Solar Power via the Moon

Addressing the imbalance following yesterday's lengthy muse, I bring you this short piece; to some it's old rope, but to others it's news. Comrades, brothers, and sisters: the future. Read.

Musical Tragedies - Richey James Edwards

Those readers who have developed an astute taste in Radiohead will know of the late, great Humphrey Littleton who played the trumpet on Amnesiac's most brilliant track, Life in a Glasshouse. I hope I haven't given myself enough rope to hang myself with here, but I've generously uploaded the song for those readers who haven't come across it before. Click this link. The media following surrounding his death shows the influence he bestowed upon those people he came across. Bryan points out that the last words he spoke during the final episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue were: "I wish I could tell you how much I've enjoyed it [pause] But I'm not allowed to before 9pm." His passing brought me to thoughts of other tragedies in music, which brings one to the obvious examples of Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, etc. But let us share a moment for the lesser known losses to contemporary music. Jeff Buckley's untimely death left us with only one complete album, illuminated by his definitive rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. There was nothing mysterious about his death, no clouding of facts due to drug overdoses or alcohol consumption, he simply drowned whilst swimming in a tributary to the Mississippi River. He was thirty years old. Although this event is well known, we forget the latent ability still clearly possessed by Buckley at the time of his death. His debut promised great things to come, and he was currently writing alone for his next album when living in Memphis, Tennessee. Similarly, an even lesser known example is that of Richey James Edwards, the rhythm guitarist of the Manic Street Preachers up until 1st February 1995. If, like me, you respect the 'Manics' as being the best band to have ever come out of Wales, you'll know of their discography from 1992 to the present. Richey was initially enrolled into the group as a helping hand for the road on tour, but he soon became integral to the bands writing process, and later took to the stage with the band to strum at his guitar or simply mime the chords. During an interview with the now well-known Steve Lamacq, Richey carved the words '4 REAL' into his fore-arm as a demonstration of his, and the band's integrity after a comment from Lamacq suggesting they were untrue to their punk roots. Evidently, he was a highly troubled individual, who often suffered from self-harm and anorexia. Indeed, in 1994 he checked himself into a self-help clinic in London, The Priory. However, despite his many ills, his intellect and dramatic influence manifested itself in the band's early material, arguably reaching its peak during the 1994 release, The Holy Bible. This release has been accredited as the most lyrically profound album of all time by the NME and others, yet it boasts a significantly different sound to the band's later albums, such as their alternative masterpiece, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, including their only international hit, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. Richey was due to fly to America with lead singer, James Dean Bradfield, on the day of his disappearance. At 7am on the morning of 1st February he checked out of the Bayswater Hotel in London having withdrawn two-hundred pounds from a cash point. Later that week he was seen at the Newport Passport Office and then picked up by a taxi driver in the Newport area. He was escorted round the many sights of South Whales and then dropped off at the Severn Bridge. He paid the fare in cash. On 17th February Richey's car was reported as abandoned near to the Severn Bridge's Service Station. There have been no verified sightings of Richey since, and many suspect him to have committed suicide, as the Severn Bridge, connecting Whales to mainland Britain, is considered to be a renowned suicide location. Yet just a few months earlier he was recorded in saying: "In terms of the 'S' word, that does not enter my mind. And it never has done, in terms of an attempt. Because I am stronger than that. I might be a weak person, but I can take pain." There have been supposed sightings of him in Goa, India and the islands of Lanzarote; others believe him to be residing in a monastry. He regularly wore a cross round his neck or through his ear, yet he was contemplative about the role of religion in society, as shown in his last televised interview. The remaining members of the band to this day hold a bank account in Richey's name where they store 25% of all their earnings should he wish to return. This, surely, is one of music's most tragic circumstances. Check the web for the many video tributes left in his name. He was a turbulent individual, but remarkably talented with a dormant intelligence that graced the music and lyrics he wrote. I appreciate calling this to your attention.

Stewart Lee

On complaints received by the BBC following a performance by Charlotte Church at the Royal Variety Performance:

"What's more disgusting, right, a woman onstage with her organs hanging outside her body with her skin all inside out singing Andrew Lloyd Webber while thousands of people in the audience and at home vomit, or, the institution of the monarchy?"

Not my words, unfortunately, but the words of the brilliant Stewart Lee. If you harbour any feelings for Stewart Lee, part of the comic genius behind Spitting Image, Alan Partridge, and Jerry Springer The Opera, I recommend you take the time to watch his stand-up performance in Glasgow 2004. Also, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll certainly appreciate this short documentary he made about religion in the UK and its discontents.

The BBC

Reverting to a slightly less serious topic, television piracy has created an issue that I need to get off my chest. Just recently two individuals were prosecuted here at the University of Arizona for downloading music illegally. Despite there being a perfectly legal download site available to us students, they chose not to use it, and the industry's waxing and waning happened to fall badly for the pair. Needless to say, this does make you think twice when you click that button. However, allow me to divulge my own situation. Being a non-resident of America (having a permanent citizenship in the United Kingdom) I pay a TV license fee that enables me to legally watch the BBC on television and take advantage of all the other online, radio, and multimedia benefits. Yet when I travel abroad, the BBC assumes that I'm a foreigner and, therefore, withdraws some of its services. For example, if I want to listen to the next England match on BBC Radio 5, I can't because it doesn't fall under the free service bracket that the BBC provides. Everyone recognises the World Service and other international delights, yet when I want to stream an episode of Match of the Day, or The Apprentice, I can't. What's more, given the time of year, I'm currently missing the wonder of the World Championship Snooker at Sheffield. How awful, I'm sure you'd agree. And so, this forces me to illegal download sites (namely torrents), which allow me to download via peer-to-peer networks. I feel perfectly justified in doing so, and I couldn't see how anyone would argue otherwise. Yet what I propose is an identification system for travelling British citizens. Surely the BBC has the technology to identify licence-paying customers whenever they travel abroad with a simple log-in registration online. In this way, through my computer I could access all the joys of television, radio, etc. from my current position. Tell a friend.

The Catholic Church and Child Rape

Some have argued that Gordon Brown received inconsequential coverage in comparison to the pope during their coinciding trips to the US. Yet, Mr Brown and his group of croons haven't come under increasing pressure from a lack of supporters. Oh, well, maybe they have. But one thing that we do not associated with the New Labour of Britain is child rape. We need not remind ourselves of the atrocities committed by numerous cardinals across the UK, let alone the States, only exacerbated recently by the polygamy scandal in Texas; admittedly a Mormon cult, but still followers of gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Obviously, the pope may be deluded, but he certainly isn't stupid, and so he called for mass prayer this January in a vain attempt to rid the guilty priesthood of impure thoughts. I'm sure this is what compelled Christopher Hitchens to write about the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church a fortnight ago in Slate. If the Vatican is serious about ridding child-abuse from the church, he asks, "Why is the Vatican continuing to shelter Cardinal Bernard Law?" So, when the pope actually addressed his audience regarding this matter, I thought there must be a god. However, it all seems rather shallow, as evidenced by this article in The Times. The whole debacle merely acts to compound the suggestion that religious passions, sensibilities, and doctrines provide a sinister conduit for debauched behaviour that wouldn't even be considered by an emotionally sound person untouched by "sacred" texts. This is a deep topic discussed briefly by Prof. Daniel Dennet in The Times this morning as an introduction to his debate with the Jew, Lord Winston. Recommended reading.

YouTube Saturday

YouTube spreads its wings more and more every day it seems, and I'm ashamed of myself for not having come across this sooner: Laughing Baby. If you can watch this without crying with tears of joy you're a stronger man than me. Also for your viewing enjoyment, the greatest snooker player to ever live, Ronnie O'Sullivan sets the world record for the fastest ever maximum break, but proves why he's a troubled talent here and here. And Alex Higgins, everyone's favorite dissident, proves why he deserves your respect, but like Ronnie, is also a troubled talent.

Why the blog?

A-ha! At last, five minutes of uninterrupted peace to update my increasingly sporadic blog. Just enough time then to tell you why I blog. Many people ask me for my motives behind continuing this blog (into its eighth month). Well, dear reader, do not panic, but you are merely an afterthought. Writing is an activity that lends itself to me. I do not necessarily wish to write daily on a public noticeboard, but it is something I feel I have to do. Every day when I glide over articles, publications, and other miscellaneous information, thoughts and opinions come to definite fruition. These, I'm often happy to say, force me to this site as an outlet for my anger, compassion, or opinion. And so, for me, writing is a compulsion; a trait I share with numerous other writers, such as the lay-genius, George Orwell. And, whilst I have your attention, I recently read Christopher Hitchens' Letters to a Young Contrarian, a fantastic book for someone like me who considers themselves a bit of an intellectual rebel. It is the first book that I have ever read without putting down, cover to cover, pleasantly drawing the attention away from the monotony of the Phoenix-to-London flight I was aboard. I highly recommend it as everyday reading, reminding you of your own sanity; think Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground as non-fiction.

Radiohead. Creep. Dickhead.

This weeks edition of Movie Reviews on BBC Radio Five Live saw the temporary departure of Mark Kermode and the return of Hardeep Singh, best known for being fired by Sir Alan Sugar during the comic relief version of The Apprentice. Given this weeks release of Shine a Light, the Rolling Stones 'Rockumentary', Hardeep plundered to the cinema and gave a fairly disappointed review of the film as a whole (an opinion echoed later by the team on Newsnight Review). However, he did then ask the listeners to chime in with their own personal favorite music documentary, apart from the obvious, This is Spinal Tap. One listener emailed in with Some Kind of Monster, a documentary made around Metallica while making their 2003 album, St. Anger. Mr Singh agreed with the sentiments of such listener and so I felt compelled to download and watch it with curious eyes. I certainly was not disappointed, and even though the film lasts for well over two hours, I was gripped to the drama as it unfolded before me. Fascinating. However, had I not been listening to the reviews later as a podcast I would have emailed in with my own suggestion: Radiohead - Meeting People is Easy. Please disregard my undeniable bias and here me out. This is a fantastic piece, far removed from the world of cinema, documentary and rockumentary, this comes as close to artistic film as is possible without breaching the realms of pretension. What follows is a series of circumstances, beautifully encapsulating the band's frame of mind in intricate detail. There is nothing more to say about the film, but anyone who has seen it, and I'm sure some readers of this blog will have, would say exactly what I have. Watch this film.

Child Pornography

Oh, how the topics of this blog have varied, dear reader! I find myself on the brink of supporting free speech in defence of child pornography. But wait, keep the phone on the hook for now. I simply wish to draw your attention to this piece. In May 2005 an Arizona man, aged 57 with no previous criminal record, was sentenced to 200 years in jail. Why? Did he rape a baby? Did he hack away at the genitals of a newborn boy with a sharp stone without the divine permission of God? No. He downloaded 20 images of child pornography. Vulgar, yes, but without context. A single case of possessing inappropriate images results in a ten year prison term, without the chance of early release. And, in these instances, it is not eligible to be served concurrently. In other words, jail terms have to be served consecutively for each conviction. Hence, 200 years. Now...call me a paedophile...but surely, downloading several pictures of a little boy/girl, is not quite as bad as killing someone (an act, which under Arizona law, often procures a 22 year jail sentence). There seems to be some imbalance here. Not only that, but convictions of second degree murder can be served concurrent with other convictions. So, if I killed someone whilst drunk-driving I would be charged with second degree murder and DWI (driving while intoxicated), but then serve the jail time concurrently and be freed after 22 years. However, if i was to download two pictures of a stranger having sex with a twelve-year-old, I would go down for forty years. Say what you want, dear reader, but one is not as bad as the other; any glowing essence of human solidarity would tell you which. Lest we forget that this man did not perpetrate any act against a child, but merely stood by. In a removed sense, this equates to remanding a man for funding the 9/11 attacks through buying heroin off a shady crackpot on a street corner.

Hitchens v. Hitchens

Granted, this isn't the first time that Christopher Hitchens and Peter Hitchens have come to do battle. These independent thinking brothers have met before in England to debate, and I've heard them both argue relentlessly about the war in Iraq on radio before now. However, this video shows them debate together for the first time on American soil, only a couple of weeks ago. It always provides intense viewing as your never quite sure whether tensions will fray just enough for a familial fall-out. (It is well documented that their relationship was fraught with anger for a couple of years before their apparent reconciliation roughly a year ago.) They even vowed never to review one another's books, but an exception was made in the case of Christopher's god is not Great - Peter is a devout Roman Catholic. Forgive me for having the impression that whatever topic Christopher turns his hand to, so too does Peter, but belatedly opposing any argument Christopher poses. For example, Christopher supports the war, Peter attacks it; Christopher condemns the religiosity of the Nazi regime, Peter denies it, etc. Overall, to the neutral bystander, this could look simply like exaggerated sibling rivalry. And it's nice to see them share a joke, but the seriousness of their topics does not provide any breathing space, there is no letting-up here. Who won the debate? You decide. But, as a reward, here is a clip purely for your visual enjoyment: Hitch steals a heckler's hat.

A Non-Contrarian

A month ago a man called John Gray turned his hand to writing an article for The Guardian entitled 'The atheist delusion', supposedly expunging the various faults of the secular fundamentalist arguments. Not being one to surround myself solely with support for my own opinion, I printed out Grays article and proceeded with a relatively open mind. However, the article is not exactly persuasive. For example, Intelligent Design is denoted as a theory, yet Dawkinsian meme-theory is passed off as the next in "a succession of ill-judged Darwinian metaphors". Yet he goes further. According to Gray, Islam is not a significant threat in comparison to that posed by North Korea. Moreover, he even has the audacity to tackle humanist arguments of fair education amongst children. Not teaching religion, says Gray, would be similar to rearing children in a chaste environment, expecting them to grow up "without illicit sexual impulses" (later: "repressing religion is like repressing sex, a self-defeating enterprise"). If you cannot draw your own conclusions from this last statement, how dare you read my blog. In fairness to his article, I suppose someone has to do it. The only successful course of action for these non-contrarians is to pursue the line of free-will, determinism, and self-judgement. This method was employed by the commendable Dinesh D'Souza, whom we've come across before. This angle of reasoning, I'm led to believe, allowed him a small victory over Christopher Hitchens in a recent debate. I tip my hat to the mere suggestion of such a feat. Unfortunately, no video appears to have surfaced on the web but you'll be first to know when t does. Read Gray's article for yourself, and come back in a couple of moths once I've had the time to prepare my own lengthy case against it.

Neurotics

Over the years and decades mind-altering drugs have been employed by the intellectuals to enhance what depths of thought they find most straining. For example, Freud was a known user of LSD to couch himself well and truly in the abyss he attempted to notate; Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was no stranger to cocaine, his only vice, as a means of formulating his intricate crime explanations; and, most recently, Hugh Laurie's eternal Gregory House MD is addicted to neurotic pain-killers. Indeed, without his meds, he is merely half the doctor he can be. And so it comes as no surprise to read about widespread use in the US of mind-enhancing drugs, often legally prescribed for diagnosable conditions such as narcolepsy or hypertension. However, in over 50% of cases, those who take these meds do so with regard to improving their memory, concentration, or alertness. This, surely, is a very worrying statistic. What state of human confidence has developed if half of the American population take these pills, not to get an edge, but simply to keep up? In related news, the Japanese have taken it one step further.

Nearly There

It is now almost a month since I last posted on this blog. Many times have a scanned the news reels brimming with topics to post about but never had I had the time until recently. I'm now back in Tucson, rehabilitating myself into academic progress, which is taking a great deal of effort. Not only have I neglected the many courses I'm currently enrolled in, but I've also lapsed on my reading of my many magazine subscriptions and classic works. For this I apologise, and I can only leave you with the hope that my blogging returns to its fully fledged consistency once this brown patch has passed. Needless to say, my readership has gradually declined, but here's to wishing for a merry exponential growth over the coming fortnight. Wish me luck.