Politicoholics Anonymous

My name is Bobby and I am a politicoholic. I admit it, I have been addicted since the Bush Snr v Dukakis election in 1988 - I remember interrailing with Sandy M and Dave M and reading reports of the election in The Herald Tribune. It's a different matter now with so many news sites and blogs giving you up-to-date information. The polls say that the Democrats will take back the House and might take back the Senate. Here's my prediction - Republicans will hold on to both the House and the Senate - unfortunately. I just can't quite believe the polls given what happened in the last two general elections. For anyone who thinks that these elections are not so important, I would recommend reading this article in Rolling Stone about this particular Congress. Some of the facts are incredible and yet unsurprising at the same time. What is surprising is that people don't do anything about it! Unfortunately, I think that's going to continue.

An update: John Kerry is doing his bit to help my prediction come true. On paper a not-so-funny joke at Bush and Cheney; orally a warning to students to study to avoid enlisting... not quite so helpful to the Democratic cause.

I wonder what my American cousins think about the elections?

I am the resurrection...

I know I've been pretty lax about posting recently but I do have an excuse - nothing interesting has happened!! Actually, that's not really true. Work has been mad the past few weeks which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's great when the day passes so quickly because you are so busy, but I find that after spending 10-12 hours concentrating furiously, when I get home my brain tends to be fried so that there is no hope of any meaningful conversations with Shadi or friends.

We have had a couple of active weekends though...On 14/15 October, Hong Kong held its annual Rockit festival which is, I guess, the HK equivalent of Glastonbury or Reading, without the tents, rowdy audience or the scabby hippies (well, there are some of those but not too many). It was actually great fun and culminated in the Sunday night headline slot by Ian Brown, ex lead singer of the Stone Roses. As people may know, I have a slight obsessive tendency towards the Stone Roses and Ian Brown. Can I just say that it was fantastic. Even the famed dodgy voice was not as bad as it has been in the past. I would have been happy enough for him to stick with his solo stuff, but I have to say it was a powerful and surreal moment when, at the start of his set, the familiar bass riff of "I Wanna Be Adored" sounded out across Victoria Park in Hong Kong. He went on to perform excellent versions of Stone Roses classics like I am the Resurrection (complete with 5 minute guitar solo), Waterfall and Made of Stone. Absolutely superb and afer two days of watching good but not great Hong Kong and PRC bands, IB's stage presence was astounding. Here are some photos:

the first one is me and my friend Mushtaq who came with us to the concert.

The concert was also a sort of closing of the circle - Shaz and I went to see the Stone Roses in Brighton in December 1995 - the first concert we saw together and just more than 10 years later we went to see IB in Hong Kong.

Hipocrisy is the Greatest Luxury

Those of you with fairly long memories might remember the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy in the early 90's and their signature song "television, drug of a nation". I remember going to see them live in the Forum in Kentish Town which was, at that time, one of the most impressive stage shows I had seen. I made my friends listen to the album at length going on about how Michael Franti, the lead singer, was the natural heir to Gil Scott Heron with his politically infused music. Years later, and after having bought a few of the solo albums Michael Franti has made, he is now becoming a relatively serious political activist and artist. He has recently made a film of essentially him going to Iraq, Israel and other places in the Middle East with a guitar. The file is called I know I'm not alone and apparently, it is pretty good - check the link out . I feel a little smug about liking him back in the day and I hope the film is as good as it seems.

Peace.