i dont even know what commodity means.
cultural exchanges 2008 was a very interesting experience. i am quite fond of the general concept, and think anyone who opts out of getting a huge dose of free culture is an idiot.
i was supposed to attend 4 events, but due to the inconsiderate, pushy middle-aged excuses of human beings behind us in a queue, i could not get into the music technology performance.
myself and griff missed out on the sue townsend event also, which was a great shame- we both woke up with matching eye infections and spent so long trying to sort them out that we missed it.
tom leonard was a very interesting man, but i assume many cret writters will decide to write a blog on his perfoamnce as so many of us showed up.
instead, i choose "writing about parents" which i attended to show some support to JT.
i found it insightful to say the least.
the guest "stars" all presented the audience with contrasting readings, which was brilliant.
my favourite of course, was JT, as i am very fond of him and his book.
i found the question and answer session useful, and the guests were eager to answer any queries we had to full potential.
(... more to come soon, just wanted to get something written down for starters)
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Going to pot (Grayson, not Claire)
He didn't wear a frock - the first disappointment. The shock of of blonde hair wasn't teased into curls. Grayson, not Claire. Transvestism was touched on - and bondage, and S&M - but the emphasis was on the pots.
Traditional pots. "Originality's over-rated," Grayson declared. "In tradition, after 10,000 hours you've learnt a craft, can make something worthwhile." Good point.
It's a long process, making pots: a basic shape (more tradition), nineteen layers of slipware, transfers designed and applied, more slipware. Weeks of work before the perils of the kiln. Some pots are lost for ever.
Grayson Perry makes 15-20 pots a year. Some shimmered on slides above his head. When I saw one in Glasgow I was hooked.
His conversation hooked me too. "I like trends on the turn (like milk)." "I love village art-shows - thousands of rural scenes with no cars."
The second disappointment? It ended.
kb
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
♥It's guy love between two guys♥
I've been a fan of slash fanfiction for years now. And that's the first time I've ever admitted it in writing. Why is that? There's something about that particular genre that seems like it should be taboo; when my friends first became interested in it, I was very sure that it 'wasn't my thing'. However I soon realised that I was only pretending not to like it, even though I was still too embarrassed to admit that I was secretly searching for slash fics in my spare time. I suppose my embarrassment resulted from the fact that most people assume slash fiction is nothing but porn. Although that wasn't necessarily what I was reading, I didn't like the idea of people assuming that I was, and thereby judging me in some way. There was also the fact that people won't necessarily ship the same characters as you, and even now I am reluctant to publish any of my work on the internet because of this.
So when I came to uni and heard Kathy talking about slash as though it was a normal topic of conversation, I have to admit I was pretty surprised. I found it unusual that people didn't care to hide the fact that they liked it. And when offered the chance to attend a conference on the topic, of course I wanted to go.
My initial thought when I first arrived was that I was surprised to see that the majority of the people in attendance were adults. Of course in hindsight I don't see why that would seem strange, but at the time I felt slightly out of place. However I found it very interesting to hear their perspective on slash fanfiction; it was, as expected, much more insightful than the usual "omg liek he's so gay for that other guy" that one usually encounters.
The talk that I enjoyed most was the first one I attended: Panel Two: True Pairings. Although I can't say I am a fan of SnapeXHarry (or 'Snarry' as it is known in fandom), the first part to the talk, The law of master and servant: officers, batmen, and slash subtext in the context of World War I looked very interesting. The talk itself was split into three sections, with the speaker discussing Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, then PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster novels, and finally JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Unfortunately Kellie Ann Aki Takenaka had to go through her paper very quickly as there wasn't a great deal of time alloted for each talk, however she went into detail about the connections between her chosen novels and the experiences of men during the First World War, with comparisons to fanfiction written about the main characters. Perhaps the reason I enjoyed this part of the conference so much was because I am both a fan of WW1 literature, plus enjoy reading hurt/comfort fics, which were mentioned a lot, particularly concerning Bunter and Wimsey. People with different interests would still have found the talk interesting though, as Kellie Ann gave a talk that was easy to follow, and had plenty of humour to keep the audience both amused and involved.
The second half of this panel was a paper by Vera Cuntz, on The mentor and his disciple: on homoeroticism in the relationship between Harry Potter and Severus Snape. As previously mentioned, this is not a pairing that I ship, however what I liked about the talk was that Vera acknowledged that (obviously) this was not a canon pairing, and that not everyone would agree with her opinions. The use of film clips and a powerpoint presentation also made it different and easy to follow. She compared certain scenes from the Harry Potter movies with scenes from traditional love story films such as Gone With the Wind. Rather than focussing solely on the script, she compared the technical side of filming, for example when the two characters destined to get together first meet, the shot-reverse-shot technique is often used. I felt that the paper was fascinating and also quite convincing in terms of Snape and Harry being a valid couple.
As someone else as already mentioned in a blog, this was the last slash conference being held for Cultural Exchanges, which is a great shame as it was a very interesting day. Hopefully there will be opportunities to attend similar events in the future.
Monday, March 3, 2008
In Review of Cultural Exchanges
Cultural Exchanges was last week and, I have to say, I was less than impressed with the organisation of the week in general. A friend and I booked four events on the internet, but only one of them actually successfully booked. Unusually, this was the Sue Townsend talk, which neither of us had expected to be able to get a place for. However, the E-mail had said to try turning up “in GOOD time” before the event to see if there had been any cancellations. This was precisely what we did.
The first event on the list was Kamilla Elliott on Tuesday at 2pm. We arrived five minutes beforehand and headed towards the door, somewhat sheepishly, expecting to be accosted by the volunteers in charge of this event, asking us to tick off our names on a register. Instead, a man simply said: “Are you here for Kamilla Elliott?” We replied: “Yes.” Just go straight in.” said the man. And so we did. We were quite glad of that; having walked all the way up to the third floor of the Clephan Building, I would have been less than pleased to have to simply turn tail and go all the way back down. Yes I am that lazy. The lecture theatre was quite full, but we found a space. It then became evident that extra people were joining and standing at the back, which seemed a little… odd to me.
As for the talk itself, it got off to a late start due to technical difficulties, in that the music for the Powerpoint presentation was not coming through the sound system of the room. About ten minutes and three technical support types later, we were ready to go. (The cure had been restarting the computer, if you’d like to know, which had been Kamilla’s idea…) Kamilla Elliott’s lecture was entitled Unfilmable Books and dealt with books which have been deemed ‘unfilmable’ and the reasons why so many filmmakers insist on turning such pieces of literature into film. This talk immediately caught my eye in the list of events, as I have often found myself reading a book and then watching the film of it and being horrified by the appalling adaptation which I have been shown. In my experience, Stephen King’s The Shining and Suzuki Kouji’s Ring are prime examples of this, taking books which have more than could possibly ever be successfully filmed and attempting it anyway. And failing.
However, I found the lecture itself to be rather boring and, if I may say so, almost pompous in a way. I know that Kamilla Elliott is an expert in her field, having studied this subject for a long time and written books about it, and that the audience was also made up of a lot of Film Studies or Media students, but I was in neither category. In my opinion, when giving a talk, you cannot simply assume that everyone will be an expert in what you are talking about. In contrast to this, of course you cannot simply dumb down the subject to the extent that you are explaining every little term and idea, as this will quickly grow to be tedious. However, the intricate and overly-long sentences which I often found myself faced with in this lecture took things a little too far. Long sentences filled with complicated words and ideas are perfectly fine to use when writing a literary piece on the subject, but they simply will not do in a talk of this nature. A reader of a book can skip back over what they have read as often as they need to in order to understand what the author is saying, but it is much harder to pick up these things when simply listening to the words. Because of this, I often found myself rather lost in a tangle of words and sentences and therefore unable to focus and concentrate on the talk. This was a shame, as Kamilla had a lot of interesting points buried under all of those long words.
The lecture was interspersed with a lot of various multimedia inserts which broke it up quite well. The talk began with an excerpt from A Day in the Life by The Beatles, illustrated with the lyrics, which appeared projected on the screen as the words came in the song. There were also video extracts from the films Adaptation and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. From what we were shown and told about these two films, I thought that they were both very interesting and wonderful examples of ‘unfilmable books’, despite having never read them myself. These extracts also made me want to further research these books and films and were rather attention-grabbing when surrounded by the mass of words.
Kamilla was forced to cut out a section of her lecture due to the late start and at the end of the lecture, there was no time for questions from the audience, though we were invited to come down and talk to her on the way out of the lecture theatre if there was anything which we wanted to ask. I gave that a miss.
My friend and I decided to give Mark Clayden a miss later that day and it was a good thing, as I am informed that he didn’t turn up. Though I am not certain on that fact, so please don’t blame me if it’s not true.
Sue Townsend was on Thursday at 1pm. We got there fifteen minutes early and found ourselves in something midway between a crowd and a queue outside the door. We were then informed that the event “was full”. We protested that we had booked it and were met with the reply: “We cannot guarantee you a seat, even if you have booked”… What the hell? So what was the point in booking? We left this group of people in a less than pleased state, with a classmate who had been really looking forward to this event, who had also booked and was really disappointed. I don’t for a second imagine that we were the only ones in this state. Especially as I had a dozen or so people around me grumbling the exact same things that we were about how disorganised and ridiculous it was.
Later that day, we went to attempt to see Mark Thomas and were met with a woman with a clipboard asking if we had booked. People who had booked were told to go straight ahead and have their names checked off and those who had not were asked to queue at the side and would be let in, possibly, once those who had booked had arrived. At last… a sensible system. Which was apparently only discovered on the second-to-last day of the event. Well done De Montfort. Eventually, we were let into the lecture hall and were surprised by how many free seats there were for something which had been ‘fully booked’ when we tried to get our seats for it and been forced to queue outside.
This event was conducted like an interview with a second man sitting at the front with Mark Thomas. I have no idea who this other man was, partly due to the fact that they were both sitting on rather low, comfortable chairs, making it almost impossible to see them over the heads of the people in rows in front. I didn’t really know anything about Mark Thomas when I went into that lecture hall, but learned a lot over the hour about who he was, what he stood for and even, to an extent, events of his childhood. Although it was a lot more politics-based than I was expecting (Admittedly, probably because I didn’t really know who he was) I actually found myself rather interested in what he had to say, though I have no interest in politics at all. I don’t, however, remember a lot of the specifics of what he was talking about, probably because it was not exactly my area of expertise.
Mark Thomas spoke in an interesting, colloquial manner, as though having a discussion with the audience, most likely helped by the interview style of the event. It was easy to follow what he was saying, even with my limited political knowledge, if a tad uninteresting in places, for me at least. There was a fair bit of humour in this hour, which was pleasant, and a lot of ground was covered.
My main problem with this event was the fact that it ran over. The ‘interview man’ had suggested finishing the talk at 5:45pm so that there was plenty of time for questions, as “a lot of these talks have been running over, leaving us without time for questions”. This seemed like a good idea, until the first question took the best part of ten minutes to answer. Admittedly, it was a very interesting and fascinating answer, which I very much enjoyed hearing, but the following questions, also hand-picked to require extremely long answers, meant that the lecture ran over quite a bit. When a lecture is already five minutes over its supposed ending time, you really shouldn’t say: “Okay, just a last two questions now”. But that was exactly what the ‘interview man’ said. It was gone 6:10pm when it eventually ended, but as there were so many people about, it was near 6:20 when I managed to leave the building.
In conclusion really, I felt that the range of subjects covered in the Cultural Exchanges programme weren’t varied enough for the interests of most of the students I spoke to and that the entire event itself was poorly organised. This isn’t exactly the first time Cultural Exchanges has been put on, but apparently they have yet to work out the best way of going about the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of staff and guides around and loads of helpful signs with arrows on, but it just plain wasn’t what I was expecting it to be.
Roll on next year…
The first event on the list was Kamilla Elliott on Tuesday at 2pm. We arrived five minutes beforehand and headed towards the door, somewhat sheepishly, expecting to be accosted by the volunteers in charge of this event, asking us to tick off our names on a register. Instead, a man simply said: “Are you here for Kamilla Elliott?” We replied: “Yes.” Just go straight in.” said the man. And so we did. We were quite glad of that; having walked all the way up to the third floor of the Clephan Building, I would have been less than pleased to have to simply turn tail and go all the way back down. Yes I am that lazy. The lecture theatre was quite full, but we found a space. It then became evident that extra people were joining and standing at the back, which seemed a little… odd to me.
As for the talk itself, it got off to a late start due to technical difficulties, in that the music for the Powerpoint presentation was not coming through the sound system of the room. About ten minutes and three technical support types later, we were ready to go. (The cure had been restarting the computer, if you’d like to know, which had been Kamilla’s idea…) Kamilla Elliott’s lecture was entitled Unfilmable Books and dealt with books which have been deemed ‘unfilmable’ and the reasons why so many filmmakers insist on turning such pieces of literature into film. This talk immediately caught my eye in the list of events, as I have often found myself reading a book and then watching the film of it and being horrified by the appalling adaptation which I have been shown. In my experience, Stephen King’s The Shining and Suzuki Kouji’s Ring are prime examples of this, taking books which have more than could possibly ever be successfully filmed and attempting it anyway. And failing.
