Afternoon…sunny skies hide the fact that it was such a gloomy morning…..I’m counting on you to be having a better weekend than I thus far. Continuing my commitment to more frequent posts I’ve a very quick two topics for the price of one and both are definitely worth your time in the opinion of your Clashblogger. First of all the image that you see off to the left, usually I do a semi-regular feature for ‘Clash Shopping’ now retitled ‘Lost in the Supermarket’ and usually I batch things together but today’s piece of art is different enough and perhaps good enough (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) to stand up for it’s own post, or at least half of one. What can I tell you about it – not that I know much about art – is that it’s done with pastels and prints are available. The artist is named Josh and attends the Savannah (GA) College of Art. I’ve asked him for more info such as price for the prints so if you’re interested let me know.

On a non shopping matter – I hope you remember a while back the many posts we had about Alan Miles’ film ‘Breaking Rocks’ – the documentary that looked at the Jail Guitar Doors initiative in the UK. It was a busy year for JGD who also launched a US chapter in the Spring. The film follows Billy Bragg and some of the individuals helped by JGD as they learned guitar and a new skill. The film had a pretty cool premiere and then made it to DVD I believe, I assumed sitting in the States it was something I would never see until the other day. Just doing a general search I found that the entire film had been uploaded online to youtube! I didn’t want to promote a bootleg so I got in touch with Alan Miles to check if it was alright to promote via the blog and he did give it the thumbs up. So why waste time reading my blurb, you need to pull up a chair and watch this film. Watch it for the good of the project, watch it for Billy Bragg and Alan, watch it for the spirit of The Clash…just make sure you watch it! Then let me or Alan know your thoughts – I’m sure he’d love your feedback. You can contact him via Facebook. Also, here is the official link to Jail Guitar Doors.

Cheers for now – the film is below. Tim

Alan Miles’ film Breaking Rocks

Another quick update for you, you’ll have to bear with me as I am finding the energy to type with the brief return to cooler weather. Just ate the nearest thing I’ve had in years to a North London kebab from this new Greek place that has opened nearby. If it were raining and 35 degrees colder I could have squinted and pretended I was walking down to Turnpike Lane tube. His menu I must mention, he was Greek but decided anywhere that bordered the Mediterranean was fair game, Greek food rubbed shoulders with Italian, Turkish, Middle Eastern and Moroccan.  Couldn’t help but think of Joe singing Bhindhi Bhagee as I scanned the menu, welcome stranger to the humble neighbourhood indeed.

Regular readers will remember a lot of the work last year and this Spring that centred around the Jail Guitar Doors project. One of the many special moments was the rare reunion of Mick with Topper Headon as they partnered with Billy Bragg to record a new version of the song that christened the project, the original post was nearly a year ago which is hard to believe.  Since that time the Alan Miles film that chronicled the project has helped raise awareness along with the continued efforts of Bragg plus Wayne Kramer who launched JGD USA.  Following a year spent touring and being an activist for electoral reform in the UK plus his protests against RBS bonuses Billy Bragg is back to help Alan Miles with a Scottish leg of the project. To date only one prison in Scotland has allowed Jail Guitar Doors to donate guitars to inmates but the hope is that may well change soon. Bragg and Miles were in Edinburgh for the Scottish launch of the film Breaking Rocks this week at the Cameo Cinema in the city. After the film Bragg plus two former inmates performed tracks from the cinema stage. I’d like to link you to Reel Scotland.com who have a nice feature on the event in addition to exclusive audio interviews with both Billy Bragg and Alan Miles. Nice work by all!

Meanwhile in the USA you really should follow Wayne Kramer on facebook, lots of information always added plus photographs etc and former MC5 star is a really humble bloke too. Speaking of prison I watched Shawshank Redemption again recently for I don’t know the 30th time, I keep waiting for that film to seem anything less than brilliant and I don’t think it ever will. Just a brilliant film. Lastly….Gorillaz….(sorry) but it seems .5C/G are taking the piss a bit announcing just one date of the US tour in New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 8th. Are they going to announce one venue per day for the next two weeks? Feed Good (inc) not really just a bit of an needless extended wait to find out how far we’re all going to need to drive/fly.

OK I think I’ll wrap it up there and go back to thinking of Greek food and North London.

Good Morning and this would be Sunday I believe…and guess what it’s not even raining this time. First things first in my previous post I reference an interview with Alan Miles via the See it Loud site and in the most amateur styling I forgot to include the link – thus you’ll find it here and sorry about that mistake. I’ve got a Clash Cup planned for later tonight and also warmly encourage you to forward questions for the Charity Director over at Strummerville - Trish Whelan that we’re going to be interviewing for the blog (read more about that here).

Quick blast from Carbon Silicon first, per the update on their site and Tony James’ sporadic twittering a new 4 track EP is fairly imminent entitled ‘What Are You Thinking’. More news as we get it but its fair to say that CSi are in a vein of productivity which is really good to see.

Image courtesy Life Magazine

My back hurt a bit the other night after playing football and I wished I lived near South Woodford (East London if you’re not from the smoke) so I could pay a visit to see Terry Chimes and fix my back. Notice I said near South Woodford and not in it, as most of East London is simply a good place to get your face smashed in, or so it was during my youth. Needless to say my back is fine again now and my thoughts of moving to E18 have eroded as quickly as they arrived.

I saw ‘Alice in Wonderland’ with the chap who plays guitar on the Mick Jones/Shane MacGowan Haiti charity single yesterday. I don’t mean I watched the film with Johnny Depp but that I watched the new version of the Lewis Carroll book yesterday starring the actor/guitarist. I’m not a film critic but if that moveit was an album it would be Sandinista! – all over the bloody place but essentially rather good. Note to self – a six year old still crap themselves at the site of a pretty imposing dragon. Spinner.com put together a fun list of songs ideal for an Alice In Wonderland soundtrack although I think they should add ‘If music could talk’ based on my review. Spinner also weigh-in on the Clashrillaz rumour that is getting to be a bit silly now.

Finally for you a quick interview with Don Letts from the Yorkshire Evening Post. I imagine Letts along with other notables will be arriving in Austin this weekend so I’d expect to hear more from the filmmaker with his finger on the Clash pulse. Oh…we also raced past 400 strong on the facebook page for the blog – thanks all

Lots of other short things to get to over the next 48 hours so please drop back in.

Tim