Jet black jet, birds, beavers and other morbid concerns of fashion

        Birds and beavers - both have suffered dangerous times due to the whims of fashion  In 1860 a demand was growing for 'grebe fur', the skin and underpelt of the breast feathers of the Great Crested Grebe,  which was being used in ladies' fashion mainly  for decorating hats, along with thousands of other birds, both native and exotic, many imported from Brazil and India. Bird populations around the globe were decreasing rapidly as a result. The irony was that the popularity of feathers and fur in fashion at this time was at least partly due to the Victorian interest in all aspects of the natural environment
'The Plumage League' was formed to protest in 1889, and as they grew they joined up with the Fur and Feather League in Croydon to create the RSPB a decade later. Following their campaigning, in the early 20th century laws were brought in to protect water birds from hunting, and banning the use of plumage in clothing.  

The resilience yet softness of beaver fur, used to make beaver felt for a variety of styles of hats which marked one's status, nearly resulted in the animal's extinction by the nineteenth century. The Wellington; the Regent; the Paris Beau; Prince Albert had made top hats fashionable when he began wearing them in 1850; but luckily for the beaver, silk was replacing beaver felt as the fashionable stuff of hats in the early years of the century.

The Jet industry had been revitalised in Whitby around 1800, and its popularity soared after the death of Prince Albert  in 1861 when the country was plunged into mourning. There were soon fifty premises in Whitby producing the jet jewellery and other popular items.When I visited the museum in Whitby a few years back, what fascinated me were the chess boards made from jet (black squares obviously) and ammonites. Jet is made from fossilized wood from the Monkey Puzzle Tree (in saline conditions hard jet was formed which is more long-lasting than the soft jet from freshwater). It has been used in the Bronze Age and by the Romans. But in Victoria's reign, the fashion and use of jet declined after 1870, as the court emerged from mourning. However where the court goes, the masses will follow, and mourning  jewellry had reached its peak by the second half of the century. Hair art became  widespread as a way of keeping a loved one, dead or otherwise,  close: locks of hair were woven into a knot design and kept in a brooch, ring, watch fob or necklace        .

Clean Bandit - UK Shanty (with Lily Cole), Random Acts Channel 4

Writer's block - the art of Graffiti

Why would people in the property business become grafitti artists, and what is it that's so compulsive about spreading your tag, or trademark. in the same way that young kids defacing property very often write their own name in a quest to remain anonymous . It's not a new game, any ancient building has either been  gouged with the initials of bored bystanders or look behind the main facade and there will  be strange characters and creatures added by the original nameless craftsmen; any gnarled tree trunk seems to be asking for initials and hearts to be carved by the lovers who repose underneath them.
Last month Kristian Holmes, a respected property surveyor, was jailed for causing £250,000 of damage to trains, walls and bridges. However former train-writer Glynn Judd (tag name Noir) , who painted trains most nights while working as a property investor by day, reckons that many graffiti writers are upstanding members of the community. He also maintains that trains have a protective film on them and the paint used by taggers is water-based acrylic so doesn't take long  to clean, only ten minutes if the yards have a washer  system. A while back he gave up tagging, gave up working in the City, retrained and became a community project worker, painting the Dizzee Rascal house for the Olympics opening ceremony. But a higher profile and visits to galleries meant that the transport police squad caught up with him last October and he had a short spell in prison.
He says to stop criminal damage, you have to start with educating kids. But where to start, other than engaging kids in community projects of authorised 'murals' - or legal graffiti. What is it about graffiti that attracts - the danger of being out at night engaged in illegal activity, or the sheer scale and size of it? Judd says for him it was the speed of trains and maximum impact, the way what you've painted quickly goes from one side of the country to the other. So is it just another aspect of our celebrity culture, everyone wanting their moment of fame, their name in lights?
According to Judd, who is writing a book, 'Addicted to steel: the story of London's Most Wanted Graffiti Vandal',  modern graffiti originated in the late 1960s in Philadelphia; on the New York subway system in the 1970s; and by the mid 80s it had gone global. Certainly this is when stencils first appeared.
But there are all kinds of earlier examples, for instance Arthur Stace, the Eternity Man, who spent his nights writing Eternity in chalk all over Sydney for thirty-five years after his conversion to Christianity in 1930.
The most famous graffiti artist, Bristol-based Banksy, who it's said is an ex cathedral-school boy, has his work sold for large sums nowadays, while councils fight to keep his work in the community, and residents presumably feel anxious about the walls of their homes and businesses disappearing. He has a book of his work, 'Wall and Piece', and made a film in 2010  'Exit through the Gift Shop', with a puzzling look at his world and his rivals, which was nominated for the best documentary award.
Yesterday, 'No Ball Games' was the second Banksy sprayed on a London wall to be removed recently, probably for auction. Last month 'Slave Labour' was sold for £750,000 by the same company - watch this space.

Kathrine Switzer, first female marathon runner

It seems that it's not just female novelists who have to get on by using initials to hide their gender. I've just seen on Upworthy the story of Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to enter the Boston Marathon, in 1967, who managed to do so by filling in the application form using her initials, K Z. She says that people thought women were unable to compete in the Marathon, and that if they tried they would grow moustaches, get big legs, and their uteruses would fall out.
The Boston Marathon had been going since 1897, inspired by the first modern day one in the 1896 Olympics, it's the oldest yearly one and had had no women for it's first 70 years. When one of the organisers, Jock Semple,  spotted Kathrine in its ranks, he tried to stop her and remove her numbers in full view of the press; luckily she had her trainer and boyfriend with her, and they managed to fend him off. It was another five years before women were allowed officially, in 1972.
 http://www.upworthy.com/think-we-haven-t-come-a-long-way-watch-how-ridiculous-men-were-just-40-years-ago?c=ufb1

 It's now one of six major world marathons, New York began in 1970, London in 1981. Last year the London Marathon was the world's largest.