Talking Pop and Politics

Back in the dark ages I recall listening to the ‘radiogram’ – the device that was a crafted piece of furniture, turntable, radio. Our source of music, news and entertainment. Here I heard Woody Guthrie for the first time with the scratchy raw recordings of early train hopping and the plight of the struggling worker. His music was part of the background of my childhood.

When he died in 1967 I’d moved on to Beatles pop, the Easybeats,  Bob Dylan and Arlo’s Alice’s Restaurant.  This Land is Your Land had been revived by Peter Seeger and Peter Paul and Mary, and was yet to be done by Bruce Springsteen, or sung at the Obama inaugural celebration. Dylan had recorded Song to Woody in 1962, but I didn’t hear it until years later. 

This week I was at a Billy Bragg concert. This is the third time I have seen him and the fact that 20 or more years on he still maintains the passion for social justice, truth, and the dignity of the common man, just like Woody, blows me away.

The first half of the show was a selection from the Mermaid Avenue project: previously unrecorded songs of Woody Guthrie set to Billy Bragg music. As powerful as the songs, was the storytelling that accompanied each of them.

The second half was vintage Bragg. Raw folk punk belting out Sexuality, There is Power in a Union. All the classics. 

At the end of the show he came out to meet and greet and every waiting fan was treated to an individual photo and chat - generous and gracious, unlike Amanda Vanstone’s rude and aggressive responses to him on Q&A the night before.  

As Ronan would say: It was brilliant.

On Monday I got to listen to Alan Ramsay introduce Bill Leek at the Canberra launch of Leek’s new book Unaustralian of the Year. Nothing like the acerbic wit of an old jurno and a political cartoonist. 

On Friday I was lucky to be at a colleague’s retirement function and hear championed a capacity to ‘work around’ systems in a career that was driven by social justice.

What more could you want in an increasingly over regulated and politically correct world than the voices of great people who have never stopped dissenting.  

As Gough said: Maintain the rage.

 

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 Art Work of the Week

Now for some folk work...given the topic above.

Christmas triffid.

The Week that was

I’ve subscribed to The Week for the past couple of years.  It gives me a great summary of all the week’s coming and goings, important news stories from across the world, latest developments in Science, what’s hot in art, books, travel , what to look out for at auction and a two page spread of houses I can only lust over as it’s highly unlikely I will ever win Lotto.

The culinary section has given me information about new and emerging restaurants across the country, and those whose doors I should never darken.

I’ve learnt a great deal from the ‘wit and wisdom’ quotes that command a full column every week. I now know:

                 Life itself is a universally fatal sexually transmitted disease

                          (Professor  Petr Skrabanek, quoted in the Guardian, quoted in The Week)

                A true friend stabs you in the front

                         (Oscar Wilde quoted in the Spectator Australia quoted in The Week)

               People who live in a golden age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks

                         (Author Randall Jarrell quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, quoted in The Week)

I even get a snippet of celebrity gossip. For example in the 14 September edition, Russell Crow had been rescued by the US Coast Guard after losing his bearings while out kayaking with a friend.  Ironically he is currently acting the lead in a production of Noah’s Ark.

The Week covers sports, so I can get all the scandals and intrigues about dope cheats, football thuggery and who has been sacked/employed as a coach for the coming week. It provides business trends and advice. It saves me buying five different newspapers and having to watch what passes for news on TV.

 It’s an all round compact snapshot that helps keep me in touch with the world – an idiot’s guide to keeping abreast of things.

I even picked up a UK version at Heathrow in June.

This year I’ve been able to read The Week digitally via an email, but I resist so that I can be surprised by the content of the paper copy that turns up in my mail box at the start of the week.  

That is up until today, when out of the blue I got an email saying they are no longer producing an Australian version and that the one that was produced and I received during the week is the last edition. 

They tell me:

 You will be contacted at a future date regarding your subscription and we would appreciate your patience and understanding until then.

Patient?

Understanding?

Now I will never know the answers to Mungo’s crossword No 199 clues:

10 letter word for: Rowed small boat, we hear, with fish – and petting.

6 letter word for: You old people, I am from Aden.

You would think they'd have let Mongo get to No 200 at least.

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Update (Blog post October 7: Straightforward, simple, fair): 

For those who may have been curious about the outcome of my endeavours to access $30.76 cited previously, I can provide an update.

On Friday  I received two separate letters from the company. The first asked me for the information I had not provided (ie the 4 page application form and documents) and that if they did not hear from me in the next ten days they would begin to deduct charges from the account.

The second one (postmarked and signed the same day) was a letter advising my benefit was being paid and came with a four page dissertation about what that meant. Most importantly: it had the cheque and I did not have to fill in copious forms.

Sense at last.

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This week's art work

New drawing for your perusal.

Boab Broome. Ink on paper 560 x 760 mm

Man behaving badly

Culture is something we collectively make. There is no reason to put up with a sick one.

(Chris Wallace. Culture gone feral. Canberra Times. October 13)

My obvious left wing leaning, and age, precluded me from ever being invited to a Young Liberal’s dinner. So I wasn’t there to hear what Alan Jones had to say first hand. I did however, see his on screen TV appearances where he attempted to justify his apparent lack of taste, lack of discretion, lack of sensitivity, lack of compassion and blatant disrespect.  ‘It was not a public function. I did not give permission for my words to be recorded. The event was in camera. I am being bullied’.  

Come on Alan - what’s that saying? You know the one….. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Ooh, and they took away your Merc…diddums!

I really did not need to know the content of text messages sent between Peter Slipper and his work colleague. But I have to ask: what sort of naivety or arrogance leads a public figure to think they can engage in that sort of conversation and harassment in the workplace? If I as a public servant had done similarly I would have been sacked on the spot. Peter has been a bad, bad, stupid boy.

I’m not sure whether Tony Abbot is a misogynist. But I am certain he lacks sensitivity. I actually saw the words: ‘This government should die of shame’ fall out of his mouth. I actually saw him deny that he meant to align his comments with those of Alan Jones. I’m sorry Tony. Even when you wheel out your wife to defend you, I just don’t buy it.

I don’t usually pine for the ‘good old days. I remember school milk used to be sour by the time you got it at recess having sat under the trees in the sun for a couple of hours.  But during the week my daughter posted a link to a youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdAoQvqh7eY  titled The salmon that jumps on the hook for you. It is an exchange between Paul Keeting and Alexander Downer with Keating doing the reeling in actions as Downer takes the bait. 

Men knew how to behave badly back then.

I fell upon a program on ABC TV early last week called Black Mirror. Wikipedia describes it as a British television drama series created by Charlie Brooker. He says: ‘Each episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy.’ In this weeks episode the ‘people’s princess ‘has been kidnapped. The demands for her release are that the British Prime Minister performs sexual congress, with a pig, on live television.  He is pressured by the Queen to ‘do all that it takes’ to get the princess released. His minders interpret that as acceding to the kidnappers demands and facilitate the process in the same way they would any other PM duty. The nation stops, tuned in for the spectacle. There is an uncomfortable mass squirm when for a split second the mob realises just what it is watching.

It was bizarre, riveting, imaginative, provocative and  left me wondering who indeed was behaving badly?
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This week's art work
Can something grand a beautiful rise out of the tawdry? 

Phoenix. Acrylic paint and oragami paper on watercolour paper

Straightforward, simple, fair.

I’d like to have a dollar for every staff day that government departments, businesses and corporations have devoted to arriving at a mission statement, a set of core values, or a punchy statement that tells the world what they are all about.

The end product is often aspirational and inspirational in thought, and apparitional and aberrational in practice.  

Everyone matters is a case in point. 

I thought  straightforward. simple. fair.  was pretty good - to the point, clear, pared away capitals suggesting the business  did not stand on ceremony, convention or red tape.

Well, wasn’t I mistaken? 

I held an account with this particular business up until January of 2011. I hadn’t heard from them since I closed it. That is until 10 days ago when I received a very bulky letter in which they indicated they had underpaid me by $30.76.  The letter outlined the process by which I could remedy the situation, and the appropriate forms to use.

Here is my response. 

Dear  xxxxx

I have to think the letter I recently received from you is a joke. 

Are you seriously informing me that:

·         you have opened a new account for me – something I cannot do without providing 100 points of ID, and that you have deposited the underpaid amount you owe me into this account?

·         I have to fill in a four page application form to close the account and access my funds?

·           I need to get documentary and verified proof of my identity up to a total of 100 points in order to close the account?

·         I am required to do all this (and so are you) for an amount of $30.76?

·         If I fail to act by October 31 I will be charged administration fees on the account?

Is this bureaucracy gone mad?

Surely you could simply send me a cheque, or ask for my bank deposit details (which you previously had anyway) so the amount could be directly re-credited.  And having opened an account for me – without my permission- you could equally now close it and save me all this hassle.

I will look for my cheque in the mail.

And what response did I get? 

A letter that simply says:

 Here is the application form (to close your account) as requested. 

Now I know every business has its own jargon, but I can’t for the life of me find anything in my original letter to them which asks for another copy of the form they sent in the first place. 

straightforward. simple. fair . I don’t think so.

I can see we are in for a lengthy period of correspondence.

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This week's art work.

Spartacus is off with her sister Brutus to the Raglan Gallery in Cooma for the Briscoe Exhibition http://raglangallery.org.au/

Spartacus. Acrylic on canvas 

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