notes: September 2005

Market Street, turfed

Here you see my son, running with wild excitement, across the busiest road in Bradford-on-Avon. Today, as part of the town's week-long Arts Festival, this street - Market Street - was closed to traffic. In the early hours of the morning, a group of volunteers turfed it in the pouring rain. As the sunshine dried up the turf not long after breakfast, Barney and I walked down and stared in wonder. Later, some sheep arrived, along with a Little Bo Peep and lots of other curious townspeople. I took plenty of pictures.

This is a much bigger deal than you might think. Bradford, lovely as it is, has its problems, and the main one is traffic through its centre. Some people advocate a new one-way system to improve things, others say a bypass is the only solution. Others argue the status quo, imperfect as it may be, is best kept in situ.

The mere fact that this street, the main traffic route through the centre of the town, was closed to traffic for a day is a considerable achievement. I'm not sure what the best solution is for Bradford's problems, but this simple demonstration of how a street can be transformed into a lively, exciting, sociable environment for people, rather than for cars and commerce, was also a powerful one.

Sunday, September 25, 2005
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St Laurence School fair

More photos of St Laurence School fair.

Today Bradford was humming with people and events. In Westbury Gardens there was a Health and Vitality day, the place filled with tents and yurts and stalls and interesting people doing unusual things.

Then towards the end of the afternoon Church Street was closed off to traffic for the St Laurence School annual fair. This is not your typical school fete. It's a mini festival, complete with beer stall, locally-produced festival food (noodles, curry, Thai, chips), and great local bands playing live. Not many towns are blessed with a school fair like this, with a community like this.

Rumour has it that tomorrow, the main road through town is going to be closed off, turfed, and grazed by sheep.

Saturday, September 24, 2005
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Farewell, dajobe

Dave invited some folks out for a drink in Bath, to bid him farewell before he starts the new job at Yahic! next month. We got drunk and took the piss out of Google and Apple. Easy targets.

More photos in the gallery. Cheerio dajobe; hope That Merka works out OK. We shall miss you round here.

Friday, September 23, 2005
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Two years ago

It stirs the heart, and the tearducts, to look at photos like this of our little boy from just two years ago, when he was a tiny toddler. He was so small, and has grown so fast; it jolts the senses to see him again like this, as he was before he could walk or talk. Now he can run, jump, tickle, make jokes, and pretend to be any one of a dozen or more different steam trains. He's our little boy, and we love him more than we can possibly describe.

Monday, September 12, 2005
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Notes on the new Grauniad

Caveats: I've always been a left-wing tree-hugging Guardian reader, even when buying the Independent instead. Overall, I'm very pleased with the new look. Most of what follows is nitpicking.

First impressions in the newsagent: it stands out, if only because of the new size. The use of colour works on the front page, in the sense that it pulls in the eye when scanning a row of folded newspapers on the shelf.

This newsagent doesn't have any problem displaying the new paper; all the papers are piled up on a shelf at floor level. I wonder how many newsagents will have any sort of problem with display? How will the big chains, like supermarkets and WH Smiths, display it?

As I pick up the paper, it feels nice and thick, a good weight. As though it will offer plenty to read. (Pick up a redtop tabloid at the same time and feel the difference.)

Today's front page: not as exciting as I'd hoped, perhaps because of a relatively slow news day.

I'm very pleased to see that the front page retains a mixture of news stories, rather than the single theme-story format the tabloid Independent keeps using, much to my annoyance. But notice, none of the front page stories are complete. To finish reading any of them, even the lead story, you're forced to turn to another page. Some of these pages are a long way inside - page 13, 15, 17, 26. The invitation to turn to page 2 at the bottom of Alan Rusbridger's welcome column is styled differently to the others. Is this an error, or an attempt to explain things as they go along?

I'm not keen on the choice of front page photo, and the decision to run it vertically down the centre of the front page. I think there were stronger images to be used (violence in Northern Ireland? imminent petrol supply chaos?).

Page 2: The "Today on the web" column is a nice touch, although it and the rest of the page seem very similar to London's Metro. Designed for Tube and bus commuters.

Internal news pages: There's no escaping this when you have smaller pages; the stories are generally shorter. This is a pity, but you can't have the smaller paper without cutting the word counts.

While photos have been used large and to maximum, "look at us, we're colour on every page" effect, other graphic elements like some maps (page 3, page 17) and charts (page 19) look squeezed and a little overwhelmed.

Adverts: It's worth remembering that a newspaper's articles have to fit around the adverts, not the other way round. Ad space is sold in advance, the news just gets to fill whatever space is left.

Mostly it works OK but I've noticed that intelligent tabloids (like The Times, the Indy and now the new Graun) end up with three-quarter page ads (see pages 8, 12 and 14 for examples) that force the news content to squidge up around the edges. I find this distracting and not so easy to read. The ad is very intrusive. If I were in charge, I'd give advertisers better rates on full-page or half-page ads, to discourage them from buying these annoying three-quarter page ones.

Fonts: I'm not as much of a font geek as some of my friends, so I won't go into any discussion of the merits of the new Guardian Egyptian font. I find all the text very readable and the headlines look nice to me. I might have preferred them to use "The Guardian" in the masthead, instead of "theguardian".

Media Guardian: Good stuff. Plenty to read, Kim Fletcher's opening column full of tidbits about forthcoming redesigns from almost every other paper on Fleet Street. If the Thursday technology pullout is as meaty as this, I shall be very surprised. But what's this "noticeboard" on the back page? A mishmash of ads, puffs and, err, a sort of adpuff thing for Guardian-sponsored seminar. This feature needs rethinking, it just looks like a desperate "What shall we put here?" space filler.

G2: Ohh, look, the marvellous Shortcuts page has been retained, now in pride of place at the front of G2. I'm very happy, I love the Shortcuts style and approach. Tim Dowling, on the new Berliner format:

As the nights draw in and conversation invariably turns to the average summer rainfall in Pembrokeshire, people are prone to the sort of wild exaggeration that unfairly portrays the country as a less-than-ideal holiday destination. In fact, the correct figure is 235mm. Illustrating this point was once a matter of holding your hands anywhere from six inches to two feet apart ... but now you may use the short side of your demi-Berliner G2 as a template, because it's exactly 235mm.

On page 4, "Theg2graphic", today on the arms trade. Is it me, or is this a series of ordinary graphs sitting on tank-shaped coloured blobs? I'm not very impressed. I thought the point of an infographic was to use the graphic elements to convey information in a way that a normal chart cannot. Still, the idea is nice and there's lots of scope for interesting future spreads.

The TV and radio listings are nicely presented, although shifted inwards from the back page. They do need a double spread for visual clarity and the new layout, with colour text for highlighted programmes, works well.

Notice there's no "Pick of the day" column on the TV listings page. Extending the listings to cover nine digital channels means there's no longer enough space.

Conclusions: I've spent all morning reading this paper, and I've enjoyed it. The new size does help, it will certainly help if you're reading it on the move. I like visual design and use of colour, and in the main my complaints are restricted to minor things. There's a lot of scope for tweaking and refinement of this design in coming months and years.

I'm looking forward to the Saturday paper next weekend, which I usually buy at the weekend instead of a Sunday paper. The only thing that might change that is a radically improved Independent on Sunday, which is relaunching as a tabloid soon.

Labels: work, writing

Monday, September 12, 2005
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Andy and Rosa got married

Wedding day

I've known Andy since we were both about 15. Last weekend he married Rosa, and a bunch of us got together after too long apart to drink, dance and celebrate. Congratulations Andy and Rosa, you are a great pair and perfect for each other.

Lots more photos in the gallery.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005
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My lost albums

Inspired by Lars Mange Ingebrigtsen's Lost Albums list, I decided to make my own. These are albums I love, but rarely see in anyone else's CD collection.

Paul Haig, by Paul Haig
We found a bunch of LPs in a cupboard in one of our student houses. This was one of them. Spiky Scotpop with dark, deep bass vocals and stark, simple melodies.

Burger Habit, by Sensation
The bunch who were previously Soul Family Sensation shortened their name to release this fabulous pop gem, which is better than their previous album, New Wave. The "I don't wanna have to go in there" chant at the end of Splitting up wity your girlfriend is one of my favourite pop moments of all time.

Hawaii, by The High Llamas
Easily mistaken for one incredibly long song, this mesmerising album came into my hands from a bargain bin, and because I thought the title sounded interesting. I've often fallen asleep while listening to this, not because it's boring but because it's so amazingly relaxing.

Looking for a Day in the Night, by Lilac Time
Along with Astronauts, this is one of the Lilacs' greatest triumphs. Country-folk that cares not about guns and oil, but about London and taxis. All over again is a startling attack on the whole record company business, savage in its honesty and sarcasm. It also makes a delightfully singable tune.

Drop the Roof, by Out of my Hair
When I worked for the Cambridge Evening News, there'd be occasional CDs to review. This one was thrown on my desk one week, and I expected it to be awful. But after many listens I began to adore the harmonies and melodic style; this album is rich in both. Sounds great in headphones, or enormous speakers.

Food, Sex and Paranoia, by Furniture
If you don't know about my Furniture fixation then it's about time you did.

Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine, by Cosmic Rough Riders
Harmony-tastic, 60s-inspired, jangly-guitar-ridden sumptuousness for the ears. The second album, Too Close to See Far, is pretty amazing too.

Super Natural, by Bennet
Saw this bunch of likely lads play a gig in a tiny pub in Cambridge. They had such incredible energy and so many singable tunes that I couldn't resist buying the CD. Punkpop about daily life, much like I Should Coco by Supergrass, but released a year later about about a squillionth as successful.

Skellington I and II, by Julian Cope
The ArchDrude released these two albums as obscure vinyl-only collectors items. I heard one of them at a friend's house but never thought to buy my own. Then one day, years later, I found a CD with both albums on it in a second-hand record shop in Croydon. Includes the wonderful Robert Mitchum: "Robert, Robert Mitchum, I wrote a song for you / Robert, Robert Mitchum, I love yes I love yes I really do."

Labels: music, writing

Monday, September 05, 2005
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Blackberrying

We went blackberry picking down the lane, five minutes walk from our house. Kate's eyes were on stalks - the quiet leafy lane is not only a source of blackberries, but damsons and sloes too. We got stung by nettles as we reached for the berries, but the dock leaves were in plentiful supply so the stings were quickly soothed.

Thursday, September 01, 2005
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