goldfish nation

climate camp 2009

2009-08-29T12:36:00.002Z

..is go!
and has been for a few days now.

they swooped on london on wednesday - six separate 'swoops' receiving text messages revealing the camp's whereabouts that afternoon.
and it's at blackheath.

i couldn't get there until yesterday evening, but they obviously coped just fine in my absence - there have been actions held at the carbon exchange on thursday, and yesterday kick-started an anti-bank holiday at barclays.

there's a fantastically well-functioning site, compost toilets, excellent communal cooking and some well worth it workshops - and i'm off back there now with me tent.

see y'all down there....

the national - royal festival hall, 10 august

2009-08-11T14:38:00.003Z

setlist:

runaway
start a war
mistaken for strangers
brainy
baby, we'll be fine
slow show
vanderlyle cry baby
squalor victoria
abel
all the wine
racing like a pro
ada
apartment story
available
fake empire

(encore)

green gloves
blood buzz
mr. november
about today

i was in seat k9 :)
new album rumoured to be out next year. and the new stuff's sounding brilliant......

Protest Boris Johnson’s Funding cuts to Rape Crisis Centres - 20 July, GLA

2009-07-16T13:46:00.003Z

Why Protest?

The rape conviction rate in the UK is only 5.3% - one of the lowest in Europe.

93% of rape victims do not tell the police.

Every 34 minutes a rape is reported to the police in the United Kingdom. Thousands more women do not come forward.

Every woman and girl who has suffered violence has the right to specialised support to rebuild their lives.

Yet over one in four local authorities in Britain have no specialised support services for women who have experienced violence. London has only one Rape Crisis centre for 3.9 million women. The failure to bring rapists to justice amounts to a near licence to rape.

Women are being failed by the criminal justice system, and left with nowhere to turn for support.

Rape Crisis centres provide a vital service for women who have suffered violence at any time in their lives.

Women who suffer violence are not alone. Sexual violence must be taken seriously. We must act in solidarity to fight for sustainable funding for specialised women’s services.

Why now?

Boris Johnson made an election promise to fund Croydon rape crisis and three new centres for at least 4 years. When he was elected it became clear that he had not budgeted for this promise.

Boris launched a strategy in April 2009 calling ‘for action to end violence against women’. The strategy contains many more promises to women and is open for public consultation until 20th July.

Women need specialised rape services NOW. The ‘postcode lottery’ must end. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure that every woman who has suffered violence has access to support.

What do we want?

* The immediate establishment of a cross-government, ring-fenced Rape Crisis fund of £5m a year
* Greater investment in Rape Crisis by local and regional statutory agencies that refer women to centres
* The number and capacity of centres increased so every woman and girl can access support
* The professionalism of Rape Crisis workers recognised and appropriately remunerated through improved funding to Rape Crisis centres
* The impacts of sexual violence are long-term and far-reaching and funding for services should reflect this
(from Women’s Resource Centre)

*We also support Southall Black Sisters opposition to British National Party Representative -Richard Barnbrook (GLA member for Barking and Dagenham)’s scandalous inclusion on a committee of an evidence session, meant to feed into London mayor Boris Johnson’s violence against women strategy. *

What can I do?

1. Make your voice heard in the consultation before 20th July here: http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/crime/vaw/

2. Protest At the GLA on the day the consultation closes
20th July 12:30 – 14.30

For more info

Boris Keep Your Promise

Women’s Resource Centre

Southall Black Sisters’ Statement

ian tomlinson. r.i.p.

2009-04-08T12:00:00.001Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/07/video-g20-police-assault

"Dramatic footage obtained by the Guardian shows that the man who died at last week's G20 protests in London was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton–wielding police officer in riot gear.
Moments after the assault on Ian Tomlinson was captured on video, he suffered a heart attack and died.
The Guardian has handed a dossier of evidence to the police complaints watchdog.
It sheds new light on the events surrounding the death of the 47-year-old newspaper seller, who had been on his way home from work when he was confronted by lines of riot police near the Bank of England.
The submission to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) includes a collection of testimonies from witnesses, along with the video footage, shot at around 7.20pm, which shows Tomlinson at Royal Exchange Passage.
The film reveals that as he walks, with his hands in his pockets, he does not speak to the police or offer any resistance.
A phalanx of officers, some with dogs and some in riot gear, are close behind him and try to urge him forward.
A Metropolitan police officer appears to strike him with a baton, hitting him from behind on his upper thigh.
Moments later, the same policeman rushes forward and, using both hands, pushes Tomlinson in the back and sends him flying to the ground, where he remonstrates with police who stand back, leaving bystanders to help him to his feet.
The man who shot the footage, a fund manager from New York who was in London on business, said: "The primary reason for me coming forward is that it was clear the family were not getting any answers."
The Guardian's dossier also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three different people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as witness statements from people in the area at the time.
A number of witnesses provided time and date-stamped photographs that substantiate their accounts.
Some said they saw police officers attack Tomlinson.
Witnesses said that, prior to the moment captured on video, he had already been hit with batons and thrown to the floor by police who blocked his route home.
One witness, Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, described how, in the minutes before the video was shot, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street.
"A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him," she said.
"It wasn't just pushing him – he'd rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable.
"It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
"So it wasn't just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault.
"And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him.
"He was running and stumbling. He didn't turn and confront the officer or anything like that."
The witness accounts contradict the official version of events given by police.
In an official statement on the night of Tomlinson's death, the Metropolitan police made no reference to any contact with officers and simply described attempts by police medics and an ambulance crew to save his life after he collapsed – efforts they said were marred by protesters throwing missiles as first aid was administered .
The force said officers had created a cordon around Tomlinson to give him CPR.
"The officers took the decision to move him as during this time a number of missiles - believed to be bottles - were being thrown at them," it said.
Yesterday, the IPCC began managing an investigation by City of London police into the circumstances of Tomlinson's death after the Guardian published photographs of him on the ground and witness statements indicated he had been assaulted by police officers.
The IPCC commissioner for London, Deborah Glass, said: "Initially, we had accounts from independent witnesses who were on Cornhill, who told us that there had been no contact between the police and Mr Tomlinson when he collapsed."
"However, other witnesses who saw him in the Royal Exchange area have since told us that Mr Tomlinson did have contact with police officers.
"This would have been a few minutes before he collapsed. It is important that we are able to establish as far as possible whether that contact had anything to do with his death."
The IPCC added that Tomlinson was captured on CCTV walking onto Royal Exchange Passage.
"This is the aspect of the incident that the IPCC is now investigating," it said.
It was here the video was shot. A post mortem carried out by a Home Office pathologist last Friday revealed Tomlinson died of a heart attack.
Prior to seeing the dossier of evidence, Tomlinson's family said in a statement: "There were so many people around where Ian died, and so many people with cameras, that somebody must have seen what happened in the Royal Exchange passageway.
"We need to know what happened there and whether it had anything to do with Ian's death.
"We know that some people who were at the protest may not feel comfortable talking to the police.
"People are putting pictures on the internet, writing on blogs and talking to journalists. But we really need them to talk to the people who are investigating what happened."
• The Guardian's Ian Tomlinson video is on YouTube if you wish to embed it on your website or blog."

climate rush - northern style

2009-01-13T23:24:00.006Z

Out of hours right to protest

Manchester airport 12^th January

Freedom of expression between the hours of six thirty and nine o' clock occurred yesterday at Manchester Airport's Terminal Three. A protest was held by Climate Rush, in a designated zone, away from all passengers and prying eyes with a cordon for the press and some police horses. The press had their own pen, pens and, um, penises?.

Approximately a(two) hundred protestors genteelly descended to make their views on airport expansion known. Edwardian dress was the order of the day, and we didn't disappoint. Top hats and tails, corsets, shawls and a street urchin all made an appearance.

The police were trying to beat us at our own game by leafleting – colour flyers detailing the restrictions on the protest and specifying which lines we were not allowed to cross. We weren't allowed to enter the building without taking a flyer.

Police deployment was so large in Operation Overkill that they predicted up to two hundred baby eating anarchists ready to dissemble planes. Or a bunch of students , or a few anarchotroublemakers and chaos merchants (which is what they got). In return, they had horses outside, a fair few employees on overtime, and also had waiting tactical support unit vans crammed with 20 officers each.

Protestors confirmed their initial thoughts of direct action being the Only Way.

The protest consisted of : a fantastic banner, many people, a string duet (half a quartet, at least); picnic a-plenty, and a brief spiderman impression.

We came, we ate, we danced, we Made Our Feelings Known.

There was (that we know of) one arrest. He'd told me beforehand that he was going to go for it, so i lent him a book to read in the cells, before he made his arrestable dash.

nice work, flower :)

The protest was against airport expansion and domestic flights. In a time of recession and climate crisis, government money should be spent on improvements to rail, trams, and buses, not on subsidies and infrastructure for the aviation industry.

We have waited too long and been misled too many times. It is time for us to take control and to lead social change.

http://www.stopmanchesterairport.org.uk
http://www.climaterush.co.uk/

the girl

2009-01-12T11:28:00.000Z

is interested and aroused
and embracing, but yet
somewhat saddened
by cybersex.

it's not so much that she's a prude.
in fact, she wholeheartedly approves
of the concept of sex on the net, and
the folk who enthusiastically get
their rocks so very extremely off
in that fashion.

it's a passion.

but

her frustration lies in getting involved,
and as a result, she has resolved
to contact, tomorrow, the RSA
to enquire, without delay,
whether they could help endorse
an Initial Text Processing course (level III)
in one-handed
touch ..
typ...
i...
nnnnnnngggh

so this is the new year

2009-01-06T09:13:00.002Z

and a happy and joyous 2009 to anyone who may be reading this.

i spent the last night of 2008 playing records for a little bit, drinking whisky and lager (mistake! mistake!), falling over on the dancefloor... when the bells went, i didn't realise the time, and was around nobody that i knew. it felt kinda nice.

i also got given some lovely glittery green liquid eyeliner, and girled it up to fuck :)

unfortunately (?) i didn't get home til 3pm on new year's day, a wee bit shaky and broken. the nice man in wetherspoons, where i had been drinking many tea with chaosmongers, gave me a fluffy blanket to make things all better.

2008 was a weird one. started it with a whimper (falling asleep in a horrible room in leyton, after megabussing back down south after a particularly traumatic visit to my folks). then continued in a whimpery style - got a temp job as a PA to a top parliamentary exec type person. was bored as fuck - in the end, i ended up sorting through a cupboard about three times my height, sifting and filing and shredding papers dating back to the seventies.
it was when my only task was to photocopy a 1970s office procedure manual, that i handed in my notice. and went straight from the fryingpan into the fire.

ended up on a six month contract for an organisation whose in-house publications were full of praise for kingsnorth; my manager came in one day to tell us his son'd been arrested for 'queerbashing' (or words to that effect) and that he was fully behind him/didn't see a problem with his behaviour. the casual racism was rife too.
and what did i do?
absolutely nothing, save stare at the floor, very hard indeed. i'm a bit disgusted with myself.

for about six months of last year, i disappeared completely. woke up, went to work, came home, and then a) watched hollyoaks and whatever else was in front of my eyes b) cried c) drank wine. sometimes independently, sometimes a combo of all three.

and then i quit my job.

i've had three months of running around a bit, finding out who i am again (and i'm NOT the sort of gal who stares at the floor during fuckwittery. really i'm not), taking long baths, hugging my knees, writing again...

in the bigblankhalfyear, i went to my doctor and did one of those tickboxy 'have you felt depressed? suicidal? worthless? wobbly?' test thingies. and got a worried look, a prescription for anti depressants (which i took for a couple of months until i felt kickstarted enough to stop), and an appointment for a clinical psychologist assessment. or, as i prefer to call it, clinical psycholologist. it took a wee while to come through....

it's in two hours - wish me lucks :)

2009 is going to be a very different year.

three little words

2008-12-29T18:07:00.001Z

it's only us

i've got you

we're still here

not your fault.

P.L.U.

girl singing in the wreckage....

2008-12-27T18:15:00.001Z

Wed 18th Feb 2009

The Luminaire presents BLACK BOX RECORDER + Guests

Doors 7.30 £8 via WeGotTickets and TicketWeb £10 door

Black Box Recorder first came to national prominence in 1998 when their debut album ‘England Made Me’ – a state of the nation address influenced by the occult, the letters page of the Daily Telegraph, and Limoncello – garnered rave reviews. The fabulously glamorous and sophisticated trio, of Sarah Nixey, Luke Haines, and John Moore, first met at the 1997 theosophical conference in Cairo, Egypt. On their return journey back to London fate intervened when their 737 airbus crashed into the Italian Alps. Moore, Nixey and Haines were the only survivors of this terrible disaster. After 6 months convalescence in a private hospital, the trio found that as a result of the air crash they had developed highly attuned psychic powers. Black Box Recorder were born.

By 2000, the group had honed their ESP to such an extent that their second album ‘The Facts Of Life’ was a worldwide smash hit. The album’s title track rose to the giddy heights of the top ten on the UK singles chart, and the group performed what came to be known as ‘The Great Top Of The Pops Working.’ By 2003 BBR had released ‘Passionoia’ an album so ahead of its time that it predicted things that had already happened. As a result of such far-sightedness the group were forced to take an extended hiatus. Sarah Nixey busied herself with freelance work for the MOD, whilst Haines and Moore continued their studies in shrubbery. They are, to this day, highly regarded in the cactus world.

Presently, Black Box Recorder have decided to continue the mission by kindly agreeing to play a headline date at London’s Luminaire live music venue, on February 18th 2009. If you intend to attend please dress smartly (Fez’s are now optional)

God Bless Black Box Recorder.

when i was the antichrist

2008-12-26T17:43:00.004Z

it had been planned for months, even before the metaphorical fireworks with the relatives started to kick off around bonfirenightish.

me and b (and later on, d too) were having an Orphan’s christmas at their little flat in south east london. there were two conditions: no presents, and no aggression. i looked forwards to our cosy xmash plans, and for the first time ever, anticipated a truly joyous festive period.

in mid december, b told me that her dad was coming too. as long as he had whisky, he’d be a pussycat. i relished the idea of meeting where she came from. she seemed a little nervous, in an ‘he’s a grumpy bugger but he’s alright really’ way, as though she really hoped it would all go well.

i ended up winding my way to her house on christmas eve, about seven o’clock. i’d spent the day with my pregnant friend, helping her nest, blitzing the kitchen and pottering around with cups of tea and crass records. i went back to east dulwich to find that my neighbour had got my amazon package waiting for me. i’d had some money for the first time in ages, and spent it in an afternoon flat. a bottle of laphroigh, three books (with the ‘deliver tomorrow’ postage option), some makeup, some brazil nuts and a week’s bus pass.

i left from peckham rye, people ambling past my stop laden with carrier bags and santa hats. except i got the wrong bus, figuring that i’d explore my way to new cross.

i got off at telegraph hill park, thinking i might have a scamper around and look at the sights. and then thought better of it – wandering round a park on your own at night may well be romantic but isn’t always the safest path to choose. with my shoes in my bag and my docs aircushioning me, i pendulum-walked to the train station, headphones on and hips swinging, and sat in an almost empty carriage.

i got to new cross gate in minutes, waited for b in the hobgoblin. i had exactly enough change on me to get a pint. she arrived, we hugged and sparkled at each other, quickly drank and launched ourselves into the cold night.

her dad looked like the type of person i’ve met many times. he smiled a lot. we shared some bells. i congratulated him on his daughter. my sister and i frocked up and waltzed around the living room to gentle music. i blissed out.

then i realised there was a silence, the sort that stuns.

b’s dad said, again, “she’s wrong. get her the fuck out of here”

from this point onwards i don’t remember much. apart from holding b, and getting her into the next room where she was safe.

i woke up the next morning, curled up like wolves with my friends, feeling the full effects of overwhisky, and made tea.

b came in and apologised for the night before. i told her it was fine. she replied that being punched is never fine, and she couldn’t be sorry enough.

her dad had a psychotic episode, and thought i was the antichrist.

he punched me, and then d.

we threw him out immediately.

i slept better that night than i have in weeks.

the three of us had the most perfect christmas day ever. we spent it with our family.

happy hicksmas

2008-12-25T09:59:00.002Z

stolen from godhaven part 3, published in 1995

we here at godhaven ink are pleased to announce the inception of a new public holiday..

hicksmas: a sacred time in which to gather our loved ones around us & raise a few substances to william hicks, hereby canonized as patron saint of truth, campaigner against banality & master amusement engineer. the celebrations start on the sixteenth of december, his birthday, and continue for twenty three days. this seems to get rid of that tricky x-tian dilemma once & for all, leaving us free to send toys & drugs & chocolate to our friends at the turn of the year. make your own hicksmas cards. seriously. (we’re not joking – put a bit of effort into it… let’s get back into the pagan spirit of things again.) jesus christ may well have been a good bloke, but the christians stole our festivals.

some of you may be asking yourselves, “gee, why so much fuss over the one guy?”; as well you might. he was only human after all. but people, the man had vision where the rest of the world wore bifocals. if you haven’t seen or heard him yet we think you may just have missed the second coming, folks (started preaching at 13, died at 32; his mothers name was mary… are any bells being rung here? huh? huh?).

bill hicks was born in 1961, in georgia, & died last year, of cancer. he began performing early on at school, where he would steal his class away from the teacher (who would seldom get it back), & at church camp (he had a religious upbringing) where the other boys would report home that the young bill was “the funniest thing they’d ever seen”. then onto selling out comedy clubs he was still too young to drink in, to the surprise & horror of the older comedians.

from the beginning, it seems, he was on a different route from the average comedian – what he ended up doing had so much more to do w/ the role of the shaman than simply entertainment. to him, the stand-up comedy was not just a means to an end (as in a safe career, a sit-com and perhaps a couple of movies), but an end in itself. his idea was not just to make people laugh but to WAKE THE FUCKERS UP, make them THINK & question it all - & yet (incredibly) still be funnier than practically anyone else on the planet – he would summon up caricatures of all our flaws & grotesqueness, our frailties & pettiness; a hall of mirrors that shout back your own weakness; your own blinkered & manufactured “opinions” on war, politics, sex…. whatever. this was not ‘whose line is it anyway’, but true, deep down CATHARSIS. He was “taking on fully the role of the witch doctor”, as eric bogosian would say, later on. & also the fool; the sacred clown, just as the court jester in times of old could get away w/ proclaiming that the king liked little boys, bill hicks could say whatever the fuck he liked about whatever the fuck he liked, tossing hidden fears & incendiary lines into the audience & GET AWAY W/ IT… because that was his job; these people had paid good money to enter this big darkened room & watch the funny man talk. &, as he was always pleased to announce, the best part of his job was that he had no boss (read company//publisher/whatever) to answer to.

as well as being no ordinary comedian he was no ordinary man – he described both on & off stage how he & two friends had been taken up in an alien space-craft – “w/a 5 minute UFO experience i got a taste of holiness i never got in 20 years of religion” – he dealt instead w/ “the inner light that exists in all of our hearts: that middle man stuff;’ it’s wacky, & i appreciate it, but i got to run – there’s a voice ‘a calling me…”

from a young age he explored altered states of consciousness via flotation tanks, meditation & hallucinogenic drugs. these had an obvious influence upon the central theme of his act/life, which was: we are all one… until we realise this we are hardly alive to fight at all. to fight amongst ourselves is to fight ourselves – what we should do is get our shit together, get out there & explore space (both inner & outer) instead. all these petty hates & needless limitations & separations are not only destructive but silly when the possibilities, the potential in humanity is so great. very, very silly.

i wish we had more room to fully explain him but i doubt we could do that anyway (or would even want to). just check him out, that’s all… you will not be dissatisfied. he was a true hero, & there are not nearly enough heroes around these days.. so few people w/any kind of vocation (we’ve herded who we can into godhaven…) “now everyone’s luke-warm & they stick around forever…”
not him, sadly; he dies & bush still walks, manilow still records. perhaps some astonishing cosmic blunder has occurred. there was noone around quite like him before but for lenny bruce &, as yet, noone since.

happy holidays & merry hicksmas.

p.s. for the more devout amongst you, why not celebrate “hickster” too, starting on the 26th feb for five days.
i know what i’ll be doing.

p.p.s. if any of you out there have any bootleg tapes, or videos, or anything else, please send us a copy; we’d much appreciate it & you shall be copiously rewarded.

ppps really do send them hicksmas things. they'd appreciate it :)

she

2008-12-23T03:35:00.000Z

she

she is always here.
she'll never leave.
she went five days ago but she's still around.
she might come back. she might not.
i don't care either way.

i still have the
taste of her name on my tongue, the
smell of my breath in my
hair.

my skin remembers the sensation of her.

i got her under my skin. i've still got
her skin under my fingernails
her teethmarks on my shoulder
her bruises on my heart.

i can't sleep
i can sleep really but don't want to.
i'm scared that i'll wake up
and realise that she was just a dream.
worst nightmare of a wish come true,
i couldn't tell you.

but she was mine, i was hers,
we were against the world
together.

her wild ideas and jagged humour
silver tongue, sharp teeth.

i used to joke that she had fangs
would one day suck me dry.
she tried her hardest in all the right ways.

left me gasping for air
clutching at nothing
reeling at the force of her.

beloved, begotten, beholden, begone.

i hear the sound of her bike coming up the path
the clattering beads on the spokes that make her laugh
and my teeth
grit.

she knocks on the door.

i've taken to sitting not on, but behind the settee
assuming the position normally reserved for the bailiff or jehova's witnessees.

lights on but no-one's home.

when she left i realised a lot of things.
mainly that i didn't love her. couldn't love her.
the object of my affection, my affliction, was an illusion.
the perfect mimic of her, transparent enough to reveal it was unreal.
she'd open her mouth and my image would shatter
ugly words pouring from perfect cupid bow lips.

i prefer the version in my head
the silent woman,
who wouldn't hurt a fly
let alone crush a heart.

i let her carry on knocking on the door.
it's no use.

i cannot be removed
and
i will not
be
moved.

