Comment

Made in Wales

Like many of my friends, of late I've been buying my jeans from Howies.

I'll be honest: what drew me to the company wasn't the fashion or the ethics; it was the fact that stitched into the back pocket was a map of the Teifi estuary in West Wales, where I started my coastwalk and just a little south of where Emma and I got engaged. I love the feeling of connection to a place through a product.

But the map is deceptive: the jeans aren't made in Wales.

Its founders sold Howies to Timberland many years ago, and manufacture soon followed overseas. The founders left, and while the company is far from being a doyen of disposable culture, I am disappointed at how little time it takes me to wear through the fabric.

At the turn of the year, Howies announced that they had become independent again. It was an exciting move; many thought the founders were back. I knew they weren't; those guys had something else in mind.

Today, the Hiut Denim Company opened its doors. Founded by the original Howies team, what caught my attention this time is the slogan: "this town will make jeans again", the town being Cardigan; Aberteifi. All they're missing is the map on the pocket.

Update, 0800, 28 February
It's been suggested to me (thanks Clare!) that Howies production was overseas before the Timberland sale, and that it may indeed never have been based in the UK. This may be the case; my first pair were made in Turkey, and after buying them I started asking friends where their Howies were made. Everyone answered "Wales", but on checking found them to be imports. Hiut's denim is imported, but the stitching is done in Cardigan.

Angels

Angel, Islington

Gig , Solas

Jo Mango

The phrase "multi-instrumentalist" can be applied to many of the acts we saw at Solas last year, but the person who pulled it off the best was Jo Mango. I'd seen her play before; her set in the Performance Café at Greenbelt 2010 was my favourite of the festival. At Solas Jo performed only a couple of songs, as part of the "Zoetrope" collective so I've been looking out for an opportunity to see a longer, headline set.

What I found was a bit of a surprise.

On occasional Friday evenings the National Portrait Gallery in London hosts free gigs within the gallery.

Tonight, Jo Mango's venue was Elizabethan England, with the Somerset House Conference, 1604 providing a stern backdrop and the Queen herself looking on from the side.

Backed by her three-piece band, the music was rich in instrumentation, and suitably fragile for the surroundings. With figures from Tudor England joining the audience, it was impossible to not be transported into the world of the the songs. Curiously, even a pair of songs based on an African fairytale somehow felt as if they belonged in this room.

Jo Mango's almost whispered delivery is similar to that of Kathryn Williams. Both are achingly beautiful, as if each word is being spoken just to you. Jo's most recent release — a double-A side from 2010 — begins with the lyric, "six o'clock in the shh! of the library". With the event starting at half six this was the perfect time and place for the song.

There is talk of an album being released later this year. It should be very special.

Tech

You are the product

The letter from the CEO accompanying Facebook's IPO filing is fascinating.

Its opening paragraph is astonishing:

Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.

The sentiment is hammered home time and time again, and it's almost believable. Until you remember to qualify the company's lofty goals about wanting to connect everyone; it's only interested in connecting Facebook users with other Facebook users, not outcasts like me.

Make no mistake: Facebook users aren't customers. They are the product. The customers are the advertisers and consumers of Facebook's vast store of information about its users.

The CEO tells how Facebook will lead to a world of "better products", by which he means ones that only work on Facebook. He says the site will facilitate interactions with not just people, but also businesses and Government. It will make those structures accountable.

But who is holding Facebook to account?

Facebook could have authentically delivered on the opening paragraph. It could have converted to membership-based co-operative, a not-for-profit organisation or defined an open, interoperable architecture. I'm saddened to have read nothing along those lines. Instead I just read about a closed world and making money.

I'm not on Facebook. I don't think I ever will be. I am more than a product.