If ever there was a must – see music film, this is it. Powerful stuff (that’s just the trailer!)
Everything is in my head …
… but not for much longer.
2014 was a mad year. Five regular jobs including the LitFest (which is voluntary yet takes up more time than anything else) on the go at one point was just too much. Along with running a home and family – I thought my head might explode.
Cramming in as much work in as I could left my blogging to rot, sadly. Entering 2015 though, and I’m down to three regular jobs (still including the LitFest!) which means the promise I made to myself to learn new things – and confirm my knowledge of old things – will have a chance to be fulfilled.
One of the biggest frustrations was not being able to spend time chatting on line with fellow writers. When I joined Twitter six years ago, this was predominantly the reason why. I’m looking forward to re-connecting and beginning new conversations with those writers who inspired me then.
I decided against a list of resolutions; they can lead to frustration and disappointment. Instead, I’m writing glorified ‘To do’ lists. Far more effective on a daily basis, and far more satisfying when you’ve crossed everything out at the end of the day. Including even the most mundane task shows where you’re time is going and in turn makes you more effective. I can look at the overflowing laundry basket and tell myself: “It’s ok, the dark wash is due tomorrow.”
So far today, the snake has been fed and watered, the mixed wash is done, the hand wash only items are done, the promised reference for someone is done and I’m halfway through two blog posts. I’ve even scheduled in reading time for later (A Dance with Dragons Part 1 – fifth book of A Song of Ice and Fire, which TV series Game of Thrones is based on) although I’m very unhappy with you, George, if you’re reading this, at how A Feast of Crows finished. Very unhappy. If you’ve read the books you’ll understand why. Notwithstanding the gratuitous sex and violence, the story itself, and the characters contained therein, is riveting. You have to keep reading to find out where they’ll all end up – and who will actually make it to the end. No-one is safe, as Book3/Series 3 proved.
I digressed – it’s one of my quirks/failings/endearing qualities depending on your viewpoint. And hopefully I’ll be doing a lot more of throughout the coming year J
Sunday Slackers
The Internet of Fascinating Things …
Being active online means coming across far too much good stuff than I can personally read during the week or can be shared on my Twitter and Facebook timelines without annoying the hell out of friends and followers. So I’ve decided to collect them all together in one handy blog post that I can enjoy at my leisure, along with the hope that you do too 🙂
Miscellaneous: Bikeshedding and Parkinson’s Law – In thirty odd years of employment, I’ve come across this a lot! I’ve been to meetings where the only decision made was – the date of the next meeting! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
For writers: Two heads are better than one http://www.bang2write.com/2013/06/4-reasons-2-heads-are-better-than-1-by-gareth-meredith.html
Nature: An excerpt from Chasing Ice – the largest ice glacier calving filmed. Awe inspiring and yes, scary. http://uk.businessinsider.com/largest-ice-glacier-calving-filmed-2015-1 and some ice pictures to show up close how beautiful it cab be http://www.boredpanda.com/natural-winter-snow-ice-art/
Music: You know that joke about someone’s singing sounding like cats? http://www.reshareworthy.com/boys-choir-sing-funny-song/#xqUKpalS67mwzoZ5.01
Creativity: Cassy’s 100 ways to get creative. What are you waiting for? http://www.cassyfry.com/2015/01/100-ways-to-get-creative.html/
Humanity: Restore your faith in 4 minutes flat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btiDHCuWyBA
Animals: Literally shaking a tail feather https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bt9xBuGWgw
Festival: The first South Coast Jazz Festival, 23-25th January, support it if you can. http://www.southcoastjazzfestival.com/
Practical joking: I started laughing at the description, then got mildly hysterical as it went on, which became maniacal cackling. http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/01/09/limbo-stick-prank/
Quote of the Week:
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
Tricky lifts and dancing
… and watch out for the B word.
Yes, it’s the annual week-before-we-go-to-Blackpool bonanza.
But back to my original reason for coming here. OLA!!! Steve can dance – just because he can throw throw you from one side of the dance floor to the other doesn’t mean we didn’t want to see those amazing Charleston moves again that we saw so brilliantly in the quickstep, and all too little of, in this Charleston. Grrr – so frustrated last week, – that could have been the dance that netted them the undying devotion of a whole bunch of viewers, just like it did for Team Cola. Such a missed opportunity 😦
It was the same disappointment I felt when Natalie walked out in a leotard with Ricky Whittle, and similar repulsion for Lisa and Brendan. As for the World Champion Show Dancers, well, I’d rather watch Scott and Joanne’s foxtrot again. Seriously – I agreed with Len, re the dance off – Scott’s foxtrot was much cleaner than Alison’s, and the whole routine was a pretty decent effort, considering where he’d come from.
Frankie and Kevin stormed the dance floor again with their tango – such an emotional song and they danced it perfectly, she’s become a strong favourite for me. Mark and Karen have brought themselves right into contention – and the training footage for tonight looks to cement that position.
Caroline is still being Miss Consistent, Sunetra still has her lovely arms, I too noticed Jake’s flappy foot a couple of week’s ago, and Steve will hopefully put in a strong showing in the Paso – he needs a big dance. As I write this, Carmen’s Overture has just begun playing on the radio – a good omen, perhaps? Let’s hope so!
Happy Tunesday: Greatest TV Theme Tunes
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.
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 …)
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.
Rochester LitFest: Six Ways to Wellbeing Swale
An innovative new collaboration between Ideas Test, Swale CVS and ourselves is set to help teenagers in Swale boost their wellbeing.
Ideas Test and Swale CVS will be offering an exciting programme of free taster sessions and workshops through autumn as part of Kent County Council’s Six Ways to Wellbeing campaign. The events will explore how getting involved with something creative can improve health and wellbeing. If you’re a young person (age 13-19 or 25 SEN) this is your chance to have fun with poetry and spoken word, both writing and performing.
We’re delighted that the brilliant and exuberant Dan Simpson will be with us to run poetry and spoken word sessions, which will culminate in a short performance at a finale of the whole project. He’ll be kicking off the entire Ideas Test Six Ways project by crowdsourcing a poem from 10am on Monday morning, finishing on Friday 24th October. The finished result will be recorded for broadcast at the finale event. Read more about the poem here or join in on Twitter with #wellbeingpoem
The first of the LitFest hosted sessions is Capturing Stories – a digital storytelling workshop by Jaye to make the most of smart phones or tablets when attending events. Covering the basics of Twitter, Vine, Audio Boom and Storify, this session will help the participants capture and document their activities across all the different sessions they take part in, aiding them in their quest to obtain a Bronze Arts Award by having an easily accessible digital archive. Blogging will also be covered. (This and ‘Captured Stories’ are also available for those not doing an Arts Award or taking part in other sessions).
The workshop dates are as follows:
Saturday 25/10 12 – 4pm Capturing Stories. Pulse Cafe, Sittingbourne
Tuesday 4/11 6.30pm – 9pm Poetry/Spoken Word. Sheerness County Youth Centre
Thursday 13/11 6pm – 8.30pm Poetry/Spoken Word. New House Sports and Youth Centre, Sittingbourne
Saturday 15/11 11am – 3pm Poetry/Spoken Word. Sheerness County Youth Centre
Monday 17/11 5pm – 7.30pm Poetry/Spoken Word West Faversham Community Centre (disability group/all welcome)
Saturday 29/11 11am – 4pm Poetry/Spoken Word. Phoenix House, Sittingbourne (open workshop and final rehearsal)
Saturday 6/12 6pm – 8pm Finale Performance Avenue Theatre, Sittingbourne
Saturday 13/12 12noon – 2pm Captured Stories. Pulse Café, Sittingbourne
The finale performance will include activity from the other partners in the project overall. See the Ideas Test website for more information.
The ‘Captured Stories’ session on 13/12 will bring together and share all the media surrounding the project.
All sessions are completely free to attend and you can book on line here or by calling 07713 865955. Cassy will be delighted to send you all the information you need to know. Please note that photography and other media will be shared on line and in promotional material.
The Six Ways to Wellbeing are all about doing more of the things you enjoy, with research showing that this can help improve your moods, strengthen your relationships and even add seven years to your life! It can be something as small as having a dance around, meeting a new person or learning a new skill.
