Gareth – Page 526 – The Designer Monologues

March 9, 2007April 19, 2010

Friday Music

Here we go….

The first selection is my favorite piece of South African music. This haunting track, from the period when Nelson Mandela was still imprisoned, was released everywhere but South Africa, and worked its way back into the country as an underground hit. Johnny Clegg and Savuka – “Asimbonanga.” The lyrics of the refrain (plus translation):

“Asimbonanga (We have not seen him)
Asimbonang’ uMandela thina (We have not seen Mandela)
Laph’ekhona (In the place where he is)
Laph’ehleli khona (In the place where he is kept)”

From roughly the same period (mid to late 80s), here is my favorite bit of music from Miami Vice. I expected this song to be a bigger hit, but it never took off the way that “In The Air Tonight” did after being featured on the show. Russ Ballard – “Voices.”

For a time-period trifecta, I’ll go ahead and post this late-80s track, which appears now to have been genetically engineered to incite nostalgia: Crowded House – “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”

This past week, and I finished watching the 1978-1980 British TV show The Sandbaggers on DVD. Absolutely brilliant Spy series. The only thing worse than coming to the end of a show and knowing there is no more….is coming to the end of a show that leaves you with a cliffhanger, unresolved for the past 27 years. ARGH. Anyway, here is the nifty theme from the show, by film composer Roy Budd (Get Carter, among others): Roy Budd – “Sandbaggers Theme.”

Here’s a new pop band coming out of Glasgow with a debut album release this month. They’ve appeared on several “indie bands to watch” lists, and I really like what I’m hearing. Butcher Boy – “Profit In Your Poetry.”

The Jesus And Mary Chain are back! Sorta. Kinda. The Reid brothers, Jim and William; plus fellow TJ&MCer Ben Lurie have started a new group, along with Jim and William’s sister Linda. The band is called Sister Vanilla, and I *LOVE* it. Sister Vanilla – “Jamcolas.”

Lastly, some great hip-hop from my favorite crew, Jurassic 5. This is from their 2002 release, Power in Numbers: Jurassic 5 (feat. Nelly Furtado) – “The Thin Line.”

Enjoy.

March 8, 2007

A Solution….

…or, if not a solution, then at least “A Plan.”

After some urging from , I agreed with her that the trick to getting more writing done on the novel is to fully separate the process from my day-to-day creative work with Adamant. This means that the office, where I do all of my work, is not conducive to fiction-writing, because I’m in my Adamant head-space when I am there.

So, to that end, starting next week, I’ll be spending Tuesdays and Thursdays out of the office — I will go to campus, or downtown to some coffee shop or other (there are something like a half-dozen to choose from, and only one of them a Starbucks), and spend the day writing.

Not only does this allow me to get into a different writing-specific head-space, but also allows me to get out into the world and see other human beings, thereby feeling less isolated. Also a good thing.

I have purchased this, specifically for this plan. It is a used Mac Powerbook G4 (the previous generation before the current MacBook Pros). New battery, new version of OS X loaded, Airport card, Bluetooth, etc. It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as the current generation, but all I need is a reliable word processor, plus internet access.

It is being shipped by the owner today. I expect to start the new schedule next week.

March 7, 2007

Opt Out

In 2005, Congress re-wrote bankruptcy laws in favor of the credit industry.

In 2006, the credit industry responded by mailing out 8 billion (that’s billion with a B) credit card solicitations–a 30% increase from the previous year.

There are approximately 110 million households in the US — so that’s about 73 card offers per household. The average card offer is about $5,000 in pre-approved credit, so we’re talking about $365,000 in offers for every American household–or about $1000 a day, every day of the year.

By comparison, median household income is about $46,000, or about $127 a day. So we’re all being offered approximately seven times our annual incomes in credit card debt…..and this doesn’t even count the offers made in malls, on college campuses, via TV and radio advertising, or stuck in magazines.

It’s ridiculous — they want you poor, and forever in debt to your corporate masters.

If you’re sick of receiving the “pre-approved” offers via mail, go to OptOutPreScreen.com, which is a website operated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allows you to sign up for a list that will prevent Credit Reporting agencies from providing your information to the credit card companies for offer mailings. You can opt out for 5 years, or permanently.