People’s History of Hulme
Millennium Mural by Hulme Urban Potters
Music collective Single Cell are currently in residence at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme and are delivering an ambitious residency of events under the umbrella label of Finding Zion. Yesterday, as the sun finally appeared to warm the discarded lolly sticks of last summer (or rather, the summer before the summer before that), it was the turn of LRM: the Loiterer's Resistance Movement and co-curators for the People's History of Hulme trail to buff the grime from our careworn eyes.
Morag Rose
The pink-tinted and always effusive Morag Rose was so delighted with the turn out at Kim by the Sea cafe that she clambered atop a picnic table to explain the nature of the event and how it was all going to work. Home doodled fantasy-maps of the locale were distributed, dotted with multiple 'X marks the spot': the sites of performers waiting to reveal glimpses of Hulme past, present and potential future.
Tammi Grotesque
Arriving at Leaf Street Gardens, we were met by punk bombshell Tammi Grotesque, performance poet with a chiselled wit sharp enough to slice through the rhetoric of any city official clutching blueprints. I could have listened to Tammi all day and was slightly in awe of her voluminous mane, but further treats were waiting for us, such as a spoof community-council meeting taking place by the Hulme Arch ("In response to requests for a local independent cinema, we shall be asking ASDA to extend their DVD selection...")
Birley Tree memorial marker
At Birley Fields the group gathered at the cruciform memorial to the Birley Tree, a hundred-year old poplar bulldozed by developers to make way for a hotel that never happened. Our speaker went on to explain the nature of poplars, their impending disappearance from the landscape and why we were most likely standing on thousands of bumble bees asleep in underground mouse runs. I was scooping up incidental knowledge like custard from the bottom of the can - delicious.
The Inebriated Zarg
The unashamed scene-stealer of the day was The Inebriated Zarg, a Special Brew swigging grey alien who crash landed in Hulme during WW2 on his way to his brother's stag party and has successfully integrated himself into the local community ever since. You can listen to a cynic-defying audio recording recovered from the crater site here. The ghost of Engels was to have appeared for our entertainment but had been out drinking until 6am and couldn't be roused from bed.
Forthcoming events in the series include For Folks Sake, live folk music and spoken word, a communal meal from the People's Kitchen and concludes with Hulme Busking, featuring multiple performances in parks, gardens, galleries and rooftops.
Eye Candy
Hungry Hungry Eat Head from Bren O'Callaghan on Vimeo.
It's tough when you're in competition with 2098 shows in 265 venues in a city that for a month each year becomes home to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. Tough, but not impossible. Thanks to Hudson-Powell, Joel Gethin Lewis and the leap of faith required by City of Edinburgh Council who were very polite about my asking if they wouldn't mind if we beheaded their citizens and placed them in a giant cartoon for the afternoon.
After this, our beta launch, we went on to delight the city of Liverpool during AND: Abandon Normal Devices Festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture. If you too can find a way to step into your daydreams and earn enough to get by, I definitely recommend it. Read more about Hungry Hungry Eat Head here.
Tales of Two Cities
With an OCD fury not seen since the woman in the Shake 'n Vac advert ground her Valium and mixed it with a glug of Bacardi, I've been plugging the cracks in this site and pasting up former production duties with a vengeance. My personal favourites A Wall is a Screen now have a page to themselves, as do the rapidly expanding MegaPhone team - flying the flag for those of us who see no reason why computer games should progress beyond the Atari era. Once upon a festival, The Light Surgeons conjured up a storm in a Gothic salon and The Royal Opera House treat us to no fewer than twelve outdoor relays in the past five years.
Into The Woods
You can never have enough magic capes, as I discovered earlier last year. Shamefully I have only just got around to documenting this particular project for the Big Screen Liverpool from Charlotte Gould in partnership with moves, although thanks are also due to my friend Mandy Tolley for creating the most intensely red cloak with the biggest button I have ever seen. Yes, even bigger than Kirsty Allsopp's secret cache.
Architectural Punch Bowl
Having missed the opportunity to attend Alcoholic Architecture (a walk-in cocktail fog of vaporised gin and tonic), Futurist Aerobanquet and Hendrick’s Horseless Carriage of Curiosities, there was no way I could pass up the chance to sample the latest culinary creation of Bompas & Parr (co-conspirators in this year’s summer silliness). Courvoisier's Architectural Punch Bowl was billed as the world’s largest cocktail, inspired by grandiose gestures of old by eminent gentry who really knew how to throw an OTT knees-up.
The Decontamination Chamber
Tickets sold out fast, but at a reasonable £6.50 for a one-off experience with drinks thrown in proved exceptional value. After hopping on a train south (as ever, it was to be in London, hosted in the bowels of 33 Portland Place – a Victorian mansion favoured by the celebrity party set and location of Amy Winehouse’s music video for Rehab), I met up with my pal Suzy P, creator/editor of counter-culture magazine Nude and bible of all things offbeat.
Positive discrimination... dirty beards, dirty!
Staff were dressed in surgical whites and requested visitors to sign a medical disclaimer before entry was allowed. I was tickled by a very specific question about whether or not we had recently suffered a seeping ear infection, which led to unhelpful throughts about cheese-like crumbling or projectile squirting. Having ticked NO to all, we passed through to the scrubs room, there to be disinfected and dressed in disposable pinnies, hairnets and beard snoods for those who required them.
HRH Suzy, Queen Ribenaberry
A strong scent of booze wafted through the entire building, the source being the adjacent games room and our ultimate destination. Here a small crowd had gathered, similarly attired, around the star attraction: a giant pool accessed by steps glowing a deep, regal purple, containing an estimated 4,000 litres of adult pop - enough for 25,000 servings. Lit by sunk lamps and garnished with radio-controlled lily pads laden with plastic fruits, we were served a generous glass directly from the waters while I eagerly signed up for the lucky dip… the chance to take a punt across the surface.
- My life on the ocean wave
It wasn’t long before my name was called and I gingerly stepped up and onto a raft in the shape of a man-sized slice of orange. Long suppressed ambitions to appear on The Crystal Maze bubbled to the surface as I propelled myself across the waters using a system of ropes installed at head-height, with no purpose other than sheer bloody wonderment at straddling a giant plastic citrus fruit.
Tea break at the Mr Kipling factory
All profits from the 3-day installation are to be donated to Article 25, a UK registered charity that designs, builds and manages projects to provide better shelter wherever there is disaster, poverty or need.
Magical, inspirational and completely unforgettable.
In my dark cupboard
Shhh! Are you coming? Just a few places left for an invite-only film screening of a 1981 classic starring John Gordon Sinclair, Clare Grogan (of Altered Images, above) and Dee Hepburn, although the true star of the title that I'm being deliberately vague about is Allison Forster, as the lead's little sister, steeped in a Yoda-like wisdom beyond her years. Here's a clue. Friday 11th December, An Outlet, Manchester.