Robin Hood – Page 2 – Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part Fourteen – New York – Day One

Boston Logan airport is a laid back place. Rather than the racks upon racks of plastic seating, they have rocking chairs. How cool is that.

They also have food chains I have never heard of but would love to see in England. The one I ate at was called U Food Grill, which worryingly seems to be backed by George Forman. Anyway, for fast food it was actually pretty good.

UFood Grill - Home to the Unfries and grilled chicken Bruschetta

I seem to have accidentally upset some of the good people of Boston. Not sure why though, because I loved the place, but I had the audacity to ask a policeman for directions and then try and follow some non existent road signs and got some good old fashioned national stereotyping thrown at me as well as a few who made the effort to read the article.

Criticism of any sort can only be constructive if it’s well intentioned and comes from someone who’s seen seven cities in ten days (Nottingham, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and now New York). You’re much better off hearing it from someone who cares enough to tell you than not to hear it at all. You can read the ongoing debate about my typical British character and the various attractions in Boston here on what has to be Boston’s most popular blog.

So, onto New York. So good they named it twice apparently, but if first impressions of La Guardia Airport are anything to go by, I thought I was going to hate it. It’s like East Midlands Airport used to be before it saw the light and called itself Nottingham East Midlands and then lost its nerve and backed down again – because everyone knows where the east midlands are don’t they? Err no, but Nottingham and all its worldwide connections is without doubt a better name on which to hang it, if they want anyone else in the world to have heard of it and fly there on a whim.

The drive here was an exercise in swerving honking and seeing who could be the most aggressive. Considering there are signs up at every intersection saying ‘No Honking $350 fine’ it has to be the most ignored street furniture ever and the loudest drivers city anywhere. But at least they do have Hybrids now, although you have to pay a $4.50 premium on your fare to travel in them!

They even have hybrid taxi's in New York now, but you have to pay extra for the privilege of using them

The hotel we’re staying at is the Gem Hotel in SoHo (South Houston) which gets good Tripadvisor ratings but has the tiny rooms so typical of any budget hotel in a major city. It’s a great place in the heart of where it’s happening and has a feel of the Ibis Hotel in the Pod on the edge of the Lace Market.

We wanted to see the Top of the Rocks at the Rockerfeller Center. It’s another massive viewpoint that gives you a view across the City and we really need to understand how they do these sorts of things US style.

So, it was off down Bleecker Street for the walk to Rockerfeller. We called in at the Greenwich Village Bistro for a few lovely beers at the roadside and took in the buzz of the place. It is so similar to or own London Soho and if we could create that sort of buzz in the Lacemarket in Bildurn’s Lace Market Square, we’d have one hell of a destination for people to come and enjoy their time in the City.

And then to John’s Pizzeria for tea. This place looks an utter dump but creates the most beautiful pizza. Two were shared across the six of us and we all left full, they were that big. It’s a bit of a celebrity hang out with pics of Frank Sinatra and Joe Frazier of the wall. All the wooden benches are scratched with dates, names and times and the waiters are all grungy Muscle boys. But it’s brilliant.

We had a long talk about what they’d done right over dinner and concluded that they’ve stuck to their knitting. They do pizza and that’s it. No slices and cash only. It’s like a much rougher version of Pizza Savai. Great food, really sensible prices and still family run. It also brought on the discussion about how few non-chain pizza places we have to eat at in Nottingham. Surely there has to be room for another good one or two?

We then braved the New York Metro, which was stiflingly hot until you got on the trains themselves. They’re all air conditioned. They’re much longer and wider than the London Underground trains and the mapping as to how to find your way around it seems to an outsider, random to say the least. It may be a scale thing as Manhattan Island is so massive, but there were barely any maps inside the trains and it’s assumed you know where you’re going.

The New York Metro - Possibly the most difficult underground system in the world

So, onto the Rockerfeller’s Top of the Rocks. Built in 1929 it’s huge at 850 feet tall and the advantage it has over the view from the Empire State Building is that you get a view of the Empire state Building, with the Chrysler Building thrown in free.

You follow a route through an exhibition about its building and then walk into the lift, which literally flies up its 68 floors. If you want to, you can still walk up another two in order to be at the very top. The views are amazing.

The view of the Empire State Building from Top of the Rocks

These shots just don’t do it justice. The scale is just awe inspiring and one that could only really be recreated if Nottingham expanded to such a degree that it was connected to Derby and Leicester. It’s that big. Here’s another with the black area in the middle being Central Park.

Central park from Top of the Rocks - Awe Inspiring — Central Park from Top of the Rocks - Awe Inspiring

The trip back to the hotel was far more challenging with express trains overtaking local ones. Serious confusion set in and it was three changes before we got back to where we should be.

I’m a bit behind on my writing, so tomorrow, I’ll be writing about our last day on official duty tomorrow and we’ll be off the amazing new Highline Project, the Cupping room, Ground Zero, Chelsea Market, Central Park, The Natural History Museum with its planetarium and other stuff I’ve seen on the way.

See you then.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part Thirteen – Boston to New York

For what was supposed to be a really relaxed morning, it turned into another early start and manic morning. We separated into three groups.

Stephen Barker and the Sheriff went over to Essex County to meet Sheriff Cousins and his team. Tim Garratt and Nick Hammond took the walking tour and myself and the Sheriff’s Lady, Adela took a walk to the world famous Cheers Bar (which was closed as it was too early in the morning) and then onto the Museum of Science, based on the waterfront. Tim will write a guest blog that I’ll add below, but first I need to finish up on yesterday’s visits, with our tour of the USS Constitution.

It was built in 1795 and could carry up to 55 huge guns. It’s currently in the process of a very major restoration, which is being part navy funded and part public funded. It still sails four times a year.

Old ironsides - The USS Constitution - Officially the oldest warship afloat and still an operational US Navy ship

The word authenticity is everything and we were give the opportunity to climb right down into the gunpowder store. In its heyday, this would have been the workplace for 20 hours a day for up to three young boys who worked as gunpowder runners, delivering the powder to all of the cannons on the higher decks. It was horrifically small, amazingly claustrophobic and stiflingly hot – and that is when its sitting in a dock. I can’t imagine what it must have been like in the height of battle in the early 1800’s

The gunpowder store at the bottom of the boat and the workplace for 20 hours a day of three boys - in this photo, the resting place for two boys

A nice small fact that came out from our bright young tour guide was that if you are in the US Navy and brave enough to win a Medal of Honour, it will have been made from some of the copper rivets on the USS Constitution that are replaced in rotation to prevent fatigue.

The learning from this is probably less so than some of the others places we have visited, other than the quality and knowledge of the guide. He is a serving Navy junior and has a two year rotation on this ship before transferring over to Florida to start his training in Avionics, in order to become a aircraft mechanic, working on the aircraft carriers. Whether it’s just the American way or just the Navy way, but he seemed genuinely proud to be serving (even if his role was mainly as a tour guide) on such an important part of American Naval history.

So, Cheers Bar. About a mile from our hotel, so we walked it. Boston like most US cities isn’t exactly geared up for walking, but it was worth doing, to see the beautifully clean streets which look like the most grand merchant areas of Manchester and Liverpool. They were mostly flats now, but they were all immaculate. No peeling paint, no scruffy steps and no litter anywhere. Funnily enough, there were no ‘for sale’ signs either. This may be a local byelaw, but it could also be that people never sell them.

Cheers Bar is in the Beacon Hill district and is actually a bar called the Bull and Finch Pub. In truth it looks slightly tired, but we didn’t get to see inside as we arrived a good while before they open at 11am.

Er, the closed Cheers Pub - or as it's real name is, the Bull and Finch pub

It’s interesting though that whilst I was never a particular fan of Cheers and haven’t seen sight nor sound of it on TV in years, I was still pleased to be able to see it.

Cheers, The Pub from the TV series in the lovely Beacon Hill District of Town

With our own Trip to Jerusalem pub, we have one of the (if not the) oldest pubs in the world and I wonder whether we actually make enough of it as a tourist attraction. I know when we did some research about what people knew about the City, what it stood for and what made it stand out, it was rarely if every mentioned in the 768 responses we got back from the extremely broad sample we poled. I understand it’s a commercial venture and a licensed commercial venture at that, but this place needs to be used far more centrally in the marketing of the city.

As we have seen with the USS Constitution being the oldest boat afloat and the Pilgrim hall being the oldest museum being the oldest museum that’s operated continually as a museum, we have to find its angle even if it is a little contrived. If we can mark it out as clear and demonstrably different, then people will come, just to be seen at the oldest inn in Britain.

After Cheers, Adela and I kept walking towards the Museum of Science, which is huge, has its own IMAX cinema and began life in 1830 as the Boston Society of Natural History.

The walk there was quite a tough one for quite a few reasons. Firstly there is no signage at all for a pedestrian. Considering this place has been around for such a long time and it is quite so huge, it would seem logical to me, that they include even a few signs for how to get there.

Secondly, even without the signs, there is no logical way to walk. You are constantly crossing, recrossing and doubling back in order to get to an area that is anything other than along the side of a freeway. And that water. You can see it from certain places, but you can’t walk along the side of it to get there. In the two l=miles we walked from Cheers to MOS, there could not have been more than 100 metres of waterside walk. It makes me appreciate what a great job they’ve done on the side of the Thames and how little we make of our riverside.

And thirdly, there are too many commercial ventures to protect. At the side of the Museum is a huge queue of ducks dragging people in for $30 a time for tours around the city. They are a hop on, hop off event and there are loads of them. Boston had more walkers than other US cities, but there still weren’t many of them, so between the duck companies and the controlling authorities they seem to have ‘tied’ the market up.

Maybe you can't really walk there because the city tourism is run by the 'ducks'

Inside the museum, there were a few brilliant things. The Foucault clock was slow, and mesmerising and could be watched for hours (if you weren’t rushing)

The Foucault Pendulum at the Museum of Science, Boston

But my favourite bit and sorry for the quality of the pic, but it was all behind glass and not brilliantly lt for photography, was at the back of the IMAX, where the projection room was part of the display. For a geek like me, who loves this type of machinery, to get to see the working projection room was priceless.

The IMAX projection equipment is part of the display

Anyway, its off to the hotel, via the most tortured Subway system I have ever seen and then off to New York.

Firstly though, Tim Garratt and Nick Hammond did the Freedom Trail around Boston, a sort of walking trail through some of its historical regions and Tim has kindly written me a guest blog, which is here below.

Guest blog – Tim Garratt – 15 September 2009

Billed as “The Freedom Trail”, Boston has a historic walk which runs for 2 ½ miles and takes in 16 sites.

It starts at a Visitor Center on the edge of Boston Common (a sort of Central Park thing) – and then weaves through the old part of the town.

You have a choice of DIY or escorted. Both follow a red brick or painted line in the pavement and eat each interest point there is a brass plaque set in the pavement where you stop and take in the sight.

We picked up a $3 map and guide – which is badly laid out and reminds you of the old paper origami maps – easy to take apart but impossible to put back together! Fortunately it wasn’t raining – we would have had a soggy mush to help us along.

The first stop was very impressive Massachusetts State House – complete with real 23ct gold topped roof. Not sure Nottingham is ready for this! It cost $133,000 in 1798 – five times over budget.

The Statehouse with it's 23 Carat Gold roof - is Nottingham ready for this?

We then meandered through the ancient streets until we happened upon the Kings Chapel – built originally in 1749. Inside it houses the oldest pulpit in the USA, but the best feature were the individual pew boxes – which were sold to wealthy families! Washington came here in 1789.

The Kings Chapel

Back on the Street we continued towards the USS Constitution and stopped by the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770. The site is marked by a stone circle – we were somewhat underwhelmed by the monument. It’s a traffic island!

The stone circle to mark the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770

Out of time we opted out of the tour at this point and headed back into town. So our impression. It’s a great idea – and the pathway is something that can transfer. But the destinations are mixed and we walked past a few. At the Kings Chapel we were invited to part with cash; so if you do this at each tour stop it can be quite expensive. The guide was expensive and rubbish – it would have been a liability in rain. It also very clearly marked us a tourists and I couldn’t help but wonder about being targets as we concentrated on finding things. If I am really honest we got bored. I (as a surveyor) found interest in the buildings but the story seemed a bit disjointed. Perhaps we would have been better with the uniformed tour guide.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part Twelve – Boston and Plymouth

I’m really conscious about how many times I’ve used the word ‘amazing’ on this trip so far, but today has been, well, amazing.

The position of the Sheriff of Nottingham has real significance in Plymouth. We have been treated like royalty, right down to the fact that our own Sheriff Leon, was curtseyed by some of the staff as we arrived at the Mayflower II in Plymouth – a beautiful town north of Boston and home to our very own Scrooby based ancestors.

We took the train from Boston South Station at 08.56, which to us was still well before 6am after out three hour time change last night. It’s a busy chaotic station and the home to Amtrak and the more commuter based double decker trains. Obviously we sat on the top deck (because it was there) and the trip to Plymouth was cheap and very efficient.

The Sheriff Leon on the train to Plymouth

Even whilst we were arriving at the station, we were grabbed by a man called Evert Lanman, who has lived in Plymouth all his life – apart from the four years he served in the US Navy – he could not have been more proud (and surprised) to be meeting the real sheriff of Nottingham.

The Sheriff, his Lady and the lovely Evert Lanman at Plymouth station

We were met by Deputy Phil Huang, our driver for the day in his blacked out van, more used to transporting people between court appearances than driving people between tourist attractions I suspect.

The Mayflower II is a 1957 reproduction of the original Mayflower that brought the Original Settlers to the USA.

The Mayflower II in Plymouth Harbour in all its glory

It’s very much a ‘living’ history visitor attraction. The line that summed this up best came from Shelley Jo, who worked at the attraction, and was one we have to use somewhere in our attraction.

‘We don’t have artefacts, just attitudes’

This was incredibly evident. The exhibition panels were very much of the traditional variety, but when you step onto the boat, the people who work on there are completely in character and try as you might, you cannot break them out of it. They not only dress for a character of their time, they speak, eat and behave as a character of their time. Robert Coppen, the ships mate appeared genuinely shocked that someone would want to shake his hand upon our arrival as it was a custom that had not yet begun.

John Coppen, Ships Mate aboard the Mayflower II - He doesn't do shaking hands yet

The waiter at the Cabby Shack, where we went for lunch told us that as kids, it used to be a game they play, where they’d go down on the boat and try and trick them into breaking character and answering in a modern way.

We’ve spent a long time since discussing this. Can we really recruit people who will get in character and stay in an unbreakable character? It’s a level of authenticity that we don’t normally see in the UK but one we have to learn from. These people aren’t just doing a job, they are really living the character whilst they are at work, and clearly researching the history of the characters of the time when they aren’t. And that’s for a salary of around $8 per hour. The British way has been to laugh at this, but if we are going to deliver an authentic experience, we have to learn from this and embrace what they are doing so well.

The Mayflower II gets around 1/2 million visitors per year spread throughout the year. They have many from Britain, but also from as far as Japan, the West Coast, Canada and Australia. Most have some British heritage and want to see where the US adventure began.

It was then off to the Pilgrim Hall Museum, just down the main street. We bumped into British visitors, over here from Warrington and touring New England, who like ourselves are amazed by the quality of the museums and exhibtions that are dotted throughout the region. This is the Longest continually running museum in the US, having originally been built and opened as a museum in 1824. The words ‘continually running’ are important here as there is one in Salem called Peabody Essex Museum, with a shout for the ‘oldest’ in the US having history dating back to 1799, but they can’t claim the ‘continuous’.

Pilgrim Hall Museum, proudly claiming to be the oldest 'continually running' museum in the USA

It’s a smaller exhibition that sees 30k visitors per year and follows a more traditional, but historically accurate route. It has a curator, a learned board of Directors and could easily be a direct reproduction of how Nottingham castle is run today.

Speaking to Phil Cripps, the Director of Plymouth County Convention and Visitors Bureau, they are in the process of landing a huge new inward investment to the region, which will bring them thousands more visitors each year. They are in the process of delivering the biggest production studio in the world. It’s two years away, but it will bring with it 14 stand alone sound stages, a 300 room 5 star hotel.

It will be called Plymouth Rock Studios and will become the Hollywood of the East Coast. It’s a huge deal ad will no doubt change the face of the region completely. You can see more about it here.

Perhaps most surprising is that in a non binding referendum in the town, the people of Plymouth voted 87% in favour and then in the town meeting to finally approve its arrival, they voted 97% in its favour. I somehow don’t see the people of Nottingham being this much in favour of such a huge change to the face and shape of a region.

After lunch it was off to Plimouth Plantation. The deliberately misspelt and historically accurate of what life would have really been like for the early settlers to the USA. As with the Mayflower, historical accuracy is everything. The people live and breathe their characters. It’s a totally enchanting place that oozes history. It could easily be mistaken for a Romanian Village and its beauty is in its simplicity and relative order.

The Beautiful simplicity of Plimouth Plantation - an historically accurate town from our past

We were introduced to many people in the village, but the first was Elder Brewster, who talked of the history of the place and referred to his ‘knees’.

Elder Brewster, the wise man of the village, who had been to Cambridge

At this point in history they were called ‘knees’ but the k was really emphasised so they sound like ‘kinees’. In history it was about this time, when the ‘k’ in your knees got softer and so the older cast members are using the traditional expressions and the younger ones adopting the more modern approach. This level of detail and historical accuracy as we have seen on many of he places during this tour is priceless. It is the reason they are successful. At Getty it was the one in 14 leaves being removed every three weeks and at the Museum of Tolerance it was the chilling walk from room to room.

If we are to build anything world class ourselves, we have to gain from this experience and ensure that we deliver this detail when we come to design and build our own attraction.

Again, volunteers were very much in evidence. These two here are both retired and want to be involved because as they said to us, ‘they simply love the feeling of the place’. If we can create something that brings this emotion to our region, we will have a huge success on our hands.

