On Thursday, speeding back from Wigan to the office in Warrington, the gantries above the road were lit up. Trouble ahead is always the message. Usually it’s traffic or an accident. This time the message read:
“Avoid London. Area Closed. Turn on Radio”
Never have those stark yellow lights above the road conveyed a more serious message. Avoid London. Seeing the sign jolted us into action and we put Radio 4 on to hear what the news was. Never had London seemed so far away.
The second enduring image is the picture of the bus, with its roof sheared off like some kind of ballsed up attempt to use a tin opener on a can of beans. There’s an ad on the side of the bus, it says:
“Outright terror … bold and brilliant”
It is, I think, an ad for the Amityville Horror, re-released this year. But in this context, its presence was surreal. Outright terror indeed, bold for sure. Brilliant? hardly.
I can’t find either of these photos on the web. Perhaps that’s just as well. My mind has them in sharp focus just fine right now.
the poster in question was for the horror movie \”the descent\”, the photo appeared as one of time magazine`s photos of the year 2005 in the december 19 edition, i used it as classroom material in a course on \”mobilty in a modern world\” and students spotted the bitter irony straightaway.