However, I found the lecture itself to be rather boring and, if I may say so, almost pompous in a way. I know that Kamilla Elliott is an expert in her field, having studied this subject for a long time and written books about it, and that the audience was also made up of a lot of Film Studies or Media students, but I was in neither category. In my opinion, when giving a talk, you cannot simply assume that everyone will be an expert in what you are talking about. In contrast to this, of course you cannot simply dumb down the subject to the extent that you are explaining every little term and idea, as this will quickly grow to be tedious. However, the intricate and overly-long sentences which I often found myself faced with in this lecture took things a little too far. Long sentences filled with complicated words and ideas are perfectly fine to use when writing a literary piece on the subject, but they simply will not do in a talk of this nature. A reader of a book can skip back over what they have read as often as they need to in order to understand what the author is saying, but it is much harder to pick up these things when simply listening to the words. Because of this, I often found myself rather lost in a tangle of words and sentences and therefore unable to focus and concentrate on the talk. This was a shame, as Kamilla had a lot of interesting points buried under all of those long words.
The lecture was interspersed with a lot of various multimedia inserts which broke it up quite well. The talk began with an excerpt from A Day in the Life by The Beatles, illustrated with the lyrics, which appeared projected on the screen as the words came in the song. There were also video extracts from the films Adaptation and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. From what we were shown and told about these two films, I thought that they were both very interesting and wonderful examples of ‘unfilmable books’, despite having never read them myself. These extracts also made me want to further research these books and films and were rather attention-grabbing when surrounded by the mass of words.
Kamilla was forced to cut out a section of her lecture due to the late start and at the end of the lecture, there was no time for questions from the audience, though we were invited to come down and talk to her on the way out of the lecture theatre if there was anything which we wanted to ask. I gave that a miss.
My friend and I decided to give Mark Clayden a miss later that day and it was a good thing, as I am informed that he didn’t turn up. Though I am not certain on that fact, so please don’t blame me if it’s not true.
Sue Townsend was on Thursday at 1pm. We got there fifteen minutes early and found ourselves in something midway between a crowd and a queue outside the door. We were then informed that the event “was full”. We protested that we had booked it and were met with the reply: “We cannot guarantee you a seat, even if you have booked”… What the hell? So what was the point in booking? We left this group of people in a less than pleased state, with a classmate who had been really looking forward to this event, who had also booked and was really disappointed. I don’t for a second imagine that we were the only ones in this state. Especially as I had a dozen or so people around me grumbling the exact same things that we were about how disorganised and ridiculous it was.
Later that day, we went to attempt to see Mark Thomas and were met with a woman with a clipboard asking if we had booked. People who had booked were told to go straight ahead and have their names checked off and those who had not were asked to queue at the side and would be let in, possibly, once those who had booked had arrived. At last… a sensible system. Which was apparently only discovered on the second-to-last day of the event. Well done De Montfort. Eventually, we were let into the lecture hall and were surprised by how many free seats there were for something which had been ‘fully booked’ when we tried to get our seats for it and been forced to queue outside.
This event was conducted like an interview with a second man sitting at the front with Mark Thomas. I have no idea who this other man was, partly due to the fact that they were both sitting on rather low, comfortable chairs, making it almost impossible to see them over the heads of the people in rows in front. I didn’t really know anything about Mark Thomas when I went into that lecture hall, but learned a lot over the hour about who he was, what he stood for and even, to an extent, events of his childhood. Although it was a lot more politics-based than I was expecting (Admittedly, probably because I didn’t really know who he was) I actually found myself rather interested in what he had to say, though I have no interest in politics at all. I don’t, however, remember a lot of the specifics of what he was talking about, probably because it was not exactly my area of expertise.
Mark Thomas spoke in an interesting, colloquial manner, as though having a discussion with the audience, most likely helped by the interview style of the event. It was easy to follow what he was saying, even with my limited political knowledge, if a tad uninteresting in places, for me at least. There was a fair bit of humour in this hour, which was pleasant, and a lot of ground was covered.
My main problem with this event was the fact that it ran over. The ‘interview man’ had suggested finishing the talk at 5:45pm so that there was plenty of time for questions, as “a lot of these talks have been running over, leaving us without time for questions”. This seemed like a good idea, until the first question took the best part of ten minutes to answer. Admittedly, it was a very interesting and fascinating answer, which I very much enjoyed hearing, but the following questions, also hand-picked to require extremely long answers, meant that the lecture ran over quite a bit. When a lecture is already five minutes over its supposed ending time, you really shouldn’t say: “Okay, just a last two questions now”. But that was exactly what the ‘interview man’ said. It was gone 6:10pm when it eventually ended, but as there were so many people about, it was near 6:20 when I managed to leave the building.
In conclusion really, I felt that the range of subjects covered in the Cultural Exchanges programme weren’t varied enough for the interests of most of the students I spoke to and that the entire event itself was poorly organised. This isn’t exactly the first time Cultural Exchanges has been put on, but apparently they have yet to work out the best way of going about the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of staff and guides around and loads of helpful signs with arrows on, but it just plain wasn’t what I was expecting it to be.
Roll on next year…
I never knew...
I went to the "women in the music industry" talk on the Wednesday and let's just say that it was full of surprises. Clearly the music industry is sexist and I have never been so assured of that as when Louise Smith commented about it. I have realised I have a new admirer. She has a family and is running a successful record company... woah! She has recorded albums with Kylie, Madonna and others... she was responsible for the massive hit of 2007 called "The Creeps"... bloody hell!
I was amazed to see that so many women were in this talk, who all wanted similar careers. I am NOT a feminist but I am very passionate about women and men having an equal status in the music industry- my main passion in life. So all I can say is good on Louise and I would love to talk to her again soon.
Pix
xxxx
p.s she must be awesome- one of her heroes is Tony Visconte (the producer of David Bowie and Mark Bolan!)
I was amazed to see that so many women were in this talk, who all wanted similar careers. I am NOT a feminist but I am very passionate about women and men having an equal status in the music industry- my main passion in life. So all I can say is good on Louise and I would love to talk to her again soon.
Pix
xxxx
p.s she must be awesome- one of her heroes is Tony Visconte (the producer of David Bowie and Mark Bolan!)
Woah....
It was a Wednesday night and I went to see the music technology concert in the PACE building... on my own... in the pitch black... with some annoying buggers sitting behind me talking all posh and knowledgeable about music and lighting... with the only source of light being the green spec coming from the speakers which surrounded the room. There were to be 4 pieces performed- all done digitally with one accompanied by a live piano with a woman called Sarah who had won prizes for this.
