{cities} – Page 29 – { feuilleton }

Pride 08 continued

Balloons in Bloom Street.

Another day of the Pride weekend and despite my gloomy predictions the sun shone all day. Amazing.

After eating little and walking/standing around all day I didn’t feel like waiting for Roisin Murphy’s set. Sorry Roisin. But I did watch Australian Abba copyists Björn Again who were great fun and went down really well with a crowd that knew every word of every song. So well, in fact, it would have made sense to drop one of the more turgid acts on the bill and let them play for longer.

Meanwhile, more photos from Saturday are turning up on Flickr.

Drag japes in Sackville Park.

Manchester Pride 08

The Cruz bus flaunts its giant flag.

It’s that time of year again as Manchester gives over its city centre to the flamboyant hordes. I was surprised that the afternoon weather—which has been singularly dismal this year—managed to be bright and even slightly warm while the Parade was in progress. Yes it’s August but this summer has seen temperatures struggle to rise above 17ºC and we’ve had continual rain.

The Canal Street throng.

After the Parade the Gay Village streets were insanely crowded, too much so, it was impossible to move much of the time. That aside, there was a good atmosphere as there always is in gay crowds. (Or is that just my bias?) Roisin Murphy is playing the main stage on Sunday evening so I may stick around if the weather holds. As I type this it’s raining heavily—again.

Numerous drag queens in evidence. And a shirtless guy on stilts…

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Over the rainbow
• London Pride
• São Paulo Pride 2006

Elizabetes Iela 10b, Riga

Paris and Brussels are well-known centres of Art Nouveau architecture, less well-known but equally valuable is the Latvian capital of Riga whose historic centre is now a World Heritage Site. The highly distinctive building at Elizabetes Iela 10b is one of a number of buildings there designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, father of film director Sergei Eisenstein. The giant decorative heads are quite unique, and I also like the peacock and other mascarons. One can’t help but think that this façade—in a street full of equally detailed façades—would have sustained a lot more attention had it been built in a European capital.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Atelier Elvira
• Louis Bonnier’s exposition dreams
• The Maison Lavirotte
• The House with Chimaeras

Alexey Titarenko

Untitled (Crowd 1) (1993).

Like Atta Kim, Alexey Titarenko makes use of time-lapse and/or multiple exposure in his photographs. Of the two I prefer Titarenko’s work, not least because of his moody and spectral evocations of the streets of Havana and St Petersburg. His blurring of human figures takes on a sinister cast with the Time Standing Still and City of Shadows series which turn mundane Russian crowds into a parade of ghosts from a Gogol nightmare.

Via Ze Frank.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Abelardo Morell’s camera obscura
• Eugene de Salignac
• Atta Kim: On-Air

The ruins of Detroit

Michigan Central Station.

Photos from Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre (above) and Forgotten Detroit (below), the latter being an extensive catalogue of urban dereliction.

The station waiting room.

Update: Environmental Graffiti today has a post speculating which American cities might be the lost cities of the future. Detroit is number three; go here to see which others they choose.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Ephemeral architecture
• The temples of Angkor
• St Pancras in Spheroview
• Adolph Sutro’s Gingerbread Palace
• Hungarian water towers