We All Need Words is one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ companies that aims to help people articulate what they’re all about, both personally and professionally, ‘without the branding bluff.’

Here are five of their writing ‘Unrules’ via the The School of Life, and here’s the link to their site. Worth a look, even if words aren’t your thing. (After all, we all need them.)

Five Unrules:

5. Write short or ‘fragmented’ sentences. Ignore Microsoft Word’s green squiggly line. A sentence can have seven words. Or two. It’s up to you. Play with the length of your sentences to add pace and rhythm to your words.

4. Split infinitives. They can be clunky but they’re not grammatically incorrect.

3. Use contractions (eg that’s instead of that is). They’re a good way to make your writing sound more personal.

2. Don’t sign off letters with ‘Yours Sincerely if you know the person you’re writing to or ‘Yours Faithfully’ if you don’t. ‘Yours Sincerely?’ It’s 2010. You don’t need to use stuffy formality like this anymore (or start letters with ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Dear Sir / Madam’ for that matter).

1. And you can start a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’. We just did.

And a bonus rule from Kurt Vonnegut:

‘Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.’

Brilliant idea, beautifully executed. I’m a fan.

Simon Schama, Professor of Art History, Columbia University

“I first came to New York in 1964…The city was more garish, grungier, louder and crazier then I’d ever imagined. I remember being shocked by how raw and unappealing it was and then five minutes later thinking, ‘This is absolutely fucking wonderful’”

If I were to do a quick straw poll amongst my friends, asking them where they’d want to live other than (or instead of) London, I have no doubt about which place would come out on top. New York City is the desired living destination for millions of people from all over the world, for reasons both self-evident and intangible.

New York is vibrant, exciting, fast-paced. It is convenient, consumer-oriented, accessible. It can be both breathtakingly glamorous and archaically seedy. But perhaps most importantly, New York is a place with a special, physical kind of energy that consumes you whether you want it to or not. The times I’ve spent in New York, which have ranged from seven days to nine weeks, have been some of the most dynamic periods of my life. Things changed. Shit got done. I always came back a slightly different person.

I think British people love New York because it represents something thrillingly foreign in terms of its work culture – the mythology of opportunity, the encouragement of ambition – but also reassuringly familiar shared cultural and historical references, as well as, of course, a common language. A phenomenal new photoseries by Jason Bell, entitled ‘An Englishman In New York’ portrays the lives of expats living in the city, and offers up their thoughts on their lives in the Big Apple. Bell has photographed a fascinating range of Brits, from singer Estelle to historian Simon Schama to Vogue Editor-At-Large Hamish Bowles, and the results are not only really beautiful, but also revelatory.

See the full series here – or better yet, in person, at the National Portrait Gallery from August 24th to April 17th, 2011

Huntington Beach, CA.

Thanks to the good folk at Nike, I somehow ended up back in California less than three weeks after I left. This time, it was as part of a press group attending the US Open of Surfing in Huntingdon Beach, where Nike 6.0, Hurley and Converse were the official sponsors. I’m saving my proper write-up on the trip for a few, far more widely-read sites on the Innernetz, but I thought I’d share some random pics from my camera on the off chance that someone, somewhere, might be vaguely interested.

Massive thanks to Simon ‘Waka Flocka’ Wainright (credit due to Gary Warnett for coming up with that one) for many LOLs, a great event, and general good times all round.

Read the rest of this entry »

I told you lot about WAH Nails before. In fact, I told you twice.

In case you missed those posts, the moral of the story is: Best nail salon in London. I played it characteristically safe with the Shellac and nail art I had done today (see above), but these women can literally do anything. Yep. Anything.

Give them a try.

“Fur pillows are hard to actually sleep on” 4:55 PM Aug 1st via web

“I love me” 6:12 PM Jul 31st via web

“THAT MEANS TOAST IN SWEDISH!!!!” 6:26 AM Jul 31st via web

“I jog in Lanvin” 12:17 AM Jul 29th via web

Kanye West joined Twitter and made that shit fun again.

Follow him. Or, erm, me.

I know a little about a lot. That’s the psyche of a journalist. I look at people who know a lot about one thing with awe.

I’m definitely light years away from being  in the same journalistic league as David Remnick, but this statement couldn’t resonate more with me. I might be able to tell you the capital of Peru, the name of the man who assassinated Martin Luther King or the location of a good breakfast spot in New York’s Lower East Side, but I still spend most of my life feeling that, ultimately, I know fuck all about fuck all. I like this quote for making me feel like my lack of specialist knowledge is a sign of my ‘journalist’s psyche’, as opposed to the result of ‘too much time spent on Twitter and watching reruns of The Hills’. So thanks for that, David.

BTW – Lima. James Earl Ray. Clinton St. Baking Co. & Restaurant