50th SC Photo Challenge .............Show Me Indispensable! (Winner)

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My love of music which really began when I was a teen. This was taken in 1973 in Dallas at the Majestic Theatre. King Crimson, with the late John Wetton on vocals and bass. I memorable concert, if not a great photo. Hand held film developed and printed in my makeshift darkroom. Music guides and centers my life and is truly indispensable.

I used to listen to 21st Century schizoid man at full blast with my ear jammed against the one speaker of my record player. I loved that gritty rising crescendo of the guitar. "In the court of the crimson king" was pretty much almost choral, It drove my Dad mad!

My tastes have changed over the years....Led Zeppelin, Stones (never the Beatles!) Who, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Emerson Lake Palmer, James Brown, to Louis Prima, Norah Jones, ELO, pretty much all Motown, some "Sound of Philadelphia" and now......Toufic Farroukh; Saxophonist with a Middle Eastern/Jazz flavour.

The violins at the end of Lou Reed's 'walk on the wild side' can have me in tears in the right mood, I find it very haunting. Same for Arvo Part's 'Spiegel Im spiegel'

Motown is the only music guaranteed to get me on the dance floor

I loathe the manufactured homogenous 'everything sounds the same' pap that we are fed daily, with its shallow celebrity attachment

Thanks for re-kindling my memories of King Crimson.
 
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I cannot photograph it. I have seen, in my professional life, many who had lost it, and the elderly in my life who are losing it … It is my mind. Without it I am not me.

You are so right. It is horrible to see someone you care for disintegrate before your eyes......where they are not the person you know and love.....they are just a husk. My biggest fear with Parkinson's is not the physical effects as it progresses....but the mental aspect. I am more likely to end up with dementia. My fear is not for me but for those who have to look after me, attend to me. I will be out of it...seeing or hearing whatever dementia throws at me. I hope it is Hula Hula girls on a beach and an imaginary permanent supply of ice cold beer. Unlikely. But, I know exactly where you are coming from.
 
I used to listen to 21st Century schizoid man at full blast with my ear jammed against the one speaker of my record player. I loved that gritty rising crescendo of the guitar. "In the court of the crimson king" was pretty much almost choral, It drove my Dad mad!

My tastes have changed over the years....Led Zeppelin, Stones (never the Beatles!) Who, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, Emerson Lake Palmer, James Brown, to Louis Prima, Norah Jones, ELO, pretty much all Motown, some "Sound of Philadelphia" and now......Toufic Farroukh; Saxophonist with a Middle Eastern/Jazz flavour.

The violins at the end of Lou Reed's 'walk on the wild side' can have me in tears in the right mood, I find it very haunting. Same for Arvo Part's 'Spiegel Im spiegel'

Motown is the only music guaranteed to get me on the dance floor

I loathe the manufactured homogenous 'everything sounds the same' pap that we are fed daily, with its shallow celebrity attachment

Thanks for re-kindling my memories of King Crimson.
Well thanks both, I now have Epitaph as my current earworm!
 
EDC (Every Day Carry) besides the wallet, watch and handkerchief. This picture has changed over the decades, thanks to time, loss, obsolescence and budget. I started with a cheap no-name penlight and a Swiss Knife (original brand) given by my grandfather around age 12. The Swiss has since been passed down to one of my kids, and my job changed so that I needed more and more tools in my pocket. Now as I approach mid-life, the cycle of slim-down has begun again. I am always surprised at when I need a light, access to a utility blade or a screw tool, and I'm not even close to the description of handy. For the moment, these are best tools I can afford for this purpose.

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My apologies for the low IQ phone image, but here goes. My "proper" backpack is indispenable in 2 ways.

First of all, indispensable to my mental sanity. As you can see, it lives in a closet, and it can sometimes go several years without ever coming out and being used. Still, just knowing that it's there, that I could pick it up and go out into the world and have another great adventure, keeps me sane and grounded during everyday life.

Secondly, when the time does come to pack it with my gear and clothes and hit the road, it truly is indispensable - I couldn't keep going without it. At the same time, when you spend several months living out of this 65 - 85 litre backpack, which houses literally everything I need to live months on end apart from food, it really drives home just how much stuff we own that we don't need - how much stuff is, actually, dispensable.

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Indispensable
by bartjeej, on Flickr
 
EDC (Every Day Carry) besides the wallet, watch and handkerchief. This picture has changed over the decades, thanks to time, loss, obsolescence and budget. I started with a cheap no-name penlight and a Swiss Knife (original brand) given by my grandfather around age 12. The Swiss has since been passed down to one of my kids, and my job changed so that I needed more and more tools in my pocket. Now as I approach mid-life, the cycle of slim-down has begun again. I am always surprised at when I need a light, access to a utility blade or a screw tool, and I'm not even close to the description of handy. For the moment, these are best tools I can afford for this purpose.

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Can't even tell you the number of times I have needed a torch to hand. The search usually begins in the obvious place(s) where it is never found! Then the place(s) you think you last used it.......where it is never found. Then the place(s) where you KNOW you didn't use it but look just in case a miracle happens and you find it sitting there. Usually I find it months later where I least expected and when it is not required. And, so the cycle goes round and round and round and round and round and round!
 
My apologies for the low IQ phone image, but here goes. My "proper" backpack is indispenable in 2 ways.

First of all, indispensable to my mental sanity. As you can see, it lives in a closet, and it can sometimes go several years without ever coming out and being used. Still, just knowing that it's there, that I could pick it up and go out into the world and have another great adventure, keeps me sane and grounded during everyday life.

