Profil von gotiges7

There is a Billy Connily joke where his music teacher screams at him to appreciate! Appreciate Connily! Now!
Art can’t be enjoyed under pressure and that’s why the free galleries in london are so great.
I wander in here all the time and am rewarded with new exhibitions and new enjoyment of paintings I’ve already seen. For me the portraits of long dead or contemporary characters really brings alive the stories of my adpoted country.

My new favourite Weatherspoon. This place is literarly home to a great deal of people in Stoke Newington. It’s got an incredible local feel to it, but without being intimidating or nasty.
What I like most though is the layout of the building. Lot’s of different spaces and a large outdoor area with tree’s and a cat.

The best outdoor seating I’ve seen in London.
Seriously this place has it’s own park out the back. I guess that makes it a little bit like a summer pub. Otherwise it’s not a bad sort of a space. Seems a trendy place amongst your younger 30 somethings. Beer and food are pricey, as you would expect, but not overly so. The couches are comphy, the staff are friendly and I do like places that still have old pinball machines. The chalk board above the urinal suggests a playful attifude from the management.

A little bit of Camden in Stoke Newington.
Ryan’s bar is quite polarising iin the views of people I’ve discussed it with. I’ve had some great nights here, but some people find the rough edges and the punk clothing of some of it’s visitors a little intimidating I guess. It’s a bit like a slightly tamer version of the good mixer in Camden.
Beer here is well priced and it has a range of tellies that show live sport.
Down stairs though attracts very good crowds for live music and I would consider it to be the best venue for this on Church St. The bands I’ve seen have all been either rock or punk and have inspired good reactions in the audiences.

A typical English Pub in the middle of Church St, but with a far younger and trendier clientel than it’s rivals. A very popular place to watch sport, with a large LCD screen as well as a large projector for big matches.
I’ve not been, but upstairs is a versatile space used primarily for live comedy on a Thursday evening.
Out the back is a surprisingly big beer garden.
My favourite thing about this venue though is that you are encouraged to bring in take out food. They keep menu’s behind the bar and there is a wide selection very close by.

Need to come back some time and maybe see this place in a better light.
On the plus side it had a energetic atmosphere and the beer seemed really cheap.
This was all undone though by quite simply the longest wait for a drink I’ve experienced in London. It wasn’t even that busy, but it took nearly half an hour to get served. People (including myself) were getting a bit grumpy as we all pressed and waited while an understaffed and underpaced team waddled around the bar.
I’ll come back though and maybe it will be different. Can’t go past cheap beer!

This is a short review but the quality of the venue is inversely related to the quantity of my words.
The price of a dodgy fry up place, with the quality and ambiance of a good restaurant. Every meal I’ve had is great, the service is always tipable, and the general mood is relaxing and friendly. Simply the best value eatery on Church St. Love the scrambled eggs with peppers.

I’m finding that all reviews are dualistic. Not the swordfighting kind (although that does relate here) but you are always reviewing both the place, and the event that you experience within it.
I saw Spamalot at the Palace theatre on Tuesday and I was deeply impressed with the play and had very positive feelings about the venue.
I always buy the cheapest tickets for plays - have probably never spent more than 20 pounds and that was for Chicago and it was crap. Simple maths. A 70 pound ticket is not seven times better than a ten pound ticket, maybe twice as good, but that just strikes me as a bad deal.
Admitadly I have strained my ears and neck throughout performances so it was with some approbation that I booked £12.50 tickets and invited friends to an evening at the theatre.
Exiting slightly sake sauced from a roast duck mortury, we swaggered into the ticket both and received the enormous news that our seats had been upgraded from the outer cosmos to the middle of the dress circle. I had organised these tickets as a repayment of kindness to a few friends and my apparant generosity was now happily positioning me in credit.
Staff were friendly, the venue seemed clean, the wine was priced as though we were Saudi Princes and the seats were perfect.
I’m one of those people, and gosh there are a lot of us, who can near as recite the enitrety of Monty Python’s “The Holy Grail”. Was a little unsure how to prepare myself for this then except that I knew it was lovingly crafted by Eric Idle and had recieved broadly brilliant reviews.
And it was great. Really great. I was saying at the time that it was the best play I’d seen, but on colder reflection, it was at least very very good, if not this.
The worst bits, though they were good, were the dialogue from the fim. The best bits were the surprises, the hilarious songs, the great spectical, the pace of the thing and the ironic king arthur played by that indian guy from the Kumars.
I’m just spending my time now scanning the cheap theatre ticket web sites; trying to find the cheapest tickets on the worst nights to the best shows, and angling for upgrades.

The size of this large modern building in the heart of one of Londons coolest and priciest areas is, I think, representative of both the power of AI and it’s central function in our democracy.
I’m not a member, sadly just a non contributing admirer. I attended a function here on Monday however, a book launch promoted by New Internationalist magazine, with a simultaneous campaign launch to stop development of oil mining in the Yasuni tribal land of Equador.
Inside the building is modern and open planned. Security doors and scanners add a little drama to the peacful ambiance.
Our event took place in the lecture theatre on the ground floor. A deep elevated theatre with the latest technological facilities and a little room where they supplied us with wine and food.
Must visit during office hours to more round out my sense of this place. I felt very peaceful here though.
For Athiest humanists like myself, these buildings are our chrurches.

Friday nights at Koko’s might just be the best value evening in London. I’d never been - got the idea from a Qype search of music venues in Camden - and decided to take advantage of the “First 100 people get in FREE!” policy advertised on their website. Wasn’t to sure though if we’d arrive and find 500 people already in line or some other hitch. Got there right on 9.30 when the doors openend and we were the first in line. Still had to walk all the way round the big crowd barriers which was the first indication of how serious a club this must be.
Wandering inside we were rewarded with little flashing zero’s indicating how much we had to pay. I asked about pass out’s and the door lady said that was fine. So although we didn’t - there is nothing stopping you popping in here at 9.30, getting in free and then heading off somewhere else until the main acts start at around 11.30.
Walking inside was a bit like walking into somekind of camp post apocalyptic Daliesque dreamscape. Decaying red disco glam and a complete absense of people. Very much a playground for big kids.
We found our way into the mid level and placed ourselves for the evening on two of the very few seats, with a great view of the stage. From our vantage we watched as people emerged into the main floor below and reacted with the same dreamy lost wow factor that we did.
The transition from empty and mysterious to packed and club like was complete about two hours later when the bands started. We had seats on the first floor but the dance floor below was a sea of heads and waving arms. Really crowded.
The bands were OK, without being great. In my opinion they didn’t deserve the crowd that had gathered to watch them.
Probably a bit better than what you’d see at the Dublin Castle, but not a lot better. But then, this was free!
There were other rooms where DJ’s played but we didn’t move from our comfy seats.
The only thing that didn’t really suit me about the place was the type of crowd it attracts. Just SO white and middle class. Coming from hackney I’m used to a much more eclectic mix of punters. Although Camden is generally a WASP enclave, at least the folk at the Good Mixer and the Dublin Castle punk it up a bit. Koko’s is like a nice safe venue for twenty something trust fund trendies who like to dress snappy and drink vodka mixers.
Well, that’s how it seemed to me..