According to a report on the Flemish news wire, Belga, those racist arseholes, Vlaams Belang are set to transmit the first broadcast of their radio show, ZwartofVit (Black or White) next weekend. And from where will they be sending the signal? The U-fucking-K! As a British citizen I am appalled. What can we do about this? Complain to Ofcom, the communications regulator, for a start: contact@ofcom.org.uk
Here the text of the news report in full:
Vlaams Belang stelt radioprogramma vanuit buitenland uit
Het Vlaams Belang heeft de eerste uitzending van zijn radioprogramma ZwartofWit vanuit het buitenland uitgesteld. Volgende week zou worden uitgezonden vanuit Groot-Brittannië. De partij was van plan om vanuit het Duitse Jülich via de digitale korte golf het programma ZwartofWit VB6015 uit te zenden. De plannen gingen dit weekend echter niet door. Volgens Vlaams parlementslid en presentator Jurgen Verstrepen is het radiosignaal in Engeland beter en wordt volgend weekend van daaruit uitgezonden. (Belga)
The Brussels weather couldn't dampen the crowd's enthusiasm at the One Love Sunday reggae festival at Recyclart earlier this evening. Despite a lovely warm day rapidly giving way to heavy rain and a cold wind, a couple of hundred people hung on in there to see a short, but memorable set from Omar Perry and Deep Culcha. Perry, son of Lee 'Scratch', has lived in Brussels since 1999, where he and his band have developed a powerful brand of roots reggae, owing more to Peter Tosh than Perry senior. A debut album is due out later this year. Hopefully that will also help the Brussels reggae scene get the recognition it deserves. Sure, it's hardly on a par with Kingston or London, but there are some fine groups here (Univibes for one) and the atmosphere at every show I've seen - from Linton Kwesi Johnson to local toaster, African Teacher - has been excellent.
According to this recent forum post, Matty Hanson from Credit to the Nation is making music again with a rock/metal band called Backup. That's good to hear: CttN made some great records in '93 and '94. If the new music's anywhere near the level of tracks such as 'Teenage Sensation', 'Enough is Enough', 'Hear no bullshit, see no bullshit, say no bullshit' and the Nirvana-sampling 'Call it what you want', it will be a welcome return.
The Jazz Marathon is one of my favourite annual events here in Brussels. This year, I was particularly impressed by a young Belgian four-piece (guitar, bass, drums and sax) called Qu4tre. They warmed up the laid-back Grand Place crowd with a deft fusion of indie rock and free jazz. The band have recorded two CDs, it says here. I wonder how well the music translates to the studio?
While pondering whether the word 'role' should have a circumflex or not (personally, I'm all for it), I found an interesting entry on the subject at answers.com, reproduced below:
In English the circumflex, like other diacriticals, is sometimes retained on loanwords that used it in the original language; for example, rôle. In Britain in the eighteenth century, which was before the cheap penny post and a era in which paper was taxed, the circumflex was used in postal letters to save room in an analogy with the French use. Specifically, the letters "ugh" were replaced when they were silent in the most common words, e.g., "thô" for "though", "thorô" for "thorough", and "brôt" for "brought" - a precursor of the ways in which trendy young people nowadays abbreviate text messages. This could have led to spelling simplification, but did not.
The bit that's really fascinating is the stuff about its use as a shorthand in letters. The resemblance to SMS is uncanny. Now, of course, diacritics are rapidly being shed from words, even at the expense of sense or correct pronunciation, their shorthand rôle being assumed by emoticons. For an interesting hypothesis on the future development of the English language click here.
Somehow, without asking, I have been added to the mailing list of the Canadian ministry of foreign affairs. Once or twice a week, therefore, I find myself deleting an email detailing (Foreign Affairs Minister) Pierre Pettigrew's response to the situation in Darfur, announcing an official visit to Canada by a member of the Dutch royal family, and so on. One press release I received a few days ago made me pause for a moment, however. It revealed that Canada is donating C$2 million to something called the International Fund for Ireland (IFI). This fund was set-up by the British and Irish governments in 1986 to tap up countries with large Irish immigrant communities (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) for cash to promote 'reconciliation and economic development' in Northern Ireland. Now, admittedly, the six counties need a dose of both, but it's pretty sharp work by the UK and Ireland, hardly the poorest nations in the world, to persuade these other wealthy states to give them a handout. I guess one part of the rationale behind the IFI is that it offers an alternative to Noraid for those among the Irish communities of the four supporter nations who wish to give something back to their roots. And I'm sure it plays well with their constituents for politicians such as Canadian MP Pat O'Brien to support the fund. But still, Canada giving money to the UK?!?
Watching the Ukrainian entry on the Eurovision Song Contest last night was a salutary reminder that revolutionary music doesn't have to be good. The song, 'Razom Nas Bahato, Nas Ne Podolaty!' ('Together we are many, we can't be defeated!') was the anthem of last year's Orange Revolution. And, quite frankly, it totally sucks. Even the Eurovision audience, not known for its sophisticated musical taste (cf. the last 50 years of the competition), gave this dross a resounding thumbs down. Hipsters (myself included) often talk about the revolutionary potential of music and imagine a song so good, so motivating that it will totally change our lives. Usually this fantasy coalesces around a piece by an agit-prop group such as The Clash (e.g. 'White Riot') or The Redskins "('Kick over the statues'), or by a singer-songwriter such as Dylan, Billy Bragg, and so on. In fact, the history books show that successful revolutions are as frequently soundtracked by dross or cheap nationalism as by works of great merit. Think back to Berlin, 1989. What are the people of East Germany singing as the wall falls: David Hasselhoff's execrable 'Looking for Freedom'. Or reconsider Estonia's 'Singing Revolution' of 1988-1991, where hundreds of thousands of Estonians gathered to sing patriotic anthems and demand independence from the Soviet Union. Go back as far as the Belgian revolution of 1830, which kicked off during a performance of Daniel Auber's "sentimental and patriotic" opera, 'La Muette de Portici', and again the cognoscenti shudder at the crassness of it all. The Happy Tutor envisages a new US revolution beginning with mass performances of 'This land is my land'. Maybe a Diane Warren power ballad would be a better choice? I vote for 'If I could turn back time'.
The show trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the impending completion of the Triumph-Palace in Moscow, at 264 m Europe's tallest building, are uncomfortable signs of a neo-Stalinist tendency now abroad in Russia. AFP's Sebastian Smith highlights the new sensibility here.
If you are super rich and you've ever wanted to own a house designed by one of the giants of Art Nouveau, Victor Horta, now is your chance. Walking past the window of the estate agents at the end of my street, I was surprised to see a 'for sale' notice concerning one of Horta's properties in Brussels: Recently renovated, 1,000 square metres, private parking. The price is not listed, but expect to shell out several million euros or more. Let's hope that whoever buys the property is wise enough to open it up for public viewing: it would be mean not to share.
A rocking night with The Rakes at le Botanique. Playing in the Witloof Bar on the final night of the annual les nuits Botaniques festival, the up-and-coming London four-piece, currently making waves with the excellent single, 'Retreat', treated a small but enthusiastic crowd to an adrenaline-charged set. Taking to the stage after the competent-but-a-little-dull Arker (imagine a French-speaking Billy Corgan fronting musos who want to sound like the 2nd Strokes CD and you have some idea of what they are about), The Rakes quickly built up a head of steam with their taught, sinuous new wave/post-punk/mod revival-influenced rock. Despite wearing their influences on their sleeves (the words 'The Buzzcocks' handwritten on a sticker on a speaker; frontman Alan Donohoe dancing like Ian Curtis), the band manage to join those reference points together in a way that feels fresh, the sarky first single, '22 grand job', being a case in point. That was one of the highlights of a high-octane performance, the best part of which was the stage invasion by a group of the group's teen fans during 'Strasbourg' (the second single). Great to see that kind of reaction. And great to see the band happily mingling with their audience after the show. Judging by the consistently high-quality of tonight's set, the debut album, due in August, could be one of the best of 2005.
Saw a great presentation on the world economy by Prof. Andrea Boltho in Hamburg on Friday. The Sicilian professor, a Fellow and tutor at Magdelen College, University of Oxford, brought what can be a dry and dusty topic brilliantly to life. Horace wrote that the purpose of comedy is "To tell the truth laughing". Well, the whole audience was roaring at Prof. Boltho's assertion that, "For the English, the euro is the work of the devil: if you touch it, you get plague, pestilence and AIDS." Someone should commission this guy to present a mainstream TV series on economics, it would be great viewing.
Side 1 1. Apollo 440 – Destiny 2. Nightmares on Wax – A case of funk 3. Swans – Song for dead time 4. Lydia Lunch – Spooky 5. Frankie Knuckles – The whistle song 6. Solo – Rainbow 7. Manic Street Preachers – Stay beautiful 8. The Times – Lundi Bleu 9. Utah Saints – What can you do for me? 10. Eon – Fear (The mind killer) 11. Pixies – Palace of the brine
Side 2 1. Ramleh – Black Moby Dick 2. Red Shift – Showdown 3. Tim Buckley – Morning Glory 4. Pixies – Subba cultcha 5. Altern 8 – Infiltrate 202 6. The Tinklers – Trees like to rot in the forest 7. Where’s the beach – Primeval goddess 8. Junior Cat – Boomshot 9. N-Joi – Anthem 10. Acid (man)
Notes: Did I really here Lydia Lunch's 'Spooky'on 'Match of the Day' the other day? Entirely possible. Lot of cheesy hardcore rave on this tape. Well it was the summer of '91. I would have been down Tom Tom's in Cardiff of a Saturday night, or talking with JLC in the Lion about our impending trip to Universe (the first one, by Junction 18 of the M4). Happy memories. Of the rest, the Ramleh track stands out in my mind: percussive guitars, the power of repitition. Shimmydisc's The Tinklers were another curious proposition. Faux-naif, but charming nonetheless. I think the Happy Flowers were funnier though.
"Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. [Democracy] must be a product of internal domestic development in a society." I am the only person who sees in this warning from Putin to Dubya a twisted echo of the dispute between Trotsky and Lenin re: International Socialism? History repeating as tragedy and farce. No laughing matter.
The best new band I have seen live in the last 12 months was Maskesmachine from Antwerp, who played as part of the 'Boterhammen in de stad'('Sandwiches in the city") festival in Brussels last August. The group (3 women and a man) combines electronic beats with 'folk'instruments such as the ukelele, accordion and contrabass, all topped off with bundles of energy and a quirky sense of humour. If the lyrics (all in Flemish) are double Dutch to you, the music and sheer joie de vivre of the band can still entrance. Sonically, they are perhaps closest to The Raincoats circa 'Odyshape', no bad thing at all. Looking at their website earlier, it seems there is no immediate sign of a follow-up to 2004's excellent mini-album, Plaktang. When it comes it should be worth the wait.
Having finally installed a hit counter on my site, I thought I should make a shameless bid for traffic by inserting search terms such as "Britney Spears genuine nude pics", "Prince Charles fellatio", and "Madonna, Guy Ritchie orgy" into my articles. Now that's what I call sticky content! Actually, the idea for this came from a conversation in the pub last night with Viktor S of Apostate Windbag, who explained that hits to his site went through the roof after he used the title "Swedish dirty bum sex" for a post about evil preacher Fred Phelps' (Westboro Baptist Church), who claimed that the Asian tsunami was a punishment from God for Swedish degeneracy for having 'embraced sodomy'.
One of Sweden's most infamous sons, bankrobber (and former journalist) Clark Olofsson has been freed from jail in Denmark where he served seven years of a 14 year sentence for drug smuggling. Olofsson, now known as Daniel Demuynck, is set to rejoin his wife and family in Belgium. Demuynck/Olofsson gained notoriety for his role in the 1973 Norrmalmstorg bank siege in the Swedish capital, in response to which the term 'Stockholm Syndrome' was coined to describe the process by which hostages identify with and defend their captors. Olofsson is one of those interesting figures who are notorious in their own country, yet virtually unheard of elsewhere. A web search for the terms, Olofsson "Daniel Demuynck" brought up more than 100 responses in Swedish, three dozen in Danish, but none in English, French, Dutch or German. Putting "Clark Olofsson" into Google brings up about sixty English pages, almost all dedicated to explaining the origins of 'Stockholm Syndrome'. A couple of the better ones are this Reuters Health story from a couple of years ago and this Wikipedia entry. For those of you who can read Swedish, here is a story on Demuynck/Olofsson's release from jail. According to this later report, he has a contract with a Belgian publisher for his autobiography.
I'm a recent convert to the joys of buying music downloads. What I really like is the ability to purchase individual album tracks and therefore create your own, ideal compilations. This evening, for instance, I have plucked various gems from the early career of the (later execrable) Simple Minds to create a CD dubbed 'Before they were shit' (A title that could be applied to so many bands - I smell a series coming on). The full tracklisting (should you give a flying fuck) is:
Life in a day Chelsea girl Premonition Factory Changeling I travel Celebrate 30 frames a second Theme for great cities The American Sweat in bullet Careful in career Love song New gold dream Glittering prize Hunter and the hunted Someone somewhere in summertime Promised you a miracle Up on the catwalk.
A bureaucratic blunder has deprived me of the opportunity to vote in today's British general election: My postal ballot has not arrived. (Thank you Lambeth or La Poste, whoever is to blame). I'm not fool enough to think that putting an X in a box once every few years gives you much of a say in how your country is run, but for most of us, it is as much of an influence as we ever have over the goings on in the corridors of power. To therefore lose that right is pretty bloody maddening to say the least! If the result goes the wrong way I'll be even more pissed off.
Discovered at the weekend that I narrowly missed seeing The Libertines live in London sometime in 2001. It seems that while my friends and I were drinking in the Fox Tavern, West Kensington, waiting for a mate's band to come on stage, Pete Doherty and (erstwhile) chums were belting out a cracking set upstairs at the Club West Onefour. While missing seeing what is probably a legendary gig is understandable (who would go out of their way to see the bottom of the bill at a sketchy indie night?), it remains galling!
Good luck to Jad Madi and associates who are working on a photo project to be housed by Jordanian blog aggregator, Jordan Planet. Part of the project, 'Jordan in their eyes', will consist of photos of the country taken by non-Jordanians.
For people working in trade journalism in the UK, one of the ultimate accolades is to have your magazine featured in the guest publication slot on'Have I got news for you', the BBC's long-running satirical news quiz. It was therefore a great honour to see 'Tissue World', a publication that I edited from January 2004 until its recent acquisition by CMP Asia, on last Friday's show. Guessing the missing words is a lot easier when you've written the headlines!
