Meet the Moustache...

...and then wave goodbye as it vanished about 10 minutes later.






Lesson learnt.

Art vs Commerce...

...or how to sell a difficult subject to the Americans.

Death of a President US Trailer

Conceived as a fictional TV documentary broadcast in 2008, reflecting on another monstrously despicable and cataclysmic event: the assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19th, 2007. The “documentary” combines archival footage and carefully composed interviews, presented in a respectful and dignified manner.



I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it - hurrah for getting a theatrical release - it's just interesting to note the language used.

New Music Video

"New music video for the Low Lows. 'Dear Flies Love Spider' is from the album 'Fire on the Bright Sky' released by Monotreme Records. Video produced by Medlo, directed by Dave Holloway."

YouTube link.

Daemons

Isobel and I went to a discussion of Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials trilogy last night, as part of the Sheffield Off The Shelf Literary Festival. It was hosted by the Dean of Sheffield in a United Reformed Church and we were expecting a certain amount of criticism of Pullman and "his picture of a corrupt church and a powerless and dying God" but we got a very balanced, very illuminating discussion.

One of my biggest issues with organised religion is the acceptance of classic texts as proof of God, but the Reverend Peter Bradley was quite happy to discuss the varying ways in which text can be interpreted to explain meaning, and that no-one point of view is correct. He was also very happy to admit that Pullmans view of 'The Church' (in these books the Church is an amalgamation of many of our organised religions) is somewhat fair, certainly in lieu of religious history.

Overall it was a very interesting, very intriguing event that ran on slightly too long but was hosted by a very personable, very humourous, very well read and very well educated man who I would not have thought a member of the clergy if it were not for the dog collar.

One of the issues under debate was Pullmans use of daemons. In classical literature sense the Daemon is an extension of the soul, and that it is used to Pullmans work. In this world each person is born with an daemon, a physical manifestation of their soul that takes many animal forms in childhood and becomes fixed as they enter adulthood. Your daemon is by your side thoughout all of your life - they are your conscience and your confidant and you cannot be separated without tragic consequences.

We were asked to consider what our daemon would be, and I half jokingly said that Hobbes, our slightly restless ginger cat, was the closest thing I had to a daemon. You've met Hobbes, right? He looks like this:

When we got home last night Hobbes was dutifully waiting outside the house, and then tripped over my feet as I popped upstairs to do a spot of internet uploading stuff. When I went out to get some food he followed me all the way to the take away, miaowing as he went. He then sat outside the take away while I collected the pizza, and followed me home all the way... running ahead and scouting for trouble.

I think Hobbes is my daemon. He was there outside the bedroom when we got up, he follows me into the bathroom to check for danger and he's been sniffing and sleeping on the pillow that Isobel uses since. Yup, that cat is part of my soul.

Apologies to Rob for turning this into a cat blog.

A little gossip, a few thoughts and a handful of concerns...

Dum de dum. Waiting for a video to upload to YouTube. It may not work so I kind of need to hang on until it processes, and it's taking aaaaaaages. Check the YouTube page in the morning and see if it's there.

Just finished a music video for the Low Lows which is what I'm uploading, plus we're in the middle of doing two video remixes for Plan B. I'm doing the hardcore Bennigbrooks drum n bass mix which is proving to be easier than I first thought... it is a painfully annoying track that, in all senses of the term, rings in your ears for hours after. I have developed a new found appreciation for the drum n bass artist though, and the simplicity of their form. These days I wouldn't be able to afford the drugs required to dance to this music. Sad, but true.

Had a lovely weekend - fun, productive and appropriately bizarre. Friday night and Saturday was spent down in Nottingham with Isobel. We just hung out, met some odd people, ate some nice food and watched Green Wing (a programme I have previously derided but now have an utmost appreciation for). She starts a job in Sheffield in a couple of weeks which is extremely exciting - it means I get to see my girl more often!

Damn. The video failed. Ok, here's another new one that you may like:


Saturday night was intriguing - just another night at work, except I got to meet* Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Alicia Witt, who played the Zoe in Cybil. She was an adolescant fantasy of mine, especially as the Darlene replacement on Cybil, and it was great to see she's as stunning in real life.

I've learnt a new phrase; "are you gonna shut up or I have to put my dick in your mouth?" Problem is I can't find anybody to say it to without causing mass offence or misconceptions about my sexuality.

They call me MR Beard.


Dave Out.

----------------------------------------------


*By meet, I mean serve popcorn to, direct to the toilet and say 'thank you' when they leave.

I've met somebody

His name is Dennis. He's 48 years old and lives in the United States. I met Dennis when I left a comment on this video on YouTube:

The comment I left said this:

• "Robert Greenwald is a great man. Check out his work on 'Outfoxed: Rupert Murdochs War on Journalism.' We need more filmmakers like him..."
  

Almost instantly Dennis replied with this touching message:

• "Looks like we have a parade of USEFUL IDIOTS in here who will believe anything the left spits out. Joseph Goebbels will be proud."

I didn't reply to this, but when Dennis made this remark:

• I wish some right wing filmaker would make a documentary on how Clinton, Albright, and meddler-in-chief, Jimmy Carter, appeased North Korea in 1994 and gave the despot, fuel, food, and nuclear technology (with a condition not to use it for weapons, yeah right!) Way to go Clinton! Kim Il Jung is grateful !

I felt compelled to reply:

• You do know that Haliburton have been selling nuclear enrichment technology to Iran for the last 7 years, don't you?
  
  Don't tell me you made that comment without knowing that, because that'd be stupid.

Ok, I admit it. I was a bit drunk and slightly argumentative. Dennis replied promptly with a fair and balanced comment.

• With all the biased major networks in cahoots with the liberal Democrats, who equally hates Haliburton, that will be the top headline news by now. Howcome the liberal media is not pursuing this scoop of a story that you claim? Is it because it's not credible and cannot be verified or substantiated? In other words, it's a lie. I guess you lack the common sense to ask these intelligent questions. Like all Michael Moore groupies, who'll believe everything, I'm not surprised.

By this point I had done a little research on Dennis and discovered that he had quite a penchant for arguing, throwing insults and making wild claims. Much like myself - I thought I had found a a friend! Here a few highlights of Dennis' other comments:

• What's really amusing (and simply amazing) is you lefties have a cabal of propagandists like Michael Moore, Robert Greenwald, Al Franken and his bankrupt Air america, Davis Guggenheim, clueless Clooney, the Hollywood elite, NBC, CBS, ABC et al, to make fakecumentaries, movies or editorials (disguised as news) to drive the lefties/socialist agenda. The irony is, it doesn't work. And those who think for themselves, and will not absorb sound bites and talking points, don't need these tripe.

• You have absolutely no moral clarity and a sufficient brain matter to make you think sensibly. Typical Lefty.

• The inconsistency of the liberals is staggering. They don't want us to fight the war on terrorism anywhere else or Iraq--yet they want us in Darfur! And their silly bleeding heart notion that a behavior problem can be stopped with money. (But Bush gave Africa 8.6 billion in aid anyway).

• There will be no government or country if you don't wake up to the reality that we have an enemy that wants to annihilate us and impose Islam on our throats. If you want to wear the Burkha, then I guess you just sit around on your sorry ass and wait for them to succeed.

• I can picture it now....dredlocks that stinks, nose rings, perhaps on the tongue, tatoo of Che Guevarra on the shoulder, awfully unkemp clothes, long strapped bag with 'peace'sign sticker, in between the 'Free Tibet" and rainbow stickers, Sandals, an old model VW with anti-Bush rhetorics plastered all over, and most of all, a Kerry--Edward campaign bumper sticker

• Aha! another Dixie Chicks clone! Take my advice, Don't make a big mistake of politicizing your show! People pay to hear you perform and not some gobledygook diatribe against Republicans. So shut up and sing! Leave your DDH4B(Demented,Deranged Hatred for Bush) syndrome at home.

• With all your incoherrent drivel against Democracy,
  conservatives, capitalism, Christians, oil companies, military, America and its ideals or mocking patriotism, and your preoccupation with those rich, white men, Who are you fooling? You're as a Leftist as the next Stalin. Perhaps your college professor is reeling with pride for you.

• And here's another fact, we are facing an evil, ruthless, barbaric enemy, unprecendented in human history, who will stop at nothing to annihilate us and shove down their 16th century religion on our throats. You are more concerned with Haliburton than our survival as a civilization and a free society. You're all consumed with hatred with one man and made it your mission in life to destroy this man. By the looks of it, you consider your own country as the enemy!

