The Sun this morning has stirred itself up into a self-righteous froth about the ANARCHISTS who are planning to try to disrupt the royal marriage later this year.
Not at one point in their article did they try to sensibly and calmly explain that these ANARCHISTS are a fringe group with not a hope in hell of causing major disruption, especially now the police are aware of them. No, why would they do that when it's much more fun to shout ANARCHISTS!!!!! very loudly at their readers and hope that they scare or anger them.
The best bit is when they get a ex police officer to have his say and he calmly explains.
"But due to the huge numbers of officers who will be on the streets, it is probably the worst event you could try to disrupt.
If they interfere with the royal cortege, the police and Army will swamp them.
A list of well-known anarchists has been drawn up.
The movements of men like Chris Knight will be closely followed and they may be arrested in advance."
Ok, fair enough, that's a fairly balanced view, apart from the insinuation, that the Sun has ran with all the way through their article, that anarchism is specifically about violence, but then, let's not quibble.
"The biggest threat comes from a suicide bomber or lone gunman in the crowd"
PANIC!!!
Monday, 31 January 2011
Album 7 - Bright Eyes - The Peoples Key
It starts strangely, just a guy talking about aliens and reptiles, a bit like the beginning of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, but a lot weirder.
Then it develops into the first proper song, which develops slowly, but has a hypnotic hook that just draws you in, slowly, a little bit at a time. According to a Rolling Stone interview his guiding philosophy for this album was 'less is more,' and on the first track it really shows.
As I'm listening to this as a whole on NPR music, I don't really know when tracks begin and end, but what seems like the second track has Conor's trademark. The album settles down into some more electronically influenced tracks.
Approximated Sunlight, the fourth track on the album is a stripped down affair, just Conor's voice, some drums and sparse instrumentation, that builds up through the track. Haile Selassie is another track that you just think is made for multiple listens, a hook that jumps out at you, but the idea of more underneath.
I kinda lost focus after that, but it all continued to sound good, and it could well be the career defining work it's been made out to be.
Then it develops into the first proper song, which develops slowly, but has a hypnotic hook that just draws you in, slowly, a little bit at a time. According to a Rolling Stone interview his guiding philosophy for this album was 'less is more,' and on the first track it really shows.
As I'm listening to this as a whole on NPR music, I don't really know when tracks begin and end, but what seems like the second track has Conor's trademark. The album settles down into some more electronically influenced tracks.
Approximated Sunlight, the fourth track on the album is a stripped down affair, just Conor's voice, some drums and sparse instrumentation, that builds up through the track. Haile Selassie is another track that you just think is made for multiple listens, a hook that jumps out at you, but the idea of more underneath.
I kinda lost focus after that, but it all continued to sound good, and it could well be the career defining work it's been made out to be.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Album 6 - Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Just a few comments on this album.
1) The title track is just amazingly catchy
2) The album manages to slip seamlessly from a light folk type warble to a huge overblown track, complete with horn section and so a voice that sings like it's running out of time.
3) It's just plain weird
4) I really quite like it.
I'm sorry that I couldn't arrange these thoughts into an actual paragraph, but I really couldn't be bothered.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Rewinding about twelve months...
... I am reminded of my hopelessness in any kind of predictions.
1) The Conservative party will win a small majority at the general election and tear themselves apart over Europe. WRONG.
I was maybe a little over pessimistic but, it actually was quite an achievement for Labour to get through the election without a Conservative majority. The Tories haven't torn themselves apart over Europe, that was a little over optimistic,
1) The Conservative party will win a small majority at the general election and tear themselves apart over Europe. WRONG.
I was maybe a little over pessimistic but, it actually was quite an achievement for Labour to get through the election without a Conservative majority. The Tories haven't torn themselves apart over Europe, that was a little over optimistic,
2) After losing the general election, Labour will elect David Milliband as their new leader. WRONG.
Although I was close on this one, just got the wrong Milliband
3) My football team Leyton Orient will get relegated from League 1. WRONG.
We managed to stay up thanks to the great run we had under Geraint 'Big Fat George' Williams at the beginning of the year and the salvage job by Russell Slade at the end of it. Since then, Orient have only progressed, scoring goals and playing entertaining football and looking very unlikely to be relegated this time round.
4) England will get to the semi-finals of the World Cup and lose to Germany. WRONG
A little over optimistic again... but only a couple of rounds wrong.
5) Peter Mandleson will be parachuted into a safe Labour seat at the General Election. WRONG.
I'm not even sure what I was thinking with this one.
6) Jan Moir will leave the Mail after another huge twitterstorrm against another poisonous article. WRONG.
But it will happen eventually.
7) The Lib Dems will get a new leader at some point during the year. WRONG
Despite being now almost universally hated, Nick Clegg remains captain of the sinking ship.
8) I will get 50 comments on my two blogs combined. WRONG.
My readership remains pathetically small, I managed 13 overall with only 1 on this blog and 12 on Allsorts/Leftish Tendency.
9) England will draw the Ashes series in Australia 1-1. WRONG.
It wasn't anywhere near that close, Cook conquered Australia, Anderson threw off the disappointment of his previous Ashes tour, and the whole team comprehensibly outplayed the awful Australian team. 3-1.
10) Lewis Hamilton will win the Formula 1 world championship by less than 5 points from Jenson Button. WRONG.
While both were in contention most of way through, Red Bull were just too good.
0/10... FAIL.
Trying to bury a story? Ask the Sun
It was plainly obvious that Andy Coulson's resignation was the Tories trying the oldest of political tricks, trying to bury bad news. I also thought it would be obvious that this was never going to work, but as things stand The Guardian and Independent are the only papers leading with it and it isn't even in the top 10 most read news stories at the BBC website.
I of course expected it to be buried by the Murdoch empire, but since most of it is now behind a pay-wall, all I can really ascertain is how it's been covered by the Sun. I'm going to compare this to the main article on the matter in a paper that I don't have an awful amount of respect for: the Daily Mail.
First, the length of the stories, the Mail has a very creditable 2,202 word story including the full statement, boxes with the context of the story, an opinion piece, and for once I am very impressed, the story is well written and pretty fair to all parties concerned.
The only problem I really have with it is this paragraph which may well be a simple mistake:
"In fact, Mr Coulson is a much less abrasive and generally more straightforward character, and has shown little appetite for bullying journalists and threatening media organisations in the manner of the divisive Mr Campbell. Nevertheless, his appointment owed much to the New Labour spin doctor having gone before."
Little appetite for bullying journalists? Maybe not since he's been with the Tories, but as NOTW editor he was proved to have bullied sports journalist Matt Driscoll out of a job. This is however a minor quibble compared to the rest of the story, which is surprisingly top notch.
The Sun however predictably has tried to bury the story, realising that the paper would lose any credibility it ever had if it refused to cover the story at all. Its coverage however hasn't covered itself in any glory at all, a paltry 273 word whitewash.
There is not a single note of the fact that it seems highly likely Coulson knew about the hacking - indeed if he didn't he deserves to be remembered as perhaps the worst newspaper editor off all time, one who didn't even know what was happening in his own newsroom. The fact that in the second paragraph it is described as an 'eavesdropping scandal' seems to sum up the Sun's attempt to make it seem a minor story and simply the matter of a whispering campaign designed to oust someone who in Cameron's words "been punished twice for the same offence."
It's simply a complete lack of context, shown by the lack of length in the story, that is the problem. There is no mention of the fact that another reporter has since been implicated, the fact that many reporters have implicated Coulson himself and all the police are lacking are a silver bullet, one that they could probably find had they had looked a bit more thoroughly first time round, rather than trying to preserve their 'special relationship' with News International.
Sky News are almost as bad, the only news story on their first page about the scandal is one saying that other newspapers may be involved, a classic case of diverting attention, i.e 'We may have done it but everyone else has done it as well.'
Without giving any money to News International, it's impossible to show The Time's angle on the story but this blog-post just shows that the same thing has happened at the more elite end of the News Corp news spectrum.
I of course expected it to be buried by the Murdoch empire, but since most of it is now behind a pay-wall, all I can really ascertain is how it's been covered by the Sun. I'm going to compare this to the main article on the matter in a paper that I don't have an awful amount of respect for: the Daily Mail.
First, the length of the stories, the Mail has a very creditable 2,202 word story including the full statement, boxes with the context of the story, an opinion piece, and for once I am very impressed, the story is well written and pretty fair to all parties concerned.
The only problem I really have with it is this paragraph which may well be a simple mistake:
"In fact, Mr Coulson is a much less abrasive and generally more straightforward character, and has shown little appetite for bullying journalists and threatening media organisations in the manner of the divisive Mr Campbell. Nevertheless, his appointment owed much to the New Labour spin doctor having gone before."
Little appetite for bullying journalists? Maybe not since he's been with the Tories, but as NOTW editor he was proved to have bullied sports journalist Matt Driscoll out of a job. This is however a minor quibble compared to the rest of the story, which is surprisingly top notch.
The Sun however predictably has tried to bury the story, realising that the paper would lose any credibility it ever had if it refused to cover the story at all. Its coverage however hasn't covered itself in any glory at all, a paltry 273 word whitewash.
There is not a single note of the fact that it seems highly likely Coulson knew about the hacking - indeed if he didn't he deserves to be remembered as perhaps the worst newspaper editor off all time, one who didn't even know what was happening in his own newsroom. The fact that in the second paragraph it is described as an 'eavesdropping scandal' seems to sum up the Sun's attempt to make it seem a minor story and simply the matter of a whispering campaign designed to oust someone who in Cameron's words "been punished twice for the same offence."
It's simply a complete lack of context, shown by the lack of length in the story, that is the problem. There is no mention of the fact that another reporter has since been implicated, the fact that many reporters have implicated Coulson himself and all the police are lacking are a silver bullet, one that they could probably find had they had looked a bit more thoroughly first time round, rather than trying to preserve their 'special relationship' with News International.
Sky News are almost as bad, the only news story on their first page about the scandal is one saying that other newspapers may be involved, a classic case of diverting attention, i.e 'We may have done it but everyone else has done it as well.'
Without giving any money to News International, it's impossible to show The Time's angle on the story but this blog-post just shows that the same thing has happened at the more elite end of the News Corp news spectrum.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Album 5 - The Duckworth-Lewis Method - The Duckworth-Lewis Method
A themed album about cricket you say? One that includes a song about Shane Warne's 'Ball of the Century' to Mike Gatting? And a song with the line 'The Test Match Special will set you free?
I'm in. The music wasn't anything particularly spectacular, but it was the lyrics, especially those to the stand out song 'Jiggery Pokery' about the Warne/Gatting ball that made this a worthwhile listen.
Behind that 'The Age Of Revolution',' Meeting Mr Miandad' and 'The End Of The Over' were the other stand out songs.
I'm in. The music wasn't anything particularly spectacular, but it was the lyrics, especially those to the stand out song 'Jiggery Pokery' about the Warne/Gatting ball that made this a worthwhile listen.
Behind that 'The Age Of Revolution',' Meeting Mr Miandad' and 'The End Of The Over' were the other stand out songs.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Richard Littlejohn: even worse than I remember
I generally avoid the Daily Mail as much as possible, especially Richard Littlejohn's column. Today was the first time for a very long time I actually read one, and I really wish that I hadn't. I was drawn in by the headline: "Titter ye not, it's an Inconvenient Sooth." When I say I was drawn in, what I actually mean was that I noticed a piss-poor climate change pun and forced myself to read the idiocy that follows.
After a long time not reading one of Littlejohn's column I had began to find that I was feeling a lot happier, my laptop screen was strangely intact and I even began to start to tolerate the Daily Mail. Well, I reasoned to myself, I haven't read anything particularly objectionable there recently. I even began to wonder whether Littlejohn was that bad, my hazy recollection was that he was generally wrong, but I began to forget the rage that the merest sight of his fat sneering face above one of his outpourings of sub-par comedy 'polemicism' brought me to.
Then I read this latest offering... no sooner had I got through the first paragraph...
"According to the historian Edward Gibbon, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was brought about largely by the decadence and arrogance of the ruling elite. Now a new theory has been put forward by modern scientists. They blame, wait for it, climate change."
... and the rage had returned. The first few lines are fine, but you soon see the set up for his brilliant last line... wait for it, the crazy boffins think that climate change could have done it. Oh, the wit is legendary, the comic timing, the set up then the 'you couldn't make it up' moment. Dick Littlejohn sits at his desk, happily cracking one off because he thinks he's come up with another comic gem.
I read the rest of the shit, but I'm sorry, I'm not re-reading all and making witty remarks about it, I'll just pick out a few select quotes such as...
"I have been sent here from Pompeii with my master, Silvius Berlusconus, who is attending a Symposium on climatus changus — what we used to call in Rome ‘the weather’."
Conclusion: All Latin words are English words with the suffix 'us' added. Letus meus addus, Littljohnus cockus. Comprendere?
Anyway, we had to get out of Pompeii sharpish, owing to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which covered the city in volcanic ash and grounded every ox-cart from here to Icelandus. Typical, isn’t it? One volcano and the whole of the Roman Empire comes to a standstill.
Littlejohn gets topical, comparing one volcano to... another volcano. Genius.
The Senate had just been to see a new play at the Colosseum, An Inconvenient Sooth, by Senator Al Gorus, which ended with a polar bear being sacrificed on a block of ice.
Normally they sacrifice a few vestal virgins, but my master Silvius Berlusconus said he had a better use for them. No, listen. Titter ye not!
Oh, just fuck it, I just punched the screen.
After a long time not reading one of Littlejohn's column I had began to find that I was feeling a lot happier, my laptop screen was strangely intact and I even began to start to tolerate the Daily Mail. Well, I reasoned to myself, I haven't read anything particularly objectionable there recently. I even began to wonder whether Littlejohn was that bad, my hazy recollection was that he was generally wrong, but I began to forget the rage that the merest sight of his fat sneering face above one of his outpourings of sub-par comedy 'polemicism' brought me to.
Then I read this latest offering... no sooner had I got through the first paragraph...
"According to the historian Edward Gibbon, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was brought about largely by the decadence and arrogance of the ruling elite. Now a new theory has been put forward by modern scientists. They blame, wait for it, climate change."
... and the rage had returned. The first few lines are fine, but you soon see the set up for his brilliant last line... wait for it, the crazy boffins think that climate change could have done it. Oh, the wit is legendary, the comic timing, the set up then the 'you couldn't make it up' moment. Dick Littlejohn sits at his desk, happily cracking one off because he thinks he's come up with another comic gem.
I read the rest of the shit, but I'm sorry, I'm not re-reading all and making witty remarks about it, I'll just pick out a few select quotes such as...
"I have been sent here from Pompeii with my master, Silvius Berlusconus, who is attending a Symposium on climatus changus — what we used to call in Rome ‘the weather’."
Conclusion: All Latin words are English words with the suffix 'us' added. Letus meus addus, Littljohnus cockus. Comprendere?
Anyway, we had to get out of Pompeii sharpish, owing to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which covered the city in volcanic ash and grounded every ox-cart from here to Icelandus. Typical, isn’t it? One volcano and the whole of the Roman Empire comes to a standstill.
Littlejohn gets topical, comparing one volcano to... another volcano. Genius.
The Senate had just been to see a new play at the Colosseum, An Inconvenient Sooth, by Senator Al Gorus, which ended with a polar bear being sacrificed on a block of ice.
Normally they sacrifice a few vestal virgins, but my master Silvius Berlusconus said he had a better use for them. No, listen. Titter ye not!
Oh, just fuck it, I just punched the screen.
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