Simian Substitute Site for December 2009: Mister Shifter

We're heading into the home stretch of 2009. For most arts review outlets, that'll probably be their cue to start looking back at the year just gone, and determine the best and worst bits of it. And that might happen here, too. But if previous years are anything to go by, it'll probably be early January 2010 before you get to see anything. So look out for the report on VidBinge 2009 and the track listing for my Pick Of The Year CD some time over the next, er, two months.

Anyway, we've got older stuff to analyse first. On the subject of my Picks Of The Year, we'll have the last official Spank Gold article, looking at my musical choices for 1997. In the tradition of the controversial index pages for Edinburgh and the LFF, it'll be followed by a big old aggregation bringing together the compilations for 1993-2008 in a huge, sprawling, non-alphabetical-sorry-Suze lump. And then - probably on New Year's Eve for maximum dramatic impact - you'll discover the shocking conclusion to the year-long Spank Gold project. I suspect I'll try to pretend that I've been building up to this all along, but to be honest it's an idea that only came to me a week or so ago. Watch this space.

(Oh, yeah, and the China holiday pics too. The main problem I'm having right now is trying to find the time to finish off the videos. Ideally, I'd like to get them up on the web before the end of the year, or failing that at least before the next total eclipse. I'll see what I can do.)

In the meantime, your Simian Substitute Site for December 2009 is Mister Shifter. There's a story behind this, inevitably. Throughout November, I've been working mostly in the glamorous London district of Park Royal. Quite early on in my time there, I noticed a building in the distance that appeared to have a large picture of a monkey's head on the side of it. Eventually I cracked and investigated further, and discovered that it was the headquarters of a removal firm. More precisely, a removal firm that had taken its company name and logo from a TV advert that originally aired nearly forty years ago.

It amuses me to think that there's an entire generation out there that has no idea why a company would want to call themselves Mister Shifter. (And it amuses me even more to discover that the Park Royal operation isn't the only one.) Still, I applaud their dedication to the simian cause, and recommend them to you if you ever need any pianos relocating in the North London area.

Comments? You hum 'em, son, I'll play 'em. plinky plonky plink plonk

Comments

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