Empathy, distance and communications… and newsprint

Washington, DC — It’s great to read good American newspapers again, like the Washington Post.  For the first time ever it has made me think about retirement.  Because that’s when I will be able to read the Post, and weekly editions of the New Yorker, from cover to cover.

It was alarming to hear two [...]

“This week’s themes are change and retrospection”

TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD — Or so says Andy Gill in today’s Independent review of new records.

And what a week it is.  A new Elbow album.  A new REM one too.  And a third from Noah and The Whale.

All well reviewed.

Any one of those would be good enough to [...]

Pictures worth 1,000 words

NEW CAVENDISH STREET — There are quite a lot of times that you look at pictures and they make you pause.  So rather than my usual many words, here are some pictures.

What do they keep in their fridges in the 1950s?  Seriously.

What is art?  Maria Schneider died this week.  Best known for The Last Tango in Paris which I saw [...]

Albums of 2010 (yes, like CDs… er, okay, downloads…)

EDGWARE ROAD — As you know we suffer from SCS at Able and How sometimes.  Not often, but sometimes.  SCS? Seasonal Cool Syndrome — sometimes in the holiday seasons we fail to realise that we’re not that cool.

This is one such time.

I challenged my colleagues to tell me their albums of the year.  Only the genuinely cool Matt West responded [...]

New today: Michael Jackson, George Bush and Susan Boyle

DISTRICT LINE — What ever happened to ‘new’?  Where is our sense of adventure?  Where are the new faces and voices of the future?

Here we are, 11 months into a new decade and we’re still talking about some of the least interesting characters of the 80s, 90s and Noughties.

George Bush has a book out.  Reviewed today it [...]

Good manners means good business

FULHAM ROAD — I was fairly roundly abused over dinner last night for having this point of view. Apparently many in my generation feel that ‘social convention’ don’t and/or shouldn’t apply to them.

And for anyone doing business I think that’s wrong.  Whether big or small, there is no need to be rude if it could limit your business.

1. [...]

The world of work and the World Cup

SW6 — It’s been a really great World Cup.  I am watching it with some South Africans.  They were the ones saying it might be a train-crash of a tournament.  And now they’re proud.

And they’re suddenly feeling quite Dutch too.

Here are 5 things I have learned that also translate into the workplace:

1. The noisiest manager aren’t [...]

The future arrived this week

BELGRAVIA — It’s sometimes worth pushing your chair back and having a moment to think.

What do you make of this picture (above)? 

It’s from this week’s media and is a photo of the Argentina football team coming home.

I love it for all that is obvious about it.  And also all that is incredibly weird about it.  If you left [...]

Exhausted Britain

PICCADILLY CIRCUS — There’s a nicely dressed lady sitting in front of me on the bus – hair done, Dolce glasses.  And she keeps falling asleep.  It’s 7:50 am.  And she’s on her way to work like the rest of us.

I am nervous for her neck, which keeps snapping.  We don’t have the natural dexterity of a Pez [...]

"Mirror, mirror on the wall…"

PARSONS GREEN — There’s a lady in a business suit sitting reading The GuardianThe Media Guardian is tossed on the bench beside her.  Untouched.

It’s maybe symptomatic of a larger issue. And then again maybe I am just getting old. [Cue rant.] Why do the media need sections dedicated to… the media? 

I [...]