The Go! Sheffield crew are currently running a series of events in Sheffield under the name “Summer of Discontent”. Their beef is basically that there isn’t much big stuff going on in Sheffield this summer so they have decided to link some small events together under one banner. You can find out more about upcoming events on their myspace page. Plus you need to read their fanzines, they are fantastic. They were also the people behind try to get the Cooling Towers turned into an arty outdoors superstructure and they won the Channel 4 programme. Not sure it’s going to happen now though cos of the company that owns them. There was a piece on them in the Guardian Society section a while back.

Last weekend we attended the OS120 free party which was good fun if a little unattended (well ok the venue is absolutely enormous so everyone congregated outside). The rest of the weekend was pretty good fun too including seeing Bison (another of Sheffield’s finest) playing at Plug.

As one who used to go to Butlins and absolutely loved it, ButlinsMemories is a great site. I felt a proper nostalia kick reading the brochures for 1986 Summer Holidays. However, for the ultimate in retro design, take a look at these Butlins Top of the Tower Restaurant menus. I never actually realised that Butlins owned the BT Tower Restaurant, the menu appears to be entirely based around French cuisine (well I suppose it was “à la carte”!) (Click on it to see full size)

…And you had to spend at least £2.50 with a Couvert Charge (sic) of 40p!! It’s also good to know that fresh vegetables were served “whenever possible”. I can see the French chef opening tins of Tesco haricots verts.

More stuff:

• These photos of Pennsylvania Station in NYC are amazing. The place was absolutely huge!
• Suppose I’d better drop this Guardian article about Solo Living’s eco threat now I’m living the bachelor lifestyle. I suppose it’s true if you were profligate with energy but I like to make sure everything is switched off at the wall still and the composter is going well (although the worms have died in the Wormery) so I think I’ll be ok.
• If you ever think ID cards are a good think, just read this Wired Article and this Guardian article and then see what you think. I will say no more about it.