Warsaw Klub Pogłos: A Nice Refreshing Bottle of Beer

As the UK Subs were heading towards their encores on Sunday night, I decided to have a breather with a bottle of Perła (one of the best Polish beers) downstairs at the Klub Pogłos:

Really liked the laid-back atmosphere in this downstairs room.

UK Subs Live at Warsaw Klub Pogłos 28th January 2018

Not having been to a gig since the beginning of December, it was good to get the 2018 concert season underway with the UK Subs at Warsaw Poglos last night:

Despite having quite liked UK Subs while I was still at school (back in the late 1970s/early 1980s), I don't really know the band's material much beyond the famous tunes ('Stranglehold'; 'Tomorrow's Girls'; 'Warhead' etc.), but felt I had to get to this gig for nostalgia (we all love the music from our schooldays, of course).

Got to take your hat off to Charlie Harper still going strong:

Got a few shots of the band setting their gear up on stage:

 

Enjoyed the gig a lot, this being the first time I'd seen UK Subs (better late than never, I guess).  Rather foolishly missed the chance to see the band when they played the Horse & Jockey pub on Rochdale Old Road in Bury, Lancashire when I was living a stone throw's away from there in the mid-1990s.

Last night was also the first time I'd been to a gig at the Klub Poglos in Warsaw.  With the sell-out crowd, the place seemed a bit of a sweatbox, but I guess things would be a lot more comfortable if it was about two-thirds full.

Marrows from Eastern Poland

Must get round to eating these marrows from Eastern Poland, they've been on the window sill long enough.

I ate a longer, more rectangular-shaped marrow (from Eastern Poland) a couple of weeks ago and it was definitely tasty enough.

Funny thing is, when I got round to cutting open the 'marrow' on the left above, it turned out to be a small melon.

Warsaw: The Men in the Bushes Disappear

Finally, the men who lived in the bushes from about last April have disappeared. 

Guess that they must've left at the end of the first week in January when the temperature started dropping below zero regularly.

Only the blackbirds and crows walk on the now snow-covered ground where the men in the bushes had pitched their makeshift tents made from long black plastic sheets:

It's now hard to imagine that a small group of homeless men made their home in these bushes for eight months or so:

Guess that the dead tree below is where the men in the bushes got their wood from for their small campfires:

And the tree below is where I sometimes saw their probably dew-damp sleeping bags hanging from:

Really hope the men from the bushes have found somewhere warm to stay as the serious part of the Polish winter seems to be starting.

My 52nd Birthday

It was my 52nd birthday today.  The pictures here are from a long, long time ago.  The top one is from Sanderson Street in Bury, Lancashire in the late 1970s, and the bottom one the early 1980s:

This was the time when my love of music was just starting to ferment, having been introduced to Rush; Blue Oyster Cult; Deep Purple; Led-Zep; Black Sabbath; Kiss; Kansas; Styx; UFO etc.

My Mental Jukebox Part 7

This is a song that has been dominating my mental jukebox recently:  'I Don't Believe in Love' from Queensryche's classic 'Operation Mindcrime' album, being done above by (former Queensryche vocalist) Geoff Tate's band Operation: Mindcrime at Warsaw Progresja in late 2015.

Can still remember an old mate of mine, Daz George, being mad on this tune, and having it blaring out from his stereo (many years ago now).

Eastern Poland: A Beautiful Blanket

Love this blanket with its image of a female dog and her puppies.  Sitting on the blanket here is Kotek next to my copy of Thomas Hardy's 'The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid'.

Warsaw: Christmas Decorations before Daylight

Think that the fact that these shots of Christmas decorations in Warsaw city centre are not fully clear possibly adds to the sense of enchantment I experienced while passing them not long before daybreak recently.

Really like  the blurred-type image of the church in the background and the reflections of the Christmas decorations in the water in the picture below:

"I'd Have My Life Unbe": Thomas Hardy's Self-destructive Characters by Frank R. Giordano, Jr.

Really glad that I managed to get hold of a (second-hand) copy of this book, as it gets right to the heart of Hardy's tragic vision of the plight of modern human beings.  It does this by eruditely investigating the self-destructiveness of some of Hardy's main fictional characters (Tess; Jude; Eustacia Vye; Michael Henchard; Giles Winterborne; and the interesting inclusion of Farmer Boldwood).  Giordano's central theory seems to run something like this: that these main characters suffer from the Freudian death instinct (which Hardy spelt out in his fiction before Freud formulated his theory) and a will not to have been born which is borne from the start of the modernist age (in Victorian times) with its destruction of traditional Western belief systems and its replacement of them with little more than nihilism, ennui, and alienation.

The book opens with intriguing chapters on the origins and roots of Hardy's melancholic vision, and the views of both Freud and Durkheim on suicide which put forward the significance of social context/situation and offer a view of suicide as being a long drawn-out or built-up, self-destructive process rather than just a crazy, isolated incident (as previously assumed).  The following chapters then dissect how some of the great characters from Hardy's main novels ('The Return of the Native'; 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'; 'Far from the Madding Crowd'; 'Jude the Obscure'; 'The Woodlanders'; and 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles') suffer from such long-range self-destructive processes.

The section on Michael Henchard is quite similar to other critical reflections I've read about his divided personality; warring life versus death instincts etc.  However, the section on Eustacia Vye's self-destructive process has been really eye-opening.  Regarding the build-up of Eustacia's self-destructive (suicidal-type) psychology, Giordano points towards such things as her:

* Suffering from world-weariness, an intense sense of failing her potential, and a feeling that fate is firmly pitched against her

* Being in a bitter state of revolt against her surroundings and the people who inhabit it

* Feeling crushed through sensing that her self is up against an unjust, cruel world

* Plunging into a state of abyss-like despair where she feels that her existence is loveless, without reason, and comfortless

Of course, it's debatable whether Eustacia's drowning near the end of  'The Return of a Native' is a suicide or just a tragic accident.  Despite this, Giordano remains convinced that it is a suicide borne from her making a final resolution to do such a thing, with this final, terminal decision being mixed in with confused motives and impulsive behaviour.

Have currently just started reading the section on Farmer Boldwood's self-destructive process (and almost suicide) in 'Far from the Madding Crowd' (the second Hardy novel I read after 'The Return of the Native' back in the early 1980s).  Thus far, Giordano has offered fascinating insights into Boldwood's enigmatic, aristocratic reserve being accompanied by an inner vulnerability and uncontrollable emotions (a state often described as 'still rivers running deep'); his repressed emotions and self-denial making him susceptible to getting hurt easily; and his protective, stoic, routine life being disturbed by Bathsheba Everdine's thoughtless Valentine.

Thus, I'm roughly halfway through this wonderful book, and can't wait to read the second half.  I'm just so so happy that I've managed to get hold of such an old-school book of literary criticism (from a kind of mixed traditional humanist-Freudian perspective) on Hardy's tragic vision of modern man's self-destructiveness (which, for me, is incredibly accurate and very much relevant to the present day).

Not Going to the Warsaw New Year's Eve Concert

Did consider going to the New Year's Eve Concert at Plac Bankowy last night, but just didn't get there, as I settled for staying in and watching music videos.

The pictures here are from a couple of weeks ago, before Christmas, when the stage for the New Year's Eve concert started to appear at Plac Bankowy: