Monday, December 30, 2019

The World Is Fucked So Here's 9 Kirsty MacColl Songs

'We should just take our chances while we've got nothing to lose'
Jesus Christ this world is fucked. 2019 was a basket case and 2020 will be the worst year til 2021, no contest. So fuck it, here are 9 songs by Kirsty MacColl.

The first time I came across English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, who was almost certainly killed by a multi-millionaire supermarket chain owner in 2000, was on "Fairytale of New York". On that iconic Pogues song, she plays the down-and-out female character, singing a duet with the ever-drunk Shane MacGowan.

On that track, she's full of charisma and fire. But if you stop there, with MacColl's work on someone else's song, you're missing out.

Because Kirsty MacColl, daughter of communist folk singer Ewan MacColl of "Dirty Old Town" and "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" fame, is something else. Her songs in her too-short career are filled with wit, anger and humanity. (You can watch a doco about her life and songs).

Genuinely original, her songs span pop, rock, country and Latin music. She can be tender, but most of all she knows when to shove the knife in and twist. A Kirsty MacColl song has zero tolerance for cunts.

Her death aged 41 in 2000 was not just tragic, it was fucking symbolic. It sums up this shithole of a world.

WHen she died, MacColl was on holiday in Mexico, having just visited Cuba again.

(A supporter of besieged Cuba and its culture, MacColl raised funds to break the fucked-up US blockade on the island. When she was killed, a charity was launched inspired by her work -- Music Funds for Cuba -- to support Cuban artists.)

MacColl was diving in a designated diving area with her two sons when a speedboat owned by Guillermo González Nova, multimillionaire president of the Comercial Mexicana supermarket chain, illegally sped through. It was heading straight for her 15-year-old son Jamie before MacColl managed to push him out of its path, only to hit by the boat herself.

She died instantly.

Despite Gonzalez Nova being on his boat, one of his employees claimed to have been driving (he later said he'd been paid to take the blame). A Mexican court gave him a fine for killing MacColl of US$90.

That's the world. The rich kill you and get the hired help to pay a minor fee.

Here is a a playlist of 9 songs, mostly hers with two covers thrown in. Any seeming connection to the current events in Britain or elsewhere is purely coincidental.

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There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis
But he's a liar and I'm not sure about you
Lucky the world has changed and, since MacColl's death in 2000, no lying man of any note has risen to any sort of prominence. There is also a cool alternate country version of this track from her debut album.


They smile and say cheese
They're so eager to please
But they'll never remember your name
The names and the places all change
I love this song, with its country stylings. It is savage against men being cunts, but still shot through with hope, tenderness and a large dash of self-deprecation.


The mercury is rising and it's not all that surprising
In the land of milk and honey where you make big money
And it always keeps the rain off and it always keeps you dry
But back home the people hate you and you never did know why
I don't know how, but Kirsty MacColl appears to have written a song about Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison literally 30 years ago!


I thought of you when they closed down the school
And the hospital too
Did they think that you were better?
They were wrong
You had so many friends
They all left you in the end
'cause they couldn't stand the patter
I don't know how, but Kirsty MacColl appears to have written a song about recently re-elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson literally 30 years ago!


It is not in my nature to ever pick the winning team
Sometimes I think I'm happy then I remember it's a dream
Now it isn't in my nature to ever pick a winner
I always pick a bastard who would have me for his dinner
A true story about a bastard of a man/ruling class.


Then I met an Englishman
Oh, he said
Won't you walk up and down my spine
It makes me feel strangely alive
I said: In these shoes?
I doubt you'd survive
I said: Honey, let's do it
I must admit I can think of an Englishman I'd like to see killed in such a fashion. Fuck it, I can think of a few million of the Tory voting pricks.

I don’t want to change the world
I’m not looking for a new England
That's probably just as well Kirsty, after events in that fucking shithole this year.

You just haven't earned it yet, baby
You must suffer and cry for a longer time
Welcome to 2020... We are yet to earn deep-going radical change to create a humane, sustainable world. Yet.


Why should it matter to us if they don't approve
We should just take our chances while we've got nothing to lose
Baby
There's no need for living in the past
Now I found good loving gonna make it last
I tell the others don't bother me
Cause when they look at you they don't see what I see
No I don't listen to their wasted lines
Got my eyes wide open and I see the signs
But they don't know about us
And they've never heard of love
Look I'll admit it. This song is how I feel about Jeremy Corbyn. But I get it, he lost and he, as an individual, is stepping down as leader of Those Who Fucking Want There To Be a Fucking Future (English Division).

But the ideas -- the policies and the Manifesto developed since he unexpectedly and Quixotically became British Labour Party leader remain... so I guess what I am saying is this is how I feel about Corbynism and the mass movement around these ideas.

So yeah. We should just take our chances while we've got nothing to lose.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

7 Things We All Love About An Aussie Summer (Apocalypse Version)


The Aussie summer is pretty special. It's one of the great things about this land we are so lucky to live in and yet somehow have caused horrific destruction to in just over two centuries of colonial setter rule, undoing tens of thousands of years of carefully developed environmental management by the continent's original inhabitants. How good is an Aussie summer? Here are 7 things we all love when the sun comes out, presumably as we can't really see it these days in several major citites. Number 5 is our fave!

1) Coughing


Once, you'd only get a nasty chesty cough you can't shake in the winter months. Now, thanks to the monster fires in multiple states that are covering major metropolitan areas with dangerous smoke, we can cough uncontrollably all year round!


2) Coughing with relatives


Christmas is a time to bring families together! Well, assuming they don't need to drive on any of the major roads heading into the nation's largest city in the most populous state that are shut down due to out-of-control fires that can't be put out and just grow ever-more destructive. Also assuming they didn't book a flight with Jetstar. 

But if your extended family can make it to the same place at the same time, you can all enjoy staying indoors for health reason, and to avoid an unprecedented heat wave, and you can discuss how sore your throats are from the trip from the driveway to the front door.

3) Existential dread


As we can no longer pretend we aren't in the grip of a constantly worsening ecoholocaust fatally undermining the capacity of the planet to sustain human civilisation, a major trend this summer is "being consumed by existential dread". What does the future hold? Who knows but it looks pretty bleak! Luckily you are on holidays so you probably don't need to sleep any way.

4) Attend climate emergency demonstrations


One of the great things about summer is the chance to go out and socialise. Why not attend a climate emergency demonstration and meet a whole bunch of like-minded people also ignoring health warnings to stay indoors? Brave extreme heat as you march (and cough!) together to demand some fucking measures to tackle climate change, water theft and severe land mismanagement. 

As an added bonus you can also see cops threaten violence against children in defence of a government of fucking criminals who should be tried in the Hague for crimes against humanity.

5) The beach!!!


Who doesn't love the beach? This is one of the iconic "Aussie summer" joys, and this year it comes with a 2019/20 twist! Ash from the unprecedented mega-fires that cannot be put out until major rain (see below) is washing up on NSW beaches, turning the water black! We all love a new twist on a classic, and swimming in black water will remind of when you were a kid and you'd add food colouring to a bubble bath! Only this ash is quite toxic and will probably also get into NSW's already depleted drinking water supplies.

6) Try to remember what rain was like


So it's been a super-hard year at work and you're finally on break, but you can't leave your home due to heat and smoke, or possibly a raging bushfire just round the corner. Don't fret! There is plenty of awesome things you can do in your hopefully airconditioned prison cell of a house. For one, try remembering what rain was like. What did it look like? What did it feel like? What did it smell like? This is a great mind game that will test the powers of your memory to their fullest!

For extra points, see how long you can go without panicking about the fact that even when these fires eventually stop, if they ever do, the drought has largely emptied water supplies and there are severe shortages in many places.

7) Flee for your life


You've worked hard your whole life and you've bought a wonderful "tree change" property that you just love in which to enjoy your well-deserved retirement. Only now it is on fire and you are fleeing desperately to safety as a life's worth of memories goes up in smoke and there is nothing the exhausted, volunteer firies risking their lives can do to save it. 

Don't look back! Seriously, don't, just keep driving till you reach relative safety. Fuck.That was exhilirating wasn't it? No one said the Apocalypse would be boring!

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So there you have it, these are just some of the awesome activities on offer to Aussies this summer! For an added bonus, why not try overthrowing not just this government but the entire degenerated capitalist system that has no solution but burning ever more fossil fuels, despite the major fossil fuel giants knowing deceades ago that this would happen! Then re-organise society along eco-socialist lines, combining social justice with ecological regeneration and a building a sustainable economy. No doubt, if you are like most Aussies, you'll have heaps of things on, but see if you can fit it in. Please! I'm begging you.


'The streets are screamig help me...'