Compare and contrast...

The Polish poster for John Schlesinger's Far From the Madding Crowd (1967)

The Spanish poster for Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

American Black Bears

The Guardian has some more amazing photos (and it's a pretty amazing story to accompany them) here.

Current Favourite Sentences

"I guess if I could be beamed to India, spend a day there and then say, 'Thank you; I've done it now, get me back' I might, but ... nah. Not for no reason."

Baron Sugar of Clapton.

"I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back the same day."

Philip Larkin.

Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

Incorrigible Meerkat

We went to the Madrid Zoo-Aquarium last week. A meerkat pleasuring himself in a hole in the ground was one of the many highlights.

Wedding Anniversary

It was a few weeks ago, the fourth wedding anniversary. We were out walking through the Plaza Dos de Mayo that afternoon, and passed the itinerant postcard seller's stall, and this seemed appropriate. I hope for many more years of being as essentially happy as I am now.

Ibo Masquerades

My younger brother, who knows the kind of thing I like, has sent me some great postcards from the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of Ibo Masquerades in Nigeria from 1931. Here are a few of them. (My older brother also knows the kind of thing I like, of course, but he's more on the pastiche Soviet science fiction side of things.) There's a bit more information here.

Current Favourite Sentences

Protester Pixie ni hEicht, from Dublin, criticised both the garda and the hundreds who had turned out for the book signing: "The police are west Brits who are protecting a British terrorist and the people queuing up over there should be ashamed of themselves. All these people buying the book are jackeens and traitors."

I particularly like the word 'jackeen'.

Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885)

Technology: Isn't it wonderful?

I just got some photos of Russia developed. In addition to the physical copies, they give you the photos on a CD. I thought this might be a bit dull, but then I loaded them up and saw that what they do is to scan the negatives with a digital scanner and then (if necessary) sort out the colour with some form of magical colour programme.

All of which means that the digital versions have great vibrant colour (if necessary), all the grain of a real photo, and sometimes even a little nibbling at the edge where the edge of the negative comes. It's an effect I like a great deal.

The Great Lake at Gatchina


The Lazarus Cemetery


Private Gardens, Gatchina


Yelagin Island


Gatchina