Killjoy alert on the Portobello Road.

Ryan O'Reilly; prince of buskers and regular Saturday attraction sent me this message today:

Ryan O'Reilly 05 February at 14:03 Report

Hi Tristan, just thought you'd be interested for your blog that we got properly got moved on today. some guy in a suit came up and disturbed our crowd then forced the PCSO's to remove us (against their will as they kept saying) he lived all the way down the road and as you know we don't use amps. couldn't believe it, then he rather laughably said he'd bring a bat to sort us out next time. The PCSO's said that they'd missed a street robbery because of his constant complaining. Anyway, sorry for the rant but like I say if you wish to mention it in your blog then please feel free.
all the best.
Ryan

What the fuck is wrong with some people? 

Portobello has been here for a long long time. It is, on Fridays and Saturdays, a bustling noisy street. The buskers are part of the attraction for the thousands of tourists who visit each weekend. Why the fuck would 'man in suit' want to move here in the first place?

Maybe he enjoys the cachet of a W11 address. He is obviously suffering for his 'chicness' and should relocate to Pinner immediately and leave Portobello and the rest of us to go about our lives.

The White Stripes have split up...

From the White Stripes Website

The Ryan O'Reilly Band - Gypsy Tree

John Barry...

John Barry has died. A Guardian piece about his music is HERE

Whether you know it or not he was a massive presence in the movies... He seems to have scored my entire film going life.

Here is the opening sequence from one of his early films.  Look out for a very gay Oliver Reed in the checked shirt.

The Tabernacle has a new website.

About time too. The Tabernacle has thrown away the old website and moved into the 21st century.

find them here: http://www.tabernaclew11.com/

Urgent message from Egypt from Miriam Hussain... Please read this!

On Saturday 29th January 2011, @marcinhosavant said:

URGENT MESSAGE FROM ACTIVIST IN EGYPT. PLEASE REPOST IF YOU CAN! "To all the people of world"

Alicia Ali Marsden

To all the people of world

The people in Egypt are under governmental siege. Mubarak regime is banning Facebook, Twitter, and all other popular internet sites Now, the internet are completely blocked in Egypt. Tomorrow the government will block the 3 mobile phone network will be completely blocked.

And there is news that even the phone landlines will be cut tomorrow, to prevent any news agency from following what will happen.

Suez city is already under siege now. The government cut the water supply and electricity, people, including, children and elderly are suffering there now. The patients in hospitals cannot get urgent medical care. The injured protesters are lying in the streets and the riot police are preventing people from helping them. The families of the killed protesters cannot get the bodies of their sons to bury them. This picture is the same in north Saini (El-Sheikh zoyad city) and in western Egypt (Al-salom). The riot police is cracking down on protesters in Ismailia, Alexandria, Fayoum, Shbin Elkoum, and Cairo, the capital, in many neighborhoods across the city.

The government is preparing to crackdown on the protesters in all Egyptian cities. They are using tear gas bombs, rubber and plastic pullets, chemicals like dilutes mustard gas against protesters. Several protesters today have been killed when the armored vehicles of the riot police hit them. Officials in plain clothes carrying blades and knives used to intimidate protesters. Thugs deployed by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior are roaming the streets of Cairo, setting fire on car-wheels as means of black propaganda to demonize protesters and justify police beatings and state torture

All this has been taken place over the past three days during the peaceful demonstrations in Cairo and other cities. Now, with the suspicious silence of the local media and the lack of coverage from the international media, Mubarak and his gang are blocking all the channels that can tell the world about what is happening.

People who call for their freedom need your support and help. Will you give them a hand?

The activists are flooding the net (youtube and other sites) with thousands of pictures and videos showing the riot police firing on armless people. The police started to use ammunition against protesters. 15-year old girl has been injured and another 25 year old man has been shot in the mouth. While nothing of these has appeared in the media, there is more to happen tomorrow. Will you keep silent? Will you keep your mouth shut while seeing all these cruelty and inhumane actions?

