Journalist + Artist + Humanist = @OutUrbanArtsBoy

...because there are so many things to be conscious of

[outurbanartsboy]

#FFS ahead of the Smmmile - vegan pop festival! For the SenseStories platform I recently got the lowdown from FFS's podcast producer Matteo de Vos (pictured).

Check it out to hear all about FFS's @forfoodssakeme journey, stance on many food-related issues, and ideas for the future :)

Read the 🆕 article:

https://stories.makesense.org/en/podcast-food-security/

[tagg-solidarity]

Visit Original Link

This audio excerpt is part of radio broadcast from a rally event in Paris – Friday 30 June 2017. Ahead of the Iran Grand Gathering of Resistance and Iranian Diaspora on, July 1, 2017. At Villepinte Pairs. From where we will also be reporting.

TIMECODE [00:00:00.00] Amb. Lincoln Bloomfield Jr.: If they put the IRGC on the terrorism list. So many issues of whether Iran is actually seeking domination. Or is doing what Foreign Minister Zarif would probably say – is being a good neighbor and is not being a divisive sectarian force at all. So if you could council (directed at John Baird) the exiled community and scholars around the world on how to educate populations in Canada, United States, in Europe, what facts would turn this debate and confirm the analysis that you brought forth. What is it that you would want to tell your, sort of, capital cities? What is that… what is your frustration, what’s the frustration in the United States Senate, where people just don’t believe what other senators believe. They have two sets of facts. What do we do to overcome that? Minister…

A panel review of Tehran’s domestic and regional policies by the FEMO, the Foundation for Middle Eastern Studies (la fondation d'Etudes pour le moyen Orient) is an independent organization that provides analysis on the individuals.

TIMECODE [00:00:55.27] John Baird: I think first and foremost we’ve got to abandon any notion of trying to restrain the evil regime from doing evil things. We’ve got to abandon a policy of containing the actions of the regime. And we must think more broadly of how do we overcome or how do we transform the government in Iran. And what specifically can, not through foreign imposed military-backed regime change, but what we can do to inspire and intangibly support the people of Iran.

TIMECODE [00:01:32.12] John Baird: I once spoke to Natan Scheransky and he said – one morning when he was sitting in a Soviet Gulag – when Ronald Reagan called out the then Soviet Union for being an evil empire, that it did give them hope. It did inspire them. And, I come back to the speaking with greater moral clarity. I think it’s so incredibly important. We must be much much more ambitious; than simply trying to restrain and contain the regime.

Contact for links to include this and other segments in your upcoming radio shows: [email protected]

Broadcasting live via: http://mixlr.com/the-media-express/ from 13h00 CET July 1 2017 live out of Paris.

TIMECODE [00:02:02.05] Amb. Lincoln Bloomfield Jr.: Senator Lieberman…

TIMECODE [00:02:03.20] Joseph Lieberman: Ah, the first argument I would make to doubters… of where we are, is that… what happens in Iran, though it half the world away from the United States, really matters to our security. It also matters to our values. But if people are skeptical about getting involved just because… other people’s freedom is being compromised by an autocratic regime, as it is… in Tehran and Iran. Not withstanding the mission that our founding documents, particularly The Declaration of Independence gave us. Ok, let’s say they’re not gonna buy that argument… but people in the Iranian Diaspora have a personal connection to their homeland, as it were.

TIMECODE [00:02:54.05] Joseph Lieberman: So it’s compelling to them. But I would argue to those that are on the other of this in the United States, it ought to be compelling to us too, in terms of our security. I mean… we got all the problems in the world today, that General (Jack) Keane (former Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Army) talked about… rising big power competition with China and Russia… we have the insane regime in North Korea. But in my opinion, the most significant threat to world security and American security is the government in Iran today. And that is because it is the no.1 state sponsor of terrorism. It is creating havoc in the region. It has the blood of 100s, 1000s of Americans on it’s own hands, beginning with all the American soldiers who were killed in Iraq by IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) trained Shia militias. We can go back to marine barracks and Beirut in the 80’s. The Khobar Towers. The line is a horrific one.

So it’s not like this thing is way over there… it’s not gonna affect Americans. It is gonna affect Americans. And I though (Amb.) Bob Joseph (Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security until 2007) said something really compelling… often the most simple statement are compelling. Not that you’re simple-minded (laughs)… but… (crosstalk)… which is… why do we think the government is building intercontinental ballistic missiles? They already can reach their enemies and the Arab States of Israel in the Middle East. They’re  building intercontinental missiles for one reason… so they’ll be in a position to put nuclear weapons on them, and to threaten… which will… infeeble Europe and the United States.

And… but that… I’m going to get very personal. My wife was with me. When I think about the future and I think… what can I do to protect the security of my children and grandchildren in the decades ahead in America? There’s nothing more important than to change the regime in Tehran.

