Merry

a christmas medley from barnsley town centre
A Christmas Medley From Barnsley Town Centre (2011, 87MB, 1:29 min)

Normally we don’t post our own work here but I couldn’t resist this.
Also – it was a gift; no editing, just the take. (OK. I turned down the brightness
& jacked up the contrast a little.)
Barnsley is actually the friendliest of places, with a grumpy, wry, cheerfulness born of
generations of working-class solidarity, especially in the pits, though it’s now
ravaged by the cuts and closures of the past years.
From me & Doron, Happy Holidays and looking forward to a better world next year.
We’re taking a small holiday break & we’ll be back with something rather splendid
from Morrisa Maltz on January 2nd.

Marc Garrett & Ruth Catlow – At Winter Equinox We Burn the Sun

the mouse escapes
At Winter Equinox We Burn the Sun (2010, 37MB, 3:48 min)

And by way of wishing a Happy New Year to all, here’s a tremendous piece from my friends
Marc Garrett & Ruth Catlow, the movers behind the indispensable Furtherfield.org & the Netbehaviour list.
Here they ritually burn a copy of the evil Murdoch’s UK organ The Sun & accompany this
with music both apposite and well executed.
I think this is shot very well. I don’t mean in a boring technical sense – who gives a? –
but that it is utterly alive, especially those beautiful final, almost vertical, shots.
There’s a delicious play here too on folkishness which treads a fine line in avoiding
being itself folksy.
Further – here’s a practical demonstration of how political art doesn’t have to
be dour or ploddingly earnest and indeed can summon a visceral beauty.
There’s a dialogue (or, perhaps better, an argument) between this celebration of the beauty
of the world, betokened in this scene and what passes therein, and the real ugliness and
anti-humanity of the paper and its contents.
Great Great Great.

Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis

Christmas in Hollis
Christmas in Hollis (1987, 32MB, 4:02 min)

This vid is probably old news to a lot of you but it
passed me by completely in 87 (and the many times
too, apparently, it has since re-emerged on soundtracks &c.
I should get out more).
I love it. It makes me grin so wide I’m afraid my
head will fall off. Plus it’s seasonal.
This is our last post for 2010 so we’ll wish all of
you the happiest of holiday seasons & we’ll resume
posting on Jan 3rd.