Thursday

'Little Big' Bang' - 2010 - 2000 custom-made fortune cookies containing 100 original poems are shared on LightNight Leeds

each 10x5cm cookie parcel containing 1 of 100 poems were consumed by Leeds residents and visitors to LightNight 

Sunday

This is "Little Big Bang"

“Little Big Bang”

by Katrien Van Liefferinge

Share in the wishes and reflections created by the residents of Little Woodhouse in this collaborative artwork with artist in residence Katrien Van Liefferinge.

Collect one of the 100 messages contained in your limited edition fortune cookie from the various locations throughout Little Woodhouse and the city centre.

Saturday

Light Night Leeds 2010

"Little Big Bang" is but one of many spectacles designed to capture the imagination at Light Night Leeds 2010. Be sure to attend and to support the events on offer - cookie in hand (stomach) and bearing the gift of cookie-borne philosophy in your heart.


This will be and, soon, this will have been.

¡URGENT UPDATE!

Fortune Cookie Locations Confirmed...

"Little Big Bang" is overjoyed to announce that The Fortune Cookies will be available at the following locations on Light Night Leeds (Friday 8th October):


Tiled Hall Café, Leeds City Art Gallery from 18.00
The Arts Café from 18.00
Pavilion check with venue
Henry Moore Institute from 18.00

Burley Lodge Centre 09.00 - 17.00
Swarthmore Adult Education Centre 18.00 - 21.00
Leeds City Town Hall 17.30 - 23.00

St George's Crypt (as part of The Peace Trail) 17.30 - 21.30
St John The Evangelist Church until 16.30
Holy Trinity Church check with venue

PSL (Project Space Leeds) check with venue
Oracle from 18.00
The Edge (Leeds University Sports Centre) check with venue

Unit One until 02.00
Belle View Stores until 22.00

To locate these venues across Leeds, click here for an interactive map.

Thursday

Collected Words of Wisdom: 100 Messages

U R never alone when U sing - P.
I thought I saw a lesser-spotted leopard
A man alone with a book is not alone - P.
‘Autumn is leaving the garden’ - Cal

Holmfirth: Rain under the bridge - J. A.
If you don’t ask, you don’t ask - J. C.
Float like a butterfly; float like a butterfly
‘Things fall apart’, wrote Yeats as a cookie crumbled


Don’t slither like a snake, walk like a beast - Paul
White lies cause big problems - Paul
Listen at the front of the queue - Paul
‘Don’t put yourself down, because you have other people to do this for you’ -Paul


Chinese whispers are not always true
Beeston Building. Spring Park. - Latvian
Small minds think alike - R.C.
Summer should be all year round -Chantelle


My favourite animal is a Satsuma- D.F.
I’m not lost, I’m exploring. - J.L.R.
Between Eden and Heaven. Here. - Dom
God anointed me to preach but where is he? The spirit of the Lord is on me - Jason


Summer should be all winter round -Chantelle
Tattoo: Think before you ink - Nathan
Energy is contagious. You catch it and pass it on - Nathan


Think like spray paint and fill in the blanks - Nathan
Going home on the canal - John
Canal unlocks a different barge - John
Sunlit view. Somewhere special. -Richard

Neither time nor season, rhyme nor reason - B.R.
Keep the mid-day mood - Mantas
The more you do -the more you get - Oleg
‘There’s no such thing as time any more’.
In the Theatre Royal, the sunbeams sang and danced - Christine


Chasing the coalman and his horse with a bucket and spade - Christine
It reminds me of those little toffee eggs you used to buy. They’d have messages inside just like this. – Joyce


Scotthall Road – I was very happy there. - Winnie
Old Woodley: Greenery. A church. No river. A park, I think. - Kathleen
Guiseley to Leeds on the tram. Open air. Threepence. – Joyce
A double rainbow all the way across the sky. - The Four Pots of Gold


Express yourself through the things you do
On Light Night in Leeds, a memory of _______________


Never be late twice in one day! - S.M.
Cariad: every stone is heaven's throne.- Gwyn
'Patronizing, moi? (That means 'me' in French). - C.C.
Unique New York, New York, Unique - N.W.


