NEW PODCAST: 093 - WITH NICO ANTONIO SINGH

My guest this week is Nico Antonio Singh. Nico is a DJ who runs a bass music night in Leicester called Beastwang. We talk about Beastwang, Kanye v Wiz, Bikram yoga, grown man shit and a bunch of other stuff.

Also, if you want to come and guest on my podcast send a message to 'Wickedland Blog' on Facebook or tweet me @Wickedlander.

Don't forget you can download all the old episodes here: www.mediafire.com/#osrccod9oedcg

 

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK: 039

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK - WIZ KHALIFA

So the big popular culture news this week is that Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West had a spat on twitter. Amber Rose stuck her egg head in and since her comments regarding Kanye enjoying a finger in his ass people are saying Kanye took the L on this one. Respectfully if you think I'm going to run Kanye on here then you're reading the wrong blog.

I go into more detail on the whole thing in the forthcoming podcast, but until then let's focus on Wiz Khalifa. The Black Mac Miller is one of those rappers that people who are not reeeeally into rap music and culture adore. Don't get my wrong he's got a couple of sturdy tracks, We Dem Boyz is veeeery essential on any turn up playlist, not to mention some of his mixtape stuff still gets a forward. But you have to remember this soft cunt is the poster boy for people who follow those parody accounts on twitter that make subliminal digs at peoples exes and talk about 'keeping a small circle'.

He forces that same put on stoner laugh on every track he's on, never really ever has any hot lines and has a nose ring. Kanye nailed it when he said nobody has ever listened to one of his albums all the way through. That's so true. Even people who like him aren't fanatical about him. He's just making up the numbers. Also how old is this guy? Like well into his 20s right? Is there anything cornier than people bragging about smoking weed? That loser Snoop is still at it in his 70s and that seems to be the way Wiz is going. He's not for me.

1000TH POST

1000 posts! 1000 actual individual posts. When I started writing this shit all those years ago I had no idea I'd stick at it this long or it would become this bigger part of my life. Thanks to everyone who has read, watched or listened to any of the Wickedland content since February 2008, here's to another 1000 posts. Click the image to enlarge and have a closer look.

NEW PODCAST: 092 - WITH KAMAKAZE

My guest this week is the man of the moment Kamakaze. I know Kama as an MC from Leicester but he spends his days playing football professionally for Luton Town and is currently on loan at Woking. I spoke to him about the success of his recent JDZ freestyle, asked him all about going on Rinse FM last weekend, how the Leicester scene can grow and what he has planned for 2016. I also got him to open up about his occupation as Matt Robinson of Luton Town.

Also, if you want to come and guest on my podcast send a message to 'Wickedland Blog' on Facebook or tweet me @Wickedlander.

Don't forget you can download all the old episodes here: www.mediafire.com/#osrccod9oedcg

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK: 038

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK - MEGAN MCKENNA

I don't even know who this cunt is, anything about her, but given how much I've seen her face this week on social media it really couldn't have been anyone else. Apparently she was on The Only Way Is Essex, and then Ex on the Beach, and now Celebrity Big Brother. Busy fame hungry cunt, I'm sick to death of seeing her name or face. That's all.

DEAD FOOD PEOPLE HAVE POSTED VOL 4

It's mental, the more I post these posts the more random people keep popping up and inboxing me pictures of the deadest of the dead food. Keep them coming in, here are the most recent offenders!

HATEFUL EIGHT, PLATE FULL, ATE

What's good then you lot? Here's a gaggle of shit that I've been on with recently. MORE WICKEDLAND

I went to that steak place again, the one I went to with Nico a few weeks back. Man, it's so good, you get soooo much fucking steak. One of my favoruite spots at the minute. Heard the hygiene is kinda low, but the food is on 10, so I'm down.

I went to Miggz's birthday set last weekend. There was a baaaag of MCs there, like all the SDR lot plus more. It was sick, it was recorded, and it was filmed too. I'll post it here when its out. It was so fun, like sets are my favourite element of grime culture and this felt so authentic. Like this is the shit why I started spitting way back in the day.

It's mad how much girls love dogs you know. Just walking through town with Darryl and Chubbs he gets soooo much love it's unreal. Girls were coming out of shops to come and meet him haha.

