Andy Raynor - Beyond the Brief
Andy Raynor's blog....
....I hope
Macheath,
MacHell, Mac Heaven?
What the most famous logo on Earth
would have looked like if they'd given me the
crayons
I’m a huge
admirer of Brecht and Weil*, not quite to the point of
an entirely monochrome wardrobe and calf length
unstructured overcoats, but almost. It comes I think
from sitting in the back seat of the Vauxhall Velox as
a child, peering through the billowing fog of
cigarette smoke (the real reason I am only 5’7”) and
listening to the old man singing along to Mack the
Knife.
It was
only when I’d hit my teens and was trying to impress
the music set girls at school with my well-developed
artistic leanings that I actually looked at the
lyrics. Being associated with the scenes of dank
backstreet under-the-arches death and dealings proved
slightly less of a babe magnet than I'd expected.
Things do not change.
But the
scene in my study here would leave even Macheath
feeling queasy and looking for anonymous retirement. I
have decided to change to his namesake, a Mac. If this
page uploads it will tell you I've got part way there.
It will also be a miracle.
It will
not, however, prepare you for the wizened, pale,
unshaven, spiral-eyed and moderately unstable man I
have become in the process. Nothing – I tell you
nothing – will ever be the same again.
So if you
can remember, as I can, the first ever touch you had
of a BBC computer after Christmas in 1983 and the
fear, the sheer visceral fright that you might never
find your way back to the start menu……
……welcome
to the sleepless world of Mac conversion. It will be
worth it once you arrive.
*You don't believe me? Listen to Louis and
I dare you not to hum:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S-lHrDPjGfQ
Tell me what you think at andy@andypraynor.com
And see what's been said before by looking in the archive:
© Andy Raynor 2013