The work on Caring Togethers planned move to our new base in Charing Cross has started. There are still a few weeks of work before completion, but we thought that we would give you a flavour of where we are at, just so that we can have a ‘before and after’ snapshot as the work progresses. As you can see, it is still a building site at present. We will keep you up to date with developments.
The third sector in Leeds has, along with all others, been going through a period of intense activity. We see the direct results of covid every day, in the impact on physical and mental health, the social and economic impacts, all effecting aspects of our everyday lives.
Third sector organisations have been at the forefront of efforts to contain and deal with the consequences of covid for the past six months. We are really aware that we are now in a second wave, and may be on the cusp of lockdown – this is our clear message of helping people to help themselves, and help others.
This is our “Call for Action”, a distinctive message, from the third sector:
From The Shows Must Go On this weekend, a celebration of one of the West End’s most iconic voices with the full performance from his sell-out Bring Him Home Tour.
From Friday 16th at 7pm and available to watch for 48 hours
Alfie Boe: Bring Him Home – Filmed live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, during Alfie Boe’s sell out tour; the star of Les Miserables and the much loved tenor showcases his mesmerizing and outstanding voice in his very own show Bring Him Home. With an impressively diverse collection of tracks including the impassioned “Maria” from West Side Story, Ewan MacColl’s heartfelt “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, a truly breathtaking rendition of “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables and an emotional performance of Martina McBride’s ‘In My Daughters Eyes’. Plus, Alfie performs a wonderful medley of James Bond theme tunes, and uniquely inspired renditions of tunes from Moulin Rouge, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and much more. Alfie is also joined on stage for some unique performances by his very special guests, including Matt Lucas, Melanie C, Tom Fletcher from McFly, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Shakira Riddell-Morales. The peoples favorite tenor, delights with a truly magical performance.
Dear all,
Leeds City Council is encouraging people within their household groups or support bubbles to collect tree seeds in their local parks and green spaces to help support the growing of future woodlands across Leeds.
Running until November, residents can collect acorns, beech nuts, chestnuts and conkers, and leave them in seed collection boxes across the city for use as part of the council’s Woodland Creation initiative.
There’s been a big increase in scammers pretending to be from TV Licensing recently and so TV Licensing is working with Action Fraud and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to give customers information to help them protect themselves from scams
They have produced a guide to help you tell whether a communication is genuine and warn people what to look out for and it covers emails, letters, phone calls, text messages, home visits and how to report a scam.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ss/Satellite…
The Corona-19 virus is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, unless you happen to be the very same Eric Yuan who introduced the Zoom corporation to the public in 2013, without realising that soon afterwards the public would find uses for Zoom that probably hadn’t occurred to Eric Yuan.
He must have thought there would be a host of business and educational uses for Zoom, which allows up to nine people at a time to appear on one screen in a conversation from their own homes.
True they’ve been shrunk to matchbox-size and have a tendency to freeze mid-frame, as if they were having an extreme cardio-vascular event, but it’s not wholly unlike being in a roomful of people trying to carry on as if nothing too much had happened,
For example, a group of regulars at the Chemic Tavern in Woodhouse, Leeds – including me – meet twice a week on Zoom to try and recreate the aimless chat we used to enjoy before the big lockdown and now continue because, although it’s nothing like being in a pub, it’s something like being in the human race.
The problem is that we don’t have much to tell each other because there’s very little news that’s not virus-relayed and we don’t get out much. Often we end up showing each other what we’re making for tea or trying to remember all the good stuff we’ve seen on telly, which doesn’t take long.
The community group Caring Together in Woodhouse and Little London, which offers activities and advice for the over-55s and which Lynne and I belong to, has thought of a more imaginative use of Zoom.
Last week it attempted to recreate the full cinematic experience without big screens, screaming music or precariously-employed staff. There was, however, a Zoom showing of the 2017 musical The Greatest Showman, a bag of popcorn, nuts and pleasantly unhealthy sweets, and, to represent the bit where the audience shuffles around looking first for their seats and then for the exit, a short Zoom discussion before and after the show.
It all made for something that felt like an Occasion because watching a film at home isn’t an Occasion and talking on Zoom isn’t an Occasion but combining the two, so that there is some sense of communal activity, is at the very least an Event, similar, in quality, if not in size, to a big sports final or a premier at the Odeon, Leicester Square.
Incidentally, The Greatest Showman, based on the life of the circus entrepreneur PT Barnum but not to be confused with the 1986 musical Barnum, was… well, not exactly Oklahoma or Carousel but still welcome enough in troubled and very rainy times.
Thank you for sharing Oliver, until next time….
p.s. And a big thank you to Ann for sharing your film with us 🙂
The Arts & Minds Network brings together people in Leeds who believe the arts can promote mental well-being.
The theme of the 2020 exhibition is Change is Gonna Come and can be seen online this year https://artsandmindsnetwork.org.uk/exhibition/ (Click on each image to enlarge it and find out more)
“Be it social, biological or simply the passing of time, the one thing that never changes is that there is always change. Change can be self-generated or imposed, change can affect things on a micro or macro scale and change can be positive or negative or sometimes both at the same time. Change can alter the physical world around us or can be internally focused and live in our thoughts and ideas.
We exist in a time of change, both good and bad. Against a backdrop of a changing world due to the outbreak of coronavirus it is easy to forget that there are a multitude of other changes going on as well, ranging from the environmental changes happening to the planet that we all live on to the social changes being fought for and debated in countries around the globe. Whether it is a tree or a statue that is toppled, change is gonna come. Whether it is our own thoughts and feelings or our interactions with those around us that are altering, change is gonna come. Change is fundamental to our very existence and it is change that makes us human.
Change is both an opportunity and a challenge to examine ourselves and the world we live in. This year, Arts & Minds members have submitted a piece of artwork each responding to the idea of change, from personal shifts in perspective to changes on a global scale.”
Dear all
“When the trees their summer splendour
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn,
Loveliest season of the year.”
1. In which film does the famous Marilyn Monroe skirt blowing scene take place? The Seven Year Itch
2. If you were in France and saw choufleur on the menu what ingredient would it be? Cauliflower
3. What county is the geographical centre of England? Leicestershire
4. What famous film is referenced in Britney Spears’ Oops I Did It Again? Titanic
5. What is the name of the character Jem and Scout are afraid of in To Kill a Mockingbird? Boo Radley
6. What are the only two double-landlocked countries in the world? Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan
7. Boxing, wrestling and which other sport are mentioned in the Bible? Running
8. What does the “SD” in SD card stand for? Secure Digital
9. How many novels did Emily Brontë write? One – Wuthering Heights10. What does the word conniption mean? A fit of rage or hysterics
11. What company was the first to make an iPhone? Cisco
12. Who entered a contest to find his own look-alike and came 3rd? Charlie Chaplin
13. True or false: You can sneeze in your sleep. False
14. How many varieties does Heinz have? 57
15. What did Queen Victoria ban from her funeral, the colour red, white or black?
The colour black – instructing mourners to wear white. Even the weather obliged – the ground was covered with snow.
16. Banana trees can walk, is this true or false – true
They can move up to 15 cm per year. This is because they have no central root, but lateral roots which grow and move towards the sun.
17.What was unusual about the rain in the 1952 film Singing In The Rain?
The rain was water mixed with milk. The crew did this so the raindrops and puddles would show up on film
18. You will produce 121 pints of this in your life – what is it?Tears
19. Are there any countries in the world that don’t have McDonald’s fast-food restaurants?
There are none in Greenland, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, most of the Middle East, Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Burma, Vietnam and most of Africa.
20.What do John Lennon and Gary Lineker have in common?
Both were given the middle name Winston – after Churchill. Lineker also shares a birthday with Churchill on November 30.
