Peoples Republic of South Devon

The surreal deal

There were some real gems in the Surreal Saloon - a kinda live cabaret and interview show which aimed to demonstrate just how wild the South West is. Wild and vibrant in the arts scene that is.

The first of the monthly events - which will run for a year - was tied into the Loss/Gloss exhibition which is having an incredibly interactive weekend at the Media Centre at the Exeter Phoenix. And it was these artists talking about their work that was the strength of the show, touching on what could have been quite intimate moments.

The hosts (and powerhouses behind the shows) Belinda Harris-Reid and Josephine Larsen have taken on a big ask - a live show featuring performance, interview and discussion that needs to keep moving and have the elements feel like a coherent whole.

It’s a laudable intention, and if they can build on the first show while offering the same sort of insights into their eclectic guests, then the saloon is set to become a monthly cultural watering hole.

Catch the next show at the Exeter Phoenix on Friday, May 4, 9pm at the Black Box in the media centre - there is a price, but hey, on the other hand can you afford to miss it?

Posted by Cptn

April 14th, 2007

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D+C for yourself

Phew, it’s been a busy old week on D+CFilm, viewers. But don’t just stand there waving your fist at the sky cos you missed it all - we’ve hand-picked the week’s best movie-type stories from round the region and listed them below.

1. Have we got news for you?

2. Boon for Beckham botherers

3. JCBs are cool. FACT!

4. Filmmaker pines for Ainsley Harriott

5. Al Gore thinks you’re a pig

That’s all the news fit to print. And remember - we love the smell of lip balm in the morning.

Posted by Thin White Duke

April 1st, 2007

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Making waves

Jeez, we hate all this Plymouth Life Centre to-ing and fro-ing (click here to read our latest rant) - not least because we find ourselves siding with the Tories.

Indeed, Monday’s issue of The Herald gathered chappies from the three main parties for their opinions on the newly-christened Sharron Davies Centre (finally confirming the suspicion that this is more about Olympic-sized swimming pools than worthy claims of youth clubbery and bowling).

As usual there was a fair amount of point scoring, with Karen Gillard from the Lib Dems twittering about how ‘the Conservative Party do not like the Liberal Democrats in Plymouth’, while Labour’s Tudor Evans said of the Tories: ‘It’s not a Life Centre they are trying to build, it’s a hokey-cokey centre: in, out, in, out, what are they all about?’. Ah, very clever, Tudor.

Evans went on to say: ‘We will be providing sports and leisure facilities of a quality that will be worthy of potential Olympic athletes that we have in the city.’

Which is all very well, but the vast majority of us aren’t potential Olympic athletes. In fact, we at PRSD aren’t even potential Olympic viewers.

After all this air punching and righteous anger, it was something of a surprise to find Vivian Pengelly, of the Tories, with such a cool head.

‘As far as I can tell, the sudden announcement at the last full council meeting was mostly wishful thinking by Cllr Evans,’ she said, ‘aiming to spend money we do not yet have, estimated without knowing what it is we are going to build.

‘The Sharron Davies Centre is not the same as the Life Centre, and even for the Life Centre there are no solid plans, only artist’s impressions and conceptual ideas which may have little influence on whatever the final design proves to be.

‘If we don’t know what we are building in any more detail than a wishlist waved around by Cllr Evans, how can the cost be stated so precisely? It seems to me there is a plan to raid the kitty, or engage in some sort of asset-stripping.

‘How do we know that playing fields, car parks, Citybus or other city assets will not have to be sold off? Whether we eventually get good value for money - indeed, whether this money will stretch to fit what has been promised by the controlling Labour group - remains an open question.’

See what we mean? We’ll be admiring Cameron’s new hair and reading the bloody Daily Mail next! Pih!

Posted by Thin White Duke

March 20th, 2007

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Something kinda eh?

We at PRSD are hearing all sortsa rumours about Girls Aloud playing in Plymouth on June 9.

According to the Plymouth Sound website (we only looked at it for ‘research purposes’ - honest!) ‘Girls Aloud are going to finish off their national tour with a gig at Newnham Park, near Plympton. Details to follow’.

The rather fab Girls Aloud website seems to confirm that date on their tour diary and thisisplymouth (’research purposes’ again) is apparently convinced.

It says: ‘Event organisers Edge Promotions gained a licence for the event from South Hams District on Tuesday.

‘The company says it hopes Newnham Park will become one of the premier locations for outdoor live entertainment.

‘The event will include support from local bands such as Joey The Lips.’

Joey The chuffing Lips?! This is Girls Aloud we’re talking about, people, not
James Blunt.

The only other reference to the gig we’ve managed to find is this rather strange holding page which says tickets will be available early next week.

It all sounds a bit half-assed to us - not something you would normally associate with Ver Aloud. Who the heck are Edge Promotions? Why is there virtually no advance publicity? And, perhaps more importantly, who would want to see Girls Aloud, playing in a field, supported by Joey The Lips?!

Posted by Thin White Duke

March 18th, 2007

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Ladies’ right

We were a bit remiss and forgot to remind you about International Women’s Day last week - but hey, every day is women’s day here at the People’s Republic (that’s quite enough of that - Captn).

Anyway, Equality South West was, as we’ve come to expect, on the case and used the event to warn that young women in the region may be sleepwalking into stereotypical careers.

They’re concerned female school leavers are too easily funnelled down traditional routes of employment, like working in Spar and hairdressing.

ESW’s Paul Dunn told PRSD: “There’s nothing wrong with being a hairdresser or working in a shop, but too many young women aren’t given a choice.

“If we want true equality in our society, all people, whatever their gender, should be treated the same. That means they should be given the same opportunities, not lazily being led, sleepwalking into the simple option.”

Mr Dunn urged teachers, careers advisers and parents to look beyond the stereotypes and broaden their charges’ horizons.

He added: “A lot is made of the glass ceiling preventing women progressing in their careers but before they get there, they need to first smash their way through the concrete floor.”

Eh? Concrete floor?! It’s no good Dunn, you’ve lost us. And it was all going so well…

Posted by Thin White Duke

March 13th, 2007

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Healthy response

Hullo viewers, Thin White Duke here. We’ve had a lengthy email from a PRSD citizen called David Howard about our NHS story. He’s obviously gotta load of stuff to get off his chest - waaaay more than we have room for. Nevertheless, we’ve decided to post an abridged version below. Hey, if you can’t have a lefty moan in the People’s Republic where can you have one?! Get in touch and let us know what you think.

Anyhoo, here’s what David has to say:

It is not just the NHS that is in trouble, the bloody setup has gone up the wall. Wherever one looks in this country, there are big problems.

Who is to blame for this? Politicians keep telling us it’s the people but we voted for them to run the country. We have a Prime Minister who either can’t or won’t do what is required to correct the situation.

“Give me 10 years,” he said. Well he’s had his 10 years and it’s worse than before he came to power. Perhaps he needs reminding that when in opposition in 1990, he suggested the minimum wage. The rate he said it would be was £5.00 per hour. Now, 17 years later, it’s still at the same level.

I read in the paper about naming and shaming those who commit fraud against the system. Why then don’t we shame employers who are so tight that they cannot pay a living wage for the work they expect?

And let’s also pull up those directors who say, “If these rules are going to apply, I will sell my business.” If they can only run their business on what is little more then slave labour, give the business to someone who can pay decent wages.

If genuine understanding and proper care in the community can’t be won through discussion and demonstration, there’s no choice but to fight for the right to be equal with one another.

How can it be right to pay pensioners the measly amount they receive yet pay over £1,000 per week to keep someone in prison? How can we stand by and watch disabled people pressganged into work where they receive 95p per day?

We have a useless Prime Minister but he is about to go. A rat leaving the sinking ship. I think his passport should be withdrawn until we know if war crime charges are to be brought against him for his part in the killings of innocents in Iraq.

