tantramar

Look! No One Died!

I saw this on a building site in Hackney. 153 days! Good job! No one died - what an achievement! This is advertising for Balfour Beatty. Their advertising message is:

                   We didn't hurt anyone.

Not: Look at the lives we're improving by creating superior houses or anything like that, no, simply stating no one died. I find this amazing. This next one is even better

 
Hey you guys, no one died, not even any members of the public - as if that's a great achievement. Struth. How did this get approved? Just incredible.

I'm now awaiting signs from Hackney council that say:

Amazingly no one was stabbed last night,

well done everyone!

The (Spanish) Card Sharks

One of the things about human behaviour that is so intriguing is that we find our own ways of doing things that are sometimes not part of the plan, outside of the proposed system. In Madrid there is a regular flea market that has grown significantly over the years and spills out here and there into various streets around the Calle de Curtidores.
 
Like most markets, dealers of like items tend to group together. Kitchen implements stands sit next to other kitchen implement stands etc etc. The card dealers however (collectible card sets) don't use regular tables. I'm guessing here, but there seem to be two reasons. One, they don't have to pay for their pitch (a big reason admittedly) and two most of their clientele are kids collecting and swapping the cards.

Kids are (believe it or not) smaller that most adults that shop at the other standard height stands. They can barely see over the traditional tables and so the sellers can't engage with their audience. Kids like to get up close to things, as you'll know if you've ever watched kids do anything.
 
So they do what you see in the pictures, they gather around the concrete seats (around trees) where they can get close to the merchandise and see what they want. These seats also allow a lot more kids to see all the cards on offer.

The scenes I saw looked exactly like the ones I recall from being a sticker collector (back in the day), where one person had stickers to swap and everyone would crowd around.

It's nice to see a vendor tap into a behavior of their audience so well.

More Please

I saw this in Williamsburg. More social comment on the actual ads please, no simply around then. Fantastic.

Greenhouse

I saw this in Berlin recently. I love houses with 'greenery'. Then I noticed the graffiti and how the plants were beginning to cover it.

I thought that was somehow charming, as if nature was slowly reclaiming what was once hers. Ivy is a bit like an ultimate slow graffiti but obviously has only one message, repeated again and again and again.

Fire Square

It's funny the stuff you find inexplicably pleasing. I see this little pavement stencil every time I go to Macondo for coffee. I really like it. I have no idea who did it or what it means. I just like it. Sometimes it is that simple.

One Sided Gap

I don't know about you, but I'm really quite relieved the there is a only a gap when getting off the train, not one when you're getting onto it! Perhaps railway stations get more law suits from people falling off trains than people falling onto them.

Usually you can't get on the train anyway...Maybe that's why...

Out Of Harms Way

Loving that.

Treading On Toes

This is pretty funny. In Hackney (as I wrote about here) they are really cutting down (or trying to) on fly posting. On Kingsland Road at least it's worked, well sort of. As you can see people are just pasting up onto existing advertising hoardings. I'm sure this is pissing off the people who are running the Golden Compass campaign!

The pasting posters industry in London used to be controlled in an almost mafia style way. I found this out when doing some guerrilla pr work years ago. You had to be pretty careful where you were active. It may be different now but I can't believe this is a good idea.

I would rather see Modular party information that a poster for the Golden Compass though...

Bishi

Ok, I've not seen this done to a church before... Bishi was performing at Shoreditch church for a few days over the weekend. Bishi is a musician, she does a kinda Indian, folk pop hybrid with a some dance in there and other bits too.

I didn't go, not really my kinda thing but I did like the decoration, well ok I didn't really like it but I thought it was intriguing. Stopping now.

Proud To Be...

I saw this the other night walking around Soho with Fosta. We weren't looking for it... but then why do I feel I have to write that, damn, hole getting deeper.

Anyway I thought it was funny the way they emphasized the Britishness of it. People know they're in London, well most of them. Are we so repressed that our sex shops are more extreme, or is it the opposite?

Any takers? I bet Mr Frith has thoughts on this...

Trampled Underfoot

I saw this last night, on a pavement in Shoreditch (where else). I love Led Zeppelin, who doesn't! The best rock band of all time? Quite possibly, so to see the symbols on the pavement was nice.

It's good to be reminded of what 'good' is, so that bad is more obvious and so we don't settle for 'OK', you know, like Honda tells us we shouldn't.
Whoever produced this, did it with the 'cleaning the ground' technique that I first saw last year. I like it. I'm waiting to see it on some walls.

The Best Shop Front Ever

I don't go down Bond Street much, the place makes me feel a bit ill. But on my way somewhere nicer I passed through and saw this crazy shop front for a jewelery shop. It was of course a temporary one while a re-furb was taking place. While it's impractical for so many reasons I'd love to see more actual shop fronts like this. More like a mystery shopping experience. I'd definitely go in somewhere like this just out of curiosity. Surely there are more interesting ideas in the shopping experience arena to be explored.

Do What I Do

I just saw this Tai Chi action on Wardour Street by the church. I've not seen people doing Tai Chi there before. I think it's great that anyone can go along for free and take part. There's something warming about the idea of total strangers being in complete unity. Made me smile.

Soho Is Being Shafted

There's something going on in Soho. I wrote some time back about the Intrepid Fox which got closed so fast the landlord barely had time to pull a final beer. Back then there were rumours about Paul Raymond building some big fancy street-long club. While there are no more confirmations of this story you can clearly see Raymond has kicked out quite a few people here. There is something going on. Now, if he wants to build a massive strip club I have no problem with that. The sex shops can all close I'm not interested in them. It's all free on the internet, hang on did I say that out loud?

Anyway, the thing that has got me madder than Phil Spector is the fact that the Beach Burrito Cafe has closed. I ate there twice a week, and damn it, I miss it. Finding good Mexican food in London is like finding a cute girl that likes Metallica and Bonnie Prince Billy. Yeah right.

So if you're reading this My Raymond, get in the ring, bring it on, I want My Mexican back and I mean business. Ok... I didn't really mean that, no honestly I didn't. I know who you are and I hear you're very nice. And I'm sure the Mexican was just making me fat anyway. Very sorry Mr Raymond, I don't know what came over me, must have been a silly phase. Do have a nice day.

Hell Hole

I saw this today on a bus stop up the Kingsland Road. Isn't London great!