Elitist art fuckery

As an artist I find the approach to art by society's self-styled elite very frustrating. There's a lot of pretentious bollocks talked about art and I refuse to take any part in the charade. Art is just art. Everyone can be an artist. It doesn't require mystical powers. It doesn't require a degree. So please can we cut this utter nonsense out?

Art is only ever in the eye of the beholder. There's no Beaufort or Mohs scale for measuring art. Art is subjective. You can't pitch one work of art against another. Art competitions and art prizes are meaningless. You either like a piece of art or you don't. You don't even need to know what a work of art is about. If you get something from a piece of art then all well and good. If you don't then move on to some different art. You don't need some pretentious art critic or art historian telling you what to think.

I suppose I'm in the fortunate position that I have never sold my soul to the money god. I've never put myself in a position where I needed to earn a living from my art. I produce my art for the sheer love of it, for wanting to create, for wanting to express myself. When it comes to the art I produce I rarely compromise. Artists need to stop pandering to the whims and fancies of the rich who treat it as just another investment, just another collectable. Stop this elitist art fuckery!

Heartbreak Hotel

Sorry to break it to you but The Eagles were wrong; quite often you don't check out any time you want but you do leave. Life is like a stop at a hotel; we check in a birth, for a short stay, checking out at death. During our stay if we're lucky we will have a few good times in amongst the pain and the heartbreak.

I've been heartbroken three times in my life. The first was as a naive ten year old, coming home with the results of my eleven plus in a small brown envelope. That small brown envelope contained a life sentence. I had failed that ridiculous and cruel exam. I was written off, consigned to the scrap heap and at such a young age as well. Exams are cruel. Exams are evil. I never recovered from that rejection. Heartbreak is like that. It leaves a permanent scar.

And my most recent heartbreak?

Well it happened just over a week ago. The referendum on the UK's EU membership. How upset I was about it even took me by surprise. It felt like a relationship break up or bereavement. I suppose it is a relationship break up. One that I don't want to happen even though I know it will. It's fair to say that, reiterating my previous post, I was devastated. How could so many people be so wrong?

So much ignorance. So much pain.

I used to dismiss or ridicule people when they stated that they were passionate about this or that. What I didn't realise was that I am passionate about the EU. I want to remain a European. And, if it's within my power, one way or another, I will achieve that goal.

I try to be a good person. I try to see other people's point of view if I am able, and if it doesn't go against fundamental human rights. But last week's result had me so incensed that I produced the picture above. I many ways it goes against much of what I stand for, but I make no apologies for publishing it. I needed to; otherwise I would have probably combusted.

Contrary to what some might think I don't believe the reasons why people voted to leave the EU are that simplistic. There are any number of misguided reason s from those on the right or the so called left as to why they voted to leave, although I've yet to hear a reason that actually makes sense to me. Having said that, I do believe that the majority who voted to leave did so for racist reasons. It makes me sick in my stomach. Racists are ignorant. Pig-shit ignorant. It's something that cannot be justified on any level. It's abhorrent to any civilised person. England needs to be ashamed of itself. What a hateful place this has become.

Job Centre Plus. But plus what?

I’ve been to the job centre again today. Had my first work search review. If I’d have blink I could easily have missed it. So far on two visits I’ve spent more time sitting around waiting than your actually being interviewed and ting. They seem to specialise in keeping people hanging around. It’s a waiting game.

Architecturally they through the rule book out when they built this excuse of a public building in the eighties/nineties. It has windows. But those windows are large but next to useless; one side looks out to a shear concrete wall of another building literally a few feet away; the other side brick and concrete with a hint of daylight. It must be horrible to work in. And that’s without having to deal with the clientele!

There can only surely be one thing worse in the employment stakes than being unemployed and that’s working in a job centre. God that really must be soul-destroying. Apart from a few bewildered folk like myself, who sit wondering what to make of it all and what they have done in a previous life to deserve this, most of the punters are either clinically obese or malnourished and radiating varying shades of miasma/effluvia. A lot of these people seem to have given up all hope of a meaningful life, with or without gainful employment. It makes you want to weep. But it would seem that rather than helping them this evil government of ours just wants to beat people with a stick and generally grind them down.

