When it comes to music that just makes me smile, nothing beats cover versions of songs where the cover is in a different musical style to the original. They can be as out of the box as you like—the madder the better, really—and Wendy generally can’t help but smile either.

Postmodern Jukebox do exactly that, covering modern tracks mostly in 1950s style. Until very recently, I was only aware of a couple of their tracks from albums, and didn’t realise they are very popular on YouTube.

Wendy and I were fortunate to get tickets to their tour, which called in at the Sage on Friday night. It was completely nuts—where else would you see someone tap dance to the Super Mario theme or watch a Motown cover of Beyoncé? But it was also brilliant, both for the joy in the insanity and for the outstanding musical performances of the band, the singers and the dancer.

We had two particular highlights. Our long-standing favourite, a 50s cover of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, is in a style that’s totally at odds with the lyrics yet is somehow spot-on, and it closed the show perfectly. And Effie Passero’s cover of Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah, which we’d never heard before, found something genuinely new in a song that has been covered to death, and received a mid-show standing ovation like nothing else I’ve seen before.

Their support act, The Last Morrell, was a complete unknown to us, but he struck us as a brilliant songwriter and he’s gone on our playlists.

We had a great night.

Wendy and I went along to see this 2022 Tate Britain commission which is currently being exhibited at the Baltic. It’s an installation made up of over 100 life-size figures, each elaborately dressed, waving flags or wearing masks or carrying banners or playing the drums or riding a horse or any number of other protest- or procession-like activities.

The first impression is one of overwhelm: there is just far too much to take in, even as you wander around and between the groups of figures. The more each figure is considered, the more startling details meet the eye: a share certificate here, a colonial map there, prints of troubling artworks in between, topped with some imagery of royalty. It’s a lot.

And really, that was as far as we got with it: there were too many ideas all at once to really feel like it was saying anything in particular. The work that has gone into the piece is astounding, but we didn’t really have any profound reaction to it. We didn’t leave the exhibition with a different view on the world.

In the Baltic setting, unlike in Tate Britain, a balcony allows visitors to consider the work from above. This has the secondary effect of visitors considering the figures appearing to become part of the procession themselves, when viewed from this angle. This probably changes the work in an interesting way, but it’s hard to know for sure when this is the only setting I’ve seen it in.

The Procession remains at the Baltic until 11 June.

Here’s me with Crimbo, the smallest of the Metrocentre’s oversized reindeer! It’s almost twelfth night, so I guess they’ll have to be dismantled soon!

Last night, I went with mum, dad and Wendy to a New Year’s Eve party at the Hilton in Gateshead (or Newcastle Gateshead, as the hotel calls it…!) We had a lovely time, and walked across to Newcastle Quayside to enjoy the midnight fireworks. We’d also been to the Winter Festival Carnival earlier in the evening, so certainly can’t be accused of failing to celebrate the New Year!

Who knows what 2013 will hold? It’s the first year since I was two years old that there’s been no repeating digit in the year. I don’t know what relevance that has to anything, but I thought it was interesting!

Happy new year!

Glitzen is a 40ft tall reindeer. As tall as a house, she’s the tallest reindeer sculpture in the world. This is the third year she’s featured among the Metrocentre’s Christmas decorations, and this year, she has two children with her.

The scale of the sculpture is certainly arresting – far more so, actually, in person than in photographs. The frame is made of over 2km of aluminium, and the sculpture is decorated with over 10,000 fairy lights. I’ve no stats on the new baby ones, but you’ll notice from the picture that each is more than a storey tall.

It’s just slightly depressing to be seeing them in October!

This is a picture I took earlier in the week of the Millennium Bridge lit up, as it is every night, in its rainbow-like colour scheme. The current lighting system was installed in 2009, and is LED based for super energy efficiency.

It’s the (first, second, third, fourth) fifth time I’ve featured the bridge this year, so you may be bored of seeing it by now…! In my own defence, this is the first night-time shot of it!

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: a bus stop being delivered and installed! Even the giant red kite in the background looks a little surprised at the sight!

Recently, Regus gave me a free Businessworld Gold membership, which gives me free access to their business lounges. Today, I thought I’d pop into a nearby Regus to check it out. I had some work to do that needed close concentration and I didn’t want the distractions that often come from being in the office, so I had planned to spend the afternoon working from home, and this seemed a reasonable alternative. I was slightly concerned that it would be a bit rubbish, but figured that I could just carry on home if it was.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. I installed myself in this ThinkPod, a sort of cocoon containing a desk, chair, reading lamp and power sockets, and worked undisturbed in a quiet environment. There is, of course, free wifi, which seemed pretty fast. There were comfy seats and free hot drink drinks available, but I didn’t use these.

Basically, it was like working in a good library, but more private and more comfortable. It was much nicer than working in a coffee shop, which I’ve done a few times in the past year. I’ll definitely go back over the next year while my free membership lasts, and with over 1,000 locations in 95 countries I can see that this would be invaluable when working away from home .But I’d never dream of paying £25/month for UK access, nor £35/month for global access which appears to be the going rate.

This is the first pop-up Calendar Club that I’ve seen this year – and it seems a depressing reminder that Christmas is coming!

Calendar Club has grown at a remarkable pace since the first 12 stores opened in 1998. It now opens over 300 temporary stores every Christmas, and sells over 4 million calendars from a selection of over 3,000 varieties. These days, it even publishes its own calendars under the Other House label.

One of the most remarkable parts of their business model is their store turnaround time: they aim to open within 24hrs of taking a store’s lease. Minimal turn-around times maximise the company’s profit, but also give it a great reputation with retail landlords who typically want to minimise the number of closed units in their malls… which, in turn, gives the company a stronger negotiating position year-on-year, reducing rents and further maximising profits.

This is the Gateshead office of Schawk!, a global brand development company. I only know that because their name is so arresting that I felt the need to take a photo of their building, so they clearly did a good job of branding themselves.

Right next door, there’s a bit of branding that I think is unique to the North East:

Wadds is a local glazier. When businesses had their windows smashed, Wadds would (of course) temporarily board over the windows whilst manufacturing a replacement. Wadds would decorate these boards with a distinctive stencil saying “Wadds was here”. I don’t think they do it any more, but still, the “Wadds is here” sign on their HQ is a bit of an in-joke as well as a statement of fact!

And finally, just down the road there is a bit of branding to which I think the man from Del Monte would say “no”: