homeland

I overcame the gods of travel conspiring against me yesterday evening. First there was a car strewn across the M3 on its side facing the wrong way with its passengers standing on the hard shoulder. This created a 20 minute penalty.

Then there was a brand new Citroen with what looked like the front wheels sticking out sideways collapsed right on the ramp leading to the bridge over the Hogarth's roundabout. Another 30 minute penalty.

So my math for Barbican arrival time changed as I ditched the car in Belgravia cabbed to the venue arriving to that tell tale sign of lateness, an empty lobby.

I sped, guided, through the confusing corridors of the Barbican and snuck into the darkened and candle-lit auditorium and Laurie Anderson was already playing and singing, with a familiar style and a small accompaniment of excellent musicians.

Homeland is a 90 minute work about America, with a mixture of sung and spoken commentary, a few off the wall observations and some ironic humour. As I settled into listening, the new work had a familiarity of style alongside a newness of content and topicality, with references to state control, experts telling experts about problems, US elections, the Iraq war ("anyone can join") as well as more familiar Anderson territory. I liked the segment about being able to look at the stars in wonder, knowing that man had not messed with them, but aware that mankind was reaching, reaching. Oh and that one day the last trumpet might sound, but it would have very sparkly EQ.

There was some voice processing and much signature clapping and percussive loop accompaniment alongside the strong ensemble of Peter Scherer on keyboard, Skuli Sverrisson on bass guitar and Okkyung Lee on violin. I was transported into the moment.

Homeland carries the distinctive form of other Laurie Anderson music, linked together in one continuous performance piece. I thought I'd somehow been remiss in not buying the CD along the way, but it dawned on me that this was all new music and I finally discovered that the album won't be available until 2009.

For me, the evening was like a very enjoyable conversation with a first rate artist performer.


Highline festival version of "Only an expert can deal with a problem"

Barbican

I'll be spending the evening at the Barbican to see Laurie Anderson performing Homeland. Always entertaining experimental art music, but I find friends back away when I suggest listening.

One of Laurie Anderson's set pieces is a series about America called United States I-IV, and the Homeland piece is a kind 2008 extension of the thinking. I can still remember buying United States I-IV during a trip to New York. When I visit Manhattan, I like to take back a small carry-on artifact such as an "I love NY" mug, Statue of Liberty pencil sharpener or some fake Oakleys from Canal Street.

On this particular occasion, I was visiting the really small sushi bar in Bleecker Street with Steve when I spotted the Laurie Anderson "United States" boxed set in the window of Generation Records. I didn't buy it then, because the sushi was calling, but the next day it was still in the window until I removed it. A perfect New York souvenir.

I met this guy - and he looked like might have
been a hat check clerk at an ice rink.
Which, in fact, he turned out to be.

And I said:
Oh boy. Right again.

Let X=X. You know, it could be you.
It's a sky-blue sky. Satellites are out tonight.
Let X=X.

You know, I could write a book. And this book would
be thick enough to stun an ox. Cause I can see the
future and it's a place - about 70 miles east of
here. Where it's lighter. Linger on over here.

Got the time? Let X=X.

I got this postcard. And it read, it said:
Dear Amigo - Dear Partner.
Listen, uh - I just want to say thanks. So...thanks.
Thanks for all the presents. Thanks for introducing
me to the Chief.

Thanks for putting on the feedbag. Thanks for going
all out.

Thanks for showing me your Swiss Army knife.
and uh -
Thanks for letting me autograph your cast.
Hug and kisses.

X X X X zero zero zero zero
Oh yeah, P.S.
I - feel - feel like - I am - in a burning building - and I
gotta go.
Cause I - I feel - feel like - I am - in a burning
building - and I gotta go.
Let X=x

vote-tastic?

Almost disenfranchised today when I attended my polling station, to discover the building is being reconstructed and that the polling station is now elsewhere.

So my early morning vote didn't happen.

Last time I voted I was literally the first vote caster in the Polling Station. This time, I'll be joining the rush late in the day when I can get to the replacement venue.

Meantime, it will be interesting to see how the London Mayoral election plays out during on the day, after the Stannit showed Boris last night with a majority and the Grauniad has written a six page article on why Boris is bad for London.

twistori

I've been using twitter for a little bit more than a year, but in the early days it was a bit like having only one half of a telephone in use.

Nowadays it seems to have reached a critical mass, so rashbre central now has a twitter feed embedded, as well as a way to publish 'tweets' from the blog entries. If you don't know what I'm talking about then a quick flip across to twitter.com could explain more about it.

In the meantime, people are now experimenting with twitter streams, like the one I show here from twistori, which intercepts twitter messages with 'i love, i hate, i think, i feel, i believe, i wish' and publishes them as a stream.

Can be quite fascinating.

GTA IV - a walk in the park?

When I've visited Vegas, I've had a great time without spending gazillions at the tables. In fact, the last time, I didn't even play a slot machine. But enough of that, what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas etc.

I suppose its the same with the new car game that everyone in London (nay, on the gaming part of the planet) seemed to be queuing for (even if Zavvi actually had stacks and stacks of the thing).

Grand Theft Auto IV just hit the stores in a superb wave of Potter-esque 'open the stores at midnight' marketing and seems to have sent everyone who likes console games into rapt glee despite its gang violence related to car theft.

So the idea of using it for a bit of sightseeing of a kind of Sin City version of New York wasn't necessarily on the minds of the creators. However, as long as you don't mind getting grenaded occasionally, then its not a bad way to cruise the Hudson in a boat, admire bridges and skylines and take a look around some of the less well heeled streets of the metropolis.

I know that is not the intent of the game (which is all about rags to riches goodfellas style gangland activities), but, like Las Vegas, it seems a pity to waste all the clever scenery.

You can tell I don't really PLAY console games - not even at the TW@ internet cafes in GTA IV. No more bets, please.

slick

Oystering around town today. West End, City and Canary Wharf. A combination of tube and buses. By tonight the papers are showing that Boris could win the London mayoral elections.

This is a tough one to have a proper opinion about because it seems to be about who can dress in the most unusual costume, who can get a candid picture in a pie shop with another politician or on a train reading the Londoner and what does each candidate think about bendy buses and noveau Routemasters. I'm sure I'm missing something.

its thundery weather

Yesterday, I was reading a few bloggers talking about not being able to think of topics for blogging as I flitted around the interweb.

Sometimes I think its a function of time as much as a function of ideas. The act of blogging for me is still much less than the moves of the activists reviewing, say, the upcoming Olympics and taking steps onto a street to raise their voices about injustices and reforms needed in China. Or maybe the those concerned for their futures and indirectly creating the fuel panic buying now defining that a tankful for my car costs around £85 ($170). Its all a question of degrees.

We get caught it our own little worlds and then the commodity that becomes precious is time, creating strange and personal priority lists for all of us. Add a few moments for domestic chores and the discretionary spending time available to comment or think on big topics becomes significantly marginalised.

Dylan Moran for Doctor Who?

Anyone else watch Doctor Who? I still do most weeks, for that feeling of family entertainment. And like the old series, there's usually a few clues about plotlines built in.

The early reappearance of Rose "she will return" including the somewhat superfluous soothsaying, the reference to "something on your back" (Monkey? invisible spider? mind controller? guilt of betraying the Doctor later in series?) when talking to Catherine Tate and the subtle use of the so called Doomsday tune to herald, perhaps, the demise of Tennant by the end of this series, or even before the end so that Rose and co can go find him.

My guess is that they'll do a temporary substituion of a female Doctor (Jennifer Saunders) before bringing in the next replacement (not James Nesbitt, please!).

The old rashbre central campaign site from 2005 sits forlornly recommending Dylan Moran and, hey, maybe Fran as the sidekick, but I'm beginning to wonder if the controllers have ever read it. They should. DMFDW.

And, of course, we should use an old Doctor Who as a new Master somewhere along the way.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, DrWho, Doctor+Who, Torchwood, plot, rose, tardis, dalek, Catherine+Tate, Dylan+Moran, dmfdw,

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.