Rising Antinomy

I’ve moved my blog to http://mulletron.posterous.com/ .

Even though the last couple of general elections have seen a rise in turnout, overall turnout is markedly lower than during the 1970s through to 1990s for example turnout in the February 1974 election was 79%, slowly dropping to 59% in 2001 before rising back to 65% in 2010. The last election campaign focussed publicity on parliamentary leaders through the TV debates, ignoring local issues. It was commented on by many parliamentary candidates that the campaigning spirit had been sucked out of the air by the debates, leading to a disengagement of ordinary voters from issues other than the headlines. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Local elections have incredibly poor turnout. National newspaper circulation is down.

Simultaneously anger is on the rise, all over the political spectrum. Recent student protests throughout the UK have demonstrated a level of violence not seen in recent years. Whilst the anti-war protests of 2003 were largely non-violent affairs, and recent anti-globalisation and climate change related protests have caused minimal disruption there’s incredible Vehemence to the student protests. The occupation of Millbank Tower was a good example of this. Part of this is because the current government is lead by the Conservative Party, who always draw more protesting fire. The recent focus on Nick Clegg through both vocal taunts and targeting his Sheffield office suggests that there are broader issues at work here.

Rising anger isn’t just confined to the left wing of the political spectrum. The EU is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a political issue, but the tone in which euro zone countries were talked about on last week’s question time is still filled with fear over any potential UK entry. Immigration has generated such anger as an issue as to propel the BNP into being the 5th most popular party at the last election. Its not like the outpouring of emotion in these instances reaching towards a point of collective catharsis as for example the funeral of Diana allowed for media induced rage over her death.

Historically I would have blamed these changes on the public themselves. People refuse to offer their political leaders any patience, or put themselves in the position of these people themselves. They hold them to a standard unobtainable by mortal man. They choose to not educate themselves on the issues and thus unable to understand the implications of political decisions. For example the other day I witnessed a conversation discussing the government deficit which ended up blaming the Irish, not understanding that the £3.2billion long term credit and the equivalent value of debt taken out by the British government cancel each other out in the balance sheet, leaving the borrowing position unaffected. Earlier this year Michael Portillo pointed out in an episode of ‘This Week’ that it was impossible to argue for the effect of the Laffer Curve in terms of public economic policy, since people would be unlikely to understand the issue and not all of those that did would actually find it believable or agreeable. This element of political reality hadn’t occurred to me in the past.

The issue of higher education cuts however provides a difficulty for my perspective. I consider the cuts as a bit of a necessary evil, but I don’t understand why the UK Higher Education sector has suffered to such a great extent even when the introduction of fees and their rapid rise has caused outrage during boom years. An OECD study points out that Britain’s spending on higher education isn’t anywhere out of line compared to other countries. The recent policy changes would give Britain the highest fees of any public university system in the world without offering any significant improvement in the financial resources at their disposal.

This isn’t a policy that voters can actually do anything about. The Liberal Democrats promised to oppose such a policy, but their lack of a majority has rendered such thinking obsolete. The Labour Party have been the main beneficiary even though they introduced tuition fees, advocated for their initial rise and initiated the Browne review that recommended removing a cap on tuition fees altogether. The Conservative Party have favoured fee rises over time. The most galling element of this entire discussion is their patronising media advocates who regularly make statements implying that a position of low or free fees is in some way impractical or unworkable. This despite university education being free in 11 of Germany’s 16 states and the French Government charging €174 per year for undergraduate degrees. This despite the current system not leaving university underfunded. This despite the British Higher Education system not charging fees prior to 1997. And ignoring that a majority of people believe fees should either stay at the current levels or be reduced.

When politicians ask themselves why voters are so apathetic this is exactly the kind of political action that generates apathy. A majority disagree with the action being undertaken. The arguments put forward are fallacy ridden and patronising. The review that started the discussion was carried out by a wealthy and privileged individual in a very different position from most of the public. When people compare themselves to the situation in similar countries most people are worse off. The only party who used to offer a political alternative are unable to act in the present circumstances. No doubt many will heed the call to apathy from our political leadership, whilst others take to the streets.

I can’t help but love the column in Private Eye that points out a claim that has been made by a newspaper that is then directly violated later. I do like the more blatant form of hypocrisy. A good example would be a newspaper taking advertising money for an advert while explicitly condemning the principles behind that advert. Enter exhibit A: The Grauniad website yesterday.

Here we have a George Monbiot article whose alleged motivation is the energy evils of packaged drink products and below there’s an advert for some packaged McDonalds drink products.

I’m quite glad that they haven’t chosen to undermine their integrity by writing stories favourable to their advertisers. Long live the new hypocrisy.

Religion and politics are two highly intertwined realms of thought. Religious leaders in many countries, and sometimes Britain make pronouncements about political issues of the day, offering their teachings and wisdom about relevant issues. Conversely politicians either look for the support of religious leaders, or seek to distance themselves from harmful associations. This is perhaps most commonly seen in America, given the influence evangelical leaders have on Conservatives and more recently President Obama’s attempt to distance himself from false claims that he is a Muslim.

The most recent stir in this regard is The Pope’s visit to the UK. I was quite surprised at the efforts made to campaign against The Pope’s visit, or more precisely against spending public money on supporting his visit. Most recently we have had famous celebrities endorsing this campaign. At least we are talking Stephen Fry rather than a pop musician.

The proffered arguments against supporting The Pope’s visit are mainly political: The Catholic Church’s position on abortion, homosexuality and birth control. In addition people have questioned the response to the child sex scandal – this is in some ways this is an administrative matter. I am particularly interesting that the opposition to the visit isn’t a matter of specific religious doctrine. For example in the cited criticisms in the aforementioned petition, the idea of teaching that the world was created in 7 days by an omnipotent being isn’t listed. Nor are specific theological issues, such as the doctrinal debate over Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation.

Interestingly a recent poll in The Times suggested that about two thirds of the UK disagree with public funding for his visit. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise – polls asking the public whether they’d like money spent on anything other than public services usually offer negative responses. The popularity or lack thereof isn’t an issues that will really enter the political realm, since it will be long gone and forgotten by the time the next general election rolls round, and it won’t be important enough for most people to influence their decision even if they do recall it.

I’m personally inclined to disagree with Catholic teachings on the political matters, though I doubt that will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. I’m somewhat more conflicted on the issue of the security cost. Even though The Pope is a head of state, his visit is oriented towards his religious followers. He isn’t getting the same state treatment that for example a major European or US Head of State would. His visit revolves around religious ceremonies and teachings. Conversely I am inclined to think that The Pope certainly qualifies for VIP status, given that there are just under 5 million Catholics in the UK.

So what this discussion really boils down to is whether one believes that government money should be spent on people who are important to some significant minority of the population, even if it is unpopular to do so with the majority. Given that this is something that happens on a daily basis it is hard to question the reasonableness of offering financial support to The Pope.

This is a response to the puzzle posted in #music on uwcsnet. I’m putting it up here for ‘peer review’. I think my solution is correct, and Monk agrees, but we could be mistaken. If you want to figure it out yourself then read no further, if you want to try and find mistakes in my workings then read on! This is probably a trivial problem to someone who actually has properly studied game theory, but I have little knowledge of that field, so there’s probably a simpler and more general way of understanding these kind of problems. I intend to add tables to this blog post tomorrow, but I’m too tired tonight, so if you don’t understand what’s going on then tell me to go and do it.

Problem Statement

There are five numbered slots, that I shall refer to as 1,2,3,4,5. The problem is a two player turn based game, in which you have to find a winning strategy for the player CAT. CAT wins if it finds MOUSE, ie is on the same slot at the same game state. The player MOUSE can only move to an adjacent slot and must move at every step of the game, other than that there are no restrictions. Slots 1 and 5 aren’t adjacent.

Corner Cases

Observe that if MOUSE has moved itself into a corner, ie slots 1 or 5, then it only has one adjacent slot to move to. Consequently CAT is able to ‘block in’ MOUSE if it sits one slot away from the corner.

Consider the sub problem where MOUSE starts at slots 1 or 2. If CAT stays in slot 2 then it catches MOUSE at timestep 1. If MOUSE started at slot 1 then it can only move to slot 2, since it is in a corner. So if CAT stays at slot 2 for the first two timesteps then it catches any MICE who started in slots 1 or 2.

Slot 3

Suppose MOUSE starts at slot 3. It has two possible options at timestep 2: move to 2 or move to 4. Since our current move pattern is (2,2) then we will already nom MOUSE if it moves to 2. So we know MOUSE that started at slot 3 must be at slot 4 in timestep 2 if we move (2,2). It can now move to either slot 3 or to slot 5. CAT moves to slot 3 at timestep 3 in order to remove that possibility, so we know MOUSE must be at slot 5 at timestep 3. Here it is in a corner, and so must move to slot 4 at timestep 4, so CAT also move there to nom it. So far we have a CAT strategy that moves (2,2,3,4) and eliminates all moves that MOUSE can make if it starts in slots 1 2 or 3.

Slot 4

This is MOUSE’s best chance of survival short of a dog turning up, so bear with the complex number of cases.

Suppose MOUSE starts at slot 4. At timestep 2 it can either move to 3 or to 5. If its moved to 3 at timestep 2 then it can either move to slot 4 or slot 2 at timestep 3. Our CAT strategy already is at slot 4 at timestep 4. If it moved to slot 5 at timestep 2 then it has reached a ‘corner’, so it must backtrack to slot 4, so there are still only 2 cases. Again it expand to 1 or 3 it its at slot 2, or 3 or 5 its at slot 4. We remove the duplicate slot 3 and conclude that if MOUSE starts at slot 4 and evades a CAT moving along (2,2,3,4) then it must either be in slot 1,3 or 5.

At the next step MOUSE can either move to slots 2 or 4. We choose to keep CAT in slot 4 at timestep 5, thus ensuring that the only alive MOUSE is at slot 2. At timestep 6 then MOUSE can either be at slots 1 or 3. We move CAT to slot 3, so the only alive MOUSE is at slot 1, ie a corner case. They can only move to slot 2 in timestep 7 so we do as well, killing MOUSE.

We now have a strategy of (2,2,3,4,4,3,2) that kills any possible MOUSE moves that start in slots 1-4.

Slot 5

MOUSE Starts in Slot 5, which is a corner and can thus only move to slot 4 at timestep 2. At timestep 3 MOUSE must either be in slot 3 or slot 5. Our strategy is already in slot 3 at timestep 3, so that possible move results in a win for CAT. Slot 5 is a corner, so at timestep 4 MOUSE must be slot 4. Our strategy is already in slot 4 at timestep 4, so again that’s a win for CAT.

Extensions

Obviously providing a strategy for different numbers of slots is an easy extension. For 4 slots I can recommend (2,2,3,3,2). For 3 slots or 2 slots (2,2) is a viable solution. Can you spot the pattern? I can’t yet generalise enough to say where there exists a number of slots where its impossible to provide a winning CAT strategy. I might write a computer program to try and find this kind of thing, though obvious checking all the moves is NP-Hard in the number of slots.

This isn’t the only possible solution in finite time for 5 slots, and our solutions for lesser numbers of slots also aren’t unique. For example we could make the symmetric set of moves (4,4,3,2,2,3,4) with identical reasoning but with different numbers. There are symmetric solutions for the solutions I’ve provided for 2,3 and 4 slots. The natural combinatorics question is how many possible unique finite solutions are there for 5 slots or even an arbitrary N? I believe its a finite number myself, but that’s a shallow claim. Is it possible to calculate the number of solutions more efficiently than calculating all the solutions, for example can it be done in Polynomial time?

I haven’t watched that many films recently, but I thought I’d cover a few I recall before I forgot them totally!

Warning: contains spoilers

Some Kind of Monster
When the hell did Metallica become such a bunch of wimps?
This documentary covers Metallica’s period of inner turmoil leading up to the release of St. Anger. I’ve been interested in watching this film for a while, mainly out of interest at Metallica’s internal relationship rather than its Cinematic value. The characters come across very much as one would expect. Lars Ulrich is as self-obsessed and needy as a man can be. James Hetfield does seem to genuinely struggle with his emotions and wears his heart on his sleeve. Kirk Hammett seems stuck in the middle of it all. There’s a great scene depicting an argument between the band mates where he is trying to play peacemaker. He seems to calm them down. Lars looks at the camera. He looks again. Then decides to start off on another rant.

Its very much Ulrich’s film – he has the most screen time, his father is involved, there’s a meeting between him and Dave Mustaine that appears to be told entirely from his point of view. Its quite self serving in that regard. He is very open about his relationship with Hetfield though, about the love/hate and about their disagreements over the years. It still comes across as though he wants some more acknowledgement from Hetfield about how important he is. He doesn’t deserve it frankly.

There’s a nice narrative arch to the film though – their bass player Jason Newsted has left, and they are seeking a replacement whilst writing a new album. Inner turbulence destabilises this attempt and Hetfield goes into rehab. A lot of the new material they’ve written needs improvement. Lars Ulrich offers a physical manifestation of this rebirth by selling the artwork that has dominated the interior of his home for years. Hetfield’s return from drug rehab brings new problems – he can’t practise too much of the day, but doesn’t want to let other people create the new album behind his back. At the end things work out though – they complete and release their new album and get a new bass player.

The problem is that even though the film does have a nice rounded narrative arch, the characters haven’t really developed. Hetfield has got off drugs, and should be applauded for that. When he returns though – he still has the same control issues and we never see him get away from them. Ulrich is still acting like a pubescent teenager. Hammett is still the man in the middle. Some Kind of Monster gives a snapshot of a dysfunctional family of sorts – but they get their act together without resolving their dysfunction. This is a conclusion as dissatisfying as the album St. Anger.

Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story
Fascinating film because of its time period and the man’s history
I’m a intermittent professional wrestling fan. Its not big. Its not clever. It really doesn’t fit in with my other interests at all, or most of my friends for that matter. Chris Benoit used to be one of my absolute favourite wrestlers. He wasn’t that large, but he was very intense and an excellent technical wrestler. He made his opponents look a million dollars and had an excellent work rate. Coincidently he shares his birthday with me. This DVD is a WWE released documentary of his life, timed to piggyback off his winning the World Heavyweight Title in 2004 – a work of pure commercial ambition to enrich a promotion and a wrestler in their prime. It covers his early years working in Canada, Mexico, Japan and ECW. His rise through the ranks in WCW to his main eventing Wrestlemania. At the point of this release Benoit is at his apogee.

The documentary is delightfully revisionist and fails to tell the full story of his rise. In 1996 Kevin Sullivan was booking WCW. The booker is the person who decides who fights who and who wins in a professional wrestling promotion. His offscreen Wife Nancy – going by the name ‘Woman’ – was also his onscreen wife. In the story lines she leaves Sullivan and starts a relationship with Benoit during their feud. Off screen the exact same thing happens. Kevin and Nancy Sullivan eventually get divorced, and Sullivan retires from the ring in order to concentrate on his booking. He is then fired as WCW head booker fairly shortly after. One of the primary reasons that Benoit leaves WCW in 2000 isn’t the decline in the promotion’s stature its because Sullivan has just regained his power as head booker, and Benoit doesn’t trust him at all.

Another missing aspect of this whole saga is the sorry downfall of Chris Benoit that occurs after the release of this DVD. He never regains the World Title and he position in the WWE ranks slowly drops down the card. His friend Eddie Guerrero, who he worked with in ECW and WCW at a similar times and moved to WWE with commits suicide. On June 22 2007 Chris Benoit tied his wife Nancy up at the foot of their bed and asphyxiated her. He then proceeded to Strangle his 7 year old son, and finally on June 25th he hangs himself. The man portrayed in this DVD, the gap-toothed, smiling, honest, man who has worked his way up through the ranks to the top of his promotion through talent and determination is a murderer.

I guess this brings me to the purpose of watching this documentary. WWE has a huge child audience, and a huge responsibility towards them. Their current product is PG rated – it avoids blood, serious swearing and nudity. Their stories are simple fables – with an underlying good vs bad naive morality. The kind of thing most parents seem to want their children to watch. The wrestlers themselves though are hewn from imperfection. Jeff Hardy, probably the most popular wrestler in 2009, is a long time drug user and is currently undergoing criminal prosecution for alleged drug trafficking. This is even referred to in his last major storyline before leaving WWE.

People like the on screen characters because their catchphrases, their bold clothing and their attitude. If you can peer behind the curtain things aren’t the good vs evil struggles that appear on television there are complex struggles in the person lives of these people. The good guys may not triumph. The bad guys may not perish. Examples of life imitating art like Nancy choosing Chris Benoit over Kevin Sullivan are notable because they are so rare, because of the huge differences between the comic book world of wrestling and real life.

Doctor Zhivago
A personal epic?
Doctor Zhivago tells the tale of a Russian Poet and Doctor during the end of Tsarist Russia and the early years of Communism. David Lean’s films feel simultaneously personal and epic. In Dr. Zhivago he manages to constantly switch between the struggles in his love life and his personal outlook and the beautiful scenery and surroundings that the story is set in. Its actually not shot in Russia, but mainly in Spain sadly. There’s a deliberate focus within the film on the emotional aspects of the story and away from the political background. In some sense Dr. Zhivago is an archetypal upper middle class Russian during communism. Regardless of his personal talents and his vocation for healing he is under the control of the party machine. He is forced to move from his home. There’s a fascinating scene where Klaus Kinski plays a madman on a train, under imprisonment for alleged treason, ranting and raving.

I’m somewhat disappointed that there isn’t more coverage of the political aspects of the revolution. It doesn’t really cover the Provisional Government or consider the implications of a potential middle ground that people like Zhivago represent. Here Dr. Zhivago is portrayed as an honest man in surroundings outside of his control. His political fate is controlled by others – initially the Tsar’s government and then the Bolsheviks. I suppose this could all get quite heavy handed especially given the love story and epic nature of his personal journey.

Inception
Another intelligent Blockbuster from Christopher Nolan
Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb – a man who steals people’s intellectual property via their dreams. Separated from his children he takes on one last job in the hope that he can be cleared of murder charges that hang over his head and be reunited with them. One of things that disappointed me about Avatar when I saw it was that it really lacked any serious exploration of the idea of dreams as reality. The real hook there was love – that was the motive for Sully to keep himself in his avatar. Inception confronts that head on by presenting a shared dream state where your thoughts can create reality. That offers the peril that your more warped instincts and your obsessions creep in. The dreams themselves involve one plugging into a crazy machine that’s vaguely reminiscent of the game from David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ.

This emphasizes the notion of Cinema as being a kind of shared dreaming experience. You have the fantasy and the escapism, but also need some emotional connection with the characters involved. Unfortunately I saw Inception at Chapter in Cardiff who were having some projection problems at the time, and our ‘shared dream’ was rudely interrupted twice. This didn’t ruin the experience but it did make one incredibly aware of the fragility of the metaphor.

I’ve become increasingly bored of recent action film outings. In the 1980s cheap humour and irony were allowed to liven things up, “You know I said I’d kill you last Sully?” Unfortunately as the move has been made to more mainstream outings a significant amount of seriousness has cropped in. Combined with the current trend of editing action sequences that makes my sweet sixteen look well shot and I’m totally lost. Christopher Nolan often seems to liven things up by putting small puzzles into his films at times of tension. Placing the prisoner’s dilemma in The Dark Knight was a good example of this. Obviously since it was a film it got explored from the psychological, rather than game theoretic, point of view but exciting nonetheless. Frankly I have no idea how would explain the notion of an equilibrium being pareto-suboptimal in a film, let alone in a dramatic way. I think that even given Batman’s interference its Pareto-suboptimal since it can just be modelled as another state, and blowing the other guys up still doesn’t lose you any utility, but that’s just a sidenote. Here the notion of the impossible occurring in dream sequences is manifested by Penrose Stairs. These are first introduced simply to show you this idea, but then later used in a critical action sequence as a creative way of someone winning the fight. Also they are revealed in both cases by a change in camera position suggesting a subjective view on the objectivity of a shared dream experience.

Obsession is a theme persistent throughout Nolan’s work. His first film, ‘Following’ revolves around a man obsessed with following people with his camera and filming them. Alongside its memory related plot Memento explores the obsession a man goes through when trying to find his wife’s killer. In Batman Begins Batman is obsessed with Bats (shuuuut up) and more seriously with his father, his search for a father figure through Alfred and Ducard etc. The Prestige documents two magicians obsessed with each other. The Joker is obsessed with ‘The Batman’ in The Dark Knight. Here Cobb’s wife provides the focus of attention. He is longing for some closure and some sleep as much as he is longing to see his children.

The film utilises some heist-movie tropes, and could be seen as a heist movie. A team of specialists are assembled. There’s a mark who must be conned in order to perform the Heist. A convoluted plot outlined before the heist happens in thrown into chaos almost immediately as things go disastrously wrong. In this case its a heist turned on its head – they are trying to put an idea into the mark’s mind rather than steal something from his wallet. [0]

I’d highly recommend Inception to people, I went with my mum to see the film and she’s normally quite anti- violent action packed films, though these issues all disappear as soon as there’s something interesting going on. I’m inclined to conclude from that its pretty open to anyone. My only real criticism is that perhaps it good do with a little less action. The snow scape is quite picturesque but Inception does seem to turn into a Bond Movie for about 10 minutes around then. I really don’t think its too much to ask for a blockbuster film to also aim for consistent creativity, but sadly I think that drags Inception down to ‘must see summer film level’ from potentially something higher.

[0] On a tangent – apparently they’re remaking Le Cercle rouge, Outrageous!

Historical
I last went to Brecon in 2008, where Dad and I did only a couple of concert tickets. Since then the organisation has gone bankrupt and the festival was resurrected last year under the Hay Literature Festival organisation. This year they have attempted to bring in more international and upcoming groups, which I’m inclined to think is a good idea. Whilst the economic instability was a factor in the demise of the Old Brecon festival I did note that the last couple of years a lot of people complained about the festival going downhill. Though obviously whatever happens in the jazz scene there always seems to be a lot of complaining about the musical direction.

