I am on a lonely road and I am travelling, travelling, travelling…

Hello Good People who read this blog in my absence…

(This blog entry was written after listening to hours of Joni Mitchell on my travels…)

I thought of you all on Solstice morning . The light was shining through the curtains of my guest room not long past 4 a.m. , unable to sleep I looked out the window and in the pale light I saw the sea, the birds and some drunken young revellers still ambling loudly on the beach from the night before with beer bottles in hand. They weren’t celebrating the Solstice, they were simply on holiday. Yes, I was in England but I don’t have a laptop or a mobile and was in a seaside town without internet access.

But I thought of you all out there somewhere. I felt bad for not writing about the Solstice, for this blog has become a commitment, although I don’t need any commitments right now.

I am on my own personal journey, this blog started with bits of my past, that others could relate to, then as I wrote various forces and choices transformed my present.

The same thing used to happen when I wrote many songs,  when I did art and wrote silly stories,the creative process subsequently changed my life.

Some people always stay in the same place all their lives, they like the same things, wear the same clothes, do the same job, love the same people and live with the same friends, family and neighbourhood. Although they still gently change and age, they are content with their stability.But people like me find this stability impossible and in spite of ourselves we need to transform, re-generate especially at times when the world too is changing fast( and we clash with our kin).

Joni Mitchell”California” 1970

So as a result of my blog I started to study again a subject which turned out to be just right for me in many ways, and also as a result of writing about protests and rights and looking at inequalities in relationships between people I mounted my own protest with  my nearest and dearest. Not fun, not fun at all but revolutionary. Not sure where it will end.

Also I foolishly mentioned to some that I had an anonymous blog and know that others observe me and can see into my private writings, I have to just live with that, but it has also put me off . A bit like having your parents or your teacher look over your shoulder while writing your private diary about the same said parent or teacher.

Joni Mitchell live 1974 “all i want”

Anyway I have been travelling and dealing with shit, just came back from a place in Eastern Europe that is amazing. I don’t want to tell you where it is! Because there are so few British and American tourists there at present. I may be going back there soon, just to say that people are nice there, much much nicer than in London, and that I left  a bag with my money , passport , debit card on a bench surrounded by at least a hundred people at the side of the biggest outdoor swimming pool I have ever seen and left it there for a couple of hours and no one took it.

But really coming back to London is so bad , as soon as I got here I was robbed in the street of a few quid,still it was meant to be my week’s food money,  without violence or even my noticing. I told the community police, they said there was nothing they could do but were sympathetic.

So  I called the real police, they were really nice but I soon felt like I was in a Monty Python sketch, the one with the restaurant where a diner complains about a dirty fork. In the end all the staff apologise and I think at least one stabs themselves to death.

They called me again today and asked for a description of the people hanging around me in the street when the money was taken. They chatted and laughed with me and were really nice so I thought I’d write about that.

But at lunchtime I had to walk past the same spot where I think my money was taken. There were two police vans , three police cars and about thirty police officers and community police people all standing guard around the place and stopping young people in the street asking them for ID. They didn’t stop me as I am too old.

I suddenly felt really guilty wondering if  maybe my calling them had somehow contributed to this operation.I am not being too specific here for obvious reasons. I didn’t feel good about it. I went back about four hours later and there were still around 15 police officers there stopping young people.

So on the one hand for a change I’d like to state that the police really can be very helpful and on the other , if this police presence really was in response to my complaint then we are living in a  scary place.

In the tremendously cultured , beautiful , historic, progressive , very friendly and poor town in eastern Europe I have been recently been to, they only have one or two CCTV cameras. Eco-conscious weasels break into parked cars at night and chew through the electrical wiring.There are tons of young people there, little or no health and safety rules, no Body Shop, no Starbucks etc..and the locals don’t speak English.

Apparently they had put a CCTV camera outside a building where journalists worked. The journalists complained that they should not be filmed and it was taken down. Also there was a smoking ban and bar owners who smoked complained that they would have to go outside for a smoke at their place of work, so they allow some restaurants and bars to have a major smoking section and a small non-smoking section. I’m not saying smoking is good for you but I think their approach is a little saner.

Here is a collection of Joni Mitchell songs starting with “Come to the Sunshine” with a great guitar riff with bended strings, performed live in 1967 at  the Couriers Folk Club Leicester. This song is definitely my current favourite of hers. If this plays correctly this should be a series of songs including a very expressive version of “Both Sides Now“. Joni Mitchell’s early live stuff is really her at her best in my humble opinion. If you can’t hear the others double-click onto youtube to find the rest. There are remastered (clearer) versions of some of these songs on one of a couple of live bootlegs called “2nd Frets  1966-1968″ and “Live at Club 47″ ( 1968).

I think Joni should release this song again, it’s a definite hit, the version on “Live at Club 47″ , unfortunately a bootleg, is louder on the guitar and more confident but the words and structure of this song are fantastic, it’s a gem of an undiscovered song. (maybe the sexual connotations kept it hidden!)

(for a complete list of Joni’s 37  unreleased early songs with lyrics go to jonimitchell.com)

I was sitting outside alone at three a.m. one night, smoking a fag and I asked a local if I was in danger of getting mugged. He told me that the only crime in their town was ” Street Demolition” which made me laugh.

I asked him what that was, it turns out it means graffiti and other small acts of vandalism like the odd beer bottle being smashed. There was lots of graffiti, but most of it was art which was much cleverer and skilled than your average “Banksy”.

I also went to an outside swimming pool there which was the size of Belgium, it even had waves without a wave machine. There was no chlorine in it, no shallow end, the lifeguard was in his own room about a million miles away and was fully clothed. It was bloody scary but no one drowned and everyone looked like they were having fun. Families chain smoked on the grass and under tress after a good swim.

The young people there seem so much more responsible and organised about their lives. They all drink lots of beer but  I was in this major town for ten days, I never saw a police car or a police officer.

Everyone in the street, in shops, everywhere was smiling and friendly even though I couldn’t speak the language , they were patient and entertained by my ” charade” miming skills. I didn’t have a phrase book though:

London and the UK are so over-rated, in just ain’t the same as in the times of Monty Python. Comedy is censured now so that no one gets upset. Would that sketch upset Hungarians?  It depends how people are represented. Freedom is good, travel broadens the mind if you allow it to, or if you are going a bit crazy it can cure depression or a nervous breakdown better than Prozac or dyamtholintoolitisticholum ( random name of prescribed drug I invented). If travel is better than anti-depressants then I will also say that music is also better than religion . Will I get comments? I doubt it, I’m not John Lennon.

That’s why I haven’t been here, but I am thinking of all of you. Going to Guilfest tomorrow, never been, I will writing again when I can like a  lost alternative Auntie. I’m going to Guilfest for an odd reason, my friend wants to go and see Motorhead somewhere he can smoke. Simples, squeak. Heavy rain is forecast.

I am going through a Joni Mitchell phase who wrote many songs about her travels but this is her famous ecological one.

“Big Yellow Taxi” 1970

Love and Peace

Born2rant

(I really should be packing and other stuff..excuse any typos!)

Hippie ‘flu or Hypochondria-UK Swine Flu cases double in five days

Hello Good people who read this blog I am writing about another random thing.

We all know about the media hypochondria, there was the “Millenium Bug” in 1999 where all our computers and civilisation as we know it was meant to be destroyed by a computer virus.They even had some kind of drama on mainstream TV showing how all the traffic would crash into one another due to traffic lights not working and then the crash victims taken to hospitals without electricity or staff unable to get to work, and total mayhem, chaos, HORROR! etc..

What really happened was a rather disappointing fireworks display over the Thames and lots of people with massive hangovers on January 1st 2000…and they put the tube fares up a couple of days later.

Or let us look at the panic surrounding “Avian ‘flu“, every bird was a suspect, and we were all going to die, GPs surgeries were packed full of people demanding ‘flu jabs even though these did not immunise anyone against Avian ‘flu. There was general panic , not just here but in the media around other parts of Europe and the world until one day they found some other story to focus on and Avian ‘flu suddenly flew off into the sunset.

Silly paranoia of foreigners importing avian flu on a U.S. radio show. The woman sounds like she wholly believes what she is saying , but it’s obvious bullshit , which is why we should always question everything.

Initially in the Uk,we have also had a lot of paranoia and over-reporting on swine flu, now given the catchy name:”A(H1N1)”. No wonder they still call it swine flu!

Of course if you get Alien Flu this might be you:

But what  I am about to write is probably going to come as a surprise:

I think the swine flu epidemic is being under-reported in the UK …no I don’t say panic, I don’t buy into the paranoia,  but still , if you have flu stay home , whatever kind it is.

Of course it’s not a media black-out , today the main story was of a woman who died in Scotland as I am sure you all know.

However what is not reported is the current spread of the disease in the UK.

Why am I writing about this?

Well since Friday I have had a very sore throat, cough , fatigue, nausea  etc.. Today four days later I have a temperature and feel a bit worse. It was only today that , maybe because I have too much time on my hands and am a bit incapacitated,  I decided to look up swine ‘flu on the net.

I almost certainly have just an upper respiratory infection, cough and sinusitis and I haven’t been to the doctor’s. However I couldn’t help remembering that last Wednesday I went to a gig where there were  a couple of hundred Americans, maybe thirty or fifty of them had just flown in to London a couple of days previously. We all had a post-gig drink and party in the pub and an American boy I know, sitting at my table, was suddenly feeling very unwell with a fever and had to get a taxi home.

Until today I never thought about it.

I have a very weak immune system and I catch absolutely every virus going ,to quote the 1970s Martini adverts “Anytime, Any Place, Anywhere”  I can catch a cold or ‘flu. It doesn’t have to be winter.

But anyway having some spare time on my hands I thought I look up the numbers of cases online of  swine ‘flu on the World Health Organisation website.(http://www.who.int/feeds/entity/csr/disease/swineflu/en/rss.xml)

I am totally shocked! and although this is a hippie hypochondriac blogging I feel I need to share this with you and urge you to stay home of you have flu symptoms.

In the UK  5 days ago ( 10/06/09) there were 666 confirmed cases ( possibly linked to the anti-christ…Satan Cowell must have  brought some germs over with his constant transatlantic travelling)

3 days ago (12/06/09) there were 822 confirmed cases so almost a third more in 2 days.

Today ( 15/06/09) there are 1226 onfirmed cases in the UK. ( see World Health Organisation website)

So between now and last Wednesday, the confirmed cases of swine flu have DOUBLED in the UK!

Why is this not reported? We certainly heard a lot about it when we had the first couple of cases.

5 days ago in the United States there were 13217 cases with 27 deaths

Today in the United States there are 17855 cases with 45 deaths

So in the United States the known cases have increased by 4638 cases, that’s a 25% rise in 5 days.

Also the deaths by swine flu in the U.S. have risen by 60% in the past 5 days.

Ok so let’s get it in perpective, it’s flu, not the plague, but still I find it puzzling that no one, on the TV news at least, has pointed out that UK cases of swine ‘flu have doubled in 5 days.

If you do get this flu, you might have to wear silly masks, take Lemsip and go on TV ( these people don’t look very ill to me!):

or in the worse case scenario…we will get a virus like this one together with martial law

“The Crazies” ( 1973) …note the military guy peeling an orange and the other one eating a sandwich , followed by man in nylon wig, plus an edited mad granny stabbing people with knitting needles..no idea why these things amuse me:

So that’s all! A bit boring but still, maybe thinking I could have a mild version of swine flu isn’t such a weird thing after all.

Here’s some Gong to help me and you get better.

and some Pink Floyd

Keep Well everyone

Love and Peace

Born2rant

Behind the Mask or Perfectionism leads to Carnage (+Satan Cowell)

Hello Good People who read this blog

This is another personal rant written during a phase of insomnia due to my own troubled waters and smog over London city both keeping me awake. This is not about hippie counterculture but being one of the last surviving hippies living close to the roots of London’s alternative counterculture maybe you can forgive me for ranting again…

I feel that I am being swept along in a tide of collective consciousness where revelations and sudden change are both liberating and confusing many people.

Many people are unsettling the status quo by revelation after revelation from the unlikeliest of sources, The Daily Telegraph for instance, not my first point of call for a revolution.

The bankers are outed as overpaid greedy manipulative thieves , then the bankers or “someone” want the focus taken off them in the spirit of  “if we’re going down then our old allies who dare to criticise us are going down too” , suddenly the government and its main opposition are in pieces, scandal after scandal of  greedy little secrets are revealed.

The mighty do not fall easily and defend themselves but are not believed. Even minor offences are unforgiven.

Then we have the great god of reality TV . People famous and influential by selection, seems like a dream come true for the attention and money hungry, but Jade dies, Susan has a nervous breakdown.

I always thought Satan Cowell was the Anti-Christ with Ant and Dec as his cackling demonic imps from the underworld. If Simon ever goes into politics he must be stopped at all costs, has no one learnt anything  from The Omen and Damien I , II,III, MMMMMMMMM?

Arthur Brown

Did no one else sense the soul-torturing evil of ” 2  Grand” and “Veruca Salt” ? (sorry I meant Hollie Steel).

Here I must add:

1. Yes I am being very mean (and silly)

2. I only watched the final of “Britain’s got Talent” to keep up with the times but I am sure there were more dastardly acts throughout the series which were invited to audition venturing up from Simon’s Cowell’s secret lurid stairwell from the depths of  Hades…

3. This is the land of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, The Sex Pistols etc…so pretty poor turn-out as far as British Talent goes…

What more proof  do you need that Simon Cowell really is the Anti-Christ?  (”ye shall know him from his fruits” etc…)

A bit of music now..not sure how long this rant will be up here, it may disappear in smoke soon. I have put this clip somewhere else in this blog, I do apologise but  it’s my favourite Hawkwind song (listen to Lemmy’s  bass that drives the piece)

and speaking of people selling their souls to Simon to be on TV here’s some Faust on Germany’s Got Talent , another reason not to vote UKIP ( the Libertarian Racist party).

(p.s. that might be confusing., let me clarify …Faust are good, today’s Germany is politically progressive, UKIP is retrogressive and  if elected will stop us from having touring bands like Faust unless they have three ID cards, special performing papers and then will have rotten tomatoes thrown at them for not being British).

…actually even stranger than that , this is Faust playing at  the humble Amersham Arms with excessive strobe lighting plus frogs, electric drill,accordion and heavy space rock mayhem…

The more perfect society tries to be the greater the mask is required.

The heavier the mask, the harder it is to carry.

People are not perfect, that’s the truth, they never will be perfect and in their quest to be Holier than Thou or Purer than Pure, better than the rest, genocide or at least an eating disorder arises.

No one group of people is perfect, I have known horrible capitalist hippies and psychologically violent Buddhists.

The best we can do is to work with the imperfections we have got.

How ironic it is when the government and media and educational establishments keep telling people off for eating too much , drinking, smoking that in fact more people are getting ill from over-indulgence.(am flitting about about a bit here subjectwise, writing after no sleep has this effect).

How about starting with self-respect, less advertising and more personal freedom?

How about starting with allowing people to build their own lives and be part of something, in control of something, that they create from a young age?

We don’t need the “product” to make us complete.

If everyone gives up smoking some will resort to cream cakes and I am not sure what is worse.

Just to prove that even music in the 60s was not perfect here is a band called “The Cake” in 1969.The singer on the left (Jeanette Jacobs) is perhaps too out of it or too p***** off  to do much and actually she is totally cool, that’s what I would do given the circumstances!

( after watching other clips it seems that looking stoned while the others dance around is her general role and image in this girl band,sadly she died young at the age of 30)

**********************************************************************************************************

The mask is slipping for those in power, this is good but let’s just face it, if any large group of human beings was given carte blanche for expenses, how many would be on the fiddle, even the purer than pure ones?

The completely and totally utterly imperfect and sometimes quite vile ( almost evil)

Born2rant

( Love and Peace with Brass Knobs on..not always) Voting Green

The Police harasses some terribly nice middle-class white English people in possession of terrorist crayons.

Hello Good People who read this blog ( this is a revised version of earlier entries. I do this sometimes when I think of extra things…sorry if it is irritating)

To begin some more meditative music to generate peace in the world

I forgot how completely amazing this piece of music was until  I just listened to it again:

Yes it’s got to be Steve Hillage “the Glorious Om Riff” from the “Green” album ( 1978) , quite appropriate for this post. (If you listen to this wearing headphones you get the full ping-pong  synth effect .)

Om!

My son sent me this film ( below this little rant) showing the police trying to disrupt an environmental climate camp which is organised totally legally.

I don’t think the police should meddle in politics. I think they should just be there if the public needs them in an emergency, when they are being violated, robbed, burgled etc..

Who is instructing the police to violate, rob, burgle and occasionally kill the public?

Once the police start to harrass people for their politics isn’t that what a police state is?

This is how Wikipedia defines a police state:

“The term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state.^[1]“

Here is the little film my son sent me :  “Investigating the Police” from the Kingsnorth Climate Camp last August. Crayons, felt-tip pens and chalk sticks are confiscated as dangerous weapons that could be used for writing political messages on banners.You may find some of the images of police violence in the second half of this film disturbing.

In many way it is reminiscent of the Battle of the Beanfield and other incidents of police violence. I heard many accounts of police violence over the years from friends being taken in the back of the van and given a “good kicking” for being alternative .

All the private “kickings” were illegal but now there is legalised harassment and violence against the public evident in this film.

They have given the police way too much power and surprise, surprise,  they are abusing it. In this film the police can legally force someone to be searched who is not wearing anything suspicious or behaving in a suspicious or agressive way.

If you refuse to be physically searched then they can legally, make you lie on the ground and set seven police officers on top of you and legally press your pressure points to inflict pain.

Some of the scenes in this film are of innocent people being violated legally by the police. Can you honestly say that the nice protesters in this film were a threat to anyone?

If the actions of the police were illegal then at least we could put a stop to it.

Compare and Contrast the wikipedia definition and the film clip!

What do you think?..Do you think? or do you just party?

A musical interlude:

Here & Now another band from the Gong rock family tree. I saw this band 10 trillion times in the late seventies and throughout the eighties. The first time I saw them was at Meanwhile Gardens with “Blank Space”and possibly  “The Androids of Mü”, Grant Showbiz was doing the desk.

Here is Here & Now with “Floating Anarchy Radio”

Here’s Here & Now playing in 2005. In the foreground on synth, Joie Hinton ( ex-Eat Static/Ozrics/O’Roonies etc…I was once told that he played for Steve Hillage as a teenager..not sure about this).

Today I am also a bit concerned about the police deciding about whether or not MPs should be arrested for fiddling their expenses.

Of course I think the MPs should pay back the money they fiddled and made to live on a council estate for a year with only income support and housing benefit to live on.

However I don’t agree with the principle that the police can arrest the democratically elected government. That really would make us  a police state.

It would be better for democracy if the government itself forced every single dodgy MP to resign and pay back the money and be fined.

I don’t see that happening because the ones at the top are the dodgy ones!

Some more excellent music. I love Egg.

Weird difficult and complex music is never boring or pretentious as long  as you can either tap your foot to it or sing a bit of the tune in the bath.

This track is one of my favourites and  has some of those appetizing complex bits!

According to Wikipedia ( my font of all knowledge for today) Steve Hillage plays on this track:

“Wring out the Ground” from “Civil Surface” by Egg (1974) …yep a couple of minutes in, that’s got to be Steve Hillage!

Love and Peace

Born2rant ( voting Green in European Elections ..will stop editing and revising this post now promise! 16/5/09)

Our shallow superficial culture and talented people

Hello Good people who read this blog…

Some anti-tv vitriol….

I am changing the tone today just for a brief comment on our culture.

I have been watching a bit of TV this week and heard about some exceptionally talented singer on some reality TV programme. I thought I would check out what all the fuss is about. I cannot  post a nauseous clip as the music biz has made sure their protégé cannot be embedded….they’re selling her as an old maid, spinster, too ugly to ( I am modifying my swearing here) “kiss” virgin in need of our approval. What a load of ****ing ******s ( I don’t think I put enough stars on this to replace the letters but I’m sure you can fill in the blanks and realise how much this annoys me!) .

Don’t get me wrong I wish Susan Boyle all the best of luck and hope her career spans longer than a couple of months. But it’s the way the programme is made. Mr. Loo brush head with his dyed fake teeth, hair and skin is trying to portray himself as altruistic putting a talented ugly middle-aged  woman on the stage and prove he isn’t that shallow ( AND SO BOOST RATINGS ) .

The token pretty woman in the middle of the panel ( can’t even be bothered to find out her name) is poised and primed to cry ( I think you can get these glycerine drops for actors to cry, she must have just put them in her eyes at the start and they were beginning to dissolve), that Piers Earnest-Smug-Face person, who also can attribute a new career to fake tan and pretending to be nice , is looking on also near to tears as SHOCK HORROR the UGLY WOMAN HAS TALENT.

