Fish on the Underground - Tube Photo of the Week

Or let sleeping sharks lie


Great photo taken by Chris Meade & Hattie Coppard at Experimental Play.

At least I think it's a shark and not a giant version of Nemo.

Speaking of sharks and whales or large fish on the London Underground, there have been some new Animals on the Underground spotted.


You might remember when the brill company Animalsontheunderground which looked for animals "found" in the Tube map had some fishy underwear as part of its merchandise. Sadly the elephant trunks and fishy knickers have gone, but the site still has T-shirts with the found animals on them.

However some time ago I was alerted to some new animals found in the London Undeground map. My favourites are the mouse, as you get a number of these really on the Underground:


And the platypus - just because I like its little eyes


If anyone wants to stare at the Tube map for several hours to discover others, feel free. It's a similar pastime to playing Magic Eye with the upholstery or moquette on Tube seats but at least they make for better T-shirts.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Permalink

Shepherd's Bush Tube stations opening soon

We're getting nearer and nearer to the date when the brand new Shepherd's Bush Market London Underground station on the Hammersmith & City Line will complete its transformation and Shepherd's Bush on the Central Line re-opens. And the whole Westfield Shopping Centre opening with the ramifications for the other new Tube & Overground stations around Wood Lane, White City & Shepherd's Bush.

Many people (including lots of BBC folk who work at BBC Television Centre in White City) have been taking photos of the ongoing developments around there. My favourites include an "ancient" advert about phone lines on the Tube, finally being replaced at White City. This was spotted by James1am


I also love Shepherd's Bush station on the Hammersmith & City Line and it's gradual transformation into Shepherd's Bush Market station.




The last two pictures taken on Friday by Caleb come via the London Reconnections blog. The comments about the blued out space where "Market" will eventually go, are quite fun. Jon said: "I saw some of these signs at the weekend and I now think it should be known forever more as Shepherd's Bush space Station".

Caleb made the interesting point "This is going to be a decent pub quiz question, for a little while at least. This is the only Tube station with 'Market' in the name right?"

There's a lot of discussion on that blog as to when the new stations will open. The BBC reported that Shepherd's Bush Overground station was due for opening on the 29th September 2008. Has it opened? Shepherd's Bush on the Central Line is supposed to re-open on the 5th October 2008 and the brand new Wood Lane station on 12th October 2008.

It's all a case of wait and see as Transport for London themselves aren't committing to any dates as the multi million pound partnership is "due for completion in October and November 2008".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, September 29, 2008 Permalink

Web Developers & The Tube - Bar Camp London 5

I've just finished my first ever BarCamp this weekend and even though I'm not a developer, managed to survive it. BarCampLondon5 was held at eBay's UK head office in Richmond and was a weekend of great sessions by developers, geeks, techies and non techies (like myself) who all shared ideas, hacks, web apps, stories & photos in a free "un conference" event & overnight camp.


The event was sponsored by companies including the Yahoo! Developer Network (loving their API map above & just hope London Underground don't sue them!), MOO.com, Times Online, Microsoft and MyMuseli.

The atmosphere was really friendly & encouraging and even though I thought I wouldn't understand a word of what was being said, by the end of the Saturday I had put my name on the board to run a session on Sunday afternoon.


Thanks to the people who turned up to see it and if anyone wants to see the slides (about blogging breakdown and how to avoid it) let me know. I'm planning on doing the whole thing again next Saturday at Social Media Camp & will put the link to the slides up after that.

There were some very interesting sessions at BarCampLondon5, including a great one by Tom Whitwell from the Times Online about headlines and what makes people click


I sometimes spend a while deciding what headline to give a blog post and usually do write it first, although at times I can absolutely agonise over what it should be. Looks like the agonising is actually worth it.

Salim from thelondonpaper also gave an enlightening talk about what thelondonpaper are planning for its website and how they will measure its success. Apparently 10% of Londoners do have a preference for their free papers. Also some spontaneous research they carried out on the Tube yielded a pretty different response to the more structured survey they ran about website usage.

Andy Budd ran a fascinating session - Architecting Human Behaviour - on Sunday morning about architecture and how its planning can really effect how people behave, particularly in public "third spaces" which are neither work or home. Although he didn't mention station architecture or planning, I'm sure a lot more thought is going into Tube station design now. Just a shame that some of the hideous interchanges at King's Cross station didn't have a bit more planning behind them.

You can follow my random twitterings throughout the weekend on Twitter and a few photos from the BarCampLondon5 are here.


I also met some more people there who'd been at Thursday's Twestival, which was a party / charity Harvest Festival where you could've met some of the faces behind the avatars on Twitter. Many people who comment on & read this blog were there (nice to meet you all) and my photos from Twestival are here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, September 29, 2008 Permalink

Barack Obama on the Tube

This teaser campaign on the Tube is driving loads of people mad. Jake Stride spotted the following poster at Bank London Underground station and wondered what it was for:


"Barack outside number 10. No company brand or anything, what's it about?"

Suw Charman over at Flickr has been having the same discussion and you might have seen some of the other pictures in the apparently random set - including a golden football, a chubby kid in swimming trunks, a woman doing yoga (pictured below), the CERN Large Hadron Collider and David Cameron walking past a statue of Winston Churchill.


I wonder the same. I'm sure there'll be some follow up in a few days time, otherwise it's all very puzzling, yet as a teaser campaign it's certainly ... errr .. teasing.

If you've any idea how they are all linked put us out of our misery. Please!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 26, 2008 Permalink

Air Conditioned Tube Carriages "unveiled"

Later on today at Euston, Boris Johnson will launch some air conditioned carriages on the London Underground. Well they won't actually be working (not like we need them in late September anyway) and we won't be getting them for a few more years either. And they're not on all lines. Just the Metropolitan Line from 2010 and the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City Line trains from 2011.


I know that there are supposedly brilliant reasons as to why it's difficult to have air conditioning on the Tube, and that in spite of six figure rewards and competitions and searches for an Operations Manager to cool the Tube at TfL, I still can't understand why we haven't got it on all lines now & not by 2011 on just a few lines.

When I was in New York I sat in some unbelievably cool carriages on their subway, and yes, I know ours is older, but it's not that much older. Even in the early part of the 20th century New York's subway had fans in the carriages (see photos from my New York Transit Museum trip below)




I seriously don't remember seeing any fans in old carriages in our London Transport Museum. Did we ever have them? Or was there some sort of health & safety reason for us not having them?

Oh well, look forward to the carriages when we eventually get them in three years time.

Update - For those who like such things a mock up of the new trains will be on display at Euston Square Gardens for everyone to view from Saturday 26 September to Thursday 2 October. "Passengers will benefit from air conditioning, walk-through carriages, CCTV coverage in each carriage and improved accessibility." See the press release from the GLA for more & Londonist have got some picture of Boris "admiring the spacious interiors of the new carriages".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, September 25, 2008 Permalink

Good or Bad ad placement at Stockwell?

Depending on how you look at it, this is either genius ad placement at Stockwell or pretty unfortunate.


As the inquest into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell London Underground Station continues, leading to prosecution of the Met Police under the health & safety legislation, some eagle eyed person took the photo above. Thanks to David R for forwarding me the photo and to Coconino who identified himself as the person who took it.

The headline for the ad for De Niro & Pacino's new film Righteous Kill says "There's nothing wrong with a little shooting as long as the right people get shot".

Update - The Guardian have just picked up this photo & post and made the following point - "Unfortunate juxtapositions are an inevitable hazard of billboard advertising. A colleague reminds me that a poster for The Descent was on the side of the bus that blew up on 7/7. Posters for the Arnie film Collateral Damage were hastily removed on 12th September 2001. Last night on Comedy Connections' Rising Damp special you saw a horribly apt ad for the 1984 production of Joe Orton's undertaker comedy Loot, which Leonard Rossiter was starring in when he died backstage.

Can you think of any more? And what is it that's interesting here, exactly? Do we just like a morbid laugh? Or does this sort of thing jolt you into feeling queasy about entertainment that treats death glibly?."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Permalink

New York Transit Museum - Day 9 in New York

For my penultimate full day in New York, I decided to make the trip over to Brooklyn to New York's Transit Museum. This was going to be quite interesting as the lovely staff at the London Transport Museum have been really great & supportive to me & the blog. Not only have they done a great job with the Museum itself (£22 million pounds was a lot for the refurbishment - but I believe it was money well spent), but they're really reaching out to people online with Flickr scavenger hunts, Facebook groups and invites to bloggers for launch events.

Could the Transit Museum in New York live up to this?


It was a great idea to use a real subway station as the basis of the Museum as it meant that display of subways at at the lower level gave you a real feel of what the old carriages looked like. So rather then the walking back through time or taking an lift back in time at London's you get to walk through carriages and you can clearly see the change from the padded seats and warm feeling, to the much more cleaner, brighter yet uncomfortable feel of the modern carriages.


So there's certainly lots of rolling stock for transport enthusiasts to pore over, however, I prefer the more human side of underground systems, and had a field day looking at the rules and regulations and the old ads in all of the carriages.

Spitting on the subway appeared to be a major problem, as did meddling:


Spitting could get you a $500 fine, a year in prison or both!

There were also some escalator rules about the use of canes and umbrellas


The Subway Sun (not like our super soaraway Sun newspaper) had a load of rules or helpful advice on how to behave well on the subway. Ranging from keeping kids on your laps to staying away from kids if you had a cold.




In the 1950's there were a series of Subway contests to find Miss Subway. It might seem a little weird but I've got some old London Underground in house magazines from the 50's and 60's which also ran beauty contests for London Transport staff


However, these Miss Subway contenders appeared to be commuters rather than staff and the contest to find the "loveliest subway riders" was also televised - blimey.


Some of the in car adverts were really typical of their time but also showed some cultural differences between the UK & the US - low alcohol content in beer and high salt usage - maybe it's just me, but I've noticed a lot of people in the US automatically putting salt on food without tasting it first.




There's more old in carriage ads in my full Flickr set for the Transit Museum - including a brill one for a $5 Brownie camera "almost a Kodak" & a some "paid political advertising" about sweeping the Communists out of the Government.

The Recording Room carried a display of publicity shots and film posters where the New York subway had appeared in US movies. These went back to silent picture days, some 1950's gang / crime style films, Disney's Fantasia - right up to the Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Saturday Night Fever (with John Travolta in a graffiti'ed carriage) to Subway Stories








However, one of the guys who works at the Museum said that they filmed the Saturday Night Fever shots at the museum itself. When I chatted with him and another museum towards the end of my afternoon there, they said that the authorities in New York have spent so much time cracking down on graffiti that they didn't even want to put a graffiti'ed carriage in as a historical piece.


There is a poster showing how the subway went through a decline in the 1970's and cites the zero tolerance and crackdown on graffiti by 1989 as a "visible symbol" of the subway's renewal.

To close I wanted to show some of New York's posters promoting journeys you can make on the subway and areas that are easily reached by it. It's New York's equivalent of some of our Art on the Underground posters




The two above were my favourites as they seem to borrow from Impressionism (the 2nd one is very Van Gogh) and that Russian Industrial look (don't know the name of it).

So how did it measure up to London's Transport Museum. Yet again with New York & London, similar yet really different. London's really beats this hands down, but then New York's hasn't had £22 million refit. London's is about four times the size of New York's and has a lot more interactivity with the exhibits.

New York's was very cheap though - only $5 entry and yet it was really, really quiet for a Saturday afternoon. It costs £10 to get into the London Transport Museum and it's always been teeming with people when I've been there. The shop in New York was also much smaller, but had lots of well priced gifts. My stash is below:


I had a great afternoon there though and took a shed load of photos, you can see the full set here. There's not a lot of the trains themselves and none of the buses and trams that were also on display, but I hope it'll give you a good feel of the museum, which was certainly very good value for the five bucks entry fee!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, September 22, 2008 Permalink

'Fantasy Piccadilly Line' talk - free tickets up for grabs

The London Transport Museum are holding a talk by artist Nils Norman on the 23rd September at 6.30pm. He will be discussing his public commissions and poster artworks, including 'Ideal City' and 'Fantasy Piccadilly Line' for Piccadilly Underground station and Piccadilly Line trains. "Norman's work considers alternative urban politics through a mix of art, activism and dark humour."


More recently Nils devised a media campaign to encourage people to explore Liverpool's parks and has put together a series of posters for bus shelters in Portsmouth. He's currently working on a school playground project for the new Golden Lane Campus in East London.

The Museum have offered me a few tickets for any blogger who fancies going along. Please send me an email or leave a comment below with your blog if you are interested. Full details are here.

PS don't forget to vote for your favourite pictures for the Innocent Village Fete, me, Anna & Richard are in with a chance of winning a year's supply of smoothies!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 19, 2008 Permalink

New York Subway Fashion Victims

It's Friday and time for the SFV's - that's Subway Fashion Victims. As I'm in New York it's a look at commuters on the Subway, rather than the Tube or London Underground who have "taken a style and made it their own"!

As I said at a speaking thing I did on blogging for Fishburn Hedges about two weeks ago, this is a section that people either love or hate, there seems to be no mid ground with the Fashion Victims. Alex Pearmain from the agency told me that I'd created a mood of paranoia in their office after my talk as the women were all scared they'd appear on here one week. One lady who lives at Turnham Green was particularly worried, as it's a Tube station I pass through every day!!

Anyway, I had to be a bit more careful with the SFV's. After all I was this strange Brit in the Big Apple, who still doesn't really know the Subway rules and I imagine that "taking pictures of people in slightly dodgy outfits on the Subway" isn't too high up on the list for how to make friends and influence people out here. But in the interests of people who love this section and have actually been emailing me to say they can't wait to see the New York Subway Fashion Victims - here goes:

Trust Me I'm Irish

It's still T Shirt weather in New York and in the main T-shirts and jeans seems to be what the vast majority of folks on the trains are wearing. This one wasn't taken on the subway but at New Rochelle station, where I'm staying (no, I'm not staying at the station - you know what I mean).


He was heading into New York City though, so it counts. I particularly liked how he's got all the "green thang, going on". Green shamrock, green trackie bottoms and green bag. Yep, you're doing the "I'm proud of my Irish roots" with gusto.

Rules to this game T-Shirt


I mentioned not knowing the subway rules yet and I like the guy with the black T-shirt. He's doing the baggy low slung jeans thing, but as he's a little on the larger side he's covered up his non-skinny "ass" with a long T-shirt with a slogan on the base.

Chucks on the Subway

It almost wouldn't be a fashion victim post without some Converses. Thanks to doing these posts I'm actually a massive Cons convert and am probably going to head off to Famous Footwear or somewhere similar to see if I can bag some bargains.


Converses and Nikes seemed to be the most common Subway footwear and I like how this guy's mixing them with some nicely worn & frayed combat looking shorts.

Super baggy & Super long shorts

Speaking of shorts - here's some that don't work:


It's that extra long extra baggy plaid shorts look which I know is really common in the US and is sadly making its way over to the UK too. I just think it makes guys look like oversized toddlers.

The Norman Rockwell Americana Look

Finally, I had to capture this old guy because he had such a mix of looks, it was great. It was sort of God Bless America, meets Uggs, meets American Gothic meets Kmart.


The guy was in his late sixties I reckon, yet the bag and the Uggs are straight up millenial, so he's doing his best to keep bang up to date. Bless him. He rocked.

That's it for now for the "victims" in New York. Weirdly Alberto from Unltdworld who's over from the UK told me at Wine 2.0 last night that he saw one my fashion victim pictures on display on a Flickr stream of pictures in a cafe in New York City. It was of one of my favourite victims Elvis the pug dog - my first canine fashion victim:



I'm soooo pleased that the little fellow has made it over here.

Until next time the previous fashion victim post is here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set. Plus a few pictures from Wine 2.0 at Webster Hall in New York City (will blog about this later) & Grand Central "No sitting rule" being broken!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 19, 2008 Permalink

Rush Hour on the New York Subway

You've had a bit of a rose-tinted "tourist" view of the subway from me so far, well apart from the Panther / Sloth guy and his mate, but yesterday I used it for the first time in the rush hour.

That's where it was much more similar to the London Underground. It was really crowded, really hot, rushed, people were scowling and grumbling at others with luggage on the escalators. You couldn't really stand around like a dork looking at maps or taking pictures of buskers without get bumped into from behind. Fortunately when I managed to get onto a train, there was a kind of quiet stillness & relief that you were going somewhere and not caught up in the melee of the platform transfers.


I found myself staring at the woman with the worry beads below, as her calming influence was transferring over to me, and I started to feel a bit less hot & bothered.


It didn't last too long though as I made my way to another interchange and joined yet another slow moving, long and narrow queue for the escalators


However, it was all quite orderly & it's not just us Brits who queue well for things. We might be professional queue'ers but the Manhattanites would give us a run for our money. They only got really impatient with people carrying massive luggage and according the rules below, it's actually an "offence to carry bulky items likely to cause inconvenience or a hazard to yourself and others".



New York subway drivers all seem to wear ear protectors to protect them from the noise down there. Maybe just seeing them wearing them, made me think that that their trains appeared much noiser than our Tubes, although as yet, I've not seen any commuters with the massive noise cancelling headphones on that are quite common in London.


Coming home was much calmer and I felt a bit like the sleeping dog in the bag below, wishing that someone would carry me.


Almost by accident though I saw some amazing sculptures on the platform at 14th Street. I just happened to move a little further down and out of the corner of my eye saw some bronze little figures on the platform floor




There were a whole range of them and they were featured little money characters, either being eaten by alligators coming out of New York's sewer or they just hung around watching the trains.

There were some more great mosaics around with a watery theme with quotes from James Joyce, Ovid and err... Mother Goose




Finally, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of night time work that was going on around travellers. The air reeked of bleach & cleaning fluids and there was was loads of spraying, scrubbing and general tidying up at about 11.45pm


The photo on the right shows a woman at a public pay phone, which was also quite novel as in London public pay phones at platform level seemed to have disappeared years ago, well at least I don't remember having seen one underground for ages.

There a more pictures of the sculptures, mosaics and other commuters on my set from Day 5 on in New York and some pictures of the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Staten Island Ferry and Greenwich Village in my set from Days 3/4 in New York.


I'm going to try to pop into their Transport Museum over the next few days as there were some cool NYC Subway badges and bags in the Museum of Modern Art shop. But I imagine there will be a larger selection in the Transport Museum itself. Now it's time for some lunch with the UK Digital Mission guys & gals at the Web 2.0 Expo which I'm visiting while I'm here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, September 18, 2008 Permalink

Innocent Village Fete Shortlist - help me get lucky!

Just found out through the power of Twitter that one of my pictures from the Innocent Village Fete back in the summer (yes summer, remember that, it lasted about 2 days) has reached the finals for best photo contest. It's a contender for best overall fete picture. So if you like it please vote



My mate Anna (mondoagogo)'s picture is also up for a vote (Best Bunting) as is fellow Twitterer Tall Rich (photoverulam) for Best Fete Game pictures - so please vote for us all!!!

Voting closes on the 21st September and the winners will be announced on my birthday 24th September. Thanks so much!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, September 17, 2008 Permalink

Uptown, Downtown on New York Metro

After my 3rd full day in New York, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of the subway now. As some of you have said in the comments on my previous post, you thought that I'd be able to find it easy after the London Underground.

"One of my friends told me she wished she's been on the Tube before she first tried to deal with the NYC subway, because the Tube made so much more sense to her, and when she next went to New York, the logic seemed to transfer over and make it easier for her to figure out how to get around. Which is a long way of saying I'm not surprised you're having such an easy time getting around." said alto2.

Greg said "The subway there isn't so scary, especially for someone from London!"

It's not been entirely easy or unscary though. Specially my first time of using it in the evening on Sunday night. I travelled "downtown" from Grand Central to Greenwich Village and that meant having to get the S or the shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square or 42nd.

This looks like something out of Dr Who

Taking the S to get to Times Square might have been faster than taking Line 7, but that's were encountered my first scary moment. The carriage was pretty full and the train seem to sit for an age at Grand Central before moving off the one stop. It was about 8pm and a couple of guys got on who were clearly on something - not sure if it was booze or drugs.

One of them loudly made his through people to get to an empty seat at my end of the carriage. With much "F**k you, mother f**ka" and "Get your ass up here" to his mate. He slouched in the corner and was at that partial "I'm passed out" and partial "I can take you on if you challenge me" stage.

His friend eventually made it down to the carriage but first gave some rather surly advice to a woman who had her bike on the train. "Hey lady, you're blocking the passageway here. Can't you move that thing?". She sort of managed to move it, with an almost inaudible apology & he wound his way through people, all the time being loudly "encouraged" down by his half panther - half sloth mate.

I did the London thing of keeping my head down & not trying to stare at Panther Sloth guy who was only a seat away from me. All the other locals had a similar idea. The general light mutterings of conversation virtually stopped and you could sense that we all felt that something might kick off if someone did the wrong thing. Whatever the wrong thing here might have been.

That's the thing about public transport in a strange city, you don't really know what the unspoken rules & etiquette are. You might be able to understand the maps and the insistence on having two names for most stations (Times Square 42nd Street - 66th Street Lincoln Center - Christopher St Sheridan Sq - we don't do that in London!), but you also need to know the "rules".

There are Rules to this Game - seen at New Rochelle Station

After what seemed like an eternity waiting at Grand Central - with more "Mother f**ka's" and "Why don't you get up and let this pretty lady sit down?", directed his mate about a young woman standing next to me, there was a collective sigh of relief when the train finally decided to move.


Earlier that same day I had got Line 7 or the purple line or whatever it's called in New York to Times Square 42nd Street and at the interchange there saw some fab mosaics paying tribute to the industries there.

We actually have a very badly lit version of our tribute to Leytonstone's best known director in the East End of London. There's a little known series of 17 mosaics which honour Alfred Hitchcock who was born there.





The ones at Times Square were equally as detailed & colourful, but as with London, most people rushed by them, even in the daytime & hardly seemed to notice them




Overground architecture seems to get a snapped a lot more in New York, just as tourist spots above ground in London do. But at least these mosaics in New York had some lights thrown on them.

There were also some stunning Klimt like golden mosaics at 66th Street Lincoln Center


I've mentioned in the previous post how clean the carriages on the Metro appear (admittedly there are still mice / rats on the tracks scuttling around the pools of dirty water), so the cleaners don't seem to have as much work to do as in London.


This woman came on my carriage, had a quick look round, and like the Fonz from Happy Days looking in the mirror, must have thought "Heeeey, nothing needs doing", and went on her way.

If Heroes ads have taken over Grand Central - well at the least the Metro North Railroad side - Showtime & Dexter ads were all over the Broadway side of the Metro.


It was quite a shock to see UK faces like Billie Piper from Secret Diary of a Call Girl & Jonathan Rhys Myers from The Tudors sharing space with David Duchovny & Michael C Hall. Also a nice reminder that some bloggers can make the "big time" (specially when they write about sex). My blog was highly commended in the Guardian's Blog Awards 2003 the same year that Belle de Jour won her award for best written blog. Look her now, she has two successful TV series & a book based on her blog and I, well ... err ... I'm sitting in a hotel room in a New York suburb blogging about her.

There's more pictures on the Metro & train journey into town from my 2nd full day in New York on Flickr.


The set includes my day in Central Park & some New York pigeon shots for Brian Pigeon my favourite pigeon blogger back home in London. You might want to check out Brian's theories of the Circle Line being London's very own Large Hadron Collider - you can now see where the term "bird brained" comes from.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Permalink

First impressions of New York Subway

So, I did it. I travelled on the Metro in New York for my first time ever yesterday. As someone who's been blogging and writing about the London Underground for about nine years now (crikey) what did I think?


I have travelled on subways in Mexico, Paris, Lisbon & Toronto, so this wasn't my first non London Tube experience. It was really, really familiar but totally unlike anywhere else too, which is obvious really. Buskers on the subway carriages actually weren't treated with scorn or total indifference (not sure if it's legal in New York - "on carriage" busking on the Tube was never legal).


It was busier than London I reckon. I was on the Metro at about 11am on Saturday morning & I left it at about 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, and the stations I travelled through were pretty crowded. In fact the first train was too crowded to get on. But that may have been because engineering works meant that some lines weren't fully operational.

A guy next to me sighed when the woman over the subway PA was politely telling everyone about the alternatives. "Just get on with it, and get us there", he said to no one in particular. I kind of knew how he felt!

However it was refreshing to actually hear what she said very clearly (even though it may as well have been Greek to me as I had no idea what she was talking about). I also liked the recorded announcer who said "Watch the gap" - it sounded more like a cheery and proud invitation than our drony, yet "quaintly" London "Mind the gap".


Grand Central Station however was much less crowded that I was expecting. It's an amazingly palatial station, cool, high ceilings, wonderful zodiac murals above and like a cathedral with stunning windows.




However it's a showcase and I'm sure gets more loving care than the bits that fewer tourists photograph. The platforms I used from my train which came in from New Rochelle were completely taken over by Heroes advertising:


That was another surprising thing. I was expecting loads and loads more ads down there. So far Paris has to win for the subway system with the most ads. Some station walls are literally covered with ads (eg Trocadero), so much so that it's hard to read the station names - like in Edwardian times in London when they first started experimenting with ads.

Like London's Tube there were some nice architectural bits at some stations


But also like London the stations were tatty in places and could do with a visit from some serious spring cleaners.

The great thing was the air conditioning on the trains themselves. It was a welcome relief, however it made the stations seem like infernos from hell, though as there was nothing to cool people at platform level. We sometimes have the opposite problem with our big comedy fans cooling down interchanges and areas around escalators but nothing to keep us cool on the Tube itself. You can't win!

Their public service ads were less inventive than ours though. There was a vague attempt with the one saying don't run on the escalators


But the "do not lean on the door" & "do not hold the door" signs were fairly basic in comparison to our more err visual ones about not holding the doors open:




Yes I know what it might remind you of!