The pieces scared me shitless... everything about them scared me shitless! However, they were amazing and I really could get a picture of where this kind of music could be played. With my eyes closed I imagined something like "Hex" at Alton Towers, or the middle of a horror scene, or possibly the build up to some sort of battle in a science fiction film. Whatever the scenario may have been, rarely have I had shivers from such music. At one point, the music seemed to travel over your head and it gave my complete right side a shudder!
Overall it was amazing and I really wish it would have been a longer concert. Bring them back- don't let the partnership they have with this uni disappear! Please?!
Pix
xxxxx
The pieces scared me shitless... everything about them scared me shitless! However, they were amazing and I really could get a picture of where this kind of music could be played. With my eyes closed I imagined something like "Hex" at Alton Towers, or the middle of a horror scene, or possibly the build up to some sort of battle in a science fiction film. Whatever the scenario may have been, rarely have I had shivers from such music. At one point, the music seemed to travel over your head and it gave my complete right side a shudder!
Overall it was amazing and I really wish it would have been a longer concert. Bring them back- don't let the partnership they have with this uni disappear! Please?!
Pix
xxxxx
Tony Garnett
It was quite comforting to know that this man whose career has been much longer than my life stated one of the theories I've been saying for years- that drama (be it TV, film or theatre) is all about entertainment and education (sounds rather simple now I type it, but I'm sure it's quite deep).
Tony Garnett is a producer who is mostly linked to films and TV shows about social realism- such as 'This Life', 'Cathy, Come Home', 'Kes', 'The Cops' and 'Law and Order'. As a producer he does want the audience to be educated and entertained, as with 'The Cops' he wanted to show the darker side of Tony Blair's Britain where poverty still exists, as well as the effect of power on ordinary people. 'The Cops' lasted for two series before Garnett decided to move on. He said that, in being true to life, 'The Cops' had no real ending- plot threads weren't tied up neatly, characters still had problems and so on. Clips where shown from that show and 'This Life', which caused the lecture to overrun and question time was cut short.
What the lecture did leave me thinking about notions of education and entertainment in drama- how do you balance between the two, like how true to life should a piece be before it becomes dull? Should truth be sacrificed for entertainment?
Tony Garnett is a producer who is mostly linked to films and TV shows about social realism- such as 'This Life', 'Cathy, Come Home', 'Kes', 'The Cops' and 'Law and Order'. As a producer he does want the audience to be educated and entertained, as with 'The Cops' he wanted to show the darker side of Tony Blair's Britain where poverty still exists, as well as the effect of power on ordinary people. 'The Cops' lasted for two series before Garnett decided to move on. He said that, in being true to life, 'The Cops' had no real ending- plot threads weren't tied up neatly, characters still had problems and so on. Clips where shown from that show and 'This Life', which caused the lecture to overrun and question time was cut short.
What the lecture did leave me thinking about notions of education and entertainment in drama- how do you balance between the two, like how true to life should a piece be before it becomes dull? Should truth be sacrificed for entertainment?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Welcome To Everything
Well one event i went to see (with possible the poorest attendance ever), has really given me thought for paws!!
I went to see the Tony Saint lecture in the IOCT on thursday. Sure it would be full and there would be no room, but yes, entry was easy. Of the 25 seats set out only 8 got filled (2 fillers were the CE staff!). He presented a good lecture about the history of online performances (mostly drama related) and showed us how, the first online performance of hamlet took an unexpected turn half way through, Ophelia deciding to kill off hamlet. Also, the audience (other chatters) were allowed to join in the action adding also to the newness factor of it.
Also he took us into the digital virtual world of Second Life. A world where real people have bodies, faces, jobs, private land and money! He took us to the region of his own university (of scarborough's) island in the game and showed two students rehearsing for a play to be performed inside the game. This may at first sound like the small domain of a large group of geeks, but there are tens of millions of people registered, and almost one hundred thousand online at the last count (earlier today).
Inside the game also, he took us to a faithfull recreation of shakespeare's globe theatre (one of three that exist in the game), where we could look around the theatre (most doors in this world are open. Later on in the night, it would be possible to come here and SEE hamlet being performed, with characters speaking lines through microphones from the real world. With people's avatars (digital versions of their bodies) moving on the stage to the actions, although the motions are still very much restricted to moving to places, with the occaisional gesture. Is this the 21st century theatre?
I'm not sure, but i was intrigued enough to go home and download and log-on to the Second Life world (it's free and you can earn money). To find out. I'm still exploring the vast places in the game, follow my progress if you wish at: http://slcrinkle.blogspot.com/
So yes, by far and large i would say that, even above the mighty sessions with Tom Leonard, "andburntprogress", this lecture alone was worth waiting for. Maybe because in my fleetingly spare moments, i am always wondering where the future of our little world of theatre is going, maybe because its geeky. Who knows?
I went to see the Tony Saint lecture in the IOCT on thursday. Sure it would be full and there would be no room, but yes, entry was easy. Of the 25 seats set out only 8 got filled (2 fillers were the CE staff!). He presented a good lecture about the history of online performances (mostly drama related) and showed us how, the first online performance of hamlet took an unexpected turn half way through, Ophelia deciding to kill off hamlet. Also, the audience (other chatters) were allowed to join in the action adding also to the newness factor of it.
Also he took us into the digital virtual world of Second Life. A world where real people have bodies, faces, jobs, private land and money! He took us to the region of his own university (of scarborough's) island in the game and showed two students rehearsing for a play to be performed inside the game. This may at first sound like the small domain of a large group of geeks, but there are tens of millions of people registered, and almost one hundred thousand online at the last count (earlier today).
Inside the game also, he took us to a faithfull recreation of shakespeare's globe theatre (one of three that exist in the game), where we could look around the theatre (most doors in this world are open. Later on in the night, it would be possible to come here and SEE hamlet being performed, with characters speaking lines through microphones from the real world. With people's avatars (digital versions of their bodies) moving on the stage to the actions, although the motions are still very much restricted to moving to places, with the occaisional gesture. Is this the 21st century theatre?
I'm not sure, but i was intrigued enough to go home and download and log-on to the Second Life world (it's free and you can earn money). To find out. I'm still exploring the vast places in the game, follow my progress if you wish at: http://slcrinkle.blogspot.com/
So yes, by far and large i would say that, even above the mighty sessions with Tom Leonard, "andburntprogress", this lecture alone was worth waiting for. Maybe because in my fleetingly spare moments, i am always wondering where the future of our little world of theatre is going, maybe because its geeky. Who knows?
Katharine Whitehorn
I wouldn't much have liked to be the girl with the tartan hat.
