Pub Olympics: the idea of a pub olympics has long been a pet one and often half-heartedly discussed among my fellow disciples of Organised Fun. However I now have the power to turn idea into action – for our work charity each country is putting[…]

MORCHEEBA – “The Great London Traffic Warden Massacre”: The parking shop at Wandsworth Town Hall is a mass of low expectations thoroughly met – laminate zone maps on formica tables, chewed pencils on raffia strings, customers […]

No way to run a comic: Al told me about this site at the weekend, it may have been linked here before but I don’t remember it. It’s an exhaustive (35 long pages) examination of the Spider-Man “Clone Saga” – the storyline[…]

London Threatened
Not that many Doctor Who stories are set mainly in London, and in fewer still is the city directly menaced. Okay, yes, in one story an embarrassing Loch Ness Monster waves its head around near some Bankside office blocks, but gener[…]

BOOM! Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa is a thorough and often fascinating book which still ends up just slightly unsatisfying. He’s been criticised by some reviewers for too many digressions on topics whose connection to the volcano are real […]

I had heard a rumour that prawn cocktail was back on fashionable restaurant menus and yesterday I had it confirmed. I was having a business supper at Inn The Park, a wooden ‘British cafe’ at the swankier end of St. James’ Park. Cure[…]

Yesterday I was half-listening to the radio, when Jo Whiley started playing this thing she’d downloaded off the Internet. “Slash dot dash, slash dot com”, over and over again. It sounded really cheap, some joke MP3 knocked up by one[…]

A LONDON SONGBOOK
The music London makes, and its relation to the city, has not been written about as much as you might think. Simon Reynolds’ excellent chapter on pirate radio in the UK edition of “Energy Flash”; the atmosphere of […]

Wordcount
(via Auspicious Fish)
This site has delayed me hugely today. I love its conceit. Here for instance is the word science proof of WHICH MUSIC IS BEST:
Rock – 1,511th
Metal – 2,185th
Dance – 2,293rd
Pop – 2,753rd (next […]

A charming idea, finely realised: untrue London stories.[…]