Year: 2006

Posted on

Galloway – Dereliction of Duty?

The ever thought-provoking Sid Smith has blogged today about George Galloway on Big Brother, quoting the following excerpt from the Respect Party website –

“I will talk about racism, bigotry, poverty, the plight of Tower Hamlets, the poorest place in England sandwiched between the twin towers of wealth and privilege in Canary Wharf and the spires of the City. I will talk about war and peace, about Bush and Blair, about the need for a world based on respect. Some of it will get through.”

As Sid points out, there’s no way on earth that Channel Four are going to allow the Big Brother broadcasts to be a platform for political rhetoric. From what I’ve seen, there’s been none so far. There have been A LOT of conversations edited for content – those conversations could be libelous, commercially sensitive or overly political. I think George is going to be sorely disappointed when he gets out and sees the footage.

I’m with Sid on this one – I said from the start that I thought Galloway’s decision left him in dereliction of duty as an MP – he’s been democratically elected to represent the people of Tower Hamlets, people who are voiceless. He’s missing the parliamentary debate on The Crossrail project, he already has the third worst attendance record as an MP (last year he was second worst, behind Blair – I’m guessing someone somewhere is off on long-term sick). He’s just not doing his job.

My feelings towards Galloway are mixed – his anti-war stance is great, his opposition to the Blair/Bush lunacy and lies is laudable, and his performance in the US senate last year was one of the outstanding political acts of my lifetime. But the Respect party is a bizarre mis-match – a union of the far-left Socialist Workers Party and the rather more authoritarian Muslim Association of Great Britain. I wouldn’t vote for either party in isolation, and I’m certainly not about to support them in their bizarre union, though I guess one has to applaud the pragmatism of those involved – there can’t really be much of an ideological cross-over between the two groups!

But all that aside, I really don’t think Galloway should be in the BB house – and it’ll be interesting to see if he gets called up in front of a select committee and fined or punished in anyway… But it’d also be nice to see the papers being a bit more balanced in their political reporting, so MPs like Galloway don’t end up doing reality TV to try and get a point across! what a bizarre world we live in. I’m sure part of it is just that Galloway is a bit of an ego-maniac, but if there’s any truth in his appearance being part of an attempt to reach the apolitical masses, then the media is failing to educate and inform.

However, it is fun to see Galloway being exposed to the seedier side of life via the conversations of Jodie Marsh and Dennis Rodman, who are both utterly foul. Dennis Rodman comes across as one of the most sexually predatory people I’ve ever seen in my life, and Jodie seems in capable of any degree of self-restraint, she’ll seemingly say anything to out-filth whoever else is talking, even to the point of sounding wholly unconvincing in the process.

It really is a rum bunch of no-marks in the house. A lot has to do with the way it gets broadcast, and in general we see very little of Maggot, Rula, George and Faria in the shows, unless they get caught in the crossfire of another conversation about sex/orgies/boobs/surgery/yada yada yada. Is that really what people are interesting in hearing about these days? I am, as Liz said in the comments the other day, hopelessly out of touch…

Don’t forget that if you want the latest news, forget the BB website, and follow codenamelizzy’s updates – far more entertaining!

Posted on

Land of Confusion

I’m clearly determined to make sure no-one actually knows when my gig this week is! First I send out an email to a load of mates without the day or date on it, then yesterday I put on the blog that it’s on Wednesday when it’s ACTUALLY ON THURSDAY – Thursday 12th January, 2006, doors open 7pm. Don’t miss it!

it’s at Darbucka World Music Bar in Clerkenwell.

Soundtrack – Penradin, ‘Lunasadh’ (folk/world/jazz crossover project featuring marvellous double bassist Jonny Gee, and a tremendous violinist called Jake Walker, who’ll be making an appearance at a future Recycle Collective gig, for sure. Great stuff)

Posted on

homeless shelters and tax returns

Catching up – three very very busy teaching days Thurs/Fri/Saturday – much fun. Busy days like those are a great confirmation of how much I enjoy teaching, I love getting to the end of a day, feeling that I’ve worked hard, and the students have all taken away lots of good quality stuff to work on, hopefully been inspired and are beavering away at their practice!

Saturday after teaching was a visit to see my dad – really ought to see him more as he only lives half an hour away. A most enjoyable few hours.

