Elgar the Inquisitor

Incensed by the Vatican's attempt to disparage the myriad of complaints about the flock of hundreds of priests, who have abused and exploited tens of thousands of young people under their spell on all continents for decades, and to reject any responsibility, I came across this depictive image:

The Inquisition stated: "Where there's smoke,  ..."

Current Music: Brigitte Fontaine – La Femme À Barbe

For name's sake

This is MY room. It is a small venue within the Royal Albert Hall that serves decent meals or stages concerts in the style of MTV-Unplugged. The next concert I will attend there is in May by Peggy Sue, a trio of alternative musicians (2 girls and a lad) that I have fancied for a few months now. I went there today to get the ticket, as well as our tickets for the April 3rd concert that benefits orphans in Haiti - all proceeds go towards the SOS Children's Fund. I thought it is a good thing and in the spirit of Easter.

L'écho du bonheur

Paris was lovely again, even though I didn't see much of it. Four days went by far too quickly. Tomorrow Emily will join me here and I will make sure that enough chocolate bunnies, eggs (the ones filled with cordials) and other goodies will be hidden throughout my home.

The displays in Parisian shops were impossible to resist, and the spirit of Passover and Easter led to a little spending spree on perishables but enjoyables... lol

Here are some of the windows we saw (and shops we hit):

P-i-P

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Passover in Paris

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Ironically Saturday is the day I get up earliest, ever since my work shift has been changed to 11AM-9PM as head of the North American desk. So, it was 6:15 this morning when the alarm went off, and to get to St Pancras on time for the glass of bubblies there and the train to Gare du Nord. I'm excited, being invited to share Passover with friends - especially Her - in the City of Lights.

I will not come empty-handed: during a break (and lull in the financial markets) yesterday afternoon I quickly went over to the Chocolate Festival at Southbank Centre Square and bought 2 bags (and I mean shopping bags) full of various choccie delights, tons of truffles, a giant Easter egg from exhibitor Hotel Chocolat and a cake. After work the stuff made it home safely and it is now stored in a cooling box I take along through the cross-border chunnel. Anything to declare? Hahaha, the green door for me!

Judging from the high frequency of text exchanges last night, Emily looks very much forward to a reunion, and the treats. We'll return together late Tuesday as I convinced her that London is the second-best location to spend Easter at. I just have to live up to her expectations...

Current Music: Ysa Ferrer – On Fait L'amour - Radio Edit

Behind the blue door: elgar.fm

I leave often my stereo on, overnight as well as while I'm out. When I go to bed I like the faint sound from downstairs (as I unplug the speakers in the bedroom), which is enough to drown out the noise of the odd car passing occasionally but does not interfere with my sleep. Just as I like to return home, greeted by my favourite tunes. For the curious I share the music through elgar.fm (AKA last.fm):

I'm predominantly into French music, female vocalists, indie, rock and pop, alternative, including:

Zazie, Indochine, Françoise Hardy, Alanis Morissette, Niagara, Patricia Kaas, Björk, Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, Tegan and Sara, Les Rita Mitsouko, Garbage, Belly, Ridan, Feist, Mickey 3D, Mylène Farmer, R.E.M., Zebda, The Cranberries, Alizée, Jane Birkin, Madonna, Nicole Atkins, April March, Natacha Atlas, James, The Strokes, Bat for Lashes, Giant Drag, Zouzou, Eisley, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Dandy Warhols, The White Stripes, Ian Brown, The Pierces, Emily Loizeau, The Raveonettes, Portishead, Asobi Seksu, Metric, The Duke Spirit, Santigold, Gliss, Kasabian, Blur, The Charlatans, Jacques Dutronc, Blondie.
Check out my music channel here

Google, Hoodwink and Hail

Google Outsmart Red China

Google's decision to move from the communist state to Hong Kong is brilliant. For years the fascist authorities have hounded the Internet giant, culminating in deliberate and orchestrated cyber attacks from a military elite college in central China in January and February. Tens of millions of attacks to cripple Google, and to hack into G-mail accounts of known civil rights advocates, topped years of irrational censorship by the communist authorities. Finally, Google had enough and moved to Hong Kong, by-passing the strict enforcement rules in Beijing.

The viciousness and infamy of the Beijing regime has been plainly exposed: they are enraged by Google's move not because of the potential loss of business, but because of Google's new-found stymied ability to provide unrestricted service to its users. Millions of Chinese enjoy since Monday an censorship-free Internet for the first time in their life.

Current Music: JULIETTE & THE LICKS  - - Purgatory Blues

Bravo Google!  

Can't Laff Enuff

LAUGHING OUT LOUD
When I feverishly look forward to the season start of the X Factor I brace myself for watching the most hilarious entertainment television has to offer. That also means to miss the finals each year, because once the show reaches the last 10 finalists the comedy has ceased. Case in point is this vintage gem from the US version of the show: we know that Philly people are generally amusing and delusional (as witnessed in AOL's Anglochat previously), "James", the featured black lad, is a worthy representative of the PA shanty town.



KEY NOTES:
J-ames / P-anelist
J: [serenading] ... let ma pipple go-o-o..."
P: [laughing, chuckling, cracking up, snort, ROFL]
J: [remains silent and stone-faced]
P: [laughing, hiding their faces] ... sorry James... [laughing harder]
P: "Seriously James..." [renewed laughter]
J: "Wan' me ta sin' 'nother one?"
P: [Cowel, simultaneously] "No!"
J: [resumes serenade]
P: "James, this is not your thing, we'd be leading you on... sorry for laughing..."
J: [later to the interviewer] "I will be back next year with newer songs"

Lecture for buffoons

The crude-oiled machinery of pro-Arab newbie politicos under the leadership of the rather unaware MuBarack Muhammad Obama received a free lesson on statehood and souvereign rights issues when visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw this basic truth into the faces of the care-taker regime in Washington:

"Jerusalem is not a settlement but our Capital!"

During the premier's comments on Jerusalem, 8,000 American Israel Public Affairs Committee activists packed into the Washington Convention Center burst into lengthy cheers, underscoring how the U.S.-Israel tensions over Israeli building in the eastern part of the city have yet to subside.

"The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today," he said. "Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital."

Netanyahu also criticized the Palestinian Authority. "What has the Palestinian Authority done for peace?" Netanyahu asked. "They have placed preconditions on peace talks, waged a relentless international campaign to undermine Israel's legitimacy, and promoted the notorious Goldstone Report that falsely accuses Israel of war crimes."

Unless the self-righteous bimbo Hilary Clinton and her White House bosses are willing to hand over Washington to El Salvadorian or Mexican drug bands they should spare us with advice on how to get Jerusalem destroyed by marauding desert rats, bomb planting camel dung gourmets and other Palestinian sub-humans.

US Health Bill

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FOR THE RECORD:

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By and large I agree that there is an urgent need to end the disgraceful limbo when it comes to national health coverage. Current laws have produced countless tragedies among American families that would be unthinkable and unacceptable in any other major industrial nation on earth.

Yet, the bill up for vote in a few moments is a bad one. I'd still support it if Democrats had allowed democratic procedures to debate, amend or even to agree on the bill by the Republican side. The way this bill has been presented by the Obama administraton was profoundly dictatorial and autocratic, prevented crucial debate and entails such substantial flaws that even if it gets passed by Congress legal procedures to reverse the legislation appears compulsory. For that reason I hope that this legislation will not find a majority today.

Slow Awakening

Home, sweet home; we made it through the party at Movimientos, courtesy of Emily's bro Pasqual (like Emily, another trader over at BNP - no, that's not the infamous party of racist thugs, but France's largest bank). I picked up Emily after work (which was 7 in the evening) to unwind at Loungelover's, a very impressive and stylish cocktail bar that also serves delicious Japanese snacks.


Over at Movimientos the fun really started, with more cocktails (tropically inclined) and fabulous music. By midnight we went over to Pasqual's place in Holborn where we finished his birthday celebrations and stayed until nearly 3.

Slow morning, as you can imagine.  I went downstairs to fix an eye opening breakfast, and gosh, did I serve up a winner... LOL   Crepes (thank you Waitrose for the starting material - hint: only use their ultra-thin, huge crepes!), plus a composition of berries. I briefly heated the berries (strawbs & raspberries), added drops of Grand Marnier, quickly blended them and stuffed the hot crepes with the concentrate, mixing-in whipped cream (which I flavoured beforehand with some vanilla). Didn't even have to wake her up, the smell did the trick. Served with coffee, thick froth on top with some cocoa powder, and the smile returned to the still sleepy faces, even at the ungodly time of 10:30AM.

Big plans for the weekend, including shopping this afternoon for clothes for the both of us. Tonight we'll be at Hispaniola, familiar to me but Emily's never heard of it. Can anything go wrong at a venue that serves great seafood and entertains into the wee-hours with Caribbean themed music? I think not.

Current Music: SONS & DAUGHTERS  - - The Nest

Muhammad Obama vs Israel

Obama's Initiative for Mideast Talks Lies in Ruins

Reality Check for the US Administration

When the Israeli Interior Minister announced last weekend - during a visit of US Vice President Joe Biden - that 1,600 long approved new settlements in and around East Jerusalem can proceed, the administration of MuBarack Muhammad Obama back in Washington felt the bizarre need to feign 'outrage and insult.' Mostly, however, the Obama regime should feel humiliated and chastised by the Israeli action, for the Jewish state merely exercised a fundamental right that comes along with statehood: to implement the rule of law, and to grant building permits - what a novice idea for Washington! - on its own territory.

Ever since coming to power, Muhammad the Democrat set out on a course to subdue Israel and force her in line to allow Obama's quest for eternity as the harbinger of a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement to succeed. Such a peace deal should have come with Israel accepting the loss of territory that was recaptured in the 1967 war, which was unleashed unprovoked and simultaneously by five Arab states, and to accept the creation of a Palestinian state side by side.

Like one of his Democratic predecessors (Jimmy Carter), Mr Obama feels closer to the mindset of terrorists. Jimmy Carter had no scruples nor shame to invite terrorist leader Yasser Arafat into the White House to hug and kiss the desert rat who was responsible for the murder of 5 US diplomats, dozens of other Americans and hundreds of Israelis. Today Mr Obama chases the delusion that the Hamas terrorist organisation would abandon the Gaza Strip and subordinate itself to the 'mainstream' Palestinian leadership on the West Bank. Is Israel supposed to accept being sandwiched between two Palestinian states, run by bandits and hoodlums in territorial entities that are unsustainable and could only survive by outside assistance for all times?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves support for his steadfastedness and poise not to allow the creation of 2 Palestinian states that would pose from the onset grave danger to Israel and the wider Mideast region. Hamas is closely linked to the regimes of Iran and Syria, both with their stated goal of the destruction of Israel. If Muhammad Obama wishes to be helpful and instrumental for a normalisation in the Middle East he should strive for a solution within the split Palestinians first. Instead, the pathetic man in the White House decided to alienate the closest ally of the US, relentlessly attempting to infringe Israel's right of self-determination and to exert control over her own territory, for the mere purpose to score points with radical Arabs in the region.

Current Music: PROTOTYPES  - - Danse sur la merde

Singing the Blues: Ciao Chelsea!

Jose Mourinho (Internazionale Milan) stops Chelsea FC

I'm an ardent fan of Chelsea (Stamford Bridge is less than 3 miles away from home), but I'm not stupid enough to support them when they face The Special One. I said so 2 years ago, and I still adhere by it: it shall haunt us forever that the Russian thug who owns the Blues has sacked Jose.

Tonight Chelsea went down in a 1-0 defeat (losing 3-1 aggregate) and were eliminated from the Champions League; rightfully so. Congratulations to Jose Mourinho.

Current Music: THE BEATLES - - Ob-la-di Ob-la-da

Dimanche à Londres

Wheel of Fortuitousness
Picture taken on 12 March 2010
When you live in London you are keenly aware just how little the rest of England matters. The centre of gravity since the Romans have drawn the line between civilisation in the south and the primitive tribal thugs to the north of Hadrian's Wall, London has been the flashpoint of global power, financial clout and the defining force for the arts, fashion and education.

For all those unfortunate creatures who are not subjects of the iconoclast Boris Johnson and have to languish outside the rubicon of civility, my blogsite occasionally serves as reminder just how dismally deprived non-Londoners (NLs) have to grapple with daily life in the absence of culture or class. How do they manage, I wonder? Then again, I don't really; who cares about derelict ASBO collectors, typically restricted to wilt as boors in AOL's Anglochat and who make up the core of the Labour camp?

The week has seven days; nowhere else is that more vividly demonstrated than in London, the city that never sleeps (roll over, New York City!). Whilst the rest of England languishes in a lazy Sunday orgy of idledom, interrupted and shattered by pestering offspring and/or not house-broken pets, London is awash with a multitude of attractions, events and venues for all to relish.

Compare the meerkats.com; simples!

Mon dieu, trop cher?

Living costs in big cities

PARIS is the most expensive city to live in according to the latest survey from Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company to The Economist. The survey assesses the cost of living by comparing housing, food, clothing, transport and utility bills and the like in 132 cities around the world. Tokyo comes second, up from sixth place a year ago. The fall in Russia's currency against the dollar has made Moscow cheaper than it once was. New York City is the reference of all comparisons, and put at 100 in the chart.

The Labour Party effect caused London to tumble along with the depressed British economy and Sterling, finishing 16th on the 2009 list. It ranked on top in 1997, the year Labour seized control of the UK.

Current Music: NATACHA ATLAS  - - Yalla Chant

Paris Dinner - a shot in the dark

DANS LE NOIR ?
Paris:
51 rue Quincampoix
London:
30 Clerkenwell Green EC1R
Barcelona:
10 Paseo Picasso

(coming also to New York City in September)

Friends invited me for a weekend in Paris to celebrate birthday in a distinctly different way this year. The trip on the Eurostar aside - without any problems or delays! - the all-inclusive weekend included 2 nights in great location, 2 fabulous meals and lots of entertainment (and a beautiful cake).

On Friday evening we checked into DANS LE NOIR? in the 4th Arrondissement at 7PM, with a table for our group (consisting variably between five and nine people) reserved until 2AM. And good golly, did time fly.

The peculiarity of DANS LE NOIR? restaurants (to my knowledge they are also in London, Barcelona, Brussels, New York and Berlin) is that the dining area is in complete darkness, and the staff legally blind (not the kitchen staff!). That puts the waiters more on equal footing with the blinded-by-the-darkness patrons, if not even at a more advantageous position. After all, they know the interior of the locale and can negotiate their way around much more confidently and by causing far less collateral damage than any of us.

Image on the left:
Our group of six being served dinner by 2 waitresses.

What helped was that we were a group; bumping into one another or accidental touching during dining did not cause a ruckus or stern looks (or maybe it did, I just couldn't see). I did not know in advance where the dinner was to take place, and even during the (great) cocktails, mainly Jasmine Mojitos and Gin Canellas, it didn't 'dawn' on me that dinner will be in complete darkness.

What an experience it was, however! Your senses play havoc, sounds become louder, smells and taste more subtle yet stronger. The food is ordered by picking the right colour of the menu: white for the chef's surprise (in the end, because of the invisibility of the meal, pretty much everything was a surprise); blue for seafood, green for vegetarian (none in our group chose that one) and red for meat eaters.

At times our evening was totally hilarious. The initial tentativeness gave way to utter amusement and entertainment, as for hours we not only talked about and to each other at the table, but mysterious voices from around joined in or we replied to complete strangers sitting nearby, mistakenly assuming we're chatting with one of "us." As I habitually order seafood in 7 out of 10 cases, I was also served a bottle of white wine. A blessing, because how do you figure out in darkness when the glass is full? As it turned out I dipped a finger into the glass and sensed how far the chilled wine poured into the glass. Others had red wine, at room temperature, and "fingering" did not work all the time, leading to some spills on the table.

We gave up guessing what we actually ate, but revelled over the great taste. The idea to let someone taste from your plate and reciprocate was quickly abandoned: to look for, and to find another plate (without knocking over glasses) and to 'dig around' to lift the other's meal proved from the start an insurmountable obstacles course. I felt sorry later on for the wife of one of my friends, however: her complaint that the portion of her meal had been rather small considering the price was not shared by anyone else. She might read here today the 'innocent' explanation: I had helped myself generously to what I believe was a moussaka dish on her plate... LOL

All in all, it was an incredibly fun evening, with some senses sharpened to an extent one wouldn't think to possess. Laughter and light conversation went on throughout the time we had spent there, and continued into the early morning at another venue in the City of Lights.

Even though there is a DANS LE NOIR? restaurant in London I feel no temptation to try that one (OK, I would, with the One...). British food tastes mysteriously enough already when visible, and to try out something English without first scrutinizing it by visual inspection constitutes an act of too much bravery than I can muster.

Current Music: NAJOUA  BELYZEL  - - Gabriel  [Cliquez sur "Gabriel" pour écouter la chanson]

Le veakenduh Parisienne

Leaving from the St Pancras Champagne Bar (the world's
longest, spanning 96m along
the famed train station) for
Paris this afternoon for a
regenerating weekend.

Salut!

