LENIN'S TOMB: Sabra and Shatila

LENIN'S TOMB: Sabra and Shatila

"The UN General Assembly considered this an act of genocide. It is important to see this in light of the processes that led to the massacre. It was not an isolated incident, but the horrifying - from the IDF's perspective, apparently, glorious - culmination of Israel's war on the very idea of the Palestinian people. It has a genocidal logic which has been repeatedly expressed in the various massacres in Israel's wars, whether in Qana or in Gaza, where the IDF seemed to go out of its way to violate every last humanitarian norm - indeed, to prove that it absolutely did not consider the Palestinians worthy of even the most minimal human consideration. The incident in Gaza City, on 22 January this year, in which the IDF sealed off a neighbourhood, bombed and shelled it, blocked medical and humanitarian entry, and knowingly left children to slowly die next to their already deceased relatives, was a clear indication of this. Remembering Sabra and Shatila is not just about paying ritual tribute to the dead, for whom tributes are worthless. It is about knowing what it is that the Palestinians are up against, and understanding the urgent need for solidarity today. The TUC's support for the BDS campaign is long belated recognition of that."

Same difference

The Choir

BBC iPlayer - The Choir: Unsung Town: Episode 3: "Choirmaster Gareth Malone has started two successful choirs, for adults and children, in the housing estate of South Oxhey, but he believes they won't become 'real' choirs until they can perform technically challenging classical music, and sing in Latin. So he arranges for both his choirs to sing at concert performances alongside highly accomplished musicians in front of demanding audiences.

"At first, many members in his choir feel it's impossible for a new choir, most of whom cannot even read music, to perform at this level. Some threaten to leave. Will Gareth be able to convince his singers that they can match his aspirations?"

Broadcast on: BBC Two, 9:00pm Tuesday 15th September 2009
Duration: 60 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm Tuesday 6th October 2009

Watch this, where he takes the South Oxhey children's choir that he's setup in the local primary schools to Merchant Taylors private school. It's the secret world of privilege in England where the Merchant Taylors school, in addition to a hall that can stage a huge concert has 400 250 acres around it - "almost the size of South Oxhey". This is a great series and Gareth Malone is a hero. You can see the other episodes on catch-up. Last week's was one of those touching, make-you-weep ones with the kids trying to live up to his expectations. This one is more of a social documentary. Get a load of the boxer's mates, and contrast them with Gareth who is the same age group (as he notes). He is as different as if he had stepped out of Stephen Spielberg's giant spaceship in Close Encounters. Two different species. Interesting.

Here's a bit from last week's Episode 2:



Hallelujah! I can suspend my disbelief in the premise that everybody in South Oxhey needs to be rescued from some sort of dismal slough of despond because actually - it may be true. Hold on to the fact that the choirmaster from Merchant Taylors school said the South Oxhey primary school choir were "better than his lot". I know nothing about South Oxhey other than that the producers of this program have (in effect) dubbed it a hole for the purposes of this series. I'm not going to start blathering on about everything, I'm just having a "funny half hour" as my mam says.

Ossian

Transatlantic Sessions

BBC iPlayer - Transatlantic Sessions: Series 3: Episode 1

"Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever', as Shetland fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain and dobro ace Jerry Douglas host a Highland gathering of the cream of Nashville, Irish and Scottish talent. Highlights include songs by James Taylor, Julie Fowlis and Dan 'Man of Constant Sorrow' Tyminski, and instrumentals by Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain and Allan MacDonald."
Broadcast on: BBC Two, 10:50pm Sunday 13th September 2009
Duration: 30 minutes
Available until: 11:19pm Sunday 20th September 2009

So may I work the mills for as long as I am able
And never meet the man whose name is on the label
That's part of a beautiful song from James Taylor about mill working. There are other charms in this, including a very nice rendition of a Gaelic song. Those are the two parts that I will most want to listen to again.

Ossian

Paul McCartney at the Roundhouse

BBC iPlayer - Electric Proms: Paul McCartney:
Broadcast on: BBC Four, 11:30pm Friday 11th September 2009
Duration: 60 minutes
Available until: 12:29am Saturday 19th September 2009

"Paul McCartney is centre-stage as he plays a one-off concert at the Roundhouse Main Space."

Bartell

Civilisation versus the law of the jungle

Obama's Health Care Address to Congress - Video Feature - NYTimes.com

You can hear one of the jungle-dwellers growling at Barack Obama in this.

Will it never end?

Boycott Question Time

LENIN'S TOMB: The case for 'no platform': it's only good manners

Freedom of speech does not stretch to include any obligation on the BBC to host people whose participation in debate is not in good faith. The answer to this is for the main parties, especially Labour - at least Labour! plus the Liberals? - to refuse to appear on the show with the atavistic fascist pigs of the BNP. No platform.

