‘Most of the World’s a stage and the rest of it is just cartoons…’

It was my birthday this week and I took my (almost) three year old son R to the ‘pictures’ for the very first time. Kate came along with our daughter M who is a whole four weeks old. As the cinema is situated close to a shopping complex it was agreed that the ‘girls’ would go shopping and the ‘boys’ would go to the movies to see the eagerly awaited ‘Toy Story 3’. I suggested that R should take his auld man for a celebratory pint afterwards but this idea was dismissed for a planned outing to a Pizza Hut courtesy of a two for one voucher chopped from the Sunday paper.

I had booked our cinema tickets online and just as well. The car park was busy to bursting but we managed to park kind of close to the front doors and with a minimum amount of fuss from the occupants of the car, unfolding of prams etc we dashed inside. It was a typical summer’s day in Falkirk and the rain was bouncing on the bonnet of the car and the pavements alike.

In the centre of the foyer there was an almighty queue for tickets, hotdogs and nachos which snaked back and forth across the red carpeted entrances to the 12 screens. Our show was on in Screen 6 which like the car park before was rammed with parents, grandparents, carers and weans.

It seemed like we had got the last two seats that were available together. I took R’s coat off and propped him up on the seat which immediately folded back leaving my lad shaped like a capital ‘V’. He recovered to perch himself on the edge of the seat – avoiding the flip up conundrum - and seemed to enjoy the rest of the experience. Of course half way through we had to retire to the ‘little boy’s room’, despite me asking if he needed the toilet before the film started. R at that point did not need a pee; he needed to ‘SEE TOY STORY 3!!!!’ which is what he told me each of the hundred or so times I asked.

As I say it was a first for R and I was aware that I watched him more than I did the screen for the first hour or so. Essentially throughout the duration of the film I was waiting on him to be scared or upset by something - the sheer size of the screen, the volume of noise, the darkness - but it never came. ‘Maybe’ I thought to myself while Woody and Buzz escaped from yet another scrape ‘he’s been desensitized by the 24hr illuminated world in which we live and through repeated exposure to challenging media stimuli he can no longer experience the shock of the new…’ or maybe it’s because most homes he visits have large screen plasma televisions mounted on the walls of their front rooms and sound systems to match. We have a small portable sized TV which youthful visitors to my house snigger at. R has yet to suggest that it be replaced but I’m sure that time will come.

I remember him visiting my brother’s house the day that the new 50 or so inch plasma had been installed. R who was about one year old then and hadn’t been walking long was fascinated by this thing. It had been hung low so it was just a perfect height for him to stand directly in front of. His face was a picture as he stood staring slack-jawed in amazement at this huge liquid colour filled box that was alive with Disney cartoons, Sponge Bob and Scooby Doo. Fantastic picture quality, built in blu-ray DVD, hi-fi sound and High Definition chocolate buttons smeared across the pristine plasma screen…

Tex

Five for Friday

1. This Is The Day - The The
2. Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy
3. Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil
4. Senorita - Justin Timberlake
5. The American - SImple Minds

Tex

Five For Friday

1. Highly Evolved - The Hives
2. Alison - The Pixies
3. Panic - The Smiths
4. Please, Please Me - The Beatles
5. Yes - McAlmont & Butler

Tex

Five For Friday For The Birthday of the Director General!

1. Fools Gold - Stone Roses
2. Groovy Train - The Farm
3. Back Of Love - Echo & The Bunnymen
4. Saturn 5 - Inspiral Carpets
5. North Country Boy - The Charlatans

Happy Birthday Scott!

Tex

Five For Friday!

1. King Rocker - Generation X
2. Biology - Girls Aloud
3. Follow The Leaders - Killing Joke
4. Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (the Recognised Anthem of World Contact Day)- The Carpenters
5. Return of Django - The Upsetters

Tex

DIY Design Dilemma

We recently had the pleasure (or pain) of working with a fairly new client. Said client decided to contact ourselves and ask us to get involved with them on the marketing (including design) of a product that they would like to promote/sell/get to market whatever way you want to say it!

From a very early stage we should have heard the alarm bells ringing!
"Not really sure what we want - can you do provide us with a few ideas?"

In principle not a problem as we generally pride ourselves in our ability to understand the brief and get inside the clients head with regards to target audience etc. etc. However what is it that allows someone, once you present 2 fairly professional and effective design solutions, to say to you:

"It's really not what we were looking for. My son has a PC and it has powerpoint. What do you think of this for a design?"

Time to leave the building - no amount of money will make me want to work with them! Or..... should we swallow our design pride, suck it up, nod our heads and deliver a job which we will get pretty well paid for?

Scott

Five For Friday

1. Really Free - John Otway & Wild Willy Barratt
2. Vicious - Lou Reed
3. Never Done Nothing Like That Before - Supergrass
4. It's A Long Way To the Top - ACDC
5. Pocket Full Of Rainbows - Elvis

Tex