I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

Free Pussy Riot T Shirts

I had an email yesterday from the No Gods No Masters website in Canada, who produce a range of Anarchist and anti-fascist t shirts.

There are putting aside a portion of their sales to support Pussy Riot, the Russian punk band who have three of their number currently languishing in the Russian prison system. The men's t shirts for Pussy Riot can be viewed here, and the female shirts here.

More broadly, on Pussy Riot, Amnesty International have a page supporting them, whilst the band's blog is here.

I am showing my solidarity by boycotting Baltika beer until the band is released.

Before Kraftwerk

In a month where we seem to be rediscovering that 'Britishness' might not be so bad after all, Stewart Lee is to be found examining the British roots of electronic music.

A Sound British Adventure takes us as far back as the 1940s, and whilst I had heard of Daphne Oram and her influence on contemporary experimenters such as Sonic Boom, much of this history is very new to my ears. To learn more tune in to BBC Radio 4 at 1100 on Tuesday 14 August 2012.

For fans of Rugby's finest export since rugby, Sonic Boom is playing Hackney's Shacklewell Arms on Thursday night, under the name Spectrum. It is of course sold out.

Upstart Clothing - Blaggers ITA Shirts

This blog has rarely covered fashion, but a plug for Upstart Clothing in Leeds is long overdue.

 
Above is their Blaggers ITA t shirt, and you can view the full range of everything from boots to coats either at the Leeds Corn Exchange or on-line.

Punk Pale Ale Reviewed

Earlier this year, whilst planting Christmas trees in a large and blowy East Anglian field, I was told that you could buy 'Punk lager' in Tescos. 

Now I always took 'Punk Lager' to be Special Brew (and before any wiseacre posts that Special Brew was invented by the Danish Court for Winston Churchill, it was not - that story is a myth) and feared I was having my plonker pulled. Browsing the shelves in my local supermarket this week, what did I see but - a bottle of Punk Pale Ale. 

In a way doing a Pale Ale rather than a lager is quite clever marketing - your drunk as fuck punks are already wedded to their super strong off licence beers, but those ageing punks pushing trolleys around Tesco's are probably interested in trying something different. 

If you see it - do try it, it has the full taste of pale ale, and proving you can ignore the toe-curling label statements, palatable.  The marketing blurb is bad -  "this is an aggressive beer" on the rear of the bottle, and (even worse) "post modern classic pale ale" on the front. Personally I don't find Pale Ale something I can drink a lot of - two or three bottles would be plenty -  but then again I was always a bit of a lightweight when it came to drinking. 

I am sure someone more immersed in Situationism than me will write a piece about Punk Pale Ale being the ultimate in recuperation. It is not. Guy Debord's writings have been declared a national treasure by the French Minister of Culture, and $650 per head dinners held to raise funds to keep his archives in France. Now that is recuperation.  

Sophie Lancaster Foundation Spreads

It is encouraging to see something good coming out of the appalling murder of Sophie Lancaster. 

The September 09 issue of Bizarre magazine has a two page feature in their 'Proud To be Different' campaign. This covers Sophie's case, and the experiences of alternative/goth/Emo kids when travelling. (Yes it really does seem the grass is often greener at home) 
Most importantly there is an interview with Remus Cernea of the Bucharest Humanist Association. They have helped launch the Black Cat Campaign, which opposes discrimination against alternative people in Romania. 

Excellent work! 

Laugh, I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee!

People seem to be taking the Eurovision Song Contest rather seriously all of a sudden.

Personally I would rather spend an evening on You Tube looking at old Smiths videos than suffering through several hours of Euro-pop, but Tim Pendry for one seems to have got his gander up, especially as the BBC (i.e you and me) are subsidising all this nonsense.

You can read his analysis here.