Mahatma's Soapbox

A few points about The Daily Mail's "Love Thy Neighbour" Article

2010-06-14T23:40:00.006+01:00

I've been doing a bit of research for a feature on how neighbourly UK society is today and felt compelled to share with you a couple of points to be made about The Daily Mail's original feature.

The article in the Daily Mail is based on the Co-operative/YouGov study from the 11th to the 13th of May 2010 which shows a trend towards ever increasing isolation between neighbours in the UK.

There is however a conflicting study from the 18th to the 19th of February 2010, just 3 months earlier, by Elizabeth Finn Care/YouGov suggesting there are more people know and have a good relationship with their neighbours in the UK than those that do not.

ALSO

The Daily Mail article says that:

"Worryingly, one in two Britons said they knew more about the daily lives of their favourite celebrity than they did about their neighbour."

Whereas what was actually being agreed/disagreed to in the poll was the statement:

"People nowadays know more about the daily activities of their favourite celebrity than they do their neighbour."

The question was not if people themselves knew more about the daily lives of their favourite celebrity than they did their neighbour, it asked if they thought that other people tended to know more about the daily activities of their favourite celebrity than they do their neighbour.

Over and out,
Mahatma Andy

The Beta Band — The Three E.P.s

2010-04-21T16:36:00.005+01:00

With return of the ex-Beta Band frontman Steve Mason to the limelight in the form of his new solo offering, Boys Outside, it seems only fitting to revisit where it all began for the enigmatic Edinburgh musician.

The Three E.P.s is something of a Ronseal name, being a compilation of The Beta Band’s first three extended-plays from 1997–1998, managing to retain a surprising amount of continuity for a compilation, though this is perhaps down to a very wide gamut of styles between tracks.

The Three E.P.s

Hearing to the first song on the album might lull listeners into a false sense of security. Dry The Rain is certainly a tone setter of sorts, starting with a lazily strummed acoustic guitar and the lyrics “This is the definition of my life, lying in bed in the sunrise” before accumulating something of a groove in the way that may inspire one’s walk to develop to a strut, and finishing with a feel-good sing-along chorus that film buffs may recognise from a scene in High Fidelity. This is the pop track of the album.

Things start to get a bit weird from here on, as though the strutting to the first track has led off down a track and into a slightly scary forest. There are copious amounts of influences on the album, and after the first track, things go from slightly jazzy, to slightly psychedelic, almost hypnotic, before heading back to laid-back guitar strumming on Dog’s Got A Bone.

Steve Mason’s limited vocal range is of no detriment to the music, acting as one of the anchors for consistency. The creativity of the band on this album certainly makes for interesting listening, but can become tiresome in parts, particularly on the aptly named Monolith, which is a behemoth of a song. It clocks in at 15 minutes and 49 seconds in length, without actually accomplishing much besides some momentarily curious noises before leaping to some discordant melody for another few second. Luckily The Betas find their Ritalin in time for the next track, She’s The One, another of the more radio-friendly moments.

Despite these moments of getting carried away with experimentation, the production is of great credit to all involved. Layers are a-plenty, with some nice subtleties and attention to detail, with a couple of themes emerging, such as the chirping birds being present low in the mix of Monolith and the lighters-in-the-air finale that is Needles In My Eyes.

Overall then, this is an extremely eclectic but ultimately enjoyable album. Despite a couple of faux pas along the way, the band’s idiosyncratic personalities are channelled beautifully into an innovative, laid-back and fun debut.

Hey man, now you're really livin'

2010-02-06T14:50:00.004Z

Just been listening to the Eels song that is the title of the post. I'm sure I'm not alone in having to be reminded now and then to be a bit more appreciative of how life goes. It's good. For instance, I saw Oceansize in Nottingham yesterday; and they were good. There was also a ginger guy there about my age who had a proper bona fide handlebar moustache, who I think is my new idol.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Oceansize, here's a freebie:

Or, for those of you who are wandering if this is all there is to life, here's a song that reminds you the answer — Yes, but don't worry about it.

Lazy days and awesome music

2009-12-30T19:35:00.004Z

Today's things to do:

Nothing. Ahh. Christmas. Though it's given me chance to give a good listen to Mogwai, a band who I've always suspected I'd like but never given much of a chance to — so today I listened to Come on Die Young. And enjoyed.

What the Mogwai?

Kind of makes me wonder why I don't spend more time luxuriating in nothingness. Or why I do, and then stress about doing nothing, such as the blog post about the contentment that's been sat in my drafts folder for the past few days. Alas.

"Have they no shame?" — Have you a brain?

2009-12-23T18:26:00.005Z

A festive hello!

