Layer 543 . . . Reflections in the Rain

What a pleasure and a privilege it is to be back in Bungalowland. It's a privilege to have a private place to come to where it's possible to properly touch base with oneself; to  be quiet, reflective . . . meditative even. It's a proper retreat from day to day routines, and whatever passes for normality.

It's a pleasure to be somewhere where there's a calm, quiet, civilised atmosphere, big skies, stunning landscapes, and no emergency vehicles constantly blaring sirens.

I'm supposed to be mowing lawns, pruning shrubs & trees and pulling up weeds, but the relentless rain has put a stop to that. I recall mum saying, as she did so many times over the years she lived here, "What a pity the weather's always so bad when you come down here". She was exaggerating slightly, but it's true that the weather was rarely calm, settled, dry, sunny and hot, here on the west coast, on the so-called English Riviera. It's also fair to say it was rarely freezing cold here in the winter, thanks to the Gulf Stream - not until these past couple of years since mum passed away - but that was fairly small compensation.

Looking out over the valley today it's impossible to see the furthest houses, let alone the hills and trees beyond them. The greyness starts down in the valley, amongst the mist-shrouded buildings and trees, then goes right overhead and just keeps on going.

I bought a pack of CoOp 99 tea today, in memory of mum. One of my earliest childhood memories is of going to the Cooperative shop on the estate we lived on, and buying tea and biscuits. Back then the word 'supermarket' hadn't even been invented. Most people bought their groceries from the CoOp. It was - and still is - a great concept. It's a retailer and/or a wholesaler that nobody owns, and doesn't even have shareholders. As a member of the CoOp you had your identification number, which you gave to the shop assistant when you paid for your purchases, and from time to time you received a 'dividend' from whatever profits the shop managed to make.

The Cooperative supermarket in Paignton is a sad sort of place. Even on a wet Friday lunchtime on a Bank Holiday weekend there are hardly any customers - just a few dejected-looking people shuffling around, seemingly oblivious of the awful pop music that annoys the living daylights out of me. I wonder whether people are actually put off using the CoOp by its irritating advertising campaign that has a Scottish voice-over that says a simple, a very simple, slogan: "The CoOp . . . . Gud with Fud". I wonder which genius thought that one up.

Breakfast in Wetherspoons was fairly horrible. I was feeling quite relaxed, anticipating a decent cooked breakfast with free wifi and my newspaper . . . as I stood at the bar for the best part of 10 minutes watching the barmaid take orders from whoever happened to be standing closest to her whenever she looked up from the till. Finally she said, looking directly at a couple who had just arrived at the bar, "Who's next?" It was my opportunity to say, very calmly and quietly, "I am. And I've been "next" for the past 5 minutes at least, whilst you've just been serving the first people you see when you close the till. Surely, if you haven't a clue who's coming and going from the bar, which you obviously haven't, you need to ask "who's next?" every time you are available to take an order? Isn't that the way it's supposed to be done - so  that people who wait patiently don't then get exasperated and infuriated? Haven't you ever been trained to do that? Or do you just expect customers to shout at you when you ignore them and serve people out of turn? Did you even see me standing here? Have I been invisible?" I know old people are supposed to be invisible, but it can get very wearing.

The pub filled up with wet-looking holidaymakers and their offspring. Sitting in front of me and behind me were families who had no concept of asking their kids not to shout/scream/run about and generally make life annoying for other people. To the left of me was a guy with a glass of beer who muttered incessantly like someone who has no idea what he's thinking unless he can hear himself speaking. After a while he said something about "bloody kids", got up, and left. Meanwhile, to the right of me, the rain was pouring on to the pavements and running down the windows.

Thinking about it today, I suppose I feel fairly annoyed that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to either of my parents - since both of them died suddenly and unexpectedly. There was no chance to mentally and emotionally prepare for life without them. There was no sign that I ought to increase the frequency of my visits to them in order to make the most of them before they signed off. Dad seemed like the same, quiet, unassuming guy he always was, and at 67 he hardly looked decrepit or like he was about to keel over. He still made things in his 'workshop', still drove his car, still went shopping with mum.

After turning 80 mum no longer went out shopping, and didn't care to go out at all unless she was really pressurised to do so. Had she gone out for that evening meal with her two grandsons and their partners when they asked her, then maybe they wouldn't have returned to find her dying. Maybe she'd have had a seizure whilst she was out with them, and maybe she'd have been rushed to hospital, and been taken care of, and recovered. Maybe.

Not that she really cared for life any more. Not that she enjoyed being alive any more.

What's to like about being housebound, lonely, bored, arthritic and dependent on carers for pills, food, cleaning and washing?

Which is why we all need to celebrate life and good health - for as long as we can, and as often as we can.

Layer 368 . . . Bowie, Culture, Keith, The Stones, Rock and Roll Journeys, America, Modern Horror, and a Rally To Restore Sanity

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The Culture Vulture

In the week that the Cleggster chose a track from Ziggy Stardust to take to his desert island, Sky Arts for some reason put out an old documetary about Bowie - An Earthling At 50.

This film was made to promote the 'Earthling' album, which was released in 1997. Bowie hasn't put out an album since 2003. I hadn't realised he had major heart surgery back then.

Interviewed in a New York recording studio he came across as urbane, amused, amusing,  intelligent and cultured. As for being interesting - has Bowie ever really stood up for a cause, or said anything really interesting?

Unfortunately the new album consisted in large parts of 'jungle' and 'drum n bass' styles, together with 'techno' and 'industrial' styles, whatever they might be. Bowie claimed this so-called 'hardcore' stuff has "as much resonance as soul, reggae and rhythm and blues". Crazy.

Bowie said he's 'a real culture vulture', intensely interested in 'the way we put our societies together'. He's also interested in 'outsiders and looneys' who have a passion for life. He himself is 'full of curiosity and a love of life'. Or at least he was those things, back in the day. It's not clear whether he still is.

He was surprisingly honest - admitting that in the beginning he was 'playful and camp and over the top', but then came the the drugs that messed him up creatively and also as a human being. "By the mid 70's I was out of my gourd and finding it nigh on impossible to function. I found it hard to think at all. I really lost my way in the 80's. I had no belief in my material and no artistic passion." All of which goes a long way towards explaining the loss of creativity and loss of the sort of musical originality he'd shown on Hunky Dory and Ziggy.

He also said he was always looking for 'a religious or spiritual connection'. "Spiritual life has always been a problem for me. I'm normally callous and calculating." Capricorn to the core, perhaps.

A long, long journey from Major Tom and "Changes" to 'hardcore' and 'techno'. Not a happy ending.

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The BBC screened a Culture Show documentary this evening on another epic rock journey, publicising Keith Richards' new autobiography - "Life".

Bobby Keys, ace US sax player, said in the film, "The man's got something inside him that's really special and unique - as a musician you just want to get up and jam with him."

To which Keith modestly said, "Yes, but it's the interaction with other people that matters - the guys you play with and give you the feedback through their responses."

Keith pays tribute to his mum for his early musical education. His dad was "A distant figure who spoke very little." Whereas his mum would play jazz and blues records and draw his attention to great artists like Louis Armstrong and Sarah Vaughan.

The real starting point for Keith's adult life and his career as a musician/songwriter was hearing Elvis doing 'Heartbreak Hotel'. "It was like going from black and white into technicolour, and also bringing everything into focus." Such is the power of music.

Keith moved from Dartford in '63, into a 'slumlike' and freezing cold flat in London that he shared with Mick and Brian. Together they literally and obsessively studied R & B and the blues and learned how to play their guitars. Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and BB King, and their like, were the people they loved and took their inspiration from.

Keith said, "Our desire was to turn people on to the blues - and we didn't want nothing for it!"

Suddenly, in February '64, they released their version of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", with its Bo Diddley beat, and it all went crazy. Thankfully, the Stones, in spite of it all, and in spite of the amount of drugs they ended up doing, stayed sane, and creative, and rocking & rolling. Keith is 'fiercely proud' of the Stones and their musical output.

Keith confirmed that his improvisational style of playing is based on self-expression, and not just imitation or plain copying. He says, "It's intuitive - you do it by feel and instinct." His instinct for the blues is amazing. His improvisations with Ronnie and the band are based on Zen-like spontaneity.

The Stones may have had reasonably comfortable upbringings in Dartford, but they lived in genuine poverty whilst they were developing themselves as young musicians. They were broke, and sometimes couldn't even afford to eat. That type of background can make someone pretty fearless, relaxed about stardom and its durability, and give duration to their professionalism when they do become stars. Keith made it clear he really dislikes the adulation and stardom bit. He's really only in it for the music. Arguably the Stones are even now at their peak, which can also be said of people like David Gilmour.

Keith loved touring America, which he found "endlessly fascinating - after Dartford." Ultimately, though, those experiences took in Altamont, and the true madness of America.

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Modern Horror

A character in 'No Country For Old Men' says, "This country's hard on people. And you can't stop what's coming."

This is actually a film I wish I hadn't seen. The unrelenting nastiness and sheer evil of its psychopathic characters is hard to stomach - all the more so when the decent people in the film are invariably slaughtered for no reason whatever.

It's well made, and very believable, based on a book by Cormac McCarthy, who also wrote "The Road".  America is full of fucked up psychos and semi-psychos, who are inclined towards extreme violence. (As Eddie Izzard once said to a New York audience - "You have all the guns!")

Whether it's drug runners shooting one another with Uzis and shotguns in Texas, or Hell's Angels stabbing and beating innocent concert-goers in far-off Altamont, it's pretty horrific.

Is this the inevitable outcome of any society that refuses to create a welfare state, that glorifies gun culture, that advocates extreme individualism, that pursues extreme materialism, where the gap between rich and poor is stratospheric, and where a decent and intelligent man like Obama is continuously attacked, slandered and vilified in the media?

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The Daily Show

An amazing coup for Jon Stewart this week - Obama agreed to appear live on the show for the entire 30 minutes. America is fortunate indeed to have incredible human beings like Obama and Stewart. Such a shame they're in such a tiny minority.

Stewart has taken it upon himself to organise a major rally in Washington this coming weekend - "The Rally To Restore Sanity".

Michael Tomasky wrote about it today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/27/jon-stewart-rally-for-sanity-america

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_to_Restore_Sanity_and/or_Fear

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Ali On Obama

Tariq Ali also wrote about Obama in his column today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/28/obama-hope-all-hype

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Layer 237 . . . The Meaning of Life

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By tomorrow evening several more funerals will have moved through Torquay crematorium, and to the rest of the world nothing much will have changed. Life will go on much as before.

People will still be out walking in the winter sun on Torbay beaches; dogs will still go bounding after balls; children will still splash through pools on the undulating red sands.

Individual lives (and deaths) have very little significance unless they’re linked to other lives. The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s like the individual atoms or even the cells within the human body, which on their own have no real meaning or significance. It’s only when they’re linked together harmoniously, communicating productively and positively, and working to some common purpose, that they take on any real importance or meaning.

A life well lived and a life that contributes in some way to other lives - that’s a life that’s worthy of remembrance and celebration. We remember those who not only create life but also help to sustain and enrich other lives, whether or not they’ve been involved in creation.

We might admire some of those who relentlessly pursue their own self-interests, and by so doing achieve material prosperity and possibly even celebrity. But do we celebrate their lives, or even remember them with any real affection? Not really. Not if they don’t simultaneously have a positive effect on the wellbeing of others.

Whereas the loss of those who shine light and warmth on others reduces the wellbeing of those others. A light goes out, a sun ceases to shine, and to some degree someone’s world becomes a darker and colder place.

We can live in the dark and the cold. We can survive. We can even prosper. But we remember the way it was when there was light, and warmth, and colour, and comfort.

And it reminds us of our responsibilities to be a source of light and warmth and comfort for others. And so we go on.

And as we continue to enjoy the light that shines from significant others in whose orbit we find ourselves, we provide light and warmth to those who orbit around us. Just as the Earth orbiting around the sun has its darkness illuminated by the light reflecting from the moon that orbits around the Earth.

We cannot thrive in isolation. We cannot exist in a vacuum; and there’s no point in existing in a vacuum.

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Enough with the metaphors already.

At times like these it’s good that we have Ian Dury to listen to. Reasons to be Cheerful. I’m very glad the new film based on his life and work - Sex and Drugs and Rock N Roll - has had good reviews. The man was a genius. An explosion of light and warmth and energy, followed by a long slow burn from his throbbing nuclear heart. A true artist, if ever there was one. His life may be over, but his warmth, wit, energy and light live on in all his works. There ain’t half been some clever bastards - and he certainly was one.

