It's Always More Complicated

Defra scraps England deadline to register thousands of miles of rights of way (the Right to Roam was a cause dear to my fubsy interwar progressives' hearts, ho-hum):

A deadline for registering historic rights of way is to be scrapped after a warning that the looming cutoff date could result in the loss of thousands of miles of footpaths. The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map, after abandoning a previous commitment to scrap the policy. Once recorded as rights of way and added to the definitive map, paths are protected under the law for people to use.... Campaigners, who are trying to protect 40,000 miles of paths which are missing from the official map, hailed the move as a “fantastic step.” Landowners condemned it as the latest attack on farmers.... Some of these paths, which are well-used by walkers, cyclists and equestrians, date back hundreds or even thousands of years, but are not officially recorded or protected.

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Birmingham City University thinktank imagines new approach to urban areas and land use across the region:

Moore is the director of the West Midlands National Park Lab at Birmingham City University, a pioneering project that imagines a future in which the whole region, including Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country, is a type of national park. She accepts that getting an official designation for the park, under current national park laws, is unlikely. It would probably require a change in law – the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 was designed to exclude urban areas to protect nature. And plans for new national parks in the UK can be contentious: in Wales, for example, proposals for a new national park in the north of the country have been met with local outcry. Moore is more interested in using her idea to change the way people think about landscape in urban areas, and in putting the region on the map for a commitment to greenery.

Chelsea flower show garden to champion Britain’s endangered rainforests:

I’d say, embrace the charm of imperfection in your garden – like a wonky tree – and choose plants that suit your climatic conditions. If it’s damp and dark, why not celebrate a clump of moss? It feels fabulous underfoot. Add features like ponds and focus on native plants to give wildlife a real boost.

The story of the Gloucester shipwreck was too important to stay submerged. Here’s how academics, museum curators and the discoverers of the Gloucester wreck brought it back to the surface - interesting, but one sees all over that page 'sponsored by Elsevier', so not noted for making knowledge freely accessible ahem ahem.

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A different kind of ecological niche in decline: ‘It’s not just a dancefloor’: the precipitous decline of UK nightclubs. Or maybe it's just finding another space to occupy: daytime events specially laid on by music promoters for the over-30s.

There seems to be a lot going around about anti-resolutions or at least resolutions which are not about the usual strenuousity goal-setting but resolving to do nice things or resolving not to do things, etc?

And given that I already did some unwonted giving up of potential projects, and am feeling that okay, I should probably listen to Ginger and pick myself up, dust myself down, etc (eventually) -

I cannot help feeling with dear Noel:

Why must the show go on?

Why must the show go on?
It can't be all that indispensable,
To me it really isn't sensible
....
Why must the show go on?
The rule is surely not immutable,
It might be wiser and more suitable
Just to close
....
Stop being gallant
And don't be such a bore,
Pack up your talent,
There's always plenty more.

After the railway dance-party, I started thinking about other forms of transport:

Edwin Starr - 'Come on feet start moving' - for those Twenty Five Miles:

Martha and the Vandellas, however, preferred to Hitchhike:

The Hollies, however, are waiting hopefully at a Bus Stop:

They do not say, unlike the Who, whether it's a Magic Bus:

Songs relating to the London Underground: The New Vaudeville Band at Finchley Central:

The Kinks, Waterloo Sunset:

Leaving on a Jet Plane with Peter Paul and Mary:

Open up that sky, Big Bird, says Eddie Floyd:

I was doing some work the other day with my headphones in and iTunes on shuffle, and what came on was

Sam and Dave, You Don't Know Like I Know

so I started wondering what else is that category: and some of this is definitely recherching temps perdu, I cite in evidence, memories of literally bopping around to this at school dances)

The Rolling Stones, Get Off Of My Cloud

Isley Brothers, Take Some Time Out For Love (definitely a party at uni)

And this one was actually from a movie in the 80s: The Temptations, Ain't Too Proud To Beg

Whereas some of it is more si vieillesse pouvait

Rose Royce, Car Wash

Not sure what epoch this comes from:

Ike and Tina Turner, Can't Believe What You Say

I would have thought this dated from an earlier era but I think it is from the later time of acquiring Motown compilations: The Supremes, Nathan Jones (the love rat)

I'm not sure I've ever danced to this except the chair bop: Sweet, Little Willy

There may be troubles ahead:

This poem by William Empson has been much on my mind...

Missing Dates Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills.
It is not the effort nor the failure tires.
The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.
....
It is the poems you have lost, the ills
From missing dates, at which the heart expires.
Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills.

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But. to counteract that gloomy mood: Ginger doesn't suggest picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, or even offer sage counsel on what to do when there may be troubles ahead; but just, for a moment, Let Yourself Go:

And here is her solo tap sequence:

Have been feeling lethargic and lackadaisickal most of the week, during which I had hoped to have written a report on a book proposal for an academic press. Suspect that they want rather more than: 'This will be a major contribution to the historiography, thoroughly researched, has read the relevant literature, author has solid track record', with maybe just a few minor points for consideration.

Let's hit the dance-floor instead:

Take it away Tina (who could I possibly be thinking of?)

I like the way this has been fitted to the movie:

If only one could be saying this:

Not getting on that Big Bird anytime soon:

And this one is for Wally the Walrus, who also Won't Go Home:

But this morning, Gold Radio woke me up with, after the monstrously depressing news headlines, Fontella Bass going 'Rescue Me':

So then I thought, well, what else might be on that play-list?

Aretha exhorting 'Think'?

Maybe, The Beatles suggesting that 'We Can Work It Out'?

Canned Heat saying, 'Let's Work Together'?

The Walker Brothers pleading 'You Don't Have To Tell Me Goodbye'?

Maybe, the hope offered by the Four Tops, 'Reach Out, I'll Be There'?

What I read

Finished The October Man, which was okay, I guess, but one would like more of the main narrative to which it is an appendage.

Lisa Goldstein, Ivory Apples (2019), very good: creepy, rivetting, and the rl (as it were) horror is worse than anything supernatural. One of her best.

Rose Macaulay, Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings (1922): O, Rose, I'm not sure what you thought you were doing there, but I don't think it comes off. The satire comes off as very period 'funny foreigners', some of it about issues that, really, one cannot regard as topics for humour. As for the mystery plot, I daresay the big reveal of who was really disappearing representatives to the League of Nations might have been more astonishing to those of us who have not had decades of genre tropes making us say 'aha' when certain constellations of character manifest. And as for the final twist, no, really, Rose, WTF? was there some personal animus you were working out there? Do I have a copy of that, as I recollect, not entirely great biography that might clarify? Some good passages, but a bit of a disappointment after What-Not.

Gwyneth Jones, Joanna Russ (2019), a good solid study of Russ if a bit linear perhaps in parts? Did make me think I should re-read (or read - I think there is a volumes of short stories I haven't ever read in full) Russ's works, which is a plus point.

On the go

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War (2019), about which I had been hearing mixed reports, so when it appeared in my Kobo recs list at a promotional price I took a punt. I was a bit meh at first but have persisted and it is keeping me engaged, which I wasn't sure it would at first.

Have picked up Rhythm and Colour again: it continues to strike oddly, perhaps particularly after having read a very neatly structured group biography in The Mutual Admiration Society, whereas this rather dumps the reader in at the deep end and makes some weird choices (I'm not persuaded that Lois Hutton's diary at Dinard is of such enormous interest it needs including in extenso). On the other hand, it's like a great party at which one's constantly coming across people one never expected to meet, but after all, this is the boho modernist artsy world, why not? So it turns out that Lois's sister was Laura Hutton, who became a doctor and wrote what was for the 1930s a very daring book of advice for single women, and was besties with Stella Benson, who also features. And Elsa Lanchester turns up though almost immediately gets into trouble with Margaret Morris. And at present, the dancers and artists and co are having a working holiday at Dinard, and among those with whom they frolic sur le plage is Edna St Vincent Millay! Blissikins!

Have also made progress on srs tome for review (Hai, Sid!).

Up next

Maybe something by Joanna Russ?

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How is this some Terrible New Thing? Apparently it is a 'reader hack' to sign up at several libraries or take out several cards to access e-books. Um, like I did back in the day - had tickets to several libraries, and there were also times when I was using the tickets of other members of the household who did not get through books at the rate I did. I do not think I was unique in this.

But there was not the usual trip to see flamenco at the Sadlers Wells Flamenco Festival sometime around February-March this year.

Because I went to look this up for booking purposes, and lo, it was not happening in 2019, sadface.

However, I did notice that they were advance booking, very advance booking, for Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras — Sombras. So we thought we might as well book for that and make sure of getting good seats.

(And also make sure of a table at Ottolenghi for a meal beforehand.)

And lo and behold, what appeared to be a one-off gig when we booked is now part of a Flamenco Festival, which I would never have thought of looking for at this time of year, possibly somewhat reduced from its usual extent. Have not actually seen much about it.