Volunteers form an important part of the staffing at Plimouth Plantation

And then we were away. Back off to the City for our scheduled tour around the USS Constitution.

Boston is a beautiful place. A green and clean city, that maximises its water front. We’re splitting off into groups to see different things, so more to report later.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the USA – Part Eleven –Seattle to Boston

Okay, a packed morning with lots of new discoveries about Seattle, what makes it famous and what we can learn from it.

After one of the worst breakfasts I have ever had in a hotel anywhere in the world, we set off to travel the Space Needle. Seattle’s landmark since it opened in 1962 for the World fair.

But back to the breakfast for a second. Have you ever heard of Sausage Gravy? Well if you see it, don’t rush to eat it. It’s a sort of sausage porridge and is so close to what I would imagine gruel to have been like in Oliver’s days it’s unbelievable. The breakfast was complementary from the hotel, the first we have seen so far. They shouldn’t have bothered. Serving vile regurgitated porridge, does far more damage to a brand than the goodwill of a free meal creates. It was Best Western by the way and everything else about the place had been fine. It’s an inappropriate use of porridge thing.

So onto the Space Needle. Reading the background to it, it’s clearly a project that nearly never happened. They seemed to miss every deadline they set themselves in order to get it built in time for the World’s Fair, but yet it still happened in time and is just as popular today as in the weeks it opened. Perhaps the world Cup bid for Nottingham could be the same sort of catalyst for the city if we were lucky enough to win the chance to bid with the country and then the country be lucky enough in turn to win the hosting.

We keep coming back to this thing about iconic or landmark buildings. The numbers are staggering. It cost $4m to build in 1962 (which was when the $ was at a 4-1 ratio to the £) so it cost about £1m. It’s 520ft tall (159M) and costs $16 (9.50) for an adult to go on it. Going on it, entails queuing for a lift that whizzes you to the top in 41 seconds. Very quick by today’s standards, lightning in the 60’s I would presume. It too 467 trucks full of concrete weighing 5850 tons, just to build the 30’ deep foundations (which doesn’t sound that deep for something 520 ft tall to me)

The entry to the Space Needle is a walk around a ramp and onto a lift

During the queuing, they nab you for a picture again. I didn’t fancy a picture against another printed background, so I took a picture of this family who had come from Texas as part of their holiday on a cruise and wanted to see the ‘Needle’.

Bud, Chuck and Candy do the Space Needle - or rather a picture of the Space Needle

At least this time it was fully digital, so they weren’t wasting print after print on non buying visitors. It’s not really a surprise if they didn’t buy it, as I didn’t see the place to get them on the way out anyway. Even more surprising was the fact that it was an Apple Mac based system that is being used in the home of Microsoft. That must Needle them.

At the top, it opens out into a large circular viewing platform with an unrestricted view of All Seattle has to offer, looking right out to the Olympic Mountains and beyond. It is a huge view. This is about 120 degrees of it showing the boats running in and out and the huge container port beyond.

It is a massive and wonderful view. Breathtaking and utterly simple as a concept.

The team who owned it, really struggled to get the money together in order to build it. They missed the deadlines because they didn’t have the cash and then even more problematic, they didn’t have the land. It was freed up just in time. The developers were paid back with $2.3m visitors by the closure of the words fair each paying their $6 to see it. They paid off their mortgage in 18 months.

They do have the advantage of 1m visitors per year, largely delivered via 3 cruise ships coming in 3 times per week, bringing 3,000 visitors at a time, but as Nick Hammond in our party pointed out, we also have away fans arriving for the football rugby, ice hockey, cricket, test matches (and hopefully the world cup) and all sorts of other visits coming too. We have 50,000 students who will all be keen to show their parents the best view of the city. If we have the ambition to do something on this scale, we can easily generate the footfall to make it pay.

The merchandise is very mixed. One real stand out was a very cheesy snow dome thing that had been made in China by a manufacturer who was clearly knocking them out for all of the US tourist attractions, based on their obvious confusion between the Space Needle and the Statue of Liberty.

Which is obviously easy to confuse with the statue of Liberty

The rest was a mixture of models, mugs t-shirts of varying degrees of wearability – from okay to a new level of awfulness. Glasswear, photo frames, Wine, hats, Space Needle Coffee, golf balls, Lego models, paper models, metal models, pewter models, glass models, pottery models, – In fact pretty much anything. And my personal favourite Space Noodles.

Space Noodles - The future of quality tourist related dining

So from one landmark to another. The Space Needle sits right above the EMP and it looks almost as weird/impressive from above as it does from floor level. It must hsve had to be part of the design consideration that it was a great looking building from the top of the Sky Needle. That can’t happen too often in design briefs!

It was back into the EMP for a more detailed look and the chance to go on the audio tour. EMP was completely funded by Paul Allen, one of the original Microsoft partners. A real life billionaire. It does seem easier to make a massive landmark attraction a reality with a billionaire behind you. If only Robin Hood had kept some of what he took, it may be worth that in interest now, but he probably wouldn’t be as famous if he robbed from the rich and sensibly invested it.

Paul Allen is the founder and the funder

with a little help from his mates such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame

The lobby area is huge and grand, with the exterior design, leaking into the interior and creating its reflections throughout the whole building. There is a giant screen that dominates one whole wall. It has to be 200ft wide and another 100 ft tall. It’s not a projector either, but looks like an LED screen like the ones you sometimes see at the footie or the races. Only this one is even bigger and is made up of strips about 1 ft wide, which creates a striking effect.

The Lobby with the shiny bits from the outside coming inside massive LED screen and odd floating unbrellas on the roof

The audio tour, was for me, less impressive. Again it was iPod based (you had to hand over id in order to be able to get it) and unlike the system at Alcatraz, it was totally freeform. You could go where you wanted. This made it a real pain to get into anything. There were hundreds up on hundreds of files, most of which seemed to be 15-30 seconds. It too as long to find them as it did to hear them. And that was after you had found the actual numbers it related to. Anyone over 40 would really struggle with this as the numbers were too small, the screen was too small and the whole process to fiddly. Oh for a bit of logical linearity.

Some of the interviews that you could sit and listen to were incredible. I sat through Jimmy Cliff, Kid Creole, George Lucas Grandmaster Flash and my favourite was Wonder Mike from the SugarHill gang, where it went on to play the whole 15 minute song afterward. Just the licensing must have been an amazing deal for this place, let along gathering all these extraordinary interviews. And the headphones were simply superb too. Everywhere, the sound quality was exceptional. But they should be if it’s a billionaire funding it.

The SciFi museum was far more traditional fayre, with a stamp on the left hand by the grumpy staff (as they’re not allowed to sit down at any point), giving you free movement between the two exhibitions.

If this isn’t Paul Allen’s personal obsession, I’m Hans Christian Anderson. It looks like someone who has been collecting Sci Fi memorabilia for years and can now play with the big boys. His collecting grew out of his home and he needed to move it into here to cope.

The Sci Fi museum has much more traditional but beautiful exhibits

The Robot from Space Family Robinson was my favourite, but there was little to lift it from the mundane other than the sheer wonder at how complete the collection is in the world of TV based Sci Fi programmes and films.

But jumping back a stage. What else is Seattle famous for?

I answered some of these yesterday, but we’ve found out another now. Jimmy Hendrix is one of its most famous sons as we should have guessed by the amount of material dedicated to him in the EMP.

And lastly about the EMP and the Sci Fi Museum, I have to mention the advertising and branding. I just love this simple ad, which is shown all around the place to show that it’s the meeting of music and Sci Fi. What a lovely simple piece of branding.

The advertising of music meets Sci Fi is brilliant

And so to Boston. We’re coming right from the West Coast to the East. Losing another three hours sleep and hitting another packed programme tomorrow.

See you there.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the USA – Part Ten – Seattle

I thought today was going to be a write off. The flight up to Seattle should have been a short one at only 1 hour 25, but when it gets delayed an hour and you’re on a tight schedule anyway, its going to be hard to catch it up. But as Seattle was one of our really strong learning cities, as soon as we arrived at the hotel we got straight out again. From the time we checked in, to the time we left, took seven minutes. This was because we are staying next door to the Frank Gehry designed Experience Music Project and we had to see it in close up.

The light reflecting of the EMP building was breathtaking

But jumping back a stage. What is Seattle famous for?

On the plane we had a little straw poll and between us came up with the following:

Microsoft, Boeing, Frasier, Amazon, Sleepless in Seattle, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Starbucks and the Space Needle.

We later discovered that it also is world(ish) renowned for being the home of WordPress (my blogging partner of choice), being a HUGE container port and a home to many cruise ships. Oh, and also the home of Laughs Comedy Club (even though this is technically in Kirkland).

To have names like this, which are ALL world class, must make it easier for any city to make big bold statements like the EMP, as it just breeds successful benefactors, which in turn breeds success. I was struck by how green the place is as we flew in on the bumpiest flight I have ever been close to throwing up on. Being close to the Canadian border shows. There are a lot of trees up here.

First impressions are that it is fantastic. My favourite city so far, and with a more European, cosmopolitan, cleaner, more organised feel than LA or San Francisco. I may be proved wrong on this tomorrow.

But on the plane, I also discovered that Seattle should be famous for Seattle’s Best Coffee. A smaller coffee chain than Seattle’s most famous, who sell through high street stores and who also provided the coffee on our flight. To get this contract must be amazing, but to get this contract in the home of Starbucks must be a cause for a major party. Shame the coffee tasted like dirty brown water – probably more to do with airplane service than their true coffee. We did see one later in Downtown Seattle, and because it was so awful on the plane, I can’t say I was tempted to rush in and get an emergency caffeine shot from them.

Seattle's best coffee is a pretty bold claim, especially when it tastes like brown dishwater

So anyway, back to the Experience Music Project (or as I incorrectly called it, the Rock N Roll Museum). This is a Frank Gehry designed building that sits just underneath the Sky needle and is one of the most striking buildings you will ever see. To some it’s a monstrosity, to others it’s a work of art. To me it’s an amazing landmark that people want to be photographed with. I have used the term iconic for a number of things we have seen, but in a city were it sits underneath one of the most recognisable structures in the world, it stands out as being truly one on its own. The setting sunlight reflecting of its shiny surfaces, was something that it will be hard to erase from your memory. I want to be photographed by it. It’s that good. I wasn’t though as I forgot to ask someone to do it. I’ll try and remember tomorrow.

So, did the inside live up to the huge promise of the outside?

If you are a muso, then yes. It had all the experiential opportunities that you could ever want. From creating your own CD, by working your way through the sound lab, to the odd synthesiser machines that you can play around with at will. It’s what the Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield should have been.

For me, it was slightly sterile. I was more interested in the structure than the content. Maybe its because I didn’t do the audio tour, but I don’t find a 100 metre run of different album covers that engaging – however coolly designed and 50’s space inspired they are.

The Space Babes Album cover display of 50's pop art

Again, a demonstration of this is that I bought books about how the place was built, rather than souvenirs from the place. The architecture is so striking, it is in danger of overshadowing the whole deal. But it is cool though.

Next it was off in the Seattle Monorail. This is a High Tech looking that runs in through the side of the EMP. The obvious assumption to make is that they were built together. But they weren’t. the monorail came first by a good 40 years, having been completed in 1962, in order to transport visitors to Seattle’s World Fair.

Again, its remarkable value at only $2, but the ride is quite short – oh, and bumpy – this is not a super smooth Mag Lev device.

Seattle Monorail, built in the 60's for Seattle's World Fair

We ate in the City and as it was now deep into Saturday night, headed off over to Kirkland to the Laughs Comedy Club to see the remarkable Emo Philips. If you can’t place the name, have a look at some of his work here.

He is described by many as one of the best joke writers ever, and having watched him, I now have to agree.

The Sheriff at Laughs - but still looking a bit scary

Brilliant, simply brilliant. And he was brilliant off stage too, being delighted to sit down and talk ad have his photo taken with anyone who was interested in this tiny, intimate venue.

Before we came away, I said that it was going to be like seeing the USA in fast forward. There is no doubt this is right. It’s like a supersize visit in fast forward. Exhausting, exciting, challenging and brilliant all in one go.

There’s more to see in the morning. The Space Needle and then the Sci Fi Museum and then Boston in the afternoon. Three hour change in time zone and a five hour flight for a chance to catch up with some sleep.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the USA – Part Nine – San Francisco to Seattle

A cold wet English summer’s day. It’s raining and we’re off to Seattle after breakfast.

I guess we’ll have all the usual grace and charm of the US airport staff and then when we land, its straight into the Rock and Roll Museum.

A Frank Gehry designed (he of Guggenheim Bilbao fame) building and a museum that draws totally divided opinions. From it being an architect’s public showing off (that’s the polite description) with no substance to the exhibition itself, to it being truly world class.

It’ll be good to see in order to judge for ourselves what world class means in terms of iconic buildings and understand the scale and budget of what they have delivered.

As usual, a fuller update with pictures later.

Brand Experience, Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part eight – San Francisco

We worked out a schedule, I blogged that schedule and we hit that schedule. It’s a first and a wonderful first at that.

Today was a day of Iconography and infamy. Our first call saw me change my name to Cristol. A surprise to me, but my accent is clearly so hard to understand that when I gave my name to the lady behind the breakfast counter, she translated John to Cristol. As well as free name changes, the breakfast cafe were experts in sourdough sculpture as you can see from these assorted Alligators and crabs.

Our breakfast destination was a place that did sourdough and liked to make it into funny shapes

We headed for the Golden Gate Bridge with a huge sea mist rolling in under its spans. Its not golden, so I really don’t know why its called that, but it is enormously popular. In the time we were there, there had to be 200+ people walking the bridge and nearly as many cyclists. This was on a day when you literally couldn’t see the bridge apart from a few brief glimpses through the mist.

The Golden Gate Bridge, peeping through the mist

Designed by Irving Morrow, it has a central span of 1280m, and a height from the top of the tower to the water of 230m. That is seriously huge. the cables to hold it up are as big as a sewage pipe.

If you’re gonna use a cable to hold up the Golden Gate Bridge, use a big one

Built between 1933 and 1937, it links Marin County to San Francisco. The water underneath is very cold apparently and the temperature differential causes the now trademark fog, which is as common as the bad roads in the region. This freezing Pacific water is also the reason that Alcatraz is so hard to escape from. Freezing cold, combined with visibly strong currents gives it a menacing grace.

The sheriff of Nottingham under one of the huge Golden Gate towers

How have they commercialised it? Well, they haven’t really. No charge to walk over it, a tiny gift shop and an even tinier café. Bt even a taxi rank from which they can make money. I guess they appreciate that people come to the city for the view and enjoy all the rest if what it has to offer whilst they’re here.

So what do we learn from this? Well iconic works. Why would that many people come to see and walk on a bridge that is just that – a bridge. Because it is beautiful spectacular and on view from almost every part of the city. It also has a team of 38 painters who work full time, just trying to keep the old girl looking at her best. We spoke to one of them, Michael who chatted to us in his break, whilst the bridge creaked, groaned and swayed in the strong wind.

Michael – One of 38 Golden Gate Bridge painters

We have written in numerous presentations about how much our city needs something iconic. A Swiss Re a Pompidou or a Golden Gate. Again, something world class, that draws people for the sake of it. To see it to walk across it, to walk underneath it and to be photographed with it for them to add it to their little list of tick box ‘must see’s’.

Global warming also isn’t an issue in San Francisco as everywhere you go, if they want to draw you in, they have burning patio heaters, or in this case a huge open air (and totally pointless) heater.

Global warming isn’t an issue in San Francisco

It’s also incredibly touristy in places. Looking along the road of the hotel we are staying at shows why. There are massive cruise ships stopping at the end of the road, unloading loads upon loads of twinset ridden tourist types.

A massive cruise ship at the end of our road

We had booked a trip across to Alcatraz Island. A state controlled ‘attraction’ that draws 1.3m visitors per year. For $26 you get as long on the island as you want (although last ferry home is 6.15pm and don’t be late. You get an audio tour, all sorts of other escape and famous convict tours and absolutely no food and drink. None. Not even a token bag of crisps. It’s not as though you can do a runner with it. I can only imagine this is a covenant thing that they’re not allowed to sell food. They have a captive audience that are spending 3-4 hours on an island and they have no food. Derrrrr. If you sold them food, by UK averages, you’d make an extra $7m a year.

Alcatraz, infamy and iconography all rolled into one enormous visitor attraction

The shop is pretty profitable, as it takes between $20-30k per day. That’s a good $7-10m per year. Add that to the $30m or so they are getting from the visitors fees and you have a very big business.

One of the nice things they did in the retail outlet was sell exclusive merchandise. Almost every shop in SF sells Alcatraz stuff, but most of what you can buy there, you can only buy there. Clever way to make more from a (hungry and bloody thirsty) captive and captivated audience. When I wrote about the Alcatraz brand a few months ago here, I had no idea that I would experience it myself so soon, but now I have.

The full force of the Alcatraz brand is used in all of the merchandise

One of the crap things they did however was try to sell you a terrible photo of yourself posing against a backdrop’ of the island. Not even a shot in the real cells, but against an awfully printed backdrop. They printed the film and then tried to get you but two 7×5 prints for $22. I hung about, but I didn’t see anyone buying any. Perhaps a lesser price or a bigger single print, or maybe even digital technology to avoid them having to print, may enhance what they do quite badly.

The Island itself is very engaging. An excellent 45 minute audio tour takes you on a personal and slightly isolated (as you wear headphones throughout) wander around the prison and a tiny part of the grounds. This tour uses the voices (or claimed voices) of four former inmates and four former warders. It uses sound effects to an excellent level and it caught the imagination of all ages from kids to grandparents.

We can’t do our own island in Nottingham, and we can’t do a boat ride in with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, but we just have to do an audio tour that catches people’s imagination like this.

We have Robin Hood, ghosts, caves and the story of the city itself. The technology they use is hardly break the bank stuff, but if it’s scripted right, we could manage the timings, the flow and the entire visitor experience for anyone from any country and with any interest.

The Alcatraz Audio Tour is powered by a clever little digital device with great sound quality

I don’t think that you would see this unless you saw it. This system of capturing and isolating the punter on the way through really works. Its not always comfortable, but we have to learn from this and ensure we use it to our advantage.

And so to Segway. Or City Segway Tours to be precise. Number one on Tripadvisor in San Francisco – and I’m not surprised. It was phenomenal.

All aboard the Segway’s = the only way to travel

One of our party, Nick Hammond, summed it up by saying ‘it’s not often you get to do something that is totally new to you.’ And that’s it, its totally new. Very few will have ever ridden on a gyro balanced personal transportation device. When we got chatting to Pam, the proprietor, she said that they were ‘going gangbusters’. If this isn’t a huge part of the future of tourism i’d be amazed.

This is Pam, the owner of City Segway Tours SF

It was perhaps one of my highlights of the trip because (I am terribly geeky about technology) and I had wanted to have a go on one, since I first saw them on TV in 2002. I assumed it was an April fool or CGI because it looked so freakish, and I can now confirm that it is freakish, but also very easy to learn, master and enjoy.

Our tour, was beautifully managed by Larry, a publisher by day and Segway expert by night. It seems mad that having signed the biggest most wordy CDW, you are then allowed to take their $5k piece of kit on the open roads with ten minutes training and an ill fitting bike helmet – but this is the ludicrous situation of US law.

You can’t do a thing one minute without a lawyer, and you can hang of the side of a cable car and Segway the next. How does this stack up and who would want to pay their insurance? The waiver you sign, agreeing to pay the first $500 of any damage you may do to their kit does rather explain this, but who can blame them, or their insurers?

We rode around the town with Diane and Keren from South Dakota, with the group of us getting catcalls and questions from the walking public. It’s not an outing for a shy person as everyone watches you and children point, laugh and in one case, cry. Perhaps she thought we were alien robots?

At the end of South Beach Pier with Alcatraz as a backdrop for our Segway’s

Pam described the value of their Tripadvsor placing as being central to what they do. To get to number one is hard, but to stay there is really hard. But there’s a reason they’re number one and that’s because they’re brilliant. Nothing was a problem and you weren’t a berk if you found it tricky.

We have to find a way to bring Segways to Nottingham. The hills in San Francisco are hillier than ours. The traffic lighter. A tour around the castle, the square and the park, is a sure fire winner, so I may be applying for a City Segway franchise as soon as we get home.

Anyway, Seattle tomorrow. Space Needle and the Rock and Roll Museum, that many rate as the best museum in the world. Its another very long day with only breakfast and lunch – due to the supersized standard portions) and another very late night, but San Francisco has been an incredible adventure that Nottingham just has to learn from.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in USA – Part seven

So lets see whether we can get anywhere near a schedule today shall we?

It’s an early start as we have lots to try and fit in, so we’re heading off at 8am, so this has to be brief.

First off is a trip over to meet the team at the Golden Gate. A world class attraction will hopefully have a world class team behind the management of it, so there should be much to learn from them.

This area of San Francisco is so amazingly touristy, it’s a bit like an American Blackpool, with Fishermans Wharf beings its rather nicer Golden Mile (or two).

We’re going over to Alcatraz after that, but it is dependent on being able to get onto a boat, which seem oversubscribed. This may have to wait until Midday.

At 4.30 I WILL do the Segway tour, complete with fetching Gilet and helmet.

And I’ve heard a rumour that there is a baseball game at the At&T stadium up the road, which starts at 10.15 tonight. If its on ad I’m still awake, I’m going!

I’ll report in later

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the USA – Part Six

Today, being a travelling day, was always going to be slightly frustrating and a reliance on the Internet, for opening times and full information made it even more so.

The day started well with a short walk in the blazing LA heat up the road to the Simmon Wiesenthal Center, the home of the Museum of Tolerance.

The simon Wisenthal center, home to the museum of Intolerance - sorry tolerance! — The Simon Wiesenthal center, home to the museum of Intolerance - sorry tolerance!

The first thing you would expect from a place called the Museum of Tolerance is, well, tolerance. Initial impressions were so entirely opposite to this that I found it hard to even enter the exhibition. After an ID check to allow yourself through the doors, you were faced with a pair of extraordinarily stoney faced receptionists, playing the role of sales prevention officers. Nothing to cause us a problem, was too much of a problem to them.

After paying and having to agree that we would stay for their minimum of 1.5 hours, we were subjected to a lecture by the search team. We were told that if we took a picture, our camera would be confiscated and not returned,. The smoker in our group was not just told to get rid of a cigarette lighter, they were made to put it fully in a litter bin outside. No explanation, no information, just surly and unnecessary unhelpfulness. I understand the obvious political sensitivities of such a display, but there is no excuse for this level of unpleasantness at a front desk. compared to the Getty Center, which had a far more wealthy benefactor and probably needed the cash more, it was truly awful.

We split into two groups. One to see the holocaust exhibition and the others seeing the general exhibits. As I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures, I can’t show you what I saw, but I will tell you, that the holocaust exhibition is comfortably the most harrowing exhibition experience I have ever been through in my life.

It is a timed exhibition where you move through multiple displays watching a series of films, posters and clips, moving from room to room as the series of lights dictates. We were told it would take 65 minutes and you were not allowed to leave before the end. The lady who took us down to the start, gave us each a plastic credit card with a child’s face and name printed onto it. We were to put this card into a machine (when we were told and not a moment sooner) and it would tell you the story of that child. As we began, an elderly gentleman who worked in the Center, came over and inserted a card that he held, which was his story. He had escaped from Poland in 1947 and was one of the very few Jewish children to survive. He also told us that Elizabeth, the lady who had showed us down, was also a holocaust survivor. By this time, we were forgiving the few surly people at the start and felt truly humbled.

