That would be an existential matter

So, further to this post here, the inevitable happened and big business shat all over the best use of the music and the internet since, well the internet and pandora.com has shut down services to the UK. Here’s a highlight of what Tim Westergren, the founder emailed to users in this country:

This is an email I hoped I would never have to send. In July 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the US because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We held out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK so we left it unblocked as we worked to negotiate an economically workable license fee. After a year of trying, this has proved impossible. Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.
It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music

I wrote to them expressing how lame this whole affair was and I even got a personal email back thanking me for my support and general heavy usage. What jolly nice people. Still, this news was so big it even made the BBC News website.

Nonetheless, after a few rant about this on a music website, all isn’t lost just yet. I was directed to ths site here that might be a back door for us Brits still use the wicked Pandora technology. I haven’t actually tried it yet, so don’t moan to be when if doesn’t work. It seems to be broken at present and probably won’t change. Any other suggestions welcome though…

For the first month of the year it’s fucking impossible to buy any organic food from the supermarket as every fast food eating gypo has decided that they’re going to eat healthily for a fleeting moment before consuming the same shit as ever by February the lardy twats.

Property, promiser of liberty, deliverer of slavery.

Tom Hodgkinson

Stop. Hammer time. Well, time for a momentary gear shift out of philosophical ramblings and into shameless plug mode at least. Well not really plugs, in fact, just some blog filler. It can’t all be about life changing transcripts and daily pontification (is that even a word?) around here now can it? To show there is a lighter side to this blog, sidestepping the constant verification that modern life is as soulless as you feared and you’re gonna have to fight fight fight to get any resemblance of freedom or individuality, here’s my* comedy four piece folk rock band, Eduardo Valdez He Say Hey! playing a what-was-secret gig in Old Street. Woot!

You’ll have to go to youtube to look at these as posting three videos on here will push everything off the page too much… and of course it’s style of substance on these pages.

Old Street Gig:

EVHSH Part 1 Here
EVHSH Part 2 Here
EVHSH Part 3 Here

Also posted on youtube by the same user is the last ever gig we did at the Bull & Gate. It’s minus Tim (the other guitarist), so it’s a bit emptier and not as upbeat or amusing. Yeah.

I’m hoping we’ll “reform” at some point when Mr Valdez returns from his epic voyage abroad, although I’m not sure it’ll happen. So one last thanks to everyone for coming to the five gigs we played. Oh wait a minute, no-one I know bothered to ever turn up. The cunts.

*Of course, it’s not “my” band as such, I’m just a cog, being turned by the bigger EVHSH machine.

Being a man. It’s difficult. Much more difficult than you’d think in fact. Forget the well documented perils of glass ceilings, monthly moods cycles, pregnancies and the genetic inability to control a pixelated character with a joypad, I’m talking proper difficult. Mensa test style difficult.

You see, it’s emasculation; the blight of the modern era. It lurks round every corner preying on the Western male like a disease… And not even a trendy disease with a big charity and celebrity endorsement by Jamie Oliver either… Oh no, more like a secret, shameful disease that you’re not even meant to have, a bit like ME or something. “What, you’ve got ME? You’re tired - It’s all in your head son, stop being a big gayer and have a pint like a real man”.

Us males have no distinct role anymore. Now before we begin, of course equality is a good thing and I wouldn’t have that part of society any other way, but it’s undeniable that our roles have become confused in the last 50 years. Men are no longer the sole evolutionary providers. Even if we choose to adopt this role, we’re emasculated, sitting behind a desk emailing rather than operating big machinery or lifting heavy objects for no other reason than we can Godammit. We create nothing and we serve everyone.

To most women (and some men of course), this is a load of nonsense. But I don’t expect them to understand. They don’t feel that urge to do what you could brand “manly” things. Building, running, chasing, fighting, protecting, it’s all hard coded into our genes. It’s no small coincidence that men love gangster films, shooting games, car kits, football violence and general competing with eachother on every level. And no, it’s not because we’re Neanderthals or backwards or simplistic, it’s because that’s what we’ve done for tens of thousands of years. Suddenly, within four generations that’s all changed with the latest generation feeling the accelerated change more than most.

Nonetheless, who were our role models when we were growing up? Your father? Perhaps. More than likely though, it’s from television and friggin’ Hollwood. Rocky, Rambo, Arnie, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Smokey and the Bandit, Clint Eastwood. Strong, quiet, hard fighting, hard drinking, honourable men who had a place. Their world made sense. Not in sexist slapping-and-shaking-hysterical-women kinda way, but in the way that they were born knowing where they stood. They knew what they liked and liked what they knew. They had a purpose. Even today, these cartoon like heroes are shown as examples of maleness, even though their reality in this changing world is becoming less relevant by the day. It’s no wonder why we’re perplexed.

Today, we have nothing to define our masculinity. We have no war to fight, we have no great economic crisis, and we have no struggle. Utopian isn’t it? Well yes, but we also have no role. Aggressive businessmen stick out their chests and negotiate over a glass table, a plate of Borbons and a PowerPoint presentation in a meeting room. Hoards of males embrace their fading masculinity buy buying Japanese plastic sports cars to rev at the lights on the way to Waitrose to pick up the ingredients for a Thai green curry. Scores of men shout at their favourite football team at a weekends to hold onto the feeling of being in a clan. Keen DIYers spend hours building models and gadgets in their sheds to create anything with their hands. Is this what we’ve become? It makes me sick. Whilst the woman’s role has (quite rightly) grown from home maker and mother to well, limitless possibilities, the man’s role has impotently shrunk, leaving armies of dissatisfied and disillusioned men trying to work out how they should act and what they should be. Maybe Fight Club was actually onto something.

“I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly. Why muck and conceal one’s true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover oneself?”

Everett Ruess

People who drop litter: Arrogant knobjoints!

It’s not really necessary to outline the history behind Ben Goldacre (author of the ‘Bad Science’ column in the Guardian) and Patrick Holford (Nutritionist and founder of the Institute of Optimum Nutrition) other than to say they hate each other. You know, proper playground hate. They’re good old fashioned arch rivals. Excellent. Goldacre goes to lengths to discredit Holford whilst Holford goes to lengths to explain why Goldacre is a blinkered arse. I then think Goldacre said he’s shagged Holford’s mum and Holford said he’d get his mates to “do Goldacre over”.

Personally I think there’s nothing wrong with a balanced argument and both individuals are probably wrong on certain issues. Nonetheless, I side more with Holford if only for the fact that Goldacre’s witch-hunt attitude aggravates me, where he seems more preoccupied with ‘outing’ so called quacks in bold displays of publicity than paying attention to the facts or understanding that alternative research into non drug solutions is beneficial. But hey, it’s probably all the best for both sides in some convoluted way.

Anyway, here’s the point. Holford had some very interesting words to write about Goldacre this week and he didn’t talk about his mum once:

Have you ever wondered why there is so much opposition to nutritional approaches for today’s major health issues? Is it really because the science is weak, or is it more to do with politics and money?
I was fascinated to read the free e-book, published this month on the internet, by Martin Walker entitled Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism - Ben Goldacre, Quackbusting and Corporate Science. It explores the associations Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre, and other ‘quackbusters’ have with an organised anti-nutritional medicine agenda and organisations funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Those familiar with Ben Goldacre’s inability to expose the ‘bad science’ of drugs and antipathy towards nutritional medicine will not be surprised.
Martin Walker, author of Dirty Medicine and Brave New World of Zero Risk, looks at the quackbusting work of Ben Goldacre and others, placing them in the context of the global lobby groups that support the chemical, pharmaceutical, medical and processed food industries. It’s an intriguing read. For the first time Walker’s work focuses on this lobby’s attacks on independent nutritionists, including myself, and traces the history of quackbuster campaigns against vitamin and food supplements. Walker is giving away this publication as an e-book, in the hope that it will help people organise in defence of nutritional medicine.

