What happened next

There's really not that much point telling of the first three months in Belfast as a tale, an edited version of three months of my life in a new and strange environment is only a few evictions away from being a series of big brother. To make it simple I'll give you a list of the important bits, these posts are purely for the benifit of me as I get back into the habit of blogging and friends who want to know what I've been up to. If you want more information write me an email and ask.

So from the top, the high points/interesting bits have been,
- A very brief tenure working as low-level scum in a comic shop, was quite fun but poorly paid.
- A much longer, seemingly endless tenure sorting out database problems for a bank with an identity crisis. The job is not that exciting but the colleagues have actually made the whole experience quite enjoyable.
- Have moved in with Ali and her housemate Dave not too long back. For now it's a wee bit crowded but Dave is off to Manchester in three weeks so it'll all be ours.
- Went in search of a way to DJ over here, found a chap called Al who is looking for someone to DJ with him. We are doing our first night in a couple of weeks. Am really rather looking forward to it.
- In between all that I've visted Brum and Cumbria once a piece on parental visits. My parents have been over here once in retaliation.
- I've become considerably more domesticated.
- I've mostly, sort-of, kind-of, given up smoking. Truth be told I've not had one in ages but still don't really feel like I've given up. I've just not had one in ages. When does that wear off?

There isn't that much else to tell really. I really do wish I could write about my thrill a minute life of adventure but it isn't that exciting, the next thing that would appear on the list is that I went to the theatre. It is lovely here though, I'm really very happy and have quickly become very fond of it. I really honestly haven't missed Birmingham that much at all. Of course I miss the people but that's to be expected, the city itself though had really started to lose it's appeal to me a couple of years ago, I was never able to point my finger at one thing that ruined it all but gradually I realised I was struggling to find anything to love about the place. I'm probably actually fonder of it from here and appreciate what it does right more when I visit.

Right that'll do for now I think, I want to get back to writing about music, films, comics and crap I find on the interweb. And not mentioning FA Cup semi-finals.

The first night in Belfast

It’s been 3 months since I landed in Belfast in a breathtaking flurry of snow on the 3rd of January. Ali was showing the first signs of a wretched bout of Flu, I was weighed down with all the worldly possessions I could carry to help me settle in and feel comfortable, mainly it was clothes but the odd book and a laptop was included for the sake of sanity.

We got home just past midnight as the heaviest snow the city had seen in years was making itself comfortable and slowing bringing what traffic there was grinding to reluctant halt. After a cup of tea Ali wanted to do nothing more than curl up in the warm and nothing I could say would convince her to come play in the snow. The big kid in me needed to have at least a little play as it was more snow than I’d seen in a good while. I exchanged snowballs with neighbours and took some photos of it all. I only stayed out there ever so briefly, you can’t leave a poorly woman to suffer alone for too long. I clearly remember chatting with an estate agent I’d been trying pelt the life out of with icy balls of death only moments earlier and suddenly the enormity of the move and the implications hit me in a pretty big way. I’d already had this happen on and off in Birmingham before the move, but with the move actually completed the context really shifts and it is suddenly a much bigger deal. What the hell was I going to do about a job? Where was I going to live next month once my temporary living arrangements weren’t available any more? What if I don’t really like Belfast once I get to know it better? And what about me and Ali, what if we don’t actually get on once we’re stuck with each other on a more permanent basis?

Now at this point I think I would have felt at least a little justified if I’d had a huge bout of worry, stress and mild terror. Luckily a new wave of combatants were charging from round the corner and a snowball whistled into view from behind within a foot of my head, myself and the estate agent fought shoulder to shoulder for a few minutes and the feelings of concern simply dissipated, the ever shifting allegiances and betrayals of snowball warfare took precedence over all the worry. It hasn’t really ever come back since. I shuffled back into warmth to the welcoming sight of a blocked up and achy girlfriend bearing fresh tea. Pretty exhausted from the packing up of my flat and the move we made our way to bed and slept like logs.

Ali was worse the next day, we needed all sorts of bits of shopping and I needed to start trying to find work despite the snow. Between looking after her and everything else I didn’t get chance to stop and worry. The first few weeks were hectic, thankfully I never did get the chance. By the time I did most of the problems were addressed. I think the snow saved me from an awful lot of worry and sleeplessness that night (and probably a few others following, once these things take root they tend to come back and haunt you in the wee hours).

So like I said at the start it’s 3 months later and quite a bit has changed. I think there’s plenty here for now, I’ll talk about that in the next post.

Big bloody hills and publically funded mental scars

Leaving where you grew up can be weird; I'd imagine it's the same for everyone who moves away. Now if I'm honest I'm really feeling it, I've been around the UK quite a bit and really I've always thought one place was pretty much the same as the next once you got past the basics, in some cities people are nicer, in others they're all miserable sods but essentially things are pretty constant.

It may be that I'm more affected by it because I left it so long to get round to leaving Brum but really some things here really affect you (And I'm not talking about the almost non-existent Cherry-Coke supply though that will no doubt come up again).

I'll start with something positive. Birmingham, is pretty flat and urbanized as far as the eye can see in every direction. Belfast isn't, almost the first thing you notice is that the skyline to the West of the city centre is dominated by a massive bloody hill, it's called Black Mountain, though I'm pretty sure it's not really a mountain. It's a pretty good size all the same, it's about 3 miles out from the centre and the suburbs just stop dead at its foot. Birmingham has hills but they sneak up on you gradually. This bugger just ambushes the landscape and it is fantastic. This city has an edge that I can see and I find that very comforting for some reason. I'm going to climb it once the weather is more settled; it's only a couple of miles from my house. It's like a having a massive green climbing frame just round the corner. It was covered in snow this morning, there was fuck all where I live or anywhere else in town as far as I can tell. I'm sure it's jut showing off. I'm grinning like a twat as I write this. Best rein it in.

At the other end of the spectrum we have something which completely and utterly horrified me; seriously it's the sort of thing they should tell you about on your flight over here.

You know those adverts about drink-driving, and wearing your seat belt, and any other silly thing you could do where you might up dead. You know, they go a calculated distance past what you are comfortable with and push you out of your comfort zone the first few times you see them and climb into your consciousness with their tragedy and tastefully sanitised gore. But then a few views later you've sort of stopped noticing them, you've learned to tune out the tragedy somehow.

Not here, public service adverts here are turned up to 11.

About 2 or 3 weeks after I got here I was watching Million Dollar Baby on Channel 4, up until then I'd not really watched much telly past the watershed as I'd been off excitedly discovering new pubs and such. Anyway it's getting towards the end, the climactic final fight happens and the adverts come on and there is this nice scene where we see a couple on a country road on a sunny day. She sits on a wall, he stands on the ground below her between her legs, they're kissing, they are obviously in love and the world is lovely. A nasty screech and bang off screen and we cut to a car rolling towards them. I'm going to refrain from the details for a number of reasons, firstly it is seriously horrible and really if I did it any justice you'd get it worse than me as imagination is a bastard like that, secondly I don't really want to spend that much time thinking about it, and finally it's late and it'll save my fingers. I'm still bloody lazy when it comes down to it. I'll summarize it quickly. He dies, she is seriously injured and trapped in the most traumatic way you could ever possibly imagine, there is a whole twenty second montage of the rescue, the body bags, people whose lives are ruined by this over the next few months and all this because some bloke tried to overtake when maybe he shouldn't have. At this point I'm feeling somewhat sickened and a wee bit dazed and damn certain I won't overtake inappropriately for the rest of my life should I ever learn to drive and pretty sure I'll think twice about sitting on walls in the countryside too. The film is lost to me as my head is really not in the right place any more. The bit of my brain designed to watch and enjoy films is too busy sitting in the corner of my head rocking backwards and forwards trying to find a happy place.

Since then I've come to realise that all the adverts of this sort over here pull no punches, most I have built up a tolerance to but during adverts I'm ready to switch over at the first sign of pleasant summers day in the countryside.

What really bothers me is that no-one else seems that fussed, it's normal to be psychologically brutalized in the interest of road safety. My only explanation is that for some reason normal strength safety messages didn't work quite as effectively over here (There are a few obvious candidates for the cause for this) so they jacked up the levels a touch and as with the ads back home each time the Northern Irish community learned to ignore and normalize each new one the stakes were raised a little further to grab their attention. Which is fine unless you happen to be one of the poor sods who gets his inner calm kicked in the ghoulies by the unexpected cultural shift. The only other people who find them as harsh as I do are other people who've moved here in the last year or two.

Obviously this all pales in comparison to cherry-coke famine. I'll compile a less waffly list of them some time soon and put it up here too. Almost all of the rest are positive I'm glad to report.

Take it easy boys and girls, drive safe.

Please.

Back in the saddle

Well after a very long abscence I have returned (at least for one post, I plan for more but you know how these things so often go), since I last posted alot has happened. I could go into an awful lot of detail but basically I've abandoned my beloved Birmingham and transplanted myself to the equally lovely Belfast to join the yet more lovely still Ali, she being the light of my life and sweet of my heart and all that sort of stuff. Living bloody miles apart was taking its toll so I decided it was time to do something about it and headed out for pastures new. I've been here just over two months and now I have a regular internet connection again I plan to keep posting here to let everyone know how life out in this wee principality is going. My plans rarely survive contact with the enemy so don't get holding your breath.

Another one of those excuse posts

So I vanished for a few days again. My excuse is better than last time at least. I've been in the Lake District since the 13th and will remain so until the 27th, at best internet access has been limited. And it's my birthday on the 28th as well as the first day at my new job so the best you can hope for is a rushed entry before heading for the pub.

On the good news front I've been having a bloody lovely time, there are photo's and I may post some once I get back. I shall see when I get home. That's all really. Just needed to ease my blogging conscience.

Encyclopedia Brumica - Global Wines

Now Bearwood isn't a big place really in the grand scheme of things and yet somehow it can maintain the biggest off-licence type shop I can think of for miles around. Global Wines is a veritable supermarket of booze. It has the usual battery of beers, alcopops, wines and spirits you'd find anywhere at quite reasonable prices. On top of this it has a diverse range of micro-brewery beers from around the country, a big selection of the more unusual wines, the biggest display of spirits I've ever seen in an off-licence as well a reasonable range of the more unusual foreign beers (for example Kriek the Belgian cherry beer that I'm oh so pleased they stock).

Formerly part of a pair of Global shops that sat next to each other. More recently its sister shop Global Foods became a Nisa shop. I'm not sure if this was anything more than a name change but everyone still refers to them both collectively as Global. For the truly curious it's situated at the bottom of Abbey Road opposite the Abbey pub.

Oh and it appeared in the first series of Doctors as the site of an armed robbery.

The Darjeeling Limited

Okay so I've completely nicked this post from Mikey at the Over the (comic book) counter culture but this does look like it might be one of the films of the year. If it's half the film the Royal Tennenbaums was I'll enjoy it thoroughly. Have a look, I'm sure you'll agree it looks like fun.

The 50 greatest albums ever (according to me)

This was an undertaking from last month and really if I'm going to put this much effort in then I may as well put it on here so other people can take a look and say it's awful.

Now I'll admit much of this won't be to everyones taste but then that is purely because it is my taste and some have been picked purely because they are important to me as I kind of grew up on them. Please don't ask where Radiohead are, I like them but not enough to get on my list.

Hope you like it boys and girls, oh and it's in alphabetical order as I couldn't bring myself to decide exactly what order I like them in. So it is done and is here (Hopefully Paul will have his done soon and we can before we know it we'll be disagreeing all over the place)

1972 - Josh Rouse
A Ghost Is Born - Wilco
Abbey Road - The Beatles
Alligator - The National
And then nothing turned itself inside out - Yo La Tengo
Answering - Chinook
Automatic for the People - R.E.M.
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Capture/Release - The Rakes
Debut - Bjork
Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes - TV on the Radio
Different Class - Pulp
Dongs of Sevotion - Smog
Doolittle - The Pixies
The Earth is not a cold dead place - Explosions in the Sky
The Fidelity Wars - Hefner
Forever Changes - Love
Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty
Goodbye California - East River Pipe
Grand Prix - Teenage Fanclub
The Great Eastern - The Delgados
Harvest - Neil Young
The Hour of the Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy
If you're feeling sinister - Belle & Sebastian
In a bar, under the sea - dEUS
Insignificance - Jim O'Rourke
Is this it - The Strokes
Knock, Knock - Smog
Pod - The Breeders
Promise of Love - The American Analog Set
Purple Rain - Prince
The Queen is Dead - The Smiths
Radiator - Super Furry Animals
The Real Thing - Faith No More
Red Apple Falls - Smog
Revolver - The Beatles
The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spider from Mars - David Bowie
Rubber Soul - The Beatles
Self-Titled - Blur
Set Yourself On Fire - Stars
Spiderland - Slint
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Surfer Rosa - The Pixies
Tapestry - Carole King
The Things We Lost In The Fire - Low
Unholy Soul - The Orchids
Worst Case Scenario - dEUS
Wowee Zowee - Pavement
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
You Are Free - Cat Power

What happened to July

Last night I got a message from David of the Bearwood Bloggers who writes Golden Side of the Moon saying I should get back to the blogging and in fairness he's right. The second half of July was an odd one. The foremost reason I went silent was that I felt completely uninspired, anything I did write seemed a little too whiney or self-interested or just not very good, not the sort of thing I thought anyone would be interested in so I didn't post them. There are other reasons but we're moving into the whiney end of the market so I'll just say my apologies and get on with it.

For now have a quick summary of the last few weeks of the life of Stu

• Have worked quite alot at Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham to make ends meet until the new job at Holly Lodge starts on the 28th of August.
• Discovered a hole in my bath just days before the roughly annual inspection of the property by my landlords. No-one is sure how long it's been there but no damage has been done in the ceiling beneath so can't be too old. Had a lovely chat with them when they came over to look over the place. They were happy with how we look after the place and we are happy plus after the chat we can move someone else into the house and getting a new bathroom suite.
  
• Have begun the Herculean task of sorting out my old comic collection and deciding what to keep and get rid of.
• Saw the Simpsons Move (Not bad)
• Read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Not bad)
• Bumped into Dave Nickel completely at random outside the shop. Was nice to meet him properly if only briefly.
• Have spent hardly any money because...
• I've arranged to go and stay with Ali in the Lake District for a fortnight when she gets back from Kenya next Monday and...
• I've booked flights to go see her in Belfast in September.
• Spent much too long deciding what my 50 favourite albums of all time are (In no particular order). The reasons for this are long and complicated and I won't go into it right now. It was a fun excercise. I may well post the results. It took a week. The first 40 were easy. Picking 10 from the remaining 68 contenders was nighmarish. Needless to say I listened to an awful lot of music that week.
• I took up jogging by accident. Didn't really mean to. I agreed to go for a run with South and another old mate called Sam. I don't quite know why, jogging is not really the sort of thing I or for that matter anyone else would associate with me. Have been out running 4 times now doing about 2 or 3 miles each time around Warley Woods. Most recently was this morning which I did all by myself which really is worrying.
  
• Saw the excellent bands Sunset Cinema Club and Little Dipper play at Tropical Hotdog at the Island Bar in Birmingham City Centre.
• Unwittingly helped a man called Sam (Not the same one) who needed to get home to propose to his girlfriend get back home in the early hours of Friday morning. Well I did intend to help him get home but didn't know the proposal bit until we were nearly at his house. I hope it went ok.
  
• Found out texting Kenya only costs 20p so have lots more contact with Ali which has made me a happier camper all round.
  
• I'm not sure whether I mentioned it but in early July I recorded some music with my band Falling and Laughing and it's now available for download on the band myspace. Go have a listen if you're interested. Personally I recommed Roly Poly and Lights Out Birmingham.
  
• Discovered a wonderful little band/music project from Birmingham called the Voluntary Butler Scheme. I'm more than a little bit in love with a couple of their songs.
• Tidied up my entire flat (See the bit about the landlord visit for the reasons why)
• Watched Heroes and been pleasantly surprised.
• Spent too much time on my X-Box playing very silly games. The main problem was the discovery of a game called Saints Row which tapped into the 5 year old part of me that collected Matchbox cars and lined them up on the floor grouped by colour. It lets you modify all the cars and put hot rod decals on the them. The game isn't even that great but the modifying the cars and making them look cool just completely won me over.
• I started growing a beard. It'll go soon as it's already doing my head in.
  

I think that's more than enough about what I've been upto and at least partly justifies a lack of postings lately on my part. I will try to be good and keep things up.

Encyclopedia Brumica - The Birmingham Busker

Since I started making ventures into Birmingham without the supervision of a parent (Somewhere between 1986 and 89) I remember this chap being there. Little fella, I remember he used to have longish sort of frizzy hair and a high soft voice that would carry quite well so you knew when he wasn't far off. He always used to sit on the floor on a coat or a blanket. He would usually be playing something by Simon & Garfunkel or sometimes the Beatles.

20ish years later he's still at it, I saw him yesterday. He sits on a chair these days (Which is fair enough, he must be getting on) and his voice doesn't carry quite so well. I'm not sure if this is because it's not as powerful as it once was or because the city centre is busier but I see him often enough to assume he's there somewhere most days. You can often find him outside the HSBC on New Street if you fancy going to look for him. At one point he used to have a little yellow plastic sign like a bus stop that said Busk Stop, for a while he seemed to disappear not long after that (I was a little worried about him at the time) but reappeared a few months later minus the sign and has continued to be a consistent feature of the city centre ever since.

Other than what I've said above I know nothing about this guy but weirdly find his prescence in the city centre immmensely comforting and is pretty much part of the furniture in my perception of the place. If you see him, go a bit closer so you can hear him and throw him a bit of change. He's put the hours in after all.

(I took a sneaky picture of him on my phone but now it's playing up and won't download onto my PC. I may go and try and get a better one anyway as the quality was a bit shoddy)

Apologies

Oh dear, I have been slacking off the last couple of days haven't I. Here is an awesome and very funny little cartoon my friend sent me to make up for my poor form.

Warley Woods Picnic Off

Bugger! There's always next year i suppose.

Tom Clancy has a lot to answer for

Oh dear! I have succumbed to yet another game on my console, well to be honest I succumbed a while ago but I'd only borrowed the game and thoroughly intended to go and buy it but then found love, happiness and contentment and forgot all about it for a wee while. Then the lady with whom I found all those things with buggered off to Kenya to go and save the world and stuff and as I had all this time again I remembered the game. So off a tootled to Gamestation and since then I've been I've been spending too much time on X-Box live hunting down terrorists. Really if I hadn't given the damn thing back in the first place I may never have found love and happiness. If you value your spare time, your girlfriend and your ability to meet commitments (Not to mention your dignity, I'm getting sick of being made to look bad by other players whose voices haven't yet broken) then stay away from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas. If on the other hand you have no need for the above then I heartily recommend it. As for the time being I have a little too much spare time, a girlfriend on another continent and the only commitment other than work I have is this blog and a band that is held together by shocking punctuality. So I shall gleefully continue my virtual career as an anti-terrorism agent. In case anyone actually cares the plot is gash but the multi-player makes it all more than worth while.

Compilation help needed

I'm making a compilation cd with 1 track for each month and an extra one for the year. I have nine of them but am stuck on a few of them. Anyone have any suggestions

So far I have

1. January - Nothing?
2. One Heavy February - Architecture in Helsinki
3. Marching bands of manhatten - Death Cab for Cutie (Kind of cheating though)
   
4. April - Nothing? (Just saw April Showers on an advert so I might get that)
   
5. Maypole - Paul Giovanni (From the Wicker Man Soundtrack)
6. June on the West Coast - Bright Eyes
7. July - Low
8. Augustus Golden - Ella Guru (Kind of cheating again, any other ideas welcome)
   
9. September - Nothing?
10. October - Nothing?
11. Mr. November - The National
12. December - Teenage Fanclub
13. Calander Girl - Stars
    

Any help would be much appreciated.

Back in the saddle

Seem to have gotten a handle on things again, not quite as tired, not quite as fuzzy of head in general. On that note time for some housekeeping, I've got a pile of new links to add to my page as I've been off exploring the internet and the other blogs out there today and last Friday so I need to get them added to my blog so you can go take a peek at them too.

First up is Pete Ashton who judging by his blog presence is a bit multi-faceted, he writes the excellent brum blog, his own personal blog, a blog about the creative community of Birmingham called Created in Birmingham and finally he also has a collage of images, videos and all things interesting in the form of something called a Smursh of Pete full of lots of fun tidbits.

Damnit, I have to go out again. Ryan is on his way over to pick me up. Putting those links on my page will have to wait. Go take a look at Pete in all his glory and expect some Encyclopedia Brumica entries soon as they are semi-written and just need a bit of editing before I can put them up.

Take it easy all.

Isn't the weekend supposed to be for relaxing?

After a most hectic and tiring weekend (And it wasn't caused by going out too much) here I am on Monday evening exhausted and realise I really should post something. My mate Olly is already on his way round so this will have to be brief. Assuming once he's off I have any energy left I may well put something else up otherwise it's going to have to wait for tomorrow, I have time to sit down then. In brief the weekend went like this.

Friday (Gig)

• Played a last minute gig at the Flapper to help them out as someone had pulled out and they need some warm bodies to fill up the bill.

Saturday (Recording)

• Got up at 9
• Picked up by Daryl at 10.30 after showering, making sandwiches and packing snacks
• Drive around Longbridge looking for Dunc's house, due to breakdown in communication end up driving around but not quite to Duncan's for about an extra 20 minutes.
• We drive in convoy to Redditch, directions from computer go to somewhere else completely, get to studio about an hour late.
• Exhausting day of playing and singing the same songs over and over (and over)(and over) again until 2.30 AM
• Get home for 3.30 AM, body still feels perky, don't sleep until 4.30

Sunday (Mixing and Gig)

• Wake up for no explicable reason at 8.30AM
• Off to the studio again, only get a little bit lost this time, 15 mins late instead
• 4 and a half hours later mixing is finished.
• Home for tea.
• Off to the Yardbird for another gig (With Chinook, Little Dipper and Shady Bard)
• Play gig, drink more than planned, come home. Collapse.

Ooops, there's Olly, must dash.

Day off

I've been ever so good, I've posted two or three times for two or three days on the trot. Tomorrow is a busy day with lots to get done so I'm declaring it a semi official day off. If I manage to fit in a post then I might just do that but don't be surprised if nothing new appears until Sunday. In the meantime enjoy your weekend ladies and gents.

Encyclopedia Brumica - Warley Woods

A beautiful bit of public land, popular with dog walker, people who fancy a picnic and once it gets dark teenagers with cider. Of the two parks in Bearwood this is the one everyone has real affection for, probably due to the fact that it's one of the few places near Bearwood (and the Birmingham area for that matter) you can go and actually forget that you are pretty near to a big city.

It's ably managed by the Warley Woods Community Trust, there's a story to that but it's a long one and they tell it much better than me so if you want to know the full story click the link. They've gone to alot of trouble to tell all the details and I wouldn't want to steal their thunder (Nothing to do with being lazy or anything). For those even lazier than I the short version is that the park is managed by volunteers from the local community. They put on an annual picnic in the park on the meadow to raise awareness amongst the local community of what they are trying to achieve and it's a very well attended and popular event. Bands play, people eat lots of food, information tents are raised and everyone has a jolly good time all round. That's a picture of the last one over there on the right.

The only flat parts of the park have lots of trees on them making it a dreadful place to play football. This doesn't stop people trying in the middle of the meadow which is the best place under the circumstances. If you fancy a kickabout, do yourself a favour. Go to the extension of Litewoods Park behind the behind the Dog, it's better suited and you're far less likely to have your ball chased by dogs.

Personally I have immense affection for the place, I was once one of those drunken teenagers (Though I swear I never touched cider), I have enjoyed all of the picnics since they began and had one of the more significant soppy romantic moments of my life in that there park.

Oh and there's a 9 hole golf course, it takes up half the park which is a shame, but that's a more down to personal attitude towards golf. Luckily the park is bloody huge.

And come winter it is bloody gorgeous.



(Thanks to Bob Piper of the Bearwood Bloggers for use of his pics of the Woods)

I am not alone

Turns out I'm not the first resident of Bearwood to do a spot of blogging, the Bearwood bloggers have said a very welcoming hello and have popped a link on their respective blogs, I've given them a little set of links on mine too. They seem like a good bunch. I may try and tap them up to help with the Bearwood bits of the Encyclopedia Brumica, their knowledge is bound to be better than mine. Until I get chance to have a word with Mom and get my hands on some of those books with old fashioned photos of the area I'm clueless as to how long Bearwood has been here and I think I would like to put in a little history in there somewhere, you'd think the internet would have something but thus google has failed me. If anyone has any other things they want mentioned pop in a comment. Right, I'm going to write something about Warley Woods as the annual picnic approaches quickly and I'm taking part this year so it deserves a mention.

The lesser of two smelly evils

Just a quick entry tonight as I must dash out once I've finished my tea.

As I was sat on the bus on the way home from work I noticed that all the smokers were standing outside of the pub. This reminded me of something that occurred to me the other day. I was thinking about how the pubs would probably start to smell different, then I started wondering what pubs actually smelled like. I'm sure most smell fine perhaps even quite pleasant, but some probably smell an awful lot like stale beer, sweat and of their poorly maintained toilets (This is exactly the reason I avoid the UGC cinema on Broad Street, in some of the screens you can actually smell the toilets, actually using the gents there is an olfactory experience. Well it used to be I've not been back there in ages. And I know it's not a pub but the principle is the same). The lesser of two evils I'm sure but still thought it was worth a mention. Guess we'll find out soon enough as the lingering legacy of the pre-smoking ban era fades.

Tuesday night at Atticus

So as I was saying about 2 posts back I went out for a mid-week pint with some of the lads. Olly and Ryan of the Adventure Club couldn't be arsed to do music stuff so they gave me a call and I suggested we rope in Southall too (One of the housemates). We met up at Atticus in Bearwood. It were a good night, the main point of all this is that it looks like I've joined another band. Banner the current bass-player for Adventure Club has had enough and they want me to have a go at replacing him which I'm quite pleased about. It's been semi-on the cards for a while but I'm going to practice with them and try stuff out on Thursday night after work at the shop. Busy week music wise. Falling and Laughing are recording on Saturday and we have a gig with the excellent Shady Bard on Sunday night at the Yardbird. My poor fingers will be all achey.

Encyclopedia Brumica - Bearwood

Bearwood is where I live, a relatively pleasant little sort of suburb/satellite town of Birmingham about 3 or 4 miles west of the main City Centre and while officially isn't actually part of Birmingham (It's in Sandwell) it's close enough to make very little difference, besides technically it doesn't exist anymore since the post office and the council reorganised things about 10 years ago and decided we were just another bit of Smethwick. At the time this caused quite a bit of fuss, people complained and organized petitions and stuff but the post office ignored them and evetually it just became accepted that that was how it would be (Quite alot like the "where shall we put the new Wembley" debate really). No one told the people who make road signs or the bus companies so it persists despite any official claims to existence.

Bearwood as far as I can tell is essentially made up of two main shopping type roads (Bearwood Road and Three Shires Oak Road), two parks (Warley Woods and Litewoods Park) and the surrounding residential streets though it's actual borders are pretty unclear and vary depending on who you ask. Despite it's closeness to the city centre it manages to maintain it's own identity and is the first real 'place' with a real center you encounter when coming down the Hagley Road out of the city. I have a friend who swears blind that it doesn't feel quite as big city as it should and personally I'd have to agree. The population is an even mix of the young and single, young couples, older family units and the retired. Almost every house within a mile is terraced and as a result there are nowhere near enough car parking spaces (Not that I care, I can't drive).

I'm sure Bearwood has some actual real history but none of it is on the Internet, all I can find are a bunch of old photos which aren't really what I had in mind. I'll do some research and edit some history in later I suppose.

Other than that the only real things of note are the shops, pubs and businesses in Bearwood. Some deserve an entry to themselves but for now I'll put in the highlights below and edit/link them if I give them their own entry.

Pubs/Bars
A slight shortage of good ones unfortunately, a slight shortage of any pubs full stop truth be told considering the number of people who live in the area. They are;
The Dog - Formally a beautiful little pub that was my personal favourite watering hole, a tad old mannish but very welcoming. Unfortunately it was refurbished, extended and homogenised until all it's former character had been driven out. More successful now and nice enough but a shadow of it's former self and due to the extra business you always struggle to find a seat.
The Bear - A Mr. Q's pub and the place to watch sport in Bearwood, always has a few people in. Gets a bit Broad Street and leery on weekends. Often has a police van parked outside around 11 on Friday and Saturday night.
The Abbey - Not bad, smells a bit funny
The Talbot - Scuzzy and divish, some excellent value people drink there regularly but the place has some very dubious punters who are prone to the odd drunken brawl. Good dart board though.
Atticus - New trendy bar that has risen from the ashes of J.D.'s bar which used to have topless barmaids on a Thursday night and thus held the title of seediest bar in Bearwood. Haven't really been often enough to have truly decided what I think of the place but signs look promising so far.
The Kings Head - Another formerly great pub ruined by refurbishment but this time the refit killed the place, currently standing empty and boarded up. Shame.

Food - Bearwood is full of food, really. Sitting here I can think of about 20 takeaway places without even trying. To try and list them all would be folly but Kingfisher Oasis is king of the 'staggering home drunk and feeling a bit peckish' department and is usually full of punters from the Bear just after kicking out time with Neelams coming a distant second. The Little Nibble is a cafe just up from the Bear and gets an honourable mention due to it getting a name check in the lyrics of a Dexys Midnight Runners song. For Balti houses check out the Raja (My personal favourite), for good Mediterranean food there is Antonio's is and there's alos Teknaf which is a quality Bangladeshi Restaurant that comes very highly recomemmended by almost everyone I know, not to my personal taste but I'm not going to hold that against it. Hidden away in the residential streets of Bearwood off the main road is Franzl's. As long as I've lived in Bearwood I've heard nothing but good things about the place, it's an Austrian restaurant and has been there for years. To quote a chap called Ian who just brought this up in the comments "You pay more but the food is very good, the beers and wines are excellent and unusual and Val's (our hostess) iced coffee is , as they say these days, to die for" (Thanks Ian). There are loads more but I haven't the time to do them all now, if anyone else has any other Bearwood food places they feel have been criminally overlooked then drop a comment and I'll correct as appropriate.

Encyclopedia Brumica - Introduction

If anyone is actually reading this that isn't an actual friend of mine or from Birmingham some of the people and places I refer to won't mean much at all. I was going to write about my night out last night in Bearwood which is where I live but without context this may be somewhat vague so I thought I'd better say something about it and I'll probably do the same about some of the other areas and places in Brum that I know and then if I mention them again I can just link the entry. So the next entry will be all about Bearwood though I may well go and take some photos to go with it first as pictures mean I won't have to type as much. Actually I'll type it first then edit it to include them later. I'll probably do the same for people and bands and maybe even pubs now I think about it. This could be quite a fun little project.

Simpson yourself

Much like the South Park yourself studio thingy that appeared 3 or 4 years back you can once again try to make something that looks kind of vaguely like you only this time instead of being small and roundish you get to have an overbite and yellow skin. Quite a fun little way to waste your time, but they never really end up looking anything like you unless you have the same hair as a Simpsons character. I don't so that on the left is as close as I get unless I have an afro.

If you're feeling curious you can go and take a look here, just selct the create Simpsons avatar button when you get there. Have fun kids.

Rue Britannia

Bloody brilliant!

Again this isn't a review as reviews are supposed to be impartial and I'm just going to say go and buy the damn thing because it's bloody brilliant. If you want a synopsis go find the one on Amazon I'm feeling lazy. Let's just say it's an unashamed love letter to 1997 which drifts into hate mail territory from time to time.

I might delete this and do a real review, with big words and a structure and everything but for now I'll just stick to the 'I like it lots' style post.

Home time, hoorah.

CLICK!

They say that before you die your life flashes before your eyes.

Daniel Kitson who I saw at the Glee Club a couple of weeks ago said occasionally you know when your brain takes one of those pictures. Those really important moments that will wedge themselves in your memory forever more for one reason or another.

It doesn't happen often but it did happen last night and has put me in a very good mood all day even though I've had to do all the price changes on the DVD's upstairs in the Manga section which is a task I loathe becuase it almost always give me a bad back.

Life is good. Even with a mild bit of back pain.

Rediscover your covers you big comic lovers

Good stuff for nostalgic comic geeks. The Cover Browser let’s you peruse the archives of many a comic’s glorious front cover. It’s nowhere near complete (From a practical standpoint this understandable), but it is a great reference tool, and a lot of fun to watch the art styles change over time. I have lost too much time already looking for the first comics I ever owned.

For Mr. Nunn over at the Building A Better Geek blog here's an image of the JLA of the late 70's/early 80's, what me and him call the disco league actually at the disco.

Right geek attack over.

That is all.

Fell vol 1: Feral City

This isn't really a review, it's just something I like and I think more people should know about it. Trust me I know more about comics than someone my age should so I like to think my opinion is worth something.

Fell is a comic made by the very talented Warren Ellis as an experiment. He's trying to make a more affordable comic by cutting down on the number of pages, to achieve this he's putting about as many panels on a page as you reasonably can before it becomes unreadable.

The other point to note about the final product is that each individual issue is written to be read as a complete stand alone story. No cliff-hangers or loose ends to worry about. Over time a bigger story will be told but each tale has it's own beginning , middle and end and should be as satisfying a read to someone who picks up the book for the first time as to someone who has collected from the beginnning.

The title refers to the principle character, Detective Richard Fell, transferred over the bridge from The City to Snowtown for reasons which are kept vague and suspicious. Snowtown is a seedy, dank, brutal urban dystopia, crime is rampant, it never seems to stop raining, and the poulace is visibly cowed by the opppressive artwork Ben Templesmith contributes. The stories are well thought out and at times more than a little unsettling though the writing does still manage to inject a level of very smart if slightly black humour.

The first volume is the first 8 issues collected together and are mainly concerned with Fell's arrival in Snowtown and the introduction of the secondary characters (Snowtown and all it's quirks being the most significant of them). I did buy all of the issues individually but got this anyway on a whim and sat down and read it all again from start to finish. The dialogue is sharp, the artwork is a little unusual but very well suited to the setting and the overall arc of the story is very intriguing and I'm definately going to be sticking around to see where it heads. The only other thing I can say in it's favour is that it has been thoroughly enjoyed by a couple of people who traditionally find my love of them "a bit silly" or "childish", these days they are consistantly pestering about when the new issue will be coming in.

Go take a look, you'll almost certainly enjoy it.

Luscious Lakes

More slack posting but once more with an excuse. And quite a good one at that. Smithy whisked me away for my first ever visit to the Lake District. She had to head up there to pick up her certificate to prove she's been immunised against Yellow Fever and say hello to her family in case she gets eaten by a lion or sat on by an elephant whilst in Kenya.

Had a Falling and Laughing gig on Friday night at Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge at a night called the Dark Bloo Boogaloo which was run by the lovely Tim and Katrina. Was a pleasure to play and would be more than happy to do that again. Was told I play bass like a lead guitarist and that no band has ever displayed such joy to be playing as we do. Nice things to be told all round. Miss Smith came along to the gig and we drank more than we ought to have done and bless her she left her phone at the pub making a trip back to her hometown all the more complicated as a result.

We took the train up to Penrith on Saturday morning bright and early with surprisingly clear heads, arrived in the amusingly named Cockermouth in time for their annual carnival and spent the next two days drinking more than I ought to, climbing up hills, being generally impressed with the view and annoyed by the lack of stars. The skies were clear, there wasn't much light pollution and yet there were still only about the same number as in Birmingham. Feel somewhat swizzed! Ali's family are a bunch of diamonds and the dog was nice too so a grand weekend all round despite the lack of stars which I'd been looking forward too all week.

Got back into Birmingham at 8 and had to hussle across the city centre to make it to band practice but really that's not the most exciting story so that's enough of an update for now. I'll write something more appropriately geeky later.

Ooops

Oh dear, all i can manage is five posts before I get all crap and fail to post anything for a fortnight. Mikey has certainly put in an excellent effort and is back up to a very respectable level of posting so I'll have to get my arse in gear or he'll start to take the piss much like I did to him. I do have a whole passle of excuses though and they're quite good ones too. Firstly I went to Newcastle to visit the relatives with my Mom and Dad which was to be honest bloody lovely. Secondly I got hold of the remaining 16 episodes of Lost I was missing and have been munching my way through all of them at a steady rate of knots and thirdly I've been knocking around with the very pretty Miss Ali Smith an awful lot and to blog when she's about would be somewhat rude, though to be fair I'm doing this on her laptop and she is sat about 5 foot away reading and eating porridge so that restriction may be slipping. She makes mean radioactively hot porridge, it is excellent. Anyway in case anyone was worried I am still alive though I do have a slight hangover. I'd best get moving as I'm working at the shop today and am slacking in the getting ready department. I will return soon and say something worthwhile and focused (as opposed to waffly old bollocks like this).

See you soon.

Mikey's not dead, just busy

The man who got my arse in gear to do a blog has broken his silence with a slight crying off, for the time being. Mikey of Over The (Comic Shop) Counter Culture has finally said something on his blog though it was to say he's dead busy for the next few days so I get chance to pull further ahead in our vaguely competitive blogging excercise (Incidently Mike this makes it 5 -1 to me).

Meanwhile I've been pretty busy since West Brom lost hence the lack of posting, I have been home but generally I've had someone round so didn't have chance to sit down and write anything. This week I've been working at the shop (Must talk about the shop properly at some point but that's deserves a post to itself) yesterday and today and shall be back there in the morning. Have hung around at length with the lovely Alison too and have introduced her to the delights of Spaced which she is enjoying thoroughly, while she in return has introduced me to the delights of Singstar on the PS2 which while being horrifically embarrassing is great fun when you've gotten through a bottle of wine or two. Balls I've lost my DVD remote.

Other than that the things that have diverted me have been a mixture of good and bad;

• Y, the last man by Brain K. Vaughan - An epic comic series, I've been borrowing the trade paperback collections from work. Never fancied it that much but accidently read the first book while at Jo's on Saturday and have munched my way through the next three in the intervening days. Top drawer stuff (And apparently I know about such things so you can take my word for it). Google or Wiki it if you want to know more, sounds lazy I know but I'm sure they can do a much better job than I at saying what it's all about though be warned Wikipedia entires are riddled with spoilers in my experience so watch out.
• Rainbow 6 Vegas - I've been vaguely addicted to this excellent X-Box game for weeks, running round online with either your mates or complete strangers taking out terrorists has never been such fun.
  
• Electricity Bills - Forgot to pay one, oops. They are not happy people and they make you wait a long time when you phone them.
• The Escapist by Brian K. Vaughan - So Y the Last Man got me round to reading this little mini series I've been meaning to read for ages but never got round to. It was pretty criminal that I hadn't. More top drawerness from Mr. Vaughan.
• Temp Agencies - As shit as people say they are.
• Woke on a whaleheart by Smog - A grand album, Bill Callahan (formerly known as Smog) has found a cheery creative vein to tap. Must be hanging around with that mad little pixie woman Joanna Newsom.
• Big Brother - I just noticed it was on telly, it is now as much part of the english summer as Wimbledon and umm...something else very english. I have no doubt that it will entertain sometimes but to be honest if you filmed the next 13 weeks of my life it would manage to be entertaining sometimes too and as far as I know no-one is orchestrating stupid activities to humiliate me and make me fall out with my firends.
  

Right I've waffled enough, I'm going to phone and old, old friend who texted while I've been writing this. We haven't spoken in two years and are long overdue a catch up. If anyone has any ideas about where a DVD remote might hide, give me a shout.

We Lost...

...but it could have been worse. We were better overall and unlucky to lose but I don't think we were spectacular and didn't do enough to deserve a win, that said neither did Derby. Dunc was ecstatic in a very subdued way as he was in a pub full to busting with Albion fans. He sloped off quickly back to his house to dance around happily and put together IKEA furniture (Derby fans know how to celebrate). Chris (Sympathetic Villa fan), Ali (Not really a footy fan, technically a Newcastle Utd by default for purely geographical reasons) and myself stuck around Halesowen and had a bloody lovely afternoon which turned into a bloody lovely evening and without really trying to drank a silly amount and finally staggered home at about 11 or 12 (Reports vary, really we're not sure at all as by this point faculties were impaired). Somehow I've managed to sidestep the hangover that I should have and though I am gutted by the outcome it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Nevermind, at least we'll win more games next season this way.

Right I'd best get ready for work.

Championship Play-Off Final

Football may not be a huge fixture on this here blog but this does warrant a mention. By 6 O'clock I will be ecstatically happy or thoroughly pissed off. West Bromwich Albion, the team I have loved since I was a small boy are playing Derby County this afternoon. The winner will go up to the Premier League. I'm off to the Hawne Tavern in Halesowen (A beautiful pub of the good old fashioned variety with proper real ales) now to watch it with some friends, most significantly Dunc, one of my best friends. He's a Derby fan. This is going to be horrible for one of us. No more to be said until this is all over.

That is all.

Right I've had a look around and made things look nice and added some other blogs to my links. Co-workers Mikey Gee and Rich Nun are there in Over the Counter Culture and Building a better geek respectively, they'd both be good if they posted more often, The prolific Mr. Richard Bruton another alumni of N&C has his Fictions blog there which is a fine read, Random Acts of Reality which the fascinating blog of a London ambulance driver Tom Reynolds and Gaping Void which is basically loads of little cartoons drawn on the back of business cards. Go take a look if you get chance.

Once upon a time...

...there was a boy named Stu, well I say boy but really I'm a bit old for that but it's what I've always called myself and feel wrong when I refer to myself as a man, bloke I can handle though so in future that may have to do. So there's this bloke named Stu and he has a long chat with his mate Mike at work about blogs and it would seem most of the people he works with have one so not to be outdone the band wagon is promptly leapt upon. Birminghm from a slightly geeky perspective shall be arriving online on a semi-regular basis, though lets face it most bloggers are pretty geeky by nature so it's probably just a blog from someone in Birmingham. I shall waffle about the city, things I like, things I want to rant about or just whatever passes through my brain before I head to bed or remember to post something. I could say more but considering that I should really be working I think that this is more than enough.