Swarfega

From musical nostalgia to industrial-strength hand-cleaner nostalgia. I'd got my hands covered in oil at lunchtime through trying to fix Leigh's bicycle. Would it ever come off with soap & water? Memories of  Swarfega came flooding back - a green, jelly-like substance with a smell that would make your hair stand on end. It was invented in 1947 by someone called Audley Bowdler Williamson from Derbyshire, and is still made today. It came in a tin with a big lid so you could get your hands in. The last time used it was probably in 1974. God, the stuff I write about...

Words and Music

With the year drawing to a close but not quite over, one could be premature in stating a pop album of the year, but it's a safe bet that mine is Saint Etienne's Words and Music (or to give it its full title, Words and Music by Saint Etienne). Over the summer and autumn it's been played incessantly in this household, not least by Naomi (8), which may say something about its accessibility. For most, it's probably the perfect Saturday late afternoon music, alongside the chart rundown (does this still happen?) and in preparation for a night out. But for us - who are a bit past it, or too young - it's Sunday morning music.
Cracknell, Stanley & Wiggs are also a bit past it, but their love and knowledge of pop, in all its myriad forms, lends a passionate, irresistible nostalgia to this their eighth album. 'Over the Border' discusses travelling to Peter Gabriel's house, ("Peter Gabriel of Genesis", Cracknell helpfully reminds us, for this is the early 70s). There are references to "green and yellow Harvests, pink Pyes, silver Bells" (record labels & Mike Oldfield's debut), "the strange and important sound of the synthesiser," and whether Marc Bolan would still be relevant to a grown woman married with kids. 'Popular' is about an internet message-board populated by people who want to discuss Pussycat's 1976 no.1 hit 'Mississippi' in depth. If you were brought up on prog & glam, or were obsessed with music whatever the decade, then these and many other more recent references will immediately resonate. But young people will 'get it' too. The melodies and production are very strong and the whole album is wonderfully uplifting. 
Paul Morley, the music journalist, who knows a thing or two about pop, also wrote a book called Words and Music, but though it shares this album's passion, it's a bit too clever for its own good. Saint Etienne's eulogy is from the heart rather than the head.

Missed Woon (again)

Not bad. Three hours sleep on a five hour flight. Home, shower, then straight to a small hutong hotel near the Drum Tower. Last night Jamie Woon, the last of our Brit band tours, performed at the Mao Club just around the corner - which of course I missed. Thought I might catch him at breakfast, but he and the crew had already departed for Harbin. We brought him over last year too, for a music residency, and I failed to meet him then as well. Anyway, we're making a documentary film of all four bands' tours, so the cameraman stayed behind and interviewed me on the roof of the hotel. Cold, grey and damp. Bags under the eyes. Desperate for a coffee. Not ideal conditions.

Suvannabuhmi Mall

Finances, HR and wrap-up in the morning, then scores of emails... and all this with lovely Chiang Mai outside. The only glimpse we had was last night - and that was a trip to our office! Late afternoon flight to Bangkok then six hour transit in the airport which went surprisingly quickly (more emails) before the overnight flight home. Suvannabuhmi is one big - or in this case long - shopping mall. It's like Chelsea's Kings Road: literally a mile of fashion, cafes, perfumeries and designer this-that-and-the-other. And a bookshop. Which was full of Lonely Planets, coffee table crafts, business bibles, biographies of Aung San Suu Kyi and - non existent in China - English language magazines. I devoured Mojo and Q.

Early Loy Kratang

Conference time. Always good to see people, one or two I've known for 20 years, most for 5-10 years, and others who are new to me and the region. So we talked about various programmes and I gave a presentation on UK Now and how it's gone, what's next etc, before we all boarded a bus for a modest buffet dinner in the grounds of the small but lovely British Council Chiang Mai office. Only there wasn't much to eat. Still, plenty to drink, and we ended the evening lighting paper lanterns, three weeks before Loy Kratang festival, which drifted up into the sky as high as the eye could see. Beautiful.

Chiang Mai

Up at the unseemly hour of 4am to catch a plane to Bangkok and then onward to Chiang Mai for the once-a-year East Asia Regional Leadership Team Meeting. I can think of worse places to have it... Muggy & overcast, but it's nice to be back here; first time in three or four years I think. Whenever I go to Thailand, it feels a bit like coming home.
So, Obama's got a second term. Meanwhile, Hu Jintao has opened the Communist Party Congress in Beijing which will usher in a new leadership team, including a new President and Premier. Interesting times.

Being Boring

Met the photographer Martin Parr tonight. He has a small exhibition on at Pekin Fine Arts and this evening gave a talk at Bookworm, neither of which we were involved with, but we’re talking about a bigger one in a year or so.

I love his work. I remember Boring Postcards when it came out in 2000. The publisher was reluctant to take it on and only printed 2,000. It’s now on its 20^th or something reprint. He turns the mundane into something interesting, revels in kitsch and saturated colour, and both celebrates & pokes fun at middle class suburbia (a club in which he himself is a fully paid-up member).

He has published over 60 books, most of which he has co-designed. He is an obsessive collector, including 12,000 photography books which have spilled out of his Bristol house and into a warehouse. He also has, he thinks (and who are we to argue?), the world's largest collection of Saddam Hussein watches – that’s with the dead dictator's image on them, not those which once adorned his wrist. He’s now gone on to Gaddafi.

And he showed us an incredibly high-end production, limited edition book… of parking spaces around the world. So obsessed is he with documenting the trivia of everyday life, that one forgets he’s also a member of Magnum and actually gets commissioned to do more glamorous assignments – like fashion. If I was commissioning a fashion shoot, he’d be the last person I’d hire.