PROJECT BROKEN 11 - 2A

Forward to the past

BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 2B

Another day

BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 2C

THIEF

You stole this from my pocket

You stole this from my shop

You stole this as I woke

Because you had stolen into my sleep

You stole this from my flag ship

And flew my flag

And skippered my hardship

You stole this squib from my pockets

And showed it to the people

I didn’t want to read it

You stole my favourite words

Which has given me heart burn

You stole trouble

You stole bubble and stubble

You stole huddle, cuddle, double, mumble and juggle, and

You stole wobble

You stole “stroke my stubble”

What can I put in the window now?

What can I buy from the shop?

What can I take to my dreams?

What can I wake up to?

What can I hang from my mast?

You stole this from my pocket.

BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 1A

The year ahead looks like this

BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 1B

From one year to another

BROKEN PROJECT 11 - 1C

ACLE STRAIGHT

Not just the Acle Straight

Today is flat

It should be a Tuesday

Or a Wednesday

Because today is flat

A flat Friday

My thoughts are flat

Even my cap -

The one with the flap -

My Elevenses are flat

Even the flapjack

Which some jack

Has turned flat

I’ve a flat ear

From an infection

What?

This year'll be flat.

Llamas at Banham Zoo Today

Colourful characters to have a good conversation with... Photo by Colin Shingler

Bored Bald Eagle Waiting for the Bus

Bank holidays - the buses run slow... Photo by Colin Shingler

Giraffe at Feeding Time

Photo by Colin Shingler

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Morning preparations in full flow...

MILESTONES JAZZ, JANUARY 2nd GIG

THE MINGUS PROJECT KICK-OFF 2011 AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

This month’s concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 2 January kicks off its programme of concerts for 2011 with the return of a seven-piece band devoted to the music of a jazz legend - The Mingus Project.

Composer, bandleader and double bassist Charles Mingus (1922-1979) was one of the most innovative and influential figures in modern jazz, producing soulful, exciting and volatile music, reflecting the social and political issues that gave his work its bite.

His writing redrew the boundaries of modern jazz in the 1950’s and ‘60’s and his own band included many of the era’s finest players.

It was with this in mind that The Mingus Project was formed in 1989 to celebrate his legacy and inspiration while also featuring a selection of East Anglia’s finest jazz musicians.

"The great thing about Mingus’s music is in the challenge of playing a wide variety of styles - from New Orleans jazz to avant-garde, sometimes all within one song - while always keeping the feeling of the blues at it’s centre," says group founder and alto-saxophonist Simon Youngman.

The septet will be performing some of Mingus’s most well-known songs like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Fables Of Faubus and Boogie Stop Shuffle as well one or two neglected gems.

The Project’s front line of four horns create a wealth of colours and moods with a big band flavour so typical of Mingus’s music while the piano, bass and drums of the rhythm section chatter and swing intensively.

The band’s full line-up features Simon Youngman (alto/soprano sax), Trevor Rowland (tenor sax), Ben Higham (trumpet/tuba), Dave Amis (trombone), Tom Harris (piano), Ivars Galenieks (double bass) and Cath Evans (drums).

Listen to the music of Charles Mingus by visiting 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 milestonesjazz@hotmail.co.uk or (01502) 568684 for more info and help in entering the building.

If you need to reply to this message or any others from 'Milestones' then please contact milestonesjazz@hotmail.co.uk

CHRISTMAS STARTS HERE: TIP 1

With so much snow around - it's time to defrost the fridge! Put all your fridge items in the sink and cover with snow. Meanwhile, slowly defrost your fridge. Sorted!

That time of year...

It's busy, busy, busy here at Rupert's Blog. We're emphasizing our open and transparent operations in the coming year (what you see is what you get).

I will personally be checking all the links on the right hand side bar, complete 'new blogs' and changes for the New Year - and getting ready for The Big Project which I'll be starting here on January 1st.

On January 14th I'll be celebrating six years of blogging! As you can see, we've cleaned up the office for the occasion.

Catch You Laters!

SHADOW IN THE SNOW

GRACE PETRIE - THE VOICE OF THE NEW MOVEMENT

Grace Petrie is fast becoming the voice - the song - of The New Movement - the Young the Poor, the Workers, the Women, the Disabled, the Old - coming together to fight the Conservative-Liberal Democrat assault on the working class. Hear her songs on YouTube

END OF LIB DEMS

Following DAY-X-3 students demonstrations against the trebling of tuition fees and the slashing of the HE teaching budget by 80 percent, the House of Commons majority of just 21 votes finds the Coalition fraying at the edges just six months after the General Election. We do well to remember that the Poll Tax became law but the protests and 'can't pay, won't pay' campaign not only got rid of that unfair tax but Thatcher as well.

Likewise, within less than six months, the Liberal Democrats have nose dived from their Spring in Power to their Long, Long Winter. No one will ever trust a Liberal Democrat MP or councillor again: to pledge, on principle, to the electorate that you are the Party to defend students, only to smack those students in the mouth, is far worse than any deceptive adultery - for these students got at least 13 Lib Dems elected on the back of the pledge! It is an absolute betrayal of the electorate - so what purpose the General Election, many students are asking?


Indeed, far, far more democratic are the local Assemblies of students, academics and workers flourishing in this New Student Movement!


The Lib Dems are 8% in the polls and falling. They won't ever return to power. Millionaires Cable and Clegg will most likely join the Conservative Party to cling to power. Next May, they're to hold a Referendum on Proportional Representation (PR). NOBODY will vote for PR, however worthy, because the Lib Dems are for it!


The end of the Liberal Democrats? Just a Rupert's Blog madness? No, this is what the editor of The Liberal is saying too! Meanwhile, Simon Hughes MP is pleading with party members not to leave the Lib-Dems for Labour. I'm just stating the obvious, based on recent history.


It's a tale of two sides in East Anglia: only the rather smug looking Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, voted FOR the fees hike! Simon Wright, Lib Dem MP for South Norwich correctly voted AGAINST the Con-Dem government after UEA students confronted him.

Lib Dem Norman Lamb MP for North Norfolk probably feels his seat is very safe in this Tory heartland, with such a low Labour vote. However, yesterday a sixth form student at Paston College asked him: "Are you a Conservative now?" A brilliant put down - because HE IS A TORY NOW! Norman Lamb can only survive as a Tory - literally - or a Tory will take his seat! Become what you already are Norman - a Tory!

NO FACE, NO BOOK, JUST A STORY

I've left Facebook and other 'social network' sites. I can be contacted via email rupertmallin@gmail.com

My Miss From Diss

I was reading about the Singing Postman only the other day... waiting at the Dentist's. And today I was in Diss and "My Miss From Diss" popped into my mind. Allan Smethurst had a short, rocky time at the top of the hit parade and is best known for "Hev Yew Gotta Loight, Boy?" However, one of my Signing Postman favourites is "Hev The Bottom Dropped Out!"

That reminds me, it's the final of X Factor tonight. Still, I reckon The Singing Postman, who died in 2002, will be remembered for longer than the X Factor contestants...

Truth and Secrets in A Democracy

If we live in a democracy, telling the Truth should not only be easy but an absolute of democracy (for the people, by the people). I don't think we live in a democracy but a halfway house in which everything which makes life worth living (a caring, diverse society) has to be fought for. We fought against slavery and child labour; we fought for the right to vote; we suffered two world wars and finally got a welfare state, the NHS and an element of comprehensive education. At the same time, our leaders stockpiled nuclear weapons, led us to wars and thought every which way how they could claw back what we had gained through struggle.

Who would have thought that the political elite of the 1960s generation - many of whom enjoyed free University educations (fees and living expenses all free) - would now turn on the next generation to pay through the nose for their own education. Worse, our teenagers will have to pay for climate meltdown, growing poverty and more war. Meanwhile, the rich grow ever richer as poverty becomes an absolute 99p Shop Industry.

Now our ruling class in the US and the UK are out to smash those using the Internet to expose the secrecy of the West by leaking the information we should have been told - if this were a democracy. God bless the Guardian and other liberal newspapers for publishing the Wikileaks, exposing the truth of what we never voted for. If you want to defend Wikileaks you can here by signing the petition.

New Girl Band 'Kiss Off' Making A Storm

'Kiss Off' is a new girl band with attitude. Catch them in London in the new year.

A Poem For Our Times by Norwich Poet John Brown

WHEN (Rebel-Revolt-Resist) a poem by Norwich Poet John Brown is an anthem for our times...

Liittle boxes

Here is one of the poetry and art boxes I've been developing and selling. The new series, 'Out of the Machine,' are children of 'The Poetry Vending Machine' boxes five artists and five poets created in collaboration for cigarette vending machines, originated through InPrint.

Now I am creating poetry and art in boxes just 75 mm by 60 mm alone and increasingly I'm looking to incorporate a theatrical element within them.

In this box, "Your smile denies," I have used handmade paper, print and object, together with an extract of the poem and the poem in full (rolled and tied). Beneath the poem there is...

...the gun

Another box

In the same small box is a recent 'theatrical' scene set against a 'Heather Letter' written over 20 years ago. I only wish we lived in a different, better world today...

Preparing For The Big Demo, Norwich

Well over 1,000 people marched in Norwich today against the ConDem and Council cuts, which are a direct attack on working class people. It was the largest march in the city for a generation. The diversity of those attending was amazing - workers from every service, Gay Pride, Stop the War, The Green Party and even Labour Party branches. Most importantly, there were activists from the recent University of East Anglia occupation.

This has to be the beginning of the campaign, with the prospect of students and workers at grassroots coming together to stop this onslaught of the Welfare State, Public Services, Schools and Universities, and our NHS.

Listening To The Speeches

Speeches from anti-cuts campaigners, Andrew Murray (Stop The War), union organisers and others.

Every Kind Of Placard

The Bear Cuts