London city is a huge city with several districts. This city contain sightseeing, nightlife, restaurant and hot destination spot. London city is the capital and largest city in United Kingdom of England. This is the largest city also in Western Europe and European Union. Tour to European country cannot be completed unless and until one visit to London city. The richness of its culture and heritage is the pride of the city. The beautiful architectural style of buildings and monuments are nice to behold. Moreover, the natural ambiance of the city enriches the city’s sightseeing. Now talking about the accommodations of London city is another interesting topic to discuss. Every kind of accommodation is available in London. Whether you are looking for hotels in london uk or grand luxury hotels, it is for sure that you will get the hotel where you like to stay. Including the top monuments and sightseeing, the city offers other interesting options like passionate night life. Staying in one of the budget hotels will maximize your fun and entertainment which you can experience whole through out the city. The London is home of pub, bar, and restaurants. On here, the St Paul’s Cathedral place is so nice and oldest site at here, which built since in 1666, and the great dome is seated over the majestic city. You can see here few museums like British Museum, Natural History Museum, Tate Britain, and all of them is outstanding provinces in Landon. Both of really glad to watch that places especially who are the too many oldest places. London is the best concert place throughout the world. There are many other attraction places like Charing Cross Road,   Soho, Camden Town, Westminster and some place. I hope that you inspire to catch this travel bug.

London city is a huge city with several districts. This city contain sightseeing, nightlife, restaurant and hot destination spot. London city is the capital and largest city in United Kingdom of England. This is the largest city also in Western Europe and European Union. London town is the multicultural, energetic place but little bit noisy. This city is situated over the river in southeast England. In this city have too many adventure places where you have visit and get outstanding exploring. The restaurants and cheap hotels in central london are available at effective prices. There are lots of Buckingham place is the official place of London Queen and open for tour in additional the must see sight place, especially the building architecture was superb. The place visitors like and are many of hotel search available.  The London is home of pub, bar, and restaurants. On here, the St Paul’s Cathedral place is so nice and oldest site at here, which built since in 1666, and the great dome is seated over the majestic city. You can see here few museums like British Museum, Natural History Museum, Tate Britain, and all of them is outstanding provinces in Landon. Both of really glad to watch that places especially who are the too many oldest places. London is the best concert place throughout the world. There are many other attraction places like Charing Cross Road,   Soho, Camden Town, Westminster and some place. I hope that you inspire to catch this travel bug.

London Bridge

Photographs – Lalitha and Nandini

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

Build it up with wood and clay,
Wood and clay, wood and clay,
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair lady.

Wood and clay will wash away,
Wash away, wash away,
Wood and clay will wash away,
My fair lady.

Build it up with bricks and mortar,
Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar,
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
My fair lady.

Bricks and mortar will not stay,
Will not stay, will not stay,
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
My fair lady.

Build it up with iron and steel,
Iron and steel, iron and steel,
Build it up with iron and steel,
My fair lady.

Iron and steel will bend and bow,
Bend and bow, bend and bow,
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
My fair lady.

Build it up with silver and gold,
Silver and gold, silver and gold,
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair lady.

Silver and gold will be stolen away,
Stolen away, stolen away,
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair lady.

Set a man to watch all night,
Watch all night, watch all night,
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair lady.

Suppose the man should fall asleep,
Fall asleep, fall asleep,
Suppose the man should fall asleep?
My fair lady.

Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
Smoke all night, smoke all night,
Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
My fair lady.

I visited London, England some years ago.  London Bridge is an interesting attraction there. I also enjoyed Queen’s rose garden, it houses roses of many kinds with distinct colors, it is eye-opening to me, because I have never seen so many roses in such a large open space my entire life! Other attractions I visited are the Big Ben, British Museum, and the Buckingham Palace!

I copy and paste London Bridge Is Falling down song to share with you, Happy Thursday Day!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_Is_Falling_Down

Dogs are wonderful. Fluffy, scruffy, happy, Earthy things full of happiness and enthusiasm and glee and cheer without an ounce of pretension or agenda.

Cats are alright, and I’ve nothing against them, but… well, they don’t really compare do they? A dog would die trying to save you, a cat would watch you drown.

I think there are too many people in my life that would watch me drown.

I’m getting better, and I’m pushing them further out; cultivating the dog friends as the cat friends drift to specific boxes and compartments where they can be safe and contained – unable to get enough of a hold to become a threat; strictly for drinks, anecdotes and parties.

I’ve been up and down a fair bit in the few rotations I’ve been on the ride for, and though I played my part in each of those spirals sole responsibility was never mine (and it’s taken long enough for me to realise that). Looking back on all of those ridiculous chapters I can see now that, had my friendships and relationships been managed differently, life could have been so much simpler these past few years. So much more straightforward.

Less interesting of course, and I doubt I’d be anything like who I am today.

Speaking of today, I really do seem to be especially tired at the moment. When was the last time I felt really awake? Couldn’t tell you. It’s making these blogs dangerously repetitive. I remember during drama school I went through a period of going to bed at 10, getting up at 6, exercising daily and eating pretty much just soup and juice; I have never felt so good as I did then, before or since. Every morning I’d wake up full of energy and positivity; real happy, yappy dog stuff. I’d spend the day giving myself entirely to the experience, open to learn and eager to see what would come.

Of course that was before the disillusionment. I’ll save my views on that specific drama school for a later blog (as that one really will turn into a rant), but my experiences there were enough to turn me from a happy, enthusiastic, bright-eyed boy into a cynical, mentally unstable, clinically depressed mess of a man. I got over it of course, via various adventures (the least of which include homelessness, the mafia, a psychopathic rent-boy, debt, poverty, squatters, fairies, floods, Ilford, break-ins, break-outs, break-ups, Jesus, a Bulgarian and London Bridge); in just a few short years I was right as rain. Again – ’tis for another blog.

I’m watching an old Eastern European short film; black and white with subtitles. A man is trying to get his photo taken. It’s like Monty Python meets David Lynch.

The effect we have on others defines our existence; it is only in external effect that existence can be proved. We know Planet X is real and not just a trick of the sight/mind/sensors because of the gravitational pull on planet Y. We know it is raining not because we see it, but because of the water hitting the ground. We know the love was real because of how much it changed us when it was taken away. In this sense immortality lies in touching those about you; affecting their hearts and minds. Long after a man is dead something he wrote or built or caused can change the way a generation thinks. If that isn’t affirmation of life I don’t know what is.

I suppose then that what’s important is deciding the effects we wish to have on others, and the ways in which we want others to affect us. In this way we direct who we become, where we go, and who we take with us; in this way we mold ourselves gradually into a finished project – the summit of a life.

And that brings us back to dogs and cats. A dog would die trying to save your life; a cat would watch you drown. How many of your friends are really, truly appropriate for getting you to where and who you want to be? How many are just watching you drown? What are you to them? Is someone who’d let you slide beneath the water really worth killing yourself over?

Too many dogs are surrounded by cats, and too many cats are living off dogs. It is, like all things, about finding your balance. Do so before it’s too late.

-Brice out.

I took a walk from the Trafalgar Square back to my accommodation near London Bridge. The journey was about 3 1/2 hours.

Acquired from a recently retired DevGru SEAL. Looks to be in great condition. Dark brown color, not MJK or Coyote.

CONTACT FOR PRICING

The Tower of London is an aged central London-based attraction. It is situated between two beautiful well-known bridges: Tower Bridge and London Bridge. The building is special to me as I work near there and see it every day from my window.This old fortress, an ancient medieval style building, offers various much-loved towers, turrets, ramparts, houses, walls, mounts, a gate, a drawbridge and a moat. There are also barracks and regimental buildings. The combination of them gives it a remarkable striking appearance. Looking it closely and appreciating its sophistication, you will discern many arched windows that are coated with faded sombre colours and well-designed intricate pictures. They seem to watch the muddy river, a bit like eyes. I often imagine that people who were imprisoned here must have looked out of those windows, watching others from the distant making a noise. Hearing them shouting and laughing as they sold things on the other side of the steely waters of the Thames. The colour of the castle is mainly grey and white. It represents a sense of sober, respect and sanity. Apart from the mixture of mediaeval structure, fine interior design and the elegant landscape, this magnificent fort carries the indelible mark of nature. As I stroll through different parts of the building, I experienced fresh green grass, flourishing flowerbeds, impressive tress, and black ravens. Although I am not a fan of architecture, I marvelled at the massive white tower in the middle.

Was able today to score some MLCS style AOR1 / DIGI2 gear. All brand new, made and labeled by Eagle Industries Unlimited Inc. (EIUI). Here is a complete list:

2x MBITR Radio Pouch (D-RP-MBITR-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x Radio MBITR with Battery (D-RP-MBITR/BAT-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x High Ride Holster 9MM (D-HRH-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x Frag Grenade Single (D-FGC-1-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x Smoke Grenade Single (D-SGC-1-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
2x 40MM Grenade Double (D-40MM-2-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x Butt Pack General Purpose (D-GP-BP-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x One Quart Canteen Pouch (D-CTP-1L-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x M60 Ammo 100 with Detachable Top (D-AP-M60-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x M4 AK 3 Mag Pouch (D-MP3-M$/AK-3-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x M4 Double Mag Pouch (D-MPS-M4/2-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
2x M4 Single Mag Pouch (D-MP1-M4/2-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x Utility Pouch (D-UT-935-MS-DIG2) Production 01/07
1x Drop Leg Panel w/ Double M9 Mag Pouch Label Attached

Full Picture Set HERE.

