Anyway, the other week I got an email suggesting I have a listen to an e.p. of a Mancunian Grime artist who goes by the name Skittles.  Now, when I hear the word grime I think of dirt and when I hear the word Skittles I think of  brightly coloured sugary treats. Grime+Skittles= Bright and dirty sugary treats? Hmm I wondered, is this someone fucking with me again? I read on and was told to imagine Frank Skinner and scroobius pip but more urban.  Whereas I might have hit delete I instead hit download.  My curiosity was well and truly piqued!

So what can I tell you about Skittles? Well, he was born into this world in 1986 under the moniker of Liam Kelly and was diagnosed as suffering from ADHD at the age of 11.  In 2007 he released an album called 2 Pints of Brandy and a Packet of Skittles, a heady concoction if ever there was one and in 2009 he featured in a Nokia Marketing viral campaign advertising their Nokia 5310 handsets, writing and performing a purpose made tune titled ‘Comes with Music’ and Skittles and Ed Lilly (Director from Blind Aura Pictures) were commissioned by Manchester Youth Offending Services to write and produce the Councils new anti-knife crime film ‘ManHunt’ and Eminem’s DJ, Green Lantern, described him as The English Slim. So it’s safe to say the guy has some talent.

Back to the e.p. which is a sampler from his soon to be released second album, with a title I love, Poor with £100 Trainers. There are 4 tracks and all four are pretty good, so much so I didn’t notice that I had listened to it 5 times on repeat the first time I gave it a whirl. The tunes, for want of a better word, are catchy and the lyrics combine humour with seriousness.  Despite being a free download I thought I’d embed 2 of the tracks, Boys in Blue and Suicide Bombers, for you to have a listen to as I know some of you won’t bother clicking on another link to download them, it’s okay, we can all be a little lazy at times!

You’ll notice that the Suicide Bombers track has a sample from a Billy Connolly stand-up routine near the end, when I heard it I had a real belly ache laugh and I say that as someone who is not a huge fan of Billy’s recent material but I had to go seek out the full clip on YouTube which you might enjoy as well, perhaps not if you’re easily offended tho.

You’ll find Skittles website at www.oneguycalledskittles.com and the e.p. can be downloaded free from http://shop.oneguycalledskittles.com if you enjoyed the 2 clips here you’ll enjoy the other two and I dare say you’ll enjoy the album when it comes out later this year.

I should also mention a great website, Example Magazine, which will keep you informed on the musical, social and creative culture in Manchester, one of the most vibrant in England. (Nobody tell the Scousers I said that!)

I was fortunate enough to bag an invite to a private viewing with a question and answer session with James and it feels a shame that it is only going to be around for 3 days over the Summer Bank Holiday.  So while some Londoner’s will be trotting down to Nottinghill for the carnival they’ll miss this merge of visual art and music.

Basically James has composed a variety of tracks, handed them to some highly acclaimed creative artists in the field of music, art, film, fashion and design and told them to come up with something for the exhibition. There are video arcade machines, toy sculptures, animatronic designs, lightboxes and believe it or not Azzi Glasser even created a scent!  So if you thought art galleries were just filled with dull paintings, this one will turn your world upside down!

Sadly I only had my mobile phone’s camera available to take some snaps with but the truth is, still photography doesn’t do it justice.  For me, some of the best pieces were the audio visual installations which included Jamie Shovlin’s TV installation Untitled (Separate Half), John Hillcoat’s Knob Creek, Jonathan Glazer’s amazing film Red Clay and Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones’s stunning video Follow Me Down. Warren and Nick also provided some stunning artworks on paper and glass.

As I said, it’s on from 27-30 August 2010 at The Haunch of Venison, 6 Burlington Gardens, London giving you 3 days to view 44 pieces that took 3 years to put together and was funded by Lee Message and her husband Brian, who manages Radiohead. More importantly, it’s FREE!

From the conversations I’ve had over the past few weeks you possibly fall into one of two camps.  You either had a Soda Stream or you were friends with someone who had one.

Interestingly, so far, I’ve yet to find someone who had one but everyone seems to have had a friend who did.  Far be it for me to suggest that people were only befriended for their Soda Streams but as a kid I think the only reason I  stayed friends with a classmate was because his mum would always say those magical words when I used to visit his house, Would you boys like a Soda Stream? and off we would rush into the kitchen to make our own individual little bottles of fizzy pop.

As we grew older I realised that even Soda Stream wasn’t enough to keep our friendship alive, especially not after I caught him kissing Arlene one lunchtime.  Yes, even as a nine year old my heart was being broken by a girl and no amount of fizzy pop would make up for the sense of betrayal I felt.  After all, I had told him I wanted to marry her and then he went and kissed her!

But I digress, that was 1980 and little did we know what life lay in store for us.  Fast forward to 2010 and Soda Stream is back.  The machines themselves may be a little fancier looking but they’re still getting busy with the fizzy with a whole new range of flavours to complement the classics from way back when.  The reason I know this is because I attended a tasting session in London’s Soho House basement bar where the good people from Soda Stream were asking for thoughts on what flavours they should bring to the UK market.

Of the flavours I thought I’d like, those I recalled from childhood memories, they proved not to be as good as my memory suggested and instead I found myself preferring some of the newer blends.  Of course I still loved the Cherry flavour, only now they call it Cherry Classic but the lemonade didn’t taste as lemony as I thought it did and whereas on paper the Green Tea and Berries sounded awful, it was delicious and would have to be the first one on my shopping list after the Cherry, closely followed by the Pink Grapefruit that was just the right mix of sharp and sweet.

Now, while the machine of the 80′s was a white, yellow and red affair there are now no less that 5 different styles of drinks maker with one to suit every budget, from £49.99 to £149.99. Gone are the small glass bottles, now they’ve been replaced with 750ml plastic variations, much better for sharing or if you’re really thirsty for hogging to yourself.

Likewise the range of flavours far exceeds those from days gone by. As well as the Green Tea and Pink Grapefruit there’s Passion Fruit and Mango, an energy drink in the style of Red Bull and a Strawberry blend that not only smelled like Bird’s Angel Delight, it tasted just as bad but I seemed to be the only person who thought so with all of the girls claiming it as a favourite.

I wonder how long it will be before we see the return of other classic brands from the 70′s and 80′s.  I’m thinking specifically of things like Shake n Vac, Trio biscuits and Um Bongo fruit juice. All products that had catchy jingles and slogans and were a sign of sophistication for 10 year olds the country over.  Quite why Soda Stream disappeared from the UK I don’t know but it seems it never went out of fashion in other parts of Europe like Germany, where Cherry is a very popular flavour and of course the USA, who are partial to more than a glass of Green Tea.

Whatever the case, Soda Stream is back and I hope it’s here to stay, especially as I can now buy one of my own instead of befriending someone who will only go and kiss the girl of my dreams thereby making me choose between Cherry pop and true love…everyone knows Cherry pop will always win out in the end!

Now, while I’ve gone through periods of not drinking before, I’ve never gone over 6 months. Usually because I’ve gotten sick and tired of paying pub/club prices for cola, lemonade and fruit juices and there’s only so much of each you can drink in a night.  Nowadays it’s much easier to find alcohol free beers, ciders and wines both in supermarkets, online and even in bars, pubs and clubs.

So, what about after the year was up?  I decided I would not stop drinking alcohol mainly due to the fact that I enjoyed wine and couldn’t imagine never drinking it again.  What I have found is that I very often don’t drink alcohol when I am out and when I do, I drink less than before.  At home I drink fruit juice, cordials or alcohol free beer with Bavaria 0.0% my favourite by a mile.  If I could find it in bars I’d be super happy as it’s so very tasty.  I’ve recently tried their wheat beer and it’s also very refreshing, especially in the recent warm weather we’ve been enjoying.

But back to the wine. My heart sank when I perused Tesco and discovered they still sold Eisberg alcohol free wine, my memories of it from 20 years ago left a lot to be desired but at £2.99 a bottle I thought why not!  that was until I tasted it… there are not enough words in the English language for me to describe how awful it is and even my limited Arabic, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese can’t assist.  All I can say, politely, about it is the Chardonnay tasted like still cider that had been left in a glass overnight!

Thanks to Twitter I discovered The Alcohol Free Store, who could have guessed there were so many products that contained alcohol that a store could exist with alcohol free variations.  I was keen to try some of the red wines they stock but was reluctant to order 12 bottles in case I didn’t like them.  After all it’s not like regular wine where the alcohol numbs your taste buds and by the second glass you think it’s f*cking delicious!

John, the owner, very kindly allowed me to buy one bottle to sample and I’m glad I didn’t buy a case. I didn’t enjoy it at all. I like my reds big and beefy and this was well, light. Light and fruity and reminded me too much of Ribena.  It was very drinkable but not what my palate was used to or wanted, I finished a glass and a half and put it back on the shelf.  A few days later I went to pour another glass and got the shock of my life when I removed the cap, a strong vinegary smell filled my nostrils.  I’d clearly not paid attention to the label which advised it should be kept in the fridge once opened!  I can only suspect that as there is no alcohol in the wine there is nothing to preserve it. It looked like I was going to have to stick to alcoholic wines.

Then a few months ago John emailed me to say that they had now become the supplier of Ariel alcohol free wines, an offshoot of the J. Lohr  company in California. These are award winning wines from a well respected producer that had competed and won against alcoholic varieties.  Would I like to try them? I was hesitant, even tho there was a Cabernet Sauvignon in the range.  I told John I’d get back to him, promptly forgot and then was pleasantly surprised when a few weeks later a box arrived with a bottle each of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Rouge.

I tried the Cab Sav and was a little disappointed, it was certainly better than the previous one I’d tried but still lacked that earthy, full bodied flavour I was seeking.  However I accepted that I probably would never find it in an alcohol free wine, partly because it was probably the alcohol that contributed to the taste I was desiring. I put the other wines on the shelf and returned to drinking Bavaria 0.0%, until this evening!

With no cold beers ready and a dinner of ribeye steak and salad I decided it was time to give the Merlot a try.  What did I have to lose? My palate it seems had adjusted to life without full bodied alcoholic reds and so whilst the first sip cried out Weak! Fruity! it didn’t scream Ribena! which I took to be a good sign.  After finishing the glass I poured some more, You know what? This was good!  Sure it wasn’t big and earthy but it had a nice aroma and very good after taste.  Whilst it does state it should be refrigerated after opening it didn’t last long enough to be a concern!  You may also be interested to know that a 250ml glass contains only 60 calories. Yes, alcohol free drinks are good for those watching their weight!

As the Ariel wines are premium wines it means they are not cheap.  In the US they are around $9-$11 a bottle, factor in import duty (but no alcohol duty as they are under 0.5%) and shipping and VAT and whatever margin required for profit and you’re looking at £7.49 a bottle.  Which for some people might be double what the’d spend on supermarket plonk.  Even I’m not sure I’d want to buy 12 bottles at that price but I’m quite enjoying not waking in the morning with a groggy head so perhaps it’s a price worth paying?  Perhaps if I could buy 6 bottles at a time I’d perhaps treat myself every other month, I’m not sure.

I do however think that there should be more alcohol free offerings out there.  Bars and clubs are notorious for selling alcohol free beers and ciders at almost the same price as their alcoholic equivalents. Yesterday I paid £2.66 from Waitrose for 6 330ml bottles of Bavaria, that’s 44p a bottle.  275ml bottles of Becks Blue in an average bar, if you can get it, are around £2.45 while regular Becks is about £2.80 with a pint of orange juice and lemonade anything from £2 to £3.60 (the bar that charged me £3.60 sold Stella for £2.50 a pint!)

If bars sold alcohol free drinks for less I’d be more inclined to go out more often for a drink but when I can buy 6 bottles for the price of 1 you can understand why bars are being left to hardcore drinkers, landlords/brewers don’t exactly make it welcoming to non-drinkers.

Wetherspoons is an exception, I was taken aback recently when they charged me only £1.20 for a bottle of Becks Blue, not bad for London’s West End! However Becks Blue is perhaps the worst beer available and sadly stocked by just about everyone

Things can only get better for stay at home alcohol free drinkers with the recent revival of Soda Stream to the UK market, but that’s a story for another day

So, the end result is I’ve deleted all the drafts as can’t seem to find as much enthusiasm to finish them off as I obviously had when I started them.  This means of course that some topics I really wanted to mention I won’t because I’ve forgotten them.  That’s not to say the topics were not worth remembering, it’s because I naturally have a bad memory I sometimes rely on my blog to remind myself of things I like!

One campaign that I should mention is one being run by Aviva, it’s their Tell Us Your Story campaign.  They are looking for people who’ve gone out of their way to help others, caring souls (their words not mine!) who have answered the needs of an individual, family or local community.  You nominate them online and could win a £1,000 prize for Story of the Week.   Stories are also voted for by the public, with the overall favourite receiving a specially tailored grand prize worth £10,000. And it doesn’t stop there!  For every nomination made Aviva will be donating £1 to the Street to School programme.

This was a campaign that was brought to my attention about 3 weeks ago and I started to write about it and got side tracked however I was flicking through the newspaper when I actually paid attention to one of the full page ads, it was actually for the Tell Us your Story campaign.  If I’m honest I only paused to look at it because it was almost a page of yellow and it demanded a second look.  That said, the copy was deathly dull and that may explain why I’ve not heard much about the campaign and as I work in the third sector, these things are usually well circulated.

I think that in itself is a shame as it certainly looks worthwhile but I fear it may miss a larger target audience due to it’s ‘lack of life’.  My experience of the people that have the stories to tell is they do not have the time to read 4 condensed paragraphs of marketing techno-babble, hell I can barely do it and I’m selfishly only looking after myself!

In totally unrelated news I bought another painting from Scott Saw.  This one is based on his Axiom character.  Regular readers may recall I bought a few Axiom prints last year.  I probably ended up paying around $125 more than I needed to because I ended up outbidding myself after making my initial auction bid on the wrong account!  That said, I didn’t mind paying more as I paid what I thought was a fair price and allows the artist to know his work is appreciated.

Now I just need to figure out where to hang things, I’ve already started hanging art in the hallway and some walls have more art than wall on show. Like books and tattoos, collecting is a sometimes impulsive, sometimes long drawn ut process but ultimately very rewarding and enriching, even if we sometimes don’t realise it until much time has passed between acquisition and that light-bulb on moment.

And from charity to art to drugs in a few paragraphs!  I was intrigued to read about some new drug (Alemtuzumab) they’re hoping to licence which is based on the THC found in marijuana.  What’s interesting is that because marijuana is natural it cannot be patented so they have to extract it (the THC), jiggle around a proton or two and call it a unique process, earn a patent and small fortune from governments that prescribe the drug as a relief to suffers of MS.

From what I can gather this drug will cost on average £300pm per patient.  How much cheaper to dispense medical marijuana and allow people to self medicate with cookies, tea or an old fashioned spliff and all for far less than £300 per month!  They say it would be drug dealers who have most to fear from the legalisation of drugs, I’m not so sure myself…Drug patents, legalised drugs, is BIG business with a truly global market.  Something to think about huh?

With luck(?!) the gap between posts will reduce over the coming weeks.