BIG Launch Report

120 invited guests turned up for the event, which commenced at 7.30pm with food and wine, accompanied by The Beards CD album, ‘Beggars Belief’, playing in the main hall.

Lyme Regis Community Media Association was launched at 8pm with an introduction by Nomad and some film clips to demonstrate the range of work we are covering in the community. These included the film made by our youth camera team of B Sharp during Evolution Rocks at the Marine, which announced our forthcoming sessions at Insparation. Lyme Regis Community Media Association is designed to act as a catalyst for the whole community, to establish and develop community based communications media for empowerment, cultural expression, information, local economic development and entertainment. We want our work to build on the reputation of Lyme Regis as a cohesive community with diverse interests and CoMA will be a platform for cultural programmes, supporting new and existing businesses, entertaining the community and visitors and providing information that is of interest to all.

LymeRegisTV was launched with a short clip from our movie of ‘Candles on the Cobb’, which attracted so much attention on YouTube last year. The platform we have chosen is a number of stand alone channels, each channel will stream film all the time, but visitors can click on the ‘On Demand’ button to choose from the list of programmes available on each channel. Channels at present, including content, are as follows:
Evolution Rocks: An example of how we can create a TV Channel for s specific event. Currently running is the Opening Night, UNESCO Youth Summit, Around the Marquees, a clip from Herbie Treehead, and B Sharp at the Marine, with still more to come.
Events Channel: Look here to find the May Day Fete, the Bermuda 400 Celebrations with film from both Whitchurch Canonicorum and Lyme Regis, and Food Rocks!, including interview with Mark Hix.
Civic Channel, presently featuring this years Mayor-Making, and the first Full Council Meeting with Mayor Michaela Ellis in the Chair.
News Channel: Big feature at present is the complete 2 hour meeting about the Three Cups at Woodmead Halls, which is already attracting significant numbers of viewers! You could also see the Gig Club AGM, and the story of Bills Hat!
More Channels will be set up in the next few days:
Lyme Live Weekly: and the first public interview with Michaela Ellis, plus a special edition from the BIG Launch.
MusicLyme Channel: first uploading will be a live set in Lyme from Adam Watson.
HolisticTV: with your host Sue Darling, opening with next weekends Psychic Fayre at the Orchard Hotel, Rousden.
B Sharp Channel: Will soon feature all the bands who performed at the Summers Day of Music last year, the fabulous session at the Marine, and the Music Session from Woodroffe School last week. (interrupted by false alarm fire engines!)

‘Beggars Belief’ by The Beard CD Album was launched next with a video of The Beard performing ‘The Tramp’ from the album in a very Chaplinesque setting! A.K.A. Simon Leach, The Beard is a true ‘born and bred’ local who has been singing his excellent songs around the area for many years.
This album also marks the first release from Lost Region Records, which will act as a catalyst for local musical talent, creating CD’s and DVD’s to promote our musical culture. Further releases will be announced in October this year.

‘A Postcard From Lyme Regis’ was the highlight of the evening, featuring a 10 minute trailer of this epic movie with over 3 hours of Lyme on video. After the trailer, Mary Ball presented Mary Godwin with a copy for the museum archives.

After a short break, festivities continued with a special edition of Lyme Live Weekly, the new title for Friday Night Live, a light-hearted magazine programme featuring local interviews and local talent, ,hosted by Alan Vian who interviewed Sue Outhwaite, organiser of this weekends Psychic Fayre, followed by Nomad and Bill McCallum, with music from talented 16 year old singer and keyboard player Emily Blech performing her own song, and 2 songs from the excellent sound of Mark Foxhall, who performed a thrilling version of ‘Halleluya’.

Breathless? For sure! But no time to rest because local young brothers rock outfit, Wise Intentions, fresh from their triumph at the Nettle Eating Championships, hit the stage and provided a storming end to the evening!

In conclusion? we want to work with you “The Community”, we need you to keep us informed about what’s important to you, to get you involved in making programmes. CoMA is open to members from across all interests within the community. Our key issue is now to raise the funds that we need to add to our equipment to enable us to produce top quality films for both the community and as saleable products.

Next? ‘A postcard from Lyme Regis’, and ‘Beggars Belief’ will be on sale locally and online in the next few days, at only £5 each. Buy both and get £1 off each!

We ended the evening by driving down to the Three Cups at midnight to take sausage rolls and sandwiches down to the vigilantes, Rikey Austin, Jo Farmer and Peter Wiles They had already collected around 750 signatures! Note to WDDC: The Three Cups is an important piece of Lyme’s heritage, it MUST be compulsorily purchased and re-opened as a hotel!

Painter of Dreams

Very pleased to be finally taking part in ArtsFest. Until a couple of years ago, we had a little shop in Lyme from which I sold my work, and having been totally involved in the internet and LymeRegisRadio since then, I really need to get back to some real work.

Anyway, here are a few advance pictures. The rest you can see in September...

Population Control

Last time I checked out the current population of Lyme Regis, it weighed in at about 3,800, which is why I'd like to know how it is that every time I go out or attend a meeting, I run into the same 10 people. Ok, I admit this might be a slight exaggeration, but it does sometimes seem that all the events in this amazing town are managed and organised by just a few spirited people. Funny though, even as I write this, I recognise it as the 'cynical' view, and that the entire population of Lyme turns out to just about everything, and every citizen is involved in one town group or another. It's what I love about this place, there really is never a dull moment. Truth is that any pedestrian journey takes twice as long because I'm continually running into friends/neighbours/visitors who want a chat, and today was no exception to the rule.
I could say that the day began at around 10am with a call from Ken Whetlor (esteemed Councillor and former Mayor) asking me my plans for the day, but the truth is that it began at 7.30am with Baby (a.k.a Bubble), our parrot, burrowing under the duvet with me, and pecking me on the nose to tell me it's rising time just after Mary left for work. I spent the morning doing paper work, though as I do most of it on the net these days, it would be better described as paper free work, and I still have apologies to make for the sundry emails I haven't yet replied to.
It was after lunch before I launched myself into society, heading first for LRDT where I chatted with Laurence Madill about Evolution Rocks. Laurence (a.k.a Ed?) is making us a 100metre router cable which we hope will connect us to the internet and allow us to live broadcast the Opening of the FossFest. This cable will lead all the way from the Theatre office into the theatre bar, where our camera will be plugged into a laptop. We also discussed broadcasting from the Alex Hotel, who are hosting the UNESCO Youth Summit, another live broadcast on Friday this week. After reporting back to Richard Doney, and a short chat with Diana Dixon and Dr. Anja, I strolled down to the Marine and had a look at the lie of the land, pondering on how to route our cable from A) the theatre office, to B) the theatre.
I set off for home then, coming across Guy Ottewell on his bike along the riverwalk. Guy updated me on the new monthly newspaper his partner Tilly is producing, and we chatted for a few minutes, mostly about media matters. After arriving home, and updating Ken on the days activities, I knocked off and relaxed with Mary for a couple of hours, Mary had been doing a spot of weeding in our miniscule garden area, and we were both mutually admiring the spectacular yellow roses that have appeared in the past few weeks. We've only been here since the beginning of Feb, and are really settled in, parrot especially having a little more flapping area!
At 6.30 I set off for Woodmead for the AGM, the indomitable Stan Williams in the Chair, nattered with Derek Hallet, letting him know that I couldn't stay till the end because histalkative son Jon was arriving at home for a rehearsal/recording session on The Beards CD album, which we're working on night and day in order to get it complete in time for our BIG LAUNCH event at Woodmead on the 20th June.
So there you go, a day in the life of Nomad, and if I counted correctly, thats 11 people, not including the parrot!

British Telecom & Alices Restaurant

First, I must apologise for being absent from my blog for so long. For the past several months, we’ve been occupied with house moving, and though I can’t say it was tough, I can’t say it’s easy to move after 12 years in the same central Lyme flat. Now we’ve moved and settled in, the dust is clearing, both from our possessions and our minds, and we are now ready to face another great year in Lyme Regis. We spent most of January clearing up our lives, and moved at the beginning of February. Only dark spot in the whole thing was British Telecom, who failed to read our instructions and left us disconnected from the world until almost the end of the month. As you can understand, this has meant a delay both in creating programmes and uploading them to the site, I got so mad during it, I wrote this diatribe to BT, which I already circulated pretty widely by email, so you might as well enjoy the benefit also…

British Telecom(A Parody by Nomad, with apologies to Arlo Guthrie and ‘Alices Restaurant’)
This song is called Mary’s New Home, and it's about Mary, and her new home, but Mary’s New Home is not the name of Mary’s new home, it's the name of the song, and that's why I called this song Mary’s New Home.

You can get anything you want at British Telecom.

You can get anything you want at British Telecom.

Phone ‘em up they’re in Bangalore,

Twenty thousand miles from your new front door.

You can get anything you want at British Telecom.

Now it all started two months ago it's on two months ago at Christmas when my friend Mary got the news that she could move into her new home, which happens to be just around the corner from the place she lives in now with her partner Nomad and a highly trained vicious Ninja killer parrot known as Bubble. After visiting the new place, she decided that the move would happen at the end of January. Being as she was leaving the old place, and seeing as it was close by, she decided to take her phone number with her and phoned BT who said on their website, ring this number and have your phone put in at your new address, including Broadband connection. Just phone 0800 800 150, and one call does it all. Took us awhile to get through, and we had a lot of fun getting the right Press One, or Press Two, Three, and even Four, until finally getting a text message saying your phone will be connected on your moving day. Afer having an Indian Dinner that couldn’t be beat, we went to bed tired but happy and didn’t get up until the following morning. Well moving day came round, and using a pick up truck, two estate cars and a saloon car, we loaded 127 cardboard boxes, furniture, clothes, computers and a washing machine, and each vehicle making 3 trips, we set off making the whole move by 3.30pm in the afternoon. Was a nice day, the sun shone, and we opened a bottle of wine and toasted the weather after everything was moved. After having an Indian Dinner that couldn’t be beat, we went to bed tired but happy and didn’t get up until the following morning

But that’s not what I came to tell you about. I came to talk about BT…… We picked up the phone and sure enough there was a dialling tone, so we waited for BT to connect the Broadband, and for the phone to ring. Mary noticed, (remember Mary? It’s a song about Mary), that no one was phoning her, which isn’t usual, Mary being a very popular person, having a job and all and a lot of friends. I picked up the phone, dialed 0800 800 150, and fixing on the nature of my enquiry, pressed 2. After pressing two, I had to press 1, 2, 3 or 4. I pressed 2, and then had to tap in the full phone number, which I did when a nice lady with a Scots voice said, “I am sorry, I can’t find any information about this number”, and hung up. I was hung up about this, and dialled again, pressing two for the nature of my enquiry, and this time pressing 3. A nice man with an Indian accent asked how he could help me. After getting all the details down, the guy, in Indian guy, speaking in a French accent to an English person, said…..”Are you satisfied sir with my service to you, the way I’ve dealt with your query?”....and I proceeded to tell him the story of the 127 cardboard boxes, the furniture, clothes, computers and washing machine, adding the pick up truck, two estate cars and a saloon, and reminded him that Mary still didn’t have a phone connection, or internet, but that he had been very polite and very helpful. He smiled all the way from India and told me, with triumph in his voices that the phone would be on in 3 working days. I reminded him that that’s exactly what the last operator said, and he said no worries this time, this is all in hand and now in progress. I accepted his reply, and feeling hung up, I hung up.

3 working days later, and still not having the phone connected, I called Mary’s number and a nice English lady informed me that I had dialled incorrectly and should try again. Understanding immediately that the phone was still not connected I phoned BT again at 0800 800 150. The nice Scottish lady answered the phone and said, depending on your enquiry, press one or two, and when that is done, depending on the nature of your enquiry, press 1, 2, 3, or 4. I pressed Three and waited for a while until a man with a nice Indian accent called Akit asked how he could help me. I proceeded to tell him the story of the 127 cardboard boxes, the furniture, clothes, computers and washing machine, including the pick up truck, two estate cars and a saloon, each making 3 trips in all, and he said, very good sir but how can I help you. I proceeded to tell him the story of my 7 previous calls to BT, the buttons I pressed, and how long it took and that Mary’s phone was still not connected, and he said, “Sir, your phone IS connected”. I told him it wasn’t, and I tried to phone it and it didn’t ring, and he said “Sir! Stop it right there!”, and said “Sir, we have given you a new number!”……I proceeded to tell him the story about how Mary was only moving round the corner, and reminded him that the number, don’t forget the number, it’s coming round again, 0800 800 150 would move the phone number and Broadband all in one go, and seeing as it was just around the corner, a new number wasn’t necessary. He told me that wheels were already in motion, and in 5 working days, Marys phone would be active with her original phone number.

I reminded him that I was told that 3 days ago, and the 3 days before that, and time seemed to be increasing instead of decreasing, and I couldn’t help it, I began to raise my voice a little, telling him that he didn’t seem to be listening to my problem, he told me then that I was not listening to his helpful advice, and that the answer was always 3 to 5 working days. I asked him to repeat back to me what my phone number was and what new address it should be connected to…and I realized I was listening to a stock question, asked at the end of each enquiry, in order to convince the caller that their problem was being dealt with, and that the answer to any question is always 3 working days. So, next time you call BT at 0800 800 150, see if YOU can find which button to press if all you want to hear is that the answer is always 3 working days. 3 days later and Mary still not connected, and the realization dawning that I was gonna have to go through the entire process again, I figured I needed some therapy, and called my psychiatrist. I was hungdown brungdown hungup and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things, realizing I was never gonna get a phone or broadband, and I was stuck in the desperate cycle of phoning every 3 working days. And I walked in and sat down and said, “ Shrink, I wanna kill! I wanna I wanna kill.Kill. I wanna I wanna rip out telephone wires, I wanna tear BT phone operatives apart. I mean kill, kill,KILL,KILL." and I started jumpin’ up and down yelling KILL KILL, and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling "KILL KILL",

When I went home, sat down and dialled 0800 800 150, I was good and ready and fired up. And I pressed 1’s 2’s and 3’,s until finally I was ear to ear with another BT operative somewhere very far away. Putting on my meanest most sinister voice I uttered quietly, “I’m recording this call for therapy purposes”, and then laid out the entire story of Mary’s New House, with three part harmony, full orchestration and feeling. Now friends, there was only one or two things the BT operative could’ve said and the first was he could have given us a medal for being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and we didn't expect it , and the other thing was he could have said Mary’s phone would be connected in 3 to 5 working days, which is what we expected, but there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, “Sir, you have the wrong department, I am transferring you now”, I shouted out in pain and frustration, “I wanna make a complaint, and suddenly, everything went quiet in India, until Mozart came on the line, followed by what appeared to be the BT psychiatrist, saying, “How can I help you Sir”. In tears of despair, I told him the entire story, and he said, “Don’t worry Sir, I am writing down everything you say, I will put it in writing and send it to the Complaints Dept, you will receive a copy by email. “I HAVE NO PHONE OR BROADBAND SO HOW WILL I SEE WHAT YOU SEND ME!! “No problem Sir, Mary’s phone will be connected for certain in 3 to 5 working days”.
And that’s how it stands at present. Mary, (remember Mary? It’s a song about Mary) is still not connected. and the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may knowsomebody in a similar situation, or, you may be in a similar situation, and if you’re in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's call BT wherever you are on 0800 800 150 and say, “You can get anything you want, at British Telecom, and hang up. You know, if one person, just one person does it, it might ring bells. And three people , three people, can you imagine, three people calling 0800 800 150, singing a bar of British Telecom, and asking if Mary’s phone is connected yet, they might think it’s an organization and start getting their act together. And can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day calling 0800 800 150, singing a bar of British Telecom, and asking if Mary’s phone is online yet, friends they may thinks it's a movement. And that's what it is, the British Telecom Mary’s Phone Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar. With feeling. So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and sing it when it does. Here it comes.
You can get anything you want, at British Telecom.
(excepting phone calls)
You can get anything you want, at British Telecom.
Phone ‘em up, they’re in Bangalore,
Twenty thousand miles from your new front door
You can get anything you want, at British Telecom,
(excepting broadband)
at British Telecom………..

I can now tell you that we are finally online and rolling towards a great year on LymeRegisRadio, with many changes to tell you about........

Tesco in Lyme Regis?

Tesco in Lyme?
Expressing any opinion about this in Lyme right now is tantamount to suicide. Feelings on the question of the impending arrival of the retail giant are running very high. I don’t think that even the two years upheaval of our seafront caused this much controversy, to the point where it’s the only talking point wherever you go.
But opinions vary, depending on which cross section of Lyme society you’re talking to. When we made our video last week, we interviewed local traders, mostly shops close to the epicentre, but we’ve already been asked if we might ‘redress the balance’ by pointing the camera at shoppers.
At the Lyme Traders Association meeting tonight, you could have cut the air with a Tesco plastic bag. The accent of the discussion was about what happens when a giant like Tesco drops onto a small town. Local Traders suggest that Tesco will kill all the shops, invite other ‘big name’ competitors into Lyme, change the face of Lyme forever, etc, etc. Colin Willis chaired the meeting as best he could amongst a plethora of actions and ideas, almost begging them to calm down and look seriously at the options available, announcing the alternative consequences of a large retail area being empty, like the Three Cups. Meanwhile, propositions of campaigns being announced, sticking up posters, canvassing the town, hate Tesco till they go away, organising meetings, canvassing the populace, demonstrating outside the store, boycotting, with the main theme of Stop Tesco Coming to Lyme, and personally I think its all rhetoric.

No doubt at all that it’s a thorny subject. We all feel for those who might lose their jobs, or lose their livelihood, but these are changing times, and as Marcus Dixon so subtly put it, the way people shop is changing, more shopping is done on the internet, the real question arises within the community, and it’s uncertain as yet that the community of Lyme Regis don’t want Tesco. There is also the view that the biggest loss to the town is Woolworths, or that Woolworths merely decimates a different area of local business than Tesco. In the main, Tesco hits the food shops. Pip Evans commented that having visited a nearby Tesco Express, he found no fresh fish on sale, a remark directed, not too subtly, at Simon Bennett, local wet fish man, who with Franny Owen, is the loudest and most outspoken. In fact, the meeting wasn’t well supported by traders, might seem clear that those shops whose trade is unlikely to suffer, didn’t attend. I can hear already the cry of the few that Tesco will damage everyone, damage the town permanently, destroy Lyme’s retail individuality, but, is that really true? It represents a flawed belief that visitors only come here for the shops. It isn’t true! None of us, visitors or residents, are here because the shops are great. In fact, most of us are complaining that we can’t get our staple foods in Lyme. In the Summer the tourists empty the Co-op while residents are at work, and other food shops are either too expensive, or too specialist for daily needs. From that point of view, if Tesco is going to fill that need, I’m all for it. Also, I don’t have a motor car, and I can avoid a twice weekly trip to either Axminster or Bridport. A lot of elderly residents are in a similar situation, having to make a 14 mile round trek to do a little shopping.

The reason people come here, (and including via ancestry, those born here), visit this place, open businesses here, live here, paint pictures, make movies and write books here......, has a lot to do with that big blue thing that borders the southern edge of the town.

Lyme Regis Town Council and Transition

Went to the first ever Transition Town meeting tonight, very exciting, there is no doubt now that Lyme Regis will become a Transition Town. Considering this was a first meeting to test support, it was, with very little publicity, very well attended. Pleased to see also a good representation from several local groups and organisations.
Most embarrassing, but not surprising, was that not one individual from our own Town Council could be bothered to turn up. This isn’t just my own personal comment, it was mentioned to me by three or four people, one saying that they thought I had “something to do with” the Council. I don’t, my only connection with the Council is to record Council Meetings for the benefit of the voters of Lyme Regis.
It’s very surprising that the Council aren’t interested, especially in view of the fact of how fast the Transition Initiative is growing! With Somerset County Council voting unanimously to become the first Transition County Council, Devon & Cornwall C.C about to follow suit, Dartmoor becoming the first Transition National Trust, plus rumblings in Dorchester and West Dorset District Council, it only serves to confirm my view that LRTC is stuck in a zero time warp!
It would seem clear (to some of us!) that the recent so called ‘credit crunch’, and rising oil prices have severe implications for small towns like Lyme, towns where there is one road in and one road out, stuck at the edge of nowhere, a place where the largest income to the local purse is car park fees, in a situation where the number of cars on the roads is already decreasing rapidly, where local house values are collapsing at the rate of around £300 a week, where all local business is dependent on incoming tourism, where nearly all workers in town have to travel in, where there is no social housing (lets ditch forever this ridiculous term ‘affordable’, its meaningless, the number of mortgages being offered to anyone in the UK is almost zero, there is no such thing as ‘affordable’).
It’s typical of LRTC to ignore it all in the hope that it will go away, to go on implementing it’s own already outdated ‘Community Plan’ instead of linking, as it will have to in the end, with this real initiative to revitalise our Community.
My only reply to those who expressed disappointment that the Council chose not to be represented is this: go and listen to the audio of this week’s Full Council Meeting, you’ll hear the Council speaking at its best as a comedy show, where the Council debates at length whether the Community Plan Implementation Sub-Committee (what does that mean anyway!) should be a ‘full’ committee, or a ‘sub’ committee, and can’t even make up its mind whether it can speak for itself. Now that was embarrassing! Truth is, I didn’t understand a word of it! What’s worse than that? None of the Council understood a word of it either! Listen for yourself here: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/fullcouncilmeeting03oct08.html
In relation to the said C P I Sub Comm, its biggest deliberation at this months meeting was about putting a small sign up in Langmoor Gardens, inclusive of a report about Summer in Lyme, and some utter nonsense about ‘affordable’ housing, there‘s no doubt that they are really and truly implementing a long term forward looking community plan for Lyme Regis! Click this link to read the minutes of the meeting: http: http://www.lymeregistowncouncil.gov.uk/pages/documents/CPISCMinutes17.09.08.doc
I recently asked one of our esteemed Town Councillors about some ‘transition’ questions, and received the reply, “None of it bothers me, I’ll be dead and long gone by the time it happens”. Any reply to that? Only this, first, it’s happening already, second, unless you only have a two year life expectancy, it’s in your lifetime, and third, if you feel like that, you’re dead already and killing the rest of us off by holding on to a Council seat!
I doubt if any of our Town Council have listened to the audio of Rob Hopkins Transition talk on LymeRegisRadio, mostly because, en masse, they ignore LRR anyway, it’s the ignore-ance principle again, ignore us long enough and we might go away.
But I’ve all but given up on attracting the attention of the council, we’ve been trying fruitlessly to talk to the Tourism & Advertising Sub-Committee recently, we think that some of our observations are of mutual benefit, but they are not interested in allowing us to speak to their illustrious selves. It sounds typical to me, ignoring us, ignoring Transition Towns, talking about car park fees while oil prices rise dramatically. We’re not the only group or organisation in town that feels ignored. It seems to many that the LRTC will go on with its own excruciatingly half baked community plan while the needs of real people continue to be ignored.
The next Transition Meeting is on Thurs 23rd October at the Masonic Halls, and I would urge anyone who is interested in the long term future of Lyme Regis to be there.

Plastic Bags, lazy journalism, and Turn Lyme Green

Had an email this morning asking if i had any 'follow up' on my blog entry on the subject of TurnLymeGreen. In some ways I kind of regret writing it in the first place, though I stand by almost everything I said in it. I've had quite a few comments, some via email, and several verbal comments from townsfolk, mostly in agreement with my comments. There were also some comments on a TurnLymeGreen circular, but they were in the main so negative that I didn't want to add fuel to a non existent fire by reporting them here. I didn't regard the accusation of 'lazy journalism' or 'if LymeRegisRadio is to have any credibility I would suggest keeping objectivity to the forefront and personal soapboxes to the rear' from one TurnLymeGreen member as fair comment or worth repeating. Firstly, I'm not a journalist, I'm a citizen of Lyme Regis presenting my own personal view. My comments were not specifially about TurnLymeGreen, they were about Plastic Bag campaigns, which I really do think muddy the water. I'm not the only one who thinks so, not even in Lyme Regis. Aside from putting my own view about Carbon Emissions and Global Warming, the peice was pretty much tongue in cheek, at worst sardonic.

Though I do have a small apology to make in regard to three comments on the aforesaid TLG circular. 'Plastic bags are a start and thats all we have ever said', added to, 'in fact, carbon emissions are very serious, Although TLG is not currently doing anything about this', and 'would be great if some people took on a campaign to reduce carbon emissions'. I apologise for suggesting that TLG had anything in its brief concerning Carbon Emissions or Global Warming, and I note the admission that it isn't doing anything in this direction. It wasn't my intention to 'slam or ridicule' public initiative, and I deny that I'm guilty of that. Simply putting a point of view which deserves to be heard is all. I also believe that 'all involved are doing what we can and are genuine'. I accept that TLG is doing a good job within its chosen framework, its aim of making Lyme a greener place to live or visit, and if Carbon Emissions are not part of its brief I'll make no further comment.

The other communications I've had ask if LymeRegisRadio is still recording TLG events. Answer is we would if we could! We seem to have been dropped from their Mailing List and we don't even receive Press Releases. I think this is a shame and I can't understand why. In personal terms I'm a practicing environmentalist. I don't own a motor car, encourage others to lessen their addiction to the beasts, and I've been reusing and recycling like a madman for more than 30 years. That part is personal, I don't need to be a member of TLG or any other organisation to hold that view. In terms of LymeRegisRadio, I don't know what to say. We reported faithfully, with very few edits, on three TLG events, and interviewed the key people on our Friday Night Live programme. Those sessions are still being listened to by many people in Lyme and around the world. The most popular is the talk by Mukti Mitchell about living a Low Carbon Lifestyle. I loved Mukti's positive view, and was personally inspired by his talk. A man after my own heart who understands the bliss of living a Low Carbon life.

So if any apology is necessary, I'll offer it in this way: We now have a Canon XL Broadcast/DVD quality Digital Camcorder, and if TLG would like to make use of it to make a beautiful positive film about how Lyme could benefit from lessening its dependence on fossil fuels, please call me.

Lyme Regis and the Art of Being......

Thanks to all who participated for Dorset Art Week, Lyme ArtsFest, and all the other myriad lifesavers that occur like magic in Lyme Regis all the year round. We're always on the lookout for colourful events and colourful people who sound good in my favourite media: audio! I know its easy to get the impression that we're moving on to TV and Video, but don't be fooled, I'm a Radio man to the core, and we are forever radio.

There are some events however that work on both an audio and a visual level, and Hugh Dunford Woods Sculpture Garden was just such an occasion. I so enjoyed drifting around the garden with my little Camcorder finding sparkling little surprises of feeling everywhere I looked. Even without the sculpture, this is a garden with deep feelings, and the wood, on its own account, is quite magical. I was particularly drawn to the arrangement of work surrounding the pond, the little boy peering into the water, the shell overlooking, but then going into the wood, I find a man with a dog on his head, and I'm stunned! I was struck, almost literally, by the face, accepting of the dog, and kind of recognising its right to be there, on his head. I understood a lot more after I heard Mary talking to the artist when I edited the recording. Reminds me very much of my relationship with our parrot, she can get very stroppy and in fighting mode when denied the RIGHT of a shoulder.

But all that was before I was chatting with Lucy Campbell, and Adrian Gray turned up and said he was just about to do a spot of Stone Balancing (This was after a conversation with Lucy about our mealy mouthed council wasting its own time by debating whether they can claim another measly hundred quid out of an artist that is a genuine asset to this town, I'll say no more, fearing that people will think I'm occupying Matt Puddy's ground). What I saw Adrian Gray do was nothing short of miraculous. How does he do that? I watched him intently, video camera running, and it seemed as if he was almost thinking the stone into place. I could almost hear him talking to it, ear pressed against the stone, listening to it. Even his posture seems to emulate the stone he is balancing. Then, after the tension, and the watching and waiting, suddenly its complete, the stone is free to fall, and it doesn't.........

We've been trying to get an interview with Adrian, but apparently he is allergic to electricity. Being a person myself with allergies to motor cars, and living in a world full of them, and not being able to escape the demons they create, I know how he feels. So we are experimenting with doing some programmes via Thought Waves.

But it wasn't just the big sculptures, or the spectacular events that captured the eye, there were these very erotic naked women in small bowls, so realistic it was easy to imagine you were viewing from a distance, through a monochrome scale, like sexuality itself....so visible and yet, so well hidden........

Hugh's little publicity stunt nearly got us all going too. There he was, on our live Sunday View programme, telling us all about how those grass circles just appeared overnight. Very good Hugh, you almost had Pip Evans believing you! But we got the truth, and its revealed on our video.......

I really do hope that Hugh is going to continue these wonderful little events at Little Place. Mary and me were saying how nice it would be to sing some country music in your lovely garden this summer........

Hear and see the whole story at this location: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/sculpturegarden25may08.html

Sing it with Flowers, St. Michael's, Lyme Regis

After the mad chaos of the last couple of weeks, walking into the church on Sunday afternoon was like experiencing the antidote. A sudden and welcome slow down as the light and colour of the Flower Festival melted into the vision.
Since the first Live Broadcast SUNDAY VIEW on the 4th May, our feet don't seem to have touched the ground, and because there is a lot of ground breaking activity, its a total experience, never quite knowing if the technology will hold up requires full attention on the job in hand.
And yes, ok, I freely admit we didn't get everything right first time, and the first SUNDAY VIEW was a bit of a disaster, but if you were one of the few who checked in to the LIVE Broadcast, you got the programme as advertised, though in the studio, chaos reigned as Nomad aattempted vainly to wrest control of the various knobs, sliders and switches that link Pip and guests to the Live online Studio.
After this session, we cleared up the studio, headed straight across the road, and spent the afternoon shooting video at the May Day Fete in Anning Road Playing Field. More than 30 stalls representing local groups and organisations, great entertainment from the Majorettes and Junior Band, stunning Tai Kwon Du demonstration, couldn't be beat. almost the whole town was out and about at this annual event purely with locals in mind. Congrats to the hard working Carnival & Regatta Committee, mucho applause please! See the video on This Weeks Video page,here: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/videopages.html
We followed that up on Tuesday evening with a magical night at the Ropemakers Arms in Bridport. The Live Cam worked perfectly throughout and we broadcast some excellent music to the people of the internet. You can hear our recording for yourself at this location: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/folkatherope6may08.html and guaranteed, it's well worth listening to. We called it 'Folk at the Rope', and though Mary Land and the RollOvers contributed folk songs by the Jefferson Airplane and Rolling Stones, most of the evening, all the way to Mitch Normans own brand of sophisticated 'folk funk', was fairly authentic. Thanks to the 'chance listener' from the USA who emailed us asking if we were in Oregon, because the only Bridport he could find was in Vermont! Tune in LIVE to next months session by clicking to the LIVE CHANNEL, details on Front Page soon.
We might have had an hour two break then, but on Wednesday morning, the phone was hot with news of the Landslip, and we were out on the beach the moment the tide began to roll out, getting there to find that a lot of others were there already. It was fortunate enough that our good friends Dr. Sandy Burnfield and George Hoffman were eye witnesses to the event the night before when hundreds of tons of cliff began crashing into the sea. We have an exclusive inteview in video and audio, plus spectacular rockfall footage, you can find it all here: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/landslipbig7may08.html
Things might have quietened down a notch then, except in the evening of the same day, we were recording the Policy Meeting of Lyme Regis Town Council, which unusually was full of excitement and vehemence. (see last blog entry). Hear the meeting complete and unedited, including Cllr. Ellis's phone ringing half way through the proceedings, at this location: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/councilmeetingpolicy7may08.html
After an all night editing session, Mary and I had a shot at a Live Broadcast on our own on Thursday night, for which, many apologies, we've now worked out how to play video's one at a time, and in the sequence we choose. When we do 'A Week in Lyme Regis' video clips this week, on Thursday at 8pm, we hope to get it right, or at least a little more right than last week.
Friday night as most people know by now, is our regular night out at the Royal Lion, and now that the Friday Night Live interviews hve been incorporated into the Sunday Live show, its brilliant, having a real night off, drinking convivial Guiness with friends while wearing our new LymeRegisRadio T-Shirts from Jiving Jellyfish!
We had to stop on Saturday and catch up on a morass of editing and updating, being swamped with new stuff and desperate to get it online and heard, followed by late night prep for the Sunday show, which is where we were at 11am Sunday morning. Hauling studio gear into the Green Room in the View From office. We went Live at Midday with some good music chosen by Pip Evans, and speaking for myself alone, I hope he will include a little something by Nat King Cole in the next few weeks. If you have your own requests and dedications, please send them in, to either us at lymeregisradio@hotmail.com, or Pip personally, philip@pemedia.co.uk. Surprisingly enough, we pulled it off with very few problems, our guest this week, Rikey Austin spoke eloquently and with deep feeling about why she is organising the Cancer Research Relay in August, Rob Thom headed imaginary footballs across the studio while discussing the year at Davey Fort with Pip, Jenny Finch from www.whatsoninlyme.co.uk informed us about events in Lyme in the week ahead, and amidst Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, Steve Black and Ella, fossil walker Brandon Lennon ended the show by updating us on the landslip. You can hear the recording of it here: http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/sundayview11may08.html
Thinking that before racing home and commencing editing we would do one last video at 'Sing it With Flowers' in St. Michaels. We stepped into the church and as we walked into the Flower Festival, we just.....simply,......stopped.

Council Policy Meeting:

Last night at the Policy Meeting (7th May 08), Cllr David Cozens launched an astonishng tirade against our much valued local Community Policeman, Richard Winward. Richard is a local man in every way, and has been based in Lyme for many years, he doesn't deserve to be attacked publicly in such a vicious and unprincipled way. Though I'm in absolute agreement with the rule of no skateboarding on Marine Parade, this is no way to deal with a caring local policeman who has much more important work to do besides sorting out a few adolescents on the seafront. When asked about skateboarding at the Town Meeting, Richard owned up to the fact that on occasions he had given permission for a few kids to use the shelters. Obviously, in the absence of anywhere else he could direct them, he puts them in the nearest off street spot where he can keep an eye on them, offering as his reason they would only be boarding somewhere else, probably further up the Parade. Its not a situation either in which he has any legal power. What if the youngsters challenge his rule, can he arrest them? Caution them? Give them an on the spot fine? Even if a Bye -Law is in force, he still has very little power to do anything, and it's a great message to send out to visitors and holidymakers, that their children will be in trouble with the police for involving themselves in an 'illegal' activity if they visit Lyme. It seems to put skateboarders in the same category as criminals. If we need a skateboard park at all, it needs to be on or near the Parade, the gardens, or the seafront. Its where the action is, especially in the Summer. Holidaymakers don't want to traipse their kids half way to Charmouth to take part in what is essentially a street activity. If Lyme has failed to provide a safe central area, its the fault of the council, not Richard Winward, who is unfortunate enough to be caught between two opposing camps, and is doing his best while the council dithers about in indecision.
This council rambles on about squeezing a few extra quid out of a stone balancer, or how much juice can be squeezed out of a solar powered squeezer, and occupies half its meeting time in trivia instead of making real decisions. Then when it comes to grief, it blames its workers, helpers and support organisations. I'm not unhappy about Lyme looking forward, but what about Lyme NOW?
What is needed, and was made clear at the Town Meeting is that the Police need proper guidance from the Council on this matter. Telling him to "Go out there and enforce this" is stupid, pointless and futile.
I don't agree either that we need to pander to every whim of young people either. In every town in every city in the country, there are young people in a constant complaint that there is 'nothing to do around here'. It happens everywhere, its a youth thing. Skateboarding is a transitory thing that young people do for a while, then, if they're sensible, move on to something better.
So here is a man who owned up to his 'mistake', and admitted his 'fault', there should be no more to be said. Here is a man condemned by his own honesty, who could have avoided saying anything at all if he chose, but he told the truth. Richard has proved himself to be honest and reliable, and to be castigated for it in such a vicious way is beyond the pale.
Richard Winward has the trust and respect of Lyme Regis, and has earned that respect by being a good man, and an exceptionally good policeman.
I consider Cllr Cozens to be out of order on this matter. Not just out of order, but uncharitable and unforgiving, and though he claims to have experience of working with young people for 50 years, he doesn't appear to haave learned learned anything from the experience. We should be grateful that our brilliant team of local coppers aren't of the 'old school' represented by Cllr Cozens bully and bash method of upholding the law.
A complete recording of the meeting can be found here......
http://www.lymeregisradio.com/sound/councilmeetingpolicy7may08.html