recent musical discoveries

the zutons, who killed the zutons - discovered these on the way to the games tournement (below) - definite similarities with led zepplin and stephen stills... a bit psychadelic in places, but pretty cool all the same
johnny cash, my mothers hymn book - got this from the CLC bookshop of all places - all traditional gospel songs as sung by johnny cash
jackie oates, jackie oates - on the way back from 'nam at the weekend, we stumbled across a folk music show on bbc radio shropshire or something and this song really stuck in my head, the staffordshire maid. had to contact the radio presenter to find out how to get hold of it.

beer festival update...

more of an ammendment really.
we are heading to the beer festival on the friday night with the crazy man hodgson.
be warned - he is staying at ours over night, so theres no limit to how much he might drink!
anyway, come and be amazed, friday night.

32nd steel city beer festival....

is the end of this month!
spread the word!!!
its on from the evening of the 28th till 30th september as the usual st phillips social club (near shalesmoor/ attercliffe tram stop down from the university roundabout).
i'll prob try head down on the saturday night - it tends to be a bit quieter - some of the beers will already have been finished but there's never a shortage of ones to try.
having said that, the friday might be viable as an option - post up thoughts on this and book it in on your calenders.

someone had a good weekend....

went down to newbury for the UK open gaming tournement for the wargame thingy i play here and there.
played 5 really enjoyable games and didnt get trounced in any of them which is always a good thing.

got to meet up several people from manchester i see every now and then at these things which was really nice, especially the other dads who ask how the kids are doing and generally dads to the other people at these things - kinda sweet really.

got to meet this guy called ali who i've know on forums for a while but never actually met in person - it was quite odd how much he reminded me of my brother owen in the way he stood, and his general manner, just a bit quieter and more laid back perhaps.... stayed up late on the saturday night drinking with him - we even got into a "you're my besht mate you are!" conversation and chatted about the young and married experience (he was 19 when he got married to a girl from houston - he's now 21...)

on the saturday i won the runners up prize for best painted army, getting a paint set as a prize.

and if that wasn't cool enough, i then won the "most defensive player" award (i'm sure that says something about my personality!) which was a little trophy and a whole new army of miniatures - i basically got to go to the trade stand and pick what i wanted up to the value of about £60!!!

still can't believe it now - i figured i had a chance of winning something in the painting competition, but to win something based on gameplay was just unbelievable.

so yeh - had a brilliant weekend - more fun that i could possibly hope for really.

(sorry if all the above is a bit boring and geeky!!)

jos has started eating food

(3rd post of the day)
having spent the past 2 months or so desperately trying to get at some food, he's finally got his first taste of it today and apparently loves it!
yay jos!!

the harlequin

i've walked past this dingy semi-closed pub every day i've been working at creative stream, being literally right next to the offices. then a few weeks ago they started doing it up, and today was its grand opening.
thinking we could go in for a drink to see what its like, we (or at least i) was amazed at the range of beers - some 10 cask/ real ales available from a whole bunch of breweries... this can only be a good thing, or bad, depending on which way you look at it!!
i had a beowolf heroes (which was free being the openning day)
i am excited tho - its good to see a pub (re-)openning that sells lots of interesting beers, and not just the usual carling, fosters, john smiths, strongbow and VK ice in the fridge.
starting to sound like a camra member now.... (which i am. err...)

praise god, drink beer, sing hymns!!!

second attempt at this post....
had an excellent time at greenbelt - p[robably the best one we've had yet - after past ones we've had to lower our expectancies of what we can do with kids, and with that in mind we probably did more than we expected.
had a great time watching nizlopi - weren't sure how it would work out with just the two of them but with the bassist beatboxing as well, it was awesome - gave robin an opportunity to dance too.
my morning jacket i'd heard before briefly but was blown away by them live - not sure why, they were just amazing to see.
and probably the highlight of the festival for me at least was the "beer and hymns" that included the sermon that makes the above title - simply take an organic beer tent, a couple hundred merry folks and a bunch of hymns and it made for one very enjoyable evening of singing and drinking. so popular was it that it got put on the following night and then the night after that.

lots of other good talks too including several on crazy shenanigans by shane claibourne, one titled "god bless adam and steve" by john bell and a couple of seminars on how to do podcasting...
just gotta get some photos up now...