I’ve got probably a score of books that I fairly frequently re-read (often when I’m ill and looking for the comforting and familiar). Seems lots of others readers – some 77% of them do likewise, even if it’s not exactly overall an inspiring list.
My correspondences are 1984, Black Beauty (well not recently), and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Over on My London Your London I’ve a review of Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now at the Barbican. What struck me is in how many images, across ages and cultures, it is clearly the women who are working in these images – physically and mentally – while it is the men, both the subjects in the image, and those gazing at them, who are enjoying the fruits of those labours.
What is also clear is how the claim for universal meanings for sex, made by the curators at the start, is utterly not supported. I was taken by a collection from Persia of horoscopes for 28 Qajar princes and princesses, including images of sexual postures. Not quite a Daily Mail idea of royalty.
The latest carnival is now up on Ornamenting Away. And a spectacularly rich and diverse collection it is – from the state of New Zealand blokedom (our first NZ? or perhaps just our first explicitly NZ? post), a new work, “vajayjay” – with which I was not previously familiar, and much, much more.
But please don’t waste time over here – do go over there and check it out.
(But you might want to pop back afterwards and think about whether you’d like to host such a festival yourself – I’ve still got a slot this year, or in the new year… don’t be shy!)
In what you might call “late capitalism”, the natural trend towards rampant consumerism and environmental destruction is amply demonstrated by the not-so-humble tea-bag.
Once, there was a spoonful of tea leaves; you dropped it in the pot, poured the result through a strainer, and voila…
Next came a refinement – you had a metal strainer, either dangling in the pot or cup, or integral to it, and when the tea was brewed you pulled that out, washed it, and use it again and again and …
But you had to wash up the strainer, and some found that a pain, so along came the teabag – made of paper, but at least rotting down in the compost with its contents. Some waste, but …
Nothing like the latest development, the nylon teabag. This story doesn’t give its period of breakdown in landfill, or explore the chemicals that might be released when it is burnt, but I’m sure they are 1. “a very, very long time”, and 2. “nasty”.
But, heh, you can charge a premium…
For my “history” readers, the History Carnival No 58 is now up on the beautifully named Aardvarchaeology. (Guaranteed to top all alphabetical listings.) And I have to give it a good plug here, since Dr Martin has been generous in his links.
My more “political” readers might like to check out the new Liberal Conspiracy blog, which is explicitly trying to take on the right-wing bias of the blogosphere, as explained here. And yes, I am part of the conspiracy, just because I have lots of spare time… but no, I do think it is a good idea, and I will be joining in.
But don’t feel you have to put yourself in a pigeonhole – you can visit both if you like…
Over on Comment is Free I’ve got a piece about what I call The Somers Town mystery. At the council meeting on Monday night a delegation of residents was told, “don’t worry”, the three acres of land behind the British Library will go to a significant proportion of housing. Yet the lead bidder for the site is a medical research facility, that would want to take up every inch…
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