Very pleased to be working with Uprising Records (punk, oi, reggae, ska, hip-hop and hardcore) on their current slate including Violent Disorder (anti-racist, anti-fascist Oi!) and anarcho-punks Conflict. All, or much, of their stuff can be found here
You can get your hands on a copy of this beautiful book or die trying – On Va Tout Péter – the book of the film, finally, with Lech Kowalski‘s film and bonus material on 2 DVDs. Currently only available in France from Revolt Cinema
Klaus Nomi has joined the Red Crayon Faction
Raindance is officially a London Film Festival in September. The special guest this year is Europe. Ever-evolving details can be found here
On Va Tout Péter (Blow it to Bits), directed by Lech Kowalski, about the year-long GM&S strike in La Souterraine, plays Cannes Directors Fortnight in May and French TV later in the year. This movie kills fascists. The poster looks nice, non?
This is my brand new favourite thing on the internet. The show has been put together by the good people at Graphic Front who are responsible for the terrific Graphics Without Computers / Adverts Without Capitalism series. If you are in the Bucharest neighbourhood between 17 and 26 May please take a gander.
The cats at Graphic Front are including some of my stuff in a group show in Bucharest later this month concerned with poltical/protest graphic design. If you are in the neighbourhood between 17 and 26 May please visit. Full details here
Damo Suzuki‘s auto/biography, written with Paul Woods — I Am Damo Suzuki — is published by Omnibus on 28 March. It’s hefty and scholarly and very readable. Also contains some quite spiffy illustrations. You can pre-order it from Amazon or, even better, from any number of quality independent booksellers.
Gina Raimondo. She’s the Governor of Rhode Island. Which turns out not be an island at all, or even a peninsula or anything. The illustration was commissioned by Motif magazine.
Shot on a webcam at Dial House, Epping, late summer 2018. Locations scouted by Big Boy. Banned in 288 territories.
Interrobang have joined the Red Crayon Faction while the poster for A Night of Grammatology went to print today. Woo woo!!
Damo Suzuki has joined the Red Crayon Faction while the lovely Lasagnaspongecake are putting on a quite fabulous Night of Grammatology at Bar 15 in Dundee with Damo, Interrobang!? and Stoor on Tuesday 16 May, full details here
The cats at Situation Press have just published Robin Ryde’s debut novel Southern Cross. It’s a darn good read of course with a quite spiffy cover. You can find more detail on it here (please note that the cover looks a bit shiny in these pics, that’s because they’re of the printer’s dummy, commercial copies of the book are much more matty)
«Robin Ryde has written a great story of love, empathy and survival in an oppressive dystopia. Please read this book and help make this world a better place»
— Jón Gnarr, former Mayor of Reykjavik
Raindance opens on 21 September and runs till 2 October. You should totally go if you’re in the neighbourhood, if you know what’s good for you, if you think you’re hard enough.
New project
Why not do something nice for your auld ma and pa and maybe sort them a pass for this year’s Raindance Film Festival?
New project
Jodie Foster has joined the Red Crayon Faction
Adverts Without Capitalism — Romanian Advertising Graphics 1950–1989, published in February this year by Graphic Front, an extension of their terrific Graphics Without Computers series.
«Throughout this time there were graphic designers working away in the immense system of communication of the day, skilled hands making drawings, laying out pages and creating shapes, as well as people from other fields who also did the work of a graphic designer… Looking at many of the images reproduced here, we can only wonder how the “brief” must have sounded to the lady presenting the product. Things are pretty clear when it comes to beverages and textiles. But just how longingly can you look at a tin of paint? How gracefully can you hold a plate of buttons in your hand?»
And, woo, a rare bonus pic from 2011:
Go on, you might as well, you never know.
Can you hear me Major Dom?
The British Independent Film Awards, Old Billingsgate, London, 6 December 2015 (photograph of Richard Ayoade by Getty Images for the Moët British Independent Film Awards, used with kind permission)
The British Independent Film Awards have commissioned new variations of their logo, using the acronym BIFA for the first time in nearly 17 years. Woo woo! (Photo below by Orestes Kouzof, used with kind permission of BIFA)
I was lucky enough to have the chance to drop in on Raindance with Belle one day after school last week. Belle is always such good company, the very best of course, and especially at this sort of event. I thought the stuff looked pretty terrific too.
I was recently shanghaied into joining Twitter, approximately 8 or 9 years after everyone else. What is it good for? Well you can maybe say that again. Anyway please hit me up here if you are in the neighbourhood and I will do the same for you. You never know, we could be good for one another or something.
Sir Michael Tippett has joined the Red Crayon Faction while the good people at Truro Choral Society are putting on what promises to be a majestic performance of A Child of Our Time at Truro Cathedral on Saturday 13 June, full details here
If Mary Poppins were still alive and living in Hackney do you know who she would have voted for? That’s right, for my auld china plate Russell Shaw Higgs, who has recently joined the Red Crayon Faction. So c’mon then, let’s go fly a kite.
Meanwhile, ugh
I made a new typeface because this is just what the world needs right now. It’s called Brick Shithaus. Modular, utilitarian and anti-imperialist, it’s designed to do away with a lot of unnecessary white space. If this typeface were to compete in the Olympics it would be in the shot put.
«A typeface is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A typeface is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another»
— Mao Zedong
The British Independent Film Awards, Old Billingsgate, London, 7 December 2014
and woo, a nicely branded clip from BBC Breakfast News:
and woo woo, an even more nicely branded clip from the good folk at Getty:
The Truth of Revolution, Brother continued. Clockwise from top left: Gee Vaucher, Jello Biafra, Penny Rimbaud, Little Annie
Objects of great beauty which arrive in the mail continued. The Truth of Revolution, Brother. With Jello, Little Annie, Vi Subversa, Jón Gnarr, Einar Örn Benediktsson, Steve Albini, Jeffrey Lewis and others including the folk who brought you Crass, Chumbawamba, the Adverts, UK Subs, the Pop Group, The Mob, Minor Threat and the Minutemen as well as a couple of people you’ve never heard of before. I’m one of the people you’ve never heard of before. I am a little bit in love with everything about this book. For further details and for all the saints please click here
«Talking about philosophical ‘isms’, I’ve never bought into that kind of thing. That sort of thing you can do at Dial House, but you can’t really be Zen in the middle of Birmingham, can you?» — Steve Ignorant
«I didn’t follow what was going on. For example with ‘Grease’ the film, I didn’t understand it. It was a song and dance movie and it was ‘period’ and I didn’t understand it because I thought that people in different countries lived in a different period» — Jón Gnarr
