December 2018 – Page 2 – Scene Magazine – From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life

Join the Tribe – get fit in 2019!

Posted on 22/12/201816/12/2018 by Besi

Vida Active Club is a community of instructors doing what they love, with love!

EACH instructor has their own strength and speciality, be it dance or boxing, Pilates or high intensity training or anything in between. However, what they all have in common is the passion for fitness and wellbeing and for the people they teach. Vida Active are a cooperative of instructors working for themselves and supporting each other!

The members are always at the forefront of what the instructors do. They influence what classes they teach, the locations, the times, and very often what music is played. They are also a community who look forward to meeting at their regular classes for a catch-up, and many also meet up outside of classes socially. Many friendships have been created over the years at Vida Active (formerly QuickFit for women).

In January 2019, the regular instructors: Cleria Humphries, Paula Marten, Helene Evans, Karen Crumpton, Sarah Kearney, Janie Fox and Kerry Gozzet will carry on doing what they do best and also building on it.

On top of this they will be welcoming the formidable Marta Scott, the amazing Tess Wilson and the beautiful Silvia Kocaiova!

So get fit while having fun and supporting these fantastic women! Unlimited classes cost just £19.99 a month or £5 per session.

For more information, click here:

PREVIEW: Hog warts…. You got a cream for that?!? @ Caroline of Brunswick

Posted on 21/12/2018 by Ray A-J

It may be Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get a little spooky. So prepare to be whisked away to the wizarding world, full of magical mystery, with an enchanting show brought to you by the Bitter Sour team, Count addiction and Cherry Fakewell.

YOU better practice your cackling now, because Count Addiction and Cherry Fakewell of Bitter Sour will be whisking us away to the school of witchcraft and wizardry, on January 5.

Dubbed Hog Warts… You got a cream for that?!?, the magical comedy show will have you in fits of laughter with performances by Accio Oedipussi Rex, Fuchsia Von Steel, and headliner Danny Ash.

So be sure to get your tickets, bring your brooms and cauldrons to Caroline of Brunswick, for a night of hilarity and magic.

Where: Caroline of brunswick

When: 5th Jan

How much: Tickets- £7.50 adv £9 on the door

Doors – 7.30

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk @Hilton Brighton Metropole

Posted on 21/12/201823/12/2018 by Carole Todd

The Producers of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, promise a Giant Family Pantomime and a Magical Christmas Fayre, which include excellent children’s dodgems, and non – festive food stalls.

HOWEVER, the pantomime itself is, indeed, a traditional family panto with the best Giant I have seen for a long while. A great prop operated very skilfully by one of the boy dancers, I expect.

Other highlights were the bold and colourful projections (Danilo Raino), the vocal talents especially Fairy Nature (Keris Lea who also wrote the panto) and the strong, experienced performances of David Rumelle as Dame Trott and the charismatic Alasdair Buchanan as ( a rather under-used) Fleshcreep.

Jodie Michele provided lots of traditional, panto choreography with the best boy dancers I’ve seen for a while in a “local” panto. There were rather a lot of songs but well sung by Molly Scott, Shaun Mendum and Richard Dawes and the appropriate amount of local and topical gags which went over the head of the rather young audience but mostly landed with the adults.

The narrative got a bit lost in Act 2 with the drama of escaping the Giant and cutting down the Beanstalk omitted but the audience didn’t care and were up on their feet singing and dancing along to this years “must have” song sheet – Baby Shark!

First night sound problems will be sorted by tomorrow I am sure and I expect the lighting department will be adding the two followspots to all the dialogue as there is not much front of house lighting and the comics cannot be seen ( therefore, not heard,) against the powerful projections without the followspots.

All in all though, huge congratulations to David Hill and Lukasz Wojcik for not only taking on this giant enterprise with an audience of 10,000 already booked but also doing so much good in the community by involving and supporting many charities including the Sussex Beacon. Well done to all.

To book tickets online, click here:

Time to get yourself and your affairs in order

Posted on 21/12/201816/12/2018 by Besi

Everyone is aware that the New Year is a time for new starts – going on a diet, hitting the gym, etc. BUT, what about your personal lifestyle “WHAT IF…” moments?

The coming new year is a really good time to re-evaluate those important issues that whilst we may all need them, nobody likes to face up to.

Is your will up to date? For a start, if you have a Will, congratulations. About two-thirds of the country do not! However, even if you have a Will, is it up to date for your current circumstances?

Now could not be a better time to dust off your Will and give everything a once over to ensure it does meet your requirements.

What about a Power of Attorney? Have you set up someone to have access to your finances, or to take medical decisions for you, in the event that something unexpected happens and you are no longer able to make such decisions for yourself?

No matter how much we think we are immortal, life has a horrible way of showing us that we aren’t and making us think about the unpleasant but very necessary

Talk to Martin Beames at ODT Solicitors, 19 New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UF, or email: mbeames@odt.co.uk for a free, no obligation chat about what the options are for you.

For more information, click here:

REVIEW: Rocky Horror Show @Theatre Royal

Posted on 20/12/2018 by Besi

The Rocky Horror Show at the Theatre Royal, with new cast, set and production, rises to the occasion with enough kinky gusto to help you cast away your inhibitions.

DEFTLY narrated by suited comedian Dom Joly, who takes the expected repartee with the audience in his stride, the kinky tale tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm.

In need of a phone, the hapless duo come across a spooky castle, home to the debauched Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a pan-sexual, cross-dressing mad scientist portrayed by a strapping Stephen Webb who, while lacking Rocky stalwart David Bedella’s unbridled insanity, comes with a whole load of lip puckered gyrating during Sweet Transvestite, a song dripping with raw sex appeal.

Bathed in nostalgia, the set design comprises cartoonish cut outs and the lush opulence of Frank-N-Furter’s castle and the kitsch laboratory scenes, parodying science fiction B movies with naff gadgets and lasers, suck in the audience, many of whom had succumbed to the mantra “don’t dream it, be it” by wearing feather boas, suspenders and a healthy amount of leather!

The sexually repressed and naïve Brad and Janet were performed with just the right amount of all-American values – Joanne Clifton served up a dollop of Apple Pie as good-girl-gone-bad Janet, coquettish during Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me, and Ben Adams as the perpetually confused Brad broke our hearts (just a bit!) with the soppy ballad Once in a While.

Laura Harrison was electric as fan-favourite and raven-haired Magenta, and together with Kristian Lavercombe‘s Riff Raff, the snivelling hunchbacked master of Frank-N-Furter, she plotted and calculated, culminating in a bombastic return to their home planet of Transsexual, in the galaxy of Transylvania, before an orgiastic party took hold with the ensemble piece Rose Tint My World, which saw the now corseted Brad, Janet, Rocky and Columbia, a groupie whose hyper-activity was brought to life with just the right amount of helium by the wonderfully named Miracle Change, come together.

After over 40 years, the Rocky Horror Show has suffered little more than a ladder in its tights, and is still a licence to ‘strip away’ the mundanity of everyday life and slide into something a bit more comfortable.

The Rocky Horror Show is on at the Theatre Royal, Brighton until Saturday, January 5.

To book tickets online, click here:

Pirates of the Carabina @ Brighton Dome

Posted on 20/12/2018 by Eric Page

“Pirates of the Carabina”

HOME

Brighton Dome

19^th Dec

This Christmas there’s a comfortable opportunity to sit back in the cosy Brighton Dome and look up and be inspired by this gentle take on the interconnections and communal links that we all share. This superb company of world-class performers, musicians and acrobats are the crew from FLOWN which was a great success at Brighton Festival 2014 and again at Brighton Dome in 2015.

And now they’re back with this enchanting show with an interesting mechanical set which twists and rolls into different situations and a hypnotic live music set with strong echoes of the repetitive reveries of the Penguin Café Orchestra. HOME delves into the gently strange lives of a neighbourhood of acrobats who, in the course of a day’s misadventures, discover surprising new connections with each other, and with the world outside.

Performed with heartfelt humour Pirates of the Carabina (gotta love that pun) bring to the stage all the skills, quirks and qualities that make their shows more than the sum of their individual performers. It brought forth genuine giggles and laughter from my companion and it’s a cool show which can make folk laugh with these kind of top notch acrobatic skills.

