Thursday, November 19

At the Herne Tavern from 6.30pm

Up for discussion...

Anyone going to the Peckham Literary Festival this week?

Have you heard anything about the new UK Future of News networking group?

Has anybody used SocialEngine yet (free trial and a one-off $250 payment seems pretty reasonable)?

What about the new Canon EOS 5D Mk II, with video?

And the NUJ is trying to get an up-to-date freelance fees guide, can you help?

Meantime our BALLADS OF PECKHAM RYE project is taking off. 'Ballads' can be in any format, visual as well as literary, serious or silly. Here's a couple to start you off:

When Muriel Spark wrote her famous ballad
No Peckham pub had discovered salad,
No Peckham Pulse, no “pop-up bar”,
(Just keep going up when you’ve parked your car)
No crates of yams, no Multiplex,
Just landladies frowning on illicit sex,
And hissing gas fires and spam for tea
And pea-soup fog and mock gentility.
Would she find it strange and unfamiliar
Or, underneath the surface, all very similar?

- PB

* * *

It's pretty crazy after dark

To picnic up in Peckham Park

With moonshine on the herons' lake

And in the hamper chips and steak

A small goose, pigeon, duck and quail

Proseco, Super Malt and ale.

It really does seem quite absurd

To urge us not to feed the birds,

Since no one ever makes a fuss

When the birds are feeding us.

- RW

Now it's your turn...