jyoti – Page 3 – stevelawson.net

July 4, 2005

Edinburgh Photos…

The March –

in The Meadows –

next to the Grayfriars Bobbie pub (a regular flyering zone during the Fringe) –

looking back from The Royal Mile –

the white band snakes its way down to Prince’s Street –

Didn’t manage to meet up with many people I knew that were there – some some St Luvvie’s, but didn’t see Andrew and Lynsey or Jyoti who were there too. However, I did find Gareth and Jane –

Now, these t-shirts were confusing –

…I thought Franciscans took a vow of poverty??? Were there also Franciscans against Chastity and Obedience? Nuns For Promiscuity? Bishops for Swearing? Trappists for a good ole’ chat? Very odd…

This MPH banner on Edinburgh Castle was great to see – it was about a hundred feet long –

and finally, my favourite street in Edinburgh, from whence came one of my Lincoln nicknames, ‘The Lady’ –

June 29, 2005

When web-filters go mad..

So, there’s an article on World Music Central about Bruce Cockburn’s reissued albums.

However, their word filter doesn’t like the ‘cock’ half of his name, so his name is renders as Bruce *censor*burn. You couldn’t make it up…

Soundtrack – White Town, ‘Peek And Poke’ (most recent album from ‘Your Woman’ hit-bloke, and blog-buddy, Jyoti Mishra – tune-laden old school pop music, the way it used to be before attitude disolved all trace of tune. Some of it reminds me early Everything But The Girl in its mix of dryly recorded voice and minimal instrumentation and blatant pop melodicism. Good stuff!)

June 17, 2005

ID Cards? no thanks

Culled from this post on Jyoti’s blog, have a look at No2ID.net – a site setting out the case against the governments proposed ID card system.

It does sound like a gargantuan waste of money, and just another level of possible fraud for large scale criminal organisations to indulge in.

Given the instability of computer systems the world over, surely storing everyone’s data on some central computer is fraught with the possibility of being hacked, not to mention the hideous Big Brother-ness of the concept.

We already have the provision for checking someone’s ID, without having further ID cards – are passports and driver’s licences not good enough? I know that when I want to or need to demostrate that I am who I say I am, I don’t seem to have any trouble finding enough forms of proof, whether I’m applying for a mortgage or a Blockbuster card.

The whole think comes across like another balls up in the increasingly bogus and flawed notion of ‘the war against terror’, coupled with some nonsense about stopping ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘bogus asylum seekers’. No mention of it clearly penalising anyone who either doesn’t understand the system, or whose english isn’t good enough to grasp what they need to do.

The list of reasons for it is flimsy at best. The list of reasons against it is huge. Sounds like another New Labour screw up to me.

April 12, 2005

Andrea Dworkin has died

Apparently she died on Friday, but it only reached the press yesterday.

Dworkin was one of the most controversial writers of the 20th century, but also one of the most influential. Rabidly loved, hated and misquoted in almost equal measure, her opposition to pornography as a violation of all women’s rights made her the target of much vitriol from liberals in the US, but her books were read in their thousands, and and she even managed to temporarily get the US law changed (it was overturned at appeal.)

The net is filling up with comments – how sad that it takes the woman’s death for us (including me) to reappraise her contribution. Makes me want to go and read some of her books, having only read articles by and about her before now.

here are a few links to obits and comments –

Guardian Obit.
Hugo’s blog post
Jyoti’s blog
some crappy myths clarified.

There don’t seem to be that many revolutionary thinkers around these days – maybe I’ve stopped looking for them, but it just feels like the substance has dropped out the arse-end of cultural critique. Please, if you can suggest any books I should read, post them in the forum.

Soundtrack – Cathy Burton, ‘Burn Out’; Jaco Pastorius, ‘Jaco Pastorius’; Eric Roche, ‘With These Hands’; John Lester, ‘Big Dreams And The Bottom Line; John Scofield, ‘Up All Night’.