People Boris has met with: Lily Allen, Kelly Brook. People Boris has not met with: Tube Union leaders
Adam Bienkov has been covering the tube strike and ferreted out this fun fact: Boris is far too busy to meet with union leaders. Since 2008, the Mayor has had time to meet….
- Rupert Murdoch: 1
- Rebekah Wade, The Sun: 2
- Lord Rothermere, Daily Mail: 1
- Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan: 1
- Lilly Allen: 1
- Kelly Brook: 2
- Tube Union leaders: 0
04 Oct 2010
Pouring the perfect Stella Artois
Last week we had the distinct pleasure of being schooled in the art of beer pouring by the fine folks at Stella Artois. Something called the World Draught Masters competition is happening in a few days, so they took us to the Cookoo Club in Mayfair in order to prove that when you drink an expertly poured pint of Stella, you can tell the difference.
Apparently pouring the perfect pint of Stella happens in nine steps, which at the time seemed crazy. For us, drinking usually involves about one step — swallowing. So needless to say, we went into this outing a bit skeptical. Lo and behold, once our Master Beer Somelier Marc Stroonbandt got to teaching and pouring, our opinions changed. He mentioned Tai Chi Beer Pouring, which sounded weird and non-Belgian, but once we got past the idea that pouring beer is not simply a means to getting beer into a glass (which is basically a means to getting beer into a stomach) our eyes were opened, and the Masterclass got a lot more interesting.
We derived a pretty unfathomable amount of satisfaction from learning to pour such a good looking pint. It even made the beer taste better. Seriously! Nine steps seems like a lot, but trust us, the process is worth it. At the UK Draught Masters on the 13th of October, 20 of the UK’s best bar staff will compete to enter the World Draught Masters completion in London. The World Draught Masters will see 32 countries from across the globe compete in front of 12 judges to become the World Draught Master which includes being Stella Artois’s Ambassador for the coming year, taking over from the incumbent World Draught Master, Avril Maxwell.
04 Oct 2010
London agenda for Monday 4 October
London agenda for Monday 4 October
1. Abandon whimsical storytelling approach and see some proper gags with Alun Cochrane [Spoonfed]
2. It’s Meatball Mondays at the Gallery Mess [Le Cool]
3. Watch Cory Doctorow interview William Gibson at Cadogen Hall [Run Riot]
04 Oct 2010
Semantics or semetics in the Guardian
The Awl found points out a classic Guardian correction
A piece of correspondence on the letters page expressed the view that an attempt by Jewish activists on a sailing boat to break the sea blockade around Gaza this week had been important in “reasserting the Jewish tradition of standing up for the victims of injustice” (30 September, page 35). But due to an editing error, when a version of this sentence was rendered as the letter’s headline a key element, the reference to victims, was missed out, so the heading read: Reasserting the Jewish tradition of defending injustice.
03 Oct 2010
City Hall: The old mayor will battle the new mayor. Again.
It’s the second most powerful job in British politics with an international platform and a huge personal mandate. Successful applicants can expect a plush office with riverside views and invites to all the best parties in the finest city in the world.
And yet, barring some miracle or catastrophe, City Hall will only ever have had two occupants, by the time it enters the second half of its second decade.
I pondered this as I watched Ken Livingstone clinch Labour’s nomination for Mayor. Now I say clinch but in reality the result was never in much doubt.
03 Oct 2010
Off Fleet Street: everything in media isn't a downer
For the most part, the media consists of slick sales-pitches. It wants us to buy something, believe someone, serve somebody. Occasionally, however, a piece comes along that offers more than platitudes and does more than prescribe. These magical little moments occur when, and where, they are least expected. Recently, I picked up the October issue of Red for a swift goggle at Vanessa Paradis and came across ‘Why Giving Up Is Good To Do’. A brief, but imminently sensible article critiquing the notion that whatever it is you’re doing, you have to keep doing it till the bitter end. Author Anna Pursglove’s remark that: “The sky… does not fall in when you admit that you never should have done it in the first place or that it worked for you once, but doesn’t any more,” was exactly what I needed to read at that moment.
03 Oct 2010
Jellied Eels: News from around the boroughs
ONE easyCouncil Barnet hasn’t had the most self promoting month. Whilst a cabinet reshuffle wouldn’t be a surprise following Cllr Mark Shooter’s failed crack at usurping Lynne Hillan as Leader, a business plan evidently is. According to the Guardian, independent auditors have revealed that the council has no proper blueprint. They have ordered that the £870 Million a year body produce one pronto.
Shooter can, however, rest easy knowing he isn’t the only outlaw. The Telegraph reports that officials have black listed Mother-in-law jokes, ‘deeming them sexist and disrespectful to family elders’. This comes as they sought public consultation on cutback areas, faced petitions over possible library closures and criticisms over money spent on garden beds.
TWO Sutton’s new menagerie has also been hit with disapproval. Wooden fish sculptures were incorporated into a major rejuvenation project and cost the council over £10,000. Conservative opposition leader, Cllr Paul Scully, blogged that ‘mocking laughter was the first reaction of those walking by’ the taxpayer-funded playseats.
THREE Rejuvenation in Southwark is touchy, with concerns over framework planning around Bankside, Borough and London Bridge Station. Following the establishment of the Bermondsey Village Action Group, consultation on areas identified for high-rise buildings will continue this month. This comes as bulldozers moved in to Aylesbury, one of Britain’s best known council estates and backdrop for Tony Blair’s ‘forgotten people’ maiden speech. The Press Association states that by the end of construction, which was met with excitement, 50% of the 4,000 new homes will be social housing.
FOUR Camden and Islington have continued their boroughmance, with plans unveiled to share a Chief Executive. The plan, described as ‘groundbreaking’ by the Islington Tribune, builds on previously shared contracts and will put a Superchief in charge of patching up budget holes of over £100 million. It is understood that Camden boss Moira Gibb will take this on. By their powers combined, they will have raging purchasing clout and save tens of thousands of pounds in management costs.
FIVE Less leadership clarity exists in Tower Hamlets, after mayoral candidates played team swap. Labour removed candidate Lutfur Rafman amid conduct complaints, with current Council Leader Helal Abbas Uddin stepping into the tenure. Despite the Londonist’s suggestion that George Galloway would run under Respect, Rafman will now be backed by the left-wing party.
03 Oct 2010
Campaigners hope to save one of London’s finest cinemas. With Alfred Hitchcock's help
Campaigners hope to save one of London’s finest cinemas. And Alfred Hitchcock will help
03 Oct 2010
Facebook Places, Foursquare: let me sin in peace
It’s like scene from Bourne, or an updated Le Carre. You slip silently out of your house, a bag of nerves, tiptoeing down the stairs lest your housemates hear. You scuttle quickly down the road, heart pulsating as you pass your friendly neighbour’s door, dodging the attentions of their amicable dog.
A furtive glance over your shoulder, then a dive down a warren of back alleys, keeping well clear of the exposed main roads. Finally you arrive at your second favourite coffee place (because they know your favourite, they’d be able to find you there. They’ll never find you here). You sit down, in a corner far from the window. You take out your book. You’ve made it; achieved the impossible. You’ve found a moment for yourself in this time-devouring city. It’s nothing less than a modern urban miracle.
At last you can breathe out, and relax. But that’s a mistake. Because before you reach the end of the first page of your book, a chilling voice cuts across the muzak, sending shivers of dread down your spine. Someone wants to talk to you. And it’s worse than a stranger, it’s a friend.
Welcome to the world of Facebook places, of geolocation, of Foursquare. Every where you go, every step you take, detectors in your phone post updates to the world. Anyone can find you. You’re never alone. We’re our own Big Brothers, we’re bugging ourselves. Even Orwell at his most prescient never thought it would come to this.
And that’s before we get to the practical objections. Pleaserobme.com does a nice job of pointing out the idiocy of advertising to burglars when your house is empty while you’re busy checking in at McDonalds. Although you might be forgiven for thinking that anyone who uses Foursquare – essentially a tool for corporations to get idiots to become walking advertisements in exchange for a made up title (you want to be Mayor of your nearest Starbucks? Really?!) – deserves to be robbed of everything they have.
And what of stalking? I like to think that I’m not too weird. I have a job; both my eyes point in the same direction; I don’t collect dead moths. And yet I confess that I always get on the same tube carriage on my morning commute, partly because said carriage is occasionally occupied by a very pretty girl from somewhere out East. Of course, commutes being what they are, it rarely happens that we both end up on the same carriage of the same train. But it brightens my mornings when we do. I would submit that this behaviour, while not entirely savoury, is nevertheless at the socially acceptable end of the stalking spectrum. But suppose I found out this girl’s name, or her online presence? Suppose I discovered one day that she’d checked in to a local pub. Would I resist the urge to drop by? If I did, I would be sliding dangerously towards the “weird” region of the stalker spectrum. Some of us, it turns out, are clinging to normality by a very fine thread. We don’t need technology giving any help to our darker desires.
And the reason all this – the check-ins, the location mapping, the relentless status updates – is a bad idea is that human society functions on deceit. White lies, faked excuses, deliberately missed calls – without these things we’d have no option but to tell each the truth. All the time. About everything. No relationship, friendship or family could survive such an intolerable strain.
Social media evangelists believe that not just online, but as humans in the real world we should be set to share as a default. There’s a naïve nobility to the thought. But they’re disastrously wrong. We need boundaries. We need privacy. We need lies. Otherwise we find ourselves living not in freedom, but in a tyranny of everybody else. So reader, resist! Don’t share. Don’t tell the truth. Be secretive and furtive and coy. That way, together, we can truly build a better world.
03 Oct 2010
Random Interview: Senior Pastor at St Peter’s Barge, Canary Wharf
Photo by Fiona Garden
A man with a beer can is singing “Maybe I’m because I’m a Londoner.” (sic) Canary Wharf’s distinctive skyline stands like a cold and intimidating monument to Capitalism and is perhaps the last place you might expect to find London’s only floating church. However, in the waters of West India Quays a haphazard illuminated cross shines across the water like a lonely and defiant beacon. It’s an undeniably brazen statement in such a sterile and corporate setting. I half expected to meet an ex-mariner or some sort of modern day half crazed pirate convert. In reality, Marcus Nodder, Senior Pastor at St Peter’s Barge, was a smartly dressed family man, completely focused on his beliefs and as uncompromising as the world around him. As the Sunday drizzle hit the windows of the front cabin, I spoke with him as he fed his young son Nelson his evening meal.
03 Oct 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
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