At the aviary in Roundwood Park today
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Feeding the rats
Every day somebody puts bread in this flower bed outside the Library Centre, beside the playground. They probably intend it for pigeons - though there don't seem to be many birds around since that snowy week - but the place is crawling with rats. When my dogs pass by here on their walk every night, they dive in and the rats come scurrying - at least on one occasion out into the street causing shrieks from ladies passing by.
Can I just say as well that the cinema in the Library Centre is in a filthy condition and they haven't even got proper tickets. Yet they have massive promotional displays, suitable for Leicester Square - inside where nobody can see them! Café Gigi is also closed, and it was infested with mice too, a while before it closed. What the hell is going on. We're paying like £1,600 per year (for band E 2008, for example, probably more now) for this crap - Brent Council! The Library Centre should be immaculate, like the Tricycle in Kilburn, instead it's like a tip.
Ossian
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Our Lady of Willesden
"Willesden might seem an unlikely place to find a shrine to Our Lady. In fact, when we think of shrines and pilgrimages, we tend to think of long, often expensive journeys and exotic locations like Fatima, Loreto or Guadalupe. Yet for centuries Our Lady has been honoured at sanc-tuaries much closer to home. Situated in one of London’s most multi-cultural areas, right on the edge of Central London, the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden is a veritable ‘sign of contradiction’ and a powerful witness to the Christian Faith in the Third Millennium." (Link)
Fascinating history and links to St Thomas More and more recent annual pilgrims including the founder of Opus Dei, who only died in 1975 but is already a saint - clearly a mover and shaker. It's marvellous to have these shrines - there is something touching in faith (with a small f), the fearfulness and helplessness of infants who rely utterly and without any reason on whoever and whatever is to hand.
The things we're called on to believe - miracles and dictats from the Pope - are coming to seem as preposterous as the Greek myths, however. It all seems to have been built upon ignorance and superstition. We're losing sight of real miracles in a welter of the obsolete, unregenerate and hidebound. We are separated from the miraculous by the very institutions that claim to aver it. I am thinking about the miracle of life itself, for example.
I think the churches need "to give up their riches", to sweep away pomp and pontification. What happened to the two laws! Even Luther wanted 95 things. Jesus of Nazareth only decreed two, no? I don't know. It's only one opinion. At one time I would have been tortured and executed for not conforming to the prevailing church's dogma in this country. In states controlled by clerics, such as Iran, people still are.
Ossian
Fascinating history and links to St Thomas More and more recent annual pilgrims including the founder of Opus Dei, who only died in 1975 but is already a saint - clearly a mover and shaker. It's marvellous to have these shrines - there is something touching in faith (with a small f), the fearfulness and helplessness of infants who rely utterly and without any reason on whoever and whatever is to hand.
The things we're called on to believe - miracles and dictats from the Pope - are coming to seem as preposterous as the Greek myths, however. It all seems to have been built upon ignorance and superstition. We're losing sight of real miracles in a welter of the obsolete, unregenerate and hidebound. We are separated from the miraculous by the very institutions that claim to aver it. I am thinking about the miracle of life itself, for example.
I think the churches need "to give up their riches", to sweep away pomp and pontification. What happened to the two laws! Even Luther wanted 95 things. Jesus of Nazareth only decreed two, no? I don't know. It's only one opinion. At one time I would have been tortured and executed for not conforming to the prevailing church's dogma in this country. In states controlled by clerics, such as Iran, people still are.
Ossian
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Oafs and fridges
The gobdaws who think this is a great place to dispose of a kitchen appliance are probably the same people who think that hedges and railings are there to take their empty bottles and take-away cartons.
Newsdesk
Friday, February 13, 2009
Mystery tour
Snow train/Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's
Just looking out the train window on a snowy day. The train is a pendolino, which is why things look out of kilter as it leans off the vertical. Much as I'd like to claim credit for the music, it was picked at random by clicking "I'm feeling lucky" on YouTube "audio swap". I suppose I can claim an editing credit, having searched for ages and found nothing before resorting to the magical "I feel lucky" button. Turned out nice again.
Jacintha
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
2009 competition results to be announced
Pulp Net Short Story Café
7:30 pm, Monday, 9 March 2009
Pulp Net presents: Rana Dasgupta (author of Tokyo Cancelled and Solo) who will be announcing the winners of the Willesden Short Story Prize, and mystery readers to be confirmed.
The Pulp Net Short Story Café is at Costa, Lower Regent Street
Suggested donation: £3.
Lower Ground Floor, Costa Coffee, 15 Lower Regent Street, SW1Y
Venue map. Places are limited so come early to get a good spot
Shortlist
7:30 pm, Monday, 9 March 2009
Pulp Net presents: Rana Dasgupta (author of Tokyo Cancelled and Solo) who will be announcing the winners of the Willesden Short Story Prize, and mystery readers to be confirmed.
The Pulp Net Short Story Café is at Costa, Lower Regent Street
Suggested donation: £3.
Lower Ground Floor, Costa Coffee, 15 Lower Regent Street, SW1Y
Venue map. Places are limited so come early to get a good spot
Shortlist
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Announcement: Shortlist
The following have been shortlisted for the Willesden short story competiton 2009:
"Propitiation" by Jenny Barden
"The Imperfect Roundness of Things" by Claudia Boers
"The Hate Club" by Ben Cheetham
"The Travellers" by Carys Davies
"Ante-Purgatory" by Carol Farrelly
"Amy" by Nick Holdstock
"Work" by Jo Lloyd
"Ebb Tide" by Margot Taylor
"Mina and Fina and Lotte Wattimena" by Jill Widner
"Tokyo Chocolate" by Morowa Yejidé
To find out who has won come back here or join us at the the Pulp Net Short Story Café event with Rana Dasgupta at Costa in Piccadilly on March 9th. (Link)
Willesden Herald
Update: Results announced
"Propitiation" by Jenny Barden
"The Imperfect Roundness of Things" by Claudia Boers
"The Hate Club" by Ben Cheetham
"The Travellers" by Carys Davies
"Ante-Purgatory" by Carol Farrelly
"Amy" by Nick Holdstock
"Work" by Jo Lloyd
"Ebb Tide" by Margot Taylor
"Mina and Fina and Lotte Wattimena" by Jill Widner
"Tokyo Chocolate" by Morowa Yejidé
To find out who has won come back here or join us at the the Pulp Net Short Story Café event with Rana Dasgupta at Costa in Piccadilly on March 9th. (Link)
Willesden Herald
Update: Results announced
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Charley Ant
Listen to the description of the photo, after he discovers the "frugal horn". Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Delirium) Solid gold feathers.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Children banned from snow-covered parks
Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 7)
Children banned from snow-covered parks by health and safety brigade - Telegraph: "Camden Council in North London decided to lock all of its gated parks because the snow has made paths slippery."
<< Previous | Next? >>
Herbert Ridley
Children banned from snow-covered parks by health and safety brigade - Telegraph: "Camden Council in North London decided to lock all of its gated parks because the snow has made paths slippery."
<< Previous | Next? >>
Herbert Ridley
A snowy day
Snow in Willesden, London. 2 February 2009. Sphagnum
You wouldn't put a dog out in this weather, would you? Our other dog, Minnehaha (a Yorkshire terrier) has long hair which gets matted with frozen snow and needs emergency treatment when she comes in bedecked with snowballs. Zoltan seems much better coated for it. He has two layers, with a repellent, glossy/wiry outer one and a downy undercoat - and prances around quite carefree. The Yorkie only has one layer of long hair, rather like human hair and it gets frozen with snow around her twiggy little legs. One of our neighbours leaves a large German Shepherd out, as you can just see in one of the pictures above, though it has a sort of shed where it can shelter but it still barks and scratches to get into their house. (It got into Herald House a couple of times, but that's another story. It's somewhere in the back pages, a search for Cujo should find it.) Cujo (not his real name) howls pitiably sometimes, particularly when ice cream vans pass by playing their jingles, not that that's likely today.
