Renovation work has started on St Andrew’s Church on Rodney Street

A historic monument in the heart of Liverpool is to be turned into student accommodation by a developer who has served time in a US prison for passport fraud and tax evasion.

Renovation work has started on St Andrew’s Church on Rodney Street near a number of Liverpool John Moores University buildings and the Liverpool Students’ Union.

The company in charge of the works is Wirral-based, Middle England Developments, a company owned by Merseyside-born Nigel Russell. The 51-year-old has served time in a United States federal jail for passport fraud, tax evasion and owning a firearm without a licence. He was deported in 2004.

Questions are being asked about the suitability of Russell to be investing in Liverpool’s historic monuments. The Liverpool Echo reported in December that local licensing bosses were probing the issue after councillors raised concerns.

Defending himself at a press conference at St Andrew’s Church last month, Russell was reported in the Liverpool Daily Post as saying: “I made a mistake seven years ago when I tried to buy a passport – I have served my time in a federal prison for that.

“My company employs 300 people in this city and this will be the seventh listed building we have converted.”

Liverpool City Council bought the building back in 2008 for £100,000 and spent an additional £150,000 on emergency repair works.

The church is probably best known for the folklore surrounding Sir James McKenzie’s pyramid shaped tomb situated on its grounds.
Local legend has it that McKenzie, a shady 19th century entrepreneur, is buried inside it, dressed in his finest and sitting at a table with a winning deck of cards in his hands so as to trick the devil himself after he lost his soul in a game of poker.

The current plan is to transform the ruined church into a 100-room student accommodation to be ready for September 2012/2013.
By Chris Cunningham
http://www.jmu-journalism.org.uk/#/news-551/4557869032

this is tomorrow - contemporary art magazine

http://www.thisistomorrow.info/default.aspx?webPageId=1&catId=184&pageNumber=19

Artist : Maria Roosen Title : Installation view Material : Galerie Fons Welters www.fonswelters.nl Credit : Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij, courtesy Galerie Fons Welters and the artist

liverpool doors

life is art

Anyone who stops learning is old

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

- Henry Ford

Yoko Ono's Skyladders in Liverpool's 'bombed-out church'

Yoko Ono's Skyladders in Liverpool's 'bombed-out church' and my art project Life Ladder

UTOPIA art project

lais·sez faire
[les-ey fair; Fr. le-sey fer]
noun
1.
the theory or system of government that upholds the autonomous character of the economic order, believing that government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs.
2.
the practice or doctrine of noninterference in the affairs of others, especially with reference to individual conduct or freedom of action.
 
from: dictionary.com







my dream (goal) - is to ultimately touch every person on the planet ensuring that all receive the opportunities for joy and happiness they deserve as human beings, and to laissez faire those who wish to be left alone. By constantly seeking out new systems and information; by storing, analyzing, re-organizing and structuring an implementation process, using the latest techniques of environmental scanning, electronic numerical projections, computer generated virtual reality, self-esteem enhancement and character development,I dream to fulfill that destiny in every righteous way possible.

"You will not find science annihilating personality from the government of the Universe and making of God as ungovernable, unintelligible, blind, often destructive physical force; you will not find jurisprudence formulating as an axiom the absurdity that man and wife are one, and that one the man—that the married woman may not hold or bequeath her own property save as subject to her husband's direction; you will not find political economists declaring that the only possible adjustment between laborers and capitalists is that of selfishness and rapacity—that each must get all he can and keep all that he gets, while the world cries laissez faire and the lawyers explain, "it is the beautiful working of the law of supply and demand;" in fine, you will not find the law of love shut out from the affairs of men after the feminine half of the world's truth is completed."
-Anna Julia Cooper

My work is my philosophy, it is my life, it is me.

It is my passion, my desire, my dreams, my experience.

I cannot separate my art from my life at it is what I am. It is all my love, all my fear, all my happiness, all my pain, all my reasons to stay alive for.

There are no secrets, nothing is hidden…just have look and you will see all…

valentines day

The English language is a beautiful and maddening thing. Because it's more polite to speak in an indirect way, words become unhinged from their meanings, serving as signposts to the deeper subtext.
I have to learn that "maybe" usually means "absolutely not" or that "thank you" and it is sometimes a rude way to respond to a compliment. Politeness requires that you reply to a compliment by firmly denying it. Besides everyone knows that a compliment is not meant to be taken at face value. What's important is the subtext. A compliment is a foot in the door, a conversation starter, a way to express kind feelings. If, for example, you can string a few sentences together in English, you will consistently be told, "Wow! Your English is so good." The person saying this knows it's a lie. You know it's a lie. But you also both know the purpose of the lie is to foster friendly feelings. The words are fake but the kindness is genuine.
And while the dishonesty and restraint inherent in this style of speaking can be frustrating, it makes for a fluid, creative way of communicating.
 Words are not used as signposts to guide the listener toward a deeper meaning. Words are used to directly express what the speaker is thinking and feeling. English speakers define "good" communication as being clear and unambiguous. We chastise politicians for the way they speak because they carefully chose their words to dance around the subject, never confirming nor denying, using vague terms to avoid saying what they really think. The politicians and art critics are masters of the polite style of speaking.
they speaks without personal opinion at all.
Splendid.
How can I write my personal opinion about Claire Bishop essay "The Social Turn" -  if I do not understand her opinion...

cup of coffee prices ...

the United Nations Office at Vienna 

the United Nations Office at Vienna, Austria

ADA - LJMU - £1,30

the great green sculpture challenge at TATE

great green csulpture challenge volunteering