Vote For Luke Jackson's "Goodbye London" Video

Remember Luke Jackson's "Goodbye London" video?
Course you do; it was brilliant... it was on here only a couple of months ago...
Anyway - now you can give it the credit and recognition it deserves and vote for it in the Metropolis Art Prize. Simply click here and bang your mouse down on the Thumbs Up button to cast your vote.

And if for some bizarre reason you need reminding why you should be voting for it, here it is to refresh your memory.

It Was Forty Years Ago Today...

Yep, forty years ago exactly, that the photos were taken for the iconic and much mimicked album cover of the Beatles' "Abbey Road".

Bullshit Bingo

I was sat in the beer garden of a bar in Southwark on Friday evening, waiting for some friends - but couldn't help but be drawn into the hilariously "serious' conversation of two businessmen bellowing at each other in loud and nonsensical business cliches, while I waited.
I really wish I could have written it all down as it was pure comedy gold (and I love it when people really feel they have to be heard by everybody else in a bar or restaurant, as it usually means they're idiots) - lots of stuff about "managing upwards", working in a "matrix" (I thought that was fiction I must admit) and "kicking shit in the UK division". But the bit that really got me (and I hope their business isn't involved in any kind of Physics discipline) was when one of them banged out in a gloriously pompous voice a phrase to describe his position in the company; "Yeah, well that's the thing - the gravitational field is much stronger the closer you are to the magnet..."

Tosser.

Luke Jackson - "Goodbye London" Video

I'm indebted to British-Canadian singer/songwriter Luke Jackson for dropping me a line about his new video "Goodbye London" which features not only a cracking song about the place where I live, but also a top piece of animation, mixing time lapse and stop-motion of London scenes with drawn characters and graffiti. The result is a belter of a video; charming but unsentimental, and completely evocative of the city.
Do pass it on, and if you want to find out more about Luke and his work, including "Goodbye London" and his new album "...And Then Some" you can do so here...

You can buy "...And Then Some" on iTunes by clicking here...

W4 5TS :: View From The Deckchair

Managed to get away from the desk early this afternoon for a bit of a chill outside. (Though nothing "chilling" about it at all technically...)
Hot, bright and peaceful by the lake.
The tubes will be hell on toast though...

Animals On The Underground

I had one of those random synaptic firings after I posted the piece on TFL's "Departure Boards" web tool - which reminded me of the excellent Animals On The Underground website.

If you've never encountered this, it's a bundle of fun - and something you too can have fun with if you have a copy of the Underground diagram and a pencil...
Basically people have found the shapes of all kinds of animals in the lines of the London Underground as they're displayed on Harry Beck's 'Diagram' - or 'map' as it's lazily referred to.
A few years back there were very few animals - I believe a guy called Paul Middlewick was the initiator of all this, but it seems to have blossomed more recently, and there's a whole page of them here...
And they've also got some cool merchandise, which helps fund IFAW.

Paddington Never Used To Be In Camden....

Cool / weird trick of the day...

Click on this link to go to Google Maps, or alternatively try putting '54 Great Russell St, Camden Town' into the Google Maps page...

Then click on "Street View".

Street View, it would appear, is not only an intrusion into privacy but also some kind of portal into an alternate universe.

Tube "Departure Boards" on WWW & iPhone

(*Yes, it's always this much fun...)

Quite a nice new development from TFL, the people who bring you tube trains. Sometimes.
It's a new web tool called "Departure Boards" which as the name suggests, provides upcoming live train information in exactly the format you would see on the departure boards at any given station.
You simply select any station from any line, and - whoomph - there it is.
Excellent piece of work, and one that could only be seriously bettered if it were translated into a bespoke iPhone application; something which has in fact been done here by awavana.com - and very nice it is too.

Although the interface and execution are nice - and it is genuinely a great idea for communicating data, there does remain the question of the relevance and accuracy of the information itself. Let us not forget that last year the Departure Boards at Gunnersbury Station (District Line, Richmond Branch) were actually nominated for the 2008 Whitbread Prize For Fiction...



(*Okay; so that last bit was untrue... But only because nobody had the presence of mind to fill in a nomination form)

Random Pic: Chiswick Park

Just a nice catch of a couple of Piccadilly Line trains speeding through Chiswick Park tube station, as I was waiting for the District Line back into town after drinks last night.

Kind of nice textures, colour and vibe courtesy of the iPhone's idiosyncratic camera...

W4 5TS :: 7.30AM :: 28_04_09

Taken on the iPhone, early this morning at work.

What the hell happened to all that beautiful weekend sun?

Tube Strike On Beautiful Hot Sunny Day Shocker

(*Above: RMT workers struggling for justice. In the sun. Again.)

Okay, so I'm a commuter who lives on the Victoria Line and am having today's travel royally screwed over by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) going on strike - but, not being in the slightest a cynical or sarcastic individual, I cannot begrduge them such a lovely day in the sun.

Not only is today "EARTH DAY" and so it's almost poetic that the RMT should choose on our behalf to celebrate the environmental event by not running any tubes on the Victoria Line (thereby saving a bit of energy, and forcing people into their cars so they end up using a lot more instead), but also they have managed to choose (at short notice, I'm guessing by looking at the BBC's excellent 5-day weather forecasts...) an absolutely perfect day for it.
The RMT and London Transport workers' unions in general, tend to be pretty good at picking strike days, although today seems something of an exception as they usually pick the Tuesday after a Bank Holiday to pad out a smashing weekend, or a convenient late-night shopping day in the run-up to Christmas.

But fairplay - it's a good call; lovely sunshine and a tremendous midweek break, and only a shame that the rest of us didn't think of something like this too.
The excuse (sorry... "reason") for the strike is apparently a claim that the trains need safety features to prevent doors from opening on the wrong side - something that I've never once experienced or even heard of in my many years living down here.

Enjoy the sun, chaps - and I look forward to everything being back to normal (ie: Shit) tomorrow.

Don't It Make You Proud...

Click here for the final, pitiful confirmation that the war on terror was a complete load of bollocks.
One of the few things that makes me proud to be a Brit right now is the outpouring of utter revulsion in all the responses to this news piece (which emerged from a letter in the paper yesterday).
Would be good if an incident as offensive, loathsome and unnecessary as this might finally trigger someone up top to wonder if policing and policing legislation aren't in dire need of change.
I'll leave that on the "unlikely" list though...

Live Performances Of "Music From The Worm Farm"

As the "Music From The Worm Farm" project I did the website for nears its end, I should point out the forthcoming live performance of the project's output.
The performance is at 7 pm on Thursday the 19th of March at the Science Museum's Dana Centre in South Kensington, London. Tickets are free, and a free CD  of work from the residency will be given away.
Click here for full information on the evet...
And click here for the 'Performance" info page on the Worm Music website.
Ongoing notes form composer Keith Johnson can be found here on the Worm Music blog.

Mar i Terra

Got taken to a really cool little place on Friday night...
It's called Mar i Terra and it's on a tiny backstreet near Southwark tube station.
Amazing tapas and amazing wine - not cheap but very very good value considering how excellent it all is - and in cosy, unpretentious surroundings with dead friendly staff.
Top tips: Patatas bravas, Fabada Asturiana (a stew of white Pote beans, chorizo, morcilla and panceta adobada, scented with pimentón), the silky, sweet Jamón Gran Reserva - and a stunner of a red wine; the Paso a Paso, Tinto De La Mancha, 2006. Dammit, even the "basic" plate of bread and olives is superb!
This is one of those times when it's hard to say quite how good a meal was, as there's little chance of people believing you.
But it absolutely is just *that* good...
Will be going back.
A lot.

W4 5TS :: 7.30AM :: 09_10_08

Taken on iPhone, shot treated with Camera Bag - an iPhone app that filters your pics with atmospheric "real" camera colours and textures.

Rothko Now On At Tate Modern

The Tate Modern's Rothko Exhibition has opened; it's on till the beginning of February 2009.

Hobbs End Is Only The Beginning...

The mention of Hobbs End tube station (from the film and TV serial "Quatermass and the Pit") in the article linked below about the London Underground roundel's 100th annivarsary art project sent me scurrying on a quick and ever-so-slightly-nerdy search for other fictional tube stations.
Wikipedia reveals the following...

▪ Bloomsbury – 1934 film Bulldog Jack.
▪ Camden Road – Appeared in the film The Gentle Gunman.
▪ Charnham – TV soap Family Affairs.
▪ Crouch End – 2004 film Shaun of the Dead (in a deleted scene included on the DVD).
▪ Duchess Street – featured in the 1932 Jack Hulbert film Love on Wheels.
▪ Hanover Street – 1979 film Hanover Street, starring Harrison Ford.
▪ Hickory Road tube station – in Hickory Dickory Dock, Agatha Christie novel.
▪ Hobbs End – 1957–58 BBC serial Quatermass and the Pit and the 1967 film version.
▪ Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford – LWT comedy series End of Part One.
▪ Museum – 1972 film Death Line. (+ in PC games Broken Sword 2 & Beneath a Steel Sky)
▪ Park Street – 1948 film The Passionate Friends.
▪ Queen's Arcade – Doctor Who episode.
▪ Rumbaloo Line – Tube line in Joan Aiken's children's book, Arabel's Raven.
▪ Sun Hill – Long-running ITV police drama, The Bill.
▪ Vauxhall Cross – 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.
▪ Walford East – BBC TV soap Eastenders.
▪ Wells Lane – BBC Spooks Series 5
▪ Winchester – The book Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
▪ World's End – BBC Doctor Who episode "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (1964).


Also, there's a good page on LU tube stations (fictional and non fictional) in TV and film here...

100 Artists Celebrate 100 Years Of The Roundel

More info here...

Random Pic: Centrepoint

Just a pic taken yesterday beneath Centrepoint, next to Tottenham Court Road tube station, whilst waiting to meet up with composer Keith Johnson to discuss the brief for a website documenting a 'musician in residence' project he's working on at UCL.

Sunny :)