This evening I received an email from Climate Campers, who up until now have been in high spirits because they had arrived safely at the site near Kingsnorth and started to set up with little aggravation from the police. It stated that the police were on site and being aggressive and I have just now managed to catch up with a slightly frazzled Climate Camper on their way back to London, who explained that the police arrived in force and searched every single camper's tent. What on earth for?! We're not criminals.... I can only imagine how frustrated everyone who is down there must feel after two days of hard work in setting the site up in debilitating heat. Luckily the London neighbourhood has already erected the main marquees, because the police have taken anything that wasn't yet put to use, meaning that we are down on tents.
But don't panic, this doesn't mean that the Climate Camp will be cancelled - rest assured that whilst the police may do their best to dampen spirits we are a hardier crew than that. We many be lacking some of the much needed infrastructure that many people have spent months planning and collecting, but we'll be putting on a great camp anyway.
Idiots, is all I can say! I can't imagine there is anyway that this will reflect well on the police, when what we are doing is trying to raise awareness of Climate Change in a non-violent and amazingly positive way.
As Climate Camp swiftly approaches in three days, I thought it was about time to follow suit with Amelia and get in the spirit of things. So off I trundled on Monday to Putney to get myself educated by the Climate Caravan crew. Having set off on their 60 mile extravaganza on Saturday 27th July from Heathrow, these dedicated souls are in the middle of their journey powered by bike and foot. With their mission of promoting awareness of Climate Camp and rallying troops for a week of workshops finishing with the final destination of Kent to start the Climate Camp ball rolling on Sunday 3rd.
The Climate Caravan crew in the beginning of the journey
An eclectic range of wheels
Paddy on his choice of vessel
Paddy was not alone in his eccentric choice of transport
Having shamefully taken public transport, hopping from pavement to pavement like an audition for the late rabbit from Alice In Wonderland, I eventually stumbled through the doors of St Mary's Church. Breaking into a sticky summer evening perspiration, feeling slightly bashful about my choice of transport, I had hoped to find a bunch of drained and equally sweaty folks. Yet, even though the vast majority had cycled and walked there, I couldn't have been further from the truth. As I crept through rows of occupied chairs attempting to keep a low profile (it's a myth that the fashionable arrive late) I caught welcoming smiles of fresh faced, bubbly chaps.
With their mission of promoting awareness of power station protest in Kingsworth, Mondays theme of "Turning the world upside down," gathered high profile speakers from across the country to consider how we can make the transition to a truly sustainable society.
Living out of a suit case on various friends floors with a life style currently centered on convenience (until Friday when I get the keys to my new flat), its no surprise that I felt slightly out of place when Dr. Paul Chatterton of Leeds University spoke of his sentiments on how we as a society jump at the chance to follow the next trend (perhaps I'll cancel that upgrade on my contract phone) which is a huge obstacle in tackling the climate issues we face today.
Simon Okotie of London Citizens opened his proposal with reflections on Buddhist community in Bethnal Green. With their carbon footprint substituting half of the average Londoner, it is clear that their stab at bike sharing has had successful impact on green living. Concluding his argument, Simon closed with the thought it's ourselves which need to be turned upside down and inside out, to find our hearts in order to gain a sense of connection worldwide. In his eyes, the key here is community living.
Somewhat shadowing Simon's value system Lelia Deen's ideas, tagged under The World Development Movement involve leading by example and redefining our best interests on a global level starting in the community. Common ground was shared with Andrew Siams of the New Economics Foundation in that we, the last generation that can, are encouraged to revive the anarchy those of us struggling with wrinkles witnessed during the 70's. The suggestion was to tackle the biggest polluters, starting with crushing carbon emissions with the New Green Deal.
Andy Goldring of the Permaculture Association raised two points; soil and government. With permaculture isolating the easiest root to sustainable productivity, minimising work and wastage along the way, Andy describes soil as our trump card; a way of working with nature, without damaging the future productivity and potentially improving the health of the land thus widening our eco-system. Andy's first suggestion revolves around aiding farmers to enhance biodiversity by heightening the ecological function of soils.
In stressing the importance of setting goals for the campaign, the final point put forward involved being realistic about our government and the actions they are taking part in. I had never visualised the state of current affairs in such a clear light until this evening. Taking inspiration from ideas in holistic management, Andy cuts to the chase and labels our governments current agenda as short term. From this point he encourages the audience to break down the possibilities of this agenda into 3; what quality of life do we aspire to, what forms of production do we wish to meet and what resources do we need in place to achieve? Closing his suggestions with the idea government is too important to leave to governments, I join in the applause with hope that this change is possible, that there are a bunch of focused and committed people like you and me who want to make difference, before it is too late.
To close our evening of debates members of the public are invited to make comments on the guest speakers proposals. Arms wave in the air and opinions are voiced, yet all seems to revolve around the same idea. Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, it is imperative we unite to ensure change can happen. The political heirachy which looms above us is not pulling the stops, and just as Putney witnessed in 1647, we must unite as a collective to inspire anarchy, sustainability and a difference. The first step for me will be joining in at Climate Camp and brushing up on my green knowledge.
As “Let’s Get Lost” is finally released on DVD, we must ask ourselves if the chaos and confusion created by Bruce Weber doesn’t allow unprecedented understanding of the enigmatic jazz legend, Chet Baker.
As the nation faces another dubious and unpredictable British summer, Bruce Weber’s “Let’s Get Lost,” released on DVD on the 28th of July, brings a touch of the Santa Monica heat and dust to our eyes and ears. Originally released in 1988, “Let’s Get Lost” chronicles the life of Chet Baker, the famous and infamous West Coast trumpeter often cited as the founder of “cool jazz,” throughout his four-decade-spanning career, up until his untimely and enigmatic death in 1988. “Untimely” may well be the key word here as the dictums of Time and Age are rendered utterly irrelevant in this film. By jumping back and forth in time and space through images of Baker’s face, once youthful later wizened and ravaged, and interviews with fans, associates, ex-wives and children, we are drawn into the hazy unpredictability that pervades Chet Baker‘s life.
Through constant juxtaposition of vintage photographs by William Claxton and footage by Weber, we come to know the discordant sides of Baker that served as bookends to his life - struggling to enforce some kind of order as he moved from a youth hungry for bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, to an adult hungry for heroin. The scrapbook style refutes all attempts at linear narration tracing one man’s decent from greatness to the gutter and back again, and leaves Baker’s story as fluid and changeable as ever. Depending on who you listen to, collaborators or ex-wives, Baker was a manipulative devil or a “Greek god.” In Weber’s own words, “Chet had sold his story countless times but no one ever owned Chet’s story,” so we can only accept all accounts as equally valid.
Indeed, it is the acceptance of the multiplicity of Chet Baker that renders him so interesting to this day when the cult of personality seems more important than ever. The images and recordings create a collage of Chet Bakers: a fresh-faced James Dean lookalike, personifying youth and vitality, his music epitomises the dusty, decaying romance of the West Coast as recorded by John Fante and Jack Kerouac. One moment he’s an army recruit, as clean-cut as a young Elvis, the next we hear he was a reprobate signed-up by his parents in an effort to save him from himself. He’s a star on the award-winning Steve Allen Show and a cameo in a low-budget Italian film rolled into one.
First, he’s on a stage in front of screaming fans, then he’s toothless and dirty, pumping gas at a seven-eleven…but then he’s back again, transformed-he‘s shed his skin. Try to keep up. As though by way of explanation, Weber sets the variety show to a backing of Baker’s angelic voice, jarred by images of his impossibly lined face, singing “how strange the change from major to minor.” The thing for which we must be most grateful is that though he did indeed fall from major to minor, he ultimately managed to climb back up to major, remaining to this day one of the most compelling musicians of our time.
To celebrate the release of the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik album, Modular Records threw a little shindig at the Dazed and Confused Gallery with ‘a little night melody, a little film & a little art’. I arrived feeling rather flustered and hot having walked around in the summery heat for the best part of an hour. Ambitiously I thought I could attend two not very close events in an hour, I couldn’t. I presumed Charles the music editor would be waiting for me there. However, after about 30 minutes of me waiting for him it became obvious that he was not coming (later I found out he got lost, oh the perils of lacking an A-Z, and arrived after I had gone).
Feeling rather hot, I inched through the crowd to find the cool cool cool beer. What sweet relief it was to plunge my hand into the icy cold bucket, so much so I contemplated keeping it there forever or at least till the end of the evening. Garnering a few looks I decided it was probably best to remove my hand and go in search of the artwork produced by Fergadelic, renowned for his work with Silas, X-Girl and his own label Tonite and Mel Bles who had contributed photographs. This is where I got confused. While I did find the artwork and it was suitable 70’s intergalactic inspired I scratched my head as to why they had gone to the trouble. Showcased in a rather wee room, the little stressed on the PR invite was no exaggeration. I thought there must have been more to it. Once again I set off in search of delights. This ended with no more artwork found and me outside on the street with a large portion of the guests, occasionally catching snippets of the variousAustralian accents.
Waiting for the showing of the video I was hoping some individual would take pity on my Billy-no-mates status. I even thought about resorting to puppy dog eyes (I didn’t). Then I saw my chance, another girl by herself. But too late, she was joined by a posse of others. Just like everyone else there. I decided to wander back in to check out the art again.
Back inside, with unusually good timing I realised the film was about to start. A ten minute animation of an intergalactic psychedelic space odyssey produced, directed and animated by David Bailey Ross to accompany the first three tracks off the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik album. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was created by Riton and is an interpretation of the cosmic sounds of German Krautrock of the late 70’s and early 80’s. The lushly layered sparse sounds went perfectly with the trippy visuals. I have to confess though; I got rather distracted by the resemblance of the room to a sweat box and took to fanning myself with the copy of the album I had picked up. A bit of ventilation wouldn’t have gone amiss. Before I could pass out, the film ended to a riotous applause and I made my exit.
I like a party as much as the next person, perhaps less so when I’m on my own but I was under the impression with the impending credit crunch we are all having to tighten our belts (at least this is what GMTV is telling me). Confusion over the execution of the concept for the night left me feeling this was quite extravagant and dare I say it, slightly unnecessary. But with the Midas touch, perhaps Modular Records have no stresses over spending a few pennies.
