The Bristol Blogger is dead, long live the Bristol Blogger

On that note The Blogger is calling it a day for the time being. We’ve done a year solid reporting on these useless twats and that’s enough for anyone. If you haven’t realised you’re being done over yet, then you’re never going to.

We’re now off to pursue some “new projects”, although they’ll be some occasional postings on this site as we use our time to follow up some of those bigger stories we’ve missed due to the workload.

Look out for stuff on local Labour funding, SWRDA IT budgets and ISiS/Southwest One over the coming months along with the odd ramble here and there. But the day-to-day stuff, alas, is gone until we return this time next year for the local elections…

The Bristol Blogger

Headline Of The Day: ANTI-EMO RIOTS BREAK OUT ACROSS MEXICO

WTF?!

Spotted on Wired:

A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City. The next week, shaggy-haired emo kids were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. Most recently, a Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana’s emo kids to stay away from the town’s fair next month.

But the emo kids are organizing, too. Daniel Hernandez of LA Weekly, who has provided stellar coverage of the whole affair, reports that emo teenagers are banding together. Last week, they marched against the violence, pictured above, and Wednesday some met with police in Mexico City.

…by some accounts, the emo subculture is identified with homosexuality in Mexico. As Mexico City youth worker Victor Mendoza told Time.com: “At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that.”

Forum posts show similar sentiments. One person wrote on a government youth-website forum, “detesto a los emosexuales,” which translates as “I hate emosexuals.” Emosexual is an obvious play on homosexual, especially in Spanish, where the H is silent.

(Photo: Mexican emo kids gather in response to anti-emo violence by metalheads and punk rockers. Credit: promrguez)

Piss & Vinegar #007: Harry’s Game (E2)

All I knew about Norn Ireland spook drama Harry’s Game was that Clannad did the theme tune. Anyway, it’s pretty decent. Ray Lonnen (Willie Caine from The Sandbaggers) is Harry Brown, a Brit soldier sent undercover into the Falls to track down and kill the Provo responsible for killing a cabinet minister on his London doorstep; Derek Casualty Thompson is Billy Downes, his rather ordinary prey.

There’s more than a hint of the Nairacs about Brown, with his flimsy cover and wandering accent, whilst Billy Downes recalls James Frain’s Kenny in Nothing Personal, a footsoldier on the other side of the war. The ending’s damn solid too; not sure whether it’s faithful to the Gerald Seymour novel, but it works well as a punchy TV three-parter.

So, Piss & Vinegar: Whilst Billy makes his way back home, he stops off at a safehouse, where precocious young Theresa (Linda Robson from Birds Of A Feather!) takes a shine to him. Unfortunately for the pair of them, she opens her mouth about her encounter with a wanted man, and word filters back to Harry’s controllers, who get the local Special Branch to put the squeeze on her. She can’t take it, and hangs herself in her cell. Hence dangling legs and urine dripping on a cold cement floor. And they say espionage isn’t sexy.

(PS It’s my first blog in ages – pootie’s been at the vets, but she’s all better now!)

HonkWatch #036: Attachments (S1E4)

Oh look, there’s coke-addled wideboy Essex offender Reece getting a shoulderful of lung chunks after raping Zoe the intern in Attachments S1E4.

Andy’s army

Bristol’s cuddliest copper, Chief Inspector Andy ‘Gordon’ Bennett, wants to set up his own cop cadet force!

I have long been a fan of the Volunteer Police Cadets, having been shown a group set up by an inspirational local beat manager PC Zoë Knight, during my time working in Peckham.

The core of the weekly meeting is some drill, a guest speaker and an activity that promoted leadership, team working and citizenship. At the weekend, some cadets would work with the beat managers at local events, leaflet dropping linked to crime reduction and adding weight and enthusiasm to community action.

Dressed in a simple uniform, polished boots and beret there can be some real pride in a mantra of making communities stronger and safer. We could link into the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme as a structure for activities. It could also stand as an excellent recruitment ground for Specials, PCSOs and officers of the future.

Our blogging beatpounder has already mooted the idea with the ‘Safer Stronger Neighbourhood teams’ (where it “met with unanimous approval which convinces me that I am not completely bonkers”), and is now looking to get some feedback from humble civilians.

Can’t say I’ve ever heard of ‘Volunteer Police Cadets’ before, but apparently there’s more than a thousand of them in London, with similar programmes of uniformed frolics operating across more than a dozen forces.

The world of modern policing

From a recent eBay auction (tip o’ the titfer: Bristol Graffiti)

Piss & Vinegar #006: A Very British Coup (E1)

Labour leader Harry Perkins (Ray McAnally) has a leisurely pre-election slash in A Very British Coup.

Headline Of The Day: WEATHER HITS CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL

Not quite sure what kind of weather, or how it’s hitting, but be assured the Evening Post will be first with the details as and when it gets them.

HonkWatch #035: Blue Murder (E2)

My enjoyment of Underbelly has been somewhat curtailed by unpredictable weather in the torrentosphere. Having tasted all that episodes 1-10 could shower me with, the preview disc precipitation dried up, and I find myself languishing in the barren, empty weeks before broadcast catches up with internet. At least until somebody ups E11-13.

So in the meantime I’ve been trying to satiate my hunger for sweary antipodean crime drama with other stuff. Several of the news reports about Underbelly mentioned Blue Murder, often in most complimentary terms, so I got me a copy of that.

It’s about the relationship between corrupt New South Wales cop Roger ‘The Dodger’ Rogerson and violent crim Neddy Smith, and intersects at various points with some of the Victorian underworld stuff which Underbelly is about. It’s much less glossy, though, and focuses more on sweaty beer halls and downmarket Chinese restaurants rather than on titty bars and clubs (as noted elsewhere).

The leads are played by Tony Martin (no, not that one) and Richard Roxburgh. The former is most convincing as the brutal Neddy, looking like he’s been assembled from cheap cuts out the butcher’s window, whilst the latter, transmitting hardness through his eyes, is better known to UK audiences as the distinctly non-Australian Sherlock Holmes in recent Beeb remakes.

Meanwhile, bridging the gap between 1995’s Blue Murder (blocked from broadcast in NSW till 2001) and 2008’s Underbelly (blocked from broadcast in Victoria for the foreseeable future) is none other than Alex Dimitriades. You know, Nick from The Heartbreak Kid and Heartbreak High. Moody Greek heart throb type chap. Hint of a lisp, masked with broodiness. Anyway, in BM he plays Warren Lanfranchi, a crook whom Neddy must betray in order to earn his free pass from The Dodger; whilst in Underbelly he gets to proper gurn as unhinged hitman ‘The Runner’.

Anyway, after enjoying Blue Murder I went off in search of yet more dirty detectives down under. I’ve still not found me a copy of The Clean Machine (starring Steve Bisley), which I remember watching years back and enjoying, but I’m hopeful. I’ve also got my ears out for Police State, Joh’s Jury and Police Crop (all Ian David-penned TV movies, like BM), and also Scales Of Justice (which was helmed by BM director Michael Jenkins). If you can help, please let I know

Back to the HonkWatch pic: Neddy loses his guts after going mental and battering shit out of a truck driver. Diamond geezers indeed, those old school villains. You could leave your front door unlocked, they loved their mothers, never grassed, only hurt their own, blah blah blah…

HonkWatch #034: Rebel Heart (E1)

Bit of a borderline case, this one: Hunger striker Thomas Ashe (played by I don’t know whom, sorry) chokes up a gutful of blood as he’s force-fed in Mountjoy prison, from the not-very-good Irish war of independence mini-series Rebel Heart. It’s not technically regurgitated food fluming up out of the gut, but it is coming out the mouth, so I’m a claim it.

The war against grammar

OPINION LEADERS: The countries brightest minds weigh in on the challenges we face.

From the USAF’s ‘A Changing World’ recruitment campaign website.

Presumably those “brightest minds” do not include too many language specialists.

Still, nice to know that America’s air force is limiting its jurisdiction to merely the skies, outer space and the internet…

Headline Of The Day: SKYWALKERS IN KOREA CROSS HAN SOLO

Courtesy of AP via the Washington Post:

SEOUL, South Korea — They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety.

As part of its annual city festival, the South Korean capital staged Thursday what was billed as the world’s first high-wire championship, drawing 18 contestants from nine countries for three days of supreme feats of concentration.

Each acrobat must navigate the 1.2-inch-thick wire that spans the river, with the top prize of $15,000 going to the person crossing it fastest.

…Organizers in Seoul said stringing the wire across the Han made it the longest-ever such high wire, meaning anyone making it across will break the record for distance.

(Tip o’ the titfer: percyprune)

NYC gives the finger to hip hop-hating, rackrenting, profiteering property speculators!

Looks like 1520 Sedgwick over in the Bronx – putative home of hip hop – has won itself a stay after local authorities in New York blocked a speculative sale of the building…

1520 is not just a significant historical location, it’s also home to many working class Noo Yoikers under the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing programme, so it’s also something of a spanner in the works for the profiteers and gentrifiers.

As Kool Herc himself says:

It’s not just about 1520, it’s about all affordable housing. Every family needs a piece of the American dream.

HonkWatch #033: Guest House Paradiso (iv) – The Family That Pukes Together Stays Together

Last one of the GHP batch (for the moment at least), with Simon Pegg and family chuntering in the corridor. And they say the British film industry is moribund.

HonkWatch #032: The Krays

Watched The Krays for the first time in ages the other day. It wasn’t as good as I remembered it – bit flabby – but still watchable. Kate Hardie doesn’t really get enough to do, except look well nervous and wide-eyed. Never mind.

Here’s Père Kray, Charlie Snr (Alfred Lynch), getting the candy floss and hotdogs knocked out of him in a fairground boxing tent. The emetus is a little elusive, so I have helpfully encircled it.