Over at Chicagoist, readers weighed in with their favorite memories of a local concert venue celebrating its silver anniversary and railed about the passage f a statewide smoking ban for Illinois. The former Marshall Field’s department store received bad publicity in the form of fruit flies in the food court and someone falling from the upper floors. And local residents worried about the possibility of increased pollution in Lake Michigan from an Indiana oil refinery.

This week, LAist invited five Guest Day Editors from the blogLAsphere to join them: Green LA Girl, Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA, Zuma Dogg, the LA City Nerd and previous LAist editor, Carolyn Kellogg. On Wednesday, the DEA raided 10 local medical marijuana clinics while TARGET’s newest three-story store soft-launched to almost no one. Then there was Lindsay Lohan. Oh Lindsay.

Austinist welcomed the name change of a local lake to honor Lady Bird Johnson, and was surprised to find that Austin is a model for Iraqi reconstruction efforts. Nonstop rains of the past two months have led to a cricket infestation, plus A university professor claimed that obese girls are less likely to attend college, and another report showed that Austin’s suburbs are among the fastest growing in the nation. Meanwhile, locals are up in arms over a secret Spoon show.

Sampaist was shocked when they went inside the building slammed by an airplane for the first time. On July 17 an Airbus 320 with 187 people aboard landing at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, Brazil’s busiest, skidded off the runway, across a road and slammed into an airport building. See the pictures here.

This week, Londonist found out that London loves Facebook – that’s a fact. We also learned that men can be burlesque as well as burly in the Male Tournament of Tease. With all the social networking and bare-bottomed men everyone is enjoying, Londonist held the first ever Londonist pub quiz – deemed such a success by one and all, the next one is already being compiled (with even harder questions and even better prizes…). Everyone went home smelling of roses, perhaps due to the smoking ban but sadly, it doesn’t suit everyone. A sad and shocking shooting took place leaving a former heavyweight boxer critically ill after he confronted three men who were smoking in a club.

Phillyist isn’t trying to tell you how to live your life or anything, but, well, they don’t approve of your breakup methods and they don’t think you should rule out the Counting Crows just because they’re so 1993. They’d like to encourage you check out The Swell Season, Irish rocker Glen Hansard’s side project or hot women covering classic rock, and maybe pick up a Spanish/English dictionary on your way. And, look! Pretty!

Bostonist was charmed by the prankster who re-programmed a road sign to announce to the driving public that penis was being served for lunch. All the news outlets were coy when forced to discuss the male member. Needless to say, Bostonist had no such qualms. The residents of the Boston area aren’t coy about anything, from getting free rides to auditioning for controversial reality shows to protecting a nearby 7-Eleven. Bostonist also went big with the sports this week. They found a link between German legend and baseball and helped dispel the bizarre rumor that Pats player Tedy Bruschi was dead.

Houstonist laughed out loud this week. 30 Rock funny man Judah Friedlander popped in for an interview and then Houston native Beyoncé took tumble during her recent performance. The mood was subdued when it was learned that fat girls are less likely to go to college. But, stories about aging hipsters failing to pick-up in trendy bars got us to smile again. Perhaps treating the hotties to a few cool lychee martinis would have helped.

DCist spent most of their week checking out all the offerings of the Capital Fringe Festival, but in between they contemplated adding trolley service to the city, thought about killing some pesky Canada Geese, and caught up with local band These United States out on the road.

Gothamist thinks it’s in a golden age of NY State and NYC politics, if golden age means totally insane goings-on. A controversial City Councilman and his former staffer accused the Council speaker of racism and white supremacy while Governor Spitzer’s staffers were accused of using the police to discredit a rival. Gothamist wondered if the 1 train really is the best subway of all and readied itself for likely subway and bus fare hikes. Redheads took the streets to demand their rights and during an mmminterview withTaylor Hanson, he told Gothamist that one fan got a larger-than-life-sized tattoo of his face on her back.

And check out other top stories from Seattlest, Shanghaiist, and Torontoist.

