Old News From The www.join-me.co.uk Archives (part 3)

==Old News - The First Half Of 2004==
Strewth!
Well, the first-ever Melbourne meet-up was fantastic!
I asked people to meet me outside Flinders Street station in the heart of the city if they fancied coming along and Joining Me... And by the end of the day, nearly 250 people had done just that! It was brilliant to properly instigate the Australian Karma Army, and to meet so many fine and noble joinees... the fact that so many of you turned up shows that the future of your fine country is in safe hands. After Flinders Street, we moved like a stealthy task force to the park next to Federation Square, where myself and some burly Australian men brought eight slabs of beer for the assembled masses... I made a short and ineffective speech, the first Australian joinee, Cazz, was Silvered, and I twinned the Melbourne Collective with the Edinburgh Collective... A full report will be with you soon...
(Pic with the caption:The Australian Karma Army is born... January 3rd, 2004, Melbourne...)
Wahoo!
Huge congratulations to Silver Joinee Smemo, Join Me's very own Max Clifford.
Stina won the PPC (Publishers Publicity Circle) Award for Best Publicity Campaign 2003 for Join Me! Here she is looking very pleased with herself, and holding some quite frankly rubbish flowers I got her.
Mix!
Well, the now-legendary Madras Valley curryhouse in Camden is quite clearly getting into the spirit of Join Me, and undertaking small acts of kindness for every customer who walks through the door. They're giving away bags of Bombay Mix bearing our name. Oh, and the name of "Danny Vallae", whoever he is. Anyway. Nice effort, Madras Valley!
Join Me: The Movie...
Well, all I'm saying is, things are progressing nicely with the film, and I'm really pleased and enthused with the way it's going. I won't give away too much, and obviously 99% of films never get made, but things are looking good...
More news soon...
Yahoo!
Well, the Yahoo! awards have come and gone, with the Join Me website walking away with a Find of the Year Award for the most Weird & Wonderful Site on the Web 2003... and very nice it is, too. Nicely weighted, but a fully-functioning magnifying glass built into its sturdy design. Which is what I look for in any award or statuette, really. Here's me with the web-designing genius that is Silver Joinee Primrose, the man responsible for updating this site!
Good God!
Look what Silver Joinee Hodges has done to his arm! He's had the first-ever JOIN ME tattoo! Although I was worried at first, Joinee Hodges wrote the following: Why a Join Me tattoo? Well, why not? My current tattoos each represent important times and changes in my life. Join Me has already greatly influenced my life. I have met many new close friends and had the opportunity to travel the country experiencing things that I would not have done before. The tattoo, like the others, would represent a chapter of my life.
Nice one, Tony!
The Germans have finally come on board!
For a while there, I didn't know what was going on. I was continually being interviewed by enthusiastic German journalists... but the stories would mysteriously never run. I began to suspect that some kind of secret police task force was keeping its eye on me. And then Die Welt published an article... opening the sluice gates.
My thanks to my first two joinees, Jonesy and Cobbett, for appearing on no less than two German TV shows, and for spreading the word to our no-longer-suspicious German cousins...
Well done, Jonesy and Cobbett!
Many more Australians continue to send their passport photos in, and join us! My trip out there - which was never supposed to be about Join Me but happily ended up that way - seems to have done the trick. There are now a good 500 or so happy-faced Australians who have undertaken the Good Fridays Agreement and agreed to do their Random Acts of Kindness whenever they can and wherever they are... Some great stories have been coming in from downunder of RAoKs... here's to a load more...
Hello!
By the time you read this, I'll be in the States, attempting to start up the American Karma Army (aka AKA). I'll also be trying to write a daily tour diary throughout March and upload a few pictures while I'm out there...
Another tattoo!
Well done to Joinee Bee for... well... essentially defacing himself. But defacing himself with words of beauty. To be honest, I'm very happy, but slightly concerned that there might be a new joinee craze developing... please think long and hard before doing something like this... both Joinee Bee and the similarly-tattooed Joinee Hodges did, but I don't want to be seen as encouraging you to do it... because, like a puppy, a tattoo ain't just for Join Me... it's for life.
Nice tattoo, though.
==Old News - Events Over Summer 2004...==
US-wahey.
So I'm back from the US Join Me tour, having spread the word in New York, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Portland, Milwaukee, Minnesota and two Madisons...
Hundreds of Americans have sent me their passport photos, hundreds more have signed up to the mailing list, and Join Me has become a weird kind of underground word-of-mouth movement in some of the colleges and universities there...
American chapters are beginning to spring up - mainly in Wisconsin, for some reason - and it won't be long before the American Karma Army becomes a global force for good, a bit like the UN, or Batman.
The book's doing well over there, too, with the likes of The Onion, The San Francisco Chronicle, Playboy (!) and - yes - Psychology Today championing the cause... hoorah.
And for the rest of June?
Well, the new edition of Join Me comes out on June 7th, so I'll be embarking on another tour for three weeks in June...
I'll be doing bookreadings and meeting joinees in York, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Bromley, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle and Glasgow... come along! I promise not to ramble too much...
I'll also be doing another reading earlier on... at Borders on Oxford Street in London... Thursday May 20th at 7pm... But let's try and make June the month of Join Me... feel free to use this excuse to hold meet-ups and do RAoKs like you've never done before...
JOIN ME JUNE
Well, it seems like a day doesn't pass without me receiving at least one e-mail from joinees demanding another big meet-up...
So, please be upstanding for... JOIN ME JUNE.
Basically, it'll be one year since Join Me hit the shops, and one year since the amount of passport photos I receive on a daily basis just went crazy. So to celebrate that fact, how about another day of beer, friends, and Random Acts of Kindness on the streets...
I'll be holding another meet-up on SATURDAY JUNE 5th, in London...Why London? Because it's the birthplace on Join Me... That's not to say you can't get involved if you can't come to London... why not hold a satellite meet-up in your local area? Let me know what you're planning, and I'll try and get some goodies sent your way...
But here in London it should be a marvellous day out - a kind of Karmageddon 2-and-a-half.
So can you make it? I hope so! Stick it in yer diary!
My thanks to everyone who's sent me in stories of their Random Acts of Kindness for a forthcoming Join Me mini-handbook... it looks like this is definitely going ahead, and should be coming out in November... I'll be giving away a load of copies through this site before then..
BOOK TOUR!
I'm off on tour again... fancy coming along? To one of the events, I mean, not on the whole tour... Here's where I'll be and when... would be great to see you!
* London - Thursday 10th May - 6.30pm, Borders Oxford Street - London
* York - Monday 7th June - 7pm - Waterstones - York
* Leeds - Tuesday 8th June - 7pm - Waterstones - 93 Albion Street, Leeds
* Manchester - Wednesday 9th June - 7pm - Waterstones - 91 Deansgate, Manchester
* Liverpool - Thursday 10th June - 7pm - Waterstones - 52 Bold Street, Liverpool
* Bournemouth - Monday 14th June - 6.30pm - Borders - The Square, Bournemouth
* Norwich - Tuesday 15th June - 7pm - Ottakars - 11-17 Castle Street, Norwich
* Milton Keynes - Wednesday 16th June - 6.30pm - Ottakars - 72 Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes
* Bromley - Thursday 17th June - 7.30pm - Ottakars - Bromley central library, Bromley
* Birmingham - Monday 21st June - 7pm - Waterstones - 128 New Street, Birmingham
* Nottingham - Tuesday 22nd June - 7.30pm - Waterstones - 1-5 Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham
* Newcastle - Wednesday 23rd June - 6pm - Waterstones - Blackett Street, Emerson Chambers, Newcastle
* Glasgow - Thursday 24th June - 6pm - Borders - 98 Buchanan Street, Glasgow
THE GERMANS!
I was over in Germany the other day, recording an interview for the Frank Elstner Show... the Chris Tarrant of Germany and the man who invented such TV formats as Man O Man! and You Bet!. I am therefore surprised that his new show, Menschen Der Woche, did not end in an exclamation mark. Anyway, the trip was fantastic fun - even when they realised that as they wanted to call me The Leader they might have to work on the translation... what with it being Die Fuhrer and everything... anyway, more Germans continue to join up as a result...
JOIN ME CHINA!
There's been an upsurge in the number of Chinese passport photos I've been receiving, thanks to a couple of local newspapers over there... a huge welcome to all the new Chinese joinees! And well done in particular to a guy called Lei who, for his first Good Friday, wandered through his market handing out fruit-based treats to elderly shoppers!
To celebrate the launch of the new version, Ebury Press are also printing up limited supply of postcards, posters and t-shirts...
LONDON MEET-UP!
What are you doing on Saturday June 5th? Do you fancy coming to another meet-up? A kind of Karmageddon 2.5? Oh, go on, it'll be lovely. Meet me at 2.30pm in the centre of Golden Square in London... I will be making an important announcement and carrying a placard. I will be wearing glasses so you can recognise me. BRING ONE GIFT-WRAPPED PRESENT TO HAND TO A STRANGER (or as many as you want - presents, I mean, not strangers).
Golden Square is mere moments away from Picadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, right in the heart of London. If you can only come along later in the afternoon, we'll be in The Midas Touch, at number 4 Golden Square, where you should be prepared for an afternoon and evening of joinees, beers, friends, curry, giveaways, laughs, Jonesys, Cobbetts, Whitbys and more... 
ITN will also be filming something so you could make the news!
SIGNED NEW BOOKS
The new edition of Join Me comes out on June 7th... and it's all lovely and shiny and embossed. It's also got an extended epilogue with updated news and mentions of all your favourite characters (new and old). There are some quite odd new pictures too. WHSmith are doing an exclusive deal - a signed copy of the new book for £4.89, plus p&p. I drew doodles in about 100 of them, so I apologise if you get one of those.
LOOK AT OUR COW!
(A picture shows) the cow we bought at Karmageddon 2!
She's the one on the right and her name is Malu. That's her calf on the left, and the people with her are currently trying to come with a name for her. Any ideas?
The fella in the middle is Radhkrishnan and it's his family that Malu has gone to help. Now they all live in Devala, a village in the Nilgiri hills in India... Malu sleeps in the front part of the house and helps to keep the family warm... her manure is used on vegetable plots, and her milk is a source of food and income.
Hurrah for the official Join Me cow!
Join Me June
Well, Join Me June, our big summer meet-up, was a great success... and my huge thanks to everyone who came along. Around 220 people had turned up by the end of the day, with joinees being split into four teams and spreading loveliness and random acts of kindness north, east, south and west of Soho’s Golden Square. By the end of the day, at least a thousand good deeds would have been done!
At the same time, joinees congregated in Edinburgh for a satellite meet-up, and did much that same in that fair city - taking to the streets with presents and banners, and confusing locals, tourists and goths alike.
Sadly, official Join Me band Vis a Vis couldn’t make it to London on the day, but the official Join Me popstar Alistair Griffin bravely stepped in, and played the Join Me song in their place. He is now, of course, Silver Joinee Griffin.
And so to the fundraising... I’d heard a story about an old Thai farmer who’d recently been diagnosed with cancer. In order to pay for his treatment, he’d had to sell half his farm, worth around £2500... the treatment hadn’t worked, and he’d been given three months to live. On top of that, he was incredibly worried about his family... and wracked with guilt that they would only have half a farm to see them all through...
At the same time as Join Me June, elsewhere in London, was a mini-fundraiser for the old man, organised by his son-in-law - a chap called Gareth. He wanted to raise £1000 in a day in order to buy the farm back and ensure the family’s safety, and allow the old man to die knowing they’d be okay. I told him if he could raise £500, I reckoned we could too... In the end, joinees alone raised nearly £900! Together with the money Gareth raised (another £700 or so!), we bought the farm back and saved a family! My heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated money on the day... especially Gold Joinee James Frost who changed his name by deed poll to ‘Joinee’ in order to secure funds! Thanks also to all the joinees who made considerable treks to be there on the day - including Silver Joinee Gac - who came all the way from Washington DC!
I had a fantastic day, and it was brilliant to meet so many of you and to see how more and more small collectives are popping up all over the country - and the world! See you for another one soon...
==Old News - The Final Acts Of The Year 2004==
More and more meets have been happening up and down the country... Silver Joinee Varwell recently managed to persuade around forty joinees to travel up to Inverness to spread the word and visit some of the places mentioned in the Join Me book... the Rev. Gareth Saunders showed people around the cathedral and apparently got up to his usual mischief.
A fine couple of days was had by all...
Meets also took place in Manchester, Brighton, Wapping, Nottingham, Southend, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Los Angeles, Washington DC - and two joinees (Silver Joinees John and Hulme) even took to the streets of Bolton with a giant Join Me banner which was later hung off a bridge.
