Snow day on Sunday. Elsie (Springador pup) pulled a sled. A harness (rather than a collar) was attached to to the dog at one end and a sled at the other and hay presto. Sophie loved it. Eislie loved it. She had a job to do and she was very proud of herself for doing it. Good dog.

Tonight I took Elsie for her first lesson in a 6 week course called Puppy Life Skills at Tailwaggers in Harrogate. Good stuff. A reward based positive reinforcement, non coercive approach. Down to earth common sense practical stuff. Part of the time we were there, I felt like the dad of the school brat as she was barking a whole bunch – and at other times I felt like the proud dada who’s kid has just won a gold prize (when the had us up demonstrating how good she is at Sit and Lie Down.) All creatures great and small. Well, all dogs great and small. Well, all dogs, small. Poppy from the Puppy Party was there. This could be why she got so excited. Puppy Party was ALL about the good fun – this session had (by comparison, from a dogs perspective for this session) quite boring.

Angela who runs the class, comes across as someone who’s got stacks of knowledge and experience. Just what we need. It feels like it’s going to do both the dog and I some good. Elsie’s now wiped out and having a good ol’ sleep in her box now.

At the weekend Eirene and I along with a collective of 10+ other people convened in Birmingham to join several thousand other people in The Q Club for the last ever Atomic Jam there. Back in the mid 90′s, Eirene and I went to one of the first Atomic Jam’s there – so last October when my friend said he was buying tickets – who was in?, I stuck my hand up. So very glad I did. An incredible night with some world class DJs in the main hall of a big old Methodist church. The night also featured two other rooms (+DJs), several bars, loads of corridors and cubby holes, stairways, landings, loads (and loads) of smashing people… and Techno.

‘Techno’ today as a genre remains very close in essence to its Detroit roots from the mid 80s, but arguably its roots go back way further that this. There’s something primeval about it; Techno is about utilising TECHNOlogy to make noises and structure them as patterns in rhythm. The first sound we heard was our mothers heart beat and it’s this that gives us our first taste of patterned rhythm. Pattered rhythm music has been part of humanity since the beginning – the worlds first musical instrument was almost definitely a percussion instrument (something that you hit, shake or rub  that makes a noise) and almost definitely, a rhythm was formed. Rhythm is something we innately understand and put into practice – for example – every time we walk.

We’ve been making music with similarities to Techno for a long time.  For instance –  here from India – the Mridangam Drum and from The Cook Islands the Log Drum. Both of these forms were formed totally without influence of each other thousands of years ago,  and along with Techno have a definable commonalities. They trigger a similar emotive response in a lot of cases and even though the pieces above are faster and with more complex time signature than most 4/4 Techno – they are predominantly a concentrate of patterns in rhythm. Some of the technology has moved on a great deal – the boxes that make the noises – from hollow logs to complex electronics as well as the things that peripheral with the noises – from sticks to Serato, but the feel and structure  has stuck with its roots; Patterned rhythmic music made by people who like to make noses for people to dance all night to – to me Techno has kept the bloodline of these origins of primitive party music, more than anything else.

The taxonomy of music gets more and more complex as time goes on – along with it, contention, as it fragments and re invents itself.  An easy split in definition is this:  music that was made on a computer and music that wasn’t. The skills of composing are often very similar – but the noise making objects differ. Old instruments – eg piano = pressing keys to make noises. New instruments – eg : computer = pressing keys to make noises.  Most computer music falls into what a broad brush describes as ‘dance music’. Techno, along with House music are the Godfathers of dance music. There’s no real definition on this – but to me, House music tends to be a bit lighter than Techno and House emulates and often incorporates more real instruments and vocals, and is more about the groove – Techno is more about the percussive rhythms and synthetic TECHNOlogically sourced noises.

In the early 90s I first fell in love with Techno at a venue called The Orbit in Morley, Leeds. Luckily for me, this legendary club – one of the finest Techno clubs in the world at the time – was just a short hop from home. Some of the DJs I’d seen there are still on the circuit – including Dave Clarke who I was lucky enough to see again at Atomic Jam at the weekend.

I like all sorts of music – but the weekend reminded me how much I ♥ Techno. Appreciating it properly is hard work takes a lot out of you – but it’s well worth it.

Last week myself and several hundred web heads converged on Nottingham for New Adventures in Web Design 2012. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – some very good things had been said about its inaugural year (2011) and this year looked to be a very well put together gig. The brainchild of a fella called Colly – ’twas a real labor of love by the look and feel of things.

The workshop…

I signed up for a workshop on the Wednesday – the day before the conference ‘proper’. This workshop – one of three on the day –  entitled “Paper is your friend” was run by a charasmatic duo who call themselves “The Standardistas“. In a room right at the back of Nottingham’s Albert Hall, (with it’s  massive organ) this pair of authors and  Ulster Uni lecturers kicked off the days activity.

I think I already knew that paper was my freind but the arty, paper friendly side of my brain guilt-tripped the ‘efficient’ computer hungry side of my brain into giving it a go. They put thought into action - with web design in mind. The first part kindled a theme about the diversification of an idea and how to get it down on paper – principally through mind-maps. We learned that these work “because your mind wants to fill in the blanks”  - good point – turns out, that’s true. Trying to use pictures instead of ‘just’ words was a new twist for me. Diversification of ideas was the justification of purpose. Don’t just go for the obvious, solution or to put it another way “don’t just go for the path of least resistance” – these were watchword for this part of the day.

They showed us some other fantastic paper based tools – like Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategy Cards’ [click here for an online version]. A very interesting concept. An idea wildcard system – you think of your idea then challenge it with these Oblique Card – works really well at the ‘pitch’ end of a concept – how to play Devils Advocate all by yourself. Mental Notes was another card based thought jogger that they introduced. Not quite the simplistic brilliance – but potentially useful, in the right settings – more of an after dinner muse that a hard n fast ‘tool’ perhaps. They also told us about the value of mixing up existing teams – don’t always work with the ‘go to’ people – mix it up if you can. The Mind Map Book was ref’d a couple of times during this session – it looks pretty comprehensive.

The second part of the workshop was about the aesthetics. Look and Feel. Colour and emotive response to design (in a way).  - the Visual Grammar  as they referenced it as. Moodboarding is something I’ve used from time to time. I find it a handy way of expressing an idea, or, to help me arrive at an idea and convey it.  The Standardistas were pushing the idea of not neccacarily just screen shotting a load of stuff of the internet but using the real world and (more importantly) real bits of actual paper to create a moodboard. They also suggested that we screenshot stuff from real life – using photography. Go to a library. Take photos of stuff. Go to an Oxfam and buy a bunch of old books and hack them up and stick them down to a board. Some of the latter ideas I found a bit limiting / limited though – if you’re going down that route – bring out the paints. If an oxfam had a limitless supply of stuff – then cool, but I saw this particular excercise a bit limited by the designer of the times mood / brief / etc. It was a bit ‘pot luck’ that we got an Envelope of Awesome (their pre filled cut up mags and books of stuff) that had some good stuff in it. Problem was it was all the same as the other groups. Anyhoo – not a biggy, I got the gist.  The big take away for me was the way they implored us to diversify an idea – to expand an idea to several ideas – build on them for a while then hone in. Think outside of the (Mac / Dell / IBM ) box.

The conference…

Kicking this off  was the web legend Dan Mall who structured his bit around “what do you do”. A good question. As for him, he designed startwars.com (that piqued our interest). A fascinating and funny guy who oozed creativity. Down to earth even though he’s done some world class stuff. He told us to build a fake CMS and that humans > algorithms. He told us that his biggest challenge of recent times was the notion of all things “Releted” (products / concepts / content). He also told us about the back (rub) story on a project called mostawesomestthingever.com . He illistrated a point by showing us this;

His point was – Encourage the adjacent possible. Creativity is just connecting things. Enjoy yourself. Spare no expense.

Following Dan, was a young British designer, who’s on the up –  Naomi Atkinson. She has some interesting ideas – quite a lot of it to do with yourself – as a brand. Think about how you promote yourself, where you get talked about, how you are seen by others and that you should evolve your brand language. The cited example was Sean Combes into Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, Diddy and for one week only ‘Swag’. Clever.

Next up - Travis Schmeisser – a UX guy who’s big n bold slide style kicked off with a thought – “we used to build forts” (as in dens). We’re all creative. We grew into this job because it suits our creative ‘type’. The stand out bits for me were “Appreciation for the experimentation is the wild west of the internet”. He told us to become an artist again and that we should inovate, create and dedicate. We should (and this was quite a reoccurring theme from a few of the speakers) Keep making stuff.  It’s not a waste of time just because its not client work – it’s training.

Robbie Manson had me (and judging by the #naconf tweets that were flying around) awestruck – something quite bard like in his performance. He structured his opening around a reference to Kubric’s 2001 – the atmospherics, the emotivity, the timings and the feel of it all. He Talked about time to tool and, like The Standardists, stressed the importance of paper in your process – he favoured a concept called ’6up’ which is simple, easy to adopt and effective (I’ve used it this week). He suggested that we “Step away from the computer at every possible opportunity”. As I type these words, I think – how would I do that? But I guess I could always dictate and transcribe. I can see his point although his idealism isn’t always practical – sometimes, the computer is the paper. The keyboard is the pen.

After Robbie, we got Trent Walton. A Texan font maestro and Responsive Web Design (RWD) aficionado, who referenced his family in a heart warming and relevant way – how his dad (a proper engine head, car enthusiast, a grease monkey (his words)) used to spend months making a car – then race it – then take it to bits again. Every nut and bolt, every turn of the spanner – has it’s place and often earned it through trial and error.  This whole speech reminded me of Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance  – how you’ve got the classical v the romantic types – those who understand the machine intimately and those who (just) know what it does and how to use it. He was saying we should think about our craft in the same way – break everything (so we understand it and can refine and improve it I guess).

Cameron Koczon was up next.  Big bags of charisma type of guy. A guy behind a highly regarded project called Brooklyn Beta.  He talked about start-ups, and how we should all make something we love. Effect change, elicit emotion. Induce Action. Easier said than done – but sound advice.

The wild card of the day – who’s thang really polorised the crowd (#naconf live) was Denise Jacobs. Web interlectreratii high council. Her piece was entitled “Your brain on creativity” was unlike any of the other talks. If the content of her fairy tale style delivery wasn’t so subconsciously compelling, I’d have thought she was utterly patronising. However – her left brain / right brain “be balanced” advice cut through and won a few hearts – in hindsight – mine included. She talked about helping your brain achieve Alpha state to increase creativity – through the application of Low Fi time (again – a ‘get away from the computer’ chime). I particularly liked the ‘Don’t force creativity, let it come to you’ quote from Erik Ford – from To Sketch Or Not To Sketch.

The headline act came from a slight man in a tie called Frank Chimero. He started out with story about a tiny pony he saw in an Apple store. He talked about “The Search” which smacked of “sometimes the journey is the destination” sentiment. He was revalationary in the respect that he told me that design is the bit that sits between art and commerce. He stated that designer are choreographers. Design is the bit between A to B. Spaces are important. The bit between the past and the future. Brilliant. Clarity.  So now I get it. Thanks Frank. Thranks.

Frank also came out with my two favorite soundbytes from the whole thing; Firstly “The world is not yet done… lucky is” and a gem of a George Kubler Quote – “The moment just passed is extinguished forever, save the things that were made during it”. Which summarises the big take home for me – the observance of a common theme form so many great minds – keep making stuff.

The social aspect…

One of the surprise bi-products of having that many internet heads in the same space was the extremely heightened propensity of appropriate use of social media – or to put it another way, a shed load of geeks tweeting about the same thing at the same time in the same place. On twitter – the ‘official’ #naconf hash tag was on fire – update after update of people commenting, sharing and generally discussing the world of New Adventures 2012. Sat right at the back during the conf, as was my want, I could see a sea of iPhones scrolling through twitter – especially during the contentious bits. Like a telepathic / silent conversation amongst hundreds – and it wasn’t that people were missing a beat – the tweeting enhance the whole thing.

I’ve never been in that kind of environment before – often I’m tweeting and foursquaring and g+ing and it feels like I’m talking to myself. These few days were fascinating. People were tweeting – I’m here, having a beer, talking shop and within minutes, a the bar was full of internetz. I’ve never been to things were so many people had ‘checked in’ before. It really did feel a very ‘collective conciseness’ (dare I say borg like).   Internet  community – this was a thing to behold. It wasn’t just a conference, but a convergence. So many conversations with like minded people. A success for (I hope and presume) the organisers and contributors, a success for me and my fellow attendees. If you’re reading this and contemplating 2013… do it! hope to see you there!

Eirene took me on a surprise weekend away last weekend, and a very nice weekend it was.  It’s been a while since we spent the weekend, sans kids. We did take the smallest of our brood with us though – Elsie (pic’d above) – our 12 week old Springador – who got her first official walk and was suprisingly excellent off the lead – I think we’ve blueprinted on her sufficiently for her to stick close.

What was billed as a surprise mystery location, but “close by”,  turned out to be The Chevin Country Park Hotel & Spa.  Our room was in fact a lodge type building with a grass roof type affair. Isolated and cosy yet close enough to the bar and restaurant (2 minutes walk)  for it to be hotel like in what it had to offer. As we dined on the 6 course taster menu on Friday evening, who should walk in but Chall & M, celebrating M’s 30th. A surprise for her also, we ended up having a few drinks and natters in the bar whilst a happy kilted wedding party got merry around us.

Saturday – After a beautiful walk along The Chevin, to see the view from Suprise View, with a very well behaved Elsie we headed back for snacks, naps and splats by the pool / sauna / steam room combo. Another 6 course taster menu that evening (reassuringly different from the Friday evenings), we headed back to watch Tommy Cooper’s Christmas Special on the tellybox. Just like that. Not like this, like that.

The final surprise was the discovery of an outdoor hot pool on the Sunday morning, where spent a blissful half hour in the rain,  pretending I was a Japanese Snow Monkey.

With myself, over the past near 7 years, I’ve personally added 6399 images into it’s space. Over 2 new photos a day average.  Most of these I’ve meticulously tagged – especially when it comes to things close to my heart – like Felix, Jaygo and Sophie. My more used tag is Harrogate and I’ve only got 720 or so untagged items.

People seem to curate their space with a bit more TLC than some of the other social networks. People seems to take more of a pride in their output within flickr. I’ts a great place to browse, to explore, to kill time, to find out about stuff.

Here are the last 36 photos of other peoples photos that I have chose to click ‘favorite’ on. No agenda, no real reason – usually there’s something about them (aesthetically, subjectively or objectively) I like or may find useful in some way. Vive la flickr.

1. Shopping. #harrogate #reflection #puddle #mall, 2. The Nose…., 3. _MG_66202, 4. enjoy it, 5. ” Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons.”, 6. So many rules…, 7. Natural History Roof, 8. Godson, 9. Congestion, 10. Good, 11. polished stones from the beach, 12. Centenial Red Kite, 13. Angel of the North, 14. Whitby, 15. King Lear – Abbey Shakespeare 2011, 16. DSCF1535, 17. King Lear – Abbey Shakespeare 2011, 18. King Lear – Abbey Shakespeare 2011, 19. Atari 1040stE, 20. Mr Strong, 21. IMG_9991, 22. Two toons, 23. Work hard and be nice to people, 24. 1307049722600, 25. Moo n River, 26. Untitled, 27. By Mr Chat, 28. 1307043874089, 29. 1, 30. Angels, Cherubs, Nymphs and Ninnies, 31. P1010091, 32. Shocking, absolutely shocking, 33. little man, 34. untitled, 35. 0185.19 Lollipop Man, Glasgow, 36. “So… Been to the races before?”

