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Prompt word: sunshine Are there any memories which this word ignites?   On an appropriately sunny afternoon in Newcastle upon Tyne, I have joined my first ever New Writing North writing hour. It’s a shut-up-and-write session that offers prompts to get the creative juices flowing. It is perhaps a little strange to do this over Zoom, but it feels less lonely and we’re more accountable to ourselves if we remove all distractions and feel the connection to other writers, even if we’re not seeing or listening to each other. I wish I had discovered it before, but there we go. I miss the shut-up-and-writes with the Deeners.    But I digress, for I am supposed to be writing about memories to do with sunshine. This is a struggle at the moment as I’m in the premenstrual phase of my cycle and I’m battling with insomnia, so my brain’s not interested in recall right now, but just muddling through the day! Andrew and I had a great cycle in the sun on Sunday, which it just occurs to me w...

Well, I've gone and fallen head over heels in love with Community and pretty much every character in it. It's a show I didn't see much of first time round, and since it released on Netflix last year it has received a new lease of life and a whole new fanbase, including me. One of the reasons its run on NBC (2009 - 2014) was dogged by low ratings (as well as being up against The Big Bang Theory in the US) was that internationally it was being shared and downloaded illegally. Oh the days when we had to wait up to two years in the UK for American shows! I'm sorry to say that this was how I ever saw the odd episode as I was seeing someone who downloaded it from bit torrents and it was part of a jumble with Parks and Recreation , Arrested Development and shows I didn't enjoy and can't remember the titles of. This was during my last PhD year so it's all a bit blurry, and if you know what I was researching, you'll know I needed escapism. And my goodness, is Co...

The timing made March a 3-episode month for Audiovisual Cultures, and what excellent episodes they are. In all three there are instances of creative and technological innovation with emphasis on some sort of community. The first is a joyous conversation with Belfast-based artist Clinton Kirkpatrick who deals in the weird and wonderful world of the absurd as a way of navigating the strangeness of life and to explore his experiences with race and sexuality. Episode 87 features a lively panel with some of the creative team involved with the Secret Library.* Producer of Odd.o.Ts' Entertainment Todd Zimmerman, events manager Debra Beardsley and actor Katrina Michaels thrash out the learning curves in shifting immersive interactive theatre and gaming online in our fun and informative discussion. Finally, for episode 88 I spoke with two filmmakers in Hamburg, Lars Henriks and Nisan Arikan, who are doing the exciting and arduous work of using the technologies now at their disposal to for...