Month: August 2024

Stand down Margaret

So apparently this is the big stink in UK politics right now:

Keir Starmer has had a portrait of Margaret Thatcher removed from No 10 Downing Street, according to his biographer.
Tom Baldwin said that after Starmer took office he had spoken with the prime minister in Thatcher’s former No 10 study, unofficially known as the Thatcher Room, where a portrait of her was on display.
Speaking at an event organised by Glasgow’s Aye Write book festival, Baldwin said: “We sat there, and I go: ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down as you like that, isn’t it?’”
Starmer replied yes and, when asked whether he would “get rid of it”, the prime minister nodded, according to Baldwin.
Baldwin added: “And he has.” […]
The decision to take down the painting, first reported by the Herald, has been criticised by some in the Conservative party.
Greg Smith, the MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, told the Telegraph the decision was “utter pettiness from Starmer” and claimed that it showed he had “no respect for our history and previous prime ministers”.
Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Tory leadership candidate, said: “It seems like a churlish move, but perhaps Sir Keir Starmer was intimidated by the gaze of a world-renowned leader whose achievements he will never come close to matching.”

I personally don’t find it unsettling except insofar as any portrait of Thatcher is unsettling purely by depicting her. But, you know, fuck it anyway. There’s bound to be some room in Parliament where it can go. Or maybe Jacob Rees-Mogg can use it to masturbate to. Or something like that.

And we danced

I caught a bit of the afternoon replay of the Paralympics opening ceremony, most of which I unfortunately missed but I did get to see the rather extraordinary “Bolero” segment:

Here’s the flame being brought to the Place de la Concorde, whereupon those other flame-bearing folks go into this epic choreography around the Luxor Obelisk as the torch is passed on until the cauldron is lit. It was really interesting seeing this after all the moral panic about the Olympics ceremony, cos something about this felt somehow far more “pagan” than anything I saw from the big event. I can’t quite explain why, but I think it was down to the fact that, quite frankly, there’s this big fuck-off obelisk from ancient Egypt in the middle of the P. de la C., and the dancers are all grooving around it with their torches. And that obelisk is old, goes back to about 1400 BC or so which makes it even older than Graeco-Roman paganism as we know, and it originated as part of an actual temple too. So perhaps that’s why I felt something “pagan” about the whole affair, it definitely felt like some very old ritual taking place. However, I don’t believe I’ve seen anyone complain about it mocking Christianity somehow or being satanic or whatever. So maybe it’s just me getting a “pagan” vibe… or, more likely, the sort of people who would complain about this sort of thing just don’t give a fuck about the Paralympics.

Was this ever in doubt?

The Gallagher brothers may have buried the hatchet, at least for long enough to recoup their divorce losses, but that other famously severed alliance from Manchester won’t be following suit.

In light of the Oasis reunion, one hopeful fan tweeted, “If Oasis can do it, The Smiths can too (I’m delusional).” Marr replied with a photo of right-wing UK Parliament member Nigel Farage, who Morrissey suggested as a good candidate for Prime Minister a decade ago. Farage is known for his role in bringing Brexit to fruition.
Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, Morrissey described Brexit as “magnificent,” a declaration that prompted Marr to further distance himself from his former bandmate. Sans caption, the implication of Marr’s post is that Morrissey’s political views pose too much of a conflict to ever make room for a reunion.

Seriously, though, did anyone actually ever think there was any danger of a Smiths reunion? It apparently nearly did happen back in 2008, per Marr’s autobiography, but Moz ultimately would have nothing to do with it. And there was the strange case of “Classically Smiths”, which… you know, it’s kind of like when Bruce Foxton does From The Jam (which doesn’t even feature Rick Buckler any more, and he started that band); I mean, he was obviously in The Jam just as Gannon Joyce & Rourke were in The Smiths, but none of them were the chief creative forces driving those bands. And by that time all three of the former Smiths had sued Morrissey & Marr, so I can’t imagine either of those two feeling too inclined to have them back in the band anyway, even if they could stand being around each other long enough to do a reunion tour.

