Russell Davies

retrovertising

I seem to have noticed a lot of this stuff recently. Particularly, but not exclusively, in American magazines. On the one hand it's great, because I like this kind of 50s design, and there are times when it makes sense in evoking some nostalgic kind of feeling about the brand. But you do worry that sometimes it's just a substitute for an idea.

city of roses

Just spent a couple of days in Portland, my favourite town. And these are two of my favourite bits of Portland signage.

Of course, when you only spend 48 hours in completely the wrong time zone you tend to wake up very early. And all you can do is wander around taking the odd snap. But places like Portland outdoor look better at 5 in the morning anyway.

Even the traffic coming over the Hawthorne bridge looks romantic at dawn.

snakes and ladders

My Mum and Dad have been teaching Arthur snakes and ladders. I think this is precise moment when he 'got it'. What a genius game snakes and ladders is. I'd forgotten how frustrating and exciting it can be. It really does capture flow. Is there a lot of science/art to the placement of the snakes and the ladders, or does it still get exciting if they're in fairly random places? If I was a conceptual artist I think I'd build lots of versions of snakes and ladders, trying to find the ultimate S & L experience (and the opposite, the least satisfying version ever.)

things you see

We've got to move offices soon. So we've been looking at new buildings. Which means you go to interesting places and see interesting things, good sites. A couple of examples above.

that way

They've got these great platform signs at Cardiff station. Somehow the finger/hand makes the direction even more obvious. Less arrows, more pointing fingers. That's my election platform.

we are how we park

I think, the worst parking I've ever seen.

lost (but good) straplines of yesteryear

Saw this at Alton Towers. What a great strapline. 'Shortens Every Road'. They should use this now. Brilliant.

Cafe Preservation Society

I bought the London Caffs book yesterday (fantastic - great photos and commentary, good mixture of 'cafe eras'). And it prompted me to look through Classic Cafes again. (Equally brilliant - lovely shots, fascinating points of view). Both make my own efforts look pretty feeble.

But that's not important now.

These books set me thinking that maybe we could all do more than simply document the decline of these places. Maybe we should try and take all this enthusiasm and knowledge and channel it into something like a Cafe Preservation Society.

It's role could be to keep an eye on the great cafes in danger, lobby planning authorities etc. and/or if all else fails; ensure that the atmosphere of the place is recorded and maybe some of the fixtures and fittings preserved for posterity.

Maybe it's something that English Heritage or the National Trust or the 20th Century Society are already doing, but they must have other fish in the air or balls to fry and sometimes you can't do better than get a few like-minded lunatics together to get something done. (You sometimes get the impression that Adrian Maddox is joined in lonely battle on these issues, maybe more of us could offer some help)

I'm going to write to the great cafe luminaries, see what they think, but I'm quite enthused by this idea. I'd love to get something going. What do you all think? Any volunteers? Who's in? Someone want to build a website? etc. etc.

If nothing else we could have some regular outings to cafes, and preserve them through our custom.

Or am I mad? Or is someone already doing this and I should pay more attention to the world around me?

Comments please.

Cry The Beloved East Midlands

(Apologies - this is a slightly parochial post).

We were talking in the office the other day about the death of Brian Clough and the all the Forest and Derby fans talking about him on the telly. And someone pointed out that he couldn't ever remember hearing East Midland's accents on the TV before. And that's starting to obsess me now. (Actually the EMDA draw it a bit too big for me, I think it's more like this size.)

Infact the only East Midland's accents I can think of hearing on the telly are Nigel Clough, Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine. (And there was a time when that bloke from the UDM was on a lot.)

And the only famous East Midlanders I can think of are Joe Jackson and DH Lawrence.

(And whenever people do Lawrence adaptations they always get the accents wrong and go all Yorkshire.)

I'm starting to wonder why this is the case.

Are East Midlanders too happy to be assimilated and let their accents slip away though lack of regional pride? (This has happened to me. But you don't see it happening to Yorkshire folk.)

Are East Midland's accents too unpleasant for public consumption - meaning they're less likely to become famous? Or what?

According to this Wiki article "the East Midlands has the least distinctive of all British accents. Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and The Wash, and to a lesser extent Northampton and Lincoln all have accents close to BBC English."

And this piece says that East Midland's accents are the actual basis of RP - "RP was once itself a regional accent - that of the East Midlands. It acquired its status because East Midlands speakers converged on London as it became a centre for merchants. In other words, London became the power base and the financial centre, and the East Midlands accent became the spoken standard"

That's a really interesting thought, but having grown up in Derby, it seems like bollocks to me. A Derby accent is certainly nothing like BBC English (ie RP) And it's cetainly distinct. No-one says 'ehup mi' duck' like a Derby chipshop owner. And I can remember that we could tell the difference in accent (and dialect) between places that were only a few miles apart.

Maybe this is something to do with time (or me not appreciating the timescales these authors are talking about) because this BBC piece about Chaucer says "he wrote in the East Midlands dialect (covering London, Oxford and Cambridge), the most influential in forming Modern English." And obviously you wouldn't think about those places having the same accent nowadays.

Anyway. Enough rambling.

What I'm saying is - are their any East Midlander's on the telly that I'm missing?

odd but graceful

These are some pictures I took about a month ago, in Matlock Bath. I'd fogotten I had them. They're of a odd little thing they do as part of the illuminations there. The tradition dates back to Victoria's Golden Jubilee - rowing boats, swanning up and down the river with these big illuminated structures attached.

When you first get there (nice and early so you know you'll get a good view) the boats are just tied up, light-bulbs and structure all very visible and it looks like it's going to be very crap and disappointing. But then dusk falls properly and they head down the river and it becomes slightly magical. You can't see the oarsmen or anything. Just these bright, iconic representations seeming to float magically above the river.