Londoners - bring back Eros

I leave the city for a few days, return and they've changed the Evening Standard.

Some bright spark has decided to remove Eros from the logo, which is probably one of the recognisable parts of London for many 'out of towners', along with Big Ben, the Eye and the Gherkin.

They've also changed the paper's typeface, but the overwhelming impression now is of generic superbranding, where the word 'London' has been added so that the same format can be used in Moscow or Georgia.

The problem is that it just makes the image look bland and like any corporate house magazine. I expect someone paid a shedload of money for the makeover and the new use of "eyecatching orange" for the stripey bits is presumably to find something that isn't blue or red.

Bring back Eros. Show we love the Smoke.

who needs google streets when you can do this?

simulated commute ;-) Nr 1 in a Series....

more cammuter moments - trains 'n planes

After the cammuter walk video, I thought it would be fun to collect a few further moments from the commuter archives and so I've added them here into the next couple of posts below.

I quite like the idea of cammuting, although in my personal case there isn't really a 'normal' route, hence the variety of transport modes shown.

Maybe I'll have a look around or try to see whether other Londoners have also produced little videos of their regular travels.

I've received a backchannel email that someone is going out this sunny Sunday to have a crack at it.

cammuter Nr 2 - train into Waterloo


cammuter Nr 3 - plane into Heathrow

cammuter cam Number 4 : Jubilee Line

Cammuter Nr 4 : Jubilee Line - another oldie but goody

Cammuter cam Number 5 : Evening in Knightsbridge

Cammuter Nr 5: Shortcutting through from Sloane Square to Beauchamps Place at night

listening to radio 1 - big weekend is actually rather happy

Driving back from the supermarket, my car was still retuned to the radio station from when the garage repaired the springs a couple of weeks ago. I've hardly driven the car since, let alone flipped the receiver command system.

It was on Radio 1.
The Big Weekend.
Live music from Swindon.

It caught me unexpectedly, and is actually quite good. I may have to dig out one of those handwritten cool lists for revision.

Click here for streaming and webcamming (via Steve)

enjoyed State of Play before Chianti refuel

I enjoyed watching 'State of Play'. A good and mainly tightly scripted conspiracy thriller about newspapers, relationships, politics, police against morality questions around friendship, self serving ends and ways to derive 'truth'.

There's some structural conventions, like in a good blues song, to make it easy to absorb - a short opening scene during which someone is eliminated from the plot. Helicopters, aerial swoops around skylines, CIA Langley, clickety clackety noises and a special synthesizer sound reserved for the prowling man with the big gun.

A scruffy metropolitan Saab-driving reporter (Russell Crowe) whom all of the cops know, eye-candy cub-reporter accomplice (Rachel McAdams) who writes the 'Capitol Hill' blogs for the paper(chalk cheese etc). Tough Brit scene-stealer editor trying to sell copy to stop the newly acquired paper from toppling (Helen Mirren). An entourage of only semi-named cops who are mostly a step behind the wily reporter's investigation centred on his ex room-buddy senator (Ben Affleck with a cheesy Philadelphia accent).

Snappily paced, with a few longer scenes to give time to breathe a little. Some settings confused my sense of the 2009 period - I found myself checking a car date sticker in one scene to be sure. The cluttered newsrooms full of paper were for me more evocative of 70s movies than a 2009 paperless workplace, but hey, maybe the press still do it the old way.

With references to Watergate Building (been there!) whizzing around Washington (ditto) and Georgetown (yup), there was a combination of homage to other reporting stories and perhaps just things to make it easy to fix the location for a global audience.

By random co-incidence I'd also watched 'Body of Lies' a few days ago, with Crowe playing against Leonardo di Caprio (another good popcorn film) and it was interesting to see the way Crowe can change his whole appearance and demeanour for the different roles. Less so with Affleck, where I thought it more a good casting choice for him as the neat but flawed senator.