Reviews and Ratings are the same as WOMAD – that is to say a rating of the set and not the band, and also coming from own taste rather than trying to recommend to people in general. We only attended four performances this year, all concert performances rather than the Brecon fringe program.

Robert Castelli Boom Quartet
7.5/10
I was really impressed with Nic Meier’s guitar work – showcasing his interesting soloing work, while still being sympathetic to the overall musical integrity of the group. I’ll need to steal some of Dad’s CDs of his work, apparently he’s performed down in Dempsey’s Bar in Cardiff as well. If you get the opportunity, I highly recommend checking him out. The set overall was really enjoyable – band leader and drummer Robert Castelli originates from New York, and as well as Mr. Meier also had Dave O’Higgins on Sax and Pat Bettison on bass. I felt that the Bass was a little out on a limb, it even seemed as though he was greeted uncomfortably by band mates at the end of the performance, and I didn’t really hear anything particularly interesting from that direction. O’Higgins and Castelli on the other hand gave it their all and combined well with Meier for a performance that ranged from the subtle to down and out funky.

Elin Larsson Group
8/10
Stockholm based outfit whom I’ve never heard anything from before. I was really surprised by how the performance turned out. There was something dramatic underlying all of the different compositions whilst thematically things were tied together by constant reference to misfortune and unhappiness. One song was described by the band leader as being about ‘something not quite right’, while another documents her rage at an unfortunate hotel gig some years ago where her band were booked as muzak and had a good talking to when they provided something more. This left me with the impression that many of the pieces would make a good accompanyment to something gritty like a film noir. Musically many of the pieces established a strong and regular rhythm early on, and allowed the leading Saxophone and Trombone players to interact in a fairly free, but closely connected way. I was quite impressed with the guitarist as well, who seemed to utilize all sorts of different techniques in order to vary the timbre of his instrument and provide additional depth to the music. Another strong recommend, though all their upcoming gigs appear to be in scandanavia!

John Donaldson, Peter King and Quentin Collins Sextet
7/10
I was a little concerned going into this that it would be fairly traditional and standard based, perhaps a little too laid back and lacking the kick. I was very wrong. Another strong performance – tight and with the strong horns section that one would expect with Peter King on Sax. Perhaps a bit disappointed that it wasn’t as different and original as the first two gigs, but I can’t really fault them given their direction.

The Brecon Project
5/10
A one off performance with several top Welsh Jazz names collaborating with a Kora player in a specially commissioned set for Brecon. Sounded great on paper, and Dad and I chose to go here, instead of hearing The Portico Quartet further up in the town. I’m inclined to believe that this was a mistake with hindsight as I was hugely disappointed by the performance. Its not as though it was without merit either. The rhythm section comprising Paula Gardiner and Mark O’Connor played well together, as one would expect after their past collaborations. Everytime I’ve seen Lee Goodall play he seems to fit into other people’s work well, and continued to impress on flute. I hadn’t heard Erik Truffaz before but he did some epic Trumpet solo work. Their Kora player Sura Susso provided some angelic sounding Kora play.

Unfortunately these positives were thoroughly undone by Sianed Jones who played Violin and provided vocals. I’m entirely happy with vocals that aren’t words. I’m not the kind of person who is phased by her singing a Welsh folk song one minute, and then making african desert noises the next. I am incredibly disappointed that whenever the group seemed to be building to something and getting together she would come in over the top and ruin the entire effect. It wasn’t merely unnecessary, but outright distracting. I’m actively making a note to avoid this musician in future – with extreme prejudice!

Another aspect that undermined the group’s music with the poor sound production. The left hand speaker had active feedback that continued unabated throughout and was noticeably audible during the more subtle parts of the performance. The Kora player wasn’t mic’d up at the beginning of the set, and a sound engineer had to crawl through several musicians in order to hook him up some way in. My father thought the Kora player hadn’t played anything for the first 25 minutes and was most disappointed. Afterwards I spoke to someone more in the know than I who said that the sound crew were told that they needed to stop setting up when they weren’t ready, since they opened the doors 10 minutes after the gig was meant to start.

Overview
This year there seems to be a lack of musical events going on throughout the town, and the festival as a whole seems to be rather a lot quieter than I recall in past years. This left an atmosphere thats a lot more laid back. I slightly prefer my recollection of the past, and my father was in no two minds about the situation. I still really enjoyed the music that I attended, caveats mentioned above aside and I’d recommend Brecon to any jazz fan who can attend. I’m inclined to hope that in future years they can bring the atmosphere back a bit more, while still showing upcoming and newer talent.

During the recent election many statements about any future or potential coalition were boldly asserted as fact by major party politicians, and newspapers across the spectrum. Most of these assertions were negative in nature and implied that a hung parliament and coalition government would work out badly for Britain. Even though we are still very early into the government’s term of office some of these assertions are worth investigating.

Timid Reform
Argument: Due to the necessary compromises inherent in any coalition the reforms introduced by a government would be watered down.
So far the government have introduced a raft of policy and proposals aimed at tackling the problems they perceive in society. A bill has already been passed encouraging school independence and making it easier for more schools to become academies. The NHS has been the subject of a huge proposed reform. The government has proposed a massive Deficit Reduction plan, far bolder than that which Labour were individually proposing, and one of the most aggressive in years. Furthermore, due to the cross-party nature of this deficit reduction there has been far less criticism than such a policy would have had were it proposed by the Conservatives alone. Ian Duncan Smith continues to promise aggressive and wide ranging welfare reform. These policies haven’t been passed yet and, as ever, the devil is in the detail but so far the coalition has been very reform minded.

