Hebden Bridge

I am in Hebden Bridge today. I am staying at a lady's house, she opened the door to let me in and had a sweater with the palestinian flag on it and was playing this CD very loudly

http://www.leonrosselson.co.uk/the-news/1-latest-news/74-new-cd-the-last-chance.html

She has gone to a picket in the market square, protesting against the occupation of gaza. She used to go every day until they said its not a 7 day a week job, so now she goes 3 times a week .There is a picture of her at a Greenham Common 25 years on event on the wall

I feel at home here, i am sitting outside the house on bench by the canal working, as the people walk and cycle past. The Calder Valley has a rich and varied collection of vibes that gradually change as you walk from one end to the other and back again, with many different feelings fading in and out

Chris was at Greenham Common for 11 years

You see some rare British phenomena in Hebden Bridge like giant ants, millions of frogs, children wearing Sun Ra t-shirts, white female taxi drivers and the old left. It has some of the most desolate, beautiful ancient landscapes you can find on these isles as well. I fell in love with the place when I was doing a textile design course back in the 90's and they sent us all to Hebden Hey for a week to sketch trees and flora plen air.

Chris wrote a letter to Obama, telling him how disappointed she was in him

Chris admires George Galloway's honesty

The co-op had NPR on

Tomorrow I'll walk up to Withens Clough

Ive enjoyed my conversations with Chris, but all conversations eventually lead to Gaza. In fact all other topics of conversation feel like a preamble to the main course.

Yesterday in talking about an unrelated topic, Chris said "well I suppose people are able to do that in the same way they are able to turn a blind eye to the bombing and murder of children in Gaza"

Talking about Scottish devolution, 5 seconds later...Gaza

tbf it's the only place in the world where children are being bombed and/or murdered

i went for a walk along the canal and there were 21 Volkswagen Beetles in a car park

I was in Clitheroe at the weekend at there was a mod/biker rally going on. Clitheroe is pretty shit.

Chris used to have two cats, one called Liberty and the other Revolution

Chris gaza protests are a one woman vigil, real dedication

I'm in Hebden Bridge again, im about to go into the market square and see if Chris is protesting. Her dog is getting old, I heard shes thinking about returning to Canada

I saw her again on the bus, the dogs operation went well and he is in fine fettle. I got my hair cut elsewhere in the valley, by the man who does the haircuts for Manchester City. He said Micah Richards would often go to The Shay to watch Halifax Town

ha

hes upped his cultural pursuits recently though, guardian interview said he was enjoying the uffizzi etc

He said most of the footballers were very bland and mostly talked about expensive cars. He said James Milner was very quiet, and Joe Hart is a "lovely lad, you'd never know he was a footballer". I'm not sure but I think Micah Richards has a close friend who plays for Halifax Town

anvil (and that one xelab post) doing god's work itt

micah richards played mariokart at my best mates house circa 2001, looks like our paths continue to diverge

John isn't from round here, he's from down South somewhere but had also spent the 22 years based in Corsica.

He got a £450,000 pay out from the Army because he got blown up in Uganda and wasn't expected to live. He has 4 years left until he can officially retire, but his now a chef, in something army related

He told me had done a number of extractions, some in Iran and one in this country. He was tortured in Iran in 1995. He recently did some work in Syria. He showed me a bullet wound in his leg, i couldnt quite tell what was going on with his hand

We were on the bus to Haworth, he said, when he first came to the area he spent 6 months in Haworth. He said no one had lived there for 6 months, and there was a rat. the rat wasnt frightened so he was able to kill it with a brick. He told his landlord and the landlord told him to buy some traps. Over the next couple of weeks he caught 14 or 15 rats and put them in the freezer. When the landlord came he took them out and wrapped them up and gave them to his landlord as a moving-in present

He spent some time in the brecon beacons where the army do some exercises, and during a training exercise 6 people died from hypothermia and it got into the newspapers

John was actually born and grew up in France, and still has a french barclaycard, which is frequently refused in restaurants and shops. its bright yellow, as he cant see the normal one properly. he showed me it, and i could see that his surname is Le Chat. Unfortunately i cant quite remember his first name, so I am calling him John because i think it was something like that

