Earning one's bread in the City has its share of occupational hazards, like the occasional lunch, business related drink or inevitable meeting in a coffee shop somewhere. Each of these little events can generate new ideas and things to do, so that by the end of a week like this one, I've still got a stack of 'to dos' to get 'done' before I can settle into the weekend.
Sometimes, like now when I'm sitting in Paternoster Square quietly eating a sandwich from M&S, I can clear my head for a few minutes before the next item appears in the hopper. It may seem slightly anti-social, sitting here alone, but its curiously refreshing.
Some real feel good factor entertainment yesterday evening. We all met in Covent Garden, Julie opened the carrier bag with the black glasses frames and then we rushed around the corner to the Duchess to see Buddy Holly, the musical. What can I say? It was great evening. None of us were really Buddy Holly 'fans' or even knew an awful lot, but as we watched the joyful musical, we realized that we each knew already about a dozen Buddy Holly songs - and they were all good. The cast were full of energy and as it was a Wednesday, they'd probably all been in a matinee earlier in the day. Simple story, Buddy starts as a Country and Western singer. Rebels. Various contracts get torn up. Goes to Decca record label. They want C&W too. Rebels. More contracts get torn up. Finds a small producer. Makes multiple number 1 singles. Meets wife-to-be. And so the story goes on. We all know the sad ending.
Its a small theatre, we were in the stalls near the front. Amongst those in the full theatre there were another 100 with Buddy glasses and the intent to have a whoop, cheer, whistle and generally be a good crowd for the people on stage. And it seemed to work. Those on stage played and sang with great energy and seemed to get a genuine delight from the audience response. If I had to take random London visitors to a show, I think this would be high on any short list. And the good news, its also touring as I discovered by the clever advertising handed out when we were expected to be the audience in a snow bound theatre in Clear Lake, Iowa. So non-Londoners, keep a lookout. Oops, I need to tone down the gushing praise. But why? we all really enjoyed it!
I've had a chance to listen to the Scarlett Johansson album of Tom Waits covers now, via iPod. It's a sort of sincere but tragic report.
I'll believe the story from Scarlett that she really likes Tom Waits and thats why she chose his songs for her album of covers. No-one would do that lightly when there's so much pap to choose from. As an enthusiastic listener to Tom Waits tracks (an acquired taste, I'm sure), I'd really wanted to like this and to get some different interpretations.
Sadly, it comes across a bit like a moderately musical friend's attempt rather than a professionally produced recording.
I suppose the agenda creates a combination of tricky vocals, the need for some slightly chaotic sounding accompaniment and ideally a sensible production that is sympathetic to the singer's range.
Regrettably not.
I can't fathom who mastered the production, but on several tracks the band drown the vocals and themselves seem a little muddied. In other places the accompaniment which is alleged to be from a swampy studio in Louisiana seems to be surviving on old Woolworths 1980's Casio organs. Waits might be able to get away with such tricks, but here it just sounds cheesy.
In fact I can't understand how they've managed to make a couple of the tracks sound like 10cc or Pet Shop Boys.
I think this is quite a pity. Tom Waits has a varied and interesting catalogue and there should be some songs in there which Johansson could sing in a way that was flattering to her vocal range and evocative of the the soundscapes which Waits creates. It comes close on "Green Grass" and maybe the David Bowie backing tracked "Fannin' Street", but overall I'm having to listen with too much sympathy rather than genuine enjoyment.
And I do come to this wanting it to be a good album. I'm not expecting a direct comparison with Waits and indeed was hoping for different ways to interpret the songs. My idle thought is to have a quick go at a remix of one of the tracks to see whether something could be rescued. This isn't the idea when one buys commercial CDs and I think the production team should be made to go back and have another go at mastering this properly instead of just putting all the tracks on +6dB with some 1980s compression. Perhaps its a peril of being a fan of Mr Waits. To Scarlett I say, "Thank you for trying".
T5 today seemed to be in pretty good working order, relatively calm and surprisingly few people around. I had the same experience a few days ago in Terminal 1, which now has some parts closed during its continued use whilst planes are progressively cut over to the new terminal.
I suppose we've got a period of semi calm with effectively twice the terminal space for the ex BA T1 passengers until T5 is fully on stream. My time hanging around inspired one of those 140 character novels for twitter.
Despite impressions, the short stay car park was pretty full and needed some driving around to find a space; what sort of a fool would film it?
Chez Gérard today for a spot of bizzo lunch. We had a car to take us there, although it turned out to be a miniscule distance away. Between the salade de saucisson fumé, tajine de légumes, penne au poulet crème de Gorgonzola and, for some, - er - steak, we talked seriously about various business matters and compared bad flights.
I can usually throw in some good stories if I describe my 'plane leaking large amounts of water inside', 'cowering on the floor at Ben Gurion whilst soldiers with guns ran about' or 'one engine on fire landing in the desert' but today we were more at the 'what happened at Terminal 5' level of discussion.
Then back to the office for a continued discussions, finishing late so that I missed my next conference call and then had to spend a couple of hours catching up on preparations for tomorrow's meetings. At least I missed the rush hour on the way home.
Scarlett Johansson's kissing with Penelope Cruz and the manage a trois with Javier Bardem, seems to be getting more publicity than Scarlett's Tom Wait's music album. The amorous moments were for Woody Allen's screenplay of Vicki Christina Barcelona and I'm sure the red lit photography dark room shot of the two women together only escaped from the closed set by accident.
Johansson plays American backpacker Christina in Spain and gets involved with painter Bardem, and his jealous ex-girlfriend Cruz. Scarlett isn't new to the use of affectionate photographs as part of publicity, such as this one on the red carpet with good friend Natalie Portman for that Boleyn girl film back in February. But let's face it, we wanna know whether Scarlett can sing Tom Waits songs well? She claims to have listened since twelve and trekked away to a misty swampland recording studio in Louisiana to make it happen. I'll believe the publicity on this one. Tom Waits is not exactly the way to popular acclaim in music although regular rashbre central readers will know its high on the list of favourites around here.
The problem is that we have to wait for the album. The company have gone all private and secret and pulled any early tracks so that only the LA Times and similar can review it first. In the way of things, it presents rashbre central with a dilemma. Whether to post a couple of rather raw cuts without production. They give an impression (you can hear a click track on the second one), but are not like the proper production of the album.
Scarlett Johansson sings Tom Waits (live in studio)
yesterday falling
It'll have to be reviewed separately when the produced version escapes - get a sense from this video.
As solidarity for Mazzmatazz, rashbre central has developed the five minute instadalek(TM) which can be constructed from a single sheet of A4 paper. Those who missed the original story might not know that Doctor Who(TM), bastion of family viewing traditions prevents a fan Mazzmatazz from distributing (free) knitting patterns of a few of the friendly monsters(TM) on the internet.
The full instructions for the rashbre central instadalek are posted here in flickr and I think we can all agree that the final product looks particularly scary.
Jools had half the current rashbre car CDs on display tonight with The Raconteurs, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Bon Iver. Add the Chatham County Line (not in the CD player) and the whole theme was sort of Wild West, with guitars, steel, violins, mandolins and banjos. Dust on everyone's boots. Dig, Lazarus, Dig.
Mobile phone etiquette continues to change with the times. It used to be that when you rang someone professionally and they answered you'd say something like "Is now a good time to talk?"
Times move on.
Now, in some situations, you have to do the same if you walk up to them face to face. It's bluetooth that's done it. You can't always tell when some people are on the phone. Maybe they have a distant look, or they appear to be talking to themselves and if their head is tilted, it could be that they're packing a bluetooth headset.
So "Is now a good time to talk?" is sometimes needed face to face.
Its overtaken the accidental phone calls from speed-dialling in peoples' pockets and bags. We've all had them. Those footsteps on gravel or train compartment bing bong calls with no speech.
My most recent masterpiece was an accidentablog when I managed take a photo of some palm bushes in a Spanish street and automatically post it to flickr without realizing. I only spotted it yesterday when I returned home. The wonders of connectedness.
Spain on business and a mini phone movie of my return trip. It was a way to deflect the rather excessive problems within the airport. I arrived and yippee, the line for BA was empty. I was eticketed and fed my executive club card into one of the machines. Nada. "Please go to the checkin", it said.
So I did. "BA blah", I explained. "Euw", they replied (in Spanish), "you can't do that here, its codeshare with them over there". They pointed to a very long and irregular line of people.
"OK", I groaned. But I was in my zen-like "airport mode" where nothing that anyone does can affect me.
I join the new big line and stem the undercutting Swedes who are trying to invent a way to bypass those of us who are good mannered. The Americans at the front of the line have two huge items of luggage and the longest story possible to explain why they think they should take it onto the plane intead of having it tagged. After ten minutes, they get processed and the line moves forward.
Strangely, none of the other lines seem to be moving and then ours also stops.
I cast my eye along and guess that there has been a computer failure, based upon the level of inactivity from all of the checkin staff between rows 8 and 52. I can't see around into the next zone and start wondering if my card would work in that Spanish machine with all the cartoon pictures. We wait 20 more minutes without moving and the line starts to evaporate away as people try their own plan Bs. I take a phone conference call which I'd originally planned to take from airside.
After my meeting there's an announcement "The computer systems are broken", it explains in crackly Spanish. It sounds as if the PA system is also in need of attention.
I spot that the counter staff have started typing again and, sure enough, we are ready to move forward. Finally, front of line I get ticketed and my bag checked and then the lady tears my luggage tag in half. "You havn't paid", she says, "Yes I have", I protest rather feebly knowing I'm about to be sent to another line.
I use eye contact to say that I want to come back to the front of the line after I've been processed elsewhere and she agrees. Now for the cashier part. I've had this happen before when flights get changed and the excess gets paid but one airline doesn't pay another airline in time. I know I have to pay and then let the accountants sort it out afterwards. Now with etickets its much harder to to prove everything.
Another counter. Kerching.
Amex extraction and I'm ready to get my bag checked.
Back to the line. Straight to the front. Smile to the lady. She stops the other checking-in and immediately tags my bag. Now I can go to departures.
I won't explain the fun they had with gate changes, or the delayed aircrew.
Suffice to say we took off 40 minutes late and arrived 30 minutes late but my bag was first off the plane.
Instead, heres me taking off from cloudy Barcelona and ...
Here's me landing at green and pleasant Heathrow accompanied by the Portishead inspired Jazz fusion playing from the plane's speaker system...
I quite like that landing video. If you look carefully (in fullscreen mode) you can see a police roadblock (clockwise) as we flew over the M25. That explains the absence of traffic. The jolt was real when we hit the tarmac and the cameraphone jumped forward.
