currybetdotnet Nostalgia archive
Genesis of the robots - how a Czech word invaded the English language
Using The Guardian's digital archive, I've traced how the word 'robot' made its way from the theatre stage in Prague to become part of the English language during the 1920s.
Katherine Green: "Wood Street, E17" and "1948 Olympians"
Two of photographer Katherine Green's projects have been about subjects close to my heart - one documenting the shops on Wood Street where I used to live, and one a series of portraits of British Olympians from the 1948 London Olympic Games.
Katherine Green: "Going to the dogs" at Vestry House Museum
Katherine Green recently exhibited photographs documenting the last days of greyhound racing at Walthamstow Stadium. I went to Vestry House Museum to hear her talk about the project.
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 6 - The noughties and beyond...
Part 6 of this series looks at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, and the prospects for African teams now that the 2010 draw has been finalised.
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 5 - The nineties
Today, preparations for South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup reach a new peak with the draw for the opening group stages in Cape Town. To mark the occasion, all this week I've been blogging about the history of African nations competing in sport's most prestigious competition - from Egypt in 1934, through the wilderness years, to an increased African presence during the seventies and eighties. Today it is the turn of the nineties, and a focus on the...
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 4 - The eighties
With the draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa taking place tomorrow, this week I've been blogging about the history of African teams taking part in the finals. So far I've looked at the thirties, the wilderness years and the seventies. Today it is the turn of the eighties, with a look at the tournaments held in Spain and Mexico. Africa in the FIFA World Cup: España '82 The 1982 World Cup Finals were the...
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 3 - The seventies
On Friday, in a no doubt over-long and over-complicated ceremony with lots of mentions of complicated factors like 'national co-efficient', the draw will be made for the 2010 World Cup Finals. Africa will be represented by hosts South Africa alongside Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. It wasn't always the case that Africa had so many spots in the finals. Over the last couple of days I've been posting about the history of African teams in the Finals,...
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 2 - The wilderness years
On Friday, the draw will be held for the first World Cup Finals to be held on African soil. To celebrate, I've been looking at the history of African teams taking part in the world's biggest sporting tournament. Yesterday I started with a look at the 1930s, when Egypt became the first African team to take part in a World Cup Finals in Italy in 1934. When the tournament resumed after the interruption of the Second World War, it...
Africa in the FIFA World Cup: Part 1 - The thirties
Africa in the FIFA World CupA series of posts looking at the history of African teams appearing in the World Cup, from Egypt in 1934 to South Africa hosting in 2010.
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop in The Guardian's archive
Earlier this year I was lucky enough to have the chance to see some of the surviving members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop play live at the Camden Roundhouse, and to attend a question and answer session with them beforehand. Photo by Stickpeople Almost certainly the biggest impact the BBC Radiophonic Workshop had on popular culture was Delia Derbyshire's electronic realisation of the Doctor Who theme. However, that didn't hit the nation's screens until 23rd November 1963, 46 years ago...
"1966 and all that..." - Contrasting England's 1966 and 2018 World Cup bids
Tonight we'll be finding out the final qualifiers for next year's World Cup Finals in South Africa. Press attention has also been focused on England's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 edition of the tournament. Personally, I'm of the opinion that the reason FIFA abandoned their continental rotation system and introduced this double round of bidding was because they didn't get to go on lots of exotic junkets during the bidding process for 2010 and 2014. Imagine the...
Ice Sunday: Part 3 - The death of the ice trade
Over the last couple of days I've been writing about my visit to the London Canal Museum on "Ice Sunday". This was a chance to explore one of Carlo Gatti's ice wells - a remnant of an industry that flourished during the 1800s, but which was gone by the time the First World War arrived. I often write about music and the newspaper industry, both areas where technological advance has disrupted established businesses. In his talk during "Ice Sunday", Malcolm...
Ice Sunday: Part 2 - Descent into the ice well
Yesterday I was posting about a trip I made to the London Canal Museum back in June. It was on a special open day called "Ice Sunday". Usually visitors to the museum can only peer down into the ice well that lies below the building, but on this day, guide Martin Sach was leading groups down into the depths. The well is thought to be about 40ft deep. This measurement comes from documents recording that a workman fell 40 ft...
Ice Sunday: Part 1 - The Victorian ice trade at the London Canal Museum
Way back on June 14th I went to the London Canal Museum for "Ice Sunday". This seems to be one of those annual events that was going to happen anyway, but which somehow got co-opted into 'The Story Of London' as if they were actually being put on and funded by the Mayor. The day consisted of a short talk about the ice trade by Malcolm Tucker, followed by an opportunity to descend into this Victorian fridge. Whilst we take...
