Ace gig coming up at the Grosvenor - straightedgers, Germans screaming - all the good stuff.

Since his election Mayor Johnson has highlighted the London Olympics sporting legacy and appointed Kate Hoey, a Labour MP, as his sporting legacy champion. This has prompted media suggestions that other aspects of the legacy, such as the regeneration of East London, were being ignored. Boris Johnson himself has been quoted as saying he aims to lower the expectations about what is achievable in the Thames Gateway and Lower Lea Valley. Professor Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics, has said that Mayor Johnson is likely to deliver a more "owner-occupied" Olympic legacy, at the expense of social housing. - from the London Voluntary Services Council newsletter

So that's how that fucker plans to shift the blame for the Olympics away from his party.

In other London news, last month I got around a few social centres for the first time in a couple of years and was impressed at how much work has clearly gone into them recently. I imagine it's down to the influx of foreign anarchists visiting/living in the city.

It's festival time again, but I'm likely to stay home again this year. Ieper looks too metal for me and much of the bands sounding the same. Ladyfest Amsterdam is particularly tempting but also clashes with London Vegan Fest oops. Anyway, when I went travelling in May I developed very bad homesickness and don't really want to leave home for any length of time anymore unless I can take Coco along. One hopes some good bands will tour through London this summer.

The international diy network of friends comes through again!  Flopi arrives Monday and Tuesday we go to Dublin where we've got crash space thanx to a radical feminist group there and we might do our workshop as well. Then on to Ladyfest Cork which unfortunately couldn't fit us into the schedule but we will be doing some volunteering looking after the art exhibition. We are however on the bill for Noc Walpurgii in Warsaw and Flopi's even got us down to do some DJaneing. After that, not too sure. I'm going to have to cut the travelling short because a couple of days ago I got offered a new job doing maternity cover and my predecessor leaves next month so we have to get in some handover. Rather exciting work I'll be doing but more on that later. Back in London, there are some terrific events this summer including a posi/non-commercial/non-christian etc. straightedge gig on 14 May at the Cross Keys in Kings Cross organised by the Hello Bastards folks.

This metafilter (see Aug 30 2006) has links to all the famous punxploitation episodes of cheesy US sitcoms as well as an more recent and amazing US cookie advert. I'd like to find a clip of the Terry & June when June punks up.

No time to update the distro list properly yet, but I've now got Waterfight 4 (.50p sold as an animal rights fundraiser) and the Crimethinc pamphlet Alcohol & Anarchism for free though of course it can be downloaded from them at the link.

The Parisans have shown us up http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/07/france.olympicgames2008 but perhaps their weather wasn't as nasty. It's annoying that all the coverage and perhaps most of the protests are so focussed on Tibet and other human rights issues in China aren't getting much of a look in. 

I heard Radio 4's piece on straightedge on Broadcasting House yesterday. As it happens, Rudy and I know the producer and he was asked if he knows any teenage edgers - which we didn't. The kid they found didn't answer the history question, but overall did a fair job particularly considering the pressure he was under. It was a nasty trick getting him to try to convert a couple of English pisshead teenagers in a pub. The programme certainly didn't change my general objection to mainstream media coverage of countercultures.

Went to Harrow's (North London) Veggie Inn for the first time on Saturday. Awesome in every way. Everybody's local Chinese takeaway should be one of these. Without a doubt, this is the best Chinese restaurant I've been too and one of the top 10 veggie places in London. It can only be the fact that it's in zone 5 that has given it such a low profile, but it deserves to be very popular indeed. I'll put a proper review up on Happy Cow soon.

New in the distro - Morgenmuffel 16 in which the Anarchist Teapot caters at the G8 in Rostock and the climate change protest camp at Heathrow. It's the details that are particularly fun in this issue - like the e-coli mascot they have hanging from the rear-view mirror of their catering van. Some other bits have also been added to my distro list.

Been helping out a bit in the community herb garden on my street where there is also a doggie for Coco to play with while I'm working. The gardener says I can have my own little plot there - tomatoes ahoy!

Got some zines in from Asia of Revenge of the Nerds distro (link currently not working):

Chaos Grrlz is a feminist sxe zine 'for grrlz and boys'. For my distro, Asia sent me a few copies of CG4, which is in English and also a copy of CG5 (Polish).

CG4 has interviews with 3 all-girl SxE bands: Trust (Argentina), Reason to Live (Norway) and Choke Cocoi (Phillippines) as well as with Vienna's Phoolan Devi activitst Kollektiv. Confusingly, the zine turns upside down partway through, and apparently is intended to be split with itself. Having all the sort of things I like, it was my sort of zine for sure. Particularly enjoyable was the international survey asking people why they were/were not sxe, what 'don't fuck' means, etc. Also there's a reprint of a rather good history of straightedge article from the internet. Basically it's a smorgasbord of feminism and sxe.

CG5 is in Polish and contains more stuff better organised and layed out on computer. From what I can make out, it includes music reviews, zine reviews, a sxe Brazil scene report, interviews with Voetsek and Six Pack, a write up of the G8 in Heiligendamm, a piece on Suicide Girls (against, I think), an article on women in Iran and adverts for various grrl zine distros. Highly recommended to anyone who reads Polish.

Marcepan 2 is mostly in Polish but with an English translation supplement. This is a little, personal zine in which Asia writes about wanting to draw comics, the difficulty of socialising in a foreign language, depression (not translated), an illness, reading books about the holocaust, getting over illness & depression & hosting someone who doesn't speak Polish - the story came full circle. A highlight is the story of the writer's aunt who went missing believed dead in Dresden, and an account of her recent visit to the city.

CG4 and Marcepan are old school cut&paste in a v. appealing way with lots of nice images apart from some photocopied photos that didn't come out well. It's all honest, earnest and with a great diy attitude just like all zines ought to be.

The one thing missing from these zines is bike stuff, but here's a distro dedicated to bike zines - Urbanvelo

homg b1tches! There's an awesome DIY SCREAMO SCENE in Istanbul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111ONE11
eg:
Stevan Flipovic
Circuis Made Flesh
and my fave:
Noisy Sins Of The Insect - free mp3s ahoy!

It's too late to fit Turkey into my itinerary for the next few months though. Thanx to the lovely ihgd, Flopi & I have nice girls to stay with in Minsk & Kiyev, & so far it also looks like Riga is on the list. Apparently there will be a Ladyfest in Finland in late May, so if I can arrange the time off work we'll be getting to that and hopefully St. Petersburg?! I wonder when the all girl skate camp is happening in Sweden this year...

Soon Flopi & I will be sending out a survey on feminism & anarchism in preparation for the workshop we're doing at Ladyfest Cork & Noc Walpurgii (& anywhere else we get invited). We won't be doing London Ladyfest after all because it would mean cutting short our Eastern Europe adventure too soon.

The lineup for Walpurgii is posted and it's dead exciting - Greg Bennick speaking, AMANDA WOODWARD!!  playing! Fab. Clearly we'll have to make our workshop seem extra exciting to get folks along.

I can't go, but it sounds like a good one...


Hey everybody!
We are doing a zinefest in March 8th in Muelheim, Germany!
We would love to invite you and we know the situations with money and traveling...
But maybe you wanna come... I know cheap flights destroy the earth but they make some things possible... We'll organize your travel from the airport to us and giev you sleeping-places. Maybe you can combine it with a trip throu Europe or whatever....
You can find some information on our webstuff, here:
http://zinefestmh.wordpress.com
Just let us know if you are interessted or not. We would like to see you!

Please let us know if you can come or not, so we know it!
Thanks
Fabian, Frede and Peter
 zinefestmh@yahoo.com

How I <3 LastFM. The group HxC emo screamo has a mighty list of downloads that's going to help me catch up with all the stuff I've missed the last few years as well as getting some stuff I only had on vinyl. As for the lyrics, there's a dedicated punk lyrics site: http://www.notpopular.com/lyrics/
Rudy's found a French hc vegan kid in Glasgow with a website keeping the vegan-hc link lively: http://www.soyamilk.tk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/10/blairjpmorgan

I suppose now that he can pray for forgiveness he can do whatever the fuck he likes.

he Biotic Baking Brigade's book is online: Pie Any Means Necessary

MP3s from Yfere & the 'similar artists'

Live vids of Bob Tilton, Tribute & Policy of 3 thanks to bringmeashrubbery

How I found out the mushrooms in the churchyard aren't edible: www.mushrooms.org.uk

XHello BastardsX play New Cross at last tomorrow (and Deptford in February)

Homg my website is back. I could cry. Such a relief and just in time for the next big punky project. Maria Florencia is coming from Argentina in April and we're travelling around the Ladyfests & other places doing some sort of feminist workshop and exploring Eastern Europe and having adventures. It's all v. exciting. Now I just have to find all new contacts having lost touch with most of my Eastern European penpals in the early noughties. Also, April will have to be my new deadline for Synthesis 6...

At the time of writing I'm transferring my vhs video of a Daybreak gig to digital. It was given to me several years ago by the singer at some festival. What an ace band. There are commercial bands with the same name now of course and I can't find anything on the internet about them. If the song 'Sundance' is here - I think I remember it being the encore - I'll put it on youtube to share the  Germanemolove. The singer's wearing a Speak So That I May See You t-shirt.

Sinaloa to tour Europe, b1tches11!  Wot, too em0? *invokes teh Ebullition* It's certain that 'Em*'TM will be long gone by March, so that's a consolation.         

Made a start with Isy's new cookbook and made veg stock for the first time. Also tried Isa's choc chip cookies from her old cookbook and they are well delish with caster sugar instead of the bigger grain stuff. Less successful was millionnaire's shortbread. The shortbread bit isn't crunchy or tasty enough - prob not enough sugar. The rest worked though - I softened up some dulce de soya with soya milk stirring over medium heat, poured that over, put some squares of choc on top then a minute back in the cooker and spread out the melted chocolate which set perfectly. Oh, and i sliced the shortbread up before the toppings. On the savoury side, I did a version of Isy's steak & ale pie using xbalsamic vinegarx. It was v. satisfying like winter food ought to be. Today in the veg box I got a couple of enormous parsnips and a big load of swiss chard so that'll keep me busy for the rest of the week. I tend to spend weekends cooking and then cleaning up after the cooking, so I hope the week I've taken off for the hols won't be similarly busy because I need a rest. In the new year, I'm going 4 days per week with whatever new job I get.            

Saturday night was the first of a series of DIY punk gigs in Deptford put on by a girl named Cecile who's trying to get a good scene going here. Next month is P.A.I.N. and I'm hoping for a straightedge band in Feb. It'll be nice to take my distro just down the road instead of carting it halfway across town. Info about the gigs may be listed here: There http://www.myspace.com/angelod13

Made a new recipe for Coco tonight since she's bored with all the food we've given her for the past two months. The recipe was red lentils cooked with marmite & basil, then when cooked I mixed it with crunchy peanut butter & extra hot water, spread it out in a tray and waited for it to cool & harden then gave the pup a slice. It's a hit! Quite a relief really after she's been so picky recently.

Taking my lumbar to the GP tomorrow for the first time. I've had problems on and off for a few years, apparently caused by my shortened hamstrings from cycling. I've avoided cycling to work for the past week and a half, and kept up my yoga stretches but it's feeling no better. One hopes the doctor will offer more than drugs. It would be nice to get some NHS physical therapy-type thing and advice that might sort it once and for all rather than having to pay for my own massages, alexander technique, osteopaths, paracetemol etc.

I've been aware for about 3 weeks now that something is wrong with my website. I think it's to do with the url forwarding, but 123-reg have ignored my email and their premium rate phone line has a half hour queue. Charming.

Today I went to 56A and got my copies of Isy's new cookbook, so a review will come soon and possibly a printed distro list if the current sitation continues.

Now Coco is looking at me all cute so I've got to go play with her.

Coco is on the foot of the bed resting and sighing. I suppose she knows she'll go onto the floor soon. Her separation anxiety is pretty worrying.

The last couple of days have been all about HC reunions or something. I checked an old email account and had messages from 3 old punk pals from Eastern Europe, one of whom had replied to one from me 9 years ago. One included an announcement of Emancypunx's Walpurgisfest in April which I missed this year because I got the month wrong, but in 2008 it's in my diary and may be the next Synthesis print deadline. Also tonight I got a text from someone whose zine I used to get several years ago and who is in London. It's like my past 7 years of inactivity never happened.

I can't remember how I got on the mailing list for the annual Undercurrents fest in Wales, but thanks to that I've been watching the most wonderful primitivist survival videos: http://www.dryadbushcraft.co.uk/bushcraft_tv.html

Omg The Guardian has a whole collection of red squirrel squee pr0n.
Missed the @ist Bookfair again today in favour of doing some work on my first video podcast. The social ecology talks looked dead interesting. It's my first time using iMovie and I've got some technical troubles frustrating me, so the thing's not done yet.

Link from the dude that does xTotal Destructionx zine - straightedge justice in Bolivia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7049155.stm

Haven't posted in awhile because the new addition to the family is keeping me busy. Coco has been with us for three weeks now and is a playful little furball of delight.

vegan twix bars:
Take rich tea fingers, spread dulce de soya on them, pour over melted chocolate and stick in the freezer a few minutes.

Also today I've shelled the last of the hazelnuts we brought back from France and covered them in chocolate. Actually I'm still feeling twinges of the food poisoning I had all week.


ZINE REVIEWS
Lets (sic) Just Pretend?! 4 - This one is distro'd by Ricochet Ricochet and I picked it up at that Women's Zine Fest awhile ago. Very attractive 8(ish) x 8 zine with a pretty mixture of typed and handwritten/drawn. The issue was a mixture of interesting and annoying. Kate interviews Edd from Last Hours zine, The Cut Ups, Raise the White Flag, The Fire Still Burns, Against Me!, Routine Check and Comeback Kid. She doesn't call the Against Me! dude on being a sellout or anything. Actually, this zine is unselfconsciously neutral about what often is politicised in the hardcore scene eg. questions of commercialism in music and religion. This is judging by the range of stuff reviewed, the sorts of labels the bands are on (eg Victory in the case of Comeback Kid), and the Christianity of some members of that band which is referred to in the same way that someone's home town might be. I didn't know most of the bands, but the interviews were interesting because Kate is really well-informed and asks good questions. One section of the zine consists of the 'babyrant' section - basically the opinion/column bits. Some of the rants were surprisingly half-baked including that old chestnut about what will happen to all the animals if we all go vegan? - not a relevant question/argument since no society is going vegan overnight. I'm being a unfair, I'm sure since she's probably just not had much life experience, but anyway it surprised me. She does write at one point though that sometimes she doesn't even believe what she's written. There are loads of zine reviews, which is always a bonus, as well as the previously mentioned music reviews. It's 51 pages in all, and particularly recommended to anyone who like the bands interviewed.
Contact the editor here: letsjustpretenditskate@hotmail.co.uk or http://www.myspace.com/letsjustpretendfanzine 

Total Destruction 4
XDonX, the gay, anarchist/communist, vegan, straightedge lad from Kentucky put out the summer issue of his zine Total Destruction awhile ago and I've read it now. It can be downloaded/read here: http://www.impassionedinsurrection.info/pamphlets/td4.pdf
In this edition, Don seems to be feeling socially/ideologically lonely and a bit sorry for himself. Like previous issues, this is word and heavy on theory and this one includes reflections on anarchist direct action, being friends with marxists and hating leftists and wanting to 'slit their throats'!? Something/one called Monsier Dupont kept being referred to, and unless I read to quickly it was never actually explained. Don also reprints an essay by a 1930s US left activist on the futility of revolutionary movements because of the conservatism of the proletariat. So a sombre tone to this issue then. It's a ranty one that gets the brain going. Don is hoping to get new radical/queer penpals.

XTDX 4 made me think a lot about what works and what doesn't in the cause of revolution. In Maximum RockNRoll's 25th anniversary issue, Lefty Hooligan wrote that he stopped being an anarchist (20 years ago) and has now stopped being a communist (after 20 years) because both ideologies have failed. He pointed out that anarchism is now 200 years old (counting from Godwin, which I don't think is justified), and since in all that time anarchists have not succeeded in their goals, we never will.

What I believe will never succeed at this point is a mass confrontational uprising against capitalism, and this is because 1. capitalists are so overwhelmingly powerful and 2. mass movements are so prone to internal weaknesses like factionalism, personality cults, corruption etc. as well as 3. being undermined by their enemies. At any rate, there is something patriarchical and top-down about revolution by force, and since the means create the ends, could that possibly create the society we desire?

I think the traditional anti-capitalism/authoritarian movements have failed to realise their goals because they started with ideology and not with what makes a good life. Yes, it sounds like the same thing but the difference is that the latter begins with personal action - one person living as she wants everyone to live. By setting this example, one person can be a concrete example of a revolutionary who succeeded. Good examples always influence other people (though not of course every other person), and both inspire and create more favourable conditions for the pattern to continue.

Collective action makes the process above more effective, but the mistake to avoid is the collective itself becoming the goal: 'carry on recruiting'. In fact collective action with the sole intention of winning hearts and minds is less effective than art. Artists are far from perfect, but they are prophets even if not intentionally. Anyone from the punk scene knows that a great music performance can change lives and boost or even create a social movement. This is another reason it is vital that music not be co-opted by capitalism, but that's for another essay.

Positive social change progresses like a virus and is brought about by individual action, art, and collectives that support the other two.

Here endeth the lesson.