*

I occasionally have a good moan here on my blog. Rarely does it reach a rant status.

Buckle up.

Tonight there were... fireworks.  Each year Roundhay Park in Leeds (famous for being a public park and also a venue for open-air rock concerts and the like) holds a big bonfire and firework display. Whizzz! Bang! Flash! Etc. It's free and attracts a few thousand people into its vast expanse. It's a good enough venue that there's not tight crowding but merely people standing around and watching everything from a safe distance. Hence my friends Simon, Sheryl, her son Jake and I decided we'd head up there again this year and perhaps meet up with another old friend, Karen.

Finding a clear area we took up a postion where we could overlook the park and proceedings and Simon put his camera on a tripod he'd brought with him.  Ten minutes later we were approached by a council official who said tripods were banned. We politely scoffed as the website makes no mention of that, it was hardly in anyone's way but they insisted it was on health-and-safety grounds. We indicated there were no issues as there was no-one around us, we could surround the tripod and no-one could possibly trip over it any more than they could over the no-problem backpacks we were carrying. Simon said, quite rightly, that he wasn't sure this rule was actually real and asked the officials to bring across someone further up the food-chain to explain the precise rule and give him details before he put it away.

They left and a few minutes later slightly higher-ranking securty officials came across and told us to put the tripod away. Again, Simon and I politely but firmly questioned the logic - after all, for a shot of fireworks you're best finding a way to keep the camera still to avoid basic blur (ie: need a tripod!). We'd been there last year with no problem. No rules against tripods had been posted and we'd seen others tonight using them without being harrassed - again, this wasn't a packed stadium or the like. Then, suddenly.... ah, the problem WASN'T the tripod but the fact that... our cameras suddenly have... detachable lenses!!! Apparently we needed... a PERMIT for those. Simon and I looked at each and rolled our eyes.  Since when? The security people said as professional photographers we had to get permission to take profssional photos. We pointed out we weren't profssional photographers, we were just normal membrs of the public who just had a certain type of very popular camera - not unlike many other attendees we could see.  They pointed that we COULD  have used smaller cameras - like on the iPhone - but not cameras with any type of other lenses. Again, Simon asked to see ANY reference to that bizarre rule in formal form. Had things changed since last year? We insisted that none of these rules were posted anywhere for the free, public event and that we weren't creating any problems or breaking any known rules. Then then changed their story AGAIN for the second time in a few minutes... now the new reason we couldn't use our cameras was because " ...there are kids in the park and there are laws that forbid pictures of children..." I quickly pointed out that they'd just said pictures WERE permitted from other types of cameras so their latest generic reason made absolutely no sense - and as a journalist I knew they weren't even quoting the correct law in the correct way and it couldn't be implemented that way in this situation.  To which - and I kid you not -  one of the security people pointed at me and said to his colleague with a smile...

"He's just admitted he's a journalist - I told you he WAS a professional photographer..."

I explained, incredulously, that a journalist WRITES, not takes photographs and I wasn't here to do either officially, but the security people said it was too late and we were now being banned from the park and they would escort us out.  I commented on the distance we'd travelled to be there and that - again - we were just members of the public with basic cameras. I didn't even have time to find Karen before we were literally frog-marched out. When I stopped briefly to dial Karen and leave a message on her phone before we left, I was told to "KEEP WALKING!"  Seriously. I kept my temper, but the security people were in no doubt how frustrated we were an I didn't start walking again until I was good and ready.

Once outside the park we talked with the local REAL police who were hugely sympathetic and admitted the way the rules were being enforced was bizarre and arbitrary, but as - technically - this was a private Council event for the public they couldn't interfere on Council property (ie: the actual park).

Sheryl and Jake - sans cameras - still had their evening out spoiled. Simon who'd come all the way from Haworth was rightly livid and I'm... still steaming. And wondering how many other people were literally manhandled out of a public, tax-payer funded event by jobsworth security guys exercising an inaccurate or unfeasible remit. I even heard later that a party of schoolkids/students with cameras were asked to leave as well.

Sometimes I think the word is populated by fuckwits. Formal complaint on its way tomorrow.

*Still managed to take a decent photo (see above). Ha!

So, the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear just took place in Washington DC. I've seen people passionate about this and also pouring scorn on it.  But whether it's a genuinely wise move for a comedian/commentator to run something as extensive like this or not (and if it's not why can Glenn Beck claim any kind of right ot triumph?) then I admire the spirit in which it has been organised.

