ALLABOUTTHEBIGISSUE: Open Mic.

Xmas Open Mic At CRISIS.

By Uncle Monty.

Photos By Alex Albion.

Part 2 of 2.

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For me, it was hard to engender the Spirit of Christmas

at the so-called Xmas Open Mic at where not a single

Christmas decoration was in sight save for some small

mince pies for sale inside the CRISIS Skylight Cafe

at where the Open Mic was held just days before

Christmas Day. Nobody even wore anything Xmasy,

except one performer with his blue and white Santa

hat and myself with my colourfal and noticeable

shiny green Xmas Tree hat.

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Chorally, I also found poor Christmas pickings at the Xmas

Open Mic at CRISIS that saw more performers than

visiting patrons at its venue that was held at its East

London Commercial Road HQ. I was among just an

handful of those patrons who witnessed what was

more a corny and common Tin Pan Alley* Show

than anything to do with Christmastide.

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* Meaning of Tin Pan Alley: The New York Herald referred

to it as "the sound made by many pianos all playing different

tunes being exactly like the banging of many tin pans in an

alleyway." The term is used in a somewhat derogatory fashion.

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Worse still, from the word go, I realized I'd made a bad

mistake even going to such an Open Mic whether it

was Christmas or not at CRISIS. So I was there and

since I was there I decided to stay there and see

the whole Xmas Open Mic from beginning to end that

lasted close to three very long hours for me. It was

my first visit and will now probably be my last!

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There Was An All-Around Shabbiness and

Slothfulness - Much Like An Inertia - With The

Performances of The Streetwise Opera Just Like

It Was With Much of The Whole Xmas

Open Mic At CRISIS.

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Of course, there were exceptions that I found with

Ken Roberts (shown below) with his classic peform-

ance from "The Phantom of the Opera." Lord Andrew

Lloyd Webber would have been very proud of Ken and

rightly so! Ken does all of his own makeup, too, along

with his own special white mask that sets him apart from

the other less than grand performers at the Xmas Open

Mic at the CRISIS Skyline Cafe.

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Two other performers impressed me. They were Anne

Mary (shown with me at the above caption picture) and

her partner Peter Pereira, who brought the house down

and they most certainly deserved that with their skillful

and delightful guitar playing.

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Ken Roberts.

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Guitars Galore At The Xmas Open Mic.

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Goregous CRISIS Staff Member!!

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This Guy Was All Guitar Playing And Good At It.

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He was the only one with something Xmasy. He is also

a member of The Choir With No Name - TCWNN -

along with The Streetwise Opera. Both, of course,

are populated almost exclusively by homeless people.

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Obviously, many of the performers were non-Christian

and foreign ethnics as they bellowed out their various

vocal offerings or their common musical gigs that showed

no sign of Christmas from beginning to end. Compared to

the sheer delight of the very Xmasy performance two

nights earlier at The Choir With No Name (TCWWN),

it was almost depressing at times for me to watch the

CRISIS so-called Xmas Open Mic Night at where even

with such loud applause I was at a loss to appreciate

the poor, mechanical, and at times, purely low level

of talent I saw. It appeared, too, that the performers

were mostly performing for the other performers and

not per se for the public patrons present like me.

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If I had to pick the best, it would have to be Ken

Roberts and Mary Anne and Peter Pereira at

the Xmas Open Mic, although they neither did

anything very Xmasy at the CRISIS Skylight Cafe.

Nevertheless, Ken, Mary Anne and Peter were

the best of the more than 25 other homeless

performers. Being homeless is no excuse for

not trying to be the best in whatever one can do.

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Here's The Good Exception: Anne Mary Pereira.

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Of course, I had expected a very Xmasy night out

at CRISIS that did not transpire for me and so that

maybe why I was so chafed and peeved as I watched

various guyz and galz doing their rather non-Christmas

gigs. CRISIS is located in the heart of the Muslim-

dominated Tower Hamlets of London and that may

also be one of the reasons why I saw no Christmas

decorations. What a pity, if such is true!!

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And Sadly, This Is Home For Many Homeless This Christmas.

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I have now thus attended two homeless Xmas events in

the past week. Both are a far cry from what The Big Issue

fails to do for the homeless at Christmastide. It begs

Christmas donations from the gullible public to "help

the Big Issue vendors," but provides little or nothing for

them except a rather poor Vendors' Party that isn't worth

the time or energy for most vendors to attend. If they do,

they're lucky to get a small bottle of spring water and an

even smaller bar of Divine Chocolate to which old Gordon

Roddick, co-founder of The Big Issue, has a vested and

business interest in. The vendors might also get a plate

of food cooked at Union Chapel when Paul Joseph

and Bad Ass John Duffy did the cooking there. Both of

them have since quit The Big Issue like so many other

staffers have over the past few years under the gruff and

tyrannical and greedy management of the vile Bird Brothers.

Pigface John Bird retired this year and his scum brother

Peter Bird is probably next, if he's not already been

booted out for good from The Big Issue HQ at

London's Vauxhall. Perhaps they'll send him off to

Scotland again to help the new editor Paul McNamee?

Peter Bird was almost useless when he was last at

Glasgow, so I'm told.

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At one time, vendors would get a nice wind-

breaker jacket and a new pair of Camper sneakers or

trainers at Christmas, but The Big issue seems to have

cutback even on such corporate handouts to vendors

to save their own big profits and fat bank accounts

for their own fat catz. "To hell with the vendors,"

they could easily say amd do.

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Thingz have changed alot at Bird's once

flourishing pigsty that functioned for years at the

expense of the homeless as always. With Christmas

here again, the vendors will be for the most part in

the usual situation of trying to make heads or tails on

the streets. While, of course, the vile Bird Brothers

and their rich gang like Trudie Styler, James Cann

and Nigal Kershaw, always come out best!!

God damn the godless sods!!

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Upon leaving the Xmas Open Mic Night at CRISIS

Skylight Cafe, I saw a chilly, cold and wet late night as

I got No. 40 bus back to homebase. While on the bus

a black bitch and a hostile middle-aged white guy got

into a verbal row that saw all the blacks on the bus

gang up on the white guy who stuck out his tongue

at them and the nasty black bitch then made obscene

gesticulations and comments about white folkz. It

could have turned even more ugly had the white guy not

gotten off two stops later. The black bitch demanded

the bus driver to stop and call the police so that she

could report him!! The driver just ignored her as she

then got off at the next stop with her screaming baby

carried on her back like she was still living in far

away Zimbabwe or Zululand instead of at England's

capital city of London. The incident just closed a

rather all around depressing evening for me with no

Christmas cheer at all as I arrived back at homebase

to start to scribble my blog notes on my Dell laptop

for this my last story of the year 2011 called

"Xmas Open Mic At CRISIS."

Fraternally with the homeless, Uncle Monty

+It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, 2011.

'So many homeless are working' - "we're paying tax

and sleeping on the street'". By Rosamund Urwin.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24022821-so-many-homeless-are-working---were-paying-tax-and-sleeping-on-the-street.do

Feedback & Comments

allaboutthebigissue@gmx.co.uk

No "Dear Leader" Anymore.

By Uncle Monty.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2011/12/kim-jong-un.html

Friend Jillian w/Uncle Monty At Royal Corporation Xmas Lunch.

Above Xmas Photo By Gary Day.

Tonight, Thursday, I have been invited to the Brompton
Oratory Carol Service that I am looking forward to very
much as a confirmed Anglican attending what is the
most outstanding traditional Catholic and high ecumenical
Christmas Service in London. I feel so delighted to have been
invited. And, the latest secular news media rubbish about
Benedict XVI's "iffy" health is refuted by the Catholic World
News Service (CWNS): "Pope plans full liturgical schedule
for Christmas season. That's not something a sick man can
do," stated CWNS. Also see: Calendario delle
Celebrazioni del Tempo di Natale at The Holy See
website.

.
Now for a couple of images from last night's Traditional
Carol Service Held At London's Famed Brompton Oratory.