I came across this old post at the weekend, a list of fifty inspiring projects. There are lots of broken links which brings up the question of how we archive this stuff (and the Internet Archive is in trouble this week).
"We should produce, and distribute, histories of our work which are open rather than closed. These histories should aim to place events in the kind of contexts which enable viewers, listeners, or readers to understand why the events described occurred, what they achieved, and how they could be emulated." Owen Kelly said, in Community, Art and the State: Storming The Citadels (Comedia, 1984).
The internet gives us that power, but it's not permanent, and things are only a pixel away from getting lost. I've always given the things I've written freely and widely, and they're out there on the internet - but I don't know for how long. One guide to using empty shops that I wrote during lockdown seems to be gone already.
I spent a day in the University of Kent's archive and library this week, and there's something in the way they hold things in perpetuity. Kent's Special Collections include lots of comedians' archives - flyers, posters, scripts and more - that would be lost otherwise. But held by Kent, they do exactly what Owen Kelly suggested, showing why events occurred, what they achieved, and how they could be emulated. They're being used at the moment in an exhibition about Kent's mining industry, with flyers and posters from benefit gigs alongside original cartoons that appeared in national newspapers at the time.
Kent already hold my zine archive*, and I'll be adding new material to it. Perhaps we all need to make more physical things, and find them permanent homes. My new book about the seaside is an attempt to bring years of work together (you can support it by taking out a paid subscription here, please and thank you). But maybe I should make a zine, from the first 25 issues of The Ragged Optimist, too.
*You can browse the collection here.
That live comedy industry, by the way, is worth £1bn, according to a new report.
I listen to lots of radio. There's always 6 Music or 4 Extra in the background. And I've been listening to the This American Life podcast for nearly ten years. It is brilliant radio. This episode about letters is wonderful. (And - more evidence of why we need physical records of things!)
This week is Big River Watch. Download the app from the Rivers Trust, and survey your local river. Help gather a big body of data about the health of the UK's rivers.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust are buying a mountain, thanks to £5m from a £38m Aviva fund for the restoration of temperate rainforest across western Britain. They need to raise some extra funds, though.
At Skiddaw, the Cumbria Wildlife Trust are planting 300,000 broadleaved tree saplings, mimicking the classic and familiar broadleaved woodlands of the Lake District fells and dales with common trees like birch, oak and rowan but including absent and poorly represented species such as aspen and rare mountain willows.
They'll also rewet bogs by blocking drains and holding back water, so the peat remains saturated and continues to form, capturing carbon.
The social prescribing of activities in nature to tackle mental ill health has benefited thousands of people across England, a government-backed project has shown.
The new Māori Queen has been announced at Turangawaewae Marae.
Kuini (Queen) Ngā Wai hono i te po Paki will lead the Kīngitanga Movement, which is one of New Zealand’s oldest political institutions. It was started as a way to unite people across the country to protect Māori land.
Can we bring back an extinct species?
The reintroduction of beavers to wetlands in England and Wales is leading to an increase in bat activity, a new study suggests. Researchers from UWE Bristol found that bat movements in beaver enclosures were significantly higher than in comparable wetland sites where no beavers are present.
16-year-old Prisha Tapre from Watford has become one of the youngest people to swim the English Channel, after she swam 34 kilometres from Dover to Cap Gris Nez.
The lovely, lovely Lunatraktors are on a UK tour. Go see them.