Had to leave fairly early as I was doing an overnight shift in the St Luke’s homeless shelter – long-time blog readers will remember said shelter from previous years – this is i think my fifth or sixth year of helping out. It’s hardly a huge commitment – I tend to do every other saturday night from january to march, excluding saturdays when I’m not actually in the country…

this was the first night of the new year for the shelter, and was utterly without incident. But it did give me a chance to finish one of my christmas present books – ‘Serious’ by John McEnroe. A good read, for sure, clearly aimed at tennis fans (a fair few play by play dissections of big games, big sets big matches). He didn’t turn out to be quite the sage I’d assumed he was from his commentary skills – he’s one of the best sports commentators I’ve ever encountered (and, to be fair, that’s not many, given my general antipathy to all sport except tennis), but his wisdom in commentating on the psyche of the players doesn’t really seem to have come from having lived a sage life. Maybe he’s just learned from having got it all wrong in his own life. Definitely a worthwhile read though.

So not much sleep last night, which meant two things – a) I missed church by not waking up til 1pm after getting to bed at 6.45, and b) I missed most of the Soil Association organic market thingie happening down by the Barbican. It was organised by the lovely Ruthie, and featured some lovely live music from the lovely Andy Buzzard and Jonny Gee. Great to see them play, if only for one number. Also gave me a chance to meet lots of cuddly musos and invite them along to Thursday’s Recycle Collective gig, which I’m getting more and more excited about the closer it gets – the potential musical marvellousness in a trio of me, Cleveland and BJ is pretty huge, methinks. We’ve played together before, when I did a gig at Darbucka last year that both of them guested on, and it was magical. Don’t miss it!

So, after getting back from the organic thingie, I’ve just finished, submitted and paid my tax return/bill for 2004-2005. Fortunately, I only had about £50 to pay over and above what I’d already paid on account for last year… well, fortunately for now, unfortunate if you think that it means I earned less than the previous year (main reason for that is that in 2004 I was still receiving HUGE PRS cheques for the Level 42 tour…) Good news is, online CD sales were higher in 04-05 than ever before, which is great news.

One of my resolutions for next year is not to leave it til Jan 2006 to submit my tax return. I’d LOVE to actually get it done in April for the first time ever, and then have all year to pay a figure that I actually know. In order to do that, I’ll have to get my financial records for this year up to date in the next week, so I can stay on top of it from here on in… here’s hoping.

As an aside, I submitted my tax return online – what a breeze! It does all the calculating for you, tells you the boxes you’ve missed, makes sure your sums all add up, and gives you a print out at the end. Couldn’t be easier.

And now I’ve done the taxation bit, I feel inspired to write some letters to my MP to do something about the representation bit. I’m a fan of tax, in principle, I’m happy to pay my way, and to pay more to help those who haven’t got enough. But I do wish we had more say over how it was spent, and a less wasteful exchequer – Government spending is a disaster, which while not doing away with the need for taxation, certainly makes most people’s loathing of it a lot easier to understand.

Posted on

Kennedy Quits

so Charles Kennedy has quit as Lib Dem leader – apparently more than half of the Lib Dem MPs thought he should go, having admitted having a drink problem on Thursday… the admission was Thursday, not the drink problem. A drink problem that only last for one day is just called ‘getting drunk’.

Anyway, I’m kind of saddened by this. I like Charles Kennedy, he’s a believable chap, and while the Lib Dem policies at the last election weren’t enough to convince me to vote for them, they are certainly the one party of ‘the big three’ that if I had to choose one, I’d go for. Certainly of the three party leaders, he’d win hands down.

That said, alcoholism is a huge monkey to carry around on your back, especially in a job as fraught with stresses as that of political party leader, so perhaps he really isn’t in a fit state to do his job. It’s a shame he wasn’t able to get it sorted earlier – after all there’s been speculation for a long time about his drinking, so you’d have thought that would have served as a warning shot across the bows…

So who’ll be up next? Menzes Campbell is deputy leader, but realistically far too old to lead them into the next General Election. Simon Hughes is party chairman, and a lovely bloke, but perhaps too nice??? Who knows. Can’t really think of anyone else in the public eye already that could do it… Mark Outon is apparently in the running, but doesn’t really command party leader respect…

let’s wait and see!

Posted on

Celeb Big Brother

Sorry for waiting two whole days before blogging about this!

What a rum bunch of D-list no-marks we’ve got in the house! OK, so Barrymore is a ‘real’ celeb, and Dennis Rodman is a massive star in the US, if pretty much unknown in the UK, but Faria Alam? Come on, Channel four, you can do better than that.

The full list, in case you’re not watching it, goes –

George Galloway (Respect party leader and MP)
Rula Lenska (Actress and Ginge)
Tracey Bingham (ex-baywatch no-mark)
Jody Marsh (famous for getting drunk and getting her boobs out in lads-mags. A walking tragedy)
Preston (singer with mod also-rans, the Ordinary Boys)
Maggot (one of the blokes from thus-far one-hit-wonders, Goldie Looking Chain)
Faria Alam (shags footie blokes. No skills, no morals)
Dennis Rodman (one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but clearly a bit of a twat)
Pete Burns (fab singer from Dead Or Alive, trannie and indulger in much plastic surgery)
Michael Barrymore (beseiged mentally ill former lowest common denominator presenter of moronic game shows. Tragic home life, clearly not a well man at all. Really shouldn’t be there)
and some girl called Chantelle who is supposed to be pretending to be a celeb, but isn’t, except that she’s a Paris Hilton lookalike, and former page 3 girl. Car crash TV at its worst.

So, who’s interesting? Well, Pete Burns has always interested me – a fascinating mess of a bloke, sometimes seems incredibly self-assured, at other times overwhelmingly damaged. Maybe we’ll see which.

Galloway is a mixed bag – his speech in the senate was my number one media event of last year, but he’s an egotist and is definitely in dereliction of duty by being there – the man’s a serving MP, FFS!!!

Jody Marsh – if ever there was a case of someone whining about a world they’ve created for themselves, and could end at any moment it’s Jody’s world. Wears not very much, and complains at adverse media attention. Could turn out to be interesting if she has some kind of epiphany about her life. Hugely unlikely though.

Dennis Rodman – one of the most instantly unlikeable people I’ve ever seen on screen. It is interesting to see someone who in ‘normal’ life is always the biggest celeb in the room suddenly in a place where no-one except the Baywatch woman really knows much about him, and none of them could really care less.

Tracey Bingham – the female equiv. of Rodman – instantly gives a very very bad impression on screen. Seems utterly desperate for fame and recognition. Seemingly entirely without merit as a ‘media star’.

Barrymore, as said, shouldn’t really be there.

Faria Alam – are you kidding?

so it’s kind of down to Preston, Maggot and Rula to surprise us all by being really normal and interesting and keeping things in there calm, and generally counterbalancing the emotional pile-up that is already beginning to unfold between the less stable members of the house.

It’s horrible viewing, it’s a crass concept, but I’m going to watch because it’s the first year that we’ve had a freeview box and so can get E4. And that, my friends, is as good a reason as any for wasting all that time. :o)

For the best roundup thus far, have a read of Codenamelizzy‘s daily BB updates. In fact, read all of Lizzy’s blog, she’s a great comedy blogger. Mad in real life, of course, but a great blogger.

Posted on

Baby It's Cold Inside…

Oh bollocks, the central heating’s broken. Woke up yesterday morning feeling particularly cold, and realised none of the radiators were on. Looked like the boiler was off too, so thought it had died, but switched on hot water, and it sprang to life. So looks like it’s somewhere between the thermostat and the boiler that’s not working. as even when the thermostat is turned up and the central heating is on, it’s not triggering the boiler…

Typically, our plumber doesn’t seem to be contactable, which is a pain in the arse. So we’re heating the whole house with two ancient three-bar electric heaters, which we’re not leaving unattended due to them being so old and therefor an unknown quantity.

At least they are keeping my office warm so I can still teach without freezing my students!

Recommendations for an honest cheap plumber in north london gratefully received.

Posted on

Peter Murray – Ants and Angels

one of my blog resolutions for this year is to do more CD reviews… You’ve already had BJ Cole’s marvellous ‘Transparent Music’, and today I got a copy of Peter Murray’s ‘Ants and Angels’.

Pete is someone I know best as a bassist, having seen him live playing for Ron Sexsmith in London a few years ago, and having jammed with him a few times at NAMM shows in LA over the years. ‘Ants and Angels’ is much closer to the Ron end of things than the ‘jamming with stevie’ end of things. It’s a proper singer/songwriter album, with a heavy dose of XTC/Squeeze/Elvis Costello – all those great early 80s songwriters – and tunesmiths like The Rembrandts/Lit/Fountains Of Wayne etc. The songwriting, production, playing and packaging are all top notch – it’s amazing to think that it’s a self-produced album. I guess the quality of the musicians on it is a testament to Peter’s standing in the Toronto music scene – everything is impeccably played, the tunes are incredibly strong – if it gets in the right hands, he’s guaranteed a couple of radio hits off this. Really, it’s a must for fans of intelligent alt-guitar singer/songwriter stuff. From the ultra-catchy punky tracks like the opener ‘Gen X DJ on E’ and ‘Ears Make Wax’ to the more mellow almost Neil Young-ish tunes like ‘Murray Vs The Ants’ and ‘Skydiver Friends’, the album is packed with great hooks, instantly memorable stuff.

Have a listen to some of the tracks at Peter’s MySpace page – and follow whatever ordering instructions are there. Definitely one of the strongest self-produced albums I’ve ever heard.

Posted on

The unfathomable mystery of American gender politics…

One of the blogs I read fairly regularly is that of Hugo Schwyzer – an american gender studies lecturer, in a college in Southern California. His blog is interesting, and his manner genial. The weird thing about it is the amount of vitriol that gets heaped on him from a group known as ‘the men’s movement’ – now, being a man, you’d have thought someone would have told me about this movement, about the need for ‘men’s rights’, but apparently I missed the memo informing men that we are somehow hard done by and feminists are out to get us… no, wait, I remember something about that, on sitcoms in the 70s. Surely the idea that feminism is about man-hating monstrous women trying to take over the world was dispensed with before the beginning of the 80s? Do people really think like that? Apparently they do.

The latest shit-storm that Hugo has blogged about doesn’t actually feature him. This time it’s Jill from Feministe – another friendly blog about feminist issues – who has taken a load of flak. Initially, it started out as some horribly insulting stuff posted about her photos on a message board for a college in New York (I think – I’ve not really been following the details that closely), but spilled over into a whole slew of personal attacks, and some really really stupid anti-feminist ranting from the goons over on the college forum.

All of which points to there still being a very definite gender-war ongoing in the states. My guess is that it’s still going on here too, I just haven’t come across it, but it reminds how fortunate I am to hang round with such a wonderfully mellow and enlightened bunch of people, but also how sheltered I am from the lunacy that is prevalent in parts of the world. A lunacy that I wouldn’t encounter at all if it wasn’t for the wonders of the global interweb highway thingie.

I’m genuinely stunned that men still see feminism as a threat, that men who don’t conform to really crass gender stereotypes are labeled as effeminate and ‘not real men’. Just bizarre. Maybe it comes from the same place as all the homophobia that seems to permeate large sections of the web. Maybe such neanderthal thinking is way more prevalent that I’d ever have given it credit for, and this is just the place where my world and its collide. It’s like when UKIP got a whole load of votes in the European elections – I realised that the general populus is considerably more stupid that I often give it credit for…

Anyway, have a read of Hugo’s blog, and Feministe – they all seem like lovely people, and not at all the people you’d think to attack in anyway… And avoid the ‘MRAs’ (I think that’s what they are called – Men’s Rights Advocates? something like that…)

I can’t imagine writing a blog that stirred up such ire – I guess I might wind up the occasional bass-fundementalist, though I haven’t even had any of those ‘you can’t do that on a bass’ emails for quite a few years… lucky me.

Posted on

calling all blogspot/blogger.com bloggers

Oi, you lot with the blogger.com/blogspot.com blogs (and anyone else on one of those kinds of blog sites) – how about heading over to your blog now and making it possible for people to comment without having a blogger account – yes, you Sid Smith, and you Orphy! Many’s the time I’ve wanted to comment on lots of blogs, but can’t.

I don’t, in all honesty, mind people having no comments – if you just don’t care what people think, that’s fine – I had none for years before I was, frankly, bullied into it. But to limit it to blogger subscribers is a all too arbitrary way of filtering your blog comments. You can use that wassname thing – the words as images that you have to copy thing – to protect from spammers…

go on, I want to comment!

Posted on

Frisell gig online

One of my students just forwarded me a link to Bill Frisell’s gig from the London Jazz Festival, on the BBC website – it’s a great gig, just a trio of Bill, Greg Leisz and Jenny Scheinman, playing a tribute to John Lennon. I’m told all the songs are John Lennon songs, but I don’t recognise most of them because a) I don’t own any Beatles albums and b) everything I’ve ever heard from Lennon’s solo career has been rubbish. Never ever understood the Eulogising over him as a songwriter, post-Beatles.

Still, Bill Frisell could do a tribute to The Reynolds Girls and make it worth listening to, so it’s fabulously interesting stuff. Go and have a listen!

Maybe one day I should get round to buying some Beatles albums – I used to own an early best of – I think it was called ‘A collection of Beatles Oldies’ or something. Dunno what happened to that. Maybe I should have a listen to Abbey Road or The White Album or something – I hear they’re quite good… ;o)

Soundtrack – Bill Frisell live at the London Jazz Festival.

© 2008 Steve Lawson and developed by Pretentia. | login

Top