So I went to see The Hateful Eight. I wasn't blown away, but I did really enjoy it. I felt like it was the most underwhelming Tarantino film I've been to see at the cinema. I really like some of his other films, but this seemed so drawn out and formulaic. Plus, it's sooooo nauseating how often he uses the word 'nigger'. Like after Django and the backlash I didn't think he would come back like it. It's like he enjoys a vessel to write and use the word as often as possible. It get's a bit tasteless and uncomfortable after a while.

'Hi Craig, we've worked on the van livery, everything is looking great so far, but there is a space on the panel to the left of the text. Do you have a logo you'd like to use?'

'Can you do photographs?'

'Sure, like a photo of some of the work you've do-'

'man on motorbike'

'...sorry, Craig?'

'going round a corner pure fast. Man on motorbike'

Caroline Quentin is always on the cover of these kind of magazines isn't she? Like do these women really relate to her? Does she have that much to say? Is she just a safe cheap booking for the front of these mags? I'd really like to know. There must be something in it because I swear this is all she does. Maybe she just reeeally fucking loves these magazines haha.

*SLOW COOKER ALERT*

Had to make a quick chicken Jalfrezi on Friday. Made it at like 2 in the morning and left it on overnight. Bro when I say tender I'm not even playing.

In the morning I added more curry paste and the cream.

It was fucking unreal, I was very happy with myself.

AND I've got looooads of it! I might just make curries all the time and eat nothing else. Look at this pool of chicken sludge.

I went to Saray Mangal the other night. It's so nice in there. While I was like watching food come out and stuff I was thinking it's got to be one of the nicest spots in Leicester. All the little salads and all that shit are so delicious. I wanna go and get one of the massive sharing platters. I love the way this sort of cuisine has come to Leicester, I can't imagine being against immigration. 

Just a little round up, but that's your lot for now! Thanks for reading WICKED WICKED WICKED WICKED

NEW PODCAST: 091 - WITH MILES SPLEVINGS

My guest this week is Miles Splevings. Miles works as a ecommerce manager for a clothing company. We spoke about 1 Direction splitting up, the 14 time rollover lotto winners, worst 5 chocolate bars, the UKs first red light district, body shaming and Frank rings in for a chat about David Bowie.

Also, if you want to come and guest on my podcast send a message to 'Wickedland Blog' on Facebook or tweet me @Wickedlander.

Don't forget you can download all the old episodes here: www.mediafire.com/#osrccod9oedcg

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK: 037

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK - LIP SYNC BATTLE

Crap TV is weird isn't it. Like the way that people who enjoy watching TV will just watch whatever is put in front of them. Maybe I just don't enjoy variety act shit as much as the every man and my overbearing sense of self tells me I'm right. It's been a good few years now and I'm still trying to figure out (regardless of how fun you say the old boozy couple are) that people are spending the one life they have on earth watching Gogglebox.

That aside, fast forward to 2015 and Jimmy Fallon is all over your Facebook feed with his hit and miss skits from his talk show. One of which, Lip Sync Battle has been took on and turned into a stand alone show with huge success. LL Cool J has been dusted off and brought in to host, Chrissy Teigen is the eye candy 'DJ' and celebrities (like really massive A list celebs) guest and lip sync to a song. It's become so big that they've swiftly adapted it and roped in the usual British TV presenters and made a UK version. Truly incredible stuff. I caught half an episode over Christmas and gave it a little go and I couldn't believe my eyes.

I don't understand the pull of it. I don't understand how people can sit and watch it. I think maybe for like the first 30 seconds it's entertaining but then it's like beatboxing. However good it is you just want the real thing. Watching Channing Tatum dressed as Beyonce performing one of her songs is fun for about 4 lines of a song, and then I'm over it. It's insane how big this show is right now when the content is so empty. I've got a feeling it's going to be around for a very long time. The maddest thing is in research I've just had a little look to see who was responsible for the show. I guess producer is such an ambiguous term it's hard to pin point their exact role but I was very dissapointed to see that Stephen Merchant and John Krasinski (Jim of the American Office) are the Producers. I'd expect better of both of them.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: GRIZZLERS

Yoooo so you may have heard a lot of gas talk about a new place called Grizzlers. From what I can work out Grizzlers is an independent restaurant, there are no other branches. They serve gourmet burgers, pizzas and peri peri chicken. Me and Nico went down to see what the hype was about and take some photos for you lucky sods.

