Something For The Weekend

Good stuff legends #1 – Ed Vanson (Facebook crusader)

We’re keeping our eye out for the leaders in the field of doing more good stuff and the first person to come to our attention is this guy. Ed has set himself a seemingly impossible challenge for 2009. Simply put he has to visit, have a beer with (and have a photo taken with) every single person that he is friend’s with on Facebook.

Now this would be easy if you only had 10 mates and they all lived round the corner from you. However if you have hundreds of friends stretching from Cape Town through Perth onto New York via Vancouver and over to the UK. Too see them in 1 year involves a lots of sacrifice, loads of begging emails and tons of financial planning. If you want to do this when you are also trying to complete the full list of 92 league clubs and recovering from being knocked off your bike by a idiotic driver then in our eyes you have entered legend status.

But that is why we love this guy so much, nothing seems to faze him. If it involves getting of a coach from a game at Old Trafford at silly o’clock, then going to work and trying to organise your football teams anniversary match, while learning to teach English as a foreign language and at the same time trying complete a journal of your travels – then this guy will do it.

Good luck on your quest Mr Vanson, we’re behind you and your mission all the way. 27 done, 165 to go.

If you fancy tracking your mates down, and need somewhere to stay, why not book a hotel in the hotel sale – save up to 50%

Sean Collins

We’ll keep you up to date with Ed’s mission over the course of the year. If you’ve got a friend who is amazing at doing good stuff (or simply want to wish Ed good luck) then why not leave a comment on this blog and tell us all about it.

more bang for your buck – The Killers live

Is there anyone on Planet Earth that hasn’t heard of The Killers? Perennial band of the year, best album winners and best single winners at awards ceremonies across the globe, they have now started to dominate the best live act category as well. We’re a picky bunch here at the pink palace and we have argued for weeks about where is best to see them; at a festival or in an arena. The split tends to happen on gender lines. Kate is favouring the arena option whereas Dan and I are sticking up for the rather more raw setting of the festival mosh pits.

Kate and Grace went to see them at the 02 arena in London this week. Here’s what they thought:

It’s brill, but you really want to be in the standing area in front of the stage, the people down there look like they are having so much fun. The set is ace (not quite Take That or Timberlake esque, but still great). They open to Spaceman and go through a really long encore. You defo get your money’s worth because the set itself is around 90 mins long. It’s great singalong fun but you need to do two things. Firstly get in the mood before you go as they start their show earlier than most bands, and secondly resist the urge to leave early. One of the best things of the night is seeing (the divine) Mr Flowers salute the crowd that sing every single word of Mr Brightside back at him. Yes girls, he really is that fit. The encore is 4 songs long and contains the classics so you need to stay. Also don’t try and hold a drink in your hands for the last 30 mins because you will dancing far too hard and will certainly loose all your hand eye coordination. Brilliant night, but really jealous of the peeps who got stand at the front.

Dan and I went to see the Killers at festivals across Europe. Here what we thought:

The first thing that you notice about the Killers at a festival is the size of the crowd. The second thing is the noise. When these guys are headlining it doesn’t matter who is on the other stages, there will be no one there. So bear in mind that if you are at a festival which sells 90’000 tickets, there will 90’000 people in the crowd so don’t wander over with 5 minutes to go and expect the best view. And bring the earplugs, because you are getting a wall of sound and noise coming up at you full pace for 90 minutes. Have a think about your favourite Killers songs and see if you can find a slow song or a ballad. You can’t; they don’t make them. So prepare yourself to jump, sing, be jumped on and sung into for the whole set. This is the festival equivalent of the last 20 minutes at your best mates wedding (but 90 minutes long). Forget taking drinks into the crowd, forget leaving half way through for a toilet break, forget finding your mates in there and forget staying in the same spot the whole gig. These guys are brilliant live, and they know it. Prepare yourself for a really long encore and for aching muscles all of the next day. Are they the best live band in the world (for me that’s the Stereophonics and for Dan it is Glasvegas), but are they the best at a festival – hell yeah. (oh and girls that isn’t lager that is being thrown backwards from the front).

Sean Collins

Sean moved back to the UK after living all over the world for years. He basically writes about booze filled antics, about avoiding tourists and not paying top whack to get in anywhere. He still misses Mark and Lard being on Radio 1 and is possibly the clumsiest person in the Northern Hemisphere. Also he is stupidly scared of dogs and thinks that everyone needs at least 7 cups of coffee a day to keep their heart running (all with biscuits to dunk of course).

The Killers are headlining Benicassim and T in the Park in 2009 – buy your tickets here from 9am Friday

To see the Killers live in Paris – click here

Competitive Kate's guide to the mountains

Great news, Europe is having amazing snowfalls this winter (yay); some of the best for a few years. Saas Fee, Chamonix, Zermatt and Argentiere have over 300cm of snow on the upper slopes and most of the on piste runs throughout France are rated as excellent. The lower slopes in Bankso already have over 215cm of snow and most of the ski lifts are open.

All this snow does come at price though; it is blinkin' cold, especially higher up the slopes at the moment. I’ve just come back from a few days in Chamonix - perfect as it is only an hour from Geneva - the slopes were very quiet so no wasting time queueing either. The temperature (with wind chill) was dipping as low as minus 30 so you need to be prepared : take plenty of layers with you, invest in some good quality mitts to keep your fingers warm and take care to protect your neck properly (an old rugby scarf just won’t do). Make sure that your hair is perfectly dry before you venture outside and that you have located a fantastic bar to drink some vin chaud and defrost. The weather is making for even better après ski as the bars are fuller, earlier. Try and get to the slopes midweek if possible as the great snow is pulling more and more weekend breakers to the mountains.

Kate Walton

Kate is our resident ski angel and is unbelievably competitive. Never ever ever ever ask to join her training groups and if you see her coming down the mountain then get out of her way quickly or you will be sorry. She also loves The Killers, Kings of Leon and Chris Hoy.

Book a £99 pound ski holiday here from 9am Thursday

Dan and Grace's festival tit bits

 

T In The Park is once again looking like a cracker this year, with greying, cheese-making legends Blur headlining alongside The Killers and the now stadium-humping Kings Of Leon. Lower down the bill is looking equally exciting with the much anticipated return of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Katy Perry for your faux-lesbian pop kicks.

Our band to look out for at this year’s festivals is Ra Ra Riot. Fresh from supporting Vampire Weekend across Europe last year, they’re an exhilarating concoction of Arcade Fire’s orchestral beauty and the poppy thrills of the aforementioned Weekend and The Strokes. Don’t miss them.

Dan Pilkington

Dan is a former music journalist, is our resident musical expert and loves bands named after inanimate objects. Never ever ever ever ask him if he knows anywhere good to go when the pub shuts,unless you want sit on sofas held together with gaffer tape in bar that only sells 1 lager (always overly strong). It will however have a great stereo and will have featured on the album cover of a 1960s EP that only ever sold 60 copies,

Book T in the Park tickets here from 9am on Friday

One Click Poll - Europe's biggest party?

One Click Poll - The UK's biggest party?

the bloody tower

How on earth can I possibly do more good stuff and not get murdered on Valentine’s day. I though to myself over a cold beer the other day. What I consider good stuff never seems to tally with the opinion of she who must be obeyed. Not wanting to spend my entire wages on ill advised presents (and certainly not wanting to go down the stuffed bear with attached rose option), I was stuck. In the words of U2, I was about to get “stuck in a moment that I couldn’t get out of” and it there really didn’t seem to an easy answer.

Then, from the deepest recesses of my grey matter popped an idea. And this was a winning idea, an idea so good that even I couldn’t fail with it. The Tower of London, her indoors has been on about it for years. The only problem being, was it a strong enough idea to persuade the women in question to get out of bed after a pretty large session the night before.

Would you believe it, it was! So at 13:00 (not too early) we brought both or hangovers and man flu to the gates of the Tower. And then I got really lucky.

Each ticket comes with the tour by the Beefeaters and includes the entrance for the crown jewels exhibit. This is great for 2 reasons, firstly I didn't have to think on a weekend, secondly I didn’t have to pay extra as I normally would have. Now what you need to understand is that I have been here loads of times (admittedly all between the ages of 5 and 11) and went to uni just opposite the entrance. Would I enjoy it? Would it seem like a detour on my commute home? Thankfully none of the above were true. We both loved it.

It’s one of the best attractions in the UK for making you feel a sense of national pride (if only when American tourists gasp when told it was built before 1906) and you’ll be surprised about how many facts that you can remember from those school history lessons. Make sure you set aside a good few hours though, as you get quite a lot included for your ticket price. The guided tour takes around 60 mins and you need approximately 30 mins to see the Crown Jewels. It’s also worth noting that the Tower shuts around 16:30.

So I pulled a blinder with the Tower tickets, now I just need to work out how to watch the rest of the six nations without distraction!

Sean Collins

16/02/09

Sean and Dan are escaping the shackles and trying to fit in more good stuff. Follow their adventures at  http://sftw.typepad.co.uk/

Book tickets to the tower here

What is more 2009?

Book a top secret flight

Seeing more good stuff - The Tate Triennial and playing at being a luvvie

Move mouse to the left, move mouse to the right. Count total number of paperclips, adjust screen monitor settings. Check outlook, update twitter. Eat mouthful of dry supermarket sandwich, drink mouthful of tea that you forgot had gone cold. Get crumbs of said dry sandwich between the keys on your laptop. Attempt to remove the crumbs with (in successive order) plastic ruler, metal ruler, pen, pencil, staple, post it note and finally used envelope.

Never again have a lunch break like the above. The UK is chuck full of things that last around 40 minutes. On Thursday we headed down to Tate Britain to try and enlighten ourselves and learn more over lunch than the recommended daily amount of salt that is contained in a tuna and sweet corn baguette.

Our supposed photo shoot is scuppered by the fact that you can’t take photos in the Tate, but don’t let this put you off. Around 100 years older than it’s more celebrated cousins (Tate Modern, St Ives and Liverpool), this may actually be the most accessible of the family Tate. To the casual art observer, modern art curators appears to hedge their bets between the comic style escapades of Lichtenstein and the absurdity of the modern British Artists. They seem to hope that their pithy 50 word write ups will keep us interested.

This isn’t so much of a problem in Tate Britain. The scenes are recognisable to us, they simply look appealing and heaven forbid seem to actually have been painted using brushes (rather than a potato peeler held upside down in bio degradable hemp and organically sourced violet juice). They are pleasant to the senses and in a refreshing change, no one bumped me with a oversized rucksack and there were no unorganised scrums around the most popular of pieces.

It’s just the right size for a 40 minute perusal and for some reason you come out a tad happier than when you went in.

The Triennial is on until 26th of April and the entrance to the gallery is dominated by an enveloping mushroom cloud of pots and pans. Rather than stack their gallery full of oversized sculpture, the curators here seem to pick and choose only best. (cue spontaneous mass applause).

Best of all there are free tours at 12:00, 14:00 and 15:00. Helping you come back to the office full of insightful anecdotes (without even having to try) and giving you and excuse to fill the afternoon with dramatic hand gestures and dramatic scarf wrapping.

Sean Collins

12/02/09

Sean and Dan are escaping the shackles and trying to fit in more good stuff. Follow their adventures at  http://sftw.typepad.co.uk/