Westminster Gold

Splendidly literal-minded album covers from the 1970s onwards. More here. The great John Ash has a poem about some of them.

Ben's Visit; Botany

I think I like the Botanic Gardens in the autumn most of all. It was a nice peaceful break in what has been a slightly hectic week. And the fact that Ben was here helped a lot. Although I still don't understand why they exhibit seventy-five different types of cabbage. Or why the only plants with a DO NOT PICK sign by them are the strawberries.

Hoyo de Manzanares

My brother Ben is here to visit: thanks to him, I now know that just half an hour by bus out of Madrid you come to Hoyo de Manzanares, a village in the Sierra de Guadarrama from which you can get soonish out into nature.


This photo is of an imperial eagle, but you might have to take that on trust.

There was a great deal of good graffiti on the way back.

Galloping Dinosaur-eating Crocodiles

Another reason to be glad that we are living in the 21st century.

Ohé! Les braves gens...

The Editors in Their Natural Habitat

Fashion Notes

I'm working my way up to a parrot.

Ōshima Nagisa (1932- )

More info here. My friend Paul Griffith once tried to show me In the Realm of the Senses: I lasted about ten minutes before the semen got to me.

The Moscow Circus

THE HUMAN BEAR
Half Bear Half Man
Are we descended from monkeys or from bears...? See it and decide for yourself.

More Boris Savinkov

For those of you with a little Spanish (and a lot of time on your hands), there's a review here of Marian's and my translation of Boris Savinkov's Конь Бледный.

Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009)

More here.

Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935)

More about her here. I particularly like the ways she manages to be twee and creepy at the same time.

Halloween

We started out looking normal,

and we ended up looking abnormal.

And then we went on the train for a long long time.

And then we went to the creepy flat in Plaza Eurípides, and ate grave-soil and the eyes of unborn children.


It was all rather fun.