To go with my draft peroni, I opted for an Involtini Di Firenze, which I bravely ordered, trying to pronounce it as accurately as possible  in Italian (again, whilst trying not to look rude or like there was something wrong with me). Beautiful dish.  Eirene had the Calzone – I’ve had this before – one of the most satisfying meals on the planet. Ed, my ace Father in Law had spag bol – very enjoyable, by all accounts. we only had around 66.66% of our children with us as Felix was/is on a sleep over in Ripon. Jay and Sophie enjoyed their pizzas and ice cream and being treat like princes and princesses.

Had some lovely chats and watched restaurant filling up – families, couples, celebrations, work outings, couples, business visitors; all sorts. I’ts one of those restaurants people do make an effort for but it still feels casual and relaxed. A happy place, good food top service and even though it’s quite a large pad, it doesn’t feel like a ‘big restaurant’ if that makes sense. Anyhoo - recommended.

Alan Bennett - playwright, screenwriter, actor and author

Completely out of the blue on Friday afternoon, I got a call from an old friend who was involved with an event in Leeds that needed a photographer as the arranged chap had dropped out. I jumped at the chance, then jumped at a shower, then jumped at a smart black shirt and headed for Leeds.

Amid the Après-work city center who’s attention had been diverted to Children in Need, I found La Grillade,  a vaulted cellar French restaurant celebrating it’s 30th Anniversary. The format for the night was that of a charity night in aid of Yorkshire Cancer Care, in the company of, regular patron, Alan Bennett. The MC – Editor of The Business Desk - David Parkin, set the pace and invited everyone to think of questions to ask Alan, after he’d finished his tea. This teased out a few fascinating insights into Bennett’s creative process – basing his characters on specifics and how he’s actually not (by his own admission) very good at ‘making things up’, and how he really liked the Talking Head format where he got to focus on the detail of a single character at greatly zoomed in level.

Having been lucky enough to see a Talking Heads show at Harrogate Theatre in 2006, and having probably read watched and absorbed more of his material than I’d realised,  It dawned on me that I was in the company of a living Yorkshire legend.  I then went on to muse an idea that he is to Leeds / Yorkshire what L.S. Lowry is to Manchester. Like Lowry, he’s an acute observer of people and society. Like Lowry, he comes across as quite humble and down to earth with no airs and graces. Like Lowry, he is known by the masses but hasn’t sold out. Unlike Lowry, he’s illustrated 20th Century middle class where as Lowry was all about the 20th Century working class. Different mediums, but both portray a real character of people – brilliantly.

Back to the Yorkshire Legend notion – I’d say Bennett is up there with Hockney, Moore, Saville (of the Jimmy) , Boycott (of the Geoffrey). If  the measure of a legend is his legacy, Bennett has already got a fine body of work behind him. And from the twinkle in his eye on Friday night, I’d say there could be a bit more lead in his pencil yet.

As well as taking a bunch of photos of the evening (click here to view them)»

I shot a short video of him reading a piece called “Stopped, the key lost”:

Slap bang down town Harrogate, two guys have all of a sudden found themselves more famous that Rudy (sorry – Harrogate in joke). In a very convincing bid to raise shed loads of money for St. Michaels Hospice, these guys have brought a slice of reality TV to town.

I caught wind of them in Lancashire on Thursday when someone told me what was going on in my town. After a few beers at the Swan on’t Stray last night I popped home, grabbed my camera and headed down. At around 1 in the morning, town is a circus of a place at the best of time – and this shop window is on one of the main clubland thoroughfares and had amassed quite a crowd of Harrogatonians. A shop window with Jason & Ben two MusucBag clad chaps chilling and chatting and inter netting for 6 days.

An interesting dynamic – being able to interact with them by picking up a phone –  quite an odd experience – akin to a video conference crossed with a house party crossed with buying a ticket at a train station. Their facebook page shows a drift of nightlife through the small hours, whilst day time has seen TV crews, live music and gourmet food deliveries from William & Victoria. I asked them a few questions – but when I got in, fired off an email ‘interview’ at them which Ben graciously replied to.

Interview with Ben Davies ofuv The Mannequin Challenge

Below how  Ben handled my Q’s… I’d already asked “What’s the most asked question you’ve had” – the answer – toilet arrangements.

…But why else are you doing this? – Both Jason and I, like most people in Harrogate have been effected by the fantastic work that St. Michales do, they need to raise over 3.5mil a year from fundraising alone. So when we where asked by the hospice to enter the be inspired challenge to raise as much money as we could for the Hospice in a month we both jumped at the chance!

How did this come about – how did you wangle a shop front? – We have to thanks Harrogate legend Phillip Lund from Lateral Property Group for that one, we managed to get a meeting with him last week he loved our idea and gave us the keys almost straight away!!

Did Michael Vaughn, former England Captain, get in touch? (he’s in Harrogate tonight – filming for Question of Sport, was tweeting about jam and bettys earlier) No he didnt but we would love it if he did!

Who is the most famous person who’s been to say hello? We had a phone call from JK earlier in the week, he never showed his face though, we did manage to coax Charity Dingle in to the window with us for a cheeky picture though.

Have you you had National or International telly people saying hello? I have no idea because we don’t have a Television in here, Id love it if we did though!

