Category: Updates

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A goodbye and a thankyou.

M Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled and numerous other books about negotiating what it is to be human, has died.

The Road Less Travelled is one of my all time favourite books. I initially bought it as a joke – it was one of those books that you see celebs reading when they are trying to look like they are taking time out to get their lives together. Geri Halliwell photographed next to a pool reading it, etc.

So I bought it for $2 in an american bargain bookshop, and within half a page I was hooked. Peck’s basic premise that life is difficult, and so much of our mental anguish comes from the feeling that ‘it’s not fair’. If we only realised that being human was about dealing with those obstacles and difficulties, we’d be a lot more happy and productive.

A really simple thought, but a deeply profound one. The follow up book is perhaps even better – Further Along The Road Less Travelled – between the first and second volumes, Peck converted to Christianity, but must’ve pissed off a lot of conservative christians with his unorthodox take on the faith. This too I found profoundly inspiring.

Obviously I never got to meet him – nor did most of the millions of people who read his books, erroneously labeled as ‘self help’ (as Hugo points out, ‘his later work is filled with the notion that our transformation does happen not only through our own efforts (“self-help”) but in partnership with God and our community.’) I wish I had met him, I’m sure he was a fascinating bloke. I’d liked to have had the chance to thank him for his books, for taking the time to write them. there are probably loads of people out there with thoughts that could change my life, but most of them don’t get round to writing them down. He did, and for that, I’m grateful.

Fair-well, Scott (M. Scott? or just M.? Scott, I think).

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Me in Bassics magazine

I posted a thing about this on my NewsFeed page a while ago, but I finally got a copy of Bassics Magazine through today, with the interview with me in it. It’s the biggest interview I’ve done in print (there are a couple of big ones on the net with various e-mags), and looks great. The questions were pretty good so it’s well worth a read if you should see a copy in your local newsagent/borders/barnes and noble/wherever you buy mags.

The cover star of the issue is Michael Manring, so it’s a fine solo bass filled issue. There’s also a track of mine on the cover CD, as well as some video footage, which I’m looking forward to seeing again – the Cheat and I filmed it at St Luke’s at the start of the year. We wanted to do it at St Luke’s cos we could do it in front of the big purple curtains in the main church, but the day we booked it they were installing a new PA, so we had to film it in the back hall, which means the backdrop is a yellow-painted brick wall. It looks like I’m filming it in prison! Hopefully my wikkid skillz will obscure any reservations people might have about learning from a convicted felon serving time at her majesty’s pleasure.

I’ve been a busy boy this morning, putting together the press release for the John Peel Day gig with Rise – click here for the PDF. That’s now been mailed to all the relevant media peoples so now we wait for some coverage and a huge crowd!

Soundtrack – Michael Franti and Spearhead, ‘Everyone Deserves Music’.

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"Vague News' from the Labour party conference

From the BBC news site, once again –

Charles Clarke has vowed to “eliminate” anti-social behaviour and disrespect in society by the time of the next general election “whenever it comes”.

Huh? How can anyone say something like that? What’s he going to do, make being drunk a capital offence? Enact a cull of people deemed to be unfit to live in the country by the government? And what constitutes disrespect?

Apparently the context was to do with eliminating disrespect so bigotry can’t be used by extremists as a weapon in elections – so he tags on some nonsense about extremists to try and add gravitas to his vague and ridiculous pronouncements.

Any notion of ‘reinforcing a culture of respect’ in the current climate is doomed to fail – nobody trusts the government, we’re terrified of the anti-terrorism laws, the prime minister is a proven liar and supporter of illegal military action, the PFI schemes on education and health are ruining public services, teachers feel undermined, doctors overworked, GM food is being pushed along despite zero public demand… How on earth are they going to demonstrate anything worthy of respect?

There definitely needs to be a change somewhere along the line, but the current Government are part of the problem not part of the solution. It’s fucking disrespectful to lie to the nation and kill thousands of Iraqis.

Put your own house in order.

