GB11
The month flies past and autumn is upon us.
I'm only now getting around to writing up about
Greenbelt 2011 - Memories of home
I made it along for the Saturday and Monday of the festival this year, at the end of August. There was a diverse enough program for me to find things that interested me, and I was thankful to meet up with old friends Rory, Trev and Nick.
Musically, as a whole it didn't especially shine for me (or many others), but there were definite highlights, Ron Sexsmith being the main one for me, despite the short time slot he was given. I missed most of Kate Rusby's folky set. The Unthanks were polished Geordies with accomplished folky tunes with a strong traditional influence (and tap dancing for good measure), but didn't really fire up the audience. I stayed for the first half of Mavis Staples set. She had a good voice for her age, with a welcome backing band, but not too much to set her apart from other gospel influenced artists... I slipped away to see a 'secret' gig by Foy Vance, which was packed despite the lack of official publicity. The sound system was horribly distorted, but Foy's powerful voice and arresting lyrics made it through, good as ever, but noticeably lacking in new material.
As to the talks, I made it along to a couple on economics, both with fascinating insights. The first, by Michael Green and Matthew Bishop (who writes for The Economist) with the controversial title "Why the bankers aren't to blame". They briefly covered some of their earlier work on Philanthrocapitalism pointing out the (reputed) benefits of the rich spending their money wisely. There were some interesting asides, about such characters as the former boss of Lehmann Bros (Dick Folds) who was a larger than life figure that liked his yes-men so much that he filled his board of directors with people with no financial background, and avoided questions about why his (at the time) money making bank had a 'D' rated board.
The main gist of their message was to encourage us, the rank and file of the public, to be more questioning of what we do with our money. "More than half of the money in the system is ours e.g. in our savings and pension funds, but we don't ask how that money is being accounted for". There was a call for us to be better stewards of our money and call our banks to more ethical and responsible investment. Just as we have become more careful in how we spend our money (choosing Fairtrade, encouraging manufacturers to take worker rights more seriously) and big corps have finally begun to take that more seriously, so we need to also be more intelligent in how we invest our money. Too many banks (and politicians) look to short-termism, and we the consumers need to change the emphasis.
The second talk on economics was a panel including Channel 4 correspondent Faisal Islam who noted that we still hadn't dealt with the underlying problems of excessive debt and credit (coming home to roost this week) and had much pain still to face. He was worried that the UK had still to solve the problems of the large de-mutualised building societies which have virtually all crumbled, and the two Scottish banks that required bailing out. The investigation has been hushed up, and we still need to know why they did quite so badly if we are to understand the problem and prevent it repeating.
Loretta Ingilla(?) from Christian Aid pointed out that poverty was no longer confined to 'poor' countries, but was now as much linked to inequalities in rich countries. Previous national controls on economies were now woefully inadequate to deal with the global problems, and there was a need for more transparency by the larger corporations, some of whom used their world trade to avoid paying taxes. The aid paid by the west to Third World countries in many cases is eclipsed by the tax evaded by megacorps trading in those countries. My pen ran out then, and I can't remember the end of the discussions, but there was a further call for the man in the street to be more vocal about how they want their investments placed - FairPensions.
There was some light relief in a presentation on writing sitcoms, by a couple of the writers from TV's 'Miranda' and 'Not Going Out'. All 'C's
Character - essential to develop strong and interesting characters
Confinement - place them in a place/situation/community that they can't escape from, this creates...
Conflict - conflict can be very funny, with major characters wanting very different things, but
Catastrophe - can be even more funny
The difficulties of the writing process were eluded to, with typically ten re-writes between the first draft, rehearsals, and final draft. Perhaps only 1% of initial scripts submitted ever get to be seen, and even then not every sitcom is a success. Indeed, some of the sitcoms written for by these writers (My Family; My Hero) are instant channel changing for me.
Mark Vernon spoke about Doubt, to a packed audience, (so Greenbelters are not quite so certain) pointing out that there were a number of Hebrew words used for the translation 'doubt' often inferring more about judging or determining between different points of view, being divisive, being double minded. So in this case "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea" is more about being free from divided motives.
Early thought was more participatory, whereas today many are encouraged to look within, introspectively, to find the truth - which can often be a lonely and isolating experience. Today's society seeks certainty, so perhaps we are less able to handle doubt whereas our ancestors were more happy to live with it. 150 years ago we learned our ideas/outlook/faith from the communities we lived in, now such mimetic habits no longer exist, faith has become more of a performance, with 'tokens' of faith used to display our viewpoints. This led to the rise of Fundamentalism, where specific beliefs/tokens were seen as marking out the purity/strength of faith.
Mark's talk led off in numerous directions (as he is want to do) to cover the views of the philosophers on doubt, and today's fascination with choice. Did we really need 100 different breakfast cereals to choose from? We equate choice with freedom, but lack of commitment is undermining of relationships. One of his final calls, to "live richly; live on the edge; bear fruit"
Musician Billy Bragg was interviewed by Simon Mayo about his life, under the GB theme for the year, "Memories of Home". He spoke eloquently about his family, the death of his mother, and how his childhood home was much more about the people related to it, than the bricks and mortar. He was worried about the danger of isolation with the growth of the internet, all these youngsters living in their own internet bubble with no real sense of belonging. As a musician he knew that when he touched a chord with a lyric or melody, he would get instant feedback with hundreds cheering or clapping - and that could never be compared to a hundred or more "Facebook likes" from friends never seen or met.
Billy was asked to choose a few songs to underpin his thoughts on home, and picked:
Canterbury Fair/Canticle by Simon and Garfunkel - "It took a couple of Jewish guys from New York to introduce [him] to British folk music"
A Clash tune about garage bands that inspired his own musical adventures
Lippy Kids by Elbow, about how we as adults look back at our childhood through the youth of today
Springsteen singing an old Woody Guthrie song about losing his home, and
Jerusalem, the rousing hymn, as a possible national anthem for England
He got everyone to join in with his acapella version; there were few dry eyes by the end.
John Bell, the Glaswegian with red trousers, held a large crowd with his well crafted talk, this time on "Ubiquitous Gayz". He took bold steps to challenge those still holding fast to misdirected homophobia in the church. He touched on things I'd long forgotten, like the way the church managed to make everyone feel so very uptight and guilty about masturbation (and in a few cases still does). He pointed out the value of so many well known writers, artists, inventors, politicians who had enriched society in spite of their sexuality. He took care to choose examples who were now dead, as he didn't want a libel case! To my mind he went as far as he dared to reveal himself, though I suspect most may not have noticed.
Aside from all those, I went to a late night gathering to listen to a group of parents (some from pretty hardline Christian traditions), open up about how they came to terms with finding out their children were gay. All had been deeply affected, and I could see how much their faith had been shifted by it. There were teenagers listening in around the edges too - I think they will be much more bold than my generation ever was at that age. Thankfully things have changed.
Faisal Islam later tweeted about his first experience of GB. To paraphrase, adding my own take -
Greenbelters want to understand more, not just be told. They want to ask questions.
And that's good.
.. and I've yet to write about the rest of the month. A walk; a film; a trip to London; and I'm off to Birmingham tomorrow. Must get back into the writing habit.
I'm only now getting around to writing up about
Greenbelt 2011 - Memories of home
I made it along for the Saturday and Monday of the festival this year, at the end of August. There was a diverse enough program for me to find things that interested me, and I was thankful to meet up with old friends Rory, Trev and Nick.
Musically, as a whole it didn't especially shine for me (or many others), but there were definite highlights, Ron Sexsmith being the main one for me, despite the short time slot he was given. I missed most of Kate Rusby's folky set. The Unthanks were polished Geordies with accomplished folky tunes with a strong traditional influence (and tap dancing for good measure), but didn't really fire up the audience. I stayed for the first half of Mavis Staples set. She had a good voice for her age, with a welcome backing band, but not too much to set her apart from other gospel influenced artists... I slipped away to see a 'secret' gig by Foy Vance, which was packed despite the lack of official publicity. The sound system was horribly distorted, but Foy's powerful voice and arresting lyrics made it through, good as ever, but noticeably lacking in new material.
As to the talks, I made it along to a couple on economics, both with fascinating insights. The first, by Michael Green and Matthew Bishop (who writes for The Economist) with the controversial title "Why the bankers aren't to blame". They briefly covered some of their earlier work on Philanthrocapitalism pointing out the (reputed) benefits of the rich spending their money wisely. There were some interesting asides, about such characters as the former boss of Lehmann Bros (Dick Folds) who was a larger than life figure that liked his yes-men so much that he filled his board of directors with people with no financial background, and avoided questions about why his (at the time) money making bank had a 'D' rated board.
The main gist of their message was to encourage us, the rank and file of the public, to be more questioning of what we do with our money. "More than half of the money in the system is ours e.g. in our savings and pension funds, but we don't ask how that money is being accounted for". There was a call for us to be better stewards of our money and call our banks to more ethical and responsible investment. Just as we have become more careful in how we spend our money (choosing Fairtrade, encouraging manufacturers to take worker rights more seriously) and big corps have finally begun to take that more seriously, so we need to also be more intelligent in how we invest our money. Too many banks (and politicians) look to short-termism, and we the consumers need to change the emphasis.
The second talk on economics was a panel including Channel 4 correspondent Faisal Islam who noted that we still hadn't dealt with the underlying problems of excessive debt and credit (coming home to roost this week) and had much pain still to face. He was worried that the UK had still to solve the problems of the large de-mutualised building societies which have virtually all crumbled, and the two Scottish banks that required bailing out. The investigation has been hushed up, and we still need to know why they did quite so badly if we are to understand the problem and prevent it repeating.
Loretta Ingilla(?) from Christian Aid pointed out that poverty was no longer confined to 'poor' countries, but was now as much linked to inequalities in rich countries. Previous national controls on economies were now woefully inadequate to deal with the global problems, and there was a need for more transparency by the larger corporations, some of whom used their world trade to avoid paying taxes. The aid paid by the west to Third World countries in many cases is eclipsed by the tax evaded by megacorps trading in those countries. My pen ran out then, and I can't remember the end of the discussions, but there was a further call for the man in the street to be more vocal about how they want their investments placed - FairPensions.
There was some light relief in a presentation on writing sitcoms, by a couple of the writers from TV's 'Miranda' and 'Not Going Out'. All 'C's
Character - essential to develop strong and interesting characters
Confinement - place them in a place/situation/community that they can't escape from, this creates...
Conflict - conflict can be very funny, with major characters wanting very different things, but
Catastrophe - can be even more funny
The difficulties of the writing process were eluded to, with typically ten re-writes between the first draft, rehearsals, and final draft. Perhaps only 1% of initial scripts submitted ever get to be seen, and even then not every sitcom is a success. Indeed, some of the sitcoms written for by these writers (My Family; My Hero) are instant channel changing for me.
Mark Vernon spoke about Doubt, to a packed audience, (so Greenbelters are not quite so certain) pointing out that there were a number of Hebrew words used for the translation 'doubt' often inferring more about judging or determining between different points of view, being divisive, being double minded. So in this case "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea" is more about being free from divided motives.
Early thought was more participatory, whereas today many are encouraged to look within, introspectively, to find the truth - which can often be a lonely and isolating experience. Today's society seeks certainty, so perhaps we are less able to handle doubt whereas our ancestors were more happy to live with it. 150 years ago we learned our ideas/outlook/faith from the communities we lived in, now such mimetic habits no longer exist, faith has become more of a performance, with 'tokens' of faith used to display our viewpoints. This led to the rise of Fundamentalism, where specific beliefs/tokens were seen as marking out the purity/strength of faith.
Mark's talk led off in numerous directions (as he is want to do) to cover the views of the philosophers on doubt, and today's fascination with choice. Did we really need 100 different breakfast cereals to choose from? We equate choice with freedom, but lack of commitment is undermining of relationships. One of his final calls, to "live richly; live on the edge; bear fruit"
Musician Billy Bragg was interviewed by Simon Mayo about his life, under the GB theme for the year, "Memories of Home". He spoke eloquently about his family, the death of his mother, and how his childhood home was much more about the people related to it, than the bricks and mortar. He was worried about the danger of isolation with the growth of the internet, all these youngsters living in their own internet bubble with no real sense of belonging. As a musician he knew that when he touched a chord with a lyric or melody, he would get instant feedback with hundreds cheering or clapping - and that could never be compared to a hundred or more "Facebook likes" from friends never seen or met.
Billy was asked to choose a few songs to underpin his thoughts on home, and picked:
Canterbury Fair/Canticle by Simon and Garfunkel - "It took a couple of Jewish guys from New York to introduce [him] to British folk music"
A Clash tune about garage bands that inspired his own musical adventures
Lippy Kids by Elbow, about how we as adults look back at our childhood through the youth of today
Springsteen singing an old Woody Guthrie song about losing his home, and
Jerusalem, the rousing hymn, as a possible national anthem for England
He got everyone to join in with his acapella version; there were few dry eyes by the end.
John Bell, the Glaswegian with red trousers, held a large crowd with his well crafted talk, this time on "Ubiquitous Gayz". He took bold steps to challenge those still holding fast to misdirected homophobia in the church. He touched on things I'd long forgotten, like the way the church managed to make everyone feel so very uptight and guilty about masturbation (and in a few cases still does). He pointed out the value of so many well known writers, artists, inventors, politicians who had enriched society in spite of their sexuality. He took care to choose examples who were now dead, as he didn't want a libel case! To my mind he went as far as he dared to reveal himself, though I suspect most may not have noticed.
Aside from all those, I went to a late night gathering to listen to a group of parents (some from pretty hardline Christian traditions), open up about how they came to terms with finding out their children were gay. All had been deeply affected, and I could see how much their faith had been shifted by it. There were teenagers listening in around the edges too - I think they will be much more bold than my generation ever was at that age. Thankfully things have changed.
Faisal Islam later tweeted about his first experience of GB. To paraphrase, adding my own take -
Greenbelters want to understand more, not just be told. They want to ask questions.
And that's good.
.. and I've yet to write about the rest of the month. A walk; a film; a trip to London; and I'm off to Birmingham tomorrow. Must get back into the writing habit.