GOODBYE TO ALL THAT.

PJ HARVEY - On Battleship Hill (2011).

song of the year, to me, the whole thing in a nutshell.

happy new year, all. be safe, be good, be yourself, good luck to everyone.

welcome 2012. 

highpresssure:

The Kinks, “Sunny Afternoon”, from the album Face to Face, 1966.

The next six posts will all be by British artists. British Music Week.

I have a lot of dear friends and (near) family in England, so the riots last week have left me affected and upset. This of course, though no surprise, is regardless an overwhelming situation loaded with centuries of pillaging, racism, classism, oppression and repression. “Operation Make A Cup of Tea”. In other words, resume your complacency. I actually see a big difference between an 18 year old youth looting 13 dvds vs. a covert and corporate government scavenging oil from all over the world (Iraq, Scotland, Canada, to name a new); or murdering for African gold. In any case, the UK is a geographically beautiful country with an exceptional history that changed civilization as we know it; need i mention the industrial age, but the hundreds of thousands of cultural exports and thinkers that forever altered the way we think, see and know. It hurts to see violence and anger reach this boiling point. But can we really be surprised? My hope is that these events will catapult dialogue and change. We should all realize that riots are symptoms of systemic failure.

And please, please council housing, do not evict the tenants. Why punish entire families for an individual swept by mob mentality, and what is in many cases, spurred by a lifetime of disregard, ghettoization and unwarranted suspicion by the Nation-State they want to call home. Stop cutting summer programs. Stop raising university tuition. What did you expect, in a country where education comes second to shiny sneakers and flat screen tellys? AS WE HAVE SEEN, THESE CHANGES AFFECTS EVERYONE. Why should the disenfranchised pay for the mistakes of inadequate regulation of finances and frivolous spending?

My condolences to all those affected by the anger and the violence, and to those affected by proxy. I don’t say this often, but God bless