VOTING

I have made it very public that if you don't like me and are looking for a way to ex-communicate; tell me you're voting TORY or BNP or UKIP and I shall call you a WALLY and leave your life forever.

BE WISE WITH THINE VOTE PEOPLE.

SAVE PLASTIC PEOPLE

One of the first bits of very important and bad news from home that hit me when I reached these Franco shores was that Plastic People; THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD (in not just my own humble opinion); is at risk of being closed down;

I can't be arsed to go into why right now but thankfully Melissa has written this superb article about why it's at risk and why it MUST BE SAVED.

Sign the Keep Plastic People Alive Petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/PP2010/

Join the Keep Plastic People Alive Campaign on Facebook

Sonic Life Cycles

Above is an 8 minute video piece which I made in September for UCL's Creative Edge workshop that I attended with John Eden and Martin Blackdown Clark amongst others http://drumzofthesouth.blogspot.com/2009/09/creative-edge.html

By highlighting that most musical genres and producers, regardless of their Geography, are affected and motivated by similar concerns and issues, I attempted to challenge the central idea of the workshop that London's outer territories give birth to the most interesting artists and art-forms.

The video is also an homage to the music documentary / film which is largely born out of the passion of music fans, or in contrast, media interest.

Please note that it is slightly tongue-in-cheek, not to be taken too seriously!

Thanks to Eden of www.uncarved.org for his collaboration and help with the project and the talk!

Picture Palace

Right now I'm like something that knows that the disapperance of something is imminent- I can't remember what that feeling or phenomenon is called but it's like a moth with a final burst of energy flapping aggressively around the light-bulb
The disappearance is of myself from my home
Hence all of the photos of the area and my flat and friends in my flat. I'm hoarding memories
I need a change of scenery so badly
So I'm looking for a new home (still in London for now) but not having much luck
And my mind sways from...Maybe I should just stay here because... here are friends, and down the road is family, and everywhere round here is community and there's a tube line being built so I won't feel quite so cut off from the buzz of the darker, dirtier areas like Peckham, Brixton and Shoreditch;
To... I need to get out of this annoying village-esque place of thirty-somethings AND LIVE IT UP whilst I'm still in my twenties...

And there's a Cinema Campaign and it's big and on Sunday I went to the NIMBY's-are-us meeting to be met by over a 1000 people. And I didn't even know that a thousand people live in Crystal Palace never mind the 60,000 (eh?!) which somebody else suggested.

The deal with the Cinema Campaign? It's Simple:

Who wants a business orientated church in the art-deco building that used to house the Bingo Hall (once originally a cinema)?
And who wants an independent art-house cinema?

Hmmm......hmmmmmmmmm

No Brainer?

I'm a creative type, I oughta want a cinema; and I do... BUT I worry that it will yuppify this area even more that it's already yuppified over the past few years and that I should I decide to stay in the area (largely because my family are near) or should I decide to leave and then come back when I'm older and should be living somewhere like here, will property be even more costly partially as a result of a cinema?

A philosophical quagmire. I wonder if life is easier in Barnet.

http://www.campaign.picture-palace.org/

Savage

Laura

Essential reading / looking: Savage Messiah Zine by Laura Oldfield Ford, especially if you love Psychogeography / Drawing / London / Passion / Romance / Local Politics (they do go together I promise!)

savagemessiahzine.com/

i'm not sure about...


kind of bloop . is it 8-bit lazy or am i?

the climate camp.

twitter.



don letts on carnival however is sheer brilliance.

Devas Youth Centre

Devas

I was most pleased to be asked to take some photographs of the young people on the Music Production Course at Battersea's 'bangin' youth centre. The course is run and taught by my old friends Matt and Dave (aka Blue Movies), themselves long-time, seriously talented musicians. I hadn't heard any Devas music since my last visit a year ago, and upon arrival recognised only a couple of the young people, namely the ladies Dvyne and Cyclone, so didn't know what to expect of the performance later on in the evening.

I should have guessed however that the music would be in someways reflective of their personalities and subsequent poses and postures in front of the camera, all of which were highly individual and unique. Contrary to many people I've photographed, none of the Devas group really needed any prompting.

The reasons for the photo-shoot was to promote a competition that was held at Devas called "Southside," (brap!) of which the winning track would be signed to House/Garage producer Scott "It's a London Thing" Garcia's label Kronik.

The winner was 17 year old Cheyney Ranger aka "Lingo" (which was no surprise to me having witnessed his performance) with his track, 'Dance and Skank,' an energetic Grime-electro beat not altogether unlike that of Wiley, Skepta and Dizzee's latest offerings that has already been play-listed on Twin B's 1XTRA show.

All of the music I heard that night was good- Devas is seemingly full of beautiful voices, exciting souls and extrovert personalities (including the hardworking staff). Here I could say quite a bit about the role of youth centre's and initiatives in bringing out the best in people and how they maintain a positive focus on 'da youth of today,' instead of tarring them all with a muddy brush, but at risk of stepping up to high on my soap box I'm gonna shoosh myself.

Love and Thanks to:

Cheyney Ranger, Comfort Emmanuel, JoWayne Farquarson, Luane Rathan - Morgan, Kemar Bryan, Re' Kayle Ferguson - Walters, Tobi Ogunbanwo, Matt Nicholson, Sinclair Cole, Emmanuel Odenuga, Dave Koor, Scott Garcia, Kevin Brown and Ray Henry.


DEVAS PHOTO SET>>

www.devasclub.org.uk

CTRL-ALT-SHIFT

"It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here
What better time than now?"

Zach de La Rocha as quoted on CTRL-ALT-SHIFT

In the running for the best magazine on the web>

Visual, bold, direct, deep and contributer based>

Sign up, get involved >

http://www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk

lol

P020109PS-0339
Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

  

A fine photo of the Obama's watching  Superbowl in 3D!

Alistair Campbell's "."<

Mark Kermode,+ the Culture Show + harsh words:


Mark Kermode's> "venal and crass":
+

Alistair Campbell's "."<
"...if people like you just go round the place as you do spreading that message that politics is venal and politics is crass, that the only people that are really great are the creators go into the arts, make movies and things like that...then don't be surprised if young people start saying well why should we give a shit about the world[...]i just think that you guys [artists /media], with the attitudes you have, have to face up sometimes to your own responsibilties and the impact that has on the way the world works..."

>>:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jjbqp/The_Culture_Show_2008_2009_Episode_30/

my fellow south londoners

illustrations by Tom Humberstone

Another Drumz friend attempting to change our perceptions of the world, is Lower End Spasm's Dan Hancox (aka the preacher man due to the parallels between him and Nathan Barley's Dan Ashcroft character), who along with his artist buddy Tom Humberstone has admirably self-published a book of their quest to document the run-up to the U.S Presidential Election.

Having randomly bumped into Dan on Balham High Street today, I only just got my copy, but managed to get it signed as a reminder not to burn it this winter when I have no money to heat my flat because of the credit crunch. Jokes. Thanks to the longness of the 249 bus to Palace on a Saturday I've read a few chapters already and can confidentally recommend it to anyone interested in U.S politics or simply, the musings of 2 funny young blokes from London on what sounds like a very, interesting, comical and slightly terrifying adventure. Failing that, it also falls into the much loved category of 'Book with Pictures,' with Humberstone's beautiful illustrations giving it an unbelievably graphic novel quality. Much respect to Dan and Tom for ingenuity and creativity.

To BUY the book and/or read the blog which led to the creation of the book go to:

http://www.myfellowamericans2008.com/

Ooh! I'm a woman in dubstep apparently!

>


"i'm jus doing the dishes luv"

???


I firmly believe that if an individual makes an issue of an aspect of their identity which really shouldn't be an issue, then it will become one, a point which I attempted to make clear to Time Out's music writer, Kate Hutchinson, who penned this very interesting article on the subject of 'Women in Dubstep.' This belief, coupled with the 'dubstep' tag which 5 years later, I'm still at odds with (not cos of it's etymology but cos in general, I still hate labelling), made it fairly difficult for me to comment on the subject. Whilst being female (whatever that means outside of lady bumps and the ability to give birth) has never been a problem for me where music is concerned, the mere fact that Time Out chose to focus on it, indicates that it's still a contentious issue.

Whilst there are a number of females involved behind the scenes or on the mic- Sarah Souljah, Letty, Melissa, Hera, Hanna, Emma W, Warrior Queen, Arorah, Farrah to name but a few, there are still very few girl DJs and fewer girl producers. Unlike Kate though, I'm not perplexed by this fact and agree that it is largely due to the young age of Dubstep. Additionally, I suspect that us girls aren't conditioned to fiddle with machines as quite as boys are, meaning that it's not that we don't know how to use machines but that we're less likely to be encouraged to do so from an early age. Furthermore, the lack of women making electronic music in general doesn't exactly make for a sociable activity for the few that do- if you're the kind of girl that likes to make beats and also likes to hang out with other girls, chances are, you're in for a bit of a lonely existence.

Another factor that I believe plays a part is that most women are seemingly more interested in making and communicating the bigger picture, bringing people and ideas together (exemplified by Mary Anne), then the narrow one, such as the single tune or bass sound.

