Monday, October 17, 2011

Mascot "Berserk" In Playground












As if school isn't bad enough without being hunted down by some sort of penis-allegory mascarading as an olympic mascot.

But not a word about it from Boris Johnson!

Someone should do something about it.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Pretentious? Moi?

Want to waste an hour? Why not visit the V&A's Postmodernism; Style & Subversion 1970-1990 ?

Shyte and Derivation more like it.

Did you know that the fashion mag The Face was part of the postmodern "movement"? I doubt if the editor did either.

The whole thing is a teleological conceit where the curator has taken the attitude that "it's postmodernism if I say it is".

Basically, they have cobbled together a pile of unrelated (usually trendy) crap and dressed it up as having some greater "postmodern" significance.

Yes, I do understand that that is a "postmodern" concept in it's self, but it still proves that it's just pretentious twaddle.

Tssk!

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Pub Latest: Vessel Surfeit



















A couple of years ago, I stopped frequenting my local The Gate, a fine example of a grand Victorian pub which combined a superb pizza oven with notoriously poor service.

The decision to quit was made on the evening I ventured in with a regular drinking partner, ordered two pints and chose from the menu. When the chump behind the bar thumped our drinks spillingly onto the bar, we informed him that we would also order food.

"Sorry" he mumbled "No Pizza; we've run out of cheese!"

It was 8pm. They had "run out of cheese". There was a convenience store next door. The nearest supermarket was 5 minutes walk away, yet they were unwilling to trade in Pizzas because they had managed to run out of cheese. British pubs are closing in their hundreds every year, and this one had run out of cheese!

Imagine his confusion as we then declined to pay for the pints and opted to go to The Victoria Stakes, which was further but could guarantee decent service AND food.

I mention this because this evening at 7pm, the same drinking partner and I approached the bar of The Rocket on the Euston Road in time to hear the hapless youth serving tell a female customer that they had "run out of wine glasses". She agreed to have her drink sold in a half pint glass. Yes, they had "run out of wine glasses". British pubs are closing in their hundreds every year, and this one had run out of wine glasses.

Thus is the state of the British service industry.

Skip The Warm Towels: Call An Ambulance

I find it interesting that the British obsession with alcohol poisoning as a rite is considered insufficient as a means to convey native robustness, that we have to have Curry Competitions to separate the men from the panty-waists.

Apparently, a restaurant in Edinburgh has hospitalised contestants in a apparent bid to "raise charity".

One wonders if the totals raised exceeded the cost to the tax payer for the abuse of our cash-strapped free-on-demand health service.

One attention-seeking contestant admitted;

"I've always enjoyed spicy foods and thought this was for a good cause. But it came with a price, I had to be taken to the ERI twice.

"I first went to hospital at around 4pm and the second time was at 9pm. It got really bad. I have never endured such pain in my life."


Mr Ali (the perpetrator) said he felt the competition had gone well, but that he had overestimated how much heat the competitors could take.

As the Media Blog so succinctly observes:

Ah yes, the old "vomiting, collapsing, sweating and panting" publicity stunt - a winner for any restaurant.