We don’t ask for much, just broadcast what is happening

Written by: Mariam Hussien

Being human... Being teenage.

Teenagers are obsessed with two things; growing up and sex.

Parents of teenagers are obsessed with avoiding both.

Teenagers have always been obsessed with sex and the cinema/TV have constantly looked for metaphors to describe this obsession. Over the years the teenage obsession has remained the same, the metaphors used however have become more and more sophisticated to the point where drugs and booze and even sex itself is not sexy enough... So let's throw in vampirism.

Adam's story in this programme is as old as the hills... A kid who doesn't want to grow up as quickly as the society he lives in wants him to; he is the victim of peer pressure, advertising and fear.

He is saved, at the end of the day, by his own 'common sense' and his desire to take things at the right speed. Of course he is helped in this by 'friends' who may have motives of their own, but that is life. That is how it is.

I wish I had had television like this when I was a kid, I had to make do with early Doctor Who, the Clangers and the Evengers to escape. but there again I had Man walking on the moon, England winning the World Cup and snogging Judy Waters in the churchyard.

And much more was possible because of the lack of sophistication back then... I have a feeling that sophistication is finite and that original thought more and more difficult to achieve. Everything is on the telly now and better than we could possibly have imagined.

But still I wish I were a teenager watching Being Human, and better still would be watching it with my mum and dad.

Adele - Set Fire to the Rain (Life from The Tabernacle, Notting Hill)

Ray - Roughler - Jones. Notting Hill personality of the year.

This is surely a joke. Ray Jones has been voted Notting Hill personality of the year. I reviewed his autobiography last year; a picaresque tale of thieving, dealing, drinking and skiving. Nothing wrong with that if you are going to own up to it but surely NOT the makings of 'Personality of the Year'.

What about the school dinner ladies, the lollipop folk, the selfless carers, the blemish free charity workers, the whores that sell £5 tricks on Westbourne Park Road to frustrated ministers, the steel pan players on Portobello, the Yummy Mummies who like to be seen doing their bit, The crackhead panhandlers who live on my doorstep?

Nah. This is Notting Hill. Personality of the Year has got to... Well you know. Sniff!

Well done Ray.

Nelson Mandela dying?

Things do not look good as a string of old friends visit Mandela's bedside. However we are told that he is suffering from a collapsed lung and will be out of hospital soon.

UPDATE. Mandela is now out of hospital and feeling better.

Murray Lachlan Young West country tour.

Details HERE or murraylachlanyoung.co.uk

Depressed by the press.

A Guest Blog by Jan Nieupjur. As ever his views ain't necessarily mine.

What a depressing start to the year.

I had always (naively) believed that the role of the press was to report on events in such a way as to inform it's readers. Four events in the past couple of weeks have demonstrated beyond doubt that the press now believes that IT is the story and that events occur purely as catalyst to the main event; namely the press writing/talking about themselves. No longer satisfied with reporting the facts it must now pontificate, pass judgement, assassinate, harass, defame and then blame everyone else but itself when it gets it wrong.

In fact the press now succeeds in misinforming it's readers most of the time.

I see nothing more than cliquey groups of self important 'would be' somebodies suddenly realising that they are about as relevant as Spam recipes when it comes to providing up to date news.

Newspapers are now nothing more than flimsy 'lifestyle' comics; they are always at least 12 hours behind the rest of us so I guess they feel that, by hypothesising, accusing and judging, they are providing a service.

My advice.  Stick to fashion, cooking, interior design and obscure health matters. Leave the reporting of the news to those who can actually focus on the news.

Blog exhaustion.

I'm suffering from exhaustion. The blog has somewhat ground to a halt. They never last forever in the same format; everyone gets bored and wanders off somewhere else.

what to do though!

There are enough political blogs around and more than enough 'wise-arses' to go around.

Hopefully something will crop up.