Stumbled upon a letter today in my beloved local paper (The Express and Star) from someone rather mind-numbingly small minded, so I just thought I'd share the snippet which caught my eye with you:

"Just when you think that this apology for a government couldn't sink any lower, first Gordon Brown is to give billions of pounds we can't afford to so-called poorer countries (are there still any poorer countries than us?) to combat global warming, whatever that is."

Admittedly, the letter goes on to make a valid point about the selling of military helicopters, but I just found this first paragraph oddly alluring. Surely the author can't be seriously insinuating that we are in fact the poorest country in the world. I mean, maybe the UN have it wrong, but I have a feeling the UK is definitely not the poorest country in the world.

So why the hell should we give our hard earned pennies to those poor little countries. It's not like global warming is an issue that affects all of us is it? Or one that has the potential for turning the quality of life for us "poor" developed countries into that similar in those "so-called poorer" countries.

So yes, C.D. Dudley of Birch Close, Stafford; what a boob our government is (it is, but for different reasons) for investing in something more worthwhile than providing us some short term luxury and reassurance. Of course, since you seem unaware of what global warming actually is, or what its implications are, you can perhaps be forgiven for your self righteous little dig at something so clearly beyond your grasp.

A message from Iran: How we can help

2009-06-25T00:30:00.003+01:00

A blog I came across with a few things the rest of the world can do to help Iran's crushing of democracy:

Please tell your governments that if they are seen as interfering or supporting our actions - then we have lost! I believe that if we can receive covert resources and support without prompting action by the regime, our enemy will be severely suppressed. Today we heard from sources outside of Iran that we can not win. Those who are saying this in the media please notice: You must also mention the success of the results thus far. For the sake of the spirit of our demonstrators, you must mention that we are making great strides. Your words have the power of giving energy to our cause. The actions against us will only escalate unless the legitimacy of this government is removed from popular opinion. We only have ourselves to depend on. Today the commander of the Tehran Police refused to implement the suppression orders sent down to him by the Government. This was a small success, however many were later arrested when the information became known to the Officials.
People are afraid to demonstrate without money or resources. Many are afraid that a general strike will drain bank accounts and thus cripple our efforts. Please be cautious when calling for demonstrators to remove money from banks, stop shopping and work. While it is effective for us to use these measures, please be cautious and regard that we are making necessary plans within our groups. Your information being sent en mass through public mediums is falling directly into the hands of our enemies.
Continue blocking Iran regime websites. We continue needing Firefox plug-ins, anonymous portals and IP devices. If you can find a way to provide those to us, it will be important in our efforts.
Iranian State Television is creating massive distorition of truths. Their reports are stirring fear and frustration in the people. They collect information from foreign media websites and report just the opposite, or design filtered propaganda to distress our efforts. The Iran television news is showing pictures that have been collected off websites of the demonstrators, and they are asking viewers to send in informative leads to who the face belongs to and where they live. Recently many have blanked out the face of the demonstrators before uploading our pictures. That is a great help to our cause.
The Regime is accusing foreign governments and Western media with unfounded charges. Their motive in doing so is to create chaos and diversion. They are provoking governments to take a position instead of well-thought passive defense. The State-Run News plays up the Western governments as imperfect and problematic - attempting to inspire people to stop these protests for fear of becoming like the Western nations. These allegations have been extremely critical of the USA and President Obama administration. What we feel is best would be the United Nations to call on Iran's regime to hold another election. We all have the courage to face this, so International Community, as your governments to pressure the UN to act on requesting a new election in Iran. Also continue to call on your governments in Europe and America to visibly appear neutral and do not show explicit support. The USA administration is doing that and it helps so much. President Ahmadinejad is very worried at this hour of the protests.
It is very likely that quite soon our leaders: Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami will be arrested. It is also very likely many other political leaders will be detained. We call on the International Media to continue broadcasting fair information while remaining responsible.
Red.Heron, Anonymous Iran, Jun 2009

Read the article!

Hello

2009-04-01T21:27:00.001+01:00

Greetings to all friends, readers, and new media voyeurs alike.

I've come up with a couple of things I've felt like sharing with the big wide world of the blogosphere a couple of times and to my frustration, Facebook notes just doesn't seem to hold water; so here we are.

Sadly, I can make no guarentees about my frequency of posting, so I'll add stuff rather sporadically between uni work, socialising, drinking and all other things that are more necessary/awesome than writing a blog (though I suppose as a Journalism student, a blog is part and parcel eh?).

So first, an introduction.

My name's Andy, I am a first year student of Journalism and Media, I come from Wolverhampton (that's in England, kids) and I have quite a few interests that I might be writing about now and then… current affairs, music, local events etc are likely to be some of the more highly blogged topics.

See you soon!