EastPak Artist Studio: February 2012
Posted by jamie on Feb 22, 2012
In its second year, the EASTPAK Artist Studio had more than 130 artists from 17 countries convert around 200 plain EASTPAK backpacks into unique works of art, which will be on show during February. We braved the cold to get all the way to Jaguar Shoes to see a private view of the second collection.
All proceeds from auctioning the bags goes to Designers Against AIDS.
The biggest names on show at the London launch were Johnny Marr, Charlie Bowden and Marina Diamandis, but most of the work was pretty cool. For the record, I wrote “Less Than Jake” in massive letters on my backpack (yes, it is Eastpak) back in 2003. That counts too, right?
See all the pictures here.
Free the Aceh 64: petition
Posted by jamie on Dec 16, 2011
In Aceh, Indonesia, 64 punks have been arrested, forcibly washed and sent to a military academy for "rehabilitation". The images of innocent people having their heads shaved and their colthes confiscated (and replaced) by the establishment there are deeply disturbing.
We’d like to help our brothers and sisters over there to regain their democratic freedoms.
You need to get signing and sharing the petition here . Thank you in advance for your help.
Noble as it is, we’re not supporting Aborted Society Records ‘ mixtape campaign because they’ve asked for tapes of music:
"..entirely of [the sender's] choosing as long as it’s somewhat falling in the punk/hardcore/crust genre."
A mate has checked this out on facebook, and told us:
"they don’t want any Sonic Boom Six on the tapes/cds because, and I quote, "it’s music for chavs".
Whatever your feeling on SB6, and, for transparency’s sake, we’re enormous fans, we don’t feel we can support a campaign that’s as narrow, musically speaking, as this one. Given the context, their actions also appear slightly hypocritical.
We’ll plan to put together a suitably open-minded response in the next few days.
[UPDATE]
As you’ll see in the comments below, this post has proved a little controversial. We’ve since apologised to ABSOC for any offence caused, although it’s our view that parts of this post would have to be taken out of context to create that level of offence.
Our intent was to state that we didn’t feel we could be involved in this campaign as ABSOC had specifically stated that they only wanted other forms of music.
We were upset to feel excluded from what is, clearly, a great idea. We called the campaign noble, but said we couldn’t support it.
Apparently the "SB6/chav" comment was from one fan and not the view of ABSOC as a whole. We’d misunderstood this and for that we apologise. Please consider that part of the post withdrawn.
The "suitably open-minded response" was meant o refer to a response to the original arrests. It appears it’s easy to overreact to writing on the internet. Ah well.
McDonald’s: apparently they cause obesity
Posted by jamie on May 20, 2011
Who knew, eh? Reuters have posted this cool little story about the burger joint’s top-brass talking about how they’re not to blame for kids wanting fatty food, despite advertising it with toys and a cartoon clown.
See the full story here.
New ASFAR
Posted by jamie on Mar 17, 2011
The Spring 2011 issue of A Short Fanzine About Rocking is out now. 80 pages in all for your £1.50.
More info here, or get it here.
tasty..
Posted by jamie on Jan 10, 2011
Just stopped in on our mates at Last Hours for the latest. They’re still concentrating on the tuition fees protests.
The crowd crackled with it throughout the day, partly built up by the excesses of the police, but most of the anger was aimed at the continual, and clear, betrayal of young people by the political class in the UK…”
That omelette does look tasty, mind. Get the recipe here.
WikiLeaks latest
Posted by jamie on Jan 8, 2011
WikiLeaks have urged that Google and Facebook to reveal the contents of any US subpoenas they may have received. The news came after it emerged that a court in Virginia ordered Twitter to secretly hand over details of Twitter accounts of five figures associated with the group, including Julian Assange.
The Guardian has published the full story here.
Wikileaks: Julian Assange speaks
Posted by jamie on Dec 3, 2010
Wikileaks big cheese Julian Assange has given an exlusive Q&A to Guardian readers about those US Embassy Cables. The whole thing is up here.
TUITION FEE PROTESTS: latest
Posted by jamie on Nov 30, 2010
Last Hours’ Fred Goodsell has been the most reliable source on this if you ask me. See it here, or they’ve also got loads on their twitter.
Tuition Fees protest: latest from Last Hours
Posted by chips on Nov 10, 2010
The guys at Last Hours have been busy by the river all day. Keep up to speed on their twitter profile.
Here’s their word from this morning.
The unions involved in this protest have called for the Government to ‘Fund Our Future’. As anarchists we demand not only an end to the most recent assaults on everyone outside the elite class, especially poor and working class people, but also that we recognise that another world is possible. One in which Governments, Banks and Corporate leaders no longer determine our future. Communique from an Absent Future addresses this issue from the perspective of someone within the educational system.
They were also giving out free copies of Communique from an Absent Future all day. If you mised out, you can get it here.
Tuition Fee protest: Live Blog
Posted by jamie on Nov 10, 2010
52,000 normal people have gathered outside Tory HQ to tell them they’re wrong. It’s all kicking off right across the river from where I’m sitting. There are helicopters and everything. As soon as I can get my pictures down, I’ll post them.
Until then, see it all unfold here.
