My Trip to London

Smiling in Deface

Much as I love his plays, I've been fascinated for years by Joe Orton's "defacing" of library books and always wondered when someone might mount an exhibit of them as art works. Well, the good folks at the Islington Local History Centre agreed and put up this exhibit.

Quite a few of them are new to me, and I love all of them. And, thanks to Friendatella, I came across this great dissecting of naughty Joe's vandalism:

And this groovy interview months before his death where talk show perennial Eva Gabor seems enraptured by him. That girl got around:

The Big Deal About All Things Little

Some of my favorite bloggers capture minute, obscure details of daily, urban life. I love the gorgeous reflections (verbal and photographic) by Reya of (After) the Gold Puppy and Susan of Art Spark Theater who has been re-enacting great movie scenes with little people.

This weekend I picked up the book Little People in the City that features the work of Slinckachu of London. From benign to high crime, he captures it all and is fast becoming one of my favorite artists and bloggers. I am already conspiring on how I might re-enact similar scene in my 'hood.

Bloomsbury

Virginia left with rocks in her pockets to the river, Duncan Grant painted naked sailors, John Maynard Keynes was goo goo over him before he developed his economic theories, Darwin and Dickens strolled its streets and squares, Bob Marley lived there for six months, Ricky Gervais only recently moved out.

And then there is...this. I made my poor sister take me to see this movie a good three or four times in 1971. Ironically, her daughter could pass for the leading lady, even prone to speaking in cockney from time to time.

All those toadstools were in my head when I wrote this about a year ago. It got a very mixed reaction, and I've not attempted verse in the nearly 12 months since.