#BADD2016 On 'Giving Up'

It's Blogging Against Disablism Day and all the blogs can be found at the index page.

I was struggling for a topic until kaberett 's post here got me thinking about all the microaggressions around wheelchair use and especially the meme that it represents 'giving up'. That led to thinking about my experiences of the past year, and so here we are:

On 'Giving Up'.
 

Linkspam: CfP Disability and/in/through fan fiction

Call For Proposals: Disability and/in/through fanfiction

Can't recall if I got round to mentioning this when it first came up. It's theoretically closed now, but they just said on the Fans for Accessible Conventions FB group that if anyone is working on something, get in touch and they'll see what they can do.

Sweeps Day 2

Another sunny day. In fact I'm probably sunburnt as I didn't think to take a hat or put on suntan stuff.

Some trouble getting a taxi, I just couldn't get through to the big local firm, so in the end I rolled down to the station, just in time to see the last taxi pulling out of the rank. Fortunately I only had to wait about 10 minutes, even with about eight people in front of me. That meant that by the time I'd gotten into the Castle Gardens at 12:30ish I'd missed the first half of my favourite band of festival regulars, Hot Rats, but at least I caught half their set. The incomporable Ian Cutler on violin, with Doug Hudson on guitar and vocals, they've a new bass player this year, Scott Kirk, who actually does facial expressions (the old one wasn't at all bad, but he just stood stock still, expressionless, and played).

My friends had already arrived and found a table on the grass almost dead centre in front of the stage, and fortunately one is notably tall, so I found them straight away. Good to catch up with everyone, particularly the friend who is about 5 weeks post bone marrow transplant and is looking okay, even if not at his best.

Following on from Hot Rats we had Sur Les Docks, a French band from Dunkirk with a pirate motif picked up from the Dunkirkers. Mandolin, whistle, violin, accordion, guitar, bass,  drums. They're often over for the Festival, but this is the first time I've caught them, really good. They describe themselves as 'Maritime Raw Folk Punk', which is just about right, imagine the Pogues doing sea shanties in French.The whistle player retired to the back of the stage for a smoke during other people's solos, which struck me as very French. Their lead singer/mandolin  player was very hoarse, apparently they had a really good time last night at the Gordon, where I'd been earlier in the day - it gave his voice a little bit of a Piaf Je Ne Regrette Rien edge. I bought their current CD (I actually was waving the seller over because she's normally the one selling Hot Rats CDs, but I was happy to buy Sur Les Dock by that point).

Nous Sommes Sur Les Docks

Next up were the Fabulous Fezheads, who are sort of indescribable. They're festival regulars, they've been going for 25 years, and they've built almost a cult around the old Music Hall Sand Dance routine. I don't recall seeing their full act before as normally you have difficulty prising them out of the nearest bar, though they do a fairly unique morris dance using fezes. It turns out three of them actually play passable bass, and two of those can sing. One of the others is my former MP and ex-Minister for Disabled People (Jonathan Shaw, the last minister who could be described as pro-disabled people, rather than against us). Novel!

 

 

I didn't catch the name of the fourth act, but the description was Anglo-Swedish, folk rock, with a Swedish woman on lead vocals and guitar, a backing vocalist/guitarist who played sitting down while she bounced about the stage, and a dreadlocked bass player who never strayed from the back of the stage. I'd quite happily have stayed and listened to more of their set, but it was down to me at that point and I needed the loo, so I rolled down to the High Street to grab something to eat - chicken noodles from the Singapora, then grabbed a taxi and was home by about half past five.

Sweeps continues tomorrow with the big procession, I normally head over to catch Hot Rats playing the Gordon, but the festival pretty much wraps up after the procession at 3PM and Bank Holiday taxi fares are extortionate, so I'l probably pass.