meemalee

The Noughties are over. I can barely remember what I did last year, let alone over the last decade. What the hell did I do last year? Well, using the power of blog archives, "let's recapitulate" ... In 2009 I: Started a blog Ate some monkey brains Saw Faith No More reunite Saw Blur reunite Saw Oasis split up Offended Kellogg's Watched a lot of food telly Ate a lot of Japanese hamburgers Met a giant robot Killed a Wabbit Discovered Bacon Boy Moshed to the Pixies Had some fabulous food with some fabulous people Went back to Burma Made a film Made another film Ate birthday cake with the Breeders Met George McFly Resurrected the dead And stalked Heston Blumenthal Twenty-ten has a lot to live up to. I hear Soundgarden are reuniting ...

Because it's Christmas and I think I am going very slightly insane, I now proudly present to my dear readers: The Many Tastes of Christmas At Excel's Taste of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Beautiful tome wonderfully illustrated by the great Dave McKean (famous for collaborating with Neil Gaiman ) and well worth £30 A Fat Duck cookbook in a bag-gy. At Excel's Taste of Christmas, my true love gave to me: We got Mr Bunbury 's Millionaire Flapjacks, Brownies and Tiffin Mini Bites. All deliciously home-made tasting. Mr Bunbury's baking And a Fat Duck cookbook in a bag-gy . At Excel's Taste of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Vegan caviar made from soy from Caviar 4 Everyone . A laudable venture but sadly no discernable taste. Caviar a-faking Mr Bunbury's baking And a Fat Duck cookbook in a bag-gy . At Excel's Taste of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Roast Duke of Berkshire pork belly, sweet potato and fenugreek mash with green pepper relish from...

So last weekend I went to Butlins for " Ten Years of ATP ", the tenth birthday party of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival aka ATP. I'm going to steal from Wikipedia to explain what ATP is all about. Named after the song "All Tomorrow's Parties" by The Velvet Underground, it was founded by Barry Hogan in 1999 as an alternative to larger, more corporate festivals like Reading or Glastonbury, with a tendency towards post-rock, avant-garde, and underground hip hop, along with more traditional rock fare, but presented in an environment more intimate than a giant stadium or huge country field. ATP is a sponsorship-free festival where the organisers and artists stay in the same accommodation as the fans. ... Artists, usually musicians (but sometimes visual artists like Matt Groening or Jake and Dinos Chapman) are asked to curate the festival by inviting their favourite performers to play. The idea is that it is akin to dipping into the curator's re...