Good Weekend, Busy Week...
Had a good weekend…and with Another World Is Blossoming kicking off, plus a load of other work, its going to be a busy week…
Thursday night I headed along to Movimientos at the Salmon and Compass in Islington.
Geoff was DJing downstairs, so I said a quick hello and gave him an Another World Is Blossoming flyer before heading upstairs to watch the films.
The first film was a nice Venezuelan Gov’t short about Mision Vuelvan Caras. Whilst in Caracas for the Trollparty I met a friend of Charley‘s called Valentina who works for Vuelvan Caras. Essentially, they are in the process of setting up a co-operative economy in Venezuela. I’ll write more about this in parts 2+3 of my Caracas diary (the next time and inspiration collide…)
Next up was The Old Man and Jesus: Prophets of Rebellion, a film by the inspirational media co-operative Calle y Media, another group I was lucky enough to visit in Caracas. They are based in in “Las Casitas”, a small community right at the top of the hill in La Vega, a barrio on the outskirts of town. They make fabulous documentary films about Latin America, and train the local youth to do the same. Great project. We’ll be showing The Old Man and Jesus: Prophets of Rebellion, and one of their earlier films, Venezuela Bolivariana, at the Another World Is Blossoming Screenings and The Synergy Centre which start this Thursday.
Anyway, I had already seen The Old Man and Jesus a few times, so I popped across the road to one of my favourite restuarants – Chapel Market’s famous eat-all-you-like for £2.95 Indian restuarant. Great food, great prices, and fabulous veggie propaganda all over the walls. A must visit for anyone who hasn’t yet experienced it charms…
Oh yes, and before I went to dinner I totally randomally met “Triknik” aka Dimitri Kleiner who writes about “Venture Communism” and is a very bright chap. I’ve chatted with him online before in tav’s #esp channel on freenode but it was nice to meet him in person. He had been walking back to his hostel and randomly bumped into Charley smoking outside the pub, who quickly befriended him (they’d never met before) and got him to come and watch the films. Small wonderful world.
Friday night was fantastic. First I went with Oli to have dinner at Tom and Jess’s place in Camden. A couple of Jess’s friends from medical school were there too, Rob and Yashi. Lots of nice drinks and great food (when it was eventually served!).
Rob and Oli both had seperate early flights to French alps in the morning (off skiing and snowboarding), so we all left pretty early. This suited me nicely, because I needed to head off to The Talk of The Town to flyer for Another World Is Blossoming and shake my booty. I managed to convince Tom and Jess to cycle down there with me too, despite Yashi’s concerns about Jess’s sobriety…
We arrived at The Rhythm Factory safe and sound (despite copious amounts of alcohol and my continuing lack of breaks) at around 12am, I guess.
I received a very warm welcome from Gloria, who was already there with Helen and some collegues from the British Red Cross. Later, we had a wonderful dance together to The Pistachios, before we all head off in our seperate directions…
On Saturday I was due to take part in the Creative Forum Visioning at The Square from 12-5pm before heading off the newly formed Sustainable Communities Action Forum, but when I woke up at 12pm with a hangover I knew I wan’t going to make it on time…
I texted Alan to let him know, then went to The Synergy Centre to make some more Another World Is Blossoming flyers (where the Omniscience party had already began).
I never actually made it to the Visioning event, but thankfully did get down to the Sustainable Communities Action Forum, which was quite good, if a little slow and chaotic. I agreed to set-up a riseup mailing list for the group: https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/ecoaction
Alan cleverly suggested that we have our next meeting at the Creative Forum Open Space due to be held at The Square on Sunday 19th March, 2pm-12am (with the Sustainable Community Action Forum meeting taking place from 4-6pm followed by a screening of The End of Suburbia, which we’ll be showing a few days before as one of our Another World Is Blossoming Screenings at Synergy Centre)
I spent Sunday afternoon wondering around Covent Garden with 3 lovely ladies after having lunch with them at Food for Thought on Neal Streat (another one of my favourites). It was really nice to finally meet Chris, Gloria’s sister, and to get the latest on Helen and Phil after chatting with her about it on Friday (he was going to come along too, but had to catch up on some work, really).
Helen had to go back to Edinburgh, and Chris to Birmingham, so I went on alone to check out Danni‘s night down at The Bedford in Balham.
As I unlocked my bike from the lampost outside Convent Garden tube station, Tom’s twin sister Olivia come out. She was with some chap called James and invited me to join them for a drink, but I didn’t want to miss the beginning of OneTaste. Still, was nice to see her. 🙂
Despite arriving late (I ended up on a random mission to collect an MC Cox CD from DJ Rubbish’s house for Mudge) OneTaste was a brilliant night. Loads of great poetry and live music. Many of the words and lyrics moved me, as did the amazing tunes played by headliners The Portico Quartet, who apparently can lately be found busking outside the NFT on Saturdays.
I distributed a load of flyers just after Jamie Woon‘s set. He did a really nice version of his track Tolerate, using a loop station. I’m looking forward to see him do it again at Another World Is Blossoming Fundraiser @ The Synergy Centre on Friday March 31st, where he can try to give Joe Driscoll a run for his money. Jamie recently played a sold out gig in Bristol on his first ever visit to the city. Not bad. Meanwhile, Joe has been busy wooing London’s live music scene ever since being signed to the fabulous Buttercuts Records. Revolving Door Magazine says: “Probably the most energetic performer on the planet. Joe Driscoll is a real as it gets”.
I would strongly suggest you Buy Your Tickets for March 31st Now! 😉
Busy week…
This post has taken me far too long to write already, and I’ve too much to do, so here is a quick run down of the plan this week:
Tuesday: Go Synergy Centre in the morning. Complete and send off mailing for this Thursdays Screening of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised etc. and post off license for March 31st. Make more flyers and send some off to Tim Jones for the NODE.London stall. Add details of Another World Is Blossoming events to upcoming.org, eventful.com, ents24.com, and tribe.net etc. Do some local flyering around the centre for screening on Thursday.
Wednesday: get a load of work done on TheMertonRule.org, a new site I’m setting up to help encourage the uptake of positive renewable energy planning policies by local government. Then go to my Mum’s to paste up a load of boards for the Alexandra Palace Antiques Fair on Sunday, and drive round with Andrew putting them up.
Thursday: Makes loads more flyers and also a handout to give to people and the Another World Is Blossoming Screening @ The Synergy Centre: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and more
Friday: uniteddiversity bookstall @ The Synergy Project party at SeOne.
Saturday: Head up to Ally Pally to help set-up the Alexandra Palace Antiques Fair then back to my Mum’s for an early night.
Sunday: up at 5am for 6am start at Ally Pally.
Monday: Lots of rest 🙂