Willesden to Cricklewood

Joe Strummer sounding like a real person.

Jacintha

Neasden, centre of the world

The Queen and Michelle Obama forge firm and affectionate friendship: "On Wednesday, and in the rain, the Obamas went to the film set of Harry Potter in Neasden, north west London, as another birthday treat for Sasha." (Telegraph)

Newsdesk

More signage

  In case you don't know how to go for a walk in the park, these eyesores have just appeared inside all the entrances to every local park. There will come a day when you will not be able to see any part of the parks in Brent, they will be completely obscured by officious signs. Coming soon: "Walking is good for your health. This walk is 10% of your daily quota." "Don't forget to breathe." "If you see anything suspicious don't forget to do whatever it is you do when you see something suspicious." "Take your litter with you." "South: this way." "Seen a defective sign?: Phone the signs hotline." "Walking with longer steps saves the environment." "Don't feed the squirrels." "Mind your step - signs about." Red

Good obit for a sound man

David Marcus | Obituary | Books | The Guardian: "Literary editor who championed Irish prose"

Yours truly had the honour of being rejected more than once by the man but with encouraging notes.

Ossian

BBC iPlayer - Leonard Cohen Live in London

A recording of a concert from Leonard Cohen's 2008-2009 world tour. For a limited time. UK only

"For over four decades, Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body of work achieves greater depths of mystery and meaning as time goes on. In 2008, Leonard Cohen embarked on his first tour in 15 years. His set included Hallelujah, Suzanne, Bird on the Wire, I'm Your Man, The Future, Democracy, Dance Me to the End of Love and First We Take Manhattan, and was quickly recognised as musical folklore in the making, leaving fans and critics alike hailing the show as a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

I've been listening to the double album, it's a superb concert with humorous banter, music (including the brilliant blowing of Dino Soldo and the whole band) and singing and, of course, poetry. Unfortunately the BBC iPlayer recording only includes 60 minutes out of a concert that was about 140 minutes (rough calculation from the iTunes tracks). Of course they choose such things as Bird on the Wire, where many afficionados would probably choose a completely different 60 minutes. They should have put the whole concert up in two parts - I don't think it would do anything other than increase the record sales.

Just playing it back now while typing, and they have destroyed the concert - emasculated it! Can you seriously imagine the leaden editing process that cuts out most of the banter and skips "Ain't No Cure for Love", takes the lugubrious "Bird on the Wire" and skips all the following: "Everybody Knows", "In My Secret Life", "Who By Fire", "Hey that's no way to say goodbye", "Anthem" (my favourite), "Introduction", "Tower of Song" and skips to the overplayed "Suzanne", then skips "The Gypsy's Wife" and "Boogie Street" and jumps to the overplayed "Hallelujah" etc. A complete travesty of the concert and also a little dishonest because nowhere does it mention that this is less than half of the actual concert, it just says "A recording of a concert".

That said, it's still worth seeing for the stage antics that you can't get from the concert recording alone. "White man dancing" is one such moment. Finding out what the reference to Dino Soldo "on the instrument of wind" means is another (it's some sort of an instrument that LC suggest, probably jokingly, he doesn't know its exact name). I'm updating while playing, just on "I'm your man" now. Apologies if my updates cross with comments.

[Ach, it's great, just watching it again, without writing this rubbish. I'm glad Rainbow Spike likes it. Something better watching things when knowing somebody else is or has been watching. Thanks.]

Ossian

Worth the licence fee

BBC iPlayer - BBC Cardiff Singer of the World: 2009: Round 1: "Petroc Trelawny is the host as 25 of the best young opera singers from around the world converge on the Welsh capital to compete for the coveted prize of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009. Alongside Petroc is vocal coach Mary King to guide us through the highs and lows of the night, while backstage Josie D'Arby meets the singers and catches up with the gossip. In the opening round, competitors come from Canada, Latvia, Argentina, Bulgaria and Japan"

