There are three reasons we chose the image on this week’s cover, George Leslie’s 1879 painting Alice in Wonderland. Firstly because we are reviewing the Public Catalogue Foundation’s wonderful art book ‘East Sussex’, a collection of all the public-owned oil paintings in the county (page 20). Secondly because it is National Storytelling week this week, which the Sussex Past lot are celebrating with a number of events for kids (page 4). Finally it’s an apt image to launch our new VivaKids pages, aimed at helping frazzled parents find things to do in the local area to keep the little chaps happy on a cold winter day. For easy reference VivaKids pages are marked with a colourful logo in the top left of the relevant page. It being the first week of the month, we’d like to remind you all that the Farmers Market is on in the Precinct on Saturday, which allows you to buy locally-produced food which actually tastes how it’s meant to taste. Buying locally benefits the local economy and annoys the hell out of the fat-cat corporate types. We’d also like to point out that all proceeds from Saturday’s Koils concert (page 11) go to a great cause, fund-raising for the Lewes Live Lit society. Hope to see you there.

To receive a free weekly edition of Viva Lewes in your inbox every week, please click here.

• Art: Star Gallery (16)
• Books: Public Catalogue Foundation (20)
• Bricks & Mortar: The Roundhouse (23)
• Classical Music: Fritz the Flying Fiddle (15)
• Comedy: Barnstormers (7)
• Films: Serenity (6); Garden State (8); Walk the Line (17); History of Violence (19); Chicken Little (13)
• Folk: Adam MacNaughtan (5)
• Football: Lewes vs St Albans (10)
• Nature: Railway Land Coppicing (14)
• Photography: Bill Nichols (24)
• Rock: The Koils (11)
• Quiz: Lewes Operatic Society (12)
• Restaurant Review: George Inn (18)
• Shopping: Lewes Farmers Market (9)
• Storytelling: National Storytelling Week (4)
• Travel: Barcelona (22)
• Walking: Lewes to Southease (21)

Contact Viva Lewes

Editorial (alex@vivalewes.com)
Marketing (nick@vivalewes.com)
Design & Technical (dave@vivalewes.com)

Buddleia, also known as ‘the butterfly plant’, is very beautiful in the summer, but it doesn’t half take over the place (page 14)

National Storytelling Week -
Lewes Castle and Anne of Cleves House

National Storytelling Week was launched in 2000 to boost the oldest of the arts: the telling of a good yarn. Lewes is actively playing its part in keeping the oral tradition alive, with two events for the under 8’s being held in the town. From 4pm on Thursday, there is a one-hour storymaker tour of the Barbican House Museum’s galleries, using the exhibits on show as part of the storytelling process. Then on Saturday, (2-3.30pm) you get to explore Anne of Cleves House in an equally exciting way with your kids. In addition, there is also a museum treasure hunt organised for the pre-schoolers on Tuesday (10-11.30am) with a string of art activities thrown in.

Need more? Well to keep the kids amused, Lewes District residents can also take advantage of February’s half price entry to the castle before viewing the rest of Anne of Cleves House and then wandering down Cockshut Road for a free view of the Cluniac Priory ruins.

Folk Music - Adam MacNaughtan

“…Now listen kiddo,
I’ve been killed and it’s your duty,
To take revenge on Claudius;
Kill him clean and quick and show
The nation what a fraud he is.”

Adam MacNaughtan’s most famous song is his five-minute-long version of Shakespeare’s Danish tragedy, sung in his native Glasgow dialect and entitled ‘Oor Hamlet’. He is one of Scotland’s most gifted singers, poets and musicians, who has been around since the Scottish folk revival in the 60’s, putting a very Glasgow take on everything he covers. ‘My songs aren’t parochial,’ he says, in the sleeve notes of his 1996 LP, Last Stand at Mount Florida, especially added for Sassenachs. ‘They come from the East and North of Glasgow, too.’ To explain his song ‘Cholesterol’ he writes ‘Glasgow has been recognised as the heart disease capital of the world. Glasgow dosnae care.’

There’s a serious side to him, too, but it doesn’t come out very often. Listen out for his long awaited follow up to Hamlet, ‘The Scottish Song,’ and make a request for ‘The Jeelie Piece Song’.

Cinema - Serenity

Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, saw his cult sci-fi show ‘Firefly’ scrapped from US TV schedules after only 10 episodes. However the DVD of the series proved to be such a hit that Whedon managed to raise the money to make a feature film version of the show. Serenity is the result, and it’s a mini masterpiece, blending the subtle humour of, say, Seinfeld with the anarchic brilliance of the original Star Wars Movie. It is the year 2500, and after a brutal civil war the mind-controlling Alliance rule the galaxy. Nathan Fillion is the grizzly captain of the rust-bucket spaceship Serenity, on the run from the authorities; Fillion leads a bunch of scruffy freedom fighter renegades with a profitable sideline in contraband wheeler dealing. When they pick up a father and his daughter they immediately realise they are in trouble: the girl has psychic powers and can understand the deepest secrets of the Alliance.

What ensues is a sophisticated chase movie with brilliant special effects and the scariest monsters since the Daleks – the Reavers - a flesh-eating bunch you wouldn’t want to bump into on a dark night the other side of Pluto. Not just for Geeks.

Comedy -Barnstormers

Three more top acts from the London comedy circuit hit town as Barnstormers kicks off its 2006 season at Pelham House. Tonight’s compere, as usual, is the ‘anymore laid-back and he’d fall over’ Aussie Kevin Precious. Look out for Barrie Hall (pictured), who you might remember as the Geordie one with the psychology degree and the line in dark humour from Channel 4’s comedy series Experimental, who City Life called ‘bladder-achingly hilarious’ before describing him as ‘a gem among the crud.’

No offence meant, of course, to David Haddingham, whose psychotic act scares the pants off most audiences. And no offence taken, surely: that would be hypocritical from a man whose favourite subjects are masturbation, drugs and Internet pornography. A third, as yet unannounced act will also perform, and Precious will host the regular ‘spin it or bin it’ joke competition – this month it’s a bottle of wine for the funniest Valentine’s line. Here’s our best shot:

Q) ‘What’s brown and sticky with a ribbon tied around it?
A) ‘A Valentine stick’*

*Maybe we’ll stick to the day job.

Cinema - Garden State

One of the most nauseating Hollywood genres is the romantic comedy, so it’s refreshing when one comes out that breaks the hackneyed boy-meets-girl-and-overcomes-initial-problems-to-find-love mould. In Garden State, twentysomething Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) returns from LA to his hometown in New Jersey for his mother’s funeral after nine years away. He has been on lithium since childhood. He decides to come off the drug and confront the reality of who he really is by looking up bizarre old friends (one has become a grave-digger, another has made millions from inventing silent Velcro) and reacquainting himself with his estranged father, the root of many of his problems. Just for good measure he starts an affair with a beautiful pathological liar (Natalie Portman).

Pick your adjective: it’s zany, oddball, kooky, offbeat, left-field. And very watchable. Zach Braff makes his directorial debut with remarkable confidence: Neil Simon’s the Graduate often comes to mind. A coming-of-age movie for our times: its themes will strike a chord with many a native Lewesian.

Market - Lewes Farmers’ Market

It’s the first Saturday of the month, which means the excellent Lewes Farmers’ Market is taking place in the Cliffe Precinct. This is your chance to stock up on locally produced goods, instead of filling your fridge and larder with supermarket stuff, with all the dire ecological and ethical consequences that that entails. You might not be able to get the sort of out-of-season stuff so popular now everybody’s an international culinary expert. But hell, the parsnips taste like parsnips, the carrots have got some oomph to them, and if you ask the stallholder, you may be able to find out the name of the sheep that will fill your mutton stew. You’ll also be able to sleep easy with the fact that that the animal hasn’t been slaughtered thousands of miles away and flown across the world. And that there’s no plastic packaging which will end up in a landfill near you soon.

Shopping regularly at the market not only changes what you eat, it changes how you eat. It’s healthy for you, healthy for the environment, and healthy for the local economy. This week the market organisers will be stopping people looking for feedback on their service. Try to give them five minutes of your time, if you can.

Football - Lewes v St Albans

A tough game for Lewes at the Pan, against a St Albans side currently lying second in the Conference South. The Saints, managed by former Woking manager Colin Lippiatt are, like Lewes, a free-scoring side. Their attack is spearheaded by young Lee Clarke -son of former Northern Ireland international Colin – with 18 goals so far this season. The bad news for the Rooks is that after a three-month lean spell in front of goal before Christmas, eight of his goals have come in his last seven league matches. Other danger men are ex Chelsea reserve Scott Cousins and ex Peterborough midfielder Matt Hann, who scored an incredible eight-minute hat trick against Eastbourne Borough earlier in the season. In October Hann scored the first goal in a comfortable 2-0 win for the Saints at Clarence Park over a lacklustre Lewes.

Of course, with Jean-Michel Sigere leading the line, Lewes can score against any side, and have yet to fail to find the net at home this season. The Rooks are currently enjoying a run of good results without actually playing as well as they were earlier in the season. Expect goals at either end: it should be quite a game. Viva prediction: 2-2.

Gig - The Koils

Anyone who has seen the Koils perform one of their occasional gigs at the Lewes Arms over the years will be interested to see how the enthusiastic trio take to a bigger venue: they go down a riot in the games room of the normally-musicless pub. Mick on drums, Jim on guitar and Fran on bass do a mixture of sixties and seventies covers by bands like the Who, the Beatles, the Stones, Bowie and Cream. Highlights include a fluffy version of Steppenwolf’s Easy Rider classic (Born to be Mild) and a manic version of the Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer featuring an unhinged Moose Jarvis on guest vocals.

Proceeds go to next year’s Lewes Live Lit Festival, a very good cause. The festival has in the past been responsible for bringing a number of talented writers, artists, comedians and photographers to town, including Ralph Steadman, Fay Weldon, Bonnie Greer, Raymond Briggs, Sean Hughes, Alexi Sayle, Charles Shaar Murray and Steve Bell.

Operatic Quiz - The Lewes Operatic Society

“When you meet a gent paying all kinds of rent, for a flat that could flatten the Taj Mahal. Call it sad, call it funny, but it’s better than easy money, that the guy’s only doing it for some doll”

Q: Who wrote the lyrics for this song, from which musical?
If that kind of question turns you on, you’ll have a riot in Ringmer tonight. The Lewes Operatic Society are running a fund-raising quiz, whereby members sing songs from recent productions and other famous musicals and operas, and punters, furiously competing for a small prize, identify the author and the work. The LOS is a real Lewes institution, having put on at least one production every year since 1912, when they performed the Pirates of Penzance. If you want to put in a bit of research to give you a helping hand in the quiz, recent productions they have put on include Annie, Hot Mikado, Kiss Me Kate, The Sorcerer (see pic right), Crazy For You, and Oliver!

A: Their next performance, at the Town Hall in April, is the answer to the question at the beginning of the page. Frank Loesser wrote both the music and lyrics.

Cinema -Chicken Little

Cartoons, it seems, are so passé: even Disney are going hi-tech with Chicken Little, their first in-house computer-animated feature. Zach Braff voices the eponymous hero, a big-headed chicken living in a town full of anthropomorphic animals. This bird is suffering from low-esteem problems having cried wolf about the sky falling down after an acorn hit him on the head. CL, who becomes the local laughing stock, regains some self-pride when he hits a winning home run in a baseball game, only to notice that this time the sky really is falling down – or at least the town of Oakey Oaks is subject to an alien invasion. Does he risk ridicule by alerting his tormentors to their imminent fate?

Disney films have always worked on several levels in order to charm both adults and kids. Computer-animated masterpieces like Toy Story, Shrek and The Incredibles have done the same - but even better. This film falls way short of the mark: the kids will love it, but long before the end most parents will be so sick of Chicken Little they’ll be dreaming about how best to chop up and cook the little clucker.

Nature: Railway Land Coppicing

Thanks to an enormous amount of work by the locally run Railway Land Wildlife Trust in recent years, the area of land south of the station between the tracks going out to Newhaven and Seaford and the river has been granted status as a nature reserve. The group’s efforts have led to a marked environmental improvement to the area: it used to be a railway marshalling yard. The Trust meet on the first Sunday of every month in order to carry out what work is needed to maintain the site - anyone who fancies helping is made very welcome. Today’s activity is coppicing buddleia and sycamore: both plants grow rather too well and need to be pruned back or uprooted in order to allow for more biodiversity.

Those wishing to take part should meet at the Railway Land Entrance at the end of Railway Lane near the car park by the river. Children are welcome if accompanied by adults.

Classical music - Fritz the Flying Fiddle

In 1975 award-winning flautist Atarah Ben-Tovim realised that the best way to get children to enjoy classical music wasn’t by making them sit down at a concert and shut up for two hours, but to create shows especially geared to their mentality and attention span. The result was Atarah’s band, which toured the country for years, appearing to over three million kids. Ben-Tovim was eventually awarded the MBE for her services to classical music.

Tonight Ben-Tovim will be presenting and performing in a special show together with the Corelli (string) Ensemble, entitled Fritz the Flying Fiddle. It is the story of a violin which saves a plane from being hi-jacked – the part of Fritz is played by local violinist Freya Creech. The concert is aimed at children up to the age of 12 and their parents. Kids are welcome to bring along their instruments: there will be audience participation sections to the concert. Should be a screech.

Atarah Ben-Tovim
(w) www.atarah.tv

Art - Islands Lace

Islands Lace brings together two local artists whose work concerns, on one level, the nature of lines. David Blackaller’s wall-mounted sculptures (pictured), mainly made from clay, but also using resin, are the fruit of recent trips to the Hebrides and the Scilly Isles. Fleeting natural elements like clouds, horizons and the path a walk has taken inspires his pieces. He reshapes these ephemeral moments into more rigid structures. They are simply put together, slightly rough and ready, and have a primitive earthy feel to them. Teresa Whitfield’s work is more intricate. She examines the art of lace making and needlework by painstakingly recreating real and imaginary samples in rotary pen and white ink. The results are eye-catching, and often have an ambiguous abstract feel to them.

The two artists’ works compliment one another in an interesting way: they are both in their way looking at the flawed symmetry of nature, where no line is truly straight, but all the better for that. Well worth meandering your way to.

Cinema - Walk the Line

It’s a year and a half since Johnny Cash died, and he’s become more fashionable in this country than he ever was in his life. His dark baritone voice – ‘steady like a train, sharp like a razor’ - and his resonant guitar riffs combined in over 1,500 recorded songs, and he is hailed as being directly influential on various musical styles – country, folk, rock, punk, and even rap. Cash grew up a deeply disturbed young man, blamed by his abusive drunken father for the death of his brother. The demons this unleashed in him came out in his singing and songwriting, which made him a star. They also turned him into a speed addict.

Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as ‘The Man in Black’, is more about Cash’s redemption – through the love of his singing partner June Carter (Reese Witherspoon) - than his musical development. Remarkably, Phoenix himself sings the songs on the soundtrack. Even more remarkably, you can hardly tell the difference. The film, an American take on an American hero, tries very hard to be cool. It very nearly succeeds.

Restaurant – The George Inn, Alfriston

Rather like Danish director Lars Von Trier’s films or Marmite, the George Inn restaurant seems to force its critics into two polar-opposite camps. They love it, in short, or they hate it. We suspect that the lovers went midweek in the winter when you pretty much have the place to yourselves. That's when we went. The service was friendly and attentive, and the bar, decorated with sprigs of dried hops, a double-headed axe and a wooden propeller, served a well-kept pint of Old Speckled Hen. Our starter for two consisted of anchovies, olives, feta and houmous, and came with fresh bread and a very tasty roast garlic bulb. The locally sourced mains, lamb shank for me and slow roasted belly pork for my partner, were pleasant enough and came served with a generous portion of seasonal local vegetables. The highlight though was our dessert, a marvellous chocolate and berry pudding served with a sumptuous chocolate sauce, and apparently provided by a ‘nice Italian man from Hove’.

Visit off-season before Alfriston turns in to a coach-filled tourist trap and your inability to see the bar from the door turns you in to a hater. One minor gripe, ninety minutes of Fleetwood Mac in a 14th century Inn is about an hour and a half too much.

Cinema - A History of Violence

A History of Violence is a rare beast, an art-house shoot’em up, which portrays scenes of gruesome violence and leaves the audience spending the next few days wondering about the ambiguous nature of their reaction to it. Viggo Mortensen plays a diner manager enjoying his small-town Indiana life with a loving lawyer wife and two well-adjusted kids. This life is disrupted when two murderers we have seen in action in the first scene of the film enter his diner and threaten to rape and kill the clientele. In a flash they lie dead on the floor at the hands of Mortensen, who becomes a local hero for his brutal action. But this is just the beginning of a cycle of violence.

Shortly afterwards a creepy Ed Harris turns up in town, and accuses Mortensen of having mutilated his eye in a former life as a contract hit man. We don’t know who or what to believe as the plot twists and turns towards its edge-of-the-seat ending. A riveting, thought-provoking and very, very disturbing film.

Gardner Arts Centre
(t) 01273 685861
(w) www.gardnerarts.co.uk
A History of Violence
(w) www.historyofviolence.com

Book Review – Public Catalogue Foundation/East Sussex

The most exciting package to arrive in the Viva Lewes office in January was a tome the size of a phone book with the uninspiring title The Public Catalogue Foundation – Oil Paintings in Public Ownership – East Sussex. The book is part of the fruit born of years of painstaking research done by the PCF to record the nation’s entire collection of oil paintings in public ownership and publish images of them all on a county-by-county basis. The result is a book that allows for hours of pleasurable browsing: there are over 2,500 such paintings in East Sussex, most of which are hidden away in storage.

One of the most important galleries is nearby Charleston, with its collection of Vanessa Bells and Duncan Grants. Other well-represented galleries include the Brighton and Hove Museums, the Towner in Eastbourne and the Hastings Museum. Some of the art is mediocre, some is surprisingly brilliant. There are a number of surprises: a minor Lowry in Bexhill Museum; a creepy Walter Sickert in Charleston, and, hiding away in the vaults of the Barbican Museum, a painting of the old Lewes gasworks on South St by the Family from One-End Street novelist Eve Garnett. Inspiring.

Pint-to-Pint Walk no 5 -
John Harvey Tavern to the Abergavenny Arms

Sup a pint of Kiss Ale before leaving the riverside warmth of the John Harvey Tavern. You’ve got some way to go. Walk over the Cliffe Bridge then turn left down Railway Lane. Take the path that leads along the river. Pretty soon you will see Lewes’ ‘marina’ on the other side, with its little yachts moored against the flimsy jetty in the mud. Behind them the great white wall of the cliff that gave the area its name, and dropped its snowload so fatally on Boulder Row back in 1836. Follow the towpath which meanders for several miles along the riverside; at the right time of the day you will be able to marvel at the swans and canoeists struggling against the current to Lewes. You are rather likely to meet cows blocking your path at some point. Carefully check they have udders before shooing them away.