He carries around a 50kg backpack, just as he always has done, and frequently runs over the top of the moors from Hebden Bridge to Haworth, although today he was on the bus. He was in Wilmslow, near Manchester a couple of weeks ago, and someone came up to him and asked him if he is the mad runner in haworth

John jumped out of aeroplanes when in the army, and there was a competition who could pull the parachute chord last, and he lost a friend that way

When the tour de france passed through here, he said a man stood next to him near a wall, and he was sure he recognized the man and asked him, do i know you from my Gym? but he wasnt from round there, and it was really bugging him who this man was, later that day he turned on the television coverage and realized it was David Beckham

John said most of the extractions were of people that wanted to go, but when he got caught in Iran, they tortured him and smashed his teeth with a hammer.

I asked him where he would go in 4 years when his retirement comes up, bt he doesnt know, he has a couple of houses and is playing the game, though he is currently renting in sowerby bridge

John lent me 20p because my card had been stopped and i wasnt sure if i had enough for the bus, otherwise I thought i might have to go into the square and see if Chris was protesting against Gaza, to see if she had any spare change. I still didnt quite have enough, for my second bus journey after this one, so i walked the last part

John sister worked for Novell for 22 years and got a large redundancy payout and was able to retire at 38 years old

There was a man in Haworth that he met when he was in Turkey but i forgot the rest of that part, I tried to remember the rest of what John told me, as there was quite a bit more as we were on the bus for nearly an hour

John said at one of the banks, the pens were tied down and he said how am i supposed to trust you if you dont trust your customers not to take the pens. At Barclays they dont tie down the pens. He always takes the pen away at Barclays, but thats because he is always short of pens

Was going to go walking on the crags with the boy this weekend and stay overnight. Every B+B and Hotel was fully booked all week, Sharon from the Garnett st B+B was so personable and helpful I am definitely booking with her at some quieter and hopefully non-rainy point this summer.

I thought that series Happy Valley which was set there was really good. Somehow never managed to go to the place. Surprising considering i spent a lot of 3 or 4 years hitching around the UK going to gigs. Maybe it was only later that it became a topur stop thoug I keep thinking Wango Riley's Travelling Stage came from there and did a lot of festivals I went to.

I couldn't get into Happy Valley which is a shame because I love Sarah L as an actress and really wanted to like it. I don't why but I tend to be a harsh judge of tv/movie stuff that is filmed in the local area, probably me who has the problem because a few people on here rep for it.

I don't know why^^^

Thoughts are with Hebden friends. That flooding looks ridiculous.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CXJq_ssWEAAKpck.jpg

Similar scenes throughout Calder Valley and scarily the flood line could yet rise some more. I don't know how people who live/own small businesses on the flood plains of Hebden/Sowerby/Mytholmroyd can keep coming back from this shit, it seems to get worse every year and this time it seems even worse than '07.

Into town for the Thurston Moore show (such a good venue) and there are an unexpected number of stellar beers on tap in the boozers round here.

get some cans and go up t' Hardcastle Crags and then leather the fuck out of Thurston Moore for me!

Cosign the walk up to Hardcastle Crags. The craft beer places in Hebden Bridge are pretty much exactly the same as craft beer places everywhere, the real gem is the Fox & Goose. My one trip to Hebden culminated in a night sitting on the roof of that pub with a guy who lived in a yurt. Still not quite worked out if he was putting that one on for the tourists.

OTM, can't recommend Hardcastle Crags enough.

even on days when the weather is terrible it almost becomes more beautiful.

Tried to walk Hardcastle Crags this morning but was warned off by a local. 'They're fucking lethal today' he said, noting my woefully inadequate footwear

This place is magic tho

Seeing people say he plays with his back to the audience??

Yeah for most of the performance, but the other musicians on stage are following his directions (mainly head nods) so it seemed necessary.

The matinee performance was one large piece “Alice Moki Jayne” that was rather excellent in parts.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0Sh5xmXEAQd1Gv?format=jpg&name=900x900

Yeah but that notice was put up in response to an earlier one:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0NdHt0XIAAOq6k?format=jpg

yeah I did see that. It was trending on UK Twitter t'other day.

Is Hebden Bridge TERF central?

It probably has a higher than average amount of politically active middle-class + feminists, so quite possibly yes!

there is a strong Old Left presence there, and they are usually quite conservative behind the radical sheen they put on.