Back to Birmingham: Literary Beauty and Urban Decay

Blue

Irrevocably drawn by the capital of urban decay and disparate, anarchic beauty, I returned this March...
..To the carefree bohemian coziness of the Birmingham Central Backpackers. The transporting magic of Cannon Hill Park and Moseley Village. The maze of back alleys populated by warehouses and garages, and buildings with covered with snoot.
The naked mannequins staring aimlessly out of broken windows.
The cinematic avantguardia of Flatpack Film Festival, shining with Zanussi's Illumination, and the atmospheric sonic myths of And Also The Trees, live at The Cross.
Astral trips the faint of heart would most definitely not dream of - but I sure do.

Sountrack: Dialogue by And Also The Trees.

Bankbeds To Dream In

Birmingham Classics

Aubergine Melancholy

Bibi Dada

We All Have A Cross To Stare

Staring Into Space

The New Library - The New World

And the Ass Saw the Angel

Cannon Hill Park: The Great Green

The Birmgingham Central Backpackers back yard

 

Birmingham Bathroom Kitsch

Evening illumination

 

A look on Cardiff

Womanby Street gets into the groove

Melancholy Wales. Weeping Wales. Free-thinking Wales.
And Cardiff, its cordial center, a catchy chorus of a British song.
City of glorious independent traders selling vintage skates next to tomes of Anna Akhmatova poetry, and bookshops with guest gothic comic books and vinyl. Home of Spillers, "the oldest record store in the world".
Attacking the quotidian with groovy graffiti and an Animal Wall...

Soundtrack: Dying on the Vine by John Cale.

The Cardiff Fashion Quarter salutes the wandering visitor in style

Grab a goats cheese and walnut baguette at Sophie's

Arcades offer entertainment on a rainy day

Spillers: Spilling the beans on the best new acts since 1894

Twilight castle...

...and fairytale gardens

King of modesty: The Arab castle quarters

An angel to watch over me

Night-time stroll around the Millenium Stadium

Not afraid of the big bad wolf

Chillout coffee at Barker...

   

...opposite wide-eyed stalkers...

...and scary pets

Dexby Townhouse: A home-away-from-home on Cathedral Road

A walk on the mild side - Cathedral Road

Bute Park: Nature in bloom

Parc Bute: Life like a painting

Attacking urban routine - The Animal Wall

Kellys Records: Pumping up the beat at Central Market's first floor balcony

Cardiff Central Market: Vintage books, polka-dot ribbons and fresh fish

Wales Millenium Center: Keeping brainless waterfront entertainment at bay

Cardiff Bay: Melancholy monochrome

Still got the blues at the pier...

...but there's always a cachaca fiesta at Las Iguanas

Troutmark: book-loving master of the Castle Arcade

A cool kid's hideaway: From Akhmatova to punk rock

The minds and cows of Oxford

In the hood of the Radcliffe Camera.

 Spires that inspire. Dreams that aspire.

First-hand views of a Harry Potter set at the cinematic surroundings of the Bodleian Library.
De Sade second hand at the local Oxfam.
A sip of coffee by the graves of The Vaults & Garden Coffee Shop at St Mary the Virgin Church.
Great academic minds wrestling with thought opposite cows laying purposelessly on the grass.
Carefree punting and relentless book hunting. 

This, is Oxford.

Soundtrack: Lucky by Radiohead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpyL-A8cYNM

Done punting.

Don't give a rat's ass about uni

A marble doily paves the way to the Bodleian Library

Take a walk on the wild side

An angel fell on the Sheldonian Theatre

A window to Renaissance

Trinity College

Tomorrow never dies

Cambridge, England: Shine On You Academic Diamond

Scholarly or psychedelic, this is a city of strong predilection.
Interstellar Overdrive and the Speed of Sound.
Syd Barrett and Sir Isaac Newton.
Winnie-the-Pooh.
Majestic and intoxicating, the Wren Library.
Messy and Lilliputian, The Haunted Bookshop and the Indigo Cafe.
Freaks and frat boys punting and revising all at the same time.

Shakespearean tragedies under the Weeping Beech; choral chants under the King's Gothic vaults.
Brilliant and dramatic. Shine on, you crazy diamond...

Soundtrack: Interstellar Overdrive Parts I & II by Pink Floyd.

Casually watching the punters punt by

Cambridge in Spring

Visitor at the gates of dusk...

...and at the even creepier lunch room in Pembroke College

We're floating

We're jamming

We're chilling

We're gasping

We're bending

We're punting on psychedelics

In back alleys

And at the Backs gardens

Surfing, reading, pondering, in defiance of the historic monsters in the background.

The singing bus to Cambridge

King caught in a sunny day's storm

Thirst for knowledge...

...and procrastination

Study till you drop - but you drop here!

Singer/songwriter at King's College - classy

Pembroke College - Scholarly h(e)aven

Ghastly book haunt - The Haunted Bookshop

Cambridge's diamond and madcap: Syd still hangs at the Anchor, where Pink Floyd played one of their first gigs