.
Reality TV
The TV dance show thing is interesting, to say the least. In the first place, what's with the 'Strictly'? Obviously a reference to a crap 90's film called 'Strictly Ballroom' - but who cares? And now the whole silly TV phenomenon is known by practically everyone as "Strictly". It's silly because it manages to turn a very skilled and challenging activity - dancing - into a freak show cum peep show cum comedy show cum camp bitchfest.
Who watches? Every single age group, it seems. My 96 year old aunt thinks it's 'lovely'. For her it represents continuity and a link to the past. She has fond memories of years spent tuning in to the BBC to watch "Come Dancing" - a staple of my own family's viewing back in the monochrome years - when we had only one TV in the house, which we all huddled round in the winter, next to the coal fire. Impossible to escape to the bedroom in those days - too damned cold.
Aunt also has fond memories of our national treasure, the sainted Brucie, hosting popular 'family' shows such as 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium', with his stupid catch phrases and his dancing and his comedic schtick. How wonderful that Brucie is still with us, still doing his stuff. Not.
At the other end of the age spectrum there are teens and sub-teens who get off on the gorgeousness of the professional women dancers, the chance to check out the legs of popular celebs, and the attractiveness of certain of the male dancers. A family show indeed. There are saddoes all down the age range who love to letch at the participants, laugh at the bitchiness or nastiness of the judges, revel in the 'competition' aspect, and groan at Brucie.
And then there are the freaks. Thank you John Sergeant, Anne Widdicombe and others for providing such great entertainment. At least it's not the X Factor. At least they're not serious - they don't really believe they're amazingly talented and possess star quality. They aren't there to demonstrate their prowess as dancers. They do it simply to show that they can. Media whores will appear on anything - just as long as they're on the telly. Being famous and being a celebrity are serious occupations, it seems.
Thank goodness there are a few worthwhile 'reality' shows on TV. Gok Wan, Jamie Oliver and Gareth Malone have done some very interesting and worthwhile things. Jonathan Freedland wrote about them this week:
The success of The Choir's military wives suggests we're losing our taste for malice TV
No pantomime villain judges. And no losers. In the age of austerity we want shows that lift us up, not put us down
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/20/the-choir-military-wives-reality-tv
We've been told endlessly how shallow and materialistic, trivial and celebrity-obsessed, our society has become. It's another source of gloom, along with everything else life has thrown at us this year: earthquakes, war and scandal – all under a darkening sky of economic crisis. But this is the season when we try to focus on . . . causes for optimism, among them some small signs that our culture does not only elevate consumerism, cheap fame and a lust for riches, but other values too. And those signs can be found in the unlikeliest places, including the heart of crassness itself – reality television.
The military wives whose record is selling so fast are themselves a product of reality TV, the BBC series The Choir. The programme could not be more different from The X Factor. It is slow and gentle in style, but that's not the key difference to be celebrated.
Choirmaster Gareth Malone transforms a few dozen women on a Devon military base into a group able to sing together in beautiful harmony.
The months of rehearsal together turned them into something else. They started meeting at each other's houses, having informal rehearsals. They became bound together by the shared pressure to perform, whether at the local town or, eventually, at the homecoming ceremony for their returning men. "We feel like sisters now, helping each other out," reported one.
Unlike The X Factor or its imitators, The Choir is not a competition: the only prize is a sense of camaraderie and communal connectedness, a prize everybody wins.
The choirmaster never tells anyone they cannot sing. The result is not just a sense of solidarity that was previously missing but a boost to individual self-esteem. One woman after another tells their young instructor that they have found a confidence through singing that they had lacked before – that at last they had done something in which they could take pride.
In an earlier programme, Malone . . . took a gaggle of young men, who previously thought they could do nothing with aplomb except drink, and turned them into a tenor section. There, as on the military base, he took what were fractured groups and turned them into a community – and gave them a voice.
Malone's earnest belief in music and its power to transform, his patience with volunteers who have never sung a note, and their clear, expressed gratitude to him for changing their lives, is impossible to fake.
In among the rough of reality TV and the like, it's good to know there are diamonds like Malone – but he's not the only one. Gok Wan with his how-to-dress shows is in a similar business, taking women who have lost all self-belief and pushing them to see themselves in a new, more generous light. There are no withering one-liners, no pantomime villain judges, no losers – and no prize but an injection of confidence.
The pioneer of this sub-genre of reality TV, aimed at lifting up rather than putting down, may well have been Jamie Oliver. The Jamie's Kitchen series in 2002 followed the chef as he trained 15 disadvantaged young people, with the lure of a job in his new restaurant. He followed it with similar ventures, persuading both school drop-outs and school dinner ladies that they could raise their sights.
It would be cheery to see a trend here, with Malone's chart victory over Cowell presaging an era in which nice prevails over nasty, when the joy of collective solidarity edges out the cult of the narcissistic individual. Such a trend might even be a function of the age of austerity: after all, when there's so much real pain all around, who wants to see fake malice on TV?
But even if it reveals no such wider phenomenon, the military wives – freed at last to express through music the pain and yearning they had long held within – and their success, along with the man who made it possible, are something to celebrate. And in these straitened times, we need all the causes for celebration we can find.
........................................
Real Lives
The problem with all of this is that it's putting sticking plaster on people who are already injured and damaged. How did they get that way in the first place? Why do so many people in our society have such low self esteem? Why have they never before taken part in activities that promote solidarity and collaboration? Why do they have such low expectations, low skill levels, low self-confidence? Why have they never sung, danced, played an instrument in a band, cooked well, dressed with confidence, etc? How did they become so inhibited, so overweight, so withdrawn, so apathetic, so unhappy? Why is our society so bad at raising people who are self-actualised, who fulfil their potential?
The people who take part in Malone's programmes invariably thank him for 'changing their lives'. The point is - why do their lives need changing? Why does our society produce so many people whose lives are unfulfilled, unproductive and uncreative? What's wrong with our ways of bringing up children that produces such people? What's wrong with our system of education?
Check out the previous blog, and Mehdi Hasan's column. Start thinking about how we might educate our young people so that they grow up with a personal voice, the habit of creativity, and the habit of reading for pleasure and learning for its own sake. Start thinking about our need to have a national conversation about personal intelligence, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, physical intelligence, instinctual intelligence and spiritual intelligence. Start thinking about our worship of test and exam results and 'the intellect' - and the impact of such worship on underachievement in every other aspect of our lives and our learning.
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Showing posts with label Gok Wan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gok Wan. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Layer 239 . . . Political Porn, Souls Laid Bare, and All That Jazz
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This weekend has been a high water mark for desperate over-stressed middle-aged male politicians flashing their naked emotions in front of TV cameras.
It was hard to tear one's eyes away from a gasping Alastair Campbell welling up with barely suppressed emotions to the point of choked silence for what seems like almost a minute in the company of Andrew Marr and viewers on live TV this morning.*
To make it more like a proper porn show we should have had viewers phoning in their own questions in an attempt to get Ally C to expose even more of his private "bits". If he has problems with the mild questions and comments of a pretty non-threatening Marrtian then imagine how much more we would get from him coming into contact (even virtual contact) with proper panting punters who long to see what's really concealed beneath the sharp suit and the professional scowl.
Marr's questioning, of course, was not about Ally's new 'novel', the promotion of which was the reason for allowing Marr this opportunity to undress him a little. No - it was about Iraq, Ally's appearance in front of Chilcott and Co, and Blair's continuing denial that he deliberately lied to and misled Parliament.
We should nail this question right now. Ally sees, quite rightly, that Blair is not a LIAR. To be a liar you have to know that what you're saying is untrue.
What psychopathic liars do is convince themselves that the stuff that comes out of their mouths is true, or at least not factually incorrect, as far as they care to see. Not that they care to delve too deeply into what they actually want to believe, and what they want their listeners or victims to believe.
An example of this would be Hitler actually believing that the Jews were responsible for all of Germany's ills. And also believing that the Final Solution was the correct one. ("I did what I thought was right.")
(Incidentally, I wonder what level of collateral damage Blair would have considered acceptable in Iraq. 100,000 killed, injured and made homeless? One million? 2 million? 6 million?)
Did Ally also believe in WMD and the 45 minutes? Does he still? This is hardly the point. He simply believes that his pal Tony believed it. And Tony was not, therefore, a liar.
Does Ally then see, especially with hindsight, that Tone is/was a psychopath?**
Again, it's beside the point. Nobody's asking him that question, and no-one's likely to. And there's no way he'd answer it honestly if they did.
............................................................
I once had the ill-fortune to sit and listen to Blair whilst he made a speech. It's the dead eyes that give it away. Dead in the sense of not being able to connect in any proper empathetic sense with other people. Dead as in unable to really look and observe properly. His eyes function only in the service of his own ego and his own ambitions.
It's a bit like the Terminator - a robot who knows he's a robot, whose relentless existence is only for the purpose of carrying out its mission, which is twofold: to survive and prosper, and to defeat its enemies.
There's nothing wrong with its logic circuits - they're probably better, faster and stronger than any actual human - by far. What it lacks, of course, is a beating, emotional heart, a genuine concern for others, and a spirit capable of feeling either transcendental joy and bliss, or genuine sadness and melancholy.
Joy is presumably what Ally feels when Burnley FC occasionally win a match. (Why else carry on going to their matches?) And as of today, let no-one say that he has no feelings or emotions; or call him Mr Angry or Mr Terminator. The more subtle and sincere feelings may be unusually well hidden, on the whole, but they're in there somewhere.
...................................................
As indeed they are in Gordon Brown, who appears to have broken down and cried on camera whilst recording a programme this week.
...................................................
*
See the relevant part of the interview on video, and read more about it, and about Gordo, here -
Alastair Campbell in emotional defence of Blair on Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8502730.stm
.........................................................
**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopath
Also important to have on record Clare Short's efforts to put the record straight last week
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8501087.stm
Clare was on Question Time last week, alongside George Galloway, Charlie ('Lord') Falconer, Melanie Phillips, and the makeweight, Teresa May.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/8500549.stm
This Question Time, from Coventry, was one of the best ever. Short and Galloway, especially now they're unconstrained by party allegiances, are genuine loose cannons, not afraid to speak truth to power. See it here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn443#segments
.................................................................
The Virtual Revolution
Another episode of this excellent series on TV last night.
How 20 Years of the Web has Reshaped our Lives
Good talking heads - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Al Gore, Stephen Fry, etc.
http://alekskrotoski.com/
Al Gore said, "The web is capable of supporting a rising political consciousness. It will have a more profound effect on civilisation than the invention of the printing press."
Others said,
* The web tends to lead naturally to openness
* It's impossible for any one government to either police or control the web
* The web allows China's masses to give shape and direction to their spontaneous energy
* The web is "Against the Machine"
* Paypal is one of the means by which barriers between people can be broken down
*The web enables you to contact the kind of people you have something in common with, and people you can learn from.
................................................................
Biddles @ Biddles
One of the essentials for a really good live music venue is that it's situated within easy walking distance of home so that you can stroll there after consuming a couple of whiskies, a pint, and a glass of wine with dinner, and still roll home afterwards after drinking more wine, preferably after paying no more than a reasonable £3.20 for a decent glass of house red.
On top of that, if you can get a seat right next to the band, with a clear view of how the keyboard player is playing his Hammond XK3 - which drawbars he's using, etc - then you might find yourself in jazz heaven.
Of course it depends on the quality of the band. The Biddle Brothers Band playing at the bar of the same name were excellent last night. Not perfect, but very good indeed. Well done Biddles for bringing them back, and for continuing to run such a funky venue, late license and all . . .
http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2008/11/29/claptons-community-pubs/
In a way it reminds me of nights at the Mercer's Arms back in the day, sipping pints whilst listening to great bands like the original Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, up close and personal. That was also the beginning of my love for blues and jazz played on the Hammond B3 with a Lesley cabinet amp - standing just feet away from guys like Wynder K Frog as they worked the keyboard, creating amazing soul-gripping sounds from keys and drawbars. Keith Emerson - when he was still with The Nice. 'America'!
Oh yes! - and Brian Auger (with Julia Driscoll) - Season of the Witch. Unforgettable.
Here's an interesting little musical history -
http://deanocity3.piczo.com/coventrysgigconcertguide1960-85?cr=5&linkvar=000044
There's only one mention of the Mercer's Arms though. Strange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillfields
Rod Stewart used to sing with Brian Auger's 'Steampacket', along with Julie Driscoll and Long John Baldry: they once played the Hotel Leofric jazz club in Broadgate.
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/coventry-evening-telegraph-england/mi_7969/is_2006_Nov_7/cov-rod-40-years-entertainment/ai_n34409181/
....................................................................
Jazz
Johnny Dankworth RIP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/07/sir-john-dankworth-obituary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dankworth
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/7180882/Sir-John-Dankworth.html
..............................................................
Desert Island Discs
Gok Wan this week. The wonderful Gok. I hadn't realised what an amazing life story he has, and that he's a lad from the Midlands.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qg0r2/Desert_Island_Discs_Gok_Wan/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok_Wan
He has good taste in music too - Tracey Chapman, Lou Reed, Brian Ferry . . . In fact two songs by the wonderful Ms Chapman.
"It definitely wasn't because I was talented", said Gok, very amusingly, when pondering why he'd been given a place at a school of speech and drama.
And he was another male who this weekend cracked up with emotion - whilst remembering and reflecting on what it felt like to look fat, and to feel ugly.
.
This weekend has been a high water mark for desperate over-stressed middle-aged male politicians flashing their naked emotions in front of TV cameras.
It was hard to tear one's eyes away from a gasping Alastair Campbell welling up with barely suppressed emotions to the point of choked silence for what seems like almost a minute in the company of Andrew Marr and viewers on live TV this morning.*
To make it more like a proper porn show we should have had viewers phoning in their own questions in an attempt to get Ally C to expose even more of his private "bits". If he has problems with the mild questions and comments of a pretty non-threatening Marrtian then imagine how much more we would get from him coming into contact (even virtual contact) with proper panting punters who long to see what's really concealed beneath the sharp suit and the professional scowl.
Marr's questioning, of course, was not about Ally's new 'novel', the promotion of which was the reason for allowing Marr this opportunity to undress him a little. No - it was about Iraq, Ally's appearance in front of Chilcott and Co, and Blair's continuing denial that he deliberately lied to and misled Parliament.
We should nail this question right now. Ally sees, quite rightly, that Blair is not a LIAR. To be a liar you have to know that what you're saying is untrue.
What psychopathic liars do is convince themselves that the stuff that comes out of their mouths is true, or at least not factually incorrect, as far as they care to see. Not that they care to delve too deeply into what they actually want to believe, and what they want their listeners or victims to believe.
An example of this would be Hitler actually believing that the Jews were responsible for all of Germany's ills. And also believing that the Final Solution was the correct one. ("I did what I thought was right.")
(Incidentally, I wonder what level of collateral damage Blair would have considered acceptable in Iraq. 100,000 killed, injured and made homeless? One million? 2 million? 6 million?)
Did Ally also believe in WMD and the 45 minutes? Does he still? This is hardly the point. He simply believes that his pal Tony believed it. And Tony was not, therefore, a liar.
Does Ally then see, especially with hindsight, that Tone is/was a psychopath?**
Again, it's beside the point. Nobody's asking him that question, and no-one's likely to. And there's no way he'd answer it honestly if they did.
............................................................
I once had the ill-fortune to sit and listen to Blair whilst he made a speech. It's the dead eyes that give it away. Dead in the sense of not being able to connect in any proper empathetic sense with other people. Dead as in unable to really look and observe properly. His eyes function only in the service of his own ego and his own ambitions.
It's a bit like the Terminator - a robot who knows he's a robot, whose relentless existence is only for the purpose of carrying out its mission, which is twofold: to survive and prosper, and to defeat its enemies.
There's nothing wrong with its logic circuits - they're probably better, faster and stronger than any actual human - by far. What it lacks, of course, is a beating, emotional heart, a genuine concern for others, and a spirit capable of feeling either transcendental joy and bliss, or genuine sadness and melancholy.
Joy is presumably what Ally feels when Burnley FC occasionally win a match. (Why else carry on going to their matches?) And as of today, let no-one say that he has no feelings or emotions; or call him Mr Angry or Mr Terminator. The more subtle and sincere feelings may be unusually well hidden, on the whole, but they're in there somewhere.
...................................................
As indeed they are in Gordon Brown, who appears to have broken down and cried on camera whilst recording a programme this week.
...................................................
*
See the relevant part of the interview on video, and read more about it, and about Gordo, here -
Alastair Campbell in emotional defence of Blair on Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8502730.stm
.........................................................
**
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopath
Psychopathy is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Researcher Robert Hare, whose Hare Psychopathy Checklist is widely used, describes psychopaths as "intraspecies predators who use charisma, manipulation, intimidation, sexual intercourse and violence to control others and to satisfy their own needs. Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse".[Remember Tone was given the opportunity by Chilcott to express some regrets - and totally flunked it. Whoops!]
Psychopaths are glib and superficially charming, and many psychopaths are excellent mimics of normal human emotion; some psychopaths can blend in, undetected, in a variety of surroundings, including corporate environments. There is neither a cure nor any effective treatment for psychopathy; there are no medications or other techniques which can instill empathy, and psychopaths who undergo traditional talk therapy only become more adept at manipulating others. The consensus among researchers is that psychopathy stems from a specific neurological disorder which is biological in origin and present from birth. It is estimated that one percent of the general population are psychopaths.
The prototypical psychopath has deficits or deviances in several areas: interpersonal relationships, emotion, and self-control. Psychopaths gain satisfaction through antisocial behavior, and do not experience shame, guilt, or remorse for their actions.
Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.............................................................
Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness. All of this belies their tendency to make a good, likable first impression. Psychopaths have a superficial charm about them, enabled by a willingness to say anything without concern for accuracy or truth. Shallow affect also describes the psychopath's tendency for genuine emotion to be short lived and egocentric with an overall cold demeanor. They do not . . . deeply recognize the risk of being caught, disbelieved or injured as a result of their behaviour.
Also important to have on record Clare Short's efforts to put the record straight last week
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8501087.stm
Clare was on Question Time last week, alongside George Galloway, Charlie ('Lord') Falconer, Melanie Phillips, and the makeweight, Teresa May.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/8500549.stm
This Question Time, from Coventry, was one of the best ever. Short and Galloway, especially now they're unconstrained by party allegiances, are genuine loose cannons, not afraid to speak truth to power. See it here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn443#segments
.................................................................
The Virtual Revolution
Another episode of this excellent series on TV last night.
How 20 Years of the Web has Reshaped our Lives
Good talking heads - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Al Gore, Stephen Fry, etc.
Discover more about The Virtual Revolution with our exclusive 3D Documentary Explorer. Mixing video from the series, with the web pages that tell the story of The Virtual Revolution, this is a radical new way to experience a documentary.http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/
See all 4 programmes coming up in the next 7 days (including repeats).
http://alekskrotoski.com/
Al Gore said, "The web is capable of supporting a rising political consciousness. It will have a more profound effect on civilisation than the invention of the printing press."
Others said,
* The web tends to lead naturally to openness
* It's impossible for any one government to either police or control the web
* The web allows China's masses to give shape and direction to their spontaneous energy
* The web is "Against the Machine"
* Paypal is one of the means by which barriers between people can be broken down
*The web enables you to contact the kind of people you have something in common with, and people you can learn from.
................................................................
Biddles @ Biddles
One of the essentials for a really good live music venue is that it's situated within easy walking distance of home so that you can stroll there after consuming a couple of whiskies, a pint, and a glass of wine with dinner, and still roll home afterwards after drinking more wine, preferably after paying no more than a reasonable £3.20 for a decent glass of house red.
On top of that, if you can get a seat right next to the band, with a clear view of how the keyboard player is playing his Hammond XK3 - which drawbars he's using, etc - then you might find yourself in jazz heaven.
Of course it depends on the quality of the band. The Biddle Brothers Band playing at the bar of the same name were excellent last night. Not perfect, but very good indeed. Well done Biddles for bringing them back, and for continuing to run such a funky venue, late license and all . . .
http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2008/11/29/claptons-community-pubs/
Biddle Brothers.......................................................................
88 Lower Clapton Road E5 0QR
Nestled in a crevice of Lower Clapton Road, the Biddle Brothers pub belies its almost Zen-like external anonymity by its gloriously rich interior, seducing the weary traveller with a warm promise of cold drinks and deep, comfy couches.
Surrounded by paintings from local artists, Biddle Bothers isn’t cheap but it is a beautifully kept and friendly local bar with a thriving community of loyal regulars.
Owned and run by Paco the Dog, the one-time builders’ merchant features a full programme of regular live acoustic and open mic nights, making good use of the obligatory piano-in-the-corner and its pretty good aural acoustics in the tiny hub of a back room.
Think nothing of sitting down, putting your feet up, play with Paco and passing an enjoyable evening forgetting about your worries.
In a way it reminds me of nights at the Mercer's Arms back in the day, sipping pints whilst listening to great bands like the original Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, up close and personal. That was also the beginning of my love for blues and jazz played on the Hammond B3 with a Lesley cabinet amp - standing just feet away from guys like Wynder K Frog as they worked the keyboard, creating amazing soul-gripping sounds from keys and drawbars. Keith Emerson - when he was still with The Nice. 'America'!
Oh yes! - and Brian Auger (with Julia Driscoll) - Season of the Witch. Unforgettable.
Here's an interesting little musical history -
http://deanocity3.piczo.com/coventrysgigconcertguide1960-85?cr=5&linkvar=000044
There's only one mention of the Mercer's Arms though. Strange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillfields
Rod Stewart used to sing with Brian Auger's 'Steampacket', along with Julie Driscoll and Long John Baldry: they once played the Hotel Leofric jazz club in Broadgate.
"The Jeff Beck Group snapped him up as lead singer for three years until 1969. Some Coventrians still debate whether Stewart performed with the band when they played the Mercer's Arms, near the old Highfield Road stadium, during this period."I can clear this up. The confusion stems from the fact that the Beck group didn't actually play there. Auger & Driscoll did, and Rod the Mod definitely wasn't with them.
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/coventry-evening-telegraph-england/mi_7969/is_2006_Nov_7/cov-rod-40-years-entertainment/ai_n34409181/
....................................................................
Jazz
Johnny Dankworth RIP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/07/sir-john-dankworth-obituary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dankworth
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/7180882/Sir-John-Dankworth.html
..............................................................
Desert Island Discs
Gok Wan this week. The wonderful Gok. I hadn't realised what an amazing life story he has, and that he's a lad from the Midlands.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qg0r2/Desert_Island_Discs_Gok_Wan/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok_Wan
He has good taste in music too - Tracey Chapman, Lou Reed, Brian Ferry . . . In fact two songs by the wonderful Ms Chapman.
"It definitely wasn't because I was talented", said Gok, very amusingly, when pondering why he'd been given a place at a school of speech and drama.
And he was another male who this weekend cracked up with emotion - whilst remembering and reflecting on what it felt like to look fat, and to feel ugly.
.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Layer 80 Hands, Hearts, Minds, Education, Jay-Z, Russell B, Gok Wan, Gad Saad, Oasis, Ray Charles, and the End of Civilisation.
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Just when you think you’ve seen just about everything, something else happens. There are still tomatoes ripening in the garden, the days are sunny and bright, the leaves on the lilacs, sycamores and ash trees are still solidly green, and last night it snowed. There was a real blanket of snow on the cars in the street. Apparently it’s the first time it’s snowed in London in October since 1934. Global warming?
-------------------------------------------
There was an item on the Today programme this morning which allowed a couple of 14 year olds who live in Edmonton a chance to speak at length about their involvement in gangs, and gang culture in general. I happen to know that Edmonton is a seriously scary place, and I say that as someone who’s lived is many different parts of our inner cities.
When I decided to earn a little extra money as a young, broke teacher some years ago I signed up to work on the Census, and was dispatched to Edmonton with a patch of several streets to survey. Not a good experience - and that was way back in the days before carrying knives and even guns became commonplace. Those dark streets had a real air of menace.
When asked why young people belong to gangs, these kids said, “We just hang about our territory. We got nothing else to do.” In other words, the kids just congregate together on the streets - the parents don’t want them bringing their mates into the home. They are there because they’re there. They’re unwanted and rejected, so they stick together and become allies. If one of them gets picked on and beaten up by ‘outsiders’ then they go out looking for revenge. This is all that life has to offer them. They know no other.
One of the kids said, “It happens when this stuff kicks off - it make the gang angry, innit”. Quite.
Destructive emotions play havoc with the lives of groups of emotionally and spiritually unintelligent young people who are bored, frustrated and angry.
And then right at the end of the interview one of the lads said, “Everyone’s got a talent. But this government ain’t doing nothing for us.” How very true.
I remember well the discussions that took place when the government decided to fund a ‘gifted and talented’ programme in schools in an attempt to placate the middle classes by pushing more of their Level 4 predicted kids up to Level 5. Those of us who argued that the money should be used to fund non-academic pursuits for kids whose talents were clearly elsewhere, in the arts and creativity for example, were told very clearly that the funding was ring-fenced for raising test scores, essentially. In order to qualify for the extra funding the schools had to agree to set targets for the academic progress that would be made by those kids who were so-called ‘gifted and talented’.
Listening to these interviewees it was patently obvious that they weren’t talking about wanting the government to do more to push them to higher academic attainment. They clearly recognised that they were never, ever, going to compete in the race to get to university to do conventional academic studies. But they had a sense of their own burning energy and desire to do something fruitful, creative and positive with their lives.
----------------------------------------------------------
Before going on to say something about Jay-Z, as well as something about the architects of New Labour’s education policies, I must mention something someone said on Thought For Today just now.
He was talking about how American forces in Iraq have, through actual contact with Iraqis and through working alongside them, come to realise just how idiotic all their previous stereotyping has been.
It’s pretty obvious, really, that you only really get to know people by spending time with them, especially if you’re doing something constructive together.
The speaker then talked about what he called a “Hand to Heart to Mind” formula, which I think nicely encapsulates what we should be doing in every situation that requires people of different backgrounds to know one another better, which roughly means all of us, all of the time.
The Jesuits always talked about needing proper balance in our lives, and that every day should contain “something for the hands, something for the heart, and something for the head”. I wonder how many people actively seek such a balance?
The formula clearly works, and you can see in any good school that learning begins with practical activities that engage students physically in doing something constructive or creative - an experiment, building something, a survey, etc.
Through helping and supporting one another through success and failure they build up emotional bonds, respect, and a proper sense of their common strengths and weaknesses.
From all of that - understanding emerges. We learn at a deep level from activity, experience and involvement with others.
Except when we don’t - which is in traditional model schools where the learning is based on didacticism, individualism and competition. No wonder kids become alienated and can’t stand school.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I read somewhere this week that Andrew (‘Lord’) Adonis, who’s done so much to push schools back towards concentration on raising test and exam scores, towards being concentration camps, along with other idiots like ‘Sir’ Michael Barber (another academic/pundit/politician/nobleman whose vile ideology has done so much to set back the cause of real education), was being courted by the Conservative party to join their ranks. Well he would be, wouldn’t he? There’s not a jot of difference between Blairite/New Labour views on schools and education and that of the Tories.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3934165.ece
Lest we forget, according to a website called “Politico’s” (sic?),
“Sir Michael Barber has a real record of delivery in the Blair government, first at the Department for Education and Employment (1997–2001), and then as head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit (2001–5), where he was tasked with ensuring the government's public service reforms delivered significant results.”
“His vision of a restructured school system was a major influence on Blair's education reforms.”
“He now works for a major global consulting firm advising governments around the world on how they can improve their performance.”
He advises governments! On improving their performance!
So many arrogant, ignorant academics and so-called advisors, who’ve been messing around with the school system and with kids’ lives, have made the lives of even the more able kids far more competitive, dull, uncreative and stressful, and have done literally nothing for those who were never even part of the academic rat race to begin with. I doubt they will ever go to hang out in Edmonton, though.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jay-Z, on the other hand, grew up in Brooklyn, which makes Edmonton look like pussyland. A bad boy made good if ever there was one. From the age of nine, when he encountered hip-hop, his love of language and of music synched with his intelligence and his need for self-expression and he began rhyming his own raps and developing his talent for this essentially verbal art form.
Of course he didn’t do well academically, and he was never destined to follow a conventional mainstream career. He even amazed himself when people began offering him money to perform and to make records.
However, he also discovered he had a talent for business, set up his own record label, and subsequently developed his own brand through diversifying into clothing, fashion, and so on. He’s now more of an entrepreneur and a businessman than he is a performer, though music remains his first love.
Being of a certain generation I didn’t even know this guy existed until the controversy blew up this year over him being invited to headline at Glastonbury. And when Noel Gallagher sounded off about Glasto making a huge mistake having him as the star of the festival I thought he probably had a point, since I’ve never liked the little I knew about the boastfulness, misogeny and the glorification of violence in rap and hip-hop.
When Jay-Z came on stage with a guitar and did a great performance of “Wonderwall” to start his set it was immediately obvious that this guy not only had a sense of humour but he was also a magnificent performer whose music was powerful, thoughtful and intelligent. I was pretty much blown away, just watching it on TV. The guy is a force of nature.
Last night Alan Yentob’s ‘Imagine’ documentary on BBC1 did a brilliant exposition of the life and times of Jay, and gave a real sense of the man’s brilliance and his importance in modern culture. It also powerfully conveyed a sense of how otherwise wasted lives can be transformed through individuals discovering their creative talents, and doing so without any benefit from a school system that fails to recognise talent in the first place, let alone does anything to develop it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Coincidentally, this week the BBC also broadcast the Oasis concert that took place at the Round House as part of their ‘Electric Proms’ series of concerts. I still don’t really get Oasis, especially their lead singer, and the band seems to work a lot better when he steps back and leaves the vocals to brother Noel, who’s clearly the talent driving the band.
Liam’s entire body language at the microphone is a total turn-off, and his singing is less than inspirational. What IS that idiot stuff about bending his knees in order to sing upwards into a downward-pointing microphone? Ridiculous.
The concert was interesting, though, for its employment of a huge choir behind the band, which certainly added another dimension. The show ended with a very original version of the Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’ which was certainly arresting and powerful, and completely unexpected. I don’t get this stuff about Oasis being some sort of clone of the Beatles. Clearly they’re not, and their music has never had even a passing resemblance to the wit and originality of the Beatles. Fair enough, though, to say that a love of the Beatles’ music is what got them wanting to play and to write their own music.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Noel G is a big mate of Russell Brand, and Russell and his mate Jonathan Ross are in big trouble today over their antics on Russell’s Radio 2 programme 10 days ago. Seemingly they did some pretty childish things - making obscene phone calls to a well-known actor - and the Beeb allowed it to be broadcast. The ridiculous thing is that when the show went out there were only two complaints about it - because the audience for Brand’s show actually enjoy the stuff he does.
However, thanks to everyone else piling on the bandwagon and calling for the sacking and disembowelment of Brand and Ross, including the bloody Prime Minister it seems, they’ve seemingly offended at least half the population, who wouldn’t otherwise have known or cared about it.
Brand has apologized and says he’s made a mistake. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Odds must be on the BBC dropping his programme, which would be ludicrous, considering Brand is not only incredibly talented and funny but he’s also one of the lone voices calling for a saner, more spiritual and more human society, which presumably means he’s even more annoying to reactionaries and Tories.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081029/ten-sack-the-bbc-sickos-ea4616c.html
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gok Wan (crazy name, crazy guy) is also in trouble today.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081028/ten-gok-defends-new-show-ea4616c.html
His new TV programme, Miss Naked Beauty, which was broadcast last night, showed women being blasted with a water hose to remove their makeup. Big Deal.
I really like Gok. He’s a great character, and he’s done so much to promote the idea that women should be proud of their bodies, no matter what they look like. Apparently he was once 21 stones in weight himself, which is quite hard to believe.
His work always seems to promote the idea that women should stop worrying about their body shapes and concentrate of wearing flattering, well-made clothes as well as the minimum of makeup, together with a decent haircut. Most of all, women need to really believe they’re worthwhile as an individual, no matter how different they look from the contemporary ideals and stereotypes of womanhood.
Amazingly he’s never, as far as know, advocated either dieting or cosmetic surgery, which goes completely against the grain of our culture’s contemporary fixation with both of those things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok_Wan
---------------------------------------------------
There was a very interesting article in G2 yesterday about women and stiletto heels, called ‘Are we just masochists’. The article takes up three whole pages, such is the importance of this subject.
There’s a quote from Dr Gad Saad (crazy name, crazy guy!) who’s associate professor of marketing at Concordia University, Canada, and author of The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption: “High heels may well be the most potent aphrodisiac ever concocted.”
Hmmm. And they might not.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/28/fashion
-------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the main article in G2 was a four-page piece on whether we’re seeing the beginning of the death throes of our planetary civilisation, and whether the financial chaos is likely to lead to the destruction of the world’s financial and economic system, with predictable effects on human life on earth. It also links with the climate and the ecological disaster that’s being widely predicted.
I must say these same thoughts have been occurring to me for some time now in my darker moments.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/28/climatechange-population
----------------------------------------------------------
On the brighter side, my record of the week is a new triple-disc CD of the early recordings of Ray Charles, roughly 1949 - 1956: The Great Ray Charles (Not Now Music).
This was the period before rock and roll, and before the mainstream acceptance in America (and elsewhere) of black musicians. Ray plays incredible blues and jazz on this collection, and as the CD notes point out, he’s pretty much the originator of soul music through his fusion of blues, R & B and gospel.
Subsequent to this period he regrettably, though unsurprisingly, moved on to make more ‘commercial’ records, cashing in on the public’s new-found taste for rock n’ roll and pop & rock generally. He did some great stuff, but nothing better than what appears here, which shows his true inventive genius, regardless of its lack of commercial mainstream appeal.
Also of note on this album is the quality of the musicians Ray chose for his band. This quote from Will Flannery’s piece on Amazon gives a flavour:
“The best slow sax tune ever recorded, in my opinion, is residing right on this CD. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, Amazon has not sampled it for your online listening pleasure, but, maybe by the time you read this, they will have. The tune - "Ain't Misbehavin", the sax man - Ray's regular sax man at the time of this recording, David "Fathead" Newman. It's a great tune to begin with, but Fathead doesn't play it straight. He throws down one incredibly perfect phrase after another, taking the tune and twisting it just a little, pulling the listener into his own unique harmonic space, and it is as pleasurable a place as you'll ever find yourself. This is a unique tune, and, of course, Fathead never plays cliches, and the result is incomparable to any other performance I know. It is completely relaxed, but full of fascination and energy. Is it really the best slow sax tune every recorded? Well, that's a subjective call; for me, it is, and in any case it is an extraordinary performance.”
Here’s an interesting piece on Ray Charles that Van Morrison wrote for Rolling Stone a few years back:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939211/the_immortals__the_greatest_artists_of_all_time_10_ray_charles
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop Press
Sex Gag: Ross And Brand Suspended
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20081029/tuk-sex-gag-ross-and-brand-suspended-45dbed5.html
I guess the young lady at the centre of this row might do quite well out of the publicity, as might her ‘burlesque troop’, Satanic Sluts.
.
Just when you think you’ve seen just about everything, something else happens. There are still tomatoes ripening in the garden, the days are sunny and bright, the leaves on the lilacs, sycamores and ash trees are still solidly green, and last night it snowed. There was a real blanket of snow on the cars in the street. Apparently it’s the first time it’s snowed in London in October since 1934. Global warming?
-------------------------------------------
There was an item on the Today programme this morning which allowed a couple of 14 year olds who live in Edmonton a chance to speak at length about their involvement in gangs, and gang culture in general. I happen to know that Edmonton is a seriously scary place, and I say that as someone who’s lived is many different parts of our inner cities.
When I decided to earn a little extra money as a young, broke teacher some years ago I signed up to work on the Census, and was dispatched to Edmonton with a patch of several streets to survey. Not a good experience - and that was way back in the days before carrying knives and even guns became commonplace. Those dark streets had a real air of menace.
When asked why young people belong to gangs, these kids said, “We just hang about our territory. We got nothing else to do.” In other words, the kids just congregate together on the streets - the parents don’t want them bringing their mates into the home. They are there because they’re there. They’re unwanted and rejected, so they stick together and become allies. If one of them gets picked on and beaten up by ‘outsiders’ then they go out looking for revenge. This is all that life has to offer them. They know no other.
One of the kids said, “It happens when this stuff kicks off - it make the gang angry, innit”. Quite.
Destructive emotions play havoc with the lives of groups of emotionally and spiritually unintelligent young people who are bored, frustrated and angry.
And then right at the end of the interview one of the lads said, “Everyone’s got a talent. But this government ain’t doing nothing for us.” How very true.
I remember well the discussions that took place when the government decided to fund a ‘gifted and talented’ programme in schools in an attempt to placate the middle classes by pushing more of their Level 4 predicted kids up to Level 5. Those of us who argued that the money should be used to fund non-academic pursuits for kids whose talents were clearly elsewhere, in the arts and creativity for example, were told very clearly that the funding was ring-fenced for raising test scores, essentially. In order to qualify for the extra funding the schools had to agree to set targets for the academic progress that would be made by those kids who were so-called ‘gifted and talented’.
Listening to these interviewees it was patently obvious that they weren’t talking about wanting the government to do more to push them to higher academic attainment. They clearly recognised that they were never, ever, going to compete in the race to get to university to do conventional academic studies. But they had a sense of their own burning energy and desire to do something fruitful, creative and positive with their lives.
----------------------------------------------------------
Before going on to say something about Jay-Z, as well as something about the architects of New Labour’s education policies, I must mention something someone said on Thought For Today just now.
He was talking about how American forces in Iraq have, through actual contact with Iraqis and through working alongside them, come to realise just how idiotic all their previous stereotyping has been.
It’s pretty obvious, really, that you only really get to know people by spending time with them, especially if you’re doing something constructive together.
The speaker then talked about what he called a “Hand to Heart to Mind” formula, which I think nicely encapsulates what we should be doing in every situation that requires people of different backgrounds to know one another better, which roughly means all of us, all of the time.
The Jesuits always talked about needing proper balance in our lives, and that every day should contain “something for the hands, something for the heart, and something for the head”. I wonder how many people actively seek such a balance?
The formula clearly works, and you can see in any good school that learning begins with practical activities that engage students physically in doing something constructive or creative - an experiment, building something, a survey, etc.
Through helping and supporting one another through success and failure they build up emotional bonds, respect, and a proper sense of their common strengths and weaknesses.
From all of that - understanding emerges. We learn at a deep level from activity, experience and involvement with others.
Except when we don’t - which is in traditional model schools where the learning is based on didacticism, individualism and competition. No wonder kids become alienated and can’t stand school.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I read somewhere this week that Andrew (‘Lord’) Adonis, who’s done so much to push schools back towards concentration on raising test and exam scores, towards being concentration camps, along with other idiots like ‘Sir’ Michael Barber (another academic/pundit/politician/nobleman whose vile ideology has done so much to set back the cause of real education), was being courted by the Conservative party to join their ranks. Well he would be, wouldn’t he? There’s not a jot of difference between Blairite/New Labour views on schools and education and that of the Tories.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3934165.ece
Lest we forget, according to a website called “Politico’s” (sic?),
“Sir Michael Barber has a real record of delivery in the Blair government, first at the Department for Education and Employment (1997–2001), and then as head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit (2001–5), where he was tasked with ensuring the government's public service reforms delivered significant results.”
“His vision of a restructured school system was a major influence on Blair's education reforms.”
“He now works for a major global consulting firm advising governments around the world on how they can improve their performance.”
He advises governments! On improving their performance!
So many arrogant, ignorant academics and so-called advisors, who’ve been messing around with the school system and with kids’ lives, have made the lives of even the more able kids far more competitive, dull, uncreative and stressful, and have done literally nothing for those who were never even part of the academic rat race to begin with. I doubt they will ever go to hang out in Edmonton, though.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jay-Z, on the other hand, grew up in Brooklyn, which makes Edmonton look like pussyland. A bad boy made good if ever there was one. From the age of nine, when he encountered hip-hop, his love of language and of music synched with his intelligence and his need for self-expression and he began rhyming his own raps and developing his talent for this essentially verbal art form.
Of course he didn’t do well academically, and he was never destined to follow a conventional mainstream career. He even amazed himself when people began offering him money to perform and to make records.
However, he also discovered he had a talent for business, set up his own record label, and subsequently developed his own brand through diversifying into clothing, fashion, and so on. He’s now more of an entrepreneur and a businessman than he is a performer, though music remains his first love.
Being of a certain generation I didn’t even know this guy existed until the controversy blew up this year over him being invited to headline at Glastonbury. And when Noel Gallagher sounded off about Glasto making a huge mistake having him as the star of the festival I thought he probably had a point, since I’ve never liked the little I knew about the boastfulness, misogeny and the glorification of violence in rap and hip-hop.
When Jay-Z came on stage with a guitar and did a great performance of “Wonderwall” to start his set it was immediately obvious that this guy not only had a sense of humour but he was also a magnificent performer whose music was powerful, thoughtful and intelligent. I was pretty much blown away, just watching it on TV. The guy is a force of nature.
Last night Alan Yentob’s ‘Imagine’ documentary on BBC1 did a brilliant exposition of the life and times of Jay, and gave a real sense of the man’s brilliance and his importance in modern culture. It also powerfully conveyed a sense of how otherwise wasted lives can be transformed through individuals discovering their creative talents, and doing so without any benefit from a school system that fails to recognise talent in the first place, let alone does anything to develop it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Coincidentally, this week the BBC also broadcast the Oasis concert that took place at the Round House as part of their ‘Electric Proms’ series of concerts. I still don’t really get Oasis, especially their lead singer, and the band seems to work a lot better when he steps back and leaves the vocals to brother Noel, who’s clearly the talent driving the band.
Liam’s entire body language at the microphone is a total turn-off, and his singing is less than inspirational. What IS that idiot stuff about bending his knees in order to sing upwards into a downward-pointing microphone? Ridiculous.
The concert was interesting, though, for its employment of a huge choir behind the band, which certainly added another dimension. The show ended with a very original version of the Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’ which was certainly arresting and powerful, and completely unexpected. I don’t get this stuff about Oasis being some sort of clone of the Beatles. Clearly they’re not, and their music has never had even a passing resemblance to the wit and originality of the Beatles. Fair enough, though, to say that a love of the Beatles’ music is what got them wanting to play and to write their own music.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Noel G is a big mate of Russell Brand, and Russell and his mate Jonathan Ross are in big trouble today over their antics on Russell’s Radio 2 programme 10 days ago. Seemingly they did some pretty childish things - making obscene phone calls to a well-known actor - and the Beeb allowed it to be broadcast. The ridiculous thing is that when the show went out there were only two complaints about it - because the audience for Brand’s show actually enjoy the stuff he does.
However, thanks to everyone else piling on the bandwagon and calling for the sacking and disembowelment of Brand and Ross, including the bloody Prime Minister it seems, they’ve seemingly offended at least half the population, who wouldn’t otherwise have known or cared about it.
Brand has apologized and says he’s made a mistake. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Odds must be on the BBC dropping his programme, which would be ludicrous, considering Brand is not only incredibly talented and funny but he’s also one of the lone voices calling for a saner, more spiritual and more human society, which presumably means he’s even more annoying to reactionaries and Tories.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081029/ten-sack-the-bbc-sickos-ea4616c.html
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gok Wan (crazy name, crazy guy) is also in trouble today.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081028/ten-gok-defends-new-show-ea4616c.html
His new TV programme, Miss Naked Beauty, which was broadcast last night, showed women being blasted with a water hose to remove their makeup. Big Deal.
I really like Gok. He’s a great character, and he’s done so much to promote the idea that women should be proud of their bodies, no matter what they look like. Apparently he was once 21 stones in weight himself, which is quite hard to believe.
His work always seems to promote the idea that women should stop worrying about their body shapes and concentrate of wearing flattering, well-made clothes as well as the minimum of makeup, together with a decent haircut. Most of all, women need to really believe they’re worthwhile as an individual, no matter how different they look from the contemporary ideals and stereotypes of womanhood.
Amazingly he’s never, as far as know, advocated either dieting or cosmetic surgery, which goes completely against the grain of our culture’s contemporary fixation with both of those things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok_Wan
---------------------------------------------------
There was a very interesting article in G2 yesterday about women and stiletto heels, called ‘Are we just masochists’. The article takes up three whole pages, such is the importance of this subject.
There’s a quote from Dr Gad Saad (crazy name, crazy guy!) who’s associate professor of marketing at Concordia University, Canada, and author of The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption: “High heels may well be the most potent aphrodisiac ever concocted.”
Hmmm. And they might not.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/28/fashion
-------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the main article in G2 was a four-page piece on whether we’re seeing the beginning of the death throes of our planetary civilisation, and whether the financial chaos is likely to lead to the destruction of the world’s financial and economic system, with predictable effects on human life on earth. It also links with the climate and the ecological disaster that’s being widely predicted.
I must say these same thoughts have been occurring to me for some time now in my darker moments.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/28/climatechange-population
----------------------------------------------------------
On the brighter side, my record of the week is a new triple-disc CD of the early recordings of Ray Charles, roughly 1949 - 1956: The Great Ray Charles (Not Now Music).
This was the period before rock and roll, and before the mainstream acceptance in America (and elsewhere) of black musicians. Ray plays incredible blues and jazz on this collection, and as the CD notes point out, he’s pretty much the originator of soul music through his fusion of blues, R & B and gospel.
Subsequent to this period he regrettably, though unsurprisingly, moved on to make more ‘commercial’ records, cashing in on the public’s new-found taste for rock n’ roll and pop & rock generally. He did some great stuff, but nothing better than what appears here, which shows his true inventive genius, regardless of its lack of commercial mainstream appeal.
Also of note on this album is the quality of the musicians Ray chose for his band. This quote from Will Flannery’s piece on Amazon gives a flavour:
“The best slow sax tune ever recorded, in my opinion, is residing right on this CD. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, Amazon has not sampled it for your online listening pleasure, but, maybe by the time you read this, they will have. The tune - "Ain't Misbehavin", the sax man - Ray's regular sax man at the time of this recording, David "Fathead" Newman. It's a great tune to begin with, but Fathead doesn't play it straight. He throws down one incredibly perfect phrase after another, taking the tune and twisting it just a little, pulling the listener into his own unique harmonic space, and it is as pleasurable a place as you'll ever find yourself. This is a unique tune, and, of course, Fathead never plays cliches, and the result is incomparable to any other performance I know. It is completely relaxed, but full of fascination and energy. Is it really the best slow sax tune every recorded? Well, that's a subjective call; for me, it is, and in any case it is an extraordinary performance.”
Here’s an interesting piece on Ray Charles that Van Morrison wrote for Rolling Stone a few years back:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939211/the_immortals__the_greatest_artists_of_all_time_10_ray_charles
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop Press
Sex Gag: Ross And Brand Suspended
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20081029/tuk-sex-gag-ross-and-brand-suspended-45dbed5.html
I guess the young lady at the centre of this row might do quite well out of the publicity, as might her ‘burlesque troop’, Satanic Sluts.
.
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