In first of a series of blogs from guest writers, Jonah Sealey Braverman retells his encounter with the Scottish Defense League:

Two Fringes

It was about three quarters of the way through working as a flyerer at the Edinburgh Fringe and I was fully installed in my arty, liberal, middle class bubble; (very cosy, yet a hair’s breadth away from bursting). At the Fringe, any topical debates I had that might’ve felt meaty at that time slowly revealed themselves to be an exchange of agreeing opinions said with ever increasing volume. I hadn’t had to feel a fully binary culture clash for a while. It was strangely necessary.

I literally fell into my short encounter with Steve, a member of the Scottish Defence League. Flyering in Edinburgh, at least trying to quickly, is hard. To boost my presence on the thickly populated strip, I moved my arms in a flamboyant arc or got down on one knee to deliver the flyers into the hands of people passing by; it worked well. Getting down on one knee one afternoon, is when I literally fell.

While recoiling from the quite dramatic buckle, I heard laughter emanating from the grassy patch to my right. Trying to feign some humility, I approached the group, waving a flyer for an evening of songs from Film Noir. They responded quite well to me mustering enthusiasm out of my embarrassment. After listening to my brief pitch for the show, the most vocal of them, Steve, asked me whether I had heard of the SDL.

I nodded. He then pulled a Scottish flag out of his pocket and walked towards me. 

“Isn’t it great that we have freedom of speech in this country.”, “Isn’t it great that me and you can have a conversation about whatever, and they can’t do anything”. With these words came a cloud of sweet alcohol vapour. I was a little hesitant. However, I agreed with what he said essentially, and felt that leaving would leave him feeling victorious, proving the champagne socialist’s lack of mettle in real world confrontations.

What followed was a exchange of fluid statistics, and emotion based beliefs; from both parties. Steve, an ex soldier, spat out the usual islamaphobic vitriol, centering around fear of being taken over by Sharia Law or his daughter being taken by a Muslim paedophile ring. I returned with statistics that proved that white Christians were disproportionately perpetrators of acts of terror in Europe. Each of his points was buried with ever more forceful fingers into my chest; quite unsubtle intimidation. I tried to present a jocular, composed front through this, still determined that he not feel the upper hand. 

We did eventually find a common enemy; the media. We both agreed that most outlets stir both panic and distraction because of their respective political agendas – not in those words exactly, but basically that. This common ground wasn’t quite firm enough for me to set up camp. I had become bored with the cyclical arguing. I had to find a way of getting out of this conversation without losing face.

The way I removed myself from what had become a pretty uncomfortable situation, was by exploiting a weird meta-coincidence. A film crew were collecting stories on the nearby pathway. While they were filming a flyering friend of mine, a far drunker friend of Steve’s jumped in front of the camera with his SDL flag. My half Maori friend bolted, and I then beckoned the film crew over and insisted that they talk to Steve. As they approached tentatively I smiled and said “Isn’t it great that we have free speech in this country?”, “Isn’t it great that you guys can have this conversation?”.

[Jonah Sealey Braverman for EVILTWINLDN]

We went to America. It was cool and weird and fucked up. Here are some highlights:

On a dreary Sunday afternoon in September, the new appointed and very hungover correspondents of the EVILTWIN CULTURE GANG ventured deep into the heart of the ancient City of London in the hopes of finding an experience to appeal to the deepest, darkest and most enjoyable parts of our psyches.

We were not disappointed.

‘Victoriana: The Art of Revival’ is a new exhibition housed in The City of London’s Guildhall Art Gallery.  As quaint and unassuming as its name may suggest, the exhibit was far from it. With works from artists from all disciplines and backgrounds, as well as people famous enough that we learnt about them in art GCSE like Grayson Perry and Yinka Shonibare, the exhibition focuses on the idea of Victorian revivalism in the modern age; drawing comparisons with the modern fascination for the weird and weirder to the Victorian obsession with death, the afterlife and the supernatural.

London-based artist Tessa Farmer’s ‘Mignon, Ambushed by a Mob of Fairies’was one of the most impressive and morbidly fascinating things we saw. Her work incorporated hundreds of insect carcasses suspended from the ceiling by wires being ridden by tiny figures with swords and spears ready for a very tiny battle around a statue. CULTURE GANG can confirm that Farmer’s piece is almost definitely in the running for the world record for Most Dead Things Stuck on to Other Dead Things.

Paul St George’s ‘Geistlich Tube’ (Ghostly Tube) is a device created to witness the manifestation of spirits or ghosts. He draws on the Victorian fascination with death and even prompts people in the gallery to tweet him (@telectroscope with the hashtage #geistlich) if they witness such a manifestation.

Some of the slightly less macabre works were still as impressive (and also slightly easier to stomach on a hangover). Mat Collishaw’s ‘Magic Lantern’uses strobe lighting and creepy moths to show the Victorian fascination for raving, while Stephen Kenny’s letterpress revival work instructed, nay ordered us to ‘DRINK MORE GIN’ which we duly did. We also got samosas afterwards and they were excellent.

This exhibition is perfect for creatives in search of inspiration or weird shit to see, as well as any other budding CULTURE GANGS looking for new experiences in the city.

Victoriana: The Art of Revival is running from 7th September – 8th December 2013 at Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London

Entrance fee: £7 (£5 for students and concessions)

Closest tube stations: Moorgate (Northern, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines), Bank (Northern, Central, Circle, District Lines), Mansion House [Bow Lane Exit] (Circle, District Lines), St. Paul’s (Central Line)

GUILDHALL

• The exhibition is housed in the Guildhall Art Gallery, deep in the heart of the ancient and bizarre City of London. This is apparently not to be confused with regular London. We learnt that it’s in fact one of two cities, inside another city, inside a country inside another country…
• Guildhall is the ceremonial and administrative centre of the Corporation of London, which many of the crazier conspiracy nuts in the deeper parts of the internet would argue is the centre of some sort of Illuminati-Rothschild-Bilderberg hybrid organisation who run the world.
• As if that’s all not far-fetched and ridiculous enough, the City is “guarded” by Gog and Magog, two biblical giants represented by some pretty crazy carvings as well as 7 foot wicker effigies. (And as we always say, it’s not a proper day out if there aren’t any effigies involved).
• Guildhall was also the venue for the trials of some of the gunpowder plot conspirators, some martyrs and people with very excellent names like Sir Nicholas Throckmorton.

Words by MS