Category Archives: Editorials

Washington D.C. Moonlight Monument Old Town Trolley Tour

I went on a fantastic ‘Monuments by Moonlight’ tour run by the ‘Old Town Trolley’ company on Sunday the 14th of December; I caught the Metro from ‘Foggy Bottom’ (my local stop) and had a quick look around the old Union railway station before I get on the trolley bus.

Union Station is a spectacle in itself, it reminded me greatly of the old Kansas City train station and also from the footage of the station in the film ‘Silver Streak’ (one of my favourites).  The architecture is absolutely amazing and it’s easy to wander around, bumping into travellers whilst being distracted by all the details on the walls and ceilings.

The Old Town Trolley is beautiful, a lovely old rickety thing with wood interior and huge glass windows; perfect for seeing the many sights in and around D.C.

During my tour I saw:

  • The Jefferson Memorial
  • Martin Luthor King Memorial
  • Vietnam Memorial
  • The Washington Monument
  • The World War 2 memorial
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) memorial
  • Abraham Lincoln memorial
  • Iwo Jima Memorial

Adam, the driver and tour guide, was incredibly knowledgeable and it was an honour to sit and listen to him talk passionately about the history of the memorials and various other places that we passed during the tour.

The memorials are stunning at night, all lit up and much more poignant I think where they are not quite as populated as I imagine they are during the daytime.

Personally highlights for me were the Roosevelt memorial because I admire him an awful lot, same can be said for the Martin Luthor King memorial which is an exceptional sculpture.

I felt an amazing rush of emotion seeing the Iwo Jima memorial, I’ve seen images of the photos behind the statue in many books over the years and it is fantastic to see in the flesh.

My favourite memorial was Abraham Lincoln, I climbed the many stairs that lead up to Lincolns statue and had my very own Rocky moment when I got to the summit; atop you will find the statue of a very great man.

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The view from the top of the memorial is beautiful because you get to see the Washington monument all lit up over the memorial pool water; seeing the pool made me think of the Vietnam protests.  So much history in such a small space.

The tour is excellent value for money, highly recommended.

Clydes of Georgetown

Clydes of Georgetown is a very funky place to spend a Friday night; the gold record displayed in the Atrium was earned by Starland Vocal Band and the group’s 1976 hit single “Afternoon Delight” was apparently inspired by the appetizer menu of the same name in this very pub.  It’s easy to see why!

When you eventually squeeze through the front door and fight through the people waiting for a table (BOOK A TABLE!), you’re hit by a raucous atmosphere which surprised me somewhat; Georgetown is a noticeably posh part of Washington D.C. and I had suddenly found myself in a lively drinking hole that was cleverly disguised as a fancy restaurant.

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Like most ‘pubs’ I’ve experienced in the States, Clydes reminded me a little bit of Cheers crossed with a Ruby Tuesdays or Applebees restaurant; saying that, Clydes has an awful lot of charm with the rustic oak bar and sports and aircraft paintings on the walls.

Now, to business. I ordered a charred 18oz medium rare steak.  Fucking amazing.  I’ve eaten a LOT of cow in my time, NY strips, KC strips, fillet and all kinds of meat in the Midwest, but the steak here is outstanding.

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The service was excellent and everything was very reasonably priced in comparison to how I found Washington D.C. at times; cocktails are very good and they have a good selection of local seasonal ales if you fancy something different!

Clydes comes very, very, very recommended from yours truly.

Lenny Kravitz – London Wembley – 6th December

FINALLY!!! FINALLY, I GOT TO SEE LENNY KRAVITZ!!!

My earliest memories of Lenny Kravitz are of watching ‘The Box’ music channel and being blown away by ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ in 1993 (I was 16); so to actually see him perform the track during his encore was an amazing moment.

Lenny’s voice throughout the Wembley Arena performance was every bit as good as it always has been on his albums; I loved how the backing singers, keys and horns section backed up his amazing band as they jammed into extended version of songs like ‘Let Love Rule’ and ‘Always On The Run’ (The latter being a huge favourite of mine).

Seeing Chris Ross ply his trade was another guitar god worship moment for me……then seeing Cindy Blackman bash her kit like Mitch Mitchell drums……wow…..just WOW. Gail Ann Dorsey on bass!!! Funky shit.

At times, things went VERY jazzy and I think the ‘I bought the greatest hits!’ section of the audience was a little unsure how to respond to a guy on trumpet channeling Miles Davis; at times it felt like Lenny had brought Mardi Gras to North West London and I loved every second of it.

I was shocked when I realised that Lenny is 50 now; he is an exceptional showman and looked like a guy who is totally in control of his craft; genuinely felt his love for performing and for his band.

So that’s another tick on my bucket list!

Rival Sons – Wembley Arena

I’m utterly ashamed to say I’ve never heard of Rival Sons; a fantastic blues rock band who had my head jutting to every infectious groove.

Their sound reminded me of the best things about Led Zeppelin during their Presence and Physical Graffiti albums; yet they have a funky swagger that’s all their own.

Like those two amazing albums, the drums raise the bar and it was absolutely excellent to see some slide guitar riffing out like ‘In My Time Of Dying’.  Fantastic guitarist.

Great vocals that reminded me of Paul Rodgers from Free, perfect balance in the rhythm section and massive kudos to the keyboard organis for giving me a Deep Purple nostalgia trip.

Top notch old school rock.

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Wan Kee Seafood – Hong Kong

The current Umbrella protests in Hong Kong made me reflect upon some of the more obscure and surreal things I saw during my visit to the islands back in 2004; so I decided to Google ‘Wan Kee Seafood’, a restaurant I came across on Lamma Island.

Unsurprisingly, it’s gone out of business, but proof that it existed!!! 

I’ll have to dig out my photo of me pointing to the sign with a huge grin on my face. 

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Invictus Games Closing Ceremony

The Invictus Games closing ceremony was how I originally found out about the whole thing!  

The ‘Foo Fighters’ were to headline the closing ceremony concert and play in the UK for the first time in several years; several other artists would also give their support by playing: James Blunt, Rizzlekicks, Bryan Adams, Ryan Adams, Ellie Golding and my own favourites, Kaiser Chiefs.

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However, the closing ceremony was far more than that; the main stars were the athletes from the games…..and wow, how they were applauded!?! 

Everyone came onto the stage and 40,000 people gave several minutes of racious applause in appreciation from the athletes who came from all over to take part. 

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Certainly, the two biggest cheers came for the USA and team Great Britain; but everyone was celebrated, and quite rightly so.

Prince Harry gave a great speech and would not be rushed by the hungry crowd to allow the Foo Fighters to begin their set (even he was chomping at the bit to see Dave Grohl).

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The Foo Fighters played some incredibly relevant and fitting songs to play out the heroes of the games; what a band!!!

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It was the perfect end to an amazing weekend for me!  Huge respect to the organisers for getting it all together in 7 months!!!

Ladies and gents, I salute you.

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Chaz n Dave

I scratched Chaz ‘n Dave off of my bucket list recently when I finally saw them play Fairfield Halls in Croydon on the 12th of September.

Chaz n Dave were superstars when I was a kid, bashing out cockney rock classics for fun!   Singers who didn’t sing in American accents, massive respect.

Tunes like ‘Rabbit’, ‘Snooker Loopy’ and ‘Glory glory Tottenham Hotspur’ always seemed to be on TV or played at one of my parents parties for a laugh.  Well, not the Spurs track!

My Uncle Joe was a huge Tottenham Hotspur fan though, he always used to play the comical song ‘Gercha’ to amuse me when I was a wee nipper; I absolutely love that song to this day.

So it was an absolute pleasure to sit and watch the legendary duo bash out their extensive discography.

The first half of the concert was Chaz n Dave ‘pub years’ and contained some great covers of songs they played in the 70s; the second half of the show was a greatest hits and got everybody off of their feet dancing.

The crowd were…..fucking odd….. I’ve been around some scummy Londoners in my time (Upton Park on match day springs to mind), but there were some truly pikey mutant North London throwbacks there that night. 

Even Chaz n Dave looked a bit disappointed with how rowdy certain sections of the audience were!   I bet they’ve played enough rough pubs to be immune to it too!

It’s truly humbling listening to how good Chaz is on the piano; I think he’d give Jules Holland a run for his money when playing Boogie Woogie!!

Dave is still a fantastic melodic bass player and it’s immediately obvious why he’s been the perfect match to Chaz’s piano all these years.

They both look like they enjoy playing together a great deal and it was fantastic to see them both.

Gerchyou cowson!  Gercha!

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Early Stone Age Cave Drawings Found In Wallington Surrey

I’m decorating my Mum’s front room at the moment; having stripped away the old wallpaper, I came across some old scribblings on one of the walls that had been left by my grandfather.

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Pop (aka Skinhead) was such a hilarious old bastard (I miss him greatly); he was an avid West Ham fan who took every opportunity to wind my Dad up for supporting Manchester United.

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Hilarious!  Likening the greatest club team in the history of the game to feces!!

The drawings are close to 30 years old now; I find it amusing that they are something of a time capsule and will hopefully offend a nice middle class family when they buy and decorate my parents house in years to come.

D-Day 70th Anniversary.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Normandy D-Day landings; words can not do justice to the brave souls who gave their all on the 6th of June, 1944.   

We owe them everything and I am very thankful that I had the privilege to know some World War 2 veterans growing up.

Mr Bill Sutton lived three doors away from my childhood home and was a paratrooper in Arnhem which saw vicious losses for the parachute regiment. 

I also remember Mr Warner fondly, he lived down my road and was a delightful old soul who used to lift me over his head whenever he saw me (yes, I was tiny enough to do that once). 

Both men saw unimaginable horrors during their service, but were kind, gentle and humble to the extreme; it makes me immensely sad that we are seeing the end of this exceptional generation.

 My greatest influence growing up was Private Alfred George Martin of His Majesty’s Royal Marine Commando’s, service number X107630.

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Joe (as I knew him) “did his bit”; or as history shows, he and other Royal Marine Commandos were sent in before the main landing party to take out key German fortifications and guns. 

Today, I honour his legacy and the countless others who served in World War 2; the vast majority of which were never boastful, never glamorised their “contribution” in the pursuit of freedom. 

Joe’s medals

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I am only sad that I can not be on the beaches today to pay my respects and meet the surviving veterans;

My trip to Normandy back in April 2011 (https://antikrish.com/2011/04/17/normandy/) was a very humbling experience and it will be a sad day when the last of this magnificent generation are no more. 

“A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.”

Winston Churchill

 Lest we forget.