BD Festival

The BD Festival in Bradford is a free, annual event over two days, featuring street theatre, music, dance, creative workshops and a host of performers around the city centre. I've never been before. I find such things a bit overwhelming and I get a serious case of FOMO! You can wander around and miss everything, if you're not careful, because the performances tend to begin at the same times, on the hour and half hour, in different areas so either there is nothing much going on or everything happening at once! It's also a bit tricky to photograph, trying where possible not to show children's faces and always dodging people walking across and photo-bombing! However, I enjoyed wandering round and I did catch a few good little pieces of action. 

The lively singer was Sinead Campbell with her backing musicians. The Jamaican-Irish, northern powerhouse soul singer 'delivers uplifting catchy grooves with emotion-infused vocals and vintage touch'. She had a great voice. 

I think the dancer below was Dorine Mugisha - very expressive! 

There were various giant puppets, including 'Giant Baby Gareth' whose 'Norbert Nannies' had trouble keeping the pram on the straight and narrow. (They are, of course, a reference to the famed Norland nannies, one of whom looks after the royal grandchildren.)

In the Norfolk Gardens there were various interactive wooden games that were keeping lots of families amused. 

Urban Safari had a comedic act that encouraged the children to participate - lots of roaring! 

This was just a small selection of what was happening. If it all got too much, you could lie back on a beanbag and watch Cloudscapes, a 'sonic art installation'. I'd have enjoyed that but I can't wear a headset with my hearing aids, sadly.   

 

Waxing crescent

 

As the sun set earlier this week, the moon rose, neatly placed between the trees. 

The waxing moon, when the illuminated portion of the moon is increasing, generally symbolises growth, new beginnings and the manifestation of intentions. It's a time for setting goals, taking action, and building momentum towards desired outcomes. (So says AI anyway!) 

'Be the moon and inspire people, even when you're far from full.'     K. Tolnoe

'Don't worry if you're making waves just by being yourself. The moon does it all the time.'     Scott Stabile

'Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.'   Sojourner Truth

I find there's something really inspiring and strangely comforting about the fact that the moon that I can see is the same moon that you can see, wherever in the world you are. 

My dad

I just wanted to record that my dad, Ralph, would have been 100 years old today. I find that a little hard to believe - and quite honestly I'm glad he didn't live that long! He was a lovely, truly gentle, man but in his later years he had Parkinson's Disease, which progressively diminished his quality of life. He died in 2002 aged 76. The photo above, one of my favourites, was taken on his 70th birthday. The one below was in 1947, shortly after he and my mum started dating, when he was 22 and doing National Service. I don't seem to have any photos of him on his own and that, I think, is in itself significant. He was truly a devoted family man and loved nothing better than to be with my mother, my sister and me, and among his wider family and friends. 

He trained as a telephone engineer, a career he pursued all of his working life, from apprenticeship to being in charge of a telephone exchange and, towards the end of his career, a specialist troubleshooter trusted with sorting out the most complicated faults and problems. He retired just as digital technology was coming in, something for which I think he was thankful as I don't think he'd have enjoyed having to start to learn new systems. 

As a father, he was loving and generous, even if not terribly demonstrative. He was pretty soft-hearted too. It was usually my mother who enforced the boundaries. I've many good memories of him, especially the times he and I shared together, just us. (Gentle reminder to dads to make sure to have some one-to-one time with your daughters!) He drove me up and down the country to various interviews at various universities before I left home, and made sure we did some exploring and enjoying of whatever city we were in. He had a great sense of humour and used to make us laugh by reciting 'Albert and the Lion' and other such funny monologues, as well as having the usual repertoire of 'dad' jokes. He was aspirational for us and worked hard all his life to provide us with security and a comfortable life. When my daughter was born he proved himself a fantastic grandpa: patient, kind and thoughtful and a wonderful support.  

It's easy, isn't it, to take one's parents for granted? I count myself very fortunate to have had a loving, stable and responsible father, whose love for me I never doubted because it never wavered.

Happy 100th birthday, dad! 

Show pieces

The centre of Bradford has some lovely and historic old buildings that they are working hard to keep in good shape and in use. It would have had more if it weren't for the mass destruction of Victoriana that took place in the 1970s, replacing some lovely old buildings, including the Kirkgate market, with Brutalist concrete monstrosities. In recent years many of those have been demolished in their turn, creating the spaces that are now part of another radical plan to transform and update the city. 

The Alhambra Theatre, above left, opened in 1914 and has since had several adaptations, the most recent being in the 1980s, when the 'glass box' was added to the front to increase the useable space 'front of house'. I think it was a very successful refurbishment and the theatre is a lovely place to go to see a show (though pricey, of course!) 

What is now Bradford Live, above right, was once the Odeon cinema (where I spent many happy hours in my student days). The art deco building opened in 1930 as a cinema and was one of the first to show 'talkies', finally closing in 2000. It then lay derelict and in increasingly bad shape until a visionary plan arose to revamp it as a live music venue. The progress was bumpy and the Council, who put a lot of money into it, looked on shaky ground when the original developer pulled out. Thankfully it has been taken over and just reopened. I don't know if it will host any shows I'd like to see but it looks fabulous inside, from pictures I've seen. 

The other jewel in Bradford's crown since the early 1980s is the Science and Media Museum, one of the few national museums not situated in London. Sadly, the wonderful photographic archive it originally held when it was opened, which led to some truly memorable photography exhibitions, has been hived off to the V&A in London, leaving the Media Museum to concentrate more on the technical aspects of photography, film and TV.