The pink premier

Cash foiled the coup against Gordon Brown – and killed Labour's last hope - Telegraph: "The past few days have reminded me of the climactic scenes of one of those Pink Panther films, when the world's supposedly most ruthless killers are converging on their target, and their mission is Kill Clouseau! or in this case, Kill Gordon! Each has his or her signature weapon, and each manages to bog it up. With an unexpected yell, Purnell springs from the stationery cupboard at the Department of Work and Pensions – and his rubber dagger spangs harmlessly aside. Then Caroline Flint closes in for what is meant to be the terminal embrace, armed with the spiked attack bra of the scorned Labour women – only to find herself denounced by Labour women themselves. Barry Sheerman, Charlie Falconer, Hazel Blears: one by one they let off their guns or bombs or petards, and through the smoke and the cordite Gordon Brown sails on with his Clouseau-like imperviousness, beaming his mysterious beam." (Boris Johnson)

Cue saxophone theme by Henry Mancini.

Another sunset

T.S. Eliot: fascinating Arena special

BBC iPlayer - Arena: TS Eliot
For a limited time. UK only

"For the first time on television, Arena tells the whole story of the life and work of TS Eliot including the happiness he found in the last years of life in his second marriage. His widow Valerie Eliot has opened her personal archive, hitherto unseen, including the private scrapbooks and albums in which Eliot assiduously recorded their life together."

This is a keeper.* Superb archive footage, commentary from Seamus Heaney and others. Endless joys. As well as many readings by Eliot, there is film of Ezra Pound, Stephen Spender, W. H. Auden, a lot of fascinating archive film, including such things as a glimpse of Trotsky addressing a rally, pictures of pages from the original of The Waste Land edited by Ezra Pound etc etc etc.

I'm updating this as I watch the program. Fascinating section towards the end about Eliot's apparent anti-Semitism, with an account of Litvinoff's counterblast from the poet himself, Danny Abse and others. Eliot was present (unexpectedly) at the event described, and his reactions are recalled.

Ossian

* With the new iPlayer download manager, if you download a program you get an MP4 file but whether you can save this and defy the expiry of the temporary license is not clear.

Obama's speech at Cairo University in full

BBC iPlayer - Briefings: Barack Obama
For a limited time. UK only

"Recorded coverage of President Barack Obama making a keynote speech at Cairo University as part of his tour of the Middle East and Europe, from Thursday 4 June."

It is a great speech. Once again, Obama recycles Lincoln's phraseology - as he always does - to great effect. "We meet here today" etc, as in the Gettysburg address. He talks persuasively - of course - about Islam and America. He seems intent on steering a course out of brutality towards harmony, but his pragmatism encompasses the bombing of Afghanistan, which is hard to reconcile with what he says.

Feargal

Waiting to be removed

"I've just spent a week sleeping at the houses of the Hannoun family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Three modest two bedroom bungalows are home to the families of the Hannoun brothers – they are part of 28 homes in the neighborhood, inhabited by over 500 Palestinians.

As part of their illegal 'Judaization' of East Jerusalem (which is meant to be the future capital of Palestine), the Israelis have told the Hannoun's, and other families in the area, they will be evicted and their homes destroyed to make way for new Jewish settlers." Matt Kennard: An East Jerusalem Story

Need a good read?

Advertisement by Gombeen™
The Green Press » What We Were Thinking Just Before The End: "Only £6.99 for United Kingdom delivery or £9.99 outside of the UK, all postage and packing included." Order direct and support independent publishing. There's more good reading in this book than in many W. H. Smith books put together. Take it with you on the underground, read one story on the way to work, a poem at lunchtime, another story on the way home. It's a multi-talented, multi-faceted, refreshing antidote to a world of mouldering politics, finance and war.

Mooney gets the call: appointed Blog Tsar

Feargal Mooney has been appointed Blog Tsar by Gordon Brown. Red Woodward is believed to be in Downing Street now discussing a tsarship for gambling regulation. Other passersby were surprised to be stopped in Whitehall and escorted into Downing Street to take up government positions.

Newsdesk

Quote of the day

Hollywood star died in sex act admits Thai police - Telegraph: "'There was a rope tied around his neck and another rope tied at his sex organ, and the two ropes were tied together and hung in the closet,' police commander, Lieutenant General Worapong Siewpreecha said. 'Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide but he may have died from masturbation.'"

Grasshopper?

Feeble justice

Two sentenced to life in prison for stabbing French students to death | UK news | guardian.co.uk: "Sonnex will serve a minimum of 40 years and Farmer a minimum of 35. Trial judge Mr Justice Saunders told the Old Bailey the pair had only escaped being jailed for the 'truly horrific' murders for the rest of their lives because of their young ages."

What do you have to do to get a whole life sentence? Can you believe the judge still shows consideration for these murderers? The judge should serve the difference when they come out if he's alive at the time, which by the way is unlikely; so he doesn't even suffer the societal consequences of this feeble, insult of a sentence.

Zoz

Good riddance

MPs' expenses: Hazel Blears resignation deepens Gordon Brown's Cabinet crisis - Telegraph: "Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, has resigned from the Cabinet, deepening the political crisis now engulfing Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister."

Never liked her, never trusted her, never respected her transparently dishonest spin-doctoring. This government is crumbling like a bad building in an earthquake. For god's sake, go - but no automatic reselection! We don't want this same lot back.

PMQ's live: fiddling while Rome burns. Disgusting how they drag in the names of dead soldiers to give MP's ersatz dignity, when they have none.

Feargal

Davy Byrne's 30k (Euros) for short stories

Email:

The shortlist for the 2009 Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award will be announced on Saturday in The Irish Times.

Over 800 stories were entered for the competition and we are now down to the final six. The six winning writers have been notified.

The overall winner of the €25,000 prize will be announced on Monday June 22nd. The five remaining shortlisted writers will receive €1000 each.

Thanks are due to all who entered to the competition and to Redmond Doran of Davy Byrnes for his very generous sponsorship.

While the six shortlisted writers are clearly the main beneficiaries, the Award represents a great boost to the short story itself - encouraging people to write short stories, to read them and to celebrate them.

It's very fitting that the overall winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award will be announced in the same week that Alice Munro will be in Dublin to receive the Man Booker International Prize.

Onwards and upwards...

The Stinging Fly

Green revolution?

Vote Green tomorrow but beware of getting rid of Gordon today | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian: "For four senior Labour figures to quit on the eve of a double set of elections – apparently indifferent to the damage this might cause the party's chances – reeks of the sinking ship: now it's every rat for himself."

The election leaflets falling through the letterbox at Herald House are mostly from the Liberals and some Christian party ("Put your X beside the cross"). That is apart from an unctuous letter of apology from Gordon Brown on behalf of the entire parliament. Shouldn't he have at least excluded St Sarah of Willesden? He's trying to dilute the muck by including clean people in his ineffectual and redundant apology. One thing we know for sure, they are all very sorry: that is their permanent situation. They really feel our pain.

Feargal

Impression of evening

Inveterate liar is also an embezzler

MPs' expenses: Geoff Hoon claimed on two homes at the same time - Telegraph: "Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, is exposed as the second Cabinet minister to have claimed expenses for two different second homes at the same time." (Telegraph)

The government's professional liar in the Iraq invasion is now revealed as a repeat embezzler of public funds. What else would you have expected? Of course the problem with his denials is that, as already proven, he is a known liar. It is not credible that people like this, who use our money to pay accountants by the way - as a fraudulent perk, which they don't pay tax on and should, needless to add - to help them get their accounts right, should make so many mistakes, invariably in their own favour.

Feargal

Don't let Hitlerism in by the back door

Dynorod the disgusting BNP down the sewer of history.

The daily lemma: Fed up being a god?

Boy chosen by Dalai Lama as reincarnation of spiritual leader turns back on Buddhist order

'I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?' (Guardian)

That has to be one of the best quotes ever. The funny thing is, it's rather what one would expect a god to make of humanity.

Feargal

A nest with a view

 

"She never moves." "Are you sure?" "Never. It's shady." "Ok, build here."

Laugh till you cry

BBC iPlayer - Comedy Catch Up: Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show

"The showbiz legend gives a lecture to impress the Egyptology Society - but there's a strict dress code." (BBC Radio 7)

"Imagine if they mixed the syringes up and you ended up with Cliff Richards' buttocks in your face..." (Classic answer to sales phone call...) "Bob Monkhousen syndrome (by poxy)" Better than drugs.

Gladstone Park this afternoon

Approaching the walled garden









A very high kite





Sphagnum