totallygone

travel, at a tangent


Dear John (UK Remix)

I refer to my previous post of the same name and ask what has become of London?s ?cutting-edge? arts and technology scene (in one of whose latest offerings, a trendy café-cum-gallery space, The Hospital, I?m posting this entry)?

Billed as "a "creative place for creatives", The Hospital boasts free Wi-Fi internet access, but doesn't allow users to use its power outlets, conveniently embedded into the floor with easy access via a neat little steel flap. Why, when (for example) a dusty old café in San Francisco?s Mission (one of the city's less affluent areas), so old and decrepit that the power outlets all but hang from the walls, finds itself equal to allowing customers to use their worn-out old sockets, when Covent Garden's 'Hospital', occupying millions of pounds of prime London real-estate, can?t, or won?t? And please, don?t trot out the usual claptrap about liability, lightning bolts (or other divine acts), surge protection or, worse still, that old chestnut about how allowing one person to plug in would mean that all of southern England would want to. Don?t you just hate that? And hey, what if they did?

It?s fair to say that the Land of the Free lives up to its name mostly because American generosity extends from free power with free wireless - and not even an obligation to purchase (my darling friend Nick even used to sit with me in Jumpin? Java on 17th and Noe, drinking hot water)- to projects that aim to provide free wireless internet to entire cities.

Imagine - really big "creative places, for creatives". 5000-odd miles away.


So, if you ever wondered why Britain is (not so) fondly known as "Old Blighty", there's an answer for you.


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