In what may be an unwise move I dip my toe into the murky world of high speed rail. If you thought the most irreconcilable conflict in the world was between Israel and its Arab neighbours, then you obviously haven't experienced the Pro v Anti HS2 mob in full flow. On one hand you have those who think building any new railway line is the work of the devil; and on the other, those who believe the HS2 plans were carved into stone by Moses himself and cannot be deviated from.
Whilst I'm broadly in favour of HS2, it was some glaring weaknesses, the first is that it runs to Manchester but not Liverpool thus two cities lying an equal distance from London and of similar sized populations end up with vastly different travelling times. Liverpool bound "Classic Compatible" trains, which will be half the size of the ones heading to Manchester, will leave the HS2 line south of Crewe and then travel on the current track through the Cheshire countryside over the Runcorn Bridge and into Lime Street. The forecast travel time reduces from the current 2h10m to 1h46. Whereas Manchester benefits from a reduction from 2h08m to just 1h08m.
A second weakness is in the choice of Euston as the London terminal, just down the road from the Eurostar/HS1 terminal at St Pancras. Down the road. Having Eurostar/HS1 and HS2 not physically linking up to enable through running is sheer madness.
Back here on Merseyside, the new Liverpool 2 Container Terminal is currently being built and is expected to open at the end of 2015. This will double the number of containers being handled at the port, and the majority of these containers need to be moved by rail. There is only one line serving the Port of Liverpool and whilst it should be able to cope with extra freight trains, it connects up with the same line going into Lime Street that all the passenger trains use.
The main problem facing the main UK railways is the coming years is one of capacity, we cannot keep building new roads. The growing number of passengers and, as noted above, the increased amount of freight coming into and out of Britain can only be moved by the rail network. HS2 as well as providing new track, in turn frees up space on the current lines and meets this need. However when it was first announced to the public this was a secondary consideration and all the fanfare was about how quicker it would be to get from London to Birmingham. Having used this as the original selling point, you can't blame the general public for being confused at now being told it's all about capacity.
So in my view, whilst HS2 is a good project, it needs a few changes. It must go into Liverpool. It should provide a direct HS1/Eurostar connection. And it should be built so that additional lines, i.e. linking to the likes of Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow as well as towards the Southwest and Wales and of course a Transpennine Route from Liverpool to Hull are easily integrated into a cohesive network.
Thursday 31 October 2013
Sunday 27 October 2013
Vote Independent!
No not for Scotland, although after watching "Sunshine on Leith" (twice) I would have easily put my cross into the Yes box. If you haven't been to see it yet, make sure you do, yes it's cheesy and obviously the script is made to fit the songs, but I guarantee you'll leave the cinema with a smile on your face.
The independence I'm advocating is from the dull, boring, same old same old, identikit high streets. You remember when you were a kid and going on holiday was an adventure, partly because everything was different, the shops were different, the sweets were different, the lolly ices were different, well not anymore, it doesn't matter where in the world you go, you'll be met with the same McDonalds, identical Tescos, indistinguishable Starbucks where they think writing your mispelt name on a cup equals service. I can never understand why people queue up in Liverpool One to buy a Large, Skinny, Extra Hot Nondescript Dishwater (even if your name, or variation thereof, is scrawled on the cup), when a few minutes walk away you can find an independent, get a seat, and a cup of enjoyable coffee, brought over to you by someone who'll speak to you because they want to, not because the corporate manual says they have to.
Well a revolution is underway, and as usual, Liverpool is leading it. We're not storming the Bastille, but we are taking to the streets armed with a plastic card and an App. Independent Liverpool the brainchild of David Williams and Oliver Press only started this year, but their army of cardholders has mobilised throughout the city. You can buy your card online, or pick one up from the Bold Street branch of those lovely guys in Utility for just £10. The card is valid for a year, and there are various discounts and special deals from all the shops, cafes, restaurants, bars and business who have signed up, which means you'll be in profit in no time at all. But here's the USP behind the card - all the business and services are independent. Owned and run by real local people, who care about their city, and pay their taxes!
There's even a handy App so you can check where to shop, along with reviews, and details of the discounts available, whilst you're out and about.
One of the best aspects of the scheme is finding new places, especially the ones off the beaten track. I discovered Free State Kitchen a while back, in fact I've more than saved my £10 card fee in the 10% off food discount there alone. My good friend Alex, who likes her cocktails, is rather taken by the 2 for 1 offer at The Peacock; and if you fancy a walk along the beach in the company of the Iron Men, the lovely people at the nearby The Crosby Tea Rooms will give you a free cup of tea when you buy some of their delicious cake.
Talking of cake, if you're down in the Baltic Quarter at weekends, Unit 51 will give a whopping 20% off. 20%! Off cake! (actually its off everything, but I like cake, which is why I'd eaten most of it before I took the photo - and if you look carefully you can see my card - my card, get your own! - making a guest appearance)
Today I made my way down to Siren on the edge of the Baltic, which was an oasis of calm on a Saturday afternoon, and sampled their Halluomi Burger with Sweet Potato Fries, which was absolutely delicious, I'll definitely be heading down there again.
These are just a taster of the nearly 50 different companies signed up to #TheCard, with more being added every week. I've only mentioned some of the food and drink venues, but there's a food shop, clothes shops, hairdressers, bookshops, masseuse, heck you can even get a discount on laptop repairs! You discover and support local independent business, meet some lovely people, and save money, that's a win win and, eh, win in anyone's book.
The independence I'm advocating is from the dull, boring, same old same old, identikit high streets. You remember when you were a kid and going on holiday was an adventure, partly because everything was different, the shops were different, the sweets were different, the lolly ices were different, well not anymore, it doesn't matter where in the world you go, you'll be met with the same McDonalds, identical Tescos, indistinguishable Starbucks where they think writing your mispelt name on a cup equals service. I can never understand why people queue up in Liverpool One to buy a Large, Skinny, Extra Hot Nondescript Dishwater (even if your name, or variation thereof, is scrawled on the cup), when a few minutes walk away you can find an independent, get a seat, and a cup of enjoyable coffee, brought over to you by someone who'll speak to you because they want to, not because the corporate manual says they have to.
Well a revolution is underway, and as usual, Liverpool is leading it. We're not storming the Bastille, but we are taking to the streets armed with a plastic card and an App. Independent Liverpool the brainchild of David Williams and Oliver Press only started this year, but their army of cardholders has mobilised throughout the city. You can buy your card online, or pick one up from the Bold Street branch of those lovely guys in Utility for just £10. The card is valid for a year, and there are various discounts and special deals from all the shops, cafes, restaurants, bars and business who have signed up, which means you'll be in profit in no time at all. But here's the USP behind the card - all the business and services are independent. Owned and run by real local people, who care about their city, and pay their taxes!
There's even a handy App so you can check where to shop, along with reviews, and details of the discounts available, whilst you're out and about.
One of the best aspects of the scheme is finding new places, especially the ones off the beaten track. I discovered Free State Kitchen a while back, in fact I've more than saved my £10 card fee in the 10% off food discount there alone. My good friend Alex, who likes her cocktails, is rather taken by the 2 for 1 offer at The Peacock; and if you fancy a walk along the beach in the company of the Iron Men, the lovely people at the nearby The Crosby Tea Rooms will give you a free cup of tea when you buy some of their delicious cake.
Talking of cake, if you're down in the Baltic Quarter at weekends, Unit 51 will give a whopping 20% off. 20%! Off cake! (actually its off everything, but I like cake, which is why I'd eaten most of it before I took the photo - and if you look carefully you can see my card - my card, get your own! - making a guest appearance)
Today I made my way down to Siren on the edge of the Baltic, which was an oasis of calm on a Saturday afternoon, and sampled their Halluomi Burger with Sweet Potato Fries, which was absolutely delicious, I'll definitely be heading down there again.
These are just a taster of the nearly 50 different companies signed up to #TheCard, with more being added every week. I've only mentioned some of the food and drink venues, but there's a food shop, clothes shops, hairdressers, bookshops, masseuse, heck you can even get a discount on laptop repairs! You discover and support local independent business, meet some lovely people, and save money, that's a win win and, eh, win in anyone's book.
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Biennial 2014
Liverpool Biennial 2014 - Tuesday Sessions
For the first time, curators of the 2014 Liverpool Biennial Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman will discuss the material and methods that have informed their thinking for the forthcoming edition of the Biennial.Mai Abu ElDahab is a curator from Cairo, living in Brussels. From 2007 to 2011, she was director of Objectif Exhibition, a non-profit contemporary art space dedicated to producing and presenting solo shows by international emerging artists, as well as curating many related events and publications, co-published with Sternberg Press. Most recently, she produced a record of artist songs performed by the band Concert entitled Behave Like an Audience, also with Sternberg Press, 2013.Anthony Huberman is a curator and writer from Geneva currently based in San Francisco, where he is the Director of the CCA Wattis Institute and Advisor/Founding Director of The Artist's Institute in New York. Previously, he worked as chief curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, curator at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, curator at SculptureCenter, New York, and director of education and public programs at MoMA PS1, New York.
To Camp & Furnace last night to hear from the Biennial 2014 curators Anthony Huberman and Mai Abu ElDahab about their experiences and influences which will be steering next year’s festival.
Anthony made some good points about wanting to do more with less, i.e. having less artists and venues but being able to devote more time to those we do have, and gave an example of being excited to see that a favourite artist was included at another festival but then disappointedly finding that he only had one small piece on show. I can see what he meant, but I don’t think previous Liverpool Biennials have been especially guilty of that. Yes some artists only have one piece, but we have also devoted whole rooms, indeed whole venues to a single artist. For instance in 2012 we had:
- Ming Wong at 28-32 Wood Street
- Sabelo Mlangeni at The Tea Factory
- Markus Kahre at The Monro
- Hanni Bjartalid, Sigurdur Gudjonsson and Jessie Kleemann’s North Atlantic Pavilion (in my opinion, the most successful of the City States)
I was less
clear on what was forming in Mai’s mind however, I like the storytelling aspect
of her approach, and her love of the traditional pub atmosphere for meeting and exploring the heart of a city. The beermats (see photo above) are pointing towards that focus, but was intrigued when she said she was struck upon arriving in
Liverpool by the things that we don’t have, she repeated that later and was
asked to elaborate, and made an eyebrow raising observation that the music scene
for instance had migrated elsewhere. As you know the thriving Liverpool music scene is
one I am quite evangelical about, and I rather felt Mai has not yet had the
opportunity to understanding the city, and it is a city, not a town as she kept
saying…
I'm very protective towards my home city, far too many people knock it, without foundation!
I'm very protective towards my home city, far too many people knock it, without foundation!
We need to
encourage famous artists to bring their work here, and to see those yet to be famous artists
too, but this is a unique city, with a unique perspective on
life and a wide ranging arts, music and cultural community, and we need to ensure that our festival is Liverpool Biennial and not
simply a Biennial which happens to be in Liverpool.
On venues the usual suspects of Tate Liverpool, Bluecoat and FACT were mentioned, and then a non-specific look at various empty buildings within the business district, although it seems that nothing has been decided on there. Sally Tallant https://twitter.com/SallyTBiennial also mentioned that as well as the curated part of Biennial there would of course be the additional strands of Bloomberg New Contempories; John Moores; and Independents https://twitter.com/independentsLPL
Another
attendee last night said she felt the evening (and possibly by extension the
Biennial itself?) was meant only for “big wigs” and not for the “regular folk
of the city”. And I understood what she meant. I was amazed during last
year’s Biennial at how many city residents I spoke to: neighbours, strangers,
taxi drivers etc who had no idea it was happening, or if they were aware of its
presence didn’t where it was, or what it was, or when it was. I even heard
people say “oh but it’s not for the likes of me”. Yes it is, it’s for everyone,
it’s about everyone, it’s from everyone. It has to be, otherwise what’s the
point?
Liverpool
Biennial 2014 runs from 5th July to 26th October 2014 www.biennial.com
Not Just
Collective’s https://twitter.com/notjust_ exhibition “Clandestine” is on now and continues at the Williamson
Tunnels https://twitter.com/wmsontunnels until Sunday 27th October
Art Club, looking at "3am: wonder, paranoia and the restless night" meets at the Bluecoat on Sunday 3rd November at 2pm
Friday 18 October 2013
Secrecy, Speculation, Superstition
“When I
returned to partial life my face was wet with tears. How long that state of
insensibility had lasted I cannot say. I had no means now of taking account of
time. Never was solitude equal to this, never had any living being been so
utterly forsaken.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth
To the
Williamson Tunnels https://twitter.com/wmsontunnels last night for the opening of Clandestine – the latest
exhibition by the Not Just Collective https://twitter.com/NotJust_ - the tunnels are
the perfect venue for this exhibition, and with the heavy rain that fell on
Liverpool the night before still seeping through the sandstone, the atmosphere
became even more mysterious, if not downright creepy.
After descended into the first of the vast caverns and crossing the scaffolding platform you first come to Nicola Roscoe-Calvert's "Wilweorthunga" a thought provoking piece which links the unemployment of today back through the years to the hardships endured by the people who dug these tunnels in the 19th century.
Climbing the
steps we next come to Andy Johnson's "Our Dads Year" another piece reaching back through the years and connecting to the original men who laboured deep below ground here. Next the tunnel narrows and we brush the hand-carved sandstone, and avoiding the drips of water seeping though cast our eyes upward to the messages of India Cawley-Gelling's "And Daddy goes Back to Ireland" soaring overhead.
Pieces by Becky Peach "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" and "Crashing Under Waves" by Thomas Ross line the rock walls as we venture further into the labyrinth, the natural bedrock of the city now gives way to concrete, as a seemingly Cold War shelter of a cross corridor links to the next tunnel. Here the walls are home to Barbara Harrison's "Labour" and then the atmospheric faces "Set in Stone", "Breaking Through" and "Haunting" by Gosia Smolenska appeared to be emerging from the walls, and I didn't look back to check whether they had or not!
Echoing the almost cave like setting, the animal remains of Barrett & Cribley's "Still Life (with Skull) II" take on a sacrificial composition, an effect heightened by the hushed voices permeating from the next tunnel. Graham Rimmer's "The Trinity" stand sentinel as we are drawn to the sounds which lie beyond the timber bulkhead, but first the mood is lightened a little as Wendy Williams' "Trailers" pause from their Lilliputian adventures amongst an underground terrace deep in the underground world that Williamson has left us.
Making our way to the lobby and then underneath the space we had just left - the tunnels are complicated like that - we took our seats for two performances, Tom George https://twitter.com/tomgeorgearts sang for us and Andy Johnson http://twitter.com/andyoutnabout captivated the audience with a tale of Dragons, Knights, and some cunning Scouse landgrabbing...
Clandestine is a further exploration of the Not Just Collective's diverse range of artists, and shows there is much more to be discovered leading up to and beyond next year's return of Biennial http://twitter.com/Biennial
Clandestine runs until 27th October and can be accessed via the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre, Smithdown Lane, Liverpool L7 3EE
https://www.facebook.com/NotJustCollective
https://www.facebook.com/NotJustCollective
Sunday 6 October 2013
Time to start again...
Right, it's time to start this 'ere blogging thing again and keep to it this time. So you can look forward, no I promise, to some exciting, no I promise, regular updates, no really, I promise, about what's going on in and around my world.
So for this week, I'm talking music (and although I know what I like, I'm not a musician by any stretch of the imagination so apologies in advance if this comes across as "he doesn't know what he's talking about")
When I moved back to Liverpool two years ago I started spending some time on the live music scene and seeing what and who was emerging onto the scene. This year has been a bit of a strange one so it's time I started exploring this side of the city again.
I've been aware of a young guy called Dominic Dunn for a while now, and follow him on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Dominic_Dunn22 - his music, which he writes himself, is very much my taste, but I've never been able to get to any of his gigs. Then last week he released his first video on his youtube site and I was blown away.
He's moved into a new direction with this one, called Keep Them Tight, a homage to the noble sport of boxing. He sings with a noticable scouse accent, which suits his work anyway, but really brings this song to life. Watch, listen and see what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzlBVf_0z5U
By co-incidence after seeing this last weekend and letting him know how good I thought it was, I then bumped into him in The Brink and had a chat which was nice and I promised to catch a gig as soon as I can.
I then saw he was helping to organise a Young Musicians session at The Brink yesterday, I was going to be in town so I headed down. It was the first event so not many people in the audience, but those that were there seemed rightly impressed and hopefully as word spreads the audience figures will improve.
Dominic wasn't performing as he's getting ready for the Liverpool Irish Festival later this month, but first on the stage was https://twitter.com/eleanor_nelly, who was outstanding, singing a selection of covers and her own material - I can't remember what I was doing when I was 13, but it certainly wasn't anything as creative and talented as Eleanor!
Then a four piece band called The Haze https://twitter.com/TheHazeMusicUk - with again a mixture of covers and original material, I'll definately be checking these guys out in the future.
Unfortunately I had to shoot off and so I missed another young guy who've I've only just become aware of, Rosh, https://twitter.com/OfficialRosh who I really wanted to see. I'm not the biggest fan of Grime, but I thought his track "Cemetery Wealth" http://t.co/LEEE5sIfgt was interesting, and it has certainly grown on me over the past week.
So there you go, this is just scratching the surface of what's fresh on the Liverpool music scene at the moment.
Turning to art, the Not Just Collective https://www.facebook.com/NotJustCollective has a new exhibition "Clandestine" opening on 17th October in the Williamson Tunnels
I'm not exhibiting for this one, so it'll make a change to go along and not know what to expect. I'll let you all know about it in my next blog, so until then, take care, and in the words of the Doctor "be fantastic".
So for this week, I'm talking music (and although I know what I like, I'm not a musician by any stretch of the imagination so apologies in advance if this comes across as "he doesn't know what he's talking about")
When I moved back to Liverpool two years ago I started spending some time on the live music scene and seeing what and who was emerging onto the scene. This year has been a bit of a strange one so it's time I started exploring this side of the city again.
I've been aware of a young guy called Dominic Dunn for a while now, and follow him on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Dominic_Dunn22 - his music, which he writes himself, is very much my taste, but I've never been able to get to any of his gigs. Then last week he released his first video on his youtube site and I was blown away.
He's moved into a new direction with this one, called Keep Them Tight, a homage to the noble sport of boxing. He sings with a noticable scouse accent, which suits his work anyway, but really brings this song to life. Watch, listen and see what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzlBVf_0z5U
By co-incidence after seeing this last weekend and letting him know how good I thought it was, I then bumped into him in The Brink and had a chat which was nice and I promised to catch a gig as soon as I can.
I then saw he was helping to organise a Young Musicians session at The Brink yesterday, I was going to be in town so I headed down. It was the first event so not many people in the audience, but those that were there seemed rightly impressed and hopefully as word spreads the audience figures will improve.
Dominic wasn't performing as he's getting ready for the Liverpool Irish Festival later this month, but first on the stage was https://twitter.com/eleanor_nelly, who was outstanding, singing a selection of covers and her own material - I can't remember what I was doing when I was 13, but it certainly wasn't anything as creative and talented as Eleanor!
Then a four piece band called The Haze https://twitter.com/TheHazeMusicUk - with again a mixture of covers and original material, I'll definately be checking these guys out in the future.
Unfortunately I had to shoot off and so I missed another young guy who've I've only just become aware of, Rosh, https://twitter.com/OfficialRosh who I really wanted to see. I'm not the biggest fan of Grime, but I thought his track "Cemetery Wealth" http://t.co/LEEE5sIfgt was interesting, and it has certainly grown on me over the past week.
So there you go, this is just scratching the surface of what's fresh on the Liverpool music scene at the moment.
Turning to art, the Not Just Collective https://www.facebook.com/NotJustCollective has a new exhibition "Clandestine" opening on 17th October in the Williamson Tunnels
I'm not exhibiting for this one, so it'll make a change to go along and not know what to expect. I'll let you all know about it in my next blog, so until then, take care, and in the words of the Doctor "be fantastic".
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