Tag: Urban

  • Has Old Father Thames Lost His Virility? | Sacred Rivers

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    Last night I went to hear Peter Ackroyd speak on the South Bank (pictured here), ostensibly about his new book: Thames, Sacred River. It was a fine lecture on the thread of the sacred throughout the history of humanity’s interaction with London’s river, followed by a hilarious Q&A led by the Times’ Literary Editor, who…

  • Hidden Trees and Weeds | The Interstitial Jesus

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    I have been reading, sitting quietly with, meditating on Richard Deakin’s wonderful book, Wildwood – A Journey Through Trees. Having previous written of his swims around England, this book is simply a series of reflections on the transformative power of this ‘fifth element’. Much of it is taken with stories of sleeping out in the…

  • Tales of Two Buildings::Two Cities::The Divine Vision

    Mika Brzezinski recently refused to lead with a story about P@&i$ Hi%ton over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a similar vein, Wired reported in ‘A Tale of Two Cities‘ that a trawl of the web revealed more interest in the iPhone than the recent triple-attempted bombing on London and Glasgow. Celebrity::Security::Gossip::War :: These…

  • First Pilotless Police CCTV Drone Launches

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    Following up on the recent post about CCTV, I just had to post this story. Am I alone in thinking this is seriously worrying? That we are sleepwalking into a Stasi-style surveillance society? Get your catapults and air guns loaded my friends, the battle starts here. Technorati: BBC | CCTV | Drone | Police |…

  • CCTV ¦ The All-Seeing (soc)i(ety) ¦ Faceless

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    The other day I was walking along our high street when I saw this ‘mobile CCTV’… tank parked up. They were snapping, so I thought it only polite to reciprocate. It seems we’ve totally resigned ourselves to being discreetly observed at all times. Speed cameras, CCTV, Congestion Charge cameras… I the novel I’ve been working…

  • Doing No Favours | Non Violence [2]

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    What a terrible tragedy in Virginia. The families – and whole community – are in my thoughts and prayers as they try to find some way through this. The soul-searching has already begun here. The UK press have been pointing out the all too frequent nature of these such attacks. Guns and stressful modern life…