Previous | Next :: Moth to the Flame : Belfast : Northern Ireland | September 26, 2008, 8:47 am

Well I had a bit of a debacle on Wednesday night attempting to shoot that Apple sponsored event......... in the end having got chucked out......... I ended up sitting in the bar across the street ......... with a big pile of camera gear sitting on the bar .......... sometimes having a big pile of cameras can create unwanted attention and hassle........ sometimes they are a draw to fantastically interesting people..... who just come over to chat .......like Edward Bennett and MinhTu Van and a group of their friends.........

Edward is a musician and media entrepreneur MinhTu a model and actress.......

MinhTu was discussing the www.themoth.org and talking about story telling events that she has attended they sounded really cool........... She said that these gatherings were authentic old style New York..... I love spoken stories myself....... I love short bursts of really intense stories........ Thought processes around tiny fragments of happening........ Moments that seem to be telling or cathartic........ Rites of passage......... incidents that are life changing........ Or just moments that are seemingly nothing but are overlaid with meaning. I really enjoy tales that are relayed in the spoken word....... I love that weird NPR (radio) show 'This American Life' with those odd stories that mean you end up sitting in your rental car rather than returning it to Hertz ........ just so as to hear to the end.

MinhTu told me that most story telling evenings are themed....... the last one she had been at was titled........... 'Cross the Line'......... she asked me if i thought i could stand up and tell a story ....... with the Cross the Line theme........ I said i thought I could....... (Id had a couple of beers)........ luckily she did not require me to do it....... but I thought immediately of being in Northern Ireland in 'The Troubles' standing with the Militarized Police the RUC behind an Armored Land Rover ......... the officer in charge is pointing to the burning car 1000 yards down the road............ half way between them and it...... is a street light......... he says I should go no further than that lamp post :

" Anything happens this side of the line of that lamppost we will come and help you..... but anything that happens to you beyond it you are on your own......... because no matter what happens we are not coming in after you if you cross the line "

............ they are clear that this is an IRA trap....... that if they go in they will be fired on........... so I wonder down to the line feeling incredably exposed and sheepish ........ I hesitate at the lamp post........ but I am not really close enough to make any decent pictures......... so I cross the invisible line I know the cops are tutting and laughing grimly at my foolishness.........I feel them watching me down their telescopic gun sights........ I have crossed the line....... Im on my own......... I walk down into the republican Short Strand district of Belfast towards the heat of the burning car......... young men are gathered in the alley ways off ....... I really am on my own.........

Cheers Jez XX