If you've not been following my Twitter feed, you might not know that I'm staying outside of New York City itself and am in a suburb called New Rochelle. It's a really simple and cheap (well in comparison to London) 30 minute commute into Grand Central station.


I've probably spoken too soon about the "simplicity" but I've bought a week's unlimted travel into New York for $54 dollars & I paid an extra $20 to get $23's worth of Metro subway value added to it. To me this is a Bobby bargain.




The Metro North Rail Road runs from Connecticut into New York and provides a commuter link to NYC taking in suburbs around the Hudson River & on the East Coast like New Rochelle, Harlem, Pelham and Mount Vernon.


That's it for today. I'm sure I'll be filling you in on other New York Subway impressions. There's more pictures of the subway and Metro North Rail Road in my Flickr set along with some other pictures of New York - including the ... ummm ... delights of Deep Fried Oreos & some NYPD police who weren't living up to their doughnut (sorry I'm in the US) donut eating, coffee swigging stereotypes.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Sunday, September 14, 2008 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims via New York

I'm in New York!!!!! Strangely in the week before I left London I spotted a number of Tube Fashion Victims who looked like they'd be borrowing a Big Apple look.

Baseball Caps

It's been unseasonably cold in London so some people have been wrapped up like it's October right now. Yet others are braving it out. The woman below is in duffle coat, boots and New York Yankees baseball cap, yet the guy next to her is only in an American football style T-shirt


I won't be buying a NY baseball cap even though I'm in New York as I'll look like a card carrying tourist and I don't get on with baseball caps. I don't have the right hair for it or pony tail to stick through the hole.

Once again we see the "air traffic controller" style headphones over a hat look.


I preferred the headphones over the silver beany from last week. This guy looks like he's really trying a bit to hard to say "I'm a DJ".

The Fame Look

Legwarmers. Wow are they making a comeback? I did expect her to leap off the District line and start singing "Fame! I'm gonna live forever".


She must have a good washing machine to wear white legwarmers over the bottom of her shoes.

That's it for now, not sure if I'll be able to grab any New York Metro Fashion Victims as I'll probably get lamped, but we'll see. Hopefully later today will be my first trip on the subway here, so I'll report back.

In the meantime, the previous fashion victim post is here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set.


While, I'm here I must say many thanks to Janine from my hotel (Marriott in New Rochelle) for leaving me a little gift of snacks - much appreciated!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Saturday, September 13, 2008 Permalink

Cryptic Tube Station Clues at Qype Pub Quiz

Whenever I go to a pub quiz and there are London Underground questions, people always look at me. Normally I just shrug and say "Why are you expecting me to know this?" as they are usually so anorakky or trainspottery or obscure.

However, this time at the Qype pub quiz last night for their 1st birthday, I managed to get all cryptic clues on the Tube station names.

Here are the rather risque clues, see if you could have worked out which stations they are:

1. Two types of cheese
2. Arsenal get fruity
3. An apostle's erection!

Ooo-err missus. Anyway we never won the quiz, but didn't do too badly. You might want to have a shot at the picture round below:


Many thanks to Rob & Andy at Qype for a great time, all the food & drink. Thanks also to my fellow team members of the Sarky / Sake Six. We were a formidable team & at least we didn't come last (like the Time Out pub quiz err, fiasco!).

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 12, 2008 Permalink

Your own carriage on Art Deco 1938 Tube train

The London Transport Museum emailed me to let us know that they've added and extra item to their Transport charity auction with eBay.

"You will have a special VIP carriage on this train for up to 40 of your closest friends. Dress up and have fun as you are whisked on a journey through the network, earning the admiration and envy of everyone you pass.

Date to be confirmed, but your trip will be either a Saturday or Sunday during the day, between 14 April 2009 and 30 September 2009. The date will be determined by track and service requirements and will be set by Transport for London.


"Your trip involves both departure and return from an agreed point on the Underground route. Route is to be determined by Transport for London.

You are not able to bring any alcoholic beverages on your ride, though feel free to bring other refreshments. Please remember this is a genuine historic vehicle and treat it with respect." Full details here.

I went on this art deco Tube train in April earlier in year with a few friends and we had a great time.

Bids close on the 15th September, and if you fancy having a bid on anything else, like a behind the scenes tour of the Fen Line, the chance to learn how to drive a First Connect train, a double decker Routemaster bus for the evening, actual London Underground station roundels and more, get clicking!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 12, 2008 Permalink

London Underground £3bn Funding Gap

Transport for London yesterday morning blamed the government for a three billion pound funding gap, as the cost of repairing the Tube goes sky high.

The Guardian reported yesterday: "An assessment of the Tube network's financial needs published this morning outlined a financial black hole of up to £1.4bn on a third of London's underground lines.

Someone needs to watch the Government - King's Cross station looking tatty

"The latest figures create a severe financial headache for the government when they are added to the projected £2bn funding gap on the rest of the tube system. Transport for London, the London mayor's transport authority, this morning blamed the government and said the Treasury would have to step in."

Tim O'Toole who runs the London Underground said "Any funding required above TfL's budget should be met by continuing support by government, who imposed this PPP structure on the tube and Londoners" .

The real scale of the problem was shown in a report by the PPP contract referee, Chris Bolt. He said carrying out vital upgrade work on the Northern, Piccadilly & Jubilee Lines up to 2017 would cost between £5.1bn and £5.5bn. TfL reckon it would cost £4.1bn and therefore faces a gap of up to £1.4bn.

However, Tube Lines, who own the PPP contracts for the work believe that's an understatement. They think the work will cost £7.2bn, so that would be an overspend of up to £2.1bn. They imply that the Government should put in place long-term financial backing for the network and not allot cash every seven years.

"The question is not should the upgrade of the tube cost this much but how is this vital work to be funded? Funding for future tube improvements must be secured and maintained" said a spokesperson from the company.

Dave Hill from The Guardian has responses from the political parties:

Val Shawcross, Labour London Assembly member who's the chair of the Transport Committee said: "It's vital that the planned investment and refurbishment programme for London Underground goes ahead. Our tube network is key to London's success as a world city; we need to ensure it remains so. The system is facing an increasing demand and must be able to keep up yet work on the Piccadilly line in particular has not yet begun.


Given the very large shortfall, over and above the amount the Government have already granted to TfL for this period of the PPP contract, I would expect the Mayor to enter into negotiations with ministers to secure funds to enable all the planned works to go ahead. Tube Lines have generally been doing a good job for London. The next phase of their contract isn't for gold plating the tube - it's for vital maintenance and improvement works."

Roger Evans, a Transport type from the Conservatives said "I share the concerns of TfL about this new black hole that appears to be opening up. We need to see more details and it might prove essential for the Assembly Transport Committee to hold a special session to get to the bottom of this. Last year, in the wake of the Metronet collapse, I appeared before the commons transport select committee (in my role as London assembly chairman of transport), and urged them to recommend the government provided the funding to make up the shortfall - a shortfall caused by their scheme.

The same principle should apply to a shortfall in the Tubelines contract. Fare payers cannot be expected to swallow another 10% increase which would be needed to raise £1bn, and asking TfL to find the money would put major capital projects like Crossrail at risk."

I travel on the Piccadilly & Northern Lines every day and as the pictures above show, King's Cross Station looks like it's being held together by sticky tape and that's just the noticeable stuff. Some stations clearly look like they need a MAJOR overhaul and it's interesting to hear from Shawcross that work on the Piccadilly Line hasn't even begun yet.

This is one of the reasons why the Tube fare increase riles me. A few commenters in my post about the fare rise said "stop moaning" and "you should see what transport is like in my city". The thing is, I don't live in Yorkshire. I live in London and me and 3 million other people pay some of the most expensive fares in the world to put up with a system that clearly isn't being funded. As Evans says, it's us fare payers that are going to pay for this shortfall and if ridiculously expensive fares meant a better service, all well & good (sort of), but unfortunately it doesn't.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Permalink

E-Reading on the Tube - The Future of the Book

Last night I went to an excellent round table event hosted at Random House on The Future of the Book. It was part of the a series of events run by the if:book London think tank. I joined a mixed group of interesting people - publishers, writers, digital folk & people from literary & reading organisations in a discussion about the opportunities and possible losses to literature brought about by e-readers.


Chris Meade, our chair, had just received his e-reader similar to the one I saw above on the Tube a few years ago. He said he was greeted by sharp intakes of breath and horror when he showed it to some bookish friends. Yet Naomi, a writer who also did creative things with games had an iLiad and she was a real convert to it. She said whenever she got it out on the Tube people stared at it and asked her what it was.

I must admit I had no idea what the e-reader was when I took a picture of it in November 2005. It turns out that the guy was way ahead of his time with his Vaio Sony U101. At the time this was a Japanese only release and about the size of two DVD's weighing less than 2 pounds! So very much like a book.

When I saw the newer Sony Ebook reader for the first time last week (Tom Reynolds had one from the US which we pored over in the post Eden Lake screening pub chat). I had that sort of shuddery instant recoil response as to me it just didn't look or feel like a book. Yet the guys with me had a major "nerdgasm" over it.

There was a similar response last night. People could see the potential and loved that you could carry 100 books around at once and it's handy for London Underground commutes or holiday travel.


One of my favourite authors Kate Pullinger was there (a shock when I saw her as I had no idea she would be at the evening) & she felt quite depressed & let down when seeing it. We'd all seen the hype about these readers for years with headlines screaming that it meant "the death of the book", yet for her it was cold looking with no colour. In spite of the moleskin cover it didn't feel like a book to her.

We had an interesting discussion about whether sales of the e-reader would take off like sales of the iPod which is now a standard fare for most commuters. Amazon expect to sell 400,000 of their Kindle devices this year and that's the same amount of iPods sold when they launched. However, in year two Apple sold 900,000 and in year three, 4.3 million. We all doubted that this would happen with e-readers.

Books in multi-media formats and creative reading was discussed, where people got the opportunity to interact with authors & books. Up until then no one had really mentioned blogs, so I piped up & said that some individual blogs got thousands of readers each day & if consumers were brave enough to "consume" stories in this way, why couldn't publishers be braver about publishing more blogs or even supporting younger authors who wanted blogs?

I'm sure other people at the event will blog about the debate much more eloquently than me, but one thing was certain - nothing was certain. No one knew what the future of the book was and what the next big reading "thing" would be for the UK.


When I left Random House after a lovely buffet & wine, I suddenly remembered that they published Rose Tremain, another author I like. You've probably seen her ads for Orange all over the Tube recently


The ads try to show how who we are is made up from so many other people. Rose says "I am the eyes of my readers on the Underground".


It would be exciting if e-books and e-readers enabled those Underground readers to interact & engage more with Rose and other authors. Unlike the internet, currently there's no sharing or response back to the book & its author.

On the Tube home, I bumped into Chris Meade and his wife Hattie from Snug & Outdoor who had also been at the event. We chatted about blogs & the Tube & stuff and it turns out that Chris Meade's mum - Dorothy Meade - edited "Lines on the Underground" (pictured on my bookshelf above). It's one of my absolute favourite anthologies about the London Underground and has been my bible of Tube references in literature for years! It was a lovely surprising end to a fab night. Many thanks to Random House for hosting & also thanks to Chris for organising it all.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, September 09, 2008 Permalink

London Transport Museum Auction

Thanks to the London Transport Museum for telling me about the auction they launched on eBay on Friday where you can bid for some genuine Tube station signs including Shepherd's Bush & Lancaster Gate, have dinner for two at the Gherkin, learn to drive a First Capital Connect Train and have a Routemaster bus for the evening. At time of blogging this only had one bid - which is astonishing really!


The "once in a lifetime" opportunity to have a tour of the closed Aldwych Tube Station for up to five people is back on the auction again.

"Fantastic extremely rare opportunity to see inside this beautifully preserved piece of London’s history, and hear the stories and history associated with it from an expert guide.

Aldwych station first opened on 30 November 1907, and was then named ‘Strand’. It acted as the terminus of a branch line from Holborn. Architecturally interesting, built in the arts and crafts style, the station was built on the site of the old Strand Theatre.


The station was renamed Aldwych on 19 May 1915. Trains served the station until 30 September 1994, when it was closed by London Underground.

Since closure, the station has been used as a film set in such famous productions as ‘V for Vendetta’. It is not however open to the public."

There's also a number of other interesting things if you like your transport stuff, such as a behind the scenes tour of the Fen Line, a trip on a 1938 Art Deco special Tube train, which I was lucky enough to do in April (the upcoming one is blogged here)


Plus an opportunity to drive a bus on a state-of-the-art bus simulator and an take part in a Hitachi high speed train tour and simulator experience!


Visit the London Transport Museum eBay Auction now to see everything on offer & place your bids. Bidding on most of the items in the auction closes on the 15th September 2008.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, September 08, 2008 Permalink

Piccadilly Circus Tube Cutaway Diagrams

A challenge for you? Does anyone know where this great illustration from a children's book comes from? Magpie Moon found the book at a yard sale several years ago. She said: "I've been looking for information on where it came from ever since. I couldn't find a credit for it anywhere in the book and am curious to know whether there is a poster or larger print of it available."


