Jesmond Picture House

After standing empty for 15 years, the Jesmond Picture House is earmarked for demolition and replacement with a, no doubt faceless, office/shopping complex sometime soon (if the process hasn't already started....it's a while since I went 'the posh way round' on the Metro to town!) Seeing that there's a bit of a family connection (Uncle Elwood was the manager there at least until the early 70's and was always good for a free seat on a quiet night when my grant cheque didn't quite stretch) I thought a memorial post was in order to mark its passing.

From Wikipedia...."This suburban cinema opened in 1921 and survived well into the multiplex age. Made in America was the last film to be screened there when it finally closed its doors in October 1993."

The Jesmond didn't just do films, I remember seeing Alexi Sayle there in the mid 80's....it was described as "a memorably bawdy and raucous night", and I can vouch for the fact that it was!

In 2007 28DaysLater, the UK urban exporation group, 'gained access' (no names, no pack drill!) and took some pictures of the decayed interior....see them here together with scans of the Chronicle write-up

Your name here.....

I tried embedding this video from archive.org (where it's described as "The ultimate generic industrial film, built around every script and visual cliche") but Blogger was having none of it. Made in 1960, you can read more details and download the original here

Sunday timewaster

Play the Eyeballing Game

Bisect the angle, find the centre of the circle, find the mid-point of the line etc....strangely addictive even when you're rubbish at it (it took me ages to get that screen grab where I was even vaguely close!)

When concrete was king

I found this set of 35mm teaching slides at work today and scanned them in....they date from 1973.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The Beatles do Shakespeare

Now I'm old enough to remember watching this live (and thinking that the Beatles made Shakespeare a bit more memorable than school did!).....the Fab Four doing the 'play within a play' from Midsummer Night's Dream.

Musical Mechanix

Surrey garages must be a bit bigger than we're used to in the North then!
via Modern Mechanix

Strike a light

Japanese matchboxes.....


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Puget soundscape

Listen to Puget Sound...

Ukuleles on the Tyne

A date for your musical diary, there's still tickets left! A taster follows......

Oliver Kilbourn - a retrospective

"Oliver Kilbourn (1904 – 1993) was a founder member of the Ashington Group, the former WEA art appreciation class that became widely known in the 1930’s as a body of artists committed to recording their working lives and their surroundings. Kilbourn developed a passion for painting, primarily as a painter himself but also for the work of others down the centuries. In the late Thirties and again in the Seventies he produced what he called ‘memoirs as a pitman’: three series of drawings and paintings detailing the working conditions he experienced as a boy of thirteen down the pit. The exhibition, from the artist’s estate, includes paintings and drawings never previously shown, among them pictures in Walpamur on board from the early days of the Group, studies of wartime blackout and wide-ranging landscapes as well as domestic scenes."

19 September– 31 October 2008
Northumbria University Gallery
Monday to Thursday 10am – 5pm, Friday and Saturday 10am to 4pm
Closed Sundays and Bank Holidays. Admission free.

Well worth a visit!

Snarling beast

I thought I'd start posting an occasional image of some local stone beasts I've come across recently. This snarling delight lives on Neville Hall (home of The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, Westgate Rd, Newcastle....next door to the Lit and Phil)....he's rather splendid, don't you think?

Stay calm and stay in your homes

"A script written by the BBC and the government to be broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack has been published. The script, written in the 1970s and released by the National Archives, included instructions to "stay calm and stay in your own homes". It said communications had been disrupted, and the number of casualties and extent of damage were not known. Other papers reveal debates about how to ensure the person reading the script was authoritative and comforting. The script was discussed from 1973 to 1975, during the Cold War."

Read more, and download the transcript here

Graffiti Creator

Someone asked me to plaster a picture of a local beauty spot with mock graffiti today (don't ask!)....and not being that way artistically inclined I had to find something to aid the design process. Luckily I came across Graffiti Creator a while ago. Now it doesn't have a 'save' option, only 'print', but there's 2 workarounds if you want to use your tag as an image...
1 If you have a 'virtual' pdf printer installed just print to that, many image editing programmes are capable of opening pdfs where you can tidy the image up
2 That ever-useful PrtSc (Print Screen) key at the top of your keyboard works wonders too.

Welcome to Mars

"Two years ago, Ken Hollings (a UK journalist) presented a radio series called Welcome To Mars, his reflections on the "fantasy of science in the early years of the American Century." In this unscripted, engaging, and mind-bending series Ken connects the dots between nuclear war, LSD, flying saucers, the occult, weird science, B movies, and the birth of the space age. Ken's words are supported by an incredible outer space score prdocued by Simon James."

Listen to/download all 12 episodes here

A book based on the radio broadcasts is due to be published soon (details)

via BoingBoing

60's Newcastle

Starts Monday, click the image for bigger. A few more details here, (and click on the image for all the gory details of the Bainbridge Revlon Make-up counter......go on, double dog dare you!)

Rainbow....the X rated episode

Bubble Cars

Oh, how I wanted one!



There's a great post about the Bubble Car Museum at Nothing to See Here for the similarly afflicted.

A moment in time

"Muther Grumble existed for around 2 years between 1971-1973 it was produced by a motley group of people consisting of students, workers, the unemployed, trade unionists, pensioners, hippies, artists etc, etc. - anyone who wanted to be involved could be. Its aim was to give a voice to the people of the North East and act as a link between the many varied community/self-help groups which were springing up throughout the region at that time."

The online archive of all 17 issues (either read online or download as pdf)

What are you doing here?

because Dr Who REALLY wants to know!......

Animal crackers

Maw's Educated Ponies....
"When he retired in 1954, Mr Joseph Maw reminisced about his 44 years with educated animals. His first was a horse called Skylark, who could pick from a pile of handkerchiefs those colours named by the audience. Another was Daisy, who danced, and then there was Dolly, the Shetland pony who did sums and told fortunes. In addition, he had a troupe of performing dogs." No, no you can't leave me in suspense...tell me more

From the "North Shields, Life and Work, 1890-1930" Collection at Tomorrow's History