Snow

Seven o'clock I decide that the settee isn't as comfortable as my bed. Cold outside but no signs that when I wake up four hours later that there will be three inches of snow on the ground.

I ring Nick to tell him not to bother to come. He decides to come anyway.

My Dad comes round and we (or rather he does) put up some bookshelves. Ten of them.

Nick calls again to tell me that we will be drinking in the German Market. Colds I think but head out anyway.

Expecting to go to the pub, we don't, instead we go and eat Japanese food, luckily I have enough cash on me to pay.

Now we have at least six inches of the white stuff. Nick is with friends who decide that they should get their train and not be stuck in Birmingham. Hotels are very expensive. Too cold in my house. They leave and back home I head.

Quite happily would I have stayed in but Edward hassles me to go and drink beer. We don't go out until after ten. The Landlady informs us that she is closing at eleven - she says because her staff need to walk home - so not because you were expecting more people in your pub on this night and you had too many staff to pay?

Rosie rings Edward and we have to meet her in the pub next to the local station. We drink beer whilst walking. My brother pukes up, leaves his beer and then five minutes down the road wants to share mine. Eurghh!

Another beer. We bump into Bastards from Hell. And a shark. And then it is time to go home.

Too many beers again.

Christmas Party

Got drunk and said somethings to the section Head that I probably should regret but I don't - something along the lines of you are shit, the department is shit and I am off at the earliest opportunity.

Elsewhere, Adam was harrassed, Paul reasonably sensible, I was accused of sharking, not true, Gary, Alice, Chris and Tina not allowed into their hotel rooms, the head of department got absolutely shitfaced. There was far less misbehaviour this year.

Visited the Yardbird and the fantastic Walkabout - I love nothing better than watching lardy permatans of both sexes jump around to shite music.

Walked home. With a random kid who had lost his phone and just wanted someone to waffle drunkenly at.

Murder.

We won the murder mystery on Thursday evening. Hurrah! It was the biscuit factory owner what did it.

I felt like death next morning. Acid reflux or heart attack? An absolute horrible feeling is that. It lasted for three days too. I think I should probably drag myself to the doctors

A very relaxing weekend (apart from the occasional horrible feeling of impending death) with Joshua where we did nothing much at all.

Fighting

I went to the bar to get a drink and when we came back a young lady had joined us and was discussing Paul's hair, she and her friend joined us and then it all got bit wierd and ended with Paul throwing a gin and tonic over the floor. The girl that came over I think was a wind up merchant, I didn't rise to the bait but Paul had been drinking since the morning and didn't take to kindly too it. Her friend seemed normal enough but was probably as bossy as Kerri. Anyway there was mutual hatred betweent girl one and Paul and both of them were showing it blatantly. It was all very uncomfortable.

Heavy Metal

I didn't get made to go to any heavy metal nightclubs. I did drink too much beer however and I feel rubbish. Bleargh!

Birthdays

It's my Brother's birthday on Sunday, he wants to go out tonight. I hope he doesn't make me go to any horrible heavy metal type nightclubs....

Spain - A Bit More

Suppose I should write a little bit more.

I´ve sat on the beach. I´ve been dragged to tat filled markets. I sat on the beach some more and I´ve had a few beers.

Spain

I am in Spain. It is cloudy and windy. I have a hangover which is steadily getting worse as the day progresses. Yesterday I took a trip to Barcelona and did touristy type things. Tomorrow I have a long coach journey home. Oh joy.

Back to shitty work on Monday. 1 and a half weeks for each year worked is the "enhanced" voluntary redundancy package. What a load of shite who is going to take that?

Manchester Weekender

I arrived in Manchester far too early to check into my hostel by also too late to take part in Bill Drummond's performance art piece so instead after a bit of weighing up my options and general faffing around I decide to walk down the the Manchester Art Gallery to see the rather cool Recorders exhibition. The exhibition has a range of artworks that explore surveillance technology, they also do cool stuff, one of them allowed you to place a wallet, set of keys or whatever onto a conveyor belt which was then magically joined by other ghost objects that other people had previously placed on the conveyor belt. Another videoed you
ask you walked into a big room and then rotoscoped your image onto a massive wall, if you stayed in the room long enough your image was displayed all over the place.

My next port of call was at CUBE, the exhibition here was interested in potential future technologies and whether they were feasible and if so desirable. One of the artists in this exhibition attempted to build a Argos £4.99 toaster from scratch, it cost him tens of hundreds of pounds and many man hours and looked an utter mess. There was also some drinkable whisky made from diabetic wee, a chair that allowed you to explore the wonder of space flight and a device that allowed men to go through the feelings of the menstrual cycle.

With some time to go before I was allowed into my room, I headed to the Cornerhouse to watch a short film about ex-FDR Marxist Leninist lecturers and economists talk about their experiences since the fall of the Berlin Wall - a great film with a soundtrack from Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab. Highly recommended - Socialism by Phil Collins.

Checked in, bags dumped I head back out to see more galleries although by this point I'm becoming a little museumed out and when I walk through the door of the Manchester Museum to a cacophony of screaming children I decide that it's probably time to sit down and have a pint and watch young ladies walk up and down the road.

After an hour or two relaxing with a beer I decide to check out the Plan C thing made from salvaged things collected in Chernobyl. A big soviet swingy thing. Strange.

Then it was time to go to see old shellac being played alongside housey music in the
Whitworth Gallery. It is here that I discovered the delights of ginger beer, lime juice and Havana Club Rum. Yum! The music and funny noises coming from the gramophones were great.

After this performance I head up the road to and grab a pint in a rock bar, I speak to a funny girl with navy blue hair for a bit before she heads off to go rock clubbing which I'm not really into.

Another short stroll up the road brings me to a bar where there appears to be a private party, not that anyone seems to mind me being there, I chat to a lovely girl called Neela for a couple of hours until the bar runs out of beer and I realise that I am too pissed to decide what other drink I want. I say goodbye to Neela and stagger out and back to the hostel and to bed.

Next morning I awoken with the sounds of Germans swearing at each other. A rather
inconsiderate woman decides that at 8.00 a.m. on a Sunday morning if she is awake then so should everyone else be. Now awake I have to struggle out of bed and go for the world's longest piss. Thanks German Lady.

Back to sleep for a bit, hiding from the pouring rain.

My agenda for Sunday was the reason that I decided to go to Manchester in the first place but it went slightly skew whiff. Initially I was planning to go to a performance of classical music and electro acoustic electronica, this I did and it was very good. However I was due to join a workshop on networking art media, this however didn't really happen. I waited around for a while before realising that I was the only person who wasn't one of the festival organisers there, I waited a couple of hours and still nothing seemed to be happening. I decided to knock it on the head.

So the rest of the day involved sitting people watching at the Manchester Oktoberfest and then staying out of the cold in a pub with no-one to talk to waiting for my bus.

Alpha-Ville Festival

I felt like a bit of a yokel not having the required hair (let alone haircut), glasses and scarf and skinny girlfriend at this weekend's Alpha-Ville Festival. But I enjoyed myself greatly in the lovely and sweaty two rooms of techno, dubstep, house and microhouse.

My first requirement of the evening was to meet up with Nick and check into my accomodation. We had one of those moments of luck when I just happened to be walking under Blackfriars Bridge just as Nick was crossing over from the other side. We had a few ales in one of the many boozers on the South Bank where Nick spoke of his trip to the Alps and his impending doom (sorry marriage) before he had to rush off.

Quickly scoffing down a rather plain Tesco's chicken wrap and bottle of some Polish lager in hand as I strolled towards Whitechapel, I discovered that the venues was rather closer than I expected. This of course meant that I was nearly sick because I'd eaten too quickly and then drained lager. Five minutes later however I was ready to hear some tunes.

Inside the gallery it was slightly disappointing to find out that we would not have access to the exhibitions but that didn't really matter as I'd come for the music and not the paintings. The building was rather cavernous and it took me a while to get my bearings.

Upstairs there was a video showing what appeared to be a set of wires that had read movements and could send electrical signals to your muscles so that you would repeat the same movements. Or at least that was what I thought was going on, the artist was not in the room, there was nobody to explain.

I then found a bar but was informed that no beer was available - for sponsorship reasons - a glass of nice but expensive wine is what I opted for. Soundhacker (I think) was playing in the bar but there was a great deal of chatter over the music which was a shame. There didn't seem much in the way of visuals to enhance the performance, instead there was some long haired bloke hunched over some buttons.

After this I caught the showing of a 3D mapping demo from esprojections which is all very clever and very much in vogue at the moment. Not sure where this type of performance can go from here as many of the things I've seen have been fairly similar, I suspect that somebody will do something to prove me wrong in not too short a time.

I was a bit skint and visited the off licence a couple of times for cans of Red Stripe rather than pay four quid for a shitty bottle of warm Brew Dog out of bin filled with tepid water. This didn't really impinge on my enjoyment of the night as there was just as much as show going on outside as there was in.

Back inside I traversed the stairs up to the loft room which had a cool view of the city and stroked my chin and bopped my head to the sounds of Scanner and Bola. The room was ridiculously sweaty and I did have to pop outside for some air a couple of times.

My favourite act of the night was Subeena.

Actress played a set of house, dubstep and techno, mostly techno.

Finally came Kettenkarussel who started off really really slowly and lot of people drifted off but they missed out because by the end of the night they had everybody dancing to their glitchy house music.

Drunks.

Orange permatan women arguing with anyone who would listen to them. Dishwater for beer. Growling doormen. Fat girls. Tatooed necked, wiry gentlemen looking like they'd just come for the ultraviolence. Widower's enjoying their freedom or drowning their sorrows. Teenage boys in the only place that will serve them, keeping their heads down. Octogenarian lotharios dancing with mail order brides. Sickly liquers and spirits on special offer.

Headfest

I was surrounded buy old hippies, punk and ravers. Joe sipped lightly on his cider while very drunk girls sporting dreads rolled around on the floor. We watch Ozric Tentacles-a-like bands. Drink more cider. Dance to acid techno. Drink more cider. We could quite easily have been the youngest persons there. Fun stuff.

Coming Home.

Gary was extra grumpy and didn't say a word in the nine hour journey home. Miserable git.

At least we go the week end off to recover.

Going to work on the Monday was awful.

Zagreb

We were only in Zagreb for about twelve hours. We saw an extraordinary number of beautiful women and melted in the heat.

The best drink of the holiday was a jug of ice cold tap water with our steak meal.

I got completely eaten alive by mosquitos. I have a million and one bites.

I'd like to go back and see Zagreb properly.

Croatia - Day Seven

This is were Gary turned grumpy. We headed to Zadar and wandered around the shops and that. I drank, the others didnot. We all felt a bit crappy. We came home and were bugged by bugs constantly.

Croatia - Day Six - Drunk

I think this was the silliest day of the festival. I don't think we intended to get as pissed as we did. We visited the amusement arcade and drank while we played crap games of pool and the worst game of darts ever. And then went to the tiki bar and drank cocktails and then onto the empty club where we piled up cans of beer, did the conga and acted rather daft.

Funny funny night.

Croatia - Day Five - Best Monday Ever

Yay!
Originally uploaded by Big Richard C

Cruising around the Adriatic with beer, ladies and the best sunset in the world is especially satisfying when you know Rebecca Madden is slaving away at work.

:)

This was just a brilliant day. We set off late. We have problems reaching the island we were supposed to drop off for food at but none of this matter. It was just fantastic.

Best Monday Ever!!!

Croatia - Day Five - The World Cup Final

The bloody mosquitos and sodding pain in somach meant that I was awake most of the night. We get up and bully Gary for a while before deciding to have a walk up to the festival site in order to do some more lazing around. I have a couple of beers and then miraculously it is late afternoon and time for food. I suggest going to a different restaurant so we walked around the bay and eat another steak dinner. I feel my stomach healing almost instantly, like a massive coating was all that was required to heal the four days of complete alcohol abuse.

We head back to our room to freshen up and we are amused to see a rutting tortoise outside our balcony.

Back to the festival site in time to catch the last song of some band that was playing and the World Cup Final. The football was very very dull. What was amusing was the random singing and chanting. A lot of it aimed at Gary and his red speedos, this being especially funny when random Scots ladies joined in.

After this things seem to get a bit blurry. We went from drinking a pint every hour to ramping it up to one ever fifteen minutes. I watch the end of Hercules and the Love Affair, very good as usual. Then Henrik Swartz following was plays some cool tunes and we all dance around like loons. Paul decides to go home and Gaz follows him. The music stops outside and I head to the after party but quickly get bored of being on my own. I drink a few more beers and then decide to call it a night.

I stagger home along the bay. Miraculously I don't fall in the sea. I get home around half three. A ten minute walk taking rather a long time.

Croatia - Day Four

Today was not a great day. We ate and then I got a realy bad stomach. Gary and Paul went off to watch the football while I watched the Phenomenal Handclap Band. I tried to ride out the dodgy stomach with beer but while it didn't make it worse it didn't make it any better.

Mr Scruff was a bit boring too. Everyone seemed subdued, I don't think I was the only one suffering in one form or another.

An early night. :(

Croatia - Day 3 - The Garden Festival, Petrcane

The Garden Festival, Petrcane
Originally uploaded by Big Richard C

Strangely no hangover. We try to order a taxi but are told that we will have to wait an hour before one arrives. When it does the driver grumbles about the Garden Festival and having money and time and enjoying oneself. I think he was jealous that we were going to spend the next week watching young ladies dance around in bikinis.

We meet up with Gail one of the festival organisers who takes us to our apartment which is really just a room with a small kitchenette and a bathroom. Perfectly fine we have no plans to hang around. We freshen up and walk along the bay to the festival site to see what is going on.

Mostly it involves lazing around on daybeds and sunloungers and sipping beers. It would be rude not to, we grab a day bed and some beers and copy everyone else. Hours pass. Paul describes the festival site as "a big beer garden with stuff going on inside". Quite apt.

I decide to have a swim unfortunately the beach is made from hard sharp rocks which are horrid to walk on, the current seemed particularly strong too and kept bashing me back to shore every time I move out. I give up. And go back to lounging and boozing.

We are all now hungry, we eat at a restaurant overlooking the bay, steaks all round.

As the sun starts to set the festival gets a bit more lively people are dancing on the beach and in the paddling pool. The sunset is quite amazing. Nothing like I have seen before. Spectacular colours complemented with dancing ladies.

A young Australian woman approaches us with a survey about drugs, she has no clipboard. :)

You can tell that it is the holiday's first night for the majority of the festival goers because as soon as the sun disappears the cocktails come out and there are lots of very drunk people dancing really rather badly to everything.

The highlight of the night for me was the No Fakin DJs who played lots of silly records to which we danced very daftly too. The music finished around one and Gary had the potty idea of finding another beer which he did. He then accidently smashed a glass tab and nearly got us into a fight. I didn't want another beer.

Croatia - Day Two

Stomp stomp stomp go the monsters in my head.

Paul I believe feels exactly the same. Gary on the otherhand is dancing around the room like an elephant on speed, he says, I feel alright, I don't have a hangover, I'm not an alcoholic.

We stoll into town searching of food and water, Gary in search of love trinkets for some of his many women. We eat at a fast food pizza shop, my hangover drops to around 90% intensity. We then stroll around the old town before stopping by the seafront where Paul and Gary decide to go for a swim. Climbing out Paul announces that he has been cleansed.

We go for a very slow beer in a bar overlooking the sea. My hangover intensity drops again. We consider having another but then decide to change scenery. The change of scenery takes us back to the bar from last night. We sit outside watching ladies walk past and drink four or five more beers. We sit and watch girls, we wonder why so many of them are trying to get into the church.

And then another change of scenery and another beer and more girl watching.

My headache is still lingering but now with the added bonus of feeling a little bit drunk. We decided to grab some food and find a nice restaurant in a walled garden. Here I have the first of many steaks. The dinner is followed up by a home made brandy. Gary screams like a girl that it burns his nose - waaaaah - it tastes rather nice and does an excellent job of washing down my food. The monsters have stopped pounding my skull.