This e-book can be downloaded for free from www.slingshotpublications.com and I recommend you also read Holford’s letter to The Guardian editor here.

Last year in an unprecedented display of intellectualism, I managed to read more books than any other year to date. Seven. Whole. Books. In this order:

Conversations with God I - Neil Donald Walsh
Conversations with God II - Neil Donald Walsh
Conversations with God III - Neil Donald Walsh
Creating Health – Deepak Chopra
The Beach - Alex Garland
The Game – Neil Strauss
Candida Albicans - Leon Chaitow

Encouraged by my new found ability to concentrate (it’s called a mother of a commute) I’ve decided to set myself a target list of books to read, digest and regurgitate to anyone who’ll listen in an attempt to pass their contents off as my own inspired thoughts. These are (conveniently listed by category):

Self Help:
Unlimited Power – Anthony Robbins
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers
What Should I Do With My Life? - Po Bronson
Friendship with God - Neil Donald Walsh
Communion with God - Neil Donald Walsh
The New Revelations - Neil Donald Walsh
Introducing NLP - Joseph O’Connor & John Seymour
Get Anyone to Do Anything - David Lieberman
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

Philosophy:
Walden or Life in the Woods – Henry David Thoreau
Hello Laziness! Why Hard Work Doesn’t Pay - Corinne Maier
How to Be Idle - Tom Hodgkinson
Sperm Wars: The Science of Sex - Robin Baker
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature - Matt Ridley
The Kingdom of God is Within You - Tolstoy

Fiction Novels:
The Tesseract - Alex Garland
A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away – Christopher Brookmyre

Non Fiction Novels:
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
Guitar Man - Will Hodgkinson

If anyone can think of any other reading material to suggest that touches on these subjects above tell me and I’ll add them to the list. Can’t say fairer than that. Or promise more as I have a suspicion I won’t manage most of the list anyhow, but it’s still a goal innit.

2008. This is it. New Year, new me. Yeah right. Still, I’m bursting with determination. You can’t get anything you want without working towards it and before you know it, Christmas will be looming again and people will be yet again buying wads of shite to exchange and clutter up their cupboards. And lives. Time is relentless. It marches on whilst we all sit about planning what we were thinking of maybe doing one day. So I’m taking action. I’m making conscious steps to work towards some small goals. That’s what this year is gonna be about: Laying foundations. I have a list of things I’m going to do. These are, in no particular taste, colour or order:

1) Get savings. Any savings. Put aside at least £100 a month, more if I can afford it.
2) Make a list of books I want to read (see book list above) and actually read them.
3) Start a pension, despite really, really not wanting to. I’ve just done this. I feel a little sick at the prospect of that much money coming out of my account each month for a day four million years in the future that we can’t even begin to predict.
4) Learn to drive and get a car. Vroom.
5) Kick arse with the band and actually try and achieve something.
6) Learn Italian. Oh yes, it will be done.
7) Hone my photography skills (by hone I mean “get”).
Try to decide what I want from life, not just what I don’t want.

Of course none of us can predict the future but we can shape it to the best of our abilities. So that’s the plan. Most of the above will take money, a whole lot of spending money, which means that compromising and accepting my job is the way it’s got to be at least for a while. It’s also gonna take time, a whole lot of precious time to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it riiiight. So like I said, foundations. The granite floors can wait and the roof can be put on at a future date (check me out extending that building metaphor).

Also one last thing: Inspired by the excellent Bruce Lee quote in the last post, I’ve also added (much to the irritation of some I’m sure) a ‘Quote of the Week’ feature to bump up the philosophical quality of these blog ramblings… And of course to easily find something to write when I can’t think of anything else. Toodlepip.