Innholdsfortegnelse for 01-06-20 i The Big Issue

ISOLATED! GET OUT Explore London through its trees Did you know that there are more than eight million trees in London, almost one for every Londoner? The nature-loving urban explorers behind TreeTalk have databased 700,000 of them, spanning 600 species, and assembled their information on an interactive, free-to-access online map, allowing residents to explore, discover and identify our carbon-capturing leafy friends as they roam the streets, parks and waterways of the Big Smoke. Your daily exercise just took on a fascinating new twist. treetalk.co.uk SHOP Buy a tartan facemask from the Big Issue Shop and help the homeless Glasgow-based designers of stylish tartan-wear Slanj sell a range of special products through The Big Issue Shop from scarves to cushion covers, a portion of profits from which go to local homeless…

A hand up... Proceeds from sales of this magazine are being used to tide over our vendors until they can get back to work on their pitches. Not a handout… In ordinary circumstances our vendors buy magazines for half the cover price and sell at full price, keeping the difference. They earn a legitimate income, and gain valuable social and employability skills. With your support now, we will continue to do so once the crisis has passed. The right to citizenship… The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. Prevention… Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

StreetVet’s plans to make homeless hostels more pet-friendly are up for an £83,000 prize that will get the project off the ground. The charity and Big Issue Changemaker keeps our vendors’ pets healthy by bringing vital veterinary care out of surgeries and on to the street. Co-founders Sam Joseph and Jade Statt designed their Accredited Hostel Scheme before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out to help rough sleepers find a path off the street without being separated from their animal companions. Their plans to train staff, work with hostel managers to make premises safe and audit them regularly have seen off 150 applicants to be in the running for Purina’s BetterwithPets Prize. They will find out if they have won this week following an online pitching session against projects from Spain,…

I’ve been a fan of The Big Issue from the outset 30 years ago. What started for me as a personal act of giving to support people who were homeless quickly turned into loving its mix of social commentary, the arts, interesting jobs and overall quirkiness. When magazines are bought casually on a street you don’t know who is buying, but you do know the quantity of sales and in the week prior to lockdown, The Big Issue sold around 80,000 copies across the UK and supported the livelihoods of 1,500 vendors, by any definition among the most vulnerable in our society. Then came March 23 – day zero - when the UK went into lockdown and life as we knew it ended. The speed with which The Big Issue,…

Would you like a personal guitar lesson from a guitar god? How about fitness workout and tips from an Olympic boxing champion? Or a personal behind-the-curtain tour with a British icon? What? More?! Well, there’s a personalised session for you from an Oscar-nominated makeup artist. More, you demand! What about a one-on-one with the creative genius who built British comedy as we know it today. Or maybe a personal lesson with the fountainhead of nature writing? Another big hitter, you demand! What about time with the man who remoulded the possibilities of comic book writing? Not enough, you say. Well then, maybe a personal message, in the style of his greatest parts, from a Hollywood legend? This list is long. And there is more to it than we have mentioned…

Grounded By Silibuzzi “I keep losing count of the days, then repeatedly checking the calendar,” explains new Street Art contributor Silibuzzi of life in lockdown. She submits her drawings via the 240 Project, an arts and health activity centre for people affected by isolation, homelessness and exclusion which has taken its services online as best it can during the Covid-19 crisis. “Steadily losing myself, losing focus, drifting away,” Silibuzzi continues. “Depression, symptoms of prolonged self-isolation? Whatever. I have no idea. To hold on to my sanity I have chosen to draw the days: so I know where I am, and was.” View more of Silibuzzi’s art at instagram.com/silibuzzzi The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com to see your art here. To see more…

01 A Forger’s Tale by Shaun Greenhalgh Sub-titled ‘Confessions of the Bolton forger’, this book tells how Greenhalgh, working in a shed in his parents’ garden, forged Leonardo drawings, Lowry paintings, Anglo-Saxon brooches, busts of American presidents, and many other works of art. He was jailed for four years in 2007 for his misdemeanours. 02 The Art of Forgery by Noah Charney A fascinating chronicle of art forgery through the ages. As the subtitle puts it: the minds, motives and methods of the master forgers. 03 The Art Forger’s Handbook by Eric Hebborn An intriguing account of how to copy great artists as diverse as Bruegel, Piranesi, Corot and Augustus John by one of the most accomplished of all fakers – a genius in his own way. 04 Brewer’s Rogues,…

“I really should have perfected a pitch by now but frankly there’s not much of a plot or a narrative to the film.” Simon Bird, star of The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner, is trying to sell his latest project. Days of the Bagnold Summer is the first feature he’s directed. Based on the graphic novel by Joff Winterhart and adapted by Bird’s wife Lisa Owens, it stars Bafta-winning Monica Dolan as Sue and Earl Cave (19-year-old son of Nick) as Daniel. After Daniel’s dad cancels plans for his son to spend the summer with him (and his new family) in Florida, he’s forced to spend it at home with his mum. The film is funny, touching and perfectly in tune with the times, as parents and teenagers across the…

YOU WILL NEED A new SSD drive (see step 1) Screwdrivers for different sizes of screws Pillcase or egg carton to hold screws OPTIONAL: • Key to your original Windows licence (not needed if you “clone” or use Linux) • SATA-USB cable (if you’d like to “clone” your old drive) • Docking station or caddy to use your old hard disk drive for back-ups 01 Order the right drive. You need to get an SSD of the right size and with the right connector. You can usually find this information in the specifications for your computer. (Most modern laptops, from 2008- 9 onwards, need a 2.5in SATA SSD.) OPTIONAL STEP: If you’d like a copy of your old drive, download software to “clone” (most SSD manufacturers provide this), connect your…

WEEK 10 CRUNCH TIME Let the crunch no longer be the sound of you munching on yet another packet of crisps – in the bin with those unhealthy things! – and instead the name of your new most effective exercise. A must-do if you want to tighten those abs, this one’s all about making things difficult for yourself by lifting your legs and placing extra weight on your stomach muscles. Follow @MrMotivator on Twitter and @realmrmotivator on Instagram for more daily exercises…

A Big Issue vendor is boosting men’s mental health after telling his story in a new book described as “brave and important” by Stephen Fry. Vendor Ian, 33, bravely told his story of how surviving sexual abuse had an impact on his mental health in Big Boys Don’t Cry?, released last month to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week. His piece sits alongside 60 other real-life experiences, including contributions from cricketer Marcus Trescothick and ex-Manchester United footballer Rhodri Jones, showing how men and their partners have overcome tough times of mental illness. Ian wrote: “I’m literally about to explode. I feel like I want to lash out at the world. I’m raging with anger and pent-up aggression, all because of what happened when I was 15.” He was placed in…

Last week the Welsh Government announced their own plans with new £20m funding on top of the £10m initial funding package that has already housed 800 people. Housing and Local Government Minister Julie James also urged local authorities to show “creativity” as they set out plans on how they will rehouse rough sleepers. And in Scotland, James Dornan MSP headed a Local Government and Communities Committee hearing investigating the sustainability of the emergency action taken to get people off the streets. The committee assessed the impact of the Scottish Government’s failure to meet their affordable housing supply target of 50,000 homes by March next year and how social housing waiting lists have been affected.…

I have to admit that I’m not usually one for reading memoirs. Even if the life of the author has been a crazy romp from one minute to the next, there still often seems to be something formulaic about the way events are portrayed, a conventional structure that detracts from the content. Not so with this week’s two books, which are both very different from the usual cut-and-paste celebrity memoir template, and also very different from each other. First up we have The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by American graphic novelist Adrian Tomine. I’ve raved about Tomine’s work in these pages before, for me he’s the outstanding graphic novelist of his generation, and his Killing and Dying story collection is one of my favourite books of all time. The…

Days of the Bagnold Summer Released digitally on June 8 There’s a touch of the Mike Leighs about this warming comedy of suburban growing pains directed by The Inbetweeners actor Simon Bird, working on a script by his wife Lisa Owens. If I’m being honest, the movie, about a sullen teenager stuck at home with his mum for the summer hols, might perhaps work better as a pilot for a TV sitcom. But there’s such warmth and generosity in the writing – everyone here is decent, muddling along, doing their best – that it’s exactly the kind of feelgood-without-being-too-sickly-sweet movie that I find myself wanting to watch at the moment. Nick Cave’s son Earl is terrific as 15-year-old Daniel, a lank-haired metalhead who is meant to be flying to Florida…

As a non-driver touring the UK, I have made conversation in many minicabs. In one, I was given a lengthy verbal tour of the cottage that the driver had been working on since his acrimonious marital split. He was particularly proud of his work in restoring the fireplace so, shortly before arriving at our destination, he decided to pull in on London’s Westway (which I think is illegal) and show me photographs of the progress. Being terrified of causing offence, I cooed and aahed at the tiling and varnished mantelpiece despite my impatience to get home. Similarly, after feigning a greater interest in Bryan Adams than I really possess, a driver wouldn’t let me out at Rugby station until I had enjoyed at least one song from an acoustic reworking…

JANE BURNS, 54 PITCH WAS: Outside Wimbledon Centre Court Shopping Centre June is normally the month that Big Issue vendor Jane Burns would be gearing up for hordes of tennis fans to descend on her pitch. But because of Covid-19 not only is Jane – like all our vendors – unable to sell as usual, but the world-famous Wimbledon tennis tournament itself is cancelled for 2020. Regarded as a “local Wimbledon landmark”, the 54-year-old has been selling The Big Issue since 2001 and has found it tough going since we made the difficult decision at the end of March to temporarily halt street sales for our sellers’ safety. Waiting for money to come through from a new Universal Credit claim, she has had to rely on support from her mother,…

THIS WEEK WE ASKED YOU... You respond to our report that the government is pledging to build 6,000 homes for rough sleepers @samuelsibeko It’s the investment in MH support, substance misuse, vice, exploitation and abuse, that’s required too. More complex from my admittedly limited knowledge, that’s its not simply a case of housing to solve it. A welcome yes, if delivered, but prevention not just ‘cure’ please. @VonSkinnback This government said that, not a chance it is going to happen. @bondsnood This would be great if lack of housing was the sole reason for homelessness. @chaswhiskey Alas, with all the job losses from the pandemic, they will have a lot more homeless people to deal with, and no doubt less money to invest. @johncherrie65 The new normal should be no…

I live in Scotland. There are a lot of golf courses here. I’m not telling you anything new about the golf courses. This has always been known. Scotland is famous for golf. It’s like telling you there is sand in the desert. I’ve passed by many courses but until recently I’d never stepped on one. Then, as Covid ripped and we all looked around for places to walk, like Caesar I crossed the Rubicon. And what a world lay rolling in front of me to be conquered. Such walks, such tended thickets, such panoramic views to the Campsie Fells and round beyond Ben Lomond and south-west on to Arran. Glorious late spring weather helped, of course. But, when the crowds thinned out and as uncertainty raged, these became places of…

At 16 I was already I was an old soul. I was desperate about my music – always learning, listening, practising classical piano for two hours a day. One day when I was almost 16, I turned on the radio and this guy was playing folk music. I just flipped out over these songs and I called my father and said, I have to have a guitar. And from then on it was The Gypsy Rover and Barbara Allen instead of Beethoven. And I was going on my father’s radio show and going up to the mountains to the folklore centre meetings and listening to people singing Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger songs. It was a very exciting time. Oh boy, I was a very productive, active teenager. I was…

For so many weeks, millions of the most vulnerable in Britain followed government guidance, staying home. They understood the importance of the message. They, and others in need, were supported by an army of good people who gave of themselves to do incredible things. As many as 10 million adults volunteered during lockdown, according to research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research – that’s one in five over-18s, and the economic equivalent of £350m a week. And nearly 80 per cent said they’ll keep doing their bit with lockdown measures eased. Brits have been digging into their pockets for the common good, too, with more than £1bn spent paying for products and services which the buyers knew they wouldn’t be able to use, like domestic cleaners and gardeners.…

They are both words we know and use without a second thought. But look them up in a dictionary, and you’ll find there’s a lot more to optimism and pessimism than first meets the eye. Their meanings today are somewhat different to their original implications, and between and outside of them are a whole host of other –isms,–ists, and outlooks on life. Today, we tend to think of optimism as little more than a synonym for positivity, but that hasn’t always been the case. Its roots lie with Gottfried Leibniz, an acclaimed German mathematician and thinker who in 1710 published a collection of essays on what he called “the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil”. His work introduced an extraordinary theory that our world…

Jakob Dylan is a two-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, his band The Wallflowers was one of the biggest acts of the ’90s, selling millions of albums and going quadruple-platinum. His father has released a couple of decent records too. Dylan fronts a new film, Echo in the Canyon, which takes a trip back in time to tell the story of the artists who developed the ‘California sound’ in the mid-60s and started a sonic revolution. Pioneers like Brian Wilson, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Graham Nash feature alongside those who were inspired, including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Tom Petty (the interview was Petty’s last before his death in 2017) – as well as contemporary fans like Beck, Norah Jones and Fiona Apple. But what is the real legacy of that…