Yesterday I was back in East London, photographing near the South Woodford tube station -- not far from where I was last weekend, actually. A group of us met and covered pretty much the entire E18 postcode for Bleeding London.
This pink house was one of my finds. When John Mellencamp sang about "little pink houses" with an "interstate running through (the) front yard," he made it sound like a bad thing -- but this little house, within just a few steps of the A406, part of the inner circular freeway that runs around Central London, is pretty great. You gotta love the pink car with the pink hubcaps.
(Then again, John Mellencamp was singing specifically about American little pink houses.)
I photographed my assigned area within E18 and met everyone for lunch ( coffee with a cheese and pickle sandwich -- the British equivalent of a PB&J -- at an economical £4). Then I kept walking northward to where I was last weekend, thus knitting together the two areas -- which for some reason made sense to me. It gave me a sense of neatness, of completion.
I've had several people come out of the woodwork lately to tell me they've read something or other on my blog. It's great to hear people are reading -- and it's a useful reminder that, yeah, all this stuff is going on the Internet for worldwide consumption. Sometimes I forget that I'm not just speaking to my little group of regular readers! (Yikes, what have I said recently?!)
cheese and pickle sandwich? eewwwww. but I adore the pink house though pink is not a color I favor. I'm always amazed that the houses in England are right there on the side of the road, front door steps from the roadway.
ReplyDeleteThat pink house, pink car with the pink hubcaps is quite a find! If I had seen that here, I would surely have stopped for a photo too. Your comment about "knitting together" to two areas made me wonder, are you a Virgo? I am and I have this compulsion to round everything out, complete the set, and do things in order. Sometimes I have to fight off the obsession.
ReplyDeleteSheesh, Steve, I came here to take you to task about misreading those lyrics. However, after spending some more time with the lyrics, I find I cannot do it. :-)
ReplyDeleteHowever, now I'm trying to figure the song out. The lyrics seem too sincere and the music too uplifting for it to be a "God Bless America" satire, but there's enough darkness in the words to support just that. It also flirts quite a bit with themes about people being content, which might actually be a better reading of the song.
Either way, the song is definitely a lot more than it appears to be on the surface--he's quite an amazing songwriter.
I wonder if the inside of the house is all matching pink things too? There was a house in Leicester like that-though a bit bigger and they also had a pink car which your photo reminded me about. You photographed my old street in Deptford-in fact it may well have been our flat! I woke up this morning having just finished dreaming about postcodes and lists!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the pinkness!
ReplyDeleteOnce, when I was freshly divorced and feeling extremely, uh, liberated? I had my house (in a very old and traditional neighborhood) painted pink. I mean, BRIGHT pink. I loved it! And actually, it was through that paint job that I met Mr. Moon who was subcontracted to paint my shutters (gray).
So.
There you go.
We should all be less afraid of color. And less afraid of worrying what someone might think about what we say or believe. You hear me? You are allowed, Steve Reed, to have your own thoughts and beliefs!
Love the femmy house and car and hubcaps! I think that I might get pretty sick of it within five minutes but cool that it exists and such a find!! Well done, you!
ReplyDeleteLove a good cheese and pickle myself and though I am so not a pink person, this house and car were cute...
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of a cheese and pickle sandwich -- perhaps I'll make one tomorrow for my lunch! And the pink house is lovely -- I could do without the pink car, though!
ReplyDeleteEllen: There's not a lot of space in most parts of London, so yeah, the houses are right at the street! Kind of like New York in that way.
ReplyDeleteSharon: I'm a Scorpio, actually, but maybe I have Virgo tendencies?!
Kevin: I always understood that song to be a criticism of American contentment -- like, we think we have it so good with all our material crap but do we REALLY? I'll have to go back and read all the lyrics! It's one of those songs I like more now than when it was popular. I'm going to sound old, here, but pop music used to be SO much better.
Sarah: Ha! Which street was it? That's really funny. I'm having street photography dreams, too. :) You're doing some great stuff, by the way!
Ms. Moon: I guess a pink house CAN be a bit of a celebration! I'm not too worried about my thoughts and beliefs -- more my tendency to be casually, unthinkingly snarky.
Linda Sue: Yeah, the problem with a novelty paint job like that is that it could get very tiring very fast!
E: Cheese & pickle is great!
Elizabeth: When I say "pickle" here, it's not like a dill pickle -- it's more like a brown pickled vegetable chutney. Branston's pickle, to be specific. But any kind of pickly thing would probably work.
I should have said-Gosterwood Street. Not working yet again today so may do some more!
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