FRIDAY RANT: THE WORLD CUP

The world cup’s starting and my mood’s sinking. Here’s why:

1. The songs – there really is no excuse for the waves of aural effluent that wash out of my radio every morning. Tony Christie and the Crazy Frog are bad enough, but Embrace just adds insult to injury. David Baddiel couldn’t even be bothered to change the lyrics of ‘three lions’ to “40 years of hurt”. That’s just lazy.

As for the Hamiltons… words fail me. What does it even mean to be ‘jolly dee’?

2. The merchandise – why would anyone buy all this crap? England sunglasses… special England wigs… about four flags on every car I see going past. And nodding dogs. Also with a flag on them. Somewhere, someone is making a lot of money from all this cheap plastic tat.

3. Its effect on my social life – a whole month of only being able to go out with my friends if we go somewhere with a big screen TV and about 50 drunk Scunthorpe fans with England flags wrapped round their shoulders. Marvellous.

Can’t you fools see that it’s just a huge money making scam probably dreamt up by the Bilderberg group or some other global conspiracy? I’m going to lie down in a cool, dark room until it’s all over.

News, Sport

HOW TO RECONNECT YOUNG PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS

The pamphlet, published with Orange, argues that young people and organisations are struggling to meet each others needs – not because either lacks the ability or even inclination to do so, but because fundamentally they do not understand what each other are looking for. We argue that there are changes in the type of jobs we are asked to do, and in our expectations of employers, and until we come to terms with this we will be stuck in the blame game that often gets played out in public discourse.

Culture, Employment, News

WHAT SHALL I READ ON MY SUMMER HOLIDAY?

So it’s just started to chuck it down. Lucky I’m off on my summer holidays in a couple of weeks (New Orleans and then on to Miami as it happens). I’m just beginning to compile my holiday reading and thought the Greenhouse might be able to help me out. On the short list so far are:

Non-fiction
A Whole New Mind- Daniel Pink
The Architecture of Happiness- Alain de Botton
The New East End- Geoff Dench
Good and Bad Power- Geoff Mulgan

Fiction
This Book Will Save Your Life- A.M. Homes
Alentejo Blue- Monica Ali

It’s a short short list. So I obviously need help and maybe this (gulp Demos cliché warning) “open source summer reading list” might be interesting/useful more generally.

I’m especially keen on hearing about any books that will look good against a backdrop of art deco opulence, pastel suits and ridiculous cocktails.

Culture, Literature, News