Your New Favourite Coffee Shop Pays its Taxes

Massive amounts of righteous indignation have rained down on the heads of the bosses of Starbucks, Amazon and Google these past few weeks as the British public began to realise the extent to which these American companies  buy into Leona Helmsley's maxim that "only the little people pay taxes."

It will be interesting though to see whether people can be bothered to change their behaviour.  These companies happen to be very good at what they do, and brand loyalty among their customers is high.  

Lets consider then, the place of Starbucks on our hightstreet, and whether caffeine addicts might consider turning elsewhere for their daily cup of joe and free wifi access.  I believe there is a real alternative lifestyle choice staring us in the face.  One which, if adopted, can help to revitalise a struggling industry and ensure that traditional community hubs retain their well-deserved place in our towns and cities. 

I'm talking about the local pub.

If you go into a Starbucks in London or Beijing, you are pretty much guaranteed a standardised experience. You are buying a slice of the 'Central Perk' lifestyle, and are willing to pay over the odds for it.  Hell, its affordable right... even if £3 is a lot to pay for a coffee.  Its an affordable little luxury, a taste of aspiration. Can pubs compete with this, coming up with a new 'customer offer' in order to grab a slice of the action? I'd like to think they can, as I'd much rather put my money into  local companies that pays their taxes. I also ask the question because, according to the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in their April 2012 report, over 300 pubs closed their doors for good between September 2011 – March 2012. Twelve now close across Britain every week – eight in suburban areas, and four in rural areas.  So there is a lot at stake. But there is also real opportunity here, if the pubs themselves wish to take it.  We already value our local boozer for what it is.  We know it pays their taxes, and we'd be mortified if it closed down.  So it already has a headstart in our affections.  We are onside if they want to take the leap.

Many pubs already serve coffee of course, and some of this is really quite decent.  But the experience of going into a pub for a coffee can be a bit hit and miss. The pub may or may not have wifi, or free newspapers to read. The decor may be perfectly warm and and the furniture inviting, but geared towards evening drinking and gastropub dining.  Many will have comfy sofas - so they are ahead of the game in that respect in their bid to offer a Central Perk-style experience. But the food menu itself will be very much geared towards the restaurant and barsnack end of the spectrum rather than anything vaguely similar to the 21st century coffeeshop.

So, what do pubs need to do to reposition themselves as coffeeshop by day, pub and restaurant by night?  Here are my 'Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares'-style observations.

- Ensure you have a proper coffee bar, set up in view of the customer.  Like any addict, the ritual is everything....watching and hearing the hit of caffeine being prepared  is all part of the experience.

- Consider partnering with a popular coffee brand at a brewery level in order to standardise your coffeeshop offer at a regional or national level.  Even BP garages these days have standardised "Wild Bean Cafe" branding across their forecourts in order to communicate that a standard, quality product is on offer.  Publicise your new brand, for  example 'Hot Joe Cafe at the Ship and Mitre' beyond just your usual customers.   

- Have a daytime coffeeshop menu alongside your other offers.  Source locally for prized fresh bakery products.  Starbuck in London don't offer beigels from Brick Lane for example.  A good reason for pubs in the area to do so.

- Offer quality, free wifi.

- Run a loyalty card scheme

- Neutralise your bar environment of booze-related paraphernalia as much as you can without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  Make the pub as inviting as you can to the home worker who wants to get out the house for a couple of hours as well as the stay at home parents who want a welcoming place to meet up with friends.

So far, so obvious.  I know there are pubs who have done all of this already.  I'm not a publican, so have no idea if the trade journals are full of this kind of talk.  But it really does seem to me, as a fan of coffee and a fan of the tradtional pub, that there really is an opportunity to bring the two together, allowing caffeine to give the local boozer a shot in the arm in the same way as gastrofood did a decade or so ago.  And if our local pubs stay open as a result, then that can only be a good thing. 

My Party Manifesto

I'm not a political party leader. Hell, I'm not even standing to be an MP. If I was, this is what my Party Manifesto might look like:

Economy Reform one of the 'nationalised' banks (probably RBS) so it becomes a National Bank of Sustainability, investing wholly in the new, green economy. Develop new indices/measures of national economic wellbeing which takes enhanced account of the social and environmental dimension in the national 'bottom line'. These would become primary tools to guide economic policy rather than old, outdated notions of 'economic growth', which are based almost exclusively upon unsustainable growth in consumption.

