Category
London
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04.23.08A Life in PicturesExcellent news for photography lovers with access to central London: there's an exhibition of photographs by Don McPhee on at the Guardian Newsroom in London (60 Farringdon Road, opposite The Guardian offices), running from last Friday, April 18th through to the end of June. In case you don't know who he was, Don McPhee was one of the photographers who really helped to define the visual style of Guardian news photography over three decades of working with the paper before his death early last year. If you've been reading the paper for a while, you will have seen his images, ...
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01.25.08Innovate this!One of the things about taking a train into central London rather than bus/tube, is that I've noticed certain cultural incidents which pass poor tube-travellers by. Namely: there appears to be some sort of pissing contest going on (not literally) (though it's possible, of course) between rival estate agents in South West London. How do we know this? Well, on the SWTrains route into Waterloo, there's a succession of stations sponsored by estate agents all adopting slogans bragging about how innovative they are, each trying to out-do the last. Leaving aside for the moment the issue of whether "innovation" in the context ...
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01.22.08IndeedThe bus I take home from the tube is on diversion at the moment because of some roadworks in the neighbourhood, and as a result, in order to avoid a tedious two mile detour in heavy traffic, it makes sense to get off the bus much earlier and walk home. It's not far - about fifteen minutes or so - but in the rain of last week it got fairly old pretty quickly. And then, just when we thought that was bad enough, the other night, congestion was so bad in Hammersmith - gridlock, in fact - that no buses, or ...
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12.02.07At the risk of turning this into a rantblog, a pet hateIt's late and dark and chilly, and I'm waiting on the street for a vacant cab to come along. The pub doors open and a small, jovial huddle pours out onto the street, and assumes a position on the kerb, half a block downstream of me. They similarly scour the oncoming traffic for an orange light. After a minute or so of unsuccessfully flagging occupied cabs and seeing nothing of use, one of the group spots me, whispers to the others and then, en masse, the shuffle past me, nonchalantly, to casually take a kerbside position a respectable distance - ...
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10.22.07Three tube sketchesShe's got new shoes. At the end of long, bare and goose-pimpled legs, they are conspicuously shiny and uncomfortable, and she does not know what to do with them. They are tucked together primly, her knees higher than she is used to. They are stretched out in front, swaying on the points of the heels. They are pigeon-positioned, with her tote bag between ankles. Her toes wiggle in their unfamiliar confines, and she finds herself sneaking glances at these new additions, admiringly, just as other commuters do the same to her. Trotters stuffed in phat-laced white adidas, with jeans suitably distressed ...
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10.17.07Things I don’t want to see you doing on the tubeClipping your nails (biting is just about bearable, but any activity which results in bits which were previously attached to your body suddenly arcing through the air towards me is a no-no) Picking your nose (especially if you subsequently eat/flick/wipe your boogers - see (1), above) Scratching your noggin (most especially when it causes a scurfy blizzard to erupt, which then settles in drifts on my clothing and alights on my nose and eyelashes) Picking your feet (including and especially if they're on the seat next to you and/or you're wearing flip-flops. There is never a right time to debride yourself in public.) Scratching ...
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10.09.07Punchdrunk PoeI don't particularly like stage theatre (I find it impossible to suspend disbelief that the actors are anything other than people pretending, and saying the same things, night after night, to cues) but I have to admit that I am finding myself particularly tempted by the idea of a narrative which can be explored in a physical location, in any order you like, with audiences of many or one:"Journey into a macabre world and explore the four corners of Battersea Arts Centre’s Old Town Hall as Punchdrunk immerses the entire site in Poe's imagination. Inspired by the classic short stories ...
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09.11.07A guessing gameSo every day on my way home I pass by the Hammersmith Apollo gig venue. And at least one day in three, pretty much, there's a different band (or comedian) on. But I don't actually get to see the front of the Apollo until the bus pulls out of the bus station. So before that, between the tube and the bus, I get to see hoardes of people swarming the underground station, on their way to the gig, or picking up some refreshment (a sandwich and a neon alcopop, usually) from the Tesco Metro before they go in. And as a result, ...
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07.27.07Things my commute has taught me #2: the space raceFollowing on from my earlier ruminations about commuter seating preferences on the tube, I thought it was about time that I jotted down another thing I've noticed in the process of travelling across London every day (and back) during the peak busy periods. We all know that tubes are crowded during rush hour. Space is a commodity, and it's hard fought for, clung to, and bitterly conceded. But what's interesting is the inventive ways that people find to create or compensate for a lack of space. When seated, there are three main methods for preserving personal space: Putting things on the seat beside ...
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06.07.07Now DepartingI got a new camera a while ago - a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, which is basically a toy camera, being feature and focus free and fashioned from cheapest moulded plastic. It's fun, though, and I've been pretty chuffed with the images I've got back from it so far, including this one I snapped of a train leaving the sidings at Hammersmith station the other day. Seemed somehow apt considering that they're about to demolish the Palais itself. (more toycam pics in this set)
recent posts
- Things I might write about at some point, but not now
- Back from over there
- A Life in Pictures
- The sound of silence
- Here it goes again
- As You Like It
- “Nighthawks” at the Chippy?
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