All are welcome to the cafe's fortnightly organising meetings, come along and find out how to get more involved, or share ideas!..

Hey Cafe family,

To celebrate the Cafe's 2nd birthday we're having a Birthday Ball!! 

..and to showcase it's successes, and attract newcomers and volunteers, we'll be having some fun in the daytime on Jesus Green (or in the Cafe if it rains/snows ;D), followed by the party proper in the evening at the Cafe.

Daytime; 
-Meditation 2pm-2.30pm (all other fun begins after this at 2.30pm)
-Free shop.
-Music Skillshare (bring extra instruments if you can)
-Art workshops including percussion making and tuxedo and gown making (both using recycled stuff for the party proper), bring an old suit/dress to be glitzed up!
-Cafe tours for newbies.
-Space hopper racing assault course (alright that's not a regular Cafe thing but it's mighty fun ;D weather permitting) Please bring any large inflatables you have and water pistols if it's hot!
-Vegan barbecue; Bring, Cook and Share! (there will be some veg, salad and cous cous available but due to numbers we ask that you bring your own to be sure we don't run out, ta! Please post recipe comments..)

Evening;
-Tea tasting.
-Strip Twister (oh, good gracious us, no not really, just seeing who's paying attention ;DX)
-Acoustic jam.
-Bands.
-DJs.
-Dancing!
-Singing!
-Grinning!
-Free hugs!
-and most importantly TEA AND BIRTHDAY CAKE!! (yeah, i've forgotten all that other stuff now too ;D)

And there will be space arranged behind the Cafe in case the numbers are as large as our legendary 'Art Party'

(If you'd like to help out in any way then please let us know, many hands make light work, ta!)

Please be advised that NO ALCOHOL IS ALLOWED in the cafe, thanks! (consider it an opportunity to try enjoying yourselves without additional, damaging, stimulants? At the Cafe LIFE IS STIMULATING ENOUGH :D)

 All are welcome to the cafe's fortnightly organising meetings, come along and find out how to get more involved, or share ideas! Free cuppa!

Next Sunday we are going to have a huge music lesson ON JESUS GREEN or at the cafe if it rains/snows ;D. It's not going to be like school cos we're going to work out what we want to play and then try to play it all together. 

No experience at all is necessary, there's going to be such a big (but loving) wall of sound that you can very easily just plink away quietly without being made to solo. And then we're going to carve little niches in that wall and make a song sound really nice, which is actually pretty easy. You can play whatever you want - please bring some instruments, and spares. If there's something specific you'd like to try to learn to play, contact me and we can try to find one. We have guitars, violins, a banjo, a balalaika, bongos, percussion and a chinese violin to be getting on with. There should also be some other string instruments and maybe some wind and brass.

We can make up any kind of tune people want to. If you've never played anything before because your parents didn't pay for music lessons or you got sucked into football at school or you feel safer with cubase or you're really shy, there will definitely be stuff we can play together anyway.

If you kind of know how to play stuff, you can help with helping people, this would be cool, please contact us. If you're a beginner, might be an idea to let us know if you might come anyway, so I have an idea about numbers and instruments. Acoustic instruments are better than electric ones.

Resist the alienation of the corporate music industry! Produce!

What better place than here, what better time than Sunday.

Peace and love and music!

 All are welcome to the cafe's fortnightly organising meetings, come along and find out how to get more involved, or share ideas! 

 All are welcome to the cafe's fortnightly organising meetings, come along and find out how to get more involved, or share ideas! 

 This is a special cafe project organising meeting, which will see the inauguration of the four new working groups - volunteers, events, admin and space. 

All welcome, especially if you want to be involved with one of these working groups!

 The cafe project is having a big special strategy and planning meeting. Please come to this meeting if it's the only one you can do for a while, it is the important one! This is not a regular general meeting.

 Please come along to help organise the cafe, find out more about how it is run, share your ideas about how to improve the cafe!

On the agenda so far: 

Internet,

Projector,

Volunteering

Cafe open as usual, with a planning meeting from 7.30pm to discuss taking local action against Tar Sands development in Canada (see http://risingtide.org.uk/ for some ideas/details). All welcome!

TED Chat is an opportunity for thought provoking discussion on a wide range of topics. It is open to all and no prior knowledge is required.

The format is that we'll watch one of the TED Talks, and then there will be an opportunity for group discussion. Usually we'll cover 2-3 talks in an evening. Some weeks they may all be on a particular theme, such as sustainable development.

This Week :

The theme for this week is 'Appropriate Technology', I have chosen two talks on this theme :

Amy Smith talks about how she used students at MIT to to develop alternative fuels to reduce deforestation and respiratory diseases caused by the use of wood biomass for cooking.

Cat Laine talks about how she combines the ideas behind international development and venture capital to help foster local businesses that meet the needs of local populations.

If you have a TED talk you'd particularly like discussed please contact me : alex [at] alexrice.co.uk

Shell, BP, etc are extracting oil from tar sands, not only destroying the local environment and contributing masses of greenhouse gas emissions, but also driving indigenous people off their land. Sounds awful? Well, yeah. Come and find out what we can do in Cambridge to stop it happening.

Film showing by UNIFEM Cambridge

UNIFEM is the Fund for Women Agency at the United Nations. It works to raise awareness and funding to promote social, economic and political empowerment and equality of women in developing countries, as well as domestic violence and forced prostitution in developed countries. UNIFEM Cambridge has organised its January – June campaign around the food crisis and the role that women play within it. This cycle of films link food to women in a light-hearted but deep way.

This is the second film (see also the 3rd March):

Mr Slimani, an old man of Algerian origins who has been working for all his life at a port, dreams of opening a restaurant. He is divorced and with a difficult relationship with the “women” of his family. However, thanks to his dream, the entire family re-compacts to the point that perhaps that dream is not just a dream.

A meeting to discuss all things Cafe related and make decisions about said things. We are certain to discuss things such as baking, filling volunteer shifts, opening times, upcoming events & banking along with whatever else people think needs discussing.

Meetings run by consensus, generally with a big pot of tea, and should be incredibly inclusive and friendly...

If you have any agenda items for the meeting (whether you're coming or not), or are excluded by the day/time and would like to let us know when would better for you, please send a message to soc-cafe-discuss XXX lists.cam.ac.uk (where XXX stands for @ ) .

Peace & Love,

The Cafe

TED Chat is an opportunity for thought provoking discussion on a wide range of topics. It is open to all and no prior knowledge is required.

The format is that we'll watch one of the TED Talks, and then there will be an opportunity for group discussion. Usually we'll cover 2-3 talks in an evening. Some weeks they may all be on a particular theme, such as sustainable development.

This Week :

The theme for this week is 'Appropriate Technology', I have chosen two talks on this theme :

Amy Smith talks about how she used students at MIT to to develop alternative fuels to reduce deforestation and respiratory diseases caused by the use of wood biomass for cooking.

Cat Laine talks about how she combines the ideas behind international development and venture capital to help foster local businesses that meet the needs of local populations.

If you have a TED talk you'd particularly like discussed please contact me : alex [at] alexrice.co.uk

Fundraising evening for Haiti, with talks and films from 7.30pm, food and then the third Acoustic Vibes open mic night, from 9 (any money from which will be going to Haiti type causes). Be there or be somewhere else! (but you should be there)

Film showing by UNIFEM Cambridge

UNIFEM is the Fund for Women Agency at the United Nations. It works to raise awareness and funding to promote social, economic and political empowerment and equality of women in developing countries, as well as domestic violence and forced prostitution in developed countries. UNIFEM Cambridge has organised its January – June campaign around the food crisis and the role that women play within it. This cycle of films link food to women in a light-hearted but deep way.

“Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” by Ang Lee is the story of an old Hong Kong chef who lives with his three unmarried daughters, Jia-Jen, a chemistry teacher converted to Christianity, Jia-Chien, an airline executive, and Jia-Ning, a student who also works in a fast food restaurant. Their life turns around the ritual of food and the preparation of an elaborate dinner each Sunday; however, unexpected events happen and start changing the life of one of the daughters, affecting the whole household.

 A specifically vegan baking session for the cafe, meet in the cafe at 1.30pm, bring any recipes or outlandish/specialised ingredients with receipts and you can be reimbursed, but check our baking page for details of the ingredients we already have in the cafe (sugar, flour etc). Otherwise just bring yourself - no experience required!

We'll meet up, and walk or cycle to the kitchen. We will be baking in a kitchen in a squatted building (which, by the way is very friendly, safe, exciting and legal!) The kitchen is also not very well-equipped, so if you have any useful utensils/big mixing bowls, please bring them along.

We're planning to make vegan pizza as well (just to eat ourselves!), so bring any toppings along (again, vegan please), we'll have the basics.

If you can't meet at 1.30pm and want to come along later for a bit, or have any questions, contact ali <alasdair.mussell[at]yahoo.co.uk> or 07849434636.

Please sign up for the shifts or let me know so that I know who to expect. x

A meeting to discuss all things Cafe related and make decisions about said things. We are certain to discuss things such as baking, filling volunteer shifts, opening times, upcoming events & banking along with whatever else people think needs discussing.

Meetings run by consensus, generally with a big pot of tea, and should be incredibly inclusive and friendly...

If you have any agenda items for the meeting (whether you're coming or not), or are excluded by the day/time and would like to let us know when would better for you, please send a message to soc-cafe-discuss XXX lists.cam.ac.uk (where XXX stands for @ ) .

Peace & Love,

The Cafe

 The Cambridge branch of the DF movement (http://www.spanthatworld.com) is putting on a jam session for all. Bring guitars, songbooks and plenty of breath for a good old singsong. 

 After the success of the first one, this is Acoustic Vibes 2! Possibly a bit more low key as the advertising has been less-existent. Please come along and play!

Climate Change and Human Rights

Hannah Perry, CU Amnesty International president talks about how climate change links to human rights, focussing particularly on the actions of Shell in Nigeria

As part of CUSU Green Week (www.camgreenweek.com), this series of lunchtime discussions is based around how climate change affects and interacts with issues and concerns that other groups in Cambridge are working on. More details to follow...

 Green Week cafe - come and find out more about the campaigns that CUSU Ethical Affairs runs, or just chat about the issues you care about over tea and cake.

As part of CUSU Green Week (www.camgreenweek.com), this series of lunchtime discussions is based around how climate change affects and interacts with issues and concerns that other groups in Cambridge are working on.

 Climate Change and Workers Rights

 If tackling climate change means closing airports, factories and power stations, what happens to the workers? Tom Woodcock discusses a workers perspective on climate change, and the fight for green jobs.

As part of CUSU Green Week (www.camgreenweek.com), this series of lunchtime discussions is based around how climate change affects and interacts with issues and concerns that other groups in Cambridge are working on. 

'CUiD open Discussion Group: What Copenhagen means for developing countries and climate change.'

Three members of the UK Youth Climate Change Coalition (UKYCC), Anna Collins, Kirsty Schneeberger and Emilia Melville, who attended the UN climate change meetings in Copenhagen in December 2009 will facilitate a discussion on the implications of the talks for developing countries. This will be an opportunity to learn and share experiences of people who were present and at the talks as well as discussing the issue more broadly. All areas of interest, disciplinary background and level of study more than welcome.