ad a very enjoyable afternoon at Panshanger Aerodrome last Sunday, or as it is slightly less poetically now called the North London Flying School. Some quite amazing vintage aeroplanes flying along with some vintage cars [and people] all in a very relaxed, low key environment.
I think I can categorically say I will never be able to afford such pursuits myself but it was very nice to see all the same.
‘d never stayed in a Travelodge before. To be honest, when I have been looking for cheap accommodation the example room photos on their website always put me off. Firstly because they aren’t necessarily the room you are booking and secondly because they look a bit, well, grim. They always reminded me of the Birmingham Etap with its wipe clean surfaces and prison like impersonality, though at least the TV in the Travelodge was in one piece… more on that later.
Our destination of choice was an overnight stay near Hitchin, so the Travelodge Stevenage Little Wymondley Hotel was to be our destination. Worryingly it didn’t seem to show up on Google satellite view but it is in fact there, just a little further up the road than Google says. Unfortunately the Little Wymondley Travelodge also doesn’t seem to appear in any of the Travelodge offers, so no £19 a night room for us or even ten percent off the £55.70 price. I’ll admit, I’m a relative cheapskate when it comes to hotel rooms, that is, I like to pay as little as possible for the best room possible. Admittedly this had lead to two nights in The George Hamilton V Hotel in Brighton, as would later be featured on TVs top 10 worst hotels in Britain [and now called the Sandalwood I believe.] and also a night in a hotel room in Barcelona that was straight out of an 18th century slum, it may have had a lot of character but just looking at the shower made you want to take a shower. Just not in that shower.
was shocked and saddened to learn about the untimely death of my ex colleague, friend and fellow inker of paper mister Dave Cripps earlier this month.
Dave was responsible for probably about 98% of the comments I’ve had on this site over the years. I first worked with Dave at a medium sized printing outfit in one of the darker edges of Birminghams Jewelry Quarter in the early 00’s. He beavered away creating quality advertisements for some of the Midlands premier autodealers and I knocked up the websites for them. I left the job there after a few years but Dave stayed and we kept loosely in touch through the Internet, and mostly, through the comment section of our respective corners of the web.
His comments were always left under the ‘Webaz**t’ moniker. The origins of this were in it being one of the many names thought up for a new venture. I can’t remember whether it was Dave or Stewart who came up with the name now, either way it was perhaps one of the less sensible ones at the time, although we ended up with ‘Webtropolis’ which I think was my idea, so thats not saying much. Who knows, if we’d gone with Webaz**t we could be all be millionaires!
Such as it was Webaz**t took on a life of its own, always a keyword for poor or over priced services and all that is bad in the design world. Several small projects involving Dave and the Webaz**t ‘brand’ popped up over the years, I’ve collated a few of them below so at least I’ll know where they are;
Daves ‘quality’ Box – the recycling box from Daves desk, which we listed and sold on ebay for all of about £3.50 in 2003. We dutifully decided Dave should receive the profit from the sale, less listing fees, as he was now without a box to collect his recyclable paperwork in. I think the money was still sat on his desk when I left the company two years later.
Cripps in Space [Flash adventure game] – Play as Daves alter ego in a badly hacked together text based adventure game, familiar to anyone with a zx spectrum in 1984.
Webaz**t Customer Support – the desk smashing angry computer guy was and early Internet meme, we all thought it resembled Dave with his corner desk setting so…
The Company Stapler on Daves holidays I just found this photo Dave emailed me, funnily enough I was in Barmouth last year and the Carousel Cafe still lacks a letter on its signage.
A very OTT under construction screen in Flash.
About Webaz**t – A page Dave put together himself which probably sums up the company ethos about the best.
I can’t really take it in that when I make a post I won’t have a witty/random/sarcastic/funny comment appear a few days later. It was a pleasure to know Dave and I’m sure going to miss him and his thoughts.
You can take a look at some of Daves drawings and paintings at his page on Elfwood.
Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die indeed my good friend.
s my attempt to come up with a more interesting title for this post. Seems to sum up my all to breif trip to New York City last month.
The whole thing was originally cancelled due to the Eyjafjoell(Glad I’m writing that rather than speaking it) volcano ‘event’ but I happened to re book on the first flight to actually leave Birmingham when the flights started leaving a week to the day I was originally actually suposed to leave on.
The above photo is from the ‘Top of the Rock’ which, while giving truely fantastical views was a slightly underwhelming experience and certainly over priced.
To continue with the title theme after a long mornings walk and a well deserved Mary Ann’s Punch I managed to stumble upon the relocated Mysterious Bookshop. Luckily they had just taken delivery of their limited run of what is being talked of as the final novel by three-time Edgar Award winner Donald E. Westlake.
Was nice to be able to buy a copy there and also pick up an anthology from Lawerence Block that I’d not seen before. I just read today that there may be a few more unpublished Westlake novels in the ether, which is good news (in fact the three books co written with Mr Block are due for publication later this year, the admirably titled Hellcats and Honeygirls).
I also made it to Brooklyn for the first time. It seems that now the majoritly of the more interesting(to me) musical events and several of the cities venues have now moved across the river.
ooked holiday last year. Holiday postponed a week due to unimaginative end of days type scenario, holiday taken a week later, arrived home to colossal cold. Now three weeks or so behind with various projects. More later…
Meanwhile this looks to be of interest at the newly reopened MAC arts centre in Brum. I spent much of my youth watching films at the MAC [and the Triangle], I still can’t watch Apocalypse Now without remembering the Chinese lady who screamed, shot up in the air and all but landed on my mate Phil when the tiger appeared during the ‘never get out of the boat’ scene at a showing there. Also remember seeing Clive Barker do a very entertaining talk there which we skived school to see if memory serves.
More recently I seem to recall their film program becoming quite mainstream so I’m hoping we might see a return to showings of the occasional obscure gem, or at least that I might get to see the next Alex Cox film when/if it gets a UK release. Certainly great to have the centre back and I look forward to a visit in the near future, not too sure on the new website, looks nice but not that great at delivering useful information, time will tell I guess…
I’ll certainly be tuning in to have a listen though as I can’t resist things regard local talk radio, well, apart from the actual Talk RadioSport station. I can’t see me making it along to the show, or to be a ‘performer’ , given the work backlog and the fact I’m aiming to get to the Screamin Festival in Spain at the end of the month, but you never know…
I should add some details;
introduction
Radio Z is the last station on the dial before the static and the microwaves and pulsar radiation.
The hosts of the night time show Tuning Out know all about facing down the void. Each night they start the show blank, with nothing planned, armed with just a stack of charity shop records and six hours in which to calm the world’s chaos and settle its people down to sleep.
This is a theatre show, which is also a radio show. You can listen to Tuning Out at home on-line via our website but true excitement comes when you visit its extraordinary studio in the theatre and become privy to presenter’s deeply compromised off-mic World.
Improvised afresh each night the show relies on content in part from messages and fragments of writing sent in during the course of the show by its listeners and audiences, both live and at home.
mac’s new Media Studio will be open for visitors wishing to contribute to the show and wireless facilities will be available throughout the building.
More about Tuning Out with radio z, which is on 13-15 May, here