Zevon, Cash, that comes in threes thing, shit that's not good... ...what now
?
~
Friday, 12 September 2003
Angus puts to bed thoughts on Dizzee (increased sales btw) with a little eloquent wondering (plus k-punk has a fine summary of some of those BBC comments here). i'm not sure about left-wing governments tho'; one of the timeless reasons why the liberal democrats over here are so appealing is they can say all sorts of nonsense in their sums and know they're not going to be called on them, because they'll always be in opposition (though what they say on illegal immigration is of course more palatable than what either the government or the tories say).
because i now feel rude about being mean-hearted about the mercury prize, here's a quick run-down on the albums that have won in the past.
in '92, 'screamadelica'.
despite being one of these tedious types that would like to disown ver scream, this is clearly good. i'm a rockist at heart so don't have the elegant and informed dance fan attitood to rilly take this to task, but inna mainstream way Weatherall bosses it here, so that's all good. well done chaps!
in '93, suede's self-titled.
suede were brash and good with their axes and androgynous in a populist way and appealed to stalking cats and the like. another fine effort in a sort of 'stardust and glitter' manner. rum and black type drinking.
in '94, m people's 'elegant slumming' had tasty production and got the job done re. uplifting vox from diva-esque-cum-scary lookin' woman heather small. manc connections and such mean that although middlebrow rockists might not like it as much as some other winners, it's still a triumph.
in '95, it was portishead's 'dummy' (named for the posh bit of bristol they hail from). this was of course the indie angst-rocker's trip-hop of choice, and so it's been no surprise to see that recent beth gibbons collaboration with that bloke whose name escapes me, 'rustin man' or whatever, lauded in places on t'internet wherever solipsistically bad verse is waxed.
in '96, 'different class' (pulp are SR's britpoppers of choice i do believe!).
winsome, winning, wry observations, acutely done, delicate and skittish and bigger than Betelgeuse all at once, you've got to love Jarvis et al.
in '97 it was 'new forms' of course (one of two Mercury winners i own the albums of can you guess... ...well in the punchy one disc CD format) =[scroll down here to yellow or whatever colour is it, for a perfect SR reply that anticipates any 'daft' comments...]; quality sounds, just lovely and fat.
in '98, we had maligned Lancastrians gomez with 'bring it on'. they got kinda bluesy and bottletops and although it's fashionable for EVERYONE to malign them, it did have a good dry desert sound on some stages and then the hit singles sounded raucous, so, yunno, fair play to 'em like.
in '99 was talvin singh's 'OK' which - let's be honest - wasn't anything as good as the previous year's comp he'd helmed ("soundz of the asian underground"), but was really rather delightful, and live that year (as one recalls) he was quite special. coffee table maybe, but someone you could have a dalliance with.
the new 000k saw boltonian damon gough with highly acclaimed debut 'the hour of bewilderbeast' which is nice. well, i'm not a fan i must be honest but the sprightly arrangements (but not sprightly or spry you understand in an elderly way, more a jestering court trickster way Logaan be damned) and occasional gold-dust in the air showed gough had a few tricks up his sleeve.
in '01 our peej won with 'stories from the city, stories from the sea', one of those carthartic ones. i'm not a big fan of the likes of tori amos or polly harvey or cat power i must be frank with you, but this was a soaring big bruiser of an album, carving concrete slabs of grace and awesome ball-shrinking power but done by the chrimbo tree fairy so fair dos like.
and last year it was ms dynamite of course (the streets' album was better). ms dynamite's album tended towards bland american r'n'b style productions and too many bashing-up-men trax for some tastes, but the singles were largely ace.
and herein lies the rub. being a pretentious 'largely more underground than Top40' tedious tit every year i'd be able to list what i think are loads and loads of better british albums that don't get the nom (sheila chandra's 'abonecronedrone' in '96, for instance). but, yunno, live and let live.
this, more than anything else, is one of the thrusts that means that i am truly saddened when even a well regarded colleague can state something so totally wrong-headed as thus below:=
~
Elsewhere, one of those bonkers Mercury Prize awards, to go alongside the M People in 1994, and Gomez in 1998. Most winners of the Merc - Primal Scream, Suede, Portishead, Pulp, Roni Size, Talvin Singh, Badly Drawn Boy, PJ Harvey, and (er) whoever it was that won last year - have either gone on to make great albums, or capped superb careers. Those two, and last night's winner Dizzy Rascal, were and are one-trick ponies. Still, three failures in twelve years is a good enough strike rate.
'boy in da corner' is at least as good (worthy, invigorating, inviting, etc.and so on) an album as any previous winners, and so it's disappointing to see this sort of statement proliferate.
because i now feel rude about being mean-hearted about the mercury prize, here's a quick run-down on the albums that have won in the past.
in '92, 'screamadelica'.
despite being one of these tedious types that would like to disown ver scream, this is clearly good. i'm a rockist at heart so don't have the elegant and informed dance fan attitood to rilly take this to task, but inna mainstream way Weatherall bosses it here, so that's all good. well done chaps!
in '93, suede's self-titled.
suede were brash and good with their axes and androgynous in a populist way and appealed to stalking cats and the like. another fine effort in a sort of 'stardust and glitter' manner. rum and black type drinking.
in '94, m people's 'elegant slumming' had tasty production and got the job done re. uplifting vox from diva-esque-cum-scary lookin' woman heather small. manc connections and such mean that although middlebrow rockists might not like it as much as some other winners, it's still a triumph.
in '95, it was portishead's 'dummy' (named for the posh bit of bristol they hail from). this was of course the indie angst-rocker's trip-hop of choice, and so it's been no surprise to see that recent beth gibbons collaboration with that bloke whose name escapes me, 'rustin man' or whatever, lauded in places on t'internet wherever solipsistically bad verse is waxed.
in '96, 'different class' (pulp are SR's britpoppers of choice i do believe!).
winsome, winning, wry observations, acutely done, delicate and skittish and bigger than Betelgeuse all at once, you've got to love Jarvis et al.
in '97 it was 'new forms' of course (one of two Mercury winners i own the albums of can you guess... ...well in the punchy one disc CD format) =[scroll down here to yellow or whatever colour is it, for a perfect SR reply that anticipates any 'daft' comments...]; quality sounds, just lovely and fat.
in '98, we had maligned Lancastrians gomez with 'bring it on'. they got kinda bluesy and bottletops and although it's fashionable for EVERYONE to malign them, it did have a good dry desert sound on some stages and then the hit singles sounded raucous, so, yunno, fair play to 'em like.
in '99 was talvin singh's 'OK' which - let's be honest - wasn't anything as good as the previous year's comp he'd helmed ("soundz of the asian underground"), but was really rather delightful, and live that year (as one recalls) he was quite special. coffee table maybe, but someone you could have a dalliance with.
the new 000k saw boltonian damon gough with highly acclaimed debut 'the hour of bewilderbeast' which is nice. well, i'm not a fan i must be honest but the sprightly arrangements (but not sprightly or spry you understand in an elderly way, more a jestering court trickster way Logaan be damned) and occasional gold-dust in the air showed gough had a few tricks up his sleeve.
in '01 our peej won with 'stories from the city, stories from the sea', one of those carthartic ones. i'm not a big fan of the likes of tori amos or polly harvey or cat power i must be frank with you, but this was a soaring big bruiser of an album, carving concrete slabs of grace and awesome ball-shrinking power but done by the chrimbo tree fairy so fair dos like.
and last year it was ms dynamite of course (the streets' album was better). ms dynamite's album tended towards bland american r'n'b style productions and too many bashing-up-men trax for some tastes, but the singles were largely ace.
and herein lies the rub. being a pretentious 'largely more underground than Top40' tedious tit every year i'd be able to list what i think are loads and loads of better british albums that don't get the nom (sheila chandra's 'abonecronedrone' in '96, for instance). but, yunno, live and let live.
this, more than anything else, is one of the thrusts that means that i am truly saddened when even a well regarded colleague can state something so totally wrong-headed as thus below:=
~
Elsewhere, one of those bonkers Mercury Prize awards, to go alongside the M People in 1994, and Gomez in 1998. Most winners of the Merc - Primal Scream, Suede, Portishead, Pulp, Roni Size, Talvin Singh, Badly Drawn Boy, PJ Harvey, and (er) whoever it was that won last year - have either gone on to make great albums, or capped superb careers. Those two, and last night's winner Dizzy Rascal, were and are one-trick ponies. Still, three failures in twelve years is a good enough strike rate.
'boy in da corner' is at least as good (worthy, invigorating, inviting, etc.and so on) an album as any previous winners, and so it's disappointing to see this sort of statement proliferate.
Thursday, 11 September 2003
grim reading
and an interesting anti-war (?) blog
and, finally, there's some truly disturbing instances, in this memo.
and an interesting anti-war (?) blog
and, finally, there's some truly disturbing instances, in this memo.
"a man under pressure"
=+-_~
the FAC may be there but the Intelligence and Security Committee is such a bad-bwoy its site isn't even on the parliament homepage...
=+-_~
the FAC may be there but the Intelligence and Security Committee is such a bad-bwoy its site isn't even on the parliament homepage...
a part of me wants to just say "how magnanimous of them!" and be done with it, but my cynicism comes too easily.
apologies only become an issue when they are refused, point blank, to be given.
Robert Hughes was commenting on Aboriginal reconciliation in Australia once and made some very insightful points on these sorts of issues.
apologies only become an issue when they are refused, point blank, to be given.
Robert Hughes was commenting on Aboriginal reconciliation in Australia once and made some very insightful points on these sorts of issues.
Wednesday, 10 September 2003
i was gonna go off and shave me a kebab but i couldn't leave without cutting links props to peter at it's all in your mind, both here on dizzee ras (making me sound like the amateur i am) and here on bobby d., well done that man.
incidentally, Ingram has a big fuck-off guard dog i hear.
incidentally, Ingram has a big fuck-off guard dog i hear.
final thought on the Auntie message-board link below, discussing Dizzee winning the Mercury: anyone who’d use ‘urban’ in that context, and mean it – as seems to be vv much the case with certain people criticising Dizzee’s tunes there – should have been escorted, forcibly if necessary, from the building some hours ago.
Lil’ Wayne doesn’t get enough props, like i said.
some people might think that, lyrically, he’s painted himself into a corner because his concerns are, often, of only one or two broad themes. the guy started rapping when he was very young. he’s only about 22 now. he needs to leave the embrace of Cash Money, it’s clear there might be some creativity issues surrounding him possibly getting stifled in that environment. he has been with them for his first three albums hasn’t he?
but the stuff he does is good, just upbeat, sometimes serious, a nice Bounce sound.
all the records are an acquired taste but as enjoyable as Juvenile.
it’s not hardcore or anything, almost jaunty to me, but some really original production chips. clout to his producers, they got chops.
~
Master P started his empire with ten thousand or so that he inherited off his grandmother and now he’s supposedly worth about half a billion; one of the very wealthiest Americans under forty.
talk about a business start-up plan!
Lil’ Wayne doesn’t get enough props, like i said.
some people might think that, lyrically, he’s painted himself into a corner because his concerns are, often, of only one or two broad themes. the guy started rapping when he was very young. he’s only about 22 now. he needs to leave the embrace of Cash Money, it’s clear there might be some creativity issues surrounding him possibly getting stifled in that environment. he has been with them for his first three albums hasn’t he?
but the stuff he does is good, just upbeat, sometimes serious, a nice Bounce sound.
all the records are an acquired taste but as enjoyable as Juvenile.
it’s not hardcore or anything, almost jaunty to me, but some really original production chips. clout to his producers, they got chops.
~
Master P started his empire with ten thousand or so that he inherited off his grandmother and now he’s supposedly worth about half a billion; one of the very wealthiest Americans under forty.
talk about a business start-up plan!
Ingram's (cautiously) positive assessment of the creative potentials within avant/free-folk deserves seconding dunnit?
i don't know if Jon is paranoid about all that or if there is genuine distaste among a lot of the ol' hipsters about this sort of Keenan-approved juggernaut (obviously SR seems to have not very good things to write on this subject).
Jon was telling me that the recent no-neck blues band stuff on revenant is rather poorly recorded, he prefers the earlier stuff, i can't remember if the argument was it's less soupy now and not murky enough, too sterile sounding, or something almost opposite (i do remember it being a persuasive argument though but i can't access my emails here); sorry Jon! i hope he can clear that up.
i do remember being vaguely impressed as the only time i've broken bread with revenant is to - rather stereotypically of me eh?! - drool over this focker.
i don't know if Jon is paranoid about all that or if there is genuine distaste among a lot of the ol' hipsters about this sort of Keenan-approved juggernaut (obviously SR seems to have not very good things to write on this subject).
Jon was telling me that the recent no-neck blues band stuff on revenant is rather poorly recorded, he prefers the earlier stuff, i can't remember if the argument was it's less soupy now and not murky enough, too sterile sounding, or something almost opposite (i do remember it being a persuasive argument though but i can't access my emails here); sorry Jon! i hope he can clear that up.
i do remember being vaguely impressed as the only time i've broken bread with revenant is to - rather stereotypically of me eh?! - drool over this focker.
pace Jon (again! apologies for this craven buttkissing...) i would not want to not dismiss certain "electronically rockist" drives/narratives out of hand, so perhaps i shall join him, a faithful Sancho Panza to his excoriating Don ([pictorial; at his side] later on.
however, loads of people (shurely?) have taken to task indietronica types in the past right?
the folk to argue with are the (presumably, relatively speaking) bigger body of 'fans' of such stuff.
Jon'll (probably) find that they number less than 'Hed Kandi' buyers but more than contrary buggers like him...
however, loads of people (shurely?) have taken to task indietronica types in the past right?
the folk to argue with are the (presumably, relatively speaking) bigger body of 'fans' of such stuff.
Jon'll (probably) find that they number less than 'Hed Kandi' buyers but more than contrary buggers like him...
oh, one more link for now which i'm sure Jon must have read (i know that i'm always linking it to many peeps and hey yes i'm a SR fanboy which is the trut')
but click here and you'll have to scroll til you see the yellow.
he wrote that back in '97 and there's definitely a few points there worth following up.
but click here and you'll have to scroll til you see the yellow.
he wrote that back in '97 and there's definitely a few points there worth following up.
oops! Jon appears to be asking too much of me there...
...mr bungle are freewheeling, i like that about them, and i do like James as well, not a big Jenkinson fan i admit (the last two albums last two lead singles even tho' there was stuff wrong with them that SR has accurately {and RIGHTLY} critiqued were OK; i do LIKE 'Song: Our Underwater Torch', some other stuff on that maximum priest EP the vibert mix for one and pretty much all ...one note to be accurate).
an off-the-cuff remark which i shall have to follow up for once.
for starters,
3THREE3 links from the idm list archives.
+ cut n paste job of something SR wrote in his blissout homepage back in '98
+ a reply
+ 'nother reply (tho' the last one has perhaps just a touch of a troubling elitist values ending with the flourish of "stadiums full of senseless wanderers anyhow").
i dunno, the tying each other in knots replies are fairly interesting reading in themselves, ax me.
...mr bungle are freewheeling, i like that about them, and i do like James as well, not a big Jenkinson fan i admit (the last two albums last two lead singles even tho' there was stuff wrong with them that SR has accurately {and RIGHTLY} critiqued were OK; i do LIKE 'Song: Our Underwater Torch', some other stuff on that maximum priest EP the vibert mix for one and pretty much all ...one note to be accurate).
an off-the-cuff remark which i shall have to follow up for once.
for starters,
3THREE3 links from the idm list archives.
+ cut n paste job of something SR wrote in his blissout homepage back in '98
+ a reply
+ 'nother reply (tho' the last one has perhaps just a touch of a troubling elitist values ending with the flourish of "stadiums full of senseless wanderers anyhow").
i dunno, the tying each other in knots replies are fairly interesting reading in themselves, ax me.
Jess and i were saying the other day how you get loads of Maiden fans (well, not loads) that also dig Hawtin, etc., the clattering attack etcet&c.
lots of trance fans are metallers too, that i know.
Dimmu Borgir fans that go up trance nites (kid you not). and so on./
if you got really bad catarrh in the morning and wanted to give it a musical analogy, i would suggest brutalist slice of punishing techno-noir.
roll your tongue around it for size.
lots of trance fans are metallers too, that i know.
Dimmu Borgir fans that go up trance nites (kid you not). and so on./
if you got really bad catarrh in the morning and wanted to give it a musical analogy, i would suggest brutalist slice of punishing techno-noir.
roll your tongue around it for size.
SOME THING DAVID BLUNKETT DOES THAT IS BAD EGGS
it's his constant photocalls, the press conferences.
it's like a drip-feed of managed opportunities to get news of his initiatives out into the public domain.
he turns up somewhere one week, a flash of bulbs, then you never hear about that day's bright idea again.
even dyed-in-the-wool modernising Labourites i know can't stand this about him.
it's -just- infuriating.
it's his constant photocalls, the press conferences.
it's like a drip-feed of managed opportunities to get news of his initiatives out into the public domain.
he turns up somewhere one week, a flash of bulbs, then you never hear about that day's bright idea again.
even dyed-in-the-wool modernising Labourites i know can't stand this about him.
it's -just- infuriating.
is it just me, or does Oliver Letwin (Con, West Dorset) practically ceaselessly chat out of his backside regarding illegal immigrants and asylum these days?
wasn't one of his latest announcements musing on plans to let successful asylum applicants into the country for five years and then boot them out if their country of return is adjudged safe enough? if the country isn't, of course, to be fair to mr Letwin, then a no-go.
i realise many genuine asylum seekers may possibly want to return home anyway, you know - afterwards (oh! how excruciatingly badly i am phrasing even inchoate views on this most crucial of topics in current British life), but what of mr Letwin's views if they decide they would like to stay in the UK, having made a life for themselves?
are his broad-brush sketches of policy to be considered firm plans? and if so, would he deploy these putative legislation ideas en masse or on a case-by-case basis when/if he gets in power?
when we have an incumbent Home Secretary that is so often hit and miss, it is even more vital that his opposite number has intellectual teeth. the way mr Letwin crafts a lot of his pronouncements presently, you'd be forgiven for concluding that - on certain aspects of his brief - he has taken to caricaturing what his actual role should be.
wasn't one of his latest announcements musing on plans to let successful asylum applicants into the country for five years and then boot them out if their country of return is adjudged safe enough? if the country isn't, of course, to be fair to mr Letwin, then a no-go.
i realise many genuine asylum seekers may possibly want to return home anyway, you know - afterwards (oh! how excruciatingly badly i am phrasing even inchoate views on this most crucial of topics in current British life), but what of mr Letwin's views if they decide they would like to stay in the UK, having made a life for themselves?
are his broad-brush sketches of policy to be considered firm plans? and if so, would he deploy these putative legislation ideas en masse or on a case-by-case basis when/if he gets in power?
when we have an incumbent Home Secretary that is so often hit and miss, it is even more vital that his opposite number has intellectual teeth. the way mr Letwin crafts a lot of his pronouncements presently, you'd be forgiven for concluding that - on certain aspects of his brief - he has taken to caricaturing what his actual role should be.
Mark on Dizzee at the Mercury
incidentally, i've been surprised by the ferocity of the doctrinaire Radiohead etc. fans at work this morning, surrounding this.
genuinely wasn't expecting that.
incidentally, i've been surprised by the ferocity of the doctrinaire Radiohead etc. fans at work this morning, surrounding this.
genuinely wasn't expecting that.
just been doing a bit of very basic legal research this morning (here the most readable by far; others murkier, wordier).
the reason for this?
well, the daily express [website here for any reader not resident in the UK] proudly proclaims on its masthead every morning that it is the world's greatest newspaper.
i'm just looking if i can sue them under the terms of the Trades Descriptions Act or somesuch similar.
i'll be looking for 50K and a written apology.
if i don't get that, at the very least, the immediate rephrasing of the masthead to something more factually credible (e.g., 'Nonsensical journal of malign clap-trap' would be my first suggestion) will be sought.
the reason for this?
well, the daily express [website here for any reader not resident in the UK] proudly proclaims on its masthead every morning that it is the world's greatest newspaper.
i'm just looking if i can sue them under the terms of the Trades Descriptions Act or somesuch similar.
i'll be looking for 50K and a written apology.
if i don't get that, at the very least, the immediate rephrasing of the masthead to something more factually credible (e.g., 'Nonsensical journal of malign clap-trap' would be my first suggestion) will be sought.
well done to Dizzee (at least it came with some beads; spend that moolah wisely, my sanh).
it's slightly bewildering how chums who pay far too much attention to the likes of BANG or MOJO continue to view the Mercury as dull but okay.
it's plain shite, is what it is.
one realises even the over-arching middlebrow narrative has been it's only as worthy as the Brits for some time now, but by god, this is genuinely the first year one can think of where the best album has actually won (well, probably).
it's just a rock prizes type ceremony with a bit of tokenism every year and i realise this is very simplistic analysis you could find in any old blog (technically somedisco is a member of the nerdosphere, albeit a shite one with nothing clever to say, but hey i get links off some of the big bwoys ya kna'... ...what a pompous/pretentious tit one is!) but there's not much more to say.
of course some raacck fans this year were bemoaning wot no Richard X (ooh! danger danger!) or Elbow, but hey, cry me a river...
when i was a deep {sic} 16 year old listening to alt.rock and souped-up Sabbath riffs i regarded the Mercury with some fondness - even if it wasn't exactly my type of thing, it was to be applauded, its artistry, 'values' etc.etc.
but last night, Dido (bloody Dido) on the telly, singing its praises.
no,
just no.
P.S.
fucken jack-offs
it's slightly bewildering how chums who pay far too much attention to the likes of BANG or MOJO continue to view the Mercury as dull but okay.
it's plain shite, is what it is.
one realises even the over-arching middlebrow narrative has been it's only as worthy as the Brits for some time now, but by god, this is genuinely the first year one can think of where the best album has actually won (well, probably).
it's just a rock prizes type ceremony with a bit of tokenism every year and i realise this is very simplistic analysis you could find in any old blog (technically somedisco is a member of the nerdosphere, albeit a shite one with nothing clever to say, but hey i get links off some of the big bwoys ya kna'... ...what a pompous/pretentious tit one is!) but there's not much more to say.
of course some raacck fans this year were bemoaning wot no Richard X (ooh! danger danger!) or Elbow, but hey, cry me a river...
when i was a deep {sic} 16 year old listening to alt.rock and souped-up Sabbath riffs i regarded the Mercury with some fondness - even if it wasn't exactly my type of thing, it was to be applauded, its artistry, 'values' etc.etc.
but last night, Dido (bloody Dido) on the telly, singing its praises.
no,
just no.
P.S.
fucken jack-offs
to the Melvins or any passing N'awlins sludgecore types, it seems the perseus cluster has you marked: we say beat that, Trouble!
we've got some great news there.
and some baffling stats here.
we're currently 15th. you'll notice the top of the table is proudly occupied by newly-promoted alfreton.
their only dropped points have been a goal-less draw with us, at their place. you'll notice the relative disparity of our results other than that one, comparing the two teams. that sheer baffles me, as they were no great shakes - vis a vis the relative flair of, say, barrow or harrogate.
neither team played as well as they could, but we definitely shaded that one as well.
curious.
and some baffling stats here.
we're currently 15th. you'll notice the top of the table is proudly occupied by newly-promoted alfreton.
their only dropped points have been a goal-less draw with us, at their place. you'll notice the relative disparity of our results other than that one, comparing the two teams. that sheer baffles me, as they were no great shakes - vis a vis the relative flair of, say, barrow or harrogate.
neither team played as well as they could, but we definitely shaded that one as well.
curious.
Tuesday, 9 September 2003
yet another instance of how to boss it, praise be to his mate Steve as well.
<--------------------------NEWSFLASH---------------------------------->
in a shocking example of personal taste being vindicated (for once!) playful minor blogger somedisco is embroiled in 'same likes as the Daddy' controversy...
<--------------------------NEWSFLASH---------------------------------->
in a shocking example of personal taste being vindicated (for once!) playful minor blogger somedisco is embroiled in 'same likes as the Daddy' controversy...
Monday, 8 September 2003
see, now i like the sound of both this and here.
incidentally, don't you think 'signs' would have been better if it had stopped at that moment (when there was still quite a lot of film to go) when there's suggestion the aliens are about to come in, they're hiding in the cellar or wherever, and you wouldn't know what would have happened after that.
just a thought.
incidentally, don't you think 'signs' would have been better if it had stopped at that moment (when there was still quite a lot of film to go) when there's suggestion the aliens are about to come in, they're hiding in the cellar or wherever, and you wouldn't know what would have happened after that.
just a thought.
If nothing else, Manhattan's The Rapture can be applauded for their audacious response to the moribund state of contemporary dance music.
Claire Allfree in today's (Mon. 8th) Metro newspaper.
sigh.
why did you just know this line (revitalising magpies plunder from the past showing us yet more perfomative band goodness is the way forward) would crop up...
yes, i like the DFA. and Allfree qualifies herself.
but.
still.
Claire Allfree in today's (Mon. 8th) Metro newspaper.
sigh.
why did you just know this line (revitalising magpies plunder from the past showing us yet more perfomative band goodness is the way forward) would crop up...
yes, i like the DFA. and Allfree qualifies herself.
but.
still.
three from the BBC: -
(1) bad in Jordan
(2) cheeky in Chile
(3) simple, clear language, a reflection on 9/11 etc. memorials. incredibly moving.
(1) bad in Jordan
(2) cheeky in Chile
(3) simple, clear language, a reflection on 9/11 etc. memorials. incredibly moving.
Friday, 5 September 2003
Maff's latest (which has of course raised the bar to the point where you're suitably moved to pronounce him capo di tutti capi) contained (among many other small beauties) the following lines: -
I recently read a mini article, a discussion with Andy Votel, who was boasting that he'd recently flown all the way to Poland with the sole intention of picking up a particular obscure soundtrack which (and this amused him greatly) he bragged at only having listened to ONCE. What a berk!
i just wanted to (briefly) run with this, as:
(a) it made me laugh heartily
(b) it's true.
~~~
the local (manc) music press (tho' at least david sue, who despite his richard ashcroft infatuations one's willing to forgive for the very good writing, appears to have taken over from daniel martin in the rock pages of the manchester evening news) round my way just KISS ASS twisted nerve, and i think that's BOBBINS. i picked up on cd (very cheap, forgive me) their comp '...afraid to ask'
(label, a generous three stars without mentioning the music at all to be fair from amg) and it's all, well, alright-like (i'm feeling a vibe of Jon's indietronica descriptions in intent, and depth of response), but just, well, there.
dave tyack's dakota oak and alfie (heck! alfie!) and the lovely jane weaver of misty dixon = they're all just, well, okay.
the fact they are treated with the sort of reverence (in some quarters) one should really be reserving for the likes of say, ooh i dunno, ray BLOODY charles (even if he does turn away autograph hunters that have travelled 600 miles to get his signature; according to a Bill Hicks book my mate's reading when Hicks was opening for Charles = incidentally, imagine that bill eh?!) just plain baffles me (my bafflement is similar, i conceitedly like to imagine, to reynolds' bafflement when bohos talk up the great tom jenkinson over, like duh, actual jungle).
as a tone painting, a light Sibelius-like adventure, i suppose sirconical and a lot of twisted nerve output work quite well, quite Eno ambient maybe (musically nothing like that of course), just because it's there.
maybe i'm being harsh, quiet epiphanies can probably be had in the opening badly drawn boy track, a softly-softly sunday afternoon light kinda sound, but rilly, NO THANKS EVAH.
actually, that's nonsensical, 'music for airports' is music for airports and much of the twisted nerve output is merely, alas, music for flock wallpaper.
or music to watch those three flying ducks by...
I recently read a mini article, a discussion with Andy Votel, who was boasting that he'd recently flown all the way to Poland with the sole intention of picking up a particular obscure soundtrack which (and this amused him greatly) he bragged at only having listened to ONCE. What a berk!
i just wanted to (briefly) run with this, as:
(a) it made me laugh heartily
(b) it's true.
~~~
the local (manc) music press (tho' at least david sue, who despite his richard ashcroft infatuations one's willing to forgive for the very good writing, appears to have taken over from daniel martin in the rock pages of the manchester evening news) round my way just KISS ASS twisted nerve, and i think that's BOBBINS. i picked up on cd (very cheap, forgive me) their comp '...afraid to ask'
(label, a generous three stars without mentioning the music at all to be fair from amg) and it's all, well, alright-like (i'm feeling a vibe of Jon's indietronica descriptions in intent, and depth of response), but just, well, there.
dave tyack's dakota oak and alfie (heck! alfie!) and the lovely jane weaver of misty dixon = they're all just, well, okay.
the fact they are treated with the sort of reverence (in some quarters) one should really be reserving for the likes of say, ooh i dunno, ray BLOODY charles (even if he does turn away autograph hunters that have travelled 600 miles to get his signature; according to a Bill Hicks book my mate's reading when Hicks was opening for Charles = incidentally, imagine that bill eh?!) just plain baffles me (my bafflement is similar, i conceitedly like to imagine, to reynolds' bafflement when bohos talk up the great tom jenkinson over, like duh, actual jungle).
as a tone painting, a light Sibelius-like adventure, i suppose sirconical and a lot of twisted nerve output work quite well, quite Eno ambient maybe (musically nothing like that of course), just because it's there.
maybe i'm being harsh, quiet epiphanies can probably be had in the opening badly drawn boy track, a softly-softly sunday afternoon light kinda sound, but rilly, NO THANKS EVAH.
actually, that's nonsensical, 'music for airports' is music for airports and much of the twisted nerve output is merely, alas, music for flock wallpaper.
or music to watch those three flying ducks by...
Robin's Ealing post reminds me that in music zone shops at the minute, they are selling 'the man in the white suit' VHS for just four quid.
bargain!
not a plug, really, but it'd be rude not to at that price eh...
bargain!
not a plug, really, but it'd be rude not to at that price eh...
here is quite, quite correct.
i'm all for Johnsonian narratives along the lines of 'those that pleased longest and pleased most' in literary appreciation, but i can never get with the programme in the canon of rock crits (contradictions don't ya just luv 'em).
the criticisms of Bangsianism are just spot on; top-drawer me laddo.
even those people that don't actually read too much Bangs (hagiography in journals like UNCUT that encourage Independent readers to go out and buy handsome paperback anthologies of ol' Lester) but have had his influence seeping into them, ack, just *no*.
there's some punk-rock 'zine style writing about it and it largely sucks (well, i would know about what sucks writing-wise at least hey now wouldn't i, take a look at the archives here innit), the odd swearword, all this my so called life type 'can't you see this is here and it's for real this SHIT IS REAL', all bad solipsisms, dreary metaphors thought up by dull types who think they're sitting on versified gold-dust but never actually work out their notebooks to the public sphere, self-proclaimed difficult poets; i'm sorry if this is all too much like taking a pop at sitting ducks and other assorted nauseating adolescents, but it just pecks my head.
i'm all for Johnsonian narratives along the lines of 'those that pleased longest and pleased most' in literary appreciation, but i can never get with the programme in the canon of rock crits (contradictions don't ya just luv 'em).
the criticisms of Bangsianism are just spot on; top-drawer me laddo.
even those people that don't actually read too much Bangs (hagiography in journals like UNCUT that encourage Independent readers to go out and buy handsome paperback anthologies of ol' Lester) but have had his influence seeping into them, ack, just *no*.
there's some punk-rock 'zine style writing about it and it largely sucks (well, i would know about what sucks writing-wise at least hey now wouldn't i, take a look at the archives here innit), the odd swearword, all this my so called life type 'can't you see this is here and it's for real this SHIT IS REAL', all bad solipsisms, dreary metaphors thought up by dull types who think they're sitting on versified gold-dust but never actually work out their notebooks to the public sphere, self-proclaimed difficult poets; i'm sorry if this is all too much like taking a pop at sitting ducks and other assorted nauseating adolescents, but it just pecks my head.
Thursday, 4 September 2003
During her recent appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Pat Barker responded to a question from a fan by pointing out that, since the end of World War II, 75million people have died in conflicts around the world, while, in the same period, the number of sheep killed by sheep has been zero. The query that prompted this memorable comparison?
Why is she continuously drawn to war and human violence?
…
‘I don’t think strong feeling and objectivity are incompatible,’ she says of her willingness to tackle traumatic subjects. ‘Feeling deeply and thinking clearly simultaneously is what reading fiction should do for people.’
‘I don’t believe ghosts are for real,’ she clarifies. ‘But as metaphors, they work very well. A ghost is something in the past we have failed to deal with.’
____Helen Duff.
~
Why is she continuously drawn to war and human violence?
…
‘I don’t think strong feeling and objectivity are incompatible,’ she says of her willingness to tackle traumatic subjects. ‘Feeling deeply and thinking clearly simultaneously is what reading fiction should do for people.’
‘I don’t believe ghosts are for real,’ she clarifies. ‘But as metaphors, they work very well. A ghost is something in the past we have failed to deal with.’
____Helen Duff.
~
Whatever ever happened to the adjectival use of the word 'skill' that proliferated in playgrounds in the early 1980s? As in 'Did you see the A-Team yesterday? It was skill.' It died an early death, if I remember rightly.
That's a shame, because it was a good, home-grown word, not like these US ghetto-influenced 'phat' and 'massive' substitutes that kids now use. What's more, it added sublime resonance to what is, otherwise a fairly prosaic word. Bring it back. 'Skill' was skill.
mandy lin from leeds, we salute you.
~
What a surprise - the schoolchildren in the Channel 4 documentary series That'll Teach 'Em (about education in the 1950s), many of whom achieved A* or A in all subjects at GCSE, performed spectacularly badly in the equivalent O-levels.
_Jim Johnson, Manchester.
~
"The road map is dead but only because of Israeli military aggression in recent weeks."
__Yasser Arafat (my emphasis).
=+hmm.
~
Jason Soon on visiting European cities.
~
Auspicious Fish here responds to a k-punk point here re. Lumidee's most recent choon. i love that single as much as Aus Fish (from the sound of it), but it's a tad churlish to take k-punk to task for contextualising something in that way; k-punk is one of the mackas (as kids used to say round here), he's an intellectual theorist and a pleasure to read; something so historically infolded like that, all points firing, makes for a proper daddy experience.
yeah lumidee is breathy and wonderful and part of the appeal for me is probably knowing that some people just don't seem to be having any of it (pace Jess); ooh exquisite melismata and music not on point giving you a wobblier pleasure etc.etc. but, all in all, tracks reference other songs, you can trace back (even if it's unintentional) all these anxieties of influence to points past and then the pleasure of finding a new artist who ends up delighting you might be yours.
and that's velly nice indeed.
That's a shame, because it was a good, home-grown word, not like these US ghetto-influenced 'phat' and 'massive' substitutes that kids now use. What's more, it added sublime resonance to what is, otherwise a fairly prosaic word. Bring it back. 'Skill' was skill.
mandy lin from leeds, we salute you.
~
What a surprise - the schoolchildren in the Channel 4 documentary series That'll Teach 'Em (about education in the 1950s), many of whom achieved A* or A in all subjects at GCSE, performed spectacularly badly in the equivalent O-levels.
_Jim Johnson, Manchester.
~
"The road map is dead but only because of Israeli military aggression in recent weeks."
__Yasser Arafat (my emphasis).
=+hmm.
~
Jason Soon on visiting European cities.
~
Auspicious Fish here responds to a k-punk point here re. Lumidee's most recent choon. i love that single as much as Aus Fish (from the sound of it), but it's a tad churlish to take k-punk to task for contextualising something in that way; k-punk is one of the mackas (as kids used to say round here), he's an intellectual theorist and a pleasure to read; something so historically infolded like that, all points firing, makes for a proper daddy experience.
yeah lumidee is breathy and wonderful and part of the appeal for me is probably knowing that some people just don't seem to be having any of it (pace Jess); ooh exquisite melismata and music not on point giving you a wobblier pleasure etc.etc. but, all in all, tracks reference other songs, you can trace back (even if it's unintentional) all these anxieties of influence to points past and then the pleasure of finding a new artist who ends up delighting you might be yours.
and that's velly nice indeed.
does anyone know is Rakiya Omaar (she who lost her job in a row at Africa Watch) related to Rageh Omaar (it says there he has three siblings)?
incidentally, whenever i think off the top of my head, my three fave Beeb telly correspondents are Rageh (got his t-shirt!), Orla G., and Boltonian Clive Myrie.
clive is my absolute fave, his voice has such power and resonance, he's handsome and most importantly his empathic qualities shine through, he really is a foreign correspondent in the great mould thereof.
his reporting is poignant, sympathetic and with an authoritative voice.
hey, even simon heffer likes him!
incidentally, whenever i think off the top of my head, my three fave Beeb telly correspondents are Rageh (got his t-shirt!), Orla G., and Boltonian Clive Myrie.
clive is my absolute fave, his voice has such power and resonance, he's handsome and most importantly his empathic qualities shine through, he really is a foreign correspondent in the great mould thereof.
his reporting is poignant, sympathetic and with an authoritative voice.
hey, even simon heffer likes him!
Wednesday, 3 September 2003
i’m not overly enthused with !!!, i must say.
really liked that one that was in an old wire tapper once, the tripleshotmonger mix of ‘hammerhead’. a sort of nu-dubby thing, it seemed to recall the most wonderful macro-dub inf(l)ections as well as layered funk-punk cut-ups that are critically all the rage to spot in the sum of their influences, a real kinaesthetic treat (almost epiphanic for time and motion), it fair old hypnotised me. it seemed to very much be like hearing springheel jack from far away or something, as if three gardens down on an old gramophone when you have a big ear trumpet.
The EP that people are giving mad shouts to though, ‘me and giuliani…’ , can’t quite get with the programme with that. some bloke in the wire the other week was making some analogy with Interpol and – admittedly – flagging up one on the rub over the title track, that ‘intensifieder’, which is preferable personally, yah. outhud are okay mind.
but no, i don’t think it’ll be on my favourites come the end of the year, but fair dos like.
DON’T get me started on Coil.
oh yeah, pace Maff, i’ve never seen a chaise-longue or know what one is indeed (i don’t even know if i’m spelling this right); we’re more bland IKEA flatpacks, homogenised dullness, it’s septically florid furnishings up north ain’t you heard?
really liked that one that was in an old wire tapper once, the tripleshotmonger mix of ‘hammerhead’. a sort of nu-dubby thing, it seemed to recall the most wonderful macro-dub inf(l)ections as well as layered funk-punk cut-ups that are critically all the rage to spot in the sum of their influences, a real kinaesthetic treat (almost epiphanic for time and motion), it fair old hypnotised me. it seemed to very much be like hearing springheel jack from far away or something, as if three gardens down on an old gramophone when you have a big ear trumpet.
The EP that people are giving mad shouts to though, ‘me and giuliani…’ , can’t quite get with the programme with that. some bloke in the wire the other week was making some analogy with Interpol and – admittedly – flagging up one on the rub over the title track, that ‘intensifieder’, which is preferable personally, yah. outhud are okay mind.
but no, i don’t think it’ll be on my favourites come the end of the year, but fair dos like.
DON’T get me started on Coil.
oh yeah, pace Maff, i’ve never seen a chaise-longue or know what one is indeed (i don’t even know if i’m spelling this right); we’re more bland IKEA flatpacks, homogenised dullness, it’s septically florid furnishings up north ain’t you heard?
in their recent double header Alexis Petridis and Audrey Gillan tilted at the windmills of superclubs.
if one had to stretch to a musical analogy, you could say that Petridis is Daniel Bedingfield (OK, but Bedingfield did have one good song) and, well, i wouldn't care to speculate about Gillan.
however, i do know Philip Sherburne is very much the Sharkie Major to Petridis' lame no-brainisms.
i realise it's no good form to call out someone and i don't want to get all antagonistic on anyone's azz (not too fond of the stylus/pitchfork argy-bargy there; TBH, not a huge fan of either mag anyway but and i know it's good to see debate and ideas heading toe-to-toe and stuff flowing from arguments is all good, good to clarify and all that and re-assess and such and that's healthy) but Sherburne just whups Petridis' ass there, you can hardly believe someone writing for such a supposedly respected paper can turn out such drivel and not get fired...
...still, it's all those 'ooh, rock guitars have been selling like hot cakes' etc. stories the popular press have been lathering themselves up into a frenzy about the last 2 years or so (well, it was particularly big Chrimbo '01 if memory serves), hegemony of the nu-roaack, ack!
the hyper-kinetic little world of the nerdosphere ('Dance section') is still very much 'lone eloquent voices' kicking against rockism/popism [it ain't just those two that are at odds, we need dance-ism to defend its corner against everything] (horribly lazy terminology but all the best writers have defined it, who was it did the pie charts?) in the wider world, it seems to me.
most of my mates read UNCUT, MOJO, NME, the broadsheets, BANG, that's about it.
y'getme?
P.S.
what a load of balls is written here. even i don't understand the puerile rambling above, but still, it's true about BANG among my mates, that or THE SOURCE... ...yunno, everything is everything and all that "Jazz".
if one had to stretch to a musical analogy, you could say that Petridis is Daniel Bedingfield (OK, but Bedingfield did have one good song) and, well, i wouldn't care to speculate about Gillan.
however, i do know Philip Sherburne is very much the Sharkie Major to Petridis' lame no-brainisms.
i realise it's no good form to call out someone and i don't want to get all antagonistic on anyone's azz (not too fond of the stylus/pitchfork argy-bargy there; TBH, not a huge fan of either mag anyway but and i know it's good to see debate and ideas heading toe-to-toe and stuff flowing from arguments is all good, good to clarify and all that and re-assess and such and that's healthy) but Sherburne just whups Petridis' ass there, you can hardly believe someone writing for such a supposedly respected paper can turn out such drivel and not get fired...
...still, it's all those 'ooh, rock guitars have been selling like hot cakes' etc. stories the popular press have been lathering themselves up into a frenzy about the last 2 years or so (well, it was particularly big Chrimbo '01 if memory serves), hegemony of the nu-roaack, ack!
the hyper-kinetic little world of the nerdosphere ('Dance section') is still very much 'lone eloquent voices' kicking against rockism/popism [it ain't just those two that are at odds, we need dance-ism to defend its corner against everything] (horribly lazy terminology but all the best writers have defined it, who was it did the pie charts?) in the wider world, it seems to me.
most of my mates read UNCUT, MOJO, NME, the broadsheets, BANG, that's about it.
y'getme?
P.S.
what a load of balls is written here. even i don't understand the puerile rambling above, but still, it's true about BANG among my mates, that or THE SOURCE... ...yunno, everything is everything and all that "Jazz".
what i wanna make clear about those red dots is that they're washed over, purified by that red tide, but they appear again - as if by magic, when it recedes!
hrm.
can't work that one out.
~
should stop being so mean-spirited and nasty here, not to criticise, but i like birds me, i find curlews and waders interesting.
hrm.
can't work that one out.
~
should stop being so mean-spirited and nasty here, not to criticise, but i like birds me, i find curlews and waders interesting.
there's a girl with a paperweight i know, a small one filled with red lava lamp type material, from the national geographic channel merchandising operation.
you can leave it set down for a good 12 hours and the lava has not entirely flowed down. three bumps are always left clinging to the top of the transparent plastic rectangle (on the inside of course), and it looks like universe sized microbes in a petri dish, healthy not, not the smokers' lung appearance approach of a lot of bacterium in such places (prejudiced against 'dull' colours one pretends to be; healthy oranges and cheerful adobe wall yellows are always nice of course, within reason and with some qualifiers)
the material is red, like a stodgy cranberry juice (or a runny cberry sauce, one sposes) and you can actually watch as the material flows over these bumps like how you'd expect.
but then it doesn't get lost, as three pipette drops of ordinary water spat into a raging torrent of ordinary whiteWATER, would.
you see these little spiralling staircases of the elasticated red stuff winnowing down from the sky-roof of their world, descending to the broad and featureless flatlands of the plains, they can take an age, it holds you spellbound, a mesmeric process.
calcified stalactites (or stalagmites, whichever which is which),
like watching a candle get sculpted when lit, see how the wax can be manipulated, that lovely pliability, hard but still able to manipulate
a grotto, watching fossilied but still alit glowworms forced through the aperture of a prehistoric but still functioning fine needlehead.
sometimes there's more than 3 patches there - you remember Hirst's appropriations of Riley's dots? - and it seems like the chances of them slipping is as Texas seceding, quite high; other times in one's bones you feel it is less pliable and it will be as if Maine secedes.
but glorious embers, stoked, blood red rubies, it's very nice.
you can leave it set down for a good 12 hours and the lava has not entirely flowed down. three bumps are always left clinging to the top of the transparent plastic rectangle (on the inside of course), and it looks like universe sized microbes in a petri dish, healthy not, not the smokers' lung appearance approach of a lot of bacterium in such places (prejudiced against 'dull' colours one pretends to be; healthy oranges and cheerful adobe wall yellows are always nice of course, within reason and with some qualifiers)
the material is red, like a stodgy cranberry juice (or a runny cberry sauce, one sposes) and you can actually watch as the material flows over these bumps like how you'd expect.
but then it doesn't get lost, as three pipette drops of ordinary water spat into a raging torrent of ordinary whiteWATER, would.
you see these little spiralling staircases of the elasticated red stuff winnowing down from the sky-roof of their world, descending to the broad and featureless flatlands of the plains, they can take an age, it holds you spellbound, a mesmeric process.
calcified stalactites (or stalagmites, whichever which is which),
like watching a candle get sculpted when lit, see how the wax can be manipulated, that lovely pliability, hard but still able to manipulate
a grotto, watching fossilied but still alit glowworms forced through the aperture of a prehistoric but still functioning fine needlehead.
sometimes there's more than 3 patches there - you remember Hirst's appropriations of Riley's dots? - and it seems like the chances of them slipping is as Texas seceding, quite high; other times in one's bones you feel it is less pliable and it will be as if Maine secedes.
but glorious embers, stoked, blood red rubies, it's very nice.
gosh, it's been so self-absorbed (hermetic, and not in the good pillbox sense) round here of late i might as well just post some sixth-form poetry and be done with it.
sample lines:
recoverable, you left me broken
i soar, a rose is a rose is my opportunity
WAIT, you left me alone,
true, it's not the coffin that carries you off
YOU LEFT ME, you bastard
where's my Richey clippings/
thank yew.
sample lines:
recoverable, you left me broken
i soar, a rose is a rose is my opportunity
WAIT, you left me alone,
true, it's not the coffin that carries you off
YOU LEFT ME, you bastard
where's my Richey clippings/
thank yew.
even though i technically love SATC (tho i can't remember when i last saw an episode, certainly not this year; it's the abstract idea of cool clothes and talking cock i suppose; ooh, racy for a nerdosphere type eh! even a minor one at that...), k-punk here is spot on, and his comments could apply to Bruce Willis' performance in 'unbreakable' [imdb] which is a very good performance indeed (for broadly similar reasons y'see)...
Jess shows he is the don again.
~
final Aussie comment for some time (probably); all the girls in the office are dead (see, Scouse synonym), excited about the arrival of a new temp, cause he's an Aussie lad.
some of the lads are ready to chastise him for not tending bar in a Walkabout, like a 'proper' Aussie/Kiwi/South African should do, but Aussies are all good.
i still miss Carla who left us for the welcoming embrace of Leeds, she was a bit like Lucy Liu with a Sydneysider/Novocastrian accent to be honest, quite a cutie.
~
final Aussie comment for some time (probably); all the girls in the office are dead (see, Scouse synonym), excited about the arrival of a new temp, cause he's an Aussie lad.
some of the lads are ready to chastise him for not tending bar in a Walkabout, like a 'proper' Aussie/Kiwi/South African should do, but Aussies are all good.
i still miss Carla who left us for the welcoming embrace of Leeds, she was a bit like Lucy Liu with a Sydneysider/Novocastrian accent to be honest, quite a cutie.
in light of mr blunkett's new citizenship classes ideas [item] the BBC has an interesting piece here about the changing face of britain. "But what the figures really show us is that the UK is now perhaps second only to the United States for the sheer diversity of people who make it home. " is an interesting line (arguable, but hey sounds fairly persuasive to me, if not what about indonesia or pakistan or argentina or wherever but you get their drift. although let's be frank they mean England; i would argue the line is probably correct if you substitute England for UK maybe but hey i don't know stats and the large majority of the UK is still definitely WASPy etc.). Scotland outside of its two biggest cities is still very whitebread and Ulster and Wales are extremely whitebread all over (hey, the Rhondda and a lot of the Valleys are notorious for their neo-nazi type activities)
OK you could argue i'm being crude racialist here and just discussing "non-white" citizens, not taking into account the ethnic diversity of, f'r instance, Wales anyway, Welsh speakers, English speakers, etc., etc., but i despise usage of the term 'ethnic' when the writer MEANS ethnic minority as much as the next person...
and i'm getting tied up in knots now
and really England outside of London and its bigger provincial towns (esp Brum and Mcr; Leicester and the orbital towns and the W Mids and Bradford and parts of Lancs.) is too. but London is one of the most multicultural cities in the world and certainly the most ethnically diverse city in Europe (i don't know which is next, but i would guess Paris or one of the bigger Iberian towns perhaps).
i mention this only because i spent three months on holiday in the USA last year and i found it simply astounding the numbers of Yanks who thought england was still an extremely whitebread kind of place.
but yeah that's a cool article that.
--
oh, terry frost has died too. RIP.
OK you could argue i'm being crude racialist here and just discussing "non-white" citizens, not taking into account the ethnic diversity of, f'r instance, Wales anyway, Welsh speakers, English speakers, etc., etc., but i despise usage of the term 'ethnic' when the writer MEANS ethnic minority as much as the next person...
and i'm getting tied up in knots now
and really England outside of London and its bigger provincial towns (esp Brum and Mcr; Leicester and the orbital towns and the W Mids and Bradford and parts of Lancs.) is too. but London is one of the most multicultural cities in the world and certainly the most ethnically diverse city in Europe (i don't know which is next, but i would guess Paris or one of the bigger Iberian towns perhaps).
i mention this only because i spent three months on holiday in the USA last year and i found it simply astounding the numbers of Yanks who thought england was still an extremely whitebread kind of place.
but yeah that's a cool article that.
--
oh, terry frost has died too. RIP.
at about seven this morning, tendrils of fog, down to 50 yards visibility, icily cold, like a medieval fishmarket scene, stench and your extremities failing, two good looking solidly built labourers with trousers and hoodies on their site overlooking the tram tracks, supping from two polystyrene cups (presumably) containing steaming hot tea.
then later, half a ripped photograph on the floor, a boy's head from the behind, bowling lane alleys and avenues, or strange television screens.
a friendly Togoan bloke, dressed gangsta style, chatting on the way to work.
and a bloke in an exquisite dark/red suit, with quirky stubble and a blingbling-ish earring, looking a bit like a somewhat younger and perhaps less harshly-faced denzel washington.
i probably sound like a voyeur, but i am engaging with these people, anyway, send hatemail if you disagree, i like a slag-off.
then later, half a ripped photograph on the floor, a boy's head from the behind, bowling lane alleys and avenues, or strange television screens.
a friendly Togoan bloke, dressed gangsta style, chatting on the way to work.
and a bloke in an exquisite dark/red suit, with quirky stubble and a blingbling-ish earring, looking a bit like a somewhat younger and perhaps less harshly-faced denzel washington.
i probably sound like a voyeur, but i am engaging with these people, anyway, send hatemail if you disagree, i like a slag-off.
Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang at amazon.
i do like this, it's okay, it's good.
i was discussing old Thomas Keneally the other day with my hip cuz (don't worry Cath i still love you) and she agreed that when you're about 15 this is a good one, it almost always seemed an overtly political thing for me, obviously those themes ni there take a good poke around you see what i mean, but i must confess i find a lot of Keneally dry and unmanageable, there seems to be a lack of spark there.
Cath (well, she's an Aussie, she's allowed... ...and if you unpick the ironies there, then you're doing well for this time of morning) was stronger on slagging off Keneally and because she's a bright young thing didn't seem to think much about Bobby Hughes (tho' all my actual art graduate mates do, so that's yah-boo to her...) either but because (i assume) she's a hipster type she digs Abstract Expressionism, so she didn't like any digs at Rothko, what's with that eh?
mind you, she did name her two pet cats Hobbes and Jonesy.
i do like this, it's okay, it's good.
i was discussing old Thomas Keneally the other day with my hip cuz (don't worry Cath i still love you) and she agreed that when you're about 15 this is a good one, it almost always seemed an overtly political thing for me, obviously those themes ni there take a good poke around you see what i mean, but i must confess i find a lot of Keneally dry and unmanageable, there seems to be a lack of spark there.
Cath (well, she's an Aussie, she's allowed... ...and if you unpick the ironies there, then you're doing well for this time of morning) was stronger on slagging off Keneally and because she's a bright young thing didn't seem to think much about Bobby Hughes (tho' all my actual art graduate mates do, so that's yah-boo to her...) either but because (i assume) she's a hipster type she digs Abstract Expressionism, so she didn't like any digs at Rothko, what's with that eh?
mind you, she did name her two pet cats Hobbes and Jonesy.
still on the subject of Aussies (because Australia is a fine land, with fine famous people such as Germaine Greer and Clive James and Cathy Freeman and the wonderful Bobby H. of course and all those post-punkers and lurching, primitivist but really rather wonderfully sophisticated when you think about it garage rawkers and my aunt and cousins and Jonny Dale [and firstly here's another right here Aussie politico link] even if some of those Aussies up sticks to London first chance they get a la John Pilger or people in Walkabout bars) and can i just say that it's not nice to sneer at Clive James, he is actually quite a good sort witty and erudite and such, not some old lech, a bit of a man of a letters (if in a tabloid style) and i just realised only recently that Keith is an Aussie too so that makes Keith and Tim, Angus, Jon, and Chris some of my fave individual Aussies and what is about them that these are all some of my favourite blogs relative to the tiny population of the place it's weird eh!
heh-heh.
~
on the subject of that neocon quiz again, the lovely companion and my man with the digicam Dan both rated as liberals. this made me rethink my attitude towards it. i was a realist; surely the only position you'd really desire from the answers is one of those two, as the other two are to be branded either isolationist or a neocon (well, that's my prejudices coming thru, but bear with me hey).
anyway, i looked at what it said again for liberal. here is what it said: -
==
Are wary of American arrogance and hypocrisy
Trace much of today's anti-American hatred to previous US foreign policies.
Believe political solutions are inherently superior to military solutions
Believe the US is morally bound to intervene in humanitarian crises
Oppose American imperialism
Support international law, alliances, and agreements
Encourage US participation in the UN
Believe US economic policies must help lift up the world's poor
Historical liberal: President Woodrow Wilson
Modern liberal: President Jimmy Carter
-
see, obviously many of those are lovely and nice such as supporting international law and ideally hoping (don't know about believing though) that US economic policies must help lift up the world's poor. free trade and less protectionism and the breaking down of trade barriers and tariffs, etc., that will all help, and hopefully the US can start engineering more of that, instead on concentrating on bankrupting small country banana growers, etc.
but WTF are
-"Believe the US is morally bound to intervene in humanitarian crises
-Oppose American imperialism "
you can't have your cake and eat it. i would realistically classify myself as a hideously cynical/pragmatic centrist [imperialist fite!] (after years of being a knock-kneed consensualising liberal), since a lot of the time i am all for that in humanitarian crises, and apparently that's classic liberal ( i don't mean "classical liberal" of course ), but isn't that extending the white man's burden (Kipling)?
you could persuasively say of course, well no, just get in and get out, sort it out so that still makes you a liberal, but don't head up a obviously ill-prepared reconstruction team because it's clear there are far too many problems and you didn't plan nearly well enough etc. (alright, enough timely parallels for you) but some of those liberal answers, i dunno.
oh, and unfortunately, "Believe political solutions are inherently superior to military solutions" has been shown, historically, sometimes to be sadly not the case. but that's stating the bleeding obvious of course.
the realist ones: -
==
Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision
Believe US power is crucial to successful diplomacy - and vice versa
Don't want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations
Believe strong alliances are important to US interests
Weigh the political costs of foreign action
Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest
Historical realist: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Modern realist: Secretary of State Colin Powell
=
it's not like i'm entirely happy with some of them, but you have to weigh the political costs of these things and, yes, i'm a fairly firm believer in "Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision", we're not in a Fabian cloud cuckoo land society are we (Healey);
certainly one recognises "Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest" but i don't like it.
still, if you make your bed and all that, i suppose all those poncy holier-than-thou liberals can shout at you, oh well, nothing to do with us, i signed a petition/etc./yadda yadda/i even went on a march once "Don't want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations" is clearly dodgy.
still.
alright, most of the above is incoherent or rude, but at least i'm not a complete twat all the time.
heh-heh.
~
on the subject of that neocon quiz again, the lovely companion and my man with the digicam Dan both rated as liberals. this made me rethink my attitude towards it. i was a realist; surely the only position you'd really desire from the answers is one of those two, as the other two are to be branded either isolationist or a neocon (well, that's my prejudices coming thru, but bear with me hey).
anyway, i looked at what it said again for liberal. here is what it said: -
==
Are wary of American arrogance and hypocrisy
Trace much of today's anti-American hatred to previous US foreign policies.
Believe political solutions are inherently superior to military solutions
Believe the US is morally bound to intervene in humanitarian crises
Oppose American imperialism
Support international law, alliances, and agreements
Encourage US participation in the UN
Believe US economic policies must help lift up the world's poor
Historical liberal: President Woodrow Wilson
Modern liberal: President Jimmy Carter
-
see, obviously many of those are lovely and nice such as supporting international law and ideally hoping (don't know about believing though) that US economic policies must help lift up the world's poor. free trade and less protectionism and the breaking down of trade barriers and tariffs, etc., that will all help, and hopefully the US can start engineering more of that, instead on concentrating on bankrupting small country banana growers, etc.
but WTF are
-"Believe the US is morally bound to intervene in humanitarian crises
-Oppose American imperialism "
you can't have your cake and eat it. i would realistically classify myself as a hideously cynical/pragmatic centrist [imperialist fite!] (after years of being a knock-kneed consensualising liberal), since a lot of the time i am all for that in humanitarian crises, and apparently that's classic liberal ( i don't mean "classical liberal" of course ), but isn't that extending the white man's burden (Kipling)?
you could persuasively say of course, well no, just get in and get out, sort it out so that still makes you a liberal, but don't head up a obviously ill-prepared reconstruction team because it's clear there are far too many problems and you didn't plan nearly well enough etc. (alright, enough timely parallels for you) but some of those liberal answers, i dunno.
oh, and unfortunately, "Believe political solutions are inherently superior to military solutions" has been shown, historically, sometimes to be sadly not the case. but that's stating the bleeding obvious of course.
the realist ones: -
==
Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision
Believe US power is crucial to successful diplomacy - and vice versa
Don't want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations
Believe strong alliances are important to US interests
Weigh the political costs of foreign action
Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest
Historical realist: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Modern realist: Secretary of State Colin Powell
=
it's not like i'm entirely happy with some of them, but you have to weigh the political costs of these things and, yes, i'm a fairly firm believer in "Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision", we're not in a Fabian cloud cuckoo land society are we (Healey);
certainly one recognises "Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest" but i don't like it.
still, if you make your bed and all that, i suppose all those poncy holier-than-thou liberals can shout at you, oh well, nothing to do with us, i signed a petition/etc./yadda yadda/i even went on a march once "Don't want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations" is clearly dodgy.
still.
alright, most of the above is incoherent or rude, but at least i'm not a complete twat all the time.
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
the most enjoyable online quiz i've ever taken (certainly better than all those risible 'which buffy/maladjusted teen/angsty whey-faced youth/character are YOU??!' polls you see).
i'm a "realist"; might have thought one was a liberal too. hah!
flagged up by the effortlessly brilliant Jason Soon over at catallaxy files.
strange that out of my five favourite Aussie blogs, four of them are from boys who - reading between the lines (correct me if i'm wrong) - are perhaps left-leaning in their views (i know this is the case with Jon anyway definitively right mate?), the other from a rightwing (well, liberal) collective.
hrm.
i'm a "realist"; might have thought one was a liberal too. hah!
flagged up by the effortlessly brilliant Jason Soon over at catallaxy files.
strange that out of my five favourite Aussie blogs, four of them are from boys who - reading between the lines (correct me if i'm wrong) - are perhaps left-leaning in their views (i know this is the case with Jon anyway definitively right mate?), the other from a rightwing (well, liberal) collective.
hrm.
actually, i remember now, i prefer the arts supplements of the tribune and the ny times [arts] probably to british ones, they're good like anyhow.
that previous WP link might take you straight through to the post article, or you might have to click on a pull down menu telling them which country you live in etc.
if that is the case, and cookies offend you, here is a cut and paste job.
=
Pakistan Touts Control of Border
Afghans, Some Western Officials Skeptical of Crackdown on Taliban in Restive Region
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 2, 2003; Page A10
MOHMAND AGENCY, Pakistan -- Until recently, this remote tribal region on the Afghan border was the last of Pakistan's "no-go" areas, a lawless realm of parched mountains and mud-walled villages where not even the army dared to tread. Smugglers operated with impunity here, and so, some say, did the Taliban and al Qaeda.
But this June, Pakistani soldiers moved into Mohmand Agency, one of seven tribal areas that have been brought under government control for the first time in Pakistan's history. The situation is now so tranquil that the army recently organized a helicopter tour for Western journalists, showcasing a well-digging project and smiling villagers bearing trays of ice-cold Pepsi-Cola.
"We don't allow Taliban here," said Mohammed Shah, 45, a wiry-looking laborer who was among the well-wishers in the village of Faqir Wala. "If they come, we will throw them out."
The army organized the tour to counter charges by the U.S.-backed Afghan government that Pakistan is allowing Taliban fighters to use its border areas as a base for stepped-up operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern and southeastern Afghanistan. Such attacks, including recent large-scale assaults on police posts, have forced aid groups to curtail some relief and reconstruction efforts and raised doubts about plans to hold national elections next year.
They also are a cause of growing concern in Washington. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said after a visit earlier this month to Kabul, the Afghan capital, that Pakistan was "not doing as much as it can" to secure its border with Afghanistan. Pakistani officials deny they are aiding the Taliban, saying they are committed to helping the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai while emphasizing the challenge of preventing illegal movement across the rugged frontier, much of which is not even marked.
Some analysts and Western diplomats, however, are skeptical of Pakistan's assurances. They cite Pakistan's historical ties to the Taliban, its animosity toward members of the former Northern Alliance militia who now dominate Karzai's government and its growing anxiety over links between Kabul and India, Pakistan's historical nemesis.
In particular, Pakistani officials accuse India of using newly reopened consulates in the Afghan cities of Kandahar and Jalalabad to stir up tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially along the border. "I would not say the policy has gone to overt or covert support for the Taliban, but there could be a process of benign neglect," said retired army officer Ikram Majeed Sehgal, who retains close links to Pakistan's security establishment as the head of the country's largest private security firm.
"Given the fact that the Northern Alliance has taken over, [Pakistani security forces] would not crack down [on the Taliban] with the same enthusiasm they would have a year earlier," he added. "Now their worst fears have come true. The Indians have planted themselves in Kandahar and in Jalalabad."
A Western diplomat suggested that Pakistani intelligence agents still maintain "lines of communication" with fugitive Taliban leaders, who share Pakistan's hostility toward India and the Northern Alliance. If nothing else, the diplomat added, Pakistani officials perceive such contacts as "an insurance policy" in the event that Karzai's government fails and the Taliban returns to power in some form.
Pakistan's ties to the Taliban date from the early 1990s, when it embraced the movement as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan and -- along with Saudi Arabia -- supplied much of the weaponry and logistical support that underpinned its rise to power. The movement drew its manpower from Afghan and Pakistani students at Islamic seminaries, or madrassas, in the Pashtun tribal belt running through the border regions of North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan.
Many of the madrassas were run by Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Islami, one of Pakistan's main hard-line religious parties. The JUI is now part of the six-party religious alliance that leads the opposition in Pakistan's parliament and also holds power in the provincial government of North-West Frontier Province, which includes Mohmand Agency.
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the United States, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, threw his support behind the U.S.-led war to topple the Taliban government and crush al Qaeda with help from the Northern Alliance, which occupied Kabul several months later. Since then, Pakistani security services acting in concert with the FBI and CIA have arrested nearly 500 al Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan.
But Pakistani officials say they make a distinction between al Qaeda members, most of whom are Arabs, and Taliban fighters, who they say are generally undeserving of the "terrorist" label. Pakistani authorities have arrested few, if any, senior Taliban figures, many of whom are thought to have taken refuge in Pakistan.
"Officials knew that using strong-arm tactics against the Taliban would be a mistake," Fazlur Rahman, the head of the JUI, said in a telephone interview. "One can have a difference of opinion with some of their leaders, but the Taliban were pro-Pakistan and would always remain so. My feeling is the army as an institution recognizes that fact."
Afghan officials say they are paying the price for Pakistan's ambivalent attitude toward the Taliban. In Kandahar, Afghan intelligence officials have been allowing Western journalists to interview captured Taliban fighters who describe themselves as recent recruits from madrassas in Pakistan's border areas.
One of them, identified as an 18-year-old Afghan from the central province of Uruzgan, told Reuters that he had been studying at a madrassa in Chaman, near the border with Afghanistan, several months ago when a pro-Taliban cleric invited him to "join the jihad." The captured fighter, Rahimatullah, said he traveled to the Pakistani city of Quetta, where he joined 10 more recruits before taking a taxi to the Maruf district of Kandahar province.
A few nights later he was captured during an unsuccessful raid on the home of a government official. Rahimatullah said he had been paid 3,200 Pakistani rupees, about $55, to join the militia.
A Western military source credited Pakistan with making a sincere effort to stop infiltration, however, noting that the army has established about 300 new outposts in the border areas in the last three months.
Pakistani army officers said they have so far deployed 25,000 men in the tribal areas of North-West Frontier Province. In Mohmand Agency, as in other tribal areas, many are involved in public works projects, such as building schools and roads. Others have been deployed along the border, occupying positions at one-mile intervals on the agency's 42-mile frontier with Afghanistan, according to Brig. Iqbal Harral, the brigade commander in the area.
Gen. Ali Aurakzai, the corps commander in the province, said his field commanders hold regular meetings with their U.S. counterparts across the border and sometimes coordinate operations against pro-Taliban forces with the aid of satellite phones.
"We provided the anvil, and they provided the hammer," he said of one such operation that took place recently.
elsewhere, this is via radio free narnia (mark sinker right)?
it's a very good piece, and more persuasive than the likes of stephen pollard (tho' you gotta like him too, this here is really rather good).
just for the record, writing as a mancunian, mona baker was of course guilty of contemptible, vile actions. this letter does the trick.
she shames a world-class university with those sorts of views. yadda yadda, here's her own homepage, academically she sounds fine.
but there you have it.
if that is the case, and cookies offend you, here is a cut and paste job.
=
Pakistan Touts Control of Border
Afghans, Some Western Officials Skeptical of Crackdown on Taliban in Restive Region
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 2, 2003; Page A10
MOHMAND AGENCY, Pakistan -- Until recently, this remote tribal region on the Afghan border was the last of Pakistan's "no-go" areas, a lawless realm of parched mountains and mud-walled villages where not even the army dared to tread. Smugglers operated with impunity here, and so, some say, did the Taliban and al Qaeda.
But this June, Pakistani soldiers moved into Mohmand Agency, one of seven tribal areas that have been brought under government control for the first time in Pakistan's history. The situation is now so tranquil that the army recently organized a helicopter tour for Western journalists, showcasing a well-digging project and smiling villagers bearing trays of ice-cold Pepsi-Cola.
"We don't allow Taliban here," said Mohammed Shah, 45, a wiry-looking laborer who was among the well-wishers in the village of Faqir Wala. "If they come, we will throw them out."
The army organized the tour to counter charges by the U.S.-backed Afghan government that Pakistan is allowing Taliban fighters to use its border areas as a base for stepped-up operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern and southeastern Afghanistan. Such attacks, including recent large-scale assaults on police posts, have forced aid groups to curtail some relief and reconstruction efforts and raised doubts about plans to hold national elections next year.
They also are a cause of growing concern in Washington. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said after a visit earlier this month to Kabul, the Afghan capital, that Pakistan was "not doing as much as it can" to secure its border with Afghanistan. Pakistani officials deny they are aiding the Taliban, saying they are committed to helping the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai while emphasizing the challenge of preventing illegal movement across the rugged frontier, much of which is not even marked.
Some analysts and Western diplomats, however, are skeptical of Pakistan's assurances. They cite Pakistan's historical ties to the Taliban, its animosity toward members of the former Northern Alliance militia who now dominate Karzai's government and its growing anxiety over links between Kabul and India, Pakistan's historical nemesis.
In particular, Pakistani officials accuse India of using newly reopened consulates in the Afghan cities of Kandahar and Jalalabad to stir up tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially along the border. "I would not say the policy has gone to overt or covert support for the Taliban, but there could be a process of benign neglect," said retired army officer Ikram Majeed Sehgal, who retains close links to Pakistan's security establishment as the head of the country's largest private security firm.
"Given the fact that the Northern Alliance has taken over, [Pakistani security forces] would not crack down [on the Taliban] with the same enthusiasm they would have a year earlier," he added. "Now their worst fears have come true. The Indians have planted themselves in Kandahar and in Jalalabad."
A Western diplomat suggested that Pakistani intelligence agents still maintain "lines of communication" with fugitive Taliban leaders, who share Pakistan's hostility toward India and the Northern Alliance. If nothing else, the diplomat added, Pakistani officials perceive such contacts as "an insurance policy" in the event that Karzai's government fails and the Taliban returns to power in some form.
Pakistan's ties to the Taliban date from the early 1990s, when it embraced the movement as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan and -- along with Saudi Arabia -- supplied much of the weaponry and logistical support that underpinned its rise to power. The movement drew its manpower from Afghan and Pakistani students at Islamic seminaries, or madrassas, in the Pashtun tribal belt running through the border regions of North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan.
Many of the madrassas were run by Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Islami, one of Pakistan's main hard-line religious parties. The JUI is now part of the six-party religious alliance that leads the opposition in Pakistan's parliament and also holds power in the provincial government of North-West Frontier Province, which includes Mohmand Agency.
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on the United States, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, threw his support behind the U.S.-led war to topple the Taliban government and crush al Qaeda with help from the Northern Alliance, which occupied Kabul several months later. Since then, Pakistani security services acting in concert with the FBI and CIA have arrested nearly 500 al Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan.
But Pakistani officials say they make a distinction between al Qaeda members, most of whom are Arabs, and Taliban fighters, who they say are generally undeserving of the "terrorist" label. Pakistani authorities have arrested few, if any, senior Taliban figures, many of whom are thought to have taken refuge in Pakistan.
"Officials knew that using strong-arm tactics against the Taliban would be a mistake," Fazlur Rahman, the head of the JUI, said in a telephone interview. "One can have a difference of opinion with some of their leaders, but the Taliban were pro-Pakistan and would always remain so. My feeling is the army as an institution recognizes that fact."
Afghan officials say they are paying the price for Pakistan's ambivalent attitude toward the Taliban. In Kandahar, Afghan intelligence officials have been allowing Western journalists to interview captured Taliban fighters who describe themselves as recent recruits from madrassas in Pakistan's border areas.
One of them, identified as an 18-year-old Afghan from the central province of Uruzgan, told Reuters that he had been studying at a madrassa in Chaman, near the border with Afghanistan, several months ago when a pro-Taliban cleric invited him to "join the jihad." The captured fighter, Rahimatullah, said he traveled to the Pakistani city of Quetta, where he joined 10 more recruits before taking a taxi to the Maruf district of Kandahar province.
A few nights later he was captured during an unsuccessful raid on the home of a government official. Rahimatullah said he had been paid 3,200 Pakistani rupees, about $55, to join the militia.
A Western military source credited Pakistan with making a sincere effort to stop infiltration, however, noting that the army has established about 300 new outposts in the border areas in the last three months.
Pakistani army officers said they have so far deployed 25,000 men in the tribal areas of North-West Frontier Province. In Mohmand Agency, as in other tribal areas, many are involved in public works projects, such as building schools and roads. Others have been deployed along the border, occupying positions at one-mile intervals on the agency's 42-mile frontier with Afghanistan, according to Brig. Iqbal Harral, the brigade commander in the area.
Gen. Ali Aurakzai, the corps commander in the province, said his field commanders hold regular meetings with their U.S. counterparts across the border and sometimes coordinate operations against pro-Taliban forces with the aid of satellite phones.
"We provided the anvil, and they provided the hammer," he said of one such operation that took place recently.
elsewhere, this is via radio free narnia (mark sinker right)?
it's a very good piece, and more persuasive than the likes of stephen pollard (tho' you gotta like him too, this here is really rather good).
just for the record, writing as a mancunian, mona baker was of course guilty of contemptible, vile actions. this letter does the trick.
she shames a world-class university with those sorts of views. yadda yadda, here's her own homepage, academically she sounds fine.
but there you have it.
fascinating article from the post.
as a rule, to be honest, american broadsheets (yes, even the times, tho' its books supplement on a sunday is just plain lovely) and the chicago broadsheet (i always forget which of the chi-town dailies is which; tab or b/sheet i mean) has a gorgeous arts supp. too
but yes, as a rule,
i find british broadsheets preferable,
yea and verily,
even the denuded guardian, the sometimes dishonourable times, the deluded indy, the fusty old telegraph, the peerless FT.
as a rule, to be honest, american broadsheets (yes, even the times, tho' its books supplement on a sunday is just plain lovely) and the chicago broadsheet (i always forget which of the chi-town dailies is which; tab or b/sheet i mean) has a gorgeous arts supp. too
but yes, as a rule,
i find british broadsheets preferable,
yea and verily,
even the denuded guardian, the sometimes dishonourable times, the deluded indy, the fusty old telegraph, the peerless FT.
must admit, i read this, and am not one of these people that ain't ain't a fan of Dubya, yunno, what am i to say blehbleh, but my eyes did alight on the phrase "The other main focus in Mr Bush's speech - which was otherwise light on concrete policy ideas" in particular, to be honest...
i saw a jaffa cake overturned, chocolate side down, and messy steel kitchen sinks strewn wildly around, near the legal aid office this morning.
i saw bins overturned and excellent graffito, and i saw multifaceted examples of urban poetry.
i also saw a builder with good stubble and wild blue eyes and fluffy hair on his way to a job, dressed for the sitch, carrying a steaming hot (big) mug of tea.
he seemed content with that.
i saw bins overturned and excellent graffito, and i saw multifaceted examples of urban poetry.
i also saw a builder with good stubble and wild blue eyes and fluffy hair on his way to a job, dressed for the sitch, carrying a steaming hot (big) mug of tea.
he seemed content with that.
k-punk mentions what baal sez about the latest girls aloud.
k-punk might like to know (i swear this is true) that i was watching 'top of the pops' last night with my mam and dad (who are both into their 50s now, and not fond of either oasis or wonderwall, though liking blu cantrell, BoC, JT, and doo-wop) and my mother, my dear mother, straight away (well, after a minute or two of the song, you get my drift) exclaimed when she saw the girls, "why are they ripping off wonderwall?".
personally i think it's a do-able rip-off, but then, i ain't really an oasis fan.
k-punk might like to know (i swear this is true) that i was watching 'top of the pops' last night with my mam and dad (who are both into their 50s now, and not fond of either oasis or wonderwall, though liking blu cantrell, BoC, JT, and doo-wop) and my mother, my dear mother, straight away (well, after a minute or two of the song, you get my drift) exclaimed when she saw the girls, "why are they ripping off wonderwall?".
personally i think it's a do-able rip-off, but then, i ain't really an oasis fan.
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