Mum's brother Bert used to shoot for Trinidad and Tobago and won some medals.
As the TT Express said recently:
"The name Bert Manhin however, is synonymous with the sport of rifle shooting.
For many years he represented Trinidad and Tobago in rifle shooting at the CAC Games, Pan American Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics.
He excelled in that discipline and his prizes include one gold, a silver and several bronze medals. "
This is the outside panoramic view to go with the interior panoramic view previously. You probably need the larger view to see anything.
This is from the Rousseau (Henri, not Jean-Jacques) show at Tate Modern. It's pretty rubbish with a few exceptions, the monkey and the naked lady here being one. It's not actually by Rousseau but it's in the opening room to give you an idea what Paris was like in Henri's day (naked monkeys carrying off naked women I suppose).
Anyway, it reminded me of the King Kong sculpture we had in Birmingham about 30 years ago that people complained about (it was in the Bull Ring I think) and it was removed. It was outside a car dealer on Bristol Road (I think) for a while. Apparently it's now in Edinburgh but there's talk of taking it back to Birmingham. You can see it here or read about it here.
Spent a few hours yesterday digging dirt at the allotment and it was fantastic. If I was old before I am officially even older as I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing at the moment. Certainly not compiling 12 months worth of web stats and attempting to put a bit of a shine on them. The green stuff is broad beans.
... that should have been chucked years ago (part one).
We stayed in Portugal in 1991(?) and this is one of the cards that we were handed when we got to the train station. I don't think we stayed there but looking at the card I wish we had.
Garageland launches, Machismo opens.
These pics are part of my work: playing cards that have been modified and photos of drawings in small black frames (that have a tendency to fall from the walls).
These are Steve's pictures of the evening, and these are mine of bits of the show before the crowds arrived. Anyway, the show is on until February.
On the way home last night from the opening of Machismo, walking through the estate I came across my favourite sign of all time, "WE BUY GOLD".
We went to see The Beat That My Heart Skipped at the Renoir on Tuesday. It's a pretty good film and even if it weren't it would be worth seeing for the heart-warming array of rotten teeth and chain-smoking on display. I think it's obligatory in modern French cinema for the hero at a point of particular tension in teh story to tear the filter off his cigarette before lighting it. It telegraphs to the dumber members of the audience that things are 'getting serious' and that Jean-Paul or Phillipe needs an extra nicotine hit to get through them. A much better film than either Matchpoint or The Constant Gardener (in case you were thinking of going to see either of them).
Finally after months of talking about it we made it to the Diane Arbus show at the V&A. It's a really well thought out show with all the famous pieces as well as much of the early magazine work from magazines like Harper's that I much prefer. Like Sylvia Plath, as a result of Arbus's suicide, there's a real temptation to see an overwhelming darkness in the pictures that I don't think is actually there. She wouldn't have been very pleased with this blurry one I can tell you. There's a nice bit in one of her diaries where she talks about the group of students that she's teaching and how almost all the work they produce bores her and she's worried if she spends too much time around them she'll catch their crapiness.