Are you going to do another week? If the money was right I think we would do anything, I might walk out a single man if I stayed in any longer though and i really don’t want that to happen!!!

What has been the highlight (so far)? I think all the unexpected media attention (TV especially) we had a right laugh when ITV came down, it still doesn’t seem real to be honest, we thought we might make a couple of grand and get our picture in the Herald if we were lucky we ever thought it would ever grow as big as it has done!

(click for more photos)

Charming and polite chaps the pair of them. They also agreed to be official DragonDrop Adventure Shirt wearers – I popped down again today – armed with shirts. Good sports all round.

Support their cause – donate : justgiving.org/shopwindow

Like ‘em on the book of face : facebook.com/themannequinchallenge

Follow them on twitter : twitter.com/awvida

Perhaps his broad appeal and accessibility is behind the fact that he has not only a gallery honoring his name, but a theatre, a car park and a shopping centre also.

I’d had “take family to the Lowry, Manchester” on my todo list tagged #rainyday for about 2 years. Perhaps like pretty much everyone, he appealed to me.  His ubiquitous, iconic street scenes are the ones people know – the matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs.  Everyone, especially people who’ve experienced a northern UK town can identify with these but I found the gallery and the introductory film and other supporting info, emblazoned on the red walls of the main gallery space a brilliant eye opener into his world.

There’s another side to his painting. The memorising piece entitled The Cripples is, on closer inspection a self portrait. His work was punctuated with break-away styles – abstracts, self portraits, Dark erotica.  He was always questioning what and why he was doing what he did. Driven almost by an invisible force. His whit and incisive perception, the subject matter typically being the people in the world around him but there was also an esoteric side to his art, and a window into his obsessive and occasionally dark self loathing.

I love the moment you can get in a gallery where you ‘own’ a piece of art. Just before getting told off for taking the above photo (of his Oil on Canvas called ‘Ann’) I had a moment of exclusivity with it. I was captivated. Standing in front of a painting, able to get as close as 1cm – sans spectacles – is something I love to do. To breath in the brush strokes and see every spec and crumb of paint. Incredible.

We didn’t even explore the theatre side of the gallery (arguably, the ‘main event’) but from what we saw, we all loved it.

Click here for a link to The Lowry official site»

Limetree this year ticked pretty much all the boxes and then some.  Textbook festival fun. Having had a few pre festival jitters enhanced by last minute unknowns – within minutes of arriving, I’d discovered that some good friends had saved us an awesome plot for our van. I then discovered that I had a full compliment of fresh tickets and that a whole bunch of friends were there. After setting up camp, we headed into the arena.

The last time I went, there didn’t feel like there were quite enough people there – this years had a veritable bouillabaisse of people. Young and old, smart and bold, the ravers, the jazz heads, the beautiful people, the family guys. The Costume de rigueur, the visual uniter was mud. Everyone from at least the knee down was emblazoned with a tasteful portion of the afore mentioned. Another common accessory would be the smile. Happiness abound.

The site itself had grown – The choice of stage for a festival of its size was remarkable. In the eastern section of the site, a circus big top flanked by two large dome tents proved the main venues for dance / DJ based entertainment – a cracking sound system almost taunted DJ’s with ‘go on, lets have your best sub bass’. To be honest, I didn’t spend a huge amount of time in this area but from what I heard (we were camped just the other side), they had it XXL.

The main arena – a ‘proper’ main stage showcased some fantastic music and provided a focal point. I was blown away by Aradhana Arts on the Saturday afternoon. The sheer brilliance of Sanju Sahai – one of the best tabla players alive today – was incredible to watch at close quarters.

That was undoubtedly my musical highlight – so glad I caught that.  The arena field was satellited by stalls, stages, props and shops. One of these stages was The Bet Lynch stage – essentially a huge camp dressing up box of a stage showcasing some quirky, avant garde type affairs. We watched a duo in there called Hectic Egg – funny, beautiful, unique. They sang a song about wanting to be with mum for Christmas. Brought a lump to my throat.

The West field Next door was home to another big top and a fully fledged Jazz Club. A blacked out marquee that had a full bar at the back and around 30 tea lit, 4 chair tables. The blacked out walls were adorned with tastefully spot lit muso pics, the atmosphere – quite surreal. Kind of like when you go to a cinema during the day. At one point – around 5.30pm on Saturday afternoon, the heavens opened – quite a guilty pleasure being comfortable and warm in said venue.  Some friends of ours had been working on front row seats all afternoon and we were lucky enough to saunter in at the last minute and blag some in time to see The Scapegoat Kelly band who were sporting a fairly new line up.

I’ve always loved Scapegoat – since I saw their first ever gig at the legendary Harrogate Theatre Music Party (RIP) many moons ago. A great gig. Tight. A big Blues Bar contingency took ownership of most of the front of the venue, there was a dancing, and a singing, and a music.

Next door to the Jazz club was another big top. This had a bunch of great stuff in it, but the ones that did it for me in there would have to be Middleman. M’Good friend Allan and I caught the last bit of their set – big grin tastic. The energy was a bit like early Prodigy and the groove was akin to Rage Against The Machine. Bosh. Amazing. A band called Senser did a thing back in the 90′s where they fused crunchy guitar with hard and heavy dance noises – Middleman reminded me a bit of that.