ALL POUCHES SOLD

There has been a distinct hint of winter in the London air these last few days. The days are visibly getting shorter, and the temperature is dropping rapidly. It’s the beginning of December already, and we’re only a matter of weeks from the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year. Christmas is less than a month away now, with all the chilly, frosty air and hoped-for snow all that entails. But the modern British winter is actually much milder than it has been in previous centuries, and that’s only partly due to global warming.

Human beings have certainly made one almighty mess of the Earth’s environment, which has had an inevitable knock-on effect on our delicate climate system – the very fact that the next week’s Copenhagen climate summit is happening at all is ample testimony to this. But winter temperatures really were colder in the past, and not just in Britain. Between about 1300 and 1870, Europe and North America found themselves in the grip of what became known as the Little Ice Age.

The Little Ice Age meant that, prior to 1870, winter temperatures were significantly lower and harsher than in the 20th and 21st centuries, and there is still much academic and scientific debate as to why. Some scientists argue that this cooling effect was the result of sunspot activity, others that it was due to the effects of volcanic activity or an instability in atmospheric pressure, still others that it came about after the demographic changes of the Black Death caused decreased agriculture and increased reforestation. Consensus on this one may take some time.

Whatever the cause, things did get seriously frosty for a while, an eventuality that had a huge impact on everyone in Britain, particularly (as ever) the poorer members of society – and, strange as it may seem, this five century-long cold snap is still playing a cultural role in modern British life. In fact, it was some of these early 19th century Little Ice Age winters, in particular, that – via the medium of one Charles Dickens – created the enduring cultural idea that a festive white Christmas was the norm (it isn’t – it is actually more likely to snow in January than at Christmas time in Britain).

Despite our position in the middle of the icy North Sea, the southern part of Britain has long been noticeably warmer than the north, but during the Little Ice Age even the south was distinctly chilly. During particularly cold winters, even the Thames would freeze. This certainly happened on a number of occasions during the Little Ice Age period, but the first recorded incidence of the river icing over actually dates back all the way to 250 AD, when it is said to have been frozen solid for more than two months.

It froze again in 923 AD, when the ice was so thick that carts used it as a roadway for three months, but by the 14th century, these freezes were slowly becoming more frequent and more severe. And by the 16th century the frozen Thames was seen safe enough to receive royal favour – Henry VIII, always an adventurous man, is said to have taken a sleigh journey to his palace at Greenwich along the river ice in 1536, and his daughter Elizabeth I is known to have taken walks on the frozen river in 1564.

As time went on, the freezing process was helped by the fact that, prior to a mad outbreak of Victorian bridge building and embankment creation during the 19th century, the Thames was much wider and shallower, and ran much slower than it does now. The many narrow arches of the 12th century London Bridge made the river even more likely to freeze, as they rapidly became blocked by ice which then acted as a dam and encouraged even more ice to form.

'Frost Fair of 1814' by Luke Clenell

The frozen river must have been quite a sight to see on a cold winter’s day in London, particularly in later centuries when the city was rapidly developing and expanding, and the Thames was usually in constant use as a thoroughfare and trade route to and from the port of London and the docks.

A frozen river meant all of the maritime activity and movement and business normally to be seen on the Thames was forced to stop. Boats large and small would have been trapped in the ice, often for weeks on end, meaning that the livelihoods of those who plied their trade on the river (as well as along it) were at risk from the freezing conditions. The diarist John Evelyn commented in the winter of 1683 on the appalling conditions in an iced-over London:

“The fowls, fish and birds, and all our exotic plants and greens universally perishing. Many parks of deer were destroyed, and all sorts of fuel so dear that there were great contributions to keep the poor alive…

London, by reason for the excessive coldness of the air hindering the ascent of the smoke, was so filled with the fuliginous steam of the sea-coal… that one could hardly breath”

In these times before employment protection laws and Jobseeker’s Allowance, the temperature dropping just a few degrees more below zero could be a matter of life and death on many levels and for far too many people. The Little Ice Age must have made life very difficult for ordinary people generally, and for the very poor in particular, but, paradoxically, it could also mean fun and entertainment on the ice itself in the shape of the always-popular Frost Fairs.

The first official Frost Fair was in 1608, but, as we have seen, the frozen river had been used informally for fun and games for far longer than that – there are even records of icy football matches and archery contests on the Thames in the 1560s. Between 1400 and 1815, the Thames seems to have frozen over on at least 24 occasions.

There are no records of whether a Frost Fair was held each time, but they were certainly major events and were always popular with Londoners from all walks of life. Even King Charles II and his court visited the most famous and spectacular of all the 17th century Frost Fairs during the bitter winter of 1683-84. John Evelyn described the excitement and icy diversions on offer to anyone with even the slightest sense of adventure and a few pennies in their pocket:

“Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs too and fro, as in the streets, sleds, sliding with skates, bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cooks, tippling and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water.”

Out on the ice, there was something for everyone; fairground rides, stalls selling hot food, drink and souvenirs (then as now, there was a lot of money to be made from such retail opportunities!), rowdy games of hockey, football and skittles, the sound of musicians and singers, the sights and smells of a roasting ox or sheep – and even horse races. It’s easy to see how exciting this would have been to so many ordinary Londoners, longing to escape (albeit only for a few hours) from the freezing cold, dirty, poverty-stricken city.

The last Frost Fair was held during the winter of 1814, and amongst the excitements to be found out on the ice was the astounding sight of an elephant being led across the river, not far from Blackfriars Bridge! Other highlights included donkey rides across the frozen Thames, printing presses churning out the 19th century equivalent of souvenir tour programmes and club flyers, booksellers, toysellers, spit-roasted mutton, and lots and lots of booze (of course).

But all this frosty merriment was too good to last, and within less than a week the ice had begun to melt. The Frost Fair melted away with it, never to be seen again. Less than twenty years later, in 1831, the old London Bridge was demolished to make way for a new structure with fewer, wider arches, improving the flow of the Thames in the process. The design of this new bridge, along with the gradually achieved embankment project and a slow warming of the climate, ensured that the river would never again freeze like it did in 1683 and 1814.

London Bridge

Słońce nagle przestało świecić – weszliśmy w chmury, które dość szybko uciekły do góry, tworząc szaro-ołowiane sklepienie.
- Tak więc wygląda listopadowe niebo nad Londynem – pomyślałem.
Samolot zaczął kołować, w dole zobaczyłem sino-burą wstęgę rzeki, a po obu jej stronach rozciągającą się po horyzont olbrzymią metropolię.

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Czy istnieje coś takiego jak duch miasta? Miliony ludzkich istnień, które ożywiają poukładane w mniejszym lub większym porządku kamienie i cegły – bryły budynków, kawały stali, tafle szkła, lśniące aluminium … Popielate niebo wiszące nad brązowa wodą nieruchomej rzeki… Pojawiający się czasem błękit i przebłyskujące słońce przypominają o innym świecie, odległych klimatach.
Ulice pełne ludzi i samochodów. Historyczne budowle. Przeszłość równie podatna na zmiany jak teraźnijeszość.
Miasto żyje a my chcemy przeniknąć jego psychikę – o ile coś takiego, jak psyche miasta istnieje. Genius Loci?
Wydaje się, że ogarniamy jego charakter. A może to tylko odbicie naszego nastroju, wrażeń – projekcja naszych uczuć, myśli i refleksji? Gdziekolwiek nie dotrzemy, natrafimy tylko na siebie samych?

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The Strand

Czy kamienie mogą mówić? Czy magiczna siła historycznych miejsc to tylko nasze pragnienie, by ożywić miniony czas, by dotrzeć do prawdy o człowieku – by się dowiedzieć na ile się zmieniamy, a na ile pozostajemy tacy sami?
Wbrew pozorom i wbrew widocznym faktom, stojąc wśród ruin dawnych imperiów uporczywie odrzucamy prawdę o naszej przmijalności. Zaginione cywilizacje, zagrzebane w piaskach czasu metropolie, zatarte ślady dawnych bogów, rozsypujące się w proch zamki i pałace, groby i cmentarze…Tak, przemijają inni, ale nie my, świadkowie dawnej zagłady – ale jeszcze nie tej, jeszcze nie tu i jeszcze nie teraz. Śmierć nas nie dotyczy, ząb czasu nie gryzie, w mogiłach i sarkofagach leżą i rozkładają się inni.

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Jedziemy z lotniska Heathrow, wjeżdżamy do miasta i oto trafiamy na zjawisko, które ma posmak cokolwiek surrealny: ruch uliczny zostaje wstrzymany i obok nas przejeżdża w wielkiej pękatej limuzynie królowa Elzbieta II. Tym bardziej wydaje się to osobliwe, że nikt specjalnie nie zaprząta tym sobie uwagi i w ciągu kilku sekund ulica wraca do swego życia powszedniego.
Czyżby więc te pojawienia się królowej były dla Londyńczyków tak zwyczajne jak bicie Big Bena?
Jest że rodzina królewska czymś żywym w organizmie społecznym Brytyjczyków, czy tylko jakimś reliktem minionej epoki? Ozdobą i rozrywką, tematem plotek bulwarowej prasy, kwiatkiem do kożucha? Czy nadal scala w jakiś sposób ten wyspiarski naród, będąc symbolem jego tożsamości?
Jakkolwiek groteskowe wydają się królewskie ceremonie zewnętrznemu światu, to trudno sobie wyobrazić co mogłoby wypełnić pustkę po zniknięciu monarchii i całej tej zabawy z koroną. To może właśnie dzieki jej przetrwaniu Anglicy mogli znieść tak wielkie upokorzenie, jakim był dla nich upadek brytyjskiego imperium?
A jednak to dziwne – przywiązanie do korony, najbardziej chyba zakrwawionej z wszystkich europejskich koron.

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Bez swojego humoru Anglicy byliby nie do zniesienia. Powiem więcej: bez poczucia humoru nie mogliby oni znieść samych siebie – a zwłaszcza swojej historii.
To właśnie dlatego trupa Monthy Pythona uznawana jest wręcz za narodową instytucję. Jest jeszcze jej wersja plebejska – Benny Hill i mieszczuchowska – Jaś Fasola.
Gdyby nie oni, “Ziemia jałowa” Eliota byłaby katastroficznym “skowytem” (podobnym temu, jakim w Ameryce “zawył” Ginsberg), tym bardziej niebezpiecznym, że bez przeciwwagi – lecz inteligentnym, suchym i przenikliwym.
Dickens też jest mroczny niczym spowite mgłą londyńskie slumsy, ale nie pozbawiony jednak ciepła i swoistego uroku. Oliver Twist czy Pickwick to właśnie takie ludzkie wyspy leżące w strefie cieplejszych klimatów, mimo że szarych i pozbawionych słońca.

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Royal Crown

Londyn sprawia wrażenie olbrzymiej głowy smoka pozbawionego korpusu – odciętej od olbrzmiego cielska imperium, które już dawno się rozsypało. Jakimś dziwnym jednak zrządzeniem głowa ta żyje a nawet się rozrasta…i wyglada na to, że nawet nie spadła z niej korona.
Ba! Nadal ma pretensje do bycia pępkiem świata.

Wielkim zaskoczeniem była dla mnie w Londynie inwazja współczesnej architektury. Wcale się nie dziwię księciu Karolowi, że z dezaprobatą wyrażał się o tej ekspansji modernizmu. Wypiera on sukcesywnie estetykę królewskiego Londynu, która swoje apogeum miała w epoce wiktoriańskiej. Książę Albert, ten ambitny niemiecki pozytywista, którego nie mogła zadowolić jedynie asysta u boku swojej epokowej żony Wiktorii, też pewnie przewraca się w grobie – tak wielka przepaść dzieli jego klasycyzujące Albertopolis (jak nazywają Londyńczycy zespół budowli wokół Royal Albert Hall) z nowoczesnym City (pełnym szklanych brył z wyróżniającym się architektonicznym wygibasem Lloyda).

Rzut oka na dzisiejszy Londyn wiąże sie więc z pewnym estetycznym szokiem.
Niestety, miasto traci swoją jednolitość a współczesne wstawki pogłębiają tylko budowlany bałagan miasta. Wydaje się, że Londyn rozwija się teraz żywiołowo i bez żadnej kontroli, potęgując pomieszanie różnych stylów. Być może pewnym rozwiązaniem byłoby zgrupowanie podobnych stylowo budynków w odrębnych rejonach, lecz dzieje się inaczej a rezultatem jest jeden wielki urbanistyczny kogiel-mogiel.
Milenijne Oko kręci się ponad miastem blisko Parlamentu, wielkie jajo ze szkła i stali wyrasta ponad Tower of London, olbrzymia lustrzana beczka ratusza osiadła tuż obok Tower Bridge, wkrótce zaś londyńską skyline zdominować ma srebrna szpica London Tower Bridge – najwyższego drapacza chmur w Europie (jak widzimy, cokolwiek na siłę nazwa wieżowca chce się wpisać w historyczną tradycję). The times they are a-changin…

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London by Night (widziany z tarasu Tate Modern)

(Zdjęcia autora)

Wybór zdjęć z jesiennego wypadu do Londynu można zobaczyć  TUTAJ .  Zapraszam.

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Zdjęcia stanowią ilustrację do wpisu  LONDON TOWN , który można przeczytać na Wizji Lokalnej .

Widok Parlamentu od strony Tamizy

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Londyńskie Oko

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Kontrasty, kontrasty...

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Zatroskany lew a za nim... wielkie Oko

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Londyn jesienią

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Big Ben

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Parlament w słońcu a przed nim król na koniu

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The Royal Courts of Justice (The Strand)

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Najsłynniejszy i najstarszy sklep z herbatą

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Pod ciężarem czap

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Kruki w Tower of London

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London Bridge

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Widok z londyńskiego mostu

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Wnętrze katedry Św. Pawła

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Westmintser Abbey

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Przed Pałacem Buckingham

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Popiersie dżentelmana w Muzeum Victorii i Alberta

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Beauty and the Beast

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Okno wystawowe w Harrods

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Znaki na londyńskim niebie

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Londyn w budowie

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Inwazja modernizmu: Tower of London i wielkie szklane jajo

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Panorama miasta z London Eye

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Zmierzch nad Tamizą

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Na ślizgawce

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Parlament nocą

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London by night: St. Paul's Cathedral

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PTC New Journalist of the Year 2009, Winner: Hardeep Sandher, Property Week, United Business Media

It was the Periodical Training Council’s (PTC) New Journalist of the Year Awards on Friday in London. There was a maglab competition to win one of five places to go to the awards and a masterclass session with industry experts. We had to submit questions we’d ask during the masterclass and mine got picked:

1. Considering the rapid changes in social media technology (blogging etc.) how far do you see magazines changing from their original – glossy paged – format?
2. What makes magazine journalism continue to stay exciting for you and why did you choose this form to begin with?
3. What always stands out for you when interviewing potential employees?

Unfortunately, after a 6am megabus start (remind me not to bimble  round Cardiff in the dark, in the rain, on my own at 5am again), too long on the Jubilee line and an entrance that makes me thankful I didn’t wear heels, we got to the venue – Vinopolis at London Bridge – just shy of fashionably late, and I didn’t even get to ask any of my questions.

On top of that, I worked out beforehand how to tweet from my non-internet-friendly-phone and Orange coverage completely let me down. You would think social media could overcome the constraints of sitting in a railway bunker but apparently not. Apologies.

Inside Vinopolis where the awards were presented

The masterclass was really helpful though.

Sara Cremer, Editorial Director of Redwood Publishing introduced it and managed to outline how print media is facing its toughest time to date without making me want to cancel my tuition fees and go for my back up plan (marry someone rich).

“The lunaries of the industry”

She introduced the first speaker, Julian Linley, Creative Director at Bauer Media. He started his career as Celeb Editor at Sugar magazine in 1994 before moving onto Heat despite having a self-confessed problem with spelling and no formal journalistic training. He gave us the 10 things he’d learnt from being a journalist:

1. Reach for the stars
2. Don’t be intimidated – just pick up the phone and get what you need
3. Remember your reader – always tune into what they are interested in, not just what you are interested in
4. Don’t take “no” for an answer – don’t get disheartened, persistence pays off
5. Trust your instincts – be passionate and enthusiastic
6. Make and cultivate contacts
7. Learn from your boss – find out how people became successful
8. Be confident but sensitive to get the best out of your sources
9. The paranoid survive – your mantra: “If I don’t get that story, someone else will”
10. Have a life – outside of work

Next up was Steve Barrett, the Editor of Media Week which has just become an online only publication. He tackled the state of the print industry and  how to get a job but maintained that journalism is still the best job in the world – and there are still opportunities regardless of the economy. He didn’t deny the struggle trainee journalists are going to face but did say that the industry is going to have to change its business models if it is to survive commercially. He argues more value has to be added if people are to pay for news and their habits will have to be changed. In terms of advice though:

• Journalism is a craft and we need our deadlines
• Accuracy is crucial
• Work experience is where you really start to learn what it means to be a journalist
• The more skills you have (video, podcast, online) the more attractive you will be
• Don’t be an “email” journalist
• Everyone gets nervous but just pick up the phone
• Shorthand really helps
• Build relationships to build your credibility
• It is not a 9-5 job – no clock watching
• Be a “magpie” and read everything you can
• Enthusiasm is your greatest asset

Mark Jones, Feature writing expert and Editorial Director of Cedar Communications went for a different tact with a presentation called:

You have to sell your soul: The Devil’s Guide to Journalism

1. Never give free advice (although he reckons sharing is actually a good thing)
2. When faced with a fact and a joke – take out the fact: said in relation to feature writing, clearly not news. He said there is a need for more people to write a bit differently
3. Decide if you are a man or a woman – ie. is your writing going to be show-offy? Or straightforward? Don’t ever be an inbetween case
4. Steal, filch and imitate – to understand how people do what they do, rip people off to make something original – study, copy, use and then find your own style
5. Write like an Iranian taxi driver drives, translation: take risks with your writing
6. Get into Private Eye a la Giles Coran, scandal will really help your career, especially as a columnist
7. Insult the Welsh (safe prejudice)… and if that fails…
8. Shoot a baboon a la AA Gill
9. Be a pest – get known
10. Find a pathway to what you really want to do

“Difference is good – be experimental”

Finally, Andy Cowles,  Group Creative Director of IPC Media took us through the importance of covers

• Covers stand outside of us – they say something about the person who buys a particular magazine – a lifestyle accessory and indicator
• Must sell the issue and identify the brand
• Must be reinvented every issue – always the same but always different
• Must be direct – “We live in a world of constant partial attention” – (he was all for us tweeting, posting and pottering about during his talk)
• Need: identifiable colour scheme, news event, great photos, memorable cover line, promises the reader something

What most struck me about all the talks is how the speakers frequently overlapped when it came to enthusiasm, passion and confidence. I really need to get to work on my telephone manner.

