Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 425

The Anti-Olympic Logo Manifesto

With only one job available for every 83 graduates, it had to happen. Somebody had to put all that wasted creative energy to good use and come up with an alternative Olympics symbol. Inevitably, it was a bunch of avowedly 'naughty' artists headed by Billy Childish (ex-date of Tracey Emin, which says it all) who [...]

Just Don't Call It A Shed

This year's Serpentine Pavilion teaches a valuable lesson; don't judge by appearances.

Every year the pavilion is built from scratch and has a radically different design. This one is Swiss-designed, and offers a respite from the din of the city, as it acts like a walled garden, deadening outside sounds and offering monastic calm.

The architectural event [...]

Daily Greats: Rip Kirby

I always assumed he was English, but the name should have been a giveaway. Rip was the perfect post-war sophisticate, a sort of two-fisted Clark Kent usually found with a pipe clenched between his teeth, sometimes sporting a cravat. He's associated with Alex Raymond, but there were other authors.

To quote the excellent Toonopedia, 'Remington "Rip" [...]

Did Mail On Sunday Cause MP's death?

Christopher Shale, Chairman of West Oxford's Conservative Association and a Cameron lynchpin may have taken his own life at Glastonbury after learning that the Mail On Sunday was leaking his critique of his own party, calling the Tories 'graceless, voracious, crass, always on the take'.

At least, that would have been a classic Mail On Sunday [...]

London's Forgotten Faces

After the post (and interesting reader comment) about Camden junking its past, I was thinking further on the subject.

You can care about the past and not be a nostalgist, just interested. But it's getting harder. Walking down Berwick Street in Soho, through the market that has been there for a hundred years, I was shocked [...]

Re-View: 'Girlfriends'

Ye Old Rose & Crown Theatre Pub is in unlovely Walthamstow, a working class area of London few visitors make it to, but which has an appealing frankness. (One shop boasts a 4 metre-long red plastic sign reading 'Cheap Booze'). Here above the rambling, shabby Victorian pub is an archetypal fringe venue; small stage, [...]

Camden Goes To Hell

Not so long ago Camden was a pleasing hippyish outland of canals, bookshops and antiquarians. Now every square inch of it it sells drug paraphernalia and t-shirts to tourists who are easily parted from their cash. The tube and town are so overcrowded that the locals hide at weekends – which is just as well, [...]

A Younger Bryant & May

I'll be doing some more stories of Bryant & May's earlier days soon, but meanwhile, here's Alan Morgan's charming portrait of their younger selves, which you can also find on his site @ http://bit.ly/izb8eA

Off The Rails And Into The Bookshops!

'Bryant & May Off The Rails' came out in paperback yesterday, and to celebrate I'll be hiding a dozen signed and dated editions around Central London today for you to discover. Even I don't know where I'm going to hide them yet.

But let's have a competition as well: Come up with the name of a [...]

Making A Song And Dance

Despite the horrible mess that is 'Spiderman – Turn Off The Dark', Broadway musicals are going through a bit of a boom at the moment by ditching their hackneyed old plots and taking on real-world issues that audiences can relate to.

Sparked off by 'Legally Blonde', which was lyrically far cleverer than its film origin, [...]