East End of London – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

April 2020 tweets

Homerton/Clapton and Stepney/Whitechapel. Being pecked to death by ravens & other corvids.

The gnomes of Glyn Road, Clapton are waiting for the last human to die, so they can move in.

Stanley Johnson: rock ‘n’ roll drummer, magician, Hackney style icon

The best-dressed man on Well Street talks about his work with Gene “Be-bop-a-Lula” Vincent and much more. With several exclusive photos.

Stanley Johnson, Well Street, <a href='https://twitter.com/elorganillero/status/1203402212115984385'>December 2019</a>. More photos to come, deo volente, and do check the portrait at the end.

The Russian folk song in the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona

I thought it was a recent version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka theme, but it turns out that Pete Seeger is the intermediary. Plus an East End Jewish version of Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance.

Whatever became of Christian Lehmann, pioneering Petersburg Shrovetide zookeeper, Pierrot, illusionist, showman?

Newly uncovered evidence shows that, following the fire which destroyed his Russian theatrical business in 1836, he and his family pursued a career in London and Europe, before repeating their Petersburg triumphs in the USA and Australia. Also, a very curious copyright case.

Konstantin Makovsky's classic (sentimental?) 1869 painting of carnival at Admiralty Square in St. Petersburg.

London organ-grinder tweets for September 2017

Barrel/street organ stuff.