Environment All tools of Government and to be geared towards the UK reducing its CO2 emissions by 50% by 2020 and 90% by 2030 at the latest. This policy overrides all other policy considerations, and is at the heart of the Government programme. George Monbiot appointed as Chancellor. Comprehensive, unbiased review of nuclear power, with main consideration being can it make a cost effective contribution to the low carbon economy that policy demands.

Transport Aviation fuel to be taxed. Significant investment in coach, trams and train. New high speed rail links creating genuine north/south/east/west network. Expansion in air travel to be curtailed. No new runways or airports.


Constitutional Change Roy Jenkins Commission recommendations on electoral reform to be enacted. House of Lords to become wholly elected


Defence Trident to be axed.


Overseas Aid
Overseas aid to be increased to 1% of GDP.



Do I get your vote?

Me and my Kodak Zi8

I recently bought myself a Kodak Zi8 camera, and it rapidly became my new favourite gadget.  I’ve never been one for carrying a camera around in my pocket, but I’ve quickly taken to shoving the Zi8 in my pocket whenever I leave the house.  All the worthwhile fruits from my shoots will end up at www.youtube.com/palefoxrecords .  Hey!  Why not take a look now and subscribe to my channel…. that’d make me happy.

Technorati Tags: kodak zi8,HD video,youtube

The Brussels Son et Lumiere festival show – Grand Place

 

We just got back from a week away travelling the Low Countries by train.  Had a great time in Leiden, Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels.  How it is that people say Belgium is boring I do not know…. mad bars, fantastic beers,good food, a vibrant cultural scene coupled with pleasant people and wonderful architecture are all good in my book.  Is it the lower change of being glassed on a night out that renders it boring?

 

Anyway, a video from the heart of Brussels:

And a few photos:

Leiden, Netherlands

 

Antwerp

 

The Christmas Market and ice rink at St Catherine’s, Brussels, as seen from

the seasonal Ferris wheel.

More floods, and musings on 6 degrees

Terrible pictures coming out of Cumbria this past 24 hours. The photos of the bridges that got swept away are astonishing. Everyone is referring to this as a 'once in a thousand years' style flood. i.e. pretty unprecedented. Just two years after the last unprecedented floods. I remember then, that we were talking about whether those floods were caused by climate change. There was general agreement that you couldn't point at one event and reach a conclusion based upon it. But what you could do is look for an emerging pattern. I'm sure you can tell what I'm thinking. The evidence is stacking up.

Thing is, we've seen nothing yet. This week, some but not all the UK news papers carried this particular story. Most hid it away inside the paper if they carried it at all. Now, just because the latest study suggests that we may be heading for a 6 degree rise in global temperatures in the next 90 years doesn't mean its going to happen. This is still the worse case scenario. But IT IS POSSIBLE if we stay on the current course. And given that the consequences are SO profound if it does happen (think along the lines of massive sea rise, most of the planet becoming truly unhabitable, massive wars as we scramble for resources and land, and ultimately, the collapse of civilisation.... all possible within a generation), well, shouldn't we be doing everything possible to stop it? Shouldn't it FEEL like more of a priority on every level of society, rather than a political game to quibble over? Shouldn't it demand of us personal sacrifice?

Are Pandas Worth It?

Much loved TV Wildlife presenter and smiths fan Chris Packham has caused a bit of a fuss by arguing that we shoudl give up the conservation fight to save the panda. See: http://www.wildlifeextra.com//go/news/packham-panda342.html#cr

Now. I think that pandas may indeed by outdated, unsuited to the modern world and a bit pointless. But then again, so are, for example, churches, antique works of art and most things preserved as 'sacred' by the heritage industries. Look at the Cutty Sark for example. When that burnt to a crisp, was there a debate (outside this forum that is) about whether to 'rebuild', even though pretty much all of the original ship timber was unsalvagable, rendering whatever eventually becomes known as 'Cutty Sark' in future about as authentic as The Sugababes. No there wasn't. So the decision was immediately made that the ship should be 'rebuilt' (for which, read ' a new one should be built that we can hang the preserved decorations from the old one on) for the nation. So I say this: If the cutty sark and Mona Lisa are worth preserving because of what they represent or because of their timeless beauty, then so is the panda.

beigels

One of life's greatest little pleasures, and therefore potentially one of life's great disappointments, is the beigel.

I adore a perfect, chewy-fleshed beigel. A real pleasure. Therefore I cannot bloody stand it when you buy something that pretends to be a beigel and it isn't... its just a bread roll with a hole in! Completely different mouthfeel and taste.

My other half will tell you of many times I have sulked for a good half hour or so after being landed with such a pathetic lie of a foodstuff. A chief culprit is Bagel Factory, which has outlets in railway stations and stuff. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. Their pathetic little offerings are not fit to lick the boots of proper beigels....the sort you might find at, say the Brick Lane beigel shop, or the Finsbury Park Beigelarium. These places serve the food of gods in comparison.

Renewing the UK Constitution, reconnecting Parliament to the people

It is usually the case that the average person in the UK is quite happy to be disconnected from Parliamentary politics; we vote every four or five years, we go home and forget about it. We are happy to be governed, and this fits with our national 'royal subject rather than citizen' mindset. What these past couple of weeks have proven to me is that this is no longer sustainable. Parliament needs to be renewed, and reconnected with the people.

This offers Gordon Brown a unique opportunity to seize the moment and make his own political weather. He now has twelve months in which to complete the historic reform of the constitution that New Labour promised back in 1997.

1) He should dust down Roy Jenkin's report on electoral reform, which was received during Tony Blair's first term. Delivering fairer votes to the Commons will not only re-energise our politics and bring a huge gust of fresh air into Parliament. It also offers the best chance there is that a progressive government of the people will continue to thrive after the next election.

2) Mr Brown should complete the reform of the House of Lords. That means a fully elected reforming 2nd chamber.

3) There should be fixed term elections. The people no longer trust their politicians, and the right of the Prime Minister to fix the electoral cycle to his own party's advantage needs to be removed.

By enacting these three measures now, Mr Brown can 1) go down in history as a truly reforming Prime Minister, 2) reconnect Parliament with the people and 3) spike the Conservative guns. A Win Win situation, surely?

The 400 Blows

Last night we went to see the classic Truffaut film, The 400 Blows, at the British Film Institute.

This release has rightly been garlanded with 5 star reviews by the likes of Empire Magazine and Time Out. I cannot, however, imagine that such reviews were actually based upon a viewing of the new print currently running at BFI, as no mention is made of the terrible subtitling!

The programme notes available from BFI for this print state: "The subtitles on this new BFI release have been kept to a minimum. The subtitler has explained that this is for aesthetic as well as technical reasons and the audience is certainly not missing out on anything important to the story."As you know, subtitles are never a verbatim translation. However, what we are offered on this new print are little more than occasional fragments of dialogue. Huge tracts of dialogue have no translation at all. Character A may speak, unsubtitled, only to have the response by character B then translated. Perplexing!

The assertion by BFI that we are missing nothing important in the story is also quite wrong, as proven by the 1960 review from Sight and Sound that the programme notes also include.

And the reasons given for the brevity of the subtitles? Asthetic? Well how dare BFI inflict its own asthetic on this masterpiece. If Truffaut had wanted the subtitled dialogue to be little more than fragmented and disjointed cyphers, surely we would have had such a treatment before now?

Furthermore, there can be no technical reason for such a hatchetjob.... good subtitlers manage to condense dialogue so it doesn't fill the screen yet carries all the meaning and feeling of the original script. This print does neither.

It is a tragedy that this of all films should be lumbered with one of the poorest quality subtitled translations. As such, BFI have, unusually, truly dropped the ball, and done this classic a great disservice.

Hillsborough

The day Hillsborough happened I was Chair of the British Youth Council, and our twice yearly council meeting was taking place in Sorby Hall, Sheffield Uni. The organisation that I had 'graduated' from to become Chair of BYC was Knowsley Youth Council, and a couple of their delegation had, understandably, skipped the boring business of Council to go the match. During the afternoon break, our attention was drawn to a TV that was showing the breaking news, and It was really hard to know what to do. Continue with business, when some of our number are missing? It was tough, but that is what we decided. Some time later our two colleagues arrived back, devastated by what they had seen. They collected their belongings and headed home to Merseyside.

Obama

Guantanamo closed in a year
End to military trials
End to waterboarding and other forms of torture
Closure of overseas 'ghost prisons' and end to rendition
George Mitchell sent to the middle east.
End of the ban of funding for NGOs that provide information on abortion.

Not a bad first four days. And to think that some people think all politicians are cut from the same cloth. Give me a break.

Spotify

Just signed up to this.... and just how good is it? Very!


I think anyone can sign up now, without an invite, as it seems to be past its Beta stage.

Here's a little playlist from me for other spotifyers:

http://open.spotify.com/user/palefox/pl ... n3w5K7x23e

My God! It even has Luxembourg on it!

