The Guardian Leeds

With 2010 coming to a close, the team here at Hebe have been discussing some of our favourite projects and conversations from the past year. Without doubt one of the best projects we have seen this year is the Guardian Leeds. We wanted to use this post primarily to highlight the amazing work being done by John Baron but also to give a big "thank you" on behalf of all the people and projects he and the Guardian have helped this year.

Before the Guardian Leeds project had officially launched I had spoken with them about possible link ups and collaborations. We had the first opportunity to do this during the 'Leeds in Barcelona' project when I wrote a series of guest blog posts during my time over in Barcelona and then again when our Barcelona guests visited Leeds. I can tell you from first-hand experience that the trend researchers and bloggers were very impressed that Guardian Leeds supported the project and it gave a lot of energy and excitement to the interviews and photo-shoots we carried out. I am sure there are a lot of projects in Leeds that have benefited from the support and exposure that the Guardian Leeds has given. I know recently during the Leeds in Vancouver project, the help and exposure on the Guardian Leeds blog really helped showcase what was happening to the people back in Leeds. 

Another massive way the Guardian Leeds helped out was with the recent explosion in popularity for the UK Observing Diary project. The project has been featured all over newspapers and television in Asia and the girls are about to sign their first book deal. All this coverage started with the Guardian Leeds post focusing on the project, it sowed the seed that grew into something amazing and I am sure there will be more examples of which this can be said.

The projects and examples we have mentioned here are obviously close to Hebe hearts because they are fashion-based but the amount of different community groups, charities, independents the Guardian Leeds has helped is amazing. The project has also stimulated heated debates on things like the Leeds Arena, Trinity, Kirkgate Market and much more.

I recently sat down with John and we spoke about the impact the project has had on the Leeds community and some of his personal highlights and challenges so far. I asked him a few questions:

What were the original aims of the 'Guardian Leeds' project?

The original aims, which are still valid today, were to provide Leeds with a collaborative blog which reflects the issues people in Leeds are talking about. We've followed a number of local community campaigns, such as the campaign to transform the abandoned Royal Park School in Hyde Park into a community hub, the traders' calls to halt the decline at Leeds Kirkgate Market, the successful campaign to stop City of Leeds School in Woodhouse from closing and the community's bid to take over South Leeds Sports Centre to name a few.

My aim is to look at community activism, but also to have an eye on council accountability, so we look very closely at the decisions that are made at the Civic Hall and cover the debates between councillors in-depth.

What we've also aimed to do is raise the profile of bloggers in Leeds. There's a massive online community in Leeds which is just starting to find its voice. These are exciting times, and I've tried to provide a platform for as many voices as I can through the daily morning 'Leeds today' posts and through our 'blogosphere' section which we're currently adding more bloggers to. We also encourage guest bloggers to submit posts and cover different subjects and events - ultimately it's a blog written by the people of Leeds for the people of Leeds.

Why did you personally become involved?

Saw the job advertised and thought 'that sounds right up my street'. I'd previously had 16 years in local weekly papers and was increasingly aware that the industry was changing rapidly. I saw the Guardian Local project - which is an innovative pilot scheme - as being a bold experiment and at the forefront of what journalism could be in the future.

What have been the most challenging parts of the job 

Balancing 20,000 different jobs at once. Managing your time effectively is an important part of this job and you have to learn that as much as the journalist in you wants to cover everything, you really can't!

What has been the most rewarding aspect?

Undoubtedly supporting some of the community campaigns we've been following. That's what really motivates me personally and professionally - making a difference to people's lives by giving them a voice and then shining a light onto the council's response.

What are the plans for the future? 

I'm keen to get more people writing guest posts and coming on the site and posting their comments, adding their pictures to the Flickr group and generally getting the poeple of Leeds to take ownership of what is their blog!

Lets hope that this is just the beginning for this project and it continues to grow in reach and importance to the Leeds community. There is still some massive untapped potential for the Guardian Leeds and we hope to help John and the project as much as we can in 2011. In the new year we will be collaborating in a new way with the Guardian Leeds and our own Leeds Online community working together which is exciting; we will have much more information on this in early 2011.

For now though we would just like to give a huge thank you to the Guardian for creating Guardian Leeds and to the tireless work done by John Baron. Well done :)

Leeds Street Style: 13/12/10

Rachel

 

Top: Pop Boutique (Vintage)

Dress: H&M

Shoes: Vans

Watch: Urban Outfitters

Necklace: Vintage

Ring: Vintage

Tights/ Socks: Primark

Sweater: Pop Boutique

 

Rachel's favorite Leeds clothes shop: Pop Boutique

 

 

Joe

 

Bottom: Edwin Jeans

Coat: Barbour

Shoes: Vans Old School

Hair Accessories: Obey Beanie

 

Joe's favorite Leeds clothes shop: HIP

 

 

Andrew

 

Coat: Vintage

Bottom: Urban Outfitters

Shoes: Vintage

Bag: American Apparel

Belt: Vintage

 

Andrew's favorite Leeds clothes shop: Vivienne Westwood

Describe the Leeds fashion scene in 1 word: Electric

 

 

My Thoughts:

I went cool-hunting last week in a freezing day, so big thanks for these beautiful people who pleasantly allowed me to shoot them.

 

Rachel works in Pop Boutique, one of my favorite vintage shops. I love her accessories from head to toe, and she's such a friendly person, she's definitely not one of those shop assistants with attitude.

 

I stopped Joe as he was on his way to a meeting, that's why he was holding a projector  (And no, it wasn't part of his accessories) I imagined Joe has a great knowledge of brands and is certain of his style, because of the brands he was wearing were from everywhere in the world - Scottish coat, American hat and shoes, and Japanese jeans. Or maybe he just buys everything from HIP. ♥

 

Andrew uses many vintage items, and Leeds' vintage scene is definitely growing bigger and bigger the moment. Wearing boots normally shortens the length of legs, so I like where he positioned his belt to balance the proportion.

Until next time! (Or maybe see you on the street! ;))

Old fella with "FREESTYLE" on his backpack. ♥

UK Observing Diary Update

Last month we gave a brief introduction to the UK Observing Diary project featuring our very own Shang Ting Peng. Since our last post a lot has happened with the page including the number of fans swelling to 56,000+ and various television and newspaper appearances for Shang Ting and her UOD partner Clair Liu.

After appearing in a post on The Guardian Leeds site, the media coverage around the project has been quite unbelievable. The Asian media picked up on the story and it spread like wildfire. The story made the front page of Yahoo, was ranked no.1 in the fashion category and no.3 in the arts category. The story appeared in some of the most influencial newspapers in Taiwan including Liberty Times, NOWnews, Apple Daily, Chinese Television System and China Times.

When the Guardian post appeared the page had around 6,500 members and now as of writing this post the number stands at 56,816! The number of views on their posts has gone into the millions every month. It is a quite remarkable story that 2 friends who started a project as a hobby are now well on their way to becoming major published authors back in Asia, as a number of book deals are now in the offing.

Shang Ting has certainly been taken back at the response in her native Taiwan "It was a shock when we found out how many different news outlets had reported this story. Afterwards our UK Observing Diary email address has been full of invites to different things and proposals for new projects. It all happened so fast. We have now even been offered a book deal, and it is just so exciting."

Her partner on the page, Clair recently appeared on a TV show billed as an 'online buzz creator' something that certainly takes some getting used to " This was the first time for me to participate in a TV programe shot in the studio. I was so excited when the TV producer invited us to talk about our recent popularity on the internet. There are many interesting things on the show that I did not expect. I had so much fun there."

Clair continues, "I felt I was just like a little fan when I heard the other two famous bloggers who are going to join the panel. I used to read quite a lot of their articles. I am so glad to have had this opportunity to sit next to them and join their conversation. This was the day I found I was so proud of UK Observing Diary. Our page could be a real media connecting people who are interested in Leeds and London."

The girls are commited to their original vision for the page "We post everyday, and we try to answer fan's questions as much as we can. The relationship with them is very important to us. We don't want to change our style, which is fun and a style that people can easily relate to. We like to talk to fans as they are our friends, and perhaps one day they will become our friends for real!" says Shang Ting.

One really interesting dynamic of this project is the contrast it provides between the North and South of England, namely Leeds and London. While the capital may be high on tourist's and trend hunter's radars usually, Leeds is something of an unknown quantity in Asia. The UK Observing Diary provides an insight into the northern city and this has gone down well with a lot of the fans "Li Man Man said: This is so great~ Because most of the people know more about London, part of them don't have a clear idea about Leeds. So this observing diary is perfect~"

The content of the page is usually photos with a brief description. This could be an off-the-cuff photo of an interesting visual or it could be a photoshoot carried out at a particular event. The girls have also began to add deeper content in the form of interviews and articles which are presented more like a 'blog posts' in the page's 'notes' section.