]]> While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton’s San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan’s cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a picture displaying the woes of cruising in a tacky limo on the streets of San Francisco.

Over at Chicagoist, readers weighed in with their favorite memories of a local concert venue celebrating its silver anniversary and railed about the passage f a statewide smoking ban for Illinois. The former Marshall Field’s department store received bad publicity in the form of fruit flies in the food court and someone falling from the upper floors. And local residents worried about the possibility of increased pollution in Lake Michigan from an Indiana oil refinery.

This week, LAist invited five Guest Day Editors from the blogLAsphere to join them: Green LA Girl, Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA, Zuma Dogg, the LA City Nerd and previous LAist editor, Carolyn Kellogg. On Wednesday, the DEA raided 10 local medical marijuana clinics while TARGET’s newest three-story store soft-launched to almost no one. Then there was Lindsay Lohan. Oh Lindsay.

Austinist welcomed the name change of a local lake to honor Lady Bird Johnson, and was surprised to find that Austin is a model for Iraqi reconstruction efforts. Nonstop rains of the past two months have led to a cricket infestation, plus A university professor claimed that obese girls are less likely to attend college, and another report showed that Austin’s suburbs are among the fastest growing in the nation. Meanwhile, locals are up in arms over a secret Spoon show.

Sampaist was shocked when they went inside the building slammed by an airplane for the first time. On July 17 an Airbus 320 with 187 people aboard landing at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, Brazil’s busiest, skidded off the runway, across a road and slammed into an airport building. See the pictures here.

This week, Londonist found out that London loves Facebook – that’s a fact. We also learned that men can be burlesque as well as burly in the Male Tournament of Tease. With all the social networking and bare-bottomed men everyone is enjoying, Londonist held the first ever Londonist pub quiz – deemed such a success by one and all, the next one is already being compiled (with even harder questions and even better prizes…). Everyone went home smelling of roses, perhaps due to the smoking ban but sadly, it doesn’t suit everyone. A sad and shocking shooting took place leaving a former heavyweight boxer critically ill after he confronted three men who were smoking in a club.

Phillyist isn’t trying to tell you how to live your life or anything, but, well, they don’t approve of your breakup methods and they don’t think you should rule out the Counting Crows just because they’re so 1993. They’d like to encourage you check out The Swell Season, Irish rocker Glen Hansard’s side project or hot women covering classic rock, and maybe pick up a Spanish/English dictionary on your way. And, look! Pretty!

Bostonist was charmed by the prankster who re-programmed a road sign to announce to the driving public that penis was being served for lunch. All the news outlets were coy when forced to discuss the male member. Needless to say, Bostonist had no such qualms. The residents of the Boston area aren’t coy about anything, from getting free rides to auditioning for controversial reality shows to protecting a nearby 7-Eleven. Bostonist also went big with the sports this week. They found a link between German legend and baseball and helped dispel the bizarre rumor that Pats player Tedy Bruschi was dead.

Houstonist laughed out loud this week. 30 Rock funny man Judah Friedlander popped in for an interview and then Houston native Beyoncé took tumble during her recent performance. The mood was subdued when it was learned that fat girls are less likely to go to college. But, stories about aging hipsters failing to pick-up in trendy bars got us to smile again. Perhaps treating the hotties to a few cool lychee martinis would have helped.

DCist spent most of their week checking out all the offerings of the Capital Fringe Festival, but in between they contemplated adding trolley service to the city, thought about killing some pesky Canada Geese, and caught up with local band These United States out on the road.

Gothamist thinks it’s in a golden age of NY State and NYC politics, if golden age means totally insane goings-on. A controversial City Councilman and his former staffer accused the Council speaker of racism and white supremacy while Governor Spitzer’s staffers were accused of using the police to discredit a rival. Gothamist wondered if the 1 train really is the best subway of all and readied itself for likely subway and bus fare hikes. Redheads took the streets to demand their rights and during an mmminterview withTaylor Hanson, he told Gothamist that one fan got a larger-than-life-sized tattoo of his face on her back.

And check out other top stories from Seattlest, Shanghaiist, and Torontoist.

]]> http://londonist.com/2007/07/elsewhere_in_th_29.php/feed 0 http://londonist.com/2007/05/the_book_grocer_8.php http://londonist.com/2007/05/the_book_grocer_8.php#comments Thu, 03 May 2007 12:40:39 +0000 London_Drew http://londonist.com/?p=5922

Fresh this Week:

Penned in the Margins presents a diverse line-up tonight, featuring poet and and former snooker pro Jane Holland, Stuart Taylor, Amy Prior and Joe Dunthorne. Free at 7pm, The Whitechapel Gallery, 80-82 Whitechapel Road, E17QX.

Givin’ ‘em away:

To celebrate the shortlist for the 26th Mind Book of the Year Award, which celebrates writing that contributes to public understanding of mental health issues, judge Michele Roberts will attend a preview featuring the seven shortlisted books next Wednesday. Michele Hanson (Living with Mother), Ruth McKernan (Billy’s Halo), Mary Loudon (Relative Stranger: A Life After Death), Elaine Bass (A Secret Madness: The Story of a Marriage) and Angela Patmore (The Truth About Stress) will all be reading. 6.30pm, 9 May, The Gallery at Foyles, 113 – 119 Charing Cross Road, WC2H0EB. Tickets are free but please email p.sly@mind.org.uk or telephone 020 8215 2311 to reserve.

Try a Bit of This:

Outside, the mid-morning sun is now very bright, and, though the blinds are still drawn, I can see my parents’ clothes clearly now. Papa’s light-brown jeans are covered with dark stains. Maman is very dirty, her dress covered with dust and dirt, as if she’d been wrestling on the ground all night. She smells of sweat. I knew that it was a bad idea for her to go out last night; she never goes out at night. She tells me that there are many bad women who do, because Rwanda is getting poorer and poorer.

“Maman, Maman!” Jean shrieks suddenly. He must be having a nightmare. She shakes her head guiltily but doesn’t go to him, as if she’d lost her right to be our mother.

From My Parent’s Bedroom by Uwem Akpan (read the full text

here), who this week has been nominated for the eighth Caine Prize for African Writing.

Two for a Pound:

1. Are book reviews dead?

2. The letters of George Eliot, author of Middlemarch, go online.

If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email bookgrocer@gmail.com.

This Day In London’s History

1554: Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley are executed at the Tower of London.

Named as successor to the throne by King Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey became Queen of England in July 1553. However her reign was exceptionally short-lived – she was replaced by her cousin Mary Tudor after only nine days, and detained in the Tower of London.

Some months later, under considerable political pressure, Mary had Jane and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley tried for high treason, a charge to which they pled guilty. They were sentenced to death, but Mary was tempted to spare Jane’s life. However the pressure to have her executed was too great, and despite a delay of a few days during which Jane was urged to ‘save her soul’ by converting from Protestantism to Catholicism (which she refused to do), her execution was set for Monday 12th February 1554.

On that morning Guildford was led to a public execution area on Tower Hill and beheaded, watched by Jane from her window in the Tower. Despite having seen the execution of her husband, and the cart carrying his remains having been led past her window, Jane was determined to meet her fate with grace and dignity.

Unlike her husband, her execution was to be conducted in private – a mark of respect from Queen Mary recognising her royal blood. She was accompanied to the recently erected scaffold at Tower Green (within the grounds of the Tower of London) by her attendant and her nurse, before climbing the steps of the scaffold and addressing the small crowd that was present. She admitted her crime of treason and asked the crowd for their prayers before she died. She then faced her death with dignity, as described by an eyewitness:

Then the hangman kneeled down, and asked her forgiveness, whom she gave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the straw: which doing, she saw the block. Then she said, “I pray you dispatch me quickly.” Then she kneeled down, saying, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?” and the hangman answered her, “No, madame.” She tied the kercher about her eyes; then feeling for the block said, “What shall I do? Where is it?” One of the standers-by guiding her thereto, she laid her head down upon the block, and stretched forth her body and said: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” And so she ended.

