Latest news with #FireandIce
South Wales Argus
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Argus
Newport's Fire and Ice is bringing clubbing to daylight hours
But what do you do if you can't make it out in the evening? Transport can be an issue that many of us face when planning a night out, knowing that we'll have to be on a train by a certain time or we're not getting home. Fire and Ice, one of the newer additions to the scene, has the answer: daytime clubbing. Crowds can really get into the spirit during daytime clubbing (Image: Supplied) This summer, the bar is offering a series of 'daytime gatherings' to customers, each with its own popular theme for punters to enjoy. These daytime events take place on Saturday afternoons and with upcoming events including anything from a country theme to an ABBA party, there is something for everyone to enjoy. The building is no doubt familiar to Newport locals, having closed not too long ago under a different name. But the building is back in use, with the same foundations but an entirely new positive mood. Fire and Ice don't want you to forget about the memories of the past, they only want to add to what we will look back on in the future. Daytime clubbing brings a wide range of people together (Image: Supplied) Aside from these daytime events, Fire and Ice offers up karaoke and live music performances on their stage, giving customers the option to perform or simply watch the professionals take to the stage. They aim to make their establishment welcoming for everyone, with a range of happy hour and drink options making their bar affordable for everyone, and rooms to suit all music tastes. They label themselves as a 'hybrid venue' with a range of rooms that follow different themes. They range from the 'Tiki' room that brings house music to the people of Newport, to the 'unplugged' room, which features only the best alternative and rock music. DJs entertain crowds all day until the early hours (Image: Supplied) The venue even features a 'barcade' complete with classic arcade machines and dartboards to bring out the best of their customers' competitive streaks. The main aim over the coming weeks is to bring generations together through a shared love of music, memory, and summer fun, all thanks to their special daytime events that evoke the 'fire' of youthful adventure and the 'ice' of chilled memories that never fail to make us smile. Tickets for the next daytime event can be found here:
Wales Online
07-07-2025
- Health
- Wales Online
I found a wood fire sauna and wild bathing experience in a woodland 40 minutes from Wales
I found a wood fire sauna and wild bathing experience in a woodland 40 minutes from Wales This rustic forest site whas changing rooms, outdoor shows, a large Finnish-style sauna and a natural spring water pool It's early morning on a Sunday, and instead of emerging from under the duvet sporting a raging hangover like I used to in my 20s, I'm cold water dipping in a woodland (Image: Lauren Leake-Lyalld ) It's early morning on a Sunday, and instead of emerging from under the duvet sporting a raging hangover like I used to in my 20s, I'm cold water dipping in a woodland. As much as I used to roll my eyes at anything I perceived as woo-woo, I'm now part of a growing cohort concerned with wellness, and instead of slamming sambuca shots, I book sauna sessions and ice bath dips like a budget Gwyneth Paltrow. Nineteen-year-old me is judging so hard. On this balmy Sunday, I'm at Fire and Ice Wellness, Bristol's first sauna and natural cold plunge pool, with a pal who's also on a health kick after what I call our "Barcardi party years." We've come to the forest-hugged wellness escape seeking a restorative session surrounded by nature. Expectations are high as the Fire and Ice website promises that the retreat offers a "unique experience with an organic cold plunge pool and woodfired sauna, designed to promote relaxation, recovery, and overall wellness." Located inside the Westbury Wildlife Park Foundation in the leafy burb of Westbury on Trym, it's frankly the ideal setting for a restorative sauna and dip. After a short drive from Cardiff, I parked in the small car park and followed the signs towards the wooded path, passing homely buildings and a 'forest school.' Where do I sign up?! Article continues below I could literally feel the stress start to evaporate as I entered the birdsong-filled woodland. Possibly another side effect of being an elder millennial is that, along with saunas, I'm now increasingly interested in birds. I'll be out with the binoculars next, trying to spot Kingfishers. This expansive site isn't just home to Fire and Ice; it's a community space that helps preserve and protect local flora and fauna. It features a cafe, yurt yoga sessions, Vinyasa Flow classes, and mindful meditation—a wellness warrior paradise. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What's On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here Here, you can book hour-long communal sauna-and-swim sessions for just £17 per perso (Image: Portia Jones ) I would have to save the Kundalini yoga for another day though, as my main goal was to unwind in Fire and Ice's woodfired sauna and dip in their natural pond. Here, you can book hour-long communal sauna-and-swim sessions for just £17 per person. A bargain, considering the last round of cocktails I begrudgingly bought was just shy of £25. It's surprisingly well equipped for a rustic forest site with changing rooms, outdoor showers, a large Finnish-style sauna and a natural spring water pool that looked super inviting during this wretched heat wave. I'll be honest. I'm in my sauna era and was keen to try the impressive-looking wood-fired sweat box. I'll be honest. I'm in my sauna era and was keen to try the impressive-looking wood-fired sweat box. (Image: Lauren Leake-Lyall ) Despite my long-held aversion to 'woo-woo stuff' (healing crystals, drum circles, energy healing), I'm convinced that saunas are magic. The healing powers of sweating out