Tag: Banksy

The Bear Pit, traffic jams and the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft

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Since the first cave man ground up colourful rocks and mixed them with animal fat to paint on the walls of his cave, people have been creating art. Humans seem to have an innate desire to paint, whether that be on cave walls in the hope of a good hunt or on canvas to  capture the essence of the world around them. There was a time when artists suffered for their art in filthy garrets, swapping work that would one day make art dealers millions, for a meal. These days things have changed. Modern day artists live in large apartments with millions in the bank all made without the need to be mouldering in a cold grave first. Sadly, work created for money rather than love is not always good. Continue reading The Bear Pit, traffic jams and the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft

Hotwells, gas works, street art and Banksy’s in the wild

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2 September 2015

We’d made it to the Cumberland Basin, the main entrance to Bristol Docks and a place that features high on my work life list of disaster areas. Part of me was interested to see what all the fuss was about. The swing bridge we were about to cross would lead us from Spike Island to Hotwells and, looking over the side at the boats moored in the calm water, it seemed peaceful enough. Of course the problem, as always in Bristol, revolves around the roads not the river and over the expanse of water in the basin, we could see plenty of traffic even on a quiet Wednesday afternoon. At least we were walking so traffic shouldn’t cause us too many problems. Continue reading Hotwells, gas works, street art and Banksy’s in the wild

From Temple Meads to Spike Island

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2 September 2015

When I first heard about Banksy’s rather bizarre pop up ‘bemusement’ park, Dismaland I knew CJ would want to see it. Let’s face it I wanted to see it myself. The pictures I’d seen made me smile and I immediately got the tongue in cheek concept of an alternative theme park with miserable mouse eared staff and grotesque exhibits, another ironic Banksy comment on our society of greed and sensationalism. Research told me it would be easy enough to get to, although the journey would be long. Unfortunately, so would the queues. Some said the four hour wait was all part of Banksy’s master plan, an echo of the normal theme park experience. Even CJ agreed a three hour journey, followed by a four hour queue then another three hour journey didn’t sound like much fun, so I decided to come up with an alternative. Continue reading From Temple Meads to Spike Island

Waterloo, Westminster, toilets, coffee and graffiti

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26 July 2015

Saturday night and I was feeling quite despondent. The forecast was for rain over the next few days. I could see my planned walks evaporating before my eyes. To cheer me up Commando went on line and booked two tickets to London.
“You can go exploring with CJ while I’m doing my fifteen mile marathon training. Even if it rains you’re sure to find something interesting to do.”
A couple of hours later after a lot of Googling and poring over maps, I had a plan that would keep CJ interested and take us to some of the more unusual sights in London. If it rained too much we could always seek shelter in a cafe. Continue reading Waterloo, Westminster, toilets, coffee and graffiti