Seeing Middleman was part of my proper party wander. After tea on the Saturday, I went deep into the no agenda festival fun zone. Eirene was fairly partied out as she’d had a look over at Leeds Festival on Friday night and was pooped. I wore full orange waterproofs – which always seems to do the trick of stopping the rain. After sticking my head into unknown stages and tents we settled down in one of the two silent disco’s. Light, upbeat funk / disco meets reggae was the DJ’s output whilst we hung out there on and off till 3am. The format of silent disco is superb – especially when it’s in a super snug big ol Papakata style double teepee. You can get into the music – in super hi fidelity stereo, or you can chat to the person next to you without the usual “Y’WHAT MATE?”

After that, I popped back into the Jazz Tent where the Governor, Shaun was pulling pints. I’d not met him before – lovely lovely chap. Had some great chattage with cast and crew who’d assembled for a late taste before heading back via some randoms party in one of the residential, set-up and ready-to-rock teepee’s (of which there were loads!). I got to see the sun rise before quietly trying to take off my big muddy boots and layer of orange plastic without waking anyone or falling over.

I wish it was still on. It would be ace if festivals could run all year and we could dip in for the odd couple of nights every now and then. I suppose on paper, ‘towns and cities’ offer some of the trappings – but it’s no where close.  If I could wave a magic wand to make any fest a perma-fest, I would do it with Limtree me thinks. The land and the crew need a well deserved rest though! Can’t wait till next year.

Photos by me | More over yonder»

I say biased because my boys were in it. Having said that, if I’d gone as a pure ‘punter’ I would have loved it. This year marked the 25th Anniversary and the final night marked the 100th performance for The Abbey Shakespeare Players presenting a Shakespeare play at St. Dogmaels Abbey, Cardigan.

There’s something unparalleled about outdoor Shakespeare. In this case, the Abbey itself presents a set that you just couldn’t hope to recreate within the boundaries of an indoor theatrical stage. The terraced rake of the old cloisters, the openness, the natural bounce-back acoustic reverberation,  the weather and elements, the natural fade of light – these were all things exploited to add to the brilliance of this entertainment. Mind you – the weather did perhaps upstage everyone for a while during a terrific downpour on the last night. Poor Tom. The guy running the sound desk told me of a cue that he skipped: “fade up | gentle rain sound”. Clearly no need for that as it was raining stair rods at the time.

Until last year, as mentioned in this post, I didn’t really get what the love of Shakespeare was all about. The language archaic, the context abstract, the format, not on a sofa. You have to concentrate like billy-oh. I now see the above as the appeal. In contrast to other forms of entertainment, there is an effort involved  in watching Shakespeare and as a result the rewards are superior to a lot of other formats on offer.

My (5 year old girl) Sophie also watched it with relish. Three times. Couldn’t drag her away. She had her favourite bits - particularly the violent battle scene and removal of eyes scene.  The appeal to her was admittedly, initially largly due to the appearance of her older brothers, as well as the rest of the cast who had befriended her, but also due to the repetition.  Young kids like repetition. It’s why DVD’s get watched over and over, it’s why bedtime routines exist. Seeing the play three and a bit times was a real treat for all of us. Seeing it subtly develop from one performance to the next; seeing the direction change here and there; seeing the actors perfect their scenes whilst getting an opportunity to re-run some of the slightly harder-to-grasp first time round bits (there is no pause, rewind – just Play).

King Lear & Gonerill. Photo : Stephen Whitehead

King Lear himself, was in my mind, the star of the show. Richard Carwardine – an arresting actor of the highest calibre and with a not unimpressive off-stage career.  He’s a founder of the company and passionate artist. Carwardine far from carried the others though – some star performances all round. The sons Edgar (played by Ed Long) and Edmund (Andrew Cleaver) proved to be excellently cast. Cleaver’s ducking-and-diving, slightly downtrodden wide boy stage manner suited the part to a tee whilst complementing the marvellously changing facets of Ed’s part. Richard Mitchley’s charismatic Fool had us warmly chuckling whilst Joe Kao’s Cornwall had us clinging to the edge of our camping sofa. The three daughters provided a portrayal of contrasts – the pure beauty of Mary Glynn’s Cordellia was in stark contrast to the visceral spit and spite of Heledd Hart’s Gonerill and Georgina Ferry’s Regan.

Hanging out with the crew – a lovely family of players, or rather several families, some of whom have been involved since they were kids – was special. The very hard work, especially in the week prior to the opening night, was offset with play, mainly in the format of enjoying the majestic local beauty spots and ales. Rarely off stage re-enactments, but snippets from some of the Shakespearian comedy-genius verbiage was voiced. Flibberty Gibbet. Untimely death. Serviceable villain. Handy Dandy. Poor Tom. Poooor Turlygod. Pooooooor Tom. Ahh, Mrs Hugget? (oh no, hang on.. sorry in joke)

I’m already really looking forward to next year.

A new initiative by the Royal Shakespeare Company called Open Stages 2011 / 2012 recognises the void between the amateur and professional Shakespeare productions and is all about bridging the gap. This year’s production was flying the flag for this new vehicle – I’d say it could well be in with a shout at the flagship.

