Tuesday, 14 October 2003
attn london dwellers!!
PRINCESSHEADBUTT >"Eases in with gentle electro-noodling underpinned by some
delicate guitar and rather fab and restrained percussion, y'know, less IS
more and all that, then it slides into a fuller-figured sound with the brass opening up, ah, lovely stuff..." - unpeeled
QUERELLE > this will be the launch for the long awaited QUERELLE / THE WOW split 12" > an incensed display
of resplendent emotion and desire > "querelle sculpt an excellent blend of post-punk and post-rock, out of their
tiny undernourished buzzing hearts." - drowned in sound
MR JAMES SKINNER >the man behind the anguished guitar of 30 DAY HEX brought to you for a special
accoustic hearing > dangerously graceful songs of fleeting thought and harsh reality >
+ silver rocket dj's
sunday the nineteenth of october two thousand and three
@ the buffalo bar > nearest tube highbury islington > london
> doors open 7:30pm till midnight.
just got that off me bezzie Rebecca, i don't even know if she's part of Querelle or Princessheadbutt, but she assures the reader that she'll be playing all three chords on the six-string that she knows,
rebecca works oop north where it's boring and slow, in fact she works at the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, and is responsible for this rather tasty sounding exhibition here about the divine Ms Kathleen Ferrier (she even got mentioned in the guardian guide woo-hah).
i thought it was time to move the goalposts and think outside the box and touch base with a little nepotism at this place, after all it's my feckin blog wot?
PRINCESSHEADBUTT >"Eases in with gentle electro-noodling underpinned by some
delicate guitar and rather fab and restrained percussion, y'know, less IS
more and all that, then it slides into a fuller-figured sound with the brass opening up, ah, lovely stuff..." - unpeeled
QUERELLE > this will be the launch for the long awaited QUERELLE / THE WOW split 12" > an incensed display
of resplendent emotion and desire > "querelle sculpt an excellent blend of post-punk and post-rock, out of their
tiny undernourished buzzing hearts." - drowned in sound
MR JAMES SKINNER >the man behind the anguished guitar of 30 DAY HEX brought to you for a special
accoustic hearing > dangerously graceful songs of fleeting thought and harsh reality >
+ silver rocket dj's
sunday the nineteenth of october two thousand and three
@ the buffalo bar > nearest tube highbury islington > london
> doors open 7:30pm till midnight.
just got that off me bezzie Rebecca, i don't even know if she's part of Querelle or Princessheadbutt, but she assures the reader that she'll be playing all three chords on the six-string that she knows,
rebecca works oop north where it's boring and slow, in fact she works at the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, and is responsible for this rather tasty sounding exhibition here about the divine Ms Kathleen Ferrier (she even got mentioned in the guardian guide woo-hah).
i thought it was time to move the goalposts and think outside the box and touch base with a little nepotism at this place, after all it's my feckin blog wot?
and re. that washington times editorial below, i'm quite a cynical rightwing pragmatic cunt me, in principle some of the stuff is not disagreeable, but it's just been written idiotically innit, with a lack of research etc.etc. like 'yes the red cross didn't know what happened in Penn., DC, Manhattan on the 11th September 2001; the red cross must think every single detainee is completely not guilty of being an al-qaeda or taliban member or fighter' no, give the red cross credit, but credit your readers with some brains and nuance eh?
buffoonery.
buffoonery.
edited highlights from the latest missive off our kid, over in Hull (there had to be extra-aesthetic reasons for sticking up for Larkin you knew it!) :=
Still I await Saturday when the second most annoying team from Gtr Manchester (aka The Bolton Breezeblock Army) come to CoMS and do their usual shit We only hate Man United, wankers,should be a good one, £29 quid in for me, as Bolton are apparently worthy of a category B game....By the way just got Gyles Brandreths diarys and its another Alan Clarke full of hilarious observations about the top orders at Westminster, heres a taster Soames pushed his way through the crowds, barking at the Wintertons ,You're cunts and ugly ones to boot
i like Soames me, he's a good laugh, remember one time when Prescott got up to speak and Soames barked out "A G&T for me, Giovanni".
quality.
~
Still I await Saturday when the second most annoying team from Gtr Manchester (aka The Bolton Breezeblock Army) come to CoMS and do their usual shit We only hate Man United, wankers,should be a good one, £29 quid in for me, as Bolton are apparently worthy of a category B game....By the way just got Gyles Brandreths diarys and its another Alan Clarke full of hilarious observations about the top orders at Westminster, heres a taster Soames pushed his way through the crowds, barking at the Wintertons ,You're cunts and ugly ones to boot
i like Soames me, he's a good laugh, remember one time when Prescott got up to speak and Soames barked out "A G&T for me, Giovanni".
quality.
~
OK, so we all know that compared to its sister journal, the washington times, even the post looks like a bastion of social-democratic mixed-economy bleeding heart Scandinavian liberalism, but this editorial from the times the other day really does take the biscuit.
the headline itself, "twisted" red cross is truly inflammatory, think of some of the word associations to go with that huh?
still, judge for yourself.
here from radio australia shows what a jam the red cross is currently in.
the headline itself, "twisted" red cross is truly inflammatory, think of some of the word associations to go with that huh?
still, judge for yourself.
here from radio australia shows what a jam the red cross is currently in.
Monday, 13 October 2003
chatting nonsense about things i don't actually know about, in a preening and pompously self-absorbed fashion
here is a provocative take on Diana Johnstone's fools' crusade: yugoslavia, NATO and western delusions [amazon link here]. the author spends some time slagging off the likes of Noel Malcolm, Michael Ignatieff, Chris Hitchens, and similar luminaries who - frankly - in this area i trust more than the author.
it should be noted that the article is published at the Monthly Review, a far-left site (it's also intriguing to note that the paperback of the Johnstone book is published by Pluto Press, which is vaguely significant if you know anything about that particular publishing house).
the horrible events that took place in the town of Gospic in the autumn of 1991 were being noted at the time, contrary to Herman's claims; HRW has information on that here, although carries slightly differing information to Herman's writing.
Herman does have some good points about an embedded media and toeing a party line and whatnot, and about the new-imperialist left-leaning types that basically followed the actions of the western governments in support thinking that the good (that outweighed evil side-effects), that was supposed to be being done (i was certainly one of these at the time during the 78 day aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia, although after the fact started to re-assess that position, typically when the like of one too many Robert Fisk reports came to light, detailing civilian casualties thanks to the usual suspect: Nato 'smart bombs'; i was, essentially, deluded into the one position, you see, although my final analysis was that of a fence-sitting one) was 'worth it', etc.
if you do a google for Johnstone or Herman's name, you'll sooner or later turn up some interesting views on the admittedly frankly fairly ridiculous Nato spokesperson during the Yugoslavian air campaign, Jamie Shea, and that sort of thing.
basically Johnstone and Herman and other colleagues are railing - and fair enough too - about the demonisation of the Serbs that certain media quarters, etc., probably did lapse too easily into during all the different days of the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, across many years and regions (and they would be forgiven for airing distaste about some of the less than rigorous reporting the world got about the UCK/KLA from certain quarters [Amnesty International]).
however, if personal experience is any guide (especially thinking of being a undergraduate student during March 1999 - when the campaign {which was estimated to cost Britain a bill of one billion pounds a year every year for a decade from the year in question, incidentally} got going - onwards), then some far-leftists should have been asking themselves some far harder questions (than they were) about abuses being committed against Kosovar Albanians, etc., from sections of Serbian society, etc. and not just have been going about making lazy and somewhat puerile anti-American points, etc. but there again, it's easy to get caught up in romanticising one end of a conflict and not trying to see the whole picture and all the multi-varied shades of grey, i know i've done it.
another example of this might be the student socialist worker newspaper of the period - this something distinctly recalled, especially since i was good mates with the chair of the student socialist worker society at the students' union - devoting much time and space to the bombardment of Yugoslavia but then ignoring any Russian abuses in Chechnya at the same time, and definitely ignoring blatant Russian abuses later in 1999 when the second Chechen conflict actually started.
~
here is a Yahoo! link for Tim Judah, who wrote - among other books - the excellent The Serbs, not an apologia for Serbian excesses, but a balanced look at an embattled society that deserved more credit than it got sometimes (and certainly more international recognition in response to certain heinous issues, such as the Croation re-taking of the Krajina, a situation of catastrophic proportions).
and, finally, here are one, two pieces from Ed Vulliamy at the Guardian about the ITN libel trial. there's not much continuity in linking these two pieces to my ill-felt rant above, but did want to observe that the second Vulliamy piece is literally the finest piece of writing i think i've ever read in the Guardian (within that ballpark, anyway), and Vulliamy is OTM here. don't believe all the bullshit from LM apologists, and Srpska-Mreza, etc.etc.-type nutjobs.
it's really not what it was all about.
here is a provocative take on Diana Johnstone's fools' crusade: yugoslavia, NATO and western delusions [amazon link here]. the author spends some time slagging off the likes of Noel Malcolm, Michael Ignatieff, Chris Hitchens, and similar luminaries who - frankly - in this area i trust more than the author.
it should be noted that the article is published at the Monthly Review, a far-left site (it's also intriguing to note that the paperback of the Johnstone book is published by Pluto Press, which is vaguely significant if you know anything about that particular publishing house).
the horrible events that took place in the town of Gospic in the autumn of 1991 were being noted at the time, contrary to Herman's claims; HRW has information on that here, although carries slightly differing information to Herman's writing.
Herman does have some good points about an embedded media and toeing a party line and whatnot, and about the new-imperialist left-leaning types that basically followed the actions of the western governments in support thinking that the good (that outweighed evil side-effects), that was supposed to be being done (i was certainly one of these at the time during the 78 day aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia, although after the fact started to re-assess that position, typically when the like of one too many Robert Fisk reports came to light, detailing civilian casualties thanks to the usual suspect: Nato 'smart bombs'; i was, essentially, deluded into the one position, you see, although my final analysis was that of a fence-sitting one) was 'worth it', etc.
if you do a google for Johnstone or Herman's name, you'll sooner or later turn up some interesting views on the admittedly frankly fairly ridiculous Nato spokesperson during the Yugoslavian air campaign, Jamie Shea, and that sort of thing.
basically Johnstone and Herman and other colleagues are railing - and fair enough too - about the demonisation of the Serbs that certain media quarters, etc., probably did lapse too easily into during all the different days of the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, across many years and regions (and they would be forgiven for airing distaste about some of the less than rigorous reporting the world got about the UCK/KLA from certain quarters [Amnesty International]).
however, if personal experience is any guide (especially thinking of being a undergraduate student during March 1999 - when the campaign {which was estimated to cost Britain a bill of one billion pounds a year every year for a decade from the year in question, incidentally} got going - onwards), then some far-leftists should have been asking themselves some far harder questions (than they were) about abuses being committed against Kosovar Albanians, etc., from sections of Serbian society, etc. and not just have been going about making lazy and somewhat puerile anti-American points, etc. but there again, it's easy to get caught up in romanticising one end of a conflict and not trying to see the whole picture and all the multi-varied shades of grey, i know i've done it.
another example of this might be the student socialist worker newspaper of the period - this something distinctly recalled, especially since i was good mates with the chair of the student socialist worker society at the students' union - devoting much time and space to the bombardment of Yugoslavia but then ignoring any Russian abuses in Chechnya at the same time, and definitely ignoring blatant Russian abuses later in 1999 when the second Chechen conflict actually started.
~
here is a Yahoo! link for Tim Judah, who wrote - among other books - the excellent The Serbs, not an apologia for Serbian excesses, but a balanced look at an embattled society that deserved more credit than it got sometimes (and certainly more international recognition in response to certain heinous issues, such as the Croation re-taking of the Krajina, a situation of catastrophic proportions).
and, finally, here are one, two pieces from Ed Vulliamy at the Guardian about the ITN libel trial. there's not much continuity in linking these two pieces to my ill-felt rant above, but did want to observe that the second Vulliamy piece is literally the finest piece of writing i think i've ever read in the Guardian (within that ballpark, anyway), and Vulliamy is OTM here. don't believe all the bullshit from LM apologists, and Srpska-Mreza, etc.etc.-type nutjobs.
it's really not what it was all about.
i would just like to say that i agree more with Tom Ewing and Jim Robinson than zenarchery: see comments on that post also.
here are some additional points.
(i) a united fan friend was good enough to forward
It is hard to see how anyone at the club thought Ferdinand would remember a drug test he had been told about several hours before. After all, Sir Alex Ferguson must have told him whom he was supposed to mark during the Champions League match against Stuttgart and he forgot that in less than five minutes. That the defender was apparently photographed shopping on Tuesday afternoon indicates that he had also forgotten he was moving house. Or possibly he had wandered in to the glitzy department store under the impression it was his new house, having forgotten what the real one looked like.
from the Guardian, which we both enjoyed.
(ii) just wondered this in an email but are there any cities in Britain outside of the capital that are truly great in a New York/Paris/Tokyo way (you know warramean)?
perhaps the two Scottish braves (though i've always enjoyed Glasgow more than Edinburgh personally; it's hardly controversial to note the latter can be too precious about its culture, which Glasgow also has in spades, after all) and certainly the only English candidates (sorry Cymru) would be Birmingham and Manchester. i don't know, but it's a question of some interest to me. if only for reasons of mythology, and Bernard Shaw/Wilde/Beckett/Joyce type purposes [excellent tourism link], if you extended this catchment area to the British Isles, the only stone colder apart from the Smoke would be Dublin (even though it's smaller than many English cities).
(iii) Da Weaver (scroll down to Sat. Oct. 11) responds to me, and makes crucial points about: -
(a) demographics, true dat
(b) Sara Cox is execrable yeah, but Chris Moyles has never struck me as any good either (in fact, i'd be tempted to dismiss him as largely awful which would be unfair of course). i am a bit out of step though, thinking Mark and Lard terribly over-rated and i know that, really, they're cool, cause virtually everyone likes 'em.
(c) the freewheeling catholicism of a Jeremy Vine (he's no Paxo on Newsnight, but otherwise___) programme
(d) Radio 3's classical coverage. but, to be fair, that alone is brilliant. so, really, that's a tad unfair. though they do have a lot of Lucy Duran type world coverage, which means presumably that chez Wyatt/Harris they're not required listening... ;) (Duran shitting out Matt on his Senegalese tekkk trip), and crappy Wire abstraction, but in an overweeningly pretentious manner (whenever i've heard, you know, those two blokes, Sandall or whoever)
(e) and a brutally honest - and, to be frank, most likely accurate - assessment of Paul Gambaccini's "casual" listeners.
oh. and i honestly do enjoy Ani DiFranco as much as the next crunchy folkster, but Radio One ignores an awful lot more than just the acoustic folk-pop scene, so we may as well just open a barrage of criticism on all fronts, huh? :)
(iv) it always seems the Nobel literature is a good one, whereas people like to argue over the Nobel peace prize. obvious, but true dat (this is a fine piece at the guardian about the nobel in lit., via the boston review).
(v) one of one's favourite Nobel lit. winners in one's lifetime was 1992 (derek walcott).
(vi) laters.
(i) a united fan friend was good enough to forward
It is hard to see how anyone at the club thought Ferdinand would remember a drug test he had been told about several hours before. After all, Sir Alex Ferguson must have told him whom he was supposed to mark during the Champions League match against Stuttgart and he forgot that in less than five minutes. That the defender was apparently photographed shopping on Tuesday afternoon indicates that he had also forgotten he was moving house. Or possibly he had wandered in to the glitzy department store under the impression it was his new house, having forgotten what the real one looked like.
from the Guardian, which we both enjoyed.
(ii) just wondered this in an email but are there any cities in Britain outside of the capital that are truly great in a New York/Paris/Tokyo way (you know warramean)?
perhaps the two Scottish braves (though i've always enjoyed Glasgow more than Edinburgh personally; it's hardly controversial to note the latter can be too precious about its culture, which Glasgow also has in spades, after all) and certainly the only English candidates (sorry Cymru) would be Birmingham and Manchester. i don't know, but it's a question of some interest to me. if only for reasons of mythology, and Bernard Shaw/Wilde/Beckett/Joyce type purposes [excellent tourism link], if you extended this catchment area to the British Isles, the only stone colder apart from the Smoke would be Dublin (even though it's smaller than many English cities).
(iii) Da Weaver (scroll down to Sat. Oct. 11) responds to me, and makes crucial points about: -
(a) demographics, true dat
(b) Sara Cox is execrable yeah, but Chris Moyles has never struck me as any good either (in fact, i'd be tempted to dismiss him as largely awful which would be unfair of course). i am a bit out of step though, thinking Mark and Lard terribly over-rated and i know that, really, they're cool, cause virtually everyone likes 'em.
(c) the freewheeling catholicism of a Jeremy Vine (he's no Paxo on Newsnight, but otherwise___) programme
(d) Radio 3's classical coverage. but, to be fair, that alone is brilliant. so, really, that's a tad unfair. though they do have a lot of Lucy Duran type world coverage, which means presumably that chez Wyatt/Harris they're not required listening... ;) (Duran shitting out Matt on his Senegalese tekkk trip), and crappy Wire abstraction, but in an overweeningly pretentious manner (whenever i've heard, you know, those two blokes, Sandall or whoever)
(e) and a brutally honest - and, to be frank, most likely accurate - assessment of Paul Gambaccini's "casual" listeners.
oh. and i honestly do enjoy Ani DiFranco as much as the next crunchy folkster, but Radio One ignores an awful lot more than just the acoustic folk-pop scene, so we may as well just open a barrage of criticism on all fronts, huh? :)
(iv) it always seems the Nobel literature is a good one, whereas people like to argue over the Nobel peace prize. obvious, but true dat (this is a fine piece at the guardian about the nobel in lit., via the boston review).
(v) one of one's favourite Nobel lit. winners in one's lifetime was 1992 (derek walcott).
(vi) laters.
here are some points.
(1) that from Jess is wonderful (falling in love with cities is one of the loveliest things in the world), and the bit about Peaches was spot on too. her whole sound seems grainy and rather tedious round here, to be truthful. not grainy in a decent Pygmy percussion way either.
(2) Robin's whole run of form on weekend gone was, basically, astonishing to read.
(3) Forest fan k-punk is shining brightly here.
my own views on this are that out of the United fanzines i've recently read United do pride themselves on their anti-sectarianism stance, let's be fair. and their fans are supposedly less tarnished by some of the excesses of the traditional (read, bigoted white chaps) football fan in some other towns (Mcr is hardly the most ethnically place in the provinces, or even the least white town in the north, but it is a far more ethnically mixed population than, say, Leeds or Liverpool or Newcastle or Sheffield). a lad i know who goes up the games often discusses the love-in he thinks the fans of Celtic and the fans of Liverpool have, to an extent. and he - very reasonably, after all - criticises Liverpool fans (i don't know if this actually accurate, or just a fantasy, but i shall take him at his word) for cosying up to Celtic fans. there's a sidenote here which says that some people, i believe, still do have a perception that out of the Old Firm clubs, Rangers have the higher percentage of fans whose minds have been twisted by the sectarian agenda.
i don't know, but an obviously blatant reason to posit why this might be the case in, certainly, England, is to do with a certain warping of the left-liberal mindset (fairly common among English youngsters, if my circles of acquaintances are any representative judge, and i'd say they roughly are) that supports Irish unification and so - the Bhoys fans, in patently being identified with that cause (see also all the Palestinian flags that Celtic fans wave at the derby matches) - this is why Celtic are bigged up in this regard (see also all the Israel [as well as Union flags, of course, to counter the Irish tricolour the Bhoys hoist] flags that Rangers wave at the derby matches) over the rightwards gaze of the Rule Britannia chanting Gers.
interestingly, i forwarded the link to my younger brother (the aforementioned Altrincham and Man City fan, like myself) and i'll transcribe his reply below. my brother is a centrist, nominally left-looking internationalist type btw, solidly Labour, does quite a bit for others bleh bleh, so he's not just some miserable Little Englander 'bitter blue' with no conception of political identities. his frank riposte certainly interested me.
Yep. I was lucky enuff to read the article in question in the Observer in full yday, and having come across this twat Kurt before, I must say a lot of the points made in the article you mailed hit the nail on the head. In much the same way the arrogant wankers think 'forgetting' a drugs test is a valid excuse for the most expensive player in english football history, Kurt seems to think United fans are some left leaning internationalist sophisticates or something. Utter shite.
The fact of the matter is from the top down United have one huge persecution complex and think that the normal rules of football shouldn't apply to them. I must say this week that nearly all proper fans I know fully backed the FA and that doesn't happen that often really. They really make me laugh the rags.
i do basically agree with the persecution complex thing. i know a lot of United fans and they're always - to be reasonable - at pains to point out they have this perception that everyone wants them to do badly (though i find myself very ambivalent towards United these days, and the only time i really want them to lose is when they play either City or other Prem teams i have much time for, e.g., Birmingham; it's Liverpool FC i can't stand heh-heh), but that practically translates into a persecution complex for some, i'd say.
okay, crappy unscientific straw-poll, but the collective two penn'orth from this end.
i certainly know enough racist, white United fans with the same regressive views on illegal immigration that those Little Englanders down in (far less white, as population goes, incidentally - Trafford borough, where United play, is comprised of about 92% ethnic majority citizenry, and the city of Mcr about 80%; the figure in Leicester is about 60%) Leicester are, apparently, guilty of having. in fact, they constitute probably the majority of United fans i know.
so i don't know about this.
i also would say the best United fanzine is united we stand, over and above ones like red issue or red army or whatever it is, but then again, i only semi-regularly get to see or discuss their fanzines with two united fans i know, and they seem a bit less laddish than most united fans i know, so i don't know if their own prejudices are colouring my reception.
one side-note i think fairly interesting is that all the united fanzines you read do still seem to have chips on their shoulders about Mcr not being London (hah!) and they will even quote Evening Standard articles slagging off Mcr (IIRC one such feature once in, i think, UWS) and get all hot and bothered about it. of course, to be fair (what a lot of times one uses that phrase), the Evening Standard must have been doing its own version of a fairly pathetic provincialism to earn UWS's ire, some puff-piece on Arsenal that childishly slagged United off, if memory serves.
but all the end-of-last-season wrap-up features i read in the summer's issues of the 2 or 3 united fanzines i have semi-regular access to were almost shockingly embittered about Arsenal (and, by extension, glorious cosmopolitan London?).
funny thing hey.
(4) yeah, i know that how ethnically diverse an English town is has little bearing on the make-up of its team football crowds, which are still overwhelmingly white even in London.
(5) the Cubs on the verge of the World Series is a bit like Notts County or Huddersfield on the verge of winning the Prem.
(6) more points later.
(1) that from Jess is wonderful (falling in love with cities is one of the loveliest things in the world), and the bit about Peaches was spot on too. her whole sound seems grainy and rather tedious round here, to be truthful. not grainy in a decent Pygmy percussion way either.
(2) Robin's whole run of form on weekend gone was, basically, astonishing to read.
(3) Forest fan k-punk is shining brightly here.
my own views on this are that out of the United fanzines i've recently read United do pride themselves on their anti-sectarianism stance, let's be fair. and their fans are supposedly less tarnished by some of the excesses of the traditional (read, bigoted white chaps) football fan in some other towns (Mcr is hardly the most ethnically place in the provinces, or even the least white town in the north, but it is a far more ethnically mixed population than, say, Leeds or Liverpool or Newcastle or Sheffield). a lad i know who goes up the games often discusses the love-in he thinks the fans of Celtic and the fans of Liverpool have, to an extent. and he - very reasonably, after all - criticises Liverpool fans (i don't know if this actually accurate, or just a fantasy, but i shall take him at his word) for cosying up to Celtic fans. there's a sidenote here which says that some people, i believe, still do have a perception that out of the Old Firm clubs, Rangers have the higher percentage of fans whose minds have been twisted by the sectarian agenda.
i don't know, but an obviously blatant reason to posit why this might be the case in, certainly, England, is to do with a certain warping of the left-liberal mindset (fairly common among English youngsters, if my circles of acquaintances are any representative judge, and i'd say they roughly are) that supports Irish unification and so - the Bhoys fans, in patently being identified with that cause (see also all the Palestinian flags that Celtic fans wave at the derby matches) - this is why Celtic are bigged up in this regard (see also all the Israel [as well as Union flags, of course, to counter the Irish tricolour the Bhoys hoist] flags that Rangers wave at the derby matches) over the rightwards gaze of the Rule Britannia chanting Gers.
interestingly, i forwarded the link to my younger brother (the aforementioned Altrincham and Man City fan, like myself) and i'll transcribe his reply below. my brother is a centrist, nominally left-looking internationalist type btw, solidly Labour, does quite a bit for others bleh bleh, so he's not just some miserable Little Englander 'bitter blue' with no conception of political identities. his frank riposte certainly interested me.
Yep. I was lucky enuff to read the article in question in the Observer in full yday, and having come across this twat Kurt before, I must say a lot of the points made in the article you mailed hit the nail on the head. In much the same way the arrogant wankers think 'forgetting' a drugs test is a valid excuse for the most expensive player in english football history, Kurt seems to think United fans are some left leaning internationalist sophisticates or something. Utter shite.
The fact of the matter is from the top down United have one huge persecution complex and think that the normal rules of football shouldn't apply to them. I must say this week that nearly all proper fans I know fully backed the FA and that doesn't happen that often really. They really make me laugh the rags.
i do basically agree with the persecution complex thing. i know a lot of United fans and they're always - to be reasonable - at pains to point out they have this perception that everyone wants them to do badly (though i find myself very ambivalent towards United these days, and the only time i really want them to lose is when they play either City or other Prem teams i have much time for, e.g., Birmingham; it's Liverpool FC i can't stand heh-heh), but that practically translates into a persecution complex for some, i'd say.
okay, crappy unscientific straw-poll, but the collective two penn'orth from this end.
i certainly know enough racist, white United fans with the same regressive views on illegal immigration that those Little Englanders down in (far less white, as population goes, incidentally - Trafford borough, where United play, is comprised of about 92% ethnic majority citizenry, and the city of Mcr about 80%; the figure in Leicester is about 60%) Leicester are, apparently, guilty of having. in fact, they constitute probably the majority of United fans i know.
so i don't know about this.
i also would say the best United fanzine is united we stand, over and above ones like red issue or red army or whatever it is, but then again, i only semi-regularly get to see or discuss their fanzines with two united fans i know, and they seem a bit less laddish than most united fans i know, so i don't know if their own prejudices are colouring my reception.
one side-note i think fairly interesting is that all the united fanzines you read do still seem to have chips on their shoulders about Mcr not being London (hah!) and they will even quote Evening Standard articles slagging off Mcr (IIRC one such feature once in, i think, UWS) and get all hot and bothered about it. of course, to be fair (what a lot of times one uses that phrase), the Evening Standard must have been doing its own version of a fairly pathetic provincialism to earn UWS's ire, some puff-piece on Arsenal that childishly slagged United off, if memory serves.
but all the end-of-last-season wrap-up features i read in the summer's issues of the 2 or 3 united fanzines i have semi-regular access to were almost shockingly embittered about Arsenal (and, by extension, glorious cosmopolitan London?).
funny thing hey.
(4) yeah, i know that how ethnically diverse an English town is has little bearing on the make-up of its team football crowds, which are still overwhelmingly white even in London.
(5) the Cubs on the verge of the World Series is a bit like Notts County or Huddersfield on the verge of winning the Prem.
(6) more points later.
Friday, 10 October 2003
the 'hard-floor' type tekno societies at the students union i was a member of, would often flyer metallers to try and get them through the door at their night, using wonderfully florid descriptions about alien machine soul and trying to find commonalities it had with their beloved metal, about clanging beats, ooh la la~
that's why it's easy to foresee that 'classic' Detroit will find itself rehabilitated/canonicised in future with - relatively speaking - little fuss from all them rockists.
it's a somewhat different kettle of fish to the house that Jack built over in Chicago, where one gets the impression it'd be more difficult to persuade White Stripes fans to sling away their guitars. Angus would probably be best at explaining why, but the cold self-regard and intellectual self-mythologising of tek has gotta be fairly palatable to, ooh, prog fans and, generally speaking Pere Ubu/Bright Eyes/Television etc. fans that prioritise 'real' music, clever themes, etc., explored in haunting depth right?
whereas the supposed hedonistic narratives implicit in a lot of 4/4 might be harder to digest.
this here from tufluv is superb (as we all know rite), not just the Lemonjelly descriptions but how the minotaur shock impulse towards bedroom comfort is plotted. and the trajectory about does tufluv have the right to be writing about music, where they were discussing a fave of theirs when they were 14 the other day some cheesy divaesque vox, such good stuff,
it beats me the pedestrian shite that is written in some of the pop mags these days and that cheeky swine who edits the new look (but still crap, funnily enough, although good in a vibey sense for suburban indie kid hipsters) NME saying, off the back of Simon's Guardian moment of fame, blogging is good, who knows, perhaps some of these bloggers can be poached for the likes of the nme, bugger me, these people are already writing better than paper journos.
cheeky beggar/
that's why it's easy to foresee that 'classic' Detroit will find itself rehabilitated/canonicised in future with - relatively speaking - little fuss from all them rockists.
it's a somewhat different kettle of fish to the house that Jack built over in Chicago, where one gets the impression it'd be more difficult to persuade White Stripes fans to sling away their guitars. Angus would probably be best at explaining why, but the cold self-regard and intellectual self-mythologising of tek has gotta be fairly palatable to, ooh, prog fans and, generally speaking Pere Ubu/Bright Eyes/Television etc. fans that prioritise 'real' music, clever themes, etc., explored in haunting depth right?
whereas the supposed hedonistic narratives implicit in a lot of 4/4 might be harder to digest.
this here from tufluv is superb (as we all know rite), not just the Lemonjelly descriptions but how the minotaur shock impulse towards bedroom comfort is plotted. and the trajectory about does tufluv have the right to be writing about music, where they were discussing a fave of theirs when they were 14 the other day some cheesy divaesque vox, such good stuff,
it beats me the pedestrian shite that is written in some of the pop mags these days and that cheeky swine who edits the new look (but still crap, funnily enough, although good in a vibey sense for suburban indie kid hipsters) NME saying, off the back of Simon's Guardian moment of fame, blogging is good, who knows, perhaps some of these bloggers can be poached for the likes of the nme, bugger me, these people are already writing better than paper journos.
cheeky beggar/
this just in actually, additional, from our kid (the mail having the tactful subject header of Touch of a rapist : mind you, he is a big fan of Peter Kay and that whole Phoenix Nights arc, and that 'witticism' has been used there in the past, one believes).
so, he writes :=
The players are mate in order.
The Leeds badboy is Jody Morriss and he has been suspended by the Bellend Road boys for two weeks and also fined two weeks wages. The Rozzers are investigating as we speak.
The other scandal goes as follows. Kieron Dyer booked the rooms in which the girl was 'raped' (or otherwise) but wasn't there at the time, Carlton Cole (Chelski but currently on loan at Charlton) had sex with her first - i.e. the consensual sex and guesses as to who the rest are generally take your pick from the young black players at Newcastle basically- Carl Cort, Titus Bramble (who got done for speeding in court this week incidentally) Shola Ameobi, and some say Paul Konchesky of The Yid Army was involved too. But that's what I know.
{incidentally, to refer to Spurs as Yid Army is not evilly anti-Semitic; the Spurs fans themselves chant it, in part of that 'reclaiming taboo words' way, and there was once a very thoughtful article from a Jewish Man City supporter in a City fanzine about hearing their "Yid Army" type songs at White Hart Lane [N. Mcr is the second biggest Jewish community in the UK, i think, after areas like Golders Green of course]. tho' it's very instructive to read Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' - still his best book eh - about Gooners fans using truly wrong slurs against the Spurs fans. and there's that vile West Ham song about, well, Luke might know to what i refer... ...i heard it getting chanted on the tube once, actually}
~
[ETA: apparently i wrote the above, including the reference to *** Army - dear me]
so, he writes :=
The players are mate in order.
The Leeds badboy is Jody Morriss and he has been suspended by the Bellend Road boys for two weeks and also fined two weeks wages. The Rozzers are investigating as we speak.
The other scandal goes as follows. Kieron Dyer booked the rooms in which the girl was 'raped' (or otherwise) but wasn't there at the time, Carlton Cole (Chelski but currently on loan at Charlton) had sex with her first - i.e. the consensual sex and guesses as to who the rest are generally take your pick from the young black players at Newcastle basically- Carl Cort, Titus Bramble (who got done for speeding in court this week incidentally) Shola Ameobi, and some say Paul Konchesky of The Yid Army was involved too. But that's what I know.
{incidentally, to refer to Spurs as Yid Army is not evilly anti-Semitic; the Spurs fans themselves chant it, in part of that 'reclaiming taboo words' way, and there was once a very thoughtful article from a Jewish Man City supporter in a City fanzine about hearing their "Yid Army" type songs at White Hart Lane [N. Mcr is the second biggest Jewish community in the UK, i think, after areas like Golders Green of course]. tho' it's very instructive to read Hornby's 'Fever Pitch' - still his best book eh - about Gooners fans using truly wrong slurs against the Spurs fans. and there's that vile West Ham song about, well, Luke might know to what i refer... ...i heard it getting chanted on the tube once, actually}
~
[ETA: apparently i wrote the above, including the reference to *** Army - dear me]
this will sound like a terribly militant left-wing thing to shout (odd coming from me: cynical centrist par excellence) but perhaps the reason the Gambaccini show on radio two has stopped playing a lot of the billboard charts is because, frankly, it's the 'wrong kind of music from black folks'.
radio two plays a lot of "black music", but - AFAIK - it tends to be yer Sunday Times/Telegraph rock critics/Q classicisms of sun-burnt and sandy roots or cartoony ska (shows with the Mighty Diamonds and Ethiopians on), rather than the most up to date Diwali-related riddims with slack toasting on top; it tends to be yer old-mannish Peebles/Robinson/Reeves soul, rather than Timbaland beat-science bashment divas screaming; and i'd bet if they started a hip-hop show it would be Run DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, all the way up to a load of Def Jux or Anticon artists with no mention of Scarface or Lil' Wayne.
'course, i don't wanna open that whole blissblog/claps/auspicious fish/ the world_ and her hubby debate again (undie-hop &c.), so i best shut up whilst nominally ahead...
___Mojo has now said it's -okay- to listen to classic Detroit related iconography in the field of tek, and doubtless you can see side columns there proseltyising about the goodness of, say, Oliver Ho (if techno's your thing), or other non-Detroit artists (as Reynolds said, kow-towing to classic Motor City tekkk is a bit canonical innit), but it's kinda funny (and extremely predictable) that they'd dabble in this whilst - as Gutterbreakz rightly observed - couching it in such daft 'Richie Hawtin is the Elvis of techno' type terms.....still, anyway, the levee still breaks right_
radio two plays a lot of "black music", but - AFAIK - it tends to be yer Sunday Times/Telegraph rock critics/Q classicisms of sun-burnt and sandy roots or cartoony ska (shows with the Mighty Diamonds and Ethiopians on), rather than the most up to date Diwali-related riddims with slack toasting on top; it tends to be yer old-mannish Peebles/Robinson/Reeves soul, rather than Timbaland beat-science bashment divas screaming; and i'd bet if they started a hip-hop show it would be Run DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, all the way up to a load of Def Jux or Anticon artists with no mention of Scarface or Lil' Wayne.
'course, i don't wanna open that whole blissblog/claps/auspicious fish/ the world_ and her hubby debate again (undie-hop &c.), so i best shut up whilst nominally ahead...
___Mojo has now said it's -okay- to listen to classic Detroit related iconography in the field of tek, and doubtless you can see side columns there proseltyising about the goodness of, say, Oliver Ho (if techno's your thing), or other non-Detroit artists (as Reynolds said, kow-towing to classic Motor City tekkk is a bit canonical innit), but it's kinda funny (and extremely predictable) that they'd dabble in this whilst - as Gutterbreakz rightly observed - couching it in such daft 'Richie Hawtin is the Elvis of techno' type terms.....still, anyway, the levee still breaks right_
so there's not enough time to here go into further detail about this particular wall street journal letter that needs addressing.
one thing you should know is that the letter itself - concerning a journal editorial that mused on serbia being a better friend towards the americans than france - isn't especially bad, and it says some good, solid points that any right thinking person with a heart would agree with.
however, there are one or two turns of phrase that i'm choosing to interpret as perhaps - intentionally or not - somewhat sleight-of-handish, and i think somedisco needs to write a riposte.
how joylessly pompous this blog is!
what can be done is to direct you towards this interesting link instead, for now.
and this is a kindly and balanced link from andrew sullivan (only went there at Angus' prompting).
one thing you should know is that the letter itself - concerning a journal editorial that mused on serbia being a better friend towards the americans than france - isn't especially bad, and it says some good, solid points that any right thinking person with a heart would agree with.
however, there are one or two turns of phrase that i'm choosing to interpret as perhaps - intentionally or not - somewhat sleight-of-handish, and i think somedisco needs to write a riposte.
how joylessly pompous this blog is!
what can be done is to direct you towards this interesting link instead, for now.
and this is a kindly and balanced link from andrew sullivan (only went there at Angus' prompting).
thing is, like, i do like radio 2, will certainly listen to it (heaven knows thank gods for their Radio 2 Folk Awards - bigging up the like of the magisterial John Tams in an otherwise sea to sea shining ocean environment that is bland UK is to be applauded - crunchy irridescent marginalia in an oft-homogenous landscape)
=
but, only___
+
COME OFF
1xtra and 3 and 4 and 1 are all better.
i mean, really~
=
but, only___
+
COME OFF
1xtra and 3 and 4 and 1 are all better.
i mean, really~
my man Weaver can usually be relied upon to nail things pretty well, but am a bit confused via his stuff on: -
"Fact. The top ten singles in this week's Billboard Hot 100 are all by black acts.
Fact. Paul Gambiccinni, on the show formerly known as America's Greatest Hits, has stopped using the Hot 100 to end the show, and now uses the US Singles Sales chart. Reason? In the past year, only Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson's hits have fitted into Radio 2's incredibly broad format.
Tentative conclusion. Billboard's Hot 100 has stopped reflecting the popular taste in the US, and is tilted too heavily in favour of radio airplay. "
he's probably right, and i'm definitely not going to worry about the defence of mass-scale radio, but must confess, there's something about this upper-low to lower-middle_brow narrative of the last 3 or 4 years that Radio Two is the don for 20 to 40somethings of discernment and choice given that Radio One dumbed down (or whatever happened, happened), that, well, narks me (is that a word?)_
sure, Mark Lamarr does ROOTS and BASIC ROCKABILLY 101s and people like Mica Paris or Dave Godin or whoever do DEEP SOUL or MOTOWN 101s and you have the likes of Lloyd Bradley or Wynton Marsalis on to explain about Sizzla or Jelly Roll Morton or whatever, and improving in the educational is all good, and the slogan ("the nation's favourite") is accurated according to ABC listening figures, but it just almost plain irrirates me.
i know i'm being very childish here, but it's this soft middlebrow pipe and slippers, or is it?
maybe it's not that, i don't object to that after all, i'm no ageist, and don't want to fight against the inevitable, it's just i seem to find something of a smug, preening tone there sometimes.
dunno like.
for all man like Weaver's good points, he does - last time checked - think 'boy in da corner' is a crap album, so let's leave sleeping dogs lie perhaps.
Ludacris or Kelly Clarkson - i know who i'd rather listen to___
P.S.
a good friend of mine has been, or is going to see, recently, or soon, Bruce Springstreen, Gillian Welch, (the absolutely beautiful) Emmylou Harris, and the Dixie Chicks.
i admire the Chicks and the Boss and positively adore Welch and Harris. but this good friend of mine also berates me for liking, say, Sean Paul. so, yunno, screw 'hm...
;)
==y'all ge't'me hear right? all just ain't gonna say what i mean...
ah, OBFUSCATE.
"Fact. The top ten singles in this week's Billboard Hot 100 are all by black acts.
Fact. Paul Gambiccinni, on the show formerly known as America's Greatest Hits, has stopped using the Hot 100 to end the show, and now uses the US Singles Sales chart. Reason? In the past year, only Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson's hits have fitted into Radio 2's incredibly broad format.
Tentative conclusion. Billboard's Hot 100 has stopped reflecting the popular taste in the US, and is tilted too heavily in favour of radio airplay. "
he's probably right, and i'm definitely not going to worry about the defence of mass-scale radio, but must confess, there's something about this upper-low to lower-middle_brow narrative of the last 3 or 4 years that Radio Two is the don for 20 to 40somethings of discernment and choice given that Radio One dumbed down (or whatever happened, happened), that, well, narks me (is that a word?)_
sure, Mark Lamarr does ROOTS and BASIC ROCKABILLY 101s and people like Mica Paris or Dave Godin or whoever do DEEP SOUL or MOTOWN 101s and you have the likes of Lloyd Bradley or Wynton Marsalis on to explain about Sizzla or Jelly Roll Morton or whatever, and improving in the educational is all good, and the slogan ("the nation's favourite") is accurated according to ABC listening figures, but it just almost plain irrirates me.
i know i'm being very childish here, but it's this soft middlebrow pipe and slippers, or is it?
maybe it's not that, i don't object to that after all, i'm no ageist, and don't want to fight against the inevitable, it's just i seem to find something of a smug, preening tone there sometimes.
dunno like.
for all man like Weaver's good points, he does - last time checked - think 'boy in da corner' is a crap album, so let's leave sleeping dogs lie perhaps.
Ludacris or Kelly Clarkson - i know who i'd rather listen to___
P.S.
a good friend of mine has been, or is going to see, recently, or soon, Bruce Springstreen, Gillian Welch, (the absolutely beautiful) Emmylou Harris, and the Dixie Chicks.
i admire the Chicks and the Boss and positively adore Welch and Harris. but this good friend of mine also berates me for liking, say, Sean Paul. so, yunno, screw 'hm...
;)
==y'all ge't'me hear right? all just ain't gonna say what i mean...
ah, OBFUSCATE.
the following is a pretty 'nice' story from one of the Chi-town papers (the Tribune, published october 8th).
Having a Prairie State connection isn't a prerequisite for winning a Nobel Prize this year, but so far it hasn't hurt. Winners of the three Nobels announced for literature, medicine and physics have ties to Illinois. Must be something in the water.
South African-born novelist John Maxwell Coetzee, who won the Nobel prize for literature, has been a visiting professor in the fall quarter at the University of Chicago since 1996.
Paul Lauterbur, who shares this year's Nobel for medicine with British scientist Sir Peter Mansfield for discoveries leading to the development of magnetic resonance imaging, is at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
And two of the three winners for physics are Illinoisans. Alexei Abrikosov is at Argonne National Laboratory and Anthony Leggett is also at the U. of I. in Urbana. They share the prize this year for their contributions to the theories of superconductors and superfluids with Russian Vitaly Ginzburg.
Beyond the Illinois connections, there is no common thread that connects these winners and their work, except for this: In each case, this prize reflects a lifetime of monumental achievement. These Nobel laureates have touched the world and changed it.
Coetzee's novels, grounded in the moral bankruptcy of South Africa's brutal apartheid, explore universal themes of human cruelty and loss, and yet capture the divine spark in man.
Leggett's work with superfluidity, the Swedish Academy said, may illuminate "one of the last unsolved problems of classical physics"-- how order turns into chaos. And the superconductivity research of Abrikosov and Ginzburg may one day lead to power lines that can conduct current more efficiently and high-speed trains that float above the tracks.
Perhaps the most dramatic example this year is Lauterbur and Mansfield's Nobel for work they did independently in the 1970s that ultimately led to the MRI. That breakthrough revolutionized medical diagnostics. The MRI is used more than 60 million times a year to detect or rule out illnesses. It gives doctors accurate three-dimensional images inside a patient, particularly soft tissue areas that could previously only be viewed through exploratory surgery.
There's no guarantee, of course, but the number of Nobel winners with Illinois ties could grow Wednesday when the prizes for chemistry and economics are awarded. After all, 22 of the 49 Nobel laureates in economics have been either faculty members, researchers or students at the University of Chicago. The school also has claimed 14 chemistry winners.
Former Gov. George Ryan's work on the death penalty has brought him mention as a contender for the peace prize.
So Illinois may not be done. Too bad, though, that there isn't a Nobel Prize for turnarounds. There's a team in Chicago that would be a lock.
Having a Prairie State connection isn't a prerequisite for winning a Nobel Prize this year, but so far it hasn't hurt. Winners of the three Nobels announced for literature, medicine and physics have ties to Illinois. Must be something in the water.
South African-born novelist John Maxwell Coetzee, who won the Nobel prize for literature, has been a visiting professor in the fall quarter at the University of Chicago since 1996.
Paul Lauterbur, who shares this year's Nobel for medicine with British scientist Sir Peter Mansfield for discoveries leading to the development of magnetic resonance imaging, is at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
And two of the three winners for physics are Illinoisans. Alexei Abrikosov is at Argonne National Laboratory and Anthony Leggett is also at the U. of I. in Urbana. They share the prize this year for their contributions to the theories of superconductors and superfluids with Russian Vitaly Ginzburg.
Beyond the Illinois connections, there is no common thread that connects these winners and their work, except for this: In each case, this prize reflects a lifetime of monumental achievement. These Nobel laureates have touched the world and changed it.
Coetzee's novels, grounded in the moral bankruptcy of South Africa's brutal apartheid, explore universal themes of human cruelty and loss, and yet capture the divine spark in man.
Leggett's work with superfluidity, the Swedish Academy said, may illuminate "one of the last unsolved problems of classical physics"-- how order turns into chaos. And the superconductivity research of Abrikosov and Ginzburg may one day lead to power lines that can conduct current more efficiently and high-speed trains that float above the tracks.
Perhaps the most dramatic example this year is Lauterbur and Mansfield's Nobel for work they did independently in the 1970s that ultimately led to the MRI. That breakthrough revolutionized medical diagnostics. The MRI is used more than 60 million times a year to detect or rule out illnesses. It gives doctors accurate three-dimensional images inside a patient, particularly soft tissue areas that could previously only be viewed through exploratory surgery.
There's no guarantee, of course, but the number of Nobel winners with Illinois ties could grow Wednesday when the prizes for chemistry and economics are awarded. After all, 22 of the 49 Nobel laureates in economics have been either faculty members, researchers or students at the University of Chicago. The school also has claimed 14 chemistry winners.
Former Gov. George Ryan's work on the death penalty has brought him mention as a contender for the peace prize.
So Illinois may not be done. Too bad, though, that there isn't a Nobel Prize for turnarounds. There's a team in Chicago that would be a lock.
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