• Janet Mock blogs about trans terms.

• Gun Hill Road, the film.

• Jane Foster Blog – prettiness.

• You’ve 5 days left to watch the wonderful The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe on the iPlayer.

• Andrea Levy wins the Walter Scott Prize for The Long Song (still on my leaning tower of to-read books).

• MI5 labelled the Archbishop of Canterbury a subversive over anti-Thatcher campaign Lovely stuff.

• The latest in Ben Reininga’s Ridiculous Tips for a Miserable Sex Life

• Caitlin Moran: ‘Let’s all go and be feminists in the pub’

• What parks could be like if councils had any imagination at all.

• Oliver Jeffers shows us how to draw penguins.

• World’s wealthiest people now richer than before the credit crunch  and of course that means Benefit cuts: single mothers are the biggest losers And why not. Gotta keep up that underclass to distract people from the first headline.

• Cynthia Gorney’s Too Young to Wed -The secret world of child brides which continues despite legislation banning it, simply because these girls don’t matter in this world.  Their mothers didn’t matter and neither will their daughters or grand-daughters.

• The Bailey Report -Letting Children be Children – Report of an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood – has been released.

• John Vidal and Claire Provost report on how American universities are colonising Africa.
• Mala Sen Obituaries from the Guardian and the Telegraph.  Neither particularly great, I’ll look out for a better one.

• Lynsey Hanley reviews Owen Jones’ Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class.  Definitely on my to look out for in charity shops list.

• Belle Waring on victim blaming.  Brilliant!  (Trigger warning)

• Commission a Sketch to Help Pay Legal Fees of Girl Who Refused to Cheer Her Attacker from Jason Ho.  It’s literally jaw dropping that such a terrible legal representative is actually charging.

• Naval surnames explained by the MOD.  This really tickles my fancy.

• GUN – A blog dedicated to ‘dedicated to my beloved Stitch and Scrump’.  I love it and so do the various Stitches sitting next to my screen.

• Owen Hatherley tackles the importance of Pulp.

Easiest choice of beautiful music ever – the magnificent Pulp.

Recorded live off the TV, just as it should be

Also:

Others  just look simply lovely and luckily one of those is fairly close to me -  Ymuno Festival in beautiful Abergele, North Wales.  Run by a cooperative not for profit gives the venture a good feel.   The ticket price includes folk, funk, camping and breakfast!  What more do you need?  Oh yeah, excellent vegy food from No Bones Jones and good company.

Ymuno is an intimate festival with tickets sales stopping at 450 and they’re selling fast, so you’ve not got long to go grab a ticket!  And you can come laugh at me learning the camping thing if you like.  I’m sure I’ll be laughing at myself in-between dancing to great music (or drunk in a corner somewhere).  Honeyfeet look particularly fun!

From the site: The word “ymuno” means “to join in” or “to be a part of” in Welsh, and was chosen by the organisers to fit in with the community based theme of the festival. – Byddaf gweld chi yno

Full line up here and an intro below to the lovely John Smith.  Enjoy.

Ymuno on Twitter and Facebook.

Hari Kunzru wrote a wonderful article about Weiwei with much of it leading to deeper thought such as:

On his return to China in 1993, Ai brought with him a commitment to conceptualism, and a lofty notion of Modernism, which he saw as a kind of total interrogation of the human condition:

“Modernism has no need for various masks or titles; it is the primal creation of the enlightened, it is the ultimate consideration of the meaning of existence and the plight of reality, it is keeping tabs on society and does not cooperate. Enlightenment is attained through a process of self-recognition, attained through a teeming thirst for and pursuit of an inner world, attained through interminable doubts and puzzlement.”

