Five for Friday #7: Batman, Dracula fangs, drama, fonts and disappearing crafts

Hello there!

It's Friday 13th. Hope you survive.

To help you get through the most superstitious of all days, I’m back with another five things I’ve enjoyed this week and hope you will too!

1. Film: Tuesday night, we watched the second-best Batman movie* with a live orchestra. Batman '89 in Concert was incredible – and not just the music, which was, naturally, stunning. Seeing the film itself on a big screen for the first time in over 30 years? Incredible. Of course, Keaton's Bats is a pure psycho – the Batwing has stinger missiles and machine guns, for pity's sake – and poor ol' Vicki has as much agency as an empty can of Smilex, but I was in heaven from beginning to end.
   
   You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts – and check to see if the show is coming to a concert hall near you!
   
   
2. Design: I'm a sucker for font stories. I used to be a magazine editor, so sue me. This one is a doozy, showcasing Margaret Calvert, the unsung hero who designed signs and fonts we Brits see every single day.
   
   (Although I have to say I preferred the headline in the print version of this article – 'I shot the Serif!' Genius,)
   
   
3. Horror: Hammer has started a two-part article on the history of Dracula's fangs, and of course, I loved it.
   
   I mean, why wouldn't I?
   
   
4. Radio: Drama in Schools: An Unfolding Tragedy? Christopher Eccleston investigates the downgrading of drama in British schools and asks what can be done to bring the arts back to our academies.
   
   I'm biased, as I have a daughter who thrived at school because of drama lessons, so much so that she's now in drama school, but to me, this was essential listening.
   
   (The man behind the Ninth Doctor also talks passionately about the subject in this interview from the Times – "Drama's given me the most amazing life, a life my mum and dad and my brother's couldn't have imagined for me. I just want that to happen for other people from my background.")
   
   
5. Books: "Britain is still a craft land, if only we have eyes to see it."
   
   Craftland by James Fox is equal parts heartbreaking (the trades that are being lost) and inspiring (the efforts artisans are going to save their craft).
   
   This isn't a green-and-pleasant-land nostalgia fest – the hardships of many in the shrinking industry are clearly chronicled – but neither is it backward-looking. The book ends with a celebration of the craft crucible that is multicultural London.
   
   Above all, it's a clarion call to appreciate the beauty of handmade items and revel in the living history of traditions that survive against all odds. You can grab a copy here!

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Let me know if any of those catch your eye — or reply in the comments with something I should be reading, watching, or listening to next. You can also just hit reply to the email.

I'm taking a break next week for half term, but will be back a week Tuesday with my review of the Lochby field journal and tool roll.

Until then, look after yourself and each other!

* the greatest Batman movie of all time is obviously Batman Returns.

I know no one asked, but just incase you were wondering my top five Bat-flicks are:

1. Batman Returns.
2. Batman '89.
3. The Batman Lego Movie.
4. Mask of the Phantasm.
5. Batman '66.