Avatar Shoe ‘n’ the Bin

Shoe: … left to relieve himself behind the back of Dixons.

Bin: Words to live by surely.

Shoe: It’s coming up tooooooooooo 14:04 this Tuesday afternoon. We’ve been on air since midday…

Bin: Hey, we’ve been broadcasting longer than that.

Shoe: Snappy as always, Bin. Ten years next July, isn’t it?

Bin: I’m afraid so. We’ve been inflicting these people for almost a decade, poisoning even.

Shoe: A decade of Shoe ‘n’ the Bin. Any highlights?

Bin: Nah!

Shoe: Insightful as ever. 14:05 and we’ve already taken you to the dizzy heights of ‘Since You Bin Gone’ by Rainbow and even though he really wanted to, I had to veto Bin from playing Rainbow and Kelly Clarkson back-to-back.

Bin: It’s two songs with the same name! How can you veto entertainment like that?

Shoe: It would be as ker-azy as playing Jennifer Rush, Frankie goes to Hollywood and Huey Lewis and the News one after another.

Bin: I don’t know what you’re referring to.

*honking horn noise in the background*

Shoe: This is why I’m in charge and you’re not.

*sound of applause*

Bin: Can you believe this? Recount! Recount! Après vous!

Shoe: In the next hour you can expect to hear the delights of Otis Redding with ‘I’ve Bin Loving You Too Long’, Charlene’s ‘I’ve Never Bin To Me’.

Bin: I’ve never been to her either. That’s a weird song.

Shoe: It is a weird song, yeah. Ending shortly before the half past news with the succulent sounds of Roxette and ‘It Must Have Bin Love’.

Bin: I tried to find her on a map once, spent hours looking for her, thought I clocked her in Leicestershire but it was Charnwood instead.

Shoe: The lovely government district borough of Charnwood. Shout out to anyone listening in Charnwood. Actually shout out to anyone listening.

*slide whistle noise*

Bin: Once that’s bin and done, we’ll be hitting 3pm with a bang because it’s SHOE HOUR!

*sound of an explosion*

Shoe: Never get tired of that, can shoe believe it? I’m not one to tease but if shoe were hoping to hear the Kinks, Rick Astley and Queen…

Bin: ‘Shoe Really Got Me’, ‘Never Gonna Give Shoe Up’, and ‘We Will Rock Shoe’ respectively…

Shoe: Then you’d best keep tuned in to the best radio show shoe’ve ever heard.

Bin: We’re here every day whether we like it or not.

Shoe: I need to confess something before we move on. I used to be a criminal, but I have since reformed my ways.

Bin: You never told me this!

Shoe: All true, all true. I would have carried on as well however after I had ‘Bin Caught Stealing’ I stopped and thankfully Jane’s Addiction set me on the straight and narrow. Take it away…

Avatar ‘Skon På Papperskorgen’

The new film by acclaimed Swedish film director, Sherburt Bergmun.

‘Skon På Papperskorgen’ (‘The Shoe on the Bin’). What begins as a seemingly innocent piece of footwear dangling on top of a waste receptacle soon turns into the calling card of a madman.

Police inspector Kalle Alexander is called to the scene of a crime where the body of a young man lies dead. Nearby a note attached to one singular shoe atop a bin speaks of cataclysmic actions and further deaths in the future. He has very little to go on but after ten years in the job, he’s more than ready and prepared to get started.

He has a drinking problem, he smokes too much, he can’t make connections with anyone and leads a solitary life since his wife ran off with the local chemist. There’s a cat from a neighbouring flat who may well be his only friend.

When you’re faced with life and death though, friends are the last thing that you need. Kalle will find himself both in the firing line and gripping the trigger as he chases leads down in the most disgusting and darkest recesses of the city: he’ll scour every shoe shop, browse every Etsy listing in the surrounding area and he’ll even make his explosive presence known at the shoe factory downtown.

Alfred Binko (the award-winning actor of ‘Get up, Get off’ and ‘The Room around the Curtains’) stars in a career-defining role alongside veteran character actors Klaudia Shinn (‘Carry on, Mr. Scrappenberg’), Veronika Graaten (‘Solitary Mammals’) and Dhillon Ratiz (‘A Man for Many Flowers’). Ably abetted by the deft and kinetic cinematography of Shalein Tracker and a plump orchestral score by Gérard Picko, ‘The Shoe on the Bin’ is a modern Scandinavian classic that will show you the heart of darkness that can lie within the wonderland of everyday menace.