Because right now 'fact' seems to be a dirty word and 'patriot' seems like carte-blanche. Far too often I'm seeing those prsonal insults flying at those with othr opinions before any real debate can start... and the best case scenario now seems to be merely agreeing to disagree. Even that carries with it a lightness and dilution that remain worrying... because the one thing we all forget is that there is a difference between the right to have and express an opinion and how much that opinion is actually worth. Net access is available to many and blog entries (such as this one) are little more than a click away... but that equal access doesn't give your opinion equal weight in any argument. I've been told "Well, you say this and I say that, so who is to say who's right?'  Well, the facts are.

Because facts don't change. Interpretation and extrapolation are the things that change. We all know that statistics can be both true and wholly unreliable and distorted given on how you choose to use them, but our opinions don't change the specific facts at the heart of it. For instance: I can believe the moon is made of cheese and preach its cheddaryness to all and sundry; I can have 100,000 people with placards claiming how right I am and how goshdran tasty it is. But if a guy who has studied lunar science for decades, been to the moon, picked up a sample, brought it home, analysed and can present it to me saying it's NOT made of cheese, then it's NOT a case of 50/50. I have every right to hold true to my stiltonesque belief system - but all evidence to the contrary suggests to the truly impartial that I'm DEMONSTRABLY wrong. My opinion isn't as valid as a fact.

So what everyone needs to do is work out how much of their belief system is their opinion and what is an immutable fact . What is rhetoric and spin and what is an impartial observation based on study of every single source available on the subject.  And don't ask someone else to be fair and balanced on your behalf, don't merely cite a tv show or a single newspaper report, otherwise you're abdicating your responsibility to be called a rational thinking human being rather than a sheep. If you aren't interested in doing the by-definition extensive footwork and the mindwork then it's easy... simply don't express an opinion - whatever it is - because if you don't know why you think something, then yelling randomly  anyway means you are (and  liable to look) stupid. You don't have to be Olympic-level articulate... but you need to be able to speak in coherent sentences and join the dots without getting abstractly disorientated with either.

It doesn't mean we all have to agree, but it does mean we should know why we don't.

Or as someone much more eloquently put it at the rally:

Well, it's Hallowe'en - or technically the day before, but if our friends in the US can make a season out of it, then I think we can claim a weekend. 

Most years I've headed down to th FAB Cafe in Leeds or elsewhere to join MillarWorlders for some spooking and frivolity, but this year it's looking as if veryone is spread out and there'll be no significant partying.  Curses!

But taking a break from the incessant article writing, I played with my camera and PhotoShop to create the image to the left and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

FAR too much real death and pain in the world at the moment and my thoughts go out to those friends and their families touched by it recently - but not enough fictional zombies and the like.  The Walking Dead starts in the US tomorrow and in the UK next Friday 5th. I've already seen Eps 1-4 of the first six-parter (don't eat hate me because I'm lucky) and I can report it's quality stuff.

In the meantime, I'm determined to earn as many pennies as possible in the run to up to Christmas and my return to Iowa. I will be shamelessly ebaying and touting my t-shirt designs (ideal for presents!). You read it here first...

Yes, yes, fine. I know. Lack of posts. Duly noted.  I'd planned to blog a lot more while in Iowa, but deadlines and relaxing etc got in the way and in the end it all got away from me.

I got back from Iowa last week and went from 75 degrees + to a maximum of about 50 as we touched down in Manchester. The flights back were impressively on time and largely free of any drama or misfortune. The planes took off on time and arrived early in each case. Baggage also arrived in time and intact - which is always a bonus.

But I haven't been able to completely shake the pains, aches and genrally 'meh' associated with jet-lag.  It usually takes me the rest of the week, but now, even ten days later I'm all achey, my sleep-patterns are all over the place. Not happy.  But working through it.

I was also straight back into IMPACT deadlines and other duties. Suddenly there were more pages of Impact to fill than originally planned (so much scurrying to get sorted), then down to a rain-swept London to talk with Bruce Willis. That went pretty well - he's a confident but not cocky guy and knows how to work a room, something still lost on many other A-Listers. His newest film release RED is perfectly good fun and escapism and has Helen Mirren with automatic weapons (really, what else do you need to know?).

I was due to run a talk as part of NSFW (which, for the uninitiated isn't Not Safe For Work but actually National Schools Film Week) but it was cancelled at the last minute. As it was likely to revolve around the Twilight: Eclipse film, this was probably no great loss to anyone!  However, I should still be running a movie/comics panel of the Thought Bubble day at the upcoming Leeds International Film Festival in November.

Right now, with some due monies paid for design work and still a little left to come in, I'm going to be pushing ahead on the design front, so any spreading of the word is gratefully received!

And, yes, I'll try to blog more before I return to Iowa.