A little walk and another beer. I am now feeling quite sozzled, too hot and thinking that I may have already hit the point of no return which at seven o'clock would have been both embarassing and disasterous. However another stroll and a bottle of water means that I sober up enough to drink more beer. We sit outside a rock bar. We drink and watch girls sporting black and pink skull motifs.

Somehow we get talking to a strange Croatian metal fan. Gary rounds up three girls. The Strange Croatian Metal fan tries to get us to go drinking with him and his mates, he has no beer and doesn't know where to buy any, we decide to go with Gary's girls.

The Strange Croation Metal fan sulks and argues with one of the girls - I take it that she is his girlfriend. She is probably the prettiest of the three and the Metal fan the dorkiest person in town

They take us on a long walk around the Old Town in Zadar before settling on a bar next to the sea. I feel like I am in a strange bubble there are croation men around us fighting, nobody seems to take a blind bit of notice. The girl with dark hair keeps laughing at me, I am very amusing.

Gary's guaranteed shag is ruined by Paul and I because we tell her he has two girlfriends. The girl with blond crazy hair, says nothing, I think she would like to join in the conversation but her English is not good enough. Gary's guaranteed shag tries to teach me some Serbo-Croat but I am useless.

The Strange Croation Metal Fan is also with us. He keeps stealing our beer. I think Paul may hit him but he doesn't and Metal Dork leaves with his pretty girlfriend.

The bar shuts. It is five in the morning. The girls take us to a bakery and make us buy sausage rolls. We try to get them to come back to our hotel. They seem up for it but then decide that they don't want to have to walk back, I guess hinting that they would come if we'd pay for a taxi home.

Then the one girl asks us if we can remember there names, of course we can't. (Marta and Maria).

We go home. They don't come with us.

We have been drinking for hours and hours.

Croatia - Day One

An exchange of messages:

"Do you think 12 cans will be enough?"
"Just for you? I should think so"
"Are they super strength?"

I think there was some slight disappointment in Paul's face when I met up with him and Gary at Stanstead Airport and I wasn't absolutely smashed. I had no beer on the train. Drinking on one's own is never much fun.

Checked in. Two beers in the weatherspoons and onto the plane. Paul says something about lovely birds getting onto the plane. Turns out not to be the case. One OK lady and another with gravity defying boobies. "I'm the organiser of the festival" gravity defying boob lady announces to the stag party sat behind us, none of them attached of course and all desperate. Er no you are not methinks, as does the stag.

Plane rides are boring.

We arrive in Zadar. Lots of security. Paul gets pulled over after Gaz and I are out of the airport. The Police wanted a closer look at his suspicious looking sweets.
We get a taxi to our hotel via another with a similar name. Then straight out for beer.

First (foreign) beer of the holiday and quite nice it is too. We watch the football in a quiet place which is closing. Paul suggests having a quiet night but we carry on towards town and have another three in a pizza shop/bar. Cheap rounds at 45 Kn but again this place is closing. Again we move towards the town and have another couple of beers outside a bar before being told that we would have to move inside or go home. There is only one choice.

The barman spoke very little english, there were three locals drinking funny liquers and a group of kids sitting at the back ignoring us. The locals it turned out weren't that local, a german and a dutchman both restauranters in the town we were heading to. They chatted. We got more drunk and eventually I hit that horrible spot where you can't drink any more. Time to go home.

The half hour walk to the town turned into an hour and have walk home. Pissed. We all were.

Sonar

Wednesday

After a longs half a day at work (well an hour with two hours in the pub) I met my brother and caught the train to Bristol which was a relatively quick and painless journey. My brother however decided that he didn't require his ticket to get through the barrier and was subsequently given a grilling by the ticket lady. Luckily she half believed his story and didn't fine him and we were away to the airport.

We were a little early for the plane so decided to sit outside in the sunshine rather than being stuck inside an boring airport terminal, my brother deciding to place himself on a huge ball of chewing gum - which is still on his coat I believe.

As we were going through airport security my brother thought it would be a good idea to bring about twenty five litres of perfume along. It's a wonder they let him on the plane. Security over we went to grab a beer, five pounds for one or ten pounds for a pitcher bit of a rip off but still cheaper than the beer on the plane which I didn't bother having.

The easyjet plane ride was fairly boring but pretty quickly, we arrive in barca about ten. Grabbed a foul tasting and expensive burger from McDonalds and then caught the Metro to our hostel. Felt pretty knackered and just took myself off to bed.

Thursday

Woke up rather early, grabbed some breakfast and then headed into town to collect our accreditation passes. We were too early to go into the festival so sat down and had the first foreign beer of the holiday in the cafe around the back of the MACBA/CCCB. Only one euro fifty but it was rather cool (cold) and windy in the shade and my plastic cup kept making attempts to jump off the table.

I don't think I've ever made the first act at Sonar having been recovering from some crappy party the previous night. But today I did, Imtech, playing soundscapes and summery music to a smallish crowd of supermodel types. The next thing I saw was Fur Voice a spanish artist who's music ranged from Whitey style pop music to avant garde noise, his visuals were very cool and I was very impressed. Not sure that my brother was. After this we strolled around the Sonarmatica area containing some intresting art/robot installations.

Sonar is quite strange in that they have a couple of acts on around 1pm and then apart from a DJ on in the main area nothing until 4pm. My brother and I were both pretty hungry so decided to go and eat all we could (actually we ate all we wanted) in an all you could eat restaurant. Lots of pizza and other such stodge. Nice paella though.

Back to the festival in time for Pete Tong who appeared to be arguing with the sound people, his face got more and more screwed up until in a fit of hiss he through his monitor speaker down the stairs leading up to the DJ booth. Eventually he cracked a smile and played a typically cheesy house set which was ok for a bit but became a little repetitive and hard work to dance to.

Wanting something a little more strange I went to see dp-S, they twanged a cello (or was it a double bass) and made clicks with some kind of oscillating machine for a good ten minutes and it appeared that they would continue doing this for their entire set so I quickly gave up on this (my brother had lasted about a minute). I can't remember what I did next I think I wandered around aimlessly not really watching anything (most likely I was looking at the very attractive ladies).

I wanted to see Caribou but for some inexplicable reason the organisers had placed them in the small marquee and it just became far too hot and crowded to stay in there for longer than about ten minutes. I caught a bit of Cluster and then decided that I'd had enough for the day. I met back up with my brother and we headed back to the hostel.

My brother wanted to go back out but I had to remind him that he didn't have any money to do so and instead we sat on the roof terrace and drank wine.


Friday

As we hadn't gone out till some ridiculous time in the morning I was able to get my brother out of his pit and actually get out to watch things at a reasonable time. The day took a similar vibe to the previous. We watched a spanish artist called Faraon who played live drums along to electronic soundscapes, he was pretty intense like his music but was very very good. Then we went and grabbed some food before coming back to the festival in time for the Bjork-alike Nedry. Good choice of music for a sunny afternoon.

The festival I think was far busier than I remember it ever being before and it was pretty packed trying to dance to Rude Taylor who was playing Space Terrace style housey house music to a very bouncey crowd. Highly enjoyable. Highly sweaty.

The highlight of the weekend for me was Kind Midas Sound, their set was voodoo. Almost pitch black half of the time and very very loud they to me they are the new Massive Attack.

I caught the end of the New Young Pony Club, I like the singer. ;)

We then decided to go and watch the football in an Irish Bar. My brother pissed me off by scrounging cigarettes of random people. Not good. Neither was the footsball. Bah!

We headed back to the hostel where time seems to get sucked into a void because the next thing it was around one in the morning and we were rushing to get to the site in order to see the LCD Soundsystem. They were very very very good. My brother didn't think so but then he has no taste in music, obviously.

