Tony's Blog

Sheffield Theatres Dates

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:23:00 +0000

The autumn season at Sheffield Theatres is announced tomorrow and is Top Secret until then (apart from the Full Monty, which has already been in the papers). As a centre stage member I can book from Saturday, although depending on people getting back to me I might wait until later in the weekend.

Once the season is public I’ll amend this post to include the titles, but wanted to get this up so those of you who regularly come along with me can check your diaries beforehand.

I hope I don’t get in hot water for releasing this scant information ;-)

MACBETH By William Shakespeare Wed 5 September – Sat 6 October War. Three witches and a prophesy. An assassination. Visions and ghosts. Murder. A suicide. Shakespeare's most bloody tragedy is directed by Artistic Director Daniel Evans.	Public Dress Rehearsal Wed 5 September £1.00 Previews £17.00 Mon – Thu 7.15pm £23.00 Fri & Sat 7.15pm £25.00 Matinees 2.00pm £18.00 Fri 21 September 2.00pm £20.00 Centre Stage discounts apply	Crucible
THE VILLAGE BIKE By Penelope Skinner Thu 13 September – Sat 6 October Becky’s frustrated. She’s pregnant, horny as hell and she’d love a glass of wine – or three. But her husband’s been reading The New Pregnancy Ideal and isn’t having any of it, so she takes matters into her own hands. Written by Penelope Skinner and directed by Happy Days director, Jonathan Humphreys, The Village Bike is a daring and hilarious play about moving to the countryside, making babies and sorting out a plumber.	Public Dress Rehearsal Thu 13 September £1.00 Previews £10.00 Mon – Fri 7.45pm £15.00 Sat 7.45pm £18.00 Matinees 2.15pm £13.00 Centre Stage discounts apply	Studio
A TASTE OF HONEY By Shelagh Delaney Thu 25 October – Sat 17 November Set in 1950s Manchester and exploring Britain on the precipice of change, A Taste of Honey celebrates the spirit of one young girl with the strength to rebel against the social constraints of her time. A seminal first play by the late, Shelagh Delaney. This brand new production – the first since the writer’s death last year – features a live jazz band on stage and is directed by Polly Findlay (National Theatre's Antigone).	Public Dress Rehearsal Thu 25 Oct £1.00 Previews £10.00 Mon – Fri 7.30pm £19.00 Sat 7.30pm £21.00 Matinees 2.30pm £15.00 Centre Stage discounts apply	Crucible
STRAIGHT By DC Moore Thu 1 – Sat 24 November When is your best friend not your best friend? Waldorf and Lewis are typical, regular guys. However, on one fateful night out, they make a bet that will take their friendship to a whole new level. Directed by Richard Wilson, this is the world premiere of Straight, a razor sharp comedy by award-winning writer DC Moore.	Public Dress Rehearsal Thu 1 November £1.00 Previews £10.00 Mon – Fri 7.45pm £15.00 Sat 7.45pm £18.00 Matinees 2.15pm £13.00 Centre Stage discounts apply	Studio
MY FAIR LADY Based on Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw and adapted by Alan Jay Lerner. Music by Frederick Loewe (1956) Wed 12 December – Sat 26 January Packed full of sensational songs including the classics On The Street Where you Live, With A Little Bit of Luck and Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, My Fair Lady will make you want to dance, dance, dance all night… Directed by Sheffield Theatres’ Artistic Director, Daniel Evans, My Fair Lady is one of the greatest musicals of all time – a perfect treat for all the family.	Public Dress Rehearsal Wed 12 December £1.00 Previews £17 Other performances £20.00 - £30.00* Centre Stage discounts apply *Prices vary on performances. Please check with the Box Office for details.	Crucible
THE FULL MONTY By Simon Beaufoy Sat 2 – Sat 23 February 2013 The world première of a new play of The Full Monty which Oscar-winning writer Simon Beaufoy, who wrote the screenplay, has adapted for the stage using songs from the film.	Priced from £9.00 - £30.00* Centre Stage discounts apply from Sat 2 – Sat 16 February only. *Prices vary on performances. Please check with the Box Office for details.	Lyceum

The Twitter Arms, your local.

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:39:00 +0000

Recently there has been a spate of people misunderstanding twitter. I hate it when people attempt to mandate what twitter is and isn’t *for* but I think a little thought and debate about how it is in general used is a good thing.

In my mind twitter is very much like going down the pub. It is one of those modern places that manage to cultivate a mixed audience, mates out for a few pints and a chat, the odd suit who is always selling, the TV is on set to a rolling news channel and you might see a celebrity wander in. It is also probably in an area of town that has a certain sort of reputation as every so often someone unsavoury wanders up to the window and tries to tempt you to their palace of porn and trojans.

Most of the time you are there, you’re just having a chat with your social circle about whatever is happening in the world at the time. An actor or writer may wander past and you might say to the person next to you that you thought the last thing they did was great. If you are next to them at the bar when you go to order drinks and catch their eye you might even ask them a question about what they are working on or drop a compliment.

What you wouldn’t do in a real pub is shout across the lounge bar at them “You are a talentless, dull and should never work again” as that would be exceptionally rude. This is seen often in our fictional boozer, twitter, someone wants to say something about someone and includes their username as an ‘at mention’. The person cited isn’t being particularly egotistical by looking at the tweets that mention them, most clients include a column or page for replies and mentions and twitter itself will email you about them. If someone shouted an insult at me across the pub I would be rightly annoyed, so it always strikes me as odd when people are surprised that the tweet they sent saying bad things, about the person whose username they included, gets that person riled and they reply with ire. If you don’t want someone to get pissed off and say angry things to you, don’t shove your ill opinion in their face.

Later on one of your group says something a bit off colour, something not quite PC. The social feedback engine kicks in and it is explained why that isn’t acceptable and that you don’t really want to hear it even if it is what they truly believe thankyouverymuch. As the mood re-lightens some jokes are made around the subject.

This often happens on twitter, for example some racist thug tries to get their followers wound up about something and the reaction from the rest of the crowd is a mixed of informed debate, dismissal and derision. While it can be heart warming to see a topic trending for the opposite reason to the one intended, I do wonder sometimes about how far it can go and how vicious it can get. In situations like this the equivalent in our fictional pub is it ending up as a group of people standing round the person and shouting in their face. However abhorrent these people are there comes the point where they should be left to slink back to their dank slimy pits and left alone.

If a situation like that get out of hand and people start getting threatening then the law might arrive. This is where we have a more complicated problem online than in a physical space. Tone of voice is very effective at helping to communicate how seriously we mean what we say. It helps distinguish proper threats from jokes and sarcasm for example. This is a lot harder to get across in text, especially with a restricted character limit and there have been famous examples of the law not getting this. We need to somehow impress upon the legislators that regulation of ‘speech’ online needs reforming so that the abusers and threat makers are still dealt with but you can’t be banged up for making a joke.

Then someone on the table next to you gets a message from a mate, something is happening on the other side of town. Glancing at the TV there is no mention. More people are hearing about it and the talk is of almost nothing else (apart from the suit who is still trying to see someone his Acme Snake Oil). It is difficult to separate fact from fiction at this point but you instinctively trust some things more than others, because of who said them, or who they say said them.

Twitter comes into its own at times of breaking news, it is much faster than traditional news gathering but this isn’t always positive. While social media (and throughout I imagine this post applies to networks other than twitter) will bring lots information in very quickly it will have been through little corroboration and fact checking. You have to make the judgement call about what to believe and what to scoff at. These days there are lots of journalists out there who bring their experience and training to what they are receiving via twitter and only passing on the bits they think their followers should know. They also apply that information into their work and often will keep twitter informed while waiting for their story to go out. On the other hand there are the standard set of people hanging around being credulous or disingenuous so be careful what you accept as true. After all you wouldn’t believe everything some random stranger told you in the pub would you?