(possiblyreposted)

another one bites the dust

2008-12-09T12:00:00.003Z

r.i.p. mr postgate

more than just bagpuss

2008-12-04T09:08:00.004Z

i've just finished up reading oliver postgate's autobiography, 'seeing things'. it's one of a few books that have made me go'oooooh!' and want to shove into any suspecting strangers' hands recently

others include: the electric michaelangelo, things snowball, corporate watch's excellent and chunky technofixes report, margrave of the marshes, toast...

but back to oliver. i've not yet started reading him up further - i no idea (but would like to find out) if he's still alive, or if he's done more anti nuclear/solar power stuff. i've joined a biiiiig library with the added bonus of interweb access, so i could get my arse into gear and google a wee bit. i think i might like to.

he's so full of love and sense and joy and the like; it's all so warmly and genuinely told. it's a really really charming book, and reminded me a lot of tom baker's who on earth is tom baker?.
i loved the odd ramble in which he'd go ambling around with no/lots of purpose, his legs telling him where to go and what would be good:
"my legs told me they wanted to walk.
'OK,' I said, 'which way?'
They said 'Towards the sun.'
'All right, then. Get on with it!'

....

The February air was cold and in dark places under the trees and hedgerows a faint bloom of white
told of last night's frost - there's nothing in the telling of this that could impart the huge sense
of freedom and escape that I and my legs felt that morning.
I said, 'It'll be a long walk.'
They replied, 'Just leave it to us. Leave it to us, and sing.'
So I sang, and on they went, rejoicing."

i'm certainly getting a fair bit of walking in at the minute. i think i might start listening to my legs a bit more and singing too. not in the middle of peckham high street, like, but...

E-On

2008-11-26T14:33:00.001Z

Power company E-On is hoping to build the first new coal-fired power station in the UK for a generation on the site of its present station at Kingsnorth in Kent. At a time of climate crisis, it's an obscenity.

They've been the targets of all kinds of action, from last summer's Camp for Climate Action, to a series of smaller action on April 1st (Fossil Fools Day), to their graduate recruitment stalls being so heavily targeted that they just gave up, with more action coming up at the end of this month.

One easy, comfy action can happen from this computer you're looking at. The tactic is called google-bombing.

The more links to a site, the higher it climbs in Google rankings. So, if enough people make the word 'Eon' link to the No New Coal site, pretty soon it'll top the list of anyone searching for Eon. (This tactic was successfully used a few years ago to make 'swivel-eyed loons' link to UKIP).

Two weeks ago www.nonewcoal.org.uk wasn't in the top 50 sites when searching for Eon. As I write this it's already number 13.

So a simple online action can help us get our electronic placards in their face without getting out on the cold winter streets.

If you have a website, blog, myspace, bebo, forum account, etc then please place a link to http://www.nonewcoal.org.uk.

Ideally you write 'eon' and place a hyperlink to http://www.nonewcoal.org.uk from that text.

Anyone can do this! Blog comments/forums are easiest. Good websites are most effective.

If you're wondering what else to write, you could copy or edit this.

To get a top 10 google ranking probably won't be to hard, but to pip Eon to the top will require a lot of effort so tell your friends, consider putting this simple action in your newsletters, spread the word online...

Notes:

* 1. It works best if you mention Eon several times in an article.

* 2. If you are posting the link in a blog post then put Eon in the title and the tags.

* 3. The more important the site the more kick nonewcoal.org.uk gets from the link.

* 4. If you leave comments on blogs or other sites, they usually ask for a name and have an optional web address. If you make your name Eon and your address nonewcoal.org.uk, it doesn't matter if the comment itself is coal-relevant or not.

* 5. If you are really determined then consider setting up a fake site like the EON Corporate Social Responsibility blog that way you can link loads of times to nonewcoal.org.uk from a site that is very relevent!

* 6. Why not take this is seriously as a real world action and forward it to people with green blogs/campaign groups etc?

It might also be worth pointing out that Eon is sometimes written E.On or occasionally E-On.

(thank you for the words, jim and merrick)

seven songs but a bit wonky(belated)

2008-11-21T17:46:00.002Z

i was going to do seven songs. i really was.
and then i decided to do seven albums instead; i've just rediscovered soulseek after the death of my laptop (and all my music, following having lost many cds in between moves), and i've been having a few field days (wonky internet connection permitting). i also got given a hundred or so new songs by a very nice passing lady, and have been spending blissy days rediscovering early rem and finding out that i have a guilty weakness for the notting hillbillies. oh, and falling in chaotic love with 'hasselhoff', which would definitely have been a seven songs song.

anyhow; the things that have been being listened to in big chunks:

alligator - the national

i was living in 'the annexe' with an extraordinary man (red wine/nick cave on vinyl/living room/ballroom dancing were a regular fixture).the day alligator came out we had a listening party, with about two or three other people. i think we may have listened to it all night (with the odd tindersticks/nick intermission).
i've done drunken blogging before about what various bits of this one mean to me. as the rest of this selection are, it's an incredibly emotive album. there's also the week-hurtling-around-britain-on-the-alligator-tour, which was probably one of the best things
i've ever done. i think i should definitely do more of that sort of thing. diary note to check their next dates..

bryter later - nick drake

sunshiney days, growing veg, hurtling about, not having a job but having a wee bit of money (well, at the start), drinking much coffee, buying many books and vinyl, sitting on the front doorstep with a spliff at two in the morning and (i think - it may be rose-tinted glasses) looking at stars. and having a fair amount of fun.

against the pull of autumn - epic 45

when i first start listening to it, it's for the first track, 'i'm getting too young for all this'. the first time i heard it, it made me think of walking through hyde park at duskish. and then the next time i heard it, i was doing just that, in the rain. it fit perfectly.
i really like the weird scrunchy sound on it. the 'if destroyed still true' refrain takes me right back to being at school, but with kind of extra joyousness. and then i hear the rest of the album, and realise that i adore every song. i think that if you like hood then you'll like epic45. and vice versa. if you don't like either, then, well, you should.

clogs - lantern

one afternoon, i had some seriously bad juju. as you do. i got strokes, hugs, the massagiest massage ever, and this playing in the background. and possibly some wine. it's all a bit fuzzy. but if any album's going to get knots out, it's this one.
2:3:5 always makes me think of lying on a hillside watching shooting stars, even though i've never done such a thing.
again, the followytourybloggy thing applies to this one - i'm crossing my fingers that there's a uk date again soon. very recommended. also a good album for quiet contemplation with a big spliff, a bottle of red, and imagining that you own a rocking chair and velvet curtains.

woman king - iron & wine

there's just a beauty about iron & wine that i can't put my finger on. i think i first heard about them when i heard 'free until they cut me down' on americana 2004 and then again when i did 'all the wine' djtasticness, and i heard stuff from their collaboration-with-calexico album,'in the reins' . that's all i have to say on the matter, apart from 'oooh'.

slumberwall - packhorse gig

with huge thanks to the aforementioned very nice passing lady for this, and with huge thanks to mahalia (of course) for playing it, and whoever recorded it too. i had a little cry when i heard it; this music is *special*. i don't really know what else to say about it.
except thank you again.

uncut americana 2004 - various artists

the hottish (maybe) summer of 2004: i was in love, turned 25, met my boyfriend for packed lunches in graveyards during the week, had pink hair and a big smile....
i fell for this whole compilation instantly.
it's not country. honest. at least, not in the garth brooks sense...

it's struck me that none of these are *new* new. maybe i don't get on with modern things....

actually, that's rubbish. one of my friends really likes my chemical romance and fallout boy. i have spent several red wine-fuelled evenings declaring my liking of them, and may have a guilty download or few that i've been bouncing round my bedroom to.... damn my apparent love of emo combined with musical snobbishness. i'll be listening to the darkness next. what was that i said about not really knowing about anything modern?)

seven good things revisited

2008-11-11T13:37:00.003Z

ok, so it's ten months or so late, but the time's come where there actually *are* seven good things, instead of desperately clutching at straws. and in my current mission to make myself like london a whole lot more, they're mostly southerncentricified...

deptford

i went on a freebie guidedwalk thingy in new cross the other week, which was ace - lots and lots of local history, stories of exploding chip shops and secular societies, and other randomness.. it meandered into deptford a wee bit - there was talk of theories of a super-henge in the area, and a standing stone under platform 2 of brockley station... .my favourite bit of it all was st peters church - full on skull and crossbone gates (see enormous pic below), and christopher marlowe buried somewhere in the grounds. looks even better at night :)

apples

who'd have thought that there'd be an abundance of apples down here? well, i guess it's pretty obvious that you'd find them *somewhere*, but i'd never really thought about it.. the lovely people at organic lea have been scrumping and juicing apples from waltham forest. i pottered along t'other week and did a wee bit of picking, including the weeniest apple i've ever seen.

and yes, much crumble was eaten that night.

ginger cat

sadly, big bad bob died this earlier this year. not a good thing in the slightest. but back to the good thing theme, at the moment i'm getting kitteh fixes from Ginger Cat, a mean purring ginger machine who likes to stalk around the back garden, viciously swat at my hands and hijack the sofa. if you see him in the street, he'll make the most amazing 'mwaaooaaah' noises, run in front of you, and roll on his back. photo to follow when he's not camera shy.

spinach and composting

my next door neighbour has a dustbin under the tree in his front garden gathering dust. my wednesday project is (providing he doesn't want it) attacking the bottom with a hacksaw and starting some compost going. i've been living in the same house for nine months now, but spent most of it in a state of denial (well, of REALLY wanting to move, and thinking it might happen soon, and it not happening at all...) and therefore did nothing compostworthy until now.
oh, and planting spinach to see if it works :)

tindersticks playing next month

in a chapel. yes, i'm prepared to sell a kidney to get a ticket....
hopefully an improvement on nick cave in may (one round at the bar was twenty quid, i was stuck at the back behind incredibly tall people, my gig companion doesn't seem to actually like music that much... i walked out after about half an hour. meh.)

but yes, i think i definitely want to go to this. with a different gig companion.

honesty boxes

at the moment i live in east dulwich, which is as far as i can tell is generally inhabited by braying twats and yummy mummies (you're in serious danger of being ploughed down by three wheeled pushchairs and toddling tarquins whenever you leave the house, and the local 'ethical market' sells muesli bowls made by young offenders for a tenner a pop. worthy i'm sure, but i really really really really hate it. i'm not sure whether i emphasised that enough). however, there's always a silver lining - there's a house round the corner from me which seems to always have various flowers/veg plants on the front wall, with a load of envelopes in tupperware. it's normally 50p a plant. so far i has parsley, foxgloves, violas and i'm off this afternoon to see what else is out there :)

getting my arse into gear enough to apply for a housing co-op place

one with gardens and kittehs and about a hundred other people (it's a whole street). and it's not in east dulwich. nuff said & fingers crossed.

seven good things

2008-01-29T20:01:00.001Z

righty, a small return to blogging, thanks to merrick on bristling badger and jim at the quiet road...

so yes. seven things that are good.

nudges

nick cave touring in may

henry the octopus (my one plant at the moment has survived two moves over the last six weeks, and is growing cheerily. i have no idea what he is, but he's kind of green and purple....)

giant beanbags

maddy. not the famous one, but my blokey's niece. she's three, amazing and has decided that my full title is 'friend zoe'. he gets to be called 'unkie dave'. i'm not sure which is sickeningly cuter.

gumtree (dodgy landlords? short term lets in horrific properties? it's got it all... i think i might end up living all over london in the space of a year thanks to this site)

bea, the co-creator of fred and rosemary vest (cheerful pearly queen covers act with a slight hint of menace). she is a gingery goddess, and very fond of pink lady (which costs much cheapness a bottle and unfortunately isn't pink). we bonded in an office, cackling over filing and 90's indie. and then both got sacked within a month of each other :)

have tent, will camp

2007-08-22T08:51:00.000Z

i got to climate camp on sunday night (better late than never!), and just after i'd finished my welcome soup, i bumped into my friend. she got hit on the head by a police baton, because.. well.. she was within reach of a policeman with a baton. her mate got charged by a policewoman on a horse. nice. i think they were in the independent or the telegraph today. she was dead upset cos she'd asked them not to publish the photo in case it worried her mum too much.

not ACAB though - i also cuddled a policeman called john. well, he didn't whack me with a stick for doing it. and didn't arrest me for telling rubbish jokes either. anyway.

my mate asked me if i'd go with her to hand out sandwiches to the protestors, if the police would let us near them.

we got there. we handed out sarnies and choc coffee beans. we smiled at policewomen. we did poetry on a bikepowered soundsytem. we sat down and talked to people. and stayed sat down. even when it rained, and someone got a tarp to cover us. then more tarp, then tent poles appeared, along with more people.

we blockaded BAA's car park.

we were the singing and poetry corner - shitloads of funny, clever and blimmin talented people, all in one place, all for the same reason, all slightly jumpy (all through the night were cries of 'riot police outside! be ready to get going!' - as in get your stuff together and prepare to leave peacefully but quickly....

we even did a round of 'row row row your boat', along with african chants and 'run rabbit'....

the rabbit was called elliott. we Bonded. at around four in the morning, after being fed cups of tea, sandwiches and wine by the Food Fairies (ie random volunteers), we developed RIH, or rabbit induced hysteria. we decided the rabbit was the Unelected Leader (aka The Elder!) of climate camp, and was also in the pay of the police...

the pissing situation in the BAA carpark got a bit .. um.. sticky?

unfortunately there was a small area of hedge in the corner that turned into the toilet (no poo-ing though! thank god!)

the local hotels/petrol stations/maccyd's weren't letting people 'use the facilities', so there wasn't a lot of choice.

i went for a wee at about 2am, and before i could even get my pants down, a policwoman flashed her torch at me from the outside of the hedge, shouted that i was 'disgusting' and 'worse than an animal', and that i should 'use a toilet'. when i asked her if she had one i could borrow, she told me to 'go home'

one girl got literally dragged out of the hedge and dragged through the car park on her back for actually having the audacity to carry on and drop her trousers

can you sue the police for making you get cystitis? (joking!)

i think they *were* especially mean to the woman with kidney problems, who told them politely but firmly that there could be quite nasty medical probs for her if she wasn't allowed to pee. (whole other debate about protest/illegal action/whether you should do it or not if you have med probs... which i'm not going to even start getting into)

we had 'our lot' to sort out setting up accommodation and dispensing tea (and sandwiches. and the odd bit of wine to share around. and cigs for those that did) all night long. i'm being constructive and applying for jobs at the moment, would have been doing it on sunday too but i don't have a laptop, and i'm guessing the car park didn't have wifi

OH, and i don't think i do count as a crusty. especially as my most recent job title had the words 'corporate' and 'procurement' in it....

this is the last big thing i'm doing for a while, and i've pretty much got a free diary unti october now. i'm concentrating on sorting work and then a home (have a few places to crash for a couple of weeks if i can get some temping stuff for a short time just to get some cash together), got agency interviews this week and am being told by my mum it sounds 'dangerous' for me to head back up north, following some delightful phone calls to her from my ex-landlady....

love to you all xx

to all the dailymailreading naysayers, i'd suggest heading down there and meeting the dolescum dangerous anarchists yourselves. i've met scientists, teachers, care workers, researchers, and small children, and not encountererd a Bad Egg yet.

and WELL DONE to everyone who's been, is there, or is planning on making a late arrival.

zine submission appeal mark #2

2007-08-21T22:09:00.000Z

this is gonna be 'stickied' until the current deadline (august 21st).

i make a zine, it is called goldfish nation. it's a top publication. first issue was march 06 (technically - long story). next issue will be september.

contributions (words, pictures, other) are wanted.

clicky here for more info on previous and upcoming publications.

DIY (interpret that however you like) is the theme for the second issue. if you want to send something in, click here".

thank you xxx

ps. it's also going to come with a free cd, which is shaping up to be very very interesting :)

i also made a GN gig night at the Packhorse, Woodhouse Lane, Leedssicks, on 2nd August, to make up for the brudenell losses (see further below in this post). we covered costs, and made enough for a pint or two and a packet of tobacco. it was good.

a fundraiser gig was held on 27th july to try raise money to make issue 2 free...... it was at leeds brudenell social, and featured epic 45, tim and sam, home of the brave (also see their flyer below, and thee northcoats. a fab night was had by all, but unfortunately, minus thirty six quid profit was made.

if you would like to donate to the Make GN Free fund without having to come to any gigs at all, then please click on the above button. or if you would like to come to gigs and also donate, then please do that too.

thank you xx

profession: being a homeless

2007-08-13T18:23:00.000Z

i came home from Northern Green Gathering today. Appropriately enough, i attended the 'cash free living' workshop (top stuff), and found a couchsurfer.com (or something) buddy in brighton. i did the cause and effect distro (consisting of: fantastic zines, mooncups, re-useable feminine products (eek!) and corporate watch reports, publications, newsletters and poetry books. oh, and a poetry book by the wondrous mahalia).

it took me from 7pm on saturday to 1.30 am on sunday to get there by my own steam with everything in tow, and pitch my fabulously liberated from latitude pop up tent. my feet actually bled :(

i also did me poeting last night, and nearly fell over at the massive applause i got for the climate camp poem. my stage got invaded by someone i suspect to be part of Thick Richard (anyone familiar with a poem about a judge and drugs?). twice. but it all went good. even though, on a friend's advice, i postponed the nudity until the *last* line of the naked poem, instead of the first verse, and ended up getting all flustered. and i was offered lsd for the first time ever, but declined gracefully :)

and my bubble had to burst sooner or later. i came home to be informed that my current flatsitting has been cut short by a fortnight, and i'm out tonight. i currently have no fixed address. i'm on a sofa tonight, at my brother's tomorrow, and in london for the next fortnight.

armed with cv's a-plenty, a sharp suit, bar skills and admin superhero capabilities, i will be whoring myself out for any available employment opportunities, as well as saving the world by climate camping somewhere in the middle.
and seeing dave, which is ALL I WANT TO DO AT THE MOMENT.

bizarrely enough, i applied for some london based verrr ethical jobs over the weekend, before i knew about my 'homeless' status.

wow.

wish me a fuckload of luck. Goldfish Nation (the zine) is postponed until i locate the box it's stored in again (clue: it's *somewhere* at *someone's* house in leeds. doesn't narrow it down much), and have a permanentish base.

and, i doubt he reads this, but a MASSIVE thank you to my brother si for driving up from coventry tonight to help me shift stuff, sorting me out with transport to london, and generally being a Very Good Egg.

all in all it's gonna be ok, it might just be that life's a little precarious for a while.

the naked poet

2007-07-18T00:38:00.000Z

so. i have a new facet.
went to latitude (see next post) and i am now King Zo, Performance Poet Extraordinaire (aka The Nudest Woman Alive).

performed on the same stage as john hegley, roger mcgough, simon armitage, steve larkin, thick richard and murray lachlan watt. admittedly it was only open mic that i did, but hey. and i did it twice - the friday and the saturday - and only not thrice cos they ran out of time on the sunday slot :)

i may set up yet another myspace id. not written anything for twelve years, then i caught latitude madness and produced five over three days. and they're all a bit good :)

props solely consisting of my poetry book, some gaffertape-covered climate camp flyers in strategic places, a crown composed also of gaffertape and flyers, and a bucketload of enthusiasm.

the nekkid poem was saved til last :)

someone's already sent me a review:......
"the crowd explodes at the naked poet, who despite her nudity offers evocative verses on the nature of passion and desire, before urging the audience to strip" (and then it slightly misquotes the bit about hollywood - heh):

so kids, here you go.

naked

when i rule the world
(which i will, if i get my way)
i'll change the names of days of the week
so it's always Nakedday

(note: it's at this point that the frock comes off and the gaffer tape comes out....)

cos we've all got body beautiful
yes! me! and you! and you!
we should revel in our glory
and appreciate the view

cos censorship gets on my tits
naked does *not* mean rude
and if you're offended by god's good gifts,
well, frankly, you're a prude

cos hollywood will show you blood
and rape and hate and gore,
but show 'em a willy or lady bits
and they'll show you the door

so. people! join me! hear my cry!
prepare to take a bow!
show off your lumpy wobbly bits
and shed your clothing now!

photos provided by the lovely ms lisa rocket. more available here:

http://web.mac.com/therockets/iWeb/Site/Music%20and%20Festivals%20Home.html

var about_me= Math.random()*8 (apparently)

2007-07-07T17:12:00.001Z

mr jim bliss has set/been set another of them there meme things.
(also via tampon teabag and chicken yoghurt)

so kids.
eight bits of random about me, and one of them is barefaced lies.

1) i am the queen of cake. oreo cookie cheesecake and vegan choccie torte are specialities.

2) i lost my (boy) virginity in my boyfriend's grandmother's bed.

3) i only have one and a half nipples.

4) i have only ever been sacked from *one* job.

5) i have touched three people who have touched germaine greer. i haven't touched germaine greer though. yet.

6) i currently have over fifty vegetables steadily growing on my patio thing and meter cupboard.

7) my biggest ever regret is not saying yes to the lovely boy who asked me out on the bus years ago, and instead going home to twattish abusive ginger cuntyfuck ex.

8) i've slept with half a band. they were all twunts.

wanna join in? take it and run with it....

ps sorry it's all full of sauce. you can see where my mind's been recently, no?

ponygirls but wronger

2007-07-05T15:09:00.000Z

About us:

Zoe and Dave were discussing what to do one evening, and one of them (both are too generous and/or ashamed to claim ownership) flippantly suggested dressing up as ponygirls and taking photos.

Some filthy vodka later, a saddle had been created usinig a pizza box and a very sharp knife, as had a makeshift tail. A cowboy hat and cameraphone were uncorporately procured, and a harness was improvised with a belt.

Dave proved to be a loyal steed, and Zoe held the reins properly (fingers round, thumbs to the sky) and *everything*.

We encourage our fellow ponygirlsbutwrongers to grasp the bit between their teeth, prepare to mount and to get out their best horseshoes.

Who we'd like to meet:

By all means add us to your myspace friends. We'd *really* love you to send us *your* photos of *you* being ponygirls but wronger.

Post them on our (heavily moderated) myspace comments section, or just send them straight to us for a giggle.

No sauce, nudity or inflatable animals, please. We're British.

n.b. If you don't know what a ponygirl is, we recommend that you google. Very 18+ and not at all safe for work or those with a nervous disposition. Zoe and Dave cannot be held responsible for any distress caused, or damage emerging from tea being snorted out of your nose. Thank you.

www.myspace.com/ponygirlsbutwronger

irons in my fire

2007-07-05T13:58:00.000Z

everything's a bit mental at the moment. but in an exceedingly good way.
this is re-posted from elsewhere, but with a few extra bits thrown in. it's cold hard fact versus silver linings....

cold hard fact: my landlady's a nutter who keeps telling me she's coming home and wants me to find somewhere new, and then next day i get messages saying all's fine and not to worry.
silver lining: i'm actually taking her seriously, so i'm looking at gettin into the whole housing co-op thing and it seems to be heading in the right direction. it's been part of my life plan for years.

cold hard fact: i have a bizarre habit of sending a particular unfortunate individual messages when drunk/having a bad day/both.*
silver lining: they've not (afaik) put me on ignore. reading through them in the cold light of day is strange - i think i've appointed them as my unofficial/unwilling counsellor - they get splurged at, and i get to actually work out where i'm coming from, and make a wee bit more sense of myself..... (massive thanks to them, they know who they are. and no massive apology, cos i think i'm at about at the stage where i've stopped doing it unnecessarily)

cold hard fact: i'm not working at the minute
silver lining: it's freeing me up to hurtle cross country, to do self indulgent wanky art stuff i love and the like. it also means the world's my oyster as far as working out what i'm *going* to do (well, bar jobs wot need a degree)

cold hard fact: i've set myself a deadline of six weeks to collate and assemble an estimated 60-80 page homemade magazine
silver lining: i'm getting *amazing* contributions coming in and meeting some fantastic and inspiring people as i do it.

cold hard fact: i'm being a vaguely political slightly activist and not many people listen
silver lining: one or two *do*. and that's enough for the moment.

cold hard fact: i didn't get the rats i was meant to
silver lining: i'm hopefully going to have a CATURDAY!!!1! soon, and they won't eat the rats :)

cold hard fact: one of the people i really would like to have next to me at the moment is 180 miles away
silver lining: i'm seeing them in a couple of weeks FOR A WHOLE WEEK!!1!! and they're bringing their 'tongue joy' with them

cold hard fact: i have been drinking gin tonight
silver lining: not *toooooooooooo* much of it. my 'sent items' folder is clean as a whistle, and i can still type.

cold hard fact: i'm being a media person and it's very scary indeed.
silver lining: i'm pushing myself, i'm actually doing something positive and worthwhile, and it's going to get me good skillz.

cold hard fact: i'm on the verge of *say this very quietly indeed* falling in love
silver lining: it's ace. he's ace. we're ace. (and i know he'll read this :) )

i think that's enough for now.

edit: not quite.
i'm putting on a gig in july, and have just (i think) booked a cowboy pirate band.

* to spare the said individual further messages containing rabid 'waaah', www.glodfishnation.blogspot.com has come into existence.

bless my dad and his emails

2007-07-03T14:58:00.001Z

he's great on the intermaweb :)

sent me this just now:

Why Parents Drink

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to "Dad." With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.

Dear Dad: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am.

But it's not only the passion...Dad, she's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy.

In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don't worry Dad. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren. Love, Your Son

John
PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a report card. That's in my center desk drawer. I love you. Call me when it's safe to come home.

warren ellis...

2007-07-03T00:32:00.001Z

.... has had a link on drphunk's blog for many many moons.
i'm ashamed to say that i've never really checked it out before.

i did this weekend.

god yes.

the three most recent posts:

Fact Of The Day
Frell: not a real word do not use it in the real world you stupid stupid stupid fucking nerd.
You’re welcome.

Warren Ellis: Why, yes, I AM going to be in a foul fucking mood for the rest of the week and possibly the rest of my life. Why do you ask, ARSEGERM?

Warren Ellis: none pub = not enough smoky + no sit drink caffeine til brain worky go = fall over die

http://www.warrenellis.com/

do.

tank girl?

2007-07-02T22:38:00.001Z

Disarm DSEi
11th September 2007
One Day, Many Actions

Blockade? Party? Destroy? March? Smash? Infiltrate? Invade? Picket? Harass? Clown? Dance? Light candles? Fight? Lock on? Vigil? Disrupt?

You Decide!

From 11-14 September, DSEi (Defence Systems & Equipment international), the world's largest arms fair, returns to East London's ExCeL Centre.

Despite massive local opposition, and a huge bill to the taxpayer, arms dealers will once again be free to deal in death and destruction.

clicky linky for more info

on a very related note, the space hijackers currently have an appeal out:

WE WANT A TANK, WE NEED A TANK, HELP THIS GOOD CAUSE!

Who are the Space Hijackers?

The Space Hijackers are a bunch of misfit troublemakers who have been
kicking up a storm since 1999. We have held parties for 3000 people on the
London Underground circle line, we have tricked Nike Town into a half
price sale by printing our own “EVERYTHING INSTORE HALF PRICE TODAY”
T-shirts and tidying up. We have bought a boat and invaded an island in
the Docklands in London to host a pirate party and we have smashed the
Capitalists for six in our midnight Anarchist Vs Capitalist cricket
tournaments.

What’s this all about?

There comes a time in every activist groups development when they realise
that there is something missing in their set up. We have been striving to
cause trouble, save the world and wind up the powers that be for 8 years
now. However we still don't own a tank, or indeed any kind of armoured
personnel carrier.
Please help us right this wrong.

Why do you need a tank?

Every two years the ExCeL exhibition centre in East London plays host to
DSEi, Europe’s largest arms fair. Representatives from all of the major
arms manufacturers pimp their wares to rogue states, impoverished nations
and invading armies with the full support of the UK government. In fact
the police firearms squad tried to raid the fair in 2005 only to be turned
back by the government.

On the last two occasions we have attempted to infiltrate the fair,
embarrass the dealers and cause a ruckus. In 2003, we caught the trains to
the fair with the arms dealers. Suited up and looking business-like we
pulled prosthetic limbs (arms) from our cases and attempted to sell them
to the dealers. In 2005, worried about their obsession with phallic
objects such as rockets we attempted to sell sex toys to the dealers to
make up for their lack of “weapons capabilities”. Generally however we are
escorted out by the police.

This year we have decided to take things up a notch or ten. We want to buy
a tank, we want to drive it into the arms fair! We don’t want to be shoved
around by burly policemen any more. Can’t really say much more at the
moment, but you get the gist.

What about after the Arms Fair?

Assuming they haven’t tested their anti tank missiles on us. We are an
enterprising group, with mischief simply brimming out of our beer fuelled
brains. We have many many many plans for the tank in the future,
especially once we have kitted it out with a full sound system (which has
already been donated!)

How can I help?

You can help by lending us one of your tanks if you have any spare.
You can help by offering us free secure parking for our tank.
You can help by lending us your mechanic skills to turn our gas guzzler
into a bio diesel green tank.

Of course the simplest way of helping is by giving us a small amount of
money towards the tank or by passing this email on to your rich mates and
getting them to donate us a slightly larger amount of money.

visit the link below to donate and forward this to your friends

http://www.spacehijackers.org/tank

ace :)

wake up with stephen fry!

2007-06-25T02:08:00.000Z

yes, i know. he's gone twattishly advertish over the last few years, and gone down a peg or two in my esteem. but still, he's stephen fry. and i can't help but still love him.

imagine my joy at being sent a link to this:

http://voco.uk.com/(with audio samples)

Modern alarm clocks are dreadfully uncouth, aren't they? The more refined gentleman prefers to be coaxed gently out of bed by his faithful manservant. After all a few choice words are infinitely more civilised than anything today's clanging contraptions can muster.

So wouldn't it be great if a velvety-voiced butler were to awaken you each day. And not just any old butler but an incredibly witty, quintessentially British butler. Someone like, say, Stephen Fry. Well guess what? Thanks to the Voco Clock, Mr Fry will do exactly that, and you won't even have to liaise with his agent.

This elegant talking alarm clock represents a radical departure from newfangled timepieces as it initially lures sleepers out of boboland with gentle birdsong. This is followed by a discreet cough. Next, the comforting words 'Good morning, Sir' will stir you from your slumber. Then you'll hear one of many amusing little messages recorded by Stephen Fry, owner of the most mellifluous voice in Her Maj's Empire. We love 'em all but a few favourites include:

Finally an alarm will sound until the rosette button is pressed, at which point the Voco will show its contempt for all things modern by dismissing the beeps with something along the lines of: 'Ghastly noise, I agree, Sir.'

As well as nearly 50 different wake-up messages, the Voco Clock features a 90-second relaxation message to help ease you to sleep. Oh, the sheer luxury of it. It really is like having your own personal butler. Played by Stephen Fry. Living in a traditional-looking alarm clock. (We could do with a bit of shut-eye ourselves).

The perfect gift for all you lazy blighters and twittish idlers, the Voco is guaranteed to raise a titter every time you hear its inspired one-liners. So hurry up and hit the Buy Button. Because to quote the butler: 'Sir has a firm touch, but very fair.

it's my birthday next month :)

king me

2007-06-24T09:48:00.000Z

i'm starting an intensive campaign to become known as 'king zo'. i used to live with a girl called king jen, and i think it's a mightily good idea to create your own royalty.

on wednesday i went to meet/stalk a random ginger funny internets writing man at a gig.

he wasn't there.
neither was anyone else apart from the people performing.

instead of being king, i was temporarily prince charles for the night, having my own private concert.

there was strawberry beer. there was speed reading of the rime of the ancient mariner (complete with giggles). there was improv drumming and didgeridoo sax. there was playing of cymbals with violin bows.
it was all rather damned good.

these two charming men were responsible for it:

richard and paul .

there was also fine conversation about eating furniture, cooking schnitzel, and my cover as a kgb agent was rumbled. and they let me have a fuffle on the drums.

anyhows, they appear to be doing various things around west yorkshire in the near future.
enthralling, enrapturing, genuinely silly and very good indeed.
catch them if you can.

new love

2007-06-23T13:29:00.000Z

we met about a month ago.
after a wee while apart, we're together again.

they're environmentally conscious, kickassedly sassy and flexible. there when i need them, and make no demands on me :)

we had an intense, whirlwind start to our relationship. it was, admittedly, a little messy in parts. but very intimate very fast. and finger skillz were involved.

i can see this becoming a long term thing.

meet my new wonderful:

to quote my favourite 'living' magazine, knockback,

"Now when i use tampons they feel harsh and unnatural and wrong, and when friends ask me covertly for a tampon in the pub, i answer Mooncup darling, MooooncuP. I don't have to worry about access to tampons, or about disposing of them discreetly. I never have to ask some woman for two 20ps."

thumbs up, girls.

or rather, mooncups up girls :)

lovely things for laura

2007-06-21T00:52:00.000Z

i'm making my friend laura an internets present. she's doing a phd in cleverness and is all stressy at the moment. it's her birthday on friday, and she's spending the night doing writing stuff, with *a* glass of wine and some chocolate
i'm figuring she needs something nice and smiley for when she has five minutes distraction.
so.
www.lovelythingsforlaura.blogspot.com

if anyone has any recommendations for things to put on it, please comment here : )

the want list

2007-06-19T20:00:00.000Z

the previously mentioned stephen fry alarm clock.
minions.
cake.
*cake*.
for my landlady to never return.
dreads.
or pillarbox red hair.
or pillarbox red dreads.
ethicalanarchoprinter job.
more money.
more time.
less distance.
a tardis.
juggling lessons.
more yoyo frogs.

and finally:

the first big weekend

2007-06-18T09:38:00.000Z

dancing legs: 1
piggy backs (received): 1
piggy backs (given): 0.3
duvets: 1
fuckknuckle: spread the word. will make charts and graphs detailing where and when it's said.
random pirates from leeds: 2
bottles of jd drunk: 0.5
hippies met: many
trains caught: 2
stupid texts: 1
warm and fuzzy texts: some
alcohol consumed: too many
yoyo frogs acquired: 1
fingers working: 3.8
episodes of dr who watched: 0.25
downright rudery: 54779
freecycle emails waiting: 137
very nice indeed young ladies: 1
incredibly chuffed me: 1

hurtling

2007-06-16T00:28:00.001Z

right now i'm a big mess of tired and ache.

i did london last week.
today i did nottingham.

it involved getting up at ten to six, missing my coach, going to see my mum, getting a later coach and meeting a lovely boy.
and his lovely girlfriend.

i drank belgian chocolate, ate good food, ignored the fact i was penniless for want of an internet connection, got good hug, and had the best ever shoulder rub in a massive storm with exploding cars.

owing to pennilessness* and layabout friends not being where they said they'd be with money owed, i had to walk home from town in torrents of rain and be soaked to death.

i then went to see aforementioned layabout friend. he told me to watch a video, and that i would like it because it had cute animals in.

it was this.

i cried for five minutes.

tomorrow i'm hurtling to manchester at ouch o'clock in the morning for this. i'm taking a talking stick to thwack 'em on the head with.
afterwards i have a date with a lady, a duvet, three week's worth of dr who, and a bottle of whisky.

wish her luck.

*i kept writing this as 'penislessness'. call freud, now.

best weekend in teh world... evah!!1!!.!!

2007-06-12T08:27:00.001Z

this weekend was extraordinary.

i spent twenty five hours straight awake.

i spent about nine hours hurtling across the country.

i was a pirate for a lot of saturday.

here's a picture of a pirate that wasn't me:
here is a picture of a pirate that was me (i'm in the pink stripey):

i met a plethora of *very* pretty boys. yes. very. pretty. mmm...

i hung out with a very very inspiring woman named diane, who bought me cider and didn't mind my 'arrrr!'ing in public.

i was also a brixton dj (stage name, according to flyers, is 'more'. can't find one from saturday, so here's an old one to give you an idea of what i was doing).
oh, and here's me about to be dj'ing

i laughed so hard i though i had damaged myself.

i forgot geraniums, and sacrificed three good things to the god of london.

i met a yorkie called kali, and tried to kidnap her.:
skills! i got *lots* of new skills.

i had *delightful* company

i gawped at an unlikely named six foot tall mentalist for several hours, and almost missed my coach home due to said gawpiness. want. lots.

i cannot has unlikely named six foot tall mentalist :(

most worrying of all, i'm starting to understand why no quarter published this....

tim and sam

2007-06-05T11:34:00.000Z

http://www.timandsam.com. click for aural beauty.

sounds like:

Something you'd listen to on a train....like the end of summer, when things aren't so hot anymore, but the sun still warms your face in the evening and when you close your eyes, you can only see orange and golds.

about their name:

"Some of you eager beavers may have noticed a bulletin asking for opinions on a name change. We received about 2345591 messages telling us not to, so we will keep it the same. However, we like the idea of a flexible name. Here are some acceptable alternatives:

Tim and Sam's Tim and the Sam Band
The Tim and Sam Band
Tim and Sam's Tim and Sam Band
Tim and Sam's Tim and Sam Band with Tim and Sam
That band with lots of Tim and Sams
TASTATSBWTAS

If you have any other name queries then please ask here. Word.

x"

a couple of reviews:

TaSTatSBwTaS are a guy called Tim and his band, of which there are usually six, none of which are called Sam. When they play live, half the members wear T-Shirts with 'Tim' written on them, no one wears a T-Shirt with 'Sam' written on it. Only one member, Tim, is called Tim. They make instrumental music with acoustic guitars, clarinets, cellos, glockenspeils and ahhhhs. The sound is organic, melodious and, well, cute; kinda like a forest saying goodnight to all the little woodland creatures. In my experience, it's rare to find a band that attempts to channel youthful awkwardness into something so graceful and unashamedly uncool--I think it's great.

*****

More Sams next, and some Tims too, with Manchester's daftest named band of the moment TIM AND SAM'S TIM AND THE SAM BAND WITH TIM AND SAM - although how many of each comprise the six people onstage (two of whom are female, although I suppose they could be Sams too) is unclear. Nope - after a bit of research it transpires this Sam is actually Tim's imaginary friend. Still with us? Good. Tim and his real friends play lovely indie-flavoured melodic post-rock with gorgeous peals of acoustic guitars, a clarinet and a glockenspiel propped up on an ironing board. This seems, for some reason, quite important - in a genre where it sometimes seems bands are trying to out-pretentious each other they seem warm, organic and very down-to-earth, and the good-natured feel of the whole evening continues as Troubles' Mike Siddell joins them on violin towards the end. The only vocals are a few gentle "ahh"s but they tell us one track called "Seeds" is about gardening, which seems to fit the rather pastoral spirit of it all; they are justifiably well received and soon everyone's forgotten that it's dark and horrible and pissing down outside.

tim's take on it all:

Hello there. I'm Tim. I like making music. Approximately 11 years and 32 days ago, I picked up a guitar....and ever since then I've been writing songs. As time went by I started to try writing with other people who play other instruments. These include Bass, Glockenspiel, Marimba, Banjo, Ukulele, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, Piano and drums. We try to sing a bit too, but it usually only goes as far as ahhs.

This summer we decided to try and record some songs to show off our skills. They've all been done at my house, with a little help from a few kind friends.

P.S Sam is my imaginary friend. He helps us write songs and get to sleep at night. He also plays guitar and writes some rather ace songs, but we never really got round to doing it together.

listen and fall in love.

morning hair

2007-06-04T09:12:00.001Z

this is what happens when you try to grind coffee with a slight hangover, morning hair, and a new zealander in the kitchen:

sharing the love :)

cheers, ms kiwigoddess, for obliging with the camera.

arrrrrr!

2007-05-29T18:16:00.000Z

A horde of pirates needed, as ships crew and boarding parties to loot and pillage Camden lock on Saturday 9th June.

You will need:

Your own pirate outfit
Grog
A sense of fun
To be able to reliably commit to the event.

The climate pirates intend to highlight the injustices of the rich nations plundering the poor. While developed nations (like the UK) emit huge amounts of CO2 the developing nations suffer the consequences (famine, drought, flooding etc).

The climate pirates will be sailing under a WDM flag, but it will be so much fun that everyone should come. See http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaigns/climate/

Camden lock is entirely supportive of the event and so (looting and pillaging) aside the day will be a legal and colourful way to make your voice heard. Please come along.

If you can commit to help out on the day please email Richard:
emptyhand17 at yahoo.com by Sunday 3rd June.

If you can’t commit but would like to find out more, then please email me to say you’re interested and we will email round final details nearer the time.

Tell friends; bring your mum, parrots, pirate songs, people you meet in the street, your own plank, and yourself.

It’s going to be good!

more from climate camp

2007-05-26T17:45:00.001Z

(click on the poster to see the full size pdf)

you are the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserve

2007-05-26T12:23:00.000Z

a friend put this song on a cd for me a couple of years back, and i've only just dug it out after a *long* time... it's brilliant.

and there's a video too. not so ace, but worth it for the singer/frock combo (want.)

so. yes. johnny boy, and you are the generation....

seduction tips for serial hangoverists

2007-05-25T18:01:00.000Z

Do:
talk delighted rubbish at your intended target
invite them to help tackle putting the duvet cover on
invest in considerable quantities of wine, chocolate and strawberries, and possibly have fridge magnet letters at your disposal
have an evening of sparkling wit and hilarious misunderstandings

Don't:
throw your drink over them
tell them that you've loved them from afar for years
make it immediately clear that you're a complete mentalist
ask, when half awake, if you can 'have a huggle'. (there are no adequate words to describe the 'sink through the floor' feeling)

the national - the astoria - 22nd may

2007-05-25T12:06:00.000Z

(ir)regular readers will be cheered to note that my rubbish camera has come out of the woodwork again. sadly not in its usual capacity - there aren't any gig photos, and my scanner's broken.....

support was from the annuals, who were okay-ish. the national's set is as above... and as ever they didn't disappoint.

shedloads of fan reviews available here.

the rest of the night went a bit wonky.
we got offered aftershow passes, and seeing as last time i didn't go, i couldn't really turn it down.... taking into account that i was fairly drunk, brimming with hormones (mother nature decided to inexplicably delay my period by nearly a week and i'd already been hysterical at coronation street the day before) and harboring bad grudges against something that was done without malice or bad intent, i then proceeded to begin to royally fuck things up.

had a shouty/stroppy/accusatory rant at one of the people i love most in the world, really upset them*, walked off and then sobbed hysterically at my friends for half an hour in the bar.

then i decided it was time to blow my nose, order a whisky and, fuck it, start drinking with my favourite band in the world.

tall violinist dude padma newsome (birrova long time hero) has not only cut all his hair off but also got himself married to someone lovely. i spent most of the night talking his ear off, buying him tequila and trying to persuade them all to play a gig in leeds (to no avail).

i also managed to acquire matt (the singer)'s autograph on my diary....

.... i think it's about this point that things start getting a little hazy.....

pocket and me merrily distributed fake empire stickers to all and sundry, i've got a mysterious entry scrawled in my diary (james alderman at live nation, who are you and why are you there?), i had a ball (as far as i remember), got called special (in a non-inverted-comma-way) and apparently threw me beverage all over mr newsome as i was leaving.

sorry bout that, dude.

the next morning included very hungover frock shopping, ill advised haircuts and seeing random royston vaseyers on the escalator at kings cross. relatively painless journey home.... and then time for the ridiculousness to start up again....

* merrick, i'm very very very very very sorry.

spot the difference

2007-05-25T09:26:00.000Z

camp for climate action announced yesterday that this year's camp's going to be at heathrow. this is their press release:
"This summer thousands of people will gather near Heathrow Airport at this year's Camp for Climate Action for eight days of education, sustainable living and direct action against the root causes of climate change.

Last year's camp was in the shadow of Drax power station, the UK's largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. This year's target is the largest emitter full stop. The effect of Heathrow's planes on the climate is equivalent to 31 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year - more than most countries.

Aviation is the fastest growing source of UK emissions. The camp at Heathrow will oppose the lunacy of the government's airport expansion plans, target industry giants profiteering from the climate crisis, and raise awareness of the need to fly less.

'All our efforts to tackle climate change are undone by operations like Heathrow. It's time to get serious. Instead of expanding airports, we should be talking about closing them,' said Lindsey Harris of the Camp for Climate Action.

Mass direct action will disrupt the activities of the airport and the aviation industry, but in the interests of public safety there will be no attempt to blockade runways.

Ben Davis of the Camp for Climate Action said: 'Governments and corporations are doing the very opposite of what climate science demands. Instead of reducing aviation, they are forcing massive expansion, locking us into increasing emissions. With the camp, we are moving debate and action about climate change away from what's good for growth and the economy to what's good for people and our fragile ecosystems. '

The camp will be a catalyst for the burgeoning network of people who want to take action on climate change and the huge impact of aviation. It is forging links with local residents resisting the building of a third runway and the destruction of their communities and other aviation campaign groups.

The Camp will take place from 14-21 August, near Heathrow airport. The exact location of the site will be announced nearer the time."

the daily hate've taken it upon themselves to, um, translate this....

"Thousands of green campaigners are planning to cause massive disruption at Heathrow airport.
"Eco-warriors" say they will set up a Greenham Common-style protest camp near the perimeter fence.
They intend to use it as a base to disrupt flights at the peak of the tourist season in an attempt to focus attention on climate change and global warming.

At a secret meeting in London at the weekend, protesters said they would occupy land around Heathrow between 14 to 21 August.
From there they will threaten the boundary and attempt to cause havoc inside the airport - or at least tie up hundreds of police.

Protesters at the Camp for Climate Action say they are planning:
• To infiltrate the terminal buildings by posing as passengers and then cause chaos once inside.
• Blockade roads and railways into Heathrow.
• Occupy airline offices and take "direct action" against freight companies and firms that supply food for passengers.

Up to three million passengers could be affected. One anarchist said: "There will be thousands of us there and they will need thousands of police to stop us.
"The police will be in a no-win situation. If they allow us to reach our targets at the airport there will be massive disruption and if they try to stop us, there will also be massive disruption."

The activists, who include veterans of May Day riots and the Reclaim the Streets campaign, were behind a "climate camp" at the Drax power station in North Yorkshire last summer.
More than 650 people took part in that protest, leading to 41 arrests and an estimated policing bill of £4 million.
Details of the Heathrow action will be circulated to anarchist groups at next month's G8 meeting in Germany.
Campaign organisers are understood to be trying to rent land near the airport for the camp from residents who are opposed to the Heathrow expansion plans."

nice journalism.

latitude

2007-05-16T21:39:00.000Z

ok, so i crumbled.

the ticket is booked, and i guess i just have to start looking for a job four days earlier :)

the book club's choice of book, stella duffy, bill bailey, dylan moran, john hegley*, thick richard, simon armitage....

and then you get to the music lineup :)

info on the whole thing is here.

i'm going with a whisky-drinking national-loving mentalist. fifty times worse than me. god help me.

a mars a day

2007-05-16T20:04:00.000Z

...helps you ingest calves' stomachs :)

mars are making an interesting move by using rennet in their products. not only does this lose the veggie market, but hindu's as well...

anyway.
the vegetarian society are encouraging people to contact Masterfoods Customer Services on 0845 045 0042 to express their concern.

and so am i.

apt

2007-05-15T14:37:00.000Z

stupid

2007-05-12T07:42:00.000Z

i woke up at ridiculous o'clock this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. i was also still a *tiny* bit drunk. so it made perfect sense to decide to go take pictures of the sun rising...

as soon as i shut the door, i realised my keys were still on the sofa.

thank you very much, mr man-in-boxer-shorts-in-flat-c, for buzzing me in half an hour ago. and thank you me, for forgetting to lock the internal door (but i MUST remember to lock it in future!).

i did make friends with some squirrels in the park, a very spangled girl on her way home and a gang of four people who debated whether they could fit through the catflap to get me back in...

what's wrong with this picture?

2007-05-10T12:01:00.000Z

plenty of things here

stuff and things

2007-04-23T23:16:00.000Z

last weekend i helped a friend move house. it's the first time i've been back to manchester since i moved away from the area, so it was a bit weird... the hourly train back to the village of the damned (as it's now known) was leaving just as i got the the station on sunday morning, and it felt *so* nice knowing that i'd never have to catch it again..

we had drinks on the saturday in the village, and had a random man come play his harmonica at us. one of my companions decided that it was my birthday, so i had a 'special' tune played for mewhile i tried to disappear into the ground.
her new flat is fantabulous and has a pinball machine. it doesn't quite compete with my speakers in the bathroom and perpetual bookshelves, but comes close.
i spent the saturday evening drinking wine and having fags on the doorstep. at one point i believe i was having a conversation in russian with a random group of strangers.. i think i got to bed (well, sofa) about 2am.. i got woken up in the morning by people in the living room. i blearily asked one of them what time it was, and was told half past six. i asked again ten minutes later in case they were joking.

they weren't.

the longest few hours of my life followed, while we waited for a pub to open for breakfast.
proper breakfast, that is. i couldn't believe it that people were ordering jugs of cocktails at that time of day. what a sheltered life i lead *sigh*

on the monday i went to see josh t pearson and the devastations. jtp was very very beardy and very very good. devastations were a bit disappointing - we left before they finished their set.

i bumped into two drummers at the gig who i've had a 'thing' with in the past... the first i've not seen for a few years and it was fantastic to see again; the second i've not seen for a year, since they gave me cake for breakfast and were exceedingly lovely.... and just as lovely when they came over to say hi....

i panicked, ran off to the loo about 2 minutes after they came to talk to me, and came back to find my "friend" who'd accompanied me cackling, going 'i think they fucked off cos i wouldn't talk to them....'. didn't see them again after that, and lost their number many moons ago.
rubbish.

in between then and now, i've been wrangling with the brambles in my garden. i've been here a month and not really done anything... so far i've got about a metre squared of bare soil, fifty million metres squared of brambles, weeds and bricks to sort through, and the sparsest lawn in the world. the dandelions and nasty sticky weedy things are also having their revenge. grrrrr.

i have (in seed trays) peas, carrots and sprouts. i'm trying to find out if it's too late to sort out potatoes too.
i will become partway to living the good life if this works - hurrah!

other pots on the boil: a night this month in leeds with r, and goldfish nation ziney thing getting out there in july - get in touch if you'd like to contribute :) the theme's DIY....
in fact it's got a whole page thingy (couldn't be bothered to do a 'proper' one, so it's on myspace for the time being). clicky here

*edit: plans for *getting* aforesaid drummer got as far as: lassoo / big net / bear trap.
then i got bored and gave up.
plenty more musicians in the sea and all that....

so worry not, all things are well

2007-04-12T10:42:00.000Z

with an optimistic title, let's plunge straight into the gloom....

mr kurt vonnegut died on wednesday.
"All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber."
"Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse."
i need to re-read what i've got, and get hold of what i haven't.....

also, johnny cash's old house is also sadly no more. i love the quote from the neighbour, that it was maybe "the good Lord's way to make sure that it was only Johnny's house".

on the good side of things......

a couple of weeks ago i started to receive strange (well, strange for him) texts from one of my friends. little bits of randomness: 'i leaned against the wall, the wall leaned away'. 'so worry not, all things are well' - the latter appeared quite a few times (and at all hours of the night).
this was followed by emails in 32pt text proclaiming 'i'm half awake in a fake empire' (normally sent at about the same time that he rolled into work)....
eventually the explanation appeared: 'boxer .... so good.'

i can't remember the last time an album i *really* wanted to hear leaked weeks in advance.
i kept up my resolve for a couple of days, and then cracked.
soulseek provided.

boxer's reportedly caused a few people in leeds to dance through hyde park, spontaneously burst into tears at bus stops, spend their entire time in a club listening to their walkman and generally feel that all is alright(ish) with the world again... hurrah.

anyway, a couple of tasters (and thanks to the lovely people who posted the tracks up):
fake empire
squalor victoria
green gloves
apartment story

*edit: the whole album is now available to stream at http://www.myspace.com/thenational

moved (again)

2007-04-07T11:50:00.000Z

my housewarming presents to myself are:

3013

christopher rd #2

oh, and a record player.

hurray!

urban wildlife

2007-03-19T19:21:00.000Z

the other week i went to see christopher campbell's 'epoch' exhibition.

the blurb says: "Epoch is a series of paintings that follow a theme of ambiguous storytelling. They depict England awash in a pseudo apocalyptic environment. Views of suburbia swathed in epic disturbing light deserted by man. Animals venture into view, horses and livestock normally tethered or penned in roam brazenly. Wildlife encroaches from the shadows, Deer unabashed stand in plain sight, almost ‘posing’ in the middle of what would normally be a busy street.

While the animal kingdom is foraging or just lauding their supremacy. The question of what has happened to the unfortunate previous inhabitants of these brick and tarmac colonies remains. There are clues, epic gargantuan atmospheric skies tell of what has possibly caused such an event, and left a path for new masters to flourish. It is these clues that suggest radioactivity or a geo climatic shift that politicises and socialises the context of these paintings.

The eradication of the human strain in these realist paintings is born from a pulp of source material, with books, such as ‘The Day Of The Triffids’ and ‘On The Beach’ and films ‘Twelve Monkeys’ and ‘28 Days Later’

The scenes are suggestive, tell a yarn of something that has yet to be written, something that may never exist. The paintings are improbable but not impossible. The aim of this exhibition is create a world that is fantastical, beautiful, yet darkly disturbing."

some of the pics are available here.

i managed to time my visit smack-bang in the middle of a creative writing workshop that they were holding, based on the artwork, so missed a few of the paintings in fear of tripping over desks and landing headfirst in someone's notebook. i found it a bit hit-and-miss - some of his stuff really grabbed me, other pieces did absolutely nothing for me.

one that i *did* like, though, was 'new dawn':

and, in the way that these things do, life started imitating art (a little bit).
i've seen foxes in the middle of town, badgers in someone's garden, the whole urban wildlife thing doesn't surprise me that much. or didn't.
on my way home from work last week, i saw a peacock wandering the streets. in the middle of a housing estate in the suburbs of bradford.

who on earth loses a peacock??

my mind is boggling.

meme

2007-03-08T22:30:00.000Z

and yet more distraction. taking one of jim bliss's recent posts as inspiration, you're gonna get one of those blog meme things (i did one last year. looking back at it, since then i've done two of the things to do before i die (and am vaguely on the way to doing another), three of the things i things i 'could not' do, and one thing that didn't expect to do again. to replace it, i'd say that one thing i'll never be able to do again - comfortably, at least - is watch 'league of gentlemen'.

so. first lines. actually, first two lines, cos i'm in a kind of subversive mood.

1)We all got born so afraid
We still search for words to describe that pain – silver mount zion: hang on to each other - shattered star

2) Pass me that lovely little gun
My dear, my darling one - nick cave & the bad seeds: o children – jim bliss

3) Cross the street from your storefront cemetary
Hear me hailing from inside and realize

4) I wake up every day to see her back again
Screaming my name through the astral plane

5) I invested it all, you threw in a dime
It's not good enough, it's not good enough

6) Busy at home
I was happy for a while

7) I'm put together beautifully
Big wet bottle in my fist, big wet rose in my teeth – the national: all the wine – shattered star

8) I'm trying not to stare, it's too late
The blankets over there, if you like

9) There's the same hotel, and we can go there now
We can go there now if you want to

10) Alexander, our older brother
Set out for a great adventure – arcade fire: neighbourhood #2 (laika) – shattered star

101st post, apparently

2007-03-08T18:00:00.000Z

i'm distracting myself from filling in an application form at the moment. if i get the job, i'll fall over in shock but be a very happy bunny indeed.

it's all change again here. i stop working in corporate procurement (even if it *is* public sector, it's still pants) three weeks tomorrow. i'd like to put this on the noticeboard before i leave though:

i'm sure they find me weird too... i don't find them weird in the traditional sense (well, apart from the world's hairiest man who breathes loudly through his nose and somehow makes me feel physically sick to be around), i find them bizarre in that they actually seem to be passionate about what they're doing, while i can't muster up the slightest bit of enthusiasm for making sure that my local council gets a tiptop deal on water coolers.

i'm moving in *counts on fingers* twenty three days. i'm going to be a leodian again, after all my previous hissy-fitting-flouncing-off-ness. no matter how shit leeds felt, other places have proved to be shitter..... i've got a fantastic flat to move into, the offer of a pink bike and possibly taking on an allotment; the prospect of all of which are making me pretty happy.

instead of doing the whole 'moving and thinking everything's going to be *fantastic*' thing, i'm looking at it as 'i'm moving and everything's going to be ok'.

fingers crossed it will be.

on my list of things to do are:
start swimming
learn to knit
start up a night again
do another zine
get a job that makes me actually feel ok about going to work
laugh, smile, get drunk and fall over (in a *good* way) a hell of a lot more than i have done recently.
sort out putting this blog onto wordpress, cos me and google blogger sure aren't getting on too well together. grrr.

back from the back of beyond

2007-03-01T23:11:00.000Z

well, i figured it was about time i stopped neglecting blogging.

lots of ridiculousness and fuckuppery since the last post, but i won't bore you (if anyone reads this) with the details...

except for one thing. i'm not entirely sure how, but i've managed to wind up in the dullest job i've ever encountered. i recently had the misfortune to have to attend an 'away day', where we (well, everyone else) spent the afternoon discussing 'team strategies' and then had a councillor turn up to tell us all about 'snaring suppliers and seeing the whites of their eyes'. ugh. i thought the pub quiz afterwards might be a kind of saving grace, but no. it turned out to be five pages of poorly-photocopied pictures of celebrities when they were little. there were seventy two of them to try and identify. i couldn't leave fast enough...
i've handed in my notice (i did it before the awayday - such foresight!). no idea what i'll end up doing instead, but at least it's not gonna be what i'm doing now.

on a nicer note, thanks to the wonder that is norman records' weekly email update, i stumbled across a writeup for ballads of the book. "the concept is that writers send in poetry and they are in turn put into a song by recording artists... all freed up from the lyric side of things to concentrate on the tunes." musicians include james yorkston, aidan moffat, sons and daughters, malcolm middleton, vashti bunyan, king creosote and idlewild, with writing from ali smith, ian rankin, edwin morgan and a host of others..... i was starting to wonder whether it'd be one of those things that'd be a nice idea but terrible in practice, but the couple of tracks i've listened to on the website are absolutely fantastic. hopefully the rest (when it arrives) will be just as good.

now for the obligatory the national mention... they have a new album out on the 21st...

...and are playing london astoria on may 22nd.
i'm quite looking forwards to may.

right - that's more than enough excitement for one post - i'm off to make my mind up whether i like grinderman or not.

news

2006-06-09T23:11:00.000Z

well, trawling through today's news has been interesting...

oxfam and the government appear to be having a bit of a lovers tiff at the moment. after championing last year's make poverty history campaign, selling ethically produced wristbands and pronouncing the results of the g8 summit to be "not an end, but a beginning" ("One thing is sure - lives will be saved and lives transformed because of the steps taken at Gleneagles and in the finance ministers' discussions that preceded it"), Oxfam now seem a little less sure that their enthusiasm was warranted....
"After lobbying from Whitehall, Oxfam agreed to make changes to its report on the progress made by the G8 nations in the year since they agreed at the Gleneagles summit to double aid by 2010. The non-governmental organisation (NGO) had been planning to name and shame Britain, France and Germany by saying in the report that aid had "actually decreased" in 2005 but left this out of the final text." (source: bbc news)

the independent declare "Like many an alpha male, David Cameron is visiting Liverpool in pursuit of willing females. The Tory leader's optimistically-titled "women2win" campaign will launch its recruitment campaign at a Scouse branch of the "very funky" restaurant chain EstEstEst later this month.
"We are shedding the old image, and showing the new face of Cameron's Conservatives," claims a (spam) e-mail invitation. "Theresa May MP, Shadow Leader of the Commons and wearer of gorgeous shoes, will be there. So come along, enjoy a glass of wine, meet people and find out how Women2Win can help you."
see - we don't care about policies or anything clever like that - obviously we are but simple women. however, tell us that someone with nice taste in footwear's gonna be there, offer us a drink, and we'll bite your hand off to attend....

out of curiousity, i've signed up for their email newsletter... a host of invites to similar events has appeared in my inbox, each one stating that the venue is either "cool" or "funky", and promising that ms may (seemingly the only woman candidate the tories will let out in public?) will be there... and for us "new girls who want to know more" (who "might be interested in becoming an mp or getting further involved, but know very little about the world of politics") there are two informal events (with a buffet supper! super!) with a panel of "experts in their field" (mp's and party officials, apparently). 'scuse me while i sharpen up my shoe collection in preparation.....

demands are apparently being made for a secret id card report by the dwp into how the cards may fight identity fraud to be published. having previously refused a lib dem request to do so in 2004, richard thomas (information commissioner) now thinks it is in the public interest. seeing as it's all been irreversibly passed through parliament, it seems that the cat's ready to be let out the bag..

on a related note, no2id are recommending renewing your passport asap:
"Did you know that, from October of this year, as preparation for the ID scheme, ALL first-time passport applicants will have background checks and be interviewed by officials at one of the government's 69 new 'enrolment centres'? This will include your children as they reach 16. Before long it will include you too, when you renew your passport. And you will be fingerprinted as well.
So, unless you need it soon, you should renew your passport NOW. If you wait till autumn, you risk giving up personal data to be used for the government identity database. Pay £51 for a 10-year passport while you can. The charge for ID registration and a record for life will be at least £93. The website www.renewforfreedom.org explains in more detail. There's a fact-sheet there that you can download and pass on to others."

and on a non-newsworthy note, i had the misfortune to be subjected to this year's big brother for the first time earlier this evening. good god - i wanted to scoop my eyeballs out and tear my ears off, but unfortunately i was a guest in someone else's house and didn't want to make a mess. the apparent appeal of the programme (along with world cup fever) remains a complete mystery to me, and i intend to keep it that way.
tonight's thrilling viewing was the introduction of a 'golden housemate' - channel 4 whored together with scumpigs nestle to hide 'golden tickets' in kitkats giving a "lucky" few the opportunity to be up for random selection to join the big brother house. the woman who got in had 60 boxes of baby-killers confectionery bought for her, and when she didn't find a five minutes of fame opportunity inside, got her husband to bid £4,000 on ebay for an unwanted ticket. that combined with a squealing, gurning selection of existing 'housemates' made me feel queasy. yet another reason to put a mallet through the tv screen...

my justification as to why i've not done that (yet)? pure self indulgence - dr who's on tomorrow night...

the national & devastations - london koko - 31st may

2006-06-04T13:35:00.000Z

definitely the best gig i've been to this year. possibly the best in quite a few years.

devastations were, as expected, astounding. i found out after that they've cancelled the rest of their current tour, and seeing as i missed their first manc date last month, i'm thanking my lucky stars that i got to catch them in london.

they kicked off with previous crimes, and worked their way through loene, coal, the night i couldn't stop crying, i don't want to lose you tonight, and terrified, amongst others (and not in that order). sharp suits, passionate playing and heartbreak aplenty. a spine-tingling what's a place like that doing in a girl like you? brought the set to an end, following the news that they've been snapped up by beggars banquet...

the national, well, i don't really know what to say. i saw them supporting the editors in manchester on monday (well, i saw them, and buggered off before editors came on stage...) and they were excellent even in their limited timeslot, throwing in one of their new songs. koko was the largest audience they've played that have gone specifically to see *them*. some my fellow concert-goers had come from italy, australia, the usa and sunny halifax...

of course they were brilliant, of course i loved every second, of course i am kicking myself a *tiny* bit for not sticking around for the promised passes to the aftershow drinking shenanigans (but in retrospect, i had thoroughly good company for the evening, so i think i made the right choice...)

so, i won't even attempt to describe things. instead, here's the setlist (new songs are asterisked)

secret meeting
lit up
geese of beverley road
baby we'll be fine
abel
wasp nest
murder me rachael
all the wine
karen
looking for astronauts
king me*
daughters of the soho riots
driver surprise me
mr november
about today

city middle
cold girl fever
start a war*
available

the letter

2006-05-24T09:58:00.000Z

"The Letter" (p j harvey)

Put the pen
To the paper
Press the envelope
With my scent
Can't you see
In my handwriting
The curve Of my g?
The longing

Oh

Who is left that
Writes these days?
You and me
We'll be different
Take the cap
Off your pen
Wet the envelope
Lick and lick it

Oh

I need you
The time is running out
Oh baby
Can't you hear me call?

It turns me on
To imagine
Your blue eyes
On my words
Your beautiful pen
Take the cap off
Give me a sign and I'd come running

Oh
It's you
I want you

the power of the (hand)written word is not to be underestimated.

musical mayhem

2006-05-19T16:07:00.000Z

i've been avoiding the news for a while, so you'll have to excuse the lack of politick/current affairs/ranting and the like at the moment.

however, i *have* been embracing the manchester music scene with open arms and sloppy kisses.

so far, i have seen morrigan, a traditional celtic folk band, do an excellent set at olivers bar in ashton under lyme, and somehow got meself a dj'ing slot. and they've offered to *pay* me to do it, after a trial run. lordy. i also discovered that the gents toilets have the best acoustics in lancashire, as the band, myself and their manager performed an impromptu acapella gig there. great stuff.....

wednesday was dreams money can buy's night at the roadhouse. thick richard provided excellent ranty verse (such as 'dyke on a bike', 'school for ugly girls' - which apparently once resulted in one of them being slapped and called a cunt by an enraged woman who climbed on stage - and a fantastic one about setting out to trap bungle from rainbow, luring him with coco pops, skinning him and hanging his bloody severed head from the fireplace. also on the hit list were the teletubbies' po, ermintrude the cow, and barney the dinosaur was threatened with extinction....).

next up were the incredible 'holy fuck'.. holy fuck indeed. sadly i couldn't afford the shocking pink knickers with their name on them from the merch stall.

top of the bill was buck 65 - what i saw was absolutely brilliant, but i had to leave for the last train home about four songs in. bugger.

last night was the dry bar, to see eddyfink unfortunately, me & me local neighbour decided to sit in the bar upstairs while we waited for their slot to come up... went back down at the alloted time to see them, to find them coming off stage, as one of the other bands had thrown a strop and demanded the running order to be shuffled.

plans are underfoot for a manchester weekender in august - a quiet/acoustic day at dry bar and a loud one at the roadhouse. watch this space for more details

Anti corporate poetry book - SUBMISSIONS

2006-05-16T12:50:00.000Z

This poem is sponsored by...

Poems in the face of corporate power

Deadline for submissions: 1st July 2006

Calling all writers and worriers, lyricists and layabouts, radicals and revolutionaries, thinkers and storytellers, performers and poets...

Corporations are the dominant institution of our time. They are omnipresent in our lives, from the branding posted on every street corner and bus stop, to our clocking on and clocking off for the company that pays our bills, to the TV we turn to to numb our minds after the daily grind. But the impact of corporations on our lives, societies, ecosystems and economies is strangely absent from mainstream cultural debate.

'This poem is sponsored by...' will be a world changing collection of poetry: a rich source of inspiration and insight to help us to take action.

The collection will be launched in Autumn 2006 to celebrate 10 years of Corporate Watch, the leading anti-corporate research group. www.corporatewatch.org.uk

Submissions

We welcome writing from anyone in any creative form: poetry, prose, songs, lyrics.

Deadline for submissions: 1st July 2006

Please send your work to: Poetry submissions, Corporate Watch, 16b Cherwell Street, Oxford, OX4 1BG or submissions@corporatewatch.org

You cannot have art for arts sakeart must do something
Ken Saro Wiwa

(thank you to re-claire the streets for the info)

the church of pie

2006-05-15T23:11:00.000Z

myspace is proving interesting for many reasons. one of them is this:

a man called ray, whose path i may or may not have crossed in leeds, has started his own religion. here goes.

