Rudolf Schlichter (German, 1890-1955). “Portrait of the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch” (1927). H/t @adamtooze.bsky.social My God, the set and costume designers of Babylon Berlin really did nail the look and feel of urban Weimar.
Erik Ledbetter
@bandoblue.bsky.social
Park Ranger, former cultural property policy wonk, CCC obsessive, escaped historian.
One moment of beauty snatched from the hellscape of LVMH Parade. Uh, I mean, Kensington High Street.
Is being American enough to qualify? Asking for a friend.
Friends: old and new. Also the trio of devils who somehow persuaded me to buy a shockingly nice, and shockingly spendy, linen jacket at Oliver Spencer.
Out and about in Bloomsbury, including the inaugural Lamb's Conduit Waiters' Race.
More railway stations: Marylebone, loveliest, least altered and most overlooked of London's great termini, and Russell Square on the Tube, an art nouveau classic. Lynn is giving me side eye for more station facade pictures. Reader, she married me anyway.
Lynn is re-reading Pattern Recognition. I'm wearing a pair of well-worn Buzz chinos. As one does when you're back in Gibson's London. @greatdismal.bsky.social
Out and about in Marylebone, Bayswater and the Grand Canal.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Paddington Train Shed. As a onetome history of technology major, this is one of the industrial cathedrals of my secular religion.
The first night I ever spent in London was behind one of these stucco porticos in Lancaster Gate, Christmas 1986. It was stuffy and dusty and caught somewhere between Fawlty Towers and Margaret Thatcher. Now, apparently, being refitted as luxe condos.
When I first saw Paddington Basin in 1984 it was all stygian old warehouses, basically a good place to be murdered in a Le Carre novel. Now it's all steel and glass, except for this lone survivor.
This is another very thoughtful reflection on the military parade, focusing more on the perspective of the troops involved. Col. Urban (ret.) is a veteran (I am not) and brings a soldier and a scholar's persective.
Heidi Urben@heidiurben.bsky.social · last yr.I’ve found the parade criticism™ fascinating and maybe even a little disappointing, and this comes from someone who would have preferred the Army not to be put in this position in the first place. 1/
Former United Railway and Electric (Baltimore Md) trolley line, now a trail at North Point State Park.
Welcome to folks who followed me lately from the parade thread. Fair warning -- this account is mostly just sporadic pretty park pictures and nerdy CCC history.
Some thoughts about the military parade in my hometown of Washington DC today -- specifically, the route. Military parades in DC are quite rare. But when they happen, they have always begun, symbolically and geographically, at the Capitol and moved outward. 1/
Terrestrial snail, tentatively an eastern whitelip. Seen while rangering around at North Point State Battlefield yesterday.
Frank Bruni's shout out to Maria McKee in his newsletter this week reminded me how much I adore this album: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is...
Life Is Sweet (album) - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
10 miles-- six of which were straight along my trail network. Spent the rest of June and July chainsawing.
Capital Weather@capitalweather.com · last yr.On this date last year, there were at least 13 confirmed tornadoes in the D.C. area, mostly in Maryland. Two twisters tracked at least 10 miles in Montgomery County. You can see more on this historic event at cwg.live
Now that's a provenance: Jane Birkin's Birkin -- THE Birkin--goes under the hammer at Sotheby's. amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/06/...
Jane Birkin’s original Hermès bag goes on sale | CNN
The original Hermès Birkin bag, which acted as the blueprint for what would become one of the most desirable celebrity status symbols in the world, will go under the hammer in Paris next month.
amp.cnn.com
Urban and front country park rangering today is much more challenging that it was even a mere 10 years ago. Rangers are often tasked to try to resolve difficult situations, driven by large social forces, that manifest suddenly in specific parks and places. www.abc10.com/article/news...
'Unsafe and unacceptable': Sacramento community pushes for William Land Park crackdown
The online petition, which has collected more than 300 signatures, outlines a litany of concerns.
abc10.com