We’ve had some seriously impressive rain in recent days. It’s been fun watching it beat against the windows (from the inside).
July 15, 2009
Daily Photo: Let’s Get Lost
A fan of Lost declares love. Bus shelter, near Queens Uni, Belfast.
(Oh and it’s Kate Austen, not Austin!)
July 13, 2009
Daily Photo: Closed
The stools are upside down and the store well and truly closed in the Starbucks in Ann Street, Belfast.
July 11, 2009
Feel the Burn
I took a few photos of the local bonfire yesterday. Tonight this will be set alight and clouds of thick black smoke will drift across the city. Obviously the people behind this bonfire haven’t been persuaded by the idea of the more environmentally friendly beacons that have replaced the traditional bonfires in some areas.
I’m not a huge fan of the bonfires as they often go hand in hand with overtly sectarian behaviour and the idea that people are happy with burning large amounts of tyres and have the smoke drift across their own community is quite bizarre.
But I have to admit the photographer in me loves the spectacle!
More photos on my flickr pages
(Song lyric from Film Noir by The Gaslight Anthem)
July 9, 2009
Daily Photo: Walk Towards the Light
Something slightly different today!
I took this from the bottom of a staircase in Hillsborough Castle. (We were at the Castle on important business.)
I loved the look of the two men against the light from the window at the top of the stairs.
They are actually walking upstairs to a (very nice) toilet, but it looks like they are being drawn towards the light and it made me think a poster for a sci-fi movie.
Photoshop experts will notice it is a bit rushed, but I liked how it turned out.
July 8, 2009
Do they have something against the colour pink?
Another example of Belfast City Council’s scorched earth policy to bill posting.
Before:
Eye-catching
After:
Eye-sore
July 7, 2009
Robert S. McNamara & The Fog of War
So farewell then Robert Strange McNamara, Secretary of Defense, Architect of the Vietnam War and President of the World Bank. A man who led an epic life which, now that it is over, is open to numerous interpretations. What I know of Robert McNamara is mostly based on Errol Morris‘ stunning documentary The Fog of War. If you haven’t seen this I can’t recommend it enough.
The Fog of War was inspired by McNamara’s book, Wilson’s Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century (2001). Morris interviewed McNamara, who was 85 at the time, for around twenty hours and the two-hour documentary comprises eleven lessons from In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (1995). McNamara emerges from The Fog of War as a man still thinking and capable of questioning, rather than defending the decisions he took earlier in his life. It’s a fantasic exploration of war and human nature accompnaied by a haunting score from composer Philip Glass.
McNamara’s 11 “Life Lessons” from the Fog of War
- Empathize with your enemy
- Rationality will not save us
- There’s something beyond one’s self
- Maximize efficiency
- Proportionality should be a guideline in war
- Get the data
- Belief and seeing are often both wrong
- Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning
- In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil
- Never say never
- You can’t change human nature