We currently have a membership of five - "Grand Master Pie" Ray, and 4 Pieciples.
and to quote the man himself,

"If any of you out there are interested in being a part of it, drop me a line. Here's the initial lowdown:
1- It's called "The Church of Pie"
2- Your God is a pie based product
3- You must eat a slice of God everyday, thus filling you with warmth and a loving glow.
4- You should be nice to people who are nice to you
5- Don't be a superficial cunt
6- Have a sense of humour
7- It's free, but you have to bring a pie
8- There is no heaven, but when you die, a new pie based product will be created in your honour.

And thats it. We meet once in a blue moon. Everybody welcome except if you're a twat (I have the right to decide who is and isn't a twat, possibly resulting in me not allowing myself to enter). So there you are. Join "The Church of Pie" Piece be with you.

This is The Church of Pie, pie of the month. It's chocolate Death Pie, with a pi symbol on it made from melted Caramac bars.

We're looking for new members, you don't have to be female to join but yes, it will help as The Church of Pie is easily corrupted.Slice be with you."

sign up via his myspace blog.

moved

2006-05-08T08:04:00.000Z

i have a new home. it's verr nice.

i did indeed have pizza and champagne on the first night. and strawberries in the champagne. forgot to change into me frock though. oh well.

the move went without too many hitches, the cats are settled in (and out) and i've made friends (well, am on nodding terms) with the three large spiders in the shed. i realised last night that you can have starlit baths thanks to the skylights upstairs too...

one set of neighbours have done the whole introducing-themselves/'if-there's-anything-you-need' speech, which i've only ever read about in books up til now. bob (cat) saw his first ever horse going down the road yesterday, and i'm sure i'm driving the other neighbours insane with my whistling kettle and penchant for cups of tea in the wee small hours... there's no cashpoint in my village, you have to go to the next one for that (they have bright lights and the heady glitz of a focus store and a kfc too). as far as i know, the only 'chain' store we got here is a londis - everything else is local/independent. we do have a four lane bowling alley and pool club though.

i think i'm liking village life. the only downside so far is evil dialup interweb connection - soon to be broadbanded up though.

my geography's appalling, i'll make no bones about that. so, even though i'm not technically in the manchester area, or even a manchester postcode, the fact that i'm within easy reach of manc makes my brain override those small details. i'm counting myself as an honorary mancunian (the manchester evening news is strewn around my train home - it counts, dammit!).

my lodger (another zoe) is due to move in mid-june til september, and my housemate proper's due to take her place when she moves out. i forsee much ridiculousness and dressing up to come (bagsy the 'tache when we do drag). i have a couple of weeks to swing from the chandaliers on my own and settle in, which is good.

not made it to a single gig as yet, but i have impressed myself with my unpacking, commuting and sunday lunch cooking skills. it looks like i got out of leeds at *precisely* the right moment - the metaphorical fireworks have started to go off since i left and ,by god, they're big ones.

*runs*

keep on trucking

2006-04-26T07:53:00.000Z

heh. i completely forgot that i'd sent a late pleading application to steward at the sold-out ninth truck festival, the weekend before my birthday (end of july) in abingdon, oxfordsire.

imagine my joy and delight to find a message in my inbox this morning telling me that i've got a place.

now that's sorted, anyone want to join me and run a zine stall? i'll pay your fee..... ;)

edit: sweet god. all i knew of the line-up was that thomas truax might be playing.
just found this via drowned in sound:

"We're awfully pleased to announce the first raft of bands for this year's Truck Festival

As official media partners and programme-makers for this year's Truck Festival, we're insanely happy to be the first to give you the lowdown on the initial raft of bands.

This year also sees the involvement of our friends at BBC 6music, another fantastic string to Truck's bow as the best alt. radio station in the country. We'll be getting down and dirty with them and between us will have the whole festival covered in our own unique styles.

Truck Festival tickets have well-and-truly sold out now, meaning that the not-for-profit festival can benefit more charities than ever, this year donating to a whopping forty-seven.

So, without further ado, please find the first bands to be announced for Truck Festival 2006. Also be reminded that there is more to come, including a rather special headliner for Saturday night...

65daysofstatic,
Alva,
Anat Ben David,
Buck 65,
Chicks On Speed,
Chris McMath,
Chris T-T,
Colony,
Emmy The Great,
Fell City Girl,
Foals,
¡Forward, Russia!,
Gaptooth,
Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly,
Goldrush (TBC),
Harlette,
Hundred Reasons,
Jakokoyak,
Jetplane Landing,
Katchafire,
KTB,
Manic Cough,
Morrison Steam Fayre,
My Mayo Mai,
Mystery Jets,
nervous test_pilot,
Ninja Banjo Handjob,
Persil,
Piney Gir's Country Roadshow,
Rachael Dadd,
Rebecca Mosley,
Regina Spektor,
Seth Lakeman,
Shimura Curves,
Skindred,
Sow,
Suitable Case For Treatment,
The Black Madonnas,
The Dusty Sound System,
The Epstein,
The Lodge,
The Madeleines,
The Neutrinos,
The Organ,
The Research,
The September Girls,
The Schla La Las,
The Sound Movement,
The Tyde,
The Walkoff,
The Young Knives,
Thomas Truax,
Tim Victor,
Toob,
Tough Love,
Total Science,
Trademark,
Xmas Lights,
Youthmovies

my god :)

catch up

2006-04-25T10:26:00.000Z

well now.
the move is set - i head for manchesterish climes a week on wednesday. the garden shed is going to be turned into a writing den :) gonna be having a housewarming 'ball', and i've got myself a new frock for the first night of pizza and champagne.

i had an incredible week and a half in welsh wales. the first part of it was spent helping turn an old barn into liveable, teachable-in space. we didn't get as far as the straw baling, but i helped to brick up an old doorway, make a window frame and build an entire new doorframe. i'm a dab hand at mixing cement now, and have got muscles. i was lent a fantastic lesbianian outfit of waterproof dungarees, safety goggles and para boots - a comedy picture will be posted :)
i stayed with some fantastic women, made some firm friends (including a cat called amber who slept on my belly every night) and am going back in summer. outdoor baths coming up - huzzah! and a field of cows next door, who come to say hello if you sing at them. also wood-chopping, long walks, drumming, horses, owls, bats, big spiders, magic rooms and a thousand trees growing in the next field.

the second part was the cwwn conference, which was amazing. maj, who i met earlier in the week, came along too in her romahome with a crazy dog - which, at one point, made biting advances towards internationally renowned lady novelist sarah waters. hehehe - something to tell the grandkittens. so yeah, i had unexpected excellent company, and an ally for charity shopping and coffee breaks :) at one point we got mistaken for kitchen staff - i think we were the only un-academics there, and it got quite fun at times..
i have a posh-looking delegate badge with my name on, and obtained a poster for the new house, along with an armfull of second hand books i'd meant to pick up for ages. and a shedload of notes to write up, along with uni applications (english lit and lang, or combined studies to include both of those and maybe a little french). one of the conference organisers is moving to be the head of english at salford, which is quite a happy coincidence...

if uni doesn't happen, then i'm gonna try enrol on a beginners welsh course :)

the zine has halted production temporarily - more copies will be done in the next fortnight though, and should hit the streets of manchester too.

on a zine-related note, the new issue of no quarter magazine is out and heartily recommended, as is the fantastic knockback magazine. check them out :)

musically, i'm in love with shattered star's music links page click the 'stairs' icon on the far right) - thank you for those!
i have a 'novel 23' album to collect from jumbo, which im really excited about, and a plethora of manc gigs to go to from the day after i move in - hurray!

devastations

2006-04-11T15:00:00.000Z

wohooo!
the devastations, a fine trio of aussies, are touring!
*dances*
i think they're in just about every town that my lovely uk readers live in, so i strongly urge you to catch them if you can.
they left leeds off the dates, but that's ok - looks like i'll be in manchester by then, and will have ample crash space :)

links to them on the right of this post in music and downloads.

"tropical goth". hehehe!

so, the dates:

May 2 2006 Glee Club Birmingham
May 3 2006 The Scala London
May 4 2006 Life Cafe Manchester
May 12 2006 ABC2 Glasgow
May 16 2006 Louisiana Bristol
May 17 2006 Bush Hall London
May 19 2006 Roisin Dubh Galway
May 20 2006 Dolan's Warehouse Limerick
May 22 2006 The Village Dublin
May 23 2006 An Cruiscin Cork
May 29 2006 Academy Newcastle
May 31 2006 Fibber's York
May 31 2006 Koko w/ The National London
Jun 1 2006 Academy 2 Liverpool
Jun 2 2006 The Point Cardiff
Jun 3 2006 Zodiac Oxford
Jun 4 2006 The Spitz London
Jun 6 2006 Life Cafe Manchester
Jun 7 2006 Glee Club Birmingham
Jun 8 2006 The Musician Leicester
Jun 15 2006 Lemon Tree Aberdeen
Jun 16 2006 King Tut's Glasgow
Jun 17 2006 Liquid Rooms Edinburgh
Jun 20 2006 Cargo London
Jun 21 2006 Arts Centre Norwich
Jun 22 2006 Louisiana Bristol

All shows start at 8pm.

defense de fumer

2006-04-10T00:15:00.000Z

well.
i've just got back from a wee break in glasgow (following a manchester pit stop, a thomas truax gig, a rave ring/zine swap and a missed train).
being an enthusiastic smoker with intentions to quit "sometime", i didn't have a clue how i was going to get through my pool and beer arrangements, apart from my plastic cigarette and nicotine bullets (read: nicorette inhalator).

in reality, it's actually been really good.

the point that i could smoke *outside* had completely escaped me. however, my hostesses flat was on a third floor, and the smoking out the kitchen window had been abolished along with smoking in pubs.

i ended up having 2 fags while i was out, and going outside for two before i went to bed.
(on the last one, i got propositioned - didn't realise that an orange duffle coat, dm's and wild hair were 'working girl' uniform - and offered 'brown' within the space of about 5 minutes. i don't think they meant hp sauce).

i really enjoyed the unsmokiness of the pub. i don't think i've ever actually experienced that before.

i also realised, on my climbing back *up* three flights of stairs post-fagarette, that i really *do* need to quit. also, how smokey i smelled - i noticed this more so than i normally would (socialising with smokers kind of makes it a lot less noticeable, i guess).

i was surprised that the smoking ban in scotland also covers 'open' train station platforms, but i guess it makes sense.

i'm also amazed that i haven't even contemplated ripping anyone's head off, having spent twelve hours on coaches and trains this weekend sans fags (and weirdly not getting the urge to bother with the plastic one).
in the past, the closest i've really come to trying to quit was a 24 hour good-intentioned nicotine patch trial. i smoked within about six hours of putting it on, and took it off again shortly after.
otherwise, it's been whenever i've been so poor that i can't afford fags (those, cat food and litter are the three 'basics' that my house will not function without) and my immediate reaction was to sob hysterically and seek out wine. that only happened a couple of times about five years ago, so i've been more or less fully nicotined up since the age of eighteen, i guess. i'm feeling like it might be time to try and stop and see what happens.

i never thought i'd say this, but i'm quite looking forward to the ban coming in force over here...

relocation relocation relocation!

2006-04-09T11:21:00.000Z

okay. my time in leeds is through. i'm moving out of my current abode in the next few months. my home and my uni course (see comments) were the two things really keeping me here.

i'm tired of having a morally and ethically bankrupt social circle; tired of having scary people know where i live, work and socialise; tired of having constant reminders of my fuckups; tired of reminders and associations with unfortunate events; tired of my job (which, having had my hours reduced from 13 to 5, isn't really worth keeping any more anyway); tired of feeling alone. i'd rather feel alone in a different city with a clean slate than here. that said, i know at least one good person in every one of the options...

so. yes. time to spread my wings and find a new horizon to look out onto.

readers, suggestions are welcomed! there might be a couple of red herrings in the options though :)

new ways of identifying terror suspects.

2006-04-05T16:00:00.000Z

good grief. whatever you do, kids, don't listen to the clash.

we have to be very careful with "the magnificent seven" in our house, for fear of scaring the cat. why? the following lyric:

vacuum cleaner sucks up budgie

tetris. but with cats.

2006-04-04T20:58:00.000Z

clicky here

internet, i love and curse you.

jo shapcott

2006-04-02T22:01:00.000Z

hasn't entered my head for about eight years, until this morning.
she wrote (writes?), amongst other things, a series of 'mad cow' poems. she rocks. i'm getting as many of her books as i can at the end of this month :)
here's a couple - enjoy x

The Mad Cow Talks Back

I'm not mad. It just seems that way
because I stagger and get a bit irritable.
There are wonderful holes in my brain
through which ideas from outside can travel
at top speed and through which voices,
sometimes whole people, speak to me
about the universe. Most brains are too
compressed. You need this spongy
generosity to let the others in.

I love the staggers. Suddenly the surface
of the world is ice and I'm a magnificent
skater turning and spinning across whole hard
Pacifics and Atlantics. It's risky when
you're good, so of course the legs go before,
behind, and to the side of the body from time to time,
and then there's the general embarrassing
collapse, but when that happens it's glorious
because it's always when you're travelling
most furiously in your mind. My brain's like
the hive: constant little murmurs from its cells
saying this is the way, this is the way to go

The Mad Cow In Love

I want to be an angel and really think
I’m getting there with this mind of mine,
shrinking every day toward the cleanness,
the size of a baby animal’s brain.
Trouble is, I want you to be an angel too─
and want that more if anything. It’s one
of those demands I can’t raise just like that,
evenings, when we’re reading our different newspapers
you scanning your pages and me mine for an item
to start speech, make mouths smile, knees touch─something
in all that murder and mayhem to launch love.

You tell me you’re looking for news of the self.
Do you want to be an angel? I know
the answer already and it’s rough medicine.
But think of all the kinds there are, as many
as the different degrees of reaching
for the good. You might get away without
searching for the soul at all those places,
today at least, you’d rather not get to know.
And angels do a variety of jobs:
the post of perpetual adoration might suit,
or divine messenger but I fancy for you
the government of the stars and all the elements.
I know you well enough to choose, after all this time
as foreign correspondent on the track of who you are,
looking for leads: your last screw, the food
you threw away, your strategic approaches
for living through the next hour.
I don’t mean it,
though, any of it. I want you earthly,
including all the global terrors and harms
which might come when we fall backwards
into the world of horn and hoof.

The Mad Cow Tries To Write The Good Poem

The police came when I was doing my death dance
to the amazing circular music which had entered a gap
near my cortex and acted as powerfully
as a screwdriver on my soul.
I wove in and out of the green trees.
I used my hooves as gentle weapons in the air.
A bit of newspaper fame came my way that day, but shit,
it was a performance ephemeral, and certainly not the good poem.

Lasting. How can I last when I live in a shed
and even the postman doesn't know where to find me?
It's dark in here. Light would echo the
gaps in my brain coils and set off a fizzing reaction,
not so much pounding, more an explosion
followed by a flowing moment when the taboo people arrive.
They're dressed in red and stand formally around my
skull as though staged for an opera. And when they sing
- sometimes as many as seven at once -
then, friend, please, the good poem is sounding all round this hut,
my head, the world,
I hear it written in the streaky emulsion on the walls,
in my own messing on the floor,
in the nation's smeary dailies,
in lovely people's ears, their breath, your breath:
it's new every time, always wanted and easy to spot
because I know what it looks like with my eyes closed.

the great gatsby

2006-04-02T13:59:00.000Z

for anyone interested enough to click on the links or my profile on here, i have a second page, which has chunks of books i love on it.
i would put this on there too, but i thought it went better here.... so. an extract from 'the universal story' by ali smith, taken from 'the whole story and other stories'.

"There was once a 1974 Penguin edition on F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel The Great Gatsby in the window of a quiet second-hand bookshop in a village that very few people visited any more. It had a hundred and eighty-eight numbered pages and was the twentieth Penguin edition of this particular novel - it had been reprinted three times in 1974 alone; this popularity was partly due to the film of the novel which came out that year, directed by Jack Clayton. Its cover, once bright yellow, had already lost most of its colour before it arrived at the shop. In the film-still on it, ornate in a twenties-style frame, Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, the stars of the film, were also quite faded, though Redford was still dapper in his golf cap and Farrow, in a very becoming floppy hat, suited the sepia effect that the movement of sun and light on glass had brought to her quite by chance.

The novel had first been bought for 30p (6/-) in 1974 in a Devon bookshop by Rosemary Child who was twenty-two and who had felt the urge to read the book before she saw the film. She married her fiance Roger two years later. They mixed their books and gave their doubles to a Cornwall hospital. This one had been picked off the hospital library trolley in Ward 14 one long hot July afternoon in 1977 by Sharon Patten, a fourteen-year-old girl with a broken hip who was stuck in bed in traction and bored because Wimbledon was over. Her father had seemed pleased at visiting hour when he saw it on her locker and though she'd given up reading it halfway through she kept it there by the water jug for her whole stay and smuggled it home with her when she was discharged. Three years later, when she didn't care any more what her father thought of what she did, she gave it to her schoolfriend David Connor who was going to university to do English, telling him it was the most boring book in the world. David read it. It was perfect. It was just like life is. Everything is beautiful, everything is hopeless. He walked to school quoting bits of it to himself under his breath. By the time he went up north to university in Edinburgh two years later, now a mature eighteen-year-old, he admired it, as he said several times in the seminar, though he found it a little adolescent and believed the underrated Tender Is The Night to be Fitzgerald's real masterpiece. The tutor, who every year had to mark around a hundred and fifty abysmal first-year essays on The Great Gatsby, nodded sagely and gave him a high pass in his exam. In 1985, having landed a starred first and a job in personnel management, David sold all his old literature course books to a girl called Mairead for thirty pounds. Mairead didn't like English - it had no proper answers - and decided to do economics instead. She sold them all again, making a lot more money than David had. The Great Gatsby went for £2.00, six times its original price, to a first-year student called Gillian Edgbaston. She managed to never read it and left it on the shelves of the rented house she'd been living in when she moved out in 1990. Brian Jackson, who owned the rented house, packed it in a box which sat behind the freezer in his garage for five years. In 1995 his mother, Rita, came to visit and while he was tidying out his garage she found it in the open box, just lying there on the gravel in his driveway. The Great Gatsby! she said. She hadn't read it in years. He remembers her reading it that summer, it was two summers before she died, and her feet were up on the sofa and her head was deep in the book. She had a whole roomful of books at home. When she died in 1997 he boxed them all up and gave them to a registered charity. The registered charity checked through them for what was valuable and sold the rest on in auctioned boxes of thirty miscellaneous paperbacks, a fiver per box, to second-hand shops all over the country.

The woman in the quiet second-hand bookshop had opened the box she brought at auction and had raised her eyebrows, tired. Another Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Now a Major Picture. The book was in the window. Its pages and their edges were dingy yellow because of the kind of paper used in old Penguin Modern Classics; by nature these books won't last. A fly was resting on the book now in the weak sun in the window.

But the fly suddenly swerved away into the air because a man had put his hand in among the books in the window display in the second-hand bookshop and was picking the book up.

Now:

There was once a man who reached his hand in a picked a second-hand copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby out of the window of a quiet second-hand bookshop in a small village. He turned the book over as he went to the counter.
How much is this one, please? he asked the grey-looking woman.
She took it from him and checked the inside cover.
That one's £1, she said.
It says thirty pence here on it, he said, pointing to the back.
That's the 1974 price, the woman said.
The man looked at her. He smiled a beautiful smile. The woman's face lit up.
But, well, since it's very faded, she said, you can have it for fifty.
Done, he said.
Would you like a bag for it? she asked.
No, it's okay, he said. Have you any more?
Any more Fitzgerald? the woman said. Yes, under F. I'll just -.
No, the man said, I mean, any more copies of The Great Gatsby.
You want another copy of The Great Gatsby? the woman said.
I want all your copies of it, the man said, smiling.
The woman went to the shelves and found him four more copies of The Great Gatsby. Then she went through to the storeroom at the back of the shop and checked for more.
Never mind, the man said, Five'll do. Two pounds for the lot, what do you say?
His car was an old Mini Metro. The back seat was under a sea of different editions of The Great Gatsby. He cleared some stray copies from beneath the driver's seat so they wouldn't slide under his feet or the pedals while he was driving and threw the books he'd just bought over his shoulder on to the heap without even looking. He started the engine. The next second-hand bookshop was six miles away, in the city. His sister had called him from her bath two Fridays ago.

James, I'm in the bath, she'd said. I need F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
F what's the what? he'd said.
She told him again. I need as many as possible, she said.
Okay, he'd said.
He worked for her because she paid well; she had a grant.
Have you ever read it? she asked.
No, he'd said. Do I have to?
So we beat on, she'd said. Boats against the current. Borne back ceaselessly into the past. Get it?
What about petrol money, if I'm supposed to drive all over the place looking for books? he'd said.
You've got five hundred quid to buy five hundred books. You get them for less, you can keep the change. And I'll pay you two hundred on top for your trouble. Boats agasinst the current. It's perfect, isn't it?
And petrol money? he'd said.
I'll pay it, she'd sighed.

Because:

There was once a woman in the bath who had just phoned her brother and asked him to find her as many copies of The Great Gatsby as possible. She shook the drips off the phone, dropped it over the side on to the bathroom carpet and put her arm back into the water quick because it was cold.

She was collecting the books because she made full-sized boats out of things boats aren't usually made out of. Three years ago she had made a three-foot long boat out of daffodils which she and her brother had stolen at night from people's front gardens all over town. Shew had launched it, climbing into it, in the local canal. Water had come up round her feet almost immediately, then up round her knees, her thighs, till she was midriff-deep in icy water and daffodils floating all around her, unravelled.

But a small crowd had gathered to watch it sink and the story had attracted a lot of local and even some national media attention. Sponsored by Interflora, which paid enough for her to come off unemployment benefit, she made another boat, five feet long and out of mixed flowers, everything from lillies to snowdrops. It also sank, but this time was filmed for an arts project, with her in it, sinking. This had won her a huge arts commission to make more unexpected boats. Over the last two years she had made ten - and twelve - footers out of sweets, leaves, clocks and photographs, and had launched each one with great ceremony at a different UK port. None of them had lasted more than eighty feet out to sea.

