That Sunny Day reunion was on the 6 Music music news this morning. Rudy says it's because one of them is in bloody Foo Fighters which
I had no idea about but then I never listened to SD back in the day - too lamemo even for me, I guess. Admittedly, I did go see Joan of Arc(!!) at the 100 Club the other week. One of the other bands was these 20 year old English boys who sounded exactly like Mineral. I met another youngster that night and asked him how these kids could have even come across Mineral to crib off them. He suggested it was through Jesus, which was a v. good joke indeed.

Doing a gig a week at the moment and there's enough to choose from. Monday was Graf Orloch, who turned out to be better recorded than live, but Fall of Efrafra were just the opposite so I certainly see what all the fuss is about. Them and Battle of Wolf 359 must be the best bands in the country at the moment. Exciting times really.

So this weekend I'm missing Cry Me A River Fest. Bugger.

My friends from Vuur have a new band - 'Kingterror' they're calling themselves.

Limp Wrist played London last night and so the squats of London emptied into the Grosvenor. It was like a mini Queeruption. They did a great set, pity about all the violent shoving of the usual boys acting out variety. Rudy made a video of one song.

Listening to...

Yesterday was another London Zine Symposium. There's been a lot of reflection lately about the boom in zine events. In this case, the 100 stalls were booked up very quickly and the new venue was much too small (and stuffy) for the amount of people. The amount of mainstream media promotion of zine fests in London also seems to be growing. I hope next time they find a much bigger venue, though I imagine it's got to the point where the budget & numbers of participants are difficult to resolve in a pricey city. The venue was just off Brick Lane, and the participants seamlessly overlapped into the typical Shoreditch Barleys and '80s retro girls. Actually, I was pretty comfortable there apart from the heat & stuffiness. The London Zine Symposium tends to be plagued by overpriced 3-page artshit publications being sold for £3 by trustafarian art students and some dull overpriced comics. This time, those were balanced out by a good range of zine distros from the UK & abroad and some v. nice screenprinted posters. I think the comics have improved a bit as well though comics aren't really  my thing. 

I picked up the new Adventures in Menstruation which included a brief account of their visit to Ladyfest Cork, which is where I last saw the AiM girls. Also got the new Rolling Thunder and some v. good brownies from the event's benefit table. 

The other week Rudy & I went to New York. It was the longest we've been away from Coco and that sucked. She punished us when we came back by whining a lot. Anyway, in NYC we did things like visiting all 3 of the vegan ice cream parlours and a pizzeria with 6 types of vegan pizza and getting scratched by a mean cat at Moo Shoes. Food experiences included cake batter flavoured ice cream (Lula's Sweet Shop), a pistachio milkshake (Red Bamboo) and biscotti (S'nice). Pretty amazing. The best bit though was on the last night we went to see the new band of the prophet that is Ian Svenonius. Rudy said there would probably be Swedish boys in the audience taking notes lol. Basically, he & Calvin Johnson are sharing some musicians in 2 bands and touring together at the moment. I didn't think much to Calvin's band. The Spiv was awesome though. Video here of the awesome 'Deathbed Confession' with my face towards the end. Here's the best thing that happened on my trip...
( clicky )

Tonight I'm listening to the new S/T 7" from my friends Hello Bastards and going through some distros in anticipation for HCSUMMER2009 including a visit to Cry Me A River Fest and lotsa amazing tours including xLimp Wristx hurrah.

Also very excited about this new band: xjonathanrossx

The G20 march today started off a bit grimly. When I first arrived, there seemed to be very few people around, it was grey and cold and everyone looked pastily like they had just been through the long cold English winter that of course they had. Soon though, the sun came out, I got a proper view of all the tens of thousands of folks who had turned up and the carnival fun began. It was a really good day, I thought. The unions including some from abroad made a good show of themselves including notably the RMT's brass band and the singing Italians. I found the militant workers bloc straightaway - IWW, SolFed and various boys in black masks. As usual, I'd made my own sign - 'Capitalism is over'. Coco the dog came with me since she needed the exercise. She didn't like all the whistles, sound systems & samba but was very happy once we got to Hyde Park where the rallies were taking place. The first speaker I saw on the main stage was a trade unionist and former dinner lady who said the bankers etc. who caused all the trouble should be put in jail and have their assets confiscated like drug dealers. The anarchists had actually organised a separate rally in Speakers Corner. When I got there, a crowd with red & black flags were around Ian Bone who was speaking too quietly to hear and being photographed by several dudes with big cameras. I've been enjoying Ian's blog very much this week. Another highlight was a preview outing of the Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse who will be gathering points on Wednesday's action in the City of London. They were rather beautiful and impressive. I get a bit high on all the wit & creativity at demos including a sign saying 'your party, your hangover' and a May Queen handing out flyers for a May Day event. Here's a photo of some of the very fun fake bankers. One of them said to me, 'that dog should be working!'.



What I didn't see was the Whitechapel Anarchist Group's wonderful free news sheet. They said at the very beginning that they had run out, rather improbably. Also, I didn't see Veggies catering, or any copies of Schnews (last week they had printer trouble, so that may be ongoing). Overall, though the turnout was good it wasn't very diverse like the anti-war & Gaza marches have been - not many green or women's or religious groups. It was mainly unions and the militant workers bloc. I would have expected this march to have had a broader base of representation.

After the march I went to the new Secret Society of Vegans shop and got dinner from the vegan burger place at Camden Lock Market. Coco & I are now very tired.

Been doing some exciting cooking lately. Last week I finally figured out how to make soup so it tastes nice after years of getting it wrong. Today I made the banana brownies from Vegan With A Vengeance but I changed the wet/dry ratios to make it less squishy and baked it as muffins. Great stuff.

Well the snow has been lovely in olde London towne. On Sunday there were still huge unmelted  snowhenge monoliths everywhere and Coco was chasing and eating snowballs.

It turns out Youth of Today made a proper video of No More back in the day. As Rudy points out, Ray is such a diva. Great stuff.

In other music news, in the previous album Moz showed us his arse, for the current single we're seeing the 90% monty of his entire band, I'm wondering if the next three albums will unveil each of his balls and nob in sequence.

Currently reading possibly the best book ever - Soil and Soul by Alistair McIntosh. Effing classic.

In other news, the Greedy20 are meeting in London. I've got a good idea - how about giving all the country's money to a few millionaire bankers!

Zine Fest!
Saturday 24th January 2009, 12pm-4pm
The Women's Library, London. Free
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/whats-on/events/workshops/zine-fest.cfm

Synthesis Distro will be there

Can't do this one after all, but I'm hoping to stop by at some point in the day.

It's only a few extremists, usually with vested interests, that loathe the BBC, but the Corporation continuously overreacts to mistakes as if trying to appease these enemies. All this does is give the impression that the BBC bosses lack any confidence in the organisation they run. Instead of pandering to the Murdoch press, the BBC bosses should be reminding themselves that the Corporation is this country's greatest achievement and one of the pinnacles of civilisation.

Having said that, Russell Brand, though he's clearly got some mental health issues around sexuality, he is basically a misogynist who thinks women exist to be used by him, so it's about time he got called out.

Word to my comrade Andrew (from his m*****e blog:

Burlesque. Hahahahaha. Fucking burlesque. The victory of patriarchy over the post-feminist ideal. IT'S JUST STRIPPING WITH FRILLY PANTS! It's not empowering just because the people who do it are from a richer socio-economic group. Why are alternative women doing this instead of starting their own bands? And yes, some of it is good, and asexual and artistic, but most people doing it are simply kidding themselves.

Suicide Girls. Initially I was drawn. I find women with bright coloured hair and tattoos and piercings extremely attractive. But the I saw through the deception. It's just shit soft-core porn with tattoos and piercings. Nothing alternative about it at all. The women are all skinny and often a bit scared looking. Now, if skinny and scared looking is your bag, that's fine, but surely you can find that elsewhere, and done better? Suicide Girls perpetuates the patriarchal gender roles in the alternative scene. The men make the music. The women make themselves look nice and set themselves to be looked at. Value in physical attractiveness. There is actually a lot of real alternative porn about, and the people involved don't have brightly coloured hair or tattoos.

More women in bands, less women taking their clothes off.

Had a lovely ride on a cold sunny day along the canal from Limehouse to Mile End for my first Bookfair in a few years. The venue insists on monopolising food-selling, so Veggies were camped outside on the pavement and I managed to get choccy cake before they ran out. Inside was a strange maze of rooms of various sizes and what a relief to find the venue big enough to avoid the crush we experienced in previous venues. There were all kinds of corners to chat and places to sit including a nice big grassy bit right outside the entrance. I recognised very few people this time and it's nice to see the movement getting younger since this could bode well for its survival. I caught up with several folks, but the day was just too short especially with the selection of meetings. I ended up at:

The Parecon meeting. The Parecon/Parsoc folks are young, attractive, intelligent and slightly cultish with their matching t-shirts and logo!! I'd never heard of them before and not certain that they've come up with anything that will move anarchism forward, but then I don't have the patience or inclination to read their books to find this out. The thing that made the most impression on me from the meeting, apart from the t-shirts, was the fact that they were being filmed. I did pick up (and made notes) that they suggest everyone be organised into workers councils of around 100 people as well as 'consumer councils' (by neighbourhood) of around 100 people and the councils would be the basis of a bottom-up society of participatory decision-making. Remuneration would be based on 'effort & sacrifice' and take into account resources used, pollution produced etc. The way to bring this utopia about - support/form co-ops, trade unions etc. - we know this already of course, but this is the first I've heard of a proper blueprint for an anarchist/non-hierarchical society so good for them, I suppose.

Next was the meeting on organising locally convened by Haringey Solidarity Campaign. I first attended one of these at a bookshop about 5 years ago and am very keen on this approach. There was some talk about ways & means and they even have a handbook on how to do it.

I've been a workplace rep for my union for about a year, and went along to the National Shop Stewards Network event to meet other @ist workplace organisers & reps. That was interesting and the folks from the NSSN impressed me with their politics and their openness about the fact that the Socialist Party GB tries to use them to promote their party so they want more anti-authoritarians to get involved. 

Finally, there was a meeting of Londoners about organising locally and I met some other SE London folks. Hackney Solidarity Network pointed out that they have a broad-based network which makes it more accessible to other people & organisations who are not already involved in radical activism.

I almost never actually buy books at the Bookfair. This year I was thinking about the fact that it's called a bookfair when the books are pretty incidental really. I wonder if 'Anarchist Festival/Fayre' would be more or less enticing to people who don't usually attend these events.

Publications picked up:
Workers Solidarity - anarchist newspaper from Ireland
Welcome to Whitechapel - an invitation in the form of a well-done A3 flyer announcing the founding meeting of the Whitechapel Anarchist Group. They are planning, among other things, a 'Red&Black Plaque' campaign to commemorate the local radical history - ace!
Industrial Worker - the official newspaper of radical union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Bread and Roses - the magazine of the IWW UK
Totally Indypendent - newsletter of Haringey Solidarity Group delivered to thousands of folks around the borough and going for 19 years so far
Supporting Ourselves - a zine by Activist Trauma Support - an idea whose time has certainly come!
Gagged! - the newsletter of South Wales Anarchists, who are doing lots of good campaigns and community outreach

In other @ist news, London Class War are putting some rather fab films online.

Last week I visited the Tate Britain and saw this rather evocative portrait of Inez Spender. The description mentioned that her direct look & confidence was unusual for a portrait of a woman.  I was reminded of this when reading the zine that came with the Belle Epoque LP and one piece deconstructing gender roles said, 'how can one be perceived as a 'woman' without being seductive and open?'. Lately I've been more aware of many men's fear of me and I'm beginning to understand the reasons. I am self-assured and don't look to men for validation and this apparently is clear even just from my body language. Until recently, I didn't know self-assurance was gendered at all much less so strongly. I'm still figuring out the various reasons this freaks men out, so won't go into it just yet. Suffice to say I don't think I'm the one that needs to sort out their attitude, but I do suspect that most men have no consciousness of what it is that is intimidating them.

Today at work I was in a mischievous mood and emailed American Apparel asking why all their images of women are so rapey. I know it's because the company owner is (erm, allegedly) a rapey sexual harasser sleazebag scumfuk, but I doubt it's a great marketing strategy for targeting women.

If only I'd gone to the South Bank on Thursday, I'd have seen the awesome pregnant breakdancing - the best thing on the internets today. This afternoon was a marathon 4-hour walk with Coco while Rudy rested with flu. Tomorrow is his birthday and he'll be getting the customary birthday cheesecake which this time I've made properly with a whole container of cream cheese. Splurging on expensive vegan food before the collapse of capitalism. I'm organising a one-off gig as a combined party for us on 4 October which is my first birthday party since I can't remember when. Still a backline to organise, but I'm keeping calm about it all.

Last weekend I was in Paris, visited the Louvre and came back with a couple of French screamo 12" w00t. Belle Epoque's LP has an ace zine with essays about gender issues etc  and Hyacinth (on Stonehenge <3) with the most amazing coloured vinyl I've seen with one side screen printed.

My hard drive died the other week and I prob can't get stuff off it again. I've blocked out any thoughts/memories what was on there. Most likely a year from now I'll wake up in the middle of the night in horror remembering something I've lost that I really wish I hadn't. From now on, I'm backing up much more often. The zine was backed up at least, such as it is. No progress there at all. Before that's done, I've urgently got to write a chapter for a compilation book on straightedge for which my draft title is 'Straightedge means I have no friends'. Ian MacKaye might be interviewed for the book - I hope my subject matter doesn't upset him. Speaking of the man himself, I never mentioned that a couple of months ago Amy Farina gave birth to their firstborn - the Straightedge Jesus. Unfortunately, they named him Carmine, but I'm sure he's a charming child.

In other exciting news, Chris Bickel friended me on *ysp**e after I asked him to marry me.

The flyer for the party...

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.