Comments | eofs: It's our time

eofs

It's our time

Nov 12, 2013 23:54

People are slow to leave it, quick to return. And there are others who come, as they think, for a year or two, and stay a lifetime, sensing that they have found a city that is in the world, yet sufficiently on the edge of it to have a different resonance.
From Philip Larkin's foreword to A Rumoured City: New Poets from HullI came to Hull because ( Read more... )

Comments 8

deceptica November 13 2013, 08:20:14 UTC

I think it's lovely that you've come to identify with your new home that strongly! I can't say that I was that impressed during my one visit, but that video is quite nice. Good luck to Hull, I say!

eofs November 14 2013, 02:06:57 UTC

I'm so glad I have. I made a promise to myself when I moved here that I would try to interact with the city more than I did in Carlisle. Fortunately it turned out that Hull was a very easy city to interact with. There are loads of festivals (all free) right on your doorstep, museums and galleries (again all free). It's got a lively arts scene, two great theatres (one getting all the touring plays, the other one of the country's best regarded producing theatres). The Fruit Market area on the Marina has, since I moved here, turned into a wonderful bohemian arts centre. There are a surprisingly large number of beautiful parks. (Sadly, none local to us - the one by my office isn't the greatest ( ... )

quirkytaverna November 13 2013, 08:30:43 UTC

I loved watching that video! A glimpse of your home.

eofs November 14 2013, 02:19:33 UTC

It really makes me smile. I live right on the waterfront, a lot of the shots at the beginning are within spitting distance of our house.

We're a pretty cynical bunch at work, but even we're all pretty impressed with the video.

I love the shot at 2'31", it's one of my favourite streets in the city. We walk down it when we're going to the market on a Saturday. If you ignore the CCTV cameras it's easy to imagine that it hasn't changed in a century. I was once walking down there on my way to vote (my polling station is through that arch, in a 500 year old school building) on a cold, misty day and it felt almost Dickensian. (In fact, that must have been a year ago today... That's the only time I've voted in an election which wasn't held in May/June, and I can't imagine it having been that cold and misty in early summer.)

queen_of_kithia November 13 2013, 23:13:47 UTC

Okay, this is eerie.

As you know, the area where I live is completely landlocked. It's about as far away from an ocean or a sea as you can get on this continent.

And yet, the images at about 2:46 remind me an awful lot of the farmland around here. If I didn't know better and someone told me those pictures were taken in South Dakota, I might well take them at their word.

Anyway, the video is terrific. Best of luck to Hull! You'd get my vote, if I had one.

Oh, by the way, is there a story behind the elephant/landstrider hybrids? It's a striking image and I'm not sure that it "needs" an explanation, but I'm just curious about who, why, and how.

eofs November 14 2013, 02:29:51 UTC

That's so funny that the Yorkshire Wolds should look like South Dakota! Especially as they're chalk and of glacial origin, which I should think is as far from South Dakota's origins as you can get.

They're a really beautiful place, we really must explore them more. Immediately where I live it's very flat and boring, but the Wolds aren't far north west of us.

Lots of people keep telling us we'd get their vote if they had one. Let's just hope the people who do have the votes agree.

And we have no idea what the elephants are about, but they'll be featured at the opening ceremony if we win. We were all deeply cynical the night we mentioned them on the programme ("papier maché elephants? It's hardly the Olympic opening ceremony") but then when we saw the pictures we were fairly impressed. They're quite cool looking. But nope, no idea what on earth they represent. (We're twinned with Freetown in Sierra Leone - Hull's big thing is freedom - so I don't know if it's something to do with that.)

queen_of_kithia November 14 2013, 05:40:23 UTC

That's so funny that the Yorkshire Wolds should look like South Dakota! Especially as they're chalk and of glacial origin, which I should think is as far from South Dakota's origins as you can get.

Well, not necessarily. There's a geologic distinction between western South Dakota and eastern South Dakota. Eastern South Dakota actually does have a significant history of glaciation, and therefore it tends to have the rolling hills and the fertile soil and the glacial lakes. The footage of the Wolds reminds me of eastern South Dakota, specifically southeastern South Dakota. Here's a pretty good picture I found, taken in an area not far from Sioux Falls. What do you think; does it look familiar? Or am I just seeing things that nobody else sees?

And we have no idea what the elephants are about

Hmm, how interesting. Maybe there's not a deeper symbolic meaning to them; maybe it's just that the people who made them happen to live there. (Just as there's nothing inherently representative of Spearfish in Termespheres except that ( ... )

kantark November 20 2013, 22:47:48 UTC

Congratulations! :-)

The closest I've been is while on holiday a couple of years back - we went to York and found ourselves looking for a petrol station on the Road To Hull (cue Chris Rea song) for a while.