Artwords Open Mic – You’re Meat, Book

5 Oct

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Yesterday evenings lively and well-attended Artwords Poetry Open Mic festival special opened with a story from festival organiser Hilda.

Donned in her Mabel Watson persona accompanied by Barry ‘the teeth’ Dicks she megaphoned poetry at Sascos’ Cafe in Swindon’s Brunel Shopping Centre that afternoon. Apparently this was too subversive for the security guards who refused to allow them out into the precinct: ‘No poetry outside the cafe. No permission for poets in the Brunel Centre.’ Or something. So, poetry okay with tea and cake, but not other retail therapy.

First poet Bethany Pope (who will be instructing me in the way of the Sestina poetry form later today) was inspired by a death of a rat for her piece. (This is the second rat death poem today. I must write my own.) She was accompanied by the rhythmic thunder of dancers’ feet from Swindon Dance above the Central Library’s poetry space. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Swindon Festival of Poetry – a starry start

4 Oct

So the first Swindon Festival of Poetry kicked off this morning with Poetry Aloud in the Central Library’s Cafe.

(I love cafes in libraries. So much better than of old when it was all about being quiet and grabbing a book and leaving.)

It was a quiet, friendly start to proceedings, with a muster of enthusiasts listening and contributing to the poetry readings, both own and famous contributions.

Then it was off to the library’s poetry space gearing up for the BlueGate poet’s slot.

Both events got in the spirit of National Poetry Day and its theme of ‘stars’, and – as always – some interesting stories.

Bob Johnson, who treated us to his political poems, told us that he’d only been writing for a little while. He’d got into it through writing rhymes in greetings cards for loved ones. From a Valentine’s message (‘you are my Mona Lisa’) to agitation of the Coalition Government in a few short years. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , ,

Fun at Igfest, Bristol’s interesting games festival

4 Oct

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Ever played Quidditch? You know, that game from the Harry Potter novels, all broomsticks and snitches?

We have, thanks to Bristol’s Igfest Fringe, where Muggle Quidditch was one of the 20 games that took place in Castle Park. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , ,

Swindon Festival of Poetry – exciting, exciting!

7 Sep

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sitting on a chair after the launch speeches and fiddling (as usual) with my camera, co-organiser of the very first Swindon Festival of Poetry, Matt Holland, gave my back a friendly rub, cracked a massive grin and said: ‘It’s exciting, exciting!’

And so it is.

A year or so after announcing to about 5 people on Facebook that Swindon is the Poetry Capital of the World, Google – no less – has now got with the programme. So if you Google search for Poetry Capital of the World, Swindon is what comes up. I kid you not. Try it for yourself. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Devizes International Street Festival retains its place on our ‘must-do’ list

30 Aug

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With 16,000 people watching 30 acts over two days, the Devizes International Street Festival was bigger than ever before.

From a spectator’s view, the crowds were mercifully thinner this year than in 2011, thanks to the Street Festival being held over two days: Sunday, as well as its traditional bank holiday Monday spot.

I wonder whether rain, or at least the threat of it, may have also kept the audience size manageable on the Monday, when the Festival Chroniclers made their third consecutive pilgrimage to the event – despite some stiff competition it’s become a ‘must-do’ in our calendar. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Graffiti artists aim high at multi-storey See No Evil festival, Bristol

21 Aug

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Bristol’s Nelson Street is, without a doubt, the arse-end of the city’s historic centre. The once-elegant Georgian thoroughfare, named after Admiral Lord Nelson (Bristol has a great seafaring heritage), was destroyed by German bombs during the Bristol Blitz and, like much of the city centre, was rebuilt in concrete in the 1950s and 60s.

But unlike its neighbouring districts – the redeveloped harbourside, the mercantile Old City, the modern cathedral to retail therapy that is Cabot’s Circus – Nelson Street has yet to benefit from the merciful release of the wrecker’s ball.

Of all the architectural forms to be found in Bristol, the brutalist municipal buildings and car parks of the postwar Age of Austerity are the most reviled. Just the spot for an international arts festival, then. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We Are Collective celebrates micro-publishing

20 Aug

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the week that publishing house DC Thomson announced it was to end the printed edition of The Dandy  – home of Desperate Dan and chums – after 75 years, a tiny contemporary art studio in Andover was celebrating the thriving culture of small-scale publishing.

Chapel Arts Studios – based in a converted chapel in the graveyard of Andover’s St Mary’s Church – is a cultural oasis in the centre of the town’s otherwise uninspiring centre: sadly more Basingstoke that Winchester.

