whu?
posted by s at 8:11 PM

Wole Soyinka chats to Alice Thomson at the Telegraph:

Wole Soyinka, the first black African to win the Nobel Prize for literature, has spent his life prodding and poking danger. For more than 40 years, he has been goading the blood-stained parade of military dictators in his native Nigeria, once even holding up a radio station at gunpoint to take over an election broadcast. He was imprisoned for two years in solitary confinement, accused of treason, sentenced to death in absentia and has spent much of his life as an exile with no passport.

Now nearly 70, he still acts like a fugitive. His flat is next to Hyde Park, yet he refuses to go for a walk and never chats to anyone else in his apartment block. When we meet, he is wearing an anorak and trainers, with a bobble hat stuffed over his cloud of white hair, and opts to talk in the entrance hall, perched behind a pillar, in case he needs to make a speedy exit.

"It's a hangover from being followed everywhere by hit squads," he says. "I've spent too many years looking over my shoulder.''

Now that the regime has changed in Nigeria, he should be able to relax. But he believes that the world is more dangerous than it has ever been. His Reith Lectures, which will be broadcast from next Wednesday on Radio 4, are on the subject of fear.

"Africans are used to living with the smell of blood. But this new kind of terrorism is worse than colonialism or Hitler; it's worse than the Cold War. At least, then, dialogue was possible," he says.

"Hitler was a bogeyman, but we did not fear him at a visceral level - he was a straightforward kind of enemy. The capitalists and Communists were made up of responsible people who were prepared to communicate. Every time it looked as though we were on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, the protagonists found an alternative solution. Both sides ultimately wanted to live.''

He says that the CND marches he once went on were enjoyable carnivals. Now, when the crowds come out, it is to mourn the dead. "We have finally reached an apocalyptical situation where the fundamentalists don't mind whom they kill or if they destroy the world.

"There has been a total erosion of boundaries; absolutely no one is safe. This new movement isn't rational. The enemy even preys upon its own kind. It wants to transform Islam and the Arab world as well.''

Soyinka was on a plane from London to Los Angeles on the day the Twin Towers crumbled. He asked the steward why they had been diverted to Cardiff. When he was told it was because of a security problem, he shrugged and settled back to write on his computer. He carried on writing on the bus to his hotel, and in his bedroom. It wasn't until eight hours later that he turned on the television and saw the images of the two planes hurtling into the World Trade Centre.

He doesn't believe that this was the moment the world changed. "September 11 was not the beginning, nor the culmination - it was a signature scrawled all over the consciousness of the world. But this nebulous formation had been growing inside our intestines for a long time.''

In the north of Nigeria, there was rejoicing at the events of September 11. "The big bad bear had been given a bloody nose. They torched churches and attacked Christians, but there had already been huge religious tensions that the West chose to ignore until they saw their own people tumbling out of the sky.''

For the past decade, Soyinka's poetry has concentrated on condemning religious fundamentalism. He has disowned the northern states of Nigeria that adopted Islamic law and has spoken out against stoning to death and amputation. He even promised to escort the Miss World contestants on to the stage when they came to Nigeria - "to stop the zealots getting their own way".

His consuming preoccupation is trying "to oust tenacious monsters". In his books, plays and poems, he is even-handed in his condemnation of colonialism, African dictatorships, military regimes and now, Islamic fundamentalists.

President Bush's rhetoric is as dangerous as that of the al-Qa'eda operatives, he says. But, I ask, how else could Mr Bush have acted after his country was violated?

"If I had been the President, I would have tried to find out who the perpetrators were and then I would put the evidence in front of the United Nations. I would have made it clear that this was not a crime against one nation but against humanity, and everyone had to act together to overcome it. It would have been a lumbering process but it would have kept the world together.''

He doesn't take issue with the invasion of Afghanistan. "The sympathy of the world was with the Americans. When they invaded Afghanistan, they were a stricken nation," he says. "It is when they started talking about ‘weapons of mass destruction', ‘the evil empire', and ‘the axis of evil' - when they used language geared to whip up mass hysteria - that it all went wrong.''

He is adamant that the Americans and British should never have invaded Iraq. "They lied to the world. They had absolutely no right to invade. Iraq had fulfilled its UN requirements. It had let the weapons inspectors into the country. America had made up its mind to go to war and didn't care that it had no proof. But you can't just invade another country on a whim.''

Even after the invasion, America could have rescued itself by trying to make amends with the United Nations, he says. "They were just so arrogant. They went out of their way to weaken the UN - it was the worst thing they could have done; their errors amount to criminality.

"The American government had no proof of weapons of mass destruction, quite the opposite. It knew that they were unlikely to exist. Saddam was not a global outlaw - Iraq was a member of the UN. What they did in Iraq has contributed enormously to the climate of fear we now live in. There is no question that their extremist attitude escalated the extremist action on the other side.''

Soyinka, currently Woodruff emeritus professor of the arts at Emory University in Atlanta, says he will give up on America if Mr Bush wins the next election. He is less scathing about Tony Blair. "He is in a different category from President Bush. His motivations are more honourable and idealistic. He may have talked about weapons of mass destruction, but he saw Saddam as a menace to the world. If only he had said that he was trying to topple an evil man, at least it would have been honest. But it would still have been colonialist. There are other ways to destabilise a dictator.''

When Soyinka agreed to do the Reith Lectures, the BBC had little idea that he was so strongly against the war in Iraq. And he was not to know that the corporation would be censured by the Hutton inquiry and attacked by the Government for being institutionally biased against the war.

"It was so British to have an inquiry into one man's death rather than the war, but I don't think it changed much," he says. "The BBC is still trusted by both the Arab world and the British and American people, which is more than can be said of their governments."

He believes nothing will be resolved until there is a solution for Palestine. "The Arab and Muslim world's emotional attachment to the issue of Palestine is grossly underestimated by the West. The Israelis blowing up Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has moved the spiral of terror into a vortex which is deeply frightening.''

But it is to America that Soyinka returns again and again. He is horrified that it has been keeping prisoners of war in Guantanamo Bay. "You can't keep these prisoners in cages and chains and in isolation for years, without any trial. It takes all their dignity away," he says. "What would Britain have felt if the Germans had treated their prisoners of war like that? Look at the fuss you still make about the Japanese POW camps. These unacceptable double standards are appalling."

The second of six children, Soyinka grew up in an Anglican mission compound where his father was a school headmaster; it is to him that he credits his sense of right and wrong. He owes his spirituality to his mother - "although mine went in a different direction". Rebelling against Christianity, he was drawn to the traditional Yoruba worship of his grandfather.

He blames religion for inciting both the terrorists and Western leaders. "Bush and Blair are very religious. I am very suspicious of anyone believing they have a direct line to a deity. Bush is a worse case than Blair. He is a dangerous fundamentalist. Christian fundamentalism is dangerous because they have righteousness on their side. But to carry fundamentalism into politics is more dangerous still.''

Blair, of course, was guided by his moral certitude to call for an ethical foreign policy, and to promise to help save Africa. "I haven't noticed him doing much for an ethical foreign policy or for Africa, but his heart is in the right place. He is instinctively against dictators. Take Zimbabwe. He has intensified the pressure on President Mugabe. It is time for the Africans to do the same.''

After studying at Leeds University in the Fifties, Soyinka spent a brief spell in Paris as a café singer and guitar player, but, for most of his adult life, he has been a political activist fighting dictators, overmighty countries and religious fanatics. But he is also well known for his many works of prose and poetry. When they gave him the award in 1986, the Nobel committee called Soyinka "one of the finest political playwrights to have written in English".

His writing, however, has been criticised by some for grandiloquence and obscurantism. Ben Okri, whose own book, The Famished Road, owes its title to a line in a Soyinka play, says: "He deprives us of a great deal of wisdom with the fury of his complexities."

Soyinka wrote in his prison memoir: "The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny" - but he says he wishes that he had been born with a different temperament. "Life would have been much easier. I could have stuck to commenting on humanity rather than getting involved in it.

"But I don't care if I am more notorious for my political activism, because I could never have remained passive. I act instinctively; it would be intolerable to live in this world without trying to change it for the better.''

Although he is always prepared to run, he has lost all personal fear. "When I was first imprisoned, I was fearful because I thought they would sully my name and I could never defend myself if I died in jail. But then I realised that once you are dead, it doesn't matter anyway. Now, I sometimes enjoy the adrenalin of difficult situations, being part of history, in the thick of the turmoil.''

When the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the military dictator, General Abacha, Soyinka fled the country with a death sentence hanging over him. "I fled by motorbike, over the Benin border, plunging into the forest of demons on a sputtering two-wheeler. That's when I knew I had lost my fear.''

Nelson Mandela admits that his personal life suffered as a result of his political activism, but Soyinka feels no guilt towards his family. He has had three wives and admits to an "over-healthy relationship with women". He has also had many children, but refuses to count them. "In our tradition, we don't. My attitude is different. My children have been brought up to realise that there is no point in railing against your family circumstances. You just get on with it - you are responsible for your own life. They have been used to an absentee father from the beginning.''

He doesn't miss domestic life. "There are rare moments when I wish I could enjoy family life and friends. I do meet with my family occasionally, but when I have to leave, I don't miss them or yearn for them." His only hobby is buying up African art and paintings - he says he gets a "vengeful thrill in repatriating antiquities from the West''.

These days, he calls himself an itinerant lecturer, writer and political activist, while his third wife calls him an itinerant husband.

"I spend a third of my time in aeroplanes, a third in the West and a third in Africa," he says.

"But I will go home to my village in south-west Nigeria one day, to where I was born - a place called Abeokuta. I have already chosen the piece of turf under which I shall be buried.''

posted by s at 7:42 PM

it was actually Radian Sathiyamoorthy's brother-in-law that was shot and killed by his side, apparently.

Most observers assume it is only a matter of time before the northern command...resolve the dispute in their traditional manner: bloodily.


posted by s at 3:37 PM

Jim Sheridan OTM
posted by s at 3:01 AM

a timely reminder, indeed
posted by s at 2:57 AM

Rajan Sathiyamoorthy and his driver, are dead/

RIP Rajan Sathiyamoorthy, & yr driver.

don't even know his name.:-(
posted by s at 2:55 AM

recommended
one more thing that should definitely be mentioned - i'm sure many people might already be familiar with this but anyhow - is that the current issue of Private Eye has a superb feature on PFI written by the indefatigable Paul Foot.
it is a fine read and will (if you're anything like me) make you, frankly, angry; angry with successive governments, Labour and Tory both.

can't find it transcribed online anywhere at the moment but Nick Cohen mentions it in a discussion of PFI here.

---

and welcome back Ian Penman~
posted by s at 8:18 PM

Twista's lyrics get him in trouble
posted by s at 6:24 PM

one idea George W. Bush has in the immigration arena is to let people (a majority of illegal migrants in the USA are Mexican) in, for a period of three years, let them work, and then let them attempt to renew these three year visas. this story (caution, opens with pop-ups) from a few months back, has some views on the proposals.

why does it not surprise you that the Congressperson from Colorado is the most outspoken supporter of restricting immigration [think of Schlosser's 'Fast Food Nation']?
posted by s at 6:23 PM

'old school' w' vince vaughan. that's a good laugh that, good knockabout fun.

the Coens doing the ladykillers, i think this is a pretty good summary of where they're going wrong.
posted by s at 6:04 PM

Comida de Santo: so fine
posted by s at 6:02 PM

Zeno's caipirinhas sound like they keep on keepin' on.
posted by s at 6:01 PM

Kofi Annan's regret
~
April 7th has been announced as the international day to mark the Rwandan genocide's tenth anniversary.

what with the above laudable public fretting from Kofi, and all the hoo-hah surrounding the OFF ballyhoo, should Kofi be considering his position?

ritual calls for resignations are normally seen as kneejerk round here, like i'm sure many readers maintain, but something about these ones...
posted by s at 6:00 PM

i like the Black Bloc...[via ne quid nimis]
posted by s at 5:53 PM

the Featherstone W.M.C. is located on Green Lane, Featherstone: {Wakefield 7 is the postcode believe so anyway}.

it has an airy atmosphere and does turns. one time i saw a turn that had come from the east midlands area to do some hi-NRG/live puppet show combo, it was quite bizarre but very entertaining. some weeks they have the bingo.

the Guinness is not for afficionados, there is no gap in pouring it but the salted peanuts (though bad for you) are excellent.

the lager is good, and the chatter lively. rugby league and Leeds United are popular. prices are reasonable but some of the ale is pretty badly kept on several visits, TBH, imo.

once, in a pub down the road, a local wearing a Newcastle United shirt attacked a man with a Birmingham accent, accusing him of "talking poncey".

as mentioned before, there is a greasy spoon on the high street (close to the celebrated RICKY FIDDLES KIDS graffito) that does a superb fry up.
posted by s at 5:49 PM

Marseilles, Marseilles, you're parfait

i.e., i love you.
posted by s at 5:31 PM

never having been to Milan, i would like to know where exactly Chinatown is located in that city.
posted by s at 5:29 PM

if one can be serious for a second, can we throw a link to here [proposal to change Cambridge University's Campaign against Iraqi sanctions group to an Iraqi Solidarity Group]
posted by s at 5:27 PM

uncarved.org blogginess
posted by s at 5:23 PM

one of the trinity, that’s true. too many rock fans (just that i personally know, even if that’s
only several, it’s still a bit unsettling) do seem interested in Lady Day’s later raspy
self-destruction when it was all more ‘real’, supposedly. doesn’t one end up with basically
self-regarding voyeurism (Shirley Manson in the NME once described Holiday as the first
punk, or some such label)? it’s a rum do, and no mistake, guv’nor. maybe it’s all that need for
icons floating around the ether… …you can’t put all your shells into the Swirlies or Medicine,
after all, can you (the irony of railing against rocky iconoclasm tendencies when focusing in on a
single personality ourselves, yes).

the subject of tonight’s adoration, Matthew, is that self titled one ‘Sarah Vaughan’, originally
a 9 track LP on EmArcy. in the CD age (well, 1990, Schillachi’s Golden Boot and rain in Bari)
it got reissued as a ten track ‘…With Clifford Brown’.
December 1954, NYC, this session. Brown himself is on trumpet, Herbie Mann flautist (“even Mann
doesn’t disgrace himself” snorts the Penguin), Paul Quinichette t/s, Jimmy Jones on the joanner,
bassist Joe Benjamin and Roy Haynes on skins.
Ernie Wilkins arranges, also.

if you’re listening to a compact disc, the chances are overwhelming (well, okay, maybe) it’s
the Verve Master Edition, 543 305-2, a 2000 “compilation”. it’s technically a compilation
because of all those extra tracks and such that we’re accustomed to with the Verve remastering
process these days (they do spoil you). in this case there’s one bonus track, a “partial
alternative take” of ‘Lullaby of Birdland’. the original listing is
1. Lullaby of Birdland
2. April in Paris
3. He’s My Guy
4. Jim
5. You’re Not the Kind
6. Embraceable You
7. I’m Glad There Is You
8. September Song
9. It’s Crazy

hot damn/
was going to write on this, but keep getting stuck on 'he's my guy'
posted by s at 5:17 PM

say what you like about Saddam, at least you didn't have to nail down the furniture
posted by s at 5:14 PM

Robin C. is quite right, i do need to think more.
rest assured that 'The Cult of Manchester' is as "corrosive" for people from manchester - such as myself - who don't buy into it, as for anyone from outside that area.
posted by s at 5:09 PM

good - Abdel Aziz Rantisi's assets ordered frozen by Gordon Brown~
posted by s at 3:01 PM

RIP
posted by s at 1:10 PM

and remember:
it's the fish that John West reject that make John West salmon the best~
posted by s at 11:48 AM

tomorrow morning somedisco goes to the USA for three months (unless we get deported at Port Authority, JFK).

things to miss about the UK

- BBC Radio
- the British press
- pubs
- chip barms, and, well, chippies in general really
- truly first rate Indian cuisine [i go to Devon Avenue with an open mind, but i'm - honestly - yet to be convinced]

on the + side

- most other main global cuisines represented at least as competently in large, cosmopolitan American cities as in urban Britain (e.g., Cantonese, other Chinese in general, Lebanese, certainly superior Vietnamese i would have thought {don't live in Shoreditch}, sushi, Argentinian steakhouses, you get the idea)
- classic American diners, and their breakfasts
- coffeehouses
- most notably, far, far superior Mexican/Tex-Mex fare to Britain

politically stuff to worry about: well not much is there really? never, ever caricature or reduce en masse, tho' lingering doubts against the surely far greater percentage of the American population who have buffoonish reductionist views about a monolithic body of THE PALESTINIANS etc. [of course, there's always Harm with his accurate - can vouch for that personally - take on the Ppl'sRpblc of Berkeley...].

oh yeah, there's a girl involved too (the lovely companion, in the Windy City)...;-)

needless to say, this place might be a little quiet for awhile, is the point.
ta.
posted by s at 11:45 AM

=silverdollarcircle=

i'm labouring the point but i really wuv this blog.
the philosophy and alt.country lyrics is a great entry, f'r instance.

i know i'm flattering this blog if i compare it to silverdollarcircle but i think there's something about the two blogs that bears comparison, mainly in that there's a lot of flailing emoting going on (i'm sure Simon wouldn't mind if i made observations along this line) and the like; i reckon somedisco's nearest relation, blogswise, is silverdollarcircle (having given the matter a little consideration).

he's charmingly disarming.
posted by s at 11:21 AM

in trying to illuminate some of the commonality between extremists at either end of the spectrum (w' specific ref. to anti-Semitism) this CSMonitor article, unfortunately, lapses into a lot of over-simplification.

Hitler's party National Socialists, sure, and rhetoric against the non-Gentile capitalist (etc.) bleh bleh, but the Nazis were no friend of the Joe Public trade union, as any 12 year old history student knows right?!

'sloppy journalism breeds irritated readers'.

and trying to put together any thesis (note, i shouldn't of course even have to point this out, but will do out of some sense of wishing to be fundamentally clear: i'm not denying the essential truths behind some of these charges, far left and far right movements are both more susceptible to anti-Semitism than the average moderate and so on) that uses Robert Mugabe as a serious example shows a distinct naivete.

everyone knows Mugabe is an utter biscuit (and Mahathir Mohamad is a bit of a loon), so - yunno - why bother...
posted by s at 10:27 AM

THE TOFU HUT on Afro-Peruvian diva Susana Baca, and plenny' more besides.
posted by s at 10:05 AM

after having finally heard 50 cent's 'fuck you' i can confirm, whatever else we think of the man, he has at least three brilliant songs (i.e., the ones i know of), in his repertoire. Nas beat-digging in full effect, a strangely scratchy TREAT/

not heard the album mind, and given i suspect it's crap i won't be investigating either like. also his other singles are, well, one's not a fan (a cynical man would type rubbish and so's G-unit but that's not me...)

still.
posted by s at 9:25 AM

tom lehrer taught by Quine??

how does silverdollarcircle even know these things??

outstanding.

i only just found out this morning that Lehrer was a Harvard mathematician.
i can honestly say i never knew that.
posted by s at 9:19 AM

just found out that tom lehrer used to be a student of W.V.O Quine's. that makes me quite happy -silverdollarcircle.

me too.
posted by s at 8:53 AM

as y'all may know, manchester is blessed with a fine east asian restaurant scene, including Europe's finest Cantonese, the admittedly fookin pricey Yang Sing.
for a small city centre its diversity is exhilirating and it certainly beats rivals like Liverpool or Birmingham into a cocked hat in that regard (tho' for reasons of honesty i must 'fess up possibly my personal prejudices in the box marked PROVINCIAL ENGLAND SIT DOWN SCRAN are, if not the curry caffs of mcr's northern quarter, or a decent greasy spoon anywhere, then the multifaceted gems that are a good balti house in brum or the urban black country, more sandwell say than bits of dudley innit - i do like me italian and french and lebanese grub and modern british and pub food &c but baltis: well...).
HOWEVAH,
be that as it may, this sounds promising, Raymond Wong, the man responsible for well-regard Chinatown fusion place Pacific (Thai-Chinese type palace), has just opened Moso Moso on Oxford Road, opposite the Contact theatre and Big Hands bar (indieville studentland in other words).
hard to please journo Andrew Fraser - in this morning's rag - is rhapsodising over the almost club-like vibe, late dinners (it's open from 8.30 in the morning to 2am), decor, keen pricing, the sinfully musty hoi sin and apparently the best ever beef he's tasted in a Chinese restaurant. wow!

anyway, there's been some notably great sounding openings in the mcr restaurant scene over the last few weeks, but i'm immeasurably optimised (that ain't a word is it...) by Fraser's conclusion that The southern corridor of the city is, and no doubt will remain, dominated by Indian cuisine, but Moso Moso seems set to give the curry a run for its money.

all hail Ray Wong!

posted by s at 8:51 AM

gosh, there's some grumps in Maff's comments box, step forward Mr k-punk. ;-)

i can't be doing with too strong defences of backpacking from indie snobs i know, listen to everything and as widely as possible w' an open mind, that'll do.
posted by s at 8:40 AM

respect is - once again - due to Maff
~

(he is of course right and all these fashionable magazine people are WRONG)/
posted by s at 8:22 AM

Geeta adv. the boys about really getting it on
posted by s at 4:57 PM

Tom Hurndall, a young man from London who was a student in Manchester, was shot last April whilst in the Gaza Strip; as an international observer he was at a Palestinian refugee camp when the incident happened. he was shot in the head and soon after fell into a coma.

Tom Hurndall died in January of this year.

Tom's mother, Jocelyn, has long maintained an Israeli investigation focusing on a 'rogue soldier' might actually have been a scapegoating exercise.
now the Hurndall family are appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court for access to a full disclosure of info' surrounding the killing.
posted by s at 4:52 PM

Excuse Me For Laughing mentions Joe Sacco and also - over in Iran - a cartoonist i'm ashamed to admit i've never heard of...good stuff.
posted by s at 3:24 PM

i don't think Luka likes Howard...
posted by s at 3:18 PM

Paul Mile Long is discussing his mate Jim (hey, and look who it is on Jim's links-bar, none other than legendary Kenickie man Kieron 'Brem' Gillen!) asking Paul to write a piece on reggae.

in celebration of all this scenius gubbins, here are some links to good things on scenius:-

-SR interview with SAB
-Erik Davis
-from the horse's mouth
posted by s at 3:17 PM

meantime, i mean but wheesh, commenting up a storm over at k-punk are the blogging massive oh yes.

love Luke on Michael Howard's favourite theorist being Georges Bataille...

posted by s at 3:04 PM

one of my new favourite blogs is, without doubt, Lexicon Devil. i suppose points of reference are a dash of Agony Shorthand (one of the best blogs on the face of the planet, natch) and a side order of whatever 'chatty asides hut o nutritive goodness' you favour when you're looking for that coffee/donuts combo fix you often crave during the afternoon slump.

i really enjoyed his S&D job on Sub Pop and the artists he hates producing "choons u luv" bit.
posted by s at 3:01 PM

well you can't argue with that
posted by s at 2:05 PM

hey!

Ian 86400 mentions Bang on a Can's take on 'music for airports'.

i saw them do that once and it was pretty nice. someone told me they didn't like the too bombastic BoaC approach, but i remember getting all shamanic like and swaying around dervish-style at their reaching out~
posted by s at 2:04 PM

Jon discusses 'Loveless' (showing why he's a fucking don)
posted by s at 2:03 PM

Sean Acid's fascinating interview w' Shystie {that 'real life city of god' documentary sounds very interesting too}
posted by s at 2:02 PM

one, two, interviews with joe sacco.
posted by s at 1:03 PM

essential reading

Oliver Wang's Shangheezy - Shanghai travel diary.
also Shanghai Surprise - an earlier such diary.

posted by s at 12:43 PM

the sound of the city is...house music, heh.
posted by s at 12:34 PM

testing the waters of slowjam desire
posted by s at 11:55 AM

Pepe Escobar
posted by s at 11:51 AM

meanwhile, in South Waziristan/

well, you certainly can't dispute the essential truth behind Shaul Mofaz's declaration that Hamas is a strategic enemy of Israel~
posted by s at 11:50 AM

Gavin Bryars can do no wrong at the moment however.
posted by s at 11:11 AM

i'm promised a copy of Sylvian's 'Camphor' and am suitably intrigued.
check this AMG review tho' (ouchh!!)
posted by s at 11:11 AM

AllHipHop.com has more here about Soulja Slim's alleged victim, and how prosecutors believe there is not enough evidence to charge Garelle Smith, a man linked with the murder of Slim himself.
posted by s at 10:38 AM

you might have to scroll down a bit to find it, but here on 'genius' is superb.

The Mile Long Shadow of a Cooling Tower, 86400 seconds, silverdollarcircle, little dog's day, and The Devil Dances In An Empty Pocket, i think they're all mates actually and they're all lovely.
posted by s at 10:36 AM

any long time readers of this blog might recall us following the violent death of N'awlins rapper 'Soulja Slim' last November with no small interest, but now it seems that Slim himself is being looked at, posthumously of course, as the prime suspect in a(nother) murder case. here has more, thanks to No Rock&Roll Fun for the link.
posted by s at 10:29 AM

Craner really is accurate isn't he: Crushed between two fascisms: state and theocratic.

oh boy.
posted by s at 10:26 AM

George Monbiot on the need for a new intervention charter

~

The survey that the BBC conducted in Iraq last week is shocking to those of us who opposed the war. Most respondents say that life is now better than it was before the invasion
is it shocking?
really?
surely not?
i'm just genuinely surprised anyone sensible wouldn't have been able to predict this. the fall of the regime and - okay we're on shaky ground here, and of course there are many, many problems, some severe in my view (that's hardly a controversial thing to write of course ho-ho...) - its replacement with a form of government that's going to get things moving forward for ordinary Iraqis, and not - sorry to be visceral but let's be frank - dropping its citizens in acid baths:
how could anyone be shocked by this?

also, purely from a language POV, sometimes (not all the time, i admit) shocking can be meant to imply a sense of negative judgment too, if you're shocked you're often upset with what's gone down (although you can be shocked in happiness too).

oh, in case you missed it in the news last week, Monbiot is referring to the
Iraqi residents' survey (personally speaking, the findings didn't surprise me in the least; in fact one would expect those sorts of findings).

then there's a lot more stuff about the war itself yadda yadda neo-imperialism blah blah, some of which personally i agree with and some i don't but (aside from being pompous enough to write 'some of which i agree with and some i don't') i'll not bother to go into that here because, well, why bother, because that's a specific cause and i don't take myself too seriously and i'm writing this blog with PC windows open looking over from my shoulder so as not to get a bollocking off the boss, so it's hardly like i've decided to settle down and write this on a Word file, then type it up (but most blogs are run like this one ain't they? alas, the WOEBOT/Craner/Dale,etc. method of actual reasoned research, with, like, forethought and all that, is less common...). blah blah absolves myself of responsibility for (the invariable) half-baked views forthcoming blah blah.

i am going to offer my two penn'orth on some of Monbiot's analysis and conclusions of interventionism, however, because that's a general thrust that Monbiot is sketching, and that's something even a tossed-off thing can't ignore.

But I would rather a flawed power intervened in a flawed manner in the Congo than no one intervened at all.
yes, quite right.

Just because other countries cannot invade the US to free the Chagos islanders does not in itself constitute a case against invading Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein.
again, quite right.

This is that as soon as we accept that an attack by a powerful nation against a weak one is legitimate, we open the door to any number of acts of conquest masquerading as humanitarian action.
indeed.
this is of course the strongest argument against a free-for-all inspiring (well, that is what everyone fears, of course) interventionism in practice, but:
As Chomsky points out, Japan claimed that it was invading Manchuria to rescue it from "Chinese bandits"; Mussolini attacked Abyssinia to "liberate slaves"; Hitler said he was protecting the peoples he invaded from ethnic conflict. It is hard to think of any colonial adventure for which the salvation of the bodies or souls of the natives was not advanced as justification
all well and good as that is, i'm not as worried about it as Monbiot clearly is.

it is a worry but some of the examples which he mentions seem to me, to come from the era of Leopold in the Congo. all that jazz.

whatever your views of (and there's some very mean-spirited and patronising things written about him in the press, of course) George Bush, (and alright, maybe you think he didn't deserve to win the election considering he got less votes than Al Gore and i'd agree with that, but i'm pragmatic so there we go...) he isn't one of the dictators invoked above, he isn't presiding over a militaristic regime like war-years Japan (the figures for civilian deaths in Iraq since the invasion have been truly sickening and a sorrowful shame on all western brows but - and i apologise if you think all these historical parellels are crass and disrespectful, but Monbiot is using the locus {or whatever the word is} of history to outline his views, so if it's good enough for him... - but we haven't had our own Rape of Nanking-rewrit for, say, the Scouring of Basra, have we now__), he isn't presiding over a dictatorship like contemporary China, and the American government is far preferable to the current, increasingly authoritarian, Russian leadership.

of course, i'm not so naive to think if China wanted to do something really distasteful in Xinjiang, say, or in Tibet, it wouldn't invoke the invasion of Iraq (because it would; indeed in recent times we've been able to read from one rights watchdog's site that In the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, the People's Republic of China has offered strong support for Washington and affirmed that it "opposes terrorism of any form and supports actions to combat terrorism." Human Rights Watch is concerned that China's support for the war against terrorism will be a pretext for gaining international support-or at least silence-for its own crackdown on ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) as one of its justifications, but frankly it just seems that Monbiot is worrying a little too much about the consequences of an unfettered unilateral interventionism. of course part of his job is to worry for us and articulate our fears in eloquent newspaper columns, so more power to his elbow. but the Chinese government have been fulminating badstyle in Tibet for years, and we ignore that. for instance.

i don't think it's unreasonable to believe that intervention by democratic powers carries somehow a tang more legitimacy than action by a brutal dictatorship.
perhaps this is a monstrous thing to write on my part - after all, people die in the same manner whether it is from a smart missile delivered from the benign (sic) airforce of a universally enfranchising pluralist kinda govt, or from a bullet delivered by a soldier operating on behalf of a brutal one man/one vote kinda govt - but it's something i think.

what Russia has been doing in Chechnya for the best part of a decade (For Moscow, it is simple: Chechen rebels are terrorists and must be destroyed.

But on the ground in Chechnya, government supporters and rebels are sometimes hard to tell apart.

Rebels who change sides are absorbed into the pro-Russian government's ranks without question. Many do not demand independence, while the government is increasingly assertive towards Moscow.

Moscow's bearded footsoldiers in the region, with their mismatched uniforms, Kalashnikovs, and habit of firing volleys of gunfire as wedding parties drive past not only look like the people who defeated Russia in 1996 -- they are the same people; from Reuters today) hasn't required any retrospective justifications taken from invading Iraq, say (although the Russian administration has been crudely making political capital out of the events of 9/11 whenever Mr Putin points out the need for western nations to stick together against terrorism)~

the bottom line of his conclusion about To deny it is to tell some of the world's most persecuted peoples that they must be left to rot. is powerfully elegant, OTM stuff.

It seems to me that there is no instant or reliable answer to this dilemma.
is also OTM... ...the UN charter is of no value in this arena.

i'm not at all sure about We need a charter that forbids nations with an obvious interest in the outcome from participating (perhaps, but possibly misguided idealism should sometimes not be allowed to impede what could be best-case practicalities),
and whilst the first formulation in but only when a series of rigorous tests have been met, and only when an overwhelming majority of all the world's states have approved it seems very reasonable, the second part of this sentence is a bit dubious to me. tyranny by a powerful minority is of course an issue that many people are worried about, but tyranny by a (regionally biased blocs, perhaps?) majority is worrisome too. of course that's not what Monbiot is saying, i'm just saying...

all in all, some good stuff, and arguments aplenty, and all that finery of debate to be continued.
posted by s at 10:08 AM

one final thought from Paul@The Mile Long Shadow of a Cooling Tower: However, I'd like to see the best 401-500 albums. I want to read lists that represent mediocrity./

i mean, no offence but there's no way on earth a list of the best 401-500 albums (whether of just popular song [i.e., rock, pop, soul, funk, most everything else that comes outta, well certainly particular western countries and more broadly modern western choons rite: sorry i'm not going to bore any reader by thinking up po-faced typologies but you'll get what is meant...], or encompassing jazz &c too) of all time wouldn't be anything other than packed with sheer brilliance.


posted by s at 8:48 AM

i suppose what i was trying to say about that Stylus list is it's a lovely list with some nice albums but if you're going to slag someone off, and make such a relatively big deal about tired canonicists (both in a pre-amble and the occasional aside), don't be repeating any other nu-canonical (heck, not even nu_ i guess, it's pretty much the case that, say, such taste-forming behemoths for a certain kind of indie kid are - i'd guess - Stylus and Pitchfork in equal measure these days) cliches yourself. i wouldn't even be mentioning any of this of course, were it not for the manner in which the good folk of Stylus chose to construct their introductory broadside.
posted by s at 8:43 AM

also from Paul, A new debate: which ska revival song best represents the genre? I reckon it’s the Beat’s Whine and Grine/Stand Down Margaret medley. It symbolizes the concerns of the movement, both musically and politically.

that's a really good question. off the top of my head, i certainly can't think of anything better than that suggestion.
faberge!
posted by s at 8:33 AM

Paul@The Mile Long Shadow of a Cooling Tower brings some much needed balance and clarity to the imaginary ska debate i was having with myself, backed off from an SR post...;-)

Paul points out how wonderful it is to historically trace the developments of (finger-lickin) Ranglin's (muy) good eggs fretfunnery, but also he enjoys - and who doesn't, when you get down to it? - also like to sing “You’re going to get your fucking head kicked in” at my friends.
really, you can have your cake and eat it.
i suppose.

i feel like an editor of Cosmo.
posted by s at 8:31 AM

it's not that stoopid to do charity work for UNICEF in Sri Lanka surely.

posted by s at 8:28 AM

WOEBOT: GOTHIC FUTURIST
posted by s at 11:06 PM

to Ian 86400: =

that Other Music night in Sheffield is mostly to do with Discus Records, 'believe.
i adore their ‘Medulla’, by Transient v Resident, martin archer and chris bywater (processing, electronics, etc.), w’ derek saw on trumpet, benjamin batholomew on acoustic guitar, and kamalbir singh’s exquisite violin on the soul and vision expanding 34 minute (yes, three-four…) track ‘culm’.
they still run tings outta PO box in Sheffield 10, that’s still the case.

another film about migrants into the west, but from the POV OF the people-traffickers!
’Spare Parts’ may be bleak and somewhat shapeless, but it’s an intriguing addition to a brave new genre.

most recent issue of the wire special
==================================
the more i learn about new wire editor Chris Bohn, the more i like.
elizabeth cotten and not that samantha brown taking you to the other side.

good looking advert in the latest wire for an ayler boxset, due on Revenant in October.
the legend reads “Trane was the father. Pharoah was the son. I was the holy ghost.” kinda cool in building up an appetite.

‘Everything hinges on reduction, he concludes’.
_of Dean Roberts.

how wonderful is Keenan’s phrasing?
on Jack Rose, he writes His own compositions, ferociously personal visions for acoustic guitar, are populated by the same American architecture, echoing with long gone songs of itinerant bluesmen, ragtime musicians and dance orchestras who spoke in tongues too feral, crude or ecstatic ever to soundtrack a beer commercial.

‘The only groups I remember liking in the early 80s were The Birthday Party and Throbbing Gristle.’
-Masaki from Ghost.

a good Morton primer on Cecil Taylor, apparently Marcello was not a fan of his primer on Mingus the other month, but this one seems okay. this is a nice extended one:
After the death of Caesar, Rome divided the known world into three; after the death of Charlie Parker, critics set about redrawing borders that had been blurred by alien incursions. As with the empire, a triumvirate was at hand. The most familiar sounding of the new dispensation was John Coltrane. However extreme and extended the method, his fiefdom was vertical harmony, the chords of old and well-loved songs. From the south came the raw tones of Ornette Coleman, whose experiments concentrated on the interaction of melody and rhythm, a warped mishearing of Parker’s bebop fused to ancient blues. That left the murky province of ‘atonality’ to Cecil Taylor.
What was assassinated this time was the truth. Even as the crudest sketch, this map of modern jazz makes little sense. Coltrane was also a sublime melodist, who in later life became obsessed with the untapped possibilities of rhythm. Coleman’s music was premised on idiosyncratic harmonics, either visionary or fraudulent depending on your point of view. Most seriously, Taylor’s music is no more atonal than Arnold Schoenberg’s music is ‘serialist’. {Schoenberg preferred “atonicality”}/

David Stubbs does well with a review of Spektrum, Clive Bell gets rightfully excited about a 7-discer on Ocora. dig the sound of Agram Blues compilation album ‘The Truman and Eisenhower Blues: Africa-American Blues and Gospel Songs, 1945-1960.
Peter Shapiro pronounces the subjects of the newest Soul Jazz reissue job, Konk, as poster boys for the whole post-punk revival. fancy!
other good:
David Toop’s fine and dandy recontextualisation of ‘Smile’ after seeing Wilson hawk his wares at the RFH.

STRANGE BUT TRUE ABOUT THE WIRE.
about a few months or so back right, there was a feature on LA rapper Busdriver in there, Mosi Reeves did it in the bites column (complete with half-arsed flaming of crunk) but i do like Busdriver, be that as it may. but the point is i’m pretty sure i remember (i can’t be arsed to check my archives, but i reckon i remember this) i mentioned Busdriver for the first time ever on this blog about a day before i read that new wire, with Busdriver in it. just fancy that eh?! you know what this means eh?
CONCLUSION
i hardly ever mention Max Roach at this blog but if we mention him a bit he’s bound to be on the next cover of the NME, y’getme?

MAX ROACH MAX ROACH ROACHES FOR MAX MAX MARA.
ROACH.

Sherburne gets to talk about “Chilean expats putting a curious Latin stamp on European electronic music”---->
Dave Tompkins (does Ingram like him? it’s hard to say from the one charming piece at TWANBOC that i recall, swapping cards with him and stuff, i think it was homage to the style best described by Jon Dale as ‘Planet Tompkins’). listen to these:-

“Too much Ancient School throwdown rap is jocked for obscurity rather than quality.”

“Someone recently misidentified a Gang Starr sample on a TV ad for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a sign that it’s a good time for a DJ Premier/Jay-Z retrospective.”

“Clearly, there’s not enough L Ron Hubbard in rap these days.”

“If someone put a gun to my head and said ‘rap ballads’ or ‘hip House’, I’d bite the ballad.”

“Dejected bear mascot thinks college is a bunch of ho/frat hooey and a Cosby sweater so he samples Michael Bolton and turns a nail file into a ‘Trans Europe Express’ hi-hat.”
[that last one about Kanye West].

it’s ELIZABETH Cotten that will stay with me~

the early letters of Isaiah Berlin.

why is Tariq Ali apparently afraid to debate with William Shawcross?
we have some form, last year Tariq refused to take part in a debate on patriotism at Oxford because i was a participant. Some time after that, when we were both talking about Iraq on Radio 4’s Today down telephone lines, he started shouting: “Shawcross is a fool”. It was rather funny…it is wrong of the BBC to allow any potential guest to censor another
the plot thickens.

in the other day’s sunday telegraph arts supplement, paul morley has a review of the ‘Pusher/Reich show at the RFH (Cage is Dada hip-hop, supposedly). it all seemed a bit half-arsed to me, to be frank.

matthew d’Ancona was apparently named political journalist of the year at the british press awards, which is good cause his columns are judicious and informed. trog was, rightly i think, named cartoonist of the year, beating Luka’s favoured Steve Bell, which is at it should be.

wow.

a startling event: Left Hand Right playing a score to ‘A Page of Madness’: old silent Japanese film about a caretaker and his shenanigans working in some sort of Bedlam place. definitely one for the In The Nursery do Vertov file, if admittedly with added beats.

there was a Yasujiro Ozu season recently, which was nice to see the quite mundanely heartbreaking ‘The End of Summer’.
still not sure what i thought of ‘kitchen stories’. it was like a strangely ordinary dream set in a proto-IKEA advert.

‘Zatoichi’ is nice: think i’ve already seen about three different critics mention how it’s a bit like a far superior ‘Kill Bill’ and, by jove, they’re right.

‘Los Lunes Al Sol’ and ‘Poligono Sur’ two nice efforts of Spanish films recently, the former shipbuilders sitting around, the latter some sort of docu about gypsies living on an estate somewhere in Spain. both really quite fine.

“Premier collection”
Premo CD-R from lad at work:

Gangstarr ‘Full Clip’
Nas ‘Nas is like…’
Gangstarr feat. Scarface ‘Betrayal’
Jay-Z ‘So ghetto’
50 Cent ‘Fuck you’
Nas ‘New York State of Mind Part 2’
Gangstarr feat. Jadakiss ‘Rite where u stand’
Jadakiss feat. Lox ‘None of y’all betta’
Gangstarr ‘Play 2 win’
Notorious BIG ’10 crack commandments’
Jay-Z ‘D’evils’
Gangstarr feat. Total ‘Discipline’
Rakim ‘When I B on tha mic’
Nas ‘Memory Lane’

best film of the year is probably the experience of hearing a piano/violin/theremin accompaniment (from Neil Brand on the joanner and Celia Sheen on the other instruments) to ‘Der Golem’, an old silent German film that’s, well a horror about a clay monster. the golem’s voice is a theremin.
utterly astonishing, really.

compilation tape for one of the brummies, following his recent gift to me, soaked in with the body snatchers, father’s angels, the dramatics, yellowman and fathead, tlc, lady day, james brown, and detroit spinners’ goodness (among other treats):

the bangles ‘walk like an egyptian’
mancini/royal phil. ‘the pink panther’
carly simon ‘you’re so vain’
candi staton ‘young hearts run free’
booker t & the MG’s ‘green onions’
chic ‘le freak’
bill withers ‘lean on me’
the mccoys ‘hang on sloopy’
tony bennett ‘chicago’
woody guthrie ‘dust cain’t kill me’
ali farka toure ‘tchigi fo’
peter gabriel w’ nusrat fateh ali khan, jon hassell, youssou n’dour &c. ‘passion’
traditional tihaman chant (‘wadi mawr zar’)
aylesbury allstars ‘buss red light’
the surgery ‘shott the weed’
special delivery ‘countdown’
junior murvin ‘roots train’
junior reid ‘one blood’
welton irie ‘stone a throw’
jay-z ‘dead presidents II’
the 45 king ‘funk box’
mike ladd ‘planet 10’
akufen ‘little hop of horror’
robert wyatt ‘at last i am free’
stina nordenstam ‘under your command’

the Khmer Rouge docu ‘S21’ was chilling in the extreme, without showing anything (as such).

It is hard to believe that Professor Bernard Lewis blames the Arab cultural, military and technological decline on “the failure to capture Vienna in 1683”. It was the Ottoman Turks who besieged the Austrian capital and they were not Arabs but a people of Central Asian origin who did not speak Arabic, although they had adopted the Arabic script when they converted to Islam.
Moreover, the Turks ruled over most of the Arab peoples until the latter were stimulated by the British to revolt in 1917. Since 1928, thanks to Kemal Ataturk, Turkish is written in a slightly modified version of the Roman alphabet.
- Neville Beale, SW3.

