Planner Survey Results 2009

Timely survey. Interesting how the plannersphere was hit by the recession/slowdown.

Planner Survey Results 2009

View more documents from Heather LeFevre.

Snowblog and adventure in Magazine Land

Got back from an unusually long hiatus. Refreshing at least. Already feeling my fingers creaking from not having to type for too long. But dissertation is coming.

Jon Snow, Channel 4 News' anchor, has launched a new blog, as he is about to cover Barack Obama's historic inauguration. 

Already today - the first day - he officially blogged we were treated with five entries - one being his rubbing shoulders with celebrities in a false fire evacuation at the Hyatt Regency, where he also bumped in Spike Lee. 

Having been a novice journalist in a cash-strapped national newspaper, I have always wondered how reporters - especially those broadcasters - from the big league work and live. And Snow's blog offers a glimpse of just that. He's got a sizable expense account, I am sure. 

This also brought me to a new find in Magazine Land - Bad Idea. Founded by a few Brit journalists who went to Berkeley J-School, Bad Idea, "Granta for the Myspace generation", is a breath of fresh air to my reading list (which now sadly consisted mostly of academic journal articles). Too bad it was buried on the same shelf among trade publication like Broadcast, Campaign and the like. 

New level of illusion

Awesome technique taken to the next level. The Beastie Boys did it too remember? 

And who dare not mention the famous Matrix kick? Here in the glorious deconstructed Lego rendition.

The moving pictures are magic, innit?

The New FT Website - Finally!

The FT has done quite a lot recently revamping and consolidating their digital operation. I rather like the new Guardian-ish look just because it is cleaner and much easier to read and navigate. I thought it is a much better design than WSJ. Although this is really small detail - but I like how they still keep the pink colour - a nice reminder of its print presence. 

With 800,000 registered readers, the FT has been rather bold too in introducing the FT Alphaville Long Room, a forum for pundits to interact. Perhaps this is the new stage of financial journalism - the news sources themselves stepping into the pit? 

Just hope that Murdoch keeps his hands away from FT.

Too Many Bankers

"Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice," wrote Lin Yutang.

I would add to that list bankers/financial managers (which encompass the hedge fund managers). 

Where there are too many bankers/financial managers, there is no money.

So there you go. 

Doom and Gloom

It's been raining nonstop in the past few days here in Wales since my arrival. 

Flash flood and a teenage girl died as the result. 

Not particularly good news. But, oh well. Just hope things will get better. More reports to follow.

Magazine Series: Elle Decoration (1990s)

I was rearranging my room the other day - putting some order in the organised mess that was my stacks of magazines - when I stumbled upon some old mid-90s Elle Decoration magazines. If someone were to ask me what magazines defined my teenagehood, it would be these rags I rescued from my father, who then ran a small hand-made sofa store. As a kid, the house was never short of these UK-edition Elle Decoration. It was through these pages that kick-started my interest in design and good living.

Here are pictures of artist-filmmaker Julian Schnabel's loft - way back when he was still thin-ish and not into wearing pajamas to public events (February 1996 edition). 

Now I need to find an old warehouse for my old magazines.