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DANNY ROBINS' EVENTS GUIDE: 17TH JUNE
|13:40 UK time, Thursday, 17 June 2010
World nettle Eating Contest - Sat 19th June
We talked a few weeks back about National Be Nice to Nettles Week - an event aimed at counteracting the bad press that stinging nettles get, well this events goes one further than that - people actually eat them.
Yes, you're right, it is nuts and it may not surprise you to hear that it goes hand in hand with drinking heavily. The event is organised at The Bottle Inn in Marshwood in Dorset.
Competitors have one hour to eat as many stinging nettles as they can. They are handed 2 foot long stalks and have to eat the leaves off them then the number of bare stalks is added up. The winner is crowned 'King of the Stingers'.
The record holder is Simon Slee with 76 feet of stalks - that a lot of nettles. There are various different techniques as to how to get them down but it's generally agreed that drinking lots of beer in between mouthfuls helps.
You have to use the regulation nettles supplied - no smuggling in less toxic nettles you've grown specially at home. The only other rule is that the nettles can't leave your body. Anyone going to the toilet, or worse still vomiting in the car park, is disqualified.
If you haven't come across Modern Toss yet, it's a series of short cartoons defined by bad drawing and swearing. It's perhaps got some of the spirit of Viz, but instead of being comic strips these are generally short - one or just a few frames. Like Viz though it's a publication that revels in the fine Bristish tradition of enjoying being creative with foul language.
It's the creation of Mick Bunnage and Jon Link and has spawned books, cartoons in The Guardian and two series on Channel 4. They even have an iPhone app that shouts swearwords at people you know.
Now it's getting a retrospective exhibition at the Maverik Showroom in Shoreditch in London from the 22nd June - 4th July.
They are promising such delights as a 'Periodic Table Of Swearing', a drop-in art therapy session in the form of a 200metre long communal cartoon, some live poetry reading from their character the Drive-by Abuser and some highly collectible dirty pictures, hand-stitched in wool by enthusiastic mature ladies.
Should be fun and rude.
Mexicans Ahoy
A couple of gigs caught my eye this week that are linked by a Mexican theme. The first one is a double bill by a band with a split personality. Hardcore US punk band The Bronx have, over the last year, been nurturing a rather eccentric side project second life as as a Mariachi band - Mariachi El Bronx. Goodness knows where they got the idea from but they're actually pretty good. To warm up for Glastonbury, they're playing a couple of gigs next week where their mariachi selves will be supporting their punk selves.
23rd June - Talking Heads in Southhampton.
24th June - Kasbah, Coventry
25th June - Glastonbury
26th June - White Rabbit, Plymourth
28th June - Barfly, Camden
And, if that sounds bizarre, on Tuesday 22nd at the famous 100 Club in London, you can witness El Vez, the Mexican Elvis - I'm the proud owner of several of his albums - he's not just an Elvis impersonator, he' so much more, weaving Elvis and many other artists into his Mexicanised versions which are very funny and often quite satirical and politically aware. He stood for President recently. He didn't win, instead he's doing a tour of Kiss cover versions. I can't wait.
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