Hello 2009!

Yes, yes, I know its been a while.  But here I am again. What do you want, blood?

I've been prompted to update this by having just moved over to Flock as my browser of choice.  Everything is just right there, where you need it with Flock, and its integrated blogging tool clearly makes it easier to just click straight in from the browser and do it.  Yes, I know it wasn't that hard to start with, but this makes it easier, okay?!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Maybes

Saw these guys supporting Brakes at the 100 Club last night, and they were fantastic. Really quite mesmerising, with a fantastic lead singer who was full of cheeky Scouse stage presence. They finished with one of the most amazing things I've heard from an 'indie' guitar band - a ten minute sun-drenched ibiza house instrumental. Looking around at the time, there were very few people without big grins on their faces during it.

http://www.myspace.com/themaybesliverpool

They have the potential to be huge.

The greatest band in the world are .... SPARKS!

And I say this with complete conviction. What other band has created 21 of the most exciting, innovative, and beautiful albums over a 37 year period, never falling back on a popular or well-proven musical template at the cost of exploring new sonic possibilities? What other band with anything like such an extensive back catalogue would undertake to play each album sequentially, over 21 nights in a four week period? That's 264 songs, requiring four solid months of rehearsals. And before you think that all the music may simply be programmed and delivered by computer, its not. They are doing this with a full band. And to think that we sometimes get excited when our other favourite bands throw in an old song they haven't done for a while!

Which brings me to Saturday night's performance of Plagiarism. This was their 1997 Sparks 'Tribute' album, which saw the band returning to some of their own favourite Sparks songs and reinventing them with new time codes, full orchestation etc. Listening to the album again yesterday morning, I worried that they may simply not be able to do it live, so musically complex was it, but boy! how wrong I was! For this 'one night only' gig they had drafted in and fully rehearsed a string and brass section from Trinity College of Music. Just imagine reheasing a 12 piece orchestra whilst also yourself rehearsing 264 songs worth of material. Mindboggling.

And you would perhaps think that performing so many albums, night after night, might render the performances a little rough around the edges, lacklustre or even a bit slapdash? But this is absolutely not the case. Each of the four albums I have seen so far (Music You Can Dance To, Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins, Plagiarism, and Balls) have been performed with utter professionalism, verve and exuberance.

There are still a few albums to go this week. If you are able, I would highly recommend you try to catch as many as you can. These gigs are very special indeed.

Ancient voice, caught in soot

I think this is magical, and all the more so for the fact that the recording was made but with no way of playing it back until now.... so it feels like it was recorded as a message to the future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7318180.stm

All of which reminds me of something I got in a box of Ready Brek when I was quite a young child - no more than six years old. It was a thin plastic strip, probably about 12 inches long and no more than a centimetre wide (you can see how my age means I continue to mix up imperial and metric!). The strip had little ridges along its length, and, when it was pulled through a slot cut in the side of the cereal box, the ridges created vibration, which carried the voice of Churchill saying 'We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches.' I really wish I still had it, as I have never come across anything similar since.

Chris Garneau

Having just discovered Chris Garneau (think Sufjan Stevens meets Will Young - and I say that in a good way), I am a bit miffed to learn that, not only did he play London a few weeks ago and I missed him, but he'll be playing again in May - when we are on holiday in Romania. Bah!

I've ordered his album, 'Music for Tourists', so at least have that to look forward to. You can watch the video for a greta track called 'Relief' here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VHoYBvmTsg .

Movie Co-incidences

So last night we settled down for a quiet night in front of the telly, with the intention of dipping into our considerable collection of as yet unwatched DVD movies. First up, Almodovar's 'Live Flesh'. A fantastic, richly rewarding film, which, as it turns out, includes a central performance by Javier Bardem, which I hadn't realised until he appeared on screen. IMDB attests that the his co-star, the wonderful Liberto Rabal's career has not been quite so glorious. After that, we had a dinner of trout and kale, and then settled down to watch the Coen Brothers 'Blood Simple'. A great movie, but for me, much less enjoyable than the Almodovar film. I pondered on the fact that the three most enjoyable films of recent times that I have watched at home have all been European - The Lives of Others, The Edukators, and Live Flesh. Anyway, the random selection of the two films from our shelves threw up the interesting coincidence that both had at their hearts the theme of marital infidelity, photos being taken of supposedly secret liasions, and lovers being shot. So once I realised there was a patten, I ended up watching Blood Simple entirely through the filter of looking for links with Live Flesh. That is all.