Between Two Spoons

John Koster

Join us as we sit at a Wetherspoons pub and tackle the most important pubbing and punting news across the gastropub world. Then we usually get off topic. This will likely be the most important thing you listen to this week.

Episod

  1. The Lord of the Spoons

    02/09/2023

    The Lord of the Spoons

    Absolute madness. Our old friend Dominic joined us once more at the WG Grace by JD Wetherspoon(s). But this time to recap a Lord of the Rings watching marathon. Things went off the rails immediately. Although I'm not sure if they were ever on the rails, really. More of an off-roading ATV experience, metaphorically speaking. Here are some notes of what transpired. 2:00 - We finally finish the fucking introduction. 3:30 - Dom has some hiccups. 6:00 - Our friends abandoned us. And then we started giving the "If I take one more step" line repeatedly. 10:00 - Dominic enlightens us on some LOTR trivia. 13:30 - We played the wizard staff game and I won and Dominic lost. And I beat Dominic. He lost to me. 19:30 - Here's a hot dog pancake recipe for you. 23:30 - ? 26:00 - We try and fail to recite Sam's speech from the end of The Two Towers. 31:30 - I guess we end it. Am I moving to Denmark? Bonus - Here's Sam's speech from the end of The Two Towers. FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam. SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something. FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam? SAM: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for. ... Bonus Bonus - "I can't carry the ring but I can carry you" reaction video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzeu6VPkRQ4 ... Mastering & Outro - Josh Priebe follow him on spotify -> https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PbGTn6qzgQMsCKmiMXgU9 ... Artwork ("art" is a bit of a stretch) - Dominic Wilton ... Intro - Spoonful, Howlin' Wolf [Geffen Records]

    35 min
  2. Hanna, A Pigeon With Moxy & What Is Art?

    01/01/2023

    Hanna, A Pigeon With Moxy & What Is Art?

    In this installment of B2S, we art. We got two hours of it. Strap in. We were joined by lovely Hanna, a local art expert, at Bristol's Robert Fitzharding Wetherspoons. We settled in for a quite pleasant exploration of art - in pubs. On the internet. In our minds. We even made a bit of art. Not including this podcast. I mean it's a stretch to say any of this is art really. Anyway. 2:00 - Hanna (our guest or artful taste) find that we've actually failed to record the first half hour of the pod. Gutted. 16:00 - We jump into current events. A pigeon held a Wetherspoons in Birmingham hostage. A Greene King took a cheap shot at Harry & Meghan. (I am honestly annoyed she spells her name that way I had to just look that up.) Greene King is still crippled by strikes. And we read a review of the Wetherspoons's holiday meal special. 51:00 - We do an art tour of the Robert Fitzhardly. We even did an art review of the carpet. Masterclass on our part really. 1:18:00 - Hanna paints me. Like one of her french girls. We talk about various art topics all the while. Pretty chill. Yep. 1:34:00 - I found some Wetherspoons tangential art topics. There's actually a Wetherspoons art museum. In North Carolina. And I tracked down the Art Picture House Wetherspoons in Bury. Read some review about it. Didn't get all the marks as it happens. 1:51:00 - Finally we try to answer the age-old question: WHAT IS ART? I have no idea if we even got close to settling it I blacked out to be honest. It wasn't even the pints. It was just that intense of a dialog. Here's the article about the pigeon because it's just a classic underdog story. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/new-birmingham-wetherspoon-pub-shut-25647307 ... Mastering & Outro - Josh Priebe follow him on spotify -> https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PbGTn6qzgQMsCKmiMXgU9 ... Intro cred - Spoonful, Howlin' Wolf [Geffen Records]

