A gift taken back

February update – Perfidious Oxford? | Save Kensal Rise Library!

The latest twist in the story of how the generosity of an Oxford College at the turn of the 20th century is being undone by the meanness of their 21st century moneygrabbing descendants, with the collusion of Brent Labour council and the Tory LibDem government. Make no mistake, they are all as bad as each other. It's the local people, ordinary people, versus politicians and greedy sods with sinecures.

A new short story by Zadie Smith

“The Embassy of Cambodia” - The New Yorker

When the Embassy of Cambodia first appeared in our midst, a few years ago, some of us said, “Well, if we were poets perhaps we could have written some sort of an ode about this surprising appearance of the embassy.”

Amazing sort of video collage/animation

Video by Cyriak Harris for "Cirrus" by Bonobo. (Via)

Cuba introduces new travel laws, to muted hope

News | DW.DE | 14.01.2013


Cuando salí de Cuba, Guillermo Portabales

Comment

Whitby church under threat from landslips*

The church, brained by Henry,
crazy, incontinent cliffhanger,
stares catatonic out to sea,
while its footing, undermined,
falls away, clean bones and all,
into Fortune's Kippers.

Crestfallen and bitter, our vicar
transplants the dearly departed
and prays to God, perhaps,
then calls a civil engineer.

--
Stephen Moran

* This graveyard erosion was already a worry in the 19th century, in the time of Dracula, no less, according to Bram Stoker's novel. Whitby is where that nosferatu landed in Blighty, and plenty of the narrative unfolds in the churchyard at Whitby.

Where are we now?

David Bowie's first new song for ten years. Film by Tony Oursler

"Had to get the train from Potsdamer Platz.  You never knew that. That I could do that. Just walking the dead. Sitting in the dschungel on Nürnberger Strasse, a man lost in time near KaDeWe. Just walking the dead. ..."

Phone booths

West

East

The phone booths beside the Willesden Green library centre with flyers and business cards left by pimps.

Africa - BBC trailer

Don't forget this when you're angry with other parts of the BBC!

Signs of the times

Empty bookshop, empty bellies?

Duelling planning applications:
one to redevelop "the piazza",
the other to designate it "a village green"

Can't wait for the Chilcot report?

Life and War with MF Delgado

"Before Hutton, before Butler, before Chilcot, Mikey Fatboy Delgado was looking into the matter... In the spring of 2003 the Iraq war is underway and Mikey is almost all in favour of it. It makes for good television and is improving his sex life. If only the BBC would sort out those green pictures of fighting in the dark he might even be prepared to cough up for a licence. And if only corrupt policing and the amount that Blair grins weren't so unsettling he would be able to relax and enjoy watching the highlights of the fighting more."

Last call for short stories

Don't know if the world will end tomorrow but it's the closing date for entries to the annual short story gala. If you want the one-off mug, inscribed "The Willesden Short Story Prize 2013", plus money, publication and last but least, immortality, here is how to enter.

Live music!!!

Robyn Hitchcock and friends encore "All The Young Dudes" at the Three Kings pub

Friday evening

Harlesden Road

Competition update, end of November 2012

Jenny Barden's novel Mistress of the Sea has been published by Ebury Press in hardback, with the paperback to follow. The word is it has been a runaway success in bookstores, including at Heathrow airport. Jenny's story "Propitiation" in New Short Stories 3 was an excerpt from her then work in progress.

Brian Coleman, whose emotional story The Bedroom was included in New Short Stories 5, has published a collection of his stories called Bright Ripples in a Dark Pool for Amazon Kindle.

Steve Moran has done an interview for Duotrope's listing of the Willesden Herald competition. You might not be able to read it after December, as they have announced that starting from January 2013, there will be a membership fee to access their literary markets database in full.

The rate of entries coming in has gathered pace but we still need a lot more, so please round them up, haul them in, keep them doggies rolling. And. That.

More better sooner repeater

As usual at this time of year, I worry about the number of entries to the short story competition. We need more. As to the quality, I'm finding that some fail due to what I would call general clumsiness. Sentences that should flow and follow may have been over-edited and become herky-jerky. Instead of them being a series of stepping stones there may be unfathomable chasms between each and the next. However, I still see a few interesting stories.

Steve

Official sponsor!

Friday evening walk

Donnington Road

Willesden Sports Centre

Willesden Stadium

Lenin's Tomb: "Israeli psychopath"

"Hamid Abu Daqqa was playing football in his Real Madrid shirt when he was shot through the stomach by IDF troops several weeks ago. This was significant for the Palestinians and the wider Middle East, but not for anyone else. Not a single UK broadcaster knows his name. But do they know Muhammad al-Hums, Ranan Arafat, Omar Mashharawi, Isam Abu al-Miza, Hiba Mashharawi Turk, Mahmoud Abu Sawawin, Marwan Abu al-Qumsan, Walid Abadla, Hanin Tafish, Faris Basyouni, or Muhammad Iyad Sadallah? These are but a small sample of the children, pregnant women and elderly Palestinians killed in recent days by Israel. Not a single UK broadcaster knows a single one of these names.

Anyone with an internet connection can hear live feed of the airjets, drones and helicopter fighters strafing the Gaza sky. If you want the sonic experience of airborne death, it's available to you."  

The beginning of Lenin's Tomb commentary "Israeli psychopath" by Richard Seymour

World market and library fair

Library books on display in the concourse

The world market is a regular Saturday event

Cupcakes from the world market in Willesden library centre.
(Somebody's already had one of the Smarties!)

Poverty in Brent

From Brent Citizens' Advice Bureau on Twitter: "We have given out 34 food vouchers this week, including to a pregnant woman and a family with young children."

The Gathering: Dear Mr Kenny

"Dear Mr Kenny, I will not hesitate to invite friends to Ireland when it once again becomes a country I can be proud of. A country that lets a woman die because of archaic religious beliefs is not one I want to show off. Legislate for X."

People ask, 'how can this happen in the 21st century?' (Irish Times)

Belfast tour

Titanica by Rowan Gillespie (Titanic Quarter)

Titanic memorial, City Hall, erected 2012

Poster wall, Falls Road,
new mural to be unveiled 8/10/2012

Sinn Féin HQ West Belfast, with Bobby Sands mural

Section of the Peace Wall, West Belfast

IRSP murals

Front of The Crown Bar

Europa Hotel, viewed from the Crown Bar restaurant

Welcome to the Shankill Road

"It's All Good" graffiti, Shankill Road

Welcome to Sandy Row

George Best mural

UVF mural 1

UVF mural 2

Orange hall

Orange hall silhouette

Tribute to equal rights campaigners

International Day of Peace mural, "Imagine"

Harry Lemon

President Obama's final rally, Iowa

"Let's finish what we started."

Parakeets in Willesden

Rowdon Avenue

A flock of parakeets in a silver birch

These parakeets are newcomers this year. I heard and spotted one about a week ago on two separate occasions as it flew and across the rooftops. Now there's a flock of at least six or more. Pairs of them were flying around in circles, level at tree top height, squawking and back onto the tree. They have a raucous, cackling cry, which I never heard before and is not at all melodious. A magnificent sight when they are flying!

Steve

All Souls College Oxford sells Mark Twain library for flats

"To the Warden and Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford." A most heart-rending appeal in a truly horrific situation, unique in its specific brutality and ignominy. Also a carefully reasoned and inarguable case.

http://www.savekensalriselibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Open-Letter-to-All-Souls-College-from-FKRL-2Nov2012upload.pdf

Jimmy Saveloy joins Herald

We're delighted to welcome Jimmy Saveloy to our team of news bloggers. He will be focussing in closely on the Big Society, the voluntary sector and charities, especially residential institutions. Plus he has some ideas for fundraising events.

Not really.