The Second Leeds Alternative Comic Fair

Hi Leeds, blogging to you today from Nation of Shopkeepers, the funky city centre bar - with the excellent free wi-fi! Today they're holding the Second Leeds Alternative Comics Fair which is running from 12pm to 6pm, at the far end of the bar. There's a semi-circle of about eight artists with stalls, selling their wares and creating new material even as you pass! And of course, crucially, it's FREE.

The turn-out is really impressive - new waves of people sweep in every ten minutes or so, and we even snare a few unwary drinkers from the rest of the bar who had no idea the event was even on - but stay for a read all the same!

Leeds has some great independant artists, and I spoke to Geof, the man behind the deliciously naughty Fetishman webcomic that also does a lucrative trade in paperbacks of his smutty, satirical production.
"It makes sense to hold it on a Saturday, after lunch, because everyone's had the chance to wake up, get over their hangover, and come down." He added "Plus, it's being held in a pub. You can't go wrong!" We talked about how the city itself contributes to the creative element. He said "Leeds has a great balance to it; it's not so big that things become dissolute, and it's not so small that you end up with an insular scene." He's not wrong; the mood is one of delight, amusement, and excited discovery. Whilst it isn't in the same league as the immense Thought Bubble festival (back on 19-20th November 2011), it's a smaller more personal atmosphere and of course,
there's no door charge. And a bar flogging a variety of quality beers and decent grub.

If you've a free hour this afternoon, don't hesitate to pop in to have a look at the art and entertainment on offer for free - and sink a few pints as well. You can also follow tweets from the organisers account as well!

Police Incident - Royal Park Road, LS6 - 3rd March 2011

A property on Royal Park Road, LS6 has received the attention of the West Yorkshire Police today.

At 9:45am, I passed two squad cars parked outside, with a WPC on the radio, and an older civilian man on his mobile.
Returning today around 3:30pm, I found the riot van pictured left, with several uniformed officers in the downstairs lounge, visible through the front door.

Also noted was the large quanity of fresh soil dumped across the pavement and road directly outside the property. Sources in the area report local residents were known to sell cannabis.

Enquiries to the West Yorkshire Police Press Office and the Hyde Park Neighbourhood Policing Team have - as of 5:00pm - unveiled no information. I hope to return to this story once I hear from them again.

Twenty-First Century Office

With all the talk recently of being a small, agile force in the world of entrepreneurial journalism, please find above the view from my 21st Century office.

Proper blogging soon, I promise!

Incoming! Journalism Week returns!

Last year I launched LeedsEyeView during Journalism Week I, to put across my blog reviews of the speakers at Leeds Trinity's Journalism Week event; allowing industry individuals to come in and speak to undergrads, postgrads and interested parties about their opinions on the nature and future of Journalism.

The event returns for 2011 and I will be blogging later today about Joanna Geary and Adam Westbrook who gave us an online-flavoured, rather opposite-themed assessment of the industry. Keep me tagged for further updates as the week proceeds!

Fallibility is a Human Condition

Kudos this morning to Stefano Hatfield, Executive Editor of the i, the funky cheap alternative to the Indy. Unfortunately I missed whatever faux pas they'd committed to require his dry apology, but I was assured that they might have a bit of a laugh putting the paper together.

Less amusing was the small but significant error made on the opposite page. In their Space Travel: Final Countdown graphic, detailing the last voyage of the shuttle Discovery, they included several famous spacecraft images - with the starship Enterprise included as a bit of light-hearted fun.

I'm cynical enough now that this type of forced humour just makes my skin crawl. However, as a Trek fan (not Trekkie, nobody uses the term after the nineties except jaded hacks), I noticed the artist had used a schematic of the USS Enterprise-B. That ship, under the command of Captain John Harriman, was launched in 2293 - or 1994 for us terrestrial viewers. Referring to Captain Kirk's 1966 maiden voyage indicates you wish to refer to the original USS Enterprise, as seen thirty years previously.

I understand that hordes of readers will roll their eyes, dismissing this nitpicking as the mark of the socially-inept fan. Who cares about distinguishing between pictures of made-up ships? The answer is - editors. They dislike getting letters of complaints, snide twitter messages, or blogs by fans pointing out their staff's mistakes. More importantly, it indicates a fallibility amongst the workforce that they've already had to apologise for on the opposite page!

Let's dig a little deeper into this error, and try and determine its cause, shall we? The first stop is that limitless boon to overworked, underappreciated journalists the world over; Google, and more importantly, its image search. A quick search of the term Enterprise unsurprisingly brings up a wealth of pictures from Star Trek. The very first picture is of Kirk's 1960s Enterprise, a curvaceous object that looks like some Habitat lamp. It's correct - but for the graphic in question, we need a schematic. Scroll down to the third page, and a perfect image shows up.


Never mind the fact that it says Enterprise-B at the top of the picture. Just rip out what you need, splatter a few lines of prose, and knock out another article. Job done. Except that it's blatant confirmation of all the criticisms that can be levelled at journalists - the laziness, the overuse of cliche, the lack of fact-checking.

What is even more disappointing is the evident attitude behind it. "Who'll care about the accuracy, except some spotty Trekkie anoraks?" Quite apart from the fact that it's a shocking attitude to take towards accuracy of any kind, it's also deplorable to pass judgement on someone else's interests like that. I can't recall the last time a train carriage full of drunk Star Trek fans assaulted anyone or destroyed any property, or the last time a Trek actor got paid fifty million pounds to kick a ball around for ninety minutes, cop off with another actor's wife, and drag the whole sordid mess through the tabloids.

Our harried hack signs off with a sly smile, mentioning the "countless bad catchphrases. Beam me up, Scotty..." With a sigh that could be heard on Vulcan, planet-wide hordes of fans will tiredly point out the line was never spoken in Star Trek, ever. So, the journalist's famous list of 'countless bad catchphrases' comes down to one - that was incorrect. So, zero, then.

Back to the countless bad cliches, Independent.