‘Brannigan’s March’ was off-key, road story, a bloke stumbling across Yorkshire with a doom-mongers’ sandwich board strapped to his back, finding wonder and a reckoning.

posted by s at 10:59 PM

one final (half-baked, as per) thought about the adbusters editor responding to his critics.

they ask if half the neo-cons were Palestinian, would the allies still have invaded Iraq?

i'm inclined to say yes.
i dunno, they'd be Palestinian-American right?

i clearly do not know, but recognising that the two-state solution is the best way forward for Israel would presumably be recognised by a Palestinian-American neo-con hawk, but would an immigrant neo-con's American experience/estrangement from experiences in the Occupied Territories/yadda yadda make differences?

OK, so i'm immaturely shrugging out some probably unrelated spin on the ideas the editor raised and then running off without thinking of the consequential answers, but you're allowed to maintain gut feelings/
posted by s at 4:12 PM

but he went about it, in the first place, in a bit of a rum way.

i apologise for unformed half-opinions, perhaps i should actually try and think of a cogent response (i can sometimes know what i'm on about, well vaguely so anyhoo...) and post it when i'm not at work.

but i probably won't...;-)
posted by s at 3:58 PM

if we know sometime to be a particularly hawkish proponent of ideas that are very pro-Likud (say), then criticise by all means.

one bottom line is that criticism of neo-conservatism doesn't make you anti-semitic (or indeed, anti-american).

which in one sense is all the writer of the article needs to say to his critics.

posted by s at 3:55 PM

cause obviously my opinions are insightful...
posted by s at 3:49 PM

adbusters here responds to concerns surrounding its 'anti-semitic' article, and the outraged emails from fuming readers, are, if nothing else, fascinating reading.

i suppose whilst it's a shame that some of the angrier emails lapse into mere insults and name-calling (i appreciate the palpable fury - palpable! god that's an undergraduate essay word eh?! - is coming from somewhere sincere but even still it's like a politics message board frequented by biscuits eh...) but i'm still not entirely convinced by the adbusters defence.

OK, so a lot of the neo-cons are Jewish.
but the bloke defending his phrasing (and of course i don't really think he's anti-Semitic for a minute: do you?) still has a bit of the disingenous about him with the way he points out 'why not say the neo-cons are male, or western?'.
there's pointing out the obvious, and making insightful comments that appear obvious in retrospect, and then there's, well, hitting children with your handbag (sorry, these mixed metaphors are shit).
the real point is, as detractors of a neo-con position would outline, is that neo-cons are primarily likely to possess some, shall we say, intransigent views on Israel and the Palestinians etc.
bringing in ethnicity, someone's religious affiliation - well - frankly, that just strikes me as irredeemably cheap under these circumstances.

a cute point about intellectual thuggery (and very arguably it's an extremely valid point) is all well and good and i realise i'm not being very nuanced here but something about the original article makes me think of an idea i've long held for an imaginary crudely satiric piece (lampooning the Mail on Sunday, since you didn't ask...) [with sample headline KLEPTOMANIAC AFRICAN DICATORS ARE ALL BLACK REVELATION &c.__you get the picture.]


posted by s at 3:47 PM

WOW

~my chin is now in Dublin~

this lucky pup has just bought themselves the big stax-volt singles boxset (NINE discs!!)
posted by s at 3:06 PM

maybe it's the arrival of David Stubbs in the blogging world, but The Rambler's semi-job on 'loveless' is a pleasure, and persuasively made.
[i'm especially red-faced, as 'loveless' is one of the 'token rock CDs' i got...]
posted by s at 3:00 PM

whoops again!

my bad.

Sick Nouthall has been politely canvassing opinions on that stylus list over at ILM: if i could remember how to post there i'd probably respond, as it's only polite.

ah well [sighs]....
posted by s at 2:40 PM

oops!

not that that list is necessarily making any big sounding claims, but i though i knew what i meant at the time...
posted by s at 2:33 PM

you could say the fact i like fado and reggae and early American roots means i'm a bit removed in terms of tastes from the average 'what's going on'/'pet sounds'/'forever changes'/'a love supreme' jonesing rolling stone reader.
and that therefore criticising that list is me missing the point.

but i don't think those personal facts about my lack of rock/canon credibility necessarily diminish the force of my objections.
if you're going to be (alright, just a little bit) critical/mean-spirited about the orthodoxy and you're doing it from the point of view of a (relatively professional 'proper' music reviews website after all, stylus ain't just A N Other Blog) margin-walking fresh new thing; oh, i dunno, this sentence is collapsing into the tossed-off half-formed morassic mess it undoubtedly is.

i guess one thing i think is if you're gonna make a big sounding claim, back it up convincingly y'get me...

posted by s at 2:27 PM

of course i got mad wuv for Stylus magazine. big up their (collective) chests.

posted by s at 2:13 PM

what would have been cause for a slight raised eyebrow in that list, coming as it was from stylus, would have been some, say, grace jones, or some geto boys, or some papuan field recordings.

yunno, imo...

P.S.
didn't barrow et al re-release 'heart of...' the best part of a decade ago now?
even all my MOJO/uncut reading mates have a copy!
on a serious side-note, i'd love to know the B&F sales figures, i wonder sometimes how many more copies they've sold of heart of the congoes over that, say, that trinity set they've got?
i bet it's a fair bit...;-)
posted by s at 2:11 PM

Stylus Magazine's Top 101-200 Favourite Albums Ever
-{via auspicious fish: sorry, i dunno how to do the proper title as it appears...}

some good reasons both one way and the other for arguing about lists, and i'm sure any readers - like many people - might come down somewhere in the middle?

be that as it may, i do think that What they also are, generally, is predictable; the top ten of Rolling Stone’s recent 500 Greatest Albums Ever poll could have been picked by a computer program designed to devise the most canonical canon ever, making the exercise largely redundant is a bit unfair.
well, What’s the point in telling people yet again how great Astral Weeks or OK Computer or Pet Sounds are? Especially when we’re at a point in history where we’re beginning to finally realise that you don’t have to follow the canon rigidly in order to enjoy pop music; that, in fact, the canon only exists because people say it does and other people listen is a reasonable point, but i think it'd carry more force if one was surprised by any listing in the stylus top 101-200.
as it is, and i know this is a twattish thing to write, i was not surprised by any of those entries.

don't get me wrong, i love some of those albums in there as much as the next person, and there's bound to be something most likely near anyone could find to like in that there list. but it seems a little churlish, perhaps a tad ungenerous, to call out the big dinosaurs when - by degrees - everyone is related to everyone else, taste-wise, some way or other.
i mean, look at the rap albums: nas, dre, raekwon, GZA, outkast, missy: you could have said that for sure, eh?

i don't want this to sound like a pedantic nitpicker ignoring the joy and life of a bunch of wonderful people choosing music they adore- that's the bottom line after all - but feel it a bit remiss to slag the likes of R/S or Spin and then produce your own indietronica/etc. friendly groupings.
posted by s at 1:55 PM

masthead fun

scaring jess harvell since 2003
=
haha, he's done it!
posted by s at 1:18 PM

of course The House At World's End is exactly right with his latest observations about united fans, the republic of mancunia, all that.

all, repeat all, the younger united fans (i don't know if this is crucial, their being younger ones, but it would be an obvious and easy causal step, so that's why i make this clear) i know have no love for the national English team, and are very much into the idea of getting away/over to the USA.
what this says about the absurd and surely played out narrative that the likes of Richard Kurt cling to (i.e., my beloved 'united fans are all internationalist sophisticates who have cool haircuts and listen to the stone roses ONE LOVE not like those bad haircutted citeh thugs who listen to oasis' trope they bang on about in places like red issue), i dunno.

also, very OTM about the manics fiery valleys/bevan/all that/mascara among the miners down the pub, type beginnings, and their upbringing informing their politics.
posted by s at 1:11 PM

i don't know, for some reason claire allfree's (in the free commuter metro paper) vaguely rockist cheerleading for the new NERD album irritates me a little.
posted by s at 12:37 PM

86400 seconds on 'Imagine'
posted by s at 12:34 PM

Malaysia embraces a secular future
posted by s at 12:33 PM

We give no value to statements [by Eta]

_well said.
posted by s at 12:30 PM

fresh impetus in Biggie case.
posted by s at 11:59 AM

Death scene: Les Baxter, "Prelude in E Minor"
Closing credits: Sly and the Family Stone, "You Caught Me Smilin'"

genius move from nate.
what's the betting some pseudo-hipster gets the cantus in memoriam of britten down in their death scene?
posted by s at 11:50 AM

huh.
or the E-T-A as Mr Bush had it, or just 'the ETA' as one's read at more than one American website.
anyway, enough of this unseemly catcalling, a far better thing for any reader wasting their time here is to go and browse a quite lovely listfing from slap dee barnes
{equally fine Hipster Detritus original here}
posted by s at 11:46 AM

Iain's got some interesting stuff up (dateline yday) about the search for those responsible for the atrocity in Madrid.

i must admit myself, i'm still not yet fully convinced Eta haven't played at least some part in all this.
posted by s at 11:41 AM

Chris Hitchens on Burke - via Harm~

also, Hitchens is exactly right about Conor Cruise O'Brien's "masterly" meditations on Burkean thought.
posted by s at 11:35 AM

once again, Oliver says it all/
posted by s at 10:37 AM

I'm So Sincerr [on 'liberal rhetoric at Adbusters leaving them cold']
posted by s at 10:30 AM

Madness in their more expansive/orchestrated flourish (fistful of kinks records in yo back pocket) moments as a low-carb Left Banke, yeh i like that!
posted by s at 10:27 AM

actually, i find it very hard to even listen to the likes of the selecter these days. i picked up some of their stuff i'd not seen before a few years back at manchester's vinyl exchange that was 'ooh! looks a bit rare, i'd have that', but it went west within a few weeks, TBH w/u.
posted by s at 10:23 AM

ON SECOND THOUGHT

you may as well label the ethiopians a rocksteady fissure group (that is, they anticipated rocksteady so completely, that you could argue the music they were producing up&to&and&in&and&past the rocksteady 'era' even was up with the best, like say alton ellis, of that form) so perhaps simon's point stands. in that there aren't many big big names from the original ska that loads of people still vibe off today.
there again that's not the fault of potentially undiscovered gems is it, if listeners are lazy.

but really the ska revival of 2-tone only gave us the specials in the canonical camp right? were madness more celebratory everything inc. the kitchen sink as they progressed? certainly they were 2-tone but then later on it was all Baroque-lite flourishes/blue-eyed soul gubbins. actually, to change my mind - again! - within one paragraph (i'm always doing this...) that shouldn't detract that 2-tone gave us - in the first instance - two stone colds.


posted by s at 10:19 AM

to Qasim (txting style):

that txt u sent me bout th KFC ad was quality/hilarious pal!
i deffo agree w'u about that, fucking rite load o bollocks.

i haven't replied cos i hav no credit, sorry.

cheers chuck. :-)
posted by s at 10:06 AM

if you haven't yet, you really do need to go and read Jess on the sexlessness of rap/crunk&grime sexiness comparisons &c. here
posted by s at 10:02 AM

just been given a 'best of' Premo cd-r off a mate. more later.
posted by s at 8:58 AM

another from het graun: Avi Shlaim
posted by s at 8:55 AM

mass factional violence has been reported in Herat
posted by s at 8:53 AM

from what i recall of my kerrang reading days etc (mid90s mostly), this here from AMG on the 'third wave ska revival' sounds accurate (oh the tricks of foggy memory)
posted by s at 8:50 AM

i guess most folks are into the cooling down that was rocksteady (Ken Boothe!).
the SoCal pop-punk uses for ska nowadays are shocking though, all them fat wreck chords bands are due a forensic analysis from one of you electronica or underground/experimental writers though!

interesting, all the energy the likes of, oh i don't know who it is, the likes of dancehall crashers are well popular with a certain type of ver kidz and fair enough like (i used to quite like both Sublime and the Bosstones, and really you gotta like 'just a girl' eh?), their energy is simply astonishing.
posted by s at 8:46 AM

Simon: Revivals that are an Improvement on the Thing They're Reviving. Unfortunately I could only think of one example in the second category: 2-Tone vis-a-vis the original ska.

Sorry mate, but that's bobbins (and i realise a simon review of some reggae compilations in uncut is still one of the two or three best reviews i've ever read in there, was that his "ocean of sound" characterisation one?).
if you like the selecter or english beat that's your business, but i'm afraid even the genius of the Specials (and of course they were), or the wondrous perky pop percolations of Madness are not enough to compare with the quality stylings of the godhead that was leonard dillon's the ethiopians, or even the skatalites (tho' i've never been big into the intstrumental side).

i don't know if Simon is not big on the original ska cause of its robotic, jerky propulsiveness yadda yadda and so something he once wrote about justin frischmann being into it and it was the 'least black' (hey i'm treading on dangerously murky ground here but just kinda rephrasing something of simon's once i recall reading) facet of Yard pop (i really don't know what i'm on about, as you can see), but i'm afraid i will get into fights and all manner of busted teeth/mark twain roustabout hilarity to defend even just the ethiopians, yea and verily, even against the outfit that gave us 'ghost town' and 'nite klub'
posted by s at 8:42 AM

Dear Jon,

enjoy yrself!

much wuv to you mah boy,
s.
posted by s at 8:23 AM

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is dead
posted by s at 8:22 AM

Jon on Pop Ambient 2004
posted by s at 11:57 AM

totally we're not worthy
posted by s at 9:47 AM

Jim photos the gherkin, great shot.

Baal: absolutely unmissable "Maybe he once kissed those thighs - now leered at by half-drunk, bored 'dads' dragging their noxious, fat, unloved offspring"
posted by s at 9:46 AM

saw 'infernal affairs' at the pictures a few nights ago, rather that than '21 grams' which whilst sounding pretty bloody decent i can't help but recall the comments about letting a little light in, to what might have been overall more resoundingly successful effects ('amores perros' is ace of course).

be that as it may.

i suppose 'infernal affairs' could be criticised for the very usual non-english language reasoning of tacky-ish subtitles. there was also a strange way with a plot, some odd side characters, and what cynics would decry as unnecessarily intrusive and sometimes plain bad incidental music (which i thought was just right and largely brilliant even when it was obviously signposting in the manner of all the averagely mannered average American TVMs, because - crucially - this was a film set in Hong Kong and therefore NOT Topeka).
i found it really good though, TBH.
the death of the superintendent (literally falling from the sky means a genuinely seat-jumping moment) was affecting and everything was handled nicely.

very good, very well done, brilliant spectacular backdrops, Triad double-crossing, powerhouse and SUPERB performance from the gang boss, all that.

Scorsese is in on the American remix, with the hero (who dies, and btw somewhat resembled Aussie soccer player Harry Kewell) slated to be played by Brad Pitt. i'll not hold my breath.
posted by s at 1:33 AM

Still Drifting: Australia's Pacific Solution for Refugees

Refugee Council of Australia | What's Happening
posted by s at 1:25 AM

of course he was brilliant in 'our friends in the north'.
posted by s at 1:24 AM

one of the thigns i like about chris eccleston is you rememebr that itv drama where he played christ last year, an ordinary chap in mcr, come again as the second coming?

well, there was one bit that nearly moved me to tears, such was the way it struck me, erm, the bit where his mate has been shot dead is it? Pete, the asian lad. cause there's all these devils been sent to earth's surface to try and stop Christ/Eccleston, in the form of ordinary people, and one of them possesses (or whatever, i had it on doing the ironing or sumfink) Eccleston's father, to try and shoot Eccleston. but Pete gets in the way.

anyway, Eccleston knows that the chief of Greater Manchester Police is the main devil in the area, and it was he who sets the old man up to it (you can tell the devils by the entirely unsubtle plot device of a malevolent glimmer on their irises). Christ walks away unscathed of course (cause his mate's just bought it) and sees the Chief. he simply looks him in the eye and said something along the lines of 'i forgive you, my son'.
which - momentarily, for a brief glorious pause - gives the heretofore supernaturally abundantly self-confident and EVIL!! Chief such cause for checking himself and whatnot, that it just struck me, right, right there
just the way Eccleston delivered the line.

i'm sure he'll be OK la as Dr Who.
posted by s at 1:23 AM

writing of the BBC, the news bulletins today were showing images of the demonstrations to commemorate the - one year on - illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, bleh bleh.

now, and i realise this is an obvious point to make (i'm always writing that eh...) but no apologies for using the word but in such a casually cliched combative way: WITHOUT getting into ANY debates about the legal or moral, rights/or/wrongs, about the invasion and subsequent occupation &c of Iraq, ONE small POINT of order.

would the protestors carrying banners urging Allied troops out of Iraq ASAP please reconsider their slogans? just, yunno, reconsider yr slogan for - oooh - a minute there.

ONE QUESTION:
what do you actually think would happen if western troops pulled out of Iraq entirely by the end of this weekend?
what do you think would happen?

your answer may wish to sketch out security considerations.

ta.
posted by s at 1:16 AM

Dear William Safire,

we all have off days.

but to prove - in one simple paragraph! - you can be guilty of professional fuckwittery!!

pls either resign and give all yr salary to cancer charities in the big apple, or just shutdafucup unless you can guarantee change.

yrs,
me./
posted by s at 1:12 AM

Officials at the anti-Israel BBC, which has long blatantly sided with Palestinians in its Middle East coverage..
- William Safire in the New York Times October 2003.

i beg yr pardon?

you get this trotted out now and again and it's simply untrue.

consider the human consequences horrifically clearly on show whenever Orla Guerin reports on a suicide bomber walking aboard the no. 19 and blowing themselves up. the Beeb's cameras unflinchingly record the stark reality of vile acts from sickeningly morally bankrupt individuals, cheered on by their supporters, political pygmies all.
clearly to be anti-israel per se is to be politically bankrupt. this is not a charge you can level at the BBC.
it is a charge you can level at, say, the al-aqsa martyrs' brigade.
since when did the most respected and still i'd say finest., international tv news org get confused with a vicious and depraved terrorist bunch of thugs?

this much anyone with access to a television set in modern britain can easily discern.

but to say the BBC is anti-Israel is a grave slur. as a friend of Israel, we do not have to be zealous Sharonists. it's all the old cliches anyone knows themselves, yadda yadda, criticism not making one an anti-semite blah blah will this do?, but really, that's bad from the -bullishly- hawkish Safire.
in fact, i'm surprised one read it in the NYT, some craply simplifying tabloid or whatever, sure maybe, but the alleged paper of record?
hmm.

typically idiotic right wing american drivel.
posted by s at 1:10 AM

Interviewer: How many records would you say you actually own?
Little Louie:Probably about between 15 to 20.
Interviewer: Fifteen to 20?
LL: No, 15 to 20 thousand. Kenny owns about 30.

'The American military rarely takes action in cases of friendly fire. If they did, there might be fewer of them.'

_John Simpson.
posted by s at 1:01 AM

Cozen

Jon Dale's on fire innit, as is Luka's 86 bus talk in a smaller way.

Lamb is a miraculous meat, robustly withstanding strong flavours, showcasing subtler vibes without overpowering them, brightened by fruit, bouncing off tomato, enlivened by herbs. It is the most eligible meat in town_so sayeth Andrew Fraser, reviewing new shack Petrus on Upper Brook Street, of which he VAY promisingly concludes "(manchester has some fine middle eastern restaurants, but) this could quite possibly be the best yet".
keen!
posted by s at 12:57 AM

'Self-Pity'

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.


-- D. H. Lawrence
/
posted by s at 9:18 PM

pomes pennyeach
{the name of a fine old Staffordshire bookshop, i remember it fondly}

A Drinking Song

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

-- W. B. Yeats

posted by s at 9:18 PM

oh here is dan's mate Sid (half a Jainist apparently, or rather semi-Jainist, an interesting theological proposition y' ax me), his grandmother cooks wonderful wonderful Indian food.
posted by s at 9:13 PM

don't take the piss but peter gabriel's 'the passion' is really floating my boat at the moment.
oh, and of course Bruce Haack.
posted by s at 9:09 PM

i forgot to say dan's off to paris soon on his hols, the same time his mate's going to valencia, valencia i've never been there. love to.
posted by s at 9:07 PM

dan from erase.net is with his mate down in finchley, he's bought some ACE sounding records there (mostly tracky tech-house, funky minimal things, theme), fucking top lad, and he likes his whisky. and aubergines, i told you!

big up.
posted by s at 9:05 PM

chris eccleston to be the new doctor who i like that, and i like him. not just because he's a salford lad, but he's a good, brooding, flecked with something or other, presence.

marvellous.
and channel 4 sports reporter sue turton was an extra on doctor who once apparently, as a sea vampire!


posted by s at 9:02 PM

Ibrahim arrived with his friend Mahmoudi. I could feel their underlying suspicion, their anger and bitterness. It wasn’t just the white community that blamed the Somalis for taking their jobs, but the black Afro-Caribbean population. The reality was quite different: there were between two and three thousand Somalis and only ten or fifteen had jobs, mostly with the local council.
- Nick Danziger.

posted by s at 8:49 PM

Matos
posted by s at 8:47 PM

Clover on great songs
posted by s at 8:46 PM

Jon Dale in 'still prime bark psychosis dude' shockah!
posted by s at 3:32 PM

Sick Nouthall/Chris Ott unfair/not OTM

[i guess i don't go to ILM too often huh!]
posted by s at 3:31 PM

Ronan/nickalicious/N. OTM
posted by s at 3:30 PM

Oliver Craner.
posted by s at 3:17 PM

i mean, for fuck's sake.
posted by s at 3:14 PM

Eminem.
posted by s at 3:14 PM

Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be the drummer in the rock band Gay Dad.
posted by s at 3:13 PM

This wants to be a breezy Francophile comedy along the lines of An American In Paris, but there’s too little chic and too much Kate Hudson for that to be a possibility.
haha!

i must apologise there’s been so much flapping at this blog of late i’m about to pack it in bcos it’s been really shite, some comfortable liberal mouthing off like the twat i am, but will try and change it and make it more interesting and readable was just thinking that this afternoon, god the old blog’s been fucking shite lately, far too much moaning, comfortable but not old oak way mannerisms, it needs less pretense and whatnot.
cheers.

i think Britney’s lovely, she’s just nice: leave her alone Nebraskan puritans!

‘AFRIKAANS leef nog sterk - Talent2004 www.talent2004.com Skryf nou in vir die Talentkompetisie van die Jaar en staan die kans om 'n CD opname en pryse ter waarde van R200 000-00 te wen. Besoek ons by www.talent2004.com vir meer inligting.’

well i don’t know what any of it means, but it sounds nice. you can gather a lot of rand are at stake, certainly, and i’d say that’s the main thing.

CD:UK this morning.

50 cent and g-unit. 50 cent (homophobic nitwit and all) has at least two brilliant songs in his repertoire and that widely available mixtape thing of his you can get on CD pretty easily these days is also absolutely ace (and not that i rock that look much but he always wears wicked clothes i rate). but that said, g unit is the work of a muppet and it shows. the song he did was a nice lilting jammy thing but really it was most unmemorable and finishing on the gunshots was simply crap.
sugababes’ had an alright song and frankly looked fantastic, yes all of them.
the video for the scissors sisters ‘take your mama out’ or whatever, looks great. song good too, bit retro, yeah, great.
the darkness were getting interviewed by cat deeley and justin hawkins said “and whatnot”. anyone who uses this term gets MY VOTE.

other things that get MY VOTE inc.
people shouting crude but witty jokes at each other in Lebanese streets
pornography
very very old guitars
Tom Paine
satirical attacks on any government
broadsheet newspapers
arts journals
pretty much sublime editions of the Divine Comedy that had been published in Florence in 1811 such as one glimpsed on e-bay the other day
nuanced and subtle political analyses
broken beat DJs
sunfish
cheap operatic experiences
Eusebio
Tim Finney
not that i’m condoning it as such and of course it’s an appalling situation but it happens so if it has to happen then they have to do it, but people surviving with a loose-limbed grifterism in Bordeaux
the city of Birmingham, England, which i adore, and which is the place most like London in England outside the capital
Henry James
apothecaries in mediaeval Exeter
Fred Williams (nearly time to call in that favour from Angus, as it happens)
overpriced juice bars
going to the ballet
adoring Biosphere
eating out with a chum
Antonio Lobo Antunes
differentiating between, er, things
babushkas hawking at small town stations in central european Russia
ordinary blokes in ordinary Czech bars having a beer
indomitable matriarchs in large Scottish families
tireless paediatricians in Bangkok hospitals
bellboys in Dubai hotels
Gerd Muller
fishermen in southern India
Baltasar Garzon
articles lamenting the passing of missed traditions
Belgian alcoholic beverage
honesty
John Adams
toasting Sunderland football club with whisky in Cambridge
Institut Arabe du Monde
massive dollops of the quality known as common sense
picking up old tat in furniture shops
fat men enjoying their lobster in expensive restaurants anywhere in provincial Finland
dancing all night with some likeminded mates
people crying with joy in public
Luke Davis’ tapes
banks of fir trees in the wilds of Canada
men with a nice ass
a decent soy-latte
clubbing in Norwich
tomato soup (or appropriate local equivalent if none to be found) ate on the hoof with plenty of black pepper sold from a cheap and friendly side-cart vendor on a packed street somewhere in Izmir full of appealing people with arguments to be heard, needs to be met, and tasks to do
CD-r from Messrs Ingram and Reynolds
the underground railroad
nimble Cairene taxi drivers
the mass influx of Hong Kong Chinese people into Vancouver in the early 1990s
the word “jurist”
Jill Scott
the landscapes of the Skeleton Coast
pretentiousness
Master P
Alison Janney
that American girl who runs that Pop and Politics weblog
girls making out together
monuments
the many ‘curry cafes’ of manchester city centre’s Northern Quarter district
trawlers off the coast of Iceland
Nuffield scientists
The Chantells
doo-wop
Sumatran village gong ensembles
certain Liberal Democrat politicians, heck, certain politicians
community workers in Stavanger
being what you want to be
Bollywood
Aretha
being down to earth
a decent salad nicoise by the sea in south-east Cyprus on a close night
tough, funny visual arts columnists
Joe at the new hip hop political correctness trend
respectfully discussing religion with ardent followers of some religion
amorous couples in public, especially for instance two cute boys snogging that annoy nearby FUCKWITS (sorry Simon silverdollar, much as i love all your slang typologies, i do still use fuckwit from time to time)
discussing masturbation frankly with mates
boys freestyling on public transport
madonna
very ordinary but supremely extraordinary women doing their best, holding their shattered families together, in warzones
Marilyn Manson fans dressed up for show and facing down catcalls from ignorant chods
erudite young women keeping journals in Honduras
nurses in Auckland
Tibetan dissidents
a basic one this, but remembering not to confuse symptoms with causes and such
National Geographic magazine
The Liberal Democrat party at a local election and the Labour party at a general election (that is how i have voted in the two times i’ve voted in my entire life, in the unlikely event anyone was interested)
15 y/o boys trying out and being really good at giving their 15 y/o virgin girlfriends head, in Liberia
eating rice with your rickshaw driving mate somewhere in Chiang Mai
beautiful Chilean girls falling in love with Pablo Neruda
taking drugs if you want
women with great tits
library cards
coleslaw
people that love other people
sticking up for yourself
phone sex
photographs of crumbling ancient Biblical architecture
beautiful boys falling in love with beautiful Chilean girls falling in love with Pablo Neruda
the weblog It’s all in your mind (must echo k-punk; that fan letter to the Betas was absolutely first-rate, and practically had me weeping with joy)
your mates
police officers doing their level-headed best to control public disorder on Welsh streets on Friday nights
Buddhist priests in France
Falun Gong followers on Sunday mornings in western cities (in manchester they’re often near the small but perfectly formed Peace Gardens in the centre of town, which incidentally is quite near Chinatown)
differences of opinion and taste
Jon Dale on Royal Trux
sanitation
ILM on the drummer for the rock band in Gay Dad (i’m gonna get that shirt printed i swear, a simple white tee with the black words blocked, all capitals, i’ll let any reader know how it goes)
slang

speaking of the drummer from the rock band Gay Dad one of the things that amused me most was the moment the cards were out on the table. just think: he’d spent all this time outlining his thesis, making his observations, tossing off asides, and then we get down to the nitty-gritty: which horse are you backing, pal? do you want some, do you? what odds you got then? cunt!
and such.

and – lo and behold – his card wasn’t an ace, it simply had the words Eminem printed on it. Eminem. Eminem, the last aesthetically vital force in hip-hop artistry, yes, that’s right, Marshall.
much as i do like Em, it was at this point that one (1) came to the conclusion it seems like there are no rap fans on the editorial board of Prospect/

what a joker!

Eminem,

Eminem.

fucking hell.

I WAS the drummer in the rock band Gay Dad and, well, I knew Cliff Jones.
still do actually, nice lad, saw him the other week for a few scoops. still reading the Guardian, told him to try out the Times, Cosmo Landesman’s a fine film reviewer; amusing too.

posted by s at 3:11 PM

send in the clowns
posted by s at 2:48 PM

aaah
posted by s at 1:13 PM

names and numbers and views and numbers and 22nd march - april fools' '88 and a meeting yesterday
posted by s at 12:56 PM

it's easy to be cynical from an armchair eh.
posted by s at 12:53 PM

a loud blast has been heard in Mitrovica, Reuters reporter Shaban Buza, has said.

Kostunica, ahead of the forthcoming elections, is not being helpful re. status.

here is some information about legislature elections in 2001.
posted by s at 12:52 PM

London postal districts map and it ain't included really London like TW(ickhenham), EN(field), R(o)M(ford), CR(oydon), HA(rrow) etc, so really...
here is a bit of what one means.
posted by s at 12:30 PM

subway systems of the world, at scale, here,
via The Map Room, via kottke.org

(personal experience only of the BART, the El, the Tube) ppl going on about scale all very well in the kottke comments box, and map room peep on their Paris Metro tip but i'm here to big up LONDON ALONE i'm afraid if my approach is unnecessarily combative..

our kid lived in SE4, that's Brockley, Lewisham, quite central, zone 2 and all that and that ain't on the tube as such 'cause it's rail connection to the nearest tube station so that ain't included and the tube still looks geographically a DADDY DON so STEP BACK; remember the vast bits of south east that peter out on the edge of zone 3, so really...MAP
~
posted by s at 12:23 PM

'the joy of concrete' - a story from the guardian on Portsmouth's Tricorn centre, slated for demolishment (is that a word?).
thingsmagazine.net points out We've wittered on and on about the Tricorn, to the point of tedium and beyond, as the building drifts in and out of the public consciousness. Now it looks like it will finally come down, having been elevated into a brutalist bogeyman, the slaying of which will reap rewards for everyone. But as the article points out, 'The battle for Britain's architectural soul is being won by the weedy commercialisers, the soulless style jumblers, the devotees of tired and trusted British vernacular styles.' I hope demolition is slow, awkward and very, very expensive.

~admirable and i realise this is going to sound a bit philistinist, - slight corrective praps?? - but i wonder what the average person on the streets of Pompey thinks of all this?
posted by s at 12:13 PM

having had a bit of a scout around quite a lot of music blogs there#s actually loads that would make a putative topwhatevernumber, so scratch merely the list below and increase the numberage by, ooh, quite a fair bit actually (redfaced)
meanwhile, proper ROCK music
posted by s at 12:08 PM

maff's top of the blogs - all right of course tho':= no Jon Dale, spizzazzz, Finney, Harvell should be bumped upwards, tufluv, robin undercurrent, daria bodyparts, loaf, cathy pekingo, oliver craner, that cineaste bloke and a few other people, that would make us about a top 20, of course, those will do, maff is probably on something there but the one blog that should definitely have been in and wasn't for which BAD ingram which k-punk will agree but and THAT IS baal here
posted by s at 8:56 AM

Geeta

Jon

Robin C

Peter's Rum Pages - via pumpkin publog
posted by s at 8:54 AM

Blame India Watch, which one is very gratefully reading from Amblongus - i know he's a cranky brit geezer in Texas and all but i'm glad he posted that one, i was a little worried about his qualifying And in my more paranoid moments I can't help but wonder if this site isn't part of some conspiratorial put-on designed to make unemployed or otherwise worried IT workers think twice about daring to complain and just accept the situation because, hey, like Wired used to always say change is good. "Now get down to the WalMart recruitment fair and stop your racist grumblings!"... - though one thing at his blog that struck me as a bit odd was the way Now this is the same Pakistan where the Pew Research Center's "A Year After Iraq War" report indicates that 46% of people polled thought suicide bombing was justified again Americans and Westerners in Iraq. With friends like these.... was phrased [his link to the Pew report here].

tragically/unfortunately/whatever word will have to suffice in this case, it is a fact that parts of the world can somehow justify suicide bombings to themselves.
and i know this is an obvious point to make, but some of my fellow Britons aren't my friends, and some of Amblongus' fellow Texans ain't his, and Pakistan is - in the circumstances - a big friend of the USA&c., {really really fundamentally dodgy and worrisome doubts about, f'r instance, the Khan story notwithstanding}, so, yunno...
posted by s at 8:43 AM

delighted to learn via Simon (who appears to share the same fascination as myself with the distinctly unfashionable grunge revivalists Maroon 5) that David Stubbs has his blog/site up and running. more content to follow, but as a one-time avid reader of the reaper columns in uncut magazine [also did wonder if it was the same journo, or different people each month] i'm stoked to see them up here.

some are still terribly wrong and disagreeable for me, which is what one thought at the time reading about, say, the Coens or Miles David. howEVAH, there's some that appealed straight away due to either personal prejudices or an easily swayed mind (how prey one would be to evil demagoguery!)- why not? - and i'm glad the revised version of his hatchet jobs on, for instance, the beat poets, 'dark side of the moon', and 'songs in the key of life' (surely 'talking book' - my personal fave i'll be honest with ya's, and perhaps 'innervisions' - are the only elpees the generalist needs) are up.
i'm sure you can defend 'songs in the key of life' a lot more convincingly than he attacks it (admittedly, the point of all the reaper jobs surely, is that someone could argue even more persuasively against it cause one's assuming it was mostly done for a larf although there are some bitchy comments about Gary Oldman to enjoy), but really,
all hail DAVID STUBBS' arrival into the magic of the inteyweb.
posted by s at 8:33 AM

Dear Samuel,

I've always thought your clash of civilisations thesis was - as we say here in Britain - a load of cobblers.

However, with your latest project, you really are raising the bar.

I feel I must ask who your dealer is, as I want some of that nice shit, straight Mezz Mezzrow dope, freaky Alice Toklas stylin'.

Funky,
yours sincerely,
scott.
posted by s at 1:40 PM

Nick Cohen


posted by s at 1:15 PM

this piece's flourishes towards the end, from Niall Ferguson - a historian i have great respect for - are disappointing [via crooked timber]
posted by s at 1:13 PM

the only problem with Condoleezza Rice opining that the Spanish people understand that they've had strong and good leadership in José Maria Aznar and his government {link} is that, yes, perhaps they had just that: strong, or maybe it was strong-arm? i'm not discussing anything to do with Spanish foreign policy, just observing that Aznar's attitude towards some of his more troublesome regions was extremely problematic and downright unhelpful.
posted by s at 1:11 PM

Gary Younge

Timothy Garton-Ash
posted by s at 1:01 PM

Pseud Watch [soz to that well known brit satirical rag]

London electro night and fashionista hangout Drama dressed up King's Cross club Canvas to recall Berlin in the 1940s for an evening of titillation and burlesque:
ANASTACIA, 19 design student, London College of Fashion

:'Where do you get your ideas?'
"From what's happening in the world around us, things that really affect us. Like the bombs on the Madrid underground."
posted by s at 12:57 PM

apparently i made a bit of a faux-pas earlier on, as everyone else already knew about Ancona. in my defence, i don't pay attention to Italy at all these days, apart from the top five or six, i must be honest. bad i know but there we are the price of weakened dilettante tropes in effect (or summat).

personally speaking, i know loads of lads that 'support' Fiorentina Roma etc. cause they like the colour of their shirt, or when they were 14 they had to spend half the night with a packet of hobnobs and a mug of tea discussing 'the decameron' or some Dante to a sniffy intellectual girl whose pants they thought they had a chance of getting into but only after they'd massaged their ego for a bit (i suppose this is a bit like opportunistic lads going out to indie discos with Chemikal Underground shirts on for freshness and taste, as some wise wit once remarked), and of course back in the mid-90s of wot i speak (queen's english) Italian footy was popular in the UK if only due to James Richardson and co.'s coverage.

so excuse my blathering and i'll not dissect callous naif romantic posturing from Baudelaire fans no more!
posted by s at 12:49 PM

Ancona have currently got seven points at the bottom of serie a

seven points!!

fucking hell, that's bobbins.
posted by s at 10:29 AM

fence-sitting for pleasure and profit

can't decide if the bit of 'jesus blood never failed me yet' that's got Tom Waits on it near the end is a sort of triumph of the spirit, and the rigorous repetition of Gavin Bryars' vision and whatever it is he's articulating is vindicated (and if so, how gloriously so!) by the fetid rambling, or if it's not my cup of tea.

also what with all the stick Peter Gabriel has been getting of late (well, alright, a bit of mild fun poking witticisms at him in a particular corner of the blogosphere), can't decide my true feelings on his envelope pushing. the OST for scorsese's temptation of Christ film is a good work. and i genuinely think he's one of the finest white soul singers there is. he doesn't over emote, like Mick Hucknall anyway (i realise Hucknall is the ground zero of completely unfashionable vocalists to name check so it makes me look uncool anyway to even engagedly discuss him, but hey whatever)

also a bit perplexed by how receptive i am to the strange 'Gladiator film score aping-alike' vibe i'm on in appreciating (fmr. Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, probably other sub-goth 4ADisms for all i know) Lisa Gerrard's "Immortal Memory" (elpee only out this year).

all the compression/humidity debates etc. you could get on certain blogs a bit ago, i was really touched and piqued (wossname word) by them.

PEAKING OFF

Gorecki's Third.

question
when did Tom Waits actually last play the UK? i know someone who reckons the last time he saw Waits ('Ammersmif' Apollo, about ten years ago, so after 'bone machine' but before something in 1994 but i ain't a waits fan so don't know his discog.)

thought to ponder

i was chatting to a bloke who had a practically vicious antipathy to UB40. bizarre!
posted by s at 10:16 AM

THE DON SPEAKS

well, if nothing else, i think he's otm about lukewarm receptions to the latest 'big new york nite' and certainly OTM about rab/r'n'b
posted by s at 11:02 PM

re. the French terror letter story [BBC, VOA] this could (and of course hopefully is) be cranks, but the mention of Charles Martel back in the day (and how back in the day is the 8th century?!) made me think rather too much of that recent Mark Steyn piece in the australian here
posted by s at 4:58 PM

some incredibly informative comments etc in Maff's latest emerging, especially from perhaps Mark S., making me definitely rethink cosy happy=family platitudes.
posted by s at 4:52 PM

still mainlining on Daria meanwhile.
posted by s at 4:49 PM

someone (i don't know who: a mogwai fan, to judge from the url?) who has a very good blog called Excuse Me For Laughing here observes, pricelessly, that "So. I was thinking. Seeing Radovan Karadzic's wife being interviewed in the papers yesterday morning. Didn't Radovan look like the product of an unholy union between critic/tosspot Paul Morley and the late Dermot Morgan, a.k.a. Father Ted. Just think about that for a moment."
{spotted via Cathy.}

posted by s at 4:48 PM

bloody hell

~
also Sean Acid making sense on 'cool'~
also Marcello making sense about 'World Music'etc, Lambeth/Lewisham council haha!/ although as he says Nick Gold yeah! he did do the stuff with Farka Toure on 'niafunke' after all/

richard henderson (he lives in marin county apparently) once wrote a very concise putdown bitchslap about World Music in one of his global columns in the wire and it summarised everything that marcello discusses really, in the best bitchslap i've read yet on the subject.
not to sound like a snob on fusion etc of course cause personally i ain't got opinions one way or the other but ya can see what Marcello means.
posted by s at 3:25 PM

via the clearly well-named largehearted boy (some good book reviews) there is whitman set to music
posted by s at 1:20 PM

Simon Silver Dollar gets some ace records for pressies

y'all who know me know i peak off that i-roy compo, all hail blood and fire on that tip at least: quite possibly my favourite evah deejay TBH, to get down to those brass tacks (as i always always do)...
super!
posted by s at 1:12 PM

bzzzzzzzzzzzztt*DING*

--

watch our for a BEE!
posted by s at 1:09 PM

ind.

arch.

bedc.

VROOM
posted by s at 1:03 PM

this is the sort of thing Oliver was discussing yesterday
posted by s at 1:02 PM

Jean-Charles Brisard: making the linx?
posted by s at 1:00 PM

some good news, it seems
posted by s at 12:58 PM

George Tenet before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the 24th of Feb. ~
posted by s at 12:57 PM

ain't technology marvellous eh
posted by s at 12:51 PM

China must do more to deal with baby girls shortage, says the U.N.
posted by s at 12:50 PM

for the lovely companion

this kitty (name: Whiskey) is 33 today!
posted by s at 12:48 PM

you'll probably, let's be frank, not let this one affect your day too much...

Saudi police killed an important Yemeni militant on Monday (didn't hear about this until today)
posted by s at 12:45 PM

the MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, Geraldine Smith, told a Commons committee yesterday that nothing had changed since the cockler death tragedy there, earlier this year.
posted by s at 12:39 PM

Nigel Worthington has warned the Norwich fans to get behind the team as he feels his players were edgy as a result.
posted by s at 9:58 AM

so, to summarise form laast night/yday:-

REALL REALLY all bare amounts of GOOD

alty win 3-0 at choleric=riddled runcorn
qpr stumbled past wrecsam
tendulkar passes his 13,000 runs mark

GOOD

"jammy fuckers" Albion come back against Wigan
hull cruise past orient
carlisle get a point, s'something i suppose
accrington lose wot a shame

LESS GOOD
plymouth win
tranmere bow out

REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD

Macclesfield win!
posted by s at 9:55 AM

---========->SPORTS DESK NEWSFLASH======------>

northwich have bin down since august 9th-fuckin awful team


OH NO!!
posted by s at 9:43 AM

of course Powell is arguing against protectionism in his own country so must be praised.
posted by s at 9:40 AM

courtney yr a star [via No Rock&Roll Fun]
posted by s at 9:08 AM

doesn't Kagame accuse France about every year this time of year?
Kagame's also dismissing the black box report.

apparently the UN are a bit sheepish following the revelations in le monde

never mind a first class foul up Mr Annan, how about UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE??

MUPPETS. this story literally beggars belief

P.S.
the inde headline is a classic
posted by s at 9:05 AM

a reactionary part of me finds it slightly cheeky that the Americans should be lecturing India on opening up

Amblongus has had some interesting views on this lately
posted by s at 8:57 AM

politics etc blogs

check xymphora for provocative writing on world affairs (currently some of their views on the 'Haiti coup') and some left of the field conclusions about the horror in Madrid last Thursday.
also the more agreeable (or certainly less, er, controversial...) ne quid nimis, that's Harm, clap clap's pal, he's a good sort and might even inspire me to share some of my opinions (aren't i magnanimous and Luka lucky eh??)
posted by s at 8:55 AM

new look Paul Meme on Matt's p-punk thing

Meme also checks the wonderful Charlie Gillett anyone with ears recommends his sounds of the cities vibe (site)
posted by s at 8:48 AM

"Neo-Platonic Rock, that's the shit"
~
Jonny D.

nah mate, Neo-Thomist funk, that's the joint

some people huh!
posted by s at 8:46 AM

Oliver Wang, you are the man
posted by s at 8:43 AM

happy st. pat's day, big up all the drinkers and singers, this one's for you.~
posted by s at 8:41 AM

i love stacey pullen.
posted by s at 10:38 PM

(the godlike) sherburne excels himself
posted by s at 10:37 PM

and whilst i'm here should just say in an ILM stylee if you will that earthworks (listin) are CLASSIX allround.

and DO check this article from dancing about architecture
posted by s at 10:27 PM

oh yeah Joe Higgs - FUCKEN TOP

he introduced a youthful wailers to Coxsone
posted by s at 10:19 PM

the most recent 1 (comments replete with my rudeness about MES), 2 (will have to think myself about that one) pieces over at WOEBOT (Matt's on fire!) have been absolutely superb. in the first one, i think most importantly, Matt comes out in favour of the Wailing Souls, he's right, they're incredibly rateable and i don't think it's unreasonable to suggest they're perhaps not as well known as they could be (also props to Maff for sticking up for Zukie; don't some roots afficionados just have the snootiness towards him because the likes of Patti Smith were pushing Tapper at the time? probably pere ubu and television too i shouldn't wonder). also a very cool tape graphic.

in the second one, some great discussions from folks about the issues he raises there and p-punk careering off trajectories, but just notable round our way if for nothing else than for Jim's wonderful excoriating dismissal of clouddead which had me laffing in - well, basically - agreement altho' i must admit to a fondness for that s/t album; also what Rough Trade reference a 12 as, Dizzee Ras and some I Monster (I Monster, Ipecac? fuck off!) not fuck off I Monster you understand, just the lamer than lame description how gash!
posted by s at 10:15 PM

the fine Joe recommends the wistful and great betas fan letter over at Mind, and i have to say his elucidation on minor classix is superb.

sort of like how, for instance, 'empire' magazine dubbed the film 'el mariachi' a "Minor classic" (quite apart from Robert Rodriguez' standing among 'guerrilla filmmakers' but that minor classic concept is useful and grate)
posted by s at 10:01 PM

that was a joke all you Octave Mirbeau fans/
posted by s at 9:58 PM

well anything bar the manics...
posted by s at 9:57 PM

i note some bloggers have been reacting with the requisite interest to silverdollarcircle's listening project announcement (and happy birthday mate!)

my gut reaction is that he'll become most enamoured with it, i don't want to sound like a muppet but i love anything the more i study it, very Cagean i suppose {if something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. if still boring, then eight. then 16. then 32. eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.}! but finding out the endlessly subtle variations in anything (yes, anything pretty much including disposable fluffy trance-pop all y'awl electronica headz) causes you to love it, and so i feel that is how it might go, whilst of course it could go either way.
posted by s at 9:55 PM

calling all sheffield crew

Following on from the superb Keith Rowe gig a couple of weeks ago ...

Other Music Presents:

OPEN EARS FESTIVAL 2004

Three nights of the best experimental/improv music, celebrating some
of the range of what this has to offer as a live experience.

Please note different venues and start times.

-----

THURSDAY 25 MARCH

PAUL RUTHERFORD (trombone)
Solo set by the inventor of much of the language of the trombone as
an instrument for free improvisation.

plus

KAFFE MATTHEWS (electronics)
Atmospheric electronics featuring sampling and re-processing of ambient
sound. Featured in Wire magazine, September 2003.
See annetteworks.com (where you can also listen to Kaffe's music)

At Over The Top, 78 Kingfield Road, Nether Edge, Sheffield
Bus: Union Road (No. 22); or the less frequent 8/9 goes right past the venue

8:00 p.m. Thursday 25th March
£5/£3, all tickets on door

-----

FRIDAY 26 MARCH

PHILIP JECK (turntables)
"Haunting ... a heavenly choir of records sounding and resounding in
a thousand combinations of loops, speed changes, superimpositions and
echoes" (Wire magazine)
More info: philipjeck.com
Some audio samples at: www.touchmusic.org.uk/audio_files.html

plus

VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Symphonic drone-based improvised rock by Leeds-based 5-piece.
Appeared recently on Radio 3's Mixing It programme.
Info, samples: sweetweb-5302-001.dsvr.co.uk/mike/

At Ecclesall Non-Political Club, 509 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield
Bus: Many go down Ecclesall Road, incl. Nos. 81, 82, 83, 83a, 85, 86

8:30 p.m. Friday 26th March
£5/£3, all tickets on door

[Sadly this will probably be the last ever gig at the Non-Pots.]

-----

SATURDAY 27 MARCH

EVAN PARKER (saxophones) & LAWRENCE CASSERLEY (live sound processing)
UK's leading saxophone virtuoso, sampled and re-shaped in real time.
Enough said - if you've never heard him/them, you're in for a big
treat!

plus

MARTIN SPEAKE (alto saxophone) & MARK SANDERS (drums)
Highly listenable electric jazz with a contemporary edge

At Firth Hall, Sheffield University, Western Bank, Sheffield
Tram: University
Bus: 51/52 Children's Hospital; or 95/32 Star & Garter;
or 60 etc Glossop Road/Clarkson Street

7:30 p.m. Saturday 27th March
£7/£5/£2.50, all tickets on door

In collaboration with Sheffield University Music Department.
posted by s at 9:41 PM

it was probably down to sadness following the horror in Madrid but i found waiting on hold at a credit card line containing some sort of organ music (i don't know, Pachelbel or such) the most incredibly moving experience. going through the Rambler archives, we can see his (energising) thoughts on this sort of thing, but the stuff i heard on Sunday evening was divine (no pun intended).
it climbed and fell, and it crept. waiting for some time, it entered without friction, didn't overstay its welcome, was tinged with some sort of choleric/cathartic grandeur, and should have been soundtrking an advert for Scottish tourism in the Cairngorms basically.
posted by s at 9:36 PM

"la sombra, el miedo, el mal se te atribuya" [de vega]
posted by s at 3:56 PM

~
We were warned about spiders, and the occasional famine.
We drove downtown to see our neighbors. None of them were home.
We nestled in yards the municipality had created,
reminisced about other, different places --
but were they? Hadn't we known it all before?

In vineyards where the bee's hymn drowns the monotony,
we slept for peace, joining in the great run.
He came up to me.
It was all as it had been,
except for the weight of the present,
that scuttled the pact we made with heaven.
In truth there was no cause for rejoicing,
nor need to turn around, either.
We were lost just by standing,
listening to the hum of wires overhead.

We mourned that meritocracy which, wildly vibrant,
had kept food on the table and milk in the glass.
In skid-row, slapdash style
we walked back to the original rock crystal he had become,
all concern, all fears for us.
We went down gently
to the bottom-most step. There you can grieve and breathe,
rinse your possessions in the chilly spring.
Only beware the bears and wolves that frequent it
and the shadow that comes when you expect dawn.
_John Ashbery.

posted by s at 9:38 AM

massed thousands, standing silent, linking bridge to square,
in Bilbao.

cm+
tgthr+
posted by s at 8:44 AM

Juan Jose Ibarretxe said that When Eta attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces.

posted by s at 1:53 PM

Marcello confirms that Gambaccini doesn’t play the Jay-Z assisted version on his show as a special edit was made specifically to be played on Radio 2, which doesn’t “do” hip hop. Must admit that, despite the awkward gaps left in the third verse by Jay-Z’s absence, I don’t think the record suffers that much from not having him burbling carelessly all over it.

needless to say, i've already been feeling contrite in my typically flapping/preening manner about calling out Gambaccini. of course (beats chest) you gotta make your own entertainment.

i must say, as an adjunct, and this is clearly perhaps a view not many people of which i am one have, but i thought Jay-Z's contribution was the best bit about 'Crazy in Love'. the horns, sure. but for some reason it didn't quite strike me, the tune overall.

Marcello's rather OTM about Beefheart there, i must say (presumably in response to this ILM thread).

posted by s at 1:25 PM

from the walden.org site this forthcoming talk sounds fascinating.

really the only decent patch of woods anywhere near where i live is Delamere forest which is, admittedly, one of my fondest regard' places on earth.
posted by s at 11:53 AM

over at 86400 seconds (which incidentally, is an incredibly lovely blog, not least because i like how the writer appears to do some of their thinking out in the open) links to both this Cage statement, and this Emersonian appreciation of Thoreau.


there's a lot of great material at The Transcendentalists website. in fact its got to be one of my favourite places on the internet.
through there you can, among many other multi-faceted and wondrous delights, find the text of Emerson's address on 'the young american'~
which is replete with loveliest elegance, such as when describing the better relations Americans now have with "their own soil", an unintended benefit of the opening up of East to West &c. is that in this country it has given a new celerity to time, or anticipated by fifty years the planting of tracts of land, the choice of water privileges, the working of mines, and other natural advantages. Railroad iron is a magician's rod, in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water.
this stuff is like Kafka.

the other day i picked up a copy of The Maine Woods from yon local inspirational secondhand/antiquarian bookshops (there's two great independent bookshops in my local town centre, and one in particular would not be out of place in Cambridge or Hay-on-Wye.)
here's a map of Thoreau's wanderings up there. the smell of the amber is infolded, and the soft shy slippery carpets of nature are incredibly deliciously evoked.
posted by s at 11:50 AM

"a declaration of war on democracy"

~

"I saw many things explode in the air, I don't know, it was horrible"

~

earlier
El Ministerio del Interior ha confirmado la muerte de 29 personas en la estación de Atocha, 18 en la del Pozo del Tío Raimundo y 15 en la de Santa Eugenia, aunque todavía no se ha cerrado el balance de víctimas

--
posted by s at 10:57 AM

RIP Spalding Gray. {and in the east river, on monday! alas}
posted by s at 10:46 AM

KLASS remake/remodel entry
posted by s at 8:47 AM

GREAT EFFORT GUYS
i assume Floridian plod have this SIX INCH THICK BLACK RING binder to survey Combs, as we all know RUNNING IN MARATHONS [check out some of the snarky comments in that drop-down boxx woo-hoo!!] is a capital offence in some places.

posted by s at 8:46 AM

great to see that a person or persons unknown are doing their best to combat insidious stereotypes of West Midlands fuckwittery
posted by s at 8:38 AM

Evil in Madrid

Earlier this year, Eta announced they would start conducting operations on tourist targets all year round.

It looks like they might not have been joking.
posted by s at 8:35 AM

hard eight the film that's on bbc two tonight, i find that really enjoyable knockabout stuff.

it's got john c. reilly in it and who doesn't like him. he's a quite transformative (oo-er!) actor but the real revelation in this film is hard-boiled bossman philip baker hall who's clipped and neat and hard and a bit sympathetic.

i really rate reilly, he seems to spill over the edges of the frame when he's acting, a big man with smarts and personally preferable to his chumley philip seymour hoffman.

it said in the paper this morning that Joy Zipper (my mate T/D sometimes mixes them up with squirrel nut zippers elementary really) are from the same 'hood as where Steve Buscemi shot his quite beguiling 'trees lounge' fancy that.
posted by s at 10:47 PM

~we're not supposed to trust anyone in my line of business anyway
posted by s at 10:35 PM

i used to find v/vm riotously enjoyable and their music would enter w' ease but i can't really say the same now.

i also did not know, until i read it once about five years ago in a university bookshop that john lee hooker was illiterate.
22 original blues masters 1997 crimson CRIMCD50 trk.2 'my babe' little walter

this sounds sensible from the melancholy of resistance/

RECOMMENDed reading
bambo suso's and banna kanute's 'sunjato' (tr. gordon innes, w' additional notes Lucy 'Not I'll Not Support Maff's Tekkno Trip in Africa' Duran Graham Furniss), this attempt from two Gambian bards to understand one of the epic west African traditions is compelling

;imaginary numbers' ("an anthology of marvelous mathematical stories, diversions, poems and musings' [ed. William Frucht, ISBN 047139341X
basically a treasury of writing about the beauty of mathematics. it's wonderful. i bought it a few years ago for a friend and then got my own copy.
booklist called it a bridge across the chasm separating the 'two cultures' of science and literature

posted by s at 10:29 PM

Scousers

True Indeed.
posted by s at 10:10 PM

Be not inhospitable to strangers
lest they be angels in disguise

i must lie down where all the ladders start
in the foul rag and bone shop of the heart

===
graffito in a Parisian bookshop.
posted by s at 10:01 PM

Howard Tate UPDATE

he was on Radio 2 last night so we can only assume his 'newest' compilation/rediscovered! album/ELpee is out in the UK now(-ish)./

also on Radio Two was some tune someone had requested, that the requestee claimed not to have heard on UK radio since about 1958. or so.

it was some pleasant Western Swing/wide-eyed country-lite(-ish) thing, but reminded me most of a rockabilly band trying to cover Lieber and Stoller quietly.

'twas good.

__
fuck all y'all niggas

Lyle Lovett is scared of cows, that's true that (apparently).
posted by s at 9:59 PM

Dearest Jon,

I hope you enjoy your coffee!

Remember, Band of Susans, not Sonic Ute...

Wuv you,
s.
P.S.
CIT...
posted by s at 6:56 PM

wherein the death of Abul Abbas of natural causes was more than could be said for his vicitms.

and Harare alleges.

posted by s at 12:34 PM

Geoffrey Robertson QC is under pressure to quit his role at the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone.
posted by s at 10:53 AM

if you think ILM's too soft, and want a laugh, head over to this Manchester United fans message forum; scousers, citeh, and European inquests are the normal flavour of the day.
it's a bit like browsing radical politics threads and certainly about as entertaining.
posted by s at 10:06 AM

amidst the hubbub of United (and Juve) bowing out of Europe, we should not lose sight that last night saw both Carlisle and Darlington pick up three points each. those results mean Macclesfield are now firmly entrenched in the mire.
the night's best result, imo, was Alty's win at Gainsboro, where - as the official site says - Lacking six first-team regulars (Adams, Scott, Aspinall, Thornley, Talbot and Hardy) and fielding 3 players (Baguley, Bailey and Hutchinson) who had only joined the club 24 hours earlier, Alty took a three goal lead before weathering a period of second-half pressure from Trinity. Jamie Baguley, loaned from Stockport County, drove home a superb opener from more than 20 yards (11 mins) before Marcus Hallows headed home Baguley's free-kick to double the lead (36 mins). Hallows netted again from Bailey's nod on (51 mins) before Trinity goals from Ellington (59 mins) and Allison (66 mins) set up a tense period for Altrincham. With Coburn making a couple of fine saves and the defence holding firm, Alty survived and rode out the closing stages. After recent results it was a performance to lift the spirits of manager Graham Heathcote and of Alty's vocal band of travelling supporters.
posted by s at 10:02 AM

BILLED AS A NOVEL VARIATION ON WELSH RAREBIT, from http://www.hookerycookery.com/veg020.htm, the following sounds pretty decent:

Ingredients:

half an ounce (12g) cornflour

quarter pint (125ml) milk

1 oz. (25g) cheese, grated

salt and pepper

1 oz. (25g) butter

1 tablespoon of milk for the filling

2 eggs

a little made mustard

Cooking Instructions:

Mix the cornflour with the quarter pint (125ml) of milk, put into a pan , bring to the boil and boil for one minute stirring all the time

Add seasoning and when cooled a little add the egg yolks

Beat the egg whites stiffly and fold into the mixture

Heat half an ounce (12g) of butter in an omelet pan, pour in the mixture and cook until lightly browned on the under side, then brown the top under the grill

Melt the cheese with the rest of the butter, a tablespoon of milk and seasoning

Pour over the omelet, fold in half and serve at once.
posted by s at 9:49 AM

the lentil is still a star performer
posted by s at 9:46 AM

{in the interests of balance, here at this blog}
9-11 victims' families release letter in support of Bush
[via the excellent Notes from a Different Kitchen, who i've only recently discovered: again, more rapping blogs!]
also via ...Kitchen, is the tale of Henry Bonsu, a former-BBC London DJ who was sacked for being too "intellectual".
like the blogger i got the link off, i don't even know what to say about that...


posted by s at 9:44 AM

in the interests of multi-faceted hues and nuance, and the importance of subtleties in determining the course of debate, here are reviews of two books from William Dalrymple, regarding the death of Daniel Pearl.

Bernard-Henri Levy (the wronged author) then has a fascinating exchange in the next issue with Dalrymple, regarding their differences of opinion.

needless to say, Dalrymple is reasonable throughout, whilst Levy looks pretty silly.
here is something interesting to read (from a Marxism mailing list) about 'BHL'.

posted by s at 9:35 AM

or suchlike.
posted by s at 9:28 AM

there was some nonsense written here last night.

i can only apologise for some of the idiotically explicit and somewhat patronising trash - the crudely reductionist stuff about thinking obtained from university or one's own reading a case in point - and hope to carry on remaining my light-hearted, playful self.
posted by s at 9:28 AM

- it's believed - at this stage - that 'inexperienced militants' are to blame for the Istanbul freemasons' building bomb blast.

- 41 year old Mark Latta is alleged to have killed his 10-week-old baby daughter whilst the rest of the family sat downstairs enjoying their Sunday lunch

- whilst John Muhammad has been sentenced to death, his companion Lee Malvo is to be sentenced today.

- as the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone is officially opened today, Charles Taylor is not yet in custody.
here is his indictment.
among others, HRW voice their concerns at his absence.

- 'The Elitism Myth' [via Amblongus]
posted by s at 8:57 AM

It is not difficult to hurt, but it is difficult to repair.~
posted by s at 12:01 AM

Bryan McFadden leaves Westlife

This is a blow.
posted by s at 12:00 AM

i'm not that mad or bitter, just a sports fan...
posted by s at 11:59 PM

and another thing, United haven't really played a good game since about, ooh, October '03...
posted by s at 11:59 PM

Aye, welcome to real world. There is a new team that dominates Britain it, certainly is not them.

of course arsenal will have to:

(a) win the title
(b) retain the title
(c) win Europe

to convince us, but it's looking good in general for them this season. they've done (a) under Wenger but not the other two. no one but the likes of Real or of course a completely bossin' it in form AC is likely to do (c) this year, but it strikes me if United do ever fall apart (and you write United off at your peril, and getting Walter Smith as back-up wasn't actually that stupid - far too many cynics muttering about his record at the safe-as-houses Ibrox money-bubble saying 'well, you or i could have won all those trophies, the strength of the rest of the SPL [which is, admittedly, true, but besides the point]' - as Smith will able to do some of the coaching Sir Taggart ain't doing at the moment {yeah, ain't, ho ho ho} and of course will work out better than Phelan) - then their fans will have to come down to earth with a bump after a decade of the high life.

i'm not one of these monocultural fascistic insular biters who maintains non-league, lower league, etc., fans are 'proper' and moneyed Premiership nonces are not (that said, fans of Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea, i would give my right foot to be in your position...), but i suppose i will make an exception in this case, and when United do eventually piss their lives away a bit, for a consistent period, it will indeed be frankly satisfying (in a of course juvenile manner!) to say Welcome to the real world, though you have to wonder at my state of my mind having just written the screed above.

hmm.
posted by s at 11:58 PM

the lax and casually lazy thinking in this blog is a shockah! and is easy to unpick.

earlier i wrote about til shiloh being a cultural buju banton and thus preferable to slack buju banton w' specific ref. to homophobic lyrics etc.

no, please correct me if i'm wrong, but Rasta, like any other (generally speaking) over-arching religious world-view is not gonna be the most progressive source for gay rights views (alright we have gay Anglicans but because i live in a culture which attaches some credence to the C of E still it's easy to pay attention to what's going on in their news; one black British friend of mine did her dissertation on Rastafarians' views on health trusts and such - her own background which flexed between madstyle Pentacostalist harbinger, a very nutty grandmother, and an urbane legal eagle big brother down in London; so i'm woefully ignorant about gays in Rasta), just as bad as a slack lad who overtly peddles vile lyrics.
so my saying 'cultural now so that's okay' was more than a bit half-arsed eh...
apologies.

would a Bobo Dread regard homosexuality as a sin in the same way a Southern Baptist, Orthodox Jew, conservative Muslim cleric, might?

i don't know, but i presume yes.

over to Luka maybe, he's a big Sizzla fan...
posted by s at 11:51 PM

not long to pat's.
posted by s at 11:45 PM

co-incidentally and i realise this is all pathetic and very soppy but you can spin through it if you happen to be reading but below reproduced is an answer the lovely companion wrote in response to a question someone asked on one of these list-serv things she's on. i read it and recognised stuff i dig about her, so i thought i would copy and paste it below.

sad innit...;-)

'What feeds your soul? Have you done something spontaneous on a particular
occasion? Or do you have a daily ritual that deepens your connection to
your essential self, to the world, and to God? What brings you peace and
calms your fears? What broadens your perspective and deepens your faith?'

i used to have a daily ritual of yoga.
at times when my stability and sanity spin wildly out of control, mindful
meditation, breathing & relaxing have done more for me than drugs and
therapy.

i like to spontaneously duck into churches and marvel at their beauty.
which comes *not* in the form of gradiose stylings, but more often in minute
details: like the way a wooden door is worn just above the handle from use.
it's not so much that a particular church or religious practice feeds me;
it's more about the serenity felt inside. especially if they're empty and
silent.

i have an irrational fear that someone will break into my apartment when i
sleep and kill me.
i am perfectly aware of how irrational this is.
i live on the fourth floor in a secure building and i'm more likely to find
myself the winner of the lottery (i don't play) than i am to find myself in
this particular contrived scenario.
i have theories about why i harbor this fear.
lots of them have to do with an incident in 1996 in which my roommate was
attacked in her sleep. i wasn't even there at the time but you better
believe i moved out two days later.
at any rate, this nice little phobia of mine rears its ugly head about twice
a month.
and when it does, i force myself to close my eyes (it's a struggle).
i inhale and pretend i'm inhaling relaxation.
it's white, with blue iridescence.
when i exhale, i exhale the fear.
it's black. and prickly.
yes, i'm crazy.
but yes... it works. i'm usually able to fall asleep within minutes.

other things that feed my soul, broaden my perspective, and deepen my faith:

music, which if you ever really stop and consider, is truly amazing.
books, reading, writing, and language study.
poetry, and pouring over it repeatedly, dissecting the layers, uncovering
the secrets, taking years in this process.
the smell of rain.
artist renderings of deep space activities, and even better: hubble
photographs, and even just skies of stars seen from the countryside and the
sunrise over the lake. basically all things stellar.
for all the multitudes of trivial ways in which humans are different, our
small number of important commonalities: love, laughter, language ability,
community, imperfections.
the unfathomable complexity in nature, here i mean animals and plants and
insects, &c.
pre-raphealites and impressionists and post-impressionists.
at times, technology.
memory (the human sort, not the kind measured in megs).
being truly, utterly, sincerely happy, to the point where all the hardship
of the past is momentarily forgotten, and in that instant being in love with
life.
compassion and better yet, empathy, & those who take action to strive toward
them.

i think basically that's it, yeah.

posted by s at 11:44 PM

watching the game either way, i was not bothered as to the turn-out but i must say when the result was confirmed, i found some of the handbags in the stands quite chucklesome.

also, is it me, or does Cristiano Ronaldo have hair permed like A N Other Adolescent Girl that works the counter in your local off-license?

basically, there's clearly going to be some "banter" at work in the morning, i should coco.
posted by s at 11:42 PM

I know hate is bad....But ain't life great when the Reds go out..... I just hope City and Arsenal can turn it on!!
_so spake QPR John.

TRUE INDEED.





posted by s at 11:37 PM

on to the business of looking at what the quite wonderful The House At World's End has been saying about regional English nationalism, and the like, back in the mists of time.

firstly must say that to somedisco and weaver re. Gambaccini - when Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" was top of the Hot 100 he ended the show playing a mix of the song in which Jay-Z was conspicuously absent, as if to pretend that modern R&B had remained immune from hip-hop's pervasive influence (I have also heard this mix on a particularly safe commercial station). Says it all, especially for those of us who remember his increasingly nasty cawing about the artistic inadequacy of hip-hop - and indeed latterday commercially successful music generally - in the intros to later editions of British Hit Singles and related publications, before he and the Rice brothers were unceremoniously sacked by Guinness in 1996 was very eye-opening.
dunno what Iain's views on all that would be, but personally this completely hitherto-unknown knowledge struck rather like a (Bomb Squad) bomb.

this is a mean-spirited thing to write (note my moral cowardice by prefacing this statement with the slightly ameliorating cliched - one of the worst lines in the book these days, e.g., 'a cynical type would say "but that's not me"'- style excuse, one hopes to look like a little less of a prick, but the end result is much the same, nonetheless) but i can hardly say i find Robin's information surprising. that is to say, it surprised me, but afterwards was all 'shyeah, well, right, whatever' and realising it shouldn't be such a shock.

suffice to say, one's opinion of Gambaccini has now been revised downwards and feeling less inclined towards showing any seeming generosity towards the man.
frankly, any good spirits felt towards the man have now been withdrawn chez somedisco, because his behaviour is not deserving of respect.
he might be a fan of nick drake and boards of canada and the who and feargal sharkey and merle haggard and o.v. wright and procul harum and the left banke and peter, paul and mary and the three degrees (and good for him, if he is; it's certainly true that he has, or had, a slot on Jazz FM which is, of course, admirable, but our boys listen to oscar peterson and jan garbarek and sunny bossa and E.S.T. with the best of them as well) but the rest of us are also fans of ludacris and Biggie and stetsasonic and MOP, in addition, so screw that attitude.


tool. of course everyone's opinion is equally valid yadda yadda but he's being a meanie so i'm being a meanie back (i realise that's exquisitely puerile but you'll forgive me this once...).

==

secondly, and this was it really - i'll make this one brief actually - Robin was spot on when he described Manchester's heritage of being set apart from the rest of the north (or, rather, crucially, thinking as much). The suffragette/Manchester Guardian/Peterloo/Liberal/academic book-loving edge to a town where Marx and Engels wrote copiously has always seen it set itself - of course this is all very general but there you go - apart from more homogeneous communities in Yorkshire, Lancashire -proper-, the Northeast, &c.
here is an interesting little thinkpiece in the times (associated cribsheet here) that's largely on the money (give or take the odd factual error such as it not being London and actually Mcr that's the biggest student city in the country, and indeed Europe by some measurements although am not entirely sure of that latter assertion these days).
people from Yorkshire are sheepshaggers, United fans do indeed regard themselves as internationalist left-leaning sophisticates ever since at least 1998 when Beckham started getting all the abuse (there's been a trend for some time i think for many Utd fans to not really give a stuff about the national team, although that is a bit of a stereotype and you're treading on thin ice with it, but all the Utd fans i know bar some older blokes subscribe to it, TBH), people from the inverted slum-towns of interbred Lancs. are, well, inbreds, City may be City but they still hate scousers just like the other lot do, Geordies eat coal and have songs - everyone does this to the Toon's Mackem friends Sunderland, and Newcastle themselves, to be fair - directed towards them with unsavoury themes about paedophilia. etc.
this is how it goes.
i don't know why i'm using football as a lens but hey-ho.
the 20th anniversary of the opening of the miners strike recently provided excellent opportunities to pore over interviews with big, honest, angry men from places like Worksop and Mansfield (along with places like Lincoln or Grimsby, to be fair, about as fair north as you can go and still be in the Midlands - in a similar vein Sheffield and Cheshire are about as far south as you can go and still be up north). perhaps in another area, another era, these men might have been the natural Essex man (i don't mean /Essex/ to denote specifically Essex, although there were /a lot/ in Essex during Thatcherite times: i.e. what one means here is that old cheshnut the WORKING CLASS TORY) but as it were they were miners, and committed to Labour, but only some committed to Scargill's efforts (and they were that word too, eh).
Mcr may have had the world's first industrial slums (Little Ireland and the like, along Oxford Road and such) and Ancoats the world's first industrial suburb, which you would think would help to nourish later flowerings of progressive/left politics in the area, and you'd be right, broadly.
but (and here there's a half-arsed Tony Wilson thesis {sic} forever lurking just below the surface) you might argue the almost excessively entrepreneurial spirit of that town imbued something else in the town, that perhaps other northern cities don't have (or so much; Liverpool is probably the most radical place in the north not in terms of its politics i just mean as a sensation, to experience Liverpool is all life, it's certainly nowhere in Yorkshire or if it is it is Bradford these days but that's only because everywhere in Yorks. {bar Bradford and the Huddersfield area} is very whitebread [Leeds is probably less ethnically diverse than the average man in the street thinks] and Bradford's ethnic diversity in the middle of such a startlingly rustbelt area allows for invigoratingly vital cultural conversations on a large scale: Liverpool is inextricably tied to the Americans, the Irish, and of course the Fabs) or don't have as much; Mcr has more quirks than elsewhere in the north.

Robin's point that which inspired Thatcher to crush the socialist traditions of Leeds and Newcastle (two cities which Kurt taunts as "Little Englander"; I suspect he sees them as Thatcher saw them, namely ultimately little different from the outer Shires and just as deserving of a corporate-internationalist tide to crush their individualism) allows an embrace of New Right ideas in a way that the Socialist anti-establishment traditions of urban Yorkshire and the North East never can. seems rather accurate, although if i'm being serious for a minute i'm most comfortable with the outer shires characterisation, because i've little doubt that is what someone like R. Kurt thinks in this matter.

of course the irony (that's not the right word, but ever since Morrisette sang, what you gon' do) of a bloke positing entrenched views about what are actually fluid social relations blah blah isn't lost on him, so don't worry any readers, i'm not a complete chod! also, i know the above is half-arsed [and not to be taken seriously] cause it was scribbled off the top of one's head so if there were to be any comebacks on it i would be the first to criticise [cause you can either be arsed to turn your blog into a place to deploy fancy ideas university or your own reading taught you, or you don't, and i generally don't], trust me.

also tonight, United crashed out the Champions League. i would be lying if i said this didn't vaguely amuse me but there are more important matters coming up at the weekend...

i'm being very combative and self-absorbed today aren't i?! i do apologise!

also, Robin might be interested to know that Richard Kurt hailing from Urmston would make a moot point among some Reds. Certain United message boards are always chocka with Stretford and Salford Reds decrying Urmston and Sale Reds as Trafford invaders etc. (nasty overtones very overt) which is of course all a load of cobblers, but Urmston is well within Trafford MBC, and is as Manc as anywhere, so fair dos. City Life magazine once convincingly argued it was Salford and Mcr city councils and Trafford borough that were the proper mcr, not just the city council area; you could go further because large parts of Tameside and to an extent Oldham, Bury and Rochdale councils are also Manc really. out of the 10 greater manchester boroughs, the most completely unManc is Wigan, followed by Bolton and Stockport, but there are places in Stockport that are on the borderlands&c. so it's an interesting question for tedious local-demographics-identity politics pedants such as myself.

Oh, and purely for anyone from It's all in your mind (know they read me sometimes, although i'm not sure if they'll have got through this shite), one felt they might be somewhat amused with this description of Portsmouth from a Manchester United fanzine (United We Stand, one that's incidentally far less aggressive and fundamentalist about tenets than places like Red Issue, although UWS does have cool slogans such as RED, WHITE AND BLACK) recently:
The sea is brown near Portsmouth. And like most ports which house a lot of navy ships, from Toulon to Gdansk, it's a shit hole epitomised by the bomb crater that is Fratton Park. Pompey (and what are them chime things about?) have been planning to leave Fratton since the 1880's, but nothing ever seems to get done in Portsmouth. Nothing except pointless plans to rebrand the place as the 'city of sails' and shootings over disputed kebab-vending territories. In advanced metropolises, criminal gangs fire on each other for encroaching on drug-dealing patches. In Portsmouth you can get capped over a lamb donner. Seriously...Its occupants are lucky to be so near a port and thus the opportunity to stowaway and escape.
~

Chicago is the city of big shoulders "hog butcher...tool maker, stacker of wheat" as Sandburg reckoned;

-it would be good to chant for it but bear in mind repetition like this, just commas, spoils the effect, it's very unpoetic, but what do i know eh-

a black American capital, a rich Polish city, Ecuadorian caffs, Colombian sweetshops, Bosnian pastry-stores, Croatian butcheries, pho stands and noodle stalls, Italian-Italian and the theatres, all that radio, Vienna beef dogs with cheese fries lashed on, Chicago sa'mmiches, dripping the beef, dipped in tomato, one hundred thousand Urdu speakers, Jordan, vast Mexican neighbourhoods and Hispanic 'burbs, Vietnamese restaurants aplenty, palaces of tacos, ornate Modern French and sensibility sated by refined European haute, the lake bronzed in late fall sun, Russian bakeries, adventures in steel and glass and concrete, pan-Africanism, Chinatown and Cermak train stops, central European cakes and delicacies, cheezborgers, for the Industrial Age and by its proponents, Da Coach, Creole and Arawak knowledge thrown in, darling Bolivian friends and colleagues, a blue-collar town in love with its sports, hard-working ethic, Louise Nevelson and Second City, Gene Siskel and adorable Anne Nuqui Merritt (probably the single nicest person one's ever met, in truth) in the loveliest local java-bar, murderous, sexy, noisy, seductive, the fire, the '95 heatwave, deep-dish pizza at 5am and burritos as big as yo head, vast vertical warehouses on the South and West Sides for the poor in town, inadequate neighbourhoods, Moises Alou and Sosa, great coffee (and shakes, and cocoa), America in microcosm, Comiskey, fit heiresses shopping in Near North, Puerto Rican Chicago, the Goodman and the Joffrey, spoilt little rich girls in Lincoln Park and Gold Coast toying with plastic, heated El stops, house, blues, and jazz, yummy (pad) Thai fare, fit blokes everywhere wearing CRUNK/HIPSTERS/BLING/NUDE, wearing Weezer indie-ish, Common and Kanye West, Swedish and toney lesbian neighbourhoods in Andersonville jostling with the International Museum of Surgical Science no less!, Harold Washington and Saul Bellow, Studs Terkel and Annie Allen, kids playing basketball all over past Hyde Park, derelicts across the vast mess of Cabrini Green, Streetwise and Slaughterhouse 5 Cattle 0, 24/7 this that and the other, Hoxton fins in Irish or Bavarian pubs with rocksteady on the jukebox, yep, it's a fine town, truly. luv it luv it luv it.

one thing that's interesting about Chi-town is that many of the Ethiopian restaurants and cafes one saw seemed to be venues for reggae nights (reggae is far more popular in the Windy City than one stereotypically imagined it would be; plenty of Smoke/Big Apple/Trano type-aktion going down - indeed the rough guide asserts that the Wild Hare on N.Clark in Wrigleyville is "North America's reggae capital" and i ain't arguing), especially roots stuff, it must be admitted.
now, the great cliche about southern and west African appropriations of reggae (Lucky Dube, Alpha Blondy, and all them; Nigerian Sonny Okosun paved the way, according to Barrow and Dalton), is just that, western & southern {think of your basic African geography if you're slow; sorry that was fecking patronising but a mate of mine he sez his little (18 or 19 and a uni student) little sistah thinks that china and australia are RITE next to each other!)}. so it was just refreshing and intriguing to see self-styled Ethiopian venues playing a lot of Yard schtuff and the like.
writing of the Windy City, here's a delightful anecdote from the lovely companion:
it was for a meeting of child care and provider services people, and i
laughed as i heard one manager tell the story of a guy who wanted to leave
his child in the daycare while he went to work, except that his job is
selling drugs, so he had no way to prove income level since he had no real
employer, etc... and the coordinator suggested he get an affidavit from his
clients, being facetious of course. maybe had to be there but it was funny.

i dunno, that kinda opens up a few possibilities i wouldn't like to dwell on...

and now for some Chicagoland immigration statistics,

- 1.4 million immigrants live in the six-county metropolitan Chicago area,
17.5 percent of the region's total 8.1 million population. the minority population includes representatives from more than 100 countries representing all major world religions.

- the largest populations are from Mexico (582,000 persons), Poland (138,000) and India (77,000).

- the Mexican immigrant community more than doubled in the 1990s.

- Europeans make up 25.7 percent of the region's immigrants, Asians 22.9
percent; Latin Americans 46.8 percent.

- in 2000 the suburban Chicago immigrant population reached 788,000 persons,
a number that surpassed the immigrant population in the city of Chicago
(629,000) for the first time ever.

- the suburban immigrant population grew by 377,000 persons in the 1990s, an
increase of 91.9 percent.

- among the leading ports-of-entry (areas receiving large numbers of new
immigrants) are Mt. Prospect, Arlington Heights, and Palatine.

- nearly all net growth in the metro Chicago labour force in the 1990s was
due to immigration. immigrants contributed 252,049 (93.8%) of the 268,718
workers added to the regional economy in the decade.

- more than 20 municipalities in the metro area (spread throughout locations
in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and Will counties) have more than 10,000
immigrant residents.

- among major groups (those with more than 10,000 persons) the following
showed the most dramatic increases:
- Pakistanis (up 122% in the 1990s)
- Vietnamese (up 114%)
- Indians (up 108%)

- the fastest growth overall was among persons from Ghana (up 182%) and
Nigeria (up 168%)

- top ten communities in Chicago in number of immigrants:
1. Addison
2. Cicero
3. Glendale Heights
4. Hanover Park
5. Melrose Park
6. Niles
7. Skokie
8. Waukegan
9. West Chicago
10. Wheeling

- of the 118 Illinois House of Representatives districts, nearly half (55)
have 10,000 or more immigrants.

- among the 59 Illinois state senate districts, nearly half (26) have 20,000
or more immigrant constituents.

- the immigrant population growth in Cook County represented 174% of the
population change in the 1990s. theoretically, without immigration, Cook
County would have lost nearly 4% of its size in the 1990s.

- only 1.5% of immigrants report receiving cash welfare, compared to 2.1% of
natives.

[source: the business ledger (Chicago), Oct 20 - Nov 2 (2003) edition.]

basically, it was all about the railroad and grain and the cattleyards (give or take; there's always stories&ideas), and now there's more green (in all senses), and glass and concrete and steel.

posted by s at 11:11 PM

STRANGE BUT TRUE

- Costas Karamanlis comes to power in Greece at practically the same age that Juan Munoz died at.
posted by s at 4:38 PM

eek
posted by s at 4:26 PM

15 of the 20 cocklers in February's Morecambe Bay tragedy have been identified, it seems.
posted by s at 3:00 PM

i thought my mate had it licked with seeing Barney from Napalm Death in a record shop, but this chap got it downpat.
posted by s at 2:56 PM

of the Vukovar trial which opened today [reuters], one of the crucial things here is "This is a test of the local judiciary".
posted by s at 2:32 PM

Zimbabwe 'mercernary' plane flew from RSA
posted by s at 2:29 PM

yeah it was canongate
posted by s at 2:26 PM

Q&A w Dan Rhodes {Timoleon Vieta Come Home, Canongate, IIRC}
[via TMFTML
posted by s at 2:25 PM

having said the below i do have mates who rather than meeting in the pub will arrange to meet somewhere else beforehand.
i don't agree with this myself it's a bit poncy really but everyone's got an arsehole.
posted by s at 2:22 PM

why i'm grate i am i'm licking my own arse today!

eh-hum excuse me.
posted by s at 2:01 PM

the nooks and crannies of yer actual boozah - as a comment at Tom's post shows - can be not the best for certain types of drinkers. however, as i am one of these lairy gobshites that gets on with anybody (irritating quiet companions by going off to chat with navvies at the bar, etc.) that is no skin off my nose.
posted by s at 1:58 PM

unless yr into that sorta thing, of course.
posted by s at 1:57 PM

ACTUALLY
i think the final analysis is pubs can cater for both loners, couples or small groups and large groups of course well (and whyever not - i apologise for writing the bleedin obvious but good to get it all done) with aplomb and vigour as they have been doing for centuries since at least, er, Chaucer's time.

chains, as Tom says, are not as good as pubs for individuals. i would hazard certain types of chain are still worse for, say, couples though.

something like a Barracuda that will be full of lairy scallies if you're in a big town like Brum or Sheffield - or village idiots if you are in a small town like Stoke or Taunton - is no good for anybody of course, i suppose.

posted by s at 1:55 PM

somedisco flattered to get pumpkin publog mention (well, ya gotta blo yer own trumpet ygetme)
(also three - at time of writing - very sensible comments)
+
If ILX had sprung up in Spain or France the chances of being able to hold FAPs for 20+ people and still be in a good drinking place would be low - those countries are packed with terrific bars but they're usually small, and in Spain at least there's a big sitting-at-the-bar culture (cos of the tapas) so there's often a lack of tables
=is a very good point.

Tom finishes with Unlike Somedisco I am not sure chain pubs do this latter very well - they tend to lack the kind of nooks where you can read or drink alone unmolested. There are always a lot of lone drinkers in the schoolroom-style table ranks in a Wetherspoons, but they are a particular breed and not to be taken as role models and here i must - shamefacedly - hold up my hands and do a bit o volte-face.
well, actually it doesn't matter where i am - PERSONALLY writing - i get along anywhere, but i must be honest, i am one of these lone drinker chaps that strides in anywhere like we own the place, and more to the point am of a very particular (sadly, bad breeding mongrel) lineage.
all the chains have their niches and do certain things well, e.g., pitcher & pianos and all bar ones tend to cater for expense account boys wearing checked shirts and cufflinks, wetherspoons are popular with students for their cheapo meal deals, etc.
well, i imagine so anyway.
my favourite lone pub position is at a corner of the bar, or stood up somewhere, i am very much a WEIRDO OLD GEEZER (well, 24) W' PAPER job when i go.
posted by s at 1:50 PM

i didn't know Big Star would play SXSW (not that's i'm a fan, i'm just saying, is all)
posted by s at 1:46 PM

Jon funny and true (and wise and sane) about Scott Walker and Roisin Moloko.

MAINLY!!
Theo Parrish! For Five Bucks! That's Like Two Pounds Fifty! You Can't Buy A Lager In The Posh Bits Of City Centres These Days For That!
Quality!
posted by s at 1:45 PM

Spanish Film Festival

this year the Spanish Film Festival (ten years old this year) will be having some Latin American fare. director Pariser sez We never really addressed the rise of Latin American cinema before, partly because there's already a Latin American film festival in London....now's an opportune moment.

the Spanish Film Festival has always been a MANCHESTER fing in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes.
this year it is touring some films to 20 Uk cities (and Dublin). i don't know what other cities there will be (obviously London you'd assume) but at a guess Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Nottingham will probably be involved (i.e. those provincial cities with the best arthouse cinemas after OF COURSE the cornerhouse THANK YEW) so if you see anything about it round your way it might be worth seeing. i dunno like.

(not yet fully updated) Viva homepage
some info

posted by s at 1:42 PM

NO, i dont know that much about Howard TATE

but the normally reliable w dates amg says here the most recent comp. of his work was out july '03. why was claire allfree in the commuter paper the other morning only reviewing it just now for the UK?

is it only out just now?

i appreciate it may be but ain't sure, i am confused.

also here's defending Matthew Shipp

Prince Lincoln

posted by s at 1:36 PM

Harm

Mike Clap's mate. here he is on
Andrew Sullivan on Mel Gibson, how to spell Khadafi, Mel Gibson again, and, er, Chrissy Hitchens on Mel Gibson.

i like him/
posted by s at 1:28 PM

elsewhere, Slumberlord has a fine list for his singles of the year thus far~

Slumberlord appears to be a Chicago boy who's seen Luomo at the Abbey Pub~

his mate has a very good take on defending the film 'City of God' from one particularly sniffy sounding critic here.

both blogs are where it's at, more rapping blogs please!
posted by s at 10:39 AM

"Imagine being buggered by Lennon!!"
posted by s at 8:41 AM

unheard of during 35 years of ruthless Ba'athist rule
posted by s at 8:35 AM

Erase The World
posted by s at 8:31 AM

In exceptional circumstances it is necessary to say something that is untrue in the House of Commons.

___William Waldegrave, 1994.
posted by s at 10:06 PM

someone should probably dedicate a profound piece of art, or great scientific breakthrough - one day - to Gustav.

his teeth hadn't worn down in the slightest.
posted by s at 10:04 PM

well perhaps we shouldn’t discuss television nature programmes on blogs because they’re things that most people probably watch joyously rapt etc. (well many people i know a lot) and just don’t talk about cause it’s kinda mundane like what you had for your breakfast but a programme about hunting for a man-eating crocodile on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on Friday evening was stupendous. some French bloke and this chap who ran a crocodile farm in Tunisia flew down there, to try and grab this croc – nicknamed Gustav (for Dore or Flaubert, or for Mahler, you thought?) – who was thought responsible for hundreds of deaths of locals over a five year period. they found him with the assistance of this enthusiastic South African woman and were going to trap him and put him in his own place where he couldn’t be attacking fishermen but in the end they couldn’t get him. the outsiders had to fly out because there were elections soon (we are in Burundi) and they were concerned about instability.

Gustav was about 20 feet long and perhaps no older than sixty – someone had seen him devour an adult hippopotamus!

the lush greenery of Lake Tanganyika’s covering vegetation was simply awesome, and the narration reminded viewers that the national park Gustav resided in, in Burundi, was underfunded, and being degraded by poachers.
out on the implacable, vast face of the open lake there was trance-inducing shimmer and a becalming butterfly on the face of a giant scar-headed beast.
we saw fishermen wading in to shallow waters on the tops of sandbanks, surrounded by deceptively lazy looking adult crocs. they tossed nets out, and wielded machetes.
we saw wildebeest being dragged under water, with crocs spinning around below the drink’s surface, tearing off chunks of animal flesh, jaw power strong enough to saw through bone itself.
Gustav was tracked down to one particular neighbourhood by the South African lady flying in a small hot air balloon perhaps 40 feet above the water on a bit of a miniature adventure. there seemed to be supine females around and about, and lots of watery plants. the South African lady and some local chap and the Tunisian-based farmer of crocodilians would faff around, getting a load of men to position a specially constructed massive cage the French bloke had overseen. it was supposed to imprison Gustav a bit like a giant mousetrap, except with decidedly benign intentions and very unmalicious execution of springs.
local people who were building a pit/pool/enclosure where they intended to lodge Gustav sang songs as they worked. this could be an entirely wrong-headed way to wonder about it, but one did think of work songs in places like early-colonial-era Jamaica, the antebellum South, and similar. other analogies too.

anyway, like earlier said, they didn’t ‘get’ Gustav in the end. he was just out there, just chillin at his crib.

posted by s at 10:02 PM

much as i appreciate people seeing the 'Smile' tour i would ask punters to behave a little and not drown their correspondents in many cubic metres of unseasonal waffle about the "genius of this great totally exceeding-all-expectations" happening.
posted by s at 10:01 PM

i would have thought I-Roy or Jazzbo would be able to improve - through their inclusion a-riding and a-rollickin' on top - e.g., moribund Beatles tunes, you know, when they weren't quite feeling it.

this is what my gut tells me.
posted by s at 4:40 PM

one time on Bearwood high street, in quite modest surroundings that did not match the dish's ferocity, i ate the most incredible prawn balti with a big peshwari nan.
as a meal, it was magnificent.

posted by s at 2:58 PM

on the other hand, how can someone be a numptie dependent on where they drink?

fie this latent cruelty within me!

tramelled buildings, off-colour
posted by s at 2:51 PM

on second though, the below sounds too (unnecessarily) defensive.

roughly, a new formulation might run something like this:

"If you go in a Slug & Lettuce of your own free will (you may have been dragged in, or perhaps it caters best to your large party of indolent gasheads - scott) when there are other, preferable options available, you are a muppet."
posted by s at 2:28 PM

i've had a little think about it and out of all the bar/pub chains that pockmark British high streets, i can think of few i resent the presence of more than the Slug and Lettuce.
the Slug and Lettuce chain seems to be located at the upper end of the aspirational chain-name-game as far as i can tell. my local one is often inhabited by a moneyed mix of middle-aged ladies who lunch, at least one former regional news anchorman, and an 18 to 30 crowd.
the fashions - certainly on the younger sorts - are the usual fake tans, thin-soled slip ons, destressed and designed-ripped jeans, oversize army wear and big parkas, and plenty of sloganned t-shirts.

i don't know what it is i really object to about the place, it's just a generally woozy bilious reaction. the septic airlessness of such places and, frankly, the generally trying-too-hard air, gets on my goat.
i don't know; much of the above sounds like some form of snobbery, if not a reverse snobbery of a fasion, then a new third way of sniffiness maybe.

give us all an individual homely pub with quirks and crannies, special appeal not ironed out.

posted by s at 2:24 PM

.: letovari
posted by s at 2:03 PM

one reading resource that is nice is Cathy's blo.gs watch-page
posted by s at 2:01 PM

Palestinian boys stone an Israeli tank at Bureij
posted by s at 1:58 PM

i really like Cozen's most recent there it's true that.
that's why one personally finds that some websites&c. that are deliberately brilliant and, er, wordy and clever and allusive (and all that guff) are good, and sometimes not, and always everything is always ok.
clearly writing from people who know what they're on about, therefore sometimes a fairly pseud-like (even if it isn't, i sometimes end up misreading it as that) approach isn't as gripping as some other avenues.
but, hey, everyone has a mommy.
posted by s at 1:58 PM

very true, Missy

loaf has the times he's posted right down to the second!
posted by s at 1:48 PM

Croat generals give themselves up to the Hague
posted by s at 1:39 PM

Dial a Poem Poets from U B U W E B~
posted by s at 1:37 PM

jesus wept, pitchfork media's Nick Sylvester is an angry young man (via auspicious fish)
posted by s at 1:34 PM

- Fairtrade movement 'doomed to fail'

- a poet in Delft

- Rainforest Destruction in Your Shopping Basket - Friends of the Earth

- "Enduring Freedom:" Abuses by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan - HRW

- "Cuba? It was great" [via the Rambler]

- Peter Baran on 'The Missing', 'Elephant', and 'House of Sand And Fog'.
posted by s at 1:32 PM

of course, Italian restaurants being criticised is good too
posted by s at 11:00 AM

i realise this is an old story now but - if you've not seen it - there's so much good eggs bizness to be had by looking at the Jamaicans eat muesli thing.
posted by s at 10:58 AM

HAITI PROGRES - excellent news site.
posted by s at 10:54 AM

hogsheads they're a bit of a curate's egg, the position of two in leafy south manchester suburbs illustrates the hogshead conundrum perfectly, the one in didsbury is really quite nice whereas the one in altrincham is appalling. my mate informs me it's good and vibey when he goes in the one in alty but the only time i've had a nice time in there at any time recently is going in during the day, writing letters, and drinking coffee (not to sound like a boring twat).
there must be some inverse ratio thing that perhaps the freaky trigger pumpkin publog can come up with whereby chains are tolerable supping a pint on your tod, reading a paper, etc., and also of course in a large crowd when you want a laugh, but invariably when there's just a few of us, some number in the middle, everything turns out cock-eyed.

posted by s at 10:51 AM

to be fair, all bar ones have some decent continentals in their beer but when there is a decent local booZAH near by the patronage of shite like walkabout or a sports bar is not for stuffy old farts like me clearly.
posted by s at 10:47 AM

chains
of course if you find yourself in chains then that is all well and good and you make the most of the fist, memorable times and good things can be had anyway however i have an unshakeable unopinion about the basic crapness of some of them. Edwards, Pitcher and Pianos, All Bar Ones, these are loathsome ones, Edwards actually is the one for me, i've been in 'em and it's tolerable but they really are shocking.
the one in manchester city centre is at the upper end of portland street overlooking piccadilly gardens.
the only good thing about it is if you go in the location reminds you that you are only a few minutes walk away from good boozers like the Waldorf or the Sevenoaks or the Bulls Head.
apart from that it's fairly bad.

posted by s at 10:44 AM

to digress, following the three-headed frog story i was delighted with Q pointing out this leaping larrakin here.

but WAIT! look at this beauty here
and - remember - some frogs can (it appears) make themselves more poisonous through a sort of osmosis _now that's a handy defence mechanism.
posted by s at 10:37 AM

i suppose as one will never tire of saying charmed is good rubbish to watch, it's lazy knockabout telly (much like how i might characterise 'the o.c.' which premiered in the UK on channel 4 last night to a soundtrack of some rap and some, er, sanitised emo) and besides there are some tidy girls on it.
posted by s at 10:24 AM

easily the best sentence i have read anywhere this year (so, to recap: that's easily 2004's best sentence) being here, but, really, anyone who writes Someone I was shagging a couple of years back was friends with the script editor on Charmed has the tang of truth/fizzy verve about them and i don't know Martin Skidmore but that is easily the favouritest sentence of 2004 (did i mention that yet?)


posted by s at 10:17 AM

with the benefit of hindsight we can now see that Firkin pubs were indeed classic - strange at the time the 'Firkin' menu and 'Firkin' toilets made you wanna get the Firk out of there but really all those reasons Tom has are sound.
posted by s at 10:14 AM

well, that's that then: bye bye Mr Papandreou
posted by s at 10:12 AM

with his perma-three days growth (does he save money on cost-cutting exercises by buying cheapo Bic blades) Roman Abramovich increasingly resembles a Dagestani grifter to me
(nah only jokin Roman we luves you for your Siberian village improvments if nowt else)
posted by s at 9:42 AM

i suppose if i was into MP3s, i would like his and i realise this is late but for reasons of completeness i need to big up the very fine lookin bubblegum machine like everybody else.
posted by s at 9:39 AM

gah

(also, Activists parents to meet Palestinian PM)
posted by s at 9:08 AM

i saw Kylie was blanching at the video for 'Toxic', well at least that's a half-decent tune, which is more than can be said for Kylie's latest lame and pedestrian effort


posted by s at 9:05 AM

i was looking for photos of Westminster Tube and i found that site below. well these are nice. also here is WOLRD-FAMOUS Tube map scroll to Westminster in SW1. it's good.

Westminster Tube is a glorious concoction it's like the big Tube at Canary Wharf or whatever. you know Canada Water way fucking glorious a massive steel shredded money, and its own weather system it feels that big!
posted by s at 9:03 AM

gilest.org - Jerash

this is a cool site, with some wonderful photos. the one above are the photographer tramping around some ruins in Jordon but do check it all out!
posted by s at 8:58 AM

Jim's been on it of late, no?
posted by s at 8:55 AM

SR (glad to see i ain't the only one who felt the Kieran anecdote ineffably lovely - cheers SR!) sez
B-Boys On E, Slight Return: Usher, "Yeah"
The synth vamp could be off a Dance Ecstasy 2001 track or Da Hool's "Meet Her At the Love Parade". The laser-scything video could have been shot at Twilo. The groove even reminds me a tiny bit of Timo Maas 'Doom's Night' rmx. Tuuuuuuuuune

YEAH BOY!!
i watched totp on friday cause i wanted to see Beenie Man and - in the end - although i quite liked 'dude' i was perhaps a bit underwhelmed (though i c Ms Thing is startlingly good in it, something about her kinda holding back wif a tensestrokeminimally rowdy delivery whilst dancing gyratedly); luvved what Beenie was wearing THO'
- IN THE END,
i wasn't expecting to see Usher on there.
but the chap was a revelation! normally i can take him or leave him but i really like this.
he even better saturday morning on cduk too!
wicked chops.

i tell you what else about totp (and the same on cd uk, although he was better on totp) Peter Andre's 'Mysterious Girl' (and i don't want to fall out with Robin C. here!) let's just say it's immeasurably improved with a toaster on top, some geezer amiably chattin a little bit, sounded a bit like a gruffer Shaggy. not bad like, he was with Andre on the Saturday morning show too.
so yeah.

posted by s at 8:54 AM

Johnny Clarke

Top Ranking (I'm the Toughest)

a good cover of Peter Tosh's combative effort, that is a nice little kick.

god, it's like PopNose round here, except with lesser descriptions and no audio files!
incidentally i read all them MP3 sites but don't download them and much as i'm sure - apparently - Fluxblog... is the most visited (and i can see why, i get immense pleasure just from reading it), there's something about PopNose that makes it my fave of that whole sphere.
possibly Tom Ewing's way with things i think.


posted by s at 8:45 AM

WOEBOT on MP3s, that's excellent that {i've never downloaded or listened to an MP3 in my life i must say, but that's more to do with technology available to me than anything else ya get me}. shocking huh.
i will say i do feel that people who try and defend (not that's there's necessarily anything to defend of course) MP3 listening [if they feel they have to, which is fair enough on their part] never convince with the 'try then buy' argument, and rather weak articulations of an 'all in good faith' business.
but what do i know.
posted by s at 8:34 AM

see some planets
posted by s at 8:27 AM

The person who pursues two rats will miss both.
posted by s at 12:04 AM

nah don't worry we're all about the global/reggae/jazz/dance/rap round here, that's my top five at five (probably)&c.
posted by s at 11:59 PM

bloody hell i'm actually a rockist!
posted by s at 11:56 PM

two covers i do really enjoy always, actually, are Bigod 20's take on 'like a prayer' and the Breeders' attempts at 'happiness is a warm gun' (pod's still their best LP)
posted by s at 11:55 PM

Sometimes i check ILM

my answers to that livejournalish load of questions that’s been floating around. i’ve read good dozen-plus responses to this on homepages, and some really good ones. mine won’t be any cop but hey.

1. Your favorite song with the name of a city in the title or text.
this is really difficult. probably any half-decent version of ‘April in Paris’, to get down to (T.S. Eliot’s) brass tacks. Sarah Vaughan’s take on it in her December 1954 New York session with Clifford Brown is fine. oh, this is cheatin’ ‘n all, but – purely because i’ve been rinsing Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… loads recently – a mention goes to ‘Knowledge God’ when Raekwon references the skies like ‘her-on’ and New York as “ancient Babylon” (from some fat “Milano”, if memory serves). actually, that choon also mentions (Will Self’s) London and (Will Smith’s) Miami.
but yeah, er.
Sassie (yo, James Joyce, Schoenberg, and Miro to thread; god forgot Ryan Adams’ ‘New York, New York’ LUV that tune).
2. A song you've listened to repeatedly when you were depressed at some point in your life.
Horace Andy’s ‘Don’t let problems get you down’. i saw him at Glasto (wearing a very nice Ralph Lauren shirt and a quite nice tie but sadly only very cheap green and purple nail varnish and practically a skinhead: i looked like i was auditioning for a bad straight-edge outfit) once and he blew the audience away. RE-WIND. RE-WIND! stayed in the folk tent one afternoon and magical things happened.
3. Ever bought an entire album just for one song and winded up disliking everything but that song? Gimme that song.
honestly never done this (AFAIK), but the most =nearly= example i can recall is ‘definitely maybe’ where ‘cigarettes and alcohol’ and one or two other tunes i liked a lot more than the rest (i don’t have a copy of that on CD anymore anyway, which is the format it got picked up on).
4. A song whose lyrics you thought you knew in the past, but about which you later learned you were incorrect.
some mates and i for ages felt that Max Cavalera, on Sepultura’s ‘Territory’ (from their immense metallised punk-up-hardcore mash-up Chaos A.D., just before the Xavantes-drumming employing behemoth that is the album Roots) Max – in between the keelar riffs, of course – was telling his listeners on the chorus that “Cornforth plays for Swansea” (as opposed to “war for territory”). not as daft as it sounded, the Seps boys were big fans of British footy and Cornforth had spent time at Swansea (okay, who am i kidding…). think of Chas and Dave covering Sepultura or Slayer: that would be fantastic. [Co-kernee tones] ‘An-gel of deaf’ etc.
the first few times i actually heard ‘smells like teen spirit’ i genuinely thought Cobain was singing about Swindon Town midfielder Luc Nijholt, rather than “a denial.” well, i was about 11…
5. Your least favorite song on one of your favorite albums of all time.
what an awful question gosh! erm, there aren’t many ‘least favourites’ on most favoured albums innit but for extra-aestheticist reasons will say ‘She Can’t Love You’ (title alone eh) off The Writing’s on the Wall
6. A song you like by someone you find physically unattractive or otherwise repellent.
this is really difficult. i mean we’ve all got mates with views different to our own that must border on at least distaste. so it’s a bit of a cop-out/compromise but how about a song that is politically/subject matter despicably repellent, which i do like? predictable but yes i do like (i guess Dave Stelfox had this natter to himself prior to interviewing T.O.K.) Buju Banton’s ‘Boom Bye Bye’. perhaps a glib observation to note but of course since ’Til Shiloh (or earlier) he’s been all cultural ‘so technically that’s okay’ oh alright you know warramean obviously not okay yadda yadda. so, Virginia Woolf and aestheticism yes (what a pseud!!); tho’ endless internal arguments about this, that, right and wrong, blah blah.
7. Your favorite song that has expletives in it that's not by Liz Phair.
hrm, i don’t know as i like a lot of songs a lot that happen to have Anglo-Saxonisms in ‘em. so for today it is GZA’s ‘Living in the world today’.
8. A song that sounds as if it's by someone British but isn't.
dunno why but Smetana’s Ma Vlast – well, the ‘Vltava’ section which i’m counting as a song – sounds like it could have been about Tayside or somewhere like the country around Braemar (Aberdeenshire or is it Grampian but similar neighbourhood and anyway where the Queen has a pile, where the coldest British temperature ever has been recorded, minus 27 Celsius), or somewhere in the interior of north Wales.
9. A song you like (possibly from your past) that took you forever to finally locate a copy of.
The Platters ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’ (note i didn’t say how hard i was looking for it…).
10. A song that reminds you of spring but doesn't mention spring at all.
‘Belfast’.
11. A song that sounds to you like being happy feels.
‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ no matter how much i should say some summery Brill Building Pop or Freda Payne’s ‘Band of Gold’.
it is the quality of joy itself.
12. Your favorite song from a non-soundtrack compilation album.
another impossible question to answer! on a side-issue, as good as many many soundtrack albums are, still rate older compilations not to do with soundtracks. OSTs are beloved by especially rockist mates anyway (who’d a thunk: make of that what you will). so will plump for Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s ‘Nansi Imali’ on the first volume of the ‘Indestructible Beat of Soweto’ (on which as you may know, i’m with Xgau re. status of said rekkid; probably). incidentally why does Q magazine always say ‘Nation of Millions…’ is the best album of the 1980s? i’m with gentle analyses of tokenism but is it even the best rap album of 1988 (of course i think it’s quality and love it to death etc.)? hmm.
13. A song from your past that would be considered politically incorrect now (and possibly was then).
hmm, let’s see! how about Dre’s ‘Bitches ain’t shit’?
14. A song sung by an overweight person.
Ella ‘It’s only a paper moon’.
15. A song you actually like by an artist you otherwise hate.
ooh god! this could be a potential banana skin of a mean-spirited whelp answer. hate is of course far too strong a word but i’m not a big Leonard Cohen fan these days (used to be far more into him) but can still see that ‘famous blue raincoat’ is rather brill.
16. A song by a band that features three or more female members.
‘I wanna be yr joey ramone’: KLASSIC (even if you think they’re shit).
17. One of the earliest songs that you can remember listening to.
pick something the Carpenters did – their way with ‘ticket to ride’ was particularly striking (my mother has always been a big fan of the ABC of American AM radio – Alpert, Bacharach, Carpenters).
18. A song you've been mocked by friends for liking.
i’ve actually since discovered that i wasn’t joking when i said mates who like Stellastarr or the Au Pairs didn’t like Fatman Scoop’s ‘Be Faithful’. a mate who saw Stellastarr and the Killers the other night (prounouncing it a fine gig) has mocked said Scoop choon so i told them to fuck off and do one (no, we reasoned and they was still all meanie so that tune there then by Scoop which will definitely make my three months overdue singles list of faves for 2003 whenever it’s posted [perhaps April…]).
it’s unbelievable innit but i suppose that’s alt.rock/indie bigotry twattishness in a nutshell for ya eh!
i used to listen to the Au Pairs quite a bit and think ‘Be Faithful’ stands up to their catalogue.
still, eggs is eggs eh.
19. A really good cover version you think no one else has heard.
[this is not going to be answered by me because i don't even listen to any downloads so i'm never first with the news so i'm afraid i'm going to have to answer with a cover i like that even though it's canonically famous it's not a big thing among, say, a lot of my mates these days and that tune is] Elmore Leonard's slide version of Robert Johnson's ''I Believe I'll) Dust my Broom'
20. A song that has helped cheer you up (or empowered you somehow) after a breakup or otherwise difficult situation.
cheesy and obvious i know but Albinoni’s Adagio.
Extra tracks, if you have more room:
21. A song you've listened to while fucking/masturbating. AND/OR
nothing should be inferred here but Adams’ ‘Shaker Loops’.
22. A song not in English—preferably a foreign-language version of an English-language hit.
can’t do the second part of this formula afraid, but have always had that tediously middlebrow (Jeff Buckley sleevenotes god!) mad belief in the power of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (nah, there's nothing wrong with that powerful fella). so anything really. er, ‘Khawaja Tum Hi Ho’ will do (cos it fucking rools).

posted by s at 11:46 PM

Tubby’s tricks with ‘Satta Dread Dub’: pure sonically speaking, it’s a gargantuan happiness to me and the joy of dancers and grifters and barbers and milkmen and bakers (of course one chats out of one's arse). everything is in fine alignment, echo chamber and good, and then two minutes in the Abyssinians – or whoever – have that “satta” word a bit stretched. at this point i normally lose my lunch and go into a drowsy post-coital state.
posted by s at 11:24 PM

‘Jolene’ – if you don’t rate this then you’re a wally.
posted by s at 11:24 PM

‘Paint it, black’ – one recent Friday this tune was percolating through my head all day.
posted by s at 11:23 PM

Frankie Avalon: ‘Venus’: glorious and heart-rending like finishing Darkness at Noon, truly
posted by s at 11:22 PM

Danny & the Junior’s ‘At the hop’ reminds me of eating corn on the cob, and good things like that.

posted by s at 11:21 PM

so is k-punk talking about beatless wordless psychedelia etc.?
jettisoning the beat, no no, let's not jettison the beat, let's just go and listen to old doo-wop, that's what i reckon.

why is k-punk so good, even if you disagree with what he writes the phrasing is so beautiful. ack!

i'm normally with SR on IDM and he's not wrong as of late too, i'd venture. there's only so much of that one can take and, well, shrugs, throws hands in air, beatless pyschedelia is one thing...
posted by s at 11:17 PM

if your boy's got logic problems, don't send him to work as a test subject. give him something quiet to do, like FILING.

