Wednesday 26 December 2012

vol de nuit


 Sometimes on a winter night here, you can see the wild geese flying high overhead, lit by the city lights. The first time I saw them, I was in the back garden drinking coffee before setting off on my motorbike to join a ship; I felt like a fellow traveller. Last winter I saw them when I was up on Observatory Hill admiring the snowy landscape.

Vol de Nuit is a book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; checking up, it turns out it's not one I've read, and it ends badly. I used it as the title here because of that feeling you get when travelling at night, which reminds me of the mood of his books. And of course it sounds dead arty. Pretentious? Moi? Oui, cher lecteur.


...here's the soundtrack for a night journey- Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers: Roadrunner.



3 comments:

  1. a picture to bring back memories of shivers down the spine,an experience that makes you draw in a breath sharply

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  2. It's a beautiful image. Snow and illuminated darkness is especially potent. And 'Night Flight' happens to be one of my favourite pieces of music. :)

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  3. Roadrunner. Yes, remember that well, from the summer of 1977 as I was in the process of looking for a proper job after dropping out of uni. I was doing odds and ends as they came up, which included working for a couple of weeks as a warehouseman for Automotive Products down on the Bath Road, near the HTV studios. Roadrunner was one of the tracks that Radio One kept playing, blasting out from an assortment of tinny transistor radios, lashed to various bits of racking around the stores.

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