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alexsarllRight! This Thursday, does anyone fancy Cherrybomb? A night of girl pop from Spector and Motown to Blondie and the Gossip, at the Betsey Trotwood, done by midnight and with St Etienne's Bob Stanley among the DJs.
Unlike friend of kickbacks Tony Blair (who is forever passing measures affecting England with Scottish MPs, so can hardly be considered unbiased) I appreciate that there is an irrefutable logic to the West Lothian Question. But I nonetheless identify as British (what else would I do when even aside from my other ancestries, I have both English and Scottish blood?), I have no desire to end the Union, and it seems to me far simpler to prevent Scottish and (where appropriate) Welsh MPs from voting on English issues than to waste huge sums on an extra level of bureaucracy by creating an English Parliament.
Apparently Venezuela's experiencing a huge influx of well-intentioned Western 'liberal' tourists, looking to see a socialist utopia being born: "The visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to agricultural cooperatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult literacy programmes, part of the government's effort to spend petrodollars improving the lives of the poor majority. "We saw healthy, happy well-dressed children taught by well-qualified teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that did not exist for poor people before Chávez," said Kate Young, who travelled with the Rotary Foundation." Anyone else remember the tours of show towns and stage-managed factories which used to be available for visitors to the USSR? Not that I'm saying Venezuela has actual gulags, you understand. At least, not yet - but give them time.
Elsewhere in the Guardian, they say that "BBC radio has been to British comedy what a United Nations peacekeeping force is to a struggling post-civil war republic". Do they mean that Radio 4 tends either to stand mutely to one side while comedians are slaughtered in their thousands, or else prostitutes their children? Well, it's certainly a position you could argue, but I still think it a rather tasteless metaphor.
Save the pygmy hippo!
Unlike friend of kickbacks Tony Blair (who is forever passing measures affecting England with Scottish MPs, so can hardly be considered unbiased) I appreciate that there is an irrefutable logic to the West Lothian Question. But I nonetheless identify as British (what else would I do when even aside from my other ancestries, I have both English and Scottish blood?), I have no desire to end the Union, and it seems to me far simpler to prevent Scottish and (where appropriate) Welsh MPs from voting on English issues than to waste huge sums on an extra level of bureaucracy by creating an English Parliament.
Apparently Venezuela's experiencing a huge influx of well-intentioned Western 'liberal' tourists, looking to see a socialist utopia being born: "The visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to agricultural cooperatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult literacy programmes, part of the government's effort to spend petrodollars improving the lives of the poor majority. "We saw healthy, happy well-dressed children taught by well-qualified teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that did not exist for poor people before Chávez," said Kate Young, who travelled with the Rotary Foundation." Anyone else remember the tours of show towns and stage-managed factories which used to be available for visitors to the USSR? Not that I'm saying Venezuela has actual gulags, you understand. At least, not yet - but give them time.
Elsewhere in the Guardian, they say that "BBC radio has been to British comedy what a United Nations peacekeeping force is to a struggling post-civil war republic". Do they mean that Radio 4 tends either to stand mutely to one side while comedians are slaughtered in their thousands, or else prostitutes their children? Well, it's certainly a position you could argue, but I still think it a rather tasteless metaphor.
Save the pygmy hippo!
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Date: 2007-01-16 07:04 pm (UTC)Poor pigmy hippo. :(
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Date: 2007-01-16 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 07:15 pm (UTC)Just got sent the Patrick Wolf album sampler in the post that you mentioned a while back. Haven't listened to it yet, but it made me think - what is the purpose of album samplers? They don't ever get reviewed, and considering the costs involved in pressing the CDs (not least when, like this, they are in a nice colour digipack), why not just send the finished album, rather than something with five tracks? I will get sent the album itself anyway...it just irked me somewhat...there's something almost insulting about the notion that someone would only be able to cope with a few songs. See also: promo CDs that have a sticker or press release stating "Recommended tracks - 1, 2, 4, 7."
See also: promo CDs that have a sticker or press release stating "Recommended tracks - 1, 2, 4, 7."
Date: 2007-01-16 07:18 pm (UTC)Re: See also: promo CDs that have a sticker or press release stating "Recommended tracks - 1, 2, 4,
Date: 2007-01-16 07:23 pm (UTC)Many years ago, backstage at a Sundays gig in Manchester, I showed David Gavurin, the guitarist in the band (and one of the nicest 'people in bands' I've ever met, actually), my promo CD of their new album which had a sticker saying "Recommended tracks - 1, 2, 4 and 7" or something. He laughed, incredulously, then scrawled on the sleeve "The other tracks are all shit".
Re: See also: promo CDs that have a sticker or press release stating "Recommended tracks - 1, 2, 4,
Date: 2007-01-16 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-16 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 07:14 pm (UTC)