Featuring vertical-swinging trapeze, never-ending ropes, a spinning carousel, some fun manic roller-skating and a funny adventure onto a wobbly and temperamental staircase, HOME presents a playful, poignant tale about the futility of grand plans, and the joys of letting go, and although the narrative is slightly vague on occasion, the magic, charm and pure physicality of this group of young, multi skilled performers impresses.

We left with a smile, wandering out in the crisp Brighton winter night heart-warmed and charmed, this is a delightful show and a delightful alternative way to spend some festive time in the theatre with your younger (or older) family members.

Until Dec 23^th

Brighton Dome

Church Street

Brighton

For more info or to book tickets see the Dome website here:

Fitter confident me!

Posted on 20/12/201816/12/2018 by Craig Hanlon-Smith

Sporting myth has it that the game of Rugby was invented by someone picking up a football mid-game and running with it.

FOR years I was convinced that guy was a disgruntled school-age homosexual, who one wet Wednesday afternoon thought “f*** this, I’m off” and just legged it the heck outta there.

As a young man through my teens and into my early twenties I had zero interest in any form of physical exercise. School had driven out any hope of enjoyment with shouts of “kick him” during the hated football practice, and that from the teachers. “Craig tolerates P.E without any need to exert himself” read my school report. The only exercise related to my schooling physical activity was nightly angry teenage masturbation thinking about the staff.

My current regime could not be more different. I look forward to exercise, eat sensibly but do not purge and love every minute of the exercise I take part in whether at home or in the gym.

The reason? Eventually I met the right people who inspired me to want to make a difference to my long-term health. Who showed me exercises that worked, made a difference, and quickly.

Over the years I have worked with a couple of ropey trainers and a couple of amazing ones. Most recently with online Gay Fitness Guru – Matt Boyles and his Fitter Confident You programme. What I have loved about this is the positive reinforcement which is much more about confidence and personal achievement as it is weight loss or muscle-building.

The recommendation came to me independently from two gay men I knew, both who had turned their fitness around in an initial six-week programme. Making a personal difference.

I signed up for an eight week muscle grow group and noticed a significant difference in four. There are a range of options depending upon your goals and all affordable. I have really appreciated the facebook group chats with others taking part in the same programme, posting photos, videos and both exercise and recipe tips. Community at its supportive best. Matt at the centre of it all with his three times a week positive online live chats but also personal motivational words of wisdom and individualised programmes.

New Year resolutions are easy to make and easy to break. Fitter Confident You is a great way to start and to stay focused.

Search for Fitter Confident You on Facebook, or @FitterYouGlobal

Or contact Craig via Facebook or @craigscontinuum for more details on the programme he took part in.

Revenge raise £1,555.35 for Rainbow Fund

Posted on 20/12/201821/12/2018 by Besi

Fundraising events over World Aids Day (WAD) weekend at Club Revenge raised £1,555.35 for The Rainbow Fund.

Rainbow Fund grants panellist Maria Baker hands Revenge General Manager Andrew Roberts a certificate to mark their World Aids Day fundraising in December 2018 — Rainbow Fund grants panelist Maria Baker hands Revenge General Manager Andrew Roberts a certificate to mark their World Aids Day fundraising in December 2018

THE money was raised from a pound per head donated from the annual Revenge World Aids Day Red Party on Saturday, December 1 and from their World AIDS Day Dragathon which featured some of Brighton’s finest queer performers including Lydia L’Scabies, Rococo Chanel, Baby, Tayris Mongardi, Prudence Rae, Rob From Finance and Alfie Ordinary. All the entertainers, managers and DJs donated their wages for the night to swell the grand total raised for the Rainbow Fund to £1,555.35.

Chris Gull, Chair of the Rainbow Fund said: “What a great result from Revenge’s World AIDS Day weekend fundraisers. A real example of LGBT+ Community fundraising, ensuring that venues don’t have to decide which local projects to support, because by entrusting the funds raised to The Rainbow Fund they can be sure that the money will be fairly distributed to volunteer led projects like Lunch Positive and Peer Action, making a real difference to the lives of local people living with HIV.

“The Rainbow Fund also maintain The AIDS memorial, and now The Hankie Quilt, to ensure that those that our community lost to AIDS, their stories, and the history of our communities are not forgotten.

“Once again we thank the cabaret performers who give their time and talent so unstintingly, but also to the hardworking team of staff, managers and DJs who along with the entertainers donated their wages for the Sunday night fundraising event….thank you all so much for going “above and beyond.”

The Rainbow Fund give grants to local LGBT/HIV groups who deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in Brighton and Hove.

In the most recent grants round in October, 2018, local groups received grants totalling £146,481 from the Fund.

These groups included: Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents, Rainbow Families, My Genderation, MenTalkHealth, Peer Action, Older and Out, Longhill School LGBTU group, Marlborough CIC QTIPOC project, Sussex Beacon, The Rainbow Chorus, Lunch Positive, MindOut, Clare Project, Switchboard, Allsort Youth Project, The Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum.

ClearPoll, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency is fun!

Posted on 19/12/201816/12/2018 by Besi

Dale Drury, software support and community manager at ClearPoll explains about the new ClearPoll app.

BLOCKCHAIN is the technology that underpins digital currency, such as Bitcoin. The information on the blockchain is constantly reconciled into the database, which is stored in multiple locations and updated instantly which means the records are public and verifiable.

Since there’s no central location, it’s harder to hack since the data exists simultaneously in many places.

Blockchain technology was invented in 2008, but only came into the public conversation when Bitcoin launched the following year.

Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are digital and global money system currencies on the blockchain. It allows people to send or receive money across the internet, even to someone they don’t know or don’t trust. Small businesses are now using the blockchain to create secure projects with their own payment currencies integrated into their projects. These coins, or tokens, are also bought within the crypto community as an investment.

Introduction to ClearPoll – A Social Public Opinion Poll Network on the Blockchain
ClearPoll is a social public opinion poll network, using blockchain technology to secure votes and poll results. ClearPoll also uses blockchain for its very own cryptocurrency coin, the ‘POLL Token’ for payment of its services. The decentralised ClearPoll polls are not censored and cannot be manipulated or deleted.

In recent times, the media, private organisations, and even governments have manipulated or censored true public opinion, to suit their agenda. The main problem is the centralisation of public opinion poll data. Controlling the polls allows them to use it to their advantage, and does not give an accurate picture of what people really want. ClearPoll solves these problems.

As a user of ClearPoll, you don’t need to know anything about blockchain or crypto. It’s a fun way to create and vote on secure polls. You can very simply sign up to search for topics that are important to you. You can then view poll results and easily share the polls and results on social media.

ClearPoll aims to be the place to go, to have your say. A hub of accurate, current public opinion across a wide range of topics including politics, human rights, entertainment, sports, just for fun and more.

ClearPoll is for everyone. Vote on anything from fun topics, to more serious issues. ClearPoll is available from the Apple Store, Google play Store or by using the online platform at clearpoll.com

Check out Gscene’s featured polls in January using the ClearPoll App.

Rainbow Hub all fired up and ready to go!

Posted on 19/12/201816/12/2018 by Besi

The new Rainbow Hub is now open six afternoons a week, including Saturdays, and on Tuesday and Thursday it’s open to 8pm.

WITH around twenty seven volunteers having now been through their initial training, they’re already helping numerous clients who arrive with a wide variety of issues.

Their volunteers provide help and guidance to individuals and where necessary refer them on to one or more of an extensive network of partner organisations for further support.

Brighton has literally hundreds of organisations, many of them charities, that exist to help people with a wide variety of needs, but understanding which organisation does what, and for whom, can be daunting.

The Hub is building a huge database of knowledge and experience of all of those organisations, so they can help people articulate their individual needs and then point them towards those providers best placed to help with specialist or longer term support.

