music in your pocket, and a watch

the iPod Classic (you know, the chunky thing with the click-wheel) is to disappear. Those who still use one may do so until it dies, and then, oblivion. I have been reading with some interest some online debates about this. A lot of chaps, especially those of the family-man car-driving persuasion, are miffed at this move by Apple. When it's pointed out to them that they are not being deprived of music-on-the-go but can listen on their phone, and that most people can't fit their entire music collection on any iPod, they get even crosser. That's not the point, they say. My music identifies me. I say to that, if you need an iPod to have a sense of identity you are more of a slave to the capitalist conspiracy than I am. And I am. My first iPod, in 2010, had a click-wheel, and while I wasn't sorry when that was phased out, I really somehow liked the sound of that little wheel. After that iPod died I listened on my iPhone, and that was great. I needed to make playlists, but I rather enjoyed thinking each morning what I wanted to listen to on the way to work and putting a playlist on. I liked timing the playlist so the last track, played as I was walking into the building, was a punching, up-yours kind of thing. A favourite was "My Name Is Stain" by Shaka Ponk, or "Batard" (no translation needed I fancy) by Stromae. Is this a gender thing? Because chaps I know seem to HATE doing this. They want ALL THEIR MUSIC RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. I managed to drop and break my iPhone about 18 months ago, and couldn't afford a new one, so now I have a Samsung Galaxy and I like it quite a lot. But I also now have a simple iPod Nano, for music only. Because iTunes.

Yes, iTunes is horrid, we all agree. But what else is a girl to do? You like a track, you get it for a euro. And no Wall of Plastic. Sig other has one of these walls, because he has many many CDs and is still adding to his collection. So I have to buy Billy bookshelves from IKEA to put the CDs on.

A watch. You know what I'm talking about. I have wanted one of these ever since I first heard about them. I just rather resent having to get a new phone so I can work the watch off it. Samsung do a stand-alone one. But the Apple one is a thing of beauty... What would you do?

Apple Watch

Samsung Gear Watch

P J O'Rourke and the boomers

Ghastly right-winger that he is, I have always found P J O'Rourke hilarious. I particularly loved that his book on international conflict and crisis was called "Give War A Chance". Anyway, his latest tome, "The Baby Boom, How It Got That Way And It Wasn't My Fault And I'll Never Do It Again" is a bit variable. You have to love a writer who puts in ahead of the foreword a quote from Ecclesiasticus, in the Apocrypha bit of the Bible (I always used to get him mixed up with Ecclesiastes, because I could never remember which one you were supposed to read and which one not, but Ecclesiasticus is the Wrong One) "How can he get wisdom... whose talk is of bullocks?"  But a lot of this is a description of a 1950s-to-early-60s childhood in Ohio, attracting the reaction "So what?" And why do Americans have to refer to brand names all the time? For us ration-book Brits the only brand names with any nostalgia quotient are probably Spangles and Golden Wonder, neither of which exists any more. He refers to Depends and Levitra, both of which I had to look up (incontinence pants and Viagra variant, since you ask, neither of which probably existed when US boomers were children).

But O'Rourke's boomer credentials are impeccable. He used to be editor of National Lampoon. Largely because he was/is funny. He took a lot of drugs, at the right time. He lived in a shared house called Big Green.

Who are the boomers? Opinions differ. Most agree that the oldest ones were born in 1946, conceived usually by returning soldiers. The youngest, however, were born anywhere between 1959 and 1964, depending who you believe (O'Rourke goes for 1964). What did boomers have that was cool, and that has lasted? Our music, of course. We had the Beatles. We had the Rolling Stones. We had the Kinks. We had the Who (none of these American, just saying). Except that all these people are/were war babies, born in the 1940s. Not boomers. Who are the boomer musicians? The late Sid Vicious? Morrissey (at the younger end)? Elvis Costello? Well, I grant  you him, but it's not the same, if you get my drift. So what did our generation produce? We went into politics, some of us. The Clintons are boomers, at the top end of the age group, and so may Barack Obama be, at the bottom end. Tony Blair definitely is. Angela Merkel. But the boomers' time in the political sunlight was brief. David Cameron is younger than that. Nigel Farage doesn't count. Our time there is over. Fun while it lasted. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Like the rest of our lives really.

Artists? Writers? Not that many. Martin Amis, if  you like him (I do) scrapes in (born 1949). Jonathan Coe. David Mitchell is too young. Margaret Drabble is too old. The writers I choose to read, mostly, are older or younger than the boomer generation.

But P J O'Rourke is funny. And concise. He notes, rightly, that the tax bills to fund the boomers' retirement are barely starting to come in, adding that that ought to galvanise those Generation X slackers into doing some work, besides which it would help them get over the death of Kurt Cobain. Just as well, then, that we don't want to retire. If we did, we'd have to admit we were old. Our parents wanted to retire. Some of them did so in their fifties, because their working lives were quite hard, and they were glad when they were over. Us, no. We've been having a pretty good time, all told. Quite a lot of us died young without any wars to kill us off, unlike now (I've lost several friends my own age and younger), but (and I'm talking about Brits, here) we had home cooking not junk food when we were children, we played out, we were not driven around, we were allowed chips only once a week, and we acquired self-reliance by being outside the house without adults from early on. We never grew up, and we are going to live for ever.

That's not an indictment of my generation, it's a snapshot opinion of it. Will later generations think of us kindly?

Desert Island Discs in Yorkshire

Yes I know, posting your desert island discs is frivolous and shallow, but hey, I'm on holiday.  In Yorkshire, since you ask, for the walking, to help mend my leg. It's so cold for August I've had to buy warm clothes, even though I knew the summer clothes I would wear in Alsace would not do in Leeds. The tracks are in no particular order.

1. The Moody Blues, 'Nights in White Satin''. Tune of my teenage years, and I have never tired of it. One of the great swooning ballads of all time.

2. The Rolling Stones, 'Paint It Black'. It's not the greatest thing they have ever done, but I think it is the clearest and the most powerful. Most pop songs, rock anthems etc are not about death, or not entirely, even the girl-group tragedy ones (see below), but this one is.

3. The Hollies, 'Bus Stop'. A near-perfect pop song, with the then-great voice of Graham Nash.

4. The Shangri-Las, 'Remember'. The best of the girl groups. 'Rock Dreams', back in the day, called them "three schoolgirls in black leather". I love the pauses in this. I will never get tired of it as long as I live.

And now, moving a little nearer the present day:

5. Stromae, "Formidable". He sings only in French. The most famous Belgian. All human life is there. And every line is simple, as Brel was. "Tu etais formidable, j'etais fort minable".

Back again to the past:

6. Jacques Brel, "Amsterdam". A dead famous Belgian. He of course also sang only in French, but nobody asked about that then. A perfect chanson. "Comme des oriflammes, le long des berges mornes."

7. The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields For Ever". For the nonsense of it, though I suspect John Lennon took the words a little more seriously than I do.

8. Tom Lehrer, "The Periodic Table". Just because. No one else could.

A bit old, all these. And yet I like a lot of today's modern beat combos. I'm sure these favourites will change over time, but that is what I would take if I had to go today.

Book? To Kill A Mockingbird. (Tussle between that and Wuthering Heights, but the latter has too much property in it, which wouldn't really do on a desert island.)

Luxury item: Tussle between a supply of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream and pen and notebook to write with. The latter wins, by a whisker.

The one record I'd choose of them all? Difficult, but it's the Brel.

Just a bit of fun. You? Love to hear it.

this is formidable

There might be some people in Europe who do not know about Stromae. He is 28 years old, Belgian, Rwandan father who disappeared in the 1990s when the Thing Of Which We Do Not Speak happened. His second album "Racine Carree" (Square Root) is a work of genius. His real name is Paul Van Haver. Stromae is Maestro backwards in the "verlan" argot young urban francophones often speak. Here is the video for his second hit from the album, "Formidable". He is in the middle of Brussels, his home town, pretending to be drunk. The police who stop to speak to him recognise him and tell him they are great fans, but believe that he really is drunk and do not know he is making a video. His songs are simple, and usually very dark. There are English subtitles for this one to help non-francophones. Most francophone artists who want international fame sing in English. Not Stromae. Brel mark 2? Well, maybe. He certainly rolls his r's just like Brel did - but then they are both Belgian. This is a talent not to be ignored.

we are all on the Autobahn

more influential than anyone thought back in the 70s. Top stylee, boys.

the annus mirabilis

of the rock album was 1971, says David Hepworth on his blog here .  I know boys like lists, and I don't, much, but it is worth remembering how much great stuff in the form of albums was put out that year.  Some names on the list make me reach for the iTunes Store - Dory Previn, John Prine, Grin.  This was mostly music made by war babies.  We boomers did glam and punk, I guess.  Anyway, look at the list and see if you are reminded or inspired by anything on it.  I was.  I haven't thought in terms of albums for some time now, I just download tracks I want, or listen on Spotify, and I dislike CDs, always have - they just take up space and you have to go to IKEA and buy lots of Billy bookshelves to put them on.  Our sitting room would be quite big if it was not for significant other's CD shelves taking up the whole of one wall.

What am I listening to now?  Two very different things, and both of them albums.  Sexion d'Assaut, "L'Apogee", if you don't know them they are a high-class rap collective from Paris, seven fellows who know which way is up.  If they weren't francophone they would be big all over the world.  I have a ticket to see them in Strasbourg on 20th October, v. excited.  Naturally enough, because I am (just a little) older than the average demographic of their fans, I paid 10 euros more for my ticket and I have a seat.  Also, Bob Dylan's latest, "Tempest".  I've liked his last three albums very much, classy tight-knit blues.  On the latest one I especially like his song for John Lennon (more than 30 years since John was murdered, just think), "Roll on John".

In 1971 I was seventeen, and it was probably the year in my life when the greatest concentration of important things happened to me.  I had an email conversation with my brother recently about this very thing. A great deal of what and who I am now is because of things that happened that year.  It's only now that I begin to understand them, and the same is true of the music which came out then.  I've written a group of stories, to come out soon, which are loosely based on episodes of my younger life (though, I hasten to point out, they are not about me and the events in them did not happen to me), and I'm rather pleased with them.  I'm nearly always pleased with the stuff I write, which is probably not a good thing.  The first one is set in Berlin in 1971, and is called "Spandau Sweetheart".  The title is a very conscious homage to Haruki Murakami, the laces of whose shoes I am not fit to tie, but I don't try to write like him.  On the final read-through of the stories I realised that they are actually a bit porny.  That's not what I set out to write, but it's what I have written.  And no, I haven't read "Fifty Shades of Grey", and don't intend to.  If you would like to read "Spandau Sweetheart" free, send me a message and I'll send you a pdf.

The Taleban banned music.  An act of great wickedness, though not the wickedest thing that bunch of barbarians has ever done.

kickass list

quite a lot of my readers are boys, and boys love lists, as any fule kno.  I have an iPhone (did I mention that?) and I made a playlist for it which I have called "kickass" because it gets me up and going on my way to work in the mornings, and because the tracks are all, in their different ways, about having and using power.  Here are the tracks, in alphabetical order:

'Alejandro'                                                                                     Lady Gaga
'Amazing'                                                                                       Kanye West
'Angela'                                                                                         Yannick Noah
'Bagpipes From Baghdad'                                                              Eminem
'Barbra Streisand'                                                                          Duck Sauce
'Bombe Humaine'                                                                          Soprano
'Bonkers'                                                                                      Dizzee Rascal
'Changing of the Guards'                                                                Patti Smith
'Cherie Coco'                                                                               Magic System and Soprano
'Deborah'                                                                                     T. Rex
'Dima'                                                                                          Zaho
'Du Style'                                                                                     Jena Lee
'Equivoque'                                                                                  Tunisiano
'Fire'                                                                                           (The Crazy World of)
                                                                                                  Arthur Brown
'Get It On'                                                                                  T. Rex
'Heavy Cross'                                                                             Gossip
'Inch'Allah'                                                                                  Grand Corps Malade/
                                                                                                  Reda Talliani
'Je Realise'                                                                                  Sinik and James Blunt
'Stan'                                                                                          Eminem
'Step Back'                                                                                 Shy'm and Odessa Thornhill
'Te Quiero'                                                                                 Stromae
'Toi + Moi'                                                                                 Gregoire
'Turning Japanese'                                                                       The Vapours
'Virginia Plain'                                                                             Roxy Music
'Welfare Mothers'                                                                       Neil Young
'What A Waste'                                                                          Ian Dury
'White Rabbit'                                                                            Jefferson Airplane
'You Really Got Me'                                                                  The Kinks
'3'                                                                                              Britney Spears


The choices I made surprised me a bit.  I went with how the tracks made me feel - in all cases energised and powerful.  No Bob Dylan, other than in a Patti Smith version.  Not one but two T. Rex.  Britney.  The Stromae 'Te Quiero' is actually about an unhappy relationship, but it's in there.  I may add to this list, though it's too long to listen to all of it on the way to work.  'First We Take Manhattan' by the great Lenny springs to mind.  Readers less familiar with the oeuvre that is French popular music, may I suggest you Spotify some of these, you might like them.  The Ian Dury would have been there anyway, but that track should be immortal for the lines

"I could be a writer with a growing reputation,
I could be the ticket man at Fulham railway station"

What tracks would you put on a playlist to make you go "Fuck yeah! World I'm a gunna kick yo' ass today!" - or similar?

You may guest post your list if you wish - just let me know.

Love. poverty and war

is the title of a book of essays by Christopher Hitchens, published in 2005, which I re-read very recently because I was thinking about him when he died earlier this year.  He was such a great writer and such a clear thinker.  No-one writing now seems to come close.  Unless, readers, you know different...

I thought about Hitch because I happened today, by chance, on an interview with Andy Kershaw, who used to do world music on Radio 4,  Kershaw quoted the title and referred in the interview to Hitchens himself.  Apparently they went to North Korea together.  How cool is that?  I used rather to like Kershaw's radio stuff, being a Womad fan and all - the only festival where you spend most of your time with your back to the stage.  Anyway, that's in the past - the last Womad festival I went to was in 2003 and I won't be going again, but that is another story.

Kershaw was being interviewed because he was appearing at the Hay festival, so naturally enough he has a book out.  Damn, one-click ordering, curse you, there it was on my Kindle before I knew what I was about.  You'll remember Andy Kershaw, with his Lancashire accent - he went a bit bonkers a few years ago on the Isle of Man, and was a bit down and out and a fugitive from justice for a while, but now he's a lot better.  I thought his book might be interesting.  We'll see.

Hitchens was wonderful.  In the very first essay in  his book he debunks Churchill and prays in aid Josephine Tey's book 'The Daughter of Time' which is one of my great faves - I bought it recently for a young Australian relative who is studying Shakespeare.  Where was I?  Focus, woman, focus.  Ah yes, the Second World War.  He reminds us that the British burned the French fleet in north Africa, with many French lives lost, and that the fleet was there to get it away from the Germans, who did not acquire a single vessel.  He also reminds us that the Roosevelt administration recognised Vichy France.  He points out, probably rightly, that Churchill's demarches were opportunistic, vainglorious, and, crucially, lucky.  More Hitchens jewels later.  I have to go and celebrate Manchester City's victory with significant other.