The Great Gatsby, she thought in the bath. It was a book she remembered from her adolescence and as she'd been lying in the water fretting about what to do next so her grant wouldn't be taken away from her it had suddenly come into her head.

It was perfect, she thought, nodding to herself. So we beat on. The last line of the book. She ducked her shoulders under the water to keep them warm.

And so, since we've come to the end already:

The seven-foot boat made of copies of The Great Gatsby stuck together with waterproof sealant was launched in the spring in the port of Felixstowe.

The artist's brother collected over three hundred copies of The Great Gatsby and drove between Wales and Scotland doing so. It is still quite hard to buy a copy of The Great Gatsby in some of the places he visited. It cost him a hundred and eighty three pounds fifty exactly. He kept the change. He was also a man apt to wash his hands before he ate, so was unharmed by any residue left by the fly earlier in the story on the cover of the copy he bought in the quiet second-hand bookshop.

This particular copy of The Great Gatsby, with the names of some of the people who had owned it inked under each other in their different handwritings on its inside first page - Rosemary Child, Sharon Patten, David Connor, Rita Jackson - was glued into the prow of the boat, which stayed afloat for three hundred yards before it finally took in water and sank.

The fly which had paused on the book that day spent that evening resting on the light fitting and hovering more than five feet above ground level. This is what flies tend to do in the evenings. This fly was no exception.

The woman who ran the second-hand bookshop had been delighted to sell all her copies of The Great Gatsby at once, and to such a smiling young man. SHe replaced the one which had been in the window with a copy of Dante's The Divine Comedy and as she was doing so she fanned open the pages of the book. Dust flew off. She blew more dust off the top of the page then wiped it off her counter. She looked at the book dust smudged on her hand. It was time to dust all the books, shake them all open. It would take her well into the spring. Fiction, then non-fiction, then all the sub-categories. Her heart was light. That evening, she began, at the letter A."

i loved this the first time i read it. the other week a friend came to visit with a weighty rucksack of books (just so i need to put more shelves up - but thank you em!)... among them was 'the great gatsby', which i've never read. it's got the 'film' cover. i've started reading it today.

and when i looked at the back of my most recent purchase, i saw this....

i do like life's little coincidences sometimes :)

ramble

2006-04-01T08:18:00.000Z

well now.

about thirty copies of the zine are across the globe (one's in oz, or on its way there...). and one has randomly reunited me with someone lovely that i haven't spoken to for over five years...

i'm off to wales in a fortnight, and the exam and essay and deadline hell is over, as of yesterday lunchtime. *counts on fingers* i had five essay deadlines, a presentation and two exams in something like a seven day chunk. and a list of mitigating circumstances the length of my arm.

about half the stuff was re-sit/re-submission. well, sit and submission, to be more precise - i had a huge crisis of confidence last semester, bottled the december exams and didn't hand coursework in (despite having done it. educational shrink, here i come... ) one of the exams was a pre-seen paper, so i had plenty of time to prepare (what i thought were) fairly good answers for the re-sit.

it was on wednesday. i checked the exam timetable on monday, to find the questions were posted on there too. they were a completely different set, and had a bit underneath that said they had been mailed to all students re-sitting.
the office, up until three weeks ago, had been sending my mail to an address i haven't lived at for over a year (except, for some reason, the corporate style leeds met xmas card, which reached me just fine). it took them fifteen minutes to tell me that they 'think' the stuff got sent to my current address.
i bumped into my course leader after the exam, who reckons the questions are sent out recorded delivery, so they should be able to confirm if and where mine got delivered to. i'm well pissed off, at them and at myself for not realising that the questions would be different. oh well, all i need to do is pass, and i think i answered ok enough to manage that.

i weirdly enjoyed yesterday's exam. the role of women and gender divisions in victorian england, debating whether the industrial revolution could actually be dubbed an industrial evolution..

for one of my history modules focussing on west yorkshire, the industrial revolution and its legacies, i have a presentation after easter. i'm going to talk about the rhubarb triangle and take my group up the town hall clock tower (not a euphemism). the joy of having a housemate who works in high places :)

so. last night i had a budget celebratory night in with a bottle of wine and longdistance catch-up with glasgow ladies (who i'm visiting next weekend - hurray!) and various other cross-country reprobates. thank goodness i didn't go out. i ended up in bed at half past ten, and woke up this morning to find i was still wearing my boots and had half a bottle of wine left. that was at an alarming twenty past six. i went outside and watched the sunrise with a cat, a coffee and a cigarette. screeched quietly on the violin for a bit (the housemate keeps weird hours and was already up and about, so no worries about waking him) and did a bit of blog reading...

which leads me on to the point of this post.

a while ago, i heard david byrne for the first time. really liked it, and promptly forgot to check some out when i got home. until this post popped up on the quiet road. so i soulseeked a little, and this is the first thing that's come through...
great stuff.

David Byrne - U.B. Jesus

Sunrise, I'm still dancing
Girlfriend, she's my champion
Swing low, pull me over
Hey - be my savior

Blood, Skin
Show me the book
Don't understand the language that they spoke

Don't pity me
Have pity on yourself
You might know Jesus but you'll all join in hell

Shine On Sister!
Don't need a book to put your hand in the fire
Shine On Sister!
Come on in cause it's cold outside

Kiss Me!
Kiss Me!
I can tell your name by the markings on your face

U. B. Jesus
Makin' my way & I'm lovin' my life
Kiss Me!
Kiss Me!
Swing so crazy like the way you ride

Maybe I'm gonna fry in hell
But I feel good when I'm dyin' myself
In a smokey place, In my girlfriends car
Threw out the map when we drove to far

Jesus is big
Jesus is strong
Jesus'll kill you if you don't get along

Jesus can swing
Jesus has skills
Go on & try it if you don't believe he will

Jump Back, Jump Back
Givin' me a heart attack
Fall down, Fall down
Sweeter than a cherry bomb

Sweet Thing, Sweet Thing
Steppin' on your violin
Space Boy, Fly Girl
Living in the underworld

Shine On Sister!
Don't need a book to put your hand in the fire
Shine On Sister!
Come on in cause it's cold outside

Jesus is cool (or cruel?)
Jesus is scared
Baby you are the only car I drive

Foolin around
Foolin myself
Baby you are the only car I drive

Easy to touch
Easy to find
Baby you are the only car I drive

Melts in my mouth
Melts in the hand
Baby you are the only car I drive

Outta my skin
Outta my life
Baby you are the only car I drive
The only car I drive

i shall check out 'remain in light' over the next three weeks of glorious easter holidays.

all the wires

2006-04-01T08:04:00.000Z

well, i had all the wine. all of us are too hectic at the moment to properly sort out starting up again, but we did get involved in a bit of promoting recently.. kind of by accident.

pocket's mate's band, detwiije, asked him to sort out a gig at our local, and said they would bring the fantastically-titled beyond this point are monsters with them. so he roped me and laura music in... we arranged for a couple of other acts, the divine fran rodgers and the mighty quack quack to play too, and we dj'd in between sets.

it went well, considering we were too skint to do 'proper' flyering and stuff.
the bands and fran were excellent.

cheered by the relative success, i'm looking to put some stuff on at the holy trinity in town at some point. i have a few bands in mind, and they're pretty diverse. the only thing they have in common that i can think of (other that i like them) is that some of their instruments have strings. emails to send and updates to be given later..

ooh and quack quack have a new single out. it's very good. isn't it time you treated yourself? go on, you deserve it...

distractions

2006-03-29T22:40:00.000Z

completely ignoring the last post for the moment (i will devote some proper time to it once my hecticness is over i.e. this weekend onwards), and for the sake of a fluffier title at the top of the archive, here's a couple of mind-soothers...

what i am reading between now and may(and in some cases, re-reading, for my course and otherwise)

emile zola - therese raquin & germinal
augusten burroughs - running with scissors
robert hough - the final confession of mabel stark
oscar wilde - the picture of dorian grey
alexandra kollontai - love of worker bees
john monaghan and peter just - social and cultural anthropology: a very short introduction
sylvia plath - collected poems
popular culture (no longer applies to us) zine
shakespeare - a midsummer night's dream & othello

what's on my mp3whatsitthing at the moment

clogs
king creosote
portishead
nick cave
slumberwall
elliott smith
arcade fire
tindersticks
film school
tex la homa
sufjan stevens
the notwist
empress
devastations

big rant time - rape and sexual abuse

2006-03-27T19:15:00.000Z

Buckle up: Swedish teens design anti-rape belt
STOCKHOLM, Nov 22 (AFP) A group of Swedish teenage girls has designed a belt that requires two hands to remove and which they hope will deter would-be rapists, one of the creators told AFP on Tuesday.
"It's like a reverse chastity belt," one of the creators, 19-year-old Nadja Bjoerk, told AFP, meaning that the wearer is in control, instead of being controled.
The military-style buckle has a latch that the wearer has to move through a labyrinth into the correct position in order to unlock the belt.
"You need two hands to open it, so the rapist can't hold you down and open it at the same time. It takes a while to figure it out if you don't know what you're doing," she said.
The product was designed as part of a high school project in entrepreneurialism and the girls have already sold 300 of the belts in Sweden, priced at 150 kronor (18 dollars, 16 euros).
Bjoerk and one of her partners now plan to start a business to mass produce the belts and are currently in negotiations with potential partners.
"But I'm not doing this for the money," she said. "I'm really passionate about stopping rape. I think it's terrible."
The Swedish media have in recent months given wide and descriptive coverage to rape attacks, though experts' opinions vary on whether there has been an actual rise in the number of such crimes.

originally published on : SWEDEN.SE (administered by the Swedish Institute)

discussionrant to follow.

in fact this is it.

i was discussing issues of rape with a very good friend i've known years.
he's affronted by the fact that this campaign is running, without a similar one to women saying not to flirt too much, not to get pissed and go home with strangers and not expect them to demand sex...

for the purposes of this rant, i'm going to refer to rape in the context of men raping women. i'm fully aware that it's not always that way. i've also argued tonight that rape is not a feminist issue or a 'wimmins' issue, it can and does affect everyone.

we talked about the subject of rape/consent within relationships.
astoundingly, he came up with the argument that 'if you get married and take christian marriage vows, you're legally bound to provide your husband with sex, consensual or not'.

there are so many things that i'm bristling about.

i've been googling the 'traditional' christian marriage vows. the closest i can find that would stretch to (and it would have to be an exceedingly long stretch) that is 'to have and to hold', which is said by both bride and groom. along with 'to love and to cherish'.

in 1994, marital rape and male rape were both made illegal, which does away with the obligation bit..... (i'm not entirely sure that there was every anything saying you had to follow your marriage vows to the letter either... ok, they may well be cited in cases of divorce etc, but i can't exactly seeing them used as defense for rape)...

so so so many more levels to this, but i'll leave it for now.

in response to my argument that it shouldn't be a woman's responsibility not to get raped, but rather a man's responsibility to control himself, his response was 'it's like trying to politely ask a hungry dog not to bite you, instead of recognising what it is and just kicking its head off'.

yes, of course we need to take steps to look after ourselves. but with stuff like the 'rape belt' coming out and being seen as a woman's "responsibility", at what point does it turn from the (pathetic but unfortunately commonly held) view of 'she was wearing a mini skirt - she asked for it' to 'she wasn't wearing a rape belt, she asked for it'?.

i'm not informed enough to quote statistics, to give rousing references to speeches made by relevant people. and i don't think the point of this post is to do any of that. not even to put an argument forward (despite the entire content of it.. hm)... i'm just *really* wanting to let off some steam on this one.

i'm tired of living in a world where it's considered necessary to invent new ways of preventing being raped.

i'm tired of living in a world where a 13 year old boy is given a three year supervision order

(nb supervision order definition: A Supervision Order can last up to three years. A range of conditions can be attached to a Supervision Order when the sentence is used for more serious offences. These are called 'specified activities' and can last for up to 90 days. Examples of 'specified activities' might be participation in an Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP), drug treatment (for young people aged 16+), curfews or residence requirements which might require a young person to live in local authority accommodation for the period of the sentence.A young person receiving a Supervision Order is also required to take part in activities set by the Youth Offending Team (YOT) which could include repairing the harm done by their offence either to the victim or the community and programmes to address their offending behaviour such as anger management")

for "two counts of attempted rape, eight of sexual assault and three of inciting another boy to engage in sexual activity ". The children he abused were eight and four, respectively.

i'm tired that it happened in the first place, i'm tired that it even occurred to a kid to *do* that, i'm tired of the apparent lack of concern that the case has generated.

i've discussed similar cases involving kids of similar ages before with other people. One of the arguments that comes out often is 'but they were young. they probably didn't know what they were doing. they were curious', implying it's a (minorly) unhealthy part of 'sex play' or childrens sexual development or whatever, but completely un-blamable.

i was very interested to see a quote from the director of Kidscape, describing the sentence as the "wrong decision".
She said: "We know that many older paedophiles do start abusing children when they are about 12 or 13. "

please get me out off of this planet.

FakeGayNews.com - Because real gay and lesbian news is too damn depressing.

2006-03-26T21:25:00.000Z

FakeGayNews.com - Because real gay and lesbian news is too damn depressing.

street pianos

2006-03-24T10:53:00.000Z

how cool :)

cwwn - for love or money

2006-03-17T19:28:00.000Z

Contemporary Women's Fiction in the Marketplace conference.

the literary nerd in me is slavering.

a not-quite mysterybenefactress has funded the accommodation part, and will be repaid on the next stupid loan instalment, as will others for the registration fee and food.

so.

the schedule.

Friday 21st April, 2006

Keynote Speaker – Michèle Roberts

Saturday 22nd April, 2006

Panel One

A. Economies of Excess: Genre and the Marketplace

Melanie Waters (University of Newcastle), ‘“The Facts of her Life”: The Currency of (Female) Confession in the Literary Marketplace’
Becky Munford (University of Exeter), ‘Feeding (off) the Literary Marketplace: Gothic Romance and (Inter)textual Excess in Contemporary Women’s Writing’

B. Contextualising the Woman Writer

Peta Mayer (Melbourne University), ‘Book Writes Author: Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner and the Biographical Impulse of the Literary Marketplace’
Susan Watkins (Leeds Metropolitan University), ‘The “Jane Somers” Hoax: Doris Lessing, Gender, Aging and the Cult of the (Young) Celebrity Women Writer’
Mary Eagleton (Leeds Metropolitan University), ‘Mapping Contemporary Women’s Fiction’

Panel Two

A. Sarah Waters and Her Contexts

Paulina Palmer (Birkbeck UL & Warwick University), ‘She began to show me the words she had written one by one’: Lesbian Readership, its Cultural and Commercial Construction, and its Role in the Fiction of Sarah Waters’
Heather Emmens (Queen’s University, Ontario), ‘“Nancy, Where’s Your Troosers?”: BBC TV Adaptations of Contemporary Lesbian Novels’
Mark Llewellyn (University of Liverpool), ‘Queer Commerce: The Marketing of Sarah Waters’

B. Jeanette Winterson and her Contexts

Sonia Maria Melchiorre (Univeristà della Tuscia), ‘“Our Glorious Celebration of Love”: Shaw, Warner and Winterson’s The Powerbook on the Italian Stage’
Pauline MacPherson (University of Dundee), ‘“Fictions Can Change: It’s Only the Facts that Trap Us”: Images of Female Sexuality from Oranges to Velvet’
Ginette Carpenter (Manchester Metropolitan University), “What is it you want?”: The Woman Writer and Reader in Winterson’s The PowerBook’

Panel Three

A. Family Hauntings

Sinead McDermott (University of Limerick), ‘Kate Atkinson’s Family Romances’
Lucie Armitt (University of Wales, Bangor), ‘Dark Departures: Contemporary Women’s Writing after the Gothic’
Sarah Gamble (University of Wales, Swansea), ‘“The Present is Only the Past Amended”: The Uncanny Cityscapes of Maggie O’Farrell’s My Lover’s Lover’

B. Rewritings of Historical Fiction

K. Elizabeth Spillman (University of Wales, Bangor), ‘Alternative Austens: Rewriting, Revising, Representing’
Lynette Frey (Murdoch University), ‘The Abridged Subject: Women’s Fictions into Film’
Liedeke Plate (Radboud University Nijmegen), ‘Whatever Happened to Re-Vision? Feminist Rewritings and the Classics Revisited’

Panel Four

A. Teaching Women’s Writing

Sonya Andermahr (University of Northampton), ‘“Selling” Feminist Fiction in the 21st Century Classroom’
Deborah Wynne (University of Chester), ‘Tipping the Canon: Teaching Contemporary Women’s Writing in Higher Education’
Mary McNally (University of Derby), ‘“Gendered Voices”, or is it Necessary/Desirable to have a Module with the title Contemporary Women’s Writing/Fiction in the 21st Century?’

B. Chick Lit. vs Women’s writing

Kaye Mitchell (University of Westminster), ‘On Not Being a “Woman Writer”: A.L. Kennedy and the Gendering of Literary Form and Content’
Karin E. Westman (Kansas State University), ‘Seeing Bridget Jones, Seeing England’
Emma Parker (University of Leicester), ‘Sold on Love: Michèle Roberts and Romance’

Keynote Speaker: Sarah Waters

Sunday 23rd April, 2006

Panel Five

A. Reel Lives: The Woman Writer and the Contemporary Bio-Pic

Josephine Dolan (University of the West of England), ‘The Tension of The Hours’
Suzy Gordon (University of the West of England), ‘Knowing Sylvia’
Estella Tincknell (University of the West of England), ‘Iris and the Impossibility of Female Authorship’

B. Adaptations to Film

Charlotte Beyer (University of Gloucestershire), ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence: Text and Film’

11.30–1pm Panel Six

A. Three Women Writers: Margaret Atwood, Fay Weldon, A. S. Byatt

Imelda Whelehan (Leicester De Montfort University), ‘“The Bloodless Revolution”: Feminism, Publishing and the Mass Media in Weldon’s Big Women’
Katsura Sako (University of Warwick), ‘A Portrait of A. S. Byatt, an Academic, Critic and Novelist: Synthesis of Critical and Imaginative Minds’
Kiriaki Massoura (Northumbria University), ‘Human Body and Language versus Cyborg Body and Science: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake’

B. Women and Cultural Violence

Clare Hanson (Loughborough University), ‘Bestselling Bodies: post-feminist post-mortems, post-mortem post-feminisms’
Gina Wisker (Anglia Ruskin University), ‘Moving beyond Theft and Waste: Postcolonial Women’s Gothic’
Edith Frampton (San Diego State University), ‘From the Nobel to Oprah: High Culture, the Marketplace and Toni Morrison’

A Party in honour of the career of Dr Margaret Beetham

Introduced by Dr Elspeth Graham.

Includes Buffet Lunch

Inaugural AGM of the CWWN, Chaired by Mary Eagleton, Reader in English, Leeds Metropolitan University.

two poems

2006-03-15T12:40:00.000Z

Thrushes

Terrifying are the attent sleek thrushes on the lawn,
More coiled steel than living - a poised
Dark deadly eye, those delicate legs
Triggered to stirrings beyond sense - with a start, a bounce,
a stab
Overtake the instant and drag out some writhing thing.
No indolent procrastinations and no yawning states,
No sighs or head-scratchings. Nothing but bounce and stab
And a ravening second.

Is it their single-mind-sized skulls, or a trained
Body, or genius, or a nestful of brats
Gives their days this bullet and automatic
Purpose? Mozart's brain had it, and the shark's mouth
That hungers down the blood-smell even to a leak of its own
Side and devouring of itself: efficiency which
Strikes too streamlined for any doubt to pluck at it
Or obstruction deflect.

With a man it is otherwise. Heroisms on horseback,
Outstripping his desk-diary at a broad desk,
Carving at a tiny ivory ornament
For years: his act worships itself - while for him,
Though he bends to be blent in the prayer, how loud and
above what
Furious spaces of fire do the distracting devils
Orgy and hosannah, under what wilderness
Of black silent waters weep.

Ted Hughes

Morning Song

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Sylvia Plath

thomas truax at leeds brudenell social club

2006-03-14T13:13:00.000Z

on saturday just gone.

thankfully (for you), i forgot my camera, so you'll not be graced with shoddy photos for this one.
picture from fluttr site

"thomas truax (pronounced troo-aks) plays mechanical sound sculptures and instruments which he builds himself out of found objects and spare parts (such as the Hornicator), as well as with more standard gear like the guitar. He is an illegitimate son of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and a mad scientist of music with a history as a stop-motion animator".

he is what i can only describe as an oddball musical genius, hailing from both new york and the mythical wowtown. instruments include the hornicator, the stringaling, the cadillac beatspinner wheel, the back beater and the sister spinster.

starting with 'prove it to my daughter', he managed to instantly captivate the crowd, before starting up the sister spinster for 'shooting stars' with yodelling galore...
this was followed by 'inside the internet' (complete with pocket modem noises), then an acoustic full moon over wowtown, in which mr truax made his way around the whole club, standing on tables and balancing on bars, while managing to not drop a single note.

'the butterfly and the entomologist' span a story of a hitchiking pollinator insect, escaped from a 'bastard entomologist' by tearing her own wing away from the board she was pinned to.... (lyrics here)truax's monologue assures us that he 'is not a violent man', in response to the butterfly's song that she is 'going to a no-mans land, as men and violence are intertwined'. however, at the end of the song, he rescues the butterfly from being captured, and gives the entomologist his 'just desserts': "I moved as if by instinct, I did it without thought / I clipped him and I kicked him / And I grabbed him 'round the throat / I pinned him to the wall and his eyes were bulging wide / I said if there's a next time I will see YOU crucified."
when he turns round again, the butterfly has disappeared, singing the same two lines... serious-ish stuff, for (at first glance, at least) a 'novelty' act..

we were next treated to 'in my dreams', which preceded the encores.
the stringaling (which contains the most common material in the manufacturing world - looked like tumble drier vent tubing) made an appearance in 'whistle while you sleep', and 'audio addiction' came complete with flashing light 'rave rings'. the final song, 'the fish (i'm coming home)', about a wowtown prostitute, involved audience participation, sampling, looping and incredible harmonies.

a perfect showman, thomas truax is on tour around the uk and europe for a while yet - catch him if you can:

"Wed 15 UK, Cheltenham, Flak, 16 Bath St, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 1YE Tel: 01242 524011 www.calmermusic.co.uk Doors 7.30 Admission £5
Thu 16 UK, Southampton, Joiners Ejector Seat Venue: The Joiners Venue Address: 141 St Mary St, Southampton, SO14 1NS Box Office number / website: 02380 632601 - www.joinerslive.co.uk
Sun 19 Denmark, Klub Argot
Tue 21 Holland, Amsterdam, De Anita
Wed 22 France, Bordeaux, El Inca website: www.elinca.org Time of doors: 20h30 Price of ticket: 3 euros
Thur 23 France, Angouleme at le mars attack, place du champ de mars, 16000 angouleme, france.
Fri 24 France, Bourges friche l'Antre Peaux, 26 route de la Chapelle, 18000 Bourges
Sat 25 Germany, Cologne, TrashBin / Hšninger Weg 208 / Kšln-Zollstock supporting YANCEE PORNICK CASINO 10 euros
thur 30 Italy, Clandestino -Faenza
Fri 31 Italy, Sin-e-Rovigo

APRIL

Sat 1 Italy, Zuni-Ferrara
Sun 2 Italy, FreeMuzik-Brescia
Tues 4 UK, London, Spitz The Spitz (www.spitz.co.uk) 109 Commercial St Old Spitalfields Market London E1 6BG £7 7:30pm
Fri 7 UK, Manchester, Akoustik Anarkhy Truax 7" single launch Party
Sat 8 UK, Northampton, Labour Club
Fri 14 UK Nottingham, Junktion 7 (with Chemistry Experiment)
Sat 15 UK, Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire
Mon 17 UK, Aberdeen, The Tunnels

Travelling one man acts have a complicated life, these dates may not be updated to accomodate last minute changes, Please check with venues near dates to confirm and for further details."

my drugs hell II

2006-03-07T16:28:00.000Z

i posted in november about citalopram/antidepressants, and details of their potential side effects.

i'm posting about withdrawal effects this time.

as somebody has pointed out to me, and i unfortunately experienced, you Don't Fuck About with coming off long term (well, 18 months, if that's long term?) medication.
my reduction, as planned with my gp, was absolutely fine. my life was (and still is) cool, i was (and still am) pretty happy...
did my gallivanting across the country week watching bands and exhausting myself.. and forgot to take my tablets with me. my doc had said that i should be reducing down to no mg/day by this time, so i figured i may as well.. and booked an appointment to see her, which was week and a half after i got back.
unfortunately, what i presume to be either withdrawal effects or an unexpected nervous breakdown (which has righted itself since i started taking them again) hit at the beginning of the week of my appointment.... also coincided with the worst Monthly Event i've ever had - i not only had pmt, but d[uring]mt too. tearful at the drop of a hat (i got hysterical over the news story of the baby giraffes that died following a zoo fire), stressed out, not sleeping til about 4am, missing uni due to disturbed sleep pattern, and even getting slightly aggressive (not physically, just incredibly snappy and a bit over-strung).. which i think you'd agree is way out of character for me.

oh and i even got barred from my favourite nightclub. i wish it were for biting someone's ear off or something equally exciting, but no. i'm not barred any more but i'm too ashamed to go back...

so yup, i'm back on 10mg every other day, and seeing how i go. so far, i've been alright. a few major stresses in other areas, but in terms of mental health, i feel positively sane these days.

the week of madness really shook me up, but as my fabulous gp pointed out, some people have no problem coming off them, some people find they have to cut down in terms of halving a tablet, and then halving that again, every other day..
she also suggested it possibly wasn't the right time to try and quit smoking (heh) and, at my request and crap sense of humour, my medical notes now have 'a bit all over the shop, really' in them forever.

i was aware too it is prescribed for long term use, which (it has been pointed out to me) means that it is possibly not as 'lightweight' as i first thought, especially as i never seemed to get any major symptoms or side effects when i started taking it, i kind of presumed i wouldn't get any coming off it.

i'm also putting in a quick blog shite disclaimer:
i've never claimed this would be a Serious site, and the contents of my head are often just fluff, kittens and music. i do reserve the right to remove my tongue from my cheek at any point and go all poker faced at you from time to time.
thanks for sticking with me, gentle reader.

(oh, and don't worry *too* much that i've lost it - the mental health post last week was for someone else's benefit, not mine).

south dakota tightens abortion laws

2006-03-07T01:57:00.000Z

... making it a crime for doctors to perform terminations unless a womans life is at risk and forbids exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
bbc link

an anonymous donor has given $1m to back the new laws should they be challenged in court. and winsconsin pro-lifers are getting giddy

Planned Parenthood, the state's only abortion clinic, have vowed to challenge the new laws. they also have a 'donate now' button on their site.

this is one of the supreme council, relatively recently elected, whose influence is being credited with 'encouraging' the attitudes which enabled the bill to get passed..... he also recently voted to uphold all restrictions in Pennyslvania law, requiring a woman to notify her husband before an abortion.

the first i'd heard of any of this was when i checked out the excellent biting beaver site, for the first time in too long. the idea posted gave a simple and effective message - in "supporting" the bill, they sent the governor's office wire coathangers, as the state health agencies would 'need vast stockpiles of these to handle the demand'.

good luck to planned parenthood.

international opposition to the usa's increasingly right wing anti-abortion/anti-sex education/pig ignorance and, in terms of hiv prevention and education, wilful accessory to manslaughter (sorry if that's too emotive, but they're effectively abetting preventable deaths) is emerging.

a recent post by merrick on bristling badger details an International Planned Parenthood Federation report, produced at the behest of the UK government's Department for International Development. it concluded that 19 million women (200 a day) will have unsafe abortions this year. 70,000 of these women will die agonising appalling deaths because of the procedure.
on election, the bush administration issued a 'global gag' order, which cut funding to international agencies who wished to offer support to women seeking abortions.
In the light of the report, a fund called the Global Safe Abortion Programme is being set up specifically to replace the money withdrawn by the usa due to the 'global gag'. The founder donor of the fund is the UK government's DfID.
(thanks to merrick for that, and apologies for the paraphrased repost)

veldt

2006-03-06T11:23:00.000Z

...are an AMAZING band from brighton. i'm championing them to everyone i know.

their homepage
their myspace, where you can stream some of their music, if my attempt on here doesn't work..

"Band Members:
lloyd wadey - vocals, guitar, bass, keys & samples, mixed with words, a purveyor of all manner of ideas to veldt.

james waterland - guitar, bass, keys & samples, well known for mixing sartorial savvy with kaleidoscopic sweeping sounds.

mike alexander - cello , keys & vocals, ostensibly a lover of both classical music and literature

Influences: John Barry, Roy Budd, Lalo Schifrin & all great 60/70s film themes, 60s psych, The Zombies, Billy Nicholls, David McWilliams, Great Singers such as Scott Walker, Elvis, Serge Gainsbourg, Francoise Hardy, Dusty Springfield to name a few, and electronica, Stockhausen, et al....anything that makes us sit up and listen

Sounds Like: Scott Walker being mugged by Portishead. Weapons supplied by Lee Hazlewood.

Record Label: Outstanding Records

Type of Label: Indie "

they're playing Dingwalls @ Lock 17, London, Mar 13 2006 7:45pm.

i'm not going to it, but would love to see them live. i have just spent the equivalent of a packet of tobacco on one of their singles on ebay (note to self: why on earth didn't i order through the website??? damn you, wine and internet access) and will use my inhalator tomorrow. (actually, this might be a dead good way of quitting smoking - spending the equivalent on music instead of fags.. )

highly recommended, hope they do well
Watch the Walking in Silence Video:

Mental Illness - A serious topic

2006-03-02T17:01:00.000Z

Reproduced/reposted/copied and pasted from the blog of dr phunk.
________________________________________________
For various reasons I thought I would go all serious for a few minutes. I want to write about a difficult topic. Mental illness.

Mental illness is common. About 1 in 3 people will have a mental health problem at some point in their life. These problems range from mild to severe. There is a chance that someone you know and love will have a mental health problem at some time.

If that happens, what do you do? How do you deal with it? Can you help?

Think about it for a second.

If you don't have an answer you could try this link
http://www.rethink.org/information/carers/index.html

It might give you some help. I hope you are never in that situation because it is difficult.

Remember, you can always get help.

Funky
______________________________________________
Thank you very much for posting that, ph/funky.

all the wine

2006-02-26T17:48:00.000Z

well.
our website*
my myspace (under which i masquerade as representing 'all the wine' but actually prefer to chase characters from the mighty boosh and attempt to flirt with pretty ladies, as well as harrassing bands telling them how great they are. and yes, i'll be your friend..)

all the wine was a night that myself, pocket rich and laura music did at baby jupiter in leeds.

a nice little quiet kooky bar with good music policies and red wine galore.
we spent several nights of fags, wine, notebooks and arguing, trying to come up with a name for it, and one night, i texted pocket drunkenly exclaiming that it Had To Be all the wine. couldn't remember it the next day, like, but we all agreed it worked.

so, we proposed the idea to the manager, he liked it, and we started off in november as 'beautiful losers' (leonard cohen reference, pre-drunken inspiration). we then renamed it, did a couple more and after xmas went weekly.

we played all sorts of goodness. playlists for the last 2 months are on the webs(h)ite, with a few sparkly songs and tunes of great beauty :)

we've had great fun doing it, but unfortunately it didn't quite gel with a couple of the regulars at the bar, and we had quite a few problems with flyers getting done on time and stuff.... there was also the fact that it wasn't really near anything in town that the people that came down went to (apart from possibly the purple door strip club)..

so we had our final one last thursday. all the wine was all for us - we finished all the red in baby j's and had a great time doing so.

we plan to re-surface at another venue in leeds soon, and are busy preparing stuff for places to give them an idea of what we're about and what we'd like to do.

we're also planning a summer mini-festival, all the wires, probably at the brudenell or common place, if they'll let us. there are some incredible bands expressing interest, so we need to get our butts into gear and get Organised.

updates as and when :)

oh and just because i'm absolutely obsessive about it, here's our final playlist. no last goodbye on it though :)

laura

concretes - can't hurry love
sons & daughters - fight
tindersticks - bathtime
lilium - lover
raveonettes - love in a trash can
smog - palimpest
los super 7 feat. lyle lovett- my window faces the south
pink mountain tops - plastic man you're the devil

zoe

pela - all in time
arcade fire - laika
idlewild - happy to be here
beth orton - bobby gentry
devastations - can i take you home?
the national - friend of mine
electrelane - i'm on fire
western suburbs - keep on truckin'
king creosote - 678

rich

love - alone again or
dragon rapide - there is no sherman in illina's
royal city - bad luck
neil young - loner
the prisoners - til the morning light
the national - beautiful head
papa m - beloved woman
interpol - the new
13th floor elevators - barnyard blues

laura

cat power - (can't get no) satisfaction
gram parsons - to love somebody
nick cave - brompton oratory
calexico - quattro
micah p hinson - as you can see
the sadies - the curdled journey
jim white - static on the radio
johnny cash - wichita lineman
tom waits - hold on

zoe

devastations - under
clayhill - cuban green
the books - 12 fold chain
calexico & iron and wine - sixteen maybe more
go! team - everyone's a vip to someone
marah - the dishwasher's dream
nick drake - strange meeting II
lali puna - middle curse
the flying burrito brothers - hippie boy

rich

off his tits and forgot how to use a pen again.

zoe

the national - all the wine (black sessions 2005)
rem - 1,000,000

* n*******l fans, try right clicking the links on the site, opening in a new window and fiddling with the 'page number' at the end of the address.. tip: make it a higher number than '5'. you might find something you like.

xxxx

beth orton comfort of strangers tour

2006-02-22T19:02:00.000Z

at leeds met yesterday.

god that woman's amazing. talented, witty, sweary, unafraid of fucking up, smart, ballsy, and the nicest smile in showbiz.

support came from the fantastic clayhill , whose bio describes them as "something of Talk Talk and Penguin Café Orchestra in there, not to mention small but satisfying splashes of Nick Drake and Tim Hardin." Ali Friend (Red Snapper & Beth Orton's Trailer Park contributer) on bass and keyboards, Ted Barnes (fellow Beth contributor) doing guitar and keyboards, and lead singer Gavin Clark (Sunhouse), alongside Nick Hemming ( guitar, backing vocals, piano and harmonium ) and Tom Skinner ( drums and glockenspiel ) for the tour.

despite skintness, i persuaded my fellow attendee, my lovely ex-housemate adam, to buy this: (cuban green on vinyl - check their website for info) and got it signed. yay.

beth orton's merchandise was a bit strange - beth goes rrock! style hoodies and tees with her name in pseudogoth lettering... but enough shopping.

here's the setlist. photos between encores.

rectify
heartland truckstop
conceived
heart of soul
safe in your arms
someone's daughter
stolen car
worms ("worms can't dance, they haven't got the balls...")
shopping trolley ("i think i might cry - gonna laugh about it - it's gonna be fine")
shadow of a doubt
comfort of strangers
feral children
sweetest decline
she cries your name
god song
countenance ("for those who preach forgiveness, when they're practicing revenge")
pieces of sky ("i best get busy living, been a long time gone")

*
pass in time
absinthe
a place aside ("pull me close and we lay still, wrap my toes around your heel")

*
feel to believe
i wish i never saw the sunshine
concrete sky
spotlight

lovely lovely stuff. lots of audience banter - she told us the 'whats ET short for?' joke, confessed to being incredibly nervous about the gig (worried that she'd have a 'spaz attack' on stage), dealt with hecklers fantastically and giggled at her bum notes...

was going to play paris train but apparently hadn't worked on it, so she did sweetest decline instead.. on absinthe she donned a mouth organ, and god song turned into a storming, throbbing ache of a melody, with the whole band kicking in towards the end.

when she played 'i wish i never saw the sunshine', some people were talking near the front, so she just hissed 'shut it' at them... did requests (but not the huge enthusiastic lesbainian contingents cries for 'central reservation')... and dedicated the final song, spotlight, 'to the man at the front who wanted it'.

to quote the lady herself,

"i'm on fire tonight. watch me go".

beth orton - don't need a reason

2006-02-22T18:54:00.000Z

Have you ever seen a sign
That upon a right time
There were angels?
We all lose track
'Cause upon our backs,
Feel the weight of them

Why they fall is hard tell,
But some things you can't buy or sell
Yeah, we all hurt the ones we love
And we don't need a reason
We only give what we think we deserve
And that's something to believe in

I think I've seen a sign
But its a very fine line
If you want it all
And don't lose track
For upon our backs
There's no weight of wings

When they shine is hard to say
But some things never fade away
We only hurt the ones we love
Why, we don't need a reason
We only give what we think we deserve
And that's something to believe in

So I've been calling angels down to Earth
And I don't need a reason
Calling angels down to Earth
Because I believe we need them

We only hurt the ones we love
Why, we don't need a reason
You're gonna get all that you deserve
And all that you believe in
Do you believe in?
Do you need them?
If you need them
Do you know?

Do you need them?
If you need them
Do you know?
Do you need them?
If you need them

happy valentines day

2006-02-14T00:01:00.000Z

click here for video

here for pictures

and here for story

with love x

a little light relief - i will not mention the national again

2006-02-13T19:01:00.000Z

until may. apart from this post (unless, of course, they do something newsworthy like explode, become sainted or break up).

in a moment of boredom the other day, i set a caption competition on the blue rooms, using a picture from their 'indie rock showdown' football thing they posted on their site. i thought i'd share the contributions with you.

"Try as they might, the National *still* couldn't spot the hundred to one scale model of my ex boyfriend's willy."

"Miles was determined to beat Hector lighting Victor's impending fart"

"Look and see if [zoe]'s still following us. I really can't run any more!"

"The National's back line didn't really stand a chance..."

"Maybe one day we'll be able to afford trousers that fit..."

"Do we have to play leap frog again, george ????????"

"Phillip bent over and showed them why he had been voted best balls in Benidorm."

(far left)"I've got the lard! Assume the position!!"

heh.
someone (hello c'lam!)even once wrote me a poem about .. well .. band stalking cos i go on about them too much.

"zoe's a fan of the national
just the thought makes her act all irrational
she follows them round
ev'ry city and town
spending every last bit of her cash 'n all."

appropriately enough, saturday presented me with a dilemma. a £20 budget and a zine-fest in manchester with a lady i don't see often enough and her distro in tow..
and i sat and thought it through. and decided that £20 would be better spent on catfood, veg and uni books.

it was a cloud with a silver lining because *this* event came to my attention as i spent an evening in. i got a ticket faster than a ferret down trousers.
(worry not, gentle reader, i have a veg box on order and paid up already, and have stocked up on the whiskas [the picky fuckers won't eat anything else. apart from my dinner. hmph] and environmentally friendly cat litter, so we're not starving for the love of music or anything like that).

--------

Event: National
Venue: Scala275 Pentonville RoadKings CrossLondon, United Kingdom N1 9NL
Seating: GENERAL ADMISSION
Time: Wednesday, May 31 at 7:00 PM
Quantity: 1
Delivery: Venue Pickup

--------
Ticket face value: 10.00
Service fee: 1.20
Total charges: 11.20
-------

buy here
___________________________________________________________________
edit: 14/02/06
christ. the minute i take my vow of national silence, they announce a tour.

they're supporting the Editors, who i saw last year when they were only wee and playing with we are scientists.. and they were good back then, and doubtless even better now...

glasgow Academy - May 28
manchester Apollo - May 29
london - Brixton Academy May 30
london Scala - May 31

what a fabby thing to find on valentines day. maybe it's a sign that they'll *all* be my husbands after all. not in a sexeh way, you understand, just to feed me grapes and play me music.

edit 07/03: and yet another thing
FOR GODS SAKE!!!
they've also gone and released a bonus expanded gold plated and diamond encrusted (as far as my wallet's concerned) version of alligator.
here's a link to the extras online for people that bought the original version. which is really nice, they're kind of compensating for the fleecing sensation invoked by repackaged, re-releases of new material...
but i'm a sucker for packaging!!! grrrr!!! next stupid loan instalment...

random pictures and poor photography

2006-02-13T16:38:00.000Z

this painting was above our mantelpiece when i was growing up. a friend of my parents' painted it, a guy called andrew britchford, in 1974. he died in some mountains in italy years ago. i think it's of the isle of wight, but i'm not sure - i shall double check with my mum. i really need to get my arse in gear, get hold of a drill and get it put up.

"it's all good" - berlin 2004, just after bush got in again.

now for the poor photography. still working the camera out, but have some bits of leeds while i'm doing it.

milk and two

sparkly doorway

arty stuff

some ungodly hour the other day

plant-sniffing pudgiecat

coming up roses

hanging around

gayboy bob

urban explorer

the best gate in the world

and while i've still got scanner fever;
headphones make the weight of the world on your shoulders lighter and buses come faster.

novelty charity shop albums

2006-02-13T16:16:00.000Z

my god.

super gigs and not so super markets

2006-02-13T16:05:00.000Z

this month is officially a month for gigging.

so far:

feb 1st - clogs & the books - the arches - glasgow
feb 2nd - quack quack - the pack horse - leeds
feb 2nd - colder - the faversham - leeds
feb 4th - clogs & the books - corn exchange - brighton
feb 10th - being 747, western suburbs & shout out louds - cockpit - leeds

to come:
feb 16th - go! team - leeds metropolitan university - leeds
feb 21st - beth orton - leeds metropolitan university - leeds
feb 23rd - julian cope - leeds metropolitan university - leeds

i believe being 747 are playing the horse on the 25th, and there's bound to more small ones coming up too.

hurray!

today is also officially a day for blogging.

this metro clipping has followed me through several house moves and been pinned on a fair few kitchen walls (can you tell?)

jimmy mclcaughlin of edinburgh, whoever you may be, i heart you.

right. 9x9 finished (maybe another edit if i get the ok to tag someone else that i'd rather ask first).. books posts written up, other stuff done.. all that's left is the clogs writeup.
tomorrow.

and the quiet become suddenly verbose

2006-02-12T15:35:00.000Z

(click on the above link and listen to the words)

"and meanwhile, statues are bleeding green, and others are saying things much better than we ever could, as the quiet become suddenly verbose"

or to be a little less classy, i could misquote the monty python lumberjack song: "i type all night and i type all day".
something's a bit weird. i can't stop writing. i also can't tell if i'm just churning out shite

jim bliss, i'm blaming you and your ridiculous productivity. it was the blog meme that set me off. did you put something in the earl grey too?

thank you.

"expectation... leads to disappointment. if you don't expect something big, huge and exciting, you usually, uh... ah, i don't know"

western suburbs

2006-02-11T09:52:00.000Z

well last night was nice.

down at the cockpit, we had the brilliantly titled Being 747, Western Suburbs and Shout Out Louds.

again, poor photography is to follow (as is a separate post about poor photography)

Being 747 were ace. songs included (i'm guessing at the titles here) 'she fell asleep while watching her life flash before her eyes' and 'use your friends' ("use them! chew them! spit them out!"). they were all dressed in lab coats and the singer or keyboard player (can't remember which) claimed they were all in the civil service...

amusingly different :)

i'm going to skip right ahead to Shout Out Louds.

i hadn't heard of them until wednesday. and all i know about them is that i googled and a lot of arcade fire comparisons came up.

this was them (above), kindly taken by Gigantic Dan, who was stood on a box or something at the back.

i was really enjoying them, but also wanted to catch up with a friend on a trip up from london so left the main room just as they burst into a pogues-a-like number, after having sounded very arcade firey (which i'm told is actually the term used when down with the kids. sorry, i mean da kidz. yes.)

now. lurching in a chaotic unchronological order to the middle band and headline of this post, Western Suburbs. remember the name. hopefully we'll be seeing more of them soon.

hailing from sleepy ripponden, they're a four piece playing honest, warm blooded gorgeousness. one of their reviews describes them as 'Like Dinosaur JR, Mercury Rev and Pavement mixed up at a jelly and ice cream party'. i think that's meant to be good.

they kicked off with Don't Cool Us Down, and then moved onto a polished Barbara Singleton Supersleuth. at this point, any questioning over how well they would transfer from record to live performance was blown out the water.

i wasted a lot of time trying to get a photo of the other guitarist in front of me, but there were two problems - my camera has no flash and i'm still working it out, so most of the time things came out as a black splodge. the other was that, when he did step into the light, he hardly stood still.. so the point where he knelt down and fiddled with Technical Things was a perfect opportunity..

a few new songs were rolled out, first Ride Pillion and then the achingly gorgeous Jesus Song. a bit of continental cosmopolitan titling with Le Hotel (shouldn't it be L'Hotel?) too. i'm absolutely shit at describing what music is like. i become lost for words, and acutely aware that 'sparkly' isn't really an adequate description. that's why the books and clogs music post hasn't been done properly - i just don't have the vocabulary for them.

heh posting pictures instead is probably not an adequate substitute. but hey.

the penultimate song was 'The Road', with a gripping hook and lyrics "smart kids, don't turn your back.. dumb kids don't turn your back... follow the road". it's one of my two favourite songs of theirs*. i've played it at all the all the wine a couple of times, and it hasn't failed to get people asking what it is (which doesn't happen *that* often).

they finished with 'Saddest Star', which is my other favourite. i shan't even attempt to describe it.

