Drumacanoo Punx Picnic was fantastic. Some great photos from it here by Janer
http://pix.ie/punkrock/album/347148

Was helping with the Back2front distro/stall all weekend. But when not there I'd made some nettle beer for the weekend. Made nettle soup a few times when the nettles were out last year. Said I'd try something different this year. With the local punk festival happening, reckoned nettle beer would be a good option.

Ingredients
1 very full carrier bag of nettles
10 pints water
1 lemon juiced
500g brown sugar
1.25 oz cream of tartar
12 grams (roughly 5 teaspoons) yeast (baking yeast is what I used)
'food plastic' tub/bin from a restaurant/canteen (they chuck them out)
A big cooking pot

First up use only young nettles. When it's flowering it has gritty particles/seeds, which are not good for you. Nettles were apparently used a lot during the Irish potato famine when things got really bad. Not saying this beer is healthy, but nettles have are highly nutritious ,rich in vitamins A, C, D, iron and calcium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle

I know it goes without saying, but wear gloves. When I was washing them/removing stems, I got really stung. Even the following day my finger tips had a 'pins and needles' type feeling about them. I might have mentioned earlier that I'm stupid!

Method
Wash nettles (using gloves). Add to water and bring to boil. If your pot isn't big enough do it in batches with smaller pots. Done in 15 mins. I removed the stems, but have read since you don't have too. Add the lemon juice, the sugar and the cream of tartar. Heat gently and stir well until the sugar has dissolved (do not boil). Then transfer into the plastic bin. Tub would have to hold your 10 pints obviously enough (roughly 5 liters). When it's cool (blood temperature) sprinkle the yeast over the top. Cover the vat loosely with a cloth and leave for 24 hours. Leave to cool overnight, then pitch the yeast. Replace the cloth with lid and leave to ferment for a further 3-4 days. Then strain into bottles, or what I have is spring water 5 liter bottles. Left it now for a month, must say did the trick am going to make more homebrew this week.

Busy weekend starting tomorrow Drumacanoo punx picnic (Ireland's biggest punk festival) is on again I'm working the stalls if anyone wants to say hello. Also will/should have a new issue of the zine which is a split with D-beat Beater zine. Have brewed up nettle beer for the weekend, which should prove to be interesting. Bands for the weekend are Abrasive Wheels - The Beat - Inner Terrestrials - The Red Eyes - Blitzkreig - Moutpiece- Axis Of- Roosky- Paranoid Visions- Constant Fear - Droppin Bombs- Dirty Love - The Lobotomies- Septic Pussy- Runnin Riot- Mommas Slippers- First Impressions- Excuses- Setting Off Siren- Zafaranchos- The Shakes- The Bonnevilles- Ructions- Cut The Reins- Liz Is Evil- Stunt- The Complaints- Section 4- Red Organ Serpent Sound- Les Christpunchers- 3 For The Morgue- Blasterbra- Bacchus- Monkish UK- Apathetic Youth- Kilnaboy UK- Plough- Only Fumes and Corpes- Class Destruction- Realistic Train- Rednecks On Speed- Dr Bloodmoney- A Touch Of Hysteria UK- 20 Bulls Each- The Experts- Ghundi- The Human Targets UK- Beanz On Toast- Intensive Care- The Undertakers- Officer Down
http://www.myspace.com/drumacanoopunxpicnic

Been very busy illustration wise. Bucketloads of stuff done in the last while. New album cover for Ett Sista Andetag (Sweden) & Alone In The Crowd (Mexico) done and approved by the bands. Will be released by Detesta Records
http://www.myspace.com/ettsistaandetag
http://www.myspace.com/aloneinthecrowd1
http://www.myspace.com/detesta

New album cover for Outbreak of Metal Vol. II : Destroyer (Poland) & Violated (Norway) are the bands confirmed, artwork is done and approved.
http://www.myspace.com/theviolated
http://www.myspace.com/destroyeronline
http://www.slaneyrecords.com

Stuff I'm starting after the weekend Hail of Gunfire 3, Mutilated Messiah and Phobia & Abaddon Incarnate split. Will post some of the designs when it's officially released by the labels/bands

Reciklaje (Peru) CD should be out any day now. As I type it's being made in Colombia.
http://www.myspace.com/reciklaje

I interviewed the new Warzone Collective for the next issue of the zine (out on friday). It's a split issue with D-beat Beater zine. Warzone Collective began in 1984 when local punks and anarchists decided to pool their efforts and get their own venue, practice rooms and social space in Belfast. Which provided a vegetarian cafe/drop in centre, practice and office space, venue and screen printing workshop. Towards the end of 2003 the Centre closed. Now in 2009 the Collective has reformed and is going through the process of trying to establish a new venue.

Their zine Warzine is available for download here. Check out the discussion board too.
http://warzonecolllective.wetpaint.com/page/Warzine

An amazing gig, got to see most of the Amebix documentary "Risen" by Roy Wallace (Toxic Waste). Really good, atmosphere, music was just perfect. So many faces I hadn't seen in years. Still wrecked had to go straight to work after travelling up from Dublin. Proofed the final draft of the new Instinct of Survival t-shirt. Not my artwork (Steve from Visions of War), I just vectorised his design. Will be available from Underground Movement.

Thanks to Alex who does Distro-Y Records, he gave me the two new 7" releases just out at the gig too. Project Hopeless - ”Av Hela Mitt Hjärta”, real political anarcho-crust punk. And Link/Raised By Drunks split 7", fuckin epic crust.

http://www.myspace.com/medistro

Was working yesterday at a documentary film festival (and for the rest of the weekend). Saw a great, great film called "RiP: A remix manifesto". It's all about copyright and 'mashing up' media. Sampling songs, images, file sharing, ideas, inventions, words, symbols, copyleft, public domain etc And questioning it's property rights on whether it's owed by big corporations like Disney, Warner etc. There is a conflict between intellectual property rights and freedom of speech.

I know nearly 10 years ago first doing flash animation, the issue of copyright came up. We were told at work if you got a picture from the net, flipped it horizontal and traced it, it was yours(I did an example above). But I've been told by others that it's not true. Then of course there was the original Associated Press photograph of Barack Obama and Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster. The Associated Press says the artwork infringes on its copyright to a photograph of the president. A lawyer for Shepard Fairey said the artist was protected by fair-use standards.

Copyright laws should be liberalized to allow for free sharing of all digital media. It's interesting, but getting back to the movie it's up on Youtube by the film maker. Watch it, I can't stress how good it is.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=44F4EBDBE6879CE5&search_query=RiP+-+A+Remix+Manifestosearch_query=RiP+-+A+Remix+Manifesto&uni=1

http://www.ripremix.com

See also the Manifesto Antropófago (Cannibal Manifesto). Its argument is that Brazil's history of "cannibalizing" other cultures is its greatest strength.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibal_Manifesto

New 7" ep cover/layout/logo for Raw Noise released on Low Life Records + MCR Company
http://www.myspace.com/rawnoiseofficial
http://www.dance.ne.jp/~mcr/

Unrelated to artwork, check this site out 'Write Your Name in Runes'
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/runes.html

Meant to post this, during the week. Coitus playing in Dublin and new t-shirt design.
T-shirts available from Underground Movement Records, not too sure how much they are
http://www.myspace.com/coituslondon
http://www.underground-movement.net

Cover design for Letterkenny band Zafaranchos demo cover. Covers are to hand screen printed
http://www.myspace.com/zafaranchosmusic

It's election time at the moment. So tried doing a pisstake election poster with vote number 1 etc. But it looked kind of strange, with the the bands logos so changed it about a bit, to be a bit more darker.
http://www.myspace.com/thisiscoldwar
http://www.myspace.com/orpheusmetal
http://www.myspace.com/osmium76
http://www.myspace.com/diabolicusmetal

I think it must be the most vandalised election posters this year. Does anyone really vote for somebody because they've seen their boot-ugly mug on a poster tied to a lampost! Funniest I saw was stenciled balcalva's on a lot of the Sinn Fein ones.

Saw the new Sam Raimi movie 'Drag Me To Hell' last night. Really enjoyed it, tongue and cheek horror. Very much returned to his Evil Dead days.

Coitus on Friday were great, CD's + t-shirts turned out well. As well as the layout for Instinct of Survival - north of nowhere CD. Will be selling them at the festival here in June. Next gig Amebix

Now what a charity shop find this is. Yes, some light reading

about that great big snatch up in the sky!

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