TIMECODE [00:05:08.04] Amb. Lincoln Bloomfield Jr.: Thank you. Bob (Amb. Robert Joseph) thoughts on this…

Through its symposia, publications and reports, FEMO provides expert advice and insights on the complex issues of the Middle East and enrichies the debate on the strategic situation of this region. 

FEMO is a reiable source of information for public authorities in European countries. In 2017, FEMO organized several debates during wich experts, researchers and academics presented their analyses on the situation in the Middle East.

Moderated by: Lincoln Bloomfield Jnr, Ambassador, Distinguished Fellow and Chairman Emeritus at the Stimson Center, former Assistant Secretary of State for Military Affairs

Panel speakers: – Denis Ross, Ambassador, former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region. Special Adviser for the Persian Gulf including Iran to the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

– John Baird, former Foreign Minister of Canada

– Joseph Lieberman, former US Senator and Vice Presidential candidate

– Robert Joseph, Ambassador, United States Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security until 2007

– Bruno Tertrais, Deputy Director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique of France

[outurbanartsboy]

#algorithm 1 (detail)

Materials: base paper, spray, stencil, post-it note, ink.

Based on the texts of Leicester-based thinker from the late 1800s James Allen who published As A Man Thinketh which dealt with the power of though. Basically the spiritual godfather of mindful thinking. A commission for a art collective in the West Midlands region, UK.

[outurbanartsboy]

The podzine as part of the radio show #bienurban. Previously called Urbanstates. Copyright 2016 - 2017

ENG – A fanzine covering the first 2 seasons of Paris’s original street reportage show. The fanzine features full interviews and critiques plus original illustrations and there are also French translations alongside the original English scripts. 52 pages, printed 2 colour, risograph quality.

FR – Une fanzine qui couvre les premieres deux saisons des reportages qui été transmetrée sur le station de radio numerique autour Paris. Vous pouvez les trouver ici toutes les scripts ecrit en Anglais et aussi Française. Cela est un magazine qui est realisée pour les gens qui aime le ville, fait par les gens qui aime la ville. 52 pages, imprimée 2 coleur, qualité artistique risograph.

Printed January 2016 by apresmidilab Paris. We can automatically ship to Europe and within France. (Worldwide p+p costs, click to find out more.)

[outurbanartsboy]

#algorithm 1 & 2

Materials: base paper, spray, stencil. 

Based on the texts of Leicester-based thinker from the late 1800s James Allen who published As A Man Thinketh which dealt with the power of though. Basically the spiritual godfather of mindful thinking. A commission for a art collective in the West Midlands region, UK.

[outurbanartsboy]

Radio show | Street, Expression & Wellbeing

[outurbanartsboy]

[outurbanartsboy]

[outurbanartsboy]

[outurbanartsboy]

Me + Perec I asked my mate, vocalist Liv Monaghan to take some shots of me. We hopped up the hill towards Square Saint-Simoniens, off Rue de Ménilmontant in Paris’s 20th district. The door number kind of simply looked good. Then searching for images of Perec, I stumbled across this photo of the cult writer and artist being snapped in front of building no. 27.

Check out the project P-R-CTours.eu

http://www.twitter.com/bienurban

Contact me via instragram @outurbanartsboy

[outurbanartsboy]

The Oliver Tree community center is a home-away-from-home for Shannon Kay and the extended family she has found in the local Syrian community, here with Gulbahar who attends a regular homework group there

The full article/portrait on SenseSTORiES

[outurbanartsboy]

Hanzade Germiyanoglu, Field Coordinator of Support To Life, clutching a feather, a symbol of the fragility yet a deftness of ability

The full article/portrait on SenseSTORiES

[outurbanartsboy]

Joanna Theodorou, founder and Partnerships Coordinator CAMPFIRE Innovation, training volunteers to use various open source/low tech tools at Orange House, a community centre and accommodation for vulnerable refugees in Athens.

The full article/portrait on SenseSTORiES

[outurbanartsboy]

Title: Please shadow, don’t go. I didn’t really mean to hurt you. Format: Book. Medium: Text messages and photo messages.

[outurbanartsboy]

Urbanstates | Listen Again stats - Infogram, charts & infographics

Infographic: Urbanstates | Listen Again stats

These states cover the first two seasons of Listen Again clicks of my Paris street reportage show #urbanstates

[outurbanartsboy]

The old road to Coroico.

There are 2 roads that link cold La Paz to the tropical pueblo of Coroico, a population of just 10% of La Paz. One is a old and the other new. We are taking the old, toll-free route. Our journey starts in the Northern part of La Paz, Villa Fatima. Villa Fatima is a market area and the few tour operators are housed near the old estacion gasolina. Each ticket is numbered but I’ve no idea of how to tell which is numero 11.

