Sarah Mac
Alvin Purple
Tastebuds
Everly Pregnant Brothers (Feat. Pete McKee & Toby Foster)
Sheffields Old-New firestation.
Another building being demolished in Sheffield for the yet-to-start Sevenstone retail project which won’t go ahead, leaving Sheffield with yet another surface carpark. Great.
Brewery Steam Engine
A few years ago Dave, Daniel, Matt and I did the ‘Wayfarer‘ trip (something I’d like to repeat again – I also can’t believe I never blogged it) and ended up in Burton-on-Trent and the Bass Museum (as it was called then). We thought we were looking round the closed museum – but little did we know (in retrospect) that we didn’t actually miss that much on the day!
It closed soon after our first trip, and re-opened the other week as the National Brewery Museum, something I didn’t spot but my mate Rich did. So we drove down there (simpler than the train..) and paid our way in this time.
There isn’t much different, and from talking to the staff there is a lot planned but not implemented. The main difference is that you now get tastings of beers as you go round and you are accosted by actors in the various parts of the brewery tour, such as the convincing maltster. Thankfully Daniel’s favourite car is still there too. The good bits are the massive model train layout of old burton and the massive machines they have working within the museum.
I think it’ll be better in a few months time when they’ve sorted some stuff out, and I enjoyed the tastings, but the actors started to grate on me after a while (as good-a-job as they were doing) and I just wanted to see a brewing process happen! Alas we couldn’t find the microbrewery which was listed on site so instead decided to head to the KFC over the road – I just wish they did doubledowns.
The two main places I’m visited from
So I’ve been taking an interest in the locations of where my blog is being viewed from now that I run google analytics on my server. The usual suspects are contained on the UK map as expected – places like Luton, Leeds and Sheffield. However, there are loads of other views that I can’t account for – places like Leidenburg and Mannheim in Germany – I know no-one there I don’t think?
I get a lot of hits from London (who is viewing from London?) and also Wigan?? I certainly don’t know anyone in Wigan. Bolton is another regular visitor, again I know no-one there.
Some of the strange results I know about though – I’m getting hits from Sydney this week so I assume that is Liv – out there on her trip (hello Liv), I’ve had views in South Korea (specifically Busan – Hi Dan) and Beverly Hills where Jim had been living recently.
If you’re viewing, leave me a comment – even if I don’t know you (and especially if I do).. I’m interested in who is interested.
Pre-Cinema Leffe
Yesterday I went to go and see the latest Chris Morris invention “Four Lions”. Its essentially a comedy around a bunch of idiotic terrorist wannabes who form a terror cell in Sheffield (via Afghanistan) and try and infiltrate the London Marathon – Naturally as its a Morris flick to hilarious consequences.
I quite enjoyed it overall, definitely one for Blu-Ray but I felt that as a Sheffielder you lose a bit of the immersion as shots supposedly filmed in London were actually filmed around London Road, The Moor and Trippet Lane – at that point the 4th wall kinda falls down. But for those unaware that Kebabish isn’t actually on the Marathon route but is instead on The Wicker should get a better experience.
The star of the show has to be Kayvan Novak – aka “that guy from face/phonejacker” who plays one of the would be terrorists and delivers the most amazingly timed and delivered lines throughout the film – often even off camera – including a utterly perfect timed comment on mini-babybels (something we later found out is subject to legal action at the moment!)
After we watched the film the producer Mark Herbert came out to do a short Q&A – partially ruined by a drunk who kept asking stupid questions – but more so the inept staff of the Showroom for continuing to give him the microphone and not later kicking him out for just shouting over other peoples questions and Mark’s answers.
Right at the start of the Q&A we were also treated to a phonecall from Chris Morris (I was secretly hoping he was going to appear from behind the curtain on his phone, but alas not) who told a story about Jarvis Cocker not being able to leave the cinema to go for a wee because he didn’t want to miss anything – he subsequently ended up physically wetting himself while running to the toilet as the credits rolled. Good ol’ Jarv.
