rich_jacko

October has been a fairly culture-intensive month, or at least the second half has.

First up was a theatre trip on the 16th to see The Company's hilarious tongue-in-cheek take on 'The Dunwich Horror'. The Company are always at their best when they do comedy, and this was no exception. So much so that I insisted roleplaying be abandoned the following Sunday so that we could play Arkham Horror instead.

Next on my calendar was the first of four Off the Shelf lectures I went to: Simon Singh revealing 'The Mathematical Secrets of the Simpsons'. This was an entertaining look at the Simpsons makers' mathematical backgrounds and many of the maths-based references and in-jokes that appear in the show. Plus taxi numbers in Futurama.

On the 23rd was my second theatre trip, to see 'The Winter's Tale' at the Crucible. This was a Shakespeare play I knew nothing about (apart from the immortal stage direction: "Exit, pursued by a bear"), so it was a thrill to watch all its many twists and turns and outright silliness.

The 24th was a day to learn more about local small industry and sample its wares, at the Steel City Beer Festival. Okay, that one's a bit of a stretch.

Then came a triple dose of local history with three Off the Shelf events on consecutive days:

Firstly, last Saturday I went to 'Sheffield in Tudor and Stuart Times' with David Templeman (from the Friends of Manor Lodge). This focussed on everyday life and lesser-known parts of the 17th Century town rather than just the more famous Sheffield Castle and Manor Lodge. I learned a lot, although from the audience I did feel as if I was in a WI meeting at times.

On Sunday I hiked up to the Cholera Monument (which I'd somehow never been to before, despite living in Sheffield for the last 17 years) for 'The Sheffield Ghost Walk' by Loose Theatre. It was a very windy day, especially up on Park Hill. This made it quite hard to hear the actors at times, but they struggled on valiantly and put in a convincing performance what life was like during the Cholera epidemic of 1832.

Finally, on Monday I went to see Roy Hattersley talk about 'The Devonshires'. The rest of the audience seemed better informed than me, but I certainly learned a lot about our local nobility and the parts they played in national history over the centuries. Despite his claim that, as an egalitarian socialist, he'd sooner be rid of the lot of them, Roy had an obvious affection for his subject and gave a very informal and fun lecture.

This evening I will be eating takeaway and watching Ghostbusters.

Tuesday: Every Black Day (West Street Live) - EBD's first Sheffield gig, which included a last-minute CD production line, plans for plushie badgers, Dave shouting out hello to the venue and getting lots of "Hi, Dave"s in return, and needing a bigger violin. Oh, and the music was pretty good too. Seriously, you guys were fantastic, and it was nice to finally hear the full set! Roll on the next gig in July!

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Thursday: We Will Rock You (Sheffield Arena) - Last night I went with Krissy, Jacquie and Andy to see We Will Rock You. The story (such as it is) is a classic hero's journey mixed with up-to-the-minute satire on internet consumer culture. It's also surprisingly rude. Sort of a cross between 1984, The Matrix and Bill & Ted, with all the sophisticated decorum you'd expect from a Ben Elton show and all the subtle understatement you'd expect from a full blown Queen concert. It was bloody brilliant!

I've just met up with san_valentine, soul_rider and the Bug to catch a fleeting glance of Princess Anne as she drove by on her way to open the Exchange Brewery. Police outriders are cool.

We helpfully informed a slightly puzzled BBC Radio Sheffield reporter what was going on.

www.welcometosheffield.co.uk/otr

My plan for next Monday is to:

• take the afternoon off work;
• go to the Hillsborough "Flame in the Park" event (The Torch arrives around 17:40);
• head into town to catch the rest of the Barkers Pool event in the evening (The Torch arrives around 20:00).

Who else is going?

About a month ago I wrote to the Arts Council to bother them (in a polite way) about being scumbags and cutting Museums Sheffield's funding. After pestering them again, they have eventually sent me this reply:

( which more or less says what you'd expect it to... )

It's irritatingly vague and non-committal about future funding, but I suppose at least it isn't an outright "No".

There was a spectacular sky over the whole west side of Sheffield as I was walking home this evening, full of deep oranges and pinks and great billowing clouds. It was a shame I didn't have my camera with me. Did anyone take any photos?

Today I finally got around to visiting the V&A exhibits at the Millennium Gallery. There's some quite terrifyingly valuable stuff in there. I was particularly impressed by the first millennium ivories (including possibly the world's most ostentatious book cover) and the wooden medieval St Christopher statue.

By contrast, the The da Vinci Forster Codex is very unassuming, but immensely cool. There's something spine-tingling about seeing the actual 500-year-old hand-written notes from the greatest geek of all time, and trying to interpret what he's saying about calculating the volume of a dodecahedron :o)

There's quite a bit of local heritage in the exhibition too, including letters and needlework by Mary Queen of Scots when she was in Sheffield castle.

If you haven't yet been, it's on for another two weeks. I definitely recommend checking it out if you get time.

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On a more low-brow front, The Hunt for Gollum is a very impressive little film. The production values are amazing for an amateur fan-made effort. It's full of lingering scenery shots / foreboding mutterings / pointless Arwen interludes, and therefore it takes ages for anything to happen - just like the real thing! Worth a watch if you find yourself with a spare half hour to waste on the intertubes.

The rumours were true - The Moon has now re-opened. I popped in briefly on my way to the HH yesterday to investigate, and found the following:

- It's back to being The Office.
- There's now a pool table in the area to the right of the door as you go in.
- It's still pretty quiet.
- Doors to the back room were shut (not sure what that means).
- It still does food.

But, and here's the major downer, they only had branded rubbish on tap: Tetley, John Smith's, Stones, Guinness, Carlsberg and Kronenberg, if memory serves. I don't know whether they're planning on getting any proper beer real ales in later, but it looks a bit bleak for now :o(

Towers - They go boom.
Ooops! Looks like they missed a bit.
Rich - He goes to bed.

Blimey, that's a mess! (Smells bad too!)