Phoebe has been running the Swanborough Nurseries Greengrocer’s on Fisher Street for 27 years. It was a greengrocer’s long before that. She says her friend Doris, who is 80, worked in a fruit and veg shop on the site when she was a child. On Saturday, Phoebe is closing the shop. She blames parking restrictions for a downturn in customers; she says that it just doesn’t work any more. “You have to work too many hours to make ends meet now,” she complains. She doesn’t know what is going to be put in place of the shop. One thing’s for certain, it sure as hell won’t be another greengrocer. Perhaps it will be a charity shop. Perhaps it will be a chain store of some kind. Perhaps it will be an expensive boutique called something like ‘Ricoco’. A sad sign on the window thanks customers for their support, and for all the laughs over the years. It’s not often you have a laugh buying an apple in Waitrose. How many more businesses will have to close down before the powers-that-be realise that their policy of making it virtually impossible to short stay park in Lewes is going to irrevocably change the nature of the town? It’s time to call off the hordes of arrogant swaggering red-jacketed faux policemen, and to have a serious discussion on working out compromises on this issue. Any opinions gratefully received. Enjoy the week.

Oscar Bravo: 3-time Acadamy Award winning Memoirs of a Geisha on at the All Saints

Jazz - Anglo - Swedish Quintet

The Lewes Jazz Club starts its Spring season with an international collaboration. The Anglo-Swedish Quintet is split into two sections from two different countries. The Swedish brass section consists of Kjell Berglund on trumpet and Rolan Keijser on sax. They have been playing together, off and on, all their lives. The English rhythm section consists of pianist Terry Seabrook, bassist Paul Whitton and drummer Spike Wells. They have been playing together for five years. The Quintet (or the ASQ), born of a recent collaboration between Kjell and Seabrook, play in the modern hard-bop jazz style (like Kenny Dorham, Tom Harrell or Freddie Hubbard), with a few originals mixed in with a majority of jazz standards.

The English trio are an experienced bunch. Terry Seabrook has released 3 cds with his band Cubana Bop and has worked with Joe Lee Wilson. Spike Wells was the house drummer at Ronnie Scott’s in the late sixties and played with Scott, as well as Tubby Hayes, Peter King and Bobby Wellins (including at the LJC in January). Paul Whitten, who lived in the States for much of the 80’s and 90’s toured Europe for six months with the great Chet Baker. Now that’s jazz.

Folk - Moor Music

At the age of fifteen Mark Bazeley recorded an album with his grandfather, folk legend Bob Cann. The songs had come from Bob’s grandfather: the album was called Five Generations and epitomises the spirit of folk music, where songs are handed down from one generation to another. Bob, who died in 1990, was a melodeon player (and singer and storyteller) in the old Dartmoor tradition. His grandson still plays with some of his instruments, and also plays the anglo-concertina.

Mark’s latest album, Moor Music, was recorded with Jason Rice, also appearing at the Oak tonight. Jason is a piano accordionist and singer from a traditional folk family. He also happens to be an all-England step-dance champion, and will demonstrate this dance, performed on a 15-inch square board, as part of the show. Rob Murch completes the trio. Rob is one of Europe’s finest classic fingerstyle banjoists, and has adapted his style to suit the box-playing of Mark and Jason, creating his own unique sound. The trio have played together all over the folk-festival map, from Wadebridge to Pinewoods USA.

Talk - Postcards of Lewes

In 1902 the Post Office revolutionized communication by allowing both the message and address to be written on one side of a postcard, freeing up the other side to publish a picture. The ‘picture postcard’ was born and the medium became all the rage, the e-mail of its day. Millions were sent through the post every day (usually arriving in the afternoon if sent in the morning); there was a publishing boom to meet demand. It became fashionable to keep postcard albums. The boom lasted until the First World War, after which the telephone took over as the easiest way of communicating.

‘Deltiology’ is the term used for collecting post cards: Philip Hall is Lewes’ foremost deltiologist. Just before Christmas Philip gave a talk about his collection of Lewes postcards, taking the listener on a journey, starting at the Cliffe Church, and moving up School Hill showing a picture postcard at virtually every step. There was so much interest in what he was saying, and so many questions asked, that he only got as far as the old Star Inn (now the Town Hall), and had to stop. It was immediately arranged for him to continue the talk at a later date, which is tonight.

Opera - Operalite

I love the best things about opera. I love the choruses, the costumes, the choreography. I love the arias; I enjoy looking down at the orchestra. So how come, whenever I go to see an opera, I want the damn thing to end shortly after the first interval? How come, when I’m clapping the cast as they bow in front of the final curtain, most of my enthusiasm comes from relief? You might blame my ‘modern’ attention span; you might say that opera does little to satisfy my modern-day narrative needs. Perhaps the two things are connected.

Carol Kelly’s OperaLite nights are an attempt to make opera more palatable to the everyday punter. A pianist, vocal coach and repetiteur, she has got together a group of internationally acclaimed singers to perform some of the more memorable arias and choruses ‘up front and personal’ while explaining herself the importance and meaning of the pieces in question. ‘A frustrated stand-up comedienne’ she makes it her mission to take the stuffiness out of opera, to put a smile on the face of the audience. Performers include Elizabeth Brice, Louise Armit, Riccardo Simonetti and Paul Austin Kelly.

Cinema - Zathura: A Space Adventure

If Zathura’s central plot line - a couple of kids stumble across a board game with supernatural powers – feels familiar to you, it’s probably because ten years ago you were watching Jumanji. Both films are adaptations of Polar Express author Chris Van Allsburg books, and like Jumanji before it much of the film depicts a series of increasingly violent events which the boys have somehow to survive. Director Jon (Elf) Favreau delivers visually spectacular special effects – look out for the particularly cool ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ moment – whilst also keeping the plot moving nicely along. Scott Brown of Entertainment Weekly feels that “Zathura is a rarity: a stellar fantasy that faces down childhood anxieties with feet-on-the-ground maturity”; whilst Justin Chang at Variety feels that it is “arguably the best adaptation of a Chris Van Allsburg book to date”.

If the idea of Jumanji in outer space appeals, then, and you’re looking for a film for kids aged nine plus which will also hold your attention, you could do a lot worse than Zathura.

Cinema - Memoirs of a Geisha

In the 1997 novel Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden took a Dickensian-style plot and wrapped it in the exotic world of mid 20th century geisha culture. It was a neat trick – the plot may have been hackneyed, but the unfamiliar details of the setting painted a delicate readability into the narrative. A Hollywood movie version became inevitable: unfortunately ‘Chicago’ director Rob Marshall hasn’t been able to make the subsequent film half as engaging as the novel was.

Certainly the film is beautifully shot, certainly the attention to detail of every button of the Geishas’costumes, every nuance of their gestures, makes for a lavish spectacle. For this it won three Oscars (for costume, art direction and cinematography). But there are problems. Marshall chose Chinese actresses to play the main roles, on the assumption, presumably, that all Asians look alike to the average Western audience. All the dialogue is in English (a throwback to the world of pre-1980 ‘ve haff vays off making you tock’ war movies). Oh, and you don’t get to sympathise with any of the characters. At all. Wash off the exquisite face paint, then strip off the refined kimono and unbind the delicate feet. What’s left inside is rather ordinary, rather drab, and rather dull.

Workshop - Readers and Writers Day

Writer’s block affects all writers at some time in their life and novelist and playwright Susannah Waters is giving a free workshop at the Town Hall on how to avoid it. This forms the first part of the County Council’s annual Readers and Writers’ Day. Susannah has just published her second novel, Cold Comfort, a love story set in Alaska using the consequences of global warming as a backdrop.

Afterwards two other writers give talks. Novelist and filmmaker Paul Bryers gives the lowdown on writing fiction. Paul’s latest novel, The Used Women’s Book Club, is a murder thriller based in the East End of London. Then Kathryn Hughes, a biographer and historian, will be talking about how to write non-fiction. Hughes is a literary critic for the Guardian and regularly appears on artsy shows on Radio 4 and BBC2: she has written three successful biographies set in Victorian times, the latest being The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, about the real life of the woman behind the book which laid out the code of behaviour for the Victorian housewife. There will also be stalls set up by various reading and writing groups from around the county, and food by the excellent Station Street caterers FOODfood.

Art - Natural Forms

The lower floor of the Crypt Gallery, its 13th century undercroft, is one of the very few surviving architectural reminders of Seaford’s prosperous medieval heyday as one of the Cinque Ports. It was possibly the ground floor of a wool merchant’s house. The Black Death and French raids decimated Seaford’s population in the late 14th century: then Atlantic storms silted up the harbour, and the town’s prosperity dwindled. It’s worth a visit to the Gallery just to visit the Undercroft: you are taken through a fat Gothic arch down some steps into a room with vaulted ceilings, which not only looks, but smells medieval.

The latest exhibition in the Crypt is by the A22 group of artists, named after the road which used to connect many of them with the art school they all met at, then called ECAP, now the South Downs College. The theme of the exhibition, called Natural Forms, is the Sussex countryside: there are 15 artists on show, including Christine Dunn, an abstract painter whose inspiration comes from close-up, sometimes even microscopic, visions of nature.

Cinema - Munich

September 1972 – the Palestinian Black September group carry out the murder of 11 Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics. The world is appalled. Israel needs to take action. Mossad agent Avner (Eric Bana) is hired to covertly lead a team charged with carrying out the assassination of those responsible for the outrage. An Israeli himself, at first he feels it his patriotic duty to do the job. As the film progresses he gets enmeshed in the moral ambiguity this job engenders.

Spielberg has made a tense political thriller, using this ambiguity as the intellectual narrative that drives the story along. And so we are presented with a rare beast, a sensitive action movie, where every explosion is worried about, where every bullet is another question mark. The fact that the director asks more questions than he answers in the film has divided critics, many of whom wanted him to sit more clearly on one side of the political fence or the other. In fact he is doing something much more valuable than political statement-making. He is analysing a civilisation negotiating compromises with its own values. Powerful stuff.

Blues - Slimshack

“The funny thing is,” says Ian of Slimshack, “that it’s much easier to get a blues gig in Lewes than in Brighton.” It’s true: Lewes is fast becoming the blues capital of south-east England, with established names like Little George Sueref and Kent Duchaine hitting town in recent weeks, and up-and-comers like Slimshack finding room to play their stuff – in this case an enthusiastic and energetic Rhythm and Blues sound. The band draw influence from Muddy Waters and Slim Harpo, as well as the likes of Little Walter, Taj Mahal, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Freddie King, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Rufus Thomas, Tommy Tucker, Rory Gallagher and Dr Feelgood.

Slimshack have been going for about a year and a half, but are pleased with the progress they are making, and have managed to whip up quite an atmosphere at their previous gigs. They have even started getting airplay in the States, on Big Bad Radio. After the gig is finished, if you still want to keep in the same vibe, DJ Rick is spinning his Rhythm and Blues session In the Midnight Hour at The Lansdown, mixing r&b classics with Motown, ska, Northern Soul and Stax numbers.

Classical Music - Mozart and Friends

Lewes boasts a rare throwback, a harpsichord workshop, where Paul Simmonds, an accomplished harpsichord and clavichord musician, restores these ancient machines. The workshop, housed in a half-timbered medieval building, is also the venue for several classical music concerts every year. Tonight, to celebrate Mozart’s birthday, the workshop is the venue for an evening of music, ‘Mozart and Friends’. The recital will be performed by Steven Devine on piano, and Catherine Martin on violin. Devine is the conductor of the Mozart Festival Orchestra, and is in demand for both his conducting and keyboard skills around the world’s major concert venues. Catherine Martin is an accomplished violinist with a string of recordings to her name and she comes to Lewes fresh from the Bach Festival in St Martins-in-the-Field.

On the bill tonight are sonatas by Mozart, CPE Bach and John Gibbs, as well as Joseph Haydn’s adagio in F Major. Tickets, we are told, are running short, so book early.

Cinema - Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

When transferring from short episode to feature length film, a cartoon can make three terrible mistakes. I am happy to report that Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit avoids them all. The first mistake is to hope something small and charming will continue working 90 minutes after the original would have finished. But Nick Park has always been so fertile with the characters, props, gags and atmosphere of post-war Yorkshire that his film sailed past this one. The second mistake is to hope something small and charming will still work after you send all the characters to Mars, or Hollywood or some ‘big screen’ location, populated by ‘big time’ villains. ‘Wallace and Gromit Go to America and Take on Dennis Hopper with the Help of Billy Connolly and Sean Penn’ for instance, would have just sucked. But all the new elements of this film are reasonable extensions of the W&G universe.

The deadliest mistake is the opposite of the first: take well developed characters and "explore them" subjugating the entire film to some emotional struggle within Wallace, or between him and his dog, perhaps with them learning a valuable lesson by the end. I am delighted to say that the new film stayed clear of this one too. Phew!

Talk - WW2 Propaganda Posters

At the beginning of World War Two the government’s Propaganda department was called into service to encourage women into joining the military or doing civilian war work. The result was a controversial poster campaign which glamorised these jobs out of all keeping with their reality. Particularly controversial was the ‘Blonde Bombshell’ poster (right), which tried to encourage women into the ATS women’s army by showing a stylised ATS member looking rather like Jean Harlow. The poster was recalled after the matter was brought up in Parliament, and replaced with a less glamorous one, with the comment ‘this war is not a beauty parlour!’

The propaganda posters and the reality of the jobs that they advertised was the subject of Sarah Corn’s degree dissertation and she will be giving a talk on the subject at Newhaven Fort. Most womens’ jobs during the war were far from glamorous: they usually worked in messes, as drivers or on anti-aircraft guns (though Churchill wouldn’t allow them to fire the guns). Whether or not it was the posters that did it, the government succeeded in mobilising British women: by the end of the war 460,000 were in the military and 6.5 million were doing civilian war work.

Arts and Crafts - Sussex Guild

Just as supermarkets are threatening the livelihood of local farmers, mega-furniture-etc stores like Ikea and Homebase are making it more and more difficult for local designers and craftsmen to ply their trade. The Sussex Guild is a network of innovative local art and craft designers which is trying to give talented local artisans a marketplace. Each member has to pass a strict quality control test to join the Guild, which then presents their work in fairs and shows around the county. They work in many different forms including wood, metal, ceramics, glass, printmaking, jewellery and textile arts. There are 60-odd members of the Guild – just over half of them will be represented at the show in Pelham House today.

Amongst them will be John Pomfrey, who designs contemporary furniture in stainless steel, granite and glass; Jo Pearson, a jeweller who blends precious metals, resin clays and glass; Brendan Devitt-Spooner, who designs show-the-joints wooden furniture; Rachel Spring, who makes sculptural ceramics, and Rosi Robinson, who makes surprising batik designs. From next week the Guild will be exhibiting permanently in the space in Southover Grange formerly used by the Star Gallery 2 and Kenneth Clarke Ceramics.