Sous les pavés, la plage!

[shewhomust]

Seen on Framwelgate Bridge yesterday, a sand sculptor hard at work on a slightly cartoony dog: he had, of course, brought the sand with him (did he pack it up and take it away afterwards? I don't know).

And, also from the department of 'If it happens anywhere, it must happen everywhere', padlocks are beginning to appear on Pennyferry footbridge. The one tucked discreetly behind one of the struts may have been there a little while, but the garland dangling from the middle of the bridge is new. Not yet an epidemic on the scale of the Pont des Arts, fortunately.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Guerilla sand sculpture! That's a fun idea.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I prefer the real thing - Todd Klein has some splendid photos... (http://kleinletters.com/Blog/the-do-ac-sand-sculpting-world-cup-part-1/)

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Gosh - somebody quoted that line to me just the other day. Something about the French riots of 1968? In your case, SUR les paves...

The flipping padlock thing is a bit of a pain. How on earth did it start?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yes, graffiti from '68: the beach is hidden just below the city streets.

It's not so much how the padlock thing started as how it got so ubiquitous that gets me - see below!

[helenraven.livejournal.com]

I rather like the padlock meme. The padlocks can be interesting to browse. I hadn't heard about the bridge collapse, so thanks for that!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I didn't mind the padlock thing when it was just someone's quirky idea that caught on, in one particular location.

But there's no 'idea' involved in just copying a thing that everyone does - and then it gets merchandised (is that the word?) and you can buy heart-shaped padlocks and have your names engraved on them. Which is just wrong.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was going to echo the thing about the padlock meme being kind of cool--kind of neat to witness the birth of something and then its spread--but when it gets taken over by commerce, then that's too bad.

Makes me think about roadside shrines to accident victims, in this country. It can be a simple wooden cross or it can involve plastic flowers or toys or other items. It's not a universally done thing, but it happens fairly frequently, and it's something that's definitely not commercialized--maybe because it involves death?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

The thing that interests me about the roadside shrines (and the slightly different shrines in places the person loved) is that remembering the dead has moved out of the cemetery.

It's not entirely uncommercial - people leave posies of flowers, but they are bought flowers, gradually fading inside their cellophane wrapping (which I find sadder than just loose flowers left to wither, but don't ask me why...

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Sandscaping on Framwellgate Bridge! Did anyone take photos?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Not me, I'm afraid - I was just out to do some midweek errands...

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I think I've seen that guy* in York; the sand was on a large cloth and he had a hat (or something) out for coins. It seemed rather surreal, 40 miles from the nearest beach.

*Well, or some other mobile sand sculptor also making a cartoony dog, but how many can there be?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Where York leads, Durham follows - yes, it does seem likely it's the same person. And 'surreal' is the word!