Sunday Slackers

February 15, 2015February 15, 2015Leave a comment

The internet of fascinating things to while away your Sunday.

Literature into Film: The Top 10 Shakespeare films

Animals: Sweaters for penguins – gotta love the Penguin Books one!

Creativity: A messy desk is a sign you’ve got it

Trickery: Illusionist fun

Life: The hidden danger of comparing yourself to others

Art: Modern day painted ladies

Game of Thrones: (Spoilers Alert) George’s original plans

Nature into Art: Fantastic Fungi

Star Wars: Snow Sculptures

Travel: The fun side of the London Underground

Perspective: How to destroy your understanding of time

Images: Pixabay

Sunday Slackers

February 1, 2015February 2, 2015Leave a comment

The internet of interesting things. Put the kettle on and while away your Sunday …

Animals 1: (video) Everybody’s gone surfin’, surfin’ USA (Uplifting Seal Adventure)

Sculpture: Wooden transformation

For screenwriters: Download 9 Oscar Screenplays

Photography: A gorgeous view of Venice

Adult fun: Who’s with me?

Tech: For lazy people

Family Fun: Hilarious, yet also somehow creepy

Animals 2 (video): Unlikely best friends

Art: Ancient mosaics in Greece

Politics: What it means to ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ Britain First content

Stupidity: A lighter, totally unrelated note to the last link 😉

Extreme Sports (video): Don’t try this at home. I know it’s tempting, since we’re having a little bit of white slushy stuff falling intermittently …

Image: Pixabay

Sunday Slackers

January 25, 2015January 25, 2015Leave a comment

The internet of interesting things to enjoy on the Sunday slow-way … help yourself to a biscuit.

Culture: Douglas Adams on what it is to be English

Art: Even if you don’t believe in all that astrology stuff, you’ll want to check yours out!

Life: An incredibly inspiring story

Death: All men (and women) must die. But what about after? I want to be a tree …

Writing: How to write a screenplay that sells itself

Music: Brilliant one-man cover version of Uptown Funk

Dance: I didn’t watch Britain’s Got Talent last year – I came across Yanis Marshall by accident this week and I LOVE this. Much better in a studio than on the BGT stage.

Photography: Fascinating old photos, some odd, some poignant

Travel: You can tell me how safe it is till the sun rises in the west – I still won’t like it. And I’m not sure the title of this app won’t be hijacked by a p0rn director.

Skill: Awesome arrows – do not try at home!

Image: Pixabay

Happy Tunesday: Delta of the Damned

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015Leave a comment

Bands from across Medway, Kent and beyond are coming together to show that Medway is not a UKIP breeding ground.

Friday will see the beginning of a four day music festival supporting diversity, as the local branch of Rock Against UKIP brings together over 40 bands of mixed genre. The event is designed to raise awareness and prevent voter apathy, following the Rochester by election in November, when Tory defector Mark Reckless claimed the seat for Nigel Farage’s party.

Co-organisers Abi Zeiring and Aiden Hehir hope the festival will clear the misconception that Medway largely supports UKIP, and galvanize action for the forthcoming general election.

The event will take place in Poco Loco and the line up is as follows:

Friday, January 23rd from 7.30pm (not in running order):
Black Light Brigade; Bear vs Manero; Broken Banjo; Frau Pouch; KILL RPNZL; Punching Swans; The Shagmonroes; UpCDownC

Saturday, January 24th from 6pm:
3D; Allfather; Crybaby Special; DIYOA; Dusty Awe; Luna Lacuna; Mean n my Lady; Sleep Society; Sleight; Spinner; Tiny Ghost; Tim Holehouse; Unknown Report

Sunday, January 25th from 2pm
Anaelle Berlier; Deanos Hose; Dul Fin Wah!; Eleusia; Funky Mothers; Manic and the Madkats; The Objectors; Wolfe Sunday; more TBC

Friday, January 30th from 7pm:
Apothocary; Armour King; Black Plastic; Brittunculi; Eight Days from Sunday; Haeusser and the Errorists; Inverted Scrotum; Skat Injector; Vargr I Veum

Please note, musicians are a rowdy and liberal lot by and large, and the venue is a public house – the events taking place there in no way compromises their neutrality.

To contact the organisers, visit their Facebook event page.

Sunday Slackers

January 18, 2015January 18, 2015Leave a comment

The internet of fascinating things to while away your Sunday …

Beginning with Sassy Women Alert, as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do a Ricky Gervais on an unsuspecting Hollywood (and it’s fab to see George has a sense of humour. No wonder we love him so.)

Literature/Film: With the hype surrounding a certain film due out next month, it seemed a good time to share one of the funniest and wittiest Twitter feeds around – Fifty Sheds of Grey.

Space: The cultural significance of space exploration

Tech?: 21 times people used the internet before it was invented.

Animals: Cats and Dogs trying to decide who’s boss.

Freelancing: Dispelling a few myths about self employed people (such as writers!)

Photography: The simple beauty of children and animals

Music: John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ made into a comic strip

Miscellaneous: Mr Men’s and Little Misses for modern day Britain

Music 2: 7 Elvis tunes borrowed from classical music

For writers: Honesty in Writing and a toolbox of practicality

Fun: 7 people who totally nailed it!

Thoughts for the week – The Final Frontier!

Happy Tunesday: Greatest TV Theme Tunes

October 28, 20145 Comments

These are in no particular order – how can one possibly choose? That most of them are old is less a reflection on the quality of today’s TV themes, and more to do with me not able to watch as much telly as I used to! You won’t agree with all the choice – but they’re mine – make your own list ;p

Barry Gray compositions – he was to Gerry Anderson what John Williams is to Steven Spielberg!

