errata of life

this is the view out the back of cardiff central station. in its own way, you couldn’t better it. the beer’s good too.

to cardiff for a day of meetings. intrigued by the architecture of the senedd when it opened and having an open return, ducked off from the station for an explore. the senedd is really quite a building - not so big or imposing, but amazing that you really can go in and watch the business of the assembly happen around you. and hearing a debate about broadband in rural areas unfold with members switching between welsh and english does drive the point home somewhat. although i suspect it would fall apart without the UN-style translators and earpieces.

the waterfront development as a whole doesn’t hang together so well, but this facade of the millenium centre is great, and i can imagine how impressive it must look lit from a bustling inside after dark. also good for funfair-mirror-esque self portraits.

after the out-and-out of glastonbury, balance through a quiet weekend of simple pleasures. making stuff, using your hands, thinking-through-doing; strawberries and cream. aaah.

as a child in bristol, the ss great britain was one of the things that defined the place. going back there with a young’un, a generation’s worth of restoration has transformed it. most spectacularly, it looks like it is floating in its dock but the steel hull is actually sealed in with a glass ceilling just a few inches below the waterline: gives a magic atmosphere down there.

somewhat randomly, i got to go up a london skyscraper and found myself in the 30th floor boardroom. still novel, being that high: london isn’t really built this way, and with ira bombs up went the chance enter them as the public long ago. even weirder: there was still two fifths of the building above.

off to butlins for a weekend of music, clubbing and being a punter. i was charmed by this mixing mp3 player (just writing ‘mp3 player’ feels weird) student-times housemate robin had. in an age of the everything-in-the-one-device-in-your-pocket iphone et al, this seemed a spot-on outlier, not to mention just right for our weekend.

oh the juxtaposition. thanks to ebay, i now have a typewriter that despite sharing the QWERTYIOUP really couldn’t be more different from the computer on my desk: while its not the 1895 of the listing, the heft and mechanics still boggle, with that victorian feeling of cast iron and oddly shaped gears still there in 1921.

as part of the opencity event, novak created the ‘uk game boy youth ensemble’ and out a workshop and got them to perform. in a library. with a PA. that more than broke the silence. this was a great moment, and the view i had from the balcony the photobank room was on made me happy for so many reasons:
- a bunch of pre-teen youth out of their comfort zone, feeling the exhilaration of performing in front of people
- they were using something unconventional and misappropriated. what does a gameboy loaded with a tracker mean to somebody who has grown up surrounded by xbox or whatnot? they were released way before they were born!
- look at the library space. its an atrium. its light. the entrance is a blue glass box. its got kids and a PA! being loud! (if only for ten minutes)
- and the best piece of public design i’ve seen in a while in that information desk. its not just looking nice with the ‘i’ on top viewable from the balconies, but its completely in the open: it is a desk for staff, loaded with staff stuff like phones, computers etc, yet there is no back room and public counter division, its a blob wrapped round the pole with the staff there beside you using it. and moreover, this is setup a hop skip and jump from the front door. transparent, open, trusting, removing hierarchy… great.

as if to chide us for being inside glued to laptops for the weekend, the quad outside the workshop room is a vision of summer perfection. although cropped like this, london looks like america all of a sudden.

back in london. unmistakable. love it.