A Complete Explanation Of Everything

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Radio Friendly Unit Shifter: "In Utero" vs "The Bends"

So I was on Phantom FM the other night. The newly relaunched old pirate station in Dublin that has now gone fully legitimate.

And I was talking about music.

Unfortunately, it wasn't my show and rather a bizarre little competition, that pitted "Managers" of albums versus one another in a sort of variant on Fantasy Football. That I was involved, twas merely the happenstance of an hour or twos drunken surfing on the Monday night.

The point was you were to choose what was, in your opinion, the "BEST" record of all time... A load of old horseshit I know, there is no "BEST", or "GREATEST", as Eric Clapton famously called out to a heckler in a London audience once. And I did tailor my choice thus accordingly, to kinda fit with the Alternative Middle of the Road audience that Phantom is now pitching for moreso than usual. But I didn't pick the fucking Bends!

Nah, I picked: "In Utero", which is well... Here was my pitch:

"From the opening dischord of: 'Serve the Servants', it was clear that: 'Teenage Angst had paid off well...'

'In Utero' was that pay-off. A disconsolate blast of existentialist post rock that scared the living daylights out of the establishment but reflected the dark days of 1993...

Produced by Steve Albini against all advice, this record showcased Nirvana's music and Kurt's writing at it's edgiest and grittiest... Rumoured to be unlistenable, there is no shadow of doubt that this album was the pinnacle of Nirvana's work, from the classic intro to 'Heart Shaped Box', to the soulful laments of tracks like 'All Apologies' and 'Pennyroyal Tea'...

This masterpiece probably cost Cobain the remainder of his sanity, and the world, a very talented artist. But it continues to remind us, in the echoing distortion of 'Radio Friendly Unit Shifter', that music is meant to be about expression, communication and pushing boundaries..."


Well, I said some more. But that was all they aired! The great irony or rather reminder of how incestuous the scene in Dublin is, I actually knew the competitor I was up against, a good friend of a friend.

Anyway, predictably, "The Bends" won, it was a vote-in thing and I'm not one for marshalling a campaign of any sort, plus I was kinda peeved that they didn't play the entirety of "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter", which was the only reason I bloody entered.

Still, I related the story to the presenter of the show the next day via email and I was treated on my drive home to the Nirvana track of my choice and we even got, Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution" to boot.

Maybe there's some hope that the good will out and crass commercialism won't suck Phantom under just yet.

Certainly if it's that easy that even I can talk rubbish on it!
posted by Christophe at 30.11.06 0 comments

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Deep inside the borderline...

Tool: 22/11/06 @ The Point, Dublin

It was an effort to get up and get going last Wednesday evening. The previous weekend's trip taking it's toll probably. The rain she was also pissing down, so by the time I had located the temporary car park for The Point on the quays (a good 10 min walk away) and taken my seat, I was moist and slightly disgruntled. Plus, I was driving, so no alcohol.

There were however compensations. First off, the seat! Somehow, I had lucked out with the front row of the balcony and even better, the first seat of the front row. A nigh on perfect position to enjoy a night of thinking man's metal from California's finest purveyors of the genre.

Then, orange hoodie and all, Maynard Keenan took the stage and launching straight into "Stinkfist", we were off. It was clear early on, the sort of a groove Tool are on right now. Going straight for the back catalogue and arguably their most well known and popular song, well it's the sort of move that alot of other contemporaries would eschew. Purely on the basis that well, it's a bit obvious. It's that kind of inverse snobbery that sort of becomes de facto, a staple of the music industry alongside the three encore ridiculousness.

But this was not the case of a simple early concession to a potentially hostile crowd, this was more of a salute to a night where a band full of confidence and on a high... I first heard the record they are touring, 10000 Days, as I was speeding across the Nevada desert... The lead track, "Vicarious", with it's cold refrain...

"I need to watch things die,
From a good safe distance..."


An obvious commentary on both TV culture, a constant theme of Maynard Keenan's lyricisms but also a pointed critique of the US in Iraq... The strength of the new material was born out by this performance, up alongside the back catalogue, the new songs are merely a function of the band's energies fused as one cohesive whole.

This was verily one of the few occasions that I've been impressed by the sound in the Point and all of the instrumentation, including Keenan's voice (which I'd personally launch up there alongside Cornell as one of the best rock vocalists of all time) were all suitably showcased. There was some laser light show, nothing too ostentatious, just perfect for the atmospherics really.

Tool's sound would probably come's across as aggressive to the mainstream and they stereotype the kids and the fans accordingly. This narrow-minded caricature resulted probably in the snaking queue for the security search that was endured in the monsoon rain prior to the gig, that doesn't happen at other gigs.

I'm sorry that we need to go out and wear black and listen to loud music, that is artful that expresses emotion and the human condition, that tries to reach deeper and investigate why the fuck we're here, sometimes.

The music of Tool is that of a purely cathartic experience and the liveshow in the Point delivered on every level.

"It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive."
posted by Christophe at 23.11.06 0 comments

Monday, November 20, 2006

Cast a cold eye...

What a weekend.

Me old mucker, James (from Nationstates & see awesomelies in the links section), came over from London in the spirit of international geekery and we took a quick driving tour around the wilds of the west of the country.

First off, we stopped and visited Mark up in Drogheda, we visited a very scary pub, particularly scary on the basis that it was inhabited almost exclusively by Drogheda United fans. Twas an arctic night but Shels beating Bohemians to clinch the title brought some warmth, a very hospitable occasion all in all with much thanks to Aimee and Mark!

Setting off bright and early on the Saturday, we tracked across the country and made the west coast and Sligo in about four hours and would have caught the sunset if there had been one. It was a good old time in Yeat's country at Rosses Point. A quiet evening in with the locals was on the cards. Copious pints later, I got the bright idea of a swift Jameson before bed and I think that was why I was in fairly decent form on the Sunday. A quick tour around Drumcliff and some backarse country roads was made and then we sprinted back to Dublin.

120 km/h winds made the prospect of jaunting around the capital less than appealing, so a quiet night in with guitars and the old Wilco dvd and Big Dave's express liquor service was the solution.

So, 300 miles, a shed load of pints, wet and windy.

An authentic Irish experience.

"Horseman, pass by!"

posted by Christophe at 20.11.06 0 comments

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

An unsolicited testimonial

- A Top International Change Management Author
"Because of his background, history, IQ and skills, Christophe does a brilliant job"

From today's round of emails! :P

Not that a word of it is true mind.

What I've done today thus far, is fill out a survey from my old Masters in International Relations (Political Science) and sent a letter of protest to the President of Sri Lanka in relation to the recent murder of a Tamil MP.

Maybe that's doing a brilliant job!

In other news, thepropertypin continues to grow at an exponential rate, it's gone supernova! We've had a 300% increase in posts just this last week and got over ninety members now, the bubble's momentum is unrelenting!
posted by Christophe at 14.11.06 0 comments

Monday, November 6, 2006

The Hanging Judge

US president George Bush hailed the trial as "a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law" and "a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government".

Unsurprising, I guess.

This is where the revolutionary and the liberal meet, I can't really support the death penalty sentence handed down to Saddam. There is no doubt that what he did for generations, was unspeakable and caused the most outrageous human suffering. There is no doubt that he was an enemy of ordinary people (Iraqi/Iranian/Kurdish alike) and that was true in any of his various guises, stooge for the Americans and then latterly, the protector of sovereign Iraq against the imperialist onslaught.

So, yeah he deserves to hurt but putting a guy to death like this, just seems cheap and life imprisonment would be far more exacting a punishment I'm sure.

I don't think there's a moral impediment that bothers me (morality is whatever society will accept), it's more that this is a show trial and no matter the indignation George II might bluster, this verdict was cynically timed to give the Republinazis a dig out in the elections ongoing. He's going to be hung, a former pawn of Imperialism, one who became expendable, in order to sate the desire for a better world that the masses constantly express without focus.

An aged Iraqi hanging on the end of the rope ain't going to make the world a better place.

This man was but an agent of the tyrant.
posted by Christophe at 6.11.06 0 comments

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

A Nightmare On Your Street

I recently volunteered to lead off a discussion on the Irish Property Bubble / Boom / Crisis. What's behind it and where it will it lead...

That was last night, given the evening in question (Halloween), I couldn't resist titling it: "A Nightmare On Your Street"

And that's true in oh so many ways.

All roads lead to the home, as my friend: "Open Window", over on thepropertypin said once. It's a universal issue, everybody needs accommodation of some kind or other and though all stories will vary and be unique and personal and all that wonderfull stuff, there are commonalities.

Right now of course, there's a huge disconnect in the Irish market, where property values have been increasing at the rate of €30,000 (the average working wage) per annum since 1996. Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development pointed out we'd had 55 straight quarters of property value growth in this country (make that 57 or so now) and that this was the longest boom it had ever recorded.

