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25th June to 1st July 2002

Glastonbury. Saw Belle And Sebastian, Sieze The Day, Atilla The Stockbroker, Jon Otway, Orbital DJ set, great Japanese Shibusashirazu Orchestra (must look them up) and lots of general wierdness.

21st June 2002

Went to the Custard Factory for a event which was "something to do with a Green Man". It turned out to be a fantastic evening, with members of the British Druid Order officiating at a blessing for a fantastic statue of a Green Man build into the side of the new Custard Factory building. It was of course, also a Solstice celebration.

The Statue is almost as high as the building itself - probably 20-30 meters, and appears to be made out of boulders with wicker and foliage as arms, crotch and around the head. It has a classic Green Man face, which reminds me of the "Green Men of Birmingham" booklet which I bought a few months ago - I'll have to check it out and see if I can spot it in there.

I arrived around 8:30ish, and the statue and surrounding crowd were immediately evident, after a quick look round to suss out what was going on, I opted for some free mead and tried to get a place where I could see the action(whatever it might be...)

As I recall, Benny Green, the man behind the Custard Factory gave a short speech thanking everyone, and tried to persuade the artist (who was heavily pregnant) to say a few words too - unfortunately, she missed the microphone completely, so no one could really hear her - but it was good anyway.

The "Man" staring down at us benevolently seemed to give the whole space a peaceful atmosphere, despite the fact that England had gone out of the world cup earlier in the day. Perhaps the football did contribute, as all those who had started drinking at 7:30am would be safely horizontal by now, rather than preparing for a night of Bacchanalia!

The druid ceremony started, and I realised I recognised the 2 people leading from a similar event I'd attended at Avebury Stone Circle several years ago. The pair were a woman with jet black hair in a green cloak, and a taller man wearing a wolfskin. They were good humored throughout, the woman making quite a few comments about the Green Man's codpiece!

The ceremony took around an hour I guess, with the opening of the space to the 4 directions, a fire ceremony and the giving of gifts of flowers - lots were provided, and people invited to pick some and lay them as an offering, whilst avoiding the fire - apparently "druidic public liability insurance applies only to the next life, and not this one". The artist was invited to speak again (with the mike!), followed by drumming and dancing.

The ceremony ended, and was followed by a theatre of grotesque, including a man with increadibly stretchy skin - he could stretch the skin from his neck up and over his face, covering his mouth to the base of his nose. There was also a cinema, showing local short films and a tarot reader.

Live music kicked off, but although it sounded good, it didn't attract much of an audience.

Later in the evening, the excellent Mickey Greeney was among the people playing inside.

16th June 2002

Saw Misty's Big Adventure at the Jug Of Ale, launching their new single - "I'm cool with a capital C" (B.side is the excellent "Mulling it Over" - for details see Misty's Big Adventure

15th June 2002

Watched a couple of Weird Internet Animations - the top three on the page are fantastic - esp. the Japanese one! Weird thing is that wierd is one of those weird words which I can't spell, maybe I checked a dictionary or something. Interestingly, the traditional "Google search to get a democratic opinion on spelling" approach gives around 10% of occurances mis-spelt (http://www.google.com/search?q=wierd ).

Actually, that's not that interesting. I was expecting to get 50/50 - which I didn recently with one word, but I'm damned if I can remember it!

[later]

Listening to Plone but take a break to hear the wonderful corporate anthem of Ace Taxis (York) - "I'm so happy at Ace" ( http://www.acetaxisyork.com/song.htm ) According to their website, "The song is often sung in the taxi office, by groups of drivers, before starting their shifts." - is the whole of York like this?

Also saw Special Needs at the Jug Of Ale.

13th June 2002

Great Sherlock Holmes pages at: http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk With downloads of radio broadcasts linked from: http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/Radio/Introduction_to_Radio_Broadcasts.htm

Found another Brum blog - but not a very frequently updated one: http://www.btinternet.com/~haniver/Haniweb/journal/shing.htm

10th June 2002

Released a book (Nick Hornby's "How to be Good") via http://www.BookCrossings.com

7th June 2002

Looked at http://www.BookCrossings.com - the basic idea is that you mark books with a unique id number and the webside details, abandon them in public places and then see if anyone picks them up and registers them. What a groovy idea. I saw loads of good books in the local Oxfam shop today, and was almost tempted to buy some of them - even though I have copies already. Now, I have a plan...

Also found the amusing http://www.thespamletters.com/ weird letters in response to spam.