20 minutes into our journey we pass a cemetery, solitary mountain dogs and it seems that at 2km intervals crash barriers cushion the edge of the lunging precipices. HAY CHANCHO CON-ARROZ. It’s common for small outcrops of communities living here to operate cafes from their prefabricated tin shacks; and I see they have pork and rice, but there’s four hour journey ahead on this minibus journey and I don’t have the courage to chance battling with an upset tummy.

BUSCA A DIOS JESUS ESTA LLEGADO, DIOS TE AMA CRISTO VIVA appears scrawled along the roadside which is some kind of religious-themed graffiti and it covers the rock formations and I attempt to figure out what it means. We continue along a narrow mountainside road and there’s poor vision ahead through this unforgiving weather beaten environment. Also I spot out of the window some well-wishing markers bidding for a safe passage. Having ascended to such a high altitude now, I’m imagining that the ‘indiginas’ of this part of Bolivia really do perceive themselves as being pretty close to a godly presence. What’s more, mixed in with the graffiti are corporate logos including POLAROID, COCA COLA which form billboards out of the stoney surfaces.

The climate which begins as a regular grey day in La Paz shifts dramatically and we drive through a stretch of treacherously icey roads. And this is a covering of ice which looks like it’s the result of of a wild stream of cascading water which freezes rapidly on contact with the road’s surface. This along with the contraflows of blankets of clouds, common phenomenon at this altitude they fondly refer to it as neblina is surreal. Easing our way through the neblina we approach drug relate graffiti scrawls which at the control customs depots which read CONTROL ANTINARCOTICS / PARADA OBLIGATORIA. This is probably connected to one of Coroico’s main industries – there’s a stedfast economy based around cocoa cropping. So, the friendly looking customs depots  put face to to the potential Bolivia has to being a main producer of cocaine.

Wow, we hit a blueness of colour revealing a community of houses that share the ambient surroundings and cling to their harsh surrounding terrain. Now rain mixes the view of the flat plains of this ‘altiplano’, so called because of the high altitude. And the mountains have regressed to the far distance on one side and the ‘neblina’ rise up from the mountain sides valley crevices below. On the other side there appears an apparent flatness and we now pass a half-dozen roadside testimonials. I wonder if they’re graves of those who fell to their doom on this precarious old mountain road, or they’re simply virgin mascots offered to Christ.

Becoming more aware of the journey I start to feel the tingle of a dead leg and single buttock. I notice a sniffing and a dog appears form under my seat, a mother and son seem to have hit their destination, ‘VAMOS A BAJAR’ she hollers before they get off, but where to in this desolate landscape? A man boards carrying a heavy sack load of fresh bread-rolls which he plonks in the free seat beside me making my journey noticeably more uncomfortable. 35 VELOCIDAD, our vision through the windshield is now reduced to less than 2 metres ahead. And there’s an abundance of traffic warning signs, one in particular which makes in impression on me – showing a symbol of a rock falling on a symbol of a minibus.

Although it’s still daytime in La Paz here our passage is guided by looking out for the oncoming amber glows of the sparse flow of traffic infront. And it’s only through breaks in the clouds that there’s a hint of landscape. Quickly through the climate changes into something semi-tropical, and I can see foliage that sweeps the contours of the plunging vertical inclines below the wheels of the minibus. We enter the first of 3 tunnels, the exit of the tunnel marked by a mysterious white haze ahead – an appearance much like a snowglobe. COROICO 76km and we’re at our half-way point. BOLIVIA 1474IHA reads the numberplate on the trailer van we’re tying to overtake. 2 children hang over the gate overlooking into our minibus, the driver consciously attempts his second and successful attempt to pass safely. 

The smooth road bleeds into a rocky surface that throws the minibus into a potholed dance, before changing tempo for the asphalt road once again. Again we dance freeform. We hit sunny blue skies, bleak cloudy mists and icey patches. Now I wonder if the weather is changing at a lower altitude too or these conditions reflect the perfectly formed pockets of ambient weather phenomenon at 4000 metres?

Dirt track or road, it seems the contra-flows have priority and they take the smooth track of road, while we battle the old rocky path. COROICO 50km BIENVENIDOS. I’m starting to feel the use of my dead leg again and look out of the window at the small arid-looking trees, one’s which proudly sprout up to 2 or so metres set along the roadside. They offer a great comfort and compensate for a lack a crash barrier. This sets me to thinking to how Coroico might look more generally – it’s a place situated in the north of the jungle of this part of Bolivia.

