KitNotes

Ah, it is mid-December, the Christmas shoppers are out in force, and I’m getting ready to return to Manchester on Wednesday for a week’s R&R, go out with mates I haven’t seen since this time last year, see the folks, and maybe have a mince pie or three.

I think some of my December traditions are a bit weird. I tend to shut down a fair bit over the winter, I don’t like it that much. Of course, Christmas is always nice to look forward to, if only for the break and the opious comsumption, which on my income, is a bit of a rareity. I also seem to find myself listening to “Original Pirate Material” by The Streets. Why, exactly, it is that mockney UK garage made by a bloke originally from Birmingham but now living in London puts me in the mood for the festive season, is beyond me, but there we go. We all have our quirks.

Unfortunatly, there has been little politically going on, apart from the stuff around JJB Sports and the sacked GMB rep Chris Riley. See JJB Fightback for more information. No Sweat has been doing a lot of work around this issue, and I know the boys and girls of GMB Lancashire region are also doing a lot of hard work around it.

The Socialist Youth Network has it’s founding conference on the 13th January 2006 at the University of London Union. I might be standing for Disablities Officer, on a third campist, revolutionary socialist, platform as a Workers’ Liberty supporter. Wish me luck.

I might not have internet access in Manchester, so if you need to contact me, then you are best emailing me.

We are now in the run-up to Christmas. I still haven’t done my Christmas shopping, and no doubt won’t until next week when I buy my family Gift Vouchers in a master stroke of originality and because I can’t be arsed to trapse around stores.

The one thing that I’m pleased to report is that the War on Christmas is being totally and utterly lost by the dark forces of secular-progressivism in this part of South-West London. Richmond, Kingston, Hounslow, Teddington, and Staines all have displays up and running, bright lights, decorations, and the towns look so much better for them.

However, like many wars today, the War on Christmas is an utter lie. In the Guardian, there is a brilliant denunciation of the myths that local Labour/LibDem councils are out to get Christmas by Oliver Burkeman. Quite frankly, I think that there should be a law passed in order to force people to read this article. It is an excellent piece.

To be honest, despite being an apathetic agnostic at best (it depends upon what time you ask me this), I like Christmas, or the run up to it. There is something very magic about it, and whether it’s the genuine feelings of the season or the commercialisation telling me to feel this way, but I like it.

Just gimmie the presents!

According to BBC News (RSS feeds - gotta love ‘em), the United Nations has found that 2% of the world’s population own nearly half the world’s wealth. So, while the majority of the world’s people - the 588 million remaining, get by on the other half, people like Bill Gates, pictured left, are living the life of Riley. The bastards.
This report should win the Award for Oustanding Achivement in Stating The Fucking Obvious.

However, what is interesting is that according to the BBC report, the report (on who owns what) doesn’t just judge wealth on income alone, in that it also includes assets such as land, property, shares, etc. and takes into account debt, too. So, the old statistic of “20% of the world’s people live on less than $1 a day”  which is often quoted in the anti-capitalist movement (but ironically never sourced - if anyone can fill me in on where exactly it comes from, I’ll be eternally grateful) can now finally be put to rest with a more shocking one.

Karl Marx, gawd bless ‘em, said that capital is dead labour, which only exists by leaching off the living, like a vampire. When we see the intense poverty in the world, you can see what he means. That capital could be used to feed the world much more than a RED (TM) American Express card (help the world escape poverty; go into debt! Thanks, AmEx) or Motorola phone ever could.

To be fair to Bill, he promises that his billions will go to eradicate Polio. All very nice, but rather than fund factories in Africa, where Polio is still in exsistance, thus providing employment and treatment, no doubt Bill will just pay companies like SmithKlineBeecham and Pfizer to mass produce the drugs at an extortionate rate, allowing SKB and Pfizer shareholders to make a massive profit, and still fuck over Africa with expensive drugs, and poverty - both economical and intellectual.
The sooner we get rid of this rotten system, the better.

Following on from my, quite frankly dazzling, article on house music for old farts for Dave’s Part (being his first ever guest blogger), I’d thought I’d list my top twenty house tracks for your consumption.

This isn’t a definative list, nor is it unbiased or objective. It reflects my own personal tastes, not anyone else’s, but I’ve tried to include a broad range of tracks encompassing the many sub-genres of house music. They are in no particular order.

So, here goes…

1. Daft Punk, “Around The World” (pictured above)
2. Strech ‘n’ Verne, “I’m Alive”
3. Les Rythmes Digitales, “Hypnotise”
4. CJ Bolland, “Sugar is Sweeter”
5. Basement Jaxx, “Rendez-Vu”
6. Pete Heller, “Big Love”
7. Sneaker Pimps, “Spin Spin Sugar” (Armand Van Helden Remix)
8. Tori Amos, “Professional Widow” (Armand Van Helden Remix)
9. Wamdue Project, “King Of My Castle”
10. Linus Loves feat. Sam Obernik, “Stand Back”
11. Junior Jack, “Stupidisco”
12. Mylo, “Drop The Pressure”
13. Alan Braxe & Fred Falke, “Rubicon”
14. Armand Van Helden, “U Don’t Know Me”
15. Cassius, “The Sound Of Violence”
16. David Guetta, “Just A Little More Love”
17. Bob Marley vs. Funkstar Deluxe, “Sun Is Shining”
18. Jean-Jacques Smoothie, “2 People”
19. Stardust, “Music Sounds Better With You”
20. Kings Of Tomorrow, “Finally”.

All those tunes are very much “house” tracks. A good overview of dance music would also include (apart from the tracks I mentioned in the guest post on DP), in my very humble opinion;

• Bad Company UK, “Miami Flashback” - drum & bass
• Fischerspooner, “Emerge” - electroclash
• Awesome Three, “Don’t Go” - rave
• Pendulum, “Hold Your Colour” - drum & bass
• DJ Marky & XRS feat. MC Stamina, “LK” - drum & bass
• Fatboy Slim, “Love Island” - big beat
• Tomcraft, “Loneliness” - techno
• Prodigy, “Girls” - techno
• Chemical Brothers, “Out Of Control” - post-Big Beat
• High Contrast, “Return Of Forever” - liquid funk
• Azzido Da Bass, “Dooms Night” - garage
• Tall Paul, “Rock Da House 2006″ - hard house
• Lost Witness, “7 Colours” - trance
• Benny Benassi, “Satisfaction” - electroclash

Think I’ve left something out? The comments box is always open…

I’m still trying to get back on track with this whole blogging thing. I’ve just finished a vastly overdue guest post for Dave’s Part on dance music, and no doubt it will garner a response of “tcha, kids today, eh? With their car alarm music…” and they will carry on grumbling into their cups of tea while they think that The Clash are somehow more musically important than The KLF.

No matter. Right now, apart from wanting to tear apart the senior management of my previous work place (privacy and harassment laws prevent me from naming said employer) relating to the severance pay they promised to pay me, or the lack of it.

Good thing I can have a smoke to calm me down, eh? Oh wait…

Smoking in enclosed public places will be banned in England from 1 July next year, the government has announced.

The cost of implementing the ban has been estimated at about £50m.

Gnnnnnnnnnh! I went to Scotland not long ago on AWL business, and visited pubs in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, and it was infuriating to say the least. When I have a pint of cider (Magners if they have it, if not, then Strongbow), I like to have a tab or three as well. A pub is a place, a special place, nay, a sanctuary, where a person, who is stressed out and WANTS TO KILL EVERY MOTHER F*CKER… oops, sorry, a person who is stressed out can retreat to the safety of a pint and a tab.

Smoking in pubs keeps people sane. FACT. I nearly went loopy in Scotland because of it. Anyone who’s had to stand in Glasgow’s St Enoch Square in the freezing cold will relate, of that I am sure.

Anyway, despite all that, I support the ban on the basis of workers’ rights; workers who work in such fine places don’t have to put up with my second-hand smoke.

But I fear civilisation as we know it will collapse and we will all enter a new age of savage barbarism and a new feudal era. All cos they banned smoking.