Following through the exhibition, you are lead from room to room, with each one getting increasingly oppressive and cold. The material presented got harder as the plight of the Jewish people throughout Europe got more appalling. After an hour, we walked through a brick built corridor, given the choice of able bodied or one for women and children. This lead you into a full scale mock up of a gas chamber, complete with gas valves in the roof. There was a minute or more of silence before any lights came on and the appalling finale began. At this point, if a bit of dry ice had come from the ceiling vents, I would have run out in tears, but thankfully they remained quiet. I won’t retell the story here, but it is one we should all understand, perhaps all experience and certainly all ensure can never happen again. I was glad to leave, but distraught by what I had seen.

It was a silent walk back to the hotel.

It was in fact a silent cab ride to the airport.

And it was still pretty quiet when we boarded the plane to San Francisco. Their message had hit all of us, and hit hard.

The power of the exhibition was in the extreme nature of the material, but also in the dramatic monochromatic settings they took you through. The increasing tension, the increasing cold and, in truth, the increasing anxiety. This was far more than intolerance, this was a story of an horrific slaughter. Not comfortable material, but one I’m very glad I have experienced.

I can feel myself struggling to write this and that is over 12 hours later.

What a day to see such a demonstration of intolerance. 9/11. Intolerance doesn’t seem to do it justice. I can only imagine that they have called it this because no-one would surely want to see the Museum of harrowing, awful, appalling, unbelievable, tragic, terrible, hateful, outrageous, disgracefulness.

The airport and transfer was fine, apart from the now standard semi strip you need to go through to get into a departure lounge. Belt, shoes, wallet, keys change, laptop, drinks, sanity, dignity etc etc. You get through to the lounge needing a drink to be told that a Coke is $3.58. is this a sensible price, or an airport cashing in on the fact that people can’t carry a drink through these days. Judging by the $10 sandwich, my feeling is that it is nothing less than extreme profiteering. I skipped lunch.

Arrival at the airport was on time, luggage was waiting for us and a queue of taxis were in line for their waiting prey. Both groups, having been on an amazing drive from the airport, reported viciously rude drivers on arrival at the hotel. The difference in the architecture from LA to San Francisco is incredibly noticeable and so is the attitude of the cabbies. We followed route 101 into San Francisco – and the taxi driver wouldn’t speak – not even answering questions. I didn’t tip him. he spoke then. He insulted me. Bad ad for the city.

Route 101 into San Francisco from the passenger seat of an unpleasant taxi driver

The one thing I was determined to do whilst we were here was the Segway tour. I have always wanted to ride on a Segway, so I’d been online and checked all their times. The last trip on their three hour tour left at six, so it was a rush to get all of the team over to the right bit of Fishermans Wharf in time for last orders. But no. the last one goes at 4.30. Just to rub salt into the wound, as we had a really late lunch at Buena Vista, they came past us, in their gilets and cycling helmets. I absolutely believe they rerouted past my café, just to wind me up.

My very own Segway tour coming past the cafe that I was eating in, 1.5 hours before it should have done, but considerably ater i had arrived for their 6pm tour!

This café, had a view from one window over Alcatraz out of one window and the golden gate bridge out of the other. They claimed to be world famous for their Irish coffees, but I’d never heard of theirs, so I didn’t have one. The good old Urban Spoon application gave them 87%. I’d say this was pretty fair.

After our late lunch, it was already getting dark and much colder. The mist was rolling in over the Golden Gate Bridge, creating a beautiful scene for the little banjo busker to play to.

The banjo busker, complete with all the chat and the mist rolling in under the Golden Gate Bridge

Now, 29 years ago, my Dad came to San Francisco on a business trip, when he worked for Allied Breweries. He bought me back a small wooden model of the trolley bus, so it was something I had to do. $5 seemed a bargain for a thrill ride of my lifetime, hanging off the side, seeing scenes from every major cop show of the 70’s, bouncy ball TV ads and the chase scenes from Bullitt. It was like being in the filming of the Streets of San Francisco. An 100 year old system, that’s just as relevant today as I presume it was then. It had a queue around the block – admittedly the two groups in front of us were from Glasgow and London – but it was still an extraordinary experience that I will never forget. Its operational controls are still completely agricultural and it takes some physical strength to control it, but locals were jumping on and off, like it was a little local hopper.

I'm sorry this shot is out of focus, but bowling up a hill on a San Francisco Trolly Bus, with a view over Alcatraz was too much for my flash to cope with!

If our Nottingham tram drivers displayed the level of character this driver did, marshalling his customers into their correct places, I would imagine the NET would be a huge tourist attraction in its own right.

We went to have a run on the Metro too. An underground system with little two car carriages buzzing around. Clean quick and efficient and again, well patronised. It was only $2, which makes the London Underground look extortionate.

And so to bed. Or rather for me, and so to write. All the others seemed to be flagging a touch, so I had to pop in to the 7/11 around the corner for a few Budweisers and some crisps. It’s sort of like writing fuel but less healthy.

Essential work materials - Budweiser and crisps - an essential for any writer

Night night.

Robin Hood

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the USA Part five

Today is our last morning in Los Angeles and we’ve still got plenty to see before we head off to San Francisco, but as I found yesterday, the planned programme is very much subject to change.

Our first visit today is to the Museum of Tolerance.

This is described as ‘remarkable’ by the LA Times and a ‘must see’ by the people at the Getty Center. It certainly looks like one we can learn from as it’s not only a stunning building, but its also aimed at people of all ages.

Then its back to the most hectic airport in the world LAX and an Alaska Air flight to San Francisco. We arrive there early afternoon and assuming that getting through the airport is not too tricky, we’re going to go on an Urban Safari.

This is an off the wall city tour and claims to be a real one of a kind. Whether this will be true is one of the reasons we have to see it. I can see a tour of Nottingham that takes in caves, waterways and some of our hidden gems, which are far from the beaten track. They’ve offered us a 50% off deal but we have to se whether their timings work as on the website, they say they only run them from 11am.

The alternative is a City Segway tour, which starts around where we’re staying in Fishermans Wharf and the last one goes off at 6pm. This could be our best option.

I’ll update again later and let you know how we got on.

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