the plastic will let in the light and keep off some, but not all, of the wind. And you can see when the roots are growing enough for them to be potted on. I'm trying that with the geraniums, anyhow, in earth with a wee bit of compost and bonemeal mixed through it.

Weather's very variable. No thermometer, but it must be up to 30C in the day, cooler at night. There was a colossal explosion of thunder and torrential rain in the night.

Shanghai Balcony Gardening IV

2011-04-17T14:13:00.003+01:00

The thyme's sprouting like crazy. The basil, just started showing today. I've pricked out three geraniums. Also today, two improvised half-trays: I cut in half, lengthways, the box a small cafetiere came in, sellotaped the two halves where the folded ends of the original design were rebelling, and then sellotaped in and around small carrier bags to make them waterproof. Voila. Both filled with compost from the flower market. One wee tray of lavender, one of lovage. The lavender is var. "Munster", and the packet says to plant it indoors, but everything's on the balcony, this weather. Which, incidentally, is variable - from a hot English Summer day to a cold English Spring day. Nights, I don't think we'll get a late frost.

Shanghai Balcony Gardening III

2011-04-10T07:27:00.003+01:00

Shanghai Balcony Gardening III, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

The Great Firewall is fettlesome this morning, somehow managing to block Blogger, even through the tunnel. Flickr's always fine, though.

Yesterday I took the bike to the wee place on the corner that mends bikes, got the saddle lowered, the brakes adjusted and the chain oiled. I was after the bicycle equivalent of a 10,000 mile service, and had the Chinese for that written down, but the man in the bike place said it didn't need it. He asked how long I'd had it, but remained impassive when I said a month. I asked if he thought it was a good bike, and he shook his head and laughed and said, No, it was Chinese. He said I should get a Japanese bike if I wanted a good one. I think this was probably a sincere opinion, as the place didn't sell bikes, so he had no ulterior motive. And, as fond of the bike as I am, he has a point: it's a bit cumbersome if, for example, you're trying to negotiate a narrow way with a basket full of shopping, up a slope, with a sharp turn at the top.

I then peddled on to the flower market, and bought a couple of bags of compost, some 6" plant pots, and some liquid fertiliser, (12 9 9 N P K, which is cool).

Back home, I sowed more rocket, plus parsley, and basil. Today, I'm going to sow some lovage, which, incidentally, contains myristicin, which may or may not be what makes a person stoned if they ingest enough nutmeg.

The mint I put in the big plant pot is dying. It's not for lack of water. I can only assume that some numpty used a weedkiller in that pot. I noticed at the flower market they have bags of garden soil, about half a hundredweight. I'll get some of that and replace the soil next weekend, if the mint dies entirely, as it looks liable to. It's a waste of the whole packet of borage I sowed in the same pot, too.

The geraniums I planted last week began to germinate after five days. Lively little blighters.

Shanghai Balcony Gardening II

2011-04-02T05:37:00.002+01:00

This morning I've sowed in pots sage, thyme, coriander and geraniums. The last is on the windowsill indoors for now, the weather being uncertain - it was like an English June day, yesterday, but today is much cooler and it's a bit misty. I've also sowed borage in the big pot with the mint, which is looking somewhat straggly, on the basis that they should both be big and ugly enough to look after themselves in the same pot. And if it thrives, the borage should seed itself in the pot.

The geraniums are described only as "Fantasy Mixed", and there's something about "flowers one year only", so I suppose they're not hardy geraniums but actually pelargoniums. Which link goes to a website which looks undermaintained but the main page is worth clicking on for the quote from Margery Fish if nothing else. Thanks Marge, I'm taking your advice. I suppose if I kept the plants overwinter on the balcony, and took cuttings from them in the early spring, the new plants would flower? And someone told me, if I remember rightly, that they root really easy, like Salvia Divinorum, in a glass of water.

The rocket I planted last week is germinating and doing well. No sign of the rosemary, but I recall it as being slow. The rosemary, sage, thyme, and of course the geraniums, I'll pot on. The coriander and rocket I'll crop from the pots. And I'll see if I can let them go to seed in the autumn, to plant next year.

31A Amherst Avenue

2011-03-25T15:19:00.001Z

To cheer myself up after a morning sabotaged by some network related not-working-properly IT issues, I went for a walk down Fuzhou Lu to the foreign language bookshop. I've got Our Mutual Friend by the armchair at home, but he's a bit bulky if you pop out for lunch with a beer and a read. So I looked at Slaughterhouse-Five, which I've been meaning to read for a while, and then I saw Empire of the Sun, and well, what other novel was I going to buy in Shanghai this afternoon?

