Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 520

Cool is the new naff. This is the message sent out by Alex Gilbert, organiser of 'Ultimate Power', a night at the Scala, King's Cross that consists of 1,200 people screaming out power ballads until their throats give. Blame 'Glee' for kick-starting a movement away from looking hip in expensive bars and shifting to arenas [...:]

Yesterday I had lunch with a well-known American director who is thinking of leaving England – the reason? He feels that West End theatre has been ruined by the financial model adapted from Broadway's money-spinning formula. Tourists want spectacle and shows need to be sold around the world to make back their costs, and so [...:]

I was afraid of this.
The iPad isn't even on sale in the UK yet, and we have imitators heading for our stores, but somebody really should have checked this one out before deciding on the name. It's a German knock-off from Neofonie (itself a pretty funny name when spoken aloud), and it's called – wait [...:]

Are you the new Average Londoner? If so, you live alone in a flat full of gadgets, and you're an ecological disaster because you consume more power than a family. This is according to newly released official statistics, but here are a few additions I garnered (data drawn unscientifically from friends outside a pub in [...:]

One of the things visitors to London find so odd is that you can be walking through a rough neighbourhood, turn a corner and find yourself in an entirely different one. The villages of London have distinct identities and, thanks to community sites set up online, have become much more individual. Barnsbury stands on the [...:]

It's London's most peculiar housing estate. Built by Baroness Burdett-Coutts behind holly hedges in Swains Lane, Highgate, in 1865, these eight fanciful Gothic cottages are built around a 'village' green. They're privately owned, but are small and rather dark inside. I visited one when it was up for sale and thought that although they were [...:]

Clear skies, hot weather – it must be the volcanic ash we've heard so much about lately. The Daily Mail is screaming about the end of the world, someone in the Shetland Isles apparently has a slightly sore throat, and the air seems clearer than I can ever remember. A perfect day for reading about [...:]

Recently I ran a ghastly picture of Imelda Marcos and Henry Kissinger dancing, mentioning that David Byrne and Fatboy Slim had received a rough ride over their concept album 'Here Lies Love'. Well, it's really grown on me – in fact, I'm playing it while I work. Here's the title track.

Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail has predicted we're all doomed, with rains of volcanic ash to pelt the country until Christmas until we all get bronchitis and die. This will be followed by rains of frogs, death of the first-born and passing the blame for the ash onto immigrants.

I take it all with a pinch of [...:]

As if That Volcano (thanks a bunch, Iceland!) wasn't causing enough chaos, London is about to be beset by ravenous zombie hordes.

This is a new 'mosaic novel' set in the near-future, when a desperate and ever-more controlling UK government decides to restore a sense of national pride with a New Festival of Britain. Controversial [...:]