Steve – Page 180 – stevelawson.net

May 31, 2005

Thoughts on Live 8

It was announced today that there’ll be a huge gig in Hyde Park on July 2nd called Live 8, to highlight the cause of the Make Poverty History campain, and put pressure on the G8 leaders meeting the week after in Gleneagles to make changes to our screwed up economic system that currently favours the rich over the poor, widening the gap between them.

The gig won’t be a fund raiser in the way that Live Aid was, it’s all about awareness and garnering public support for the changes. On the same day, there’ll be gigs in Paris, Rome, Berlin and the US. It’s all happening on the same day as the Protests in Edinburgh in the run-up to the G8 summit.

Which begs the question, why isn’t it happening in Edinburgh? People are already suggesting that up to a quarter of a million people are going to descend on Edinburgh for the weekend. Why host an event in London that could a) dent the attendance in Edinburgh and b) split the media attention? I’m all for gigs big and small that raise awareness of such issues, but the timing could have been better. Even having it on the Sunday would have been better, giving die-hards the change to hot-foot it from Scotland back to London.

Meanwhile, I was asked to play a gig in Edinburgh months ago, which has yet to be confirmed (looks unlikely to happen), and have now been asked to play one in London on July 2nd (sadly not in Hyde Park – I’m sure some solo bass noodling would provide the perfect antedote to overblown rock dinosaurs giving it earnest for hours on end).

As it is, I’ll probably still go to Edinburgh, minus bass gear. I’ve already planned to go to the protests, and on a much more selfish note, can stay on a day or two and see if I can sort out some promo for my Edinburgh show! Having said that, the London show does look fun – it’s organised by Filomena Campus, an improv singer I’ve done things with before, and the last gig we did together featured some fab players – Orphy, Dudley Philips, Roland Sutherland etc.

Hopefully the split in the focus of events on July 2nd won’t confuse people as to the aims, and somehow some kind of miracle will happen in the G8. Given the kinds of people the US have been putting forward for jobs in the UN and World Bank of late, I don’t hold out much hope for them to show any compassion to the poor – clearly making the mega rich even richer is a much higher priority than ending the trade inequity that leaves entire continents languishing in crippling poverty despite them being rich in natural resources.

I’ll stop now, I’m slipping into despair again…

Read the Guardian’s report on the announcement

May 31, 2005

laptop looping

A converasation with The Cheat at the weekend (well, the part of the conversation that wasn’t about the temperature of his flat) reminded me that I hadn’t blogged about Mobius. It’s a software looping application (Windows-only, sadly), that basically emulates 8 Echoplexes at once, is mappable to a MIDI footcontroller (or any other kind of midi controller), and basically rules. And it’s free.

Go and get it now before they realise how great it is and start charging for it.

Thanks to MKS over on the forum for alerting me to its existence (though all I really needed to do was read the discussion about it that had been happening on Loopers Delight).

Soundtrack – Michael McDonald, ‘Blink OF An Eye’ (is Michael McDonald a guilty pleasure? There’s something remarkable about his voice, and the music appeals to the slick Steely Dan/80s-grown-up-pop part of my music taste.I’ve always wondered what he’d sound like without the Karl Marx beard – he sounds like he’s trying to sing through a cat, so maybe he’d develope a really clear voice without it. Keep the beard, Mike)

May 30, 2005

So, Barnet, what do we do with polystyrene?

Two trips to our local recycling centre today, to drop off loads of flattened cardboard boxes, an old vacuum cleaner, about 6 bags of old clothes, some scrap metal and all sorts of other stuff for recycling. But they don’t do anything with polystyrene. There’s doesn’t appear to be anywhere in the area that does. So what the hell are we meant to do with it? There’s shitloads of it round here – just about all electrical products come packed in it, and there are a fair few of those here. It’s grim to think that we’re expected to just put it in with the rubbish that gets landfilled… I’d rather find some way of doing something else with it. If it was even fireproof we could use it as loft insulation.

Anyway, after the trip to the tip, TSP and I called in to see Steve and Lorna for bank holiday lunch and chats. Very nice it was too. Could’ve chatted all evening, if we didn’t have even more crap to sort out for me to take to the recycling centre tomorrow morning.

May 30, 2005

Do you have it in you to be a torturer?

Browsing a bass-discussion site yesterday, I came across a random link to the Stanford Prison Experiment – a very famous sociological experiment into what happens when you take 18 ordinary men, divide them arbitrarily into 9 prisoners and 9 guards, and monitor their behaviour.

The site is brilliant, in that it walks you through the stages of the experiment, and even draws parallels with the abuse in Abu Graib Prison in Iraq.

And, especially with the abomination that is Big Brother back on UK TV for it’s 6th (sixth?????) series, it shows us how bizarrely people can behave when new social heirarchies are imposed upon them, and how abusive the BB experiments can be, when BB decides to be ‘evil’ just to up the ratings a bit.

So, boycott it, and read the stuff on the Stanford Prison Experiment website instead.

Soundtrack – Prefab Sprout, ‘Jordan – The Comeback’; Juliet Turner, ‘Season Of The Hurricane’.

May 29, 2005

"la Constitution europÃ©enne? Non, Merci"

So the French have voted ‘no’ on the European Constitution. Not by a huge margin (56% so far voted no), but still a big blow for the very pro-european French government.

I wonder if the French are as starved of REAL information about the Constitution as we are. I know precious little about the actual contents, certainly not enough at the moment to vote on it. Even The Cheat, who practically wrote the Constitution (well, the bits that are in Swedish and relate to aviation and room temperature fluctuations in Berkshire towns) says he doesn’t know much about it.

As a general rule I’m pro-Europe. I like Europeans, I like the European way of doing things. The Euro strikes me as a very good idea indeed. But I really don’t like the undemocratic way the constitution seems to have been drawn up, and the blunt options we’re to be given if it goes to a referendum – no choice on what goes in, no alternatives, just a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. I’m not surprised the French voted ‘no’ – they are on the whole a fabulously beligerent bunch, and I can’t see them accepting something so poorly nuanced and unpoetic in its formation and presentation. Gotta love the French.

Soundtrack – Paul Simon, ‘One Trick Pony’.

May 29, 2005

The end of civilization as we know it?

So I’m sat here, having a conversation with myself about why Kris Delmhorst isn’t a superstar – I’m listening to her album, ‘Songs For A Hurricane’, loving it, and trying to imagine why she isn’t the biggest thing in the singer/songwriter world. So, this is going on in my head, and I flick over to the BBC entertainment newsfeed in Thunderbird, and see that the new UK #1 single is the Crazy Frog ringtone. What the hell is going on with the world? A ringtone at the top of the singles chart??? The singles chart has been largely irrelavent for many a year, but this is pretty much the nadir of its descent into a Dante-esque new level of hell.

For starters, who the hell is buying it? OK, I know, it’s lil’ kids, downloading it, not thinking about the cost etc. etc. It’s still a nightmare. The charts have always been subject to the occasional hijack by things that have nothing to do with its normal constiuency – like every time Cliff has a hit, or when Robson and Jerome suddenly became one of the biggest selling acts of the decade with a couple of shitty karaoke versions of great songs just cos old ladies in their millions dashed out to buy their lame band-in-a-box-plus-drunk-pub-singer drivel.

But, ringtones?????????.

I now know why Kris isn’t a huge star, and I’m far less bothered by it than I was 10 minutes ago. I’ve not paid any attention to the singles chart for a decade, and I guess no-one else is really.

Chart-wise, the audioscrobbler charts are a much more interesting indication of what people are actually listening to, given that they log actual plays of actual songs on real people’s computers. So it’s a geek-chart, but a real chart nonetheless.

But the lesson is surely to give up listening to charts and mainstream radio for music suggestions, and go on recommendations and networks, and random links and of course, solo bassists.

Soundtrack – Kris Delmhorst, ‘Songs For A Hurricane’.

May 29, 2005

Two days with Sarda and Kari

Not having seen Sarda and Kari since the day after their wedding last October, in Grand Rapids, it was a real treat to get to see them two days running this weekend. Friday night we met up at the commuter jazz at the RFH, and from there walked to Brick Lane to meet The Cheat and The Producer Formerly Known As Showbiz Jude for a curry. Much fun was had, especially with The Cheat surruptitiously turning off the TVs in the restaurant with his new toy – a remote control that will turn off just about any brand of TV in the world!

Saturday was S and K’s official big party, at Sarda’s parents’ place in Tunbridge Wells. Again, much fun, especially discovering that James is in fact the son Ned Flanders, or at least was til his dad went grey and shaved off his moustache! A startling likeness.

The most obvious thing from the visit is just how uninterrupted my friendship with Sarda has been by him moving overseas – we chat just as often now as we did before on MSN or AIM, so it’s not like some big emotional reunion, just a chance to talk face to face instead of typing or the occasional video conference.

May 29, 2005

The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging

So The Small Person and I have been doing some much needed spring cleaning. TSP is very well organised at things like this, and I deal well with being given one big but simple task to do. Mine was breaking up all the millions of cardboard boxes that we’ve accumulated so that we can fit them into the car and take them to the local recycling centre tomorrow.

I’m suddenly aware again of just how much excess packaging we’re given with everything! The polystyrene is particularly frustrating as our local recycling centre doesn’t take it, and I can’t think of any possible use for it. At least the stuff that’s packed in cut ‘n’ folded cardboard mounts can be recycled easily, or even composted if we could be bothered to shred it. Polystyrene is the great evil. or at least a great evil. There are others. Celine Dion, for example. Or Walmart.

So I’m sure this task will drag on and on, and we’ll be tidying on and off for years, but at least we’ve made a start, after five years of not tackling this stuff!

Another job that definitely needs doing is my henna-ing my roots – if I leave it go any more grey, I’m going to slowly morph into Mitch, out of Mitch and Mickey

Truly frightening!

Soundtrack – Kris Delmhorst, ‘Songs For A Hurricane’; Bob Marley, ‘Legend’; Sarah Slean, ‘Night Bugs’.

May 27, 2005

The Bushfish???

Reading Vicar Dave’s blog a few days ago, I read about the BushFish –

Yes, that’s right, the Icthus fish, a symbol that derived its name from the Greek word for “fish,” Icthus, which was also an acronym used by early Christians meaning “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Savior”, now has the word ‘Bush’ emblazoned across it. So, to believe in Jesus is to believe in Bush is to believe in Jesus and so on. Bollocks. This kind of misappropriation of religious symbolism for political gain is really really twisted, ESPECIALLY given the profoundly un-christian actions of the present US administration, who seem to think that it’s enough to claim to be ‘born again’ and talk weird christianese once in a while, and then people will overlook you crapping on the poor, handing more wealth and power to the already wealthy and powerful, and then head overseas and bomb foreigners in your own little jihad.

Somethings make me profoundly uncomfortable with the label ‘christian’ – I’ve been trying to come up with an alternative for years. Messianic Taoist is as close as I’ve got so far, but there’s still a brand of christianity that I’m more than happy to align myself with. It’s just the wholesale takeover of christian terminology and imagery by the insane right wing in the US that I want to run screaming from. Often when in the states, I feel a greater affinity with the honest and open spiritual search of pagans, hippies, new agers, buddhists, and just about anyone but those who claim to believe the same thing as me.

There’s a particularly antagonistic part of me that wants to see someone stick a Darwin Fish on any car with a Bush Fish –

…there’s a fascinating range of different kinds of fish badge at darwinfish.com – amazing!

Grrrr

Soundtrack – Seven and Seven Is, ‘Fun With Sound’; Michael Roe, ‘Say Your Prayers’; Jeff Buckley, ‘Grace’.

May 27, 2005

Eric Roche news

I mentioned that I’ve got a new tune dedicated to Eric Roche, and that he’s been ill again of late. Here’s the latest news item from his website –

“We offer our sincere apologies to the people who tried to see &/or wanted to see Eric play in his recent scheduled shows around the UK
We are very sorry to inform you all that Eric’s cancer has spread & he is taking some proper time out to receive the best care, love & attention which he needs & deserves.
And, it is breaking his heart not to be well enough to play on stage at the present time, but as you can imagine, he is fighting hard to play live again soon.
Thank you for your kind words on the message board. We will keep updating the site with news as we get it.”

It breaks my heart to think that after all Eric went through last year to beat his initial cancer, that it’s back again. He’s one of the nicest, gentlest people I know, an incredible musician, and all-round inspiration.

If you’ve not heard him play, PLEASE go and have a listen to some of the MP3s on his site, and if you like what you hear (you will, believe me) buy a CD or three. Falling ill and not being able to gig is one of my biggest fears as a pro musician. We don’t get sick pay – this is what we do. If we can’t do it, we’re in the shit. So, head over to ericroche.com, listen, read, buy his CDs, and post nice things on his message board.

Get well soon, Eric,