I read it years ago and had no inkling of the place in time and space that Ballard was describing. Now the references are jumping out at me to find, and that's after only the first two chapters. Amherst Rd is here.

There's a lot more craic here.

2011-03-23T13:34:00.000Z

Shanghai Balcony Gardening

2011-03-20T13:06:00.003Z

I noticed this morning that hedges are sprouting new growth. It's that time of year. So I've started on the balcony. A pot of rocket, (which I've never grown before), about 20 seeds in a four inch pot of flower market compost. To crop from the pot. And about the same number of seeds of rosemary in the same conditions. The rosemary, I seem to remember last time I grew it, it was slow to germinate. It's to be pricked out into pots, (I noticed a flower shop on Beijing Lu was selling them today). The rocket, I have no clue.

Also, three big fat fruit seeds, from some fruit that was put in my hotel room in Bangkok, just to see what happens. They're not mangoes, because I read somewhere online that mango seeds have multiple seeds inside them. I opened one seed, and there was a fairly hard case, dark brown, reminiscent of a cockroach's shell in colour and texture. It held a single seed nucleus. I discarded that one, and sowed the other three, 1cm approx deep, in Shanghai flower market compost, (with its healthy population of fruit flies and mushrooms, btw). The herbs went on the balcony. The fruit seeds the windowsill.

Supermoon in Shanghai

2011-03-19T11:35:00.000Z

It's overcast, drizzling, misty tonight, it has been all day. But there's an unearthly glow, must be the moon through the mist. Beautiful and spooky. I don't know if you could photo it, or even paint it.

Majestic Theatre Update

2011-03-18T23:54:00.000Z

The foyer's full of scaffolding, so it's being refurbished.

2011-03-15T14:19:00.000Z

I don't know why this theatre looked so British when I first clapped eyes on it last week. It's a lovely building from the outside, pleasing on the eye, as I cycle by or wait at the lights, of a morning. And I have no idea how it kept its name during the Cultural Revolution.

Here's the webpage. It would seem it's out of action for the now, though, I can find no mention of it on Shanghai Culture Information's ticket page. I need to get some local craic.

Meanwhile, Back at Pig Sty Towers...

2011-03-12T03:58:00.001Z

Saturday's wash day. You don't get a washing line on the balcony here. I've never seen a washing line anywhere. The balcony has an aluminium rail which you wind down. It has a load of holes in it, and you put the clothes on wire coat hangers, and hook them on the rail. It's actually more efficient than a clothes line, in terms of space. Takes all sorts to make a world, eh?

And while we're on the subject, bamboo clothes pegs grip better than the plastic ones.

I should get out more, shouldn't I?

This Man is a Menace

2011-03-12T03:39:00.003Z

This Man is a Menace, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

I was cycling down the bike lane, - the traffic on my left stationery, waiting for the lights, - when this auld bugger comes at me between two cars, making me swerve, break and swear. He turned into the cycle lane, and carried on regardless. Here he is a few minutes later, at the next lights, as you can see, pushing his way into the traffic, red light notwithstanding, being given a wide berth.

An old Shanghai cyclist in a hurry, keep clear.

Jemboly Shanghai China

2011-03-10T14:31:00.001Z

Jemboly Shanghai China, originally uploaded by Pig Sty Avenue.

That's the bike, parked over the road from KFC, where I've started to go for breakfast. The saddle's quite comfy. I've been going to work on the bike all week, so that's four days. On the Tuesday I I decided rather than relying on a route planned out the night before on google maps, I'd just follow all the other cyclist going in roughly my direction, and found that there's almost a proper cycle route from Jing'an to work, and looks as if it carries right on down to the Bund. It's not on any maps or anything, it's just a smaller, winding route, with hardly any cars on it, but lots of bicycles, mopeds, scooters and the occasional motorbike. And the rag-and-bone men's bicycle carts, which I'm sure have a name.

Alien in Stockholm

2011-03-02T13:41:00.000Z

And there you have it. A friend of mine said "I don't really understand your random ramblings on your blog", which was a bit of an eye opener. Is it all so obscure? Probably, you get so multi-textual, you disappear up your own arse, and re-appear as an alien, coming out of your own chest. Or something. Stockholm, also. I've never been there, but there's a sculpture in Jing'an park...

Nanjing Lu 3

2011-02-26T18:37:00.001Z

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 on this photo of Suzhou Creek, is the beginning of an idea. It was pleasantly surprising to find us living in what was for a decade in the 1840s and 50s The British Concession. Nanjing Lu would have been really posh, as it still is, but the Suzhou would have been all wharfs and chancers.

