You blew it, you forgot your line…. At the end of this number, you were supposed to say….. uhh What’s he supposed to say?…

Older lady limps over & reads from the clipboard, deadpan: “I don’t want to die. I want to live.”

Hospital bed figure groans with a mouth full of tubes….

Well, look if you can’t say it, you can’t say it… we’ll just have to cut it, that’s all. CUT IT! Pick me up. Next set up….

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

Just started my internship in an up & coming London Borough and boy is this borough thorough. Started with a meeting to set up my work plan at their shiny theme park office located in a city sized complex on the Thames. Before my first day I was treated to a visit to a SEN school, and was overwhelmed by some things:

1. The Social Inclusion Officer’s post at this school is being dissolved at the end of this school year.
2. Its SENCO is seriously thirsty for evaluation results re what creative practice – esp musical – facilitates what kind of learning whether soft or scholastic

My head was spinning when I left – partially because I was gutted that this dynamic and inspirational woman, who has been doing so much for what she is paid to do, will now be jobless; and a strong continuum of human progress will have been stifled and its work unsung. I was also struck by the idea that music has a purpose and magical power, which needs to be means tested. Is it possible – how? Qualitative evaluation, perhaps, but you know that if there’s a price tag it’ll need quantifiable results.

2 days later, in the same state, I approached a hospital esteemed for its use of creative practice to help SEN children through school, in order to R&D their great success. I am privileged enough to be friendly with a coordinator there who introduced me to the head teacher. When I arrived there was musical entertainment in the foyer – I’d stepped into a musical composite of bygone era – Dorsey, Duke, Porter – and was captivated by the dulcet tones of a gorgeous blonde lady, accompanied by elegant piano and sultry stand up bass. So very impressive: Hospital Arts. I was greeted by my incredibly overloaded friend, on and off his mobile – practically a one-man outreach service for his grads. When we arrived upstairs, I was so inspired by the ambience of the setting.

Admittedly when introduced to the head teacher I was a little starstruck …. silly me. After a few pleasantries, I tried to ask some focused questions about process there – how they chose which creative practices to facilitate which kinds of learning, how it might be aligned to curriculum, how it was measured, perhaps benchmarked. Perhaps I wasn’t focused enough because my innocent questions and organic curiosity was rewarded with hostility from this person. I was accused of trying to manipulate the conversation toward my own ends – which were never identified btw – that I wasn’t exhibiting signs of a person who’d come to openly understand their work at all. It was suggested that I should simplify my questions – I began to feel as though I might be one of the students there. I was assured that only the finest quality of artist worked with the children at this hospital. I asked about facilities, having noted that they had several computers – one of the children was watching a film with some rather adult looking content – not hardcore but it was violently cavalier. Because I’m interested in the shape of ASD, I’d mentioned that my reading had led me to understand how certain of those within its spectrum were fascinated by technology and many were good with computers. I wanted to learn if and how they utilised their technology to facilitate those children. I was admonished for profiling children with ASD – that every child is different. As for measurement, each child’s aptitude would be individually assessed by teachers within Individual Education Plans (IEP). I asked if artistic practice was aligned to curriculum or if practitioners were actively involved in shaping or assessing IEPs. It seemed obvious I was upsetting this person – so I asked her if there was something insulting in my line of questioning. Apparently not, but it was to be noted that my idea that a pratitioner might influence an IEP was absurd in the extreme. When I asked how she had chosen which kinds of arts activity to engage the children, she clarified that she had chosen the genre within her field of study.
Though it didn’t seem like a successful interview, by any stretch, I was invited to participate in a drama workshop for kids with behavioural problems. After a watered down variation on the catch-the-thrown-ball-say-my-name-game the group of delinquent teens were encouraged to form two groups which would square off at a dividing line – one side preventing the other side from crossing, no talking, nothing physical. Needless to say it didn’t stop some light rough housing within a hospital building. The feeling of aggression was palpable and it didn’t seem particularly deftly executed. At one point we had to all stand by and listen as one teenager bragged about how she dealt with gangster dynamics – because ‘they all know me’. Apparently that was a breakthrough.

“All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors.
1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, call’d Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call’d Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.

But the following Contraries to these are True

1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that call’d Body is a portion of Soul discern’d by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3 Energy is Eternal Delight
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.
And being restrain’d it by degrees becomes passive till it is only the shadow of desire…..”

Excerpt from ‘The Voice of the Devil’
‘THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL’
William Blake, 1793

A school for Scandal! tell me, I beseech you, Needs there a school this modish art to teach you? No need of lessons now, the knowing think...

Still reeling from a complicated ‘break’ from someone I was crazy about, but just too crazy to be mine I guess. Trying to make sense of his hardship from life as principle carer for his beautiful boy – officially diagnosed within the ASD spectrum. I’m stubbornly old fashioned and fight perceiving his status as misguided mapping of a boy with artistic talents and temperament – special abilities rather than special needs. He rocks, he quotes great swathes of memorised media idiom as main means of communication, he has many textbook traits of one within the spectrum. The main quality that strikes me, though, about his condition and melts me from the core is his fierce artistic focus. He spends hours – I mean hours, it’s often difficult to make him go to bed – drawing freeze frames from whatever animation he’s surfed on YouTube – King Crisis seems to figure amongst his faves – or from DVDs of The Simpsons & PowerPuff Girls. Swathes of story boards that he’s drawn, meticulously captured, via remote control – it’d make brilliant wallpaper or bedding textile motif.

It’s something he’s cultivated which I would swear is helping him capture other bits of imagery in the form of letters, words, numbers. Though his skillset is somewhat imbalanced – whose isn’t?! – I noticed that he was getting near perfect scores in numeracy and spelling exercises on his latest pieces of homework. Whilst his scores mark content beneath the level expected for his age, it seems obvious that he is mastering his challenges.

He learned about storyboarding when Creative Partnerships, under the previous administration, targeted his Special Needs school as one within a deprivation catchment area and taught the students about film making, as part of an initiative to enhance such site specific educational facility with Arts activity. He and several of his classmates made their own animated film – combined with real footage they’d filmed of themselves and projected on to a greenscreen – as part of a collaboration between parents, teachers, students and the ‘incubator’ from Creative Partnerships. The children and their SEN community made a film about a transformative object which was portal to the children’s fantasy lives. At completion they all had a piece of work that would inspire them to understand the results and benefits of applied creative practice. The programme was dissolved a few months ago, the film was completed a couple of years ago. My amazing ex’s awesome boy bravely holds the torch – tirelessly motivated to find fresh inspiration for the skill that he learned via this Arts in Community Health project.

I wondered about the continued momentum of such a project. If it weren’t broke… why’d they finish it? Apparently the school had been issued – via CP and thus the public purse – 2 cameras and a state of the art Mac to enable their artistic collaboration. What happened to them? I asked Dad about it and he pursued it with the school’s fundraiser. A meeting was to be set up – until malaise set in, until Depression took over, until it was decided we should take a break.

I’ve since asked other teachers what to do about this kind of situ? I expected some helpful hints, some friendly advice, some new shortcuts through educational admin. Instead I encountered a collective proverbial shrug – resignation to this phenomenon whereby expensive equipment is shelved or magically disappears as initiatives fizzle out, as administrations restructure. There seemed to be a sort of bravado in accepting this kind of sabotage – taking it on the chin like a good gangster. Further investigation about this particular school revealed some dodgy business involving awarding construction work contract to family of upper management – sans competitive tender – also unceremoniously swept under the carpet…

I want to pick up where CP left off. Set up some artists in residence at these leftover, abandoned schools… perhaps rekindle the fire that little boy preserves everyday. Use the valuable and neglected Arts resources as social startup currency.. Explore the connections and possibilities for multiple intelligences and creative practice. Address the true mandate of Austerity measure – establish multi-activity in civic society…

Tragic in a made for TV movie kinda way? Consider this: in the riots which nearly torched us to BBQ in last year’s Summer of Discontent, two-thirds of those arrested were teens or young adults with special needs. Are you ready for the 2nd coming?

“…Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

William Butler Yeats

Bob's 'Your Country Rockstar' Collum & the 'Dirt'

8pm Friday 6th January at THE BIRDCAGE in Stoke Newington

Starring BOB COLLUM

“Hook-heavy, steel guitar-driven, rootsy power pop” …..Time Out

“My Little Hurricane” is 2:13 of Popicana bliss, while “She Hates Me” is quality straight-up country, “Devil in the Details” adds some power pop to the recipe, and “Knockdown Dragout” recalls Nick Lowe’s “Raging Eyes”. Yet another outstanding entry in the Year of the EP. – Absolute PowerPop

“A turn of phrase to rank with Nick Lowe’s, and an instinct for hook and melody mean you’re thinking of the Byrd’s with a country edge to boot. The Boy Most Likely Too… is a testimony to the enduring power of finely crafted songs played well . It deserves a wide hearing and appreciation.” – Bucketful Of Brains

“’Set The Stupid Free’ is more a case of locking several like-minded country-inclined practitioners into a confined space and simply sitting back to enjoy while they do what they do best. The Welfare Mothers have it down pat. Impressive stuff indeed.” ” – Whisperin’ & Hollerin’

“Whilst ‘Set The Stupid Free’ may be firmly rooted in alt country in terms of sound, it manages to incorporate a solid pop sensibility, with pop melodies and hooks that’ll have you humming the chorus to each song before the record is halfway through” – Subba Cultcha

“The execution is tight, the lyrics wry and razor-sharp, and the palette broad”” – Morning Star

“The words and instrumentation are well-done, and there’s such genuine feeling behind it, Collum never comes off as hokey. Lamenting and sweet, he gently presses his subjects into releasing truth juices in every track.”” – Alibi

“Hook-heavy, steel guitar-driven, rootsy power pop.” – Time Out

“The kind of lyrical twists that endear so many while playing it straight.”*** 3 stars
Q

“Heavy on hooks and steel guitar.” *** 3 stars – Uncut

“Anyone who wants to hear what Top 40 sounds like in a perfect world should pick up The Boy Most Likely Too… and turn it up! ” – Being There

“On The Boy Most Likely Too…, Bob Collum masterfully combines melodicism and rootsy twang.The result is as honest and refreshing a record as has come down the dusty two laned highway this year. With TBMLT, Collum has crafted roots pop perfection” – Amplifier

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COUNTRY DIRT

“….adding aural shooting stars and neon fire to the roadhouse vibe” – Gavin Martin

“Think Burrito Brothers & their dirty sister” – Tim Perry, The Windmill

“Countrified bluegrass, banjos, sunshine…. with great titles, titles like Pussy Whip …. Country Dirt are fun, they have their tongues stuck firmly in cheek as they bring a collective smile to the face of the venue. They have some seriously good bluegrass country rock there.” -The Organ

“Sounding somewhere between cult favourites Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Cowboy in Sweden-era Lee Hazelwood lays another outfit from London’s Deep South. Country Dirt is an alt. Country band of the highest order” – Hackney Hive

£3 – bargain!
BIRDCAGE
58 Stamford Hill N16 6XS, London, United Kingdom

The fightback began. The struggle continues

Revolutionary club night the DDR of RnB returns to its favourite haunt, The Halfmoon in Putney, Thursday 27th October.

Guests include …

ANDY LEWIS (of Paul Weller/Spearmint fame) and his revolutionary Socialist Acid Jazz All-Star-Revue!

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THEE FACTION

“Actual full-on revolutionary socialist RnB – imagine Dr Feelgood with a brainful of Gramsci” – The Word Magazine (Aug 2011 – out now, with Thee Faction’s ‘Deft Left’ on the cover CD!)

www.theefaction.org

@theefaction

www.facebook.com/theefaction

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COUNTRY DIRT

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Country-Dirt/293148801433

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and CONSCIOUS FUNK 45s

8pm til late

£9 in advance from www.halfmoon.co.uk

£10 on the door

93 Upper Richmond Road, SW15

This is the dawning of the age of AQUARIUS FESTIVAL

We let the herd out the gate at 12.30pm, closes 8pm (main stage), 11pm (indoor stage, possibly later)

£3 in advance, £5 on the gate. Numbers strictly limited (by licence extension etc.) SO BUY IN ADVANCE!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aquarius-Festival-2011-/300578945793?pt=UK_Tickets_Tickets_LE&hash=item45fbe6bb01#ht_500wt_1156

£3.00 plus 2nd class postage.