On Thursday 15th November Lush held their inaugural Lush Prize at a warehouse venue in the heart of Shoreditch, and I was there. During the afternoon Mothers Meeting invited us to a tea party for kids, complete with luscious cakes by Lily Vanilli for the mummies and plates of healthy snack food for the kiddies.
The older ones were invited to make brilliant animal masks with Margot Bowman in celebration of the Lush#animalperson campaign, whilst our wee ones babbled at each other and noshed on each other’s heads.
Then it was home to put Snarfle to bed before heading out once more for the prize giving dinner, a delicious vegan affair catered for by Tom’s Feast, and made entirely out of food that would otherwise go to waste.
I particularly enjoyed a bright green foraged salad, complete with pineapple weed… aka wild chamomile. Take a look at Tom’s blog if you really want to make your mouth water.
By a stroke of luck I happened to sit next to the gorgeous Rowena Bird, co-founder of Lush, who we interviewed many a moon ago for the print version of Amelia’s Magazine. We talked about her new make up range for Lush, Emotional Brilliance, which is based on colour psychology: spin the wheel and find out what colours jump out at you. I also met an inspiring lady with an intriguing project, Lucy Gilliam and the New Dawn Traders. Her mission? To get tall ships back on the seas to transport large cargos in carbon free style. What an amazing idea and one I’d never thought about – apparently the technology is there and now it’s all about the will (as ever with these things). Also at my table was the film maker responsible for the viral ad campaign designed to promote the Lush Prize, Josef Valentino. Watch it here.
The space was conceived as a high tech homage to forward thinking science by Something & Son and Inition, and each table featured an iPad with which to view specially designed cards placed on our plates – through these we experienced augmented reality, as the chaotic graphic patterns took shape to make hearts, feet and lungs. Using fingers we were able to dismantle these, as if performing our very own human vivisections.
The Lush Prize is a dauntingly ambitious project designed to highlight the ongoing use of animals in cosmetics testing, with a total prize fund of £250,000. It aims to promote and support all the exciting new developments which will hopefully rid our world of this outdated mode of experimentation. As Lush says ‘In a parallel universe not very far away, some of the world’s leading scientists and engineers are working towards a future where computers and molecular biology have replaced animals in laboratory tests.‘ We reported on the new REACH act (which makes extensive animal testing mandatory by law) way back in 2009 but sadly this is a battle which still needs to be fought: thank god Lush have stepped back in to bring the spotlight back on animal testing.
“Ask experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: ‘because they are like us.’ Ask experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: ‘because the animals are not like us.’ Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction.”Charles R. Nagel.
But back to the Lush Prize – the winners had travelled from all over the world to receive one half of a boxing bronze hare (created by ceramist Nichola Theakston) and a large amount of cash, designed to aid them in their work putting an end to unnecessary animal testing. Prizes were awarded for Science, Training, Lobbying, Public Awareness and to post doctoral students. The recipients included Hiromi Kamekura from the Japan Anti-Vivisecton Association, which has been doggedly raising awareness of animal testing by cosmetics giant Shiseido. Winners also came from India, Italy, the USA, Canada and Russia, for this is a truly global fight. It’s brilliant that Mark and Mo Constantine of Lush are so passionate about the things they care about, regularly stumping up cash to help others create the better world they strive and wish for. If only wish more companies were as bold and principled in their decisions.
Democracy Village. All photography by Amelia Wells.
Parliament Square is currently home to the Democracy Village; a few tents, visit this sitetreatment a couple of marquees and a whole lot of passion. It was set up on May the First and will be there… until people leave, or for some, until the war is over. I went down on Election Day, since I couldn’t vote anyway having failed to register, to see what was going on at the Festival of Peace. I found a vibrant and close knit community of anarchists, doing what they colourfully could to challenge the establishment, promote democracy and bring the war that we’re still at to an end.
Banners were being painted and erected as I arrived, the most striking declaring ‘Capitalism Isn’t Working’ against the backdrop of Big Ben. Others encouraged peaceful feelings, demanded ‘TROOPS OUT’, and my favourite, ‘If Voting Changed Anything, It Would Be Illegal’ – a good point when you consider quite how opposed the establishment are towards those actions which do make changes, such as occupations, mass protests, swoops and other forms of direct action. In the name of protecting our security, of course. Strangely, the police sniffing around the set-up didn’t make me feel more secure.
The atmosphere in the Village was peaceful and playful, in spite of the threat to national security which we represented. Peace-mongering music was played and danced to, the lyrics encouraging politicians not to go to war and to love their fellow man, with some Rage thrown in to sate the more militant. I watched people paint their shoes and bags with Ghandi’s most famous quote while a girl called Cloud handed out homemade fairy cakes.
Eventually, the open mic picked up, starting with a chap standing up to remind everybody why we were there and what we stood for when he asked whether politicians represent our views, or if we do? He also pointed out that being peaceful is not equivalent to being apathetic. Anything but, in fact, in a country run by the power and conflict hungry, seeking peace is downright subversive. He was rightfully applauded and whooped for his impassioned speaking, after which a gent who had been filming the event and interviewing the Villagers stepped up to spout well-crafted words of poetry in the exact spirit of peace we need – calling out the hateful on their actions and encouraging us to make a difference. Next up, a red nosed, bewigged gentleman incited us to love, respect and welcome one and all. His motto; one world, one society.
The most controversial speaker was a mouthpiece for the Tories who encouraged us anarchists to register as such in return for mind-altering substances. A few Villagers didn’t seem to have a prior understanding of satire and became quite riled at the ‘Tory’s’ opinions; one lady began shouting about the Village being funded by oil and arms companies… and the Israelis. After a calming down period, he suggested that we find a child and ask its favourite colour, informing us that he was voting Lib Dem because his son likes yellow, and voting isn’t going to make a difference to how the country is run.
Herein lies my gripe with actions such as these. It’s so easy for activists embroiled in occupations and demonstrations to believe that the means to change are obvious to all, but the man-in-the-street being told that his vote is irrelevant will only feel more powerless, if they pay any attention at all. The act of occupation is an act of power – reclaiming public space – but is standard passer-by going to stop and ask what they can do instead of voting, or keep passing by and shake their heads at foolish hippies?
The true message is that we can take the power back through direct action, occupations, protests, swoops and marches. Camps like these do force people to consider, if only for the moment it takes to read a banner, that our political system lies to us about the importance of our vote while trying to make us believe it is the sole extent of our political voice, and therefore reducing our power and influence over them (long banner, eh?) . However, most won’t and don’t wander into places like these and ask what they CAN do. As the Tory said, ‘I’m preaching to the converted here’. The outreach didn’t seem to be reaching out. An occupation in Parliament Square is the perfect opportunity to reach hundreds of people every day, not just with a message, but with suggested actions which everyone can take to make those changes we so desire and need.
While Spring turns to Summer, genericLondon Fashion Week AW10 may fade in our memories, stomach but the designers that drew us in certainly won’t. One such designer that caught my eye at the Esthetica exhibition was ‘Makepiece’. The concept and techniques used were so intriguing that we couldn’t resist interviewing the owner, Beate Kubitz.
Why did you choose to focus on eco-fashion? Why is it so important to you?
Clothes are important to me. I think what you’re wearing tells other people a lot about you, who you are and how you feel about yourself. I don’t like the idea that something that makes me look great was complicit in damaging the environment or the people who made it. You don’t want your favourite t-shirt to be dripping with pesticides, cause a water shortage or to be sewn up in a sweat shop. But unless you’re very careful, it might be.
There’s something wrong with the latest trend ‘buy, wear, chuck’ mentality – it’s a bit neurotic and it’s definitely bad for the planet. We try and make clothes that are significant to the women that wear them and that they can feel really good about.
How did the Makepiece brand begin?
I’ve been keeping sheep for seven years now, met Nicola six years ago and Makepiece is now five.
We’re located in Todmorden, a small town in the Pennines. It’s beautiful and has a long history of wool production so it feels like the right place to be doing it. The landscape is scattered with mills built in the nineteenth century – but wool was being spun and woven in cottage industries and then transported to market or the Piece Halls on ponies travelling on packhorse tracks which still crisscross the moors.
What techniques do you use in your clothing?
Knitting – with some knitted felt. The important thing is stitch design – Nicola is the queen of 3D stitches that really sculpt the garments and give them their drama as well as their details. She uses hand operated knitting machines which give her scope to develop a stitch then apply it in loads of different ways so that it works on the body. Our knits tend to be more three-dimensional because they’re designed like this. Also, all our knits are fully fashioned (knitted to shape rather than cut out of a piece of knitted cloth) which looks better and wastes less yarn.
What materials do you use in your clothing?
Wool – some of it undyed brown wool from our Shetland sheep, others fine Bluefaced Leicester wool, from the UK flock and English alpaca and mohair.
What was the inspiration behind your most recent collection?
Romance, definitely. Nicola got married in the summer and the sense of romance seems to have seeped into and permeated the collection. There are lots of ruffles, little frills, translucency and volume – but not just ephemeral prettiness, really lovely things that you can adapt and keep forever.
Do you have a favourite piece in the current collection? If so, what is it and why?
There are a few things that are really adaptable – like the Manifold cardigan which has a ribbon tie which can be used to ruche it up to bolero length or left loose so that it’s a long, elegant cardigan. Our little Foxglove shrug also works as a summer scarf and the Manifold dresses can be styled in loads of ways so they let the wearer use her imagination.
What are your future aims for the Makepiece brand?
We’ve really been growing our website so that people all over the country can buy our clothes but we’d like to be in more stores, for the people who are less confident with internet shopping or who like to try things on.
Is it harder or easier to sell eco-fashion? Is there a lot of competition?
Because we make everything in the UK it’s more expensive to manufacture so that means that we have to do a good job in helping people understand.
What is so individual about the Makepiece brand?
Style, humour and our flock of Shetland sheep. We go from mud to mascara in a twinkling of an eye – never forgetting the roots of our fashion but always looking for beauty and grace in our designs. We try and be sustainable throughout the business – from the way we farm the sheep with the lowest impact possible (we’re just about to become part of a scheme to help protect twite – which is one of the most endangered British bird species) to buying green energy for the studio, recycling everything we can, using public transport as much as possible (I took our last collection to London Fashion Week on the train from Yorkshire – in the most enormous trunk – it was quite a feat), I even do some of the farming on my bike.
The good thing about wool is that it is more or less a by-product from sheep farming so it’s not using up land or resources that should be in food production – and on upland farms like mine creating good grazing and farming sheep is one of the few productive things you can do (I tried vegetables once, but it was not a success!). Compared to cotton, for example, which uses over 15% of the pesticides used in the world and vast amounts of water – so much that the irrigation of cotton has shrunk the size of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, wool is farmed much more sustainably (particularly in the UK where we have to look after the land as well as the animals and the government monitors your impact on the environment).
Because we make everything so locally we avoid the CO2 emissions from shipping things vast distances. We also employ people in our community and use a local dyer who has to comply with European dyeing regulations – the REACH standards; no azos, no heavy metals and irritants, effluent is stringently monitored so no emissions into the water system, and so on.
We also only use recycled and sustainable paper in our labelling and packaging.
You can find the brand at: www.makepiece.co.uk and selected eco-fashion stores.
So today’s the day: the day that I sprung out of bed at an ungodly hour with only one thing on my mind. Who will be our next prime minister? I’ve not been so excited about a general election since 1997, sickness when I memorably got so drunk dancing on the tables in a north London pub that I thew up in the gutter. Of course back then I was excited for a very different reason. Yes, buy hands up, I was one of many who voted Blair in – after years of Tory rule we were excited about a future under Labour. Oh how very chastened we now are 13 years later.
Solving Hung Parliament by Val Woodhouse.
In 2010 it seems I am not the only one who has gotten swept up in the election. Even before the tales of queues at the polling stations I had a gut feeling there would be a high election turn out this year. Okay, so in my local Tescos the regular cashiers were overheard saying “Are you going to vote?” “Nah, they’re all the same aren’t they?” but when I walked through Camden yesterday I overheard lots of people talking about voting. It seems that we’ve finally managed to reawaken our democratic spirit.
I think this can be attributed to a few things – the Leaders’ Debates on television have increased popular interest in politics and Twitter allows for lots of interesting conversations, but there’s more to it than that… We are now so thoroughly fed up with the current system that we’ve collectively become hungry for change. And I’m not talking the kind of rhetorical change that Cameron espouses every time a camera is pointed in his direction. I’m talking serious, deep systemic change. Most people have been complacent for so long for only one very good reason: like the cashiers in Tescos they don’t feel that their vote makes the blindest bit of difference.
And so, whilst the big party leaders have been spinning the same old shit about how we should avoid a hung parliament at all costs because what we most need now for our country is stability or the markets will fail (big bloody boohoo) it seems that for many voters this has been like a red rag to a bull. Not even copious riot porn from Greece has phased us. Okay we’ve said: bring it on. We want serious upheaval! Nobody I have spoken to has feared the result we now have; instead we’ve positively hoped for a hung parliament precisely because we may finally see some changes to our electoral system. Of course, I’m as thoroughly baffled as the next person when it comes to the many forms of proportional representation, and I know the argument that PR could lead to as many representatives of the BNP in government as there could be Greens, but frankly that doesn’t frighten me. Our current “democracy” quite clearly doesn’t work and so something else that better represents the wishes of voters has got to be worth giving a go.
I love this clever graph from Information is Beautiful, showing up the glaring inadequacies of our current system.
I’m worried, of course, about what will happen if Cameron forces a Tory led government on us without sufficient recognition of the electoral reforms so many of us want. But actually I don’t really *fear* it – I think that if he does ignore the clear wishes of the voters then there will be widespread unrest and direct action of the kind that we saw just a glimpse of last night at polling stations across the country.
The Polling Station in Sheffield Hallam, illustration by Abigail Daker.
I called in late to my polling station in Bacon Street just off Brick Lane, and there was no one to impede my progress to the ballot box. However I was lucky, and people up and down the country are quite rightly furious that they were unable to vote thanks to a higher than predicted election turnout and antiquarian voting methods which have allegedly shocked even our visiting developing world adjudicators. I was as incredulous as ever. “You mean you don’t need to take my polling card as proof I am me?” It is utterly nuts that we don’t need proof of identity to vote. Next to me a boy, surely not a day over 15, was pushing his papers into the box. Who was he voting for? Just days ago a huge amount of voter fraud was uncovered in my constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow. In fact, it was uncovered on my own street – visible from my studio window is a building in my estate that allegedly houses 18 Bengalis, all registered for a postal vote.
Despite this unrest, I was absolutely ecstatic to hear that Caroline Lucas has become the first ever MP for the Green Party in the district of Brighton Pavilion. I met her when we did the first Climate Rush on Parliament in 2008 and I’ve been keeping my fingers and toes crossed that she would win this seat for some time now. If some form of electoral reform goes ahead there’s the thrilling prospect of yet more Greens in Parliament to represent my views. In the meantime, there’s always a nice bit of Direct Action to force change far more quickly than our government seems capable of. Climate Camp is targeting RBS this year. We look forward to making a big impact on our corrupt financial systems, whether or not change is decreed from on high.
Kuni Awai Darkroom Valentines
Cockroach tour by Mina Bach.
A couple of months ago I was invited to visit the Science Museum to dress up as a Cockroach. How on earth could I resist such an invitation? So it was that with trepidation myself and boyfriend strolled up Exhibition Road on a Saturday afternoon. Who would be our fellow Cockroaches? Children? Families? Other slightly bewildered online journos and bloggers?
We arrived at the tail end of nibbles in the lecture theatre, healing and were hastily whisked off to the Cockroach dressing room – right at the front of the museum so that interested passers by (and slightly petrified children) could watch as we donned our Cockroach regalia.
The purpose of all this Cockroach fun? Well you might ask… the Science Museum has just opened a swanky new Climate Change Science gallery, order all swelling colours and interactive screens that change the digital atmosphere. (Immediate thought: what the hell is powering all this technical gadgetry? I was assured it was green energy).
The Cockroach Tour is an art installation commissioned from Danish art collective Superflex – wherein my definition of art is VERY stretched – and takes groups of Cockroaches on a tour of the museum that ends up in the high reaches of the Climate Change Science gallery. The aim being to introduce people to the concept of human idiocy, as viewed through the eyes of a Cockroach, one of the oldest and most resilient life forms on the planet.
For this tour we were led by a rapidly overheating actor. Ah yes, the Cockroach costumes. These are made of fibre glass and that rubbery stuff that you find in lots of kid’s toys these days. Hardly sustainably sound in itself, but very fun, even if my shell did bang rather hard against the back of my knees as I scuttled around the exhibits.
Sample Cockroach talk: “Why do humans eat pizza when the box is so much more preferable?” I must confess that I really wasn’t listening very hard: it was just too damn distracting to gaze upon Cockroach Boyfriend, knowing that I looked equally ridiculous. The tour was indeed funny, but our leader could have been talking total mumbo jumbo and I would still have been chuckling like a mad woman at the looks on people’s faces. Oh how I love to dress up – we spent most of our time trying to out silly each other’s photos. Did we feel like overgrown children? Hell yes, but that’s no bad thing every once in awhile. After a few wrong turnings we arrived at our final destination, with all it’s interactive Climate Change wizardry, where we finally de-Cockroached.
I’d like to turn a totally blind eye to the principal sponsor of this gallery (Shell, cough, greenwash, cough) but there has clearly been a large amount of money thrown at what has now been renamed the Climate Science Gallery in the wake of the Climate Scepticism controversy last year (boo, hiss) – so why not get along and enjoy it? Hell, why not enjoy it dressed as a Cockroach?
That’s me showing off my shiny cockroach ass in the Climate Science Gallery.
I personally feel I know enough Climate Change Science to last a lifetime, but for somebody who hasn’t got a wide knowledge this would be a really fun way to engage any kids you might have in tow. What’s more, even just this brief visit reminded me just how much there is to see in the Science Museum, which I haven’t really visited since I was a child. And if you need any more reason to get down with the Cockroaches why not check out this very fancy Cockroach Tour video:
Cockroach tours are being held every weekend until December 2011, and you can find out more about them and book online here. To celebrate the launch of the tours the Science Museum is offering one lucky winner four places on a tour of the weekend 12-13 February – they will be given a hand held camera and their video will be slicky edited into a film for the winner to keep. Oo-er. More information on this link. Offer closes on 8th February so get in there fast.
If you try to describe this to someone (which you shouldn’t, this websales don’t give anything away), doctormedications you will sound like you are conjuring from memory a nonsensical and fantastical dream; not something remotely tangible that actually happened in a 25-minute journey through a Shorditch warehouse.
Enter the ride and find yourself wheeled through 15 distinct scenarios with over 70 artists acting out micro-performances. “Designed to mentally and visually astound”, check; “leaving you overwhelmed and exhilarated’, check and check; and finishing the ride “in a totally different emotional state from the one you were in when you embarked on the journey”, most definitely true: utterly elated, mesmerised, and psychologically discombobulated.
The You Me Bum Bum train represents a new branch of experimental live art where the line between performer and audience is not just blurred, but utterly turned on it’s head; interaction is integral to the experience, and how far you take this is up to you. It’s creators Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd, intend to strip individuals of decision-making, giving passengers the would-be ordinary experience of somebody else’s shoes. You are left with fleeting slices of alternate realities, one moment you might be a drummer, the next a translator (I really don’t want to say much!). It’s real human experience through the prism of the utterly surreal, and it will take you some time to reclaim your grasp on the two, a most marvellous and novel experience.
The venue is essential to the experience, and they describe Cordy House as their dream venue, lending itself to the most ambitious event they’ve held yet.
There isn’t much time to go, and I whole-heartedly recommend it as an unforgettable experience. It runs every Saturday from now until the 20th of December between 7pm and 11pm.
Hip Parisian fahion and electro label, buy Kitsuné, what is ed are fast becoming as well known for their associated music as they are for their fashion. In fact, there is a clear cut three-way divide at Heaven tonight: scenesters, dressed for the fashion blog photographers collide en masse with those who know Kitsuné for the music and are quite unprepared for the additional rooms full of said scenesters, and with the regular Heaven clubbers, used to G-A-Y Camp Attack on Friday nights and probably the most bemused of everyone here.
Within the four rooms there’s a frustrating mix of real djs and acts like Autokratz, whose Pet Shop Boys go big beat set was a joy to behold and left me humming ‘Stay The Same’ for the rest of the night. Hearts Revolution, Punks Jump Up and Kitsuné house band Digitalism all turned out in force to impress and did so, although at times the acts felt a little repetitive. Alas, alongside these quality acts, we also got a number of vanity djs, including various models and boutique owners, which all blurred into the same set as the night progressed and seemed to play to rooms full of people aiming to get to the bar and move on.
It transpired that the ‘Don’t Panic’ room was the place to be. Inspired by K-Tron, blasting bass heavy No-Wave, they held me and the room in near divine rapture. The highlight of the night however, was Matthew Stone who dragged us back to 1985 via The KLF, his effortlessly sublime musical compass taking us on a seemingly random adventure, fitting perfectly with the tone of the night. There were some true high points tonight, but Kitsuné are probably best enjoyed via one of their compilations than live, based on tonight’s evidence.
Global Day of Action
6th December 2008
This will be the Saturday midway through the next round of UN Climate Talks and our best chance to influence the decisions of delegates ahead of the critical UN talks in 2009 at which a post-Kyoto treaty agreement will be decided.
LONDON
Climate Bike Ride 2008
Assemble 10.30 am Lincolns Inn Fields for a mass bike ride around Central London joining up with the National Climate March at Grosvenor Square (see next listing for National Climate March info)
The three stops on the route are:
-Outside Greenergy, 198 High Holborn – for an agrofuels protest organised by Biofuelswatch
-Outside E.On 100 Pall Mall – for a speaker on NO NEW COAL
-Outside the Department of Transport – for a speaker on sustainable transport
Everyone welcome; decorate your bikes, bring whistles, bring music!
Want to help out for this action? Contact Jeremy Hill on 07816 839883 or jeremy.hill1@btopenworld.com
National Climate March and Global Day of Action on Climate
The march starts at 12noon at Grosvenor Square and will move via Carlos Place and Mount Street to Berkley Square and Berkley street to Picacadily, Picadilly Circus, Lower Regent street, Pall Mall and Cockspur street to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to Parliament Square.
We will bring the UK issues of Aviation, New coal and Biofuels to the streets of London, along with a call for more investment in renewable energy, more energy efficiency and more green jobs.
Speakers will include Nick Clegg (leader Liberal Democrat Party), Caroline Lucas (leader, Green party), Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister) and George Monbiot (Honorary President, Campaign against Climate Change).
Contact: 020 7833 9311 www.campaigncc.org
There will also be an After-Party in the Synergy Centre from 5.00 pm till late.
The March on Parliament has four main themes –
1) NO to a 3rd runway at Heathrow and the runaway expansion in aviation expansion.
2) NO new coal – no new coal-fired power stations as planned at eg Kingsnorth in Kent
3) NO to the expansion of agrofuels – with negative impacts on forests, the climate and world food supply.
4) YES to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs – a “Green new Deal”
Come with your own banners, costumes on one of these themes and join up with others pushing that theme……
The March on Parliament for the Climate marks the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland and we make our demands on the UK government in solidarity with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities that will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change caused overwhelmingly by the rich long-industrialised countries.
We need the government to act now on climate, to stop building coal-fired power stations and new runways – and to begin the renewable energy revolution. We need a tidal wave of people outside parliament to make them act to stop climate catastrophe now! Be part of that tidal wave, be there! Next year may be too late.
BUST is a magazine devoted to the female. Providing an unapologetic view of life in the female lane, they break down stereotypes! Based in the US and established in 1993, the magazine addresses a variety of different issues within pop sulture, including music, fashion, art & crafts and news.
Editor-in-Chief, Debbie Stoller, decided to call the magazine BUST, because it was “aggressive and sexy and funny… It was a title that could belong to a men’s porn magazine.”
For Women With Something To Get Off Their Chests! Click here for the Christmas Craftacular’s Facebook Page
Jumble Fever Under the bridge on Beck Road, E8 Saturday 6th December
Midday-4pm, Entry £1
A fabulous jumble sale with a boogie twist! There will be a great deal to see and do and buy.. See you there!
ETSY
An online shopping bazaar; Etsy is a cross between eBay and Amazon with a humble handmade twist. Launched in June 2005 by Robert Kalin, for sale Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, the site has grown to be incredibly popular, with tens of thousands of people selling their handmade goods (90% of whom are women!).
As Christmas draws nearer and greener, we have chosen our favorite handmade things to inspire your presents list. www.etsy.com
“The Kelsey”; a pleated clutch in paisley mocha
This handmade clutch is one of many adorable bags created by GraceyBags; get in touch through etsy.com to custom order a clutch and choose from a rainbow of fabrics.
Featured is ‘The Kelsey’ in a paisley mocha print on the outside in greens, blues, pinks, yellows and browns. The inside has been sewn from a silky brown fabric and the bag closes with a small magnet.
Recycled Journal – handbound Find a lovely selection of hand bound recycled books by Rhonda; bookbinder and book artist.
This particularly wonderful journal is made with a variety of recycled scrap papers ranging from large envelopes, posters, junk mail, blank paper, lined and graph paper, covers from old sketch books, old maps, discarded photocopies, misprints from the computer printer to paper bags.
Perfect as an art journal, the book is covered with an old map of the world, the one pictured above showing the islands of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
There are 256 pages (when you count both sides of each sheet). The pages are handbound using green and brown linen threads, visible on the spine in 4 rows of chain stitches.
The book size is approximately 4″ x 4¼” and 1″ thick (or 10.5cm x 11cm x 2.5cm).
This adorable cotton tote is the perfect carry-all for any occasion. BellaBlu Designs signature French Bulldog silhouette has been cut from Heather Bailey‘s ‘Sway in Brown’ Pop Garden print and appliquéd to this cotton canvas bag. It is 100% 10 oz. cotton, measures 15 x 13 x 3 inches and can be customized with most other dog breeds.
We’ve also had a browse round treefort.myshopify.com, for some gift ideas for those of you with little ones in your life!
Dreamlets Dolls These cute little creatures would make an adorable gift this season, and as a product that gives 1% back to Artworks, Bridges to Understanding, or Poncho, they’re doing a lot more than making a loved one happy! The dolls come in a variety of shapes and colours, each with their own quirky personality. You are also able to choose which organization will benefit from your gift by registering your doll online.
Nikki McClure’s Mama & Baby Things Treefort also sell many of Nikki Mcclure‘s prints, books, cards, and calendars. Nikki McClure creates complex, yet natural designs by cutting away from a single piece of black construction paper with an x-acto knife. Her works are printed on 100% Recycled, 100% Post-Consumer Waste, Processed Chlorine Free paper that was manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewable energy. Her work is printed by a small family-owned press in Portland, Oregon, US- and uses soy-based inks.
Kids On Roof “House” is made of Eco friendly-100% recycled cardboard and is 100% biodegradable. These houses are the perfect gift for creative children, as they’re meant to be decorated and personalised! (see below for examples from treefort) Kidsonroof donates 5% of its profits to specific Unicef projects; €24,000 has now been collected for the Unicef project for building better, small-scale housing for HIV/Aids inflicted orphans in Russia.
Written by Saven Chadha on Wednesday November 26th, 2008 12:39 pm
It is natural to assume that the people in charge of food standards and the people making the food would have your best interests at heart. Food, no rx Inc. uncovers the unbelievable truth about the American food industry and dispels this myth, abortion or as they say in the film, this ‘lifts the veil’ on the industry and shatters our assumptions. From beef production that is so horribly intense it causes tens of thousands of E.coli cases in humans a year, to why the rate of type 2 diabetes is rising to 1 in 3 for Americans born after 2000. The greed of food companies to claim more and more of the market despite the damage they are causing to consumers, animals and the environment is shocking.
Chicks on the factory floor. Photo courtesy of Our Daily Bread
Smaller producers and the consumers themselves have barely any power to fight their corner when faced with companies that have the money to win any court case brought against them. While it’s easy to say that the power lies with the consumer, the consumer would probably never imagine (unless they were particularly cynical) that the production behind the food on their plate was so damaging and disgusting. This is why this film, and others like it, are so important – to make consumers aware of where their food comes from so that they can make a choice but also to show food companies that their production methods cannot be kept secret and that the consumer will not stand for it.
There are two other absolutely superb documentaries I’ve seen on food production. One is Our Daily Bread (Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria, 2005), which traces factory farming throughout Europe. It has no narration or music (and so requires no subtitles), but its pure minimalist awesomeness makes your jaw drop from the start right through to the end. No sensationalism here, just images free of commentary, with the eerie, mechanic soundtrack of the machines that have replaced men in farming. I defy you to peel your eyes away from the screen, and not feel a million times wiser at the end. Truly recommend it, not only as information and as an eye-opener, but as a piece of unique, striking cinema. Stark and poetic.
The other is We Feed The World (Erwin Wagenhofer, 2005), which makes the link between European food production and hunger in a direct and shocking way, but with a sophisticated humour and sarcasm that will make you laugh when you shouldn’t.
An eclectic mix of art work by a group of like minded people exploring expressionism through art.
Peckham Square, tadalafilpage 28th of March 2- 6pm
In the Pines
Jack Strange Limoncello 2 Hoxton St London, rx opening 27th of March 6.30 – 8.30pm, case exhibition: 26th – 28th of March 11am – 6pm and by appointment until 2nd May 2009.
Order and Disorder
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
A look at a very unique collection of paintings and prints, several have never been publicly exhibited before. Art first in Cork street, 24th March – 23rd April
One or Several Wolves
Priya Chohan, Coral Churchill, Annelie Fawke, Kwang-Sung Hong, Heidi Locher and Anne E Wilson.
A group of artists look at conceptual motivations within Art, using a variety of media each artist explores the relationship between concept, material and final work created. Kingsgate Gallery, 20th March – 5th April Free
Bandits present
New installation work from Glaswegian artists littlewhitehead. The Bun House Bandits, 96 Peckham High Street London. Preview: 15th March 2009, 4pm. Exhibition: 16th March 2009 – 29 March 2009, 11am–11pm
Being and nothing-ness
Youngmi Kim, Kiwoun Shin and Seunghyun Woo
Three Korean artists explore the notion of “being” through various multi media methods, the exhibition includes paintings, videos and sculptures. Nolias Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk St SE1. Private view: 26thMarch at 6pm- 9pm, exhibition: 27th March- 7TH April 200 10:30Am-6pm,
We are his body
installation art work inspired by the artist’s exploration of the cross in today’s society.
Viewing at Christ Church URC 663 Barking rd Plaistow E13 9EX, 25th March 6pm
Kate Marshall: Live Painting.
This dextrous figurative painter will be doing a live drawing and painting gig at Movida, Argyll Street on April 2nd. Arrive at 9.30pm, you might get a free drinky. She’ll be starting work at 10pm. Check out the event on facebook.
I just woke up from the best nightmare I ever had, store at least I think it was a nightmare. I mean, side effects I’ve heard of mutton dressed as lamb and a wolf in sheep’s clothing, health but last night I saw a couple of ladies, dressed as a wolf and a sheep respectively, among other things.
But what was this, what had I stepped into? Well I found the best person to ask, Annie Oldfield. A lovely young lady from Leeds, dressed as a wolf! I thought it would be fun to create a one-off themed party where you can listen to music all night that`s in some way related to animals: Animal Collective (Panda Bear), Deerhunter, Modest Mouse (the list is endless), eat crackers and, of course, what themed party is complete without fancy dresses. Shark, tiger, zebra, duck, crab, swan, cat (there were lots of cats) all had turned out.
After Annie along with friend Bonnie Wan came up with the idea they went to
DJ/Promoter friend Dave Bassinder (Underachievers) and Filthy animals! was born.
Not one for getting down on the dance floor, that was no problem here, you could keep yourself occupied by making animal balloons or watching films played on a big screen, obviously starring our fantastic furry friends. Or grab a piece of paper and give origami a go, make some sort of flapping pterodactyl. Of course the term filthy suggests more than balloon modeling so a few cheap drinks and many tunes later and the dance floor got the attention it deserved, well you spend all day making a costume you gotta show it off, right?
It`s a real shame it had to end as there are no plans for further repercussions. If you read this Underachievers “BRING BACK THE ANIMALS and KEEP EM FILTHY”!
I have something to admit, viagra sale I am a warehouse party virgin. By warehouse parties I mean not-really legal parties, treat which announce their locations via facebook messages about five minute before they start and you quickly have to get yourself to some remote north London spot in Zone 4. For me there is nothing fun about the obvious issue of trekking all the way out there just for the police to shut it down at twelve. Or 11.30 PM on New Years Eve, rx which is what happened to one of my friends!
After one of our writers posted about their last exhibition I decided i couldn’t miss the LuckyPDF warehouse party, even better it was all above board and legal. There were rather fancy gold flyers promoting the event and they even hired their own bouncers, who were at the door all night checking ID. While this might take some of the thrill away for regular warehouse party goers I rather enjoyed being somewhere with plumbing and electricity. My favourite part was not having to trail across London to a Saw-esk industrial park, because the event was just off Peckham high street. As the LuckyPDF people boldly proclaimed before the event, “The people of South London shalt need to travel to East London any longer for their Huge Party needs.”
I arrived at eleven and the queue to get in was absolutely insane, luckly i’d sent a RSVP email, but I still had to wait a good fifteen minutes to get into the rooms even once I was through the main gate. This was no thrown together event, they had obviously put a lot of effort into sound and lighting, which was refreshing and very welcome. As I entered the bottom room floor I was immediately hit with throbbing lights and heavy bass. There were hoards of people, I couldn’t even begin to count how many attended the event, but nothing was too serious. I think something about the fact it was in a warehouse just made the whole event more relaxed, there was a lot less people there just to smoke and be seen than there were people just wanting to have fun. No “this is the dance floor, this is the bar” locations usually explicit in gig venues meant people were just doing what they wanted where they wanted.
The LuckyPDF warehouse party aimed to be “a rampant music/art extravaganza that will continue til the early morn..” The music was definitely there with the order of the day being, “Bass, Bass, Garage, Electro, Bass, Drum n Bass, Swing, Tango, Nintendocore and Bass”. There were Dj sets from 10 PM – 4AM from South London party circuit favourites, XXX, My Panda Shall Fly and Tomb Crew, plus many, many more. These Dj’s were well selected and well received (apart from whoever kept cutting tracks short in the top room!) effortlessly mixing cutting edge bass tracks with forgotten classics.
However, I was completely perplexed about the other bit, you know the art. Unless really, really small (microscopic) art has come in fashion since the last exhibition I went to I would swear that there wasn’t any. It could have been hidden by the hoards of people there, but still if you’re going to advertise art it would be helpful if people could see it. Previously this would have annoyed me, but I feel i’m just starting to get the point of collectives such as LuckyPDF and it’s peers. Although these guys are artists, they’re not together to try and promote a certain type of art or medium over any other. With the exception perhaps being Off Modern who have a whole Off Modern manifesto on their website. As far as I know there is no particular theme or common interests in the work of the organisers of these events and if there were it would be purely incidental. It’s more a case of getting people excited about South London. Which something that hasn’t happened since (dare i say it) the YBA’s, and they all rushed off to live in the East End or houses in the country as soon as they could anyway.
I will forgive the LuckyPDF guys just this once having an event light of the art and heavy on the music (which draws people in and allows them to charge entry fee), because they have stated that they’re a not for profit organisation, and I hope the money they made will be going into more exhibitions. And when they do I’ll be there, pen in hand, because I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do next. Photography by Ted Williams
Monday 23th
The Rakes release their third album, symptoms KLANG, buy information pills today and to celebrate the band will play a special gig at London’s Rough Trade East at 6pm tonight.
The follow up to ‘Ten New Messages’ is pure and the best of The Rakes as you can check out on lead track ‘1989‘.
Wristband collection 1 hour prior to gig, first-come-first-served basis-one per person.
The Rakes
Tuesday 24th
It`s crunch time at The Social and the venue welcomes Kid Carpet to promote his new single, followed by Moonfish Rhumba with their electro beats and peculiar lyrics.
If great music is not enough to take your mind of recession, this month the venue provides the Crunch Time Rant where you can take your anger to the stage, step on to a soapbox and speak out your thoughts.
Doors 6pm, 99p.
Moonfish Rhumba
Wednesday 25th
Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen receives Joseph Mount, aka Metronomy and DJs, including the opulent pop of Your Twenties (whose harmonious frontman is Metronomy’s former bassist).
8pm, £7, adv £6.
The three new yorkers forming The Virgins land in town for some dance rock at Koko London.
9:30pm, £7, £5 before 11pm, concs £4.
The Virgins
Saturday 28th
Up for some healthy girlie pop? Betty and the Werewolves bring their female fronted indie-ditty-pop vocals (they do count with one boy on the drums!) to Bardens Boudoir next Saturday.
8pm, £6.
Betty and the Werewolves
Sunday 29th
Close (or begin?) your week with the Society of New Music – an avant garde event featuring Wet Dog live at The Social.
7pm, £2.
Wet Dog
To all you vintage addicts I bring you salvation!
On April the 4th a vintage bonanza will be hitting the streets of Bethnal Green to bombard you with their scandalously cheap vintage, viagra 40mg so prepare yourself Shoreditch! I understand if you are dubious, case “what makes it unique in comparison to the endless array of oversaturated vintage fairs and markets in London” I hear you say? Well, the differentiation is that at this event you won’t be leaving empty handed if you left the house with a mere twenty pounds. This is vintage on an extremely tight shoestring, for any savvy shopper the affordable vintage fair is akin to the sensation of being a child in a sweet shop again!
Heralded as the largest vintage fair in north England, the organizers have delved the nation with their noble quest for affordable vintage, leaving no stone unturned. Our loyal travellers have unearthed hidden gems and want to bring you the fruits of their labour! So cast aside the idle and banal window shopper, let your hair down and embrace your style hungry primordial urges. The fair is an emporium of vintage wonderment; there are style advisors, a customisation and alternations area, swapping area as well as bundles of vintage clothes and furniture.
But the most exciting element of the fair has to be the pay by kilo vintage stall. This really is vintage paradise; trawl to your heart’s content safe in the knowledge it’s not going to cost you much more then your weekly grocery shop. The phenomena is commonplace with our European counterparts, but kilo shopping will be making its debut here in the UK. So get trawling and scout some hidden gems, this might just be your chance to revive your wardrobe from the brink of darkness and inject a whole new burst of life. What other chances would you get to weigh out your clothes, just like you would weigh out your sugar?
They have catered for your every whim feeding your ears and taste buds with a nostalgic trip down memory lane. With music spanning the decades from the bohemian 60s to the energetic 80s, not forgetting a whole host of cake stalls and beverages to whet your appetite.
So don’t miss out, get down there 11am pronto on the 4th of April, I for one will be installing my vintage bargain radar and heading down myself!
Everyday at the office here, treatment while we`re writing our articles and drinking our teas, we try to go through the many cd`s we receive daily and now and then there`s one that catches everybody`s attention, making everyone in the room ask “who`s this”?
That`s exactly what happened when Cari put on the single from up and coming group My Tiger My Timing. In less than 30 seconds heads were bopping and legs were shaking unanimously. This Is Not The Fire is so catchy that I`ve been listening to it non stop since Tuesday.
They play a delightful, totally danceable afro beat, electro-pop and still they compare themselves with bands like Metronomy and Casio Kids. While most of the groups desperately run away from extreme pop and commercial tracks, MTMT does exactly the opposite, recognizing their will for creating easy listening and fluid beats.
The foursome was formed in 2008 in south east London and their debut single was produced by Andy Spence of New Young Pony Club and will be released April 6th 2009 downloadable through Silver Music Machine.
Tuesday I had the chance to see them live at Cargo and I`m definitely looking forward to the entire album, it was quite an electrifying performance. Here`s a little video of the last song:
Yesterday, buy a few of the Amelia’s Magazine girls went along to witness the G20 protests in the City of London. The day had dawned to brilliant sunshine, and clear blue skies, which meant that the sight and sound of the police helicopters hovering overhead was even more pronounced. The events which were due to unfold promised to be extraordinary, and I was keen to see what was going to happen. It was hard to know what to expect, but here was the run down. Four different carnival parades, were to converge around the Bank Of England, and protest the current economic and environmental climate. We were guided there by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, leading the processions from four rail stations. We were setting off from Liverpool Street, led by the Green Horse – representing climate chaos. Walking from Brick Lane to the station, I was struck at how different the city seemed. Spitalfields Market, and all the restaurants around it were closed. There were not many city workers around, but those who were out and about were dressed down. I didn’t see a single suit around me.
The Barbican towards The Bank of England. It was enjoyable to be part of such a good natured crowd and it was fun to watch all the shop owners standing outside their establishments, watching with fascination at the colourful carnival proceeding past them.
As we walked towards Bank we passed Northern Rock. Some clever jokers had hung a sign inside their office entitled ‘We Love Money”. As I went to take a picture they hastily pulled the sign down. I could only marvel at the thoughtlessness of that statement, wasn’t it hundreds of thousands of pensioners money that they had lost – was that the money in question that they loved so much? After a brief stop, we marched into the space around The Bank Of England. I was shocked by the amount of people who were here. Estimates at 4,000 are not an exaggeration. The place was packed. Having only ever seen this section in London as a thoroughfare for busy, frantic city workers, and crammed to the gills with buses, it was surreal to see it filled with so many protesters. No cars, just people.
After about 45 minutes, we were ready to head back to the office. I went to walk past a row of police and quickly found that I couldn’t get through. Not quite understanding the situation I was unconcerned, thinking that they were guarding just one exit. Knowing there were plenty more exits around Bank station we wandered back to the road that we had come in on. Again, we were met with a throng of police. They stood arms locked. Still assuming that this was something that would be resolved soon, we sat down and scrounged some crisps off a girl sat next to us. (Not expecting to be there for long, we didn’t take any food, and not much water.)
Then some of the police vans next to us started to move through the police and drive away. We thought that this was our cue to leave as well, and strode towards the police. They immediately closed ranks. It was at this moment that I took in the situation. They had cordoned us all in; we had unwittingly become kettled. (This word now chills me to the bone). No one was going anywhere without their say so. the crowds started to fill up and began asking questions. As I was nearest the front I asked how long this situation would last for. “Don’t know” came the response. Many people started asking why this was happening, but the police would not respond. Our crowd was large, and there was not an ‘anarchist’ in sight. Many tried to squeeze towards the police and told them that this was violating their human rights, and was against the law. Again, no response.
We were soon packed so tightly that it was like being at the front of a gig, but instead of watching a band, we were staring into the hard faces of men who refused to talk to us, and would sooner beat and arrest us then let us get past them. At this point the crowd surged and we fell into each other. The police shouted at us “Get back!” a woman shouted “Where to?!” We were trapped in a scrum, and the police were pushing us back while we were being pushed forward. I saw riot police walk towards us and I felt a surge of panic. We had been trapped by the police and there was nothing that we could do. I pleaded with the officer in front of me to let us go (I can now see how futile that was). I said that we were scared, and asked if a riot were to kick off, who are they going to protect? “I can’t answer that” was the response. Women started shouting that they had children from school to pick up, jobs to get to. The most common cry to the police was “Why won’t you speak to us?” I got so fed up from this feeling of powerlessness that I phoned the news desk at BBC News. I shared my feelings of worry to the reporter on the other end of the phone; and told her the scenario. I relayed what the officers had told one girl to do who said that she needed the toilet – “you can go in the street”; what they told one boy who said that he wasn’t even part of the protest – “You are now”. The BBC reporter told us that this situation was happening at every exit of the march. She said, “You are all being tarred with the same anarchist brush, this is their tactic”.
Around an hour later, still in the same position, a man passed out in front of me. He had been standing quietly, not trying to defy the police, and his only movement for the two hours that we were held was to quietly read a peace of paper that he had in his hands. I had looked at it at one point and could see that it was a Psalm. Thankfully, the officers took him away and led him to an ambulance. Just as I started to feel that it was going to be an all night cordon, my friends phone rang. A friend of hers told her that they had just opened one of the exits round the corner and we bolted for it. Walking to the tube, we were jumping up and down with exhilaration. We began receiving updates that the RBS building was being stormed, and that the police were beating protesters. What had started off as a peaceful and well meaning protest was quickly turning into something much darker, but who was at fault? If you asked anyone in the 4,000 strong crowd they would have no trouble telling you. The police’s tactic of kettling us, purposely providing us with no information and locking us in for two and half hours was easily going to generate the mayhem that they had predicted. Nonetheless, I am so pleased that I attended. It was always going to be an interesting day, I just wish that the peaceful protesters would have been treated better and not denied their basic human rights. Monday March 23rd.
WE CAN postcards to Ed Miliband and MPs: Monday 23rd March
On Monday 23rd March, pills hundreds of children dressed as endangered animals will write postcards to Secretary of State Ed Miliband and to their MPs, in an effort to make the government call a halt to plans to build a third runway at Heathrow and a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth.
According to NASA scientist James Hansen, who is now advising President Obama, up to 400 species of animals are threatened with extinction by the emissions from Kingsnorth.
Filmmaker, mother of three and founding member of WE CAN, Rebecca Frayn said, ‘The children are horrified that so many animals could be wiped out. Ed Miliband has said that carbon capture and storage will be introduced to clean up the emissions, but nobody knows when, or if the technology is even practical.’
The postcards will be coloured in and presented after a gathering in Old Palace Yard at 5pm on Monday 23rd March. Several MPs including Andy Slaughter and John McDonnell have agreed to meet children in the lobby of the House of Commons
Forests and Climate Change: an Amazonian Perspective for Copenhagen
Date: Tuesday, 24 March, 2009 – 17:30
Chatham House?
10 St James’s Square
?London
?SW1Y 4LE
A joint IIED and Chatham House event, the debate will be led by Professor Virgílio Viana, Director General, Amazon Sustainability Foundation.
Doors open 5.30pm?Event starts 6.00pm?Reception to 8.30pm
Venue:?email: Alessandra.Giuliani@iied.org Tel: 0207 388 2117
Professor Virgílio Viana is one of Brazil’s leading academics and practitioners on forestry, environment and sustainable development. Prof. Viana served as Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development, Amazonas, Brazil, between 2003 and 2008. He stepped down from the position of Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development, Amazonas, in March 2008 in order to devote his time to new challenges and projects. He is currently the Director General of the new Amazon Sustainability Foundation, and is presently in London as part of a 3 month sabbatical with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Wednesday 25th March
St James’s Church
197 Piccadilly
London W1J 9LL?
7.00pm GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT FORUM – Governments; friends or foes of development?
Contact 020 7734 4511 for further details
The Age of Stupid (PG)
Genre: Drama/Documentary
Dir: Franny Armstrong
The Age Of Stupid is the documentary-drama-animation hybrid from director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning Producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Live Forever, In the Shadow of the Moon).
Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055. He watches ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asks: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Plus Q+A with
Thurs 26 March after 6.45pm screening- Lizzie Gillet (The Age of Stupid film producer)
Forests and Climate Change,
7pm, Royal Geographical Society,
1 Kensington Gore, SW1 London
The world’s forests are home to an extraordinary range of species, and are arguably one of our greatest safeguards against climate change. Yet deforestation, whether for timber, farming or human settlement, continues at an alarming rate. Climate Change, Canopies, and Wildlife
Dr. Mika Peck, University of Sussex
What are the impacts of climate change on the cloudforests of north-west Ecuador? Are existing reserves in one of the richest and most diverse of all biodiversity hotspots big enough to protect large charismatic mammals like the spectacled bear and big cats? How much do carbon offset programmes really benefit wildlife? Can technology such as Google Earth help us to identify canopy tree species and biologically diverse areas from space? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed during this lecture, which is based on data collected by Earthwatch volunteers in the mountains of Ecuador.
“Hell and High water: Climate Change as a spiritual challenge.” An evening talk with Alastair McIntosh
6.30pm drinks & light buffet at Gaia House, (18 Well Walk, Hampstead, NW3 1LD)
7.30pm Talk & discussion at Burgh House (Opposite Gaia House, New End Square, Hampstead, NW3 1LT)
Alastair McIntosh’s recent book, “Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition” has been described on Radio 4′s Open Book programme as one of the best on climate change “because of its rage and optimism.” But Alastair’s “optimism” is not of a conventional type that relies on political, technical and economic solutions. His book is about hope, and how our response must also be psychological and spiritual. During the course of this evening, Alastair will introduce the book exploring why he thinks climate change is as much about our inner lives as outer realities, and discuss here this leaves us as campaigners for change.
Saturday 28th March 2009
“Climate Change, Consumerism and the Decolonisation of the Soul.”
10am – 4.30pm at the Gaia Learning Centre
18 Well Walk, Hampstead, NW3 1LD
Alastair will build on his presentation from the previous evening, focussing in particular on the role that consumerism plays as the driving force of climate change. He will unpack the history of consumerism and demonstrate how it has “colonised the soul” in an addictive manner, that needs to be responded to in a manner akin to other addictions. This will bring us back to the need, discussed the previous evening, to understand climate change as a call to deepen our inner lives, as well as come up with outer solutions. Many of these solutions will touch on the need for “Rekindling Community” – the title of his other recent book (a Schumacher Briefing) which he will introduce in the latter part of the workshop.
Alastair McIntosh is a writer, broadcaster and campaigning academic best known for his work on land reform on Eigg, in helping to stop the Harris super quarry; also for pioneering human ecology as an applied academic discipline in Scotland. He is a Fellow of Scotland’s Centre for Human Ecology, a Visiting Fellow of the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, and in 2006 was appointed to an honorary position in Strathclyde University as Scotland’s first Visiting Professor of Human Ecology. He is the author of many books, including the critically acclaimed “Soil and Soul: People versus corporate power“.
Booking for either the talk, workshop, or both is essential. Evening talk £10 / One-day workshop £45.
Reserve your place online at: www.gaiafoundation.org
Or send a cheque made payable to The Gaia Foundation.
For further details contact Vicky at: vicky@gaianet.org or 020 7428 0055.
Put People First march for Jobs, Justice and the Climate
11am Victoria Embankment, London
Please come along and add your voice to the Put People First march for Jobs, Justice and the Climate in London on Saturday 28th March.
Global leaders are meeting in London on 2nd April for the G20 meeting, and we want them to Put People First and focus on jobs, justice and the climate. Greenpeace is one of the 50 organisations supporting the march, which is calling for — among other things — a green new deal to help rebuild the economy and create green jobs. To see the full list of demands visit www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk.
Put People First is a coalition of organisations ranging from environmental and development charities to unions, churches and mosques, and we are expecting thousands of people from all walks of life to take to the streets and send a strong message to the G20 leaders. If you can make it to London, please join them.
The march will start at 11am at Victoria Embankment and head to Hyde Park for a rally with speakers and entertainment including comedian Mark Thomas and environmentalist Tony Juniper. Visit the website for more details including a route map.
We’re sorry if you’re not based in or around London and can’t make it, but if you do want to travel down for the march, Put People First are organising coaches from various places around the UK.
Hope to see you there, http://www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk/
Timothy M Duong is a fine artist searching for something extra ordinary to put “the ordinary on blast”. He as no interest in the ideal beauty, pilule finding that painting from life poses a challenge that often results in mistakes which can change simple art works into timeless pieces. This week I had a chance to find out what inspires his creativity.
What inspires you?
People inspire me. The space around us inspires me. What fills that space and our relationships to it inspire me. Anything that sparks a resonance inside of me to ask the question “why” is probably the reason why I continue my work. So I guess you could say what I am making at the current moment is a documentation of how I perceive the world or my view of it and this is constantly changing as for my work also.
How did you get into Art?
My cousin who passed away several years ago introduced me to comic book art when I was very young and for years until high school that was all I was doing. While I was deep into the world of comics and the linear art, cure I bumped into “Kabuki” a book written and illustrated by David Mack and that was probably one of the most pivotal points in my artistic development. I didn’t even know that it was possible to bring such a way of communication with such a medium as comics. From then and there I abandoned comics and ventured into fine art.
Who do you aspire to be like and who inspires you at present?
I really don’t aspire to be like anyone. I aspire to be more my self, if that can be an answer. People that do inspire me at the moment are artists like Phil Hale, Alex Kanevsky, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Degas, Egon Schiele, Richard Diebenkorn and anyone that has a way with the brush and pencil.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
I see myself living comfortably from what I love doing. I can’t really put it any others words other than that…but I guess we’ll see how the economy goes eh.
What advice would you give to someone trying to get into the Art?
My advice would be to have an open-mind and be forgiving of your mistakes, yet be your harshest critique. Our experiences are what makes us and to be afraid of consequences generated by our “experience” is to neglect ourselves. It’s all about trial and error in my book.
Do you have a muse?
I have no muse. Although I do hire models and try to work with some friends but no one on a regular basis, at least for now. I need constant change and revision so for me to have a regular muse would probably bore me, but you never know…maybe I haven’t found the “one”.
Jeremy is self-obsessed. Jeremy is pop. Jeremy overdoes things. Gratuitously. Jeremy indulges ostentatious musical whims. And Jeremy has just made his first great piece of work: How We Became is his masterpiece.
I’ve been checking out this half-French fop’s work for a few years, click since I caught him at one of the Mystery Jets’ Eel Pie Island Bandpies, site spooling tales of rentboys and such, side effects strumming his guitar, while his voice fought for attention. Interesting stuff, but not compelling. Then he progressed, churning out a couple of decent tunes, like 5 Verses. He was obviously a talented chap, but I couldn’t obsess over what felt to me like dry and bloodless songs. Jeremy, where’s your passion? I asked. And then I went and listened to something else.
Imagine my surprise then, putting on this CD and being forced to let Jeremy fully into my heart. He is the same Jeremy, but more knowing, now. There is a lot of really beautiful music here, as though he’s been suddenly possessed by the spirit of Brian Wilson in his prime. There are chord progressions that tighten tendons, and make you want to do some parkour in a balletic frenzy.
He’s also very canny at matching lyric to music. “I heard that it’s true that everything is made of tiny bits of nothing. There’s music in the gaps and colour in the cracks, as the sirens wail and car alarms ring” is delivered so delicately in Waiting Room, a lullaby of electronic drums and oboes and flutes. You can’t help but become as soppy as the man himself.
The record is very much a studio thing. It sounds as if he’s laid everything out to click track, layered in his keyboards and vocals, then got his servants to fill in their designated parts, with utter precision and exactitude. There isn’t a slid or bent note, not even a spaghetti hoop of a solo. The only emotional expression on the whole CD comes from Jeremy’s uncannily skilful songwriting, and his boyish note-perfect vocal squeaks, whimpers, and entreaties. It’s testament to the power of those factors that they’re enough to keep you in for the whole shebang.
There are some surprisingly rocked-out moments, too. Just slipped into the mix. Jeremy still warbles on top, the ghost of the click track still hovers, but just with distorted guitar riffing away and driving drums pounding a strange imitation of rock bands. The rest of the time, we are left with a world of synths, round bass tones, gentle acoustic guitar samba-chords, robo-tight drumbeats, and really sexy wind instruments. Check the stunning horns on Dancing with The Enemy. And production about as perfect as it gets.
I must admit my mind started to wander as the last track drawled into verse three and a half, and then I realised why it had to be the last track. A sequence of pure musical wizardry divides the song in two. Debussy duetting with King Crimson, followed by a one minute piano and snare crescendo. “What a surprise! We grew up,” realises Jeremy. Truly.
This isn’t an experimental record, at all, but I’m still fairly stumped for unqualified comparisons. Let’s try, err… The Divine Comedy, but no… it’s more earnest. Fugu, but no… less ironic. Or Patrick Wolf, maybe, but no… much less masturbatory. Essentially, this is its own beast. That’s what makes it great. Jeremy Warmsley’s vision has finally borne fruit. Very juicy fruit.
You can buy “How We Became” through roughtrade.com, and there’s a free download of “If He Breaks Your Heart” on his own site, jeremywarmsley.com. See him live at Barden’s Boudoir this Saturday, March 28,, when he plays alongside Betty and The Werewolves, or on his tour of the UK and Germany, as listed on his myspace. Tatty Devine are so prolific it’s hard to keep up – legions ahead of their counterparts who must surely feel as though they are lugging behind them gasping for breath. Never ones for being complacent, pharm Tatty Devine are consistently striving to push the boundaries in accessory design.
The innovative duo have enjoyed a cult following, web and their list of collaborators is long enough to struggle in the recollection. There was the infamous Gilbert and George, the master craftsman Robert Ryan, eccentric electric group Robots in Disguise, and then the zany Mark Pawson. Not to mention their bizarre projects. One of their latest was undertaking a pendant replica of the angel of the North. As a proud Northern lady myself, this holds a particular sentimental place in my heart!
Tatty Devine have recently joined forces with artists Phil and Galia Kollectiv in a conceptual project for their Brick Lane store. The exhibition comprises of a series of photographs to coincide with the launch of their capsule jewelry collection. Inspired by Cold War Design, the pieces play with the concept of espionage and the clash between ideology and human emotion.
The collection has a distinct three-dimensional allusion, drawing influence from emissary tools used within the Second World War. The pieces range from acrylic brooches to pendants, my distinct favourite would have to be the pendant of Oskar Schlemmer a prestigious figurehead in the Bauhaus theatre workshop.
So head on down and catch the collection at the Brick Lane store which runs till May 3rd
In conjunction with their work with minimalist duo Kollectiv, Tatty Devine has been dipping their toes into the world of music. Their latest collaboration is with new kids on the indie block Betty and the Werewolves. This quartet are bursting with flair, injecting a healthy dose of saccharine laden pop. But don’t discard these girls as entirely sickly sweet, they pack a real punch. With racing punk rock guitars and scandalous lyrics these girls don’t adhere to the usual pop group ethic.
The accessory collection comprises of bold graphic pendants rather reminiscent of the font of an 80s action comic, you almost expect the words POW! The red acrylic pendant is gloriously kitsch, a perfect outlet to announce your passion for these cool cats to the unsuspecting public. Their next piece pays homage to 70s star David Cassidy, which aptly is the title of the bands debut album. This charming heart pendant is a perfect piece of 70s nostalgia.
With the prices starting from a mere £15 pounds, now is your chance to grab yours. I have a sneaking suspicion these girls will be making waves in the music sphere in the foreseeable future. Infact they will be playing this Saturday at Bardens Boudior with Jeremy Warmsley, The Duloks, and the Bobby McGee’s, a perfect chance to experience this energic bunch first hand.
Like it or not (and I bet they don’t), dosage the Government are now being hit from all sides over the issue of Climate Change. Yesterday, approved the harsh criticism came from a determined and impassioned group of kids dressed as lions, tigers and polar bears who stood outside Parliament and protested the plans for new coal fired power stations, and the building of Runway Three at Heathrow Airport. It was a double-whammy kind of point. First, the children wanted to show that they too are as concerned as any group of adults about the issues of global warming, and want their voices to be heard too. Secondly, they wanted to represent the many animals who face extinction if climate change isn’t halted. And who can say no to a kid dressed up as a polar bear?
Thankfully, the dire rainstorm which had threatened to send everyone running cleared and made way for blue skies. I pitched up at around 4.30pm to find more police standing around then children. Being fully aware of the planned protest, there were quite a few clusters of armed police standing guard. Is that justifiable when you consider that the event consisted of under 10 year olds singing “We’ve got the whole world in our hands” while they threw an inflatable globe around? I’m not so sure.
Sipson, near Heathrow, whose primary school will be demolished if Heathrow’s third runway goes ahead. (I especially liked their teacher who instructed her pupils to wriggle their bums at Parliament). So while this seemed like a light hearted affair, the message was serious. Especially as these are the type of age range who will have to deal with the devastating impact of global warming.
Several MP’s came along to show solidarity, including environmental campaigner and editor of The Ecologist, Zac Goldsmith. His speech highlighted the disparities between other countries commitment to using alternative energy and our country. An example he gave was the town of Marburg in Germany, which requires all homes and renovation project built to be fitted with solar systems – a policy which has means that this small town produces more solar energy than the whole of Britain.
Once the kids/polar bears had done a few photo-calls, they trooped off on mass into Parliament. The aim being to meet and tell their MP’s they want two things – No new coal fired power stations unless CO2 is captured and stored, and no aviation expansion. What we weren’t planning on was being made to wait outside for 45 minutes while each parent and child was given the same stringent screening of their bags and clothes that is usually reserved for suspicious looking men boarding planes. For any other group this would have been tolerable, but there seemed something especially pedantic about doing this to a mass of children who were doing their very best to stand patiently in icy winds.
The guards had no intention of speeding up the process, even for the children who were getting cold, tired, and letting us all know how much they needed the loo. I stuck around too. Even though it was absolutely freezing, I knew that if these children could give up their tea time to wait for three quarters of an hour to meet their MP’s then so can I!
By the time I got in, the kids had disbanded to every section of Parliament, so it was hard to keep track of them. I spotted a couple of kids who looked like they were at the end of a long day, and the only option left was to slide through the lobby. I was so envious.
Talking with the organisers later, I was heartened to hear that the several politicians came down to meet and talk with the children, including Simon Hughes,Glenda Jackson, Andy Slaughter and John McDonnall. The protest appeared to have fired them up, because the kids were all eager to talk about the realms of global issues which were affecting them. I have heard politicians claim many times that young people are apathetic to governmental policies, and I hope that Monday’s protest showed them how wrong they are.
Yet again I have been utilising the joys of the World Wide Web, information pills the latest hidden gem to grab my attention is gifted photographer Cari Ann Waymen. It’s a wonder this lady has lasted so long undetected on our radar; at the tender at of 20, ampoule Waymen has talent that precedes her years.
A self professed novice she has never taken a single photography class. Subsequently her work exudes a naïve expressionism deriving purely from her love for capturing ambiance. Not tainted by over processing, viagra approved her pieces portray all the distilled qualities of 70′s cinematography.
I caught up with Waymen in the far- flung realms of the other side of the pond for a quick email interview.
Tell me a bit about yourself Cari?
Hi, my name is Cari Ann Wayman, but a lot of people know me as “yyellowbird.”. I currently live in chicago, illinois, but I have a hard time picturing myself staying anywhere for long. I love taking pictures so much i’m afraid to take it seriously, so much that I call it “taking pictures” instead of “photography”. I would like to be an explorer in the most victorian sense of the word, my interests include abandoned buildings, russian royalty, the beautiful and strange, wilderness and ruins, carnivals and the moon.
??How do you find all those abandoned buildings??
Just wandering around, the amount of abandoned buildings has a lot to do with the area you’re in, if you’re in a nice, big, wealthy city, you’re not going to find much. But mostly I just keep my eye open for them whenever i’m out, make a note, and come back later. Eventually you develop a sort of sixth sense for it. (note: i do not recommend or endorse anyone breaking and entering or otherwise disobeying the law to get inside of these places, what I do myself has nothing to do with what I think you should do, so if you get caught, don’t blame me!)
What sort of camera do you use in your work?
?A nikon d50, truthfully I don’t know much about cameras, I really only use the most basic of capabilities on my camera, I prefer to be expressive in different ways.
What lenses do you use??
Just the one my camera came with, so pretty standard. I don’t know what kind it is or anything.
How do you get those light spots on your pictures?
?I take a broken image of faraway lights at night and overlay them in photoshop.
You use of colour is particularly interesting, is the blanched effect achieved through digital altering?
?Yes my work is highly digitally altered, but all I do is slightly change colour/saturation/brightness/contrast settings in photoshop.
Your work seems heavily inspired by hazy 70s cinematography, are you inspired by films in your work?
Actually, I don’t watch very many films, I have a hard time sitting still long enough to sit through a whole movie! But I would like to maybe make films one day. I am very inspired by music though that evokes that similar dreamy nostalgic qualities to it, if that makes sense?
What other photographers have inspired you?
I really try to keep myself as influence-free as possible. I like to look at other photographers’ work sometimes, of course, but I want my work to come strictly from my head..
What do you aim to achieve from your photography?
Oh, I don’t really know! I’m not dim enough to think i’m going to change the world or anything, but at the same time I think there’s secretly a tiny part of me that hopes for that. I don’t know, it’s not like i have this agenda or message or concept i’m forcing on the mases. If I just want to make beautiful things and hope they affect someone in even the smallest way.
What is your main stimulus when your seeking out locations to shoot?
Location is one of the most important things in my pictures. I’m always in this mindset where i’m looking at everything as a potential picture. I just wander around all the time and think, “oh that should be in a picture! that too!” wandering is sort of my hobby, and I think after awhile, you develop this sixth sense for special wonderful places. Intrigued by the very thought of cutting edge art rumblings in South Ken, approved I send out my feelers to bring me word of Propeller Island. Who better to tell me than lo-fi conceptual warrior Jamie Dyson, viagra dosage who was involved from day one. We meet in a Sam Smith’s tourist pub to discuss the project, illness his work, servicemen’s pensions, and bourgeois tickbox gallery vampires.
Jamie Dyson: Hello, hello, are you receiving me?
Gareth David: Yes. Jamie Dyson. You. Tell me, what is Propeller Island?
J: Named after a book by Jules Verne, a story of a quartet of musicians, hired for a gig on an island, who get kidnapped, and I won’t spoil the end, but it’s a Utopia gone wrong tale. It is an exhibition and a group of people and a series of art and music events, started by 15-ish graduates of Chelsea MA last year. The first exhibition space was a place in South Kensington, an old shop front owned by Brompton Design District. A month-long open studio exhibition, culminating in a four-day series of events, music performances, video screenings, etc.
G: What was the starting point, then?
J: Well, a lot of it came out of the blogsite. I was creating images for that, some very nice images, and some car crash victims, presented as posters with the words “Propeller Island: An Evolving Artspace” written beneath.
J: Yeah, we like a bit of that. Other people were less interested in the themes of the novel and just liked the idea of the exhibition space as an island, a metaphorical island, and that’s why we were all working there and creating the exhibition at the same time. Things worked, things didn’t work. It was really good, really high energy. And we decided it could have more satellite events, one-off events, evening and all-day events, and the emphasis is on putting up other people’s work on, rather than just setting your own agenda.
G: So you’ve got fluid borders.
J: Exactly. That’s where we’re at, at the moment. We’re trying to organize another evening performance/music/video event. I’ve got to have a meeting with everybody to decide what’s going on. It’ll be “Propeller Island presents…”
G: So, you’ll become a platform for anything?
J: Yeah, anything. Anything that’s any good. It’d be boring just to be another artist’s group, just putting on exhibition after exhibition. Obviously, we’re not the first to do this, but it’s just more interesting if you mix it up a bit. Enjoy your pie.
G (begins enjoying his pie): So who are the main protagonists of the Island?
J: It was organised chiefly by a woman called Pippa Gatty, who came up with the idea at the end of the year, and she delegated jobs, like press, bar, site management to five or six of us, who were instrumental in getting the thing up and running. And we’ve decided now that any one of us can come up with an idea and the others will support that idea. That’s because where the original exhibition fell down was that nobody wanted to stand on anybody’s toes, it was all a bit nicey-nicey, so, we decided that the fewer people organizing any one thing, the better it would be, because it wouldn’t have so many different voices going “I wanna do this” and “I wanna do this”. So it’s one particular vision, and everybody helps that along.
G: The first event. Give us the visitor’s-eye-view.
J: Well, we have a glass-fronted open space with the name of the exhibition, and it’s wood-panelled, white walls, lots of mirrors everywhere. The first floor was where we had the performances and screenings, a small amount of wall based/sculptural work was shown up there, including some ink drawings by Lady Lucy.
G: Tell me about the work of this Lady Lucy.
J: Well, she started a project. It wasn’t that successful, but it was a good idea. It was a bring-your-own-books, a sharing library, in French, so she got lots of French Literature, including an illustrated edition of Gargantua And Pantagruel. Then she worked from that, making enlarged versions of the illustrations, ham-fisted versions – that was the point. They were really good and quirky images. There were about 15 of them, at eye-level.
Most of what I’d call the exhibition proper was downstairs, in the basement, which was used as a studio space for the month, and then became the show in the last four days. And the bar.
G: I know that Mark “Danger Man” McGowan was involved. What did he get up to?
J: He organized thirty performances for the Sunday, involving various things. People did a work-out to some eighties music for him. So he was curating these performances, really. He just phoned up people and got them involved. I’ve been involved in exhibitions with him before, like Flash In The Pan at the House Gallery in Camberwell.
G: Ah, yes. That was the show that had to move to Brixton over a censorship disagreement.
J: Yep. A drawing of mine and a painting by John Keates caused offense. I wasn’t willing to edit the show, so I moved the whole lot to the Trade Apartments in Brixton. Mark was part of that, with his running tap piece and a performance. At Propeller Island, we found that he’s moved on to shooting people with bb guns, etc. There were lots of people there for that. They loved it. There was also a performance sculpture. Basically, a lot of chocolate in a pan on a camping stove in the middle of the space, and it was cooked until it was no more, and it smelt quite horrible and there was chocolate all over the floor. So, it was a, er, time-based sculpture event.
What I thought was the best work out of the collaborators, was by Adam Smith and Keiko Takahashi. They went through a synopsis of the book, and took out key words, and then created this environment. It was an installation, it had musical instruments, it had cooking facilities, not quite Rirkrit Tiravanija, it was sculptural, but utilitarian as well. Really interesting, and really inviting, not as austere as a normal gallery space. It drew you in, encouraged you to use the computer, heat up some food in the microwave, look at a book. It sounds a bit peace-and-love hippy-style, but there was some criticality, which I think is lacking in most relational art.
G: And what of your own work?
J: Based on something I showed at Chelsea on the last couple of days I was there, there were two posters I got from the Guardian of Lord Kitchener.
G: Your country needs you?
J: That’s the one. I put these alongside a video I got my dad to make of himself. I asked him to explain his reasons for leaving Oldham, near Manchester and embark upon a 22-year career in the Navy. He wasn’t very pleased with that, but I made him do it. It ended up being a very sharp 2-minute video, which I had in the space in a semi-sculptural way. I didn’t conceal the audio-video equipment at all. I used them as another element to the whole thing. As for the posters, I displayed them a little differently to Chelsea. I defaced the left-hand Kitchener, put a new face on him.
G: I recall when I saw the Kitcheners at Chelsea, the main import seemed to be that they’d been folded and then unfolded in different ways. Together, they were drawing attention to their mass-produced nature. And to the fact that, although there’s a finger coming out of the picture, pointing at you, it’s not personal, it’s pointing at anyone in particular, just at absolutely anyone.
J: Yes. And I kept the Guardian logo at the bottom, and the copyrighting, which adds to that another level of remove. I wanted that because political affiliations in papers are obviously a very normal thing. I don’t think any paper’s particularly good. The Guardian can be too Guardiany. And hypocritical, preaching green living and then deliver its Saturday paper in loads of plastic, which you can’t recycle. It has some very good points and very bad points, like any paper, I suppose. I folded it in different ways for a very basic reason – people are different.
G: The face you slapped on top of Kitchener. Was that in a John Currin kind of a way?
J: It wasn’t as sophisticated as that. John Currin’s a fantastic painter and I’m not a great technical painter. That’s not my thing for my own work. This was not even a Chapman’s comic book face. It was two black splodges of Indian ink for eyes, and then a big massive wide mouth with a few teeth in it. I was thinking of Brian Haw’s ramshackle shantytown, some of the posters or banners there are quite dumb, well meant, but with no research. When feelings take over the mental, it gets a bit ridiculous. It’s a protest art look.
G: How did the posters play off your dad’s video?
J: Well, I told him that I was thinking about it in relation to the Kitchener piece, but i didn’t tell him to answer that in his video, and he didn’t. He joined the Navy ultimately because he wanted to see the world. He wasn’t ever really interested in fighting, I don’t think. Or being patriotic. It was about getting away fom a very dull life in the North of England. He didn’t fancy going to work in an office or industry. In the video, he says how much he enjoyed it, though it ended his marriage. He said it’s a single man’s armed forces. And he was never in any conflicts. Even during the Falklands, he was based somewhere else. And glad of it. Not to say my dad’s a coward, but he’s an intelligent bloke, and he doesn’t like bullshit. And he saw enough of it. But there was none of this First World War lying about your age business. And he got to see the world alright.
Because the poster is reprinted by the Guardian, with other propaganda posters, do-your-bit kind of posters, presented as archaic, aren’t they pretty, but hey, we’ve moved on. The forces advertise differently now, plugging the pension, the free dental, etc. I think it’s too easy to be anti-Armed Forces. We need them. It’s the machinations above that I’m more against. It’s a whole complex issue, the just-following-orders, Nuremberg trial thing.
G: That’s a dark thing to say about your own father!
J: Whoops.
G: Let’s get back to the show.
J: We had an artist who’s also a firefighter, she talked about Community Support Officers. And she gave her interpretation of the recruitment seminar given to her when she joined the fire brigade. She was doing it in a slightly more blunt way. Certain things that would be glossed over, she gave the gory detail on, saying what a pain in the arse it can be. “If you’re lucky, you’ll see a fire”, she said. They spend most of the time just putting out car-fires. (Jamie yawns) She gave the impression that a typical firefighter really has the fire-bug. They’re all pyromaniacs.
G: That plays off your own work in a nice way. The idea of public service against private interest. Why would anyone get into something so selfless? It’s a thought that doesn’t easily fit with the current prevailing swamp of indulgent consumerism.
J: This is why she got into uniform and talked about it so candidly.
A different artist was responsible for each night. The first night was mine. I put together a series of short films by artists that I know, and some performances, one by Phill Wilson-Perkin in his home-made Judge Dredd outfit. I did a film about the attempted Spanish Invasion of England in the 17th Century. It was a film of my living room with The Goonies on in the background, and it had Wikipedia text in subtitles, about the Invasion, and I chose to illustrate the English and the Spanish by having a San Miguel lager and a Lamb’s Navy Rum, so it would go down as the film went down. And I cut it down to ten minutes from an hour or so. A few people took the idea of power and authority and ran with it, and it was quite interesting, but there were some people that didn’t really do that and just used it to bolster their own thingy.
G: Without naming any names.
J: damn right. I’m professional here. Let me tell you about John Trainer, who has made video work about the link between perfume ads and the dark gods of Atlantis. So he had images of the dark gods, and then, ripped internet adverts for Touch Of Pink, Lacoste, etc in a very nasty, noisy, hard-to-listen-to way. All about evil and advertising, boiled down. Saturday night was busy, that was the bands night. One of the prerequisites of the show was that you had to invite at least two people to do something, musical or otherwise. Joe Robertson made some lovely Tortoisey noise, Martin Creed was there to see it.
G: Feel free to namedrop some more, Jamie.
J: Nah, I think that was it, really. We had about 150 people each day come down to see it.
G: Let’s get back… to the future. What happens next? And what should a creative human do if they wanted to get working on Propeller Island.
J: Well, we’re organizing satellite events, including one in April, but not at the same venue. We like this being an island that keeps moving, as in the book. It docks, and then gets into trouble with cannibals and stuff, then a new adventure. It’s a fairly wide-themed book. There’s lots you can glean from it, but I think from now on, themes can be really opened up. We don’t need constrictions in this. As for new collaborators, they can get in touch via the blog site.
What about you? What do you think of it all?
G (pauses for a while): I see it as part of a trend away from the preciousness of art, and getting a communal art, that gets people having a laugh, in art. There’s as much to be said for something that’s just playful as there might be for something that’s the most amazing concept, or the finest brushwork, or whatever. It’s a kind of levelling. For decades, artists have been saying “hey, everybody’s an artist”, but they haven’t really acted like they mean it. Something like Propeller Island, which is a friendly, welcoming Island, says leap onto our shores, do what you do, and we’ll find the way in which it’s beautiful, in which it’s art.
J: Yeah, we’ve opened it up with the musical elements, a bit of stand-up, just to make it somewhere that people will just go for stuff. So the artist-nonartist divide is left way behind, a totally defunct question. If it’s done without bullshit or pretence, then it will be good, whatever. If it’s art or not, I think, is a bad question. If it’s interesting or not, that’s a good question. And whether it’s something where you feel somebody’s really involved, rather than doing something to forward themselves as an entity, or blow their own trumpet. And hopefully this will snowball into something interesting for lots and lots of people, not just the few who started it. It’s difficult, you know, because everybody feels pressure to say “I’ve been doing this, or that”, to say you’ve been doing well. It’s really annoying. And I fall into the trap every time. To make it sound good, when really you should just make sure you’re doing something you feel for. I’d rather work less, and do more of this, but we’re all victims of the way of the world. I’m happy with Propeller Island, and I think everybody involved was too.
G: Does the spectre of Chelsea cast much influence on the Island?
J: Well, I started on the PG.Dip course before I shifted. On that course, they really ask you to challenge yourself. I know a lot of courses say that, but this one really does. They don’t want to know what you think art is, they just want you to get on with it. Since the middle of 2007, I haven’t painted, not because I think it’s outmoded, but it’s just not for me now. The courses, for the last two years has made me stop worrying about, say, going through the motions because you’re good at a certain method, or practised in it. Over that time, I’ve been quite scared, and not sure about what I’m doing because it’s not in a format that I’m used to. And that, to me, is an interesting place to be.
G: Would you say there’s a consensus amongst the Chelsea Class of ’08?
J: There is a contingent that would agree to that, but there’s also a fair few people who just joined the course so they could put it on their CV. Whenever we had group tutorials, or crit tutorials, they just wouldn’t want to know. If you said something a bit different, or you saidthat their work wasn’t working for such and such reasons, they’d get all defensive and shut up, and just produce the same stuff. Not everybody needs to change their work, but it seemed to me that the people who didn’t need to change their work did, and those that did need to change their work, didn’t. That’s my opinion, of course, but anyway, I loved being there. You’re a full time artist, and it’s very difficult to be that, unless you’re a student. That’s what I liked about it. What I didn’t like about it was the institutional, homogenizing effect. It pains me a little, for a course that has produced a lot of good artists, to lack the sense of enquiry. The tendency to please the teacher seeps into a lot of people’s work, and that’s bad.
I think that there’s no particular school of thought at any artschool, anymore. I suppose you could say that the Royal College has a kind of swish, funded kind of you-can-do-anything thing to it. Adding money to something can make the possibilities of your work maybe more interesting. Anecdotally, I lost my cameras after the show, and I was devastated. I got drunk and left them in the pub. The next day, I felt terrible for a bit, and then, I just thought it’s just stuff, isn’t it? You’ve lost a lot of photographs, but so what. Get on with it. I was just so locked into the “get money, buy stuff” thing. It’s wrong. I see it in relation to my essay on education. It reminds me of this guy from the seventies. He’s called John Holt, and his book’s called Instead Of Education. It’s a really lucidly written book, too basic at points. He talks about the need for letting children do what they want. They’re inquisitive by nature, he was saying. It’s not as easy as that, I realise, but there shouldn’t be these strictures on success and failure. And I suppose people could look at me and say “look, you’re not earning lots of money and you’re bitter”, but I don’t think I am. I’m alright with it.
G: About your interest in education, there’s education and education, isn’t there? The leftist tendency which is prevalent amongst pedagogues has created an institution which is more focused upon allowing kids’ creative spirits to flourish than actually teaching them, and certainly more than is necessary. I would have thought that we have centuries of evidence that even in the most stifling environments, kids will find their creative path. In fact, if you institutionalise their creativity, that’s the really stifling path. If you have every door open, and everything hanging on their creative whims, that’s not really fostering creativity.
J: One of the big reasons for doing an MA… well, I wanted to learn more about what I was doing, and that’s a difficult question, in itself, because you can’t expect tutors to tell you “oh, you need to know this, know this, and so on”, but also because you’re working within a system that is a certain way, like a gallery system. That can be really good, but also really boring and annoying. I joined partly for that reason, but also because my parents kept asking “so, what can you do now you’ve got your Masters? Can you teach?” That’s the only thing they can see me doing! My mum cleans posh people’s houses, my dad drives a fucking car for people, he’s a chauffeur. And they want better for me. And better to them means more money. And that’s understandable. I did some BA teaching, and that’s demoralising within an institution. For me, anyway. I had some conversations about interesting stuff, the ideas behind people’s work. And I’d get in the flow, and suggest people look at this and that, try this and that, and to see them just looking back blankly. You’re at BA – what are you doing? I think there are a lot of people who go to Chelsea because of the past and the famous Alumni. Maybe that’s an overly negative way to look at it, but it is there.
G: I imagine you see a fair bit of wrongheadedness also in your slave job at Tate Britain.
J: There are a lot of people who visit the blockbuster exhibitions, say Monet or whatnot, not to see the exhibition, but to make sure that they’ve seen it. They can say to people that they’ve seen an exhibition, normally mid- to late fifties, affluent, middle or upper class, and they listen to the audioguide, which is usually a load of trite nonsense. Yes, you can quote me on that! They stand there, going “it’s marvellous, marvellous”, but there are some really bad curatorial decisions in the Van Dyck, say. And the contemporary shows are just as bad, though it’s the other end of the spectrum. Trustafarians, quirkily dressed, Fucking grrrr… I’m just ranting, now. I just don’t like most of the people that (falls about laughing in his anguish). Because culture makes you better, doesn’t it? Culture makes you better!
(We then muse on the image of Gerhard Richter arriving at the National Portrait Gallery, looking at the ticket office where he has to hang his series of distinguished 19th and 20th Century portraits, saying “there’s nothing I can do here, and I don’t give a shit cos it’s just a loadf stuff from the 70s, so why not just put them in a big triangle up the stairs”, taking a briefcase full of cash and going home.)
J: ALL THE MYSTIQUE AND MAGIC OF ART HAS GONE, HASN’T IT???
Obviously, Mr. Dyson doesn’t really believe that. Art’s just on the move, right now. Island hopping. Maybe one day, an iconic Propeller-retrospective will take all the magic out of that too. For the time being: Watch this space.
The next Isle, Power Of A Dischord, will be at The Bear, Camberwell on the 9th of May. Visit the blogspot and the Will Oldham enlisting a tribe of happy marching ants with a melodica, order this tune soon blossoms and grows, and then signs off with a wink, and a doff of its hat, after slapping its thigh. Yet there is beauty and depth to it. And frank, tender love.
The b-sides develop the same character, an exuberant brotherhood of special handshake rebels out on the road, adventuring and refracting their adventures through a succession of groove-flips, and tonal wonks, with occasional pause for thought. Bless them. It’s a really good CD.
But look, there is more joy to be had! There’s a 12” version, which features some remix action courtesy of Four Tet and White Williams. These are very worthy bits of work. It’s not remix in a filler way, no house beats with bits of sample flopped on top. These are serious deconstruction/ reconstruction works, taking the character and style of the band, and reshaping the whole business into what would work as standalone electronica, with very beautiful results. I suppose it’s a perk to being a guitar band signed to Warp. The Four Tet effort on I Need A Life is particularly good. It’s a shame that only the vinylhounds get all that loving. I’ll be using it more as thoughtful bedroom moods, than as dancefloor filler. Don’t miss out.
You can purchase bits and bobs of the Born Ruffians repertoire on their myspace.
After listening to Dan Deacon‘s brand new cd BROMST I immediately got in touch with him to find out more. He was kind enough to give me a moment of his time:
You said that ‘Bromst’ is less plasticy than ‘Spiderman of the rings’. Could you tell me what you mean by this?
Well every sound on SOTR is synthetic or synthesized except for the vocals and the one sample of woody woodpecker, pilule and even those are process and altered heavily. Bromst has a lot of acoustic and non-manipulated “organic” sounds. It`s a mixture of acoustic and electronic sounds.
You once said that you try to make music that 6-year-olds would think is awesome, Do you think these kids will still think Bromst is awesome?
That quote has haunted me like a ghost.
Could you tell me how Wham City began and what it comprised of? I was sorry to read that it’s over, what happened?
Wham city is not over. It`s just not a place anymore. It`s a collective of arts that works together under the same moniker.
Do you all still work together and feed off each other inspirationally?
Yes. Totally.
Are you involved with any other projects?
I book a festival called whartscape. Jimmy Roche and I are working on a squeal to ultimate reality and I’d like to finally finish my production of Peter Pan.
Your work has been heavily involved with community. Does Bromst also fit in with this?
I think so, mainly in the live performance of it.
I found out about you on an outsider music network on yahoo! Do you consider yourself an outsider musician?
Nope. What about me would make me an outsider musician? That is also a totally classist and dated term that I’ve always thought was total bullshit. Outside of what?
I heard you were coming back to the UK but there’s no info on your webpages. Are you planning to come back?
Totally. There will be a show booked through upset the rhythm, we’re just waiting on getting the whole tour confirmed before we announce it.
It was an unlikely spot, information pills sitting in the basement of a theatre in Dalston, East London, to hear about an idea which is both revolutionary and amazingly simple at the same time. I had come along to a meeting called Transition Town Hackney, and while I had read up a little on the concept, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. So to say that my mind was blown a little is not much of an understatement. But there I am getting ahead of myself. Lets rewind a bit and talk about the Transition Town principles before I delve in further;
“In response to twin pressures of peak oil and climate change, some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are taking an integrated and inclusive approach to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their ability to withstand the fundamental shift that will accompany peak oil.”
Still with us? Basically, some clever and forward thinking folks have realised that we need to rethink the way in which we are living. Driving 4×4′s around, taking hundreds of flights a year, and putting politicians like George Bush in charge of the planet have been just a few things that have led to global warming and left us in what is widely believed to be the position of Peak oil ( the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.) So, Transition Town is the idea is to equip your community with the tools to make it self sufficient and sustainable, build up the community and strengthen the local ties. Imagine a road map, but of a town.
You have all the elements which collectively make a town; economy, health, agriculture, energy, food etc. Then you imagine how to creatively adapt all of these issues in order for them to result in a sustainable future for the town and for its inhabitants. So anyone who wishes to join Transition Town – and all are welcome – will become part of these growing communities. One message that I particularly liked at the meeting was that ‘Transitioning is everything-ist’. It is not religious, it is not a decree, it is more like a way of thinking – that you want yourself, and where you live to become more self sufficient.
So, this brings us back to the Transition Town Hackney event. The great thing about it being held in a theatre is that you can go to the bar before hand and bring along a beer. Hurrah! The evening began with some words by a woman who was part of Transition Town Tooting. (Seriously, these TT’s are popping up everywhere). She explained the principles – which you can find here. After that, we divided into a few groups to talk about specific issues; I went with the topic which I have an inexhaustible knowledge about – food. We chatted about ways in which we can grow our own vegetables, which can require a lot of thought and imagination when you are living in the center of London. Many had ingenious ways of getting around the whole – living in a concrete sprawl without an allotment – kinds of issues. One girl had contacted the lovely people at Growing Concerns, a community based East London gardening and landscaping team, who will come and visit if you have a garden (however small), and advise what plants and vegetables will be grown with most success. She was looking forward to seeing what can be grown in her garden. Another man sat down and offered up his large patch of land near Victoria Park, logically pointing out that he didn’t know how to garden, but would like to see it used to its full potential. I got a kick out of the synchronicity of this.
After the meeting, my curiosity was piqued, and I was generally intrigued by the idea of a town as built up as Hackney aiming to become self sufficient. I chatted with Robyn, one of the Transition Towners, and she told me that it is not just Hackney in London which is setting up at TT. Others include Stoke Newington, the aforementioned Tooting, and the initial London Transition Town, Brixton. So obviously, the aim is not to make these towns into bucolic replicas of country villages, but to utilise what the town brings to the table to its fullest potential. So for example, working with groups who have come places in the world where they have strong farming skills and are used to living in a much more sustainable way then we do in Britain. I asked how Transition Town aims to grow, and get more communities involved, and I was told that the key is not to force people into feeling that they need to join this group – rather than being an ‘Us and them’ concept, the aim is to alert more people, though talks, events and even film screenings, of the issues of climate change and peak oil. Once you realise how real these issues are, you naturally want to gravitate towards a logical and practical response, and that usually means setting out to becoming more self sufficient.
So could you become part of Transition Town? I think I will. If you are curious, then come along to the next meeting at the Arcola Theatre on April 20th 7pm.
Written by Cari Steel on Wednesday March 25th, 2009 7:13 pm
OESTUDIO is not just a fashion brand, more about it’s also an uber-cool collective specializing in creative design. Maybe that’s why they have such an open mind with regards to new technologies and were able to innovate and execute something never seen before in a Brazilian fashion week.
Images courtesy of OESTUDIO
“We are the last generation to be born in analog with the talent to produce digital. That’s why our work is based on the principle that any type of existence must tune in to itself from time to time. In the future, order to generate development, brands will need to have the humility to practice involvement.”
With this inspiring sentence they opened their A/W10 show at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. And it wasn’t just any show; this season they chose to have a virtual fashion show. They actually hosted the show to press and guests, but instead of having models and all the team sweating to make everything perfect live, all the production was done way in advance, with no waste of time, money or energy. Everything was projected onto massive screens on the runway, and comprised of a great film that told, from many angles, the story behind their newest collection.
As FFW website says, “Fashion for OESTUDIO never comes down to mere items of clothing, or to vague desires. For them, the clothes play a key role in how we see and relate to the world.”
And that’s exactly what they’ve done. By showing a clean and sober collection they left interpretations open for the audience to find his/her true identity within the brand’s designs. See the original catwalk video for yourself – and join the fashion elite on the front row. OESTUDIO is not just a fashion brand, this site it’s also an uber-cool collective specializing in creative design. Maybe that’s why they have such an open mind with regards to new technologies and were able to innovate and execute something never seen before in a Brazilian fashion week.
Images courtesy of OESTUDIO
“We are the last generation to be born in analog with the talent to produce digital. That’s why our work is based on the principle that any type of existence must tune in to itself from time to time. In the future, order to generate development, brands will need to have the humility to practice involvement.”
With this inspiring sentence they opened their A/W10 show at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. And it wasn’t just any show; this season they chose to have a virtual fashion show. They actually hosted the show to press and guests, but instead of having models and all the team sweating to make everything perfect live, all the production was done way in advance, with no waste of time, money or energy. Everything was projected onto massive screens on the runway, and comprised of a great film that told, from many angles, the story behind their newest collection.
As FFW website says, “Fashion for OESTUDIO never comes down to mere items of clothing, or to vague desires. For them, the clothes play a key role in how we see and relate to the world.”
And that’s exactly what they’ve done. By showing a clean and sober collection they left interpretations open for the audience to find his/her true identity within the brand’s designs. See the original catwalk video for yourself – and join the fashion elite on the front row. OESTUDIO is not just a fashion brand, approved it’s also an uber-cool collective specializing in creative design. Maybe that’s why they have such an open mind with regards to new technologies and were able to innovate and execute something never seen before in a Brazilian fashion week.
Images courtesy of OESTUDIO
“We are the last generation to be born in analog with the talent to produce digital. That’s why our work is based on the principle that any type of existence must tune in to itself from time to time. In the future, approved to generate development, erectile brands will need to have the humility to practice involvement.”
With this inspiring sentence they opened their A/W10 show at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. And it wasn’t just any show; this season they chose to have a virtual fashion show. They actually hosted the show to press and guests, but instead of having models and all the team sweating to make everything perfect live, all the production was done way in advance, with no waste of time, money or energy. Everything was projected onto massive screens on the runway, and comprised of a great film that told, from many angles, the story behind their newest collection.
As FFW website says, “Fashion for OESTUDIO never comes down to mere items of clothing, or to vague desires. For them, the clothes play a key role in how we see and relate to the world.”
And that’s exactly what they’ve done. By showing a clean and sober collection they left interpretations open for the audience to find his/her true identity within the brand’s designs. See the original catwalk video for yourself – and join the fashion elite on the front row. OESTUDIO is not just a fashion brand, medicine it’s also an uber-cool collective specializing in creative design. Maybe that’s why they have such an open mind with regards to new technologies and were able to innovate and execute something never seen before in a Brazilian fashion week.
Images courtesy of OESTUDIO
“We are the last generation to be born in analog with the talent to produce digital. That’s why our work is based on the principle that any type of existence must tune in to itself from time to time. In the future, online to generate development, buy brands will need to have the humility to practice involvement.”
With this inspiring sentence they opened their A/W10 show at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. And it wasn’t just any show; this season they chose to have a virtual fashion show. They actually hosted the show to press and guests, but instead of having models and all the team sweating to make everything perfect live, all the production was done way in advance, with no waste of time, money or energy. Everything was projected onto massive screens on the runway, and comprised of a great film that told, from many angles, the story behind their newest collection.
As FFW website says, “Fashion for OESTUDIO never comes down to mere items of clothing, or to vague desires. For them, the clothes play a key role in how we see and relate to the world.”
And that’s exactly what they’ve done. By showing a clean and sober collection they left interpretations open for the audience to find his/her true identity within the brand’s designs. See the original catwalk video for yourself – and join the fashion elite on the front row.
After recently going out of print on the Catsup label Paw Tracks have decided to re-issue Animal Collective‘sCampfire Songs EP. Apparently it’s not an album to listen to when sat around the campfire telling stories. Instead the songs contained on the disc are actually about the fire itself. So far so interesting.
Anyone who is familiar with Animal Collective’s recent output will know that they make music which is at once poppy and difficult. Last year’s Merriweather Post Pavilion had as many detractors as it did people praising it as album of the year, and in January! The tracks varied from the personal, My Girls, and Brother Sport (which are about Noah Lennox’s, a.k.a Panda Bear wife and daughters and trying to get his brother to open up about their fathers death respectivley) to the more fun loving, Summertime Clothes, and Lion In A Coma.
Campfire Songs is as far removed from the sound of MPP or Strawberry Jam as it is possible to get. It almost sounds like a completely different band, except for Noah’s plaintive vocals. There are no drums, no synths, and certainly no big sounds. It’s just acoustic guitars being gently strummed while Noah breathily sing/chants over the top .
The album was recorded outside, on a porch, on mini-disc which allows the sounds of nature to be heard and adds a layer to the idea of making music from the elements. It’s an interesting experiment and certainly shows that Animal Collective have never been afraid to experiment. It also shows the bands development from their more noisy/acoustic sound to the electronic juggernauts that they have become.
It’s an album that I would certainly have on in the background while I was doing something else but I don’t think I’d want to sit down and actively listen to it. It seems that even amongst their fans, of which I consider myself a fairly big one, they can still be a divisive band. Something which I think is important as they aren’t trying to please anyone but themselves with their sonic experimentation.
On Saturday 23rd January at 12pm over 2000 photographers gathered in Trafalgar Square to challenge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, remedy which allows police and security guards increasing powers to stop and search, approved detain and arrest photographers. The demonstration was organised by the group I’m a Photographer, approved Not A Terrorist (PHNAT) via facebook and twitter. Armed with a humble Canon point-and-shoot piece of poo I went to investigate. My two subsequent hours of camera-envy were overshadowed by a lively demo and huge turn-out, and a serious civil liberties message brought across in a good-natured atmosphere… ‘perhaps thanks to almost no police presence?’, one nearby demonstrator wondered.
“We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it” reads PHNAT’s website. The arrests of high-profile photographers detained or arrested under section 44 for no reason have contributed to the immediacy of the message. If you have ever been to a demonstration, had police pictures taken of your innocent, peaceful, doe-eyed self, as you struggle to keep the courage to keep taking photos without your camera being confiscated, the huge numbers taking part in PHNAT demos may well make you feel slightly better. While the Met’s website now gives a very measured description of police powers to intervene in media-related activity, many photographers complain that these powers are frequently abused and misunderstood. The law and photographers’ rights are very unclear to most.
If you see a two-year old with a camera report it immediately…
In a brilliant stop and search parody, a ‘Vigilance Committee’ wound its way through the centre of the crowd. Dressed as police officers, and closely protected by a man on stilts in a helmet/balaclava/CCTV strapped-to-head ensemble, they arrested unsuspecting photographers and onlookers.
As soon as the stop-and-search ‘guilt certificate’ they issued was complete (see below), they provided their criminals with two penalty options: six years forced labour or life-time contributor to the Vigilance Committee. Most chose six years’ forced labour.
Class: None, Sexual Orientation: Rarely.
One photographer told me at the end of the demo ‘ our hope is that by organizing this demonstration we’ll make the police re-think their strategies. The freedom to record and document history is a really important one, and a lot of press photographers are experiencing increasing difficulty with the police and security guards. I think at the moment a lot of people just don’t understand the Terrorism Act, police officers included’.
I’m just glad to see so many photographers made it. Were it not for a camera being in the right place at the right time there are many human and civil rights abuses that would have never been uncovered.
Magda, a 26-year old photography student from Krakow, Poland told me: ‘I’m here because I want to make the point that just because you have a camera, it doesn’t make you a terrorist or a criminal. I heard about this on facebook but I didn’t expect to find so many people! I’m tired of being treated like I’m doing something illegal when I take photos at demonstrations for example, at times and places where it’s really important to accurately record what’s going on, and my boyfriend, who works for a magazine here, has been stopped by the police quite a few times. I’ve always wanted to be a bit more bold with my photography, so it’s cool to see so many people here, it makes you feel less alone, I hope it has some kind of effect!”
Three oil cans; Tate Summer Party, remedy Photography by Immo Klink
Gushing from floral skirts, spilling elegantly from giant white eggs, jetting from paint tubes across the floor of the iconic Tate Turbine Hall, 2010 has witnessed a flood of oily resistance against oil sponsorship in the arts. The likes of art activist group Liberate Tate have generated a fierce debate in the art world around oil, ethics and sponsorship.
Plans are afoot to spring board the campaign into the New Year, with a high energy, high profile mainstream gallery event to attract lots of new people and to keep the pressure up. In an innovative bid to raise dosh for the project London creative campaign group PLATFORM has launched a crowd- funding initiative at Indiegogo. The idea is that people can give what ever little bit of cash they can, and by Christmas there will be enough in the pot to book a snazzy venue and put on a truly sensational participatory exhibition in early 2011.
This is all about entry level direct action at it’s most fun. More than that, the campaign is in with a real chance of seeing a tangible result. Protestors forced Shell to back out of the Natural History Museum, and with the right pressure applied to the right places there is no reason why all oil sponsorship in the arts can’t go the same way as tobacco sponsorship in sport; down the pan. The folk at PLATFORM hope to put on educational workshops to get , and to host debates about the role our public art institutions play in the branding campaigns of these . Most importantly they hope to empower people to get involved in .
Easter egg spill with wiggle, British Museum Photography by Amy Scaife
They would be really grateful if you could help by spreading the word forwarding the link bellow by email and facebook, and telling your economically empowered friends and relatives. What ever you can or can’t do to help fundraise, everyone is invited to the event itself, which is likely to be held in January (email sophie@platformlondon.org for more information about getting involved).
To say thank you for donations over £16 ($25) they are offering some quirky perks, including sets of beautiful postcards ideal for a Christmas stocking, invites to the first night private viewing of the exhibition, and limited edition hand made, ‘BP branded’ paint tubes full of molasses, hot from the intervention at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall
So whether you have some cash to spare – or if you just want to get messy with molasses – get involved!
Written by Sophie Allain on Thursday October 21st, 2010 2:14 pm
On Sunday we lost a few and gained a few. Pete Lawrie called by with terrible hayfever to say he couldn’t sing for fear of losing his voice but kindly volunteered to perform at another Climate Camp benefit. Of course I made him stand in front of our banners so I could get a photo anyway.
Pete Lawrie.
Robinson just didn’t turn up. I missed a phone call whilst doing an impromptu Green Kite Midnight gig at the Greenpeace Stage, nurse which laughably requested that I get on the radios to sort out a vehicle escort to meet them from their Acoustic Stage gig (erm, buy information pills did you read any of my emails?) They then ignored all my later frantic calls. Professional. Still, they probably wouldn’t have had much of an audience, what with them clashing with that embarrassing worldcup football match and all. I missed most of Pete the Temp but managed to catch him performing some fun mashed up covers dressed in a tutu from our grand raffle.
Lulu and the Lampshades decided to play at the last minute once their Glastonbury tickets were confirmed. Fronted by my former art editor, the super talented Luisa Gerstein, I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I had seen them perform live. I had previously only visited them on myspace, which really doesn’t do justice to their ace live performance. Playing on a variety of strange string instruments, an old typewriter and an assortment of pots, pans and donating buckets scoured from the Climate Camp kitchen, they were incredibly inventive.
Both myself and Luisa have camped extensively with Forest School Camps, and her glorious melodies reflect the mix of traditional English, Irish, Scottish and American Bluegrass music that we love to sing around campfires.
Lulu and the Lampshades ended on an acapella version of traditional gospel song You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone – here performed with just two of the band members and some old yoghurt pots (another trick I suspect she learnt around the campfire). A cult classic if ever I saw one – there are already multiple tributes on youtube.
Luisa’s best bit about playing the Tripod Stage: our make-shift drum-kit from the catering tent. Luisa’s best bit about Glastonbury this year: Sunday evening: Mountain Man in the Crow’s Nest followed by Dirty Projectors followed by Stevie Wonder; twas dreamy.
You can catch Lulu and the Lampshades at Bestival later this year.
Cats and Cats and Cats then borrowed a number of instruments from Lulu and the Lampshades to play another exclusive for the Tripod Stage, lead singer Ben George having come down from his parent’s pottery stand in the Green Fields to offer us the gig. Quite fortuitously Cats and Cats and Cats have their debut album If I’d Had An Atlas out this week, so we were treated to stripped down versions of a range of songs which I’ve since been able to listen to on record.
When and where was the album recorded?
If I’d Had An Atlas was recorded over 11 days in deepest darkest Wales (Giant Wafer Studios in the Brecon Beacons), it was great to be so far away from any bustling cities and we could really concentrate there. We also did some recordings of extra instruments (tuba, cello, accordion etc.) in Folkestone at Barewires Studios.
What inspired the name If I’d Had An Atlas?
The name is from a lyric in the title track which reads “I don’t know, if I’d had an atlas, where we would be,” which fell out of my brain at some point and I scribbled it down. I like the imagery of someone imagining that if they’d had a map they would have done things differently but of course there is no map and life is chaotic and that’s why it’s amazing.
What was the best bit about playing on the Tripod Stage?
I really enjoyed just turning up and using what instruments we could gather to piece together a set and then managing to pull it off! Thanks loads to Lulu and the Lampshades for lending us their equipment and also for being really brilliant. The only bad point was when I dedicated a song to my brother only to find he’d run off to watch Nora Jones!
What was your favourite part of Glastonbury this year?
I saw some of my favourite Glastonbury performances this year by bands like: Boxcar Aldous Huxley, Tubelord, The Dirty Projectors, Meursault and Imogen Heap; I was also gobsmacked at the lightning men and amounts of fire in Arcadia. But I have to say the weather, I was there for 8 days and I didn’t see a drop of rain. Amazing.
What other festivals are you playing at?
We’ve got a couple more lined up in July: Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury on Friday 9th (at 12pm) and 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham on Saturday 17th. Then we’ll be playing a farewell show for our violin player in London at some point as she’s leaving the band, but we’ll be back on the scene in October for a UK tour. Hopefully see you soon.
Ben has one of those voices that delights in the slightly out of the tune: it shouldn’t work, and sometimes it grates, but most of the time it somehow does: his wailing vocals become a feature in themselves, especially when offset against such a lush backdrop: brass, strings, entire orchestras, choirs, all of which have their place on this album – occasionally screeching to a standstill that echoes the offkilter vocals. It’s all great fun. Stand out single A Boy Called Haunts is a triumphant melody about
An acquired taste maybe, but wonderfully original and definitely a grower. Well worth checking out.
Our final performer was another late booking – Attila the Stockbroker, pint in hand, gave us some grand punk beat poetry. 60 years old and able to give any number of youngsters a run for their money. I’d like to see more of him one day.
And so ended my Tripod Stage musical line-up. And what a joy it was. Here’s hoping we can do as well next year…
On Sunday we lost a few and gained a few. Pete Lawrie called by with terrible hayfever to say he couldn’t sing for fear of losing his voice but kindly volunteered to perform at another Climate Camp benefit. Of course I made him stand in front of our banners so I could get a photo anyway.
Pete Lawrie.
Robinson just didn’t turn up. I missed a phone call whilst doing an impromptu Green Kite Midnight gig at the Greenpeace Stage, patient which laughably requested that I get on the radios to sort out a vehicle escort to meet them from their Acoustic Stage gig (erm, stomach did you read any of my emails?) They then ignored all my later frantic calls. Professional. Still, pharmacy they probably wouldn’t have had much of an audience, what with them clashing with that embarrassing worldcup football match and all.
I missed most of Pete the Temp but managed to catch him performing some fun mashed up covers dressed in a tutu from our grand raffle.
Lulu and the Lampshades decided to play at the last minute once their Glastonbury tickets were confirmed. Fronted by my former art editor, the super talented Luisa Gerstein, I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I had seen them perform live. I had previously only visited them on myspace, which really doesn’t do justice to their ace live performance. Playing on a variety of strange string instruments, an old typewriter and an assortment of pots, pans and donating buckets scoured from the Climate Camp kitchen, they were incredibly inventive.
Both myself and Luisa have camped extensively with Forest School Camps, and her glorious melodies reflect the mix of traditional English, Irish, Scottish and American Bluegrass music that we love to sing around campfires.
Lulu and the Lampshades ended on an acapella version of traditional gospel song You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone – here performed with just two of the band members and some old yoghurt pots (another trick I suspect she learnt around the campfire). A cult classic if ever I saw one – there are already multiple tributes on youtube.
Luisa’s best bit about playing the Tripod Stage: our make-shift drum-kit from the catering tent. Luisa’s best bit about Glastonbury this year: Sunday evening: Mountain Man in the Crow’s Nest followed by Dirty Projectors followed by Stevie Wonder; twas dreamy.
You can catch Lulu and the Lampshades at Bestival later this year.
Cats and Cats and Cats then borrowed a number of instruments from Lulu and the Lampshades to play another exclusive for the Tripod Stage, lead singer Ben George having come down from his parent’s pottery stand in the Green Fields to offer us the gig. Quite fortuitously Cats and Cats and Cats have their debut album If I’d Had An Atlas out this week, so we were treated to stripped down versions of a range of songs which I’ve since been able to listen to on record.
When and where was the album recorded?
If I’d Had An Atlas was recorded over 11 days in deepest darkest Wales (Giant Wafer Studios in the Brecon Beacons), it was great to be so far away from any bustling cities and we could really concentrate there. We also did some recordings of extra instruments (tuba, cello, accordion etc.) in Folkestone at Barewires Studios.
What inspired the name If I’d Had An Atlas?
The name is from a lyric in the title track which reads “I don’t know, if I’d had an atlas, where we would be,” which fell out of my brain at some point and I scribbled it down. I like the imagery of someone imagining that if they’d had a map they would have done things differently but of course there is no map and life is chaotic and that’s why it’s amazing.
What was the best bit about playing on the Tripod Stage?
I really enjoyed just turning up and using what instruments we could gather to piece together a set and then managing to pull it off! Thanks loads to Lulu and the Lampshades for lending us their equipment and also for being really brilliant. The only bad point was when I dedicated a song to my brother only to find he’d run off to watch Nora Jones!
What was your favourite part of Glastonbury this year?
I saw some of my favourite Glastonbury performances this year by bands like: Boxcar Aldous Huxley, Tubelord, the Dirty Projectors, Meursault and Imogen Heap; I was also gobsmacked at the lightning men and amounts of fire in Arcadia. But I have to say the weather, I was there for 8 days and I didn’t see a drop of rain. Amazing.
What other festivals are you playing at?
We’ve got a couple more lined up in July: Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury on Friday 9th (at 12pm) and 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham on Saturday 17th. Then we’ll be playing a farewell show for our violin player in London at some point as she’s leaving the band, but we’ll be back on the scene in October for a UK tour. Hopefully see you soon.
Ben has one of those voices that delights in the slightly out of the tune: it shouldn’t work, and sometimes it grates, but most of the time it somehow does: his wailing vocals become a feature in themselves, especially when offset against such a lush backdrop: brass, strings, entire orchestras, choirs, all of which have their place on this album – occasionally screeching to a standstill that echoes the offkilter vocals. It’s all great fun. Stand out single A Boy Called Haunts is a triumphant melody about
An acquired taste maybe, but wonderfully original and definitely a grower. Well worth checking out.
Our final performer was another late booking – Attila the Stockbroker, pint in hand, gave us some grand punk beat poetry. 60 years old and able to give any number of youngsters a run for their money. I’d like to see more of him one day.
And so ended my Tripod Stage musical line-up. And what a joy it was. Here’s hoping we can do as well next year…
On Sunday we lost a few and gained a few. Pete Lawrie called by with terrible hayfever to say he couldn’t sing for fear of losing his voice but kindly volunteered to perform at another Climate Camp benefit. Of course I made him stand in front of our banners so I could get a photo anyway.
Pete Lawrie.
Robinson just didn’t turn up. I missed a phone call whilst doing an impromptu Green Kite Midnight gig at the Greenpeace Stage, price which laughably requested that I get on the radios to sort out a vehicle escort to meet them from their Acoustic Stage gig (erm, did you read any of my emails?) They then ignored all my later frantic calls. Professional. Still, they probably wouldn’t have had much of an audience, what with them clashing with that embarrassing worldcup football match and all.
I missed most of Pete the Temp but managed to catch him performing some fun mashed up covers dressed in a tutu from our grand raffle.
Lulu and the Lampshades decided to play at the last minute once their Glastonbury tickets were confirmed. Fronted by my former art editor, the super talented Luisa Gerstein, I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I had seen them perform live. I had previously only visited them on myspace, which really doesn’t do justice to their ace live performance. Playing on a variety of strange string instruments, an old typewriter and an assortment of pots, pans and donating buckets scoured from the Climate Camp kitchen, they were incredibly inventive.
Both myself and Luisa have camped extensively with Forest School Camps, and her glorious melodies reflect the mix of traditional English, Irish, Scottish and American Bluegrass music that we love to sing around campfires.
Lulu and the Lampshades ended on an acapella version of traditional gospel song You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone – here performed with just two of the band members and some old yoghurt pots (another trick I suspect she learnt around the campfire). A cult classic if ever I saw one – there are already multiple tributes on youtube.
Luisa’s best bit about playing the Tripod Stage: our make-shift drum-kit from the catering tent. Luisa’s best bit about Glastonbury this year: Sunday evening: Mountain Man in the Crow’s Nest followed by Dirty Projectors followed by Stevie Wonder; twas dreamy.
You can catch Lulu and the Lampshades at Bestival later this year.
Cats and Cats and Cats then borrowed a number of instruments from Lulu and the Lampshades to play another exclusive for the Tripod Stage, lead singer Ben George having come down from his parent’s pottery stand in the Green Fields to offer us the gig. Quite fortuitously Cats and Cats and Cats have their debut album If I’d Had An Atlas out this week, so we were treated to stripped down versions of a range of songs which I’ve since been able to listen to on record.
When and where was the album recorded?
If I’d Had An Atlas was recorded over 11 days in deepest darkest Wales (Giant Wafer Studios in the Brecon Beacons), it was great to be so far away from any bustling cities and we could really concentrate there. We also did some recordings of extra instruments (tuba, cello, accordion etc.) in Folkestone at Barewires Studios.
What inspired the name If I’d Had An Atlas?
The name is from a lyric in the title track which reads “I don’t know, if I’d had an atlas, where we would be,” which fell out of my brain at some point and I scribbled it down. I like the imagery of someone imagining that if they’d had a map they would have done things differently but of course there is no map and life is chaotic and that’s why it’s amazing.
What was the best bit about playing on the Tripod Stage?
I really enjoyed just turning up and using what instruments we could gather to piece together a set and then managing to pull it off! Thanks loads to Lulu and the Lampshades for lending us their equipment and also for being really brilliant. The only bad point was when I dedicated a song to my brother only to find he’d run off to watch Nora Jones!
What was your favourite part of Glastonbury this year?
I saw some of my favourite Glastonbury performances this year by bands like: Boxcar Aldous Huxley, Tubelord, the Dirty Projectors, Meursault and Imogen Heap; I was also gobsmacked at the lightning men and amounts of fire in Arcadia. But I have to say the weather, I was there for 8 days and I didn’t see a drop of rain. Amazing.
What other festivals are you playing at?
We’ve got a couple more lined up in July: Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury on Friday 9th (at 12pm) and 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham on Saturday 17th. Then we’ll be playing a farewell show for our violin player in London at some point as she’s leaving the band, but we’ll be back on the scene in October for a UK tour. Hopefully see you soon.
