THE CROWD SAY BO
I don't know what qualifications are required to be a weather forecaster on television or radio, but you would have thought that there were plenty of people who would like to do the job. Why, then, do the selectors find so many who are unable to pronounce the word 'Arctic' (it has two cs in it, neither silent) or the word 'Ireland' (it has an r in it, making it sound different from 'island')?
Charles Moore
Saturday, 28 April 2007
anyway, yesterday morning Classic fm (office ambience innit) was very affecting on the death of Mstislav Rostropovich.
their announcers and reporters were touching, eloquent, plain (in the best sense of the word), and powerful.
the first piece of music played after the news by that station was some Tchaikovsky by the London Phil, conductor: Rostropovich.
after that was the man himself playing Bach.
actually, again on Ch4 news yesterday, their arts correspondent had an emotional piece at the end of the programme, with a few figures from the world of that profession, and friends.
their announcers and reporters were touching, eloquent, plain (in the best sense of the word), and powerful.
the first piece of music played after the news by that station was some Tchaikovsky by the London Phil, conductor: Rostropovich.
after that was the man himself playing Bach.
actually, again on Ch4 news yesterday, their arts correspondent had an emotional piece at the end of the programme, with a few figures from the world of that profession, and friends.
tago-mago.net has a nas, wu-tang, & others thing, up here.
S/FJ linked him the other week actually (wot can i say, we must be on the same mail-list).
here for S/FJ, becuz, frankly, you need that picture.
S/FJ linked him the other week actually (wot can i say, we must be on the same mail-list).
here for S/FJ, becuz, frankly, you need that picture.
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Chicago Triad
three random Second City snippets - unrelated, really, and what have you - called to mind/sprung to attention, in the last few days, for me, just underline how much i miss that town, not in themselves you know, but, they just do.
it's a great city.
1. Virgin Atlantic airline is introducing a daily service from Heathrow to O'Hare.
2. two of the world's 50 best restaurants are there (you know those poll results), specifically the otherworldly and transporting Alinea (is the conjuror Grant Achatz still there? got it going on) and the celebrated Charlie Trotter's (again, not a surprise).
{two alternatives to flag from the most recent* food issue of the local Time Out i've seen would be the pepito sammich' at Costa Rican gaff Irazu, in Logan Square, and the somun bread at Adria Mare on Broadway at Balmoral**.
oh, ok, three: take the apple fritter at Old Fashioned Donuts on the South Side, on Michigan, around 112th, 113th.
money quote: "The most. Insanely. Delicious. Doughnut. On. The. Planet."}
*a coupla years old, granted.
**what can i say? i must be in a carbs mood.
3. the Barclays-ABN Amro merger, one effect of which is the possible sale of ABN arm LaSalle to Bank of America.
apparently the RBS is quite cheesed off with this proposal, as one financial journalist (Stephen Kahn) writes : ABN's Chicago subsidiary LaSalle was a gem that RBS coveted.
again, it's a great city.
gosh i miss that town.
three random Second City snippets - unrelated, really, and what have you - called to mind/sprung to attention, in the last few days, for me, just underline how much i miss that town, not in themselves you know, but, they just do.
it's a great city.
1. Virgin Atlantic airline is introducing a daily service from Heathrow to O'Hare.
2. two of the world's 50 best restaurants are there (you know those poll results), specifically the otherworldly and transporting Alinea (is the conjuror Grant Achatz still there? got it going on) and the celebrated Charlie Trotter's (again, not a surprise).
{two alternatives to flag from the most recent* food issue of the local Time Out i've seen would be the pepito sammich' at Costa Rican gaff Irazu, in Logan Square, and the somun bread at Adria Mare on Broadway at Balmoral**.
oh, ok, three: take the apple fritter at Old Fashioned Donuts on the South Side, on Michigan, around 112th, 113th.
money quote: "The most. Insanely. Delicious. Doughnut. On. The. Planet."}
*a coupla years old, granted.
**what can i say? i must be in a carbs mood.
3. the Barclays-ABN Amro merger, one effect of which is the possible sale of ABN arm LaSalle to Bank of America.
apparently the RBS is quite cheesed off with this proposal, as one financial journalist (Stephen Kahn) writes : ABN's Chicago subsidiary LaSalle was a gem that RBS coveted.
again, it's a great city.
gosh i miss that town.
Monday, 23 April 2007
a recent Big Issue (UK street paper) had a piece by Hazel Healy about an April 5 demonstration - rallying 70-handed - outside Dallas Court Reporting Centre in Salford, base for UK Immigration Services.
the protest was called to show support for 50 Sudanese asylum seekers who were due to check in at Dallas Court that day, people facing the possibility of detention and eventual deportation.
"Sudanese people had been rounded up from across the country the previous week, according to Abobeker Zureya, secretary of the Darfur community in Manchester, which organised the event.
Zureya claims Khartoum is not safe for Darfuris, who will be targeted by the Sudanese government if they are returned...The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture has documented Darfuris being tortured in 'ghost houses' in Khartoum.
Last week the Aegis trust..publicised a case where a returned asylum seeker was tortured in Khartoum."
on April 4 the Court of Appeal ruled that, in the case of three Darfurian asylum seekers due to be deported to camps near Khartoum, the deportations must be halted, on the grounds that same action would be unduly harsh, given conditions in those refugee camps.
the Home Office said it would consider an appeal to the House of Lords.
on April 5 no one was detained at Dallas Court.
Zureya says the rallies will continue until the Home Office acknowledges no part of Sudan is safe for Darfurians while conflict continues.
(one of the protestors - 27 year old Adam Al Noor Ibrahim who left Forbaranga in west Darfur in 2005 - was wearing "a blue beret representing a plea for UN peacekeeper intervention in the conflict.")
the protest was called to show support for 50 Sudanese asylum seekers who were due to check in at Dallas Court that day, people facing the possibility of detention and eventual deportation.
Zureya claims Khartoum is not safe for Darfuris, who will be targeted by the Sudanese government if they are returned...The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture has documented Darfuris being tortured in 'ghost houses' in Khartoum.
Last week the Aegis trust..publicised a case where a returned asylum seeker was tortured in Khartoum."
on April 4 the Court of Appeal ruled that, in the case of three Darfurian asylum seekers due to be deported to camps near Khartoum, the deportations must be halted, on the grounds that same action would be unduly harsh, given conditions in those refugee camps.
the Home Office said it would consider an appeal to the House of Lords.
on April 5 no one was detained at Dallas Court.
Zureya says the rallies will continue until the Home Office acknowledges no part of Sudan is safe for Darfurians while conflict continues.
(one of the protestors - 27 year old Adam Al Noor Ibrahim who left Forbaranga in west Darfur in 2005 - was wearing "a blue beret representing a plea for UN peacekeeper intervention in the conflict.")
APING SARAMAGO
Boris Yeltsin shuffles away, and all that that entails for his family and friends*, and i wanted to say - bringing it back to 'the personal'/almost solipsistic arguably - that Dr Matthew Wyman taught a Russian politics course at undergrad level at Keele (where i, essentially, wasted a degree) and it was his passion and humanity that came through, and he was starting to teach Russian politics to me at roughly the same time as other friends in literature departments were being taught about Russian literature by their tutors (which is good as that meant everything mixed), and Dr Wyman was/is a really, really lovely bloke (one of many awesome academics i was fortunate to meet and be taught by at Keele, though in my case "taught" is perhaps a stretch) so here is the homepage at Keele for him, here, showing his interests in the teaching of politics itself and so on.
*this blog is pretty good at stating the bleedin' obvious
Boris Yeltsin shuffles away, and all that that entails for his family and friends*, and i wanted to say - bringing it back to 'the personal'/almost solipsistic arguably - that Dr Matthew Wyman taught a Russian politics course at undergrad level at Keele (where i, essentially, wasted a degree) and it was his passion and humanity that came through, and he was starting to teach Russian politics to me at roughly the same time as other friends in literature departments were being taught about Russian literature by their tutors (which is good as that meant everything mixed), and Dr Wyman was/is a really, really lovely bloke (one of many awesome academics i was fortunate to meet and be taught by at Keele, though in my case "taught" is perhaps a stretch) so here is the homepage at Keele for him, here, showing his interests in the teaching of politics itself and so on.
*this blog is pretty good at stating the bleedin' obvious
Abu Sayyaf delivers seven headless bodies to the Philippine army.
at least 32 people die in a molten steel industrial accident in Liaoning Province.
the UNHCR says people are trapped in Mogadishu.
5 babies are killed in a fire at a Sarajevo orphanage.
a young man dies following his participation in the London marathon.
there are many, many deaths, and much violence, entwined with the Nigerian elections.
in the weekend that just passed Gaza and the West Bank suffered numerous killings.
this is some news of recent days.
what is my point? {if any.}
i don't know.
at least 32 people die in a molten steel industrial accident in Liaoning Province.
the UNHCR says people are trapped in Mogadishu.
5 babies are killed in a fire at a Sarajevo orphanage.
a young man dies following his participation in the London marathon.
there are many, many deaths, and much violence, entwined with the Nigerian elections.
in the weekend that just passed Gaza and the West Bank suffered numerous killings.
this is some news of recent days.
what is my point? {if any.}
i don't know.
"Amnesty International today repeated its call to the Syrian authorities to release immediately Anwar al-Bunni when his trial before the Damascus Criminal Court concludes tomorrow, 24 April 2007."
more here
more here
Oliver Kamm is honest enough to flag up this debate here he had with aid worker Conor Foley about intervention and Darfur.
Foley cites Alex de Waal, Human Rights Watch and the ICTY, applauds some of the United Nation's work, and asks questions of Kamm.
Kamm gets stuck in to numbers, cites Brookings and pays tribute to the work Foley does.
I think that we share the same wish for peace in Darfur and agree that this crisis should not be turned into a proxy for ideological battles elsewhere. I hope that the investigation by the International Criminal Court will continue and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice, but my priority for the region is peace - and you rarely get that by bombing.
- Conor Foley.
Foley cites Alex de Waal, Human Rights Watch and the ICTY, applauds some of the United Nation's work, and asks questions of Kamm.
Kamm gets stuck in to numbers, cites Brookings and pays tribute to the work Foley does.
I think that we share the same wish for peace in Darfur and agree that this crisis should not be turned into a proxy for ideological battles elsewhere. I hope that the investigation by the International Criminal Court will continue and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice, but my priority for the region is peace - and you rarely get that by bombing.
- Conor Foley.
one feels like one should almost be apologising for posting the following link as what is said is so clearly reasonable that (surely) anyone reading it would agree with a sad shrug (sad given the matter under discussion), but the final paragraph of this normblog post appears to be news to Henry Porter of the Observer.
and that is a very odd thing.
[as per with the Guardian, you may want to hold your nose if you read all the commentary.]
and that is a very odd thing.
[as per with the Guardian, you may want to hold your nose if you read all the commentary.]
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Friday, 20 April 2007
Thursday, 19 April 2007
- what appears to be an explicit threat on the life of Gillian Dare, political officer at the British embassy, by Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper, earlier this month
you can now join us, if you so desire, for a spot of –
Pseuds Corner anyone?
{it's not even that, is it}
the new Wildhearts single is called something like 'the sweetest song' (research? pah! to roughly quote this very weblog many times in its more prolifically-posting-yet-still-lazy-fool-manner past) and it has bits of na na na, like Hey Jude or realising that the Kaiser Chiefs do well with that. nah i jest.
the chorus has some lyrics (i've heard it only a few times in hardly ideal conditions) about hearing, to you (the writer of song, anyroad, i guess), the sweetest song ever, what you take that to be, and how it hits you just so, gets you just there, just right.
the 'hearts do seem to have a talent – in a few great tunes from their fine catalogue – of articulating quite precisely and poetically what seem genuine truths about the power of music, and this universe-sized ocean of music we all pursue
for saying universal things about art and life, and how art can enrich you, and enlarge your heart, which seems a quite special, well, gift.
by the way in an Uncut magazine from, ooh, about 3 or 5 years ago now i'd say, maybe, Reynolds said something about reggae being an "ocean of sound", those three exact words (it might have been ocean of music, but it was ocean of__ something) and i just want to say, that's spot on. he was reviewing some re-issues iirc, i don't even know what, just Trojan or Blood & Fire or something ("just", he magnanimously hedges..)
i am in love with that.
so, yes, the Wildhearts in concert should be decent, one hopes.
'Nationwide, the number of people killed or found dead was 233, which was second only to a total of 281 killed or found dead on November 23, 2006.'
I rushed with others to give a hand and help the victims. I saw three bodies in a wooden cart, and civilian cars were helping to transfer the victims. It was really a horrible scene.
28 year-old Salih Mustafa, who was waiting for a minibus to take him home, in Baghdad.
+
in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting massacre, myspace pages belonging to victims of the tragedy got deluged with messages of love and remembrance and fraternal good vibes and all that stuff. (i'd bet the Holocaust survivor professor who was killed didn't have one, but some of the younger victims certainly did.)
anyway one page had a message from a young lady saying how she wished she had said this earlier, but she loved the victim, and other pages had stuff about the wit and warmth and heart and empathy and whatnot of victims, and i'm sure you've read this elsewhere with memorialised names in a paper etc. more properly/respectfully remembered, but myspace is amazing, becuz it seems like alongside counselling and inquiries and due process and faith and community love and sincere empathy and the kindness of strangers, that a big big route out of something was, if only in terms of a small small thing but maybe remembering someone like that is a big big thing but anyway, that myspace was being used and opened up in this way, and that's pretty damn awe inspiring, if i'd stop to think, which i don't suppose i have truly yet, becuz you would likely break down entirely or maybe you have and i should shut up anyway.
so heart the myspace and people adoring each other and friends and colleagues being actual friends and colleagues. [that might be enough waffle.]
&
- the title character in aforementioned 'About Schmidt' (i suppose there's also Scottish indie rockers Idlewild with their listen to what you've got.)
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Nat Bedingfield seemed to be a missing strand between Dee Dee Warwick and Diamanda Galas earlier today.
that, and Dizzee Ras has grown up!
he's got a bit buff.
the video on the Orgreave estate, with huntsmen on horseback chasing through, settles on a wall with the scrawl ONLY COWARDS STEAL FROM THE POOR.
thunderous sounds.
that, and Dizzee Ras has grown up!
he's got a bit buff.
the video on the Orgreave estate, with huntsmen on horseback chasing through, settles on a wall with the scrawl ONLY COWARDS STEAL FROM THE POOR.
thunderous sounds.
Friday, 13 April 2007
all those tugboat crewmen that are missing in ice-cold waters after their vessel overturned between Norway and Scotland, and, well, some of their colleagues are now in hospital and, well, some did not make it that far,
one of the people on-board is a fifteen year old boy.
he was only there for his work experience.
one of the people on-board is a fifteen year old boy.
he was only there for his work experience.
Wednesday, 11 April 2007
there's a programme on British tv called 'Musicool' about a bunch of musician kids from diverse musical backgrounds (grind/thrash vocalist; dancehall emcee; drum'n'bass sort; etc) that has them gelling together in training in order to put on a show in London.
crowding around a piano for some song exercises on the first day, the dancehall lad remarked that the melody was heavy..all the emcees found that part easier than the singers.
it's combustible, and good.
crowding around a piano for some song exercises on the first day, the dancehall lad remarked that the melody was heavy..all the emcees found that part easier than the singers.
it's combustible, and good.
Sunday, 1 April 2007
'The Insider' strikes out in fine ensemble style – again – from Michael Mann.
i love the camerawork, just the jerks and the long views and the fleshy shots.
and the middle American river and how south Beirut looks. entices.
the script, tight as a gnat's chuff. (usual brooding and appropriate tunes.)
he really knows how to show cities; the view of the Big Apple from the CBS offices does make one catch their breath.
it's there.
when the sharp Gina Gershon (suit and hair and face on) is playing hard-ball with CBS press section, outlining dangers from the baccy giant, Pacino requests she repeat herself at one point in their tall office, above streets.
he doesn't ask can you repeat that please?
he says, to Gina, "come again".
Oh. Well. Then. Now.
yes. exactly.
now 'i'm sorry' but, yes, i am a bit sad, and a bit horny and a bit messed up at the mo, so, forgive me, but, that line,
jee-zus..
i love the camerawork, just the jerks and the long views and the fleshy shots.
and the middle American river and how south Beirut looks. entices.
the script, tight as a gnat's chuff. (usual brooding and appropriate tunes.)
he really knows how to show cities; the view of the Big Apple from the CBS offices does make one catch their breath.
it's there.
when the sharp Gina Gershon (suit and hair and face on) is playing hard-ball with CBS press section, outlining dangers from the baccy giant, Pacino requests she repeat herself at one point in their tall office, above streets.
he doesn't ask can you repeat that please?
he says, to Gina, "come again".
Oh. Well. Then. Now.
yes. exactly.
now 'i'm sorry' but, yes, i am a bit sad, and a bit horny and a bit messed up at the mo, so, forgive me, but, that line,
jee-zus..
Friday, 30 March 2007
more extreme lateness:
i just think Angus is so bang on the money about Germaine Greer here, classic turn of phrase w' 'annoying and sanctimonious...'.
Greer does have one of the most magnificent voices in the Anglophone sphere (is that Roberts creeping in? er) i do think though.
imagine serving a summons on her!
christ!
her reaction would, possibly, be both ghastly and erotic.
i just think Angus is so bang on the money about Germaine Greer here, classic turn of phrase w' 'annoying and sanctimonious...'.
Greer does have one of the most magnificent voices in the Anglophone sphere (is that Roberts creeping in? er) i do think though.
imagine serving a summons on her!
christ!
her reaction would, possibly, be both ghastly and erotic.
Philip's newer blog has been dormant for some time now (pot and kettle until recently), and i know this is really late to flag as a teensy-weensy way of bigging up someone i wuv (and also, i dig all his stuff here anyway, that stuff about an audience not even being there, and 'The Culture Show', and Victorian attitudes to death, and&, and&, but i digress), but this about Tom Wolfe is tip-top.
{I am interested to know though why Wolfe is so fixated on muscle groups.}
hah! (it's very true.)
in a recent Spectator, the diary of Andrew Roberts had Roberts schmoozing in the USA with Wolfe and Norman Podhoretz at a Chaos Club, NY, meet. Wolfe "complete in the high collar and three-piece white suit", if you please.
i admit upon reading this i turned nearly as curmudgeonly as Wolfe himself can be and, possibly, thought some inappropriately rude words about the man.
more here on that Roberts diary
{I am interested to know though why Wolfe is so fixated on muscle groups.}
hah! (it's very true.)
in a recent Spectator, the diary of Andrew Roberts had Roberts schmoozing in the USA with Wolfe and Norman Podhoretz at a Chaos Club, NY, meet. Wolfe "complete in the high collar and three-piece white suit", if you please.
i admit upon reading this i turned nearly as curmudgeonly as Wolfe himself can be and, possibly, thought some inappropriately rude words about the man.
more here on that Roberts diary
to change tack
SR uses a gutterbreakz (leg-end!) bleep'n'bass mix as a springboard to riff on the 'nuum once more
it's the one attained by all the "crest" moments in the nuum: hardcore, jungle 94, speed garage, 2step
SR uses a gutterbreakz (leg-end!) bleep'n'bass mix as a springboard to riff on the 'nuum once more
it's the one attained by all the "crest" moments in the nuum: hardcore, jungle 94, speed garage, 2step
and lo the day before yesterday in the Guardian newspaper or yesterday on Channel 4 News TV you had the damn fine Inigo Gilmore reporting on the UK sending back Sudanese asylum seekers to Khartoum (interviewing a Darfuri man), because as we all know the Home Office operates in a culture of snide disbelief that permeates through every fibre of some of its time-poor officials (well, how else can it be explained away?), as they are processing the claims of people to seek asylum in the UK and, furthermore, well, i don’t know.
John Reid, good lord.
you can’t doubt his sincerity to combat extremism but he runs a despicable department, how does that work; the horrid spectacle of an excellent journalist subjecting this bloke to psychological and medical tests to conclude that, yes, it seems he has been tortured, and still one assumes this is not quite enough to appease some of the morally reprehensible-in-effect and actually morally reprehensible bunch of clowns that appear to run the roost down in Whitehall, and so we have the appalling scenario of the Home Office sending people actually back on the way into hell, and then you remember this is consistent with the same Home Office that was sending Zimbabweans with failed claims back until robust opposition attacks on such a disgraceful and unsupportable policy, and then you remember that, what, what can you conclude about a department like that, i don’t know.
Tory MP John Bercow (Buckingham) deserves a medal by the pinched and miserable and small-spirited standards of some of his Home Office opposites for pointing out what any sane person can see.
(you could give him at least the same honours as Mick Jagger, anyway.)
incidentally, Tony Blair once called Bercow nasty and ineffectual – now, i don’t know any Buckingham constituents (perhaps it was a reference to local issues from the PM, after all) but if Bercow is ineffectual what does that mean for Reid?
"Sadiq's case is not isolated - I think there is a wider picture," Mr Bercow said. "There have been many cases of people who have been instructed to return to Khartoum who have been intimidated, threatened and tortured having done so. It's an extremely risky business for Britain to send people back."
what are you playing at Reid?
oh i forgot too busy having your officials crow – crow like some fucking mean-spirited gambler about your opponents lucking out! – about how Britain is all-the-while reducing its asylum burden, numbers getting lower all the time, the numbers game, all-the-while we are seeing less and less
[w’ apologies...]
the grotesque chaos of a Labour government - a Labour government
p.s.
Gilmore spoke to Khartoum’s man in London (not a monolithic govt these days, Darfur & Darfur conflict watchers remind us) as you may have seen, and granted we’ll not go there...
John Reid, good lord.
you can’t doubt his sincerity to combat extremism but he runs a despicable department, how does that work; the horrid spectacle of an excellent journalist subjecting this bloke to psychological and medical tests to conclude that, yes, it seems he has been tortured, and still one assumes this is not quite enough to appease some of the morally reprehensible-in-effect and actually morally reprehensible bunch of clowns that appear to run the roost down in Whitehall, and so we have the appalling scenario of the Home Office sending people actually back on the way into hell, and then you remember this is consistent with the same Home Office that was sending Zimbabweans with failed claims back until robust opposition attacks on such a disgraceful and unsupportable policy, and then you remember that, what, what can you conclude about a department like that, i don’t know.
Tory MP John Bercow (Buckingham) deserves a medal by the pinched and miserable and small-spirited standards of some of his Home Office opposites for pointing out what any sane person can see.
(you could give him at least the same honours as Mick Jagger, anyway.)
incidentally, Tony Blair once called Bercow nasty and ineffectual – now, i don’t know any Buckingham constituents (perhaps it was a reference to local issues from the PM, after all) but if Bercow is ineffectual what does that mean for Reid?
"Sadiq's case is not isolated - I think there is a wider picture," Mr Bercow said. "There have been many cases of people who have been instructed to return to Khartoum who have been intimidated, threatened and tortured having done so. It's an extremely risky business for Britain to send people back."
what are you playing at Reid?
oh i forgot too busy having your officials crow – crow like some fucking mean-spirited gambler about your opponents lucking out! – about how Britain is all-the-while reducing its asylum burden, numbers getting lower all the time, the numbers game, all-the-while we are seeing less and less
[w’ apologies...]
p.s.
Gilmore spoke to Khartoum’s man in London (not a monolithic govt these days, Darfur & Darfur conflict watchers remind us) as you may have seen, and granted we’ll not go there...
Elton John’s birthday bash in the Big Apple, with a few pals, was televised last night. (alas no ‘Tiny Dancer’.)
i want to say, ooh, three things about it:
(1) i did not know that Elton did quite that much for charity, and fighting AIDS. yeah i knew he was an incredibly generous and restless figure in the fight against HIV/AIDS (an absurd understatement for such an icon of largesse..), but the true figures were a gobsmacking surprise.
what an absolute legend, big big big love to Elton. clearly there are no words.
(and his putting Robert Downey Jnr in the video for ‘I Want Love’, still one of my faves of recent years.)
(2) Scots funnyman Billy Connolly has done work for Stonewall, many years ago, he said. (presumably this Stonewall, not any American organisation. i don’t know anything of the controversies detailed toward the bottom there and often go with what Peter Tatchell says, but looking at some of their achievements is heartening; eloquent defence, no?)
wow!
nice up your chest Billy, awesome.
ossum.
top, top, tip-top man. again, no idea here.
hadn’t a clue. foggiest.
gone right up in estimation. etc etc.
(3) Anne Hathaway, dancing, in a dress.
i want to say, ooh, three things about it:
(1) i did not know that Elton did quite that much for charity, and fighting AIDS. yeah i knew he was an incredibly generous and restless figure in the fight against HIV/AIDS (an absurd understatement for such an icon of largesse..), but the true figures were a gobsmacking surprise.
what an absolute legend, big big big love to Elton. clearly there are no words.
(and his putting Robert Downey Jnr in the video for ‘I Want Love’, still one of my faves of recent years.)
(2) Scots funnyman Billy Connolly has done work for Stonewall, many years ago, he said. (presumably this Stonewall, not any American organisation. i don’t know anything of the controversies detailed toward the bottom there and often go with what Peter Tatchell says, but looking at some of their achievements is heartening; eloquent defence, no?)
wow!
nice up your chest Billy, awesome.
ossum.
top, top, tip-top man. again, no idea here.
hadn’t a clue. foggiest.
gone right up in estimation. etc etc.
(3) Anne Hathaway, dancing, in a dress.
Thursday, 29 March 2007
normblog (again!), arguing against - Food as a human right - one of the less persuasive points of that Economist leader the other day.
"in making the argument, The Economist fails to answer its own question" :
more here
"in making the argument, The Economist fails to answer its own question" :
more here
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
"That is why the rights that make open politics possible...are so precious"
from The Economist, 22 March
&
Something more universal
from The Economist, 22 March
&
Something more universal
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
They said Wae-halem’s name was on the blacklist
re. this report here, ‘It Was Like Suddenly My Son No Longer Existed: Enforced Disappearances in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces’, it gets acknowledged that “most ‘disappearances’” in focus were “during Thaksin’s rule” though “many of the senior military and police officials who carried out this policy remain on active duty”, and “General Surayud’s government has done little to translate..promises into action”.
+
Everybody must be in Minsk
25th March.
re. this report here, ‘It Was Like Suddenly My Son No Longer Existed: Enforced Disappearances in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces’, it gets acknowledged that “most ‘disappearances’” in focus were “during Thaksin’s rule” though “many of the senior military and police officials who carried out this policy remain on active duty”, and “General Surayud’s government has done little to translate..promises into action”.
+
Everybody must be in Minsk
25th March.
Monday, 19 March 2007
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Zimbabwe Vigil - London, UK
..
PRESS NOTICE
ZIMBABWEAN DEMO IN LONDON (14/3/07)
Zimbabweans in the UK are to demonstrate outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London on Wednesday in protest at the arrest and torture of peaceful protesters in Zimbabwe.
Supporters of the Zimbabwean opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will gather outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London from 1 – 4 pm on Wednesday, 14th March 2007 in solidarity with the suffering of opposition activists in Zimbabwe.
They will be joined by supporters of the Zimbabwe Vigil, who have been demonstrating outside the Embassy every Saturday since October 2002 in support of free and fair elections and against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
For interviews etc, contact:
Ephraim Tapa, Chair, MDC UK – 07940 793 090
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, Secretary, MDC UK – 07984 254 830
Rose Benton, Vigil Co-ordinator – 07970 996 003
..
ZIMBABWEAN DEMO IN LONDON (14/3/07)
Zimbabweans in the UK are to demonstrate outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London on Wednesday in protest at the arrest and torture of peaceful protesters in Zimbabwe.
Supporters of the Zimbabwean opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will gather outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London from 1 – 4 pm on Wednesday, 14th March 2007 in solidarity with the suffering of opposition activists in Zimbabwe.
They will be joined by supporters of the Zimbabwe Vigil, who have been demonstrating outside the Embassy every Saturday since October 2002 in support of free and fair elections and against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
For interviews etc, contact:
Ephraim Tapa, Chair, MDC UK – 07940 793 090
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, Secretary, MDC UK – 07984 254 830
Rose Benton, Vigil Co-ordinator – 07970 996 003
Thursday, 8 March 2007
Matt Frei feels a bit sorry for Scooter.
the diminutive, courteous and mildly poetic consigliere
read it here.
[Frei is a good journalist.
i like him a lot.
he has a sense of humour, of course. but there's also warmth.
his pieces for tv following that man who walked across the USA last summer or so, in an attempt to lose weight - though that was not the only reason i believe - contained affection and feeling.
when he was in another part of the world for the BBC he filed some powerful pieces, bearing witness.
an article for the Sunday Telegraph from Herat will never be forgotten.
sadly it ended in this vast tragedy.]
the diminutive, courteous and mildly poetic consigliere
read it here.
[Frei is a good journalist.
i like him a lot.
he has a sense of humour, of course. but there's also warmth.
his pieces for tv following that man who walked across the USA last summer or so, in an attempt to lose weight - though that was not the only reason i believe - contained affection and feeling.
when he was in another part of the world for the BBC he filed some powerful pieces, bearing witness.
an article for the Sunday Telegraph from Herat will never be forgotten.
sadly it ended in this vast tragedy.]
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
‘Prison Break’ tv show (airing on Channel 5 in the UK) is advertised on Ch5 with this piece of music that really stalks my soul atm (if that doesn’t sound too wanky, which of course it does).
having not heard it properly but snatches – like last night, having the tv on, but in the other room doing dishes – you get snatches and so race to your tv barking like a thing possessed, trailing dirty dish water and flapping your towel, and you get bits. (and shit on carpets.)
i don’t know if it’s some His Name is Alive-type stuff (it could be part of their catalogue if ya get me), or some old blues or it’s perhaps some blindingly well-known obvious tune that because i’ve heard it from a way off, escapes me. i know literally a second of it. a classical pianist sitting down to belt out show ballads in a folk style, at a Steinway with added juice.
to me it sounds a bit like an old man’s heart breaking, but in a cathartic, soulfully majestic sort of way. (cheerful ain’t we.)
perhaps i should sit in front of a tv for 48 hours with Ch5 on and nothing else, invariably hearing it eventually.
could be an arty experiment, couldn’t it?
tacos and a blanket.
having not heard it properly but snatches – like last night, having the tv on, but in the other room doing dishes – you get snatches and so race to your tv barking like a thing possessed, trailing dirty dish water and flapping your towel, and you get bits. (and shit on carpets.)
i don’t know if it’s some His Name is Alive-type stuff (it could be part of their catalogue if ya get me), or some old blues or it’s perhaps some blindingly well-known obvious tune that because i’ve heard it from a way off, escapes me. i know literally a second of it. a classical pianist sitting down to belt out show ballads in a folk style, at a Steinway with added juice.
to me it sounds a bit like an old man’s heart breaking, but in a cathartic, soulfully majestic sort of way. (cheerful ain’t we.)
perhaps i should sit in front of a tv for 48 hours with Ch5 on and nothing else, invariably hearing it eventually.
could be an arty experiment, couldn’t it?
tacos and a blanket.
aside from the recent issue of the wire (how sweet, btw, was Hua Hsu in saying two things he liked in '06 were the magazine and Bawlmer tv show - of same name) with the Melvins on the cover and Stelfox's fucking awesome Texan rap effort (ever since my dear boy Dan got me into Scarface i've been a big fan of the whole Geto Boys experience), the January issue recently was particularly safe.
Keenan on MV & EE, Barker in Beijing, Gary Smith, the lists (dubstep, rap, Carla Bozulich, oh yes) were all clearly extremely tasty toppings on a good pie but Jon's headline reviews piece on Dredd Foole was lovely.
he can get some phrasing, that boy.
compliments due.
RIP Ken Johnson
Keenan on MV & EE, Barker in Beijing, Gary Smith, the lists (dubstep, rap, Carla Bozulich, oh yes) were all clearly extremely tasty toppings on a good pie but Jon's headline reviews piece on Dredd Foole was lovely.
he can get some phrasing, that boy.
compliments due.
RIP Ken Johnson
i was told that Unity House on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent city centre has been demolished to make way for offices.
the building was perhaps (probably definitely) the tallest in Stoke; my memory is hazy (i lived in Stoke for three years in the late 90’s as a Keele undergrad and was last in the Potteries for a weekend in the summer of 2005) but i seem to recall it dominating the Hanley skyline in a way no other building did, save perhaps the grey, blocky police building (it is a police HQ isn’t it?) close to the Sugarmill gig venue.
i once saw a Swedish metal outfit eating Italian at a restaurant by the Sugarmill. Entombed or someone like that.
Unity had a certain elegance and was clearly quite tall, it was near a boozer called the Black Lion that was quite a fine, lively, local alehouse (the gaffer was Scottish iirc at the time we all drank there), on the outskirts of the city centre, near the Shelton district where five of us lived and laughed at the local gangsters holding their guns cocksure looking all silly in their cars (a house containing a Brummie and a Mancunian is – by British standards – well placed to pass such judgments).
Shelton had some nice graffiti, beautiful quiet old canals, a pretty graveyard, and a classic laundrette.
certainly surely the biggest building in the Stoke urban area was the steelworks near Vale’s ground kind of way (Tunstall? Burslem? closer to Stoke actually and i remember wrong? i dunno), which seemed to approach Chinese size in my teenage formulation.
(not the steel factories with 100,000 workers over there, ok, but it was pretty big.)
in its last years Unity was a derelict shell more or less, but provided – among no doubt other services – a good space for skateboarding, and a gloriously handsome visual fixture for any confused traveller: a budget Sears Tower, a true building of hauntology.
one big thrust (in a series of fantasy novels i loved as a kid the towering mountain lair of an evil sorcerer was described as being like a finger pointing accusingly at the gods) was complemented by a shorter, stepped attachment, the shelves receding from the street, going back shorter the higher that part of Unity climbed.
i could ruminate on urban spaces, etc. here but i’m hardly Owen or detroitblog am i.
mind you: now it’s gone and we’ll miss it. it was a superb constant on any bus journey.
the snooker player Ray Reardon had a snooker club nearby (Reardon used to do the summer circuit at British holiday camps after retiring from the pro game and would offer all comers a best-of-three arrangement where he’d split winnings with people who asked him to go easy on them, but give a genuine game – and therefore tonk someone – who said they fancied him playing as well as he could).
here’s a couple of photos of Unity.
RIP Unity House.
the building was perhaps (probably definitely) the tallest in Stoke; my memory is hazy (i lived in Stoke for three years in the late 90’s as a Keele undergrad and was last in the Potteries for a weekend in the summer of 2005) but i seem to recall it dominating the Hanley skyline in a way no other building did, save perhaps the grey, blocky police building (it is a police HQ isn’t it?) close to the Sugarmill gig venue.
i once saw a Swedish metal outfit eating Italian at a restaurant by the Sugarmill. Entombed or someone like that.
Unity had a certain elegance and was clearly quite tall, it was near a boozer called the Black Lion that was quite a fine, lively, local alehouse (the gaffer was Scottish iirc at the time we all drank there), on the outskirts of the city centre, near the Shelton district where five of us lived and laughed at the local gangsters holding their guns cocksure looking all silly in their cars (a house containing a Brummie and a Mancunian is – by British standards – well placed to pass such judgments).
Shelton had some nice graffiti, beautiful quiet old canals, a pretty graveyard, and a classic laundrette.
certainly surely the biggest building in the Stoke urban area was the steelworks near Vale’s ground kind of way (Tunstall? Burslem? closer to Stoke actually and i remember wrong? i dunno), which seemed to approach Chinese size in my teenage formulation.
(not the steel factories with 100,000 workers over there, ok, but it was pretty big.)
in its last years Unity was a derelict shell more or less, but provided – among no doubt other services – a good space for skateboarding, and a gloriously handsome visual fixture for any confused traveller: a budget Sears Tower, a true building of hauntology.
one big thrust (in a series of fantasy novels i loved as a kid the towering mountain lair of an evil sorcerer was described as being like a finger pointing accusingly at the gods) was complemented by a shorter, stepped attachment, the shelves receding from the street, going back shorter the higher that part of Unity climbed.
i could ruminate on urban spaces, etc. here but i’m hardly Owen or detroitblog am i.
mind you: now it’s gone and we’ll miss it. it was a superb constant on any bus journey.
the snooker player Ray Reardon had a snooker club nearby (Reardon used to do the summer circuit at British holiday camps after retiring from the pro game and would offer all comers a best-of-three arrangement where he’d split winnings with people who asked him to go easy on them, but give a genuine game – and therefore tonk someone – who said they fancied him playing as well as he could).
here’s a couple of photos of Unity.
RIP Unity House.
Saturday, 17 February 2007
Saturday, 10 February 2007
soap opera quote - (i love this)
in Eastenders, Stacey the market-stall holder, speaking to her boyfriend's City trader boss, says she works in a market and he misinterprets what sort of market she means, excitedly asking which and she says something like Bridge Street. we sells tops and knickers. i'll even model the merchandise for you if you like.
in Eastenders, Stacey the market-stall holder, speaking to her boyfriend's City trader boss, says she works in a market and he misinterprets what sort of market she means, excitedly asking which and she says something like Bridge Street. we sells tops and knickers. i'll even model the merchandise for you if you like.
Friday, 9 February 2007
i’ll be off to Tate Liverpool soon for ‘Bad Art for Bad People’ but – by jove – you wouldn’t want to meet Jake down a dark alley would you.
lookit the little spat he’s just had with Comrade Hari: all sorts of stupid tosh spouted and, a nice touch, personal insults about somebody’s physical appearance.
classy guy
lookit the little spat he’s just had with Comrade Hari: all sorts of stupid tosh spouted and, a nice touch, personal insults about somebody’s physical appearance.
classy guy
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Thursday, 1 February 2007
on the subject of football and - whilst i don't think this is big enough to bother Robin C. with it's still worth flagging up in the admittedly highly unlikely event he reads this - an interesting letter to a Manchester United fanzine (UWS, good interview with Rio Ferdinand, who seems a top guy) from a Manchester City supporter, enclosing comments re. a photo taken in Cardiff of some United fans at a game.
the particular fan in the centre is carrying a sign that says MANCS NOT YANKS.
he is also wearing one of those New York Yankees baseball caps that are all the rage, er, everywhere in the world.
the particular fan in the centre is carrying a sign that says MANCS NOT YANKS.
he is also wearing one of those New York Yankees baseball caps that are all the rage, er, everywhere in the world.
with the high profile arrests in Birmingham yesterday (George Alagiah, Jon Snow and various others mangling honest Brummie hood names a la Alum Rock was a peculiar joy: y'all know i'm down with the central BHAM – Snow in particular elongated a few words, a bit like how Dr Cox does when angry), we suddenly have new life breathed into the Birmingham City football ditty
[…]
He comes from Washwood Heath/
He gives the Villa grief
"it's the way i tell 'em"
k-punk gets to the point, again
{ETA: not getting at the Klaxons, but his second paragraph is good, to me. i think we can all think of some suspects in that camp..}
{ETA: not getting at the Klaxons, but his second paragraph is good, to me. i think we can all think of some suspects in that camp..}
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
one thing that's been in the UK news lately is the possibility of a strike by British Airways workers (now averted).
i just wanted to say N Cohen's Cruel Britannia anthology has a few good passages about when Bob Ayling was there if i remember.
timely reading.
Cohen's also good on another of Tony Blair's mates, Silvio B, and Labour's gambling addiction (more timely stuff).
btw, it says Jimmy now here below. it's cuz i switched blogger to the same thing as my food/drink blog (where i'm Jimmy); i'm planning to get back into the swing of things, soon, and have already started adding some links to some fave food blogs (though w/ my html skills, they are a bit messy), inc THE SARAWAK LAKSA [ two kids eat their way around Sarawak, bowl after bowl after bowl ], SO BAD ITS GOOD [ photos of L.A. carniceria store murals ], and the original and best, Great Taco Hunt, also based in the City of Angels.
i feel, incidentally, i too must register my disgust that the Wikipedia entry on tacos has recently delinked that site.
tosh!
-
foodblog.
i just wanted to say N Cohen's Cruel Britannia anthology has a few good passages about when Bob Ayling was there if i remember.
timely reading.
Cohen's also good on another of Tony Blair's mates, Silvio B, and Labour's gambling addiction (more timely stuff).
btw, it says Jimmy now here below. it's cuz i switched blogger to the same thing as my food/drink blog (where i'm Jimmy); i'm planning to get back into the swing of things, soon, and have already started adding some links to some fave food blogs (though w/ my html skills, they are a bit messy), inc THE SARAWAK LAKSA [ two kids eat their way around Sarawak, bowl after bowl after bowl ], SO BAD ITS GOOD [ photos of L.A. carniceria store murals ], and the original and best, Great Taco Hunt, also based in the City of Angels.
i feel, incidentally, i too must register my disgust that the Wikipedia entry on tacos has recently delinked that site.
tosh!
-
foodblog.
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Chief Executives, now they've got the skills. Justin King, currently chief executive of UK supermarket Sainsbury, now he has to be on the top of his game discussing quinoa, Omega-3, Jamie Oliver's kid-sized takes on a nice quesadilla, things like that.
but hold on!
King used to be don dada at the RAC, the UK road users' association (owned by Aviva, who have their fingers in plenty of pies, such as insurer Norwich Union), didn't he?
so where once he was banging on about black ice, taxing the motorist off the road and the pernicious toll at Tamworth, now it's 5 -a-day, PJ smoothies and finest ready meals.
now these people are the top people and so they're not so much on the details i imagine as the overall picture, which is why they get bounced around, in demand. (blue skies thinking? the first time i've ever used this phrase, and i believe a phrase everyone wants binning, one might add.)
but come on King!
sort it out!
wheatgerm or Citroen, what's it to be?
it's this shilly-shallying that gets me.
(on second thought, i think i may be getting King confused with someone else.
but any"road".)
but hold on!
King used to be don dada at the RAC, the UK road users' association (owned by Aviva, who have their fingers in plenty of pies, such as insurer Norwich Union), didn't he?
so where once he was banging on about black ice, taxing the motorist off the road and the pernicious toll at Tamworth, now it's 5 -a-day, PJ smoothies and finest ready meals.
now these people are the top people and so they're not so much on the details i imagine as the overall picture, which is why they get bounced around, in demand. (blue skies thinking? the first time i've ever used this phrase, and i believe a phrase everyone wants binning, one might add.)
but come on King!
sort it out!
wheatgerm or Citroen, what's it to be?
it's this shilly-shallying that gets me.
(on second thought, i think i may be getting King confused with someone else.
but any"road".)
maudlin tone, gently self-mocking, the dry humour, everything came together at the weekend just gone when a very close chum of mine sent me a txt re. the football that literally made me belly-laugh out loud (a rarity for me and texts).
he's an Evertonian, and they went on to win, but it must have been nils when he sent me these words:
Wigan v Everton. Two shit teams playing football.
he's an Evertonian, and they went on to win, but it must have been nils when he sent me these words:
i've been running this place down for the last couple of years or so but i think i'll get back into it, from now on.
maybe. (i'll have to sort out the archive and other links later on.)
meanwhile, Paul Dacre: fuck me, the bloke's a bit of a thicko isn't he?
maybe. (i'll have to sort out the archive and other links later on.)
meanwhile, Paul Dacre: fuck me, the bloke's a bit of a thicko isn't he?
Thursday, 2 November 2006
Dangerous Ambivalence: UK Policy on Torture since 9/11
“Britain cannot have it both ways. The government claims to oppose torture. Yet at the same it is actively trying to undermine the global ban against it.”
Benjamin Ward
“Britain cannot have it both ways. The government claims to oppose torture. Yet at the same it is actively trying to undermine the global ban against it.”
Benjamin Ward
Sunday, 22 October 2006
Friday, 13 October 2006
Saturday, 7 October 2006
one thing that's really getting me right now (as in, you know, in love) is toward the end of 'Reishi' by everyone's fave Anglian technoheads, well, as Tura.
"in other news" [old news, ok], at the close, just so (just Jack), of About Schmidt, well, i wept buckets.
oh, and that, and Annie Mac told The Times that Harvey got her in to Gorecki bigtime, true fact. (as in, you know, in love.)
..
that's our man
.
RIP PETER NORMAN
"in other news" [old news, ok], at the close, just so (just Jack), of About Schmidt, well, i wept buckets.
oh, and that, and Annie Mac told The Times that Harvey got her in to Gorecki bigtime, true fact. (as in, you know, in love.)
..
that's our man
.
RIP PETER NORMAN
Saturday, 9 September 2006
Saturday, 2 September 2006
one sleight they don't exactly tuck away in the Vodafone store is that "data management centres" [i think that was it, they mean the call centre anyway] are based in the UK.
shoring up the anti-Indian populism is performed in tandem with the competing claim - glossy large posters adorning walls - that Vodafone customers are living happy and excited lives in diverse, sexy multinational locations, from Leeds and Lisbon to Paris and (presumably) Poole.
+
in an episode of The Simpsons last night Homer read his paper at the breakfast table and chuckled away at the bridge column, commenting you never know what South's going to do next.
shoring up the anti-Indian populism is performed in tandem with the competing claim - glossy large posters adorning walls - that Vodafone customers are living happy and excited lives in diverse, sexy multinational locations, from Leeds and Lisbon to Paris and (presumably) Poole.
+
in an episode of The Simpsons last night Homer read his paper at the breakfast table and chuckled away at the bridge column, commenting you never know what South's going to do next.
Tuesday, 22 August 2006
Friday, 23 June 2006
Wednesday, 21 June 2006
Niall Ferguson:
you can tell it clearly troubles him that there will soon be a minaret on the Oxford skyline. it gets a mention in his new book and i've read him note this some time ago somewhere else. it genuinely does seem to sit a little uneasily for him cos otherwise we wouldn't be having this new observation couched in much the same terms, and with the clear impression behind his writing that this is a bit of a scab for him. well, that's the inference i'm getting for at least the second time, following a decent passage of time.
in this new book, it looks like he's trying to pass it off as part of some neat aside, a pun if you will, about Edward Gibbon but - lor knows - that just sounds bollocks.
so have some fruit tea and leave it out mate.
(to be fair to Niall, he does describe himself as an optimist and Americans who don't want anything to do with the outside world get short shrift from him.)
MAKE IT IN THE STUDIO and NOT IN THE GARAGE
you can tell it clearly troubles him that there will soon be a minaret on the Oxford skyline. it gets a mention in his new book and i've read him note this some time ago somewhere else. it genuinely does seem to sit a little uneasily for him cos otherwise we wouldn't be having this new observation couched in much the same terms, and with the clear impression behind his writing that this is a bit of a scab for him. well, that's the inference i'm getting for at least the second time, following a decent passage of time.
in this new book, it looks like he's trying to pass it off as part of some neat aside, a pun if you will, about Edward Gibbon but - lor knows - that just sounds bollocks.
so have some fruit tea and leave it out mate.
(to be fair to Niall, he does describe himself as an optimist and Americans who don't want anything to do with the outside world get short shrift from him.)
MAKE IT IN THE STUDIO and NOT IN THE GARAGE
Friday, 26 May 2006
RIP DESMOND DEKKER
-
i didn't know until i read the obits but apparently Rugova's grandpa spent 20 years of his life building a kulla - a 'tower' - using marble blocks. some great photos here you see.
Rugova cited his grandfather as a patient influence.
well i'd have certainly taken some gemstones off the man!
and that scarf, always the scarf.
(Carl Barat in Burberry please.)
+
now then, Mark Mardell can be quite nimble.
days after i slag off Auntie, you have to hand it to him on the brandy tip.
9am, "clear grape brandy", "It's really very good: fiery and strong but very smooth and fruity as well".
_
I am Ramush Haradinaj and I am looking for Isuf Hoxha and Hajrullah Gashi
-
i didn't know until i read the obits but apparently Rugova's grandpa spent 20 years of his life building a kulla - a 'tower' - using marble blocks. some great photos here you see.
Rugova cited his grandfather as a patient influence.
well i'd have certainly taken some gemstones off the man!
and that scarf, always the scarf.
(Carl Barat in Burberry please.)
+
now then, Mark Mardell can be quite nimble.
days after i slag off Auntie, you have to hand it to him on the brandy tip.
9am, "clear grape brandy", "It's really very good: fiery and strong but very smooth and fruity as well".
_
I am Ramush Haradinaj and I am looking for Isuf Hoxha and Hajrullah Gashi
Monday, 22 May 2006
even by its own miserably low standards the lead editorial in Friday’s Daily Express was – to paraphrase General Melchett – perhaps a “crowning turd in the water pipe”.
unusually, some of their own correspondents wrote sympathetically in the face of human misery: the day’s front page was about people risking the much longer crossing from the Canary Islands to the European mainland, rather than trying the Straits because of changes in the Spanish enclaves etc.
it’s frankly quite rare for people emigrating from Mauritania or wherever, scrabbling toward Fortress Europe, to get humane coverage in the Express, so this was at least something to be grateful for.
but the editorial appeared to be unaware of any of this, and seemed quite different in tone and approach (though still with that reassuring lack of complexity and grey areas you get with the Express).
citing the usual laundry list of grievances and noting that the BBC now agreed with them (off the back of a Newsnight programme, apparently; i saw but seconds of the show in question, which had Jeremy Paxman spouting some noxious cobblers, so i switched over), you could tell the reader was in for a treat at the end.
(incidentally, have you noticed just how degraded some of the BBC’s domestic news programming has been getting of late. the Six O’Clock News has been getting increasingly parochial, more than ever it seems, over the last several months to few years or so.)
the final paragraph was magnificent, absurdly disingenuous, latching onto the ultimate ludicrous strawman as the writer reached their triumphant conclusion, that Maybe those worried by plans to allow crime-ridden Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union next year and Turkey to follow can now voice such sentiments without being smeared as racist by Left-wingers, proven as wrong on migration in the 21st century as they were on the Cold War in the 20th.
the Express is a ‘you couldn’t make it up’-type tabloid, fond of the common sense approach, despairing at this mad politically correct world we now live in (one of their star columnists was today seeing a Third World despotism take over Britain).
well, no, you couldn’t, could you?
unusually, some of their own correspondents wrote sympathetically in the face of human misery: the day’s front page was about people risking the much longer crossing from the Canary Islands to the European mainland, rather than trying the Straits because of changes in the Spanish enclaves etc.
it’s frankly quite rare for people emigrating from Mauritania or wherever, scrabbling toward Fortress Europe, to get humane coverage in the Express, so this was at least something to be grateful for.
but the editorial appeared to be unaware of any of this, and seemed quite different in tone and approach (though still with that reassuring lack of complexity and grey areas you get with the Express).
citing the usual laundry list of grievances and noting that the BBC now agreed with them (off the back of a Newsnight programme, apparently; i saw but seconds of the show in question, which had Jeremy Paxman spouting some noxious cobblers, so i switched over), you could tell the reader was in for a treat at the end.
(incidentally, have you noticed just how degraded some of the BBC’s domestic news programming has been getting of late. the Six O’Clock News has been getting increasingly parochial, more than ever it seems, over the last several months to few years or so.)
the final paragraph was magnificent, absurdly disingenuous, latching onto the ultimate ludicrous strawman as the writer reached their triumphant conclusion, that Maybe those worried by plans to allow crime-ridden Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union next year and Turkey to follow can now voice such sentiments without being smeared as racist by Left-wingers, proven as wrong on migration in the 21st century as they were on the Cold War in the 20th.
the Express is a ‘you couldn’t make it up’-type tabloid, fond of the common sense approach, despairing at this mad politically correct world we now live in (one of their star columnists was today seeing a Third World despotism take over Britain).
well, no, you couldn’t, could you?
Thursday, 18 May 2006
She was not a health tourist - she simply had the misfortune to fall ill here.
I accept that we have to have rules to stop people from taking advantage of the NHS but they should not discriminate against people with genuine need because of this obsession about immigration.
I think it is appalling that a civilised country like Britain treats someone like that.
Her death was unnecessary.
Richard Stein, who represented Ese Elizabeth Alabi.
labelled 'health tourist' by some, she died on Monday, aged 29.
she leaves behind three young children and the man who loved her.
I accept that we have to have rules to stop people from taking advantage of the NHS but they should not discriminate against people with genuine need because of this obsession about immigration.
I think it is appalling that a civilised country like Britain treats someone like that.
Her death was unnecessary.
Richard Stein, who represented Ese Elizabeth Alabi.
labelled 'health tourist' by some, she died on Monday, aged 29.
she leaves behind three young children and the man who loved her.
Thursday, 4 May 2006
three points, for now
some good news, being Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev was released last month (only found out today; he plans to sue the govt for compo to the tune of 5 mil American)
Alex de Waal is being clear about what he thinks may come out of the talks in Abuja; last month his mate Julie Flint was just as truthful here.
All Chadians have come out to make their choice, the choice of their hearts
Mr Deby, yesterday
-'The North Korean Government’s Control of Food and the Risk of Hunger': report
some good news, being Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev was released last month (only found out today; he plans to sue the govt for compo to the tune of 5 mil American)
Alex de Waal is being clear about what he thinks may come out of the talks in Abuja; last month his mate Julie Flint was just as truthful here.
Mr Deby, yesterday
-'The North Korean Government’s Control of Food and the Risk of Hunger': report
Saturday, 29 April 2006
"Kuda mne devat'sia? S obshchestvennost'iu tak s obshchestvennost'iu"
Yeltsin meant to create a pure pyramid of power
-Lilia Shevtsova, 'Yeltsin's Russia: Myths and Reality'
Thus, Putin did not inherit a superpresidential order, he sought to build one.
Eugene Huskey, 2001
It's a scandalous thing when - just think about the figures - a fifth of the legal acts adopted in the regions contradict...basic law
Putin Announces Major Revamping of Senate, Rossiyskaya gazeta, 19/05/2000
Yeltsin meant to create a pure pyramid of power
-Lilia Shevtsova, 'Yeltsin's Russia: Myths and Reality'
Thus, Putin did not inherit a superpresidential order, he sought to build one.
Eugene Huskey, 2001
It's a scandalous thing when - just think about the figures - a fifth of the legal acts adopted in the regions contradict...basic law
Putin Announces Major Revamping of Senate, Rossiyskaya gazeta, 19/05/2000
Wednesday, 26 April 2006
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
- how do you spell distortion?
the conservative and populist press seem to be almost relishing the chance to editorialise about the possibility of some disillusioned Labour voters switching to the BNP, noting Labour have only themselves to blame.
gripes about the scale of migration, housing, and who pays for what are wrong when they home in on scapegoating, and don’t sit too easily alongside protestations that these critics are kindly types who have the interests of immigrants at heart (obvious innit, why those chattering classes want freer borders, they trumpet).
there again, these are – you suppose – those sections of the media that are tirelessly arguing against the tagging of asylum seekers.
oh, no, wait a minute.
the conservative and populist press seem to be almost relishing the chance to editorialise about the possibility of some disillusioned Labour voters switching to the BNP, noting Labour have only themselves to blame.
gripes about the scale of migration, housing, and who pays for what are wrong when they home in on scapegoating, and don’t sit too easily alongside protestations that these critics are kindly types who have the interests of immigrants at heart (obvious innit, why those chattering classes want freer borders, they trumpet).
there again, these are – you suppose – those sections of the media that are tirelessly arguing against the tagging of asylum seekers.
oh, no, wait a minute.
Wednesday, 12 April 2006
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