Economic Meltdown
Argument: Businessmen and particularly the city will find the coalition’s indecisiveness impossible to take, leading to a stock market meltdown and economic chaos.
As it turned out the stock market bounced on the announcement of a coalition agreement. The positive attitude and cooperation between Clegg and Cameron has been giving the coalition a strong face. Since many of the pre-election statements were based upon an almost immediate economic collapse this statement has almost certainly been falsified.

Negotiations
Argument: The negotiation between parties would take weeks, and lead to a stitch-up deal behind closed doors that ignored policies that people voted for.
The negotiations lasted five days, and David Cameron made an all-encompassing and public offer to the Liberal Democrats, including stating what he was and wasn’t willing to compromise on so that people were well informed. The results of the negotiations were published. Nearly all the policies that were covered in the program for government were in one or both parties’ manifestos. The only notable exception being a referendum on the Alternative Vote, which was a compromise position between the two parties. This is another early prediction, that has already proved false.

Unstable Government
Argument: A government bound together from two parties can never be as stable as a one party government.
The government has proposed a fixed term parliament and maintained a consistent front, despite all media coverage looking for cracks in the coalition. There has been far more cabinet government that in previous years and debate over policy. The negotiated nature of the parties’ agreement also increases the stability by ensuring that there is a clear program of reform that government ministries, the general public and businesses can plan for. There have been some signs of divide, for example Nick Clegg’s statement that the war is illegal. Notably in the past instability in government has been the result of internal power struggles and policy differences, for example Brown vs Blair, Thatcher vs Howe and Major vs Conservative backbenchers. They have also become increasingly prominent during prolonged periods in office, rather than early on in government. So far the signs have been very positive, but its really far too early to tell on this issue.

In the run-up to the election fear of the unknown and unfamiliar and distrust of politicians combined in order to form a level of irrational skepticism towards coalition government. This was exacerbated by the larger two parties trying to secure their single party government status. Its far too early to decide whether the policies and government has been a success, but many of the early negative predictions haven’t occurred. Also many of the more long term aspects of the coalition have not only gotten off to a good start, but are planned and poised in such a way that a strong future is a likely outcome.

Womad 2009
Womad 2008

As per last year I decided to do a quick writeup of my WOMAD thoughts.
These are more for my benefit than anyone else really, in order to try and
have a good reference point for future listening, but I hope other people
out there find it useful as well. The ratings are ratings of single
performance and not a group overall or their latest record etc, also own
opinion so if you loved something I hated or vice-versa thats great for you.
I’m missing out writing reviews for stuff that I only partially attended, or
that I left after 5 minutes of the gig.

This year my regular attendance group increased in size substantially. My
uncle was the first person to start attending WOMAD I think ten years ago,
I first went in 2002, and my Dad started going five years ago. This year
my younger sister came along as well, and Brenda who helps organise the
Jazz music in Dempseys LINK.

Overall I thought this was an improvement over last year, and possibly
one of the best WOMADs I’ve attended, roll on 2011!

Thursday

There’s only a couple of pieces on in the Thursday evening for early
bird campers. I avoided the local school choir playing as well.

The Bays with Heritage Orchestra, John Metcalfe and Simon Hale
5/10

This gig was a failed musical experiment attempting to fuse a classical
orchestra with a band whilst both were improvising. The gig had two composers
on hand, who were writing music which was then seen on computer screen by the
attending orchestra. I have no critcism of the orchestra’s performance – all
members seemed to be on full steam. I’m not really aware of The Bays past
work, but much of the music they were playing seemed dance oriented, and the
semi-improvised compositions seemed to be quite simplistic in nature, and not
huge original. When the band stopped playing for a while and the orchestra
were able to shine through a bit more, then the band came back in and the whole
sound turned into a massive dirge. A nice idea, but I felt it was poorly
executed.

Bumped into Kim at this gig, nice to see another Warwick face.

Cheik Lo
7/10

This was an excellent gig to things properly kicked off. Couldn’t quite
get all the influences in Cheik Lo’s music, judging from what I heard,
and the fact that he’s from senegal, I’d place mbalax on the list, but
I’m pretty sure there were some afro-carribean influences as well. Would buy
again.

Friday

Zoo For You
6.5/10

Good horns section, mediocre lyrics – ‘Polystyrene Man’??? Set was slightly underproduced as well, hard to hear the singing, maybe a concious decision. Lacked stage presence as well,
really in need of some hilarious inter-song annecdotes.

Toumast
7/10

Tinariwen related West african blues band. I find it strange that whilst
older west african musicians such as Ali Farka Touré were quite downbeat
in their tales of everyday life some of the newer bands coming through are
positive and optimistic. This despite them essentially playing blues music
structures. Also, the band leader loved Hendrix so tried covering Voodoo Chile – which is basically impossible.

Farmer’s Market
7/10

Interesting Jazz Fusion. I really can’t remember much about this set other
than their amazing alto-sax player who really gave a middle eastern
sound to the music. I should rally have a listen to their stuff.

Cedric Watson Workshop
8/10

Since I decided I was attending another group later instead of Cedric Watson’s
set I popped into his workshop. I started about 20 minutes late, which was
put down to bus travel difficulties. Thankfully the workshop was being
organised in the real ale tent, so there was something to do while waiting.
Watson plays Zydeco, which is a form of black Creole music that mixes
the French La-La tradition with African folk. It became popular in
Louisiana whilst it was still a French colony. There was some great explanantion
of the way Creole music split between black slaves and white slave owners,
and it really made me contemplate the way in which some musical styles
are a living embodiment of history. His fiddle playing was pretty nifty as well.

