Musings and meanderings of a graphic artist on art and alternative culture around the world
Saturday, 4 October 2014
Peace Hotel
I discovered recently that there is a Peace Hotel in Paris. In the Montparnasse district to be precise. Can anyone tell me what its like? I am tempted to stay there next time...
Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Zine review: Aminullah
Subtitled "more tales of migration" this is a heart-rending collection of stories from the lives of migrants, from the powerful title story to the many other accounts of people fleeing violence and persecution only to meet more of the same in Fortress Europe. What is especially useful about this little 'zine is that it also tries to document tales of struggle and resistance, and ends with some practical advice both for illegal immigrants in the UK and those wanting to show solidarity.
The perfect gift for anyone who wants to understand the lives and struggles of some of the most demonized and neglected human beings on our planet. Someone should really give Tony Abbott a copy!
Labels:
blackbirdtree,
carrie mackinnon,
comix,
migrant rights,
migrant struggle,
migration,
zines
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Zine Review: Henry & Glenn Forever & ever
How could I not pick this one up? After all, when you find a satirical romance comic about a great love affair between Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig... well, it is so unique and unexpected that you just have to. Even if the love affair in question exists solely in the minds of a group of very talented artists and writers the result is still hilarious.
The zine, published by Cantankerous Titles of Portland, Oregon, is the creation of Tom Neely, with additional art by Ed Luce, Benjamin Marra, Scot Nobles, Christopher Cooper, Eric Yahnker and Keenan Marshall Keller, and I discovered my copy in the charming independent comic shop Traveling Man in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is very supportive of both local and international 'zine culture.
Sunday, 24 August 2014
One of the most colourful places in the world
During our honeymoon in Venice, Jane and I stopped off at the island of Burano, in the Venetian lagoon, which is famous for its lace production, and has also been described in numerous places as one of the 10 most colourful places in the world.
The colour, especially on the clear blue day that we visited, is striking, but it is said to go beyond pure aesthetics. Once a fishing town, the practice of painting ones home in bright colours was apparently intended to make it easier for fishermen to identify their homes when returning in the evening.
Learning to Talk the Language of Peace
A friend recently gave me a book by Jonathan Schell called The Unconquerable World: Why Peaceful Protest is Stronger Than War (2004). It is a thoroughly argued polemic written at the height of the United States' Bush-era arrogance. I was about halfway through reading it when I got the news that Schell had passed away.
It is primarily through a detailed analysis of the evolution of what he terms "the war system", as well as in numerous historical examples of apparently bloodless social and political change, that Schell finds cause for hope and makes his case for the supremacy of nonviolence in bringing about lasting social change.
As someone who has spent my whole life as an inhabitant of the WISE Isles I was particularly interested to read about the "Glorious Revolution" of 1789.
An observation which Schell makes towards the end of the book also caught my attention. It is the fact that there is, as yet, no positive word in the English language for 'nonviolence', or 'nonviolent action', if you will. The word itself is a negative because it refers only to a lack of violence. The importance of this observation ought to be clear to anyone who, reflecting on the almost subconscious way in which violent, militarist thinking and logic has colonised our language and thought ('bullet' points, anyone?), has paused to think about what it takes to build a culture of peace. Reclaiming our language is part of that.
Many people have tried, but none have yet caught on. Gandhi perhaps came closest when he coined the term 'satyagraha'. The closest you can come to an English translation of this word is to talk about 'truth force' or 'soul force', and Schell draws parallels between this and what nonviolent Soviet dissidents like the playwright Vaclav Havel called 'living in truth.'
Schell also gave some consideration to Hannah Arendt's attempts to reclaim the word 'power' from its traditional usage as an expression of force, which may have influenced the concept of 'people power'. Schell himself chose the phrase 'cooperative power' as something distinct from 'coercive power'.
It seems that, at least for the time being, we will have to make do with a wide array of terms before we find one that best captures the essence of positive action.
Labels:
cooperative power,
jonathan schell,
peace,
protest,
satyagraha
Scenes from Runnymede Eco Village
On Saturday the 23rd
of August I visited Runnymede Eco Village, which lies in woodland at
Cooper's Hill, a fifteen minute walk from Egham town centre,
overlooking beautiful Surrey countryside. The weekend had been set
aside for a two, then a three-day, free festival, which according to
the promotional flyer posted on the website would include workshops
on circus skills like juggling, spoon carving, a wild food walk,
educational talks on the law of the land, an acoustic stage and a
woodland cafe.
A stile leading to the National Trust Park
I was glad to escape
the noise of the dual carriageway for a pleasant walk along the
woodland path which leads into the woodland of Cooper's Hill Coppice,
which sits next to the National Trust owned Runnymede Park. At this
time of the year the sides of the path are alive with blackberries,
most of which were fully ripe, and other creatures like rabbits and
squirrels. Along the way you pass the fields filled with cows and
occasional groups of cyclists and dog walkers.
When I eventually
came to the 16th century-style longhouse where meals are prepared I
found a group of people sitting around the fire, one guy playing an
acoustic bass guitar. It was about mid-day so I asked if the wild
food foraging workshop had happened yet.
“Bit early for
that yet!” was the response I received, which told me instantly
that I should stop and re-adjust my body clock to hippie-time. A
conversation with one of the stalwarts of the village, who took
umbridge with my use of the word “work” led me to drop this
completely from our conversation. “Will you be doing any
playshops?” I asked. No, but later he might go up to the temple
near the top of the hill and rant. He was a “ranter”. The Ranters
were a radical grassroots movement that existed in medieval England
around the same time as the historical Diggers, the movement which
inspired the creation of this Eco Village at Runnymede two years ago.
To date the Runnymede Eco Village has been in existence for twice as
long as the Diggers that occupied wasteland on St George's Hill in
1649.
The path leading to the Temple
There was
interesting conversation around the fire about similar communities to
this one, both in history and in our own time, and I met many people
from different countries, as well as a few familiar faces who have
been involved in radical eco communities for years.
In summer the number
of residents grows to somewhere between twenty and thirty people, but
in winter when the ground becomes increasingly muddy and the weather
colder and wetter, this number shrinks to a core group of about five
or six committed individuals who treasure the experience of living
“outside the matrix” in a life more connected to nature.
A yurt in the Rainbow section of Runnymede Eco Village
The perception of
time which I touched on earlier is key to this kind of life. The
price we pay for the convenience of modern industrial society, where
it takes a second to turn on the light, is that we become reliant on
energy companies, and the jobs we need to pay their bills. When it
takes half an hour to “turn on the light”, as one villager put
it, this puts you in an entirely different frame of mind with regards
to time, but it makes us more aware and more responsible of the
process it takes to get that light – from collecting wood, to
getting it lit properly, all of which can take up to half an hour –
because we are intimately involved in every step of the process.
Woodcraft folk-art by a community member named Lucas
Spending time at a
place like Runnymede Eco Village is about reconnecting ourselves to
the reality of a life lived close to nature, and not by the
unsustainable rhythms of cities or market economics.
Labels:
eco village,
free festival,
love activists,
magna carta,
peace,
runnymede,
squatting,
surrey
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Some reflections on the coming of spring
It is not good to
dwell too long in the realm of abstracts, divorced from the breath
and touch of real life.
It is springtime here. The sun shines, and uncountable numbers of buds and blossoms emerge from their winter slumber. Looking up into the sky I see an endless swathe of blue, interrupted only occasionally by the darker shadows of birds in flight. There remains a chill in the air, but it does not freeze the senses so much as awaken them to life.
In the garden here there is still a lot of old growth, blocking the light and choking the avenues through which fresh shoots may appear and seek to grow, yet I know that with careful, diligent, persistent work a space can be cleared for the green shoots of the new year.
It is springtime here. The sun shines, and uncountable numbers of buds and blossoms emerge from their winter slumber. Looking up into the sky I see an endless swathe of blue, interrupted only occasionally by the darker shadows of birds in flight. There remains a chill in the air, but it does not freeze the senses so much as awaken them to life.
In the garden here there is still a lot of old growth, blocking the light and choking the avenues through which fresh shoots may appear and seek to grow, yet I know that with careful, diligent, persistent work a space can be cleared for the green shoots of the new year.
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