Barack Obama's positions:
I wrote this little blog because I think a lot of people in this country wanted the charming Obama to win mainly because the alternative sucked, rather than what Obama actually wanted. Well, here's my look, for those who might be interested, at what we might see from Obama during the next four years...And since he has a Democrat-friendly Senate, quite a lot of his ideas might become law.
* Immigration - You may be surprised to know that:
1) Obama is in favour of increasing border security to prevent illegal immigration.
2) Will hope to fine employers who hire illegal immigrants.
3) Illegal immigrants pay a fine if discovered, but if they agree to learn English and some skills they can be put in line for citizenship.
This will no doubt appeal to the patriots of the USA. But I doubt if they know he endorses such an idea. My source: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/
* Foreign Aid - Obama would double foreign aid to $50 billion by 2012. Nice sentiment, but can the US really afford such extravagant charity in a time of recession?
* Healthcare - Similar to the last one - Barack is in favour of extending healthcare to all American citizens, affordable healthcare mark you. The number of uninsured persons would lower significantly, and yet it would add a very hefty sum to the already burgeoning national debt and an already unstable Medicare and Medicaid institutions. Again the question is, can the US afford such gestures?
* Habeas Corpus - For those in the no rather than the know as regards this weird latin phrase, habeas corpus is a legal writ through which a person cannot be unlawfully detained by a state. It does not determine a man's guilt or innocence, only whether his detention is legal. If the charge is valid, then the person must submit to trial, but if not, they are free to...walk free. Of course, Bush's terroristic laws allow people to be held unlawfully and indefinitely without charge (in Cuba at Guantanamo). This is what the disgusting Tony Blair said was 'understandable'. It is not understandable at all. Cutting to the chase, Obama plans to bring back this important writ and I hope he will.
* Abortion/Contraception: Obama is in favour of abortion in accordance with Roe vs. Wade (a supreme court decision) which basically means, abortion is a legal availability for all mothers-to-be until the fetus becomes 'viable' at seven months. He voted for an initative (100 million to be spent on providing contraceptives and reducing teen pregnancy) which will hopefully stop such decisions having to be made...
* Marriage - Obama has supported laws which give the same legal status to same-sex couples as opposite ones. I can't see any good reason for preventing such laws, aside from crypto-religious ones, which have no standing in law regardless.
* Guantanamo Bay - Obama is in favour of shutting this hellhole down, but on two occasions has not voted in favour of propositions which could have decisively shut the place down. That is interesting, which leads to my next point.
* PATRIOT ACT - Not too keen on this. Obama voted in favour of the draconian USA PATRIOT Act, which equated patriotism with giving the CIA, FBI, and god knows what else increased power to search telephone, emails, medical, and financial records (Yes, so much for the confidentiality of a doctor and a patient). In addition to this the government now has the ability to break into American's homes without prior warning or warrant, all of which smashes through basic checks on government's power. This is a shocking mistake by a supposed liberal. I hope he will repeal it.
* Supports the separation of church/state - This is good. The Bible has no say in the laws that govern a country. At the same time the state has no business in how its citizens conduct their religion (so long as it doesn't harm others).
* Marijuana decriminalization - Obama does not support this. All he supports is not giving users such long sentences. Prohibition does not work, it criminalizes a drug problem and thus fills up the prisons with people who have only done harm to themselves, and what is worse is when really violent offenders are let out just so the the 'awful druggies' can fit in.
* That bailout - My own view is that this doesn't make economic sense: It subsidizes wasteful industry and Wall Street greed at taxpayers expense. If you invested in something, you must bear the losses as well as the fruits - that is the risk of investing! If anything, investors will splash the cash even more wildly in future if they know that a government will bail them out when the going gets tough. Also, unprofitable industries will not have the incentive to increase productivity if they are kept afloat by money that they simply have not done anything to generate. Responsibility for one's actions in the world of finance would not be condoned by such a bill.
* Death Penalty - An issue I haven't made up my mind after being here 21 years, nor has Obama really: It is used 'too frequently' but then he still believes it is justified for certain crimes, or in his words in situations where 'the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage'.
* Iraq - Withdrawal from Iraq but at a pace which the commanders are happy with...A lot of have used this to say that Barack 'hates America' and loves extreme 'Islam'. Ok, so if I pull out of a squash tournament because I have a serious enough injury, does that mean I hate racquetsports? Hmmmm....
Some really good ideas, some blotches. The problem is that the noble ideas cost a lot of money. And don't get me wrong - I had more at issue with the uneasy hybrid of McCalin than I did with Obama.
To finish, I must say the election reflects well on America...race seems to be becoming not so important in the election of a President. It's a big step forward in that respect alone.
Tuesday 4 November 2008
Monday 8 September 2008
Harmony, melody, tonality
..Are not qualities you would associate with most of my music...But I have just finished a piece, called 'Devil May Care', that was a competition entry for the audiobook of the eponymous Bond Book by Sebastian Faulks, with the winner having their theme played before the book is read. No Monty Norman rip-offs. I have no idea how it did. And it is fairly tonal. It is currently track '7' on the Music Player. Enjoy away.
Cage I
I have put 'Cage I', because the music of John Cage is one of my favourite subjects, and this will no doubt be only the first in a series of ramblings on the great man)
I admire Cage. For his innovation and for his courage. How did he manage to make it? Sheer guts and determination. And from what I've read, he was also very charismatic. Some of my pieces take Cage's ideas and mutate them, or extend them to areas where Cage might not have used them (for various reasons). I have one piece for instance, which uses chance to determine how many parts of a piece I wrote are to be distributed to a number of musicians, the number itself determined by chance.
Another piece I have leaves it to a pianist, who when he has finished playing his part in the piece, is in charge of stopping the piece by taking the music away from each musician, one by one. It is akin to an agonist in a tragedy who kills off all the remaining characters after giving a grand speech, thus bringing an inevitable end to the play.
I read this recently in an interview with Tom Darter in 1982, about Cage's time with Schoenberg:
'Schoenberg had impressed upon me the importance of tonality and harmony as a structural means to divide a whole into parts, and when I decided to make a music that would include noises, I couldn't have recourse to tonality, because the noises aren't part of it. I made a rhythmic structure which was as open to noises as it was to pitched tones'.
I found this an interesting motive for the reason to move away from tonality. But I thought of a compromise between Cage and ol' Tonality: I wondered if, using tonality, you could construct a piece where it was rhythmically proportion a la Cage, but still following classical rules of harmony - which extensions/alterations and so forth being permissible. I also thought, how about juxtaposing noise alongside the tonal music itself simultaneously - like Russoloesque sirens or White Noise itself, a 'purer' noise. It would be interesting to hear the results.
I admire Cage. For his innovation and for his courage. How did he manage to make it? Sheer guts and determination. And from what I've read, he was also very charismatic. Some of my pieces take Cage's ideas and mutate them, or extend them to areas where Cage might not have used them (for various reasons). I have one piece for instance, which uses chance to determine how many parts of a piece I wrote are to be distributed to a number of musicians, the number itself determined by chance.
Another piece I have leaves it to a pianist, who when he has finished playing his part in the piece, is in charge of stopping the piece by taking the music away from each musician, one by one. It is akin to an agonist in a tragedy who kills off all the remaining characters after giving a grand speech, thus bringing an inevitable end to the play.
I read this recently in an interview with Tom Darter in 1982, about Cage's time with Schoenberg:
'Schoenberg had impressed upon me the importance of tonality and harmony as a structural means to divide a whole into parts, and when I decided to make a music that would include noises, I couldn't have recourse to tonality, because the noises aren't part of it. I made a rhythmic structure which was as open to noises as it was to pitched tones'.
I found this an interesting motive for the reason to move away from tonality. But I thought of a compromise between Cage and ol' Tonality: I wondered if, using tonality, you could construct a piece where it was rhythmically proportion a la Cage, but still following classical rules of harmony - which extensions/alterations and so forth being permissible. I also thought, how about juxtaposing noise alongside the tonal music itself simultaneously - like Russoloesque sirens or White Noise itself, a 'purer' noise. It would be interesting to hear the results.
