Working Class Worrier

‘Hope of deliverance from the darkness that surrounds us’

Posted on October 18, 2018 by dilettantemilitant

‘And they promised us the world … in Hooverville’* (© Leech 1992)

That fabulous Mersey mop-topped maestro Paul McCartney wrote this post’s title’s lyrics way back in ’92 and they resonate true today. Inequality and disparity reside in every rat-ridden doorway, under every dank, derelict bridge and inside 99% of inner-city high-rise ‘scum-streets’ (as muttered off the record by Tory Councillor for Sittingbourne, Jerrence Mallanby-Birch). The still image reveals more than any words ever could. Context is prescribed by the eye of the beholder, a framed perception that defies contesting.

It is only through capturing and documenting these cesspits of filth that a better future can be achieved. Therefore, it is with great honour and pride that I can announce the imminent publication of a vital phot-tome by a truly great citizen and filmic auteur, Kenneth Leech. Not only is he a trusted friend of my charitable causes, but, his provocative visi-texts and antagonistic art continue to stir the embers of complacency at the seats of power. Forever rustling feathers and hustling bell-wethers in the pursuit of integrity and honesty , ‘Kenny’ mashes up pop-cultural history with searing commentary that sadly reminds that these problems are not today’s problems, but, the mistakes of the past that perpetually haunt the present.

Like his near contemporary, incognito graffito Banksy, Leech blends his anti-capitalist critiques with everyday reference points (e.g. *The Christians and Bucks Fizz+ lyric inspired captions) in order to be understood by everyone, speaking on the level, ‘never above, never beneath’ is his modus operendi.

His work has seen him travel and explore the outer reaches of the globe along the way encountering many remarkable people which have suffered grave indignities. When pressed by the Alan Nobel Committee © on his motivations Kenny humbly said:

‘I always used to walk hurriedly past and through life at haste, never seeing what was clearly in front of me. It was meeting Mick Talbot, ex-British Armed Forces, that my eyes and ears were turned towards a greater issue, that of horrific disparity in society and that continued ignorance would only make matters much worse. It was from this awakening that I vowed to make a difference so I bought a camera and sought to tell the stories beneath the surface. The hidden stories from the submerged people who have fallen down the cracks in the system’s pavements, their voices and their tales need hearing and telling’

With 5% of all proceeds going to charity, treat your families and friends with this hard-hitting expose of the real state of the nation.

Buy: http://www.skindeepsecrets.com

Quote code LEECH20 for a tax deductible discount

REVIEWS

‘Kenny’s new gloriously glossy hard backed book is a must for all des-res coffee tables this Christmas. Hard-hitting and emotive.’ Nina Myskow, TV Times

***** Help for Heroes

‘In the age of image over stimulation this book reminds us of the power latent in the artists’s eye, each and every snap in this collection a stark and gut-wrenching prod to the conscience’ Tallulah Getty II, GettyCorps.

Laughter is the sustenance of civilisation

Posted on September 28, 2018 by dilettantemilitant

‘Let he that is without light suffer in eternal darkness’ Ezekiel 4:14

In these times of sweeping and swiping cuts that lacerate and bleed deep it takes a special person to shine a light and illuminate the diamonds amongst the grime.

I had the great pleasure of seeing, hearing and feeling the one-human spoken-show of Pash Blustersson, Rubbish Woman, currently touring these isles in support of Kick out the Rich, a not-for-profit charity I am an Executive Director of.

Pash’s wonderfully orated and auto-narrated performance examines and analyses the precarious position women still find themselves in in society. Especially women who have to survive beneath the dreaded ‘breadline’, the depth and breadth of the United Kingdom has seen greater rises in disparity and austerity with more and more people forced to ‘exist’ in meagerly paid jobs and get by on hand-outs from donations from generous communities.

Pash’s show grew out of her 2016 book , Poverty Pawn, a diarised account of her struggle to make ends meet and raise her 3 children (Tex, Rex and Lex) and pug (Buster). Using the infamous chess game between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in 1984 as a metaphor, Pash heartbreakingly delineates the trials and travails of living on the edge of nothing, the outside of everything. Every waking moment is a dicey game of cards where one false move equals the symbolic toppling of the Queen of broken hearts, where the only Knight is a mare, a cat and mouse duel where the ball of wool acts as a symbol of a tussle over morsels and crumbs. A desperate image that is shockingly prevalent in GB18.

Pash is a tireless campaigner for equality for all and is an advisor on Windsor, Buckinghamshire’s council-led initiative Feed not Greed, a local community group that seek collective nourishment through dialogue and practice, disadvantaged youths are schooled in the virtues of the photographic lens and how the mechanical eye can ‘see’ and elucidate much more then the retina ever can.

A slice of life (or death)?

Pash also has a cookery book out soon The Breadline Deadline (R.R.P. £25.99) on Giro books, it’s jam-packed with recipes and meal ideas on how to eat well for £2 or less. You can get a 5% discount here: http://www.paylessandeatwell.org

Anarchy’s mask (apply with confidence)

Posted on April 27, 2018 by dilettantemilitant

Ye are many—they are few!

In these times of global unrest, social disharmony and psychic decay it has never been more important to not only protest, but, also be mindful of the meaning of protest. I always seek guidance and solace in poet of romance yet also one of human conscience, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his ode to the Peterloo massacre in 1819, The Masque of Anarchy.

Generally believed to be the first modern instance of non-violent resistance the protesters, who wanted parliamentary reform in a time of famine and unemployment, were met with the brutality of the government’s forces leaving 15 people dead and hundreds wounded. In order to understand the present one must look to the past. My peer and esteemed colleague, Mike Leigh, has a film on the subject due out in November 2018. I urge all my subscribers to see it and build on its call to response.

Shelley’s timeless poem attacks the unholy trinity of ‘God, King and Law’ and how pacifism met with violence can only lead to negative psychological consequences. These effects can be visible seen in the shell-shocked PTSD returnees from foreign interventions.

The coming together of the people/the many/the 99% will always survive any form of attack despite retribution. Anarchy’s mask is one that should be worn by every citizen of the human race.

I invoke this because there appears to be a lot of misguided ‘action’ surrounding the potential visit of Donald Trump, President of the USA, the ‘democratic’ self-appointed leader of the ‘free world’. Now, I’m no fan of his, but, this is mass-distraction on the largest scale.

As my readers know, I am a firm believer in the potency of grassroots action. In order to see the oak tree one must first plant the seed. Already I see my social media timelines littered with enraged people mortified at the prospect of one insider coming here to visit other insiders. Change has to come from the root, the bottom of the pyramid is the scaffolding that supports the top, without it the whole charade collapses.

‘We are the necessary gust required to topple tyranny’ Wat Tyler (unknown)

My new film currently in progress is called Rising Up and the downside of missing the target. It will address these very issues and highlight how through mass communication systems our points of focus are continually under attack causing the main issues to become missed, ignored and forgotten.

I am currently seeking financial input in order to get this vital expose off the ground. Fellow working-class auteur, Frank Farquharson-Baxter (First AD on the Sky Atlantic miniseries Poverty starts in the womb), has this to say ‘I cannot stress enough how important this documentary is, the message propagated by the media is a false one so films like Dilettante’s are the only corrective. Successive generations rely on us acting NOW’.

To contribute and be part of this momentous adventure please go to: http://www.beggingbowlmeup.org

The great gig in the sky (play on)

Posted on January 25, 2018 by dilettantemilitant

Image result for angry angel on cloud harp

Rome didn’t matter or come off
But Heaven and Hell did
And look up
The fire, the fire is falling
And look up, look up

(W.B. The Unutterable, 2000)

Ya’see, I would never dare dream put myself in the same bracket as a true one-off artist anti-showman showman like Mark E. Smith, but, his untimely passing only serves to remind me of our own callings in life, how we identify our talent, nurture our passions and realise them to positive effect.

Some people have likened my bluff, no-nonsense, blunt and frank approach to life to MES, his refusal to be co-opted and exploited, his direct attacks on the bland, the insipid and norms demanded on us by mainstream society. It’s not for me to say, but, I can’t deny that the minute I first heard his seminal group The Fall (back in 2014, history fans) I sensed a kinship I had only previously experienced with auteurs such as Truffaut, Warhol, Da Vinci and Murs. I jest, I mean, Olly Murs*, come on, I am as far removed from that talentless, ‘one pie away from obesity chipmunk-fizzogged galoot’ as is perceptible! But, you get my point?

Modern society only truly remembers the FALLen when its too late, but, the work, the mystery, the poetry and the magic prevail through the art we produce, in my case my films, books and articles that address the human condition and how it is imperative that all inequality and discrimination are impeded and curtailed before they can spread their malevolent tentacles.

MES was a visionary, a seer, a believer in the power of art to communicate meaning whomever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever identity you choose for yourself at any time of the day. ‘Be yourself’ he always seemed to hector. A 24 carat, 24/7, 365er, a working class deity for ever.

Here’s my particular favourite of the irrepressible genius that was … IS Mark E. Smith (1957 – 2018)

‘Last orders (x4)
Everyone’s in prison or in the army
All sincere, all phoney
Reading all the books, taking in the news’

You might have got this far and asked yourself ‘Where’ve you been all this time?’ Allow me. I’ve been travelling around the war-torn climes of Central Africa documenting the despair among joy (in monochrome on a Nikon D850), charting the everyday struggles of the oppressed and suppressed as part of a new series I will be pitching to SKY TV in the coming months. Called War, what is it good for? it will be a 12 part opus in the vein of Ken Burns’s seminal works on jazz, the American Civil War and Vietnam. Gotta aim high, it’s what MES would advise.

Stay tuned for more news on this.

Peace

*I assure you, this is the first and only time me and Murs will be muttered in the same sentence

Sticks and stones

Posted on November 16, 2017 by dilettantemilitant

Hey guys, sorry I’ve been off-grid, it can be hard work being on the cine-circuit, wouldn’t change it for the world though. You meet the most extraordinary people and I feel blessed to have them all in my life. Whoever said ‘you can’t choose your family, you can choose your friends’ was spot on the money. I would add ‘do’ to that pearl.

On the flip side I find it galling a lot of the time when on social media I repost articles or comments and statements from other artists or sites (which I perceive necessary to be dispersed for the greater good) and I receive snippy comments. I get called ‘poseur’, ‘fake’ and the most hurtful of all ‘charlatan’. I am proud of my work and sincerely dedicate every atom of my existence into creating work with meaning and eternal merit (as in my documentary on food banks Starving for a living)

Image result for food bank

I understand that by its very nature I leave myself open for criticism, but, what I don’t get and I feel that these keyboard trolls will never understand is that the freedom I have to alert others to the goings on around the world is anathema to citizens in Zimbabwe* or Russia. By endorsing the missives of other artists I am only exercising my democratic liberty, clearly for some people this freedom to communicate upsets them, for that I pity them. So what if the words and ideas are not my own and to quote Dave, Basildon ‘Ur nuffin more than a hipocrit, mate, driving round in a flash motor and giving it all that’. For one, ‘Dave’ I can’t even drive so get your facts right. For two, at least my grammar’s decent, yeah?

I am currently working on a project titled Moneyopoly: Old Kent Road to New Bond Street in which I will go to every site on the Monopoly board (London version) and compare and contrast it with how these places look now, the results will be stark viewing and uneasy listening. Inspired by the amazing auteur Sean Baker who filmed Tangerine on an iphone I will use this tool to capture and reflect the rapacity of commerce in these zones of avarice. Before ‘Dave, Basildon’ pipes up again, there’s a difference between employing this technology to create works of art and being enslaved by it to passively consume. I will keep you all updated on this exciting yet ultimately dispiriting production.

‘The war on want is far from over, united we fight, divided we resist’ Noam Chomsky (2016)

Peace

*Now that brute appears to have been deposed hopefully we can see more smiles and less frowns in this area of the globe.

A tale of two ditties

Posted on October 3, 2017 by dilettantemilitant

There’s a pertinent scene in John Hughes wonderfully delivered film Planes, Trains and Automobiles when John Candy’s boisterous and bumptious Del Griffith and uptight, repressed marketeer Steve Martin’s Neal Page are on a bus and to lighten the mood Griffith suggests a sing-along. Page starts a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘Three coins in the fountain’ to no response, leaving the mood even more deflated. This prompts Griffith to launch into ‘Flintstones, meet the Flintstones …’ to uproarious acclaim.

The reason I’m recounting this tale is that personally to me it illustrates the difference in how culture relates to the common, working man. One song is a near-forgotten middle-brow ditty from a 1950s film the other the theme tune to everyone’s favourite cave-persons. Universal language goes a long way.

I experienced this myself recently at a picket (at which I delivered a speech) for the victims of repossession by corrupt councils and capricious agencies, when someone dared accuse me of being ‘Hythlodaeus’. Now I’m a well-read and self-confessed auto-didact, but, even I had to consult my Iphone 8 to log onto Wikipedia to understand what this meant. And more importantly, was someone having a go at me?

It transpires that Hythlodaeus is the tour guide in Thomas More’s Utopia and when translated means ‘speaker of nonsense’. You see, this is the thing that really gets me, I am a salt of the earth, run of the mill, typical everyday kind of fellow who just wants to alert the masses to the disparity prevalent among us and there are always people out to criticise and insult those who wish to spread nothing but parity. Sometimes you can’t win for trying, in today’s technosphere it always feels like I am Sisyphus fated to push the boulder up the hill. (See, I can do ancient Greek referencing too, hecklers out there).

‘Strength of will is eternal if you believe enough’ (Johnny Hates Jazz, 1987)

Prolier than thou

Posted on August 17, 2017 by dilettantemilitant

Image result for working class man rags

Everything I have ever overcome, from education failing me, making me feel stupid and worthless, rejection after rejection equalling several years of dejection has only served to crystalise the person I am today. Stronger, wiser and more mature, it is these hard-earned attributes that enable me to create works of art that celebrate and elevate the working class communities so often discarded and ignored by the higher echelons within society. My lived (and loved) experiences filter in and throughout my work like a heart pumping life’s blood.

Every knock, every dig, every sneer I have turned into a positive action, people attack, they denigrate, well they don’t realise that like Ben ‘Obi Wan’ Kenobi off of Star Wars ‘ it only makes me stronger and more powerful. The hate is turned back onto the protagonists.

There are a lot of people attempting to capitalise on the working class plight, people out to exploit the narratives and histories of us, it has never been more financially expedient to profess a passion and sincerity for issues like those that affect the underclass. Middle class opinion columnists and media ‘mavens’ are hijacking the potency of singular working class pride and individual identity politics. From films that allege to expose and shame to books that pry and pilfer the je ne sais quoi of the global struggle. Be vigilant.

My trenchant working class virtues and unabashed commitment to the cause of the bereft and victimised is all I need to get up every day. Knowing I represent so many spiritually malnourished souls and how through my work I can take on the power structures and hierarchical systems that keep us penned in and put down.

I feel so blessed to have so many friends and confidants on social media, without their constant backing and kind words I wouldn’t have been able to achieve half the things I have. Thanks a million guys.

I’m currently reading a book called Working Class Memories: From Jarrow to Harrow.: Striking out for better futures. I urge anyone who cares about the maltreatment of our fellow folk to read it and not defy them not to shed a tear or three. What doesn’t kill you …

In the words of our revered anti-hero Arthur Seaton: ‘never let the bastards grind you down’

‘Tum quod vivere’

Posted on August 7, 2017 by dilettantemilitant

Image result for what time to be alive

Has there ever been a good time to be alive? Or a bad one at that? S’all relative innit? Or is it?

The Roman Feedman Tiberius Claudius Narcissus uttered the immortal line ‘What a time to be alive’ in response to being entrusted with overseeing the draining of a canal. A tedious chore that has contemporary parallels with today’s zero-hour contracts, social inequality, minimum wage-slavery, spiritual destitution and also in what often passes for ‘culture’.

One of my favourite artistes around is the Canadian polymath Drake, he too (with Future) has used this quotation for his 2015 eponymous-opus. Great minds and all that.

In my own artistic forays I aim for the transcendental and the mythic to combine, for good to trounce bad, purity to thrive, for the triumph of the human spirit to dominate and reign. For every ‘reality’ programme that pervades the mediawaves I offer exposes of corruption, for every politically duplicitous edict I counter these with truth and veracity at every level.

My conversion from needy, greedy, self-serving narco-fiend is complete, I am the Renaissance Man, reborn and free from vice.

‘Once the light has been seen, there’s nothing in between’ Rock Hudson (1965)