*Note: I've chose to discard the previous points scoring system I employed whilst writing these restaurant reviews. It's kind of hard to judge all eating establishments by the same criteria when some are chicken shops, some are chain restaurants and some are stand alone independent traders. Also, I scored a couple pretty average places pretty high a few years ago so it never left me much wriggle room haha

NAME: GRIZZLERS

LOCATION: 95 HUMBERSTONE GATE, LEICESTER, LE1 1WB

DECOR: It was nice for what it was. There's a big open brand new kitchen, and then it's glass fronted with massive wooden panels and tables. Inside it's not much of a 'restaurant', it's a takeaway place really, but for what it's worth they've done a nice job inside. It's small, probably seats about 20 people max but we got a table, no problem.

PRICE: The prices were pretty good! The gourmet burgers were about £6, meals slightly more. Pizzas £3/4 pounds and then all the little sides stuff are a couple of quid. Me and Nico both proper went for it and ended up doing about £11 each. For what it is, the prices are really good.

FOOD: The food was very, very good. The burgers were really juicy and satisfying. They didn't taste dry and bland at all. I had the 'Juicy Lucy' - 'Two patties with molten cheese (gouda/swiss) in the middle, Grizzler's house mayo & relish, caramelised onions & gherkins'. I'm about 90% sure there was no relish on my burger. Nico went for the 'Silly Billy' - '6oz patty, peanut butter & hot banana drizzled in honey'. I was watching the blokes make the burgers and they were really taking their time with them, taking pride in what they did. The chicken was thick and tender and really nicely marinated. The chips were really average but in a world where sauce has been invented I can live with that. They had the regular assortment of chilli sauce and garlic mayo on every table. I just matched Nico and ordered an Oreo milkshake, and regretfully didn't order a glass of the homemade lemonade. The next table ordered some and they looked sublime. Next time. Also it must be noted that they didn't have any pizzas in, disappointing.

An extremely underwhelming photo of the 'Juicy Lucy'

Nico's 'Silly Billy'

ATMOSPHERE: So hard to judge in these kind of places. There was no real atmosphere, because like I said, it seemed like more of a takeout place. There was music on quietly and everyone was just going about their food. The way the tables are laid out is pretty cool though, like you aren't right on top of anyone, so I guess that was definitely a plus.

Oreo milkshakes. These were really nice.

My 'Juicy Lucy'. See the cheese in-between the two patties

SERVICE: The service was a good laugh. The main guy was a funny one, we were faffing a bit when he took our order and I couldn't tell if we'd pissed him off. But despite our indecisiveness he nailed it and got our order 100% right, which shouldn't be, but is almost a novelty these days. They didn't take card payments either, so we had to leave to go to a cash point, which was only across the road but it is January in England. At the end I had 2 chicken strips left that I wanted to takeaway and I needed a box. The guy made me wait soooo long, clearly forget about me haha. In all it was fine, clinical and with absolutely no personal touch. When you consider I was there to eat and not to make friends that is fine.

Nico's 'Silly Billy' cross section

CONCLUSION: In conclusion it's pretty cool. Everything we had was really delicious, I'm already planning my next visit and what I'm going to have next time. They've set up really well with strong social media (check their awesome instagram for more photos) and it looks like business is booming. People were in and out the whole time we were there. My criticisms would be that the burgers don't quite look in real life the way they do in their own pictures, and the fact they didn't have any pizzas was very annoying. Hopefully that'll be different next time I go, but given the burgers are their bread and butter I was very, very impressed with the one I had. I'd say believe the hype, it's really good, and Grizzlers is a welcome edition to the ever expanding gourmet burger trend in Leicester. I'm really looking forward to going back.

NEW PODCAST: 090 - WITH DARRYL REID

My guest this week is Darryl Reid. Darryl is a musician who produces under various aliases and plays with various groups. We discuss Kanye's forthcoming album, Twitter opting to change to 10,000 character tweets, friendship, cats and dogs and band Tshirts.

Also, if you want to come and guest on my podcast send a message to 'Wickedland Blog' on Facebook or tweet me @Wickedlander.

Don't forget you can download all the old episodes here: www.mediafire.com/#osrccod9oedcg

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK: 036

WASTEMAN OF THE WEEK - CATHERINE TATE

What's good Wickedlanders, we are back after a little Christmas break. I had to take some time off, one Wasteman every week was very tiring work but we back at it. Over Christmas I was exposed to Catherine Tate's unique brand of 'comedy'. The Christmas TV was as limp and pathetic as ever, reeling out their old favourites for the mindless drones that watch that shit. I can't remember what she was on but I caught a bit of her.

