Reclamation Month at SHOP!

August is Reclamation Month at SHOP! This is the month to take stuff back, be it time, the land around you, an old hair dryer, or that black tee shirt. Confused? Intrigued? Then read on and all shall become clear! If you are short on time to read then it’s basically a bit like recycling but with a more philosophical bent. But, hang on, if you don’t have time to read on then that’s just bubbish and you obviously need a holiday…

EXHIBITION
2nd August – 31st August 11am – 7pm (excluding Sundays)
Let’s Do Nice Things
Art Club: Reclamation
Last month SHOP was thoroughly taken over by the lovely art collective, Let’s Do Nice Things. At the monthly art club as part of that take over, everyone made a piece of art on the theme of Reclamation and the results from the art club are being exhibited all month.

MARKET
7th August 11am – 4pm Free
Christmas Steps Arts Quarter: Artisan Market
The monthly SHOP-organised Artisan Market returns. Local makers sell their wares in amongst the other independent traders of the Arts Quarter, in the charmingly irregular setting of the Christmas Steps.

WorkSHOP
14th August 11am – 7pm Free
Fix it Don’t Chuck It
Everyone has an old something or other hidden in the back of the wardrobe that we would chuck out if it were for the guilt, but is generally useless as it doesn’t work anymore and most likely we don’t know how to fix it. Well, guilt-be-gone! As you can bring it to SHOP and get it fixed by our expert and even get some tips so you can DIY it next time.

PICNIC
19th August 7.30pm onwards Free
Reclaim nature with SHOP: Planting Picnic in the new CSAQ Community Garden
We now have a key to the community part of the garden at the school on St. Michaels Hill and we have our own planter to use as we wish. If you want to donate some plants to the garden then they would be very welcome.

We will be filling our planter with soil and planting the first bits and bobs on the 19th and to celebrate will be having a picnic there too.

GUERILLA GARDENING
21st August WorkSHOP: 11am – 7pm / Seed Bomb Disengagement: 7pm
Seed Bombing
Once upon a time, someone had a beautiful and civically minded idea to provide city centre residents and traders of the Christmas Steps with a shared Community Garden . Not only was this a kind and people-centred idea, but the location was beautiful too; the old St Bartholemew Court . However, when the building nearby were redeveloped, sadly the developers stuck a ruddy great gate with an even bigger lock on the garden, leaving the garden inaccessible to the community and the people living around it. Well, no longer, the time has come to reclaim the community garden! Come and make seed bombs with us during the day on the 21st and then launch them into the garden in the evening when there’s no one around to catch us!

CineSHOP
26th August 7.30pm – 9.30pm Free
Be Kind Rewind (with The Story of Stuff)
A Michel Gondry film, hapless Jerry (Jack Black) accidentally magnetises his brain whilst sabotaging the local power plant and as an unexpected result his magnetic waves manage to wipe out the contents of the independent video store where his best friend works. The two hatch a plan to fox customers by remaking the films and a cult of home-remade films sweeps the town. Based on a true story from 20th Century Flicks. Ha ha, not really.

SHOPStock!
29th – 30th August Free
Reclaiming the city!
No this isn’t the bit where we tell you we have loads of new stock; this is a mini SHOP festival! Reclaim the roads from the cars and the fields from the cows, by coming on a cycle and camping trip with SHOP!

Meeting at SHOP on Sunday the 29th August at midday, the plan is then going to cycle to Walnut Tree Farm, 9 miles from the centre of Bristol following a Sustrans cycle route, camping at the farm overnight before cycling home the next day. There might even be a BBQ and some laughs. The idea is to do something different that doesn’t involve too much cost to the earth or the pocket and maybe make some new friends along the way! For more information, drop us a mail.

LET’S DO NICE THINGS
www.bentleg.co.uk
After a great week of takeover events with Let’s Do Nice Things in July, SHOP and Bentleg are going to continue their romancing of each other with more events this month!

17th August 7.30pm – 9pm £5 Life Drawing
Naked people in a shop to draw.

24th August 7.30pm – 9pm £5 Art Club
Making things what we are told to make (Task Me Up)

Please RSVP to Let’s Do Nice Things if you would like to attend, you can do this here: art@bentleg.co.uk or here: 07513 021840

NEWS
Art Space at 18
We now have official use of number 18 Christmas Steps, next door to SHOP! We have been housing the Zine Library in there for a few weeks, but now would also like to offer the space as a hireable gallery-cum-events space. The space will be available for as little as £10 per day, or evening. Get in touch for more info.

Zine Library
Thank you to those who have contributed to and visited our new Zine Library through our secret door! For those of you who are too far away, or armchair SHOP, fear not – you can visit www.thingsihavezine.tumblr.com to see the online catalogue and review site.

Reclaiming Time
SHOP is just like you: needing a wee rest every now and then, so SHOP will be closed on Monday 9th August until Wednesday 11th for general idleness. We have to rest our gigantic brains in order to come up with such great events for you, alright? SHOP will reopen at 11am on Thursday 12th August.

HireSHOP
37th Chamber
Search for ‘37th Chamber’ on Facebook
The 37th Chamber return to SHOP on Saturday 14th for another night of kung fu and samurai grindhouse classics.

CHARITY EVENTS
FAN Network
www.thefancharity.org
Don’t forget FAN meets monthly at SHOP, the second Wednesday of the month at 6pm. FAN means, Friends and Neighbours and it’s a chance to meet to talk others in the community.

Let's Do Nice Things SHOP Takeover: DAY 5

The last day of the Let's Do Nice Things takeover of SHOP culminated in a pop-up gallery last night from 7.30pm to 9pm, after which it popped off again!

There was a mixture of work; a video installation, a sound piece, photography, postcards - all sorts that there are no art adjectives for, so why not look at the pics below instead?

The week has been mad and madly fun. SHOP is hoping that it will get to do more Nice Things with Bentleg in the future, so keep your eyes peeled...

How do you feel today?

Video installation with unexpected shadow and someone holding up a 'nibble'?


Green dogs and collage work from una espanola

This isn't a coordinated dance piece

Looking at Nice Things

Let's Do Nice Things SHOP Takeover: DAY 4

Day 4 of the Let's Do Nice Things takeover came to pass last night with the advent of... hmmmmm, Interesting Games.

The game we were play was called Babel, but unfortunately we didn't have quite enough people to play that particular game, so we decamped to a local youth club (pub) and played table tennis instead. It is also a game and is also interesting, especially if you try and play with a dog-chewed bat and many excitable girlies!

Interesting Games is a really great concept, as well as being a lot of fun. There is a whole festival of interesting games, called Igfest in Bristol in September, so have a look at the website here: http://www.igfest.org/

And have a look at some high speed ping ping action from last night here:

High-speed Ping Pong Action

Lets Do Nice Things SHOP Takeover: DAY 3

Wednesday saw the Lets Do Nice Things Art Club nestle into SHOP's art space at 18. With the brief to produce the 'Reclamation' exhibition for August at SHOP the participants set about the task with gusto. Sarah again presided over proceedings and brought along second hand books, coloured pens, scissors, etc for everyone to use as their art materials and equipment.

The advanced paper aeroplane guide was used to varying degrees of success to create flying machines to make Ms Boeing green with envy. The butterflies, fruits, swans, flowers and birds (amongst other creations) cut out from pages in the books will all make SHOP look bobby dazzling next month.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?...No, it's a pineapple.

The fastest paper plane maker in the west.

Many hands make many nice things.

Let's Do Nice Things SHOP Takeover: DAY 2

Day 2 of the Let's Do Nice Things take over of SHOP was Life Drawing!

Let's Do Nice Things and SHOP want to make creative persuits all-inclusive, so there was a wide range of attendees at the class, from those who have never done a life drawing class before and hardly even picked up a pencil, to those who do art for a living.

