croydonnow

2007-12-20T21:47:00.000Z

HEY GIRLS n GUYSSS!!!

Just wud like 2 wish all u LOVELY JUBELY ppl a MERRY CHRISTMAS n HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

MWAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Cya SOON xxx

ARTS AMBASSADORS WORKSHOP PROGRAMME (AUTUMN)

2007-08-07T17:02:00.000Z

Here are dates and details of all the workshops in the workshop programme ambassadors have organised:

September

14 - Urban Street Dance (Court)
22 - Guerilla Film-making (CAR)
28 - Laughter Workout (CAR)

October

11 - Performance Poetry (CAR)
18 - Drama (CAR)
25 - Stand Up Comedy (CAR)

November

3 - Croydon Fashion Fanzine (CAR)
8 - Capoeira Dance (Court)
24 - Manga Art (Workshop 1)

December

1 - African Drumming (Court)
6 - Drawing Cartoons (CAR)
13 - Reclaimed Fashion (CAR)

the YOF/YCF fund

2007-07-01T19:25:00.000Z

hi, ive only just been able to get a new account or whatever so thats why i havn't written for a very long time lol

the youth opportunity fund is all about helping disadvantaged young people in croydon so we really should look deeper into this when chosing what we should do. i met a gril the other week who has been living in a home nearly all her life and had recently moved into a hostile. she told us about all the young people who have given up on life and don't see the point on making an effort. working on the management team has taught me alot about what it means to be disadvataged and that is exactly what this money which has been given to us is all about. weve been given this money to help disadvantaged young people and so when deciding on the activities were going to be programing i think that we should look at what people really want. maybe we should ask people what kind of events people would want? if were going to make these workshops a success then i think that we need to do alot more market research and actually go out there and ask people what they want! maybe we could do questionnaires or something and invite people from hostiles and that and get them involved in things from the clocktower aswell as our workshops.

its just an idea but it really fits in with the aims of the YOF fund and i think we should really take them into consideration maybe ?!?

loVe Jess

p.s. im sorry i havn't been to the last couple of meetings, i had my last exam and then went away to a uni summer school thing.

Workshops etc

2007-06-25T13:44:00.000Z

Despite not being able to make it to the last meeting (I went to a lecture that turned out to be phenomenally boring, but I did get to look in the House of Lords), I've found out I can't come tomorrow either. D: I'm going to see Forgotten Voices at the Riverside Studios, which is all about WW1 and at least arts-related, so I feel like I have quite a good excuse. I feel bad about not coming twice in a row, though, sorry about that, but I'll be there on the 6th for laughing yoga.

Anyway, with regards to workshops, Olly said I ought to give feedback here since I won't be in the meeting. For what it's worth: JOHN COOPER CLARK IS MADE OF WIN, LET'S GET HIM IN, and I also love the sound of the scriptwriting workshop. So, er, yeah, if either of those work out? I'd be ecstatic.

In an internet cafe...

2007-06-21T11:11:00.000Z

Hello everyone! I'm still alive and stuff.
Maddie W and I went to see 'Food' the other night in the Braithwaite Hall and it was really good but there were only about 25 people there! They deserved a bigger audience! So now everyone's got a card let's all go to things and....stuff. Woo!
Hope everyone is well and not dying from the boredom of being back at school.
Gabrielle x

logo idea...>.<

2007-06-20T17:33:00.000Z

can be in one colour (nt neceserily this color)

this is an idea for the "arts ambass..." logo...

what do you think?

.....some more suggestions

2007-06-20T10:37:00.000Z

I got some more suggestions for artists and things for the programme. So I have updated our list of possible artists and companies....Check them out! I have emailed all of them and I have more details and prices for them...we can look at these on Tuesday. CLICK ON THE LINKS. Don't be afaid :)

Dance:
BLEMA ETREY (Street/Hip Hop)
URBAN STRIDES (Street/Hip Hop)
JONZI-D (Street/Hip Hop)
TAVAZIVA (Contemporary/World)
BOY BLUE (Street/Hip Hop)
ACE DANCE (Contemporary/World)

African Drumming:
mastercompo.com
jali-djembe.com
sewa-education.org

Film-making:
Chocolate Films (gorilla style film-making: plan, make and edit a film in one day!)
antoncalifano.com (maybe more long-term projects?)
Actiondog (multimedia workshop where you would mix music videos with film)

Urban Fashion:
Emma Hart (you nearly all know her! She runs t-shirt making workshops at Tate Modern and Whitechapel Gallery all the time - so is an expert at this now!) She also has an idea about commenting on urban fashion - could young people make a crodyon fashion fanzine - lots of collage, photos, drawings, designs, and photocopies (maybe screen prints) which could combine with screen printed t-shirts to produce a weekly fanzine/magazine for a short period about urban fashion now, croydon's own vogue? and given out free?)....could be interesting?!
onless.krata.co.uk (make a recycled bag workshops?!?!?!)
reclaimfashion.com (making clothes out of recyled materials......very cool I think)

Music
Charlie Dark (DJ workshops, o yes it's true!)
Lillie McKenzie (we can develop a session for young people with her - tell her what we want!)
Lynieve Austin (will run a vocal masterclass. I was thinking this would be good for someone like Shanique who has skills but would like professional advice and direction?).

Spoken Word:
Yemisi Blake (Very likable, really good with de yong peepl)
Francesca Beard (We know her work. Very funky, clever and so on)
Zena Edwards (Highly regarded)
John Cooper Clark (Mad, old punk poet, rebel; gonna perform at Clocktower in September)

Scriptwriting:
Mark Hunter (writing for film & theatre)

Art & (Knitting?!):
Melissa Beagley (She does something called the ART ARENA!)

Also, check out these three links:

Second Wave (This project is based in Lewisham, near New Cross and their flyer ain't too bad - they offer workshops in the arts more as training than as one off experiences. Once you have had the training then you get a chance to audition to be in their showcase! So it's kinda similar to our group but perhaps not as multi-dimensional).

Se1 United (A youth project or enterprise based in London Bridge area. They are a group similar to yours but a bit different in that they programme events in different areas not just the arts! It seems their website is a bit new and still under construction but the design ain't too bad?!)

Lekker Design (ok, maybe a bit dull this one but basically they are good designers and maybe they would negotiate a price for our flyer/poster design?)

I still have a video copy of this from the early 90's.......amazing!

2007-06-15T23:29:00.000Z

@ Last Night's Meeting

2007-06-13T09:32:00.000Z

6 were there 6 weren't. Kim was ill and I had hayfever (so did Berni actually).

Ok what else........

Well I told everyone what is in the main programme for Autumn (Sep-Dec) and there's some pretty good stuff!

I handed out some info about artists and companies y'all should seriously consider.....they will all run quality workshops in areas of the arts on your most wanted lists.

I'll email y'all this list....

Quick quiz then........who can name all these people?

YELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOO

2007-06-12T19:01:00.001Z

HOWDYYYYYYYYYYY im bored :D

jksdhfnsdbf<3

2007-06-12T18:54:00.001Z

weopifrhaksdng<3

Dodgy picture

2007-05-30T11:50:00.001Z

Most of us posing at the award celebration on May 4th at Fairfield Halls - where we collected our certificate for the funding! The shiny blinding thing is the certificate!

NEWS!!!!!

2007-04-25T13:54:00.000Z

Ambassadors,

Can you come and support the show this Friday at 8pm? It’s a company called Blue Eyed Soul, it’s contemporary dance. I know your ID cards have expired and I am working on getting you new ones! So bare with me and let me know by email/text or phone if you wanna go and I’ll reserve ‘em for ya! It would be good if you could support the company though as tickets aren’t selling brilliantly and they are very very good!!!

As for next week:

Next Wednesday is Beautiful Octopus Club! If you can make it you will surely get some ideas and inspiration for your own Ambassadors’ Club Night!! There will be music, film, dance, open mic etc etc……normally they’re sold out but as we’re so understaffed right now there was no time to produce a flyer and consequently it has not sold out!! SO you won’t see it in all its glory!!! But nevermind you will get the right idea! If you can come, around 8pm and stay as long as you can.

Next Thursday we are invited to perform at the celebration event for the YOF (Youth Opportunity Fund), in celebration that we got funding! We will have to entertain around 100 young people I’m guessing??!! So, let’s do it well!!! Here are the proposed teams/performances:

Duelling Ukeleles: (Maddie W/Maddie B/Andy/Gab)

MC’ing: (Rohan/Jocelyn)

Devised performance: (sarah/Jamin/Kirsty/Jonathan/Berni/Rosina/Jess)

HOPEFULLY YOU ALL CAN DOOOOO IT!!!!

Also can you let me know soooooooon if you wanna come see the following shows with us at other venues (need to buy tickets asap):

Tom Cream (in London) on Thur May 10

Hysteria (in Brighton) on Thur May 24

Over and out!

Bellowhead Concert Review for Arts Awar

2007-03-21T20:39:00.000Z

On Friday the 23rd February, I went to see Bellowhead live in concert at the Mick Jagger Centre in Dartford.

Bellowhead are an eleven-piece folk-big-band, whose popularity has rapidly snowballed in the past two years. This band, who call their style "English World Music", have won the prestigious "Best live act" award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in both 2005 and 2007.

Having only heard one song by Bellowhead before the concert, I was a bit cautious as to whether I would enjoy it or not. For me, folk music is either fantastically brilliant and I can't get enough or I can't stand it. At this point, I did not know about the awards the band had won, but I would soon find out why they had won them.

As soon as I entered the venue, I could feel an atmosphere in the building of excitement. The bar was full of "folkies" having a laugh, giving the whole place a friendly environment.

We all packed into the hall, and awaited the band to arrive on stage. When they came out, a huge uproar of approval sprang from the crowd. Opening with the fan favourite "Rigs of the Times", they got the crowd singing along, clapping and even dancing. There was huge electricity in their playing which made it an awesome experience. My other favourite songs were "London Town", a song "about ripping off a prostitute" according to the lead singer, Jon Boden, and "Sloe Gin", a instrumental folk jig that had people in the Balcony, including myself, jumping out of their seats and trying to "jig". They closed with the powerful ballad "Jordan", with almost the whole band singing the anthemic chorus and the whole crowd singing it back at them.

I have been to two folk festivals, and concerts of more "well known" bands such as Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance, but I can say that the atmosphere and electricity flowing around the venue that night mixed with the incredible music being played made this the best concert I have ever been to.

If you ever get the chance to see this band live, do. It may not appeal to people who listen to rap or garage, but if you like any sort of pop, rock or folk music, go and see this band and you will be astounded, and I can guarantee that it will be one of the best nights out of your year, if not your life.

2007-03-14T14:12:00.000Z

Am I here now?

The Ambassadors reviewed

2007-03-08T13:16:00.000Z

Here is the review that appears in the Croydon Advertiser this week:

Young Arts Ambassadors and Friends
The Ambassadors
20th February 2007
Theo Spring
****

This ad hoc group of youngsters between the ages of 14 – 19 presented a varied programme of entertainment at the Braithwaite Hall, for one night only.
A series of ‘turns’ brought vocals in various styles – rap, pop, a cappella and comedy – each chosen to showcase the talent of the performers.
Andy and Maddie, each on guitar, accompanied Andy’s vocals which included Andy’s version of Moon Dance and the Colour Blind Blues – a clever piece written by Maddie.
Rohan Jocelyn and Shanique brought rap to the evening – sung just a little too fast for me to catch all the words which was a shame as those I did hear spoke volumes.
Two dance groups were both very well rehearsed and very different. Loud had clockwork movements down to a T and gave an opportunity for each member to solo their own speciality, but, as in many of the acts, no formal finish had been rehearsed. A simple bow, in a line, is all that is required, and it lets the audience know that their applause is then welcome. Sadly, many performers simply drifted off the stage at the end of their piece.
The Three Non-Blondes looked great in their black shorts and red tops and brought a more fluid kind of choreography to their dance – all of which was done with very serious faces.
The back stage crew did a very good job sorting out the microphones, seats etc and it was the film Off the Record which attracted gremlins and we were unable to see the full piece. Based on vox pop in and around Croydon, it asked some interesting questions and was well edited, although suffered from the considerable back-ground noise of the shopping centres in which it was filmed.
Rewind – a well-acted drama, was cleverly based on the temptations of easy money from selling drugs and its consequences, and involved the cast, literally, rewinding themselves having made the wrong decision, to then take the right one.
Sam sang a gentle solo and Shanique tackled a cappella but it was the two ukulele-playing Maddies who won the day for me with excellent harmony in the Beatles’ Help and sent us all home laughing with the silly words of I’m Ironing My Goldfish Flat from the BBC Four comedy series I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again.
Kirsty and Jocelyn were bright and lively MC’s, with some good interaction with the audience.

Happy Birthday Blog

2007-03-03T14:05:00.000Z

Hey ya'll!! the blog has officially been in use for one year....yesterday!! wayhey!

any ways......in case ya didnt get my email here my copy and pasted version

"Was wondering if those who had that to complete it (the arts award) could meet this tuesday or something and go through it together, it would probs help us all."

i dont think oly's in untill thursday..or so his automatic emailing service says so we could blag a room or something???

luv yoooooooossseeee

Sarah xxxxx lady_tropical03@yahoo.co.uk

Forgot to say this on Tuesday.

2007-03-02T17:03:00.000Z

Hello - this is my first ever post! That's really bad actually...

To echo what the other Maddie said, yay for the review! Well done everyone :D

The woman who reviewed us is actually a friend of my gran (she threatened to cross her off the Christmas card list if she wrote anything bad about us...only joking) and she said to me on the night that something that would have improved the evening was if there had been a programme available, because she didn't know anybody's surname to put in the review. Other than that she loved it though, obviously!

So just a bit more feedback there.

Hope you all have a good weekend,

MB

xxx

in which we are reviewed

2007-03-02T14:35:00.000Z

DEAR EVERYONE: BUY THE CROYDON ADVERTISER, OMG.

There's a review of the showcase on page 22 of The Guide. We got four stars! Seriously! (We beat, er, The Woman In White, which only got three, and the only thing to beat us with five stars was an actual proper production of The Rocky Horry Show.)

If anyone can't get hold of it, I am happy to type up the review, but I won't put it up yet because I don't want to spoil it for anybody.

In conclusion, we are awesome, k.

Arts Award

2007-02-28T14:33:00.000Z

Hey who has now finished or nearly finished their Arts Award? I'm sure at least 4 of you have reached the stage of nearly being finished? It might just mean you have to start collecting everything together? Can you email me if you think you have everything just need to tie it together! Then we can look at it - it would be great to get it over with before we start on our next project! What do you think......?

LAST NIGHT

2007-02-28T14:22:00.000Z

At last night's meeting you gave feedback about your show:

Everyone said they could do better next time now they have had the experience
Need much more of the hosts coz they are gr8 (i.e. spend longer on stage in between acts)
Better communication needed (i.e. no one knew there would be an encore!)
Could have been far more varied in terms of types/styles of acts (what about steel pans, less mainstream music/different kinds of dance/singing and definitely a more rounded and organised drama performance)
It was very popular and people tended to have favourite acts
Next year the programming should be stricter and more attention paid to quality of performers (i.e. if performers are not ready or do not seem ready by the auditions deadline, do not include them)
Everyone enjoyed it yeaaghhhhh

Stage Hands

2007-02-19T01:18:00.000Z

What the stage hands have to do!

Act one Dancing
Act two Guitars Chair x 1, Amp x 2, Mic (S) x 2
Act three MCing Mic (C) x 2
Act four Ukuleles Chair x 2, Mic (D) x 2
Act five Play Chair x 1

Interval

Act six Guitar Chair x 1, Amp x 2, Mic (S) x 2
Act seven Dancing Chair x 3
Act eight Film
Act nine Singing Mic (S) x 1
Act ten Singing Mic (S) x 1
Act eleven Singing Mic (C) x 2
Act twelve Ukuleles Chair x 2, Mic (D) x 2

Running Order

2007-02-19T01:15:00.000Z

Running Order

Loud

Andy & Maddie

Rohan & Jocelyn

Maddie & Maddie

Group play

Interval

Andy & Maddie

Jo, Chris and Alisa

Sarah & Nina’s Film

Shanique

Sam

Sam & Shanique

Maddie & Maddie

Everyone comes on stage as it ends, waves and cheers at the end song!

help!!!!!!!

2007-02-17T12:55:00.000Z

hey people

sorry i havn't been coming to the meetings but i have been doing another show at school. anyway whats happening with this show?!? becuase i have had no contact with no one and so don't know when next meetings are or anything!! so can some one please fill me in in what i have missed.

thankyou :))

love JeSs xxxx

Current setlist

2007-01-26T14:22:00.000Z

Ok, since people seem to be pulling out left, right and centre, we probably ought to sort the contract thing out so that they won't do that any more. I have the contract on my computer--does someone want me to email it to them so they can bring some along next Tuesday, or something?

SETLIST. The times here are approximate, and in some cases quite possibly completely wrong. Tell me if you know I'm way out on something, and I'll change it.

ACT ONE
- Rapping // Rohand and Jocelyn // 5 minutes
- Guitars, part one // Andy and Maddie W // 10 minutes
- Dancing // Shanique's troupe // 5 minutes
- Ukuleles, part one // Maddies B and W // 10 minutes
- Play // the lady who Olly knows and various Ambassadors // 10 minutes

INTERVAL // 15 minutes

ACT TWO
- Guitars, part two // Andy and Maddie W // 10 minutes
- Dancing // Jo and Chris // 3 minutes
- Film // Sarah and Nina // 10 minutes
- Singing // Shanique and Samantha // 10 minutes
- Ukuleles, part two // Maddies B and W // 5 minutes

I have not included Nic's singing, because I don't know if this is happening. Any word on that, Sarah? If she does decide to do it, I propose putting her between Guitars (part one) and the dance troupe.

Important news from the one and only Lady Tropical!

2007-01-26T00:18:00.000Z

Howdy people of england!

It has come to my attention that we are all confused. and if we are not all confused then I most certainly am. I find that it is in all our best interests to POST ON THIS BLOG THINGS THAT HAPPEN AT MEETING AND AUDITIONS or else people miss them and spend ages phoning each and every one of you asking the same bleeding questions. I love you.

basically it would help my sanity if i could find out the exact running order of the acts, timing and the equiptment they will be needing. because if i am to survive a night with lighting, managing and bossing people around oh and moving stuff to places i need to know what is going on. I love you...again.

what else oh yeah Jess sweetie ur phone doesnt work, it says ur number doesnt exist and we all know you do because u grace us with ur beautiful self every tuesday. need to talk/hug jess.

Andy, Maddie, Jocelyn and Kirsty..we keep in touch. tis good

another thing, i think randall migth wna come back..what du u say folks? he is still UNRELIABLE but hes fun ive told him when meetings r if he wants to drop in. any bets on the outcome?

Oly - hope u had a good time in prague..u missed the snow :o

George - Hope u had a good time by the sea...and ate icecream when it snowed :D

oh yeah and everyone start sending the flyer through ur msn contact list. as soon as ppl sign in online and the sounds goes ping then hit them with the flyer and keep nudging them till they reply and accept it.

Love everyone and see you at 6pm Tuesday

Love Sarah xxxxx

THE CAPITALS CONVEY THE SENSE OF IMPORTANCE

2007-01-25T17:02:00.000Z

HELLO EVERYONE

WE ARE ALL MEETING NEXT TUESDAY (30th) TO DISCUSS EVERYTHING. BE THERE OR BE ~~DEAD~~ SQUARE.

And oh dear god, I promised to write this on Sarah's behalf, and only just at this moment has it struck me that I can't make it. It's my mum's birthday, and we're going out to see a play, and arghhh I am really sorry. Really. But please, please go along and make my absence seem even worse! I will be there in spirit? I will send Peter instead. He hasn't been out much recently.

LATEST NEWZ

2007-01-19T16:50:00.000Z

Loads of news so listen up!

This Tuesday I am away in Prague so I can't open up the Clocktower Activities Room (CAR for short) for you all to use. If you need a space to rehearse or have already made plans to meet etc please contact George (george.young@croydon.gov.uk) and she'll open up for you or find you a space (so all is not lost!!). Other than that we're back on from Tuesday 30th January.

The steel drums will potentially not be happening! On Tuesday, I told everyone about a new physical theatre practitioner from Croydon. She's 25 and called Eleanor. She had a show at Edinburgh last year that was critically acclaimed. I've asked her if she would be willing to work with the ambassadors interested in performance, to devise a short 10 minute piece (yes, of the physical theatre kind)! So for anyone wanting to be involved, Eleanor will be coming on Tuesday 30th from 6:00pm to work with us. This should be a pretty good chance to create something spectacular for the show (not that there ain't loads of good stuff already, right!). So let me know if you fancy being in this performance.

1,000 flyers and 60 posters arrived today (designed by Jess and her mate). They look really good. Because I'm away from Saturday til next Friday, I've left them with Ticket Office. Please collect some when you get a chance and promote the show like there's no tomorrow - you want it to be SOLD OUT right!! Take about 30 - 40 flyers each plus 3 - 4 posters (unless you know you can use more)

On Tuesday 6 Feb - after the usual preparation time for the show, we should all go and see Testing 1,2,3 at 8pm in the theatre. This will be a good chance to see what The Ambassadors will be like...it's quite a similar set up!

Sarah has finished designing the ambassador website. Soon it will be called www.clocktowerartsambassadors.com

keep working on your show.............I think it's gonna be great!!!! Keep up the good work!

Here's what the flyer/poster looks like:

Is it me or has this got more complicated?

2007-01-15T16:02:00.000Z

Hello

Apparently I have switched to new blogger. Well done me!

Anyhow, just to start getting the word out, the last full day of the Ambassadors Croydon Now exhibition will be 27th January. Tell everyone to hurry and see it before it goes.

Your beautiful works will be available to collect from me from 1st Feb. You can call me to arrange picking stuff up (020 8253 1026 or 07986 800622) and I'll make sure I'm around on some of the prep nights for 'The Ambassadors' too.

The next exhibition is called Journeys of Change and it opens on 10th Feb. Pop in and have a look!

George

just to confirm

2007-01-08T18:30:00.000Z

There are no more acts going into the showcase.

The not-auditions were meant to be a cut-off point for potential acts: it would be really unfair to the people who actually came along on the days to accept more now. (This is, of course, excepting acts who confirmed beforehand that they would be taking part, like the steel drums.)

I'm sure there are loads of great bands/singers/anything that would like to take part, but it's a bit late now: we've got as much material as we need.

Love from three-quarters of the programming team, and crossing fingers that Andy agrees with us here.

P.S. OLLY YOUR PICTURES ARE FANTASTIC ILU.

The not really auditions!"£$%^??

2007-01-08T13:13:00.000Z

Friday 5 / Saturday 6 January: Proposals for The Ambassadors

The Programming team

Beatboxing

Hard rock

more proposals for THE AMBASSADORS

2007-01-08T12:59:00.000Z

Ukelele girls (or how do you spell it girls?)

.....more of the same

The hosts!

there's also a little picture of a Dalek, but that's probably less relevant

2007-01-07T16:36:00.000Z

I'm not sure how many people actually read this, but for anyone that does, here's the write-up of everything I found on paper after the two not-auditions.

Current idea for setlist follows. The timings are mostly rough guesses, rounded to the nearest five minutes, so could be slightly longer or shorter.

PROVISIONAL SETLIST
(as approved by, I think, myself, Andy and Olly)

ACT ONE
- Rapping // Rohan and Jocelyn // 5 minutes
- Guitars, part one // Andy and Maddie W // 10 minutes
- Singing // Nic // 5 minutes
- Play // Jess and co // 10 minutes
- Ukuleles, part one // Maddies B and W // 10 minutes
- Steel band // Rosina and co // 10 minutes

INTERVAL // 15 minutes

ACT TWO
- Guitars, part two // Andy and Maddie W // 10 minutes
- Dance // Jess and Emilie // 5 minutes
- Film // Sarah and Nina // 10 minutes
- Singing // Shanique // 5 minutes
- Chicago // Jess and co // 5 minutes
- Ukuleles, part two // Maddies B and W // 5 minutes

This adds up to an hour and a half's worth of material, give or take, plus a fifteen minute interval--giving us an hour and forty-five minutes of showcase total, and fifteen minutes to run over into if anything goes wrong.

Any thoughts/endorsements/complaints?

Meanwhile, Kirsty and Jocelyn will be compering, and Jonathan's pictures will be up on a slideshow before, after and during the interval of the show.

ACTS WE STILL NEED TO SEE ASAP
- Jess and Emilie's dance
- Jocelyn and Rohan rapping
- the play
- Chicago
- Both Nic and Shanique, with backing track/musicians/whatever they're going to do--I'm assuming neither is planning to sing acapella
- Steel drums (I am aware Rosina is not very well at the moment, so obviously only when she's had time to get better)
- Film (again, aware this won't be done for a month or so, but, you know, when it is)
- Jonathan's pictures (just to have a look through them)

The sooner these can be performed (completed) at at Tuesday session, the better. This Tuesday (9th) is very short notice, so could I ask that as many oustanding acts as possible be ready by the week after (16th)? If friends of non-ambassador acts could let them know, and find out when they'll be ready by? That would be several shades of brilliant.

croydonnow

2006-12-29T04:49:00.000Z

croydonnow

lol loved the last post n i totally agree with everything u have said...and i loved the convo brilliant i couldnt have said anything better myself!

working links eh? well they work for me and on olly's computer in his office however the best way to get on the site is...

go to google and type in "The BRIT school" then click on the brit website and ta daa up comes the brit homepage. on the links on the left click "Media" on that page you will see two thumbnail pictures. click the one above "Brit fm" which has the words "40- Social Action 44 - Digital Communication" to the right of it.

After clicking on the image you will be taken to another website and on the links along the top find the one saying "class register" and click on "12CMo" find my name "Sarah Jones" and you will find the website!! woo hoo

or just click on this link below

http://www.brit.croydon.sch.uk/Websites2007/SJONES/pages/Index.htm

Hope it works for everyone this time.

Love you all and hope u had a great christmas

love Sarah xxxxx

freak out in a moonage daydream ohhh yeah

2006-12-24T01:17:00.000Z

A question for everyone--or, more honestly, for Sarah--is there a working link to the website anywhere? All the ones posted on here seem to be dead, and apparently there is new stuff that I haven't seen, so...?

I feel like I ought to say something else. Well. Great to see the video up! Still insanely proud of having shot that opening bit! I stood there for ten minutes patiently waiting for it to chime, so I hope everyone appreciates the effort that went into those twenty seconds of film.

And those of you who didn't come to The Impossibles (which is, well, most people) missed out--it was rather brilliant, as I am sure Jess/Kirsty/Sarah/Rosina (oh dear I am sure I have spelt that wrong)/Olly/George/that lady from the South Asian Ambassadors whose name I still don't know will testify. It was, essentially, a stunt show, but not so much "fire breathing and dangerous animals and DEATHLY RISK OMGZ" as "some juggling and hoops and stuff". But the whole atmosphere of the show was so warm and informal and friendly--we had the main guy riffing with us briefly about being cheap enough to have brought our own coke (shut up! Olly brought it!), and they had a whole section with a little boy being brought up to the front to do some entertaining stuff with a ball and some water, and Rosina got to be the fat man's assistant while he stripped (not entirely, but enough to be slightly repulsive) and juggled knives with some beer on his head, so... it was pretty good. I got tic-tacs and beer spat on me, which was my fault for sitting at the front, so there you go.

I managed to grab one of them in the bar afterwards--well I didn't grab him, obviously, that would have been a bit bizarre, I just talked to him:

ME: Hi, that was really great!

HIM: Oh, thank you!

ME: I loved the ukulele bit. [note: there was a ukulele bit.]

HIM: Ah, brilliant, yeah, that's quite a new routine, actually... only about the second time we've done that.

ME: It was great... how long have you been playing?

HIM: Er, well... *thinks* A long time.

ME: I'm only just getting into it.

HIM: So where did you lot all come from?
[our table was at the front, and quite... vocal.]

ME: Oh, we're the Ambassadors for the Clocktower--like, the young representatives--we see a lot of stuff here, actually, and some of it's a bit... you know...

HIM: Hahahaha, really?

ME: Yeah, but I really did enjoy this... I'd come again.

HIM: (emphatically) Do! Please! And tell your friends, because... really, we do actually need some more people...

ME: Ok!

HIM: Great! Well, thanks!

Here's their (actually fairly useless, but never mind) website, by the way, and--for those of you who deign to move in those circles--their myspace.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting, and for the not-really-auditions. Looking forward to some of the stuff that's on in the spring, too--Hugh Dennis! I love him! And Brian Sewell, oh my god, that's actually fantastic, I think his voice might be my absolute favourite of all voices, ever. Who needs youth theatre?

2006-12-24T00:44:00.000Z

croydon art

made by ambassadors

Informal Tryouts for Feb showcase

2006-12-15T12:10:00.000Z

Hello

Just a note to confirm that I've booked the Clocktower Activities Room (Clocktower ground floor with curtains) for the informal tryouts on Friday 5th January from 6:30 pm to 8:00pm. Get going with inviting acts along!

