New blood needed
We recently asked Culture Vultures’ readers to choose a book for our book club. For good measure, CV also suggested introducing a controversial guest female reviewer into our all-male bookclub as part of the process. All in all, we found the entire process a really positive experience and a real eye opener into how we could bring some new people and ideas into what we do.
On one hand, we could quite happily carry on as we are and have been doing for the last 6 years – reading books, drinking red wine, causing a ruckus in The Cross keys…but we do like to change and develop and we feel that the time is right to invite some new members to join us.
We could simply ask people we know, but as we generally came together not really knowing each other, we feel that we should continue in this vein and find new members that none of us know. Then we had a brainwave: why not ask the readership of the Culture Vulture if anyone out there would like to join the Boys Book Club. And we’re looking for two people to join – do you fancy it?
This of course raises a whole host of questions and issues. Firstly how do you go about choosing people to join without it turning into the new lodger interview scene from Shallow Grave? I like the famous Groucho Marx quote “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member” and I suspect that if any of our current members applied or been interviewed to join this book club, we probably wouldn’t have got in.
And then the questions began…
- What if more than two people want to join ?
- Do we simply go random and put names in a hat?
- Shall we ask people to give a short reason on why they would like to join?
- Should we ask people to pick their favourite books?
- How about first come first served?
- Are we still going to be a Boys Only Book Club?
The more you think about it, the more complicated it gets! On top of this, we’re very concerned about coming across as some worthy literary types deciding who is deemed suitable to join us – that’s definitely not what we are about. We came together randomly, have a great time and would like two people to join in and share that with us. Every one of us has brought interesting experiences to our discussions and we have no doubt that the new people would do the same.
I think it’s worth noting that there is a certain amount of process and rigour to what we do (see original post for full details) so any new person coming along would need to a) read the book (and there will be a wide variety of books read) and b) be prepared to give their view of that book (not some Googled researched view but their view). We meet roughly every 4 weeks (usually the 1stFriday of the month) and we normally meet in a pub in Leeds.
If you fancy it then we think that the best thing is to send in a very short expression of interest to Ian at the following address: street.ian@virginmedia.com and we’ll then pick two candidates. It could be that we end up picking more than two people and they could come along and meet us to see if you fancy being part of it – to be honest, we’re still not sure the best way to do this just that we want to do it. One other thing we did think is that if there are a few people interested then perhaps we could put other people in touch and hey presto a new random book club is formed. By the way, if you have any bright ideas to help with our ‘difficult’ process then please leave them in the comments section below.
Over to you…
All the books we’ve ever read
I love this image – this is the cover art for all of the books we’ve read in book club.
It gives me a real sense of achievement when I look at it and each book cover reminds me of the book immediately and brings back the feelings and emotions I had for each book when I was reading it. They also serve to remind me how important the design of a book cover is and if a publisher or author gets it right it completely adds to the overall experience and if they get it wrong how it compounds the any negativity I have about it.
Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover?
You are the person you chose to be
Are you a geek or a nerd?
This is brilliant – I’m definitely a geek….and proud of it.
A tribute to Lem
Recently I learnt of the sad death of one of my true inspirations, Laimonis Mierins.
Known affectionately to everyone as Lem, he taught drawing at Jacob Kramer College in Leeds (which is now Leeds College of Art). Lem was a native Latvian who had settled in West Yorkshire during the second world war and he seemed sophisticated and mysterious to this green 16 year old.
So it was with great trepidation that I approached my first life drawing class with Lem. I can remember the over heated studio like it was yesterday and the sheer feeling of terror picking up a piece of charcoal to draw a nude woman still gives me the shakes.
But Lem cajoled, bullied, encouraged, laughed, took the piss – in short did everything to get us looking, seeing, drawing properly.
We soon moved on to drawing with a pen on paper, no pencil, no sketching. ‘Just make your mark!’ he would insist, just before bring out his Tommy Gun from his little office (literally a real gun, by the way, but without bullets obviously).
‘Bloddy Hell, people!!’ was his catchphrase and his heavy Latvian accent lent an air of fear and mystery to what were already dramatic classes. But his style was inspirational and soon we were all looking forward to drawing classes and we spread our wings wider and started drawing everything we saw both inside and outside the college.
Lem encouraged us to truly study what we drew and didn’t mind if every single detail was accurate - ‘I bloddy believe it…I don’t care!!’ There was a handful of us who loved drawing and continue looking and making marks, drawing what we see. And that’s all because of Lem.
I think I became a good designer because of Lem. He taught me to really look and consider things carefully – traits which set me in good stead as designer. I’ve lost count of the number of designers whose careers and lived have been touched by Lem – he was just one of those people you meet in life who make an indelible impression.
He was completely unique and the world has lost one of its true characters. RIP Lem, you will be missed.
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Rib Shakk
Rib Shakk is the latest Leeds venture by the prolific Anthony Flynn – well known to all who live in West Yorkshire for his handful of restaurants, cafes and foodie establishments in Leeds.
Anthony is a man who knows food well – any chef that did a stint at El Bulli in Spain is clearly a cook to be reckoned with. So I did find it a little strange that he decided to add a Rib joint to his empire in the Corn Exchange in Leeds.
The premise is simple: order food and drink at the counter and pay for it up front. Now I have to confess that I love doing this – it means a quick getaway after the meal which I think is one of life’s little pleasures. Sometimes the endless faffing waiting for the bill, then the machine and then catching the eye of the waiting staff can be a chore. So paying up front scores big points for me.
Leeds has a gaping hole where a decent rib place can slot in nicely. There’s Cattle Grid of course, but I’m not sure about that place – the food is a bit iffy and the service not so hot either. So Rib Shakk is perfectly placed to steal a march on other meaty eateries.