And don’t let people tell you print is dead. They are just scared of change.

P.S. The three course free lunch was pretty amazing too

The cast of "Nine"; image courtesy of newsinfilm.com

I saw Precious today and want to talk about it length, but need to process what I saw. I’d also like to get to Push, Sapphire’s book on which the movie was based at some point before the end of the year. For now, I’ll say this. I didn’t love it but I did like it, thought Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique were great, was heartened that my matinee screening had a good and diverse turnout, and think you should see it. But you may want to see it with someone and encourage your local theater to have a safe space where people can go if the movie becomes too intense or touches on frought emotions or horrible memories.

For the time being, I thought I’d mention the preview of a coming attraction. Nine, Rob Marshall’s screen adaptation of Arthur Kopit, Mario Fratti, and Maury Yeston’s musical (itself an adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2), comes out next week. You can view the trailer here.

So, I know very little about this musical. I only recently discovered the origins of its source material, which I haven’t seen (though, based on my less-than-enthusiastic viewings of La Dolce Vita and I Vitelloni don’t hold high hopes for it, unless Fellini allowed for self-deprication in his autobiographical film the way that Bob Fosse did in All That Jazz, a movie of a similar mold that I love). Beyond that, I knew Raul Julia starred in its Broadway debut back in 1982, the original production won many Tonys, and once heard someone sing “Unusual Way” at a family friend’s wedding, which is a really cryptic song choice for such a ceremony.

As for the film adaptation, I know the players. Rob Marshall directed Chicago and is at the helm here. Daniel Day Lewis plays Guido Contini, a tortured director. The women who populate his life are considerable — Marion Cotillard plays his wife, Penélope Cruz his mistress, Nicole Kidman his muse, Stacey Ferguson (aka Duchess Fergie Ferg) a whore he once knew, and Kate Hudson a fashion writer whose character has a song that was written for the movie. Oh, and Judi Dench is Contini’s costume designer and confidant.

So, I totally suspect a two-hour version of Julio Iglesias’s “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” with generous dashes of love for the authorial presence of male film directors. Also, I think this trailer gives you virtually no insight into what this story is about.

That said, I totally want to see this movie because:

1) I’m always interested in film musicals, whether they are good, bad, screen adaptations of stage musicals, or screen adaptations of stage musicals of feature films. Yes, this means I saw Hairspray and didn’t hate it as much as many of my movie geek friends did. But those matters should be saved for another post. 

2) Unlike many people who hated Chicago (several of whom I suspect feel Marty or Roman got robbed out of a Best Picture Oscar for Gangs of New York or The Pianist), I actually enjoyed it. I felt the adaptation stayed true to the source material, deftly staged sequences that are actually going on in the protagonist’s mind, and felt like Catherine Zeta Jones, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly were great. I even enjoyed Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere, actors whom I otherwise would rather not watch in a movie. My only real complaint (which Jon Stewart shares), was that Bebe Neuwirth, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Velma Kelly was replaced by Zeta Jones. Otherwise, bring it.

3) Daniel Day Lewis can sing? The same guy who apparently prepared for There Will Be Blood by recording his character’s voice using early 20th century phonographic technology? I am there.

d) I’m fascinated by the presence of female pop stars in contemporary film musicals. As the golden age of film musicals has long since passed, it seems like the ones that do make it to the screen need a familiar face and voice, and they are almost always women with celebrated recording careers. Just as I wondered what Madonna brought to Evita, Queen Latifah brought to Chicago, and Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson brought to Dreamgirls, so too am I curious what Fergie is going to bring to Nine. While detractors might snigger that it’s fitting for the woman who sang “My Humps” and “London Bridge” to play a whore, I’ll counter that she’s the only singer we hear in the trailer. Yes, that’s her singing “Be Italian.”

e) In the movie, I’m interested in seeing a whore play a teacher to our genius director protagonist man. In real life, I advocate the decriminalization of prostitution and would like sex workers to get worker rights and benefits.

f) While I worry that these women are going to be portrayed as long-suffering, one-dimensional objects of Condini’s affection, I want to see a movie that boasts so many actresses. Especially actresses I enjoy, like Cruz, Dench, and Cotillard, who I thought was wonderful in her Oscar-winning turn in La Vie en rose, an the otherwise so-so biopic on Édith Piaf. I’m also really interested in the series of noir-inspired ads she’s doing with La Vie en rose director Olivier Dahan for Dior.

I haven’t seen this many women in an ensemble since I saw Cruz in Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver (note: Cruz is also starring in Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces and I can’t wait for it to start playing in Austin). 

