sun

Its official. Now the blackbird has started sunning itself in the garden, it must be proper Spring.

Three weeks ago we had snow, then a couple of weeks of greyness, but now the proper barbecue weather is appearing and I've just checked that the outdoor wi-fi is still functional.

engineering of consent

There's something clarifying about seeing Eckhart Tolle saying "this is now" whilst he makes a point about freeing the mind and enjoying the moment. He's in 1GiantLeap's film of 'what about me?' which deals, in its first chapter, with bombardment.

That's the mediated bombardment of the senses via ueber communication. So living in the Now is about filtering the noise from the system to get back to basics. Its about removing the fear that gets put into the messaging from marketeers to their targets. If this sounds simply Orwellian, it takes the ideas further, into Chomsky's views on the mechanics of control and the need to free the mind and lose the static.

Jamie and Duncan from 1GiantLeap took their leap into this project over a year ago when they started to travel the world to explore themes around media, communication, beliefs, love, freedom and grace. They have built a content rich set of activist ideas, with global influencers and thinkers from many groundings, linked together with the thread of music.

Just watching it I found myself jigging for joy with some of the rhythms and wanting to talk to the television (which I consider a good sign, even if others wish to restrain me).

The show's nature as an encapsulation of many sources makes it more a series of inspirational vectors, rather than a means to fully articulate within the format. What is interesting is that just about every frame adds value. There's so much in the first episode that it serves as an object lesson to other documentary makers with tired formats and repetitive establishing shots.

As is often the way, the schedulers have decide to use the 'after midnight' slot on C4 for this programme, so I guess it attains a somewhat rarified audience (the scheduling also reinforces some of the points made in the programme). Perhaps the word of blog references will help broaden the audience.

Production extract from Chapter 1 : Bombardment -

ungood

Significantly early for a meeting, I made the chilling mistake of stopping at a Westbound motorway services station. I know, you can hear the Hitchcock Psycho music already.

I save the location's blushes as I describe the pitiful scene which greeted me. Shops were closed, the coffee bar was blocked off with red and white tape. The other 'eating area' was also partially blocked off but did have breakfast food and coffee. I paid the small King's ransom for a cup of frothy brown water and sat in the area which had an aroma reminiscent of incontinent camel. The jangly recreation of 1990 pop music blinged away in the background to make me feel happy, until the industrial floor cleaner sallied forth with its 97 decibels of cleansing. I looked away from the area of this noise just as the hobnailed workman arrived to start tapping the floor to the side of where I was seated.

Back in the dark ages, there used to be a song about places like this with a verse that went something like: "Watford Gap, Watford Gap, a plate of grease and a load of crap" but this was apparently expunged from its EMI long player because an EMI board member was also a non-executive director of Blue Boar (the owners of the service station).

Its author was right.

low road

I've been trying to work out who is taking the lowest road at the moment. Is it Hilary Clinton's scare tactic campaigning in Pennsylvania or some of the strange twists by Gordon and Alistair with the UK taxation adjustments?

Hilary seems happy to win ugly; its about winning at any cost - which presumably carries through to the subsequent real election of the new President.

Here in Britain, the replacement of Gordon seems to be more optional. It could have been via an election last October, but voting is probably now not until May 2010. Unless there is some good luck for the Labour Party and he decides to go for an earlier general election.

As wheels fall off the economy and decision making on things like taxation is being botched by Chancellor Darling we see the last minute rescue attempts around the 10p tax debacle. No-one from Government really knows how much the repayment of the tax would cost. My guess is if it affects 5 million taxpayers at maybe £300 per head, then its £1.5bn. A mere drop compared with some of the other decisions. Of course, I've made those numbers up, but thats because no-one from the Government will release any figures (even after they claim to have been working on this for 2 months). Suspicious or what?

So the scene could be set for some instability in the UK leadership as the chain of events which includes: the management of the big picture finance, the civil service inefficiencies, the dithering on decisions, the botched recent US visit and now the taxation 'corrections' all start to stack up.

I can't see Gordon giving in easily, but I wonder if he now needs to see someone else get replaced as a sign of strength. I'm sure Hilary would know how to be ruthless in the interests of holding power.

dragon

Another St George's Day passes almost unnoticed. The English are not very good at celebrating their Saint's Day.

Our Turkish Saint was popularised by Caxton in the story about the dragon. Terrorised villagers fed daily sheep to the dragon, escalating the menu to tasty townsfolk. Strangely the King's daughter became a candidate entree and George became the dragon stunning rescuer.

Smoothy George uses the princesse's underwear to bridle the dazed dragon to be led into the village. Rejoicing and baptisms followed but ended in tears for the dragon, finally slain by George.

no money pit

Artists impression of 2012
The banking debt hole I've written about previously is becoming easier to spot and now we see banks looking for ways to cover their part of the hole. I wonder if the banks concerned will continue to sponsor expensive sports like Grand Prix racing as a result of the need for frugality?

The big numbers have provided an ideal time to announce the miscalculation of the Olympics funding, where the original estimates of £4bn seem to now be north of £9bn.

I wonder if the old "take the number you first thought of and multiply by four" will ultimately apply for this grand project.

At the original amount, it worked out to around £150 per taxpayer, now its around £350 and using my 4x calculation it would go to £650. Using the £9m calculation it works out to about £4.50 a month per taxpayer between now and the start of the Games, assuming the Lottery puts up a couple of billion. I see private industry is still in for $150 million, although that is a bit of a rounding error on the general calculation.

Another way to look at it is to take £9bn and estimate the daily burn rate. Using rough maths, where a year has 220 working days, its about 900 days to start of the Games, which is around £10m per day spending rate, assuming it was linear.

I expect to see charts.

Current status 2008

black squirrel in the garden

There's been much talk of the urban grey squirrels seeing off the rural red squirrels in London and that only the North of England, Scotland and the Isle of Wight still have the red squirrels. Now there is also talk of black 'super squirrels'. I had an urban squirrel moment today when, like something from a movie, a helicopter was hovering around the back of the house.

I managed to snap a quick picture, somewhat fuzzy, and then with the miracle of Aperture turned a blurred dot into a recognizable form, complete with the tail identification of G-NTWK. A quick google later and I could piece it together as a Aérospatiale AS 355F2 Ecureuil 2 'Squirrel' helicopter working for Network Rail and presumably looking for some track to inspect with the prominent camera.

I suppose its a black and yellow squirrel.

abuse of power comes as no surprise

I'll admit it. I'm a closet Granta reader. Have been for ages. Granta calls itself the magazine of new writing. And it is. Except its a book and has very few adverts.

But it always has great content and what makes it interesting is also that there will be a mix of really new writing and some existing well known authors experimenting or providing some form of topical commentary, which can't always directly make it to their fiction for timeliness or experimental reasons.

The Spring 2008 issue landed a couple of days ago and I just opened it to get the endorphic buzz from the very special ink they use which persists aromatically for a few days but is always strongest at the moment of first inspection. I really can be found with my nose buried in a book when Granta arrives.

This copy is also a little different. They have adapted the format ever so slightly. The intriguing thing about Granta's 'look' is that it has always appeared like a capsule from the near future and they continue to make minor styling adjustments to achieve this. The new editor Jason Cowley has also added some very short sections to the front and even a letters page, for feedback. At this rate it will really become a magazine. Not bad from origins back in 1889. They are also about to drop the modern archives into their web site and add some new daily content.

So I'll pick an article or two. First up is one of my heroes, Douglas Coupland (yes, he of Generation X and the amazing "Girlfriend in a coma"). He writes about (Maximum Bob take note) Visual Thinking and how, last summer in Vancouver he attended a screening of the (cult) movie classic "Helvetica". He describes how he wanted to hold a pennant with "Helvetica Neue(T1) 75 Bold" to show his allegiance. That he thinks in Helvetica. That the world has different reading audiences and and he writes for the Mac users - the visual thinkers. That some people get this and the rest don't for they are the PC thinkers. Medium and message melt together.

Or maybe the Paris Intifada, where Andrew Hussey writes about the banlieue outside the boulevards peripheriques which mark the edge zone of Paris and the million immigrants who live in this area, in varied groupings by nationality and religion. The Bagneux zone of Arabs and West Africans and the contrast with the Semite areas of Rancy. Ghosts may walk in the daylight of Paris but I'm not sure that Sarkozy has figured any form of exorcism.

By now I'm around page 50 of 280 and I've only picked quickly at a couple of the articles. There's another about Beijing and their attempts to banish the past in time for the Olympics and Annie Proulx has a short story next to a photo essay about the Arctic.

You'll detect my enthusiasm. Check it out.

hard drive failure

It happens to everyone who uses computers. The annoying failure of a hard drive. Nowadays I back up the home system using Apple's Time Machine, which somehow backs up everything every time a computer is somewhere that the network can see it. The only trouble is, a few days ago the backup disk itself went wrong.

The lights still came on when I restarted it, but I could hear a little clicking from inside the case. The disk contained the backups of a couple of other computers. I've had similar problems before with disks that I use to store video.

Each time, the fix has been the same. A new power supply brick. £25. Problem solved with no screwdrivers. I've just tried the same with this broken unit and it worked. The replacement power unit has boosted the drive back into action.

I must admit I'm suspicious, but I now I've swapped out three of these 'bricks' and each time the disks work again, so I'm posting this as a hint to others. One was a Lacie Big Drive and the other two occasions have been iomega Ultramax. All three were terabyte - perhaps that should be terrorbyte.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, hard+drive, failure, power+supply, lacie, iomega, backup, disk, disc,

Billy Bragg Rough Trade Brick Lane

Shoreditch is an area famous for markets, Brick Lane and curry houses. The pubs like the "Edie Sedgwick meets Sweeney Todd" Commercial Tavern where we met are geared up for the night-time drinking at any time. They do this by making the interiors very dark, lighting candles and it really works. More a staging post than a destination. We were holed up there before taking the short walk to a record store - Rough Trade - as part of Independent Record Store Day.

The shop is just off of Brick Lane by the old Truman's Brewery and was pretty busy when we arrived. A DJ set was playing with members of an ex techno kraut rock band called Can. We were waiting for the man from Essex to show up with his guitar and a few minutes later, there was the click of a telecaster styled guitar being plugged for action.

Then we were all asked to move forward a bit which meant we were right by the speakers. "How loud?" asked Billy as he started. "Louder" came the response. And then a set of well known goodies played with Billy Bragg's characteristic style, interspersed with banter which included some stories of his own time working in a record shop which sold remaindered Indian vinyls.

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because I dress like this
Doesn't mean I'm a narcissist

The factories are closing and the army's full -
I don't know what I'm going to do
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free
There's only a future for the Chosen Few

Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards

An excellent set; we all left happy, with smiles on our faces and a ringing in our ears. Kudos to all involved. No video from the event, but here's one I prepared earlier

Gone with the Wind

In Drury Lane to see the new production of "Gone with the Wind", which is still in preview, with the press night next week.

Most people have seen the film of Margaret Mitchell's American Civil War story, with scheming Scarlett O'Hara and philandering Rhett Butler played this time by Jill Paice and Darius Danesh,

The largish 1960s New London Theatre in Drury Lane used to be the home to the musical Cats and maybe could do with a southern states makeover on the way in to the show.

The iconic Selznick film was around three and a half hours and this musical production is of a similar length. The cast of around 35 people work their way through more or less the same story as in the film, but with the supplement of around 10-15 two to three minute musical numbers. This creates a significant logistical challenge; how to tell the full story whilst simultaneously incorporating the musical numbers. One approach is to tell the story quite fast and in some cases bridge parts of it with spoken commentary. They do this frequently, although one gets the impression that there has already been some fairly heavy pruning to get the length to 3h30.

