Completely Unconnected Themes.

I once knew a man who was the national chairman of the prison officer’s union. He was known to have communist leanings, and when I travelled to London by train with him one day I asked whether he thought communism was the perfect political system.

‘Ideologically yes,’ he replied, ‘but practically probably not.’

So then I asked him what he thought the best practical political system was (I was very young at the time, you understand…)

‘A benevolent autocracy, only the problem is that autocrats are not known for being benevolent.’

I seem to recall that we agreed on the compromise – as imperfect as the western version of democracy is, it’s probably about the best of the alternatives (although it should be pointed out that communism and democracy are not direct opposites nor mutually exclusive, but let’s not get too dry about this.)

So then I thought back to that damn Brexit vote, and how the way in which the poll was conducted fell short of serving truly democratic principles. I thought of making a post about it, but I’m too tired tonight and well fed up with the whole bloody Brexit thing. Besides, I have a feeling we haven’t heard the end of the B issue yet, and at the moment I’m more concerned at the possibility of Michael Gove becoming the next Prime Minister (and even the one after that if the Labour Party continues its process of self-annihilation.)

So instead I thought I’d post a couple of the shots I did when my then wife was attempting to set up a model agency (having severed her ties with the rock band who screwed up the genuine interest her songs were getting from EMI, and the other band members having told her that she wasn’t a good enough singer. So sad.)

But anyway, I thought I’d post these two in order to demonstrate that I knew the difference between high key and low key lighting in a studio environment. That sort of thing mattered to me then.