Merry Christmas From The Poplar Tree

Hello Poplar Tree fans, if you click on the above image, fingers crossed, you should be able to read its little review of 2010. It’s not as in-depth a review as The Poplar Tree would like, but that’s because Crimbo has been a proper busy time.
Next year, The Poplar Tree plans to read more contemporary books and review them because it should keep up-to-date more with stuff like that and it doesn’t. Included in the review is a tribute to the late comic genius Frank Sidebottom, an overview of Missing Thumbs in The Road, highlights of the Manchester Literature Festival and a list of books and TV shows it’s enjoyed over the past twelve months.
The Poplar Tree hasn’t had time to list all the other things it’s been up to recently – last week it went to watch Angelos Epithemiou at the Stockport Plaza (review coming soon-ish). Anyway – enjoy this in the meantime, and thanks to everyone who has contributed to this blog and taken the time to read some of the entries.

All the best for 2011 – The Poplar Tree x

The Review…

…will be coming soon but due to work commitments and general yule tide festivities The Poplar Tree is trying to balance the books so to speak and the review will probably be up within the next week. It’s not much of a review though, I should have entitled it an overview, because I’ve not had time to go into analysis and that, but there will be some appalingly bad PhotoShopped images and rubbish copy etc etc.

The Review of 2010 is being compiled…

Yep, The Poplar Tree is busy at the moment compiling an end of year review that will take the form of a PDF. The Poplar Tree infact begin life as a little fanzine that never made it out of the shed (see section entitled who am I?). It sounds obvious to say, but an electronic version of a fanzine is cheaper and easier to distribute, plus you can all have a giggle at my crappy design skills. It’ll be posted in December sometime soon…thanks

Coming Soon….

Celebrity Come Dine With Me – Celebrity Chef Special

*Parental Warning – this post contains very rude language, apologies for any offence caused, it’s because Gordon Ramsey has a potty mouth.

Celebrity Come Dine With Me – Celebrity Chef Special

Narrated by Dave Lamb. Featuring: Gordon Ramsey, Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver, Gary Rhodes and Delia Smith.

LAMB: Take five celebrity chefs, make each one of them throw their own idea of the perfect dinner party, and let them rate each other in secret. Over the course of five nights we’ll see Gordon Ramsey, Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver, Gary Rhodes and Delia Smith battle it out in the kitchen, in the hope of winning a £1000 prize for charity. Tonight we’re in Norwich, home of Delia Smith, the self-styled Queen of Dinner Parties and she is about to host the first one, but will it be knives out in the kitchen or culinary bliss? Let’s find out…

The Carriage Clock

I

Four spinning silver tendrils

Weighted by four silver balls.

Four helixes rotate like strands of DNA -

Four strands for your four boys.

An Interview With Amy Winehouse’s Mirror

It’s a cold and miserable February morning at Sotherby’s auction house where an eighteenth-century grandfather clock loudly tomes – in two hours time some of Amy Winehouse’s possessions are about to go under the hammer. An auctioneer ushers us into a back room where old pianos have been left to fester under dust-laden canvas sheets. The room has the atmosphere of a morgue and smells musty – the sky outside is grey, the light inside greyer still, giving the overall effect of a 1940s film-noir movie. Sitting by the window, looking out onto the street below, is Cheval de M’iroir smoking a cigarette from an elegant filtered holder – the type Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) would puff away on in Absolutely Fabulous.

The Poplar Tree debuts on Twitter

Thanks to the people who ‘tweeted’ about this story (Cracking Up With Henry Cylinder). The tale of Amy Winehouse’s mirror, Cheval D’Miroir – an antique-pine-effect, upright mirror will be appearing within the next week or so. I just need to put together some crappy artwork  of a similar standard to the Henry Cylinder image below. I never realised furniture could be so inspiring. The Cheval tale is not quite as polished as Henry’s, it was also written around a year ago but I was too embarrassed to show anyone. If people like them I can come up with more stupid stuff, it just takes a while. Thanks – The Poplar Tree

Cracking Up With Henry Cylinder

Drug-addicted Henry comes clean

Forced to snort smack and crack dust from Pete Doherty’s carpets, Henry Cylinder spent eighteen months cleaning up after the musician’s drug binges. Moo News! has the exclusive…

We meet Henry at a café in the leafy suburb of St John’s Wood, it’s dimly lit and the heroin scars running up the length of his extendable nozzle are barely perceptible in the dusky light. He orders an espresso, caffeine being the only drug he can now stomach. Henry’s troubles began when he was purchased by Pete Doherty from a local Currys store in December 2005 and before the fateful encounter, Henry’s life had been one long party…