Clearly, there are exceptions to my proposed norms and hopefully oneday, the exception will be the norm. Where dubstep is concerned at least, the few women that are involved in any way are accepted just as much as the guys and on the whole, dubstep is a scene in which equality is never a factor, rendering the question, 'is it just a boys club?' futile.

As for the question of whether girls make a different style of music to men, I'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd be able to guess immediately on hearing a Subeena, Dot or Ikonika the sex of the producer. Similarly, people have often commented that Burial's tunes sound feminine, which always makes me giggle cos at the end of the day what exactly is it that defines the gender of a tune? If feminine tunes are those with female vocals or a soulful flava, then Mala, Geiom, D1 and Anti-Social are a bunch of lasses alongside approx 50percent of electronic music producers . Equally, if masculine tunes are signified by heavy bass, darkness, square/jagged sounds, male MC's and loudness, then gimme me a razor and call me George (errrrm) cos I love 'em.

Like I said to Kate, if you think it's a boys club now, you wanna see what it was like in the early days, when the the demographic of FWD>> (despite being run by a woman) consisted largely of:

young blokes standing around looking moody and nodding their heads

and:

young blokes prancing around waving their hands about.

If you're new to the dancefloor these days, you'll find just as many women standing around looking moody and nodding their heads or prancing around waving their hands around. If you're new to decks or music software, don't watch whether you're male, female, hermaphrodite, black, white, yellow, tiny or giant, just focus on the music and the rest will come good innit. And if you're a woman looking for a fight with blokes, go and get a job in the square mile or something, cos you aint gonna find one in most underground music scenes.

blood and ice

hailstones falling out of the sky in July
children killing children

London is fukked.


3 February - James Smartt-Ford, 16, shot in Streatham
6 February - Michael Dosunmu, 15, shot in Peckham
14 February - Billy Cox, 15, shot in Clapham
14 March - Kodjo Yenga, 16, stabbed in Hammersmith
17 March - Adam Regis, 15, stabbed in Plaistow
6 April - Paul Erhahon, 14, stabbed in Leytonstone
23 June - Annaka Pinto, 17, shot in Tottenham; Ben Hitchcock, 16, stabbed in Beckenham


RIP


Respect to those that do more than simply sitting around blaming the government and the media.

http://www.live-magazine.co.uk/
http://www.sense.ik.com

It's glaringly obvious to me that we all need to get off our backsides and offer time and support to our children and young people.

Ode to Fire

Keys Please
Originally uploaded by infinite.

JULY 1ST UK wide public smoking ban comes into effect.

Bye bye smelly hair, red eyes, yellow fingers. Bye bye blazing it up whilst skanking to our favourite beats.

Ode to Fire set

one of my all time personal favourite photos. Gutted when the authorities replaced the road sign with a 'cleaner' version. the tag made it much more interesting.



Phone Video Feb 2007

Cold?

little balls of life
Originally uploaded by infinite.

in what was the warmest January since 1916. Does my face look bothered? Yep.

http://www.climatehotmap.org/

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org

"now we know that Marxists all listen to Dub Reggae"

Woebot>, Dec 2004

http://www.woebot.com/2004/12/jeremy_deller.html









http://www.faireyband.com/acidbrass.html

www.jeremy-deller.co.ukm

WRONG

Exsqueeze me? Squeezable Marmite? Wtf?

If it aint a jar that's difficult to get into with a knife, resulting in marmite all over the hands, kitchen, toast then I aint interested. Some traditions have to be preserved.

Olympic Sized Rant

2012_big
Originally uploaded by infinite.

The announcement of the Olympic bid has unleashed Tourette's syndrome in my household today. Call me a cynic but the prospect of increased traffic in London coupled with the knowledge that London has a habit of running things shabbily isn't something that makes me want to start training for olympic ping-pong. I'm sure it will be good for the kids and will hopefully inspire some of them to get involved in sport but what will happen afterwards? The huge arena's and centre's will probably shut down and they'll be out playing footie in the street as usual... don't even get me started on the higher taxes that Londoners are gonna be hit with. Maybe it's age but I aint impressed with the way this city is run despite my love for it's people and culture. The Millennium dome was a pile of poo, congestion charging is a joke, London transport is as shite as ever and you're lucky if you don't suffocate on the tube, the Live8 concert was shabby and our schools and youth centres are under resourced. What hope is there that the 2012 Olympics will work?

Answers to grumpygirl@gettingoldandcynical.com

Grimey politics

In a grand unification of underground music blogs- Clarky has written a post about a post on Chantelle Fiddy's blog which I'm now proppin'(maybe one of them can tell me if that's actually a word).

Chantelle got the ball rollin by talking about her experience of music journalism politics. Should they write about the stuff they aint feelin' as well as the stuff they are feelin'?

Read all about it..
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/2005/02/rough-v-smooth.html