London agenda for Monday 16 April 2012
1. Angling, music, and book site Caught by the River presents the film Patience (After Sebald) at Rough Trade East
2. Watch ‘one of the UK’s most fascinating and stylish young theatre-makers’, Melanie Wilson at Toynbee Studios [Run Riot]
3. Hear Noah And The Whale + Bahamas + Rae Morris at Royal Albert Hall [Time Out]
4. Check out what the merchant navy was doing during the Falklands Campaign [Ian Visits]
5. Explore Tooting Commons [Tired of London]
16 Apr 2012
6001 Hulls - dad rocks keeps up
Here’s a nice way to start a week of MPfrees. An unknown (allegedly) Sheffield-based mashup producer working under the moniker 6001 Hulls (seemingly named after a Futurama skit) has taken the scalpel to the work of Dad Rocks! to create a strikingly pretty mashup version that includes elements of several of his tracks.
Although, as Dad Rocks! famously keeps his work under a Creative Commons copyright license that allows for non-commercial creative reinterpretation, 6001 Hulls’ self-stated mission “to receive a cease-and-desist” may take a bit longer than he/she thinks. We’re not sure about how Tubelord view such things – his/her similarly excellent remix of them is below.
16 Apr 2012
TED talks come to Hackney. This could go either way.
Tickets for tomorrow’s TEDxHackney event (the x means “officially unofficial”) are sold out but you can find out more and watch a live stream of it here.
The topic is Happiness, though hopefully they won’t insist on it.
13 Apr 2012
100 years of London fashion in 100 seconds
This is from last year but at least it’s not about the election.
13 Apr 2012
London agenda for Friday 13 April 2012
1. Get a teaser of 1234 at Rich Mix [Le Cool]
2. Watch Friday the 13th in The Yard at Bethnal Green [Run Riot]
3. Hear echoes of the ‘soul greats of yesteryear, Neo African rhythms and echoes of Marvin Gaye, Jon Lucien and Bobby McFerrin’ with Randolph Matthews Voce Solo [Don’t Panic]
4. Be mesmerised by Cillian Murphy in his one-man show, Misterman [Time Out]
5. Understand Beer and theory around 1800 [Ian Visits]
6. Visit Kensington Palace [Tired of London]
13 Apr 2012
The Labour Party's cunning plan to lose in London
Time is running out for Labour’s campaign in London.
It’s not totally run out. If they stop contemplating each other’s navels and focus on the man they’re actually running against, then there’s no reason why they can’t win back City Hall.
But the fact is that right now, there’s nothing that the Labour party enjoys more than tearing chunks out of each other.
On Twitter, blogs and newspaper columns, hardly a day goes past without one barely distinguishable, but for some reason bitterly opposed faction of the party, fighting against another barely distinguishable, but for some reason bitterly opposed faction of the party.
And what exactly are they fighting about? I’m sure there must be something but as somebody not versed in the indecipherable management speak of Purple Labour versus Blue Labour versus Black Labour, I’ve yet to figure out exactly what it is.
The best that I can fathom is that one faction of the party wants their candidate in London to win, and another faction wants him to lose.
Why this second faction wants their own candidate to lose isn’t entirely clear but as far as I can work out it’s because:
1) they don’t like him
2) they don’t like their party leader either
2) they think that a loss in London would force the party to change so that it’s better able to win elsewhere.
Sacrifice London so they can win Gravesham, appears to be their oh so cunning strategic plan.
The Tories on the other hand have a different view of elections. Their view is that it’s quite nice to win them. Every time.
This is despite the fact that over the past four years Boris Johnson has been a major disappointment to many of them.
Far from instigating a Tory revolution in London, he has mostly accepted the settlement left to him by the man he describes as a “barely reformed Marxist.”
The agenda at City Hall has hardly changed, and Boris has devoted much of his time to implementing policies which are total anathema to his party.
Meanwhile he has lost several deputies to scandal, many of his flagship programmes have ended in failure and all the while he has passed up no opportunity to undermine his own party leader.
And yet despite all of this, barely a word has been spoken against Boris by his own party in the last four years.
According to Sonia Purnell’s brilliant biography Just Boris, there are plenty of prominent Tories with a strong dislike for Boris and no shortage of ammunition ready to use against him.
But they don’t use it. Why is this?
Well this may seem a little strange to the cunning foxes with a first class degree in cunning from the University of Labour Strategy, but it may have something to do with the fact that they like to win elections.
In their view, and yes I know this may seem a little bit too simple, winning elections is better than losing them. Even when they’re not 100% behind their candidate.
And it’s not just in London.
Nationally, the Tories have a leader who failed to win a majority against Gordon Brown, forced the party into a coalition with a party his members despise, and who has managed to turn an almost universally sympathetic press against him.
The Labour party meanwhile has a leader who is presiding over consistent leads in the polls and is following an agenda most Labour Party members agree with. Can you guess which of the two party leaders is in trouble?
The Labour Party are showing every sign of enjoying opposition. The only problem is that the opposition they enjoy most is opposition to themselves.
13 Apr 2012
TfL withdraws 'gay conversion' adverts
Transport for London have intervened to block advertisements promoting ‘gay conversions’ that were due to run on the side of London’s buses next week.
The adverts were part of a campaign by fundamentalist Christians to promote ‘reparative therapy’ which they believe can ‘cure’ people of homosexuality.
They appear to be a response to another campaign by gay rights group Stonewall in favour of equal marriage rights.
The banners had been due to run on five bus routes in the capital according to The Guardian.
A spokesperson for TfL told The Scoop that they had been initially accepted by an external agency and cleared by advertising regulators:
“This advertisement has just been brought to our attention by our advertising agency, CBSO and we have decided that it should not run on London’s bus or transport networks. We do not believe that these specific ads are consistent with TfL’s commitment to a tolerant and inclusive London. The adverts are not currently running on any London Buses and they will not do so.”
Labour’s Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone said today:
“London is going backwards under a Tory leadership that should have made these advertisements impossible. They promote a falsehood, the homophobic idea of ‘therapy’ to change the sexual orientation of lesbians and gay men.”
Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick said:
“From personal experience as a gay Christian, I can tell you that it’s much better to be out than in. We should be celebrating the diversity for which London is known for, not denegrating it. As Mayor I want to make London a place that is welcoming to all people, including Christians.”
Two years ago TfL were heavily criticised for accepting sponsorship from payday loan company Wonga.
Earlier this year a London Assembly investigation warned that TfL “seems to have taken an ad hoc approach to sponsorship, which could expose it to unnecessary risk if a sponsor suffered serious reputational damage.”
12 Apr 2012
Man Without Country
Listen to the Citizens remix of Welsh depresso-pop trio Man Without Country below. They’re like The Postal Service except born under an evil moon.
12 Apr 2012
Rough Trade East is hiring, because they sent their staff to open a new shop in Brooklyn
If you ever wanted to run a record shop, now is the time. Rough Trade East has found their East London-style can be exported to Brooklyn, where they are sending current manager Spencer Hickman to open up their new shop.
If you want his job, send an email to [email protected].
12 Apr 2012
The House Party's Terence McGrenera video platform
One of the more mysterious candidates for the London Election has been Terence McGrenera, the sole candidate for the House Party, a party devoted, we can only assume, to housing issues.
Winkball.com found McGrenera in the queue at last night’s Evening Standard mayoral debate.
Terence McGrenera
12 Apr 2012
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
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