(not nails, but files of paper, like SUBPOENAS)
posted by s at 11:14 PM

Eno’s ‘Here come the warm jets’ – a tune i adore to the point of absolute madness. i am a fool for that tune like Charlie Haden plays bass.
posted by s at 11:10 PM

Lemar doing a stripped down cover of ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ – sounds good.

“Rejecting universal human values, he is willingly putting his talent at the service of militarised nationalism. Writing of that kind is what deprives the spirit of its colours.”
_David Pryce-Jones on Mourid Barghouti.

i prefer Jamie Cullum’s ‘Frontin’’ take but that’s possibly down to not thinking much at all (well, not to do a disservice to Mr Cullum but i'm not a huge fan tho' of course he's fantastically talented) of the original.

In terms of business, Putin now directly controls Surgutneftfaz, all finance streams from Rosneft and, nominally under Alexei Miller, Gazprom. He is in effect the biggest oligarch in the oil sphere.

they’ve been serving Irish breakfast tea at Bewley’s on Grafton Street since the 1840s. do you know what i do when i’m in Dublin? i drink Guinness, eat thick sausages with springy still warm bread, and mooch around Temple Bar record shops.
keen.

posted by s at 11:06 PM

Sir Christopher Frayling discussing Brian Sewell’s assault of him in the Standard (“it reminded me of the Letters of Junius, Gillray caricatures and the extremities of 18th-century invective”), and he actually comes off very well.
recommending ‘21 Grams’ with reservations (certainly Penn sounds better than what he won the Oscar for) Jenny McCartney reasonably asserts that “If only Inarittu had dared to let a little more light into his film the suffering of his characters would have seemed so much darker by contrast, and its philosophy so much richer”, then deliciously strikes down the new ‘Northfork’ with I would rather watch 21 Grams three more times, however, than have another viewing of Northfork….Northfork is a salutary reminder that, however tempting it may seem for film-makers, magic realism is best left to South American writers with unassailable literary reputations.
ha-hah!

…is ultimately a disappointment. Written in workmanlike prose, and enlivened only by boxed eyewitness extracts that give it the feel of a textbook. It is neither a convincing reassessment of the conflict nor a particularly good read. For both turn to Royle or, in the future, Orlando Figes’s keenly awaited history of the war.
- Saul David on Clive Ponting’s ‘The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth’.

posted by s at 11:06 PM

there was a picture in the paper on Friday of a man getting beaten somewhere in Petit Goave. he was suspected of being an Aristide assassin by an angry mob. he was later burned to death. the most thoughtful questionnaire i’ve ever read about photojournalists (e.g., ‘why are you taking those photos I appreciate it’s historical record and for the victims’ benefit in the end but why not try to help when it’s one on one and humans are getting hurt? why?’ type questions etc.) and their trade was in a men’s magazine, believe it or not.
endlessly disturbing etc.
think things thru yourself &c.
historical record.
documentation.
individual responsibility.
posted by s at 11:05 PM

incidentally, if you've read the mail Jon sent David Keenan about his experiences with the Improvisations Festival at the Adelaide Fringe you'll see what an amazing thing it all is.
love to Jon.:-)

sorry to be soppy!
i also wanna big up Simon R. for defending U2 in Angus' comments box the other day, and Angus for defending the La's, and Jon aforesaid for defending Thin Lizzy. sorry Mark!
posted by s at 10:55 PM

Jon, apparently at the best Chinese takeaway in Adelaide (Ying Chow), was all ... so amazing. so last night we had:
e-shand eggplant
broad bean, bean curd and chinese chutney (abbreviated to the B.B.C.)
chili beans
salt & pepper tofu

posted by s at 10:49 PM

Angus on hymns
[with excellent commentary from Mark Sinker
posted by s at 10:44 PM

just on my high street there's load of excellent takeaways (including several great Chinese ones) they say it's takeaways and cobblers about when your area is down rockin' on its heels, so so be it.
posted by s at 10:43 PM

Dan had
chicken in plum sauce with plain chow mein, and jolly tasty it was too. decided it was worth the e-coli risk and had a repeat meal courtesy of the microwaved leftovers this evening.
~
from somewhere in Leamington Spa, i think.

i went to the King Wah and had king prawns, boiled rice, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and a portion of prawn crackers.

this was the second Chinese takeaway i've had in a few days, but before then i'd not had one for half a year so i think this is reasonable.
the other night i went to the excellent but still workaday New Ying Wah - notable because i was in the same class as Mr Li's daughter Carol at school who went out with my man Jim McDonnell {the only Dundee fan in our class} - and had a very fine but keepin' it simple boiled rice, prawns, and green peppers.
(my lardy companion had fried rice, a chopped chicken curry and some spare ribs.)


posted by s at 10:42 PM

Luka's new slogan - totally.

though must disagree with him about the other broadsheets, i think excellent juxtapositions of images and words are to be found in all of them (i like the FT myself). they're all good and the reporters to be found on all them can touch the sky; we mention Robert Fisk on the Inde or Inigo Gilmore at the Sunday Telegraph or Thunderer in the Times f'r instance (isn't it ridiculous the hysterical smears right-wing blogs put out about Fisk; i'm not saying he's to agree with all the time but have you read his Pity the Nation? - now that's a work...). but that's Luka, he's a fierce ideologue or sumfink, clearly, so fair dos like...
posted by s at 10:36 PM

TAINTED BY MODERNISM

bloody hell, their tagline is Two roving roustabouts write-fight weekly and blog the results, there's already more to love than David Mitchell (or Simon Armitage's novel, for that matter) - what's the prob?!!
posted by s at 10:33 PM

The Freelance Mentalists
posted by s at 10:30 PM

GUTTERBREAKZ
posted by s at 10:29 PM

k-punk
blissblog

posted by s at 10:25 PM

alright so that was probably mean before too, i mean we all likes shots of buildings and architecture (i'm guilty myself of finding a certain aesthetic light in shots of dilapidated flats, occasionally) but, don't get me wrong y'know, shots of people are where it's at.
posted by s at 10:19 PM

incidentally for breakfast this morning over a long period i had an apple, a banana, a satsuma AND a bowl of cornflakes with semi-skinned milk, well it is the weekend be a fat bastard (i’m a little slip of a thing like the boy Davis).

‘Sally Maclennane’ – the Pogues. this song makes you pissed and rowdy.

how much does Erma Franklin’s ‘Piece of my heart’ get over, say, Janis Joplin’s version?
yes, quite a lot, that’s exactly rite. i think one'd say. i reckon i'm with Charles Shaar-Murray - boring i know - about Koko Taylor over her. i dunno actually, she was nice and ragged. but histrionics and volume sometimes....hmm.

An antiquary is an old frippery-Philosopher, that has so strange a natural Affection to worm-eaten speculation, that it is apparent he has a Worm in his Skull. He values one old Invention, that is lost and never to be recovered, before all the new ones in the World, tho’ never so useful.
_Samuel Butler.

posted by s at 9:11 PM

maktub which is the Arabic for it is written and by way of introduction
The trip to the monkey hangers should be daunting. I was reliably informed they had the best whores in Britain. Swindon are looking ominous but a big thumbs up to Stockport
posted by s at 9:06 PM

the lovely companion has again directed me towards the little indie girl Lillian's LJ.
here are some photos of the Moss, an area of Mcr the photographer admits she's not familiar with.

something strange within me finds these a little problematic. the photographer is clearly affected by some of her photographs (i'm assuming she's not being literal when in an earlier post she refers to miner's houses' in the area; the nearest slackies to the Moss [slag heaps] are in Oldham, and really the nearest pits Leigh way) but it all seems a bit like that odious practice of 'ghetto-cruisin' to me. of course i know it's not really like that at all, but in only seeking to take a rather, er, grim set of photos, there's a bit of a Guardian readers' worrywort perspective at play here (you might argue). of course another perspective could argue the witticisms of the tagging etc. showcase joy and beauty everywhere, yadda yadda.
there's a lot of regeneration in the Moss and whilst it's still about the seventh or eight most deprived ward in Mcr, there's a lot of other portraits to be shot, pictures to be composed.
i've certainly seen more fridges lying around in parts of Moston, let's say...

so basically who can say but clearly young Ms. Lillian has skill with a camera which seems to be the main thing to me.
posted by s at 9:05 PM

The water is up to my chest. The bosses got the time wrong. I can’t get back in time.
- the last words of Guo Binglong to his wife.

Guo spoke with his wife, who was in China, on a mobile phone. Guo was one of 20 people who died in Morecambe Bay when they drowned in rising tides earlier this year.

---

During the summer of last year, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) shut the activities of the cockle beds on the Thames, in the Wash and at Craner’s beloved South Wales.
Immediately at stake were the position of many workers and the future of much of the UK’s (worth £20 million to the economy annually) cockle trade.
The FSA took the decision to shut down beds at these places due to what it said was the discovery of an unidentified toxin in the cockles (to protect human health, we would do the same thing again, Dr Andrew Wodge of the agency recently told the BBC’s John Humphrys). FSA scientists had been experimenting on mice, injecting them with cockle-meat. The meat was being made to adhere together due, basically, to toxic glue. The lab-mice were dying as a result.
Last November, FSA researchers began to get rid of what they termed “solvent carry-over.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, after the elimination of this factor, other mice who were undergoing the experiments did not die.
With science this flawed, you might have thought that the FSA would perhaps rethink their approach and maybe even be a little contrite, but their Dr Wodge insisted to Radio Four only weeks ago that the agency had done nothing wrong.
The select committee for environmental, food and rural affairs – whose chairperson is Labour man Austin Mitchell – was less friendly to the FSA than the Today programme. Citing a very real and unnecessary damage to cockling, the committee suggested the industry must be compensated, and ways should be found to do that.

Meanwhile, it was all over the press a fortnight ago or so that the MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, Geraldine Smith, had written to the Immigration Service in June of 2003 alerting ministers to the dangers that illegal cockle pickers in the Bay faced.

A letter she sent to London had urged the Immigration Service to become involved; saying one of her constituents was on the Bay when police swept the area for tax evaders.
Smith wrote that Unable to speak English and under the control of a gangmaster, these people were being paid one-fifth of the standard rate for their work. They were also being transported 20 to a boat in waters renowned for their currents and quicksands, where an experienced local fisherman would not consider carrying more than six.

Fiona MacTaggart – Home Office Minister – cited a lack of resources as why Smith’s letter would not be acted on.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently confirmed that Morecambe Bay was to be regarded as a place of work, and therefore under their jurisdiction. Telling an inquisitive journalist they were familiar with a “near-miss” that occurred in December 2003, involving Chinese workers, they assured the journalist they had offered “advice”. The deaths of those 20 people, regarded as an “industrial accident”, might have been prevented had the HSE served a prohibition notice. That, incidentally, would have been a statutory duty with any other business (in the days following the tragedy, able local policing was extremely effective in preventing anyone from getting out on to the sands).
-
Here is Beverley Hughes (MacTaggart’s boss), well, wriggling.

posted by s at 2:31 PM

is Mark Steyn to George Bush [don't worry George, i'll protect you] as Andrew Marr is to Tony Blair [don't worry Tony i'll save you]?
posted by s at 2:23 PM

i saw two pretty schoolgirls - one the spit of Josie D'Arby and one the spit of Keira Knightley - this morning discussing bacon. i don't know if it was sexual or something but i think Josie's mum cooked some bacon for her. i think that was it.
posted by s at 2:18 PM

Angus' blog (i've yet to call in that favour but i will soon) has both inspired comments and recommends great blogs.
good on ya again sir.
posted by s at 2:14 PM

oh, i'd buy you if i could.
OH, and you TOO.
oh, and also you/
P.S.
you come along too if you want.
posted by s at 2:10 PM

good on ya Alfie
posted by s at 1:58 PM

here is a fine defence of the mountain goats latest rekkid.
posted by s at 1:57 PM

superb blog
posted by s at 1:56 PM

Tony Blair pledges a 'relentless war on terror' and dismisses critics of his decision to go to war in Iraq.
posted by s at 1:55 PM

i saw a very fast dog running along the canal. it was incredible. the most wondrous thing i've seen with my own eyes since the moon last Saturday.
posted by s at 9:30 AM

i saw a bloke who was the spit of QOTSA mentalist Josh Homme on the tram earlier.
coupled with my mate seeing Barney Napalm Death in a music shop in Birmingham t'other day, is this a new trend?

will Stelfox see Hot Chocolate's Errol Brown in a greasy spoon in Plaistow?
will Sherburne spot kid606 sipping a skinny decaff soy-latte in his local coffeehouse?
will Cathy peking0 spot Nick Cave eating Vietnamese scran somewhere in Sydney?
will Simon R. spot Scarlett Johannsen in a Manhattan Starbucks (after they've both fled to its standardised aceptability from the ravages of a local dirty sushi joint; HO HO)?

posted by s at 9:29 AM

Child abuse measures condemned as 'timid' by charities
posted by s at 9:14 AM

times flies when you are having fun
posted by s at 9:09 AM

re. the Deepcut affair (one suicide, three less clear verdicts, about the deaths of four young soldiers between 1995 and 2002 at the same army barracks in south England), Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram was on the telly last night. it seemed he was really rather, well, blase about it all under questioning.

a gentlemen who led the Army's conduct during foot and mouth was speaking to Jon Snow on C4. he said he felt we are looking at individual tragedies and misjudgments; individual errors was the line he felt keen to push, and not widescale bullying.
he (gently) rejected a systemic analysis, though evidence seems to point to wider failings.
can't say it was a total surprise to hear it from his mouth...
posted by s at 9:01 AM

you might not have seen this story.
sigh
posted by s at 8:56 AM

'You are a ruthless sexual predator'
posted by s at 8:54 AM

i just had a smashing dump, it were raey good.

quality music news: my mate just saw Barney from Napalm Death browsing DVDs in the Brum city centre branch of Music Zone.

sound that.
posted by s at 6:22 PM

MEMO

Pat Carroll,
we picked your brain up - it was under the outfield bleachers.

Report to Left Luggage to claim.
posted by s at 4:51 PM

'See, we rang for brioche but they gave us cheeseburgers'
posted by s at 2:56 PM

tacky? moi?
posted by s at 2:48 PM

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
_Robert Frost
..

;
posted by s at 1:14 PM

some good news
posted by s at 1:04 PM

lovely synthesis of some improv fing in some aussie backabeyond recently bigging up the Beautiful Aussie Boy who's been blogging up a storm of late (as have Melbourne branch)
posted by s at 1:04 PM

spy vs spy??

i'm sure i saw them in a toilet in Stoke-on-Trent once.
wasn't John Peel a big fan?
also another great blog from his other mate
posted by s at 12:58 PM

what's also appreciated is the sane and clement Weaver drawing our attention towards a genuinely good Indy story
posted by s at 12:57 PM

also from the guardian's website, his Clinton book [reviewed here and buyers comments here] might have caught some flak, but Sidney Blumenthal
writes a mean column~
posted by s at 12:55 PM

can't agree with the edged frills to Hockney's somewhat broad strokes on his 'photography debate' (tho' am sympathetic to Goya claims, of course)
posted by s at 12:49 PM

obviously like everyone else i got mad wuv for Frere-Jones' masterly Arthur Russell piece
posted by s at 12:48 PM

i'm cutting and pasting Ben Sisario's fine review of Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues from the New York Times if you don't have a login there.

Robert Johnson left 29 songs and little else, but it was enough. Johnson has long since become the most famous blues singer of all time, reaching a level in the pantheon of American music occupied by figures like Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. The myths inevitably grew up around him. Most writers who have dealt with him have found it impossible to resist the story of his deal with the devil, or the image of him pursued by "hellhounds."

But as Johnson's popularity has grown — the box set of his "Complete Recordings" (Columbia/Legacy) has sold nearly two million copies worldwide — a growing number of music scholars have begun to question Johnson's place in the canon, and the received wisdom about blues history itself.

Elijah Wald's new "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues" (Amistad/HarperCollins) is one of the most contentious yet, daring to suggest that Johnson's primacy was largely a creation of white fans and music critics of the 1960's.

"As far as the evolution of black music goes, Robert Johnson was an extremely minor figure," Mr. Wald writes, "and very little that happened in the decades following his death would have been affected if he had never played a note."

With extensive research into the listening habits of the audience of the time, Mr. Wald describes a history of the blues that is markedly different from the one in accounts like Martin Scorsese's recent seven-part PBS series, "The Blues."

In Mr. Wald's history, the principal players are not lonesome folk singers from dusty hamlets, but seasoned professionals riding the latest trends in black pop. They have names that are largely unknown today except among experts: Peetie Wheatstraw, Leroy Carr and Kokomo Arnold. And most of them were women. The kings of the blues were actually the queens of the blues: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and dozens of others now all but forgotten, singers like Ida Cox, Victoria Spivey and Sara Martin.

Johnson, who died in 1938, emerges in Mr. Wald's account as a regional player eager to copy the latest hits. And he was only marginally successful. Just 11 of his songs were issued in his lifetime — the biggest stars recorded well over 100 songs, Mr. Wald points out — and his biggest hit, "Terraplane Blues," sold about 5,000 copies.

Mr. Wald and other critics argue that the discrepancy between Johnson's stature and his accomplishments stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of blues music by later, mostly white, writers.

Last year Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch's "Robert Johnson: Lost and Found" (University of Illinois Press) traced the paper trail of the Johnson myth through the decades and found that white critics and promoters were telling tall tales about him while he was still alive. The authors tracked down misleading articles about him dating to 1937, and reconstructed the comical spread of Johnson's Faust legend — that he sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in return for his extraordinary gifts as a guitarist — from a single, dubious 1966 interview with Johnson's friend and fellow blues musician Son House.

Another book, Patricia R. Schroeder's "Robert Johnson, Mythmaking and Contemporary American Culture" (due from University of Illinois Press in July), traces the persistence of Johnson's image in the culture at large, from postage stamps to novels to plays. Johnson's myth, it suggests, is truly larger than his life.

"This just adds to the legend of Johnson," said David Evans, a professor of music at the University of Memphis and a veteran blues researcher. "Like Elvis and Hank Williams and certain other stars, he can be all things to all people."

Stopping for coffee at a Midtown hotel during his recent book tour, Mr. Wald explained that "the blues was pop music — it simply wasn't folk music."

He continued: "It was invented retroactively as black folk music, which brought a new set of standards to bear on it and created a whole new pantheon of heroes. Suddenly the people who were the biggest stars were too slick to be real."

Johnson became a perfect model for the 1960's rock star. He lived hard, played like a man possessed and died young — at around 27 — in mysterious circumstances. No wonder he appealed to the Jim Morrison generation.

The obsession with Johnson at the expense of almost all other blues singers, Mr. Wald suggests, has grossly distorted the history of the blues. Prewar blues musicians were much more versatile and pop oriented than is widely known; Mr. Wald notes that when Alan Lomax interviewed Muddy Waters in Mississippi in the early 1940's, he found that Waters's repertory included "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and seven Gene Autry songs — more pop than blues. And the immediate origins of the blues, Mr. Wald writes, are most likely in black vaudeville, not in field hollers. The blues, in other words, was up-to-the-minute pop, a sign of urbanization, technology and sophistication, not primitivism or tradition.

Not all historians agree with Mr. Wald's critique. Johnson may not have been a star, some say, but he had many important followers like Muddy Waters and Elmore James, who continued to play his songs in the decades after his death.

And the blues queens, some argue, cannot really be considered neglected. John Szwed, a professor of anthropology and African-American studies at Yale and currently the Louis Armstrong visiting professor of jazz studies at Columbia, called them overvalued. "The classic women blues singers have always received more attention from jazz critics and historians, the folks who canonized the blues tradition," he said.

Some critics also see a red herring in measuring importance in terms of raw pop appeal. "You can argue that Emily Dickinson wasn't that important," said Jeff Todd Titon, a professor of ethnomusicology at Brown. "Nobody in the 19th century was influenced by her poetry, not until literary critics got ahold of her."

But the notion that Johnson's fortunes and the history of the blues have largely been decided by the white rock 'n' roll world appeals to many blues experts.

"There are problems with the idea of the blues as a roots music," Mr. Titon said. "Because if so, then rock 'n' roll is the flower. It used to be that the flower was jazz, which is equally misleading. Blues is a music in and of itself."

Mr. Wald has a looser definition. Blues music, as he sees it, is simply part of a continuum of black pop. Robert Johnson, Leroy Carr and Bessie Smith were not moaning field laborers. "They were Sam Cooke, they were Snoop Dogg, they were Aretha Franklin," he said. "That's what we've forgotten, and that's what a lot of white blues fans don't want them to be."

posted by s at 12:44 PM