The Six Ways are:
Connect – with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours
Be active – walk, run, garden, dance
Take notice – be curious, reflect on experiences
Keep learning – try something new
Give – doing something for others
Grow your world – planet care for its sustainability
You can find ourselves, Ideas Test, Swale CVS and Six Ways to Wellbeing on Twitter @RochLitFest @IdeasTest @SwaleCVS and @liveitwelluk, all of whom will be tweeting about the project under #sixwaystowellbeing. Six Ways to Wellbeing is also on Facebook, please search for ‘liveitwellkent’.
Find out more about the Six Ways to Wellbeing at http://www.sixwaystowellbeing.org.uk.
This programme of arts events is being funded jointly by Kent County Council, Artswork and The Royal Opera House Bridge.
The wait for a Paso Doble to Pirates of the Caribbean continues …
I love Movie Night on Strictly. This, combined with one of my favourite songs from a favourite movie being used by one of my favourite couples dancing one of my favourite dances means I was a very happy bunny last weekend.
Team StevO did everything and more that could possibly be asked of them, with a fun, bright and lively routine to I Wanna Be Like You that must have cemented them as firm favourites of those who like their dancing with bucket loads of personality. And that’s the last use of a word threatening to usurp the ‘J’ word with an ‘F’ word!
I thought I’d reserve judgment until three weeks in, so I could get a good look at all them doing Latin and Ballroom. In the meantime, we’ve lost Gregg and Jennifer (and, very sadly, the lovely Tristan 😦 …) and I’ve decided I’m only going to concentrate on those I enjoy the most (rather than having to be positive about those I don’t – because I’m not an Internet Troll and don’t say nasty things about people – regardless of what I might be thinking!).
So Team StevO, having stormed upon us with a fantastic tango, followed with a passable cha cha that just needed a bit more hip action – which we have seen – so I’m hopeful for tonight. You might remember that Ola and Chris Hollins began with a terrific tango, and Steve is pretty much a bigger version. Normal, happy, fun, keen to learn. I’m just sayin’ … There is a danger we could see the rise of an ‘N’ word as we go along. I can’t be doing with grumpiness and tears (see earlier Strictlyfied post).
Frankie and Kevin’s Paso Doble blew me away. The passion and attack were brilliant, her timing, the acting – it was fierce. A lovely waltz and a slightly strange yet wonderful charleston-come-jive means she’s in my top three as a beautiful dancer but very natural and n… down to earth.
Caroline and Pasha I think are brilliant together. The rumba kept moving with some lovely shapes and lots of action, especially those twirly things – supported promenades? A sassy cha cha and a dramatic tango, all delivered with real commitment. And she’s n … n …. oh, what the hell. Normal. No drama, no grumpiness, just like one of us.
As a fiction writer, I know conflict is everything, and I know TV producers probably encourage it. But Strictly (as with the Great British Bake Off) is a different animal. We want cosy, we want cheesy, we want to sit there wearing a soppy smile along with our sequinned aprons. Which is why, as an audience, we generally vote for the down to earth, good dancers, who aren’t having to work hard in front of the cameras. One piece of constructive criticism for Simon – don’t be grumpy! That’s the only reason you ended up in the bottom two.
Tapping on the window, looking in at my top three are Jake, Alison and Sunetra. Jake’s salsa was incredible and his waltz and tango showed off his acting abilities with great technique. Alison is fabulous, so groovy and bags of personality brought onto the dance floor with her in all three dances so far, cha cha, foxtrot and jive. Sunetra is going to get better and better I feel, and will be challenging the top of the leaderboard – a 9 from Len for her American Smooth? Come on! She’s also shown how nifty she can be in Latin.
So will things change around tonight? Will someone else make a breakthrough onto my shortlist? Will one of the above have a complete meltdown and totally shred my musings into the nearest bucket and be thrown into recycling? I hope not …
Draw inspiration from Croquis dancers
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
A ramble around the garden
I’ve a stinking cold and took an opportunity between work stints to get some fresh air – the sun had briefly made an appearance and I didn’t need a coat!
The southern facing side was still quite colourful and I’ve been very shoddy of late in sharing any Wordless Wednesdays. So I thought I’d make up for it now! (And I’m posting this direct from my phone too, just to try it out, in case it looks a bit weird!)
Rochester Literature Festival 2014: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
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.
We look forward to seeing you 🙂
Jaye Nolan 