Starts Friday 3rd December 2010 @ Upfest Gallery, Bristol

www.upfest.co.uk

Wednesday 1st until Friday 24th December 2010 @ The Showroom, The Art Box, Park Street, Bristol

Jamaica Street Artists will be providing an alternative treat for shoppers on Bristol’s busy Park Street this Christmas with the opening of their pop-up shop and gallery; The Art Box. Launching with a grand opening on the 1st December, the shop will then be open until Christmas (offering special late night shopping every Thursday). Pop-up shops and temporary galleries have become an international trend and Bristol City Council has joined the movement by offering empty shop units to arts and cultural organisations across Bristol. Jamaica Street Artists have secured a term in The Showroom, which has already been home to a zombie game, puppet show and exhibition.

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Every year around Christmas, just as much as we love stuffing our faces with cranberry sauce et al, watching abysmal TV, and humming along to tacky songs in supermarket queues, there’s another festive tradition that’s more fun than most – a trip to the theatre! Whether you’ve got kids, find usual stage productions too much of an effort, or are in fact a bit of a theatre junky, we all enjoy that extra special festive vibe that watching a Christmas show with friends and family can provide. Let’s see what the stages of Bristol have in store for us all in December 2010 then:

Tobacco Factory Theatre – The Adventures of Pinocchio
The team behind 2008’s A Christmas Carol are back with the classic story of Pinocchio. Geppetto the Italian carpenter carves a block of wood into a puppet who will be the son he has always wanted but Pinocchio runs away on an epic voyage of discovery to become a real boy.
www.tobaccofactorytheatre.com

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SY has a foreign writer, a foreign writer who has been asked to write an article about conkers, or more specifically, conker fights - the problem is I have no idea what conkers are! You see I have lived in the UK for quite a few years now and while I’ve have been introduced to the joys of many a British tradition (everything from Yorkshire puddings to poppies), I’ve never heard of conker fights. Who enjoys conker fights? Where do you get conkers? Should I be concerned by the violence involved?

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Despite your best efforts to ignore the inevitable, sooner or later you’re going to have to face up to it: The nights have been drawing in for some time now, late June in fact, and there’s an unmistakable chill in the air. I expect you’ve put on a jumper a few times, and maybe even a coat. Yes, autumn is upon us, but take heart, for there are plenty of great things to enjoy at this time of year. The weather is still pleasant and the lowering sun bathes us in glorious rich hues of colour. Here are a few ideas to make the most of the autumnal sunshine:

Westonbirt Aboretum
A beautiful place at any time of the year, but autumn is when this spot is at its stunning best. It’s a feast of picture book autumnal colour. A few hours among this great collection of trees will bring out the David Bailey in you. A bit of a drive, but worth it.

Bristol Zoo and Botanical Gardens
When was the last time you went to the zoo? It’s great, especially with kids. Bristol Zoo is completely ethical and by visiting you will be helping schemes that help endangered animals and environments. The enclosures are amazing, and the gardens are spectacular.
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Poor old Guy Fawkes. All he tried to do was rid the country of corrupt politicians. I heard that the whole thing was a cover up, Guy Fawkes had discovered certain discrepancies in the 17th century political expenses system, and the then government needed to keep the story quiet.

Actually, Britons have celebrated at around this time of year with fire rituals since long before Guy Fawkes’ time. Celtic traditions saw the sacrifice of human offerings to deities during the festival of Samhain, as the land passed from the powers of light to dark in return for continued water, health or crop growth. Our burning of an effigy of poor old Guy is merely the most recent manifestation of a tradition that goes back centuries and at one time involved not an effigy, but a real living person. In fact, I’ve read speculation that the word bonfire is a derivative of bone fire, for when the Saxons invaded they were amazed at the amount of human burnings they encountered.
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Saturday 30th October 2010 @ College Green to Stokes Croft, Bristol
Photo highlights of Bristol’s annual zombie mayhem pilfered from their facebook page. “Brraaaaaaaains!”

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Fritha Strickland

A new autumn in Bristol brings with it some fresh breezes as well as a fresh bunch of fresh-faced students. May I be the first to congratulate you on your choice of city to study in; congratulations and welcome. Getting to grips with a new city can always be difficult. What you need is some sort of funky, free magazine to helpfully lay out a list of fifteen or so places to visit and things to do in your first six months here. Yer, something like that would be good. Well looky here…!

1. Must Visit the Clifton Suspension Bridge
Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s postcard picture bridge spans the Avon Gorge and really lives up to its spectacular reputation. A very good introduction to the city this.

2. Must Walk along the Harbour
You’ll soon learn that a lot of Bristol’s life revolves around its Floating Harbour. You would do very well to get to grips with all the fantastic pubs, cubs, cafés, restaurants and characters that line its banks.

3. Must Drink Cider, Drink, Drink and then Drink some more Cider
Hidden away in Clifton’s backstreets, the Coronation Tap’s legendary cider is so strong it can only be served in half pints - the ultimate student piss-up! The Apple in town too is every cider lover’s dream (no, not the one where you go apple-bobbing for boobs).
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Still in shock? Yep, so am I! After years of disappointment and emergency umbrella buying, we’ve finally got our wish…a half decent summer! No doubt you’ve spent your afternoons lazing about on the beach or sipping on Pimms in a beer garden, with nothing but sun tinted hair and a white sun glasses marks to show for it - ah to be British!  But the time has come to stop wearing bikinis instead of bras and to retire from the garden, into the warmth and glow of the great indoors. I don’t know about you, but bizarrely, almost as soon as October 1st strikes, my friends and I instinctively ditch the Pimms and straw hats and hurry inside to sit by a roaring log fire with a whiskey to warm our cockles.

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