Southsea alumni, ex Portsmouth University compadre and long distance friend Tim Cowie recently posted this short film that he shot and edited as a promotional cycle campaign. Great stuff and equally as important it’s excellent to see that other towns and cities feel the same way about riding. Be it for necessity, fun, fashion, love, fitness or just bombing to the shops or the pub, bikes have the upper hand over any other type of transport in more ways than one.
‘Like Riding a Bike’ is a campaign designed to try and change the way non-cyclists view cycling. The campaign references those carefree, happy days of childhood cycling, free-wheeling downhill with the wind in your hair moments. This film is about how we captured the images – by stopping passing cyclists and getting them to agree to take part, be photographed and tell us the story of their journey.
In the 15 years I’ve lived in Southsea I’ve seen cycling go from virtually non existent and being able to lock my bike anywhere, to being hard pressed to find a space and having the pleasure of making so many friends through bikes. The last 2/3 years have seen such a huge increase of cyclists in Southsea and it seems to grow by the week. Hopefully see you on the 24th of April too!
Yellow Kite is a catering company set up as the social enterprise component of the healthy pompey project. With the Southsea Castle building project about to be finished they are now looking to recruit a merry team of folk to help them run the Castle Café, D-Day Café and serve at events. They are currently looking for a Head Chef and Café & Events staff.
If you are interested in becoming a ‘Yellow Kiter’ please send in your CV and a letter telling us why you want to work with us and what your availability is over the Summer to recruitment@yellowkite.org.uk
A simple one this week. It’s rare you’ll hear a song performed by anyone other than its writer and be left with the impression it’s better than the original, but it’s always interesting to hear how things can be interpreted.
These are some decent covers, some close to the original – Joe Cocker’s version of ‘Feelin’ Alright’ by Traffic, Calexico’s ‘Alone Again Or’ by Love, some are radically different – ‘Crazy In Love’, slowed down into a torchsong epic by Antony & The Johnsons, Otis Redding’s ‘Respect’ given the Psych-Funk treatment by Rotary Connection and the parting shot is what many consider to be the defining cover version. Bob Dylan even took to performing ‘All Along The Watchtower’ the way that Jimi Hendrix had chewed it up and spat it out because he couldn’t justify going back to how he’d first performed it himself.
There’s loads more in the vaults, so expect a Vol. 2. But for now check this playlist HERE and all the past Pet Sounds playlists HERE.
01 Wish You Were Here – Sparklehorse (Pink Floyd)
02 Alone Again Or – Calexico (Love)
03 I Can’t Go For That – The Bird And The Bee (Hall And Oates)
04 Willow’s Song – Doves (Paul Giovanni)
05 Respect – Rotary Connection (Otis Redding)
06 Crazy In Love – Antony & The Johnsons (Beyonce)
07 Feelin’ Alright – Joe Cocker (Traffic)
08 Hard To Handle – The Black Crowes (Otis Redding)
09 Black Steel – Tricky (Public Enemy)
10 Mr Blue Sky – The Delgados (ELO)
11 To Cure A Weakling Child|Boy Girl Song – Adem (Aphex Twin)
12 Dear Prudence – Siouxsie And The Banshees (The Beatles)
13 Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime – Beck (The Korgis)
14 Baby, I Love You – The Ramones (The Ronettes)
15 All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix (Bob Dylan)
Stu ‘Beast’ Trett the proprietor of the underground Ye Olde Bike Shoppe has opened up his premises for the Portsmouth Creative Movement Rainbow Paint Jam. Currently, out back of Stus bike shop is pretty bland and dirty. Stacked to the rafters with bikes of all types and sizes it really needs some colour. This is going to be a lot of fun I’m sure and I’ll definitely head down to hang out.
Owen Devine from www.healthypompey.com sent me some photos from the recent Nelson Ride. On Sunday the 13th March, Admiral Nelson, his HMS Victory bikeship, and 20 other riders enjoyed a cycling adventure (near) the high seas of the Mountbatten Centre. If you’re lucky you may spot Admiral Nelson and his Victory bikeship down Commercial Road next week…
Want to Inspire your creative writing this Summer? Want to brush up on your penmanship? Want some peace and quiet to get those chapters finished? Want to meet some likeminded creatives? Come along to the Creative Writers’ Retreat Weekend. This is a real writers’ retreat with a difference. Take in the stunning coastal and countryside surroundings, enjoy the fresh air, get stuck in to some outdoor activities (if you wish) and get that pen to paper.
The retreat will take place at Cobnor, Chidham. Cobnor is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within Chichester Harbour. See Cobnor Activities Centre for details on the accommodation and see: Chichester Harbour Conservancy for details on the area.
When’s it all happening? Friday 26 August – Sunday 28 August 2011 and costing between £200-£250 per person (depending on whether you’d like your own room or whether you’d like to share). This includes many different talks, activities, book signings, networking, etc, etc, etc.
