please empty your brain below

This year was the first time I 'did' the Open House weekend, having stayed in London on the Friday night.

Not fancying the queues for either Lloyd's or the Bank of England, my wife and I went into Custom House.
I had a rather random selection of open house stuff.
I went. I'll put something up on my blog.
@Dave - Lloyd's had a very large queue, but it moved very rapidly. It has a much greater capacity and throughput than the Bank of England's. Where a giant BofE queue might mean a 5 hour wait, a giant Lloyd's queue can be done in 30 minutes or so.

(I elaborated a bit more in the comments on Tuesday for DG's first lot of Camden stuff)
Blogs tend to work with pictures and one of my centre-piece visits this weekend was the Reform Club which point blank refused pictures inside. Which is a shame.
Autolycus was there too http://autolycus-london.blogspot.co.uk/
On the subject of Gibberd, I'm aware that a couple of years ago you wrote about your...er...thrilling day trip to Harlow. But have you ever been to this place?

http://www.thegibberdgarden.co.uk

Definitely good for a blog entry one day.
As a photographer, I can't help but wonder why you think "long form blogging" is a better way of reflecting how we enjoy events.

The Gibberd Garden is the only reason I can think of for going to Harlow. Been there ages ago, enjoyed it, took photos, but didn't write 200+ words about it. Does that make my seconding of Richard M's recommendation any less valid. I don't think so.
I'm not suggesting that everyone should write 200+ words about places they visit. But I am sad that so few people do any more.
You're close to contradicting yourself.

On one hand saying: "...who've actually bothered to write about their Open House experience in 200 words or more..."

While saying: "I'm not suggesting that everyone should write 200+ words .."

The exact word count doesn't really matter.

What you haven't explained is why you think writing about it is in some way more valid that photographing, videoing, tweeting, whatever-ing it.

Surely the fact that people are engaged is rather more important than the way they are engaged.

Or am I missing something? Other than the fact that you're a bit of a Luddite: "when I were a lad and all these new meeja types hadn't heard of Open House."

The world moves on. I'd like to think you aren't becoming an anachronism. But look at what happened to Time Out, who once upon a time thought the written word was king.

It pains me to say it, but I think you are getting to be past your prime.
@Steve - I'm sure DG can fight his own corner but I don't see the bit where he says anything about forms other than blogs being invalid. He just said they weren't long-form blogs. I could take issue with his conclusion that therefore the format is dying, but I don't see how he's in any way claimed it was the only valid form?
There's a saying in media circles that when radio came along, the newspaper industry heard its own death knell; the same fear was provoked by television and now by distributed and largely informal networks of gentleman bloggers.

In the fight for 'market share' or 'mindspace' there will be constant flux as new entrants forge a niche for themselves.
You're going to have a field day with Saturday's post, Steve.
*chuckles*
I wrote 200+ words on the Lloyd's building last year, if that counts... (my one and only real blog entry unfortunately)










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