I’m in London Town at the minute – possibly outstaying my welcome, but the shops (if not the snow) are better for that christmas present buying malarkey.
Yesterday, however, things went a bit wrong.
The point when velvet came back... Christopher Kane, Fall 2007. Photo: Style.com
I was walking across Brockwell Park headed for Brixton Station so I could grace Oxford Street with my less than healthy bank card, when I was accosted by a woman walking her dog.
She was bimbling along quite happily, as was I, when she suddenly looked up, saw me, indicated to her dog and said to him:
“That’s the type of dog that bites.”
What does that even mean?!?!? To be fair I was wearing a maroon velvet coat my mother got at a market for £2, so if the woman was mentally unstable (likely) then she could have mistaken me for a Red Setter - I have researched: Red Setters are quite angry but froth at the mouth more than bite – but I was not frothing.
I was under the impression people in London just don’t interact. In this instance I wish I’d been right, not blatantly insulted on the street.
I do think it was the coat though. It seems to be making me super touchable.
I was wandering past Selfridges later on and got stopped by one of those ditherers who say they are looking for film extras. I was midway through a baguette so tried to be polite and meander away but as I tried to escape he started stroking my arm. Now I know it was soft and velvety but to be honest, I am actually quite a fan of personal space.
I felt a bit violated.
Not as violated as I felt when I got into Primark though. That place is three storeys of polyester and sequin hell at the moment.
Are you wondering when I’m going to try and suck the life(story) out of you with a sneakily placed dictaphone?
You’re not the only one.
Journalists get abused for hacking about and actually rank lower than politicians and government ministers when it comes to who the public trust. This is mostly down to an unscrupulous reputation gained from salacious and misleading – if entertaining – headlines and that hard-to-shake image of the press hound (advice: be nice and have a chat and we’ll be less inclined to professionally harass you).
But, for the mathematically inclined, it is possible to shirk that disreputable label, at least it is if you’re prepared to put in the hard graf(t). Computer Assisted Reporting, CAR to the cool kids, is the answer. If you get lucky this type of journalism can, and has, proved capable of shifting the label onto someone else, see our MP’s, they’ve definitely paid the price.
Basically CAR involves using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get your mitts on raw data/stats/official figures. Getting past the security can be difficult but you do have a legal right to access governmental data. Any data. If you request it, you should be able to get hold of it eventually.
Once you’ve tracked it down it’s up to your brain and your computer software to sift the data, analyse it, uncover a potential story and then communicate it. Anomolies and overspending look especially pretty in print.
The only problem is it all seems a bit inhuman to me. CAR involves no talking, no explanations, no prior defence: the human angle which makes journalism news, comes last rather than first. However, it can incredibly help to change the way society is run and does its bit for upholding democracy, which can’t be a bad thing. I just worry we are all going to forget how to use biros.
I used to believe Roath only harboured the bright lights of City Road’s sticky-floored take-out joints and Albany Road’s jumble of brown carpeted charity shops. Apparently I was wrong.
The garish but inviting City Road
Beneath the squeezy tubes of cheap burger sauce, greasy kebab wrappers and spangly 90s cast-offs there is a burgeoning community of artists trying to clear a space.
Milkwood Gallery on Lochaber Street is artist run and trying to achieve just that. Throughout December it is hosting a series of Christmas workshops, fairs and exhibitions to link in with Roath’s wider community as part of an ongoing project. The gallery’s founders and curators, Gail Howard and Helen Gubb, want to more strongly connect artists working in Roath with the people who live there.
The gallery space is white-walled and labyrinthine, hung with the work of local artists in uncluttered, pocket-sized rooms. Somehow it manages to blot out the bustle of Roath without erasing its personality.
Gail describes Milkwood as an in-between space perched on the divide between craft-based and commercial art, a perch previously unoccupied in Roath:
“Milkwood came about after Helen and I started working on MadeinRoath,” said Gail, “We realised that the community in Roath was really looking for a new arts space.”
MadeinRoath took place at the end of October and was an arts festival designed to merge the interests of artists, small businesses and Roath residents. Local artists transformed corner shops, pet shops and bakeries into workshops and plied customers with pens, paper and in the case of Paula Morison, (one of the minds behind the Hole in the Wall Gallery) stitch-your-own page-three-girl tapestry kits.
Milkwood champions local art and goods, especially those made using recycled materials. These birds by Dominic Gubb were made using milk bottles
“MadeinRoath was very much a community based event and that kick started the whole thing; the link between the arts and the community,” said Gail. “It has been really organic the way Milkwood has evolved and it feels like it’s got its own momentum.
“There’s such a lovely community here and you get to know lots and lots of different people from different sections.”
Gail and Helen, who both have a history in community development work, are aiming to develop and strengthen the relationships MadeinRoath established between the different sections of Roath and its existing artistic network.
The area already houses the commercial Albany Gallery, the craft based Makers, off-the-cuff Milgi which splices art with music, fashion and cocktails, The Gate which sutures a slip-of-a gallery space into the wider project of a community centre and the understated Waterloo Gardens Teahouse.
41 Lochaber Street itself has always been an artistic space in some form or other and has an enchanting, if patchwork, past:
As part of the gallery’s Christmas exhibition the building is facing another transformation. Ben Meredith is the first artist in a series of one month residencies who has permission to use the walls of Milkwood’s basement to artistically vent through his project, Smile Please.
“I find the space a challenge, but an appealing challenge. It is a space that can feel confrontational, the hum of the strip lighting, the smell of damp and the red painted floor all add to the mood,” said Ben, “I think it will be a successful venture if Milkwood continue to engage with artists in this way, to encourage us to play with what is available and to be truly creative.”
The motivation behind the project is to use the basement as an experimental space which members of the public can watch mutate, while interacting with the artist. Each month a new artist will take up the residency, recycle the walls and interpret the environment in their own way.
Ben said: “It is hard to find spaces that are willing to take a chance on an artist who is still trying to establish a successful practice, so I am grateful to Milkwood for an opportunity.”
Milkwood sells goods made by numerous independent Welsh businesses and makers as well as the work of local artists
Opportunities in the art world are frequently scarce and confident-smashingly transient. Considering the less than vibrant economic climate, artists and buyers are finding supporting the arts particularly difficult. Although the Arts Council Cardiff can only help fund non-profit making galleries, they are running the Collectorplan scheme through the Albany.
Cat Rin, the Collectorplan administrator, said: “To be eligible for funding a gallery has to benefit the public, but, the collector scheme enables people to buy art with interest-free credit loans, simultaneously supporting artist, buyer and gallery.”
Gail and Helen are taking a different tack. They hope to push their creative-cum-community hub ethos further and support Roath’s artistic network by mapping the community’s engagement with it, much like artist Jennie Savage:
Jennie's book, Depending on Time, cataloguing the Arcades Project is out available from Milkwood.
If Milkwood manages to map Roath in this way, drawing together all aspects of the area’s diverse strands of life, there is hope yet for sustaining and enhancing Roath’s cultural and artistic position in Cardiff.
Is this just the beginning of a paid content domino effect?
Rob Andrew who works for paidContent.org, an online only news site that started in order to look at the concept of paywalls without having one in place, says things definitely seem to be going that way. Whether it will work is doubtful. The idea behind paidContent.org was that eventually, and not too long from now, all media would become digitised.
I find the concept technologically progressive but in reality, it’s an odd thing to imagine. No fluttering paper, no glossy pictures, no awkwardly sized broadsheet pages to manouevre deftly so as not to harrass the person sat next to you on the bus. Where would we be without these?
I already regret that we ‘ve substituted developed film for Facebook uploading, buying records for downloading and ebooks for library fines – this I can’t comprehend at all and have happily failed at – but most people have jumped the hardcopy-ship. Are people willing to do the same for newspapers- and keep paying?
Andrew said that in a “time of media abundance” it is “unnatural to pay for things online.” Overcoming this mentality while erecting paywalls to make up the profit shortfall smacks to me of misguided desperation but some seem to think it’s the only chance the print business has. I really hope not. It comes down to added value, The FT and the WSJ can charge because their content is specialist. Can each British newspaper claim they same?
Perhaps we should look at paywalls as a way to save journalism, even if it is at the expense of the print medium, but I’m struggling to believe I could ever fully give up papercuts.
Dena and I styled a Christmas fashion special for Buzz Magazine in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago.
We had to choose clothes off the highstreet to use which sounds like fun but in reality was quite traumatic – being allowed to ransack Topshop was heavenly, but knowing you’re not going to wear any of it and have to take it back is heartbreaking.
Then we stacked Dena’s car with the frippery we’d chosen (so many bags, just so many…) and rushed to Boulders Climbing Centre for the shoot.
We spent the next couple of hours cajoling The Vinyl Vendettas – the Cardiff DJ collective who between them promote Clwb Ifor Bach, host a Radio One introducing show, make things and sing – plus a couple of other Cardiff based DJs (Tom and Annika) into ditching their normal styles for Christmas glitz.
These are the results…
Bethan and Claire from The Vinyl Vendettas
Gemma from The Vinyl Vendettas and Cardiff based DJ Tom
P.S. Pick up a copy of Buzz in stores around Cardiff…
Apparently it’s quite hard to get a job these days. Hadn’t you heard? It seems people have been crunching figures, making claims and failing to add everything up nicely.