Lovejoy’s Law

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:36:00 +0000

"As any political debate about introducing an illiberal measure continues, the probability of someone mentioning paedophiles approaches 1."

It was suggested by @Erica_Jane_MP that we needed an equivalent to "Godwin's law". This is to be used for when Home Secretaries and other authoritarians are promoting the cause of a measure that will restrict the freedoms of the many to satisfy nothing more that the rants of a vocal minority.

It is especially true when discussing over-complicated, expensive to implement, almost entirely ineffective legislation, that could easily be replaced by a tiny amount of parental responsibility.

The law is named for Helen Lovejoy and her catch phrase on the Simpsons.

What should be in a manifesto?

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:32:00 +0000

I am thinking of writing a political manifesto.
More as a way of thinking about and crystallising what I believe in, than as part of any serious thoughts about standing for office.
That said it will be written from the perspective of the UK's political realities i.e. as if I were trying to be elected as an independent M.P.
What questions would you want to see it answer?
Please put them in a comment below or send them by whatever means you see fit.

The media is spreading Chris Grayling misinformation

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 10:28:00 +0000

On the Today program yesterday Chris Grayling said:

What’s happened in the last week is we’ve got a lot of companies who are very jumpy. They are under pressure from a big internet campaign that is being run by an organisation that is a front for the Socialist Workers Party. Now the high street retail sector is going through a rough time at the moment, if you are running a company and you are getting strings of emails attacking you, it is very unsettling. It’s a false campaign. Let me give you an example, my own email address was hacked by this organisation and used to lodge a complaint with Tesco so I don’t accept that the scale of the campaign is very large, it is a small number of activists who are deliberately targeting these companies and trying to destabilise them.

Later the Today twitter account posted a correction:

Clarification (1/2)- earlier Chris Grayling suggested a group he described as "a front for the Socialist Workers Party" had hacked his email

Clarification (2/2) Grayling has since told us his email was not hacked but his email address was used on a complaint lodged with Tesco.

Do you want to guess which is getting more coverage the accusation or the retraction?
I am not arrogant enough to think that he was talking about me and my little part in one of the many online campaigns against workfare. Those that know me are well aware that I am a shill for nobody and have expressed myself against "hacking" phones and emails. I just worry that those that don't know me and a) have seen that I am campaigning against workfare; and b) have seen the reports of the minister's remarks; may put two and two together and get five.
Given that off air Mr. Grayling corrected the impression he had been "hacked" I would have hoped that more news outlets would have reported that as well. But that is just my inner ridiculous optimist as such levels of news integrity are not even dreamt in most parts of this sector in the UK.

Hypothesis about UK politics

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Part A: The party political system in the UK is broken; it at one and the same time fails to offer significant choice, is prone to tabloidisation and suffers from excessive tribalism.

Part B: The likelihood of a revolution taking place in the UK is so close to nil as to be not worth talking about.

So we have to look for other options, it is all well and good being against the current government, but in a large number of ways a Labour government is unlikely to be better.

Somehow what we need is to subvert the current electoral system to send people to Parliament who will actually represent their constituents; voting on issues based on doing the right thing not a three line whip.

This new breed of MP should also have the courage to engage and debate in order to challenge opinions based on media miss-information rather than just being scared about re-election.

The starting point could be the reduction in MPs and associated proposed boundary changes at the next election, as this will mean a one off explosion of the status quo of safe seats.

What else do we need to be thinking about?

Pesky free speech

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:57:00 +0000

Recently the question of freedom of people to have thoughts and express them has come up on several occasions. Most notably in the reactions to "racist tram woman" and Jeremy Clarkson's 'joke' about strikers. After this I posted that I was unequivocal in my support for free speech and got some interesting reactions such as "I was all set to agree with your status until I thought about Westboro Baptist Church picketing the funerals of AIDS victims" and "What if he'd [Clarkson] said all Jews should be shot in front of their families? Should we defend his 'right' to make that 'joke' ?". These and more did make me think very long and hard about my position. The point however is that when what someone is saying or joking about[1] is disagreeable is precisely the point where defending their right to say it is important, very few attacks on freedom of speech are over statements on how fluffy are kittens.
None of this is to say that a right to freedom of speech should imply freedom of action or any right to intrude or breach privacy. I see no inconsistency in my position and at the same time disagreeing with Paul McMullan's stance that "privacy is for paedos". Any attempt to suggest that publishing puerile tittle-tattle based on stolen information is fundamentally free speech should get short shrift (genuine public interest journalism of course being an entirely different kettle of fish).
The right to free speech should also not be a licence for abuse and on top of that there is the tricky middle ground of incitement: it is another of those Yes Minister irregular declensions. 'I hold that [minority group] are a blight, he has made a speech saying the masses should rise up against [minority group] while they have been arrested for an offense under the 1986 Public Order Act as amended.'[2] At this point we have to rely on the criminal justice system to categorise when people have stopped 'speaking' and started, for example, causing 'harassment, alarm or distress' . I'm not going to say that how this works and the legislation underpinning it can't currently be improved upon, and as it is a human process it will never be perfect, but the human involvement in deciding these things is vital.

The last word goes to @Erica_Jane_MP
"solution to bad speech is more speech. Doesn't mean you can't rant and shout and despise the speech. But not ban it."

--
[1] Because Clarkson was trying to be funny (my use of quote marks round the word joke was because he failed) two things happened a) lots of comedians were defending his right to say what he did, b) parallels were made with Paul Chambers
[2] My apologies to Jay and Lynn

TechMoPhoBeer is now available

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:52:00 +0000

A few of us from Technophobia made a *cough* rare trip to the Rutland Arms for a preview tasting of TechMoPhoBeer before the official start of Movember.

It has turned out as a delicious sweet four percent porter which does well at the key requirement of a moustache beer, maintaining a nice head to help nourish the face fuzz. Thank you to Blue Bee Brewery for jumping on this fundraising idea with such enthusiasm.

So far orders for the beer has it that it will be appearing at pubs and beer festivals from Chesterfield to Calderdale with more details to come about the specifics soon.

Poppies

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:05:00 +0000

I haven’t seen a poppy seller yet, but when I do I will be donating and getting one. It is a cause I am happy to support and don’t feel that doing so legitimises recent wars that perhaps we shouldn’t have got into.

Every year the news media get the opportunity to make a fuss over particular organisations and their stance toward the poppy. Sometimes there are good issues why staff might not be allowed the traditional setup with the pin, fast food restaurants for example. On the flip side I can see why the BBC are quite keen for their staff, especially newsreaders to have them on, given the pressure they are under from news outlets on the right that are always happy to try and paint them as subversive.

Other times the issue is more complex, Northern Ireland being one of those places. As I understand it, this years big fuss has been over Poundland, who have now gone back to allowing them at the staff members discretion, which is in my opinion the right thing to do. You can easily see however given the history of the British Army in Ireland and the identification of the poppy with them and the unionist community why the republicans might have a strong opinion on the matter. It is always a matter of concern to companies when something they or their staff may be doing might put people off from spending money with them.

So while I think that companies should keep out of whether their employees should wear a poppy or not, there are often reasons why they think otherwise. I also suspect the the vast number of people on facebook copy and pasting badly typed, horrifically punctuated all-caps status updates have no place in stating what is or isn’t considered a sectarian symbol the other side of the Irish sea.

Interesting adventures in Privacy (and food) at GameCity

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:37:00 +0000

A friend has set up a very exciting sounding game design challenge taking place at GameCity in Nottingham over the next few days and has a couple of places left. So if you were heading to GameCity anyway or can get to Nottingham and have the time to get involved read on:

Come and work with Mink – a brilliant game designer who’s worked with Hasbro and SixtoStart - to think about gaming for social good. Spend a couple of days designing and developing a game that promotes understanding of online privacy practices. Tell us who would play it, in what circumstances and let us know how and why you think it helps to bring our research principles to life.

If you need extra to convince you:

...what’s more, we’ll pay for you to come along to My Dinner with Eric Chahi on Wednesday evening as well as feed you lunch at the TV Dinner events on both days. Whaddya say?

Visit the Adventures in Privacy festival page for more info and a timetable of sessions or get in touch with Erica at Ericapackington@gmail.com and tell her WHO you are and WHY you’re interested in doing this.

TEDx Sheffield 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:17:00 +0000

I am very excited to say that I will be speaking at this event at the Showroom Cinema on the 22nd September. The subject of my slot will probably be of no surprise to anyone: ~~The Nepalese Ratel or honey badger~~ My part in the twitter campaign to lobby the advertisers in the News of the World. I promise that I won’t spend the *whole* time going through the contents of the perl script I wrote for it line by line.

Read more about TEDxSheffield and the rest of the speaker list then snap up a ticket, currently on sale at £10/£5.

P.S. I didn't write the blerb about me, so no sarcy comments about "mild mannered web technologist" ;->

The Rivals

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:38:00 +0000

Written in 1775, Sheridan's dialogue crackles with wit even today. Captain Absolute, masquerading as Ensign Beverly, is courting a beautiful young heiress, Lydia Languish. Her aunt Mrs Malaprop has other ideas - as do his rivals, Bob Acres and Sir Lucius O'Trigger. Expect rapiers at dawn, pistols at elevenses, deceit, double deceit and double double deceit and all in the name of love!

For those of you who have been wondering what the beard is for, come and see me (and the rest of a brilliant cast) make a fools of ourselves in a frankly hilarious play.

Wednesday 15th to Saturday 18th June, Sheffield University Drama Studio.
More information and online booking.

Theatre Bookings

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:59:00 +0000

These are the dates I am planning to book for Sheffield Theatre’s autumn season.

One Monkey Don't Stop Show	Studio	14/09 19:45
Othello	Crucible	21/09 19:15
One Day When We Were Young	Studio	05/10 19:45
Lungs	Studio	26/10 19:45
Journey’s End	Lyceum	01/11 19:45
Lives In Art/ The Crucible Celebrates	Crucible	09/11 19:15
Fanfared	Crucible (ish)	10/11 19:00
Untitled	Studio	23/11 19:45
Dr Marigold and Mr Chops	Lyceum	30/11 19:45
The Winter's Tale	Lyceum	28/01 19:45

If you want to come along to see any of these email me. I will be booking on the 4th of June.

I wish I could link to information about these shows but they aren’t up on the website yet.

The BBC regresses almost three years

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sat, 14 May 2011 10:15:00 +0000

A little under three years ago, I wrote a blog post asking why some blogs on the BBC website had the full content of the post in their RSS feed while others only have a short excerpt.

It was spotted by Jem Stone who posted this comment:

All the blogs on the BBC should now be (we switched over this PM) full article feeds. Anything else we can do for you let us know!

and there was much rejoicing.

Today a whole bunch of blogs from key news correspondents changed which platform they were published on. This includes Mark Easton, Nick Robinson, Robert Peston and Rory Cellan-Jones. They do still have an RSS feed, even if it is harder to find as the tag that would tell a browser where it is is missing so you have to find it in the clutter of the header manually, but the feeds are back to only having summaries.

So for example this 1000 word post is represented in the RSS feed by just 18

A geographic divide in social care has been revealed by a BBC survey, but why does it exist?

There has already been speculation that this move has been to make life easier for those concerned, but it surely can’t have been a conscious decision to make life harder for the end users of the site?

What a load of utter beeshit

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sat, 14 May 2011 10:15:00 +0000

Step 1, a paper is published is says that putting mobile phones in beehives discombobulates bees. Doesn't seem to mention death

The audiograms and spectrograms revealed that active
mobile phone handsets have a dramatic impact on the behavior of the bees, namely by inducing the worker
piping signal. In natural conditions, worker piping either announces the swarming process of the bee colony or
is a signal of a disturbed bee colony.

Step 2, a Daily Mail story has mixes into reporting of the paper with some extrapolation to this being the cause for mass bee carnage.

Phone signals confuses bees and cause them to begin flying erratically before suddenly dying

Signals from mobile phones could be partly to blame for the mysterious deaths of honeybees, new research shows.

Step 3, a “Green Design” site reports on the Daily Mail story leaving out virtually all of the content of the original paper and focussing on the dead bee bit

It’s Official – Cell Phones are Killing Bees

Scientists may have found the cause of the world’s sudden dwindling population of bees – and cell phones are to blame.

Step 4, the last story is the one that spreads fear, doubt and uncertainty throughout social networks via the medium of people being wrong on the internet.

The radio to web channel cross-promotion problem

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:54:00 +0000

Today a large chunk of twitter is wistfully linking to “How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet” as they mark ten years since the untimely death of Douglas Adams.

Rereading that piece for the umpteenth time something strikes me, the problem in the third paragraph about presenters and journalists reading out URLs hasn’t really gone away, it has just metamorphosed. They may have modified their tone, but how they direct people to a page is still often stilted . For the elite few it is fine, John Humphrys can easily direct listeners to “the Today website” which even has a fairly simple address bbc.co.uk/today^[1] if he feels they need reminding. For the rest it isn’t that simple, most sit under at least their station name in the hierarchy if not also under a classification like ‘features’ or ‘drama’. The really unlucky^[2] ones might only have a URL that looks like http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0105rs2 which leads to radio along the lines of this from Rufus Hound:

All of the information on today's show is available on the website www DOT bbc DOT co DOT uk FORWARD SLASH radio4extra, have a look for the picture of me, click on that

There are many downsides to this approach, firstly there isn't currently a picture of Rufus on the page he points to, you need to have clicked through to either the comedy or all programmes A-Z listings to find him. Secondly what if you are one of the 370,000 people registered as blind or partially sighted in the UK or are number in the seven or eight people who are yet to see him at a gig or on television? Admittedly when you do find the picture of him he refers to it does invariably have the title of his show next to it, but it is piling on cognitive load to a process that already screams to be made easier. I don’t want you to think I am picking on Mr Hound, I’m only using him as an example as I have just listened to the latest “What's So Funny?” podcast and the problem exists across a wide range of shows. Some programmes have found workarounds for the issue, Eddie Mair makes great use of the PM blog which has a much nicer URL bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/ than the 'PM Home' page.

I don’t have any solutions to this issue to mind, but that doesn’t stop the problem annoying me almost as much as podcast introductions that, after pointing you at a web page, tell you not to go there until after you have listened.

^[1]The only other programme with a similarly simple address I listen to on a regular basis is More or Less at bbc.co.uk/moreorless I can only assume they get special treatment because Tim Harford plugs Diane Coyle's books on twitter.

^[2]I do like the /programmes/ space especially the interesting aggregation stuff including the 'Buzz' side-box, but it just doesn't produce URLs that any self respecting radio presenter would want to read out on air.

QR code bookmarklet

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Mon, 09 May 2011 09:34:00 +0000

This post is pretty much just a placeholder for the QR code bookmarklet I just hacked together using the Google Chart API.

