The Kaiser Edition

Personally, I prefered the floating bridge, I loved it to bits; there was a big black ball that went up and down as the barge floated to-and-fro, which I found funny and so I would giggle. Then they built the Itchen Bridge, and you made me walk over it. I was six years old Mum, and if you look at that picture you’ll see how just bloody long that bridge is! That’s a lot of little steps – although for Marsha, it was a few hundred steps more.

Boy, was I mad at you. I sat down on the pavement and refused to budge if I remember rightly. Marsha was all mummy’s favourite and didn’t say a word but I was having none of it, which got me nothing me than a clip around the ear and a frightful cold (ah, the breeze that whistles off the Solent and across the bridge is a fucking chilly one).

Since Dad called last night, I’ve thought of little else; just this little memory of you, me and Marsha on that windy day on the Itchen Bridge. Funny that.

I love you Mum.

As I have mentioned before, I’m not particularly fond of Starbucks and I enjoyed this little micro-action-event enormously; and I said so too. What I said was this:

The group that brought us “frozen central station” do a brilliant micro-happening which I think (and you know what I think about Starbucks) shows what a rubbish environment a Starbucks coffee shop actually is. Brilliant stuff.

Turned off my computer and started shooting things. Later Ben asked a civil question that has yet to be answered. This is what he asked:

Why does that show “what a rubbish environment a Starbucks coffee shop actually is”?

This post in my attempt to answer that question, and only that question; it will not be about Starbucks as a brand (although that may peek through from time to time), the coffee, their pricing strategy or their bizarre product ranges – for none of these things would truly answer Ben’s question of why I think the video/action shows what a rubbish environment a Starbucks coffee shop actually is.

Firstly, and this is very important, this is a wildly subjective statement as is this post. I point this out because I have come to realise that the sight of a Starbucks coffee shop triggers an irrational emotional response in my brain that is similar to a panic attack. This has nothing to do with the design of the shop; furniture, colours, fabrics, logos etc. etc. and it has nothing to do with the products sold nor even the people that sell Starbucks stuff – but everything to do with the people that go there (customers) and what they do there.

Having thought about Ben’s question for over a week now, I have come to the alarming conclusion that my overall posture concerning Starbucks is stern and rather conservative because what I see in the video and what I experience at Starbucks is interference and a total lack of manners.

They are being very rude.

Continue reading or leave a comment >>

Image take from the film “Surreality” by Carleton Torpin

OK, so I’m slowly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of the thing that I’m working on. So we can now turn our attention to more important matters; like working out which beverage is the ultimate beverage (if you have no idea what this is about then maybe you should read this post first).

The rules of The Ultimate Beverage Bracket are incredibly simple. A host of your favourite bloggers have chosen to champion their ultimate beverage and they can do this in any manner they choose:

• A blog post (written)
• A cartoon (ah, remember Colman’s “DUCK” episodes in the Ultimate Meat Bracket!)
• A video
• A presenation
• erm… something else which they can put online - The Meat Bracket is a really good place to look for ideas.

Then they post it on their blog and go head-to-head with another beverage/blogger and argue why their beverage is better than the other - and the everybody votes. The winner goes into the next round and the losers lick their wounds and wish they had never gotten themselves involved.

And here is the time table for round 1 of the ultimate beverage bracket:

Continue reading or leave a comment >>

I really should be thoroughly ashamed of myself because I completely missed the fact that the 12th of February was Sacrum’s 1st birthday.

Sacrum is one of the only things that I’ve done that I can actually put a date to (up until The Kaiser Edition I tended to delete my blogs and start new ones) and it was actually a comment about Wieden + Kennedy that reminded me that it was in fact W+K that prompted me to invent a “European man with advertising skills”, a set of sharp pencils and a burning desire to work in a “funky” UK advertising agency - even though he worked in a garden centre.

For those of you who may have missed it, this is the original Sacrum B. Rown W+K job application:

Continue reading or leave a comment >>

Frankly, the Ben Sherman website is perfect. It has reminded me that, in days long gone I wore stay press trousers and jumped up and down (stylish like) to The Specials, Madness, The Jam and The Who. I loved the clothes and adored the music.

I really like what Ben Sherman have done - the little flickr sets, the youtube clips and a selection of last fm tracks; all neatly ordered into the decades of my youth (well two of them any way).

Continue reading or leave a comment >>