At an EU policy round table in Brussels today, the Hungarian Socialist MEP Edit Herczog brought up an interesting example of the way legislation can have unforeseen and unintended consequences. Herczog referred to an attempt by the Hungarian government in 1984 to reduce beer consumption by increasing the level at which it was taxed. Much to everyone's surprise, beer consumption was not affected by the move, but chocolate consumption fell appreciably. The reason: Many Hungarian men would go to football matches at weekends and have a few beers afterwards; they would also bring home chocolate for their children. When the price of beer went up, they carried on drinking, but stopped bringing home the chocolate! A nice illustration of the need to look beyond simple econometric models when assessing the potential impact of new legislation.
Another new documentary worth a look is 'Our brand is crisis' by Rachel Boynton. She follows the (unsuccesful) 2002 election campaign of former Bolivian President, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, aka Goni. A campaign notable for its use of the services of (Clinton election victory mastermind) James Carville's political consulting firm, Greenberg, Carville and Shrum. A cautionary tale about the difficulties of transplanting US-style democracy to a radically different environment. To read an interview with the director, go to: http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage9.asp
Caught the Roots Manuva show at the Ancienne Belgique here in Brussels last Wednesday. It was an okay show, but nothing more. In fact, the pre- and post-show conversation with Viktor S from Apostate Windbag was much more entertaining and the fruit-flavoured Jenevers we drank in the DNA bar much more powerful.
A couple of times recently, I've misread news headlines to entertaining effect. The first headline, 'Ekow Eshun is new head of ICA', was interpreted by my brain as 'Ekow Eshun is new head of CIA'. Disappointly, of course, the Late Review stalwart was taking over at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, not the Central Intelligence Agency. The idea of Ekow as a spymaster is too surreal for words. The second headline was about the England football team being given an extra week off to prepare for next summer's World Cup in Germany. The article, which featured England midfielder Steven Gerrard's thoughts on the matter, was headed 'Gerrard backs break'. Which I read as 'Gerrard breaks back', clicking through immediately to read the shocking news. News that turned out to be as mundane as a pair of socks. One positive outcome: These entertaining mental lapses do at least suggest that growing old and less sharp does have an upside. I look forward to many more surreal visions to come.
How do you explain this: Driving past an Italian post office at the precise moment an advert for the Italian post office is playing on the radio; Driving past the 'Feel Good' gym at the moment the chorus of an unknown version of Bricusse and Newley's 'Feeling Good' is belting out on the in-car stereo?
For a seasoned business traveller, a trip to Milan sounds fairly run-of-the-mill. But even in such apparently mundane surroundings, things have the capacity to make you do a double take. Walking into the Duomo, Milan's famous cathedral, on Sunday evening I was awestruck by the fervour of the worshippers. When the Cardinal was introduced, he was greeted not by the polite ripple of applause one might expect in such a venerable and tourist-friendly venue. Instead the congregation rose to their feet and proceeded to give him a 30 second standing ovation, complete with whooping and hollering and the waving of hymn sheets above their heads. The second shock was one born of ignorance. Heading to a small village called Momo near Novara in Piedmont, I was amazed to see paddy fields and to learn that, along with wine, rice was the main agri-product of the region. The two combined to great effect in a delicious red wine risotto at Cascina Ciocchetta, the local restaurant where I ate lunch.
To check out a similar archiving project to my own tape library thang, go to: http://www.avistic.demon.co.uk. Webmaster Lorcan offers playlists of selected Peel and Andy Kershaw radio shows broadcast between 1992 and 2001. The site has not been updated since 2001 and there is no annotation, but it's a worthwhile endeavour nonetheless.
1. Bandulu – Song 2. Irresisitible Force – Symphony in E 3. Apache Indian – Arranged marriage 4. Patti Smith – Pumpin' 5. Sylvia Hallett – Moths and tigers 6. Eric Aggiamon – Al mas semyi (?) 7. The Troggs – With a girl like you 8. Captain Beefheart & his magic band – Abba zabba 9. 808 State – Southern Cross 10. Lady G – Certain friends 11. Unidentified Soukous
Side 2 1. Hatfield and the North – Let’s eat real soon 2. Dislocated Hip – K.C. 3. Flight reaction – Warm, golden hours 4. Eden – Do you feel for me? 5. Magazine – About the weather 6. Sulphuric – The acid chamber 7. Truman’s water – habits are spirits 8. Eskimos & Egypt – Fall from grace 9. Wire – Dot dash 10. Danielle Dax – Yummer yummer man
Notes: At the time, Bandulu seemed like the coolest music in the world. Funny how times change! Maybe in another ten years their 'Dub Techno' will be the dog's again, for now it seems best forgotten. The Irresistible Force was one man - Mixmaster Morris. The 'Flying High' album from which Symphony in E is drawn was one of the best pieces of early 90s ambient music - playful as well as somnambulent. Go to sleep with a smile on your face. Apache Indian probably suffered from being a cause celebre of liberal opinion: a British Asian making pop-dancehall records about arranged marriage, the music he made always seemed secondary to the breakthrough he represented. Some great oldies on this tape: 'Safe as milk' era Beefheart, Patti Smith circa 'Radio Babylon' and the mighty Troggs. I've had the pleasure of seeing the latter two live since then, although in very different circumstances: The Troggs at a free feastival in Nottingham in 1997 and Patti Smith last March in a tribute to Arthur Rimbaud at Brussels' Palais des Beaux-Arts. Patti Smith was fabulous, while The Troggs, despite their straightened circumstances, still had plenty of the old swagger. The 808 State track reminds me that I picked up the latest A Guy Called Gerald CD in London last week. It's good without hitting the heights of Voodoo Ray or the awesome Black Secret Technology (The best Jungle album, no question). I don't remember anything about Certain Friends by Lady G, but a little research reveals that it was a piece of Jamaican dancehall that featured on the 'Greensleeves Sampler 7' album. Probably produced by Steely and Clevie. With the TV adaptation of Jonathan Coe's The Rotter's Club having just been aired on BBC2, CDs by Hatfield and the North (who recorded the LP after which the book/series was named) are probably flying out of the shops. Or maybe not. Whatever, Let's eat real soon' is a cute piece of whimsical English prog rock. Very tasty. The Dislocated Hip and Eden tracks were typical examples of the kind of Progressive House that Pete Tong and most other middle class raveheads favoured in 1992/93. Actually, both were good, functional floorfillers, if a little one dimensional. Sulphuric was an alter ego of Kris Needs, the punk scribe turned E-culture DJ. This track was one of the first in the 'acid' (Roland TB303 bassline) revival of 1993 that culminated in Josh Wink's Higher State of Consciousness. Eskimos & Egypt were like The Shamen (post 1988, pre Mr C) with a less finely developed pop sensibility. Perhaps fittingly then they were the support act when I saw Colin Angus and Will Sin at the Hacienda, Manchester on 1990's Synergy tour. Truman's Water were another band I saw live (at Nottingham's Old Angel pub not long after this tape was recorded). Some critics dubbed their complex sound, with its lurches from one tempo to another, "Math rock". Certainly they were about as exciting as a maths lecture. Deservedly consigned to history. Unlike Wire, who, despite never having a sniff of a hit, were a major influence on two of the best British groups of the last decade, Blur (c. 1993-95) and Franz Ferdinand. Dot Dash was a 1978 single. Magazine was another great, but under-appreciated, British post-punk combo. About the Weather is taken from 1981's 'Magic, murder and the weather' LP. For me Queen Goth Danielle Dax will forever be associated with watching Star Test on Channel 4 round my schoolfriend Jules's house in Cardiff in the summer of 1989. Yummer Yummer Man comes from 1988's 'Dark adapted eye' LP. Wonder what DD's doing now? I have no information about Flight Reaction. Can anyone help?
I once appeared on the cover of the Streatham Guardian in the background of an advert for a local Chinese restaurant. Dave, my flatmate, worked for one of the Streatham paper's sister titles and had persuaded me to join him for some free nosh at the aforementioned place. He had been told he just had to take a photo and write up a few words about the restaurant in exchange for them taking an ad in the paper. Unfortunately the owners of the restaurant (Tony and Tang) didn't seem to understand that the bargain included free meals for us, so ten minutes later we found ourselves hungry and wandering the mean streats of Streetham [sic] looking for a chippy. To compound the hurt, a week later, a copy of the Streatham Guardian pops through our letterbox, with the resturant's ad, complete with Dave's photo, occupying the bottom left hand corner of the front page. Bah!
It's Welsh week here in Brussels, with a series of events taking place to tie-in with (patron saint) St. David's Day yesterday. On Sunday, I attended the Welsh Society's annual St. David's Day dinner at Drifter's restaurant on Rue Archimede. I thoroughly enjoyed the leek soup, loin of lamb with laverbread in puff pastry croute, and traditional Welsh honeycake combo I selected. Guest of honour at the event was Rhodri Morgan AM, First Minister of the National Assembly for Wales (the closest thing to a Welsh Prime Minister). I was fortunate enough to be seated opposite him and found him a thoroughly personable man who seemed well-informed on a wide range of topics. Being a politician he also knew how to work the audience's buttons: his well-received speech drew on the lessons of Wales' current success on the rugby field for the nation as a whole, a guaranteed winner with a Welsh crowd. Yesterday, I ventured down to La Tentacion, Brussels' Galician cultural centre (well it is the capital of Europe!), venue for 'Fresh from Wales', an evening of modern Welsh music and culture, including a DJ set from Acid Casuals, a speech from Stuart Cable, the ex-Stereophonics drummer, now a BBC Wales presenter, and a walkthrough of the 'Colin and Cumberland' website (built to accompany an animated series of the same name encouraging people to learn Welsh and Scots and Irish Gaelic). This latter was about as exciting as an Estonian computer systems engineer talking about Profibus. Never mind, the evening as a whole was good fun and gave a pretty accurate flavour of the diversity of Welsh culture today.
Good to see my old mate, Jim Donaghy back on the web. The man who brought you the critically-acclaimed (by The Guardian no less), Black Pele site, has a new venture up-and-running. Aerial Telly is a brilliant, idiosyncratic rant on the state of British TV by a man with too much time on his hands and talent to burn. I first met Jim back in 1992 at Nottingham Trent University when he and fellow coursemate John Duckworth formed a comedy writing partnership that made our student paper, Platform, worth reading. Jim and John were also crucial components of the Reservoir Dogs, Clifton Campus quiz maestros. Arch rivals, The Goodfellas, including the future award-winning XFM DJ Christian O'Connell, never could stomach being second best and second-funniest. Let's hope Jim has the last laugh. He deserves to. http://www.aerialtelly.co.uk/
