Back at my host Rick’s up in the Hills (and precipitated by the deluge) a plague of millipedes invades the house. The neighbourhood Kookaburras, Kangaroo and Koala were cute, but these mini-beasts threaten to tip the balance. Nature is fighting back against our colonial ambitions. They are in the shower, on the piano and in my bed.

photo by www.photografeo.com.au

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Kindle Theatre take THE FURIES to VAULT Festival, London.

Since we started in 2005 we seem to have thrived off some kind of horror or another, whether that be a story that informs the content of a project – blasphemy, cannibalism, murder, or whether that be an actual part of the making process; we went through a phase of using an excessive amount of fake blood and stained lots of things: the herringbone tiles of a church floor, a ceiling and various articles of clothing and costume.

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The Furies continues to beguile the innocent in it's dank, dark Waterloo bunker - spurred on by sell out audiences and some tasty reviews.

Encouraged by a blossoming interest in site-sensitive theatre (including recent adventures here by Punchdrunk and the Old Vic/Spacey in nearby tunnels) site managers at Waterloo Station have been increasingly open to suggestion regarding cultural interventions on the site. Enter Heritage Arts, who are curating a new Festival called THE VAULT. Producer Tim Wilson is putting together a dynamic programme and has issued a call for interested artists whose work might suit this context (see here for details).

With no power or light in The Furies’ lair, and sounds supplied only by the ghostly rumble of  passing trains, Vault 234 is atmospheric to say the least. We explored the 35m long chamber by the meagre lumins from our mobile phones, unsure what was underfoot. The Vault will be a challenge to rig out and inhabit, but in 8 weeks time the infrastructure will all be in place for what will be an exciting month’s event and an opportunity for Kindle to get a proper run at The Furies in front of fresh, unsuspecting audiences.

THE FURIES will perform at

THE VAULT Festival, Leake St., Waterloo, London SE1

Thursdays to Sundays, 9th til 26th February 2012 (details to be confirmed soon).

The Bawlly has always plied his trade in these parts. As a kid there’d be a sinister edgyness to his arrival. From a back garden you could never quite tell from which street he was calling and it was better to hide or run inside to avoid what felt like a dark presence. Part gypsy-traveller, part kiddy-catcher; grubby-faced, Dickensian ne’er-do-wells sitting atop an old wagon, drawn by a shaggy pit-hoss. In reality these strangers from another time and place were Black Country scrap metal-merchants, aboard a flat-bed truck, but they might as well have been from another country. Their 8mph street-wanderings clearly paid off. I have a vivid memory of dad running out of the house in his bare feet and ‘jamas to apprehend the Bawlly. Then watching, incredulous, as the back-half of a Mark One Mini was man-handled onto the truck, joining fridges, rusty garden swings and dug-up fragments of air-raid shelter.

This week, the sound of the Bawlly signifies the start of austere times. Summer is truly dead. Kids are back to school, the skies have turned grey and there’s a faint rustling of tumbleweed as a lean-looking Autumn stretches before me. A breather is welcome after a busy few months, but it’s now time to cast the net, seek new work opportunities and develop ideas for new projects.

Birmingham Vigil: “The three who died, died nobly. Don’t riot in their name” – video, via The Guardian, 11th Aug ’11

A Peace protest is planned for sunday 14th August, meeting in Summerfield Park, 3pm.

Messages have been coming in from distant friends across the globe, saddened and bewildered at the news images depicting urban Blighty in 2011: Gangs of young looters, seemingly buoyed by a collective mob mentality, ransacking the high streets of our cities and towns, knowing somehow that there is insufficient power on the part of the Police, or anyone, to stop them.

Perhaps, in due course, history will attribute these events to a broader socio-economic crisis prompted by the global financial meltdown and its consequences? But that’s difficult to see as the evidence suggests that the ‘disenfranchised’ are forgoing bread and books and reaching instead for mobile phones, skategear and flatscreen TVs -basically all the consumer stuff that the advertising relentlessly tells them they need to have. Yes, the looting is driven not by frustration but an ideology of greed and opportunism. (Nobody has any money… but the shops are full of stuff, stuff and yet more stuff that people want… and if they don’t want it they’ll know someone else who does.)

Because it’s been demonstrated that the policing has been ineffectual, groups of vigilantes have been appearing on the streets to defend their businesses and their communities (sales of baseball bats are reported to be escalating). Almost inevitably, a tragedy occured last night on the Dudley Road, when 3 Brit-Asian men were ploughed into by a car whilst trying to defend their shops. The ether is then full of suggestion that gangs of men from other cities will travel from here and elsewhere to battle the looters (who have clearly got wind of this and moved on to surprise a different town).

There is a sense of unreality about the whole scenario…like it’s being played out on a stolen Xbox, like it’s a simulated Zombie movie. Apart from the fact, of course, that communities are being trashed, reputations shattered and lives destroyed. Desperate and sad times.

Zoe Williams in The Guardian, attempts to unravel the Psychology of Looting

On July 18, 2011, Heckel bassoon No. 11321-5 was stolen from Gretha Tuls, principal bassoon in CBSO, Birmingham UK in her house.

The bassoon has a light brown colour, has a Dutch leg rest on it( legrest itself wasn’t taken). the keys are nickelplated and the top ring is white.

It contains 2 Heckel crooks as well: CD 2 XL and CC 1 XL. It is carried in a black Marcus Bonna case with the brand name ADAMS on it. ( the bassoon comes apart in 4 pieces in the case)

email: grethatuls@hotmail.com
phone: 00447747315746
dutch phone: 0031629466318

Gretha is my next door neighbour. The burglars were prevented from breaking into our house by quick-witted and vigilant Iris, who spotted them lurking in the back yard. They will have no idea how important the instrument is to Gretha. It’s a pointless theft. If anyone has any information or hears of it being offloaded, please get in touch.
Graeme