Herbert has a strange interlude

Spotted on Bluesky:

That’s the Swedish poster for the Marx Bros’ 1930 film Animal Crackers (which, parenthetically, was the first of theirs I ever saw; probably still my second favourite behind Duck Soup). What intrigued me, though, was that the person who posted it said that Zeppo got such a prominent place on the poster cos in Sweden he was considered the second funniest of the quartet (presumably after Harpo, if that logic holds with this art). Now I know Groucho later claimed Zeppo was the funniest of the whole family when not performing, but his film appearances don’t exactly offer him the opportunity to demonstrate that; I mean, he was supposed to be the straight man of the family on screen. Maybe it says something about the Swedish sense of humour in the 1930s…

I can feel the warning signs

Oasis are reforming! And people are losing their minds! Or at least they are on Threads, which I have recently started making use of, and where there seems to be a running battle between people loudly proclaiming their lack of interest and other people sniping at those people. I’m kind of more in the former camp in that I’m not terribly excited by this comeback, but I also can’t be bothered dumping on it too much… anyway, the Graun says:

Rock’s biggest will-they-won’t-they finally has an answer: Oasis have announced that they will reunite for a 14-date tour of the UK and Ireland in 2025.
They will not, however, be headlining Glastonbury festival as was rumoured over the weekend, nor playing 10 dates at Wembley and the Etihad Stadium respectively.
Instead, the concerts will take place in July and August, at stadiums in Cardiff, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin. Tickets go on sale at 9am on 31 August, with prices to be revealed on the day.
A press release billed the dates as the “domestic leg” of the tour and said that “plans are under way” for it to go beyond Europe later in 2025.
Of the famously feuding brothers’ decision to reunite, the release stated: “There has been no great revelatory moment that has ignited the reunion – just the gradual realisation that the time is right.”

The fact that both Liam and Noel have undergone messy and costly divorces in recent years has absolutely nothing to do with said time being right, of course, and the fact that each is expected to personally make about 50 million is also perfectly and entirely beside the point.

Anyway… Oasis. Far from my favourite band of that era, though also far from my least favourite; never owned any of their albums but I liked a fair few of the singles and some of the b-sides and albums, at least up to the Standing on the Gramatically Dubious Misquote of Giants (you know what I mean) era. Just heard “Gas Panic!” for the first time in probably 20-something years the other day and thought it was great. But I think “Half the World Away” was always my favourite Oasis tune, and I have a certain very particular memory associated with it.

It’s March 6th, 2005, me and the folks are out visiting family friends who live in the vicinity of Lurline Bay. I’d been given a digital camera for Xmas, so I took the opportunity to put it to use. This one I got from their balcony…

…and here’s a couple of others I got after I wandered down to Marine Parade. Anyway, it was an eminently fine Sunday afternoon; I remember it being warm without being overly so, obviously untroubled sky, lovely day all round. And from somewhere at a distance there was music. I soon discovered this was coming from someone’s car, whoever owned it was presumably in the are, and they’d left the radio (or tape player, or whatever they had in the car for music) on. And that was where the music was coming from, and as I got closer I could make out the song playing at that moment. And it was “Half the World Away” by Oasis.

And for some reason that I still don’t understand and can’t really explain, everything just felt exactly right. I had this sense that, right there and at that moment, everything in the world was exactly as it should be. This beautiful Sunday afternoon looking out over the ocean, this weather, those people out on the rocks watching container ships on the horizon, that car and that song playing in the slight distance, me being there to observe it all… all of that came together with the feeling that this was completely what should be happening. It was kind of a mystical thing, which is probably why I struggle to put it into words. Sensations of this sort are kind of hard to analyse as such. But everything right there and then was perfect, and I was perfectly attuned to it.

And then the song changed to something else, and the moment passed. I’d never felt anything of the sort before, and I don’t think I’ve felt it since. And nearly 20 years later I still don’t understand it, but those couple of minutes when everything was perfect still remain with me… and Oasis were the background music for it. Which is not how I would ever have envisaged things, but so it was…

The sound of hearts not bleeding

Rudy Giuliani Frantically Claims Steve Bannon Is Being ‘Tortured’ In Prison

Rudy Giuliani thinks that Steve Bannon is being “tortured” by not having access to television in prison.
The former mayor of New York City lashed out at the Bureau of Prisons and Attorney General Merrick Garland while acting as a stand-in for Bannon during Tuesday’s episode of the former White House strategist’s streaming series, “War Room: Battleground.”
Joined by MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy enthusiast, Mike Lindell, Giuliani claimed Bannon was being subjected to cruel treatment as he serves his four-month sentence for flouting a 2021 subpoena from congress.
“Steve unfortunately can’t hear this broadcast, which is an outrage,” the man formerly known as “America’s Mayor” complained.
Pointing to his involvement in the federal prison system under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, Giuliani claimed that he couldn’t recall any prisoners in Bannon’s “category” being deprived of “access to television for occasional shows, special shows.”
“Steve Bannon is not being treated the way other prisoners are being treated,” he continued. “His case has been moved from the Bureau of Prisons to crooked attorney general Garland’s office, and they’re calling the shots because contacts that I have in the Bureau of Prisons have told me they’ve been taken outta the case.”
Coming to an outlandish conclusion, the one-time Republican presidential candidate used air quotes as he told viewers that fellow Donald Trump ally Bannon was being “tortured.”

I’d have thought being able to watch TV in America would be more properly described as torture, but Rudolph evidently disagrees… Anyway, I’ve got a TV I can’t watch cos it stopped working years ago, and a TV in another room that I can’t rely upon to even switch on when I do want to watch something (it might turn on immediately, or it might take a few minutes, or a few hours; it has quite literally taken over a day on some occasions to turn on because it’s an old piece of shit like myself). If Bannon’s undergoing torture for a few months, according to Giuliani, what have *I* been going through for years now? Good thing I don’t actually want to watch TV that much anyway…

I hope you’re pleased with what you’ve done


Once more unto the 80s pop stuff. Playlist:

    1. Phil Seymour, Precious to Me
    2. Pete Townshend, And I Moved
    3. Tears for Fears, Pale Shelter
    4. Duran Duran, Careless Memories
    5. Thomas Dolby, Hyperactive
    6. INXS, Love Is (What I Say)
    7. Talking Heads, This Must Be the Place
    8. Grace Jones, Pull Up to the Bumper
    9. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Forever Live and Die
    10. The Moody Blues, Gemini Dream
    11. Fischer Z, So Long
    12. Icehouse, Love in Motion
    13. James Freud & The Radio Stars, Modern Girl
    14. Stevie Wonder, Do I Do

Parenthetically, I was fascinated to discover the other day that Pete Townshend wrote that song for Bette Midler, who ultimately chose not to record it for whatever reason, so Pete did it himself. It does make more sense, I suppose to be sung by a female singer, but it’s a lot more interesting with a male one. Especially when you remember it was 1980 when he did it…

Made for each other?

Yeah, so RFID… er, RFK Jr. dropped out of the presidential race to endorse the other guy. Not entirely surprising, there was a video that came out last month supposedly featuring Dampnut calling him to make some sort of deal. but even so, quite a lot of his fans seem to be pissed. Which is also not entirely surprising; if you were fool enough to believe Kennedy stood more than a mild chance of actually winning the presidency and would actually be any more than just another mere politician, you probably would be angry to be shown up for an idiot…

Interestingly, it appears Mrs Kennedy may be among the ranks of the less-than-thrilled:

I kind of feel that admitting your wife’s “very uncomfortable” about you slinging your hook with his lordship is not exactly the sort of thing you normally do in Rob’s position, but, well, this is him we’re dealing with. Will it make much difference to the outcome? I don’t know. I suspect Kennedy’s mob will probably not vote at all now if they can’t have him. Or probably for Kamala. I imagine they’re more likely to vote for her than the orange guy.

I suspect he’s doing this primarily out of spite (quite apart from the fact that his campaign was tanking anyway), because the Democrats have been smart enough to not adopt him just because of his family ties… but he’s not doing this just for that reason, he wants something in return from Trump. And something big, too, cos if he can’t be president then he probably wants something nearly as good. Maybe the attorney-general. Maybe the head of the CIA. Maybe the… vice-presidency?

Cos I’ve seen all of those postulated, but the third one has a problem, in that the position is, of course, currently filled by that couch fucker guy. Could Dampnut get rid of him and replace him with Mr Brain Worm? I have seen speculation online about whether or not Drumpf might dump Vance, cos the party has been having buyer’s remorse almost since day 1, but that speculation has also asked if he even can dump him… I forget exactly what the argument was, but it was something to do with J. Divans accepting the nomination at the RNC so that locks him in for ballot purposes or something. But Wormhead’s in it for something big, anyway.

And because’s there’s always an old tweet:

Strictly speaking it looks like he won’t actually be on the electoral ticket as such, but curious nonetheless how all those other differences have narrowed in the last few weeks. I mean, this was literally a bit over a month ago:

Talking about beating Trump on July 22. Meanwhile, this was Dampnut a couple of months before that:

The mutual admiration society is almost too much to handle, isn’t it. Anyway, somewhere along the way each of them has evidently decided the other is a pretty cool guy after all, and, well, now we have whatever the fuck this situation is now… like I said, I don’t think it’ll actually make much difference in real terms, I don’t think either side will gain or lose much by this. As for Kennedy himself… has he even got anything left to lose? How much more of his reputation can he trash? Cos he has done undeniably good things on the environmental front, it’s just the other shit about vaccines… especially the shit about Covid-19 being “engineered” to spare Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews. But I have a feeling somehow we won’t be hearing much more from him after election day, cos whatever he’s signed up with Trump for, I feel both of them are going to get beaten to it by the Kamala and Tim show…