Soil ‘N’ Pimp Sessions
9/10

I hadn’t heard this group before, but my Dad recommended and they looked pretty
exciting in the program, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, other than
knowing they were all Japanese. The gig begins with the drummer coming out,
starting to setup a rhythm, then the bassist joins him. The keyboard player
starts with kind of cool-jazz soundscape stuff, and so do the Trumpet and Sax
player. They are clearly building to something. I’m getting quite excited by
this point. Then this short fat Japanse guy with a cool hat and sunglasses
comes out and shouts ‘THIS IS DEATH JAZZ’. Then 1/2 the band start playing
ridiculous solo’s. The audience goes wild. So much ♥. Essentially the music
is Jazz, improvised solos, great musicianship etc but its massively kicked
up a notch. They also have the perfect frontman – he looks cool, he gets
the audience into the swing of things and he doesn’t sing.

Syriana
7.5/10

Middle eastern fusion group, combining occassionally experimental guitar
work with more traditional singing and dulcimer playing.

Hanggai
6.5/10

I assumed this would be a more traditional throat singing, since it was a late evening event, and it turned out to be a bit more varied than that. I was somewhat disappointed since I do quite like some good throat singing. This seemed to have taken Mongolian Throat Singing and moved it from being reverential and powerful and structured songs that sound a bit like Rock Anthem type pieces around it. Other people who attended this performance seemed to have a higher opinion of it than me.

Saturday

Takht Al Emarat
7/10

More traditional group – focussing on Arabic folk and specifically
the Khaleej music from the gulf area. I quite enjoyed the Oud and Qanun playing but this is definitely laid back stuff, rather than the dramatic, attention grabbing solos that you sometimes find from arabic musicians.

Sentimento Gypsy Paganini
6.5/10

Essentially western classical group, good violin playing – terrible name.
They had a good party trick though – blind folding their dulcimer player
whilst he was in the middle of a solo, and continuing to play.

La Brass Banda
7/10

I found this set weirdly appealing, even though its the kind of messy fusion I normally dislike Its a bavarian outfit, playing a mixture of funk and techno.
It actually worked ok, I enjoyed the set. Not sure I’d want to listen to this
without the atmosphere of a gig. Also I counted three pop/dance music covers in there – another trait shared by all terrible world music groups.

Lepisto & Lehti
8/10

Fantastic set by two Finnish Folk musicians – one a double bass player and one an accordian player. Slow, contemplative mature performance. Great stage presence as well, including an hilarious story about how the bass player loves the note G, and wanted to make an entire album using only that note. He couldn’t find a record company that would let him release such an album so he started his own record company. He then realised that he had invested a lot of his money into this record company so he couldn’t afford to release an entire album with only one note. Great musicians, great music – but slightly mad.

Orchestre National de Barbes

Don’t really want to score this, since it sounded fine but I wasn’t really
into this after the previous set. Did note they had four people on stage who seemed like they were basically bez. Also noted their reworking of
La Marseillaise into a plee for multicultural tolerance. Especially
relevant in light of recent French political developments.

Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra
7.5/10

Fela Kuti’s former keyboard player continues the same musical tradition.
Seemed to have some good supporting musicians along. Played some of
his own songs, and some Fela numbers. Thoroughly enjoyable set.

Salif Keita
8/10

Another classic african name ticked off the list – why oh why did I never
see Ali Farka Touré before he died? Amazing voice, great supporting
lineup. Note to self: try and dig out some of the Super Rail Band and
Los Ambassadeurs albums from the 1970s. I’ve heard quite a few of the
musicians play whilst later in life so they must be great in their prime
when they broke through.

Alim Qasimov Ensemble

I enjoyed much of this Azerbaijani singer’s set, but I was quite tired.
Should really try to take a listen when things are calmer.

Sunday

I’d been worried that over the last couple of years they had pushed back
some of the more traditional, classical, sounds from the middle east
and India in favour of African music and lots of danceable (sic) fusion.
So I was really glad to hear some of the Oud and Sarod playing this year
and Sunday in particular.

Tai Chi

I’ve never done Tai Chi before, but I decided to give it a go since there was
an attempt to break the world record for the largest simultaneous Tai Chi
lesson that was going on throughout Britain. The proceeds were going to
Cancer. It was quite relaxing as things go, but I don’t think I could ever
take up something like this on a regular basis, since statements like, “pretend
you are water flying through space” set my cognitive alarm to NEE NAW NEE NAW.

The Sounds of West Africa
6/10

Upbeat kick off to the day, good dance moves, exciting. Didn’t feel this
was anything really special. The name seems pretty appropriately
generic as well.

Khyam Allami and Andrea Piccioni
8/10

Fantastic set, great Oud work. The idea to place the up and coming
Allami with the experienced Piccioni seems to have worked out well.
I’m not aware of his previous work, however, so this might just be natural
talent shining through. More albums to source.

Javier Conde
7/10

Virtuosso Flamenco guitarist. Slightly frustrating – I really enjoyed the
musicianship of his performance, but a lot of the crowd really weren’t into
this as much, so I spent about 10 minutes moving into an area where people
were actually listening, rather than partially listening and partially
talking to their friends. Slowly built up his band, by adding a new musician
after each song. Another musician to check out.

Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali
6/10

Two sons of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – who always manages to get a mention
in the WOMAD programme, no matter how tenuous his link to the music
being played. I’m not a huge fan of Qawwali – a Pakistani religious music,
since whenever I’ve heard it performed it has seemed quite repetitive
and a little boring. Fortunately this set came at a good time in the
programme for me, since I was just able to lie in the chillax. That’s
right chillax is a word. I also feel slightly strange that a form of
music that involves incessant praying and incredible emotional
focus on the part of the performer to me has no religious connotation
and is simply used for relaxing.

