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It breaks my heart
This blog has been a shade quiet since Christmas. I really did not want to reawaken with this post, but the image on the left has been haunting me since I saw it yesterday. My earlier years were dominated by my campaigning against animal abuse. Large aquatic mammals, especially. I even bought a Praktica SLR camera rather than support the Japanese optics industry back in the 1980s when the Japanese persistently blocked a moratorium against whale hunting; particularly humpbacks that were endangered at the time.
I knew that the Japanese had an annual barbaric killing of pilot whales, but this slaughter of dolphins had escaped me. It is the dolphin on the left that haunts me. It will soon be speared by the ‘fisherman’. It will drown. At the risk of anthropomorphism, I ask myself what is going through its head. On the one hand, it knows what its fate will be. But as a higher mammal with quite developed communication, not only is it trying to communicate with its rapidly diminishing peers, it is saying to humanity, ‘why are you doing this to us?’
The process is not random, it seems. The dolphins are rounded up and herded into coves. They are left for four days and then released. In the video, men in wetsuits are seen in the water securing the animals by their tails before they are speared. And so orchestrated is this slaughter, the ‘fishermen’ have built a very large screen to keep away the cameras.
This is not to feed people who are hungry. It is not even fishing. This is a crime against nature. And it breaks my heart.
Picture: The Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/21/japanese-fishermen-begin-annual-slaughter-of-hundreds-of-dolphins
The Christmas getaway
![20131224_195446[1]](https://weiterzugehen.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/20131224_1954461.jpg)
It is not often that I judge travel options well. But I think this year I got something right. I write this sat on ICE611 heading to Munich (picture left) having escaped on the 0858 Eurostar London to Brussels this morning and then joining a slightly delayed Thalys from Brussels to Köln. I took the decision on Sunday evening to abandon my plan to travel to London on the 0620 Victoria bound train this morning and book myself into a Travelodge hotel close to St. Pancras station in London. On waking up this morning I discovered that all trains into London from the South Coast are subject to cancellation arising from a landslip near East Croydon, amongst other obstructions caused by a major storm that crossed the UK during Monday and into Tuesday with considerable force.
I’d like to thank those people who helped me get away yesterday evening. As a regular flyer to Munich, I can sympathise with those people stuck at Gatwick Airport suffering from severe delays and cancellations due to a weather-related power failure. This is the second year that I have taken the train to Munich for my Christmas visit having suffered previously from delays and cancellations caused mainly by fog. And airlines.
Fröhe Weihnachten.
Ryoji Ikeada – Datamatics ver.2.0: Brighton Dome 13 Dec 2013
Ryoji Ikeada is a Japanese digital artist now based in Paris. Datamatics is an ever-developing piece fusing visuals and sonics derived from ‘data progress’. The presentation has two extremes. Visually, the projection (onto a curiously creased white screen located on the stage) is black and white with a few red and/or blue ‘accents’; sonically, it is loud, very loud. In fact, the venue offered free ear defenders against the 100 db plus soundtrack. They were needed.
This is a performance that splits its audience. It is clear from the Twittersphere that it was well received by the digital community in Brighton. For
those of us on the periphery, making sense of it was not easy, even if there is sense to be made of it. The accompanying leaflet, some of which I have quoted above, was not helpful. Here is another extract: “Driven by primary principles of datamatics, but objectively deconstructing its original elements – sound, visuals and even source codes – the new work creates a kind of meta-datamatics. Ikeada employs real-time programme computations and data scanning to create an extended new sequence that is a further abstraction of the original work. The technical dynamics of the piece, such as its extremely fast frame rates and variable bit depths, continue to challenge and explore the thresholds of our perceptions.”
At 55 minutes it is over-long. The first ten minutes are thrilling – like anticipating being on a roller-coaster. The extreme sonic and bright visuals shock the body. Then it merely becomes boring, though no less stressful for the body through the senses.
I might have anticipated Ikeada appearing from behind the screen at the end. No show. Read into that what you will.
Pictures:
Ryoji Ikeada: http://www.last.fm/music/Ryoji+Ikeda/+images/71046212
Datamatics ver.2.0 Brighton Dome – http://www.ryojiikeda.com/
Planningtorock – Brighton, 12 December 2013
Planningtorock is the stage name of Jam Rostron, Bolton born and Berlin-based. This set was largely based on her 2012 album, ‘W’, and peppered with some new songs that will debut on the forthcoming album (see below).
Rostron was supported on stage with an unnamed musician commanding the Apple computer and electronic drum kit. Rostron herself was mostly in shadow against a backdrop of video images from what I assume were earlier sets typically featuring her prosthetic nose (now gone), maybe to facilitate the comfortable wearing of her sunglasses. Or rather to presage a new musical period.
And what a noise. Much of PtoR material is experimental and often hard to listen to. For a Thursday evening, the audience was invited to dance and share the most accessible tunes in the repertoire and a number of others promised on the tracklisting of the new album, ‘All Love’s Legal’, due in 2014. She concluded the relatively short set with ‘Living it Out’, a clear favourite with the audience, a number of whom took to the stage to demonstrate their pleasure. Rostron was also overwhelmed when one of the stage dancers kissed her.
We also enjoyed the eponymous ‘Janine’, ‘Doorway’ and ‘The One’. All great tracks dispatched with energy, passion and some emotion. The new album and February tour will be events in their own right.
Another reviewer (link below) clearly has more knowledge than I do about PtoR. Worth a read.
http://www.the-monitors.com/2013/12/13/planningtorock-all-loves-equal-in-this-human-drama/
Subversive design – Brighton Museum Oct 2013 – March 2014
The exhibition at the beautiful Brighton Museum and Art Gallery in the Dome complex is somewhat mis-named, though no less interesting for it. It less design, more art. Nothing is functional; the output of design normally melds form and function.
Everything has a point to make. For example, Simone 
Brewster’s provocative Negresse Chaise and Mammy Table (including wallpaper) remind us how recent has been our willingness to use such depictions of black people in cinema and elsewhere for commercial profit. The inclusion of female body parts just compounds this.
Also featuring in the exhibition is some work by enfant terrible, Philippe Starck. Two pieces are on display, both of which are part of the museum’s permanent collection. The stool (below left) was designed originally for film director, Wim Wenders, who wanted a stool on which he could lean rather than sit. 
Starck has also got his hands dirty with the Italian firm, Alessi, famous for kettles, amongst other kitchen equipment. Starck’s kettle is a rather un-functional. The cone (right) that dissects the body is a handle, filler and spout. It proved not to work, despite the apparently clever internal technology; Starck himself was unrepentant: “I wanted to get myself noticed [and] 
make a masterly sculptural object”. That it certainly is. Alessi did not buy that.
Ceramicist Grayson Perry, former winner of the Turner Prize, not surprisingly features in this exhibition. His vase entitled ‘Difficult Background’ (below left) has in the foreground 
smiling children against a background of war – burning buildings and fleeing civilians.
There are some beautiful pieces with interesting juxtapositioning. For example, ‘Fragile Future Lamp’ by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta (2012, below right) has an environmental theme. It represents the construction and deconstruction of dandelion clocks studded
with LED lights. The fragility of the structure maps on to a fragile earth; though the lights represent hope.
Note the arachnid wallpaper behind.
Finally, shoes. There are two challenging shoe related exhibits. Not surprising, both relate to high-heels, one a modification, the other a hybrid of human and non-human form plus weapons (left). Weapons
are generally clichéd. Terry de Havilland’s dagger heeled shoes bear the cliché, but the hooves feel very uncomfortable. Belonging to another creature and appropriated by humans.
Other more extensive reviews can be found here:
http://scenester1964.webeden.co.uk/#/subversive-design/4580265764
http://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/2013/10/08/brighton-museum-art-gallery/
The official PR for the exhibition is handled by Lianne Jarrett Associates: http://www.lja.uk.com/index.php?page=4066
Cigarette advertising: the Autumn 2013 campaign
Filed under: Cigarette advertising | Tags: JPS Gold, Vogue Cigarettes
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There’s been a lull over the summer regarding cigarette advertising in Germany. Arriving in Munich last night I spotted a couple of new campaigns: Vogue and John Player.
Vogue (pictured left) is a BAT brand targeted at women and is new to this blog. La Cigarette denotes a singularity with the definitive article; followed by – literally – tasteful pleasure.
Going head to head with Vogue is John Player Special Gold. The tagline (right) is not that different to Vogue: 
Enjoyment is Gold. How to read this one, I’m not sure, but if I am not mistaken, exposing one’s inner arm to another – or a camera – denotes availability, submission even. Submission in the first instance to the addictive drug and perhaps second, before she dies, to the bloke in the background? No idea what the other woman is doing there.
Industrial action, Quarks and Gravity
I’ve just been watching an edition of Quarks and Co., a German-language science magazine programme on WDR with the ever-compelling musician turned astro physicist, Ranga Yogeshwar (http://www.wdr.de/tv/quarks/). Yogeswar (left) is a true polymath with considerable charm. I watch this when I can as part of my German learning programme. The Edition on 3 September was all about time. Why does it feel different, depending on what we are doing? And what do we do with time saved as a result of taking a fast train, plane, etc.? The answer to the latter question it seems is that we work more. However, being on strike, as I have today over the erosion of pay in the higher education sector in the UK, frees up time – after first doing the picket line duties – to go to the cinema for the first time in what may be two years.
Spoiler alert!
Was it worth it? No.
Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, according to the Guardian’s three reviewers, Xan Brooks, the ever unreliable Peter Bradshaw and Catherine Shoad, is amazing. Sandra Bullock stars as the sole survivor of a disastrous US mission on the space shuttle after the Russians detonate a satellite that generates considerable debris that destroys the shuttle, the International Space Station and a mysterious Chinese craft that we did not know existed. All are in the same unfortunate orbit around the Earth.
George Clooney’s character makes an unexpected – though not real – return to the capsule in order to stop 
her suffocating herself out of sheer desperation. There is a lot going wrong and the Earth seems a long long way away. Bullock’s character comes back to life after a word with God – seemingly never needed before – and memories of her lost child.
I could go on. Others intelligently have: http://thepoliticsofexperience.net/tpoehome/?p=143
At least I did not squeeze this film into my normal free time. Had I done, I would have felt cheated. And lunch beforehand was most agreeable. Such is the nature of industrial action.
Making the case for leniency for marines who murder
Filed under: International, Journalism and News Reportage |
Leave a comment What is the normally thoughtful Michael White, assistant editor of the Guardian newspaper in the UK, doing calling for leniency for the marine who executed an Afghan man? The Guardian itself (8 November) reported the details of the story thus: “In the graphic footage, Marine A leans over and 
fires into the chest of the bloodied and moaning insurgent with a pistol. He then tells him: “There you are, shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.” A few moments later Marine A is picked up telling colleagues: “Obviously this doesn’t go anywhere fellas. I’ve just broken the Geneva convention.””
The marine is unnamed to protect him. The Afghan man is unnamed because his name is not important.
The call for leniency is not restricted to Michael White. The Daily Mail, a notoriously partisan and reactionary newspaper, had a couple of days earlier made clear its position by making the quote of Major General Julian Thompson, a veteran of 3 Commando Brigade in the Falklands War, a front page banner headline: “I won’t condemn him…”
We can all think of many cases where similar arguments could be used in the case of civilians. Would Michael White and others advocate taking evidence of victims of child abuse as mitigating circumstances when as adults they go on to do similar things, or worse, themselves? I think not.
Photograph: MoD
Worst UK hotels – in defence of Travelodge
Filed under: Hotels | Tags: Travelodge, Which? hotels report
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Which? – the UK consumer watchdog – recently published its findings from research into the best and worst hotels in the UK. To view the whole report, one has to be a subscriber to Which?, but the newspapers happily reported the findings.
So, the best are: Q hotels 78%; Radisson Blu Edwardian 77%; Premier Inn 76%; Sofitel 74%; DoubleTree by Hilton 71%; Park Plaza 71%.
The worst are: Britannia Hotels 36%; Travelodge 50%; Ramada 51%; PH Hotels 51%; De Vere Village 51%; Shearings Hotels 52%
Two chains that I use the most are last and next-to-last consecutively. Let me have a go at defence. First, Britannia. I’ve stayed in two, one in Manchester and one in Canary Wharf in London. Both have been on a weekend deal and hence cheap relative to their grading and location. I would recommend both. They were clean, well equipped and quirky (a bit illogical and frayed around the edges). Corporate, but not so.
My experience of Travelodge is broader. I’ve stayed in more Travelodge hotels than I can count. I’ve had mixed experiences, too. One evening there was a ram-raid on a nearby cash machine. We all cowered behind the safety of the Travelodge door. On another, a drugs raid. On one occasion there has been some residual hair in the bath. I’ve been moved at short notice from one hotel to another. And to query the enforced transfer, one has to call a premium telephone number! But equally I have had some of the happiest times with my partner in Travelodge hotel rooms after being reunited in nearby airport arrival halls.
Here are some reasons why I persist with Travelodge.
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They are consistently inexpensive. They are the cost leaders in the hotel world. They have only just – reluctantly – provided soap in rooms. And not very good soap at that. But if what you want is a bed – a good one in fact – a shower that invariably works in a fashion, then it is extraordinary value for money.
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They are ubiquitous. I prefer the roadside hotels to the city ones, but I’ve stayed in both. Airports are also Travelodge natural habitat.
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The staff are invariably friendly, if not particularly competent. I’ve had some rewarding conversations with Travelodge staff over the years.
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They have 24 hour reception. I usually come very late, but I am reassured that I can get into the hotel and to my room.
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And on the few occasions when there is no room – double-booked, water leak, police raid, or whatever – they will get you in somewhere else. That may be a 5-Star hotel down the road.
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One can use the room as a comfortable campsite, which we recently did in Ipswich instead of pitching a tent at the Latitude music festival. We even moved in some of our own furniture to compensate for the annoying policy of one chair per double room. But that is cost-leadership for you.
And yes, where breakfast is provided, it is awful. So do as we do, bring your own.
At the other end of the scale is Premier Inn, another budget chain. The debates I have seen engage in facile comparison. If Premier Inn can do it, then so should Travelodge. Actually, Premier Inn is one of my least favourite hotel chains. And why? I’ve thought about this. Actually, notwithstanding that Premier Inn is not as cheap as Travelodge, it markets itself as a budget hotel trying not to one. I find it disingenuous. Equally, I do not think that Britannia Hotels try to be luxury.
Travelodge is an easy target. Travelodge has done for the hotel business what the low-cost airlines did for travel at 11,000 metres. Travelodge has democratised domestic hotel use. Most people can afford to stay. And as long as one does not expect more than is offered, the experience will not be a let down.
Tandem tour 2013: Zandvoort to Europoort
Zandervoort aspires to be Nice (in France). The beach is occupied by rows of sunbeds and associated bars and cafés. We selected one of these cafés for breakfast. We were served a curious concoction. Surprisingly lacking in cereals, toast and jam. Breakfast, but not as we know it.
The wind again had presence. Following the LF1A we passed through Zandvoort’s southern neighbourhoods where the architecture at least was better. Less stark and modern. However, along the coastline, Zandervoort has many imitators. Katwijk aan Zee, for instance, the mouth of the original Rhine. The route between the two continues the dunes theme.
Sheveningen is the beach town of the country’s capital, Den Hag. Getting through also requires diligence as the cycle route meanders its way through residential and industrial streets. It is a working port. We had afternoon tea at a café in a 1960s shopping arcade in Kijkduin within earshot of a brass band playing for customers. I felt like I was in England.
And then finally to a campsite on the edge of a curiously named town, Monster. The campsite was great. Cheap, lots of room and a washing machine. We pitched the tent, showered and then went in search of food. Fortuitously, we headed to the beach first and found a restaurant on the beach. Unexpected. Monster is not the kind of place that suggests beach restaurants.
Although the menu was not veggie friendly, we were served with a dish that involved stuffing an apple (picture above right). It was surprisingly good. We were the last customers out of the door at closing time.
We then attempted to walk into Monster itself in the dark. We got so far before we gave up and went back to the campsite. The short distance that we did walk presented a well-preserved wind pump and some interesting street furniture like the specimen on the left.
And then on to our final day. Hoek van Holland and then round the channel crossing it at Rozenberg where we had a bizarre lunch experience in a bar. There was not much open in the town on a Monday. Not sure why. We anticipated tumbleweed blowing down the main street.
Europoort is then another ten kilometers of unmemorable dockland. And a queue to get on board the ferry. Fortunately it was not raining.
Be informed 