The June Jotter
A collection of things that have piqued my interest, sparked a thought, or compelled me to do something.
01. A project - Slow Ways
One of the things we have done more of during lockdown is to go on longer walks. The lovely weather and being a little less busy has prompted us to take the dog out a little bit earlier each day. We thought we knew most of our local paths, but how wrong we were.
Which brings me to this wonderful initiative Slow Ways.
“Slow Ways is a project to create a network of walking routes that connect all of Great Britain’s towns and cities as well as thousands of villages.
Using existing footpaths, people will be able to use the Slow Ways to walk between neighbouring settlements or daisy-chain routes for long distance journeys.”
One of our newly discovered walks in the Wiltshire countryside (starting from Amesbury).
.. and a newly discovered view of Bristol.
02. A Book - Feck Perfuction by James Victore
Feck Perfuction is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Mr Victore kindly offers to “give you the kick in the pants you need” to “create freely and fearlessly.”
The quote most often referred to in this oft-quoted book is:
“The things that made you weird as a kid makes you great today. The source of your character and creativity.”
It’s a good one, but this is my favourite:
“No one has the right answer, because no one has your answer. We want to know. We seek answers in books and seminars. We look for guidance from teachers, heroes, gurus and even the internet. We’ve gotten so used to looking around that we’ve stopped looking inside.”
It’s on a page he humbly calls ‘The secret of the universe’ and I think he may be onto something.
03. Talented friends - Ninepoint Art
Original art for sale by all round good egg, Justin Folker.
Here’s what he says: “my work is heavily influenced by typography. I also love retro imagery and old signage and advertisements. A lot of the imagery I use comes from European and American sources – there’s something about it that just clicks with me and lends itself to the style I am wanting to create.”
04. A quote
“If you and your competitors all make excellent products, don’t try to imply that your product is better. Just say what’s good about your product - and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it.”
Joel Raphaelson
05. Good ideas - An Audience of One from The Encouragment Manifesto
I started following Feast and Fables on Twitter and Medium a few weeks ago. They share many insightful and entertaining thoughts across various platforms the internet kindly bestows upon us.
An Audience of One is one of their posts that have particularly resonated with me. It’s about how businesses find their audience and then explains why audience is the wrong word. But I mustn’t ruin the plot. You can read the full article right here.
Mr Fables also has a very good taste in music, but has let himself down by supporting Gloucester Rugby.
06. Design - 18 of the Best Book Covers From the Academic Press
Judging a book by its cover…
07. A city - Dublin
There is something going on in Dublin’s fair city.
… has brought a new energy to street photography. However, as Sean O’Hagan puts it, this term “damns Doyle with faint praise.” Most of the photos from his first three books i, ON and End were taken within a few meters of his front door in Dublin.
TV and novel: Normal People by Sally Rooney
If you haven’t watched this on iPlayer yet, you are probably bored of hearing how good it is. So I won’t go on about how good it is. Just watch it.
Music: Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital
As with many middle-aged people who have avidly listened to music for 35+ years, our default is to sigh at new bands and patronisingly say music was so much better in the 80’s (or whenever you were a teenager). Every few years something truly brilliant emerges which makes you realise there are still ways to breathe new energy into guitar music. These two Dublin bands are doing this better than most.
08. A town - Frome
Frome is a nearby market town in Somerset. It has been transformed over the last ten years.
One of the inspirational figures behind this is Gavin Eddy. In this The Entrepreneurs podcast from Monocle you can listen first hand how his initiative, The Frome Independent, helped to give the town a new lease of life.
09. Work
This month we have launched a holding page for Digital Interlock, holders of a UK patent for bar-top digital point of sale. Their full website will be launched in July. We also launched Priory Steps, a B&B in Bradford on Avon, whose previous website was built in the very early days of the web and was long overdue a makeover.
There are currently six further projects at various stages of development. They will probably all see the light of day during one very busy week. That’s how it often works. I don’t know why, but it will certainly make for a very exciting week.
