URL: Latest posts
Band seeks drummer
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…on the other hand, tractors don’t get drunk, try to pull members of the audience, race tempos or require payment. The tunes are Sweet Georgia Brown and Bye Bye Blues. h/t: Jon Stone...
Jos: and still the apologists try to defend religion
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Dave, in a very astute posting about the Jos massacres, says: IF YOU are even momentarily persuaded by the crazily mendacious thesis that ‘secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians’, reflect for a moment or two on why 500 people were sl...
Women’s Day and symbolism: a South Asian view
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International Women’s Day – from a South Asian perspective (h/t: the excellent ‘Butterflies and Wheels’ blog): “The women’s movement, like other movements of marginalised groups, began by identifying, voicing and attem...
“Goodbye, old chum”: the life and death of Gurmail Singh
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If you don’t read anything else today, read this: Euan Ferguson (author) The Observer, Sunday 7 March 2010 . “Gurmail Singh had apparently been attacked with a ‘club hammer’: imagine a baby sledge-hammer you can carry insi...
Grosz plays Gerlach
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It’s Saturday night, so time for some fun. George’s boy Marty plays and sings two numbers written by Horace Gerlach: “If We Never Meet Again” and “Swing That Music.” Both were recorded by Louis Armstrong in the...
Kinnockite witch-hunts replayed in Unison
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For some time now, four prominent Socialist Party activists within Unison have been fighting against a concerted campaign to exclude them from the union’s political structures. Glenn Kelly, Suzanne Muna, Onay Kasab and Brian Debus are all membe...
Trade unionists under attack: Urgent appeals for help from Mexico and Zimbabwe
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From Eric Lee of Labourstart: Some 1,200 members of Mexico’s National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union, or Los Mineros, have been on strike since July 2007 at the Cananea mine over health and safety and other contract violations. G...
Handing Out The Songsheet
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This week Channel 4 screened a Dispatches investigation called ‘Britain’s Islamic Republic,’ that profiled Islamic Forum Europe, a nasty, unrepresentative group of toytown Islamists trying to subvert local democracy. It must be den...
Scholar and Gentleman
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Jim will know a lot more about him than I do but I wanted to do a piece on Michael Foot whose death was announced today. He was utterly unlike that other Labour Party leader, Tony Blair in three points:- dress sense, PR and presentation generally...
Immigration: Let’s Get Silly!
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Sunny Hundal ponders the issue of immigration, and what it is about migration that sends rightwingers into a kind of frenzy: It boggles my mind that when it comes to immigration, Tories just go nuts. It’s like a red rag to a bull – they can’t p...
Ashcroft: did the Tories ever simply …ask him?
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Don’t be vague, ask Hague: Nice try, Paxo, but Hague may as well be speaking in Italian… ‘You must have asked him … yes or no?’ William Hague Shadow foreign secretary, Andrew Marr Show, BBC1 November 2009 Andrew Marr One f...
RIP Cy Grant: calypsonian and war hero
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Cy Grant has died. One of my earliest memories is watching Tonight on BBC television (the only channel then available, apart from ITV, which our house didn’t receive) with Cliff Michelmore and Cy Grant’s topical calypsos. Come to think...
The sad story of Clarence Armstrong
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Like all the best jazz writing, the Jazz Lives blog is about humanity as well as music: This is Tom Cosentino’s incredibly touching piece on Clarence Armstrong, Louis’s adopted son — someone Tom knew in his Bronx childhood. Blessings on Tom,...
Liam Byrne in hell: is this the vilest “Labour” leaflet ever?
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Liam Byrne, the Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, last year produced a leaflet entitled “Immigration Update.” In it Byrne repeatedly reminds voters that he used to be “Immigration Minister” and accuses his Lib Dem opponent...
Gordon: you’re a bully but you’re no Buddy Rich
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From The Basement Rug I guess none of us will ever know the real Buddy Rich, but regardless of whether or not this represents the real Buddy, it sure is entertaining! The MP3 audio and transcription below was taken from a Buddy Rich page by Emm...
Here’s something you haven’t read here…
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From a Catholic Nationalist blog called ‘Splintered Sunrise:’ Here’s something you won’t read on Shiraz Socialist February 9, 2010 at 10:34 pm (Homophobia, Judaica) It seems it’s not only Pat Robertson who has some weird ideas...
Night Music
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It’s the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. I learned enough classical piano when I was young, so as to be able to stumble through Nocturne Op 9 No. 1. The left hand plays a regular run of twelve notes following the same pattern while the r...
Vanessa and the Prince
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I don’t begrudge Vanessa Redgrave her Bafta award – she’s a fine actress. Nor do I wish her any personal ill, especially following the death of her daughter Natasha. But the sight of this former West End Revolutionary Party dogmat...
Support Simon Singh – and Dave Osler – tonight in London
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Cross-posted from Dave’s Part MATHEMATICIAN and scientist Dr Simon Singh – the man getting sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association after writing about their particular brand of ‘alternative medicine’ – wil...