Olly - have you got a room sorted for the Saturday 6th January session?

Good to see you lot again last night.

George

money (witchety gwub)

2006-11-30T07:25:00.000Z

hey Cameron

yeah where the hell is every1? Tuesday went well they gave us information about money money money and how we could get our dirty little hands on it! So before February we're gonna apply for some to programme workshops for de yout in Clocktower as well as equipment (like computer/printer) that de ambasdrz can use anytime on arts stuff! Hope you manage to get the team together to organise event.....feb is just round de corner. catch u soon.

2006-11-29T18:26:00.000Z

Hey its Cam
Err what happened on Tuesday?
(I couldn't go coz work started at 4).
So yeh what went down?
Oh n Andy - We need 2 like sort stuff out if you still wanna do the music thing in clocktower. it would be cool trust me :)
Oh n whats going on with the Production and Marketing team? we have this as communication at least so TALK !!!!! we DO need to know whats going on .
anyways I got stuff to sort out n ppl to tlk to, but I will check this everyday so GIVE INFO!!!!
Cool
catchya at the next meetin (whens that btw?)
Adios ;)
C.J

Tuesday trip to exhibition

2006-11-16T12:25:00.000Z

Meetin' at 5pm at Clocktower ticket office on Tuesday if you want to go to Emma Hart's exhibition in Bethnal Green. Link to her blog: www.theemmahartbiennale.blogspot.com

We'll get back to Croydon for 9pm at the latest.

Let me know if you're coming.

Olly

croydonnow

2006-11-14T14:02:00.000Z

http://10.116.36.56/Websites2007/SJONES/pages/index.htm

new link and more pages, i think its looking great
pages working are:
Home
About us
News
Showcase
Gallery
Archives
Blog
Contact us
Links

test them out and say what u think

luv ya xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

no title

2006-11-10T17:12:00.000Z

Wow the website is lookin' pretty good Sarah...how about a counter though so we can start trackin right away the number of hits we're gettin'!? After a while when we start to get thousands of hits ;) we can start sellin' advertising space!!!! Good work though!

Website

2006-11-10T16:32:00.000Z

Hey guys

my last post didnt send, so im gna have to re type again ugh lol

basically im asking if you guys can please check out the ambassador website ( see link below) and see what you think. leave the comments on ..well the comments bit of this blog.
it will be updated every week and is no where near finished atm so dont worry.
just say if u like it or not, and what u wanna change

http://www.brit.croydon.sch.uk/Websites2007/SJONES/Index.htm

love you forever

Sarah xxxxx

titles are overrated

2006-11-09T17:50:00.000Z

So: acts for the the showcase. We need to have this get-together thing in the next few weeks to show all the acts we have between us and check they're going to be ok--quality control and all that--so, when's it going to be? Next Ambassador meeting is Thursday 14th December, but I think the plan was to meet before then, so how are people for Saturdays? What about the 25th November, or the 2nd December, or the 9th? When are we free?

2006-11-08T15:58:00.000Z

WASSUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HA HA I HAVE COME TO DOMINATE YOUR PEUNEY MINDS WITH SEX DRUGS N ROCK N ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hello :D
hows u guys? jus thought I'd say I'm a part of this blog now :)
happy blogging
Cam

Life of a B-Boy

2006-11-01T15:44:00.000Z

'Life of a B-Boy' is a hip-hop drama telling three break-dancer's stories of how they got into dancing. Rather than being 'oh my god my life was hard and then i danced and lo! all was well!' it was more like breakdancing was something that intruiged them, terrified them, and ultimately became their lives. They seemed to have been sucked into it rather than having a 'Hello Dolly' moment about it.
It was darker than I thought it would be. This is a good thing. I've seen my fair share of preachy vocation crap.And rather than focus on their evil parents, soul-sucking school-lives or bitchy girlfriends it focussed on their dancing and how it feels to be in 'the circle'.The circle is a single spotlight on the stage in which the performer dances. They were amazing and it's not just a case of 'I can't do that, therefore it is good'. It was more a case of them taking an art-form and streching it to it's limit so that it was spell-binding. I make it sound far more twee than it actually is.
The best part was that we sat in front of Jocelyn and Kirsty (who are twins) who love to express their reactions to things. Loudly.
Breakdancer: *spins on his head*
Jocelyn and Kirsty: BRRRRRRRAP!!
Breakdancer: *flips over in the air*
Jocelyn and Kirsty: OH MY GOD MAN! That is siiick!
Breakdancer: My Dad left us.
Jocelyn: WHAT?!LOL!
I love sitting near those two at shows. At 'Virgins', whenever someone swore, they'd kiss their teeth and say "That's not on man."
At the end, one of the dancers ('Steady'- he was lush) came on an introduced each of the dancers. They all had little smiles on their faces as they danced. They really are great. Finally I can understand my DJ Format CD ('Music for the Mature B-Boy').

2006-11-01T13:45:00.000Z

Teams for the event in February, The Ambassadors

Programming:
Maddie W
Maddie B
Gina
Andy
Gabrielle

Marketing:
Jess
Cameron
Jocelyn
Kirsty
Jamin
Narjis

Technical:
Sarah
Jess
Cameron
Jamin
Nina

Some probable acts at this stage are:
Maddie and Maddie on the uke
Jess and friends do The Weakest Link
Andy and company play guitar-based instruments
Cameron and Jamin do some kind of fighting thing (possibly)
Gina and friends do some kind of streetdancing (possibly)
Jess's drama club does Chicago (possibly)
Kirsty and Jocelyn do something (possibly)

Comments...........

Here's what we're living up to, then:

2006-10-27T15:17:00.000Z

Croydon Clocktower Youth Arts Group presents

THE AMBASSADORS

Tuesday 20th February 8pm

You saw them here first: some of Croydon's finest young talent feature in an evening of live music, theatre, and more. The Clocktower Young Ambassadors has been running for just over a year, and comprises young people from the ages of 14 to 19 who are interested in the arts and promoting the Clocktower to other people in their age bracket. This showcase, programmed, directed, and performed by members of the group - not so much all-singing-all-dancing as partially-singing-possibly-dancing - features a little bit of everything. There will be entertainment. There will be drama. There will be ukuleles. Let the young people of Croydon show you what they can do.

All tickets £1.

For further information, please call Olly on 020 8726 6000 (ext. 61141).

See ClockWATCH for more about the Clocktower Young Ambassadors.

Programming the showcase

2006-10-24T16:00:00.000Z

Hi everyone. As Olly said in the post earlier, most people are going to take on a role in either programming, marketing or the technical team. I'd like to be involved in programming--so, initially, working out what's actually going to be in this showcase--so if anyone else is interested in doing that sort of thing, can you let me know so we can start sorting it out?

I just spoke to Olly and told him that I thought making the showcase any longer than two hours (plus interval) would be pushing it, and the audience would get bored if it was any longer--do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you care? Let me know.

In terms of programming, these are the things that I know, 100%, are happening:
- me and Maddie on the uke
- Andy on the guitar
- some form of drama--"sum play tings!", apparently
...and that's it. So if anyone's decided what they want to do, let me know that too.

Meanwhile, here is some technical documentation weirdness, if that was all a bit boring.

brainstorming tingy

2006-10-22T19:16:00.000Z

ok peeps, there will be a gathering kinda tingy 2moz at the clocktower at 12 for people to rehearse for what ever they are doing. it is not an official one so you don't have to come or anything. it's basically the brainstorming ting that andy mentioned (it just had to be moved)

Jessie :))

Yo, check it!

2006-10-18T19:34:00.000Z

Hey y'all.

Just informing yas that we seem to be having a brainstorming session about the "mini performances" in the Clocktower, on sunday at 9:00am. "Why so gosh darn early?" I hear you ask? It's cos everyone is being kind to me cos i have to rush off at noon to get to a gig, but yeh.

Olly, if you could varify the clocktower being open on sundays to make me less paranoid, that would be nice.

So, be there or be square!!!

The next project

2006-10-18T13:13:00.001Z

The showcase in February 2007 is your opportunity to learn MORE about any of these aspects of the arts: - programming, marketing, technical stuff, design, stage managing, audience development etc etc (as well as a chance to perform as well) - By taking on one or more of these roles within the teams that need to exist for a successful event:

Programming team (you’ll make creative decisions about who will be performing in the showcase, length of performance, running time, ticket costs to public etc)
Marketing team (you’ll be in charge of designing and distributing professionally made flyers and posters and audience development initiatives! YES THERE IS A BUDGET FOR THE SHOWCASE!!!)
Technical team (We’ll need a stage manager to run backstage on the night and in rehearsals as well as a director for the evening – who amongst other things will make sure things run smoothly – you get to tell Clocktower Front of House staff what to do!)

If you know which team you want to join let me know as soon as possible so I can help set up meetings with staff and organise basic training for you!

You can arrange mini-events in your exhibition Croydonnow which would give you good practice for the showcase! You can plan an event in Croydonnow on any Wed/Fri/Sat throughout November and December.

For anyone doing the Silver Arts Award – check your packs – it’s very easy to complete the award by organising a mini-event in the exhibition space! If you’re interested in taking on the challenge of the GOLD ARTS AWARD then this is another possibility and is achievable through doing the showcase (but you would probably be locked up for being crazy too!)

YOUR EVENTS!

2006-10-17T15:27:00.000Z

Please think about your performances in Croydonnow as practice for the Ambassador showcase in February where you'll be in charge!

Looking back at last meeting you decided that you had skills in certain areas and you began to plan mini-events in the exhibition area. You also decided what you might like your role to be:

Rosina

Skills: bongos, guitar, keyboard, singing rapping
Plan: to organise a musical event (steel drums)
Role: to be a co-ordinator

Maddie W

Skills: 60s 70s music, politics, writing, ukulele, poetry
Plan: to perform in Ukulele trio (duo in Feb)
Role: to help with writing publicity

Gabrielle

Skills: drama, ukulele, writing, drawing, writing, computers, comedy
Plan: to perform in ukulele trio (can't participate in Feb) and others?
Role: like to take up a leadership role

Maddie B

Skills: music, comedy, languages, drama, arts, writing, journalism
Plan: to perform in ukulele trio (duo in Feb)
Role:

Kirsty

Skills: drama, speeches, writing, keyboard, dancing, computers, comedy
Plan: to perform a short drama
Role:

Jocelyn

Skills: writing, art, piano, songwriting, poetry, dance, comedy, drama
Plan: short plays, live music, contemporary dance with live music accompaniment, stand-up comedy, spoken word poetry
Role:

Sarah

Skills: media, film-making, public speaking, advertising, drama
Plan: create website, programming artists, modern dance, comedy
Role: marketing, designing, programming, management

Jess

Skills: drama, marketing, directing, public speaking
Plan: short plays
Role: performing, design, directing, marketing

Andy

Skills: drama, guitar, film-making, poetry, photography, singing
Plan:
Role:

Narjis

Skills:
Plan:
Role:

Nina

Skills: fine art, textiles, photography
Plan: like to see more use of multimedia for diversity (i.e. spoken word, film amongst other things)
Role: Like to be an artistic technician or a host for the evening

Georgina

Skills:
Plan:
Role:

Becky F

Skills:
Plan:
Role:

If there's nothing by your name let me know what you'd like me to add in! Also shout if I've missed anything or put down false information about you!

Try and link up with each other to plan your events and use the Clocktower to rehearse or as a meeting place....you know we have rooms you can use!

Remember the following dates:

Mini-event (in the exhibition space):

Any Saturday throughout November and December
Any Wednesday or Friday throughout November and December

Ambassador Showcase:

Tuesday February 20th 8pm

money !

2006-10-07T19:17:00.000Z

ok, i have been told to rite something on the blog about the management team meeting i went to for croydon youth tingy. basically all i remeber and understod really was that it was raining-alot and dat dere were people dere from all walks of lyk n i mean ALL walks of lyf. also that we cld actuali apply for sum money for ambassadors to do as we please wiv ~ well of course it wld have to be sometink worth while. for example we cld use the money to go on a trip sumwhere n cepcially lyk a residential 1 or sumin as part of a team building excercise.
summary; croydon has been given sumin lyk 700 000 pounds to spend on youths and youth organisations so we can apply for any amount of money we lyk aslong we have a justified reason :)

Drama Workshop

2006-10-03T15:05:00.000Z

Does anyone want to participate in a drama workshop based on the show, Locked In? I have asked the company to run a workshop just for you guys! It should be a pretty good experience. On Friday 13th at 6pm - 7:45pm. You can either catch the show straight afterwards or after our meeting on Wednesday 11th at 8pm. So who's up for it? (Don't be put off by the date.....there's no such thing as bad luck!)

coming to an advertiser near you. provided they don't hate it or anything

2006-09-30T20:03:00.000Z

Locked In is the story of three teenagers who regularly skip school to broadcast pirate radio from a disused East London tower block. Bengali DJ Riqi, Carribbean MC Blaze and new girl Zahida all think they know what they want from life, and don't need anyone else to tell them. But after an argument one afternoon, Riqi has something of a religious awakening, and Blaze agrees to help out a local gangster. Zahida isn't afraid to let them know when they start acting out of order, but the results still threaten to tear their world apart.

Set to a hip-hop soundtrack, the play pounds along to the beat, much of the fast-paced conversation within the flow and pulse of the music that rocks the characters' worlds. The most heartfelt outbursts appear when the teenagers pick up the microphones and begin to rap to their listening public: their frustration with school, burning ambitions and religious conflicts are all explored within the rhythm and rhyme they blast out across the airwaves.

Locked In is an example of that rare, beautiful creature: a youth-marketed play that really does make a connection with its audience. The performances from all three actors are gripping and realistic, the set is well-designed, and the story rips along at a cracking pace, ensuring that even the most easily distracted will stay engaged. The dialogue is sometimes hard to follow word-by-word, and it can take a while to adjust to the slang and speed of conversation, but this does make the interaction more believable, and the gist is easy to grasp. Definitely worth it.

4/5

*

(Better than Virgins. Which is, admittedly, not saying an awful lot.)

randomness

2006-09-26T18:03:00.000Z

heya guys

The opening party tingy majigy was overly jks ! we soooo have to have anova prty lyk agen ! soooon ! altho i was ill the next day and had to come home from skl which was no good :( but hey da opening twas still good :) every1s boxes tings looked bwill !

sarah wen is da opening date for brit skl?!? i can't find it ne where on da websyt ! :(

lotsa loVe
Jessie x x x :P

Ambassador Website

2006-09-25T21:56:00.000Z

Hey guys

y'all kno im making an awesome website well heres the part wher you come in..

i need some stuff from you....lol....sounds scary :D.....
nah its cool just email me back your details/responces please, tis very important and vital for me passing my course

lady_tropical03@yahoo.co.uk

a) im gonna take pictures of everyone next meeting

b) can everyone send me their details of
their full name
age
school/college
hobbies
what they are most interested in e.g. things that can help the ambassadors
and when they joined the ambassador group

c) im getting some good pages together but i'd like any suggestions to what people might like to see in it.

d) and lastly...is there anything that we dont want put up? or anything that you really dont want said or anything at all. please tell me!

thanks guys u kno i love u all to pieces...sorry i got tipsy last thursday
hehe

love sarah xxxxx

rah nuff writing

2006-09-25T14:30:00.000Z

OK - Bad news! To start off with....
Locked In at the Half Moon Theatre is sold out! And has been for about a month! Big apologies for not sorting out a trip sooner...it's entirely my fault, and to make up for my wrongdoing I am resigning.
(pause)
I decided not to resign in the end, but I will sacrifice 3 tickets instead. So if anyone is desperately seeking tickets to see Locked In on Thursday night at 7pm (I'm hoping 3 of you will go together - preferably 3 of you who don't know each other as well!) and can make your own way there - you can have them. Maddie, I know you were up for reviewing the show for Croydon Advertiser (who said they would print a review of it!) - are you still able to make it?

Here's the better news.....
Your Exhibition 'Croydon Now' looks terrific and last Thursday's grand opening was pretty fun, despite the fact I can't remember half of it. The work ain't over for those of you who want more! Get thinking about what/who we might programme for the tiny performance space and when - we can invite people from the film, ur mates from school/college, talented people, talentless people, comedians, singers, speakers, musicians........I'm going to get Jonathan Kennedy (you know who I mean!) to speak to you all about programming, so you can see what's involved and it will help you get started (potential Arts Award contribution too! And preparation for the Ambassador Showcase). The little performances could take place anytime, during Museum opening hours and in the Croydon Now space, within the Museum. We can then make a programme of events and give them out, mail them out, make paper airplanes from them and fly them out! The list is endless.....

Arts Award: If you're doing the Arts Award, I'll leave it up to you to get hold of me and arrange a meeting. I'll speak to you about how your involvement in the Croydon Now exhibition has meant you've already done a big part of the award already! The Showcase event as well as the Croydon Now 'mini-event programming' can also stand as a big part of the Arts Award!

Next Ambassador Meeting: will be Wednesday 11th October in workshop 2 at the usual time (Emma wants to drop by and say hello and goodbye - but not forever I hope!) and afterwards the show, Locked In at 8pm. Is anyone going this week to see We Can Be Heroes? or Throat? If so, when are you going?

Hey, way too much writing here to write anymore.....so I'm off and will blog soon....

(Not) Virgins

2006-09-20T16:30:00.000Z

A boy stands half-silhouetted in front of a lighted screen, arms uplifted, shouting, screaming, to an unseen presence above him: God? The world? Or no-one in particular? "I'm tame," he spits, "I'm tame boy--everybody, please, shit on me!" The sight, it has to be said, is something to behold, and probably not something you expect to come across on a daily basis, even when dabbling in the waters of edgy arts centre plays. In a different context, with a different build-up, maybe the line could have been stunning, powerful, shocking, resonant. Unfortunately, it was just funny.

Perhaps the fundamental flaw in Virgins is the title, and everything else stems from that. A play about teenagers exploring their relatively newfound sex lives and parents struggling to keep theirs going, it is quite clearly not about virgins. Of the four characters, only the fifteen-year-old sister could indeed claim this title. It is quite possible, in fact, probable, that there is some kind of clever meaning hidden within--maybe they are virgins in the field of communication, or something of that ilk. However, Virgins seems to be aimed at teenagers who perhaps wouldn't usually go to the theatre, and who are unlikely to have any interest in picking apart layers of meaning in a play's title. "The content of this play seems to be the opposite of the title," they might think, "I am puzzled by this." Assuming they think in the style of Critical Thinking example texts, at least.

The plot, in essence, revolves around a few weeks in the lives of a four-person family, each with their own sexual difficulties. Seventeen-year-old Jack wakes up in the front garden after a party, discovers he has taken cocaine, slept with two different girls, and now has an STI. His younger sister Zoë wants her first time to be special, and is worried about her brother's attitude to the incident. Meanwhile, their overworked mother and unsatisfied father are having difficulties relighting the sparks between them. The premise looks worryingly similar to the kind of up-to-the-minute, really-communicating-with-young-people-innit-man productions that those over the age of ten are forced to endure now and again in a school hall in the name of sex education, and this is pretty much how it comes across on stage. It is, to put it bluntly, unrealistic. Many of the conversations in Virgins seem terribly unlikely to ever take place in real life, though if you know a fifteen-year-old girl who has asked her father to tell her about his first sexual experience, I stand corrected.

There are some saving graces. The acting, for the most part, is good: perhaps not blow-you-away standards, but good. The only problems are the incidences where a character suddenly shouts far too loudly without any apparent build in tension, which seem forced and unrealistic (see opening paragraph). The minimal set, with lighted screens, boxes to sit and stand on, and a small model house, is effective without being distracting.

But then there is the dancing. Dear Lord, the dancing. There is not much to be said, except possibly "what?" and "why?" and "oh God". Again, the fusion of gritty realism, or at least what is believed to be gritty realism, and expressive dance to Bach and the Arctic Monkeys is probably a very good idea in the eyes of, well, almost all the reviews of Virgins, for a start, but… it seems rather odd and pretentious. As the actors thrash about on stage, jumping around employing motifs, canon, unison, spine movement, and generally Expressing Themselves, the target audience--well, those who aren't busy being reminded of that afternoon where the family planning representative came in for an hour and extolled the virtues of the condom whilst everybody stared at the floor--begins to remember the last time they had to jump around in a similar manner in footless tights in the gym. School dance teachers across the country will enjoy Virgins, if nobody else.

So, overall? The plot is contrived--the resolution, too, is unsatisfying and largely unexplained--the scenes and dialogue often unrealistic, the whole thing reminiscent of Key Stage 3 sex education, and the dancing just bizarre. It's possibly worth it for the line "You’re King Slag, Jack," although this is debatable. The average teenager is unlikely to learn anything they haven’t already been told by a friend or read on the internet. One day the adult generation will learn that attempting to "get down with the kids", in play format as much as any other, is futile, although I fear it will not be for some time.

*

(No offence to Stefan, who was really cool, and excellent at arguing with Twixes. We still heart you.)

Your views on suburbia for NEW exhibition!

2006-09-07T15:57:00.000Z

Hello

I've briefly hi-jacked George's identity to tell you about our next big Clocktower exhibition, called 'Sunshine in Suburbia'.

We're looking for your views on all things suburban, and we want to include them in the exhibition. What does suburbia mean to you? Is Croydon 'the ultimate suburbia'? Can you pigeon-hole a place like this? Or is Croydon actually something else - something much more interesting and possibly subversive...

Please let me know what you think - either via the blog, via email: mary.webb@croydon.gov.uk and if you're interested we can even arrange a short recording session so that your views can be played in the exhibition itself.

thanks

Mary
Exhibitions team

15 minutes of fame

2006-09-06T17:53:00.000Z

You don't get a blog from me for weeks and then 3 come along at once...

A photographer and reporter from Croydon Advertiser will be in the gallery on Friday from 1pm 'til 2pm. They'd love to photograph and interview a few of you about the exhibition, but I know with school commitments and all that, it's not so easy.

If you can make it though and fancy shouting your success from the rooftops, let me or Olly know.

I'll stop pestering you now.

G

glamorous opening

2006-09-06T17:47:00.000Z

Hello

You are all invited to the official opening of the Museum of Croydon including the star attraction - Croydon Now!

The event is on Thursday 21st September 2006, 6 pm at the Clocktower. Paper invites should arrive with you in the post. To confirm your place RSVP to museum@croydon.gov.uk or 020 8253 1022 from Monday next week.

George

Ta 'n' titles

2006-09-06T17:41:00.000Z

Thanks everyone for all the effort that you've put in on your cabinets. They are looking good and we've only a few to go to complete the display.

I'm going to make labels for each case. It'll be your name (to credit you as the artist) and the titles of works (if they have them).

Let me knowwhat your fabulous creations are called!

George

Writing about YOU

2006-09-06T12:07:00.000Z

OK contributors to the exhibition - I'm making a DVD Slideshow about the exhibition and you lot. Can you each gimme something to say about you or your work or anything you just wanna make common knowledge to a wider public (about you or Croydon or the exhibition or whatever). If I don't hear back from you - I may fail not to damage your reputation ;) have a nice day

lotsa love for everyone!!

2006-09-03T22:36:00.000Z

heya cool ppl of croydon!

editing is tomorrow aka monday and tuesday im pretty sure oly said it was from 5pm onwards. ....might have bin 4:30 tho lol

dont worry luv...we're all confuzzled

im coming in early anyway cuz i get an early finish from the BRIT!!!!!!!!!!!!...sorry... lol

so basically if anyone is bored or wants something to do for a few hours before editing...come join me..
you migh find me singing in workshop 3...i get very into my mp3 player lol..

luv forever!!! Sarah xxx

Jeez i've already forgotten...

2006-09-03T08:45:00.000Z

Yo peeps!

Could someone please tell me when the next editing sessions are cos i've already forgotten!

Many thanks!

Read This

2006-08-31T21:16:00.000Z

hi everyone
well done for hard work during the week.

come to this on saturday

Diverse CanvasSat
2nd Sept drop in between 1 - 4pm
Whitechapel Gallery
80 - 82 Whitechapel High Street
London nearest tube aldgate east

Make a t shirt - express your creativity with a t shirt makng workshop and keep the amazing result.

Check out the sound piece and cool animations created by the whitechapel's youth group and tour the gallery listening to their cutting edge audio tour.
come down and have fun young people taking ownership of the arts!
Spread the word

FESTIVAL

2006-08-22T11:19:00.000Z

Pictures from this year's summer festival (too bad the photographer only came round once!) Where was your Ambassador T-Shirt Michelle?

To Andy and the rest!

2006-08-21T14:36:00.000Z

Andy, welcome back!
In answer to your question - next meetings are as follows:
This Wednesday 6 - 9 (Workshop 1 & Edit Suite). We're gonna start getting lessons in how to use iMovie to Edit the film.
Then next Tuesday (29th) ALL DAY 11am - 5pm EDITING the film! Plus,
Wednesday 30th ALL DAY 11am - 5pm (EDITING + ACTUAL CABINET CONSTRUCTING!)

Totally unrelated, sorry....

2006-08-20T21:07:00.000Z

Hey,

Sorry i had to use the blog as a way of communication for non-croydon now relatedness, but it has been done before!

Maddie and Gabrielle, you like Dylan Moran, no? Im probs gunna go and see him with some mates in september, if you want to come talk to me cos im getting tickets soon =)

On the subjct of croydon now, i am back from France, so tell me when the next workshop thingy is!

Thanks

Andy xxx

Filming

2006-08-13T21:17:00.000Z

Hey ya

rite i have bin sitting at this laptop for hours getting people for next wednesdays filming.

i have the uk irish dancing champion, maybe two guitarists and two singers maybe three. i have bin networking and loving every second, when im not complaining about the laptop burning my legs.
newayz

wed filming was really good i thought. i think we all loved the market stall girl the best. we got her to run through the different call outs she uses and she was really bubbly.

random ppl were interviewed and it was really lively but kinda wore of by the end of the day. the whole filming thing gives me a real buzz though. im having so much fun. i dno who thought of the idea but i wana say thanks to you guys for letting me be camera person cuz i love it so much. u guys rock!!!

newayz .. i think we need to get the to shout out other words apart from BUBBLY FUN PRETTY etc.
thinking about what emma was saying eg PINK TALL WEIRD we can just ask them questions which warrent those responses eg. describe the nestle building? which would get them to say tall or sumin.

i got loadsa gossip for everyone on wednesday so it'lll keep us busy

love to everyone,

Love Sarah xxxx

Tell me more....

2006-08-11T14:38:00.000Z

Hey yall!

I'm in France, the land of frogs legs and confusing keyboards (seriously, all the letters are in the wrong place, this is taking ages to write!)

Can somebody please be a kind and loverly person and tell me how filming went on wednesday! Any interesting stuff?

Yeh so thats it from me. See ya'll sooon!

xxx

AUTUMN 06

2006-08-02T11:34:00.000Z

Here's something completely unrelated to the current Exhibition posts! Dates for ALL the Ambassador meetings in Autumn 06. All meetings are at 6:30pm - 8:00pm in Workshop 2 and are followed by a performance in the theatre at 8pm:

Wednesday 13th September (with Virgins)
Wednesday 11th October (with Locked In)
Wednesday 8th November (with Under Milk Wood)
Thursday 14th December (with The Impossibles)

....more about them later!

Hello

2006-08-01T19:24:00.000Z

I'm new here!

TUESDAY 1st August

2006-07-31T13:44:00.000Z

Hello everyone

We are meeting at 3pm tomorrow at the Balcony Bar in the Clocktower to go out on our first film shoot.

If you want to come along and get involved with the film then see you at 3pm.

Then from 6 - 9pm we will be working on the cabinets in workshop 3.

Hope to see you there - the project is getting really exciting as we take it to the next level and start to work practically.

Cheers Emma

Interview Questions

2006-07-26T18:43:00.000Z

Yo! Here are the questions a la interview:

1) Name?
2) Where do you live?
3) How are you?
4) do you work/study locally?
5) Can you describe the bast thing about Croydon and why?
6) Can you give me an example of a memorable/interesting experience you've had in Croydon?
7) What kind of thing is there for you to do in Croydon?
8) Have you always been from around Croydon?
i) If not, where did you come from and why/where from?
ii) How did you get here?
9) What did you do today?
10) Have you got any plans for the rest of the day / the summer?

Meeting tomorrow

2006-07-25T15:50:00.000Z

Hello everyone

Just a gentle reminder that we're meeting with Emma tomorrow night at 6. It's in workshop 3 (the basement corridor one), so I'll be hanging around the court area to gather you all in. If you bring me your most up to date drawings of your cabinet ideas, I will provide you with biscuits!

Also - have a think about when you want to do your bit of the filming and we'll make sure that everyone is in a shooting team with a schedule and locations.

To summarise:

ideas = biscuits

George

Hosenbügler

2006-07-18T03:48:00.000Z

Hello there. Sorry I couldn't make it to the Mela or World Party, although I thought that the excuse "I was in a youth hostel in Germany at the time," was a pretty good one. To make up for it, here is a picture of the Rhein:

There it is, in all its Rheiny glory. And the huge cathedral in Cologne (attempt to climb only if you have large amounts of water to hand, but worth it for the view):

And because I imagine that large German lakes/large German buildings may not awaken any particular interest in most people, here is one of my favourite signs of all time (from the Eurotunnel):

They've actually done a diagram to show you how to wait, and look, he's crossing his legs and leaning and everything. I think this is absolutely fantastic, and want to see more of these signs around. It almost beats "This sign is not in use" (which my dad saw on the way home from a concert), but not quite.

Anyway, see you tomorrow (or, technically, today), anyone who's coming to discuss the Arts Award/cabinets etc -- and get well soon Emma!

2006-07-13T11:52:00.000Z

Hi everyone!

Final arrangements for our participation at the Croydon Summer Festival. As Ambassadors our main goal at the World Party and the Mela will be to promote this Autumn's Live Events. I will attempt to post a spreadsheet (!!!!how, ooo, arh, eee!!!!) timetable of when we'd like you to volunteer your help. And if you want to help out please email me the times you'd like to do. It would be great if you could volunteer 2 hours (1 hour to be at the stall and 1 hour to go around the festival giving out free prize vouchers - but some of you won't fancy that so that's OK too). The plan is to have a stall quite near the entrance of the event (near the Clocktower information tent). There should be at least 2 Ambassadors (South Asian and/or Young Ambassadors) at the stall at all times (I will be around all day) - we will have magazines and promotional fliers to give out. The fliers will promote the key performances for young people at the Clocktower this Autumn.

Saturday (World Party)

1pm - 2pm nihar / Jess / Neal
2pm - 3pm Nihar / Jess / Neal
3pm - 4pm Nasreen / Longxiao
4pm - 5pm Longxiao
5pm - 6pm nasreen
6pm - 7pm
7pm - 8pm

Sunday (Mela)
1pm - 2pm Nasreen / pritti
2pm - 3pm Pal / Sarah / Jess
3pm - 4pm Pal / Sarah / Jess
4pm - 5pm nasreen / moksha
5pm - 6pm Nihar / berni
6pm - 7pm nihar
7pm - 8pm

Croydon Festival

2006-07-13T10:54:00.000Z

Hey!

The DV Workshop was fun that was...last wed. we made lil films using cameras. myself and andy realised that we really really needed a tripod. you can totally see the difference. we did a random horror thingy the spinning around thing worked really well i thought. u can see if u go next tue at 6pm.

btw gaby can do a brilliant crazy person

im going to the asian mela on sunday gonna rock!
need to help oly decorate the stall..need girls for this...or girls guys...

newayz we gona be going round with cameras talking to people. we have to get them to sign a permission form if they are under 16.

and then just talking to people in genral

i have a duck hairdryer... n kind bored...got my brit induction day later...n off to a party...still bored now tho.

cya soon,
love Sarah xxxxxxxxx

New Members????!!!

2006-07-10T15:59:00.000Z

Ok guys......I am writing with a proposition! Would anyone object to having 2 fantastic people join the Group??? think they would be good for the Group and especially Croydon Now! It's your decision....you have by Wednesday midnight to decide and get your objections in now! Kaela and Ruth, both go to St Andrews and are 15....

la la la

2006-07-07T10:01:00.000Z

Hey all,

Conference was boring, makes me glad that I have the Ambassador group.

Im tired and grumpy lol. didnt sleep cuz of the heat last night.

on the good side im playing pokemon yellow on gameboy and i got a boulderbadge last nite...around 4:23 am

My prom was brilliant I'll show a pic.

Love Sarah xxxx (I love ant!)

Film Location

2006-07-06T09:48:00.000Z

Hey y'all!
Here’s the details of the place Me, Sarah and Emma went to check out if they would be good for filming.
Queens Gardens
The Fountain:
1) Is it visually interesting?
Yes, the water fountain would be ideal as it is a very green and pretty park of the park with the clocktower in the background!
2) Is it recognisably Croydon?
Yes, the Croydon council building is in the background
3) Is it right for the film?
Yes, it is a beautiful place in Croydon where all kindsa people hang out
4) Local conditions
(i) Is it easy to access? - Yes
(ii) Will it be open all the time? - Yes
(iii) Are there any known problems? - Some drunk people on some evenings; Traffic all around
(iv)Is there a market on certain days? - No
5) Viewpoints
(i) How might the location be shot? - It could be shot from many different angels.
(ii) Any interesting viewpoints (from above, below...)? - Walkway across register office overlooks park; Stand on benches, film from above/film as people walk past; From fountain; Croydon council roof (don’t know about permission/safety on that one).
(iii) Could a range of shots be achieved? - Yes

wierd

2006-07-05T19:47:00.000Z

my friend sent me dis n so i fort id post it on here. it well wierd

wlel i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! so can you raed tihs?
if you can yuor not the frsit psoern ifnact erveynoe can do it!feraky huh? sratgne huh?

Conference tingy

2006-07-05T18:49:00.000Z

Rite on tuesday me, Neal, Michelle and Sarah went to this conference ting at the hilton in purley. olly was ment to go but had a 'cold', pathetic excuse :p lol. basically every county/borough/town/random places gets given a sum of money inorder to spend by youth for youth. Croydon (having the most young peolple) got the most money! yey! so basically they wanted people to give their ideas. it was of the most BORING thing that we all agreed on we have eva been thro at the beggining as it did get better. firstly we were late to get started and then when we did we had a talk followed by anova followed by anova in which they were all saying the exact same thing but in the most loooongest and complicated way that they could find! then we had an 'ice breaker' in which we had to design a poster thing with pens and some glitter! and of course pens on which we could do our ideas on what we would spend the money on. (it was about £8000 btw) we did an under 18's nightclub, a park only for youths, a hostile, a smooothie bar, a cafe, a youth club and an activity centre. Our poster came 2nd!! then it was break!!! at looong last, but because we went to the loo first of all (which may i just add played the most strangest posh posh posh music which is really desturbing when your trying to do your makeup! lol) that when we went to go and get a drink it was all gone! so we got stuck with some manky orange juice or water. we then had a discussion time, which was alright, where we decided our top 5 priorities on what we want to spend the money on. the under 18's club was at the top and then a youth centre and a park and some other things that i can't remeber. we then played a fun game with stickers! oh and another thing is that we also went to the conference thing in order to chose a management team for looking after the money and so we had to use the stickers to stick on what qualities we wanted to the management team to have. and then it was lunch !!!! this has got to be the highlight of the day. the food was gorgeous! and the cakes were to die for but again all the drinks were gone in a flash. when we had finished we decided to go and sign the 'graffiti' board. (basically it was a board where you were ment to write your opinions but no one use it for that) where i met a very interesting young man who had made some interesting observations. oh and dw ollie we did our audience developing thing as we wrote about the clocktower and that the 'ambassadors were here' lol :p after we indured another loong and boring discussion where i was forced to ask a question and then didn't really understand the answer. during this we played a good few games of hang man and noughts n crosses, in which me and michelle won!!!! and then we were aloud to go home!!! wowowowo! any ways basically we have learnt that we can claim this money by filling in a form and the money can go towards whatever we want, well with in reason, like trips, buildings etc. and so we were thinking maybe we could use this money to our advantage?!? ideas please.....
Jess

I found me a troupe!

2006-07-05T13:52:00.000Z

Yes wierd title, I know, but the point is, I found a dance troupe who would be willing to do their thang for us in either Queens Gardens or the Whitgift Centre. They said they will discuss a date amoung themselves when they are free and get back to me ASAP.
And these are nice peeps!
So yeh thats a good thing!
Sorry I couldn't make it to the last meeting, I was dying under coursework/stress and yeh, but I shall be there on the 11th for filmingness!

Peace and love!

Andy x

Cabinet plotting

2006-07-04T17:17:00.000Z

Hope that you are all still up for the DV camera training sessions this week and next (6th and 11th July). After the camera training there's a chance to talk about your box ideas one on one with Emma and plunder all her artistic experience.

Could you bring along the most detailed designs that you've got for the cabinets? We need to try and work out practical ways of making your ideas work! Sorry I'll miss you, I'll be up in the wilds of Scotland and Cumbria. I'll blog you some piccies if I can. Maybe even from the train back as I go through Preston - beautiful!

George

Hellooo!

2006-07-03T11:48:00.000Z

Hey,
You're having your prom on wednesday too! OMG, where are you having it? Hope it'll be excellent. My Leavers' Ball is at Addington Palace. I don't really know you but congratulations with your ten-month anniversary.

Random Stuff

2006-07-02T10:16:00.000Z

Hey all,

Oly was right, phoenix was brilliant, Ant n I went to see and really enjoyed it. We have to get something done about the lack of/non existence of performances during the summer holiday. Seriously this is the only time of year when young people can or want to go somewhere different.

Next point, oh yeah, referring to a post looonnnng ago, I was in the group with Emma and Andy. We went to the Queens Gardens and apart from eating a box of strawberry's we found OMG BECKHAMS JUST RESIGNED!!!
sorry my dad just said....
anyways we found a really good spot by the water fountain that shows the clocktower, the grass in an archway sort of thing. It looks really good. So perfect place for a dance routine or something to take place. The noise of traffic could be a problem and lack of people at certain times of the day. I know that Fridays from about 3pm till late are nice and busy. With people of all ages chillin out on the grass, having water fights, that sorta thing.

On personal news, its my prom on Wednesday and me and ant have been together for 10 months!! woooo!!!

Also on Tuesday we have the "Youth Funding" thing at the Croydon Hilton. I'm going, not sure who else is though.

Babbled on enough. See ya'll soon.

Love Sarah xxxx

2006-06-30T11:51:00.000Z

Here's a sneaky peak at just one of the birds who'll be at the show!

ALMOST SOLD OUT!

2006-06-30T11:42:00.000Z

Phoenix is alomost SOLD OUT! tonight and tomorrow afternoon! But this is an appeal for some ambassadorial work please. Tell as many people how great the show will be tomorrow night and try and get people down for 8pm! Including yourselves - don't worry you won't miss a kick of the ball when England play - the game will be well over by then! So I hope to see lots of ya down at the Clocktower on Saturday night for Phoenix - I promise you won't be disappointed (which might be the case with the England team!)

Croydon

2006-06-29T17:17:00.000Z

I think that Croydon is a truly spectacular place! i mean i lived in trowbridge (Bath) in the countryside for years and as much as i loved it there and had a massive house, i still love Croydon loads better. It has so much more to do and such a wide range of cultures! shirley (im biased, i know, but i do live there) is gorgeous and is home to some famous celebrities.. ie. ian wright, ronnie corbet and loads more and have you seen up shirley hills! the houses up there are gorgeous! Croydon has loads of things to do and it may be seen as "chav city" but wat really is soooo bad bout all chavs any way? and there are alot more places round that are more chavy than Croydon! I for one love Croydon - i mean its home to the clocktower - although some improvements couldn't go a miss, but its still good! lol

2006-06-29T16:57:00.000Z

erm...

Our Delightful Dwelling

2006-06-22T16:12:00.000Z

The CroydonNow Blog finally merits a post about Croydon itself. :-D
I've been trawling Wikipedia for information about our marvellous habitat and came up with the following points which may or may not interest you:

1. "Croydon is often disparaged for its lack of culture and its archetypal suburban atmosphere." - This is, I am sure you will all fervently agree, highly unfair. The Clocktower (woo!) is 'the jewel in Croydon's [somewhat otherwise lopsided] crown' as Time Out magazine kindly reminds us.
2. ""Articles about her [Kate Moss] always mentioned her Croydon roots, although the suspicion in hindsight is that this was probably to sneer, as if her origins made her beauty all the more extraordinary." - Ahem! I think we are all very beautiful! It's surely only a matter of time before our stunning faces are on the cover of Vogue.
3. It also mentions the 'Croydon Facelift' - yawn! But Croydon is commonly known as 'Chav Capital', 'Pikey Paradise' and other derogatory names. We know it's not exactly Kensington, but Croydon really isn't that bad. I really hate that it says you can replace Croydon with the name of any unfashionable residential area. Grrr....*grinds teeth* But apprently you can get Traction Alopecia from having your hair like this - perhaps we should take it upon ourselves to inform people of this...

Just some points I thought you might like to consider when doing your cabinet ideas. Maybe we could make a big effigy of Kate Moss and burn it, under a big arch saying 'Crack is Whack!'!!

There is also this page which mentions us!! We're famous!! (Assuming that was you, Olly - nice one if it was.)

Anyway, that's quite enough of being on topic and thoughtful, time for some good old random rubbish.
I went to visit my sister in Brighton for a few days after finishing the horrible GCSEs and whilst Brighton is great - lots of things to do, everyone dresses very bizarrely and there's lots of culture and diversity - I was very happy to get back to Croydon. Yes, okay, you can think me mad if you so desire, but I realised that I really do like Croydon. It has it's fair share of problems (trust me, my Mum works in Croydon Police Station - I know what goes down, innit?) but there are lots of good points about Croydon that get overlooked which is a shame. Never mind. I'm sure our wonderful exhibition will change everyone's minds and celebrities will be queueing up to by houses round here. ;-)
Also, I picked up a booklet for Brighton Dome only to discover that 'The Bogus Woman' is playing there next month!! So ha!! We're just as cultural as they are - and we got it first. *thumbs nose at Brighton*

Finally, since the whole ukulele thing seems to be a bit of discussion point, I direct you all here, to our original inspiration and yeah okay, idols, The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. :-)

Phoenix

2006-06-22T15:31:00.000Z

Ok guys! The last show of the season is upon us - next Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm and 8pm. I had to recruit 12 adults with learning disabilities from Croydon to star in this show with a huge cast! They have never acted before but have always wanted to - it should be loads of fun and it's only 40 minutes long!!! Did I mention as part of the show, at the finale they're leading the audience out of the Clocktower and will burn a giant Phoenix on the street! So please do your audience development thing and tell all your mates and family about it (suitable for all ages and only a fiver!).

Crisp packets make noise!

2006-06-22T11:31:00.000Z

This is the first time I'm writing on this blog thing which I didn't even know I had signed up to hehehe but there we go. So hi all! Ooo this is exciting. Well I just wanted to apologize first of all to everyone who came to see THE BOGUS WOMAN and were disturbed by the rustling of the crisp packets. I confess: twas me, but only for the first 10 minutes. Then I got really into the play and forgot all about the crisps which just proves that the play was so dam good that nothing...not even food...could stop you from giving it 100% of your attention. But omg how embarrassed was I when I put that french fry in my mouth, CRUNCHED and saw a very angry audience member sitting in front of me turn around and give me such a dirrrrttttyyyyy look. Nina you know what I'm talking about...

Right so what else...I'm enjoying the free time that I have right now since my exams are finished. By the way, has anyone seen the play "The History Boys"? The PR company I am doing work experience with are promoting it so I just wanted to know if anyone had seen the play and what they thought of it.

Meeting last night was a lot of fun actually. I don't know why i write actually, as if I wasn't expecting it to be fun...! hmmm ok moving on...Excited about the mela but disappointed that there won't be any more shows this summer apart from "Phoenix". That really sucks Olly! We need to change that.

How's Peter then? I believe he was Maddie's friend. Well I hope he's cool and enjoyed meeting us as much as we enjoyed meeting him.

Ok nearly 1:00 so that means lunch time yay! I hope everything I've written makes sense and I know it has nothing to do with the cabinets but I promise I'll mention them in the next blog. :)

Byebye

Treasure Hunt in Croydon

2006-06-22T11:28:00.000Z

Is anyone up for a huge team building activity on Tuesday August 1st. It will be a treasure hunt in groups taking you all over Croydon (with a travelcard!). You'll work in your film groups of course and yes, there'll be a prize for the winning team!

The Bogus Woman

2006-06-22T09:57:00.000Z

What a show last night! I know this blog is intended for the exhibition - a place to post ideas or like Maddie has demonstrated with aplomb (I'm reading the dictionary at the moment), just a place for thoughts - But I can't help breaking the rules and to let everyone know that The Bogus Woman was the best thing I've seen at the Clocktower this year (bar Bill Shannon's Sketchy). Does anyone not agree? And it was SOLD OUT......who can predict what Croydon audieces will be like?

The actress is from Croydon and did Drama at Selsdon High school I think! She was incredible - it takes much talent to change from one character to another in a split second and keep it believable.......it was so intense. I was sitting in the back row and sometimes struggled to hear because I'm almost deaf - but this just added to the intensity to concentrate.......like in an ambassador meeting.

Will try to work on shorter sentences next time.

2006-06-22T02:02:00.000Z

Dear ~~all~~ Olly,

Well, I promised I'd write, but didn't really think about what. Emma condoned Big Brother discussion, but I haven't been watching it, so I don't have anything to say on the matter; I haven't been watching the football, either, although someone tells me that lots of men in different coloured shirts ran up and down a field for ninety minutes, occasionally knocking each other over and crying; and I know nothing about Eastenders, other than that some people with rasping voices wander about market places shouting "Peggy!", and that someone called Phil once got shot, but I think he's ok now.

So what can I talk about? I sat my RS GCSE on Mark's Gospel earlier today, and have spent the past few days feeling as though I know more about Jesus than I do about most of my immediate family--so I could probably go into some detail regarding the healing of Blind Bartimaeus, or the sending out of the Twelve, or the importance of the Last Supper to Christians today--but that's perhaps not the most interesting topic to pursue, and I expect I'll end up blaspheming every which way and insulting members of every religion going, so I'll leave that one.

As it happens, I have quite a talent for babbling--at considerable length--about nothing at all, as I am proving here, but at least I hope Olly has something to read now.

Perhaps I ought to say something of vague worth. Well, I enjoyed the meeting today, at which I suppose we proved that the more does not necessarily equal the merrier, and that much joy can be had with only eight inquiring minds (nine, counting Peter), silver foil, and the prospect of Clocktower bags. The upgraded refreshments, though delightful, were probably not intented to be taken along to the evening's performance, during which it was discovered that packets of crisps somehow become very, very loud in a small auditorium (although I sat smugly with my near-silent Jammie Dodgers).

'The Bogus Woman', which I think most of us went along to after the meeting, was a harrowing one-woman account of the atrocities experienced by asylum seekers, both in their home countries and in detention centres in the UK. Performer Sarah Niles played an impressive total of forty-eight characters in a ninety-minute show: very well-acted and written, and deeply shocking at times. Not 'uplifting', perhaps, but I don't expect that was the intention. I don't think I've attended any post-meeting performances which didn't involve any of the characters dying, actually--is this some kind of foreshadowing? Am I to die an early death, perhaps inflicted by spoon-wielding maniacs?* But then I suppose I missed the Bill Shannon thing, and unless it was quite a different affair to what I imagined, I don't think there was any death in that.

My God, I'm sorry, I've typed so very much yet said so very little. (Welcome to the inside of my head.) I'll leave you in peace.

[By the way, for whoever is in charge of this blog and can change all the settings (Emma?)--I think the time is set to US hours or something mad like that: I changed the time on this post manually, but it originally claimed to be about half five in the afternoon (which, if the pitch black view out of my window and my increased lethargy are anything to go by, is not quite right). We might need to re-set that... ]

*The Librarian's Joke is still one of the best things I have ever seen. I'd love to see it again; I wonder if they'll come back? Or maybe with a new show.