Minds fixed on pelf and place

Laban Tall has blogged about one of my old posts (actually Michael Ezra's old post, and specifically Waterloo Sunset's comments there). I might get around to writing some kind of reply later this week.

Meanwhile, over at Bob's Beats we have songs for Israel's 64th birthday and punky klezmer cabaret, Vidal Sassoon's jazz cuts, and, tomorrow, some anarchic drum and bass from Luton town. The Israeli music comes from Hillel Schenker's new blog, which I will be keeping an eye on.

Here's a Sarf London blog recommendation: South London hardcore, currently featuring May Queens. There's also loads of great stuff (as always, but especially so) on Transpontine at the moment, including a great post about "The Red Flag", one of SE4's most important cultural products, but also the sadder news of the passing away of the lovely Pete Pope, a true local hero.

Not South London specific, I'll leave with this from Transpontine's piece about the pensions strike last week, which seems a very astute piece of analysis of our current political moment in the UK:

It sometimes feel sthat we are living through a re-run of the 1980s. The Thatcher Government of that period destroyed industries, threw millions on to the dole and ruthlessly deployed its forces against opposition. But however much it was hated by many, it also maintained its domination by winning the active support of parts of the population including many working class and middle class people who felt their living standards were rising. The police were obvious beneficiaries, but they weren't the only ones. The difference this time round is that there is virtually no 'positive buy in' to the Government. Hardly anybody feels that they are better off, the most the Government can rely on is a widespread despair about alternatives and fuelling a brooding resentment against 'better off' public sector workers. Even it were true that public sector pensions are better all round (they are for some, but not for everybody), making them worse won't help people working in the private sector. In fact the worse conditions are for public sector workers, the less private sector employers will have to do to compete and attract staff - so conditions are likely to deteriorate all round.

(By the way, for those less dyed red in the wool than me, the title of this post comes from the most baffling line of "The Red Flag", semi-explained here.)