So, yesterday was "D-day for the Arts", the day on which Arts Council England announced three-year funding for just over 600 organisations across England (Wales and Scotland have their own Arts Councils). It was a day of mixed news - good for some, who were funded for the first time or who had their funding increased; bad for others, who had their ( Read more... )

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Quick question - does anybody have an old mobile handset they'd be willing to let me stuff a SIM card into for a short period? It might take a couple of weeks for my replacement handset to arrive and until then life is going to suck. Let me know if you have a spare (and you don't mind me borrowing it a wee while)!

Saw this one doing the rounds - I'm now old enough and decrepit enough (sheesh, I've got decades of decline before me yet, how can this be setting in so early?) that I really needed to scratch my head about this a few times, but here goes ( Read more... )

You were born during a New moon

The moon is dark in this phase, because the half that's illuminated by the sun is facing away from Earth.


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Fling yourself into space:


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Well-deserved praise for Sooraj's piece on Friday from the Resolution! review crew:

For his choreographic debut, Sooraj Subramaniam emerges, yawning, in tartan pyjamas, clutching a blanket, to give us a characterful slice of contemporary life, shot through with classical Indian mime. Nocturne is a skit on the netherworld of sleep, through insomnia ( Read more... )

Thanks to all who came to support a) lovely Sooraj's beautiful dancing and b) my totally bitchin' lighting design at The Place last night. The general consensus was that the show as a whole went well, and Sooraj drew much praise from both the generality and from some particular people whose printed opinion may well help him in his future career. So ( Read more... )

In a deal to be announced imminently - which ministers hope will defuse the row - many of the 450 [school sports] partnerships will be given a temporary reprieve, probably until after the 2012 Olympics in London ( Read more... )

C4 broadcast Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday and I finally gave it a view, having not done so in the two years since its release. I hadn't been particularly avoiding it, I just managed not to have caught it up until now. Verdict: it was alright.

More specific verdict: the cinematography was beautiful (even in the ugly scenes). I think Danny Boyle ( Read more... )