Latitude 2013 – music
Latitude is a music, comedy and arts festival held over three days in parkland in rural Suffolk, England. There are a number of stages located very much in earshot of one another generating a cacophony of sound. The main stage is called The Obelisk Arena. The stage is flanked by two large screens; a further one sits behind the production platform. On Saturday night, the Obelisk Arena was stunned by Kraftwerk. Tracy Thorn, formally of Everything but the Girl, appearing in the Literature tent, described Kraftwerk to author and DJ Stuart Maconie as “four old blokes with laptops”. In a literal sense she is correct. But she misses the point. 
The pioneers of electronic music pioneer on; whist the music is unchanged – partly because of its timelessness – its presentation is awe inspiring. The Robots – a fabulous track in its own right – is accompanied by four pixelated erstwhile ‘Man Machine’ Kraftwerkers rotating in front of the current incarnation (only Ralph Hütter of the original line-up remains). By contrast, ‘The Model’ and ‘Tour de France’ played to archive footage of models and racing cyclists respectively. Trans-Europe Express featured a geometric train. And then Autobahn played to imagery of an idealised Autobahn hosting iconic German vehicles, VW Beetles, campers and classic Mercedes from an unspecifiable period in the past. For the time being, this is unmatchable music presentation.
Many of the bands performing this year owe much to Kraftwerk. So much so, in the case of Hot Chip
who preceded Kraftwerk in the Obelisk Arena, that singer Alex Taylor adorned his Kraftwerk Autobahn t-shirt for their performance. And what a belter it was. Largely featuring tracks from the most recent album, In Our Heads, the band flitted from one instrument to another as if playing musical chairs. Their website features their effortless performance of ‘Are you ready for the floor’ (at the time of writing the visuals are not working well). http://www.hotchip.co.uk/2013/07/test/ 
The other band that we saw with a Kraftwerk debt are Austra (left). Appearing on the BBC 6 Music Stage, they performed tracks from their new album, Olympia. This album is disappointing relative to their debut, ‘Feel it Break’. But played live, one can jettison the bemusing melancholy of the lyrics that weigh down the album, and enjoy the extraordinariness of lead singer, Kate Selmanis’ voice.
Also on the BBC 6 Music stage was the Laura Mvula with her band featuring a cello, violin, double bass, harp, drums and 
keyboards. Their set was irritatingly short as many are in the middle of the day at festivals. She told us that her husband doesn’t really like her songs, but he approves of ‘She’, so we got to hear that. ‘Sing to the Moon’, the title track from the album renders one mortal and also the upbeat ‘Is there anyone out there’ played, partly on her own admission, because recent gigs had been a bit quiet. A large appreciative audience at Latitude certainly made her feel wanted.
Our first musical encounter on Friday afternoon was the enigmatic I am Kloot. I am not sure what to make of them. Their own profile has it that they are “an oddball pop trio based in Manchester, England, that consists of vocalist/guitarist John Bramwell, drummer Andy Hargreaves, and guitarist/bassist Pete Jobson.” The music is rocky, melodious melancholy. A bit grizzled. Songs about too much alcohol; reflection and mortality.
Friday was also an opportunity to hear Texas – never a fan – but the rocky show had a feel-good sense to it with lead singer, Sharleen Spiteri, seemingly overwhelmed by the reception. Bizarre shirt, though. They were the only band allowed an encore.
We also saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O’s shrill voice didn’t quite penetrate the guitars. She seemed to get more and more angry as the set went on. And thoroughly unhappy with being ‘managed’ off the stage. Or so it seemed.
We dipped into Grizzly Bear, but actually found them a bit uninspiring. We stumbled across The D.O.T. ignominiously in the cinema tent. A duo, Mike Skinner (formally The Streets) and Rob Harvey (formerly The Music), with some great little urban songs. A version of ‘how we all Lie’ that we heard live can be found on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqrliWEYIko.
Speechless over Zimmerman
This picture is scanned from the Südeutsche Zeitung (Monday, 15 July 2013). It is copyrighted RTR, but it one of the most chilling pictures I’ve seen in recent times. On the right is George Zimmerman, acquitted of murder in a Florida court on Saturday. The smiles demonstrate the ‘success’ of the defence in evading justice. Knowingly. Even if it is a job well done – which it is not – the smiles seem to demonstrate some perverted sense of ‘citizenship’. Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed 17 year old black man, Trayvon Martin, in what can only been seen as vigilante justice defending a gated ‘community’ against the threat of robbery. ‘Stand your ground’ laws permit lethal force in Florida and other states. Using such force against an unarmed teenager brandishing sweets from a local shop has been demonstrated in a court to be legitimate. It is also seen to be a cause for celebration. Shameful.
There are many who are more eloquent and informed than I am on this case and the implications. The Südeutsche Zeitung (below right), for example, pulls no punches. There is no attempt to ‘explain’ the Jury’s decision, only to describe what happened (black man shot) as a mixed race white man ‘feared’ for his life after having stalked the young man and been told by the police to stop following him. Zimmerman’s 911 call can be heard here
Gary Younge’s first paragraph in the Guardian newspaper on 15 July says enough: “Let it be noted that on this day, Saturday 13 July 2013, it was still deemed legal in the US to chase and then shoot dead an unarmed young black man on his way home from the store because you didn’t like the look of him.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/14/open-season-black-boys-verdict
The President – increasingly becoming illiberal and reactionary – could only say: “The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher.”
“But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.”
“And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the
tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this.”
The short answer surely is, convict racist killers. Guns, compassion, understanding and the other apparent platitudes are red herrings.
Abu Qatada
Every picture tells a story. This one more than most. It is credited to the RAF (Royal Air Force), MoD (Ministry of Defence) and the Press Association. Though it is presented as though it was taken secretly by a photographer keen to alert the world to an important event. In the event, it was stage managed.
Abu Qatada is now in Jordan having for eleven years fought extradition from the UK where he faces no charges. In Jordan he was wanted in connection with a “terrorist bombing conspiracy”.
The British Government has spent a lot of time and money trying to deport him. But attempts to deport him have been consistently adjudged to be in contravention of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This Article relates to the prospect of a free and fair trial, something which the European Court and the UK Supreme Court both concur is not possible in Jordan for this case.
The solution is threefold. Leave the jurisdiction of the European Court in order to deport people to places where they may be tortured or ‘evidence’ arising from confessions of others under torture is admissible; change the law and agree a Mutual Assistance Treaty with said country; or both.
Edward Snowden and Prism
The treatment of Edward Snowden and those who might give him asylum, tells us as much as we need to know about in whose interests states act and where the current balance of power lays. In the name of anti-terrorism, we are all being monitored. They say that they are only collecting “meta data”; i.e. data about who ‘citizens’ contact rather the content of that contact. The usual guff comes from politicians – ‘if you have done nothing wrong, then there is nothing to fear’.
The vilification of Edward Snowden – the whistleblower – is clear. The US state brands him as a traitor, a fugitive from justice guilty of treason and much of the media is aligned with this position. The latest post from Medialens gives Snowden their usual treatment: http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/737-snowden-surveillance-and-the-secret-state.html
And then there is the Latin America situation. The denial of Evo Morales’s plane access to key parts of European airspace on 2 July is extraordinary. Morales, let us not forget, is President of Bolivia and was attending a legitimate energy conference in Moscow. Clearly pressure had been put on European states from the US. But it is interesting that ‘they’ – whoever they are – thought that Snowden was on the plane; he may well have been stupid with respect to whistleblowing and his own safety, but he is not, surely, going to do the obvious (as he demonstrated by not being on the plane to Cuba a couple of weeks earlier)?
Charging gadgets at Brussels Midi
You know the scenario, battery low and nowhere to recharge. The three people pictured left are charging phones and laptops with their own kinetic energy at the Thalys terminal at Brussels Midi station. Essentially, pedal and you generate electricity that can be transferred to your device. Neat?
One wonders. First, this is discriminatory. I was surrounded by a lot of elderly people who, to be fair, would struggle to get on this contraption, let alone pedal. Likewise if one is in a wheelchair.
Second, how much energy went into making it relative to what it generates? I cannot help but think that it really would not cost that much to put in a bank of sockets that are attached to solar panels located on the roof for travellers who pay enough to ride the trains.
Striking refuse workers in Brighton and Hove
Filed under: Politics | Tags: Brighton and Hove, Equality, low pay, refuse workers
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Brighton and Hove refuse workers started a week-long strike on Friday (14 June) to defend their wages against a cut of up to £4000 as a result of a pay review by the Council. I am perplexed by this.
The refuse collectors have been working to rule over the past few weeks and the uncollected rubbish is noticeable (see below). Coastal towns suffer particularly as the gulls are constantly scavenging. But that is not for the refuse workers who, by definition, earn relatively low wages for their ‘unskilled’ but essential work.
What is going on? It is clear that the Council sought to bust the strike using agency workers. The leader of the
Council – a Green – has withdrawn this threat after protests within and without of his party – including Brighton’s Green MP, Caroline Lucas. At first, I thought the strike was purely about austerity cuts – managing a budget being squeezed by declining Central Government grants and limited scope for local tax raising. But seemingly not. It is about ‘equality’. As one observer put it, the policy that led to the cut was “a noble attempt to equalise pay between male and female staff leading to up to £95 a week income reductions for the (largely male) CityClean workers” (Josiah Mortimer, http://tinyurl.com/kv6bea4). Equalising pay down is neither progressive nor right.
The GMB union, which represents the refuse workers, reports the origins of the strike thus: “The dispute began in January when the Council’s Green Party leader, Jason Kitcat, gave full authority to its £150,000 Chief Executive, Penny Thompson, to negotiate and implement a revised pay and allowances package without any recourse to councillors. This led to a final offer being made in April, which included cuts of up to £4,000 a head from some of the council’s lowest paid employees.” (See more at: http://union-news.co.uk/2013/06/brightons-bin-men-begin-week-long-strike/#sthash.2YLfD9oB.dpuf).
In my small way, I want to lend my support to the refuse workers. I am a former member of the Greens in Brighton and Hove. I left the party on a point of principle regarding Caroline Lucas’s nomination as the candidate for the parliamentary seat of Brighton Pavilion which she went on to win. In light of these events, I am pleased to see her on the picket line and in solidarity.
Donations to the fighting fund can be made from the following link: http://www.gmb-southern.org.uk/no-to-green-cuts-at-brighton-hove-city-council/
Pictures:
New crop of cigarette advertisements
Filed under: Cigarette advertising | Tags: Gauloises, John Player Special, L&M, Lucky Strike
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Cigarette advertisers have finally launched their summer campaigns. Four are now visible on the streets of Munich. Galloises (pictured left), L&M (below right), John Player Special (below left) and Lucky Strike (below right).
The new Galloises campaign is not new at all. It continues to align smoking with the good urban – Parisien – life. Like its predecessor (see post 5 June 2012) there is leisure, urban greenery and attractive young people. Only one of them smokes. The emphasis continues with the ‘natural’ sense of the product and that it is without additives.
Meanwhile, the L&M brand pursues two distinct approaches. First, and similar to Galloises, the natural line (right). The greenery is there, there are no additives, the packaging is recycled. Surely one should try them? Compelling, don’t you think?
However, that may not be compelling enough. So, in parallel, L&M have the good value approach (left). A big choice and a good price. Presumably these do have additives at no extra cost?
John Player Special continues with the ‘Just Free’ theme. Previously in this campaign, three young people stride forward from
the shackles of ordinary life towards cancer (see post 23 March 2013). The latest edition has a lone young man jumping over these exact same shackles.
And not to be outdone – or maybe an afterthought – women can jump over them, too.
A winning campaign if you ask me.
And finally, Lucky Strike. What is going on here (right)?
The strapline reads – assuming my translation works again – Almost as good as the original – with the ‘almost as good as’ struck out. Luckily, no doubt.
There are two more in this series – ‘taste the difference’ (left) and ‘taste is everything’ (right). In advertising terms, it is a bit of a mystery how these are 
supposed to achieve customers. Is it something about making the viewer work a little to get the point? Or is it that they are seen to be clever?
Echt! As they say.
Buying rail tickets online in the UK
Friday last was a bit of a challenge on Southern Railway – there seemed not to be any staffed ticket offices on the stations that I visited and a number of ticket machines were also out of order. I intended to travel to Gatwick Airport on Thameslink (First Capital Connect) – never a good idea to travel without a ticket. So I went online and bought a ticket for the journey. When using online booking sites – in my case Southernrailway.com – one has to designate a machine from which to receive the ticket after purchase. I did this, only to find that the ticket machine was not working.
I arrived at Gatwick Airport and sought guidance from a ticket inspector at the gate. I showed him the receipt for the transaction from my mobile. I asked him how I could get my ticket. Easy, apparently. All that stuff about designated machines is nonsense. Tickets can be printed from any machine on the network. This simple piece of information could have saved me some grief.
Tandem, Summer 2013
It is nearly tandem-riding time. Having just got it suspended from the ceiling in the garage, it will soon be lowered to take us from Dresden to Rotterdam via Hamburg.
Details to follow. So far the ferry to England from Rotterdam is booked. Dresden to Hamburg will be along the Elbe, paths permitting after the recent flooding which is still affecting this region. Then we take a train from Hamburg to Leer, just on the German side of the border with the Netherlands. From Leer we follow the coastline to Rotterdam.
This year we have a navigation system. I have bought a Garmin 800 and have downloaded the necessary maps from an extraordinary website: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl
Instructions can be found here: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html
Killing on the streets of Istanbul
At face value, the violence surrounded a small park (Gezi) in the central district of the European side of the City. The park is being destroyed to make way for a shopping mall and a reconstructed ‘barracks’ that was once on the site. That does not explain the extreme violence meted out to the protesters.
The Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is not known, seemingly, for tolerance and accepting criticism. Secularists in particular seem to be under pressure from the Government. There were violent clashes also on May Day. The Government has also instituted legislation against the consumption of alcohol raising fears of increasing desecularisation, something which has been defended since the establishment of the secular state by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923. He also seeks to establish an executive presidency by changing the constitution.
I’m struggling to download any pictures, but in the first instance please go to http://imgur.com/q3XfOFf from where I have extracted the following pictures and captions. There are many disturbing images.
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Additional video footage can be found here: http://webtv.radikal.com.tr/Turkiye/3653/yorumsuz.aspx
The Guardian newspaper in the UK now has a photo strip of demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2013/jun/02/protests-istanbul-ankara-pictures?picture=409969309#/?picture=409969309&index=0
The Prime Minister seemingly now blames the opposition and ‘social media’ for the unrest.
I travel more than I could ever have thought possible in my youth. I recently visited Istanbul as a tourist. Events there yesterday are shocking in their own terms; the fact that I have been to the city and the locations of the police violence against citizens makes it particularly so. My ignorance about the politics of Turkey and Istanbul reflects the nature of tourism.
Be informed 