Creative Times: October Fests

Hello Readers,

It's your sporadic blogger here (guess who re-watched Clueless recently!)

A couple of things you should be checking out this month:

Online: All Animated. animators community  I started following them on facebook this week and already been introduced to this little gem:


Birmingham - Afrovibes festival at The Drum.  It was a fabulous success last time and features international dance, theatre and music.  It's also touring around.

It's worth just popping down for the photos on display in the cafe by South African Artist Tyler Dolan : Here's his website and the festival website

Also it's October, so it's Black History Month and there are fabulous events accross Birmingham.  I am planning on heading to the mac on Sunday with photographer Vanley Burke.  You can follow the Birminum trail featuring places from the photographs in his exhibition charting Birmingham immigrant communities.

Anyone else excited about the new lady in charge of the London Film Festival, Claire Stewart?  just me - can't be!  I probably won't make the festival, but this piece on shorts programmer Phil Ilson has me seeing if I can rework my schedule.

Also perpetual PlanetEsther fave, Cornerhouse is merging with the Library Theatre and recently announced it's new name.  I am not quite used to it yet, but as long as it has the same ethos, I suspect I will have no problem making it my occasional Home.

Happy October folks!

Creative Times: A trip worth taking

On Wednesday night, I attended the launch of the Abandon Normal Devices in Manchester. Having navigated several of the opening night venues and walked a great deal of Manchester I reached a stumbling block, literally, at the Salutation Pub, where burger in hand I took the kind of slow motion fall that would have made even Buster Keaton stare in awe. As it was, I dismissed the concerns of friends and strangers and thought about puns for my blog!

A trip down memory lane



As a veteran since the very first festival in Liverpool, I wouldn’t let a mere grazed knee stand in the way of my enjoying the feast of international artists and activities that the Abandon Normal Devices Festival has to offer. I have left the North west, but something about this festival draws me back every year to partake in a whimsical look at digital art and quirky ideas allowed to develop and flourish.



The Saturday night, headline act, Trixxie Carr, follows in the footsteps of All About Evil 2010’s interactive horror drag show which I blogged about here. It’s a welcome return to the festival for the San Francisco performer challenging the very concept of a traditionally male led drag performance!



Falling into the unknown



Of course the hook of the festival is the new, unique and different. The idea of artists curating different spaces, whilst not new, continues to have an infinite number of permutations. The transformed spaces here are caravans, a travelling mobile republic which includes a broadcasting booth and a gastronomic smelling experience where you create your own spice combinations using a futuristic machine straight out of HG Wells.



Truly unqiue and bizarre is the The Master/Slave Invigilation system which is something that has to be experienced to be believed. Moving between sites you are taken on a tour of the AND exhibitions by a artist Jeremy Bailey who is based at a remote venue (downstairs in Cornerhouse) and offers a idiosyncratic insight into the shows through a digital ipad screen mounted on a mute robot “slave”. Visually intriguing, it turns out that I actually knew the first robot I encountered but the experience obscures their identity presenting a curious androgynous form with digital imagery.

http://www.andfestival.org.uk/events/masterslave-invigilator-system/



Finding new ways to present film is always a challenge, so the ambitious Empire Drive In, an open air (YES in Manchester!) cinema showing retro classics befitting the post apocalyptic space. Robocop has gone, but Mad Max 2 Beyond The Thunderdome is still to come, although probably sold out by now.



The programme is a lovely snapshot of stories rarely told and experimentation of method and contains films I will be actively seeking out, in particular a film about Manchester genius Alan Turing father of the internet, which of course makes such an innovative festival possible.



This year may be its last in the current form, so whilst you have the chance, Cornerhouse is once again inviting you to come out and play and I hope you fall hard for it like I did! The spectacle continues until Sun 2 September at various venues across Manchester and the mobile republic will also be on a limited tour. See http://www.andfestival.org.uk/ for more details.



Bursts of colour on a grey day

Today's blog is very colourful, inspired by Birmingham School Of Art's Degree show (Margaret Street on the doorstep of the delicious Birmingham Food Fair). My pictures don't do justice to some of the work, so here's a couple of snaps of some of the bigger pieces which stood out. The show is on until Friday at the school on Maragret Street (stop by the international food festival on your way out, I did!). I want to mention a few in particular: Sophie Court produced my favourite pieces in the show - the lady in glasses bottom right is one. I also liked Wendy Derrick's pixellated paintings, being greeted by Donation for the Blessing of England by Edgar Askelovic, Natalie O'Keefe's silence series photographs , Lauren Quirke's composite images and Kyriaki Vrasida's tendrilled objects. Some more pics are on my flikr but I recommend heading down in person before the show closes on Sunday 19^th.

Film fun:
The last night was the opening night of the Edinburgh Intl Film Festival. I say this with a tinge of sadness as the last time I missed an EIFF Tony Blair was still Prime Minister but everyone was hoping for the best after he went, The Simpson's Movie was still hotly anticipated and I was convinced that this was the year the BBC realised that the next film 200...presenter should be me! Aaah what an idealistic time 2007 was!

So if you're in Edinburgh, sampling the myriad delights of the festival's films, special strands and late night arguments in the bar about the whether you can look at a pair of scissors again after antichrist over a drink in the Filmhouse, Cameo or any other bar that’ll take you, I doff my hat to you in vicarious solidarity.

Having missed quite a lot of cinema lately I am playing cath up this week with the primary coloured Gnomeo & Juliet. Having missed Samson and Delilah on Film4 I am planning on rewatching it As I wished I could straight after seeing it at the cinema the first time. And finally, I will be going once again to The beautiful Electric Cinema to see Kaboom. spurred on by the dual recommendations of Cornerhouse’s podcast (nice Heathers shoutout Rachel), and David Austen’s wide eyed anticipation.

I am also counting the minutes until I get to see Bridesmaids featuring some of my favourite comic actress Kristen (everything she does) Wiig, Maya (Away We Go- EIFF 2009) Rudolph and Mellissa (no chef will ever be more awesome than Sookie St James in the Gilmore Girls) McCarthy.

Very theatrical dahling:
July in Manchester is a very busy time not only because I shall be working on That Day We Sang at Manchester International Festival (god closes a festival window and opens a freaking ginormous door) but because some of my longtime collaborators colleagues have shows on as part of the Manchester Fringe organisation, Not Part Of. Details of Lucia Cox's show Blackbird and The Myth of Escape, a play starring Andy Palmer are linked.

Organised Chaos Productions latest show Peacefully At Home will be at the Buxton festival after successful dates in Manchester. It’s written by a former winner of the prestigious Bruntwood playwrighting competition Nicola Schofield.

Stuff my other friends have been doing: They’re on the site for a reason - They’re really talented!

Leeanne Stoddart’s book will be coming out in the autumn – keep your eyes peeled for details about her book launch

Donkey Stone Films – revamped their website.

Elliot Binns may still be looking for a writing partner for this intriguing project.

Finally, here is a link to Phil Meachem’s youtube stream featuring trailers for his previous and forthcoming projects.

Thanks for reading folks, I'll hopefully be back soon, in the meantime, please follow me on twitter @shegeekmcr – I’m way more succinct and my pic is currently that great literary character The Bogwoppit.