Monday 1 September 2008
Song Nouveau
As I write, there is a new song being uploaded to my ReverbNation page........
Ah, its done! Yes, my new piece, 'Space Age S**t', is so named because it sounds vaguely like 'space music' (think of modern Sun Ra) and also because it was one of my university friend's favourite phrases to refer to things we didn't understand. No doubt he would use that exact phrase to describe this song if he heard it!
The tune widget below should be able to play this new, weird and wonderful song. It uses basic sawtooth/square/sine waves and if you really listen to it there's some nice counterpoint going on. Ok, so that is stretching the definition of counterpoint light years beyond what Bach thought it to be, but even so, I'll be damned if this ain't part of the Western music tradition. Yeah right.
Ah, its done! Yes, my new piece, 'Space Age S**t', is so named because it sounds vaguely like 'space music' (think of modern Sun Ra) and also because it was one of my university friend's favourite phrases to refer to things we didn't understand. No doubt he would use that exact phrase to describe this song if he heard it!
The tune widget below should be able to play this new, weird and wonderful song. It uses basic sawtooth/square/sine waves and if you really listen to it there's some nice counterpoint going on. Ok, so that is stretching the definition of counterpoint light years beyond what Bach thought it to be, but even so, I'll be damned if this ain't part of the Western music tradition. Yeah right.
Local Goings On
I said I would write a blog about my obsession (not cricket, though it's close, like a thin top edge that just doesn't carry to the keeper) and that is music. And this submission concerns what happens when councillors get involved in music. Or try. In the space of two weeks, two yearly musical festivals are held in the summertime. One is WidBest, an event which features the best local rock bands of the area, who perform free of charge for the public. They have to apply to the council for a licence to perform using the open-air stage in the centre of my hometown, Withernsea. The second event the week after is called the SummerTime Special, a council funded event which gives little attention to local bands, preferring to draft in tribute bands from the U.K. They do not let local bands play. Fair enough - the two events actually compliment each other.
But this year's Widbest involved a hint of controversy as a feisty, young band called Surviving Hityiu, which to me sounds like the title of some Japanese manga film, performed their set. It didn't go down too well, as it did include some verbal profanities. Even their guitars weren't clean (Heh, what a bad pun). I thought little of this, simply seeing some musically able lads letting off some steam on stage, and thoroughly enjoying themselves, even if their patter with the audience was as assured as Derby County's defence.
Anyway, this licentious lapsus linguae caused a letter of complaint to the local newspaper from a family who were disgusted by the band and went elsewhere. The following week, Mr. Hardcastle, a councillor, wrote a letter condemning the band, commanding them to write an apology to the Gazette for their behaviour, and he threatened to pull the plug on the successful event should 'anything like this happen again'. I was as pleased at reading this misguided missive about as much as the Australians were pleased at being beaten by the Poms in the Olympics.
Anyhow, I penned a letter in response to the editorial of the Gazette, and even if they do not publish it, it will always be available to view on my blog here - it runs thus:
'Dear Gazette, I hope that Mr. Hardcastle's verdict on Widbest is not shared by other members of the town council. Mr. Hardcastle threatened to pull the plug should 'anything like this happen on stage'. He is referring of course, to Surviving Hityiu's performance.
Some, not all, of their songs did indeed include some verbal obscenity, but I do not believe that mere words are so powerful that they can corrupt you the minute you hear them. What's more, Surviving Hityiu were not representative of the other bands who played there. Their performances were clean, in every respect.
Banning a successful event such as Widfest because of the actions of one band is rather like treating dandruff with decapitation. We ought to do our best to support local events like Widbest, especially as the musicians agree to perform (and lend their valuable equipment) out of the goodness of their hearts. They are not paid unless persons agree to privately donate money. The council prefers to give its money to tribute bands from outside the local area. That is their decision. What we must not do is take ill-considered actions that would damage the local music scene by denying local bands their yearly showcase'.
I know very well, as it says in my letter, that words do not really mean a lot, but reasonable argument rather than reflexive reaxtions to things are to be preferred.
But this year's Widbest involved a hint of controversy as a feisty, young band called Surviving Hityiu, which to me sounds like the title of some Japanese manga film, performed their set. It didn't go down too well, as it did include some verbal profanities. Even their guitars weren't clean (Heh, what a bad pun). I thought little of this, simply seeing some musically able lads letting off some steam on stage, and thoroughly enjoying themselves, even if their patter with the audience was as assured as Derby County's defence.
Anyway, this licentious lapsus linguae caused a letter of complaint to the local newspaper from a family who were disgusted by the band and went elsewhere. The following week, Mr. Hardcastle, a councillor, wrote a letter condemning the band, commanding them to write an apology to the Gazette for their behaviour, and he threatened to pull the plug on the successful event should 'anything like this happen again'. I was as pleased at reading this misguided missive about as much as the Australians were pleased at being beaten by the Poms in the Olympics.
Anyhow, I penned a letter in response to the editorial of the Gazette, and even if they do not publish it, it will always be available to view on my blog here - it runs thus:
'Dear Gazette, I hope that Mr. Hardcastle's verdict on Widbest is not shared by other members of the town council. Mr. Hardcastle threatened to pull the plug should 'anything like this happen on stage'. He is referring of course, to Surviving Hityiu's performance.
Some, not all, of their songs did indeed include some verbal obscenity, but I do not believe that mere words are so powerful that they can corrupt you the minute you hear them. What's more, Surviving Hityiu were not representative of the other bands who played there. Their performances were clean, in every respect.
Banning a successful event such as Widfest because of the actions of one band is rather like treating dandruff with decapitation. We ought to do our best to support local events like Widbest, especially as the musicians agree to perform (and lend their valuable equipment) out of the goodness of their hearts. They are not paid unless persons agree to privately donate money. The council prefers to give its money to tribute bands from outside the local area. That is their decision. What we must not do is take ill-considered actions that would damage the local music scene by denying local bands their yearly showcase'.
I know very well, as it says in my letter, that words do not really mean a lot, but reasonable argument rather than reflexive reaxtions to things are to be preferred.
Saturday 30 August 2008
Welcome
Blogging can be quite reasonably defined by the art of keeping a diary, only for the public to read. People who keep blogs therefore, must be quite guiltless, healthy types. But I daresay there is as much kept out of blogs as there is kept in.
This is mainly for my musical endeavours, and for anyone to read about what I get up to. I will try to be funny and let the naturally musical side of things come through, but it will probably end up the other way around. Then again, a 'musical blog' would not be such a bad project would it?
Here are some links:
www.myspace.com/sjouanny - My homepage really, til I set up a proper one.
www.reverbnation.com/sjouanny - New tunes will be posted here, and they will be announced here, due to reverbnations' far more generous space (and probably due to the fact that they don't yet have a gazillion users jostling for server capacity.)
www.myspace.com/milesbeyondtherest - My mad, 'lets-try-everything-within-the-space-of-a-song' band - I must admit most of the guilt for the wild approach, though I was ably assisted by some willing accomplices. You know who you are!
My album, 'Extremely Cheap Music', is available to buy, for £2.50. If you are charming enough, I might be able to get you a discount, that is, give you a copy minus the not-so-good songs (:P).
But I fear you I may as well give you a blank CD for all that.
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/718203
This is mainly for my musical endeavours, and for anyone to read about what I get up to. I will try to be funny and let the naturally musical side of things come through, but it will probably end up the other way around. Then again, a 'musical blog' would not be such a bad project would it?
Here are some links:
www.myspace.com/sjouanny - My homepage really, til I set up a proper one.
www.reverbnation.com/sjouanny - New tunes will be posted here, and they will be announced here, due to reverbnations' far more generous space (and probably due to the fact that they don't yet have a gazillion users jostling for server capacity.)
www.myspace.com/milesbeyondtherest - My mad, 'lets-try-everything-within-the-space-of-a-song' band - I must admit most of the guilt for the wild approach, though I was ably assisted by some willing accomplices. You know who you are!
My album, 'Extremely Cheap Music', is available to buy, for £2.50. If you are charming enough, I might be able to get you a discount, that is, give you a copy minus the not-so-good songs (:P).
But I fear you I may as well give you a blank CD for all that.
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/718203
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