REMOTE CATCH UP

I may return to the subject, but as yet no new news from me, just a coupla links-

One of Hamza's son has gone down for violent disorder commited at the Israeli Embassy protest

also Rangzieb Ahmed is being granted leave to appeal and is being represented by the same barrister as Mohammed Hamid.

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LONDON BUS

I was on a packed bus going thru kings cross. Everyone was looking miserable ignoring each other as usual and it was raining, then a guy who was with his whole family turned round and started talking to people saying how he was Turkish and how friendly everyone was in London compared to where he had been in Germany where people spat at him and his family.

He just didn't realise people dont talk to each other on the bus here, when he finnished everyone on the bus was smiling at each other, really proud of London. I'm sure we all went beack to ignoring each other and looking miserable on the next bus.

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THE JOUNEY IS THE GOAL

Well that was a funny weekend. I got picked up for Bearded Theory about 9ish, we loaded all the equipment in Hackney Wick and set off up the A11. Stopping for petrol our driver/guru checked the tyre pressure and a valve blew out. Luckily the spare was under the vehicle rather than under all the equipment. Unluckily it was the wrong size.

We drove very slowly down the road at a very weird angle to a tyre shop a taxi driver had pointed us toward and bought a new valve for three quid. We were on the road again in half an hour. Almost all of the way up the A1(M) we lost power on a big flyover and a couple of us had to run down the road and direct traffic past our halted van whilst it was fixed.

We had a bit of a debate about the attitude we were expecting from Bearded Theory to our lateness. Our sound guy was saying we would probably be cancelled. I reckoned things would be more mellow up north but none of us knew what time we would actually arrive.

The van still wasn't running right and we stopped again just outside Derby. I was wishing we had set off the night before. We rocked up at the site at 4.30 chucked everything out on the grass, loaded it all onto the stage and started playing. As we are a totally improvising totally live act straying into mostly DJ territory we usually have to sort our own sound out into two phonos for a DJ Mixer, pre- sound checking in the studio but the guys at the Magical Sounds tent were totally ready for us, relaxed and totally pro.

Everything went just great and I think the Bearded Theory guys were pleased. We had a few older heads who had taken too much acid come up and congratulate us after which I think is a good sign. We pitched our tents and had a good look round the site.

I was really surprised at how established the festival was. Psytrance is only a small part of what goes on. The whole thing was an inexpensive, really family friendly event with the profits going to charity and I am not surprised it is doing so well. I woke up Sunday and saw The Cheeky Girls in one of the tents before they joined everyone on the mainstage for the Guiness record attempt at the number of fake beards in one place. Derbyshire was a beautiful place to drive back through and it only started raining when we were coming close to the M25. A really sucessful weekend.

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CONDEMNING

Not me. I am really enjoying all this at the moment. Saw Four Lions. Was funny but more than funny? Except for the cops armed raid on the wrong Muslims it didn't reall say anything much. I will try and see what Musa thinks.

Guardian: ...The makers claim that "what This Is Spinal Tap did for heavy metal and Dr Strangelove for the cold war, Four Lions does for the modern face of terrorism". This is palpably absurd...

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Normal Service will be Resumed...

Well I got that totally wrong eh. Good job I didn't put my money where my mouth was. Well done to the Greens in Brighton. Hopefully Brighton can become a bit of a showcase for some good ideas. Nice to see the BNP go down in Barking, I am currently frantically making calls to see if I can provide a strong and stable government..

will get back to u

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UPDATE: I am more interested than worried. If Cameron get in I look forward to seeing his vision for power in the hands of the people. I am sure all the other parties could help him with that maybe. Obviously I am a bit disappointed. I think the majority freak out about immigration and I'm in the minority which is why I don't really feel like I am involved in this country. I am glad everyone who needed one got a "kick in the ballots", including Galloway.

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ELECTION SPECIAL

I had to buy these this morning- Hope from The Sun (who owe me money) who think their man is Obama for some reason

Fear from the Daily Mail (Tory Womens paper)

And the surprise winner is The Star- the only sensible paper today. 20p! being the largest letters on the page some blonde totty WAGs divorce as the headline and "Time to give em a Kick in the Ballots!" as a sort of side issue, reminding everyone how much they hate politicians. Nice one.


I was happily telling my nutty Scottish pal how I didn't vote lest my blood become halal for the global jihadis this morning whilst we were unloading five tons of wood pellets for our burners. The truck driver looked a bit concerned but I don't think he called the cops. They've not been round yet anyway.

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Click on the pic for a larger image. From the HUGE collection in the Vandalised Conservative Billboards Photos group on Facebuk.

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BUT IS IT ART?

ARE FRENZ ELECTRIC Launch Party

Gob$au$age + Reptilian Space Wigs + Longinglightning + Braindead Collective + DJ Dan Donovan + Deptford Noise Team + Little Eris + DJ Tab

My neighbour played a hilarious gig on a boat moored to the north side of the Thames last night. We arrived quite early and got to listen to a great dubstep set from someone who turned out to be ex- B.A.D. All so good though at bloody Scandinavian beer prices I realised I wasn't going to have a riot.Then on came a couple of half naked tall gentlemen with silver capes and sort of alien/frog masks. One played horrible heavy metal guitar whilst the other squeezed strangled loops out of a kaossilator with a largish guy struggling to keep a very dodgy PA working. Things were falling over, the sound continualy fucked up and the set finnished almost as soon as it started leaving me with the feeling thast they weren't taking the whole thing very seriously.

After a little bit more DJing my neighbour who calls her project LongingLightning came on and did her Harp/Theromin/Voice loops thing which went great until the PA cut out mid song. None of the power visibly went, no lights switched off. Later I got the feeling thast she had maybe been too professional for the vibe of the night, the equipment forcing its own meltdown on her as she wasn't going to melt herself.


Anyway she was followed by a friendly Welsh chick and her stilletoed friend who had been calm and sociable only an hour earlier but as they took the stage area they were tottering, one more alarmingly than the other. Equipment was set up, the sound guy struggled to attatch it to the dodgy PA whilst the cute Welsh chick swore into a microphone about everything not working. Her friend behind her was quickly oblivious to everything around her and started the gig on her own, singing quietly into a microphone. She fell over three times and eventually slid to the floor and had to be carried out.

As wine was spilt and swearing continued the set was eventually and acrimoniously aborted, with fluctuating rumours over the number of valium the unconcious blonde had taken. I had watched the whole thing from the front with a good pal who does sound for the band sometimes and we were beginning to really enjoy ourselves.

Next a whole bunch of guys started setting up tons of synths, beatboxes and analogue shit. I tentatively asked one of them if it was all going to stop working after a few minutes and they were going to call everyone cunts and fall over. I can't remember the answer but I got the impression this lot were going to at least take it a bit seriously, and maybe make some music.

As they eventually got started half the band aborted mission having been unsucessful connecting themselves to the dodgy PA whilst two or three synth players made a bit of electro noise for about ten minutes before their sound fucked up too. By now we were getting the impression that this was the whole point of the night, and that punk really wasn't dead after all.

More DJing, and some dancing was followed by an even stranger act. A rather largish camp looking male go go dancer bounced off the back wall of the boat, whilst in front of him what I took to be a fellow with a gold plastic manaquin torso strapped to his front and a balaclava turned out to be a real pair of tits and torso painted gold. Another balaclavad person with a fur tail on his/her head was shouting into a non working microphone. Some noise came from somewhere though I am not sure what or where from.

The mic started working as the person screamed "CUNT! FARKING CUNT!" over and over. This inevitably didn't last. A bit more DJing, the power cut out again and everyone drifted out except the stilletoed girl who was being attended to by ambulance people who were wondering how to get their stretcher up the narrow stairs.

I think it went well. The sort of launch party they should really invite tabloid journalist to write shock stories about.

Thanks to greg for the pictures via flikr
Republished on The Land of Little Eris
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Political Commentary via Facebook

Oubliette show, Southwark

My Clegmania has subdued somewhat after two more debates which were basically reruns of the first, but I still hope for a Clegg victory, or a liberal-strong hung parliament, if only to shut those thieving mother fuckers at the Sun up. Who knows? Maybe politicians who talk sense will come to the fore and these fakes who expel hot air pretending there is some diference between themselves might be consigned to the past.

Anyway, really funny weekend.
Saturday we (the band) had to pull out of the trail blazing itinerant art show which is The Oubliette. We were booked to play the final night of their new exhibition but the noise Police had visited the night before with a stern warning. I cycled up to see if anything could be done about soundproofing, but as the floors were huge wooden beams which would turn into a soundbox with the least amplified encouragement and with so many windows onto the street it was a no go.
I hung around as it was obviously about to start raining, intending to let the sky get it out of its sytem and head back for more rehearsal. The threatening skies eventually delivered, and didn't stop delivering until two in the morning. I had a really great time stuck in a beautiful building with poets, performers and artists doing their stuff.

The whole night really inspired me and reminded me of a lot of stuff I had let drift. That art in empty buildings is invariably the best and most interesting in London, and that even conceptual artists who are driven to transform these places are always the least pretentious of the breed.

These photos are by Flavia Fraser-Cannon from the Oubliette website

Oubliette in the news

a much more comprehensive blog review here

CLEGGMANIA

Odds currently 60 to 1

Read this before commiting

Can Nick Clegg win the election? (WSJ)

and an American with an Obama reference you might not have heard-

..The charismatic social democrat — who bears many remarkable similarities to candidate Barack Obama, including a connection to indicted Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko...

This may also help-

We haven't got a fucking clue admit pollsters

..."We made have given the impression, through years of attempting to give exactly that impression, that we knew what were saying in terms of knowing how people are going to vote."

"It now transpires that you might just as well divide a field up into squares and see which one's got the most daisies in it. Actually, that's not such a bad idea."...

UPDATE: I don't know where I got those odds, looking around today the best odds I could get were 10-1 on a Liberal majority.

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The Southwark Mysteries

Went to see a live rehearsal of John Constables Southwark mysteries play at the Scoop on the Southbank on Saturday. I remember seeing a mysteries play on TV with Brian Glover playing God, it seems it is very important for mysteries plays to be made contemporary in some way and this one is a true post rave mysteries play.

I thought this was one of the most amazing plays I have ever seen. Being ex-christian the existential and spiritual drama really spoke to me as a thing of healing. Everyone was really well cast, especially Jesus and the Devil. Its a real shame the run at Southwark cathedral is sold out because heading down there afterwards with some of the cast it is obvious that it is going to be an epic, well done to all involved.

Southwark Mysteries blog here
Southwark Mysteries on Songs of Praise


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First Election Debate 2010

On ITV.com for another 29 days




I didn't watch it live, as I had things I was still doing at 8.30. I had watched the Chancellors debate earlier, where it became obvious to me that Vince Cable was the only one who knew what he was talking about. He could speak and challenge off the cuff, whereas the other two were blatantly coming out with falteringly rehearsed statements praying they would make sense when they came to the end.

Everyone seems to be agreed, with Tory complaints about Cables central position only serving to add to his percieved economically sound stature. With Nick Clegg's manifesto launch the previous day it was becoming glaringly obvious that theirs was the only manifesto with clear and costed policy of any kind and he had a real chance of doing well.

I watched the debate at about 11.30 with two girls in their late twenties who were registered to vote but weren't that interested in politics, an Italian guy who hasn't been here long and is improving his English before embarking on an MA in film, and a rather drunk harpist who fell asleep at the beginning. The rest of us really enjoyed the programme.

Straight away Clegg came out on fire. Cameron from the word go looked like he was shitting himself, Brown was looking like Alistair Campbell had sent him out with "Whatever you do don't try and smile" ringing in his ears.

Where Brown and Cameron were pitching themselves with tabloid arguments against each other, Clegg continually came back with clear, straight and costed policy. He was the only one who looked at the others while they spoke, and looked at them like his was listening, rather than trying to think what to say next.

Where Brown and Cameron both tried to refer to lame statistics they had learnt, and would veer away from the questions altogether to try and score cheap political points against each other Clegg was coming out with simple policy- tax relief for low earners, higher tax on the rich and on the banks who should pay us back for their bailouts. Cameron and Brown seeing each other as the main rival made it easier and easier for Clegg, positioned to the left, outside their petty looking squabbles.

"The more they attack each other, the more they sound the same".

Brown appeared desperate to ally himself with Clegg, to make him "his boy", which Clegg was having none of. With his uncomfortable politicians mannerisms Brown made himself comparable to Nixon. This should have been Camerons moment to play JFK, but he totally fluffed it with his Posh boy "Doing things proply" speeches.

"Who is this guy? He looks like he is made of plastic!" said our Italian. The girls also hated him.

Both Brown and Cameron fell into the self made trap of falling over themselves to try and butter the questioners up. When it came to questions about the armed forces this became insulting. The audience had obviously been instructed not to react but you could see the anger as it grew in the questioners eyes and almost hear the angry shouts in a million living rooms.

Again Clegg only spoke about policy, and a policy which for him is quite an exciting gamble. Scrap Trident, spend the money on the armed forces. Cameron alone tried to counter, trying to interest a 21st century electorate in nuclear terror, with Brown staying shtum. Will this work or is Clegg right? Has the world moved on?

The summing up was curious. I expected Clegg to say "My manifesto has clear and costed polices, these guys hasn't, vote for me."

Instead he, and both of the other candidates had obviously been coached that this was their moment to appeal to those who had been watching the whole way through but hadn't understood a word. All three delivered stupefiyingly dummed down speeches.

Both of the girls were totally raving about Clegg. They thought he was brilliant and said they would vote for him. We all thought Alistair Stewart was crap. One of the girls kept angrily pointing out how he was favouring Cameron. We had a quick look at the polls on the net which not surprisingly reflected pretty much everything we thought.

What next? I was vaguely aware of who Nick Clegg was yesterday. Today he is blatantly shinning boy in the way Blair was in 97. I reckon if the other two start trying to attack him they could even propel him into office.

Liberal Democrats surge after Nick Clegg's TV debate performance
David Cameron weakest, says body language expert
Eddie Izzard: David Cameron is 'slagging off Britain'
British election a 'three-horse race' after debate
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LEGAL HIGHS

...Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness...

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MARLON KING

The Sun are reporting that disgraced former Wigan Athletic striker Marlon King has told fellow inmates that he has an offer from Chelsea that is just awaiting his signature on his release from prison.

King was jailed back at the back end of October for 18 months after he was found guilty of sexual assault and actual bodily harm to a 20 year old woman in a London night club.

The Sun is also reporting that the former Watford, Nottingham Forest and Gillingham player has changed his name to Abu Hamza and wants to convert to Islam and that he was also caught with cocaine in his cell a few weeks ago.

Sounds like one crazy dude, for the full article that`s in todays newspaper visit thesun.co.uk

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BLOG THAT

Brooker is great

...I don't want to get out of my head: that's where I live.

In summary: if I've learned anything, it's that I don't much care for mood-altering substances. But I'm not afraid of them either. With one exception...

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NICE ONE O

I'm very cynical these days, and not very left wing anymore but I am very pleased for Obama and the US this morning.

...Despite not going as far as many liberals had hoped, the bill will take the US close to universal healthcare coverage and Obama will have achieved the goal that eluded US presidents dating back to Theodore Roosevelt a century ago.

The reform, which will cost an estimated $940bn (£627bn) over 10 years, amounts to a massive change in US healthcare provision, expanding care to 32 million more people, predominantly the poorest, and giving the country 95% coverage...

More from Michael Moore

To My Fellow Citizens, the Republicans:

Thanks to last night's vote, that child of yours who has had asthma since birth will now be covered after suffering for her first nine years as an American child with a pre-existing condition.

Thanks to last night's vote, that 23-year-old of yours who will be hit one day by a drunk driver and spend six months recovering in the hospital will now not go bankrupt because you will be able to keep him on your insurance policy.

Thanks to last night's vote, after your cancer returns for the third time -- racking up another $200,000 in costs to keep you alive -- your insurance company will have to commit a criminal act if they even think of dropping you from their rolls.

Yes, my Republican friends, even though you have opposed this health care bill, we've made sure it is going to cover you, too, in your time of need...

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Muslim

Via pickled politics

I am not a big fan of this woman. She is a bit glitterati litterati for me, but this is worth reading.

...Readers know I am often critical of Muslim people and nations. Bad things that happen to us cannot all be attributed to "Islamophobia", a nebulous and imprecise concept that, like anti-Semitism, can be used to besmirch and sully and silence criticism.

But this week even I, even I, can see that for the British establishment Muslims are contemptible creatures, devalued humans. As I prayed before starting this column I felt tears stinging my eyes and my face was burning as if I had been slapped many times over. Do they expect me to turn the other cheek? Millions of other Muslims must have felt what I did. And some may well go on to do things they shouldn't. Their acts will intensify anti-Muslim prejudices and will be used to justify injustice. The cycle is vicious and unrelenting...

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WATCH IT

I was reading yesterday about movie yoga. You hear about all these quack therapies but movie yoga? It just takes the popcorn eh. Except that the guy who is expounding this philosophy is connected to Stanislav Grof, a guy I have always been interested in though I have yet to be reborn, or rebirthed. For those who don't know, Stanislav was one of the original LSD pioneers who came across rebirthing whilst looking for natural ways to maintain the high in real life, although I am sure that isn't how he would describe himself.

Talking movies, we were slagging off The Hurt Locker the other day, but obviously The Oscar judges weren't reading. I am pleased for the woman but on that list of ten I reckon District 9 was probably the best film in terms of original concept and delivery of concept, though I will have to watch them all whilst doing movie yoga to judge properly.

What else have I been watching? Oh yeah, Iron Maiden's Flight 666 documentary, which surprised me, having never been a big Maiden fan I didn't realise they would sound so smokin live. Also worth watching for Janick Gers ability to chuck his guitar the whole way round and carry on playing, and a tearful South American fan having a religious experience cos he caught a drum stick at the end of the show.

Docuementary wise I feel I must pwotest about Channel 4s Big Snake. I was arguing with someone on Facefuck who was saying travelling was the new collonialism. This sort of doco lends weight to his argument, which pisses me off frankly.

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