Seeing things differently

I accidently discovered that my mobile phone's camera has a 'negative' mode, so I can take strange, slightly other-worldly pics while I am out and about. It strikes me as an usual addition to a camera, sitting alongside sepia and B&W. I've seen this finish as standard on photo software, but never on an actual camera before. Just snap and it's straight there. My phone is marketed as a business model, which only doubles the suprise.

It finds new interest from the most mundane of things, under my desk for example.

Maybe next time I go to a party i'll take all my snaps this way, could throw up some interesting results.

Today...

...I wore black patent leather shoes to work.

The Jerrytron

Dallas Cowboys' 'Jerrytron'

The new NFL season has begun and the Dallas Cowboys have a new, flashy $1.15bn stadium. The centrepiece of this new venue is the world's biggest high definition television screen. Measuring a staggering 160 ft in width and 72 ft in height, it's more than half the length of the pitch. Truely it's both amazing and ridiculous.

The screen being installed by crane

An Alternative Universe for Tuesday Afternoon

Today, an incredibly wet and gloomy Tuesday, I had a brief and powerful escapist fantasy. Triggered by listening to Arctic Monkey's on my Ipod and realising that Alex Turner is basically my age but with a tidy bank balance that frees him to do basically anything he wants in his life. This propelled me into an alternative universe where I wasn't locked into a happy but prosaic life in London's ragid, glamour-less hinterland but free to jump up, do anything, go anywhere.


Instantly I knew what I would do, I'd duck out quietly and pop over to Berlin for an undetermined period to glide calmly through the the days and weeks. If I was lucky I might even convince my girl to share it with me. I'd rent a little flat on the upper floors of one those beautiful turn of the (last) century apartment blocks somewhere around Prenzlauerberg, the ones with the tiled entrance halls, wrought iron stair rails and high ceilings. The ones with a faded, but still graceful glamour and a sense of age, history and significance.

I'd cherish both the baking dry heat of July and the finger-freezing, lip numbing chill of the city's long, deep winter. I'd record the gradual changing of the seasons with my camera, stopping here and there to capture anything that caught my curiosity or delighted my eye.

I'd pick up a secondhand bike and serenely work my way around the city exploring it's nooks and crannies, stopping in little cafes for coffees, beers and a little reading. I'd leave my flat late at night and ride on over to bars to meet new friends and old native acquaintances on who I'd practice my faltering early attempts to master their grand tongue. We'd joke and drink and stay out late into the morning. When it was time to leave I would cycle home happy in the knowledge that once again I had nothing to do on the new day but to hop on the bike and make my way wherever I wished.

The Circle of Life

The Tories will win the next General Election in the UK. It probably won't take place till next May, yet I'm as confident with my prediction as Derren Brown and his lottery balls. Furthermore I fear they they will walk into office without really having to outline a solid alternative to another term of New Labour. There will of course be policies, but as we have seen from the first few years of David Cameron's leadership of the Conservative Party he favours general statements and aspirations.

This isn't Cameron's fault per se, he wants to be in government and knows how the system works. Strong opposition parties don't 'win' elections by and large, weak governments lose them. New Labour has (in popular opinion) become frail, weak and flaccid. Too used to the good life of power, they are blunt and directionless. After more than a decade in office they bear the inevitable wrinkles of error, scandal and simple misfortune that no party in office for such a time can entirely avoid, even with the best will. So, to continue the analogy one step further, come next year the electorate will bid the partner they have tired of a farewell and embrace a newer model.

The real problem is the failure of Britain's two-party political system. The Liberal Democrats try, but the system just does not create the space for 2 separate opposition parties. As a result, once a government starts to unravel and get sucked into the cycle of crisis after crisis on the downward spiral the opposition only has to wait around for them to be kicked out. Sooner or later it will happen, because regardless of an opposition's virtues or otherwise the voter wanting rid of unpopular legislators has only one option - to vote for the 'other lot'.

This government-by-default is essentially negative and undermines democracy because there is less scrutiny of the opposition / next government's policies. If there was another strong and equally plausible party in opposition then both would have to campaign vigorously to win the hearts of the electorate. This would bring with it the need to properly flesh out their policies, and debate the other's proposals.

Parties shouldn't be elected because voters no longer want the incumbent government, they should be elected because the public feel that they offer the best policies and ideas to improve their futures.

I'll just have to keep on voting Lib Dem.

Coveting again: Tailored by Umbro Drill Tops

Oh dear, I'm at it again. A day after posting about football shirts I am back posting about another piece of sportswear I fancy getting my hands on.

Below is the England drill top I spotted the substitutes wearing while warming the bench during the World Cup qualifier against Croatia. Lovely. I have found that they also produce a variation on the design for Manchester City. I could happily wear either.

The new England drill top

The Manchester City drill top

Check it out in action - oh yeah!

When Books Were Mostly Pictures

This week all my colleagues seem to be getting new nieces and nephews and so this lead to conversation about childhood generally, and of course the perennial favourite - children's literature.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar seems to have been especially popular, although I have no particular memory of it - either it didn't leave much of an impression with me or I never had the pleasure. What did make a mark with me were:

Letterland ABC
Essentially a learning tool for the alphabet, this book created a memorable character for each individual letter. The character and letter were then merged into a visual representation (well illustrated by the front cover, left) and given a short accompanying tale to hammer the lesson home. As well as this a-z compendium there were spin off volumes for individual characters.




Tom and Pippo
Following the adventures of a small boy (Tom) and his toy Monkey (Pippo). I can't remember too much about the actual stories but I do remember my brother and I being faintly mesmerised by the quality of the name Pippo. I think it was one of the first words that my brother liked to say. Pippo, Pippo, Pippo...





Spot
A great little book, combining wonderful illustration and lots of flaps to lift and open. It's time for dinner and Spot's mum can't find him.

England Goalkeeper Shirt

I don't know how it's happened but somehow I have managed to write this blog for 4 or 5 months without posting about one of my geekier interests, football shirts. I have been meaning to redress this for sometime and no time seemed better than today, after England secured their place at next summer's World Cup in South Africa thanks to a 5-1 victory over Croatia.

England have generally had so-so kits in the last decade, nothing too awful comes to mind, but certainly nothing has yet compelled me to ever go out and purchase one. The new home and goalkeeper shirts have changed this with their sharp, elegant and simple design which embrace the best of the past while avoiding the trap of being too self-consciously 'retro'. They are in marked contrast to the previous few home shirts which have laboured under the 'need' to lob a load of red trim onto them, often in less than subtle approximations of the St. George's cross.

The change in direction from the kit manufacturer Umbro may or may not demonstrate the influence of Nike's aesthetic following the American giant's purchase of Umbro last year. What is certain is that there has been a clear upswing in the quality of Umbro's designs for it's roster of teams such as West Ham, Sunderland and Manchester City since the beginning of the 2008-09 football season. Not only are they renegades from the prevailing (surely cost-driven) ethos of the big manufacturers such as Nike, Puma and Adidas to hand out virtually identical template designs to as many of their teams as possible; the quality of the individual designs are also of great quality.

Of the new shirts it is the goalkeepers that attracts me the most. Usually keeper kits aren't much to write home about, and fans don't buy or wear them unless they they want to wear them to actually play football in, so what is different about the 09-11 iteration? Firstly, the deep forest green is simple and traditional. It conveys strength and a certain masculine dignity. Secondly the fit. Umbro have made much fuss over their supposed 'tailored style' for the new England kits, and while it is largely marketing gloss, the new shirts are cut well and come in a greater number of sizes (chest 34, 36, 38 etc as opposed to just S, M, L). Coupled with the new cotton-based fabric which is thicker and less shiny than usual shirts the feel of the shirts are much more like that of a normal t-shirt - i.e. even though a keeper shirt it feels like something that I could actually wear as part of a regular outfit.

Hitting the Deck

What with Eduardo and Wayne Rooney, diving has been a big topic in football this week. Argue all you will about the aforementioned incidents, this one is as clear as day:

Trainer Greed

This is a pair of Nike Dunks I designed using Nike's ID service. I only brought a (off the shelf) pair a couple of months back and there is no way I can really justify having two pairs at once, but, I'm seriously considering investing in the above.

Marketing, Shmarketing

Marketing. Companies want to make their products sound exciting, glamourous and desireable. Entirely understandable. Sometimes however, marketeers try a little bit harder then they really need to, only serving to make their product seem slightly ridiculous.

For example, the other day I recieved my brand new (first ever) smart phone. Nothing could sell the phone to me more than the fact that IT'S A SMARTPHONE. However, Nokia's people didn't agree and thought that I might need a little extra encouragement to be excited, in the form of these words:

"do you make an appointment or an opportunity?...
...Do you open emails or open minds?...
...do you surf the web or look for inspiration?"

The answers? appointments, emails, web.