Much more information about Lady Jane Grey is available at the Marilee Hanson’s excellent Tudor England website.

Londoner Of The Week

Kylie. Why? Because: (a) a load of her stuff has just gone on show at the V&A; (b) she’s not exactly had the easiest time in the last couple of years, possibly not helped by recent rumours about her reportedly cheating cheese-eating ex-boyfriend; (c) we kind-of fancy her a little bit.

One Thing You Must Do In London This Week

Just in case you hadn’t realised, this Wednesday is Valentine’s Day. For most of us, this involves two broad camps of activity (or inactivity). The first camp is for the betrothed, and involves making too much effort to express feelings that are either non-existent, or plain obvious anyway, ultimately resulting in a combination of arguments, indigestion, and maybe a lacklustre shag. The second camp is for the unattached, and involves pretending not to care, either by going home and locking all the doors, or by going out and getting drunk with other singletons in the desperate hope that they’ll somehow validate your miserable existence.

Screw that. This year, Londonist would like to propose a third option – taking advantage of some of the more ‘alternative’ Valentine’s nightlife that is available. There’s plenty of stuff going on if you look around, but here are a few options to get you started:

• ‘Loss – an Evening of Exquisite Misery’ at Hedges and Butler. Despite the gloomy overtones, including a “midnight onion cutting guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes”, we think this could be surprisingly entertaining.

The picture is Paul Delaroche’s painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833).

As we reported yesterday, A rather rain-soaked Nick was on Resonance 104.4FM’s show The Big Issue last night, with fellow political blogger James Graham of Quaequam and Alex Runswick of One Perfect Rose. The show was hosted by Mark Hanson.

As soon as last night’s programme is put up on the website, we will let you know.

In the meantime, here is Nick’s other appearance on the show, back in March.

Londonist’s resident politics guy, Nick, will be on Resonance 104.4fm at 9.30pm tonight, on the stations political discussion show, The Issue, hosted by Mark Hanson.

Nick has been on before, and after tonight’s show, we’ll give you the link to listen to both shows in podcast format.

To listen live, tune in to 104.4fm in London, or you can listen on ResonanceFM.com.

With the Editor away, I’m going to use this opportunity to toot my own horn (as it were)

I (Nick) will be on Londonist’s favourite London radio station, Resonance 104.4fm tonight, live at 9pm, as part of a panel on The Issue, a political discussion show hosted by Mark Hanson. Here is a synopsis of the show:

Could it be that the New Labour project is about to explode? This week Mark Hanson asks Tony Blair’s favourite think tank, The Institute of Public Policy research, David Olser the author of New Labour plc and political blogger Nick Edwards whether Blair’s days are numbered and whether this signals a return to more agressive style of politics.

So you can listen live at 9pm tonight by tuning your radio to 104.4fm, or listen online at the Resonance FM website.

A man who stabbed City banker John Monckton to death during a robbery at his home has been jailed for a minimum of 36 years. Damien Hanson gets three life sentences.

“I shall now be going to have a glass of champagne and then I’m looking forward to going on tour again,”. Former Bay City Rollers star not guilty of drug charges.

“They murdered him. They murdered him. They murdered my son…How many times do they have to shoot a man before they consider him harmless?” Police officers who shot a man holding a gun-shaped lighter acted lawfully.

“We are delighted to be informed by FACT that this is one of the biggest seizures to date of counterfeit goods of this type in the UK.” More than £500,000 of pirated goods seized in north-west London.

Antiques and art treasures, possibly including works by Picasso, Rubens and Titian worth millions of pounds, have been stolen from the 17th century Wiltshire mansion of the reclusive multi-millionaire Harry Hyams in what police believe could be Britain’s biggest ever burglary. Centre Point developer loses more than his DVD player.

…not only were police lying in wait for the sledgehammer-wielding gang, but one of them died in the short high speed chase that followed. The court heard that Misha Neering’s getaway motorbike spun out of control, hurtling into the path of a pursuing patrol car. Three jailed for Tiffany’s ram raid .