Soundtrack – Talk Talk, ‘Spirit Of Eden’.

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So, does anyone still not know that getting drunk is a really stupid thing to do?

Yet more stats about drinking –

The “Anatomy of a big night out” survey found over a third [of the 500 women polled] had been sexually assaulted while drunk and 34% had had unprotected sex after drinking.

Why does anyone still get drunk? Surely by now EVERYONE realises that it turns you into a twat, it’s a causal factor in the vast majority of crimes, and is clearly at the leading edge of the crisis in sexual health in Britain.

I really don’t like being around very drunk people. I hate talking to people who think they’re being really clever and funny but are really just dribbling buffoons. I don’t mind people who’ve had a few drinks (it’s not like I want to form some kind of tee-totallers club), but being around proper bladdered people is rubbish. You act like a twat. No, really, you do. The only people who think it’s cool are other equally mullah’d people. And what’s more, you’re upping your chances of getting mugged, raped, attacked, etc. etc. by some insane order of magnitude. Just give up, stop doing it. Go on, i dare you. If you want to know how you come across, go out for a night out in central London, don’t drink a thing, then get the night bus home. If that doesn’t put you off, I don’t know what will.

The binge drinking thing in Britain is just mental. Travelling in Italy, people there seem to guzzle a lot of wine. I drink a fair bit of wine when I’m Italy. And never get drunk. It’s spread out, it’s with food, it’s drunk for the pleasure of it, not to get shit-faced and fall over. There doesn’t appear to be much kudos in Italian society in lying face down in your own sick. Clearly there are entire sub-cultures in the UK where being so hammered that you piss yourself is a real status symbol.

just stop it, it’s getting really tired.

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Ah, the British judiciary – always treating foreigners with respect…

From the BBC website –

The Home Office did not act unlawfully by asking a man to attend a meeting in order to arrest him for deportation, a High Court judge has ruled.

Lawyers for Jamaican Alrick Glanville, 34, accused officials of playing “a trick” on their client, as he had been promised a meeting about a work permit.

Mr Glanville had been offered a three-year permanent position for a medical design and production firm.

His employer had offered to obtain a work permit for him, and he had applied for leave to remain, wrongly believing that the permit had been granted.

But immigration rules meant that, without a work permit, Mr Glanville needed to leave the UK and apply for leave to remain from Jamaica.

Mr Justice Moses said Mr Glanville’s application for leave to remain was consequently turned down, but that he was not told.

So, let’s get this straight, this guy had been in the UK for a while, had been offered a job, applied for a work permit, got mixed up with the bureaucracy, and instead of helping him, telling him what he needs to do, he is summoned to a meeting, on the pretext that it’s in his interest, and is then arrested.

Bastards. I’m embarrassed that I live in a country where things like that are legal. It’s not like he was even living off the state (he still wouldn’t have deserved this treatment if he was, but even hate-fuelled Daily Mail readers can’t resent a guy doing a job!).

I have a friend who worked with a charity helping girls trafficked into the country to work illegally in the sex trade. Kept as slaves, they have little chance of escape. When they finally got to a safe-house, the workers at the safe house had to go with them to sign on, otherwise they would be kidnapped by the immigration service and deported, without any thought for the danger they were in, or the huge likelihood that they would be kidnapped again, and trafficked straight back out of the country again.

Our immigration service is a disgrace, and not for the reasons bandied around in the right-wing media. If a country like ours with a centuries-old tradition of empire building and fucking up the rest of the planet can’t see its responsibility to the people whose countries we’ve helped to render bankrupt, we should be ashamed. I’m ashamed. The treatment of those who come here seeking asylum or a better life (can we please get away from this idea that economic migrants are somehow a bad thing??) is appalling and the changes that are needed in our immigration policy ought to make life easier on the immigrants not harder. And don’t get my started on the prison conditions that asylum applicants are kept in…

I hope Alrick is able to sort his life out, and that he is able to appeal and win, to come back and take up the job he’s been offered, and I wish the immigration bastards were forced to apologise for treating him this way.

Soundtrack – Rise Kagona’s tracks for the gig on the 13th.

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A Blogger's Favourite Blogs blog-meme

OK, here’s a meme for all y’all who blog out there –

If you were stuck on a desert island with an internet connection to only one blog, whose would it be?
Which is the blog that makes you laugh the most?
Which blog is most likely to make you cry?
Which blog is most likely to inspire you to part with cash for a CD/DVD?
Which blog is most likely to cause you to change your mind about an issue?
Which blog do you read first in the morning?
Of the blogs you read by people you don’t know, who would you most like to meet?

And here’s my answers –

1) – assuming that www.howtobuildboatsoutofsand.blogspot.com doesn’t exist, It’d probably be Liz’s – I’m sure if there was a decent curry house on the island, she’ll blog about it at some point, as well as somewhere to purchase stylish footwear should the opportunity arise.
2) – either Liz’s or Going Jesus.
3) – er, probably Sleepless In Sudan – which could also fit into the above category – equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking.
4) – Most likely Sid’s blog.
5) – Hugo’s blog – either him or his comments. Lots of great brain food there. There are a couple of others that teach me a lot – George Monbiot and Jyoti but I don’t often change my mind on an issue because of them, just discover an issue I wasn’t previously aware of.
6) assuming all the blogs I read have got new posts listed, it’s normally Gareth’s, knowing that we’ll be chatting about whatever we’ve both blogged about within about 5 minutes of me switching my computer on. Though, it may actually be the Shark, as she lives in NYC and thus blogs later than anyone else I read, so is more likely to have posted after I went to bed… And this was in no way influenced by her offence at not being mentioned in the rest of the list. Not at all.
7) Either Sara, Hugo or Jyoti – all very interesting peoples.

Right, there you go – now go answer them on your own blogs!

Soundtrack – Duke Ellington, ‘The Classic Tracks Of The 40s’ (featuring the legendary Jimmy Blanton on bass).

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Jazz is dead?

Spent a wonderful evening yesterday with Orphy Robinson – just called round to drop off a CD of the tracks for the gig with Rise on Oct 13th, but as is always the case with Orphy, ended up spending hours putting the world to rights, and listening to some great stories.

Orphy and I have some very similar thoughts on music, and while our own music sounds quite different (he can actually be bothered to write lovely complex through composed music as well as doing the more free improv/spontaneous composition stuff), the genesis of it is similar – both of us have spent a lot of time around people who play ‘proper’ jazz, who studied Bird, learned the omni-book and did what you’re supposed to do – transcribed thousands of licks by your favourite artists. But both of us were turned off by that in favour of looking to the narrative aspects of music, drawn to musicians like Coltrane and Monk who told stories within a jazz framework, rather than just looking to burn their ‘opponents’ in a jam.

Both of us had a fear of screwing up when playing ‘real’ jazz, but when it came to soloing wanting something of ourselves to come out, and so looked to freer improv as inspiration for self expression. I learn so much whenever I chat to Orphy about where his music comes from – he’s been pro for at least 10 years more than me, and having been signed to Blue Note and played with loadsa big names, has a heck of a lot more experience than I.

But we both see our role as story-tellers, and as such are willing to take from any musical tradition that works for us. Our origins are different – Orphy’s background is Caribbean and its musical heritage. Mine is prog-rock and 80s art-rock/pop. So both of us bring that to the table when we play, and both had a rude awakening into the world of free improv (the first free record I ever bought was ‘Montreaux Suisse’ by Air (not the french pop band), and Orphy had gigged alongside members of the band…!)

And it seems like our journeys are becoming to norm for ‘instrumental improvising’ musicians – that all the interesting stuff is ‘jazz plus’ – taking a jazz framework and dropping loads of other influences in. Whether it’s players like Theo Travis and Ben Castle who bring prog elements to their writing and improvising, or the current golden boys of the brit-jazz scene Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland who bring elements of classic rock, electronica and hardcore to their music, it’s the everything else that is keeping jazz vibrant, vital and renders moot the bollocks talked about Jazz being dead. Wynton has done his best to turn Jazz into a museum piece, and the rest of the world has ignored him, thank God.

And coincidentally, there’s an interesting interview with Brad Mehldau in the Guardian talking about this very thing.

Soundtrack – King Crimson, ‘Discipline’.

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since when was constructive criticism a 'bias'

For the last few days, the news of Tony Blair’s whinging about the BBC’s coverage of the Katrina Disaster has been in the news – he claims it was ‘full of hate for America’, largely due to its overt critique of the Bush government’s response to it.

Since when was pointing out the abject failure of a government to do its job ‘Anti-Americanism’ – surely an anti-american stance would have been saying that the country deserved it, or would have been gloating over the scenes of the disaster. There was nothing of the sort of course, and the reporters seemed genuinely moved by the plight of the people they were reporting on. Indeed, it seemed more like their closeness to those who lost the most was the thing that was driving them to look for answers and that search lead them to the top of the pile. Bush even admitted he was at fault (when he realised it was one PR war he was losing tragically).

The history of Tony Blair’s relationship with the Bush administration is so sickening sycophantic that he doesn’t even seem able to admit when he’s beloved George has been so obviously shown up as not caring about the poor within his own borders. Katrina has revealed such a gaping sore at the heart of the American project, one that the vast majority of americans are sickened by and want to see changed. It’s by no means anti-american to point out that the one person with the authority to have done something about it chose to a) not do the preparation years ago (neither did Clinton), and b) delay the rescue attempts when the whole thing kicked off, despite them having a few days notice that it was going to happen!

to be labeled as ‘un-American’ or ‘anti-american’ has for a long time been the worst thing you can accuse someone of in certain sections of US life – they are words that have been employed to keep people in line to prevent questioning of the government, to stop people asking questions about the constitution, and to draw a thick line between those for us and those against us. Thank God there are now millions of Americans who are dissenting because they see it as their right and duty as Americans (OK, so all the nationalism leaves me cold, but for now, I’m seeing it as a big step forward from the blind support for all things Governmental…) – it’s great to hear Americans being openly critical of some elements of the ‘American Dream’ and the effects it’s had in creating a massive poverty problem within the US. In the same way that poverty in Britain has to be a concern for anyone who likes living here or claims to ‘love’ their country, those who claim patriotic allegiance in the States need to acknowledge that a country born out of the genocide of one nation and the enslavement of a continent to build its infrastructure is never going to just fall into being one with ‘freedom and equality for all’ (or whatever it says in the declaration thingie – i think I’ve got the ‘all men are created equal’ bit and the ‘justice and liberty’ bit mixed up).

It’s so sad to see the destruction of so much of the American south – New Orleans, Louisiana, the Texas coast… I’ve got friends who’ve lost their houses, some whose houses are still standing but in the middle of a sea of toxic mud, and I can’t even imagine what I’d do in such a situation. But I do know that I’d be expecting the people i’d been paying taxes to for so many years to do something to help put it right, and if they didn’t I’d be kicking up one hell of a stink, and anyone from the overseas media who helped to highlight the cause of those who’d been left stranded would be considered a friend and ally, not accused of anti-British sentiment.

Soundtrack – King Crimson, ‘Three Of A Perfect Pair’.

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A srobblesque game

How well do you know the listening habits of the fans of your favourite bands?

OK, the game goes like this – pick a band, any band. Now, draw up a list of what you think are going to be the top 10 most listened to tracks by their fans on last.fm – Last.fm isn’t a record of the tracks people say are their favourites, it’s a record of what they actually listen to.

So take a band – it’s more fun with someone with a big back catalogue like The Beatles, Queen, The Who, Metallica, Tori Amos etc. draw up the list, then go to the artist search page on the site and see how many you got right!

It’s quite a revelation with most acts – I’ve not got close with any of my guesses so far.

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