Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Sisterly Love

Hackney Road

Little Griff and his mums live in Hackney, London. So, I've decided to make Hackney blogs the sister-blogs of Marrickvillia.

The first thing you'll usually read about Hackney, if you look it up on Google or Wikipedia or some other reputable spot, is that it's a pretty poor place, with a lot of crime. In a reckoning undertaken by BBC4 using various statistics Hackney was deemed the worst place to live in England. Hmmmn. High crime, vile pollution, poor education, bad transport (no tube).

But when I visited I liked it a lot. About 25% of people there are black, which seemed good to me. Pete Doherty, musician boyfriend of supermodel Kate Moss, lives in Hackney (it's mentioned each time he goes to court). He's obviously hopeless but doesn't seem angst-ridden, so, whatever. Sid Vicious once lived there, too.

The Tescos was big & friendly, the teenage mothers at the station were cute, the hot chips were brilliant. We had excellent Indian home delivery (we couldn't go out because Celebrity Big Brother was on).

Like Marrickville, Hackney is very multicultural and full of wayward artistes & academics & lefties. At least that's what the blogs I've found seem to indicate.

Slaminsky is a favourite.
Baroque in Hackney is a poet who also writes about the bus, the train, the weather, whatever makes her cross, and Celebrity Big Brother.
Luke Akehurst writes stuff that may or may not be parody about being a Labour whip for Hackney council, and about Celebrity Big Brother.
Made in China '69 blogs about culture & art in East London.
Hackney Lookout hasn't written anything in a while, since his baby was born, but I like his transcriptions of overheard Hackney conversations:

"It's like summer. But it ain't cold."

"Whadja mean?"

"Well, like, it's really hot in summer. But then it gets cold at night. And now, it's, like, warm."

"Well, whadja expect? You've just been standing next to a barbeque."


8 comments:

Kirsty said...

Is this where we get the notion of the hackneyed phrase from?

Pants said...

Hey sister! I'm another Hackney blogger and formerly from Sydney (Drummoyne). Being twinned with Marrickville is a terrific idea. You might want to check out Dave Hill's Temperama and Kris' Stoke Newington too. I'm crap at creating links but their both on my blogroll. Cheers

Noosa Lee

Annie said...

Thank you Meredith, much appreciated. I can recommend That's So Pants too - hi Noosa Lee!

Ms Baroque said...

Hi Meredith! That's great, thanks. And it is a great idea, too. I wish Hackney would now pay for us to COME to Marrickville, for some cultural bridge-building.

Are there some other blogs in Marrickville?

I see Noosa Lee has mentioned our excellent Dave Hill and Kris (fab pix of the occupied building where the squatters have taken over from the evil property developer). Miss Hacksaw has an Aussie connection. I'm also very fond of the Shaigetz, a Hassidic Jew who keeps a very openminded blog. "Doing it Mai Vey." And we have a very nice Catholic priest blogger, at Roman Miscellany (blogspot).

Meredith Jones said...

Ah, excellent. I'll check them all out. See my Hackney list in the margin. Some other Marrickville blogs / sites are there, too, although Hackney far outweighs Marrickville in this department.

Miss Hacksaw said...

Hi Meredith - I thought I'd commented but it clearly didn;t work. Thanks for the link - great idea twinning blogs.

Cheerio

MH

kris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kris said...

Sorry, too many typos.

I am still reeling that someone wishes to twin Hackney with anywhere in Oz. I think Ms Pants, Ms Baroque et al and I should have a Marrickville party in Hackney soon!

Like your blog and also like the Saspirilla site too. They have both made the Kris' Stoke Newington blog-roll.

Woo-hoo!