The face of Reading’s star actress Kate Winslet is gracing the cover of TIME magazine. The words “Best Actress” are printed somewhere above her right ear.
You can read the cover story here.
When will a Reading person next appear on the cover of TIME?
Reading is the latest town to get The Guardian’s “Let’s move to…” treatment. A new location is examined every Saturday as part of the paper’s Money section, with Reading featured in today’s edition.
So what did Tom Dyckhoff say?
Fortunately, the “What’s going for it” bit is four times the size of “The case against”. On the positive side, the abbey grounds are mentioned (fortunately it wasn’t mentioned that these have been temporarily closed off), the countryside (not technically Reading, but nevermind) gets a thumbs up, as do John Lewis and Waitrose (eh?).
Against, it’s the usual story. ”Pig ugly”. Harsh. There are far uglier towns than Reading (I shall not name them). Is the Thames Promenade ugly? Is our town’s Victorian architecture ugly? Forbury Gardens: ugly? Is Prospect Park a bit of an eyesore? There is a lot of concrete in Reading, but many other UK towns have this problem. London is not all shiny squares and pretty palaces.
“Traffic and parking both chronic”. Yes. Can’t argue with that.
“The cultural scene sags.” Ouch. That’s unfair. Reading Festival, new Heavenly Planet festival, South Street, RISC, Hexagon… are these not “cultural”? A new music festival is hardly evidence of a sagging cultural scene.
Anyway, read the report and have your say (I have).
On Thursday night, parties were staged simultaneously around the world in “175+ cities“, including London (of course), Jerusalem, D.C, Mumbai, Ankara and… Reading.
Ok, Reading isn’t a city (really, it isn’t), but the point is our town, the digital pearl of the Thames Valley, lay host for the first time to the geeky, global and highly-publicised Twitter extravaganza named the Twestival - an exciting development that will, I’m sure, lead to further “tweetups”.
Superbly organised, the Reading Twestival took place at the Spanish-style La Tasca. Newcomers were warmly greeted by @simonster and partner @DonnaWhitehead at the downstairs bar entrance, where they received a sticker bearing their Twitter username, e.g. @mattbrady, and an opportunity to buy raffle tickets.
The top raffle prize was brilliantly conceived (and it is brilliant): a Tana Water T6 water dispenser. Brilliant, because unfiltered tap water in Reading doesn’t taste so great, but more importantly, the Twestival was held in aid of charity:water. Marvellous. Unfortunately, I didn’t win anything.
I was nervously expecting in-depth conversations about obscure programming languages and (shivers down spine) Mac vs PC debates. Instead, topics were more mainstream. Yes, there were hardcore geeks, but there were also sponsor people (I recognised at least one MS face) and salesy types (ok, fair enough, we were all selling something - it wasn’t just about the giving). In other words, the Reading Twestival crowd was a mixed bunch.
The first person I approached, standing in a group located conveniently next to the bar (Cruzcampo on tap), spotted my dazzling, bright yellow Barcelona top and said something about the friendly international between England and Spain the night before. That was the perfect ice-breaker (confirming that football is indeed the ultimate ice-breaker). That, and the fact that my name sticker was no longer on my Nike jacket (I later found it stuck to an empty pint glass).
As the drink flowed, live tweets from global Twestival events were projected on to a screen. Which leads me to my only gripe: I was unable to connect to the wireless network and therefore unable to tweet myself. Others in the first group I was with had similar difficulties (there was an amusing moment when we all produced an iPhone/iPod Touch at once).
It’s a very minor gripe, however, as I was delighted to meet and communicate in person with “tweeple” (Twitter + people) such as @jangles, @musingsofamanc, @timmorgan, @tjrobinson, @x5315, @lukesmith, an enthusiastic @craigyd (Craig and I can be seen in this post-pint photo) and a more philosophical @davidjohnpowell (that’s David talking to me in this photo) (pics snapped by @BenjaminEllis, a tremendously nice chap).
And finally, back to the giving. Reading Twestival raised a super £1007.04 for charity:water and the alcohol gave some of us - dreaded Twitter derivative alert - a “twangover” on Friday morning.
Other summaries of the Reading Twestival can be read on the following blogs:
A breathless Kate Winslet received the Best Actress award at the BAFTAs, televised tonight, for her role in The Reader.
According to BBCEntsTeam, Kate said:
The girl from Reading will always be in me. These are dreams I wouldn’t dare to dream as a kid.
Tickets for the Reading Twestival (not to be confused with the August Bank Holiday weekend
event) are now available.
The venue has also been announced: La Tasca. If you fancy meeting local Tweeple over a plate of bravas, visit the Reading Twestival website for full details.
For all those geekily inclined (and there’s a fair number of us), you may be interested to know that a Twestival (Twitter + festival) is planned for Reading on 12 February.
Reading will be joining some 100 cities worldwide in staging a Twestival on this day. The purpose of the event is to raise money and awareness for charity: water.
The location is to be confirmed (I suggested the Global Cafe, as it is itself a charity, has great coffee/beer, world music and free wifi). So far 24 Twitter users have pledge to attend, including my humble self, with 13 “maybes”.
For more information, and to register, go here: http://twtvite.com/5hhven
The LV Lounge, based at The George Hotel in Reading town centre, has closed permanently. LV will now be converted into a restaurant.
Like a phoenix from the flames, the Blagrave Arms pubs has reopened, this time under a new owner. Its former owner had closed it down as it wasn’t making money (and has since returned to business development). Best of luck to both old and new proprietors.
Warning: this is a celeb post.
Ok, this is a celeb post with a difference as it concerns our very own star from Reading: Kate Winslet.
And what a star she has become. Kate has won two Golden Globes, which I guess leaves her an Oscar frontrunner this year.
It would not surprise me at all if she landed cinema’s most coveted prize. I saw The Reader last week at the cinema and was highly impressed with Kate’s performance - probably her best to date - in the lead role.
The Reading Evening Post has revealed that businesses are having their say on a proposed new five-year Business Improvement District (BID) phase to transform the town centre.
Suggestions have so far included live music in restaurants, coffeeshops closing later in the evening, sitting on ice in the middle of Broad St to win a prize, a charity Moonwalk in Broad St, a bigger Children’s Festival and a new lighting scheme.
Meanwhile, under the new proposal, our Christmas lights will continue to be funded, smokers will be encouraged to stub out their ciggies on foil ashtrays and booklets will be distributed for gum.
The central theme of the plan seems to be “community”, or creating conditions that would attract more people into the town centre, day and night, through encouraging them to participate in various activities.
“Community” does appear to be a bit of a buzzword at present and I can see how something akin to an online social network, I guess, on our streets might work.
Boosting the evening economy might be a challenge. The evening economy to me suggests one thing mainly - drinking. There are many people who find the town centre at night, Oracle aside, an intimidating environment, thanks in part to nits who drink too much and make a nuisance of themselves. This is especially true of Friar St, covered in the plan, which even I find unpleasant at night these days.
I can see the appeal of keeping coffeeshops open for longer. As a Madrid student a number of years ago, having a late-night coffee was always an attractive option (even at 2am). It’s something I would love to see introduced here (for then we really will have something that more closely resembles a cafe culture), and I’m sure that freelance workers and bingers alike would be similarly interested.
I’m not sure about the sitting on ice suggestion. Several readers commenting on the article have not warmed to the idea either.
How about something like a night market (similar to what you might find in the Far East)? Or open air concerts (I’m thinking classical or jazz, mainly)? Story-telling might work, as kids and grown-ups alike love Harry Potter etc. (I don’t count myself, as I’ve not read any of the books).
Whatever goes ahead ultimately, it will have to be good. The economic downturn will be challenging enough.
Joff Hopkins, the highly talented Reading 107 FM presenter and formerly of Reading University’s Junction 11, has left town.
Joff, who (rather kindly, I thought) expressed support for this blog, interviewing me a couple of times, has gone abroad*, to East Angular.
The town has indeed lost a luminary. For those interested in keeping up to date with his activities, you can follow his blog moblog de joff and tweets.
Best of luck, Joff!
* he has actually relocated to East Anglia.