Make my wish come true…
If you were in Brighton this past Saturday, at about 11:00PM, and heard a unfathomably high-pitched sound; fear not, I can explain. That was not the whistle tones of international superstar Mariah Carey, as she paraded about at Pride On The Park. No, it was the blood-curdling screams of tens of thousands of gay men as Mimi cancelled Christmas.
For an hour and thirty minutes, her vocals were flawless and her outfits sparkled. All according to plan. And then, it ended, without a single note of the world’s most popular Christmas pop song.
I barely know any of Mariah’s music really – I was there for the japes with my chosen family – but I do know All I want for Christmas and we did not get it.
Luckily my main attraction for this weekend’s party was Loreen… again!
She did a slimmed down version of the set I saw earlier in the year. It was great. I do wish she had just let rip and given us 45 minutes of bangers rather the tempo-adjusted remixes we got. I understand that she must be bored of singing Euphoria by now; but sometimes you just want to belt out “we’re going up”, you know?
Outside of antics in Preston Park, we cannot forget the true meaning of Christmas Pride.
It is a protest.
Brighton seems to do the parade better than anywhere else. I’ve never seen any city like Brighton on the day of Pride – it transforms into the most loving bubble of safety.
Maybe it’s because it’s so small and the population of Brighton is more queer than anywhere else in the UK. Maybe it’s all the hippies, crystals and gong-baths. Either way, I’m increasingly convinced Brighton might be the last nice place left in England.
Work
So that was werk; how about work?
I’m continuing on my “publish, don’t send” crusade in response to questions we are asked. This week’s topic: no shortcuts.
If – on the narrow off-chance – you work with me in some fashion, you are reading this and you have a topic you would like a blog post about; you will likely already have my work email!
Elsewhere, the digital service has now gone blue, as we’ve adopted the new design system.
I personally don’t understand why an award-winning design with 10-years of built-up brand recognition needed a “refresh”, much less why we needed that hideous and disharmonious shade of cyan in the middle of the logo when there was a perfectly fine shade of white available. Nonetheless, we’ve updated the navigation bar. I shall take my old-man grump elsewhere!
Long weekend
Right, that’s enough. I’m off to enjoy the remainder of my long weekend.