One city, two days, no budget

Liverpool48 is the home of Liverpool's 48-hour film making challenge, timed to coincide with this summer's Downtown Week. This exciting project aims to bring film-makers from all over the globe to Liverpool to compete to make the best short film. A cash prize of £1000 is up for grabs and the event is set to take place over the weekend of 10th and 11th June. Eligible entrants will be sent an email containting five elements which must be included in their film, such as location, an item of dialogue or clothing. From the time the email is sent, entrants will have 48 hours to produce a film incorporating all five elements. Downtown Liverpool is encouraging local film-makers to have a go and it would be an impressive achievement, building on the growth of Liverpool as a film-making destination over the last few years, if a local talent won. Meanwhile, for film-makers based solely in the northwest, there is the Digital Shorts scheme run by North West Vision, the film and media development agency for the region. The deadline for entries is midday on Tuesday 6th June. The filmmakers from last year's scheme received four days of training at the National Film & TV School and two days of script development support. For 2006, finished films will feature on North West Vision's Drama Bytes DVD, will be screened across the region and promoted at this year's Cannes International Film Festival. Apply to enter the Digital Shorts Scheme. Highlighting again the richness of the northwest's filmmaking in terms of locations, it's worth checking out North West Vision's 'Locations' database.

John Peel’s 78rpm songs released on CD

John Peel and Sheila: The Pig's Big 78s, A Beginner's Guide, has been released on CD. According to the BBC, plans for Peel's album were advanced just prior to the late, great DJ's sudden death while on holiday in Peru, in October 2004. Home Truths has never been the same since. The album title comes from a slot on Peel's late-night Radio 1 show which saw his wife, Sheila Ravenscroft, affectionately know as 'The Pig' due to her laugh, introduce often previously unheard of 78rpm records. 23 tracks encompass yodelling, early rock and more traditional music from England, China and Africa, plus an interview with Sheila on the reasons behind the track selections.

Steven Gerrard’s FA Cup (plus bonus video!)

There’s now a good little video of all the Liverpool goals in this year’s dramatic FA Cup Final, with just a little bit of a focus on Steven Gerrard’s contribution. It’s backed by a great rap track by Fort Minor, with the chorus lyrics:

This is 10 percent luck, 20 percent skill; 15 percent concentrated power of will; 5 percent pleasure; 50 percent pain; And 100 percent reason to remember the name!

See the video clip.

For a clip featuring all the goals and the lifting of the Cup, it’s on the FA website here. Topping all these, though, for sheer emotion – and you may need to have a long lie down after this – is the famous Sky Sports compilation following Liverpool’s 2005 European Champions League win in Istanbul, backed by ‘In my Life’ by the Beatles, but partly spoken by Sir Sean Connery. See it and weep. Really.

Ferries across the Mersey back on schedule

A full Mersey Ferries service resumed yesterday (Tuesday) following two months of disruption after the Pier Head landing stage sank in bad weather. Now a new landing stage a 5-minute walk north of the Isle of Man stage, is restoring normal service. For the last two months the ferries, run by Merseytravel, have shared a berth with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. During this time passenger numbers fell by about 16% so Merseytravel is now hoping for a steady uplift over the summer. (Photo courtesy Liverpool Pictorial/Terry Horton)

Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse

I wanted to find out a bit more about this huge, iconic building and thought I'd share my discoveries. The basic statistics are impressive in themselves. Designed by Anthony George Lyster, the last of Liverpool's famous dock engineers, the 14-storey building covers 26 acres. There are 42 bays divided by seven loading bays. Its construction took 27 million bricks, 30,000 panes of glass and 8,000 tons of steel. It is said to be the largest brick-build building in the entire world and at the time of its construction it was the largest warehouse in the world of any description. I couldn't determine for certain whether this remains the case. It has few exits to prevent theft and the area between it and the South Stanley Warehouse is known as "Pneumonia Alley" because of a localised wind-tunnel effect and because it is always in shade.

The first tobacco shipment arrived from Virginia in 1648. Trade steadily grew and Liverpool had to build ever larger warehouses to store and supply demand all year round from what is, of course, a seasonal crop. This kept the market stable and free of wild price fluctuations. Stanley Dock was opened in 1848 and had locks linking the docks to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The new tobacco warehouse was opened at the turn of the century and at the time was state-of-the-art. At a high level on the west end in raised brick figures and letters are "MDE, 1900". It is believed that MDE is an acronym for Mersey Docks Estates. (Thanks to Ron Formby at the Scottie Press for digging that out) 

Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse fell out of use in the 1980s and is now Grade 2 listed. English Heritage has said it believes the building should be saved as landmark of Liverpool's port history.