Home to several artists’ studios and a small gallery space, Chapel Arts is like a mini version of Bristol’s Spike Island, and a real hive of creativity.

And over the weekend of August 11 to 13, We Are Collective gave members of the public the chance to see – and have a go at creating – small press comics, limited edition ‘zines, video and sound art and print-makers.

Apparently the place was heaving on the Sunday, so we’re glad we took the opportunity to visit on rainy Monday, giving us the chance to meet artists in a relaxed atmosphere.

And so we met people like art student Andy Reaney, who was helping visitors to make lino printing blocks with craft knives.

These were then used to create prints on his home-made bottle jack press, all of the parts for which – with the exception of the compressed air jack itself – were found in a skip.

We also met freelance illustrator Murray Somerville, the publisher of the ‘zine Macro Shrub.

Last year one of Murray’s designs was chosen to illustrate eight million bottles of Becks beer, as part of the Art Crawl initiative.

If he’d been given a quid for every bottle (or even 10p, come to think of it) he’d be a rich man but, I suspect, still pouring his heart and soul into Macro Shrub, printed in mega-limited editions and sold for £4 each. The covers are quality prints of works of art in themselves.

Meanwhile event curator Tom Mortimer – who was spending his 25th birthday entertaining visitors, such was his dedication – helped six-year-old junior chronicler Milo to create his own comic, using cut-out pen and ink photocopies and a packet of felt tips.

Needless to say Is the Lost Land Real? Is a work of genius. And Chronicler Milo’s verdict of We Are Collective? “That was brilliant!”

There you go then. For more information about Chapel Arts, and forthcoming events, log on to www.chapelartsstudios.co.uk

Tags: , , , ,

Larmer Tree Festival – ploughing on through the mud

19 Jul

What Larmer Tree Festival lacks in big names (and firm ground) its makes up for in smiles, as Chronicler Pete discovered.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’ve been going to music festivals for twenty two years – exactly as long as Larmer Tree Festival has been in existence.

Yet until this year I’d never been to the five-day boutique festival, which is held practically on my doorstep in the grounds of a Victorian pleasure garden near Salisbury. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , ,

Larmer Tree Festival – a bit muddy…

17 Jul

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So…why didn’t we put our six year old in a wet suit?

Saturday (day three of the Larmer Tree Festival near Salisbury /Shaftesbury) was the ‘All at Sea’ themed fancy dress day. So: tons of mud, sea theme and an aquarian outfit which keeps a body warm and one which can be hosed down at the end of the day. I saw one clever parent who’d thought of this which made me slap my hand on my forehead, accompanied by ‘oweeeee.’

I’d been at the festival since Thursday and my son turned up Friday afternoon. And immediately jumped up and down in the muddy gunk before scooping it up in his fingers. Sigh.

On the whole the kids loved the mud. Usually accompanied by resigned looking parents, desperately trying to keep the mud on their wellies and nowhere else.

Okay, I realise I’ve nearly got to the end and haven’t mentioned music, comedy, art or even toilets. But the mud is all pervasive. It splats and slops and it’s really hard work to walk through. Whine, whine, whine.

That’s it, enough about mud. It won’t pollute the other posts.

Tags: ,

Paloma Faith at Larmer Tree – Jessica Rabbit?

13 Jul

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

“Marry me!” yelled an admirer of Paloma Faith, on stage last night on day two of the Larmer Tree Festival.
“What do you look like?” she replied in her little girl voice, peering into the crowd. “Oh quite handsome. What do you do?…A student? Oh dear. Come back when you’ve graduated.” Moving back from the crowd and flinging off her white stole, she added: “I’m not a gold digger. I don’t want you to be intimidated by my success.”
Charming and entertaining as well as good tunes, she glittered in a sparkly blue dress, all womanly curves. Add the white fur and flowing red hair and – a thought struck chronicler Pete – “It’s like watching Jessica Rabbit.”
She dedicated a song to hers and other people’s curves. Giving the finger – or the wiggling bum – to the red top media who have commented on her so-called weight. No complaints from the crowd or the marriage-proposing student.
…
So – day of firsts for me, chronicler Louisa:
1. First time at a full-on mud-fest. It’s like wading through chocolate.
2. First time in the ‘pit’ with proper press photographers.
3. First time it took so long to put up the tent (see point one) that Paloma Faith was the only thing I saw on my first day here. #Epicfestivalfail. We’ll never speak of it again.

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →