Alai Mac Erc: Destructive Engagement

Bah, humbug

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:42:17 GMT

Far from buying my flights to Scotland for Christmas too late, looks like I bought them too soon: Aer Arann are having a "happy hour" sale tomorrow, which would have saved me a bundle. I wondered if they were going to do something like that again. Grrr. I chickened out because the inconvenience of the destination airport means I can't be at all flexible in dates, really. Of course, it's doubly annoying to pay over the odds for an inconvenient airport, come to that...

Sneer miss

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:15:18 GMT

Last night on the radio, that Shamelessly Corkonian-Geezerish Bloke announced a Nora Jones track. I braced myself for (almost total lack of) impact; then, I found myself, in real shock, thinking "... actually, this is rather good!" I imagined having to repent of all those "Snora" wisecracks. Then I realized he'd played a Regina Spektor track by "mistake". Unfortunately, he then "rectified" it by playing NJ immediately afterwards.

This is from her "rock" album, too. It boggles the brain to imagine how consciousness-lapsing her "easy listening" is, in sustaine doses. (Dozes?)

Cautious Glire

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:01:47 GMT

Frightened Rabbit at Cyprus Avenue.

Culturally Calvinist note: pounced on a curious-looking guy at the door, and asked him if he was in need of a ticket. He said he was looking for two, and I pointed out that they weren't sold out, so he could buy another inside the venue. Offered him my 14.50EUR face-value ticket for 12; he starts quibbling about "booking fees" and "on the door" prices. I shamelessly cave and offer him it for a tenner. I'd be the Worst Ticket Tout EVAR. But at least I shifted it without wasting a stupid amount of time hanging around outside, and before it turned into a souvenir piece of paper. Maybe I even helped drum up business... To be fair, though, I'd gladly have paid 30 yokes for this gig, so aside from some mildly obsessive kicking myself, I wasn't that bothered in the scheme of things.

Talking to one of the Old Oak staff, apparently they sold around a hundred less than capacity -- I'm not even sure what the capacity is, but 100 sounds like a substantial fraction. Did seem a big fuller than their previous, "acoustic" gig. (Distructive Engagements, passim.) Still a little bit of a "halo" or "invisible barrier" in front of the stage, but not as large as last time. Beats the heck out of the guy at the Futureheads gig there who was close enough to be potentially performing a lewd act on Barry, and basically was carrying on a continual conversation with him.Support were So Cow, apparently a (post-)punk (revival) chap from Tuam, and a hired-help rhythm section. Certainly did the job of getting me "warmed up", though nothing I'd get that excited about. M'colleague from work apparently knew of them, but he turned up just after they'd gotten off.

The bunnies (now five of them!) were on stage at half-ten or so. I filtered down one side, almost to the front -- it goes a somewhat funny shape down that area. Started off with six songs in a row from their second ("breakthrough", and much-bummed by Simon Neil) album, Midnight Organ Fight, interspersed with assorted banter from Chief Coney, Scott. The "all our equipment this time" was introduced a couple of songs before their new member was, amusingly enough. Gordon did get bigged up plenty when it was his turn to play the main keyboards: Scott's apparently sacked himself from that role entirely, but the second guitar player and the bassist (if I can call them that, as on occasion they've switched the bass, too) also did some turns on keyboards. He can allegedly actually play both hands at once, as opposed to the principal lapine's faking it with overdubs on record and then busking it live. It didn't quite get to Bat for Lashes level of "everyone shift an instrument to the right for this one", but there was a bit of a mixture of between zero and two keyboards and a converse number of guitars, as well as some shuffling within each of those groups. Naturally the drummer, Grant, wasn't shiftin' around, though I was quite impressed with him at one point banging out a bass drum pattern with a foot-pedal, having a drink from his bottle of beer, and all the while whacking himself on the thigh with one drumstick, for no immediately discernable reason -- does it make a pick-uppable sound? is it to keep time? does he just like it? Eat your hearts out, Neil Peart, Ben Johnston, Tony Allan, et al.

Then we had the first song from the new album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, "Nothing Like You". In all we got three from that, including the only one I'd heard before, "Swim Until You Can't See Land". Despite my "half-fun, haill-earnest" thoughts that Scott might not be able to write another great album unless he had his heart pounded into teeny little smithereens again, I have to say that all three were excellent, and worked into the mainly-MOF set in a very effective way, punctuating the mainly melancholic Midnights with some more kick-ass stuff (especially with the "somewhat louder" staging). Just one song from their first album, Sing the Greys, "Square Nine", which they finished off their "main set" with.

They just about made it all the way off-stage -- which can be a somewhat farcical exercise at CypAv, given the total lack of a stage door. Soon the frontman was back on himself, with just acoustic guitar.

Scott seemed to dither a little about whether he was going to do "Poke" as an "amped acoustic", or entirely micless. Went for the latter, beckoned everyone closer. Only-slightly-earlier speculations about whether his Thai curry was going to stay down notwithstanding. Unlike last time, though, there was some guitar amplification for this, and a bit more singing along, as against the more of a "reverential hush" from before. Then he proposed to send us back away again afterwards to where we'd started! (To little effect, though.) Then the third of the new ones, "Living In Colour", and a barnstorming finish with "Keep Yourself Warm". For a relatively sedate gig and a somewhat wistfully folk-tinged band, there's something slightly surreal about the massed foul-mouthed singalong to the chorus of that one.

Swiped one of the setlists, and bought some CDs at the merch stand. Once again, no luck with getting a tour t-shirt that'd fit my expansive form, though. Expressed my feelings on the lack of "Floating in the Forth" to each lagomorphic brother, successively. Instructed Grant (who was at said stand) to play it next time! He countered that they'd have more third-album stuff to play then; I generously allowed that he could ditch the rest of MOF, just so long as they played FitF and as much as they liked of the third album. Big-hearted Arthur, me, as my mother would say. Scott's objection was the more nuanced one that it didn't work so well with the rest of the set: essentially, that it was a bit too much of a downer. For me it's the very soul of the album, though: the very pit of despair, pierced by a beam of sudden hope, made all the brighter thereby. That "winter solstice" instant when the year turns. The "Alone in Hell" stage of the Hero's Journey, if there are any Gloranfans still with me by this point. On a more prosaic note, got my setlist signed by both, despite the lack of a pen of any kind on my person. Decided not to push my luck to the extent to chasing down the other three (either for signings, or their views on Forth-Floating).

While I'm sure I told them what a great show it was, I think I should have put more stress on the whole "thank you for coming to Cork, despite our lack of collective worthiness; and please, please, please do come again, on, well... much the same basis". Who knows, perhaps the scales will fall away from Cork's eyes, and they'll sell more tickets... whereupon they'll then be "too big" thereafter for the available venues here. Oh well. Pity those "poor" Glasgow bands who find the gap between the Barra's 1900 and the SECC cowsheds in and around 7000 to be an inconvenience.

(Incidentally, these on-going weak-assed "adjective animal" references relate to them currently being on tour with Modest Mouse, which this gig was essentially just a little side-trip from, and Scott's observation on the apparent naming pattern when he was on The Culture Show. Little danger of MM coming to Cork -- see earlier ranting -- and on the whole I think a headline FR gig rather than a support slot was the better outcome, from my PoV.)

Reticent Euarchodont

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:42:53 GMT

DGB has undesignated for tonight's Frightened Rabbit gig. Not sure I'll have much chance of hawking the spare ticket at the venue, as it doesn't seem to have sold out, even given the minusule size of the venue. Maybe with some deep discountiung. Not to worry, wasn't a dear ticket anyway.

Have I mentioned the whole "Cork people, no musical taste" thing? Cork punches waaay below its weight for getting middling-sized acts since when they do come here, they don't sell out even moderate-sized venues. And bigger acts don't even have a suitable venue in the first place.

On the wild offchance that anyone that happens to be at a loose end this evening and is in striking distance, do let me know!

-asbian

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:17:04 GMT

Anyone else ever felt that if they booted Tom Whatsisname out of Kasabian, and the remainder were led by Serge Thingummyjig, you'd have a reasonably serviceable -- if deeply unoriginal -- vaguely psychedelic/indie sort of outfit? Whereas with, they very much teeter over -- or perhaps more appropriately, barge -- into that whole unfortunate "lad rock" area? (Consider the Fratellis and the View thereby slagged off en passant.)

ETA: apparently "close friends" of Oasis. I think the prosecution rests. Mind you, source for this is an old clip of Noel G: clearly, these days, not even Oasis are close friends of Oasis. (Mood now tipping over to the "self-satisfied with own prejudices" dwaggin.)

Dungeonquest + Ticket to Ride

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:07:59 GMT

Tuesday-night boardgaming again, at last! Brian brought along a pal of his, Brendan; Roman brought along some of his Essen haul, and some other possibilities.

We kicked off with Dungeonquest, an old GW stager from the '80s. It's non-Euro qualities were quickly made evident to me: on turn four (out of 26...) I fell down a bottomless pit. Doesn't a ring of warning help with that? Nope: character dead, player eliminated. I'll get making the tea and organising the snacks, then. It did mean I got to do all the monsters, though: lots of practice of my RPS psychology. In due course Brian's hitpoints were whittled away by a couple of encounters that didn't go so well. He was the first way to find his way back to an entrance, though, despite liberal sprinklings of portcullises and rotating rooms all 'round, but came a cropper trying to scounge up more treasure. Brendan made it all the way to the dragon's lair, toughed it out for a couple turns, got a bucketload of treasure, and defeated a final monster, notwithstanding being down to one HP, against its two, atone point. Failed to make it out in time, though. That made Roman last man standing, and hence winner. (I think he had a bit more treasure than Brian, though less than Brendan.)

Then we played Ticket to Ride (US). Brian went for a fairly extreme "get all the 15 point segments" strategy -- which typically works, in my experience -- but in this instance it came unstuck. He'd 95 points in track, and +11-4 in tickets, whereas I'd 83 in tickets, +10 for longest route (no branching at all, for length 40), and 38 from four tickets. But winning at a canter, and citing "beginner's luck" was Brendan: 163 points, including tickets worth 22+21+17+16+9+9. Cough! The top-decking and route-comopletion gods were not kind to Roman: 91, with a -20 hit from one lon ticket he missed by one segment, offsetting the other four he did make, for 44. No pictures from me: will steal from, or link to, Roman's, as and when.

Jon Ronson on beards, Biffies, and Robbies

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:26:59 GMT

It's probably just me, but I found the following exchange, from a Guardian article in which Jon Ronson is interviewing Robbie Williams during his "disappearing and chasing UFOs" period, rather hilarious:

Actually, I don't think his beard is a visual symbol of any kind of madness. This is just the first time in 18 years he has taken a break from work and is enjoying doing things he was never before allowed to do, which includes having a beard.

"Pop stars aren't allowed to have beards," he says. "Name me a pop star with a beard."

"Biffy Clyro," I say.

"I'm talking about pop stars," Robbie says.

linky

Old news for old fogies?

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:03:18 GMT

In theory, that RTE Radio 2 is now explicitly targeting an agegroup (just about...) containing me, whereas it previously wasn't, should be good news from a purely self-interested POV, right? Except of course what they have in mind will be "playing more of the crap that were playing twenty years ago" that I didn't like first time around.

But more generally, does this mean that if you're under 25, the "national broadcaster" (as in, "give us yer 160 quid") is aiming none of its three radio channels at you? Citing a "crowded market"? Hrrrrm.

Of course, especially vexes here is the thought that Dave Fanning is one the "top experts" driving this change. Only somewhat less than that Gerry Ryan is being trotted out as the other. Way to further expend your alleged credibility, DF, both in making the claim itself, and in that it juxtaposes you with said GR.

"Global warming is nothing new..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:19:10 GMT

Comment heard this evening on the BBC not, as one might have expected on Top Gear, but on... Antiques Roadshow. Apparently one of the resident "experts" was especially keen to share this in connection with, of all things, empire-line dresses (from the frist time 'round, that is). It was so out of context that it wasn't at all clear whether it was intended as AGW "skepticism" as such, but in the context -- or rather, out of any meaningful context whatsoever! -- it was very bizarre. I swear, soon we'll be getting the Lawsons of this world jumping up and down and telling us a return to the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum would be not only be "natural", but just what the global economy needs.

Though we weren't entirely spared odd pronouncements from the mouth of J. Clarkson this weekend, as he was also on with Jon Woss, commenting on a 1991 clip of himself -- approvingly, of course, apart from the hairstyle -- in which, after a sustained rant about global warming (or lack thereof), he tossed in a comment about not believing the evidence about the ozone hole, either. Not clear if this was because he was under the impression the two were the same or closely connected, or if he just has considerable "form" in that whole "reflexively disbelieve everything hippy ecologist types say" area.

Unclear credit

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:34:05 GMT

Muse were on Jon Woss this week. I couldn't help but notice that their particular musikarbeiter (the keyboard player, required for when Matt's too occupied to perform that particular chore himself, as he would on the record) was in near-total darkness. Thus being relegated to even lower status than the drummer! I realize that he's just the hired help, but it seems a bit harsh when you're playing the actual melody. Perhaps it also seems like a little bit of swiz that the band aren't a sufficient unit to play some reasonable version of their own song (or at least "reasonable" enough for mainstream TV appearances). Of course that often comes with the territory with the "solo artist" concept: backing band needn't hold its breath waiting for much in the way of recognition. JZ's appearance on Jools (see gripes ibid) seems like an extreme example of this, though: the person filling in for Alicia Keys' "featuring" role didn't get so much as a name-check -- for what one would otherwise take to be the lead vocal, were a Starstar Hip-Hop Producer(TM) not involved, to bogart the main/entire credit for same.

TANJ.

Lurches to the Right

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:04:35 GMT

I didn't even realize there was a vacancy, but apparently UKIP have elected a new leader, in the form of Lord Pearson. On Channel 4 News he was coming out swinging on the "Islamicisation" of Britain, throwing some extra petrol on the flames with references to "Gender Apartheid". (Not without an element of truth, but not exactly the language of productive cultural dialogue, either.) Perhaps this was led by him having to admit to some Govesque muddling of his facts on the detail of this (he'd been lumping convertions and immigration in with "endogenous" demographic increases), but if it's indicative of a new tack on their part, it's more than a little alarming. Under Farage (who'd it turns out has resigned to concentrate having a pop at the Speaker) they maintained some sort of superficial gloss of being anti-EU on grounds of "civic nationalism", and some sort of "pro-business" argument against "eurocracy". (Kilroy's regime you'd have to just characterise as "lunatic grandstanding", as imprecise as that might be in policy terms.) They now planning on tacking away from that particular wing of British Conservatism, towards the outright Tory backwoodsmen, if not to say the BNP? Perhaps one can hope that this territory will get so crowded they'll trample all over each other.

Then there was an Unreported World documentary on "ultra-Orthodox" Judaism in Israel. There was footage of social workers being harassed in their own homes for "interfering" with Haredi families (i.e. applying child protection laws), and of women being forced -- or at least, persistently "cajoled" (this was with a film crew present, mind you) -- to quite literally sit at the back of the bus. And not any sort of "designated Orthodox bus", mind you -- this is the state-run public bus system.

And of course there are those Hizb ut-Tahrir "linked" schools in the UK. The facts about actual organisation links seem pretty murky, but we had some pretty lurid quotes from Farah Ahmed, one of the head teachers, to the general effect of "we must protect our children by systematically indoctrinating them against every single value and tenet of Western liberalism". Can anyone look at Northern Ireland and Scotland and tell me, with a straight face, that segregated "faith-based" education of pretty much any sort isn't a ludicrously bad idea? And that's "only" with different Christian denominations. Do England and Wales really want to create such a set of problems for themselves, essentially out of whole cloth? For the sake of supposedly motivating a bit more parental involvement, and slightly higher test scores?

