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

Topolino

Skylight crows

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more"

(From "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe)

Short story competition 2009-10

The rules have been updated. For full details please visit WillesdenHerald.com. You can pre-register but entries cannot be uploaded till after the opening date, 1 September '09. This year there is an entry fee of £3 to cover running costs. We liked being free but we're not free anymore. The prizes are £300 plus the invaluable Herald mug to the winning story, and 2 x £150 for the runners up. All shortlisted to be published in New Short Stories 4.

Ossian

The Street - series catch up

BBC iPlayer - The Street: Series 3: Episode 1
For a limited time. UK only

Brilliant tragedy from Jimmy McGovern. A perfect example of the two-edged ending (as per Slumdog etc.) This series is pure class. Episode one has a superb cast led by Bob Hoskins, Liam Cunningham, Francis Barber and Timothy Spall. Directed by David Blair who also directed The Key and other great series for BBC Scotland. It's already up to episode 5 and so far I've only seen this and the one about the squadie returning from Iraq disfigured, both on iPlayer. Not sure how long these will stay online.

Ossian

What is everything to us, is nothing to the world

Ministers and medics rush to defend NHS (Guardian)

Conservative party MEP Daniel Hannan is a traitor and the new Lord Haw Haw. If Cameron does not sack him from the Conservative/Fascist block in the European parliament, which he won't, it just confirms that their whole party is a front for an attempt to seize the assets of the UK and hand them out to the Lord Haw Haw's of this world.

Zoz

No protection for them

The torture of baby Peter: "Peter was left in his cot for hours on end, was treated worse than a dog, had his finger­tips sliced off with a craft knife, his nails pulled out with pliers and every scrap of his clothing was covered in blood." (Telegraph)

That's just one of the newly-revealed facts about the case. The baby also ended up with a broken back and multiple head injuries. I really feel that not one penny should be spent protecting these people on release from jail. I'm against judicial execution but I am not against leaving these people to their fate. One of them was a National Front supporter. Shooting is too good for them.

Zoz

Where The Wild Things Are (trailer)

Touching, humorous and very pleasant musically - all in all, a brilliant trailer. Click twice to view larger on YouTube. (Via Nick Holdstock)

New Berliner format

We've changed our format to get the benefit of new features such as label lists, slideshows, subscription links etc. Teams of programmers are working flat out to restore the old comments (2003-2004). Such is their awesome programming ability that they are quite likely to resort to copying and pasting. One way or another the old comments will be back, they have not been lost. If you want to see what this used to look like, the short story competition pages are still in the old format.

Simon Moribund

Last chance to see Kashgar

Bulldozers are to raze the mesmerising old town in the Chinese Silk Road city of Kashgar (Guardian)

After the Chinese Communist Party has finished its reign of terror and idiocy, how will people remember it? - with despair and remorse.

Zoz

Government for the people

"In August, the health insurance reform debate comes home. This is the moment our movement was built for: Organizing for Healthcare" (Barack Obama)

Can't help but cheer this on from the sidelines. I hope he wins this battle.

Ossian

Playing the audience

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Brilliant demonstration of audience musical ability leads scientist to quip to Bobby McFerrin, "If you ever want a job in neuroscience..."

And the little brave shall be called Wounded Cloud