It’s the “frivolous” industries that are suffering too. You know, the ones that keep Lily Allen in business, designers selling couture and freedom of speech widely available in print. This is not exactly the most opportune time to be aiming for a career in journalism.
Print media is suffering. Media Week ran its final hard-copy edition last week, and Editor Steve Barrett told a room of trainee magazine journalists the news industry has to modify business models to get back to being financially viable. Charging for online content needs to be taken seriously if journalists are going to be appreciated - paid even – for what they do.
With The Times about to start charging for access to its website, it seems Rupert Murdoch was right afterall. But what does that mean for those of us with fancy ideals and byline dreams? The scaremongering: “fewer opportunities”, “job cuts”, “despair” - we should all being crying ink, especially as learning shorthand is still recommended. Deep joy.
But there is hope yet so say Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technical correspondent and Joanna Geary, The Times’s web development editor. And thank goodness because if Cardiff is charging me £6000 for a postgraduate diploma to train me up to a job-worthy standard and I don’t get a job… my bank balance and I will be utterly devastated.
Social media and self-distribution = the new entry point.
Geary’s career really took after she set up a blogging community and began engaging with other social media enthusiasts on Twitter. Cellan-Jones tweets informatively and incessantly on his specialism, technology, as well as his career in general, engaging directly with his audience. To get ahead you have to be proactive/investigative, have your own niche/beat and engage/talk to people.
In many ways the new online world of journalism is just reformatting the idealised one of old.
Except journalists are selling themselves as brands – bylines don’t work so well on their own anymore - hence the deluge of writers plugging their blogs on Twitter and Facebook. You’re probably reading this because I tricked you into clicking on an innocent looking tiny url on my profile. Apologies for stealing you away, but I do hope you’re finding it worth your while.
To be honest it’s all pretty terrifying. However, Nick Brett Deputy Managing Director and Group Editorial Director, BBC Magazines, said during a lecture at Cardiff University a few weeks ago, that he was actually jealous of those just starting out. We still have opportunities, they just aren’t as static as if we were entering journalism three decades ago.
But if you’re not up for change, get out now. I think I’m going to keep on trying my luck.
PTC New Journalist of the Year 2009, Winner: Hardeep Sandher, Property Week, United Business Media
It was the Periodical Training Council’s (PTC) New Journalist of the Year Awards on Friday in London. There was a maglab competition to win one of five places to go to the awards and a masterclass session with industry experts. We had to submit questions we’d ask during the masterclass and mine got picked:
Considering the rapid changes in social media technology (blogging etc.) how far do you see magazines changing from their original – glossy paged – format?
What makes magazine journalism continue to stay exciting for you and why did you choose this form to begin with?
What always stands out for you when interviewing potential employees?
Unfortunately, after a 6am megabus start (remind me not to bimble round Cardiff in the dark, in the rain, on my own at 5am again), too long on the Jubilee line and an entrance that makes me thankful I didn’t wear heels, we got to the venue – Vinopolis at London Bridge – just shy of fashionably late, and I didn’t even get to ask any of my questions.
On top of that, I worked out beforehand how to tweet from my non-internet-friendly-phone and Orange coverage completely let me down. You would think social media could overcome the constraints of sitting in a railway bunker but apparently not. Apologies.
Inside Vinopolis where the awards were presented
The masterclass was really helpful though.
Sara Cremer, Editorial Director of Redwood Publishing introduced it and managed to outline how print media is facing its toughest time to date without making me want to cancel my tuition fees and go for my back up plan (marry someone rich).
“The lunaries of the industry”
She introduced the first speaker, Julian Linley, Creative Director at Bauer Media. He started his career as Celeb Editor at Sugar magazine in 1994 before moving onto Heat despite having a self-confessed problem with spelling and no formal journalistic training. He gave us the 10 things he’d learnt from being a journalist:
Reach for the stars
Don’t be intimidated – just pick up the phone and get what you need
Remember your reader – always tune into what they are interested in, not just what you are interested in
Don’t take “no” for an answer – don’t get disheartened, persistence pays off
Trust your instincts – be passionate and enthusiastic
Make and cultivate contacts
Learn from your boss – find out how people became successful
Be confident but sensitive to get the best out of your sources
The paranoid survive – your mantra: “If I don’t get that story, someone else will”
Have a life – outside of work
Next up was Steve Barrett, the Editor of Media Week which has just become an online only publication. He tackled the state of the print industry and how to get a job but maintained that journalism is still the best job in the world – and there are still opportunities regardless of the economy. He didn’t deny the struggle trainee journalists are going to face but did say that the industry is going to have to change its business models if it is to survive commercially. He argues more value has to be added if people are to pay for news and their habits will have to be changed. In terms of advice though:
Journalism is a craft and we need our deadlines
Accuracy is crucial
Work experience is where you really start to learn what it means to be a journalist
The more skills you have (video, podcast, online) the more attractive you will be
Don’t be an “email” journalist
Everyone gets nervous but just pick up the phone
Shorthand really helps
Build relationships to build your credibility
It is not a 9-5 job – no clock watching
Be a “magpie” and read everything you can
Enthusiasm is your greatest asset
Mark Jones, Feature writing expert and Editorial Director of Cedar Communications went for a different tact with a presentation called:
You have to sell your soul: The Devil’s Guide to Journalism
Never give free advice (although he reckons sharing is actually a good thing)
When faced with a fact and a joke – take out the fact: said in relation to feature writing, clearly not news. He said there is a need for more people to write a bit differently
Decide if you are a man or a woman – ie. is your writing going to be show-offy? Or straightforward? Don’t ever be an inbetween case
Steal, filch and imitate – to understand how people do what they do, rip people off to make something original – study, copy, use and then find your own style
Write like an Iranian taxi driver drives, translation: take risks with your writing
Get into Private Eye a la Giles Coran, scandal will really help your career, especially as a columnist
Insult the Welsh (safe prejudice)… and if that fails…
Shoot a baboon a la AA Gill
Be a pest – get known
Find a pathway to what you really want to do
“Difference is good – be experimental”
Finally, Andy Cowles, Group Creative Director of IPC Media took us through the importance of covers
Covers stand outside of us – they say something about the person who buys a particular magazine – a lifestyle accessory and indicator
Must sell the issue and identify the brand
Must be reinvented every issue – always the same but always different
Must be direct – “We live in a world of constant partial attention” – (he was all for us tweeting, posting and pottering about during his talk)
Need: identifiable colour scheme, news event, great photos, memorable cover line, promises the reader something
What most struck me about all the talks is how the speakers frequently overlapped when it came to enthusiasm, passion and confidence. I really need to get to work on my telephone manner.
And don’t let people tell you print is dead. They are just scared of change.
P.S. The three course free lunch was pretty amazing too
So, on Halloween I had to goth up. I got massively carried away backcombing my already split-end-happy hair, used an extreme amount of white facepaint and properly drudged my eyes up with khol. I not sure if “drudged ” is a word but that is definitely what my eyes were feeling.
Now I just need to work out how to stay in the lines
Anyway, for a girl who doesn’t do makeup, I was quite proud of myself.
Then my lack of beauty know-how collided with a bottle of red nail varnish.
Apparently vampires are meant to be glam, and polish = polished. Considering I’ve only worn red nails once for a ”pimps and hoes” houseparty, you should probably class me as a varnish-virgin. In my head the prospect of rouge tips screams “barbie” or “skank”, bu it seems I have been won over.
Bearing in mind I’m struggling to afford a diet which includes protein at the minute, and I splashed out on this month’s Glamour just to get the free bottle of red Nails Inc. varnish, this is a problem.
I usually stick with clear and shiny, first because you can’t see it chipping off and second, you don’t get a shock every time you look down at your hands and start a mad panic to check you’re not bleeding.
To deal with this impending addiction I thought I’d do a Talk-to-Frank type google search to find out what I might have got myself into. I come up with The Definite Cuticle, Alexandra Heminsley’s blog on nail varnish. This categorically did not help. Not only is she an addict, she makes sense and now I want Dot Cotton nails too. Vampish? I think not.
Alexandra Heminsley is a freelance journalist and broadcaster
P.S. I’m going to the PTC New Journalist of the Year Awards in London tomorrow. I shall take photos and tweet about it relentlessly (if I make the megabus which is leaving at 6am…)
It’s menswear designer Tom Ford’s first foray into filmmaking which explains the structure and style, and Julianne Moore and Colin Firth are both in it. If that isn’t tempting enough, there are two shots in the trailer worth watching it for.
First, close-up of Moore’s mouth, she smiles the screen floods rouge and lights up (37 seconds into trailer).
Second, Firth and Moore collapsed on a cream carpet with messily strewn hair. Factor in a 60s shift and TV sized spectacles and you have yourself a shot akin to Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey in bed, on a beach, in the snow (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or Zach Braff and Natalie Portman screaming in bin bags in Garden State.
They make you want to trade in reality for really pointless prettiness and flimsy memories that stand up for art but not so much narrative. That I can definitely aspire to.