Current Music:  INDOCHINE  - - Trois nuits par semaine (Live version)

DEATH WISH(es)

Wishing someone's death is a pretty inconsequential thing - but one can legitimately hope for someone's ultimate demise; dreams, especially good ones, are free. Wishes don't come true unless you take fate (and sword) into your own hand and, if you want someone expired so badly, you have to take initiative and wade in the footsteps of a Richard Dahmer or George Bundy, or Henry VIII - depending on the scale of your vicious traits.

Having said that, I have no intention to list a few darlings from my own list simply as a late parting shot from the Anglochat zest pool of imbeciles and the socially defunct. This is after all a f...ing political posting ...

So it simply remains hope to awake to an early morning BBC news bulletin announcing the passing of someone I really detest. Who would it be that you want to pass the bucket? Here is my Top-5 of British politicians whose final sign-off I want to be informed about:


#5: Jack Straw (Labour, Sec of State for Justice; hit by lightning in Hyde Park)
#4: Harriet Harman (Labour, Deputy Leader; found hanged underneath Blackfriars Bridge: atone bitch!)
#3: Peter Mandelson (Labour, Sec of Trade; accidental fall into operating iron ore blast furnace)
#2: Alastair Darling (Labour, Chancellor of the Exchequer; flattened by a steamroller after getting stuck on liquid asphalt [airport scene from A Fish Called Wanda?])
#1: Gordon Brown (Labour, occupant of 10 Downing Street; bludgeoned to death with a pooper scooper during Loch Lomond Highland Games on 17 July, 2010)

Current Music: SKUNK ANANSIE  - - Yes It's Fucking Political

Michael Foot +

Conservatives are a compassionate lot, and so I would like to join cheerfully the Labour Party's sadness over the death of their former leader Michael Foot.

Foot's greatest service to Britain was to lead Labour into their biggest ever defeat against the only woman ever running for the premiership. But not only that, the indoctrinated Bolshevik also made sure that the Tories won the next three consecutive elections as well. So, here's to you, Michael, and may Gordon Brown repeat history!

At the Barbican

Lorin Maazel, conducting the
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra


It was a good concert, Anton Bruckner's Symphony #3 and Strawinsky's The Rite of Spring. 
Now I need my bed... LOL
G'd nite!

Sarah Pale-ing

Post-Reaganomics Republicans: Pale, Paler, Palin

One of the drawbacks of working in the political arena is that you have to read regularly the hard-cover scribbling of 'people with vision' - even when it's far short of 20/20 - or of opinion leaders that are notoriously quoted by underlings on the corridors of political power all over the world. While in no danger of being quoted - simply for the lack of any quotable and memorable passages within the pages of Sarah Palin's awkward book - the former Alaska governor is even more strangely ushered in by US conservatives as something of a messiah of true Reaganomics, a term too loosely used anyway: as if former President Ronald Reagan was a champion of authentic supply-side neoconservativism.

So, while on the train ride to and fro the latest Tory Party conference last weekend, I battled my way through Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, and began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this orgy of redundancy. Ms Palin’s book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic and entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favourite to win the Republican party nomination in 2012?

And then I realised – the rot set in with Ronald Reagan. It might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as “Reaganism” are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values. Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government’s books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas – and modern American conservatism is still suffering of the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot-savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D’Souza’s admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: “Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy.” Mr D’Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals – even conservative intellectuals – disdained Reagan. A conservative vanguard of supreme intellect was the late William F Buckley - one of my true mentors I had the privilege to know. He scorned Reagan's tendency to spend cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colours, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr D’Souza concludes, the “dummy” was right and the pointy-heads were wrong. I can see the attraction of putting colours into drab Alaskan days for Sarah Palin, and the success of avoiding unnecessary stress on her brain.

Party Leader's Message

"We are a modern and radical party"

"Four years ago, when the Conservative Party elected me as Leader, we made a choice about the way our Party should be. We made a choice to be modern and radical - not to play it safe or retreat into the old comfort zone. Today, the Conservative Party is modern and radical - and that's the way it's going to stay.

Britain is crying out for a modern and radical alternative to this failed Labour Government. Under Gordon Brown, this country is going in the wrong direction and we need big changes to turn things around. We have the biggest budget deficit in our peacetime history. We've got massive social problems. And we've got a political system that's been dragged through the dirt. We cannot solve these problems unless we are bold and radical."



Earlier last week, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne delivered an address to CASS Business School to outline the Conservative Party's plan (and first budget) to move Britain's economy out of the dollrums of deep recession and out-of-control national debt and to make Britain competitve and attractive for foreign investments once again.