Ossian
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Podcast 6: pretend genius [press]
bookface: the worst of pretend genius
1. stop pretend genius (Josh Davis & J. Tyler Blue)
2. my valentine's (J. Tyler Blue, with music by J.D.)
3. a moment trapped (Amy Muldoon)
4. caressed by crows (Dean Strom)
5. dig big baggy grotto mob mottoes (Adam Barrett)
6. the silver circle (Stephen Moran)
7. yoda coda (Josh Davis & J. Tyler Blue)
Warning: Not for those of tender years or delicate disposition. Contains a source of swearing. May contain traces of noise. Always read the label.
Noël Knowall
1. stop pretend genius (Josh Davis & J. Tyler Blue)
2. my valentine's (J. Tyler Blue, with music by J.D.)
3. a moment trapped (Amy Muldoon)
4. caressed by crows (Dean Strom)
5. dig big baggy grotto mob mottoes (Adam Barrett)
6. the silver circle (Stephen Moran)
7. yoda coda (Josh Davis & J. Tyler Blue)
Warning: Not for those of tender years or delicate disposition. Contains a source of swearing. May contain traces of noise. Always read the label.
Noël Knowall
- Subscribe to this podcast with iTunes
- Add this URL to your own podcast software.
- Visit the pretend genius Facebook page
- Visit Pretend Genius Press podcast home
- pretend genius [press]
Disaster appeal continues without the BBC
Gaza desperately short of food after Israel destroys farmland
"According to the World Food Programme, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and Palestinian officials, between 35% and 60% of the agriculture industry has been wrecked by the three-week Israeli attack, which followed two years of economic siege." (The Observer, World News)
You can help by donating to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal at www.dec.org.uk.
"According to the World Food Programme, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and Palestinian officials, between 35% and 60% of the agriculture industry has been wrecked by the three-week Israeli attack, which followed two years of economic siege." (The Observer, World News)
You can help by donating to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal at www.dec.org.uk.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Into solid air
May you never - John Martyn
John Martyn dies aged 60: "The trappings of fame and celebrity held no interest for him, which is why one of the greatest, most exhilarating and innovative British albums of the past 50 years - 1973’s Solid Air* - remains largely unrecognised by the general public." (Telegraph)
Here is the title track from Solid Air (live in Dublin).
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Of cats, pigeons and prizegiving
"Why such grudging praise for Sebastian Barry at the Costa Book Awards?
"We had a taste of the marvellous kerfuffle this kind of thing would cause early last year when Zadie Smith, head of the panel for the Willesden Herald's International Short Story Prize 2008, announced that frankly, none of the entries had come up to snuff, so no one would be winning. ... At the time, it caused a furore – but wouldn't the fun of every awards ceremony be increased immeasurably by [...] adding the name 'Ron' to every shortlist: 'Re-Open Nominations'? Either that, or publish a full transcript of the judges' deliberations, and force into the open all the maneouvering and compromises and delicious bitchiness that are currently kept decorously out of view." (Telegraph)
Newsdesk
"We had a taste of the marvellous kerfuffle this kind of thing would cause early last year when Zadie Smith, head of the panel for the Willesden Herald's International Short Story Prize 2008, announced that frankly, none of the entries had come up to snuff, so no one would be winning. ... At the time, it caused a furore – but wouldn't the fun of every awards ceremony be increased immeasurably by [...] adding the name 'Ron' to every shortlist: 'Re-Open Nominations'? Either that, or publish a full transcript of the judges' deliberations, and force into the open all the maneouvering and compromises and delicious bitchiness that are currently kept decorously out of view." (Telegraph)
Newsdesk
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
The DEC appeal that BBC & Sky are ashamed to show
Video: Gaza aid appeal
"The Gaza aid appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to be broadcast by ITV, Channel 4 and Five but rejected by the BBC and Sky" (Guardian Online)
"The Gaza aid appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to be broadcast by ITV, Channel 4 and Five but rejected by the BBC and Sky" (Guardian Online)
The daily lemma
with Rev Ivor Draper
What to do with Facebook friend requests from people one doesn't know?
