For fun, here are photos of two coffee shops/cafes in the United Kingdom that have a certain amount of celebrity status associated with them. The first is the Beatles Coffee Shop in London. If you take the excellent and interesting two-hour Beatles Walking Tour, this is where your trip concludes.
The second is the Elephant House Tea and Coffee Shop in Edinburgh, Scotland where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. It has excellent food and an outstanding view of the Edinburgh Castle. Be sure to see the table where Ms. Rowling sat and wrote the books as she looked out over this lovely city. Definitely worth a stop to visit.
Been waiting all week for tickets to go on sale this morning for Radiohead since it was announced that they would be playing at the Palace of Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit in June. Was able to buy three of them this morning just a few minutes after they went on sale. Geeked, geeked, geeked!
Earth’s greatest rock band of our time here I come!
I have located my first scone that attained a perfect 25 points on my scone search scoring system. This morning I had an orange scone from the Panera Bread in Okemos and it was absolutely fabulous. By far the most flavorful scone I have ever eaten, with a wonderful light orange icing on top. Panera’s wild blueberry scone is also excellent (had one last week), but it is not quite as flavorful as its orange sibling.
In addition, I have discovered that two well-known area bakeries do not make/sell scones – Tim Horton’s and Grand Traverse Pie Company. Both have other excellent pasties and baked goods, but neither makes or sells scones. The fact that Tim Horton’s doesn’t have scones really surprised me, considering they originated in Canada. Perhaps they have scones at their Canadian stores, but apparently not here in America. Will have to inquire about that – I think they are missing a ready market.
The search continues, but future challengers will have to bake something truly extra special to match Panera’s orange scone, thus far, the only one to get a perfect score of 25 on my scone scoring system. Yummy!
I may be a tad late to the party, but the debut full-length CD by The Joy Formidable, entitled The Big Roar is absolutely fantastic. The band from Wales grabs the listener by the nuts (metaphorically) from the first track and then proceeds to send shivers right up your spine with every single note.
Of the twelve songs on The Big Roar, I tagged nine of them as five stars on iTunes, though picking a favorite would be difficult. My favorite tracks include (in track order)
“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”
“Austere”
“A Heavy Abacus”
“Whirring”
“Buoy” (see video below)
“Cradle” (see video below)
“Llaw = Wall”
“Chapter 2″
“The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade”
The band formed in 2007 and consists of Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd, and Matt Thomas. While listening to the album, I was captivated by some truly cutting edge alternative rock sounds created and recorded by the band. Check their stuff out – it is a terrific album and through this point in 2011 would easily be my choice of best debut CD of the year. Yes, it’s that good….and much, much more!
In April 2008, British band The Kooks released their second studio album entitled Konk. It was a terrific album with nearly every track being very enjoyable. The CD was replayed by me constantly for a good year. As a result, I have been eagerly anticipating and waiting and waiting for their third studio release.
Guess I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up too high. Sadly, according to a story on NME, “too high” may be part of the problem. Sorry gang, but this third album, entitled Junk of the Heart, doesn’t appeal to me, nor does it seem to have the energy, pulse, and passion incorporated into Konk. Is there such a thing as a junior slump?
I will admit, there is one track that is simply incredible and I have bought it on iTunes. The tune is called “Is it Me?” Several others are okay, but many of the tracks on Junk of the Heart lose me almost immediately from the start in a tangled jumble of semi-melodic fluff. I just wish the same intensity had been put into the balance of the album that was obviously incorporated into “Is it Me?” By the way, the video for ”Is it Me?” is quite imaginative and fun – just when you think there are no more great ideas for videos, someone knocks the ball out of the park. Give whomever came up with this video concept a raise.
Kudos to The Kooks on “Is it Me?” and the accompanying video, but most of the other tracks could have been used as filler on better albums.
Listened to and then bought the debut album released by the London-based alternative rock band, The Vaccines over the past weekend. Smartly entitled, What did you expect from The Vaccines? the album contains a lot of raw rock energy and talent. And while it is not a masterpiece, the new album is entertaining and enjoyable with some slick guitar playing and intense lyrics. It was also hard to beat the price at $6.99 for 12 songs on i-Tunes.
The Vaccines evoke thoughts of Glasvegas and The Ramones in their style and sound on this debut CD, but they also create a gritty vibe all their own. My favorite tracks of the new album include:
“All in White”
“A Lack of Understanding”
“Post Break-up Sex”
“Blow it Up”
“Wetsuit”
“All I Wanna”
Personally, I will be looking forward to hearing more from The Vaccines as they release future albums. They may not be The Cure, but they may just administer enough Brit grit rock ‘n’ roll for whatever ails you.
This heartwarming story from the BBC about a robin living in a store during the long and cold Scottish winter exemplifies one of the reasons I love Great Britain so much – their love of wildlife. My, their robins much more colorful than ours. Best wishes Robbie. Cheers!
Rick Brown
