We love BBC America's anglophenia because it's always interesting to see what the other side of the pond thinks about the happenings in our own little goldfish bowl. This post, however, tackled a more serious subject than the usual pop culture geography when anglophenia popped over here for a visit:
The next 20 minutes or so I spent were both familiar and frustrating. I stood alongside Shaftesbury Avenue with my arm extended nearly vertically, standing on my tip-toes just to make sure the cabbies saw me. But empty cab after empty cab sped past. I saw other people, all of them Caucasian, having better luck with cabs down the street, so I rushed in to claim their spots. However, the same thing continued to happen. One cab driver slowed up, glowered at me, and planted his foot on the gas as I approached the car. It was an act that left me both insulted and bewildered, as I questioned why the driver would do something like that. Was it how I was dressed? I didn't know. I was close to returning to my friend's apartment and just crashing there until the tube starting running again, but finally, a cab driver, a white man, pulled up alongside me.
He rolled down his window and cried out, "What didn't that guy stop for you?" I shook my head. "You should report him, mate. He's f*cking racist!" As he drove me to Earl's Court, he explained that many drivers were too scared to pick up black male passengers after all of the "black-on-black" gang killings in South London.
Elsewhere Eddie Campbell is treating us to a glimpse of the process behind one of our favourite London set graphic novels, From Hell:
NOW WE ARE LOOKING THROUGH GULL’S EYES AT THE DAZED –LOOKING POLLY AS SHE TURNS TOWARDS US AND TAKES ANOTHER DRUGGED GRAPE FORM THE BAG. HER EYELIDS ARE STARTING TO LOOK HEAVIER OVER HER PIN-PRICK PUPILS, AND HER EXPRESSION IS SORT OF SLACK AS SHE RERACHES OUT AND TAKES ANOTHER GRAPE FROM THE BAG. ALL WE CAN SEE OF GULL IS ONE HAND, HOLDING OUT THE BAG TOWARDS POLLY. BEHIND HER, THROUGH THE WINDOW, THE WHITECHAPEL DARKNESS CRAWLS BY.
Everything on Campbell's blog is awesome, but you may find this of special interest.
Meanwhile City Slicker is pondering politics:
Another one bites the dust. Another week that is, not a morbid reference to Prince Harry's fate now that he is off to Iraq. Although am I alone in wondering if he has confused Boujis with Basra? But this is hardly the time to make light of Iraq. Because with today's news of an impending US-UK sponsored 'Son of Star Wars', who can actually believe promises of a British endgame?
We've stopped pushing rocket propelled pins in our Voodoo Harry doll now because we realised how annoying a state funeral would be.
Which leaves room for a couple of the London based blogs you should be deploying to from time to time:
Onionbag has upgraded his camera. Keep your curtains closed.
And if you add an eon to 2007 you get the Year of the Pigeon.
As usual, the Rat and Mouse is full of interesting property news, especially worth a look if you're after some of Dustin Hoffman's castoffs.
The F Word has a guest blogger in the form of Birds Eye View Film Festival director Rachel Millward.
And there's more girl power over on Inky Circus and way too many exciting film posts to list from Solace in Cinema.
And as ever, please let us know about all the cool London blogs we are missing out on...
