Russell Davies

no change

"There was never a Golden Age of the railway. I can remember a 'late-running arrivals board' at Euston before the war. It read up to 99 minutes late. One day in 1939, every slot on the board was full. We southern types called the LMS 'ell of a mess'. The recent privatisation has been a much bigger mess. If there was anything like a Golden Age, it was between 1900 and 1920, before the car got into its stride."

Ian Allen - king of trainspotters - in The Observer magazine

target redefinition

good phrase I heard on the radio yesterday - 'nothing moves faster than a set of goal-posts'

without borders

Border's on Oxford Street recently re-organised their shelves; do they have a covert anti-business agenda?

authenticity

the kids talk authenticity (from The Face)

riot pasta

An Italian restaurant in Central London during the 2001 riots. Shows how quickly the receieved wisdom of globalisation has been absorbed and normalised

account management

stuff from the mailroom by david rensin

'what's needed' says jeremy zimmer, a william morris mailboy in 1979, who for a time ran the training program at uta, where he is a partner and legend, 'is a person who says, 'hey, i can take care of it,' and then takes care of it.' = page xvii

'working at a talent agency is like working for the cia - you get to know what's going on at the networks, at the studios, you have access to all this talent, on-screen and off. At sony or disney or nbc they only know what they know about themselves. At an agency you know everything about everybody - even in the mailroom.' rob carlson, william morris

the coverage is too long. Do coverage of the coverage. - page 249

timeless

This was a letter written to the proprietors of the refreshment room at Swindon station in 1845.

Dear Sir,

I assure you that Mr Player was wrong in supposing that I thought you purchased inferior coffee. I thought I said to him I was surprised you buy such bad roasted corn. I did not believe you had such a thing as coffee in the place; I am certain I never tasted any. I have long since ceased to make complaints at Swindon. I avoid taking anything there when I can help it.

yours faithfully

I.K. Brunel

quoted in Parallel Lines by Ian Marchant

cliche

i just discovered the origins of the word 'cliche'. It was originally a combination of words so common that printers didn't bother breaking up the words in type-form. When you know that it somehow becomes a more interesting idea. Makes you think about the visual/advertising equivalent.

a situation

billy wilder on movies; "An actor walks through a door, you've got nothing. An actor enters through a window, you've got a situation."

tap jam

Choke-points in traffic infrastructure are the interesting environments of the future. We spend all this time not travelling, people are bound to look for ways to put it to better use. The Tap Jam is a great example. People who tap to entertain those stuck in NYC traffic jams. Here's some pictures from 2002. I heard about it from a program on NPR called The Next Big Thing.