A free lunch

There is no such thing as a free lunch is an all too common phrase heard around this particular corner of the world that we call home. Nothing ever advertised as “free” is truly without some attached cost, and (directly or not) you will always find yourself paying-up in the end.  When the tradition of the free lunch began…

Cooking George Orwell’s Long Lost Kidney Stew Recipe

On the day following King George V’s Silver Jubilee celebrations, 6th May 1935, George Orwell took a break from writing A Clergyman’s Daughter to type a letter to his friend and one-time romantic interest, Brenda Salkeld. Among Orwell’s usual topics of discussion (politics, literature, and low-culture) the author outlined what he described as a “wonderful” ox-kidney…

Festive Street Art

The paint had barely dried on this striking new mural in Stucley Place when I snapped a picture of it this morning. The work is by the Lost Souls group (more specifically SiMitchell, SPzero76 and Squirl) who some readers may remember had a piece in this spot earlier this year. I actually caught the group…

Freedom for expression

While on my way to lunch this afternoon, I happened upon this striking mural on Castlehaven Road, Camden. The piece, by London based artist Dale Grimshaw, was created to raise awareness toward the occupation of West Papua by the Indonesian military. Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua has been described by various human rights bodies as…

All Things Must Pass

A new month, a new mural in Stucley Place. This piece was installed by French artist, Ador, with the help of his newfound collaborator and friend, Sémor. The work reminds me of an article and its accompanying illustration that I recently saw in the Wall Street Journal. The article, entitled  When Instagram Culture Ruins a Vacation…

Acid Picasso and gentrification

I very much like this new Picassoesque mural by Italian artist Renato Hunto that can be found on the Kentish Town Road in Camden, London. Behind the oppressive looking gate on which the piece has been sprayed, demolition crews are working to knock down the old Camden Lock Village Market to make way for a redevelopment project that is set to build new residential, retail…

New Camden Mural

The mural in Stucley Place that I posted about last month has been replaced with this rather impressive piece by Raphael Grischa (aka iHad). I saw it while on my way to work and it really brightened-up what was an otherwise dreary Autumn morning. I will have to take a walk around the neighbourhood to…

I am an Emperor

Simon & Garfunkel sang in The Sound of Silence that “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls.” I don’t know much about all that, but I happened upon this poem chalked onto the boarded up window of a condemned building on Camden High Street this afternoon. The grammar certainly leaves a…

A Rural Idyll in Steady Decline

The people of that plainly built farming town led simple lives and were proud of the hardship and forfeiture rural existence assumed of them. They knew their place in that world and – as is customary in such isolated surroundings – they conducted themselves with the same sheltered constancy as so many of their forebears had done for generations before.