steepholm

It's not often I go to the cinema twice in a week, but this week I did - first, to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (which I wanted to see because I'd enjoyed Seven Psychopaths), and today to Japanese Girls Never Die (in Japanese, アズミ・ハルコは行方不明 or Haruko Azumi is Missing).

Walking through Stokes Croft to get to the cinema, I saw this piece of graffiti alluding to the first film - and, since the second is in part about graffiti, it formed a nice visual handshake:



I liked them both. Billboards was certainly the more polished of the two, and the characters were more complex (albeit working with familiar templates). Japanese Girls was less predictable, more exciting and risky, perhaps precisely because it felt as if it was slightly less safe in the director's hands. Both had a kind of small-town-where-everyone-knows-everyone-and-secrets-have-a-short-shelflife vibe, black humour and strangely incompetent police. The Japanese film was making a fairly explicit political statement (for Japan) about gender inequality, but ended up as a kind of female power anthem. I'm not sure whether Billboards was making any kind of statement, other than a plea for human understanding. And that's fine; I was glad to see both.

It's a while since I photographed any Stokes Croft graffiti. This one's been up for a while now, but this was the first time I'd passed it a) on foot, b) in the sunshine, c) with my phone. I suppose it could be St Peter from the posture, but I believe it's a rather athletic Jesus:



I think it's rather striking. (On a tangential note, here is a 3D x-ray of someone doing yoga.)

A busy day tomorrow: hina dolls at the Yume cultural club, then back to Stokes Croft for a musical telling of Dōjōji at Cafe Kino - if I can get in. It promises to be popular.

As I walked through Stokes Croft today, I saw a wonderful composition. In one corner of this alcove (currently with very different graffiti) lay two tramps, one on top of the other, kissing with tender vigour, while in the other corner sat a huge Alsatian dog, presumably belonging to one of them, staring patiently at the mystery with gentle brown eyes that saw and understood all. It was lovely and touching to see, and I longed to photograph the scene, but delicacy and prudence both forbade it.

Instead I made do with this perplexing sign, which stands a few yards further south at the edge of the Croft, looking towards some unlovely flats and the start of the city centre proper:



The sign has been there for some weeks, and certainly looks quite official with its council logo - but the claims it makes veer between the impossible and the highly unlikely. Is this aspiration? Satire? Art? Where is Marcel Duchamp when you need him?

And who won Britain in Bloom in 2014?

Monday found me at the Stokes Croft Tea Party - a gathering of 200 or so brightly-coloured protesters (apart from drab old me) outside the notorious Tesco Store, at which much free cake was given away, and even Tesco's enormous uruk-hai security guards were seen to crack a smile. (I'm in there somewhere, Wally/Waldo like.) The occasion was the forthcoming application for judicial review of the decision to grant Tesco planning permission. That application was heard today in Cardiff, and I'm delighted to say that it was successful! It's only one step on a very long road, but at least this one was in the right direction.

Finally, here's a petition for an enquiry into exactly what happened, and in what order, on the evening of what the BBC is still calling the "anti-Tesco" riot, along with dark references to petrol bombs (see previous posts passim). Until such an enquiry is granted, this cartoon by my friend Dru remains the most eloquent summing up of the evening's events that I'm aware of.

A pretty balanced write up about Stokes Croft in the Guardian.

I heard that Stokes Croft had been blocked off (yet) again, so wandered down there this afternoon. It was at least more low-key than some recent events, though there was still a superfluity of riot shields, police vans, etc.



( Meanwhile, behind the lines )

In other news...

Twenty-five police arrest a couple of pensioners and someone in fancy dress for intending to take part in street theatre.

Only selected crowds were allowed to gather in London today.

According to Laurie Penny, the police have been using the excuse of the Middleton/Windsor wedding to clean up protesters and scruffy customers of all stripes, on the pretext that they might - who knows? - be planning to disrupt the happy event: "The royal couple can rest safe in the knowledge that they are being protected from cooking workshops and mother-and-toddler yoga sessions."

Facebook has been purging the accounts of protest groups such as UK Uncut.

By the way, isn't it terrible, the crackdown on protests that's going on in Syria? Aren't you glad nothing like that happens in this country?

There's now a very interesting video about the Stokes Croft affair, as told by the people who were there. I believe this is a rough cut, but it looks pretty good to me:



There had been a plan to screen this in a local park the night before last, but the police reportedly confiscated the screen and sent everyone away on the grounds of "public order". So, they decided to show it in someone's house instead - with semi-comic results...

Just to redress some of the misinformation that's been broadcast about the Stokes Croft riot...

ETA: And a little more.

ETA: And more again from my friend Dru, this time on the question of - petrol bombs, what petrol bombs? It's beginning to look like the Banksy graffito was the only petrol bomb seen in Stoke's Croft that night.

The calm of the People's Republic of Stokes Croft was shattered last night by a suprise attempt to evict some squatters from an unused building, as Laurie Penny reports. Here's a picture from the scene:



Oh, okay, this is probably just the most famous piece of Stokes Croft graffiti - but was Banksy being prophetic?



No sign of the bear, but the other ingredients are all in place. The teddy was probably just out of shot.

There's been some publicity for the recent push by the Government to get the BBC to replace the dingy word "cuts" with the fluffy word "savings". This has already resulted in such strange headlines as "Savings Threat to Hundreds of Hospital Jobs in Cornwall," and I'm sure we'll all have fun spotting similar bullshit in weeks to come. Perhaps Deepcut Barracks will soon be renamed Massive Savings Barracks, just as Windscale was renamed Sellafield in days gone by? Rebranding is the most effective way to make nasty things go away, as David Cameron will have learned from his days in PR.

On the other hand, the next time I see a headline reading "Local Library Saved" I won't know whether it's just about to be shut for ever or is perhaps staying open a little longer. So it's not all good.

Meanwhile, the local enthusiastic church - which really is all about the saving - is about to open what looks to be the best nursery group ever:



And spring has come to Stokes Croft: