Creative People Without Categories

My name is Peter McDada. I'm producing a documentary/interactive DVD on the five cities of Yorkshire and their cultural scene, focusing on creative people who make things happen; curators and experimental artists, bands and/or musicians who deny categories. Can you help? Please contact me - mcdada@hotmail.com meme: (pron. meem) A contagious idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind. Memes function the same way genes and viruses do, propagating through communication networks and face-to-face contact between people.

The root of the word memetics, a field of study which postulates that the meme is the basic unit of cultural evolution. Examples of memes include melodies, icons, fashion statements and phrases.

I'm looking for musicians to lay down a bare track, which I then take to Sheffield where another band adds to it. Then to Leeds, Bradford and York ... this is in the Meme remit. People contributing, adding things and being involved. It could also work in poetry and digital images ...

Art - Kingswood High School Hosts an Art Exhibition Primary Colours for Fair Trade from school children in Hull by Mo.
	Last Thursday saw the launch of a 10 day exhibition called Primary Colours at Kingswood High School, Bransholme. Featured was artwork from a number of local primary schools - The Dales and Coleford - both under threat of closure - and Cleeve, Bude and other primary schools Read more...

Art - The History of LSD Blotter Art Compiled by Rich Mills
	Blotter Art is a term that refers to the artwork that liquid LSD is dropped onto. The artwork is printed onto blotter paper and then perforated into tiny squares or hits, which can be torn apart into easy to manage quantities. In 1938 LSD-25 (or diethylamide Read more...

Art Gallery - By Local Artist Patrick Henry
	I became a self-taught painter at the age of 36 when living in a mediaeval village in the French Dordogne. Post-Impressionism had been my favourite kind of art for long before that. I think it has a basic relevance that will never be exhausted. Renaissance paintings are also very Read more...

Art Gallery - By Hull Artist Darren Rogers.
	This is a series of photographs we'd like to present by Darren Rogers, an artist from Hull, East Yorkshire, England. Darren has not only proven himself to be an incredible photographer - providing the most brilliant galleries of live band performances Read more...

Reviews, Books - Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	People don't take trips - trips take people. It's almost impossible, in this day and age, to not have heard of John Steinbeck. First and foremost, his Of Mice And Men short story is the staple part of almost every school curriculum, while his Grapes of Wrath novel is equally as well-known. Steinbeck was born and raised in the Salinas area of California, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Fiesta by Ernest Hemingway Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	No, I wasn't naïve enough to be fooled into thinking that this exquisite novel from the legendary Hemingway was an in-depth car manual designed to accompany the latest Ford creation. Far from it, in fact, for this story follows a bunch of friends who travel from Paris to Spain, and to the town of Pamplona in particular to witness the bull-running and -fighting events of the infamous Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - June 6-11th - The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare and Sweet William by Alan Plater. Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough by Patrick Henry
	These two works played in a week of repertory constitute essentially company productions, without star actors nor prominent leading characters, giving all-round strength to the enterprise, but also some weaknesses. It is absorbing to watch how the actors from the classic comedy are deployed in the cast of the new Plater piece. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Swan Song by Robert Edric Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Swan Song is the third and final part of Robert Edric's cycle trilogy. Although Edric does not describe himself as crime-fiction writer per-se, he skilfully demonstrates the strength of the genre. Although crime-fiction is generally criticised for not being literary enough, Edric uses it as a vehicle with which to explore contemporary society. Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	So, The Phantom of The Opera is perhaps one of the best-known stories in the world, but how many of you good people realised that a sequel to the story has actually been written - and has been kicking around for some years now - by the one and only Frederick Forsyth? The original, horrifying Phantom of The Opera story was penned by Frenchman Gaston Leroux, but the world at large Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	He doesn't need any money... all he needs is his rucksack. There really was no end to Jack's writing talents after all! This is the fifth book of his that I've had the pleasure of reading, and it is by far and away my favourite. When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing. Packed with all the excitement of his classic masterpiece On The Road Read more...

Reviews, Books - I'm a Teacher Get Me Out of Here by Francis Gilbert (Short Books) Reviewed By Cathy Walker
	As I am about to change career to become a primary school teacher, I picked up I'm A Teacher Get Me Out Of Here with a little trepidation. I'd heard that it presents the reality of working in a 'tough school', of what a hard and challenging job being a teacher truly is. I can't wait to become a teacher and I didn't want Read more...

Reviews, Events - Nights Out - Tuesday 24th May 05 - Benny Hill Preservation Society By Adam Atkinson
	My utter fascination with all things Benny started as early as the age of three, when I by chance happened upon some irrelevant sketch involving the Benster dressed as a cardiac surgeon examining some saucy minx. 12 years later I would see my own Uncle Frank arrested for the very same thing. Read more...

Reviews, Books - In The Winter Dark by Tim Winton Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	A menacing short story from the ever-interesting Australian writer Tim Winton, this is a thrilling venture into dark and macabre territory that focuses on a few people who live in a secluded valley that seems to also be inhabited by a mysterious creature that preys both on their animals and their worst fears. Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	First published way, way back in 1915, this is the story that inspired the infamous movie of the same name that was directed by the king of noir, old Alfred Hitchcock. I have it on good authority that the film version does in fact differ to quite a large extent to this novel, but what the hell. I can't imagine the book being any less suspenseful or tense Read more...

Reviews, Books - Junky by William S. Burroughs Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Where to start with a man of William's legendary literary standing? Born in 1914, in his own time he came to be regarded as one of the most important American writers of the Sixties Beat generation - during which time his writing was revered in the same way that the work of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg was. Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Long Rain by Peter Gadol Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	After I had walked around the winery, I climbed back in my truck and continued driving farther up into the foothills, and some nights I did make it as far as the mountain road. I wanted to cross the Diablo range. I wanted to keep driving clear across the state and into the desert, deep into the American vastness, where I knew no one and no one knew me. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Goodbye, Hessle Road by Daphne Glazer Reviewed By Cathy Walker
	Goodbye Hessle Road is the new novel by local writer Daphne Glazer, set in and around Hull. It focuses on the lives of Donna, her mum and grandmother Ruby and features many local landmarks from the leafy suburbs of the Avenues to the inside of Hull Prison. Donna is a drugs worker at Hull prison; she is portrayed as a strong woman, with attitude and hidden vulnerability. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink by Tom Miller Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	I have long longed to visit the South-Western states of the USA, and the beautifully majestic Arizona in particular. In this fascinating and factual book, Tom - who himself lives in Tucson, Arizona - recounts all sorts of weird and wonderful tales from the region, and also presents tall tales from California Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Reviewed By Cathy Walker
	thisisUll.com readers may have seen The Time Traveller's Wife featured as part of Richard and Judy's Bookclub. If you're not a fan of the teatime TV couple do not be deterred; this is likely to be one of the most unusual and original pieces of fiction Read more...

Reviews, Books -One For New York by John A Williams Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	A remarkable novel in every respect, this is a classic piece of literature from an incredibly gifted writer who expressed exactly how it felt to be a black man growing up in the United States early on in the last Century. This book focuses on his Read more...