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Showing posts with label Auntie Annie's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Auntie Annie's. Show all posts

Saturday, 7 March 2009

One-Shot (07/03/09): Belfast Picture Tour, Part 3


Staying on the Dublin Road, I give you the Movie House. As the picture indicates, that is literally it's name. That's not why it's my default cinema, though (proximity to Auntie Annie's is, naturally, a benefit.) Why then is such an unremarkable cinema my first choice? The answer is twofold:

  1. It carries many memories of a better time.
  2. It isn't Yorkgate.
Yorkgate (or City Side as it's recently been re-branded) is a hole. It's clientele are predominantly wreckage of human condition. After the incessant laughter of a group of giggling teens ruined The Mist, I vowed never again to tred its sticky floors. Giggling teens are one thing when they're laughing at the destruction of their own in a horror flick, and quite another when they're the shell-suit shysters indiginous to North Belfast, wholly incapable of understanding Darabontian excellence. The newly arrived Odeon is impressive but steep. Unless the movie in question demands particularly technocratic treatment, I'm willing to pump yet more credits into the Movie House's coffers.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna check out tonight's Watchmen availability at the Odeon. No Watchmen for sick Ian? Cold, I laugh at thee.

Thursday, 5 March 2009

One-Shot (05/03/09): Belfast Picture Tour, Part 2


Auntie Annie's is my favourite Belfast pub. It's on the Dublin Road, out of the way of pram-wielding numpties, yet just a short walk from everything you need. None of that matters in a watering hole, though, if it's a tip-head inside. It isn't. Auntie Annie's is the Naomi Watts of Belfast pubs. It's charming, elegant, and uniquely memorable.

It's certainly given me some fantastic memories. Plenty of head-shakers too, but that's my fault. During my staunch no-drink days, it was a club house of sorts for the extended web of friends, acquaintances, and ne'er do wells I came of age with. Watching local miscreants make a racket with a teenage sweetheart by your side never felt so essential. The sign upstairs read "you can't go home again."