Layer 344 . . . Grandma's House, Hendrix, Machine Guns, Politics, Manu Chao, Hugo Chavez and Professor David Harvey

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Grandma's House

Back on the theme of comedy and laughter I've been meaning to say something about 'Grandma's House', which is now three programmes into its series on BBC2. All three available on iPlayer.

TV presenter Simon Amstell plays a version of himself in Grandma's House, a new six-part comedy written by Simon and his long-term collaborator Dan Swimer.

The series stars Simon Amstell as a TV presenter who is quitting his job to try to do something more meaningful with his life.

Each episode is set at Grandma's house, where Simon's family regularly congregate to catch up. Everything happens under the watchful eye of Grandma, who is desperate to see everything going well.

The show also stars Bafta winner Rebecca Front (The Thick Of It, Nighty Night) who plays Simon's mum, Tanya, a larger-than-life single woman who's looking for love and who dotes on her famous son . . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tffgy

It's a kind of middle class version of The Royle Family - with virtually everything taking place in the family sitting room, involving three generations of wildly different characters.

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Was Jimi Hendrix 'political'?

There was a programme on Radio 4 yesterday called 'Star Spangled Hendrix':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tg2m0

When Jimi Hendrix returned to his native America as a star, the country he knew had changed. This programme, presented by Tom Robinson to tie in with the 40th anniversary of the guitarist's death, explores the pressure Jimi was under to make an explicit political declaration.

Tom explores Hendrix's 14 months in the Screaming Eagles 101 Airborne Division that saw him parachute a total of 26 times before he was invalided out with a broken ankle.

When Hendrix first came to Britain he'd speak with friends about the need to defeat the Viet-Cong in order to prevent the whole of South-East Asia going Communist. All the standard domino-theory clap-trap he'd picked up from the American media and in his Marine Corps indoctrination. He was no sophisticated student of politics.

On the other hand, by the time he was performing with the Band of Gypsies in 1970 Hendrix was ready to come out on stage and introduce a song called Machine Gun with these words:

"HAPPY NEW YEAR FIRST OF ALL. I HOPE WE'LL HAVE A MILLION OR TWO MILLION
MORE OF THEM... IF WE CAN GET OVER THIS SUMMER, HA HA. RIGHT I'D LIKE
TO DEDICATE THIS ONE TO THE DRAGGIN' SCENE THAT'S GOIN' ON - ALL THE SOLDIERS THAT ARE FIGHTIN' IN CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND NEW YORK... OH YEAH, AND ALL THE SOLDIERS FIGHTIN' IN VIETNAM. LIKE TO DO A THING CALLED 'MACHINE GUN'."


MACHINE GUN
TEARING MY BODY ALL APART

EVIL MAN MAKE ME KILL YA
EVIL MAN MAKE YOU KILL ME
EVIL MAN MAKE ME KILL YOU
EVEN THOUGH WE'RE ONLY FAMILIES APART

The final words of this piece are:

YEAH THAT'S WHAT WE DON'T WANNA HEAR ANY MORE, ALRIGHT
NO BULLETS
AT LEAST HERE, HUH HUH
NO GUNS, NO BOMBS
HUH HUH
NO NOTHIN', JUST LET'S ALL LIVE AND LIVE
YOU KNOW INSTEAD OF KILLIN'

And in between those first and last words there's about 12 minutes of very 'political' guitar playing, with Hendrix giving his musical interpretation of urban and jungle warfare as only Hendrix could - clattering and screaming guitar blasting his audience with high-powered sonic bullets, and with musical rockets and bombs - expressing rage, hatred, savagery, pain, fear, terror and madness.

You can hear several versions on YouTube (and Spotify) including
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hipdlGSLYk4&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT4_yXATJNo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZANxW4iFnk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NTh07MYqMA&NR=1

What Hendrix was recreating with every live performance was an incredible work of art that took the blues to a level never seen before or since - smashing through the average concert-goer's indifference and apathy and confronting his audience with what it feels like to live with death, destruction, injury, pain and misery - whether in the urban ghettos or in the horrors of VietNam. Not what you'd call pop music, then. Hendrix thankfully never made it to Nam himself, but he knew plenty of people who did. Just imagine what we'd have missed if Hendrix had died fighting the VietCong. And for what?

Wikipedia says this:

It is a lengthy, loosely defined (jam-based) protest of the Vietnam War, and perhaps a broader comment on conflict of any kind. Although a proper studio recording was never released, there are several other live recordings on album, including Jimi Hendrix: Live at Berkeley and Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight. The Band of Gypsys  performance is often lauded as Hendrix's finest, and is widely considered the finest electric guitar performance in the history of recorded music.

The Band of Gypsys  version of "Machine Gun" is roughly 12 minutes long. Hendrix's long guitar solos and percussive riffs combine with controlled feedback to simulate the sounds of a battlefield, such as helicopters, dropping bombs, explosions, machine guns, and the screams and cries of those wounded or grieving. The rather sparse lyrics, which differ in every performance, relate the point of view of a soldier fighting in war.

As with his version of Star Spangled Banner, Hendrix let his guitar, his imagination, his feelings and his emotions do the talking. He painted incredibly vivid pictures with sound, and left the rest to our imagination. Was it political? Isn't everything?

It was also personal, spiritual, emotional, original and sensational. You can't say fairer than that.

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Stumbling around on Spotify I noticed that Manu Chao has also recorded a track called Machine Gun, on the Radio Bemba Sound System live album, and also on Baionerena. Manu's a highly 'political' guy.

"After arriving in Madrid, Chao and other band mates from Mano Negra formed a new group, Radio Bemba Sound System (named for the communication system used in the Sierra Maestra by the Castro-and-Guevara-led rebels in the Cuban Revolution), featuring groups from diverse backgrounds, such as Mexican Tijuana No!, Brazilian Skank, and Argentinian Todos Tus Muertos. The goal was to replicate the sound of street music and bar scenes from a variety of cultures; to that end, Chao and the group spent several years travelling throughout South and Central America, recording new music as they went. The resulting music differed drastically from Mano Negra; the songs were primarily sung in Spanish with far fewer French tracks and the musical style had shifted from punk and alternative styles to the street vibe Chao was aiming for. The songs were collectively released as Clandestino in 1998, under Manu Chao's own name. Though not an instant success, the album gained a steady following in France with hits such as "Bongo Bong" and "Clandestino", and the album eventually earned the Best World Music Album award in 1999's Victoires de la Musique awards."  -  Wikipedia

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Which reminds me that I finally got round to watching the film made by Steven Soderbergh of Che Guevara's participation in the Cuban revolution - Che - Part 1 - A Revolutionary Life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_%28film%29

Cinematical's James Rocchi described the biopic as "expressive, innovative, striking, and exciting" as well as "bold, beautiful, bleak and brilliant". Rocchi went on to brand it "a work of art" that's "not just the story of a revolutionary" but "a revolution in and of itself". Columnist and critic Jeffrey Wells proclaimed the film "brilliant", "utterly believable", and "the most exciting and far-reaching film of the Cannes Film Festival". In further praise, Wells referred to the film as "politically vibrant and searing" while labeling it a "perfect dream movie".

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Professor David Harvey

The professor was featured on HARDTalk last week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Harvey_%28social_theorist_and_geographer%29

Are we seeing the end of capitalism?

Arun Motianey, director of fixed income strategy at Roubini Global Economics, says the global economy is at risk of collapsing inward unless policy makers address the threat of inflation and exchange rate inflexibility.

For Professor David Harvey, Marxist author of The Enigma of Capital, the collapse of capitalism is inevitable. He tells Sarah Montague that capitalism is amoral, lawless, and it should be overthrown.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8662148.stm

Well done, BBC, for still making programmes like this one. How often do we get to hear the voices of the radical left? Whereas we hear the drivel of the radical right continuously.

Prof Harvey maintains that for the most part modern capitalism has nothing to do with anything productive, and simply makes money out of money. Smart financiers make money out of slightly less smart financiers, as well as out of dumb financiers and bankers - the dumbest being the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and HBoS, I reckon, since they're the ones that ended up in public ownership.

Harvey says our government has been protecting the banks at the expense of the people. There's been no productive use of the money controlled by the banks. There's been no actual investment in production or in real things.

What we need is investment in people's creative capacities and powers. Do rich people really need five mansions or more? What we need, as a society, is zero 'growth' and a significant redistribution of wealth. Through increasing the spending power of the poorer sections of society we'll become a richer society as a whole. Rich people hoard wealth. Poor people keep it in circulation.

There is currently NO political movement for real change from any of the established parties - Harvey is calling for people to think about alternatives. Utopia is simply about continuous change for the benefit of society as a whole, he says, and about creative engagement in political processes. We need diversity not homogeneity.

http://davidharvey.org/2010/05/interview-on-bbcs-hardtalk-are-we-seeing-the-end-of-capitalism/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtyZY9sKv2w
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00scbd2/HARDtalk_David_Harvey_Marxist_Academic/
http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.com/2010/05/david-harvey-bbc-hardtalk-interview-on.html
http://www.123webtv.com/shows/hardtalk

"Is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane?"

"Capitalism will never fall on its own. It will have to be pushed. The accumulation of capital will never cease. It will have to be stopped. The capitalist class will never willingly surrender its power. It will have to be dispossessed.” - David Harvey

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Here's another HARDtalk worth watching, on Hugo Chavez:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8732857.stm

President Chavez's socialist world vision

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez intends to inject new urgency into his socialist and anti-imperialist revolution, claiming "capitalism is destroying the world".

In a combative 60-minute interview with the BBC HARDtalk programme in the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Mr Chavez blamed Venezuela's deepening recession on the irresponsible economic policies of the United States.

He also expressed disappointment with President Barack Obama's "very negative signals" towards Latin America.

The 55-year-old Venezuelan president rarely grants extended interviews to the Western media. This one was arranged to coincide with the premiere in Caracas of a new documentary by Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone.

The film, South of the Border, portrays Latin America being transformed by Leftist radicalism.

The leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador all get walk-on parts, but it is to Mr Chavez that Stone gives the starring role.

"What's been going on in Venezuela for the last 10 years is amazing - a piece of history. The least I can do is introduce this man and this movement to the American people," said Stone, with a beaming Chavez by his side.

Whether many Venezuelans will ever see South of the Border remains unclear.

The premiere was full of Socialist party bigwigs and activists who hooted with delight as their president was seen lambasting Bush, beating off a coup attempt in 2002 and generally adopting the mantle of a 21st Century Castro.

In his HARDtalk interview, the president blamed his country's economic woes squarely on America's "rampant, irresponsible capitalism" which was taking the world "on the road to hell".

"In England and in Europe you should know this," Mr Chavez went on. "'You have more problems than we do."

He quoted a stream of economic statistics to illustrate his claim that 11 years of socialism had "begun to redress the balance between a very rich Venezuelan minority and a very poor majority."

He said unemployment had been halved, extreme poverty was down from 25% to just 5%.

"Eleven years ago I was quite gullible," the president said. "I even believed in a 'third way'. I thought it was possible to put a human face on capitalism. But I was wrong.

"The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy. There's no dictatorship here."

"Fidel has spent his whole life on his (revolution)," Chavez reflected. "Whatever life I have left I will dedicate to this peaceful democratic revolution in Venezuela."

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Here's something upbeat to end on - a blistering performance of 'Rainin In Paradise' by Manu Chao:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3oiea_manu-chao-rainin-in-paradise_music

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcxfv5_manu-chao-rainin-in-paradize_music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3272WEgFY0g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtlvykv3xjA&NR=1

Where are the British bands playing with anything like this sort of engagement, commitment and passion? Clearly they don't exist.

In Jerusalem
In Monrovia
Guinea-Bissau

today it's rainin
Welcome to paradise
today it's rainin
Welcome to paradise

http://www.metrolyrics.com/rainin-in-paradize-lyrics-manu-chao.html

 

Politik Kills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH8fwxA1UjE&feature=related

Check out the Politik Kills EP on Spotify, especially the remix with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

politik need votes
politik needs your mind
politik needs human beings
politik need lies

thats what my friend is an evidence politik is violence
what my friend is a evidence politik is violence

politik kills politik kills politik kills
politik kills politik kills politik kills

politik use drugs
politik use bombs
politik need torpedoes
politik needs blood
thats what my friend is an evidence politik is violence
what my friend is a evidence politik is violence

Big shout out to Brother B - the Horn of Africa.
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Layer 268 . . . Berlusconi, Bannatyne, Bunting . . . and Catholicism

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The Berlusconi Show
I'm becoming irritated with Sam Wollaston, who's one of the Guardian's TV critics and commentators. I'm getting sick of wanky journos who seem to care mainly about getting easy chuckles and taking cheap shots. I don't mind the odd chuckle or cheap shot, but I also expect more than glib summaries of some pretty important work on TV.

This week we've had a wealth of brilliant documetaries to savour and enjoy on our TV networks - the ones on Detroit, Gaza, and the encounter between Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle, which Oxzen has already commented on - to name but three.The documentary film is an increasingly important art form.

These three documentaries were anything but straightforward reportage on their subject matter: a great deal of creative thought and energy had gone into their editing, sound, images, and so on. Work of this quality deserves to be taken seriously.

And then we had a documentary called The Berlusconi Show, made by Mark Franchetti, and shown on BBC2 in prime time on Wednesday.

So what does young Wollaston have to say about it?

This fine study of Italy's leader leaves me amazed, says Sam Wollaston. How did he ever get elected?

Mark Franchetti, who's lived away from his native country for 20 years, goes back to find out how the hell this clown came to lead a European democracy in the 21st century. Franchetti  speaks to lots of people on both sides, and looks at the historical context of Berlusconi's rise to power; this is proper, balanced reporting.

For the viewer, though, what stands out is the stuff that makes you wince. It's not as if we didn't know it all before: the media control, the alleged mafia connections and corruption, the links to the extreme right, the trials, the legislative changes, the escorts and young girls, the cosmetic surgery, the parties, the gaffes, the dissing of Angela Merkel, the referring to Barack Obama as "tanned". It's just that, when it's all presented together, you're left with your jaw on the floor. How the frigging frig did that happen? And again. And again. He's been elected three times.

This was extraordinary, fascinating and worrying, all at the same time.

So Sam - which bit of it didn't you understand - when you ask the question: "How did he get elected?"

Francitti in fact did a superb job in examining the Italian psyche and revealing how Berlusconi, ever the populist, very cleverly "triangulates" in ways that Blair and New Labour could only dream of. Slippery Silvio is smart enough to make sure that he speaks TO the working classes, and not ABOUT them or AT them. And he also makes sure that he offers them enough treats to keep them happy, unlike New Labour. He also delivers on his promises and bribes. Unlike New Labour. The programme made all of this perfectly, beautifully, clear.

Of course he also behaves like a tycoon, a megalomaniac, a monopolist, and a smug, self-satisfied would-be tyrant, which appeals to the Italian middle and upper classes, who like their leaders to be "strong", powerful", "decisive", "colourful", "maccho", "bold", wealthy, nationalistic, xenophobic, anti-socialist, anti-communist, anti-trade unionist, Machiavellian and to also have a passing resemblance to Garibaldi.

And not dissimilar to that other Italian guy - what was his name? - oh yes, Mussolini.

"His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire", to give him his full title.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/mar/18/the-berlusconi-show-the-man-who-ate-everything

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_fascism

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Duncan Bannatyne

Here comes another tycoon with aspirations to be a political big wheel. He was on Desert Island Discs this week. And he's yet another guest of DID who knows nothing (and cares nothing) about music. Or, as he put it himself - "Ah wasnae intae music all tha' much."

How very true. Not at all into it, in fact.

Rod Stewart   — Maggie May
Tom Jones   — Green, Green Grass of Home
Dawn  — Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree
Michael Ball   — Love Changes Everything
Beverley Knight   — Shoulda Woulda Coulda
Chesney Hawkes   — The One and Only

Sample lyric -

I can't wear this uniform without some compromises
Because you'll find out that we come
In different shapes and sizes
No one can be myself like I can
For this job I'm the best man
And while this may be true
You are the one and only you

Yuk.

