Tag: lisbon

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And so endeth MYLSBN – which ,for the record, has nothing to do with lesbians contrary to what some might think (yes Tennyson crew, I am talking about you!). The shots over the last few weeks were designed to give you a virtual trip to Lisbon during this lockdown. A way to travel without moving. This pandemic has given our species a golden opportunity to show how we can live differently to how we lived before.

And now that we have been brought to a standstill we can hopefully see we are at a junction in the road. The path we were on was a dead end and we knew it but we couldn’t envisage an alternative. But now we have been given a glimpse of what life would be like if all unnecessary travel and excessive consumerism and relentless pollution stopped. And as restrictive as it it is, life carries on.

We can now see a different path because we are effectively on it. Already emissions have dropped all over the globe and it has been proven we can completely change the way we live almost overnight. Those that opposed change convinced us it wasn’t possible but the response to Corona across the globe has proven otherwise. Let’s use this devastating and destructive virus to save mankind by halting the rise in global temperatures and preserving the goldilocks zone on this planet that allows us and most other species to live upon it.

I know it maybe seemed strange that I was showing you photographs of a former visit to Lisbon as the world went into meltdown but it was designed to serve as a form of escapism from the relentless feed of horror. I realised very early on that it was crucial for us to have breaks from this thing to preserve our sanity. I enjoyed being elsewhere whilst I worked on the pictures and yet, inevitably, they always brought me back to the current situation and all my articles have revolved around the virus rather than the trip they came from.

The bulk of the pictures from my documentation of Lisbon came from a single procession on the last day I was there and pretty much every shot was taken within a single hour. Sometimes a slice will encapsulate the whole and felt that this event which pretty much the whole town turned out for, gave me an insight into the city and showed what was most important to the good folk of Lisbon, namely community & tradition. The procession was of a religious nature but for me, it was more to do with the people coming together as it was to celebrate their beliefs. It also felt like going back in time to an era where there was more solidarity amongst citizens and from a time when you could be in large crowds en masse together (remember those days?) and maybe that was why I was so keen to stay in this little virtual travel time capsule bubble.

Hope you enjoyed too. I will back on the streets of London as of next week, well as much as the lockdown will allow me. Stay safe people!

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Religion is providing solace to a lot of people right now and if it’s getting you through these turbulent times that is a great thing. Yet was disturbed to read that some religious communities around the world were ignoring social distancing rules. Bolsanaro in Brazil for example, rejected scientific advice (nothing new there) to allow religious congregations to continue amongst all of this.

This will only serve to endanger the lives of those who attend and, in turn, those who they then come into contact with. Maybe they are prepared to die for their beliefs but it is utterly irresponsible and morally wrong to put others into the same risk category.

It is also wholly unnecessary as God is, according to these religions, omnipotent so you don’t actually have to go anywhere to find him. He will come to you. And you can still have faith and listen to the science because that is ultimately what will keep you and everyone else safe.

But its not just religious folk not following the rules. Every day when I go out for my daily walk I see so many people not social distancing. Not obeying the 2m rule. Not even bothering to consider that the interactions they are having could lead to someone getting seriously ill and even losing their life.

And I do not see anyone out on the street enforcing this. There are no police around. Not anywhere to be seen. We are the only country in Europe that is not enforcing it rigorously and consequently the U.K is now set to become the country in Europe the most affected. Coincidence? Of course fucking not. So if our governing bodies still aren’t treating it with the severity it deserves we need to…so stay the fuck away from each other and we can kill this thing instead of killing each other…

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Congregations organised around live music were always for me the most positive display of humanity coming together – always said it was us at our best. All united with no agenda and bonded by a shared love rather than becuase of being in opposition to an out-group. I used to think it was just a distraction from the daily grind but over time I realised that it was potentially way more than that. It was the solution to disharmony and division. It was the antidote to tribalism even with it being, paradoxically, a form of tribalism in itself.

When you are at a gig, you could be surrounded by people who are from different countries, cultures, religions, political beliefs and none of that mattered. For as long as the music kept playing. Afterwards that feeling of togetherness would fade and you might return to your various in-groups but the sense of connectivity would remain and it showed not only was it possible but preferable.

I have been banging on about this concept of unification via live music events (clubs, gigs, festivals) being our salvation as a species for donkeys but now that it has been taken away from us and no-one knows when it will return, it feels painfully absent. And I know a lot of bands, artists and djs are trying to do digital streaming as an alternative but it just ain’t the same. The magic happens in the transference of energy between the performer and the audience and vice versa but you have to be in the same place – you cannot get that through a screen.

In the meantime it might be all we have but I personally have no interest. I have no interest in the digi version. For me it is just too much of a drop off. It can’t deliver what I want it to because so much of the experience is missing. So I will be waiting patiently until we can congregate together in the real world once more…and we will…so see you on the dancefloor!

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The shots this week were all taken of people waiting for a procession in Lisbon. Already seeing pictures of people congregating is starting to look really strange. It is insane how quickly what was once usual becomes utterly unusual. And how the abnormal becomes normal. Our worlds have shrunk considerably but we adapt.

I have never been indoors this much in my entire life but I accept this is how it must be. Having been sick with the virus (still untested but not possible its anything else) for last 10 days has actually helped me not climb the walls as have been wiped out and my worry is actually when I start to feel better and have normal energy levels. My other medical condition is I have ‘ants in my pants’ so having to deal with continued confinement might exacerbate this insect ridden underwear syndrome but I will endure as we all must. Like everybody, am already adjusting to this highly bizarre and surreal existence and memories of my former life are already fading.

Hope you are all coping okay. Even though we are all going through the same thing it doesn’t always feel like it as we are all in isolation and living it separately. It wasn’t untill last night when so many of us on our street came out to applaud the NHS did I physically see my neighbours who are all going through the same thing. To hear the cheers and the applause was so uplifting and connected us all. We are all in this together and we mustn’t ever forget it. It is our sense of togetherness that will help us get through it.

Stay safe but just as important..stay sane!

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If you know anyone who is quarantining on their own, give em a shout, make sure they ok. A lil chat goes a long way. I have to say that one of the positives of this increasingly surreal situation is that if you phone someone they actually take the call. Everyone’s available. Everyone wants to chat. The ratio of answering machines to pick ups has drastically reversed. Could this be the thing that sees the return of phone conversations, the once dominant form of communication now deposed and replaced with text based interaction? Who knows but ‘it’s good to talk’ as an old BT campaign used to say back in the 80s, which was probably the last time someone took my call.

So lets keep the airwaves open, and as my friend Grant said, “we might as well because nothing else is”. Ironically it might be this enforced isolation that makes us realise how important it is to stay connected and to feel part of a community. It is, in fact, more than important. It is essential to our well being.

#weareallinthistogether

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As you may or may not have guessed, I am not actually out on the streets of Lisbon currently. I am stuck at home like most others. Me & Mrs B have been self-isolating all week as sick with poss/poss not Covid-19. ( mebbe 17 or 18 ;) If we do have it, luckily it is mild version & similar symptoms to Tom Hanks, no joke but the joke is that’s about all we can go on as can’t get tested. So these shots were taken on a trip last year and haven’t had a chance to go through them till now. I am also posting these in the midst of all this madness because its a way of travelling without moving.

With the current global lockdown and everyone isolated indoors it feels like virtual travel is definitely the order of the day. It feels like this is what the internet was designed for. To keep us connected when we can’t do so in the real world. And to keep us distracted. We need diversions during this indefinite period. You cannot pay attention to this shit storm all the time. It will drive you bat shit crazy. So maybe ease up on the constant drip feed of round the clock bulletins and let your mind wander elsewhere from time to time.

For what its worth I am doing daytime corona, nighttime escapism. I saw on Netflix that all the movies that were trending were virus related which to me seems crazy. That’s like watching airplane disaster movies on a plane. You need to stay informed and keep abreast of the latest developments but you also need to stay sane so make sure you give your brain a rest.

Wall to wall worry is not going to help get you through this. You need time outs so am providing shots of elsewhere in the hope that helps. Obvs if you live in Lisbon (hello Paddy, dermot, fernanda!) this might be less of an escape but at least it might let you mentally meander to a time when Corona was just a beer.

Some of my aforementioned mates were part of the Brexodus that moved to Lisbon after the referendum (remember those happy times when we just spoke about the EU) and after visiting them last year I realised it pretty much ticks every box of what I want a city to be. The vibe, the people, the architecture, the way of life, the food, the nightlife..its all top draw. And from a photographic point of view, it is superb. So many incredible faces, you can barely turn without seeing a magnificently character on ever corner. The light is stunning, noticeably so, I don’t know why, but its truly breathtaking as it makes all the colours of all the buildings and the crystal blue sky pop like HDTV. (yes, fraid these shots are in bnw as still on my colour strike as I was depressed about the world before the film Contagion became a reality show!)

I have a feeling CoronaWorld ain’t going anywhere anytime soon so we might have to get used to not going anywhere for a while which is why digi-travel is the solution. This virus has brought the globe to a standstill and maybe that is not such a terrible thing. We go round and round and we never stop for long enough to work out what the fuck we are doing or where we are going. Both as individuals and as a species.

I feel life is relentless and I always wished that it would be possible for everything to just stop. To freeze everything. Just to get a time out. Just to have a breather. Just long enough to stop chasing your tail. They say be careful what you wish for…

I hope this enforced time out will give us time to reflect and realise that what we need to as a species is put the brakes on everything we were doing anyway. I hope we will learn from this and not just go back to normal after this has blown over and not learn from the experience and just return to the round and round…maybe the positive is that Corona will show us how we can live without relentless consumption & travel and put us on a regenerative path towards sustainable living. We must not let this opportunity go to waste.

I will be posting more shots of Lisbon up next week as I want to continue to ride the magic carpet of virtual travel…because I am housebound but also because once again I dream of Europe where they are doing whatever is necessary to put the safety of their people first which involves a total lockdown. Why aren’t we? No-one fucking knows. We are currently run by an arrogant, uncaring imbecile – a terrible combo at the best of times.

Stay safe out there people…and stay strong. Stubborn optimism is the order of the day. Don’t let this shit get you down. It shall pass. And meantime…all aboard the pixel plane!

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