February 2012
2 posts
That moment, like in the pop songs . . .
That moment when the ex turns up (ex chronologically, contractually, and ever so matter-of-factually) with another man and your heart is a lift on the forty-seventh floor and the cable just snapped … that moment. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
we all saw him coming.
We all saw him coming. We heard him first, far away, calling from somewhere near the river. But nobody took any notice. At that time of day, after the offices have spilled their contents into the streets and all the bars have gratefully received the offering, the city is full of strange noises. Best not to pay any attention. Turn up the iPod. Rush on to the next bar. I clocked him as he passed...
January 2012
2 posts
the culture vulture » How to go to Art Galleries.
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk I was a bit bored this morning and couldn’t muster the concentration to do what I was supposed to be doing so I did something silly instead. Looking forward to Northern Art Prize tonight though. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
Unhappy with the toilets?
I saw this sign last week in the gents in Bexley Wing, St James the other day. What struck me most wasn’t the appalling punctuation - random commas and a spattering of apostrophes seem to be the NHS house style, and this wasn’t the worst example I found - but the unctuous tone of the thing. It wasn’t my civic duty to politely bring to the attention of the people responsible...
August 2011
2 posts
Thankfully, it was only a dream.
My cheek had stuck to the pillow case. I must have been chewing the corner for hours. Nettles of dread, blossoming from the base of my spine, prickled my shoulders, and my forehead was slicked with a cold sweat. I got up without turning on the light, located my jeans, patted the floor for discarded socks and a t-shirt, and slipped out of the bedroom. I forced my feet into laced up trainers. There...
My #hometourist bender; a day of booze, bollocks,...
Some days you don’t end up where you should. Shit happens. Which doesn’t necessarily mean that what happens is shit - though in my case life does have turdish tendencies - just that plans, preparations, promises and all those assorted ways we have of predicting the near future are just so much poo. Wednesday evening I should have been sauntering the streets of Leeds with the lovely people from...
July 2011
1 post
First thoughts on my new Kindle.
My English Lit teacher had a bit of a stunt he’d pull with each new Lower Sixth. We were studying The Metaphysical Poets in my year and Mr Cockerill had printed out a handful of poems for each of us - he was a man of firm beliefs, a New Critic, one of the strictest, and he firmly believed in the benefits of each student grappling with “the words on the page.” That meant a physical assault upon...
June 2011
3 posts
Beeston Street Life.
There’s a gathering in the street. Specifically on the neighbour’s wall directly opposite. Seven or eight young men in jogging bottoms and trainers, shirtless. Not a chest hair between them. They seem to have only four topics of conversation; anal sex, Stella, fast cars, and strident violence. Judging by volume and vociferousness, they are most passionate and knowledgeable about the latter....
2 tags
Kids Return at #ceolchoirm at #templeworks . . . ...
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
3 tags
And this is just the sound check . . .
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
May 2011
4 posts
2 tags
The wondful world of . . . Live at #templeworks
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
3 tags
@bentarchitectco talking to @_jonb about The...
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
1 tag
Mick and.Jude talk about The Wonderful World Of ....
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
3 tags
The Wonderful World Of . . .
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
April 2011
8 posts
3 tags
the culture vulture » 999 words about my favourite...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk Wrote this in a breathless dash yesterday. Not sure that it makes much sense now … I wasn’t in the best of moods and maybe I should have waited till I felt sunnier … desperately needs an edit. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
Factory Window Song.
FACTORY windows are always broken. Somebody’s always throwing bricks, Somebody’s always heaving cinders,Playing ugly Yahoo tricks. Factory windows are always broken.Other windows are let alone. No one throws through the chapel-windowThe bitter, snarling, derisive stone. Factory windows are always broken.Something or other is going wrong. Something is rotten—I think, in...
All Items of Value Have Been Removed. . . . a...
I saw this poster on a door on my travels a couple of days ago. They are everywhere around where I live. Some days it does feel as if there’s nothing much worthwhile left in this part of town, it’s all been relocated, boarded up, or bulldozed to dust. Anyway, I’ve been fiddling with complex verse forms recently (and they don’t come much more fiddly than the villanelle,...
My morning walk to the Coop.
Well, not exactly morning but when I got up and discovered I had no coffee. It is Sunday, I had a good excuse.Here are just some random photos of stuff that caught my eye. The views are fairly obvious - I live on Beeston Hill, it’s pretty impressive up here. The toppled and smashed gravestones are a bit disturbing. Queen Victoria stuck up there on that oddly out of proportion monument...
My morning walk to the Coop.
Well, not exactly morning but when I got up and discovered I had no coffee. It is Sunday, I had a good excuse.Here are just some random photos of stuff that caught my eye. The views are fairly obvious - I live on Beeston Hill, it’s pretty impressive up here. The toppled and smashed gravestones are a bit disturbing. Queen Victoria stuck up there on that oddly out of proportion monument...
Some great pics of last night's #JaumePlensaYSP...
Here’s just a few pics I took at the Jaume Plensa exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last night. Working on my review later … have some ideas for this one. A bit of a collaboration with Temple Works very own Robert Sharples. Which might be fun, for him at least. See the full gallery on Posterous Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in...
5 tags
Jaume Plensa exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture...
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
4 tags
Beeston . . . We have art too #basementartproject
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
March 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Happy sounds of Howduino at Temple Works
Listen! Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
the culture vulture » Caution! This Is Not An...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk took me ages to scribble some rhymes. Belloc makes it look easy but it’s ridiculously hard to make those rhyming pairs of tetrameters flow smoothly and sound like English … I gave up after a while. Like the idea of writing reviews in different forms, tired of the usual critical crap, nice to have a bit of...
the culture vulture » Yerma at WYP.
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk The pictures are beautiful but I don’t think the words did justice to the play. It’s an amazing experience. I wasn’t sure what to expect (there’s always a danger of worthiness with this sort of thing) and it did throw me at first. But it’s totally enthralling and a flawless translation....
the culture vulture » Holbeck Home Tourist . . ....
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk Should be doing this tonight … will be busking it instead … off to Corn Exchange in a minute. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
home tourist bettskultcha
Listen! via AudioBoo Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
February 2011
4 posts
the culture vulture » Carmen . . . What’s she...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk a belated, bewildered, bucketload of balderdash about a bloggers bash at the opera … one day I’ll know what to say and how to say it. Till then I’ll just make stuff up. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
Home Tourist.
[[posterous-content:pid___0]]A ten minute walk from my flat into town, several derelict pubs, wasteland created by the last wave of regeneration, empty factories, more Keep Out security signs than I could count, litter and broken glass everywhere, fences and more fences, cars on the roads and parking lots colonising every scrap of spare land … and nobody in the streets. At 3 o clock on...
Shutters
Download now or watch on posterous VIDEO0028.3gp (1650 KB) We discovered a shared love of shutters today … Btw, this is just random drunken posting … Just testing the phone really. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
Finally we are done . . .
Download now or watch on posterous VIDEO0029.3gp (6151 KB) Been a long week but a very interesting experience. Think it’s time to go to the pub … Robert says there’s a lime and soda with his name waiting for him at The Midnight Bell. I’m hoping for something a little stronger. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in...
November 2010
4 posts
the culture vulture » Northern Art Prize. And a...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk Just a rambling account of last Thursday at the Northern Art Prize. I’m really the most hopeless, helpless, hapless reviewer in the world as I really only ever talk about one thing. Well, two things if you count the other thing I talk about. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »...
The Author . . . a review, pt 2.
Phil Ah! I think I get it now. A play about making another play, a play that sounds pretty horrific. Four actors. Tim, the writer and director, who seems to have some strange ideas about art and society. Vic, who plays … IF Excuse me! Strange ideas? I haven’t heard any strange ideas … don’t know what he’s up to mind you. Why’s he naked? Why’s he crying? And what’s all the talk about...
The Author . . . a review (draft 2, no pic . . ....
At the edge of the furthest row in an audience facing an audience in two banks of seats. No way of taking notes. An uneasy, watchful presence. No sense of what I’m going to write about yet every sense that I have promised a review. There is freedom to improvise and make things up if I cannot think of anything sensible to say. Imaginary Friend So, that guy who’s just started talking, he’s...
The Author . . . a review (draft 1)
At the edge of the furthest row in an audience facing an audience in two banks of seats. No way of taking notes. An uneasy, watchful presence. No sense of what I’m going to write about yet every sense that I have promised a review. There is freedom to improvise and make things up if I cannot think of anything sensible to say. Imaginary Friend So, that guy who’s just started...
October 2010
2 posts
the culture vulture » Bring the Happy!
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk Wrote another very silly post for Culture Vultures (apparently I’m editing the thing now, while Emma is unavailable for comment.) Do love Bring the Happy though, well worth a visit. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
How to be Happy . . . more thoughts on my...
Happiness, like the lesser bearded putty monkey, is a very rare beast and only ever exists in Europe under strictly regulated conditions. Unlike the monkey, you are encouraged to pursue it vigorously and if you manage to grab some nobody will be offended if you parade it around and show off a bit to all your mates. Inevitably there are rules to the hunt and a whole science of putative psychology...
September 2010
6 posts
the culture vulture » Glad to be Glum.
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in a mould and tilled with manure. Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us from heaven. She is a divine dew, which the soul feels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom...
Zimbabwe
Hello Leeds It’s Susan Williamson at Temple Works. I set up an entirely bootleg, non-bureaucratic charitable push for a town in Bulawayo Province, Zimbabwe a few years ago with my dear friend Kettie Mangena who has been part of the Zimbabwean Diaspora in the UK for the last ten years. It’s based on common sense, stuff you don’t want (and I mean anything! that can be turned as if by magic at...
Untitled
Hello Leeds It’s Susan Williamson at Temple Works. I set up an entirely bootleg, non-bureaucratic charitable push for a town in Bulawayo Province, Zimbabwe a few years ago with my dear friend Kettie Mangena who has been part of the Zimbabwean Diaspora in the UK for the last ten years. It’s based on common sense, stuff you don’t want (and I mean anything! that can be turned as if by magic...
the culture vulture » So, when are we going to...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk Another post for Culture Vulture and a rather ungenerous comment from my sister … I ought to have known not to ask her to read it, she was in a foul mood yesterday Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
the culture vulture » Why Would Anyone Go To The...
via theculturevulture.co.uk I went to the ballet … but I bailed out of the date. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
Dreaming of Fields.
“That simple action of putting pen to paper will help you think about what it is you’re really trying to achieve,” recommends a website I happened upon this morning whilst balancing a searingly hot mug of coffee and a plate of drippy buttered crumpets on either arm of my chair, distracting me from my regular devotional attention to Mike Chitty’s latest dispatch from the Leeds Culture Wars. Seems...
August 2010
3 posts
What if Leeds . . . had style!
Call me shallow - I totally admit it, I’m about as deep as a cross section of Happy Shopper cling film - but I appreciate a well designed, thoughtful, attractive logo. If it’s only the local takeaway or self-employed dog-sitter even I’ve been known to get a bit sniffy if the marketing is on the dodgy side. Once I even turned down a rather lucrative piece of work owing to the fact that the...
the culture vulture » What I think about Cultural...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. via theculturevulture.co.uk Is it self-deprecation, or self-depreciation? Anyway, I always find it funny. Less a review more an admission of lackadaisicality. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
the culture vulture » Good Times at Leeds Corn...
Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better.via theculturevulture.co.uk Another post for Culture Vulture. Working on the next. Posted via email from Beer and Loafing in LS11 | Comment »
July 2010
5 posts
The dreadful has already happened . . . my two...
Before I start let’s make it clear that I’m not against public funding for the arts. If I had my way I’d double it at the very least. In my ideal world I’d expropriate the expropriators, poleaxe the bankers, turf out the queen and all the silly hangers on, pull the plug on Trident and all that missile malarkey, and exile the Tories to a clapped out council estate in Castleford. I’d put all that...
How do you get to Temple Works?
“How did you find us … ?”Anyone who has been to Temple Works in the past few months will have been collared by me and quizzed about how they managed to get here. This isn’t any kind of private psychological peculiarity; it’s not like I’m a train spotter or anything. The information gleaned is purely in the interests of science and the general forward march of human progress …...
Guest Post by Susan, The Boss.
A week ago on Saturday July 10 I was frying gently in the sun behind our Temple Works stand at the Holbeck Gala, held yearly on Holbeck Moor. Temple Works is in Holbeck so it was the neighbourly thing to do. Writer in Residence Phil Kirby, Blonde Bombsite Intern Sophie and myself, occasionally referred to as The Boss, made our way by foot (please note for travel statistics) to the Moor, laden...
Guest Post by Susan, The Boss.
A week ago on Saturday July 10 I was frying gently in the sun behind our Temple Works stand at the Holbeck Gala, held yearly on Holbeck Moor. Temple Works is in Holbeck so it was the neighbourly thing to do. Writer in Residence Phil Kirby, Blonde Bombsite Intern Sophie and myself, occasionally referred to as The Boss, made our way by foot (please note for travel statistics) to the Moor, laden...