As far as my future is concerned I feel very up and down about it. Today I feel quite upbeat but Monday and Tuesday I felt very down. What’s changed? I don’t really know. My employment prospects haven’t greatly changed but my attitude towards dealing with it is currently realistic but upbeat. And that’s how it is; you win some you lose some. The emotional roller coaster continues its white knuckle ride. Deep joy!

Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

A week and a half ago I was traipsing about in the mud at Ely Folk Festival. My main reason for going was to see Show of Hands. I’m a late convert to the Show of Hands cause. On record I never really understood what all the fuss was about. I have loved folk music since the seventies. I had seen Phil Beer perform live as part of the Albion Band many years ago. But, Show of Hands just didn’t do it for me. That was until March of last year. In March of last year I went on the TUC March for the Alternative in London and we finished up in Hyde Park for speeches and entertainment. Show of Hands topped the bill so to speak. I watched. I enjoyed. I felt the music. The penny dropped. They played a short but blinding set. And, the song that stood out from that set, and the song that turned my head was their song about the bankers and the capitalist money men who have exploited and financially raped us; Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed. It is a perfectly crafted song that says all that there needs to be said about the misery that these evil people, the monied classes, have inflicted upon us. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck when I hear it. I hope it moves you as much as it moves me. Here it is:

Anti-American sentiment

The occasional visitor to my blog might be forgiven for thinking that my odd rantettes about American language mean that I’m in some way anti-American. I would like to emphatically state that I am most certainly not!  

For the record:

• I work for an American owned company
• I have nothing against American people
• I’m not against American culture – I listen to American music. I watch American films and sometimes American television programmes. I like an amount of American art.

What I don’t like is American imperialism both political and cultural. It’s their arrogance in thinking that their language, culture and beliefs are über alles. That infuriates me. It’s an arrogance born out of insularity. Unfortunately the impact that American cultural imperialism has over here is amplified by stupid British people, who use Americanisms because they don’t know any better, or worse still because they think that it is somehow fashionable or clever. And, it’s a situation made even worse by what was and still should be the bastion of British culture and language, Auntie Beeb. Sadly the BBC seems to love Americanisms. As a consequence we are doomed!

What’s the time Mr Wolf?

A lot of Americans get emotional or agitated at the mention of ‘9/11’ for understandable reasons. I get agitated when British newsreaders and media types use that same term. This side of the Atlantic it isn’t ‘9/11’ it’s ‘11/9’

It is true that I am irritated by Americanisms in general. It’s their inaccuracies and cack-handed ways with language that irritate me the most. And, dates are a great source of that irritation. Whilst I can almost accept that much of their spelling despite being arrived at by laziness or ignorance offers a certain brutish efficiency, there is absolutely no way that their misuse of the date can be defended. Logic would dictate that as a date is made up of various units of measure you would arrange those units in a uniform way; smallest to largest or largest to smallest. Wouldn’t you? Surely that’s the most logical thing to do. That way people know where they are. Virtually everyone in the world does it ascending or descending. But not so the awkward Americans. They clearly adopted the approach of throwing the individual units up in the air and seeing which way they landed, “Oh Prairie-shit, month day year it is then”.

“Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone...”

I’m not a particularly gregarious chap. I like to socialise, sometimes, but I’m certainly no party animal. When I do socialise it tends to be in small groups, because that’s how I like it. Huge gatherings irritate and bore me. I don’t like being told that I need to ‘have fun’ or ‘have a good time’, and that a large gathering of morons eating and/or drinking is the way to do it, because for me it ain’t! Unfortunately those further down the food chain who like parties just can’t comprehend that some people don’t. They think that parties are the only way you can have so called ‘fun’. They think that you can’t be happy unless you enjoy parties. Well let me shock you pea-brained party-goers. You can and I am. I may come across as a grumpy old sod but for the majority of the time, and particularly when I’m not at work, I am happy. I like going out. I just don’t like lowest common denominator entertainment, but if you do then that’s fine by me. You have a right (and you don’t need to fight) to parteee!

We are now entering a period when people manage to find flimsy excuses to have a party. Please spare a thought for those that are not afflicted with the need to waste hours on such nonsense. Please remember that one-size does not fit all!

Free stuff

There is no such thing as free stuff. Someone always has to pay!

Unfortunately the internet age has fostered the idea that you can get things for free; something for nothing. People often don’t realise that when it comes to things that are obtained without payment that there is always a payback time. Costs will be recovered. Depending on the nature and situation of the ‘free stuff’ costs will be recovered by higher prices, insurance rates, rents, interest rates, taxes, some other form of levy or less choice. And one thing you can most certainly be sure of is that the less well off in society will pay proportionately more than those rich enough not to notice. Ultimately ‘free stuff’ helps with the enabling of the rich to get richer and forcing the poor to get poorer.

Frankenstein’s Britain

Listening to the radio at lunchtime one couldn’t not help but be moved by the accounts of so many unfortunate folk that have been injured, threatened and had their possessions and livelihoods ruined by the rioting in London and elsewhere. These are real people really suffering; innocent law abiding citizens. As a pacifist I could never excuse or wish to justify any violent act. But, to dismiss those who are rioting on the streets of London and other cities in England merely as gangsters, looters and thugs is to totally misunderstand what is going on in this country. When David Cameron used the term ‘Broken Britain’ in many respects he was right. Oh dear that’s twice when I’ve agreed with him lately. I suspect where we differ though is on how we perceive ‘Broken Britain’ and how we would ‘fix’ it.

For my sins I travel on public transport most weekdays. At either end of my journey from Norwich to Thetford I walk to and from both stations. Almost on a daily basis I see people whose behaviour is just so alien to my neo-polite upper working class sensibilities that I often cringe and wonder how they can be so, quite frankly, horrible, selfish and rude. The dysfunctional behaviour that is displayed by an increasing percentage of the population is both staggering and horrifying. I’m not just talking about what is increasingly and sadly being referred to as an underclass but right across the socio-economic divide. Too many people are just too bloody selfish.

It would be so easy to say that it is all Thatcher’s fault! And I fear I might have been guilty in the past of such a comment. But whilst the seeds of society’s decay were sown in the Thatcher era, “There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families” both Tory and Labour governments have perpetuated and allowed the decay to continue. We live in a me, me, me society where I’m alright Jack sod everyone else prevails. It would seem that in this pseudo-libertarian age it is okay for individuals to break the rules. They apply to everyone else but not me. This approach pervades all sections of society; breaking the rules is now acceptable. It doesn’t matter if it is rudeness, dropping litter, queue jumping, never switching your mobile phone off, driving whilst holding you phone to your ear, speeding, phone-hacking, awarding yourself large pay rises and bonuses, or good old fashioned looting and rioting people, right across society so many individuals just do not give a shit about anyone else or the consequences of their actions. To a certain extent we are all guilty of perpetuating this downward spiral into anarchy. But it doesn’t have to be like this. If enough people want it to change it will. Thankfully we still live in enough of a democracy to make it happen.

The big challenge is to persuade the majority that it is in everyone’s interest to try and improve social cohesion and that equality is the key to improving the society that we live in. It is easier said than done of course as so many people take a burying their head in the sand approach and will just dismiss it as liberal Guardian-reading woolliness. The bigots will call for short sharp shocks, more police and other oppressive solutions, but these are sticking plaster solutions to deal with society’s broken limbs and slashed arteries. Unless we have a society where everybody has genuine opportunities in housing, health, education and employment we will never progress. Unless we recognise that equality really does make a difference and recognise that the wealth gap between the top and the bottom of the economic scale impacts on the quality of life that we all live nothing will change. Looting is going on at both ends of the economic scale. A small minority of undereducated, undernourished under fulfilled poor kids are grabbing all the headlines with cries from the general public of “something must be done” whilst quietly company executives award themselves ridiculously high salaries and ridiculously high bonuses and at the same time making thousands redundant and paying too many others the minimum wage. Looting on a grand scale, causing hardship and ruination to so many good people, and there is simply nothing that anyone seems to want to do about it. Most rich people don’t get rich through pure luck. They get rich through exploiting a situation, people or both. We are not yet a civilised society me thinks.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs illustrates what most humans strive for in their lives. But if you take away the opportunity and the hope of ever improving the human condition from millions of people there are bound to be consequences. More equality won’t solve all this country's ills over night. In fact it’ll take a generation or two before any substantive change will be noticed. But if we make no attempt to even things up matters will just continue to get worse and worse.

These two articles, one from the Guardian and, surprisingly, one from the Telegraph that hint at some of the many complex reasons for what is going on.

Norwich Pride

A text arrived yesterday asking us if we would like to attend Norwich Pride. Yes we thought. Might be nice to see, and to offer (hopefully not in a patronising way) our support to the LGBT community of Norwich. So we agreed to meet our friends, a gay couple, in Chapplefield Gardens. When we arrived there was a throng of interesting sights and assorted people:

I’m no lover of dogs but I did think this one was terminally cute:



When the allotted time for the procession to start we realised that we were expected to join in. Not a problem for me and my lady but I think we were just a little surprised as we assumed that to take part one had to be lesbian, gay, bi or transsexual. Clearly not. It would seem that whilst as a community they are discriminated against and abused in varying degrees they are welcoming and inclusive. The world could learn a lot from them.

As we passed through the Haymarket there were a small band of bigoted religious funny-mentalists who for some bizarre and inexplicable reason seem to object to the LGBT community. The old geezer brandishing a cross, and with hate and fear in his eyes, was a very sad sight to behold. I feel sorry for people like that, and I’m not sure of the wisdom of some in the procession who goaded this small dishevelled bunch of socially inadequate proselytisers, but then I’ve not suffered too much prejudice in my life so perhaps I’m not qualified to comment.

As we neared the end of the march, the finishing point being the Forum it occurred to me that there are so many minority groups in this country that suffer inequality and injustice to one extent or another that surely they/we could make up some kind of progressive majority. It’s thirsty work marching so on arriving at the Forum we headed straight for Cafe Marzano for a well deserved libation or three. Not very dedicated as we were unable to see or hear the speakers but very sociable. Peter Tatchell was there mingling, and for all we knew he had spoken to the gathering. All in all it was a good afternoon out. It'll be bigger and better next year I suspect.

At the Forum I purchased a copy of a local anarchist magazine Now & Never, which I was disappointed to discover had an editor. Not sure that’s very anarchist! It wasn’t a particularly good read in my opinion, and absolutely no mention of the Anarchist Rule Book.

English and Americanisms

I don’t have a lot of time for nationalists or patriots. They are indeed scoundrels. I’m not even sure I subscribe to the notion of land ownership or territory. Obviously in terms of governance a defined area or jurisdiction is pretty essential but I do think that the majority of people who reside in these islands are far too hung up on national identity. I suppose I consider myself English. I have a great love of the English language (despite my often poor use of it as this blog testifies) and our culture, even though in reality both are so nebulous that they prove near impossible to quantify. But that is the great thing about Englishness it doesn’t really exist. English people and their culture is a dynamic cocktail, an ever changing melting pot of culture and ethnicity. This is not a new phenomena, it’s been like that for centuries, if not millennia. There can never be a pure pedigree English person, it is a genetic impossibility. There is no measurement of Englishness. Over the centuries the land mass known as England has been populated by people from across the world. With them has come language and culture which we’ve absorbed. England’s motto should be ‘adopt, adapt and improve’ and I think that’s what makes this such a good place to live. We are not rigid; we are open to new ideas. This helps us to prosper both financially and culturally. Being open minded and accommodating has brought us tremendous benefits over the years. I hope we never lose it. In evolutionary terms the key to survival is to constantly widen the gene pool.

I like Americans, I like aspects of their culture and I’ve very much enjoyed the small amount of the USA that I’ve seen. I don’t much care for their foreign policy, their cultural imperialism, their gun-control laws, the way they treat many of their citizens at the lower end of the economic scale and the fact that they still have the death penalty is totally despicable. I work for an American owned company, who as capitalist organisations go is an okay employer. My American colleagues tend to be very nice people if not always worldly-wise, and so very few of them seem to have passports. Many have trouble accepting that we (in the UK) don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or have the 4th of July off. I know it’s wrong to make generalisations but much of the time Americans are very culturally insular. Why is it that when books, films, records etc travel from the UK to the USA deference to their version of English needs to be observed but when the traffic is in the other direction it doesn’t matter a jot. It is presumed that American-English will do. I think that it is the pure arrogance of it that irritates me. The attitude that their ways are right and everybody else’s ways are wrong. This BBC News article about how Americanisms (is that an Americanism?) irritate many of us was quite interesting. With plenty I could identify with. I’m sure there are very many reasons why Americanisms irritate so many of us. Some of it will be misguided nationalism, some of it will be racist, and some will believe that anything other than the fictitious ‘Queens English’ is a travesty, but as far as I’m concerned it’s about reducing our capacity to communicate. I have already acknowledged that English is forever evolving. I like the fact that we have regional language differences as well as the international differences (which include African, Antipodean, Canadian and US - apologies for those I’ve missed out). It makes for interesting listening and reading when we have all these variations. What really concerns me is that instead of absorbing new words from various sources we just adopt American-English wholesale, so that we end up with one homogenised language. A language based on inaccuracies. After all American-English does have the tendency to be rather Neanderthal, relying as it does on the lowest common denominator approach. If it works for them that’s fine, but I think it’s very lazy when the English adopt these neo-words and phrases. My fear is that if the change from English to American carries on exponentially we will end up just grunting at each other in a return to our prehistoric past. Some people have commented on Twitter in a rather pompous fashion that they think it’s rude of us to be irritated by Americanisms. Others just don’t understand what the fuss is about and that we should just embrace their language like ‘loving Big Brother’. I fear these sorts of people are quite shallow and really haven’t thought things through. Having vented my spleen I do accept that inevitably we will end up all speaking American-English but that’s no reason to give in quietly. The longer we can retain at least a modicum of sophistication in our language the more enjoyable life will be.

Going back to the BBC article, two Americanisms that really irritate are ‘can I get’ and ‘9/11’. This is because their technical inaccuracies offend my pedantry. I’ve ranted about ‘can I get’ before so I won’t repeat myself. I feel a rant coming on about ‘9/11’ so watch this space.

Multicultural Britain

When you are shit on from a great height people tend to do one of three things. Either they form a circle of wagons with their fellow travelling companions and resist and possibly fight back, or as an individual they lash out, or they cow tow to those that shit.

I firmly believe that Oscar Wilde was right when he said that “patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel”. I have deep suspicions of anyone who is nationalistic, patriotic or even proud of their country. National identity is yet another tool for the ruling elite to oppress the rest of us with.

What the fuck is “being British” about anyway?

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about the “Big Society” or “Multicultural Britain” it’s all meaningless unless the rules are changed. A cohesive society can only be achieved if everybody is treated the same and if everybody has the same life chances. A few do-gooders doing charity work are not going to change the fundamental inequalities that exist in the UK today. Until this happens communities will remain cellular and inward looking. People are not going to leave the relative safety of their own little worlds and integrate if there is no incentive to do so. It doesn’t matter if you are a banker living on caviar and champagne in palatial splendour, or if you are unemployed and living in cold and mouldy social housing, you are going to stay in your own little world if society dictates it to be so. The odds against social mobility are so heavily stacked that any pretence at a flat and opportunity ridden Britain are just laughable.

There is no definition of Britishness. The nearest thing to it would be some kind of lowest common denominator fudge that would suit no one. I’m a white middle-aged upper working-class man who is interested in politics and the arts. I hate sport with a passion. The stereotypical world of the Sun-reading, X-Factor, Eastenders, football, bingo, burger munching and lager-swilling brigade is a totally alien culture to me. As is the bigoted world of the Daily Mail-reading, Big Question viewing, Jeremy Vine listening, golf club knobbing, Chicken Tikka Masala scoffing, Shiraz necking, Beemer polishing lightweight. We don’t have multiculturalism amongst the indigenous white people of Britain so how the hell can we expect others to integrate?

Starting with a blank sheet of paper and given the task of defining qualifications for being British my number one rule would be ‘celebrate our nations diversity’.

Man’s worst friend

#eatdog

WARNING: If you allow sentimentality to cloud your judgement to the detriment of rational thought then you will be offended by this blog post. Sometimes pragmatism needs to win out over emotion.

Want to help the environment?

I’m not a pet person. In my opinion it is immoral to own one. Pets exist purely for the gratification of their owners, and for no other reason. Owning a pet is an act of extreme selfishness. To those that claim that they are ‘company’ I say “get a life”. No wonder society is in the state that it is in if we prefer pets to people. Pets are the pointless playthings of the blinkered, selfish, uncaring and stupid. If humans were bred with defects purely for the purposes of entertainment and amusement there would be a public outcry; and rightly so. So why do it with animals?

Given that pets are essentially immoral and pointless’ let’s discuss the most ridiculous and most pointless pet of all; namely the dog. The dog is a shit machine on legs, full stop. It serves no other purpose. They are dirty, smelly, noisy, bite-y and stupid. And, don’t tell me that there is anything clever in fetching a stick, because there isn’t. Big dogs can kill, and do,yet we allow anybody to own them. At the very least they should be subject to very strict controls. They are dangerous.

Sadly, not enough people share my prejudice about pets. But if you can’t grasp the concept that owning a pet is a totally selfish and immoral act then help is at hand, because it turns out that owning a pet is very bad for the environment. It actually could be better to own a 4x4 than a pet. Seems like a good deal to me - dispose of your pet and get a 4x4 – shed loads more fun!

Let’s rid the country of pets!

With climatic change the future potentially is a grim picture; dwindling resources including large-scale food shortages could well be the order of the day. That could well be the time we will have to start eating the pet population. I wonder what roast dog tastes like. Don’t tell me. Chicken!

April Fool

As a kid 'All Fools Day' offered an opportunity to amuse with schoolboy pranks. It offered an opportunity to try and get one over on your contemporaries, whilst at the same time invariably being fooled by your father. It was a morning of relatively harmless homemade fun. I'm not sure what the custom is/was in other parts of the country but in Suffolk the rule was that if you tricked somebody before noon then they were the April fool, but if you did so after noon then the joke was on you, and you were the April fool. Unfortunately since 'the media' have picked on the 1st of April it all seems to have become a bit tiresome. It's also become less immediate, and despite 'the media' essentially being ephemeral the joke hangs around far longer than one morning thus rendering 'the media' the fools. But we all knew that anyway.

The Day the Immigrants Left

Last night’s programme The Day the Immigrants Left introduced by Evan Davis had a predictable outcome. Centred in the Fens it took white English unemployed and put them into jobs that these days are mostly done by immigrant labour. Predictably most, although not all, of the unemployed failed to cope with the jobs they had been given. They were unable to work as quickly and as efficiently as their immigrant counterparts. This was in effect a ‘reality’ television programme so it was hardly scientific. These were false situations and they were being measured against experienced people. But the programme did make some interesting points.

I know that it is stating the bleedin’ obvious but we sadly have an underclass in this country that is virtually unemployable. The reasons for this underclass are complex and varied but a lot of the responsibility lies, as I’ve said before, with Thatcher. On last night’s programme training was mooted on a few occasions which I found an incredulous notion. Why is the goal of a job now seen as the be all and end all of human existence in this country? In my opinion we have too much training and not enough education. What many of the poor souls in last night’s programme seemed to lack were life skills. The fundamentals of forming working relationships and operating in a polite and respectful manner. Why should they have these skills? No reason at all, as they have been failed by society for several generations. What comes naturally to someone of my generation and background doesn’t exist necessarily in the world of the white long term unemployed.

I suspect the desire of the programme was to redress the balance on the argument that immigrants are taking English people’s jobs and thankfully I think it succeeded at that. I think that this country has benefited both culturally and economically through immigration. Immigration is a red herring with regard to the plight of the white underclass. Their problems have very little to do with unemployment. It’s deeper and wider than that. When are we going to stop failing these people?

How fucking barbaric is this?

Muslim woman to be flogged in Malaysia over beer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia ‘ An Islamic court in Malaysia has sentenced a Muslim woman to be flogged with a rattan cane for having a beer in a nightclub, a court official said Tuesday."

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What makes it even more sickening is that it's in the name of something that doesn't exist.

There is no God, so drink as much beer as you like!

Holiday Season

What the fuck is the ‘holiday season’?

I know one thing, it isn't now. The holiday season is all year round as people take holidays all year round! I suppose typically people take the majority of their holidays in the summertime, although winter breaks have become a lot more popular. So there you have it the holiday season is all year. So unless you want to show yourself up as the wanker you possibly are, stop using the wretched term.