Good bridges (physical, musical, other) and underpasses

[william_kent]

if we're talking aqueducts, this is a top one - ribblehead in the yorkshire dales.

Ribblehead Viaduct was the scene of a free festival for a couple of years from 1987 - 1991 - apparently late August is a good time to find magic mushrooms around there



I knew some people who went to the 1988 festival - it wasn't fun according to them. This was when the Brew Crew had an issue with one of the travellers that ended in extreme violence..

Dave Brock of Hawkwind had this to say about the 1988 festival:

"I mean Ribblehead was a real piss-off. People were getting stuff nicked all over the joint. If you can't go to a festival where you can leave your van unlocked or whatever... Years ago there never used to be all the scenes of nicking that go on now. I mean you could leave stuff laying around and you wouldn't get people pilfering it or trying to get in the van... having a look in the window to see if there's anybody in there so that they can go in and nick stuff."

 

[william_kent]

A really odd choice for a single from Sun Ra - this wasn't destined to dent any charts unless there's a top 40 on Saturn that we don't know about

Starts off with outer space organ before the horns begin honking, then Pat Patrick chants a poem by Sun Ra



Sun Ra - The Bridge

This is the incantation by Sun Ra that is declaimed towards the end of the The Bridge:

The Fire And The Dry Weeds

Cast the fire on the dry weeds
Cast it upon the enclosed lamentables
They are ready now for the fire.
Cast it upon them without warning
That they may burn eternally with
The living fury of the spirit fire.
Cast the fire on the dry weeds
There is no time to tell them why.
They must walk the bridge to the Cosmic-Age
They must walk the bridge...
The bridge of the Living words of Life.
Cast the fire on the dry weeds
Cast it upon the enclosed lamentables,
This is the spirit hour of the fire.

Bridges can be connections to other worlds, music can be the bridge - here's another poem from Sun Ra:

The Outer Bridge

In the half-between world
Dwell they the tone-scientists
Sound
Mathematically precise
They speak of many things
The sound scientists
Architects of planes of discipline

 

[william_kent]

I'll address the elephant in the room... from Live at the Apollo ( 1962 )



James Brown - Instrumental Bridge #1

 

[william_kent]

"Bridge! Up and Down, Round and Round.."

James Brown barks orders at the short lived line-up of the J.Bs featuring Bootsy Collins on the bass and Robert "Chopper" McCollough on sax - I love the bit about 4 minutes in where Brown says "Blow me some 'Trane, Brother!" and then gets far more free blowing than he ever bargained for...



James Brown - Super Bad

 

[catalog]

This is from that same bridge over the Mersey, where it really opens up and starts to become the estruary

 

[catalog]

The Bridges
(Illuminations XIV: Les Ponts)
Arthur Rimbaud

"Grey skies of crystal. A bizarre design of bridges, now straight, now curved, and others descending in oblique angles to meet the former, and these patterns repeating themselves in other well-lit windings of canal, but all so long and weightless that the shores, weighted with domes, sink and contract. Some of these bridges are still covered with hovels. Others bear masts, signals, frail parapets. Minor chords interlace, and fade; ropes rise from the banks. You distinguish a red coat, other clothes perhaps and musical instruments. Are those popular airs, snatches from noble concerts, the remains of public anthems? The water is grey and blue, wide as an arm of the sea.

A white ray, falling from on high, annihilates this comedy."

Rimbaud, Arthur (1854–1891) - Les Illuminations

Rimbaud - The Illuminations in translation.

www.poetryintranslation.com

Reads like Welles looks.

 

[william_kent]

Golden Gate Bridge

 

[Leo]

Bridgegate

The Fort Lee lane closure scandal, also known as the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal or Bridgegate,[1][2] was a political scandal involving a staff member and political appointees of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie colluding to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, by closing lanes at the main toll plaza[3][4] for the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.[5]

The problems began on Monday, September 9, 2013, when two of three toll lanes for a local street entrance were closed during morning rush hour. Local officials, emergency services, and the public were not notified of the lane closures, which Fort Lee declared a threat to public safety.[6] The resulting back-ups and gridlock on local streets ended only when the two lanes were reopened on Friday, September 13, 2013, by an order from Port Authority Executive Director and Democrat from New York, Patrick Foye. He said that the "hasty and ill-informed decision" could have endangered lives and violated federal and state laws.[7]

It was later suggested that the lanes had been closed intentionally to cause the massive traffic problem for political reasons, and especially theorized that they were a retributive attack against Fort Lee's Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democratwho had not supported Christie as a candidate in the 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election. The ensuing investigations centered on several of Christie's appointees and staff, including[8][9] David Wildstein, who ordered the lanes closed,[10] and Bill Baroni, who had told the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee that the closures were for a traffic study.[11]

On August 13, Bridget Anne Kelly, deputy chief of staff in Christie's office, sent an eight-word e-mail to David Wildstein that read, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."[51] Wildstein responded to Kelly's e-mail: "Got it."[52]

 

[version]

"John Otto, take 'em to the Mathews Bridge."

 

[version]

The MKUltra-esque program in The Crying of Lot 49's called Die Brucke (The Bridge),

'We still need a hundred-and-fourth for the bridge.' Chuckled aridly. The bridge, die Brucke, being his pet name for the experiment he was helping the community hospital run on effects of LSD-25, mescaline, psilocybin, and related drugs on a large sample of suburban housewives. The bridge inward. 'When can you let us fit you into our schedule?'

 

[william_kent]

Rain drops on my roof,
Yet my house isn't waterproof,
Bright sun shine on my bed,
And there's no pillow at my head

Bridge symbolic of escaping poverty



Gregory Isaacs - Over The Bridge

 

[Leo]

 

[IdleRich]

There is a weird little bridge in Sacavem I'd like to get a pic of - it's blocked off now and I guess it was just a footbridge over a stream that flows into the Tagus - but for some reason it has this huge arch above it that seems ridiculously large and out of proportion.

Found a pic of it, I dunno why it is this shape... you can't go on it now anyhow, blocked off at both ends for some reason.

 

[catalog]

more from the archive - this is a strange bridge in manchester over the flat bit of the mancunian way. it's one of the paths from hulme to the city centre. it's great to cycle up and round, you pick up good speed. odd boomerang sort of shape

Best of all about it was the view it afforded you of this gutted building, i think it's gone now.

not captured it in this photo, but the ramp for the flyover part of the mancunian way rises in the background, so in the right light, if cars are on that road, it looks like they are driving through the building.

 

[catalog]

DON'T FRET DO KET

 

[william_kent]

DON'T FRET DO KET

The Ardwick end of the Mancunian Way had some bad advice sprayed on the underpass - under the plaque awarded by the Concrete Society someone had painted TAKE LSD and someone else had added WITH DMT - unfortunately I've lost my photos due to a hard drive crash, but a quick google search found this example of what may be the work of the "LSD" guy whose work could be found on the walls of the same underpass



Mancunian Way Underpass, Ardwick

 

[william_kent]

I found this in the Guardian, so the photo is spoiled by the presence of the reporter, but here's the only picture I could find of the DMT advice



Mancunian Way, Ardwick, Manchester - stolen from the Guardian

 

[catalog]

That's good stuff, not seen it. Did you ever go to loose space and see the graffiti in there? And do you knos the whale pieces?

 

[catalog]

Ardwick end I'm less familiar with. Bit of a blind spot cos I was other side

 

[william_kent]

That's good stuff, not seen it. Did you ever go to loose space and see the graffiti in there? And do you knos the whale pieces?

I'm afraid I didn't go to loose space. I've not seen a whale in the wild.