TWO FROM WATERLOO PARK, NORWICH

Waterloo Park, Norwich, is a beautiful Victorian affair with a community building at its hub. Pity the building is all locked up when I've been there recently. It should be open daily - a cafe, a meeting place/activity space for young people, etc. But perhaps it's a case of 'precious' Nowich?

Thistles

Revelation!

Michael Jackson's nose was missing as he lay in state claims an eyewitness.

COMING UP HERE SOON...

Coming up here from August will be a 'sketch pad' autobiography of my life in 56 pages, many illustrated. It will be dedicated to all the people I leave out of it! Hopefully it will be complete by the end of the year as I want to begin writing a biography about my parents' work and lives.

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My autobiography will be interwoven with my usual off-the-wall contributions and I'll be running some competitions with great prizes too! So please keep visiting...

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Not only but also: The Asparagus Shed will be returning soon...

Crowds Flocked To Car Boots Today

Another Summer Holiday with The Family

MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB AUGUST

UPLIFTING COMPOSITIONS FROM TOP UK BAND AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

This month’s concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 2 August features modern jazz of freshness and originality from one of the UK’s top bands – The Tony Woods Project.

Alto-saxophonist and composer Tony Woods’ emotional work is full of subtle surprises that mingle hard-hitting post-bop and English folk music, a raw passionate edge with a tender lyricism. And to carry out his vision Woods uses a beautifully pure tone on saxophone and some of the country’s finest jazz musicians.

After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music Woods worked with Kenny Wheeler, The BBC Radio Big Band and National Youth Jazz Orchestra and became a noted teacher and studio session musician. Following these successes, Woods decided to form his own band to provide an outlet for his own folk inspired compositions.

Featuring the singular talent of Mike Outram, one of the country’s most sought after guitarists, The Tony Woods Project uses melodic, uplifting compositions along with collective and individual improvisations that are incorporated into the music’s bigger structures – a bedrock of great jazz.

Tony lists his own influences as not only jazz masters Miles Davis, Lee Konitz and Art Pepper but also the Bulgarian clarinetist Ivo Papasov and English folk singer June Tabor. This is contemporary jazz of uncommon finesse which restores ones faith in the fact that jazz still has new directions to take.

This concert is the only date East Anglian date of a national Jazz Services tour promoting the bands new CD, ‘Wind Shadows’. A concert not to be missed! The band’s full line-up features Tony Woods (saxophones), Mike Outram (guitar), Robert Millett (vibraphone), Andy Hamill (double bass) and Milo Fell (drums). Listen to Tony Woods’ music at http://www.myspace.com/tonywoodsproject and or http://tonywoods.org visit the club website at http://www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk/

All ‘Milestones’ gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm.Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).

NB Milestones Jazz Club takes place in a basement room that requires the use of stairs. If you have a disability please contact mhtml:%7BFD28BD7E-B1F2-43F2-8151-2F010DA47218%7Dmid://00000017/!x-usc:mailto:milestonesjazz@hotmail.co.uk or (01502) 568684 for more info and help in entering the building.

QUOTES:

"A deceptively reserved player with all kinds of hidden fires"The Guardian

"The best of contemporary British jazz" Musician Magazine

"If ever a band deserved a higher profile, it has to be the Tony Woods Project. European sensibility and American grooves united"Jazz UK magazine

"Combines a jazz edge with the melodic zest of folk...delightful - a romping country dance with a contemporary urban flair"Geoffrey Smith, Jazz Record Requests, BBC Radio 3

EYEBROWS WON IT!

The obvious happened in the Norwich North by-election: the Tories' Chloe Smith won by a substantial margin. Disillusioned Labour voters didn't jump on the Green Party bus but merely stayed at home. The winner of the Norwich North by-election thereby has been Disillusion and Apathy with over 55 percent of voters staying at home. There's a big vacuum at the centre of British politics with vast swathes of ordinary people alienated from our discredited democracy...

TOMORROW'S WORLD: AN APOLOGY...

Sometimes I get my facts wrong: BBC's 'Tomorrow's World' was first broadcast in 1965. In those heady days TW was live and exciting; and both the science and technology were exciting, and the immediate future looked full of possibilities - from electric cars to monorails.

In reflection of society and economics science is bent and deflected in its applications. Over forty years ago an entire generation could look forward to a better life and standard of living than their parents.' Likewise, the promises of the excellent TW haven't always materialised or have been shaped in a less than dynamic way. To be honest, a foil emergency blanket wasn't the zenith of achievement I expected from landing a man on the moon.

The point is, I would like there to be electric cars and monorails as advertised all those years ago. There's an interesting article on the history of the electric car here

So, apologies TW. Often you were the reality we should now be enjoying, not the closure of a wind turbine factory Vestas and the loss of 600 jobs we're experiencing! Read about the plant closure - and the occupation here

This closure is madness when Gordon Brown has called for a million 'green' jobs to take us out of Recession (so he begins the process by allowing the company concerned to sack 600 who are in real 'green jobs!).

NORWICH NORTH BY ELECTION FORCAST

THIS IS THE NORWICH NORTH BY-ELECTION FORCAST, ARTISTICALLY CO-ORDINATED. THE INDEPENDENTS HAVE NO CHANCE (pity). I FEAR THE OVER-PAINTED (MOUSTACHES, BEARDS & BLOB-PINK) TORY CHLOE WILL WIN (she, of the eyebrow posters). I THINK THE SWINE FLU WILL WIN OVER CHRIS 'O' (oh dear) & THE LIB DEMS WILL SHOW THEMSELVES ALL OVER THE PLACE. I THINK & HOPE RUPERT READ OF THE GREEN PARTY DOES REALLY, REALLY WELL. IN A SENSE, NOTA WILL WIN BECAUSE FAR TOO MANY WILL STAY AT HOME. IT IS AN UTTER SHAME THAT THERE IS PRESENTLY NOT AN ALTERNATIVE. THERE WILL BE SOON.

DON'T KNOW

You just don't know: Torchwood?

TOMORROW'S WORLD

Do you remember 'Tomorrow's World?'

How many Electric Cars were there going to be? An entire planet of them! They were going to change our world forever. That prediction is over 40 years old! And it's the same old world - with virtually NO ELECTRIC CARS STILL!

Tomorrow's World embarrassed the BBC. No, it was the other way round: the World embarrassed 'Tomorrow's World' because The Wizard of OZ-Capitalism couldn't deliver. In the forty years since Man First Stepped On The Moon our greatest achievement as a species has been to invent a clockwork radio.

Ah, but there's the REVOLUTION of the INTERNET! Zapped poverty ad Aids and War in the click of a mouse, eh?

Best is: the ressurection of the windmill to save the planet!
'Tomorrow's World?' Eat your heart out

THE AGENCY OF CHANGE

A campaign is brewing and building at Spiked Online. A considerable swathe of writers are joining in to 'boycott' the Criminal Record Burueau (CRB) which 'checks' those working with children, young people and vulnerable adults. The check is against one's criminal record, specifically to clear everyone working in these fields of criminality against the people one is going to work with. In other words, you are not going to be a paedophile. The CRB will clear that - or no. This appears common sense, a formality. However, ANYONE with a criminal record in the UK must declare all convictions, whether long spent or not.

In 1992 I was charged with 'obstruction' when arrested for standing on a pavement at a demonstration against Education Cuts. I was ordered to keep the peace for six months in the sum of £50. Big Crime. Every time I apply for a teaching or community arts post I still have to declare this crime. This is crazy: in defending education I've since found it difficult to find posts in education!!

The contradiction is, Yes, we do need 'checks' on all working with children and vulnerable adults but these should be the person-to-person checks of a social community, not on high by the police, not by the government (and certainly not retained as data). However, Spiked is a bit ambiguous in its campaign. Big Name authors leading a boycott where ordinary waged folk could lose their jobs if they do the same, is not on and can end up being a rather conspiritorial and reactionary campaign. ONLY if unions and their branches are involved can there be a campaign to affect change.

Indeed, whether it's this, Climate Change, The Recession, defending jobs, etc, etc, what is the agency of change? The mirage of radical change without hard, life breaking work, is on high - among writers, journalists, lawyers and the like who have seen the light. A tiny few. Unless my fellow teachers, support workers, volunteers and young people are involved in REALLY effecting change, CRB checks will remain.

Without change from the bottom up nothing can really change.

THANK GOD FOR SATIRE & OTHER CONTRADICTIONS!

Last Thursday evening I was lucky enough to go to The Cutting Room Comedy Club at The Workshop, Earlham Road, Norwich. It was very young and I was so pleased with the level of satirical bite of the event - and there were a couple of outstanding performances.

Keep on keeping on!

Clouds Gather

'Clouds Gather Over Great Yarmouth Beach' by Shirley Tolliday.

INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE

I found these two wonderful pictures at a recent Norfolk car boot sale. They're big, measuring nearly 4 ft by 3ft - I mean, they're big for photographs, for this is what they appear to be. They are either photographs of paintings or 'worked' photographs.

The photos are in good condition but the mounts are worn. Luckily, each carries a label on the back. Both are from H Essenhigh Corke's Photographic Studios, Sevenoaks. H Essenhigh (c 1860 to 1935), by 'Royal Appointment,' was both a painter and a ground breaking photographer - in colour photography!

I cannot date these wonderful works but they must be pre-1935.

TRAINS & CHIMNEYS

SOFT FUDGE, BUT WHERE?

NORWICH NORTH BY-ELECTION

SOCIALIST CALLS FOR A VOTE FOR RUPERT READ!

What some of you won't know is that I stood for Parliament in the 2001 General Election as the Waveney candidate for the Socialist Alliance...

I still support Dr. Ian Gibson as one of the most principled MPs in the House of Commons that we've ever had. He was always on the 'right side' for me - part of the labour movement and anti-war, alongside being an active constituency MP. Gibson knew instinctively he should be at a picket line supporting workers in struggle in this Mad, Mad Anarchy of Capitalism, which embraces poverty and warfare like lungs. He was and is a Socialist.

How sad that the young Labour candidate put up for this by-election is Gibson's opposite and tonight he lost any chance of my vote, calling in a Recession for increases in Defence spending (a Tory policy). Though there are good independents standing in the Norwich North By Election, Rupert Read of the Green Party has been a consistently principled representative - anti-war, pro-the-environment, champion of social housing and more. He gets my vote.

However, saving the planet, ending poverty and war requires the building of a new Socialist organisation with, within, for and run by the working class. Sadly, Socialism isn't part of this election. Among workers, like the posties who will be striking for services, jobs and conditions this Friday 'Socialism' isn't a word but an action. I can't imagine any of the candidates in the Norwich North by-election understand this but I know Dr Gibson does.

And if you want to understand the ebb and flow of human struggle to create an equal society do read Percy Byshe Shelley. Don't read Percy B in the past tense but the future......

EFFECTIVE PAINT

Some paint is effective......

BARRY TEETH ON TOUR

Poet Barry Teeth is on tour...
Tuesday (TODAY) Barry Teeth will be undergoing an interview with radio station KLFM. On Thursday evening (JULY 16) at 7 pm Barry will be performing a warm-up gig at The Woolpack pub, King's Lynn (no under-18s). And on Friday 23 July he will be appearing live to the world atop the fourth plinth in Tralgar Square, London, England. Good on you Baz!

FRAMING THE UNDERGROWTH

I'm increasingly interested in Landscape. Near my Art Factory Studio, South Norwich, this place sign lost its function as a sign but has become a frame for the underlying undergrowth of the hedge, the blossom forced to become part of the 'frame' rather than the 'picture.' This is like a metaphor for the work I am trying to pursue.

Poundland - Eat Your Heart Out!

Around Norwich, my favourite stall is Pete's. He is obviously involved in house clearances and/or unsold auction lots. Once he's sorted out the valuables, Pete loads up boxes for car boots. From these boxes punters can buy a single item for 20p (no, not a rare blank one!) or fill a bag for £1! And I love to fill a bag. Look, all this for a quid. Eat your heart out Poundland!

Earlham Road Culture

There's a small run down shopping centre on Earlham Road, Norwich, this tired Modernist sculpture at its centre. Looks sad and old. No wonder postmodernism looks possible...

Tony Blair, Tow Bar Protector

A tow bar cover - or has his self-importance suddenly exploded?

Maximize Vehicle for Car Booting

Here's a lesson in economy (that other economy): utilise your car for selling, any which way.

PYO Raspberries

You can't beat PYO, within walking distance of the city.

The Joys of 'Fresh'

Yum.

Self Portrait

EBAY-ING

I am busy selling and buying on EBAY. Go there and tap 'Mallin' in and you'll see what I'm selling.

I am learning a lot through the process - not just 'selling' but history too....

Independent For Norwich North?

The anti-war civil liberties campaigner Craig Murray is standing as an independent candidate in the July 23rd Norwich North By Election, caused by Dr. Ian Gibson's resignation (having been pushed from the cliff).

Find out more about Craig Murray's campain here http://www.putanhonestman.org/

Spare 20 pence, please

I mean, spare a 20 pence piece. The Royal Mint, as you probably know, produced 20p pieces without a date on them and are recalling the blanks for a £50 reward for each one. So, we've all been scrabbling through new change for the reward. Well, there seem to be bigger rewards for sellers are offering these single 20p blanks for thousands of pounds on EBay!

Worse, EBay sellers have been offering ordinary 20p pieces for sale and they're being bought for hundreds of pounds! Each seller offers a disclaimer - "these are dated 20p's" - but such is the media hype the gullible are taken in. Often on EBay a poor drawing is signed by Picasso - no, not that Picasso - the one who spells his name Piccaso - and there are buyers...

It's a mad world my masters! 20p won't buy you anything but the coin could line your nest for an age!

Hot Washing 4 The Olympics?

Lying has become a matter of language. Instead of calling for "the truth," politicians call for "greater transparency," which can mean anything you want it to be but usually means today: done without obviously lying.

When politicians recently published their redacted expenses details, the blacked out elements of those details were, in the view of the politicians, to protect third parties' data protection. However, as full publication in the Telegraph illuminated, such redaction was a means of with holding information from the public - a means of lying.

Hot Washing is probably a very old practice which maybe made very new soon. All will depend on the level of transparency. Today our PM announded that "nought percent growth" is growth, not stagnation or nothing in the bowl. He cannot afford (politically, not economically) to tell the truth for he and Mr Mandelson have already written the story of growth, which must be adhered to in words if not in reality.

Hot Washing has been taking place in Westminster. No, there hasn't been a hosing down of politicians. Rather, the borough of Westminster has used hot washing to clean the streets. Nothing wrong with that, is there? But when they speak of cleaning, it is another cleansing they maybe after, for hot washing is spraying the streets so that the homeless cannot sleep on wet pavements, in wet clothes, with wet meagre possessions. Hot washing may not yet be an accepted practice of removing the homeless from city streets but it is a growing fear among homeless rough sleepers.

Now, who would you believe: homeless drunks and drug addicts? Or our politicians? Mmm, I now can't believe a word our politcians tell us...

The fear that hangs over London's rough sleepers is the 2012 Olympics. Prior to Olympics in other countries there have been terrible human rights abuses of the homeless and the poor in removing them from the gaze of spectators. Could this happen in England?