THE CULTURAL JACKDAW

Enlightened Entrepreneur

Alain de Botton is one of my favourite authors. He unlocks fascinating insights into the lives of other people and explores why we do what we do; whether that's our job, travelling, the houses we live in or the people we choose to love.

He shares a trait common in other inspiring people; he's not just a thinker, he's a doer.

A while ago he started this brilliant idea; where anyone can go and learn new tools to help improve their lives. More recently he has launched this ground-breaking project which offers people the chance to experience what it's like to live, eat and sleep in a space designed by an outstanding architectural practice.

de Botton is such an interesting entrepreneur because he gives back to society.

He wants us to live our lives in more meaningful ways.

His ideas (and effort) should be applauded.

Bad Bread

I was shopping at the weekend and nipped into Tesco's to buy a few things and I really fancied a nice brown baguette. You know real, wholesome bread.

But I couldn't find one for love or money - the place is dominated by refined white bread - and that got me thinking about something I had seen here: http://www.howies.co.uk/.

They've produced a toy called Doh Boy that's on a bit of an activist mission. His mission is to put "real bread back on our children’s plates". So what is the deal about "real bread"?

Doh Boy wants to educate British consumers about "stealth fat" - the inclusion of fat into the bread-making process, as Howies explain:

"Fat would increase the shelf life, sponginess and, of course, profits.
Which is good for those making it.
But not so good for those eating it.
These days’ three slices of some bread has the same fat content as a well-known chocolate bar.
It’s called stealth fat. The stuff we didn’t even know was there. Mostly because the people who make the bread forgot to mention it".

Doh Boy comes packaged with his own bread tin, and a recipe for making a basic loaf of bread.

That's why I love Howies: they're always out there making people think and provoking debate, always in a fun and engaging way.

I'm even thinking of buying a bread oven now.

Thumbs up (again) for Howies.

Art Vinyl

I think this is a cracking idea.

These are frames in which you can display your favourite vinyl cover art. It's a great way of bringing all your vinyl covers to life instead of them gathering dust on the floor or on a shelf.

I also think it's a hightly emotive art form. When do you look at any other works of art and think "that reminds me of that summer when I was 18". It just doesn't happen. But with these on the wall it's like looking at the soundtrack to your life.

We bought 4 frames and we'll be rotating our favourite album covers.

Check their website out here:

http://www.artvinyl.com/

You can get inspiration for which covers to display from this book by Taschen (the best publishers in the world):

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/popculture/all/facts/01851.htm

Lost your keys?

The best ideas are the simplest ones.

How often do you forget where your keys are?

For all of us out there that do it quite often, a new service offers a solution: a company you can trust to keep hold of a spare set of keys for your house, car, office or whatever and they'lll deliver them to you, within an hour, 24/7 - http://www.sparekeys.com/.

I saw this idea in a Time Out booklet, they said "Let's face it, in our great metropolis, you can't always trust your neighbour, and you certainly can't leave anything under the mat!".

I think this is sad but true. We're lucky that we know our neighbours and can leave a spare set with them but for many other people they simply can't.

I think there's a bigger point here about people's lack of involvement with their local community. Civic interest seems to be at an all time low and our society seems to be fragmenting more and more, especially in the cities.

I think this disconnection with real world communities has fuelled online social communities that fill that connection gap. New social networking websites like Bebo, Friendster and MySpace.

The figures speak for themselves:

Bebo now has 21.4 million registered users worldwide and MySpace a massive 57 million registered users.

Oil Rig Hotel

People across the developed world are getting richer.

According to Market Leader magazine, disposable income is three times higher than it was in 1950 in the UK. By 2020 it's predicted that they’ll be two million millionaires in the country.

With this rising affluence consumers increasingly want new and unique experiences that help them make the most of their money and precious time.

Tapping into this trend for new experiences is Mohamed Al Fayed - Harrod's owner - who is planning on building a luxury hotel on an oil rig.

It'll be a 50-bedroom country house style hotel that would sit on the rig in the Cromarty Firth (picture below).

They're hoping that the allure of the hotel, a museum and visitor centre will attract 500,000 people a year.

Sharing Secrets

Secrets are meant to be discrete and only shared with trustworthy people.

A new art project turns all this on its head and gives people a platform where they can share their secrets openly.

However, you never know who's posting the secrets as they're sent in anonymously to become part of the project.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/