Another great family event in Middlesbrough the annual reindeer Parade and Community Carnival – The theme this year was The Nutcracker.
My favourite photo was this pre-parade snap of Santa and his elves.
For more info on Christmas 2010 events in Middlesbrough see:
http://visitmiddlesbrough.com/christmas
My photos of the day below there are additional photos here.
Went to see the Christmas Lights Switch On in Middlesbrough Town centre after work. There was a great atmosphere.
TFM Radio was on hand to host the festivities. A bunch of families were out as well as groups of teenagers. There were sing-a-longs to popular songs and performers from the Middlesbrough Theatre Panto Jack and the Beanstalk revving up the crowd.
A giant snowman hung out by the Christmas Tree to promote the Middlesbrough Town Hall – Northern Sinfonia production of The Snowman. Kids were loving him!
Many people were wondering who the light switcher on would be. It was a young boy named Ethan whose dad is serving in Afghanistan and won’t be home for Christmas. It was quite sweet.
Wayne from TFM radio explained that he could get the excitable crowd to do whatever he wants – jump up and down, pick their noses so little Ethan asked them to jump up and down.
Wayne then told him he could ask them to pretend to be his favourite animal – what’s your favourite animal?
“A Chicken!!!!”
It was brilliant.
The weather wasn’t brilliant but the atmosphere was. Nice antithesis to celebrity culture, struck just the right note.
For info on Christmas 2010 in Middlesbrough see:
http://visitmiddlesbrough.com/christmas
Went to Jamal’s for dinner on Corportation Road with Lizzie and then went to see Iron, the first production by Company TSU – a new theatre group in Middlesbrough.
The official description:
“Unsettling in its opinion and unflinching in its language IRON is inspired by Nigel Williams’ play ‘Class Enemy’, re-imagined and brought to life by Company TSU.
A group of pupils rail against their lives. Angry and disillusioned they wait for a teacher, some answers, some direction but mostly they just wait for the bell to go.”
The play was performed in the round and the performances were excellent. There were video bits integrated into the play that worked well and added to the performance. (Minor quibble is one of these pieces set to the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen, felt long in terms of the length of the play.)
Lizzie was distracted by some of the language in the play, (a fairly constant patter of among other words the “c” word). I don’t know if I am desensitized as a native NYer – I find it easy to filter.
Would love to see these performers again as they gain experience – they did a great job and there was some great potential on offer.
It needs to be said, Venue 2 at Middlesbrough College is another awesome space to watch theatre (in addition to the larger Hazel Pearson Theatre at the College, where we went to see an excellent production of The Laramie Project.)
Iron was performed in the round and it made you want to see more theatre groups creating productions for this amazing space.
Mayor Ray Mallon attended the performance too and reviewed it here.
Started the morning annoyed with the BBC Breakfast show’s discussion of video games. They asked for people’s thoughts on video games asking do they have no impact or do they have a negative impact on children.
There was no option for positive impact on motor skills, hand-eye coordination, literacy and I seem to recall a study of multi-player online games leading to transferable skills for management in the workplace. Yet all video games were being tarred by the same brush.
It seems what they’re really concerned about is clueless parenting. Consenting, responsible adults should not be penalized and required to consume strictly content sanitized for children’s protection. Not everyone draws the line in the same place, so there needs to be room for a multiplicity of community standards…none of this was discussed.
In better television news, I am thoroughly excited for the new series of Misfits to be starting.
After a bizarre day at work, went to the MFC shop to purchase a Boro Brick in honour of my friends coming to visit from Chicago. I’m taking them to a match and now we will have a permanent souvenir of the occasion. : )
Stopped off at the new Caffe Nero in Middlesbrough before heading to the train.
Getting home tonight was misery. Took my usual 5.32 train only to hear an announcement saying we would have to get off one stop later at Thornaby to transfer to a bus which was of course not waiting for us. A very cold over an hour later we finally got on a bus. We stood at the side of the road waiting as empty buses drove past mocking our misery. Finally made it home a little over 2 hours after I started. Good mass transit is really the thing I miss most about NY.
The sad part was my plans for the evening were back in Middlesbrough again!
All’s well that ends well. We missed the first few opening acts but caught a really good mellow set by Billy the Kid and then new band The Vaccines at the Westgarth Social Club in Middlesbrough. The Vaccines reminded me of James crossed with a bit of the Ramones and a random folk singer. Julie thought they sounded a bit like the Editors.
A nice way to end the day. Here’s a vid of them playing Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra) on Jools Holland last week.
Was having a chat with Laura and James from Writers’ Block NE a really cool new creative space in Middlesbrough. We were talking about different Internet tools…I remembered that I had done a post about various forms of constrained writing.
A neat website I hadn’t looked at in ages is oneword.com. You get a word and sixty seconds….start writing and don’t think to hard about it. When you’re done you can get what you’ve written emailed to you or just try another word.
Today’s attempt:
word: miles
miles and miles to go before I sleep…anagram for slime…or limes which smells better…
Think I need more practice : )
new mission should I choose to accept it: creation over consumption
My name is Yaffa Phillips. I enjoy reading, live music gigs, gadgets and photography. I am from Brooklyn, Tel Aviv and now Teesside. Here is where I occasionally write things. Thank you for visiting. On Twitter I am @yaffa
© 2012 Whistling in the dark. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by WordPress. Designed by 
