Absorbing talk tonight by @clintonkirkpatrick.bsky.social and Seamus Fox on their practice and the power of art as a tool for mental health and surviving life. Always grateful that no matter how black and fucked up things seem in general art can always help me reach joy and happiness.

Alice McCullough was awesome tonight as part of the Eastside Arts Festival / Strand - mix of poetry and music, such command of rhythm and rhyme, such a sense of connection and the power of art to transmute and transform, an artist who takes and conveys such joy in performance. Wonderful.

Steel Magnolias preview night at the Lyric - warm, funny play about female friendship and support. Great set, great scene transitions and another directing triumph from Emily Foran.

Day 7 at the Belfast Book Festival and a discussion between Jan Carson and Martin Doyle on the latter’s book “A Hosting” - interviews with Irish writers. Congratulations and thanks to all at the Crescent for getting this online at such short notice.

Book 2 in reading local authors during the book festival - Close To Home by Michael Magee - tender and touching, beautifully observed story of family, masculinity, trauma and Belfast.

Day 5 at the Belfast Book Festival and the charming, funny and always interesting @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social talking about her latest novel, Few and Far Between and I’ll agree with the interviewer tonight, Heather Parry in calling it her best so far.

Days 3 & 4 at the Belfast Book Festival - new writers showcase, wide ranging and beautiful talk on swifts and nature and lastly tonight the pictured panel on capturing contemporary Belfast - articulate and interesting. Happy and intellectually buzzing after a weekend of ideas and insights.

Belfast Book Festival means reading only local authors and this by @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social has entranced me over the last 3 days. She creates characters so wonderfully and with such sympathy and understanding. The Ark is a great creation - magical but illuminating the legacy of The Troubles.

Day 2 of the Belfast Book Festival and a discussion on monuments. Bought the book, got it signed and then accidentally soaked it in Coke. Will read the crinkly pages after they dry out.

Day 1 of the Belfast Book Festival and a very interesting and well organised discussion on short stories and anthologies with @lucycaldwell.bsky.social and @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social and others. The flow of ideas and insights was invigorating.

Programme of music by JS Bach by the Ulster Consort at St Colmcille’s in Ballyhackamore tonight. Great to see and hear this in what was a new venue for me. The most joyful, glorious Alleluia at the end of the last piece

Nuala McKeever’s Everybody Knows is both funny and touching. Performed with her wonderful skill in switching between characters on stage (at times up to 5!). If you have seen one of her plays before you know how good she can be and if not go and treat yourself. On at the Lyric to the end of May.

Lost my phone in Belfast today but it has now been safely returned. Thank you to the unknown man in Lisburn. This is at least the 5th time I have lost something important and strangers have returned it. Are people just generally nice or am I a lucky so and so? Certainly careless.

At Alice McCullough’s new work in progress at CQAF. Such lyrical, powerful verse and so vividly delivered. This feels like raw art that bleeds- one person’s soul and life turned into performance poetry but also with insight, with brutal honesty. And she sings! Full show at Eastside Arts - don’t miss

Tea In A China Cup had its first preview at the Lyric tonight. Wonderful play and a great production- highly recommended. Only sorry that it has taken me until now to see some of Christina Reid’s work.

Part of probably my last horde from Stacks bookshop, also known as Sparky’s. A beloved part of Dundonald life for over 30 years and now sadly closing in just over a week’s time (good bargains still to be had). Thanks to Jim and Alice for all the great reading.

Great to be celebrating the 90th birthday of the Strand at Stormont tonight. A new film and a book (pictured, looks excellent) were launched. Happy birthday to the Strand and here’s to what promises to be a great future.

Thanks to the Crescent Arts Centre for an invite to the launch of the Belfast Book Festival tonight and then on to the launch of @lucycaldwell.bsky.social new short story collection, Devotions. Great Evening. Now to read it quickly or savour with a story a day?

Enjoyed A Bomber’s Moon by Sam Robinson and Trevor Gill this afternoon at the Sanctuary Theatre. Could have been a bit tighter at times but still a powerful drama with some tears and much laughter. Leah Williamson particularly outstanding.

Bright Umbrella/Sanctuary Theatre are producing good, popular theatre and are attracting enthusiastic local audiences to see stories reflecting local history and concerns. This is something East Belfast has lacked in the past and clearly needed. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned.

Good crowd out tonight at the Crescent Arts Centre for the launch of the new book by Louise Nealon (who always comes across as a delight).

Performance by Tumble Circus where they used a Cramps cover of She Said by Hasil Adkins several times. Trying to remember how the chorus went so I could get home and find out what is this.

Mark Allan@markxa.com · 4mo ago

Classy bitch that I am, after hearing Danger! High Voltage for the first time on the radio in the car I didn't rest when I got home until I'd found out what it was.

2nd meeting for @lonesomedove73.bsky.social cinema club and another winner with Open Range - a beautiful cowboy movie shot out on the open plains mostly with a great performance from Robert Duvall and possibly the most realistic but still exciting shoot out at the end. Really enjoyed.

Concert tonight @ulsterorchestra.bsky.social and the particular joys of live orchestral music - the powerful layers of instruments and colours an creating an almost sculptural sound. Music made to resonate in a room and be felt by an audience.

Where We Bury The Bones from Dumbworld at the Lyric tonight - exciting to see such a mix of media ( music, dance, film, models) in telling a story about the archaeological past in Kilkenny. Not sure that it all successfully blended together but a good evening.

Nicky Harley is excellent in The Human Voice at the Lyric. Those wonderful moments in theatre when you are brought into someone’s world and share their emotions - even here when it is pain and desolation we feel.

Some of the Gliders are getting bone rattlingly uncomfortable at times. Brief and passing but moments of real discomfort as they shake.

Thanks to all @niscifest.bsky.social for a great festival. The best tribute I can give to it is maybe that though I went to 15+ events there are an equal amount of other things I could have went to and had just as great a time. The best of our local festivals and an annual boon for life here.

The subject of an event at the Black Box tonight - what is the greatest SF movie ever? There is the greatest and your favourite (not always the same) but for me the obvious answer is (and nearly on both criteria) 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Last day of the science festival (for me) - the beautiful wonders of life in our coastal waters, Can Geology save the world? (Spoiler- yes), history of the Ordinance Survey in Ireland and an interactive debate on the greatest SF movie ever. 😁😁