First thing's first

Well, I thought since I seem to have a knack for writing Facebook notes that make people argue a lot, the best thing would be to start a blog to save Mr Zuckerberg some bandwidth. No need to thank me Mark, I know we're cool.

I've also been prompted by a couple of my friends who have just stepped out into this brave new world: Chris at Katatrepsis and Stuart at Time Out Of Mind

So really this blog is just a tool for me to express my usual mixture of exasperation and annoyance at the state of the world as well as flag up the things that I love, from obscure foreign films to long-forgotten history. I've decided to call it Alms For Ashes, partly to pick up the odd bit of traffic from confused fans of Bats For Lashes, but mainly because it's a quotation from a hero of mine: Domenico Scandella, a sixteenth century miller known locally as Menocchio. His story is an interesting one, but at the moment I'll just leave you with his habit of needling priests at funerals with the question:

"What are you doing giving alms in memory of those few ashes?"