Category Archives: Culture

As It Occurs To Me {Radio}

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Richard Herring returned to London’s Leicester Square theatre on Monday night to record the first in a new series of his stand-up and sketch show, As It Occurs To Me. Aided by comic actors Emma Kennedy and Dan Tetsell, with music from Christian Ryley, the show is, put simply, about whatever has occurred to Herring over the past week, whether they are things that have happened to him or his thoughts on things that have happened in the news. It shares a similar feel to his previous radio work, such as Fist of Fun and That Was Then, This Is Now, but because it is an Internet podcast, he can push the boundaries of comedy and decency as far as he’d like without having to worry about editorial interference or broadcasting guidelines.

For eight weeks, the show is recorded in front of a live theatre audience, who pay £10 each, which covers the costs of the production before the recording is released online, for free. It might seem a little odd to pay to see something which is then made available free of charge, but audience members get pretty good value for money. There’s a great atmosphere at the recordings which has seemed to be improving week by week, with final episode of the first series having a real party feel. But also, something new for this second series is that Herring opens with an exclusive 45 minute stand-up set, not available in the podcast, where he interacts with the audience, tells stories from some of his previous stand-up shows and mentions things that didn’t make it into the main show. This week, the audience was told of his experiences of being heckled by an octogenarian at the British Library and the time he wrote his “first book”, when he had a job inputting names and numbers into the BT phone book database, and changed his flatmate’s name in the listings to “Stewart Wee”.

The style of humour is very similar to the best of Lee and Herring’s work. On the surface, much of it is puerile, adolescent and often offensive, but always knowingly so. But it’s the anecdotal comedy that works best, like the story of meeting Scream actress Neve Campbell to discover that she “didn’t know how to pronounce her own name” or the discovery of an old notebook full of stories written by the a nine year old Richard Herring. Also, like Lee and Herring’s work, a lot of the humour comes from repetition, something which is regularly signposted. Favourites from the first series included the show’s only sound effect, a roulette wheel, which made it’s way into every episode, and “Tiny Andrew Collins”, Tetsell’s version of the broadcaster Herring shares his other podcast with, who isn’t a million miles away from Kevin Eldon’s Rod Hull character from Fist of Fun. The new series starts with Herring promising to drop all of the old catchphrases and running gags, but you can be sure that they’ll make a reappearance.

Herring writes the show within 48 hours of the performance. While it’s quite a feat to produce eight fully-formed comedy shows over such a short space of time, it’s just one sign of his prolificacy. As well as AIOTM and the Collings and Herrin podcast, he has been writing a daily blog for the last eight years, recently published a new book, been filling in for Adam and Joe’s BBC 6music show, just finished touring his excellent Hitler Moustache show, is about to bring a new version of his Christ on a Bike stand-up show to Edinburgh and is, occasionally, allowed on the telly.

The first episode of the new series is available now and is worth a listen if you’re not averse to very strong language. It includes the story of the cast’s night out at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, for which the podcast was nominated, which apparently turned out to be a moneymaking ruse by “Ian Sony”, plus a moving and not at all depraved tale of love between one man and one talking hotel lift. If you enjoy it, then it’s worth coming down to the Leicester Square Theatre and joining in the fun.

As it Occurs to Me is available on iTunes or to download from The British Comedy Guide

by Blake Connolly

London Unveils a New Bus Design

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The final design of the New Bus for London, based on the Routemaster, was today unveiled by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and London’s Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy.

The bus will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than existing hybrid buses, and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double decks and much quieter on the streets.

The pioneering design makes use of lightweight materials, with glass used liberally to make it feel less claustrophobic. An impressive glass ‘swoop’ at the rear and offside pick out the two staircases and provide a dramatic visual effect. An asymmetric design for the front-end completes the futuristic look.

The new design features an open platform; similar to the Routemaster of old; and allows the reinstatement of a hop-on, hop-off service. Three doors and two staircases will aid speedier and smoother boarding. There will be two conventional doors and an open rear platform, which has the option to be closed off at quiet times for example during the night.

Boris said: “This iconic new part of our transport system is not only beautiful, but also has a green heart beating beneath its stylish, ‘swooshing’ exterior. It will cut emissions, and give Londoners a bus they can be proud of, complete with cutting edge design, and the freedom of an open platform.

“I expect to eventually have hundreds of these on London’s roads, and for cities around the globe to be beside themselves with envy for our stunning red emblem of 21st century London.”

Wrightbus and Transport for London have been working with Heatherwick Studio as a collaborative design partner taking the lead on the styling of the bus to support Wrightbus in the design and development process.

Wrightbus engineers are working on a static mock up of the bus to be complete later this year with the first prototype to be delivered late next year, the new buses will enter service from early 2012.

See the design of London’s New Bus up-close in pictures and video

by Genevieve Sibayan

Sibling Rivalry {Carl Packman}

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On Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman yesterday David Miliband, Labour leadership contender, former foreign secretary and the apple of Hilary Clinton’s eye, slipped a little under the scrutiny, a rare occurrence for him. Paxman wasn’t particularly cutting, simply asked Miliband whether he thought his brother Ed, also running for leader of the former incumbent party, would do a good job of it. “I don’t want to say anything negative here Jeremy,” Miliband the elder uttered, to which Paxman rightly replied “I’m not asking you to”.
Where might this compulsion to state negatives have possibly come from?
Sibling rivalry has always been characterised as a means of grabbing the most parental resources as possible away from the other, to secure your monopoly over the paedocratic (as in paedocracy, regime led by children) kingdom of a Mother’s affection, and it can rear its competitive head in many ways.
One unnamed crackers genetic determinist put it:
Parental resources are finite, and if one brother gets a large proportion of parental time, attention, and money, then this necessarily means that the other brother will be getting less.
Stereotypes abound, the job of competing for the affection of the Miliband boys’ Father, the Marxist intellectual Ralph Miliband, author of books such as The State in Capitalist Society, would surely have been met with disdain, particularly with regards to Father Miliband’s political commitment to egalitarianism and equal distribution – the sibling rivalry of the brother’s surely would’ve been seen as nothing short of capitalist doctrine consuming their innocent souls like cows branded for ownership proof.
Other sibling rivals like Christopher and Peter Hitchens do battle with ideas – the former once being famous for his firebrand left wing politics, now shoved to one side for the pursuit of a militant atheism and insistence on the benefits of the Iraq war, while the latter brother sits himself on the right wing politically, born again in his Christianity and fully opposed to military intervention in the Middle East.
David and Ed play the nice game, but the elder brother’s small, but telling, admission with Paxman puts another thorn in the side of those who feel that sibling rivalry is just a load of ol’ poppy.
For those of us who have any optimism for the Labour party, that it should bin its recent past with dignity, doing away with those things to which parallels can be drawn with Shakespeare’s As You Like It – “All the world’s a stage” when it comes to our neo-imperialist adventures, or “too much of a good thing” with the thirteen years of New Labour flirtation with the neo-liberal vacuum – ought to be careful what we wish for the future; might the brother’s Miliband be playing the parts of rival siblings Orlando and Oliver, where jealously prevails over a divisive inheritance?

by Carl Packman

You can read more of Carl’s thoughts and articles on his blog Raincoat Optimism.

New York City Timelapse Tilt-Shift Video {Misc-uity}

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Tilt-shift photography is a style of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model. This video ‘The Sandpit’ made by Sam O’Hare is a combination of tilt-shift photography and timelapse. It’s made up of thousands of still photographs, he captures NYC and shrinks it to the size of a model village.

The Sandpit from Sam O’Hare on Vimeo.

To achieve this miniature effect to your photographs, it’s best to shoot subjects from a high angle (especially from the air). It creates the illusion of looking down at a miniature model. A camera equipped with a tilt-shift lens, which simulates a shallow depth of field, is essentially all you need to start. Or you could cheat and do it in post.

Is it Bromance; Carl on the Coalition {Politics}

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Since the first press release by Nick Clegg and David Cameron on Wednesday, it has dawned on the media that any coalition conflict in the near future is unlikely to come from these guys, and their so-called ‘love-in‘.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Ant and Dec; these are just some of the names to appear on the blogosphere or from the tweets of the twitterati to refer to our Prime Minister and the deputy. The BBC and ITN have taken to showing constant replays of David Cameron calling on Clegg to ‘come back‘ during one of their jokes in the back garden of number 10, and Henry McLeish, Labour’s former first minister in Scotland, even accidentally uttered the name “David Clegg”.

If you think Clegg will be Cameron’s nagging Aunty you can think again.

However that is not to say there will be no conflict within the coalition. On the same day as the press release Vince Cable was awaiting confirmation of the equal patch he will have with George Osborne as chair of the committee in charge of banks, only to find that those were not the plans at all.

