#nutland

[thegreatgildy]

#nutland #fall #autumn #vintage illustration

[foxeia]

Linus Nutland

#foxeia

[floorinsite]

Recofloor 2023 vinyl recycling awards now open

Entries are now open for the 2023 Recofloor vinyl flooring recycling awards. Showcasing members’ recycling achievements, the awards celebrate and share sustainability successes across the industry.  

For 2023, there are five open categories: Contractor of the Year, Distributor of the Year, Drop-Off Site User of the Year, Project of the Year, and Recofloor Champion. These categories will be judged by the Recofloor team and representatives from scheme founders Altro and Polyflor. Companies can either enter themselves directly or nominate a member who deserves recognition. 

“We’re looking for businesses who can demonstrate commitment to the scheme and show they are making a difference,” says Recofloor Manager, Carla Eslava. “Large or small, every member is welcome to enter. Previous winners range from local drop-off site users to regional distributors and national contractors – it’s always inspiring to find out how people are implementing the scheme and improving their sustainability practices.”

In addition to the open categories, Recofloor has brought back the Greatest Improver Award after a two-year break. In this category, companies are awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place based on growth in their tonnages collected from 2021 to 2022.  Gold, Silver, or Bronze award certificates will also be given to all participating companies for their recycling efforts and their tonnages collected.  

Previous winners have seen significant benefits from publicity in industry media. While there is not a face-to-face awards ceremony planned for the 2023 awards, trophies, certificates and a number of special prizes for the winning companies will be awarded to winners of the main categories (details to be confirmed). 

“With zero waste targets spreading through supply chains, winning a Recofloor award is a great way for flooring firms to boost their profile and highlight sustainability credentials to prospective customers,” says Carla. “It’s also a powerful motivator, giving a boost to hard-working teams.”

2021 Distributor of the Year category winner James Smith, Managing Director at Nutland Carpet Accessories Ltd, is enthusiastic about winning a Recofloor award: “We were absolutely thrilled to win Recofloor’s Distributor of the Year Award”, he explains. “It has been great to see how committed our customers have been to Recofloor. We couldn’t do it without them and, of course, the support of Altro and Polyflor.” 

Another enthusiast is Neil Stanway, Managing Director, at Kilworth Flooring & Furnishing Co. Ltd, winner of the 2021 Contractor of the Year Award. “It was motivation for us,” he says. “It’s really satisfying to see our recycling efforts being recognised so quickly and we were delighted to win this award.”

The entry process for the awards is straightforward, requiring entrants to simply answer a short set of questions specific to the relevant category. 

The closing date for entries is Friday 17th February 2023. To enter, visit http://recofloor-org/awards-2023

Winners will be announced in March 2023 over social media and via the Recofloor website. 

Recofloor is the UK’s leading vinyl take back scheme. It is free to join and easy to use. To find out more, go to www.recofloor.org or contact Recofloor on 0161 355 7618 or at [email protected]. 

[cheerupasheen]

Jackie Pirico - Bib Goblin

Jackie Pirico is a comedian who has some of the best cat videos I have seen on the internet. How does she not have a gajillion followers? Come on y’all, these videos are magic.

#cat #cats #cat video #cat videos #nutland

[jojisdicc]

Nutland rule No.1 :

No mf airpods

#joji #nutland #nutlandish

[beatsofhell]

#guncontrol #nutland by #beatsofhell

#guncontrol #nutland #beatsofhell

[jojisribosomes]

Joji should just perform in shorts or briefs in his next tour i would be so happy 😊. Or with his silk robe only like in the Boiler Room set I mean he was letting his pants fall through the whole set lol 😆 got to see some boxers (unless he forgot a belt lol.) Oh yes he does have a fascination with balls he did interludes of "deez nuts" throughout his playlist mix he did recently for Diplos and friends lol

Only in venues for adults tho! Otherwise it would feel kinda wrong  😓... but yeah now I think about it, Niki Minaj shakes her jellys live on venues all ages, so yeah, whatever, let the thirst run freeeee! And yes! Even in half of his interviews, nuts and balls are always mentioned!

“Nutland”.

[fridgeboys]

that pass? william nutlander

#leafs lb

[homojoji]

Baby, if you wanna leave, come to Nutland Be a freak like me, too 🎤🎵

Stay away from me & my entire family

[berktopuz]

📣Koronavirüs cinsel hayatı öldürdü mü? 🔎İngiltere'de 1990'lardan bu yana her 10 yılda bir yapılan Ulusal Cinsel Davranışlar ve Yaşam Tarzı Anketi, bu yıl karmaşık bir tablo çizdi. 2020-2021 yıllarında Kovid-19 pandemisini baz alan 'Natsal-Covid' adlı ankette, karantina sürecinde başlayan ve daha da kötüleşen cinsel zorluklar bildirildi. 🔎İngiltere'de yayınlanan 'Natsal-Covid' adlı araştırmaya göre, küresel salgın sırasında birlikte yaşayan çiftlerin y��zde 78'i cinsel hayatlarında olumsuz bir değişime uğradıklarını belirtti. ✒️Her 10 kişiden biri, karantinada başlayan ve kötüleşen cinsel zorluklar bildirdi. Katılımcıların yüzde 63'ü az sayıda cinsel aktivite bildirmiş olsa da, bunların yüzde 75'i partnerleriyle birlikte yaşayan kişiler olduğu görüldü. ✒️Birlikte yaşamayan çiftlerin cinsel hayatı ise kaçınılmaz olarak daha da zorlaştı. İlişkisi olmayan insanlar için ise karantina ayları bir 'felaket' olarak yorumlandı. Bu kişiler arasından 30 kadından sadece biri ve 10 erkekten biri yeni bir cinsel partnere sahip olduğunu bildirdi. ✒️Cinsel ilişkilerdeki artış, genellikle cinsel yolla bulaşan enfeksiyon (CYBE) oranlarındaki bir artışla tespit edilebilir. Ancak şu anda bunları değerlendirmek oldukça zor. ✒️Sağlık eşitsizliklerini araştıran ve kar amacı gütmeyen Love Tank'in kurucu ortağı Will Nutland, “Tüm klinik meslektaşlarım CYBE'lerin arttığını kaydetti. Özellikle heteroseksüel kadınlar arasında sifilizde büyük bir artış var. Ancak genel kanı, Kovid sebebiyle CYBE hizmetlerindeki eksiklikten ötürü bunların çoğunlukla 2020'den kalma vakalar olduğu anlamına geliyor. 👉🏼Özetle, yaz nasıl güzel geçmediyse, cinsellik de öyle oldu" dedi. Pandemi sürecinde Kovid-19'a yakalanma korkusu, cinsel hayatı etkileyen faktörlerin başında geliyor. -Dr.Berk Topuz- #ciltgüzelliği #uyku #zayıflamakistiyorum #detoks #bursa #yemek #estetik #ciltlekeleri #zayıflamak #kiloalmakistiyorum #detokssuyu #ankara #ciltbakımı #dolgu #diyet #saçdökülmesi #zayıflama #berktopuz #istanbul #botoks #kollajen #güzelliksırları #güzellik #sağlıkhaberleri #türkkahvesi #yemektarifleri #qatar #bodrum #antalya (Istanbul, Turkey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CUVIi3oooEW/?utm_medium=tumblr

#ciltgüzelliği #uyku #zayıflamakistiyorum #detoks #bursa #yemek #estetik #ciltlekeleri #zayıflamak #kiloalmakistiyorum #detokssuyu #ankara #ciltbakımı #dolgu #diyet #saçdökülmesi #zayıflama #berktopuz #istanbul #botoks #kollajen #güzelliksırları #güzellik #sağlıkhaberleri #türkkahvesi #yemektarifleri #qatar #bodrum #antalya

[xtruss]

‘I Feel A Bit Rusty’: Has Covid Killed Our Sex Lives?

The end of lockdown was supposed to herald an explosion of pent-up desire and a bonkbuster of a summer. But it’s been way more complicated than that

— By Zoe Williams | Saturday, 25 September 2021 | The Guardian USA

In lockdown only 1 in 30 women and 1 in 10 men had a new partner. Photography by Antonio Olmos for the Guardian; styling by Andie Redman

This year was meant to be a replay of the roaring 20s, your hot girl or boy summer. We’d be hedonistic, bacchanalian and, above all, getting laid. All the pent-up energy of lockdowns, the only time it has ever been illegal for people from different households to have sex, would explode in one helluva bonkbuster summer. But has it panned out that way? Or has Covid ruined our sex lives?

Have We Really Stopped Having Sex?

Every decade since 1990, the UK has carried out a detailed National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal). In 2020-21 it was replaced by the smaller Natsal-Covid study, which painted a complicated picture: of those in cohabiting relationships, 78% saw a change in their sex life, usually for the worse. One in 10 reported sexual difficulties that started or worsened in lockdown. Even though 63% reported some sexual activity, 75% of those who did were in a cohabiting relationship. Times have inevitably been even leaner for couples who weren’t living together. As for people who weren’t in a relationship, the lockdown months were a catastrophe: only one in 30 women and one in 10 men had a new sexual partner.

A rise in sexual activity can often be detected by a rise in STI rates, but these are hard to judge at present. Anecdotally, professionals have reported a jump. Will Nutland of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who is co-founder of the not-for-profit Love Tank, which researches health inequalities, says: “All my clinical colleagues have noted STIs rising. There’s been a big increase in syphilis, particularly among straight women.” But the general feeling is that Covid-driven lack of STI services means these are mostly stored-up cases from 2020. In summary: just as summer failed to materialise, so did the love.

Does Long Covid Kill Your Mojo?

Short answer, probably. Robyn, 37, caught the virus last December, felt better in January, then found her symptoms coming back. “The main thing is dreadful fatigue and brain fog. I forgot my housemate’s name. I technically could go on a date, but I’ve barely enough energy to walk to the corner shop, let alone have sex.” And anyway, she adds: “I’ve got absolutely nothing to say for myself. My interests are napping and having baths. I’ve got no sparkling personality. Oh, and since December, I’ve had no sex drive at all.”

But Eleanor Draeger, a sexual health and HIV doctor, counsels against too much extrapolation. “People with all sorts of physical disabilities have sex, and long Covid is a physical disability. They may not be having hanging-from-the-chandelier sex, but they can still have sex.” However, she agrees that if low libido is a symptom, it will be pretty decisive.

How Does Fear of Catching Covid Affect Our Sex Lives?

It’s not unreasonable to try to avoid catching Covid. Rose, 27, lives in Edinburgh and works in responsible investment, so uses the phrase “risk budget” more than most of us. But she says “I don’t want to waste that budget on spending time with anyone other than my friends.” She doesn’t want to try getting off with friends: “You’d ruin a friendship at a time when it’s so hard to make new ones?”

People aren’t necessarily scared of Covid; they’ve just forgotten how to be close Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian

Has Social Distancing Atrophied Desire For Intimacy?

There’s a subtle but gigantic mental barrier to cross in going from two metres to zero millimetres apart. “People are not necessarily scared of Covid,” says Nutland. “They’ve just forgotten how to be close.” This doesn’t always have a sexual dimension – many people describe anxieties about everyday proximity and crowded spaces. “We’ve lost those social and sexual skills,” he adds, “though they’ll come back with a bit of time.”

Have Lockdowns Shaken Our Body Confidence?

Nearly half of us – 48% – put on weight in lockdown, and 29% said they drank more. But that interacted with more nebulous feelings of pessimism and low self-esteem that come with too much time indoors. Jenny Keane, a sex educator who was running an online orgasm workshop when the pandemic broke out, says feedback she was getting “centred on low libido, lack of desire and low self-esteem, which are in a vicious circle.” So she tailored a course on “body confidence and sexual self-care”.

Not everyone sank into despair about their bodies. Anya, 38, is frustrated by the fact that she is in decent shape but there’s no one to appreciate it. “I wouldn’t get on Love Island, but I want someone to bear witness to the fact that I’m reasonably attractive and look good naked.”

Have We Become Obsessed with Hygiene?

Sanitised sex is a contradiction in terms. It isn’t reasonable or possible to be intimate with someone while maintaining germ barriers. After 18 months of trying to keep ourselves physically separate, it is quite hard to stop seeing closeness as a threat. Draeger has seen this play out vividly in her clinical work, to the point where an STI diagnosis that wouldn’t normally have caused a huge amount of angst has had a hugely damaging effect. “People have told me having an STI felt really stressful in the context of Covid,” she says. “They just felt that everything was unclean.”

Phil Samba, 31, a researcher and campaigner who helps black gay men in particular access HIV and STI testing, says: “Suddenly the message was ‘Just wank.’ That really irritated me. That didn’t work during the HIV/Aids pandemic, and it wasn’t going to work now.” But it was still “very triggering” for people who lived through the HIV epidemic. Samba says: “People were dying of a mystery virus spread through interaction, and it put people back into that 1980s fear.”

Are We All Just Happier Staying at Home Now?

Alan, 50,

says: “I’ve got so used to pottering about my flat that I think, ‘Yeah, that’s my life now.’” Greg, 45, divorced with two children, ended a relationship at the start of lockdown partly because his kids, 10 and 12, were not happy about it. “Now I can’t even go to work without the dog going up the wall. Everybody’s got used to this cocooned, slightly selfish world. I’d struggle to bring anybody else into my life. I was supposed to be having a date tonight, but I don’t really fancy it. I feel a bit rusty.”

Where is Everyone?

Dating apps, brutal at the best of times, are a bit quiet. Anya says: “When the pandemic started, I was 36. Now I’m 38. Part of me does worry that men are looking for women whose fertility isn’t going to be an issue.” And where do you meet people, if you’ve had enough of app dating? After-work drinks, bars and festivals have all either disappeared or are operating under new limits that squash flirting opportunities.

Are Cohabiting Couples Really Having it the Best?

The problems in a cohabiting relationship are different, Keane says. “A woman might be a mother in the morning, a worker in the day, a mother again when she comes home, and a partner when the children go to bed.” In lockdown, we lost those boundaries and became everything in one room.

Then there is stress, which can send you in one of two, really unhelpful, directions: “Either we become activated, so the kind of sex you want then is generally fast and easy,” says Keane. “Or we become disconnected, and have that sense of being further away from the person you’re in the room with.”

Even Before the Pandemic, Were We Having Much Sex?

In the US, research from 2018 found a distinct downward trend: millennials were having less sex than boomers did at their age, and Zoomers were having less than millennials. This doesn’t appear to be the whole story in the UK, unless we’re just slower to notice. Here, under-35s are drinking less and taking fewer drugs, but according to the most recent Natsal (2010-2012), they were having more of everything sex-wise: partners, experiments, encounters. Certainly, they are not very reliable narrators – one 21-year-old I spoke to had sex with two different people between agreeing to be interviewed and the actual interview, and that was a window of 24 hours. So I had to drop her, but I don’t think she minded.

Why Haven’t We Gone Back to Normal Now?

The lifting of lockdown doesn’t mean intimacy returns. A lot of the practical barriers to sex, such as a house full of children – or, worse, adult children – and everyone working from home, are still up. Tom, 37, is in an open relationship with his same-sex partner of 20 years. “We’re intimate but we’re not really sexual,” he says. They both used to travel a lot for work, and had sex with other people when the other was out of the house. Since Covid, that’s harder. “It’s a bit awkward saying: ‘I’m just off out to get laid.’ Where we’re out of practice is the tacit understanding: “Oh, you had a shower and went out for two hours.’ It feels as if I’m doing something dishonest.”

Sex is about connection, and the pandemic has been about disconnection – physical and emotional: at some time or another, we’ve all been in fight-or-flight mode, which is about as disconnected as life gets. Keane believes there is a way back, if we understand better how our state of being affects our interest in sex. “Whatever the problem, everybody’s question is always: ‘Am I broken?’ When so many of us carry shame about bodily functions and confusion about sex, good quality, sex-positive education is key. You can change your entire relationship with yourself just by changing the understanding of your body. My answer is always the same. ‘No, you are not broken.’”

[chasenews]

Family run business opens new restaurant and event space following a £1.5 million investment

Family run business opens new restaurant and event space following a £1.5 million investment

A new 78-seater restaurant and event space has opened its doors at Basset Down Complex near South Swindon serving the town, North Wiltshire and beyond.The recently extended complex designed by owners Juliette and William Nutland is the culmination of five years’ work from concept to creation and opening.“We now offer members of the public a fantastic venue full of experiences,” Juliette said.…

View On WordPress

[bbcbreakingnews]

Twenty-four sick and starving puppies found on the M6 are nursed back to health

Twenty-four puppies discovered in squalid conditions in the back of a van have been rehomed with the police officers who rescued them. 

More than 40 dogs including chihuahua crosses, border collies and beagles were found crammed in crates in August, all in poor health.

Two concerned members of the public had called the police after witnessing a concerning scene in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

A van was then stopped on the M6 with the malnourished animals packed inside – all suffering without food or water.

Police initially believed the dogs, aged between five and eight weeks, had been stolen but now think they had been on a journey from a puppy farm. 

According to the PDSA, a lot of the mothers are abandoned at puppy farms once they stop being useful for breeding, while some puppies will die due to poor health and the conditions they are kept in.  

Several of the puppies died due to their shocking treatment – but 24 were nursed back to health and have now been rehomed within the policing family.

Twenty-four puppies discovered in squalid conditions in the back of a van have been rehomed with the police officers who rescued them (Left, Riley. Right, Nova)

More than 40 dogs including chihuahua crosses, border collies and beagles were found crammed in crates in August, all in poor health

Gloucestershire Constabulary, which led the operation, added that several had been adopted by those involved in the rescue effort.

DCI Claire Nutland said: ‘I would like to send a huge thanks to Wood Animal Hospital and Rushwood Kennels in Gloucestershire, and White House Vets and Brookend Kennels in Malvern.

‘Their considerable assistance since the summer has been fantastic and thoroughly appreciated.

‘A special thanks also needs to go to local behaviourist Estelle Vickery of Little Paws Behaviour and Training, who donated a significant amount of her time free of charge to conduct home checks and provide support to ensure the puppies had the best start in their new rescue homes after the worst start to their lives.

Twenty-four puppies discovered in squalid conditions in the back of a van have been rehomed with the police officers who rescued them (Left, Lucy. Right, Bailee)

‘Finally, the Constabulary would like to thank the members of the public that took the time to report this incident.

‘Without their help, these puppies would have been delivered all over the country and many more would have died without urgent veterinary care.

‘It is vital that people report suspicious activity to the police and animal cruelty or neglect to the RSPCA in order to tackle this global problem.’

Police and Crime Commissioner Martin Surl added: ‘A compassionate approach to all animals is not in the police and crime plan by accident. It is because the Chief Constable and I take it very seriously.

Two concerned members of the public had called the police after witnessing a concerning scene in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (Left, Iko. Right, Archie)

Police initially believed the dogs, aged between five and eight weeks, had been stolen but now think they had been on a journey from a puppy farm (Left, Cubby. Right, Charlie)

‘This is a story with a happy ending but it could just as easily have gone the other way.

‘I hope it encourages people that if they spot signs of animal cruelty or neglect to come forward as their concerns will be properly investigated by the Constabulary.’  

Puppy farms are commercial breeders where multiple dogs are continually bred from, and the puppies sold for profit.

They are kept in poor conditions, often not health tested prior to breeding, or health checked after birth, and are rarely vaccinated.

They are placed under a great deal of stress during transport and are usually malnourished, meaning they are more likely to fall ill.

The adult and new born puppies rarely have any interaction with people or normal family homes, and so are poorly socialised which can lead to behavioural problems in the future.

A man was arrested in connection with the incident after the van was stopped earlier this year.

The probe into the 24-year-old, from Durham, is ongoing, police said.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/12/22/twenty-four-sick-and-starving-puppies-found-on-the-m6-are-nursed-back-to-health/

[jojisdicc]

Imagine being a citizen in nutland , ruled by the great joji & everyday a citizen have to make him nut

—jojisdicc

#wow he's a dictator #y'all doing freak out you'll get your turn someday #oof i mi8 delete this l8r #2am thots #joji #y'all don't freak out you'll get your turn smday

[adambstingus]

Giant condoms and buckets of fake blood: the true story of Aids activists Act Up

The French film 120 Beats Per Minute depicts the urgency of the HIV/Aids crisis through the eyes of the Paris branch of the radical campaigners. Members of the international group recall what it was really like

If activism is all about getting attention, then Act Up, you could say, screamed the loudest. As the Aids crisis deepened, this global network of campaigners used whatever tools they deemed necessary to wake the world up to their plight: “die-ins”, sprawling across the floors of corporations and churches; litres of fake blood chucked over the steps of town halls; a great many public snogs. And they had a thing for big condoms: a pièce de résistance was a huge pink sheath covering the obelisk on Paris’s Place de la Concorde.

This is the story of 120 Beats Per Minute. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes last year, the French film gives a fictionalised account of the country’s branch of Act Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) in the early 90s, as young campaigners protested against government apathy at their plight.

The film’s director, 55-year-old Robin Campillo, was once part of the organisation and faithfully portrays the urgency of the group: they debate and argue, they protest and party, they cry, they have sex, they smoke and, inevitably, sometimes they die. For viewers whose knowledge of Aids movies are limited to Tom Hanks tastefully fading away in Philadelphia, it will come as quite a shock.

120 Beats Per Minute is all the more remarkable for the fact that many say the film portrays exactly what it was like. Will Nutland, who attended Act Up Paris meetings, says: “This feels like someone has just grabbed me and pulled me back.”

But the film is also, it has to be said, gloriously French, with everyone huffing and puffing away. Which leads to a question: while 120 BPM tells the story of the French movement – and the 2012 documentary How to Survive a Plague charts the actions of the original New York branch (founded by Larry Kramer in 1987) – what did Britons do as the Aids crisis deepened?

How to Survive a Plague … the US take on Act Up. Photograph: Publicity image from film company

Lisa Power was at the very first meeting of Act Up London in late 1988. Her memories of the session, held in the basement of the now-defunct Gay and Lesbian Centre, are that it was “dimly lit” and had “cheap beer”. She remembers 15 or 20 people being present. “I’m pretty sure Peter Tatchell was there because one thing you can guarantee at the end of the 80s is that if somebody was founding something, Peter Tatchell and I would turn up to it.” In the 30 years since, Power has become a powerful LGBT advocate (she helped set up Stonewall). Tatchell is well known for his uncompromising activism, for instance with the protest group OutRage! Sure enough, Tatchell confirms he was there, but remembers things differently: “My recollection is that about 50 or 60 people were present. It was pretty crowded.”

A lot of Act Up’s history is only patchily recorded, not least for the awful reason that many activists have since died. Emotions about that time still run high. Most were animated by what Power calls “a blinding sense of urgency – because there were lots of people dying and they wanted to make a mark”.

Today, when in the affluent, white, western world at least, the Aids crisis has largely abated, it’s hard to recall the horror and confusion of the time – and the levels of prejudice. 120 BPM encapsulates this moment. Within the LGBT community, the ructions were as diverse as the people themselves. Tatchell, though, now manages to sum up Act Up London’s ethos: “It targeted anyone and everyone who was failing to address the HIV crisis.”

The group, as with all other chapters, specialised in direct, nonviolent action, aided by striking visuals. The aim, Tatchell says, was to “raise public awareness and put powerful people on the spot. It was also a psychological morale boost for people with the virus.”

In 120 BPM, activists chuck fake blood at medical researchers; the documentary How to Survive a Plague revisits a memorable moment when protesters placed a huge canvas condom over Senator Jesse Helms’s house. Act Up London’s actions seem a little less outrageous. “Paris were frankly a bunch of complete maniacs,” says Power with affection, while “there was a British sense of humour about the actions here”. She recalls one of the very first, outside Pentonville prison, where they blew up condoms and bounced them over the prison walls, to protest against the fact that prisoners weren’t allowed them. Tatchell was there, too, but again remembers things differently. “They weren’t blown up – they were catapulted over the wall.”

Nutland, meanwhile, helped set up Act Up Norwich (the group had branches across the country). They catapulted condoms over the wall of Norwich prison, only for their catapults to be confiscated by the police. “The policewoman who took them was called PC Dyke.”

Jimmy Somerville … a vital figurehead. Photograph: Clare Muller/Redferns

Another activist, Ash Kotak, recalls an action involving the singer Jimmy Somerville, who was a vital figurehead, championing and funding the cause. He chained himself to railings at the House of Commons. “I asked him: ‘What was that like, Jimmy?’ He said: ‘I rather liked it.’”

Their collective humour, though, can’t mask the intensity of feeling of the time, and the fraught, divergent reactions it prompted. In 120 BPM, there is a scene in which a man, having helped his lover die, almost immediately has sex with another activist in the deathbed. “There was a sense of things you did that, looking back now, may have seemed quite weird,” says Nutland, “but when I watched that scene, I was like, yep! You fucked the grief out.”

Also ringing true in the film are ecstatic scenes where the characters go out clubbing; dancing to the era’s classic house music. Many activists said that it was just a bit of fun, but also a means of survival – intense fun for an intense time. It is one of the few facts that everyone agrees on.

Because there were downsides. Many activists recall Act Up being mired in arguments and discord. While the groups were ostensibly democratic, this could mean it was, at times, hard to agree on what to do. Tatchell says that the group benefited from its “accessibility and spontaneity”, but some are more ambivalent. “They would have said it was an open democracy, but it was pretty much a meritocracy, plus who shouted the loudest,” says Power. Others say it was shambolic.

In short, a British 120 BPM would look the same, but different. Despite this, there were subtle and important differences between Act Up in different countries. Britain was, everyone agrees, relatively lucky to have the NHS, which reacted well to the crisis – for this, and many other reasons, people never mobilised around the movement in quite the same way as in the US or France. It could even be just a matter of national temperament, the Brits opting to be less politicised and more focused on things such as providing care. However, most do believe that Act Up in Britain paved the way for more “respectable”, or at least organised, advocacy groups to make their case in the corridors of power. Tatchell calls them “the shock troops in the battle against HIV”.

The London branch fizzled out in the 90s, thanks to disagreements over their methods, on whether to take corporate money and where the fight should go next after treatment started to become available. A nadir for them, says Nutland, was when members trashed a stall set up by the Terrence Higgins Trust at an international Act Up meeting in Amsterdam in 1992 – they disagreed over whether lesbians should use dental dams during sex. “I also think one of the problems was that we never spent any time doing any medium- to long-term thinking,” he says. Everyone was just young and angry, he says. And many thought they would soon be dead.

Yet the Act Up London group was revived in 2012, facing new challenges: the rise of infection among certain minorities; the ongoing stigma for those infected; and the urgent need to save the NHS, as services face continued cuts.

The new Act Up still carries out actions – they dumped half a tonne of manure on the doorstep of Ukip’s headquarters after Nigel Farage said that people with HIV should be barred from entering the UK. “The gravity of the situation demands a grassroots, mischievous, creative, disobedient, fantastical group,” says Dan Glass, who pushed for the revival. “We have other groups, but we need to be on the streets.”

Others feel the fight is best fought elsewhere. Nutland has instead cofounded Prepster, which advocates the use of PrEP, a drug that has had startling success in cutting down rates of HIV infection. In a landscape transformed by the internet and social media, he argues, street actions still have a place, but it needs to be a lot more strategic, and fit alongside what else is happening.

Lisa Power tends to agree. But what even makes a good activist, anyway? She pauses. “You need to be a bit of a drama queen – but not too much.” Whether “too much” of a drama queen is a paradox, she doesn’t explain. But the activists in 120 BPM, scrapping and screaming for their lives, would definitely have something to say.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/giant-condoms-and-buckets-of-fake-blood-the-true-story-of-aids-activists-act-up/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/182214615412