The curse of “what photo can we use to illustrate this story?” strikes again…
Should score highly on *Am I Abstract or Not?
June, 2007
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Abstract or Not?
June 27, 2007 by dafyd
Category 1 | Tags: abstract,bbc | Comments Off
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Hee hee
June 27, 2007 by dafyd
Looks like I left just in time…
That said, though, steep hills and hot weather do not a happy Dafyd make.
Category 1 | Tags: heat,nottingham,quebec,weather | 1 Comment
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Bienvenue à Sainte-Adèle
June 25, 2007 by dafyd
So, I’ve been in Canada for five days now. I’m living in a small town called Sainte-Adèle, about an hour away from Montreal. It’s fair to say, I think, that there’s not a lot happening in Sainte-Adèle. It’s in the Laurentides region of Quebec, which is rather well known for skiing in the winter, but in the summer, there’s not much there.
I’m working, as some of you may know, for Enzyme Testing Labs, a computer games QA company. I’m supposed to be testing the linguistic accuracy of games. Which means, basically, that I play computer games until I find a spelling/grammar/syntax/translation/stupid mistake, at which point I fill out a bug report, then keep going. I’ve signed quite a hefty NDA, so there’s really not a lot I can say about Enzyme, but I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that I’m the only UK English speaker there, so I get to do all the English testing. (There is an American chappy, but he doesn’t count.)
I landed at Montreal Trudeau airport at about 7.30pm local time (half-past midnight BST) on Wednesday, but didn’t actually leave the airport until 11.30 (4.30am BST) – this was because we were waiting for a German chappy who was also starting at Enzyme, and he had some immigration/work permit related problems. Anyhoo, the next day we weren’t expected in work (thank goodness), so we spent the day discovering quite how little there was to do in Sainte-Adèle. Friday was first day of work, which we spent filling out forms and getting some training in how the company works.
Yesterday (Sunday) was Saint-Jean Baptiste day, which is Québec’s national holiday. So there was a concert and firework display in the evening, which was nice, and today (Monday) is a day off, which is also nice. What’s better is that next Sunday is Canada Day (or CanaDay), so next Monday is also a day off. Paid days off, that is.
I’ve got a couple of photos of the town to upload, which I shall do shortly.
Category 1 | Tags: quebec,yearabroad | 2 Comments
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Montreal, here I come
June 19, 2007 by dafyd
Finally, nine weeks after applying, I have received my work permit from the Canadian High Commission. I am flying to Montreal tomorrow afternoon, and will start work there as soon as I can…
Woo.
Category 1 | Tags: quebec,yearabroad | 1 Comment
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Salman
June 19, 2007 by dafyd
“Salman Rushdie has turned into a hated corpse which cannot be resurrected by any action,” First Deputy Speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar told Iran’s parliament.
“The action by the British Queen in knighting Salman Rushdie, the apostate, is an unwise one,” he said to loud applause from MPs.
“The British monarch lives under this illusion that Britain is still a 19th Century superpower and that bestowing titles is something still deemed important.”
[says BBC News]
So… knighthoods are irrelevant and mean nothing, but Iran still takes it personally when one of Britain’s greatest living authors is honoured for his work. Bonkers.
Category 1 | Tags: honours,iran,salmanrushdie | Comments Off
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Who
June 16, 2007 by dafyd
For those who watched Doctor Who tonight (and if you didn’t, why not?)…
My name is The Master. I had an accident, and I woke up at the end of the universe. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever’s happened, it’s like I’ve landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home.
I confess, I was rather hoping that John Simm would be the next Doctor. Ah well, as long as they don’t kill him at the end of this season, I’ll be happy. I assume we’re going to discover that he is the Mr Saxon that kept appearing in posters and conversations earlier in the series. I do like a good hidden treasure hunt sort-of-thing – like the “Bad Wolf” plot from the first season.
And I was glad to see Captain Jack back. After all, we can’t have BBC One’s Saturday evening schedule without John Barrowman, can we…?
If you’ve not been watching the new series of Doctor Who, it’s not too late. Two episodes of this season left – and the last four have been absolute corkers. Last week’s was some of the very best television I’ve seen for a while, and the double episode the previous two weeks was even better.
Category 1 | Tags: doctorwho,tv | Comments Off
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Any Dream Will Do
June 9, 2007 by dafyd
Two things before we start: I love musicals, and I hate TV talent and reality shows. I can’t stand The X Factor, Pop Idol, Big Brother and so on. I would much rather be sitting at the back of the Apollo Victoria. Past experience of TV talent shows suggest they’re no very good at picking successful acts – Hear*Say, anyone?
Anyhoo, clearly I wasn’t too hot on the idea of a TV show casting a lead for The Sound of Music. And yet, watching How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, it was clear that we were looking at girls who could sing, who could act, and who could hold a stage with what John Barrowman excitedly calls “star quality”. Of the twelve Marias who were in the series, I think I’m right in saying that five are now performing in the West End, including, of course, Connie Fisher and her standby, Aoife Mulholland. Did they get their roles because of the TV competition? Connie, obviously, yes. The others? I don’t think so. Clearly the exposure helped, but they are more than talented enough to hold their own at an audition.It didn’t hurt that Graham Norton was presenting the series, bringing a knowing degree of [something - can't think of the word] and just the right amount of camp. The panel – Barrowman, producer David Ian, and vocal coach Zoe Tyler – was clearly knowledgeable, not just pretty faces. And Andrew Lloyd Webber – well, he was Andrew Lloyd Webber.