Based in the side cafe area of the Corn Exchange, Rib Shakk has a relatively concise menu laden with all things rib. We opted for the rib platter and the pulled pork Boston Butt. Pleasingly, the platter included beef ribs which are rarely seen on menus but done properly are a huge treat. Eating with my two ‘young adult children’ is often an expensive experience due to the appetites associated with growing/grown-up kids. Not so on this occasion as the opening offer of half price food if you follow on Twitter made the meal an absolute bargain.
The food arrived on huge wooden platters and there was plenty of it. This a place for big appetites and tucking in. Chicken wings, slaw, fries and beans all complement the rib by main event perfectly. A selection of home made sauces were lip smackingly good. Apparently Anthony has some high tech cooking method which cooks the ribs long and slow to melting tenderness. I have no idea how its done – the end result is perfection. If you’ve ever eaten ribs in the States and bemoaned the fact there’s nothing as good over here, well look no further.
I didn’t take any pictures because a) the place is quite dark and b) the platter didn’t stay intact long enough to get my camera out!
Lets be clear – this is not a sophisticated dining experience.
It’s a roll your sleeves up, get sauce on your chin, beer slurping, full bellied kind of place. The meat is exquisitely cooked and the flavours all deliver the punch you’d expect with Anthony personally at the helm. I recommend that you get along there whilst the offer is still on – Rib Shakk offers one of the most satisfying nosh ups in Leeds.
Inappropriate baking ads
I fully accept it;s my juvenile sense of humour, but these made me laugh out loud. I love it when there’s more than a nod and wink going on between the creative person who thought up the ads and the reader. Unusually, these ads are from Canada – not renowned for the wittiest of creativity. All the same, I enjoyed them.
Screaming Hand
I’m a lover of all things connected to surfing. And this famous graphic was designed by Phillips for famous surf brand Santa Cruz. It sums up perfectly the anarchy of an anti-establishment brand (that isn’t really, but once was before it became a huge corporate) and connects accurately with the cool surfing dudes.
Me and my big mouth
As we’re getting near the end of the year, I’m trying to round up a few stray posts that I thought you may have missed. This post recounts a rather memorable hour or two in the genteel surroundings of Ilkley’s Kings Hall.
After a lot of effort, I managed to blag a free ticket for the Ilkley Literature Festival to see John Cooper Clarke (in mitigation, I thought it was sold out). You may have seen a version of this post on Culture Vultures, but I’ve been thinking about The Bard of Salford a bit recently. And I’ve chuckled to myself about some of his lines, so I thought it worth a re-visit.
I first encountered JCC at Leeds University Refectory in 1979 as part of a punk poet triple bill which included Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah (I think) and back then, he was at the forefront of shaking everything up: if musicians can tear up the musical rulebook, then why can’t writers and poets do the same? This ethos underpinned everything he did at the time and as far as I can tell, everything since then. It was a weird evening for a young art student from Bramley I can tell you, but it was the beginning of a journey for me.
These days, JCC’s work packs less of a punch because there is so much of this kind of writing out there being performed and it’s easy to forget what a visceral thrill his work was back in the late seventies and early eighties. We were easily shocked back then. JCC was the complete package: stick thin demeanor, sunglasses all the time, huge vocabulary of swearwords and an impeccable working class background from Salford.
I saw him live a couple of times and over the years, always loved his work but kind of lost touch with his newer work. When I saw that he was appearing at the Ilkley Literature Festival this year, I got it into my head that I had to go see him. After re-acquainting myself with some of his greatest hits, I headed across to Ilkley to see what’s become of him.
His act has developed from the relentless machine gun delivery of poetry of old into a more relaxed, conversational – almost stand-up comedy act. At first the slow pace of this is hard to get used to but his genuinely funny stories and one liners add light and shade to his act and do allow the poems to shine.
He’s as gloriously potty-mouthed as he always was and there was plenty for the Ilkley crowd to laugh about too. One particular location-based gag around the requirement to wear head-gear when visiting Ilkley Moor being ‘Otley Disputed went down a storm and we were in his hands from there on in.
Delivering only a handful of poems and lots of anecdotes, it seemed like this was a show that had been cut in half. The show started at 7.30, was finished with the encore by 8.45 and seemed to be just getting going – but that’s a small criticism. The old adage of leaving ‘em wanting more was never truer this evening.
When JCC did let rip with some of his well-known poems – ‘Hire Car’, ‘Beasley Street’ and the symmetrically superb ‘Beasley Boulevard’ he was really on form. A couple of new poems included a hilarious diatribe against U2’s frontman called ‘Bongo’s Trousers’ and a tickly chested ‘Guest List’ (JCC hadn’t been well, ladies and gentlemen, but he was here, for us all, laughing through the tears).
The performance was also being signed for deaf people and the signer on stage deserves an award for what has to the fastest signing I’ve ever seen. Although I couldn’t be sure that she was keeping up, it looked pretty sharp.
As the audience filed out, there were a lot of delighted faces, clearly not sure what to expect but very pleasantly surprised. Although I was captivated by the show, I would have liked to have seen more poems and I suspect that this was more about JCC getting caught out with the timings of an early, shorter show than anything else.
One reviewer recently insisted JCC had to decide whether he was a stand-up or a poet. I don’t agree. Both can work together if the balance is right. Although I would have dearly loved to see him perform ‘Kung Fu International’, ‘I married a monster from outer space’, ‘Evidently chickentown’ or even ‘Twat’, that gives me another reason to go see him again when he comes to Yorkshire again.
By the way, the title of this post refers to the first JCC album I ever bought on vinyl when I was at Jacob Kramer College of Art in Leeds. The album cover is at the top of the post and although a ‘compilation’ of sorts, it was truly an eye opener for me.
