Knock, knock!

It's York, December 2022. Our Jorvik pub crawl has not long begun. ''Look out for the purple door with the fox knocker,'' I said to our friends as we were seeking out a hostelry I remembered going in a couple of years ago; though I couldn't recollect the name of it I knew it was down a narrow alleyway and just before it, on the right hand side, was a heavily glossed bright purple door with a fabulous fox knocker on it. (I later went on to use the image on a friend's playlist.) 

And so my latest photography craze began. I say began; it was only a few days later whilst I was on my regular lunchtime walk when I espied another fox (I now have a brace) that I realised I would now subconsciously be looking out for these brass bad boys wherever I happen to find myself.  In true Shaw Taylor style I'll be keeping 'em peeled.

...

Feel free to contribute any foxy sightings you may stumble upon in your part of the world. I'd like to think they live hidden in plain sight and have been watching us all for sometime now...

It's a wrap

2022. Where did it go? Blink and you miss it; only seems like five minutes ago since I was planning my American adventure. Now it's December and I can only dream about California. (However, my Amtrek photobook is beginning to take shape.)

Spotify have just wrapped up my year, as they normally do, and informed that I've clocked up nearly 40,000 minutes of listening in '22 and have heard just shy of 4,000 songs. Below are the Match of the Day highlights...

It probably won't surprise you to learn that of the Top 5 most listened to artists I've been to see three of them live this year; and in the case of Ian Prowse I'll be clocking him for the 4th time this year when he visits The Resue Rooms on Thursday. He's very kindly put us on the gezzy - we've spoken to him after all three previous shows this year (Hull, Manchester & Totnes) and he is such a nice guy. Ian mans his own merch stand and the Medds always have a drink with him and invariably make a purchase!

I really hope I can apply the handbrake to 2023 before it runs away with me but I very much doubt I'll be able to. I've got so much I want to cram in next year it's untrue. But I'm jumping the gun, I know; slowly slowly catchy monkey. 

I close my eyes and I see you next to me

I went to see John Power on Friday night at The Bodega. It was a very intimate gig; he spoke warmly and candidly about how Lee Mavers mentored him when he was in the La's and showed him how to write songs. Since the last time I saw John (in 1995 when Cast played at Trent Uni) I appear to have grown old (when did that happen?) and he's ended up writing one of the finest songs ever to have come out of this country in the last 30 years. 

John Power - Mariner (live, 2009)

The Bodega is one of my favourite venues in Nottingham. It only holds a couple of hundred people and lends itself to photographing bands and artists. As well as capturing them 'head on' it's got a little rail at the side next to the steps where the bands walk on stage; perfect for leaning on and getting some backlit shots from behind...

Been waiting for the bus all day

I'd love to think that in a parallel universe there's another me, a nerdier version of me, if you will, who is passionate about stamps; but only stamps with buses on them. This version of me, let's call him John Medd 2.0, is continually visiting stamp fairs all over the world - tracking down every postage stamp from every country ever to bear the image of a humble bus.

I think I'd get on with him. We'd probably bump into each other at the airport, or in some European city square while I was photographing a laundromat and he was, I don't know, on his way to some far-flung philatelic convention. I like him already; we should meet up for a drink sometime.  

ZZ Top - Waiting for the Bus (1973)

Bus times

Whatever happened to the Partridge Family bus? The one painted in the style of Dutch abstract Piet Mondrian; it probably won't surprise you that there are as many websites dedicated solely to this mystery as there are stars in the solar system. However, long story short, the 1955 Chevrolet 6800 purchased by the TV company in 1970 (from a school district in Orange County, California) for the show's pilot, finally met its maker in 1987. (There are witnesses who saw it in the scrapyard).

So, if you've seen one after then, rest assured you're looking at a copy. A bit like the Mondrian hanging in my office.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)