The audience has obviously been told to sneer at her and make fun of her when she first goes on the stage ( unless they are really just the average ageist, sexist,looks-obsessed advertising fashion trained public – which unfortunately maybe they are) . then they have obviously been told to cheer lots when she starts to sing. Because SHOCK HORROR someone average looking can sing well.

Why do people assume you have to be beautiful to have talent???? because of the TV and magazines and our very shallow idiotic culture.We’re turning into the stupidest of the stupid Americans! Do you really want that to happen? ( p.s. I have some really nice American friends so I feel a bit bad for writing that…but I guess I am referring to the mainstream American tv culture and ideas rather than individual people)

This next item is totally unrelated to Susan Boyle but is about talent.

There is so much unrecognised musical talent about …I guess only a very small minority of talented musicians will enjoy fame and fortune because the logistics of how many human beings there are on the planet and how few manoeuvre themselves into the media or are thrown into the limelight .I don’t think many people become famous without seriously trying very hard .  The thing is for singer-songwriters, that unless you are famous you can’t earn a living that way. I guess it’s the same in many of the arts but the amount of gigging musicians who are unpaid or pay to play never seems to diminish in London Town.

Here’s one of the many talented songwriters from the London acoustic scene: Benjamin Thomas ( a Bob Dylan fan but I prefer Ben’s music)

This next track is a bit unfortunately named for an oldy like me but I forgive him!

“Growing old is just an easy way of dying”

“The stains on my heart are solitude”

http://www.myspace.com/benjaminthomas1

Love and peace

Born2rant

p.s. Question if they removed all the smug or shallow people off the TV would there be many programmes left?

( sorry there is no Marmite in this entry I was just being silly, but there was a meerkat later edited, plus vampires)

It’s the same old story…stormtroopers in the street (and I don’t mean the Star Wars variety)

Hello Good People who read this blog…

(I have just realised that I’ve been taken off the Google search engine..a bit weird…anyone know why?)

I thought I’d post a quickie about the police assault on Ian Tomlinson, who died as a result.

Even though now I know for sure that my emails are copied and I could  be identified.

**** it , my mother was in the French Resistance which was far more dangerous!

Here is the Ian Tomlinson story in film. I’m glad for once that the media put this on the TV. Maybe the media are more powerful than police or politicians and that is why the journalists of the BBC and other news channels must take a stand, take a risk and be the “resistance”. We need alternative media and news coverage to get broadcast as well.

The Police Story ( I think they need to get one of their detectives on the case and get those responsible on trial for manslaughter and those covering up charged with perverting the course of justice)

Ian Tomlinson’s Son

Is wearing balaclava helmets standard police procedure?

(Bumbling Boris was not available for comment. He was probably busy at home, reading the Iliad for moral guidance.)

Jimi Hendrix and Machine Gun seems like appropriate music:

I hope to bring you something a bit more cheerful next time.

Love and peace

Born2rant

P.S. Maybe we need an anti-police violence protest, but I guess the headlines would be even grimmer afterwards.

“Political Intelligence” versus sitting around to watch the world end.

Hello Good People who read this blog

I make no apologies for this entry being political.  This is THE most important time to think about politics.

I went on the Put People First G20 March on Saturday.

I had such a great time. I joined the Oxfam group rather than march alone. I have done quite a lot of work for Oxfam so it seemed the right group to join.

Lots of friendly people there who were very knowledgeable about politics in this country, in Europe and the World. They put me to shame! They were telling me for instance about the recent general strike in France and I knew nothing about it and about many protest marches going on across Europe. People from Oxfam and other organisations club together and get a coach to go and march there. Now that’s dedication!

They all commented how apathetic British people are about politics and are lagging behind all the other countries politically.

A few years ago someone in the self-help trade coined the phrase “emotional intelligence” and I’d like to modify this to “political intelligence” , the people in Britain have very little “Political Intelligence” the British mainstream news media have very little “Political Intelligence” too, they like to make headlines that scare or shock people like the worst tabloid front pages. But they don’t report much on what is happening outside the UK unless it is a terrorist attack or some other horror story.

In television news reports, people who take an interest in what is going on and who is in charge of our daily lives , are labelled as terrorists and trouble makers.

But there are lot of people who actually want to take part in their democratic rights without being violent or wanting to kill people!

I am a bit worried about the demonstrations on Wednesday because I do think both sides plan on a bit of a ruck, that’s what the media will focus on and that will make more and more people “politically stupid” and less likely to come on the peaceful marches.

However I learnt some very important things on Saturday.On the down side there were only a pitiful  35 000 people who were concerned enough about the environment and the economy and world inequalities to come to the march. Also successive governments have ignored unions and peaceful protests following their arrogant policy which started with “this lady is not for turning” and later extending this to “not giving into terrorists” and eventually to  “not giving into the public who disagrees with the way things are run and have constructive advice to give to the government“.

However I had a wonderful time so here’s some reasons for going on a peaceful march

1. You will meet great people, make friends maybe even find love. These are people who care about things in depth, these are free thinking people, these are intelligent people. Would you rather be friends with those who just lead their little selfish consumer lives? I don’t!

2. You will get leaflets and hear about events about loads of different political organisations and events you may never hear about anywhere else. There’s lots and lots going on but there’s a media black-out on these things and they are not necessarily online. There are some extreme groups but then there are far more who are not.

3. Going on a protest march is great fun, it’s like a party .We still have some , but not much, freedom to protest publically so I say USE it. What a great feeling it was to walk down the middle of Park Lane shouting out slogans and singing and laughing.We felt powerful and united and not just sitting around waiting for the world to end.

When I used to go on protests a few decades ago we actually could march up to the front doot of 10 Downing Street ( there would be a decorative  bobby on the doorstep, this was during all the IRA bombings incidentally) and post a petition through the door, times have changed but we still have the freedom to march peacefully and be heard. I just wish some of the news coverage hadn’t been so inane, I think some of these TV news people are more interested in their hair than what is going on.

4. The speeches in Hyde park were fantastic and you will hear stuff in person that you will never hear or read anywhere else. There were the unions, world charities,religious groups and environmental groups with lots of positive alternatives to the kind of capitalism that we have now. If we don’t start to live collaboratively with eachother as people and with the rest of the natural world then things are very bleak indeed.

No one much believes in our government and there is very little in the way of opposition , the main parties are very  weak. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO GET INVOLVED POLITICALLY.

So I urge you to become “Politically Intelligent” don’t rely on news bulletins, find out the truth.

If you don’t want to join a political party then join a pressure group or a charity and please support PEACEFUL protest and PEACEFUL political action so that those of us who still want to change the world are not labelled terrorists.

I know a lot of people are angry about what is going on in the world and in their lives but put your your anger into positive and creative actions. You wouldn’t bring up a child with violence and hatred and I don’t believe we can create a new system with violence and hatred either.

WE NEED A COLLABORATIVE SYSTEM BASED ON UNITY. OUR SOCIETY HAS ENCOURAGED COMPETITION AND BEING SELFISH AND STUPID FOR TOO LONG.

Woodstock was not primarily about music or fashion or drugs  it was about people coming together because they didn’t want another world war.They wanted their say to solve the world’s problems through PEACE and INTELLIGENT ACTION,  finding  alternatives to mainstream greed, not through war or violence that generates more war and violence.

Love and Peace

Born2rant

Peaceful Protest (we hope) G20 London

This morning it’s time to prove hippies still want to change the world.

“On 28th March thousands will march through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20, ahead of their 2nd April summit on the global financial crisis.
Even before the banking collapse, the world suffered poverty, inequality and the threat of climate chaos. The world has followed a financial model that has created an economy fuelled by ever-increasing debt, both financial and environmental.
Our future depends on creating an economy based on fair distribution of wealth, decent jobs for all and a low carbon future.
There can be no going back to business as usual.
People from all over the country will join the march on March 28.
Be one of them.”

from “Put People First” website  http://www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk/

On the BBC News Website they have  helpfully put a map and more details.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7968721.stm)

It starts at Midday ( in two hours).

“The assembly point for the march is now confirmed. People should gather from 11am on Victoria Embankment by Temple tube station on March 28th. The postcode is WC2R 2 PP.” ( from Put People First Website)

The march will start on Victoria Embankment and move past Trafalgar Square and Green Park to Hyde Park, where there will be a mass rally.

If you don’t read this in time for the march then do go to Hyde Park for the rally in the afternoon.

I’d like to wish the lovely people at “Born to Go” in Hitchin a great  psychedelic evening tonight and also to Steve Hillage and Miquette who are playing this evening in London.

However I may not be there as I am going on the march in a second.

The media is speculating that there will all kinds of violence and anarchic nastiness at this march but let’s prove them wrong. Let’s keep our dignity

and protest peacefully and also keep away from any charging policemen.

We are the people of this country, we are entitled to a voice and the police are meant to serve us and the government is elected by us so we need to make a peaceful noise and

also if the police DO attack us it would be good if someone could take some footage of it and hand it in to sympathetic  media people!
Love and Peace

Born2rant
Here is a clip of Woodstock to get me out the door and marching:

You Can’t Kill The Spirit (but we have!)

Hello Good People who read this blog…

I was just online ambling through youtube and ended up writing this   …Calling  out to all the sons and daughters of this world, on Hippie Mother Earth Day ( getting  carried away with my ranting as usual)

Gong’s “Flying Teapot” with film edits from Timothy Leary’s
“How to Operate Your Brain” courtesy of LSDCoatedBrain

I don’t have an LSD coated Brain but can still appreciate a great artistic combination and relate to the old hippie ideals and strong communities.
I feel very strongly that you don’t need to take drugs to be a hippie because to me being a hippie is a philosophy and a positive way of life that doesn’t rely on extremes of religion or drug-taking.
Of course I have taken some hallucinogens but I liked Gong and Hendrix and other “drug” associated music and wanted to look at the world of new social possibilities before I’d ever tried any type of drug.

One of the many ways the hippie movement is put down and ridiculed is by categorizing them as just a load of addicts.

To me the drugs are peripheral and not necessary to access the world of creative imagination and feeling connected to a positive non-materialistic ideology and actively implementing this in  many directions.

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Once upon a time we were building new worlds, and travelling to new worlds, experimenting with new ways of living and now laws and apathy discourage today’s youth from ever trying anything without wearing a crash helmet, taking a degree in it and getting official permission  first…
One hippie proverb used to be “You Can’t Kill The Spirit”. Anyone remember where that came from?

Through TV and advertising, violent computer games and extreme internet porn, You CAN Kill the Spirit
By making women feel they are getting old and are therefore unlovable and worthless in their twenties and need the latest miracle potion, surgery, clothes, make-up,You CAN kill the Spirit.
A million money making enterprises disempower you and then sell you things to make you feel partly in control again, appealing to the most basic of urges.
In London we are shattered into hundreds of  fragmented communities who never manage to spontaneously link up or work together.
Instead people walk into eachother and glare at eachother in the street and we allow the powers that be to supervise us on camera as we feel too weak to deal with things in person.

Our sense of community and identity is broken in our society and sectarianism is on the increase.
I preferred the world of jamming experimenting collaborative individuals. i.e. Hippies.

Spontaneous, unfunded, grassroots events like the free gigs in Meanwhile Gardens in Notting Hill kept our spirits up. Now even folk clubs can’t function without being given permission by the council and being regularly inspected.

Our Universities are no longer places where you can express opinions instead we are encouraged NOT to think for ourselves but to be content to quote the “Great and the Good” . Only “official” and “certified” thinkers are allowed.

UK Universities are not places of learning but places of earning. They are not places of free and evolutionary thought but places for worshipping the academic élite.

They are not places where new political ideologies are being created but student politics are increasingly reflecting, and are over-powered by,  religious sectarianism and global tensions between nations.

In my experience there is no free speech in a higher educational institution, on any level , without getting into trouble. If you want to express an opinion it had better be one that has been sanctioned by those in charge, be it academic, or student’s union ( anyone from my Uni who claims otherwise is basically trying to save face).

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“You Can’t Kill The Spirit “, I remember now… I was involved in running one of the stages at The Fordham Park Free Festival in the nineties “You Can’t Kill The Spirit” was the slogan… I still have the T-Shirt…( and am writing the book, well the blog).

“You Can’t Kill the Spirit” was also a slogan and a song from the Women of Greenham Common. I never went to Greenham Common but joined another anti-Nuclear organisation and protested. Nothing is perfect and I didn’t agree with some of the over-the-top man-hating philosophies that a minority of the Greenham women had. But they were terribly brave , they risked their lives for their cause and they had spirit.

They also were non-violent and were prepared to live in terrible conditions for Peace and a better world.

for a whole load more go to this website:

http://www.yourgreenham.co.uk/

borrowed from a site with loads of photos of Greenham Commonhttp://www.fredsakademiet.dk/abase/sange/greenham/sigrid.htm

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Getting back to opposing factions..I believe that sectarianism is wrong ( I am being all moral…well I am Born2rant after all) . I can only see sectarianism leading to more and more misunderstanding and violence.

I don’t believe in “Us and Them” underneath I think we are all the same but here I get stuck because sometimes you have to fight for your basic rights so this inevitably leads to a split .

I don’t believe in factions who all blame and hate one another so I am not keen on groups. But I get stuck again because we all need to feel a sense of identity and a sense of belonging , where birds of a feather flock together etc… I think we need to belong to a community, to feel alive and worthwhile and to know that other people like the same things , share the same ideas etc… But the problem is when people become a bit too clingy to their own group and isolated from the rest, some can become paranoid and polarised, then some kind of craziness is bound to  ensue (see Daily Mail for details…).

But anyhoo…
It’s hard to find anyone under forty in London who is not totally apathetic about  fighting the system to make this world a free place where individuals can do something positive and feel they have some basic control over their lives.

Here is a bit of footage from the Fordham Park Free Festival in London Deptford in 1991. They also had the slogan “You can’t Kill The Spirit”

By the 90s well we were already quite tame, the local council threatened to sue us for vast amounts of money  if the music continued a minute past 10pm , I seem to remember.

I was in charge of my stage at 10pm,  a bit of a nightmare as the band just wouldn’t stop doing encores. I tried to pull the plug so we didn’t get fined but the band  had cleverly rigged up their own secret secondary generator and even when we pulled the plug on that they carried on with their frenetic set acoustically  and the crowd danced wildly. I was getting people screaming at me but there was nothing I could do. The power of  youthful and collective anarchy ( plus musician’s egos and drunken dancing audience)  is  too great for one hippie to stop.
If I could go back in time I wouldn’t have pulled the plug on them at all. Now you can’t have live music without a licence, the world has gone mad.
If you are a rebel, join with others and do not be put off by the authorities!

Love and Peace from a grumpy old hippie Mum, dismayed yet understanding of the apathy of youth…

Born2rant
Here’s “Electric Gypsies” with Steve Hillage starts with what sounds to me like some Tibetan Horns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectarian

Green Slimy Politicians, clashing tour dates and Psychedelic Cinderella

Hello once again Good People Who Still Read This Blog

Hawkwind -”Space is Deep” a great song and a great little film (apologies for environmentally unfriendly rockets but they are cool)

How are you all? If there is a name for a really terrible blogger who has deserted their dedicated readers like an auntie they have guiltily abandoned since early adulthood even though they still get a yearly fiver tucked into their birthday card… then that must be me.

I am sorry, my life has changed and so has the world but even if my posts are rare I am still here somewhere in the known Universe.

I miss my blog oh yes I do! and I miss also doing my own music…

This morning started well, oh what a laugh! A smug capitalist politician being drenched in green custard, wonderful stuff! Even better was that the eloquent woman who did this actually got on the BBC news. She explained how “Mandy” had done some sleazy deal to get the third runway to Heathrow the go-ahead even though there was so much opposition and let’s face it our planet is slowly dying and if we don’t do as much as we can our children and grandchildren won’t have any food, water, air…very grim.

However the green custard episode really cheered me up. “Mandy” used to live right next to me and he used to throw some loud parties with really good psychedelic music so he has no excuse. If he can listen to sixties psychedelic music he ought to  be a hippie but alas as one can tell by endless prats wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts  to look cool and trendy in an ironic-retro way, musical taste does not equate actual thinking in the brain as in the days of yore ( or “Yes!”  I wish there was a Roger Dean font then I could write “” and my entire blog with it…this one is levitating against my will) .

In case you didn’t catch the clip of the spectacular ” Event”( n.b. that should read “Green Event” Steve Hillage has nothing to do with this event and is entirely blameless but I have temporarily invented my own “Logo of  70s Rock” font and will no doubt be sued by anyone who manages to find me using the new and wonderful totalitarian fascist terror digital surveillance services)

As I was saying if you didn’t catch it here is the wonderful clip..

BEFORE= “smug”     AFTER =” a bit humiliated and definitely greener”.

Please note my quote of the day” The only Green thing about Peter Mandelson is the Green slime coursing through his veins” ( and dripping down his face.):

There’s a lot of cool psychedelic events coming up but some of them are clashing!

I hope they don’t mind me using their posters after all I am giving them free publicity.

First of all in March….

The clash of two events I want to go to, I definitely need a helicopter or maybe an old Star Trek style transporter room, or a Tardis with Jon Pertwee navigating would be even better.

On Saturday March 28th (2009 in case you are reading this some light years away from now from another planet that has internet access)

the truly lovely people from”Born To Go” (no relation) in Hitchin  are running their own fantastic psychedelic gig/club night. When I went before they certainly knew how to put on a lavish show, all they need is lots of  people!

Here’s their flyer:

Here’s some Nukli:( not much audience but festival gigs can be like that)

This is from the Born To Go myspace site :

“NUKLI – veterans of the golden age of free festivals with full-on psychedelic grooves, and soaring guitar, they take you on a trip back to the Pyramid Stage, the Tibetan’s and Club Dog all rolled into one cosmic jam.SHOM play psychedelic dub space techno rock. Featuring blistering guitar and deep dub rhythms they never fail to get any audience dancing.PEYOTE GURU are a true jamming band, in fact the ‘band’ consists of 3 core members and whomever is willing to play along on the day. Loose jammed tracks emerge from the underlying synth textures to evoke the sounds of the festival scene of old.Alongside the very best of space, prog, kraut and all thing psychedelic spun by our DJ Kozmik Ken, psychedelic lights, videos, great vibe, happy smiling faces – all the usual you’ve come to expect from Born To Go!”

However I am torn between this and Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy doing a chill-out set as Mirror System on the very same night!

When I saw them at Solfest in 2007 , they did a fanstastic chill-out set including their first live performance of “Rainbow Dome Musik ” since its release in 1979.

What a terrible psychedelic dilemma!

If that wasn’t bad enough….

This Summer Solfest 2009

my definite favourite festival ( helped by the fact that I can be one of the crew backstage and mingle with some great people and have hung out with some of my favourite musicians of all Time and Space and Universe)  is also clashing with Hawkwind’s 40th Anniversary gig

I am a bit puzzled by this because their 30th Anniversary was on the 21st of October 2000. I was extremely p***** off at the time as everyone I knew went but only told me afterwards because I had a gig to do and it was around my birthday too. However I was told by all those who didn’t tell me beforehand what an absolutely amazing gig it was and how even Terry Ollis and Mick Slattery were there and why wasn’t I there etc..etc..

Will there be a Hawkwind and old Hawkwind reunion this August? I hope so.

So  this time I am going to the ball, like some kind of psychedelic cinderella , but I’ll probably be in Morrocan sandals rather than glass slippers. But Solfest is also my key event to the year, it’s like my equivalent to Crufts  to strange people who breed dogs into weird shapes, or Ascot to posh ladies wearing silly hats (  I don’t know why they don’t go to one of the above gigs, I’m sure there will be odd hats there).

What will I do?

Well I guess I’ll take one day at a time… as they say at Narcotics Anonymous..”clean and serene“

or “falling over in festival mud and fun” as I prefer to say.

I’ll go see Hawkwind and then see if there’s any way I can easily get to the middle nowhere in beautiful blue mountain and lake surrounded Solfest.

Lastly there is a gig or a series of gigs that is INCREDIBLY EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!

“GONG” are  WITH SOME OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS ..including Hillage yey!!!!! They are touring the UK from the 19th to the 29th of  November 2009..

(  http://www.artistticket.com/link/?s=gong  )

The Hawkwind 40th Anniversary gig is sold out although there are other dates outside London

I want to leave my home and go on tour and write books about the entire history of all these people, bands and intersections via Ladbroke Grove in the 60s and 70s.

Well I have been interviewing  again  …if I get time and permission I’ll put some clips up here in the meantime here is the Gong Flyer

Here’s them at them in June 2008 with Steve Hillage…another gig  I missed…please email me about these things!

Here’s another with dialogue from audience commenting on HUGE HEADS and the like:

Love and Peace

Born2rant