Event: The Ugly Animal Preservation Society
Sunday 21st October 2012
7.00pm for a 7.30pm start
The Melrose (formerly called the Vandella), 15-19 Goldhawk Road, Shepherds Bush, W12 8QQ
£5.00 (money raised goes to charity)
Tickets via wegottickets.com/event/186788
Hoested by readysteadyscience.com
A night of stand-up comedy with a conservation twist!
The UGLY ANIMAL PRESERVATION SOCIETY is an evening dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children. The panda gets too much attention.
Our society needs a mascot, one to rival the cute and cuddly emblems of many charities and organisations. And so I have gathered a terrific line up of comedians who will each champion a different ugly endangered species and at the end of the evening the audience shall vote for what will become our society’s symbol. It is going to be a great night! Money raised goes to charity.
MC Simon Watt (Channel 4’s Inside Nature’s Giants)
Suzi Ruffell (Nominated for the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2011)
Helen Arney (Festival of The Spoken Nerd, Infinite Monkey Cage)
Punk Science (The Science Museum)
Bush and McCluskey (Award winning musical comedians)
Helen Keen (BBC Radio 4’s It Is Rocket Science)
Steve Cross (Bright Club, Science Show Off)
Dan Schrieber (QI elf and creator of The Museum Of Curiosity)
Ellie Taylor (Comedian and presenter of BBC3’s Snog, Marry, Avoid)
October 3, 2012 at 8:57 pm | Skeptic News | Comments Off
Going Soul-o: one young atheist’s week at Christian camp (Day Seven)
Day Six
It’s done. I’ve been home from Soul Survivor twenty-four hours, and I’ve now more or less recovered emotionally and physically. I won’t deny that this project’s been hard – a lot more so than I expected on devising it. (My thanks go out, once again, to the readers of my blog who made it possible.) But am I glad I did it? Absolutely. Because being torn out of my skeptical bubble’s taught me a lot, and since it seems appropriate to make some conclusions in my final post, this blog will be a mixture of hope and fear.
(more…)
August 2, 2012 at 5:13 pm | Skeptic News | 24 Comments »
Going Soul-o: one young atheist’s week at Christian camp (Day Six)
Day Five
Today will be my last day at Soul Survivor. Having witnessed the main meetings at this festival, with their cheering, praying and orgies of guitar-led worship, I’ve decided I don’t need to see tonight’s – and perhaps I’d enjoy the Where’s Wally-themed party if I’d come with friends, but as it is I’d likely end up a wallflower. My train is booked to leave in late afternoon, but not before I’ve heard one and a half more seminars.
At half past two I file into the first one, rucksack and all. The half hour process of emptying my tent and packing it with its contents into a backpack has somehow been cathartic, and I listen with refreshed attention; the speaker is Andrew Smith, an evangelical but also founder of a Christian-Muslim interfaith group, The Feast. He mentions in the course of the talk that he was previously a Christian youth worker in schools, and there are certain oneliners that seem overly rehearsed and might be read as condescending, but from the off I like the guy. Some other speakers here have an air of polish, but Andrew seems genuine and unassuming, so when he invites us at the start to tweet him our comments, I decide I will.
(more…)
August 1, 2012 at 12:58 pm | Skeptic News | 9 Comments »
Going Soul-o: one young atheist’s week at Christian camp (Day Five)
Day Four
The tallest building in Germany, the Fernsehturm or TV tower, stands next to Alexanderplatz in the centre of Berlin. It’s impossible to miss, having been designed by East Germany’s secular government to tower above the capital’s churches, a feat it still accomplishes today. Unfortunately for them, and to the churches’ great delight, the spherical structure half way up the tower which now houses a bar and restaurant was assembled using small, flat metal plates. This means that, when the sphere’s extremities catch the sun, an enormous shining cross forms above the city. (Berliners traditionally call this Rache des Papstes – the Pope’s revenge.)
(more…)
July 30, 2012 at 10:21 pm | Skeptic News | Comments Off
Going Soul-o: one young atheist’s week at Christian camp (Day Four)
Day Three
As the festival’s third day starts, I’m better rested than the previous morning – the boys camped next door seem to have quietened somewhat – and decide for the sake of my blogs to catch the end of the morning meeting. I walk in as the last half hour commences, and am greeted by another twenty minute stream of guitar-led praising. ‘I will follow you to the ends of the earth’, the singer exclaims. Not for the first time, I’m struck that there are healthier relationships than the one some of these people want with Jesus.
The service ends with Mike thanking God for ‘surprising us’ during the meeting; not having been there, I can’t say what surprises he means, but for Soul Survivor nothing seems out of the ordinary. ‘We don’t want knowledge,’ he says, ‘if it’s not knowledge of you. We don’t want experience if it’s not experiences with you.’ Some people are still being prayed for, and their companions are instructed not to ‘get too huggy’, in case this gets in the Lord’s way. Cuddling, it turns out, is kryptonite to Jesus.
(more…)
July 30, 2012 at 1:59 am | Skeptic News | Comments Off
Next Page »