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| Ad for the Container Corporation of America, 1956. Artwork by Ben Shahn. |
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The British Transport Police message always plays at exactly the same time on my tube journey from East Finchley to Archway. It plays just as the train pulls into Archway and I'm preparing to get off. It goes something like: 'If you see something that doesn’t look right, speak to a member of staff or text blah. blah, blah'. It's a worthy message, of course, designed to make travellers more conscious of looking out for suspicious packages. The thing is, I do regularly see things that 'don't look right' and one day I will tell a member of staff. I'll tell them about:
Passengers still wearing masks.
Grossly overweight women in leggings showing me and the rest of the passengers their 'shapely' rear ends.
People wearing trainers which look like they've been designed by Homer Simpson and a chiropodist.
Everyone bar the occasional exception staring at the mobile phones ('What's the difference between that and reading a book?' I hear you ask. If you have to ask, you're part of 'the problem'!).
Looking wrong aside, sounding wrong is another issue. It's become common for idiots to play whatever profoundly interesting material they're absorbed in on their phones without headphones on/in. So we all get to hear either that hilarious TikTok/YouTube clip or their taste in music which, you know, isn't exactly sophisticated...ever. That or they're talking loudly, to someone. Meanwhile, us Brits sit silently seething, being the meek, passive souls that most of us are. That and the fact that we've all read of horrific violence meted out to those who dare challenge anti-social behaviour; apparently random stabbings on public transport which, it transpires, were the result of some brave/stupid soul speaking up.
If, one day, I decide 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!' you may notice the absence of blog activity.
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| RTomens, 2023 |
The book-hunting gods smiled down on me the other day as we trawled the charity shops in Muswell Hill. Nothing rare, as you can see, but the two Ballard short story volumes are what I'd been after for some time. I wanted something more portable than the single volume complete collection I've had for years. So it came to pass. The Living Anatomy book is a treasure trove of nude figures and body parts. I used the cover image, reproduced inside, for the collage/print Difference of Opinion. I didn't even know Paul Morley's A Sound Mind existed until I saw it in the Oxfam shop. This, as you know, is the joy of shopping in shops - you come across things, surprises. So far, the tale of his journey into classical music is well worth reading, especially the first sections on how we listen to and store music today.
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