So, I enjoyed How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. The show was a success, winning awards and finding, clearly, the right actor to play Maria. Connie Fisher is going to be around in the West End for a long time (especially if, as is rumoured, Lloyd Webber revives Funny Girl with her in the lead).
But it was great as a one-off. I wasn’t too thrilled to learn that NBC – and then ITV – were going to be doing a similar show to find the two leads for Grease. And I definitely had mixed feelings about the BBC following Maria with a search for a lead for Lloyd Webber’s revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Joseph is very near and dear to me – it was the first musical I ever saw. I’ve seen it – I think – four times, and performed in amateur productions twice. And I know what Joseph should be like. Jason Donovan – yes. Philip Schofield – yes. Luke Goss – no. Stephen Gately – meh. Donnie Osmond – really no, even though he seems to have become the definitive Joseph (in the film).But, once again, my fears were allayed by the series itself. Ten Josephs started in the series two months ago. Of those ten, I think there were three who I thought could be Joseph. Two have since been voted off the show, but Lee – who is Joseph – remains. The final is tonight. Let’s see what happens.
There was, I know, criticism and concern from within the acting profession – casting leads through a reality show devalues proper stage training and experience. But let’s face it: since the start of Maria, more than 30 shows have opened in the West End. Evita, Wicked, Spamalot, Avenue Q, Whistle Down the Wind, Little Shop of Horrors, The Lord of the Rings… Thirty shows (including the two biggest casts in West End history – The Lord of the Rings and Wicked), that must make about 500 acting roles. Two have been cast by talent show.
Update: Well, my faith in the British public is intact. Lee did win. Everyone is happy. Tickets for September, I think…
Category 1 | Tags: theatre,tv | 2 Comments
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2012: Part II
June 9, 2007 by dafyd
I have a confession to make: I was a little hasty in my last post. Yes, my initial reaction was not terribly positive, and yes, I couldn’t quite understand how it could have cost £400,000.
But I have spent the past few days reflecting on the logo (I’ve not had much else to do…), and I’ve read a fair amount about it, from the London freesheets spotting a bandwagon to jump on, to some terribly well-informed analysis from some of the world’s foremost designers.
And I’ve changed my mind. I can honestly say that I like the logo. Well, maybe not like. But I can absolutely understand the reasoning behind the design, and I have absolutely no doubt that come 2012, it will be appreciated by all.
It’s important to realise that this “logo” is not designed to represent the 2012 games on its own. It is just one small part of a package that is yet to be unveiled. The mascot, the general visual identity, the sponsors… we don’t know any of them. We have no idea how the logo will be used on McDonald’s tray liners or Lloyds TSB statements. More importantly, we have no idea what will still be considered “cool” and “modern” in 2012. Five years is a long time in design terms. Drop shadows, reflections, gradients – they might be the “in thing” now, but come 2012 they’ll look horribly dated. And of course, we don’t know how we’ll be looking at the logo in five years – will we still be using flat web pages, flat TV screens, static newspapers? Probably, but you never know.
This logo will work with anything. It will look the same printed on a cheap Maccy D’s tray liner as in a multi-million pound, huge screen, digital cinema advert. It will look fine on t-shirts. It will adapt to its surroundings, and can be adapted to do whatever it is needed to do.
I was reading London Lite or thelondonpaper or one of the like on Wednesday. The freesheets had all decided to do a readers’ competition to design their own logo, and whichever paper I was reading had found a graphic designer to judge the entries. His criticisms all featured the same few phrases: “bland”, “overcomplicated”, “not unique”… none of these could possibly be levelled at the Olympic logo.
I’ve run out of steam. I can’t remember what I was writing when I started writing this entry (45 hours have passed between start and finish…) – so I’ll stop here.
Coudal has an excellent breakdown of why we should all support the logo. Read it, understand it. And get behind it.
Category 1 | Tags: design,logo,olympics | 1 Comment
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2012
June 4, 2007 by dafyd
There are lots of things I dislike about the London 2012 Olympics. I’m really not going to get started on them here. But today, apparently, Seb Coe and his minions reached another low: they launched the new “brand” for the games:
The shapes are really the numbers 2012. Do you see? Must have taken a whole afternoon to come up with that.
I’ve no idea what it’s really supposed to be or represent, but I’m fairly certain that it will have changed considerably by the time 2012 comes around… It seems that the logo that has been used for the past three years, that everyone now associates with the games, is not good enough…
The BBC promptly asked for readers’ suggestions (because what would a news story be without a good amount of UGC to go alongside it?), a good number of which are considerably better than the official brand. There are also a fair few that extract the Michael… I love this one.
Category 1 | Tags: bbc,design,logo,london,olympics | Comments Off
