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

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.