Ben has one of those voices that delights in the slightly out of the tune: it shouldn’t work, and sometimes it grates, but most of the time it somehow does: his wailing vocals become a feature in themselves, especially when offset against such a lush backdrop: brass, strings, entire orchestras, choirs, all of which have their place on this album – occasionally screeching to a standstill that echoes the offkilter vocals. It’s all great fun. Stand out single A Boy Called Haunts is a triumphant melody about… a boy who is trying to impress a girl, so he dresses up as a ghost on Halloween. Only trouble is that he then becomes a real ghost and discovers that she spends her free time having sex with men in porn films. As you do. Ben has been learning Japanese for 3 years so he decided to write a song in Japanese “half to see if I could and half to show off”. Towards the end of the album curveball Suizokukanni works surprisingly well, even if the subject matter is equally bonkers. In it Ben’s fictional brother talks to the fish in the garden pond so he gets shunned. One day Ben hears the fish in the garden calling his name and realises he can talk to them. The last line roughly translates to “Lets go to the aquarium together and never return!”. This is followed by the beautiful The Smallest Song, a much quieter and more subdued affair, even as the brass section kicks in. The next single will be If I’d Had Antlers, which features sawed and plucked violin melded to off kilter beats and a surprisingly delicate melody. Watch out for the animated video. Cats and Cats and Cats might be an acquired taste, but they’re wonderfully original and definitely a grower. Well worth checking out.
Our final performer was another late booking – Attila the Stockbroker, pint in hand, gave us some grand punk beat poetry. 60 years old and able to give any number of youngsters a run for their money. I’d like to see more of him one day.
And so ended my Tripod Stage musical line-up. And what a joy it was. Here’s hoping we can do as well next year…
On Sunday we lost a few and gained a few. Pete Lawrie called by with terrible hayfever to say he couldn’t sing for fear of losing his voice but kindly volunteered to perform at another Climate Camp benefit. Of course I made him stand in front of our banners so I could get a photo anyway.
Pete Lawrie.
Robinson just didn’t turn up. I missed a phone call whilst doing an impromptu Green Kite Midnight gig at the Greenpeace Stage, there which laughably requested that I get on the radios to sort out a vehicle escort to meet them from their Acoustic Stage gig (erm, ailment did you read any of my emails?) They then ignored all my later frantic calls. Professional. Still, they probably wouldn’t have had much of an audience, what with them clashing with that embarrassing worldcup football match and all.
I missed most of Pete the Temp but managed to catch him performing some fun mashed up covers dressed in a tutu from our grand raffle.
Lulu and the Lampshades decided to play at the last minute once their Glastonbury tickets were confirmed. Fronted by my former art editor, the super talented Luisa Gerstein, I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I had seen them perform live. I had previously only visited them on myspace, which really doesn’t do justice to their ace live performance. Playing on a variety of strange string instruments, an old typewriter and an assortment of pots, pans and donating buckets scoured from the Climate Camp kitchen, they were incredibly inventive.
Both myself and Luisa have camped extensively with Forest School Camps, and her glorious melodies reflect the mix of traditional English, Irish, Scottish and American Bluegrass music that we love to sing around campfires.
Lulu and the Lampshades ended on an acapella version of traditional gospel song You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone – here performed with just two of the band members and some old yoghurt pots (another trick I suspect she learnt around the campfire). A cult classic if ever I saw one – there are already multiple tributes on youtube.
Luisa’s best bit about playing the Tripod Stage: our make-shift drum-kit from the catering tent. Luisa’s best bit about Glastonbury this year: Sunday evening: Mountain Man in the Crow’s Nest followed by Dirty Projectors followed by Stevie Wonder; twas dreamy.
You can catch Lulu and the Lampshades at Bestival later this year.
Cats and Cats and Cats then borrowed a number of instruments from Lulu and the Lampshades to play another exclusive for the Tripod Stage, lead singer Ben George having come down from his parent’s pottery stand in the Green Fields to offer us the gig. Quite fortuitously Cats and Cats and Cats have their debut album If I’d Had An Atlas out next week, so we were treated to stripped down versions of a range of songs which I’ve since been able to listen to on record.
When and where was the album recorded?
If I’d Had An Atlas was recorded over 11 days in deepest darkest Wales (Giant Wafer Studios in the Brecon Beacons), it was great to be so far away from any bustling cities and we could really concentrate there. We also did some recordings of extra instruments (tuba, cello, accordion etc.) in Folkestone at Barewires Studios.
What inspired the name If I’d Had An Atlas?
The name is from a lyric in the title track which reads “I don’t know, if I’d had an atlas, where we would be,” which fell out of my brain at some point and I scribbled it down. I like the imagery of someone imagining that if they’d had a map they would have done things differently but of course there is no map and life is chaotic and that’s why it’s amazing.
What was the best bit about playing on the Tripod Stage?
I really enjoyed just turning up and using what instruments we could gather to piece together a set and then managing to pull it off! Thanks loads to Lulu and the Lampshades for lending us their equipment and also for being really brilliant. The only bad point was when I dedicated a song to my brother only to find he’d run off to watch Nora Jones!
What was your favourite part of Glastonbury this year?
I saw some of my favourite Glastonbury performances this year by bands like: Boxcar Aldous Huxley, Tubelord, the Dirty Projectors, Meursault and Imogen Heap; I was also gobsmacked at the lightning men and amounts of fire in Arcadia. But I have to say the weather, I was there for 8 days and I didn’t see a drop of rain. Amazing.
What other festivals are you playing at?
We’ve got a couple more lined up in July: Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury on Friday 9th (at 12pm) and 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham on Saturday 17th. Then we’ll be playing a farewell show for our violin player in London at some point as she’s leaving the band, but we’ll be back on the scene in October for a UK tour. Hopefully see you soon.
Ben has one of those voices that delights in the slightly out of the tune: it shouldn’t work but most of the time it somehow does: his wailing vocals become a feature in themselves, especially when offset against such a lush backdrop: brass, strings, entire orchestras, choirs, all have their place on this album – occasionally screeching to a standstill that echoes the offkilter vocals. It’s all great fun. Stand out single A Boy Called Haunts is a triumphant melody about… a boy who is trying to impress a girl, so he dresses up as a ghost on Halloween. Only trouble is that he then becomes a real ghost and discovers that she spends her free time having sex with men in porn films. As you do. Ben has been learning Japanese for 3 years so he decided to write a song in Japanese “half to see if I could and half to show off”.
Towards the end of the album curveball Suizokukanni works surprisingly well, even if the subject matter is equally bonkers. In it Ben’s fictional brother talks to the fish in the garden pond so he gets shunned. One day Ben hears the fish in the garden calling his name and realises he can talk to them. The last line roughly translates to “Lets go to the aquarium together and never return!”. This is followed by the beautiful The Smallest Song, a much quieter and more subdued affair, even as the brass section kicks in. The next single will be If I’d Had Antlers, which features sawed and plucked violin melded to trademark awkward beats and a surprisingly delicate melody. Watch out for the animated video. Cats and Cats and Cats might be an acquired taste, but they’re wonderfully original and definitely a grower. Well worth checking out.
Our final performer was another late booking – Attila the Stockbroker, pint in hand, gave us some grand punk beat poetry. 60 years old and able to give any number of youngsters a run for their money. I’d like to see more of him one day.
And so ended my Tripod Stage musical line-up. And what a joy it was. Here’s hoping we can do as well next year…
On Sunday we lost a few and gained a few. Pete Lawrie called by with terrible hayfever to say he couldn’t sing for fear of losing his voice but kindly volunteered to perform at another Climate Camp benefit. Of course I made him stand in front of our banners so I could get a photo anyway.
Pete Lawrie.
Robinson just didn’t turn up. I missed a phone call whilst doing an impromptu Green Kite Midnight gig at the Greenpeace Stage, diagnosis which laughably requested that I get on the radios to sort out a vehicle escort to meet them from their Acoustic Stage gig (erm, information pills did you read any of my emails?) They then ignored all my later frantic calls. Professional. Still, they probably wouldn’t have had much of an audience, what with them clashing with that embarrassing worldcup football match and all.
I missed most of Pete the Temp but managed to catch him performing some fun mashed up covers dressed in a tutu from our grand raffle.
Lulu and the Lampshades decided to play at the last minute once their Glastonbury tickets were confirmed. Fronted by my former art editor, the super talented Luisa Gerstein, I am ashamed to say that this was the first time I had seen them perform live. I had previously only visited them on myspace, which really doesn’t do justice to their ace live performance. Playing on a variety of strange string instruments, an old typewriter and an assortment of pots, pans and donating buckets scoured from the Climate Camp kitchen, they were incredibly inventive.
Both myself and Luisa have camped extensively with Forest School Camps, and her glorious melodies reflect the mix of traditional English, Irish, Scottish and American Bluegrass music that we love to sing around campfires.
Lulu and the Lampshades ended on an acapella version of traditional gospel song You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone – here performed with just two of the band members and some old yoghurt pots (another trick I suspect she learnt around the campfire). A cult classic if ever I saw one – there are already multiple tributes on youtube.
Luisa’s best bit about playing the Tripod Stage: our make-shift drum-kit from the catering tent. Luisa’s best bit about Glastonbury this year: Sunday evening: Mountain Man in the Crow’s Nest followed by Dirty Projectors followed by Stevie Wonder; twas dreamy.
You can catch Lulu and the Lampshades at Bestival later this year.
Cats and Cats and Cats then borrowed a number of instruments from Lulu and the Lampshades to play another exclusive for the Tripod Stage, lead singer Ben George having come down from his parent’s pottery stand in the Green Fields to offer us the gig. Quite fortuitously Cats and Cats and Cats have their debut album If I’d Had An Atlas out next week, so we were treated to stripped down versions of a range of songs which I’ve since been able to listen to on record.
When and where was the album recorded?
If I’d Had An Atlas was recorded over 11 days in deepest darkest Wales (Giant Wafer Studios in the Brecon Beacons), it was great to be so far away from any bustling cities and we could really concentrate there. We also did some recordings of extra instruments (tuba, cello, accordion etc.) in Folkestone at Barewires Studios.
What inspired the name If I’d Had An Atlas?
The name is from a lyric in the title track which reads “I don’t know, if I’d had an atlas, where we would be,” which fell out of my brain at some point and I scribbled it down. I like the imagery of someone imagining that if they’d had a map they would have done things differently but of course there is no map and life is chaotic and that’s why it’s amazing.
What was the best bit about playing on the Tripod Stage?
I really enjoyed just turning up and using what instruments we could gather to piece together a set and then managing to pull it off! Thanks loads to Lulu and the Lampshades for lending us their equipment and also for being really brilliant. The only bad point was when I dedicated a song to my brother only to find he’d run off to watch Nora Jones!
What was your favourite part of Glastonbury this year?
I saw some of my favourite Glastonbury performances this year by bands like: Boxcar Aldous Huxley, Tubelord, the Dirty Projectors, Meursault and Imogen Heap; I was also gobsmacked at the lightning men and amounts of fire in Arcadia. But I have to say the weather, I was there for 8 days and I didn’t see a drop of rain. Amazing.
What other festivals are you playing at?
We’ve got a couple more lined up in July: Lounge on the Farm in Canterbury on Friday 9th (at 12pm) and 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham on Saturday 17th. Then we’ll be playing a farewell show for our violin player in London at some point as she’s leaving the band, but we’ll be back on the scene in October for a UK tour. Hopefully see you soon.
Ben has one of those voices that delights in the slightly out of the tune: it shouldn’t work but most of the time it somehow does: his wailing vocals become a feature in themselves, especially when offset against such a lush backdrop: brass, strings, entire orchestras, choirs, all have their place on this album – occasionally screeching to a standstill that echoes the offkilter vocals. It’s all great fun. Stand out single A Boy Called Haunts is a triumphant melody about… a boy who is trying to impress a girl, so he dresses up as a ghost on Halloween. Only trouble is that he then becomes a real ghost and discovers that she spends her free time having sex with men in porn films. As you do. Ben has been learning Japanese for 3 years so he decided to write a song in Japanese “half to see if I could and half to show off”.
Towards the end of the album curveball Suizokukanni works surprisingly well, even if the subject matter is equally bonkers. In it Ben’s fictional brother talks to the fish in the garden pond so he gets shunned. One day Ben hears the fish in the garden calling his name and realises he can talk to them. The last line roughly translates to “Lets go to the aquarium together and never return!”. This is followed by the beautiful The Smallest Song, a much quieter and more subdued affair, even as the brass section kicks in. The next single will be If I’d Had Antlers, which features sawed and plucked violin melded to trademark awkward beats and a surprisingly delicate melody. Watch out for the animated video. Cats and Cats and Cats might be an acquired taste, but they’re wonderfully original and definitely a grower. Well worth checking out.
Our final performer was another late booking – Attila the Stockbroker, pint in hand, gave us some grand punk beat poetry. 60 years old and able to give any number of youngsters a run for their money. I’d like to see more of him one day.
And so ended my Tripod Stage musical line-up. And what a joy it was. Here’s hoping we can do as well next year…
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. by June Chanpoomidole.
Our Saturday starter was none other than Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. who changed his stage time so that he could watch the ill-fated England match on Sunday. Those Climate Campers who knew him were suitably excited and soon stood on the corner of the Craft Field with the megaphone. It’s amazing what a big name does… the festival goers were soon flooding into our small area, page slightly disbelieving that our wee stage could be hosting such a well known musician.
Meanwhile I stood slightly panicked on the entrance as the minutes slowly ticked by… and then Sam came ambling down the leafy rise, slightly late having come straight from taking part in a debate about the rise of the BNP at the Leftfield Stage. A more mild mannered and charming young man you would be hard to come by, but Sam’s grasp of how important it is to speak out against the ills of this world is admirable. Without undue ceremony he was soon aboard the Tripod Stage, holding a borrowed acoustic guitar. “Can you all hear me? I’ve got a big voice so I can sing louder!”
Sunglassed against the blazing heat Sam sung new songs from his upcoming album alongside old crowd pleasers such as One More With Feeling. Unbidden he spoke with passion of meeting a Bangladeshi woman who had lost her family as a direct result of the effects of climate change, and how important it is to stand up to the big corporations. A truly special young man who has been off my radar for awhile, I now remember why I featured Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. in Amelia’s Magazine all those years ago. What a star. Sam’s new single Collapsing Cities is out in August, followed by a 22 date tour in September and October.
Next up we had Kyla La Grange, a beautiful girl with a stunning voice (does it matter that she was beautiful? It shouldn’t, but she really was, what can I say? And talented…) She arrived without fanfare and I found her practicing behind our van on the same acoustic guitar that Sam had borrowed.
This was the first time in awhile that the husky voiced Kyla had played her songs without added production but she’s an accomplished songwriter and songs like the catchy single Vampire Smile worked just as well without backing. Definitely a talent to watch: her debut album is currently in production.
Kyla’s favourite bits of Glastonbury: Arcadia was absolutely brilliant but as far as performances go it was a tie between Laura Marling and Florence and the Machine. They were both faultless.
Patch William were another band we shared with the BBC Introducing stage (or should that be the other way around). They arrived complete with their own recording facilities, although I will hopefully attempt to cobble together some of the footage I shot myself (oh Final Cut Pro, how I yearn to learn your charms).
Fronted by William and his god sister Ali, Patch William braved the blazing heat dressed as if they had just stepped out of a fairytale, all flowing hair, wide trousers and Ali crowned in a flower garland so beloved of festival goers this year. Their melodic harmonies were perfect for a lazy summer day such as this, and culminated in the Ivor Novello nominated The Last Bus, a stunning song that saw Ali nimbly swap from guitar to cello. Just gorgeous.
Patch William liked playing the Tripod Stage because: It was great to be able to play a set which was powered solely by a solar panel! Patch William’s favourite bits of Glastonbury: Discovering a naked mermaid at Shangri La and being able to say ‘hello glastonbury’ during our set (something which we’d only dreamed of before).
Patch William play the Firefly Music Festival and Belladrum Festival in Scotland. Their next single release will be Skinny White Boy and they plan to go on tour in September. Watch their set at BBC Introducing here.
Then we were supposed to host The Federals, but unfortunately some misunderstood information meant that they hadn’t come prepared for our particular stage set up and all I got was this picture.
Oh well! You win some you lose some: they seemed like nice lads, and went on to play, yes, you’ve guessed it, the BBC Introducing stage. Instead we had a bit of a gap before an exclusive secret set from the wonderful Robin Ince… who turned up a good hour early so we all sat around having a cup of tea and a chinwag.
Robin was determined to perform his set back to front, so I would be introducing him after he’d finished, and Danny Chivers could come on as a warm up act at the end. This meant that Robin also started sat on the floor with his back to the audience. To another disbelieving crowd – “Yes, we really do have Robin Ince performing here in a minute” – Robin gave a brilliant performance that touched on themes of favourite suicides, the use of jazz hands in the popularisation of science and banality in politics.
I’ve uploaded part of his performance for your delection here:
At the end he called on me to come up and introduce him, but then carried on heckling me from the floor. Can anyone tell me, did he do his gig in the Comedy Tent during the England match on Sunday dressed as an octopus? Muchos love going out to you Robin.
Last but by no means least the Tripod Stage was delighted to host Dry the River, a folk band from East London attired in vaguely matched check shirts. Accompanied by guitar, bass, violin, glockenspiel and snare drum, Dry the River sing of history, culture, religion – often in gorgeous four part falsetto boy harmonies. Lead singer Peter Liddle studied anthropology and is now en route to become a doctor; a background that clearly informs his unusual lyrics. If there is any sense in this world Dry the River will be a major success: in fact if I were the betting kind I would lay the notes down hand over fist for this unsigned band. Really really brilliant, I feel so blessed to have found them.
I asked bearded bassist Scott to answer a few questions:
Scott’s feelings on the Tripod Stage gig: The Climate Camp Tripod Stage was awesome! We played as the sunshine beamed down on our faces, and the people around were so laid back and friendly. Plus we all got a cup of tea while we played which was like a dream after two days of camping. We even got a chance to road-test a new tune we’ve been working on because of the relaxed atmosphere of the show, and it went down well!
Scott’s favourite part of Glastonbury: It’s tough to pick a ‘best bit’ for the whole weekend but for me heading out to get lost in the maze of Shangri La at night was amazing, and bumping into Neville Staple backstage in the Dance Arena was pretty cool. Obviously the gigs we were able to play while we were there all stand out too, the Climate Camp for the friendly hospitable people there, the Crow’s Nest for the amazing view of the whole festival at sunset and of course the BBC Introducing set was just so exciting with the cameras and everything.
Make sure you catch up with Dry the River live – they’re playing Standon Calling, the Big Chill and Underground Festival in Gloucester. You can download a FREE 3 track EP from their myspace which includes an unreleased version of Coast, a never before heard track recorded earlier this summer. Dry the River headline the Lexington on September 30th and you can buy tickets here. In the meantime see them on BBC Introducing here.
What is the impact on our relationship with the environment – when existing in a world where sensor monitors constantly interpret our daily surroundings, producing endless streams of data? Are we moving into the final phrase of Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction?
Photograph by Ludwig Zeller
The Weather Camera is Kjen Wilkens response to her search for a human presence within this deluge of electronic readings. Instead of taking a photograph to a record a special moment, the user of The Weather Camera can record the atmospheric conditions, weaving these into autobiographical memory. In time encouraging new methods of narration, titled by the designer as “Sensor Poetics.”
Becky Pilditch‘s prothestics are “objects of empowerment”, showcasing how functional pieces of designs can be both a thing of beauty and an extension of the wearer’s personality. Becky worked and developed the project with Holly Franklin .
Hand 8 the final part of the project, played with ideas of gesture and personality by creating numerous arms that related to Holly’s actions as she spoke or moved around a space. A fantastic aspect of the website is the blog, which can be used by other prosthetic limb users to feed back directly to the project.
In the Animation section of the exhibition Lauri Warsta’s Traumdeutung awaited. A wonderful animation baring the hallmarks (whatever that may mean…) of a “documentary,” the calming, not too dissimilar to the 1940′s DONT PANIC! voiceover narrated the data currently available on the subject matter: The Global Reserves of Dreams. The beauty of the animation, being it contained the possibility, that it was entirely a dream.
The subtle block coloring of the animation maintained a ‘warmth’ more accustomed with hand drawn animation, that can sometimes be lost in 3D animation. This is an outcome of Warsta’s experiments in combining; “two extremes (3D and Handmade) clash and merge. For example, bringing the uncontrollable movement of real hand-held footage to an otherwise sterile computer animation”
Adnan Lalani‘s experiment with augmented reality catches the attention, through being something the viewer can interact with. The action of turning the Pop Up Book’s pages is suplimented by additional narration appearing on the screen placed directly behind the book and inline with the viewers eye.
Below is a video documenting the Pop Up Book’s Prototype. Earlier this week Adnan kindly took a few moments to explain the idea behind combining the narrative structure of a Pop Up Book with Augmented reality: “The pop-up book felt like a natural compliment to augmented reality. I was hoping to see how AR could be used in a more tactile, playful context… i.e. take something we already know and play with, and allow it to be enhanced with animation and digital interactivity.”
Eventually Adnan hopes that as we grow increasingly comfortable with the idea of Augmented Reality, ideas like the Pop Up book ” can allow a progression from the magical, novelty nature of AR, into more of a direct tool by which to communicate narratives and story telling”
The eye catching work of Design Interaction Graduate Louise O’Conner; used experimental dance to convey the movement of the smallest particles, for example: Atoms, in an attempt to connect us to movements that are beyond our physical awareness. Visit the exhibition to watch the film!
A particular lovely idea was the mapping out to scale, the measurements of the solar system along Kingsland High Street and up into Stamford Hill. Several shopkeepers were to host a planet…
Photography by Mark Henderson
You can find the map and information about the project here:
Katrin Baumgarten’s Aesthetics of Disgust explores humans’ relationship and our reactions; both emotional and physical to the things or materials which disgust us. Using inanimate objects all too often taken for granted, (i.e. Light Switches) Kartin added disturbing features such as goo or hair that moved as the light switch is pressed. By ‘touching’ us back, the presence of these inanimate objects is brought back to the forefront of our attention.
In the installation at the Royal College of Art a screen documents the level of the reaction of each user.
Another subject explored by Katrina is Intimate touch or sexual disgust and how these feelings can be created “merely by inappropriate behaviours in society, such as touching another person in an intimate or sexual way in public, even though that might comfort the two persons involved and is a part of our human nature.” The outcome of which is the Intimate Touch Object, an item which enables you to touch another person secretly…
FINALLY on my second trip (yes second, it’s that big and really worth the time) I came across the brilliant work of Sivaprakash Shanmugam’s Expressive Scribble. Children draw onto the projector screen (this could be the kitchen floor, wall etc…) and an bring their drawings to life by clicking the ‘movie’ button. The idea being to “enrich their visual vocabulary,” sense of narrative and most importantly encourage children’s creativity.
Part two of the RCA show continues until 4th July 2010. It’s open from 11-8 daily at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU. Admission is free.
Images Courtesy of the Students and addition photographs by Sally Mumby-Croft
At the start of June I went on an exciting adventure to Ireland… on a borrowed bike from Velorution. It was a trip I’ve looked forward to for a long time because it combined two of my favourite things in the world. Or maybe three: Cycling (I love cycling A LOT), activism (we had a purpose) and being in lovely places with lovely people.
The Merthyr to Mayo bike ride was organised by a loose group of activists based around the country and included members of Bicycology, a cyclists’ collective who aim “to promote cycling and make links with wider issues of environmental and social responsibility”. This intrepid group of riders set off from the open cast coal mine at Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, armed only with an explanatory newspaper and lots of verve. The solidarity ride ended at Rossport in County Mayo, Ireland, thereby linking two communities who are resisting fossil fuel extraction, and educating other communities along the way.
Mini ceilidh en route in Wales.
An added bonus of this trip was the opportunity to play with my ceilidh band Green Kite Midnight, since providing music for people to dance to at protests is the very reason for our existence. Luckily our banjo player Dom has bought a big ambulance which he has lovingly converted into a tour bus for the band – and thus we set off for Ireland via Wales, stopping to spend the night at the parental house of our bassist Tim, way up in the secluded Welsh mountains. It was then onward to Holyhead, where we caught the ferry over to Dublin and carried straight onto Galway to meet the rest of the crew, who were hastily organising a demo against the atrocities against the flotilla bound for Gaza.
We marched straight into the local branch of M&S (to draw attention to the chain’s affiliation with the development of the Israeli state) much to the bemusement of Irish security guards, clearly not used to such confident behaviour. We then joined a gathering in the street organised by locals, but were eventually rained into the closest pub and from there we retired early to a friendly local’s house, quickly to sleep in preparation for our 90km ride the next day.
Awaiting news in the pub… many people knew activists on the flotilla.
We had been warned that Irish roads are quite dangerous and on our first day I did feel a little less than wholly safe, stuck on a narrow hard shoulder as – head down, legs pumping – we powered through the countryside with little more than a brief break for lunch in a small town.
The main thing I noticed about rural Ireland is the predominance of ugly newbuild housing estates. Boy do the Irish like to build some shoddy housing! The more upmarket modern houses favour the architecture of American TV series such as Dallas from the 80s – amusing for their kitsch value if nothing else – but at the bottom end of the spectrum the Barrett home style identikit boxes are nothing short of a blot on the landscape.
Endless housing estates.
Like many other economies the Irish housing boom was completely unsustainable, and speculative construction has given way to half-finished housing estates fronted by signs that looked spangly a few years ago, now peeling and faded.
Okay, so I was a bit worried about the length of our first day’s ride with no preliminary warm up – but I needn’t have been. With nothing but a vista of endless stone walls, housing estates and crumbling barns (the Irish prefer new builds to renovations, apparently) to distract us from our mission, our little affinity group was one of the first to arrive at our final destination – the Lidl carpark at Castlerea. Being rather fast and meeting at Lidl – these were both to become a bit of a theme…
Once everyone had arrived at we we were herded up the longest steepest hill I’ve ever tackled with such a heavy load… and this after a long hard day too. I stayed on my bike to the very top but boy was I glad that I hadn’t brought my Pashley – it never would have made it.
At the top our destination was a gorgeous stretch of land bordered by woods, owned by some friendly Pagans who greeted us with lentil stew brewed for us in a cauldron over the fire surrounded by medieval-style tents. Our two nights spent on the hill top were characterised by excessive amounts of midges and late night music sessions. The intervening day was spent at Castlerea Prison, which you can read about in my next blog here.
Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday July 2nd, 2010 7:55 pm
My love for baile funk runs deep. I know it has had an awful lot of coverage in the past few years, more aboutgeneric and it only really fell out of the limelight earlier this year – but there’s something about the simplicity of the production, and the feisty vocals that just makes it fantastic club music.
So, arriving in time to see a DJ set, from the guy out of support act Gameboy/Gamegirl, was a bit of treat. I’m not a fan of their own work (bit too Super Super for my taste), but the crowd may have even gone wild for his selections, if it hadn’t of been about boiling point in the packed venue.
As they made their way on stage, I was shocked at how easily i had managed to get right at the front – something I very rarely opt for, usually preferring to stay right at the back (near the bar, with more space). I didn’t last long though, about 4 songs in I thought I was actually going to melt like a witch and the couple next to me seemed to be getting annoyed at me for having a bag that was getting in the way of their dancing, so I ungracefully weaved my way to the back.
Alongside their own releases, they threw in some real classics – much to the delight of the bulging crowd. The reaction to the snippets of ‘Robot Rock’ by daft punk was almost frightening, with sweat now literally dripping off the walls. Another highlight was ‘Summer Nights’ being mixed into ‘Push It’ by Salt-N-Pepa. The risk of the whole thing becoming naff was overshadowed by the fun factor of it all, with so many smiling faces it’s hard to fault them for a little bit of cheesiness.
The opening bars of ‘Solta O Frango’ was greeted by some debaucherous dancing from pretty much everyone within spitting distance of the stage. Not surprisingly really considering the sassy behavior of the two female MCs in the group. Leaping around the stage, throwing water around and making lude gestures with inflatable palm trees it was like they were at Corey Worthington Delaney’s house party.
This frenzy was then whipped into something else by the snippet of ‘I Just Can’t Get Enough’ by Depeche Mode that signaled the end of their set. I can’t honestly say I’ve never heard a bigger groan of disappointment when a band leaves a stage.
Bonde Do Role are perhaps responsible for carrying the torch of their genre after the world music ambassadors Diplo and M.I.A helped introduce baile to the world. They’ve made the genre more accessible to the masses, often (in my opinion) showing themselves to be a far more impressive outfit than the ‘nu rave’ bands they were grouped alongside.
Setting our watches to the Climate Caravan agenda, cheap Amelia and I heard of an event at Liverpool Street Station. Detailing the event on exciting yellow flyers as “Climate and Capitalism, more about ” we thought we’d roll down after a delightful spread of cous cous and see what these dedicated folks were up to. The meeting point, 3.30pm outside the Bishopsgate exit, we stood at attention with our eyes peeled for some dread locked cyclists.
As time ticked by, we began to wonder if the crew had been held up in the hectic roads packed out with numerous buses and cars beeping for their bid at cramming through the tight city roads. With our ears flapping, we began to chat to other eager beavers hanging around. Spotting a few scruffy troops, we followed their footsteps and found ourselves stopping at The Royal Bank of Scotland. Joining in the chit chat, we circled round the bunch at the front of the unsightly glass structure listening to news of the current events. Eavesdropping while Amelia chatted to the activists she knew, I heard words of penguins, umbrellas and suits…
Mel from Platform filling in the group with fellow suited activist… oh and me (lovely flattering shot, thanks Amelia!)
Cue the arrival of activist Mel of climate change experts Platform, clutching onto bags of pennies. Crowding round her, she announced she and her fellow suited and booted associate had acquired these pennies from RBS as a statement about carbon emissions. I must admit now, I may well be manning the earth section, but these Climate Caravan events have been a huge learning curve for me. As Amelia bids farewell to continue her schedule I bite the bullet and ask the dreaded question (quietly to the friendliest looking one), “why RBS?”
It is happily revealed to me that RBS are the UK’s largest financial drivers of climate change. Publicly marketing themselves as “the oil and gas bank,” RBS are in fact one of the world’s largest funders of oil and gas extraction. These fossil fuels investments they are making will trap us into emissions for decades, a low carbon economy will thus become impossible.
The coins jamming the revolving doors
Meanwhile Mel (above) and Olly (below) provided us with some light entertainment with a bike powered sound system and clarinet
Causing quite a stir outside the RBS
Ah ha. I can see clearly why these these bags of coins are being thrown into the set of three revolving doors causing them to jam. As I dart around the guys, eagerly snapping the action I digest this in my mind. The camera goes back in my pocket. I don’t need 10 different angles of the activists, there are real photographers here for that. Gawping a little while at the security stuck in the bank, it occurs to me i quite like all this freedom of speech stuff (I have always been slightly bitter that my parents lived the 60′s, may be more for Woodstock and psychedelia). So as the guys start using the remainder of the coins to spell out slogans “dirty oil money” and “oil bank” I find myself kneeling with them, gathering the pennies and making my statement. Admittedly, my input was more of a continuation of a swirly line (it was supposed to represent the oil) which framed the slogans.
After ten minutes (not too efficient guys) the security decided to join in the coin play
The Climate Caravan crew didn’t stop there, eagerly using the confascated coins to re express their sentiments
The security dealing professionally with the issue shortly before the cops arrived
Just as I was plucking up the courage to use words over images (I’ve just finished an Illustration degree so typography is a little scary to me) activist Penny announced the police were on their way and we had better move along. As cleaners gathered round the doors sweeping up the coins, kicking away our masterpiece the activists gathered the coins and headed to a local pub for a celebratory drink (phew these guys may all be dedicated vegans, but they do like a tipple).
With a slightly brisk step in my walk so as not to get caught up with the law, hurried back to our headquarters and blurted to Amelia and my fellow interns what I had seen. Still curious about why I had heard speak of penguins earlier, Amelia mentioned we had missed a large parade on London Bridge involving fancy dressed homeless penguins and polar bears to make a statement about the causes of global warming. What will they do next time?! (find out and COME TO CLIMATE CAMP!!)
After an exhausting day in the life of Antartic creatures, the crew made tracks to Hackney City Farm where Amelia headed down to join in the celebrations of securing the site in Kingsworth.
If I was between 5 and 10 years old I would have had the time of my life at Camp Bestival, more about and I guess that was the point. The child in me was well jealous that there was no Camp Bestival around when I was a wee nipper – but then there was no way my parents would ever have taken me to such a debauched affair with no obvious cultural import so I might as well end the dream right there. And of course to enjoy Camp Bestival as a child you have to come with some adults; in all likelihood your parents.
Castle family fun
Kids Games
This meant that the festival was jammed to the pink lit Disney towers of Lulworth Castle (it looked so unreal!) with yummy mummies and trendy dads, most of whom were my age or only a little older. Oh how I have fallen out of my social norm! Nothing brings it home like going away with all your offspring-blessed peers to a festival catering to just such families. However I didn’t begrudge it – I actually really enjoyed the presence of the younger age group – it gave the place a light air… and my mates in their early twenties may have been somewhat bemused by the demographic (didn’t they read the site?!) but I think it is safe to say that for a virgin festival just finding its feet, a good time was had by all.
The Incredible Hulks
Kids watching binocular football
I travelled down on Thursday evening with my friends and their 2 year old, who got the weekend off to a flying start (literally) by projectile vomitting in spectacular fashion just, and I mean just, as we pulled up to the gates. And there was me wondering why I was singing Old Macdonald to myself… still it was a suitably dramatic way to enter the grounds, where we immediately met the rest of the band. It seemed so quiet, I could hardly believe that it could fill out, and indeed our graveyard slot on Friday morning was played to an empty field in the Kids’ area. Having said that I enjoyed very much watching the Insect Circus on my own, and we were loving lounging about on the soft grassy manicured lawns of Lulworth. It was like stroking velvet! But my, what a treat to share the same stage with thecocknbullkid, who did a grand job of playing to a crowd of well, me, dancing on my own. I loved her single On My Own Again, and it was great to see her showcase some of her other tunes. I’m really not sure what the ridiculous name is for, because it doesn’t really describe the sound of Anita’s look or music, which is all 80s synths meets 50s doowap dance moves: she was wearing a very nice frock indeed and swinging her tush for all it was worth given the distinctly slim audience. I particularly like the track I’m Not Sorry. Expect big things from this lady’s debut album.
Friday – not really rocking it yet
The Insect Circus
thecocknbullkid
I later caught a bit of Kitty Daisy and Lewis who were of course on the mainstage, being part of the Sunday Best label. Looking glamourous as ever…. another youthhood I can aspire to have lived, playing in a band with my cool parents. George Pringle also played – how disappointing. I put her in the mag a few issues back on the strength of a single but had never seen her live before, but she was dull dull dull.
Kitty Daisy and Lewis
George Pringle
By Friday evening the post work crowds were descending in force and the place was thick with buggies, and a sedate but relaxed atmosphere pervaded the air. Electing to hang out at our campfire we had a drunken night as our posse, both Cutashine and Lost and Found, was about 50 members strong. Lost and Found
have pioneered festival madness at Bestival and Secret Garden Party for several years now – oft imitated but never matched for the sheer ridiculousness of their ideas, they did not disappoint. For Camp Bestival they donned specially-made Blue Coats and coralled the children into activities that could have seemed really quite wrong in any other context. A dog show featured an obstacle course where a willing parent could steer their dog (child) through hoops and over fences, whilst wearing a leash. Needless to say the kids absolutely loved it! A fox hunt had the Lost and Found crew careening all over the festival after a pair of particularly determined young lads made off with said fox. Never underestimate the competitiveness of small boys! A sock fight between children ended in tears but drew a large crowd of (possibly) sadistic adults. I learnt the joy of hulahooping and my mate Kat got so hooked that she bruised her ribs. Oddly, Hularama
appeared to be run by a posse of tubby men…. nothing like shaking up the old stereotypes!
The specially-made Blue Coats
Bluecoats dog show
The fox hunt
Hulahooping
The dog show
The festival was full of make and do tents, from the cute little mushroom haven of Bobby Dazzles, where they were teaching how to make your own animal out of odds and ends, to the Knitting tent, full of cute young girls and their mums (and dads) busy knitting up a storm. We even found a lad on the Bestival staff featuring a specially made Bestival handknit. Granny would be proud (well, not mine, they don’t knit, but you know what I mean) There was also an enchanting woodland which led to a little farm that seemed to specialise in ducks and llamas. I was particularly taken by the Indian Runner ducks, who seem strangely upright compared with ours!
The Bobby Dazzles
The knitting tent
Knitted jumpers
The Indian Runner Ducks
Cutashine had another gig on Friday night, unfortunately this time up against headliner Chuck Berry – needless to say we didn’t stand a chance, although a crowd of youngsters seemed to enjoy it – not our usual audience for sure and I think the band struggled a tad to get any kind of vibe going.
Cutashine attempt to av it
On Saturday Lost and Found held a Mad Hatters Tea Party – the theme of the fancy dress for the day being said concept. A huge table was laid out with fine china and flowers, and it all culminated in the Lost and Found Alice standing on the table and calling all the Alices of the festival to come and join her – amongst all the cuter little Alices there was perhaps inevitably a particularly fetching larger male.
Mad Hatters tea party
Alices table
What I found most mind-boggling about the festival was the fact that there was such a large area given over to Boutique Camping – who pays for this?! It was a mystery to us all, especially when we heard a rumour that to stay in a tipi or dog house or beach hut or double decker bus or yurt or any number of crazy options (each with their own regimented area) cost as much as £500. I can only imagine the kind of money floating about at Bestival if this was true…. as I said, mind boggling. But then a very beautiful programme which I would love to have had cost £7 – illustrated by our very own super talented Jess Wilson (who did a picture for me in issue 6) and Josie Da Bank, it was a work of art I just couldn’t afford…. so as usual I was oblivious to the line-up for much of the weekend.
The Boutique Camping
Instead I had my first go at Singstar in a special booth with my mate and a seven year old, who instantly got in a grump because she felt upstaged – I was asked to come back for the grand finale on stage that night, so we did a duet of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. My favourite part being watching a gaggle of young teens singing along and then doing the conga….. fab!
The Flaming Lips headlined on Saturday night, to a crowd by now mostly in the fancy dress that Bestival is famed for and in a real party mood – the theatrics went down a treat and they declared the festival their favourite one ever no less! For the evening a whole bunch of my mates decided to paint themselves silver and gold. The idea had been to go almost nude, but most of them were not prepared with gold bikinis and covered up for most of the night, leaving them with strange alien faces. However, a few did end up with their boobs out, and were told on no uncertain terms to cover up or get chucked out of the festival once Folkaoke – karoake to a folk backing band – took to the stage. It seems there are limits to debauchery at a kids’ festival, but surely this was a step too far when it was night time! I, having been sacked from the band (I was a backing singer) was asked to be page-turner. Oh the humiliation. Unfortunately things were running very late and after only a few songs, and just as we were getting into the swing of things, we were booted off stage. With adrenalin riding high it was decided to shack up at the Boutique Camping campfire, where Folkaoke managed to engage a few hundred people in a mass singalong. Overheard was that phrase that every performer lives to hear “that was the best thing I’ve seen at this festival yet.” Hurrah! Even if I am not in the band!
Folkaoke!
Folkaoke Stone Roses
The gold singers
A Gold Girl
Molly silver
Campsie Folkaoke singalong
Early on Sunday morning it was up and onwards to Lovebox… the festival scene is now in full flow!
Monday 4th August Idea Generation Gallery, page ‘Robert Altman’s Photography from the ‘60s’: 16th July- 29th August
11 Chance St, London E2 7JB
Take a trip down memory lane to the 60s where naked love-ins and anti-war sit ins rule. Altman captures the psychedelic 60s as well as taking some shots of the Rolling Stones.
Madder139 Gallery, ‘Paul Chiappe‘: 10th July- 9th August
137-139 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8JL
Chiappe questions the illusion between subject and object in a series of hyperrealist drawings. Taking images from the traditional school photo, books and vintage postcards, Chiappe then recreates the images with pencil drawings to blur and smudge the plots and characters. This emphasises the transitory and fragile nature of memory.
Tuesday 5th August The Art Vinyl Gallery Shop, ‘The Art of Fac51-The Hacienda’: 31st July-27th August
13 Broadway Market, E8 4PH
Peter Hook from New Order and Joy Division curates the Art Vinyl Gallery with some classic designs from the Factory Record Vaults.
Artprojx, ‘Automamusic’: Aura Satz: 9th July-16th August
Artprokx at Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 1LB
A film about mechanical music investigating intricate view of self playing violins, accordions, drums and pianolas offset by scenes in which floating musical instruments are played by invisible hands. This highlights the similarities between the beginnings of musical reproduction in the 19th century and spiritualist invocations of the dead, through sound.
Wednesday 6th August South London Gallery, ‘Games and Theory’: Jakob Kolding, Nils Norman, Lottie Child etc
65 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UH
International artists who share interests in play, sports and gaming invite viewers to become active participants in the exhibition and climb, crawl and experience the gallery in new ways. The show explores Situationalist ideologies and the radical potential of play as a form of resistance and expression of freedom.
Thursday 7th August Sartorial Contemporary Art, ‘4X4′: Chris Tosic
101A Kensington Church St, London W8 7LN
Four Artists are given a four day show each week in august. Each artist has been given free reign of the gallery and a prominent journalist or critic has been asked to write 444 words about them. Tosic’s pieces focus on collage, typography and collage.
Friday 8th August Nottinghill Artsclub, ‘Gin & curiosities’:Robert Rubbish: 4th July-5th September
21 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JQ
Robert Rubbish of Le Gun magazine (he is co-editor) keenly celebrates old-fashioned eccentric ways and places in a body of work that brings together his interests in: curiosity and joke shops, facial hair, Victorian Punk revivalism and Gin. A mish-mash of paintings, drawings, posters and typography inspired by glitter and 70s cosmic rock band hawkwind is presented for your viewing pleasure.
Saturday 9th August Viewfinder photography Gallery, ‘Nearly Nothing’: Mark Bellingham, Gerd Hasler, Kelly Hill and others:12 July-17 August
Linear House, Peyton Place (off Royal hill) London SE10 8RS
A photography group exhibition exploring the aesthetics of ambiguity. Images are often poetic and allusive.
I am quite the sucker for nostalgia so when I saw the Victoria and Albert Museum was putting on a village fete; I jumped at the chance to attend. Judging by the amount of people there on Friday night as part of the Lates series, more about I am not the only one who has a pair of rose tinted spectacles firmly in place when it comes to the past. Decked out with balloons and bunting the garden of the V&A looked like something the WI would be proud of, cheapest but the stalls on offer had a more modern twist to the usual rusty tombolas and coconut shy.
Photo courtesy of Fever Zine
Wandering around the myriad of stalls I didn’t know where to start, there was fetebook, bringing social networking back into the real world, Mugshot, the chance to decorate a mug then hurl it at a mug tree (delightful for pent up rage). Also catching my eye were Adapt React‘s beard tent, which involved cramming as many trickets onto your beard as possible, not your actual beard but a hand made version thus avoiding a look pioneered by Mr. Twit. The lauded canvas bag was given an update at Here’s One I Made Earlier, a pic-a-mix selection of patches and buttons awaited pasting onto said bag. I saw one girl showcasing her adorable puffa fish patches. Over at ico designs you could flap your arms to race a chicken to the finishing line and I am assured no actual chickens were harmed in the process.
Photo courtesy of Fever Zine
I spotted a rather manly bloke dragging up, even declining the offer of red lipstick he still made a fetchingly sophisticated lady, for his turn in front of the camera over at Pose Me a Postcard by Fred and Teo. Chuckling, we joined the small queue awaiting our chance for a dress up. I subtly hinted my appreciation of the cat drinking tea picture and lo behold I ‘randomly’ drew it from the various pictures on offer. I then had 20 secs to set up and recreate my picture before I was snapped for my postcard. Twenty minutes later we returned to find technological wizardry had transformed ourselves into picture postcards.
The fun continued with a caring attitude and guess work at Garudio Studiage’s stall. The R.S.P.C.A. make it clear that people should be nice to animals and Garudio Studiage seemed to agree. Taking the responsibility out of pet owning they came up with a fantastic idea to substitute a furry friend. Flat pets! Won in a game of chance by picking three matching animals from behind the doors of a host of hutches you could walk away with your cardboard bunny, kitten or puppy (ok maybe not the furriest of friends, but there would defiantly be no cleaning up after this little Rover)
A fete go-er feels hungry
Photo courtesy of Fever Zine
Feeling a bit peckish I wandered over to Fever Zine‘s stall where they were serving up delicious illustration card sandwiches. Complete with brown paper bags! Ink stamped bugs infected the lettuce, a Caticorn on the cheese (my favourite), a wonderful Octopus teapot on the ham and finishing with a garnish of tomato, stamped with the head of a tyrannical leader. I always like my food to come with a slice of politics. With such a great concept Fever Zine highlighted why it has received so much attention in a sea of zines. However, snacking on cardboard just doesn’t quite cut it. So I headed over to the food tent and was rather pleased to see the fete theme had influenced the culinary delights on offer. Small quiches, a variety of homemade worthy cakes, jugs of Pimms and beers served in brown paper bags all added to the festivities.
Caticorn Tattoo
Photo courtesy of Fever Zine
Spotting a familiar looking moustache I weaved on over to check out the Prick Your Finger tenet. For the current issue the girls of Prick Your Finger created a pattern for a crochet moustache (hence the deja vu). Bedecked in their woolly facial hair they hosted a silhouette portrait tent, with the choice of being drawn little or large. The lazer cut wizard Rob Ryan had made scratch cards from one of his whimsical papercuts, for a chance to scratch your way to a limited edition print. Pitted against the clock and the familiar countdown theme tune, I gleefully revelled in the competition. The leader board showed who was top of the scratching pops and for a few glorious circulations of the garden, between us we held the top three spots.
Scratching at Rob Ryan’s stall
Over at the lovely Lady Luck Rules Ok stand, Punch and Judy would have been suitably pleased with puppet inspired staging. Offering personalised bespoke jewellery, they had taken the fete theme to heart. Rockabilly tattoo themed necklaces and brooches jostled for attention. But my eyes were drawn to the rosette themed jewellery. For those not lucky enough to honoured best in show, you could buy your own pin or necklace, in either girlish gingham or sunny stripes (I opted for ravishing red gingham).
Pretend puppetry at Lady Luck
Photo courtesy of Fever Zine
Then came the moment I had been waiting for: heli-oke! It pretty much is what it sounds like. Karaoke twinned with helium, resulting in more hilarious embarrassment then when the vicar judges the phallic shaped vegetables. I’m not usually the sort of person who volunteers for public attention, but I caught the karaoke bug when I was in Japan and since then it’s been one big sing-along me (well not all the time). Despite the previous practices, our rendition of Madonna’s ‘Into The Groove’ was officially rejected by the discerning judges. But we did walk away with our once helium filled balloons to treasure forever. Feeling light-headed I moved on.
Perhaps this light-headedness was why I failed to loop the rings on the giant sized gloved hands at the Tatty Devine stall. Having lusted after anything Tatty Devine related for quite some time I really wanted to get my average sized hands on the moustache rings up for grabs. I overheard one women proudly stating she had spent £14 in pursuit of a ring (that was 21 throws, how could she not fail?!).
Finally as the evening was drawing to a close, we made for the undying queue at the tombola stand. With prizes on offer from Tom Dixon, Eley Kishimoto, Fortnun and Mason and B Store this most definitely wasn’t any old rusty tombolo. With the glittering booty displayed the Scarlet Projects tombola had attracted a steady stream of people all evening. Feeling lucky I reached in. But luck had other ideas and I failed to win the lusted after goodies but that blow was sweetened with a lollypop for my journey home.
Photo courtesy of Fever Zine
With so many stalls and all of them such fun, next year I will be bringing a whole pouchful of pound coins to try out all the stalls on offer. As a testament to how successful the Lates series has and continues to be, my only complaint, I couldn’t find the Bauhaus ball pit. The effort gone into last Friday’s event really paid off with fete-ing good fun had by all!
Heartbreak without a doubt put on a show. Singer Sebastian Muravchix gyrates his hips, thumb moon-slides (a hybrid of moon-walking and sliding, thumb yes I did just make that up), more about points, postures and poses all over the stage. In fact it in some places in descends into something a bit like Dad dancing, but he most definitely pulls it off. He is a little reminiscent of Har Mar Superstar, but with less sleaze. In contrast Ali Renault demurely plays his keyboard at the back. With such an energetic performance by Muravchix the crowd responded in the only way possible; dancing!
Heartbreak play such a catchy blend of Italian disco, it is hardly surprising they get this response when performing. Previously I saw them at Stag and Dagger and that show was just as impressive. As live performances go, they are pretty much like Christmas, in all its (cheesy) glee. And finishing with ‘We’re Back’, the song everybody loves, the crowd understandable danced that little bit more extravagantly.
Whilst researching a new label founded by two LA socialites Lauren Alexander and April Leight, dosage appropriately called LnA, I started thinking about the ever fading line separating men’s and women’s clothes. The pair’s debut ‘Boyfriend Tee Collection’, launched in Spring/Summer 2007, is described on their website as “a colourful, flattering and wearable take on the men’s under tee” and is made up of lots of different designs of plain, basic tees, all 100% cotton and all comfortable.?
I’m kind of missing the link between their masculine inspiration and the final product. Correct me if I’m wrong, but these look like plain women’s Tees to me. What’s so special about these designs? Upon reading of the website I discovered; “The duo’s designs are wholly inspired by their lifestyles, sharing an affinity for wearing their boyfriend’s Tees out to LA’s hotspots.” Surely more inspiration can be found living in sunny LA, surrounded by movie star history and going to all those crazy ‘hotspots’?
?
As well as a love for wearing boyfriend tees, the website says that the partners originally bonded over their fashion backgrounds. High fashion aspirations might explain the high prices, but the less than high fashion designs lead me to wonder whether their ‘fashion backgrounds’ amount to much more than that they both love a good shopping sesh. Then again, maybe I’ve been too harsh. I mean, these t-shirts do come in at least FIVE different colours. ? ? ?
?
As can be expected, the celebrity following of the brand is huge. Nicole Richie, Rachel Bilson, Paris Hilton – they’re all wearing it. Lauren Alexander and April Leight evidently have some good contacts. This celebrity interest has no doubt affected the popularity of the brand (as these things do.) One review I found was from a massive fan of the ‘Deep V T-shirt’ (all the items are named after their cut – another injection of creativity from LnA) as seen on Mary-Kate Olsen. The fan boasts having the garment in seven different colours. I worked this out and, if my calculations are correct, she spent $392 (that’s around £196) on seven plain T-shirts. Either the tops are lined with gold or that’s one major Olsen fan.
In case you didn’t pick up on it, I’m not much of a fan. LnA ask for a lot of money for something so simple (which they claim to be the product of an individual idea). Yes, ok, they are 100% cotton, but you would think that for $50 you would be, I don’t know, helping the environment or half the cost would be donated to charity? Unfortunately no, you’re not. Although I’m all for basic, classically cut clothes with no prints or fancy bits, the way in which they seem to claim the ownership of the popular T-shirt design annoys me. Because of this I can’t get the idea of money grabbing attachment to this brand out of my mind.
The live musical spectacles that you should try and attend this week.
As Pure Groove’s night at The Macbeth goes weekly, I can’t hlp but wonder how long they’ll manage to get line-ups like this. Hopefully forever, as this looks mighty tempting.
King Creosote and Sportsday Megaphone – The Lock Tavern, London
I think almost every girl I know has tried making their own jewellery at some stage in their life. Whilst I never got much further than a fabulously sticky liquorice all-sort necklace, buy more aboutMelissa Leon has gone on to open her own jewellery design studio in London. I went along to the launch on Saturday, where we were treated to a sneaky peak at some of Melissa’s latest designs. Working with materials like Venetian glass, freshwater pearls and rose quartz, her pieces are full of colour and individuality. The jellybean inspired ‘candy cuff’ and necklaces are the kind of fresh and youthful creations that are bound to make Melissa’s pieces stand out from other jewellery collections.
Rose Quartz and polymer clay bracelet and earring set
Venetian glass and semi-precious stones
Venetian glass and semi-precious stones
I arrived at the studio to find everything running fashionably late. A small runway show was soon underway allowing us to sit back and nibble down on the cakes provided, feeling that usual pang of guilt that you always experience when you eat in the presence of models. Seeing the necklaces in the flesh highlighted just how much the big statement pieces could transform an outfit, making them a great investment for updating your whole wardrobe.
Melissa is keen to share her design skills with all wannabe jewellery makers and is running workshops throughout August and September this year. Participants will not only learn basic jewellery making techniques, but will get the opportunity to create their own set of earrings and bracelet. She’ll also be holding a special Black History Month exhibition at her studio in October. You can sign up for her courses online. I’m even thinking of reviving my own jewellery making efforts -edible accessories anyone?
If your walls at home are looking a little bare and you have some (a lot) of extra cash to spare, case then head down to the HOST Gallery to buy some art where the first annual FOTO8 Awards and Summer Show is going on until August 31. The exhibition is filled with the best reportage, physician portraiture and landscape photography shot by established and emerging artists. What makes this show unique is that all the prints are for sale, so if you desire, the art can come home with you.
A total of 1,800 images were submitted, and after being narrowed down by a panel of judges, 170 were chosen. I enjoyed the collection, however, I’m not sure these are the types of photographs I would have hanging in my living room. I was looking for brighter and more cheerful work. The images were similar to what I would see on the pages of PDN magazine, but not necessarily in a home decorating catalogue. Yet, maybe this is the appeal of it all. I absolutely loved the photograph shown below, taken by Aleksander Bochenek, called 4am on Las Ramblas, Barcelona, 2007. I think the eye contact and facial expressions are great, but personally, can’t imagine paying 700 quid to look at it everyday. If you are willing to pay the price, you get a 20″x30″ framed Giclee print(edition 1/20).
One photograph that caught my eye as a good buy was of this woman on the beach, shot by Claudia WIens. This 20″x30″ color print runs at 500 quid.
Whether your intentions are to purchase work or not, it is well worth the trip just to view the show. You can also vote at the gallery for your favorite shot. The photographer with the most votes will receive the People’s Choice Award. The exhibition is going on until August 31.
Bethnal Green’s friendly local yarn shop, here‘Prick Your Finger’, doctor is a cosy, more about homely establishment. Owned by Rachael Matthews (the co-founder of Cast Off knitting club) and Louise Harries (textile artist and Amelia’s Magazine issue 9 contributor), this little shop wouldn’t usually seem capable of hosting a rip roaring pom pom party. And yet, last Friday, Prick Your Finger did just that, and was packed to the woolly rafters with pom pom party animals looking to reconcile their differences through the medium of wool.
Pom Pom International is the brain child of the American born, honourary Brit, Amy Lamé. Not content with only juggling radio and television presenting with being a model, comedian and club promoter, Lamé decided it was high time she started getting crafty in order to save the world.
“I’ve been making pom poms at Duckie for about two years now” Lamé tells me, referring to her long running, alternative gay and lesbian club night. “I felt like; Oh my gosh, this is just such a brilliant ice breaker! It’s a really great stress buster and it really gets people to talk to each other.” From this small realisation a more ambitious idea began to -ahem- puffball.
“I had the idea of using pom pom making as a tool to get people who are in conflict talking to each other.” Lamé explains, her trademark fly-away black-rimmed spectacles twinkling as she proudly scans the pom pom participants busily working away inside the shop. “The idea is that we’re collecting all the pom pom’s together to make the biggest collective pom pom for peace.”
Pom Pom International has been seen at plenty of arts events, similar to this one at Prick Your Finger, but will soon be taking it’s first foray into solving larger conflicts with a tour of Northern Ireland this month to mark the 10th anniversary of the peace agreement. Lamé doesn’t plan to stop at that, though “My big goal is to take it to places like the Gaza strip or the border between India and Pakistan” she says.
Although I haven’t really brought any of my own conflicts with me to the party, as the invitation had suggested, I am moved by Lamé’s vision of a wonderful world without conflict and so start preparing my own pom pom contribution. As soon as I start to wind my wool, I am struck by how easily the conversation begins to flow between myself and other pom pom makers.
I get chatting to some craftivists who had been involved in the making of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, but more from them later. I also managed to ask Louise Harries about the inspiration behind her contribution to Issue 9 (which is proudly displayed within the shop); the crochet patterns for some lovely furry facial hair.
“I definitely have beard envy,” she confides “Facial hair can signify so many things from authority to rock and roll excesses. Sod handbags as hot accessories beards are were its at!” Harries is resplendent in a full on Father Christmas beard for the party, and I wonder if she wears beards often “I haven’t yet worn one to pop to shops to get milk but after the V&A village fete I got the tube home and realised I still had a large pink curly beard on…..I thought the funny looks were for the sequin jumpsuit!”
After admissions of facial fuzz fetishes, I am totally sold on the bonding power of pom poms. With my furry ball of woolly wonder done and dusted, the last step is to write a peaceful message to the world on a special Pom Pom International luggage tag. ‘Make the world like a pom pom,’ I write; ‘Warm and fuzzy.’ It’s a small gesture, I know, but standing back I can take in all the other pom poms hanging from the shop’s ceiling, all complete with well wishing notes. Hell, I think, this crazy idea just might work!
You may recall Dearbhaile and Jocelyn writing about their trip to see the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at The Hayward last month. As they said at the time, information pills this man made reef (partly put together by keen crotheting volunteers using recycled materials) draws attention to the plight of the coral reef that is being destroyed by our disposable lifestyle; ‘Over 50 years plastic trash has accumulated in the North Pacific Ocean and is now a mass that is 4 times the size of England and 30m deep. Consequently, page the coral reef is disappearing at a rate five times faster than the rainforest; each year 3,000 square km is obliterated.’
Whilst making pom poms at Amy Lamé’s Pom Pom International event at ‘Prick Your Finger’, I was lucky enough to bump into some of the volunteers who had put their time and crocheting skills into forming part of the Crochet Reef. Crafty activists Alex Willumsen and Khadija Ibrahim were kind enough to take the time to pause their pom pom making and tell me all about how they got involved in the reef.
Taking a well earned break from pom pom making are (L>R) Gemma, Khadija and Alex.
“We saw an email going out saying crocheters were needed to contribute to this coral reef,” Alex tells me “So we stepped up to the plate and we attended.”
“We’d never crocheted in our lives either.” Khadija goes on, “So it was a bit of a challenge, but so much fun. It’s very democratic, anyone can go and add to it. You don’t even have to be very good! We felt very welcome.”
“Crochet is a very forgiving craft” Alex says, almost thankfully “The crocheted coral reef has imperfections but, as in nature, things don’t always turn out perfectly”
Khadija agrees; “It does represent nature in a way. I like the word organic to describe the process, it’s very organic the way people just come and add their pieces. It kind of grows.”
Of course, the crocheted reef isn’t just an aesthetic wonder. It’s very existance aims to highlight the fact that litter, dumped by humans without a second thought, is eroding the natural beauty of real reefs. “You had to crochet with recycled material so it was a little bit of a challenge.” Alex says “We used cassette tape which is quite sticky and quite difficult to crochet with. You know what, though, a Waitrose bag makes a lovely pattern. The white and the green looks lovely!”
“We’d never done anything like this.” Khadija admits “We just went to this one workshop and the first piece that we ever made went on display.” “Honestly, that was such a sense of achievement.” Alex beams.
Apparently Chicago is the next place the reef will visit. As we contemplate the organic nature of the reef, a reef that is growing with it’s contributors (“About another 10 people attended on the day we went, but there were several sessions.” Alex tells me) the mind boggles at how large the reef may become as it makes it’s journey across the globe.
“It’s accompanying a professionally made coral reef that’s going on display in the Hayward gallery” Khadija explains. “But,” Alex interjects “the amateur one is actually better!”
We are then joined by Gemma Tucker, a fellow pom pom maker and fledgling crafter (“I once made a whole dress out of crisp packets, if that counts?” she says) and it’s a good opportunity to talk about Pom Pom International. I ask Gemma if she has enjoyed her pom pom making experience;
“It’s a very therapeutic thing to do.” she says, and when I ask her if pom poms might change the world she responds positively; “Definitely!”
“There’s something about doing a craft which makes conversations come to the surface that wouldn’t normally be there,” Alex contemplates “and I think that’s very interesting While your hands are occupied your mind is more free to wander.”
Let’s hope that all these crafty minds can help wander us towards a brighter future!
The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef can be seen in the Hayward Project Space and Royal Festival Hall Level 2 Foyer until the 17th of August.
Sweet Fanny Adams are a rock band hailing from Recife, viagra 100mg Brazil. With ‘Fanny, You’re No Fun’ Diego Araújo, Leo Gesteira, Hélder Bezerra and Rafael Borges follow up to their self titled 2007 EP with four new slices of rock and roll. These tracks see the Brazilian boys rattling along noisily in such a way that you can almost see their manly swaggers. This is cock rock that aspires to Stooges status but, whilst the music is not far off, the lyrics leave something to be desired.
Since English is Sweet Fanny Adams’ second language, I know I should really be giving the band a bit of leeway on this, but with first track ‘Hate Song’ I really can’t give an inch. With a very simplistic and clunky bass line (strangely similar to Flight Of The Conchords’ ‘She’s So Hot’), accompanied by minimal guitar strumming, all ears are on the lyrics.
If ‘Hate Song’ is singer Diego Araújo’s one chance at venting some hatred then he hasn’t really grasped the opportunity. ‘From now on I’m just going to unleash all my hatred’ he promises, but never does, instead constantly confirming ‘This is a hate song’ as if this will make up for the distinct lack of bile. At one point Diego barks the lyrics; ‘If this offends you, you are allowed to shout back’ which at once presents an amusing scenario; a ‘rock and roll’ front man (who says he carefully chooses his words just to sound more cruel) politely encouraging his listeners to express their own opinions if he rubs them up the wrong way. This isn’t how Iggy would have done it!
‘Everyday I wake up worse than ever’ Diego goes on to lament in second track ‘Killing Spree’. This is a man talking about losing his mind and sometimes having to break things just to calm down, but the song lacks a vital punch to make these admissions feel like any sort of reality. On this track it feels less like it’s the lyrics that don’t ring true, and more that the track could be saved if only the production was dirtied up a little.
I’m still wondering where the danger is when we get to ‘She Wants To Burn’. To me, this kind of rock and roll should pick you up on a heady, hedonistic rush of youth and carry you to a place where you feel unstoppable and unaccountable. So far, Sweet Fanny Adams’ have given me the impression that they are just naughty boys, rolling out nihilistic cliches, who pose no real threat.
This is how I feel until the last track, ‘C’mon Girl’, comes around. A Kings of Leon style rabble rouser this track is all the things I had been hoping for from the EP’s previous offerings. There is something delightfully fuzzy about the bass, something heart-racing about the driving force combination of guitar and drum beat. Admittedly, there is also something rather out of tune about the singing, but that just adds to the whole rebellious feel. Who cares about a bit of off key vocals if the soul is there? There is even a slowed down snarl that works itself into a frenzy…one of those tricks we love so much. With ‘C’mon Girl’, Sweet Fanny Adam’s prove themselves to be anything but just ‘naughty boys’ and I am prepared to eat all my previous words. There is definitely something really sophisticated coming to the surface here and it excites me.
With ‘Fanny, You’re No Fun’ Sweet Fanny Adams show that they are a name to watch out for. This EP is worth a listen, not just because of the fantastic ‘C’mon Girl’, but also because this is good music if you like your rock manly, dirty and well made. I anticipate Sweet Fanny Adams to grow and gain in strength, this is only their second EP after all, and I’m sure they have it in them to create bigger and better things. In order to do this it’s not going to be a case of practicing what they preach as such, since sonically Sweet Fanny Adams are gutsy enough to pull off the rock and roll sound. It will be more a case of preaching what they practice; by moving their lyrics and emotions forward to truly convey that anarchic angst that is so essential to this style of music. I will look forward to seeing the outcome of Sweet Fanny Adams’ evolution.
Three young men of Lets Wrestle are heckling their audience, ampoule bemoaning that Joe Reddinton: their friend, what is ed not-in-the-band, buy band member and subject of their song ‘You’ll Be The Death Of Me’, is for some reason absent. Between all the rowdiness however they do find the time to lay down some seriously touching and simultaneously frenetic punk pop.
Let’s Wrestle are DIY in their quick and easy assemblage of music, ace videos and sleeve ideas – yet this is never poise. This is what contrasts with what’s through the other side of the Bar and Grill where poses are aimed yet fired blunt, bouncing off chrome and brick walls as if saying ‘Hey, I’ve been to Lovebox‘. Look around you and the place crawls with City workers concealing their stench in borrowed knowledge and easily sourced clobber.
Wizz back a bit in the night and the live entertainment begins with Sir Yes Sir who sound like one of your mates bands you go and see and like mainly because you know them. Artefacts For Space Travel are label mates of Let’s Wrestle and I have to confess I was enjoying smoking outside through most of their set. The ending I caught however, and the singer’s voice made an impressive bellow. I’m not sure I understood it but then I take that on the chin for my ignorance in absence.
The Erotic Chuntney of Wet Paint are like a big soppy, drueling loveable retriever that you put up with jumping up and licking you because they seem so affectionate and nice, yet you’re kind of pissed off they’ve ruined your trousers. Melodic and warmly familiar, as if waking from a prolonged ’90s flashback where the smartest girl in class has Dinosaur Jnr tip-exed on her canvas bag.
Back to Let’s Wrestle. More a reference to David Shrigley than a love of fat men in pants. Maybe they’re a gang, whatever; they’re so tuned into each other that the audience heckling and shambolic nature feel like they’ve invited you round their house for tea. Amiable hosts who know how to hit that point of off-key vocal that luxuriously creams the ears.
There is indeed no bag or case uglier than a standard laptop case. Dixons, approved PC World, visit this site Staples and dare I say Apple are all guilty of stocking such offensive articles. These black, faux leather (if your lucky) silver zipped, logo plastered objects are capable of giving anyone with taste a headache. Okay, so they are fairly essential to transport your fine tool, yet in refusing to use such an eyesore for my laptop I have been forced to wrap my little gadget in a canvas bag in fear of scratching it’s perfect form…. until now. Tinkering on the net for spangly new things we could not possibly live without, we came across this charming little piece any Gran would be proud of.
Since setting up on the Sunday Upmarket stalls at The Truman Brewery in 2004, Calliste&Carissa Yebloah have been knitting and pearling an exciting range of accessories from bow ties and necklaces to place mats. With their shop madewithhands accessible online, have a peep!
Written by Katie Webster on Friday August 8th, 2008 12:24 pm
The Barbican towards The Bank of England. It was enjoyable to be part of such a good natured crowd and it was fun to watch all the shop owners standing outside their establishments, watching with fascination at the colourful carnival proceeding past them.
Forests and Climate Change: an Amazonian Perspective for Copenhagen
Sipson, near Heathrow, whose primary school will be demolished if Heathrow’s third runway goes ahead. (I especially liked their teacher who instructed her pupils to wriggle their bums at Parliament). So while this seemed like a light hearted affair, the message was serious. Especially as these are the type of age range who will have to deal with the devastating impact of global warming.
