Karmic Koala Problems?

The Register is reporting that an ever growing number of users is struggling with Ubuntu 9.10.

Not so here at Fordiebianco central. I installed KK on a freshly wiped Aspire One (the one with 120GB HD and 1Gb ram) and it’s been humming away happily: everything seems to work just fine, including my HSDPA modem dongle, built in wifi, webcam and ethernet. Battery time has improved and the new design looks much more classy then the annoying fruityness of Windows in all its flavours.

I usually do a fresh install when I change OS’s, and as most of my ‘mission critical’ data is lying on various servers around the globe, it’s not so much of a hassle.

So, from us at Messagedfromtheouthouse a happy and hearty ‘thank you’ to Mark Shuttleworth and his mighty team of geeks.

FB

P.S. Evolution is still shit, though.

Pubs dying in the East End?

In the last two months, two pubs have closed literally just around the corner: first my newly discovered favourite, ‘L’Oasis’, now it’s more grubby neighbour, the ‘Old Globe’.

There are few things sadder than the shell of a pub. Sniff.

Jazz-Funk?

A well known member of the London blogosphere last night admitted to having no clue what ‘Jazz-Funk’ is. Even though he is almost as old as me.

Well, here are some examples:

I hope this was instructive.

So the BNP is on Question time….

..but what is the big deal. Germans had to go through the same agonizing spectacle ca 20 years ago, when for the first time a racist, ugly, right wing, anti-immigrant party emerged that people actually voted for. ‘The Republicans” (Die Republikaner) had a charismatic leader, had some lawyers (there’s always lawyers, isn’t there…)  and busisnessmen as partymembers, didn’t make any obvious Nazi noises in the open, and hey presto: they suddenly got voted into councils and local governments.

Their then party leader even got invited on the (rather poor) German equivalent of the Letterman show and was able to sprout his nonsense, again and again declaring he wasn’t a racist, but that “Germany is for Germans”.

Sounds familiar? The Republicans are still lingering around in the ‘other parties’ spectrum and, apart from causing some serious soulsearching about the state of the German democracy and some sneering from outside, German democracy is still vibrant, alive, intact (and yes, there are still some rather ugly right wing parties on the fringe of society, some even getting MPs in regional parliaments), but as a society we will have to expect that there always will be some individuals who’s political worldview most people oppose, who are violent and utterly condemnable.

This is exactly what’s happening in England now. An anti-immigrant, racist party with thuggish members has exposed the latent racism in this society. Racism is unfortunately prevalent in most western democracies (there’s fascists in Italy, Le Pen in France, the Ex-Haiders in Austria, those paramilitary nutters in Hungary), and England is not alone.

Fortunately, this is a vibrant, racially mixed society with strong views on racism and equality. Let Nick Griffin go on TV and get himself exposed as the leader of this exclusively white, socially deprived club with grievances against those ‘bloody foreigners’. He might even garner some extra votes from those who care enough to stay up late to watch him and -who knows- even get some MPs elected.

English society (and yes Margaret, there is such a thing) will be able to move on. People who believe in a racially pure Britain (made up out of Normans, Vikings, Picts, Germans, Irish and plenty of other foreigners) will always exist on the fringes of society, but the rest of us will cherish the fact that our friends are from every corner of the globe and enjoy living on this funny little island.

St Nicholas Church, Laindon

If you have a look at the map of Basildon, that semi urban poster child for 1960’s ‘New Town’ inspirational architecture, you’ll notice that over the years it has spilled over it’s borders (set by large bypass roads) and incorporated its surrounding villages (infecting them with similar architecture). Apparently the oldest of these hamlets is Laindon, now a small sleeper town with the probably most dilapidated ’shopping centre’ ever. In the north of Laindon is a single hill, overlooking post industrial South East Essex featuring a lovely 14th century church.

St Nicholas Church

St Nicholas Church and its surrounding cemetery is a lovely spot to soak up the sun and enjoy the surprisingly green surroundings.

The only thing you won’t escape is the constant noise from the surrounding roads. Especially the A127 is relentless with its continuous low frequency hum from thousands of tyres rolling up and down the countryside.  The CHurch is quite well connected. It has it’s own website and even a ‘friends of…’ site (which needs some tlc btw), which, as I am reliably informed, has been set up by the very people who turned the little hill into the lovely spot that it is now by tending the plants, looking after the graves, etc.

Isn’t it comforting to know that even behind the most anonymous of sleeper towns there is still a group of people looking after its heritage?

A very comforting thought.

Southend to bid for UK Capital of Culture

Today the Echo-News website reliably informed me that Southend on Sea, a town in South East Essex, is going to bid to become the United Kingdom’s ‘Capital of Culture’. According to the Department of Culture’s website, the chosen city (town) should be able to deliver:

A high quality cultural programme that reaches a wide variety of audiences, and is a fitting follow-on from Liverpool Capital of Culture and the Cultural Olympiad;

A programme that uses culture to lead to lasting social regeneration by engagement, widening participation and supporting cultural diversity;

A demonstrable and significant economic impact from the programme;

Credibility in their plans (including support from key partners) and track record in delivery; and

A clear approach to maximising legacy and being able to evaluate impact

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Southend (or ‘Saaaafend’, as the indigenous population calls it), but on first impression it doesn’t strike you as a particularly highbrow place.  It has three theaters (which admittedly isn’t bad), numerous casinos, arcades, 7000 fish and chip shops, 19000 bars, a sea front with a pier and millions of East Enders populating these attractions on the weekend. This being a sea side town in South- East Essex, the stilettos are high, the ladies very blond, the tattoos manifold and the lager cheap. If a week in Ayia Napa is your sort of thing thing then Southend is the place to be.

Even if Southend Council would be able to deliver the above list of cultural highlights, I would be concerned about the size of the audience attending the events. I think it would be more realistic if Southend would bid for the title of  “Party Capital of the UK”. The winning town would get 1 year of central government funded increased street cleaning, heavier police presence, more prison cells, a bigger A+E and a Liver unit.

I am sure Southend would benefit more.

Back from holiday

 

…no mobile connection. No Email. No Twitter.

I feel so recharged.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s First Stinker?

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my favourite authors. I have read and re-read the Mars Trilogy, awed by this chap’s visionary tales, loved the ‘Three Californias‘, sniggered at ‘Escape from Kathmandu’, fell in love with the NSF during the ‘Science in Washington‘ trilogy, wanted to live in an Asian utopia in ‘The Years of Rice and Salt‘ and longed to be on Pluto while reading ‘Icehenge‘.

And now I have just finished Galileo’s Dream, and what can I tell you?

It’s a stinker. Absolutely terrible.

Everything that made me a fan of KSR in the past is missing: the carefully researched scientific prose, the utopias that were so well thought out that they were likely to happen very soon, the sociological visions, the heterogenous groups of vastly different protagonists and, of course, communal bathing and a ‘Frank’. Always a Frank.

So, what do we get here? A curmudgeonly Galileo Galilei that gives the reader no chance for empathy or sympathy, as he’s an obvious anthrophobic, lying, scheming egomanic arse. And just because 17th century alone is obviously not sci-fi, Galileo gets whisked away ever so often to the Jovian moons of the 30th century to help out with the issue of newly discovered life in and around Jupiter.

Yup. No kidding.

With other words, KSR has abandoned his legacy as being the one Sci-Fi author you could safely recommend to your friends who until now saw Sci-Fi as for the anorak wearing members of society.

Not anymore.

Favourite Orchestral Pieces?

A recent Reddit thread made me think about what my favourite orchestral pieces are. While I am happy to admit that these days I tend to listen more to jazz than classical music, it nevertheless continues to be an important part of my ever expanding music collection. The people most culpable for shaping my taste in (classical) music were probably the conductors in the various orchestras I’ve been playing in. There is nothing like playing a piece of music for weeks to really getting it to know inside out. Even initially inaccessible works like Hindemith’s “Plöner Musiktag” start sounding beautiful after you’ve given them a whirl a couple of times.  So I probably have to thank these poor men (and women) in front of me, wielding their little sticks and shaking their fists at the cocky part of the wood wind section. Anyway, here are my 10 favourite orchestral pieces of all time, in no particular order:

1. Luigi Cherubini: Requiem in C-Minor.  Emotive, rousing stuff from the man judged by Beethoven to be the best of his contemporary composers
2. Johann Sebastian Bach:  Christmas Oratorio. The classic singalong.
3. Johannes Brahms: Symphony Nr 1. Once you’ve heard the brooding, evocative first movement you’ll never forget it. Breathtaking.
4. Franz Schubert Symphony: Nr 8 (Unvollendente): Lovely transitory work that slots right between the classic and romantic period. Haunting.
5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony Nr 41 (Jupiter): One of the most astonishing pieces of music ever, its fourth movement manages to cram five motives into an absolutely mindblowing fugal coda. You must have the mind of Stephen Hawkins to mesh them , make them sound beautiful and manage to let them finish all together.
6. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony Nr1.  I know, you might say that Nr 3/5/6/9 are all more glamorous, but my favourite is Nr1.
7. Joseph Haydn: Symphony Nr 82 (L’ours).
8. Jean Sibelius: Finlandia. Even it’s use in ‘Die Hard 2′ can’t ruin it’s appeal.
9. Gustav Holst: First Suite in Eb. Never mind ‘The Planets’. This is far more evocative.
10. Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. ‘Nuff said

So there you have it: the 10 most played orchestral pieces at casa del fordiebianco.

Prefab Jesus Pop

Paddy McAloon is, well, was one of my favourite song writers. His work for Prefab Sprout has rarely been bettered, and albums like Andromeda Heights and From Langley Park to Memphis are on my list of most played vinyl ever.

So it was rather unsurprising that I was rather excited by the announcement of the release of a new album with new material by Prefab Sprout called ” Let’s Change the World With Music“. Instantly downloaded (remember going to the record shop around the corner every day until the album you were waiting for finally arrived?) from Itunes, I gave it an instant spin (well, I gave the hard disk a spin) and was initially delighted by the usual McAloonesque harmonic joys, but soon was beginning to worry that I might have downloaded something resembling ‘Christian Pop’.  References to God, Jesus and Angels are flying around liberally, and I wonder whether this is a concept album to drum up support for the Church of England.

The sound is a bit weird as well: while the songs themselves reflect McAloon’s musical genius, the production sounds like somebody threw together some ideas on an eighties drum computer and a kid’s synthesizer, often detracting from the beauty of the compositions.

I wonder whether Paddy’s beard length correlates with the religiosity of his lyrics. On the other hand, I can’t really be mad at a guy who made some of the most beautiful music in the universe. A bit like Bach, if you think of it.

Let’s hope it’s just a phase.