This week, Monday 10th February 2014

New Wheels, Sleeping

Last week was busy while not having that many things in it… I find those weeks odd. I believe it’s a combination of having lots of work to do while being acutely aware of how poor the planning is nationally. It means we’re spinning wheels only hoping they’re going in the right direction. It only confirms my understanding that project management is a total waste of time if you don’t know what you’re managing and don’t have people who actually understand the project running it. Sigh. Big sighs. On the plus side that puts me in a mini frenzy of activity which I do quite enjoy.

I’ve been coming home and having a beer, which isn’t necessarily a good sign. It does relax and calm me down a bit though. Swings and rahndabahts and all that. There’s always the delights of Lego…

Soberly Drinking

Speaking of beer, David and I had an irregular mandate last Monday and checked out two new(ish) bars in Nottingham for the first time.

Sobar Nottingham

We met at Sobar Nottingham on Friar Lane. It’s the first zero-alcohol bar in the city that isn’t just a cafe. I mean, it’s like a cafe in that there’s no booze, but it’s open at pub times. Pleasingly it’s also directly opposite that hell-dive Walkabout; whether by accident or design it’s a satisfying location. The building is lovely. I think it used to be a bank, and it retains the wooden porch entrance. Beyond that it’s all very clean and white with big chunks of secondary colours and some fun artwork (also the ceiling moulding work is gorgeous).

The staff are very friendly and offer a good range of smoothies, juices and soft drinks. I can’t resist Fentimans, and tried their cherry cola out. It was very pleasant. We ate there too, in the pleasant and peaceful ambience, shockingly lacking drunken shouting. It’s ridiculously chilled in there, though that might be in part due to the ambient dub-type music playing (I liked it). They do an excellent pulled pork burger in ciabatta and the more usual burger David had looked good too.

I very much like the idea of a pub that isn’t a pub. I don’t really want caffeine in the evening and for the sake of all that is holy I don’t want to have to drink Beck’s Blue (I won’t drink it, no matter the dehydration). I hope they do well, I would recommend the place.

http://www.sobar-nottingham.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/SobarNottingham
https://twitter.com/SobarNottm

The Ned Ludd

Food and cherry cola was very nice, but we did still want a beer… I realise that’s probably some kind of irony, but I’m sure we can enjoy both. The Ned Ludd is just slightly further up Friar Lane and I’d wanted to pop in for a while. It’s the first Navigation Brewery pub. That’s good news because Navigation ale is some of Nottingham’s finest and I’m glad to see it.

It’s a classy little place, neatly fitted into whatever used to be there before. Friar Lane’s one of those roads where the shops / services seem to change a lot and I don’t pay much attention other than to avoid Walkabout and laugh at the ludicrous prices in Forbidden Planet. The Ned Ludd feels like it’s made of wood and glass and the colour green. Some of those might actually be true. They had an excellent selection of beers on tap and what looked like an intriguing collection of cans and bottles in the fridges. I got addicted to Camden Ink a smokey charcoaley beer and a fine IPA.

Again, this is a friendly little pub where the staff are happy to chat about beer and once you’ve sat down it feels exactly like a warm living room in someone else’s house. We’ll be going back…

http://www.thenedludd.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheNedLudd
https://twitter.com/NedLuddNottm

♥ Last Week’s Scribbles

This week, Monday 3rd February 2014  – improv and wrapping up the week.

The Old Angel Nottingham – Horrifying Valentine’s Day Poster   –  just some complete idiocy.

Pulp Pirate 20 – FC 95 Rich’s Chocolate Moon Pie – Alex Trepan’s back on the best podcast in the whurld.

Misogynist Twattery

So… last week was also dominated for a number of people by The Old Angel‘s appallingly thoughtless and stupid Valentine’s Day event poster. Turns out that quite a few people consider ‘bag a slag, grab a hag’ to be less funny than the landlord may have thought. I was included in the unimpressed brigade (branded “keyboard warriors” by the ignorant pub management) and finally got round to expressing how I felt about it on Wednesday.

Eventually the event got cancelled after the council threatened to withdraw their alcohol license. The story has changed over the week, from the pub’s initial ‘fuck you, get a sense of humour’ to ‘fuck you, we’ve had to cancel the event’ and on to ‘sorry if you were offended, but fuck you there’s something wrong with you’. Excellent PR all round. Fuckwits. It’s disappointing and not a little ironic that a punk pub, proud of its punky anti-stereotype attitude would come up with a poster that so clearly promotes and reinforces the routine abuse of women. Way to go punk gang. Something more radical might have been ditching Valentine’s Day altogether in favour of an event celebrating people’s individuality and finding meaning and satisfaction in themselves rather than depending on a potential rapist to add value.

Their apparent apology is pathetic and it was only when faced with a harrowing personal account of sexual abuse and why the term ‘slag’ might not be empowering that The Old Angel‘s Twitter feed showed any indication of empathy. Not that that was a public apology of course. Y’know what, I’m still annoyed by these tools. May have to slap their stupid apology some more later.

Despite their failure to really understand what the fuss was about, it’s been an excellent opportunity for the Feminist Friends Nottingham to highlight this kind of behaviour, and get some national press attention focussed on it. While the council may vacillate and backpedal about their reasoning (though not as pitifully as the pub) and ‘free-speech’ apologists whine about political correctness instead of caring about people, it does look like some people got it.

Media Intake

Television

Well Brooklyn Nine-Nine has turned out to be entirely laugh free, despite a decent cast. Perhaps it’s because the lead character is just a lazy, crap cop and has no likeable traits. The rest of the cast seems to be running on stereotype and forced gags. The only character I like is their captain, and that’s mainly because I feel sorry for him. Happily cancelling the series record now…

On the plus side I’ve caught up with Helix – it’s pretty much The Walking Dead in a bunker, but it feels tense, mysterious and exciting. I’m perfectly content with its horror-quotient so far and I’m looking forwards to the promised revelations. Also, the intro-credits amuse me.

I recorded a couple of episodes of Falling Skies, which I hadn’t previously noticed on Freeview, though I had heard of it. I know it’s several seasons in, but it doesn’t seem great. The rubbery aliens and zombified kids feel rather samey and I’m not really being engaged by the show. That may be because I’ve missed vital character development but it has Stargate quality script and effects (albeit more recent). I’ll not be horrified to catch it again, but I’m in no rush.

Events and Excitement

Thursday 13th February

Gorilla Burger: improv comedy carnage

Jam show – a chance for anyone to get on stage, and a superb opportunity to get an idea of what Nottingham improv is all about.
The Corner
8 Stoney Street
(off Broad Street)
Nottingham
7.30pm – £4

https://www.facebook.com/events/218155238365760/

Friday 28th February

MissImp in Action – live improv comedy show

Thrilling all-action end of the month show sporting the best of MissImp inventing scenes and playing games.

The Glee Club
The Waterfront
Canal Street
Nottingham
8.30pm (doors open at 8pm) – £4.50 in advance/£6 on the door (£3 students/MissImp)

https://www.facebook.com/events/1419935891573539/