Alan Lodge's Blog

Might turn out to be a ‘biblical sky shot’. Then again, black cloud heading this way … How am i doing this? i hear you ask,dear readers.

Am waiting for the kettle to boil for a coffee. Just time for another spliff, before I try and capture the bursting rays, from behind the clouds.

Camera, loaded with Fuji Provia 100asa Colour Transparency film, and tripod set up, with a groovy view before me!

just down from Kinder Scout and Mam Tor in the Peak District National Park.

Right now, I’m sitting at the side of the forest track, with a view over the lake.

hello each. Well, this is from me to my blog! Amazing really. Am parked up at side of the Ladybower Reservoir in the Derwent Valley.

So, now we’ve had the conference, we can see that the environment, is safe in our representatives hands!

So, that alright then. No need to worry!!

I’m old enough now, to remember a lot of the progress of these meetings. The series of attempts, to save the planet, from ourselves.

The older I get, the more of an Anarchist I become. I mean it!

Representative Democracy, is a good idea. If it worked. But it doesn’t.

Like Tony Benn, I can think of not a single idea that my representatives have had, that then they have gone out and pursued in all our interests, with our consent. The whole thing ALWAYS tends to the perceived self interests of those ‘in the club’.

My representatives have usually been dragged through a hedge backwards, after civil insurrection in the street, make them pay some attention. Then times later, a much ‘watered down’ idea of law or action emerges, that is next to useless for our needs.

Sorry, but that is my understanding of politics for you!

* United Nations Conference on the Human Environment – Stockholm 1972

* United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – Rio 1992

* United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – Kyoto 1997

* World Summit on Sustainable Development – Johannesburg 2002

Much of this ‘progress’ is described in this piece:

Chronicle Essay – The Road from Stockholm to Johannesburg By Lars-Göran Engfeldt

http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2002/issue3/0302p14_essay.html

Good God! Is it not time to recognize that sustainable development has become a matter of survival, which must be given the same priority as traditional security policy. The landmark agreements from Rio show the way, but the key problem before Johannesburg is that implementation is seriously lagging. The scientific community tells us that we have perhaps 20 to 25 years to rectify the situation. The widespread insight that business as usual is not an option is inevitably tempered by our incapability to take long-term decisions in our own interest as human beings. Perhaps this is starting to change. Experiences from international negotiations over this thirty-year period give a perspective to the complex challenges of today, which could be useful to negotiators and decision makers.

Some say it will take a catastrophy, for politics to take notice. Well, we have one of those every day!

However, I think it will the loss of thousands of lives, with the clear and obvious potential, of the loss of thousand more, here in the Developed West before any of this gets the priorities that these issues deserve. Shame and idiotic, but me thinks, true!

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Linkages Portal to the Johannesburg Summit 2002:

http://www.iisd.ca/wssd/portal.html

Links to further summit resources:

http://www.iisd.ca/wssd/links.html

World Summit on Sustainable Development:

http://www.earthwire.org/wssd/

Daily Summit Blog:

http://www.dailysummit.net/

The Earth Times – Daily Web Edition:

http://www.earthtimes.org/

Notes earlier in this blog at start of conference:

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80684273

Watching the news, and reading the paper, people seem quite disappointed in the outcomes of each of these conference. But, really, I ask you, did you expect it to be any different?

My WAP site been noted

Just got this in my guestbook, nice to get a note like this, and that folks find it useful……

Dear Tash Looked at your WAP site on my Nokia 7110 after getting the address off the latest Schnews and was really impressed, particularly by the legal/arrest info. I have been planning to do something similar – a WAP bust card – for about a month and have been learning WML. I’m particularly into putting info about s60 orders and of course the new Terrorism Act on the WAP bustcard. While the network against the terrorism act is planning to do traditional paper bust cards about the TA, I’ve always felt something more than just paper or indeed the web is needed to communicate to people about it. Don’t want to reinvent the wheel or steal your idea (even if I came up with it independently, albeit later!) on a useful use of WAP so I decided to send you this message. My plan was to have a site with just a bust card for people at risk of having their rights abused, with separate sections for party goers, protesters, normal young people etc. and separate sections on search, arrest, common offences, etc. anyway looking forward to hearin

Raif UK ralph@blagged.freeserve.co.uk

Surveillance – oh god, yet more……. !!

When I became interested in photography, dealing with ‘minority groups’, associating with various folks involved with dissent. I’d not in my wildest dreams, thought this would lead me to having any / much involvement with surveillance. Silly me!! Little did I know then.

On my main site, many of my readers, will be familiar with the surveillance sections including: All about my ‘BIG BROTHER’ http://tash.gn.apc.org/watched1.htm & the photo – gallery, I’d prepared, to try and show you, the scale of all this, when applied to me and mine. Check out this work, starting at: http://tash.gn.apc.org/surv_20.htm.

The Guardian this weekend, is starting a series, describing much of the ‘machine’ that I, and others, find so disturbing.

The search / listing page, for all this , can be seen from: 21 articles match your search “big brother”

On of the main authors of this piece, Simon Davies is a visiting Prof at the LSE, but is also Director of Privacy International.

For my work on some of these issues: http://tash.gn.apc.org/big_brother.htm

In recognition of this work, received a ‘Winston’ [ a Winny! ] from Privacy International, at the 1998 ‘Big Brother’ Awards. The citation reads: “Alan Lodge is a photographer who has spent more than a decade raising awareness of front-line police surveillance activities, particularly the endemic practice of photographing demonstrators and activists”.

Now, surveillance of communications / internet matter, proceeds apace. Have recently heard of the activities of the companies, in keeping an eye [ or many ], on some of our activities ……. Get a load of this!

Crack any password!

http://dieselprods.com/daniel/

In their FAQ’s at: http://208.56.75.101/daniel/p4.html

they say “what is the monitoring service?

we will monitor anyone online for you recording all of their internet activity including emails,chat conversations, and web activity. sending you daily or weekly reports.

email us for details”

also, testimonials: http://208.56.75.101/daniel/p3.html

all of our products and services are guaranteed.

For proof send us an email with the word ‘proof’ in the text.

daniel@dieselprods.com

well, for both these offers of proof of their services, I’ve just emailed them, as requested. It might be an interesting reply. I’ll keep you posted!!

&

Previously, I’d discussed these folks services:

Spyware Trojan sends info back, on internet activity on a ‘target’

http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/eBlaster_Windows/

“eBlaster records their e-mails, chats, instant messages, Web sites visited and keystrokes typed — and then automatically sends this recorded information to your own e-mail address,”

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80912478

Conversation with Chris Stewart

In addition to the previous posts, I thought I would tell you of this, as well ………. A Question & Answer session, with the man.

http://www.daviskidd.com/html/interview2.html

Driving over lemons an optimist in Andalucia read by the author:

Chris Stewart

Have just borrowed this Penguin Audio-Book 3 cd set, from Nottingham City Library. Parrot in the Pepper Tree was the Radio4 Book of the Week last week, so enjoyed it, that I had researched this chaps work, a little more. So, have now discovered “Driving over Lemons ”

For your interest, you can see details of Driving Over Lemons on Amazon

The plot: When English sheep shearer Chris Stewart (once a drummer for Genesis) bought an isolated farmhouse in the mountains outside of Granada, Spain, he was fully aware that it didn’t have electricity, running water, or access to roads. But he had little idea of the headaches and hilarity that would follow (including scorpions, runaway sheep, and the former owner who won’t budge). He also had no idea that his memoir about southern Spain would set a standard for literary travel writing.

This rip-roaringly funny book about seeking a place in an earthy community of peasants and shepherds gives a realistic sense of the hassles and rewards of foreign relocation. Part of its allure stems from the absence of rose-colored glasses, mainly Stewart’s refusal to merely coo about the piece of heaven he’s found or to portray all residents as angels. Stewart’s hilarious and beautifully written passages are deep in their honest perceptions of the place and the sometimes, xenophobic natives, whose reception of the newcomers ranges from warm to gruff.

After reading about struggles with animal husbandry, droughts, flooding, and such local rituals as pig slaughters and the rebuilding of bridges, you may not wish to live Chris Stewart’s life. But you can’t help but admire him and his wife, Ana, for digging out a niche in these far-flung mountains, for successfully befriending the denizens, and for so eloquently and comically telling the truth.

BBC Radi4 have done a ‘feature’ on Chris Stewart.. Starts at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/discover/archive_interviews/44_stewart1.shtml

Also, some interviews, that you can hear, using Real Player:

Check out these at:

1

2

3

I’d gone off, earlier in the blog, about Parrot in the Pepper Tree. Another work by Chris Stewart. Please check out at:

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80863370

It is possible, dear reader, that you wonder why I’m going of about this work. Well, I’ve visited the Area, a couple of years ago, and declare it to be ‘magical’. I have a family connection there also.

My son Sam, lives at El Morrion, near Orgiva, Granada. He’s bee there a few years now. After the passing of laws in Britain, outlawing many of the things I and my family have always enjoyed. The law applied to Gatherings, Festival and Raves / Parties, is a particularly obnoxious piece of work. I refer to the passing of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

So many of my friends [and family] fucked off abroad after its passing. The south of Spain, was one of the main locations that people went to. They could have stayed here, of course. But, if you want to life the life, well, you have to leave.

I’ve made a website, to say something of the area and the things that interest English New Age Travellers / Ravers and my son Sam, in particular. Please check out at:

http://members.fortunecity.com/alanlodge/orgiva/frameset.htm

Will be moving this site in time, so somewhere with less advertising… will post, when I do.

Dave Gorman’s Webcam

well, this chap is a comedian.

Dave Gorman’s Webcam

I really enjoyed his last series on the BBC little while ago, called.’My Name Is Dave Gorman’

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_07_07_tash_lodge_archive.html#78897923

Latest show, is an ‘experiment’ on Astrology. Check out:

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80840739

I’d never heard of this chap, before a couple of months ago. But now here’s famous! Well, famous enough to get a mention in the Guardain ONline Section,’shorts’ at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,785878,00.html

On a chain of beautiful deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following people are stranded:

Two Italian men and one Italian woman

Two French men and one French woman

Two German men and one German woman

Two Greek men and one Greek woman

Two English men and one English woman

Two Bulgarian men and one Bulgarian woman

Two Japanese men and one Japanese woman

Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman

Two Irish men and one Irish woman

Two American men and one American woman

One month later, on these absolutely stunning deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following things have occurred:

One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a menage a trois.

The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman.

The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

The two Bulgarian men took one look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming to another island.

The two Japanese have faxed Tokyo and are waiting for instructions.

The two Chinese men have set up a pharmacy/liquor store/restaurant/laundry, and have gotten the woman pregnant in order to supply employees for their store.

The two Irish men divided the island into North and South and set up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets somewhat foggy after a few liters of coconut whiskey. However, they’re satisfied because the English aren’t having any fun.

The two American men are contemplating suicide, because the American woman will not shut up and complains relentlessly about her body, the true nature of feminism, what the sun is doing to her skin, how she can do anything they can do, the necessity of fulfillment, the equal division of household chores, how sand and palm trees make her look fat, how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her nicer than they do, and how her relationship with her mother is the root cause of all her problems, and why didn’t they bring a goddamn cell phone so they could call 911 and get them all rescued off this godforsaken deserted island in the middle of friggin’ nowhere so she can get her nails done and go shopping…

On a chain of beautiful deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following people are stranded:

Two Italian men and one Italian woman

Two French men and one French woman

Two German men and one German woman

Two Greek men and one Greek woman

Two English men and one English woman

Two Bulgarian men and one Bulgarian woman

Two Japanese men and one Japanese woman

Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman

Two Irish men and one Irish woman

Two American men and one American woman

One month later, on these absolutely stunning deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following things have occurred:

One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a menage a trois.

The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman.

The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

The two Bulgarian men took one look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming to another island.

The two Japanese have faxed Tokyo and are waiting for instructions.

The two Chinese men have set up a pharmacy/liquor store/restaurant/laundry, and have gotten the woman pregnant in order to supply employees for their store.

The two Irish men divided the island into North and South and set up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets somewhat foggy after a few liters of coconut whiskey. However, they’re satisfied because the English aren’t having any fun.

The two American men are contemplating suicide, because the American woman will not shut up and complains relentlessly about her body, the true nature of feminism, what the sun is doing to her skin, how she can do anything they can do, the necessity of fulfillment, the equal division of household chores, how sand and palm trees make her look fat, how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her nicer than they do, and how her relationship with her mother is the root cause of all her problems, and why didn’t they bring a goddamn cell phone so they could call 911 and get them all rescued off this godforsaken deserted island in the middle of friggin’ nowhere so she can get her nails done and go shopping…

Here’s a story.

The owner comes up to him, in a threatening manner and says:

Get off my land!

I’ll fight you for it then..!!

At the end of the English Civil War, (The 1640s), people began to realise that after their sacrifice in fighting that war,

they had replaced one bunch of uncaring bastards with another lot….

well, that’s politics and war for you, nothing new there then!!!

I see paralells with today that are uncanny, even scary, at times. The people pitched against an unrepresentative state and aristocracy. The Church acting rather like the present day multinationals, and a lot of people who just wanted to be left alone, without interference fo church or state, on land that they respected and loved. I have included here, and throughout my site, background info, to give you an idea of what I mean and why I care.

350 years ago now, but a solid example of “DIY culture”, or what!

How then. I don’t think, that much has changed for many of us. Not really. It is about access to land, still.

On the 22nd September, the Countryside Alliance is coming to town. Well, I wont be joining them. But while they’re in town, I’ll be going out to the countryside. A stunt perhaps. there are still thousands who think like I do. Check earlier in my blog at:

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80867277

The True Levellers Standard Advanced:

Or, The State of Community Opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men.

A Declaration to the Powers of England, and to all the Powers of the World, shewing the Cause why the Common People of England have begun, and gives Consent to Digge up, Manure, and Sow Corn upon George-Hill in Surrey; by those that have Subscribed, and thousands more that gives Consent.

Thus begins the statement of the Leveller cause, forwarded, by William Everard and Gerrard Winstanley.

I was not told ANY of this at school. But having discovered the existence of this movement and its consequences. I tell you, it has changed my life, and unlike any religion to me, gives a cause, and reason for existence.

This fight is thousands of years old. Who has got, and who has not!

But 353 years ago now, an argument was made plain after the Civil War. Direct action taken. And the consequences for the world are obvious.

My tribe, squatters, travellers, festivals folks etc etc. are the direct descendents of this.

I went to St Georges Hill, with many friends, to celebrate the 350 year anniversary of their land occupation. I took some fine photographs of the day. Please check out my record at:

http://tash.gn.apc.org/diggers_350.htm

I tell you, to me, this is not history, but very much ‘current affairs’.

Why I’m more than a little confused as to why I was not told ANY of this at school, and , as far as I Know, is still not on the National Curriculum. This needs looking into to!

A Short Digger / Leveller History

The Diggers were a group of agrarian communists who flourished in England in 1649-50 and were led by Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard. The Diggers believed that since the English Civil War had been fought against the King and the landowners, and with Charles I executed, land should then be made available to the poor to cultivate. In April 1649 a group of about 20 men assembled at St. George’s Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the common land. The Diggers’ activities alarmed the Commonwealth government and roused the hostility of local landowners, who were rival claimants to the common lands.

On 16 April 1649 Henry Sanders sent an alarming letter to the Council of State reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables on St. George’s Hill in Surrey. Sanders reported they, the Diggers, had invited “all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes.” and that the Diggers claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. “It is feared they have some design in hand.” The Council of State sent the letter to Lord Fairfax, lord general of the army, along with a dispatch stating:

“By the narrative enclosed your Lordship will be informed of what hath been made to this Council of a disorderly and tumultuous sort of people assembling themselves together not far from Oatlands, at a place called St. George’s Hill; and although the pretence of their being there by them avowed may seem very ridiculous, yet that conflux of people may be a beginning whence things of a greater and more dangerous consequence may grow. Fairfax was then ordered to disperse the group and prevent a repetition of the event.

The Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end of March 1650 their members were driven off the St. George’s Hill. Despite this setback they continued their work on a nearby heath in Cobham. colony was dispersed. In April the Digger movement collapsed when a Parson Platt, the lord of the manor, and several others destroyed the Diggers’ houses, burned their furniture, and scattered their belongings. Platt threatened the Diggers with death if they continued their activity and hired several guards to prevent their return to the heath. Winstanley recorded these events as well as a final defence of the Digger movement.”

Prof. Christopher Hill – Gerard Winstanley: 17th Century Communist at Kingston

24 January 1996. Kingston University

This man is ‘the authority’ on Winstanley and this movement. Please check out his work, starting at: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/cusp/Lectures/Hill.htm

All of this added now, because of the re-showing of ‘Winstanley’, the 1979 film. http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_09_01_tash_lodge_archive.html#81194691

It is worth mentioning another.

An excellent film about the Diggers by Roy Hanney. Check out at

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~royhan/film/

You can see a preview of this film at:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~royhan/film/index2.html#PREVIEW

Land and Freedom

Digger pamphlet by Gerrard Winstanley

A

DECLARATION

FROM THE

Poor oppressed People

OF

ENGLAND,

DIRECTED

To all that call themselves, or are called

Lords of Manors,

Printed in the Year, 1649.

http://www.tlio.demon.co.uk/poor.htm

World Turned Upside Down – song by Leon Rosselson

In 1649

To St George’s Hill

A ragged band they called the Diggers

Came to show the people’s will

They defied the landlords

They defied the laws

They were the dispossessed

Reclaiming what was theirs

‘We come in peace’ they said

‘To dig and sow

We come to work the land in common

And to make the waste land grow

This earth divided

We will make whole

So it can be

A common treasury for all

‘The sin of property

We do disdain

No one has any right to buy and sell

The earth for private gain

By theft and murder

They took the land

Now everywhere the walls

Rise up at their command

‘They make the laws

To chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven

Or they damn us into hell

We will not worship

The God they serve

The God of greed who feeds the rich

While poor men starve

‘We work, we eat together

We need no swords

We will not bow to masters

Or pay rent to the lords

We are free men

Though we are poor’

You Diggers all stand up for glory

Stand up now

From the men of property

The orders came

They sent the hired men and troopers

To wipe out the Diggers claim

Tear down their cottages

Destroy their corn

They were dispersed –

Only the vision lingers on

‘You poor take courage

You rich take care

The earth was made a common treasury

For everyone to share

All things in common

All people one

We come in peace’-

The order came to cut them down

http://cres1.lancs.ac.uk/~esarie/wturned.htm

see my own pages, on the GreenNET site at:

The Levellers and Diggers …… not the rock band!!

http://tash.gn.apc.org/leveller.htm

See earlier entry in my blog, to see that this is very much all still alive.

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80867277

The ‘Countryside Alliance’ [Parson Platts men, are still at it!] so on the 22nd September this year, while they are agitating in London and the cities, about foxhunting, in particular…… I / we will be going out to live on the commons again. Oh, hush, they don’t know this yet……….

This will of course, only be a temporary arrangement, before the ‘troups’ return, and put it all down again 🙂 What’s new!

Winstanley

FilmFour – World Tx 5th sept 2002

Courageous depiction of Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers’ struggle to establish a pre-socialist commune in Cromwell’s Britain. A detailed and dedicated depiction of political idealism by the director Kevin Brownlow.

Winstanley is a sombre historical drama, meticulously researched and as much a testament to the idealism of its director as it is to that of proto-Communist Gerrard Winstanley.

In 1649 Winstanley (Halliwell) and the Diggers set out to establish a commune on reclaimed land in Cobham, Surrey. Though committed to peace they were met with hostility and Winstanley’s ideal for living was doomed to fail. Brownlow presents all the grim realities of life in post Civil War Britain with fanatical attention to detail and everything from footwear to livestock were thoroughly researched. Undoubtedly this is one of the most authentic recreations of the Civil War era ever filmed and the clash between radicalism and the establishment finds a modern parallel in the presence in the cast of Sid Rawle – a leading light in Britain’s anarcho-hippie movement. [Sid Rawle: a fellow hippy and general alternative type. Here he is on the cover of some of my Stonehenge work http://tash.gn.apc.org/solst_0.htm]

Verdict

Shot in stark black and white, this is a brave, grave and deeply rewarding film that combines historical accuracy with the tragic story of a committed activist.

Film Fact

Gerrard Winstanley’s pamphlets in the British Museum were among those studied by Karl Marx as he formulated his own political theory.

Film Quote

When a man hath need of any corn or cattle, take from the next store house he meets with. There shall be no buying or selling, no fairs or markets, but the whole earth shall be the common Treasury for every man. Gerrard Winstanley

More about this film

It’s England, 1649 and with Cromwell in power, the country begins to recover after the Civil War, and the spirit of revolution lives on in a group of poor settlers who are labelled as the Diggers. Former soldier Gerrard Winstanley (Miles Halliwell) leads them, living by the belief that some of the late Monarch’s lands should be forfeited to the people, who will cultivate it and subsist as equals.

Selecting St George’s Hill, Surrey, as their new home, they begin to clear the land, causing resentment among the locals which is fuelled by the local hellfire preacher, John Platt (David Bramley). An army detachment is sent to deal with the Diggers, but its leader, General Lord Fairfax (Jerome Willis), extends tacit sympathy to the cause while remaining scrupulously neutral. His men have no such integrity, and plan breakaway attacks on Winstanley s group. Besieged, isolated and hungry, The Diggers’ resolve begins to fade.

Brownlow’s parallel career in film history and restoration is the key to his approach to filmmaking. In collaboration with production designer Mollo, he offers a painstaking recreation of fact, using Winstanley’s own works as a base. The reliance on detail makes Kubrick look sloppy, down to the rare breed societies who were asked to provide livestock of the time.

The project had been around since 1966, and only accelerated after funding from the British Film Insititute (BFI). A meagre budget prohibited the use of first-choice actors, who were replaced with a team of non-professionals – cast on appearance only – that would enable the production to shoot at weekends over one year.

Consequently it became a labour of love, reflecting that same quality which drove Winstanley’s own actions. But a production that had all the makings of earnest political polemic transpires to become a moving study of radicalism gone awry and there s even room for in-jokes, casting former BFI supremo Stanley Reed as a pedantic, exacting magistrate intent on destroying idealism.

http://www.filmfour.com/filmReview/filmReview.jsp?id=21229

Mac, camera, action!

Following the lead of one of Hollywood’s biggest names, Ben Hammersley produces his debut film – on a laptop

Thursday September 5, 2002

The Guardian

It’s hard to resist the temptation to go old-school with the new toys. Steven Soderbergh certainly can’t. The award-winning film director habitually makes small art-house films between his big studio blockbusters. It’s a form of relaxation for the man whose last few – Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven and Erin Brockovich – have had the large casts, complex crews and expensive equipment expected from a Hollywood blockbuster. For his latest film, however, Soderbergh decided to try something different: shooting the whole thing on equipment you can buy in the high street.

The film, Full Frontal, now on release in the US, was shot on consumer-range MiniDV cameras, and edited with off-the-shelf editing software on a standard Apple Mac. It took only a few weeks, cost relatively little and, in the words of the producer, Scott Kramer, “was an opportunity to get back to the roots of why we all (cast and crew) became involved with movies”. Which is all very well, but surely raises an awkward question. If some fancy Hollywood director with years of experience and a cupboard full of awards can do it, can we? So, in the best Online tradition, we set out to do it.

First up: the gear. MiniDV cameras have been around for years. Most commercial camcorders use the format, recording the video digitally on to tapes a little smaller and fatter than an audio cassette. The cameras range in price, depending on the quality of the lenses, and the number of CCDs. CCDs, or charge-coupled devices, are the light sensors that actually take the pictures.

The more you have, the better the picture quality: cheaper cameras have one CCD, while the more professional use three. Canon lent us a three-CCD XL-1S, the same camera Soderbergh himself used in Full Frontal.

For our second camera, we used my three- year-old, now out-of production Panasonic camcorder. Even its single CCD, however, the picture quality is very good. With three, and good lighting, it’s better than celluloid. When Soderbergh came to transfer everything to film, he added artificial grain to give a less perfect look.

We were just glad ours was in focus. What these two cameras have in common, and the thing that makes digital film making all the easier, is the IEEE 1394 plug, which is the official standard name for a data-transfer technology created by Apple known more commonly as FireWire.

It allows data to be transferred to and from cameras at speeds of up to 400Mbps – fast enough to allow digital video to be played to, and recorded on, a modern computer. FireWire is an Apple trademark. Other manufacturers make compatible equipment, but often call it something else. IEEE 1394 is a bit of a mouthful, so look for such names as “iLink”, or “DV in”.

FireWire is not just for video cameras, either. Many portable hard drives use FireWire, as well as MP3 players, such as Apple’s iPod. Once you have your film on tape you can use the FireWire link to capture it. Depending on your machine, this is either very simple or quite tricky.

Soderbergh used an Apple G4 PowerMac, and we used my Apple PowerBook laptop. You are not restricted to Apple products, as many Windows machines – some from Sony, for example – come with FireWire, too. You can buy FireWire-compatible PCI cards to install in your machine if it does not have one already. But with Windows, you will need to install the correct drivers. Your editing package will most likely have capture software built in.

So, cameras in hand, and laptop gently warming in the study, we went out to make some art. This is not the forum for a breakdown of our filming expertise, and suffice to say that if you were in Kensington Gardens one sunny Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, and three dodgy-looking blokes came up to you with a camera, asking you to talk about

“Shirts and their place in modern society”, we are truly sorry, but your contribution to the genesis of Shirts! The Movie cannot be underestimated. With just 20 minutes of footage, we were already tired, my crew was grumpy and we decided to go and watch the cricket instead. Soderbergh, however, didn’t tire so easily. During the three weeks of production of Full Frontal, he shot more than 50 hours of footage.

This is another of the advantages of making a film in this way. Digital video is not only cheap to use, process, store and edit, but the cameras can roll for far longer than your average celluloid setup. For both the Hollywood master and the west London apprentice, this means a far higher chance of getting something worth watching. Which is what we did next. Getting the pictures from a camera on to a computer is called capturing, and used to be an arcane art, especially with analogue cameras and older, slower, hard drives.

Data from the camera would be coming at such a speed that the slow computer could not keep up, especially if it had to do the tricky analogue-digital conversion. Nowadays, the speed of the average hard drive, and working with digital info at source means the problems of dropped frames and dodgy sound are long-gone. Nevertheless, digital video takes up a great deal of space.

We got around this by using an Iomega portable hard drive to give additional storage.

There are many on the market, using either USB or FireWire as their connection. FireWire drives are very popular in the professional film-editing world, as they can send and receive data much faster than the USB 1.0 versions, which, when dealing with video, is all important.

With a FireWire setup, capturing the film is simple: you plug the camera in, and the computer takes control of it. You fast forward to the start of the section you require, and call that the “in-point”, and then spin on to the end of the section, and call it an “out-point”.

Hitting the magic button rewinds the tape and plays it, saving the section you have marked out as a file on your drive. Do this for every scene and you have a big directory of movie files to play with. Editing is a similar process, and works in basically the same way as all film-editing software.

We, in common with Soderbergh, used Final Cut Pro, Apple’s professional-grade editing package, which recently won an Emmy award for its services to the film industry, but Macs come with the simpler iMovie built in free. Windows machines have their own range, too, with Adobe Premiere being one of the more powerful.

Windows XP also comes with a free low-end editing package. Editing a film is basically a job of shuffling the scenes around, and digitally trimming bits out of them. Of course, within that phrase, I’ve just belittled years of film-making experience of a professional Final Cut Pro operator, or exaggerated the easy-as-pie home movie-making of iMovie, but you get the idea. A bit of experimentation, and you have a finished film.

We burnt ours on to a CD-RW, to watch as a VCD, and will be putting it on the web. Soderbergh transferred his film on to celluloid, and it will be opening in the UK later in the year. We won’t be making any money from Shirts! and, factoring in the beer I had to buy the crew, I actually made a loss.

Full Frontal, on the other hand, is already turning a profit. With the additional marketing and printing costs, Miramax, which distributes the film, needed to make $3m to break even.

Foreign rights sales doubled this immediately. It is perhaps this aspect that most pleases the movie studios. This brand of low- cost, high-art film-making now allows professionals and amateurs alike to make movies they could never have afforded, with a picture quality and ease-of-working never before available, and allows them to be profitable.

There’s a lot of talk about how new technology democratises everything, allowing ordinary people the tools to compete with the best, and this is no exception. This stuff allows for experimentation, and the breaking of new talent. Aspiring film-makers need only spend a few thousand pounds to have the gear necessary to compete for little risk. Despite the difficult subject and tricky script, we were never going to lose our shirts making Shirts!, and, because of that, we’re off to make another. Look out London: it’s time for Shirts! II.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,785874,00.html

Friends, Families and Travellers

Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) is a national voluntary organization which serves the whole spectrum of the Traveller community – both traditional and new, settled or on the road. They have been around a little while now, but have only just begun a re-vamp of the services offered to this community. This includes an update of their website recently. http://www.f-f-t.demon.co.uk/

Contact:

Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, E. Sussex BN1 3XG

Tel: 01273 234 777 fft@gypsy-traveller.org

also

Young Gypsy-Traveller website, currently in its first test phase. Together with the work of the Travellers’ School Charity [Skool Bus] http://www.travellers-school.org.uk/. The uses of the internet, for such a dispersed and unsettled community are obvious. Check out some of their work at: http://www.crystalis.net/young/index.htm

Guardian Unlimited: Best British Blog Competition

This is the first competition to find the best British weblog. The winner will receive a cash prize of £1,000 and five runners-up will receive £100 each.

Details at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/bestbritishblog/

Have just entered. Deadline for entry is shortly on friday 6th Sept.

Send you application to weblog@guardianunlimited.co.uk

Welcome to Guardian Unlimited’s competition to find the very best British blog.

Britain’s bloggers are invited to send in both serious and frivolous blogs, covering any subject from news and politics to the author’s life. Our panel of judges will assess each blog in terms of design, the quality and personality of the writing, and the originality of the links.

To enter, download this entry form, fill it in and email it back to us at weblog@guardianunlimited.co.uk, with Best British Blog Competition in the subject line, before the deadline of Friday 6 September. The winner will be announced in September.

**************

ENTRY FORM (please fill in ALL fields)

Your name: ALAN LODGE

Your postcode: NG3 4JT

Your postal address: Woodborough Road, Nottingham. NG3 4JT

Your email address: tash@gn.apc.org

Your contact phone number: 0115 911 3804

The URL of your blog: http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/

The title of your blog: ONE EYE ON THE ROAD – Tash’s Blog!

When you launched the blog: 2nd July 2002

Anything else you’d like to tell us:

I am a photographer with a special interest to document the lives of travelling people and those attending Festivals, Stonehenge etc, what the press often describe as ‘New Age Travellers’.

With my photography, I have tried to say something of the wide variety of people engaged in ‘Alternatives’, and youths’ many sub-cultures and to present a more positive view.

I have photographed many free and commercial events and have, in recent years, extended my work to include dance parties (‘rave culture’), gay-rights events, environmental direct actions, and protest against the Criminal Justice Act and more recently, issues surrounding the Global Capitalism.

Further, police surveillance has recently become a very important subject for me!

In recognition of this work, received a ‘Winston’ from Privacy International, at the 1998 ‘Big Brother’ Awards. The citation reads: “Alan Lodge is a photographer who has spent more than a decade raising awareness of front-line police surveillance activities, particularly the endemic practice of photographing demonstrators and activists”.

I have been maintaining a blog, covering many of these subject, integrated within my main website. Seems to me to be a convenient way of working.

**************

Terms and conditions

1. This promotion is open to residents of the UK only. Under 16s should obtain permission of a parent or guardian to enter.

2. Only one entry per person will be accepted.

3. The competition will close on Friday September 6, 2002.

4. Winners will be announced on or after Thursday September 19, 2002 and contacted by email.

5. A first prize of £1000 will be awarded to the winning entry.

Five runners-up prizes of £100 will also be awarded. Winners should allow 28 days for receipt of prizes.

6. The decision of the judges is final

7. Not open to employees and families of Guardian Newspapers Limited or anyone else connected

with the creation or administration of the competition.

8. There is no responsibility taken for entries lost, delayed or incomplete.

9. Guardian Newspapers Ltd. is not responsible for incorrect e-mail or postal addresses.

10.The names of winners will be posted online at Guardian Unlimited and published in the Guardian newspaper.

11.A full list of winners will be available by writing to “Best British Blog’, Guardian Unlimited, 3-7 Ray St,

London EC1R 3DR

12. Promoter: Guardian Unlimited, 3-7 Ray Street, London EC1R 3DR

Ecstasy Experiences Questionnaire

Dr Harry Sumnall Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool (UK)

http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/Participation/Ecstasy/Ecstasy-Experiences.htm

This is a copy of the research questionaire .pdf http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/Participation/Ecstasy/E-EXPpap.pdf

Ecstasy Testing Kit Questionnaire

http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/Participation/Ecstasy/testing.htm

Dr Jon Cole

Department of Psychology

Eleanor Rathbone Building,

Bedford Street South,

Liverpool,

L69 7ZA

Telephone: +44 (0) 151 794 2175

Fax: +44 (0) 151 794 2945

Email:j.c.cole@liverpool.ac.uk

http://www.liv.ac.uk/Psychology/DeptInfo/StaffProfile/JCole.html

I found a discussion of all this, in article in the Daily Mirror.!!! Quite suprising really.

Ecstasy is not dangerous!!! From the Daily Mirror

IT is a little white pill which causes brain damage, an early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease and, occasionally, a toxic reaction leading to a slow and agonising death.

At least that is the accepted view of ecstasy in the UK. But the reality is proving to be different, with people statistically more likely to die taking paracetamol, or eating a peanut.

Three leading psychologists provoked outrage by claiming ecstasy may not be dangerous and many of its dangers are imagined.

Dr Harry Sumnall, of the University of Liverpool, said previous research was flawed. He said: “The current methods do not let us make cast-iron statements about whether it is dangerous or not.”

The psychologists said studies of ecstasy users were riddled with errors and researchers guilty of bias – with some minimising the impact of data which suggested ecstasy had no long-term effects.

They said the supposed long-term effects may be iatrogenic, meaning symptoms could be put into the mind of the patient after suggestion by a doctor.

Around two million pills, costing as little as £1 each, are taken every weekend in Britain.

It is believed more than 90 per cent of clubbers regularly take the drug – even though last year there were reported to be 40 ecstasy-related deaths, ranging from allergic reaction to severe dehydration.

Leah Betts was one of 72 people who died between 1993 and 1997 after taking the drug.

During the same period, around 275,000 people died from smoking or alcohol-related illnesses.

Danny Kushlick, director of the drug charity Transform, said: “Yesterday’s report is a breath of fresh air in a policy area that is morally and politically muddied.

“What happened to Leah Betts was a tragedy but people are more likely to die from eating peanuts than ecstasy. If you see someone dying from an allergic reaction it is unbelievably awful, just as Leah’s death was.

“It leaves you with two choices – you either shock people into not taking it or you control it and make its use as safe as possible.

“The first option hasn’t worked because millions of people in Britain take it every weekend. The second idea is, I believe, the best.

“Make no mistake, I believe ecstasy can be dangerous but that is why it should be legalised.

“We need sensible debate. People aren’t dying necessarily because they take ecstasy, they’re dying because they are ignorant of its effects and the Government is hiding its head in the sand. Debate is stifled and it costs lives.”

In 1999, 26 people died after taking ecstasy, compared with 754 from heroin or morphine, 267 from paracetamol and 87 from cocaine.

Roger Howard, 40, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, agreed that the number of deaths could be reduced if ecstasy was decriminalised and controlled. He said: “This research underlines previous opinion that much of the evidence around ecstasy is not as reliable as it could be.

“It reinforces the need for the Home Secretary David Blunkett to refer the classification of ecstasy to the experts on the advisory council on the misuse of drugs.”

But campaigners have criticised the psychologists’ report.

Leah Betts’ father Paul said: “It has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that every single ecstasy tablet destroys parts of the brain.

“The main thing it destroys is serotonin and depression follows on from serotonin depletion. It has reached such epidemic proportions in America that they talk of Suicide Tuesday.

“That’s because people who have taken ecstasy at the weekend are feeling so suicidal by Tuesday that they kill themselves. If you study experiments around the world the evidence against ecstasy far outweighs anything else.”

And Dr Robert Lefever of the Promis Recovery Centre said: “People need to be aware that any mood-altering chemical has the potential to cause damage.”

By David Edwards Daily Mirror.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12167396&method=full&siteid=50143

A few days ago, I meantioned the Cambridge University report, that pointed out that mice developed ‘problems’ and some died after being injected with speed, and forced to listen to dance music. Well, fancy that. More at: http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80869872