2025-12-05 03:12:22
Retro Bar in Manchester has closed. I wasn't the most regular bar fly but it was a constant venue in my decades living in Manchester; known for a decent club night or two and as a cracking venue for seeing bands of a certain size/popularity/fame. For example, I remember seeing Frank Turner there on one of his first solo tours.
I have fond memories of the place; I had my thirtieth birthday there nearly twenty years ago. I danced with Cheddar Gorgeous in the club downstairs during Sparkle Festival and drank with Damnation Angels in the bar upstairs after they refused to play because the stage was too small.
I stopped in a for a drink a couple of times after they rebranded to Hive because it was handy for my old flat and the office.
Now it's shut up, messages of thanks taped to the windows and faded posters and graffiti adorn the outside as a sad monument to the diminishing live music circuit that once shone so brightly in Manchester.
2025-12-04 22:40:24
"I Want an Alien for Christmas" by Fountains of Wayne
Twee but not saccharine, this ode to an imaginary interstellar Christmas gift drips with childhood fantasy and earnest awe.
2025-12-04 05:17:01
"Do they know it's Christmas?" Far (feat. Chino Moreno and Grady Avenell)
A bunch of Sacramento bands put out a Christmas covers album to support a school music program and inadvertently created the greatest version of this song — mostly because it's not got Bono on it. I wish this supergroup had released more music.
2025-12-03 18:33:02
I have a kettle that allows for different temperature hot water; 70°, 80°, 90°, or the traditional 100°C. I like to use the 70°C to make coffee so it's immediately drinkable but still hot and doesn't burn the grounds leaving a bitter taste.
Unfortunately, the kettle has developed an intermittent failure. Sometimes, but not all times, it will just tick off leaving warm but sub-desired temperature water.
I have a few options here, bearing in mind I am not an expert on kettles or, indeed, boiling water.
This is a true story but also it's about Generative AI.
2025-12-03 00:29:50
"All I Want for Christmas is You" by My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance are exactly the right sort of outlandish camp emo for this cover. Who else could do Mariah justice?!
2025-12-02 05:22:24
About a third of the way into this film I realised two very important things; 1) this isn't a Christmas Film and 2) that guy is not James McAvoy.
The absolute worst kind of cosplay Irish stereotype –how Americans think Ireland is– because sure it's a wall-to-wall stout drinkin', jig dancin', sheep shearin' country where honest to goodness Saints wander the countryside just waiting on giving out wishes with a traditional caveat emptor.
Lindsay Lohan stops this from being a 1 — not through stellar acting or anything, just because she carries a lot of goodwill over from The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday.