earth

Amelia’s Magazine | Climate Camp, London Gathering – Review

by

The biopic. It’s a strange bird. When your subject is Ray Charles or Johnny Cash the thing must write itself. The drugs! The women! The soundtrack! But it’s this kind of lazy obviousness that has put me off watching the likes Ray and Walk the Line, stomach perhaps to my discredit. They’re probably as good as everyone says they are. If they’re not? If they’re as hackneyed and clichéd as I expected? Well, dosage at least I can enjoy the music.

With Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been a long-time admirer of Ian Dury’s work and especially the juxtaposition between his seemingly knockabout lyrics and the tight musicianship of the Blockheads. I caught some of the hype, information pills a couple of Andy Serkis interviews about his preparation for the starring role and that was it. My distaste for the biopic was gently put aside for an evening.

If you’ve seen the poster, you’ll already know that Serkis is magnificent. And if you’ve got any sense you’ll also know and love the music (or be on your way to discover it round about now). Right there are two reasons you should go and see this film. Another is a wonderful opening credit sequence by none other than Sir Peter ‘I’ve done more than just the Sgt Pepper cover, you know’ Blake. But don’t expect to get much else. Fair performances from the rest of the cast and attention to period detail do not raise this biopic from goodness to greatness.

The film is in loose chronological order, with the occasional flashback to a troubled childhood. The story touches upon Dury’s contracting of polio and subsequent disability, his relationship with his father, his unstable family life and a tempestuous time with his bandmates and, of course, the music. It rattles through, giving us the odd bit on how much of a bastard Dury could be, or how he came up with some of his most famous songs. But there’s little depth and no tension to hold it all together. The film opens with Serkis’s Dury saying something along the lines of ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, but then the film appears to do just that.

This film is clearly a labour of love, a love for both for the music and for Dury himself. But if there’s a good story arc in Dury’s eventful, colourful, lyrical life – a beginning followed by a middle and an end – the writers haven’t found it. For example, Dury’s mate the Sulphate Strangler is introduced grandly, but then does very little and exits the story in a bit of throwaway dialogue. And the relationship between Dury and his son Baxter forms most of the film’s action, but I didn’t get wrapped up in a real story. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.

But these are niggles. What you want at the very least from this kind of film is an outstanding central performance and excellent music, both of which Serkis himself gives. He sang Dury’s words so well that I couldn’t keep his face out of my mind when later listening to the original recordings. What you also want is an insight to the real Ian Dury. Despite it not having as good a plot as, say, 24 Hour Party People, it does give you an idea of what sort of man he was.

Despite ticking the essential boxes, the film doesn’t have that extra bit to make me watch the film rather than listen to the records. As far as I’m concerned, the biopic can be rather tricky, but this one deserves to do very well.
S&D&R&Rresize

The biopic. It’s a strange bird. When your subject is Ray Charles or Johnny Cash the thing must write itself. The drugs! The women! The soundtrack! But it’s this kind of lazy obviousness that has put me off watching the likes Ray and Walk the Line, salve perhaps to my discredit. They’re probably as good as everyone says they are. If they’re not? If they’re as hackneyed and clichéd as I expected? Well, at least I can enjoy the music.

With Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been a long-time admirer of Ian Dury’s work and especially the juxtaposition between his seemingly knockabout lyrics and the tight musicianship of the Blockheads. I caught some of the hype, a couple of Andy Serkis interviews about his preparation for the starring role and that was it. My distaste for the biopic was gently put aside for an evening.

If you’ve seen the poster, you’ll already know that Serkis is magnificent. And if you’ve got any sense you’ll also know and love the music (or be on your way to discover it round about now). Right there are two reasons you should go and see this film. Another is a wonderful opening credit sequence by none other than Sir Peter ‘I’ve done more than just the Sgt Pepper cover, you know’ Blake. But don’t expect to get much else. Fair performances from the rest of the cast and attention to period detail do not raise this biopic from goodness to greatness.

The film is in loose chronological order, with the occasional flashback to a troubled childhood. The story touches upon Dury’s contracting of polio and subsequent disability, his relationship with his father, his unstable family life and a tempestuous time with his bandmates and, of course, the music. It rattles through, giving us the odd bit on how much of a bastard Dury could be, or how he came up with some of his most famous songs. But there’s little depth and no tension to hold it all together. The film opens with Serkis’s Dury saying something along the lines of ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, but then the film appears to do just that.

This film is clearly a labour of love, a love for both for the music and for Dury himself. But if there’s a good story arc in Dury’s eventful, colourful, lyrical life – a beginning followed by a middle and an end – the writers haven’t found it. For example, Dury’s mate the Sulphate Strangler is introduced grandly, but then does very little and exits the story in a bit of throwaway dialogue. And the relationship between Dury and his son Baxter forms most of the film’s action, but I didn’t get wrapped up in a real story. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.

But these are niggles. What you want at the very least from this kind of film is an outstanding central performance and excellent music, both of which Serkis himself gives. He sang Dury’s words so well that I couldn’t keep his face out of my mind when later listening to the original recordings. What you also want is an insight to the real Ian Dury. Despite it not having as good a plot as, say, 24 Hour Party People, it does give you an idea of what sort of man he was.

Despite ticking the essential boxes, the film doesn’t have that extra bit to make me watch the film rather than listen to the records. As far as I’m concerned, the biopic can be rather tricky, but this one deserves to do very well.

S&D&R&Rresize

The biopic. It’s a strange bird. When your subject is Ray Charles or Johnny Cash the thing must write itself. The drugs! The women! The soundtrack! But it’s this kind of lazy obviousness that has put me off watching the likes Ray and Walk the Line, visit web perhaps to my discredit. They’re probably as good as everyone says they are. If they’re not? If they’re as hackneyed and clichéd as I expected? Well, store at least I can enjoy the music.

With Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been a long-time admirer of Ian Dury’s work and especially the juxtaposition between his seemingly knockabout lyrics and the tight musicianship of the Blockheads. I caught some of the hype, a couple of Andy Serkis interviews about his preparation for the starring role and that was it. My distaste for the biopic was gently put aside for an evening.

If you’ve seen the poster, you’ll already know that Serkis is magnificent. And if you’ve got any sense you’ll also know and love the music (or be on your way to discover it round about now). Right there are two reasons you should go and see this film. Another is a wonderful opening credit sequence by none other than Sir Peter ‘I’ve done more than just the Sgt Pepper cover, you know’ Blake. But don’t expect to get much else. Fair performances from the rest of the cast and attention to period detail do not raise this biopic from goodness to greatness.

The film is in loose chronological order, with the occasional flashback to a troubled childhood. The story touches upon Dury’s contracting of polio and subsequent disability, his relationship with his father, his unstable family life and a tempestuous time with his bandmates and, of course, the music. It rattles through, giving us the odd bit on how much of a bastard Dury could be, or how he came up with some of his most famous songs. But there’s little depth and no tension to hold it all together. The film opens with Serkis’s Dury saying something along the lines of ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, but then the film appears to do just that.

This film is clearly a labour of love, a love for both for the music and for Dury himself. But if there’s a good story arc in Dury’s eventful, colourful, lyrical life – a beginning followed by a middle and an end – the writers haven’t found it. For example, Dury’s mate the Sulphate Strangler is introduced grandly, but then does very little and exits the story in a bit of throwaway dialogue. And the relationship between Dury and his son Baxter forms most of the film’s action, but I didn’t get wrapped up in a real story. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.

But these are niggles. What you want at the very least from this kind of film is an outstanding central performance and excellent music, both of which Serkis himself gives. He sang Dury’s words so well that I couldn’t keep his face out of my mind when later listening to the original recordings. What you also want is an insight to the real Ian Dury. Despite it not having as good a plot as, say, 24 Hour Party People, it does give you an idea of what sort of man he was.

Despite ticking the essential boxes, the film doesn’t have that extra bit to make me watch the film rather than listen to the records. As far as I’m concerned, the biopic can be rather tricky, but this one deserves to do very well.

S&D&R&Rresize

The biopic. It’s a strange bird. When your subject is Ray Charles or Johnny Cash the thing must write itself. The drugs! The women! The soundtrack! But it’s this kind of lazy obviousness that has put me off watching the likes Ray and Walk the Line, visit web perhaps to my discredit. They’re probably as good as everyone says they are. If they’re not? If they’re as hackneyed and clichéd as I expected? Well, at least I can enjoy the music.

With Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been a long-time admirer of Ian Dury’s work and especially the juxtaposition between his seemingly knockabout lyrics and the tight musicianship of the Blockheads. I caught some of the hype, a couple of Andy Serkis interviews about his preparation for the starring role and that was it. My distaste for the biopic was gently put aside for an evening.

If you’ve seen the poster, you’ll already know that Serkis is magnificent. And if you’ve got any sense you’ll also know and love the music (or be on your way to discover it round about now). Right there are two reasons you should go and see this film. Another is a wonderful opening credit sequence by none other than Sir Peter ‘I’ve done more than just the Sgt Pepper cover, you know’ Blake. But don’t expect to get much else. Fair performances from the rest of the cast and attention to period detail do not raise this biopic from goodness to greatness.

The film is in loose chronological order, with the occasional flashback to a troubled childhood. The story touches upon Dury’s contracting of polio and subsequent disability, his relationship with his father, his unstable family life and a tempestuous time with his bandmates and, of course, the music. It rattles through, giving us the odd bit on how much of a bastard Dury could be, or how he came up with some of his most famous songs. But there’s little depth and no tension to hold it all together. The film opens with Serkis’s Dury saying something along the lines of ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, but then the film appears to do just that.

This film is clearly a labour of love, a love for both for the music and for Dury himself. But if there’s a good story arc in Dury’s eventful, colourful, lyrical life – a beginning followed by a middle and an end – the writers haven’t found it. For example, Dury’s mate the Sulphate Strangler is introduced grandly, but then does very little and exits the story in a bit of throwaway dialogue. And the relationship between Dury and his son Baxter forms most of the film’s action, but I didn’t get wrapped up in a real story. It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.

But these are niggles. What you want at the very least from this kind of film is an outstanding central performance and excellent music, both of which Serkis himself gives. He sang Dury’s words so well that I couldn’t keep his face out of my mind when later listening to the original recordings. What you also want is an insight to the real Ian Dury. Despite it not having as good a plot as, say, 24 Hour Party People, it does give you an idea of what sort of man he was.

Despite ticking the essential boxes, the film doesn’t have that extra bit to make me watch the film rather than listen to the records. As far as I’m concerned, the biopic can be rather tricky, but this one deserves to do very well.

Last Saturday and Sunday the first Climate Camp regional gathering took place in London. It was the first chance for the group to discuss future direction and specific plans and activities for 2010 in a more London-specific context, price and a chance for me, a Climate Camp virgin, to finally discover what the meetings were like.
roomSaturday morning saw 80 people packed into the hall in Tottenham Chances, and this soon became about 200. I suppose I was wary before the meeting, many loosely political meetings I’ve been to in the UK and abroad have involved flaring tempers, a battle consisting purely of the defence of individual and collective egos, and one or two power-hungry people hogging the limelight preaching about ‘equality’ and ‘democracy’ having only ever theorised it but never practised it, and making everyone else want to vomit with boredom.

Instead, the Climate Camp facilitators did a truly brilliant job of making sure speakers kept to the point, the timetable was stuck to, and that specific questions were answered, while keeping the atmosphere friendly, inclusive and very creative. They were lively, assertive and meticulously organized, but down to earth and not annoying…no mean feat, so a thumbs up from me for even achieving that!  A delicious, hearty vegan lunch was also provided on both days, of which most of the food was skipped.
chickpeas

food[Many thanks to Amelia for photos]

I could not make it for a lot of the discussion (unfortunately I had to work in job no.2 for much of the weekend), but managed to catch up on everything thanks to the detailed tweets of the Climate Camp London Twitter account.  So here’s an overview of what happened, a mixture of their tweets and my own notes:

An initial de-brief on Copenhagen opened up the discussion. It was agreed by the majority that although COP15 was a failure on the international political level, it gave a huge opportunity for a lot of parallel action and discussions to take place and highlighted on a large scale that the traditional political system isn’t working.

One of the first topics of discussion was the need for the Climate Camp movement to diversify and create more local and international outreach, and to make social justice and education a central focus. As an example of local outreach we heard about Ward’s Corner in Tottenham, a community development which residents are fighting for after plans to knock it down and build (surprise, surprise) new, expensive apartment buildings.
wardscorner

 The need to engage on a global scale was also discussed. There was a brief, informative presentation on the history of Haiti, and a lot of discussion on how the problems there are exacerbated by man-made environmental degradation and capitalism. The group then discussed what could be done to help Haiti collectively.

It was agreed that Climate Camp should continue to deal with big systemic changes (highlighting current democratic deficit) rather than only lifestyle changes like 10:10. It was also agreed that any action taken by Climate Camp must focus on providing positive alternatives and not just being critical. Rather than raising awareness, which many NGOs already do so well, the approach of Climate Camp should be more solutions-focused.
diagram
Localised meetings were a strong theme of the gathering. It was argued that they would allow more local outreach, and allow more people to attend and find out about Climate Camp. Meeting in smaller, more local groups would also allow for more discussion and participation. Many people expressed concerns about a loss of identity within the movement as a whole, lack of communication between groups and loss of focus. This was coupled with the fact that it may also be difficult to form large enough groups in certain areas of London. It was evident however, that the advantages and need to try the idea out outweighed most fears. It was broadly agreed that local meetings should be tried out, with alternating London-wide meetings every other week.

One of the final topics of discussion was about whether Climate Camp should officially endorse the Klimaforum declaration, drawn up during COP15. No consensus was reached however, and it was agreed that this issue needs to be studied and discussed in more detail.

Future possible gatherings and action were discussed, including whether it would be wise to demonstrate on May Day. There was much talk about making sure that large groups of people are not isolated by Climate Camp demonstrations. It was clear there were varying views on the nature and outcomes of direct action and protest. Despite this, almost everyone agreed that action must be solutions-focused and offer positive alternatives, rather than being seen as only critical.  After two days of much impassioned discussion, little official consensus was actually reached. However, as one facilitator pointed out, a lot of ground was covered and no hurried, bad decisions were made.

There will be another, smaller meeting at SOAS this (Tuesday) evening, so if you’re curious or keen to get involved in some way, it’s worth checking out their website and coming along to listen and have your say.

kidscorner[The great KidsCorner]

Written by Zofia Walczak on Tuesday January 19th, 2010 12:09 pm

Categories ,Climate Camp, ,Cop15, ,copenhagen, ,Klimaforum, ,Local, ,Tottenham, ,Tottenham Chances, ,Ward’s Corner

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Amelia’s Magazine | Climate Rush Bike Rush

by

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0394.jpg

On Thursday the bath-time lovelies at Lush supported one of my great loves, by staging Climate Rush themed picnics outside all 89 of their UK stores.

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0236.jpg

As was detailed by Cari in a previous post, my local Lush store just happens to be in Liverpool Street Station. Chosen as the flagship store for this event the picnic was attended by Lush superstar campaigners Sean and Andrew, who have together helped us out in a very big way.

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0216.jpg

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0078.jpg

I sent the interns ahead on foot and arrived to find a fetching gingham tablecloth – bearing the timely ‘Climate Change is No Picnic’ slogan – being spread and upon it a yummy selection of vegan cake and cookies laid out for passersby to enjoy.

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Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0331.jpg

A trio of violins led by the Rush’s very own Deborah (her of sticky-fingers-in-parliament fame) struck up a tune as the lovely Lush girls, dressed in full Edwardian garb, handed out Trains Not Planes sashes to business men passing by and even managed to engage some climate change denialists in some productive conversation.

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0347.jpg

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0263.jpg

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The police, as ever, were present. In fact I swear I recognised one of them from the “Riot Gate” at Kingsnorth during Climate Camp last year. Unlike then, they were eager to smell the soaps (all packaged in recyclable paper – Lush tries not to use excess packaging, just one of the reasons we love ‘em) and chat to the pretty shop girls. I wonder if they’ll be so nice to us on Monday…

As Tamsin did her best to butter up the passersby in those famous suffragette must-haves, fishnet tights and a miniskirt, we were pounced on by a person dressed up as a giant mobile phone.

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0152.jpg

A slightly surreal experience to say the least, as the Lush shop girls tried to dress the ungainly thing in some bright red sashes, whilst Sean did his best to engage the phone in conversation about how many times a year it flies. My interns finally arrived and proceeded to pose marvelously for the camera. We’ve been joking that Jonno and Roisin are evil twins – just check them out!

Climate-Rush-LUSH-May-2009-0171.jpg

Over the weekend there has been a flurry of Climate Rush activity, both promotional and creative – we’ve flyered the South Bank twice, and approached friendly looking cyclists left, right and centre.

Climate-Rush-Bike%20Rush-prep-May-2009-0000.jpg

Climate-Rush-Bike%20Rush-prep-May-2009-0015.jpg

It seems that if you ride a bike you are generally a friendly soul, and all of them were happy to hear about Climate Rush bar a particularly unpleasant yuppie couple with a pair of fold out Bromptons that no doubt only see the light of day when the sun shines at the weekend. Fairweather cyclists, who’d have ‘em?!

Climate-Rush-Bike%20Rush-prep-May-2009-0059.jpg

Climate-Rush-Bike%20Rush-prep-May-2009-0192.jpg

In between accosting cyclists we have managed to print a mammoth amount of sexy sashes and flags to attach to the back of bikes.

Climate-Rush-Bike%20Rush-prep-May-2009-0268.jpg

I’ve discovered that I can still sew, and managed to knock up 5 pairs of fetching bloomers in record time (just don’t look too closely at the sewing, I was in a hurry okay?!) Made out of red and white striped fabric with lacey ruffles on the legs they look part clown and more than a little bit burlesque, but then whoever said we take the Edwardian theme too seriously?! I can’t wait to see what everyone else dons for out bike ride tomorrow.

Climate-Rush-Bike%20Rush-prep-May-2009-0283.jpg

Bring it on…. let’s show the government and big corporations that we won’t let them get away with business as usual when it comes to Climate Change. Collectively we can stop this beautiful world of ours from being buggered over, so make sure you come along and enjoy a stylish Bike Rush with a purpose. This is one cycle ride you’re sure to remember…

Read a past blog about this event here. What do you think about direct action over Climate Change? Let us know your views.

Written by Amelia on Sunday May 31st, 2009 11:38 pm

Categories ,activism, ,Bikes, ,Climate Rush, ,Coal, ,Direct Action, ,Environment, ,Lush

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Amelia’s Magazine | COP15 rapped up

by

80s leather jacketAll imagery throughout courtesy of The Stellar Boutique

Stella McCartney and Kate Moss know a thing or two about good style. Both are fans of Stella McClure, shop owner of newly opened internet shop, The Stellar Boutique. Previously running a vintage-customised stall at Portobello Market, McClure packed up shop in 2004 to travel the world in a campervan. Now settled in the Spanish countryside, she has decided to give it another go. This time though from the comfort of her own home via the power of the internet.

v125The Stellar Boutique is a great concept. McClure travels the hippy-luxe trail across Europe to Marrakech in order to bring you vintage treasures. Everybody loves a one-off, and that is certainly what The Stellar Boutique provides. Featuring vintage bags, designer garments, customised pieces and exquisitely exotic homeware, there’s something for everyone.

squareingtrq231Unlike many other fashion businesses at the moment, McClure is keen to promote new designers and ethnic artisans. (Instead of ‘Marc Jacobs’ think ‘Marc who?’) McClure insists that real style is best grown from within, instead of stealing magazine looks or following trend advice. The Stellar Boutique offers the freedom to do this.

NWfeathfrBut does it deliver? Standout pieces are endless. Let’s start with the accessories. There are the Moroccan style leather handbags.Then there are the mountains of unique jewellery to choose from. Pieces by Bora Bora, Lei Rose and Norwegian Wood are to die for. I love the porcelain tea-cup necklace and the silver postcard trinket by Lei Rose, as well as the feathered and fringed pieces by Norwegian Wood, and wow, have you seen the skull charm bracelet by Bora Bora? Even more for the Christmas list!

vintage shoes goldnsilverNext up, vintage. There’s second-hand, slightly grubby, vintage fashion, and then there’s nice ‘I’m so glad only I have this’ vintage fashion. The Stellar Boutique falls into the latter category. The vintage section of the site is easily the big winner. With clothing separated into 60s, 70s, 80s, handbags, scarves, boots and boho, it couldn’t be easier to navigate towards your era or item of choice.

80s vintage tiger topBoho features peasant tops and kaftans Sienna would covet. The 70s section showcases (unusually beautiful) standout dresses at massively cut-down prices, and 80s can tailor to all your glam rock needs. There are sparkly 80s style heels and some killer red leather stilettos in the shoe department, as well as the standard biker or cowgirl boot. With menswear and more accessories coming soon, you’ve got to keep checking back for more goodies!

boomboxAs if it needed to be said; everything is quality assured, hand-picked and highly loved. Check out the site to update your wardrobe for 2010 with fresh, exotic pieces your friends can drool over. For Christmas, they are spreading the holiday joy with a 20% off discount sale on all vintage and womenswear, as well as homeware! So why not pick up something for your Christmas shindigs or New Year’s bashes now instead of waiting for the mania of the January sales?!

home pageAll imagery throughout courtesy of The Stellar Boutique

Stella McCartney and Kate Moss know a thing or two about good style. Both are fans of Stella McClure, click owner of newly opened internet shop, price The Stellar Boutique. Previously running a vintage-customised stall at Portobello Market, McClure packed up shop in 2004 to travel the world in a campervan. Now settled in the Spanish countryside, she has decided to give it another go. This time though from the comfort of her own home via the power of the internet.

v125The Stellar Boutique is a great concept. McClure travels the hippy-luxe trail across Europe to Marrakech in order to bring you vintage treasures. Everybody loves a one-off, and that is certainly what The Stellar Boutique provides. Featuring vintage bags, designer garments, customised pieces and exquisitely exotic homeware, there’s something for everyone.

squareingtrq231Unlike many other fashion businesses at the moment, McClure is keen to promote new designers and ethnic artisans. (Instead of ‘Marc Jacobs’ think ‘Marc who?’) McClure insists that real style is best grown from within, instead of stealing magazine looks or following trend advice. The Stellar Boutique offers the freedom to do this.

NWfeathfrBut does it deliver? Standout pieces are endless. Let’s start with the accessories. There are the Moroccan style leather handbags.Then there are the mountains of unique jewellery to choose from. Pieces by Bora Bora, Lei Rose and Norwegian Wood are to die for. I love the porcelain tea-cup necklace and the silver postcard trinket by Lei Rose, as well as the feathered and fringed pieces by Norwegian Wood, and wow, have you seen the skull charm bracelet by Bora Bora? Even more for the Christmas list!

vintage shoes goldnsilverNext up, vintage. There’s second-hand, slightly grubby, vintage fashion, and then there’s nice ‘I’m so glad only I have this’ vintage fashion. The Stellar Boutique falls into the latter category. The vintage section of the site is easily the big winner. With clothing separated into 60s, 70s, 80s, handbags, scarves, boots and boho, it couldn’t be easier to navigate towards your era or item of choice.

80s vintage tiger topBoho features peasant tops and kaftans Sienna would covet. The 70s section showcases (unusually beautiful) standout dresses at massively cut-down prices, and 80s can tailor to all your glam rock needs. There are sparkly 80s style heels and some killer red leather stilettos in the shoe department, as well as the standard biker or cowgirl boot. With menswear and more accessories coming soon, you’ve got to keep checking back for more goodies!

boomboxAs if it needed to be said; everything is quality assured, hand-picked and highly loved. Check out the site to update your wardrobe for 2010 with fresh, exotic pieces your friends can drool over. For Christmas, they are spreading the holiday joy with a 20% off discount sale on all vintage and womenswear, as well as homeware! So why not pick up something for your Christmas shindigs or New Year’s bashes now instead of waiting for the mania of the January sales?!
kdg
I was making my way through my e-mails one morning at Amelia’s HQ and I came across one from a lady called Kate Daisy Grant. This caught my eye as it is the name of my old boss…and her daughter… merged? Confused. I know she is not the most technologically gifted of folk so I was miffed to see an e-mail from her. I had no doubt that it was going to be about how much she missed me and my mocha making skills, illness However it wasn’t her at all. It was another lady, viagra approved who perhaps is a distant relative (we explored the idea at one point). Anyway, I checked out her myspace and “I liked it” as Louis Walsh would say. So Kate and I arranged to meet in a blind date stylee in Brixton.
“…What do you look like so I know how to spot you?…”
“…Im wearing a tan faux fur jacket, pale blue jeggings…”
I sounded like a compete tit. Fake fur and “JEGGINGS” I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t bother turning up. sound like I have been rolling around in Coleen Rooneys wardrobe. I didn’t mention my diamond head band, I think if I did it perhaps that would have been too much. The beautiful young thing came bouncing up to me at the station with a pretty pixie crop, I was expecting something like this when she said she had cut her own hair. We bonded over our love of the “luscious motion” of gel pens then Kate began by telling me about her musical upbringing…

Kate: My Granny was a concert pianist, but she gave up due to performance nerves, and she got married instead. It was the 30s or 40s and it’s a shame that in that era the advise was “Your too nervous, You should just give up!” My mum was a ballet dancer and I played the piano before I could even reach it!

School was a musical time?
Yeah, total geek! The only thing I have ever nicked are choir music sheets!

The only thing I really played at school was recorder, Did you go down that route?
Yeah, all routes; cello, piano, singing… Now I have a collection of toy instruments, toy bells, tiny piano, autoharp…

Your home is like a musical museum then?
Yeah, Totally! And puppets as well. I’m making lots of puppets for a video. Usings lots of pompoms and wool! I’m trying to knit a baby at the moment!

fp

I have a big bag of pompoms that my sister used for a project and I wouldn’t let her throw them away, would you like them?
Yes! That would be great! I would actually because I want to make a panda and I could make sheep out of them!

I knew I was keeping them for something!
This is to accompany your music?
Yeah, this is the single I guess from the film so I’m doing a video for it. It’s based on a 50’s film called “Lili” which is about a girl who follows around a travelling circus and she falls in love with a puppeteer who is a bit of a bastard, but he is really nice to her through the puppets, and she becomes part of the act, So it’s a reworking of that.

When shall this be released?
January, then I’m going to do a whole spate of videos in January.

So this first video is for “One Thing You Should Know About Me”? Is this available now?
It’s on the film soundtrack and its available on itunes at the moment. I haven’t done a big push yet because I’m going to wait until I can do it through some kind of label or my own, to properly shunt it out there! I am published by Sony but we record independently so we have more freedom.

It must be nice to have that creative control?
Yeah defiantly, I know people that are singed to the wrong label who aren’t even aloud to gig- they just put you on the shelf so thank god I’m not like that.

So where since school has your musical journey taken you?
I dropped out of theatre at university because I wanted to gig and not be told if I was good enough to write or perform, I just needed to get on with it.

Where did you study?
Bristol, I spent about 5 weeks there! I’m from London, Hammersmith. So since then I have been gigging, I’ve been at The Edinburgh fringe, Written a children’s book which is being turned into a ballet next year!

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What’s the kids book about?
It’s called “The Fox and the Pig”, have you read the little prince?

No…

Love it! It’s tiny! It’s a French book…

Yes!! I have! I bought a clock in a charity shop like 2 weeks ago, that so weird!
That’s so lucky! What a great thing to have! The book is great! Get it! It’s a fable about a man who comes form another planet and visits all these planets on the way to earth and he tells an airman who is stranded in the desert all about these silly adults he meets…and he dies at the end so he can go back to his own planet. So our book is like that- a tragic love story between a fox and a pig. We did models like Bagpuss style, Victoriana style models, a toy stage from an orange crate, made everything like flowers out of glacier cherries and stuff like that. And so somebody wants to make it into this ballet puppetry!

So, where shall this be?
In London, somewhere we are looking at venues but it might still be a while but we are defiantly going to do it. Hell of a lot to do. We are going to use shadow puppetry, and I have written the soundtrack too….

I understand that you’re a fan of toys, Last time I went to the dentist, I saw these toys in the waiting room, They are straight from my childhood! Do you recognise them at all?
That would be big bird- you wind him up? I defiantly recognise him!

I think the bear could be a great instrument…

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Your right, I’m going to go into Argos and charity to see what hey have got. I have a speak and spell! Around the corner they have a Qur’an, You press a button its chants! And I have a robot that plays the double bass. I use instruments in weird ways, like the way I create a tambourine sound is I fill a toy drum with pennies and it makes a nicer sound than an actual tambourine, cheese graters with a loosely held handful of spoons! I’m just desperate for new sounds!

Do they come to you in the middle of the night or is it just from stuff lying around?
When I was doing the sounds for the children’s book, I realised that my budget was totally limited and I went round just knocking chairs and walls and various filled glasses all around my room! Toy wise- I used to have bells- they are really out of tune, but they sound amazing! A toy piano from the 50s that I dismantled, it sounds better now! I just wanted to see inside what goes on!

Where do you find them?

Brixton market! It is so rubbish!

So rubbish its good

There are a lot of kinda leftfield pop strong female songstresses around at the moment, which ones would you call yourself a fan off?
PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, Bat for Lashes, Cat Power and Bjork.

Do you go to gigs a lot?
I saw The Yeah Yeah Yeahs not that long ago- so amazing- I’ve also been to The Correspondents and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis.

So, Instrument and toy wise your Influences are quite, retro lets say? Is this the same with your musical influences?
Yeah, well, Tom Waits, he uses sweet sounds pots and pans dustbin lids, he is an influence. I love how he can have a sweet sad melody with something creeeakin’ in the background like something being wound up and your not quite sure what it is!
I like film soundtracks and French films like Amelie…

Have you seen “Love Me If You Dare”? That’s a French film- best film ever.
Oh god I have seen it! And they marry themselves! It’s got that purity and really clean story telling with a dark ending!

How did your work for the film “Mr Right” come about?

We met through a friend – he kept playing my music in his shop and the director heard it and decided that it was perfect for the end scene in the film. It’s about gay relationships with out having any characters that play to gay stereotypes, it’s really refreshing. I wrote a song as well for the opening scene and more.

Did you get quite a free reign for things?
It was amazing because she showed me the film and showed me the scene that she wanted the music for, it all came instantly into my head and it wasn’t a struggle at all and I did it all in about 2 days. She didn’t change anything that I had done it was a pretty blessed situation.

You record in London?
Sometimes I record straight onto a laptop- not even with a mic! So it has this kinda messy quality! But for the album- I use a studio in north London with my producer

Tell me about the relationship with your producer?
I have known him bout 2 years now-2 years working together, He is amazing, a total surf dude- in attitude- he doesn’t actually surf at all, he is amazing, drenches stuff out of you! He is like a Jewish Bob Dylan!

Jewish Bob Dylan surfer dude
And so he would play live with you also?
Yeah, his name is Ken Rose and we have an amazing cello player called Hannah and we are there with dustbin lids and bells.

Gigs in the new year?
Yeah there are in the pipeline!

Finally, If you could live any era when would it be…I am torn between the 20s and Victorian era- or the 40s?! Before climate catastrophe and people were inventing really exciting things. I think they are now- but in a different way. Everything was so fresh and there was a hunger for entertainment!

There are so many different layers to Kate Daisy Grants sound – when you listen to her its like visiting a fairground, like another world!
Amelia’s will keep you posted with her live dates in the New Year, In the meantime check out her myspace and the film “Mr Right” is out now. You can catch it at The Prince Charles Cinema.
Kates album is available on itunes.

PS.
This is my clock…
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THIS JUST IN!
Copenhagen Climate Summit: Lord Monckton rap battles Al Gore

“It’s freedom they’re plundering, seek and you’re the scare-monger king!” cries global warming sceptic Lord Monckton to former American Vice President Al Gore, during their furious rap battle over climate change. Hold on… Lord Monckton and Al Gore in a rap battle?! It happened! Sort of. In this ingenious video by The Juice Media you can see how it might play out if Monckton and Gore were to get down wit da kids and engage in a juvenile debate over the issues of climate change and the Copenhagen summit. This video in particular is part of a series called Rap News – with Robert Foster, which was born in October this year, other titles in the series include ‘Nasa bombs the moon’ and ‘Obama receives Nobel War is Peace prize’. Rap News was spawned from the artistic and philosophical minds of Giordano and Hugo, who reside in Melborne Australia, where they met after moving from the UK and Italy. Together they write and produce the show; Hugo, an MC/spoken-word performer/poet and actor creates the rhymes and impersonates the various public figures featured in the shows. Giordano, a writer, historian, academic, music composer and founder of Juice Media directs using themes and narratives based on his deep-seated interests and ideas about history, the media, the environment, social justice, indigenous peoples and politics.

They’re an intriguing pair, over 1000 are subscribed to their You Tube channel, and amongst the comments on their page is “What a talent mate” and “You make me proud to be Australian”. With the Copenhagen summit underway I have a few questions for the madcap duo, who going by our email correspondence are not only talented but super friendly.

So, why rap?

Chuck D once said that Rap was the CNN of the ghetto. We figure, why CNN? Why not a quality news channel like DemocracyNow.org?

How did you 2 first come to work together? What is your relationship like?

We met over common interests in politics, nature and medieval Italian poetry. Our relationship is great. We sit around in the garden and have brainstorming sessions over homegrown salads.

Your raps are driven by politics, environmental and social issues. Tell me more about your views and motivations?

Our view is that the mainstream media is manifestly almost completely failing in its duty to inform the populace of world events in a measured and contextualised manner, and our motivation is therefore to rectify that in a small way, helping people join the dots between the quotidian occurences, and the broader picture. We are putting into practice that wise adage, ‘become the media’, for, as Jello Biafra famously stated, ‘we demand fair and more accurate balanced news coverage – and if we don’t get it… we’ll make it ourselves!’

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Hugo, you impersonate various public figures in the video, who is your favourite person to be and why?

So far the only real public figures i’ve impersonated have been Lord Monckton and Al Gore. Out of those two, Lord Monckton came the most naturally – i finally got to use those skills from ‘Latin For Pseudo-Scientists 101′. Of all public figures to impersonate, my favourite has to be David Bowie when he does the Goblin King in Labyrinth: “Go back to your room… play with your toys!” and so on.

What are your hopes for COP15?

That it will be a turning point. Wherever we’re headed, the future’s not looking too good right now. This seems like a good opportunity to take a break from the reckless ride we’ve been on for the past few centuries and reassess our situation; a chance to consider that we may not have thought all this through that well from the outset: Civilization? – what self-respecting civilization would totally trash it’s own home? And climate is just one of the massive challenges we now face; yet it’s the surest sign that ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ and what better place to rectify this than in Copenhagen?!

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So, we hope it doesn’t become another Kyoto – with the little time we have left we simply don’t have that option. We hope it won’t legitimise false solutions and myths such as ‘clean coal’ or emission-trading schemes – these just encourage a business-as-usual mentality, and if it hadn’t taken as many as 15 COP’s since the ’92 Earth Summit in Rio, then perhaps these wouldn’t be a case of too little too late. We hope the media does its job and keeps its eye on the ball and doesn’t degenerate into coverage of smashed windows and protester arrests.

But above all we hope that COP15 won’t all come down to money and be limited to market-based solutions – we need a real supra-economic movement to spring from Copenhagen which will carry us through this. It can’t just be about hatching new technologies but also about regaining old knoweldge. We are going to have to finally remember that our economy and society has to adapt to the planet, to the law of the land, and not the other way around. This is the simple fundamental lesson which we are going to have to (re)learn. Whether we do so the easy or the hard way, is what will be decided in these coming days in Copenhagen.

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What are Juice Media’s future plans? What’s next?

Although this project has existed for several years in our imaginations, we’re really only just setting out on this journey and, well, we’re still figuring out what to pack in the suitcases.

TheJuiceMedia itself is a broader prtoject which seeks to facilitate access to the voices of Indigenous people – particularly from Aboriginal Australia, since that’s where we are. So we’ll carry on working on doing what we’re doing and look to keep the information flowing. As far as Rap News episodes, we are looking forward to covering many more topics, as they come up. First on the cards is a website where we can set up our little campfire in the world-wide-web, light up some hyperlinks and start foraging for new stories.

We’re quite clear about what won’t come next: we’re not hoping to get on TV! The way it is, we encourage people to turn off their sponsor-saturated, Murdoch/Berlusconi-owned mega-networks and tune in to alternative, independent media sources. The internet seems to be the only medium left to us to retain some form of global participation in the production of meaning in today’s society and we intend to dedicate all of our creativity to making the most of it – while we still have it. The more people use this vital medium, the less the likelihood of it being hijacked, like what’s happened to TV. That would truly leave us in the dark(ages), once again.

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Check out all Juice Media’s Videos here

Written by Grace Beaumont on Wednesday December 16th, 2009 7:04 pm

Categories ,Al Gore, ,australia, ,Copenhagen summit, ,environment, ,Lord Monckton, ,Media, ,Rap, ,video, ,You Tube

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Amelia’s Magazine | Developing Countries and Their Energy Needs

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Monday 20th

Slow Club is a duo formed by Charles and Rebecca, this web buy information pills who both come from Sheffield. He does the singing and plays the guitar; she deals with the drums and all sorts of weird instruments, from bottles of water to wooden chairs. The result? You can go hear for yourself tonight at Barfly.
7pm. £5.

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Slow Club

Tuesday 21th

We Fell To Earth and special guests at the ICA theatre. Richard File (UNKLE) and PJ Harvey-ish singer/bassist Wendy Rae doing something that they call “sinister and kind of arousing rock music”.
8pm. £10.

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We Fell To Earth

Wednesday 22th
Vessels will be at Buffalo Bar this Wednesday launching “Retreat”, a collection of songs including a single, some remixes and an unreleased track by this Leeds five-piece.
8pm. £6.

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Vessels

Thursday 23th
Camera Obscura make a come back with “My Maudlin Career”, the band’s fourth studio album that is coming out today.
All their sweet freshness that you could feel from the first single out entitled “French Navy” will be performed on the stage of Shepherds Bush Empire next Thursday.
7pm. £13.50.

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Camera Obscura

Friday 24th

Je Suis Animal single launch party for the upcoming release ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ 7″ at The Victoria. Support comes from Betty and The Werewolves and Hong Kong In The 60s. People from Twee as F*** also promise free cupcakes for earlybirds so that is a Friday night out you can not miss.
9pm. £6/ 5 concessions.

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Je Suis Animal

Saturday 25th

The Camden Crawl Festival brings the best of Indie to town. Line up for Saturday looks like great performances will be on stage. The Maccabees, Little Boots, Marina And The Diamonds and The Golden Silvers are only a few to be named.
12pm. £32.50 (Saturday only).

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The Golden Silvers

Sunday 26th
Due to the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone‘s sell-out London show on 27th April, a new show has been added on Sunday 26th April – also at The Luminaire. Releasing their fifth album, Vs. Children, the band succeeded to make a record that feels just as warm and intimate as the first.
7:30pm. £8.50, adv £8.

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Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
On the cover of this CD, sickness Caroline Weeks appears to be a healthy, seek pink-skinned young woman. However, sildenafil fill your ears with her music, and you will be in no doubt that she is a ghost. And her clarinettist, too. Ghosts! Caroline has been to the other side, and seen things, and now wanders around my auditory cortex in a Victorian gown, lamenting the moment that life’s glories were cruelly wrenched from her grasp. Maybe Caroline drowned in a lake, or caught one of those Jane Austen chills, or fell under a horse, or was cuddled to death by an overaffectionate simple boy cousin. I can’t begin to imagine what happened to her polter-woodwindist. Probably choked on his reed.

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This is the spookiest music I have heard in a long time. She feels like a sister to SixToes, playing with similar moods, guitar work and larynx-trembling. But much spookier. I can’t help but think of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, a morbid teenager rejecting the world from her wilfully glum bedroom. So it’s not a huge surprise to discover that Caroline is also Ginger Lee, colleague of Natasha Khan in Bat For Lashes. Although you can actually dance to some of Natasha’s ditties, there is the moody, brooding moroseness there too. But while Bat For Lashes keeps this in the realm of relationships with sprinklings of dreamy visions, Caroline Weeks takes it to the pure Victorian pre-Pankhurst inner world of reflective femininity.
It turns out that all the lyrics are taken from the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an early Twentieth Century American who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Musically, it is very accomplished. Recorded quite simplistically, with a few dramatic reverb effects, the instrumentation has plenty of room to shine. The guitar gently drifts between dextrous, finger-picked, rhythmic regularity and airy pausing in a lovely, caressy, wavey kind of way. But it’s the tender voice that dominates, or haunts, the album. Caroline sings to you. It’s deeply personal, and unwavering in its humourless, sorrowful plea. And there is much depth of feeling and depth of lyric, which I cannot really do justice to here.
This is simply music to surrender to. Alone. Dim the lights, let the shadows fall across your soul and be utterly, utterly alone with the ghost of Caroline Weeks.

La Weeks is performing at The Good Ship in Kilburn on May 19.
Tuesday 21st April

2pm
Institute of Education?
20 Bedford Way, buy
?London WC1H 0AL?

“How to Educate Children in the UK About Sustainable Development”
discussion with Professor Randall Curren, more about Institute of Education. Info: fbrettell@ioe.ac.uk or call 020 7612 6000

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, email leajaffy_1@hotmail.com for further illustrations)

Wednesday 22nd April

“The Green Agenda: Are We Engaging The Consumer?”
9:30am

Dorich House Museum
67 Kingston Vale,
London SW15 3RN

The rise and rise of the green agenda is creating an ever increasing number of green initiatives, CSR projects, and local and national government proposals. Almost all organisations – both commercial and non commercial – want to establish their green credentials and communicate them to the consumer.
To explore these issues and to find new ways of engaging the customer, Kingston University has brought together a number of leading experts from a wide range of sectors – manufacturing, retailing, NGO’s, academics and a number of consultancies.
For full programme information and to book please go to http://business.kingston.ac.uk/flavor1.php?id=398.
Contact: Wendy Eatenton
?Tel: 020 8547 2000 ext. 65511
?Email: rm.rettie@kingston.ac.uk

“Can Developing Country Needs For Energy Be Met Without Causing Climate Change”

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, email leajaffy_1@hotmail.com for further illustrations)

1.00pm
Committee Room 14
Palace of Westminster, London
SW1A 2PW
Recent studies suggest a large potential for clean energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa; if fully implemented, they could provide more than twice the regions current installed power-generation capacity. It has been posited that Latin America has a comparative advantage in maximizing clean energy opportunities; energy consumption could be reduced by 10 percent over the next decade by investing in energy efficiency. This suggests that the adoption of clean energy technologies typically results in a “win:win” situation for developing countries: reducing costs and emissions.
But many developing countries have been failing to reach their full productive potential for years. Growth diagnostic studies in many developing countries regularly identify constraints such as lack of grid electricity and poor infrastructure. Typically, levels of investment in the electricity sector in developing countries are around 50 percent of needs. Credit constraints mean that the cheapest available options are often chosen as opposed to those that deliver environmental benefits. So can developing country needs for energy be met without causing climate change?  How can developing countries be incentivised to adopt cleaner energy? And what steps do developed countries need to take to facilitate this?

Professor Sir David King, Gordon MacKerron. Info: 7922 0300/ meetings@odi.org.uk/ ODI

Thursday 23rd April

“Financial Meltdown and The End of the Age of Greed”

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(Image courtesy of Aarron Taylor, www.aarrontaylor.com)

7pm
Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ
Info: 7479 8950
£10 Online booking now available
This event will be moderated by Michael Wilson, Business Editor of Sky News
Paul Mason talks about the ongoing financial crisis that has brough the global economy to the brink of depression. Gordon Brown hailed the result of deregulation as the ‘golden age’ of banking in the UK. Mason will give insights into how deregulation is at the heart of the collapse of the banking system in September and October 2008 and how it led to expanded subprime mortgage lending, an uncontrollable derivatives market, and the lethal fusion of banking and insurance.
http://www.frontlineclub.com/events/


Saturday 25th April

People’s Republic of Southwark April Mini Eco-Fair
People’s Republic of Southwark
Brandon Street/Orb Street
SE17

12.00pm – 4.00pm 
On Saturday 25th April, 12-4pm, People’s Republic of Southwark’s mini eco-fair goes all the way to SE17, to the Nursery Row Park http://www.nurseryrowpark.org/SaveNurseryRow/Welcome.html , a beautiful green space located just behind the East Street Market (between Brandon and Orb Street).?? We are hoping to have another great day out for everyone and some of the activities for the day are:?- mulching the orchard?- planting sunflower seeds?- making art?- a free shop (space where you can swap/give away/take things you need for free – bring easy-to-carry usable things you don’t need, ex clothes, dvds, books. and swap them for something you do need or simply give them away to someone who does; please don’t bring anything bulky or electrical)?- seed swap (get your window boxes, balconies, gardens ready for spring and summer)?- you can also find out about local environmental projects, issues and campaigns. ?Or just come along for a chat
Prepare to throw your sensibilities and all sense of conventionality out of the window! Why I hear you scream? Well, search this week sees Alternative Fashion Week bombard an unsuspecting Spitalfields in all its wonderful obscurity. Forget all the opulence of London Fashion Week; Alternative Fashion Week is going to assail you with raw, viagra buy un-censored Fashion Design.

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The event unlike London Fashion Week is open to everyone and free for the designers to participate. It will be running all this week from the 20th-24th of April at Spitalfields Traders Market. So get your skates on people and get on down for all the outlandish action. With 15 shows a day, it will see at least 10,000-hop foot through their doors. Applicants range from recent graduates to independent designers keen to establish themselves in the fashion sphere. The participants are an eclectic range of designers from a myriad of different fields from the theatre to circus, so be prepared for a vivacious show. In conjunction with the free daily shows, the event hosts an adjacent market from noon till three showcasing a whole treasure trove of accessories, Womenswear and textiles for us to feast upon.

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Here is a sneak peak at one of the accessory designers that will showcase her A/W collection at the event. Helen Rochfort’s innovative designs focus on all things delectable. Infact just glancing at her liquorice allsorts bag is enough to have me running to the nearest sweet shop for a fix. She describes her delectable designs as simply “ a sprinkling of vintage and a dusting of retro all whipping together with a kitsch twist of humour” So keep your eyes out for Rochfort’s designs, they are hard to miss!

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The event prides itself on its promotion of sustainable fashion, and actively supports recycling and ethical sourcing. It’s organizers are The Alternative Arts, a group based in East London that invests in local artists and projects in the community. Its overriding ethos is the importance of accessible fashion and art in the public domain.

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The event is a riot of creativity that questions our ideological view of fashion design; Alternative Fashion Week provides that vital foundation for applications to bridge the gap between them and the seemingly intimidating abyss of the fashion industry.

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So keep your eyes peeled as Amelia’s Magazine will be reporting from the front line this week to bring you all the zany fun and frolics!
Sometimes the stories for Amelia’s Magazine come to us. And this story is one of unimaginable corruption by one of the worlds largest companies, search aided by an equally unscrupulous government. While there will never be a happy ending to this tale, medicine there may be, tadalafil after many years of campaigning, justice finally delivered. I was emailed recently by a group called Remember Saro-Wiwa, asking if I would attend a talk entitled Wiwa Vs Shell at the Amnesty International House in London.

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I went along to the event, which was fully attended, and listened to what this case was about. In 1995, a man called Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight colleagues from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, was executed by the Nigerian State for campaigning against the devastation of the Niger Delta by oil companies, specifically Shell Oil. Thankfully, this is not where the story ends. On May 26th, 2009, after fourteen years, Shell will stand trial in New York for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria, including the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and his eight colleagues. The purpose of the evening was to highlight the case, and I listened in horror and disbelief to what has been happening in Nigeria. Having not known much about the unethical way that oil companies conduct their business – and the ways in which they silence their objectors – I could almost not comprehend what I was hearing. The panel speaking included Katie Redford, a U.S lawyer and co founder of EarthRights International, which, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed the case against Shell.

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She discussed the upcoming trial, and included the seemingly never-ending charges which have finally been brought against them. As well as the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity, they are being charged with torture, arbitrary arrest and detainment. We learnt that this is a groundbreaking case – companies of this size do not usually find themselves in court for their actions – however reprehensible. If Shell are found liable, they could be forced to pay damages that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

We learnt about the situation between Ken Saro-Wiwa and Shell. From the time that Shell had started producing oil in the Delta in 1958, the local communities had been concerned about the levels of pollution, along with the gas flares which were coming from Shell’s production plant. Furthermore, drilling operations were routinely destroying farmers lands with oil spillage and rendering the lands unsuitable for use. When faced with such levels of devastation to their land (and health), it seems only natural that the communities would protest.

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Unfortunately for them, Shell and the Nigerian Government were not in the business of facilitating these protests; instead, Shell would employ the presence of the Mobile Police Force, who were also known as the “kill and go”police. At one such protest, the MPF massacred 80 people and destroyed around 500 homes. Saro-Wiwa, who had always been a prominent figure in the campaigns against Shell was arrested and charged under bogus offences – unlawful assembly and conspiring to publish a ‘seditious’ pamphlet. On November 10th, 1995, Saro-Wiwa, along with 8 others was executed.

Speaking at Amnesty International, Ben Amunwa, who was chairing the evening, used a quote from Milan Kundera to help surmise the subsequent fight to continue with Saro-Wiwa’s cause, and bring long awaited justice : “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”. I spoke with one of the campaigners behind Remember Saro-Wiwa afterwards and asked how others can get involved. He told me that ” We’re currently in the process of developing a website and hopefully actions people can take as part of the shell guilty campaign, we hope to use viral films, the media and activist actions to generate loads of attention on Shell around the trial. At the moment it’s just about spreading awareness of the trial to warm people up for actions they can take further down the line.    

In the meantime we would encourage people join the facebook group. Our current aim is to get 1000 members. One way we are thinking about framing this call out is:

Take the 999 action:

9 Ogoni activists died for their cause
2009: the year their relatives must see justice and gas flaring in Nigeria must end
9: the number of your friends we urge you to invite to join this group.”

Everyone involved with this case will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of the trial in New York. After the panel had finished, I spoke with Katie Redford and asked her whether she felt positive about the outcome of this groundbreaking trial. She explained that while no one can predict whom the jury will side with, or what the outcome may be, the fact that a global and powerful company such as Shell will be finally held accountable for their actions in the Niger Delta demonstrates the power that non-violent protesters actually wield. Although it took twelve years to get to this stage, it seems like justice is finally being administered.
Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, viagra buy living in Utrecht in Holland and half Spanish, online Maria Stijger is a fashion photographer who has recently sprung to my attention. Her style of surrealism mixes with vintage meets modern. Maria’s playful personality results in beautiful images which if nothing else are aesthetically striking.

Maria, link you’re images are beautifully created. How long have you been doing photography for?
I took my first photograph around the age of six and from then I always thought that it was a kind of magic. But I never picked it up seriously until I got out of high school, graduated from art school and after doing a lot of different things, including working as a photographer’s assistant. I started producing my own fashion stories about two years ago.

Is it true your work has been recognised by the Dutch publications of Elle and Marie Claire??
Yes, I’ve also had my work published in HMagazine (a magazine available in Barcelona) twice, and in professional and weekly magazines, newspapers, and once in a book about jewellery.

I really enjoyed the old fashioned-romantic-fairy tale-esc sequence of the photoshoot shown here:
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What is the story behind this?
Well, I always like to make little fantasy stories, you can make up your own just looking at the series and here I was looking for an old feeling, using the atmosphere of the space that I found one day when I visited a party in the building. It’s a big building in the eastern part of Holland used by squatters. The guy that runs the place has a fantastic store inside it, where he sells all kinds of beautiful things he finds in old houses he restores. It is about a girl who is lost in time; she lives in a world of her own, surrounded by all this old stuff. She is a little bit weird, but happy and enjoying herself. She puts on shoes that are too big, plays with old porcelain dolls and likes funny hats. There is no story with a beginning and an end, but I like to make more images in my head, fantasize about what she does. I hope that others will do this too!

Do you prefer to work to a specific brief in your work?
No, in my personal work I really like to brainstorm in advance and come up with a lot of ideas, pick out the best and look for the right location, model and the stylist brings the clothes and things and we make our own décor if possible. But on the day of the shoot, I want to just let it all go and go with the flow of the day, see what comes on my path and switch if something doesn’t work. I like it when the whole team participates and gets excited and understands the feeling that I try to create and comes up with good ideas and then there is a buzz that I cannot describe…

Quite a lot of your work I found reflected some surrealism, would you say you have a specific style of photography, or does it vary?
I really love the Latin American magic realism and I try to use this in all my personal work as much as possible. I love surrealism, theatre and movies, things that are old. I love to mix it with modern age and fashion. I try to do this as often as I can, especially in my personal work, sometimes I like to go a little bit further than my commissioners want, so in the end my work varies quite a lot. But I like to show them that side as well so I always take some shots that link to this theme and sometimes they love it too!

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Can you explain the series of gloves images?
This was a great series to make! We had so much fun! We wanted to do something with beautiful gloves, but not in a studio or with a model. So I came up with this idea to make animal shapes, shadow play. I have a very old magic lantern (Lanterna Magica) that gives this great old feeling because of the dust and the frame. So this was the perfect combination mixing the old with the new fashion. We sold this particular series to (Dutch) Elle magazine.

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Who would you say influences and inspires you?
A lot! Things like literature, art, music, European film, but not specifically one person. There are so many great and diverse people that I love for what they do, I couldn’t point out just one.

Can you see a progression or a change in your work from when you first started to now?
Yes. In the beginning I only concentrated on landscapes and snapshots of people. Now I love to make stories using fashion. I’d say it’s a big change, and I guess it will never stop changing. I like to move around and experiment.

Do you have a muse?
No not really, I value my boyfriend’s opinion a lot. So in that sense I guess it’s him!

What do you do in your spare time?
At the moment I am expecting our first child, so my extra activities are not so exciting ha-ha. But I love going to the woods, going out with friends and listening to music. I also love to make sweet little stuffed monsters, exploring other realms of creativity! Most of my time is for photography though. And my family is very important too.

When you were younger, what did you wish to be when you grew up?
Ha-ha, first I wanted to be a dentist, but I loved arts and crafts and drawing so much, that I discovered that this was “my thing”. Although my parents were scared that I’d drown in the competition and of course it is more difficult for an artist to make a good living, I knew that there was no other option for me. I get bored quite easily, so I need to occupy myself doing creative things with other creative and inspiring people.

Thanks Maria, and good luck with the bun in the oven!

You can view Marias work at here.
And contact her here.
Happy Earth Day, here Amelia’s Magazine readers!

April 22nd is Earth Day (mainly for America, but we can still take part in celebrating it – it is everyones Earth after all!) If you are in America, then check out http://earthday.net/all_events to see what is going on around your neck of the woods.

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Images courtesy of Sachiko, http://www.loveandhatesati.com/

Perhaps this is fortuitous timing because this is also quite an interesting day in terms of the Government 2009 Budget. Hands up who was watching the budget today? I can understand if lazing around in the sun took top priority, so leave it to me to fill you in on the important facts.

Namely, that this is the first year that a carbon budget has been announced. Alistair Darling announced £1 billion will go towards funds to tackle climate change. This budget aims to cut 34% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. £375 million has been promised over the next two years for energy and resource efficiency in households, businesses and public buildings. £70 million will also be spent on small-scale and community low carbon energy and resource efficiency. With regards to fuel duty, increases in the duty are aimed to reduce emissions and pollution, saving 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2013-14.

Andy Atkins, executive director at Friends of the Earth spoke to The Guardian, and said that he was disappointed by the budget, adding
“The Government has squandered a historic opportunity to kickstart a green industrial revolution, create tens of thousands of jobs and slash UK carbon dioxide emissions. The green sheen on this year’s budget will do little to disguise the fact that yet again the government has merely applied a sticking plaster to a low-carbon industry on life support.”

So, do you think that the Government are doing enough to tackle climate change? Let us know what you think of the new budget at hello@ameliasmagazine.com

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Image courtesy of Sachiko, http://www.loveandhatesati.com/
Sort of initiating the summer festivals around the area, information pills Stag & Dagger takes place next month bringing zillions of awesome groups to the city. Oh come on, order like you haven`t seen thousands of flyers and posters all over the city? Here in East London they are everywhere!

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The event actually happens in one single day and with one ticket you can have access to all the gigs (yes, I said all the gigs).
London is the first one and then Stag goes for a short roadtrip taking everybody to Leeds and Glasgow on the consecutive days.

The line up for London is particularly fantastic, with over 140 names distributed in 21 venues such as Cargo, 93 Feet East and Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.

I, as a proud Brazilian, am super excited to see Lovefoxxx, who is currently taking a well deserved break from CSS after a massive success last year, but will be having a solo performance at Catch.

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Lovefoxxx

There is also Cold War Kids, our dearest Slow Club, Wet Dog, My Toys Like Me, Moshi Moshi and plus an endless list of musical geniuses.

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Slow Club

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My Toys Like Me

Many many many gigs and venues to be able to organize yourself and enjoy it all in one day only. Super difficult task, isn`t it?
Since the list is huge, I suggest you go check their website for the complete offer. Can you believe there is still more people to be announced? Man, there is no end to it.
And have I said how much does the pass cost? Freaking £16.50! Ridiculously cheap.
I still have no idea on how I`ll choose the gigs to go. At first I thought about making a list of pros and cons for each of the bands. Yeah right. Better start now …
Here at Amelia’s Magazine we are always bounding up and down in excitement whenever we unearth a designer that is striving to take care of mother earth along with creating delectable pieces for all us avid fashionistas! Our latest find Ada Zanditon ticks all our boxes, sildenafil hoorah!

At the forefront of her field, buy more about Zanditon is raising the flag for innovative ethical fashion design. Injecting a healthy dose of cool into eco-fashion Zanditon’s ethos is clear, elegant, pioneering and experimental designs that challenge the conventionality and boundaries of sustainable design.

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Zanditon brings a new dimension to haute couture, a area that has not been widely broached in ecological design. Her collections are an eccentric tour de force venturing through medieval volumitous silhouettes to theatrical ruffles, all in a subdued palette of neutral blacks to muted greys and teals. Her collections convey a journey and have a real sense of fluidity. Her latest A/W collection is no exception, inspired by the literary novel Soil and Soul by Alastair Mc Intosh the book charts an ecological journey to prevent mass construction in cherished lands in Ireland. The collection subsequently has a distinctly celtic feel that is entrenched by Zanditon’s interest in Irish mythology, the collection utlises a range of prints custom designed and woven by Ada. Aswell as working in Fashion Design she also works as a Ilustrator.

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Zanditon has been shrouded with accolades, having excelled though university, with a first at London College of Fashion in Womenswear Design in 2007. She then went on to cause waves in the fashion sphere, winning an award for most creative collection at her debut at The Ethical Fashion Show in Paris in October 2008. Zanditon’s success has grown in momentum ever since and has went on to collaborate with Gareth Pugh on his pattern designs and to create a capsule collection for Oxfam out of re constructed recycled clothing.

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1. Tell me a little bit about yourself Ada?

I created my ethical and sustainable womenswear business in March 2008. I have exhibited at London Fashion Week as part of Estethica (Feb09) and at Ethical Fashion Show in Paris (oct08) where I won an award for most creative collection which includes the prize of fabric sponsorship from CELC masters of linen. I also make multimedia illustrations which have recently been exhibited in a show in Moscow alongside the work of Mark Le Bon.

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2. Your work has a environmental ethos, what inspired this?

A friend wrote her final year thesis about the environmental impact of fashion and much of the information really surprised me because it was not something I had considered in depth before although I had always been interested in Green issues since childhood. I then attended an event organised by anti apathy at which Katharine Hamnett spoke about her work in the sector of organic cotton and what it meant to her as a designer. The environmental impact of any product starts with the designer and their choices. I don’t feel limited by choosing this as a path, I feel it is a great opportunity for me as a designer to create things that I not only perform aesthetically and functionally but which I can believe in having real value to people and planet.

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3. Do you think enough is being done within the fashion sphere to promote sustainable fashion design?

It depends on the definition of enough, its a lot better than it used to be, in fact there have been weeks and months when you cannot open a magazine or a paper without there being something on sustainable design but of course there can always be more. For me it will never be enough until it is no longer necessary to promote something as sustainable because it is expected both by the designer, the buyer and the consumer that it should be designed sustainably. However I think that we have come a long way even in the last five years and I really admire and respect the hard work of the label from somewhere not only for their brand but also for putting so much passion into creating and sustaining Estethica.

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4.Do you have any advice for inspiring eco- designers?

Think of yourself first as a designer , i.e think that anything is possible and then really research and consider your concepts. Look also at what is available close to you, in your town, your country. Local is a huge part of living more sustainably.
Personally for me I am happiest when people look at my work, exclaim how much they like it and then look confused and say “but how is this eco?” because it doesn’t look like their perception of what eco friendly clothing looks like. People will adopt more sustainable life styles either through neccesity or desire. Neccesity usually comes after catastrophe so I prefer desire.

5. What do you use as a main stimulus when your designing?

A concept. I chase after something that is illusory. Its a tyeing together of different strands, its not exactly story telling but it’s got similarities. The images can be anything but the structure to my working process comes from a fascination with an idea. Or that is at least one half. The other half is people, muses, personalities and I have to say I dress very differently to the clothes I design. I think this is because I want to design clothes that have elegance, strength and allow a women to express being sexy and intelligent at the same time. I am a tom boy personally! If I had my way I would just wear jeans ,
leggings and t shirts all the time….

6. Your also an illustrator as well as a designer, does your art work inter breed into your fashion work?

Absolutely. For my aw 09 collection drew the art work that I had woven by Vanners as a silk jacquard. For my graduate collection I created prints inspired by Mayan glyphs and space travel that were digitally printed onto Silk Jersey. I also create prints for various other labels. My silhouettes and shapes in my collection also influence the shape and look of some of my
illustrations.

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7. Your illustrations have a distinctly multi-media feel, take me through your working processes?

Its quite mysterious sometimes even to me….. I start by drawing usually directly with fineliners. I might not have anything particular in mind… or just one or two images of the subject if there is one. These are usually very different to the thing I am drawing itself which often comes more from my mind’s eye. I sketch a lot from life of objects and people but hardly ever make studies that connect the sketches to the illustration. I think this is because I remember and imagine 3 dimensional imagery/objects much more than words. Then I continue via creating texture through photography and painting. All of this gets scanned in, and then a lot of photoshop and illustrator later…… and I arrive at a point where I think the balance is just right between the image I have by now an idea of and chaos. Like the clothing I think its quite an organic process.

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So keep your eyes peeled for Ada Zanditon, with fans such as Patrick Wolf I have an inkling we haven’t heard the last from this talented lady.
The UK is more than a little obsessed with celebrity. But what if you’d just dropped out of the sky, visit this site say, and had no idea who these faces were that ignite people’s collectively salivating curiosities. Better yet how would you paint them? For artist Yuko Nasu that scenario isn’t far off. When she first arrived in London from Japan four years ago, she had no idea who these revered celebrities were. In fact to her, they were just as anonymous as she felt she was in her new environment.
Coming face to face with one of Yuko’s “Imaginary Portraits” your subconscious goes into overdrive trying to place the face until you realize abruptly that you’ve been staring, hard. The portraits’ fluidity and the simple strokes of vivid color are utterly mesmerizing and has recently earned her a second successful solo exhibit, “John Doe” this time at The Arts Gallery

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Although she didn’t watch much TV at first, like so many of us Yuko picked through the gossip mags and short papers on the commute home and became intrigued by the recurring faces of media personalities. As she points out “To someone else they’re special but to me they’re no one, an unknown.” That unique experience informs her perspective and reflects a culture with an often grotesquely overdeveloped interest with celebrity. In an amusing twist of fate, one of her ambiguous paintings of Kate Moss was scooped up by the model-mum’s beau Jamie Hince. It seems familiar faces can be distilled into even the barest of essentials and still be recognized.

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After completing her MA in Fine Art at St.Martins she went on to Global Arts Practice at Chelsea College continuing her series of adjoining portraits, based on the horizontal roll call of tv personalities in the back section of the papers. When questioned about the arrangement she says, “They’re like playing scales on an instrument.” There certainly is a meditative repetition to her method. A training of the subconscious so that you can suspend the cerebral part of your mind when you work, letting it flow. Not sure which happened first Yuko explains that at some point she began to take more risks with her portraits, challenging herself and gaining confidence from the results. Although she’s still quite anxious about viewer’s responses.

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Yuko reached a turning point when, after trying unsuccessfully to denote features, she splashed some turpentine on the surface to erase or as she says “delete” the face. She feels her work began to develop a more cartoony quality, a genderless but still identifiable face.

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She started allowing the accidents to happen, as she says “like a river to flow”. The river analogy brings me quickly to the topic of “shodo“ or Japanese calligraphy, also closely linked to Buddhism and meditation. At the heart of shodo are three strokes, “tome-hane-harai” or stop-jump-sweep. The gestural quality of Yuko’s pieces and the absence of belabored heaviness are evidence of her enviable sensitivity to the freedom and balance in her work. She makes no drafts but dives into the paintings without preconception, feeling that “It would make them boring”, opting instead to simply create more paintings and have a wider selection to chose from at the end.

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The speed at which she paints depends on the surface she’s trying to create and her paintings can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a month to complete. “If I realize I’ve made a mistake, I’ll delete everything and sometimes turn the painting upside down and start again.” Not surprisingly her influences are Francis Bacon for the dynamism and strength of his images. Dutch artist Marlene Dumas’ for the tonality and passionate energy they emit and Mari Sunna’swork for its intimacy and its dark earthy browns and red.

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Yuko prefers to work in oils because “the colors are more beautiful and acrylic is too plastic, has no depth.” Cringing at the price though she admits when she first arrived in the UK “The only oil paints I had were a box of damaged/defective paints given to me by Mr. Hayakawa, vice-president of Japanese paint manufacturer Kusakabe, who’d come to my show in Ginza Tokyo.” Yuko has certainly put some distance between then and now with awards for being one of St.Martins brightest stars, her work appearing in French Elle, Vogue and an interview in Art World Magazine. Yuko Nasu’s paintings elegantly address the issue of displacement and identity, especially anonymity. The motion and speed in her images is a reflection of the way we live our lives, where details may be blurred but hey, we get the idea. Keep a sharp eye out for this one!

A serious look at developing countries role in climate change needs a serious location, and and the talk that I attended yesterday entitled “Can Developing Country Needs For Energy Be Met Without Causing Climate Change?” was held at The Houses of Parliament. Running late as usual, web I raced through the streets of Westminster, purchase which was actually quite difficult to do as there was a huge police presence and a protest taking place (I believe it was a Stop The War group). By now, I have become used to finding myself in the middle of a busy, noisy protest with police helicopters flying overhead, and I was briefly tempted to throw myself into the mix, but remembered that I had a prior engagement, so I hot-footed it over to Parliament.

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, lea_jaffy1@hotmail.com)

The room was steeped in solemn grandeur. I took a seat, and surveyed the room and its inhabitants. Naturally, I was the only red faced and breathless one from running through the halls of Parliament. The talk began by Professor Gordon MacKerron, Director of SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research ) at the University of Sussex, and was followed by Sir David King, who at one point was a Government adviser and now chairs the Smith School of Enterprise and The Environment at Oxford University, a think tank that is pioneering ways in which to tackle the issues of climate change.

The talk started off in a relatively light note, with Prof Mackerron saying that perhaps the element of emergency over the situation of climate change has not been taken seriously enough due to the fact that many think of it as global warming; and have connotations of “warmer summers and vineyards sprouting up in England”. The reality, he assured us, was rising sea levels, melting ice caps and unpredictable weather systems, not the ability to have more barbeques in the back garden. Sir David King asserted that “now is the time to put radical ideas on the table to sweep away the molasses that we are wading through as we tackle climate change”.

Professor Mackerron went on to explain that the term “developing countries” has different groups; one would be the lowest income countries, which mostly include the countries, which are to be found around the equator, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Statistics have shown that they are only responsible for an extremely small proportion of all Greenhouse Gas Emissions, so the quick answer to the events headline question is that if their energy needs are met, it will not significantly affect climate change. The issues with the other countries are slightly more complex. Continents such as India and China are most likely to be affected by climate change, and are also the least resilient to the impact. However, they are also making huge economic growth, and burning a great deal of coal – just under half the world’s amount. I was surprised to hear that both India’s, and China’s Governments are keen to embrace low carbon technologies, especially wind and nuclear power. China has pledged to improve energy efficiency by 205 by 2020. Meanwhile, India’s Prime Minister says that he wants to have a ‘low carbon footprint’. However, it is difficult to see how this is realistically going to happen exactly because of the rates of their economic growth – Professor MacKerron explained that “in order for China to play its part in a global mitigation effort, it would need to reach an emissions peak between 2020, and 2030″. And they show no signs of slowing down now.

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(Image courtesy of Kerry Lemon)

Sir David King spoke about Brazil, and what it can do to reduce its carbon footprint – in fact, he said that there was only one thing that it could do – stop deforestation. Sir King had met with Brazil’s President, Luiz Da Silva and told him this. He found the response as unexpected as we did – that the President announced, “By 2025 we will stop all deforestation”. This is a curious thing to say, he felt especially because so much of Brazil’s business is done as a result of deforestation.

Sir King also talked about ideas for alternative energy that are currently being investigated. I couldn’t quite comprehend one method; which appears to be extremely viable – and that is the technology that Holland and Norway have developed which harnesses energy from salinity power plants. It sounds unbelievable, but scientists and engineers are planning to use the difference between saltwater and fresh water found at river mouths to generate electrical power. Not being much of a scientist I decided that I would research it further when I got back, and while I still don’t quite understand how it works, the fact is that it could generate a large percentage of a countries power needs. As the board summarized in closing, with regards to climate change; “we have the tools, but no one yet is picking them up in the proper way.” We can only hope that technologies such as the above will be championed and funded so that they do become the tools that we work with to save our planet.

Written by Cari Steel on Thursday April 23rd, 2009 5:04 pm

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Amelia’s Magazine | Earth Listings 10th – 16th August

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Watching their electric performance at The Garage, information pills I immediately understood why all the major music publications are getting their knickers in a twist over The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. With the recent release of their debut album, more about The Pains have quickly amassed a devoted fan base and garnered raptuous reviews for their perfectly pitched shoe gazing dream pop. If I hadn’t met them, I might have assumed that they were the sort of band who believed their own hype – and why wouldn’t they? Having sat down with Kip and Peggy earlier in the day I instantly realised that while they weren’t oblivious to the attention, they were unfettered by it. Letting the press get on with their excitable reactions, the band just want to play the music that they love.

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The new album has practically been lauded as the second coming by heavy weights like The NY Times and NME, did you expect such an immediate and positive reaction?

Peggy – Definitely not, I just think about the bands that play music like us that we have always admired, and most of them were were not that comercially well known, and not always that critically received either, so playing the kind of music we play… we didn’t have our hopes up high. But we were really happy with the record though, we really enjoyed making it, but we had no sense that anything beyond us being happy would happen. I always liked bands that I discovered on my own, I wouldn’t hear them on commercial radio or MTV.

Kip- There are a couple of bands that reached a bigger audience like Sonic Youth or Nirvana, but most of the indie pop bands of the 90′s were limited to a narrow community.

So you were expecting that the album would spread by word of mouth, and instead you were plunged straight into a media frenzy. Were you ready for this?

Peggy- It wasn’t the goal of the band. You know, “everyone is going to love us!” We were just friends that started playing music and this is the kind of music that we like and have bonded over. I think if we had set out to get commercial success we wouldn’t sound the way that we do.

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Kip- Where we come from, our backrounds in music, there is not really a strong tradition of bands expecting good things to happen. Perhaps American bands are more self depricating (laugh) but there is this built in expectation that if you do something that you love, it might not be well received by others, but you’ll be happy because you will be proud of it.

Peggy – And you’re happy with the five people that appreciated it! (laughs) I feel like I was that person that would always appreciate a certain band and I would have been totally satisfied with that kind of response for us.

Kip- Growing up, most of the bands that I liked, I didn’t know anyone else who liked them.

Did that give it a special resonance – liking a band, and knowing that no-one else knows them?

Peggy – I wouldn’t admit that…… but I secretly enjoy it!

Kip – I would have liked to have known other people who were into the same bands as me growing up. I felt quite isolated that way; I would sit at home playing computer solitaire, listening to an album over and over again, but it’s cool now that we are travelling more and meeting people who had similar backrounds.

What is the Pains’ backround?

Peggy – I’ve been in bands since I was 13, but none of them that ever went on tour. This is the first band where I’ve got to travel.

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Kip – I was in a similar situation, but none of them had graduated above playing in a basement. So this is very different from anything I’ve ever been in – one band that I was in, our goal was to play at this house we knew that had really cool house parties! (laughs)

Can you account for the reasons why the Pains have become so successful?

Kip – We started small, we were playing together for a while before anything happened, it’s easy to lose sight of that because once the album came out things changed a bit, but we were around for a couple of years and met with plenty of challenges, so it doesn’t feel to us like it is an overnight thing, but it may seem that way from an outsiders perspective. I’m grateful for the way that it turned out because it allowed us to mess up for a bit without other people watching! (laughs) We had a relatively decent period of obscurity while we refined what we do….. and also, the reason is luck!

Peggy – And being in the right place at the right time.

Peggy, Is it true that the band formed in part to play at your birthday party?

Peggy – Yes! I remember it was my birthday and I had only invited like, four people; because I only have four friends! (laughs).

Kip – It was at this big warehouse and it was basically an elaborate plot to try and get Manhattan Love Suicides to play, and so if we threw the party, we could play first and then we could say that we played with them. So we had a month to get ready.

It sounds like it was a natural way in which the band came together….

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Kip- It was the best way. If the last seven months have taught us anything; we are always together, and if there were people that didn’t get along, it would be hellish, but we were friends for a long time before we picked up an instrument. This made the whole experience fun and much less stressful then for bands who get formed by putting ads in a paper saying ‘drummer needed’.

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Peggy – The fact that we are friends and the fact that we have stayed friends is almost more lucky than anything else.

So there haven’t been any falling outs on tour then?

Peggy (emphatically) No!

Kip – This is our first experience of doing this, we don’t have a glut of expectations, we’re just appreciative of the opportunity and are excited by it all; and when you are excited and enjoying it, it’s hard to get upset about things.

Peggy – Touring can be really hard and gruelling, and I feel like if it were with any other people it would really suck, but it ends up being fun anyway.

What have been some highlights for you in the last few months?

Peggy – Playing Primavera was really amazing, that was the first big festival we ever played, and I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I don’t like crowds (laughs) so I thought, today might be weird or awkward, but it ended up being really life affirming and it was the biggest adrenalin rush ever.

Kip- ABC news showed up at our practice place to hear us play. The fellow who does the news is on TV saying (in deep, authoratative voice), “And now, a report from Brooklyn” (laughs), and him saying our band name on televsion… I sent that to my grandparents, I think that this was the moment where my family realised that even though they didn’t quite understand what was going on with us, we were doing something worthwhile.

Which country has had the best crowds at your gigs? Apart from Britain obviously!

Kip – Obviously!

Peggy – I thought Germany was really positive, we played three shows in Germany and they were really enthusiastic.

Kip – Sweden was pretty amazing, that country has a strong tradition of appreciating bands like ours and even though Swedes are normally really reserved, the enthusiasm we saw there predated even us having a record out – we had released our EP and if we had played in New York, maybe 40 people would have come, and we would know 37 of them, and then we went to Sweden and all of a sudden we were playing really big shows and I had no idea that a band like ours could find an audience like that. But most of the places that we have travelled to have been positive experiences.

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You’ve got some more touring to do, and then what do you have planned?

Kip- We have an EP coming out this fall, we recorded four songs before we went to Europe in May, and after the tour we are going back to practicing and working on the new record. But every step of the process is exciting and I try not to think too far into the future, because then you miss out on what is happening in the present.

After this I get Kip and Peggy to take part in my game of Lucky Dip, which involves picking questions out of the bag (my handbag, actually) Peggy picks the “What is the first record that you ever brought?” and proudly tells me that it was Madonna’s “Like A Prayer”, and then with less confidence, quietly adds that a purchase of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” was also made. “I was really into female performers at the time!” she cried. Kip gets the “What is on your rider?” question, and true to form, the down to earth bands requests are not unicorns, dwarfs and mounds of Class A’s, but bread, hummus, water and beer. ” We just need to make sure that we get fed around 5pm or we get a bit grumpy” Kip ventures, although I don’t think any explanation is needed when the sum contents of your rider can be placed in a Tesco’s 5 items or less basket.

“The Pains of Being Pure At Heart” is out now.
Monday 10th August

UN Climate Change Talks

The U.N. Climate Change Talks in Bonn, recipe Germany begin a series of informal intersessional consultations today. These are part of the run-up to Copenhagen in December, search and this particular series can be found webcast live here

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Illustration by Sergio Membrillas

Tuesday 11th August

The Yes Men

The Yes Men film shows the hoaxes perpetrated by two US political pranksters. The promotion team describe the film as “so stupidly entertaining” that it will reach and motivate thousands of people, this thus “adding even more juice into a movement that is trying to save civilization itself, among other modest goals.

Tuesday is the satellite event – live from Sheffield, it’s a simulcast event screening of THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD and live q&a with the Yes Men beamed via satellites from Sheffield Showroom. Cinema-goers will have the opportunity to put their questions live and direct to the film’s stars from their respective cinema locations.

20.30, at the following London cinemas:
Odeon Panton Street, Clapham Picture House, The Gate Notting Hill, Greenwich Cinema, Ritzy Brixton, Screen-on-the-Green
More cinemas on the screenings page of their website.

Wednesday 12th August

Green Spaces & Sticky Feet

A creative exploration of the nature beneath our feet as we roam around the gardens – to help us understand why green spaces are important and how we can make our buildings greener. This is a workshop for children of all ages, who must be accompanied at all times by an adult.

2.30-4.30pm
St John-at-Hackney Churchyard Gardens

Contact – The Building Exploratory – 020 7729 2011 – mail@buildingexploratory.org.uk
www.buildingexploratory.org.uk

VESTAS : National Day of Action

On Friday the 7th August the bailiffs went in and the occupation of the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight ended.

In response to this a National Day of Action in support of the Vestas workers and to keep the factory open, for Green Jobs and a Green Energy Revolution, was declared. There will be actions all around the country organised by a diverse range of groups.

Or contact your local CCC group, or Union – or if you want to organise something in your area there is some advice from Jonathan Neale, of the CCC Trade Union group

The campaign to Save Vestas has not finished, it has just started and with it comes a campaign for a step change in the creation of Green Jobs and the Green Energy Revolution !

6.30pm
Outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

Contact – info@campaigncc.org – savevestas.wordpress.com

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Illustration by Jeffrey Bowman

Thursday 13th August

Journey Deep Into the Heart of Remembrance

A spiritual celebration and experience, honouring our regal beauty with sacred song and dance. Dances of universal peace, Taize singing, Bhajans & Kirtan, native American sweat lodge, Zikr & Sufi practice, Breton dancing, Tibetan sound meditation, yoga, tribal dance, ancient ways of the British Isles, chant wave and more…

You can find more details www.hounslow.info

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Illustration by Faye Katirai

Saturday 15th August

Fly by Night at Totteridge Fields Nature Reserve

Let the London Wildlife Trust take you out trapping, identifying and recording moths on the Totteridge Fields Nature Reserve. Come and see how many species of moths visit the fields at night. Please wear warm clothes and sensible footwear. Bring a Torch, Notebook and pen. You may also want to bring a flask.

Free car parking in sports ground car park adjacent to the Hendon Wood Lane entrance.
Nearest tube is Totteridge & Whetstone
251 bus stops on Totteridge Common near the junction with Hendon Wood Lane.

8.30-10.30pm
Hendon wood Lane entrance to totteridge Fields Nature Reserve
Contact – Clive Cohen – 07973 825 165 – notinbooks.conservation@btinternet.com

Written by Tom Russell on Monday August 10th, 2009 12:42 pm

Categories ,change, ,climate, ,environmental, ,events, ,london, ,yes

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Amelia’s Magazine | Earth Listings: 23rd – 29th November 2009

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Monday 23rd November, viagra 60mg Lisa Hannigan, Royal Festival Hall

Lisa

Debut album “Sea Sew” came out this summer from Miss Hannigan and she is now touring to support this. The Mercury Prize nominated album includes singles “Lille” and “I Don’t Know”. She continues the tour in Manchester and Birmingham before a string of Irish dates leading up to Christmas.

Tuesday 24th November, Pyramiddd, Flowerpot

Pyramiddd

Previously known as something that isn’t suitable for publishing at this time of day, these punk/rock/pop/disco kids tick all the boxes. They are touring in the UK for the first time to support debut single “Medicine” which is out November 30th. As well as appearing at the Flowerpot tonight they will also play ICA with those Filthy Dukes on the 25th and Notting Hill Arts Club on the 26th of November.

Wednesday November 25th, The Puppini Sisters, Pigalle

Puppini

Catch jazzy pop trio The Puppini Sisters at the peak of a 5 night stint at the Pigalle club. Album “The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo” is out now on which Beyonce, The Bangles and Take That get the unique Puppini swing-stylee treatment.

Thursday November 26th, Musee Mecanique, The Luminaire

Musee Mecanique

This Portland based posse come to London to treat us with their mellow indie folk tracks that feature on the beautiful album, “Hold Your Ghost”. These guys who have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut are tonight performing with Laura Gibson.

Friday November 27th, Silver Odyssey Experience, Secret Location

Silver

Fancy some Friday night stimulation? The Silver Odyssey experience covers all bases with Sounds, Sights, Smells, Touch, and Tastes to please. The techno teatime sounds come courtesy of Radio Slave and The Time and Space Machine. The secret location shall be revealed 2 days before the event.

Saturday November 28th, Cinammon Chasers, Master&Servant and Glover, Proud

Cinnamon Chasers

Listing films such as “The Never Ending Story” as one of his influences, Cinnamon Chasers says . “I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid”. Do you need another reason to go and experience this?
Electro act Cinnamon Chasers shall perform along side Master&Servant and Glover.

Sunday 29th November, Sophie Solomon, Purcell Room

Sophie Solomon

Learning to play the Violin by ear from the age of two Sophie Solomon combines this with her vocal skills and merges a melody of styles into her music. The album “Poison Sweet Madeira” is her most recent offering.
Monday 23rd November, salve Lisa Hannigan, Royal Festival Hall

Lisa

Debut album “Sea Sew” came out this summer from Miss Hannigan and she is now touring to support this. The Mercury Prize nominated album includes singles “Lille” and “I Don’t Know”. She continues the tour in Manchester and Birmingham before a string of Irish dates leading up to Christmas.

Tuesday 24th November, Pyramiddd, Flowerpot

Pyramiddd

Previously known as something that isn’t suitable for publishing at this time of day, these punk/rock/pop/disco kids tick all the boxes. They are touring in the UK for the first time to support debut single “Medicine” which is out November 30th. As well as appearing at the Flowerpot tonight they will also play ICA with those Filthy Dukes on the 25th and Notting Hill Arts Club on the 26th of November.

Wednesday November 25th, The Puppini Sisters, Pigalle

Puppini

Catch jazzy pop trio The Puppini Sisters at the peak of a 5 night stint at the Pigalle club. Album “The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo” is out now on which Beyonce, The Bangles and Take That get the unique Puppini swing-stylee treatment.

Thursday November 26th, Musee Mecanique, The Luminaire

Musee Mecanique

This Portland based posse come to London to treat us with their mellow indie folk tracks that feature on the beautiful album, “Hold Your Ghost”. These guys who have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut are tonight performing with Laura Gibson.

Friday November 27th, Silver Odyssey Experience, Secret Location

Silver

Fancy some Friday night stimulation? The Silver Odyssey experience covers all bases with Sounds, Sights, Smells, Touch, and Tastes to please. The techno teatime sounds come courtesy of Radio Slave and The Time and Space Machine. The secret location shall be revealed 2 days before the event.

Saturday November 28th, Cinammon Chasers, Master&Servant and Glover, Proud

Cinnamon Chasers

Listing films such as “The Never Ending Story” as one of his influences, Cinnamon Chasers says . “I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid”. Do you need another reason to go and experience this?
Electro act Cinnamon Chasers shall perform along side Master&Servant and Glover.

Sunday 29th November, Sophie Solomon, Purcell Rooms
Sophie Solomon

Learning to play the Violin by ear from the age of two Sophie Solomon combines this with her vocal skills and merges a melody of styles into her music. The album “Poison Sweet Madeira” is her most recent offering.
Monday 23rd November, medications Lisa Hannigan, Royal Festival Hall

Lisa

Debut album “Sea Sew” came out this summer from Miss Hannigan and she is now touring to support this. The Mercury Prize nominated album includes singles “Lille” and “I Don’t Know”. She continues the tour in Manchester and Birmingham before a string of Irish dates leading up to Christmas.

Tuesday 24th November, Pyramiddd, Flowerpot

Pyramiddd

Previously known as something that isn’t suitable for publishing at this time of day, these punk/rock/pop/disco kids tick all the boxes. They are touring in the UK for the first time to support debut single “Medicine” which is out November 30th. As well as appearing at the Flowerpot tonight they will also play ICA with those Filthy Dukes on the 25th and Notting Hill Arts Club on the 26th of November.

Wednesday November 25th, The Puppini Sisters, Pigalle

Puppini

Catch jazzy pop trio The Puppini Sisters at the peak of a 5 night stint at the Pigalle club. Album “The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo” is out now on which Beyonce, The Bangles and Take That get the unique Puppini swing-stylee treatment.

Thursday November 26th, Musee Mecanique, The Luminaire

Musee Mecanique

This Portland based posse come to London to treat us with their mellow indie folk tracks that feature on the beautiful album, “Hold Your Ghost”. These guys who have been compared to Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut are tonight performing with Laura Gibson.

Friday November 27th, Silver Odyssey Experience, Secret Location

Silver

Fancy some Friday night stimulation? The Silver Odyssey experience covers all bases with Sounds, Sights, Smells, Touch, and Tastes to please. The techno teatime sounds come courtesy of Radio Slave and The Time and Space Machine. The secret location shall be revealed 2 days before the event.

Saturday November 28th, Cinammon Chasers, Master&Servant and Glover, Proud

Cinnamon Chasers

Listing films such as “The Never Ending Story” as one of his influences, Cinnamon Chasers says . “I try to create music that gives me the vibe those classic films gave me as a kid”. Do you need another reason to go and experience this?
Electro act Cinnamon Chasers shall perform along side Master&Servant and Glover.

Sunday 29th November, Sophie Solomon, Purcell Rooms
Sophie Solomon

Learning to play the Violin by ear from the age of two Sophie Solomon combines this with her vocal skills and merges a melody of styles into her music. The album “Poison Sweet Madeira” is her most recent offering.
Climate Rush Film Screening: DEEDS NOT WORDS
Tuesday 24th November 2009 

climaterush

Image courtesy of Amelia Gregory

It’s been just over a year since Climate Rush decended on Parliament dressed as Suffragettes, this web demanding an immediate halt to airport expansion, buy information pills no new coal power stations and an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. Amazingly, camera footage documenting that historic day has been developed into a stirring new film that features significant moments such as an inspiring speech by Caroline Lucas MEP. (and also featuring Amelia’s Magazine’s Amelia Gregory!) Go along and relive the thrill of the first Rush at the VERY FIRST screening of this momentous new movie!

Image courtesy of Climate Rush

Image courtesy of Amelia Gregory

Where? The Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Road, London
When? 6 – 10pm, Tuesday 24th November 2009
FREE ENTRY
www.climaterush.co.uk

www.tubbybrother.co.uk

Fun Between Your Legs: Help design the Resistance Machine!
24th – 29th November 2009

Climate Camp and Art Activist group The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination merge to create Operation Bike Bloc, which will launch it’s Resistance Machine during the COP15 UN summit in Copenhagen next month. The machine, in case you’re wondering, will be fashioned from hundreds of old bicycles and activists bodies. Artists, engineers, welders, bike hackers and more will team up to create this new tool of cival disobedience and you can get involved too. If you’d like to help design and build the prototype get yourself down to the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol this week, or even help build the final design at the Candyfactory in Copenhagen between the 6th – 16th of December. More coming on Operation Bike Bloc later this week!

Image courtesy of Katie Rose Gill

 Image courtesy of Katie Rose Gill – Girl & The Deer

Where? Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
When? 24th – 29th November
www.arnolfini.org.uk

Live to Create November
Saturday 28th November

Switch from Consumer to Creator in this special one day workshop held by Live to Create founder Lucy Wills and Carbon Outreach‘s Erica Grigg. Us humans are unique in our over consumption and this workshop aims to confront these barriers that are perhaps preventing our creativity and reconnect with our creative identities. Using ideas, tools and dynamic activities that have been drawn from corporate best practice, grassroots activism, personal development, magic and Laban dance theory the purpose of this event is not to tell you what you can and cannot buy, but to help you discover what you could be doing and to nudge you out into your new creative universe.

There are only 16 places for this one day workshop held at the lovely Time for Tea in Shoreditch, so book as soon possible. Pop along for the workshop and stay for the tea, cake and conversation!

Where? Time for Tea, 110 Shoreditch High Street, London
When? 10.30am – 4.00pm, Saturday 28th November
Cost? £50 each, £30 concessions
Order tickets www.livetocreatenovember-efbevent.eventbite.com

Written by Grace Beaumont on Monday November 23rd, 2009 6:21 pm

Categories ,Anti-Consumerism, ,bicycles, ,Carbon Reduction, ,Climate Camp, ,Climate Rush, ,Copenhagen summit

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Amelia’s Magazine | Earth Listings 8th – 14th June

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This Saturday, information pills pill The Land Is Ours collective will occupy some disused land near Hammersmith. An eco-village will take root, viagra sale peacefully reclaiming land for a sustainable settlement, and getting in touch with the local community about its aims. In a year when nearly 13,000 Britons lost their homes to repossessions in the first three months, eco-villages point the way to a more down-to-earth lifestyle.

Back in May 1996, the same collective took over a spot on the banks of the Thames in Wandsworth, in a land rights action that grew up over five and a half months into the Pure Genius community, based on sustainable living and protesting the misuse of urban land. Here are some photos from that project.

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The Land Is Ours channel the spirit of the Diggers , a group of 17-century radicals who picked out and dug over a patch of common land in St George’s Hill in Walton-upon-Thames back in the day. They were led by Gerard Winstanley, who thought any freedom must come from free access to the land.

Here’s a little more from ‘Gerard Winstanley’ about this weekend:

What’s the first thing you’ll do when you get there?
Have a meeting. One of the first priorities is to leaflet the local area in order to inform the local people of what we are doing. Another priority is the construction of compost toilets.

Do you have lots of plans for sheds, vegetable patches and compost toilets?
Yes. Due to the nature of the site (ex-industrial) we will likely be using raised beds to grow vegetables and buckets for potatoes. It being London, there should be a good supply of thrown away materials from building sites and in skips. Compost toilets are pretty essential.

?What kinds of people are you expecting to turn up?
All sorts. Hopefully a mixture of those keen to learn and those willing to teach. ??

1ecovillage%20pic2.jpg

?I read the Chapter 7 manifesto. Have you notified the council or planning authority of your plans, or are you keeping to the idea that once you’re there, with homes under construction, it’s difficult to evict?
We haven’t notified the council yet- but we have a liaison strategy in place for when we’re in.

On that note, how long do you hope to be there?
The longevity of the Eco-village depends on how committed its residences and just as crucially how the local urban populus respond to our presence. If we receive the support we need, the council will likely think twice before embarking on an unpopular eviction (at least that’s the theory!).

1ecovillage3.jpg

Could this realistically become a permanent residence, or is it more likely to be valuable simply as campaigning?
Hopefully it can be both. There is no reason why this site cannot sustain a core group of committed individuals and serve as a brilliant awareness raiser to the issue of disused urban land, lack of affordable housing and the a sustainable way of living that is friendly to people and planet and liberating.

rainbow%201eco%20village.jpg

?Can I come along?
Of course, we are meeting at Waterloo Station at 10AM this Saturday (underneath the clock).

What might I need to do?
Bring a tent, sleeping bag and some food and water. You may be interested to read an article written by a journalist from the Guardian concerning the eco-village.

tent1%20eco%20village.jpg

So dig yourself out of bed this Saturday, and go discover the beginnings of London’s newest eco-village.
If the dark shades of under-duvet hideouts dominate the colour of your Sundays then you need to wake up and get greened. Arcola Theatre in East London hopes to be the first carbon neutral theatre in the world and has been appointed as the secretariat for the Mayor of London’s Green Theatre plan, this which aims to deliver 60 percent cuts in theatre carbon emissions by 2025.

FayeKatiraiEcoArt.jpg
Illustration by Faye Katirai

As part of this environmental drive, the first Sunday of every month is a Green Sunday at Arcola Theatre. June’s event is part of Love London, the biggest green festival in Europe and looks at ethical consumption, promising ‘entertainment and inspiration for the ecologically curious’. From 3pm there’s a swap shop market plus cakes and tea to take you through the evening of Senegalese percussion, cool short and feature-length films, starting from 4.30pm. As the afternoon turns to evening, there will be a discussion with Neil Boorman, author of Bonfire Of The Brands, an account of his journey from shopping and brand addiction to a life free from labels. As part of the project, Neil destroyed every branded product in his possession, incinerating over £20,000 worth of designer gear in protest of consumer culture. This will be chaired by Morgan Phillips.

Neil and Morgan will later be joined by Richard King from Oxfam to talk about their 4-a-week campaign- encouraging shoppers to do their bit for sustainability each week.

Then at 7pm – Feature length film presented by Transition Town Hackney–
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash

Greensundayspromo.jpg

I spoke to the sustainability projects manager at Arcola Theatre, Anna Beech, to find out more about Arcola’s arts world-changing philosophies:

All at Arcola must be extremely proud that a theatre founded only 9 years ago – and on credit cards! – is well on the way to becoming the first carbon neutral theatre in the world. Can you tell us a bit about how and why you made the decision to lead the green theatre movement?

Since 2007, Arcola has launched many high-profile green initiatives (including the pioneering use of LEDs and the on-site installation of a fuel cell to power bar and stage lighting). There are a number of reasons for this – because it contributes to reducing Arcola’s carbon emissions and resource use, because it makes financial sense – reducing energy bills; because it supports funding applications; because it integrates Arcola into the local community; allows Arcola to reach a wider audience and stakeholder base; and provides an effective platform upon which to publicise the name ‘Arcola’ – as a hub of creativity and sustainability.

Sustainability is part of Arcola’s core unique business model, alongside professional theatre and our youth and community programme.

Have you found that arts and science professionals are eager to integrate and come up with exciting ideas and actions or has it been difficult to bring the two fields together?

Arcola’s ArcolaEnergy has had considerable interest from technology companies and brokers, including the Carbon Trust. As a reocgnised innovator in sustainability in the arts, Arcola has been able to broker extremely advantageous relationships with private sector companies – who have provided the theatre with free green products, including LED lights – as well as other theatres and arts organisations (National Theatre, Arts Council, Live Nation, The Theatres Trust), and Government bodies like the DCMS and Mayor of London’s Office. Arcola’s reputation as a sustainable charity has created these partnerships and allowed them to grow and develop into mutually advantageous relationships. So this demonstrates that the arts and sustainability worlds can come together to form mutually advanteous relationships. However, there is plenty of work to be done.

So far, what has been the most successful pioneering energy practice you’ve introduced?

The installation of Arcola’s fuel cell in February 2008 made the venue the first theatre in the world to power its main house shows and bar/café on hydrogen. The Living Unknown Soldier gained reverence as London’s most ecologically sustainable show, with the lighting at a peak power consumption of 4.5kW, a reduction of 60 per cent on comparable theatre lighting installations.

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greensundasphoto2.jpg
Previous Green Sunday events at the Arcola Theatre

Arcola’s ‘greening’ goes from the stage to the box office. Among other things, we produce ‘green’ newsletters for staff, we recycle, we provide free tap water to audiences (to lessen use of bottled water), we serve fairtrade, organic and local produce wherever possible (including organic vodka and whiskey!), we host Transition Town meetings, we installed a cycle enclosure for staff in 2009 and try to incentivise both staff and audiences to use public transport more and their cars less.

How do you think the technical creativity of sustainability has significantly shaped any of the plays Arcola has produced?

One example of the ‘greening’ of Arcola’s shows and working closely with production companies took place during the pre-production and staging of ‘Living Unknown Soldier‘ in 2008. The production explored the use of more energy efficient lanterns, including LED moving heads and batons (see Fig. 1) florescent tubes and some other filament lanterns such as low wattage source 4′s and par 16s. The crew tried to travel by public transport wherever possible, use laptops rather than PCs, limit phone use, source sustainable materials and managed to keep energy requirements low in order to use Arcola’s fuel cell to power the show.

‘‘The idea is that once you expose people to this stuff and they know you for doing it, they’ll gravitate towards you. Ultimately we should end up with some really good art about sustainability and some really good ideas about how to do art sustainably.” – Ben Todd, Executive Director and Founder of Arcola Energy.

David.elsley.one.jpg
Illustration by David Elsley

Why do you think its particularly important for the arts to become more involved in green issues?

Because the arts have the power to influence behaviour change. Whilst the theatre industry itself has a relatively small carbon footprint (2% of total carbon emissions in London), and thus its capacity to deliver direct carbon emission reductions is relatively small; the power of theatre and the wider arts/cultural sectors to rapidly and effectively influence public behaviour and policy makers to drive significant indirect carbon emission reductions is very large (entertainment related activity accounts for up to 40% of travel emissions).

However, theatres and other arts venues must first address the ‘greening’ of their venues and practices in order to communicate climate change and environmental messages to audiences effectively and with impact.

Green Sundays is a great idea, how do you hope to see it develop in the future months?

We have a variety of themes in mind for future events, including a focus on the climate talks in Copenhagen in December, a water theme, ethical business, natural history and a Green Sunday programme tailored to children and young people.

So get over your hangover, get on your bike and cycle down to Dalston on Sunday to help spread the word about arts and sustainability coming together to communicate environmental messages to your local community.

To find out more about Green Sundays and the Arcola Theatre go to:

www.arcolatheatre.com
Continuing our odyssey of festival previews, page I bring you the amazing Green Man!

I don’t keep it secret that I’ve had a crush on Jarvis Cocker since I was 10 and first heard Common People, I suppose announcing it on a blog was just the next logical step in my snowballing lust for the bespectacled one. Imagine my delight when I saw he was headlining as a solo outfit at this year’s Green Man Festival.

Green_Man_Festival_2006.jpg
Green Man 2006

Rock_en_Seine_2007%2C_Jarvis_Cocker.jpg
Jarvis Cocker

All the other festivals will be green with envy over Green Man’s line-up, one of the most exciting and diverse of the summer. Alongside Jarv, Animal Collective will also be headlining and having seen them a couple of times over the past few years they are really not to be missed live, their shows can only be described as being in an underwater topsy-turvy world where you can feel the rhythm wash over you in waves.

animal_collective-pic-by-adriano-fegundes.jpg
Animal Collective

Green Man is in no short supply of indie darlings and big names, with Wilco, Bon Iver, Gang Gang Dance, the delicious Beach House and Grizzly Bear; who I’m gagging to see live after finally getting a copy of their amazing second album Veckatimest. Not to be transatlantically out down; Green Man boasts an impressive array of home-grown talent- including Four-Tet, national treasures British Sea Power, and to woo the romantic in you; Camera Obscura.
Ex- member of my favourites Gorky’s Zygotic Mynki Euros Childs, Andrew Bird, 6 Day Riot and James Yuill also stand out as bands (as well as the above mentioned) not to be missed.

beach-house.jpg
Beach House

Whilst Green Man has managed to pull in such an awesome line-up, it has a reputation for a boutique-y intimacy and a friendly atmosphere. Green Man is most definitely a festival for music lovers, and one that I won’t be missing!

greenmanfestival2007.jpg
Green Man Festival 2007

Green Man Festival takes place amidst the Breacon Beacons from 21st to 23rd August. Click here for ticket information.

Thumbnail by Roisin Conway
Some people have the knack for discovering those amazing pieces in charity shops – it’s generally the preserve of both the patient and the fashion-savvy who are content to rummage away until they emerge with some designer find that leaves you flapping your arms and wondering why it wasn’t you.
Now ten minutes in Topshop – that’s a quick fix. Why bother buying something old when you can buy something new? If last week’s Style Wars was only a half-formed idea, generic intent to float and suggest a concept, but not to follow through, TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) has articulated the remaking and reselling of used clothes as an ethical necessity. Citing the whopping £46 billion spent on clothes and accessories every year, TRAID highlights the colossal wastage resultant of constantly changing trends that are both cheap and easily available. The ease of shopping on the high street seems to problematise the feeling that the act of recycling is an almost paradoxical idea for an industry that is by name and nature grounded in an obsession with the new and the innovative.
Here lies the problem in normal charity shop shopping. The dowdy and stale image affixed to them is arguably (however unfortunately) justifiable, and TRAID has been taking the steps to rebrand the public perception of recycled clothing by actually joining the dots between the environment, recycling and fashion itself. Charity and fashion are practically mutually alienating concepts in most people’s minds. In short, charity shops aren’t trendy, so how do you turn that around? Chief Executive Maria TRAID recognises the problem and goes straight to the heart of it, saying “we have worked incredibly hard to change the face of charity retail by ensuring that our shops are stylish and affordable”, two words you might associate with the high street.

Picture%20021.jpg

TRAID has 900 textile recycling banks across the UK, and the company take the donations and sort by quality and style to then sell in one of their charity shops – clothes that are stained or torn are deconstructed and redesigned into a bespoke garment by the company’s own fashion label TRAIDremade.

Picture%20023.jpg

In a way it’s an absolute no-brainer: to take things people don’t want and make them something they do, especially as they follow high street trends, crafting sexy asymmetric dresses, bags cut from old leathers, signature hand printed tees and flirty dresses.

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Two weeks ago TRAID opened their tenth shop in their tenth year in Camden, which as well as being an area that’s a promising resource in terms of fashionable finds, is a landmark for a really inspirational company. To date TRAID has donated £1.4 million to help fight global poverty, supporting charities by funding projects in Malawi and Kenya amongst others. TRAID has ten shops located across London and Brighton, and TRAIDremade is available on getethical.co.uk.

Monday 8th June

The End of the Line

Imagine a world without fish. Released in cinemas across the country to coincide for World Ocean Day, medical an inconvenient truth about the devastating effect of overfishing.

Opens today, check your local cinema for screenings.

0608%20dead%20fish.jpg

Lambeth Green Communities Open Evening

Organised in partnership with Transition Town Brixton, Hyde Farm CAN and ASSA CAN, this is a chance to celebrate Lambeth’s Green Communities and be inspired to reduce your community’s environmental impact.

18.30-21.00 drop-in to Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton
Contact – Susan Sheehan, Ssheehan (at) lambeth.gov.uk

Tuesday 9th June

The Great British Refurb
Housing for a low carbon energy future – a talk at the The Royal Society

A talk by Professor Tadj Oreszczyn, chaired by Professor Chris Rapley. Theoretical carbon reductions have often been slow to materialise, new buildings can use up to twice the energy predicted, and energy use can actually go up when efficiency increases. This lecture will look at the possibilities for new building, and whether technology can solve our energy use problems. Tadj Oreszczyn is Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Energy Institute at UCL.

0608%20house%20heat.jpg

This lecture is free – no ticket or booking required. Doors open at 5.45pm and seats are first-come first-served. Lecture starts at 6.30pm, The Royal Society

This lecture will be webcast live and available to view on demand within 48 hours of delivery at royalsociety.tv

Wednesday 10th June

Time_for_change_sml_copy-1.jpg
Illustration by Kerry Lemon

GM Crops and the Global Food Crisis

Dominic Glover, Erik Millstone, Peter Newell talk about possible solutions to the encroaching global food crisis – how will GM crops fit in to the struggle to raise yields, and could they be part of a truly sustainable answer?

6pm, Committee Room 10, Palace of Westminster.
Contact – c.matthews (at) ids.ac.uk

Thursday 11th June

Walking on the Edge of the City

Join a popular walking group on a stroll around this fascinating part of London. There’s no charge and no need to book. Do get there ten minutes before the start time, wear comfortable shoes and bring a small bottle of water.

11am – 12.15pm, meeting at St Luke’s Centre, 90 Central Street, London, EC1V

Clothes Swap at Inc Space

Daisy Green Magazine and ethical stylist Lupe Castro have teamed up to host what is hoped to be the UK’s biggest ever clothes swap. Nicola Alexander, founder of daisygreenmagazine.co.uk, said, “It’s like a fashion treasure hunt!”

The evening will kick off at 6.30 and, as well as the swish (apparently the ‘scene’ word for a clothes swap), it will feature an ethical styling demonstration by Lupe Castro, music from top green band, The Phoenix Rose, burlesque dancing and shopping opportunities from ethical fashion brands including Bochica, Makepiece, Bourgeois Boheme, and natural beauty company, Green People.

Tickets are £10 in advance and £15 on the door.
More information can be found on our facebook page
From 18:30 at INC Space in Grape Street, London WC2

david%20.elsley.two.jpg
Illustration by David Elsley.

Friday 12th June

Compost Clinic and Recycling Roadshow

Redbridge Recycling Group are running a friendly information stand all day. Want to bin the bags and green your shopping habits? Fancy making your own compost or confused about packaging labels? Pop along any time of day to have your questions answered and find out how to make the future waste free.

11am – 4pm, Ilford High Road, opposite the Town Hall/Harrison Gibson

Saturday 13th June

World Naked Bike Ride

Taking place all over the country, all over the world, the World Naked Bike Ride protests against oil dependency and car culture, celebrating the power of our bikes and bodies. Every June, more than a thousand cyclists gather in London to take part. The easy 10 km route passes through London’s busiest and best known streets. Bring your bike and body (decorate both of these ahead of time)

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Assemble from 3pm in Hyde Park (South East section, near Hyde Park Tube) – east of the Broad Walk, south of the Fountain of Joy, and north of the Achilles Statue.

Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June

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Sustainability Weekend

Celebrate the Love London, Love Your Planet Festival 2009 at the London Wetland Centre this weekend. Check out TFL’s new hybrid bus, see the Richmond shire horses and get a load of green tips and tricks. There will also be face painting for the kids, the Richmond cycling campaign and other environmentally friendly organisations.

11am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday
WWT London Wetland Centre, SW13 9WT

Written by Tom Russell on Monday June 8th, 2009 1:54 pm

Categories ,bike, ,cycling, ,end of the line, ,london, ,naked, ,overfishing, ,sustainability

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I must confess that it has taken me awhile to sit down and attempt to tackle the greatness that was Climate Camp, side effects shop partly because it totally knackered me out and partly because I don’t want to misreport anything and there is so much to say that I am not sure where to start… so I guess I will start at the beginning, and maybe I will end at the point where I got arrested. But you’ll have to read on to find out all about that! And apologies if it may take you awhile! I’ve discovered so many photos that I want to put out there that this is going to be a mammoth affair…

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the site at dusk

Just to recap, Climate Camp this year was on the Hoo Peninsula, within sighting distance of the vast chimneys of Kingsnorth coal-fired power station, the site where megalith energy company E.On are planning to build a whacking great new power station starting next year. If this power station is built it will be one of seven or eight new coal-fired power stations that our great government is planning to roll out across the UK. If this is allowed to happen there is no way on earth that we will ever meet our CO2 emissions targets as agreed internationally, and we will never be able to continue berating the likes of China and India for continuing to build coal-fired power stations. It would be a severe case of pot calling the kettle black – so, for the future of life as we know it, we can’t allow a new Kingsnorth to happen.
I’ve obviously been heavily involved in the set up of at least one small part of the camp this year, namely the London Neighbourhood. With the help of the fabulous Leona Clarke (I can’t big her up enough – every art director loves to work with an illustrator who just so gets what they want, and delivers with such amazing accuracy, speed and good will) I produced the posters and flyers that soon appeared all over much of London inviting people to come join our little community at Climate Camp, and then I also put together a songbook so that the peeps on camp could sing and have fun together.

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Leona Clarke’s amazing poster intended to invite Londoners to visit Climate Camp

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checking out the songbooks!

This was done at the very last minute before I left for camp and the 300 books that I persuaded my lovely printers Principal Colour to print for free (sample comment to me “have you heard of the phrase ‘more front than Brighton Beach Amelia?’” – what, me?!) were delivered by a bemused courier to the roundabout above camp as we were under siege from several dozen obnoxious riot police (are there any other kind?) It had been noted that a brother of one of the guys who works at Principal Colour works for the Kent Police so maybe he could have given me the books but we decided that was probably a baaaaad idea. My lovely intern Emma Hamshare also made four beautiful yellow aprons that were inspired by the concept of an escaped coalmine canary and were worn through the week by a variety of motley London cooks.

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London neighbourhood cooks in Emma’s coalmine canary design aprons

But as usual I digress… on the Sunday I couldn’t wait to get away from dirty old London to the utopian pastures of the Hoo peninsula, and with backpack aloft I met my ex boyfriend Dave on the train out to Strood. Already I was meeting familiar faces at the station and by the time we disembarked the place was positively thronging with happy looking people, some of whom I knew already from my many Climate Camp related missions. Catching the bus with two adventurous school girls and Guy Shrubsole, we found our way to the police check point for the first of many searches and pink slips.

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waiting to be searched in the police pen

To say that this felt incredibly uncalled for is to totally underemphasize the amount of pressure this constant ill-treatment put us though.

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Dave surrounded by friendly cops

Luckily I winged my way through the searches with belongings fully intact – not so many others. One great video made by VisionOn TV on camp showed a multitude of not so lucky folk detailing the ridiculous things that they had confiscated… kid’s crayons, tent poles, bolts to complete the compost loos, a brolley. The list went on and on. And as we stood there we watched helplessly as they impounded a large truck bearing one of our much needed wind turbines. Oh the insanity.
And oh the joy on entering the Climate Camp site – much bigger and more sloping than last year, it was still in a state of preparation so our compatriots were mightily pleased by the sudden influx of bodies for the official start of camp. Needless to say that everything was behind due to the police antics that had taken place in the days previous to our arrival. Thanks, again.

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the welcome flags

My first evening was spent watching Team America in the peddle powered cinema in the Scotland neighbourhood – I hadn’t seen it before, and whilst certainly a one trick pony it suddenly dawned on me where my friends were getting “i’m so ronry” catchphrases from, and I enjoyed the crack. All seemed so lovely and pleasant; we even had a beautiful full rainbow appear over the whole camp that framed Kingsnorth a treat – but I had a niggling feeling that this was the calm before the storm, and boy was I right.

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the rainbow over happy campers

5am, Monday morning, and what was to become the first of many dawn wake up calls. Psychological warfare had commenced – we’ll fuck their minds up with lack of sleep if nothing else. Let me remind you that we pitched up in Kent as PEACEFUL protestors, with no plan to use violence of any kind. Awoken by the frantic alarm calls of those who had been on duty at the topmost gate and were now racing through the fields to rally the troops, I hopped out of my pyjamas (not so many other people), grabbed my camera and ran to help out. It’s quite something to be confronted with so many hostile men whilst still half asleep in your bedclothes, but this is exactly what happened.

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a nice way to wake up NOT

Many aggressive policemen and a clearly scared-out-of-her-wits police woman, all wielding batons and grimaces in the beautiful morning half light.

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cold and still in pyjamas and half asleep

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police at dawn

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it all seems so polite

Much has been made of police brutality so I won’t go into it in too much detail again – all I will mention is that we sang, and we put our hands in the air when they charged us with pepper spray and chanted “there is no riot, this is a peaceful protest” and we engaged some of the more genuine cops.

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sitting politely and singing

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but we apparently need full shield riot police

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coming in strong for no reason

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and we had our hands in the air as they pepper sprayed us

hands in the air, peaceful people

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atop the van that was apparently “abandoned” and the reason police came on site

And here are some videos to show you what happened.

you can probably hear that I wasn’t very impressed by this whole episode. I should probably not get so annoyed when I am taking a video and don’t know how to edit it so apologies for the voiceover. still, you’ve got to admit I had a point. and you’ve got to remember we had done NOTHING wrong.

so we sang action songs with the riot cops, and they loved it

Most of Monday got sidelined with the whole ordeal. Fortunately it was a beautiful day, thoughtful protesters made vats of tea and porridge and hand delivered them to the people protecting our site, continuing to do so at mealtime intervals throughout the week, and we managed to hold a few of the planned workshops alongside the police lines so as not to completely lose sight of the reason we were all assembled in the Hoo, to listen and talk and inspire each other towards a better future.

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delivering porridge to protesters on the front line

We even held an impromptu session where anyone could stand up and talk about why they felt it was so important to be at Climate Camp, which was incredibly moving, conducted as it was in front of the riot police lines.

one particularly passionate individual explains why he has come to Climate Camp, but the lady riot cop just wants to dance

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a Scandinavian friend tells us why he has travelled by boat and train to join us

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protesters sit peacefully in front of the police line in the sun

Then by afternoon the police had decided to try and raid the camp from the bottom gate and it quickly became apparent that our site was almost too big to try and control.

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the wall of riot police advancing onto site from below

As I passed the riot police who were standing awkward and out of place on our great grassy main parade whilst protesters tried to reason with them “we don’t need you, there is no riot!” I found my friends Kat and Plane Stupid founder Joss lain out on the ground shrugging their shoulders, as if to say, what the hell can we do now?!

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Kat and Joss take a break during the police raid – clearly a major riot going on here!

During this stand off I not only had to pinch (or briefly borrow) a bike and trailer from Bicycology to get the songbooks from way off site, passing bike and trailer over the barracaded main gate, but a number of news journalists made it onto the site, thereby ensuring that most of the photos used for the remainder of the week were of well, whatever it was you most probably saw: protesters lined against police. And so the story goes on, onesided as ever.
Fortunately things never got as heated again, at least not on our site during the week leading up to the main day of direct action. But for most of the week we had to trundle up to the roundabout half a mile away to fetch all the camp food, which was often late as were the ensuing meals.

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delivering mounds of veg by hand to the main gate

We managed to survive without onsite police presence for the rest of my time on Climate Camp – that despite their daily pleas to allow multiple police units on permanent patrol. I think this was a significant victory – Kent police may have argued that we needed police patrols for our own safety, but the only thing that people needed protection from was the police themselves – absolutely the only aggressive force to be found in the vicinity.
And so we remained a harmonious autonomous community. I am sure my friend Jamie won’t mind me quoting him at this point, because I think he summed it up really well in an email he sent around our mailing list last week. “I’ve never seen a group of people use consensus in such an efficient way. It was like an ant colony. Nor a group of people stand up to police with such non-violent conviction. They were getting full on battered by shield and stick and they just stood / sat there with hands in the air. It was like Gandhi.”

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my gorgeous girlfriends bask in the sunshine. jeez I know some hotties!

By Tuesday the workshops were all running smoothly, and I was running around in my usual impression of a headless chicken, attending neighbourhood meetings, site meetings and the like. Workshops will each be addressed in blogs of their own, but suffice to say that as usual I learnt so much, and felt immensely inspired and priveleged to be in the company of so many amazing people. The afforementioned Jamie had put together a fantastic roster of evening entertainment with Mark, and on Tuesday night, following some typically fraught issues with the manager of my band, Cutashine put on a rollicking good celidh for about 600 people. Climate Camp celidhs are amongst my most memorable, probably because everyone is just so damn up for it! and I love an up for it audience, it makes my job (as caller) so much more fun.

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Christina, our lovely scottish fiddler

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a wobbly shot of everyone dancing, taken from the stage!

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my interns enjoy the celidh

I got a bit drunk that night, and posthumously discovered that although vegan food is very tasty when cooked by someone knowledgeable, and also great for losing weight, it is also rubbish for drinking on…. never mind. Before bedtime I discovered, to my joy, that there were people spontaneously dancing at the police lines at the top gate. It’s what I dreamed would happen! I had time for a bit of sleep before getting up to attend the neighbourhood meeting at 8.30am as usual.

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singing in the London neighbourhood tent in the wee hours

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with friends, unwinding at the end of a long day

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singing in the queue for food in the London tent

I ventured out of camp on Wedsnesday to try and buy some papers for the media-starved over-worked media peeps, (the brilliant news that some activists had targeted the E.On sponsored model Kingsnorth at Legoland was about the most we knew of the outside world), but went the wrong way and having disappeared for literally thirty seconds around a corner out of site of the cops I was subjected to a particularly nasty pink slip search.

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the over-stretched media team

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my pile of pink slips – note my estimated age, 45!!!! are they having a laugh, or possibly just trying to piss me off because I wouldn’t give them my details? (this was written by the officers who went onto arrest me for nothing at all)

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intern Mel on a borrowed Bicycology bike

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tripods erected to prevent the police from gaining easy access to the site

It was probably around this point that I realised that for my stress levels and sanity I should just stay put on the site and not subject myself to such treatment if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. That evening the brilliant poet and activist Ben Mellor did an impromptu session at the Bicycology stand as we watched the most incredible thunder and lightening storm roll in from the horizon. Check him out if you get a chance, it was really very special.

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Ben Mellor powered by Bicycology. he’s hot!

Then we had a fabulous Latin American evening with full on dancing courtesy of London stalwart Sam, and then after a session of out of tune singing in the London tent it was early to bed.

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learning to dance with some amazing outfits

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Bolivian dancers in the main tent later on – lovin those neon costumes!

By Thursday it felt as though the atmosphere on camp was starting to change, as people started to work on their various Saturday actions. The feeling of excitement was palpable, and a full week of very little contact with the cops had made people relaxed and happy.

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my interns. I’m so happy they came down to camp too!

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planning an action…

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relaxing in the London neighbourhood

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the London neighbourhood

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my mate Matt chopping wood for the rocket stoves to heat water for a constant supply of tea and coffee

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the wonderful Lily manning the rocket stoves

Activism is the raison d’etre of sprawling collective Seize the Day, so of course they came down to play at Climate Camp. After a somewhat muted start, not helped by the children and sedate types that hogged the floor in front of the stage and prevented most people from getting down to dance, the evening finally took off, and I went a bit mental – sorry to those kids whose view I blocked but it had to be done. Afterwards we attempted some singing around the fire near the London neighbourhood but I had to retire quickly as yet again I realised that I was pissed after one and half cans of Strongbow!

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singing around the fire

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checking in the handbook for the next workshop

By Friday I had decided to do the honourable thing and volunteer for the strawbale toilet changing run, which was as smelly as promised, and particularly unpleasant when dealing with the strawbales that people had pooped on or dropped their bogroll on (both no-nos. Poos go into wheelie bins with sawdust, and henceforth to a very happy farmer who grows amazing potatoes from the rich compost) But boy did I feel righteous for volunteering!

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Rose on the strawbale toilet duty!

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a lovely CLEAN strawbale toilet. aren’t we clever?!

I also did some time on the front gate, singing with Jess Gold, and making up songs to welcome new campers just arriving for the main action and wishing a fond goodbye to happy campers heading off for individual actions across the peninsula. This was to come back to haunt me, alas.

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singing on the front gate

okay, so I won’t be bothering the charts anytime soon but I hardly think it is arrestable, do you?

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Dave helps to ferry things back and forth over the front gate

I was also wondering where the hell I would join the direct action, but was feeling extremely wary of doing anything fun like going out on the rafts with the GRRR, even though that sounded the most fun. Frankly, I knew it was illegal to head out onto the Medway and I didn’t want to risk arrest. For awhile I toyed with the idea of going out on a bike action with a borrowed Bicycology bike (I didn’t bring mine after hearing all the tales of confiscated bikes and hacksawed locks) but was put off by the decidedly non-consensus male dominated way that the block seemed to be operating, not to mention the shaky bike that would have been my vehicle across all terrain. I was also worried about being arrested for conspiracy, as I had just heard some of my friends were. Sounds glamourous, not so glamourous in court.

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a girl hangs origami peace birds in the tree next to the police line

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the bike powered sound system that gave us some great sounds into the night

So in the end I had a very early night (the lack of sleep finally catching up with me) and was persuaded in the very early morning to join my friend on the “orange” or fluffy march. So called because it was kid friendly and entirely safe (haha) to tag along with. It also looked like it was going to be alot of fun. The sun was shining, the dragon looked fabulous, everyone was singing and it seemed like a good option. Double haha.

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the march leaves the campsite to the flash of many photographers

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the clown leads the dragon procession

And it was alot of fun, to begin with. Despite being held up for a ridiculous amount of time in the little green lane leading out of the campsite because we were ahead of schedule (as agreed by the police) we rattled along in a game old fashion, with beautiful banners held high and newly invented lyrics falling fast from our lips, accompanied by tambourine, sax and guitar.

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facepainting and music

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dancing along to the tunes

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Guy gives me a grin. love his placard!

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foxy girl with Coal on her stomach

We marched along the dual carriage way, having been banished from going through the village of Hoo (why?! villagers we met along the way wanted to know!) and all the locals waved and cheered us on.

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locals along the route look happy to see us!

Trash, trash, trash the station
We are the activist generation
We don’t want no power station
We just want some Climate Action!But then someone broke a small bit of police tape, and with characteristic understatement the police waded in with batons and horses. See my video here.

the police, being violent and intimidating for no apparent reason, again

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a police horse looms over me

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another cute chick says no to new coal. time to get rid of the crusty image of protesters. we’re a good looking crowd!

Fortunately sanity prevailed and we carried on peacefully for several miles to the gates of Kingsnorth, where everyone sat down and had a picnic whilst the police helicopter flew overhead broadcasting a tape that warned us that “weapons will be deployed.”

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eating a tasty picnic at the Kingsnorth gates after the long walk

After several speeches of varying quality (the good folks of the local Kingsnorth action group in Medway gave the best and most thoughtful speeches) and a bit of music we samba-ed our way back towards home.

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singing at the gates of Kingsnorth

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a triumphant member of the GRRR meets us on his return!

As permission had been given to leave the march at any point (so long as we did not rejoin) a group veered off into the town of Hoo as we passed it on our return. Families gathered on their doorsteps rushed to grab their wellies to join us but our impromptu breakaway march quickly dissipated as we neared the town centre and the allure of the Co-op, where junk-food starved campers dispatched to purchase beers and crisps under the watchful and totally necessary eye of the ubiquitous FIT team.

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locals in Hoo give us a wave

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stocking up on crisps and beer in the local Co-op

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the FIT team are giving me that look. Do I look like a thief?!

On leaving to go back towards home I discovered that a bus was being prevented from turning towards our site – on asking why I was told it was too dangerous as the road was full of protesters – I suggest you make up your own mind from these photos. I suspect that yet again the cops were attempting to drive a wedge between protesters and locals.

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where the bus would like to turn

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clearly a road completely blocked with protesters, wouldn’t you say?

the police failed in their underhand tactics devised to turn locals against us, as explained by this local lady on the march

Although it was clearly a successful tactic in the case of the local pub, sporting on the door what I believe may be an illegal sign in this day and age.

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a sign that may as well say “no blacks” or “no travellers” or “no irish”. truly offensive

On our way up the road my friend Michael volunteered to carry a weary Samba drummer’s drum back to site, and we encountered a young man who had just been detained by far too many officers for a section 60 search, having stopped to change his shoes.

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Michael and the drum, swiftly followed by George Marshall, climate change guru

As we sauntered down the road my friend Rob commented that he felt uncomfortable about such a large police presence, and we should get back to the relative safety of camp as quickly as possible before the police started making arrests for no particular reason.
Oh how right he was.
No sooner had he spoken than Michael was hauled in for a section 60 search at the large police station just before the camp. I blame that drum. And at this point I will have to cut a large section of my blog, as advised to by my lawyer, since I am still waiting to go to court, having been charged with obstruction of a police officer. Suffice to say that this is the photo that got me arrested. The rest will have to wait!

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lovely lovely west yorkshire coppers.

Of course, I sat there with my eyes closed on the back step of the van and I let the tears stream down my face in the wind whilst they stood around not arresting real criminals. Who I am sure were having a field day up and down the country, as huge amounts of police were instead deployed to waste tax-payers money by arresting law-abiding citizens at a peaceful protest camp. Boy at that point did I wish I had instead embarked on an exciting and much more illegal action for my pains. I could have boarded a raft! I could have climbed the fence and entered Kingsnorth! (well, maybe not, my climbing skills aren’t great) Instead I had been nicked for being lippy, and was now going to miss the celebratory post action evening that would surely occur that very night.
I managed to take one last photo before they confiscated my belongings, including dangerous earrings and pin badge.

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inside the van, in a dark little cell

As they led me away the hideous arresting officer gloated after me “tell me what your blog is, I want to see myself on the internet.” Awhile later I was joined in the van by a Slovenian girl who had been caught with a rope ladder, and we commiserated together on our way to the police station – she had been hoping to catch up with a nice young man she had met the night before and was worried it would now not happen. Once at Chatham police station I passed all my belongings to the lady officer, PC Hopper, who had brought me in, and she listed them in great detail before putting the more precious ones in an evidence bag. I was then presented to the custody sergeant, one Sergeant Willet. Who wanted me to note his name and say that he was rather eccentric but lovely. For awhile I forgot I was under arrest as I flirted with them both as a sort of cupid’s intermediary. Turns out that Willet wees on his tomatoes and mows his lawn naked. A saucy one that. He wanted to know if the rumour that we shit on the grass was true. What do the police think we are?! animals? I wanted to know if the rumour that £3million had been spent on policing the event was true. “More like £15 million” he replied. How very depressing. I must confess that I even gave Willet a copy of the Climate Camp songbook; he was that charming – for his kids mind you – maybe we can turn them early on. Anyway as PC Hopper led me away she confessed that she found Willet rather dishy – so maybe I helped to instigate a bit of police romance on my way to being charged. They can be nice you know, some of them. And he was good looking, in a policeman kind of way. I’d probably be interested if I was PC Hopper too. Good luck I say, and can I come to the wedding please?
So, to the cell. Apparently the cells in Chatham police station are nice and new and clean and I’ll admit they were – my fellow detainees in Basildon apparently had to put up with fleas in the bedlinen. I got offered cups of tea and everything. I asked for reading matter and was given Esther Rantzen’s dreadful novel A Secret Life to peruse. I tried, and failed. Staring at bare prison walls suddenly seemed more entertaining. And anyway, I had to leave the cell several times, to talk to my lawyer, provided courtesy of Bindmans, and to give an interview. I was also given a police supper, consisting of a veggie curry and rice in separate packages. I quite liked the design so, much to the duty officer’s amusement, I asked to keep the boxes and here they are.

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Police issue pilau rice

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…and police issue veggie curry! brilliant!

I didn’t think the curry was at all bad for a microwaveable meal and anyway by this time I was bloody starving, having not eaten properly all day.
I answered the police interrogator’s questions, and I got charged. Which meant that I was bailed away from the site. This is a particularly horrible thing to do – it meant that a well meaning mate had to pack away my tent for me, stuffing my spray of paperwork, songbooks, bright fluffy clothing and of course, various pink slips somehow into my small backpack and then bringing it to me the next day at the station. But can I just stick with this subject a bit further. I was released at midnight on a Saturday, into the quiet and darkened streets of central Chatham; a girl on my own with no money and no keys (both left on camp) and no way of retrieving either. How is this safe? or even legal? Are not the police here to protect citizens? I believe these bail conditions were set entirely assuming that we would be rescued by Climate Camp legal helpers, which we were. But still. So I, with others released at the same time on bail, was taken along to a kindly vicar’s church hall, where we bedded down for the night. The girl with the rope ladder was not charged and returned to camp to find the guy she had met the night before.

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freezing, midnight, in a borrowed jumper, outside Kent police station on my release

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where I slept for the night, curled up in the corner on makeshift bedding

The next morning, after a fitful night’s sleep as more people returned from police stations across the area, we gathered outside the small kitchen to look at the morning papers and exchange stories. Most people had far more exciting stories of their direct action antics than me to tell, but even so the papers contained a shocking lack of coverage of the day’s events, particularly the broadsheets. Shame on you!

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checking out the newspapers in the morning

And so, no longer available to help with “tat down” (our term for clear up on camp), I travelled back to Strood station on foot and from there homeward bound. I slept that Sunday night in my own bed for seventeen hours, but remained exhausted for the rest of last week. But was it all worth it I hear you cry?! Yes yes and yes. Yet again Climate Camp was the only place in the world that I wanted to be – not only was it a beautiful example of sustainable community living as direct action, but it brought the crisis of Climate Change to the heads and hearts of many more people who will no doubt continue to grow this most important movement of our times.

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a familiar sight above camp – the constant whirr of the helicopter an annoying presence particularly when trying to hear the speaker at a workshop

My only regret was not making enough of a contribution to the running of the London kitchens as had been planned, but I guess I spend so much time cooking for my eight interns at home that it was actually nice to be able to concentrate on other things than the kitchen, and it gave me more chance to report back on workshops which I feel is important.

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chopping in the London kitchen

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men at work!

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serving a wonderful vegan supper to the hungry hordes!

And if the go ahead to build Kingsnorth goes ahead then we’ll be back, with a rolling blockade designed to stop this ridiculous plan from going ahead.
You can come and see me in court on the 1st of September at Medway magistrates, if my ridiculous charges are not dropped before then. I’d appreciate the company!

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love from Amelia
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Feeling ever so slightly like the prize winner of a dunce hat throughout my time at Climate Camp, this site for my under education in climate change matters. It was with some relief that I found myself actually understanding (even if I did get lost with all the acronyms) Matt Carmicheal’s workshop. Entitled Aid, Trade , Debt, Ecological Crisis-It’s All One Problem, Carmicheal included a rather complete history lesson of the last 50 years to bring in the greater context of how ecological crisis has been shaped by the past. For anyone who thinks Climate Camp is full of hippy wasters, an eavesdropping on one of the many work shops would blow away that viewpoint.

The concept of ‘free markets‘ (a deregulated market with little or no trade restrictions) is by no means a new one but its effect on global ecological matters are only beginning to be truly realised. It is in 1944 were Carmicheal picks up his historical tale at Bretton Woods, here delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. As the name suggests the overwhelming theme was economics. The seminal idea of Bretton Woods were those two words above: ‘free markets‘. It was agreed to link all currencies to a fixed value in terms of gold, the US promised to fix the price of gold to $35 an ounce. Thus other currencies were pegged to the US dollar and as the principle fixed currency the US dollar became extremely powerful.

The agreements signed at Bretton Woods also led to the establishment of three organisations, playing a significant role in future developments between aid, trade, debt and ecological crisis. The International Bank for Reconstructive Development (IBRD) later becoming the World Bank which lends money to governments at a relatively low interest. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was introduced to stabilise exchange rates and supervise reconstruction. Finally it was through the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT) that the reduction of barriers to global trade was implanted (I told you there were lots of acronyms).

The IBRD began lending money to developing countries termed ‘soft loans‘. Problems arose with this lending of money with a short sighted view of both the IBRD and the developing country. Unstructured support for spending and corrupt regimes led to some highly dubious decisions. In Kenya 20 million dollars was loaned to build a huge super shiny high rise tower in Mombassa . But, technology hadn’t quite caught up with the lofty aspirations; the top floors would be without water as the water pressure in the area was not strong enough to reach them and there were not adequate electrics to sufficiently work the lifts. Money supposedly loaned to improve a countries development and help repay back that loan, was squandered away in ill-advised schemes and failed to reach those who needed it most.

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In 1973, running a trade deficit and with the financial strain of the Vietnam war, Nixon pulled out of Bretton Woods agreement. De-linking the dollar from gold, resulted in the devaluation of the dollar (reducing US debt) and the hiking of interest rates (other countries debts rise). Developing countries with already hefty debts, all of a sudden had the debt hiked up despite not having borrowed any more money. Between 1973-82 there was a five fold debt increase for non-oil producing third world countries. So great was this gain in interest for Latin American countries, that the entire 1980′s is often referred to the ‘lost decade’, as new loans simply paid off old interest.

In order to help developing countries pay back these ever increasing loan, the IMF drew up yet another plan this time Structural Adjustment Plans (SAP). Within a SAP conditions are placed on how loan money can be spent, which the IMF believe promotes economic growth. The conditions must be met by the borrower even if not in their best interest, and subject to severe financial punishment for failing to meet this conditions. Carmicheal argues these financial threats amount to little more than blackmail.

These conditions typically implement the ‘free market’ idea, and with it the privatisation and deregulation of previously run government services. As a consequence spending on education and health is typically cut, and taxes are raised in order to meet this deficit in spending. Increasingly crops become the main currency for a developing nation in exportation, creating a drain on food resources of that given country which in turn leads to a previously sustainable country becoming unsustainable.

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Despite this when GATT was replaced by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the WTO still decided the concept of a laissez-faire free market was the number one solution for developing nations with no thought to ecological development. In India, Special Economic Zones were introduced in 2000 which were deemed to be foreign territory for the purposes of trade operations, duties and tariffs, leading to some rather negative consequencesp. Corporations are effectively allowed free range of a piece of land with no challenges to any unsavoury principles.

In recent years the anti-globalisation movement has been growing in direct opposition to global ‘free-markets’. Protests at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, held in Seattle to usher in a new era of trade negotiations, overshadowed the actual conference, it was here that Starbucks literally took quite a bashing. Protestors made up NGO’s, student groups, labour unions and anarchists who were united in their concerns over labour issues, the environment and consumer protection.

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The most recent trade round of WTO called the Doha Development Round commenced in 2001 and on the face of it looked like a step forward ensuring against exploitation of developing countries and ecological errors that have plagued former rounds. Again pushing the lowering of trade barriers around the world to increase trade globally, the Doha Rounds also sought to allow developing countries input into what they would like out of trade relationships. However, no mutual agreements have been agreed upon and talks have stalled on a number of issues, such as agriculture and industrial tariffs.

Talks of the Doha Rounds are due to resume in 2009 but I wonder will any agreements be reached. It seems highly unlikely developed nations will agree to the sanctions they impose on developing nations being used on themselves. But if nothing is done instigate change in global policies that will and do effect us all the future will not be so bright.

Written by Dearbhaile Kitt on Thursday August 21st, 2008 10:27 am

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Amelia’s Magazine | An Interview with Paul Tomlinson of Cocoa Hernando Chocolates

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cocoahernando-chocolate case
I first tasted Cocoa Hernando chocolates when I visited the Startup Showcase at Somerset House a few months back: so when founder Paul Tomlinson offered to send me some samples of his latest ‘collection’ I of course jumped at the chance to sample some of this fabulous artisanal chocolate. The deliciously smooth flavours of Cocoa Hernando are also delightfully unusual – try Masala Chai or Chipotle Chilli – and beautifully packaged to boot. I caught up with Paul to find out a bit more about the launch of his new range.

Cocoa Hernando India
What is the ethos behind Cocoa Hernando chocolates, and what is different about your brand?
Cocoa Hernando discover the finest chocolate and most exciting flavours from around the world. It is these unusual flavours complemented by the beautiful travel inspired packaging which makes us different.

A bit like a fashion label you have curated collections of flavours: what prompted this approach to chocolate making?
Indeed. I think it’s a lovely and refined way to present the chocolate bars. I’m an avid collector of records and books which also inspired this approach. Penguin paperbacks and Factory Records especially spring to mind…..

Cocoa Hernando Himalaya
You have some very distinct flavours in your range – how do you establish what works well together?
I’ve always been obsessed with food, so it’s an absolute pleasure to experiment with different flavours. Like any creative process, you keep researching and experimenting until you come up with something that blows your mind!

It was your wonderful packaging and display that caught my eye at the start up showcase: how did you come up with these designs and who created them?
Thank you. I’m also obsessed with design, especially the styles which typified the golden age of travel. We did all the graphic design of the packaging ourselves and then commissioned an illustrator to add the magic.

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What was the process of producing the labels?
Since discovery is a key theme of the brand, we first looked for wonderful and unusual locations from the countries of the chocolate bars. We then created extremely detailed briefs and handed them to our talented illustrator, Rui Ricardo.

I was unfortunately unable to join you for the launch of the Herbs and Spice collection: what did I miss?
You missed lots of delicious chocolate and a wonderful party in the classy surroundings of Monmouth Street. It was great to finally celebrate our achievements so far!

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Where can fans buy bars of Cocoa Hernando chocolate?
We sell online and hope to be in certain department stores before the end of Summer. Smaller shops are starting to pick up on us now too. We also like to pop-up with our suitcases around London whenever we can, so keep an eye out.

Do you have any new launch plans you can share with us?
We’re currently working on the next collection, which I’m very excited about and we’re also planning an exciting and extended pop-up event for the end of the year. Exciting times!

You can keep in touch with Cocoa Hernando and find out about upcoming events by following them on twitter and facebook. I can’t wait to try their next collection…

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday July 23rd, 2013 1:19 pm

Categories ,Chipotle Chilli, ,chocolate, ,Cocoa Hernando, ,Factory Records, ,Herbs and Spice collection, ,Masala Chai, ,Monmouth Street, ,Paul Tomlinson, ,Penguin, ,Rui Ricardo, ,Somerset House, ,Startup Showcase

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Amelia’s Magazine | Beautifully Green – a round up of ethical beauty brands for Christmas!

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Andrea Garland, capsule illustrated by Cat Palairet

If you’re struggling for Christmas gift ideas, sales or just sick of giving and receiving those dreaded ‘smellies’ gift sets produced by high street chains (which are then consigned to live out their days in the ‘present drawer’) then check out several green beauty brands that are lovingly made with natural ingredients, are adept at soothing parched winter skin and – most importantly – care for the planet.

Andrea Garland
Handmade in her Hackney home, aromatherapist Andrea Garland’s organic beauty balms are presented in gorgeous vintage tins and compacts which she sources from all over the world (and are cleaned and sterilised before the balm is poured in.) Her Rosy Beauty Balm for the face contains shea butter, sweet almond oil, vitamin E and rose geranium – making it perfect to slap on during the winter months (expect many ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ when the pretty compact emerges from your handbag!) All ingredients are ethically sourced and Garland even offers to re-fill the vintage compacts once they are emptied at a fraction of the price, resulting in no excess packaging and a pretty keepsake.
Rosy Beauty Balm is £32 for a medium-sized compact (refill £12) available from AndreaGarland.co.uk

Moa – The Green Balm

Illustration by Karolina Burdon

This gorgeous green gloop was created by Icelandic herbalist Thury Gudmundsdóttir from a recipe handed down by her grandmother, who used to concoct her beauty remedies by boiling herbs in a pan over her stove. Made with 100% natural and organic ingredients which include tea tree oil, beeswax, coconut and sweet almond oil, not only does it keep skin on both the face and body renewed and radiant but it can also be used as an aftershave balm, a baby massage and a barrier to protect the skin in extreme cold weather. A very little of this balm (which melts instantly on contact) goes a very long way, making it an essential winter handbag staple.
Available at £5 for 20ml at Lovelula.com

Balm Balm

Illustration by Darren Fletcher

With numerous endorsements from celebrities to The Soil Association, Balm Balm has gained somewhat of a cult following since its creation five years ago. Founded by aromatherapist and perfumer Glenda Taylor, the 100% organic balms come in recyclable packaging and target sensitive and irritated skin types. The shining star of the range has to be their much-hyped lip balm – which contains jojoba oil, beeswax and shea butter for super soft lips, and can be used on other dry areas too. They come in rose geranium, tea tree and fragrance free flavours (the last of which won a Green Beauty Bible award) and make perfect little stocking fillers.
Lip Balm is £2.99 for 7ml from Bath and Unwind

Burt’s Bees

Illustration by Leeay Aikawa

One of the more well-known brands, Burt’s Bees haven’t abandoned their environmental commitments despite their global success – their products contain on average 99% natural ingredients and all use recyclable packaging. Starting out in 1984 selling honey from his beehive and wondering what to do with the leftover wax, Burt Shavitz teamed up with Roxanne Quimby and began selling it in the form of candles at local craft fairs in Maine, USA. Through word of mouth, the brand grew and the now famous beauty range was born after Roxanne stumbled across a 19th century book on homemade beauty remedies. An ideal hand treat is their 100% natural Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme packed with lemon oil perfect for nourishing brittle fingernails, and with its kitsch little tin how could anyone resist?
Lemon Butter Cuticle Crème is £5.99 from burtsbees.co.uk

RMS Beauty

Illustration by Joana Faria

Created by celebrity make-up artist Rose- Marie Swift, this is the first make-up range made from natural raw ingredients that interact and ‘create a dialogue’ with the skin. Her reasoning behind the range is that unlike other ingredients contained in many ‘natural’ cosmetic brands, hers aren’t heated to high temperatures and therefore retain their beneficial nutrients which are so great for the skin. The Mineral Cream Eye Shadows contain natural mineral pigments and also double up as an eye-cream to nourish the delicate skin around the eyes. These cute little pots come in a variety of warm, earthy colours, and use recyclable glass and metal packaging. A perfect way to revamp your make-up bag for the New Year and treat your skin at the same time.
RMS Beauty Mineral Cream Eyeshadows are £18 each, available from CultBeauty.co.uk

Written by Viola Levy on Monday December 6th, 2010 10:13 am

Categories ,andrea garland, ,balm, ,balm balm, ,burt’s bees, ,Christmas, ,compacts, ,Cream, ,Darren Fletcher, ,Gift, ,hackney, ,High Street, ,Karolina Burdon, ,maine, ,miss ballantyne, ,moa green balm, ,Natural, ,organic, ,rose-marie swift, ,Skin, ,Soap, ,stocking, ,tins, ,usa, ,vintage

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