samedi 1 novembre 2003

Because she asked for it "Tell me what it means!" "Tell me what's in the post!" Far too curious, our Wildcat, for her own good. Which is why she should really keep her nose out of some things. Such as the dating pages in India Times. 11:37:30 PM  link   your views? [] Parliamentary adventures of an alter ego "We do not speak with a collective voice. There is room for more than one answer to every problem under the sun and we hope some of them will appear here." Some people are calling it a "meme". Since I'd mostly forgotten what a meme* was until last year I'll settle for calling the Blogger's Parliament a very good idea, though I've declined to join it as yet. After all, it's solutions they're after, not problems. By October 26, Augustine Nada was ready to tell Open Source Politics, the "Blogger's Parliament up and running". Our good friends in London present the notion there. And at Blogcritics a day later. That was when the flak began and Augustine rolled up her sleeves. Good on ya, gal! The alter ego had more to say at Blaugustine (Oct 30; no permalink): "The mocking commentators were helpful too, even if they didn't intend to be, as they caused me to redefine exactly what this project is and isn't about. Now, anyone for needles in haystacks?" You can meet those who are at the parliament itself. The parliament seeks to solve: 1 Ongoing conflicts, wars and post-war chaos 2 Threats or dangers to individuals, countries or the planet 3 Local issues specific to one country or area 4 Race or religious conflicts 5 Poverty, hunger, illiteracy 6 Health & environment problems, local or global 7 Economic imbalances / Money / Unemployment 8 Lack of communication and/or reliable information 9 Corruption and crime: on small or vast scale 10 Individual and collective morality & responsibility 11 Technology: problems it causes or that it could solve 12 Psychological blocks and blind spots 13 Spiritual issues 14 Problems in education, arts or culture Devise another solution, I'll find you the problem... *For those who still toil in the darkness that was mine before the blogosphere, a meme is: NOUN: "a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another." (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed., 2000); NOUN: "a self-replicating element of culture, passed on by imitation." (Oxford English Dictionary); NOUN: a "virus of the mind". (Meme Central, R. Brodie, author, writer of Microsoft Word, "very expensive" consultant, guest speaker); EXAMPLES: "tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches." (R. Dawkins, in 'The Selfish Gene', 1976 rev. 1989, Oxford University Press); CREDITED TO: Professor Richard (unofficial World of) Dawkins; DATE: 1976; ETYMOLOGY: alteration of mimeme (Greek, something imitated), from mim- (as in mimesis) + -eme, from mimeisthai (to imitate). (Merriam-Webster Online + American Heritage Dictionary). In which case: what is a neme? __________ Best off the iPod today: Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia - Lady Saxophone. Dream sax Barbara and her band (hubby Jon Hiseman of Colosseum on drums). Happy memories of the 100 Club on Oxford Street... Lambarena - Back to Africa. Bach the Father meets Gabonese and other African musics in an outstandingly original composition. Orchestra/Choirs cond. Tomas Gubitsch, Nana Vasconcelos, Sani Ateba; many African musicians... Marillion - Brave. "Not the best. Tch, tch," said François. Buddy, if Brave is bad, tell me just where you think these progressive people peaked... Oh yes. At the Canteen this lunchtime, the very same François lifted an eyebrow at the concept of Boulez meets Zappa: 'The Perfect Stranger'. He might raise the other at 'Tales from the Engine Room'. Marillion ... and the Positive Light. 10:37:53 PM  link   your views? [] Kiss candidates The dangerous 1st comes round again. This means a diversion on the way to the Canteen, perhaps via the "second best baguette baker" in Paris, in search of the victim for the month's good-luck kiss. One of the Saturday special at the award-winning shop is the wholemeal pain aux abricots et pistaches. This and other miracles hot out of their oven is worth a peck on the cheek for whichever of the girls who work there greets me first. Let no member of the opposite sex address a word to me before I get there, thus becoming the candidate! Somebody I could almost have kissed this morning was British Labour MP Stephen Pound. I mustn't make too much of a habit of linking to soundbites from 'Today', but anybody who's keen to outlaw Xmas muzak (4'38", RealAudio clip) before December in an "early day motion" put to parliament wins my approval. "You may think that by playing 'Rocking Around the Christmas Tree' we're going to empty our wallets all over your counter," Pound wants people to tell the supermarket barons, "but a lot of us are actually fed up with it." "We're going to start playing it today," Nicole Lander of Woolworths warned presenter Sarah Montague, leading to interruptions from "Harrumph" Humphrys, self-declared "patron of pipe-down". November 1 is the date I annually become a scrooge. Officially. Ask the Kid, who as the stolen pic suggests, is otherwise engaged. It was on her 'blog (Oct 26). Her old 'blog. The Kid and her friend Sév have moved: belcatja2. Not without protest. SkyBlog apparently tried to kill them off. I'm surprised that the Kid hasn't pleaded with me to come back already. She must be suffering appalling withdrawal symptoms, since her Mum's been offline for more than a week after her second PC disaster. I have suggested that the Kid be allowed to connect her PowerBook to their modem, since the problem's not with the line, but some reluctance on her mother's part is understandable. Marianne has become almost as much of a Net-head as her Dad and probably needs reminding just how much more you can do with a computer than chat and blog. Music is just a part of it. Not muzak. Wearing my iPod on every supermarket shopping trip between today and Twelfth Night will be a sanity-saving requirement as well as a pleasure. 1:41:25 PM  link   your views? [] Friday Night is Music Night As are they all, or so they should be... "Every time we see a 'Sunrise' over 'Igoli', we shall salute you." Buying CDs blind is rare, but I almost never regret it. David Hewitt died in his native South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province late in 2001, aged only 54, his passing marked by many tributes including this one at 3rd Ear Music. Hewitt's 'African Awakening' (2000), came without even a hint of a liner note when I picked it up in Johannesburg a few months after his death. (There's more of a very varied repertory at Gresham Records). The "best of" Hewitt album proves to be a remarkably successful blend of classical guitar, jazz, Zulu chant and storytelling, with an orchestration that can tend to the sweet while avoiding the sugary. The styles are varied, but three .mp3s on offer at Web Concert Hall, where Hewitt works formed part of prize-winning guitarist Michal George's performance give you an idea of the late teacher-composer's sound. A generous page for classical guitar fans. zzz "In 1969 Columbia/CBS launched a big advertisement campai[g]n entitled 'That's Underground' which immediately defined the end of the mid/late 1960s underground movement. (...) For the first time a whole complex ideology/attitude was raped/killed/sold within no time to raise profit for a few selected artists and companies." "The Independent, Alternative Music Scene As The World Knows It Today Is Fake!" raged Lord Litter at WorldBeatPlanet during the summer. Our summer, anyway ... ah, to be back in SA! Whether or not you buy this "idealistic ... 'hard-core'" boot up the backside of the mainstream record industry all the way, the east German musician makes a compelling case. So where does he go for his underground pickings? The Indie Bible is the kind of site and store that takes me right back to my teenage years. zzz Current listening as I write? Ella Fitzgerald, recorded in the late 1930s, long before her Verve days. As timeless as tomorrow. zzz Global Sound. Take note. "Musical Treasures of the World," proclaims the Smithsonian Institute, and so they are at this splendid "beta site". This lead for the bookmarks comes from Ralph Brandi's weblog, There Is No Cat. I hope Ralph's fears that the baby has been knifed prove unfounded, with more life breathed into the beta. "Most of the music has never been easily accessible to the public, having been published mainly on records that were made available only to libraries," Ralph writes of Global Sound's previous incarnation. What still rankles me most about the theft of precious cassettes soon after I arrived in Paris is that many of them were similar, my illicit gleanings of gold from the BBC's vast music library... They probably ended up in a trash bin within minutes. 10:16:38 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.