James Bond versus The Wash Monster?

click photo to enlarge

I have a few rules of thumb for choosing the films that I watch. One of them is is that if the film's trailer includes a shot of a couple running from a building, usually a wooden structure, that suddenly explodes in a ball of orange flame and shattered timbers, throwing them forwards to the ground - but leaving them unscathed - then I know it's not for me. Consequently you won't be surprised to hear that I'm not a fan of the James Bond franchise. However, the regularity and ubiquity of the 007 offerings is such that I have, at various points in my life, seen clips, longer sections and occasionally a whole film starring the all-action hero. Therefore, when I saw this motorized parachute (also called a paramotor) buzzing The Wash Monster off the beach at Hunstanton, Norfolk, I wondered if the the suave spy was on a mission for her majesty. I knew it couldn't be 007 when a second paramotor swooped down and did the same thing: a man of Bond's calibre doesn't need a partner to accomplish his missions of derring do!

Until I visited Hunstanton last week I wasn't aware of The Wash Monster, a 60-seat, ex-U.S. military amphibious vehicle that gives calm-weather rides on The Wash. But, the deep thump of its motor, the gaze of onlookers and a huddle of people on the promenade next to its booking office, soon brought it to my attention. I've seen ex-military DUKWs on the River Thames in London, and I've heard of their use elsewhere in the UK, but this is the only one I've seen operating on the sea, and it's certainly the biggest I've come across.

I took a few more shots of the vehicle after it had lumbered up on to the sand, one of which I include. There's also another shot of the skilful, if a touch imprudent, paramotorist.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 228mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Number 9

click photo to enlarge
The trio of albums - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles ("The White Album") (1968) and Abbey Road (1969) - for me, represent the summit of the Beatles' achievement. There are those who would say Rubber Soul (1965) and Revolver (1966), with hindsight, are as good or better than the later works, but, whilst they include some excellent songs, I think the subsequent recordings surpass them.

My recollections of those years is that Sgt Pepper burst upon us like something from another planet. The musicianship, invention, breadth, instrumentation, and sheer spirit of the work meant that it rarely left our turntables. In retrospect Revolver had pointed us in this direction, and other bands had dipped their toes in the pool that the Beatles plunged into, but the phrase that one critic used to described it at the time, "revolutionary popular music," wasn't an overstatement. And the question on everyone's mind in 1967 was, "How can they top that?" Well, in 1968, with The White Album they showed that there was no need to try. In that work they extended some of the ideas of Sgt Pepper, but also side-stepped into Anglo-American music's past. Affectionate Beach Boys parody (Back in the USSR), grinding blues (Yer Blues), music hall brought up to date (The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill), Noel Coward-like crooning (Wild Honey Pie), love songs, hard rock and the rest - not forgetting a clutch of George Harrison songs that are amongst his best - made it an album that revealed its subtleties only after many listens. And, just as Sgt Pepper had one song that probably didn't deserve its place on the album (Within You, Without You), so too did The White Album (Revolution 9). John Lennon's eight minutes of musique concrete influenced by Yoko Ono's regard for Stockhausen and Cage was worth a listen, maybe two, at most three. However, it sat very uneasily alongside works that bear multiple hearings. It would have been better if George Martin and Paul McCartney had got their way and left it off the album.

My mind strayed onto this subject, and I heard that EMI engineer repeating "number, 9, number 9, number 9", when I was deciding how to title the photograph above. It shows a marker (Number 9) at the end of one of the submerged groynes at Hunstanton, Norfolk, with, farther out, a distant ,small, sea-fishing boat. Its minimalistic subject, spare composition and limited colour range make this image as much of an oddity amongst my output as the track of that title is amongst the Fab Four's ouvre.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 64mm (128mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On