Avatar Suggested new slogan

Ten years ago, when the New Beans was still new, we had a discussion about a marketing slogan for the website. Eventually we settled on Pouring Beans: The Thinking Man’s Casserole which adorns all of our advertising to this day.

Since then a whole decade has gone by, and I wonder if it’s time for a new slogan to appeal to the world of 2024. Until recently I wasn’t sure what I could ever suggest that would beat the current one, but a visit to a coffee shop bathroom in London last week gave me the answer.

One Team. One Pream. We.

Avatar Subscribe to Beans Premium

Here at Pouring Beans, we love to provide you with precisely eight fresh, innovative and exciting blog posts every month. But if you like what we do, you should consider signing up to our new subscriber-level service, Beans Premium.

Pledging a monthly subscription fee will help to cover the costs of running an international media operation on this scale and will make sure we can avoid doing proper jobs and instead concentrate on providing this ridiculous service to you. Plus we’ll make sure you get lots of exclusives, behind-the-scenes access, and the chance to buy merch from our members-only merch store!

Members of Beans Premium can choose from three membership reward tiers depending on their available disposable income.

For just £9.99 a month, you can join the Economy Baked Bean Tier. Just for signing up we’ll send you a three-line email that says “thanks” in a fairly offhand way, and you’ll immediately gain access to the members-only merch zone where you can buy limited edition t-shirts with Chris’s face covering the entire front and/or back. They’re potentially worth thousands of pounds, if they ever become rare and sought-after, but you can get hold of them for just £89.99 plus tax, shipping and booking fees.

If that’s not enough, £19.99 a month will admit you to the Brand Name Baked Bean Tier. BNBBT members get all the benefits of Economy membership, plus they get to see exclusive members-only blog posts (one per year guaranteed). You’ll also get access to a form where you can send emails direct to Kev so you can send him repeated abusive messages asking when he’s going to put another podcast episode up.

The real Beans fans will settle for nothing less than the Upmarket Supermarket Premium Own Brand Bean Tier. A monthly subscription of just £99.99 a month will get you all the benefits enjoyed by the skinflint plebs on the lower tiers, plus you’ll get access to a 24/7 livestream of Chris’s doorbell camera, an annual electronic download of the previous year’s desktop calendar, and a one month free trial membership of the Britannia Music Club.

If you really care, and you really want to support the amazing work we do, then we recommend going all out on the Artisan Handmade Gourmet Baked Bean Experience Tier, which costs just £999.99 a month. You’ll enjoy all the benefits of the other tiers, which are for idiots, plus you can access Ian’s OnlyFans page where he chats with his fans and posts intimate pictures of obscure Japanese tat wrapped in cellophane. And just for signing up we’ll also send you an exclusive medallion on a ribbon, that you can wear like an actual winner, that says “Pouring Beans Superfan” on one side and “If I really cared I’d pay my monthly subscription and also send them some extra money as well” on the other.

Your support means everything to us – we couldn’t do what we do without you. So please do contribute whatever you have – all of whatever you have, ideally – and give yourself the gift of Beans Premium. Life isn’t worth living without it. Sign up now!

Avatar Late Night Beans with Tad Kensington

WHOOSH!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of Late Night Beans. Now I know what you’re all thinking, “what are you still doing here, Tad Kensington, when your Netflix special is still in the number one spot and you’ve got business talks planned through most of the UK for the rest of the year?” Firstly, that’s a long thought, and secondly, you need to get out more!

(Audience laughs)

I say it, but I don’t mean it!

(Audience laughs a little louder)

Nah, I love being here with all of you. I really look forward to getting up each day and getting out to where the heart of the people is; every evening right here in front of all of you, unlike where the heart of the people is around 4pm which is everyone counting down the last hour before going home, am I right?

(Cheers and laughter from the audience)

The news has been awful this week, just plain awful. I woke up on Tuesday morning and apparently there are far too many lampposts in the UK. Local authorities are making plans to tear down at least 30% of them in order to cutback on energy costs. This of course follows the recent court case where Jacob Brantford sued Brentford Council because he walked into a lamppost when stumbling home after a night on the lash and claimed it violated his civil rights. I don’t think we can say the future looks brighter with idiots like this in charge.

