Friday My Town Shoot-out - Black and Orange

This week's Friday My Town Shoot-out theme is - Black and Orange.

Most of mine have a little bit of white thrown in!

Why not check out other people's my town shoot-outs this week.

Ronnie Barker in Aylesbury

David Jason & Ronnie Corbett

Laugh if you may but Aylesbury, the County Town of Buckinghamshire, is not unknown to the stars of stage and screen. Part of Clockwork Orange was filmed in our concrete underpasses, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh lived nearby at Notely Abbey, David Jason lives by Coombe Hill and Sir John Gielgud lived in the South Pavilion, Grendon Underwood House, now Tony & Cherie Blair’s country house. Many made their way to the Prime Minister’s country house at Chequers 2 miles from our modest cottage and Burton, Taylor and many famous luvvies used to wine and dine at the Bell in Aston Clinton when it was a rather top restaurant. And then there was an actor who began his acting career in Aylesbury more than 60 years ago.

A bronze statue of the late comedy legend Ronnie Barker was unveiled today in Aylesbury. The Porridge and Two Ronnie’s star, who died five years ago, was born in Bedford and Aylesbury Vale District Council commissioned sculptor Martin Jennings to design the statue as part of its Waterside development project. It now takes pride of place in the new public space in Exchange Street. The statue was officially unveiled by Mr Barker's widow, Joy.


Ronnie Barker's widow Joy at the unveiling

The Waterside development is an ambitious project to redevelop Aylesbury town centre, creating a new shopping area in Exchange Street (including a department store and food store) and a 525 space multi-storey car park and more than 200 homes in Walton Street. Further east at Circus Field there will be a mix of residential development and a new canal basin with residential moorings. Aylesbury has its own branch on the Grand Union Canal, which links London and Birmingham.


Aylesbury branch of The Grand Union Canal

Although only a two-minute walk from the centre of town, Aylesbury Waterside theatre is conspicuous to passing drivers on its site next to a roundabout on the ring road. It’s one of several cultural, retail, infrastructure and residential buildings planned as part of the Aylesbury Waterside development, an urban regeneration project intended to transform a rundown area of the town. The theatre enjoys a wonderful location adjacent to one of the town’s greatest assets – the canal. The canal basin itself is to be redeveloped and opened up to restaurants and homes. A new public green space will provide an attractive interface between the theatre and a new canal side Waitrose store and hotel.


Waterside Theatre

The £35m theatre, which has a 1200- seat auditorium, was commissioned by Aylesbury Vale District council and replaces the civic theatre in the town. The auditorium is housed inside a reinforced concrete block at the core of the building, which is surrounded on three sides by the timber and glass facade. The space between the facade and the auditorium block functions as an acoustic buffer, keeping out traffic noise and at the same time providing light, spacious public areas and views of the adjacent exchange Street and uphill towards the town centre.


Aerial view of Aylesbury Waterside Theatre under construction

When architect Norman Bragg was struggling to come up with a concept for the proposed Aylesbury Waterside theatre in Buckinghamshire, the last place he expected to find inspiration was driving down the A41 dual carriageway. “I was heading towards Aylesbury to visit a possible site, when I noticed thousands of sleek dark pine trees covering the horizon, a really impressive sight,” explains Bragg. “Then, as I approached the town through Aylesbury Vale I was awestruck by the beautiful, undulating green hills that dominate the scenery.”

She was joined at the ceremony by some of her husband's former colleagues including long-time comedy partner Ronnie Corbett and Open All Hours co-star David Jason. The Two Ronnies teamed up in 1971. Sculptor Martin Jennings has depicted Mr Barker in his role as prison inmate Norman Stanley Fletcher, in the classic 1970s' series Porridge, sitting on a stone bench looking up at the new theatre.



The Two Ronnies

Mr Jennings, whose work includes the statue of poet Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras station in London, said: "It's been delightful to make this statue of Ronnie Barker. He was a comic genius and he was a wonderful shape to sculpt. I've depicted him in his Porridge character glancing up approvingly at the new theatre as if looking back happily over a long career to the days when he began it all in Aylesbury."

Ronnie Barker was born in Bedford in 1929 and worked in a bank before joining the Aylesbury Repertory Company. He made his professional debut on 15 November 1948, at the old County Theatre in Aylesbury's Market Square, with a small role playing Lt Spicer in JM Barrie's Quality Street. By 1955 he was in demand in the West End and appeared in a number of productions including Mourning Becomes Electra, Lysistrata and Irma La Douce. During the 1960s, he became well established as a radio performer, leaving his theatrical career behind.


The theatre sits alongside Aylesbury's canal basin and is the centrepiece of the town's Waterside development

He teamed up with Ronnie Corbett in 1971, and their sketch show, The Two Ronnies, ran for 12 series over 16 years. His many accolades include four Baftas and he was appointed an OBE in 1978. Councillor John Cartwright, Leader of Aylesbury Vale District Council, said: "The sculptor Martin Jennings has created a wonderful work of art. The statue is a fitting tribute to a great man and one of Britain's best loved performers. I'm sure it will not only delight theatregoers, but will also be an attraction to Ronnie Barker fans throughout the country and perhaps even further afield."

LDF10: Ligne Roset Plays with Bright Colours

I loved Ligne Roset bright bold installation 'Lets talk about colour' during the London Design Festival. The showroom was transformed with Ligne Roset's signature furniture pieces in bright acid colours.

Taking centre stage were some of the key new pieces, such as Eric Jourdan's contemporary seating range Harry, coupled with Inga Sempé's distinctive Ruché sofa, all set within a showroom injected with bright acid colours.

It's bright, dynamic and fresh! I absolutely loved it!
 

Images courtesy of Ligne Roset.

Gargelgate – A very Irish tragedy

Our very own Brian Cowen

Some years ago when the in laws retired to Co. Offaly in Ireland their TD (Member of Parliament) was a local auctioneer, Brian Cowen. Cowen was born in Clara, County Offaly, the son of May and Bernard Cowen, a former Fianna Fáil TD and Senator. The family owned a public house in Clara town, located adjacent to the family home. His father also worked as an auctioneer. Now it has been observed that languages invent words because they need them and Irish is sprinkled with words like Gombeen, “a pejorative Hiberno-English term for a shady, small-time "wheeler-dealer" or businessman who is always looking to make a quick profit, often at someone else's expense or through the acceptance of bribes”, Sleeveen “somebody who is sly, plausible, and ingratiating” or Spalpeen “a rascal.” You get the idea the Irish language had to invent these words / descriptors because it needed them, no more so than for the Irish Political Class who contain a fair proportion of Gombeen Men (and Women) who previously followed noble callings as Publicans, Auctioneers, Bookmakers or general multi-purpose shysters!


Tom Byrne's satirical depiction of Taoiseach Brian Cowen performing 'Lakes of Pontchartrain' at the Fianna Fail “Think-in” on display in the Apollo Gallery, Dublin.

Cowen became Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in May 2008 following the resignation of his predecessor Bertie Ahern after he was found to have received over £200.000 in unaccounted cash from “Benefactors.” Somewhat embarrassingly (for he was Minister of Finance for much of the time) he hadn’t accounted for tax on these “donations.” Indeed such was his faith in ready cash that he didn’t have a bank account for much of the time either! However, even if every allegation against Bertie Ahern was true it all pales into insignificance against the low standards set by his predecessor, the late Charles Haughey who, in his time, pocketed £8.4 million in “donations”. Although an Anglophobe by birth and conviction, Haughey cultivated the most elaborate tastes and mannerisms of the Anglo-Irish gentry. He had mansions, estates and a private island. He liked antique furniture, and fine art, horses, clothes and wines.


Charlie "The Squire" Haughey

Haughey’s Minister of Justice, Ray Burke, has previously been found culpable of receiving large sums of cash and indeed having his own house and its land “donated” by Brennan and McGowan, developers who benefited from wide scale rezoning of land. Liam Lawlor, another Fianna Fail T.D. (Irish Member of Parliament) was also found to have corruptly benefited from payments from developers who had agricultural land rezoned for development, often at great cost to the public purse in providing the infrastructure.


The Bold Bertie in typical heroic pose

Even squeaky clean former Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald was found to have a 320,000 pound loan from Allied Irish Bank to invest in the shares of Guinness Peat Aviation (of which he was a director) written off by the bank when the investment went wrong, as you or I would in similar circumstances. Dr. FitzGerald had previously been Prime Minister when the same bank had been bailed out to the tune of £121 million when their investment in the Insurance Corporation of Ireland went wrong.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/bertie-ahern-and-poverty-in-ireland.html

Since Cowen became Taoiseach the Irish economy has nose dived, its sovereign debt rating has been cut and he has launched a 4 Billion programme of cuts which has copper fastened his unpopularity. Cuts are not easy in a statist country like Ireland where Gombeen Pork Barrel politics are the order of the day. With the same population as Greater Manchester the country supports no less than 380 Quangos once again proving the truth of Brendan Behan’s saying “The Irish are very popular with themselves!”



Now to economic misery has been added National Mortification in the scandal of the allegedly drunken interview known as Gargelgate - Brian Cowen's now infamous early morning interview came five-and-a-quarter hours after he left The Blazers Bar in the Ardilaun Hotel following a night of drinking, singing and telling yarns.

It was a night typical of any party gathering, enjoyed by TDs, senators and assembled journalists. At the time, no one could have foreseen the political storm that would envelop the Taoiseach in what would become one of the most damaging episodes of his political career which has been picked up in America by Jay Leno on NBC’s Tonight Show.



US chat-show host Jay Leno says he is not going to apologise to Taoiseach Brian Cowen for mocking him as a "drunken moron" on his prime time show. Leno displayed a photo of Mr Cowen and asked his audience to guess if he was a bartender, a politician or a "nightclub comedian", before revealing he was the "Prime Minister of Ireland" to loud laughter. "He's Brian Cowen, the Prime Minister of Ireland. Oh God, it's so nice to know we're not the only country with drunken morons, isn't it?" Leno joked.

Mr Cowen has featured in the international media since it emerged he was singing and drinking in the early hours of the morning at the Fianna Fail party think-in (In itself a strange concept!) in the Ardilaun Hotel, Co Galway, two weeks ago. He was criticised for his performance on an RTE 'Morning Ireland' interview several hours later. He admitted afterwards that he needed to be more cautious in his social life but strongly denied he was drunk or hung-over during the interview.


Dublin - capital of a very free Ireland

But this national embarrassment doesn't stop even at Cowen's door – Irish State Broadcaster RTE's initial refusal to repeat the phrase 'drunken morons' proves that while Cowen can't control the antics of an NBC employee, he still holds sway over the national broadcaster.

Brian Cowen called a "drunken moron" in NBC Tonight Show segment from Sept 22, 2010



The Irish PM Brian Cowen has refuted claims that he sounded "halfway between drunk and hungover" in a radio interview.



Brian Cowen Drunk Live Radio Interview (audio slowed) before his breakfast on RTÉ News Morning Ireland, Tuesday, 14 September 2010. Taoiseach Brian Cowen drunk interview live on air.

[CARTOON] Fats on a Plane

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Liverpool biennial - Lee Mingwei

I spent Tuesday morning rambling around Liverpool city centre, touring the Liverpool biennial – an International Festival of Contemporary Art.

I have a fairly catholic taste where art is concerned and am not one of those people who dislikes all forms of contemporary art. My reaction to modern art varies according to the individual piece. My i9nitial response to each piece varies ; it may be ‘OK’ or ‘that’s attractive’ or ‘I like that’ or ‘clever stuff!’ with the occasional ‘Yer what?!?’ (see GB’s post from Tatton Park). A few pieces leave me cold (especially video which is not a medium I enjoy) whilst others have that real ‘Wow’ factor. I have yet to see all the pieces in the Festival but of the ones I saw this week four really struck me as good and one – the Mending Project - had that absolute ‘Wow’ factor. I shall feature the others - together with some of the ‘OK’ and ‘Clever’ ones in future posts

The Mending Project is by the artist Lee Mingwei who was born in Taiwan and graduated from Oakland with a degree in Textile Arts in 1993 and went on to do a Masters in Fine Arts at Yale concentrating on sculpture and New Genre Public Art. Lee Mingwei currently lives and works in New York City and Berkeley, California, but has been over in Liverpool for the first couple of weeks of the Festival and I was fortunate enough to meet him at the Mending Project.

The project, first created in 2009 at Lombard Freid Projects, New York, is an interactive installation involving a 10 foot wooden table, 2 wooden chairs and 400 cones of thread, each of a different colour. Its dimensions vary depending upon where and how he sets it up.

Lee describes his artistic orientation as ‘social conceptualism’. His works are participatory and he invites strangers to join together in such everyday activities as eating, sleeping, writing letters, or, in this case, mending clothes. Visitors are invited to bring along items of clothing that need mending and they sit with the artist while he darns at their side. The concept is brilliant and the setting so simple and yet so attractive.

As the Liverpool Biennial catalogue comments “The Mending Project creates a welcome respite from the humdrum noise of the street and the loneliness experienced by many people living in modern cities”. “At the heart of this is the desire to re-instigate moments of closeness and shared understanding between strangers.”

LDF10: My Tent Highlights

Another day another event! Yes it was a very busy weekend with just too many fantastic events happening at the same time. I never really thought of the idea of clones until this very weekend, but seeing as that wasn't an option I dragged myself to as many events as possible and I am so glad that I did! 

I am ecstatic that I managed to get myself down to Tent at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, a totally ground-breaking show delivering the very best contemporary and vintage design, architecture and interiors and the world of digital. 

So much to love, here is a selction of some of my highlights. (click on image to enlarge).

1.Curiousa & Curiousa. 2.Ary Trays. 3.Zoe Murphy. 4.Furnish. 5.Gemma Milly. 6.Ercol.

A few more...

7.Orchard Studio. 8.Dixit. 9.We Have Furniture. 10.Sessio. 11.A+Z Design.

Wednesday Wildlife - Pieris

The name of a genus is designed to be unique to a group of animals or plants but there are occasional lapses. One of the more notable ones is Pieris which is the generic name for certain white butterflies and for a group of shrubs including the Lily of the Valley Shrub – Pieris japonica.

Equally interesting is the fact that the reference to the foodplant in the specific names of the butterflies erroneously suggest that the Green-veined White (Pieris napi) caterpillars eat swede whilst they actually leaves crop plants alone and feeds on wild members of the Brassica family.

The Cabbage White is a name given to both the Large White (Pieris brassicae) and the Small White (Pieris rapae).

The Green-veined White (Pieris napi)

East Anglian Place Names

Here are some East Anglian Place Names with unexpected pronunciations:-

Aldeburgh - pronounced awlbrer
Bashingham - pronounced bazingame
Beeston - pronounced beesum
Brome - pronounced broom
Caldecote - pronounced corket
Costessey - pronounced kossy
Garboldisham - pronounced garbleshum
Happisburgh - pronounced hazeboro
Horningsea - pronounced hornsey
Letherinsett - pronounced larnsett
Norwich - pronounced norritch
Stiffkey - pronounced stewkey
St Osyth - pronounced tozey
Tivetshall - pronounced titsawl
Walberswick - pronounced wobbleswick
Wymondham - pronounced windum

In Liverpool there is an area called Gateacre pronounced gettekker. Does your area have anywhere with an unexpected pronunciation?

LDF10: My Origin Highlighs

You've got to love the Origin Craft Fair held in Old Spitafields Market, another one of the many events held last weekend. It is an anual showcase of original contemporary craft, a place that brings together 220 of the most innovative UK and international talent all in one place. It offers visitors a rare chance to buy directly from the makers and meet them face to face.

All I can say is that I absolutely loved it. An array of exquisite pieces that I found myself falling in love continuously.

Here are some of my highlights from the fair. (click to enlarge.)

1.Ingrid Barndal. 2.Michelle Griffiths. 3.Betty Pepper. 4.Sarah Morpeth. 5.Abigail Brown.

And a few more treats...

6.Mizuyo Yamashita. 7.Hannah Turner. 8.Rosanna Martin. 9.Sue Binns. 10.Lowri Davies. 11.Debbie Smyth.

LDF10: Gust Of Wind

Late Friday night at the V&A was fantastic. It was packed with enthusiasts and so many amazing things to see. My favourite was of course the long awaited installation by Paul Cocksedge, 'Gust of Wind'. Flying sheets of corian were installed as if they were fluttering across the hallway at the V&A. The installation featured 300 curvacious pieces of corian with each engraved with the words: 'ideas tray' and featuring a series number. All this was for one night only so I am very glad I was part of it.

Each of these limited edition pieces are handmade by Cocksedge. The ‘pages’, which were given away during the event and I made sure to get my piece, represent a stack of paper which has been blown into the air by a gust of wind. They will function as paper trays, becoming a place for wandering paper to gather. 

Well as for me it will simply be a cool object amongst my many to decorate my home