Dead fish in London's river Lea caused by pollution after a storm

Artists impression of a fatberg on the 4th plinth

London home owners, private renters and social renters 1961-2011

Lilo Evans and Tristan Stocks in the Mikado

Chart showing how Londoners get to work across inner and outer London

Chart showing how Londoners get to work by mode, 2011 data

Chart showing how the way Londoners get to work is changing over time

Map of empty homes or second homes in London

London borough population changes 2011-2012

Map of red kite sightings in London, May 2014

Artists impression of the "Teardrop", as seen from Ridley Rd, Dalston

Poster against Chatsworth Rd market in London

Tim Cresswell's poetry collection Soil, published by Penned in the Margins

New films about Bob Marley, LCD Soundsystem and Paul Simon - the musical biopic is a genre on the rise

Since 2005 there have already been four great musical biopics: Walk The Line, Control, Ray and I’m Not There. And now, in 2012 alone, it looks like we might see three more, says Mike Bonnet.

25 Apr 2012

London agenda for Wednesday 26 April 2012

1. Discover Bob Stanley’s history of the telly test card at A Girl, A Clown, A Blackboard [Le Cool]

2. Listen to ‘Mighty British folk tunes made magical and sung in gorgeous Geordie accents by Rachel and Rebecca Unthank’ [Run Riot]

3. Hear ‘a show inspired by the first ladies of the stage and silver screen – Shirley Bassey, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday and Marlene Dietrich’ by Rachael Roberts [Don’t Panic]

4. If one can be arsed, listen to the 2012 Voltaire lecture The Importance of Being Interested [Ian Visits]

5. Talk to Strangers [Tired of London]

25 Apr 2012

Poliça - Lay Your Cards Out

Poliça (promounced po-lisa) is a moody live-electronica crossover with elements of dubstep, trip-hop and the Squarepusher-ish end of jazz. Fronted by ex-Gayngs member Channy Casselle (pictured), their sound could also be compared in part to Portishead, Lamb, The XX, and Bon Iver’s more experimental moments, but their upbeat, uptempo songs have found a niche of their own. This track has swept around the global online music community like wildfire; it’s a fantastic taster of the album “Give You The Ghost”, out this week on Memphis Industries.

24 Apr 2012

For Boris Johnson, being mayor is a lot like editing The Spectator

Sharp piece by James Meek in the latest (paywalled) LRB:

“The Routemaster saga, for Johnson, was less important as a policy than as an expensive running pantomime with a vivid plot and clear-cut characters that the media could paste into white space. There was a lovely, wise old bus, and a nasty, cackling, once moustachioed socialist came and took it away and replaced it with a cruel bus, and along came Boris Whittington, who, with the help of the children in the audience, chased the cruel bus away and, in a shower of glitter and a sweep of harpstrings, brought the magic bus back.”

He makes the shrewd observation that being mayor, for Johnson, is akin to being a newspaper or magazine editor. You don’t have to get things done, you just have to anticipate, react to and create media narratives which make it appear that you’ve got things done.

24 Apr 2012

Break dancers fail to impress commuters at St Pancras station

It would appear that break dancing is still very much a thing. Here St Pancras station gets the treatment, to promote the Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells, from 5-7 May.

I do enjoy the middle aged man with an umbrella who walks briskly past with a look of cold disdain. And all the other people who were so tightly focussed on their objective (commuting) that they failed to give this spectacle the time of day.

What have we become? Can the glory days of railway station advertising dance stunts really be over?

Only time will tell.

24 Apr 2012

Watch the Charing X Hospital peregrine falcon eggs hatch now on a live HD stream

You can watch the action from the Fulham falcons here, if the website holds up against all the traffic.

The birds have their own Twitter account at @FaBPeregrines.

Video stream at Wildlife Whisperer.

Screengrab via @BevTeague on Twitter.

24 Apr 2012

The London Mayoral candidates' mini-manifestos, all in one place

London Elects have put together this useful document containing information about how to vote in the London Mayoral and Assembly elections on May 3rd. It also contains mini-manifestos from each of the candidates for London Mayor.

Just remember, these candidates are politicians, so the manifesto contents should be viewed with a critical eye.

London Mayoral Address Booklet 2012

Uploaded to Scribd by Mark Pack

24 Apr 2012

London agenda for Tuesday 24 April

1. Drink with three people who launched strange businesses [Run Riot]

2. Listen to James Wilkes – poet-in-residence at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience – explore how the brain understands the voices of others [Flavorpill]

3. Hear the organic electronic technology of Origamibiro [Don’t Panic]

4. Find out why London in the Eighteenth Century was A Great and Monstrous Thing [Ian Visits]

5. Visit St Mary’s Willesden [Tired of London]

6. Get free tickets to amazing violinist and Of Montreal member Kishi Bashi’s show at The Waiting Room [London Gigs]

24 Apr 2012

Sin Fang - Only Eyes

Sing Fang is something of an Icelandic Bradford Cox, and he’s back with another sunny, sinuous track that hovers like a lazy dragonfly between echoey retro-pop and dewy-eyed indie-pop. In Icelandic, summer is starting, and Sin Fang is serenading it. An EP, “Half Dreams”, is out on Morr Music soon.

23 Apr 2012

Annoying habits of Londoners #8: Keeping spreadsheets of their dates

Last week a New York banker was put in the internet stocks after it was revealed that he kept an Excel spreadsheet of all his Match.com dates, complete with scores out of 10 for “online appearance”.

You can see a screengrab of the offending document here.

I have some shocking news. What young spreadsheet operators do in New York, they also do in London.

I know a man (it’s surely always heterosexual men) who keeps a spreadsheet of different “date circuits”.

There’s the Embankment evening circuit: South Bank book stall -> walk across Hungerford Bridge -> Gordon’s Wine Bar.

There’s the Regent’s Street weekend daytime circuit: Look at the toys in Hamleys (really) -> food at Mother Mash -> cocktail I forget where.

There’s the East London after work circuit: pint -> bagel -> drinks on Redchurch St.

The spreadsheet contains every possible permutation that the location, the time, and the date herself could demand.

And this man is not alone. Another man of my distant acquaintance has a favoured spot on the Thames shoreline near the South Bank where he habitually hides a bottle of wine and two glasses before meeting his date, so that they can “stumble upon” them later at a choreographed moment.

The stated purpose of these plans is to impress the girl. The real purpose is more to do with outcompeting the other boys. The girl is a prop in a much bigger play, the play of who has the biggest dick.

It goes without saying that anyone who’s got as far as keeping a spreadsheet or having hidey holes on the riverside has had a lot of practice. As a rule of thumb, the more polished the date seems, the more times it’s been performed. With dating, competence is actually a sign of repeated failure. It’s the incompetent ones who you really want to nab.

New York Magazine – New York Banker Keeps Creepily Detailed Spreadsheet for Online Dating
ABC News – New York Man’s Meticulous Dating Spreadsheet Goes Viral
Image – Marcio Cabral de Moura on Flickr under Creative Commons

Follow Mike
Twitter: @MikPollitt
Email: michael.pollitt@snipelondon.com

23 Apr 2012

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