At least five people were killed when security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the Janzour district in the west of the Libyan capital on Friday, a resident said.

2011-02-25T14:35:00.001Z

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.

"Their ages are 17. They give them pills at night, they put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafé,"

2011-02-24T22:53:00.001Z

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.

Infrared Holga

2011-02-21T15:02:00.002Z

Note to self, for when I get the time.

Libya

2011-02-21T06:46:00.000Z

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.

Pantip Plaza, Bangkok

2011-02-20T15:48:00.001Z

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 telephone cable extension cables for the flash, I saw one in a closed shop in the Luban/Xietu Lu camera mart, but probably cheaper on Taobao. Like I said, I get the idea of street now, and the Bruce Gilden thing makes sense in Shanghai, in a way it doesn't in say Newcastle or Glasgow. But the same technique works inside the tribe, per Goldin, too.

I love the smell of fixer, in the evening...

2011-02-13T15:08:00.001Z

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 I had no measure less than the empty bottle of sweet chilli sauce I'd been keeping under the sink. 160ml. So a quarter of that would be 40ml, so... that was 40ml of ILFOSOL 3 to 460ml water, (about 1to12?). Which is all really bollocks, I know, sorry , in terms of replication. The temperature, like I said. I need more dev kit, obvious shit like thermometer, measuring jugs. I went into a street front shop, in search of wee measuring jugs, and had an animated conversation with the family there consisting of my phone's dictionary, and a pen and pad for me to draw on. She showed me a tape measure, then a kettle, (responses to "measure" and "jug", respectively). She got it when I drew that jug with measurements up the side in ML, and said some syllables, and the husband at the back with the baby murmured something, but NO she said, sadly.

I've managed ok, though, like I say, underexposed, it would seem. Scanning, the next step. This weekend, I went through the briefcase. I was actually looking for a pen, though it did occur to me I might have left a bag of sweeties there, bought and forgotten in Schipol. What I found was a Financial Times from 21st December. Crossword three quarters done. Here's the thing, 7 weeks on, I got the rest of the clues really quickly. I'm just thinking, from a problem+processing+storage point of view, it's interesting. Well, when I say interesting...

2011-02-12T15:12:00.000Z

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

underneath caoyang lu bridge

2011-02-11T15:34:00.002Z

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.

Ludan/Xietu Lu & Lomography

2011-02-06T11:16:00.001Z

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 shops you'd expect to get in a big city, but all in one place. The first two floors are digital, the next four are film-related. Just about every camera I'd heard of was there, and a lot of Chinese ones I hadn't heard of.

Through the windows of closed shops, I saw some remarkable things. One was a flash extension with a telephone-type cable, which I've been after for a while, (no luck with it on eBay). And the other was a shop which sold nothing but home dev gear - tanks and chemicals. Hush! Be still my beating heart!

So this calls for a reframing of the developing situation. Looks like lomography will lose out. I've got my dev tank with me. And a wardrobe that will serve as a darkroom. I'll have to get another scanner. But the dev prices in that lomography shop weren't cheap, and so a scanner will pay for itself. And, anyway, I've gotten used to seeing the whole process through. It would feel a bit weird, the thought of handing a roll of film over to a stranger, now. And there's still loads of things I've not tried, like the Ilfotec LC29 and DD-X in the photo there.

Flower Market off Wanhangdu Lu

2011-02-06T02:11:00.002Z

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 about yesterday. I found it because people were coming out of the car park with bloody big bunches of flowers.

It is mostly cut flowers, lots of bulbs in pots, lots of cacti. There's no way you're going to browse in peace, mind, it's one of those markets where everyone wants to draw your attention to their plants. And I gathered it was a fairly slow day for them, with the holiday and all. One man drew my attention to some mint that he was potting off. I noticed he had wee bags of something too. I had another look around, somehow getting away from him, because I wanted to find someone selling plant pots. No one did. So I went back to the mint man, and bought three little bags of compost, about 1kg, for 2 yuan each, (well, I bought them on a wing and a prayer, the contents felt like compost, and so it was when I got it home and opened it) and the mint for 6 yuan. Then I noticed a load of old plant pots at the back of the stall. I don't know if they were for sale before I came along, but Mrs Mint intervened and said they were 1 yuan each - which is rather a lot for a 2nd hand plant pot, but this was a seller's market, so I bought half a dozen - they charged me 5 yuan for them, by accident or design I don't know. I left feeling I'd made friends with Mr and Mrs Mint, anyhow. And now the mint is on the balcony, a pioneer for my plans there.

wanhangdu lu church

2011-02-05T15:02:00.001Z

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.

