Inspiring culture

Clever bloke that Mr Z.

Not sure if you caught the Imagine documentary on the beeb the other night, but he said something on film that is very close to our hearts:

"We do more than make music, we inspire culture"

"....In order to inspire culture you gotta know whats going on within it"

Couldn't agree more - and that's how we roll baby.

Nostalgia

We've been exploring the psychology behind nostalgia recently, looking at how experiences and memory form bonds in our motivation and emotional states and ultimately create a desire to advocate the source of our nostalgia and promote it to others.

One good example of this advocacy is the desire to protect or preserve our memories in their positive states and this translates into a physical preservation of the tangible elements that represent the nostalgia. Or in other terms - we hold dear the things we love!

Last night we got along to the Birmingham Academy to see Vampire Weekend. For those that remember, the Academy before it was signed up by Carling was The Hummingbird and it was at The Hummingbird that I crowd surfed and stage dived to Nirvana on their first UK tour.

So as they announce the closure of the Academy to move to a bigger, better venue, I'll be missing the sweat box summer night when the Kings of Leon played, a floor sticky enough to separate your trainer from your sock and a dodgy sound system.

In my mind a little bit of my life lives on in the venue with the memories still vivid when I step inside. All of this just serves to reinforce the value of what we do here at Open, creating good times and great memories and ultimately providing people with nostalgia.

Oh I say!

There is no good reason why folks here do what they do... And when Loz decided to test drive this season's latest Jagerwear - hmmm, well I say!

In response to this, KP got her face on!

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Normally a trip to Worcester Cathedral would probably be a bit sedate for us at Open.

But the opportunity to hear Sir Ranulph speak about his life's pursuits last night was too much to pass up and the backdrop of the cathedral was awesome.

He didn't fail to deliver either, recounting his massive adventures from transglobal adventures, to run ins with polar bears and running the Land Rover 7x7x7. That's 7 marathons in 7 days, on 7 continents!!! And this was 3 months after a massive heart attack and a double heart bypass!

The man is a legend and living proof of human spirit and the will to overcome anything you need to achieve your goals - an inspiring individual - Sir Ranulph we salute you!

Concrete & Glass

We got along to Concrete & Glass in Shoreditch last Thursday.

Billed as a two night fusion of cutting edge art expos and live music held across loads of east end venues, to sounded awesome.

It wasn't. Well not really anyhow, there were pockets of good stuff, but it did come off as being something appreciated by the Hoxton cardigan clones that probably see the event as a good community gig rather than the mass arts expo it set out to be.

But still, at least it happened, so kudos for the effort, but maybe there's a bigger opportunity here to do some stuff that actually innovates experiences across an urban landscape rather than jamming together average parties.

Still the pictures are nice aren't they - nice one KP!