Now with labels ...

For the like 5 people who read this blog, I have made it easier to find things. I have labelled everything under the following:

"Art" -- the thing that I've "written" the most about at the moment. This tells you that I am a visual-thinking person (who likes searching for images on the internet...) I've also included my creative writing / the writing of others in this label, for better or worse ...

"Blogs" -- I LOVE writing about blogs: blogs that I have found, celebrity blogs, blogs that my friends are writing ... check this one out often!

"Music" -- like the art, I guess.

"Politics" -- agh, what am I talking about?? Usually things that interest me, that I have no authority on whatsoever ... I'll come back to this one ...

"Religion" -- the term "religion" is a bit of a drag, but it's what I live and breathe for, what gets me up in the morning; when I am (often) completely broken my the world -- believe me, I feel like this a lot!!! -- it is by the grace of God that I'm where I am right now. Again, not authority on what I write; I'm just a guy trying to work this stuff out ... check out some of the blogs on the righthand side for more wisedom on the subject.

"Teaching" -- A little bit about teaching. Know less than I do about this than I do about politics ...

So there you go: to conclude, I never really know what I'm talking about.

SM

Beirut Farmers' Market

This is cool. People from all over, different faiths etc., coming together to sell their produce. There is a cafe now too, so people can eat together. I think that is pretty cool.

BBC News link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10587373

Blogging in Iran

An interesting mini-documentary on Iran and blogging. Reading Persepolis first got me interested in Iran and the variuos ways in which the people of that country resist the oppression they face.

The film tells of a variety of topics covered by these blogs:

Politics

Love

Human Rights

Freedom

Change

Wit

Eloquence

Anger

So if this sounds like your cup of tea check the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPKTyDcinDg&feature=channel

SM

voice

"We know that tomorrow will not be like today. That is one of the few certainties of the present period."

My own aim is simple enough. I would like a future for my children in which they can lead productive lives, in a society which is positively engaged with the challenges of its time, and in which despair is, at least, balanced by hope, difficulty by pleasure. I happen to believe that the possibilities of communication are an essential foundation for that. ... I think that the meaning-making practises of the young humans which I have observed are a good starting point for that rethinking...

Gunther Kress, Before Writing

I love kids drawings. They are great: free expressions that are rich in thought and feeling on the page. Perhaps we need to look at how "the kids of today" are making meaning; whether this is blogs, graffitti, LOLcats, I don't know. Once we deconstruct these literacies, we finally have something to work from which everyone can relate to.

Kress addresses a couple of things that were / are "challenges of the time" like globalisation, economy, the media, cultural and political developments and there is a lot of stuff that we still have to deal with ...

There is a load more great stuff here. It is a very inspirational text, written with intelligence and character. I love the last sentence.

Much love to all humans

Steve

Freeze! Vegan Police!!

Hey all!

Have you heard of the Vegan Police?
You don't see or hear much about them.
If you break Vegan Law* they'll be onto you like SNAP.
What an interesting concept -- I love it!

Ok, I'm not a vegan but I do respect someone who thinks about what they are eating.
A bit like those celebs in the Morrisons advert.

I just like to be inclusive.

Much love,

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism
http://www.vegansociety.com/home.php

Nut-log #1

I'm thinking of changing my blog to 'Nut-log'. Good eh?

***

It is interesting to me that 2 of the blogs I've been following have commented on conferences.

Simon has been describing his experience of US security: http://merrettinnewyork.blogspot.com/

Whist The Space Hijackers have been commenting on the spate of police brutality in responce to the G20 confrences in America: http://www.spacehijackers.org/blog/2009/09/usa_g20_arrests.html

To put in my two pennies worth, Cat, Kit and myself witnessed masses of protesters along Brighton seafront last weekend. All the hoo-ha was to catch the attention of the suits attending the HUGE Labour Party Confrence at the Brighton Centre.

He were having a barbeque on the beach and the ravings of the megaphoned mob mixed with The Police cover band playing at the beach-bar down a small way down the road.

ANYWAY, I thought that I would address the issue of police/protester violence in a piece I like to call

Why Can't We Be Friends?

Example 1:

Example 2

The moral of the story is there whatever happens, there is always a dude with a camera.

ALSO

Derren Brown sounds like a girl,

Peas out, y'all.

re: 'Modern Expression', BIG ISSUE article

Recent BIG ISSUE article on the subject of the state of modern art at the 100 year anniversity of Modernism. The two most interesting collectives shared a desire to puncture the pointless irony, blah blah and celebrity culture of postmodern art, replacing this with passion and energy.

Savage Messiah Fanzine



Check out the website:

http://savagemessiahzine.com/

The universal and ineluctable consequence of this crusade to secure the city is the destruction of accessible public space. The contemporary opprobrium attached to the term ‘street person’ is itself a harrowing index of the devaluation of public spaces.
To reduce contact with untouchables, urban redevelopment has converted once vital pedestrian streets into traffic sewers and transformed public parks into temporary receptacles for the homeless and wretched.
The American city, as many critics have recognised, is being systematically turned inside out- or rather outside in. The valorized spaces of the new megastructures and supermalls are concentrated in the centre, street frontage is denuded, public activity is sorted into strictly functional compartments, and circulation is internalized in corridors under the gaze of private police.
Mike Davis City of Quartz

Pil and Galia Kollectiv

Our artwork is primarily film, video and performance based, though we also make collages and sculptures / installations related to our films. It explores utopian discourses of the twentieth century and the way they operate in the context of a changing landscape of creative work and instrumentalised leisure. We are interested in the role of politics and commerce in relation to the paradigms of modernism and the avant garde. We often use choreographed movement and ritual as both an aesthetic and a thematic dimension. Reading dada and the Bauhaus backwards through punk and new wave to rescue the humour and critical vitality that have been subsumed by the canonisation and commodification of modernism, we find new uses for the failed utopias of the past.

http://www.kollectiv.co.uk/

THE BIG ISSUE website: www.bigissue.co.uk/

Punk, barbershop, the market, teaching

Star Hipsters
These guys rule.
Socially concious punk rock.
Check out these lyrics ...

Right men just bleed the poor
And I can't take no more
'Until We're Dead'

For me this rings bells with Chris' thoughts from the pyrotechnic drama we say at Greenbelt (totally forgotten what it was called ...). Throughout was the lament of 'Give everything you have to the poor ... Is this too much? ... Then give a tenth? ... Is this too much? Then don't steal from your poor brother ...'
Chris' thoughts were that in a sense we (in the MC West) do deprive people all over the world of their natural resources to keep us in states of luxury. I feel that 'Until We're Dead' reflects that frustration and the desire to make a change, starting with the man in the mirror if you like.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/starfuckinghipsters

Barbershop


At the weekend Lewis and I went to a barbershop singing workshop. It was amazing! Lovely tunes and lovely people. Check out barbershop culture -- there is more to it than I thought and it is pretty cool (although less boaters that one would like). It is a good hobbie ... I'm not sure if I will 'join the club'...
Websites: http://singbarbershopinsussex.com/sussexharmonisers/index.htm

Borough Market
Another weekend, anthoer AMAZING adventure! Borough Market is absolutly brilliant. Everyone is friendly, london style, which is perfectly wonderful. And free samples! Kevin and I ate so much cheese! Can't wait to go back!
Website: http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/

Teaching
It is great. What have I learnt? Loads! I think the most important thing so far is LISTENING. This is hard, as at the moment all I can worry about is 'am I doing it right?'
We'll get there in the end, eh?

Read everyone's blogs -- they are greats!
Lots of love

Chatty

A selection of my thoughts on a tea-fuelled September evening.

Ham

I love Sam's blog. He writes about just the same sort of things I do.
Check out this blast from the past with the killer title 'If you fell over in the woods, would you make a sound?':

"I don't know why I'm directly addressing 'you' ... as the reader of this blog, as, obviously, nobody reads it, so you don't exist. "

Genius. I'm going to have to read them all.

He's also just got his website up. I've just had a look at it and it is ACE. I'd no idea he'd done (so much) work ...

http://www.samdransfield.co.uk/index.html

***

The BNP prt. 2

Fear comes from hate.
Hate comes from fear.

We have to love the BNP.
Someone has to.
Listen to thier stories.
They need to be broken with pity and love.

Love breaks fear.
Love breaks hate.

God equip us for our mission.

***

Amanda Palmer

The only reason I would follow twitter really is to follow Miss Amanda Palmer's tweets. She is a hugely sweet person, a great artist who loves music, her fans and her life. If I was to have a fictional dream (fictional and dream?!?) dinner party she would be the guest of honour. She uses Twitter and her blog as a world-wide love note to her fans, posting secret shows, using fans ideas, posting photos etc.

Wonderful.

Who is Amanda?: Amanda's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/whokilledamandapalmer
Amanda's blog: http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/171930303/fringe-london-out
Amanda's Twitter: http://twitter.com/amandaPalmer

***

My Folks

I'm sitting with my parents listening to C. S. Lewis on audio tape. They are pretty tired, almost falling asleep. I love them both very much. It is great being back home. I vow to love them, visit them and look after them as much as I can for the rest of our lives.

***

Teaching

Not long to go now. I start my course on Monday. I'm determined to give it my best. I owe it to tomorrow's youth.

More later, gang!

The Climate Rush

Hey, Suburbanaughts!

At the Greenbelt there was a talk given by Climate Rusher Tamsin Omond. So apparently she is a Christian! Not that this is what she is famous for, or why her Climate Rush protest group is famous:

Climate Rush is inspired by the actions of the Suffragettes 100 years ago, who showed that peaceful civil disobedience could inspire positive change. We are a diverse group of women and men who are determined to raise awareness of the biggest threat facing humanity today - that of Climate Change. Our government acknowledges the huge problems we face from Climate Change, but carries on with business as usual. We demand DEEDS NOT WORDS because individual choice alone cannot curb CO2 emissions if we are to stop runaway global warming.

http://www.climaterush.co.uk/who.html

There is nothing in itself wrong with this. But I think that there are bigger threats to humanity than climate change; the Climate Rush group are only scratching the surface. The motives for Tamsin and our fellow brothers and sisters show that the natural concern for our planet springs from a desire to worship God:

1 O LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

above the heavens.

2 From the lips of children and infants

you have ordained praise

because of your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;

you put everything under his feet:

7 all flocks and herds,

and the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air,

and the fish of the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8 (It was the best I could do on the spot. I love this psalm anyhow.)

Think of all the brothers and sisters doing great work that generates so much coverage that goes under the radar within the secular media. Think of all the Christian Sufferagettes who strove for justice not only for thier contemporaries and generations of women to come for the glory of God.

God bless you, Tamsin.

"Deeds not words". Whatever, everybody.

Lots of love xxx

Web link: http://www.climaterush.co.uk/whatnext.html

Tamsin's Twitter: http://twitter.com/tamsinomond

P.S. My friend Simon has just started a new blog about his adventures in New York. This makes me very happy.

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.

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!