Monday, June 2, 2008

Illumination(s)

Every Autumn, in order to extend the tourist season in Blackpool ( a dingy, out of date resort on the North West coast of England) The Illuminations are held. Six miles of lights are strung along the coast roads which include the Golden Mile - a strip of Bingo Halls, rock shops and Amusement Arcades. Street vendors sell Kiss Me Quick hats, sugar dummies and flurescent plastic chokers.There is only one way to take this and that is with gusto. Ignore the peeling paint of the dated guesthouses and the worrying tattoo parlours. Abandon any finesse you may posess and go for it with gusto.
My advice is to park at the North End in rather more decent Cleveleys and start with ginormous portions of fish and chips and traditional puddings at Cleveley's Cafe. Then, jump on one of the creaking trams ( illuminated naturally, in the shape of a spaceship perhaps) down to the Funfair. Watch other people making themselves sick on the rides then, grabbing a stick of candyfloss for sustenence, walk it all off by beating the crawling travel with an on-foot meander through the tack and neon. And who says Northerners have no class?

3 comments:

Lisa Flowers Ross said...

I just put up my finished water project on my blog. I think it is quite different from the others.

Kristin L said...

Sometimes all that crass tackiness is just the antidote to serious everyday life. It seems a bit like Vegas in that way. A balmy evening in Blackpool looks like sticky, noisy fun.

Karen said...

I kept thinking about this photo last night andd thought it would be a great abstract. For some reason it is really sticking in my mind