Fortnightly Culture Thread August 22, 2021
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gregtimo proposed in comments recently the idea of a Culture Thread.
It’s a great idea. Currently culture is a bit strange, but people read, listen to music, watch television and film and so on – spread the net wide, sports, activities, interests, all relevant – and any pointers are always welcome. And it’s not just those areas but many more. Suggestions as to new or old things, events that might have been missed, literally anything.
Sunday and other Media Stupid Statements from this week… August 22, 2021
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In the SBP one will read this…
Joe Biden and his administration are now the face of the chaos and terror that reigns in Kabul. What a legacy after 20 years of war, 3,000 US dead and injured troops and trillions of dollars of US taxpayers’ cash.
Even though later in the piece this is admitted: “The truth is that the international community has abandoned the Afghan people to an unimaginable plight.”
In the same paper there is this:
But the dots haven’t been connected by the government: the sound we hear in our music scene is still largely that of silence. What no one can understand is why. Why are people’s livelihoods being ruined? Why are people who rely on the performing arts for their living being ignored? Why are music and arts fans not being considered? Is it a case of bizarre oversight? Is there a sense that members of the arts community are more hippy-dippy, and thus less likely to raise hell the way some in the sports community might? Are they somehow less important at the ballot box?
Or perhaps we’re still in a pandemic with a virulent variant and maintaining interactions at a certain level for a while longer is key to ensuring the lowest level of infection possible, particularly with schools and colleges about to reopen?
One article in the Sunday Independent has this subhead this morning, suggesting that despite everything basic lessons haven’t been learned:
Herd immunity from this virus may be wishful thinking, while the unvaccinated are only a risk to themselves, so it is time we got back to normal.
Does this assertion of ‘fear’ seem even slightly plausible?
Sinn Féin’s repeated calls on Government to produce a Green Paper or set up a constitutional convention or Citizens’ Assembly are further ways to keep the conversation going without Sinn Féin itself having to say anything challenging.
This trick will no long work if or when McDonald’s party enters government in the Republic, certainly if it is the largest partner in a coalition. There is no good reason the trick should work now: as the largest Opposition party, Sinn Féin could easily be pressed to produce its own concrete plans. Instead, it is left to cook up claims of a painless transition, where the UK keeps paying the bills. If other parties fear debunking even that nonsense, there is zero chance of discussing new lyrics for Amhrán na bhFiann.
Does this seem like a massive simplification?
For a long time feminism has been convulsed on the question of other cultures, on whether abuse of women by men in different cultures is a legitimate concern. Stray from your own demographic and you risk imposing white, western values on the maligned and misunderstood.
The plight of women in Afghanistan sheds an unforgiving light on that argument. Respect for “their culture” is vital if done in the context of cultural or religious freedom.
Any other contributions welcome.
Weather conspiracy August 21, 2021
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Once upon a time conspiracy theories were fun – sort of. I used to enjoy reading The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and that sort of stuff in the 1980s – though even at the time that idea that Jesus’s ‘bloodline’ would offer an alternative to the then contemporary political structures seemed unlikely (and yet, in a way the dynamic about that being needed at all has a certain more recent resonance in the aftermath of Trump), and later the stuff about UFOs in the 1990s was entertaining, even though the rise of the militias sort of gave some of them an edge. But in recent times the political weaponisation of many of these and more – not that political weaponisation is new, obviously, has made them a lot less entertaining.
That said I was told earlier in the Summer about someone who’d ‘heard’ that Met Éireann was massaging weather forecasts, presenting the weather as worse than it was in order to dissuade people from going out and massing in various places in order to cut down on social interactions. Plausible? Not very.
This from earlier in the month sort of has a different spin on a similar story. Zoe Williams notes:
…when I went to Broadstairs in Kent and was buying a pint, and trying to decide whether to go back to the beach the next day. It was 7pm and still full sunshine, in a clement, understated way – the best possible version of British weather. The BBC weather app said it was going to break overnight and be cloudy the rest of the week. “I reckon,” said the barman, “the BBC stitches us up. They always say the weather’s going to be bad, and then people don’t come.” “But … is the weather never bad?” “Never. We’re a microclimate.” Every seaside town in the UK thinks it’s a microclimate. That’s not a conspiracy theory, that’s just, I don’t know, Queen Victoria’s fault?
And:
“Do you think they’re doing it on purpose?” I asked. “Definitely.” I tried to get a feel for the corporation’s motive. “They’re all about Devon and Cornwall,” he told me, with absolute assurance. Apparently, the public service broadcaster was deliberately diverting honest British holidaymakers away from, not just Broadstairs, but the whole of Thanet, because the south-west is more fancy.
Doesn’t make a bit of sense but I kind of like the hyper localism of it
This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake from Small Faces August 21, 2021
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I cannot decide whether this album is a work of utter genius or just not. Dating from 1968 it sits at that intriguing point where psychedelic pop and rock meet. Which perhaps accounts for the sheer range of songs and styles on the album. There’s ballads, psychedelic in all incarnations, heavy rock (or as heavy rock as one might find in 1968), and then there’s the second side where the songs are based around a concept which as wiki notes:
is based on an original fairy tale concept about a boy called Happiness Stan, consisting of a musical suite of six songs interlinked with narration provided by comic monologuist and performer Stanley Unwin in his unique, nonsensical private language of “Unwinese”. Unwin was not the band’s first choice for narrator, however – originally they approached the popular but mercurial absurdist comedian Spike Milligan to narrate the piece, but negotiations with Milligan foundered early and the more affable and amenable Unwin stepped in to everyone’s eventual satisfaction. Unwin spent time observing the band at work and at play in the studio, and picking up on the private, coded language they used amongst themselves, he incorporated it alongside contemporary slang into his inventive and surreal narrative.[3]
It’s certainly different, and has that strange sense, so typical of the late 1960s, where many many ideas are thrown in and some work and others, just don’t. Indeed it’s no stretch at all to say that this is an album that would likely not have existed in a world absent the Beatles. But that is to do it a bit of disservice because the songs are very strong and there’s a certainty of purpose about it, a confidence as it were, that makes the idiosyncrasies seem less idiosyncratic.
In fact listening to some arrangements there’s curious resonances with future songs and genres. The eponymous opening instrumental Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake surely is the launchpad for a fair bit of downtempo and big beat. And then there’s a certain Rod Stewart stalking quite a few songs on either side – which is no insult to Ronnie Lane or Steve Marriott, clearly Stewart heard something he liked and ran with it (indeed he was quite the champion of Small Faces it appears). Interesting too how Marriott came from a strongly working class background which makes his adoption of the cockney persona on a number of tracks perhaps take on a different aspect. And one has to suspect Marriott’s propensity for heavy rock also inflected the sheer crunch of some of the numbers. Afterglow is a good example of that or Song of a Baker which reworks Wild Thing’s riff neatly. And there’s the unabashed melodicism of the songs – Rene, Lazy Sunday. It’s all in there.
And that’s before one gets to the concept. But in a way all those approaches listed above are apparent on that side too. You want heavy, check out Rollin’ Over (which it is not unfair to say is related to Foxy Lady). Like a bit of psychedelia, The Hungry Intruder should do the trick. Some folk, try Mad John. And for something a fraction unhinged consider the end of Happy Days Toy Town and the vocals there. It’s too much to suggest that points the way to musical approaches in the 1970s, but it’s not all fun and games.
Fascinating at this remove to see how critically acclaimed it all is but the word I’d use is likeable. It’s sort of a fun album that in its ambition and in how it achieves what it sets out to do makes it a curiously enjoyable experience to listen to.
Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
Lazy Sunday
Song of a Baker
Rollin’ Over
Mad John (Live)
Song of a Baker (Live)
Happy Days Toytown
Typography August 20, 2021
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I bought a book today (Cider Country by James Crowden) and had been much looking forward to digging into it on the train home from Another City. I noticed a typo on the first page — a missing space after a full stop — and smiled inwardly: ah well, that’ll be corrected on the second printing. But there were lots more like that within the first 17 pages before I stopped reading in irritation. Lots of cases of no space after a comma or a full stop, but not uniformly so. I did notice that a full stop followed by a capital A was always closed up: example.And… . This particular x.A thing had been a problem with a booklet we sent out to a design house at work about 20 years ago (set in Gill Sans), and it was a bit of struggle to get it fixed. Today’s reading was not set in Gill Sans, though.
So, when I got home, I looked up the typeface. It’s ITC Garamond LT. The lovely people at http://www.eaglefonts.com allow you to test the typeface with sample text and, whaddya know, the bug is a ‘design feature’. I type This is.<space>An example on their site and back comes This is.An example, stripped of its carefully inserted space.
Reading the book is like listening to a vinyl record with a scratch on it. You can follow the underlying music but the regular interrupting tic…tic…tic… (to a beat different from the music’s) distracts enough from the pleasure to be irritating (unless, of course, part of the pleasure is the fact that the recording is so old or rare that you can hear it at all despite the scratch).
I spend some of my working time dodging arguments that there should be two spaces after a full stop (noooo) and hoping it won’t be noticed that I’ve converted them to single spaces. Now I’ll be able to say one space is a compromise between two and the current hip-to-the-groove trend in publishing of none (sometimes). Or maybe not. (Aside: the publisher is William Collins, part of the Random House Group, whose US Chief Copy Editor tweeted three and a bit years ago: “Literally, by which I mean literally, the first thing I do when I’m given something to copyedit is search-and-exterminate double spaces.”)
I think I’ll go and open a bottle of cider before opening the book again.
SNP-SGP powersharing deal August 20, 2021
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News from Scotland today (thanks to JH), about the SNP and Scottish GP coming to a power sharing agreement.
Nicola Sturgeon’s government has published a draft agreement which will see the SNP and Greens working alongside each other at the Scottish Parliament.
The two parties have agreed to sign an historic formal co-operation deal, meaning MSPs will be expected to collaborate on key areas such as economic development, the environment, and Scottish independence.
If passed, it will mean there is a formal majority of MSPs at Holyrood in favour of independence – which could be crucial in passing legislation for an IndyRef2.
As well:
The Greens have signed up to the bulk of the government’s policy – but there will be 10 areas where they can disagree.
Ms Sturgeon said the agreement was about “doing politics and governance better to find the solutions needed to solve the problems confronting the world today”.
On a future independence referendum, she said the agreement makes it “harder, and indeed impossible, on any democratic basis for a UK government to resist the right of the Scottish people to choose their own future”.
Signs of Hope – A continuing series August 20, 2021
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Gewerkschaftler suggested this recently:
I suggest this blog should have a regular (weekly) slot where people can post happenings at the personal or political level that gives them hope that we’re perhaps not going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as we thought. Or as the phlegmatic Germans put it “hope dies last”.
Any contributions this week?
Constraining choice: reviewing the Eighth Amendment August 20, 2021
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Politicians from a range of parties have said they want to see wider access to free contraception, a removal of the three-day wait to access abortion medication, full decriminalisation and legislation to prohibit protests outside maternity facilities.
Whereas:
A number of anti-abortion TDs have also said that they will push to retain the three-day wait and the 12-week limit of access to terminations on request.
Intriguing that there’s a distinct body of anti-abortion TDs in the Dáil – one could argue that at one point in the not so distant past they constituted the overwhelming majority, or at least portrayed themselves as such. But despite being there – though clearly elected on broader platforms, the question raised is how great their power to influence the legislation.
Wealth check August 20, 2021
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Short piece in the SBP last week that noted that Ireland’s household wealth has risen by €89bn in the last year to €883bn.
Of course this comes hedged with caveats.
Household net worth has grown annually since 2012, but the rise in wealth this year is in contrast to the impact of the pandemic on many households.
On aggregate, households experienced a fall in pay of €2.5 billion in the first quarter when compared to Q1 2020, but there was a €3.9 billion rise in social transfers, such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, and employment subsidies such as the Employer Wage Subsidy Scheme. Households also saw a fall in consumption of €2.9 billion during this period.
“These counteracting movements lessen the impact of unemployment and the fall in pay experienced by household net worth in aggregate,” the Central Bank said.
And:
The latest report indicated that household net worth rose 3.3 per cent, or €28.5 billion, in the first quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter. This equates to €177,493 per capita, though the financial regulator gave the caveat that the measure does not capture the wealth distribution effects across the sector, meaning the underlying experiences of individual households may vary.
The reasons for this increase are manyfold – but household savings with went up by €1.5bn to €7.4bn in just the first three months of this year were driven by lockdowns suppressing expenditures (and what is termed ‘precautionary savings’ too).
What is the impact of these savings going to be once they begin to be spent – or perhaps they already are. There’s an astounding amount of renovations taking place, to take but just one example, around where I live in the north inner city. But again, key to keep in mind this is patchy and doesn’t reflect a tranche of households where people have lost work during the pandemic and are dependent upon transfers.
After you: Dining indoors, gigs, etc… August 19, 2021
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Interesting that a few stories dropped this morning about aspects of the pandemic. First up on RTÉ radio was the music industry, and in truth I’ve a fair bit of sympathy for them, given that PUP payments end sooner rather than later and there’s no sign at all that there’s the health space there for a return to gigs safely. Then again, not sure contributions such as this from SF seeking a ‘road map for reopening’ are very helpful: “Sinn Féin spokesperson on social protection, Claire Kerrane…said live entertainment remains the only industry that is closed fully.” There’s a reason for that, and it’s an obvious one. Better by far to shape responses that would support those working there until it is genuinely safe to do so – and/or continue with safer formatted open air gigs. And pointing north to gigs in NI only takes us so far when one also reads that ” Northern Ireland had the highest rate of infection across the UK and Ireland”.
The basic problem is no-one can be certain such plans could be adhered to. They may be, but they may not. Then there was the restaurant industry simultaneously saying they always adhere to health and safety while offering a plan where (and as ever someone in health quoted who is willing to push back against current restrictions despite the broader consensus on the issue):
…vaccine certificates be removed due to high levels of vaccination in the general public.
In a document sent to Fáilte Ireland, the association also said that all social distancing requirements should be removed, which they claimed result in a capacity loss of 40 per cent.
Could this because numbers in pubs and restaurants are still remarkably low. Talking to friends who were back from abroad and who went around Dublin the last two weeks they said it was obvious in most places people weren’t going indoors. And I saw this myself last week while out one evening in the city centre having some food outside (first time in the city centre like that in eighteen odd months). Quite a lot of people about but few venturing indoors to sit. Of course some places will be different but no wonder the restaurants and pubs are trying to overturn restrictions. Problem is that if people don’t want to go in today with vaccine passports they sure won’t want to go in next week without them in play.
Which made this from the IT somewhat beside the point where it tried to paint a picture where the government has released itself somewhat from the shackles of public health advice, where we are meant to be ‘in a different phase’. All very well, but if the situation continues to be so serious – as it is – that we are treated to articles by the same journalists suggesting that:
The peak of the current Covid-19 wave is expected to come later than anticipated, senior officials have been told, raising concerns over the reopening of the live entertainment sector and deepening a Coalition row over the matter.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan on Wednesday told a group of officials and political aides that he was “concerned” by the pandemic scenario at present.
The officials were told the current wave was likely to peak later than originally thought, perhaps not until next month, with an associated impact on the healthcare system anticipated.
Which brings me to the last point of the piece here. That as was put to me this week by a comrade – it really is beyond time there was a clear steer by the government on what the impacts of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 people in ICU with Covid means for the rest of the health service in terms of services, procedures and other issues foregone in other areas. Because outlining that tangible impact would go a long way to making people realise the continuing reality of Covid and the need for certain restrictions to continue until we can get the fullest possible spread of vaccination.
