Tuesday 28 April 2009

Spa Talent

The following was received  by junction point 234......... 
Narrow beam communication with no security priority.....
Believed to be some sort of 'light relief' for the admiralty....
Performance profile attached....

Transmission starts...

Its cool warm Friday evening. We're sat in Conservative Cheltenham. Our ears are being assaulted in the only way new jazz knows how. It takes real concentration, I feel tired by it. Tired in the same way I'm tired by an intellectual Book or filtering through motorway traffic on a motorcycle. I love both. 
Dale
Campbell does this. He assembles some people who are a little outside of the everyday, people who somehow, through all the lack of grassroots in this pretty spa town, have actually done IT. Originality on a plate. Take it. Take them. Their yours.
So whats the
craic?
Ricky Tart is a stand up, rapping, dancing
smorgasbord of entertainment. The girls swoon. 
Fire In The Cave have a talented drummer, some sort of crazy evasive bass player and some bloke from the Guillemots. 
Dale Campbell does his familiar yet no less startling guitar assault.
The not quite quartet are Ricky and Dale. Ricky does the jokes, Dale wields his guitar.
Did you like that? Come to the Frog and Fiddle on the last Friday of every month. Its available for you delectation... 

There are no bones to be made. This is the new edge.

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Tuesday 21 April 2009

Speaking

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Indeed it is difficult to swallow anything that comes forth from the lips of a man who openly denies the holocaust, sites the destruction of Israel as a central aim of his government and enforces an anti-liberal attitude on his population but...
The staged walk out of various 'western' delegates at the UN yesterday was one of (as the man himself put it); 
"Arrogance and selfishness"
For such an apparent extremist to begin his speech by not only praising Allah but also mentioning Abraham and Jesus the Christ was actually a nod of respect to those who stand in the other domains of Yahweh. It had been mooted that various delegates had threatened to walk out if The Bearded Man uttered a word out of turn. 
So, at a conference about racism  he decided to label the Israeli government racist.
Correct!
Give that man a prize!
Indeed it is no less racist than his very own government but as he later stated;
"...everybody must enjoy the right to freely express his or her opinions... we should not be intolerant of listening to the opinions of others...."
Surely that's what the UN is. A sort of international Parliament?
No?
Oh.
Then what is it?

Transmission ends.... 

Wednesday 8 April 2009

High Street Charity

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Things had not started well. An anxiety dream followed by waking up, having a nose bleed and banging my head on the bathroom door handle had led to the brewing of a foul mood. Bad news from the bank and shuffling savings into bills added to the sombre mood. Radio 4 spoke of children so badly raped that they themselves would never have children. I had left the house, walked down to the high street and been drag netted by the usual smiley, slightly bo-ho looking charity raisers. This time something within me gave in. I stood and listened to the insufferable evil that the everyday decides to impose on the poor in certain areas of Brazil. Frankly this type of charity hard selling irritates me. It is too smiley, too happy, too idealistic, naive, insert more of the same here...
But then...
The voice that says these things is the very apathy I rant about to others. The very antipathy of why I write this blog. I signed up. As I walked away I turned to see the girl who had sold me the charity smiling to herself. It could have been a quip by a colleague, it could have been the pleasure of the sell, but something deeper glowed from her face....

Transmission ends.....