I’m off to Arcada University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki in a couple of weeks and they’ve asked me to give a lecture for students in … wait for it: HEAVY METAL
Category Archives:Blog
Revolutionaries In The Cellar
Facebook’s new(ish) feature “on this day” reminded me that 3 years today I posted the picture below under the caption “Plotting revolution in a cellar in Finland”. Indeed we were, hard to identify but the picture I’m clutching is of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin who allegedly had a clandestine meeting in Tampere, Finland where I and my comrades were plotting in a cellar. Actually what we were doing was devising and recording a script for a Machinima (animation) movie. The results were hilarious but we never made the film. Perhaps I’ll post the audio. I shall be heading to Finland again in a few weeks (Helsinki) and I’ll see if I can pay a visit on Tampere. Alas I fear I will not meet up with my fellow revolutionaries as most have moved on (perhaps pursued by the authorities)
The Do Button
Lonely At The Top
Another Test
Sorry to bother you with tests but it seems my WordPress postings do get triggered to Google + via the Jeptack sharing plugin. However the title is not included and it seems a somewhat random image from my blog gets posted. What happens if I purposely add an image to this post?
Do My Blogs
Also go to Googe+ Sorry, as you’ve probably guessed, this is yet another test.
An Elegant Solution
Happy New Adventure
Social Injustices
I shared a letter on Zero Hours contracts a few days ago on Facebook thinking my little circle of bolshy friends may have something to say about it. Now I’m astounded to see it’s been shared over 14,000 times and the likes may go over 13,000 anytime soon. This and the 100’s of PM’s I’ve received from some pretty desperate people tell me that this is not just one mans rant. These are big numbers that endorse my belief that there’s a lot if injustice going on. It’s not just abusive “employment” conditions either. There is housing rental injustice as pointed out by my friend Kev Howard who also brought to my attention recently the injustice being perpetrated on people with disabilities by ATOS et all. I’m sure there’s more e.g. the financial injustices: corporate greed, bankers bonuses and tax avoidance that everyone is talking about. The exorbitant cost of life’s necessities such as water, gas and electricity. The mis-labeling of our food products. I was just remarking to my wife yesterday, if we put together the money we’ve clawed back in illegal banking charges and mis-sold PPI over the past few years it amounts to a huge chunk stolen from our income. What the hell is happening? What can we do about it all?
Trying Out Quick Gallery
Hands On Middlesbrough
He’s Got A Dream
In 1999 Tom Kelly and I wrote and produced a musical “Steel Town”. It tells of a young man’s dream of escaping the Steel Works into the world of music (wonder who that could be?) Tom produced the lyric to the song I’m posting which brilliantly captures how that young man’s parents may have felt (who could they be?) As we now know, those who did not escape Consett steel works saw its demise in 1980. We put the musical on at the Custom House South Shields and then we took it home to the Empire in Consett. Tom and I are now re-developing the musical to become a Teesside story. To help this we’re running some community workshops complete with fantastic archive film from the North East Film Archive. This video shows a lot of Teesside people but only uses minimal clips from the archives so I feel comfortable showing it here. For more you’d have to come to a workshop.