Western Suburbs website

The Road download
Saddest Star download
(links taken from their website.)

*ooh i've just noticed that they were both released as singles. how clever of me to like them the best :)

lets go shopping!

2006-02-09T02:30:00.000Z

Ethical shopping. It’s the new black, apparently. From the Rough Guide’s Ethical Shopper, to the Vegan Society’s Animal Free Shopper via the Ethical Consumer website, guides are available to help us decide how, why and where to shop.

Last year, Nestle were (controversially) awarded the Fair Trade status for one of their brands. Starbucks recently sponsored a Fair Trade event in Leeds, and Cadbury-Schweppes bought out Green & Blacks, the producers of divine, organic, (and, in the case of Maya Gold at least, Fair Trade) chocolate. More and more people seem to be vegetarian or vegan . Or maybe it's the circles I mix in? We are becoming increasingly aware of the effects of our consumption on people and planet. And consumer trends can equal big bucks for business.

Focussing on two of Britain’s more ‘ethical’ companies, Lush and Foo-Go, it is evident that some values hold stronger than others. It is also interesting to note that the mundane and usual is highlighted as being ‘better for the consumer’ and that underlying issues are glossed over.

Foo-Go supply sandwiches to several major retailers in the UK. Their packaging tells us that it is fully biodegradable within 14 weeks - both the cardboard and the ‘window liner‘! Well done on the non-plastic screen - the use of corn starch means that it won‘t stick around for generations to come. Here’s the snag. There is a difference between ‘compostable’ (by definition: “Eco-toxicity - the biodegradation does not produce any toxic material and the compost can support plant growth”) and ‘biodegradable’ (“there is no requirement for leaving "no toxic residue"). Although they say you can compost the cartons, the word compostable is never used.

As for the carton; all paper is biodegradable (admittedly, Foo-go’s may biodegrade faster). To their credit, they have used recycled paper, the production of which uses less energy , cuts air pollution by 95% ,and saves 30,000 litres of water in comparison to virgin paper production, tonne for tonne. Recycling paper also reduces the need for deforesting, which in turn limits the current decline in animal species and plant diversity caused by cutting down trees for paper production. An area of forest the size of Wales is destroyed each year to feed the UK’s paper and cardboard consumption - we are the world’s fifth highest consumer, getting through over 11 million tonnes of paper and cardboard per year. Some companies do replant the forests they have destroyed, but with conifer trees (which grow faster) rather than the species cut down. This leads to a completely different habitat and ecosystem. Next time you stock up on notepads or computer paper, please try and make it recycled.

They also claim that they ‘want to create a more ethical food chain’ and ‘ensure that our products represent food that is fair to farmers, producers, consumers, and the environment.’ Producing ‘only natural food that has not been fiddled with’ and ‘simple food that is good for the environment, animals, and hungry people’.

I called the number on their website to find out a bit more about what I’m eating. The woman on the other end of the phone (who preferred not to give her name if I was to quote her) told me that they are in the process of launching new ranges, so there may be future changes. So, their current policy is: no GM foods, using only free range eggs and chickens and ‘mostly’ organic vegetables. They also ‘try’ to source free range/organic meat, but could not tell me in what proportions or how successfully. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge over what they’re actually selling me, and the meaningless values of ‘mostly’ and ‘try’, lead me to think that it’s not a terribly important issue on their agenda.

On a side note, there are whole other debates to be had over whether the definition ‘free range’ is acceptable in terms of animal welfare, and whether the egg industry - even free range suppliers - should be allowed to put three day old chicks into a grinder because they were the wrong gender, to feed back to their parents. And how friendly is dolphin-friendly tuna to, well, tuna? Is there any point in making sure an animal you’re going to kill is happy before you eat it? Is eating meat or dairy ethically responsible, in terms of ‘morality’ and of land use in the first place?

Enough of slaughter and destruction, let’s move onto bath bombs and shower jellies.

Lush are, on the surface, one of the more people-and-planet-friendly companies going. Ranked alongside the Co-op on an ethical consumer website, they treat their staff well , believe in using fresh produce and no animal testing. However, there is a small ripple of corporate bloodthirstiness under the surface. Some of their products contain cocoa powder, cocoa butter and coffee. Being #37 in the Sunday Times “Best 100 Companies To Work For”, the staff presumably get to meet the bosses in the staff-friendly-company way that many businesses seem to endorse. A (now ex-) staff member recalls speaking to a director of Lush about five years ago asking him why they didn’t use fair trade sources. They pointed out that the producers of the chocolate, coffee and cocoa could be working under horrific conditions, and effectively the company could be using slave labour. The director’s response, with not a hint of irony, was, “If we all bought Fair Trade, the slaves would be out of a job.” I find that story, if true, quite terrifying. In their mission statement, they say “we believe in making a profit”. At whose cost?

Preferring not to rely on anecdotal evidence alone, I called their order/helpline. Their response? “It doesn’t actually say on any of the products… I’m not sure. I think it should be”. Their website gives no mention of using Fair Trade, but heralds many of the company’s other green policies. Chocolate, coffee and bananas are three staple things I insist on buying Fair Trade, so I’d like to know what’s going in my shopping basket. I am (still) awaiting an email response to the same query.

This year they were taken to court and fined £3,688 by the Environment Agency over not complying with a recycling certification programme. They claim it was not being up to date with frequently changing recycling laws which led to an error on their part, but surely a company which prides itself on its recycling promotion and packaging should be extra careful to keep up to date with this sort of information?

Although some of their staff benefits are great (large discount, flexible shifts), they have a no sick-pay policy. A director, Heather Williams, points out the bright side of this: “We lay great emphasis on flexible working, so if someone felt sick one morning he or she could change his shift and take time off to be sick without being out of pocket.” This assumes a) that people are only sick for one morning; b) that sorting out an extra shift at another convenient time will be possible and c) that if they are off sick for a week, they will have a ‘spare’ week to work their missed shifts. She points out that the company cannot afford to pay sick pay, which at first seems fair enough - if you ignore that, with booming profits and new stores opening constantly, surely it’s time to stop for a moment and consider whether profit or staff welfare are more important. She then shatters any hope that this may happen by saying, “We have a lot of students work in the shops and we have many transient workers. I don't think it is something we'd introduce even if we were big and making more profit.”

It may seem strange to concentrate on two relatively ‘green’ companies, when there are so many large and far ‘nastier’ corporations out there. Quite simply, other people are doing my work for me. Amongst many others, there is currently a campaign against Coca-Cola named ‘Killer Coke’, and many people are choosing to boycott Coca-Cola. It is interesting to note that in the pub the other week, a woman near me ordered a cola, but recoiled when she realised it was Coke, citing the campaign. She decided that, as they didn’t have Pepsi, she would have a lemonade instead. The only problem with this is that the lemonade served was also made by Coca-Cola. If you choose to boycott a brand, consider whether you want to boycott them fully or just on one of their products. (N.B. I’m not suggesting boycotting Foo-Go or Lush. Unless you feel strongly enough about their relatively small misdemeanours, of course.)

I chose to look into Foo-Go and Lush because of their apparent ethical stances. I want to know if the things they sell that purport to be good for me, for others and for the planet, actually are. If a company says they have all of the above’s interests at heart, I want them to mean it. Admittedly, a company cannot be 100% perfect 100% of the time, if current practices are anything to go by. We may need to prioritise our beliefs, sacrificing one for another - if, indeed, we think any of these things are important.

Why should we bother thinking about what we buy? Well, there’s only one Earth. You’re on it right now. And we’re killing it day by day, we’re murdering and exploiting adults and children across the globe. Simply by buying certain things, we are telling companies it’s OK to abuse our trust in them and carry out these acts on our behalf. Is it better make a small difference, or no difference at all? Simply remembering to sort your rubbish into recycling and not-recycling is a start, even if you’re too skint to go shopping, ethically or otherwise.

Alternatively we could reject all consumerism, live in a tree and I’ll knit us all jumpers out of cat fur while you cook lentil soup.

Word count: 1622

copyleft.

Sources and links:

corporate watch
urban 75 post on shopping ethically
ethical consumer . org
green consumer guide . com
responsible shopper . com
rough guide to ethical shopping
animal-free shopper
paper recycling info
friends of the earth on paper recycling
Lush
Foo-Go
Fair Trade
Green and Blacks
Corn starch/biodegradable plastics
Lush in Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For
Lush fined by environment agency
PETA on the chicken/egg industry
laying hens information
No sick pay for Lush employees
killer coke
Campus Coke Boycott Document

it was NOT a stalking holiday!!!

2006-02-09T00:22:00.000Z

... were the words i found myself saying to someone on my return to leeds yesterday.

so, yeah, i chased clogs and the books over the uk a little bit. it's been a bittersweet experience.

apologies for the shite photos, it was an incredibly cheap camera and only some of them came out.

this is going to be the longest blog post i've ever written.
(edit: so long, in fact, that i've had to split it into three chunks. and the ethical shopping essayrant hadn't been written at this point.)

ok, schedule first, music later.

tuesday

i started out by going to malton (after a wild scramble to get a young persons' railcard application form from the station, get it up to uni and approved, and back to the station and issued, all in the space of thirty minutes) on tuesday with merrick to a venue called the shed , which is bang smack in the middle of nowhere. it's basically a village hall with an amazing reputation for live acts. we had a chat with padma & bryce from clogs (we followed the national round a bit last year, and they're in both groups) and said hello and stuff.. and i cheekily asked if i could get guestlisted for the rest of the tour due to skintness but enthusiasm.. .they said yes, which made me a very happy bunny. i also asked the books if i could interview them at some point in the tour, probably brighton, and the said yes too. i was an even happier bunny. then i drank wine and awaited our transport 'home'... after the gig, we got picked up by the b&b owners (who were among the most obliging, friendly and generous people i've ever met), and tried to rescue a runaway dog on the way back. it wasn't having any of it though.

wednesday

woke up to a cracking vegan breakfast, and went charidee shopping in malton. two michael jackson albums, two banjo party albums and a gorgeous velvet jacket (all for about eight quid!) later, merrick made his way to york & Other Things, and i waited for a later train to york in order to go to glasgow.

except i evidently can't be left alone for two minutes. i got on the wrong train to the wrong place going in the wrong direction. ended up in scarbrough for fifteen minutes, cried at a train guard (in pure *waaah*ness, not as a damsel-in-distress ruse), got my ticket amended for free (thank you, mr humane train guard) and was only an hour late getting further up north.

glasgow was, as ever, gorgeous. quick catch-up with a blast from my past (and a lovely catch-up it was too), and then onto the gig at the arches. my two friends went through the doors ahead of me, and i gave one of them my original ticket, as my name was meant to be 'down on the list'.
except it wasn't. so, bought a ticket and went in. after the gig, double checked about the guestlist and interview for brighton, and was told it was all good.

some lesbanian rrrock bar socialising, windowsill glossing, glassbreakages and newly acquired 2ndhand levi's later, it was ....

thursday

i was heading back to leeds for a short respite.

but did i rest? did i arse.

got into leeds at nine, straight up to the 'horse to see the remarkable quack quack and then to the faversham at eleven to see colder. absolutely brilliant gig, shame about the lack of publicity and few people there. nice that the snake-hipped singer agreed to an interview, though. bit of a dance at gigantic, home to bed and then work at nine on ...

friday

finished work at twelve, on megabus to london at half past.

friday was my gig day off. i didn't go to see clogs or the books. i also didn't go to see king creosote. or bauhaus. but i did meet up with a couple of Good People in brixton, and then further afield somewhere near walthamstowe, i experienced fantastic company, a comfy sofa, immense hospitality and my first bong in about a decade. top stuff.

saturday

was brighton night. i met up with s. in london first for a few hours for drinks, brunchiness and good conversation, almost got stuck in the waitangi day kiwi district & circle line pub crawl. it was the first time i've ever heard a tube announcer say 'would you please LET GO of the doors'. arrived at victoria coach station 10 minutes before my megabus was due to leave, only to find i'd either written the wrong reference number or booked for the wrong date and couldn't get on. frantic phoning of anyone and everyone i knew with internet access to try get another ticket ensued, with no success. national express saved my life (and gyrus kindly did his best to help too).

trawled into brighton about half seven, found the venue, went to the ticket booth... and unlisted. again. panic.
a very kind lady listened to my rabid garbling and sorted me out a ticket. thank you, whoever you were :)
after the gig, i spoke to (i think) the tour organiser to check again it was ok for the books interview. he said it was fine, to wait out front and someone would 'come find me'.

i waited. and waited. smoked a few fags. waited a bit more. when i could no longer feel my feet and staff started locking the doors to the venue, i conceded defeat (an interview is being emailed, to give them the benefit of the doubt. if they don't reply though, they are barstids) and hopped in a taxi to the cowley club.

co-incidentally, i am a big fan of all things russian/eastern european.

imagine my joy when i walked in to find they were having a slavic night, described as "a barbaric benefit for some very tough Polish streetfighters who wrestle bears, eat nails and shit crowbars". Lots of stamping and clapping and 'oy!' ing and dancing. hurray!

sunday

so my adventure ended at an evil 9am, crawling out of brighton on a national express

i arrived home & safe at about six. it's been a productive trip - i've read more of my set texts, rewritten and revised more of my notes and thought about my uni course a lot more than i normally would when not travelling. i've also done some drawings to torment the world with.

exhausted but happy, and a wee bit over budget, all in all a good not stalking holiday.

nb a quick note about the travelling round the country after bands thing - from this post, it's obviously not just about that. it's about catching up with fantastic people. seeing more of this island. meeting good random strangers. meeting bad random strangers and Learning Life Lessons. working out how to make coach journeys go faster. having time by myself to think. a vacation from the cats. adreneline rushes when it all goes wrong, and overwhelming relief when it all goes right. and about developing new and interesting sleep patterns on getting home. next time i shall take a week off life afterwards.

chasing clogs & the books writeup - clogs and blogs

2006-02-06T18:30:00.000Z

the music - clogs

i went to the gigs in malton-ish (the shed), glasgow (the arches) and brighton (corn exchange).

clogs were incredible - like having a scalp massage. and in some kind of karma revenge, the only pic that came out was the one of the violinist dude. blurrily.

a few quotes from the blog of brooklyn vegan:
"I was all stressed when I showed up for this gig, and Clogs took the knot right out of my lower back."

"The Clogs, a side project of The National were mellow and dreamy with viola/violin/mandolin player Padma Newsome (wasn't that Natalie Portman's character in Star Wars?) taking up most of the spot light with spectacular and intense command of his instruments. I sat down on Tonic's concrete floor and was taken away for most of the show. The standard instrumentation was bassoon, drums/steel drum, guitar and violin/viola. Recommended for those who enjoy sophisticated, calm instrumental music ."

i'd never seen a bassoon before in my life. it was great. they combined on stage to make haunting, beautiful, happy, mournful, comical and reflective sounds, changing mood and instruments, and their collaboration with the books on a few songs was inspired.

set list (as far as i remember - i've procrastinated about doing this for about three weeks now)

the song of the cricket (as he hears it himself)
canon
5/4
2:3:5
death and the maiden ("death to the maiden? death for the maiden?" an improvisation on a schubert piece)
lantern
compass (i think)
thom's night out
for hugo
voisins
kapsburger (?)

they shared the tour (and the stage, at some parts) with the books - see next post.

this is clogs. (should play on your media player a sec or few after you click the links)

pencil stick
medley of songs from the newest album, lantern
mysteries of life
who's down now?
i'm very sad
clogs video

chasing clogs and the books writeup - looks@books

2006-02-06T18:28:00.000Z

the music - the books

clogs shared the tour (and in some parts the stage) with the books, who were refreshing, exciting and got a standing ovation in brighton. they consist of a cellist (paul), a guitarist (nick), a projector and samples.

one of the visuals they had to the opening song (that right ain't shit) was archive footage of the founding fathers of the mormons raising and re-putting on their hats (with bizarre expressions and the odd rub of the head).

the set list from the books (this is probably incomplete and not in the right order. i may even have made some of it up - my pen was wedged firmly in a folded up jumper - i was travelling like a snail, with my entire life in a the national tote bag) was as follows:

that right ain't shit
see mormon footage details above

an owl with knees
all owls have knees. unless they're extremely unlucky.

smells like content
"and meanwhile, we're furiously sleeping green"
i hope i've heard that correctly.
i'm possibly in danger of disappearing up my own overanalytical ass here, but could it be a reference to the chomsky quote "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously"?
(further discussion on the chomsky thing here)

be good to them always
"here we are... here we are... we are anticipa.. there it is. there it is! that's the picture... you see.. you see it for yourself. there it is.. it's a man.".. i wonder if it was this that had the gorgeous video of the ducks swimming, shot from under the water?

the future, wouldn't that be nice?
starts off with clapping. i always think it's going to be 'take time'.

don't even sing about it
"get used to hanging if you're hanging long enough"? love the crashing noises on this and the "now i have to buy three whiskey sodas" (again, i might well have misheard this).

if not now, whenever
'i like to go home and go to sleep'. it's this one that had the 'angel of death' quote. and excellent footage of long jumps and shiny blue athletics trousers.

take time
"for the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day. she climbed down from the tree next day. god bless her."joyful, exuberant and funny. visuals included african women joking about impotence (it's not the length, it's the strength!), dancing, evangelists, bouncy castles (i think?)...

twelve fold chain
apparently based on buddhist philosophy. padma newsome provided additional vocals. the visuals were of planes, and nick said it was because the song made them think of sea or air journeys. gorgeous.

it never changes to stop
terrifying disciplinarian with a voice described as (paraphrasing) 'the sound of a meteor heading towards the earth'
i think it was this one with footage of fish and jellyfish and the like. one of the most soothing things i've ever seen and heard at the same time.

the comical penguin
written by mikey, nick's brother, a veritable romp, with absolutely beautiful and funny home video footage of the band members and mikey growing up.

there was footage of running animals somewhere. lots of them. animals running fast. lions and tigers and bears, oh my. and cows. and everything. oh yesh.

they had two video 'interludes'. one was the word 'meditation' repeated (possibly by paul) over a montage of anagrams of 'meditation'. 'a timid note'. 'do it mean it' 'i minted tao' 'dominate it' 'i do mint tea'... "the ideal nite of vomit" (i think it was, at least - the meditation of evil?) (again, full artistic licence(licence? license?) taken in the reposting of those)

there was also incredible 30s (?)archive footage from washington dc of a young fellow playing 'yankee doodle' with his hands, kind of squeaking it. he was, uh, very special. made me giggle lots.

the books are into their thrift shops and banjos. if they answer my interview i'll send them a banjo party lp (separate novelty lp post to come). i'm sure they'd love it.
and also a love of poetry/stevie smith - she is the sample stating 'i am the angel of death' on 'if not now, whenever' - and paul managed to pick up the original lp in a brighton charity shop. yay

oh and an extra lovely track: vogt dig von kloppervok

also please note - although soulseek etck is fantabulous, there are a few bands/labels - mainly the smaller ones like these - where i am realising that it's not a good idea to download.. (not that it's a good idea to download anything from anywhere, of course. unless it's authorised. hm.)

the books, if you want to hear more (and want to not pirate stuff), have this page on their website, which has all their albums to listen to online.

as they point out, "We feel the need to dispel any notions that we are financially sitting pretty because of the acclaim our music has enjoyed. It's true, we've released a couple of records and we're grateful to all of the writers who have taken the time to write about them, but unfortunately our record sales do not reflect this. Our work, although deeply satisfying to us, has left us both on the brink of financial collapse since we began, so we are asking you: Please, do not steal our music thinking that we can afford it. We barely get by, and aren't able to afford basic things like health insurance, let alone raising a family, etc. We love what we do, and we love that people listen, but if you would like to see our work continue, please support us, and all of the artists you enjoy, as directly as possible. The sad fact is, we can make a much better living selling t-shirts than we can selling music, so please help us keep this going."

honestly, $11 for an album is peanuts (relatively).

go shopping!

books online store
clogs at insound.com

the merchandising stall was like an aladdins cave. i was sorely tempted by lantern, thought for food on vinyl and the lantern dvd. in the end, i went for t shirts. the records will be bought on payday online.

the t shirts have the following prettiness on:

(heh - while i was googling for a 'lantern' image, this showed up - at three or four record stores... )

all the clogs and books links/samples are from the bands' own websites, or their record labels (apart from the video, which i will double check the source of). thanks to them for putting them up.

and, fantastically, the books and clogs interviewed each other in the guardian the other week. clicky here

oh and have a childlike computer scribble too...

no wonder my electric bill's so high

2006-01-30T23:01:00.000Z

this fat fucker (bad bob) absorbs all the heat.

and budgie (or should i say 'pudgie'/barrel cat) is just as bad.

worryingly i don't have one of dinah, the smallest but eldest one.

worrying too that i am resorting to blogging my cats....

edit: d situation now rectified - here she is in all her sultry glory........

double edit: with acknowledgements to manu for posting this elsewhere:

"a translation of a poem written at the same time (800 CE) by a monk who was a copyist and I'd like to post the translation."

Pangur Ban

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry task to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

-- Anon., (Irish, 8th century)

but where?
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arrrrrr!

more from climate camp

you are the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserve

seduction tips for serial hangoverists

the national - the astoria - 22nd may

spot the difference

latitude

a mars a day

apt

stupid

what's wrong with this picture?

stuff and things

so worry not, all things are well

moved (again)

urban wildlife

meme

101st post, apparently

back from the back of beyond

news

the national & devastations - london koko - 31st may

the letter

musical mayhem

Anti corporate poetry book - SUBMISSIONS

the church of pie

moved

keep on trucking

catch up

devastations

defense de fumer

relocation relocation relocation!

new ways of identifying terror suspects.

tetris. but with cats.

jo shapcott

the great gatsby

ramble

all the wires

distractions

big rant time - rape and sexual abuse

FakeGayNews.com - Because real gay and lesbian news is too damn depressing.

Disarm DSEi
11th September 2007
One Day, Many Actions