Thunderbirds My first crush was Scott Tracy.

Captain Scarlet Actually, I think it might have been Mr. Indestructible …

Stingray then again it could have been Troy Tempest.

Joe 90 It wasn’t Joe. He was just a kid.

Children’s classics

Black Beauty Sunday afternoon adventures, curled up in an armchair.

The White Horses I’ve hummed this pretty regularly for many years – but for the life of me cannot remember watching it! I’m guessing it had horses. Which were white ..

Double Deckers Before Buffy became the go-to feisty, strong female lead, we had Billy.

Casey Jones

Watching the detectives …

Sci-fi/Fantasy

Lost in Space – Theme 1 and Theme 2 – both written by … John Williams! Gets everywhere, doesn’t he?

Dr. Who – all of them! (warning: Video may hypnotize …)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

As seen on TV recently …

The Big Bang Theory You’ve no idea how taxing it is trying to find videos whose comments haven’t been taken over by science vs religion arguments …

The Musketeers My present day superhero crushes. And it’s a perfect Paso Doble in the making … which brings me nicely onto:

Strictly Come Dancing The single most recognised theme tune in the WORLD! See, you’re humming it already and you hate it. Da da da da da da dah – da da da da da … da da da.

Draw inspiration from Croquis dancers

October 17, 20143 Comments

Traditionally, Croquis is quick sketches drawn by artists watching a model who occasionally changes position. However, the Croqis being introduced to Medway is a collaboration between Rebecca Ashton of The Right Step Dance Company and Richard Squarecube of Squarecube Artisans, who’ve taken it a step further by incorporating dancers.

The artists are inspired in many different ways and are encouraged to explore the concept using their own techniques. Mostly, they’ll sketch with pencil or charcoal, but already one enterprising soul has used an iPad and others using different forms such as sculpting or modelling are also welcome.

Taster sessions will be held in November, with the official launch in January 2015. It’s an intriguing add to the creative pot of Medway events, so why not go along and try it out?

Sunday 16th November, 2-3.30pm ‘An Introduction to Croquis Events’

Sunday 23rd November, 2-3.30pm ‘Explore Croquis Your Own way’

Sunday 30th November, 2-3.30pm ‘What Can We Do With This?’

All held at Sun Pier House Gallery and Tea Room, Medway Street, Chatham, ME4 4HF

Just £15/session or £10/session if you bring your own materials.

Book one of the limited places now, by email to: info@therightstepdc.co.uk

An invitation only promo session was held, for which there is an archive with images and feedback – the blog about it can be found here:

http://www.therightstepdc.co.uk/2014/09/17/croquis-event-promo/

The artists also gave verbal feedback and that’s on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/croquisevents

There’s more information online…

Website: http://www.therightstepdc.co.uk/organisations/croquis-events/

Twitter: @Croquis_Events

Rochester Literature Festival 2014: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

September 22, 20142 Comments

We’re delighted to be opening this year with an hilarious and heart-warming one woman show with actress Sunny Ormonde – the outrageous Lilian Bellamy from BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, the world’s longest running soap.

Over the course of the next ten days, we’ll be joined by as-seen-on-tv-off-his-trolley comic genius Phil Kay, master of freeform performance and storytelling, and notorious Australian, Trenton Oldfield – who served six months at her Majesty’s Pleasure for disrupting the 2012 Boat Race in a protest against elitism.

We will be hosting two wonderful authors who’ll fascinate you with insights and anecdotes from their latest books: Angela Buckley introduces us to The Real Sherlock Holmes – Detective Jerome Caminada, whose methodologies mimicked Conan Doyle’s genius, and Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, who will discuss the impact of reality on fiction. While No One Was Watching is set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination and the abduction of a young girl from the grassy knoll on that fateful day.

Sadly, we have to announce the postponement of one of our family events,Assassin, due to technical issues. Featuring the fantastic Joe Craig reading extracts from his Jimmy Coates series – part boy, part weapon, totally deadly – and music from Jacob Bride, Graham Sykes and Jamie Godfrey, this will hopefully take place early in the new year. However, we do still have the awesome Keeper of the Realms author, Marcus Alexander, who is Charlie’s Keeper, who will entertain and inspire you with his delightfully wicked fantasy adventure series – get your read on! Waterstones in Chatham have kindly agreed to sell books in the venue on the day, if you need to complete your collection.

Our interactive story game this year is Murder in the Crypt, in which you’ll be invited to solve mysteries and puzzles with Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes and Auguste Dupin. In addition, we’re holding a Cafe Crawl, where you can sample poetry and storytelling, while Bookmark’d is a chance to buy books, swap books or just listen to books, read aloud by their authors.

Our Night at the Theatre will this year be held in conjunction with Chatham Grammar School for Boys and be presented by award winning 17% playwrights,Sam Fentiman-Hall, Sarah Hehir and Maggie Drury. The Spirit of My Dream is inspired by Byron’s poem The Dream and features new plays with a fantastical theme.

An exhibition curated by ME4Writers especially for the festival, An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, has channelled Byron to produce work inspiring madness, badness and dangerousness in the hearts of artists. A live reading will bring the visual carnage to life!

Byron’s Teapot will be our finale – a mad mix of unusual and quirky music, poetry and theatre, featuring The James Worse Public Address Method, JP Lovecraft,Dylan Oscar Rowe and Brides of Rain.

We look forward to welcoming you to our exciting – and only slightly scary – second full length festival!

To read full details, download a copy the 2014 programme and buy tickets, please visit rochesterlitfest.com.

If you have any enquiries regarding any of the events or festival in general, please email rochesterlitfest@gmail.com or telephone 07904 643770.