Form 696 is a Bad Thing

The London police have apparently decided that Keeping Track of ‘Dangerous’ Music Scenes will be easier if they mandate the organisers of events to help them keep tabs on both performers and punters, via some new paperwork, Form 696. This is a Bad Thing, and smacks of past efforts to keep young people Firmly In Their Place when it comes to music and nightlife. We’re written about this in more detail over at BigShinyThing — have a read, check out some of the links (including petitions and FaceBook groups dedicated to stopping Form 696 in its tracks), and if you …

Paul Hartnett Interview

Check out Darrell’s interview with legendary street and youth culture photographer Paul Hartnett over at BigShinyThing. Lots of love for people doing their own thing, but some harsh words for the ‘fashion sheep’.

100proofTRUTH

The latest issue of urban culture PDFzine 100ProofTRUTH features a selection of Darrell’s London club photos alongside work by Witold Krassowksi, Kent Baker, The Face Hunter, Faith 47 and Paul Hartnett. Grab your copy online and enjoy.

Shards

We digital immigrants consider our (media-saturated post-modern) physicality as the ‘real’ world. For today’s young digital natives, their transmedial realities — the elseware of MySpace, Second Life and the rest — are equally valid. Unlike many, we don’t think they’re escaping from, or denying ‘real’ reality: they’ve just internalised the precept that all reality is socially constructed, and vanished off into someware more fun, of their own making. And why not? Their generation is busily — knowingly — creating their own be-ing. The rest of us, in denial, still privilege a ‘genuine’ reality, while all the time, we are also …