June 2023 has been a kaleidoscope of work, heat and virtual fun, which included lots of content at Crip Life™, battling the hot weather, a comedy night at the guildhall, a visit to the donkeys and some enjoyable virtual live music with an amazing performance from The Churnups.
Crip Life™
June has been another successful month at Crip Life™ with a dozen articles published and more collaborations with companies. Our highlights have included a four-part Pride Month series, speaking to blind comedian Chris McCausland about his new travel show, a featured interview with deaf DJ Troi Lee and filmmaker Caroline Williamson about their upcoming documentary Turn Up The Bass and long-term partnerships with LanzAbility and Nimbus Disability.
You can browse all the articles we published this month on our June 2023 archive page.
Since launching in May 2023, Crip Life™ has published over 30 articles, secured a few exclusive interviews, collaborated with half a dozen companies and reached almost 1000 visitors. But of course, we want to grow more, and that is where you can help…
We’d appreciate you getting involved and supporting Crip Life™ in any way you can. This can be done by subscribing to our monthly newsletter, following us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn), advertising with us, publishing your research and/or donating to us.
Visit Crip Life™ and help us with dismantling disabling barriers one article at a time.
Russell Howard live at Portsmouth Guildhall
In mid-June, I saw the very funny comedian Russell Howard at Portsmouth Guildhall. This was my second time seeing him live after first watching him perform at The O2 Arena in 2014 and he didn’t disappoint again. He performed a very witty and honest set, focusing on a lot of political and social topics. I would genuinely consider Russell to become Prime Minister.
Donkey Sanctuary
We had a second visit to the Hayling Island Donkey Sanctuary this month and this time we were lucky to meet Dylan, the grey donkey I adopted as a gift for Mother’s Day back in March. He was still initially still reluctant to come to us but after a bit of persuasion from one of the volunteers, he eventually came over and let us give him a stroke.
Glastonbury Festival 2023
Although I had no tickets for Glastonbury Festival this year and it is very unlikely I’ll ever get to go again (the joys of being disabled and relying on others), I still had a fun weekend watching bands and artists at Worthy Farm across the BBC.
My highlight is most definitely the surprise performance from Foo Fighters, the greatest live band of all time. It was a shame they only had an hour-long set but they played as many of their hits as possible, plus a couple off the new album, But Here We Are. A week later, I was fortunate enough to secure tickets in the presale to see Foo Fighters in London next summer, which I’m very excited about!
My other favourite performances at Glastonbury were:
- Royal Blood
- Arctic Monkeys
- Guns N’ Roses
- Elton John
- Courteeners
- Editors
- Manic Street Preachers
- Lightning Seeds
- Texas
- Fat Boy Slim
You can catch up on all the Glastonbury Festival sets for the next month on BBC iPlayer.
Books
I’m still reading Harry Potter and halfway through book 7 – the Deathly Hallows – so almost coming to an end again.
TV
I watched the final series of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel. I felt it was a rather complex and bittersweet ending and think I need to watch all five series again to get a better understanding and remind myself of the full story.
I also watched all three series of Ted Lasso. I watched the first two series before but I decided to rewatch as I’d forgotten most of it. Plus I postponed watching series three until now so I could binge-watch it instead of watching weekly. It was an incredible series and a perfect ending. But annoyingly I did hear a slight spoiler to the ending in a quiz question on the radio so I knew partially how it would end before I even watched it.
I also watched Chris McCausland’s travel show Wonders Of The World I Can’t See, which was very funny, entertaining and interesting. I can relate to Chrris’ mindset when it comes to a blind person travelling – what’s the point if we can’t see the landmarks and we could easily research descriptions on the internet from the comfort of our own home?
Audio Description petition
My campaign for audio description has continued throughout June 2023 and the petition has now gained a total of 3680 signatures, which is incredible!
But I’m eager to reach thousands more. The more signatures we get, the more likely changes will be made within the TV and film industries. Please, please, PLEASE continue to sign & share my petition!
Guest Bloggers Wanted
I’m still eager to collaborate with even more bloggers in 2023. So, if you’re a lifestyle, disability and/or music blogger, send me your blog stories. Plus let me know if you’d like me to feature on your blog as a guest blogger.
I’m flexible with any type of blog post – life story, disability awareness, music event, musician promotion – basically anything to do with life, disability or music!
In addition, I have a guest blog series called “RFD Question Time with…” where I interview disabled people and/or bloggers. If you’d like to be interviewed in this series, please also contact me.
Blog post roundup
In case you missed any of my blog posts this month, here is a roundup of them:
- Album Review: But Here We Are by Foo Fighters
- Is the care industry actually caring?
- Music Interview: Otherworldly Entity
5 favourite blog posts
Here are my 5 favourite blog posts I’ve read this month:
- Me And My Love Of Music | Me And My Glass Personalised Spotify Glass Plaque | Gifted at Luke Sam Sowden
- Can ‘Compromises’ in an Integrated Care System Perpetuate Ableism? at Not So Terrible Palsy
- The inaccessible OCT machine strikes again at The Life Quadriplegic
- On class: Guide dog residential training at Chloe Tear
- Coldplay concert experience at My Blurred World
