Ali Bacon's Blog, page 5

Denmark: old and new and more than its very good pastries

I didn’t intend this blog to be a travelogue but Denmark surprised me enough to want to feel the need to shout about it.

[image error]Picturesque Nyhaven

I’m not sure what I expected of Copenhagen other than a change of air and maybe something akin to Amsterdam. In fact although there are canal-side walks which ressemble the Dutch capital and plenty of historic sites, it was the new juxtaposed to the old which took my eye (how could it not with all that glass and water!) and hinted at those famous design...

Ship-ahoy! Summer fun at Brunel’s SS Great Britain @ssgreatbritain #summerspectacular

We first came to Bristol way back in the 70s, not long after Brunel’s SS Great Britain had been rescued and towed all the way back from the Falkland Islands. Like Concorde it was very much part of our new neighbourhood.
Since then we’ve seen the ship restored to her former glory and now transformed into a key visitor attraction. I last visited two years ago with a party of children from Belarus who loved the interactive exhibits and of course the dressing up.

But there’s always so much to s...

‘Fame’ at the Bristol Hippodrome – #FametheMusical 2019 Tour

I always used to think the eighties (shell suits and shoulder pads!) pretty much passed me by, but not even I  (stuck in the groove of nappy changing and ‘nursery teas’) could miss the impact of the film and TV series Fame whose style and music even made it into our local keep-fit classes. Everyone was suddenly strutting around in legwarmers and dance-wear!

So all those years later, how well does the musical stand up as a reminder of that heady era and, most of all, as a good night out?

Jud...

Launch of Proper Bristol Postcards: no more suspension bridges, easy on the balloons!

[image error]Colin Moody with Proper Bristol finalist Arvind Howarth

Wednesday evening saw the culmination of a project which began a year ago when Bristol photographer Colin Moody and community arts group the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft found themselves bemoaning the restricted and stereotypical images of Bristol seen in holiday postcards. A competition was mooted and the city invited to send in alternatives along the lines of  No more suspension bridges, easy on the balloons. 

A set of finalists w...

Sculpture: Open Exhibition at @rwabristol

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So up to now I’ve had a passing acquaintance with classical sculpture and got to know quite a bit about Amelia Paton Hill, the Victorian sculptor who figures prominently in In the Blink of an Eye.  However she too was working in a broadly classical tradition, so the kind offer of tickets to the RWA Sculpture Exhibition (on until June 2nd) was a great opportunity for me to get to grips with contemporary sculpture practice.  Not surprisingly I found the exhibition tremendously diverse, in some...

Happy birthday to In the Blink of an Eye!

 

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Bristol’s Photography Quarter: a well-kept secret?

I guess most Bristolians are familiar with the Paintworks development, a small business enclave off the A4 which is home to a host of creative companies (including Tangent Books) and the popular Bocabar Restaurant. Having recently got wind of a couple of new arrivals from the world of photography (yes!) I decided it was time to go down and take another look.

[image error]Photography this way!

First of all I had to get myself orientated. Paintworks is bigger, more colourful and more stylish than I recalled...

Interview with Lorna Brown

Last week I mentioned a great new short fiction collection by L. M. Brown. The stories in Treading the Uneven Road are linked by a strong sense of place with some  characters reappearing. In tone it reminded me of Donal Ryan’s The Spinning Heart. So here is Lorna, as promised,  to tell us more about herself and her writing.

Please tell us a bit about yourself, your writing and other lives

[image error]I like that, other lives! Well, I am a wife to a wonderful husband and a mother of three daughters who ke...

Kinky Boots – a great night out in Bristol with #kinkybootsuk

Now for something completely different! In January I joined two new groups, one writing-related (of which more later) and one for Bristol Bloggers which last night took me to the current Bristol Hippodrome production of the musical Kinky Boots. It proved to be not just a great night out but also a fascinating insight into a big show on tour.

[image error]Kinky Boots goodies!

For those who don’t know (and I didn’t until recently when I got to know the music in a zumba class!) Kinky Boots won the Olivier Aw...

Two new fiction collections

I’ve probably said before somewhere that I find short story and flash fiction collections a difficult reading proposition, the exceptions being, as I am finding more and more, when the collection has a strong linking theme or overarching narrative. Recently two of these have come my way. And the colours match! What better reason to put them together!?

[image error]Even though I had heard several extracts from Diane Simmons  Finding a Way and both enjoyed and admired them, I was still hesitant to make a st...