Springtime in Shanghai

2011-02-05T04:39:00.000Z

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 sticky. No idea what they are, but the seem viable, so I've put them in a big vase in behopes they'll spring into life, this weather.

Just the Universe

2011-02-05T04:27:00.000Z

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.

CNY in SH

2011-02-02T12:59:00.000Z

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.

It's not so much a firewall...

2011-02-01T14:55:00.000Z

...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.

Andy Carroll and Noodles, As I Was Asked

2011-01-31T13:44:00.001Z

As of this morning, he was staying put. I doubt Liverpool could lure him away just now, I mean, they're shite. One win in four games and Dalglish is King Ken? FFS. I like to think as a Gateshead lad, black and white through and through, he'll stay with us for the foreseeable future, but who knows, footballers work for money, as do we all, except that they get loads more. But Liverpool? Chelsea, maybe, Barcelona, Real... But Liverpool? Spurs?

Tell yous what, and I'll link back to this if I'm right. The English Premier's starting to crack open at last, this season. Bad time for anyone to jump ship if they're after silverware. And sometimes, just sometimes, there's maybe more to it than piling cash upon cash and winning cups for cocksuckers.

And as for the noodles, oh yes, noodle city. The sort you get here are about 20p a packet, (that would be enough for big portions for four people, say). They're very thin, threadlike. I boil them for a minute, and then rinse them under the cold tap. Then mix in some sesame oil, and stick them in with the stir fry in the big old iron wok I've got, or hoy a knob of butter on and stick them in the microwave for about a minute, mix them with a sauce of your choice. Oh aye. Mind you, posh bread shops are to be found in Shanghai, really good rye bread for the equivalent of £1.20 - so it's luxury grub compared to noodles.

There's so much weird shit going on with food that I haven't had the balls to explore yet, the live fish and the smoked ducks. I'll get there.

And what with all that tunnelling, I'm knackered now

2011-01-30T15:01:00.000Z

I don't know if my posts are still getting through to *wat*er and f*c*b**k. Somebody call by and let me know if they are, because I can't on to the former for love nor money tonight, and it's too late to start trying to get on to the latter just now.

Except for strictly work based stuff, and a quick squint at the gmail, I've been more or less offline for over a month now. It's good to be back at the old Avenue. Never thought it would be possible to miss a blog, but I did.

And Asianfootball reports should be almost fully functional soon. I've been warming up with the Asian Cup. I say warming up, I nearly nodded off during the final last night. I'd love to get a report from anyone who saw any games in Qatar though.

I've tunnelled my way under the wall, which wall, I'm not saying

2011-01-30T14:33:00.000Z

I'm blogging from a place with plenty of fireworks, this weather.

Last Days in Visa Limbo: Farewell To A Sordid Race

2010-12-18T12:03:00.000Z

"...I doubt not but in time Ardrossan will become a grand emporium; but the people of Saltcoats, a sordid race, complain that it will be their ruin". (Galt, p3). I know where you're coming from, Miss Pringle.

Mind you, it seems that everyone in the UK complains incessantly, although maybe that's just the impression you get if you watch too much rolling news from the BBC: mostly whinging about the weather, the resultant "travel misery", (where "misery" really means "inconvenience"), and, horror of horrors, Christmas presents bought online which might not be delivered on time. Ffs. But there I go, complaining about the complainers.

And it's cheap to be smug when you're in that serene state that travellers know, when the visa's in your passport and the flight's booked and you're wondering what books you'll buy at WH Smiths in Departures. Wolf Hall's in the frame, and so is Empire of the Sun, which I read years ago but would re-read with an eye on the topography so that I can entertain visiting friends and relatives with tours of Ballard's Shanghai.

Galt, J. (1895) The Ayrshire Legatees. London. Macmillan & Co

Ashley or the Qataris?

2010-12-16T05:58:00.000Z

I still feel nauseous whenever I think about Newcastle's ownership. The feelings don't diminish much when I read this sort of stuff. Those people flog you if you're gay or drink Brown Ale, mind. Couldn't be worse than Ashley, though, and as they'd be on a PR mission, they would necessarily not do stupid things...

Fuck Your Honda Civic I've a Horse Outside

2010-12-14T17:14:00.002Z

Fucken Aye

My New Pal BIRT in Visa Limbo

2010-12-14T09:55:00.000Z

Getting to grips with the shape of item characteristic curves in Baker, I came across the concept of a three parameter model, where the third parameter allows the fact that candidates will successfully guess the right answers to some items, per Birnbaum. This is something I'll get around to researching some day. My preliminary theory is that "guessing" is a fundamental part of candidate performance, not simply because, (say) when doing a multiple choice test I've a one-in-four (or five) chance of getting it right, but because it may not be pure guesswork, but what is usually called an "inspired" guess, the correct answer lurking in the candidate's subconscious and recalled at need. In other words, in a real life language situation, they would recall the correct usage. Most language learners will be able to provide anecdotes of situations where, say, they remembered a bit of vocabulary from God-knows-where, or were unexpectedly able to use the subjunctive when three sheets to the wind.

Baker, Frank (2001). The Basics of Item Response Theory. ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

Birnbaum, A. “Some latent trait models and their use in inferring an examinee’s ability.” Part 5 in F.M. Lord and M.R. Novick. (1968).Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

NB: I'm going to start using the label CALT for this topic, the L being for Language.

Newcastle 3 - 1 Liverpool

2010-12-12T11:20:00.000Z

Ah well. Hughton and the players deserve the credit, no doubt, but it offers some hope for the future. And of course, Ashley remains a twat and a shite, but, wtf. I mean, just think about the kind of people who own English Premier League clubs. Would you want to meet any of the bastards socially? Sheik Mansour spends all that money, and doesn't even go to the games, (they'd let him in for nowt, and he'd get a good seat - does he watch it on telly, one wonders?); the Glazers, ffs, like that family out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and don't even get me started on Abramovich. So our own fat guy's in good company. Put it another way, big capitalists have ugly souls. For now, we're stuck with them, though. For now.

The St James' Merciless Revolving Door

2010-12-11T08:57:00.001Z

Having uncurled from my foetal ball position, and emerged from the cupboard I was hiding in, the only comfort I can offer is that it's no good crying over spilt milk. My own feeling still is that Hughton would have gone on to become a great manager of Newcastle. But what do I know? The situation we're in is that the club we love is owned by a fat useless bastard, who may or may not have made a correct decision with the appointment of Pardew. We shall see. The result of today's game against Liverpool will speak volumes, unfairly perhaps as he's only had one full day in the job, but Chris Hughton got no mercy and Pardew should expect none.

The Stuff You Do When Bad Weather Shuts The School

2010-12-08T09:33:00.000Z

With basic literacy students we do something called language experience where you negotiate a text with the student, and then type it up, print it, chop it around, get them to write it out... One short text can produce hours of work, and is good for letter and word recognition and formation. Well, the techniques seem to work with a five year old native speaker. You can make a singing lesson of it, too

From LYRICSMODE.COM lyrics archive

Lyrics | Winx Club lyrics - We Are The Winx lyrics

Close your eyes
And open your heart.
Believe in yourself,
That's how it starts.
Dreams will come true just wait and see,
'Cos the magic's in you and the magic's in me!

We are the Winx!
We are the Winx!
Come join the club!
We are the Winx!
We are the Winx!
We are the Winx!
Come join the club!
We are the Winx!

Magical flowers,
Digital powers,
Rhythmns and tunes,
The sun and the moon,
Magic shapes and shifting tides,
And the fire burning deep inside,

We've got the style,
And we've got the flare.
Look all you want,
Just don't touch the hair!

We are the Winx!
We are the Winx!
Come join the club!
We are the Winx!
We are the Winx!
We are the Winx!
Come join the club!
We are the Winx!

Mike Ashley

2010-12-06T20:29:00.002Z

You. Fat. Useless. Fuck.

#naughtie

2010-12-06T10:53:00.000Z

It's good to know I'm not the only one who assumed that Jeremy Hunt was worse than his famous brother, Warwick.

More Fun With Item Response Theory

2010-12-05T15:02:00.000Z

Time in Visa Limbo continues to be well used. I need to get to grips with IRT, big time. A good starting point is Baker's Basic Item Response Theory, and the software that goes with it, (you'll need Visual Basic 5.0 if you're running anything later than Windows 95, and I have no idea how to run it on a Mac or Linux or wtf).

There are a lot of web resources on IRT and Rasch measurement, and I'll link to them in a new post when I'm a bit further down the road with this.

I'm going to use the label IRT for posts connected with this, eschewing other terms such as CAT.

#cablegate...

2010-12-01T23:22:00.001Z

Talking of crazy fucktards, God Bless America, (scroll down to the last para of the main post for the best bit). And how come Amazon got to be hosting the data, anyway? Good excuse to go elsewhere for my books in future.

It's classic case of stable doors and horses heading for the horizon. You can get it here, and no doubt in 10,000 other links near you.