"This new bottom-up and networked internationalism is offering energy, vision and alternatives"
Absolutely right and that's the future but not within the other stuff they're saying . Its been tried and didn't work , much as the attempt to make the whole planet completely free market isn't going to work that's just a scaling up of nation state failed free markets. Its obvious : sometimes according to social and economic condition's free market practice needs to be at the forefront and government economic and social development in the background . At other times its reversed. We need a government system that transmits that message and organises accordingly. For any party, to identify with free market domination or government public sector domination as the most desirable is crazy! Best thing the 'ol Tony Blair Labour Party did was to do it like the Tory Party because that dropping of party dogma is what should happen. Similar things are going on with the Tory Party right now . Thats good but tough on anyone who believes in party politics. TB for Pope yay, TB for God even ! I'm only agreeing with him!
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Last Sunday Fiona and I went to see Joan Baez at the Barbican York. It was very nice to do something on our own without the children! Pulling into the Bootham Bar car park and seeing the huge Ferris wheel on the other side of the River Ouse all lit up by the Railway Museum in the early evening light was truly a joy. We walked the short stretch from the car park down to Lendal Bridge and the River was smooth brown reflecting the lights on both sides.
We decided this would be a romantic evening, so not too much laughing, of course that started a lot of laughing and there was no going back. We nipped into the Cross Keys pub in Goodramgate at about 6:15 and on the way there I was quite surprised that York City Council had removed some of the lighting in the centre of York which gives it a very nice dark mysterious feeling.
Onto the Barbican Venue and whilst stood around in the foyer waiting to go into the concert hall, we were about 35 min early, we always like to turn up early, we met some old friends from the late 80s and early 90s Graham and Katherine Tizziman. Katherine was a teacher at Dunnington school in the york area alongside Fiona and then she went on to be a headteacher and an excellent one. She retired a few years ago just after completing an OFSTED inspection where she got outstanding in all aspects of her school. A truly great teacher. Graham, I think, I can't quite remember, worked for York city council in the planning department and he was a Civil Engineer by training. It was really nice seeing them and they invited us to go and visit sometime over this year. I said we will turn up and camp out on the lawn which got much laughter.
We then moved upstairs because we had balcony seats and I was just stood around minding my own business and my ex partner in romance and her new husband, Toni Bunnell and Paul, she seems to like men called Paul, bumped into me and we had a nice little chat. We bumped into Toni at Whitby over the Christmas period and it was nice to see her again and I chided her that I had phoned her about meeting up after christmas, left an answerphone message, but she claimed she could not hear it and it is best to text or e-mail. One thing I like about Toni as I do about most women and men I know, is they tell me what to do when necessary!
Joan Baez was amazing, moving and really entertaining with her little anecdotes about spending time with Bob Dylan and the various musicians she met over the years. Right from the start I had tears in my eyes with that amazing transcendental voice that just takes you to another place and keeps you there. She did a handful of songs on her own and then a percussionist and multi-instrumentalist joined her a multi-instrumentalist guy a young Louisianan who played keyboard, fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass guitar and was totally and absolutely amazing. It made me acutely aware of the wide gulf between people who play music and musicians. In relation to that guy I am not sure where I am between those two conditions myself. It made me think that a musician like that just cannot be produced in this country at the moment because we do not have a culture where a lad like that could express his talents. His fiddle playing was absolutely amazing the total real thing and it was not just that he was technically good at playing the fiddle, I have heard a lot of those over the years, you could tell that he had been playing with musicians and was from a culture where a way of play music to a very tasteful, exciting and high standard was the norm. If there were any other musicians in that concert Hall they should sit up and take note. I did!
It was an amazing one hour and 40 min which will have a special place in my heart and mind for the rest of my life something I will never forget. We are definitely going to see her again if she comes to England next year. She is also a piece of living history with one foot walking in the civil rights movement and the other walking in the peace and Justice issues and organisations she has involved herself in over the years. An amazing, talented and beautiful lady no doubt about it.
After the concert whilst people were flowing from upstairs to downstairs I bumped into one of our Baha'is, Barbara Gilbert, with her husband and they had come down from Bishop Auckland in County Durham to see the concert. That was really nice. Fiona decided she was hungry so we went to McDonald's and had a very tasty hamburger which I proclaimed was about 800 cal worth of food per burger and of course McDonald's now print their calorie amounts on their burgers, well not on the burger, on the package that it comes with, and it was indeed 835 cal and my pretty, beautiful wife was quite impressed with that. I am glad she gets impressed with these silly little observations of mine.That's all I've got really! We then trucked off back to the Cross Keys to have some more orange juice but Fiona still wanted a bit more to eat, specifically nuts, and the pub did quite large bowls of pistachio nuts which you had to shell yourself and the lady serving us dutifully gave us a small glass to put the the nutshells in. So we spent the next 40 min, chatting between sipping orange juice and munching pistachio nuts. Which at this stage of our marriage constitutes a whole lot of fun and not only that it is something we rarely do so we really enjoyed it.