Places are limited so please contact Katy@ChichesterCopywriter.co.uk to book today. A non-returnable deposit of £75 per person will be required to secure your place.
This is a little out of Portsmouth but we want to try and cover more local writing and literary events, if you know of any that we could feature please get in touch.
(Photos taken at Cobnor during a peninsular walk in 2009 – If you haven’t visited Chidham, I would highly recommend a walk there).
A wondermental fundamental killer for the hell of it…. More madness from the man like Mike. This is not only hilarious it’s pretty explicit so watch at your own risk, and try to keep up. I bet you can’t.
It’s been a while since we featured a Hayling Island edit from the guys at PhinFilms and Herbal Skateboards, no doubt due to the wintery weather and dark evenings. This new edit is the first of a series of ‘Shutdowns’, with Murray Cross shutting down the spine.
Our friends Badger Press have some new exciting courses coming up. Be aware that these tend to fill up pretty quickly so book soon to avoid missing out. You can also see their work at the Strong Island exhibition at The Round Tower from 16th April.
“We’re looking forward to a busy summer at Badger Press. There are new
workshops in letterpress, cyanotype photography, and experimental
printmaking processes such as hydro plate and solar plate. We’ve also
increased the number of screen printing sessions due to the high demand and
soon be starting up an evening print club.
We’ll be holding open studio and dishing out passes for experienced
printmakers, artists and designers to come and use the studio as often as
they can. Courses can be booked online at http://www.badgerpress.org
The much anticipated Durty 45 tees featuring designs by top Southsea artists has arrived. First up is the ‘VIVA DURTY 45′ tee designed by Tristan Savage of Strong Island. The series of tees are for the Durty 45 Bus to raise money for No More Durty Water. The Durty 45 Bus will be appearing at festivals, and VW shows this summer, starting with Camper Jam. They will go on sale at Durty 45 – No More Durty Water Fundraiser on Friday April 1st at Little Johnny Russells. We shall be selling them for introduction price of only £10 on the night. So get yourself there to grap one, before they are gone. Watch this space for more designs in the series. They are going to be Hot! Hot! Hot!
D U R T Y 4 5 returns to Little Johnny Russells for another off the hook party in aid of NO MORE DURTY WATER. No More Durty Water is a campaign to help provide safe and abundant water for the people of the world. Clean water is a basic human right and it is essential for the health of our species.
This year we are working closely with Bridge Of Hope Children’s Ministry to fund water based projects for a Children’s village in Uganda. We already raised £1,500 towards two 5,000 litre rainwater harvesters for the 2 children’s bungalows. We need another £700 to complete and install the two tanks. Then the water will need to be tested, and the community trained to make sure the water remains safe. So we are asking the Southsea Village to come together again to finish this project.
Come along and listen to tunes you grew up with, wish you had and will always love. This is about great music, not guilty pleasures. Expect a party extravaganza with a soundtrack to rival most. Deejays Macaco Do Paolo & Che Sirena de Niebla play the finest selection of vinyl 45s. With special guest Ms Mono (Big Chill Bar)
Entry Fee is a Donation on the door and you will be able to show your support, by buying DURTY 45 BUS & NO MORE DURTY WATER t shirts, badges & stickers, plus there will be a raffle. Come along.
As you may know each year we run a home brew competition in February where the winning brew has the opportunity to be brewed by Irving & Co Brewing Co. and sold around the city in the summer. Last year’s brew, the Strong Island Hopper Ale, was hugely successful being one of Inving’s best selling ales and selling out so quickly it went through a second brew run. This year’s winning ale is Dry Dock No. 1, originally brewed by Lee Immins, went on sale in some of Portsmouth and Southsea’s pubs over the weekend.
We spoke to The Hole in The Wall in Southsea who said the new ale went down a storm with it being their best seller on Sunday and with almost two barrels empty by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend. Those guys at the Hole in The Wall and their regular ale drinkers know their stuff so for us this was amazing early news with the ale.
To officially launch Dry Dock No. 1 we are having a launch party with the lovely souls at The Belle Isle on Thursday evening. The ale will be on full flow, come down and try a pint or two. As well as being on sale all around the city the ale will also be available in Chichester’s Belle Isle too, so you can drink it away from home for the first time too.
Just over a year ago, a group of Strong Islanders were sat on the Isle of Wight ferry on our way to the yearly Randonnee cycling event; 60 miles around the island spread across 5 checkpoints. Whilst on the crossing we couldn’t help but admire various enthusiasts and their custom team jerseys. Fast forward a year and it is my great pleasure to unveil the Strong Island cycling jersey. Made as a one off for the event, the jersey is our way of representing this city and all the values that come with it. Thanks to the combined designing efforts of Chris Ballingall and Tristan Savage, we were able to produce this clean, retro looking jersey that 11 of Southsea’s finest could wear to conquer the island’s endless hills. Well done chaps.
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