It’s Pirate time!

For the fourth year running, Bring Stuff would like you to come and join us on the Tattershall Castle to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day – by turning up dressed as a pirate.

The incredible smart boffins at the Laboritoire Garnier have just completed their seven year mission to finally confirm that dressing as a Pirate actually makes it easier to talk like a Pirate.  True Story.

There is an event page on Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112746082113909

Come and join us on the Saturday 18th September 2010 on the Tattershall Castle to dress, speak and yarrrrgghhhhh as loudly as possible to each other and dance to cheesy tunes on the onboard nightclub.

There’s talk of several other events happening during the day, more details on charity walks and pre-party pub crawls on the south bank will be added later…

We’ll be on the aft-deck from 7.30pm onwards, it won’t cost you a shiny tooth to come on board the massive floating bar. They serve food and if you turn up that early you’ll see me try to speak as I jam a large cow-burger into my gaping maw.

As usual, if I’ve not lost my sea legs I’ll organise another Pirate Jig-off and stupid prizes for categories of Pirates outfits.  We don’t do best pirate (Captain Blood gets my vote), but unusual is right down my river inlet.

We’ll head downstairs to the nightclub at 11.00pm (it’ll cost you a fiver to get in) to party it up as only a Pirate can until the early hours of dawn.

Please don’t come as a Ninja, we still haven’t found any sign of Dave McReady who turned up last year wearing a pair of silken pjamas.  I mean honestly, who’d come to a Pirate party dressed as the arch nemesis of Pirates?  More importantly, we ALL know who’d win in a fight between Pirates and Ninjas, right?

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

And to think I nearly braved going home to get some hats and tashes – private booth karaoke becomes extremely special when you have a ‘thirsty’ button with a useful waitress who appears in the blink of an eye and a box of dress-up paraphernalia.

Now I likes me some Karaoke, it’s true. In the past I was used to seedy PA systems at restaurants, caterwauling on street corners and even whispered lullabies to sleeping babes (none of mine own). Nothing prepares you for a private session though, in luxurious surroundings, with a fully stocked and prepared cocktail bar with delightful canapés and such friendly and charming hosts.

My visit to the Islington branch of Lucky Voice was courtesy of Qype and Windows 7 Mobile and possibly I wouldn’t have ventured so far north to check out this venue. After spending a roaring night of rapping, singing and laughing I have so many good memories that I really would consider dragging my pals to do it, not because the central London venue is booked. Even when I wandered away from the bar to munch on more Hoisin Duck pancakes (folded elegantly like a seaside chip wrapper cone) to find my Mohito delivered to a charming young lady, nothing bothered the bar staff. He was already making a replacement for me, rather then leave it to melt on the bar edge – a sign of good training and thoughtfulness.

Being of Mediterranean blood, I tend to generate enough heat to power a small island and I would have preferred more air-conditioning in the booths – not to say it’s rubbish – but as I danced more and got even hotter, I felt the need to take the occasional mulligan in the sumptuous bar area to cool down at times. Aside from that, top times all round!

Check out my review of Lucky Voice – I am Bring_Stuff – on Qype

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

So facial furniture gave me a reason to expand my natural hirsuteness and see what else people could do with the recipe.  I quite like going out in Shoreditch too as you never can tell what you’re going to see or do.  For example, as we were waiting outside Hoxton Square a large police van pulled over and three coppers jumped out to accost a skinny jeaned youth, looking to find out what the long black thing in his hand was.  Expecting drugs or maybe even a flick-knife, the police seemed relieved to see it was a thin moustache, to the amusement of his plaid shirted jokers.  These guys weren’t even with us.

Rather dismally, the bouncers at the Electricity Showrooms did not get the memo and decided to be angry and rubbish – proclaiming “no fancy dress” as we tried to sneak in.

We quickly blew them off, updated Facebook and hoped people would find us over the road at the rather nice bar trafik.

In my chefs garb outside trafik I quickly made friends with the manager, mostly because people kept coming up to ask me what ‘is good tonight’ and ‘what are the specials tonight’ before heading in.  My Italian presence seemed to channel the hunger for pizza and spicy meatballs through the crowds wandering past.  Being a simple man from the country I didn’t realise that half of the enquiries probably weren’t about the food menu at the bar.

There were some spectacular lashes, costumes, piercings (although they may well have been real…) and even a real piece of ‘facial furniture’ in gold and black!

The stickers and cards we’d brung made friends with everyone, but I think the marker pens were the most popular.  A group of ladies allowed me to demonstrate on one of their number an ‘arm-tattoo’ and they proceeded to draw on themselves and other randoms throughout the bar.

I managed to escape with only a red pen mark to the face and a green inky legend on my apron proclaiming “Laura loves IT”, I never did find out which branch of Information Technology she was into or if she was a Mac or a PC.

As the After-Eights were withdrawn from the darker recesses of my bag, a quick demonstration soon showed everyone how to play the game.  If you’ve never played before, this is how it works:

01. Place After-Eight on forehead.

02. Wiggle head and use tongue to get chocolate into your mouth.

03. Do *not* use hands to move chocolate.

04. If chocolate falls on the ground, you lose.  If it goes in your mouth, you win!

After Anup proved himself the first place sticky-chocolate face of the night, he foolishly tried to do two at once.

After hearing seventeen subtly different versions of Lady Gaga’s songs at the club we dispersed into the night parading the giant Fork and Chef through the various fast food outlets of Old Street.  The rubber chicken tasted chicken flesh for the first time and we made friends with the ugliest kebab shop owner mankind has ever known.

On the night bus we shared the furry bounty of the night with different people heading south of the river.

One emotionally clad girl proclaimed that she would name her first-born (she wasn’t pregnant) after me as she loving caressed her new tashe in her bus-window reflection.  It’s kind of comforting to know there will be another Giacomo in the world one day.

To see all the photo’s from this wonderous night out, click on http://www.bringstuff.com/pictures

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

Tashes, lashes and facepaint gashes – come with some facial furniture (nothing porn oh pul-eese) and if it suits you’re welcome to come in full costumey attire.

Hats or glasses?

Facepaints or facial-fuzz?

Lashes or Tashes?

Wigs or… stickers?

Be prepared to share your fruity headwear or eyeliner pencil with everyone else, the best part of the night is when you share the tat you bring with complete randoms.

For those with nothing adorning their boat race we’ll provide some black card and doublesided stickytape – eyebrows and goatees are my speciality!

Have you ever played the After Eight game?  It may leave a sticky mess down your face but if you’re lucky someone saucy may lick it off!

We’re going to party at one of the nice places in Shoreditch – been a while since I’ve been out east. Do you know the Electricity Showrooms, just off Hoxton Square? There’s a nice little Google streetmap below, showing off the street view as google keeps misplacing the liddle marker!

Come join us – here’s the Facebook event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111587018865427

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

Yeah we know it’s Easter, but would you rather be stuffing your faces with chocolate at home with your family or having an AMAZING four day weekend in London?

Come join us on Saturday 3rd April 2010 for National Fancy Dress Day! Come dressed as the embodiment of 2009, whether that’s your best costume from last year (which was 2009) or someone or something famous in the last twelve months – Michael Jackson’s death, Disney buying Marvel comics or Avatar.  Come as anything from last year, we always need a small herd of Lady Gaga’s.

Facebook shenanigans are here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107014812652076&ref=nf

Club De Fromage in Islington have agreed that in honour of the sacred National Fancy Dress Day, all people who turn up and whisper the secret password into the ear of Tony Bellini or Slow Alfie will have their entrance fee donated to a fabulous charity – the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

It’s only £6 to get into the Club De Fromage for a ripper of a night out dressed up to party.  All you have to do is remember to say the special password when you pay to do a good deed.  Please don’t get too p*ssed and forget!

The secret password is “hunny bunny” – yell it into the hairy earlobe of the doorstaff.

We’re meeting up in The Angel for some cheap Wetherspoons love and last minute make-up before we head to the Academy IN FORCE. We’ll be at the back of the pub from 7.30pm onwards.

The Angel (google Street View)
http://maps.google.com/maps?layer=c&cbll=51.532267,-0.106247&cbp=12,251.04,,0,8.34&ved=0CFYQ2wU&ei=2hSoS5zCAuXMjAexsbyODA&ie=UTF8&ll=51.532267,-0.106247&spn=0,359.997953&z=19&panoid=DqDbeV_jtuLZX5Y5czHbzQ

And what of the rest of the weekend? If you want to foister unwanted chocolate eggs apon me, I’ll be dancing down the front somewhere fun, come say hi and I may tell you where!

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

My previous experience of court has unfortunately been a steady diet of LA Law starring Corben Bernsen (who once swapped a part in his film with the red paperclip guy).  All the lawyers wore cheap shiny suits and the only robe was on the judge.

What I found slightly more distressing here is that no hats are allowed without the permission of the Judge! Really?  But you wear a wig!

A practice that is reflected in it’s tradition, it’s still a little unnerving to talk to a man in a wig who is taking the wearing of the wig very very seriously.  At our recent Hats and Wigs party I remember being told by a young skinhead that the headwear made people feel invisible; either it was ignored or they were.  In court you don’t ignore the wig, you have to accept that it’s part of their uniform.

I can’t think of any other profession that requires a wig for it’s daily grind (except for strippers in some parts of the USA who have to wear a mirkin to avoid indecency laws) – can you?

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

Woohoo! Our favourite un-organised Santa Claus Convention is happening very soon. This makes us happy, especially when we think of all the mince pies, mulled wine and sprouts that are part of the course.

Saturday 12th September, Central London:

Santa meets at 12 midday at the Ice Wharf weatherspoons in Camden

We’re not going to the early bird screening of Fred Claus, but if you want to go, it’s for the early bird film Santas meet at 10.30am at Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square.

Expect at least one tube ride, so make sure you have a zone 1-2 travelcard for the day.

For the latest on whats happening during the days and updates to the start times – visit http://www.santacon.co.uk

There’s three after-parties, the two we are going to are listed at the bottom of the page.

Many people ask what is Santacon? More people should be saying, ‘can I join Santacon?’.

Yes you can, it’s very easy! So easy in fact Bring Stuff has started a Santa Grotto this year with a few fun things for santa to do (with the main groups) before the big parties in the evening.

Join the Bring Stuff group here (yep, on good ole Facebook) and the details will hit you next weekend. Join us, to do so you only have to bring Santa with you!

Facebook event page –>
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=193556314899

You should be now wanting the details, here they are:

1) Get a santa suit.

These sweet babies can be gotten from any pound shop – and depending on how you look at it, the more you spend the less likely you are to break it.

2) If you want to be a fancy santa, theme your Santa suit and name yourself. Like Disco Santa, Gay Santa or Santa’s little Helper…

3) Find chrismassy items to adorn your costume

Anything red and white tends to work, but if you’re theming yourself, adding nick-nacks will make people want to have their photo taken with you!

4) Prepare little gifts to give to people. These can be santa hug vouchers, sweets or chestnuts.

5) Saturday 12th December, head into Central London and follow the red and white wave!

Woolworths used to be a good bet for Christmas stuff, but these days pound shops also have an unusualy good range of knick-knacks. I found myself a santa-themed bottle holder that fitted my Port quite nicely.

Every year, the Santa elders proclaim a lot of love for our little friends the Elves. Most years, the Elves get picked on with chanting and sprout throwing. It’s your choice to Elf it up, you’ll be welcomed by us, but I don’t fancy your chances on the mean streets of London. Also best to avoid dressing as a tree, they often get mistaken for Elves.

Afterparties

These are the two we’re going to:

THERE ARE NO COMBINED TICKETS.

1. Santa Central at The Waterfront 6pm until 4am – £4.50p
The Waterfront Bar, 2nd Floor, Macadam Building, Surrey Street, WC2R 2NS.
It is just south of Aldwych. Cheap food, hot drinks, student priced bar and lots of seating for tired santae. It will be Santa only, and decorated for us.
http://www.kclsutickets.com/eventinfo/64/Santacon-2009-After-Party-The-Waterfront

3. AfterSkool Club at Tutu’s, 11pm – 4am – £5
(4th Floor, Macadam Building, Surrey St , WC2R 2NS Club only
Disco and loud music, discounted entrance for Santa and available by booking here:
http://www.kclsutickets.com/eventinfo/63/Santacon-2009-After-Party-After-Skool-Klub

Any spare tickets for all the above will be sold on the door, but I really would not suggest that you get your hopes up as the daytime numbers far exceed the capacity of all the above put together. Venues security reserve the right of admission. blah blah usual stuff.

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

09. Your wardrobe contains lot’s of stripy clothes but no berets, strings of onions or French flags.

08. Downloading files from the Internet only seems like fun, when you’re drinking Rum.

07. You start to hate Ninjas for no other reason then they fight in pyjamas.

06. You’ve had Facebook in Pirate language since last year and still find it humorous that ‘Friends’ is ‘shipmates’.

05. Slapping your thigh is more acceptable then clapping to show appreciation.

04. Holidays to sunny climes are often planned around pillaging.. erm visiting Rum distilleries.

03. In casual conversation you can mention at least two famous female pirates.

02. An area of your bathroom is affectionally known as the Poop Deck.

01. Your parrot speaks better English then you does, arrr.

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

Being a fellow Mediterraneanite, we had a lot to talk about, but then the conversation swam to photographs and thats when it became very interesting.

Mario runs a website called Someone Once Told Me, where he takes a black and white photo of you holding up a sign that has something that someone has once told you. It can be rumour, truth, anacronism or even pithy – as long as someone has once told it to you. you can even send them into him, he doesn’t mind.

Mario came along to the joint Team Nice Hats and Wigs party last weekend and armed with his usual tools in trade, he snapped quite a few people with his placard. I have yet to see the results, but I expect they will be appearing on his website shortly, or you could have a look here and wait patiently:

http://www.someoneoncetoldme.com

… or if you want to follow him on Twitter, you could follow him here @marioSOTM

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.

In honour of International Talk Like a Pirate day on Saturday 19th September, we are hosting an International Dress Like a Pirate day. Come dressed as a Pirate and bring other pirates, tis time ter be Pirating up the landlubbars!

The Tattershall Castle pub is free to get on board and the main bars close at 11pm.

If you want to come to other fancy dress parties, join the group here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2346332779

International Talk Like a Pirate day:
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

If you need some perspective on what a Pirate is:
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Pirates

Remember, dressing as a Pirate also helps combat Global Warming:
http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif

How to Talk Like a Pirate:
http://www.yarr.org.uk/

Piratey Jokes:
http://www.piratejokes.net/

Costumes should be pirate based, with good pirates, hairy pirates or better yet sexeh pirates. The Tattershall Castle is a floating pub with five bars, nightclub and yer basic pirate food; fish and chips. The perfect place for Pirating London! With indoor and outdoor refreshments whether it’s a choppy garn or a milkpond, they sell Rum so who cares.

With dubloons to be found, advanced Pirating classes (including pronounciation and Pirating history) and sea shanties to be sung, it’s going to be great grand! No promises though, we be lazy pirates!

Closest tube is Embankment, exit onto the Thames and head right under the Hungerford Bridge. The Tattershall Castle is the SECOND floating pub after the bridge.

Google map Link:
http://tinyurl.com/2xk5bw

And if you like to know some History:
http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/maritime/ps%20tattershall%20castle.htm

Weather reports:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/

© 2010 Bring Stuff. All Rights Reserved except the Lefts.