London – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

August’s tweets from London’s Singing Organ-Grinder

Bit late. Twitter trouble. Apologies for any distress caused. Money-back guarantee applies.

Great British Blake-off

William, patron saint of hatters and well-hatted bohemians? Photographs of the crowd at the Blake Society’s unveiling of a new memorial on Bunhill Fields.

July tweets from London’s Singing Organ-Grinder

A remarkable gravestone in Waltham Forest Muslim cemetery

If tears could build a stairway / And memories a lane, / We’d walk right up to heaven / And bring you home again.

The true origins of an 18th century tomb inscription at Zennor, Penwith, Cornwall

“‘Tis glorious misery to be born a man,” generally taken to refer to a hen-pecked husband, is in fact a misquotation of verse by the 17th century Romford and London poet, Francis Quarles, dealing with human mortality.

June tweets from London’s Singing Organ-Grinder

More barrel organ news from Hackney. Includes first posts from Top 10 Russian Football Song series.

Top 10 Russian football songs: No. 9: Okolofutbola (“Round Football”, ahem) by Feduk (2013)

The hiphop theme of a cinematic tribute to Spartak ultras: “Stand in line with your brother and don’t take one step back / Russian brigades, like a bumper, ram our opponent.” Extras: Russian football hooliganism’s English roots; Anglicisms in a Russian hooligan lexicon; and use of “hooligan” in Russian before English, in an 1892 decree issued by a Petersburg mayor of Scottish descent.