Seagull Recommends 16/06

Hello and welcome back to Seagull Recommends! We've missed you. We hope you've missed us.

If you come across anything coming up in the city that you think we should know about, let us know!

🎶Gigs: Australian singer-songwriter Nadeah is at The Folklore Rooms tomorrow for a small, intimate show (tickets); Sussex's own Maisie Peters is touring her album The Good Witch and will be at Chalk this Wednesday (tickets); and Brighton-based punk rockers silktape will be at The Hope and Ruin on Thursday, for just £6.60. That's a bargain for such a high-energy show (tickets)!

🎼Orchestra:  The London Philharmonic Orchestra has just announced its 2023/24 season at the Brighton Dome. The first show isn't until October, but tickets for Beethoven's 5th Symphony, Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, Brahms' Violin Concerto are all on sale now (tickets).

🎨Children's craft: Today (and every Friday) at 10:30am, enjoy children’s craft session Kemptown Bookshop's cafe, aimed at pre-schoolers in term time and children up to eight in school holidays. They cost £3 and include a free babycinno for every child.  No need to book - just turn up!

📚Books: There's so much happening in the book world this week:

• At Kemptown Bookshop this Thursday at 7pm, join Alison Rendle and Kit Messenger to discuss Curious not Furious, empowering children to take charge of their brains & behaviour.
• Tomorrow (and every Saturday) at 10:30am, Kemptown Bookshop have free children’s storytelling on their children’s floor. Again, no need to book.
• On Wednesday at 5am (yes, in the morning, not a typo), join other local writers at Kemptown Bookshop for a summer solstice session to work on your work in progress. Coffee, tea and pastries available to kickstart your writing morning, for £5.
• Brighton Book Festival, hosted by Afrori Books and The Feminist Bookshop, is back from Tuesday to Sunday as part of Independent Bookshop Week. Events include: Supper Club on Tuesday from 7-10pm at Afrori Books, featuring Lerato sharing her cookbook Africana (tickets); Real Life Dystopia, an online event, is on Thursday from 5:30-7pm, where three authors will talk about if our world now entering territory usually reserved for fictional dystopias, or if dystopian novels have always reflected real life events, as well as where they draw their inspiration from and how current events relate to the dystopias they imagined (tickets); and a poetry workshop on Friday from 5-7pm at Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts, hosted by Roy McFarlane and AFLO (tickets).

🏋️Sports: Team Seagull recently visited SEAGYM down on the seafront, and we're very impressed with what we saw. They offer outdoor fitness classes and personal training, including boxing, TRX and pilates, suitable for beginners to advanced, and with disabled access. We met personal trainer and co-founder Jamie Szymonik, who told us all about the lovely community they have there—they often get morning coffee and evening drinks together. For the next two months you can get three classes for £20, and they do a 15% discount for students and NHS workers.

🐶Dog show: The ever-popular Bark in the Park returns to Queens Park tomorrow! Categories include cutest puppy, best sausage catcher, and doggy triathlon. It runs from noon, with registration from 11am. Entry to each competition costs £2.

🍱Food: Our co-founder, political editor, and sausage roll connoisseur, has the following recommendation:

I tell you where I did have some nice food was White Cloud. Really good sausage roll, very meaty. Well, it was made of chickpeas, I mean it was very substantial. A slice, like a beef wellington. One of those was lunch, you know?

🍻Drink: In the summer, you can't beat a shandy. Drink responsibly, or visit The Hope and Ruin to indulge in all the 0% lager shandies your heart desires. With those big windows open, and some naughty little lads* in front of you, what could be better than that?

*Naughty little lads are breaded olives, for those not in the know.

We were delighted to be invited to Van Gogh Alive at Brighton Dome, a multi-sensory celebration of one of the most famous artists in the world.

As we progressed through the exhibition we learnt more about his life and art, before heading into the main room. To music including Satie: Gymnopedie No.1-Lent Et Douloureux and Pizzicato From Ballet "Sylvia" (Delibes) by Miguel Del Oro Orchestra, we watched the story of Van Gogh’s tragic life through his art and quotes while enjoying the sandalwood and lavender aromas.

Our editor very much enjoyed the drawing class upstairs (her rendition of Starry Night is pride of place on the fridge) and one of the tables at Seagull HQ is covered with a 1000 piece jigsaw of The Bedroom painting. Many thanks to the very generous team at The Dome for inviting us!