That is going to leave us with dear old Mr. Brown. Have you thought about the reasons no-one is coming forward to stand against him for the premiership? I don’t think anyone wants it, so he is well and truly lumbered. Long live the revolution, may it be bloodless.

March 6th, 2007

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Open hearts and minds

Protests against anti-discrimination laws for Northern Ireland failed to stop the legislation, which came into effect in Northern Ireland on January 1 and is due to be implemented in the UK in April. The pro-discrimination lobby was unable to derail the laws earlier in the week.

And this latest debate, on Tuesday, was all about how Christians, and others, might want to actively discriminate against gays and lesbians as long as they could hide behind religion to fire their bigotry.

Thankfully the god-squadders failed, but wasn’t this religious bunch moaning about its lifestyles choices not being taken seriously a few months ago?

As Paul Dunn, Equality South West chief executive, said before the debate: “We should not tolerate different levels of legal protection based on prejudice. This government has done more than any other in living memory to advance legal rights and protection for equality and diversity. We hope they will hold their nerve and offer the same basic legal protection to all of the people in the UK.”

Now, let’s heal the divide and join together in dancing at the Queen of Hearts Valentine’s Day bash (I don’t think they’d deny entry to anyone with a religious belief, but you’d best keep that cross under your blouse).

Posted by Cptn

January 14th, 2007

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Hungary for more

Heard the one about the former student from Plymouth making waves in Hollywood - even snagging Quentin Tarantino as producer of her latest documentary? Of course you haven’t, cos all the regional newspapers missed it.

So thank chuff for D+CFilm, which has got the scoop HERE, and a rather nifty trailer to boot. Three cheers for D+CFilm, ‘etc’.

Posted by Thin White Duke

January 8th, 2007

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Melting Pot: Plus #3

SAY HULLO TO: The Quails
WHO ARE: Dan Steer (vocals, guitar), John Foulkes (guitar), Sam Banks (bass), Chris Prentice (drums) and Max Armstrong (lead guitar)
THEY SAY: “We first got together when Dan was spending time with other local bands on the way to success (Hey Molly, Red Paper Dragon) and decided to form his own band. So one drunken night down the pub, a few phone calls later, The Quails were formed…”
WE SAY: Fantastic guitar riffs and solid drumming give this indie band an energetic but raw rock’n'roll sound. It all goes a bit Razorlight in places but that’s never a bad thing. With great songwriting and brilliant vocals these guys already sound like stars.
RANDOM LYRIC: “You don’t control me, no, I don’t care what you say”
NEED TO KNOW: They only formed in March last year but already have the
tight sound of a far more established band. Their next gig is tonight at The Lansdown, Dawlish.

Posted by Niki Portus

Send your Melting Pot: Plus suggestions to ideas@peoplesrepublic
ofsouthdevon.co.uk Check out Melting Pot on MySpace, listen to
previous Melting Pot Sessions, or subscribe to the weekly podcast.

January 6th, 2007

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D+C for yourself

Hullo viewer, Thin White Duke here. If you’re looking for the Arthouse Roundup, you’ve come to the wrong place. We’ve moved it to our rather sexy sister site (which is not quite the same as a ’sexy-sister site’) called D+CFilm. What scamps we are, eh?!

But what the hell is this D+C, so-called, Film anyway? Well, it casts a wry eye (just the one, mind) at all the movie-related news, reviews and interviews from across Devon and Cornwall (hence the D+C - like, duh!). There’s also pictures and video and toffees and all manner of uncommonly good gubbins. Oh, and the roundup, which is kinda how we got talking about this in the first place, isn’t it?

Anyhoo, we’re getting carried away but you should definitely pop over and have a look. In fact, we’d go as far to say it’s really Quite Good. Can’t say fairer than that, can you? Clue: no, you can’t.

Posted by Thin White Duke

January 5th, 2007

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