Phil Ochs on liberals said, 'Ten degrees to the left of center in good times.
Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally.' Slavoj Žižek is no less forgiving saying, 'Today's liberal tolerances towards others... is counterpointed by an obsessive fear of harassment... What increasingly emerges as the central human right in late-captalist society is the right not to be harassed, which is the right to remain at a safe distance from others.' All of which points to the nimbyism we allow the right to use as a great big stick to beat the less fortunate. Let's get something straight, despite the right wing press and the Tory party in the UK, this is not a 'winter of discontent,' the current employment disputes do not have, 'contempt for ordinary people,' the refugee crisis is not everyone else's problem, but neither is driving into innocent people in a Christmas market in Berlin, or even shooting a Russian ambassador in an Ankara art gallery. The juxtaposition of child poverty in the UK and whats going on in Aleppo is a disgraceful stain on all of us, people having to take to boats in search of a better life is a disgraceful stain on all of us, food banks in the rich UK is a disgrace. If 2016 has taught us anything its that we are caught in the paradox of our own lives. Our liberal selves, our ethical and political emotions are ingrained in our instinctive sympathy towards pain and suffering but we still allow the political right and its press to kick us around because reacting kicks up the kind of confrontational storm that most of us would rather avoid. As Žižek says, its Frankenstein's monster, we know the monster deserves our help but we close the door. But lest we forget, the unholy right in Putin, Trump, Turnbull, May et al don't lie, they don't pretend to give a shit and yet some still vote for them. They are already ten degrees to the right and more and they are taking huge liberties with what really matters in the world; being ten to the left then ten to the right as liberals then just fuels their quest to maintain a grip on the very injustices we can all see. I am not standing on a soap box here, I am no better than anyone else, I am very happy to show a picture of my new guitar and album with some protest songs on it and say I have worked nearly 50 years to get to this point in my life. Nevertheless, I am aware of the work to be done and I have pledged a great deal of 2017 to it - starting with the work I am doing with Stephanie Morris on The Boat. Phil Ochs has been talking about this for a long time:
I wonder if anyone can spot the new guitar - a Taylor GS Mini 'hog' for travelling. Its one of the most astonishing instruments I have ever played, warm, and responsive and nothing like a travel guitar at all but more a 3/4 size one. And as a sit at home guitar it offers a fantastic contrast to the Martin next to it (which of course it would since they are meant to sound very different - and putting the side by side is a bit unfair to both of them) Pirsig, in hisZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has written that, 'The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there...' Now I not going to claim playing new guitar is going to improve the world, but what I will say is that in my own experience, that creativity and creative thought has always done more to raise my perceptions of inequality and world trouble than other political, spiritual or religious agenda. That's just what works for me and I can see it through all kinds of writing, poetry, songwriting and other artistic practices. I have always maintained that work is what we do in the world and art is who we are. So when we are creating art, at whatever level - and each reaches his or her own level (I wish I could pass a football like Craig 'rentboy' Dixon) - we are engaging with the world and its issues and are thinking about them beyond the everyday normality of life. Well that's what I was thinking as I strummed the little Taylor in the dark this Sunday morning in December - and I can already hear a new song forming. Happy Sunday. I hadn't heard this version of this song before - so I'm posting it here:
According to my Fitbit, last week was a fairly normal week, but look at this, Total Steps: 98, 548; Total Distance 43.97 miles; Total Floors Climbed: 174; Total Calories Burned: 18,919; Average Sleep Duration 3.55 - goodness me on the sleep. I mean its great I am averaging a couple of marathons a week but I need to do something about snoozing. Therefore, I am thinking of subscribing to the doctrine of slowness - not sloth or laziness but a slower unwinding, listening to the body clock and taking the appropriate time in which to do the job at hand. According to the World Institute of Slowness (I kid you not) and to Festina Lemte,'Slowness is the forgotten dimension to time. Unlike chronological time, it is non-linear, time here and now, time that works for you, extraordinary time. So why be fast when you can be slow? Slowness is also about balance, so if you must hurry, then hurry slowly.'Proposal accepted, time that works for you, extraordinary time, non linear and of course hugely creative, and if you must hurry, hurry slowly. I like that idea, and guitar time does that for me. Just the slow picking, strumming, humming. However, let's be honest, slowness is a first world trouble. Sigh, I knew there would be a conscience catch. Nothing about slowness can allow us to escape the idea that people are still crossing the sea in search of a better life and there appears to be no respite for them and their troubles. Indeed with Brexit and British politics lurching (only bad things lurch) to the right, its only going to get worse. Some may know I am involved in an ACE project promoting the plight called The Boat: http://the-immigration-boat-story.com and I have just recorded a song about a similar idea. As I write this I am pondering the prospect of clipping a Youtube recording of the song - perhaps when I get Dan to help me film it but for now I'll just clip something I heard the other day - heart hearted stranger, now hasn't the world become full of them; was it ever thus? With this I can do slowness and thinking at the same time:
After a discussion with my dear friend Miggle, I have decided to start blogging again. Having posted 365 blogs in my sixtieth year I lost the impetus a little but I miss the discipline of writing it. This will not be a daily event, perhaps once a week or so, nevertheless I will try to make it interesting. In some ways its been quite an exceptional year and lots has happened and writing has played a big part in that. For a start, I have written and recorded (playing all the instruments myself) an album called Palace Pier Blues, which has been loads of fun (not all of the 21 songs written could get onto it - but 13 managed). I have also written and published (previously unheard of) a number of prose poems, thanks to IPSI, the International Poetry Studies Institute. A new academic book, Old and New, Tried and Untried, co-edited with Jen Webb and Jeri Kroll was published, along with a chapter and three articles. I was commissioned to write a song (Your Mama's Music Box) for an exhibition in Canberra, called The Tampa (with Jen Webb and Paul Hetherington) pictured - The Tampa is a famous refugee cause in Australia) and that was a hugely rewarding collaboration. And Most recently I was also involved in another exhibition called Blanche and Henry by Jeb Webb as part of Material Poetics at the Australian National Capital Artists Inc Gallery. But my even bigger news is the artist, Stephanie Morris and I have been given an ACE - Arts Council England grant for our project The Boat, also about refugees and that is hugely rewarding. We have been nursing it along for some time but are now ready to begin pushing it forward. Its strange how a year just slips away and yet so much has been going on, without me really stopping to take it in. But that's partly why I will start blogging again just to say what's happening as it happens rather than writing a brag list like this - which is a little braggadocios - to steal a trumped up euphemism (excuse the pun). 2016 has been a good year, I have enjoyed it tremendously, long may the good years continue - with boots of Spanish leather:
Phil Ochs on liberals said, 'Ten degrees to the left of center in good times.
Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally.' Slavoj Žižek is no less forgiving saying, 'Today's liberal tolerances towards others... is counterpointed by an obsessive fear of harassment... What increasingly emerges as the central human right in late-captalist society is the right not to be harassed, which is the right to remain at a safe distance from others.' All of which points to the nimbyism we allow the right to use as a great big stick to beat the less fortunate. Let's get something straight, despite the right wing press and the Tory party in the UK, this is not a 'winter of discontent,' the current employment disputes do not have, 'contempt for ordinary people,' the refugee crisis is not everyone else's problem, but neither is driving into innocent people in a Christmas market in Berlin, or even shooting a Russian ambassador in an Ankara art gallery. The juxtaposition of child poverty in the UK and whats going on in Aleppo is a disgraceful stain on all of us, people having to take to boats in search of a better life is a disgraceful stain on all of us, food banks in the rich UK is a disgrace. If 2016 has taught us anything its that we are caught in the paradox of our own lives. Our liberal selves, our ethical and political emotions are ingrained in our instinctive sympathy towards pain and suffering but we still allow the political right and its press to kick us around because reacting kicks up the kind of confrontational storm that most of us would rather avoid. As Žižek says, its Frankenstein's monster, we know the monster deserves our help but we close the door. But lest we forget, the unholy right in Putin, Trump, Turnbull, May et al don't lie, they don't pretend to give a shit and yet some still vote for them. They are already ten degrees to the right and more and they are taking huge liberties with what really matters in the world; being ten to the left then ten to the right as liberals then just fuels their quest to maintain a grip on the very injustices we can all see. I am not standing on a soap box here, I am no better than anyone else, I am very happy to show a picture of my new guitar and album with some protest songs on it and say I have worked nearly 50 years to get to this point in my life. Nevertheless, I am aware of the work to be done and I have pledged a great deal of 2017 to it - starting with the work I am doing with Stephanie Morris on The Boat. Phil Ochs has been talking about this for a long time:
