Friday, December 26, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Dynasties, they keep on going
The United States may have terminated its loyalty to the British throne in 1776 but the hereditary principle is alive and well in the superpower.
The election of Barack Obama was not a rejection of dynastic politics. Yes, Democrats choose a first-term senator over a former First Lady, and Obama capitalised on widespread scorn for the second President Bush.
But a quick glance at senatorial intrigue shows that royalty continues to exist in the US, even if it is the rank that dares not speak its name.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of JFK, has declared she wants the Senate seat Hillary Clinton will vacate when she takes up her new job as Obama’s Secretary of State.
Her much-respected uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, has undergone surgery for a malignant brain tumour, yet he may live to see his niece enter Congress.
She would be following in the footsteps of Bobby Kennedy, her assassinated uncle, whose memory as a foe of the Mafia and a zealous convert to the cause of civil rights burns bright in Democrat lore.
New York Governor David Patterson – who struck a blow for diversity by being the first black man to win the role – will appoint a senator who will later face a special election.
Winning the state is notoriously difficult. How do you appeal to one of the world’s most diverse super-cities while securing the votes of the many rural dwellers in the remainder of the state?
Further, the son of towering former governor Mario Cuomo, Andrew, is also widely believed to hunger for the seat in the Senate. He is already New York’s Attorney General and was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet. With some imagination he could make a case to be the spiritual heir to Bobby Kennedy; he is unlikely to do so, however, as he was previously married to Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of Bobby’s 11 children.
As a sub-plot, President Bush’s brother, Jeb, is understood to want to represent Florida in the Senate in 2010.
A central theme in Oliver Stone’s lively Bush biopic, W., is that Jeb and not George Jr., is the son who has the presidential skills which should have propelled him to the White House.
He was a popular two-term Florida governor who knew the Republican party would wither unless it could reach beyond its white and generally Protestant base. In his own life he has converted to Catholicism and married Mexican-born Columba Garnica Gallo.
Young Republicans are already excited by the couple’s fluent and photogenic son, George P Bush. Dynasties, by their nature, are self-perpetuating phenomena.
The election of Barack Obama was not a rejection of dynastic politics. Yes, Democrats choose a first-term senator over a former First Lady, and Obama capitalised on widespread scorn for the second President Bush.
But a quick glance at senatorial intrigue shows that royalty continues to exist in the US, even if it is the rank that dares not speak its name.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of JFK, has declared she wants the Senate seat Hillary Clinton will vacate when she takes up her new job as Obama’s Secretary of State.
Her much-respected uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, has undergone surgery for a malignant brain tumour, yet he may live to see his niece enter Congress.
She would be following in the footsteps of Bobby Kennedy, her assassinated uncle, whose memory as a foe of the Mafia and a zealous convert to the cause of civil rights burns bright in Democrat lore.
New York Governor David Patterson – who struck a blow for diversity by being the first black man to win the role – will appoint a senator who will later face a special election.
Winning the state is notoriously difficult. How do you appeal to one of the world’s most diverse super-cities while securing the votes of the many rural dwellers in the remainder of the state?
Further, the son of towering former governor Mario Cuomo, Andrew, is also widely believed to hunger for the seat in the Senate. He is already New York’s Attorney General and was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet. With some imagination he could make a case to be the spiritual heir to Bobby Kennedy; he is unlikely to do so, however, as he was previously married to Kerry Kennedy, the seventh of Bobby’s 11 children.
As a sub-plot, President Bush’s brother, Jeb, is understood to want to represent Florida in the Senate in 2010.
A central theme in Oliver Stone’s lively Bush biopic, W., is that Jeb and not George Jr., is the son who has the presidential skills which should have propelled him to the White House.
He was a popular two-term Florida governor who knew the Republican party would wither unless it could reach beyond its white and generally Protestant base. In his own life he has converted to Catholicism and married Mexican-born Columba Garnica Gallo.
Young Republicans are already excited by the couple’s fluent and photogenic son, George P Bush. Dynasties, by their nature, are self-perpetuating phenomena.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
If It Be Your Will
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
Leonard Cohen
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
Leonard Cohen
Friday, December 12, 2008
Bootleg Stories
It is now an instant sign of ageing to talk nostalgically about the days before MP3s and the easy buying and swapping of music on the internet.
But not only has the rise of downloaded music dealt an anvil-blow to the selling of CDs, it has also hastened the demise of one of the world’s most romantic forms of contraband.
I remember seeing a bootleg cassette tape of U2 tracks for sale on a Dublin bridge and feeling the sense of astonishment that earlier generations must have experienced at the sight of a holy relic.
The residents of Venice are still mightily proud of how a band of adventurers stole the body of St Mark from Alexandria. The heist is commemorated in fabulous mosaics across the facade of the watery city’s most famous cathedral.
A less hazardous but still intriguing journey had taken place with the music.
Somebody had either obtained U2’s master tapes or covertly recorded a concert and then manually produced copies of the cassettes which were now sitting for sale in an open suitcase.
These tapes had unique artwork of varying levels of professionalism; some were bona fide labours of love while others were cheap attempts to extract cash from American tourists who paced the city looking for Bono. The sound quality of one of these recordings could vary wildly, but sometimes a true gem might be discovered.
When this happened, just as rumours of gold in Californian canyons reached the ears of farmhands in County Mayo, fans would begin a search for the fabled track.
Sometimes a recording could be of greater excellence than many of the officially released songs.
Bob Dylan devotees will tell you that this is often the case with their hero. In fact, the Minnesotan troubadour has taken to releasing rare numbers in a self-styled “bootleg series”.
Fans are still fascinated to hear new work, but the internet is awash with MP3s of every concert a major band performs – the thrill of the quest is gone.
Yet what is emerging is a new phenomenon with the promise of equal excitement.
Talented people with simple computers are now able to remix records and create vivid reinterpretations of songs; cinema aficionados are even re-editing films.
This is not a new phenomenon but the latest manifestation of the exciting human instinct to creatively meddle.
Scholars look at Shakespeare and study for signs of later amendments. The creative process – as best demonstrated in the oral tradition which preserved legends despite the ravages of wars and plague – can extend beyond a person’s lifetime.
All of us are carrying values, stories, passions and ideas, and remixing them in the daily churn of life in Wales. Despite the traumas of social transformation and economic uncertainty, there’s music in the madness and great stories begin with each new squawking baby’s birth.
But not only has the rise of downloaded music dealt an anvil-blow to the selling of CDs, it has also hastened the demise of one of the world’s most romantic forms of contraband.
I remember seeing a bootleg cassette tape of U2 tracks for sale on a Dublin bridge and feeling the sense of astonishment that earlier generations must have experienced at the sight of a holy relic.
The residents of Venice are still mightily proud of how a band of adventurers stole the body of St Mark from Alexandria. The heist is commemorated in fabulous mosaics across the facade of the watery city’s most famous cathedral.
A less hazardous but still intriguing journey had taken place with the music.
Somebody had either obtained U2’s master tapes or covertly recorded a concert and then manually produced copies of the cassettes which were now sitting for sale in an open suitcase.
These tapes had unique artwork of varying levels of professionalism; some were bona fide labours of love while others were cheap attempts to extract cash from American tourists who paced the city looking for Bono. The sound quality of one of these recordings could vary wildly, but sometimes a true gem might be discovered.
When this happened, just as rumours of gold in Californian canyons reached the ears of farmhands in County Mayo, fans would begin a search for the fabled track.
Sometimes a recording could be of greater excellence than many of the officially released songs.
Bob Dylan devotees will tell you that this is often the case with their hero. In fact, the Minnesotan troubadour has taken to releasing rare numbers in a self-styled “bootleg series”.
Fans are still fascinated to hear new work, but the internet is awash with MP3s of every concert a major band performs – the thrill of the quest is gone.
Yet what is emerging is a new phenomenon with the promise of equal excitement.
Talented people with simple computers are now able to remix records and create vivid reinterpretations of songs; cinema aficionados are even re-editing films.
This is not a new phenomenon but the latest manifestation of the exciting human instinct to creatively meddle.
Scholars look at Shakespeare and study for signs of later amendments. The creative process – as best demonstrated in the oral tradition which preserved legends despite the ravages of wars and plague – can extend beyond a person’s lifetime.
All of us are carrying values, stories, passions and ideas, and remixing them in the daily churn of life in Wales. Despite the traumas of social transformation and economic uncertainty, there’s music in the madness and great stories begin with each new squawking baby’s birth.
Monday, December 08, 2008
You've (not) Been Framed
"I went to electric razors so I would not have to look at myself in the morning."
Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo on his refusal to sit for an official portrait.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Thursday, December 04, 2008
The Storm after the Calm after the Storm
The detonation of the banking sector brought about by the credit crunch has been tantamount to a revolution.
But the greatest transformations in society may come if voters refuse to allow politicians to repair the shattered jigsaw and demand a very different future.
Once any institution becomes associated with negligence and greed the stain is almost impossible to remove.
The true legacy of the economic crisis may not be the emptying of Treasury funds and the decapitation of bank chiefs but the ideas that will circulate in the wake of this scandal.
Aneurin Bevan was able to launch the NHS and build a million homes in the aftermath of World War II. In the calm after the most terrible of storms there was a readiness to think the unthinkable.
The televised horrors of the Vietnam War and the scandal of Watergate stripped the American political establishment of moral authority and emboldened protestors to push for a liberal transformation of society.
Captains of world finance, who once enjoyed the title of “masters of the universe” are now discredited. The politicians who appeared beholden to their pronouncements may still be in the House of Commons but they stand accused of gullibility.
A political class which accepted the argument that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq also failed to heed warnings that the coming crunch would herald catastrophe.
The stage is set for a new generation of Bevans to step forward with a vision of social justice relevant to an utterly interdependent world threatened by violent extremism and ecological disaster – but where is the cast?
Barack Obama’s top team seem picked to revive the pragmatic politics of the Clinton era rather than pursue a demolition of the status quo. British politics, unlike other European legislatures has remained remarkably immune to incursions by Greens and radicals of other persuasions.
Britain’s Left has not found a home in Westminster but many academics and campaigning charities remain committed to ideas which have been out of fashion in politics for three decades.
Critics of globalisation have built a following on university campuses. Writers such as Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Naomi Klein line bookshelves.
These authors have provided a provocative and entertaining read. The events of recent months will have convinced many intelligent people that their diagnoses of crises in our society were at least partly right.
Men and women who thought it was barmy to give a mortgage to someone with no job and no income have been vindicated. Radicals may feel sufficiently confident to abandon hibernation and escape the cloisters in favour of political engagement.
However, the true hope is not for a new Left-Right confrontation but clear-sighted leadership. Just as Bevan saw the need for a health service and houses, this bankrupt planet needs a rescue package.
Folly has been exposed; now, there is a once in a generation opportunity to build.
But the greatest transformations in society may come if voters refuse to allow politicians to repair the shattered jigsaw and demand a very different future.
Once any institution becomes associated with negligence and greed the stain is almost impossible to remove.
The true legacy of the economic crisis may not be the emptying of Treasury funds and the decapitation of bank chiefs but the ideas that will circulate in the wake of this scandal.
Aneurin Bevan was able to launch the NHS and build a million homes in the aftermath of World War II. In the calm after the most terrible of storms there was a readiness to think the unthinkable.
The televised horrors of the Vietnam War and the scandal of Watergate stripped the American political establishment of moral authority and emboldened protestors to push for a liberal transformation of society.
Captains of world finance, who once enjoyed the title of “masters of the universe” are now discredited. The politicians who appeared beholden to their pronouncements may still be in the House of Commons but they stand accused of gullibility.
A political class which accepted the argument that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq also failed to heed warnings that the coming crunch would herald catastrophe.
The stage is set for a new generation of Bevans to step forward with a vision of social justice relevant to an utterly interdependent world threatened by violent extremism and ecological disaster – but where is the cast?
Barack Obama’s top team seem picked to revive the pragmatic politics of the Clinton era rather than pursue a demolition of the status quo. British politics, unlike other European legislatures has remained remarkably immune to incursions by Greens and radicals of other persuasions.
Britain’s Left has not found a home in Westminster but many academics and campaigning charities remain committed to ideas which have been out of fashion in politics for three decades.
Critics of globalisation have built a following on university campuses. Writers such as Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Naomi Klein line bookshelves.
These authors have provided a provocative and entertaining read. The events of recent months will have convinced many intelligent people that their diagnoses of crises in our society were at least partly right.
Men and women who thought it was barmy to give a mortgage to someone with no job and no income have been vindicated. Radicals may feel sufficiently confident to abandon hibernation and escape the cloisters in favour of political engagement.
However, the true hope is not for a new Left-Right confrontation but clear-sighted leadership. Just as Bevan saw the need for a health service and houses, this bankrupt planet needs a rescue package.
Folly has been exposed; now, there is a once in a generation opportunity to build.
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