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I can hardly believe this, but it appears the excellent Allison Crowe and her bandmates were jailed and deported for being…Canadian! What’s going on? Allison’s own story follows: Allison Crowe and her Canadian bandmates, (guitarist Billie Woods and percussionist Laurent Boucher, reunited with their British-passport-carrying bassist Dave Baird), have now performed two sensational concerts in…

.and all kudos to the GENUINE paramedics, for whom no praise is too great…a wee ditty from Blind Boy Flugga. Based on real events. Allegedly. THE AMATEUR AMBULANCEMAN There’s a blue light in my brainThere’s a siren in my mindYou may think that I’m strangeMaking these noises all the timeTry to understandI’m an ambulanceman I…

Some great weather hallmarked the visit to Shetland of my eldest son Sandy and his wife Elaine (and their husky-labrador cross Cuillin, who has an affection for hens) and later in the week Magnus and Laura. All this and James’s 18th birthday too. Friday saw a lot of messing about on the water, mostly to…

         To Unst, two islands up from Mainland (via Yell) here in the Zetlandic archipelago. A fine, slightly dull day, and all the ferry-louping went without a hitch. There was me, Martha, Sandy and Elaine, and first stop was at the house of Sandy Nelson, comedian, actor, playwright and bon viveur, now resident in…

It’s funny when you see someone else’s take on your book, and – while enthusiastic, thank goodness – it varies from your own perceptions. I’ve never seen Murricane as the hero of the book – for me it’s a two-hander with Flaws, who is in many ways Murricane’s deeply damaged and fumbling alter ego…anyway. See…

At last! The dinghy is in the water and appears to float! For no reason other than I love the book (and the word), she is called Cryptonomicon. An old Kestrel fibreglass sailing boat, complete with tattered sails and, my pride and joy, an original British Seagull 2-stroke engine (runs on an amazing 10-1 petrol-oil…

I’m grateful to Dr JWG Wills for passing on this excellent video. If you speak Norwegian, versions without subtitles are available.

I’ve set up a dedicated blog for my new book Serpentine here…though I’ll probably end up repeating the posts here in an effort to drum up interest! Networking is everything… Here’s the first post: I was quite shocked to find myself listening to the first public comment on Serpentine, from James Lavery on BBC Radio…

Ah yes, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes…one of the great, and sadly underrated white r&b voices, coupled with a truly phenomenal band…and part of the whole Jersey Shore scene that gave us the Boss. Here are the Jukes in absolutely full flight in 1978 at the Agora Club in Cleveland, on the song that…

Thanks to multi-award winning broadcaster Edi Stark for telling me about this truly astonishing video. I seem to remember Chris Hill, doyen of Edinburgh cycleologists, mentioning Danny as well but I’d never seen Edinburgh protrayed like this before. Astonishing. Parkour with bikes!