The Yorkgate complex was evacuated earlier this evening after a fire broke out in the Burger King franchise.
The complex is home to the Yorkgate cinema multiplex - part of the Moviehouse chain - as well as a Pizza Hut, an amusement arcade, a supermarket, several shops and a bingo hall.
At least eight fire appliances attended the scene to try and contain the blaze and stop it spreading. There are no reports of any injuries.
Perhaps flame-grilled whoppers will now come off the BK menu?
It'll be Alan not in Belfast for the next week, so it's unlikely there will be many posts.
So what does Alan in Belfast listen to during the drive into work, on the plane, in the Tube or standing doing the dishes at the kitchen sink?
Why take a perfectly good film and remake it? To get more people to watch it, since the original is in French and most people are put off by the subtitles. I’ve talked about subtitles before.Reviewing Tzameti for its UK release in January, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw remarked that "this compelling film could well be remade by Hollywood. Make sure you see the original now".
In the second half of 2005, Ofcom surveyed regions across the UK, and their published findings make interesting reading for Northern Ireland. People in Northern Ireland send the most texts per week – 37 texts against a UK average of 28 texts – and listen to more hours of radio than the UK average.
People in Northern Ireland rely more on mobile phones as the only means of making and receiving phone calls (12% compared with an 8% UK average).
In Northern Ireland, with a high rural population, more people live further than 5km from a broadband enabled exchange than the UK average and are therefore less likely to receive higher speed broadband services (26% compared with a 14% UK average).
Lower take-up of digital TV in Northern Ireland (52% compared with UK average 65%) is consistent with lower than average availability of DTT and cable, and consumers have higher levels of uncertainty around whether or not they are likely to take-up this service in the future (21% uncertain compared to UK average 10%). Cost may also be an issue.
Northern Ireland has significantly lower take-up of digital radio services (21% vs. UK average 32%). Evidence indicates that listeners are happy with their currentanalogue services or not interested in digital radio.
Only the three main TV transmitters at Divis, Limavady and Brougher Mountain have been digitally enabled. Wales has similar coverage to NI, but has the highest take-up in the UK. Digital cable services from ntl are available to 30% of people in NI (in the more densely populated areas), compared to a UK average of 45%.
Other findings of note include that
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a couple of stories about watching TV on mobiles and on PCs.
Following their catch-up TV trial, the BBC planned to rollout the MyBBCPlayer, combining the download elements of the iMP trial with live streaming. And this week, in a fit of trendiness, the Beeb have now announced that it will be called the BBC iPlayer.
Didn’t take an iBrain the size of an iPlanet to come up with that iName!
When Carroll won £9.7 million on the National Lottery in November 2002, there was uproar amongst those who cared (mainly red-top tabloids). Only 19 years old, Michael led a colourful life, tagged for being drunk and disorderly, a four-month sentence for aggravated vehicle-taking, driving whilst disqualified and criminal damage.
As the programme drew to a close, and Carroll croaked some lyrics quickly penned by Allen in a garden recording studio, it seemed like Carroll might actually be a tame character after all. The interruption to the closing credits scotched that idea – jailed in February 2006 for affray and threatening teenagers at a 2004 concert with a baseball bat, along with other more recent allegations that will have reset any audience sympathy.Each time I check the Alan in Belfast logs, I'm amazed at the search terms that some people have typed into search engines to reach the site.
The top search terms recently (mostly from Google with a few from MSN):
* gourmet burger
* gourmet burger belmontbelfast
* titanic studios belfast
* rokker radio
* world championships irish dancing
* radio 4 uk theme
* stormont estate
* pavee
* voxpops questions
* east belfast history
I seem to pick up a lot of hits for Titanic Studios and the new Gourmet Burger Bank since they don't have their own websites.
Amazing what you can learn while reading the paper on a plane stuck on a Belfast runway due to fog at Heathrow! Below are just some of the tantalising facts that I picked up this morning.
Sweden has just added the letter W to their language, extending their alphabet to 29 letters. W was previously represented by V. (Times2)
The Tower of London has purchased a digital bugle (with a button, batteries and a built-in speaker) to ensure that the Last Post can continue to sound from the grounds every evening - even if the real live bugler isn't available. Full points for business continuity. Maybe they'll now send a Beefeater down to B&Q to buy a Response Alarm Kit for the crown jewels in case the main security system fails? (Times)
Tony Blair's trip from 10 Downing Street to Buckingham Palace on 5 April 2005 to ask the Queen to disolve parliament cost the Labour party £53.46.
The party forked out a further £299 during last year's election campaign to hire Star Trek costumes so that Labour activists could follow around the Conversative candidate John Redwood and capitalise on his "The Vulcan" nickname.
And I can't fail to mention the £264,000 to buy John Prescott's battlebus, and £75,000 for adapting it. Surely he could have got 2 Jags cheaper?
More seriously, the Iranian president has lifted the ban on women watching football in Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying "The best stands should be allocated to woman and families in the stadiums in which national and important matches are being held ... The presence of women and families in public places promotes chastity." (Guardian)
Since being forced to produce a version of Windows XP that ships without Windows Media Player, a total of 1,787 copies XPN had been sold by the end of March this year. That's 0.005% of the 35.5 million copies of XP sold in Europe in the last nine months. (Guardian)
And in last place, I bring up the subject of Jade Goody who powered away from the London Marathon start line on Sunday morning wearing a very chav Louis Vuitton bumbag. You know Jade - the one who came fourth in a series of Big Brother and has made a career out of her unfortunate antics. Her training regime caught up with her at 18 miles - beer, curry and no running. Shouting "I'm dying! I'm dying!" as she collapsed, Jade was escorted off be medical staff. (Guardian)
In a bid not to be outdone by the Complete Works Festival of Shakespeare’s writings that I posted about previously, politicians from across Northern Ireland are coming together in May to re-enact scenes from our political history.
In the twelve months leading up to April 2007, the Complete Works Festival will perform everything Shakespeare wrote that was longer than a shopping list in Stratford-upon-Avon. The first time that this has ever been done under the umbrella of a single event or festival.
The girls today in society
Go for classical poetry,
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides.
But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The bard of Stratford-on-Avon.
Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
As a quick update to yesterday's post about the not-often-heard Radio 4 UK Theme being played for the last time at 5.30am this morning, I noticed a link to a relevant Matt cartoon in the Telegraph on Jonathan Rawle's post on the subject. (Thanks for the comment too.)
As I walked past the pile of Belly Laughs at the check out recently, the word FREE screamed out from the front page. With free CDs a thing of the past and the recent rash of newspapers giving away free DVDs, what title would the Belfast Telegraph choose bestow on its readers? Ryan’s Daughter? Titanic? Perhaps a political thriller?
No. None of those. Instead, a choice of Mr Men or Little Miss books! Cut out the voucher, tick the box, tape 50p to it, and send it in. 
The giveaway offer didn’t generate the I’ll-buy-one-of-those-to-get-that reactions in me that the Belly Laugh hoped for, but it made me smile. And if Little Miss Sunshine had been a little older, then maybe I’d have bought one in a flash.
No lion, no witch, but today certainly featured a wardrobe.
According to the BBC’s history, since 1973, Radio 4 has played Fritz Spiegl’s specially commissioned UK Theme at 5.30am each morning, when Radio 4’s programmes take over from the overnight World Service content."a pacy news briefing, read by one of Radio 4's fine team of news readers."Now many a morning, I've been in my car on the way to an airport when UK Theme has been playing – but never once have I been tuned in and heard it. For me, Five Live wins at that time of the morning, with mildless business news to keep me awake on the roads.
And can you believe it … the piece was re-recorded by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and released as a single on 27 March. Due to the level of pre-orders, the single entered the UK Singles Chart at number 29 and led to an on-air explanation of the campaign by the presenters of the Radio 1 Chart Show! By the second week of its release, it had dropped to 39th in the UK Singles Chart. In its third week, it sunk to 75. (Still available on iTunes.)
Yesterday we spent a few hours filming voxpops in the centre of Belfast to be used at a youth event in June. Used two cameras, so that we had a variety of footage, and more scope for editing the content down to the few minutes of material we need.
In one direction you can make out the financial Square Mile - with St Paul's Cathedral and the Gherkin - and Canary Wharf (London's highest building) in the background. The River Thames is over to the right.
Moving around, the new arch towering over Wembley Stadium can be seen (at lot more clearly than the shot from the plane).
Only when you get up high (or look at a map!) can you see that London still retains huge green parks encircled by really dense building.
Perhaps an effect of the Second World War Blitz, I was surprised to find that parts of the city are built it blocks, with parallel roads. When walking through the streets at night, it had always seems so higgledy piggledy, and yet there is great order.
There should be a architectural competition to see who can design the most stylish roof. From up high, you can pick out the most incredible detail - whether air conditioning units, or flats being built on top of the roofs.
All I wanted to do was go to London on Tuesday for the day, to attend a talk on Agile Delivery.
You can just make out the arch over Wembley Stadium.
The inscription reads "Thrift is the gleaner behind all human effort". (A gleaner is someone who picks up grain left in the field by the harvesters.) And Googling for the inscription led to a single page containing a poem called Symbols by Stuart Butler.
Another bit of not-terribly-well-documented-or-explained history hidden in the middle of Stormont.
I’ve mentioned East Belfast in a couple of previous posts (educational vandalism and gourmet burgers).
Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings (known as “Stormont”). You can see the status of Carson in the foreground. Interesting that they chose to place both Give Way and Ulster Way (it's a walk) signs there too!
RECONCILIATION by Josefina De Vasconcellos. Presented by Coventry Cathedral and Sir Richard Branson. Identical sculptures have been placed on behalf of the people of Coventry in Hiroshima and Berlin. These sculptures remind us that human dignity and love will triumph over disaster and bring us together in respect and peace.
It was excellent.UPDATE: Saturday's Guardian carried a review by Simon Hattenstone: Day that Jesus came to the Arndale Centre.
FURTHER UPDATE: Tuesday's online Broadcast magazine news reports that BBC3 grabbed 3.2% of the 9pm audience with the Manchester Passion. That's an impressive 539,000 viewers - up on the normal 175,000 (0.99%) who tuned in on previous Friday nights this year.
UPDATE GOOD FRIDAY 2007: Programme was repeated again a year later on BBC Three.
Passion plays and passion parades have sunk from our local culture, though they remain part of the Easter traditions and celebrations in other parts of the world.
While the event will be presented by actor Keith Allen (seen recently in Bodies), Denise Johnson (vocalist in Primal Scream) will play Virgin Mary, Tim Booth (lead singer of James) plays Judas, Darren Morfitt (Dog Soldiers) plays Jesus and Nicholas Bailey (Dr Antony Trueman in EastEnders) plays Peter.“I wouldn’t know a Buzzcock from a ballcock, so I couldn’t really comment on the music, but God is a big boy. He can take care of Himself ...
All I can say is that they are not doing a Christian service, it's a piece of contemporary theatre which is going to get people thinking about the story in modern terms.
It's going to come from the streets with the sounds of traffic and people bustling around and it will make people think about this story in a new way. It's going to get things rumbling – it's going to be brilliant."
Local churches have helped supply choirs to augment the singing along the route. The Church of England spokeswoman Gillian Oliver was less colourful when she explained
"We are working with the BBC on this and are very pleased to be taking the good news of the gospel onto the streets of Manchester. If anything, something like this can translate the old story into new terms."
And spare a thought (perhaps even a prayer) for the technical folk behind the event trying to make it all come together. With the big differences in the delay of the feeds from the fifteen cameras - some wired, some wireless – never mind the radio mics being used across the city, getting everything back in-sync will be complex. Then there's the songs that need to cope with the unpredictable delays that will hit the parade, and the director's desire to be heard over talkback by the cast and crew - many of whom are several miles away from him.
The second cartoon is a week late, and also a little dated since Handspring got swallowed back up by Palm in 2003. As part of their 10th Anniversary celebrations, the Palm Historical Timeline makes interesting reading. I've still got my US Robotics Palm Pilot 1000 from 1996, and it works - though eBay suggests there isn't a big market for them.)
Their Integrated Media Player offered a catch-up service, downloading TV and radio programmes to the user’s PC. But with the restriction that the programmes must be downloaded and watched within seven days of transmission (due to the rights deal struck with Pact, the UK association that represents the commercial interests of independent media companies), enforced by DRM.
You can read all about the road trip expedition on their website and even watch the film’s trailer. After rather a lot of battery changes, and hospitality from strangers along the route, they made it from Seattle to Boston, even extending the trip an extra few miles to drive up to Segway’s HQ.“[The] story will exhibit the America we saw at just 10 mph, the scenery and the stories of the land, the people, and the crew of the film while highlighting the humor, drama, and ultimately very personal imbroglios one must face to pursue the American Dream by starting a business in this modern land of opportunity.”Over the last year, the 200 hours of footage has been edited down, and the finished product is now being previewed at film festivals across the US: Vail, East Lansing (where it won first place in the documentary competition) and Longbaugh.
The story is unique and will inspire many with the bold decisions Hunter and Josh made to pursue their dream. Their use of the Segway to travel across the USA creates a modern day, twisted, and very slow road trip, which acts as the perfect catalyst to their transformation as individuals. They become filmmakers and more importantly they learn the essence of what life is all about. But it's not without challenges, risks, and sacrifices.Personally, I found it fun keeping track with their progress across the states – and I was just a little bit jealous that they had the guts to through with it. And I even have a 10 mph T-shirt to prove it!
Bad news … Pity that the Belfast Visitor Centre faces a 85% reduction in budget this year (down from £1 million of EU peace money to about £150,000).
The 2006 visitor’s figures should be strong too – particularly given the boost that the 4000 competitors in this week’s World Irish Dancing Championships being held in Belfast Waterfront Hall will bring, along with and their mothers. The Belfast Hilton will be celebrating too - it looks packed to the gills.
Technology continues to move at a frightening pace. Ten years ago, portable CD players had taken over from cassette-based Walkmans. Today, MP3 players (particular iPods) have captured the listening-on-the-move market.
So would you be willing to stop looking out the window and sit hunched up focussed on your mobile’s screen? The statistics from the trials are intriguing. Turns out that people don’t always prefer to watch the biggest available screen: the handy form factor of a mobile-based TV can be an overriding factor.The local radio bulletin this morning heralded the depressing news that just under 1,000 children at Strandtown Primary School in East Belfast have been told to stay at home today after 17 classrooms were wrecked by vandals over the weekend.
Drunken youths are reckoned to have broken into an art classroom around 10.30pm on Saturday night, with damage caused to computers, books and pictures. Condemnation from across the local political spectrum. With shrinking budgets across Northern Ireland’s education boards, extra security and unnecessary repairs are the last thing that schools need right now.
East Belfast struggles to find it’s positive voice, and struggles to find things to be proud off.
The Department for Social Development recently announced £33million of funding to be pumped into deprived loyalist areas in Northern Ireland, including East Belfast (Lower Newtownards Road), as part of the Renewing Communities Action Plan.
To quote from the press release:
[Minister of State David] Hanson explained that the Action Plan placed priority on improving educational attainment. “I have agreed with Angela Smith that we establish targets to ensure that no child leaves school without basic literary and numeracy skills.”
Drunks vandalising classrooms and pulling apart the fabric of their local community won’t help meet this target.
It sounds encouraging to say that I’ve now got to the end of Part 1 of Emotional Intelligence; less impressive to say I’ve read the first 30 of 310 pages. So what has Alan in Belfast picked up?
(which I reviewed earlier). Lots of content about the architecture of our brains: neuroanatomy, perhaps even neuroscience. There’s an explanation for how we can rapidly make an emotional response (perhaps fight of flight) via the amygdala, while the visual cortex does a bit more processing before it can rationally explain why we might want to react.“… one for ordinary facts and one for emotionally charged ones. A special system for emotional memories makes excellent sense in evolution, of course, ensuring that animals would have particularly vivid memories of what threatens or pleases them.”But these emotional memories can be unreliable, as our environment may have changed, and the old reaction may no longer be appropriate.
