Archive - The Sidewalk Observer

Observation #5 Why Pride Matters

On every sidewalk, in every restaurant, gallery, bar, café and business in this city there is someone profoundly, singularly, projecting and defining…

Jun 23 •

May 2025

Observation #4 Looking at Babel

Living here is a Faustian contract. Life in the great cities of civilization must have always been so. But as much as there is poverty and hardship…

May 31 •

Observation #3 Sounds Familiar

Something I thought I would miss is recognising the sounds of birds. Since I was a boy growing up in the Scottish countryside, birdsong has followed me.

May 7 •

April 2025

Observation #2 First Steps

I must push myself out onto the streets to find what I will learn to love here, to map the outline of my new city beyond the superficial impressions. To…

Apr 14 •

Observation #1 Arriving

Here I am in my sixth decade and finally I have arrived to live in New York City. You can listen to or read my first observation.

Apr 3 •

March 2025

The Idea of Home

More than anything, home for me is symbolised by emotional connection. And though I have lived in other cities, I have felt this nowhere more than…

Mar 6 •

February 2025

Scotland and the Divided Self

Scotland has always had a crisis of identity. There is no single version of who we are. Though certainly argumentativeness seems to have been at the…

Feb 28 •

Bronwen Sleigh Turbine II, Etching

Feb 23 •

Beginnings & Endings

By the time I was a few months old, I had already experienced three mothers. Birth, foster and adopted. They had all, in turn, turned their backs on me.

Feb 23 •

In the 1960s adoption in England was still a private matter. Babies were passed over garden fences between relations or if you were the 'right sort' you…

Feb 12 •

Poem ‘Our Lady of the Sea’

Looking back to a peaceful walk up Heaval Hill on Barra in the Hebrides.

Feb 8 •

The Painter and the Piano

A circle of connection completed by a piano, two coats and visits to Thirsk Hall and Morocco Street

Feb 5 •

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