But at least he didn't feel the need to throw in anything classical. Strange though how so many of our 'celebrities' either don't have time for music or are just very fond of wall to wall schmaltz. Or both. Sentimental. Florid. Maudlin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Bannatyne

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r8h99#segments

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Chopin was quoted on R4 today as having said, "The aristocracy in Britain are brought up to treat music as background noise."

Hmm. They're not the only ones.

Chopin also wrote, "Scottish people are kind - but such bores. God help me."

It seems Mr Bannatyne is a well-known supporter of charities. Which is nice.

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He was on BBC1 on Friday - dancing for Sport Aid. Incredibly badly. Unsurprisingly for a man who has no taste in music, he shows an abysmal sense of rhythm. I.e. none whatsoever. As one of the judges said - appalling. Cringe-makingly bad.

Still - it's for cheridy. And Mr B would rather be bigging up his "profile" on TV - even if people are basically laughing and cringing at him - than not be on TV at all.

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Madeleine Bunting is right on the ball again with a piece in the Guardian today about Catholicism and child abuse -

An inquiry is vital, but the church's moral authority is lost for ever

There is only one conceivable reaction to the fast-spreading crisis in the Catholic church: horror. Only the most virulent anti-papist could ever have quite envisaged the scale of child abuse and the doggedness of the church's desire to stifle scandal. The rest of us are astonished and appalled. Quite rightly, Angela Merkel saw fit to intervene. After decades – perhaps we should rather be referring to centuries – of obfuscation, the Catholic church has to be called to account for what has happened.

Last summer the Ryan report exposed decades of systematic abuse of thousands of children in Ireland.

Abuse allegations emerge across Europe in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy.

The current issue of the Catholic weekly, the Tablet, carries a thoughtful article by the head of Berlin's Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine which acknowledges that the church's celibacy requirement may have appealed – misleadingly appearing to offer a solution – to paedophiles' conflicted sexuality. While the debate about disproportion continues, what is increasingly clear is that the church's determination to preserve its institutional power and authority repeatedly involved suppressing the truth – even when that put children at further risk.

The crisis simply accelerates what is already happening: the drift away from a model of religious experience which younger generations find increasingly unintelligible. Despite all the talk in Ireland and elsewhere of inquiries to ascertain the truth and "rebuild confidence in the church", such initiatives are very unlikely to achieve that outcome. Inquiries prompt more lurid headlines as they expose further the scale and detail of the abuse. They are necessary and important, but they will not save the Catholic church.

There will be plenty celebrating the Catholic church's plight, and it is hard not to agree in some part with MacCulloch, that hubris has played a huge part in this institution's history and its current crisis. But it is also important to acknowledge that this is more tragedy than anything else. For the victims, their families, their congregations – many of whom see no cause for celebration despite their need for truth – and for those causes on which the church has proved a trenchant champion, stirring lazy consciences on the arms race, global inequality and capitalist excess.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/19/catholic-church-child-abuse

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/mar/18/catholic-church-abuse-pope

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/catholic-church-abuse-germany-ireland

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/17/catholic-sex-abuse-benedict-vatican

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I'm going to bed slightly depressed tonight, having read so many bullshit comments on CIF following Lynsey Hanley's latest column in the Guardian, which was basically a good news story about Newham Council allocating over £1m so that every child in ther borough can have music lessons on an instrument of their choice.

The really depressing thing is that our education system turns out so many people who've been to probably quite decent schools, and even universities, and still end up witless, mean-spirited and up their own arses. What's more these morons have nothing better to do than hang around the Guardian's website ready to spew out their ignorant and reactionary bile, totally incapable of any constructive or even any interesting thoughts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/19/music-lessons-schools-cultural-learning?

http://www.musicmanifesto.co.uk/news/details/Newham-Council-pledges-to-make-Every-Child-A-Musician/24721

http://www.musicmanifesto.co.uk/

Watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43tqQhOTCgQ

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This is great. I just wish we'd been able to keep the one that carried us nearly all the way across Africa.

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/16032010/36/celebrating-icon-six-decades-vw-camper-0.html
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