The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Foreign games.. Sunday Supplement September 30, 2018

Was in Fairview Park this morning, and what did I see but folk playing Jugger… and… Quidditch.

Both are recent constructs, from fictional sources – one from a film, the other, well you know. But, and let me say to each their own, one problem I have with the latter is that it is not merely a construct but one which is literally impossible to play in this physical universe. Jugger at least has the virtue of being playable as is. Grumble grumble…

Look who rejoined the BLP… September 30, 2018

This made me feel old, reading that Derek Hatton is 70.

He’s been readmitted to the Labour Party – though if one reads this that perhaps should be readmitted again, or again again since he seems to have rejoined in the mid-2000s. A capitalist now by his own account, and pro-EU and anti-Brexit, he is very fond of Corbyn. Looks well for his age, got to say.

The song(s) remain(s) the same… or very similar September 30, 2018

This will never end, the Zeppelin/Spirit Stairway to Heaven/Taurus issue.

A US appeals court has ordered a new trial in a lawsuit accusing Led Zeppelin of copying an obscure 1960s instrumental for the intro to its classic 1971 rock anthem Stairway to Heaven.

A federal court jury in Los Angeles two years ago found Led Zeppelin did not steal the famous riff from the song Taurus by the band Spirit.

But a three-judge panel of the 9th US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco ruled unanimously that the lower court judge provided erroneous jury instructions that misled jurors about copyright law central to the suit. It sent the case back to the court for another trial.

Previous posts from the CLR here. And what of Davey Graham who if anyone should feel ownership of the guitar line would have a right to be first in line…

Sunday and the Week’s Media and other Stupid Statements September 30, 2018

And:

“In order to accumulate enough savings to fund a sustainable retirement, people will need to divert a meaningful amount of their earnings into their pension,” SSGA said. “Ownership and awareness are vital in order for auto-enrolment to work beyond the point of inertia.”

Junk food for thought… September 29, 2018

This doesn’t entirely surprise me, or many of us I’ll bet.

I was in a shop the other day looking for some food to make up a meal. I’m no great cook but I can do the basics – but what struck me was that everything, bar the sausages and bacon (arguably), was pre-processed and pre-packaged. So there were burgers with buns and barbecue chicken pre-cooked, or whatever, in plastic wrappers, but nothing at all along the lines of even packaged fresh meat. And forget about it entirely if you’re a vegetarian. It was a weird experience, there was no choice. And it makes the very term convenience store seem wildly inappropriate.

Wizard problem…. September 29, 2018

I’m no fan of Harry Potter, though I found the Fantastic Beasts film a bit less irritating, but this tweet in a new storm of controversy over the casting in the latest Fantastic Beasts film is surely wrong in one respect:

Another objected to the way race was dealt with in the Harry Potter series. “You can’t be admitted to Hogwarts unless you’re English and we don’t know if there’s any wizarding schools in Asia, home of 4.4 billion people … [and] a homicidal white man traps an Asian woman inside a snake form and brainwashes her.”

Isn’t there an Irish character in the Harry Potter films in attendance at Hogwarts?

As to the broader point – I’m far from immune to all arguments about appropriation or cultural sensitivity, some seem valid, others seem not, but an author can’t write for everyone everywhere and her being English writing about the English school, or at least one in England or liked to England, doesn’t seem to be the worst transgression in these respects.

Best Music Documentaries… September 29, 2018

The Guardian had this list here of the 20 best music documentaries. It’s a tricky are with a crossover into concern or live or video ‘films’. Surprising none about Factory or Joy Division, and by the by isn’t it time for a Madchester documentary or has one been made?

The Decline of Western Civilisation Part 1 is pretty great, as is DiG! though I haven’t seen that in a while. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is interesting and troubling in equal measure.

Entertainingly the Guardian offered in 2013 this list of ten best documentaries which has some crossover but less than one might imagine.

This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… Alan Lomax Archives September 29, 2018

I recently watched Lomax in Éirinn on TG4 describing the 1951 trip by Alan Lomax to Ireland to record and preserve Irish Music. Having recorded in various communities in the US he want on to record a massive archive that is now stored in the US Library of Congress.
Such a simple idea and yet such an incredible archive of music that may have died with those that performed it. Well worth watching the TG4 documentary linked above.

John McDonnell September 28, 2018

Interview here in the New Statesman – thanks to BH for find it, McDonnell seems to be someone who given the chance will make a real impact.

In the words of Richard Barbrook, an adviser to the Labour leadership and a friend of the shadow chancellor from the GLC days, McDonnell “is very smart. He’s read lots of books. And he knows what’s happening outside the bubble. Above all, he’s committed to democracy – to state and civil society transformation. He came out of a statist tradition, which he has come to see as elitist. He’s now interested in co-operatives, mutuals, in creating the conditions for people to run their own lives.”

The Swedish political model? Not so fast September 28, 2018

An oddly unconsidered piece in the IT this last week on the implications of current political events in Europe. In it Duncan McDonnell, professor of politics at Brisbane, Australia, asks: What does a mainstream party do when the only way to get into power is either by striking a deal with its historic rival or by accepting support from a populist party previously considered beyond the pale due to its past?

This is the dilemma that will probably face Irish politicians and Fianna Fáil in particular after the next election. Do they agree to be the junior partners in a grand coalition with Fine Gael or do they cross their red line and do a deal with Sinn Féin, knowing that this might allow them to gain short-term power, but would change a longstanding norm of Irish democracy.
And he does this in the context of the decisions facing the Moderates in Sweden who may have to enter government with the formerly neo-Nazi, and most certainly contemporaneously far-right, Sweden Democrats.

He notes that the options are a grand coalition with the Social Democrats or a minority government propped up by the Sweden Democrats. He notes that the latter has at least until now been regarded as a ‘red line’ which the Moderates do not wish to cross, and in a study only one Moderate MP was open to the idea saying that exclusion allowed the SDs to ‘appear as victims of the political elites’ whereas inclusion might show them up as amateurs.

The jury is still out on whether inclusion or exclusion is a better long-term strategy for dealing with populists. Like the Sweden Democrats, Marine Le Pen’s National Front (now Rassemblement National) has risen to record highs despite ostracism. While in Italy, Matteo Salvini’s League is more popular than ever, after multiple times of being “put to the test” in government over the past two decades. And being in office has certainly not moderated the League either.

He continues:

A leading member of the Sweden Democrats puts it this way: “Whatever the mainstream parties do, we will continue to rise.” By that he meant that, whether the others co-operate with them or not, his party is increasingly setting the political agenda.

But a thought strikes, is that necessarily the case? While the SDs did well at this last election, Michael Hennigan in comments notes that their increase in support was considerably smaller than that experienced between 2010 and 2014 and that “the 2015 surge in immigration is unlikely to be repeated”. That could change, but it would be unwise to assume that immigration into the EU is something that the centre-right, who will certainly be impacted by the rise of further right and far-right parties, are unawrea of this and will not do something to counteract it. And one has to wonder what will sustain such parties – or how they will of necessity grow into much larger groups?

And I’m unconvinced that inclusion of further right parties is the way forward. As he notes himself, the League hasn’t faltered due to that. If not the League (or the FPO in Austria) then what of other parties? And here we get to the crux. There’s a reason why parties from a democratic background should have red lines in relation to the far right, particularly those parties that have evident neo-nazi roots. That ideology, as history demonstrates, is one utterly hostile to democracy. There’s no onus on parties to work with anyone at all.