Occupy: Outside the Bubble

Stray Wayward — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:14:21 +0000

Yesterday a friend and I had a long chat about the rise in awareness sparked by the Occupy movement. About how it’s a questioning process – how questioning involves stepping back from something and taking a good long look (in this case we were talking about the legitimacy of the Fractional Reserve Banking System).

The act of stepping back takes one into another space. Stepping back means occupying the space outside the bubble. Right now, events going on inside that bubble are important – but while we’re outside the perimeter, we’re occupying a far bigger space – the space that surrounds the bubble. A space with enormous creative potential.

To my mind, the rise in awareness isn’t just about realising how we’ve all been scammed by the bankers – it’s also about realising our creative potential.

About My Writing

Stray Wayward — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:30:18 +0000

At the moment I’m submerged in writing a book entitled: A Darker Electricity. It’s about my time spent on the road, in the early 1990s, with the outlawed Spiral Tribe Sound System: a collective of people who staged large, free and unlicensed, dance parties across Britain and Europe. That is until the British government accused myself and others of being the ringleaders of a new rebellion – a rebellion so dangerous in its appeal and popularity that it required a new law to criminalise it.

Never before in British history has a musical style or youth culture been singled out and outlawed in an act of parliament.

Did the money-makers conspire with legislators? Spike booze-free youth with alcopops? Ring-fence the open fields with razor-wired regulation? Lock up the open-door policy of the free festival and free party movements? Criminalise a culture – because it was noisy – or because it was free?

You can read a few excerpts from the book on the following pages. I always appreciate your comments and why not subscribe? I’m still writing, so if you were there and would like to contribute you can email me direct: straydotwaywardatgmaildotcom (substitute . and @ where necessary).

‘Mark Angelo writes with flair… his story of the founding of Spiral Tribe, its evolution and its subsequent confrontations with the Thatcherite state, presents us with a vivid slice of 20th century social history… I really look forward to this book, and whatever else he might go on to produce.’

Barbara Trapido

‘Mark Angelo is a beautiful writer and his account, told close up and from the inside, plunges the reader into the fervour of those tumultuous times.’

Caroline Brothers

‘Mark Angelo Harrison has a fascinating and necessary story to tell – an account of 90′s rave culture as it butts heads with Thatcher’s State. This is writing with a big heart, a sharp vision, a driving energy, intoxicating detail, deft craft and an insider’s authority.’

Christopher P. Wilson

waywardtales

Occupy: Outside the Bubble

About My Writing