558: Space...

Monday night. The sky was clear, the weather was calm and unseasonally clement. Oh, it was, wasn't it. It was, don't you know. What, what. It's a couple of weeks since the rare close alignment of Venus and Jupiter, that I first spotted hanging beautifully over the roof of Aldi. Ahh, the supermarket carpark, between the wonky-wheeled trolleys and the chatty beggars and the honking cars; the natural home of the spotter of astrological phenomena.

Monday night, and the close alignment of Venus and Jupiter has passed. Jupiter remains low in the sky and Venus has risen a few degrees higher, making its gradual getaway, across the solar system and eventually back again. Venus, where the days are longer than the years and the sun rises in the west. Jupiter could now be seen with a new partner in the sky. Our closest celestial body, illuminator of the night, sweeper of tides, major contributor to the conditions on Earth perfect for evolving life.

Monday night and the moon sat close beside Jupiter. A special moon – a crescent moon, illuminated by Earthshine where otherwise it would be blackness. And all I've got is a bog standard digital camera. No special lenses. My position is in the centre of Manchester, at the northwest point of the Blue Banana, the European Megalopolis, where the sky is next to invisible as an indistinct backdrop to street lights and tower blocks.

I photographed the sky from Seymour Park in Old Trafford and got three faint and blurred spots of light. Much less distinct and clear than was seen with just the naked (admittedly spectacled) eye. The photographer of this picture clearly knew much better, and was much better equipped for snapping lunar landscapes:

http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/nskymar12.html

And here're my little pictures:

393: Nightclubs n that in Blackpool

Blackpool Night Life

Last Saturday: my first time ever on a night out, club pub or otherwise, in a sober state of mind. Upon arriving at Blackpool's Sanuk 'sober' was the word: I felt bloated, confused, scared. Slutty couples frugging viciously against one another on the dance floor – welcome to Blackpool, baby! - face on tit, hand up skirt; bird giving it Beyonce-promo – legs open, crouch ass to the ground; shaven-headed Ben Sherman thinks he is the king pimpdaddy. 

Blackpool's predatory males have – by necessity, in battling against the visual feast of hen and stag costumes – taken peacocking to an absurd level. A man about town, with the sweet scent of hot young lady in his vibrating nostrils, must dress in full combat fatigues or a fireman costume. He approaches a target knowing she will want to try on his hat; this is his substitute for genuine charm, personality, wit or likeability. Peacocking.

Being in a night club with just a glass of water in my hand, and clarity in my mind and eyes, is seriously strange. The place seemed lighter than expected. Everyone's behaviour, speech, movements, everything was too ludicrous for words. Despite feeling hugely self-conscious I needed to dance; every time I stopped for a moment I realised how dreadful the environment was. 

Desperately disgusting and annoying people clawing and climbing over one another; absurdly unsexy posturing at the end of every eye-line. That bizarre duck-face pout that women seem to have adopted en masse as being a desirable look. For some time I was able to forget myself and step away from my tedious I'm-better-than-all-you onlooker status, and get lost in an extended mix of old school hip-hop and early-90's pop rave.

Sanuk seemed to have all the properties of a good nightclub: three rooms (one playing rock, pop and hip hop classics, one urban, and the third was Hed Kandi. It was not bad. There was also an outdoor terrace with sheltered seating, a bar, and a kitchen selling bacon butties – fantastic! All they need is a metal night, and for me to be ten years younger, and I'd be a regular. Anyhoo, I fancy I may not be the target audience for a place like this, so it's just one of those things where I'll have to come to terms with the fact that my opinion on the subject is of no value. Good night :)