EDL at it again!

So! The EDL were at it again. They were angry about all the immigrants you see, taking their jobs and just generally being not British. The very presence of the EDL angered the anti fascists who turned out in even greater numbers, although being that there were only 20 or so of the EDL that's not saying much.  This of course meant that Wales had to donate it's entire police force to help keep everyone safe by locking down College Green essentially turning it into a makeshift prison yard and charging protesters with lines of horses.

It was all over pretty quickly to be fair and the police managed to avoid a potential 'Carry On' film by directing the Bristol naked bike ride to the otherside of town. Ooo matron!

A nice view over Bristol

Here's a drawing of a couple enjoying the view over Bristol from the top of one of it's landmarks; Cabot Tower.

Tipi tents in Queens Square

A couple of weeks ago a tipi village was erected in Queen's square Bristol. It was part of the 'Eat Drink Bristol Fashion' event which I guess is now going to be an annual event. It consists of a tipi Tapas bar made up of a series of inter-connected tipis, a series of stages and a market. They showed live cooking demonstrations as well as local musical talent.

It's a good natured event in the day; the tipis make a wonderful space to be in, but true to Bristol fashion it does tend to get rather messy in the evening which isn't really my bag. Each to their own I guess.

I chose to draw them erecting the tipis because that was when I had the opportunity to draw it. The seagulls are there to foretell the nature of the event that is to come and also to balance out the composition. It was surrounded by a wire fence but chose to omit that because I felt it would make the image too complex.

Tree protest

Bristol City Council has started on a new metro system that will cut through green space out towards Frenchay, getting the local eco-warriors up in arms. Rigging up a network of tarps and ropes people have been sleeping in the canopy for several nights.

The structures were really quite impressive, cocoon like. It's a feat of endurance that they are sleeping up there on these cold, blowy winter days. Speaking to a chap from the Feed Bristol group that grow produce in the surrounding allotments it appears to me that it would be a shame to lose the land. The arrangement seems very professional, utilising big poly tunnels that grow produce for many different causes.

Corn street at night, what a sight.

Here's the final image of Corn street at night. Generally pleased with it but feel the characters lack, well, character. I'd like it be a bit more like a Hogarth in technical ability but I'm pleased that it is comparable in principle.

There are plenty of subtle phallic references, the warm inviting glow of the bar with the dominating scale of the building I hope says a lot about how drinking culture manipulates and controls the masses. It's big business in it's worst guise.

 I thought it would be fun to show the progress of this one as I was afraid of putting the brush to the page for months, and you'll see why.

 

 From the preliminary sketch that you can see earlier in the blog I produced an under drawing that I was pleased with then after months of contemplation I applied the first wash which turned out like this...

AHHHHHH what have I done!? almost completely lost the under drawing. But alas with a lot of work I managed to bring it back together and feel proud for being so bold.

Maccy D's

An initial attempt to do a series of portraits sat in a Macdonalds in Bedminster, Bristol. It took a while to find a good spot to draw from but I managed a few. Not entirely the characters I was hoping for but it's a start.

 

Free Palestine! and Down With Tesco

So I set off to do some drawing on Saturday and stumbled across a protest heading past the Hippodrome. It was a group of Palestinians marching through town and with pen in hand I tagged along. They were stopping traffic but moving along before people got too annoyed, just enough to get themselves noticed. Quite an effective strategy it thought.

 

They were mostly Palestinians but with the usual token paranoid British protester who would stop and shout at every supermarket we came across, he even started on a G4S van claiming they built torture chambers. Sigh.

 

It was a small group but they really knew how to get attention and when to draw the line so good luck to them.  FREE PALESTINE!!!

Why I can't rap.

I was just in the shower pondering various things when I suddenly came to realise the reason why I can't rap. I realised that in order to be able to rap you have to be deeply ingrained in a specific culture, to understand it enough to be able to rap about it. Don't get me wrong this isn't me lamenting over my failure to break into a career in rap, on the contrary I think it's one of my best attributes. For example a rapper I heard once rapped 'mr politician on your television..something something.. all those lies' obviously he's from a politically left culture and understands it well enough to put it to words coherently and sincerely. But has he ever met a politician? Is he talking about all politicians? does he really understand the politician? I'd like to believe I'm in a better position to do so and I'm glad about that. but alas I myself have nothing to rap about. You could say I could rap about being a Barista but I don't have a big beard, arms covered in tattoos, I can make good coffee but I'm not culturally ingrained in it. I spread myself culturally thin, take that as you will but I thinks it's a positive thing. Rappers you could say are on the inside reaching out but I like to be on the outside reaching in, giving them all a high five perhaps.

A quick sketch

Here is a quick sketch I did of a corner building on Corn St. It's a preparatory sketch for a larger drawing documenting the drinking culture on Bristol city centre. I think having the pub as a monumental back drop for the figures will make for a strong composition. It was drawn on a Friday night in situ at around 10pm. The kebab man was suspicious.

Remembrance Day Sunday

 A little late but here is a drawing of the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph in Bristol. It's an event I think every one should go to. Seeing accounts of the war in films and in museums doesn't quite bring to life the reality of war, but seeing the people who actually fought in WW2 does. It always astounds me how strong the bonds are between them and their comrades and re-affirms my feeling that great suffering creates great love and that one cannot exist without the other.

An interesting thing to note is that a young man in a Hawaiian shirt and bright comedy sunglasses strolled through the crowd on his way back from a party totally unaffected by the weight of the event. Is that what they died for? I hope not.

Musing on morality

I was just pondering a question of morality and thought I'd write it down to see if it makes sense. It stems from an argument I have with my dad on whether morality can change with circumstance or whether it has a finite set of standards that dont change. I believe that there is a core moral standard and that we as a society are always moving towards it. I was thinking that if a person accpets a religion they are in essence accepting a set of moral standards set by an omnopotent being. However as far as I can determin these religious guide lines can become out dated (such as christian views on gay marriage) and this serves as evidence that A: the religion is not governed by omnipotence and B: that the previous moral standard was wrong. The very nature of the religion implies that we are looking for moral guidance and direction and so I would suggest that things like drug abuse, dictators, petty crime, war are humanities ebbs and flows on a meandering river that will eventually lead to an ocean of, umm, neutrality?

The Great Beyond

What is the drive that encourages us to reach beyond our day to day existence in what is an ever increasing atheistic society and how do we attain these sensations of breaking the shackles of everyday life. Why cant we take the world at face value? What is the biological mechanism for this desire?

It's seems to me that Humans thrive in chaos, we yearn for it. We seem to enjoy the fear of things that are bigger than ourselves. Perhaps it is a run off from the days when we lived in the wild, where a predator could be round any corner and our environment will constantly change around us, ever upsetting the balance.

Youth dance group

There's a youth dance group that practises by the big silver ball in millennium square. I like seeing people doing things like that.

It seems like millennium square was slow to blossom but its slowly coming into its own, you can see people practise various pursuits or watching the big tele. I think its a nice vision of society where we don't all have t.vs but instead there is just one big community tv that we can all watch together.

Trains cranes and paranoia

One of the things I like about Bristol is that we have taken efforts to protect and re-engage our heritage. Looking down corn street and the harbour some of the architecture and industrial age machinery are a thing to behold. Its good that we can still ride a steam train down the harbour and go on the old boats.

To stand by the M Shed a stark contrast between the eras emerges. You have the industrial age, a time when people worked or starved often put to work in dangerous environments since childhood. Then the modern era where we have paranoid parents wrapping their children up in bubbles who will grow up largely unprepared for the larger world until university and even then their character is dubious.

Anyway! go Bristol for not selling away our history!

Weston-Super-Mare Kite festival

Kites! ah yes, what fun! I went to Weston's first kite festival on Saturday. It was windy, a little too windy and I don't think some of the kites could fly. There were kite buggies, a giant kite turbine ad much more. The live commentator was having a hard time finding things to say and often would break conversation to remark ' OH! he's fallen over, is he ok? yes hes fine".

I found myself watching videos of kite based festivals in Asia and the middle east, in India for example during the festival of Basant the whole city would go onto their roofs and fly little fighting kites all day. so many that it looked like a swarm of bees over the city.

People really like kites! Maybe its the feeling of control, the breaking of our earthly shackles? I guess they're just really cool.

Picton street fayer

Time for the Picton street fayer again. it was a good natured event, the music finish at a reasonable time due to it being a residential area and when it finished the eco warrior types got to litter picking which was really good to see, so proactive, it was awesome!

 

At one point as the music and dancing was in full swing the crowd suddenly reacted with joy to the sight of an old lady appearing in a window above the crowd to have a dance.

420 legalise cannabis event in Hyde Park

On Saturday the 20th April I went to Hyde park to attend an event to promote the legalisation of Cannabis. I was hoping for a large event with a stage and important/informative speakers but instead I found myself sat with a group of people on the margins of the park smoking weed, the ambiance permeated by the music emanating from those 'sound systems' that I have come to loath other the years.

You could easily fall into the trap of saying the people were annoying, mostly young kids with up turned caps and that gangster vibe but lets give it some perspective. If it were an event where people came to drink and party the event could easily get of hand and you can only imagine the raised tempers but this event was calm and largely unobtrusive. I mean come on the only concern on their minds was probably where to get a bag of crisps and some water right?

Thatcher party

ARRRGH I'm so angry, I didn't go to the party but I find it an offence to humanity that it happened and think it really show the arrogance of these radical f@*ks. Fine you don't have to agree with her politics but celebrating her death shows that your lifestyle isn't a beacon for whats right in society. Its the implication that they believe their opinion is the right one, arrogance! take a look at the indymedia report on it, its full of rhetoric just like the main stream media maybe even more.

http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/article/731883

They try to emphasise the good nature of the event but lets put it this way, one mans gold is another mans trash. They say that sound systems appeared and people were in good spirits *pissed* and if it wasn't for the establishment it would have been peaceful. Ignoring the fact that they are keeping people awake who don't share their opinion and have to get up to work the next day. One person in the comments expresses that he was kept awake by it and disagreed with the party saying it was local residence complaining that alerted the police to it. The party caused the problem but they are off in their little world where they think everybody wants to drink and listen to sound systems without responsibility.

Selfish arrogant bastards.

p.s I'm not pro Thatcher I'm anti twat.

Alcohol

Following on from the series on the drunks in the bearpit I thought it would be logicall to document the drinking culture in Bristol, so I took my pen for a night on the town, hoping for inspiration. I have to say its the first time i'd been out in Bristol on a Friday or Saturday night and it is a real eye opener.

To be frank, it's a bastardisation of liberty. I can't tell whether it's because they feel strong or weak. Regardless it creates conflict, it's not just an innocent bit of fun, it puts mens egos in conflict with each other and it reduces people to a sexual commodity. That's no foundation for a civilised society.

Ofcourse theres always a way to rationalise it for yourself. 'Go on my son!'

Greek anti fascists

Happened apon a group of protesters, an odd mix of Greek anti fascist and Bristol Health Services.