Tuesday, April 26, 2005

The New American Taliban?

I've been concerned lately about the religious right, feeling that they have a mandate, and a direct line to the White House, that they can push all their beliefs on this country, and they are taking the fight to the Congress over the latest Judicial appointees of Bush. There was a rally this past weekend funded by the conservative Family Research Council, which to me has religious groups crossing the line into politics, where I don't believe it belongs. I've done a little research, and found the following articles quoting William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater, who is the father of modern day conservatives. Neither of them felt that the Republicans should embrace the religious zealots, as Barry Goldwater called them, as extremism is never a good choice. All you have to do is read some of the bizarre pronouncements of the religious right, and you should be afraid as well.

I think I have some experience of this, growing up in the belt buckle of the Bible belt. I remember the ministers who proclaimed wearing shorts, dancing and mowing the lawn on Sundays as sins. How long before we have women wearing burkas, and going to separate schools, in order to not corrupt us gullable males. Sounds ridiculous, but I'm afraid it looks like that's where we are headed. It's time for people to start speaking up, and I think the libertarians have awakened, and realize that these extreme views don't represent the views of the many. Forty Nine percent voted against Bush, so he's got far from a mandate for this Presidency. I say that liberal is not a perjorative term, and needs to be put into a positive context again, and without balance, I think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Click here for an interesting link

React against this tyrrany

Sunday, April 24, 2005


Excellent sentiments.  Posted by Hello
From this link

One Hand Clapping

I'm reminded as I write for my blog, that I'm doing this for myself first, and then with ego, I'm expecting others to want to read my musings. It's kind of like having your diary that you wrote as a kid, the one you kept very secretively and did not want your parents or nosey siblings to read, except that this one is always open and on the dresser table.

I'm sure others far more clever than me have already ruminated on this phenomenon, with far more clarity. The encouraging thing is that people are putting pen to paper, as it were, and actually using a form of communications that in this day of 'cellphones always in the ear' is a real throwback.

It has to be said though that this is a rather singular form of expression, and because of the anonymity that the Internet gives us, people can project themselves in ways that may not reflect on the true self. Are we just sad individuals sitting at a desk staring at our illuminated screen or are we trying to be profound or funny or obtuse or any of the other actions that we take as communications. I certainly feel more connected reading other's thoughts on life, the mundaneness of it all, or maybe an alternate insight that someone might have about current events.

There are eight million bloggers, I read somewhere, and for those fans of Film Noir, "There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them." Each probably has a story to tell, or possibly they feel that they have something interesting to say, or maybe it's just for a lark. Probably 7,999,000 are pretty mediocre (this blog included), and the others are worth the read. Although I hasten to add that usually there is a kernel of inspiration in most people's rantings, it's just so hard to wade through all the other nonsense.

The sound of one hand clapping can be pretty deafening.


What is the Sound of the Single Hand? When you clap together both hands a sharp sound is heard; when you raise the one hand there is neither sound nor smell. Is this the High Heaven of which Confucius speaks? Or is it the essentials of what Yamamba describes in these words: "The echo of the completely empty valley bears tidings heard from the soundless sound?" This is something that can by no means be heard with the ear. If conceptions and discriminations are not mixed within it and it is quite apart from seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, and if, while walking, standing, sitting, and reclining, you proceed traightforwardly without interruption in the study of this koan, you will suddenly pluck out the karmic root of birth and death and break down the cave of ignorance. Thus you will attain to a peace in which the phoenix has left the golden net and the crane has been set free of the basket. At this time the basis of mind, consciousness, and emotion is suddenly shattered; the realm of illusion with its endless sinking in the cycle of birth and death is overturned. The treasure accumulation of the Three Bodies and the Four Wisdoms is taken away, and the miraculous realms of the Six Supernatural Powers and Three Insights is transcended.


Yabukoji, in The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, Translated by Philip B. Yampolsky, Columbia University Press, New York and London, 1971

Friday, April 22, 2005

Tori Amos

Have you heard the new Tori Amos CD (The Beekeeper)? It is really great (in my humble opinion). It is conceptual, and she has used a beekeeper as a metaphor for someone who I suppose communes with nature, and she explains that the beekeeper has been around for many centuries. The music is divided into 6 gardens, each with a theme, although to be honest, her lyrics are very ephemeral and hard to decipher, and are more a feeling, than maybe any telegraphed meaning. I just like her playing and her voice. Her music is pretty stripped down and melodic. She lives in Cornwall, near the sea, and it seems that she is inspired by that.She is either just coming or has been to Philadelphia, and the show is sold out, so even if I wanted to go see her, I could not. I don't know how she would translate to a large hall or arena, as I think of her music as being very personal.
Tori Amos Posted by Hello

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

The World Is Flat

I heard an interesting interview of Tom Friedman by Terri Gross on NPR. Freidman was promoting his new book, "The World Is Flat", and he had some interesting insights. The one thing that really stuck in my mind was this. The Twin Towers were destroyed on 9/11 and in an ironic juxtaposition, the Berlin Wall came down on 11/9. Made me think about the unpredicatability of the world as we know it. One form of destruction has absolutely positive effects on millions of people, and the other has absolutely negative effects on a similar number.

Having lived in Europe for a number of years, I'm concerned about globalisation by 'big business' and the impact it is having on our society. This book explores the shrinking of the world, and talks about how the playing field has been leveled. I haven't read it yet, although it is on my 'must read' after I finish what I am reading now.
Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Singularity

Singularity Sky by Charles Stoss, shortlisted for the Hugo Award in 2004. Sequel Iron Sunrise is shortlisted for the best novel Hugo Award for 2005.

Just finished this and really enjoyed it, although for me, one needs to really pay attention to the characters and parallel stories, complicated by the fact that the author introduces his own quasi-language. Lots of puns and plays on names and places, make this an engrossing read. It takes place in a strange world which has been spared all the problems and benefits of modern technology. I can recommend it for those who enjoy science fiction (I read somewhere that sci-fi is a rather passe term now, and only used by plebs) that explores social mores with the use of this medium. For me the greatest is Philip K. Dick, who I met once, and there again lies a tale that I will exposit later. This is in that same strange, highly original style of writing.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Memphis Rhythm, but I thought you were from Nashville?

You may notice that this site is called memphisrhythm.blogspot.com, and yes I did grow up in Nashville.

Let me try and spin a little story for you. I'm living in London, and working hard at my profession (chosen by my accidentally taking an aptitude test many moons ago and finding out that I had the skills to be a 'Programmer') when I got a brilliant idea. I had been around music all my childhood, as Nashville is called Music City for a reason. Having badgered my dad to let me purchase a Kay electric pawn-shop special at about 13, and taking a few lessons from the local music teacher, I was armed for rock'n'roll. I had a band in college, not because I was a good musician, just that I knew the words to the songs, and could organize a group pretty well.

I always fancied myself a music impressario, so that had been in the back of my mind. I met a mad South African accountant in London, who was on the fringes of the music business and had a band committed with a letter of intent to sign with him. He had decided recently that (here I want you to choose what you would have considered)
A) he wanted to be generous to someone else and let them have the pleasure, or
B) he did not have or want to spend any money on a proposition that had about a 10% chance of making any money.

So I took the bait, met the band, and Bob's your uncle, I was a music impressario.

A little background about this band is appropriate about now. The lead guitarist/singer/songwriter was introduced to me as Andy Osbourne, which I found out later was his nom de plume. His father was Eric Hobsbawm,a world renowned Marxist historian.

His son was living in a council flat. fiddleing the 'social' as all good middle class kids did in Britain, and did not want to claim any connection to his dad. The bass player was Guy Denning, whose grandfather was the Master of the Rolls, the equivalent to our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It was only later that I found out I was way over my head.

Anyway the group was called The Tin Gods, and with my input of money we recorded an album (unreleased to this day) primarily at Georgetown Studios with John Brand producing. Cost a packet, I might add.

The boys had secured a musico lawyer, John Kennedy, who later became head of CBS Records, but at the time had a little office in West London. We never did get a contract negotiated by the way. As another aside, John had just negotiated Sade's contract, and I learned that the contract with the record company was for her services only, and the band were hired guns.

One of the songs Andy had written was about an Elvis statuette, and had a line about 'Memphis Rhythm pulsing through his veins', and I thought that was a cool name for a record label, and I called the label Memphis Rhythm Records.

The number one lesson I learned from this experience is that they don't call it 'THE MUSIC BUSINESS' for nothing. I lost my ass.

I have lots more tales around this period of my life, and will leave them for another time, when I'm feeling mascochistic again.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Seriously folks...Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin Posted by Hello

Inspiration


The inspiration Posted by Hello

Many sad returns of the day

Just returned from Nashville, having visited my mother and attending to some rather unpleasant family business. Why so restless, I ask myself. Never satisfied and wondering why, I am trying desperately to stay in the present. As Baba Ram Dass said 'Be here now.' Looking back it's over. Looking to the future, you're bound to be dissapointed. Being here in the moment is for me the only true reality. Easy as hell to say, hard to do. I'm trying to stay on the road, but my mind wanders.

I started reading Singularity Sky, written by an English writer Charles Stross, who also worked with computers (like me). It's funny, weird and entirely engrossing. I've read about 200 pages in a day, and I'm hooked. I did the old trick that we used to do in grad school, in order to do research, that I call 'looking in the icebox.' If you open someone's refridgerator you can learn a lot about them. Same goes for their reading choices. I often like to find what others are reading, and then find out for myself what they like about their choices. Often, I'm dissappointed, but sometimes stumble on (or stumbleupon) a jewel. This writer fits the bill.

Got fields to plow, and plants to sow, and therefore needs must.

Later (or now)

HFB