‘Long conversations, especially those which have no bearing on the game, should be studiously avoided, as although they have merit of putting one’s opponents off they also put one off oneself. Good shot, bad luck and hell are the five basic words to be used in a game of tennis, though these, of course, can be slightly amplified. Another useful phrase is “Has anyone the faintest idea what the score is?” This too can be amplified, sometime to alarming proportions; indeed it’s quite comme il faut to forcegather at the net and discuss with heated politeness and much pointing the astonishing mathematical weakness of the opposite side.’

‘For those to whom the front part of a horse is only slightly less frightening that the back there is little to choose between one race meeting and another, save in the matter of clothes. At Ascot it is etiquette for ladies to wear a different costume every day and to take special care to keep their best confections for the day on which it rains.’

‘Occasionally a gentleman will allow a non-angling lady to “have a go”, and it is then etiquette, when the line is dangling weakly two inches out from the bank, for the lady to hook the largest fish that has ever been seen in the Dee since 1892. Unfortunately it is not etiquette for a lady to the land the fish. Many attempts have been made to keep hold of the rod, indeed struggles of unsurpassing valour, if of unbecoming appearance, have frequently taken place on the water’s edge, the gentleman crying, “No, no, you fool, keep the point up! Oh, for God’s sake, give it to me, oh no, you ass!” and the lady screaming “Damn you, I hooked it and I’m going to land it or lose it, I don’t care which but it’s MINE!” As in all purely physical battles between the sexes, however, the gentleman, if he dare be so called, wins, and if there is anything left of the rod and it’s addenda, not to mention the fish, which has had a very puzzling experience up to now, he proceeds to land claim it as his own.’

‘ Ladies are sometimes hit on the head by moribund birds and almost always hit on the nose by expended cartridge cases. They are also often trodden on by a gentleman seeking to take high bird, and they are sometimes, though seldom, shot dead by the gentleman next door. There is no pleasure, however, without a spice of danger, and the sound of feathered bodies bouncing on the ground, the smell of gunpowder and the beauty of the wintry trees lashing themselves against the steel grey sky should be sufficient reward for any perils endured.’

‘Remember the houses of others are invariably much colder than your own, even if the thermometer states otherwise, and the richer the hosts the colder the house…This applies also to the bath water. If a hostess, knowing she has taken all the hot water says, “I’m afraid, darling, you had an ice-cold bath?” it is then just permissible to reply in the cryptoaffirmative, i.e., “No, honestly it was awfully nearly hot enough, and I only hope I didn’t take all the hot water”. This is what is known as good manner, and though perfectly useless thermostatically speaking, maintains that atmosphere of goodwill so necessary in human relationships.’

Suburbs has never been popular amongst the elite, and it’s probably more because of the dislike of mass-culture rather than because of the actual suburbs themselves. The Times in 1904: London with acres of suburbia “is to produce a district of appaling monotony, ugliness and dullness. And every suburban extension makes existing suburbs less desirable. Fifty years ago Brixton and Clapham were on the edge of the country; a walk could take one into lanes and meadows. Now London stretches to Croydon. It is no longer possible to escape from the dull suburbs into unspoiled country.”

Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia

The Lethaby building seen from the Red Lion Square building

BA Graphic design Stage 2 leader’s office

Atelier

Cleaner dusting the grand piano in the entrance foyer

Students working in one of the jewellery workshops

Jonathan Barratt, the dean at the School of Graphic and Industrial Design at CSM, looking at blueprints of the new Kings Cross building

Letterpress cases with Gill Condensed

Administrative offices

BA Graphic Design first year studio

VFX and Compositing artist Kalle Peterson has chosen “A minor break / A Major break” as soundtrack to his latest reel. CHECK IT OUT.

//Magnus

Efter en hel lördag inomhus spenderad framför SVTPlay, Hype Machine och Last.fm har jag lyckats producera en lista med frankofona söndagslÃ¥tar pÃ¥ Spotify, som inte pÃ¥ nÃ¥got sätt har nÃ¥gonting överhuvudtaget att göra med bilden härunder. Bilden är hämtad ur en svit bilder tagna i Highgate Village där – när jag tänker efter – det  bor mÃ¥nga ganska sÃ¥ väl bemedlade samt välbemedlade engelsmän. I England gÃ¥r kärleken till Frankrike frÃ¥n -273,15° (0K) hos den engelska arbetarklassen till 100° (373,15K) hos Elton John.