The ongoing development of the Sunday Heritage Market held adjacent to the warehouse, which already brings upwards of 750,000 people a year to the area, can only help to protect the warehouse and find new uses for the buildings. Ex-London barrow-boy Frank Tough is already transforming the Heritage Market as he strives to emulate or even out-do London's Camden Market, the top most-visited tourist destination in the UK. At the Stanley Warehouse, there is massive scope for expansion, in contrast to Camden which is butting up against a lack of available space for growth. With Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 now rapidly nearing, the Heritage Market can reinvigorate the entire area and secure a modern future for the important buildings it inhabits. For more on Frank's plans, see this interesting feature from Market Trader news. (Photo c English Heritage)

Bug art

Students from Liverpool Community College are to produce works of art to adorn the hoardings around the new Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Research Centre during building work. The centre, on the corner of London Road, got £18 million from the North West Regional Development Agency and European Objective One programme to fund research, with a further £28 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help fight malaria. Shepherd Construction began work last month and commissioned the art as part of strategy of involving local communities. "This is a great way of getting people thinking about the importance of the work that will be undertaken here," said school Director Janet Hemingway, according to the BBC, "and will give everyone something to look at until the new centre is completed next year."

Everyman founder to speak

Terry Hands, who founded Liverpool's Everyman Theatre in 1964, is to share his experiences as part of the Performance 06 lecture series. After founding the Everyman, Hands joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where he became Artistic Director in 1978 and CEO in 1986. He also steered Theatre Clywd to many awards. The lecture series is part of Liverpool's Year of Performance leading up to Capital of Culture 2008. The lecture follows the first in the series, delivered by LFC legend Alan Hansen last month. The venue is the the University of Liverpool's Sherrington Building, Ashton Street, on Monday 22nd May at 6.30pm. Tickets are free and can be obtained from Blackwells Bookshop on Brownlow Hill, 08 Place on Whitechapel and the Tourist Information Centre, World of Glass, St Helens, or by calling 0151 794 2650.

2006 ‘Wow’ Festival reviewed

This year's Writing on the Wall literary festival in Liverpool is now reviewed on the Wow website, together with an extract from Pulp Idol winner Rachel Bowman's unfinished novel, Blood Will Out. The Wow team are now soliciting ideas and suggestions for the 2007 Festival, including writers people would like to see, themes, venues and also feedback on this year's event. Suggestions should be posted to: Writing on the Wall, 60 Duke Street, Liverpool, L1 5AA.

Blue flag for Ainsdale

Ainsdale beach in Merseyside could be in for a tourist bonanza after its beach was today given the coveted Blue Flag award, the first beach in the northwest to receive the accolade. The award is given to beaches across Europe that meet strict standards of water quality, beach cleanliness, clear information for beach users and good first aid and safety. Commenting on the award, Dave McAleavy, head of Sefton Coast and Countryside, said: "We are all absolutely delighted that Ainsdale beach has been recognised once again as one of the best in Europe. We now hope that this status will enable us to attract external funding for further improvement as part of the Merseyside Waterfront Regional Park." The Blue Flag campaign is administered by Encams (Environtmental Campaigns) on behalf of Europe's FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education). Full details of all the beaches achieving Blue Flag status are on the Encams website. In another first this summer, Sefton Lifeguards will issue bathers with a free squirt of sun protection cream from a portable dispenser. The scheme, which is similar to those run for many years in countries like Australia, is a joint initiative between Sefton Council and Primary Care Trust. Bathers can also pick up free sun cream from lifeguards, first aid huts and from the Ainsdale Discovery Centre.

Stevie Gerrard – 10 of the best

What more can I say about Steven Gerrard that hasn't already been said? Instead of repeating all the superlatives following Liverpool's FA Cup triumph this weekend, I've just been sent a link to a video compilation of 10 of his best goals. The compilation unfortunately doesn't include Saturday's 35-yard piledriver, nor last season's Champions League strike against Olympiacos, but it does show something of his power, precision and technical ability when unleashing that right-foot cannon of his from distance.

Watch the compilation here.