Now the roadsides are randomly adorned with a mix of trees, shrubs and noticeable for their colour they shine in a variety of greens and iron rich tones of red and yellow in hints. As I look beyond the misty vapors, I imagine more of these abundant brilliant tropical colours. NO ADELANTAR (no overtaking) as more roadside barriers appear and also disappear at regular intervals. These are forewarning of a gully of water-flow either side of the road, and of where the familiar double-yellow lines appear along this diminutive camino. I think this these indicate we soon should be in view of our destination. 

White lines continue to demarcate the ambiguous edges of the roadside. 40 VELOCIDAD. Another interior road is carved between 2 hospitable rock faces, and which give respite to my anxiety. Amber punctuations guide our way through another tunnel with yet another snowglobe like arch beacons our passage from the distance. Approaching the exit our driver slows hesitantly to a halt, the tunnel leading us onto another ambiguous stretch of road. This time an ambiguous looking bridge cuts through the cloud cover. BOSQUE MOUNTAÑO. NO ESTACIONAR. Only once did I hear the screech of the tyres. Thinking I’m thirsty I look to my bottle of water – it’s squeezed condensed appearance a sign of our descending altitude. 

In the distance of the green rolling hillsides appears Coroico, yet at our height we will need to wind down even further and this time we seem to overlook brilliant shades of green and bursts of opaque white cloud. At this height birds start again to fly by. I can see ahead the next road curving below us as the driver ushers the minbus into a deeper descent. A bus screams past us, a young boy wearing a yellow knitted jumper hanging his head out of the window. 30 MAXIMUM VELOCIDAD. Contemplating my time in La Paz, I realise I haven’t been below 3000 metres in 16 days. La Paz is choked by localised pollution from cars stuttering along the avenues and cross streets. So will here be a chance to breath fresh mountain air?

For just 15Bs (£1.20) it’s possible to travel over 80km from the grey city to a place everyone thinks of as paradise. In the distance a pattern of orange with a surround of green appears as if a beam of light and energy emitting from the ground – giving it a beacon-like quality. Each time we pass oncoming traffic the driver double-toots the horn, even at the 2 lovers in an embrace. The clouds now regress themselves to normal height revealing the green mountainous terrain which clearly puts the beautiful nature is in balance once again. 

From the minibus window the surroundings look more apparent. Now I’m free to notice the details in the minibus and see that the driver and his front-seat passenger neither of who wear seat-belts, as they chat about nothing much. In typical arch, there’s a rainbow in the clear sky above and which settles on a distant solitary house high up on the mountain’s peak. HOTEL REO SELVA RESORT. From this vantage you can smell the green that surrounds us, a sharp contrast from the chocking plumbs of smoke I came accustomed to back there in La Paz.

On the final descent we pass a crossflow of water, evidently on route to the river that’s responsible for having shaped the cavity below. A local man hops on board the minibus to take the place of the bread that had accompanied me for the last 2 hours of the journey. Now we make the final 8km ascent up to Coroico, the axel spinning aggressively and the terrain bouncing us around like babies in a rocking cradle. Along the way are vans parked and stacked rooftop high with mountain bikes. It’s evident  by looking at the expressions of the people sitting inside these vans that they’ve just done the 5km death road cycle.

As we get welcomed closer to our destination,  I see iron-enriched markings on the rock formations. A local family bounds on by in a jeep, most of them in a huddle, seated in the open. And the father stands unanimated, holding on tightly as the jeep gets thrown by the finely pebbled road. Again there seems to be a level of concentration in the minibus and our driver wills our minibus onwards and upwards. The guy sitting beside me pays his 2Bs and hops out. COROICO – LAND OF NATURAL ATTRACTION. 

My ears start to feel the same popping sensation you get whilst descending towards touchdown on a flight. Cars line up along the roadside like a welcome entourage. Our driver takes on the oncoming taxi shunting forward into the bottleneck of their path – and wins. The minibus vibrates violently under the pressure of the pebbly path below for the last 15 minutes and then shudders still upwards. Nearly there...

[outurbanartsboy]

This clip features Liv Monaghan accompanied by Sava on Ukulele who had tuned up the strings of the Ukulele to the tones of the A Dirty Grey Cat (ADGC) of the double bass, his preferred instrument. 

The evening was in association with World Radio Paris - WRP and the Paris city reportage radio show #urbanstates.

The event took place at Le Pop In, Rue Amelot, Paris. Thursday 14th Jan 2016.  https://www.facebook.com/Le-Pop-In-153300488032563/ http://popin.fr/

Support live music – you can support Liv Monaghan here:

https://www.facebook.com/livmonaghanmusic/ https://livmonaghan.bandcamp.com/music 

You can support independent Journalism and buy the magazine here: https://www.facebook.com/bienurban/

Support independent Radio and link up with World Radio Paris broadcasts on digital throughout the Paris region in English. http://www.worldradioparis.fr/features/urban-states/

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xGVBuQs7_4)