Today I am in a good mood, probably because I get to have a net tonight, first cricket since last september!
I was going to give a link to some Garnet Rogers, but unfortunately there are no streaming links. Have a listen to some clips on amazon, he's got an immense voice. I highly recommend At a High Window, The self titled album and Summer Lightning.
Today I read an excellent article on freedom of speech, found here. It seems the UN's core values are being twisted to fit the whims of the religious; not unsurprising, but highly depressing. It's gotten me all riled up this morning. It is things like this that make me so annoyed when I see people taking free speech for granted. The fact is we are slowly losing our ability to challenge religious ideas in an age where that is exactly what is needed. It's always important to remind people how lucky they are in the west, to be able to criticise at will. Unfortunately it's not so simple in other parts of the world.
I urge everyone to help this process. Whenever you hear someone told to back down on something simply because someone else is 'offended', ask them if we live in a society of free speech and then mention some of the abhorrent practices in the Middle East. The golden rule for a free society should be that any idea is fair game. Anyone should be able to say absolutely anything they want as long as it isn't slanderous or plain abuse, irrelevant of anyone's belief or religion. I once thought this was set in stone, but unfortunately we live in a world that is eroding these values to the point where some of us don't even realise what free speech means. It is an insidious process, brought about by the 'pc' lobby.
Even here in the UK we see free speech thrown out of the window for convenience. My mind goes back to the 'no platform' policy of the NUS for example. Are we so scared by extremists that we can't debate them. Are we scared they might win? If we are so sure our views are right, why can we not show them to be so in an open and honest manor? Unfortunately these extremists can them use these curbing’s of freedom in their own twisted exercises to create a stranglehold on society. Are they so unsecure with their religious views that they can't hear an open debate on them?
I urge a read of the article, it covers much more than I have time to drone on about.
Last night was the first Committee meeting of the year, which went on a bit and was combined with a fair few drinks afterwards. Upshot is I feel tired and grumpy this morning. More rejections in the last few days as well.
Anyway, here are a few nice pictures to brighten up this really horrible morning.
I also urge a quick listen to this song by John Gorka. This album is just great, I cant recommend it highly enough.
Todays track is a recent discovery for me - James Keelaghan.
It's a historical song about the relocation of Japanese Canadians during the second world war.
A video and short interview can be found here
Winter in the UK has to be the worst time of year. It's not the cold so much, just that there's no cricket and everyone seems busy with something except me. This is strange, since it's also the time of year when I wish I was in Canada... I have this strange interest in Canada for one reason only, they seems to produce more wonderful folk singers than anywhere else in the world, bar maybe Greenwich Village. I've decided Im going to add some of my favourites here over the next few days.
To start, this is a video clip of the late Willie P Bennett, singing 'Music In Your Eyes', absolutely amazing song. The album version is great, though there is no stream available, it's pretty obscure.
Stan Rogers does a fantastic cover which can be found here. I often find myself singing this in the car, so if you see an idiot in a Ford Fiesta in the Ilford area singing this, you can be sure its me.
I will post something other than Rod, just happened to be playing this today and its pretty funny and pathetic at the same time (I should say exudes pathos).
Just received this email from an agency over a simple admin job I was applying for:
Dear Mr Bouquet
VACANCY: Administrative Officer, Communities and Local Government
Thank you for your application for the above post. All applications have now been carefully considered.
I am sorry to tell you that on this occasion you have not been selected for interview.
The application process was very competitive with over 600 applications received for only 7 posts,
many more than expected.
Just imagine what a half decent job is getting in applications. It's a crazy job market out there at the moment, it's making me far too pissed off far too early in the day.
