Friday 31 October 2008

Light Me Up !


That's quite enough nostalgia. Couldn't help myself though, spotted the unmitigated pub-side gas pump on the other channel and thought of this. My Americana catalogue is very broad and may well support its own pages soon. Until then ........
I'm afraid its back to street lighting worries. This last few weeks have involved a lot of driving in the early hours - where have gone the pleasures of driving in the dark ( much appreciated '43 Jeep "night view") ? Fortunately there are plenty of unlit routes in County Diplo, but travel any distance and the night is washed away by that nauseous yellow glow of the sodium lights sliced up like some vivisectionist's whale by the long stitched gashes of trunk-road and motorway lights. I was briefly enthused by plans in Powys to turn these awful decorations off after midnight to save power - badly received by residents frightened of the dark !!! Lord save us (again) just switch the bloody things off altogether, perhaps give us all a few quid off our rates as a pleaser. Having never really lived in town it does seem so sad that the State has seen fit to deprive those that do of darkness. The natural way of things ( dark/light, night/day, hot/cold, noisy/quiet) does provide us and the rest of the planet with a frame work, a pendulum of emotions, moods, temperatures, light levels etc all of these rocking us gently within the extremities, enabling us to enjoy being tired or bright-eyed, cold on a clear autumn morning or struggling with the searing provencal heat as we tease our pallet with a little nicoise and a crisp cold Semilion. Can we please have some bloody contrast and stop trying to smooth out the experience into some ghastly mediocre, mean, average, bland, featureless pureed vegetable. MORE DARKNESS !

2 comments:

Peter Ashley said...

Wonderful post Diplo, keep it up. As the art mistress said to the gardener. But you haven't fully explained the wonderful sign. MORE DETAILS!

Fred Fibonacci said...

Diplo; couldn't agree more about the day for night battle. Here at Apartementi Fibonacci they keep upping the wattage of the overnight lighting out in the courtyards. It's never dark. There's no peace.

Now, where have I heard that before? Apparently it's all for my own good. Phew, what a relief.