Sparrows can't sing : East End kith and kinship in the 1960s

Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963) was the only feature film directed by the late and much lamented Joan Littlewood. Set and filmed in the East End, where she worked for many years, the film deserves more attention than it has hitherto received. Littlewood’s career spanned documentary (radio recordings made with Ewan MacColl in the North of England in the 1930s) to directing for the stage and the running of the Theatre Royal in London’s Stratford East, often selecting material which aroused memories in local audiences (Leach 2006: 142). Many of the actors trained in her Theatre Workshop subsequently became better known for their appearances on film and television. Littlewood herself directed hardly any material for the screen: Sparrows Can’t Sing and a 1964 series of television commercials for the British Egg Marketing Board, starring Theatre Workshop’s Avis Bunnage, were rare excursions into an area of practice which she found constraining and unamenable (Gable 1980: 32). The hybridity and singularity of Littlewood’s feature may answer, in some degree, for its subsequent neglect. However, Sparrows Can’t Sing makes a significant contribution to a group of films made in Britain in the 1960s which comment generally on changes in the urban and social fabric. It is especially worthy of consideration, I shall argue, for the use which Littlewood made of a particular community’s attitudes – sentimental and critical – to such changes and for its amalgamation of an attachment to documentary techniques (recording an aural landscape on location) with a preference for nonnaturalistic delivery in performance

Papulose bowenóide: um aspecto clínico da infecção pelo HPV Bowenoid papulosis: a clinical feature of the HPV infection

Papulose bowenóide é uma doença que acomete a pele da região anogenital e que se caracteriza pelas múltiplas pequenas pápulas planas ou aveludadas e de coloração que varia do róseo ao castanho-escuro. É provocada pelo HPV e a transmissão sexual é a forma mais freqüente de contaminação. As queixas mais comuns são prurido e dor. O aspecto é característico e o exame histopatológico confirma o diagnóstico. Junto com a doença de Bowen e a eritroplasia de Queyrat, é considerada como carcinoma in situ, ou neoplasia intra-epitelial de alto grau (NIAA), a lesão precursora do carcinoma espinocelular (CEC) anal. Sem tratamento, a maioria das lesões permanece benigna e estável. Várias modalidades terapêuticas estão disponíveis, incluindo as medicações tópicas para citodestruição e as técnicas ablativas. Os esquemas tópicos são efetivos. Cabe ao profissional médico escolher a terapia adequada, tendo em mente que a doença é benigna e raramente evolui para carcinoma. Como as recidivas são freqüentes e ainda persistem dúvidas quanto ao potencial de malignização, os doentes devem ser examinados periodicamente para diagnosticar as lesões iniciais.<br>Bowenoid papulosis is an anogenital skin disease characterized by multiple little papules, flat or velvet, which color varies from pink to dark brown. It is provoked by HPV and its transmission is sexual. Most common symptoms are anal pain and itching. Its appearance is characteristic and hystopathological examination confirms diagnosis. Together with Bowen´s disease and Queyrat erythroplasia, is considered as an in situ carcinoma, or high grade intra-epithelial neoplasia (HAIN), a precursor of the squamous-cell carcinoma. Most of lesions remain benign and stable without treatment. There are several kinds of treatment including topical drugs for cytodestruction and ablative techniques. Topic schemes are effectives. The consultant doctor may choose the most adequate therapy, keeping in mind this disease is benign and rarely evolutes to invasive carcinoma. As recurrences are frequent and remain doubts about malign potential, patients must be examined periodically to diagnose initial lesions