Morris said of this, his next target would be to “get someone to shit themselves in the screening”.
Long and thin image - apologies!
Other week I went over to Manchester for Record Store Day. The reason I had to go to Manchester is that the only independent record store we have in Sheffield (Record Collector) decided for whatever reason not to participate in the record store day.
I got to Manc shortly before 11, so the store had been open for an hour by the time I’d joined the queue – a queue that snaked around down oldham street and round the corner and beyond. After queuing for nearly an hour I figured I’d not get a single release that I wanted from the list that they handily provided to tick off the releases you wanted.
Luckily!.. I managed to get nearly everything I wanted – the only thing I really wanted but couldn’t get was the Blur 7″, but that had gone by 7am with the number of people having camped out overnight for it. I’m not that sad or desperate for it. I dread to think what camping on Oldham St was like though.
I ended up with;
- LCD Soundsystem – Pow Pow (12″)
- Yeasayer – O.N.E (12″)
- She and Him – In the Sun (7″)
- Jesus and Mary Chain – Just like Honey
- Beach House – Zebra
- Prins Thomas – Prins Thomas (LP)
I met up with John after and we went to see Cemetery Junction (which was pretty good) and returned to the store later to catch some DJ sets by some of Manchesters top disc spinners.
It was just really good seeing a record store busy and full of people having a good time – pity we don’t have anything like that in Sheffield anymore.
Mark Herbert
Something vaguely interesting I did recently was helping out at the Mark Herbert “In conversation with..” event at the uni – including a photoshoot of said CEO of Warp Films (above).
The event was good, we got to see an extended trailer of Four Lions (I’m going to see it tomorrow – courtesy of Mark) some clips from other stuff he’s done (Phoenix Nights, This is England, etc.) and he also looked at some of the work my students have been doing – which he liked.
After that there was an informative Q&A session about his career, working with people like Chris Morris and Warp music/films that I enjoyed listening to.
Cleethorpes, of Course.
So a couple of weekends ago I decided to head to Cleethorpes and Mablethorpe (little did I know that it was almost impossible to head between the two in a straight line..) both of which are seaside resorts on the English east coast. Usually famed for tacky pier-decrepit front beaches, gambling miscellanies, grabber machines and candy floss. Cleethorpes however…. is no exception to this.
The chavvy side of the town is a little scary, but once you get past the mass collection of friendly bikers the place takes on a new atmosphere and is a pretty nice spot to to look round – There is an amount of dilapidation that you would expect from an east coast seaside town but nothing more than you’d see elsewhere. The little beachside fair is lovely (even if the rollercoaster looks like a death trap of salt air rotting ironwork).
Down the road in Mablethorpe (both places I used to visit often as a child for evening fish & chips with my dad and brother) its roughly the same story only smaller – the difference here is that the north carpark gives you access to an incredible beach of breaking waves which are rolling in from the left and right as far as you can see.
As alawys, I’ve popped some photos on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arepeejee/sets/72157623735000447/
Road to nowhere?
OK - So I haven’t blogged for a while. So long infact that I’ve changed hosts since (betcha didn’t even notice) and I have a new URL – again, seamlessly changed. I’m now at rpgphoto.com (and .co.uk – but thats redirected here, so you may as well save some poor server somewhere and go to .com)
I’ve got a few things I want to blog, so after this I’ll slowly start updating again. I guess the big problem is that I’m doing this after the event, and I tend to upload photos and that to flickr/social networks while I’m doing stuff or bored.
I’d like to say its because I’m extra busy, but that aint it either, but equally I have been doing stuff. Stuff that I want to document, the reason for this blog in the first place (not for you to read, but more for me to remember back on).
Anyway, I’ll crack on and get something up soon. Oh and I’ve abandoned that daft movie review idea – too much faffing.
