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Braille cake

Originally uploaded by Paul Carvill

This is the Co-Operative’s very tasty carrot and orange cake. But look, there on the back of the packet – is it braille? Or is it just some machine readable system so the conveyor belts know which pile to stack the boxes in?

ENO nick Lambchop’s Nixon cover art?

Originally uploaded by Paul Carvill

I passed this billboard for English National Opera’s autumn season a while ago, but kept forgetting to take a snap.

Someone there’s obviously a Lambchop fan – the incongruous giant letters, the typeface, the reflection, the warm autumnal hues…

Today is my last day at UpMyStreet. It’s been an interesting year and a half, and I’ve learned a lot about how to run, and how not to run, a website.

I’ve also met some really great people, and built up a network of developers, designers and mates that I hope I can call on if I ever need anything, and vice versa.

I’ve also, inevitably, learned a lot about the politics of being wholly owned by another, larger company, in our case uSwitch, and how this affects every decision you make on a daily basis.

I’ll write some more about these lessons learned another time, but for now I’m going to work as a freelance web designer/developer, starting at The Guardian on Monday!

I’m really excited about this new career move, and the first step couldn’t have been arranged any better than this. Friends and family will know all about my admiration for The Guardian, both the newspaper and the website. I posted earlier this year here about their recent redesign, which so far has been rolled out in a very limited way across the site. Well, now I’m going to working on it! Woo-hoo!

And yes, I’ve had my share of taunts regarding comfortable corduroys, lentils, cardigans, fair trade organic potato skin clothing and various other left-leaning stereotypes.

So, bye bye UpMyStreet, it’s been emotional…

Went to the Roundhouse in Camden last night to see Cat Power, backed by the Memphis Horns. Cat herself is as ramshackle and loose as the Horns are tight and focussed. She often ended songs abruptly, stopping her guitar and leaving the backing singers hollering alone. She seems to suffer from a distinct lack of confidence, more than once apoligising for her ‘flat’ vocals.

The show was divided into two parts, the first with the whole band, the second performed solo. The Memphis Horns tights funk and Cat’s bluesy shuffle wouldn’t seem to be natural partners, but that they go together so well is a revelation. After an initial instrumental workout, they settled into a warm groove as Cat played through most of “The Greatest” album.

In the second part Cat shifted between piano and guitar, a lone spotlight from above picking her out in the cavernous darkness of the Roundhouse. Her voice, so deep and smoky, sounded beautfiul and full of detail, and the sound throughout the show was crystal clear, if a little trebly to begin with.

So how does the refurbed Roundhouse fare? There’s no doubting it’s an impressive venue – huge, with a high ceiling. The lighting used in this show was basic but atmospheric, and by the look of the size of the rig it could handle anything you wanted from it, including the psychedelic oil lights Pink Floyed used to have here in the Sixties. Seating all the way round at 1st floor level offers a great view, although the level floor at ground level presents the usual problem of getting a clear eyeline to the stage, which is remarkably low for a venue of this size. By the looks of it the stage can be placed anywhere on the floor space, so it’s quite flexible.

The bars, of which there are several, were serving quickly, although as far as I could tell they only had Kronenberg on tap. The main problem is that with the venue configuration being “in the round” the only route from the crowd to the bars was to radiate through from middle. Unlike other traditional, front-facing venues, where channels down either side are utilised to get to the bars and toilets, this caused quite a bit of disruption for the whole first half of the show.

Cat generated huge amounts of affection from the crowd, but I would say she is enigmatic rather than charismatic. She had to be gently guided from the stage by one of her backing singers at the end, only to pop back up on the other side, waving and pulling funny faces as she had done for the last hour and three quarters.