I do feel a bit like my headset has melded with my skull. The downside of no face to face meetings is having to skype in--two long meetings today, another tomorrow. While I'm pretty sure I heard most of what my colleagues in Buffalo said, I'm not sure they always heard me. Just as well I suppose, makes for a shorter meeting. The combo of skype and speakerphone has apparently transformed my voice so that I sound like "Vader, Darth Vader, Jeff Vader...maybe Deb Vader? Would you like my autograph?" Eddie Izzard fans should re-watch his classic riff the Star Wars Canteen (I recommend the Lego version) while I look for my tray. I'd provide a link, but I'm sure I'd offend someone. Oh, the hell with it, here's the link, get a sense of humour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muaAZE0M3LU.
Surprise, in London where "it never snows" (according to me, last month--hey, I'm a sociologist, not a meteorologist), 3-5 cm of snow is forecast again tomorrow. That's the same forecast as last Sunday night. Snow, according to BBC, has become "bizarrely normal" whatever that means. Will we get snow? As much? I hope not. Pretty though it was, it will make getting around a pain and it's still hard enough on icy walkways. The gritting lorries may work overtime; but that's not much good (inside joke: MG calls them grimers, cracked me up, gritters without salt do little more than grime the roads). While there's plenty of grit, there's almost no salt. We're having a national salt emergency. I worry about students who are heading to Edinburgh by coach on a snowy weekend, in a country without road salt, where snowplows seem to live only at airports, and where garden spades masquerade as snow shovels.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with the roads today, but it was still tough getting around. Traditional black cab drivers blocked the Strand and Whitehall, effectively shutting down traffic to protest the prospect of minicabs being permitted to stop at taxi stands in Leicester Square. According to BBC, there's a protest every other day in London this past year--and probably many more than that since early January. There were daily protests against Israeli bombing in Gaza, protests by Tibetans during Chinese New Year and Premier Wen Jiabo's visit, protests over the use of non British EU workers on large UK construction sites as more redundancies are announced every day, environmentalists protesting the proposed 3rd runway at Heathrow (where they would have to buy another 25 snowplows that they don't share with anyone else, I suppose), and a permanent peace camp against Britain's involvement in Iraq, lodged in a traffic island near the Houses of Parliament. I think I'll visit there tomorrow.
On a completely different tangent, television here, Sarah and I agree, is often strange--particularly advertising. Our current favorite is the Cadbury eyebrow commercial, which doesn't seem to have much to do with chocolate bars, but is kind of mesmerizing. I hope you'll take a look, and see what you think and maybe explain its significance (if it has any). Have a look at http://www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com/#/paddock/portrait, you'll see two kids in a picture frame, click to play the video. I don't get the point, but I love watching it! I guess maybe that's the point.
Weird, like a few other things here, that commercial. Fodder for future blogs. But just now, it's time for my penne alla arrabiatta.
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Um, I would say it's successful in that you are tlaking about it, blogging about it and I just showed it to three people who will all be talking about it and showing it to other people.
ReplyDeleteP.S. -- It's HILARIOUS.
ReplyDeleteThat Cadbury commercial is freaky. I liked what the girl did with the balloon, though.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, it makes me think of what the in-between-takes time of Diane Arbus's photoshoots must have been like. I always wondered how she got families, esp kids, to be so serious and strange looking. Perhaps they got to have eyebrow escapades when they weren't shooting.