Saturday Sidebar – Daydream Believers And Confirmation Bias

The first draft of this got to around 1700 words before I realised it was in danger of going on forever. Clearly one of my New Year resolutions should be to try and be more succinct. 

I’d been chatting to a pal of mine over Skype about the state funeral of Kim Jong-il in North Korea. After he’d given me the heads up on the story about priests having a bit of a brawl http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16347418 we moved on to belief systems in general. 

Yes, under certain regimes information is not readily available to those sufficiently curious to question perceived wisdom but in other societies, there is an abundance of information available to enable the slaughtering of the occasional sacred cow. And yet, certain ideas persist no matter what information comes to light. Or does it just seem that way? Do we have difficulty considering timescales greater than the average human lifespan? 

If you have happened upon any of my previous posts this year you’ll have noticed that I’ve become mightily distracted from the noble enterprise of making music that sounds twenty years out of date by the economic crisis. All it took was a bout of insomnia and an absentminded scroll up the television channel list from the BBC News to RT where I caught an episode of the Keiser Report with Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert. I was so transfixed I forgot all about scrolling further up to the delights of Babestation. Yeah, Max and Stacy were that interesting AND funny ;) 

If you can stomach an insight into why the parameters within which you live your life are based on the most audacious chicanery then look them up. If not, do it anyway, for your kids’ sake if nothing else.

Whether it’s been studying the difference between how the BBC, Sky, Channel 4, RT and Al Jazeera report the news; films like Collapse, Inside Job, The Flaw and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward or programmes like The Alyona Show, Capital Account and the Keiser Report, it’s been a hell of a year for learning the extent to which our lives are affected by policies implemented off the back of a system so completely divorced from our physical reality.

I think it was at this point in the first draft that I really started to ramble on and ended up just repeating what other far more articulate souls have already put out into the ether. I thought about Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror trilogy and reconsidered. When programmes as good as that exist, what else is left to say? Only that the old news footage in Ben Elton’s Laughing At The 80s programme showed we’ve been here before.

So what of what we believe in? Having effectively spent most of 2011 devouring as much information as my sanity would allow, let the record reflect that I’ve stopped laughing about North Korea. 

Happy New Year x

p.s. there's a new song called Mockingbird available on the Music tab or a super spangly version available on the Download Here! tab. 

Sunday Soliloquy – It’s All Very Well

I was talking to some people about expertise this week. In the midst of discussing my decision to learn how to play the piano, we digressed into a general chat about not finding expertise where you might expect it. The positive slant on that is often when you find someone, with or without formal training, who just happens to be good at something…..or gives you the impression they really know what they’re talking about. The negative is of course finding yourself in a situation where you’re dealing with someone who, in spite of all their credentials, appears to be fucking clueless.

A quick straw poll indicated we had all been there at least once ;)

At an individual level, it might mean you losing confidence in your highers, feeling de-motivated or even withdrawing from a process that you may have once felt worthwhile. On a wider scale, this is far more worrying, as is well evidenced by all the #occupy endeavours. Can you imagine what it would look like if most of us felt like that? That their willingness to simply be on the streets wasn’t so easily derided by many? Can you imagine if most people decided to spend a day doing the math as our friends across the pond say? If they sat down and decided to challenge their notions of what they have been taught, what they know and of particular interest to me at the moment, what words are being used to describe what they can see?

As someone in the middle of such an exercise I can tell you it’s certainly interesting. I don’t recommend it if you cherish your sanity. Still, as Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

I like coming across unorthodox points of view. Whether that’s the last vestige of some half-hearted notion of outsider chic that I never actually possessed as a young man I don’t know. I’d rather consider it an undimmed curiosity as to why what I can see with my own eyes is not being described to me by those whose job it is to do so. I can well remember that back in the day, a friend and I used to play a game where we would substitute words for other words that, though incorrect within the context, sounded better. It’s a funny old world. You want key performance indicators and trend analysis? Don’t get me fucking started. Numbers don’t lie but people do. That’s all you need to know ;)

So, all of that is a rather longwinded way of bringing you to this. A reassuring little gem, an interview with Steve Keen on Capital Account a couple of weeks ago:

Oh, and yes, I’m still practicing the piano. Here’s my latest bit of tinkering:

Sunday Soliloquy – Bonfire Of The Vanities

I had to laugh. Or rather, I told myself I had to laugh. I think there’s a lesson for me to learn in this little story so keep your fingers crossed that it will occur to me at some point.

First of all the PC had started playing up, getting progressively worse until it effectively died. Still, luckily for me Venom Carter was on hand to install a new operating system and it wasn’t too long before all was right with the world once again. The PC was running smoothly, no longer held back by an old OS and a ton of files that, to be honest, I rarely accessed and besides, I’d backed everything up on a wonderful little black box. It was, as they say, all good.

Yep, you’ve guessed it. Then the little black box died.

Now, in the midst of searching the forums for a little troubleshooting advice it began to occur to me that Venom’s decision to maintain five (it may be six come to think of it) back up drives of his digital life may not have been the indicator of OCD I once thought it to be. I on the other hand had one drive. Yes, with everything on it. Yes, that is now gone forever. Y’see as my luck would have it, the little black box didn’t just need a new power supply, lead or casing. No, according to the chap who knows about such things that I spoke to yesterday, it had suffered a catastrophic failure. The data was gone.

The data was gone. That’s every photo I’ve taken over the last five years, every gig poster or flyer and piece of CD cover art from the last ten years. Just about every creative thing that I’ve used a PC for, was gone. Well, except for most of the music that is, which, due to my Luddite tendencies in using gear that was ten years behind the times, I had to mix down to CD up until about six months ago. I should’ve explored the cloud, clearly.

I’d been volunteering at a charity up here for the last few months and had recently re-read Douglas Coupland’s book Player One as a means to occupy myself on the bus journey;

“No, it doesn’t, because none of it matters, because no matter what I do I’m going to inherit Alzheimer’s from my bastard father.” Karen’s eyes flared open wider. “That’s the real reason for most things in my life that go sideways. The day I turn fifty-five, my universe is going to start erasing itself. So what’s the point of doing anything?”

Like I said, I told myself I had to laugh. Whether it’s a potentially increased statistical probability that I shall develop Alzheimer’s like my mother or, the technology at hand failing (hmmmm, the same thing surely?), it seems I could be ahead of the curve here.

Of course, it’s not like I lost a house in a flood or anything, lest you think I’m not keeping this in perspective. But, most of those things were irreplaceable. As with all the books and everything else at the start of the year, if I’m going to downsize I prefer it to be my decision.

Still, it did give me pause for thought. What happens to the digital files and all the online stuff when we, well, you know…..? Apart from the predictable sense of loss, what difference does it make on a day-to-day basis? So far? None. Funny that.

Fun Friday – Play…..er Piano

Admittedly, not the best Kurt Vonnegut related opening gambit but it’ll suffice. It started with a stint of volunteering for a charity up here. Predictably, having not been in an office environment for eighteen months or so I quickly succumbed to the perils of air conditioning. Cue a fortnight’s suffering of the beast that is man-flu. Yes, that thing that the average woman would shrug off without missing a step on her march to dominion over the other 48%, whose response in marked contrast is to proclaim that the end of the world is nigh, whilst drinking Lucozade, eating chicken soup and watching the television all day.

Still, in spite of the, ahem, immeasurable suffering, I managed to sit down at the keyboard and make some progress on the tinkling of the ivories. So what? I know. The thing for me is that playing the piano has never felt natural or intuitive in the way that playing the guitar did. So, making progress has always seemed like work which, in the spirit of all procrastinators, is a powerful disincentive. However, with the alternatives of the rolling news channels or the internet searches on how our whole way of life is based on a completely fraudulent monetary system appearing surprisingly less appealing, I persevered…..almost heroically you might say (if you were chemically altered, for example).

These are baby steps so no doubt I’ll look back in six months and hang my head in shame (a regular occurrence if you hadn’t realised by now) but at this exact moment in time, I’m actually quite proud of the song in the video below, a gentle little ditty called Shoe Box. To actually be able to play and sing the thing at the same time is a real leap for me. Bless. You can download a standard mp3 version of the song from the Music tab above or a spangly high-res version from the bandcamp page by clicking on the Download Here! tab if you prefer.

In other news, I’ve been keeping a lazy eye open for how frequently people are quoting or referencing George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Bill Hicks, George Carlin and the Schopenhauer quote about the three stages of truth. I do it myself. There’s a lot of it about lately, a subtle link with a #1984 here and a we’re going to hell in a handcart rant there. What does that tell us? It’s good to see that some worthwhile ideas endure and that the platforms exist for us to dip in and out at our leisure. Talking of which, interesting reading this past month has been Eli Pariser’s book The Filter Bubble:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Filter-Bubble-What-Internet-Hiding/dp/067092038X

and Kevin Poulsen’s book Kingpin:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588688/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314279327&sr=1-1

There may well be radio silence from Inky HQ for a period of time while we do some much needed online maintenance so until the next time, do yourself a favour and read Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano or watch the piece below. The speech featured in the Zeitgeist: Moving Forward film and is, quite simply, awesome.

Fun Friday – The Future’s Not Here…..Yet

I was chatting to a friend of mine this week who has recently had one of those moments. You might now the kind, when you take a fresh look at your surroundings and are suddenly aware that though you are present and correct, your future is not here.

The casual observer would opine that it was simply post holiday blues, that predictable sense of ennui when you distil your life down to how you actually spend your time as opposed to how you want to spend your time. However, having known him for many a year I would say that he has unwittingly opened Pandora’s Box…..the poor sod. We talked about looking at the shelves of books, dvds and computer games; the time spent collecting stuff that you no longer use, the old cameras and other tech and what the hell you’re supposed to do with it all. Better charter another slow boat to China.

So, now he has the pleasure of either selling or recycling what he knows he no longer needs or leaving it there to gather dust, too exhausted from his working week to deal with it this weekend. Maybe next time, just not today. Time will tell. Of course, if he wants to shift the focus of his life to that which he truly loves and away from what he endures, he’ll no doubt have to make some compromises. The thing is, with the passage of time, those things that felt like a compromise at the time, be it money, status or what have you, feel less like a compromise when you realise you can live quite happily without them. It’s a slippery slope to discover how little you care about certain things so you have to be careful that, as they say, you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I waffled on, as I’m prone to do, about the discrepancy between what we are technologically capable of doing and our failure to deal with some fundamental flaws in the structure of our society, expressing my own fears that I am slowly losing my mind at the sheer nonsense of it all. He hmmm’d sympathetically (at least I hope that’s what it was) and we changed the subject. Best not go there just now.

I forgot to tell him of the scary timing of a lone piper playing in the cemetery next door, right before the tv news showed Norway’s minute of silence. We didn’t get into the phone hacking scandal, the downgrading of debt or the general collapse of monetary value. There’s plenty of time for all that I’m sure. For now, these next few months are going to be about how he deals with what he’s seen having opened that bloody box. You don’t know him, but he’s a good man so if you’re feeling charitable, take thirty seconds to wish him luck through the ether.

To my oldest friend in the world, the future’s not here…..yet.

Saturday Sidebar – The Blue Screen Of Death

You can imagine my surprise. Having spent the last couple of weeks playing Post Office; by which I mean selling some old recording gear on ebay, boxing it up, having a living room carpeted with brown paper, parcel tape and so on; I took delivery of a new laptop and instrument interface.

The idea that I was finally catching up with the rest of the world (from a technology point of view…..and some would say musically too heh, heh, heh…..I run on average, about 15 years behind everyone else) did not last long unfortunately. Somewhere along the path of installing various bits and bobs, registering my details for updates countless times, configuring this and configuring that and restarting the laptop as instructed at the relevant points, I hit the blue screen of death. Yeah, the one where the laptop told me that something catastrophic had happened, followed by the one that said it couldn’t repair itself automatically and then died.

In the GOD (good old days…..hmmm, interesting acronym) of hardware, and I’m talking old school plug this into that to get this to do that, this happened to me rarely. However, given that I am a bit of a luddite (not proudly so, you understand) I was happy to accept that somewhere along the line I’d done something wrong and figured the application of logic and a little retracing of my steps might rectify the situation. Well, to cut a long and to be frank, boring story short, and without diminishing the tech support capabilities of Venom Carter, everything’s fine now. The fact remains that I am still none the wiser as to what went wrong, nor indeed how it has all rectified itself. I’m going to hang onto the recognition that clicking on certain options in sub-menus here and there clearly did not do what they were supposed to do for a little while longer though. Just because you’re paranoid etc. Suffice to say that my state of general bewilderment about pretty much everything continues…..

…..apart from actual death that is. Did you see the Terry Pratchett Choosing To Die program on BBC2 recently? Coincidentally, Matthew Good (fave Canadian muso) had written eloquently on the issue of assisted death recently and you can read it here:

http://www.matthewgood.org/news-comment/2011/6/3/a-mile-with-none.html

The program was incredible moving and I remain a firm supporter of the right to a semblance of choice in such matters. The discussions concerning safeguards over potential abuse are inarguably necessary but to be honest, I cannot see a time when anything remotely resembling approval by consensus happens here. The interest in the death of Robert Cowie:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13823288

will no doubt keep the debate going and while it is not prudent to suggest that such cases are the tip of a hitherto unforeseen iceberg, it shows that even with assisted suicide as a criminal offence here, people are willing to allow their compassion and sense of morality to guide them.

The instinct to preserve the self is astonishingly strong, as I’m sure anyone that has been in a truly life or death situation will tell you. However, that instinct is as separate from the intellectual discussion concerning the quality of a life lived as it is from the debate on the morality of assisted suicide.

I’m sure many would admit to at least a fleeting acquaintance with the idea that at some point their lives had not lived up to their hopes or expectations and that it barely seemed worth the effort. Imagine if a different job/home/hobby/lover/circle of friends was not the solution because those choices were irrelevant and there was nothing that you could actually, as opposed to perceptually, change (or indeed have changed for you) about your existence. On an individual basis, a percentage would cherish every new day, regardless of the circumstances, because that is just how some people are. A percentage, however, would not.

Of course, passing into law an acknowledgement that the sanctity and quality of life is not immutable would open up an unholy can of worms. Still, with all these elephants in the room it’s going to get pretty crowded soon.

Saturday Sidebar – On The Other Hand

I take it you didn’t make the final cut for the rapture either then? In which case I guess we shall all just keep on keeping on. 

Here at the new northern Inky HQ, I’ve been road testing some new software this week with the venerable Venom Carter. Having all but exhausted the possibilities with the sounds of yore, we’ve decided to sell on a few bits and bobs and replace them with smaller boxes. Only time will tell what musical monstrosities come out of such an escapade of course, but let us at least hope that they are a fitting continuation of, ahem, our journey so far. No doubt there will be some 80s hair metal guitar in there somewhere ;)

In light of the never-ending housekeeping exercise, the downloads have been shifted over to the bandcamp site (just click on the Download Here! header above and it’ll take you straight there). You’ll find the entire catalogue from 2010, all downloadable on a pay what you want basis and yes, you can pay absolutely nothing if you wish. All the individual tracks released after Probability & Proximity have been collated together in an album called On The Other Hand. Also included are some previously released alternative mixes and some songs you may not have heard before, like Boxes, Bygones and Regardless. As always, you can download any track individually. 

In unrelated news, the Keiser Report this week was hysterical. For the uninitiated, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert dissect the absolute crock that our financial system is on a bi-weekly basis. It’s not for everyone that’s for sure, but for those of you intrigued as to why your pay packet just doesn’t go as far as you think it should, or why our technological advances don’t seem to be making much headway making life better for all of us, it’s as good a place as any to start. He sure has a way with balloons ;)

http://youtu.be/o3mW1eGBeoE 

Elsewhere, Canadian musician Matt Good was interviewed recently by Ezra Levant and more than held his own. Double Plus Good.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/good-chat/947735914001  

And finally, did you see the Castle series three finale? Awesome.

Sunday Soliloquy – The Tea Is A Revelation

I have it on good authority that it’s due to the water up here. By up here I mean Edinburgh, where Inky HQ has relocated for the foreseeable future i.e. until the money runs out ;) What can I tell you? Seriously, the first humble mug of PG Tips in the morning has never tasted so good. 

On the basis that a change is supposedly as good as a rest, Inky HQ decided to go all in. The alternative was an exit strategy of sitting in a corner recoiling at the horror (see what I did there?) The logical conclusion to the recent desire to just shed stuff and the fascination with the cracks appearing in our system appeared to be to go somewhere else and press the reset button on the idea of value.

So, the Transit van was hired and filled with, well, mostly musical equipment and books (if ever there was a wake-up call as to where the priorities really lay that was it) and the journey up the M1/A1 began. Some seven hours later or so, I found myself alone on the road passing Morpeth and on the way towards Alnwick. The sun was at the point in the sky where you’re effectively blinded (lower than the sun visor and with nothing on the horizon to block it) but my-oh-my what a drive. The slow changes in the landscape, the space, as I later crossed the border into Scotland, the growing infrequency of artificial light as the sky darkened, I have to say it was quite a moment. The best bit? Given I had to fly back down to London to pick up my car, I got to do it all over again three days later ;)

Enough. In the words of an old Queen song, now I’m here. From the window of the room, where new music will no doubt be written, I can see a park across the road where Sunday football is in full swing. I live next to a cemetery. Yes, the evenings are quiet ;) Next door has a friendly cat who watches the sparrows, finches and tits (stop it) in the tree round the back with what I interpret to be an air of dark foreboding. He can slow blink and rub against my shin all he wants, I‘ve got him sussed.

The new bed is in (well hello) and the second-hand sofa is coming from the British Heart Foundation tomorrow. Proper broadband is due by the end of next week and then I think Inky HQ is back to something resembling work. Until then it’s time to catch up with some reading:

http://www.maxkeiser.com

http://www.zerohedge.com

http://www.matthewgood.org  

Forewarned is forearmed. Best get the kettle on.

Saturday Sidebar – Sounds Crazy

Of course it does…..well, until you actually stop to think about it that is.

I’m a couple of chapters in to Heather Brooke’s book The Silent State. Take a peek here if you’re curious http://heatherbrooke.org/books/silent-state/ As always, you do the research, look at the evidence and draw your own conclusions.

With that in mind, and given what’s happening in town today, here are a couple of things to watch:

Fun Friday – What’s For Breakfast?

Well, it’s certainly been a newsworthy couple of weeks hasn’t it? So, UN resolution 1973 means we’ve got the go ahead to use all necessary means to protect the civilian population of Libya, Bahrain invited a one thousand strong Saudi task force in to quell the protests there, thirty pro-democracy protestors have reportedly been shot in Yemen (according to today’s lunchtime news) and of course Japan has experienced a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, a tsunami and is now facing a category five accident with wider consequences due to the ongoing situation at Fukushima.

It kind of takes your breath away doesn’t it? Here’s a fictional story about a man on his birthday.

It’s a Sunday, he wakes, groggily eyeing the clock on the bedside cabinet that dutifully informs him it is 9.26 a.m. He turns over and notices the absence beside him. Hauling himself out of bed he makes his way into the kitchen from where he can hear activity of some description.

He stands in the doorway and clears his throat to announce his arrival to his significant other as she pours a little oil into a frying pan. She turns and smiles, returns the pan to the hob and the oil to the cupboard. He looks at the worktop and notices the packet of bacon, the sausages, the carton of eggs, the bread in the toaster, the mushrooms and the can of baked beans as she walks over to him. Placing her arms around his neck, she kisses him softly, does the nose-rubbing thing and says, “Happy Birthday hun.”

He considers the situation, remembering that this year and last they haven’t had to take a day off work on his birthday, as indeed they had done the previous three years. All told, for the last four years she has cooked him a fry up on his birthday and, given the evidence before him, he is reasonably confident he knows how the next hour or so will pan out.

“What’s for breakfast?” he asks.

She narrows her eyes and gives him a playfully delicate slap on the cheek. “What do you think?” she replies with evident disdain before pulling away and proceeding to fill up the kettle.

Below is a video pointed out to me by a rather creative animator chap (who’s doing a video for the Inkysmudge track The Needs Of Strangers but that’s something for another day) about motivation. It’s a TED talk by Daniel Pink about how what you think motivates people, in fact, oftentimes doesn’t. Anyone who’s ever worked in an organisation where they want to find out how they can make staff enjoy their work more without giving them a pay rise may recognise some of the things he says ;)

The most salient point, I think, is that business does not do what the science tells them. That’s right. Apparently a lot of people go around doing the opposite of what all the evidence tells them they should do. That I could put on my dalek voice and walk around the room saying, “Extrapolate, extrapolate, EXTRAPOLATE!” goes without saying.

Instead I’ll probably just look at the evidence and ask, admittedly somewhat sarcastically, “What’s for breakfast?”