beeker ideas

off

I'm going way for a couple of weeks so if things go a bit quiet, that'll be it.

blue + joy in london

My friends Daniele + Fabio write to tell me they're bringing Blue + Joy to London to launch their show and to send the beautiful catalogue (Download london_catalogue.pd ).

In which even Kevin Rinky Dink Roberts emerges as a fan.  Full of so many gems I want to buy that it was tough to choose just one to put up here.  So I plumped for this lot. 

6th-15th March.  It'll change your life - and discourage you - forever.  In a good way.   

fleamarketing

On my perfect day (Sunday) I went to a flea market.  Which you could call fleamarketing.  And I thought hm, I wonder if anyone's come up with a theory of marketing and called it that.  I'm not sure if someone should or not.  It's the kind of thing you could call a blog.  Or the kind of nice word you could backfit a theory into, of...I don't know, sifting around old bits of cheap, dusty rubbish to find hidden treasures.  Kind of nice.

new stuff

   
We've just done a new babycare range which is hitting the shelves now, and which you can read a bit more about over here.  If you were so inclined.  We're very excited.

away

We're going here on Saturday for 2 weeks.  I'd love any recommendations.

freezing in grand central

brand as by-product

I've been thinking a lot the last week about brands as by-products.  (It's been a slow week).  You know - like the old saying that happiness is a by-product of the right kind of human activity (rather than an achievable, primary end).  Like that.  Brands as by-products of the right kind of relationship building between companies &tc. and the people they want to reach. (Thinking about it properly and looking it up I realised epiphenomenon might be a nicer word but I found even myself going ephiphe-what...so I'm sticking to the less pretentious by-product.  It's catchier.  Sort of.)

I could write a whole lot more guff about why, but it'll all be familiar to people who get frustrated sometimes by the use of the word 'brand' (and all its conjugations) as a non-specific band aid or euphemism, or misnomer for other stuff. Stuff that's a lot simpler.  Like 'products' or 'services'.  Or 'things', or 'people'.  Or 'logo'.

Now I don't read or write about this stuff (blog-wise) that often any more.  So I'm sure lots of other people have got here already.  But it was a breakthrough of sorts for me.  Not so much in thinking, but in describing.

Right that's that over with then.  As we were.

a perfect day

Last Sunday was a near perfect day.  I was supposed to see a friend who couldn't make it at the last minute, so it was like an extra, a completely free gift of a day to with whatever I liked.  Which doesn't happen very often.

I decided to take my new camera out on its first sightseeing trip, starting off in Camden Passage, where this group of girls were filming an odd thing about hats which involved many, many increasingly shrill takes starting with 'WOMEN, PUT on your hats!' which I was oddly enthralled by.

Then the best bacon sandwich.  Ever.

Followed by a walk that took me all the way down Goswell Rd to the Southbank.

Where I took loads of sun-che photos which I won't bore you with here.  As well as some Vulkan-esque ones like this.  Or I tried.  My feet look weird from this angle.

I was taken aback by the Tate crack.  I'd actually only gone in to get some magazines from the shop.  After hearing lots about it and the visitors who were obviously so bored by it they decided to fall down it and then sue for doing so, I thought I might be underwhelmed.  But it was disconcerting and wonderful.  Where it got really big and deep down at the bottom.

new caddy

Matt went up north to see family this weekend.  One of whom had knitted us this tea caddy.  It's a thing of beauty.  I'm very proud of it already.  I don't think any of my southern relative would have done this.  Even though they're all outstanding people, of course.

'can i make Barack Obama into a Jew?'

I only just found Steve Brodner's commentary on the US election through my New Yorker feed.  It's great.  But then I always was a sucker for marker pen on fast forward.  Rolf Harris generation, that's me.