Remember remember the 5th of... or was it the 3rd, 4th, 6th or 10th. That's just the trouble these days you never know when the day is any more because of the trend towards weekend-only fireworks displays. This has the effect of it not being quite the same anymore, for me anyway. It hissed down with rain on Friday evening (the 6th November by the way) but apparently the Slade school display, which...
I have been a busy bee, I have started for the first time in my life to look forward to Christmas, I think it is because this year is going to be a handmade one and the pressure to please others comes from the heart not from some idealistic idea we should spend, spend, spend money on crap that nobody actually benefits from. I have been making things for the Christmas craft fair (6th Dec, Cedar square,...
Bonfire night, Victoria Park - London, November 2009 "Remember, remember the fifth of November" is the rhyme I recall from my childhood, back in the days when I was still small enough to think that the Guy Fawkes was actually...
Did you have a favourite firework? I'm wobbling between the Roman Candle and Traffic Light. Not the Catherine Wheel though, which for all it's hi-propulsion promise, typically stopped-started, spluttered about-a-bit at random angles, eventually fizzling out for a flat tyre finale. And What's your preference for bonfire fun? The organised outdoor event, with it's inevitable delays (concerned silhouettes...
Tonight's the night that the skies of Britain are filled with fireworks as people celebrate Guy Fawkes' bid to blow up Parliament in 1605. But for really spectacular fireworks, just look at this cracker of an image from the new camera fitted to the Hubble space telescope. It shows a myriad of new stars bursting into existence in a cosmic catherine wheel of a spiral galaxy called Messier 83 (M83). The...
Peter Smith - Blogging The ImPossiMaL (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Me and fireworks go back a long way, from being chased by a jumping jack in my early years and nearly getting a flame shower from a Catherine wheel I have never really got on with them since so this year I decided to confront my fear and purchase a modest box of fireworks. I say modest but even the smallest box scared the life out of me but after seeing a buy one get one free offer I fumbled for my...
The Big Pink currently enjoy an astounding wave of Intarwebz hype, but I certainly won’t let that affect my opinion of the their debut A Brief History of Love. However, the record itself just happens to suck, all things considered. No, the hype didn’t ruin the listening experience. It just epically blows, hype or not. Yes, [...]
I am always perplexed by the notion that death is never an appropriate sentence. That it's a sign of a lack of civilization. What "civilized" way is there to punish this barbarity? A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted...
It’s been a little more than four years since former Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson released his solo debut, Fresh Wine for the Horses, but he’s starting to stir – perhaps a sign that some new material could be on the way. This year, he released a cover of the Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me [...]
I remember David Miles. I remember popping into the Catherine Wheel on Kensington Church Road on my first day at the Mail on Sunday to ask the way to the Churchill. They obliged of course (it was quite a bit further along KCR). The Catherine Wheel has long gone and is now a swish Lebanese restaurant. I remember we always used to see large groups of orthodox Jews on the beach between Elmer and Climping....
When I was a kid I always loved the week before bonfire night. The whole week of half term would be spent collecting wood for our fire. We called it chumping round our way although I know it has many different local names. I used to go off on chumping forays with my cousin Andrew. We would go equipped with rope for dragging logs and hand-axes with bone-handled knives shoved in our belts. No-one thought...
Know anyone called Guy Fawkes ? Or Catherine Wheel ? No? Us neither. Funny, because from the offer that Future Inns has announced this morning, there'd be quite a few. Here's the offer, in all its resounding, poor-grammared idiocy: There is hope for some Guys Fawkes' [sic] this November: Whilst many will be hoisted to the top of bonfires as people across the UK prepare for fifth of November celebrations,...
As the prospect of Christmas shopping threatens to crowd out the hazy fragments of summer memories, I decide to surprise the children with a question. “What do you prefer,” I say, nonchalantly, “Hallowe’en or Bonfire night'” As I utter the words, images from my childhood flash through my mind. Weekends spent stuffing and dressing a Guy, just [...]
You already know our dirty little secret, right? psst….we like The Bronx. Yes, we know that they don’t necessarily fit conveniently between our Band of Horses and Catherine Wheel records but we love the passion and their ability to write a great melody. Frankly, we think punk died over a decade ago [...]
Entire soundtrack movie S. Darko with lyrics and song video. The story picks up seven years after the first film when little sister Samantha Darko and her best friend Corey are now 18 and on a roadtrip to Los Angeles when they are plagued by bizarre visions. Lyrics and song video Alive Alone (The Chemical Brothers) listen Holo Humpin slobo babe (Whale) listen Black Metallic (Catherine Wheel) listen