(A few loud, “yeahs!” and a ripple of applause from the audience)

We have a lot to get through today. This evening is well stacked like the start of a game of Jenga. We have lifestyle specialist and all round good egg Jemima Armspace to tell you where you might be going wrong with your diet and why eating figs may prove to be the key to success. Joseph Puccini is out promoting his latest blockbuster film, ‘Lazerblade 2: the reprisal’, which has already received rave reviews despite filming only starting last week. Margot Linchpin wants you to get involved with her social media awareness campaign about the dangers of chin biscuits and we have local band The Brainfillers to end the show with their new single ‘I want your kidneys’.

(Audience applauds)

I know, I know, I told you we had a lot to get through! I wasn’t lying! You love it though and I love bringing it here for you which is why this is the perfect relationship but buy me dinner first before we get too intimate.

(Audience laughs)

Right onto our first guest!

Avatar Record covers

I was all set for writing a wonderful piece about the similarities between the symbolism of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain and brutal French cinema classic ‘La Haine’ when it dawned on me that I’ve had a pretty busy month and that perhaps I should take it easy for this last post.

I was tidying up the living room and came across a collection of 1000 record covers Mr. Merry gave me about 5 years ago. You know the type, a coffee table book with very little merit other than something to flick through when you’re waiting for a takeaway or someone to drop round. I had previously gone through it and put bookmarks in on certain pages, no doubt some genius plan to make a post in the future, so I did what I always do and made a collage to wow you all with.

The curious thing about ‘Last Kiss’ is that on the first pressing the girl had fake blood dripping from the girl’s face but there must have been some controversy about that and it was removed. So the rumour goes anyway.

I still can’t understand the logistics of Bobby Bland’s hair.

I can’t fathom why Hall and Oats would choose to call their album ‘Abandoned Luncheonette’.

Fanny. Americans, eh? When will they learn?

Avatar Newsboost – no end in sight

Devastating news for Chris Crimz aka Chris Marshall solo fans as artist claims he is still no closer to finishing his epic trilogy of songs.

Crimz rose to fame with the now stone cold classic ‘Wasting your life!” which was written prior to but only saw a formal release through the Papples debut album of the same name. He then cemented the popular but not quite as good, ‘That’s your life!’ which despite constant demands from the fans is still waiting for a formal release. Tapes of the demo have been trading hands for astronomical amounts of money on Ebay, sometimes reaching up to ten whole English pounds. There was a recent bidding war between two diehard fans, Polin Clodbrook and Rolio Chaffinch, for a very rare tape which, if the rumours are to be true, claimed to be a duet between Crimz and Kelly Clarkson during their short-lived romance at the tail end of 2009.

Newsboost reached out to Mr Marshall for an exclusive interview and eventually, once he stopped repeatedly slamming the door into my foot, we were granted one.

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” said Crimz, partially through a crack in the door between his dining room and kitchen, “I seem to remember I once attempted a third part but it wasn’t very successful. The lesson is that you can’t rush genius.”

When asked what the composition was like and what kind of arrangement it was (joyous possibly or further leaning into the sad melody of the second part), Mr. Marshall changed the subject to a future release in 2024. “I’ll be putting out another greatest hits album shortly. I want the fans to know that I am listening and that I do care. It’ll be jam-packed with exclusive b-sides, live tracks and the odd Pet Shop Boys remix. Guaranteed to put a smile on their faces. The CD edition will come in a gold coloured cardboard sleeve with a commemorative booklet. A premium product.”

That sounds like something we can all enjoy. At least if the epic closer of his musical journey isn’t coming any time soon then we’ll all have a piece of the pie to chew on. You really can’t rush genius.

Avatar Loyalty update

Many, many years ago I wrote a post here on the Beans about my porridge loyalty card. I seem to remember it was not deemed as impressive as I had hoped and nobody else really seemed very invested in the level of loyalty I was showing to a simple breakfast food.

Anyway, a lot of time has passed since then, so I thought it would be a good time to look through my wallet and take stock of all the loyalty cards I now possess. By doing so we will learn something about where my allegiences lie in 2024.

I found seven loyalty cards. Here they all are.

Read More: Loyalty update »