More photos from Stephen Whitehead»

I’ve been to a vast array of festivals from the biggest to the smallest and met pretty much all walks of festival life. My first festival was Reading ’94 and from then, I’ve probably done at least one festival per year – ranging from ones I’ve played hard at, ones I’ve worked hard at and ones I’ve chilled soft at. Glastonbury ’98 saw me drunk in a 40lb Save The Rhino suit backstage terrorising celebrities. DragonGate, Limetree, Thornboroughs (all), Glade & Deershed 1 saw me working in one way shape or form, ones like Phoenix and Thimbleberry  had me there in observer status. Tribal Gathering & Big Beach Boutique II had the full power, no shower, 48 hour version of me. Womad, Lindley Woodstock & Northern Didge were more of the chilled side of festivalising that I’ve grown to love. Many more festivals came and went with happy memories for lots of different reasons. How does Deershed match up?

A friend who was working the festival retold a conversation he had with a random;

Random “I’ve never been to a proper music festival before”
Friend “You still haven’t”

Whilst I think this a little harsh, he did have a point. I’ve never seen anyone sit at the front of a gig in an arm chair reading a fresh newspaper during day 3 of a festival at an electro set before. So many brand new, top of the range tents and hunter welly boots. There was non of the hedonism, non of the dark, dirty rug music, non of the clattered lost it brigade. Often when you immerge from a festival you feel a bit blown away by the cleanliness of normality and reality. If felt a bit like that side of life was camped out with us at Deershed. Music festivals are ‘typically’ a mecca for ravers, hippies, artists and hedonists wanting to ‘let go’ for a few days, and all the beautiful party people (either part time of full time) seemed to be the minority rather than the mainstream. Whilst some of this I can quite easily live without, I did miss the inspiration and excitement you get from one of these type of events. But did my kids? I’m not so sure they missed anything. Good time of the highest order. All three of them are quite festival savvy. They have been going to parties and festivals since birth – all experienced a festival in their first year. Whilst it’s often hard work, it’s been an eye opener for them and I’m sure has enriched their characters and life skills as a result. They, and all the other 10 or so kids that were part of our tribe did have a fantastic time.

I’d put Deershed into a different class. A new type of festival. A niche. A super safe fest. If we divide festivals into two main camps – kid friendly and non kid friendly, Deershed defiantly holds the crown as being the best of the best when it comes to a kid friendly example as I’ve seen. In total contrast to something like say Glade – a fantastic festival but far too messy for kids. I’m glad I didn’t take mine to Glade and felt sorry for the parents that did. Children seemed to be DSF’s real focus. Every decision seemed to be made putting the kids first. Their mantra is “ Kids are not second class citizens” and I can wholeheartedly report that they stuck to those watchwords to the letter. There was so much for kids to do, ranging from a huge ‘Sports Field’ filled with space hoppers, swing balls, cricket sets and more kids entertainment in the big top than you could shake a stick at. Top class children’s stage acts – I particularly enjoyed the Ivana Blastoff and her mission to Space show. Her beatbox friend wowed the crowed with his beatbox workshop. There were workshops inviting kids to try them, do this, make that. Eureka presented “2011: A Space Oddessy” and a bunch of folk did a marvellous graffiti demo one two cars parked in the main arena.

All in all – for a festival of it’s size – so much to see and do during the day for the bin lids. I particularly liked the mini-cinema. A tiny pink caravan converted into a bicycle powered cinema. I also enjoyed the fact that the beer was quality, locally sourced and reasonably priced.

The music

The headline act was I Am Kloot. Given all the above about it being a family festival, I’d say this was the only black mark. Quality band, don’t get me wrong – excellent production and songsmithery – just not quite right for a Saturday night closer. One of the songs was introduced as something to do with the feeling of mental instability you get mid week. Hmm.. Slow, waltz tempo numbers overlaid with gritty lyrical concepts. Something a bit more lively, happy and unifying would have done the trick in that spot better, in my humble opinion. It DID have the logistical bonus of making everyone shuffle out of the arena post gig with no bother at all though – perhaps that was it’s design. The equivalent of putting the big light on and getting the hoover out.

The GO Team! (who perhaps could have worked better as headline) rocked – although late afternoon peoples minds were on food rather than party time perhaps. I bumped into The Glendale Family (again – hung out with them last year, drank rum and played night frisby till the wee hours) did a great aftershow party in the bar on Saturday night as well as (so I’m told) a good Sunday set on the main stage.

Echasketch was my personal highlight. I had a very sedentary chilled out couple of hours immersing myself from a sofa into their sublime audio and visual output. I also loved Digitonal – a sublime stripped down minimalist approach to what it says on the tin. Only crit for these acts was that it could have been a bit louder though.

I saw a few other bits of acts along the way. All quite safe and accessible – just like the festival itself!

In summary, I ♥ Deershed. My family and the families that made up our tribe loved it. I’d defiantly recommend it to anyone with kids and I’d particularly recommend it to anyone who likes the idea of festivals but is put off by those messy ‘full-on’ type of affairs.

More photos» 

Deershed festival official site»

Casablanca, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

You must remember this scene from Casablanca.. ? no? It was 8pm, Sunday evening in Harrogate. Daren, aka @paint_Monkey defined the moment by taking the Cuban bit by the teeth and declaring one of the few smoking cinemas left in England,  was open for business. Casablanca was playing on the temporary outdoor cinerma, perhaps less inflectionally known as ‘Movies on Montpellier’. The weekend activities (of which there were a few) were enhanced by the option of the free (and easy) outdoor walk in moviedrome.