I have a book written & illustrated by Laurence Menear called London's Underground Stations - A Social and Architectural Study and it features a number of cutaway diagrams including the one below of Piccadilly Circus


It's certainly interesting looking at the stations from this angle but the one from Magpie Moon's book is much lovelier in my opinion.

If anyone can help her identify the book or have any comments on these cutaway diagrams let us know. A number of people in the comments to the picture I uploaded would like to see more of these 3D models in station concourses.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 05, 2008 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Ah Friday and it's time for a look at the TFV's or Tube Fashion Victims who are clearly showing signs that autumn has come way, way too quickly in London. The X Factor back on TV and we'll soon hearing judge Louis Walsh talking about people "taking a style and making it their own" and that's what the Fashion Victims are all about. So this week is a mixture of people who are uber trend setting and looking allright with it and those who clearly should have had more of a look in the mirror before leaving home.

First up we have some of the OK autumnal looks

Trendy Air Traffic Controller

I quite like this silver beany and large air traffic control style headphones on over the top


The hoody could work well either in the spring or autumn, and it's just a shame the weather had been so foul that people are even thinking about hoodies in the first place.

The End is Nigh Bag

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a full shot of this bag. But I liked the sort of doom and gloom that it hinted at.


Perfect for a miserable day on the Tube.

Now onto the not so good ones.

Dressing like a station sign

Try not to stand near a Tube station sign if you're going to wear the same primary colours. The following picture was taken by Keira Vallejo. She said "I spotted this guy at Finchley Road. He was dressed exactly the same as the sign at the end of the platform. Thought it was too funny, so I took a photo :-)".


I like it and also like the title she's given it "Dude at Finchley Road tube, dressed the same as the sign"

Socky Leggy things

These were puzzling. A sort of duo sock and legging combo.


The whopping great hole in the socks only added to my puzzlement.

Male Uggs & Shorts combo

Finally, it wouldn't be a Tube Fashion Victim post without at looks at some Uggs


I think Uggs on blokes aren't the best look in the world but when you combine them with some plaid baggy summer shorts, you're asking for trouble.

That's it for now. The previous fashion victim post is here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, September 05, 2008 Permalink

TfL to announce fare increases on Thursday

Well it's inevitable isn't it. It's time for the announcement of the normally annual fare rise from Transport for London, but for once I manage to hear about it before it's actually officially announced. Dave Hill who writes for the Guardian spent a day with Boris Johnson (lucky Dave) and um well, I'll let Dave break the good news himself:

"If I were the sort of person who goes round spreading rumours, I might mention the fact that other journalists have been receiving briefings by the mayor's office today about a rise in public transport fares to be announced by TfL tomorrow. Good job I'm not that sort of person..."


We've got some of the most expensive public transport in the world, particularly on the London Underground, yet it took me about an hour and half to get to work this morning on the Tube, with an extraordinary amount of signal failures, delays, broken escalators and over crowding at every turn.

As Dave said in the title of his post, "Fare Rises Soon To Be Announced? Surely Not!". None of us are surprised but what will be interesting will be the spin that Boris puts on it. It's his first fare rise after all.

Tory Troll said in the comments "I have been waiting for this one. Fuel costs are up. Tube contracts are up and the costs of the CC consultation, Routemaster design, and ditching of the Venezuela deal and £25 charge have made this inevitable."

He's placing bets on the % increase we actually get though and reckons 10% minimum increase. I reckon he's right, it'll be about double the rate of inflation, just cos it's a nice round figure. You might want to hazard a guess yourself alternatively just wait for the official announcement tomorrow.

Update - 4th September - The Guardian and the FT have started to report on the price rise. Ah here's the spin Ken Livingstone gets the blame for the rise in fares. Boris said that Ken Livingstone left a £84m ($148m) shortfall in finances due to his price freeze earlier this year and the actual cut in some bus fares.

"Kulveer Ranger, Mr Johnson's transport adviser, on Wednesday refused to say precisely what fare rises there would be and how they would be distributed. There would, he said, be some extension of concessionary fares for the worst-off, new concessions for war veterans and greater differentiation of off-peak and peak-time fares to shift journeys to quieter times." said the FT.

Even though the actual rise has not been announced yet, The Guardian report that "adult fares will have to rise at least 1% above inflation, equivalent to an increase of 6%. That would mean a single peak-time Tube fare in central London would rise from £6.30 to about £6.70, while an adult bus fare would rise from 90p to 95p. Discounted fares for elderly and disabled people will remain."

Apparently we'll find out the exact fare rise after 10am today.

Update - OK the speculating can end now, the BBC News have published the exact rises.

• Single bus fare paid with an Oyster card will increase from 90p to £1
• A one day bus and tram pass will rise from £3 to £3.30
• A weekly bus pass will go up from £13 to £13.80
• The £4 adult cash fare in Zone One of the Tube will be frozen
• Fares in other zones will go up from £3 to £3.20.
• The minimum adult cash fare on the Docklands Light Railway rises from £1.50 to £1.60

Boris said "Some of us will pay a little more but I have ensured fares will remain affordable, especially for people who rely on public transport most, including the elderly, disabled veterans and those on lower incomes. I have been left to tackle the unfunded legacy of Livingstone's largesse.

"Put simply, the previous mayor's cynical and irresponsible pre-election fares freeze and support for unfunded transport schemes is unsustainable and has produced a gap that has to be plugged."

Ken's response "Londoners are beginning to learn the high cost of Boris Johnson.

"He promised to save Londoners money but instead, after just a few months in office, he is pushing up fares above inflation to pay for his own incredible waste of Londoners' money."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Permalink

Tube passenger burnt by seat

There was a massive spoof some years back about the things found on London Underground Central Line seats, but yesterday one poor man on the Central Line was burnt by sitting on a seat believed to be covered in corrosive cleaning fluid.


The guy felt some liquid burning through his trousers as he travelled during the rush hour and told the staff at Holland Park Tube station. He was taken to hospital and treated for minor skin irritation.

The Press Association report "Two trains were immediately taken out of service and underwent thorough searches, Transport For London said.

A spokeswoman for British Transport Police said: "We are not treating this as being malicious at this point.

"From our inquiries it seems that some sort of cleaning fluid has been spilled accidentally.

"The man was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital suffering from skin irritation. There was some damage to his trousers."

Just as well it didn't happen in the summer time when people may have been wearing far fewer clothes.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Permalink

Tube Seat Apron as modelled by Whatleydude

You may remember that James Whatley from Spinvox gave me the heads up on this apron modelled on London Underground moquette - seat upholstery (presumably not with corrosive fluid on it).


