19 August 2004.
Inspired by .
"Things to do:
Cow man says he needs a feed trailer to feed cows.
Land Rover needs several repairs: broken lights etc.
Got to grovel like mad to Van Morrison."
Some highly entertaining lists courtesy of The Independent. More revealing than the lists themselves are the different ways that the answerees have interpreted the question. Derren Brown lists reasons why he stopped believing in God; Ian Jack lists his favourite steam engines. And they get extra bonus points for printing John Cleese's reply:
"List of newspapers that have recently interviewed me, invented a quote, used it as a headline and then failed for over a month to reply to my letter pointing this out:
The Independent"
12 August 2004.
Inspired by .
An understated, but great moment in present-day newspaper column history: Erwin James, author of the witty, often moving and above all human A Life Inside column, is now out.
09 August 2004.
Inspired by .
"In the rich cornucopia of their art, it was always Mr Rodgers who supplied the copia and Mr Hammerstein the corn."
RIP Bernard Levin - the man in the flamboyant Edwardian cloak.
09 August 2004.
Inspired by .
In my time-honoured tradition of giving you, dear reader, exclusive news in the world of "what I've been up to", the fruit of the last eight months' work, previously only cryptically referred to, is all but available.
It's a guide book. It's not a guide book. It's about Barcelona (again). It talks about some very unusual/strange/probably illegal things. It has exclusive photos, illustrations and texts (mostly by me). It has a paper band with the title on that you can remove, so that no-one knows what you're reading. It doesn't contain the word "Gaudí".
The design was by Feriche Black. The publishers are previously-online-only Le Cool. The editor was, erm, me.
Currently on sale in a handful of shops in Barcelona (Lobby, Suspect, Loring Art) for €15, it'll be available to buy online very soon - and you'll have to be sharpish when it is because we're not printing many. In the meantime, there's some preview layouts of it on this page here.
Have a squizz, let me know what you think. Lonely Planet, we have you in our sights.
04 August 2004.
Inspired by .
Proof that I'm not in Catalansas any more:
1) Yesterday's thunderstorm led to drains overflowing and raining upwards after the rain had stopped
2) This was spotted on the way to a real ale festival
3) On the way home I watched my Tube train start to pull into the station, then stop, then declare the entire line out of service
At least nothing has changed in my absence.