And back to the blues song formula, one hopes in a film like this that certain things will happen; the genre needs the underground car park scene, helicopters, convergence of the unconnected, the important twist when you think you know what has happened. Its all there.

BUT. I gather this was adapted from a BBC screenplay produced some years ago. I'm wondering in hindsight if there's still enough of the original plot arc there to have limited some of the choices from what a modern rebuild could do? I'm guessing it was a mini-series, which could explain why I thought there was an end in sight around 2/3 of the way through (end of episode?).

Also the blog/new media savvy gal with the faux 1940's columnist name Della Frye, could have driven more into the plot. Don't just give Crowe a Blackberry, do something more interesting with the social media. Instead, Crowe ends up instructing McAdams and Affleck on spin management. A modernist twist here could have been more fun.

That's me being a tad over critical though; was this a film to watch before drifting along to an Italian restaurant for some good conversation over a glass of wine?

Will I watch it again when its a DVD or on Sky?

For sure.

Joanna Lumley is next Prime Minister

I know rashbre central leaked the "Harriett Harmon for Prime Minister" story a few weeks ago. It was long before it made it to the popular media and created many 'painted into a corner' denials.

We're now seeing the alternative scenario develop. As sundry further (very) senior Ministers get their strange cleaning allowances scrutinised and Harriett has to take the role to explain them, we can reveal that an absolutely fabulous person is being groomed as the next premier.

We're now seeing Joanna showing the government how its done before she makes her play to become an independent candidate and populist Prime Minister because the others on offer aren't good enough.

She may even stop the current Deputy Leader and Prime Minister spending their governmental time talking about over-privileged domestic allowances whilst the economy continues to burn.

signs of US economic recovery

rashbre central likes to be ahead of the curve and the lifestyle media detectors are sensing recent United States fiscal measures beginning to move things into a better place.

The signs of this are not always obvious, but the issue of these stamps will almost certainly precede a new Bull market, stimulated by the accompanying feelgood factor.

my cycling encounters a car treasure hunt

This morning I re-pumped the thin tyres on my speedy bike and decided to go out for a spin in a few twisty lanes. I did okay with the hills but had inadvertently chosen a route which was also being used for one of those car treasure hunts. Clearly popular, turning the normally tranquil single track lanes into something akin to school run traffic congestion.

It was out of sync with my own mindset, which was to meander and occasionally pause to look at cows and horses. There was revving of engines, awkward five point turns, large scale maps and plenty of clipboards and mobile phones in evidence. I also seemed to be invisible to several of the motorists who were determined to accelerate along the very centre of the mainly single track, requiring me to pull over to let them noisily pass.

It wasn't simply a case of diverting to another route, I suspect that most of the area I'd selected was part of their course.

I did adjust my route and diverted briefly past a small trading estate which brought a wry smile to my face. It was a location I'd used when I was scribbling my second attempt at a novel and needed somewhere to place some folk who were up to no good. A few days ago I was sent an allegedly final draft of novel one, and seeing the sheds reminded me that I've a partly written novel two, which could be pulled back into daylight.

I'll admit that before some structured shopping this afternoon, I've just spent an hour with Scrivener starting to re-arrange what I sometimes refer to as 'The Square'.

Having a ball... float valve (polymer)... fitting time in the roof

The joys of a Bank Holiday weekend. I seem to be involved in domestic chores at present, mainly climbing around in the roof.

One errand is to retrieve some possibly seasonal clothing which has been filed for future reference and another reason is to fix the errant leaking pipe where a cistern is overfilling.

It should be a few minute task, but I have my usual suspicions that I will need specialised equipment and possibly some support from International Rescue.

drive by photography as advanced window shopping

An example of a 'drive by shooting', where I could see something interesting in a gallery shop window but didn't really have time to take a proper look.

The pictures by this artist caught my eye, but we were in a hurry, so a quick grabbed shot from across the street had to suffice.

But it was enough to get the name of the artist, so a google later and I'd tracked down Alexej Ravski and the picture.