26th November 2009

Dear Roy,

This is my notice. Thank you for everything during these difficult few years of my life, and thank you to everybody else that I've enjoyed working with. My last shift will be on Friday December 4th. I'm sorry it's not a few more weeks notice like last time, but as I'm sure you can appreciate I'm going to be very busy during December.

James Lamont.

An open letter to The Co-operative

I've worked for the Co-op on and off for over 4 years. In that time I've left twice, and this letter marks the third and hopefully final attempt to do so. As much as I've resisted it I feel I'm a part of the company, and it a small part of me, and as such hope these words of balanced criticism can be taken on board somewhere and help to make life better for my co-workers.

Even from the beginning I questioned just how ethical the "ethical retailer" was, but over the years a lot has happened to harden my cynicism. I don't doubt that there are people at various levels of The Co-op, from the members to the boardroom, who spend most or all of their involved time trying to push for more fair trade products, better environmental practices and other worthy reforms. Even as a radical I can appreciate the positive role to be played gently coaxing people into having better shopping habits. But the record of backsliding, corporatisation and general bad behaviour is bigger, and I imagine indicative of the kind of internal debates and compromises going on all the time within the company.

This letter would be much longer and much more boring if I chose to write about all of the products available in Co-operative Food shops that are anything but ethical, such as those made by companies that steal drinking water from Indian peasants, test on animals for cosmetic purposes and treat women as if they're not even worthy of being second-class citizens (Coca-cola(1), Procter and Gamble(2), Nuts magazine(3)). Companies have made it second nature to engage with allegations like these as simply "responding to demand" - ie. it's all the consumers fault, and not ours for creating the demand. Unlike many of the people doing good work for the Co-op, I don't think the world can be changed very much by shopping. The only way to change most things is to become involved in the issues.

( Read all the REST! )

Hi Tree-athlon,

I ran in Manchester today. Thanks for a great event for runners and environmental activists alike! I am both.

A man spoke on the winners stage in Manchester and I wondered if you could tell me his name. I think he was from the radio, because my second guess is a politician and I can't imagine a politician saying the stupid thing that he did. (Well who knows. The Tories are in our city at the moment.)

If you (lovely person reading this) don't know, this man made a joke when handing out the award for female runner-up that the prize was "very appropriate for a woman, a shopping bag." Then he said "not to use cliches" - um, but you did, arsehole! It would be sexist in any case, and worse that he said it in front of hundreds of people, but this was undermining the woman who came second, who obviously doesn't spend all her time shopping and letting men do all the impressive, important stuff like being athletic and buggering up the economy. And on top of that, he said it at an environmental event, when the link between womens subordination and climate change is evident on several levels. Like that women make up most of the worlds poor and will be hurt by it most, and that the consumerist culture that is responsible for driving it that women are often blamed for is run by, um, men. Bad timing too, since this climate change and women event is taking place in Manchester on Monday night: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187655345960&ref=ts

If you can let me know, I can email his show and tell him what a jerk I think he is. Or in some reduced form that he might possibly be able to understand.

Sorry for the rant (whether I'm preaching to the choir or not),
James.

Posted also to debunkingmale and environment.

PS. I got a time of 22:05 which, at an estimate, was in the Top 10 of several hundred!

( Setlists for September 12th. )

There'll be more setlists than usual in the next few months, as tonight BI is doing a special one-off Thursday night, and a month from today I'll be doing my own clubnight as part of 350.org's day of International Climate Action. To balance this out, they'll stop when I move at the end of the year, so fret not if you're tired of them!

More updates soon! Promise! Including a review of a Paint it Black gig, all that's happened with Alison and my moving, and work bollocks.

Item 2: Mixtape for Dave, who I saw a few months ago for the first time in 4 years. I titled it "Dave Fine Compilation Tape," which is a reference to a tape of his I have from when we were about 15 called "Damn Fine Compilation Tape." It is subtitled "Some things you might have missed, memories and surprises." In the years since then when he got me into punk rock, Dave got into, among other things, hip hop, and this mixtape reflects that, with non-musical tracks. These are marked with a *

* Intro - "Bughumpers" (this is a recording of the two of us and our friend Pepto introducing ourselves and our roles in a one-day band when we did a few dumb songs)
Paint It Black - Cannibal
Five Knuckle - The Rise and Fall (?) of Corporate Rule
The Get-up Kids - Coming Clean
Mos Def - Napoleon Dynamite
* Radio trailer for The Lock-Up, January 2002
Only Crime - Take Me
Circle Jerks - Letter Bomb
Da Sywalkers - Protest Song (The Show Must Go On)
Defiance, Ohio - Oh, Susquehanna!
* DJ Shadow - Letter From Home
Maya Jupiter and Camielle - Move
Roots Manuva - Kick Up Ya Foot
Beastie Boys - All Lifestyles
Dilated Peoples - Firepower (The Tables Have Got To Turn)
* Me on Under The Pavement radio show talking about direct action, September 2006
Sonic Boom 6 - Don't Say I Never Warned Ya
Chemical Brothers - One Too Many Mornings
* Kingdom of the Undead (Send More Paramedics extract)
Good Clean Fun - Ex-Straight Edge-Ex

Erykah Badu - Amerykahn Promise
J-Live - One to 31
Plantlife - Luv Me (Til it Hurts)
New Pornographers - All for Swinging You Around
* Kevin Smith talking about how the mainstream is shit
Saves the Day - You Vandal
The Vandals - Come Out Fighting (Pennywise cover)
Jimmy Eat World - Blistered (live in Nottingham, 2001)
Less Than Jake - 867 5309 (Jenny)
* Hyrule - extract of Legend of Zelda theme music
Nothing Done - Cardiac Arrest
Oil - Autonomous
Smoke or Fire - Southpaw
Jeffrey Lewis - Life
* Quote from Network taken from "Twinkle" by Erykah Badu
The Shadowcops - Screwed Over
The Down and Outs - Tommy Was a Punk
* "Bughumpers" (the most complete version of the actual song)

I have more cool stuff to write about, but I'll leave them for another entry so that I might be inspired to update again sooner. For now: I like finding messages on the inside spine of CD cases, and I like using them as subject lines.

Item 1 that I've been meaning to post: My mum quit her job due to being bullied. She couldn't be fired because she appealed against a previous dismissal, so the boss did this. About a week after she left I wrote this, put it in a home-made envelope and dropped it in the shop. There has, as yet, been no response.

Dear Duncan,

My mum didn't want me to say anything to you, and I respected her wishes with regards to the time when she left. But I couldn't let this event pass without some good coming of it. Maybe if you realise what an arsehole you've been you will decide to spread some good in the world. But regardless, you realising what an arsehole you've been will at least be a kind of justice.

You're no doubt flustered by such statements, so let me begin by saying that this is not a threat. There's no way for you to come out on top in this by moving the goalposts and running to the police or anything, because I'm categorically stating that. If you want to respond you can, and if you don't, that's fine too.

What you've done is inexcusable. My mum did nothing to you. But all your privilege meant that when you decided you wanted to push her out it was almost impossible to fight against it. Your position as boss meant none of us could do anything because you were in a position to hurt her further.

She held out though, for almost two years. Do you know why? Because my mum loved her job. You may have forgotten that if you've seen her smiling since she handed in her notice, but you need reminding. She got to help people, which is what she's all about. And for the first time in her life she was helping people in a job that was above minimum wage and that got her something other than minimal respect. Did you get into your business to help people, Duncan? The answer is almost irrelevent given your behaviour. Even if you aren't just in it for the money (like most of the higher ranks of the pharmaceutical industry), there's no consistency. You're like one of those people that buys Fair Trade products then treats the person in the shop that's selling it like they're nothing. Maybe even that is giving you too much credit.

I don't care what problems you've got in your life. I don't need to know anything about your background to see that you're another rich white guy who thinks the world owes him something on top of all the advantages he enjoys. You'll never know what it was like for my mum to get to where she got to and you've ruined it for a reason that nobody can even fathom. Most discrimination at least has an identifiable motive, but you're just a callous human being. Comfort yourself regarding your guilt with something expensive why don't you? That comfort won't last.

She's taken early retirement now, and I can't explain how happy she is to be away from you. If somewhere down the line she ends up going back to work behind a cash register, I hope you'll enjoy hearing about it.

Lots of non-love,
James Lamont.

There's a load of things I've been meaning to update about. But I think they can wait a while longer.

Here are some EXCITING things going on right now:

+ Alison got a JOB! She went to a job fair and appeared on local TV that night being interviewed. This little company saw her and interviewed and hired her within 2 days. Hasn't even sunk in yet. It seems to be almost everything she'd want in a job, and she starts part-time too so its an ease-in. So hopefully I will be in Florida (the job is in St. Pete, where she's lived all this time) by December/January!

+ A factory that makes wind turbine blades on the Isle of Wight has been occupied by some its workers after it was slated for closure at the end of next week. This is so exciting! Not only is it obviously about climate change and resource depletion, but about finding better economic models that don't involve letting important businesses die (whilst hypocritically bailing out banks, car companies, et al). Yesterday was one of those rare days where I didn't use the internet at all, but in that time this really captured the public imagination. There are loads of Facebook groups and stories and debate are appearing all over the mainstream media, and whilst normally I'd be worried about the media getting bored before the story is over, there is still a lot of grassroots action going on. Read all about it here!

Alright, that's it for now. Off to work after being woken up earlier than I expected to go to the doctors. Grr!

( June Setlists (anti-fascist/nationalist songs within) )

So the BNP got a seat in the Northwest. Here's how my local area voted:

BNP - 5.2
CON - 31.7
GREEN - 10.4
LIBDEM - 12.9
LABOUR - 18.2
UKIP - 13.1

Mostly Tory, but way more Green than BNP. Hmm. I didn't even hear about the results until I got back from Scotland almost a week later, which means (perhaps thankfully) I missed most of the commentary too. I am gutted though, and think this is a real problem. Although I am not against democracy, it really annoys me how people think it is the only thing of value. It is the BNP (or any party that does well) that will say they won fair and square in order to stifle any further conversation of what's going on: why should we play into that? The people who are going to suffer are not going to be interested in whether it was sanctioned by democracy.

On the plus side, the BNPs share of the votes barely moved from the 2004 EU elections (I am reading conflicting things about whether it is more or less), so we can at least take comfort in that, at a time when finger-pointing parties normally do well.

Scotland was brilliant. Some photos have showed up, but when everyone gets back next week I will probably post some from the larger selection then. We camped in 6 places over 7 nights, and drank on all of them. Then the very day we came back I was DJing. So after a record 8 nights on the booze (as far as I can recall) I am going to stay clean for at least a month. But right now, I must hamper my physical/mental health by going back to work. Where I will use my fingerprint to clock in (I'm not kidding. Maybe more on that next time).

In 2007 I completed the 10K in 51:15 with a rank of 4461/28000.
In 2009 I completed the 10K in 46:27 with a rank of 2306/33000.

You can read my detailed write-up of this successful race here at SomeRunning!

I raised some money for the womens group Object! They campaign against objectification particularly with regards to lads mags and lap dancing regulations. If you would like to donate you can do so at their site. If not it would be great if you (particularly blokes) would look at some of the things they have to say and let me know! Thanks!

I am tired after another day at work, so I'm not sure what to write. I guess it's been going okay lately. I have agreed to do Monday as an extra shift, which hopefully will sweeten things with regards to the week I have booked off in early June. I'm going to Northern Scotland with my old co-op friends again, and camping.

I am very worried about the EU elections next Wednesday. If the BNP gets the North West seat it is close to securing based on its increase in previous years, it will get EU taxpayer funding. The Manchester Evening News today had a front page story coming out against the BNP, which is great. I did my bit by taking the newspaper from the bottom shelf and putting it at the ideal shelf, in the middle (and moving the hate filled Daily Express down to the bottom, hah). I absolutely MUST get my lazy friends to vote this time round, or these "anti-Europe nationalists" are going to be linking up with fascists in France, Italy and beyond.

Here's a video from the Green Party saying voting for them is the best way to stop the BNP. Which is slightly misleading but they are by far the best choice for English voters, in any case.



I got my hair cut to a close shave after 14 months by the way, for the 10K. It's such a bloody relief.

Yesterday was one of those brilliant days.

First I got up earlier than I would have liked to go for a practice 10K run. The real race is a week today and I managed to do it in 44:06, almost a minute under my goal. So lets hope I can replicate that. Running down the canal is fun.

Then I went to a Fair Trade meeting organised by Lukes sister Lee and her wife. Not a whole lot of people turned up, and after I arrived a little late it was more of an informal chat, but I think they hammered some ideas out. For something spawned from a facebook group, its better than either of my groups have managed. The meeting took place in this café called Nexus, which is an art café. I stayed there for a few hours, got a really nice wrap and made Em a birthday card using things I had in my record case. I even used the red napkin from my meal. It turned out real good. On top of all that I found out this pleasant bohemian venue is open specifically from 2am to 6am on a Sat night/Sun morning - just when I am leaving clubs and waiting for early trams!

I went to Picadilly Records and after looking around a bit bought a double CD dub compilation. I went to Lush and got Alison some lip balm she wanted. And then I went to the gardens and basked in the strange sun for about an hour listening to my new CDs to see if any of them were suitable for Bomb Ibiza that night - right outside Rice, where I then got hopping John rice.

Then I walked over to the university where the Bomb Ibiza 5th anniversary gig was taking place in the Club Academy, which I've never been in. I decided to spare you all another gig review and actually enjoy it, although I still couldn't stop thinking of amusing observations and puns. Every band did really short sets and the fastest change overs of any gig ever in order to crowbar 6 bands in 3 and half hours. 300 people showed up. A surprise band came in the middle called Nylon, just to make things even harder for Em. Sonic Boom 6 played their new album in its entirety, and just a few old ones, but everyone still loved it. It sounded good. They told everyone to go with them to Bomb Ibiza.

The gig gave people free entry to the clubnight after at Satans, so a good 200 of them did. Which was great! We got a taxi over there where Mike was playing to a dozen people. Yesterday was not only the anniversary of the night but Ems birthday, so I did a lot of the music which was great. At the very last minute space at her house freed up, so I didnt have to use the café after all. Maybe in a few weeks after something else.

( Setlists )

Novelty songs kept getting added so we went on until about 2:45. I am sure some songs are missing from my sets, as usual (Edit: Yep, remembered I played No Comply - Silencio somewhere in there). Early in the evening after making about 20 requests one guy gave me a piece of paper with "PS. Best DJ Ever?!" written on it. Getting framed. We ended up playing 5 Op Ivy songs, which might be a record, and I bought a cool teal Bomb Ibiza 5th birthday shirt cause Em had too many she hadn't sold. Oh and ate BI cake.

Today we got up and went for breakfast in a Thai/Irish greasy spoon and then I came home and Chris came round to cut my hair. It is now super short. I wanted to go to the pub and buy him a beer but he left and never phoned me back like he was supposed to. He must have fallen asleep. Which is what I am going to do about now. Maybe you are too.

Classics of Love, Virgins, Mike Park, The Computers, Bears Bears
Retro Bar, Manchester
5th May 2009

Bears, Bears managed to spark my interest with just the one and a half songs I heard (I am stupid and thought they started later, so went to buy a Burrito, Burrito). The full, amusing song was called 'I am Horse,' and is about how horses are overrated. Presumably, their ability to bite your face off has been noted by the band. Wait for a hardcore band or quirky indie film to show up called Bears versus Horses. http://www.myspace.com/bearsbears

The Computers are a group of down on their luck painters from Devon - at least their gleaming white outfits suggest as much. Like any computer known to humankind they are prone to stopping and starting, during pretty much every song. Their sound is messy, shouty, loud, something like Kodan Armada and Refused, particularly the vocal style. The most sensible banter is when we are told a video has been recorded for a particular song, that involves a rabbit. Hearing the noise that follows, you imagine the rabbit in the video must be hopping away from a giant tank, with big fucking cannons and barb wire all over it and "Death to bunnies" painted on the side. http://www.myspace.com/thecomputersfromexeter

The acts tonight seem to slot together quite well, which is fortunate because it's actually the fusing of two seperate tours. This is not because the music is all similar. Mike Park of Asian Man Records puts a Plea for Peace banner up (the name of the non-profit organisation he founded to promote peace through music), and plays some acoustic songs about the love and hate in his life. It's not explosive, but if he felt this was a clearer way to get across his messages about racism, and his family, then fair play. Although the crowd reaction is positive, it seems the personal nature of the acoustic set requires Park to wish for more, as on his website he has said the gig was "one of the worst shows of [his] life". Bugger. http://www.mikeparkmusic.com/blog.php

Not to be confused with "that crappy disco band from New York" ('The' Virgins, I believe) are Virgins, ex-members of New Mexican Disaster Squad who play the kind of Dischord-esque, Hot Water Music-ish, grufty punk rock that buff Americans do best. They're from Florida and ask that we buy some of their merch so they can get back. They are the first of the two remaining bands to talk about how their only knowledge of Manchester growing up was the music coming from here, which considering there is a United match on in the bar upstairs is certainly better than yank punks thinking we all support those overpaid twonks. http://www.myspace.com/virginsofflorida

Even though few know what to expect, the room is packed for Classics of Love, the new band fronted by Jesse Michaels. Although not playing ska, it's hard not to feel the spirit of ska in this guys voice. Some loved musicians do their best to distance themselves from their former achievments, but Michaels is cool enough to acknowledge that people are there because they adore his older bands. Considering Classics of Love are named after a Common Rider song (his 1999 - 2003 project), he seems happy to draw the threads through his career. To this end, amongst the new punk n' rock stuff, they play a couple of Common Rider songs ('Carry On' being one) and finish with Operation Ivy's 'The Crowd,' which of course is can't-quite-believe-it amazing. http://www.myspace.com/classicsofloveband

James Lamont.

3 Minute Warning, Physical Jerks, Broken Nose, AWarAgainstSound, Kickback, Rasta4Eyes
Ska Bar @ The Retro Bar, Manchester
26th April 2009

Since the sun is teasing us into thinking it's nearly summer and even the obscenely uncool Eastenders is doing a storyline about the influx of Caribbean culture into Britain (via one about the Notting Hill riots), I thought it was about time to get down to a ska bar. And still not participate in the "bar" element - but baby steps.

Like a million people at a million gigs, I do not have a good excuse for missing the first band Rasta4Eyes. But their myspace site will tell you a few things. Neither noticably Rastafari or with coke-bottle glasses, they have a strong ska sound with some of those Sublime-style guitar riffs thrown in. Worth listening to: www.myspace.com/rastafoureyesuk

Kickback apparently aspire to be a sort of Rise Against with brass, and there is definitely an element of Epiphat to be heard, at least during their tuning. And during their set there is enough kickupthearse to make things interesting, as well as a selection of delightful shirts to enjoy, with statements such as "Brass not Bombs" and "Fuckers, England" (think Rockers). www.myspace.com/thisiskickback

AWarAgainstSound are essentially a punk band with enough intricate rock elements to justify the hair-shaking and shirtless elements of their line up. They honour the day though by playing a rather long ska song, then following it up with another that was actually more ska and more summery. Around this part of the set was a really unnecessary "gay" remark (as they usually are). I know I sometimes try to get away with playing Bad Brains at the Bomb Ibiza clubnight but that doesn't mean homophobia will make you seem more ska, come on now. www.myspace.com/awaragainstsound

Do you remember those skateboarder characters Justin and Vince from High Fidelity? The lead singer of Broken Nose, from Cymru, sounds a lot like their bands vocalist did in the film. It is surely one of the most interesting things I've heard in ages, because even though it is mixed with ska-punk and stuff, it works. As the singer seems to strip throughout the set, the most massive gentleman in the room dances his arse off, clearly enjoying it too. They make such an impression that I'm not even going to laugh at/comment on the large number of dreadlocks sprouting from white skulls on stage. Except I think I just did. Holy Zion. www.myspace.com/brokennose1

There is no pretentious wank going on in the music of the Physical Jerks despite the similiarity of their name to the wankily-titled Circle Jerks. These obviously skilled musicians don't take themselves too seriously, with bits of Tetris themes, amusing riffs and an ending song called "I'm a Big Fat Fucking Hypocrite and So Are You". Their relaxed reggae stylings wouldn't be out of place at the likes of Do The Dog and their singer looks quite like the actor Jamie Bell (soon to star in The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn). www.myspace.com/physicaljerksmusic

3 Minute Warning have a lengthy set in which for a while it feels like there is hardly any talking coming from them. There is, their songs are just such a blast of fun that you feel like it's nonstop. The keyboard adds to their sound and the frenzied movement onstage compliments it. It starts to wear a bit thin towards the end, but they inspire a weird version of the Macarena amongst the fired-up crowd and are a solid signiture act to the day. www.myspace.com/3minutewarning

James Lamont.

--

To be posted in a few zines and blogs, hence the Murdochspaces.

The other day I bought these CDs from Piccadilly Records. They were all on the cheap side and I listened to the first two before purchase - a far cry from the days of triple figure music spending:

Roots Manuva - Slime & Reason
Plantlife - The Return of Jack Splash
Propagandhi - Supporting Caste

The last one was a particulary lucky spot-on-the-rack because I went to see Propagandhi on Friday in Sheffield. But...

Black Magic?

Tonights show in Sheffield England ended half way through the set in a huge, huge, huge fire.
Clive from Black Widow joined us on stage bringing the dark aura with him. He will be joining us tomorrow as well. Come To The Sabbat, will you?

That is the extent of the information on the bands site. What the shit? We were sent out and never let back in. They stopped in the middle of Back to the Motor League too, the only song they had played off Today's Empires, Tomorrows Ashes so far.

I spent the rest of the weekend pretty busy too, down near Wales with Stig et al, enjoying the sun and having a barbecue. We met his new supermarket colleagues and we got along instantly as we are peers. We played Worms this afternoon. Tonight I went to Simons, drank tea and shat myself playing Resident Evil 5 and trying to decide if it was offensive bullshit or not.

On April 14th, a clear two months after my birthday I received a large box from Alison. She'd sent me other things that arrived more than before the date but for some reason this box floated around the atlantic for all that time. It has far too many things in for me to possibly even compute, let alone document, but let's just say it will rot my teeth, clean my hair, stimulate my mind, entertain my ears and provide hours of enjoyment. Excellent.

( Setlists for April. That were done without headphones of any kind. )

luketherunner has started a blog about running called Some Running, and has kindly invited Alison and I to log our runs there too. It's surprisingly fun and busy with a few of his other friends involved too, and is keeping me motivated to train for the Manchester 10K next month (next MONTH? Feck.) My entries have my name in the title, along with miles.

I should have known better than to praise the ease with which I got my money back from the government, for since my last entry they sent me a form to fill in, with the promise of perhaps more forms later (I also have 2 other forms to fill in about taxes/benefits that have arrived recently, ugh) . They claim it's because they don't have records of where and when I worked and was on welfare for the two financial years before the one I am claiming about. Part of the form is pretty stupid though. The government which has continued the process of casualisation with a special fervour for 12 years thinks that space for the details of 2 jobs since April 2005 is sufficient. A fact long time readers will know doesn't apply to me!

I have had two shifts at work so far and they've been alright. I am doing the exact same hours. Tuesday was made easier because it was 6 hours rather than the usual 8, my co-workers were welcoming more than I was expecting and it had a strange novelty. Friday was also alright because I found I had two decent new co-workers, one a really cool old national service veteran (which I didn't even know we apparently had here until 1960). But it started off bad that day! Supervisor Shelly greeted me not with a welcoming but with a mega-bad fucking attitude, along the lines of "I dont want you slacking/reading magazine/writing amusing statements around the shop like before." I told her I didn't realise there had been that much of a problem and that she was being out of order, and she said she and some others (other jerks) had taken offence at the fact that when I left in December I wrote "so long suckers" on a bag blockhead. Aside from the friendly innocuousness of this message, it's doubly absurd for her to be complaining, because on a couple of occasions since then I have been in the shop and made polite chit-chat with her, during which she even mentioned the message with a grin. So it's a triple stupid since it's an abuse of authority to not get mad until you're in a position to be a thorn in my side, you fucking Thatcherite wimp. She did apologise after the manager very reasonably spoke to her, but still. Woah.

Here are my setlists for Mikes birthday, last Sunday!

( Rock, Punk, Ska, Indie, Hip Hop! )

It was lots of fun to play a different variety of music, and plenty of oldies. The venue was intimidating, about the size of some of the indie clubs that my friends and I visit. But thankfully it did not fill up (the place is called The Zoo), perhaps because it was a private gig on a Sunday night. Different equipment was scary, especially since I had problems with the headphones and the faders didn't seem to work properly and stuff kept bleeding through. Between these two sets this guy played 2 hours of drum n bass. I didn't think I was going to go back on but the other DJs he had been hoping for didn't arrive, woop! I had been awake since 9:30am on 2 hours sleep (we went to Leicester to have lunch at Toms) so I was the picture of fucked.

A blog of Lukes, taxes, work, DJ setlists. Yes I did attempt to make this entry JUST like my last one.

(Okay, last weeks SchNEWS had some great stories, including stuff about the G20 summit, the debt of the bail-outs and a pretty funny "...and finally" story.)

I was looking at a blog belonging to luketherunner and something about it being just a single, articulate post made me think "it would be nice to have a blog." Uh?

It seems like all I ever talk about is working or not working for the Co-op on here, and I'm sorry that's so boring. But, today I did get my job back, at my previous shop. Uh, joy. I guess. The guy who replaced me got sacked for never showing up.

But! Today is a joy besides that, because I went to the job centre and because I wont be working till at least the weekend I get another payment on Friday. AND while I was there I went up to the tax office and with BREATHTAKING ease managed to get myself a cheque for emergency tax money which I never claimed from my pub job back at the end of 2007. It will arrive in a few weeks, although I don't know the exact amount. I was amazed I didn't need to fill in any forms or even have my P45. I am happy with the part of government which made it so easy for me to get my money back from the other, murderous parts of government. I doubt many people are as bone-idle as me to wait that long, but please, DON'T LET THEM HAVE YOUR MONEY. You can get it back as late as 6 years after, apparently.

I also talk about Bomb Ibiza even though it's something that only happens literally 9 times a year. This weekend I am DJing at one of stuarts friends 21st birthdays, so hopefully that will be fun. And Satans has a second room, which will hopefully open soon, which we are going to use as a punk room - I'm excited!

( Setlists for December and March. )

My friend Hazee lost his girlfriend, my friend Gary lost his job, my parents are away for 3 weeks and the afternoon they left I got really ill and am now recovering and my brother has been here since Saturday, working nights and lying under a sleeping bag on the settee.

Did I mention Alison got a job and we're going to be living in Gainesville?

I didn't update for all of February. I've been thinking about it for ages, as usual, but I've not felt I really had much to say.

On Saturday omgffswtf AKA WhatEvil AKA George was here, and we went out for the evening. I got along with both his friend and the friend of his friend, and we were talking like it hadn't been nearly 3 years. The pub was London-style expensive, but we got away with it (I hope it feels that way to you anyway George! Do you remember leaving your wallet on the table? Fnar).

The weekend of my birthday was really busy with activity and mostly good fun. Including a really good turnout for Bomb Ibiza. I was busy checking in with my parents (who didn't hate it!) and concentrating so I didn't write down my setlist. I am looking forward to the next one on the 14th, even though I had a nightmare last week about fucking up whilst DJing.

I have been listening to Radio 1 a bit since my new phone has a radio on it, and I have no other music device that really works. I can finally see why everyone says Zane Lowe is so annoying. He used to be so good on Brand: New though. I looked on youtube for evidence of it but maybe the BBC (or MTV) don't want anyone to remember.

I am about to go out and see this years Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir.

I guess I'll update next when I have too much to say. Hope you're all well!

Donald wept through the proceedings.
His tears soaked through the canvas that cloaked his twisted face and they stained his orange jumpsuit where with such rare distinction he once displayed the evidence of his outstanding contributions to the maintenance of a kingdom come.
But those days are gone.
He’s nothing more than a number on a docket thick with shareholders, engineers, PR firms, politicians: war-profiteers.
How the fuck did I end up here?
This just isn’t fair.
Ain’t no place for a millionaire.
He searches for the words to stop this table in mid-turn, like
“we are but old men” and
“we only did what we were told,”
but the laughter from the gallery drowns out these vestiges of a profession’s oldest defense.
The court will direct the record to reflect compliments from the bench; you sir, are central casting’s crowning achievement.
And for your outstanding performance in a comedic role, I’d like to dedicate the findings of the jury to the dead.
But how can one man ever repay a debt so appalling?
Can’t gouge 10,000 eyes from a single head so I think we should observe a sentence that will serve to satisfy both a sense of function and poetry: so you will spend the rest of your days drenched in sweat, with your face drawn in a rictus of terror as you remove another buried land mine fuse.
Meanwhile, 100 yards back behind the sandbags, a legless foreman pulls the trigger on a red megaphone.
Squelching feedback.
Drunken laughter.
Broken English.
His dead daughter’s picture.
Time and tide, no one can anticipate the inevitable waves of change.

---

In other words Propagandhi are doing a tour to promote their new album (with deserving North West Bomb Ibiza favourites Random Hand on the UK dates). Did I say UK? I mean "4 gigs in Southern England and 1 in the North, none anywhere else". Radical as fuck that is. But lucky for them I am willing to travel to that one Northern date (Sheffield) just as I went to Liverpool for them in 2006. Wankers. I love them! GLOBAL (kinda) TOUR DATES (thanks pikake.)

PS. In an action that would make Propagandhi proud (they're playing in the city), 6 people broke into weapons factory EDO a week and a half ago and caused £250K (at least) of damage, stating that with the attack on Gaza the time for talking with the company was over. There's video footage of them going in and statements they made to camera here. The story is here. Now that I think about it, I remember people singing Propagandhi at the Smash EDO camp I went to a year ago, hah.

Hello!

So what's new. 1) Well, the government approved a new runway at Heathrow - I am appalled at the idiocy and nerve more than anything, since a combination of even Conservative Party opposition and tightening oil supplies to POWER THE PLANES means it will never be built. And we will waste precious resources and time that could be put to better use.

2) I'm back on the dole and have my first welfare interview in about 9 hours. The small risk that Co-op wouldn't have a job opening for me turned out to be true. Roy said he would put me first in line if a job came up, which is nice incase I don't find anything, but now I realise that even the prospect of something unknown and new is more appealing than going back (hopes soon to be dashed whatever job it is, I'm sure). I have a good feeling about a job opening at a local ethical pub that I applied for though. Although it would be bittersweet if I got a job before getting a sniff of government money after jumping through so many hoops on the phone interview.

3) Prince Harry is a wanker.

4) I found a zine and record distro called Corndog. I ordered a bunch of stuff and got in touch to say I would like to distribute potluck and Tram Jumper through them. The guy emailed me back to say he was interested, but that it all would have to wait a while because he is in New England for the "big day". Bloody America. (Oh but congrats!)

5) Bomb Ibiza is moving from a Thursday to a Saturday with expected explosive results. The first Saturday will be February 14th, my birthday. I might have convinced all of my family to come. There is a hip hop night called Hip Hoperation on the Friday before that sounds awesome, so if I can think of someone who might want to go to that it might prove a brilliant birthday weekend.

6) Thanks to people who commented on my previous entry about population growth who I didn't respond to. I smartly approached that thorny issue when Alison was on her way over here, so was pretty busy afterwards. We had such a great time and the pain of her being gone is still fresh after almost two weeks. We watched lots, we visited tonnes of museums, we cooked well and ate at loads of nice places, we went to loads of clubs and gigs (including The Pogues). On the optimistic side, the pain it eased after such a long year still lingers, and we both know this year is going to be much better.

7) Oh and we WENT TO ITALY ON THE TRAIN. YES. It was brilliant! Why do such beautiful countries get captured by such ugly politics? I'll write a proper entry on this using the few notes I made soon. It was the best holiday I've been on and just defies words. We went to both Rome and Venice.

Computer is being a fuck-up now so you get to have a lucky/magnificent seven points.

It is impossible to discuss population growth responsibly without discussing race or class. This is because for hundreds of years people of certain groups (white, male, wealthy, Western) have discussed overpopulation in both overt and less obvious discriminatory ways. This is important, because these sorts of opinions have had an effect on how the present day looks, both physically and in our minds. If you're able to read this message from a computer screen, you are likely at the very least to be part of a class of people that is, relative to the global population, wealthy. This is not to say that you must bring up race and class within every element of a conversation about population growth, but that it must have absolutely influenced your commentary on the topic. To say that population growth is not intertwined with race and class and that the former can be discussed in isolation is at best insensitive, and at worst laying groundwork for an environmental suspension of democracy.

When you consider further that population growth is not actually that important, environmentally or from a world hunger perspective (economic growth, meat consumption and biofuels are vastly bigger players), you wonder what else is at play in the public mind to make this into such a big concern. It's not that most people who worry about the issue of population are fascists, but that they have spent more time learning about how advertising subconsciously encourages all of us to consume, than about the subconscious influence of racist and classist thoughts. This means they may unwittingly act in ways that are oppressive. One example is the way some talk about the intelligence of people in poor countries. Even peasants who are illiterate are aware that resources are finite, that they need them to survive, and that the number of people in their community impacts the strain on those resources. They know this because unlike a lot of us they are not insulated from the effects of over-using them. The reason then that they tend to have larger families than we do is because they are also aware that there is no shred of a welfare state to look after them when they get older, and that shagging is a good option when you aren't surrounded by a parade of electronic gadgets to entertain you. It is not just a lack of knowledge or access to condoms, or lack of knowledge in general.

This is not, as some people suggest, an argument against discussing population growth or against pursuing what are generally perceived to be the best solutions to it, namely fighting poverty and closing the educational gap between males and females. It's just that without taking a critical look at our actions and opinions we risk re-enforcing the prejudices that caused such vast differences in resource use in the first place.

Posted to environment, powerswitch and debunkingwhite.

Look at my post-election post from November 5th. Now imagine I have the technological know-how, artistic skill and articulate spoken-word ability to be a video-blogger. Also imagine I've liked hip-hop for a couple of decades and that influences the nature of my videos. If you see fit, imagine my post to sound a little less self-important!

Not to blow my own trumpet, or imply that I know anywhere near as much about the situation as this man due to not being black or American or having 15 years more thinking under my belt, but the similarity is quite striking. His title is even the EXACT title I gave my same post on Facebook! (And I'll find some way to brag about this there too.)



PS. If you've never seen Jay Smooth or his website http://illdoctrine.com/, nows the perfect time to do so. He is one incredibly cool, articulate, intelligent bloke. And a definite refreshing change from the likes of those peak oil guys talking on film who all seem to wear glasses.

Oh, and while he's blowing your mind with his words in this video, he pets his cute cat.

I made an effort to update more this month and with the one I made earlier today it comes to 5. How pathetic? I felt like I was pouring a lot in. Anyway I have more to write. My parents are in Spain for a week, checking out the area they are most likely to move to, and with both brothers having flown the nest I think this is the longest I've been in the house alone, unless I'm forgetting something monumental. On top of this Alison has gone home to minimal-phone-signal, minimal-computer-access USA for Thanksgiving. I've had work of course, and I've been fine, but I've noted a few things. At first I spent almost zero time online, since I normally jump online when my dad has already turned the laptop on, unless something needs doing. But I've spent almost every free minute since Monday at 2am on here (work yesterday for 9 hours). I've been on here since 4:30 today when it got too dark to read my book, aside from time off to make food and use the phone. I haven't snacked at all today, I've eaten 3 meals and not been hungry at any point before or after them. I wonder if it's because I've exerted so little energy. I just finished off 2 mini spicy bean burgers and am listening to a hardcore Circle-Jerks type band from the Netherlands, which convinced me somehow to just stay on here till sleep hits me, go down with the rat-infested ship. I've enjoyed the privacy, I just appreciate now how if there are small or medium size gaps in my days activities I can say hello to my parents.

Speaking of work, on Saturday I did an extra shift and I chased a shoplifter out of the door and round the block. He was carrying two cases of beer. I'm not sure why I did it, since my attitude to shoplifters has been generally "good for them," and I had no plan for what I'd do if I caught him. Perhaps it was because it felt like a personal insult, walking right past me near the door with two cases of beer. Also because Saturday was especially boring, and this entertained me for 5 minutes at least. I shouted "Oi!" and he started to run, so I ran after him shouting "fucking wanker!"(!) He went into the car park behind the building, and I assumed he was going to jump into one, but he wasn't, he went all the way round the block and the teens hanging there shouted in excitement, and I shouted "I can run faster than you!" to which he retorted "Yeah right," shortly before dropping all his beers in the road and carrying on running. I did a victory dance on the pavement and tried to clear up the cans quickly, but not before two stupid bastard motorists came and drove over them pointlessly, fucking most of them up. The kids came over and asked if they could have the unsellable cans, and I, on an adrenalin rush, said "you can do what the fuck you want, I'm off" and I ran back in the shop hoping for praise and smiles, which I got. I got a basket and went out to see what was there, but the kids had cleaned that road really fast. I asked them for one can so I could have a sort of trophy, and they said yes, treated me with respect (gee, I wonder why, huh cop-phoning supervisors?) and asked me what happened. I wish I had remembered to tell them I wouldn't pursue them with such vigour if and when they took sweets. I wasn't even trying to catch him, just keep up with him, just wanted to see where he would lead me. Apparently I didn't do it to save the stock - quelle surprise!

What were some of the headlines yesterday? They were about the proposed tax burden that is to be put on those poor souls (800,000 of them I think) who earn over £100 grand, and the "millions" who earn over £40 grand. Well cry me a fucking river. This stark data about wealth allocation makes me want to break into some of the mansions (with multiples SUVS, personal CCTV and spiked gates) that I walk past on my commute to work. Perhaps Labour have seen the enthusiasm for Obama and realised everyone who isn't in these categories support these, you know, old fashioned ideas like taxing the rich.

Move Into The Light?

For capital, limits are peculiar. Capital has an internal dynamic of expansion which must be satisfied, so limits must be ignored, subverted, side-stepped, or otherwise overcome. And the secret of capital’s longevity lies precisely in its ability to use limits and the crises they engender as a launch-pad for a new round of accumulation and expansion. A good example of this dynamism is the emergence of the so-called Keynesian/Fordist phase of capitalism. The high levels of organisation of the industrial working class in the first half of the 20th century – not only the Russian Revolution but intense struggle worldwide – appeared as a limit to the expansion of capitalism, threatening not only to halt accumulation but to destroy the system once and for all. The welfare state was a direct result of these struggles, but it was also a way of neutralising this threat. And capital’s greatest feat was to strike a productivity deal which actually transformed this limit into the engine of a new phase of capitalist growth.

I was reminded of this passage again when I thought the other day about how companies are using the credit crunch to keep their profits flowing. Every other advert now is flogging a prize or product that is "credit crunch busting". This is of course bollocks, as no amount of buying discounted goods will get you out of debt, or lower food prices, or increase the actual amount of wealth in the system that isn't magic credit made from thin air. But the astounding arrogance. It's as if people haven't analysed what the individual words in the term credit crunch are. Buying things you can't afford is both the prop-up and the inevitable downfall of this system. It's like I said in my entry earlier on about the Anglo-centric approach to dealing with climate change - why are we listening to the bastards who got us into this mess?