As usual halfway back to home Fiona was fast asleep as I kept the car on the road and just basked in the warm glow of a very beautiful, romantic and cracking night out.
We decided this would be a romantic evening, so not too much laughing, of course that started a lot of laughing and there was no going back. We nipped into the Cross Keys pub in Goodramgate at about 6:15 and on the way there I was quite surprised that York City Council had removed some of the lighting in the centre of York which gives it a very nice dark mysterious feeling.
Onto the Barbican Venue and whilst stood around in the foyer waiting to go into the concert hall, we were about 35 min early, we always like to turn up early, we met some old friends from the late 80s and early 90s Graham and Katherine Tizziman. Katherine was a teacher at Dunnington school in the york area alongside Fiona and then she went on to be a headteacher and an excellent one. She retired a few years ago just after completing an OFSTED inspection where she got outstanding in all aspects of her school. A truly great teacher. Graham, I think, I can't quite remember, worked for York city council in the planning department and he was a Civil Engineer by training. It was really nice seeing them and they invited us to go and visit sometime over this year. I said we will turn up and camp out on the lawn which got much laughter.
We then moved upstairs because we had balcony seats and I was just stood around minding my own business and my ex partner in romance and her new husband, Toni Bunnell and Paul, she seems to like men called Paul, bumped into me and we had a nice little chat. We bumped into Toni at Whitby over the Christmas period and it was nice to see her again and I chided her that I had phoned her about meeting up after christmas, left an answerphone message, but she claimed she could not hear it and it is best to text or e-mail. One thing I like about Toni as I do about most women and men I know, is they tell me what to do when necessary!
Joan Baez was amazing, moving and really entertaining with her little anecdotes about spending time with Bob Dylan and the various musicians she met over the years. Right from the start I had tears in my eyes with that amazing transcendental voice that just takes you to another place and keeps you there. She did a handful of songs on her own and then a percussionist and multi-instrumentalist joined her a multi-instrumentalist guy a young Louisianan who played keyboard, fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass guitar and was totally and absolutely amazing. It made me acutely aware of the wide gulf between people who play music and musicians. In relation to that guy I am not sure where I am between those two conditions myself. It made me think that a musician like that just cannot be produced in this country at the moment because we do not have a culture where a lad like that could express his talents. His fiddle playing was absolutely amazing the total real thing and it was not just that he was technically good at playing the fiddle, I have heard a lot of those over the years, you could tell that he had been playing with musicians and was from a culture where a way of play music to a very tasteful, exciting and high standard was the norm. If there were any other musicians in that concert Hall they should sit up and take note. I did!
It was an amazing one hour and 40 min which will have a special place in my heart and mind for the rest of my life something I will never forget. We are definitely going to see her again if she comes to England next year. She is also a piece of living history with one foot walking in the civil rights movement and the other walking in the peace and Justice issues and organisations she has involved herself in over the years. An amazing, talented and beautiful lady no doubt about it.
After the concert whilst people were flowing from upstairs to downstairs I bumped into one of our Baha'is, Barbara Gilbert, with her husband and they had come down from Bishop Auckland in County Durham to see the concert. That was really nice. Fiona decided she was hungry so we went to McDonald's and had a very tasty hamburger which I proclaimed was about 800 cal worth of food per burger and of course McDonald's now print their calorie amounts on their burgers, well not on the burger, on the package that it comes with, and it was indeed 835 cal and my pretty, beautiful wife was quite impressed with that. I am glad she gets impressed with these silly little observations of mine.That's all I've got really! We then trucked off back to the Cross Keys to have some more orange juice but Fiona still wanted a bit more to eat, specifically nuts, and the pub did quite large bowls of pistachio nuts which you had to shell yourself and the lady serving us dutifully gave us a small glass to put the the nutshells in. So we spent the next 40 min, chatting between sipping orange juice and munching pistachio nuts. Which at this stage of our marriage constitutes a whole lot of fun and not only that it is something we rarely do so we really enjoyed it.
As usual halfway back to home Fiona was fast asleep as I kept the car on the road and just basked in the warm glow of a very beautiful, romantic and cracking night out.
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