The something for everyone film policy could have oh so easily gone for a strictly mainstream super safe approach the selectors, I think, got it spot on. Toy Story 3 was their opening gambit which we attended – on a stunning afternoon – and this was one of the kick-off (read awareness) events of the Harrogate International Festival – proper.  The Talented Mr Ripley headlined Sunday with Sherlock Holmes and Moulin Rouge! being the Saturday night showreels. I tweeted and foursquared during the event – seemed like quite a buzz about town for this event. We made the most of it and I rustled up a cracking picnic, washed down with cider on ice. Happy atmosphere, loads of space and thankfully the quality sound and picture were more than acceptable. The surreal bit was watching a terrific thunderstorm, whilst sat outside on a red hot and sunny July lunch time.

The only slight erk was that the virtual brochure (see link above) claimed that it would be showing “an array of feature [tick], family friendly [tick] and art-house films [hmm..?] as well as a showcasing talented young filmmakers in the region [insert Family Fortunes big cross noise here]“.  Is this last years copy? Were they featured but not billed,  or are there no talented young filmmakers in the region?

If I may reiterate the emphasis on ‘slight’ erk though – my main regret from the whole package was that we didn’t get enjoy more of it. Our weekend was jam packed. A Pub Quiz night at Grove Road School, a 4 year olds princess party, a huge win by fixing the fridge in our land ship as well as a bunch of other uber practical activities topped off with a lovely dinner and hang out with super fine wine and sunshine at the gorgeous abode of some lovely friends. Quite a special weekend all round. Here’s looking at you kid!

Eirene, my lovely wife of 11 years yesterday morning asked where I thought we should go for our wedding anniversary meal. I immidiatly brought out the big guns: “William & Victoria? Drum & Monkey?” The text thread went quiet. An hour or two later she came back with the suggestion of “Sage Bistro I reckon looks nice xxx”

The thing that sold it for me was her “They do liver”. After my hilarious quip about wanting to eat out rather than having a delivery we settled on booking us an early bird slot for sub £15 for 3 courses. With the phrase “Is a bargain ever a bargain?” rattling round my head we rocked up. In this instance – I think – yes it was.

The whole experience was full of nice touches. Upon arrival, we ordered a glass of champagne a piece and as we were settling in they brought us a  taster of a piece of tender duck on a bed of asparagus (nice touch). I ordered the best mushroom soup I’ve ever had for starters whilst Eirene went for the  goats cheese parcel – prepped to perfection served with a crisp salad. For main, Eirene had a very generous portion of sea bass and I had the calf liver (obviously – Eirene can’t stand it so I never get to eat it at home) with bacon, onion gravy,  mash and veg which I washed down with Tempranillo .  Eirene’s side of chips (not pommes frites) – the kind of golden chips that you dream of when you are hungry for chips – were ace. Upon asking for some mayo – we were told “Sorry, we don’t stock mayo – we like to make everything fresh – but I can ask chef to make you some” after a half hearted “oh no, don’t worry” a few minutes later Eirene was presented with a ramekin of freshly made mayonnaise (nice touch).

We both opted for the vanilla mouse with passion fruit topping. These were exquisitely and aptly presented in the shape of a love heart (nice touch – pictured above.). We were assured that there was no need to rush after we’d finished the meal – and to take our time finishing our bottle of red (nice touch). We topped it all off with a couple of espresso which were presented with some hand made chocolates (nice touch).

We’d heartily recommend this off the beaten track bistro to friends – a nice simple, intimate environment lacking pretension with happy attentive staff – service as well as the food – excellent. Only downside is their website – it just crashed my browser! Here’s the foursquare venue link instead.

A brilliant start to what turned into a really enjoyable evening. After eats, we went for a Long Island Ice Tea at Monteys followed by a quick look at the band playing The Blues Bar. The Hurricanes were playing. foot tapping 50s esque blues – coincidentally we’d just toyed with the idea of getting Hurricane cocktails in the prior bar. After that we caught up with our old friend Al, who was even older as he celebrates his birthday on the same day as our anniversary at The Regency. After darts, pints (TT Landlord)  and chats we stumbled home with big smiles about our noggins.

I think the big news of the day though has to be the Platinum – that’s 70 years – wedding anniversary of Eirene’s nana and grandad. Bravo.  An inspiration to us all!

Apparently, A DragonDrop Adventure Shirt has already been on TV during a cricket match in India when it’s wearer, Jim, was carried around the ground at shoulder height for being the only non Indian in the ground. Or so I’m told.

Last night, a DragonDrop Adventure Shirt made it onto Mainstream British TV with an appearance for a minute or so of Channel 4′s Come Dine With Me. It’s wearer, DragonDrop Adventure veteran Alison Brierley.

Loved the show, loved the #cdwm twitter hash tags during / after the show. Even though I wasn’t directly part of the show we felt like were – for one, we’d had a leftovers after party at the time and had gotten to consume a lot of the things that the other contestants had scoffed and for another – the deer haunch that Ali described how she was butchering the day before was a roadkill I’d spotted and phoned through to an excited Ali on day 2 of film week.

The show is available to watch for another 29 days on 4OD (well worth watching!)

..and there’s a clip of the show here.