Jay had a run-in with cancer, but now he’s back with a vengeance and is is raising dough to complete a third CD of what he describes as “happy peppy pop tunes!”.
I’ve made a donation to his recording fund on Kickstarter but now he only has until September 27th to reach his target or the whole thing will fail to materialise. If you like those tunes as much as I do perhaps you too might consider making a contribution? You can get plenty of grand swag for a modest donation – see kck.st/RX9St0 for the charming video, a view of the swag, and how you can make a pledge.
However small the amount, Jay will thank you and I will too!
Chick-Fil-A is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in College Park, Georgia, and has been long associated with the Southern United States, where it has been a cultural icon. Chick-fil-A has donated millions to groups that are politically active in opposing same-sex marriage and other gay rights issues.
From a recent blog post by Wayne Self
Think about this: how would you feel if KFC came out tomorrow and said they were spending money against equality for Asian Americans, or African Americans, or religious people? Really. Think about it. What would you do? How would you feel? How would you feel if, after their announcement, there was a big increase in KFC sales and I was all over Facebook supporting KFC. Please stop reading right now and imagine this. You can stop now because it’s ludicrous. It would never happen.
Oh, I don’t mean the part about KFC being against some group. That could happen. I mean the part about me supporting them. Let me tell you something: I’d sign on for the boycott IMMEDIATELY because I believe in equality for all people. But also because you are my friend, and I don’t willingly support people who harm you for just being you. How could I? But, more importantly for our purposes, how could you?
Just discovered this while wilfing around on YouTube. Posted in 2005 so probably everybody else but me has already seen it, but despite low respolution and awful audio quality it’s just stunning.
The YouTube posting looks like a copy of a copy and gives no credits – who made the robots, who created the dance, or where it all took place. Seems really odd that the presentation is obviously taking place in a room full of people, yet nobody applauds at the end. The language being spoken is Japanses – maybe applause is forbidden by some weird form of business etiquette.
From Bristol, meet Charlie Hicks – “costermonger, aspiring glamour model and former New York Doll” according to his Twitter feed. However The Chef’s Directory describes his company Charlie Hicks Restaurant Supply as “the finest provider of Fruit and Vegetables in the South West”.
His video is sharp, factual, funny and to the point. But get this: with no hard sell whatsoever. Charlie’s goal is certainly to inform his customers and impress potential customers – but achieved by giving everybody else exactly what it says on the tin: A Mid-June Market Report.
Burying George’s ashes in a corner of the grounds of the old Priory last Sunday – with photos of Aberfeldy where he was happy, the concise Oxford dictionary he proudly inscribed as a teenager in 1969… and a half-smoked cigarette end because that would have made him laugh.
On Radio 4′s “In Our Time” yesterday, Melvyn Bragg interviewed Steven Connor (Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck, University of London) Jeri Johnson (Senior Fellow in English at Exeter College, Oxford) and Richard Brown (Reader in Modern English Literature at the University of Leeds) about the James Joyce novel Ulysses. For the benefit of anyone who enjoys the sound of Melvyn’s voice as much as he does, here’s a shortened version without all those pesky guests who kept interrupting him.
From: A History of the English Speaking Peoples: The Age of Revolution by Winston S. Churchill, 1957
“We have seen the many ties which at one time or another have joined the inhabitants of the Western islands, and – even in Ireland itself – offered a tolerable way of life to Protestants and Catholics alike.”
“Upon all of these Cromwell’s record was a lasting bane. By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs between the nations and the creeds.”
“Hell or Connaught” were the terms he thrust upon the native inhabitants, and they for their part, across three hundred years, have used as their keenest expression of hatred “The Curse of Cromwell on you.”
The consequences of Cromwell’s rule in Ireland have distressed and at times distracted English politics down even to the present day. To heal them (has) baffled the skill and loyalties of successive generations. They became for a time a potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people throughout the world.
Upon all of us there still lies ‘The Curse of Cromwell’.
Orgreave Colliery 18 June 1984: Lesley Boulton from Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures was calling for an ambulance for an injured miner when attacked by a mounted policeman in riot gear with drawn truncheon. A blog post by Grace Shaw has more details of Lesley’s story:
“I was attending to a man who was on the ground and seemed to have some chest injuries. I was standing trying to attract the attention of a police officer in the road to get him an ambulance. Because I thought, I don’t know how serious it was, but it warranted some medical attention.”
“As I stood up to attract this policeman’s attention, this officer on a police horse just bore down on me. Fortunately for me there was someone standing behind me who was also with the injured miner, who just yanked me out of the way.”
“John Harris, who was taking the pictures, was using a motor drive and I’ve seen not just the famous photograph but the subsequent picture which shows the baton going down very close to me. I felt it go past me. I was just missed by the skin of my teeth really.”
Sitting on the upper deck of a No. 73 bus from Oxford Street to Victoria, the traffic ground to a standstill outside Selfridges. It was the first day of the heatwave and – listening to my iPhone – I idly snapped a shot of the bus stop opposite ready to have a good moan on Instagram. Zooming in afterwards, I discovered this lovely couple caught embracing in the lower right corner of the frame… Their obvious tenderness was very very sweet…
Video: bell ringing practice At St Mary’s church, Putney.
In 1647, between October 28th and November 9th, soldiers and officers of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army held discussions on the constitution and future of England in this church. They became known as The Putney Debates.
Footsteps on gravel at the neighborhood bar
Things start to unravel, then they go too far
The sound of pain written on the wind
fades to grey and then goes dim…
Daft joke for London rail users…
Q: how many different types of crustacean are there?
A: Four – Charing Crustacean, King’s Crustacean, New Crustacean and St. Pancrustacean…
