I must say some of the lions are very well painted, with nice bright artistic colours beautifully arranged. Others don't look so good - maybe the artists had an off day - we all get those now and then.
There's one particular lion I've noticed, standing opposite my stalls in the entrance area of the Grosvenor Centre. He's by the artist Alan Carr. He's done up all in Lib-Dem colours, sort of smart oranges and browns, and he wears shades as if he doesn't want to be recognised. I'm sure he's keeping an eye on me and my stalls though, so I've named him Richard. I haven't seen anyone dry humping him yet, in fact he's probably not that sort of lion, and probably doesn't turn anyone on. So what do we see in him?
On the positive side he appears to be an excellent three-dimensional representation of the collective consciousness of the upper echelons of the local Liberal Democrat Party as seen from inside, consubstantiated in one essential construction. But on the negative side he fails, pathetically, to challenge the underlying realities of global capitalism, of the burgeoning supermarkets, of materialism and its underlying psychological, psychic and spiritual repression.
Phew! If I do much more like that I shall have the Gruaniad Weekend Art Supplement people around here trying to sign me up. Bet you didn't think I could write that sort of arty farty twaddle, did you? Neither did I till I tried, it must have taken me half an hour at least. Anyway, I quite like the look of Richard, and I might just put in a bid or two for him at the end of the showing season, if he hasn't been collected by the Party already. He would look good in my entrance hall, waiting there for me to throw my sweaty cap on every night after a long hard day at the market.
While we're on a positive note, let me tell you about the most wonderful scenes I witnessed last Monday at the £100,000 fountain. I just wished I had a movie camera with me. I felt priveleged. It was a large group of Goths, all dressed to the nines in battle gear, chains, armour, mock weapons, the lot, thrashing around doing a fantastic mock battle in the fountain. It was bloody brilliant to watch, and hilarious. After a few minutes the mascara was streaming down their soaking bodies and clothes, and they were wet from head to toe. Eventually they all squelched off somewhere to do a collective clean-up; a good thing it was a stinking hot day!
I was present at the turn on of the Market Square LED lights, and I've visited them again and again since, and I have been very impressed. I look forward to having them turned on mid-afternoon during the dark days of autumn and winter, just to give the old market in the Square that surrealistic glow, even if it doesn't pull in the crowds. Yes, I don't expect them to bring in trade, and yes, truthfully they are a waste of public money at a time like this. But they look lovely dammit, really lovely! Can't wait for St Patrick's Day!
It was really grand to see the Morris Dancers down there on the Square last Saturday doing their stuff, a great demonstration of traditional English eccentricism at its best. I see more women are doing Morris dancing than there used to be, and that can only be a good thing. It's so good to keep these old traditions alive and literally kicking; you can understand these guys really needing a drink after a vigourous bout of dancing - and do they drink!
It's warberry time in the fruit trade, you can hear us shouting them all over the market, think of what it used to be like in the 1970's and 80's with every stall occupied and about 40 fruit traders shouting the odds. Grand days those were, I guess they'll never come again. It's now the best time of year for the fruit trade, and I tend to get optimistic and over-buy, then we have to clear the strawberries up at 2 big punnets for £1 towards the end of the day - a genuine bargain that you'll never see in the posh supermarkets, who'd rather dump than sell at cost. You can see why po' folks need the markets, all the world over. Y'all come!