Now when I went to New York last year we got talking to this bloke in a bar and he was talking about comedians. He said Catherine Tate was one of his favourite exports, which was obvious met with shock by us lot. We went on to ask him what he found funny about her and he reminded us of the 'Am I bovvered' sketches. That's what he said he liked. I'd had the pleasure of forgetting that that shit ever existed, but now it's ripe in the forefront of my mind again thanks to this tasteless bloke.

Now Peter Kay (rightly so) get's a gang of bad press for his overly relatable catchphrase driven stand up. Say what you will about it, at least Peter Kay gave a few rather good TV series', that's his own contribution to earth. With Catherine Tate I cannot see how she is fully employed as a comedian. How is this what she gets paid to do? It blows my fucking mind. Did you watch the American Office? Wasn't it sensational until she came in and fucked that up? It's almost incredible how she is employed. I can only assume she is really nice, and is dead pally with the right people at the BBC because they churn her out every chance they get.

FESTIVE PERIOD WRAP UP

Yoooo here's a round up of all the stuff that happened over the festive period.

Standardly went out and got really drunk on Christmas eve. Big up Sam and Sam. We sat in Orange Tree letting off drunk snapchats

I was out with Dan and we got so horribly drunk together. Easily the most pissed I've been this year. We went to Maryland. I ate their strips for the first time in years.

Mahrez is funny isn't he haha. With his backwards caps and that.

It's fucking on. Even though moooost of them are just meat with a fruit or something I'm sure there's gonna be some really cool shit in here. Christmas day was a real chore. I really ruined it for myself, it wasn't fun at all I was in pain from that hangover.

I love the shit we have at boxing day on my mums. I've found myself in my camera roll looking at this flick every day since I put it away.

Jetski was back on Boxing day evening so a load of us went out for some drinks. Have you noticed a lot of people are shaving their eyebrows completely off recently? See if you notice it now I've said it.

Boxing day was fucking cool man

This is jack with his sister. Firstly I didn't even know this was his sister and I don't know how to pronounce or spell her name but she was so lovely. We've never properly met and she told me she really loves WL and reads it all the time. She moved out of Leicester. I think a lot of the people who read WL avidly are people who live away and are a bit home sick and miss Leicester. But she was so so nice so big up her.

I got some Wickedland stickers made up. Let me know if you want some, I've got fucking loads. I've been giving them out everywhere I go haha big up Elliot

That's very mental isn't it. H&M have the shittest hats ever. Sad thing is I bet some cunt would buy a beanie with a snap hahaha

Ben was back too! Got to spend a lot of time with him, that was nice. Here he is making a W with his knife and fork with our mate Max.

Check this out, an actual Roy Chubby Brown tribute act is booked and is going to perform at Molly O'Grady's. How genius is that? Tickets only a fiver soooooooo

There is this new little chip chop just to the side of the entrance to the Haymarket. AWESOME CHIPS. I fucking love chips so I went for a look.

It's a cool idea, they have loads of sauces and loads of salts, and you basically order a small, medium or large and they toss them with the sauce. Or you can get the dollop on top.

It kind of defeats the point of wearing gloves for hygiene and food handling purposes if you're handling money all day doesn't it?

I got mine tossed with blue cheese sauce and sprinkles with cajun salt. This was a medium and it was about £3.

Been hammering this shit. I'm having a devastating realisation right now. I took a photo of these reeeeally nice sandwiches I made for my snapchat and didn't save the photo. So I don't have a picture to post, but it was toasted bread, this shit, sausages, bacon, beans with brown sauce and cheese. Very nice indeed.

I went to meet my cousins daughter Ella! She was a week old. She was so lovely. I took Louie (My cousins two year old) a christmas present and he was preeeeetty buzzing haha. It was cool, he's starting to remember who I am when I see him, it's so nice.

NYE at Beastwang I gave out a shit load of those stickers haha. Drunk people fucking love stickers so much. They're so bait, literally just the web address so they were cool promotion. I wonder how many hits they will drum up.

I'm getting so sick of cunts loitering in the Market Street McDonalds. It's either homeless people bumming about, Deliveroo delivery workers (that are far worse, weirder tramps than I would have thought) or twat teenagers petting each other and jamming on the wifi. I'll go in there and spend money to eat and I don't want to be surrounded by these tramps, it's really starting to irritate me. I need a security guard to get people to fuck off. These twat kids were about 6/7 deep all shouting and being well annoying.

Aside from the missing sandwich (still devastated) that's everything I have for you. I've got some more fun bits coming later on in the week!