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‘LETS GO TO WORK!’
Directed by Lindsay Charrington
Produced by Adrian Cooke
Tonight is the opening of Reservoir Cats, the latest play by the Theatre Knights, a subsidiary of the Knights of the Round Table arts collective. A spin-off of the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs, ‘Cats’ sports an all-female cast in this very unique, Northern Irish take.
The Knights of the Round Table was founded in 2005 by Thomas L Muinzer to “encourage the individual development of of all artistic genres, but also to encourage the idea of bringing separate genres together.”
In my mind this is a great version of the original film, the cast play the parts brilliantly, interacting with the audience and the auditorium as well as making the audience think about the male and female roles in such a performance.
Profits from the production are donated to the Belfast Rape Crisis Centre. The play runs until Fri 16th May
As I approached the Ormeau Bridge this morning a very eggy smell made its way up my nostrils. Looking down, the bands of the were as low as I remember ever seeing them; muddy, dark and devoid of life, with a traffic cone or two and I’m sure a shopping trolley somewhere could be found somewhere down as the river meandered through the city.
As I walked across the bridge on my way to work I thought about the Lagan Weir and how it was designed to “keep the river at an artificially constant level” through “a series of massive steel barriers which are raised as the tide retreats.” Maybe they took the bank holiday off too.
The water quality of the river was poor due to several factors:
- There was a large amount of “domestic” pollution entering the river system from an outdated sewage system
- Poor intermixing of the fresh water from upstream with the denser seawater from Belfast Lough.
- Nitrates contained in the fresh water.
- The Lagan’s water level varied by three metres between high and low tide so that at low tide unsightly smelly mud flats were exposed as far up the river as the Ormeau embankment.
And who wouldn’t want the opportunity to enjoy such great weather rather than go to work. Not so good for the runners (and walkers) of the Belfast City Marathon, who must have had a hard time staying dehydrated as they struggled through the 26.2mile journey.
Great weather for spectators on the other hand, watching from the sidelines, or the front of the local pub.
Inside the Errigle on this very fine afternoon was Matt McGinn and his band playing some classics to those enjoying the day off work and those resting their muscles from their run.
The weather has just been amazing for the last few days, and I do hope it continues. All I want to do is sit in the sun, with plenty of sun cream of course!
Thanks to Andy for my new blog design :)
Tonight Kitty and the Can Openers subtly relaunch their self-titled EP at the Empire Music Hall, Belfast.
Recorded in Dec 07/Jan 08, the finely produced CD contains five superb tracks, which often find themselves slipped into the the set list whenever they grace the stage.
When the EP was first printed the band were unhappy with the album sleeve and so it was back to the drawing board. Now, 2 months later the newly printed sleeve and CD are ready for general sale at various gigs and events, and soon to be available from their website, which is in production.
So if you are free tonight get down to the Empire and get yourself a CD!
It’s been a while since I went to a club and drank many alcoholic beverages into the early hours of the morning. Having had a taste of just that the other night, not so much in the alcohol consumption but in the atmosphere and drink consumed by the free spirits all around me - including the occasional fantastically attractive female.
Those nights are always nice. It’s fun to go a bit crazy every now and then, though right now it seems I’m not able to do it, or in the mood quite often. It feels great to be busy, sometimes it feels great to be tired, because it’s tiredness from doing what I love.
It’s the weekend. Go nuts!
That was no mob! A pitiful performance! You should be ashamed of yourselves - those who didn’t make the effort. Its a team effort people!
In this photo are a few of the mobsters.
Here is all the space available for potential mobsters
Those who were there were awesome! A small group, who gathered afterwards, included Duke Special who was just passing through after getting a Costa Coffee (seen below just leaving), discussed future plans in a very mob-like manner.
Next time will be better.
TODAY Flash Mob gathering in Belfast
Victoria Square ground floor
1pm
Like this, only more people - hopefully.
It may not be quite so populated as London’s Flash Mob on Friday 11th April, but we can try.
It was like putting on a pair of glasses for the first time. I don’t wear glasses, so it was like putting on a pair of glasses when my eyesight is 20:20 and seeing everything totally distorted - only in reverse. In a good way.
A new lens. I got a nice pretty new lens. The weather has been amazing the last few days. Here are a few photographs from my first trip with pretty new lens.
This Thursday I have a very special photographic exhibition to mark the opening of Belfast City Office. This is an office space centre on Elmwood Avenue, close to Queens University and the Students Union.
Merging premium serviced-office space, top-notch in-house IT support from Xootec, administrative & business support and very smart facilities for meeting, greeting and networking, the BCO team have fashioned a fantastic alternative to the traditional rented office space.
“…We are a small and greatly motivated team here and we strive to ensure our clients receive top quality support. If asked, why BCO? We would answer because, We Care for Your Business.”
…[They] have successfully brought this period building bang up to date as beautiful Victorian architecture fuses effortlessly with dynamic modern design.
The photographs on display are of sights around two contrasting cities; Belfast and New York City, both continuously growing at a rapid rate in all directions; culturally, economically, musically, artistically as well as in architecture and cityscape.
The launch of the centre is the only time members of the public will have the chance to see these photographs, so please do stop by on your lunch break for some free lunch! It begins at 11am, though will be open throughout the day.
Recently I’ve been working with local promotion company Moving On Music, who specialise in classical, traditional, world, rock and jazz music.
MOM are putting on a mini-festival in the Black Box from today, 26th March, to Sunday 30th March, encompassing many great musicians, as well as film screenings before each show.
In the Café, however, a selection of my photographs, taken at Moving On Music events, are on display throughout the festival.
If you are in Belfast it would be great if you could stop by and have a look, maybe even get a bite to eat - they do a good lunch.
For full details on the festival programme click here
A random photo from the archives.
This photograph was taken on this day in 2006
