It’s been emotional. From banana flashmob attacks on Tesco, to a music and art showcase on London’s Southbank, chip-diddy-Chipmunk and The Thirst repping at our short film premiere, to creating a comic book alongside Lightspeed Champion and V V Brown, launching our new website (go ahead, take the tour), to creating our fine-looking CORRUPTION edition of the magazine… and that’s just part of the 2009 story. Here’s the run-down of the past 12 months in your Ctrl.Alt.Shift world - hold your breath...

January
Time to lose that holiday weight... We kick-started 2009 by joining forces with activist group Climate Rush in a peaceful protest of the planned expansion of Terminal 1 in Heathrow Airport (which unfortunately is still on course). Around the same time at Ctrl.Alt.Shift HQ, Jonathan Hyams was announced as our VICE photo comp winner, selected by legendary photographer Nan Goldin from almost 1000 entries. We’d like to thank all of the participants, and the mentors Andy Capper, Alex Sturrock, Ben Rayner, Valerie Philips and Alexa Chung. Elsewhere, some brother called Barack Obama was becoming President of the United States of America...

February
Snow, snow, more snow, and another lonely Valentines Day (tissue please). Congolese comedian Eddie Kadi showed us the lighter side of life at the Indig02 arena in London, Cowboy Tactics 101 showed us the power of an Israel/Palestine peaceful celebration (more on that later), and we showed off five amazing pieces from our short film competition - which set out the challenge of composing a script themed around Gender + Power, War + Peace and HIV + Stigma. War School (by Ben Newman), Man Made (Fern Berresford), HIV: The Musical (Joe Patrick and Tim Woodall), 1000 Voices (Tim Travers Hawkins) and No Way Through (Alexandra Monro and Sheila Menon) were stunning productions and deserved winners – selected by our judging panel of experts including Riz Ahmed (Shifty), Adam Deacon (Adulthood), Andy Noble (Warp Films), Little White Lies, Clash, LIVE, and of course, Ctrl.Alt.Shift HQ. All films can now be watched on our site, and will be featuring as part of various film festivals in the future. For now, enjoy the outstanding No Way Through below…

...We’d also like to thank the film project mentors Noel Clarke, Shynola, Saam Farahmand,Kinga Burza, Jim Threapleton and Paul Andrew Williams, and props to the mad array of artists who provided soundtracks to the films - Metronomy, Shy Child, Chipmunk, The Thirst, Young Knives and Jesca Hoop.

March
One hectic month of activism. Climate change film The Age of Stupid had its premiere at London's Leicester Square, along with 65 venues around the country, in what was the world's largest and most environmentally friendly premiere in history. Ctrl.Alt.Shift was on the front row to support the cause and film ambassador Pete Postlethwaite (who grilled the crap out of Labour politician Ed Miliband at the press conference). Also, Ctrl.Alt.Shift travelled to Newcastle to launch our BALTIC Conflict Exhibition created by Graham Hudson, Matthew Stone and 12 students and graduates from Newcastle University's LifeWorkArt programme - the Ctrl.Alt.Shift team, ambassador David Shrigley, mentors T-Magic, Benjamin Wachenje, Matthew Stone and 350 art fans were all in attendance. In the same month, a nationwide army of Ctrl.Alt.Shift volunteers, tooled up with Fairtrade bananas, invaded Tesco stores around the country in a flashmob protest against the fact that the retail giants disgracefully still sell non-fair trade bananas. Our banana-throwing street teams hit Bristol, Brighton, Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Exeter, Manchester and London. If that wasn’t enough 'Trigger Happy' madness, we shot down to London’s Guildhall with our ’50 Million Missing Women’ campaign, geared up in black gowns and ghost masks to scare the crap out of the big female players from Barclays Bank and Credit Suisse enjoying their annual champagne celebration breakfast. We demanded that the Barclays and Credit Suisse reps (both big players in India) push the Indian government to be held accountable, to provide justice and protection for the millions of lost women in the nation; those being killed through disputed dowries, neglected, or starved from birth - seeing as many baby girls are considered an economic burden in India. It all made for a very exciting story for Mother’s Day later that month...

April
A pure rage against the machine month. No Sweat and Ctrl.Alt.Shift were protesting against sweatshop labour outside Primark on Oxford Street, London. In the same month, in the same city, Tamils had occupied Parliament Square, asking for support by our government to protect their people suffering in Sri Lanka (the stunt lasted for 11 weeks; resistant Tamil families joined by Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s very own freedom fighter Jody McIntyre). But the biggest people power/activism news of the year hit on the first week of April, as the G20 summit was hit by mass rallies and a climate camp in London. However, what was meant to provide answers to the economic recession crisis, the climate crisis, the war and conflict zones around the world, and the housing crisis – instead raised serious questions regarding police brutality and the death of Ian Tomlinson. We at Ctrl.Alt.Shift had over ten reporters down for the now infamous G20, and continue to track the repercussions of the event.

May
Swine flu hysteria was born, MP’s expenses scandal caused rage and disruption, Ctrl.Alt.Shift got cheated out of the Christian Aid annual football tournament, and Katie Price and Peter Andre broke up… but it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Ctrl.Alt.Shift travelled to Newcastle's Jesmond Festival to put on a student graffiti project. We also released our third magazine - the Gender + Power issue; which featured columns from Alexa Chung and Riz Ahmed, plus shocking articles about female genital mutilation and acid attacks in India (download all that for FREE here). Then the highlight of the month - we premiered our five short films to over 500 movie-goers/Ctrl.Alt.Shift supporters at Shoreditch Studios. Mark Dolan (of Channel 4's 'The World's...and Me' series) presented the showcase of HIV: The Musical, Man Made, 1000 Voices, War School and No Way Through, which were all received with rapturous applause, before the buzzing crowd were further indulged with performances by Jesca Hoop, The Thirst, Chipmunk and Shy Child. The after-party at Legion club was just as manic, where DJ MistaJam spun some old-school garage for us, joined by the likes of rappers Giggs, Professor Green and Example, artist T-Magic and Adulthood star Adam Deacon, who all dropped by to feel the ground-shaking vibes. Peter and Katie who...?

June
UK rapper Bashy and West Ham footballer Herita Ilunga entered Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s world of celeb interviews. Our own revolutionary journalist superstars Jody McIntyre and Kevin E G Perry reported directly from the Strasbourg riots in protest of NATO’s 60th anniversary summit. Closer to home, Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s staff writers Ben Anderson and Dwain Lucktung introduced our movement to Diesel Radio’s fan base (with guest rapper Lowkey), before rallying our volunteers, and collaborating with Cowboy Tactics for a Bristol night of music and Israel/Palestine allegiance. Mr Woodnote & Friends, Clayton Blizzard, Toy Face & The Crash! Bang! Boom! and Bartoune all played sets, whilst next door, inspirational Palestine refugee Ghada Adeel was telling her story, followed by Dan Judelson and reps from Jews for Justice for Palestinians. June ended with tears however – as Ben Anderson left Ctrl.Alt.Shift HQ (now at the amazing MTV Staying Alive HIV awareness initiative), Micheal Jackson passed away, and Jody McIntyre jetted off to Bil’in, Palestine. Note: Ben continues to write for us, but it remains a mystery when/if Jody will ever return...

July
A really, REALLY busy month. Ctrl.Alt.Shift teamed up with renowned activists The Yes Men to take on Dow Chemical with a fake bottled water stunt – seeking justice for the Bhopal disaster of 1975 that left 10,000 dead and millions more affected. Ctrl.Alt.Shift volunteers went recruiting at the Relentless NASS Festival. And we, alongside British Underground and Riz Ahmed, created the activism/art/music/film/discussions event of the year – United Underground was immense with over 700 people cramming into Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, London to catch performances by MPHO, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Bashy, Maverick Sabre, Afrikan Boy, Riz MC himself, Speakers Corner, talks by Noel Clarke, Peter Kosminsky, Reprieve, Plane Stupid, Love Music Hate Racism, an art workshop by The Craftivist Collective, with original event artwork by artist Sarah Maple, AND a live art competition hosted by spoken word genius Inua Ellams, featuring graffiti artists Remi Rough, Pure Evil,Ed Tizer, Chris Getliffe, 3D mastermind Wayne Chisnall, and many, many others… we don’t do things half-ask at Ctrl.Alt.Shift (just ask street team coordinator Sian Anderson and all our amazing volunteer foot soldiers who worked non-stop on the day). Click here for the full review and line-up, and don’t miss out on United Underground 2 in the new year...

August
Whilst Jody Mcintyre continued to rally away in Palestine, our foot soldiers here were also out and about recruiting at the Relentless Boardmasters Festival. Ctrl.Alt.Shift then turned it’s attention to our Unmasks Corruption Comic Design Competition; which asked for scripts based on the theme of CORRUPTION, to be judged by our panels including Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis writer and director), Paul Gravett (Comica Festival), David Allain (comic artist), V V Brown, Lightspeed Champion, and of course, Ctrl.Alt.Shift HQ. The eventual winner, Luke Ferenc Pearson, won the chance to feature in our limited edition comic alongside contributions by judges Lightspeed Champion and V V Brown, plus fellow comic legends Dan Goldman, Aleksander Zogrof, Brian Talbot, Pat Mills, Asia Alfasi and Dylan Horrocks. The Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption comic book was launched in November with an exhibition (more on that in a bit) and as part of the annual Comica Festival... spider senses were tingling.

September
Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s Kevin E G Perry was shortlisted for the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition. As a result he travelled to India to write an article for the Guardian about the NGO Find Your Feet and the traditional silk handloom weavers in Varanasi. Back home, we said hello to new staff writer Yumna Martin and photographer James Prosho, and goodbye to the old Ctrl.Alt.Shift website, paving the way for the launch of the stunning new one – which you can now see before you eyes. Enjoy!

October
Ctrl.Alt.Shift films War School and 1000 Voices were selected to be screened at the Raindance Film Festival 2009. We celebrated the news with a screening of all five of our films at the Raindance Film Festival café, which was followed by a Q&A panel with Ben Newman (Director of War School), Fern Berresford (Director of Man Made), Heydon Prowse (Don’t Panic), Andy Noble (Producer of Extraordinary Rendition) and our very own editor, Chantelle Fiddy. The after-show entertainment was provided by DJ Matchstick and MPHO, as the Ctrl.Alt.Shift crew showed once again how our movement gets down on the dancefloor. In the same month, Ctrl.Alt.Shift teamed up with Don’t Panic to invade a BNP meeting as undercover reporters; on a mission to test the party’s supposedly dead ‘non-whites no entry’ policy, a week before BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on BBC’s Question Time. We were rejected, with force. The stunt hit the pages of The Evening Standard, London Lite, Guardian Online, and was flagged up on Channel 4 news and ITV's London Tonight. Sorry Mr Griffin – you don’t have our vote.

November
Forget the cinema - largely anticipated blockbuster New Moon was a big bag of rub - November was all about live theatre action and the hottest exhibition in London. Ctrl.Alt.Shift ambassador Riz MC welcomed us down to his new interactive MICroscope project at Sadler’s Wells. At the Lazarides Gallery in Soho, herds of art enthusiasts stayed glued to the walls, witnessing the creative genius behind our Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption comic book. The showcase - created via collaborations with Dazed and Confused, onedotzero digital arts, Comica and ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) - closed on November 30. But don’t sweat; our comic book is now available here for £4.99, and can be found in selected book stores.

December
Tis the season to be jolly. And to bomb the hell out of any Grinches, Ctrl.Alt.Shift and creative collective Dorothy have produced our very own Christmas declarations, in the form of silver grenade baubles; £20 for a deadly gorgeous pack of six from SUCK UK, or purchase off our site - to contribute to your tree and (in turn) our fight against global conflict! In addition, we've received early gifts - lucky lucky Yumna Martin will be repping for us at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, and Ctrl.Alt.Shift has been invited to participate and sit on the panel (alongside the BBC, Channel 4 and Dazed and Confused media big players) at the prestigious Youth-led Media Summit 2009, set up by Global Ethics UK for December 15th. Merry Christmas!

2010!
... breathe out. Yes 2009 was momentous, but there’s always bigger and even better to come. A special shout out goes to all our contributors, and everyone behind the scenes at Ctrl.Alt.Shift HQ pulling the strings to make it all happen. We will continue to hit the ground running in the fast lane for 2010. In store (literally) for you, we’ll have our 84-page thriller Ctrl.Alt.Shift CORRUPTION issue of the magazine – look out for the Guantanamo Bay fashion shoot, and contributions by rapper Giggs, Tim Westwood, V V Brown, Riz MC, Ben White and more... all for a bargain price of £3.95 from selected WHSmith stores, university campus sites, ICA, Tate Modern, MAGMA and Serpentine galleries, and bagged with the March issue of Dazed and Confused magazine (out in February). Also, put it in your diaries - United Underground 2 will rumble London’s Southbank in February (expect an even hotter line-up!).

That’s just a taster - we promise more collaborations, more mind-blowing online content, more fun, crazy activism stunts, celebs galore repping the movement, you on the frontline of this ground-shaking initiative. If you weren’t a part of it in 2009, we definitely want to have you on board for the future of Ctrl.Alt.Shift. So, stay in touch.

Much love, respect and prospects,

Ctrl.Alt.Shift.