Memoirs of a Roadie

The Hanging Garden

Posted on 7th January 2008

Yesterday I finally opened up the game Alhambra, which I brought back from Vienna. After a bit of searching for the games rules (the box contained the German language rules), I discovered that the manufacturers website has kindly translated the rules into several different languages with a PDF download for each. After downloading the English language version, DanDan and set about laying out the game peices and started playing. Unfortunately it wasn't until about half way through the game, that I read the slight variation for a 2 player game. The game took a little longer to play with the two of us playing the full rules, but it did help us to understand the game. Next time playing the two-player rule changes will not only make for a quicker game, but also might make it a bit more interesting in terms of the points. As it was DanDan wiped the floor with me, as I couldn't get the right money to begin with to buy what I wanted.

The game won Game of the Year in 2003 and I can see why. It's a fairly straight forward game and involves buying and building materials to make a palace, but is a very engaging game. For DanDan it's good for his maths as he has to calculate how much he can spend and what money he needs to buy the materials he needs to construct his palace. Considering he's only 7 and the age suggestion on the box is 8, I think he did rather well for a first attempt. He seemed to like it too, and it made for a nice change from Hunters And Gatherers. I think Alhambra will be getting played a lot this year :)

Twenty Years On

Posted on 3rd January 2008

Ark Appreciation Pages

Sometimes it's easy to think we live in a small world.

Over Christmas I played a few games of Hunters And Gatherers with DanDan. It's a game he really likes and the rest of my games are little too advanced for him at the moment. As a consequence I don't get to play Settlers Of Catan, El Garnde, Rail Baron or Elfenland very much these days. Every now and then I think about going along to a local games club, but never seem to get around to it. On New Year's Day I decided to lookup the Halesowen Boardgamers website again, except it seems I found the old website. I've thought about going along a few times over the last 5 years or so, but with their meetings clashing with Perl or Linux meetings, it's not happened.

As the website I found (the old one as it turned out) hadn't been updated in a while, I felt prompted to check whether the group is still going and sent an email. It seems they do still meet, every Wednesday at the same venue. Then I got a second email from Dave, who helps run the club. He'd had a quick look at my website and was surprised to discover that I had been involved with the band Ark. It turns out he was the original drummer with Damascus, the band that laid the foundations for Ark, and I even had him listed on the website! He tells me he has lots of stories, photos and even some tapes of the early days, so fingers crossed some of them may materialise on the website at some point. If nothing else he says I've definitely got to come along to a club meet :)

Even though Ark ended over 12 years ago, there is still a lot of affection and interest for them. Band members still occasionally drop me a line to let me know what they're doing or help to fill in some of the gaps on the website. Fans often ask if I have various releases available. Every now and then I'll meet someone who has seen them live, usually at Edwards No.8 and will reminisce how much they enjoyed the gig. With Gel still playing locally with Bleeding Hearts and John Jowitt still playing with IQ, there is still plenty to keep the interest going. As such, this year more than ever, I plan to upgrade the Ark site. I have been doing bits in the background for most of last year, but I have so many photos and tapes I really should get a move on and make them available. Who knows may be it'll mean I get to meet a few more band members and fans.

Another music/techie crossover moment happen a few months ago when I was arranging some dates with Leicester LUG to go over as part of the 2008 Birmingham.pm World Tour. Gary who organises the meetings also happened to look at my website and discovered that I was involved with Prolapse. It turns out he knows Turk, and used to work with a few of the guys, and sees them occasionally around Leicester too. It's quite possible we've even met a few times at the gigs. I'll be doing a couple of talks for the LUG this year, so it'll be fun catching up with Gary to see what other stories he has to tell of the band :)

In these instances it isn't really a small world, partly as Haleowen and Leicester aren't that far away, and also that both Ark and Prolapse are fairly recent memories, but it is nice to cross paths with people who remember the gigs and have interesting tales to tell. Plus they were both great bands and are worth remembering. I'm looking forward to meeting up with both Dave and Gary, and hopefully it'll prompt me to sort out the photos and tapes I have of both bands :)