Our Cat Ran Up Their Ginnel*

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The word ‘Ginnel’ is a northern dialect term for a narrow alley. The earliest literary reference to the word was in 1885, when Benjamin Brierley wrote the simile: "as pleasant as stondin in a Ginnel ov a wyndy neet waitin o'th' sweetheart comin out". At Artsadmin the Ginnel refers colloquially to the foyer of Toynbee Studios.**

For basement tenants, visiting the Ginnel is often their only opportunity to experience natural daylight and human interaction. Many go there to check their pigeon holes several times a day, even though there's only ever one postal delivery (at most).

Nearly all visitors entering and exiting the Artsadmin compound must first pass through the Ginnel, and so inevitably, if you loiter there for long enough, someone amazing will walk by.

The Ginnel, then, is an overlooked social hub.***

Three cheers for the Ginnel and all who pass through her!

*Lancashire phrase used to indicate a very tenuous familial relationship between two people

**other nouns with a similar meaning include ‘Snicket’ and ‘Flutester’

***equalled only by the narrow entrance to the middle bar at The Arches, Glasgow during NRLA weekend

Cross Purposes

Today me and Luci visited the new diagonal pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus.

Almost immediately we were accosted by a passing documentary film crew:



And you can watch Will and Jenny's report here!

I read about the plans for the crossing last year, and am actually quite surprised at how quickly it's been implemented, and how closely they kept to the original concept:



The crossing ignites memories of my trip to Tokyo in 2005:





Another Japanese feature that London should consider adopting is these countdown timers:



Which would help emphasise the rather tight 30 second diagonal phase.

But If you think Oxford Circus is perilous, just wait until they install one of these Kyoto-style footbridges across the Thames...

Mummy, the television news is swearing at me.

Fast-forward to 1m51s:



I am so offended that I am deleting myself from the internet immediately.

The Pussycat Dolls Have Got A Lot To Answer For

Last night my friend Bryony texted me to say that she'd just put me on the guestlist to see Same Difference perform their new single at Madame JoJo's.

Thus, I immediately jumped on the tube, arriving just in time to witness the following:

You can't say fairer than that.

Their performance was part of Popshow Gold. Also on the bill were three quite similar new girlbands trying a bit too hard to be sexy. Here are two of them:

And here's the third.

I blame the Pussycat Dolls.

For most things.

Just look what they've done to Sugababes.

Quantum Mechanics

If you observe something, you change it.

Thankyou Josephine for shaming me into updating DeDomenici Blog!

Edinburgh Fringe 2009

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Norwich Goes Blue

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Rub Me Up The Wrong Way 2: The Live Art Supergig
Norwich Arts Centre
Saturday July 25th 2009
7pm - midnight
£6.00 / £4.00 concessions

Following the success of 2007’s event, Richard Dedomenici is back to curate another exciting programme of contemporary performance. This time he is exploring the increasing trend of live artists using music in their work, and will programme the event like a music festival, with performances taking place throughout the whole building and gardens.

Featuring:

Other/Other/Other

Hunt/Darton

Foster & Gilvan

Bryony Kimmings

Foreign Muck

B.O.R.N

Fancy Footwerk

Paul Osborne

Here is a video of the last Rub Me Up The Wrong Way.

NHSPBCC

I've just been catching up on the seventh season of 24 and couldn't help but notice the uncanny resemblance between US President Allison Taylor:






























and my former secondary school Headmistress Mary Marsh:


























Sorry, *Dame* Mary Marsh.

She was awarded a DBE by the Queen in the 2007 New Year's Honours list for her services to families and children.

Then last year she stepped down as Chief Executive of the NSPCC, and was appointed a non-executive director of HSBC.

Which means my old headmistress is now essentially my bank manager, so I shan't comment further on rumours of a planned merger between the two organisations, lest she cancels my overdraft and gives me a detention.

Conspiracy theory as to why they changed the logo of my secondary school in the early 90s

This is the current logo, which features on signage, letterheads etc:















And this is the old logo, which still appears on the school uniform blazer badge:























By removing a few threads you could easily end up with this:
























(Why none of us thought of it at the time is beyond me.)


PS. And yes, I have just been watching Valkyrie.

Warning

I have recently been to a school reunion, so apologise if the following two posts are a little nostalgic.