The idea that the “pursuit of an inner world” is a primary artistic activity may seem banal to anyone who grew up with conventional western Romantic notions of art, but Ai has made it the foundation of his challenge to the Chinese state, which he accuses of producing “a society without citizens”. “A person with no true rights cannot have a complete sense of morality or humanity,” he wrote in 2008. “Freedom of expression is one of life’s basic rights . . . Modernity cannot exist without freedom of speech.” Ai’s connection of artistic Modernism to human rights and a kind of relentless questioning of the political, social and psychological status quo is arguably one of the most important developments in Chinese art since it opened up to the West at the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Art not of the regime can be dangerous to political regimes, indeed it should be.  Performing arts can convey deep truths that ruling classes would rather keep confused and regulated and beyond desire or pocket to the majority of us plebs.  We keep ourselves busy arguing whether ITV ‘talent’ shows are fixed or not.  It’s not accidental.

More information:  Free Ai Weiwei is an information hub on news and events related to the detention of Chinese artist/architect/social commentator, Ai Weiwei. Follow us @freeaiww and on Facebook.  Edit – also Aiww English (beta) twitter account and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry A Film & Video project in New York, NY by Alison Klayman

Also see:

Art Uncut  Artists and Musicians Against The Cuts (which for the moment hasn’t established itself into any kind of force)

Mark Thomas

What political theatre ought to be – Francis Beckett

Banned & Dangerous Art

Please add anything else relevant in the comments, especially UK related and active.

The NYT hosted a series of posts by people who have ‘come out’ including beautiful stories by Anonymous, 21 years old, Waco, Tex. and Ollie, 20 years old, London Of course, if we didn’t place expectations on our children that they would be cis and straight then all our children would have to ‘come out’, or not, and it would be a normal part of life.

Beirut Boy turned 1 this week!

Festival Kidz have plotted all the best kid friendly festivals onto a map and also a calendar. Really handy resource and a great little site too.

Annie Lennox interviewed by Samira Shackle.  Life as a game of snakes and ladders is spot on.

Very funny column from Tim Dowling on writing and smart alec kids.

Andy Worthington has updated his hugely important archive: Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List — Updated for 2011, With New Information and Photos from WikiLeaks

Iman Qureshi reviews Granta 115: The F Word for The F-Word.  Anything that mixes the unreadable Rachel Cusk, the unreadable A.S. Byatt (excepting the short stories) and the unreadable Jeanette Winterson is always going to be full of win.  Not.

Chewbacca riding a giant Squirrel, fighting Nazi’s

The entirely terrible Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is named after a Welsh nurse, who served in the Crimea.  Plans are underway to make a permanent memorial, 151 years after her death.

Now for something entirely lovely – H/T to @IanPlaysMusic for introducing me to a whole new genre of music which can be (very ) broadly called Disney Dub.  I love it

IN THE LAND OF THE FLIBBERTIGIBBETS
In the land of the Flibbertigibbets,
The Curlybirds whirl and whiz,
The Googlies giggle, the Rampoons wriggle
And the Furzles flitter and fizz,
         The Furzles flitter and fizz.

In the land of the Flibbertigibbets,
The Humdrums simper and sing,
The Bamboozles bump, the Jamborees jump
And the Plimpets zip and ping,
         The Plimpets zip and ping.
In the land of the Flibbertigibbets,
The Dobblers dibble and dive,
The Clutters clatter, the Chitters chatter,
And the Junkets jiggle and jive,
        The Junkets jiggle and jive.

John Foster

See also Spike Milligan’s The Ning Nang Nong (video).  Barbara Streisand’s The Owl and the Pussycat (video)

And obviously Lewis Carroll’s Jaberwocky done by muppets!

Jaberwocky

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Also available as read by John Green.

More about the show and further talks/events on the Southbank Centre website here.

I made it to Auschwitz and breasts – can you go further?

ENGLISH – Manifesto (last version, 20 May 2011)

This afternoon, feminists who participated in the feminist alternatives workshop have reflected and written the following public declaration:

“Feministes indignades” (indignant feminists) at Plaça Cataluya (acampadabcn), May 20th, 2011

REVOLUTION WILL BE FEMINIST OR IT WON’T BE
We are here because:

* we want a society centred into people and not marketplaces. This is why we vindicate: free public and basic services like education, health, and childhood and special needs care in opposition to social budget cuts, and the new employment and pension reforms.

* we want the whole people commitment to build a society where no male violence will take place in any of its forms: in economy, aesthetics, employment, institutions, religions or in its physical or psychological forms, as well as in its sexual or work exploitation forms…

* we want to freely decide about our own body, enjoy and relate with it and whoever we want.

* we want to freely decide about free abortion and sexual and affective education.

* we want a diverse society to be respectful with any form of living sex and sexuality (lesbian, gay, intersex, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, …) and we want the right to sexuality at any stage of life to be recognized. We demand the dis-patologisation of trans identities.

* we demand that the state and the ecclesiastical state don’t interfere in our lives.

* to incorporate a feminist perspective is essential for a change in an economic and social model thought and done to serve people and the planet; it is also essential in public services, in the making of another city and land gestion model, and in environmental and food policies.

* it is also essential that woman become main agents in the social, politics and economy transformation processes and the decisions taken for it. It is also essential for the design, review and execution of the resultant policies.

* for a real society change decisions should be agreed upon consensus and women have to participate decisively in them.

* subjects that affect women affect society and we want them to be in the very heart of the political, economical and social agenda.

* we demand that housemaids and every kind of domestic worker to be included in the Social Security general regime and the right to negotiate as a collective. We demand domestic work to be counted as a part of the country wealth.

* we demand the recognition of the person, house, and life care jobs and their complete socialisation: we also demand the right to choose freely if we want to care or not, the right to be looked after in adequate conditions and the right to care for oneself. Summarizing, the right to citizenship.

* we demand the distribution of wealth and jobs. Work less to make all people work. Quality working and professional conditions. Equal distribution of productive and reproductive work, equal recognition and compensation for work between men and women. And we want wealth at the service of popular classes.

* we demand recognition of the sexual workers’ rights.

* we demand the citizenship recognition for people without legal conditions or norms, the elimination of Foreigners Law and the Stranger Internment Centers.

* we demand the use of a language that denominates all people free of homophobia, male discrimination, classism or racism.

* we vindicate to be praised and recognized women knowledge and wiseness and their main function as culture transmitters.

* we want a co-educative education.

* we want a society where any kind of family and/or living group can take place.

* we dismiss heteroregulation and obligatory femininity.

* we are against war, we reject the use of women bodies as a weapon or loot of war and we don’t believe any military intervention will lead to or warrant peace. No society militarization, no gun trade or production. We encourage to fiscal objection.

* we vindicate abroad feminist solidarity as a way to change the world. Teased feminists are everywhere, we join to their vindications and we give them all our support.

THERE IS NO REVOLUTION WITHOUT WOMEN

REVOLUTION WILL BE FEMINIST OR IT WON’T BE

We express our support to our feminist partners in Madrid, in presence of the aggression they suffered last night.

(I corrected a few spellings, typos, and translation errors)

Mukhtar Mai

TEDx Karachi (an independently organised TED event) this year was titled “Making the Impossible Possible” and featured Mukhtar Mai alongside others. Mai has certainly made the impossible happen!

There was also a presentation of submissions for the interesting Inside Out project using the theme Stand Up Against The Persecution of Minorities

Videos aren’t available until next week so I’ll just post the summary of Muhammad Aly Balagamwala’s impressions of the day for now and update later:

The take-home message

1. We need to focus on education – Fasi Zaka, Mukhtar Mai
2. Lack of resources should not be an excuse to do something you believe in – Raja Sabri Khan, Imran Khan
3. Mind can triumph over body – Imran Khan, Sarmad Tariq
4. Pain, if channeled in a positive direction, can achieve great things – Dr Quratulain Bakhtiari, Sarmad Tariq, Mukhtar Mai
5. Don’t blame life, or anyone else. You may be down but success is about getting up that one last time. – Sarmad Tariq
6. Bulleh Shah was a Commie (oops sorry, a revolutionary) – Noori

More on Twitter and Facebook.