I've recently gotten into the habit of going for evening walks, typically after eating dinner. Which is easy enough to do in the midsummer, when the sun sets shortly before 10, and one often has a glorious sunset, or at least the wistful poignancy of the day's last rays, beckoning one out of one's room and into the streets. Which, I guess, is one ( Read more... )

( and a few photos )

The sky looked very blue this afternoon. I was expecting a black Mordorian pall swallowing the sky, thanks to the Buncefield* fuel depot explosion and the headlines about it. Chances are it was still full of toxic particles; I wonder how many normal London days' worth of life-shortening power was in the pollution today ( Read more... )

• Yesterday, I went to Banksy's recent exhibition, Crude Oils, at 100 Westbourne Grove. (It's on until Monday.) It basically consists of "remixed" oil paintings, as seen through his characteristically cynical sensibility; think 19th romantic landscapes with police incident notices, CCTV cameras and shackled and hooded Iraqi prisoners and such. Oh, ( Read more... )