Delicious links 05 Apr 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:01:00 +0000

BBC - dot.Rory: World Stores - searching for retail success: @thegreatgonzo World Stores - searching for retail success: Sometimes this blog is accused of an obsession with ... http://bbc.in/hYmYRM
TCK GR (tckgr) http://twitter.com/tckgr/status/55394951323856896
The Extra Bold Blog: Cuts and opportunism: @thegreatgonzo Cuts and opportunism: Ed Milliband was again emoting if not explaining his alternative economic s... http://bit.ly/gLGhsP
TCK GR (tckgr) http://twitter.com/tckgr/status/55394952103997441
Britain's back-room negotiations to establish a national, extrajudicial Internet censorship regime - Boing Boing: Back-room negotiations to establish a national, extrajudicial Internet censorship regime Via Boing Boing http://bit.ly/gmBT2y please RT
On a small screen, user experience is everything - O'Reilly Radar: @thegreatgonzo On a small screen, user experience is everything: Until someone comes up with a way to mind meld ... http://bit.ly/gLNvBl
TCK GR (tckgr) http://twitter.com/tckgr/status/55309628967366656

Delicious links 02 Apr 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 09:01:00 +0000

YouTube - Brian Blessed does snooker commentary: @TestMatchSofa Have you heard BRIAN BLESSED DO SNOOKER COMMENTARY? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP11L9jRW94 IT IS BRILLIANT.
Andrew Rollason (rollo75) http://twitter.com/rollo75/status/54163453157441536

Delicious links 29 Mar 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:01:00 +0000

BBC News - Home: Slightly surprised that now it is back, the outage isn't featured in the breaking news banner on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ #bbcblackout
FREE BEER: RT @kowey: "Free as in Free Speech, not as in Free Beer" Beer http://freebeer.org/blog/ - just knew somebody was going to do this someday
Ricky Ponting Quits As Captain Of Australia: In case you missed the overnight news, Ricky Ponting quits as Australia captain http://bit.ly/dQ1U9O

Delicious links 28 Mar 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:01:00 +0000

Ricky Ponting to stand down | thetelegraph.com.au: Australian Telegraph reporting Ricky Ponting to stand down http://bit.ly/gTJVCF
Tomorrow's Independent front page - "Royal bonfire ... on Twitpic: RT @DickMandrake: RT @A_Close_Friend: Tomorrow's Independent front page http://twitpic.com/4edk77 < It's like Labour never left office!!!
Free to protest? I can still be arrested if my placard reads: 'Nick Clegg, oh dear' | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian: Free to protest? I can still be arrested if my placard reads: 'Nick Clegg, oh dear' | George Monbiot http://bit.ly/eN6OKx
Major UK demonstrations and protests listed: which one was biggest? | News | guardian.co.uk: @sunny_hundal apart from the Stop the War coalition and the Countryside Alliance http://bit.ly/fLvI6b
Fukt.tv Warehouse duel Knockout: @thegreatgonzo knockout? RT @Fukt_tv http://fukt.tv/humour/warehouse-duel-knockout
Shannan Amari (Shannanjxjqh) http://twitter.com/Shannanjxjqh/status/52361823680331776
Home : Oxford English Dictionary: violence, n. The exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property http://bit.ly/hi8dOj
Home : Oxford English Dictionary: @PennyRed you have done some great reporting this weekend, but on this you are wrong. http://bit.ly/hi8dOj
News releases 2011: RT @sheffielduni: We've opened a dedicated @lawsheffield centre offering free legal advice to the local community http://goo.gl/upCAA #s ...

Delicious links 27 Mar 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:01:00 +0000

Map of Metal: Interesting site - but how many black metal bands does it take to make a new genre in the first place? http://mapofmetal.com/
Astatine (Astatine) http://twitter.com/Astatine/status/52105567786897408
Let me google that for you: @angryrantboy http://bit.ly/epObNV
My experience of the #26March protests - dominiccampbell's posterous: RT @timd: @dominiccampbell: My experience of the #26March protests http://t.co/osDIsEK <-- as witnesses go, they don't come more rel ...
Adoption Curve Blog Archive Paging Baron Pandastein: RT @timd: Bloggage: : Paging Baron Pandastein http://www.adoptioncurve.net/archives/2011/03/paging-baron-pandastein.php
Write to your MP today: RT @OpenRightsGroup: Website blocking is being actively discussed now: tell your MP to say no! http://bit.ly/nowebblock #DEAct

