Funding approved for regeneration

in this weeks Gt Yarmouth Mecury news paper is the news of the successful funding of an area of the town As part of this scheme that is most interesting is the renovation of St Georges Theatre in the scheme. It will be transformed into a flexiable arts centre and communty hub. This will be completed by April of 2011.

Closer look at the town

St Georges theatre in the top left hand corner of this section of the mural.

Two sides of the town

The mural depicts two sides of the town. The town itself (which is on the right) and the countryside and broads that surround the town (which is on the left). A community project led by Mike Skipper. There's some pictures of this mural earlier in my blog I posted a couple of years before.

A mural revisted.

I paid a visit on the way back to the Color4all mural in Great Yarmouth to see the state it's in. This is situated in a subway in the town. The mural is in two halves of the corridor. there is another corridor that has been painted over but there has been no attempt at another mural. The work that color4all have done is slowly becoming covered in graffiti, dirt and cobwebs. I took some more pictures with the Pentax for some better quality images.

The Great Yarmouth Flickr meet

Last sunday amidst the snow fall several local members of Flickr met to discuss all things photography and life. So known by our Flickr login names which is myself as The Broken Camera , Clockworknoggin, WiccySunrise, Oleymoley, StutakesPhotos and SaltyDogJacko we met up in the Pub on the Prom on Great Yarmouth seafront. Sparkfish only got as far as the race course because it was blowing a white one and Sheryl1 couldn't come because of the bad weather. It took some an hour to drive from Lowestoft to Gt Yarmouth. As for me certainly worth walking into town for although the pavements were icy.
So after much coffee and a few pics by some later. It looks as if we're going to meet up sometime next year when the weather and light is better and do a photoshoot some in the locality. Oleymoley brought in his late father in laws Kodak camera. A fantastic piece of equipment that goes upto f45. It says it's a pocket camera but that's for deep pockets!

We'd had discussed the philosophy of of why we took pictures, the fine art of constructive criticism, our cameras, photos, Flickr itself......
Then the weather turned better further along in the afternoon so we all went our seperate ways until next time we logged in and uploaded some more photos.
So the moral of this tale is that the internet is strongest as a social structure when it replicates social interaction with people in the real life through the art of making images.

death on the high street

death on the high street
Originally uploaded by -{The Broken Camera}-

I took this on Sunday morning in the midst of the snow flurry. A couple going in said to the Woolworths employee standing outside "the a man taking photographs..." Well that's usually what happens with cameras. Cameras don't take pictures people do.

I had heard earlier in the week that the Woolworths Group PLC was in financial difficulties. So wanted a shot of this place for old times sake. We all have memories of "Woolies". Certainly of this shop in Great Yarmouth as a child collected many sets of Airfix figures and other items such as sweets. Actually just typing this gave me a flashback to those times of the early seventies. But that's the problem as a brand it seems to hold more as memories of "pick and mix" rather than actually spending any cash there. I used the passport photo booth about twenty years ago and that's it. If they are selling things off cheap I was wondering if they have any rolls of film going cheap?

I know it's abit of an institution here in the UK but the original Woolworths is an American concept was born out of a period of the 19th century that is far removed from today. Time and cultural patterns have changed. It would be worth investigating how much advance the internet has made from high street commerce. Not that is everything but there is a change in the air of how we use the center of urban areas. Much to ponder but an evolution rather than complete change.

It was on the news last week that shops might just get through winter but it's Easter that is make or brake for some. Yes it is indeed a death on the high street.

To those that know

To those that broke inside my car whilst it was parked outside my home and took the stills camera, the video camera, a couple of microphones, a mike stand, a mixer and a laptop.

The above equipment has done alot of comunnity work over it's life time.

It's not the end of the world far from it. Just a minor setback.

You've really made a contribution in making a differance.

So thanks.

900 views of witches

Kittiwiches
That many people have seen it by word of mouth alone.

This tin of coffee was a gift from Ethiopia to Great Yarmouth

Whilst doing the Big Draw workshops over the weekend at the Time and Tide museum on saturday this exhibit caught my eye. The inscription reads:

"This tin of coffee was a gift from Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, on 31st January 1953. It was one of a batch distrubuted to victims of the East Coast Floods."

As today is the 31st is the last day of Black History month this year it's apt to include it.

Hidden Heritage

On monday afternoon attended another talk by Richard Maguire
at Great Yarmouth libary. Very interesting yet again.
Got some better pics and sound for the Black History film.

Lack of tourist information part 1

The Tourist Information point on Great Yarmouth seafront on an october evening

All seems well until you look closley

Lack of tourist information part 2

On closer inspection

Nzinga Dance

Nzinga Dance play at the Great Yarmouth finale of Black History Month.
One of the many performers attending.

Two hundred years on

Least we forget.

Big Draw

These are not jam tarts but as enjoyable never the less.
Another view of the ARC Big Draw workshops at the Time and Tide museum at Great Yarmouth

fish out of water

Just Another Urban Phobia

Big Draw

Alternative celebrity sunrise over the sea.
(aftermath of the paper making workshop)

I'm among artists participating in the Big Draw event at the Time and Tide Museum. The work is under the theme of a "Tide Line" which I am turning into a short film piece.

Great Yarmouth harbours a secret about the slave trade

Yarmouth harbour

As part of the filming of the events of Black History Month I recorded Dr Richard Maguire excellent talk at the Time and Tide museum. One thing that really struck home to me was although the ports of the west of the country such as Liverpool and Bristol involvement with the slave trade are well documented. The eastern ports such as Yarmouth and Kings Lynn were also involved in the early period of the trade.

So indeed Slave ships in Great Yarmouth did exist.

Prehaps that should be remembered at the next years Yarmouth Maritime festival?

Black History Month 2007

We're one week into Black History Month. Pictured above is the The Open Trade Network's popular African Market is in Great Yarmouth for the day. Black History Month is a celebration of the input of world culture in what makes us all who we are.
Myself and Rupert Mallin are going to document this through making a poetry film
of the activities in Great Yarmouth.

Levitation, levitation, levitation...

Raj proves he's on the up.