I’m now considering “Fucking Ada” as the final piece of music at my own funeral. (I wonder what Ian had?) I’d like everyone to listen respectfully to the verses, and join in heartily with the choruses. The mad blasts of trumpet and saxophone in the instrumental break are perfect for reflecting on the real meaning of life.
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Layer 221 . . . Part 2 . . . Snippets from the Arts

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Trawling through the arts and TV pages you come across many interesting snippets, and quite a few gems.

From a review of a new film, Jennifer's Body - "Hell is a teenage girl."

From a review of the Letters of Ted Hughes - "The only thing people regret is that they didn't live boldly enough, and didn't love enough. Nothing else really counts at all." And "Hughes's output . . . is vast, ranging from Shakespeare, nature and religion to mink farming."

From a review of Hackney's very own Leona Lewis at the Hackney Empire, by Kitty Empire [no relation] - "Lewis has traded the ugly, mano-a-mano dangers of Hackney for an altogether different calibre of menace - celebrity stalkers. But tonight she's among friends. This is a stadium-ready show crammed into a pocket-sized venue. The production values are stratospheric. This free show in a tiny venue in front of an adoring crowd makes a great rehearsal for Lewis's worldwide tour, planned for next year. But why has it taken Lewis this long [3 years] to play live? Her transformation from local hopeful to anodyne celeb has been a bit too complete. There is some evidence of actual spirit in her. But this is a characterless, if slick performance. Sadly she could be any starlet and this could be anywhere."

From a review of Michael McIntyre at the O2 - MM's incredulous comment on his wife wanting to spend £500 on a clutch bag: "For £500 I could hire a person to walk behind you carrying your lipstick!" Of the designer dress she covets: "No one should spend that much money on something you can't drive."

From Philip French's review of Jane Campion's "Bright Star", a film about John Keats, "It is the man and his work that attracts . . . and as played by Ben Whishaw he's an engaging figure: sociable but socially awkward, proud but not arrogant, a dreamer but not dreamy, and curiously vigorous despite the tuberculosis that so often drags him down . . . "

From Kate Connolly's interview with Nancy Kienholz: "Ed taught me everything I know about art and we worked together for 24 hours a day," says Nancy. It was an intense collaboration, friendship and marriage which worked because she quickly recognised "that art was more important to him than he or I or our children, and once that was clear, it became our focus and it was fun." [Ed and Nancy's biggest environmental sculpture, The Hoerengracht (Whore's Canal) is on show at the National Gallery]

From a piece by Tim Adams about Alan Bennett and his new play, The Habit of Art - Bennett recently wrote, "It seemed to me I had nothing to put into what I wrote; and nor had I. I did not yet appreciate you do not put yourself into what you write, you find yourself there." The habit of art is, above all, a process of self-discovery.


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And on television -

Butcher of the Year? Bloody good idea

The BBC's attempt to find the young butcher of the year makes a refreshing change from the usual reality talent shows, writes Euan Ferguson

By the end everyone's covered in fat and blood and gore, and just-dead entrails, and a host of dirty little unmentionables, and they're all panting, and smiling.

And this is, precisely, the kind of thing your children should be watching. It's been dubbed "Chop Idol", and this programme, about to grace . . . BBC3, could and should lead the way in any bout of whatever the opposite is of hand-wringing – hand-clapping, I assume – over the state of Our Youth Today.

The reality is that this is the most enthralling hour the channel has ever produced. It's to be followed by the three other "best youngs"… mechanic, hairdresser, chef. And, yes, you, like me, may want to quibble a bit at the category choices – where's the engineer/ scientist/ architect etc? – but at least there's no one who has just majored in celebrity tweetlogs from Brooks Polyversity or some such. This is about people who want to learn things, do things, and not be famous: just do the things they do, extremely well.

"I was just astonished," says Justin Preston, one of the judges."They were all about 22, 23 years old, and they simply wanted to be good at what they were good at. No one wanted fame, celebrity, money. They wanted, if anything, to prove that they were simply bloody good at what they did.

"It showed me also that passion can come from anywhere. Every single contestant was utterly determined to… not to show off, just to be good. The winner gets a certificate. That's it. It's like looking at Jamie Oliver. He didn't set out to be a 'celebrity'. He set out to be a good cook. Everything else happened because he cared passionately about it, knew his stuff and spent years knowing his stuff. The rest followed."

Dominic Bird, the executive producer, echoes Justin's thoughts. "It's not meant to be an antidote to X Factor or whatever. But not everyone can sing. People can have just as much satisfaction at being stunningly good at their job, and happy."

These people, all of them, get up at about four in the morning, and saw and cut meat, with such dexterous skill that your jaw drops. With cold hands. And hangovers. They know it all, "from hoof to hook", as Gary put it, but they're still learning and fabulously willing to learn.

"I still read everything I can get my hands on about meat," Justin told me. "You're always learning. There are older guys in this industry who still suddenly shock me with a brilliant new way of cutting. Isn't there an absolute joy in just learning for ever?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/nov/08/young-butcher-of-the-year

It's repeated on BBC3 this evening at 9.00 and 11.45pm.

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Some other little gems on TV this evening -

Imagine - 10.35 BBC1 - Sculptor Anish Kapoor prepares for a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Horizon - 9.00pm BBC2 - How Long Is A Piece of String? String theory, presumably.

Later Live - 10.00pm BBC2 - keeping up with what young people are listening to.

Berlin - 11.20 BBC2 - Matt Frei explores the history of Germany's capital.

How To Look Good Naked - 8.00pm C4 - I love Gok Wan.

Gordon Ramsey's F Word - 10.00pm C4 - still good value.

Jimmy Carr In Concert - 11.05 C4 - irritating, but clever and funny in parts.

Talking Landscapes - 7.30 BBC4 - the Pembrokeshire coast

Life - 8.00pm BBC4 - David A on insects. Stunning photography.

The Daily Show - 8.30pm More4 - the brilliant Jon Stewart and friends.

The Music of Buddy Holly - 8.00pm Sky Arts - documentary

John Lennon: Live in New York - 9.00pm Sky Arts - RIP

In Treatment - 10.00 Sky Arts - Haven't seen it yet but I hear this series is very good.

Sellers Best - 11.00 Sky Arts - the early movie career of Peter Sellers.
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Layer 202 . . . More Shock Doctrine, Asset Sales, Seratonin, Alcohol, Drunken Monkeys, Stalk-Eyed Flies, Flying Fish, and a Choir.

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It's been another kaleidoscopic week, starting with a dinner conversation at the weekend at which I was given the task of providing an instant summary of Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine' for a couple of people who let it be known where they stand on the political spectrum by saying they think we should bring back the death penalty.

It was quite amusing relating in some detail how the CIA carried out experiments back in the sixties on the most effective methods of torture, prior to training fascistic military types around the world on their application in real life situations, such as after a military coup (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, etc) or a war (Iraq) in order to gain information and  track down everyone who could be considered an opponent of the new regime.

My audience were enthralled by Klein's narrative as to how the Chicago School economists trained dictators and the would-be oligarchs on the need to privatise all State assets by selling them off at knock down prices on the basis that the national emergency and the national interest were best addressed by such blatant robbery.

And then blow me down but the very next day we see it plastered all over the news that New Labour have decided to sell off huge chunks of our national assets at knock-down prices because of the national economic emergency. That's right folks – the very same fat cats who crashed the economy, and who then received huge State bail-outs, are now to be handed valuable assets that belong to you and me at ridiculously low prices - assets that can only gain enormously in value as the years go by.

Steve Bell

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/13/gordon-brown-asset-sales
Brown's asset sale: Selling out
Editorial - The Guardian, Tuesday 13 October 2009

"Some date the "anything goes" brand of capitalism back to the City's big bang in 1986. Others trace it back further, to the 1973 oil shock. Either way, the idea that the economy works best when markets allowed to let rip deserved to die with Lehmans. Yet it somehow limps on – not least because Labour lacks the energy to promote any alternative. Even before Gordon Brown was hit by a demand to repay £12,415 in expenses yesterday, his intellectual fatigue was evident in his plans for a fresh sale of state assets.

Flogging assets will not in itself make the exchequer solvent. Sell the Dartford crossing to pay down debt, for instance, and you pay less interest, but also lose a handy line in tolls. The gains outweigh the losses only where, first, private managers can run the assets better and, second, where the state can organise a smart sale. The first condition sometimes applies, but is mostly just assumed; history suggests that the second condition is more often missed than met. In the 1980s, Mrs Thatcher's attitude was "everything must go", and everything easy did. The public ended up shortchanged . . .

As for the recently nationalised banks, although they were not part of yesterday's plan, their share price could soon be at a level where their sale returns to the agenda. After all that has happened, though, there should be no question of any denationalisation without open and vigorous debate. "Private good, public bad" was never a good rule – but it looks plain absurd when it comes to banking after the crunch."

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Cooked a big family roast on Sunday for people who really appreciate perfect crackling on their pork and perfect golden crunchy roast potatoes.

Had an interesting conversation with my son about the effects of alcohol when he came over for a pasta lunch yesterday, and that  very evening watched an interesting (Horizon) documentary on the Beeb about alcohol! It's a complex drug, which mother nature produces of its own accord by combining sugar and yeast. It releases seratonin, and is thus a relaxant, and is likely to allow its consumers to lose their inhibitions. It's also a stimulant, and thirdly it has an anesthetic effect.

The documentary showed some superb footage of monkeys rushing into a hotel garden in the Caribbean in order to steal cocktails – or drink them on the spot – after which they literally staggered back into the surrounding trees. An experiment in which alcoholic drinks were left in a large monkey compound was fascinating, in that it revealed that when a group of monkeys have access to alcoholic drinks 25% of the monkeys didn't touch them, 50% drank them in moderation, and 25% couldn't stay away from them – exactly the same proportion as humans, apparently.

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More television treats last night.

1) Life – BBC4 – the new David Attenborough series, which has been 3 years in the making. This first episode included some amazing film of stalk-eyed flies – the most outrageous creatures ever, which have the ability to somehow pump their eyes out on enormous retractable stalks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalk-eyed_fly

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5795325/BBC-David-Attenborough-Life-series-goes-deeper-than-ever-into-world-of-the-wild.html

The programme also featured incredible shots of flying fish escaping predators, and killer whales that have learnt how to hunt stingrays and seals. One of their techniques is to turn the stingrays on to their backs, which induces immobility from an overdose of seratonin which immediately rushes to the brain.

2) Nature Shock (Channel 5) http://www.five.tv/programmes/documentaries/nature-shock
“This intriguing documentary series examines freak occurrences in the natural world. Whether it's animals behaving oddly or even the planet that perplexes, each episode sees scientists studying baffling phenomena in a bid to understand what Mother Nature's really up to. The reasons behind incidents will vary, but there's one conclusion that we always reach: the world isn't as predictable as we'd like to think.”
This first episode showed evidence of killer whales that have learnt how to hunt great white sharks – by grabbing them and turning them over on to their backs so that they go into a coma that's brought on by an overdose of seratonin . . .
3) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Watch it every weekday at 8.30pm. The man is a genius.
4) The Choir Revisited – BBC2. I missed this series and thoroughly enjoyed this compilation of the best bits plus a reunion of the young choirmaster and the bunch of kids he taught to sing and took to China for the world choir championships. It was actually very moving, and yet another brilliant example of what music and singing can do for some very ordinary and fairly messed up teenagers when they're led to high levels of achievement by someone who's passionate about the power of music. http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/reality-tv/the-choir-bbc2/
“What matters is that you do something well, you care about what you do, and you do it to the best of your ability.” The sense of collective joy in the kids and their parents was pure magic.
5) Black Wax: Gil Scott Heron (Sky Arts) A classic film from 1982, and “His political polemics still resonate today”. They sure do. “Outstanding profile of one of the key figures behind rap music. Gil Scott-Heron is the performance poet, jazzman and the recently-paroled mouthpiece for black America.” “With a seductive fusion of soul, funk, jazz, pop and Afro-ethnic roots, Gil Scott-Heron glows with passion and sincerity. Examine his long-standing influence on rap.”
Catch these on Spotify – Inner City Blues, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, We Beg Your Pardon, Whitey On The Moon, Is That Jazz?, Gun, B Movie, Storm Music, Washington DC, Johannesburg, Winter In America.

To think that with the exception of Sky Arts most of this brilliant stuff is available for free - or for just the cost of a TV license. Anyone who says there's nothing worth watching on TV is an idiot. To see the Attenborough on a big LCD screen is alone worth the investment in the HD TV.
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