Archive for the ‘Hastings’ Tag
Bonfires
Filed under: Environment, History | Tags: bonfires, climate change, environment, global-warming, Guy Fawkes, Hastings, pallets, sustainability
Leave a comment I have come to realise in 2026 that the challenge of climate change means that lives and lifestyles have to change if we are to survive. But all around I see business-as-usual, with the odd bit of recycling and kitchen waste collections. I have to start saying things that are unpopular. So here goes…
It is bonfire season in the UK. We mark the foiling of the so-called gunpowder plot to blow up the British Parliament and see off the Protestant king. In a nutshell. We do this by adding huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere along with a cocktail of other toxic chemicals and with explosives. Usually there are casualties, but they are either unlucky or stupid. It is worth it.
I took a late stroll on 15 October, in my adopted town of Hastings, UK. I came across an area of the beach that had been cordoned off and some pallets piled up inside the cordon. The next day I ventured back in daylight to take a photograph (left).
What is going on? The Council has declared a climate emergency but is allowing the release of c29 tonnes of carbon dioxide – the most abundant of the greenhouse gases – currently locked into the wood from trees that captured it from the atmosphere when they were growing. The Council enables this for no reason at all (of course, this is disputable). In addition to carbon dioxide, the burning of the wood released potentially toxic chemicals (wooden pallets are treated with a range of chemicals such as fumigants and preservatives), and dangerous particulates. It stresses wildlife and pets.
It does not come cheap, either. There is an opportunity cost here. Let us add up the costs: security, fencing (even the fountain is cordoned off), pallets, fireworks, litter clearance (strewn everywhere), medical support, use of resources to manufacture and sell tat…
How much carbon?
I assume 800 pallets. Each pallet weighs approximately 20kg. Each pallet is, again, roughly, 50 per cent carbon. That is 10kg carbon per pallet and 8000 for 800 pallets. When it burns it oxidises. The formular is CO2=C×44/12. So that is 8000x(44/22)=29.3 tonnes. If the calculation is incorrect, please let me know.
Incidentally, the average per capita emission is 7,000 kg. The average Briton, estimated by Mike Berners-Lee, has a footprint of 13,000 kg. It is not negligible. Every kilo matters because every fraction of a degree Celsius of warming matters.
For all of the official events, there is always a fringe. Descending on the town are the “tat” sellers. I do not know if they are licensed, but they seem very organised. They sell toys that are irresistible to children as they are brightly coloured and glow very much in the dark (right). They are single use. They will be thrown away. And my goodness, do they shift this tat. Behind this stuff is a climate disaster in the making, notwithstanding the cheap labour exploited to make it and the addition carbon generated in shipping.
You are stopping people from having fun – get a life
At this time of the year, these bonfire events are taking place across the country ahead of the climax on 5 November. As a kid, of course, I loved this night of the year. November 5th would fall on the week after our school half term. That whole week would be spent collecting wood to build the bonfire. (Pallets were not an option at the time.) Children would go house-to-house with their “Guy” (Guy Fawkes, one of the plotters who managed the explosives) to collect money to buy fireworks. We would have to defend our wood from other gangs who were looking to steal it for their own fire. The idea that we might collaborate did not come into the equation. It was pre- (knowledge about) climate change.
The event in Hastings is a major attraction. It brings in welcome extra money for businesses in the centre of the town, in particular hospitality. The downside is the observation that the streets around the centre of the town were choked with illegally parked cars. Huge ones, all consuming fossil fuels for their motive power. Not a single parking ticket to be seen. I have also been criticised for seeming to be petty – “it is only one bonfire once a year” and “what about the conflagrations taking place currently in France?” I tried to respond politely, but people are naturally defensive and most miss the point that I am making. I am not attacking a particular bonfire or people having fun. I am trying to make the case for improving awareness of the climate emergency and our response to it in our daily lives.
Amateur photographer 2
I got the horizon just about level. I would have liked to have lined up the couple and the yacht. I know next time!
Not immediately obvious at Tonbridge Station, but quite an array of tools should you need them. As for the pub garden, I think these objects were once part of a parade of some kind. Hastings does parades like most people have lunch. Talking of which…
I have never been a fan of Harry Potter. I have never, to my knowledge, queued outside a non-food shop to buy tat. And what we know about JK Rowling and her hate agenda, I would never consider buying anything that helps her hate campaign. At any level, what are these people doing?
Drought, heat, the summer of 26
Filed under: Environment, Photography | Tags: climate, climate change, drought, Hastings, heat, Luton
Leave a comment 
Top left: It is not only the people that are dead, St Mary’s Luton Parish Church, 5 August 2026; Middle: Another cloudless sky, Hastings, 6 August 2026, top right: Sunsetting, Hastings, 6 August 2026.
Above left: Let’s get this straight (East Sussex College and Hastings railway station, 7 August 2026); Middle: A shape of things to come (derelict Queensbury House, Hastings, 7 August 2026); Above right: I can see you (Station Plaza, Hastings, 7 August 2026)
I have drawn on a newspaper headline for Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail newspaper. Suitably silly comment but it still has currency as people confuse climate and weather.
Modern world
Filed under: Photography | Tags: Hastings, Magritte, Pasing, Photographs, Theatron
Leave a comment I am trying to make sense of the world through my cameras (Nikon D3500 DSLR and Google Pixel). Here are six for the end of May 2026. There is a bit of a Hastings bias.
Dean Friedman, Hastings, 9 May 2017
I was alerted to Dean Friedman’s appearance by the White Rock Theatre only five days before, but it was a no-brainer. Of all of my teenage/early 20s influences (ELO, Devo, Blondie, Kate Bush, The Smiths), Dean Friedman is the one that provided the yearning for adulthood. The notion of love between the sheets torm
ented me. And that woman, Lydia, accommodating that toothbrush, dissolved away my frontal lobe. Then there was that room where a cuckoo clock tells you that you are reflected in all of the things you own. I had a cuckoo clock (but no rocking chair).
I had seen him once before at the Hull Truck Theatre, at least 35 years ago. I am generally reluctant to revisit the past. I made an important exception here. And took the opportunity to introduce my beloved to this world.
The stage hosted a grand piano, a Yamaha keyboard and a guitar. And him. Each song has its own story – and not always the obvious one. The Shopping Bag Ladies were part of Friedman’s daily commute to New York. Company, was influenced by Paul McCartney’s Blackbird (to find out how, you have to go to the show or attend one of his song-writing workshops). He did not say too much about the S&M song, but it was great to hear it. Ariel captures that youthful exuberance of discovery, being “high” and the softness of the mouth. Only Dean Friedman wrote lyrics like that, at least in my world at that time.
There is a new album available today. It is called 12 Tunes and we were introduced to a number of the songs from it. Whilst youth is long gone, the use of song to capture life’s ongoing magic and frustrations is still in Friedman’s gift. “We must have done something right” he sings in reference to his child rearing. On being too busy he asks “how does everyone do it?”. The loss of an old friend – his guitar – “This guitar can’t hold a tune no more”. Clever, witty, metaphorical, reflective.
And so to the dark side. Early in the set there was a song about a former girlfriend that he was happy to see go. It was not complementary in tone or language. It reminded me of John Cooper Clarke’s brilliant Twat. I was not expecting that. Then he lulled us into a false sense of security about neighbourly relations. To paraphrase, if we cannot get on with our neighbours, how are we supposed to get on with people from other countries? Before unleashing a wonderfully vicious song about bad neighbours and escalating tensions. Revenge, even.
Talking of which, I remember Tim Minchin discussing one of his revenge songs written about a journalist who gave him a particularly bad review, the effect of which can be significant. Power without responsibility. Friedman regaled the audience about a phone call that he got from a friend in the UK telling him there was a song on an album by a bizarrely-named band, Half Man, Half Biscuit, entitled The Bastard Son of Dean Friedman. The essence of this song is that the narrator has to deal with learning of his origins and coping with the ridicule and shame. That same album contained a song with a lyric “why is Rod Hull alive – and getting paid as well?” Older British Readers will know what that means. Friedman, suffice to say, was in good company.
It was not absolutely clear in the first instance whether Friedman was flattered or hurt by the Bastard Son. But his song riposte had light touches and humour. Or at least the way I heard it. I think that was the point of Nigel Blackwell’s/Half Man’s original song?
I end my review with a reflection on a song that captures what Dean Friedman does best. Gone, understandably,
is Ariel’s manic, rapid heart beating sprint and replaced by a matured reflection on the really important things. Prompted by the question from a stranger at a party – something which Friedman seems to eschew – “what do you do”? The answer, “I’m Dean Friedman” should be enough. But he put the answer into a mischievous song. Brilliantly. His job is to make his beloved happy (secure, loved, warm, dry, etc.). It’s a bit contrived, we all know that. And it should be true.
Talking of being contrived, here is a picture (right) of me with Dean Friedman.
The tour continues culminating in appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.
