Focus On: Graffiti

Graffiti 03 (uploaded on Flickr.com by photo-nattie)

On Saturday 5 February I am attending a street photography event with a focus on graffiti.  I’ve always liked graffiti but I first fell in love with it during my trip to Serbia in 2010.  The event is for beginners and there will be experienced photographers on hand to give you guidance on aspects such as lighting and composition.  It would be great if any of you could join me there too!

Overview
Where: Graffiti @ Waterloo & Southbank
When: 10:00am-1:00pm
Who: Beginners looking to capture graffiti art
Price: £10
Meeting: Waterloo Station - Platform 1
End point: Eat on Southbank @ 1pm

The Focus On: Graffiti is organised by Natalie Clarke of The Photo School through meetup.com.  I’ve attended two of their events before and can highly recommend them. 

• In 2009, I attended their Creative Composition course and blogged about it at London: The City, the Monument & the Bridge.
• In 2010, I attended their Camera Settings course and blogged about it at Weekend Snapshots ~ 2: London.

Reclaim the Night 2010

"Reclaim the Night: 22.11.08" on the Fawcett Society Flickr stream

On 27 November 2010 at 6pm, the annual Reclaim the Night march will embark from Whitehall Place, central London.  Women will march to Camden Centre, Euston where they will hold a mixed rally and party.

Why Reclaim the Night?

According to the British Crime Survey (2001) there are an estimated 47,000 rapes every year, around 40,000 attempted rapes and over 300,000 sexual assaults. Yet our conviction rate is the lowest it has ever been, one of the lowest in Europe, at only 5.3%. This means that more rapists were convicted in the 1970s when Reclaim The Night marches first started than they are now. Did you know that the maximum sentence possible for rape is life imprisonment? Probably not, because rarely are rapists even reported or convicted, let alone with a realistic sentence. This situation has to change.

We march to demand justice for rape survivors.

I will be taking part in the Reclaim the Night march this year and if you would like to join me, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.  It is a women-only march but there will be a Pro-Feminist Men’s Group solidarity demonstration meeting by the Edith Cavell statue, opposite the National Portrait Gallery, also at 6pm.

Event: Race for Life 2010

On Sunday I took part in the Race for Life for the third consecutive year.  Race for Life is a sponsored ladies only 5 kilometre race to raise money for Cancer Research UK. 

I was runner number 3276 yesterday and I dedicated my run to my Dad who discovered he had cancer in 2006.  It was a really tough time but after surgery, chemo and radiation he was given the all clear in 2007.  I will always be thankful that he survived and every day with him is like a gift. 

Needless to say, I had tears in my eyes before the race even began!  I did the race with three of my colleagues this year and one of my colleagues brought along her two little children.

The hero of the day was this little girl who walked the entire 5 kilometres (3 miles) without once being asked to be picked up.  In fact, if anything, she was spurring us on at the end by insisting that her mum not overtake her with the baby buggy!

As always, there were tons of gorgeous outfits and all sorts of women were dressed up.  There was even a courageous little girl and her dog!

It was a fabulous day and I am happy to say that I captured even better photos of St Paul’s Cathedral than last year and they certainly deserve their own post.  You’ll also be happy to hear, I’m sure, that I found the London Wall this year!  The weather was just perfect too.

It was mostly sunny but every now and again, a little cloud cover came over to cool us down a little bit.  It is just as well because I forgot to pack my sunglasses! 

The Race for Life is a wonderful fundraising event and I really look forward to it each year.  If you would like to sponsor my race and donate money, please do so by clicking the link below.  From a minimum of just £2, the money goes straight to the charity and does not pass through my hands!  All donors will, of course, receive a little link love from me in a follow up post!

Running for Autism

One of the greatest benefits of running this blog has been the opportunity to meet all sorts of people I might not have encountered otherwise.  A short while ago, I received a couple of comments from a friendly blogger called “Revivor” and when I popped over to his blog, I saw that he was organising a four day run from Clapham to Brighton to raise money for the charity CASPA (Children on the Autistic Spectrum Parents’ Association). 

Naturally I was intrigued and so I contacted him straight away and we decided to meet up and chat about his noble adventure.

Ivor Reveley (check out the “Gotta Run” t-shirt)

On whether he has done such a thing before…

Two years ago, on his fiftieth birthday, Ivor and a team of runners ran from Romford to Orpington.  They ran 50kms over 50 hours to raise money for 50 young people with autism.  Ivor broke that down for me and explained that it is not as impossible as it sounds (bearing in mind that I walk a 5km fun run once a year): you run for two to three hours a day over three days and cover about 20 kilometres a day.  It is not easy but it is possible!

They raised £8,500 on that occasion which meant that their charity CASPA was able to obtain viability and get the real start that it required.  This is so important, as Ivor explains, because it meant that the charity could remain a stable entity in the lives of the children and families it serves.

On why he was raising money for CASPA?

Ivor's sixteen-year-old son has autism.  After being a charity trustee for fifteen to twenty years, Ivor realised that he had the skill necessary to make a difference in the lives of other children with autism and he decided to get involved with CASPA.

On what CASPA is and what they do...

Ivor is the chair and trustee of the charity.  They started off as an informal parents’ association in 2002 and formally registered the charity in 2005.  As a charity, they run events and workshops for young people with autism such as:

• Brighton Beach kid’s days out
• Youth Club on a Friday night
• A residential week long summer camp
• Independent Living Workshops (which are sponsored by the LDA)

They have received brilliant feedback from the children who say it is a safe environment for them to have fun, free from bullying or other such concerns.

On making the runs interesting…

After completing A-levels in Economics, Geography and Maths, Ivor went on to study Economics at university. An avid map lover, Ivor is now using his Geography and Maths skills again as he plans the most historical and geographically interesting routes through cathedrals and up high streets.  The idea is for the runners to enjoy these events and to see and learn about the places they run through.

