Postcard from The Staterooms: Hyper-cardioid edition…..

Dear Reader,

As you can see, I am still partial to my ‘mandarin’ green ink for my ‘Postcards’ and its use in a fountain pen generally – not that I actually write much these days with such 19-20th century technology.  I was forced to use handwriting to sign a document the other day.  I could barely write.  Like many, I tend to write pretty well everything on a computer these days and rarely resort to actually ‘writing’. I was quite shocked at how my handwriting – stylishly illegible, formerly – is now barely legible.  I could feel my inner ‘Cro-Magnon man’ develop and reveal itself  as I handed the ‘signed’ document back to the cashier at the bank.

Anyway… to move on.  My tour is starting to take good shape and pick up in pace.  While I shall publish brief reports on my blog here – the Charon Tour blog will be the main publishing vehicle so that I can order the material logically.

Twitter Spat
I was rather baffled by the twitter spat reported on Legal Cheek this week between two Silks. Twitter is a strange medium.  LC reported disagreement between me and David Allen Green some time back. Fortunately, normal service and sensible relations resumed quickly thereafter.  Twitter can both sow good and reap discord, at times.

Hyper-cardioid ‘top shelf’…
I have become obsessed with ‘kit’ – kit to record podcasts with, kit to take telly vox-pops and kit to take photographs…not forgetting a bag on wheels to cart the stuff around in! I found myself spending much of the morning today talking to myself.  I set up the H4N recorder and two microphones on their tripods – resting on felt to dampen the dead wood of the table, closed the curtains (glass french windows is no friend of good quality recorded sound) and started recording a podcast with myself to test the kit.  A good three hours later of ‘fiddling’ and I found myself – after a rather bizarre breakfast at 6.00 am of macaroni cheese splashed with copious amounts of tomato ketchup , in need of a plate of subversive king prawns cooked a la Chef Charon in a garlic and chili ‘jus’ – Tres Frenchie.

My thanks to Jez (@badearth) for travelling to Ipswich to get some microphones from a mate of his and then travelling down to the Forward Operating Base in Chatham yesterday evening to lend me these wondrous microphones to test before I make a final purchase.  They are not cheap – so testing is a good thing.  Jez is a drummer, sound specialist and is now reading law. His advice will be most useful to ensure that I can record podcasts at a very much higher standard than hitherto over skype.  Most of the tour podcasts will be recorded face to face with my new mobile sound studio.

And talking of kit!  Now I shall be more than prepared to face the great British public for televised ‘voxpops’ on the tour with a Mk 6 helmet ( Which I shall spray paint ‘Rouge’) and a desert rig assault jacket with pockets for ‘kit’, gizmos and woodbines.

I have always been a subscriber to the maxim ‘ If there is a plot.. go and lose it”.

I am grateful to ex-tank commander and decorated veteran Craig Lowe (@Idaeus396) turned ITV sport cameraman – who has recently passed the BPTC with a ‘very Competent’ grade  – for providing me with the lid and assault jacket.  The tour is turning, as I hoped it would, into a collaborative effort.

Tomorrow, I ride on London with my ‘kit’ to record two podcasts – with leading academic, Professor Gary Slapper and Professor Richard Moorhead.  Tour report #4 provides all the detail on the next phase of the tour.

I am enjoying the new series from Legal Cheek where well known lawyers reflect on the reasons they went into law.  So far – two reports Joshua Rozenberg: ‘The Chances You Don’t Take Are The Ones You Regret’ and the latest in a series running up to December – Mark Stephens: ‘I’ve Never Regretted Being Tricked Into The Law’

Good stuff – highly recommended.

With much of the tour planning now done – at least for the Southern Section – I will return to sensible law blogging and my Week reviews this week.    I’ve been catching up with a few law blogs.

A selection of posts which caught my eye:

• Carl Gardner: Prisoners’ votes: what’s the government up to? And are they missing a trick?
• Obiter J: In the Supreme Court this week
• Francis FitzGibbon QC: An Idiot’s Guide to Self-Defence
• David Allen Green: The law and magical thinking
• UK Human Rights blog: Domestic violence: the limits of Strasbourg’s intervention
• Clare Rodway ‘The Conversation’: Lawyers On Demand introduced me to The Fun Theory and Dr Nick Southgate.
• ClerkingWell: Taxi for the billable hour …
• Family Lore: THE FIRM: Chapter 7 – A Revelation
• Professor John Flood (RATS): hat the Bar is Like–Do We Really Know?
• The Magistrates’ blog: Plate Sin With Gold (Chapter 42)
• Legal Brat: See Saw Commercial Law
• What About Clients?: Llewellyn: “You expect me to tell you that you should be earnest about your work.

Well.. there we are…another week beckons…

Best, as always

Charon
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Charon Tour Report #4: What lawyers are and what they do…

Report #4 for my UK tour is now published on the Tour blog

Report #4: Lawyers..what they are and what they do….

It seems logical that I begin the analysis by looking at what lawyers are and what they do.  The law is all pervasive in our society.  On Monday I record podcasts with two leading academics: Professor Gary Slapper, global professor of Law, NYU and  and Professor Richard Moorhead, Chair in Law and Professional Ethics at University College London

My podcast with  Professor Gary Slapper – to be recorded in Gary’s office, the former office of Lord Eldon, Lord Chancellor, will be on the pervasiveness of law in our society, The Rule of Law and why lawyers, popular or not in our society, are so necessary.  Professor Moorhead will talk about the importance of ethics in the legal profession and focus on what the ethical principles are

Read Tour report: Report #4: Lawyers..what they are and what they do….

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