Blue trees in the bedroom - E.O.
Shake the day off on a bike - E.O.
This life is not a dress rehearsal. - J.G.
Wait for the perfect swell. - B.H.


All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific - Paul P.
If you’re not living life on the edge, you're taking up too much room. - Dr. John
There is no future or past, only now, stay in the present - M.S.

I plan to grow old extremely disgracefully but will do so with at least a little elegance! - J.S.R.
always do what you say you’re going to do – feel the power- J.S.R.


Relax about what you can't control –Kx
Never commit facts to memory - K.P.


Crisp autumn sunshine on pebble-dashed brutalism. - R.K.
Never under-estimate the greed of the rich; never over-estimate the intelligence of the well-educated. - A.B.


There is no failure, only feedback -R.M.
You need to believe in yourself and trust another - Daphne
Slow down..., don’t eat this cookie too fast!
You will get a present from life when you don’t expect it - Giuliana


Don’t chase the dragon - Shirley
Don’t speak if you can’t listen - Gillian
You’re never alone, even if you think you are - Tina
Keep a strong mind, for rewards will come! - T.P.


Be the snail and be slow and take time...., not the tortoise who wins... and that’s it - Louise

A few good friends is better than a lot of fake ones
Words are not my thing..., I work with other things - K.
Tomorrow will move at the speed of a painting being painted

Jacques Derrida and Tony Blair love you - Angel
Tell your partner every day that you love them - Cllr. Gerry Harper


Robert, Robert, Robert - Bert
Don’t save your life, spend it
Live in a library for an hour


One of these days and it won’t be long
Don’t wish to mean everything to everyone, wish to mean something to someone
The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing

It was a curious day in the alleys of New York and I felt isolated.
It was a dull day in the life of Sandy, and she felt like wagging her tail spontaneously
It was small day in China and Paul felt certain
It was a wet day in Wales and the sheep felt convinced


After ten minutes, it seemed like time to go home and leave Stacey to play hard to get. - J.L.R.
It was a wonderful day in Leeds, and me + my family felt really happy. - Shazia
It was an interesting day in Leeds, and it felt colourful. - E.Z.
After all, it seemed an adventure - E.Z.


It was a magical day in the egg’s mind, and the egg felt thankful and runny.
It was a sunny day in Leeds, and I felt happy
It was a nice day in Leeds, and Rojel felt happy
After Africa, it seemed unbelievable. -A.J.H.


After Tuesday, it seemed not so bad It was a good day in pink, and I felt happy. - Afsa
After mum cooked, it seemed fun. - Rajshan


After picking his nose, it seemed pointless. - Nick
After Hilda lived, it seemed possible
Don’t trust people just from their appearances. - Ploy
The only thing we need is love - Ploy
I’m blank - R.E.
Just whose dream is this? - R.E.


Last night, I heard the sound of the accordeon and it made me happy. - K.
Jump in feet first - S.

Saturday

New Arrivals...

The cookies arrived today...they are newborn and awaiting their swaddling (can I say that?)...dressing of the cookies with Kat's dynamic artwork commences this weekend. Now assuming fortune cookie wrapping position...

Excited Fortune Cookies Dress Early for Light Night 2010





Friday

Kookie Kookiness..Did You Know...?

From The New York Times (October 8, 2007)

Don't open this cookie (disastrous day inside) by Maria Aspan

The messages in fortune cookies are typically vague, banal and optimistic. But some cookies are now serving up some surprisingly downbeat advice.
"Today is a disastrous day. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," reads one fortune showing up around the country.
"It's over your head now. Time to get some professional help," advises another.
As the messages, contained in cookies made by Wonton Food in New York, have spread across the country, some diners have registered their reactions online. As a result, the company has a marketing challenge on its hands.
One blogger, who got the "professional help" fortune, wrote: "I shot the audacious baked item a dirty look and proceeded to eat it. And I hope it hurt."
Bernard Chow, marketing coordinator at Wonton Food, says he had not set out to insult anybody when he asked his team of freelance writers to come up with some new messages.
"We wanted our fortune cookies to be a little bit more value-added," Chow said. "We wanted to get some different perspective, to write something that is more contemporary."
Wonton Food, the largest fortune cookie maker in the country, produces about 4.5 million cookies a day. The company made headlines in 2005 when 110 people won about $19 million in the Powerball lottery after playing a "lucky number" sequence from the back of a Wonton fortune.
Wonton has a catalogue of 10,000 fortunes, and about a quarter of them are in rotation at any given time. It introduced 600 new ones several months ago, including about 150 in the popular "fortune-telling" category. Other message categories are humor, motivational sayings, riddles and translated Chinese idioms. "They can't be offensive, got to be positive, and rated G," said Derrick Wong, vice president for sales at Wonton.
But, he added, as customers requested more fortunes with actual predictions rather than cryptic sayings, the writers removed their rose-colored glasses.
"It's very hard to come up with more fortunes," Wong said. "Some people may not like them."
Some diners complained; others searched for meaningful explanations.
Was one writer having a bad day? ("Perhaps you've been focusing too much on yourself.") Were the cookies giving voice to worries about the economy or terrorism? ("There may be a crisis looming, be ready for it.")
Chow characterized the new fortunes as "cautious" rather than negative, and said he had received complaints about only two messages so far. One was the "disastrous day" note. The other said: "Your luck is just not there. Attend to practical matters today."
Wonton plans to remove those two from circulation, Chow said, adding that he welcomes customer feedback about the others.
"I got some people saying that you're making people think, and that's good," he said. "But I have people writing to me saying that it's not positive enough."
Most people who receive one of the downbeat fortunes don't take them too seriously. Karyn Turnbull, 33, an education software designer in Austin, Texas, said her fiancé had been warned about a "disastrous day" when they celebrated their engagement at the Chinese restaurant where they had their first date.
"He laughed and said if he had gotten them before, he might not have proposed," Turnbull said.


Fortune Cookie Movie - The History...!!

A fascinating documentary exploring the contested history of the fortune cookie; Japanese, Chinese or North American? Enjoy!!

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_killing_of_a_chinese_cookie/

Thursday

Creative Collaboration


"Little Big Bang" held a series of workshops in mid September to enable residents of Little Woodhouse to participate in the Fortune Cookie creative/creation process. The sessions at Burley Lodge Centre, the Clarendon Road footbridge, St George's Crypt and at Burley Willows elicited a phenomenal response from the participants. Words of wisdom, phrases of profundity and idiomatic illustrations, provided "Little Big Bang" with a wealth of material to use in the Light Night Fortune Cookies.

Wednesday

Burley Lodge Centre, 18th September 2010


"Little Big Bang" was happy to meet and collaborate with people using Burley Lodge Centre.
More sensational scribes helped LBB to create texts to make the fortune cookies something extra special. Many thanks to you all!!

"Burley Lodge Centre (BLC) is a ‘Community Anchor’ organisation that exists to improve the quality of life for people in the North West area of Leeds. BLC initiates, develops and delivers a wide range of dynamic and responsive services that make a real difference to people in the local area. Over the past 27 years, BLC has developed as an infrastructure organisation supporting small groups to help them build capacity, participate in networks and develop their own policies and procedures."











St George's Crypt



"Little Big Bang" sought assistance from new friends at St George's Crypt.

"St George’s Crypt is a Christian Charity based underneath the thriving church of St George’s, Leeds. It has been providing care and support for homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged people since 1930. Don Robins first opened the doors of the Crypt to alleviate the considerable distress of many who found themselves with next to nothing as a result of the Great Depression."

http://www.stgeorgescrypt.org.uk