100 Years of Fashion? Or doom for the East End?

A couple of my friends have shared this video with me:

It is pretty damn clever and fun, and I envy whoever got to do the styling for it.  But I have to say that the fact that it's advertising a shopping mall leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  And I find it entirely depressing that, after all the lovely urban backdrops, the dancers finish up in a shiny, soulless Westfield.  It's less a celebration of style through the ages, more a portent of doom.  Okay, okay, that's a little melodramatic.  But, if you have a look at the shops which are opening up at Westfield Stratford, they're all generic chains that could be anywhere in England.  Imagine the East End turning into a sanitised shopping mall - what an awful thought!

But, you know, still a fun video!  The 1940s is definitely the best bit.  And I think it's sweet and strangely poignant when the boy disappears for a few beats as he goes off to war...

Churchill War Rooms Late Opening

Now, this post would have been a report on the Chap Olympiad which took place yesterday, had I not dropped my camera in a jug of Pimms during said Olympiad.  Unfortunately, my camera didn't survive.  My memory card should hopefully be okay so I should have the few pictures of the event I did manage to take before the alcohol-based drowning, but my outfit pictures were taken on an emergency disposable camera.  So I think that post will now wait until I finish my film, develop it and scan in any shots that turned out decently...  How old school.

But I thought I'd just drop by to alert any Londoners to the upcoming late-night opening of the Churchill War Rooms on Friday, 12th August.

The map room at the War Rooms (source: CWR website)

Very sadly, I'm unable to attend as I have prior commitments but hopefully someone else out there in blogland might be able to attend and I can live vicariously through them.

It's an American-themed night to celebrate the 70th anniversary of our "special relationship" with the States, and there will be dancing and drinking and history - three things which, combined, should make for a very fine evening.  I'm terribly sad I have to miss it but there will always be another time, I suppose...  And perhaps next time it will be purely British, which (let's face it) will be more my cup of tea!

Let's Twist Again

Although I prefer the thought of a dance floor on which everyone is either swing dancing or jiving, this article makes me appreciate the solo-styling of the twist so much more.

It's sad that it kept going in the direction it did, to the unsexy and ungraceful modern idea of dancing, but when you put it in its context, it suddenly seems much more exciting.  No more girls all dressed up but sitting on the bench, having to wait for a boy to ask them to dance...  Although, if it meant that boys bothered to learn to dance, maybe I'd be willing to go back to that protocol, even at the risk of being a wall-flower!