Secondly, when the time does come to pack it with my gear and clothes and hit the road, it truly is indispensable - I couldn't keep going without it. At the same time, when you spend several months living out of this 65 - 85 litre backpack, which houses literally everything I need to live months on end apart from food, it really drives home just how much stuff we own that we don't need - how much stuff is, actually, dispensable.

View attachment 133738Indispensable by bartjeej, on Flickr

The back pack. Usually the thing that hits me on the head when I am trying to pull something else off the highest shelf in a cupboard. Having been hit.......I usually open it up and catch than indefinable whiff of something well travelled. I often search the crevices, pockets and zip compartments only to find a foreign coin, an old cash dispenser receipt, sweet wrapper, tissue, a few crumbs from some long forgotten snack. Then....the memories kick in!
 
Bump.....OK it is not quite noon here in the UK. To allow my overseas friends to produce something last minute I will close the comp tonight at midnight UK time. Any more takers?
 
OK.....I will cut to the chase. I have replied to each shot and what they each invoked in me, or how they related to me. I also take into account the technical merits. We are not looking at fine art here :0)

Photography is all about producing emotion in the viewer or rekindling memories.

For me certain aromas, textures, sounds, atmosphere can be instantly sensed from looking at a photo. The one I choose today connected me back....not just to the subject matter photographed, but also a whole plethora of sensory micro-explosions. I smell Brut aftershave, I taste Rossi Ice Cream, I hear BBC Home and Light Services, I smell perfume, aftershave and sweat at the Ilford Palais on a Saturday night, the aromas and sounds of a summers evening after a rain shower, pumping up the tyres on my bike, days when people stopped and doffed their hats as a funeral cortege passed by, Breast of Lamb for dinner, the smell of Robin starch as my mum ironed to "Sing Something Simple", Norman Vaughan, Norman Wisdom, Harry Worth, Charlie Drake, Peyton Place, The Archers, Lost In Space, the old boy with no legs (lost in WW1) using his arms to climb the stairs to his 3rd floor flat, the Rag and Bone man, sucking all the flavour from a Jubbly, buying a pack of 5 Weights from the ciggy machine and sharing with my mates........kissing my first girlfriend. All intermingled with the soundtrack of my life.

I could go on and on waxing lyrical about my early life.

Don, your picture was a catalyst for all these sensations and thoughts in a cascade that has not stopped! So, over to you to take on the mantle.

Thank you all for entering. They all had a certain thought provoking something for me, but Don out muscled you this time.

Take it away Don.
 
Congrats Don! That image is dripping with atmosphere!

Pete, as an aside, could you please start a thread here on SC where you write eulogies or tributes or any kind of comment to random objects? I love your texts here at least as much as the photos that inspire them...
 
Indeed, it was really well done. And Pete, your descriptions and responses to all the entries here and at other times make me wonder why you have not yet written a book. I would be enthralled. Or have you, and I missed it?

Congrats Don! That image is dripping with atmosphere!

Pete, as an aside, could you please start a thread here on SC where you write eulogies or tributes or any kind of comment to random objects? I love your texts here at least as much as the photos that inspire them...

Thank you kindly. I don't really know about a book; Haven't the patience, but I am pleased you like what I write.
 
OK.....I will cut to the chase. I have replied to each shot and what they each invoked in me, or how they related to me. I also take into account the technical merits. We are not looking at fine art here :0)

Photography is all about producing emotion in the viewer or rekindling memories.

For me certain aromas, textures, sounds, atmosphere can be instantly sensed from looking at a photo. The one I choose today connected me back....not just to the subject matter photographed, but also a whole plethora of sensory micro-explosions. I smell Brut aftershave, I taste Rossi Ice Cream, I hear BBC Home and Light Services, I smell perfume, aftershave and sweat at the Ilford Palais on a Saturday night, the aromas and sounds of a summers evening after a rain shower, pumping up the tyres on my bike, days when people stopped and doffed their hats as a funeral cortege passed by, Breast of Lamb for dinner, the smell of Robin starch as my mum ironed to "Sing Something Simple", Norman Vaughan, Norman Wisdom, Harry Worth, Charlie Drake, Peyton Place, The Archers, Lost In Space, the old boy with no legs (lost in WW1) using his arms to climb the stairs to his 3rd floor flat, the Rag and Bone man, sucking all the flavour from a Jubbly, buying a pack of 5 Weights from the ciggy machine and sharing with my mates........kissing my first girlfriend. All intermingled with the soundtrack of my life.

I could go on and on waxing lyrical about my early life.

Don, your picture was a catalyst for all these sensations and thoughts in a cascade that has not stopped! So, over to you to take on the mantle.

Thank you all for entering. They all had a certain thought provoking something for me, but Don out muscled you this time.

Take it away Don.

Thanks Peter, I can't really express here how it happy it makes me feel that my old photo of King Crimson brought back all of that nostalgia for you! I can say that of all the concerts I have seen in my life, that one stands out in my memory. And for many years after, King Crimson played a big role in the soundtrack of my life. I am really glad that I lugged the old Nikkormat SLR to that concert.
Can you imagine any popular touring band with such a simple lighting and stage presence today? I don't think so; no lasers, inflatable distraction, flaming towers, choreographic dance moves, confetti, etc... and yet that band created a sound that was simply amazing! Simpler times.

Thanks again and I will be back with a new challenge topic very soon.
 
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