Getting into probation speak....

I didn't realise when I was sat in the lectures that were part of the MSc in Public health and health promotion at the University of Manchester why there was constant reference to 'interventions' rather projects schemes or programmes. These would be regarded as more suitable terms for health promotion activity within say the context of regeneration funded initiatives which is one of the major frames that health promotion is understood within at present. It was only when I started reading through the glossary in a home office document, the Supervision of Community Orders, that I realised that the term, intervention, was one that was used in probation. It is perhaps something that an 'offending' community may be sensitive about - why draw this term to use when there may be nothing in terms of substantial links between an offending individual, and an offending community that perhaps doesn't participate in life in the same way as other communities have learnt to do.

It may be something that I haven't been sensitive enough about in the past as I seem to recall having drawn in inappropriate language from alien professions in other circumstances myself. It's justifiable to challenge this and discussing this type of issue is very much about monitoring professional boundaries. When I did it, it was something of a mistake in a psychology seminar to once mention an issue that a fine art student had stated to me - that youth culture to an extent swings in terms of optimism and pessimism in the seventies from folk hippie and glam rock optimism to the pessimistic punk and then back to the early part of the decade, the 1980s being flowing lavish pretentious new wave followed by a solid indie guitar scene leading to the rebirth of negativity in the form of punk-rooted grunge. What may have been interesting about this may have been the overall action of the music scene as a whole to mimic the mood swings of a manic depressive having extensive lows and rather ridiculous highs - I don't know if this is perhaps the worst case of music journalism which already has very severe low points or not - perhaps there is some intention within EMI to do this to the music scene in order to create a beast that youth-music-culture is. Whether this has been notably repeated since I can't say - perhaps the recent indie guitar band revival is part of a much larger project than we're currently led to believe - am I just confusing the da'vinci code with NME, or should I cut down the amount of cannabis I'm smoking before it becomes a class B drug again.

Ho hum, I just wish I could think of something sensible to write about... why not just think about the levellers turning up in the early 1990s as part of the ridiculously optimistic and detached way of thinking of the crustie.... who can say.

Night of open mike....

Well, I wanted to get to more gigs this year and in some respects it wasn't bad to see a band who were just starting off on the live scene - I don't doubt everyone there wanted to offer just a little advice but on an open mike night it's about people getting up infront of a crowd in order to have an experience which is going to lead to them improving.

I took over a hundred shots of the band at Tom's Tower of Song and they're on flickr through the link. The shots aren't great and as a venue, it was quite difficult to get decent shots - if I take any there I'll have to get the artists to pose rather than just grab the shots from the back as anonymously as I can - this means that a lot of 'the reality of the situation' is generally lost but it's more important that the photographs actually show what they're meant to be showing. I hope the band have got a future together and they perform more frequently... It's a small intimate venue and a good place for budding artists to get their acts together - why don't more teenagers do this type of thing?

Ten minute wonder...

Have you ever, like I did yesterday, seen a woman and thought that you were looking at the most beautiful woman in the world? I can't really say that I was entirely wrong about the waitress who I asked if I could take shots of - she did look entirely wonderful in every respect. The shameful thing about it was that I didn't really think that she was actually that attractive until I'd done just a little work on the shots when I got back to the hostel. She was really quite special and I don't think she'll have a long modelling career but sometimes it's nice to be proved entirely wrong - hope she does.

The location of the restaurant did leave me feeling just a little like I'd been there before or at least seen pictures of it in some place or other. There was something very Salmah-Begum-like about the other waitress - who was really very similar in the manner she moved in. There was the most remote facial similarity as well and I wonder if Ms Begum actually has some form of Italian links in terms of her family heritage. There was something I couldn't place as being Muslim about several of the women who worked at Teleperformance and I don't know if I'd be correct in saying that most of them, if not us, had some form of Italian link or other. It does leave me wondering, after seeing someone who looked like my Grandmother in Il Chianti whether or not I had any significant family link with Italy. There was someone who bore a strong resemblance to her in terms of facial expression in Guatemala, a place a genuinely doubt that I have any family connection to - a simple cultural accident may have taken place. Will I find out the linkages between her olive coloured skin and the European heritage that she may have had....

Anyway, I can't really think about anything else at the moment - it does seem quite nice in principle at least to have some important links with Italy, even if they're of family who may not have been here for a century. Carl Chinn did make a point in one of his Sunday shows on WM that there have been quite extensive Italian communities in Birmingham arriving from Southern Italy - I didn't really give consideration to the possibility that my relatives may have been amongst them. I've noticed a little Italian influence over several people I've known as well and didn't know that they were drawing from Italian styles when they dressed slightly different to the majority in the UK. This was something that I wasn't aware of at the time though I'm sure that the style-awakening that many British people go through when making what generally gets called the class transition, from working to middle class, often includes attempting to be as stylish as an Italian counterpart would be rather than to try as stylish as a very fashion conscious fellow Brit would be.

I have not really had the sense of occasion in my life to really have a substantial awareness of what to wear when and why - this should be one of the main factors in determining what to wear and why and if you lack awareness of the generally and specific conventions in society then there is not much chance that what you'll choose to wear will be entirely suitable. When I photographed the events at Coventry's War memorial for the Earlsdon Echo the only thing that really influenced the way I dressed was the hounding that Thatcher gave Michael Foot over the green duffel coat he wore on Remembrance Sunday in the mid 1980's. Not the most important of events fashion-wise, it was only really done for political mileage, or at least that's what it seemed to achieve. I was slightly embarrassed about the fact that I hadn't got a tie on but that is something that I should perhaps have taken into consideration. Even if you don't wear a tie for work, Remembrance Sunday is perhaps one event in the UK that it's appreciated that men do wear a tie.

I think about it in some respects - one of the mistakes I made in job interviews was to be rather untidy and in no way approach the role of leadership which is one of the key underlying values for project leadership in Health Promotion or Public Health through my clothing. This isn't suitable - Britain isn't a nation of clothes snobs to a ridiculous point but being very smartly dressed on a formal occasion is taken as an indicator that the participant, be they the interviewee, is obeying the same conventions for the same reasons as the other participants, the interviewers - that we've made progress through years of conflict in Britain and this is partly reflected by adherence to dress codes - it's a sign of respect for the interviewer which indicates an understanding of what they've achieved to get into the position that they are in.

Still I have a little time to spend in Florence and perhaps will see another waitress or woman who is as delightfully attractive as the one above who served me lunch yesterday. Then coach to Pisa tonight without having seen the leaning tower or Michaelangeo's David. It's difficult to say what other major attractions I should have seen - but I've largely missed them all. It hasn't made the least difference - Firenze has been a sight to marvel at.

I do wonder if the 24 hours I lost in Dahab in 1990 was spent partly in Florence - I seem to have recalled events which involved a few people from the UK and I do wonder if they were brought to Firenze - was there reference to it at the border crossing as I left Egypt to go back into Israel after the trip to Israel. I don't know what happened during the 24 hours but I guess I find out one day. Who else may have been in Firenze - and do they know I was taken from Dahab without a stamp in my passport. Perhaps there was the usual messing around and I remained there - I can't say. It's been funny seeing the glass ceiling/floor inside Haworth YHA and the long driveway up to Florence YHA both of which I've had dreams about. I think I had the dreams about two years ago, it seems like a rather strong memory. Was I doped to then have dreams about such places? It's not worth raising the issues really.

The end is in sight.

I'm currently lounging around in a hostel that I've had a little de ja vu in, this non-paranormal experience does make me feel very much as if I should be here. I did only want to spend two days here but that could easily change to four if not longer. It will be nice to get out tomorrow on the bike that I've hired - the walk to Barberino along the Poggibonsi road was really quite nice and it didn't seem to matter that I've had dreams about the location some time before. The multicoloured pathway to Barberino has featured in a dream or two but that's going back several years now. It was nice to have walked to Poggibonsi, but I feel very much worn out as a result of the experience. Everyone in the shops has been helpful to a large extent and this has resulted in the overall experience being what I can class as rejuvinating. I do feel generally happier here than I have done for several years now and while there is no doubt a veneer for the tourists and life here probably has a very unpleasant side I guess that I'm going to be content to enjoy time here rather than get depressed by the politics of the tourist dominated life.

There hasn't been the call from the agency inviting me back to the UK leaving me knowing that I'll have work there upon my return, however, I've had just a little in the way of communication. I can of course check emails through the wireless system in the hostel with my usually reliable laptop. It feels genuinely like a holiday here and the lack of responsibility that I feel towards the space here, knowing full well that it's virtually all the responsibility of others to maintain the nation leaves me feeling very relaxed. Not having great reason to return does leave me feeling a little bereft of meaning in the UK but I guess that it's frequently been like that for me.

In the meantime, I've got a few decent shots of theTuscan Hillsides in amongst the duff shots that I've included. They're still worth taking a look at.

So, didn't get the RBS job. Don't know why yet - I'll hopefully get feedback tomorrow. I did have forms of alarm bells going off in my head when I was leaving the interview and whether or not it was the people from RBS that I met in the pub at the back of the UGC on Broad St when I saw walk the line with a mate I can't say at this point. Why there were signs up on the walls of the toilets in the pub with the letters 'RBS' on them most wouldn't bother to hazard a guess. I imagine that they were some form of mnemonic and I'm meant to look like I've got some form of super-power memory when someone is just fucking me about, only a little but they're fucking me about.

Why oh why does this shite go on...photo of the guitarist from Tom Hill and Outsville. Kind of like Garry Corbett's work that was exhibited at Central Library, but I can't remember exactly what he did - got a link Garry?

After the interview

Again, I've no real idea how I did in the interview that I had this afternoon for Royal Bank of Scotland. I think it would be a nice place to work for a few months, stretching into years and I assume that they would be roughly as they presented themselves to be. Nothing is guaranteed but this would be a good first job to get after the return from Central America where I had a relatively good trip.

I was thinking about Cathy in San Fransisco some months ago and I have started an email to her. It's a long time since I saw her in Antigua, Guatemala and had several weird experiences during the period I was there. I don't want to look mad, but after the experience of de ja vu in the hostel in Haworth it did make me wonder about all manner of report of 'psychic phenomenon', how easy it is to dismiss these as insanity and whether there could be facilitation of these types of experience. It's quite interesting to think what proportion of the US population may have been maltreated, then enter a state where they experience what seems to be like a psychic vision and for whatever reason presume that they've had a religious experience or that they have psychic powers. It would be unconstitutional or at least illegal, I assume to allow this to happen to sections of the US population but I could be wrong - who cares about the sections of the US population that have been driven mad? (actually I do but I don't get the impression that the US authorities do) I can't really start an email to her after not seeing her for six months and then tell her about the freaky coincidences taking place in my life.... may be she'd be interested....!?! Why did this happen to me in Guatemala and not other places in Central America and was she one of the people that I had pictures of on my camera without any idea who she was back in 1996 only then at a later point to feel comfortable when I met her - because we'd had a prior meeting and no recall of it.

Perhaps, she'd even be interested in the shot of Stan Tracey shown above - who can say...