Perhaps the best idea is to put it to The Lord and wait for an answer. If you haven't had a twitter from The Lord in ten minutes, please reset your rotary mower and try again. Unfortunately Lord Rotor cannot enter into any correspondence about the results of prayers, due to the overwhelming number of submissions. Bless you all and bless the Willesden Rotary Mower Club.
What to do with Facebook friend requests from people one doesn't know?
Perhaps the best idea is to put it to The Lord and wait for an answer. If you haven't had a twitter from The Lord in ten minutes, please reset your rotary mower and try again. Unfortunately Lord Rotor cannot enter into any correspondence about the results of prayers, due to the overwhelming number of submissions. Bless you all and bless the Willesden Rotary Mower Club.
Campaign to boycott the BBC licence fee
Letters
The proposal: From April 1st 2009, no further licence fee subscriptions to be paid to the BBC. The BBC receives approximately two billion pounds extorted from every family in the country, with the exception of the extremely elderly, regardless of ability to pay. It is a poll tax.
Additionally the BBC has now proved that it is not representative of public opinion and is used as a tool of the craven government's corrupt foreign policy. As a result it is literally covering up, hiding the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, purely because it is beholden to the government and Israel for its luxuriant position embedded and dependent utterly in and on the status quo. The interests of the British public and the world on the other hand, depend on the dismantling of the status quo and on progressive policies.
If we all sign up to boycott starting from April 1st, we will have strength in numbers. Meanwhile the prospect of bankruptcy can concentrate the minds of the grovelling, backsliding sluggards who run the corporation.
A Reader, Kilburn
The proposal: From April 1st 2009, no further licence fee subscriptions to be paid to the BBC. The BBC receives approximately two billion pounds extorted from every family in the country, with the exception of the extremely elderly, regardless of ability to pay. It is a poll tax.
Additionally the BBC has now proved that it is not representative of public opinion and is used as a tool of the craven government's corrupt foreign policy. As a result it is literally covering up, hiding the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, purely because it is beholden to the government and Israel for its luxuriant position embedded and dependent utterly in and on the status quo. The interests of the British public and the world on the other hand, depend on the dismantling of the status quo and on progressive policies.
If we all sign up to boycott starting from April 1st, we will have strength in numbers. Meanwhile the prospect of bankruptcy can concentrate the minds of the grovelling, backsliding sluggards who run the corporation.
A Reader, Kilburn
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Public meeting
Tuesday January 27th 7:30 pm
PALESTINE, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ...
Stop the slaughter. Stop the wars.
Speakers
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Kate Hudson, Chair CND
Muthanna Al Qadi, Middle East Editor, Al Quds News Agency
Space 2, upstairs at
Willesden Green Library Centre
95 High Road, Willesden NW10 2SF
Nearest station Willesden Green. Buses 52, 98, 260, 266, 302, 460. Free parking behind Library Centre. Fully accessible.
Brent Stop the War (email)
Brent Palestine Solidarity Campaign (email)
PALESTINE, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ...
Stop the slaughter. Stop the wars.
Speakers
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Kate Hudson, Chair CND
Muthanna Al Qadi, Middle East Editor, Al Quds News Agency
Space 2, upstairs at
Willesden Green Library Centre
95 High Road, Willesden NW10 2SF
Nearest station Willesden Green. Buses 52, 98, 260, 266, 302, 460. Free parking behind Library Centre. Fully accessible.
Brent Stop the War (email)
Brent Palestine Solidarity Campaign (email)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Defy the BBC & Murdoch Int'l: Help the people of Gaza
Donate Now to the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal.
Willesden Herald has donated £25 by the way (our horse came in)*. Only telling to encourage our readers to match it, not looking for any plaudits.
* What a pity it's not the BBC licence fee instead. Everyone has to give £100+ annually to Jonathan Ross & Co, even as they block an urgent disaster appeal. Ed
P.S. Don't be a mug and waste your money on Sky's ugly satellite dishes and tacky programming. Everything you need is on Freeview or cable. Give it to DEC instead. Ed
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)