Phew!

The Air New Zealand Cultural Ambassador

Andrew Baker is the Cultural Ambassador at Air New Zealand. He's been with the company for some 19 years, having spent a lot of this time as a Flight Services Manager on board. Andrew's new role is to educate new Air New Zealanders (many who are not Kiwis) about the values of the company and
in particular maori culture. As a proud Maori himself, Andrew exudes the openness and generosity of spirit that he talks about. He visited us in London and taught the team how to do the Haka.

And when we met him again in New Zealand he showed us he's a man of many skills by playing us a traditional song on his guitar about new beginnings.

We also traveled with Andrew to visit the Waitangi Treaty grounds - the birthplace of the New Zealand nation. This is where a treaty  was signed between the Maoris and the first English settlers in 1840.

The Waitangi grounds are beautiful and tranquil place containing a Maori meeting house. A meeting house is not a "church" but more of a "library". The carvings contained within reflect a verbal history rather than a written one. In Christchurch we visited a modern art gallery and saw a contemporary interpretation of a meeting house by a Maori artist.

Kiwi entrepreneurialism

The Albion Air New Zealand team made a stop at Peregrine Wines in Otago. Greg Hay is the founder of the vineyard and won the Air New Zealand wine award for his pinot noir in his first year of production, creating a name for the Otago region. His winery is housed in a wonderful piece of modern architecture that is inspired by the falcon that is also the symbol of his label. Greg has also organised gigs on the the estate which he thought "wouldn't be too hard to pull off". He talked of the power and importance of the brand in winemaking and also what he does to protect his brand. He once declined an offer from a major fizzy drinks manufacturer to use his venue to launch a new product because he thought their brand did not fit with his.  Greg defines what it is to be a Kiwi - inventive, can-do and daring, whilst still being very humble and down-to-earth.

The importance of tea

Everyone at Albion knows the importance of making tea. It's a written law that we make a round of tea for each other when we are getting one ourself (with the exception of Nick Curnow in Creative Services who has only ever made one cup of tea for someone else which was so awful that everyone declines another offer of a cuppa).

So it was logical that as a sign of appreciation for their hospitality that Air New Zealand Auckland receive a hand made Albion tea pot and a bunch of nice tea and strainers to go with it.

Clearly the colonisation of New Zealand has not been thorough as we have had reports that the inaugural pot of tea was "a little strong" after a whole bag of tea was dispensed to make the brew! Next time we will include instructions.

Speakers Corner Quartet

Walking through a Waterloo underpass last night I came across a handful of people standing round and listening to a busking band. Not news right. Well something compelled me to back step, turn around and listen.

These guys whose quartet features a drummer, a cello, bass and flute player were making music so soulful and yet energetic that I was glued to the spot. They were using what looks like a rickshaw as their amp with speakers in the back.

Now you may of heard of them. All news is old news to someone. But I was a little awestruck. I listened until a rather unhappy character turned up in his pyjamas and said he'd called the police because of the noise. Why anyone would complain about such a soothing sound I have no idea.

So the guys finished the song they were playing and I managed to get their name and drop a few squids into the case before they had to peg it out of dodge.

For those of you who I am introducing them to you can read a more useful background to them here as well as listen to some of the music which is the most important thing.

Speakers Corner Quartet Myspace

Aaron Out.

Spikey Potatoes

There's a stretch of road between my house and work which is possibly the filthiest patch of tarmac on the planet. But I like it because there's always something going on: Hackney council inventing a new way to deter fly posting, a new organic, free range, hahal butcher and today - spikey potatoes. Usually I traverse the stretch on foot, but when I'm running late like today, I brave the bus. Sitting on the upper deck you get to see the tops of bus shelters. How many media men must have pondered the merits of selling this grubby canvas? They are mostly a dedicated gallery space for cigarette buts and pigeon poo, but today it's spikey potatoes. Someone, somewhere in East London has the time and inclination to adorn potatoes with wooden spikes and coloured paint and then place them atop bus shelters for commuter's delight. They are beautiful objects - little tubers of happiness. And on a journey down Kingsland Rd at 8am in the morning, they give you hope that the world really is OK. A big achievement for a potato. A quick Google reveals chatter about these objects that have apparently been appearing now for a couple of summers along the 55 and  242 bus routes. And the best part is that no one knows who is behind them or why. And I kind of hope I never find out. Because their real beauty is in their generosity.

Photo from Flickr

Albion recommends: 39 steps

I rode the Albion boat over to the Criterion Theatre to see The 39 Steps on the weekend.

A brilliant adaptation by Patrick Barlow of Hitchcock’s 1935 film, the play doesn’t pause for breath.The plot galloped along with only 4 actors playing over 100 characters. This means lots of running around putting on different hats and using props in ingenious ways making the play hold-your-sides-wet-yourself funny. Full of comical chase scenes, secret agents and murders it even fits in a love story and some Shakespearean cross-dressing. Flippin’ brilliant!

