Good news and bad news

A couple of things have come up in the past few days that follow on from recent blog posts, so I thought I'd post some updates.

Libel reform: After my interest in libel reform was piqued by the Big Libel Gig last month, I was quite excited to see the latest ruling in the Simon Singh case. Very briefly, he's a Guardian journalist who was sued for libel after questioning some of the claims made by chiropractors. The latest court ruling isn't the end of his battle, but he has been allowed to use the defence of "fair comment" to justify his article. To use a well-worn cliche, it feels like a small victory for common sense.

Grafitti: On a less positive note, I was horrified on Friday when I walked along the lane and noticed that someone has painted over the beautiful typewriter grafitti that I featured in my late-but-one post. The whole section of wall has now been painted a rather boring grey. I know that grafitti is, by its nature, ephemeral and that's part of its appeal, but to destroy such a clever and inoffensive piece of art still seemed criminal. The only silver lining though is that after posting the picture on the blog, I was contacted by someone who runs a website featuring Bristol street art and asked to contribute my typewriter photo to the site. I don't think it's gone up on the site yet, but hopefully, it will be preserved there for others to enjoy.

How d'you get there?

Bristol is well known for its graffiti, not just the Banksies, but lots of little bits of urban art tucked away in the city's streets, like this fantastic typewriter down a little lane at the side of our house.

Lots of it is very clever, but recently I've started to notice a phenomena that really makes me smile. A few weeks ago, I spotted a road sign on the way out of Bristol, in amongst a battery of signs on a one-way system, for Timbuctoo! But it wasn't an amateurish, jokey sign, it'd been carefully included on an existing sign, very professionally, same lettering etc. so that you hardly noticed it. In fact, I'm sure lots of people didn't! It was one of those marvellous double-take moments. Sadly, the next time I went that way, it'd gone. But then yesterday, I came across another on my way to the dentist's. It made me smile even in the midst of filling anxiety!

Treeffiti?

As someone who's fascinated by language and typography, I'm always on the lookout for interesting signs, words, posters, etc. Yesterday, I came across some 'rural graffiti' on a tree at Symonds Yat in the Wye Valley. It was right by a fairly busy footpath, but why it'd been chosen as a site for names and initials obviously carved over a number of years, who knows. I t made an interesting change though from the more conventional Banksy-style graffiti I'm used to here in Bristol and was every bit as striking, especially in the sunshine.