Red Nose

Being nosey

We are living through some decidedly grim times right now – politically, economically and emotionally. Lurching from one disaster to the next, with Brexit, toxic Trumpism, COVID and a new cold war, my usual optimism is being severely challenged. Thankfully, we have Eurovision happening in Liverpool soon (a subject covered elsewhere in this blog) and on Friday 17 March we …

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With a little help from my friends

It’s official, the Eurovision Song Contest is coming to the United Kingdom in 2023 as a replacement host for Ukraine which tragically remains under attack from Russia. The cities shortlisted have now been published; Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield and we’ll find out more in the autumn. These seven cities are all places I’m familiar with and …

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Nant Gwrtheyrn

Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg

I like a challenge. Sometimes doing something completely alien can be just what one needs, especially after a forced period of lockdown inertia. Having said that, I’ve now passed half a century in age and could also argue that post-COVID, the head fuzziness is lingering, and getting back on the bike isn’t quite as easy as it should be. Either …

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Pet Shop Boys icons

Left to my own devices

Few musical artists have fused audio and visual as artfully as Pet Shop Boys. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe’s use of design to project the band as a brand has been in evidence almost from day one. With backgrounds respectively in magazine publishing and architecture, it’s no surprise that an eye for visual detail would permeate everything for Tennant and Lowe. …

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Value for money

Today in the UK we get a fresh design for one of our bank notes and the worthy £50 image is apt for Pride month as it now features a man whose legacy should never be forgotten: Alan Turing – a leading mathematician, developmental biologist, and a pioneer in the field of computer science. Alan Turing helped accelerate Allied efforts to …

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Liverpool 8 against apartheid

31 years ago today, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. In 1990 the world was a very different place; I was not long into my first job and aggrieved about local and global injustices. I’d just ‘come out’, discovered animal rights and gone vegetarian, there was an unequal age of consent, the AIDS pandemic was raging and Liverpool was just …

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