Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 363

A Story For The Diamond Jubilee

Just because I published ‘Red Gloves’, my own anniversary collection, doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped writing short stories. Commissions continue to come in, but between them I sometimes write to amuse myself. In this particular case I dreamt the idea – dreams are usually too illogical and fragmented to be worked into anything else, but [...]

Our House In The Middle Of The Mall

After the staggeringly awful weather for the Diamond Jubilee’s 1,000 boat river procession (it was exactly like that the day I got married), the sun came out for the concert. Londoners get a bit blasé about processions and tend not to bother – I could have walked down but hated the idea of being stuck [...]

Making A Meal Of It

The most pretentious email I’ve received from a PR hack this week comes from ‘Not a Pop-Up; A Dining Experience’, who writes in beyond-parody staccato sentences about a Milanese chef;

‘Her passion. Her creativity. Her genius. Her menus. Her evolution of Mediterranean cuisine and pastry have earned her a deserved place in the pantheon of [...]

The 1952 Weekend

First came a sighting of these salad-dodging John Bulls at The Derby, then mass outbreaks of fairy-cake tea parties occurred around the country. It was like 1952 all over again, only without the rationing that kept everyone healthy.

The British weather once more proved to be like a mad old friend who always, always lets you [...]

The Key To Faster Writing

The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow you down. Created for manual typewriters in the 1870s, it stopped the keys from becoming entangled as you typed. My mother’s ancient Remington had keys you had to hit so hard it sounded like someone hammering nails into a wall.

Then touch typing was invented, but the QWERTY layout [...]

Cool Stadium Tech

I’m not a huge fan of Coldplay; while some of the ballads are pleasant, their stadium-rock ‘Wave-your-hands-and-go-Wooo-ooo’ songs seem generic to the point of parody – but they know how to give a good show.

Seeing them at the Emirates Stadium last night I particularly liked this bit of tech, wristbands in different colours presumably [...]

Architectural Irony

A few weeks ago they pulled down my local filling station. Then a new filling station was built which looks like an idealised garage from the 1920s, only now it’s actually a trendy restaurant called The Filling Station. What makes it doubly confusing is that the gas station used to sell food. But it’s fun [...]

Re:View – ‘Prometheus’

+NO SPOILERS+

At the World Premiere last night Ridley Scott told us frankly ‘I’m an art director – I’m more interested in the sets than the actors.’ A brave thing to admit before the start of his new film, and yet it showed admirable confidence, because with this prequel to ‘Alien’ we’re in safe hands once [...]

Exhibition: ‘The Brain’

This show at the Wellcome Institute, Euston Road, focusses on the brain as a physical object rather than a difference engine of dreams, so the tone is (appropriately for the Wellcome) medical rather than philosophical. That means there’s plenty of stuff about neurones, electroshock therapy, trepanation, MRI scans and historical efforts to map and preserve [...]

Doomed At An Early Age

This is probably the most disturbing thing I’ve seen all week – tiny fat children trained to sing hate songs in church. Even the Syrians don’t do this. Somebody call child services!

Children singing in Church to enthusiastic… by f100001838231867