Feargal

If you want to see some real pictures

Sergey Maximishin Photography

Short story competition 2009-2010 now open

This year's judge Richard Peabody is a distinguished poet, author, lecturer on creative writing and editor of Gargoyle magazine.

"Richard Peabody is an author and poet based in Washington, D.C. A native of the region, he is perhaps best known as one of the founding editors for Gargoyle Magazine and editor for the anthology series Mondo. He also runs a small press called Paycock Press; aside from acting as the official publisher of Gargoyle Magazine, Paycock Press has released a number of anthologies and works by individual authors.

"Peabody's own fiction and poetry is often set in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding region and is often noted for strong influences from the Beat Generation and experimental authors of the 1960s like Ken Kesey. During his writing and publishing career, Peabody has taught fiction writing for the University of Maryland, the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins University, and the Writer's Center. He currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and two daughters." (Ref: Wikipedia)

I will be reading and reducing down to a list for Richard to choose the winners from. If you want to find out more about me, my website is here. (Steve Moran)

Come all ye

So you know what you have to do. Catch a wild story up in the high passes, blow in its nose, whisper to it and teach it to tapdance like Frankenstein, throw a bucket of rain over it, lead it down from the mountains and enter it in the annual Willesden story fair.

Notes

There is an entry fee of £3 this year, which should cover costs and enable us to keep the competition going. We will publish the accounts online when the competition is over. If there is anything left after costs we're going to give it to charity. Because there's an entry fee this year, we're guaranteeing to pick a winner and runners up. It was different when it was free entry, we didn't feel obliged to choose a winner.

As usual the priceless mug is on offer to the winner, inscribed Willesden Herald Short Story Prize 2010, plus £300 to the winner and £150 each to two runners-up. Please read the rules carefully, as every year about 10% of entries fail on breach of the rules. The entry fee is non-refundable. The fee can only be paid after an entry has been successfully uploaded, so there should not be any doubt about that.

Links

• WillesdenHerald.com - the competition pages
• Last Year's Results - including pictures, video, judge's report and biographies of the writers
• New Short Stories - the book series
• August newsletter - from our publishers

From "Les Marquises"

La ville s'endormait - Jacques Brel

Anyone got a link to a translation of this? I'd like to learn the words. (Ossian)

End of August

Etc.

 

...ad infinitem

Parish announcements

August newsletter

"Here in Willesden we're getting set for the annual moonshine competition, when all the rugged, gruff mountainy women and eye-fluttering, blushing valley men bring their finest distillations to the story fair to be tested by discerning judges who live year round on nothing but the angels' share of finest cognac. So let it bubble a while more but don't burn the good out of it, then get into town from September, at www.willesdenherald.com. These old topers generally taste the liquor and project it forthwith into the testing spittoon, but what you want is to make them not just taste, but to drink the whole bottle and wish they had it to drink again. That doesn't happen too often and nobody knows how or why but they can be seen flopped out on the floor, simpering and gurgling afterwards."

Tonight

Kennedy takes with him a time and an era

Moon phase

Holiday island

Dirty blue

 
Union jack


Into the sun

 
Dirty blue

More strange clouds

More strange clouds
Originally uploaded by Willesden Herald

To paraphrase Dr Johnson, when a man is tired of the sky he's tired of life.

Houses in the distance

Playing field

This reminds me of some early landscape paintings I saw in the Prado (artist?) where there are people whose faces are just one jot of oilpaint. I think it is part of the sense of adventure that is inherent in landscape, to my way of thinking. I see the same thing in L. S. Lowry's cityscapes. Maybe this will inspire some of our short story writers because a real sense of adventure is something rare and precious. Please don't fake it or think "generic". There is a sense of adventure, for example, in the stories of Annie Proulx and Maile Meloy - a combination of landscape and I don't know what.

Ossian

Elsewhere in the sky

 

Sky 3

 
The sky above King Edward VII park, Willesden (8:25 pm, 19/8/2009)

Archival quality 18'' x 24'', mounted, signed and numbered limited edition of 30 @ £1,000. Still a few left.

"The Great British Circus"

(Ref: ITN Lunchtime News undercover filming)

Three elephants stand like prisoners awaiting inspection in a small squalid tent. A person hits them with with a metal hook. They scream. At other times he is seen twisting their tails. This is "The Great British Circus".

At the same time foxhunters are riding around the countryside armed and dangerous because the government has stopped the dogs from killing the foxes and now makes people shoot them. And nothing whatsoever has been done to end factory farming.

Zoz