Reading Roars!

You are browsing the archives of 2008 September.

After a long delay (a whole season, in fact), Roarcast episode 2 is ready (the first featured a conversation with Tutu Melaku).  It really isn’t supposed to be a quarterly podcast.  I’m working on the third, with the aim of putting it live by Christmas mid-October.
In this second episode, I sat down with Jason Browne of [...]

Highly positive reviews of Reading’s Picnic and Moondogs Art Shop Cafe have been published on Cosy Coffee Shops, a smashing blog set up by a 26 year old musician named Tom.
Moondogs is described as “beguiling”, “an unexpected oasis of colour” and “a simple pleasure”.  Picnic is “warm”, “friendly” and “fun”.

A new radio station is planned for Reading: The Vibe.  The station will be launched to provide young people in the town an opportunity to discuss issues that affect them (anti-social behaviour, knife crime etc.), help local voluntary groups to advertise themselves and encourage the development of new talent.
The individual responsible for this exciting project is Gavin Harris, [...]

Feeling the squeeze?  You’re not alone.  We are now Europe’s most crowded country (and third worldwide in population density, after Bangladesh and South Korea).
Of course, if you are a user of public transport, you may have suspected this already.  The economy may be faltering, but the passenger numbers certainly aren’t.  If anything, the already heaving [...]

I wasn’t expecting it.  I really wasn’t. 
A new three-day event will replace the world music event WOMAD (now staged in Wiltshire) next July in Reading.  It is smashing news, absolutely terrific, and it’s all thanks to the good work of Martin Salter MP, Councillor Graeme Hoskins, Reading Festival organiser Melvin Benn and WOMAD ex-artistic director Thomas Brooman.
According [...]

We’ve gone list mad.  Top beaches in South-East Asia, top 50 coffee tables, top actors under 30 - the list goes on (ahem).   These lazy lists very conveniently fill hours of airtime and pages of weekend magazines. 
I’ve lazily (it’s Friday evening) produced a list of my own: the top 20 things to do in Reading before you die.  It’s a [...]

Reading’s new pentahotel - the first opened by German hotel group Penta in the UK - is to undergo a massive refurbishment. 
Formerly the Renaissance Hotel, pentahotel will be given a “fresh and funky” makeover to target corporate customers looking for something less staid.  Joining the management team will be Jo Stevens, who was responsible for [...]

A 12-month Reading University study has revealed that expanding icons, links and other elements on a computer interface as a cursor moves towards them could benefit older people.  In particular, the benefits are shown to be:

a 50% drop in ‘point and click’ mistakes
a 13% drop in the time required by older people to pick a [...]

Recommendation time.  A new Reading FC blog, 106 Points and 99 Goals, has been launched by Royals fan Steve Morris.  As Steve explains, the blog is:
Filling a gap on the Interweb for Reading FC reports, opinion, rumour, conjecture, wit and general arsery
On the subject of general arsery, Reading crashed to a 2-0 defeat yesterday against Ipswich Town.  The glory days, [...]

Zerodegrees has gone all Heston Blumenthal-esque again, coming up with two exciting new flavours.
Brown lager and Elderflower (or was it Elderberry?) beer are two of the latest from the microbrewery.  Brown lager really does look brown, occupying that niche between Czech-style black lager (which is a permanent product of theirs) and golden-coloured pilsner. 
Much more interesting, I [...]