'The Happiest Blog on Earth' vs. ...

Hey gang,

For some reason I was looking for a happy blog and I found this: http://www.smilemyday.com/

I must admit that it is pretty cute ( I especially enjoy the rather fetching photo of Sean Connery) and it is a lovely project, but I feel that they are missing some great smiles. So here is Jack Nicholson with conpliments from 'If GRINS Could Kill'. XXX

'The Happiest Blog on Earth' vs. I.G.C.K

'The Happiest Blog on Earth' vs. 'Scribblings'

on a more practical note, this blog may offer a better understanding on happiness which is more enduring. This is called 'joy': http://peterdray.blogspot.com/search/label/joy

I hope to have my own thoughts on this one day.

Lots of love!

Also Samurai Jack rules!

Guerilla Art

Hey Suburbanaughts,

Guerilla art is the surreptitious, and often sudden, creation or installation of unauthorized public art, often with the purpose of making an overt political statement. The term is often used interchangably with "street art."
Guerilla art consists of reclaiming space and changing its dynamics with images or counter images, art that has been created anonymously and left on walls or in places such as public squares. Guerrilla art is not only spray paint and text and images. It can also encompass theater and film projections projected on walls of buildings.

http://www.concepttshirts.co.uk/guerilla-art.php

This is the book that I found in the Tate Modern bookshop:

http://painting.about.com/od/productreviews/gr/guerilla_artkit.htm

Of course, the concept is hugely attractive, but then you open it and it's all like seed-bombs!! What??

I mean, nothing wrong with an organic source of protest -- and don't forget that slow, secret sense of smugness that follows -- but the hot-blooded wannabe street artist isn't motiated by the commitment of nursing an infant sapling. Sneaking out in the middle of the night to water an acorn just doesn't cut the mustard.

Spray paint damages the environment and your lungs and is pretty much illigal (unless you are a professinoal artist), so what is the solution?

A wonderful form of pasting!

All you need is water, flour and sugar:

http://forums.whyweprotest.net/11-fliers-pamphlets/how-make-glue-wheat-paste-posters-1841/

However, for the ultimate in guerilla art (one that Smith forgot, thankyouverymuch) is MOSIAC!! Hail the Space Invaders! World-wide invasion!!!


Check out the website:

http://www.space-invaders.com/

Oh, and people don't blog enough.

and very Irish accents rule.

Lots of love.

Platitude for August Mood

If you have a loud mouth

You had better have strong arms.

Suburbanaughts

Once again, shock street artist Banksy was on the news t’other day: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8206442.stm06442.stm

His latest exhibition ‘Banksy vs. Bristol Museum’ finishes at the end of the month. It seem be emphasising provocative sculpture rather than his “infamous” graffiti. http://www.banksy.co.uk/

Sure, the man is still revered by fifteen-year-old school kids, but it seems that he also has loyal fan base within fellow middle-classers.

After consulting a well-known journal (you know the one), I have identified the hallmark of the middle class and used this to identify a new brand of middle class ideology I will call ‘suburnaught’. The name comes from the concept of projecting head-in-the-clouds ideology whilst hiding feet firmly planted on the suburbs.

Suburbanaught vs. Middle class ideology

1.) Cultural identification: This is right on the money. As proven by the BBC article, the middle class are guzzlers of pop culture. If you need any proof that this is true, check out the any exhibition at the Tate Modern.

2.) Education: A high percentage of the middle class go to university. Obviously, this can have a great mind-opening effect; however the pinnacle of this for the suburnaught is usually Marxist platitudes and conspiracy theories (for example see Zeitgeist - or don't. ugh.).

3.) Hypocritical thinking! Hypocracy I say!!: The conflict between the provocative attitudes gleaned from their education (predominantly anti-bourgeois) and reality (bourgeois) makes the suburnaught the loudest of hypocrits. For example suburbanaughts have been known to criticize universities and all corporate education as brainwashing, despite benefiting from such an experience themselves (see point 2).

4.) Inability to escape middle class roots: No matter how many aliases they use, the suburnaught will always be caught with their camo trousers down, revealing them to be embarrassingly middle class. Examples of this include Banksy and Peter Doherty.

5.) Use of mass media: Although the suburbanaught complains loudly and provocatively, they rarely act directly to combat their targets. Instead they use indirect weapons such as mass media (art, essays, ‘zines, music, blogs ...). Although media is an effective tool at projecting the suburnaughts’ ideology on a global scale, this drastically limits the impact of their message on the individual who is on average lightly curious by the pop culture (see point one).

***

This post is in response to many things, mainly in response to words. People talk a lot about the injustice in the world – talk a lot – without actually doing anything themselves. This is infuriating self- indulgence and must be stopped. Suburbanaght culture can be used to destroy, but let use it for good, being voices and hands in the world to make a change. Don't forget all the great middle class suburnaughts like Joe Strummer, Amanda Palmer ... Rage Against the Machine, I don't know... the altruists rather than the egotists ... Missionaries!

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10.2)

In dedication to all my brothers and sisters on mission all around the world. A hopeless suburnaught salutes you. God bless you all.

Futurism at the Tate Modern

Manifesto of Futurism (F.T. Marinetti)

... We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd.

Extended version: http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/manifesto.html


Manifesto of the Futurist Painters (Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini)

1. Destroy the cult of the past, the obsession with the ancients, pedantry and academic formalism.
2. Totally invalidate all kinds of imitation.
3. Elevate all attempts at originality, however daring, however violent.
4. Bear bravely and proudly the smear of “madness” with which they try to gag all innovators.
5. Regard art critics as useless and dangerous.
6. Rebel against the tyranny of words: “Harmony” and “good taste” and other loose expressions which can be used to destroy the works of Rembrandt, Goya, Rodin...
7. Sweep the whole field of art clean of all themes and subjects which have been used in the past.
8. Support and glory in our day-to-day world, a world which is going to be continually and splendidly transformed by victorious Science.

Extended version: http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/painters.html

***

So yeh. Italian Futurism (1910-1914) could be described as Cubism’s angry cousin and Vortism’s older brother. The whole movement is a blur of movement: physically, technologically, psychologically, individually, corporately ect. dedicated to passion for the future and revolution.

There are some good pieces here, and the exhibition does well to cover the spread of Futurism throughout Europe (France / Russia / England ...) and there are some good paintings by Umberto Boccioni, but I was hoping for more pieces from my favourite Gino Severini (Dance of the “Pan-Pan” at the Monico, 1909-1911, below).



Some things change meaning and significance over the years, but who doesn’t enjoy heady, provocative manifestos and the wild, gestural painting of passionate people?

Follow the exhibition here: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/futurism/default.shtm

Construtive Protesting

How are we supposed to react to the BNP?

The BNP’s track-record (fascism, racism, homophobia, sexism, heresy) puts a really big big bee in a lot of peoples' bonnets: that’s why so-called “anti-fascists” protest and riot against BNP festivals and marches and punk bands "commitment to politics and resistance” like The King Blues encourage people to “Throw bricks through the windows of BNP headquarters!” during their gigs. I was present at such a gig, at this years Rebellion Festival, Blackpool.

But no ground is given if a campaign of hate is combated by an equally violent retaliation; it becomes an endless cycle of hatred, the grand canyon of misunderstanding grows wider and both parties end up looking the same.

A similar problem arises with debate. It is almost impossible to change someone’s attitudes by arguing with them. Sure, you might “win” in the sense that you pour unending logic on someone’s head, but if you’ve ever argued with someone about their beliefs, you’ll know that it doesn’t work like that. Debate with the brainwashed can again end up as an endless circle going nowhere.

So what do we do?

How do you counter hate? The obvious answer is love. Not in a way that gets nothing done, but in a way that builds bridges instead of smashing faces. The best example of this I have seen on the protest circuit is the annual ‘Anarchist Vs Capitalist Midnight Cricket Cup’ held by the Space Hijackers. This is brilliant because it is creative, fun, non-violent and most importantly, relational.

This stunt is practically evangelistic! Why isn’t my church doing something this cool? Are we not motivated enough? Not creative enough? Not relational enough? Of course, the most affective / offensive weapon that brothers and sisters need to attack is the Gospel of peace (Ephesians 6.15) - but if the Space Hijackers use cricket as a vehicle for forging relationships between anarchists and capitalists, then perhaps brothers and sisters can set up the stumps for a fascists vs. Christians test. Then move on to the world series!

Easter Eggs

Hey all,
I like putting links in my posts. It is fun for me the writer and hopefully fun for any potential readers I may get one day...

A good example of this can be found in some of the other blogs I enjoy:

"While going through the motions of your usual Friday night Wikipedia triva-felch last night, I clicked through to the article about SSD's drummer, Chris Foley. I won't detail the article here, go check it out for yourself. One thing I will say though is... Hardcore..."
http://hamuelo.blogspot.com/


I want to emulate this joys of these random links. Some are hidden (maybe because I didn't know what I was doing...), but some links will be more obvious.

First Post: If CHINS could kill

Hey guys this is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, particularly with starting teacher training in September; I thought blogging could be a good way of diarying things I can reflect on later and keeping track of the blogs I am following at the moment.

Thanks to all the great blogs which have inspired me to do this. They have all been good reads from the spiritual, informative and well helpful (Andy / Ham / Jack / Harry / Peter), to satisfying a fan-boy's inward celebrity lust. I will use the blog as a source of ponderment on all things, usulally them together in a chaotic sandwich of nonsensical blah.

The title of the blog is wonderfully derived from Bruce Campbell's brilliant autobio 'If CHINS Could Kill' -- an essential read for B-movie fans and chin enthusiasts alike. It contains great insight into the not-so-romantic life of an average joe actor as well as great behind the scenes stories from films such as obscure (yet briallant) films such as 'The Man with the Screaming Brain', 'Bubba Hotep' and the 'Evil Dead' Trilogy plus some very down to earth attitudes towards modern celebrity culture. And pictures of Bruce as a school kid which are delightful.

So yeh. More on the way once I've worked out his technology thing. Much love.