Arts and culture

Recycling Ritual

September 7, 2011
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It is strange how many subtle changes can alter an entire national perspective. The Britain I last lived in about 30 years ago was radically different from the Britain today. Take Binism. It seems Britain has a new religion that has been added to its cultural diversity. Where I am now living Binists studiously prepare [...]

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Blossom Dearie, I’m Hip

September 2, 2011

Blossom Dearie, born 1924, performed between 1952 and 2006. This is “I’m Hip”, recorded at the Silk Cut festival in 1983 in Cork, Ireland. NPR have an interview with her here (7 minutes), entitled “The Girlish Voice of Blossom Dearie”.

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Riots in Downing Street

August 13, 2011
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The picture above was found by Charon QC on Twitter; unfortunately I do not know the artist. The second picture  is by Digi-Artist Surian Soosay, on David Cameron’s return from holiday. For anyone baffled by the logo, COBRA – in addition to being the Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, where the UK Crisis Committee meets – [...]

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The Present Club on the Dragons’ Den

August 2, 2011
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One of the businesses pitching for Episode 1 of this week was the Present Club, which is a ‘wedding list’ type service for children’s gifts. The Present Club makes its money from commission deals with suppliers, some exclusive. The business model sets the Club up as an extra distribution channel for the businesses, in return for [...]

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Carbuncle Cup

July 31, 2011
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By way of a follow-up to my piece about the Liverpool Waters project earlier in the week, I see that Building Design magazine currently have their annual “Carbuncle Cup” running. The Carbuncle Cup is awarded to the most ugly building nominated by the readership of Building Design: Anyone can nominate an ugly building for the [...]

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Dr Who Tube Map

July 30, 2011
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What happens if you decide that you can replace London tubelines with different incarnations of Dr Who, and 270 station names with Dr Who’s enemies? This happens: Crispian Jago, who designed the map, has more, including a shop where you can buy posters. Best of all, there’s an interactive version, with pop-up pictures: I’d better [...]

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Stumps by the Seaside

July 27, 2011
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Welcome to Liverpool Waters, one of those developments with huge towers – on the dockfront at Liverpool, near to the Three Graces. It has been proposed by Peel Holdings. The Architects Journal reports that the project, which covers 60 hectares (150 acres in old money, or around 2/3 of the area inside the Roman Wall [...]

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