Dr Colin Runeckles
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colinruneckles.bsky.social
Dr Colin Runeckles
@colinruneckles.bsky.social
Researcher into urbanism & housing:

Ancient (@OU_Classics) - currently writing a book on non-elite housing

Modern (Writer, Speaker, Treasurer - @ilfordhistory.bsky.social

Likes music. A lot of music. Can often be found at Cafe Oto.
And the other one was the edited volume about Roman toilets. This section was from ch. 7. by Petznek, Radbauer. Sauer, and Wilson.

3/
November 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM
I looked at Barry Hobson who has also written a monograph about toilets in Pompeii.

2/
November 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM
A thread about the 'sponge on a stick'.

The only ancient sources appear to be from Seneca and Martial (well he would mention it wouldn't he?)

Note that word xylospongium in that article I posted up yesterday - doesn't exist. Not in either source, not in Lewis & Short or the PHI Latin Texts.

1/
November 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Listening to the English Baroque Soloists Bach Cantatas vol 15 and the ending of BWV 57...wait...isn't that Praise to the Lord, the Almighty?

Why, yes, yes it is...
November 20, 2025 at 11:19 AM
My first gig but 50 years ago!

50 years!!

Bloody hell...support was Joan Armtrading (who I remember) and Movies (who I don't)
November 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Yes, the fact that Shoe Shine Boy was his very first recording session never ceases to amaze.

I picked up all of the Story double-LPs in the late 70s/early 80s and when I first heard this it was an "OMG!" moment.
November 2, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I remember writing an article about Local Heath Reports for our Newsletter and this came up about Influenza.

that section about the lack of nurses and why was particularly daming.
November 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
I count myself fortunate that I have all these great gigs/recitals/whatever to go to - two wonderful pieces of American minimalism and a superb new piece from Catherine Lamb, played and sung by the Explore Ensemble and EXAUDI.
November 1, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Excellent programme of John White Symphonies at @musicwedliketohear.bsky.social tonight.

Six tubas in the same room? Yes, really...

My favourite were the closing Symphonies 3-6 with slightly unusual instrumentation and a jazzy feel.
October 31, 2025 at 11:40 PM
OK so for #5debutalbums8084 because I'd probably forget a crucial album, I went to the extensive wikipedia list. And I now have a list pruned down to 26...and there are 10 definites so far.

Just thinking ahead...1975-79! Yikes...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...
October 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM
What can happen when you lead a horse to water...

Essex Herald 12th Nov 1867
October 20, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Going to the National Gallery now for me involves a walk from the Elizabeth Line station in Dean Street - lots of fascinating detail to be had including this rather lovely sign on the building in Hollen Street.
October 20, 2025 at 9:24 AM
These AI Overview things that have started to appear on Chrome are irritating at best and just plain wrong at worst.

Like this. No such Sun Ra album eh? Well, you've just found it!
October 16, 2025 at 12:25 PM
I might have to give the other 4 choices some thought but this one gets the #1 slot from me - still one of my top 10 albums of all time.

Such an amazing choice of musicians including the late Danny Thompson, Holger Czukay, Kenny Wheeler, Jon Hassell, and Ryuichi Sakamoto

#5debutalbums8084
October 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Walking back to Westminster tube from Tate Britain I noticed a reference on Millbank House to a previous road name to what is now Great Peter Street.

From the OS it looks like the change to extend Great Peter Street happened between 1938 and 1950.

Remember to always look up!
October 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Playing this one for the first time for a long while.

Did I really buy this 50 years ago?

Good grief...
October 1, 2025 at 5:44 PM
For #MosaicMonday we find ourselves in Rome in March 2016 when I went to TRAC/RAC but had a few days in Rome & Ostia before it started.

This is the apse mosaic in S. Maria in Domnica dating from the rebuilding of AD818-22. Note Pope Paschal I (with square nimbus) at the foot of the Virgin Mary.
September 29, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Urgh!

Wouldn't even go out with a brolly let alone try and run in it!
September 21, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Excellent performances by all last night at the first @840series.bsky.social event for quite some time at St Cyprian's Church - I especially liked the autumnal feel of James Creed's 'Plain Song' which closed the concert, and Egidija Medekšaitė's – T e x t i l e 1 was a real toe-tapper!
September 21, 2025 at 7:48 AM
For #romansitesaturday we're off to France and my first day out of Avignon in September 2019 was to go south to Glanum.

Wonderful site and a pretty marvellous lunch...
September 20, 2025 at 11:24 AM
#MosaicMonday is in Ravenna from a trip I made there in 2016.

Closeups of the mosaics in the Orthodox Baptistry (2nd half of the 5th century AD).
September 15, 2025 at 5:41 PM
No comment necessary...
September 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I'll be disappointed if these don't feature in their respective five year slots in #5debutalbums ...
September 14, 2025 at 7:24 PM
And because I missed the bus (went round the square and out again without stopping!) I was there to take this which I had framed and is now on my dining room wall.
September 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM
For #RomanSiteSaturday we're off to Alba Fucens partly due to reading a chapter in 'Roman Urbanism in Italy' and realising that I was there in 2010 when they were excavating the Forum.

There was the excavation team, me, and a family who turned out to be English - otherwise it was deserted.
September 13, 2025 at 10:19 AM