LIVE from Canada

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone that signed Andy Halls Birthday card before we all went away, he was super stoked to say the least. We’ve just returned to civilisation after 4 days with no electricity and over and hour from the nearest Hospital or Off License so we’re stocked back up and out on the town in Vancouver.

Glad to hear the weather has been good and I hope you all have a belter of a Bank Holiday in Sunny Southsea.

Andy relaxes with a can of Molson Pilsner. Backdrop courtesy of Birkenhead Lake, Canada.

Sunny Southsea

A beautiful morning to the Bank Holiday weekend in Southsea. Hope you all have an awesome weekend, see you next week.

Bank Holiday Weekend Thought of the Week with Handsome ‘Dave’ Rocker

Now then now then boy and girls, it only seems like yesterday I was saying summer is nearly here, and here we are nearly at the end of the bar b q season. Which is wal bum! But fear not the next few weeks are gonna be the best by a long way……….

Starting off this weekend, half of Red Indie are getting married so Saturday night is going to be great fun in the LJRs, I’m gonna be dropping none stop hit after non stop hit, the fun starts around 8 and finishes when ever you want but the pub shuts at 1am.

Then on to everybody’s favourite Sunday shantathon the legendary august bank holiday!!!! Where once again it’s a crazy Sumo Sunday at LJRs joining me on the old wheels of steel with large magnets in, is the Albino Monkey ahead of his 1st international release on the 14th of September and another superstar by the name of Leatherhead. It’s guaranteed to be cool, electro and a bit ravey.

But also just down the road at the Liberal Club the C.O.R. disco queens have got Greg Wilson playing alongside the usual suspects in Southsea’s 1st ever A&E ward, for real. Also Southsea being Southsea there’s heaps of other bits and pieces going on dain the seaside from dog shows to kite contests. Not forgetting all you culture vultures that leave Southsea this weekend, so whether you’re at Reading, Notting Hill, Shambala or even staying in Southsea please respect one and other and remember you are representing my town and we are a lot cooler than everyone else with out even trying.

Hope to see you all over the next few days, as usual come and say hi (I like pear cider) have lots of fun and above all RAVE SAFE!

Love as ever Handsome Dave Rocker. xxxxx

Guildhall After WWII

On 10th January 1941 during a heavy bombing attack on Portsmouth the Guildhall was hit by several incendiary bombs which heavily damaged the structure and the resulting fires quickly spread throughout the whole building, turning it in to just a shell. It took almost 15 years to rebuild the Guildhall in to what we have today, which was officially reopened by the Queen on the 8th June 1959. This photo from Stan Webb from a collection of photos collected by Portsmouth College shows how totally destroyed the building was, leaving just some of the frontage and most of the tower.

Portsmouth Kite Festival

Now in it’s 18th year, the Portsmouth International Kite Festival will be on all Bank Holiday weekend. The event is free and consists of competitions, exhibitions, etc and runs from 10am to 5pm each day down on Southsea Common. Last year’s event was hugely popular so no doubt this weekend’s will be too. Here are a couple of photos from last year, taken by local photographer Duncan Allan:

Pier to Pier Swimming Competition

On Sunday 6th September Portsmouth Northsea Swimming Club will be hosting an open water swimming race between the two piers in Southsea (From Clarence to South Parade), a distance of two kilometres. Entry to the race is now closed but it should be fun to watch and show your support to the swimmers. The race begins at 2:30pm.

Volcom & Geoff Rowley at Bored

The Volcom Stone Age t-shirt screen printing tour visit to Bored by Geoff Rowley, Ben Raemers and crew went off with a bang last Friday. With well over the originally planned 100 t-shirts being printed and given away, the huge crowd of people that came through were obviously stoked to be a part of such a high profile skateboarding event in Southsea. Not to mention how nice both Geoff and Ben were too and how hard the crew worked as well in the heat. Good work to Kev at Volcom, the guys at Bored, Geoff and Ben, Stu from Lovenskate, the rest of the crew and everyone who came down and popped in. Check below for some photos and see more at Forever Circling. Also check out the Sidewalk blog post and the Bored blog too.

