Liberals & locals – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Hammer horror!

Why the guillotine should not be Spain’s tumbril-filler in the coming revolution.

Investment is a simple game

Loads of loons chase a pot of gold for years, and at the end the banks win.

Bullock in Brian Watson's field, July 2012.

Whenever I see The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, I think of Alphonse Laurencic

And here. I would dearly love to find out more about Alphonse and his creations. Someone once showed me a magazine with a few relevant pictures, but I’ve forgotten who/what/where. All but the blind will have noticed my background tribute on this blog’s front page to Robert Wiene. The OpenFlix/YouTube publishing of Dr Caligari is…

Uncertainty, the one thing that is constant between us

A splendid assault by Galdós on a hopelessly corrupted party system.

The 1903 Paris-Madrid race that got away

A remarkable feat of memory from Arturo Barea’s autobiography.

Marcel Renault driving to his death in May 1903.

Segmentation of the bed-in-a-shed market

Brand it “gypsy” and the desert is your oyster.

A curious Spanish, Trafalgar-era, overshot waterwheel

Someone please explain to me how it works.

Best ever portrait of June Caprice?

This original drawing with its delicious absinthe blue is by one Emili Vilà Gorgoll (Llagostera 1887-1967, who he?) & is up for auction at Balclis on Wednesday. Here’s the competition. I go basically for the munchies and the odd curiosity. I sense an inverse relationship between price and personal preference – the expensive stuff seems…

A brief history of zoological shame

Featuring a Spanish view of the Saxons.

Crisis, what crisis?

Rodolfo de Angelis’ great 1930s hit explains how to get ourselves out of the mess we’ve got ourselves into.