Steve Regan’s Last Resort

Bad night for the Blues, good night for us

steveregan — 2008-11-26T13:35:08+00:00

I WENT to Wigan and the JJB Stadium on Monday night with Commuting Mitch, a friend from New Brighton.
He's a Bitter Blue and so it was a far from happy 93 minutes for him - watching an off-form Everton get beat one-nil.
Actually, he left the stadium early for a consoling pint in the Brickmakers - an old-fashioned local that nestles in the terraced backstreets of my home town.

Wine, spanners, crisps, military strategy and 'guy-liner'

steveregan — 2008-11-18T17:46:22+00:00

SO we had our third meeting of the New Brighton Educative Wine Tasting Society - NEWTS for short - a few nights ago.
This time there was a Spanish Rioja theme, and the soiree was held at Posh Boots' winter palace in Liscard, Wallasey's "town centre" (ha,ha,ha!).
The Newts' leader, Rocky, was in command of all the detailed knowledge as usual - and very good he is too, only on this occasion I wasn't really playing close attention; I was simply in the mood for drinking not listening...

Good Morning, Britain / Good Evening, Poets

steveregan — 2008-11-08T19:24:07+00:00

SO Barack Obama did it!
If he doesn't get assassinated before he's sworn in as President of the Free World - and I sincerely hope he won't be - we can look to a fresh start and a healthy dollop of optimism for the West and maybe for the whole world.
So, good! All in all, I'm pleased Obama won, although I wouldn't have voted for him had I been eligible...

An odd encounter ... techno-frustration ... and the man they can't gag!

steveregan — 2008-10-27T18:36:27+00:00

SOME people have been trying to send comments to this posting and not managing to get them through. Apologies, but it isn't my fault. The publishing platform malfuctioned for a couple of days, that's all. Everything is back to normal now - love, Steve.

SO I went into La Narrowboat, a splendid bar in Liscard (Wallasey town centre), the other night for a couple of late bevvies.
Me and Posh Boots perched on high stools amid all the fairy lights and candles as we relaxed over a couple of large reds.
The Communards, Curiosity Killed the Cat and other eighties tracks played merrily away on the sound system as we chatted.
Eventually I needed to make a phone call, so to get some quiet I went with my mobile into the bar's back passage, near the bogs...

The Red Flag loud and proud / Peter Kay / the return of TV's Sam Brady

steveregan — 2008-10-15T14:52:31+00:00

NEWSFLASH!!
I've resurrected my old SAM BRADY of the ORACLE column as a blog. Check it out ...

http://sambradyoracle.blogspot.com/

THE world's in a fair old pickle and no mistake.
All the greatest minds have had their say on the financial crisis, the global panic and pervasive feeling that we're about to enter a new Dark Age. Including me!
The money markets might be settling down - or they might not. It's too early to tell, but the world's economy is certainly sliding into recession and maybe depression.
Part of me, actually, thinks it's good that the economy's collapsing - because we are all surely fed up with buying too much junk.

Crisis! A great time for poets, prayers and promises

steveregan — 2008-10-09T17:50:03+00:00

IT WILL be a long time before this financial crisis is over.
And the Western world will have changed in a fundamental way before any sort of stability can return.
The hysteria in the markets and financial service industries has been mirrored by politicians attempting quick fixes by state intervention and making policy up as they go along.
Now, as we all know, the West organises itself on the basis of property ownership, a money economy and mass consumer addiction, so ...

It's not just the economy, stupid

steveregan — 2008-09-28T23:05:31+00:00

WINE is a great comforter - and we sure need comforting in these dark and anxious days.
Which is why my gel Posh Boots and I took ourselves off to the inaugural meeting of a club organised by my friends Rocky and Melony, which they have named the New (Brighton) Educative Wine Tasting Society.
I know! And we're calling it NEWTS for short!
Unfortunately, I had a bit too much vino at the historic first gathering and "made a show" of myself.

Something sinister ... a few late scoops

steveregan — 2008-09-12T18:30:02+00:00

IT'S an innocent scene repeated daily right across our country between 3pm and 4pm ...
Parents rock up on foot and in cars to collect their children from the school gates.
There is nothing wrong, individually, with what each mum and dad is doing as part of the school run. They do it out of love and duty.
Collectively though, to see it happening sends a shudder down my spine - because it signifies a sinister change in social behaviour which has happened within my lifetime.

