Two wonderful ladies have set up a new theatre company called Oryx and tonight is the launch night. There’ll be free pop up plays, Folkroom Records DJ’s and actors from the Mountview Academy for Dramatic Arts.

On their website, they explain what they’re all about. “We aim to challenge audiences through the re-telling of classic tales in partnership with new writers and emerging theatre talent around London.”

Toasters ‘Everywhere’ Teaser Trailer from Toasters on Vimeo.

Ever noticed pop art style toasters on walls, lamp-posts and billboards? They are the work of the Toasters. Originally from Wolverhampton, the Toasters have emblazoned their work in cities all around the world. They released a docu-film of their work last year called ‘Everywhere’. Tonight there is a free screening at the Village Underground in Shoreditch.

Last night I experienced the best dumplings I’ve ever had in London. A trip to China Town has never been very successful for me. The food is over-priced and greasy and they rush you out in an hour to get more tourists in. So I still to east London for my Asian food-cravings. But last night, I was taken to Jen Cafe, a tiny place with about 8 tables, jutting out on the corner of Newport Place. The menu is short and simple and best of all, dirt cheap. A big bowl of steamed dumplings was a fiver. They were beautiful – soft and squidgy but firm enough, with plenty of filling. Pork and chive with a hint of garlic. YUM. This place has had mixed reviews – Timeout giving it a measly single star – but if it’s dumplings you’re after, get yourself down there.

London Ice Sculpting Festival happened this weekend in Canary Wharf and was completely free. After a day of chipping, sawing and chiselling, the international teams came up with some pretty impressive sculptures. The creations were based on ‘Winter Sports’. My favourites are below.

]]> http://lucyhewitt.co.uk/london/london-ice-sculpting-festival/feed 0 http://lucyhewitt.co.uk/london/free-modern-art-at-whitechapel-gallery http://lucyhewitt.co.uk/london/free-modern-art-at-whitechapel-gallery#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0000 lucy http://lucyhewitt.co.uk/?p=1060

The great things about art in London is that you can see lots of it for free. And the Whitechapel Gallery in east London is always well worth a visit to see some contemporary stuff. Not all the exhibitions held in this space are free, but there’s usually a good handful that are, whatever time of year you visit.

Until 26th February you can see Rothko in Britain, that looks back at the artist’s first exhibition in the UK, at the Whitechapel in 1961. Unfortunately there’s only one original canvas to see (Light Red Over Black, 1957), but the detailed correspondence from Rothko describing exactly what shade of white the walls should be to hang his work upon make for an interesting read.

Something which caught my eye was the work of Shiraz Bayjoo, one of Whitechapel’s Artists in Residence. His Bow Boys Archive (see above) explores histories, collective memory and place. The photographs on wood with bright pastel acrylics were really striking.

Like any good web-logger, I’ve fallen off the blogging train as of late. My last post was, embarrassingly, 8th August 2011. So with the new year comes some resolutions.  And I’m actually quite good at keeping to annual personal promises to be a better person…

-2009 I vowed to give blood (which was a big deal as I hate needles) and managed to get myself drained twice.

-2010 I wanted to get a radio news bulletin out on air, and although not a full bulletin, I managed a couple of packages as part of work experience at BBC Radio Nottingham.

I like to write things up and publish them somewhere, cos I think if other people can see your resolutions, you’re more likely to stick to them to save yourself from looking weak willed and lazy. So here’s what I’ve got this year.

2012 RESOLUTIONS

1. Get back in to Cheap and Free in London and BLOG about my activities 3/4 times a month.

2. Get my running back up to 3 times a week.

3. Cut down on drinking. I want to abstain from alcohol Monday-Thursday, allowing myself moderate consumption on the weekend.

4. Work towards more responsibility, promotion and a pay-rise at work.

Happy New Year to everyone and good luck with your self improvements!

I’ve lived in London a year now and all of that time I’ve been a cyclist. A proper cyclist, might I add, one that gets to work everyday on 2 wheels come rain, snow or shine. And one thing this city does really well are events and promotions to keep you cycling.

Over the summer, CycleSurgery branches are running bike workshop evenings for women. Experienced cyclists talk you through basic maintenance and show you how to do things like change inner-tubes and oil your chain. And because it’s ladies only, you don’t feel silly asking to see how to remove your front wheel – for the third time.

These events are totally FREE and when I went there was champagne and cupcakes.

If you’re a bit of a culture vulture and fancy some free music, art and short film this weekend, then make a trip down to Hackney Wick for their annual Hackney WickED festival. They’ll be showcasing local and international artists in and amongst gallery spaces and pop-up venues in the area.

Situated opposite Hackney Wick station (on the overground), the main stage will host live music all day Saturday and Sunday. Sounds for your listening pleasure will be brought to you by an assortment of bands and dj’s including ROTKäPPCHEN at 8pm on Saturday who describe themselves as a cross between ‘Soulwax, Kraftwerk, The Whip and The White Stripes’.

When you’re not head-nodding and foot-tapping along to the music, you can wander around Hackney Wicked Yard and find yourself some bargains in the Flea Market (Saturday) and Fete (Sunday) open daily through to 6pm.

Then to finish off the weekend you can take part in the Coracle Regatta. If you didn’t know; “a coracle is a one-person boat designed by druids and woven from strips of the ash tree”. The race will start at the Eton Mission Rowing Club on Wallis Road at 3pm and if you take part you could win the coveted Coracle Regatta trophy.

Fingers crossed the weather holds!

What the short form video team are making

Throughout my blogging life I’ve been good. Posting once a week, most of the time. But you will have noticed an absence of activity on here over the last 2 months. I apologise. It’s because I’ve been finishing up my MA at City University and more importantly getting a job!

Here comes the update:

I started 3 weeks ago as part of the brand spanking new short form video team at Future Publishing. If you didn’t know… Future are a big, successful company with titles like Total Film, T3 and Classic Rock under their belt and a big web presence too. I think the ideafor the new team is to push things forward multi-platform style and get a traditionally print-focussed business more into video – cos that’s the future

At the moment we’re making content that sits on T3 and Techradar. Here’s an example of what we make.

I’ve hung up my Techfluff.TV editor boots cos I just don’t have the time anymore, but will still be going along to the odd tech event and doing guest posts now and again. My MA is oh-so-nearly done, having conquered media law exam (fingers crossed I’ll pass) and putting together a short documentary on independent cinemas with James Glynn. I’ll be posting that on here soon.

So now I’m an employed person, a full-on grown up. Which means I have more time in the evenings and weekends which equals more time for blogging. My efforts will be put back into what’s fun and cheap/free in London town.

They’re a business reputation tool that has some nifty algorithms pulling in data from all sorts of places in the blink of an eye. They’ve also just won £50,000 worth of investment from DFJ Espirit at Geek n Rolla 2011 last week in London.

What it does:

Duedil accesses 15 billion data points on 7.7 million companies worldwide. Users search the name of a company and results are brought back on profit and loss, shares, average salary, any litigations, employees LinkedIn profiles, Quora questions, tweets… the list is almost endless. There’s also a ‘local search’ tool where you can find out business information geographically. For example searching for all the locksmiths in Soho.

Biggest problem so far:

Understandably when some businesses first see the app at work they’re shocked at the amount and significance of the information that is thrown back in search results. But CEO Damian Kimmelman says all the data is out in the public domain, Deudil just aggregates it neatly in one place.

Can I sign up?

They’re still in alpha and so rolling services out slowly – but you can sign up. As it’s still early stages you’re asked to link to the app through Twitter and Facebook etc and the most social users are rewarded with more access to tools on the site.

What’s next?

With the recent funding boost, they’re taking on a new developer and there’s plans to incorporate news articles featuring searched for companies in results.

It’s pretty hard to get your head around the power of Duedil if you don’t see it working in real life, so check out the demo with Damain below: