There was once but now there is'nt........they don't contain news and they are not paper.
A few days ago i made certain comments about a certain newspaper,and in grudgingly acknowledging that for a hysterical publication so far to the right,they do sometimes exhibit some quality of journalism.i guess the linked material might illustrate my point,except i can't avoid offering that further opinion that this represents a further twist.i suspect that there will be some shadenfreude at this newspaper at the discomfort this is likely to cause at least some on the left of centre and perhaps even further to the left.
i wonder whether at some point in the past charities did ever run their own charity shops,or whether it has always been the case that capitalist"sharks"moved in from the start or fairly near it,to make such profits from others good will.i am pretty sure that when the Samaritan,in the New Testament story cared for the injured person in the street and left money for that person to be cared for,he did not expect a 3rd party to take a slice of the action/costs/gift as either administrative costs let alone profits.
i am also aware that of all the material "we" donate,a vast amount is disposed of as waste.This might be recycling but it still seems wasteful to me.It seems to me that,for example rather than consigning to recycled waste the many books donated,because of slight damage to covers or notes in the text there are many people out there who would rather have a book of some kind than in pristine condition.I suggest that in these times when the poor are being rendered destitute and students so wighed down by loans that buying a book at say 50p or £1 would be a lot more helpful than seeing it trashed or paying say £5 for one in pristine condition.
And while i am at it,my heart breaks at seeing pictures of the poor,mostly black,in the USA being held back or beaten by police lines whilst unsold food is removed to be destroyed.And here in the UK too government pressure has ended cheap food distribution through food/soup runs to prevent food falling into the wrong hands,except via food banks,which whatever their good intentions can feel or look like it is humiliating.
frankly i would rather that a few who don't need it get to eat something rather than a lot who do need it,should go without.it also seems to me that for many of the agencies like the salvation army,st.mungoes and the simon community who used to do such"runs",it enables them to keep a watchful and caring eye on those who otherwise get little attention.Such services,were they allowed again might prevent those deaths that happenned this winter-where even 1 or 2,is 1 or 2 too many.They might alos bring other sorts of attention to bear on those in need.The alternative seems to be a phoneline.Thats good too but i have not always had that number to hand when i have come across people in need and in the cold.Nor do they neccessarilly have access to numbers or internet to call for themselves.I am sure that such"runs"directly identified those in need,and encouraged such information to be passed on by word of mouth.Somehow"word of mouth"does not get transmitted on the newer media.
It seems to me that there used to be multiple levels and layers to the welfare state,but that now as it all falls apart,it all falls apart and the complex of content is emptied.It really might be the case,that one day we wake up and none of it is there,anymore.Yes,we the working class,the left need to develop new forms but equally we need to defend,rebuild and build anew from what is still in place before it is all turned into what was,and it is gone!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352343/Salvation-Army-millionaire-William-Booth-makes-fortune-donated-clothes.html
d1/200413
Saturday 20 April 2013
If it's Saturday,it must be Kilburn Square
It's Saturday.My brain stumbles out of sleep and tries to grasp what i ought to do today.Decisions,decisions.I half struggle to half remember.
An invitation to hear Jerry Hicks speak,the"rank and file"candidate for the UNITE the Union General Secretaryship in the current election.But then the venue has been changed,and i don't know the new venue-so that is out.I wonder though is there is some kind of sabotage or conspiracy here?A late invitation to a much missed friends birthday party,but i don't know her new address,so that unfortunately is out too.
So its down to one of two then.My TUSC/trades unionist and socialist coalition friends have invited me to a showing of Ken Loach's new documentary,"The Spirit of '45",in Dalston.I know this is important,and I'd like to see the friends who invited me......i can't quite decide.
Then i get a call,and on the spur of the moment i decide to go to Kilburn Square for 1pm.It enables me to pass on the banner of the CSFHC/counihan-sanchez family housing campaign,which we can alo use to mark our patch/pitch by laying it on the pavement,and carry out the commitment i feel to this campaign.
I set off,feeling slightly feeble as i often do these days,as age and health problems take their toll these days but knowing that when i'm active and doing things with friends and comrades those feelings fade if not completely,then into the background.I also know,but am not daunted by the reality that this activity will take me fairly directly not just into"pain with the world",but into the more specific and individual difficulties of some if not all the people we talk to in our leafletting.
That is exactly what happens.I talk to a young man probably in his 20s,who thinks his parents may be victims of the"bedroom tax"and i like to think our conversation and the offer of a draft enquiry/appeal letter might encourage him to check with the parents he is currently resident with.An older man tells me that two of his older woman neighbours are"in the thick"of these anxieties,but he leaves me encouraged and armed with letters for his friends.A black woman comes across the street,sent by a fellow activist who has alerted her to the reality that she too is at the blunt of this essentially silly tax but which has such serious consequences for its victims.She too leaves armed with letters and leaflets,and my comrade is optimistic that we might have another"well placed"recruit to our campaign.I too,hope so.We need more people to do more of the tasks facing us,and as we do more,it is likely that further,greater need will emerge,in turn requiring more people to help each other.
We are joined by more campaigners/supporters,although inevitably some in turn are drawn away by other demands on their time.After a busy time,those of us left"wrap it up"and head to our favourite local cafe,who support our campaign anyway to talk before we too go our separate ways....And in that conversation we find that one of us,is also being victimised by this tax and that he has already had a deduction from benefits,without any notification of this.It distresses me again that someone already in other difficulties is also faced by a procedure which might also be called"institutional abuse"in that it seems to an an innappropriate and abusive application of procedures which are improperly applied.Yet its all functional.....
In the back of my head,is another thought.My primary commitment is to this campaign.I believe in it.And i share with my comrade/friend that,at worst it wil be better to fight,resist and lose,than not to resist at all.My other thought though,is that this echoes and mirrors some aspects of my experience as an adolescent.For by the time i was 15,i was beginning to find things to become active in,and having done so,"we"would all gather in the town square of my hometown on saturday afternoon,to be in each others company,to jst be,to organise,to exchange news.At its height,at its busiest that would include various members and associates of 3 or 4 youth organisations/arts labs,none of them in any way"official"and several political groupings of what might then as now be called the left,and others....none of us ever had the money for tea or coffee,but otherwise it was the same.And i realise what links the two experiences over 40 years apart is the sense of friendship and comradeship,that i realise is pretty central to my life.
Those were the days before the internet and mobile phones.Those new technologies mean that before i even get home,i can "check in"with my other friends about what i have missed,and about the choice i did not make.It also means that i can write about the experience and share it with an immediacy too.
In passing,there is something else in common-that like the adolescent that i was then,i could not bear to miss anything.And thats the case now,i might be 59 now but like when i was 17 i still can't bear to miss anything.I guess that these technologies enable me at least to catch the"echoes"of a second experience or event even if i can't immerse myself in it.And i can always try to pester those friends later too.....
d1/200413
An invitation to hear Jerry Hicks speak,the"rank and file"candidate for the UNITE the Union General Secretaryship in the current election.But then the venue has been changed,and i don't know the new venue-so that is out.I wonder though is there is some kind of sabotage or conspiracy here?A late invitation to a much missed friends birthday party,but i don't know her new address,so that unfortunately is out too.
So its down to one of two then.My TUSC/trades unionist and socialist coalition friends have invited me to a showing of Ken Loach's new documentary,"The Spirit of '45",in Dalston.I know this is important,and I'd like to see the friends who invited me......i can't quite decide.
Then i get a call,and on the spur of the moment i decide to go to Kilburn Square for 1pm.It enables me to pass on the banner of the CSFHC/counihan-sanchez family housing campaign,which we can alo use to mark our patch/pitch by laying it on the pavement,and carry out the commitment i feel to this campaign.
I set off,feeling slightly feeble as i often do these days,as age and health problems take their toll these days but knowing that when i'm active and doing things with friends and comrades those feelings fade if not completely,then into the background.I also know,but am not daunted by the reality that this activity will take me fairly directly not just into"pain with the world",but into the more specific and individual difficulties of some if not all the people we talk to in our leafletting.
That is exactly what happens.I talk to a young man probably in his 20s,who thinks his parents may be victims of the"bedroom tax"and i like to think our conversation and the offer of a draft enquiry/appeal letter might encourage him to check with the parents he is currently resident with.An older man tells me that two of his older woman neighbours are"in the thick"of these anxieties,but he leaves me encouraged and armed with letters for his friends.A black woman comes across the street,sent by a fellow activist who has alerted her to the reality that she too is at the blunt of this essentially silly tax but which has such serious consequences for its victims.She too leaves armed with letters and leaflets,and my comrade is optimistic that we might have another"well placed"recruit to our campaign.I too,hope so.We need more people to do more of the tasks facing us,and as we do more,it is likely that further,greater need will emerge,in turn requiring more people to help each other.
We are joined by more campaigners/supporters,although inevitably some in turn are drawn away by other demands on their time.After a busy time,those of us left"wrap it up"and head to our favourite local cafe,who support our campaign anyway to talk before we too go our separate ways....And in that conversation we find that one of us,is also being victimised by this tax and that he has already had a deduction from benefits,without any notification of this.It distresses me again that someone already in other difficulties is also faced by a procedure which might also be called"institutional abuse"in that it seems to an an innappropriate and abusive application of procedures which are improperly applied.Yet its all functional.....
In the back of my head,is another thought.My primary commitment is to this campaign.I believe in it.And i share with my comrade/friend that,at worst it wil be better to fight,resist and lose,than not to resist at all.My other thought though,is that this echoes and mirrors some aspects of my experience as an adolescent.For by the time i was 15,i was beginning to find things to become active in,and having done so,"we"would all gather in the town square of my hometown on saturday afternoon,to be in each others company,to jst be,to organise,to exchange news.At its height,at its busiest that would include various members and associates of 3 or 4 youth organisations/arts labs,none of them in any way"official"and several political groupings of what might then as now be called the left,and others....none of us ever had the money for tea or coffee,but otherwise it was the same.And i realise what links the two experiences over 40 years apart is the sense of friendship and comradeship,that i realise is pretty central to my life.
Those were the days before the internet and mobile phones.Those new technologies mean that before i even get home,i can "check in"with my other friends about what i have missed,and about the choice i did not make.It also means that i can write about the experience and share it with an immediacy too.
In passing,there is something else in common-that like the adolescent that i was then,i could not bear to miss anything.And thats the case now,i might be 59 now but like when i was 17 i still can't bear to miss anything.I guess that these technologies enable me at least to catch the"echoes"of a second experience or event even if i can't immerse myself in it.And i can always try to pester those friends later too.....
d1/200413
Monday 15 April 2013
More Living With Paradox
When Brent Council shut down 7 out of 12 libraries,i think they subsequently panicked when despite the superficiality of a new attitude to the community,the actual behaviour of the Labour leadership,in my opinion simply demonstrated that they were only capable of lying and obfuscation.Eventually,they put up a lot of wooden panels around the library in Preston(Park).
But it was a 2 edged sword.It provided campaigners with a "wall of shame"where our community indicated the many reasons why we wanted a library here,amongst all the closed libraries(we WANT them ALLre-opened).It was cathartic,a way to articulate pain,loss and rage.......
This idea also came up in a slightly different form during the process of organising the recent SWAN/social work action network-that we should find a way to acknowledge loss through cuts and austerity on the one hand and loss of comrades,in the context of recording our struggles and small but significant victories,including locally the Counihan-Sanchez family being re-instated to benefits and the campaign asserting successfully our right to demonstrate.We set up the walls at conference although i don't know how or if it worked as my attention was largely focussed on other things.I still believe in it as a technique anyway....
Today,some of us,probably all activists in the community across Brent or elsewhere,have been incensed by that same"bunch of clowns"starting a book of condolence for a certain unbearable ex-prime minister.I will say no more,except this:
I was so incensed that i suggested that perhaps we start a book of condolence for our loss of libraries,benefits,housing,services.....having had a couple of people say its a good idea-it seems to that either on the internet or in the real world,we probably SHOULD find a way to acknowledge and record oru losses.It would be cathartic to do so and actually i don't think we have to accept it.The secret might be to work out a way to act on it for real.
Meantime,the family,friends,associates of that unbearable prime minister can get on with what they need to do,but do they really need to involve the rest of us,or for us to pick up the bill.I know that at too many levels the answer is yes because in a class society the dominant ideas must be the ideas of the dominant class and they can't bear or allow us to think or believe anything else.If we do the threaten to pre-arrest us,which itself is an interesting idea(no it is'nt).As far as i'm concerned i want to forget her and her entire class completely;all i and indeed,we need to know is how and why they oppress and destroy our class-simply so that we can bring that kind of system to an end.Then we can finally put them,ideologically on the rubbish pile of history,and frankly write them out of history completely.After all it is no worse than what they have done to the billions that make up our class for several hundred years.This is not vindictive thinking,it is simply historical fact!
But it was a 2 edged sword.It provided campaigners with a "wall of shame"where our community indicated the many reasons why we wanted a library here,amongst all the closed libraries(we WANT them ALLre-opened).It was cathartic,a way to articulate pain,loss and rage.......
This idea also came up in a slightly different form during the process of organising the recent SWAN/social work action network-that we should find a way to acknowledge loss through cuts and austerity on the one hand and loss of comrades,in the context of recording our struggles and small but significant victories,including locally the Counihan-Sanchez family being re-instated to benefits and the campaign asserting successfully our right to demonstrate.We set up the walls at conference although i don't know how or if it worked as my attention was largely focussed on other things.I still believe in it as a technique anyway....
Today,some of us,probably all activists in the community across Brent or elsewhere,have been incensed by that same"bunch of clowns"starting a book of condolence for a certain unbearable ex-prime minister.I will say no more,except this:
I was so incensed that i suggested that perhaps we start a book of condolence for our loss of libraries,benefits,housing,services.....having had a couple of people say its a good idea-it seems to that either on the internet or in the real world,we probably SHOULD find a way to acknowledge and record oru losses.It would be cathartic to do so and actually i don't think we have to accept it.The secret might be to work out a way to act on it for real.
Meantime,the family,friends,associates of that unbearable prime minister can get on with what they need to do,but do they really need to involve the rest of us,or for us to pick up the bill.I know that at too many levels the answer is yes because in a class society the dominant ideas must be the ideas of the dominant class and they can't bear or allow us to think or believe anything else.If we do the threaten to pre-arrest us,which itself is an interesting idea(no it is'nt).As far as i'm concerned i want to forget her and her entire class completely;all i and indeed,we need to know is how and why they oppress and destroy our class-simply so that we can bring that kind of system to an end.Then we can finally put them,ideologically on the rubbish pile of history,and frankly write them out of history completely.After all it is no worse than what they have done to the billions that make up our class for several hundred years.This is not vindictive thinking,it is simply historical fact!
Monday 1 April 2013
"We Have Flame"
Too many weeks ago to remember now was my birthday.A friend sidled up to me and whispered"i have something for you,but it won't be ready until next week!"OK.i was intrigued but did not ask.True to who he is,the next Saturday,when out campaigning together he gave me not just a CD but his CD!......
I said i looked forward to playing it and that i would review it.For various reasons it took me time to get round to playing the recording.Whilst i often have music playing,it is not there just to fill the emptiness.i both listen and put music to use.I have that very CD playing now as i write because its the subject but also because it helps in the writing both rhythmically and in terms of focussing thought.On this ocassion as the recording is the subject i hope i can be sharp and incisive.
I apologise that it has been a long time before i have settled to write about it.That is actually because i wanted to do it properly and thoughtfully and to do it justice.I think my friend and me have the kind of relationship where i can say what i like and what i think but then i don't think he has need to worry.
Getting it as a gift was a surprise,and it is a good gift especially trusting his own work directly into my hands.I like these little jewel cases that open at least partly like a book,although having been part fo that vaguely militant album generation in the days of gatefold covers and sometimes more,and liner notes over expansive"pages"cds even when reproductions/facsimilies of previous vinyl/album recordings are always dissappointing because a lot of the detail is either very small or dissappears completely in re-editing.New material often just does not have what i like to find.
I am talking here about Steve Dobbs aka Crucial Steve aka Emoticon recording "We Have Flame".The spine gives artist and title.Front and back photographs in black and white or reduced from colour,is of interest as its a pine forest with a glow of light which i suppose is the flame.That marks it already of interest to me,reminiscent of a dream i still have occassionally of being in a forest/woodland glade near a fire around which a number of people gather in what appear to be similar to monastic robes....but then that is perhaps another story.
The type face of text of title and tunes is as if from a typewriter.Although liner notes would probably not have answered me,i am intrigued as to why and how the title came about.T.he individual titles are descriptive or enigmatic or not,but there is not adirect enough conection for me yet between titles and the actual pieces so i think i will have to concentrate harder and revisit to review again at some future time,when much more immersed and familiar.Production details indicate this album is from material recorded between 2003 and now,which suggests it includes material he was recording at approximately 16 years old,which is impressive in itself.I could not trace a direct line of development or progression but that is no criticism.It is a pity there is not more information.Perhaps i could contribute to the notes of any re-issue or future similar recordings.
I started wondering about the instrumentation,the more specific dating of pieces,something of the production.this does not suffer from what constitutes the notes on too many compilations,are details of production and copyright that would only be of interest to technicians and corporate lawyers.That said this is not a compilation.Not enough tracklistings contain anything of real interest.
I have not actually started talking about the music yet.So"getting to this"the nub of it....
When i first put it on the CD player it was with 2 other pressings from my collection and i did not pay particular attention to either what i had put on,nor the order.So when music started i registered it as an Eno recording,although it became clear within a minute or two that it was not.That should not be taken as a criticism.If it is imitative of Eno at all,it is only in so far as that for me,Eno was one of the pioneers of this sort of music.If Eno's word ambient means anything,then its applies not only to his own music but to this.Ambient shoudl NOT be taken to mean aural wallpaper.Such music can be highly meditative,all surrounding and evocative for both body and imagination.This music reminds me of dreams,of dreamscape,or deep space,and haunts my thoughts.
as well as notes,these pieces contain pulse rather than rhythm,which is fine by me.i think something that connects with the human heart beat is important in most music and i think is why i find much of the classical tradition so difficult,but that too is another questions another story.......here it seems to be in the electricity too.
some of the pieces are too short for me.some of the piano seems like an excercise rather than at unity with the whole album but then for me liner notes would help to pin reality to imagination in away i would find helpful.Although this is Steve's music,i'm afraid once i have it,it is up to my imagination what it decides to do with it.It certainly feeds my imagination.Whilst i do not require this music,Steve's in particular or this music as a form to paly tricks on me it is one feature of it that i like.Gottschings E2-E4 for example i am almost certain,sets up mental expectations such that my imagination places material into what i hear in away that may not be there.
For now,i will say this.My comments are too short.That said,in any selection of 3 discs on te player at any one time,this is one that stays there for a week or so at a time.It does also haunt me when i'm away from it,although it is not something that mymind can yet replay for me.The recording does take me inside itself-in both an intellectual and emotional challenge.
Whilst i never claim to know people very well,which is a lesson i learned early on from my own profession.i do see us all as works in progress although things about ourselves may or may not be connected.This may be ambient but like some other aspects of Steve i am familiar with,being meticulous does not sacrifice emotion to precision.I do not yet know whether this is material to meditate within,but it does take me to a different mental place.i would be interested in Steve's own view of that too.
That for the moment takes me back to something closer to my starting point-the title,and the image at the edge of a forest glade..."We Have Flame".
I will end with for now,a thank you.i look forward to the next piece.
d3/010413
I said i looked forward to playing it and that i would review it.For various reasons it took me time to get round to playing the recording.Whilst i often have music playing,it is not there just to fill the emptiness.i both listen and put music to use.I have that very CD playing now as i write because its the subject but also because it helps in the writing both rhythmically and in terms of focussing thought.On this ocassion as the recording is the subject i hope i can be sharp and incisive.
I apologise that it has been a long time before i have settled to write about it.That is actually because i wanted to do it properly and thoughtfully and to do it justice.I think my friend and me have the kind of relationship where i can say what i like and what i think but then i don't think he has need to worry.
Getting it as a gift was a surprise,and it is a good gift especially trusting his own work directly into my hands.I like these little jewel cases that open at least partly like a book,although having been part fo that vaguely militant album generation in the days of gatefold covers and sometimes more,and liner notes over expansive"pages"cds even when reproductions/facsimilies of previous vinyl/album recordings are always dissappointing because a lot of the detail is either very small or dissappears completely in re-editing.New material often just does not have what i like to find.
I am talking here about Steve Dobbs aka Crucial Steve aka Emoticon recording "We Have Flame".The spine gives artist and title.Front and back photographs in black and white or reduced from colour,is of interest as its a pine forest with a glow of light which i suppose is the flame.That marks it already of interest to me,reminiscent of a dream i still have occassionally of being in a forest/woodland glade near a fire around which a number of people gather in what appear to be similar to monastic robes....but then that is perhaps another story.
The type face of text of title and tunes is as if from a typewriter.Although liner notes would probably not have answered me,i am intrigued as to why and how the title came about.T.he individual titles are descriptive or enigmatic or not,but there is not adirect enough conection for me yet between titles and the actual pieces so i think i will have to concentrate harder and revisit to review again at some future time,when much more immersed and familiar.Production details indicate this album is from material recorded between 2003 and now,which suggests it includes material he was recording at approximately 16 years old,which is impressive in itself.I could not trace a direct line of development or progression but that is no criticism.It is a pity there is not more information.Perhaps i could contribute to the notes of any re-issue or future similar recordings.
I started wondering about the instrumentation,the more specific dating of pieces,something of the production.this does not suffer from what constitutes the notes on too many compilations,are details of production and copyright that would only be of interest to technicians and corporate lawyers.That said this is not a compilation.Not enough tracklistings contain anything of real interest.
I have not actually started talking about the music yet.So"getting to this"the nub of it....
When i first put it on the CD player it was with 2 other pressings from my collection and i did not pay particular attention to either what i had put on,nor the order.So when music started i registered it as an Eno recording,although it became clear within a minute or two that it was not.That should not be taken as a criticism.If it is imitative of Eno at all,it is only in so far as that for me,Eno was one of the pioneers of this sort of music.If Eno's word ambient means anything,then its applies not only to his own music but to this.Ambient shoudl NOT be taken to mean aural wallpaper.Such music can be highly meditative,all surrounding and evocative for both body and imagination.This music reminds me of dreams,of dreamscape,or deep space,and haunts my thoughts.
as well as notes,these pieces contain pulse rather than rhythm,which is fine by me.i think something that connects with the human heart beat is important in most music and i think is why i find much of the classical tradition so difficult,but that too is another questions another story.......here it seems to be in the electricity too.
some of the pieces are too short for me.some of the piano seems like an excercise rather than at unity with the whole album but then for me liner notes would help to pin reality to imagination in away i would find helpful.Although this is Steve's music,i'm afraid once i have it,it is up to my imagination what it decides to do with it.It certainly feeds my imagination.Whilst i do not require this music,Steve's in particular or this music as a form to paly tricks on me it is one feature of it that i like.Gottschings E2-E4 for example i am almost certain,sets up mental expectations such that my imagination places material into what i hear in away that may not be there.
For now,i will say this.My comments are too short.That said,in any selection of 3 discs on te player at any one time,this is one that stays there for a week or so at a time.It does also haunt me when i'm away from it,although it is not something that mymind can yet replay for me.The recording does take me inside itself-in both an intellectual and emotional challenge.
Whilst i never claim to know people very well,which is a lesson i learned early on from my own profession.i do see us all as works in progress although things about ourselves may or may not be connected.This may be ambient but like some other aspects of Steve i am familiar with,being meticulous does not sacrifice emotion to precision.I do not yet know whether this is material to meditate within,but it does take me to a different mental place.i would be interested in Steve's own view of that too.
That for the moment takes me back to something closer to my starting point-the title,and the image at the edge of a forest glade..."We Have Flame".
I will end with for now,a thank you.i look forward to the next piece.
d3/010413
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