Prices have now topped out and land in Dublin is as or even more expensive as New York or premium sites in London, etc.

What facilitated this?

Well, some people say the Celtic Tiger economy and all that jazz but here's the real deal.

German pensioners.

And their pension funds.

When Ireland became part of the common market, alot of German pension fund cash was sloshing around with all good investment opportunities on the continent to their mind, looking unappetising, so they lent it out.

To us.

Now, that tragically combined with ten years of the lowest interest rates ever seen in this economy.

The driver?

Tragically, Europe again.

With high levels of unemployment and inflation in both Germany and France, the European Central Bank stepped in and decided to give the old European Motor Economy a leg up. Now, that's worked out fine for the big boys, now by the same logic, the ECB is stepping in with rates increases in order to keep expansion of the German and French economies on an even keel, what has that meant in Ireland these past ten years?

It's meant record amounts of cash borrowed (we are the mostly highly indebted nation in terms of personal credit to GDP according to Fitch, leading credit risk analysts) at historically low interest rates, where to quote 80s pop group "Yazz", the only way is up.

Now, if I might quote the foppish one, David McWilliams, as he said borrowing money when interest rates are low is fool's gold. Because of the bubble effect, increasingly people have been over extending and embracing mortgage fraud to try and buy overpriced and increasingly bad value houses on the premise that property values only ever go one way.

Now, to buy on the prospect that your asset always increases (Japanese property values have not recovered to their 1988 value in this year of 2006) is crazy enough, but to buy on the belief that interest rates are always going to stay as low as 2-2.5% is enough to get you committed. You'd want to be smoking some good shit.

And that brings us to our friends, speculate to accumulate bastards, who decided to ride the wave and couldn't resist and ended up buying 2,3,4,10, etc., houses, interest only. No money down. There were figures released a while back, that showed that four out of every ten new mortgages (so that doesn't include the parents leveraging the existing value in their homes to ramp the bubble up further) is interest only. Couple that with yesterday's relevation that in Ireland, existing residential mortgage debt has doubled (yes, doubled) in the last three years (yes, three years only!) to a whopping (hold on to yer hats) €117 billion.

According to the last census, there's a quarter of a million vacant homes in Ireland right now. Half (conservative estimate) are reckoned to be holiday homes and the remaining pure speculation. These buggers couldn't even be bothered renting and when you consider that the price to earnings ratio has jumped from 13x about ten years ago to somewhere around 40x (and 100x in some parts of Dublin) then you can see their point.

Talk about your over-exposure. And now that house prices are starting to stagnate, those speculate to accumulate bastards are about to get their comeuppance.

And they can all go and meet my new friend, say hello to Casey!

So, where does all this leave the poor tragic first time buyer you might ask?

Typical profile according to a TSB survey from last year, 30 years old, in receipt of a gift of €15,000 from their parents and oh yeah, in partnership with their spouse / partner 65% of the time buying a shitty semi detached gaff for around €250,000.

Neverminding the fact, that they've bought on the edge of the commuter belt and are staring a three hour commute (if lucky) back and forth to work, all this exacerbated by criminal policies over decades by the government in relation to regional policy, industrial development, public transport and infrastructure planning???

Up the shitter, that's where...

So when those for sales signs start going up and we start getting a real and clear indication of the likely over valuation of Irish property (OECD says 20%, Central Bank has said anything up to 60%), we're going to be facing into people with mortgages based on over-valued assets, at interest rates they can't possibly afford with real wages stagnation and with those liabilities carrying on well into their late 60s and 70s in some cases. Thank you very much, dynamic lending institutions.

Yeah, the Fitch lads say, we're in for some "macro prudential stress"... Come on in, the "macro prudential stress" is lovely, when is a price correction, "moderation"???

I'll tell ya one thing, "structural adjustment" is going to be painful for the average joe.

And for all those over-exposed bastards who fed this whole bubble, I say feck ye and good luck.

The frenzy on the way up will only be matched by the frenzy on the way down.

You can't kid the market.

For every buyer there must be a seller.

And for every buyer who thinks he just got a bargain, there's a seller saying thank feck, I just walked away from that car crash.

Coming in 2007, for sale signs up and down the land.

They were posting keys back through letterboxs in the UK in the eighties.

Coming soon, A Nightmare On Your Street.
posted by Christophe at 1.11.06 0 comments