Month: December 2015

You Must Shine #Video for all of you by Tiffany Belle Harper – Warmest wishes for a New Year!

Those that have been around me online, via my workshops, friends and family (and new friends on WordPress), you may know I love to make little videos to inspire. Here’s something I created for you with the posters and words people have sent to me during 2015 to add to projects.

I sincerely wish you a ‘New Year’ filled with hope and optimism for all of your aspirations.

Friendship is so important. Choose wisely – Less is more and never forget that love has to start with self. Truly love who you are and the rest will follow.

Namaste

Tiffany Belle Harper x

by Tiffany Belle Harper

Ant People – City People by Tiffany Belle Harper #Birmingham #Selfridges #GrandCentral

So many people in dark colours – like busy ants –  yet going nowhere.

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Grand Central – Birmingham – UK

On phones, drinking coffee, dashing for trains – vacant looks upon their faces …

Children in buggies – asleep with the hum – or eyes open, staring at signs and posters.

Where’s ‘Mother Nature’ in cities for their young. Do they know?

Oh, and escalators make ants fat on fast pastries & pretzels …

Where are the stairs … do they care?

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Grand Central Birmingham – UK

The sun looks beautiful today but most seem oblivious. They look down or forward, seldom up …

I stop for coffee, noticing 3 men, huddled, cosy, engaged in conversation. A rainbow coloured umbrella lies on the floor near to one of them. He wears matching ‘multi-coloured’ socks that contrast vividly against his dark grey suit.

‘I bet they’re in the community,’ I thought …’Slower than most of the others, more depth – butterflies not ants.’

I’m the fly on the wall. I hear your tales. I see your souls, but you don’t notice. I like that. Real artists sneak without ego … There’s no skill with ‘that’ or greed and ants need to learn this more often.

(extract from my book.)

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Selfridges – The Bullring – UK

Tiffany Belle Harper.

by Tiffany Belle Harper

Aladdin at The Birmingham Hippodrome #Theatre UK by Tiffany Belle Harper #review

I’ve been to many Theatres over the years. Ask me what to see and I mostly won’t remember. Recently The Nutcracker – London at The Coliseum with The English National Ballet. I was hugely disappointed. The building was scruffy, too hot to bear. The heat rose upwards like a Turkish Sauna. Heaven knows what it would be like during the warmer months? The production dull and thoughtless. No comparison to The Birmingham Royal Ballet productions.

Photo below of The Coliseum – London. Sadly it does not capture the bits of cello-tape on the stage floor. There was no apparent security (despite recent terror attacks in Paris) and it took us almost half an hour to leave the building, following the performance, due to a mass of people trying to get down the stairs at once. I hated the entire experience from beginning to end.

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Here’s what the press said about The Nutcracker :-

★★★★★
“Dazzling” 
The Daily Telegraph 

“Christmas-card perfect”
The Guardian 

“This is now a contender as one of the best Nutcrackers around”
The Daily Express

Not sure whether they were watching the same performance as me …? Yup, more mainstream bullshit.

Then today I revisited The Hippodrome with my Nieces, Abbie and Gracie, where we watched Aladdin. It’s my favourite theatre to date. Nothing fancy yet it’s spacious and has good facilities – most importantly I’ve never seen a bad show. And of course, Birmingham ‘was’ my home town – I’ve many happy memories at The Hippodrome going right back to childhood. So perhaps I am a little biased … (ps look at my fringe, I cut it with nail scissors on the train.)

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Well … eat your heart out ‘Ugly Sisters’ this show flawed you. Julian Clary was so tongue in cheek – I nearly fell from my seat.

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He was ‘Ringo’ and his ring got a mention throughout each scene. Some tutted, but I loved the nerve. The show was packed with filthy camp innuendo.

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(Plenty of ad-lib from Julian that had the rest of the cast sniggering between lines.) Not to mention 3D magic and crafty extras together with a superb cast to include Marty Pellow as the bad guy.

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No expense spared with the costumes. The stage alive with colour. We thoroughly enjoyed it! (By the way the girls chose their own outfits, it’s good to clash I tell them.)

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Tiffany Belle Harper.

by Tiffany Belle Harper

Sand Dogs and Harrods by Tiffany Belle Harper #London #StreetArt

So there I sat beneath the comfort of canopy to the exterior of a rather fancy coffee shop. The cakes almost a fiver. The price to pay for Harrods  adjacent view. I drank tea as the world paced before me. People peeping – that’s me ‘fly on the wall – a favourite past time.

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All types, religions, ethnicities – a mixed bunch of spenders. Many wearing real fur coats. Opulently ignorant people, oblivious of the pain and suffering for their fat wallets and plastic finance.

I chatted with four women from Dubai. They wore pastel shaded, chiffon scarves around their faces. All were charming. Their eyes sparkled with assurity their lives comfortable and life styles radiant. We exchanged numbers. They shared the same husband.

A while later a Chinese couple asked to take a photograph for their son  in Milan. Telling me ‘they were to spend Christmas in Malaysia.’ Retired travellers. Weathered faces – hard working hands. Quite stunning – intriguing. I could have talked for longer but their chauffeur arrived. A part of me wanted to go with them … Some take a piece of me. ‘The people peeper …’

Yet apart from this. I felt a sense of sadness at how London had changed. A sense of apprehension in the air, no feel of community in Knightsbridge. Rammed, heaving. It costs nothing to be classy … Where’s the sassiness of the British High St hiding? Come home, we miss you.

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The infamous Dark green packaging – regardless of what’s inside. The stigma. Oh the stigma.

It all used to be so much more elegant. Eras change … Now dispiriting to see so many defineless with more cash than decorum. Easy money.

The eloquent now the crass. Greedy people just for ‘signature’ carrier bags.

I focus on the man to the ground making dogs from sand. The air damp, could rain any time soon. A cap full of cash. To me, he was the richest amongst the rat bags. For he had a craft combined with a wisdom to beg in the right places and this is how ‘to be’ entrepreneurs evolve organically. That is if they want to afford green carrier bags?

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Tiffany Belle Harper.

by Tiffany Belle Harper