The Virtual Rambler

Number forty nine : 20^th June 2014

Bigger Impression , Smaller Footprint

Our earliest encounter with people from history via books or films often leaves a lasting impression. After we've first seen the pictures , Henry VIII remains for us how Holbein saw him , Richard III according to Olivier's extravagant version ⁽¹⁾. There may be a similar dynamic by which certain national stereotypes propagate. However much we may regret it , the sound of the German language being spoken in our proximity (at an adjacent table in a Mallorcan restaurant , say) conjures up a childhood exposure to War comics and we mentally tune in for a “Gott in Himmel!” or an “Alles in Ordnung?”. My mother never left these shores herself and saw no reason why anyone else should want to. She retained the deep suspicion of johnny foreigner that had prevailed in her younger days (the 1920s and 30s). Trips abroad were viewed as virtual suicide missions and even visits to London met with a heartfelt appeal to “Stay clear of that Tube , lad - there's all sorts of nationalities riding about on it.” For her , any robed figure was a potential assassin with a curved dagger (let alone a chest strapped with explosives) about their person. Until the later 1950s she had only ever encountered white UK citizens , the majority of them from her own home town. “Vibrant cultural diversity” was a distant concept for that generation.

By this point , some of you may be wondering about the footprint. Nowadays it doesn't do to step out of your front door without a sustainable policy. Not sure what a sustainable Ramble entails ? Hastily parking that issue behind us , we can now offer instead some inspiration for all our readers keen to keep ahead of the game. Some may argue that the proffering of unsought inspiration is in the same league as radios coming on in the morning when you haven't asked them to , or being regaled with videos about the perils of “unprotected sex” when you've popped into the doctors' waiting room for a pensioner's prescription. Let me make myself perfectly clear. For those of you too busy being contemporary for all that ancient cultural stuff - all those big thick books to wade through , so many paintings to squint at , hours of orchestral sawing and scraping to listen to - let me just say : Forget 'em. We're not concerned even one iota with the contents of libraries , museums , galleries and opera houses (henceforth known as cultural visitor attractions). What's of more pressing importance to the day-siezers among us is some Cultural Marketing and Retail rap (sponsored by Sony PlayStation) and an Audience Sector Development riff (brought to you by Rise N Shine radios). Whatever.

Let’s consider the changes that have overtaken some of the popular pleasures unshackled by refined taste. What's going down with bingo nowadays ? An activity that traditionally drew a constituency of women in headscarves to converted cinemas full of cigarette smoke , harkening to the cries of “27 - Duck on a Crutch ! and 7 and 6 , was she worth it ?” And football ? Youths with ten pints inside them and men in flat hats came to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with bellowing bigots on urine-stained terraces to watch twenty-two working-class chaps alternating between “getting stuck in” or “giving it some welly.” Now the Apps Economy and Sky Sports have given us on-line gambling , ecommerce , mobile ticketing and all-seater stadiums financed by foreign criminals , with 22 foreign millionaires mincing about on a hundred thousand pounds a week or more. This spirit of Cultural Transformation inspires us to gaze back at the original Rambler , Dr. Johnson , and get down to some serious re-branding. OUT goes a portly old fuddy-duddy in a 3-cornered hat and buckled shoes pontificating about the lives of poets and the meanings of words. IN comes a forerunner of John Cooper Clark. He was so now that the age he moved in speaks volumes to our own revenue-streaming contemporary world. It was run by and for the already-haves who considered the have-nots slackers , dead-beats and wastrels who did not merit subsidy , sympathy or even a moment's consideration beyond media-stoked finger-pointing. How now is that ? Like totally.

Wig

⁽¹⁾ A performance parodied by Peter Sellers in full Richard III regalia , reciting the Beatles' lyrics for A Hard Day's Night on a T.V. show in 1965.

Archive

Virtual rambler #1 – Posturing, 9^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #2 – Managerialism, 17^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #3 – Nostalgia, 27^th March 2010
Virtual rambler #4 – The Alpha Male, 13^th April 2010
Virtual rambler #5 – General Elections, 3^rd May 2010
Virtual rambler #6 – The Leisure Industry, 15^th May 2010
Virtual rambler #7 – Guide to The World Cup, 15^th June 2010
Virtual rambler #8 – Human Nature, 12^th July 2010
Virtual rambler #9 – Communities, 13^th August 2010
Virtual rambler #10 – Worlds Apart, 6^th October 2010
Virtual rambler #11 – Dawdling, 22^nd November 2010
Virtual rambler #12 – ELVIS, 24^th December 2010
Virtual rambler #13 – Transience, 4^th February 2011
Virtual rambler #14 – Regional Accents, 15^th April 2011
Virtual rambler #15 – The Afterlife, 21^st July 2011
Virtual rambler #16 – Bizspeak, 27^th August 2011
Virtual rambler #17 – Night Walks, 3^rd October 2011
Virtual rambler #18 – Bob Dylan and Charles Dickens, 8^th November 2011
Virtual rambler #19 – Another Nutty Professor, 16^th December 2011
Virtual rambler #20 – Customer Choice, 16^th January 2012
Virtual rambler #21 – Wearing Shorts, 18^th February 2012
Virtual rambler #22 – A Brief History of Progress, 17^th March 2012
Virtual rambler #23 – The Myth of Sisyphus, 16^th April 2012
Virtual rambler #24 – Natural History, 20^th May 2012
Virtual rambler #25 – European Self Importance, 26^th June 2012
Virtual rambler #26 – Sweet Dreams, 25^th July 2012
Virtual rambler #27 – Excess, 17^th August 2012
Virtual rambler #28 – In Denial, 20^th September 2012
Virtual rambler #29 – The Way, 21^st October 2012
Virtual rambler #30 – On Rambling, 14^th November 2012
Virtual rambler #31 – Gazing Into The Abyss, 18^th December 2012
Virtual rambler #32 – Intellectual Gloom, 25^th January 2013
Virtual rambler #33 – Great Human Achievements, 20^th February 2013
Virtual rambler #34 – Autobiography, 20^th March 2013
Virtual rambler #35 – Your Good Health, 21^st April 2013
Virtual rambler #36 – Deconstruction, 20^th May 2013
Virtual rambler #37 – My Home Town, 19^th June 2013
Virtual rambler #38 – Ancient History, 21^st July 2013
Virtual rambler #39 – Possessions, 20^th August 2013
Virtual rambler #40 – Sporting Stoics, 20^th September 2013
Virtual rambler #41 – Free Time, 20^th October 2013
Virtual rambler #42 – Ewan Don't Allow, 20^th November 2013
Virtual rambler #43 – A Literary Nexus, 20^th December 2013
Virtual rambler #44 – Taking Liberties, 16^th January 2014
Virtual rambler #45 – More or Less, 20^th February 2014
Virtual rambler #46 – Under Control, 20^th March 2014
Virtual rambler #47 – Waiting, 20^th April 2014
Virtual rambler #48 – They Rose Without Trace, 20^th May 2014