Assorted Thoughts From An Unsorted Mind: July 2018

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Portsmouth Naval Museum Pt 2

Hello again. More pictures from my visit to various parts of Portsmouth Dockyard's Naval Museum.

This is the Jutland 1916 exhibition, which was definitely something I wanted to see after everything I've read about the battle. As seems to be common these days, the core of it is an audio-visual presentation using witness testimony from the battle spread across a series of large screens. It's very well done and is supported by artefacts and models of key ships involved.

The Jutland Battle Honour plaque.

There was a really good collection of models, all handmade and nice & big.

I will happily admit to geeking out over them.

The cruiser HMS Caroline, the only British ship from the battle still in existence.

I find it a little sad that we couldn't find time, money and space to preserve at least one battleship.

Back to HMS Caroline and she had one very unusual feature.

Most of her guns were 4" but there were a brace of 6" guns.

And for some bizarre reason they were mounted on the back.

Ships' bells from the battlecruisers HMS Tiger and HMS Inflexible.

British battlecruisers took a beating at Jutland. 3 were lost with almost their entire crews,

most of whom were dead before they knew what hit them.

I was impressed by Jutland 1916.

It gives a good overview of the battle and fascinating bits and pieces to look at

but at the same time, it's made clear that there was a heavy price to pay.

Or to put it another way, you should always come out of an exhibition like this feeling a little sad.

And that I did.

Monday 23 July 2018

Portsmouth Naval Museum. (Pt1)

I've been meaning to visit the naval museum at Portsmouth dockyard for ages and recently I finally got my chance. Sadly I didn't get the opportunity to do all of it but some brisk walking and careful time management gave me a good look around 1. The Jutland exhibition. 2. HMS Minerva and 3. The RN Museum.itself.

Here's some pictures I took plus a video or two.

It was nice and quiet when I arrived.

First port of call was to get a few shots of the HMS Warrior

I don't think that white tent thing is original...

Doesn't detract from what a handsome ship she is.

This is an..RAF launch?..belonging to the boat restoration workshop on the other side of this pier.

The day was glorious which made the sea an uncharacteristically pretty shade of blue.

I rather like this shot. Warrior on one side, the Spinnaker Tower on the other, an old anchor in the middle.

No idea what that smudge is in the centre. Either the spirits are trying to get my attention or I've scratched my camera lens.

While I was there I decided to snap some local wildlife.

This seagull looks like a right grumpy sod, doesn't he?

There's a look in his eyes and a tilt to his beak giving off a strong aura of "Sod you."

More tomorrow.

Monday 16 July 2018

Heavy Metal Cover Girls...On The Road

In case you're wondering what this is all about, on HMCG I post covers from Metal/Rock albums. The basic idea is to show how different bands and different artists can visit roughly the same theme in different ways, depending on what mood they want to create.
Or they just wanted something "Awesome and sexy. dude" on the cover of their album. Whatever.

While I've been doing this I've noticed a few interesting things. The first is that if one band uses a theme, no matter how niche, so will others. That's why I've been able to do entire posts about Blindfolds, Mermaids, Women with Scythes and so on. More on that in a minute.

The other is that you can tell a fair bit about the band depending on what their cover girl is doing. A woman in a ballgown weeping in a fountain just doesn't suit a hair metal band ...although a close up of a woman's thong-wearing butt is a different matter entirely.

For today's post, the theme is "Girls waiting by the roadside." Or in the middle of the road. Or in close proximity to a road. "Roads" basically.
It took a while but eventually I ended up with enough covers that used this theme to make a post happen.
What's really interesting is that you have some covers that are very close to each other in idea and execution but the artist still put a different spin on each one.

I like to think that album covers are a snapshot from an ongoing story. So what stories are being told here?

King Company - One For The Road (Finland 2016)

A country gal with a most alarming bra heading off to make her fortune in the big city.

She packed so light, she didn't even take a shirt with her.

Friday 13 July 2018

The Girl In Blue

I found this rather lovely piece of wall art on Southsea's Osborne Road, decorating the front of the defunct casino. There's a haunting quality to it, I feel, which is in stark contrast to the surreal and playful artwork either side of it.

I hope it stays up for a long time. I also hope the artist doesn't mind me sharing his work with the wide world.

You can maybe get a sense of the scale here.

This would make a perfect movie poster - some sort of dark thriller maybe?

As I swung through the Southsea town centre I spotted something else I found interesting.

Somebody clearly thought this was important enough that they not only spray painted it on a window but used contrasting colours.

Now can somebody please tell me what the hell it's all about?

Why is the onion not in London?
Where is the onion and why is it so important?

The answer will remain a mystery forevermore.

That's all folks

Monday 9 July 2018

Can This Heatwave Just Sod Off Already?

I know there's lots of people enjoying the UK's highly unusual, long spell of dry, sunny weather.

I'm not one of them.

I'll admit that it was fun at first. After the snow, the wind and rain, and the grey, drab, soul-witheringly bleak skies of Britain's winter, the sunshine was a blessed relief.

That was a month and a half ago. Now I'm sat here sweltering and this isn't fun any more.

Let me take a moment to list all the positives.

1. The sky is a nice shade of blue.

2. When I hang out my laundry it dries really quickly.

That's it.

"But what about all the wonderful things you could be doing in the sunshine. " I hear some aggravating little twonk say. " What about sitting in the garden with a pint? What about going to the beach? What about going for a walk in the fresh air. Enjoy the summer!"

To which my reply would be "I think you've mistaken me for somebody else. Do I look like I enjoy being out and about in bright sunshine? FFS, I'm so pale the last time I tried to give blood the nurse offered me a couple of bags of O Positive because I clearly needed it. So fuck off."

You know what I do like? I like walking to work and not arriving with my t-shirt and gusset soaked in sweat. I like being able to sleep at night because the air in my bedroom isn't the temperature of toast. I like looking out of my window and seeing lovely green grass instead of the scorched straw that's out there right now. I like stepping out of doors without feeling like the sun is out to get me. I really like being able to get on a bus without spending the entire journey soaking in the delightful scent of other people's armpits and sweaty bollocks.

So yeah. I'm not enjoying the hot weather as much as I might be.

Make it go away.

Until then I'll be drinking a pint of water every hour and wondering how I can shave off every single hair on my body.

That's all folks.