The idea is to develop the content further with plans for more video content presented by Shang Ting and Clair currently on the agenda. It seems this is just the tip of the iceberg for this project and we should hear of more exciting developments (and 1000s more fans) over the coming months.

1. Jackie Chan 2. Jet Lee... 3. UK Observing DiaryApple Daily

Secuestrados (2010) en el Festival de Cine de Leeds

 

Dirección: Miguel Ángel Vivas 
Interpretación: Fernando Cayo, Manuela Vellés, Ana Wagener, Dritan Biba
Género : Crimen, suspense, horror
País: España
Estrellas: 3/5
Lugar: The Vue (en el centro comercial The Light, Leeds)

Tenía muchas ganas de ir a ver Secuestrados en el Festival de Cine de Leeds 2010 porque después de ver un incontable número de películas españolas durante mis años estudiando en la Universidad ya me interesa mucho el cine español.

Esperaba que la película sería notable porque no hay mucho cine español en Leeds, pero no os puedo mentir entonces sigo con la crítica de Secuestrados.

Una familia, unos ladrones profesionales y una noche inolvidable…

Mientras leía la sinopsis de Secuestrados, creía que nosotros, como espectadores, tendríamos que aguantar unas escenas intensas y difíciles antes de llegar a final, en que momento la familia tendría su vuelta a defenderse de manera brutal. Eso no es un resumen exacto de la película. Es totalmente diferente. No voy a decir más que eso pero la trama, en realidad, no es tan gratificante.

La actuación en la película es mediocre. Es evidente que la película se grabó en solamente doce tomas. Mi personaje favorita de la película es Isa, la hija de la familia, protagonizada por Manuela Vellés. Me gusta la actuación de Manuela tan como su interpretación del personaje de Isa. En cuanto a los ladrones, ellos no me dieron miedo. Solo uno de ellos me asustó a veces. No son ladrones profesionales ni secuestradores a mi juicio.

La película no es mal, es interesante y hay escenas originales; un ladrón se sienta en el sofá entre la hija y la madre de la familia. El come y ve la tele como se fuera un día normal, mientras que las dos mujeres están llorando. Es genial. También hay momentos llenos de suspenso y la película acaba con un giro inesperado que para algunos será un buen final pero yo prefiero que mis películas de horror tengan una formula tradicional para que salga del cine satisfecha.

Absolut Experience

I must admit after the Absolut Experience I couldn’t stop talking about it. I loved it all. Actors in boiler suits greeted us and a very charming doorman, in full attire, gave each of us an umbrella so we could walk through a tunnel of rain to reach the entrance of the building. We then entered the building and had a cocktail before we started our ‘experience’.

My definition of the event is ‘a fun house mixed with an interactive art exhibit’. I honestly felt like a child again, but as an adult I could appreciate every part of it. We were made to be creative in many ways.

Moving mirrors provided a bizarre experience but a great start to the event. Then some really cool 'Absolut Art'. What followed was equally interesting:  UV mazes and music making... we sounded pretty good I think ;-). The vibe was cool and everyone was being really creative and enjoying every minute. I was a little sad when that experience was over but the next stage soon made me happy again. We all had to participate in a life drawing session with the lovely Lee from Hebe Media as our model (check out our drawings!) then a giant game of ping-pong and a never-ending drunken story! The experience ended with another cocktail and some music from a live Dj. The event was genius in my opinion. I wont forget it easily.

Shang Ting also loved the experience "I'm not saying this should be in the text book, but the Absolut experience should be a model of how much effort and thought should go into an event. The staff are nice, every section was interesting and the night just made you excited as hell. Out of all the events I have been to this year, this is one of the most memorable"

Lee thought the concept sets a precedent "The night was so much fun. The staff played a key part in taking you out of your comfort zone so your senses were heightened and everything seemed more intense. Working in fashion and music we attend a lot of events and 'launches' but this really stands out as a brand taking a chance and scoring big"

Big well done to Ablsout and looking forward to what they have planned next!