In skateboarding circles everyone knows Alex Olson, pro for Girl Skateboards and one of the best new breed of street skaters. As well as skating Alex Olson also blogs on Tumblr, with an interesting mix of skating, music, photography, etc (some not same for work, by the way). Was stoked to see on the blog yesterday Southsea legend Sue Hazel, a photo looking like it was taken in America back in the 80s. Sue Hazel is rad.
Southsea Boutique Market ask that you come along to their fun vintage style market on the first Saturday of every month at St Swithun’s Church Hall, just off Albert Road Southsea. They have a fine selection of friendly sellers all waiting to meet you and show what great talent we have in Southsea. There is beautiful handmade jewellery, stunning decoupage items, superb hand crafted wares lovingly created especially for the market by local traders, as well as an array of wonderful vintage and pre-loved clothing, books and toys we will have plenty to look at, buy and see.
Come and browse or simply join them for a cup of tea and delicious handmade cake served on the finest vintage crockery China. Free tasty barley water squash for children when tea or cake is purchased! You will be warmly welcomed to our fun market with a terrific atmosphere. Check out all the details over at their Facebook.
We’ve featured Zoe and her business Zo Zo Reworked Vintage a few times on Strong Island and can now happily announce the launch of her website. Zoe has been working hard to push Zo Zo further afield and now you can browse and order from the comfort of your own home.
Head over to www.zozovintage.co.uk and take a peek at some of her quality reworked clothing and check out the Summer 11 Lookbook HERE, and make sure to keep up to date over at her Facebook.
Of course we still recommend you visit Dead Mans Glory on Albert Road to check out some of Zoe’s stock if you’re in the area, and be sure to have a read of the article in The NEWS talking about how she started up reworking vintage clothes as well.
Photography by Paul Gonella at Quiet Corners
Website design by Dan Tonkin at www.adayin.co.uk
To celebrate the inaugural Pulse Fringe Festival in June 2011, in association with Southsea Food Festival and Portsmouth Festivities, Aspex commissioned Hannah Rhodes to create portraits of regulars in pubs around Southsea. Hannah graduated from the Arts University College at Bournemouth with a BA in Visual Communication, and now specialises in illustration and graphic design.
EDIT: The display has actually been taken down now, but hannah has informed us that the beer mats will be distributed to pubs in the next couple of days. Keep your eyes out and send us a photo of your drink and and a beer mat if your lucky enough to get one.
Over the course of a day Hannah visited several pubs in Southsea and got into conversation with their regulars, capturing images and quotes that she then transferred onto a beer mat format. The beer mats will be printed and distributed to pubs in the Southsea area, for people to use as they were always intended, or to take away as miniature artworks. To promote the project a display of enlarged versions of Hannah’s artwork has been put together in one of Debenhams’ shop windows on Osborne Road in Southsea for the next two weeks.
Local book publishers Tricorn Books have a new kindle book out called Portsmouth Plays by John Stanton and Stuart Olesker. If you have a kindle reader then click here to download a sample and/or buy a copy. If Tricorn Books can drum up interest in the Kindle version then they may be able to publish a printed version to include more poets, street lyricists and playwrights.
“The four plays in this volume tell stories about Portsmouth’s lesser known but fascinating past. You will not find here mention of Nelson, Brunel, Dickens, Kipling, Wells or Conan Doyle – all associated with the Portsmouth story. Instead you will meet 16th century hardened seamen and their blowsy wives, 17th century blasphemers and abusers of authority, a 19th century dockyard worker who challenges the reputation of the ‘great and the good’ and 20th century Pompey girls doing their bit in local corset factories in World War Two. All have stories to tell and here they are, told through two Portsmouth playwrights: John Stanton and Stuart Olesker.
All the plays have been performed very successfully in Portsmouth. It is in response to the many people, who have asked to see the plays published, that we present them in this form.”
Bored of Southsea are pleased to introduce their latest offering, the ‘Seaside Special’. Giving a little nod to the long running 1970’s BBC light entertainment programme which was a Top of the Pops outside broadcast, filmed in a big top in a number of British Seaside resorts including Torbay, Blackpool and here in Southsea. It was essentially a variety show featuring a music act, a comedy act and dancers. The show was hosted by the likes of Radio 1 and 2 DJ’s including heavyweight Tony Blackburn. They have kept the design as close as they can to the original and just added a small Bored branded flag to the back of the neck as a sign off.
Tee design by ‘Mini Dave’ Millard, modelled by Emily Tudor and photographed by LT Smash. Grab yours HERE.
Portsmouth Climate Action Network (PCAN) brings you the Portsmouth Summer Fair and Picnic – Saturday 25th June 11- 4 Victoria Park. This is the fifth fair PCAN has organised and it’s in partnership with Portsmouth City Council.
You can see loads of pictures from last year here.
Pedal-powered and solar stage provided by Veggiepower with live entertainment throughout the day with local bands and DJs. Around 100 stalls: crafts and eco-gifts, plants, money saving tips, green fashion, wildlife conservation, campaigns and energy saving tips. Also street entertainers, a Green Motor show, a therapy area, poets, swing dancers, get fit, art displays and demonstrations of green crafts and technology like bushcraft skills and building a cob oven.
For children: games, rides, art and crafts, face painting, circus skills, hula hoops, story-tellers, bouncy castle, solar challenge, parade and competitions.
Lots of food and drink stalls selling local, organic & homegrown food. Café-bar and gallery.
Free fun for all the family.
Further details on their website – http://www.portsmouthcan.co.uk/portsmouth-summer-fair.html
Summertime brings a monthly Roller Disco at Southsea Skatepark. Get your kit out and head on down to the skatepark tonight 24th June from 7pm. Poster designed by skateboarding legend Barry Abrook. DJ’s playing 70′s tunes til 10pm. You can also hire roller skates from the skatepark.
Date for diary = next month on 29th July BBC Radio 1 DJ Dave Spoon will be providing the sounds.
Local Portsmouth tea merchants All About Tea have won another award. This time it is the Gold at the Cannes Lion’s Awards for their branding by Moving Brands. Well done to Andrew and all the team at All About Tea and Ben and the team at Moving Brands.
“Since implementing the new identity we have not been able to keep up with the increased interest from new customers. It seems to have caught the imagination of a market tired of the same old design cliches in the tea sector. The rebrand was a total redefinition of what the company is and what we do. The branding feels so solid and correct. I am passionate about telling this story. It has been an incredible experience and it’s an extraordinary story of business transformation as well as of design and creativity.” Andrew Gadsden, CEO of All About Tea.
Expect to see more of All About Tea around the city in the next few weeks. The Strong Island Tea blend went down rather well at The Strong Island Exhibition at The Round Tower back in April. More details due soon about their new ventures.
Ooh La Lapin brings you the Anti-Art Draw Class. Friday 24th June at Like a Tea Tray in the Sky, Osbourne Road, Southsea.
“Bring sketchbooks and other essentials and spend a couple of hours hanging out, drawing, listening to music and getting your sketch on. The cafe will be open especially for participants too and the cakes are bloody good. Join us after in The Belle Isle for a few jars too.”
There is a small door charge of £4 from: 7-9pm
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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