Well he decided to get himself the apron and also model it in his kitchen


As the commenters on his picture said "I feel an almost overwhelming need to stick chewing gum to your backside" and "I'm hoping you don't smell like you've just been pissed on by a homeless ;)"

All he needs now is the ironing board cover and oven mitt to complete the set. However, looks like he might be able to even get transporty in the bedroom & not just the kitchen.

Thanks to Michael Woodside I found out that you can get "up close and personal with London Transport Museum's quirky new furniture and accessories range based on the classic designs of moquette fabrics"

On Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st September 2008 from 10am to 6pm there will be special launch display of all the items which you can also buy online. It includes bed headboards, dining chairs, sofas, cubes and cushions. The launch will take place in London Transport Museum's Cubic Theatre and Foyer, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB. Visit http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/ for further information.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Permalink

Eden Lake - Bloggers Screening & Review

If you're travelling on the London Underground right now, particularly in central London, you can't fail to notice loads of ads for the new Brit horror movie Eden Lake


I was err lucky enough to be invited to a blogger's screening of this last night at the intimate Soho Screening rooms, which were followed by a Q & A session with the writer & director James Watkins.

I'm a bit of a scaredy cat and normally wouldn't go to see a horror film like Eden Lake, but it certainly got us talking in the pub afterwards and I felt shocked, exhausted, drained and literally horrified while watching it.

James Watkins wrote the film three years ago before the spate of violent knife crime and murders that we've seen carried out by teenagers in London and other cities in the UK. In the Q & A after the film, he said he sat on the Tube with a friend reading Metro and would look at it thinking - "Wow that's in my film" or "That's similar to what happens in Eden Lake".


But Eden Lake is a horror film and fictional, so much more intense than real life, yet the violence, stabbings, torture and maliciousness (mostly carried out by teenagers) are gory & realistic without glamour. Watkins wanted the film to be a stand-alone "edge of your seat" thriller but also have a "moral ambiguity" to it.

The plot revolves around a fairly smug couple who want to get away from it all and go camping in the woods. They stumble upon a bunch of teenagers, accidentally kill their dog, then real terror and shocking violence follows.

That's about as much of the plot I will give away. The violence does not let up after a while and I was feeling, how much more will the couple stand. I jumped lots of times, had my hand over my eyes and was squirming in my seat. My friend Tom Reynolds the ambulance driver & paramedic blogger & fellow Nom Nom Nom'er was used to seeing the aftermath of stabbings so this was "bread & butter" to him and in the pub we talked about the "reality" of some of the injuries and whether anyone would survive them.

Tom's reality

The point is that it's fiction and my survival instinct isn't very strong so I would have given up the ghost long before the school teacher "heroine" got all Rambo like and vigilante'esque. But nothing is quite as you'd expect in this film, so don't expect the good or blonde chick in flowery dress to necessarily conquer evil.


I can't see this film getting shown uncut in the US (I'm sure the British Tourist Board wouldn't be using it as an advert) and indeed James Watkins thought it would probably close at a scene about 15 minutes before it actually ended. It's a bleak relentless, vision of violence in the UK. The teenagers' parents are just as terrifying, nasty and vengeful as the kids. Think "Lord of the Flies" but with no moral to it. Or "Clockwork Orange" where Ludwig Van B, bowler hats and moloko are replaced by mobile phone "Happy Slapping" video'ing, hoodies and BMX bikes.

Thomas Turgoose from the new Eurostar sponsored, Shane Meadows film Somers Town is one of the teenage stars, but the main sinister & scary teenage lead is Jack O'Connell who plays the gang leader Brett. The final scene for me was definitely ambiguous and where O'Connell is really frightening.

Tom, Cowfish (Billy Abbott), Utku, Imajes (James Cox) and myself had a good chat about this in the pub afterwards and doubtless they'll be reviewing at some stage too.

Eden Lake is in cinemas nationwide from September 12th, and is from the producers of The Descent. If you like horror & thrillers it's worth seeing. If you're shocked by teenage violence, it's also worth seeing, although don't expect an answer or a moral stand on it all.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Permalink

Blogging ad at Richmond Station

"I've made so many friends since I learnt how to blog", says the nerdy, buck-toothed, geeky, specky guy hunched over his computer. As I was on the way to a friend's birthday that I met through blogging when I spotted this ad on Saturday night, it obviously caught my attention.


The ad continues: "Meet REAL people and LEARN new skills". So the message of the advertisement for Richmond Adult Community College is I think:

a) blogging won't help you meet REAL people
b) blogging won't help you LEARN new skills
c) bloggers typically look like nerdy bespectacled cartoon characters, with bad posture who need a good dentist
d) Richmond College is the answer to your networking and educational needs.

I have nothing personally against Richmond College. I "learnt" basic Dreamweaver there and as a result got free internet access in their "Business Library" for a year, which was handy when I needed to use the net when I was out and about in Richmond. The standard of teaching was passable to OK. I also did a much better two day Photoshop course there, with an entertaining and funny teacher (who also teaches digital photography) which fortunately restored my faith in adult education centres.

However, as a blogger I think the guys and girls at Richmond College should have hired a copywriter or artist who actually knew something about blogging and how to draw cartoons. But, as my council tax is somehow supporting the college, perhaps I should just be glad they didn't have the budget to spend on a better writer or cartoonist.

I certainly met REAL people at Richmond College, but haven't kept in touch with any of them, unlike a lot of my blogging friends, who I've not only met in real life but a number have been really supportive to me and sometimes been much more help than my "real" or rather "meat-space" friends.

The thing I really hate about the ad is that it makes you think of the internet as some weird place populated by nerds with no social skills who aren't "REAL". It's as though the friends you might "meet" through blogging are robots without feelings, who certainly aren't going to teach you anything. Or at least you won't LEARN any new skills through mixing with them.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but the vast majority of the people I've met through blogging have been funny, bright, witty & very clever folk. I don't necessarily have friends to LEARN new skills through them, if I do it's a bonus. It's ironic that blogging meant that I was out having a laugh on Saturday night, rather than sitting hunched over my computer with my specs on.


Thanks Darika for a fun time. It was lovely to meet your mates & see Shiny Media's Gemma again. Good to also meet in the flesh fellow Twitter tweeter Gary Andrews. Darika's mates also knew a number of my other blogging & PR'ry friends and one worked at PC something or other with a journo who'd been on the Dell Orient Express trip with me.

Anyway enough from me on the ad. Perhaps it just rubbed me up the wrong way and I'm being super sensitive. I'm only going to have to look at it for another month or so if I travel into town on British Snail. It would be great to have your views on it. Ah, but then you're not REAL people so probably don't have any opinions.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, September 01, 2008 Permalink