Halloween 2011

A day out in Derbyshire...

Kelham Island Industrial Museum.

I took the kids to Kelham Island industrial museum last weekend. My daughter is doing a project at school about the history of Sheffield and its growth into a city on the back of the steel industry. So I thought it would be a good place to do a bit of research with her. I have been there before, but it must have been about 10 years ago, before the Sheffield flood of 2007 anyway. The whole area where the museum is, was under water....So they've done a big refurbishment at the museum since my last visit - and it's really great... very interesting indeed - and a good mix of history and hands-on things for the kids to play with. The huge River Don steam engine is housed inside the museum and they get it running a couple of times a day - very impressive, My 2 year old son thought it was fantastic - my daughter was not so keen! - The whole building was vibrating!!

The whole place was very atmospheric - dark - lots of heavy machinery - and at the time we went, pretty empty of other people- which in a way was a shame, but it was great to explore the place by ourselves! - We were there for a couple of hours... the other highlights were an unexploded 2nd World War bomb that was dug up in a garden not very far from our house... and an exhibition about the history of Fairground attractions put on by the University of Sheffield National Fairground Archive. I think this is a temporary exhibit - so it's worth a look whilst it's on - but they've also got a very interesting website with lots of excellent old photos on - check it out here!

All in all a great day out in Sheffield's industrial past...

Bessemer Converter

River Don Steam Engine

The Kids with un-exploded bomb!

Bessemer Converter...

Romany - not keen on the River Don Steam Engine when it's running!!

Ballpoint doodle...

Elder Sign...

Audio updates.....

I've been searching out some more audio delights for my mp3 player over the summer... to fill the hole that the WE'RE ALIVE summer hiatus has left...(season 3 will be starting in the Winter!! - Can't wait!!)...

The H.P.Lovecraft literary podcast is still going strong - definitely the best podcast I have discovered so far - Chad and Chris have just done episode 93 "The man of stone"... Chris Lackey is also co-presenter (with "Paul of Cthulhu") of NEWS FROM PNAKOTUS podcast - which is pretty essential listening if you're into Cthulhu Mythos stuff - they cover Cthulhu related news on up-coming games, literature, film and anything else you can think of...

MAXIMUM ROCK AND ROLL RADIO -  I was listening to a few years ago, then forgot about for a while, and I've got back into again, - It's D.I.Y. punk rock radio - they play underground international punk rock from all over -sometimes the sound is a bit sketchy - but it's the kids playing punk rock - and it's friggin great!! - There is a new show every week - they just did podcast #1264!!

THE INEVITABLE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE is a website with any zombie related news you can think of - and the two guys from there have been doing a sporadic podcast - just 7 shows so far - but definately worth a listen... they started off when the first season of The Walking Dead tv show was on last year - they did a podcast after every show, discussing the show and other zombie stuff - but they've done a few more shows over the summer doing film reviews, and I'm guessing they might do some more when Season 2 of the walking dead starts... they're good fun - and it's nice to hear some other zombie fans talking about zombie films that I've seen...

Not that I've played any roleplaying games since I was at school, but I have recently been listening to some recordings of Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green roleplaying sessions that the guys from ROLE PLAYING PUBLIC RADIO have put up on their website... they're pretty long, usually about 3 hours - but I've been getting into them whilst I've been doing my delivery round at work - the guy ROSS who runs most of the games is very good, keeps the games moving nicely, and isn't affraid to kill off the players - good creepy stuff!!

The CTHULHU podcast is another nice little show that I've just discovered... The chap who does it: "FNH" seems to be pretty prolific - he does about 6 different podcasts by the look of it - I'm going to have to check out some of his other ones too.. but anyhow, the CTHULHU podcast episodes usually follow a specific format, they usually start with a reading from "Into the Brazillian Wilderness" which is a real-life account of 1920s exploration in South America (To be honest I find this bit a tad dull - so I usually skip to the next part) - then some 1920s/30s music to get you in the mood for some pulp action...and then the 3rd and main part of the podcast, which is a reading of a Cthulhu Mythos story - and there are some very good ones on here - some old and some new ones too. FNH has got a very nice reading voice - gets me sucked in to the creepy horror everytime!!

I Haven't listened to it yet - (downloading as I type!) but the first part of  Julie Hoverson's audio drama version of  the DUNWICH HORROR is just out from 19 Nocturne Boulevard - should be good!

That's about it for now... untill WE'RE ALIVE starts back up again...