On this year’s event…

Date: 30 April – 3 May 2010.
Route: Clapham Common to Brighton Beach (route details)

Ivor hopes to do events like this every even year and this year they will be doing a four day run from Clapham to Brighton.  Ivor is keeping a log of all of the training and organising of the event in his blog Four Days Running.

A half marathon is 21km and these runners will be doing more than that each day as they will run from about 2.30pm to 5pm every day for four days.

Friends, family and supporters will be able to meet up with the runners every evening as pub nights are being organised on Facebook and the hotels that the group is staying in is published on the site (stay on route).

This is not a public run but anyone interested in joining the run can contact Ivor at the site to get involved.  They have a photographer taking part this year so expect great photos!

On how YOU can help…

You can donate money using the button above.  That will take you to the Just Giving site where the money will go straight to the charity and won’t touch anyone’s hands.

But don’t worry, there are lots of other ways to help too:

• Follow the Four Days Running blog
• Follow Ivor’s Twitter account: @revivor. 
• Join the fun and do the four day run: Run With Us
• Stay on the route and be a supporter

Event: War of the Worlds

I’m going to take a wee break from chronicling my trip to New York to post about The War of the Worlds.  I went to see the 30th anniversary live show of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds on 20 June, the night before I flew to New York.  Of course, a more diligent blogger would have come right home and blogged about it that night but I trust you won’t judge me too harshly! 

In case you’re wondering what I’m going on about, I’ll give you a brief recap.  In 1898, the infinitely talented H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds.  In 1938, a radio dramatisation of the story led to a mild panic amongst listeners owing to its format of simulated news broadcasts.  I doubt many people truly believed the Martians had landed but in the months before World War II, reports of poisonous gasses and invasion would have been frightening if heard out of context.  In 1978, Jeff Wayne released a musical concept album based on the book.  The double album was about 90 minutes long and it tells through music and song the story of the Martians landing and their attempt to take over Earth.

It begins exactly as the book does: “No one would have believed in…

[press play]

I have to apologise. My simple little point-and-click camera might be okay for photographs but it takes shocking videos of limited length.  If you did listen to the clip above, you may have recognised the opening chords.  This version is actually quite famous.

For me personally, this was a very exciting event.  I’ve been a fan of this version for so many years that I know the entire double album off by heart and was absolutely thrilled to have the chance to see it performed live.

 

They had a full orchestra and Jeff Wayne himself conducted.  He received such a loud applause when he walked out onto the stage.  You can just see him there on the screen above.

  

The story is narrated by The Journalist and was originally performed by Richard Burton on the 1978 album.  His image was computer generated during the performance and his original narration used.  Justin Hayward performed the parts of The Journalist that were sung.  I almost fainted when I saw him there on stage (luckily I was seated).  This wonderful man was the lead singer of the Moody Blues and his voice is still really good.  There were actors playing the roles of The Artillery Man, Parson Nathaniel, The Parson’s Wife Beth, Carrie and the Voice of Humanity too. 

Look! Justin Hayward!  Sorry, I was a bit too far away to get decent photos of the cast.

It’s probably worth mentioning that I refused to watch Tom Cruise’s film on principal.  I’m just not a fan of Tom Cruise, his Mickey Mouse voice, the fact that he broke Nicole Kidman’s heart or the fact that they took my beloved War of the Worlds and set it in the modern day.  So this was the first time I’ve seen a proper model of the Martian fighting machine and it was awesome!

I took my brother along with me because Stephen had no idea what it was all about.  We had a fantastic night and I loved the performance so much that I’d certainly consider going again. If I have a spare £50 lying around and they come to the UK.

In the meantime, I’m going to Mika on Friday (Ste likes him and I won tickets) and both Pixies and Shpongle in October.  It’ll be the second time I see both those bands.

Event: Update: Race for Life 2008

I did not realise - you can sponsor me (post-race) for the run I did on 20 July 2008 and the money will go to Cancer Research UK.

Event: Race for Life 2008

I did the Race for Life 2008 5km race today (that is about 3 miles). I did it with my colleagues and it was a lot of fun.

I caught the train to Charing Cross which is right by the National Gallery. I'm a bit of a fan of the London Underground and the Underground stations and thought this one was just too pretty to pass up. What you can see there is a map of the Trafalgar Square area which is where the National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery and South Africa House are located. 

The race took place in Regents Park in London. Regents Park is really exquisite and has a lovely botanical garden section with loads of beautiful different types of roses. The roses are all well labelled and easy to distinguish from each other. I was quite impressed and have definitely put Regents Park on my list for a proper visit. I'll need to get pictures of those roses anyway!

It's not a good picture at all, but I dedicated my run to Lesley's sister-in-law Lorraine who has lung cancer. (Lesley is my step-Mum). That pink sign on my back says: "I race for life for Lorraine". We thought the race was for breast cancer (on account of all the pink) or for women suffering from cancer but it turns out it was for Cancer Research UK. Naturally, I would have dedicated the race to my Dad who beat cancer in January 2006 had I known that. Trust Mandy to sign up for a 5km race and not know what it is for!

This is what the starting line looked like - the mood was electric! I had no idea there were thousands of women behind us too or I would have taken a picture of that!!!

The deer in Regents Park came out to support us. :0) There are elephants too and they are so pretty I thought I had to take a picture. This was just after the 1km mark.

That is me at the finish line. The walk was really easy and my time was 1 hour, 1 minute and 50 seconds. Once you get chatting it is a really easy walk to do and I was surprised how effortless and quick it was. I will definitely sign up for the next 5km race that comes along.