Month: January 2011

In the soviet bloc, it was apparently common for punk gigs to happen in churches.

Punk groups were officially banned, or at the least subject to disapproval. The scene was monitored, and being known as a punk meant throwing away pretty much any chance of a career. In the official venues, it was a rare and brave promoter who would give them space.

…so the priests stepped in. Either as an extension of their youth-work, or because some priests were themselves punks — or because the church loathed the state almost as much as the punks did, so “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” applied.

Whatever the reasons, it happened. Certainly in Poland and East Germany, presumably elsewhere as well. It’s fairly well-known among people who lived through it, even as children.

But the internet is being oddly unbountiful with information. I’ve found a bit in German, including on a neo-nazi attack on a punk gig in a Berlin church, on “Blues” masses (which became punk masses), and a documentary. In English, this is about the most I’ve found.

But somewhere out there online, there must be a really good account, ideally complete with beautiful and incongruous photos. Help me; where is it?

The Guardian on the wife of the ousted president:

The former hairdresser and her extended family had a grip on business, construction and foreign investment, living a lifestyle so lavish

they would fly in food from other continents

for parties.

What’s hilarious is how this excess is something the supermarkets achieve constantly for European consumers. Just with much greater efficiency.

Criticism

Left-wing, liberal and Green MEPs however have expressed their dismay at a “delayed” and “weak” response to the killings by foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton.

Emelie Doromzee, of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, told EUobserver that the EU should suspend its talks with the government and more strongly condemn the regime’s actions: “Until now, the language has been so far from what one would expect and sees elsewhere. The EU has put out a very weak statement. It’s past the stage of written statements. It’s almost a month now that these protests have been going on. We need concrete actions from the EU.”

John Samson, a mostly-ignored documentary-maker active in the 70s:

In 1977 Samson made Dressing For Pleasure, a documentary about ordinary people who enjoyed dressing in rubber and who approached their fetish with a matter of factness that seems almost quaint. The film was an immediate sensation among British fashion designers and within the London punk scene and was promptly banned as a video nasty. It ended becoming one of the most ripped off British films of the 1970s.

The suffragettes were seriously into jujitsu.

It makes sense. They were neophile radicals with a legitimate reason to fight the law; who better to learn martial arts?

But it’s also somewhat impressive, given the time-frame: they were really among the first in England to take up the practice. Asian martial arts had received some discussion there in the 19th century, but the first dojo didn’t open until 1899*, and a decade later there were still only a half-dozen trainers.

One of them was Edith Garrud. That’s her above, demonstrating how to take down a policeman.

Because this wasn’t just about muggers and drunken husbands; the suffragettes needed self-defence against the police. So Garrud trained the ‘Bodyguard Group’ of 25 ‘Jujitsuffragettes’. Their main aim was protecting the movement’s leaders from police violence and from arrest. Meanwhile Garrud’s dojo also became a refuge for suffragettes.

Here’s how it’s described by a descendent of one of the group:

The 25 Bodyguard members were armed with Indian rubber clubs, hidden within their long skirts, & trained in jujitsu, a Japanese system of wrestling that works well against stronger opponents… Although they couldn’t out-muscle the policemen, they could outwit them. On several occasions they staged exciting rescues. Twice a decoy maneuver led the detectives to carry off the wrong Mrs. Pankhurst. But the sad truth is that, more often than not, the women suffered dislocated joints, broken bones & concussions.

And here’s how Punch saw it:

* This first teacher was E.W. Barton-Wright. Barton-Wright was an engineer who had spent 3 years in Japan (typical nerd-martial artist crossover!). On his return to London he started teaching what he called ‘Bartitsu’. This mixed jujitsu with kick-boxing and stick-fighting — the idea being that you should be able to fight off muggers with your umbrella and perhaps a well-thrown coat.

Bartitsu was quickly forgotten, but not before Conan Doyle had mentioned it as the skill which enabled Sherlock Holmes to overpower Moriarty, as they fought above the Reichenbach Falls. In the 80s, Holmes aficionados and martial arts historians figured out the connection, paving the way for a revival in the past decade. It’s surely only a matter of time until the steampunk crowd discover it, and people start feeling nervous when they meet somebody in Edwardian dress down a dark alley.

More: Martial history magazine; “The Jujitsuffragettes“; Clarkes World; Suffragettes in an airship. And thanks to Dmytri for telling me about it all.

I’m loving

Mating

, albeit in a slightly guilty way — it tweaks a few of my traits a bit too precisely, with not enough outside-world to make it seem harmless. p. 261-2:

A thing that corrupts N’s worldview is his own demonic energy, whyich is what socalled greatness may in fact reduce to. He’s unnatural. He can work six hours flagstoning or paving, scabs of cement stuck all over hi body, a bite to eat, into the bathing engine, and he’s all set to work late into the night reading and writing and using his abacus.

Spider Jerusalem, faced with impending death:

A while ago, I got excited about posting to this blog from vim. Then I upgraded things, got distracted, forgot about it, and it seems now _not to work_

easiest way I can find is to save the text into a new file, then do:

google blogger post --title "Posting from vim" --tags "technology, vim,google,howto" %

City firms are doing government work for free in the hope of getting future contracts when times are easier and the public aren’t looking:

On one recent government contract five contractors all bid to undertake the work for £1, he said. But Downey also acknowledged that there was a degree of self-interest on the part of firms, which are expecting a resurgence of consultancy in government in the near future.

It’s like medieval nobles showering the king with gifts, knowing he’ll repay them ten times over with other people’s possessions.