Tread slowly, tread slowly,
or don't tread at all,
under your pen are a thousand lives.

the rest of my life.

LAND.

Life is filled with holes, johnny's laying there, his sperm coffin

Angel looks down at him and says, “oh, pretty boy,

Can't you show me nothing but surrender ? ”

Johnny gets up, takes off his leather jacket,

Taped to his chest there's the answer,

You got pen knives and jack knives and

Switchblades preferred, switchblades preferred

Then he cries, then he screams, saying

Life is full of pain, I'm cruisin' through my brain

And I fill my nose with snow and go rimbaud,

Go rimbaud, go rimbaud,

And go johnny go, and do the watusi, oh do the watusi.

Jingle-jangle morning.

The best compilation I ever bought.

Rough Trade Shops Indiepop volume 1 (2CD) LINK

CD86 (collection of tracks from the C86 era including most/all of the original songs feature on the C86 cassette)
DISC ONE LINK
DISC TWO LINK

Whatever you do, just do it for peace.

Why are there no songs for peace anymore?


Imagine Peace. This film 'I Met the Walrus' uses an interview by a young Canadian teenager with John Lennon in 1969. The accompanying graphics are amazing. The message is nonviolence. Non-violence is a core teaching of Buddhism, in Pali it is called ahimsa. It is hard to believe in universalism since diversity should triumph over homogeneity. But perhaps by saying if all human beings can share just one thing, it should be peace.

Dreams.

Greenfield Morning

BANK HOLIDAY.

comes six times a year.
days of enjoyment to which everyone cheers.
bank holiday comes with six pack of beer and then it's back to work.
A-G-A-I-N!

We must not change its colour now.

'We must not change its colour now' is a line from The Red Flag. It makes no sense to hand over control of the country to some inexperienced poshboys from Eton who seem not to grasp the importance of a budget defecit in helping to secure recovery. Very confusing to see people assume that they will be more competent than New Labour. They are amateurs. They have the support of big business over Labour's proposed rise in National Insurance which the Tories claim is a sign that Labour have lost it, too stupid to consider the fact that business don't advocate for competent economics but for tax cuts, just as the unions protest against cuts in jobs.

Anyway, onto New Labour. The lack of delivery of social democratic policies by New Labour was a real disappointment and Brown has somewhat acted in a fairer way (except for the 10p tax cock up) and has been pretty good with the economy (except for courting business too much and allowing the banks to run riot but we all have the benefit of hindsight). I was trying to think of the fundamental reason for New Labour's mistakes; greater inequality, harsher border controls and policing, assault on human rights, ID cards, nuclear deterrents etc.

This, again from The Red Flag, is something they probably forgot:
'It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.'

Human gain. A Labour government should have presided over a collectivisation of material wealth through redistribution in the tax system and nationalisation of public services which would make the cost of the railways variant on income (through the tax system) rather than on use, inspired by the anarchist concept of 'property is theft'. Instead they presided over a collectivisation of individual thought and action, chipping away at autonomy and crippling democracy by curbing protest and repressing diversity. They encouraged individualism in the City and selfish attitudes in business, but made self-expression the business of the police.
Thank god Blair is gone, the arch-Neoliberal. Let's hope Ed Miliband, son of Ralph, writes a good manifesto.