Interest Groups & Meetings in the Scarthin Café and further afield

Café Philosophique

This is a series of open meetings with snail- and e-mailing lists. Someone very knowledgable on their subject gives a very challenging lecture of about an hour to an audience of 15 to 30 of us, followed or interrupted by the serving a of a savoury plateful of food and an hour in which the very challenging audience cross-examines rthew lecturer or takes the discussion along unpredicatable, or predicatable, diversions. Yet more brain-wringing goes on in The Boat after.

Meetings take place on a Saturday evening every couple of months or so. Look out for posters or ask to be placed on the e- or snail-mailing list. £4 in the plate covers the food, an initial coffee or tea if we have time and the “overheads”. Several meetings are in the offing for Autumn 2010 – for up to date (maybe) information see this This Hyperlink, and for a bit more bumph and some off-putting pictures, see Another Page. A great tradition, which has now given birth to a reading group (see below).

Cafe Philosophique Reading Group

An offshoot of the Cafe Philosophique demanded by those for whom our infrequent full meetings were not enough; Karen, David and Ray being the spearhead. We meet every two months on a Tuesday at 7.30 in the Bookshop Cafe. There’s usually no food and always no charge, but you have to try to read the books.

Conversation Café

A very welcoming, relaxing but thought-provoking meeting of between four and ten people around one long table in The Vineyard.There is a strict format in which the discussion circulates (anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere) around the table with a ban on interruption and on going on too long, with an additionally give-and-take conch-grabbing round. Meetings are monthly on a Thursday morning 10 for 10.15 until 12 noon. The subject is chosen by majority vote at the outset, not necessarily from a prior shortlist. There is no charge “other than for food and drink that you may inadvertently consume”. For more information, look out for posters or contact Roger at 01629-823818 rogermgreen@hotmail.com

Bob Dylan Interest Group

A bi-monthly meeting of Dylan fans who meet in the bookshop cafe (usually on a Wednesday evening) to discuss set topics.    Details of forthcoming meetings can be found on our Events Calendar. If you wish to attend please contact Andy Miller at andymillerH61@hotmail.com

Matlock Deutscher Stammtisch

Diese Gruppe trefft jede Woche in einer Kneipe in der Nähe von Matlock.Gewöhnlich gibt es zwischen fünf und zwölf Leute dabei. Unter den Mithgliedern sind mehrere Ur-deutscher und Ur-deutscherinnen, auch Leute die in Deutschland, der Schweiz oder Österreich gearbeitet oder gewöhnt haben und Leute wie ich, die interessieren sich in deutschen Leben und Kultur. Persönlich, kann ich viel mehr verstehen als sprechen, so bitte ankomm ohne Furcht! Wir klatschen über alltäglichen Dingen, abenso wie man in der Kneipe macht. You can tell from the above that my own German is only of school standard, so whether you are fluent or hesitant you can enjoy the club, which is not a commitment – people drop in and out, come regularly or occasionally – the hours are 8.30 or 9 to 10.30 or 11 and the location rotates (Autumn 2010) between The Temple Hotel (Matlock Bath), The Barley Mow (Bonsall), The Three Stags Heads (Darley Bridge), The Old Poet’s (Ashover) and The Dog Inn (Pentrich). Wendy schickte uns eine Terminliste jede zwei oder drei Monaten. Hier ist Wendys e-Mail Addresse zu finden.

Dale Diva

No mention of choirs could leave out the sensational Dale Diva who meet just down the road at Cromford Community Centre. I normally despise those those screaming-audienced, purple-shaded-studio’ed television programmes that I never willingly watch. But purple does describe the intense, emotionally charged performances of Ladies’ Barbershop Singing given by the Diva (or DivaS) as we commonly know them. They perform with smiles and choreographed movement and entirely without musical scores. The standard of musicianship is streets above most ensembles and is reached by dedicated attention to every detail of vocal and facial expression and note-perfection – and the coaching and testing of recruits, who may be new to choral singing, until they are adjudged ready to perform out. Don’t pass up a chance to hear Dale Diva. Prepare to clap them now – and have a handkerchief ready at the dab.   The Big News of August 2010 is that Dale Diva have reached the final of Channel Five’s Don’t Stop Believing competition for all-singing, all-dancing choirs/choruses. The live screening is at the earlier than usual time of 5.30 p.m. on Sunday 22nd. August. YOU can vote, and so numerous are we, their supporters, that they must be in with a strong chance of winning, and recording and selling some higher-profile albums.

Stop Press: 

They did win, receiving the largest share of 1.6 million votes, which means that the great campaign to mobilise friends and family voters must have been dwarfed by a genuine winning popular vote. To hear about the history and the experience of being in Dale Diva I recommend clicking on BBC Online Woman’s Hour and scrolling down to click on Dale Diva.