On Seeing Parrots on Hampstead Heath
The London winter sun is so slow and sleepy these days. It barely creeps out of bed by 9:30, casting a half-hearted greyness across the rooftops. It can hardly stay awake til 4:00 in the afternoon, when it sinks back exhausted into its bed of clouds the color of minor bruises. When it does manage [...]
In Praise of Roy Wood
Who is Roy Wood? I thought you’d never ask… Roy Wood was the main songwriter-singer for the 1960s group The Move, co-founder of the Electric Light Orchestra and the resident eccentric hit-maker for the 1970s band Wizzard. He is a multi-instrumentalist. On one of his solo albums, Boulders, he was literally a one man band: [...]
In Highgate Cemetery
Yesterday, on New Year’s Eve day, my sons and I visited Highgate Cemetery. What better way to ring out the old than a stroll through this gorgeous, Gothic graveyard? We went to the western cemetery, which is available for tours by appointment only. (The eastern cemetery, just across the road, can be visited without a [...]