Re-enact Your Riots

Because you can’t have enough about riots on your blog in any given week.

This is nice: The London Riot Re-enactment Society. And yes, we all remember the “recent” riots there, but London has a history of civil disturbance and the LRRS wants to recreate those moments for posterity. And fun.

The first of these notorious dates was Wat Tyler’s Peasants’ Revolt way back in 1381, and would – entirely accurately – be re-enacted as follows:

100 000 re-enactors dressed as peasants angry about the imposition of poll tax (and other concerns such as the fact that they had no rights) will march from Kent and occupy London for two days, opening all the prisons and ransacking the Tower and Lambeth Palace and demolishing Savoy Palace completely (this part will be easy as it isn’t there), throwing looted treasure into the Thames and beheading judges and lawyers. In a dramatic climax which will take place at Smithfield a re-enactor dressed as the 14 year old King Richard II will meet a re-enactor dressed as Wat Tyler, who will then be murdered by a re-enactor dressed as the mayor.

Sounds like posterity. And fun. But the numbers and the practicalities will make things difficult to organise. Fortunately, by doing away with some of the rules practiced by some other re-enactment societies, the red tape can be reduced.

A knowledge of historical costume and weaponry AND some experience of rioting is the ideal combination for a LRRS member, but members can join with knowledge of one, or the other, or neither. After all, many participants in the riots that we are re-enacting had not a clue what they were up to, and we want historical accuracy, do we not? Neither will we, like some re-enactment societies, impose strict rules against the consumption of alcohol. Most of the top riots involve a bit of drinking. If, for example, you are involved in a re-enactment of the Gordon riots and you are very good at acting drunk for days on end, then feel free to just drink water, but if you think that only gin will do the trick, then drink gin, and we won’t ask where you got it from.

And why stop at re-enacting riots that have actually happened? Why limit yourself in that manner?

We could re-enact riots that haven’t happened yet. Or ones that might never happen.
We could re-enact riots that so far exist only in books or films.

The LRRS is full of excellent, innovative ideas in order to preserve London’s fascinating history and I’m hoping that I’ll be lucky enough to take part in a full-scale re-enactment next time I’m visiting the homeland.

Paul Marriott Isle of Man Photography

I’ve been stalking following Isle of Man resident and photographer Paul Marriott for a while on Facebook and he continues to produce some amazing photographs of my island.

pmp1

He has a website too, which is well worth a visit, because while the images might mean a bit more to me because I recognise the places he’s ‘togged, you should just go and enjoy some beautiful photos of a beautiful place (especially this one and this one – my particular favourites).

Some reading while I’m uploading

A bit of time, a window of opportunity, so I’m quickly (ha!) uploading the pics from the long weekend as promised. I started pruning my pics from my flight with Sea & Sky and then I thought no, sod that, I want to remember every moment of it, so I’ve just put them all up in a set yet to be uploaded (and therefore available). Expect whales, coastline, and skies forever and ever…

UPDATE: Now up – here

And I haven’t even looked at the rest of the photos from the rest of the weekend. Met eish, ja.

UPDATE: Also now up – here

But I’ll link to them in a separate post (UPDATE: Which I also did – here), because until those pics are available, you need to read this:

Some (obviously) excellent writing from Jacques Rousseau including a hilarious off-the-cuff dig at the French and this vitally important line:

The point is that there’s an arms-race of hyperbole going on…

And yes, he’s absolutely right and it’s making the internet an increasingly unpleasant place to be and additionally (and more importantly), it’s stifling and devaluing meaningful debate.

Fear The Dolphins

“The following scenarios may be upsetting to young children. Reader discretion is advised.”

A couple of years ago, I wrote about Taiji and the dolphin hunt. In that post, I had a bit of a go at certain organisations which sought to ban the local population from carrying out their centuries old way of life, simply because of some misguided, emotional attachment to one mammal above another. Many other people have written – and continue to write – about Taiji and the dolphin hunt, but, it seems, few from my point of view. Things were thrown, people got angry and I even got some swear words sent to me in an email.

What I didn’t realise then was that something far more sinister was going on under the surface (so to speak). These human organisations are merely dolphin sympathizers, double agents preparing and softening up mankind for the inevitable Dolphin Apocalypse. I learned this from the very informative website, Anti-Dolphin.org, which opened my eyes to the horrifying and previously unconsidered threat to our very existence that lies beneath our oceans.

Dolphins control 70% of the Earth’s surface, including many major rivers. How can one say this? Well, it is a fact that the majority of Earth’s surface is covered by water, 70% to be precise. Dolphins, of course, live in the ocean and they even admit that they are the kings of the sea in the theme song to Flipper.
Also they control the rivers because there is a group of animals known as river dolphins that are related to the better known group of ocean-dwelling dolphins. These animals do, in fact, share similar policies and values and are allied publicly. A good analogy for this situation is the following: ocean-dwelling dolphins are to river dolphins like Nazi Germany is to Fascist Italy.

Yes. Suddenly, it all becomes clear, doesn’t it? The dolphins, who already have intellectual (bigger brains) and territorial – well, aquatorial – advantage over the human race are surely just waiting for the perfect moment (many of these scenarios are listed here and make harrowing reading) to strike and take full control of the planet.

Dolphins do have the ability to attack and destroy humans. One of these abilities is that they can use the sonar waves that they use in echolocation for more devious purposes. Since ultrasound can be used to breakup kidney stones it is very obvious that dolphins have the capacity to emit certain types of sound waves from their melon to destroy particles in a human body.

or:

They could use this ability to loosen large chunks of ice from the poles and create icebergs. (Titanic?) These icebergs melt as they travel through warm water. This will add more water to the oceans and cause coastal flooding. Dolphins will then gain more and more control of the Earth’s surface.

At first, I too was skeptical. But when you are open-minded enough to step back and take in the bigger picture, it’s abundantly clear that we have been repeated lied to and fed pro-dolphin propaganda throughout our developing years.

Why else would SeaWorld, Green Peace, The Wild Dolphin Project, The Dolphin Institute, Blue Dolphin Alliance, and the Miami Dolphins be created? They all are designed to be aides for the dolphin’s control. These cult-like businesses/organizations try to make you feel bad for the dolphins and they attempt to get you involved with their manipulative cause.

And you can add the devious Sea Shepherd to that list as well. Presumably, they believe that their interference in the human/dolphin situation in Taiji will buy them some sort of amnesty when the dolphins finally rise up and conquer mankind. But even a fool can surely see that the dolphins cannot be trusted and once they have enslaved or killed the rest of the human race, these sorry traitors will soon follow. (And I think all us rational human beings would fully support the dolphins in that act, at least.)

For too long, we have lived our lives oblivious to the insidious threat of the Dolphin Apocalypse. No longer.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen; lend me your ears, because you have ears!
You have opposable thumbs!
You stand upright and tall.

YOU ARE HUMAN!

Do not be a sleeping partner in the dolphins’ evil plan. Spread the word and when the day comes, let us be prepared to fight for the 30% of this planet that we still control!

Viva, Mankind! Viva! Amandla!