- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Clever 'ent I!
Location:London Town
Friday, 22 March 2013
Creative Theatre Producing. Oh, and Wordpress...
Right. There's a couple of my mates trying to get theatre productions on and having varying degrees of success. I started a new blog called 'Creative Theatre Producing' but I might as well post on here. Although perhaps the title of this blog may not be of much use to those looking for information about putting on a show. Whaddaythink? And can anyone tell me if Wordpress is better than Blogger? Is it hard to learn? More importantly, is it worth the effort? Does Wordpress have extra features? That's a lot of questions!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Clever 'ent I!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Clever 'ent I!
Monday, 18 March 2013
A Good Deal in Kent
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| The Royal Hotel. Not too hard to spot |
We thought we'd leave the glorious hustle and bustle of Soho and London and celebrate Mickey's 40th Birthday with a trip to the coast. Mickey works on the National Theatre's production of Warhorse at the New London Theatre in Drury Lane, so he's always in town. Annie (who finished The MouseTrap last year, but lives in Sussex) used her legendary planning powers and arranged for the gang to spend the night in Deal in Kent. Where? Yep, Deal. And it's a little gem. Charles Hawtrey of 'Carry On' film fame lived there, and apart from Marc getting the usual "It's you off Eastenders isn't it!" treatment from a couple of youffs in the train station, it was a very pleasant, if somewhat wet and windy little town.
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| Danny hard at Managing Things. |
We stopped at the Royal Hotel on Beach Street, which is, yes, by the beach. It's run by Shepherd Neame,a good old English Brewery, and Danny, the manager, was a delight.
The town pier isn't the prettiest we've seen, but it used to be a working pier, so that's okay, and there is a coffee shop at then end. We spent most of the afternoon in a cosy little pub on the front and me and a few hardy souls stopped in the boozer to watch the England Rugby team being vaguely embarrassed - I think the word is routed - by Wales in the final game of the 6 Nations. Then to the hotel for dinner, a late night, and Sunday lunch in a pub called The Bohemian. Well, we had to go there
really, didn't we. We were rewarded by various delights including a regular who had a pet pig called Rodney. Rodney Trotter, obviously. Oh, we did laugh! |
| Rodney. Rodney Trotter, obviously |
We ended on on Sunday afternoon in Islington, via Kings Cross at a rather groovy little pub called A Hundred Crows Rising, which has a great little room upstairs and must have one of the weirdest names I've come across in a long time. Have you got any weird pub names?
Monday we slept. A lot. Happy Birthday Mikey.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
90 Not Out!
As a born and bred Brummy, I haven't been 'home' for some time. So today is pretty special because I'm back in Brum and me old man is 90! Pretty good, eh? I also bought this blogging app. So this is a bit of a test. I'm also, by the way, having long and hard thoughts about the future and particularly what I do with blogging. I'm almost considering online marketing! I know....
Anyway, here goes the test!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Clever 'ent I!
Anyway, here goes the test!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Clever 'ent I!
Location:Ravenshaw Lane,,United Kingdom
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Maverick News
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Sunday, 23 December 2012
Maverick News
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A Literary 2012, literally!
Well, what a year 2012 has been. The Silver Jubilee, the Olympics and more importantly (to us anyway) the launch of the London Literary Pub Crawl. It's because we are a not-for-profit charity with no budget that the critical and audience acclaim we've received early on has been so important and so crucial... and so moving. Partly inspired by the Olympics coming to London, I felt a desire - perhaps a passion - to share what I'd found out about the struggle some of the worlds most famous writers went through in their early lives in the capital city. And it's so gratifying to realise there are others who share this passion. So far it's cost everybody involved with this project. The actors, the writers, me - none of us have received a fee and we've turned up and rehearsed at our own cost. But we're doing it because we want to try and avoid the financial hardship the likes of Dylan Thomas, Charles Dickens & Samuel Johnson went through. If we can find an audience we might be able, one day, to give local actors and writers a leg up.
It's very early days for our London tour. But I REALLY want to thank you. As mentioned outside the Soho Theatre, your interest and willingness to buy a ticket for our tour will, literally one day change the literary world!
And that's not a bad thing now, is it...!
X
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Why the London 2012 Olympic Games legacy is truly Heroic.
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| London Olympic rings. |
However
some in London and the UK were perhaps understandably cynical of the games. The
huge cost and disruption to infrastructure were going to leave a legacy of
debt, something most Olympic hosts know only too well.
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| Rule Britannia |
I
have to declare a vested interest here - I now live in London and this is the
first Olympic city I have ever lived in - or probably ever will. So it's
difficult to be properly objective about the effect the games has had outside
of the capital.
The
failure of the commercial company G4S to supply a sufficient number of security
staff just a few weeks before the Olympics kicked off elicited a cry of 'Told
you so' from the naysayers. Miles of roads in one of the most congested cities
in the world were going to be blocked off or restricted as Olympic routes. Zill
lanes, as they were disparagingly referred to, making reference to the Soviet
habit of reserving lanes on major roads for a privileged political few. There
was something decidedly un-British about allowing others to go first without
asking!
But
then as we got closer to the games attitudes seemed to change. We were waiting
for a disaster but it never came. Instead we had the sight of mega-countries
like Team USA training in Birmingham. And the sport itself was truly memorable.
The whole country - maybe the world - stopped for the ten seconds of Usain
Bolt's 100 meters final. Mo Farrah, a refugee to these shores,
has become a national hero in the UK with an affectionate nickname - the
MoBot. Cyclist Sir Chis Hoy, no stranger to Gold Medal Winning, moved himself
and the nation to tears with his emotions on the podium. And Danny Boyle's
opening ceremony, whilst sharing the slight bizarreness of all Olympic
Openings, was actually rather good.
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| Jesica Ennis in action. |
Practically,
as London Mayor Boris Jonson mentioned in his speech during the celebration
parade, this Olympics has been the first time ever strangers have felt able to
converse with each other on the tube - the London Underground - about matters
other than complaining about treading on each others toes. The Olympic traffic
flowed as it should. The security survived flawlessly. The Olympic volunteers -
the Games-Makers - smiled and could be seen all over London just being happy
and helpful.
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| How moving was Saudi's first woman athlete |
But
chiefly there was the impact of other non-superstar sportsmen and women. We witnessed in-yer-face grit and
determination from people who participate in sport for good old fashioned
reasons. To take part. To achieve for the sake of achievement itself. We're
used to seeing multi-millionaire footballers on our TVs but who could fail to
be moved by the sight of Saudi Arabia's first ever women athlete, hopelessly
out-classed, cross the finishing line in last place and receive a huge standing
ovation from a packed Olympic stadium. The super humans of the Paralympics also
proved that sport and achievement is its own success. Years of sacrifice to be
the best had nothing to do with direct financial reward. In a world dominated by talk of
unbridled capitalism, greedy bankers and financial strife, the real legacy of
the London 2012 Olympics is that for the month or so of the games, we were all
reminded globally that in spite of colour, creed, religion or belief we are all
human. And when some of us strive to be great, to be heroic, we support each
other and we all benefit.
The real
legacy of the London Olympic games is that it has reminded us how beautifully
human we all can still be.
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