Tag Archives: Politics

Besties

It’s been a long and weirdly deflating winter. Milder than it should have been for weeks, wetter than it should have been for more weeks, and cold but not for long enough so far. The whole mess in Gaza continues to be an affront to supposedly Western democratic norms, but then again, the ongoing one in Ukraine is also a long-running festering sore. The climate summit was hosted by the head of a Petro-state’s national oil company and attended by over 4000 lobbyists; the climate crisis has devolved into nothing but the script of a bad 1990’s disaster movie. 

We seem to be living in the shadow of many megalomaniacs, as I have mentioned in prior outbursts. I feel a particular sense of failure about them as a group, as they are all of my generation. When I misguidedly thought that we were all reaping the benefits of the baby boom on our cruise towards a better place, some were in fact being formed to become tyrants. Viktor Orbán, two months younger than my brother, Xi Jinping, 3 years older than me but a year younger than Putin, a year older than Recep Erdoğan, baby boomers one and all. They obviously were not concerned about what car to drive, where Frank Zappa’s house was in Laurel Canyon and what was the best modern novel. The best car for them was chauffeur driven and bullet proof. They could plunder enough personal wealth to buy most of Laurel Canyon and the best book is obviously one written by them telling the proles what to do. There are some other minor characters strolling around the world stage, Nehandra Modi is an elder statesman having been born one year after the partition and departure from India of the British is 1950. He is well-loved by the Hindu majority of Indians and feared by those of other faiths, but he loves a bit of authoritarianism alongside his vegetarian and abstemious lifestyle. Benyamin Netanyahou, born the following year, is meanwhile bombing children with US-funded and supplied weapons in an effort to prolong the ‘war’ against Palestine helping him to avoid criminal charges, let alone the admonition for the terrible sequence of events that the supposed hard man of Israeli politics oversaw, that led to the horrific deaths of 1139 of the citizens he was supposed to protect. But the country is at war and that’s no time to stop taking action, or look at what you are doing for now and the future?

Lurking and gurning, stage left, is public enemy number one, the Donald. He is actually the oldest of this august group, born the same year as my sister in 1946. He is ahead in any poll you care to read, across most age groups including for some frightening reason the young. He is leading over everyone’s favorite grandfather Joe Biden. ‘Sleepy Joe’, as Drumpf dubbed him and Fox have continued to remind everyone, is at best underappreciated, at worst sleepwalking into an electoral disaster. Not that the Democrats don’t have experience with that, just wait until the numbers get worse mid-year and some bright spark will suggest Hilary should come back and throw her hat into the ring. Biden is four years older than Trump and wears each year like a decade. He walks across a stage, or down a flight of stairs and if successfully accomplished, we all breathe a collective sigh of relief, like parents watching their child negotiate his first nativity play as Shepherd Number 2, little Joe didn’t fall over or drop his Crook.

He is however single handedly keeping Western Democracy functioning. He is keeping China from invading Taiwan, he is keeping Putin out of Ukraine and doing this while what passes as the Republican party nowadays careens around the Washington political institutions trying to stymy him in anything and everything he does. The Federal Reserve has tried to kill the economy under Biden, but he has survived and the economy has survived. A little bruised but still punching. The general standard of living has improved and improved most for the people at the bottom. The jobs are still more in demand of job fillers than the prior decades of people hunting in vain for a job, a situation that continues to support modest and successful wage rises and better conditions for Union workers. The administration has ramped up green energy infrastructure, even if most of it has occurred in the south and southwest where it’s easier to build anything, period.

Sadly, Biden is the very embodiment of Rodney Dangerfield. He is old and he does not get no respect. Our common hope is now reduced to Trump being so deranged during the primary campaigns, where he will assume that the nomination should be his by right, without having to go through the motions, and that the legal convictions pile up enough doubt that enough people hold their nose, forget about his age and re-elect Biden. What then happens we can probably look forward to another B-Movie script too.

So as 2023 slips into collective memory I am not the most enthusiastic about what 2024 holds for us. There was some great new music created in the past year or more accurately discovered by me in the past year. So in the spirit of making an effort to finish on an upward tone here are some highlights of what the young people have been doing musically while my cadre have been busy fucking shit up: 

The links are to Bandcamp/YouTube but for those inclined there is a Spotify playlist here.

Geese – Album: 3D Country – bunch of young gents from Brooklyn or at least currently based there. They defy simple description but sound like the product of many nights drinking and listening to old 90’s geezer rock like Primal Scream’s Exile on Mainstreet Phase or Ash or Supergrass, but through a very American lens, almost a C&W bastard child. 2122 or Mysterious Love

Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here. Where do you start with this? Yachty is a 26-year-old from Mableton Georgia, rapper, cool looking guy, man about New York City, hanging with the stars. Had some big hits including Broccoli with DRAM. All so normal then this drops. This album is the stepchild of Axis Bold as Love, Fulfillingness First Finale and Dark Side of the Moon, just insanely layered and fun and if Floyd or Stevie Wonder had the use of a vocoder this is what they might have sounded like. My favorite album of the year without question. Drive me Crazy or Black Seminole.

Fever Ray – Album: Radical Romantics – Karin Dreijer is a unique voice and has produced some of the most interesting electronic music of the last 20 years as half of The Knife and her solo stuff as Fever Ray. Some of her output is admittedly hard work but she has a great turn of phrase and the very Swedish electronics work well. This album is melodically stronger and dare I say it quite fun, the live video is worth finding. Kandy or Carbon Dioxide for the atmospheric gas fans amongst us.

Baxter Dury – Album: I thought I was better Than You. I was late to the Baxter Dury party. I was a massive fan of his Dad and had the good fortune to meet him once and have a drink with him while he serenaded my girlfriend to the dulcet sounds of J.J.Cale. Baxter has his Dad’s way with a lyric but has added his own louche style, girl backing singers a key part of his sound. I have consumed his early stuff now thanks to Rachel for the introduction to I’m Not Your Dog which for obvious reasons is popular with the French. Aylesbury Boy or Celebrate Me ‘lick my head’ indeed!

Steve Mason – Album: Brothers and Sisters. I have been a fan of Steve Mason’s happy, clappy, mellow soft rock since the Beta band 3Eps days and their 30 seconds of stardom in High Fidelity when John Cusack drops it into play. He continues to make great music and it’s all pretty upbeat, he has also done some dub versions with Dennis Bovell and that deep bass sound has permeated his work. There is yet another reworked sample of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwli song Musst Musst as well. Brixton Fish Fry or No More.

Will Butler + Sister Squares. What happened to Arcade Fire? There was a period when they defined cool, “it” and relevant and then they disappeared into a haze of seriousness and a bad Christmas album. Will Butler was the earnest front man and happily this album, his 5th or so since the Fire went out, is fun, upbeat and catchy, still with Will’s quirkiness at times. Saturday Night or Stop Talking.

Hania Rani – Album: Ghosts. Hania is an accomplished Polish jazz pianist who has played with Portico Quartet and released some moody piano instrumental works like “On Giacometti” from earlier this year and her memorial pieces on behalf of Ukraine. This album shows her amazing voice and cool arrangements, interesting rhythmic stuff also going on from the Portico’s who back her on several songs. Don’t Break My Heart and Dancing with Ghosts.

Do Nothing – Album: Snake Sideways. In the wake of the earnest singy-shouty bands from the British Isles like Idles, Fontaines DC, BCBR or Yard Act comes Do Nothing. Two well received Eps were followed this year by the Snake Sideways album and it’s a lovely little grower. You have to like the spiky post rock guitars and Chris Bailey’s voice but there is some really great stuff here that rewards repeated listens. Amoeba or Happy Feet.

Ian Sweet – Sucker. Ian Sweet is the stage name of Jillian Medford and is the other side of LA to LDR’s glossy Hollywood glitzy antics. Her songs are of the young poor strugglers that make up most of the striving artists and actors in SOCAL. Gritty electric pop with some production that really pulls it together. Sucker or Fight

Skinny Palembe – Album: Hardly The Same Snake. Doya Beardmore grew up in South Africa but then moved to Doncaster of all places and his music reflects a global vibe that works as well in Donny as Jo’burg. It swings, it has a jazz inflection but works as a good collection of songs and his voice is more sustainable than Alex Turner’s striving eeforts at crooning. Don’t Be Another or Like A Heart Won’t Beat

Lana Del Ray – “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?” Lana continues to get better and better, and this oddly named paeon to LA, the Carpenters and 70’s soft rock is superb. Couple of self-indulgent spoken voice segments by guests apart this is faultless. She has more confidence in her voice so happy to share the vocals with others. She wrote this on her phone and then built it up over time with collaborators and finally Jack Antonoff to pull it all together in an LDR album way, her 9th for god’s sake.  Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd and Fingertips.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples – Murder, Oral Sex and Cigarettes. The RP&P is the performing name of Glenn Donaldson who lives in the Inner Richmond (I know as he released an album called that) in San Francisco and is prolific to say the least. He can be accused of sounding like Morrissey but he is way much more than the baritone which is indeed at times a bit familiar. All heart ache and frustrations, very, very catchy songs and then a throw away guitar instrumental that is glorious. What will heaven be like? Or Use This Song If You Need One.

Ch-ch-changes

And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations They’re quite aware of what they’re goin’ through

Change is one of those words that has suffered reputational decline over the last 20 years, primarily due to overuse but also because it became code for bad shit happening for some people, and not for the others. This corporate change was often positioned as merely being strong medicine to swallow down. The only constant is change, the present changes the past, even TayTay gets in on the act with “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” As someone nominally leading businesses during a period of untrammeled capitalism and the pursuit of reduced costs and higher shareholder value (or more importantly higher piles of cash for the very senior guys, and yes, always guys) I watched how those shed along the way to glory town were told to embrace the change as an opportunity. I entreated those who remained to consider the change of having half your colleagues disappear as being for the very best. I was of course complicit because the senior guys spread the wealth a little and we all have families and mortgages to keep our backbone stiffened. Human Relations, which was one of the few places you ever saw a female senior executive in a large financial corporation, seemed to have lots of ready-to-go letters and offers of career counseling for the poor humans for which the company had decided they no longer wanted to enjoy a long term relationship with.
Society always reflects only a snapshot in time and the temptation is always to see the existing status quo as better than what came before and to be more comforting generally than the unknown future. The problem is that we rarely get to choose which bits we change. We would all like the world to be a fairer more equitable place and we would presumably all like the world to cease being destroyed by our human efforts and those are great grounds for change.
Sadly the only change that we seem to be presented with is a variant on something new to consume. We cannot seem to change the rampage of industry and its emissions and the breaching of the climate thresholds, we cannot change the political system that is cosseted and supported by the various industry interests to prevent us changing how we drive, fly, work or eat. Its not an occidental thing either, China, Korea and Japan are hardly the bywords for enlightened change although in their own quiet way the hard working women of those large, mainly homogenous, patriarchal societies are bringing a long and sustained change, they have all stopped having children.
I like change. I have a personality that treasures the novelty, seeks out the new. New treats is top of the list. New foods to enjoy, new wines to drink, new music to listen to. New places to visit. Do I want imposed change? Maybe not, but in principle I understand that we simply cannot continue as if nothing has to change significantly. Is it then a question of who is imposing the change, we have two recent examples of democratically elected governments whose judgement was at best flawed and based less on the common good and more on the wishes and peccadilloes of a select group. The Tories in the UK, or the thankfully short lived (so far!) administration of Trump imposed their vision of change. Brexit and the new Supreme Court will be around to haunt us for many years. These type of governments, primarily reactionary in nature, will never seek to drive major change for a common good, like climate change or resolving homelessness. They generally stand for and ascend to power as representing themselves as bulwarks against change rather than progenitors of systemic change, protection from someone else’s efforts for change, Obama’s effort to bring universal healthcare was a poster child for rallying the forces of fuckwittery.

I sometimes wonder whether there is a secret cabal of rich men, who all look like a cross between Jacob Rees Mogg and Mr Burns, that sit in a room in a Gentleman’s Club in Mayfair or some mansion in Greenwich, CT and agree to keep the distractions going, to stop the unknown future world of degrowth, an end to consumerism, just to maintain their fortunes in coal or oil. Then you think about all the fun that everyone is having in North Korea, how Mohdi’s vision of India includes unbreathable air for at least 60% of the population, as in 60% of the population of the largest country on earth. You think about how Ergodan’s Turkey is just now working out the downside to making concrete buildings without bothering to put in any steel reinforcing. Then think about Mr Xi or President-Chairman-Leader for Life or whatever he feels is appropriate currently, I am sure God-Head or Emperor cannot be far off, after all his very thoughts, not just his words, but his musings are sanctified and taught to all school children in China. The final death nell for the old white men cabal conspiracy is Uncle Vlad, the man with the longest tables and the biggest rallies where they have to lock the doors so no-one is seen to be leaving or not enjoying the grand gathering, where the cheering attendees are either government employees told non-attendance is a firing offense or students paid to attend. They all gather and wave the mass produced flags for his spectacular celebrations of some glorious day from Russia’s history or at least Putin’s version. The fact that these two self proclaimed “Leader of the People” met last week in a love-in to proclaim their undying mutual support a week after the ICC issued warrants for Putin’s arrest for crimes against humanity is the perfect display of how little they care about the rest of us.

Its no wonder we cannot get some positive change going when globally we seem to have enabled a fuck-wits olympics, where leaders compete with each other as to who can be the most spectacularly evil and destructive, who can do the least for their millions of citizens. The propaganda tools that have been there forever: othering, compliant religions, nationalism, are now ably assisted by those gifts that keep giving, You-Tube, Farcebook, Tik-Tok. Add in levels of oversight, supervision and incursion into the daily lives you can only think about in your worst Ai assisted nightmares. The common play seems to be building more stuff, even it does not really help in the long run. Its just to keep the inner circle happy, perhaps one of the building contracts slips their way or you keep building coal fired power stations to keep the chaps from the coal producing regions on side. China approved the construction of another 106 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity last year, of which they already started building 50GW of capacity. That will be popular in Australia too as those ecology-loving Aussies supply vast amounts of coal to China, the very ships that carry the coal sail through a gap in the barrier reef. The Great Barrier Reef was going to be named a Unesco Heritage site but the government actually campaigned against this honor, which fits with it being destroyed through global warming particularly through burning of coal, something you would rather support than stopping the tiny warming problem we all seem to be enjoying.

The problem is that we will probably trigger a turning point where the ocean currents shift or the ice-cap accelerates into a slushy of its former self and suddenly all these exciting ’50 year’ weather events, loved by TV stations around the world, become monthly events and the food chain breaks down. We will of course have to change then or will we? I can’t help wondering whether the rich and powerful, at that point, just double down and argue whats the point? its too late to save everyone so we will just look after our own people. Then the definition of who exactly is ‘our own people’ may have to be tweaked.

Well that went dark quickly! Time for a rest and as they say, a change is as a good as a rest. You can change your listening habits here.