Robin Hood's Bay

So I wasn't here yesterday. Or the day before. Or Sunday. (Not that you'd have noticed.) Instead, we were in Robin Hood's Bay, between Whitby and Scarborough on the North East coast. I've visited Robin Hood's Bay a number of times but I do think you can only truly appreciate a place if you actually stay there. Although I've walked down the steep harbour road and admired the higgledgy-piggedly streets...

Here There Be Comics

I'm not actually here today. Where I am is a story for another day. In my absence, here are some much cooler things to read...Ed is another engaging comic from Sean Azzopardi who's rapidly becoming one of my favourite creators. It involves the life and loves of the titular Ed, a comic book artist and part-time slacker who's just as confused about life as the rest of us. It's a gentle read that hits...

Building A Rocket Live

It was one of the best gig I've been too in a long, long time. Elbow came home to the Manchester Evening News arena... and blew the roof off.I wouldn't have thought it possible. Not that Elbow aren't a great band, one of my favourites on the contemporary scene, but much of their music, especially on the current album Build A Rocket Boys has a sparse and intimate quality you wouldn't expect to fill an arena. Many of their songs feature minimal instrumentation...

Top Twenty Crazy Songs

These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy songs...20. Slade - Mama We're All Crazee NowSlade almost missed out on this list altogether due to Noddy's crazy spelling. 19. Super Furry Animals - Crazy Naked GirlsI include this purely because I know it'll double the number of hits this post gets. And not from SFA fans...18. Huey Lewis & The News - Gimme The Keys (And I'll Drive You Crazy)After releasing...

My Car Hates Me

Every time I think I'm getting on top of my finances, paying off my debts, that I might actually have a little spare change to fritter away on comics or mindless ephemera at the end of the month, my car comes along and knees me in the goolies. And it doesn't even have a knee.I bought this car a little over three years ago. Aware that it'd probably be the last time I could afford such a purchase for...

You Never Die On Facebook

Driving to work yesterday morning, I stopped to admire the Sunrise Over Slawit. It's a sight I only get to enjoy on certain weeks of the year - by next week, when the clocks go forward and the sun rises an hour earlier, I'll be too late to catch it. Luckily I had my camera with me this time. This is the old Wireless Station on the appropriately named Pole Moor. The lines in the sky are jet trails,...

Adventures On The High Teas

Stuart Maconie is back on the road, now venturing further from the safety of his northern birthplace (which he explored in Pies and Prejudice) to investigate the myths of Middle England, home of Jane Austen, Nick Drake, David Brent, Margaret Thatcher, Fred West, Midsomer Murders, Brief Encounter and Tubular Bells. It's an easy life being a celebrity travel book writer: you get on a train, spend a...

This Is The Last Birthday I Will Ever Celebrate...

...and sadly, I have to celebrate it with Bryan May... why couldn't it have been Freddie?Still, on the plus side, life finally begins next year......and at least I'm not as old as Bruce Willis, who's 56 tod...

Top Ten Rubbish Songs

Proof, if proof be needed, that it's possible to compile a Top Ten songs about any subject... even a load of old rubbish. Special runners-up prizes go to Garbage and the Trash Can Sinatras... 10. Lonnie Donegan - My Old Man's A DustmanSkiffle-king Donegan angered traditionalists with his turn to musical hall comedy in 1960 - but it proved one of his biggest hits, as well as his third and final Number...

The Adjustment Bureau

I used to have a recurring dream wherein someone I trusted implicitly led me to a room I'd never been to before only to reveal that the world outside that room no longer existed, that my life until that point had been one huge cosmic joke, that everyone and everything I knew had been created to lull me into a false sense of security, and this was the punchline: nothing I believed was true.I've always...

Mixing Pop and Politics...

"Mixing pop and politics, they ask me what the use isI offer them embarrassment and my usual excuses..."Before the gig, in the Academy bar, we overhear two blokes discussing the forthcoming entertainment. "It should be a good gig," says one. "As long as he stays away from the politics," says the other.Really, now. Isn't that a bit like going along to a Lady Gaga gig and hoping she stays away from the slutty dresses? The politics are such an important...

Dead Father's Club

I'd seen Dead Fathers Club compared to Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time - a young adult book that's crossed over and ended up appealing more to older, proper adults. This comparison was almost enough to prevent me from reading it as I found Haddon's novel patronising and annoying. However, when I heard the premise of Matt Haig's novel I had to give it a shot... and...

A Little Hope Is A Dangerous Thing...

No #fridayflash from me this week as I'm resting my short story muscles, but here's a true story, a cautionary tale that might strike a chord with my fellow writers and creative types. It's about taking risks to get your work noticed... and the danger of getting your hopes too high, too quickly...(Names have been changed to protect the innocent. My name, therefore, remains unchanged.)Recently in the...

Things I Have Been Listening To...

I bought my first new CD of 2011 yesterday. It's the new album from Elbow (who I'll be seeing live in a fortnight). I haven't received it yet.So... what have I been listening to in the meantime...?John Grant's Queen Of Denmark album was included in quite a few critics' Best of 2010 lists, and for once the critics are right. The former Czars frontman's debut solo effort is an enticing mix of 70s MOR and witty, personal, caustic lyrics that reminds...

number9dream

Working my way through David Mitchell's back catalogue I arrive at his second novel, the one that steals its title from Lennon, hence my reluctance to read it earlier.I'm glad I left number9dream till last as it's my least favourite so far. It starts strong, introducing Eiji, a 19-year old Japanese Billy Liar type who's searching for his unknown father. The story mixes fantasy and reality in entertaining...

Drive Angry 3D

I've been openly mocking Nicolas Cage's new film, Drive Angry 3D, since I saw the first poster.Especially considering the woeful travesty that was the fat-faced, Elvis-voiced goon's last flick, Season Of The Witch. Especially considering I hate the current obsession with forcing unnecessary (and really quite shoddy) 3D fx into every single big budget pic Hollywood churns out these days. (I read the...

Friday Flash - Dinner At Eight

I'm taking a break from the #fridayflash stories after this week while I concentrate on a few other projects. I love the discipline of writing these stories to deadline, and have greatly appreciated the feedback from fellow #fridayflashers and regular Slawit readers alike. But I've had to resort to older stories more and more over the last few weeks, and while it's fun to drag them out and dust them...

Top Ten Songs About The 90s

50s...60s... 70s...80s... And finally...The 90s is just as maligned as the 80s, if not more so. But I'll defend it with equal fervour. Though it was something of a rollercoaster personally, musically it was my time. Britpop gets a lot of negative press, but so many of my favourite bands came from that era that I can forgive it the thuggish excesses of Oasis. Pulp, Blur, Suede, the Manics, Radiohead,...

Good Morning Nantwich

I never listened to Phil Jupitus's 6 Music breakfast show because up until very recently I didn't have access to a digital radio. It seems not that many other people listened to it either, if we're to believe Jupitus, but then it did run in the early days of digital, and long before the recent 6 Music Renaissance. I was however interested to read his experiences of working in radio, because he's passionate...

The Devil's Arse

To celebrate our fifth anniversary, I took Louise somewhere really special. Somewhere she's always wanted to go. Somewhere that's the epitome of romance, sophistication and glamour. Forget Paris, Rome or Hawaii... I took her to The Devil's Arse. Set in the Peak District town of Castleton, directly below the medieval Peveril Castle, the Devil's Arse boasts the largest natural cave entrance in the UK....