Osborne’s sources were quick to brush the incident off by saying there had been some confusion on the matter, but it is clear for anyone to see why Ozzy Osborne wants his fingers on the banks, and not to share with his new pal Cable.

In spite of the fact that Osborne in the past has waxed lyrical about getting tough on the banks, and that the Libservatives have drawn up and agreed on a pledge to curb earth shattering bank bonuses, giving Cable the back seat is indicative that our new Chancellor finds dubious some of Cable’s tough plans for banks, namely the separation of high street and investment banking, and his no nonsense measures for banks’ lending requirements.

Sean O’ Grady of the Independent suspects that the honeymoon period inside the cabinet will be over by the 25th of June – the date of the emergency budget setting out a frame for public finances – when key differences in the party will come to the fore.

Cable has already agreed to back down on his plans for a mansion tax on properties worth over 2m, which would’ve saved money for those on the lower end of the tax scale, and Osborne compromised on raising inheritance tax exemption to 1m. Of those two compromises it is not difficult to see which measure could be for the purpose of softening the blow for the poorest in times of austerity, and which measure is in-built ideology.

If you want to identify where that coalition split will be, don’t look at Clegg and Cameron, who have to wear different coloured ties so we can tell them apart, it’s the economy, stupid.

by Carl Packman

You can read more of Carl’s thoughts and articles on his blog Raincoat Optimism.

Carole Stone on how she made The Stone Club a success.

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People who meet me now find it hard to believe that as a teenager I was very shy. I remember that in my first job at the BBC as a secretary I used to loiter outside the newsroom waiting for someone else to go in so that I could slip in behind them, unnoticed. Today I must seem very confident, not to say loud, and I’m happy to speak in public to different audiences. But it’s taken quite a bit of effort to get there, for if I was shy when I was young, my brother Roger was even shyer – pathologically so. To try to get him to communicate at all with other people I just had to make contact with them myself. I think that’s where my interest in other people began and why today I can’t pass up a chance to put people together who I think might benefit in all sorts of ways from getting to know each other. At the last count I have over 40,000 people on my database and two books to my name on what I call the art of networking.

I first got a chance to bring very different people together in a big way when I became the Producer of BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions?, every week trying to get the right mix of politicians, business people, and leading figures from the arts and sciences and the media to make an interesting programme. And when I left the BBC I started a business along the same lines, putting together people who wanted to meet but might not have done so without a helping hand.

Recently I have been working as managing director of YouGovStone, a joint venture company which I set up with the online opinion polling organisation YouGov. I have a panel of about four thousand people which I consult on behalf of clients who want to know what opinion leaders – what I call the ‘Influentials’ – are thinking on a host of different topics.

And then in May 2009 I did something I have wanted to do for ages, I opened a club – TheStoneClub. We don’t have a permanent home: instead, members meet for different events in one of several venues in central London. My motto for this virtual club is ‘A Meeting of Minds’, and I have two tiers of membership. Silver members come to what I call my ‘In Conversation’ evenings, to listen to and question speakers like Lord (Brian) Griffiths of Goldman Sachs, Jeremy Hunt, MP, the Tory shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and Tom Bower, author of devastating blockbuster biographies about people like Richard Branson, Robert Maxwell, and Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed. Future guest speakers I’ve booked for these events include the Doug Richard, formerly of Dragon’s Den and entrepreneur.

Gold members tend to be more business-oriented, and for them, in addition to my ‘In Conversation’ events, I arrange breakfasts with speakers like Vicky Pryce, the Director-General, Economics, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Adrian Monck, Managing Director, Communications, at Davos, the World Economic Forum. I’m much looking forward to welcoming Sly Bailey, the Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror, the UK’s largest newspaper publisher, to a breakfast soon.

Running a business that is all about people is really demanding, and of course there are times when I’m cross with myself for not having looked after one of my think tank or club members as well as I think should. But I’ll never give up trying, because to me people are a solace, the real joy of life.

The Stone Club is a fantastic private members club. For more info or to join, follow this link: http://www.yougovstone.com/content/the-stone-club.asp

BBC to project real time results onto 'Big Ben'

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I say Big Ben, what I mean is St Stephen’s tower.
The BBC are projecting an unbranded bar chart of the results as they come in and it “will feature a “winning line”, representing the 326 seats that any party will need to win to be sure of an outright victory”
It’ll provide a count of the number of seats won by the main three parties as well as those won by smaller parties and independent candidates.
It’ll be up until around 0530am on the 7th.

Here’s more info on the BBC site.