Peter Mayle had his love affair with France. Bill Bryson is enamoured of the British Isles. Me? Me, I love Japan. I’m not quite sure when it started. Perhaps it has something to do with Clive James’ late night television shows about the Japanese game show ‘Endurance’. Perhaps it was Graham Norton’s trip to Hello Kitty land but my love is there and last month … [Read more...]

A ray of sunshine penetrated the wintry gloom of the city centre last December when Los Angeles film lecturer, casting director and writer Wendall Thomas visited the Tyneside Cinema to present her one day film masterclass: ‘Bridesmaids: Anatomy of a Hit.’ When you think of the Tyneside Cinema you might think of its plush seats, the glorious fact that you can … [Read more...]

As soon as I turned the corner I heard it. A bass line that shook the floor and messed with my heartbeat. The room was dark but for the flickering lights that illuminated a small, square stage. While the rest of the nation sat glued to Strictly Come Dancing and the X Factor, I entered a dark and dangerous world. A world of violence, damage, fear and despair. And … [Read more...]

I have to hold my hands up and say before I start that I absolutely adore Germaine Greer and, when she told the audience at The Sage that she had a ‘nutters and stalkers’ pile in her office into which she sorts her post, I wondered if I had ever graced it. It was after she published her book The Whole Woman in 1999 that I realised the extent of my admiration. The … [Read more...]

If you know Newcastle you already know the work of Cath Campbell. ‘Escapology’ crowns the Northern Stage building, ‘Detour at Four Lane Ends’ animates the façade of the multi-storey car park and, in collaboration with Miles Thurlow, she asks us to question the world around us with the work ‘No No No No No’ that graces five archways of the railway … [Read more...]

Last month the documentary film, 'Happy', by Oscar nominated director Roko Belic, was brought to the North East for one day only at a pop-up cinema in town. The merry band of businesses behind the film's screening included Tynemouth based Jan Etoile of Etoile Enterprises. The film was screened on World Happiness Day, February 11th at The Centre for Life. On the … [Read more...]

One of my earliest memories is sitting on a train (I think it was heading towards Leeds) and listening to my mum reading 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' out loud to me. The carriage was full, the night was drawing in and at one point in the story (I suspect it was when the naughty tiger had “drunk all Daddy's beer”) I looked up to see that we had been surrounded by … [Read more...]

On the opening night of the Turner Prize 2011, BALTIC reached capacity at around 7pm. From then on it was strictly a one-in-one-out policy as art fans snaked all the way back to the Millennium bridge to see what has been dubbed ‘Arguably the world’s most prestigious and best known award for contemporary art.’ This is the first year that the Turner Prize … [Read more...]

Where would you find a trundling long-eared hedgehog, an Australian orbicular granodiorite and a vomiting fulmar? The answer lies a few minutes walk from The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, in the newly refurbished National Museum of Scotland. From 17th Century Japanese Noh theatre masks to the beautiful Nubian sandstone Statue of Arensnuphis, The National Museum of … [Read more...]

John Fred Horseman is a local artist who “likes art and likes steam”. These two very diverse elements have combined throughout his lifetime to form a collection that has been shown in the Laing Art Gallery, exhibited outside The Baltic and featured in national magazines. Mr Horseman’s sculptural work ranges from two beautiful wooden seahorses, carved out of … [Read more...]