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« January 2006 |
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| March 2006 »
Iraq on the brink of civil war. Didn’t we see this coming? Wasn’t it obvious that the incompetent U.S. management of this invasion was leading here? To chaos, less security and greater loss of lives that Saddam ever accomplished? Mission Accomplished indeed, you fucking lamebrains.
Does anyone still believe that since 9/11 U.S. policies have made the world or even the U.S. one tiny bit safer? Does anyone still fall for the lie that Homeland Security, FEMA, the invasion and torture of prisoners is getting anyone anywhere?
Maybe U.S. Senators should look to Spain, who have actually caught some cells and planners and yet don’t feel the need to create a culture of fear. The incompetence of the Bush team is, beyond their ideological nuttiness, indictment enough.
No one doubts that security is an issue these days. But one can never protect oneself from guerrilla and suicide attacks. Never. Ever. One would have to live in a bunker. The Green Zone. Build big walls like Israel is doing. Back to medieval times, except the fortresses aren’t as well designed or impressive looking.
In my opinion the way to security lies in recognizing the frustrations that Osama and others prey upon and dealing with those. The way to subvert them is to actually be the good guy they say we are not. That doesn’t mean believing what he says, most of which is insane. But in recognizing that it is touching nerves. Then who would join up?
O.K., major shift in policy and ideology and thought and probably will never happen, but there you go.
Rehearsals are over — here in NY anyway. By the end of this afternoon we could play the stuff with some real feeling and with not too many mistakes.
Video synch works, after a fair amount of fiddling and messing around. But it could have been worse, and it usually is. When it works, seeing the images, text and edits that obviously cue to lyrics and beats is a pleasure, and somehow much more surprising that when it happens on a monitor to prerecorded music. It somehow seems amazing that a live band is actually in synch with picture edits. That we hit our final chord and the picture slowly fades. It’s like magic. We know how it’s done but it’s always slightly amazing when it works.
Rehearsals are still going fine. A helluva lot of work, though. 23 songs is a lot to learn. We can almost play them well, as of last night, but that's after going over each one a few times in the afternoon until everyone (including me) remembered what they were supposed to play and where. But when they sound good it's really nice and very exciting. I woke up at 5 AM this morning — I think I might be worried about how much we have to do.
The girls sound good — it's a strange relief for me not to always be singing, as I can listen now to how the music and grooves are shaping up.
Back in today. Moving to in-ear monitors today.
Rehearsals are going well, though there is a lot to get through. Two 8-hours days and we have not learned to play through all the songs yet — there are a lot of them. The girls come in today, and I hope that by mid-afternoon we will be able to play everything for them.
In some cases we are quickly learning the stuff that Norman and his crew added to the songs last week, and in other cases we are creating amalgamations, using elements from last week’s sessions with Norm and elements from my original demos.
Andrew Carnegie — he of the vast steel fortune and famous Hall, had a huge pipe organ installed that filled one wall of his 5th Ave. mansion (now the Cooper Hewitt Museum.) He had prominent organists come and wake up the household at 7 every morning.
Sultan Sulayem, the financial advisor of Dubai, has recently purchased P&O, a company that runs ports all over the world, including New York, New Jersey and up and down the Atlantic seaboard.
Dubai is not an oil-rich country but has made themselves into the shipping, tourism and financial center of the region. Michael Jackson lives there now.
A few senior U.S. Senators have suggested that the deal not be rushed through, and even Bloomberg has said that the security issues are not resolved. They ask for a little more time to check things out.
Bush made a special announcement to the press stating that he would veto any effort to — delay? Thoroughly check? Deny? The deal going through. (What I see from the Senators is requests to thoroughly check the security issues, not a blanket denial of the deal.) Apparently this is a big deal for W. Must be some cronies involved.
From the NYTimes: Dubai's record is hardly unblemished. Two of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks came from the United Arab Emirates and laundered some of their money through its banking system. It was also the main transshipment point for Abdul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani nuclear engineer who ran the world's largest nuclear proliferation ring from warehouses near the port, met Iranian officials there, and shipped centrifuge equipment, which can be used to enrich uranium, from there to Libya.
The opposition to the deal brought expressions of befuddlement from shipping industry and port experts. The shipping business, they said, went global more than a decade ago, and foreign-based firms already control more than 30 percent of the port terminals in the United States. They include APL Limited, which is controlled by the government of Singapore and operates terminals in Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Dutch Harbor, Alaska; and Seattle.
Globally, 24 of the top 25 ship terminal operators are foreign-based, meaning most of the containers sent to the United States leave terminals around the world that are operated by foreign governments or foreign-based companies.
"This kind of reaction is totally illogical," said Philip Damas, research director at Drewry Shipping Consultants of London. "The location of the headquarters of a company in the age of globalism is irrelevant."
Britain used to be the world’s biggest shipping power, and now 90% of their ports are operated by foreign companies. (In the U.S. it is now 80%.)
Granted, it all might not make any difference, but it’s interesting that in the era of globalization most nations often don’t manage the import and export of the goods that allow them to survive.
Back in London there is a big Muslim demonstration in Trafalgar square with signs urging everyone (Muslims and Christians mainly) to get along and to have some mutual understanding and respect. Lots of praying and chanting. I wonder if respect isn’t a code word for “enough with the nasty cartoons?” Well, if the West is allowed to be horrified at the Iranian president’s silly pronouncements then these cartoons must simply confirm what Muslims already suspect the infidels think about Islam. The subtext that can be read in so many newspaper articles, Fox news, and political speeches — s suspicion and fear of Islam — comes to the surface and becomes visible for what it is.
Went to an "exhibition" by Tino Sehgal at the ICA which consisted of a series of people walking with you through the empty galleries and asking you first about progress — “what is it?”, they ask. (I said it doesn’t really exist.) And then later more strangers appear and play relay conversation and ask about adjusting to dramatic changes in one’s life. I was led into the first gallery by a lad of maybe 12 or 13. He introduced himself and began asking me questions and probing. Brave lad. In the next room he passed me off to a teenage girl who then passed me on to a man in his 30s and I eventually ended up with a woman of a certain age with pink bits in her hair. She eventually led me back to the entrance. The conversation was cleverly joined up — and seemed remarkably genuine, especially as these didn’t appear to be professional actors. One could divert the conversation slightly, but it didn’t seem right to not at least play along and see where it led. (Link to review.)
In London this eve to meet with theater producer Scott Griffin over at the Old Vic where he is producing an Arthur Miller play — the last one he wrote — directed by Bob Altman and staring a number of film actors. Neve Campbell and Matthew Modine and many others. They all are sitting together around a table in the theater’s private bar — all except Bob (in-house bars are something many British theaters have — I guess because the pubs close early?) I overheard one of the group, Jane, tell the others about her experience at the ICA.
London Hotel Scene
The staff seem mainly to be young Russians and Italians dressed in black. Two African businessmen in suits sit on a nearby sofa and leaf through newspapers. Waiting. A young Japanese man calls for a taxi. A few couples emerge from the elevators, some of the couples are almost my age — they appear to be from the provinces, not lovers or businesspeople. In the later afternoon the piped music from the adjoining bar and lounge heats up, revving up to full disco level by evening, when the lobby, all dark and moody, is more like a club than a hotel. The couples and tourists now seem pretty out of place.
The Independent weekend magazine says that after WWII a number of studies and some reports by military officers estimated that only one in four soldiers actually fired on the enemy. The others weren’t as mentally and psychologically ready to kill, so they simply didn’t. Very annoying for the higher-ups. The ubiquitous image of soldiers rushing into battle guns blazing simply just didn’t happen.
A man named Dave Grossman was brought in to remedy the problem. He used “operant conditioning”, a Skinnerian psychological term mixed with simulations that were closer to the actual conditions — previously gun training mainly involved shooting at distant targets and aiming carefully. (On Killing was his book.)
