Zig Zag May 1980 - Magazine & Martin Hannett

Ozymandias

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Percy Bysshe Shelly


Ozymandias

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

Horace Smith

Presence - In Wonder (Single)

Now that Nick Clegg has performed one of the most spectacular political about turns of recent years with his reversal of Lib Dem election pledges on tuition fees, I wonder if the Lib Dem voters might start to appreciate cynicism a bit more?

Everybody expects Labour and the Tories to lie their way from power to opposition and back again but the Lib Dems? Surely not. They always held that precious third place which allowed them the sanctimoniousness of taking part with all the pious devotion to truth which never having to govern, and thus break a promise, engenders. They could have their cake and eat it.

But they're a bit fucked now.

To be exposed as a Liberal with Labour sympathies is one thing but to be found out as a Tory-Lite Liberal is quite another. It's in the names you see. 'Liberal' - favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs - and 'Conservative' - favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change - are incompatible ideals, if not from opposite ends of the political spectrum then certainly on opposing sides. The result is a coalition government that emphasises the redundancy of the UK's political process. A government that irks Conservatives and Lib Dems alike in equal measure as election manifesto promises are jettisoned in the mad rush to reduce the apparently terrifying deficit. The Twitter hashtag for all things coalition related is #condem which succintly paraphrases how many feel about this twisting of ideologies and the resulting policies.

So, if all parties lie - whether it be WMDs, child benefit or tuition fees - either to gain power or once in power then what purpose does engagement with mainstream politics serve other than to dishearten and disenfranchise the voters? UK general election turnout actually rose in 2005 and 2010 but it must be becoming clear to all that the policies of any British government are dependent not upon the populace who put them there but upon protection of the capitalist system and the ruling class who benefit directly from it. It is not for nothing that the attacks being lined up on public spending fall most heavily on the working class and barely touch the people who actually caused this mess - the bankers. After the heady days of forming their first government maybe ordinary Lib Dem voters, like disillusioned Labour and Tory supporters before them, are now starting to appreciate where they fit into all this a bit better.


Presence - In Wonder (Single) (Reality Records LOL1 1991) 320kbps

1. In Wonder
2. Soft

Wonder Why People Bother Voting - pwd: c4ctusm0uth

Grim Humour No. 1 - Bushido, Play Dead & Sex Gang Children

Size Of An iPod 8

"Please welcome, Nearvana"




"But your mother wants to put you away"




"Get born, get school, get job, get car, pay tax and find a wife"

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Stranger In The House (Single)

I can do without a lot of TV these days.

The spectacle of the amphitheater has been updated for modern consumption through the likes of 'The Apprentice' (which fucking started again tonight, hence this post) and 'The X Factor'.

Unfortunately they are no longer given weapons to hack each other to bits with. Instead they're fed on a steady diet of celebrity culture, an oxymoron if ever there was one, advertising and the empty capitalist promise that money equates to happiness. Only when their egos threaten to eclipse the planet, or their actual talent, whichever happens first, are they thrown before an unforgiving audience who will happily revel in their ultimate failure.

Whether its jeering at the tuneless nutters on X factor, sympathising with your favourite contestant when they exit the same show or sitting slack-jawed at just how far up themselves The Apprentice' contestants truly are, the audience is no better, nor worse, than those sat in the amphitheater watching the carnage.

But I can't be doing with mindless one-upmanship as entertainment so I don't buy a ticket for the amphitheater any more.


Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Stranger In The House (Single) (Radar Records SAM83 1978) 320kbps

1. Stranger In The House
2. Neat, Neat, Neat

Yes Lord Alan, No Lord Alan, 3 bags full Lord Alan - pwd: c4ctusm0uth

The Shape Of British Democracy

It's the Mystery Of The Chipping Norton Triangle. It's like the Bermuda Triangle only instead of planes and ships that go missing, we lose truth, evidence and influence as the wealthy collude with the corrupt and the criminal alike to protect their positions. Cameron, Coulson and the Cops all under the guiding hand of Murdoch as he calls the tunes and the politicians dance. Watch C4's Dispatches on 4OD or read all about it via The Guardian's in-depth coverage.

Zig Zag May 1980 - Doll By Doll & Advert

Spurious Opposition

Spurious Opposition The cloth cap and the working class, As images are dated. For we are Labour's avant-garde, And we were educated. By tax adjustments we have planned, To institute the promised land. And just to show we're still sincere, We sing 'The Red Flag' once a year. Leon Rosselson - website And here's the man in action: With a massive hat-tip to Walker for blogging this.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Sweet Dreams (Single)

Since Vince Cable's conversion to Marxism and the public sector pay figures being released have put banks and stupid salaries under the spotlight (again), this BBC Magazine story is worth a read.

Here's an extract:

One of those who knows, and found the experience wanting, is Geraint Anderson, 38, who was earning a base salary of £120,000 and a bonus of £500,000 by the time he left investment banking after 12 years in the City.

Anderson, who documented how he became disillusioned with his lifestyle in an anonymous newspaper column and his book Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile, indulged in many of the cliches for which the sector has become notorious.

But he says earning such figures skews one's expectations of what is a normal lifestyle, and ultimately robs high earners of the freedom they believe money will bring.

"It's like a gilded cage," he says.

"They earn huge amounts but they have the massive mortgage, they have the high-maintenance trophy wife, they have the kids at Harrow - then they wake up on their 50th birthday and think, 'What a waste of a life.'

"They get into this culture where their worth is valued by how much they earn, so they work ridiculous hours. I'd rather earn £25,000, have the kids at a local school and not owe anyone anything."

...

Given that in 2009 median gross annual earnings for full-time employees was £21,320, few Britons will have much sympathy for those earning almost five times as much.

...

The average person in the UK spends around £32,000 a year. This is made up of £25,000 on basic expenses (transport, food, clothing etc) and £7,000 on mortgage repayments.

The upshot is that the average household needs a gross salary of about £45,000 just to break even.

- David Kuo, of investment advice website Motley Fool


And the conclusive proof that Vince is now a Marxist, an extract from his speech:

"I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer. There is much public anger about banks and it is well deserved."

You see. He hates Trotsky.

Hang on.

Or was that Lenin that hated Trotsky? So, is Vince a Leninist?

No. It was Stalin who didn't like Trotsky. Vince is a Stalinist.

But Stalin never subscribed to 'Stalinism'. He always said he was Marxist-Leninist.

Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism. Everybody talk about POP MUSIC.

I wonder what the guys, and I bet it is predominantly guys, who earn over £100k are?


Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Sweet Dreams (Single) (FBeat XX19 1981) 320kbps

1. Sweet Dreams
2. Psycho (Live)

Vince is ConDemd - pwd: c4ctusm0uth

Déjà vu

"By July 1975, England was in recession. The unemployment figures for that month were the worst since the Second World War: school-leavers were among the most vulnerable. Not only had output shrunk, but public spending had risen to 45 per cent of the national income, and was threatening to unbalance the whole economy. In November 1975, Chancellor Denis Healey presented a package of public expenditure cuts totalling three billion pounds."

- 'England's Dreaming' by Jon Savage

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - I'm Your Toy (Single)

Indeed I am.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - I'm Your Toy (Single) (FBeat XX21 1982) 320kbps I'm Your Toy (Live) Cry Cry Cry Wondering That's The Back Cover - pwd: c4ctusm0uth