“When you had twelve boxes of kippers on your head, you knew you’d got it on,” quipped Billy, displaying his “brand new” hat, made only in the nineteen thirties.”

@thegentleauthor.bsky.social

spitalfieldslife.com/2025/10/06/t...

A trombone player seen on an east village street corner, playing to passersby early in the morning.

The randomness of a trombone serenade while on an early morning walk in the East Village.

NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)

Brian Harris took wonderful pictures for the Independent and others. I am sad to hear he is gone, and so happy I knew him and the other photographers of the Independent for a while. This is from Prague in 1989. I wasn’t there; Brian made me wish I had been and feel that maybe I was. lnkd.in/eqgeDpay

Harold Edgerton, Cows and Flare at Stonehenge, 1944

With John Ryan, Anthony Cronin, Patrick Kavanagh & Tom Joyce (Bloomsday, Sandymount, 1954)

Today is Brian O’Nolan’s (aka Flann O’Brien, Myles na gCopaleen et al) birthday.

Late afternoon. More yellows than reds.

“In other words, Ms Levin is cut like a diamond in the rough, along the finest in the business. Her disc, Blackbird & Ancestors [Aldilá Records] is further proof of this fact. Listening to it over and over again is like dancing with genius.”

❤️

“It is a sort of family, a very strange family. Most of my staff have been with me a very long time and we are very close. Eighty per cent of my customers are regulars and we are all close to each other. We help each other through everything. To be honest, I do not know what I would do without it.”

“On the road to the French house, Lesley performed with a python in cabaret before graduating to managing a strip club in Old Compton St in 1979, where admission cost 50p and senior customers brought sandwiches to stay all day.”

@thegentleauthor.bsky.social

spitalfieldslife.com/2025/10/04/l...

Oatcakes are very hard to find here, & insanely overpriced. So I order in bulk direct from Walker’s. I suppose the tariffs will kick the price up tho’.

But I really miss Lancashire cheese.

10 turkeys in the field. Never before have they seemed such a wholesome distraction.

Now I’m in Queens, I have to give a shout out to the International C-Town on 34th Ave. Not a big supermarket, but quite comprehensive & yes, some specialties. It’s really well run and the staff are great. Only wish it was closer to home.

Park Slopers rally after Steve’s 9th Street Market abruptly closes, urge affordable grocery replacement • Brooklyn Paper After serving the Park Slope community for decades, Steve's 9th Street Supermarket between 5th and 6th avenues, shuttered permanently on Sept. 30 with little

This sucks. Steve’s was my just-round-the corner regular market for decades, & a neighbour of mine was still working there last time I saw him over the summer.
How about city mandates for fair rents for affordable supermarkets?
These are staples NYers need.
www.brooklynpaper.com/park-slope-r...

Alex Niemi on the Process of Translation and the Rhythm of Language I’ve known Alex Niemi since 2012, when we both started a graduate program in literary translation at the University of Iowa. We co-edited our program’s literary translation journal, Exchanges, and …

Lovely interview with Alex Niemi, translator of THE ENDLESS WEEK by Laura Vazquez, just up at @literaryhub.bsky.social . . . on "sonic suspense" and more!

lithub.com/alex-niemi-o...

The Sacred Waterways of Black and Indigenous Communities An exhibition at the Mystic Seaport Museum takes visitors on a journey through centuries of interrelated traditions of seafaring and artmaking, revealing oft-ignored histories.

A new exhibition at the Mystic Seaport Museum reveals the oft-ignored ancestral knowledge and innovation that flow from Black and Indigenous communities’ sacred relationship to seafaring and artmaking.

They Live Below Sea Level in NYC. Now, the City Could Buy Out 'The Hole' The low-lying neighborhood on the Brooklyn-Queens border will be the first place in New York where officials may buy properties proactively — instead of in response to a disaster.

absolutely fascinating piece from @smaldo.bsky.social today:

Article reads: Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

A badger photographed in Scotland, on it's hind legs leaning against a tree and sniffing the bark. Framing the badger is a warm, golden glow and out of focus leaves.

Just a few days until October’s full moon! This year it falls on the 7th & is sometimes called ‘Gealach a' Bhruic’ in Gaelic - the ‘Badger Moon’. Folklore says under the moonlight, badgers would gather grass, getting their setts ready for winter. 🌕

#DailyDoseOfNature #WildlifePhotography #Nature

YouTube video by T. S. Eliot Prize Jay Bernard reads from 'Surge'

After listening to Jay Bernard sing ‘Songbook’ every time I read it now I sing it too.
At 6:12 on the link below, but you really should listen to it all – they will give you goosebumps

#NationalPoetryDay
#poetry
#poemoftheday
#13deadnothingsaid
#NewCrossMassacre
youtu.be/_ANbixVTnU4?...

Have been spending time with a solitary ring-necked pheasant. What a splendid bird it is. It’s stayed in the same patch of brush for a week at least, and it tolerates my presence as long as I’m not too close. Yesterday, a bit of excitement as an otter dashed by, heading straight for the pond.

We Apologise for the Unintended Relevance of this Poem

Fall view in New England. Fallen leaves, shadows & a meadow in the distance.

More leaves on the ground. Shades of yellow, brown and green. Shadows of tree trunks in the foreground.

A little time out.

‘She wrote the best first line – and the most chilling stories’: Stephen King on the dark brilliance of Daphne du Maurier From Rebecca to The Birds and scores of creepy short stories, Du Maurier was queen of the uncanny, writes the US horror maestro

Stephen King on Daphne du Maurier.

Perfect.

Teen Advisory Board 2025–26 - The Noguchi Museum The Noguchi Museum’s Teen Advisory Board [TAB] is a paid internship for high school students. Each year, TAB interns plan projects that promote dialogue and inclusivity at the Museum.

Not much time left to apply, but this sounds like an interesting opportunity for New York high school kids:

www.noguchi.org/museum/educa...

Though actually the one on the left would be number one. That face.

Whiling away a bus ride looking at cats. If I could actually get a cat right now either of these would be divine.

Eric Adams Drops Out of Race for Mayor, Refuses to Endorse Other Candidates Lagging badly in polls, the mayor confirmed in a video that he's suspending his campaign after weeks of denying he was considering an exit.

Erick Adams calls it quits in NYC mayoral race.
www.thecity.nyc/2025/09/28/e...

A solar pavilion with lights on strings being powered by the batteries that have been charged by the solar cells and a crowd of people around it listening to someone explaining the background. There's a picnic table with several people at the lower right of the picture.

Here at La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez in Loisaida #LES #NYC for permaculture, solar, music, community.