Where Has Our Arsenal Gone?

Up until very recently, I've been a huge fan of Arsene Wenger. The comments on Facebook and Twitter calling for his head have met with a certain amount of scorn from my direction. However ...

When I really start to think about the huge gulf between our beloved team and the other so-called 'big three', I have to come to the conclusion that a really big stink is coming from the direction of The Emirates.

Firstly, Peter Hill-Wood feels its appropriate to make comments like "thank you for taking an interest in our affairs" at the AGM. This is an arrogant and total snub to the shareholders and supporters of Arsenal FC, and really shows what he and the rest of the board think of us. They support Wenger without reservation, probably because he's under the stupid assumption that qualifying for the Champions League is a trophy win.

Lets look at the actual team. Watching the Chelsea v Man Utd game yesterday, they had players on the bench who could almost be relied on to come on and change the game. Most of us are scared shitless when we get an injury and have to play Santos or Djourou. We have so many players who are simply not up to the task and are just taking the wages and not offering anything else. Giroud has absolutely no pace and won't make it in a league where pace rules above all else. Gervinho doesn't warrent the faith Wenger shows in him with the odd goal when he can't even control the ball properly for 95% of the game. Ramsey simply isn't good enough. Gibbs and Diaby are so fragile they can never be relied on. Arshavin, Chamakh, Denilson, Bendtner, need I go on? We pay their wages, what do we get in return?

I'll be shocked beyond belief if we make the CL this season, there are simply far more teams more balanced and with better players than us, and I despise myself for saying this but Spurs are one of them, and I can see us slipping quietly out of the big four and becoming one of the teams battling for UEFA Cup qualification in the future. Does Wenger also see this as winning a trophy?

The rot must be stopped, and soon. Wenger needs to go and the board need to start changing their priorities.

17minute Hierophant - Yes Please!

I've just had a epithanic experience - listening to the seventeen minute version of Shadow of the Hierophant on Steve Hackett's 2005 remaster of Voyage of the Acolyte. What an absolute beauty, it's hypnotic is its gorgeousness and I found myself in an almost trance-like state listening to it.
Do yourself a favour if you like good music and hunt it out, its so worth it.

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=4160

Make A Difference

The world continues in its downward spiral ...

A young man is horrendously racially abused and instead of offering an apology the Serbian F.A. instead blame him, and call him 'vulgar'

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury states that gay marriage could see Britain becoming a totalitarian state and going the way of Nazi Germany

U.S. congreesman Todd Akin completely disregards the victim (the woman) in his comments about rape and abortion, uses terms like 'legitimate rape' and actually believes women have super wombs that can prevent unwanted pregnancies

A 14 year old girl is hunted down and shot in the head in the name of religion for wanting to go to school.

I could go on and on. So many things have made me seethe lately. Men sit on panels talking about issues that have absolutely nothing to do with them, huge conglomorate companies pay absolutely no tax in this country while benefits are reduced by another £10billion a year, ATOS continue to make the lives of disabled people an absolute misery by passing them fit for work when they are obviously not. The rich and entitled continue to get richer, while the poor and less privilidged continue to get poorer and less privilidged.

Where does it end?

Whatever you might think, one person can make a difference. When something makes you angry don't let apathy win. Talk about it, blog about it, tweet about it. Write a letter. At the very least retweet people who are trying to raise awareness of the injustices of this world. Support people who are in a better position to make change a reality, tell them what they are doing is just and important; these people work tirelessly and often thanklessly, your support can make a difference.

In defence of Bard

For the last fifteen years I have been a huge fan of the progressive rock group Big Big Train. They're not 'cross-over' prog as Progarchives would have you believe, this is a full-on prog band - musicianship, the lengthy superbly crafted songs, just the care they put into making the music tells you all you need to know. And in the actual sense of the word 'progressive' they've certainly come a long way since the early days - they now have some of the finest musicians in the world playing with them.
For me, they fall into three distinct 'eras' - the current one has produced two wonderul albums so far in The Underfall Yard and English Electric Part One, and a similarly wonderful 40-odd minute EP called Far Skies Deep Time. The era before which featured Sean Filkins on vocals spawned Gathering Speed and The Difference Machine. It's the first era, and particularly the album Bard I'd like to concentrate on.
I first heard BBT when I bought their second album, English Boy Wonders. I completely fell in love with it, it was a such an eclectic mix of 4-minute vignettes (Pretty Mom, Fell Asleep, Cloudless And Starry And Still) and longer emotionally wrought songs (The Shipping Forecast, Mr. Boxgroveman, Reaching For John Dowland). I bought the first album and fell in love with that too.
It was a long five years before the next album came out. This album, Bard, has since been pretty much disowned by the band and deleted. It certainly isn't much like what the band produce now, but don't let that put you off - it's an absolutely brilliant album. Four of the songs would make any BBT compilation I might make ...
Jo Michaels' beautiful vocals carry the initial segment of the 15-minute Broken English, then a long instrumental passage follows containing Greg Spawton's most memorable guitar solo. He said on the Facebook page a while back that he wasn't a great guitarist - this proves otherwise.
A Short Visit To Earth is to me one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It's only 5 or 6 minutes long but in that time conveys such emotion as not many side-long songs can. This song really resonates with me, and I'm not ashamed to say has reduced me to tears on many occasions.
The last two songs on the album, For Winter and A Long Finish, total around 25 minutes in length and to me they've always seemed like the same track. For Winter is another beautiful composition with the most heart-breaking lyrics
"This isn‘t rocket science - why can’t we make it work? Try holding me up against the sky."
I love the dynamic in this song. From quiet piano only segments to full-on band rock-outs, I love it when a band gives a song room to breathe and develop. To me, For Winter is the song that sounds most like English Boy Wonders, with it's piano led melody it could have slotted very neatly alongside Albion Perfide.
A Long Finish reprises certain themes and musical motifs from the rest of the album and works brilliantly well as an instrumental in it's own right.
So, if you ever see Bard at a boot sale, or a record fair - snaffle it! Although it doesn't represent where the band is now it certainly stands up in it's own right and is well worth owning and appreciating. Contrary to what Big Big Train might say (sorry guys but I love it :p)

http://www.bigbigtrain.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/bigbigtrain/

On being disabled

A few years ago, I fell down some stairs and broke three bones in my spine. It was then found that the damage was so serious because I had spinal osteoporosis, and that the damaged vertabrae would never heal. So began my life as a disabled person.
Up until then, I'm ashamed to say I'd believed the hype that the majority of so-called disabled people were perfectly able to work, and were just playing the benefits system. This is the image perpetrated by general society in this country. I was wrong.

I rely on benefits now. I have a small pension from the 25 years I worked as a central heating engineer, but after all my bills are paid I have about £25/week left to buy food / clothes / anything else I might need. Without the employment and support allowance (ESA) I get I simply would not be able to live. But I've (almost literally) had to jump through hoops to get to where I am now. ATOS have made my life a complete misery in the recent past by threatening to have my ESA withdrawn if I could not attend a work capability assessment in a different town, offering no advice on how I would actually get there. They did offer to provide the money for a cab, until I told them that the price of a 60 mile  fare would be around £40, then that offer was withdrawn. Eventually I had to pay for a private doctor's letter from my GP before they would agree to carry out the assessment in my own home. I went quite hungry that week.

The lack of support and stress caused by having to rely on third-parties for my money has caused me quite severe depression, which I'm ashamed to say resulted in a suicide attempt at the beginning of this year. Since then a local charity have supported and advised me, for which I will be eternally grateful. But it took a failed sucide attempt before I was pointed in their general direction.

My claim for disibility living allowance is now into it's ninth month, with no clue as to when it will be resolved. The charity who are helping me have told me I have almost no chance of getting it, but that shouldn't stop me applying.

I'm very lucky. I can walk, not far and very slowly, but I can. I'm still fairly young (48) and I have a family around me. I simply cannot imagine how the last few years would have been had I been in a worse position - no family, elderly. The amount of times I have been threatened with having my benefits cut is beyond my recall. I have to completely rely on my 84 year-old mother, and my sister, and my two young sons to be able to live like I do. The thought of how I will get my shopping, or get to the doctors, or whatever when my Mother has gone leaves me in a bit of a panic. My sister tidies my house and keeps my small garden clean. My kids are just wonderful, and never complain when they're ordered to my place for some chore or another. Again, how do people without this support survive? I'm very lucky.

Please read this wonderful post by @LUBOttom and sign the petition if you can.

X-Factor Hatred

I know X-Factor isn't aimed at people like me. I understand it's primarily made for teenagers. So why do I detest it so much?
I'm a huge music fan. I listen mostly to progressive rock but if music is made with a modicum of integrity and talent then I can get something out of it. Music thats made for the sole purpose of earning money for fat executives leaves me colder than cold, and there lies the rub. Who actually wins in X-Factor? The 'artistes'? Not many of the winners have carved out a career for themselves. It seems that the winners make a quick buck for the producers and are then released back into obscurity. Yes I know there are a small number of exceptions to that rule but none of them move me in any way.
But my hatred goes far deeper than just disliking this programme. It makes me so angry. Some fame-vampire sings a song in a moderately decent voice and the judges are on their feet, clapping like they've just heard the secret love-child of Sinatra perform an act of pure unadulterated genius. The competitors are whipped into a frenzy like their very life depends on whether they have made it to the next round. It's a singing competition! And it's so hard to ignore it. Every other current affairs show seems to want to report on it, the papers are full of it.
Do you really care who wins? Do you not realise it's all about how much money Cowell, Walsh etc can make out of your kids? Pubs around the country are full of aspiring bands trying to make it in a more conventional and to be honest, honourable route. These are the people who deserve support, not some idiot who cares far more for fame than any sort of musical integrity.

Really?