The romance of print as a historical memento
I can usually be found on here trumpeting the superiority of all things digital over all things old and analogue, but sometimes there are sentimental things where new media frankly just doesn't cut it. Last week, when my daughter was born, I thought I'd buy a copy of a newspaper to keep for her as a memento of her birthday. Not only might there still be interest in some of the stories that were being reported that day - she'll...
The Guardian's children's comics: Part 2 - Roy of the Rovers
Last week The Guardian and The Observer published a series of reproduction comics from the 1970s and 1980s, and yesterday I blogged about some of the transformations they illustrated in the relationship between reader and publisher. Today I want to focus on examples from the 19th December 1981 issue of Roy Of The Rovers. The 'team chart' One of the weekly features of Roy Of The Rovers was a chart for you to fill in to track your team's progress....
The Guardian's children's comics: Part 1 - 40 years of changing media
Last week The Guardian and The Observer published a series of reproduction comics from the 1970s and 1980s, including facsimiles of Jackie, The Dandy and Roy Of The Rovers. As well as giving me a blast of nostalgia they also gave me a chance to look through to see the contrasts that modern media and telecoms have brought to change the relationship between publisher and reader over the last 40-or-so years. The Dandy (1984) and The Beano (1980) "Reader's Clubs"...
It was twenty years ago today...the 1989 Reading Festival
Unless major figures have died, there has been a massive terrorist attack, or a man has landed on the moon, there aren't many days of the year where you can be absolutely sure you know what you were doing exactly twenty years ago, but today is one of them. Twenty years ago today I was in a muddy field listening to New Order. I know this because one of the pubs near to where I used to live in Muswell...
The tyranny of chronology: Part 3 - News atoms for the 21st century
This is the third in a series of posts based on the presentation given by Martin Belam at the 'News Innovation' unconference in London on July 10th 2009. You can find part one here. News atoms for the 21st century Yesterday, I was discussing how the 'atom' of news has moved from being the newspaper to the individual story. I think we need to go further, and disaggregate the neutrons and protons from that atom - the paragraphs and...
The Barbican at 40
Today the City of London Corporation is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Barbican Estate with a party for around 400 residents. As anniversaries go, the timing seems a little bit arbitrary - I've seen articles on the web suggesting the actual anniversary was July 7th or July 8th - but it was certainly in 1969 that people and families first moved into the new tower blocks. They are now a familiar part of the London skyline,...
"The look and the sound of The Voice" - Ultravox at The Roundhouse
On the I-Spy look-out for "Ghosts, Mysteries and Legends"
The computer print-out Evangelists of the future
ABC's "Lexicon Of Love" live at the Royal Albert Hall
Tracing pictures of Chania's Germaniko Pouli German War Memorial
Re-creating 1940s Grödig and St Leonhard
London's abandoned Underground Stations on Google Street View
The fragile future of newspapers at the British Library
The future of 'the future' - the British Library and technology
"Stacks, Readers, Staff" - Building the British Library
"It feels like one hundred years..."
A technological revolution in miniature
How accurate was Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" about the future?
London Model Engineering Exhibition at Alexandra Palace
"The Tottenham Outrage" centenary
BBC Television studio open day at Alexandra Palace
Open day at the Alexandra Palace Victorian Theatre
'The Folklore of London' with Antony Clayton at Hornsey Library
'Hornsey Past' with Steven Denford at Hornsey Library
Yuri Gagarin: March 9, 1934 - March 27, 1968
Promoting bands online in 1995 - Telwhat Mutelibtech to where?
Watching Swatch 25 years later
What happens when computers get the Leap Year wrong
The Buffy guide to the Internet - 1997 style
All your flame wars are belong to us - BBS systems are 30 years old
Computer love in the 1960s - the origins of online dating
British television sci-fi is seventy today
Never mind the MacBook Air hype - it's happy 25th birthday to the Apple Lisa
Audiophile pressings - where the maufacturing process is more important than the music
Dynaflex - RCA's 1970s ultra-thin vinyl
Quadraphonic: The forgotten surround sound of the 70s
Copy-protection for vinyl in the 1970s
10 years of BBC.co.uk on the BBC Internet Blog
Nostalgia for Airfix ain't what it used to be
The Beginner's Computer Handbook - Understanding & Programming The Micro
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Talks & presentations
"Journalism in the digital age"
I'll be appearing on a panel with Sarah Hartley and Iain Hepburn at the Edinburgh International Science Festival on Sunday April 11th. More details...
Posts of the moment
Day of the Triffids
If everyone suddenly went blind, how long would the Internet survive, and could you still publish news on it?
With professionals of this quality, who needs 'citizen journalist' enemies?
It is hard to argue that ethics and quality set the 'professional journalist' apart from the amateur blogger, if the 'professional' keeps publishing articles so wrong that they have to be deleted.
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- Working at the BBC (2000 - 2005)
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Contact: martin dot belam at currybet dot net. © Martin Belam where appropriate.
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