This was further refined with simulators over the years — which bore a remarkable resemblance to today’s first person shooter video games. (One wonders if the military should get some credit for designing what became game software.) Grossman has since become a critic of the impact of these games, claiming that they are in effect training young players to be killing machines. The efficiency of the soldiers trained in this way quadrupled, so it is effective. He claims that games teach adolescents (and frustrated nerds) to have the killing instinct and to quicken their reactions and lower their inhibitions. He has a website: killology.com
The recently deceased George Gerbner claimed that modern media, like television, when consumed in sufficient quantities, substitutes its reality for the reality out in the streets, “on the ground”. He claimed that people who watch a lot of TV begin to live their lives as if the TV reality was an accurate reflection of the world outside. The TV reality then takes precedence over the “real” world. Practically, this means that the TV version paints a picture of the world as a dangerous place, full of crime, suspicions, double dealing, and with an inordinate portion of the population devoted to law enforcement. Cities on TV in particular are filled with the blatantly sexy, the funny, the disreputable and the cops who are there to deal with all of them. To some extent this picture of the world eventually becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy — when the TV-saturated public begins to act as if the TV reality is real, and behaves accordingly — constantly acting fearful and suspicious — then the world eventually begins to match the fiction. Or so George says.
The fact is there are such things as cops, drug dealers, skeezy bitches and attractive folks with ready banter and clever quips. They’re not entirely made up. Their existence can be confirmed. But not in the proportions seen in TVland.
I wonder if this view of George’s is alarmist. Part of the reason there are so many gunslingers and cops on TV might be because that is the current setting for the narrative of the brave and questing hero. It’s the conveniently available semi-believable and plausible setting in which to place these eternal myths and narratives. When I grew up TV was all westerns and cowboys. Then a few years later it was all spies. The cowboys had vanished. Now it’s smartasses, cops, sexy bitches and gangsters. Maybe they are all just a vehicle for the same old stories, stories we love and need but don’t really take seriously.
No one seriously thinks that because Shakespeare mainly wrote about royalty that people thought the world was all upper class, a Merchant Ivory universe. The bubble of the royals and that of the aristocracy is more artificial, more theatrical, easier to view as an allegory, and that makes it better for storytelling.
The past is not a prologue to the present; it IS the present, with a different emphasis. A morphed version of the present. Therefore, in sense, time — history — can flow in either direction.
Ensconced with Norman Cook, Simon, Tom, Jim and others at Norm’s studio overlooking the Channel in Brighton. My previous impression of Brighton was when I played here at the Dome a couple of years ago in the summer. At that time my daughter was appalled and slightly frightened by all the drunken women in town, weaving and tottering and vomiting on every street. Now it is quiet and peaceful and the sunsets are glorious. Here’s a phone picture:
Had a long, intense and incredibly productive few days dealing with fleshing out some of the Here Lies Love tracks: adding parts, creating arrangements, edits and new grooves. Getting through so many tracks in a few days — even 13-hour days — was barely possible, so we moved on quickly as soon as we made some changes to a song. I am only getting the chance to listen to the stuff now. Norm leaves for a South American tour this week, so we’ll pick up when he returns.
Practicing songs and checking key transpositions in preparation for going to Brighton and then going into rehearsals immediately upon return.
Risen's book revealing the domestic phone and e-mail tapping by the NSA (State of War) also reveals that the NY Times held the story at Bush’s request — for a year. Significantly through the election. No doubt Bush would at least have had a harder time getting reelected if this had come out. Besides pissing me off once again that the press rolls over for the administration, it means that our only source of checks and balances — given that all 3 branches of the government are Republican controlled — is the press. There is no one, no institution, to stop these creeps from doing whatever they want. With dominance of all branches of government they have impunity. For now. Everyone knows this kind of power breeds monsters. If you’re not one going in you will be soon enough. If the press shows no backbone, and Internet blogs don’t have much impact, then that leaves the streets.
When is the government or the press justified in withholding information from the public? We as members of the public are not asking that military technology, bomb-making instructions, names of spies or undercover agents be revealed. But secret prisons, unchecked domestic surveillance, torture as a policy and withholding any dissenting information are all within the public’s right to know.
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