Rolf Harris and His Band
7/10

There were a few former pop musicians playing at WOMAD this year, I didn’t see
Chumbawamba on friday after some though, I definitely didn’t see Cerys Matthews
on Saturday but I did catch Rolf on the Sunday. Chumbawamba apparently didn’t
play Tubthumping, but allegedly did make continuous references to it thoughout
their gig, and Cerys Matthews didn’t mention Road Rage in her set – Rolf on the
other hand both started and ended with Tie my Kangaroo Down – describing it
as his theme tune.

This brings up one of those classic pop-culture melting
pot moments where things come together in an incredibly unexpected manner.
I recently started rewatching rewatching Ally McBeal, and covered the episode
where her therapist tells her to get a theme song to sing in order to lift her up.
No wonder Rolf is so successful – he’s got the best theme song and is famous
for singing it.

I’ve seen Rolf Harris before, I must have been about ten years old at the
time and he was doing a performance in Cardiff where he was painting
woodland scenes and an Orchestra was playing music around a forrest motif.

I was a little bit worried going into this about how terrible Rofl would
sound, having been surrounded by all these fantastic musicians. Actually
he stood his ground really well. Obviously its more of a fun set, than
something you attend in order to expand your musical understanding
and appreciation, but Rofl Harris is a great entertainer. Hilights include
him trying to chat up the lady who was signing the lyrics, “You can sign
to me any day”, Him forgetting the set list, “What are we doing next Brian?”
and complaining about how his track was going up the pop charts and got to
number two, only for Elvis Presley to release a new song and gazzump him.

Afro-Celt Sound System
7.5/10

World music supergroup that mixes traditional Irish and African music with
dance rhythms. A great live performance, something they’ve become notable
for at WOMAD since their formation twenty years ago. The fusion of Irish
and african sounds works incredibly well – possibly tapping into some
innate similarities between different folk traditions. I’m still less
keen on how dance-oriented their sound is. Regardless it was a fantastically
exciting set and good to hear the group back together after a recent hiatus.

Gil Scott Heron
7.5/10

Aging vocalist and pianist, famous for his combination of Soul, Blues and Jazz
in the 1980s. Also noted for being a proto-rap musician. Poetic and melismatic
singing combined with soulful support instrumentals made this an emotional
WOMAD send off. Heron himself has had some criminal issues related to drug
use over the past decade. I’m one of those people who gets satisfaction
from seeing talented musicians get back on the wagon instead of falling off it.

Something I’ve frequently reflected upon over the years is how to categorise my national identity. Many people don’t have a problem with this issue. They’re born in Britain, they’re British. This scenario seems to hold more strongly for people born in England than other areas. The devolution and independence movements in Scotland and Wales make things more complicated. I was born in Cardiff, a city where everyone speak English and is many ways indistinguishable from other cities in the UK.

From Primark, to Marks and Spencer the high street stores are the same. Even looking at industrial architecture there are strong similarities between the Victorian built Cardiff Central Station and Bristol Temple Meads. Both form part of a stylistic hegemony that Great Western held of this region. Apart from the prominence of Brains, the rise of chain pubs in the UK has deprived Cardiff of another obvious sign of independence. The citing of the Welsh Assembly – its political heart – in Cardiff changes that though. State schools require children to be educated in Welsh and people are proud of the achievements of their Rugby team, and disheartened by the failures of their football team. I am not a Welshman. I speak not more than three words of Welsh, I fail to empathize with the of regional self governance, let alone independence.

My father’s family is from England, the Bristolian region more precisely. I speak English, I enjoy real ale, I support the English national Football side. I’m not sure I can really classify myself as English though. I can’t feel at home amongst the throngs of Carling drinking, No Surrender To the IRA singing, proud nationalists. I can’t even feel at home with the reserved middle class – the importance placed on appearance, the net curtains conveniently placed to spy on neighbours, the boasting of their flower-arranging prowess, The Daily Mail. Its a shame because England has many redeeming historical figures – Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell, William Gladstone. I can look up to these men. That’s before we even start listing scientists. I would be proud to claim to follow their tradition. Unfortunately claiming this and claiming to be an English nationalist is a route to self-deception. Seldom few would follow Mill’s principle of Liberty given the choice. How many people could even spell Principia Mathematica – let alone understand it. I also despise Cricket, thus failing Lord Tebbit’s notorious test.

My mother’s family is from what is now what is part of the Czech Republic. I do like Dvorak, dumplings, Cabbage and place great importance on the work of Kurt Godel. However, even laying aside my lack of knowledge of Czech, unfamiliarity with the culture and that I’ve only visited the country twice I’m not sure it would really be fair to call my mother’s family Czech. My grandfather’s surname is Muller, my grandmother’s maiden name Schindler, both were Jews from the Sudetenland. Leaving a country at such an age removes certain elements of cultural identity. Furthermore, the demographics of eastern europe have significantly changed since the period when they lived there. I am most definitely neither Czech nor German. I’m also not Jewish, which rules out yet another potential affiliation.

The rise of the nation state throughout the 20th Century has left us all with the impression that we should align ourselves with a nation, but its clear that I can’t align myself with any of the obvious choices. I’m not Welsh, English or Czech. Britain is slowly ceasing to be a unified country, and Europe not yet one. I can’t consider myself well-travelled enough to be a citizen of the World. As unsatisfactory as it may seem I am an uitlander.