I’ve given Last.fm links to the tracks, where available, in case you don’t have Spotify (roughly half of the tracks can be played in full on demand over Last.fm.

If your ears turn themselves inside out with excitement and quivering joy upon listening to these sublime morsels of aural luxuriance, then I would be forever grateful if you could purchase them via my Amazon shop (not store – it’s a shop, dammit, this isn’t America)

So without further ado or adon’t, I am proud to present the first Flanerie Spotify-cast playlist.

It’s 1.4 hours long – 17 tracks of bass-heavy laid-back, yet rhythmically charged soul jazz

Playlist:

Sunshine – Build An Ark

Just Getting By (Live In Session: Gilles Peterson) – Elizabeth Shepherd
Wonderful World – Grand Union
Break Down – Jason Moran
Wood and Strings – Femi Temowo
Another Day – 4hero featuring Jill Scott

Waltz for Koop – Koop

Hard Sole Shoe – Jenny Scheinman
Mami – Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Band
One Day – Two Banks of Four

Bemsha Swing – Leon Parker
Good Humor Man – Blue Mitchell

Open the Door – Betty Carter

Come Together – Lynne Arriale

F.T.B. – Robert Glasper

Maiden Voyage / Everything in its Right Place – Robert Glasper

Chant – Robert Glasper

Europeana: think culture

Europeana.eu is about ideas and inspiration. It links you to 6 million digital items.
Images – paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects
Texts – books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers
Sounds – music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts
Videos – films, newsreels and TV broadcasts

Some of these are world famous, others are hidden treasures from Europe’s museums and galleries, archives, libraries and audio-visual collections.

—

Karl Marx goes to visit his friend Friedrich Engels, they have tea and cake, and Marx excuses himself to use the bathroom. As he flushes the toilet, he hears the unmistakable sound of a string quartet. He shrugs and goes back to Engels.
Over the next few weeks, Marx continues to visit Engels and use his bathroom, and every time he flushes, there’s the sound of a string quartet.
Finally he confronts Engels: “Look Friedrich, every time I flush your toilet, I hear a string quartet, what’s that all about?”
“Oh that,” says Engels, “That’s the violins inherent in the cistern.”

It was somewhat challenging to capture any decent images while attempting to control my excitable dog. Most of the activity in Heaton Park these past wintery days has been children sledging, and the snow carpeting the many hidden paths around the frozen boating lake was scarcely disturbed when I went there the other day.

With a few minor adjustments to the original photo, I’m fairly pleased with the result, with spider’s web intricacy of the tree branches contrasting well with the bright sky.

The whole set can be viewed here.

Alternative Beijing Olympics logo, by Beau Bo D'Or (click to go to his excellent site)

I realise it’s quite a tall order to completely boycott Chinese products, given that nobody else seems to bloody well make anything these days, but the sheer inhumanity of China’s totalitarian so-called communist¹ government requires a response that goes beyond hand-wringing and toothless criticism.

I’ve been trying to avoid Chinese-made products for years, because I don’t want poor quality stuff made by wage-slaves which has been shipped halfway across the world, but in the light of this morning’s execution of a seriously mentally ill man who was duped into smuggling some drugs into the country, I’m going to redouble my efforts not to buy anything made there.

According to Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, “nobody has the right to speak ill of China’s judicial sovereignty”. Yes they do. You can’t gag people outside your own country, however much you’d like to do so.

As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s no shortage of appalling acts perpetrated by the Chinese authorities (unless you happen to live in China, in which case they’ll make sure you don’t hear about it). Human Rights Watch highlights many such examples:

Twenty years after the army killed untold numbers of unarmed civilians in Beijing and other cities on and around June 3-4, 1989, the Chinese government continues to victimize survivors, victims’ families, and others who challenge the official version of events.

Video featuring commentary by Wang Dan, a student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, and Dr. Sophie Richardson and Carroll Bogert, Human Rights Watch.

1. eradicating the exploitation of the workforce doesn’t seem to be very high on their list of priorities

Bitterly cold, but we avoided the snow in la France profonde. The rusticity and tranquility of the area I find very appealing, after the bustle of pre-Christmas Manchester. Heading towards the woods, this is the more photogenic part of the village, although you have to take care not to stray far off the path, with plenty of shotgun sounds coming from the nearby huntsmen (hunting for food, not sport, I’m pleased to say). At the end of this road, there is a gorgeous little mini-château, with grounds and outbuildings, scandalously under-used by its Parisian owners.

Turning back, the welcoming heat of a real fire beckoned at the house.