› Continue reading

Bike Debate at Greenfair

The continued problems (and dangers) of cycling the seafront in Southsea will be raised in an open, public debate as part of the Greenfair, organised by Portsmouth Climate Action Network and PCC on Saturday 5th September 11am-4pm at The Guildhall. As mentioned previously on Strong Island, earlier this year the Council overruled the democratic, publicly chosen proposal of allowing cycling on the promenade. PCAN has invited Councillor Gerald Vernon Jackson to the debate so hopefully finally some progress can begin and Southsea seafront can be made safe for everyone to enjoy, both on foot and on bike. Please show your support if you can.

More details about the situation can be found at Pompey Bug.

Pressing Matters – 7th Sept

Pressing Matters is a joint exhibition of print work by Lisa Mundy and Ric Robinson running at the 3rd Floor Art Centre in the Portsmouth Central Library (next to the cafe) from 7th to the 30th of September. See below the flyer for some examples of work for the exhibition from both artists.

Lisa Mundy:

Ric Robinson:

Local Photographer – Marcus Hunt’s

Marcus Hunt has rigged together an amazing radio controlled camera set up with a kite which allows him to capture photos of local places in and around Portsmouth with a unique perspective. Unlike photos from aeroplanes, the kite allows for photos from low altitudes giving way more detail. To see loads more than the photos below be sure to spend some time looking through Marcus’ Kite photo Flickr set.

› Continue reading

PRIMARY – A Phoneography Exhibition by Strong Island – Call for entries

This coming new year we will be proud to announce our latest exhibition PRIMARY, a Phoneography exhibition by Strong Island and we are even happier to announce that it’s open to you, the readers.

With the continuing increase in impressive camera technology in mobile phones and the ability to alter, tweak, post process and upload the photos to social media networks and websites like Instagram, the popularity of Phoneography has never been greater.

The ‘of the moment’ ability to take a photo at almost any time and any place by most people has really driven the fact that the camera does not make the photographer. By which I mean, you don’t need an expensive camera to take outstanding photos.

Agreed, the quality of the physical image may not stand up to the big guns, but new learnings in composition, style and aesthetic by a new generation of camera users via online media has really driven this popularity, and encourage people to go beyond a ‘quick shot’.

PRIMARY invites you to get out and about around Portsea with your mobile phone camera and take photos of anything and everything based around the three primary colours red, yellow and blue. What you photograph is entirely up to you, but submissions will only be accepted if they stick to the theme.

The call for entires has now begun and the deadline is the 31st of January 2012 with the exhibition being held in March of 2012. Photos can be taken on any mobile phone model and we ask that a maximum of 3 photos per applicant are sent in to primary@strong-island.co.uk.

Please submit along with your photographs your name, photo title, phone model, location of photo on the island and any post process apps you used, if any, to achieve the final shot.

We look forward to seeing all the entries, and the final installation will be something special using every photo submitted in a slightly different fashion from your average photographic exhibition. CLICK HERE TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER

Poster by Tristan Savage & Photo by Paul Gonella

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

Righto chaps, it’s time to clean shave your boat race and get that mighty moustache on the grow in support of Movember for The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. For 30 days of November you can help support and raise awareness through selflessly parading your top lip for charity.

You can sign up yourself, as I’m sure many of you already have, or you can join the Strong Island team and seek out sponsorship as a team. Through the Strong Island Movember page you can ask people to join the group, make donations, upload photos and post updates via the MoSpace page, Facebook and Twitter.

Head over to www.mobro.co/StrongIsland if you would like to get involved and grow a Strong Moustache to help raise awareness, or simply head over to www.uk.movember.com and sign up to personally raise money.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together, these channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Poster: Tristan Savage