The Diary: Verse and worse; Fangs a million; Britten's buskers; Roma Tearne; Gerald Scarfe

Verse and worse

The Oxford professorship of poetry now appears to be in limbo, with the only candidate left standing the Indian poet, Arvind Mehrotra, (right, who secured 129 votes to Ruth Padel's 297 after Derek Walcott stepped down). The writer Amit Chaudhuri, who (along with Peter D MacDonald, a fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford) originally nominated Mehrotra, said of his friend: "If he is offered the professorship by default, he will not accept it", suggesting that another round of nominations would have to take place. But Chaudhuri said there had been a silver lining to the whole dirty saga: "We proposed his name partly to disrupt the insularity of the role. If there is anything good that's emerged from the election, it is that Mehrotra's work is now in circulation, and that it represents just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening outside Britain and America. We wanted very much to burst this bubble and to suggest there's a much richer world of poetry outside [British] insularity."

Fangs a million

Guillermo del Toro, better known for his award winning fantasy films such as "Hellboy" and "Pan's Labyrinth", has just finished writing his debut novel, "The Strain", a vampire epic in which a vampire virus threatens to take over first New York and the then the world (the opening scene is of a plane full of dead bodies landing at JFK). He has co-written the book with the thriller writer Chuck Hogan, and those who enjoy it will be pleased to hear that it's the first part of a trilogy of "chillers". The book is published on 9 June.

Britten's buskers

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is to go busking. BBC Proms is to go on a "musical marathon" of free live music to London communities on 25 June. The orchestra will perform at "unexpected venues" around the capital ranging from the Natural History Museum to Waterloo tube station, culminating in a 100-strong performance at Westfield Shopping Centre which will feature Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", Eric Coates's "London Calling" and a world premiere by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.

Looking at them not looking at you

The Sri Lankan born artist Roma Tearne has been "de-familiarising" public statues around the world – including those in Rome and the Sphinx in Cairo by blindfolding them, and attracting huge crowds of bewildered, intrigued passers-by. She now plans to do the same to the statues in Venice during the 2009 Biennale next week, including (she hopes, on 6 June) a wooden representation of The Madonna by Donatello. But Tearne said she has long been denied the pleasure of blindfolding the statues of London (the city authorities have always denied her permission). "I'd love to do the statue of Eros but I can't get permission from the bureaucrats sitting in Westminster because they think it will encourage pranksters."

When Hockney fell to Scarfe ace

Gerald Scarfe has been reminiscing about his early triumph over his fellow artist, David Hockney, when they both entered a teenage art competition and Hockney lost out to the winner, Scarfe. Speaking at the Hay Festival, Scarfe remembered a newspaper article summarising his victory: "The paper says 'this design was won by Gerald Scarfe', and 'hearty congrats to the following consolation prize winners...' and at the bottom... 'David Hockney of Bradford'. The cartoonist and illustrator added politicians did not fear his pen but loved being caricatured by him.