Journal Live - Journal Culture Central

First night at The Fringe

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:12:27 +0000

Karen Wilson offers a snapshot of Edinburgh through recently arrived eyes.

There's nothing more satisfying than ambling panda-eyed towards the shops for breakfast things, against shoals of be-suited office workers.

Today we have a hard day of , er..., watching shows and then writing about them, while they probably have to look at graphs or perhaps go on a course to learn how to look at graphs more productively.

South Africa, final reflections by David Whetstone

Thu, 28 May 2009 08:52:22 +0000

Over the last few days we have met several inspiring products of the Swallows Partnership, the mission to bring together North East and Eastern Cape cultural professionals for mutual benefit.

The South African a cappella singing group Amandla Esandla (The Power of Five), which comprises five performers selected from auditions conducted by staff of The Sage Gateshead, has bowled us over a couple of times. If they could be on Britain's Got Talent, they would win.

South Africa, Day 5 by David Whetstone

Wed, 27 May 2009 06:44:31 +0000

Our long road journey across Eastern Cape province from Umtata ends in Port Elizabeth whose name, like so many others in South Africa, reflects its colonial past.

A grassy public space above the town is called the Donkin Reserve and its centrepiece is a stone pyramid dedicated "to the memory of one of the most perfect of human beings who has given her name to the town below".

South Africa, Day 4 by David Whetstone

Tue, 26 May 2009 07:37:57 +0000

Today we make our way to Grahamstown which is the home of the National Arts Festival, the equivalent, we are told, of the Edinburgh Festival - although obvious similarities between the Scottish capital and this speck on the vast map of South Africa are all but invisible.

Our group has fragmented, North East visual arts specialists Anna Pepperall and David Butler having gone to meet like-minded folk at Rhodes University, which is in Grahamstown.

South Africa, Day 3 by David Whetstone

Sun, 24 May 2009 08:57:40 +0000

A few days ago in Newcastle, at the offices of Ryder, I saw the architect's model of a planned amphitheatre for a primary school in the Thyume Valley of Eastern Cape, one of the poorest parts of South Africa.

This morning our party drives in through the gates of this very school, Gqumahashe. It is a rural spot and also very beautiful, with a river meandering along at the bottom of the sloped school grounds and hills rising up behind.

South Africa Day 2

Fri, 22 May 2009 08:28:40 +0000

By David Whetstone
.We begin with a visit to the Nelson Mandela Museum in Umtata which opened 10 years to the day after the famous freedom fighter was liberated from prison (I remember watching on TV in a pub on Holy Island and being so absorbed that I became imprisoned, temporarily, by the incoming tide covering the causeway)..

I am reading Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, and it is interesting to see important parts of the text highlighted in the museum. t's an old government building of colonial design - red and white outside and polished timber panneling within.

South Africa, Day One By David Whetstone

Wed, 20 May 2009 21:15:57 +0000

This is the first - and maybe the only - instalment of a blog chronicling my trip to South Africa with the Swallows Partnership, an initiative to promote joint cultural initiatives between the North East and the province of Eastern Cape. So far on this journey of discovery, internet access has proved impossible

That's a puny complaint, though, when you consider that less than 20 years ago
the population of this part of the world was enslaved to an apartheid regime that graded people according to the colour of their skin.

The Newcastle Collection on public view

Wed, 13 May 2009 14:50:10 +0000

By David Whetstone
One of the great attractions of the new City Library, which opens in the heart of Newcastle on June 7 (11am), will be the area designated to the Newcastle Collection.

This is a big collection featuring several smaller collections of treasures which have been in Newcastle's possession for years - but which for the most part have been locked away out of sight.

Appreciation of late poet James Kirkup

Mon, 11 May 2009 20:31:16 +0000

By David Whetstone
One who deeply appreciated the work of James Kirkup, the South Shields-born poet who has died aged 91, is Dorothy Fleet who has been something of a Kirkup archivist for 45 years.

Last night she said: "I first contacted him when I was a student and was doing my thesis on him in 1963 and he was just so supportive and helpful. We kept in touch and I eventually met him. Lately I've been setting up a James Kirkup collection in South Shields with some of his books and possessions."

The World's Greatest Musical Prodigies

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:48:16 +0000

By David Whetstone

If you were in Hall One of The Sage Gateshead on Wednesday night, you will be counting yourself lucky.

The World's Greatest Musical Prodigies might be a hyperbolic title - it certainly invites debate - but there was no doubting the extraordinary talent of the five young people
who, accompanied by the musicians of Northern Sinfonia, treated the audience to a thrilling concert.

They don't know it but...

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:00:42 +0000

...Lionel Richie and Snow Patrol are in direct competition with each other.

As things stand, we have one coveted interview slot left in the March issue of Culture Magazine.

On what we lovingly call "the flat plan" the said slot currently reads Snow/Richie.

Please forward...

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:13:06 +0000

It won't mean anything to you... but this is the Culture team blog and it means something to us, so where else am I gonna write about it?

At the end of last week, the Culture team... that would be Dave (Whetstone), Me (Sam Wonfor), Barbara (Hodgson) and Tamzin (Lewis) had to pack up our troubles and move our locks, stocks and barrels a full 30(ish) feet to our new spiritual home.

For the past four years... and since the beginnings of the now award-winning Culture initiative (hands up to trumpet blowing), we has resided in what had come to be known as Culture Corner.

Nostalgia city

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:38:09 +0000

Sam Wonfor reporting for Culture desk updating duty.

We've been flashing back to the eighties on the Culture desk this week.

Following a preview interview a couple of weeks ago, Barbara went to see former Spandau Ballet frontman, Tony Hadley at The Sage and returned with a broad smile.

Stephen Hannock at the Laing Art Gallery

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:30:25 +0000

The highlight of a busy week for me was meeting US landscape artist Stephen Hannock on Wednesday at the Laing Art Gallery.

The idea might have been for a chat about his painting of the River Tyne, commissioned by Sting - except it wasn't there, delayed somewhere en route north apparently.