    2j 8m
  3. Evan, Sam & It's a Hard Rock Life For Us

    23/12/2022

    Evan, Sam & It's a Hard Rock Life For Us

    We go to Amsterdam, where there are no Wetherspoons and out of fear and desperation, we were forced to find a new tacky bar chain to occupy. After a haphazard Google Map search, I stumbled upon the Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam and our fates were decided. I dragged Sam and Evan along and we made a day of it. It just about immediately went off the rails. Be prepared for many Hard Rock puns. And frequently I'll make a completely unrelated tangential comment about the music videos being played at the cafe. We then had a lovely meal sponsored by Lionel Messi: The Messi Burger. I assume the pun is intended. And no free ads. I would recommend a shower after eating one. We then went back to our bread and butter: current events in the gastropub world. There's a dungeon in Somerset I plan on visiting. And a Wetherspoon banned showings of England and Wales world cup matches no fun at all. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/stunning-somerset-gastropub-complete-dungeon-7824879 https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/wetherspoon-ban-england-world-cup-25620214 Then Evan found some potential festivals to attend in the Netherlands. One was for redheads? Yep, I found it. Sounds pretty cool. If you're a redhead. https://redheaddays.nl/ And then Sam went totally off the rails with a magazine (or "zine") that talked about the Prometheus creation theory of life. Yes, it's a thing. The magazine - http://www.awomanisacinema.com/ More context - https://classicalwisdom.com/mythology/gods/prometheus-the-creation-of-man/ Then we did a world cup preview. And actually stumbled into predicting Argentina as the World Cup Champions. I Totally forgot we even made this prediction and was amazed and our genius/stupidity when editing all this. So that's cool. Finallly, we drafted our top four favorite American domestic beers. It was the American beer draught draft. Strap in. The Results: John - 1) Budwiser 2) Miller Light 3) Molson 4) Nattie Light Evan - 1) Michelob Ultra 2) Pabst Blue Ribbon 3) Keystone Ice 4) Hamms Sam - 1) Miller High Life 2) Busch Latte 3) Coors Light 4) Red Dog Evan's picks are wilds. Finally here are some music videos we got sidetracked with throughout the filming. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1FNkf3MLKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEubrZV04b0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92wCPfqyVbg ... Mastering & Outro - Josh Priebe follow him on spotify -> https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PbGTn6qzgQMsCKmiMXgU9 ... Intro cred - Spoonful, Howlin' Wolf [Geffen Records]

    1j 38m
  4. Robby, Wales & It's The Welsh Special

    12/12/2022

    Robby, Wales & It's The Welsh Special

    It's The Welsh Special. Wales. Cymru. Welsh-ness. Let it shower down upon you. On this installment of B2S, we head to the Coliseum by JD Wetherspoon in Abergavenny, Wales. That's right, B2S has gone international. Robby, Julia, Maddie and Will (our resident Welshman) were all there too, if you were wondering. We covered the latest and greatest in gastro-pub news. We might buy our own 'spoons. And the Greene King has stepped in poo, like they do. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11434011/You-Spoons-JD-Wetherspoon-pubs-market-450-000.html https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/15/greene-king-pays-damages-after-irish-travellers-refused-service-at-pub At some point we talked about free trees the Welsh government was giving out. How #adorbs! https://gov.wales/every-household-wales-can-collect-and-plant-tree-over-50-hubs-open-across-country Turns out Roald Dahl is Welsh! So we had to talk about him. But he also had some issues. There was much to unpack. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160912-the-dark-side-of-roald-dahl Then the Welsh World Cop Preview. Timely, as always. And please watch the Joe Allen video - the shot of him juggling in his jnco trousers is amazing. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63663389 Also Catherine Zeta Jones is Welsh and here's a video of her entrapping Sean Connery (and you as you watch) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDW9OcPizgA ... Editing & outro cred - Josh Priebe follow him on spotify -> https://soundcloud.com/josh477152722?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=1&si=0A27426FCC9A4C5F837EF0A6A5B089D4 ... Intro cred - Spoonful, Howlin' Wolf [Geffen Records]

    1j 8m

Perihal

Join us as we sit at a Wetherspoons pub and tackle the most important pubbing and punting news across the gastropub world. Then we usually get off topic. This will likely be the most important thing you listen to this week.