I wandered around for a bit not really liking too much of the music (the Sugarhill Gang being prime examples that all live hip hop is terrible) that was being played until Hudson Mowhake came on around four in the morning who played cool messed up hip hop sounds. Unfortunately he'd only been given a 45 minute set so it was back to there not being much on. Booka Shade I feel you have to start listening to from the start of their set and I didn't really want to see 2manyDjs but this time they'd actually brought along some new old records and were ok (how much of it was actually live I wouldn't like to say). Danced around like a loon to Claude VonStroke for a while before bumping back into my brother and we decided to call it a morning.

Yes!

http://www.factmag.com/2010/04/19/fact-mix-142-gavin-russom/

Yes!

Volunteering.

I was considering volunteering for the Summer Sundae and Shambala, three shifts in five days doesn't seem to bad to me plus you get food too. But then I'm thinking that I'd have to take an extra four or five days holiday to do it and I'd have to pay a hundred and eighty quid deposit, which I wouldn't get back till about a month after the second fest so would I be better off just going...

...then again, I probably wouldnae drink as much, it wouldn't matter if I went on my own and I wouldn't spend two hundred quid...

...I'll sleep on it...

Crap(ish) Weekend

I've obviously upset somebody cuz no cunt felt me worthy of their time on Saturday night. Bah!

Nice Mix From Dan Ghenacia

French House!

Factory Club Closing.

The rumours are true, the Factory Club/Medicine Bar is closing but with a bit of a bang rather than the whimpers it's being making lately. Three Easter weekend closing partied bringing the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Simian Mobile Disco and Laurent Garnier and a Hospital Records showcase to Brum.

The whole Digbeth scene of late has felt pretty tired and uninspired and I'm hoping that the switch to a new venue (Space 2) and a refocusing of the Medicine Bar will bring some new talent to the promoting scene.

In my eyes over the last two years all that we have seen is tired drum'n'bass nights, tired drum'n'bass nights and tired drum'n'bass nights plus the occasional visit from Annie Mac or 2ManyDjs which pales into insignificance if you look at the line ups at The Warehouse Project in Manchester or at Farringdon's Fabric. So I reckon it's time to move on as a venue.

I've had some great nights in the Medicine Bar and have seen - Jeff Mills, Dave Clarke, Hernan Catteneo, Erol Alkan, Plump DJs, Stanton Warriors, The Bays, Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y., Kruder and Dorfmeister, Claude VonStroke, Justice, Tiga, Jon Carter, Evil 9, Ben Nott, Baadmarsh and Shri, The Japanese Popstars, Pendulum - and those are just the one's I can remember off the top of my head.

Let's just hope there's a bit more imagination over the next twelve months.

XML and Flex

I'm rebuidling a client server app using Adobe Flex buider but trying to serialize XML is driving me up the wall. I just can't get my head around how I supposed to be doing this. I guess I should probably leave it and do something else and come back to it in the morning. Don't know if that would make any difference.

I'm so glad its almost the weekend....

No Money.

I am flat broke.

I've got about £20 to my name to last me weeks and weeks and weeks....

Maybe I'll have to turn to a life of hi-tech white collar crime.

Busy Busy

Nick came up on Friday and we met at New Street Station and had a quiet few beers in the Joint Stock. My work colleages were celebrating a birthday on Broad Street, I considered for a few seconds whether or not I should join them. Not a hard decision.

It felt odd not waking up with a mouth that tasted like I'd swallowed something very nasty indeed. Fridays lately have tended to equate to me going for a couple of beers after work and then either staying out and getting hammered or staying out and getting very hammered. So it was nice not to have a clear head on a Saturday morning.

After a pretty lazy start, I arranged to meet Nick again in the Bristol Pear, not the most charming of pubs, where we drank a few beers and watched the rugby. A little later we were joined by Ben who was on the cranberry and orange juices as he was driving to a gig in Leicester a little later that evening.

It got dark and it was time to go and see Ian as he was having a small celebration for his 70th birthday. Jen and her two friends appeared and we went off for a rather tasty curry at the Balti Cottage.

By the time we strolled out of the balti house it was time for me to meet up with Joe who was sat drinking a "disgusting pint of Adnams". A very swift pint and up the road to Neil and Amy's flat we went.

We hired a taxi into town to go the Rainbow Warehouse to see Erol Alkan and Fake Blood, unfortunately for Joe it was sold out and the touts were asking for £20. He decided (rightly) that was too much and decided to go home. Feeling bad for draggin him into town I suggested that we should go for a couple of pints before he did.

We got to the Spotted Dog just before the doors were locked and then drank a few beers rather quickly. About one I headed back to the Rainbow.

Having been drinking for more than eleven hours I'd got to the "can't be arsed, it's time to go home" stage. I wasn't that impressed with the music. And the crowd made me feel exceedingly old. I stayed for another couple of hours until I could take it no longer.

I fell out the taxi on the way home. Pissed.

Art and Horribly Pissed on Free Wine.

Last night I went to see the new exhibtion at the Ikon Gallery. I might as well have just stood in the foyer and grabbed as many wines as humanly possible. Well actually that's pretty much what I did. Rebecca and Mark kept going outside for cigarettes.

I wanted to see Peggy Honeywell do her folk songs but Rebecca dragged me away because she reckoned that "You only don't think she is boring because you want to shag her".

She wasn't boring I like her music.

I think we must have drank a couple of bottles of plonk each. Then went to the pub.

I felt that I needed to leave early from work all day. I didn't.

Saturday Night.

Stinking hangover, I'm pretty sure I only had somewhere between five and twelve pints last night. An odd one. My mobile comunication devices are shafted, one died of it's own accord the other was horribly drowned in a plastic beaker. Despite this I had receive the message that persons will be going for a quiet pint or three in bohemian Moseley.

Having made the executive decision to sod the current financial difficulites in my bank account I withdraw a sum of twenty whole pounds. With this I purchase four half pint bottles of Grolsch, hoping that the change would be enough to see me through the night.

Pre-loaded with Grolsch and not having had to stand in snow for too long a period I arrive in Moseley sans phone around ten. I proceeded to one pub, then another, another, another and finally another. No sign of any friends, I use a phone box for only the second time in five years in an attempt to contact Mr Cooper or his wife Kezza. No luck.

Back to the original pub, still not a sign. Almost about to give up and go home in a strop, I spy a foursome huddling around the door of a tapas bar with fags in shivering hands. Inside we go and after long long wait a pint finally comes my way.

More standing outside in the cold by smokers.

A decision to cross over the road to another busier establishment. Foolishly I offer a round of drinks. Just about enough money, even with the misunderstanding which meant that I also buy the barmaid a beer. Ah well. My drink goes down much faster than everyone elses. Iwantanotherbeerareyounotgoingtobuymeone? No.

Last orders.

Back outside into the cold. Now Paul says, "I'm going home". Mr Grumpy - "I'm cold, tired, had to work today, bah! bah! bah! Are you coming Miss?", "Er er er er er er?"......."Richard you are coming for more beer with me" says Kezza, Mr Grumpy - "Well???", "More beer Lou" orders Kezza, "Er er er???". Impatient Mr Grumpy - "I'm off" and off went he. Now Paul says, "I'm going home".

"RICHARD YOU ARE COMING FOR BEER"
"I don't have any money"
"I WILL PAY"
"er OK I'll come for one"
"LOUISE YOU ARE COMING FOR MORE BEER"
"Er"
"YES YOU ARE"
"Well one."
"SETTLED THEN"

Paul leaves.

More beer.

Last orders. Again.

Very strange young man "HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA". Odd boy. Kezza - "This man is offering to buy us more beer". Young man - "HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA ". I'm not so sure about this. Lou - "Protect me". Young man - "HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA"

Kerri - "MORE BOOZE".

Young man - "HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA HAHAHA"

Into a taxi we pile, to Broad Street and more alcohol. Eventually the Young man realises that he has wasted his money and is not laughing now. Still more beer. Lou and I measure hands. Kezza looks on disapprovingly. Lou says she is lonely. She is very drunk.

Taxi home. Via everywhere. Lou says she doesn't want us to know where she lives, Kerri tries to direct taxi driver. But we go round and round and round. Eventually I get out and walk some way home, leaving Kerri to deal with a drunken Louise.