Pop goes the weasel ... this Sunday on the Circus

OUT ON THE CIRCUS?
This Sunday (10th Feb) the band that is slowly growing and making "A Song for a Circus" will be actually out on Arnold Circus (starting in the band stand at 3.00pm) practising some of the experiments we've been trying out. This is partly to see what we sound like outside & work out if some sort of 'live performance' will work in the Agrifashionista week, but mainly to try and let people know what we're up to and maybe attract new resident members.
My main motivation is we need a drummer ... so if you live on the Boundary Estate and play the drums come on down, we could sure do with you ...

That said I am really keen on the Sitar and Melodeon combo we have to date.

POP GOES THE WEASEL?
The next tune we might tackle is Pop goes the weasel we love the Anthony Newley version and with all the local connections ( "Up and down the city road, In and out the Eagle" ) it might be an interesting track to do a 'cover version' of ... My feeling is that Seamus (our nominated singer) could certainly carry off a Newley-like "off the cuff comment over the lyric" vocal!

MYSPACE MATES?
We're gaining in popularity (if not visual style) on Myspace and one of our new virtual friends are another band that apparently anyone can join ... they're called the citizens and they want to be our friends, I quite like their '24hr CCTV' if you fancy a listen.

If you're on Myspace come on be our friend ...

Posted Friday 8th February, 2008 at 1:29 pm by Nina

Yeehaw - SXSW 2008 here we come!

We're thrilled that the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas has accepted Living with the Tudors for its international premiere in March 2008!
We had a great time there with Bata-ville in 2006 so really look forward to revisiting....

Posted Sunday 3rd February, 2008 at 5:37 pm by Karen

An extra week

We just heard that the Northern Art Prize show at Leeds City Art gallery will now run for an extra week. And the sale in Harvey Nicks might still be on too.

Posted Wednesday 30th January, 2008 at 11:33 pm by Karen

The Popular Vote ...

I realised we should have said thanks to all our readers as apparently we also won the 'popular' vote at Leeds for the Northern Art Prize, this was conducted on-line ("these are our people" - KG) and for 'fun', but very nice to know anyway.

Still you can't please everyone as this particularly enjoyable comment from the Blog that followed the wildly inaccurate if entertaining Guardian article shows...

"'Bata-ville' is the cenematic (his spelling) equivalent of someone scraping the fingernails down a blackboard and calling it art." from Mikestate ...

I hope he's actually seen the film, you get the impression that a lot of the comments relating to Norma's pickled onions ('pickled onions as art scandal' gives you the general vibe) might not have seen the show or realised that the onions aren't actually being proffered in isolation as 'art'.

Still I'm looking forward to the 'bundle of commissions' that Martin Wainwright mentions ... perhaps he knows something we don't?

Posted Wednesday 23rd January, 2008 at 11:20 am by Nina

It Took a Whole Lotta Doing....

....But We Did It!
to quote soul diva Loleatta Holloway.
Yep, the prize is in the bag thanks to I'm not sure what - positive visualisation, luck, graft, black magic, pickled onions, karma, or that funny professional development course we did last year....
In true grammy Award style we'd like to thank our many helpers: Grizedale Arts and Commissions East who commissioned the prize-winning projects, the BR&RC for loaning so much of their fantastic stuff and of course to our regular collaborators Tim Olden, Dorian Moore, Doug Howarth, John Podpadec and Paul Baker. Also to Fiona Venables, curator at Tullie House in Carlisle for nominating us in the first place.
Now back to the bubbly....

Posted Friday 18th January, 2008 at 12:58 pm by Karen

Fingers Crossed!

We find out tomorrow night who has won the Northern Art Prize ...

Karen & I will be in Leeds for the big announcement, these events are like some kind of torture treatment for artists - I have been at two previous prize announcements ... once where I got to practice my 'putting a brave face on' and once when I did actually win but sadly didn't realise a camera was trained on my contorted face during the run up to that realisation.

Anyway while we're there we will also be doing a major restock of the Honesty Table featuring: Norma Olden's pickled onions (not for the cautious), aubergine cane toppers, plant seedlings and Karen's kimchi, get in quick while stocks last.

Finallay tonight is you last chance to see the Tudors at Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds ... and Karen who'll be there for the Q&A afterwards, go along and buy her a stiff drink!

Posted Wednesday 16th January, 2008 at 11:12 am by Nina

Special Film Screenings of Living with the Tudors in Leeds

In association with Soda Pictures and the Northern Art Prize there are going to be 3 special screenings of Living with the Tudors at Leeds Hyde Park Picture House this month.

I will be there for a Q&A following the Wednesday night screening, and the next day we will hear who has actually won the Northern Art Prize - so fingers crossed!

BOOK TICKETS THROUGH THE VENUE:
Hyde Park Picture House
Brudenell Road
Leeds LS6 1JD
0113 275 2045

The screening times are:
SATURDAY 12TH JAN – 3:30
SUNDAY 13TH JAN – 3:30
WEDNESDAY 16TH JAN – 6:15 (Followed by Q&A)

Posted Monday 7th January, 2008 at 12:22 pm by Karen

Knee pads for the North

AT LAST I’m on the train after a grueling 4 day ‘hang’ of our Leeds show for the Northern Art Prize. We are really pleased with the final result, but boy was it a slog.

It all came flooding back to me on day one when we arrived to find progress on our space a ‘little delayed’ about 6 hours into day one I was already reacquainted enough with the familiar pain of installing an exhibition to remember why we haven’t really had one for years! Making films can be exhausting hard work and emotionally grueling but it can also have ‘highs’ that I have yet to encounter whilst scrabbling around on a grubby gallery floor or trying to fix something to a high wall with inappropriate fixtures.

The worst thing is your knees … within about an hour of arriving Karen wished she’d bought her knee pads (which we did in the end purchase when we used to regularly install and de-install our huge Island model!) as you seem to spend an awful lot of time on the floor moving things about. You never have the right screwdriver and I think someone might even have pinched my tape measure.

Still as Matthew Olden would say ‘mustn’t grumble’ it’s finally up and it looks great even if we do say so ourselves.

A MASSIVE THANKS is due to the East Tilbury Bata Resource & Reminiscence Centre who have lent us much of their precious archive for the show, mixed in with the Bata-ville materials it’s made for a really interesting screening space/archive. Also due are thanks to Tim for helping with the hang and Sue Giovanni for her patient work on our new film ‘Little Deluxe Living’ finished late the night before we left for Leeds. Thanks to go to Andrew & John at Leeds City Art Gallery who soldiered on helping with our rather ‘unusual’ hang right up until the Private View wine started to flow.

Wish us luck, we’ve gone completely over board on effort for the show and there is a prize – as Karen keeps reminding me – “we’re in it to win it”!

Posted Thursday 22nd November, 2007 at 7:20 pm by Nina

Look at them go in Leeds!

This is the hot trade happening on 'the honesty table' last night at the opening of the Northern Art Prize show ...

We had great veg. from the local Leeds & District Gardeners Federation (thanks to Dan Robinson for bringing this in), Rice from Toge, Karen's umeboshi, Jerusalem Artichokes from Tim's Dad's allotment, Japanese Zouri & more ... it looked & tasted great.

Get down to the gallery for your fresh produce while stocks last ... or better still take some of your own down and sell it from the table.

You can now read more about what's on the table on it's own page here.

Curiously the tables were specially made for us by a great company in East London called Unto This Last - each with 6 special money slots. I say curiously as this project (all part of 7 Samurai) has become for Karen & I about a set of strange coincidences ... in this instance the Ruskin connection that inspires the company name, as Karen lives in Ruskin's former farm house ... anyway it's a long story all now in the short film 'Little Deluxe Living' showing with the table.

Posted Thursday 22nd November, 2007 at 6:36 pm by Nina

Meanwhile in East Tilbury ...

Big congratulations are due to the fantastic team from the Bata Resource & Reminiscence Centre on their successful fund-raising and new refurbishment. It was great to see everyone again at the launch!

For those with a 'Bata' interest you might want to take a look at my group on Flickr for Bata pics. there are now some interesting ones from all over the world. People still send Karen and I pictures of Bata shops spotted on their travels, and this is a good place to keep them.

We have a group for Zlin too.

Posted Thursday 22nd November, 2007 at 6:24 pm by Nina