As an aside, the gossip enthusiast in me is also curious about Cruz and Kidman starring in a movie together. Ever since Tom Cruise split with Nicole Kidman and dated Cruz, I always wonder what their interactions are like every time they show up on a magazine cover together. It’s a catty curiosity, but a curiosity nonetheless. I wonder how they would be portrayed in a movie about Tom Cruise’s life, but want very much for this movie not to be made.

Vogue cover girls Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, and Kate Hudson; image courtesy of latimesblogs.latimes.com

Nicole Kidman and Penélope Cruz bookending Vanity Fair's 2001 Hollywood Issue cover; image courtesy of abc.net.au

Whether this movie is good or not remains to be seen. That said, I’ll see you at the multiplex.

I have been lucky enough to get a Navy SEAL contract overrun of BLACKHAWK! HPFU Uniforms, both the ITS Pants and ITS Combat Shirts. These uniforms were part of the first production batch, sent to the SEAL Teams for testing and further development. Some sizing issues were had, and so some were sent back. They are now available for sale.

These are first production run, so many pieces have hand written labels, or tags that did not make it to the final production line. There are also slight differences here in there. Some examples are the darker velcro, knee pad style, and many others that are more minute. Very rare, what you see in pictures of the Teams wearing HPFU is in this uniform, not what you can buy at any BLACKHAWK! retailer. I have most sizes available in both Shirt and Pant. Contact me for sizing.

Pricing: $250 Each

1. For being pregnant! Though I complain about the ’side effects’ I was convinced it would take me a year and I want a baby more than anything!

Source

2. For my wonderful fiance! Though we work long hours and rarely get days off together he never complains and knows it’s the little things that help.

Source

3. For living in such a beautiful part of the world! Though it can seem insular at times, the local community here is wonderful and we are the envy of many for living in a gorgeous coastal area.

Source

4. Summer! Dec, Jan and Feb bring even more work (and complaints from locals!) to our small business as tourists arrive in their hordes to enjoy our peninsula… but the money is good and much needed!

Source

5. Red wine, Jasper organic coffee & camembert cheese! Although I can’t enjoy any of these due to my pregnancy, I know they’ll be all the better for when I can! Woooo!

Sources here, here and here.

This post was inspired by this one from No Biggie.

Pregnancy Timer: 17 weeks + 3 days

Well? Are you?

The redevelopment of London Bridge station, part of the ambitious Shard development that will soon loom over the City from across the Thames, will surely mean the end of the line for one of the dinosaurs of business advertising, the childishly suggestive billboard for cityjobs.com that has been testing the patience of commuters for years. It ranks right up there with Legs Eleven, the male-oriented club in Birmingham whose permanent NEC display encouraged post-show visitors with the line “You’ve done the deal. Time to celebrate.” Subtle, it wasn’t, but at least it was a straightforward indication of the kind of thing you were in for. The cityjobs display has far more sinister overtones that can’t sit easily in a business community finally being forced to confront some outdated 20th century attitudes. It might have been seemed a good idea at the time, a bit of humour to lift the rush-hour mood, but the joke has worn a bit thin by now.

Seeing the ad for approximately the 1,645th time this morning prompted me to wonder how prevalent sexual innuendo was in B2B advertising today. Not so long ago it was a commonplace, with scantily clad models and cheap suggestivity scattered liberally throughout the pages of trade magazines, gracing ads for everything from industrial machinery to office calculators. But a hasty, and very not scientific, review of some of today’s crop of B2B ads suggests that this is a tradition that may have all but died out. There were entire magazines without a single smutty innuendo. The closest I could find were this slightly bizarre ad for a light sensor in Professional Engineering:

Eh?

And this effort in Medical Device Technology:

The eyes have it...

While the first is just a bit confusing, the second does at least try to tell a story that in some way justifies the foxy lady in the main shot. A very strange story, but a story nonetheless.

Other than these two rather lonely examples, though, nothing. Can it be that the age of sexist and/or sexy imagery in B2B advertising has come to an end? Maybe it really is time to celebrate…

Acquired this patch from a former Navy Seal DevGru Team member. Patch shown in pictures on Crye Combat Shirt in AOR1. Looks to be the same fabric. Likely a custom patch done in country. Only one available, not a replica. Very interesting piece.

SOLD

I received some new items in today:
2x Crye Precision Combat Pants – Size 38R
1x Crye Precision Field Shirt Navy Custom – Size XL/Reg
1x Crye Precision Combat Shirt Navy Custom – Size XL/Reg
1x Set (Top and Bottom) Beyond Level 9 PCU BDU – Size XL
1x Set (Top and Bottom) Wind Half-Zip Shirt + Pant Epic Fabric – Size XL
1x Arcteryx Goretex Rain Jacket – Size XL – AOR1

See the full album: HERE

Contact for Pricing