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The Holborn branch isn’t an obvious find, but I liked that it was quite cosy with only four lanes and you can play off-peak for just £7 a person. The food was also a major plus – so after playing a quick game (where I remarkably came in 3rd place!), we sat down to a varied American menu, and ordered everything from a full rack of BBQ baby back ribs with coleslaw and fries (£18) and mac & cheese (£10.50) to a veggie burger (£11) and an 8 oz rib eye steak (£18).  The mains are obviously not cheap, but sandwiches like the fish finger with fries (£8) are generous enough and there’s the option of tucking in on small plates such as chicken wings, popcorn squid & aioli or mac and cheese croquettes which are all well under a tenner.  I also loved the fact that you can order floats – sprite, root beer or coke with ice cream – cream sodas, deluxe milkshakes and mixed juices – and for afters, there was cherry pie on the dessert menu (and I love cherry pie!)

Bowling tends to be put on the back burner in Spring but we all had a really great time – so I can’t recommend it enough!

For more info, visit: www.allstarlanes.co.uk

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I am greeted at the door downstairs by a man who offers me splendid homemade Guinness-and-chocolate cake. I comment on its moistness which, as an old friend once said to me, is the highest compliment you can give a cake. So how does this all work then? I ask. He tells me you plug your headphones into each others’ players, listen… and maybe make friends. I’m marked with a blue cross and told I will be in the inside of the circle, part of the group doing the moving. Alice, la femme in charge, introduces herself, we share a bourbon, then we’re off.

There are about twenty-five, thirty people – it’s certainly a cosy event, and it all goes off rather nicely in the bijou surrounds and considerate lighting. As for the way it works, each time you form a new pairing you have seven minutes to ascertain your partner’s taste and play something you equally recommend,  like aural sommeliers. As you might expect, each musical tryst varies in its intrigue and compatibility. Sometimes you feel as though you’ve got to endure your partner’s playlist, other times you’re  just getting into it before it’s time to abruptly rotate.

I turn up with the first iPod ever made,  telling people I like repetitive Kraut-inflected psychedelia – cue a few blank looks. During one of my rounds,  the chap I’m talking to, a composer, takes his ears out. ‘This is awful’, he says.  My next mini-epoch is with a young woman who has no power in her player, so she’s forced to listens to my recommendations. When I speak, she removes her earpiece, yells ‘what was that?’ ‘Never mind’ I say. She seems to like it.

What I take from the evening is that I should listen to old Fleetwood Mac, most people like music with beats, The Death Grips and Scorn are a bands I now like and I doubt I have converted anyone to my msucial tastes. But I’ve certainly discovered some new music to investigate further, which makes this a fine little foray for a Thursday evening. (Words: Ed Spencer)

Speed Listening takes place every third Thursday until June.  The next event is on March 21st, but for more info visit: www.thenotewell.com

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Were you at Search Party 2011?  Tweet us at @culturalexpose, or leave a comment below! 

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Here are some preconceptions I had about book clubs:

1)  Book clubs are for geeks

2)  Book clubs are for the Oxbridge set (or their bejeweled and botoxed wives)

3)  Book clubs are for people who would rather spend an evening chopping it up over etymology and the biggest crimes towards modern literature than be connected to the real world, in all its colourful and inconsistent splendour.   And I think you’ll find this describes both geeks AND the Oxbridge set.

As it so happens, I’m neither of those things (yes,I have geek-ish tendencies but nobody in the 21st century is silly enough to go FULL geek – there’s a cyber-bully waiting for you if you do!).  But I’m fairly well-read;  I’ve got an extensive and growing collection of books in my flat (Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho are some of my faves), there’s at least 3 library cards in my purse and if you test me, I can read an entire novel in about 3 days, uninterrupted.

So as a book lover, it’d only make sense to be in the company of such like-minded individuals, even if those preconceptions were begging me to reconsider.

I did an internet search to find a book club, and after contacting the organiser, she named the book they’d be reading, informed me of the meet-up details and that was that; No English-lit exam, no background check on my social credentials or whether I was, in fact, capable of holding court with a bunch a strangers (a test I’d imagine would involve saying as much about yourself in 60 seconds and punctuating the jovial rant with “so what do YOU DO?”. Lord knows I would have failed).

I met up with a group in a pub not far from where I lived, and they had spent the month reading John Steinbeck’s  The Grapes of Wrath.  I never read the book in my life, but I did a quick internet search (aka Wikipedia) to get up to speed with the plot, so at least I’d know what was going on.

The nice thing about the group was that it was all quite casual.  There were a couple of guys (to all my single ladies – put your hands up and get yourselves to a book club!) and the ages were mixed, so everybody brought a unique perspective as we discussed the characters, the themes, the narrative.  Admittedly there were moments we went off topic and had general chit-chat but overall, it was a good few hours spent in the company of great people, all united for the common purpose of socialising over literature – and I say DO it.

If you live in the UK, you can find a local book club by visiting www.bookgroup.info.

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Well! I had a total of 13 dates (each 3 minutes each), and only one stood out as a potential friend – he was very charming, relaxed, cute, intelligent – and we ended up talking into the interval (so, about 10 mins). Safe dude. And here’s the most memorable worst of the bunch:

The spitter – A very peculiar dude who needed a towel to wipe up the excess saliva he was splashing all over my table. He was a bit of an eediot too – when he asked me what I did for a living and I told him, “journalist and photographer” and he said (and I quote): “That’s an interesting job…I hate you already.” Is that so? Next. (And you better hope I don’t spot you on Crimewatch jack!)

The Old City guy – So the maximum age for the fellas at this event had to be 35-years-old. I’m certain homie was 42. And he was nervous. Oh so, nervous. And there were a lot of awkward silence. Poor chap. Possibly a divorcee :-(

Mr Star Sign – His first question was, what’s your star sign, of which I reluctantly said ‘Leo’, and was given a big fat smile afterwards. Ooooookay. And ‘Isn’t it?’ was his favourite response. He did remind me of Apu from the Simpsons, I can’t even lie.

Mr Tipsy – I mean, really? You’re that shook? Dang.

Mr Arrogant – A dude who was extremely forceful, intense, fake – and who leaned into my personal space, ended up coming out for dinner with us (more or less invited himself), and called me an Alpha Female. All in the name of ‘I Like You’ (or so I was told by one of my friends). His presence more or less ruined my evening. You’re not meant to come out of the boundaries of the event – unless dude is like THAT DUDE (and even then, THAT DUDE needs to go through SpeedDaters computer system and match me before we can even contemplate friendship) So that was that.

But hey, I did it :-) Yey, me. I’d do it again too (maybe). 

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