Lucky to see several excellent photography exhibitions lately - Richard Avedon: Facing West is at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill in central London until April 11th.
11.03.2026 12:22
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Lucky to see several excellent photography exhibitions lately - Richard Avedon: Facing West is at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill in central London until April 11th.
From 7 Sept to 3 Nov an average of 200 German bombers attacked London every night. In a daylight raid on 12 Sept six bombs were dropped on Buckingham Palace.
Reading the Virginia Woolf's Dairy entries for September 1940 - so many days begin with references to the anticipated German invasion. 12 Sept. "Strong feeling of invasion in the air" 14 Sept - "A sense of invasion ...An air raid is on ... Planes soaring and roaring" 15 Sept "No invasion yet"
Down in Chichester yesterday for a second look at Caroline Walker's 'Mothering' paintings - on display at Pallant House before moving down to Newlyn Art Gallery later in the year. newlynartgallery.co.uk/activities/c...
"Old age is an accumulation of the past" Virginia Woolf Diaries, October 1940
Idly glancing at our over-crowded bookshelves, I spied a Dennis Lehane purchased several years ago and still pristine, never read. Treat!
If you can track it down, there was an excellent obituary by @johnelwilliams.bsky.social of the American novelist & short story writer, Daniel Woodrell, in the Guardian, Feb 21st. Failing that, there's a piece about Dan & our relationship on my blog straight75nochaser.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/d...
Off down to Pallant House in Chichester next week for a second look at 'Mothering', Caroline Walker's exhibition of paintings made following the birth of her first child.
Slowly wending my way through this collection - so many good things - Kathy Pimlott at Nottm. Goose Fair; Sarah Wimbush at the battle of Orgreave; @pamthompson240.bsky.social catching the last tube home. @poetrybusiness.bsky.social
Peter & Ann Sansom's selection of the 'best' poems published in 'The North' since issue 1, March '85. And, yes, chuffed to be in there, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Maura Dooley, Simon Armitage, James Schuyler (James Schuyler!, Ian McMillan, Lavina Greenlaw etc. etc.
Lovely to see 'A Short Piece of Choral Music' from Jonathan Davidson's wonderful 2011 collection Early Train on the latest Poems on the Underground posters!
February 2026 posters: shorturl.at/0YxmS
Early Train: shorturl.at/X8ddM
100 Poems on the Underground anthology: shorturl.at/7k0Ba
And here's another one from. Caroline Walker, 'Mothering', Pallant House, Chichester. Get down there if you can! @womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Just one of Caroline Walker's paintings from 'Mothering', currently at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester and highly recommended.
To @thegardencinema.bsky.social to see Richard Linklater's delightful & perceptive film about the making of Jean Luc Goddard's 'A Bout de Souffle'.
James Belshaw in match-saving form in goal against Gillinghm last night - moving up to 2nd! @nottscounty.bsky.social
Lee Krasner 'Blue Level' 1955
Looking forward to this afternoon's session on Lee Krasner & Jackson Pollock in Dr Diane Silverthorne's 'Musing on the the Muse' lectures at Highgate Lit&Sci. Below, Krasner's 'Blue Level' 1955
Very sad to learn of the death of James Sallis at the age of 81. Jim and I shared a birthday, a French publisher, a love of jazz & blues and the abiding desire to write the tightest truest sentence possible. Lovely guy! @editionsrivages.bsky.social
Colin Currie Qt. in great form last night at @kingsplacelondon.bsky.social five pieces climaxing in 'Drumming (Part 1) by @stevereich.bsky.social
Fancy a Resnick sandwich? A few choruses of Lester Young?
straight75nochaser.wordpress.com/2026/01/31/r...
Watching Clint Bentley's fine recent film based on Denis Johnson's novella, 'Train Dreams', sent me back to the source and this copy of the beautiful new @grantabooks.bsky.social edition, on the shelves at Kentish Town's @owlbookshop.bsky.social
Packed hall at Acland Burghley school last night to hear Dorian Ford's reworking/reinterpretation of Keith Jarrett's Cologne Concert.
Brilliant? Exciting? Thrilling? Last night's 'Music of the Fallen' concert by the Attacca Quartet at @kingsplacelondon.bsky.social - from Mendelssohn to George Crumb - all these and more. Memorable, that too ...
Delighted to see 'Wasted Years'/'Les Annees Perdues' among the iconic books chosen by Francois Guerif from 1000 Rivages/Noir titles.
straight75nochaser.wordpress.com/2026/01/21/l...
Sadly, gave up at the 2 hour mark (after reading in the programme the 2nd 2 hours basically a repeat of the 1st 2!) BUT very pleased to have experienced as much as I did.
“But I began then to think of time as having a shape, something you could see …You don’t look back along time but down through it like water. Sometimes this comes to the surface, sometimes that, sometimes nothing. Nothing goes away.”
Margaret Atwood ‘Cat’s Eye’
"But oh how my heart leaps up to think that never again shall I be harnessed to a long book."
Virginia Woolf's Diary, June 1937
To the @BFISouthbank yesterday to see beautifully restored (?) print of Terence Davies' "The House of Mirth", based on the Edith Wharton novel, with terrific performance by Gillian Anderson. Front row, big screen - wonderful colour palette, so many telling close-ups!
Slowly making my way through the Jimmy Schuyler biography - at last (p. 135) getting past the details of early relationships/affairs and onto the work. Surprised - and, for some reason, pleased - to learn that one of his first inspirations/models was D H Lawrence.
Admirer of Kelly Reichardt's work as I am, I was disappointed to be, well, disappointed by her latest film, 'The Mastermind'. Quite the best thing about it, for me, was the jazz-based score by trumpeter Rob Mazurek, featuring wonderful - beautifully recorded - drumming by Chad Taylor.
10/27/60: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
D: Karel Reisz P: Tony Richardson
w/Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts
Evening Standard: “Here is a chance for our own New Wave”
More
Crowther, impressed: www.nytimes.com/1961/04/04/a...
@leftlion.bsky.social: leftlion.co.uk/features/201...