It was a really great few hours, Sarah and Helen were really good at guiding everyone through and giving tips, but it didn't feel like a class, it purely felt like a really nice and nourishing way to spend an evening!

The plan is to do more Life Drawing in the future, so don't fear if you missed out this time. Here's some pics for now:

Discussing Sarah's patented one armed funky chicken drawing technique

Drawing boards and pens at the ready

Talking about our pictures

See, even coffee cups are allowed to attend and they don't even have arms or hands to draw with

Let's Do Nice Things SHOP Takeover: DAY 1

Let's Do Nice Things marked their arrival at SHOP to set up camp for the week by releasing lots of paper butterflies into our newly acquired art space through the secret door...

First up to start of the week's programme of events was a screening of Miranda July's 'You and Me and Everyone We Know'. A film that is so good and so relevent to Let's Do Nice Things and SHOP's shared ethos(es?), that all in the cinema were seeing it for at least the second time! Some people were so excited that they were moved to butter-related protestations of love and ribena snorts.

Awaiting the screening... for at least the second time.

A pictoral representation of Let's Do Nice Things taking over SHOP

Awwww, flutterbys!

More flutterbys!

Zine Library Launch Party!

What a really great party we had on Saturday to Launch the Zine Library!

The birther of the Brain Child Simon M kept us all waiting with baited breath (or at least I think that's what someone who moved seats said about my breath) by turning up fashionably late to his own party. The summer punch had matured to perfection and the usual mix of homemade cakes and snacks and dressing up as Zina (Library Warrior) kept us entertained till the big opening.

I can't remember what Simon said when opening the Library, I may have nodded of for a minute or two, but I'm sure all of it was extemely reasonable.

We also lauched the online home for the Library: http://www.thingsihavezine.tumblr.com/ which we will be improving and fiddling with as the days pass.

"Where's Simon"?... "That's what she said"!

Bunting + Smiles = Party.

Genuine concentration.

A really good picture of live reviewing.

Zine Library is GO!

We know you've missed the day by day updates...but we have been so busy getting ready that we've barely had time to blog at all. It's not many events that we have local rags and radio doing stuff on us. Special mention in particular to the press photographer who said in a quite disparaging way that it was a very 'weird assignment'...sorry to him we aren't a resident complaining about parking or whatever he's used to taking pictures of.

Simon popped in yesterday to finish the 'ZINE' sign and little bits and we've been collecting furniture from Bedmo and beyond (actually, just Bedmo)! Also we've been creating our Zine blog "Things I Have Zine", which we will launch tonight.

With a matter of hours to go we are just putting the finishing touches to the Library. There will be punch and crisps and that and of course feel free to bring your own.

See you at 7:30pm!

Superb attention to detail and craft goes into every shelf.

Cleaning! (No, we're gender led, Brett was taking the picture which is actually a lot harder work)


The infamous washing-up bowl of scraps looms large over proceedings.

Zine Library Update! T-3 (or is it 4)days...

After the real hard graft to create the 'solid' foundations of the deluxe shelving unit, we are now at the SHOP-ifying stage.

Jayne has been frantically raiding our materials store (The old washing up bowl stuffed full of all sorts of stuff we thought might come in useful one day, but haven't till now) and the library is now looking even better than it did before (I know that sounds impossible).

Someone who happened to get a sneak preview described them as, "something like that artist/filmmaker would make for a prop in one of his amazingly brilliant lavish films that gets lots of awards for how amazingly brilliant and lavish the props look". At least they said something like that.

Jayne thinks shes Judge Jules (again) and tries 'mixing' up some images.

Zine Library: Final Countdown...

Well here's an update...not much has happened except some shelves have been added and they are really, really, really, really, strong. You can sit on them if you like to see how strong they are. But don't. That would be very childish. Just take our word for it. Please don't sit on them, infact just don't put any weight on them. Just let the Zines rest on them and leave them alone, o.k?

Phil Collins helped out for a bit, but seriously.

Simon lost his right hand but carried on courageously with just the stump.

Zine Library: Live Shelf Making (from Saturday)!

With the Zine Library Launch just a few days away, work on the D-I-Y shelving has begun in earnest! We will keep you updated as the shelves (that look a little bit like a crooked cardboard owl) take shape.

Who was to blame for the 12 cm discrepancy that almost brought the world to a standstill:

Simon 2 cm / Brett 10 cm

Intricate detailed plans: Largely ignored

The World Is Not Flat: Gig Review!

SHOP welcomed back from Oxford and The U-S-of-A dear friends, Roxy and a Chris - The World Is Not Flat - for a sneaky pre-album launch preview. They of course did not disappoint and mesmerised the audience with their evocative lyrics and sweet harmonies.

They were joined by The Welcome Committee, another favourite of SHOP's who entertained with children's maracas and a bit o-banter, but mostly just with really good songs.

The World Is Not Flat: new album!

Atmospheric loveliness from The Welcome Committee in a suitably darkened room through SHOP's secret door.

Enjoying a spot of tea and cake before the gig in a much lighter room, not through a secret door.

Buying merch post-gig.

Signing up to World Is Not Flat newsletter after being fully converted.

Post-gig euphoria.

A picture of a back-lit beard is surely a must for any gig review.

A Communication in Unity: Private View

This month SHOP feels really happy and privileged to have an exhibition by 5 graphic design graduates - Evan Lelliot, Calum Crease, Thomas Whitcombe, Adam Spink and Luke Sully - who have created a beautiful exhibition around the idea of community and what community means to each artist.

The show opened today, but the Private View was on Saturday night and we were lucky to have a lovely balmy summer evening to accompany the quiet dignity of the artists.

Some pics from Saturday are below, but don't forget to have a look at these links and the exhibition too!


CALUM CREASE - www.cargocollective.com/calumcrease
EVAN LELLIOT - http://www.ilovetype.co.uk/
THOMAS WHITCOMBE - www.cargocollective.com/thomaswhitcombe
ADAM SPINK - http://www.adamspink.com/
LUKE SULLY - http://www.lukesully.com/

Eddy's Photo Slide Show of Norway and Portugal (and Spain).

Saturday 3rd of July saw SHOP club member Eddy Dessene take over CineSHOP to show his collection of Photographs from his travels across Norway and Portugal and a few pictures from Spain.

Never short of words, Eddy talked passers by through his slide show with a classical music accompaniment from his back catalogue.

Community Month Newsletter

After being in Exile during June, July at SHOP provides the antidote: Community! Yes, July is Community Month and we’ve planned LOADS of events to get you all out and about and engaging: gigs, films, art club –everything is community and community is everything so make sure you get involved!

EXHIBITION

5th July – 31st July 11am – 7pm Free
(Private View: 3rd July 7pm – 9pm)
‘A Communication in Unity’ by

CALUM CREASE
EVAN LELLIOTT
ADAM SPINK
LUKE SULLY
THOMAS WHITCOMBE

An exhibition themed around SHOP’s community arts remit. Five graphic design students have been given the opportunity to create artwork based around the word community. This event is a celebration of community in all its forms, with the designers producing their own individual interpretation of what community means to them.

MARKET

3rd July 11am – 4pm Free
Christmas Steps Arts Quarter: Artisan Market

The monthly SHOP-organised Artisan Market returns. Local makers sell their wares in amongst the other independent traders of the Arts Quarter, in the charmingly irregular setting of the Christmas Steps.

GIG

5th July 7pm onwards Free
The World Is Not Flat

SHOP welcomes back dear old friends The World Is Not Flat for another evening of story-songing and wonderfully dulcet tones. They will be joined by some extra special friends…

FILM

14th July 7.30pm – 9.30pm Free
CineSHOP: Lars and the Real Girl

When shy Lars adopts a life-size doll as his girlfriend, the event is treated seriously, rather than derisively, in this distinctly odd small town American community. The doll is treated as a celebrity, asked to parties, offered jobs and, more appropriately, as a clothes model, events that open up Lars's own social horizon.

22nd July 7.30pm – 9.30pm Free
CineSHOP: Cecil B. Demented

John Water’s black comedy is one of the best films around. When renegade filmmaker Cecil B. Demented vows to “punish bad cinema” his plans include a group of generally weird and freaky film buffs called the Sprocket Holes. Demented and his crew kidnap Hollywood ’s sweetheart Honey Whitlock and force her to perform in their rebel film and she slowly becomes “Demented Forever”.

PARTIES

17th July – 18th July Free
The Zine Library: Launch! AND SHOP’s 3rd Opening Party: 18 on the 18th

You will probably know by now that SHOP has been busy compiling a Zine Library. After submissions from all over the world, we are now ready to launch it! The library will be housed through SHOP’s secret door in the adjoining premises, so this is actually a double party: Zine Library Launch and Opening Party. We would love you to help us celebrate! And if you have Zines you would like to contribute bring them along too!

BENTLEG RESIDENCY

26th July – 30th July
Let’s Do Nice Things
http://www.bentleg.co.uk/

Let's Do Nice Things is a participatory arts project started by Bentleg. After feeling slightly forlorn and having a disposition toward postal systems, she started posting to people all over the globe things that she did get posted herself. This was postswap.

Then one day she did ask herself how she felt today and not content with the answer decided to ask two hundred strangers the same question...

Forward to a different city and a few sofas later, Bentleg does lots of things; gets strangers to part take in tasks, gets a roll of lining paper and draws something here, please, puts art to the masses in Art Club in a pub and listens to music, ever so slightly too loud.

Let's Do Nice Things is about not worrying about what you can and cannot do; it is about not shopping, not watching tv and instead think about thinking and do about doing.

26th July 7.30pm onwards Free
CineSHOP: Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July)
Film screening.

27th July 7.30pm onwards £5 (to cover costs and materials)
Life Drawing
Naked people in a shop to draw.

28th July 7.30pm onwards £5 (to cover costs and materials)
Art Club
Making things what we are told to make (Task Me Up)

29th July 7.30pm onwards £5 (to cover costs and materials)
Interesting Games
An interesting evening of games.

30th July 7.30pm onwards Free
Pop Up Gallery
Would you like to submit some work? Email: art@bentleg.co.uk

To sign up to the event, RSVP to: art@bentleg.co.uk

GET INTERACTIVE

All month via Twitter www.twitter.com/talesfromshop Free
What are you doing right now?

Inspired by an idea from Shop Club Member, Kate to take a photograph at an exact point each day, for Community Month SHOP will be asking you ‘what are you doing right now?’ at random points throughout the days and weeks of July. This will build up a portrait of the real-lives of an otherwise ‘virtual’ community. The answers will be retweeted, spreading the community wider. A record of the activity will be kept for SHOP’s CIC Year Book.

NEWS

Community Planter
SHOP is currently in the process of organising the use of one of the planting areas at St Michael’s Primary School. We will then use the area for potential WorkSHOP’s and also growing our own produce. We will keep you posted when we know more!

FAN Network
http://www.thefancharity.org/
Don’t forget FAN meets monthly at SHOP, the second Wednesday of the month at 6pm. FAN means, Friends and Neighbours and it’s a chance to meet to and talk to others in the community.
37th Chamber
Search for ‘37th Chamber’ on Facebook
The 37th Chamber return to SHOP on Saturday 10th for another night of kung fu and samurai grindhouse classics.

Eddy Desenne
Throughout Saturday 3rd July, Shop Club Member shows a collection of photos taken in Norway . Eddy will accompany them live on his clarinet.

YET MORE NEW STOCK!

SHOP has had a bumper delivery of stock this week: women's shoes, dresses, tops AND accessories. Men's has many many summery polo shirts and ace cardies. There's even a few bits of new homeware. Don't say we don't treat you good.