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.

Oscars 2011 predictions

• Best Picture. Toy Story 3 was the best of these IMHO, but I would be stunned if it won. Next for me was Winter's Bone. I still haven't seen True Grit (I'm watching it on sunday-very close to the wire!) but my 3 horses in this race are Inception (if Titantic can be LA Confidential this is possible), The Kings Speech and The Social Network. I'm going to go for The Kings Speech based on number of nominations although my heart thinks The Social Network may win.

• Actor in a Leading Role. Colin Firth for the win

• Actress in a Leading Role. Natalie Portman - the first of my "and the award for dedication to getting thin". A fantastic performance and a deserved win. Very glad Jennifer Lawrence was nominated.

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale - the second of my "commitment to my craft" oscars. Has he ever won one? If not, again a career of fantastic acting finally rewarded.

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Always a toughie, I think Melissa Leo will edge it as the academy has had their eye on her for a while. Although the same could be said of Amy Adams. I always find this category torture to predict. (Well not last year, but usually). Right I'm going for Jacki Weaver because she's the character I'd be most terrified of meeting.

• Directing: I want Aranofsky, I think David Fincher will get it.

• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Social Network. There can and should be no other winner.

• Writing (Original Screenplay): Whilst Inception was truly orginal, The Kids Are Alright was very well written so that's my bet.

• Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3. As I said, actually my Best Film of the year.

• Art Direction: Alice In Wonderland - although The Kings Speech set was designed by a Brit from the West Midlands so if she wins I'll be happy.

• Cinematography. Roger Deakins has been nominated 9 times without a win. It needs to be done.

• Costume Design. I hate betting against Sandy Powell, who I suspect has won every time she was nominated in the past, but the costumes for Alice In Wonderland were superb and so that's where my money is.

• Documentary (Feature): No clue. I think Restrepo will get it, but both Exit Through The Gift Shop and Inside Job are very popular which would be a more similar choice to last year's The Cove.

• Film Editing: The Social Network was a pretty amazing job.

• Foreign Language Film: I always like these more than the Best Film nominees so it's a bit Sophie's choice for me. I haven't been able to see them all but I didn't really care about Biuitful and whilst I love Susanne Bier (In a Better World) and loved Days of Glory by the director of Outside The Law, I think Incendies might take it.

• Makeup. The Wolfman. No clue, based purely on Rick Baker's form.

• Music (Original Score). Between The Social Network and The Kings Speech in my opinion. The Kings Speech.

• Music (Original Song). Randy Newman for Toy Story 3. That man knows how to torture the heartstrings.

• Sound Editing. Inception - because it will win well in technical categories

• Sound Mixing. The Social Network - I totally stole this one from Roger Ebert - he should know.

• Visual Effects. Inception. Folding Paris alone is an achievement and there were several more which made me watch this film twice.

I've only watched Day and Night so based on an online trailer of the shorts nominees.

• Documentary (short subject): Killing in the name.

• Short Film (Animated): Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary). I wanted to hunt this down to watch it based on the trailer.

• Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe. This one looked like it had the potential to be a feature based on about 4 seconds of footage.