Delicious links 26 Mar 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:01:00 +0000

Leap second - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: @em_cooper we don't change the time we change what we call it... But it is arbitrary and isn't a good fit for reality http://bit.ly/igHB5r
Network Time Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: @em_cooper http://bit.ly/gqwEZj
Nick Pickles s blog - The thinkings of a music photographer, tech PR and sometime speech maker.: RT @Mike_J_Cox: Excellent expose on the tax dodgers at F M and why ukuncut are morons http://www.nickpickles.co.uk/?p=729
Press release: UK Uncut Occupy Tax Dodgers Fortnum and Mason | UK Uncut: . @thegreatgonzo no idea how accurate, but here's UKuncut's justification for the F M occupation http://bit.ly/eOeCB2
Terence Eden (edent) http://twitter.com/edent/status/51704787292528640
@PennyRed http://bit.ly/fa9pal: @PennyRed http://bit.ly/fa9pal
Tony's Blog: Up Coming Theatre: Tony's Blog: Up Coming Theatre http://bit.ly/hI4b94
Nick Clegg confused over winter fuel payments - mirror.co.uk: @thegreatgonzo Transpires it was Clegg he shoulda learnt from yesterday http://bit.ly/hrqTEU
LouLouK (LouLouK) http://twitter.com/LouLouK/status/51635871157469184
BBC News - Budget 2011: Winter fuel payment blow for pensioners: @thegreatgonzo Nope, definitely dropped winter fuel. http://bbc.in/ehRwZK
LouLouK (LouLouK) http://twitter.com/LouLouK/status/51635522363330560
Slapped Down Article - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net: RT @helenlewis: Eurogamer on Duke Nukem's jaw-dropping "capture the babe" mode. http://bit.ly/f9JiCb << WTF?

Up Coming Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:22:00 +0000

The Company at Sheffield University Drama Studio

"The Rivals" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
15th June - 18th June. I'm in this so you all must come.

Heartbreak at the Botanical Gardens

The Taming of the Shrew
16th June - 19th June. I'll being trying to go on the Sunday, Hangover permitting (see above)
Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'
4th August - 7th August. I'm away.
Pinnochio
11th August - 14th August. Not really bothered.

Various at the Crucible

These are the dates I have already booked for, but they are unreserved seating.

NT Connections
9 May - 14 May, Two plays a night from a festival of specially-commissioned new plays for actors aged 13-19. I'm going every night except Thursday.
Happy Days by Samuel Beckett
1 June
The Pride
29 June

These have just been announced and I haven't picked specific dates I'm thinking of going yet. Tickets on sale 18 June 2011

One Day When We Were Young
5 October – 15 October
Lungs
19 October – 29 October
A NEW PLAY (title TBC)
16 November – 26 November

Delicious links 25 Mar 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Kennick) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:01:00 +0000

Doodle: Drinks!: @beamoogaloo go to http://bit.ly/gjMDxq in the box on the left put a name, check the boxes along the row that are under dates you can make
BBC - Doctor Who - The Prequel to Episode 1: RT @steven_moffat: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/videos/p00fxf06
Tim Curry and Ralph Fiennes to Star in Trevor Nunn Season at London's Theatre Royal, Haymarket - Playbill.com: RT @playbill: Tim Curry and Ralph Fiennes to Star in Trevor Nunn Season at London's Theatre Royal, Haymarket http://t.co/qiRkZpZ
kgbdeals: @thegreatgonzo Damn! KGB Deals offers a lot better deals than Groupon: ) Check it - http://ow.ly/4m2oV
Nick Carlson (maulhd) http://twitter.com/maulhd/status/51257388212289536
Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Crucible, Sheffield | The Times: Quick the paywall is down, we can all read the review of #whosafraid http://thetim.es/hJ3uQ5 /FAO @crucibletheatre