Just as you start wearying of the tranquil monotony of the towpath it meets a road at Southease Bridge. Don’t turn left, unless you want to catch a train home. Go right, and walk through Southease village, stopping to admire the unusual round Saxon tower of the church. Unfortunately the Black Lamb closed down several hundred years ago, so if you want to reward yourself with a drink you’ll have to turn right at the end of the village street, and walk a mile down the path alongside the road to the Abergavenny Arms in Rodmell.

Gatwick Getaway - Barcelona

Unfortunately Barcelona has become a favourite destination for beery stag and hen revellers from the UK: fortunately by nightfall most all of these end up crammed into Maremagnum, a small artificial island in the port which constitutes the tackiest part of this wonderful city. That leaves everyone else free to enjoy the Catalan capital’s multifarious charms without fluffy pink antlers on their heads. By day you can visit the many gob-smacking buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi, including the monstrous Sagrada Familia Cathedral, and also the city’s many art galleries. The Picasso Museum is worth avoiding: the Jean Miro Foundation on Montjuic Mountain is a joy. Until the spring there are two temporary exhibitions in the MNAC at the foot of the mountain: one of Lautrec’s posters, the other of collages by the likes of Picasso and Braque. Contemporary art fans should try the MACBA and the CCCB in the Raval. When you’re sick of culture the city boasts 5kms of beach.

At night there is plenty to do. We recommend you buy the wonderful Time Out guide to the city, and follow its recommendations. The very central Born barrio, either side of Calle Princesa, is very much in vogue with the ex-pat set; the rougher Raval area the other side of Las Ramblas is where more bohemian types lurk after midnight.

EasyJet:
(w) www.easyjet.com
Time Out Guide to Barcelona

Bricks and Mortar - the Roundhouse

Nip up Pipe Passage from the High Street and after 50 yards or so you’ll come upon The Roundhouse. This charming octagonal flint-walled building has a fascinating history. It was built as a windmill in 1802 to grind flour during the national domestic crisis caused by poor wheat harvests and the Napoleonic Wars. It was originally over twice the height, with three wooden floors and four enormous sails. It’s life as a mill was short however: by 1819 the ‘smock’ part of the windmill had been moved to the site the prison is now built on, and the building was converted into a dwelling, with a more conventionally shaped extension eventually added onto the side.

In 1919 Virginia Woolf bought it, on a whim whilst upset over an argument with her sister Vanessa Bell over a book cover design. She never lived there, however, moving instead to Monk’s House in Rodmell and selling the place on after a month for a £20 profit. It is now owned by Annie Crowther, who has written an intricately researched book on the house, which you can buy for £1 in the daytime from a basket attached to the front gate.

That's your lot, then. We hope we've found you something to do this week. Remember: if people go out and do more things, more things will be organised for them to do. This week we would like to thank: Suzie Fox (catering dept), Paul Bellack, Tina Deubert, Nicki Murfitt, Nicola Koil, Ric Graebner, Annie Crowther, Mark Hewitt, Andrea Creech, Dino Bishop & Sir Tom Finney. Contributions this week from Bill Nichols, Dexter Lee, Alex Leith, Antonia Gabassi, Dave Wilson and Nick Williams.

Next weeks events will include:
Fri 10 Gershwin’s American in Paris at the Town Hall
Sun 12 Pride & Prejudice at the Gardners
Mon 13 Plumpton Races
Tues 14 Valentine’s Day Rebellion at the Lansdown

Every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of our entries. Viva Lewes cannot be held responsible for any omissions, errors or alterations. Please let us know if you want any event or opening to be considered for publication at info@vivalewes.com or on 01273 488882.

To receive a free weekly edition of Viva Lewes in your inbox every week, please click here.