Anyway. He was jumping down everyones throats and being very entertaining, so I wrote:

• I'd hate to see things the way you you do. I've been reading all your posts and you're just so angry at everybody. You call people names and accuse them of all manner of things. You've leapt on every person who's left a comment that doesn't directly agree with you, that's pretty dark.

And then the fireside chats began:

• Better look in the mirror before you judge me. You people on the left are nothing but vile and vicious hate filled bunch. How many on your side have called for the assasination of the President? From columnists to liberal blogs & talkshow hosts. You even have a movie about President Bush's assasination. Remember Alec Baldwin's tirade calling for the stoning to death of a Republican legislator? I could list alot more of your hatefests to show your hypocrasy-but space is limited.

• What happened to your claim about Haliburton? You didn't (or afraid?) to respond about the Liberal media's reluctance to follow up your story. Your silence means only one thing..I am Right.

• Here's a good read for you: Overturning Liberalism with Common sense Thinking by Kevin McCullough. This has been my strategy all along, Common sense! your Haliburton claim is just an example. One would have the common sense to think that the liberal media will not let your allegations pass, if it were true and will be headline news for weeks--but where is it? I haven't seen it on CNN, your official liberal gazzette. I will be reading this soon to get more ammunition.

• Another 'holier than thou' liberal trying to triangulate and lecturing me about decorum and decency. And even attempting to psycho-analyse moi. while you're at it, why don't you include Cindy Sheehan, Al Franken, sewermouth Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Howard Dean, the left's darling, Hugo Chavez! Too bad space is limited.

So that's Dennis. He's my new buddy. I hope you'll welcome him as one of your own.

Here are a couple more of Dennis' wonderful comment postings. You can read the whole comments page here.

• This is not about Saudi Arabia, This is about the Muslims Jihadists/Islamo fascists scatered all over the world, coniving, scheming, planning executing to kill us! Zawahiri and Atta are Egyptians, Zarqawi is Jordanian, then there's Adam Gadahn, A (Jewish) AMERICAN traitor. There are no boundaries among Jihadists, they have one mission: they all want us dead! Here's a suggested bumper sticker that's ideal for you--"It's about our survival, stupid!"

• How about ULTIMATE VICTORY as a plan? A concept foreign to you Libs. What's worse, you liberals are tying our hands to achieve this goal. You're against detaining the enemy combatants, giving them all kinds of rights, you're against intelligence to monitor their plans and funding schemes, You're against everything that could fight them effectively! To me that's aiding and abetting the enemy.

• Folks! This is what happens when the left is cornered and loses the argument, they will attack you and avoid the issue.

The circle is complete

To complete the trilogy I have started up a Night of the Dave blog as well. So far it's my own personal news splurge with stories I find interesting and, when I have the time, my thoughts on them.

Below is the first item I posted on there, my response to the '25 Questions That Undermine the 9/11 Truth Movement.' This is the first and only time I'll cross post, but this response took me ages to write so I figured it's ok to repeat.

---------------------------------------
25 Questions That Undermine the 9/11 Truth Movement

This list of questions was recently posted on NeoAetheism.com and was addressed to those naysayers who don't believe the official US administrations explanation after investigations into 9/11. Most recently these naysayers have started using film as a medium to convey their doubts - as witnessed in such productions as Loose Change and Press For Truth.

My responses are in white.

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Question #1. If the government was willing to slaughter 3,000 people for a political agenda, why haven’t inconveniences like Dylan Avery and Steven Earl Jones been silenced?

Conspiracy theorists will always exist, and they can always be painted as extremists and lunatics by the powers that be. Silencing them would have no purpose when they can just be discredited. Hell, look what happens to someone who has a legitimate complaint when they take on the right-wing media...

Question #2. Why was not one of the plane hijackers from Afghanistan or Iraq? Why were most of them from Saudi Arabia? Doesn’t that place the U.S. in a negative light?

It's not like the US administration personally hired these hi-jackers - they didn't take out help wanted ads in local papers. Osama Bin Laden, once an employee of the US, was exactly the right person to do the job. A quick word in his ear would be all that would be required to instigate this plan. When people say the US government was behind it, they don't mean they did all the planning, phone calls and photocopying - it means they were aware of the machinations in place and willfully chose to ignore them so as to create a war of distraction and create an unified, utopian, Christian country.

And as for the Saudi thing - yes it make them look bad, but they probably thought they could cover up the truth and succeed on the basis of their propaganda. They believed themselves to be the bastion of truth and that people would trust in them whatever they said. Alas, it was same theory for Scooter Libby, Ken Lay, Haliburton and, oh, the Iraq invasion.

Question #3. Why has as leftists claim no WMD been found in Iraq? Couldn’t the Bush administration easily plant them there?

That doesn't matter. What matters is they got to invade Iraq, got to invade Afghanistan, got to topple both governments and replace them with their own puppet presidents and, most importantly, seize control of their oil. Like they're trying to do with Iran right now. The ends justify the means. WMD? Yesterdays news and they know it.

Question #4. When Bush was told about the 9/11 attack in that classroom on that morning, why did he sit there for seven minutes? Why didn’t he in an act, display himself as a hero that was going to counteract the wrong that was done against our nation?

This isn't about the US administration planning the attacks. It's about instigating a chain of events that they can control and use to their benefit. It's doubtful Bush ever knew this was going to happen... he couldn't, it's way too risky. But Cheney and Rumsfeld, for example, could.

The overall idea behind all this was to provide an enemy for the Amercian public so, trembling in fear, they would align themselves behind their president and give carte blanche to the administration to do whatever was neccessary. This of course would provide cover for any foreign policy changes and any invasions that may need to be done to cover the enormous dependancy the US has on foreign, and mostly middle-eastern, oil. Problem is, the president wigged out and froze and didn't display himself to be the hero that he should have been - he did exactly the opposite. Much like in Iraq where they didn't embrace the US invasion and started fighting back.

Question #5. How is it that the Bush administration executed the most cleverly orchestrated conspiracy of all time but was not able to cover up a minor hunting incident involving Dick Cheney?

You need to lose the idea of a conspiracy - it's not like 24 with President Logan taking secret phone calls in the Oval Office, it's about a chain of events being triggered that play, ultimately, to Western interest. There's nothing to cover up, except almost a willful desire to ignore any advance warning.

Question #6. Why is it that Arabs across the Middle East danced in the streets with joy over 9/11? Were they paid off by the C.I.A.? You can view the Middle East response by text or check out a documentary showcasing it here.

Jeez. These questions are written by a guy who's read the Da Vinci Code one too many times. You think that the whole Arab response was orchestrated? Stupid question.

Question #7. Now Bush devised 9/11 with the intention to blame Muslims right? Why pray tell did he allow the granting of a visa to terrorist sponsor Mohammad Khatami? The former dictator of Iran? At the Islamic Society of North America, he had this to say,” As America claims to be fighting terrorism, it implements policies that cause the intensification of terrorism and institutionalized violence… Public opinion can be rescued from the grips of ignorance and blunder and the domination of arrogant, warmongering and violence-triggering policies will end.” During the Israel-Lebanon conflict he described Hezbollah as a “shining sun that illuminates and warms the hearts of all Muslims and supporters of freedom in the world.” Wouldn’t Bush do whatever it took to maintain his credibility and thus not let him in?

All these question utterly miss the point of the 9/11 Truth Movement. It's not about absolute control - you're imagining a fascistic society from the 1940s - it's about a political landscape that allows for the dominance of one ideology over another. Dissidence is good. Opinion is good. It creates the impression of a free society. Why would the Administraion (I'm not saying President here as it's stupid to imply that he was the mastermind) orchestrate such events and then become fascistic in nature immediately afterwards? Again, stupid question.

Question #8. Why did the draft that the likes of John Kerry kept parroting never come into occurrence?

The military draft is a subject that's brought up whenever America enters a conflict. It has no relevance here.

Question #9. If George W. Bush invaded Iraq for oil, why did it take three years for the oil production there to rise above pre-war levels?

Again, what do you imagine? They invade Iraq and the first step is the oilfields? That would be an acknowledgment of their real intentions. The Iraq oil production has stayed out of the headlines and allowed to slowly build. Who cares about that when there's American soldiers dying? That is such a naive question.

The more interesting points to note are the speed with which the Taliban government were ousted and given an ex-Oil lobbyist as a president instead, and the fact that US Peak Oil Production occured sometime in the early 1970s. The three largest untapped oil reserves in the world are in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Kazikstan. Invaded one, tried to invade another and courting the last with promises of investment.

Question #10. Why has there been not a single structural engineering expert that has come forward saying 9/11 was done by the government?

Who says they haven't? Who said they tried and were discredited by the Administration and ignored by the media.

Question #11. There are allegations that a missile hit the pentagon. As shown by the pictures in this computer simulation showing light poles sliced in two, how could a missile do this? The "9/11 Truth Movement" still has yet to explain the enormous eyewitness accounts found here and here.

I'd still like to know how a plane vaporised on impact when that's proven to be physically impossible. Seriously. Missile or no missle, where's the remains on the fucking plane?

Question #12. There’s no dispute that two planes hit the world trade centers. Were men of the C.I.A. willing to die for the Bush administration by flying the planes?

Good god! These really are stupid questions. They were real Arabs, with a real willingness to die. They weren't CIA men browned up and putting on silly accents.

Question #13. What is the difference when the religious can not explain an event and say “God did it!” and conspiracy theorists who can not explain an event and say “Bush did it!”?

Those planes really hit those towers, and somewhere down the line someone really allowed this to happen. God did not throw the planes. Is this question meant to be philisophical or rhetorical? Either way, the two are incomparable.

It's these sort of opinions that contribute directly to idea that anyone who questions the official line is a conspiracy nut. It's irresponsable and it's naive. I don't agree with everything in Loose Change - in fact I thing much of it is pretty flimsy - but, good grief, they're valid questions and we deserve answers.

Question #14. How come Bill Clinton isn't said to be part of the conspiracy? Didn't he let Osama Bin Laden go numerous times?

Yeah, all you have to do is check the signatures on all those pardons that Osama received. I could go on about Clinton being terrorised to distraction by Republican hitmen over a sexual misdemeanor and use Bosnia as an example but that would give further weight to the validity of these questions. I will say, though, that Cheney and Rumsfeld have been in the Administration since before Reagan (who, lest we forget, employed Bin Laden in the first place and gave him the funding and training he needed). Presidents are puppets, it's the people controlling the strings you need to worry about.

Question #15. Applying Occam's razor, don't we come to the conclusion that human incompetence would be the most reasonable explanation for the 9/11 tragedy?

Greed, my friend, is the most reasonable explanation for the 9/11 tragedy. That and a near divine belief that you, and only you, are right.

Question #16. Seeing as how most of the war conspiracies have to do with oil endeavors, why has the United States placed an oil embargo on Iran for quite some time now?

Two reasons; The first is to keep the world oil production at a steady level - an influx of the stuff would be as bad for the economy as a shortage. These people aren't stupid - they're ex-oil men for Christs sake. It's not about having all the oil in the world NOW, it's about controlling the supply in the future.
The second has to do with alliance - Iran famously sold their oil in Euros, not dollars, which undermined the US currency. That was when the 'Iran could make a bomb' stories first emerged (incidentally, Halliburton have been selling nuclear enrichment technology to Iran since 2000 - which was when Bush and Cheney dismantled the 'selling nuclear materials to rogue nations' law - arguing it was against the free speech rights of corporations to restrict who they can do business with). Iran, also incidentally, was a friend of the US during the initial war on terror but found their offers of negotiation flatly ignored once Afghanistan was conquored. They then appeared as one of the 'axis of evil' which gave fuel to the anti-US sentiment that was brewing.

Anyway. Iran is with China. China is the new world superpower and has unprecidented control over the US because of their overwhelming import / export ratio. Obviously you can't fuck with the Chinese, but you can fuck with their major oil supplier.

Question #17. What fascist government in history has butchered thousands of people only then to let people openly protest it across the country?


Heh. France. It's also worth noting that the US aren't (at least openly) a fascistic government. To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, why bother controlling people when you can make them think they're free?

Question #18. Taking the conspiracy at face value, why aren't aren't the "9/11 Truthers" getting the hell out of the United States? Wouldn't they be gravely afraid from a government that just menacingly slaughtered three thousand of its own citizens?

Dude, that's a stupid fucking question.

Question #19. Wouldn't a 9/11 conspiracy demonstrate the horrific consequence of big government? So why are "9/11 Truthers" still consistently for government based solutions (Medicare, Social Security, welfare, etc., and even government education)?

Ignoring how loaded and inaccurately phrased your question is (there's that suggestion that you're either one or the other again - how people love to polarise an issue) it is still retarded. Asking questions about the most significant event of our generation and believing in the basic requirements of government to provide services and aid for its population are utterly unconnected.

Question #20. How can it be that the "9/11 Truthers" believe in such a sinister government and at the same time want to deprive the common man the tools to stop it (being for gun control)?

Once again you have stopped picking holes in the arguments and started alluding to the 'un-American' attitude of anybody who dares raise these issues. Your question is another example of the slow form of socialisation that occurs to convince the public at large that not following the official party line is unpatriotic.

With this question your are directly suggesting that these '9/11 Truthers' are working against the people of the United States. Where does the assumption that people who don't believe the official explanation of 9/11 want to suppress your basic freedoms come from? In the wake of this terrible event you have seen far more suppression of human rights by your own government than by the people who question them.

As for your example of gun control. Are you fucking serious? How are the two connected? Although I'd say that the events of the last week are enough to suggest that, I dunno, automatic weapons shouldn't be available to the general public or, oh lets see, the NRA fight against banning weapons on school property wasn't their greatest move. While you're at it why not claim that abortions rob America of good patriots, or that the death penalty is good old Western justice, or that they hate Bush because they won't accept Jesus as their personal saviour?

Dude. You're a tool.

Question #21. Why wasn't the conspiracy done at night so that it has a lesser chance of being exposed?

Great question. I have no answer to that. Exactly how does one do a "conspiracy at night"?

Question #22. Why didn't the goverment just exclusively use the bombs (that allegedly brought down the towers) instead of involving the planes in the WTC attacks? Doesn't that just needlessly overcomplicate things and create a greater chance of being discovered as a government plot?

Again, another great question. Well done. You were having a real brain day there. What's more suspicious; two building essential to the world economy suddenly blow up for no reason and the government say it was terrorists. Or actual terrorists really attack a building and the government get to exploit world favour and do what they want.

Question #23. Why did the conspiracy arrangers crash a plane in the middle of nowhere instead of using it to kill even more people?

I think we can all agree that the passengers of the Flight 93 really did bring that plane down before it hit its target.

Question #24. Why crash a plane into the pentagon? Doesn't just hamper the efforts toward the wars to come?

Because that'd be like robbing every house on a street except yours. Want another cliche? You can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs.

Question #25. George W. Bush claims that the terrorists hate us because of our freedoms. So why wasn't the Statue of Liberty attacked to demonstrate this?

Firstly they don't hate us because of our freedoms. That's rhetocial nonsense that means nothing. They hate us because our freedoms are secured by oppressing, bullying and controlling the rest of the world and - above all else - them. It ain't hard to work out.

The Statue of Liberty is just a statue (given to you, lest we forget, by those cheese eating surrender monkeys the French) with only a couple of hundred people inside and would have little effect. The Twin Towers is vital to the economy of the Whole Western World and destroying them is an attack on our way of living - aggressive capitalism - and not just some half baked notion of freedom. This question demonstrates your absolute lack of understanding of this subject - the geopolitcial, historical, ethical and governmental influences are completely ignored in favour of rhetorical jingoism.

---------------------------------

I'm happy to argue these points. Truth be told I enjoy it. What worries me is that this list of questions received relatively mainstream media attention. Questioning the questioners is always a good idea, but this list is presented as a valid argument when in truth all it is is another attempt to discredit anyone who doesn't swallow the 'truth.' The questions are loaded, speculative and based on little or no evidence - infact they read a little like a list of charges that must be defended.

I'm not sure what happened that day. No-one is. I don't buy anything the Administration says, but I also find it hard to believe that they swapped planes, changed serial numbers and murdered citizens. I think that there are a staggering amount of questions that need to answered and these so called '9/11 Truthers' are the only people asking them. Publicity like this does not help the learned person achieve any form of understanding in this world, it just helps to undermine them.

We Need Your Help

Go Sheffo are a local fanzine that I occasionally write for. A couple of years ago they had an incredible idea to convert the now defunct cooling towers on the outskirts of Sheffield into giant works of art. Designs were submitted from people all over the world and the idea really caught the imagination of the local people.

Then they went and won the Channel 4 Public Art competition and the idea looked like it might just actually happen - especially when Antony Gormley, the artist behind the Angel of the North, backed them. This could be an amazing thing to happen to Sheffield, one that could cement our reputation as a leading artistic city and help shift the public impression of us beyond just Meadowhall and a dead steel industry.


But now they've hit a problem. Eon, the company who owns the Towers, have suddenly decided that they want to destroy them - something not even considered before this idea was mooted - and the Sheffield City Council, in another act of selling out the populace, have stated that the area is prime for retail regeneration. The last thing Sheffield needs is another large Meadowhall to squeeze more soul out of this city.

We need your help.

Please read the email below and help us out in anyway you can. It's desperately important that you sign the petition.

Thanks.

-----------------------------------

This is Sheffield calling. Our city needs your help.

We've had an idea to change the way the world sees Sheffield. To make our city better. It's a project called Cooling The Towers. But it's all under threat. Please take five minutes to read this email. Then forward it to everyone else.

This is the best idea Sheffield ever had.

-----------------------

Cooling the Towers

There are two cooling towers on the edge of Sheffield, next to Meadowhall and the M1.

Currently they mean grey, industrial, Full Monty. Sheffield is over.

We want to turn them into massive works of public art that mean what Sheffield is now: green, creative and different. And amazing.

We've been working on this for two years and from running an initial competition for ideas in our fanzine GO ( www.dontgo.co.uk ), we're now working with Channel 4 as one of the winners of their Big Art Project ( www.channel4.com/bigart). Channel 4 love the idea, and have applied for funding to make it a reality. This is possible. We're almost there.

BUT there's a baddy in the story. They're a big baddy. The owners of the site are called Eon. They own Powergen. After four months of negotiations, and all our arguments for why this is a good idea (which you can find on our website) they've decided to knock the towers down and build another industrial shed.

Sheffield wins again.

We think this is too good an idea and too good a chance for Sheffield to just give up, and let them have their way. Knocking these towers down will be a tragedy.

So we need your help.

-------------------------------

What if you're not from Sheffield? This still affects you. It's just another example of A Big Corporation with no brains doing what they want and ignoring people like you and me. We're not luddites and we're not revolutionaries. We've just got a good idea and they're not interested in listening. Who decides how our cities develop, what they mean? Us or them?

----------------------------

HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

SIGN THE PETITION
Someone's already set a petition up. You can see how strongly people feel. Sign it here http://www.petitiononline.com/tct2/petition.html

GO TO MYSPACE
We're working on a proper website, but for now this is the digital HQ. This is where you'll information and updates. Be our friend. Get your friends to be our friends. www.myspace.com/coolingthetowers

EMAIL EON
Tell them why they're wrong. For some sample text, click here. Email the chief exec here: paul.golby@eon-uk.com That's Dr Paul Golby to you. Evidently he's not got a doctorate in Doing The Right Thing. It only takes five minutes. Do it now.

TURN EON OFF
If you're a customer, tell them you'll change power suppliers if the towers are knocked down. In fact, just do it now. Why not go a bit greener? Eon produce more CO2 every year than the whole of Croatia. Change to Ecotricity www.ecotricity.co.uk/switch

SHOW YOUR FACE
We're going to create a photographic petition. As well as a list of names, we want to actually show the world how many people support these towers and this project. So if you do, take a picture of yourself, or the towers, or of you holding the phrase 'THE TOWERS ARE OURS' and send it to us with your name and location. We'll put it on the website. And tell your friends to do it too. Send it here go.sheffield@gmail.com

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We love this city so much. We're not going to sit back and watch it lose out again. We're tired of Sheffield being the loser. We want people across the world to know what this city means, realise how brilliant it is.

We don't want another toys r us.

Please help us.

Love from

GO X

Photoshopped propaganda

Not much going on in my head these last few days, so instead enjoy these amusing photoshopped versions of classic propaganda posters. More here, or even more original ones here.