The Cedar Lounge Revolution

‘Forced inclusivity’? September 30, 2017

I was amused – in a way – at some of the complaints over the latest entry to the Star Trek canon – that being ST:Discovery. But the one that stuck in my mind – echoing thoughts articulated net wide – argued that the trailer which featured – shock, horror, a woman of colour and an Asian woman and an alien, and just one white male, in its first couple of minutes was an example of ‘forced inclusivity’ which apparently was so so different to the ‘inclusivity’ of Gene Rodenberry.

And you know, it struck me that no doubt some one could have made the same argument in 1968 when Uhura first appeared on the bridge of the Enterprise along with Sulu (and in a way, Pavel Chekov) – for no doubt the tender sensibilities of some in the United States would find that at that point (in a time of bussing etc) very much ‘forced inclusivity’.

To miss that salient fact is to miss much about ST as a cultural artefact. Indeed Discovery seems to slot neatly into the broad legacy of ST in that regard and it is good, albeit perhaps a tad reductive given that this is yet another look at the earlier history of the Federation, to have a window open on the ST universe from a slightly different angle – that being what fiction and one would hope science fiction is all about, and secondly the show will stand or fall on whether it is any good and so far… well, so good, at least to judge from the reviews.

Indeed my only quibbles are yet another redesign of the Klingons and the idea that Sonequa Martin-Green’s character is meant to be an adopted sister to Spock. Now that’s messing with the canon but if they can do it right… I’ll live with it (and before getting too precious, the genuinely appalling Star Trek V: The Final Frontier introduced as from nowhere Spock’s never before heard of older brother so there is precedent). And entirely correct ST as a franchise to do the right thing by its female characters in particular – great to see the excellent Michelle Yeoh, though Voyager, of which I have grown increasingly fond over the years, had its ups as well as downs.

Albums banned in Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s? September 30, 2017

I was recently involved in an event where someone suggested that the Sex Pistols “Never Mind the Bollocks” was banned in Ireland in the 1970s. Can anyone say if that was accurate, and if so for how long? I seem to recall buying it early in the 1980s. I also wonder were there other albums banned in Ireland in the 1960s on through until…when?

‘Borrowing’ £2.27m… the perils of music management September 30, 2017

From the Guardian…

Rock group Deep Purple’s former accountant has been banned as a company director for misappropriating at least £2m from two entities controlling their catalogue of hits.

And;

The newspaper said the high court granted a £4m freezing order against the assets of Rao and his wife, Anvita. It said Rao admitted “borrowing” or “lending” at least £2.27m of the companies’ money, and that the Deep Purple companies had recovered about £477,000 so far.

This is such a typical story that it is almost beyond comment. But it’s hardly surprising, is it? A lot of groups start out with little or no financial acumen. They are often very young and their focus is on the musical rather than business side. Small wonder that they are prey for those who would

It’s a bit different for groups further down the road. It’s almost surprising that Deep Purple would have been caught this way given that they are in their 60s and 70s. And yet, again where is the surprise? Hugely, often deliberately, complex financial negotiations int elation to licensing, merchandise, sales and so forth are part and parcel of such businesses. It requires some dedication to keep on top of that.

That said the other side is those who do misappropriate, or ‘borrow’ in the quaint explanation above. Surely they’re well paid enough as it is, or is the simple truth that for some there’s never enough money?

This Weekend I’ll Be Listening… to just stuff I’ve been playing a lot recently. September 30, 2017

Mostly from this year or last with one or two older pieces. Let’s start with something Irish…

Slow Place Like Home – When I see You…Ice Cream
Their latest single, also on their soon to be released latest album. One of the finest Irish acts around.

Endless Boogie – Back in ’74
I’ve mixed feelings about Endless Boogie, I always enjoy listening to their albums, three or four now by my reckoning, but I wonder if they wouldn’t profit from releasing them less frequently and with fewer tracks because while when they hit they hit, sometimes they sound a bit samey. And yet perhaps that’s the point, the clue being in the name. This is a fantastic song.

Brian Jonestown Massacre – Open Minds Now Close
It really is time there was a This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to BJM. And this from the latest album, Don’t Get Lost, is pretty brilliant.

Beroshima – Hexaline (Hiroshi Watanabe Remix)
Lovely stuff from a year or so back – Frank Muller of Beroshima and a fine remix.

Extol – Open the Gates
This is bizarre, been reading some histories of heavy metal over the Summer and chasing down some obscure paths. Not the least of which is ‘white metal’, that is avowedly Christian metal (and let’s not even get started on Catholic Metal). Most of it ain’t great, some is okay and some is just bizarre. How about this for a collision between industrial, thrash and a very very famous 1970s group!

Nitemoves – Veaquis
No idea at all who Nitemoves is except for a Tycho link and other than that he offers a sort of post-Boards of Canada style of electronica infused on occasion with a jazzy and dancey undertow.

The Comet is Coming – Start Running
Jazz, electronica, funk and psychedelic rock – well, that’s what they say themselves. Pretty great.

All India Radio (feat Selena Cross) – Can You hear the Sound
Martin Kennedy’s Australian outfit at its most ethereal on the album The Slow Light from which this track with vocals by Selena Cross is taken.

Arch Enemy – War Eternal
This is played a fair bit around my place – not least because it is hugely popular with one member of the collective, not least for the fact of female vocals. It’s odd, I’ve this huge blank spot in my musical tastes when it comes to intertwined guitars – always remind me of Thin Lizzy, who while I really liked always had a slightly fussy sound I thought. And I hear it here I do. Still, cracking track.

Ex Eye – Xenolith; The Anvil
As noted above I’ve been listening to a lot of other metal in recent times (expect Celtic Frost and Trouble This Weekend’s… soon. I kid you not. You’ll thank me someday) – and this sits clearly on the boundaries of same – indeed go to their band camp page and you’ll read they’re black metal prog rock, no less. Cool. Now read the comments on Youtube and you’ll see a lot of moaning about the sax, but… er… none of them heard Hawkwind obviously. Hawkwind with Lemmy no less.

The Veldt – One Day Out Of Life
Unfairly unheralded pioneers of 1990s US shoe gaze, and African American too, the Veldt returned this year with a very enjoyable range of tracks on their The Shocking Fuzz Of Your Electric Fur EP.

Weeknight – Tonight
Somewhere, some part of music will always be post-punk/goth/Joy Division style. And here’s Weekend to ensure that that remains so.

Slowdive – Sugar for the Pill
Rachel Goswell’s vocals are low in the mix, those of Neil Halstead upped, is it me or does this sound remarkably like China Crisis?

I, Synthesist – The Lost Parade
I, Synthesist, US based solo artist, is sort of tied to an early 1980s near-Thomas Dolby/futurist groove, at least on this track (his later releases from the turn of the 2010s are oddly closer to Underworld). But there’s something in the mix of throwaway woozy vocals and never more melodic choruses that sort of work.

Paul Draper – Don’t You Wait It Might Never Come
Speaking of tied to sounds – Paul Draper of Mansun released a couple of EPs this last while (as well as producing and co-writing the pretty fine The Anchoress album). It’s not a million miles away from his comfort zone, which is a good thing.

Audionom – Europa
There’s a weird pop/industrial/post-punk/krautrock… well, scene is too grand a name for it, in Sweden which three groups across a decade or so managed to pull together, these being Citizen Bird, then 120 Days and finally Audionom. All three had a skewed pop sensibility. This I like from an album released a couple of years ago is described as ‘Europa, however, is an anarchist European protest song’. Very good so.

Commemoration event to mark centenary of U-boat attacks SATURDAY September 29, 2017

SS Hare / SS Adela commemoration event is tomorrow , Saturday 30th September . Assembling at 12.30 pm at the Sean O’Casey bridge (Custom House Quay), to start at 1pm sharp !

This is an important commemoration , remembering the 36 seafarers who lost their lives in separate U-boat attacks on Dublin Port vessels. The SS Hare (‘Larkins food ship’) was lost as it traveled from Manchester , while the SS Adela was struck as it travelled to Liverpool . Over half of those who lost their lives were from the Dockland communities North and South of the Liffey.

For further details see the face book event page :

https://www.facebook.com/events/146566162606424/

See also the excellent video promotio here :

Part of the commemoration event tomorrow will be the launch of a booklet and exhibition at the Clayton Hotel , immediately after the plaque unveiling.

See the East Wall community website for a sneak peek at one of the sections , the story of Christopher Wolfe , a North Dock seafarer who lost his life aboard the SS Adela.

http://eastwallforall.ie/?p=3755

A liberal future? September 29, 2017

Janan Ganesh of the FT writes in the IT about how British society (and by extension others) has and continues to liberalise. The British Social Attitudes survey, referenced here already points to significant shifts across the years in relation to religion (53% of Britons profess none – 71% of 18-24year olds likewise), lgbt rights, sex before marriage and so on.

And he argues that:

There is a lesson here for liberals. At the level of electoral politics it can seem that their cause, and the Enlightenment itself, are under serious threat from the forces of reaction. At the deeper level of demographic change the threat is a paper tiger. The vote for Brexit and the subsequent year-long victory lap are as good as things will get for traditional conservatives in their lifetimes. The smarter among them know they are living through a blip, not the start of a new settlement. They have stolen a battle towards the end of a losing war.

Notable – in a way – is how even far-right entities and parties soft-pedal on social liberalism. Where once they would have put across profoundly reactionary approaches many now (I think here of the larger continental parties) profess their adherence to lgbt rights etc quite happily. However cosmetic that is it does speak of shifts that will continue into the future.

And Ganesh suggests that:

There was an elegiac feel to the Europe referendum even at the time: old people voting more as a final act of defiance against social change than in serious hope of restoring the slow, ordered and, yes, religious nation of their youth. Demographics will not allow conservatives to move Britain even a little bit in that traditional direction after Brexit. If anything their challenge is to hold the line against an eventual return to European Union membership as these voters die and the ideological centre of the country creeps if not to the left or to the right then to what is now disparaged as the metropolitan.

I don’t find that an implausible map of the future though I wonder if once out the UK will find it more difficult to return fully. I suspect we could see the UK in EEA/EFTA if it doesn’t arrive there in the interim as it departs the EU.

And there’s a good point in the following:

Those who have suddenly soured on Rees-Mogg deserve no pity. They were happy to buy into him as a curio from the past until he turned out to have the corresponding views. They might take politics more seriously next time. For now the minority status of his views does not prove them wrong. It certainly does not make them illegitimate. But they are being eclipsed by the mere passage of time, without his critics having to do anything.

There was always a silly season aspect about Jacob Rees-Mogg’s supposed popularity over the Summer and mention as the next Tory leader – a popularity scuppered by his articulation of a staunchly anti-abortion line which encompassed no lee-way for those who had been raped and antagonism to same sex marriage. Truth is Rees-Mogg is a reactionary. Ganesh makes an interesting point that his seeming authenticity – part of the reason some fixed on him as a future Tory leader – ran into the buffers of the actuality of that authenticity. As Ganesh says, they might take politics more seriously next time.

Of course the problem is not liberalism, or not liberalism as such. It is rather that liberalism can allow for deeply problematic economic structures. Or to put it another way, liberalism is not enough, not nearly enough. Ganesh is right, difficult to turn back the clock on many social issues. Perhaps impossible, though if the future, one of resource depletion and climate change turns really nasty I’d be less complacent. But on economic issues?

Throwing shapes? September 29, 2017

Is this real or is this for the optics?

Serious Budget divisions have emerged between Government Ministers after the Independent Alliance failed to secure commitments on a number of their key demands.
Discussions yesterday between the Alliance and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe lasted less than an hour and were described as “tense” and “difficult”.

One can see how both sides would want to accentuate the differences in the run up so that both can point to ‘wins’ on their respective financial acumen but nonetheless it does point up that this isn’t just about FF/FG. And yet can anyone see the IA Ministers walking at this point? Too soon I’d have said. Now next year…

Posters, Meetings and Hunger Strike September 29, 2017

It’s been quite a week in the lead up to Saturdays March For Choice. Posters up, Posters down, meetings called, venues cancelling,meetings moved, false posters and a “Hunger Strike”. I was waiting for the claims that George Soros himself was seen taking down Pro Life Meeting posters.
The Committee hearings started during the week ,with leaks that we may not get to actually vote to Repeal but instead the vote would be to Replace. Hard to know how Replace would get on, The Pro Life side would be against it, what about those that want Repeal, would they campaign against it?
There was of course the visit of the Ladies who were due to speak at the Pro Life Meeting in the IFSC. Who was pictured with the ladies, expressing concern for rape victims, only Captain Compassion himself, Cardinal Connells right hand man Rónán Mullen.
Already I see ads on my Facebook feed telling me that Josef Mengele was an Abortionist. What in the name of God is it going to be like in 6 months time if / when we get to vote on this!!
Incidentally a nuumber of people have made the point about how Facebook ads can be SIPO wise unregulated. This Referendum has the potential to get an awful lot of foreign money trying to influence the vote.

This Week At Irish Election Literature September 29, 2017

From 1997 a leaflet from the IRSP calling for the Convening of a Broad Republican Forum to openly debate “The Politics Of The Peace Process”

From 2000 the Programme for the 16th National Conference of Young Fine Gael. Lots of familiar faces including An Taoiseach there.

A leaflet from Social Democrats Councillor Gary Gannon titled #WEARE with a variety of ways “We Are…”.

From the 1954 General Election a leaflet from Declan Costello of Fine Gael running Dublin North West.

FF and The SDLP to Merge? September 28, 2017

According to The BBC

The SDLP is involved in an “extensive internal engagement” about its future and the BBC understands that a merger with Fianna Fáil is back on the table.

Former Fianna Fáil minister Dr Jim McDaid said a merger should happen “sooner rather than later”.
He claimed that the move would help rebuild the “middle ground” and would give the Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin a strong foothold north of the border.

Interesting too that

But some within the party believe that Brexit is a “game-changer”.
Former councillor Thomas Conway from Claudy in County Londonderry supported the move when it was first raised 15 years ago, but he said there is still resistance within the party.

The Brexit dynamic being that both parties wanting representation both sides of the border.
A bit of a blow for Labour here too if it happens as I gather they help out the SDLP in elections and Vice Versa. It also brings the prospect of The UK Labour Party standing again in The North (although they had unofficial candidates at the last Assembly Elections)
I do think FF not being an All Ireland Party is a weakness for them with regard to Sinn Fein and of course Brexit. The talk also shows how difficult it must be to get a Party off the ground, even one as long established as Fianna Fail.
The Merger /Alliance “FFDP” or “SDFF” ?