Fantastic news!
Prepare to welcome... the official Join Me baby! The first interjoinee baby - the result of a harmonious joinee coupling kickstarted at a Join Meet - is on its way. Congrats to the marvellous joinees Brake and Laura!
Thanks to everyone who sent in an idea for our Join Me mini-book, Random Acts of Kindness. The book, which has 365 Ways To Make The World A Nicer Place in it, comes out in November, for £4.99. I’ll be giving away a load of copies on the site, soon. 
My thanks to all the joinees in the East Bay area of California, who recently took to the streets in order to spread the word... (and have been Silvered as a result!)
The day out made it into the excellent East Bay Express, who, despite calling me Wacky, published a fantastic article.
And yet more Joinee love news!
Joinees Vaughn and House are getting married! They met at a Join Meet in Birmingham this year and are preparing to tie the knot in May 2005...
Who knows... the second Join Me baby may soon be in the pipeline. If that’s not a rude way of putting it.
==Old News - Happy New Year 2005==
Moon Man!
I've just returned from a jaunt to the States, where I passed through Lake Tahoe and so made my way to the workplace of none other than Dennis M. Hope... Anyone who's read the book will know who I mean... yep... the head of the Galactic Government and the Lunar Embassy! The Head Cheese! The man who owns the moon! My mentor!
Dennis is a marvellous man who, in 1983, claimed the moon as his own. He now owns all the planets in our solar system apart from Earth, which just goes to show you where a bit of hard work and twenty years can get you. Dennis and I shared an afternoon, and he asked me to say hello to all joinees, wherever you are. He also said that he might come over to London later this year in order to meet some of you and to make a short speech. And to 'enjoy some of your bad lager'. I'm sure we can accomodate him there. Hurrah for Dennis Hope! (see for more...) 
You've Been Priced!
Official Join Me rogue Raymond Price is STILL at it! Our unstoppable rascal has been spotted in and around the betting shops of London, and in at least two pubs. Most sightings now do not involve a scam (so perhaps he is slowing down), but many still do... including the day he was caught - yet again - on camera.
Remember, if you see Raymond - let me know...
Join Meet!
The next big Join Me meet-up is fast approaching! Organised by the excellent Joinee Benner, it's to take place in Nottingham, on Friday the 25th of March! Yes! A Good Friday!
Why not come down? Join Meets are always a laugh, and you're guaranteed at least one new friend and one pint within two minutes of walking in... Head for Via Fosse, Castle Boulevard, Nottingham, at 1pm... Any questions, head for the forum... I'm going to try my hardest to make it, too.
Art!
Another date for your diary! There's going to be a Join Me exhibition on April 8th at the Art of Propaganda Gallery in Wakefield... I'm going to be heading up there on the day and if any Yorkshire joinees want to come along then that'd be marvellous. There'll be some kind of launch with a Q&A, a chance to have a look at the exhibition, and then - I imagine - a couple of pints. 
Join Him
Cheeky, chirpy Dermot O'Leary of Radio 2 fame has developed a brand new catchphrase (Join Me) and a new look for photos (the Join Me point) on his show's website. A joinee mailed him recently to ask if he'd joined yet, and he said he was open to suggestions. Good man. Scott Mills is also doing his weekly Random Act of Kindness on Radio 1, in his new slot, Random Acts of Kindness. Come on, Scott! Join Me! You know you want to!
Tsunami Relief
Thanks to everyone who responded to the last Join Me Mailout encouraging you not to forget about donating to the Tsunami Relief fund... judging by what was written back to me, joinees gave over a grand in the days after the e-mail was sent... thank you so much. 
Seph Lawrance
I'm sure many British joinees will have read with some sadness about the death of Seph Lawrance. He was an active joinee who was killed in January during an apparent mugging. So many of you sent messages to his family and friends through his tribute website, , and I received an e-mail from one of his friends, saying how much this meant to him. 
Perhaps, with the permission of Gold Joinee Benner, we can raise some money on Good Good Friday and donate it to a cause of his parent's choice.
And finally...
They did it! Joinees Brake and Laura, who met at a Join Meet after reading Join Me, have had the first Inter-Joinee Baby... I had, of course, imagined they'd be calling it Little Danny Wallace regardless of its sex, but apparently this is still under negotiation...