I believe Trevor Nunn has directed this production, and I have a few suggestions to turn a moderate show into a very strong one.

1) Revisit the musical score. Try to put a theme or two which run though the length of the production. Give the audience something to take away. There needs to be a couple of memorable hooks.

2) Adapt the way that the music is played. Its quite syrupy in places, with more musical parts than really makes sense. Some of the 'slave' numbers could sound better acapella. The harp used in the Irish number is okay, but don't then incorporate it into every other number. Make more use of the southern states instruments like the banjo instead of creating a sort of light orchestral musical soundtrack. Use the piano, the guitar more - for example, the harmonica works well in a few places. More on-stage instruments would also be better.

3) Get rid of the superfluous narrative "she walked back to the house" whilst she walks back to the house and similar. People around me were fidgeting during some of these pieces.

4) Find some further pieces to cut out. Its really too long at the moment and another 20 or even 30 minutes shaved off wouldn't do any harm. If necessary drop some storyline instead of cramming everything with high speed speech. Decide which of the scenes and set pieces really add something. The revolving bed birth scene can go for starters. What does the little boy with the Oliver wig do in the show?

5) If needed use the overhead flag as a media projection area to tell some pieces with pictures or short video. Trust me it would work better.

6) Take careful stock of some of the more awkward sections, like when the woman is dying in bed but then unpredictably breaks into a song. I cringed and the people behind me burst out laughing and I'm sure that wasn't the intended effect. This ain't la Traviata: 'Gran Dio! morir si giovane '.

7) Character empathy is difficult when so much is crammed into the available time. I don't think 'Ashley' cut a very sympathetic character, yet would be a pivotal part of the original book and film.

8) Recognise that some of the lines from the film are 'classic quotes' and play them well. I could sense the audience flinch when one of the famous lines was more or less thrown away by Scarlett.

9) A little gentle humour would help. Make one of the guys waving the flag a comic figure. There are already plenty of bland heros and it gives the audience a point of identification.

10) The slaves really blasted out their numbers well. A couple more spots from them creates a counterpoint to the other songs. They could still be singing part of the story, but it could work better and be a way to précis a bigger piece of the action. Sharpen the points of view within the Tara household.

Why so many suggestions?

I suppose I want to try to stay positive and constructive. The actors in this seemed to be trying to deliver a good performance, but are hampered by the production. Its a great shame because this is a bold show to attempt and has the potential to be a runner if it is done right.

At the moment it gives the impression that it still needs more work on the production and so I hope Trevor 'les miz' Nunn and a helper or too are thinking strongly about how to get this into good shape and not simply by more marching on the spot with flags or running in circles over bodies. They're both in Trev's French musical.

The ending of the show stays linked with that of the film, although it was disconcerting to see a few rude people leaving 'a la soccer match' before the final goal, so to speak. I gather they lose around 100 during the interval, but I suppose we really need a trend analysis to see which way this is heading.

I'm told by my rational accomplices that the pre-end departures were a consequence of people not wanting to miss 'last trains home' although I suppose this could also affect the mid-week audience attendance.

Being a Friday, we just decided to move on to the nearby Rock Garden for the next stage of our evening. Last trains? Pah!

The critics get to see this next week. I hope they don't just go for the headline clichés about 'Frankly, I don't give a damn' (already on all of the tee-shirts on sale) although at the moment the show teeters between a strong idea and something still in need of more musical and production work.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, gone+with+the+wind, london, jill+paice, darius+danesh, trevor+nunn, drury+lane, theatre, theater, west+end, musical, scarlett, rhett,

independent record store day

I buy music from varied sources; record shops, supermarkets, the internet and amazon. I see that today is intended to be a celebration amongst independent record stores of their form of retailing. I'll try to drop by a store if I can - but of course with the march of zavvi, HMV and Tesco there are fewer and fewer independent record stores left, except in sometimes more unusual locations often on the edge of town.

I'm hoping to drop by Rough Trade, who should be throwing a mini celebration of their own - then maybe a curry in Brick Lane.