spikey

A little treat from the spike island open day earlier this summer...

http://www.benrowe.org

if you love wood and things made out of wood that aren't usually.. you will love the bike from E.T this artist is carving in his studio... feels like home.

disbelief

what this video shows:



has made me send the following email to my local MP Stephen Williams and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg:

Dear Stephen, Nick,

I am writing to ask you to publicly condemn the actions of Israel this morning against an aid flotilla traveling to Gaza.

As you may know, there are two Bristol residents on board one of the boats that came under the attack, and we are still waiting to hear whether they have been wounded or not.They are Sakir Yildirim from Fishponds and Cliff Hanley from Southville, both members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who have been raising funds for the flotilla.

I have read varied reports on the attack from various sources, such as;

Al Jazeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053113252437484.html

Presstv:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=128431&sectionid=351020202

...and an extremely one sided bbc report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10199480.stm

I am writing as a member of both the national Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and also as a Bristol member of the PSC.

I am in complete shock as to how Israel has managed to get away with attacking a group of boats, who are sailing to Gaza as an aid convoy, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, with such ferocity as to result in death and serious injury.

The attack happened at about 4am Monday morning after was stormed by commandos descending from helicopters. The interception reportedly took place in international waters, more than 150km (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza.

Israel believes it is above international law and it is not. The only way they will ever stop acting with such force, determination and brutality against the Palestinian people and those who stand in solidarity with them, is for you, our government, to acknowledge the wrong doing and stand up in opposition. How many more people need to die? Because the list keeps getting longer.

As quoted in the bbc article above:

As the meeting of the UN Security Council got under way in New York, diplomats said the draft text of a resolution called for condemnation of the operation, the immediate release of the impounded ships and for an international inquiry.

Please ensure that this is the case, as I have a fear that this will be pushed to the bottom of the pile, just like the Goldstone Report of the attack on Gaza. (2008/2009)

for more information:
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/692519

In hope,


Holly Black

m.i.a

i rate M.I.A

we completely destroyed her album 'kala' at our last house on banner road.

shes one of those rare people who likes to get all up front and controversial with her songs, representing a side of music i usually affiliate with punk or hardcore; politics.


an alternative to all those 'ass ass tittie tittie' songs (in her own words) that popular music is often seemingly concerned with, m.i.a looks to empower those among us who don't usually get representation in music- first generation immigrants with something to say about the state of the world.


...and then a friend pointed me in the direction of this interview of M.I.A with Spike Jonze. (thanks owen) two very excellent people talking about the simple things that make m.i.a tick.

watch and enjoy

be happy

cowboys

When in Palestine we met a wonderful man called Hamed.
Hamed knew a group of wonderful people from Bristol, my home town.
These people are called the 'easton cowboys and girls'

I have stumbled across various members of the group at events and talks around the city and think they are all rather lovely people. The thing that binds them together is sport. and a political conscience.

to find out more about the easton cowboys visit their home page:
easton cowboys and girls

and here is a really bloody good short video about their 2007 tour to the West Bank, Palestine: http://oh-ay.org/vid/HomeGoal.mp4

and my favourite bit of the website is the Q&A section:

Why Do We Do It?

The point about all this is to realise your dreams. The Cowboys will listen to any idea, however ludicrous it sounds – so don’t be afraid to voice your opinion and try to convince other Cowboys that it should be done. If the Cowboys have a rule it is, if we say we’re going to do something, we do it. We only have a short life, so let’s make the most of it.

prisoners

http://bristolabc.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/poster2.jpg

wordle

This is what my dissertation looks like in a wordle.
interesting times. try it out here.

in the most simplest of ways it says so much...

Israel is bigger than Palestine
People are smaller than territory
and nation, identity and ideology are all fighting to be bigger than each other...

i just wish understanding wasn't so small in this picture.

no way through

A tiny, 7 minute look at what it is to be palestinian, living in the west bank, today.

It is insane to consider having the same restrictions and implications of our actions on the streets in the UK. Bringing to the forefront the huge abuses of human rights that are interwoven into legal practicialities of every day living for inferioir citizens of an occupied territory of Israel major.

Beautifully shot with a simple message. Don't let the people of Palestine suffer in silence.

what if it were you?

t e a

if you know me well you will be aware i am partial to a nice cup of tea.


this mild obsession has become concrete over the years. my return from China resulted in me taking a green tea every morning before work or university. my return from palestine meant black tea with ample sugars. my new favourite which i cannot get enough of is lady grey (closely followed by orange roibos)

my top 3 tea experiences

- being sat in the oldest tea room in shang hai with one of the best friends you could want for. sipping flowering tea with a side of quails eggs looking over a lake in a park. the quals eggs werent up to much, but the tea was incredible and the experience a delicate magic.

- tea society; a little treat me and my first flatmates alice and bex created at university. it was once a week, or fortnight, or month and was an excuse for all tea drinkers to bring a tea of choice, gather in our kitchen and talk about the world. preferably with biscuits and cakes. even if only one person turned up, it was worth the kettle boiling.

- a good friend come over to my house in brighton with a loose leaf bag of tea and a small spherical strainer. he knew i was sick and wanted to help, and so did it in the best form possible. tea time. what a gem.

- tea and hot cross buns. anywhere. any time.

oranges

robin hood tax

The robin hood tax has been a massive hit in the facebook world.

in fact- its been a massive hit all over, with people like oxfam and my dad endorsing it.

this is the first video that was released which explains the long and short of the idea very simply and sharply through use of the wonderful bill nighy (big fan)

the second video of robin hoodies is an applaudable follow up. featuring that hot guy from kidulthood / adulthood it shows what difference the tax could actually make to banks.

watch banker 2 here

I'm here

my friend Wanda sent me a link to this new spike jonze short which is completely enchanting.

for a start, i bloody love spike and his tweaked take on the little planet we live on... and thoroughly rated the GIRL skateboard film he made- yeah right, alongside absolute classics such as Adaptation and Being John Malkovich.

Expect a similar feeing of bleak america, combined with some serious sentimental storyline.

in the words i seem to use far too much these days: it's lush.

check it up:

I'M HERE - A LOVE STORY IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD

lui bolin

just look at lui bolin's work

just look at it

amazing

every little hurts

say no tesco in stokes croft

sign the petition

wonderclub

Last week I went to see an interactive play at the wonderclub in stokes croft.
It was a lovely night, full of brilliant set designs, dramatic lighting and some top notch acting skills.

The play went by the name of 'the lamentable tragedy'
"an extraordinary site specific performance. We make exciting interactive promenade theatre, bringing to life installation art from some of Bristol's leading artists we merge theatre, music and performance art tied together by a narrative that allows you, the audience to find, play with and gossip about."

this kind of unique experience is something i love to get my teeth into ever since i saw a version of Edgar Allen Poe's 'masque of the red death' at the battersea arts centre a couple of years ago. This play was perhaps the most amazing theatre experience i have ever had. The atmosphere was electric- with every member of the audience wearing a plain white grotesque mask, and after a visit to the tailors, a black velvet cloak to match. The music was intense and constantly building making you chase each character around the set, through wardrobes, out of fire places, visiting each room more than once and finding it changed, the action having moved on to another space. It was fantastic.

in close competition was fuerzabruta an intense piece of interactive theatre at the round house in london. The audience spent the entire night watching around them and above them as characters emerged form within us and stages moved around the space. this was accentuated by a constantly running man on a conveyor belt in the centre of the room, coupled with foil walls dropping down around us and people rushing sideways, swooshing and banging against the wall. The water was something i never expected. but it made the night unforgettable.
watch this video on the website to get an idea of the intense experience.

well done wonderclub for such a good show last week.

pictures: fuezabruta and masque of the red death.

diva done

a prophet

amazing.
go and see this.
a prophet

storytime

the story of the beast.

the beast came into our lives four years ago when jungen and gregor traveled to the forest to find something to carry us to our dream destinations... They searched for many days, and many times they feared they would fail their appointed task and return to the coombe with heavy hearts and empty hands.

Then one day, they went to an olde hamlet near the dean, that goes by the name of glowscester. Here they found, nestled amongst the trees, a yard, owned by the kindest, most friendliest forest dwellers they did ever come upon. the dwellers took a shine to the two travelers, took stock of their tasks and offered them a creature so vast, it was perhaps the only vehicle possible that could carry so many heady souls to pastures green and new.

jungen and gregor followed the happy foresters to a small pen out of the back of the ramshackle old yard house, and there they saw it.... the beast.

Immediately the two city rouges took stock of the thing, checked it over, touched its cold clammy sides and decided that yes. the beast was exactly what the coombe needed, not only for this journey, but also for the other deeds that may come in the following years. They understood she was reaching an older age and she had had difficulties at times, but they offered something the beast had never dreamed of in her old age- love, purpose and a family to look after her.

the beast came to be loved by the two young travelers and all that rested upon her belly with an open heart and tired toes. She ferryed them over seas, through sand, rain, snow, sleet and sparkling sunsets that seemed as though they would never end. She took a new life of her own, deciding when she liked a place or hastened her pace to move on to find a new spot to explore, snug and safe in the knowledge that when the time did come... she would be transported to an open meadow near the place of thorns and rocks where the men stood wide with arms bred for lifting weight high.

but of all her dreams, she realised she could not give back enough money nor silver to the beauty of unconditional love she felt for those who had released her from her graveyard of doom and returned her to the magic touch of the road.

Ne'er a beast did ever turn a heart so full of stone to golden dust as the best beast of all.

wake up

Now i am aware that this film is a love or hate situation.

but Linklater's 'Waking Life' made me feel differently about philosophy.
It made me realise it is something very relevant and real and applicable to our every day selves bumbling along in our moments joined up by the beautiful and boring and mundane.

The intensity of the conversations held within this film blew me away. of course i understand that the content can be seen as pretentious and over the top... bringing too much together too fast... kind of like a montage of different views of what is happening around us right now. but i found myself reaching for a pen and paper to scribble notes and pause for thought when my brain caught up with the wavering images.

It tells the story of a young man lucid dreaming.
He is contastantly having 'false awakenings' believing that he is waking up, but ultimately he just keeps waking up into another dream throughout the whole film.

road in It captured so entirely the idea of the 'the human spirit refusing to submit' for me that a friend and i coined the term for our own lives. now we have 'waking life' conversations and moments of our own. I remember so vividly a moment of such when sat outside a greasy spoon cafe on lewesbrighton. just me and rhi, our reflections in the window beside us, a cold winter day with hot chocolate and warm apple pie, talking about how incredibly important the people are in our lives who transcend the normal and become spectacular. We caught each others smiles and suddenly a murmeration of starlings silently emerged from behind her head in the bright winter sky and we both watched quietly until they left our sight.

If you haven't seen any other of Linklater's films.. i highly recommend 'slacker' for those who are of the 80's/90's teenage generations. you have got to love the apathy captured so brilliantly in the characters and their bad fashion statements shuffling through the wide streets of america. clerks eat your heart out.
...and if your a raging emo nostaligic romantic like me... you have to take some time to watch 'before sunrise' and 'before sunset'. absolute gems for those dreamers out there.
The couple also feature in waking life as the couple in bed discussing the idea of 'observing your own life from the outside'.

i've just been trawling through clips to out up here from waking life and its reeeally difficult to chose one. but i think this will do for now. the simplest can be the most effective.
enjoy.

girlishness