Do it to Julia..argh.. seriously
Big Brother night on sureveillance and Ramparts First ‘Night of The Pig.’ Thursday at the Ramparts. 9th and 17th of February 2006. Ramparts Whitechapel London.
Yes it had to happen at some point. What with phone calls from those responsible for Channel 4’s infamous Big Brother ‘reality’ TV series phoning the rampART plus the fact that George Galloway allegedly represents this part of London in parliament and is exploring new ways to reach those disenfranchised from Politics, the rampART is this week becoming a special celebrity venue for a one-off edition of Big Brother
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Starts 8pm, thursday night, live on 15 rampart street
< FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
Big Brother been hard at work in Greece eavesdropping (with the help of Vodafone) on the prime minister, top security officials, journalists,peace activists and for good measure, dozens of people of Arab descent. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the foreign, defense and publicorder ministers were among about 100 people whose mobile phones were tapped for months around the time of the 2004 Athens Olympics, the conservative government said last week.
The calls were being relayed to unknown destinations via four mobile phone antennas in a zone in the center of Athens that includes the U.S.Embassy.
WAR IS PEACE
Yes, back to media assisted bullshit and our own Big Brother state. A couple of weeks ago Blairs plans for ID cards and a national database were delayed by the Lords asserting their power so the spin doctors have hit back this week and peppered the compliant media with stories about identity theft. Their manipulated figures claim identity theft is costing the economy £1.72bn per year and that the introduction of ID cards would provide a ‘major breakthrough’. Quite why remains unclear.
Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator said: “Identity fraud will be made much worse by ID cards, not better. Numbering and indexing every person in the country on a huge central Register, then making us use cards designed to broadcast not only this number but our personal data, including our biometrics, will be an absolute bonanza for identity thieves and fraudsters.”
ORWELL ROLLS OVER IN HIS GRAVE
Of course such an ID card and single national database will also givethe government hitherto unheard of knowledge about our private lives.All this brings us back to thursdays Big Brother night at the rampART.Along with a screening of the 2004 documentary ‘Orwell Rolls Over In His Grave’, we’ll also be showing the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell’s classic book ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. It’s amazing how many people have’nt taken the time to read this timeless and ever more relevant story, but whether you have or haven’t, Michael Radford adaptation staring John Hurt, Richard Burton and Suzanna Hamilton is well worth watching.
what follows is chunk of a spoiler ( look away now ) of the film which we nicked off
“The performances from the chief principals are very strong. John Hurt is excellent as Winston, bringing a subtle and considerate approach to the character. Particularly disturbing is his final scenes, as he becomes gaunt and disfigured through government torture. Suzanna Hamilton is gentle and quirky as Julia and “Rab C Nesbitt” actor GregorFisher appears as Winston’s ill-fated friend, Parsons.
Veteran actor Richard Burton lends a cold charisma to government enforcer O’Brien and he too excels in the film’s final moments, as he coolly and sadistically tortures Winston, subjecting him to severe physical pain to subdue him, casually pulling a tooth out of hisrotting mouth, then exposing him to the horrors of Room 101, all the while exhorting obedience to the Party and love to Big Brother.
The strong relevance of the concepts of “Nineteen Eighty Four” should not be underestimated. Whilst the term “Big Brother” is now synonymous with the ridiculous “reality” TV shows of the same name, others like the Two Minutes Hate (in which the workers are coerced, through a two-minute broadcast, into hating the enemies of the state); the idea of a government waging a perpetual war to advocate “peace” (especiallyrelevant in the aftermath of September 11) as well as the editing of news and the abuse of language in order to suit the needs of government and disguise its true agendas are ideas that are chillingly present in today’s society.
All of this is powerful and thought-provoking stuff, and helps to make “Nineteen Eighty Four” an accurate and powerful rendering of a still very timely piece of work.”
<- Alain English from Aberdeen, Scotland
So, there you go, what with government’s spying on the populous, and
Thursday night (9th Feb) Starts 8pm (sharp)
Features :
What of the rest of the week at the rampART?
> Tuesday – get creative upstairs with the screen printing or whatever takes your fancy 4pm – 10pm
> Wednesday – get hammered with Rhythms Of Resistance samba practice 7pm-9pm
> Thurday – some films about someone’s big brother 8pm
> Friday – perhaps our day off
> Saturday – open your mind to open source in the hacklab from midday
> Sunday – Those interested in the LIVES VJing and video
Yes, more from Big Brother, rampART hosts the first night of the PIG
7.30pm Fri Feb 17th at the rampART (15 rampart street E1 2LA)