Guess those circular firing squads are by no means an exclusively "progressive" phenomenon.

(Esler doing Newsnight, Wark doing N. Review, and Gove on both -- Scottish media mafia is in full flood, tonight.)

More nightmare priests

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:18:45 GMT

Oh dear; not only was the clerical sex abuse on the RTE 6.1 news again, it's the lead item of the Channel 4 News, too. This reminds me of Monday's vexation...

Must have been my fault for invoking the dread name of Bill Donahue, but there was what someone aptly described as a "wingbat priest" on Pat Kenny's increasingly Kilroyesque Frontline nonsense. (Incidentally, isn't that another programme title RTE's nicked off the Beeb, following the business of having two arts programmes called "Arena"?) With an appearance of any self-consciousness whatsoever he demanded it was time for the return of "the birch" and of what De Pat 'helpfully' suggested might be "borstals", but would have been more accurately characterised as military camps, along the line of the "short, sharp shock" of Whitelavian fantasy (I'm dating myself again, I realize).

Amazingly, Pat brought him in again later, this time to do the ol' trick of portraying his stance as 'moderate' by citing Them Evil Muhammedans(TM) who'd favour "the lash", amputations, etc (right from the OSC playbook, all of the above). Am I missing some clearcut 'moral' distinction between birching and lashing? Pardon me if I'm showing my unworldly side in my lack of familiarity with some of the technical details of wholesale sadism. Or was the logic "it's OK if it's only kids/ther lower order"? If PK'd go the whole "daytime shock schlock" hog, he'd at least have had someone in the audience to start a fight with said frothing nutter (literally or otherwise). As it was, both "contributions" went completely unchallenged. No-one in the group invited along was willing to risk being outflanked on the Right, it would seem.

More insect nightmares

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:45:09 GMT

The Dawson's burrowing bees on Life were bad enough, especially given the whole Scary Gender Stuff aspect. But reading about the Asian giant hornet is really likely to be giving me the screaming heeby-jeebies later, I think... Possibly doesn't help that the image of recently snipped-off bee heads rolling along the ground is common to both!

Down in the Pav...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:25:33 GMT

Gary Numan gig tonight.
Decided not to cycle, given the difficulties of 'parking', and on-going concerns about the weather. Missed the bus -- normally I'd just have waited, blithe to when the next one's coming, but sent into despair by seeing the back-end pull away, I was incited to first, try to "head it off" the other side of the loop that it does past either side of my neck of the woods (just in time to see it pull off again), and thence just deciding to walk the rest of the way. (Technically I may indeed have saved a bit of time, since there was no sign of the bus en route, but I wasn't really in a hurry, and boy, was I knackered by the time I got there. How quickly I'm back from "fairly unfit" to "very unfit".)

Support was "Dirty Harry", a pretty generic pop-rock female-fronted band (or band-backed solo artist, not 100% clear about that). Not 'alf bad on first (though probably only ever) listen, and certainly a lot better than the dodgy "Celtic punk" outfit who were supporting SLF, the other time I've been to the Pavilion. Took the sensible approach of dealing with the cries of "Nooooooooman!" during their/her set by leading them. (AKA the "You shall have no captain but me" tactic, one that Manchester Orchestra took to the lengths of starting such chants, when they were supporting Biffy lately.)

I saw one or two people with "Replicas Tour" t-shirts, and was immediately jealous. I don't think it came to Cork, though, and in any event it seems to have been an "Industrialised" version he was touring, then. (Clozperzonalfren of Trent Reznor these days, donchaknow.) So I think I think on balance I probably got the better deal, after all (and a tenner for a taxi home beats a trip up to Dublin on any day of the week, and thrice on Mondays).

As advertised in the subtle clue of this being the "Pleasure Principle tour", the first half of the set was entirely PP, and very synth heavy. To return briefly to my occasional band.config() theme, I was surprised at just how many musikarbeiter he had: for a number of tracks it was vocals/keyboards; additional keyboards; additional, additional keyboards; additional, additional, additional keyboards (or else synthdrum); drums; bass. (Variations including Numan not playing his own keyboard, MA#4 playing that one instead, or some maracas, or a tambourine, or his water bottle.) For the second half, two synths are yoinked off, and we get a guitar (MA#4 revealing his true colours), and on occasion even two, with Numan swinging his own axe. Largely more recent stuff, with some slightly heavier version of the early period thrown in too.

The lighting was probably about the fanciest I've seen in Cork (I don't recall Biffy at the Savoy being as flashy as some of their more recent shows, though memory fades). Multilight in a direct line between me and the bass player gave him a distinctly Saintly aura for a lot of the show. They also had a slideshow-style projector screen, with a fairly eclectic selection of images (sometimes just one per song, sometimes a series, sometimes a certain amount of animation). (God is an Astronaut also did the projector thing, in Cyprus Avenue, but it was pretty meh. As were they, I felt on the whole.)

Atmosphere was pretty decent. Inevitably a somewhat older crowd than most gigs, and the Pav also has some seating and several 'tiers', which changes the dynamic somewhat. It'd sold out, though, and the central floor area is pretty densely filled (unlike SLF, where there was enough room for the sort of poor-quality moshing I've complained of elsewhere (to wit, more propulsion of others than of self)). I was largely stuck behind a clump of geezers with pints, only around six rows back, though, who were also chatting, messing around with mobile phones, and shoving past to get more of said pints, which all transgresses against my "the closer you are to the front, the more attention you're supposed to be paying to the band" rubric.

Highlights: "Complex" (dedicated to Paul Gardiner, deceased collaborator from his first four albums), and "Down in the Park", the 'dark heart' of Replicas (which isn't exactly 'light' in general, mind).

Only Revolutionless

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:29:09 GMT

Still no sign of my (ludicrously overpriced) Biffy boxset, two weeks after its release (and alleged dispatch). Apparently it was sent by bog-standard post -- others seem to have had theirs DHL'd -- and thence, caught up in the postal backlogs. Several emails to the "Customer Services Team" later, I'm still being told to wait a while longer before they'll bother initiating a postal enquiry, or, well, do anything much, really.

On a more positive note, have Gazza Numan at "The Pav" tonight. Off to that in a minute.

Ante^WPost diluvium

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:08:17 GMT

Not been as wet as feared over the weekend, as far as I can tell -- and so far. Seems as if the possible yet-heavier rain for Monday may be "missing" us after all. (Have I tempted fate enough yet?) Made it to Tesco "without incident" last night -- missed what rain there was, and the roundabout had nary a puddle. Going to risk my first bike outing below the 20m contour line since all this nonsense started -- wish me luck!

I'm curious as to whether there will be detailed scrutiny into ESB's decisions regarding the operation of the Inniscara dam. I heard a statement claiming that the flooding would have been significantly worse without the dam; but even if that's correct (and my instinct is to trust semi-state bodies only as far as I can semi-throw them), it's not at all the same as saying they actually made the correct decisions about when and how much to "sluice". Or exactly what the "Pareto regret" might be, if they didn't.

Dicing with easy-listening weather

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:56:53 GMT

I'm not much of a Lisa Hannigan fan -- sorta in that same "mind-numblingly dull" category as Snora Jones and Boring Bailey Rae, I'm afraid -- bit I was rather struck by the cover of her current album:

Strongly reminds me of the contents of my Thursday-night dice bag. (Not in use earlier this evening due to soft ambient conditions.)

Genre mark of shame

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:49:28 GMT

Those Whedonites appalled that Morena Baccarin was slumming it in Stargate, may need to sit down when I relate that she seems to be appearing in the V remake. (I only just found out there was a V remake.) Also featuring Herself from Lost, and That Bloke That Was in The 4400. The Mark of Sci-Fi is upon them! As for the show itself, one can only hope they're going to go in more of a shades-of-grey Earth: Final Conflict type of direction (before it totally lost such that it had, that is) than the lizardy, Marc-Singer-infested, rodent-swallowing '80s nonsense.

Palin: sexism victim, or accessory before the fact?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:10:59 GMT

While I'm on a roll on sexism...

I came across the meta-story about Newsweek's Sarah Palin cover by a couple of different routes: it was on the TV (I think Newsnight), and it seems to be the most recent item in the "Sexism Watch" strand(s) at the Shakesville blog. (I think the latter's essentially flipped over time from being a "Hillary Clinton Sexism Watch" to a Palin one, though unlike the unfortunates mocked on a Boston Legal ep, it's mercifully not the case that they transferred actual support in the same way.) I don't have any trouble indentifying this as a sexist depiction. (Not necessarily the case for the claimed instances in said "Watch", a number of which are at least notionally gender neutral, getting us straight into historical context, presumptions of intent, and other such imponderables.) I certainly wouldn't "defend" it on the grounds of "she's a bad person, therefore sexist attacks are OK" (has anyone actually used such a defence, anyway, or would that be a "reframing" of others comments?)

However, I struggle to see Palin as being a "direct victim" of said portrayal. She's posed for the photograph in the first place, and is in general more than happy to play up to traditional -- if not to say outright cheesy -- constructions of gender. Her complaint that it's sexist seems at best to be cherry-picking (not the exact sexist coverage I'd have chosen for myself), if not outright smokescreen (I shall yell 'sexism', and my political opponents will obligingly form the traditional circular firing squad while attempting to determine the correct "progressive" response). The crime of sexism here seems to be a "public order" one, of lowering the general tone of dialogue about gender, with Palin largely feeding that narrative, rather than doing anything (beyond the existential, perhaps, to some extent) to oppose it.

36' of minimalism

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:15:17 GMT

Apparently when the Foo Fighters played Jools -- this is two weeks ago now, I think -- they had a 36-foot-frontage of setup. A little bit odd for a band with a relatively "minimalist" (in the raaaawk sense) sound and rep. Come to that, they'd a 7-piece band: an additional (additional) guitarist, someone on the "plinkies" (I'm still paying Fern Cotton royalties for that one), and I think a keyboards player. Pretty much just a miniskirted cellist away from their full-scale stadium set-up, in fact. I suppose I'm straying once more into band.config territory, though I don't see much in the way of clear-cut arrangement thoughts here, more rather the "cost-effectiveness" theme.

Not sure if the Foos had "top billing" or not... They played the first song, but not the last. That was... somewhat unfortunate, as it turned out, for my money, as the "co-headliner" was one Jayzee (or if he'd prefer, JZ -- pick one orthographic convention and stick with it, you ego-tripping muppet!). I do think one can read too much into both the heat-of-the-moment public pronouncements of alleged celebrities, to say nothing of into their even-more-contentiously-alleged art, probably in the area of gender politics more than one. But I have to say that I found the near juxtaposition, in the same week, of "There's only one person I want to thank -- Jay, this is for you!" (to Berlin and the world) with "99 problems, but a bitch ain't one" (to a cheering crowd of Jools' presumably specially-invited chums) well into the realm of pass-the-sickbag.

Civil unions all 'round (the Dyson sphere?)

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:20:22 GMT

The BBC had the couple who're the subject of this story on. They're an opposite-sex couple filing for a "civil partnership" at a UK registry office (as distinct from a marriage). Good on 'em! Though ultimately it's a very salami-slicing approach to gradualist creeping towards some sort of sensible dispensation of actual equity, both between sexualities and different religious (and otherwise) traditions. Ultimately for me, that'll be to restrict the government's role to only some sort of civil union, ideally with the "M word" filed off. If people want to body-swerve that, or to supplement it with some sort of "traditional Christian marriage" (or indeed, a Sharia one, Orthodox Judaism, fundamentalist poly, or whatever else), then that's their business, at least in the first instance. Obviously the state would still have a role in "policing" outright abuse and enforcing other laws (most obviously relatining to protection of minors and where there's any degree of coercion), but that's already the case: it's not as if the mere existence of "conventional" marriage actually prevents abuse either within it, or among those that already "opt out" of said system. The likely alternative seems to be some sort of hyrda-headed business, with state marriage keeping its Christian baggage, and adding more besides. This is effectively what elements of some of the aforementioned religions advocate, and strike me as pretty nightmarish.

Somehow I managed to misread their surnames, from their respective captions, as "Freeman" and "Dyson" (actually the latter is "Doyle" -- a good Wexford name!). Now that would have been an interesting lineage name, to found as a hyphenation or juxtaposition.

Gravity 1, Defiance 0

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:21:41 GMT

I was just starting to get somewhat into Defying Gravity, despite having missed the first couple of eps, and the extent of the "soap opera is space" -- almost a given, that last. But I'm a bit put off by the realization that the fact that half the crew is going a bit kooky is not, in fact, a study of the isolating and confining effects of long-duration space travel, but that there's Big Secret Stuff going on; the sheer extent to which they're milking the sex/relationshippy stuff; and, the fact it's not just been cancelled in the States, but cancelled-so-hard-they're-not-even-showing-the-final-eps... before the BBC started showing any of them, in fact. It's far from the first time a British channel has done that; one can only hope they get 'em at a steep discount.

On a very minor point, I was a bit surprised that the setting was the 2050s. From the "look", I'd assumed it was much nearer-future. (Which would have been, and to some extent indeed is, something of a novelty, as most media SF seems to flip-flop between "far future 'sufficiently advanced tech'" stuff and "present day with single, startling point-of-departure".)

"This Insane Photo Destroyed a Camera Lens"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:14:15 GMT

Cheap at half the price! linky

Chiesel!

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:57:37 GMT

RTE News had a report about using "cheese manufacturing byproducts" -- essentially whey, I think -- as a biofuel. Class idea. CO2-neutral(ish), doesn't (directly) compete with the food supply, but most crucially of all, sounds intensely silly. Visions of Green Bay/other Wisconsin sports fans in "cheesehead" hats, Wheelly Big Cheese fighting robots, etc.

(OK, technically the pathway is to produce ethanol, not biodiesel, but "chiesel" was too much to resist.

band.config(), Opus 1.5

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:55:06 GMT

Really enjoyable Abbey Road this week.

Bloc Party are always excellent value; La Roux('s Ellie Jackson) put in a very good vocal performance (aside from backing vocals on one track, I think I'd just be reviewing the machinery, otherwise), and held forth in an entertainly opinionated manner (pretty much what I'd been expecting, except a bit posh-sounding for someone whose mum works in Sun Hill); and Mika was... two out of three ain't bad. (His drummer has yet another cajon -- someone out there is making a fortune from flogging orange boxes to young and impressionable percussionists, I tells ya.)

One thing that puzzled me was Kele banging on about the difficulty of playing "Signs" live, some of their songs being very "layered", having to take "versions" out on the road, and "working their way up to" this one. In the first place, it didn't strike me as very sonicly dense or complex -- though I'm not much of a muso (he boasted), it must be said. So I tried to work out what the problem was, and as far as I can see the main issue seemed to be that their bassist was required to play the "plinkies" (to use a Fern Cottonism). So, their lead guitarist ends up playing the bassline, but on the bottom strings of his gitr, playing it as a three-string bass, effectively, leaving Kele to play the main guitar line. For want of a bass player the arrangement was lost? There has to be a musician joke in there someplace. [*] While it seems like they've painted themselves into an unnecessary corner there, there is something I rather like about the homespun/work ethic aspect of grinding out an "in house" solution. (Or maybe it's an austerity arrangement, in these Hard Times?)

[*] e.g.: how many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one, but only after the guitarist has shown him how to do it.