I accidentally in your base

http://www.devilducky.com/media/59809/ - Kermit the Frog covers Johnny Cash's version of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails.

A good weekend was had, starting with Chaos Engine in Cheltenham on Friday with elevenwords and a cast of thousands. There were a number of good bands, ninjagirl with a theremin (I want a photo of her playing with it captioned I HAS A THEREMIN - she looked very happy), Chaos Engine's probably-last-ever gig (which was great, although I think the last time I saw them was slightly better), and some terrible chav disco upstairs at the Two Pigs which we left fairly quickly.

Then there was Circus on the Circus near my place on Sunday with my brother and different cast of thousands, where there was juggling, hoola-hooping, fire-poi, fire-staff, and stuff. My brother appears to have (mostly) grown up into a raver (of the fields/barns and police raids variety rather than the shiny indoor arena variety) which meets with my hearty approval - it was good to spend a bit of time with him, and I reckon I'll go up to see him in the summer and go raving with him :)

In-between those two days of fun and enjoyment, I ended up in Slimelight on Saturday night with my brother and my upstairs neighbour (who is a Slimelight regular). Which was um... about as good as it ever is. I still can't figure out why people go there. My neighbour pointed out that if you go with a fun crowd and get suitably high then you can have a really good time there, but if you're with a fun crowd and you're suitably high you could have fun in a dark cupboard. In fact, probably more fun than you'd have at Slimelight. On the bright side, they appear to have massively upgraded their lighting, by which I mean that they've bought one decent light. Sadly it was installed in the downstairs room which was playing tedious shite (Industrial/Noise). Even more tedious than the tedious shite in the middle room (EBM), which at least played a couple of almost danceable tracks (my brother immediately spotted that cybergoths really should be at raves, where they'd be having far more fun than in the dingy shithole of a club that we were sitting in). The bands upstairs were really shite, just for variety (I have no idea what they were meant to be).

So, Monday then. Ugh.

But I won't have to run far, because they'll be at the end of my road.

This is both a reminder, and an announcement, and another reminder, plus not one, not two, but three, count them THREE invitations, to come and play with circus toys in the next few weeks.

Firstly, a reminder: Spitz is every Tuesday night, 7-10pm, and it's cool. If you do any circus skills stuff you should come along. I promise I will be there every week for the next 3 at a minimum, and probably most weeks until the end of Summer now. Come and play! :)

Secondly, another reminder (hey, nobody said I had to do them in order). On Sunday 1st April there is a circus skills event happening on the Arnold Circus bandstand at the end of my road, called Circus on the Circus. The roads will be closed off, and the very good circus training school Circus Space will be teaming up with the local bandstand community group to put on what sounds like a fairly big event with people performing and teaching all kinds of stuff. The event runs from 2pm to 9pm, and I'm tempted to hang around afterwards and see how much trouble I get in for spinning fire once it gets dark. Come and play!! :)

Thirdly, there is a 'Have a Go' day, a kind of warm-up event for the Circus on the Circus thing, on Saturday 24th March, which will just be on the bandstand but without the roads closed off etc. There will be some people from Circus Space and a load of kids from the local school, doing juggling, globe-walking, diablo etc, and it would be nice to go along and just mess around for a bit if the weather is good. Come and play!!! :)

Google map for Arnold Circus bandstand - Old Street is the closest tube, ~10 minutes walk to the west. Liverpool Street station is ~15 minutes walk south of the bandstand.

Oh yes, almost forgot, my kid brother is definitely coming down to the April 1st event, which is cool. He'll be heading into town on the Saturday and leaving on the Monday. It's nice to be able to do the 'big brother in the big city' thing and invite him to come stay for a fun event that he'll enjoy, the kind of thing that just wouldn't happen in his sleepy Norfolk village.

I live near a bandstand called Arnold Circus. The people who maintain it do little events there from time to time. On Sunday 1st of April* this year they will be having a 'Circus on the Circus' event, where they close the roads in the area off and do juggling (etc) shows and workshops all day. They're working in partnership with Circus Space, the circus skills training school near Hoxton Square, so it should be a very good event. Anybody else fancy coming along? Bring toys!

* yes yes, I know. As far as I am aware, this is not an April Fools joke.