Revolution is my name

All of a sudden, this weekend, when there was an item about the Ukrainian parliamentary elections an odd thing occurred to me. It seems people start revolutions and revolt against dictatorial regimes around the world a go-go, but people do not have any patience to genuinely effectuate these revolutions.

I will not pretend I know many-a thing about Ukraine and its regimes pre and post Orange Revolution, but still I think it is but logic when you bring a revolution on your country through elections – as opposed to through a coup – it is way harder to really cut the ties with the old system. You simply cannot sack every civil servant because they worked for the past regime, everyone has their use, and quite possibly when you pick out a piece of the puzzle, your bureaucracy will fall down like a house of cards. You won’t have anything left to rely on, and starting from zero is a slow and harsh process.

Sure, it will take some time to reform the systems, and most probably you will hardly see any result the first couple of years, but when you tear everything down it’ll take even longer, the suffering will be harder, you will have to actually hurt your people.

The question then obviously is why people do not have any patience left? Also here – in Flanders – people ceased to have patience with their politicians. Elections every other year make sure there’s a constant change of people in charge, swinging voters can’t decide which side to pick and thus risk of destabilising a proven system. Politics are turning into consumer’s goods.

Sure, I’m not conservative, I try to think forward, I don’t want parties to be in charge just because they always were, but then what is the alternative. It is just impossible to keep bringing new people to the front. Experience is well-needed too, especially with delicate things like leading a nation.

So, what’s this story about? Have your revolutions – please do – but keep in mind your leaders - wherever you live - need time to actually change things!

Apples and lemons

A French court ordered Apple to liberate its iTunes store for people owning other players than iTunes and iPods today.

Now, normally I’d say this is a healthy thing, because it makes the online music market more competitive and accessible to more people. This time, however, I do not necessarily see this as a good thing, which might seem odd to you, especially as I’m not a Macintosh-supporter.

Some ‘specialist’ on BBC World argued when he buys a CD he wants to be able to play this in every CD-player he comes across. Well, I think it’s a bit like making a greengrocer sell steaks, in order to serve carnivores and vegetarians. Or perhaps more, saying Vinyl-stores have to sell CDs too (or the other way round, which would apply to more stores nowadays).

Let me explain this to you. Apple sells files in the AAC-format, whereas most MP3-players, well, play MP3s. So they aren’t compatible with Apple’s AAC-format, and Apple will have to convert its entire database into MP3s just to please the French market.

Obviously such a decision can never be the right one to make, a company will have to do a huge investment in order to make this possible, though there’s only a minor chance of selling these files to its own costumers.

CDs however are sold with copy-protection which stops you being able to play them on e.g. your car stereo and computer. They even do this while bearing a logo of a standard which more or less dictates the medium has to be able to be played on every player bearing the same logo.

I guess you see the problem now and probably you’ll find – as I do – they can hardly make iTunes sell MP3s, they would better make sure CDs are actually CDs.

Oh, and for proper audio file encoding – lossless – use FLAC!

What I heard about Iraq

I heard many innocent people got killed. The death-toll is immense on both sides and we’re still counting.

I heard the American government saying they had won the war, but they’re still in war, denying civil war.

I heard former Iraqi president Iyad Alawi saying there is a civil war going on. I hear he was concerned about the number of Iraqi citizens getting killed without any true reasons.

I heard Francis Fukuyama said the war in Iraq was a failure. Nothing has properly been taken care of and the only option – winning the war – is out of the question.

I heard Shiite and Sunnites are killing each other. I heard America’s polarisation of these acts only causes more damage.

I heard innocent European citizens are killed because they’re Europeans. With no reason at all, just as revenge for America and the UK’s invasion.

I heard it is not over yet.

Preaching for the Gangwar

Last night I went out all the way to St-Niklaas to see James Ray's Gangwar live. Not very many people know of him these days, and even less turned up, sadly.

As far as I'm aware James Ray gathered most of his fame through his work with The Sisterhood, Andrew Eldritch's one of spin-off after he split up with the guys that were to form the Mission.

James Ray did an amazing job on that record, covering quite some of the vocals. But then - the Sisterhood was a one of after all - he went on his own way, with his James Ray and the Performance outfit bringing us storming anthems like Mexico Sundown Blues, Edie Sedgwick, Texas and Mountain Voices on the record A New Kind Of Assassin. This material was quite similar to what he did with the Sisterhood, though.

After that, he went even more his own way, bringing us more aggressive tunes on Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado. This album featured another collection songs, like Rev Rev Lowrider and Hardwar.


On the next album, Third Generation, James went deeper into the Techno direction. Again, he manages to astonish me with tracks that are incredibly good both lyricwise as musicwise. A couple of highlights of this album are Cobalt Blue and title track Third Generation.

The next band he formed (as far as I'm aware, obviously) was MK Ultra and went perhaps even a bit deeper into techno. He released This is This and Beluga Pop, both carrying even more fine tunes.

Then apparently he picked up Gangwar again and released Psychodalek, though I'm not quite familiar with that album. Last year he went into ambient with 4080peru (of which he released a double DVD) and he released another album with James Ray and the Longfolk, which was some sort of modern country, with fantastic guitar tunes.

But nowadays it appears James Ray wants to get the interest for the Gangwar up back again, and I am but thankful he plans to do this!

The gig I went to see yesterday was incredibly storming, a very fitting act, James backed by wonderful musicians, bringing great songs to the people. I quite understand the comment Melody Maker once made: His gigs are like discovering sex for the first time.

Whenever you get the chance to see him at work, grab it! And have a look at the tracks I linked to. They're sourced by Mr. Ray himself, who - as he once said - doesn't want your money, but wants your soul.

http://thejamesray.co.uk/

Sifting through the splinters

Reading through a Juli Zeh interview (apparently a big German writer to be) in my favourite newspaper, I came across a line in which she more or less said nowadays children's problem is there isn't anything to revolt against left. All big truths have been destroyed over the past decade, and so we can only weed through the leftovers, sift through the splinters.

Though she was saying this from of her belief in nihilism - to which I am quite opposed as far as I know - I must say I find this quite an intriguing theory. This makes a rather accurate explanation for the lack of rules children appear to suffer from these days, the big 'search' that's going inside of many people.

Whereas in the past the big truths of e.g. the church pointed us towards the 'good' direction, today everyone is looking out elsewhere for whatever fits them best on each level. We don't support one single big truth anymore, we make up our own as a collage from things we find all over the place.

Of course, the discussion is whether this is a good or a bad thing.

Personally I'd like to think it's neither. In the end people will be much more grown up, coming out of their own search, they'll be able to stand up for themselves, to decide what's right and wrong, to see what there is to see while peeking into the distance. But when people make up their own right and wrong, they might choose for a version that isn't always as favourable to the society. The chance of going into a bad direction is higher, your own stakes become much more decisive.

Perhaps another explanation for the incline in people's fear for whatever the media brings up?