Saturday at the Office

11-15-2008


I went into the office today. I feel like a real employee coming into work on a weekend. Before I went in though, I had to hit up Primark once more for some essential cheap yet smart clothes. Upon my walk there, I passed by a department store, whose name I can't recall, yet it resembles a Harrods. Anyways, the point is they had this slogan in there impressive window displays. The phrase disgusts me: "The More, the Merrier," implying the more crap you have the happier you'll be this Christmas. Because let's face it, that's what the holidays are all about right.....(hope you picked up the sarcasm there)

I was asked if I wanted to come in today, so I was going in under my own free will. I figured it wouldn't be the end of the world coming in for a panel discussion with some of the local community, and would actually be beneficial. The goal was to get feedback from invited youth and artists in the area to find out how LifeFM (soon to be Bang radio) can better cater to the needs of the community. Unfortunately, do to a very low attendance (no one from the community came at all) the meeting was cancelled. But it wasn't a complete loss since there was in fact work to be done, as usual, so I did some of that.

Did I ever mention this whole Life turning to Bang thing? It's actually been quite exciting lately. Life FM will be changing to Bang Radio on Dec. 8th, a complete re-branding. The music format / target audience isn't changing but the station is streaming-lining quite drastically. I've seen a lot of presenters that I've come to know well be let go as their show didn't quite fit the sound Bang Radio will embody. It's definitely been a good learning experience.

The other excitement of today was seeing a friend's band play at the Barfly off New Oxford Street. The first night I went to the opera with Luke, we were interviewed by a couple who worked for the English National Opera. We had a drinks with them afterward and we agreed that we'd go out on the town some night and see some live jazz. Turns out that the cameraman, Roney, was in a band back in the day that was playing a sort of reunion gig tonight. So I went out and saw him play at a tiny little basement venue that was way too loud. Pretty sweet gig though, they had quite the local following for a little band from a big city.

En route home, I stumbled upon Newman Street and one of the most famous, and believed to be the largest, pieces of graffiti art done by the genius man known only as Banksy. This guerrilla graffiti artist does works all over London and I believe the UK. Done in his very recognizable minimalist style, Banksy's works are always thought provoking and make wonderful statements about the corporate world we live in. If they don't do that, they are random for the sake of random. He puts a little extra spice to life. Turns what would be a blank, dank, dark alley into a work of art. Check out some more of his works here.