She was trapped, close to the back, in the middle of her row and wearing a tartan hat. It wasn't much of a disguise. It was her who got the blame you see, and there was nothing she could do. Except maybe pull her hat abit lower and try to discreetly attract the wardens attention (which incidently turned out to be a pretty futile exercise). I was sure she could see her though, she just probably didn't know what to do.
It wasnt quite loud enough for everyone to realise what it was you see (a speaker in the ceiling playing some obscure radio station - who'd have guessed?!) So the poor girl underneath it, in her tartan hat, got the blame for being the smuggler of the offending IPOD or MP3 player.
Eventually, about 15 minutes in, an usher managed to solve the problem and silence could be heard in the back rows of the lecture hall. But still, I wouldn't much have liked to be the girl with the tartan hat.
She was trapped, close to the back, in the middle of her row and wearing a tartan hat. It wasn't much of a disguise. It was her who got the blame you see, and there was nothing she could do. Except maybe pull her hat abit lower and try to discreetly attract the wardens attention (which incidently turned out to be a pretty futile exercise). I was sure she could see her though, she just probably didn't know what to do.
It wasnt quite loud enough for everyone to realise what it was you see (a speaker in the ceiling playing some obscure radio station - who'd have guessed?!) So the poor girl underneath it, in her tartan hat, got the blame for being the smuggler of the offending IPOD or MP3 player.
Eventually, about 15 minutes in, an usher managed to solve the problem and silence could be heard in the back rows of the lecture hall. But still, I wouldn't much have liked to be the girl with the tartan hat.
Slash 3
Slash 3 is Cultural Exchanges' annual conference dedicated to academic discussion of Slash. Slash is an interesting phenomenon where women write and publish fanfiction about two male characters in a sexual context. As you can imagine, it's more interesting than I'm making it sound.
It was a very interesting day. As usual I turned up late for it. Once I had recovered from that minor embarrasment I settled in to listen. I think my favourite panel was the one about race in fandom, because it was something I had been thinking about myself. The question seemed to be, is it fair to ignore race issues because you're after escapism? Can you still enjoy a movie or TV show even if you suspect it has racist undertones?
I admit I didn't take many notes. I'm not really all that good at academics, but I did listen. Also I took some pictures.
It was good fun overall. It's just a pity there won't be one next year. Hopefully there might be one held somewhere else...
It was a very interesting day. As usual I turned up late for it. Once I had recovered from that minor embarrasment I settled in to listen. I think my favourite panel was the one about race in fandom, because it was something I had been thinking about myself. The question seemed to be, is it fair to ignore race issues because you're after escapism? Can you still enjoy a movie or TV show even if you suspect it has racist undertones?
I admit I didn't take many notes. I'm not really all that good at academics, but I did listen. Also I took some pictures.
It was good fun overall. It's just a pity there won't be one next year. Hopefully there might be one held somewhere else...
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Sue Townsend lecture
Again I apologize for my late entry on this lecture. Blame my laziness and forgetfulness as usual.
The lecture started quite earlier than expected at least 10 minutes or so after entering the room. And I didn't expect so many adults to participate, I thought that it would mainly consist of students. It was a good thing that I had arrived around 15 minutes early to avoid the crowd outside and get a quick seat. I thought that I should've taken one nearer to the front so that I could see Sue above the tall heads but I could hear her clearly enough from around the top area anyway so it wasn't at all a disappointment.
When the lecture had begun the room was packed, full of murmurs and streams of conversation; I could see from my high view point that there were lots more people waiting outside to get a seat, peering inside expectantly, but I suspected that they were turned down because of lack of space as they weren't allowed in. Again I had thanked myself for turning up appropriately early to gain entry for this unmissable event.
It was a pleasant atmosphere throughout the lecture, and Sue was very entertaining; the audience was good to respond with a round of laughter. She was very interesting to listen to as well, talking about what happened in her life that had inspired her to become a writer and replying to a few questions from the audience. She is a very funny woman, has a good sense of humour and was very informative. I got to learn a few things about her, like she was secretly practising her writing for 20 years and that her first favourite author was William Brown.
She talked more about her life than about writing really but I liked listening to her nonetheless. It was a good experience and I wouldn't mind attending a lecture by her again in the next Cultural Exchange.
Po
The lecture started quite earlier than expected at least 10 minutes or so after entering the room. And I didn't expect so many adults to participate, I thought that it would mainly consist of students. It was a good thing that I had arrived around 15 minutes early to avoid the crowd outside and get a quick seat. I thought that I should've taken one nearer to the front so that I could see Sue above the tall heads but I could hear her clearly enough from around the top area anyway so it wasn't at all a disappointment.
When the lecture had begun the room was packed, full of murmurs and streams of conversation; I could see from my high view point that there were lots more people waiting outside to get a seat, peering inside expectantly, but I suspected that they were turned down because of lack of space as they weren't allowed in. Again I had thanked myself for turning up appropriately early to gain entry for this unmissable event.
It was a pleasant atmosphere throughout the lecture, and Sue was very entertaining; the audience was good to respond with a round of laughter. She was very interesting to listen to as well, talking about what happened in her life that had inspired her to become a writer and replying to a few questions from the audience. She is a very funny woman, has a good sense of humour and was very informative. I got to learn a few things about her, like she was secretly practising her writing for 20 years and that her first favourite author was William Brown.
She talked more about her life than about writing really but I liked listening to her nonetheless. It was a good experience and I wouldn't mind attending a lecture by her again in the next Cultural Exchange.
Po
Kamilla Elliott lecture - Unfilmable Books
Sorry that this update is rather late. Blame my laziness and forgetfulness - I do.
Anyway, on to the main topic. I thought that the lecture overall was good, she had a lot of information to tell us why and how some particular books are deemed "unfilmable" but are still filmed anyway. For example, LOTR (Lord of the Rings) was deemed unfilmable because of technological reasons i.e. A lack of film technology. Also, in general, Novels have specific differences compared to Films in that they can only be seen in words rather than in moving images, and other such differences.
To quote from Kamilla reading from an extract: "To make the film is to destroy the word." This makes filming a book sound all the more difficult to do so. I'm guessing since there's so much content in one book the director would have to cut out a lot of stuff to fit it into a 1 and a half - 2 hour film time. I remember from the Louis de Bernieres lecture that he said that the last person you should ask an opinion from of a film based on a book is the author themselves because they will most certainly hate it as most of what they had written would be cut out to fit in the time length.
I like the clips that she used in the lecture too, I don't quite remember them but they were funny and related to the subject at hand.
One thing that I didn't like about the lecture was the start of it, involving technical problems with the sound system of the projector. Kamilla tried to re-start her laptop but that didn't work. In the end the technician from the Clephan Computer Facility fixed it in only a few seconds compared to around 15mins the people in the room attempted. The whole experience gave me deja vu of a typical lecture by Simon where in the first 10 or so minutes he would try to get his slide shows working with amusing sound effects :) i.e. Urrghhgh!
So when the lecture had finished there wasn't enough time for questions to be asked and people had to go to Kamilla directly to have their questions answered.
But I didn't mind too much really, it was only the beginning part that irked me because I expected it to start on time. But nevertheless I liked the rest of the lecture.
Po
Anyway, on to the main topic. I thought that the lecture overall was good, she had a lot of information to tell us why and how some particular books are deemed "unfilmable" but are still filmed anyway. For example, LOTR (Lord of the Rings) was deemed unfilmable because of technological reasons i.e. A lack of film technology. Also, in general, Novels have specific differences compared to Films in that they can only be seen in words rather than in moving images, and other such differences.
To quote from Kamilla reading from an extract: "To make the film is to destroy the word." This makes filming a book sound all the more difficult to do so. I'm guessing since there's so much content in one book the director would have to cut out a lot of stuff to fit it into a 1 and a half - 2 hour film time. I remember from the Louis de Bernieres lecture that he said that the last person you should ask an opinion from of a film based on a book is the author themselves because they will most certainly hate it as most of what they had written would be cut out to fit in the time length.
I like the clips that she used in the lecture too, I don't quite remember them but they were funny and related to the subject at hand.
One thing that I didn't like about the lecture was the start of it, involving technical problems with the sound system of the projector. Kamilla tried to re-start her laptop but that didn't work. In the end the technician from the Clephan Computer Facility fixed it in only a few seconds compared to around 15mins the people in the room attempted. The whole experience gave me deja vu of a typical lecture by Simon where in the first 10 or so minutes he would try to get his slide shows working with amusing sound effects :) i.e. Urrghhgh!
So when the lecture had finished there wasn't enough time for questions to be asked and people had to go to Kamilla directly to have their questions answered.
But I didn't mind too much really, it was only the beginning part that irked me because I expected it to start on time. But nevertheless I liked the rest of the lecture.
Po
Friday, February 29, 2008
Civil rights with a pretty hat on...?
How, I wonder, would I be received if I were to put a book on the market tomorrow? Would people immediately presume to know what my book is about, how it has been written, and its overall quality as a piece of literature in general? I suspect they would. They’d assume that it was some Belle De Jour-esque thing, probably to do with men and relationships, written to a fairly low standard and somewhat simplistically. This is just a fact of life – we all imagine we ‘know’ a person on first glance due to stereotypes, even if we aren’t aware or willing to admit that we’re so judgemental.
When I walked into the room on Wednesday and saw that the people who’d be giving the talk were dressed from head to toe in bright red with shaven heads and wearing sandals and various beads about their necks I (and I’m ashamed to admit) presumed to know them already, as though they weren’t individuals at all; simply a religious collective. Looking at it from a different perspective, and imagining that they, ‘the Buddhists’, were to walk into a room fronted by a group of females in their early twenties whom, perhaps, resembled the cast of Hollyoaks, would they be so kind as to give the benefit of the doubt? Would they even stay to listen? I wonder.
I realised, you see, from listening to ‘the Buddhist’ Braziers, that image is fundamental to how you’re perceived in the world of writing as well as the everyday world, and that it can either work with you, or against you. This brings me to the idea of feminism (which is always fun) and something Katherine Whitehorn said with regard to women in today’s society. The concept of shame, she said woefully, is practically obsolete nowadays, as is so gracefully portrayed in the media every day. Is it really the case, as my flatmate Sofia said over pesto and pasta this evening, that women should not aspire to be equal to men as that would be setting their sights too low? I don’t know. But it did make me consider what goes into my writing, and whether what I write about would constitute a ‘shameful’ representation of modern women. Hmm…
-A
When I walked into the room on Wednesday and saw that the people who’d be giving the talk were dressed from head to toe in bright red with shaven heads and wearing sandals and various beads about their necks I (and I’m ashamed to admit) presumed to know them already, as though they weren’t individuals at all; simply a religious collective. Looking at it from a different perspective, and imagining that they, ‘the Buddhists’, were to walk into a room fronted by a group of females in their early twenties whom, perhaps, resembled the cast of Hollyoaks, would they be so kind as to give the benefit of the doubt? Would they even stay to listen? I wonder.
I realised, you see, from listening to ‘the Buddhist’ Braziers, that image is fundamental to how you’re perceived in the world of writing as well as the everyday world, and that it can either work with you, or against you. This brings me to the idea of feminism (which is always fun) and something Katherine Whitehorn said with regard to women in today’s society. The concept of shame, she said woefully, is practically obsolete nowadays, as is so gracefully portrayed in the media every day. Is it really the case, as my flatmate Sofia said over pesto and pasta this evening, that women should not aspire to be equal to men as that would be setting their sights too low? I don’t know. But it did make me consider what goes into my writing, and whether what I write about would constitute a ‘shameful’ representation of modern women. Hmm…
-A
Exchanges
Words encased in reason
Silence bound by truth
Seeping eloquence
And now
Unbroken threads
Anew
Louise Holt
Silence bound by truth
Seeping eloquence
And now
Unbroken threads
Anew
Louise Holt
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A minor mishap.
When events go back to back,
Life can be a bitch
Running the clepham stairs and back
Events, not to be missed.
So imagine breifly if you can,
A growing atomic mushroom
When the CE staff forgot to mention
A quite slight change of room.
So we sat there till ten past five
In clepham 3.1, Alas!
Like bible, follow booklet true,
A bid to see mark Thomas.
Though his discourse still goes on,
For what? I am not there?
The actual room being full as fuck
To library, to vent hot air!
By "Culturally Dejected"
Life can be a bitch
Running the clepham stairs and back
Events, not to be missed.
So imagine breifly if you can,
A growing atomic mushroom
When the CE staff forgot to mention
A quite slight change of room.
So we sat there till ten past five
In clepham 3.1, Alas!
Like bible, follow booklet true,
A bid to see mark Thomas.
Though his discourse still goes on,
For what? I am not there?
The actual room being full as fuck
To library, to vent hot air!
By "Culturally Dejected"
Sock problem
Does anyone else seem to have a lot less socks than when they started the year? I'm sure someone is stealing mine, worse, only stealing one of each pair!!!
I am a Tuna fish / Swimming in a sea of discontent
12:50pm. The designated time for meeting...so where was Georgia? I hung back, away from the queue of people, hoping that it was just a case of her running a bit late rather than her having arrived early and gone in without me. I alternated between keeping an eye on the stairs and on the lift, catching snippets of conversations from the people ahead of me.
"If you just wait here, we'll see if we can fit you in."
"Have you booked? What was the name?"
12:55. Still no sign of Georgia. Maybe she had gone in already, after all? Quickly texting her, I moved closer to the line of people, figuring that it was long enough that even if she was just running late, she would probably still arrive before I got in. Besides, I didn't want to miss my chance for hearing Sue Townsend speaking.
Ping. The doors to the lift opened, revealing several adults and Georgia. She grinned at me and moved to join me in the queue.
***
12:54. I was eager to reach the lecture theatre, and wished the lift would move quicker. I was excited about seeing Sue Townsend as I had read Adrian Mole countless times since I was about ten. Adrian Mole inspired me; I loved the writing style and was determined to ask questions to aid me in my own writing. After all, its not everyday this happens is it?! It was the only reason I stayed for Cultural Exchanges really. The other speakers were good but not as famous as good old Sue Townsend.
12:55 I recieved a text from Sam. 'Where are you? I'm waiting outside, hurry up.' The lift door opened.
***
They hadn't been waiting long before two fellow creative writers from their class headed towards them. Georgia invited them to stand behind her and Sam and the four waited to be allowed in. Suddenly two girls ahead of them in the queue turned around, looking disappointed and complaining that all the seats were taken.
"There aren't any spaces left. We were told that you had to be here 15 minutes early even if you booked, to ensure that you actually get in. But we've been here since quarter to, and we still can't get in."
"But we booked spaces..." Georgia said quickly. "We booked online over a week ago, how can all the seats be taken?"
One of the girls shrugged. "We booked too, but they've already let in some people that didn't."
As the disgruntled and somewhat confused girls turned to leave, a steward walked towards them and apologised, but all the girls could talk about was how to write a blog about a talk they hadn't got to hear.
The end.
G. Norwood & S. Pavely.
"If you just wait here, we'll see if we can fit you in."
"Have you booked? What was the name?"
12:55. Still no sign of Georgia. Maybe she had gone in already, after all? Quickly texting her, I moved closer to the line of people, figuring that it was long enough that even if she was just running late, she would probably still arrive before I got in. Besides, I didn't want to miss my chance for hearing Sue Townsend speaking.
Ping. The doors to the lift opened, revealing several adults and Georgia. She grinned at me and moved to join me in the queue.
***
12:54. I was eager to reach the lecture theatre, and wished the lift would move quicker. I was excited about seeing Sue Townsend as I had read Adrian Mole countless times since I was about ten. Adrian Mole inspired me; I loved the writing style and was determined to ask questions to aid me in my own writing. After all, its not everyday this happens is it?! It was the only reason I stayed for Cultural Exchanges really. The other speakers were good but not as famous as good old Sue Townsend.
12:55 I recieved a text from Sam. 'Where are you? I'm waiting outside, hurry up.' The lift door opened.
***
They hadn't been waiting long before two fellow creative writers from their class headed towards them. Georgia invited them to stand behind her and Sam and the four waited to be allowed in. Suddenly two girls ahead of them in the queue turned around, looking disappointed and complaining that all the seats were taken.
"There aren't any spaces left. We were told that you had to be here 15 minutes early even if you booked, to ensure that you actually get in. But we've been here since quarter to, and we still can't get in."
"But we booked spaces..." Georgia said quickly. "We booked online over a week ago, how can all the seats be taken?"
One of the girls shrugged. "We booked too, but they've already let in some people that didn't."
As the disgruntled and somewhat confused girls turned to leave, a steward walked towards them and apologised, but all the girls could talk about was how to write a blog about a talk they hadn't got to hear.
The end.
G. Norwood & S. Pavely.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tom Leonard - Tuesday
Hey everyone, i just got featured on RAD RADIO! I phoned up and asked to have a five minute slot to talk about Tom Leonard and i got it! Sometimes flukes happen! Anyway, here is me appearing live on air!
RAD RADIO 1
I'll hopefully be doing more later in the week. Enjoy the rest of CE!
CD
Please note: there is actually no rad radio, i just made it up. It sounds good though and if such a station were in existence i would give it a listen, epecially if i was allowed to participate. More madness later!
RAD RADIO 1
I'll hopefully be doing more later in the week. Enjoy the rest of CE!
CD
Please note: there is actually no rad radio, i just made it up. It sounds good though and if such a station were in existence i would give it a listen, epecially if i was allowed to participate. More madness later!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I have to see Tony Garnett!!!!
Anyway it is Tuesday and i have already seen two out of the four I intended to see. Quite a few people were commenting on Sue Townshead, as I was not a fan myself I decided against going. I changed my mind at the last minutue but it was booked up. So far I have seen Claire Jennings 'In conversation' without Claire Jennings I was slightly disappointed but it was still a good lecture. Although it was about animation it stil gave me a of lot of information about stories in general. As I would like to maybe try script writing it had a lot of emphasis on the fact that it is the image that is most important and the dialogue comes last. A point he made was that the way animation is mostly made is that the image is thought of first and then the dialogue comes last. Someone in the audience argued that an animator had said it was the other way around. So Paul Wells said that it is dependant on the animator themselves. The second I went to was Dr Kamillia Elliot where she talked about unfilmable books. I was intrested in this because I have never really liked any films that were once books. However I found the discussion on the film 'Adaptation' was very intresting. Books can be turned into films but some of the best films which have been based on books have been there to make fun of the film industry and how it is hard to actually adapt a book. because it depends on different interpretations.
Monday, February 25, 2008
In Advance of Cultural Exchanges
(Just as a foreword, I actually wrote this five days ago, but due to internet problems and the lack of a properly functioning short-term memory, it's only just being posted now)
"Cultural Exchanges" they tell me... Cultural... Exchanges...? At first I thought this was some kind of foreign exchange programme, but with extra added culture. Was my university planning to trade me for some French kid and ship me off to the Louvre? I still don't understand quite why it's called that, but never mind; that's its name.
Basically, the university has set up a week of talks, workshops, guests and events for us to go to and to learna nd become all cultured and stuff. In return for this, we get a week off lectures. Well, not all of us do. As far as I can work out, it seems to be only Drama and Creative Writing that are off and, seeing as those are the subjects I take, hello 'week off'. But they didn't really explain that to us properly in the beginning and thus one of my friends, who shall remain nameless, had arranged to go home for half the week and booked her bus/train/other form of public transport tickets before discovering that only half of her course was off. Oops... It's not just a week off though, our duty is to attend and we Creative Writers have been given the mission of adding to the blog (see this blog) to talk about it, so here I am!
