Buffalo Ghost Signs

I stayed overnight in Buffalo, New York after my trip to Niagara Falls.

There isn't a huge amount to do in Buffalo, but I did enjoy walking around and finding lots of ghost signs - a sign or painting kept on a building for longer than needed. Wikipedia helpfully says that "the signage may be kept for its nostalgic appeal, or simply indifference by the owner".

Though, on reflection, maybe some of these aren't Ghost Signs, and are still thriving businesses - much like the signs in my Words on Walls post.

Words on Walls

As a fan of graphic design and typography, I particularly love seeing words painted on walls, signs, billboards and elsewhere.

So much so that I started a Words on Walls Pinterest board to collect my favourites.

To me, typography on walls, signs etc is an equivalent to public art and sculpture. You can get a sense of a city or country through them.

There's something about words painted on brick or metal which strikes me as very American. I took these examples on my trip to New York and Chicago.

Voices from Fifth Avenue

One evening, in New York, I started walking from Central Park to my hotel on West 48th Street. It was a short walk of 11 blocks. I walked along Fifth Avenue and became intrigued by all the voices passing me by. So much so, that I stayed walking for a lot longer, listening, listening, listening.

I heard short snippets of conversations, people passing - some zipping, some sauntering, some on their phones.


I've already got that ...... You've got to go for it when you can ...... I dunno ...... Pretty sure he just drives around ...... Are you excited? I don't think it's open ...... See the grid, Lady Gaga walked out there at midnight ...... T-Mobile's good for the most part ...... I've never been to the top of New York ...... I'll take it back with me, I'll take it back with me ...... You want me to come with you when you get your licence? ...... I mean what's the purpose of that? To make sure everyone knows how to do everything - is that it? ...... Thank you for helping. I know that's the last thing you wanna do ...... And whoever they're with, they're not right ...... So I don't intend to lose it ...... But they never actually do it ...... "Oh because of the cut?" "They cut the pay?" "Yeah" ...... We hadda sweet-talk one of the security guards ...... I'm so slow, everything's so slow ...... I told him I'd buy him a ...... There's nothing to do; it's like there's always something to do ...... Hot as hell. Tall, big old man's man ...... Confidence and cockiness are just totally different ...... I think she's tired ...... He's such a dawg, he's such a this, such a that ...... I didn't wanna go ...... I typically work at home ...... I was, like, so hoping she would call me out ...... I need to get some basic pants ...... I was teaching and the kids were sitting ...... It wouldn't have happened and it wouldn't have been fine ...... None of them will get married ...... Are New York girls like that too? ...... My boyfriend, when he comes to pick me up, he walks from 34th ...... Right. Where are you working? ...... So come for anything and everything, you can sleep over ...... When I was sitting in the precinct ...... The one at the bottom has pistachios ...... Two days off! I have a big job ...... No, I step on it and it moves ...... I'm just walking around a lot cos I'm playing cards in a couple of hours ...... I wish we could call Maurice  ...... What kind of food are you in the mood for? ...... That, like, makes me crazy ...... Help me out today! ...... Gourmet doesn't have to be expensive to be gourmet ...... We're going to walk to 50th and here we are ...... Yay give me a hug!

In a New York moment

The last time I went to New York, I looked up a lot and took hundreds of photographs of skyscrapers.

This time around, I looked more to street level and listened at all the teeming life around me on the streets of Manhattan.

A woman on a bus re-telling her love life story to a stranger, specifically her second husband: "He was strong and tall and handsome and shit so I had to marry him."

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A young Asian-American man sitting in a park answers his phone: "Hey, I'm good. I'm sitting in Union Square writing in my journal, I've had a soy latte and I'm enjoying this beautiful fall day in New York."

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On the subway, a labourer with hard hat and clothes stained with paint and cement wearing three large rings on one hand, one silver and chunky, one like Darth Vader's head, one polka-dot and glittering.

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Two men in Central Park discussing where to park their cart.

"I'll go in the middle lane."
"But you can't clog up the middle lane"
"I will!"
"Well, you're funny as hell!"

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A man outside a courthouse trying to be restrained, but jumping up and down shaking his fists above his head saying "yeeeeaah man I can't believe I got that lucky!!"

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Two fire engines and a police car trundle along 9th Avenue with their sirens set to a low plaintive wail (like you'd imagine a banshee to have), prompting a dog to howl with them, prompting its owner to straddle the dog and try to calm him, prompting a German couple to look and enthuse "beautiful dog".

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An elderly woman with her little granddaughter are transfixed watching a man play a Chinese musical instrument. A wobbly old dude cones along and starts doing a silly dance. It's all taken in good humour. (He'd get a slap in London.)

Talking Statues in London

At the weekend, I spent a day listening to London's Talking Statues.

This is a new project where a number of statues talk and tell their story to you, via your phone.

I love seeing statues, I have a pinterest board dedicated to my favourite statues. I've often looked at statues and wondered "who's that dude, why's he here?" (more often than not, it is a man).

So this project really appeals to me.

Doubly so, as it's part of a wider Digital R&D project from the Arts Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Nesta: essentially a way to have arts organisations think differently and try out digital tools. So: it's my day-job at the Horniman.

Over the course of the day, I visited twelve of the statues. Here are some thoughts.

• I loved it. I found it great to hear from (some of) these characters, especially the historic people. Words to describe: fascinating, illuminating, funny, heartwarming, imaginative, informative. I learned things I never knew about Queen Victoria, Rowland Hill and John Wilkes.
  

• I don't think the talking statues are designed to be seen the way I did, by visiting lots in one day. It works best as serendipity, you see a statue and then the plaque telling you to hear the statue. That said, something connecting them would be good too - a hashtag or something on the plaque to give the sense that there are more to see.
  
• For me, the talking statues worked best when the statue was a real person (or animal). The fictionalisation of artworks didn't really appeal to me. But I loved hearing from the 'real' Queen Victoria, from Brunel or Rowland Hill.
  

• The technology worked well for me. I can't use NFC tags (my phone doesn't like them) but the QR codes worked fine, as did typing in an address (I used that one most).
• The NFC tag on the plaque is a symbol and the word 'Tap'. It was fascinating watching how people interpreted that. They tapped the tag with their feet, with their fingers, but never with their phones. Some people tapped repeatedly. (It reminded me of a time I saw a woman at the Horniman literally speak a question into an iPad as it had the wording "Ask a question" [we meant 'type in']).
  
• Tech fans: the 'statues' don't actually phone you. It all connects to mobile-optimised websites which cleverly package streaming audio to look and feel like a telephone call.
  
• At several of the stops, I got into conversations with other people about the technology, about the talking statues. It was quite enjoyable sharing these little moments.
  
• Even when I was alone, my presence listening and looking at the statues encouraged other people to look at the statues that little bit more.
  

• Public artworks are quite unusual in a museum sense. They often have no interpretation whatsoever.
  
• My favourite: without doubt, Queen Victoria. Two of her statues are narrated, both by Prunella Scales. A wonderful actress playing a wonderful character.
  

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What people talk about in the USA

I'm off on my travels next week, to the USA. I'm taking in Long Island (the Hamptons!), New York City, Niagara Falls, the rather random city of Adrian, Michigan and Chicago.

Last time I went to New York, I loved the people-watching, seeing those glorious travel moments.

This time I think my ears will be attuned to hear more than three examples.

In anticipation, I've been looking at one of my favourite phrases to search on twitter: "people talk about in" - seeing what people talk about in certain places. It almost always seems to be America.

All people talk about in LA is their health. All people talk about in New York is their rent.
— Phoebe Lovatt (@PhoebeLovatt) July 3, 2014

1. Brunch 24 Things People In NYC Love To Talk About http://t.co/Vj69TpWgyx via @mkruvant
— BuzzFeed Travel (@buzzfeedtravel) June 21, 2014

What people talk about in Texas: Falling asleep while driving. You never hear this in the East.
— tom ricks (@tomricks1) March 6, 2014

I swear all people talk about in Nebraska is corn
— Gitau (@wildboyfrazier) February 16, 2014

All people talk about in Northern Michigan is the weather and other people
— Alexa JP (@lexajp) January 26, 2014

Things that people in LA like to talk about: 1. Traffic 2. Freeways 3. Alternate freeway routes that could have been taken
— Julian Bialowas (@julianbialowas) November 29, 2013

From what I've overheard, most of what people talk about in San Luis Obispo is either San Francisco or Los Angeles.
— Alex Volberding (@avolberding) July 26, 2013

Things people talk about in utah: The weather, church, turning eighteen, and missions. #cool
— jewelysa ☪ (@jewelysamarie) April 12, 2012

Here's hoping I'll be able to tweet my own version of these.

London from above: Westminster Cathedral

One of the greatest views in any city is from above.

In London, the two of the most famous ways to see the city from on high are the Shard and the London Eye.

But there are other ways (cheaper too). A few weeks ago, I went to Westminster Cathedral and took the lift to their tower to admire the views around me.

The views around Victoria show many modern buildings, lots of glass and steel offices and shopping centres - and some surprises like rooftop gardens.

Looking around from that vantage point gives a wonderful span of buildings including Westminster Abbey, the Cheesegrater, BT Tower, Walkie Talkie, the Shard, Strata SE1, Vauxhall and Battersea Power Station.

Carneval del Pueblo

Carneval del Pueblo - Europe's largest Latin American carnival which takes place in South London - was supposed to see its 2014 event yesterday. I had hoped to go along and take lots of photographs of the colourful costumes, dancing and music.

Sadly, it seems to have been postponed; the lastest in a long line of postponements or cancellations year after year. Hopefully it will be back soon as a full on parade from Elephant and Castle to Burgess Park and festival afterwards. I certainly enjoyed it.

In the meantime, here are some of my favourite photos from a previous Carneval del Pueblo.

World Cup Flags

It's been two weeks since the World Cup ended, and I'm missing seeing World Cup flags all over London.

So to satiate my vexillology longing, here are some of my favourite flag sightings.

My favourite flag sightings came about when two flags were displayed on one household or building, showing a lovely multinational mix. Like this one above from Willesden Junction: Brazilian café downstairs and a German flag flying above - a very London sight.

Europe in USA

For many years, I've been interested in the way towns, cities, villages and more in the USA are named (I wrote about in 2010).

Reading the article which inspired that blog, I realised that nearly all of Europe was accounted for in American placenames.

So I set about making a map of some European place-names in the USA.

Sadly, there isn't a place for every country in Europe, though sometimes there are more than one, e.g. Norway, Kansas, Norway, Iowa and Norway, Maine, so I chose the place which sat best on the map.

In some cases, a country name is not accounted for, but the capital city is e.g Vienna, Georgia or Sofia, New Mexico.

And occasionally, you really can't be sure that the European placename is the inspiration - e.g. Turkey, North Carolina or San Marino, California

I'm fascinated by the breadth and number of places with names inspired by Europe. I suppose the next step is to start visiting them!

World Cup in London: Argentina

For the second World Cup semi-final, I chose to watch Argentina -v- Netherlands at Moo Cantina in Pimlico with lots of Argentina fans.

It was super-packed, so I again took to hanging around outside.

A nice old lady just toddled past the bar, declaring "I say, it's a full house, isn't it?". She's not wrong.

It wasn't the most exciting match (until the penalties!) so people watching was again the order of the evening.

Best thing about the Argentina fans so far? The man dressed in a grey shaggy dog onesie waving a small Argentina flag.

Argentina fan here did a very dramatic "touch wood" gesture by thumping a flower bed surround.

Singing as if they're winning: a song which seems like a ten stanza epic.

A goal was disallowed, leading to roars and disappointment.

But, in the end, Argentina came out victorious, leading to celebrations (which sadly I didn't photograph, as my phone battery was perilously low).

The Argentina fans are going crazy - chanting, bellowing, stripping off, cheering.

"Ole ole ole cada dia te queiro mas," sing the Argentina fans, "soy Argentinoooo!"

And as I sloped home on the bus, London served up fans from both Uruguay and Netherlands on the bus.

On bus home, sitting next to a fan in a Dutch t-shirt. He sat stoically watching the Argentina fans dancing up a storm.

Meanwhile, behind the Dutch fan on the bus, a lady from Argentina is posing for photos in her autographed football shirt, cackling joyously.