Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas.

Bad Santa graffiti in Blackpool by Seca_One

Bad Santa graffiti in Blackpool by Seca_One

Pac-Man street art by Gorse Hill Studios in Stretford

Found underneath Stretford in Manchester.

Link:

- Gorse Hill Studios

Halloween in the City - Manchester 2020

The Halloween in the City Monster Trail is up and running until Sunday 1st November.

There are seven giant inflatable monsters to track down around the city centre.

The Halloween in the City Dragon at The Printworks last year

Check out the Visit Manchester website for more information and to download the location map.

Take a look at my blog posts from last year's Halloween in the City:

• Manchester's Halloween in the City
• Halloween in the City 2019
• Manchester Monster Invasion: Return of the Monsters
• Halloween in the City monster at Screamfields in Manchester

PUTT PUTT #2 art installation Crazy Golf course in Croydon

A look back at the PUTT PUTT #2 art installation Crazy Golf course in Croydon. Played on this day in 2014.

The art installation miniature golf course was the 345th played on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 578th visited overall since September 2006.

We've now been to 955 courses in 14 years.

For more information visit the Turf Projects website and PUTT PUTT #2 project page.

Check out my blog post 'Artainment and the world of minigolf' to see how minigolf has been used in other artistic creations.

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With over twenty years of marketing and sales experience each we offer consultancy services to people and businesses looking to set-up miniature golf courses, review their operations, hole designs, contests, tournaments and more. Do get in touch for a chat to see how we can help and work together.

Marge Simpson graffiti in Manchester

Spotting some Marge Simpson graffiti high above Deansgate in Manchester.

You need a keen eye for street art to spot this piece

While on our first walk in Manchester city centre for quite some time on Saturday Emily spotted this piece of Simpsons graffiti high above Deansgate.

We recently spotted some Itchy & Scratchy graffiti on the Fallowfield Loop in Manchester and last August we saw this Simpsons graffiti in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Invaders in Manchester

A look at a piece of Invader street art in Manchester.

It was nice to have a walk round Manchester again for the first time in a while on Saturday.

One of the best free-to-do activities in the city centre is to look for street art. There's plenty of it about.

Space Invaders

Manchester is the site of an Invasion by French street artist Invader. He created 47 pieces of mosaic tile art with a total points value of 970 back in 2004.

You have to look in a wide-range of places to see the Invaders

Over the years some of these retro video game inspired pieces have been damaged, removed or stolen. While some have been lost entirely because the building they were on has been demolished!

Luckily some of these lost Invaders have been replaced.

Look up!

The Goonies street art

It's fun seeing street art and graffiti on my travels and I saw this superb piece by JXC Designs on my last trip down to London back in February.

Truffle Shuffle!

Orpheum Mini-Golf in Memphis, Tennessee

A look at the pop-up minigolf course at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Lion King

Many thanks to our friend, team-mate and minigolf rival Jon Drexler for sending us some photos from his visit to play the new pop-up minigolf course set up at the Orpheum theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Memphis The Musical

Orpheum Mini-Golf is a 9-hole socially distanced Broadway-themed course and is set-up on the stage of the theatre.

The view from the stage

It's a nice use of the theatre space during the pandemic and a way to connect with old and new audiences.

What a place to play some minigolf

The Orpheum Mini-Golf course opened this month and is open Thursday to Sunday. The 'show' runs until 15th November.

Hamilton

We love seeing miniature golf course pop-ups and unique layouts. The Orpheum Mini-Golf course certainly ticks those boxes. I really like the look of the Hamilton hole above.

Les Misérables

The green on Les Misérables

Memphis the Musical

Wicked

The Phantom of the Opera

The Colour Purple

Chicago

Fiddler on the Roof

Visit the Orpheum Mini-Golf website for more information, opening times, booking details and prices.

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Artwork on the old British Home Stores in Stockport

A look at the mural artwork on the old BHS in Stockport's Merseyway shopping centre.

The mural on the side of the old BHS in Stockport

BHS became defunct in August 2016, but there are still traces of the brand if you know where to look.

Made in 1978

The building is now home to a Poundland store, however there are two small signs bearing the BHS logo and they are visible at the front of the shop.

One of the last visible signs of the old BHS branding

The side of the building on Deanery Way contains a wonderful mural made up of concrete panels and mosaic tiles and depicts the history of the town over seven hundred years.

Working up Deanery Way from 1239 to 1978

The artwork was designed by Henry Collins and Joyce Pallet and created in 1978.

Here's a look at the five panels, starting with the most recent era (the seventies!) and working back to the year 1239...

Panel 5

Panel 4

Panel 3

Panel 2

Panel 1

Stockport, Cheshire - whether this is, or isn't the case (it isn't), remains a matter of conjecture in the town. It was certainly a big talking point given the location of the recent Greater Manchester Coronavirus Pandemic Lockdown Zone!

Urgh Street Art!

It was brilliant to find this superb piece of tile art by Angus while down in Camden back in February.

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf

A look back at Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf.

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf at York Art Gallery

I played Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf on two occasions in 2016 and 2017. The first was a round at the New Art Exhange in Nottingham, the second was at York Art Gallery.

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham

As today is International Beer Day it's worth taking a look at the ace beer mat scorecard the course had.

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf course first appeared at the Venice Biennale. It then toured the UK for a while.

I bought the ace merch on sale at the art pop-up

Branded minigolf merch - always superb to see

It was an interesting art installation and a nice, playable miniature golf course.

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Homer Burger

I saw this fun piece of Homer Simpson graffiti art at Ghetto Golf in Digbeth, Birmingham.

Related blog posts:

- Homer Simpson

- The Simpsons

- Ghetto Golf

Pizza Shark

I spotted this fun Pizza Shark sticker art by Samuel B Thorne at Elephant & Castle in London last year.

Hi Doctor Nick!

It's always fun spotting Simpsons-related stuff while out and about.

I saw this sticker for the Kings Cross Tattoo Parlour while down in London last year.

What a strapline!

Related blog posts:
- The Simpsons

Judging the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club PUTT PARTY contest

We had a brilliant time judging all of the entries into the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club's PUTT PARTY contest on Saturday morning.

Putting at home with the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club

The PUTT PARTY was a Show & Tell of the Mini Golf holes created by residents of Knowle West in Bristol and the culmination of a lot of hard work and crazy golfing fun.

During lockdown and over summer the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club has created a home-based minigolf club for local residents. Having received supplies of arts and crafts materials the club members were challenged to create their own crazy golf holes.

It was superb seeing the innovations, classic styles, wild, wacky and mega minigolf constructions and tricky to pick a winner.

View this post on Instagram

Yesterday was our finale Putt Party, where Knowle West-ers showcased our DIY Mini Golf Hole’s with one another over zoom, drawing the virtual ClubHouse meetings to a temporary pause. We can’t thank our in-house Mini Golf VIP’s @emslemsgottfried & @richard_gottfried all the way from Stockport enough. What a tricky judging time they had. They fed back beautiful comments on all the houses holes, really respected our community with words of encouragement and praise for our different skillsets and mini golf crafting skills. Comments included ‘wow, I wasn’t expecting that!’ & ‘you had it all!’ 949 Mini Golf Holes 🕳 visited. We cannot wait for you to visit us in Knowle West (when restrictions allow). #superstars #mr&mrs #minigolfchamps #thankyousomuch #diygolfcourse #communityfirst

A post shared by #FilwoodFantastic Mini Golf (@filwoodfantasticminigolf) on Jul 26, 2020 at 5:39am PDT

After everyone had demonstrated their crazy golf layout and talked through the ideas behind it we entered into deliberation before declaring the Alford family the winners of the Mini Golf Artists Award 2020 for their excellent Crocodile hole.

You can see the winning design in the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club Facebook Group and Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

HUGE congratulations to @thegurtlife Dan, Lucy & Rowan for their Winning design at our Finale Putty Party on Saturday morning. Novers (g)Nasher came from no-where and stole first place with a cranking automated croc mouth, a slide for the ball and a direct swift hole in one action. Unbelievable!!! Dan’s family holds the title of The Mini Golf Artist 2020! He’ll be collecting his trophy and prize set from the Filwood Fantastic market next Saturday at @filwoodcentre #welldone #expecttheunexpected #communityforthewin #welldonedan #aloveofcrocs

A post shared by #FilwoodFantastic Mini Golf (@filwoodfantasticminigolf) on Jul 26, 2020 at 5:48am PDT

The multi-level layout had moving parts to open the croc's mouth, a ramp, tunnel, a playable tee-off point and a nice green.

View this post on Instagram

I may have got a little carried away with the build for today’s @filwoodfantasticminigolf inaugural diy hole building competition. Chuffed to take the win with our entry, The Novers Gnasher! A run down of the materials used: The shell of the croc was from our neighbours old To Let sign and covered with an old yoga mat. The hand crank is from some random screws, bottle tops and left over wood from a garden project. The ball goes through the crocs mouth Into a cardboard tube before travelling down a 2 metre slope, through an old drainage pipe (to slow the ball down), arriving on finishing green. The only cost was £1 for the hinges in the crocs mouth! #lockdownproject #minigolf #knowlewest #diygolfcourse

A post shared by The Gurt Life (@thegurtlife) on Jul 25, 2020 at 12:02pm PDT

We're looking forward to seeing the creation scaled-up and included in the full-size Crazy Golf course being built at the Filwood Community Centre later this year.

Visit the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club's Facebook Group and the Filwood Community Centre website for more information.

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The Simpsons art on an ice cream van

We spotted an interestingly decorated ice cream van in Cheadle on Friday.

It's always fun seeing The Simpsons in unexpected places

It's not the first time we've seen The Simpsons on an ice cream van - we saw this one in Leeds and another in Cheadle Heath.

This was on the High Street rather than Abbey Road

Related blog posts:
- The Simpsons

Little Thief

I'm missing being out and about in Manchester. Every time I have a wander around the city centre I spot a new piece of street art.

Looking through my snaps from previous walks round town I spotted this Little Thief sticker by GRW82 Greatt Whyte.

Putting at Home with the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club

We found out about the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club in Knowle West, Bristol last month and have joined the club's Putt Party online events.

The Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club have created a home-based minigolf club and work is underway to build brand new minigolf course at the Filwood Community Centre.

Members of the club have been designing and making their own crazy golf holes using a wide-range of materials. The 16 households are putting the finishing touches to the layouts ahead of a competition to declare the best design this coming Saturday. Emily and I are really looking forward to being guest judges at the event. We've seen some superb designs so far.

Check out the Filwood Fantastic Mini Golf Club's Facebook Group and the Filwood Community Centre website for more information.

Itchy & Scratchy on the Fallowfield Loop

Spotting some Itchy & Scratchy graffiti on the Fallowfield Loop in Manchester.

We spotted this superb street art by Good Life while out on a walk along the Fallowfield Loop.

The Itchy & Scratchy Show in Manchester

It's always fun finding Simpsons-inspired artwork while out and about. Last year we saw this nice piece in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Related blog posts:
- Street Art
- The Simpsons