all my many anxieties cannot be overstated. For me, it's less about chasing medical claims and more about switching off. Ignoring the relentless ping of emails and WhatsApp groups, I let the heat do its slow, steady work as I stew in my own thoughts and breathe in the earthy tang of scorched wood and rising steam. While the emotional warmth of sauna culture is undeniable, the physical benefits are just as compelling. Saunas have long been used to relieve aches, ease tension, and support everything from cardiovascular health to stress relief. For many, it's an almost spiritual ritual, an intentional pause in a world that rarely stops spinning, and I'm here for it. The excellent thing about communal saunas like this is that they can be cosy places to chat and bond with friends or strangers, or merely sit in contemplative silence. Between pleasantries with my fellow sauna users, my mind floated somewhere between a meditative state and a mild panic about whether my mascara was sliding off my face, as I had, of course, forgotten to remove it. Every pore was open for business. I was sweating from places I didn't even know had sweat glands. (Elbows! Who knew?) But I felt something like peace, or possibly dehydration, in that moment. Either way, it worked. I was full of wellness. It was rather lovely to slide into the adjacent cooling spring-fed pool for a leisurely swim. (Image: Lauren Leake-Lyall ) After expiring half my life force away, it was rather lovely to slide into the adjacent cooling spring-fed pool for a leisurely swim. This tree-shaded pond is full of natural spring water that continuously flows into it, keeping it clean and refreshing. With a dedicated regeneration zone, there's no need for chlorine or other chemicals; it's just pure, nature-filled goodness. With a sauna and cold-water swimming on the same site, it's an ideal spot for contrast therapy. This wellness practice combines sauna and ice baths, alternating between heat and cold exposure to boost circulation, reduce inflammation, and accelerate muscle recovery. With a sauna and cold-water swimming on the same site, it's an ideal spot for contrast therapy (Image: Lauren Leake-Lyall ) Once the domain of gym bros, the novel spin on an ancient practice used by the Romans has surged in popularity, with sauna and ice bath experiences popping up all over Wales and the rest of the UK. According to the British Sauna Society, the number of Finnish-style public saunas in the UK doubled between early 2023 and 2024, and it seems that loads of new sites are springing up in 2025. We're still far behind the sauna-mad Finns. Finland has over three million saunas (mostly located in homes), and nearly 90 per cent of the population uses a sauna at least once a week. It certainly seems to have taken off in this serene woodland in Bristol, as the space was filled with steam-seeking visitors radiating serenity. As we left, more people arrived, possibly hoping for the same blissful relaxation I was now experiencing. I'm a sauna girlie now, and I can't wait to get stuck into my next sweaty session. Article continues below For more information nd booking, visit the Fire and Ice Website
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Business owners and entrepreneurs get together for a night of networking
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – As you walked into the Marriott ballroom Thursday evening, life-size cutouts immediately caught your eye. Each one of those cutouts displayed a cocktail creator who designed a drink with the help of the Marriott bartenders for the annual 'Fire and Ice' networking reception. Hosted by the Springfield Regional Chamber, 'Fire and Ice' brings together business owners, entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and others for their greater benefit. Across the room, different cocktails and mocktails were offered along with bar bites as professionals got to know one another. 22News also took part in the annual fire and ice reception. Reporters Nicole and Victoria Buddie designed a mocktail called the 'double axel'. The drink was on brand with the ice theme, their passion for figure skating, and a double for their identity. The double axel is known as a figure skating jump. Other cocktail creators were inspired by their roots, like the Caribbean. 'I'm from the mountains, so I'm like I want a mountain-ness, coconut-infused drink that will bring the people, taste testers back to the island,' shared Maria del Carmen Rodriguez. Also in the room were local mental health services and recreation opportunities like the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club. The Springfield Regional Chamber supports businesses year-round. They serve as the voice for the community and push for economic growth in the region. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In the documentary ‘Art for Everybody,' the dark side of a ‘Painter of Light' is exposed
If you think you've never seen a painting by Thomas Kinkade, think again. The late artist, who is said to have sold more canvases than any painter in history, created a cottage industry (pun intended) of ubiquitous, mass-produced art with his blissful landscapes, idyllic street scenes and cozy cottage tableaus. But the beatific, charismatic painter, who developed a rock-star following, was not all that he seemed. Miranda Yousef, in her feature directing debut, deftly takes on Kinkade's timely and intriguing story in the documentary 'Art for Everybody,' an absorbing, smartly assembled portrait of the mega rise and tragic fall of the Jekyll-and-Hyde-like artist. Kinkade's enormous 1990s-era success, which saw his work reproduced on everything from collectible plates to La-Z-Boy loungers, dovetailed with the period's culture war against the sexualization of art. The born-again Kinkade stepped into that breach, doubled down on the family values bit and became known as a creator of images that the Christian community, among other groups, could embrace. But how much of this was opportunism and how much was true belief? Yousef, who also edited the film, vividly dissects the artist's complicated life with the help of strong archival and personal footage as well as candid interviews with family members, colleagues and a solid array of art-world figures. She first tracks Kinkade from his impoverished Placerville, Calif., youth to his late-1970s days as a bohemian art student at UC Berkeley and Pasadena's ArtCenter College of Design, followed by his work as a background artist for Ralph Bakshi's 1983 animated fantasy 'Fire and Ice.' (Bakshi, now 86, enthuses here about Kinkade's talent and work ethic.) Kinkade's nascent pieces were often dark and provocative. But it was his move into painting — specifically his signature bucolic pastels with their near-heavenly lighted windows and skies — that would lead him and business partner Ken Raasch to create an art empire that, at its peak, reportedly brought in more than $100 million in annual sales. Kinkade's eponymous mall stores and QVC appearances were among his many lucrative outlets. He was dubbed the 'Painter of Light,' even though British artist J.M.W. Turner first claimed that title in the early 1800s. But from a sheer artistic point of view, was Kinkade's work any good? Or was it simply middlebrow kitsch? Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight, who offers several unvarnished opinions here, asserts that Kinkade 'had a quite outsized cultural impact with really bad art.' Of his famed cottage paintings, Knight calls them 'a cliché piled upon a fantasy piled upon a bad idea. That cottage is where the Wicked Witch lives… I'm not going in there.' Journalist and author Susan Orlean ('The Orchid Thief'), who profiled Kinkade for a 2001 New Yorker article that lends this documentary its title, considers his output 'very sentimental, a little garish and kind of twee,' despite its admittedly broad appeal. Yet Kinkade, often seen in the film's clips as confident and ebullient with a kind of evangelist's fervor, pushes back against the naysayers by contending, 'All great art is not about art — all great art is about life.' And he took that belief to the bank, literally. But it's recent interviews with Kinkade's wife, Nanette (they married in 1982), and their four millennial daughters — Merritt, Chandler, Winsor and Everett — that provide the doc's emotional heft and shed valuable light on the tumultuous man behind the serene paintings. Yousef masterfully carries us along from the women's happier memories of Kinkade as a devoted family man to someone whose work and fame began to supplant the needs of his wife and kids. His family says he could be 'manic' and 'hard to connect with' and, from a few behind-the-scenes clips of Kinkade at promotional events, he seemed to treat his then-small daughters like props for the cameras. In addition, the artist comes off as smarmy and contentious at times, belying his 'holy man' persona and populist vibe. From around 2006 to 2010, a series of major business downturns, including a bankruptcy filing and several key lawsuits, led Kinkade into a downward spiral of troubling public behavior and substance abuse. (Footage showing Kinkade's compulsive need for booze is unsettling.) His family, angry and fearful, even staged an intervention to force the former teetotaler into rehab. Though he reluctantly went, the therapy didn't take. He died in 2012, at age 54, from an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. Ultimately, the centerpiece of the film is the Kinkade daughters' posthumous discovery of a vault that houses a trove of their father's unseen, artistically challenging work, much of which shows an underside that few people knew — or could have ever imagined. The women's reexamination of their complex dad's demons and flaws, vis-à-vis these unearthed creations, proves illuminating and poignant. Among the doc's other interview subjects are former Times investigative reporter Kim Christensen, who wrote several articles about Kinkade's legal troubles, which included art gallery fraud; Kinkade's college girlfriend, who recalls his sometimes hostile, dualistic nature; and artist Jeffrey Vallance, who curated the only major survey exhibition of Kinkade's work, held in 2004 at Cal State Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
37 pictures as thousands of runners take on Middlesbrough Half Marathon
Runners pounded the pavements of Middlesbrough in the town's half marathon this morning (Sunday, March 3). Almost 2,700 runners took part in the 13.1-mile race on a circular route through Albert Park, past the Riverside Stadium, along the Tees and finishing back at Centre Square. For some of the taking part the race was all about speed but one pair was seen taking on the route while juggling three balls. Two runners show off their multitasking skills by completing the race while juggling. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) Douglas Musson placed first crossing the finish line in just one hour, six minutes and seven seconds. Douglas Musson, race winner, left. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) Jasmine Clarke was the fastest woman completing it in one hour, eighteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. In the junior race of just under 700m around Central Square Hartlepool Athletics club member Albert Brown clocked a winning time of two minutes thirty-eight seconds. It is the second time the event, in aid of the Teesside Family Foundation, has taken place after a successful first outing last year. Roads around the town centre were closed while the race took place. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) Read next: Darlington dad's sentence for murder referred for review for being 'too lenient' Spectacular pictures as Fire and Ice festival returns to Durham City Ex County Durham GP saw patients while drunk and offered woman £1k to sleep with him lick here to join our WhatsApp community and get breaking news updates direct to your phone. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
