In memorium, my London

By A.A. GILL

Published: April 27, 2012 N.Y. Times

You want stiff-lipped men in bowler hats and cheeky cockneys with their thumbs in their waistcoats and fish on their heads.

I’m sorry, but they’re not here anymore. No city’s exported image lags so far behind its homegrown veracity than London’s, so let’s start with what you’re not going to find. We’re all out of cheeky cockneys, pearly kings and their queens, and costermongers. You’re not going to find ’60s psychedelia and the Beatles in Carnaby Street. There aren’t any punks under 50 on the King’s Road; there are no more tweedy, mustachioed, closeted gay writers in Bloomsbury, no Harry Potter at King’s Cross. There aren’t men in white tie, smoking cigars outside Pall Mall clubs and there isn’t any fog, but you can find Sherlock Holmes’s house on Baker Street.

N.Y. Times discovers Sony has dropped the ball.

I think the N.Y Times reads my blog. See January's "What's the Matter With Sony?"

Now look at this:How the Tech Parade Passed Sony By

By HIROKO TABUCHI

Sony once wowed the world with the Walkman and the Trinitron TV. But its fortunes have taken a sharp turn amid disruptive new technologies and unforeseen rivals.

Vodaphone, horrible people.

Recently Vodaphone cut off a business (with a perfect payment record) with ten lines because it was one cent short in its payment. The kicker is, the error was with Vodaphone, their invoice was one cent short of their own accounting record. So the business was without their phones all day and when finally the difference was paid with a personal credit card, one cent, they took another four hours to reconnect. Bitter complaints were met with the response, "There are other phone companies, go there." We will, we will.

Read more here:

Issue 169, 4th April, 2012, Page 02.

Long overdue website update

A new front page for my website. Contains photos, videos, old song lyrics, piano bars and pubs, music hall links - take a look: London Bobby

Cruise Lines Throw Baby Out With Bathwater

Today's Globe and Mail article - "Cruise lines update old ships with new tricks" detail the efforts they are making to keep up with the times. But not all changes are improvements.

The demise of "the formerly sedate piano bar" is lamentable and I for one only cruise on ships with such a bar. There has been a sea-change in music, from melodic, interesting songs to monotonous thump-thump which the younger set like to dance to now. The cruise lines vigorously market to this younger set but the fact is repeat cruisers are people with disposable income and available time, and this tends to be the older generation and this older generation likes pre-thump music.

The same change in music is closing cafes by the score along the Mediterranean coast as music licenses are cancelled due to complaints by nearby residents. Once upon a time it was pleasant to listen to the music from afar but not now, all that can be heard is the relentless thump of the bass.

I know this makes me sound like a dinosaur but dinosaurs have rights too and one is to have access to pleasant music and not to be assailed with music volume turned up to the threshold of pain.

Soundguy

My son is a soundguy.

Tiptoe through the tulips, the dream, the nightmare

Terry Smith gets into showbiz and discovers the plusses and minuses.

The deam:

The nightmare: