Back in Ten

See you in the New Year,folks. Hope everyone has a good holiday.

Don't Mention Harry Webb

Aye, everyone either goes for either the Pogues 'Fairytale of New York' or Noddy Holder shouting and bawling 'Merry Xmas Everybody', but the best Crimbo song bar none has to be this one. Christ, I even like the Spice Girls version

Hat tip to Spiked Candy

Obscurantism Knocks

This is my 300th post to this blog (473, if you were to also include the posts I've started, only to delete), and rather than try and attach any significance to that milestone landmark figure, I will instead just post a link to a quiz that Kara has already done.

I'm not as interesting as Kara, so instead of a quiz solely about myself, I've instead concocted a daft political quiz that intersperses personal political trivia, ultra leftism and an unhealthy interest in 1980s pop culture. I've typecast myself in this role, and nothing short of years of expensive personal therapy and retro electro-convulsive treatment will ever break me from it.

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!

That Reminds Me, I Better Return That Copy Of 'The Anarchist Cookbook' To Brooklyn Public Library

Men in Black asking after the Little Red Book.

Infotainment

Fellow SPGBer, Piers at Border Fever, alerts us to the mid-seventies classic 'Understanding Marx' by Red Shadow (The Economics Rock & Roll Band).

Anybody know anything about Red Shadow? There is too much wit in the lyrics for it to be straight faced. Though, saying that, the mid-seventies was a weird period for lefty politics. How else can you explain the then popularity of the WRP?

For My One Reader In Zagreb

Dobrodošli na stranice WMS-a

Introduction To Socialism 101

Tonight's repeat of Seinfeld carried as good a definition of socialism as I have ever read or heard outside the pages of the Socialist Standard. Trust me, it's sowing the seeds and, with a few more repeats of that episode, I can say with assured confidence that I will see socialism in my lifetime. Kramer and Mickey, take it away lads:

[Street]
KRAMER: Each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

MICKEY: What does that mean?

KRAMER: Well, if you've got needs and abilities that's a pretty good combination.

MICKEY: So what if I want to open up a delicatessen?

KRAMER: There are no delicatessens under Communism.

MICKEY: Why not?

KRAMER: Well, because the meats are divided into a class system. You got Pastrami and Corned Beef in one class and Salami and Bologna in another. That's not right.

MICKEY: So you can't get Corned Beef?

KRAMER: Well, you know, if you're in the Politburo, maybe.

More red propaganda from Seinfeld can be gleaned from this excellent website. MIA better watch out; Looks like there is a new old sheriff in town.

"A Sare Yin."

And no, it's not me. Anybody who knows me, knows that if I were to ever get a tattoo it would be this inscribed on the inside of my eyelids in gothic script.

At the time of posting, Walter Crane was unavailable for comment.

Update

John at A Revolutionary Act has sent me the following link in connection with the above post.

Yep, I would have used the Joe Strummer lyric as well.*

But surely we are all products of . . .

Not as cheeky as that washing powder ad on British TV a few years back that called upon you to Demand The Impeccable,** but just as brazen nonetheless.

Hat tip to Histomat.

*Ask Reidski, he'll sing you the line.

**Ask John, he'll supply you with the reading list from the Kate Sharpley Library.

Blogrolled

Another WSMer with a blog has been added to the sidebar.

That's the easy bit; the hard bit is that it is in Italian and my crash course in learning Italian isn't pencilled in until 2009 (same year Livorno is scheduled to win the Scuddetto). Nevertheless, I want to extend a warm welcome to Movimento Socialista Mondiale, which is written and maintained by a comrade from Milan Verona.

Thought for Today

Where the hell is Hampstead Norris, and why is somewhere from there looking at this blog?

"I would like to thank everyone who has ever met me."

My cheeks are moist . . . and the cheque is in the post.

Arise Ye Blogger From Your Slumber

John at A Revolutionary Act has finally got his *cough* act together in updating his blog in recent days.

Click on the day-glo link for recent - and not so recent - posts on Chavez and the Venezualean Revolution; the Bush Administration's use of "rendition to torture" and a post where he sticks a well aimed boot into Blair and his threadbare claim of a commitment to an open government.

UPDATE

A Revolutionary Act does the hard sell on the cheap commercial tat advertised in the post below. Downloaded thirty thousand times in the space of five months is an impressive figure and, yes, I can say I was there when an ordinary punter recognised its star, Paddy Shannon, just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh one Sunday late last summer. First time I've ever witnessed the bloke speechless in the 15 years I've known him.

Cheap Commercial Tat - What Christmas Is All About

Harry Hacked

Looks like Harry's Place has been hacked. Hope that the site is up again by the time I write this post; otherwise, what else will I have to occupy my time?

Update: Interested parties have just heard the bad news

Step Forward . . .

. . . the crappest example of photoshoppery doing the rounds on the blogsphere at the mo'.

Memo to Self

Need to blog more. At least once a day.

Well, that's today sorted.

Never seen it, cannae comment.

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

From Olive to Marty With Love . . .

Hat tip to Hak Mao

"Blinkmummy Went To London, And All She Brought Me Back Was Some Lousy Left Communist Literature."

Scanning the site meter the other night, I noticed that someone had accessed the blog via Technorati, after typing International Communist Current into the Technorati search engine.

Curious to see who else blogs about Planet ICC, I found this blog post from a Singaporean tourist who, visiting London in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings in London on July 7th, bought a copy of the ICC journal, 'World Revolution', at Camden Market, and decided to mention the event in her blog. Being of a skeptical bent, I was a tad suspicious that it may be a spoof and/or pisstake of the ICC - it happens only because they are such a threat to global capital, and because they represent the genuine revolutionary current amongst the proletariat - but this quote below was a dead giveaway to the authenticity of the piece:

" . . . I saw an elderly couple selling this just outside the station. I wanted to take a picture with the old lady but she refused. This mild-mannered lady then asked me to buy a copy of the paper from her for 75p. She's from the International Communist Current. Then, 少爷 and I decided that we should have beer, while I read the paper. I was trying to make sense of who's exploiting who in this encounter."

The insistence on anonymity on the part of the ICC members; the blog's physical description of those ICC members (they look like everyone's favourite aunt and uncle) and that final scene in the pub when you are drinking a beer, trying to plow through the inpenetrable jargon of ICC-speak and, being a wee bit embarrassed, mumbling to your drinking companion sitting next to you: "Maybe if I get drunk enough, I'll be able to understand it better . . ." (but he's not listening to you, 'cos he's giving himself a headache trying to understand a footnote in the latest issue of Aufheben) all point to the authenticity of the encounter.

I await with baited breath the future two page write up in the ICC press of this historic meeting of Left Communism and the proletariat of the Asian Tiger economies. I'll even get the beers in so that I can properly understand the article.

"Fascinating by five past ten."

Though I'm loathe to admit it - what with my long held opinion that he is a humourless git - Andy Kershaw is probably right when he writes of the inaugural John Peel Day being something that Peel himself would have found "maudlin" and "nostalgia-driven" but sod it, even if only for this one year, we can all indulge in a Peel fest.

Drum roll:

Nice interview in the Telegraph with John Peel's widow, Sheila Ravenscroft, on the complexity of a man most of us thought of as that genial bloke off the radio who had a tendency to play ungenial records.

Today's Guardian carries a piece by Ryan Gilbey about the process undertook to piece together a biography of Peel from fragments of diaries, letters and reminiscinces.

Alister tips us the wink about The Perfumed Garden, an audio blog dedicated to posting Peel Sessions gratis on the net (. . . though truth be known I've not been too impressed so far with the selections); and The Scottish Patient who, as mark of respect to Mr Peel, offers up a wee mini compilation of mp3 tracks that have sprang forth from that place in the East.

But what about a Flowers track, Kev? 'After Dark' should have been included.;-)

Post-It Note From America

I hate it when it's dreich outside. When I get soaking wet, my hair seems to take on a life of its own.

Going Back, Way Back . . . When I Still Used To Mention Politics On This Blog

A meme snaffled from Bertram Online

The title of my twenty-third post was They Are Reprinting Oz Articles In The Pages Of The Socialist Standard, Man!.

The fifth sentence was:

Christ, there was no fifth sentence. There was me kidding myself on that my blog posts of yesteryear were super-sized, and it transpires that I was doing the old 'link to an article', with a wee garnish of self-deprecation on the side, shennanigans even back then. I need to write more blogs under the influence. Everyone says I'm too gobby when I've been scoffing the winegums.

Directions:

• Go into your archive.
• Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
• Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).

Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

I'm passing this meme on to Normski. He can either do his 23rd post ever, or his 23rd post of the day. I'm not fussed. ;-)

A Warm Glow

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant; that musical moment when you discover a new song and you just have to listen to it over and over and over again.

Step forward that song . . . The Fall's Midnight Aspen, off the new album. Absolutely no idea what Smiffy is havering on about, but the music is pure dead class. I told you Hak. It's the tunes everytime.

"Fred, can I borrow forty quid? A man of my stature should be using typepad."

"Marx was definitely a blogger. The Paris manuscripts read just like a blog. (NIck Dyer-Witherford pointed this out to me once). Hegel was a newspaper editor for a while -- back when newspapers were more like blogs than newspapers. Adorno reviewed all the music performed in Frankfurt for who ever would publish him. I think its only graduate school that produces this odd notion that there is some infinite chasm between occasional writing and Big Theory. Even Kant wrote his 'enlightenment' essay for a newspaper competiton.

The Kant thing was pretty damn funny, tho'..."

Hat tip to Fred Stuart.

"For those of you watching in black and white, Hilda is resting behind Dot."

It's either genius or bilge, but who cares? I'm cancelling the subscription to BBC America, and going in search of a secondhand copy of Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.

"Spotty exterior hides a spotty interior."

Fall Quote Generator

Out On A Limb

Apparently I'm the only blogger out there who has Gordon Legge listed as one of their favourite authors on their blogger profile. That either qualifies me as a sad bastard (another four or five authors listed by me also draw a blank), or you tasteless sods out there are missing out.

What do you think?

Rest in Peace, You Old Scrote

Sad news of the death of a comic genuis.

Big Black Smoke

". . . which I actually wrote for my daughter's punk band, and they turned it down"

Everyone's banging on about Bob Dylan at the moment, 'cos of the Scorcese documentary the other night but the best songwriter of the sixties, bar none, is interviewed in today's Guardian on the subject of his new album, moving back to London and dealing with ungrateful children.

I Can't Help Myself

Early morning Orange Juice.

"Maybe it's because Josef K never made a second album?"

I'm taking the fifth on this post from the Scottish Patient.

Insert Larkin Quote Here

I think Alister may have a point.

Repetitive Jukebox - Wednesday Morning Moan

Trying to download some Fall tracks - any tracks - but only discovering this insipid *cough* emo/punk guff instead. Come back Busted - all is forgiven.

A Wee Nugget

Nice quote from Tom Mann spotted on the AWLwebsite:

“Actions that aim only at securing peace between employers and men are not only of no value in the fight for freedom, but are actually a serious hindrance and a menace to the interests of workers. Political and industrial action direct must at all times be inspired by revolutionary principles. That is, the aim must ever be to change from capitalism to socialism as speedily as possible. Anything less than this means continued domination by the capitalist class.”

Tom Mann (1856-1941) quoted by Trevor Griffiths in his screenplay Such Impossibilities about the 1911 Liverpool dock-strike

Reportage

Thanks for the kind comments in response to my previous post announcing that Kara and myself tied the knot last Friday. They are all very much appreciated.

However, I do want to here and now place on record the statement that there is no truth in the scurrilous rumour doing the rounds, that by placing a PDF of the marriage certificate on my blog, that was my none too subtle hint for cards and prezzies to be sent to the address listed on the certificate. As if I could be that shameless.

Kara's posted a piece on the fastest ceremony in history, and we have sold exclusive photo rights of the wedding to an appropriate publication.

An Announcement

For A Rainy Afternoon

Breaking The Chains

Katrina and the Waves

OK, the title of the leaflet makes me cringe - it's on a par with the obituary of Paul Foot entitled 'One Foot in the Grave' - but nonetheless, click on the link to read the World Socialist Party of the United States leaflet on the catastrophe in New Orleans.

Here You

Just popping in to say hello 'cos I'm 34 today. Promise I'll get back to blogging in the fullness of time. Still in the States, still very much in love with Kara, and still telling bad jokes when I'm not ranting about obscure ultra-left politics.

He's a bit special.

The Telegraph Is Required Reading Anyway . . .

. . . but I actually nicked this funny piece from Pooter Geek

Of course he was small beer - or should that be small Pimms? - but I would hate an article on posho post stars to go past without any mention of Chris Dean of The Redskins fame. The fake Yorkshire accent, coupled with the membership of the SWP means that he ticks all the requisite boxes, but unlike the likes of Dido and the rest, The Redskins did put out some absolutely brilliant singles.

"We've had fashion and music, so now throw in some politics as an afterthought."

As Jim bought me a drink last Sunday, the least I can do is give a plug for his political webpage.

From sitting in on the business meeting of the New York Branch of the IWW that same day, it does like that they are doing more than just celebrating their hundredth anniversary this year. Fair play to them.

The Listening Post

Coming out of San Antonio, Texas, Girls In A Coma are my required listening at the moment. The name is a giveaway for The Smiths/Morrissey influence but if you check out songs such as Consider and Their Cell, you will see that they amount to something much more than this year's Echobelly or Gene.

More details and downloads about Girls In A Coma are available at their MySpace Page.

So Hip It Hurts

On the New York subway* the other night, and I think I spotted my first hipster.** Wearing the tattiest jeans and trainers you've ever seen in your life outside of a Lancaster Branch meeting, what sealed the deal for identification purposes was the so hip it hurts haircut and an Adam Ant Friend or Foe T shirt that looked so washed out and old that you just knew that the bloke had to sell a kidney to put a down payment down on buying it outright.

More snotty outsider observations about New York at a later date.

*Similar to the London Underground, only grottier.

**I don't think the person I spotted a few days previously, wearing a Stranglers T shirt, qualifies. Surely that qualifies as a subtle protest against hipsterism?

Bloggers Block

OK, so technically the image is not about the travails of finding stuff to blog about but I thought the image was apt . . . and now that I think about, it is a true depiction of May Day 2000 - that weekend when Winston got his makeover - and when I tried to write a 10,000 word essay in the space of 12 hours.

Of course, I fell on my arse.

Westway In The East Village

This may be my first New York exclusive but going by this mural featured on a wall in the East Village, I'm guessing that Sean Penn is going to be playing Joe Strummer in a forthcoming bio-pic. The suggestion that Mick Jones will be played by Steve Buscemi didn't come from me - right?

Thanks to Kara for taking the pic on her camera phone.