Category Archives: Art

UK tells Australia to hop it over kangaroo painting: we’ll tie it down if we have to, sports

The Kongouro from New Holland by George Stubbs

The Kongouro from New Holland by George Stubbs: obviously painted before roos evolved pockets. Wonder where it kept its change?

Two galleries separated by half the planet have launched appeals to raise funds to become the permanent owners of a George Stubbs painting of a kangaroo. The National Gallery of Australia launched their appeal citing that the work is much cherished in Australia as the first painting of a kangaroo by a Western artist and has featured on coins and engravings as a well known and important work of art.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich currently has the painting which is about as famous in the UK as a slightly popular teacher in a small village school and wants to keep it. An attitude summed up by Lemuel Auster an expert in wildlife paintings at the museum:

“This is Great Britain: we see, we take, we keep. Australia can jog on.” Continue reading

Comments Off on UK tells Australia to hop it over kangaroo painting: we’ll tie it down if we have to, sports

Filed under Art, International News

Stars come out for village Wasp Festival

waspchild

A bait child practices being attractive to wasps

With just two days to go until the Annual Harold Wasp Festival, organizers are dusting off their tennis racquets and polishing their jam traps.

And thanks to a winter breeding programme in the loft of the local pub, their are hopes that this year could break the 1976 record.

“Back then, we took our seasonal wasp genocide for granted”, explained legendary ‘wasp whisperer’ John Horse. “We downed more than 1,200 of the little buggers  before Saturday lunchtime. Barely a bee was bruised but the jaspers were littering the streets. I’ve still got my commemorative rolled-up programme.”
Continue reading

Comments Off on Stars come out for village Wasp Festival

Filed under Around Harold, Art, Culture, Uncategorized

Booker Longlist includes shampoo bottle, Top Trumps card, recipe for mince

scissors

Judges currently favouring single-sided entries

Organisers of the Harold Booker Literary prize have been accused of ‘dumbing down’, after the longlist was revealed to contain nothing thicker than a pamphlet.

With the label from a shampoo bottle being amongst the selected few, some think the list is just a collection of things Ron Ronsson reads while he’s sat on the toilet.

“Not a bit of it”, said Ronsson, clutching a packet of tampons. “All of the entrants are here purely on merit. And with 13 of the buggers to read before August, did you really expect us to squeeze in a novel?”
Continue reading

Comments Off on Booker Longlist includes shampoo bottle, Top Trumps card, recipe for mince

Filed under Around Harold, Art, Business, Culture

Museum employee retires after 48 years being ‘the eyes that follow you around a room’

paintingAfter 48 years of loyal service, Alan ‘Beady’ Bladon has decided to retire from his position at Harold’s museum. Since joining the organisation in 1965, Alan has been the eyes in a painting that follow you around the room.

“Harold museum was struggling n the ’60s when I joined, so we had to look at different ways of bringing in visitors” Mr Bladon told us. “We quickly realised that all the best museums have a painting where the eyes follow you wherever you go.

“After having our £5.30 bid for the Mona Lisa turned down, we were left with no such portrait so opted to cut holes in an existing piece and have me look through it with my eyes following people.”

Visitors to the museum have described the painting as odd, creepy and even perverse. Since taking up his position in the piece, people have claimed the eyes have followed them around, have started winking at them, and in 1983 an outbreak of conjunctivitis was even blamed on Mr Bladon’s then pink eyes.

Describing her experience, regular chin-stroking art enthusiast and owner of ‘Sally’z Cutz’, Sally Lloyd said “I always got the strange feeling I was being watched when I was in the same room as the painting.

“However, it got weirder the closer I got. Every time I leant in to see the finer details of a picture, the eyes’ gaze seemed to move from my eyes to staring down my top.”

The museum has told us they are now looking for a replacement set of staring eyes, but admit despite having hundreds of applications, the position is proving hard to fill. “All of the applicants so far have the skills needed to look at people all day, but our insistence on a criminal records check has set us back.”

Click here to see the full picture – ‘Cats’ Eyes In A Field’.

Comments Off on Museum employee retires after 48 years being ‘the eyes that follow you around a room’

Filed under Art, Culture

World’s Oldest Calendar ‘probably from Woolworths’

calendarExperts believe they’ve found the origin of an ancient calendar, after deciphering a price tag on the back.

Villager Gill Gates discovered the calendar buried amongst ritual items, in a box marked ‘Christmas’ in her loft.

“When I dusted this fascinating object down, I realised I was looking at one of the earliest methods of recording time”, said Gates. “It even predates the controversial one my grandfather kept in his kitchen; the one with an image of a tennis girl, idly scratching at her arse.”

At first, Gates believed the calendar was from late Plastocenic period: a simpler time when the tv channels didn’t broadcast during the day. “It could have been carved from materials at hand, and then decorated using poster paints”, suggested Gates. “It’s just the sort of thing that could have been knocked up in a shed.”
Continue reading

Comments Off on World’s Oldest Calendar ‘probably from Woolworths’

Filed under Around Harold, Art, News

Statue critics point out that Freddie Mercury ‘never admitted he was a gorilla’

freddie

Never admitted gorilla tendencies

As the city of Norwich celebrates the new statue of the Freddie Mercury gorilla, some critics are pointing out that it is ironic to celebrate the singer’s gorillaness now, when he never publically admitted it in his lifetime.

Gorilla rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of “OookRage!” is disappointed that years after his untimely death, the singer is now being seen as a major gorilla icon.
Continue reading

Comments Off on Statue critics point out that Freddie Mercury ‘never admitted he was a gorilla’

Filed under Art, Badgers, Showbusiness

Beatles album competition reaches end of long and winding road

beach-boys-standard-pet-soundsHarold resident Alfie Brooks was delighted yesterday to be named as the winner of one of Britain’s longest running competitions.

Ringo Starr and Paul MacCartney both made the trip to Harold in person to announce Alfie as the winner of the “Which is the best Beatles album?” competition launched in 1970.

The competition was originally due to end in 1971, when George Martin sent the answer to Ringo. However Ringo misplaced the envelope and assuming it had been used as roach material, they decided to ‘Let it be’ and the competition rumble on for a further 42 years…outliving two of the Beatles! The contest has led to fierce debate around the country, not least in the Squirrel Lickers Arms where the pub landlord Eddie once broke a regular’s femur for suggesting that Rubber Soul was better than Abbey Road. Continue reading

Comments Off on Beatles album competition reaches end of long and winding road

Filed under Around Harold, Art, Crime

BBC cashes in on Game of Thrones success with ‘A Nuddy History of Britain’

henryviii

The naked version of Henry VIII always rose to the occasion.

Historian Dan Cruickshank has denied ‘dumbing down’ in his new series, ‘A Nuddy History of Britain’.

“If we’ve learned anything from Game of Thrones it’s that people remember the naked bits”, he frothed. “The naked bits, and the violent and bloody deaths.”

Cruickshank hastily re-edited a pilot show for his new project, which explored complex family trees, socio-economics and the inherent political injustice of the day. Instead, the show now features writhing, sweating bodies, several gallons of baby oil and rubber masks that look a bit like famous royals.
Continue reading

Comments Off on BBC cashes in on Game of Thrones success with ‘A Nuddy History of Britain’

Filed under Art, Culture, Royals