Ramblings on media, advertising, clothes and music.
May 13, 2010 Leave a comment
I love anagrams. (The name of this blog is one.) So this amused me enormously. The London Tube Map, entirely anagrammed. Genius.
(I’d really like to credit someone for this but I’m not sure who. If anyone knows can they let me know. Thanks)
April 25, 2010 Leave a comment
My fondness for Campari is well-established.
I’d love to have had the chance to partake in this – a breathable cloud of Campari gas. It was developed for an event in Milan in which Campari was served three ways – a straight drink, alcoholic jellies in the shape of Italian design classics and a breathable cloud. (Courtesy of Notcot, more pictures here.)
Then there are these, a series of label designs commemorating 150 years of Campari. (Courtesy of Sutkutusu.)
April 15, 2010 Leave a comment
I was talking to a friend on the phone today. I was in Melbourne, he in Auckland. The line wasn’t great. Not so bad that you couldn’t understand each other, but bad enough that bits of words kept getting missed.
This isn’t normally a problem, because in the same way that you can read something remarkably well even when there are letters missing or in the wrong order (you must have been sent the email with that in it?) you can also hear pretty well as long as you can pick up the key sounds.
But sometimes you really need to get the whole word. Like when you’re talking about a senior industry figure, and you’re explaining to your friend that said senior industry figure twice offered you a job.
What you actually say is “yeah I know [insert name here]. He tried to recruit me twice.” But because the phone line’s not entirely clear and bits of words are dropping out, what your friend hears is “yeah I know [insert name here]. He tried to root me twice.”
That led to an uncomfortable silence.
March 25, 2010 Leave a comment
I judged an awards’ show the other day. It reinforced my pathological hatred of the exclamation mark. Why do people believe that a transparently unimpressive claim is lent weight by the simple addition of an exclamation mark?
The exclamation mark is to the award submission what the moan of pleasure is to the pornographic film. It’s distracting, it’s never in the right place and it doesn’t make the performance any more convincing.
Please stop.
March 14, 2010 Leave a comment
Found this on BoingBoing over the weekend.
In very brief it’s the work of a guy who wrote letters in the guise of a ten-year old boy to famous people or surprising institutions. He received some memorable replies. A book has been produced that collects the best of these.
The letters below, between Billy and America’s National Hobo Association, are fantastic. (Click either image for more, or here for the official book site.)
March 4, 2010 2 Comments
Not much posting in the last week or so. Been a bit busy with work and trying to sell my car.
And I’ve been thinking about how resoundingly negative I seem to have become on this blog. But there’s a lot to be positive about. It’s Friday. I’m off to my niece’s wedding tomorrow. And a number of good things have happened this week.
For a start, I found these two albums, both of which are brilliant.
David Rawlings is the recording partner of Gillian Welch. He takes centre stage here, though she’s still very much involved. I particularly like the idea of an old-school country band called the Dave Rawlings Machine. This album also features my favourite song about a monkey driving a train.
Then there’s this album from the Avett Brothers. They were responsible for ‘The Weight of Lies’, one of my favourite songs of all time. This is their first album since joining a major label, Rick Rubin’s wonderful American Recordings. Pleasingly it sounds pretty much like everything they’ve done before. About the only difference seems to be that when you record for a major label you can afford a cello.
I also bought these shoes, which may well be the loveliest pair I’ve ever owned. I’m particularly excited that they cost me about 25% of their original retail price. They’re from Canali.
And lastly, via a perfect piece of mis-typing I discovered a new word yesterday.
Cinenema
A movie that gives you the shits. Or, as it’s more commonly known, Avatar.
February 22, 2010 Leave a comment
Another in the series of new words created by adding or subtracting a letter to give an existing word new meaning (this one courtesy of Ian Howarth).
Malefunction
Doesn’t really require any explanation, does it?
February 3, 2010 1 Comment
I mentioned yesterday that I’m looking to buy a house. I’ve found one I want.
Unfortunately it’s a toy house (alright, it’s a dolls’ house). It’s made by a German company, Sirch. It’s clearly for children who play with dolls that come with their own scaled down fixed-wheel bike, a pair of mini Stan Smith Originals and a junior Jack Spade messenger bag containing an illustrated version of something by Alain de Botton.
Can you imagine how many Monocle readers will be buying one of these for their children for Christmas? Me, for one.
January 19, 2010 Leave a comment
I love this. It’s a piece from the If You Could Collaborate exhibition in the UK. Creative Review writes about it here.
It’s a lovely bit of type, beautifully crafted from wood by Craig Ward, Sean Freeman and Alison Carmichael.
And, at the risk of sounding both dreadfully melancholic and utterly self-absorbed, I can’t help agreeing with the sentiment.
January 3, 2010 Leave a comment
Sorry. I’ve been/am still away. I had high hopes of using this time for productive things like blogging and resolving, but instead I’ve used it for more enjoyable things like golfing and dawdling.
So in the absence of anything new to report, here are a few things I’ve stumbled across while away.
An excellent Economist article on the impact of technology on the newspaper industry.
A nice interview with Glenn O’Brien (GQ’s Style Guy) via A Continuous Lean. He’s a former columnist for Artforum and Details and an irritatingly broadly interesting guy (though I violently disagree with his views on the acceptability of wearing a button-down collared shirt with a double-breasted jacket).
An amusing (and accurate) suggestion that Jane Austen would likely have been an enthusiastic twitterer.
And a couple of paintings, from Eric Zener, that seems to perfectly capture summer.
