Illuminati in Frome, on bicycles.. and other spectaculars

With the footsteps of Veterans for Peace UK barely receded after Ben Griffin's visit to Frome last week, conflict was still on the agenda as Black Swan upstairs gallery hosted Little Victory Ball's docu-drama of women's involvement in WWI.  I've now seen this caringly-researched story three times & never fail to sniffle as the bereaved wives and mothers lay their white-flowering wreaths before the cenotaph at the end. Over in the Round Tower gallery, students from Somerville School created six powerful Icons of Peace and Equality in a group project with guidance by Mark Karasick ~ here's Gandhi, Malala Yousafzai, and Martin Luther King.
Inspirational individuals yet conflict dominates our history still, at a cost that could feed the world ~ if Monsanto doesn't poison all the crops and Fukushima doesn't poison all the fish and fracking doesn't poison all the water ~ but this is not a political column, what's facebook for after all? so I'll add a quick plug for the more placid history of the Frome Society for Local Study which I discovered while researching our Nevertheless site-specific production for Frome Festival to be performed at twilight in the Dissenters Cemetery with our newly formed troupe, Star Players. Stay agog, more anon.

Frome's Missing Links, formed to improve the SUSTRANS cyclepath between Radstock and Bath, also knows how to celebrate: glittering festivities marked the 'Opening of Phase One' on Saturday at dusk launched by the Mayor and Frome Street Bandits, with Soo Wright's dancers, refreshment tents, and scores of illuminated bicycles arriving as darkness deepened and the party rocked on.
And as evidence, should any be needed, of Frome's cultural diversity, the Cheese&Grain this weekend hosted a tattoo convention: stalls of tattoophenalia, non-stop burlesque shows on stage, and craftspersons with their books of tatts to transform you from a mass of bland flesh into a portrait gallery of anything from ghouls to panthers.  I do quite fancy a tiger, actually... Jason Perry of Point Break, who won best black-and-grey does a nifty one, and so does Ghis Melou...

So now we're in February, month of ice moon and snowdrops and bonanza for card manufacturers. Forget your aversion to Valentine and come along to the Garden Cafe for our version of the Big Love-In on Monday 16th.
As Malala would say: Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow's reality.