Five recent black and white photographs
Five black and white photographs taken within the last year.
Enter the Sixth Land
This painting is called Enter the Sixth Land. It is some kind of portal to the place I've described here. I painted it in 1991 during a very fruitful period when I was living a lonely life in a bedsit in Westbourne Park.
Paddington Station then and now
I took a photograph in Paddington Station a few days before coming across one taken from almost the same spot 35 years earlier, in 1982.
Video: Meteor Crater V2 (00:52)
This is a re-edit of a video I made in 2010, which I never felt was right, and the music really annoys me. It's a bit tighter than the original, but to get a real feel for this amazing place, check out this Smithsonian video.
Exquisite miniature trees
Here are some photographs of Bonsai trees that I took at WindyBank Bonsai.
Battersea Arts Centre
Last night, went to Battersea Arts Centre to see a new film called Sea Sorrow, the directorial debut of Vanessa Redgrave, which highlights the plight and courage of refugees.
The Lion of Knidos: the completion of a personal 27-year journey
I went to the British Museum yesterday. In the Great Court, the very first monumental sculpture you encounter is the magnificent Lion of Knidos.
Weighing more than 7 tons, this colossal lion comes from a tomb in the ancient city of Knidos, a coastal city in south-west Turkey. The tomb stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the approach to Knidos harbour. The building itself rose some 18 metres, and its pyramid roof was topped by the lion.
Why is there a pair of scissors in this phone box?
Walking back from the post office in Streatham, I glanced into this very urban phone box and spotted a pair of scissors in there.
Topkapı Palace
The Topkapı Palace, or the Seraglio, is a large museum in the east of the Fatih district of Istanbul in Turkey. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it served as the main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans.
The crystal-clear Azmak River in south west Turkey (video 03:40)
This is a film of a short boat trip on the beautiful Azmak River in Akyaka in the Gulf of Gököva in Turkey.
Exquisite drain (video 00:14)
This channel for guiding rainwater into a little drain is in the Imperial Harem complex in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.
Colindale Underground Station
Colindale is a London Underground station in Colindale, a suburb of north London. The station is on the north-south Edgware branch of the Northern line, between Burnt Oak and Hendon Central stations.
Kaymaklı Underground City
Kaymaklı Underground City is contained within the citadel of Kaymaklı in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. First opened to tourists in 1964, the village is about 19 km from Nevşehir, on the Nevşehir-Niğde road.
Dervish (video 03:20)
The Mesale café in the Arasta Bazaar in Istanbul. The band assembled first, tuned up and then started playing some sublime music. Then the Dervish came up and performed his whirling dance.
Explosion in Colindale
It seems it was a tar boiler, which explains all the black smoke. Here is an entry about the incident on the London Fire Brigade website:
Inside a Nimrod R1 spy plane
Last week I went up to the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford in Shrophire and got the chance to go inside the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod R1, a Cold War-era reconnaissance and electronic intelligence gathering spyplane.
Cars collided in front of me (video 00:31)
Unimpressive low-speed impact which I didn't even see until it had happened