My main problem with this week though is the limited places and occasional fee. Admittedly, I understand the fees, it's just that we're all students and are cheap. The bit I don't get is making certain things so limited. I've been hearing about things with only thirty places. If they want us all to go and take part in this event, shouldn't they have given us more seats? Having attempted to book a few events, I found that all but one of them were already full up. The only one from my first choice selection which hadn't been booked up was the one I was least interested in and thought was most likely to be full. But apparently not... And the range of subjects is a bit iffy in my opinion. The Drama students get their lessons off, but there are hardly any Drama things to get involved with, which seems a little odd. But alas, we shall have to try our best. I shall hopefully return to inform you on what happened.
Anon, blog readers... Anon.
Claire Baldwin
"Cultural Exchanges" they tell me... Cultural... Exchanges...? At first I thought this was some kind of foreign exchange programme, but with extra added culture. Was my university planning to trade me for some French kid and ship me off to the Louvre? I still don't understand quite why it's called that, but never mind; that's its name.
Basically, the university has set up a week of talks, workshops, guests and events for us to go to and to learna nd become all cultured and stuff. In return for this, we get a week off lectures. Well, not all of us do. As far as I can work out, it seems to be only Drama and Creative Writing that are off and, seeing as those are the subjects I take, hello 'week off'. But they didn't really explain that to us properly in the beginning and thus one of my friends, who shall remain nameless, had arranged to go home for half the week and booked her bus/train/other form of public transport tickets before discovering that only half of her course was off. Oops... It's not just a week off though, our duty is to attend and we Creative Writers have been given the mission of adding to the blog (see this blog) to talk about it, so here I am!
My main problem with this week though is the limited places and occasional fee. Admittedly, I understand the fees, it's just that we're all students and are cheap. The bit I don't get is making certain things so limited. I've been hearing about things with only thirty places. If they want us all to go and take part in this event, shouldn't they have given us more seats? Having attempted to book a few events, I found that all but one of them were already full up. The only one from my first choice selection which hadn't been booked up was the one I was least interested in and thought was most likely to be full. But apparently not... And the range of subjects is a bit iffy in my opinion. The Drama students get their lessons off, but there are hardly any Drama things to get involved with, which seems a little odd. But alas, we shall have to try our best. I shall hopefully return to inform you on what happened.
Anon, blog readers... Anon.
Claire Baldwin
an afternoon out
"I'm taking my mother-in-law," one lecturer said. It would be unkind to name him, especially since he added, "and I'm looking forward to it too."
She may write for Saga magazine now, but I doubt her wit has diminished with age. Wikipedia has a series of quotations from her. These are the first three:
"Outside every thin girl is a fat man, trying to get in."
"The trouble with so many born-again people is that you wish they hadn’t been born the first time."
"When it comes to housework the one thing no book of household management can ever tell you is how to begin. Or maybe I mean why."
I don't have the excuse of a mother-in-law to accompany, but I think I'll be there at 3.00 tomorrow (Tuesday) - for myself.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
My Thoughts On Sue Townsend Session
I think that I've heard her name once before somewhere - maybe she was a guest talker at a lecture? Or was she mentioned in a lecture? Or I've probably skimmed her name in a book or other. But anyhoo, her name looked familiar to me for some reason, which got me interested in wanting to attend her lecture session in Cultural Exchange. The description in the brochure sounded good enough, interesting. I'd like to learn of her life as a writer and of the many tips and advice she could offer to become a better one individually. It would be great to learn from someone more talented and wiser than I am! I'm looking forward to hearing from her.
Po
Po
A kafuffle indeed...
I must say what a kafuffle this whole cultural exchanges malarky has caused. Indeed, all the academics of the clephan building that we've come to know and love have been extremely excitable these past few weeks. Not that they've been acting out of character you understand, and I probably wouldn't have even noticed had it not been for the constant repetition of 'CULTURAL EXCHANGES' every few sentences. Not that this has annoyed me in any way though, we are creative writing students after all and we all know how unreliable we are.
Im not sure yet which talks I shall be attending, but I have my eye on quite a few. Lucky for us it shouldn't be too much of a problem to just turn up on the day. I mean booking is rather the sensible option isn't it.
Oh, and I'm considering going in disguise.
Im not sure yet which talks I shall be attending, but I have my eye on quite a few. Lucky for us it shouldn't be too much of a problem to just turn up on the day. I mean booking is rather the sensible option isn't it.
Oh, and I'm considering going in disguise.
Friday, February 8, 2008
unmissable!
I've just used the on-line booking form and made all sorts of advance reservations ... and now I'm wondering if I've chosen the right events. A bit of music would be good.
For me, the highlight has to be Tom Leonard. I've read some of his books and listened to his recordings - and I'm a devotee of Tom Leonard's website. I also linked through it to easy peasy meals and read his recipe for lentil soup. I don't suppose he'll be handing out free samples at Cultural Exchanges. But, judging from his "Litany for Blair's Britain", there's a good chance he'll say something controversial.
For me, the highlight has to be Tom Leonard. I've read some of his books and listened to his recordings - and I'm a devotee of Tom Leonard's website. I also linked through it to easy peasy meals and read his recipe for lentil soup. I don't suppose he'll be handing out free samples at Cultural Exchanges. But, judging from his "Litany for Blair's Britain", there's a good chance he'll say something controversial.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson is coming to De Montfort University on Monday the 25th February for Cultural exchanges. The man who performed stunning hits like 'Fite Dem Back' featuring the memorable lyrics 'gonna smash their brains in' is set to attract many to this event. Check it out!
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Well worth seeing. Linton's use of music and poetry works reallly well. The songs are catchy, relevant and therefore stay in your mind.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The practical details
Cultural Exchanges is a regular, week-long programme of events in and around the Faculty of Humanities of De Montfort University, Leicester. It's open to the public and most events are free. You can see the programme by clicking HERE.
The week runs from Monday, 25th - Friday, 29th February. On the Monday, as part of Cultural Exchanges, there's a conference on Slash Fictions and Fanfic. The programme can be found HERE, courtesy of Sheenagh Pugh's blog.
You are a successful businessperson...
Or maybe not. But we've got lots of them coming here, so if you've spent January procrastinating resolutions then stop reading this.Well done! Oh, there's still a bit of sand in your hair - do brush it before you attend the slash fiction workshop (£20/£12 conc.) or perhaps Mark Clayton can help you make it in the music industry.
Either way, you have an oppourtunity here, and it would be a shame to waste it!
PS I'm being held hostage, but I must stress I was not forced to write this in any way, shape, or form.
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