Living in a powder keg, giving off sparks

steveregan — 2008-09-09T18:11:29+00:00

BEEN getting out and about a bit recently, visiting old pals in Edinburgh and London, and trying to make sense of the world (I know, a forlorn hope ).
I was impressed with Edinburgh. There's a buzz about the place and a general good cheer on the streets that you don't find very often in England any more.
I was there to see friends I used to work alongside in the newspaper industry in Scotland ... the Dark Booth, Big Scott, Wee Alan and a fellow known mysteriously as Stairwell ... plus some of their WAGS.

The backstreets of our hearts, the bedrock of our identity

steveregan — 2008-08-26T19:07:14+00:00

Red-brick terraced houses in the westering sun...
The bricks absorb the sunshine and reflect it back with a warmth that makes me grateful for all the years I've lived in the beautiful territory we call England.
Terraced houses. They speak of home for me, and security, and belonging.

On fame ... and the unbearable naffness of the Olympics

steveregan — 2008-08-22T17:27:28+00:00

FEW of we humans manage to achieve a reputation that lives on after we die.
Those who do get an honoured niche for themselves in the halls of posterity usually haven't striven for it.
They may have striven for art, or justice, or peace, or something else that is noble, but not for personal fame.
There is nothing great in wanting fame for fame's sake - in the way that those desperate saddoes in Big Brother do, for instance.
But anyway ... just what do people need to do make themselves memorable to future generations?
And is it always good to be remembered for one's deeds and creations anyway?

Feels like the real world, feels like our world

steveregan — 2008-08-10T21:44:24+00:00

FINE poetry and intelligent songs - we need them more than ever in this era of soul-rotting light entertainment pap.
(If I hear one more person cite Hollyoaks, Big Brother, or the oxygen-stealing Superlambanana as examples of "culture", popular or otherwise, I swear I'll gnaw off my own foot in frustration.)
The above-mentioned are not culture - they are crap.
So try something different ...try attending the Bards of New Brighton poetry and singing group. There is a session on Monday 11 August, starting at 8pm, in the Magazine pub, New Brighton. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Daleks in lust / Liverpool needs a new icon

steveregan — 2008-07-30T13:17:56+00:00

TO the Scouse House caff in old Birkenhead last night for an open mic poetry session run by my friend Malevolent Malc.
'Twas a good night, a very good night, and I performed two newly minted poems.
One was an examination on the nature of rebellion, which hinted at the alternative virtue to rebellion, obedience, which, of course, is not considered attractive to the modern mind.
That new poem, A Rebel's Heart, also evoked the ultimate battle ever, with Lucifer the proud angel leading his "stars of the morning" in a war against God in Heaven.
The second piece was a two-hander, and more of a comedy sketch than a poem. It is titled A Dalek's Special Love and is about a dalek who's in a romantic relationship with a human, a woman.

Flames may splutter but love burns bright

steveregan — 2008-07-22T19:51:54+00:00

I COUNTED and she'd used 75 candles in all. Tea lights, mainly.
All those flickering points of light to spell out a simple message: I love you.
Yes, my betrothed, Posh Boots, arranged those candles on her dining room table, for me, just before I called at her flat last Saturday.
Now, as I write, it is exactly one year (to the hour!) that Posh Boots and I first met.
We hit it off immediately and within days became inseperable.
About half an hour from now ... we will go out for a celebratory drink and a curry. Hurrah!

Pubs and the baleful glare of 'welcome'

steveregan — 2008-07-17T18:16:16+00:00

THE smoking ban is causing pubs to close down in record numbers.
The situation's dire. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the respected accountancy firm, predicts that 6,000 pubs will close nationally in the next five years.
By imposing a blanket smoking ban on pubs our liberal-fascist State has:
- weakened (perhaps terminally) the important and historic social institution that is the British pub
- forced smokers out onto the pavements (definitely not environmentally desirable)
- forced older people (who'd been going to the pub all their adults lives to socialise with friends over drinks and cigarettes) into social isolation.
No-one is pretending that smoking is entirely healthy - though a good argument can be made for its health-promoting functions as a reliever of stress and a substitute for killer junk food.