So totally randomly here are some other facts about the number 39.

39 is a song by Bryan Ferry and also one by Queen.
39 is the atomic number of Yttrium, used to make the red colour in your TV.
39 is the number of times citizens in Ancient Rome beat their slaves.
39 is the number of smarties on the perfect chocolate cake.
3x3=9 and then, that’s like, both the numbers right there!

Crew member Aimee over and out.

Announcing the Second Meeting of The Albion Society

You might recall we started The Albion Society a couple of months ago, as a place to debate the thorny issues we find ourselves wrestling with on a daily basis. The first meeting tackled human incited climate change.

We’ve now announced the second meeting, to take place on the 25th March, where we’ll debate whether socially-aware media is the future of communications, or the end of individual privacy as we know it?

(Image from Add To Friends Gear Facebook app, via crackunit.com)

At Albion we’re all avid users of Facebook, but we think it’s a lot more than the next latest fad site for late twenty-somethings to get all nostalgic for the friends they used to have time to see in real life. Along with Google’s OpenSocial and now the MySpace platform, we think that Facebook are busy creating ‘socially-aware media’.

Socially aware media can understand who we are, who we’re connected to, and how we’re connected to them. And they can leverage that understanding to make us feel more connected to our friends, and to realise the long promised dream of personalisation.

But at the same time as getting excited about these possibilities, we can’t help wondering about the implications of sharing all this information.

Using social networks means putting unprecedented levels of trust in new, small, often idiosyncratically-managed companies. And putting unprecedented levels of personal information into the ether. As people working in media we know what we’re doing and are happy to balance the benefits with the risks. But do mainstream users of Facebook realise what they’re doing, and what rights they’re giving up?

And that’s what we want to debate. Is privacy as we knew it dead, and we should just get over it? Or will there soon be a social media disaster that will see us deleting our profiles and scurrying back to the pub to meet our friends in the real world?

We’ve already got some key speakers lined up:

• Saul Klein, investor in social networks Dopplr and Kindo.
• Gi Fernando of Techligtenment, a leading social media application developer.
• Chris Hackford, Legal Partner at the IPA, currently writing papers on data privacy

So it should be an interesting evening. If you’d like to join, please drop us an email. Places are very limited (because our meeting rooms are quite small) so apologies in advance if we can’t squeeze you in.

View the event on Upcoming.org.

Teddy's Albion Ashtrays

To mark the end of smoking in Pubs in England, our very own Teddy Keen has designed a range of outdoor furniture made from redundant glass ashtrays.

You can view the July 1st Commemorative Ashtray Collection at www.albionashtrays.com.

Here are some nice photos of Teddy and his ashtray furniture. People with a strong disposition might want to check below the fold for something a little more, ahem, arty...

 

And here's the hot stuff...!

Further Reading
Times Article
Love

 

Art Walk - Whitechapel

‘Twas a chilly lunch time in Shoreditch and the eager troops set off to The Whitechapel Gallery on the bustling Whitechapel High Street.  On arrival it became apparent that the exhibition of photographer and filmmaker Margaret Salmon was going to knock the socks of the ‘knitting crap’ we had witnessed in past weeks.

Armed with a pencil and questionnaire we stepped forth into the gallery space and absorbed the first piece “Ninna Nanna”.The film showed three Italian women in different stages of early motherhood, filmed in their homes and singing the Italian lullaby that titles the piece. The group’s reaction to the triptych varied.  Some saw the loneliness of motherhood, some saw the beautiful bond between mother and child, some spoke about how the different emotions of motherhood united women world over whilst others pondered over what they would have for lunch.

The next piece we stumbled upon was titled “PS”.  It combines beguilingly elegant footage of a man gardening and smoking against a sky lit by fireworks with the harrowing dialogue of a couple in conflict. The gentleman says the word ‘fuck’ a lot and seemed like a bit of a tosser.  Some of the group felt aggression, some felt threatened but most felt the growls of their empty stomach.

With a skip in our step we journeyed on to watch the final film “Peggy”.  This is a monochromatic portrait of an elderly woman whose remarkable voice provides the moving soundtrack in this elegy to the beauty of old age. Listening to the first few renditions of the ‘Amazing Grace’ chorus aroused feelings of contentment.  That all makes sense when you are old.  That she has finally found true calm.  By the 15th rendition she starts sounding a bit like Marge Simpson and one questions her state of mind.  Perhaps she’s actually a bit mad and melancholic?  Perhaps she should learn a few of the verses?  All in all, it was a heartening experience that laid to rest the soggy experience of the textile fiasco. Mmmm pie time...

Natalie