hmmm_tea

Given all the worries regarding whether they'd find the venues and things, Durham pulled everything together and produced one of the best IVFDFs I've been to. OK, there were things that could have been better, but that's always going to be the case.

I travelled up early on Friday, which gave some time to wander around Durham in the afternoon before the festival started. Although having the venues spread about around the city rather than all together in one student union or campus, meant you got to see a bit more of the city then you have with some of the previous festivals.

Explored the park by the station when I arrived, which strangely felt like I'd fallen into a real life surreal prisoner-esq drama, as I tried to find my way out of it again only to find all the paths led to fences and every time a turned a corner there were these 3 women with prams and their personal trainer charging at me. Eventually escaped and went to hide at the top of a tall tower. Helpfully they had one in the cathedral, which has the added bonus of pretty amazing views.

Eventually I went to find the festival office to dump stuff a collect tickets. Working on the principle that I had an A-Z and the receipt said where the festival office was, I didn't worry too much about finding it in advance. However, knowing the place is called Alington House was not actually that much help when it wasn't marked on the map. Went and asked in the student union, but they hadn't heard of it either, and had to look it up to find out what road it was on (having alredy given me another map of the university without it on).

However, once I'd found it, the festival got off to a really good start with the Friday ceilidh with 422 and Martyn Harvey being as mad as ever. It did get a bit packed towards the end, and dances like cornish 6-hand got a bit interesting when the sets where all pretty much touching. It wasn't helped by the number of tables at one end of the room, which could have made the dance floor considerably larger by not being there. However, the organisers obviously realised this as they weren't for the Saturday night dances.

The disco ceilidh, which followed 422 was an interesting idea, but not being a big fan of discos it would have been nice to have had an alternative to decamp to. That said the bar did prove a useful escape from the attack of the likes of Abba, so I just about managed to survive without my ears bleeding too much.

The late night dancing was a bit of a disappointment, being practically non-existent due to the size of the rooms set aside for it. Once the musicians were in there, it was pretty much full, so a session was all that was really practical. They did manage to take over one of the sleeping venues for a bit of dancing for about 30 mins on the Friday, but even that wasn't huge and Pete Grasby was doing his usual trick of completely taking over and annoying everyone. That said, short of magicing up a bigger venue out of nowhere, there was probably no alternative.

The workshops were generally all very good (the ones I went to at least), but generally had too many people in them and not enough room. Space wasn't so much of an issue for High Spen's rapper workshop, but as they went down the teach each set individually route (as most rapper workshops do) and there wasn't enough of them to go around, it did leave a lot of standing around waiting for an opportunity to grab one of them to show you the next bit of their dance. Gave up on getting into the Folk Waltzing workshop when I couldn't really get through the door, as it was so crammed. The clog workshop on the other hand had a huge venue, so there was loads of space to move around so you could all see what was going on.

The Saturday evening concert had to be one of the highlights of the festival. Fidola brought an amazing combination of English and Swedish folk. The Young 'Uns had amazing voices that worked together really well. However, unsurprisingly it was Eliza Carthy that stole the show. It was also probably the best chosen venue of the whole festival, as the acoustics of the church were amazing. It was like sitting inside a loudspeaker.

The contra was a little disappointing by IVFDF standards, although it was both a good band (Vertical Expression) and good caller (Adam Hughes). In previous years, there has often been a ceilidh running alongside the contra, so that the people there are people there have been people who have deliberately chosen to be at a contra and even the beginners are expecting something a little different. As a result some of the walk throughs fell apart a bit and at least one of the dances had to be abandoned. It also didn't help that the caller couldn't be heard from the other end of the hall very well, a problem that both Martyn Harvey and Gordon Potts also had in that venue. That said, at least, as Adam's an experienced caller he was able to adapt to the circumstances and pull it all back together into a decent contra.

Whapweasel were as good as ever, but did also suffer from the issues of the caller not being heard from the bottom end of the hall.

On the Sunday the Finnish workshop was interesting, but also suffered from the space issues. There was also a problem with the CD player so it didn't start until quite late. The workshop leader, who I got the impression hadn't done many before, coped quite well given the circumstances. However, she did spend a bit too long going around the sets individually making sure everyone was getting things exactly right, when I suspect it would have been better to just give people an idea of what should be happening and go for breadth of dances rather than depth. The leader for the Greek workshop, who was clearly a bit more experienced, had the same space issues, but managed to adapt by have concentric circles of dances and getting people to swap around, so everyone had a chance to watch what her feet were going.

One of the most unfortunate things of the whole festival, was that they had to have 2 survivors ceilidhs as the central venues were too small. Admittedly, there wasn't much that could be done about this, but it did mean you didn't get almost everyone in one place for the general flopping and seeing if you could muster up enough energy for an extra dance or so as you said goodbye to everyone. I opted for the scratch band ceilidh, as the relaxed combination of scratch band and anyone who wants to have a go at calling always seems appropriate for the end of IVFDF.

A lot of the familiar faces that are at IVFDF every year seemed to be missing this year, which was a shame, but there were still loads of people to catch up with. It just seemed a little weird that, for a festival I've been going to for a number of years, most of the people I was socialising with were people I've only got to know during the past year or people I'd just met.

All in all a good festival.

‘Battery’ dairy of 8,000 cows sparks protests

"The council said that any objections on animal welfare grounds could not be considered as valid reasons for refusing the application."

So, let me get this straight? Putting aside the specific issue of the overly intensive farming here, people aren't even allowed to question the ethics of this?

Our planning laws must be really perverted if they can stop wind turbines in there hundreds for all sorts of weird and wonderful reasons, but it has no power to stop ethically questionable industries.

This evening, I ventured over to see Michael Moore's latest offering "Capitalism: A Love Story". For those of you that haven't seen it, here's the trailer:


(Direct Link)

As with all Moore's previous work, it's very emotive and he doesn't hold back on expressing his viewpoints, but as I share many of his views on commercialisation and global industry, I wasn't too worried about that. You have to respect someone who happily goes up to several of the major banks in America and tries to put the board of directors under citizens arrest.

It does bring up a number of valid points on the morals of foreclosure and the encouragement by the banks for people to release the equity on there property, dead peasants insurance and mass redundancy, amongst many other topics, as well as highlighting just how much power the banks and major corporations have within the US Democratic system.

The film is very America-centric, but still has a valid message this side of the pond. After all, we also suffer from the same issues of the power being placed almost entirely in the hands of the rich corporations who can lean on the major political parties to guide them to their own ends. However, as with the US we hold the power to change this, as the everyday people hold the vast majority of the votes and given the election around the corner perhaps it's even more apt?

OK, the first passed the post system is heavily biased towards the 2 main parties, but it would still be fairly straightforward to shift this power if enough people rebelled against them. Come the election, we could vote for more of the same in either red, blue or even yellow or we could do something different and forget the idea of voting for a prime minister or cabinet and use the system as it's designed voting for someone amongst the smaller parties who is likely to represent our views.

We need to send the message that we want policy decided from the bottom up from the people rather than top down through our twisted dictatorship style system of government whips with policies polished over and marketed to us by spin doctors regardless of whether they are in our own best interests. Only then can we get the changes necessary to ensure equality and return the power into the hands of the people.

It is unfortunate that the only party that seems to have recognised this need for representation in the people is the BNP, who are using this to push their own ends and get stronger though people arguing against their right to express themselves. Why not instead open up the field with the other minority parties and show the discontent that there are other alternatives to get their voices heard too? Show them that there is no need to fight against other groups, regardless of which criteria you are separated by, to have security of their way of life and to have their views and opinions heard.

We live in a system which is corrupt and wrong and the only way to end the dissatisfaction of the people is to change it dramatically and the power is in our hands to do so.

It looks like it might be the end for BBC Radio 6Music, which is a shame given it's the only music station they've got that does anything a bit different or vaguely interesting. Where else can you switch on to hear someone playing a stalactite organ or something equally unusual?

OK, it's easy for me to criticise, given I don't have a TV license, so don't pay anything towards it, and it does seem a bit strange to have the majority paying for minority interest programming. However, surely part of the point of having the BBC is that it's not commercial, the license payers aren't customers, and it doesn't have to cater everything towards everyone?

With the work of the likes of John Peel, the BBC has a history of supporting innovation within modern music, and Radio 6 was a natural way to carry this forward into the modern era of millions of channels catering to all musical styles.

Alas, apparently this must now go as the BBC moves more towards Bland & Boring Commercialisation.

Thrales are out in the Wood Green area tonight.

We're meeting 7.30pm for 8pm start at the Ranelagh, Bounds Green Road before heading on to the following:

Jolly Anglers - http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub2018.php
The Nelson - http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub1999.php
Monaghans Tavern - http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/21/21901/Monaghans_Tavern/Wood_Green
Duke of Edinburgh - http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub4336.php
The Priory - http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub2845.php
The Victoria Stakes - http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub2240.php

Details on Facebook

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered the existence of, Kit and Cutter, a local folk club at the Deptford Arms, so I wandered over to take a look last night.

From what I gathered, it appears to have been set up by a group of (possibly former?) Goldsmiths students and as a result the average age of the people there was a lot younger than you would generally expect for a Folk club. It certainly had a "student run" feel to it, with just enough disorganisation to give it character, including searching madly for the raffle prizes during the draw (thankfully they found it in the end as they then gave it to me :-) ). In the end, they cleared the seats away and it dissolved into drunken student bopping as would expect for a more contemporary band performing in a pub.

The booked guest spots for the evening were from Bartram, Brookes and Weatherall, and The Wright Family. Bartram, Brookes and Weatherall, were very traditional folk, but with a bit of character (such as playing the washboard with pet brushes, which sounded amazing). They'd started off well, but really picked up in terms of energy in the second half, even before the drunken bopping.

The Wright Family, brought something a bit more unusual with a couple of there performances being entirely jews harp based. I've not heard many jews harpists before (although it is the second time this year having bumped into the youngest Wright at a session up in Manchester back in January), so this was something a bit different, especially having 3 of them! That said, thankfully, there was a bit of singing and some other intruments in some of their other songs, which prevented jews harp overload.

Some of the floor spots were amazing too.

To top it all off, as it was there first birthday, there was cake (admittedly probably not vegan, so I didn't have any) and party poppers too!

Will definitely have to head back over there again for some of there future events.

If anyone else is interested, their upcoming dates are:

• 27th March - Alasdair Roberts and Elle Osborne


• 15th April - tbc


• 1st May - Martin Carthy Mayday Special

They've also got a Facebook group and MySpace page where they announce the events.

So, it seems that Homebase have given Carlisle station a temporary redecoration, including arm chairs on the platforms and this amazing paint scheme on the bridge:


(Lots more photos in the facebook group this was taken from)

As with anything people feel vaguely strongly about a facebook group was set up as if it was a formal petition. Now, I would be one of the first to argue that facebook groups are no replacement for other forms of protest, but when they get large enough they do have a habit of being listened to and this one seems to be no exception.

According to the Cumberland News, Virgin have responded to say they will be retaining some elements of the redesign (although it is a listed building so they can't keep them all).

I don't pay much attention to most awards and prizes that various industries give out for things along the lines of "showing the most potential to put one foot in front of the other and walking to the other side of the room", but one of the ones I do enjoy following is the Diagram prize for the oddest book title of the year.

How can you not love a prize that recognises the shere genius of titles such as "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice", "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification" and "Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers".

And so I was pleased to discover earlier this week that the 2009 shortlist is now out.

They are (with links to amazon so you can buy your own copies of all of them):



This clearly calls for a poll...

Poll #1527909 Diagram Prize 2009
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

Which title should win the 2009 Diagram Prize?

There's been a lot of talk of this "Robin Hood Tax" recently. If it's passed you by so far, here's Bill Nighy to explain it:


Direct Link

It all sounds lovely doesn't it? However, when you dig deep down in the system, where's this money actually coming from? Taxing money as it bounces around the financial system is all well and good, but it's got to get in there somewhere, so it's not entirely removed from our savings and loans, etc.

What gets hit then? The obvious thing that springs to mind would be the banks profits, which I certainly wouldn't object to. However, as with any other corporation, the banks main purpose is to make profit, so they will obviously try to recoup these losses from somewhere. Where?

It would be lovely to think it would hit all the bankers wages and bonuses, especially given public feeling towards these at the moment. However, bankers don't get paid large sums of money because they deserve it more than highly skilled workers in other sectors, or because the banks like giving them large sums of money. In fact, the banks would probably like to pay them as little as possible in order to maximise profit, but need to pay in accordance with the market rate in order to retain the staff.

In the end I suspect most of the cost will end up being carried by the people, whether through increased bank charges or through increased costs of products from other corporations as they cover there increased costs. If you want to do the real Robin Hood thing then use an income tax to tax the rich to raise these funds. Anything else will tax the poor too, which isn't very Robin Hood.

OK, it would raise a lot of money, which could be used to help with a lot of issues within the world, and in the process give us all a clear conscience while we live in relative paradise compared with much of the rest of the world. Given that at the heart of many of these major issues lies consumerism and the hording of resources and property, and it's the monetary system that actively encourages these activities, surely it would be better to address the issue at this level?

The greed of the banking sector is a massive wound on our society, you can't just fix it with a sticking plaster.

Gogs are off to Oxford on Saturday, dancing in the city centre during the day, as follows:

2pm - Bonn Square
2.45pm - Cornmarket followed by tea & cake break
3.15pm - Broad Street

...or something vaguely along those lines.

We head over to Kennington in the evening for the Oxfolk ceilidh with What's Up Folk and Fee Lock, where we will be performing in the interval.

I seem to have been scooting around the country quite a bit already this year, and although it's nice to get up north or into the countryside (and even better when you can do both), there's still something magical about London that you don't find in places like the Peak District (where I was last weekend).

This city is like one big vat of cultural soup. You've got all different ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, hair colours, shoe sizes, etc, etc all in one place, and other than a few nutters who want to rid the world of all the people who's toe nails are too long, everyone gets on fairly harmoniously.

However, this doesn't stop us getting all protectional about any other cultures coming into the soup, as they might steal our jobs. Strange really, as I've never met anyone who's owned a job, only people who get paid for doing them.

This evening, I wandered over to a debate on "Capitalism vs Socialism". The Capitalism side was given by someone from the Adam Smith institute with the SPGB arguing for Socialism, so it was more "this capitalist system is pants, what's the more ideal theoretical alternative free markets or common ownership". One of the arguments came down to which would be more efficient at providing aid to the third world.

Certainly one of the major problems of the world inequality of wealth, especially between nations. While it's nice that everyone has been enthusiastic about sending aid to Haiti recently, there's always suffering and those worse off than us even when it's not hitting the news headlines.

However much we try to do things like growing crops in the desert, we are always going to be in a situation where some places have more abundant supplies of certain resources than others. If I'm hungry in a room with a buffet at the other end, it's going to be far more effective for me to go over to the buffet to get food rather than for others to bring it to me.

Come winter when food becomes short, birds don't lay down in their nests and have aid flown in from their friends on the continent to help them survive. Instead many of them fly south to where the food is, but then they don't have to worry about passports, visas and immigration controls.

It's good to provide aid to these places, but if you truly want to give them equal access to the resources we have, the only way to do this is to give them the access to come and get them. Then the fundamental issue of a system based on competition such as capitalism, whether or not you have free markets, is that competition isn't about being equal anyway. Who plays games aiming for a draw?

Is capitalist competition necessary to drive our development though? I'm not convinced. OK, you get product innovation from companies trying to get one step ahead of their competition, but you've also got things like free software. OK, some of these have more than a little capitalist input, but you've also got the millions of little applications written by people tapping away at their computers in their free time in the middle of the night (who know why they do it, but they seem perfectly happy). Many of these may be pretty much dead, only going ping if your really lucky and poke them enough, but in amongst these you get Goliath programs that can sort your entire life out, whilst creating world peace and making the tea.

Even if you put the equality issues to one side, you still face the fact that, if you drive the production-consumption flow from the production end, then you will end up with people consuming far more than they actually need and place a greater burden on the world's resources. If you buy the top of the range mobile phone one week, there is really no need to upgrade to the next model the following week just because it's got an extra pixel in the bottom right hand corner, but the producer will try to convince you otherwise as it's in their best interest to do so.

I still remain unconvinced that the world's problems are solvable within a capitalist system as it seems to push us in the entirely wrong direction no matter how you tweak it.

It's Freaks in the Peaks this weekend.

This time it's in Hathersage.

It's a friendly social kind of morris thing with huge sets of people performing in a village in the peaks, some of whom have only just learnt the dances a few hours beforehand.

I imagine it's going to be something like the one I went to back in September with social sessiony dancey stuff in the evenings on Friday/Saturday, a workshop to teach the dances followed by dance out on Saturday day and a walk and dance out on the Sunday.

If you suddenly finds yourself in the peaks this weekend at a loss as to what to do then the details are here

Given all the euphoria regarding Rage Against the Machine in the run up to Christmas, I should probably I have got around to writing about this album sooner, but I didn't. The next album is Rage offshoot band Audioslave's third album "Revelations".

Audioslave was formed by the remaining members of Rage after vocalist Zack de la Rocha left the band. De la Rocha's place is taken by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and it's clear that he must have in creative control in terms of the direct Audioslave moved in, as they sound more like Soundgarden with Rage influences than vice-versa. Lucky really, as I was never a big fan of Rage.

However, on listening to the album you would not be forgiven for mistaking the band for either of it's predecessors as it has a clear character of it's own. It's got far more aggressive punch than soundgarden and a sense of rhythm never attained in Rage. The rhythm especially gets central focus in a lot of the tracks with a lot of influence from R&B and funk. Morello's immensely powerful riffs get wah-wahed into another dimension.

The true highlights of this album have to be the tracks that show off Morello's innovative guitar work and Cornell's vocal range best, including "One and the Same" with it's wah-wah into heavy guitar explosion opening, "Sound of a Gun" which sounds almost like a conventional rock anthem until it hits the guitar solo and Morello just goes off into space and "Original Fire" which shows off the shear power of Cornell's voice while Morello's guitar appears to morph into Donald Duck.

The whole album's available on last.fm, but have a link to One and the Same.

All in all Morello wasn't too far wrong when he described the sound of this album as like "Led Zeppelin meets Earth, Wind and Fire". This is brilliantly inventive, it's a shame it didn't have the same commercial success as their earlier albums.

So, yes, erm, telephone sheep...



These examples by Jean Luc Cornecs are currently on display at the museum of communication in Frankfurt.

(via inhabitat)

As I've just got back from Ely, it seems an ideal opportunity to post a photo that's not at all related Molly, so here's a photo of me and some of the other members of Blackheath holding 2 sticks on our heads and going "moo", as is traditional in the cotswold village of Iddington.


Blackheath Morris, Boxing Day 2009
Originally uploaded by quitekate


You obviously don't get the moo, because it's a photograph and they're not that clever.

(via bagrec)

(via engrishfunny)

Gogs are dancing out in the villages around Ely on Saturday as part of Ouse Washes' Day of Dance (lots and lots of molly)

We're going to be at

11.00 - The Cutter, Ely
12.00 - off to The Plough, Little Downham
1.15 - down the road to The Anchor, Little Downham
2.30 - off to Five Miles, Upware where we dance until about 4.30.

Thrales are out on Friday, in Westminster from 8pm.

Rough itinerary:

• Marquis de Granby
• Royal Oak
• Strutton Arms
• The Albert (tbc)
• Slug and Lettuce
• The Speaker (tbc)
• The Old Rose (tbc)
• The Barley Mow (tbc)
• The White Horse and Bower (tbc)
• Westminster
• The White Swan (tbc)
• The Morpeth Arms (tbc)

Map
Facebook event

This is a good idea:

Using recycled shipping containers as shelters in disaster zones such as Haiti



(via inhabitat)

So the TV Licensing people are after me again.

For those of you, who have licensed TVs and are unaware of their supreme inability to comprehend that someone may not actually have a TV, the way it works is like this.

Firstly they send you a letter along the lines of "You don't have a TV license, you are therefore clearly an evil criminal mastermind stealing the airwaves. In fact we suspect you are probably smuggling them out of the country and selling them on the black market to fund Al-Qaida. You probably even butcher babies on the side. If you continue you will be fined for all your worldly possession and locked up for a gazillion years so you stop being such a menace to society." At the end of this as an after thought they add "If you do not watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV, just let us know".

So, you respond and explain you're not actually a baby butchering terrorist, but you just don't own a TV, which they promptly ignore and send you the letter again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... 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and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... 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and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again... and again

Eventually, they give up, and send a letter saying "Right, you still don't have a TV licence. You've therefore left us with no choice but to send around the TV Licensing Enforcement Division to shoot you, so society doesn't have to put up with your evil airwave stealing presence anymore", which is the stage I've reached in the latest saga with them.

Last time this happened to me, I was living in a block of flats with a communal front door, which I answer to find that their way to deal with this supreme evil terrorist I'd apparently become was to send around a small man with a clipboard who just accepted my word that I didn't have a TV and left. He didn't even seem too bothered about the pile of butchered babies on the doorstep.

Inspite of that, I still think TV licences are a great concept. All those overpaid people out there who spend extra subscription fees to ensure they have constant access to every single commercialised TV station shipped in from the US, also get to pay for me to listen to ad-free radio for nothing! All we need is an exemption for all those people who aren't overly rich bankers and the system would be perfect.