“Think of it as your first point of contact for all matter’s LGBT+” says Alan Flack, the Hub Manager. A bit like a triage service, we take time to listen to your needs and then suggest the best place to go for ongoing support and help. Many queries we can deal with ourselves immediately, and sometimes people just want to pop-in and pick up a copy of Gscene – and that’s absolutely fine too!

In fact, both the opportunity and the challenge is the huge variety of things that people pop-in with. In the brief time they have been open so far, The Hub has dealt with people wishing to report a hate crime; domestic abuse, sexual health issues (The Hub has its own HIV testing machine where you can buy a self-test kit. Other people have been in to talk about Gender identity and help with coming out to parents.

The Hub has also started to host regular slots where some of the partner organisations can come and use The Hub as part of their outreach service MindOut already have a regular Monday afternoon slot, and Pavilions and THT are also in the process of setting up regular weekly slots,

“We’ve come a very long way since the space was first handed over,” said Alan, but we also know we have a long way to go before we achieve our vision of becoming THE subject matter experts in all things LGBT+ in our great city.

The Hub are always looking for new volunteers – if you are interested, contact Joel Boardman, The Hub’s Volunteer Coordinator, on joel@therainbowhubmanager.com, or email Alan, on alan@therainbowhubbrighton.com or telephone 01273 675 445.

Call us now

Month: December 2018

Join the Tribe – get fit in 2019!

Vida Active Club is a community of instructors doing what they love, with love!

PREVIEW: Hog warts…. You got a cream for that?!? @ Caroline of Brunswick

It may be Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get a little spooky. So prepare to be whisked away to the wizarding world, full of magical mystery, with an enchanting show brought to you by the Bitter Sour team, Count addiction and Cherry Fakewell.

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk @Hilton Brighton Metropole

The Producers of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, promise a Giant Family Pantomime and a Magical Christmas Fayre, which include excellent children’s dodgems, and non – festive food stalls.

Time to get yourself and your affairs in order

Everyone is aware that the New Year is a time for new starts – going on a diet, hitting the gym, etc. BUT, what about your personal lifestyle “WHAT IF…” moments?

REVIEW: Rocky Horror Show @Theatre Royal

The Rocky Horror Show at the Theatre Royal, with new cast, set and production, rises to the occasion with enough kinky gusto to help you cast away your inhibitions.

Pirates of the Carabina @ Brighton Dome

Fitter confident me!

Sporting myth has it that the game of Rugby was invented by someone picking up a football mid-game and running with it.

Revenge raise £1,555.35 for Rainbow Fund

Fundraising events over World Aids Day (WAD) weekend at Club Revenge raised £1,555.35 for The Rainbow Fund.

ClearPoll, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency is fun!

Dale Drury, software support and community manager at ClearPoll explains about the new ClearPoll app.

Rainbow Hub all fired up and ready to go!

The new Rainbow Hub is now open six afternoons a week, including Saturdays, and on Tuesday and Thursday it’s open to 8pm.

Latest News

Call us now

Vida Active Club is a community of instructors doing what they love, with love!

Share this:

It may be Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get a little spooky. So prepare to be whisked away to the wizarding world, full of magical mystery, with an enchanting show brought to you by the Bitter Sour team, Count addiction and Cherry Fakewell.

Share this:

The Producers of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, promise a Giant Family Pantomime and a Magical Christmas Fayre, which include excellent children’s dodgems, and non – festive food stalls.

Share this:

Everyone is aware that the New Year is a time for new starts – going on a diet, hitting the gym, etc. BUT, what about your personal lifestyle “WHAT IF…” moments?

Share this:

The Rocky Horror Show at the Theatre Royal, with new cast, set and production, rises to the occasion with enough kinky gusto to help you cast away your inhibitions.

Share this:

Share this:

Sporting myth has it that the game of Rugby was invented by someone picking up a football mid-game and running with it.

Share this:

Fundraising events over World Aids Day (WAD) weekend at Club Revenge raised £1,555.35 for The Rainbow Fund.

Share this:

Dale Drury, software support and community manager at ClearPoll explains about the new ClearPoll app.

Share this:

The new Rainbow Hub is now open six afternoons a week, including Saturdays, and on Tuesday and Thursday it’s open to 8pm.

Share this:

Latest News