Young man and the sea

Petone foreshore, 28 August 2022

 

Adir adirim, baruch

Thursday music corner: Balkan Beat Box are a three-man group from Israel who play electronic gypsy-punk music with Mediterranean, Balkan and Middle Eastern influences. Founded in 2003, the group has released five studio albums from their self-titled debut in 2005 to 2016's Shout It Out, plus one remix album. According to their website biography:

Balkan Beat Box coalesced in the mid 2000s around the core trio of saxophonist Ori Kaplan, percussionist Tamir Muskat, and singer Tomer Yosef. Each of the three musicians in BBB is a visionary with a distinct perspective essential to the BBB vibe. Together in BBB, the trio, plus an extended family of trusted collaborators, have issued five vibrantly varied albums. Their work has been sampled by Jason Derulo, rapper Mac Miller (produced by Diplo), collaborated with Stargate and Fifth Harmony, and their music most recently appeared in FIFA 17 and in the Andy Samberg movie Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.

The devilishly catchy Hebrew spiritual Adir Adirim features singer Victoria Hanna, and appeared on Balkan Beat Box's debut album alongside the similarly dancefloor-filling brass-laden single Bulgarian Chicks. 

Balkan Beat Box - Adir Adirim (2005)

All you gotta do is be around like this to please me

Thursday music corner: Christine McVie, born under the name Christine Perfect in Lancashire in 1943, has been a core member of Fleetwood Mac for most of its existence, joining the band in 1970 after her marriage to Mac member John McVie. The marriage lasted until 1976 but McVie stayed with the band much longer, choosing to retire in 1998 after nearly three decades of hit-writing. She rejoined the band in 2014. The many hits McVie wrote for Fleetwood Mac include Songbird, Say You Love Me, Don't Stop, You Make Loving Fun and Everywhere, and she co-wrote Hold Me, Little Lies and As Long As You Follow. 

McVie wrote the Glyn Johns-produced single Slow Down for the soundtrack of the 1985 Kevin Costner road cycling movie American Flyers, which was not a box-office success. Her song was not used for the soundtrack, and wasn't released until it appeared on McVie's 2022 solo compilation album, Songbird. In a June 2022 Rolling Stone interview for the album's release, the now-79-year-old McVie expressed doubts that the classic Mac lineup would ever tour again:

 “I don’t feel physically up for it,” she says. “I’m in quite bad health. I’ve got a chronic back problem which debilitates me. I stand up to play the piano, so I don’t know if I could actually physically do it. What’s that saying? The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Christine McVie - Slow Down (1985)    

Traveller RPG: Spinward Marches naval shipyards, 1105

Source: Travellermap.com

After a recent campaign of Mongoose's edition of Traveller with friends, I've gotten back into reading my collection of vintage Games Designers' Workshop Traveller RPG books from the early 1980s, and messing about with Traveller Map online. Having greatly enjoyed The Spinward Marches Campaign book from 1985, which covers the Fifth Frontier War between the Zhodani and the Third Imperium, I've been doing some research within the context of the vessels explored in Supplement 9: Fighting Ships (1981). 

The great majority of the naval warships detailed in Fighting Ships are Tech Level 15 vessels - TL-F in Traveller's hexadecimal system - with the odd exception like the Azhanti High Lightning-class 60,000-ton Frontier Cruiser and the Gazelle-class 300-ton Close Escort (both TL-14). This means in practice there are limited numbers of A-class starport shipyards in the Marches in which the Imperial Navy can construct its prime fighting forces. 

In examining ship building potential in the Third Imperium in the year 1105, there are four types of A-class shipyards in the Marches - A-class being the only ones capable of building jump-capable starships. Planets are presented with their Spinward Marches hex reference and name, with high-population worlds over one billion population denoted by their names being rendered in capitals.

They are presented here in descending order of importance to the Imperial Navy:

Priority 1: High-tech, high-population producers

3214 MORA TL-F population 10 billion

3235 TRIN TL-F population 10 billion

2716 RHYLANOR TL-F population 8.3 billion

2036 GLISTEN TL-F population 8 billion

These shipyards produce the vast majority of the front-line fighting force of the Imperial Navy in the Marches, from 1000-ton Destroyer Escorts like the Chrysanthemum and Fer-de-Lance classes, to the largest fleet carriers and dreadnoughts with displacements over 100 kilotons. The worlds they are situated upon all feature both Imperial Navy and Scout Service bases, and are highly defended both by interstellar naval forces, plentiful system defence boats (SDBs) and fixed defensive installations. They are the only shipyards in the Marches capable of producing the fastest Jump-6 vessels like the 400-ton FF Fleet Couriers that are the backbone of naval communications and liaison. 

Priority 2: Second-tier high-tech shipyards 

3029 PALIQUE TL-E population 3 billion

1826 Tenalphi TL-E population 30 million

2327 STROUDEN TL-D population 9 billion

2124 LUNION TL-D population 8 billion

1705 EFATE TL-D population 4 billion

1904 Boughene TL-D population 100k

If a Gazelle is encountered in the Marches, it was probably built at the huge shipyards on Palique/Mora, which also construct a range of larger second-tier vessels for reserve fleets and support vessels. In a pinch they can construct Jump-4 craft, but the technological compromises required when compared with TL-F vessels means that the resulting ships can seldom stand in the line of battle. Trusted client states outside the Imperium might also win contracts from the Palique yards if they pay a sufficient price. The yards at Strouden/Lunion, Lunion/Lunion and Efate/Regina are also adept at producing vessels that don't require jump-drive technology, like asteroid monitors, battle riders and SDBs large and small.  

Priority 3: Third-tier mid-tech shipyards

1106 JEWELL TL-C population 6 billion

1910 Regina TL-C population 900 million

3025 FORNICE TL-C population 20 billion

0534 Karin TL-C population 40 million

0732 Iderati TL-C population 20 million

2334 Ffudn TL-C population 900 million

2336 Bendor TL-C population 8 million

TL-C worlds can only construct ships with up to Jump-3 drives, so are mostly unable to construct front-line naval vessels that can keep up with the Imperial Navy's Jump-4 fleets. These shipyards produce short-range starships such as bulk freighters, tankers, fleet tenders, maintenance vessels and troop transports that aren't required to keep up with fleet maneuvers. They also devote plenty of shipyard space to routine vessel maintenance and upkeep for active and reserve fleets. 

Priority 4: Low-tech shipyards

1204 Mongo, 1903 Pixie, 2202 Kinorb, 2509 Paya, 3110 Aramis, 1116 Frenzie, 1119 VILIS, 1719 Lanth, 2613 Fulacin, 2712 Risek, 2715 POROZLO, 2814 Jae Tellona, 2912 Henoz, 3212 Margesi, 1824 Ababicci, 2621 Fosey, 2728 Duale, 2927 Maitz, 1731 Grote, 1934 Weiss, 2536 Squanine, 2537 Dobham, 2733 Edenelt, 2936 Hammermium, 3039 Youghal.

These worlds either have low tech levels, or in the case of places like Pixie and Fulacin (TL-D) and Margesi (TL-C), have such tiny populations that there is an insufficient workforce to produce starships locally. 

Film festival roundup 2022

Navalny (dir. Daniel Roher, US, 2022)

A compelling slice of high-energy documentary journalism, with lashes of espionage and resistance against the authoritarian Moscow regime, replete with jaw-dropping evidence of state-sponsored attempted murder. The film makes no attempt to explain Alexei Navalny's backstory, and little attempt to unpick his motivations - rather, the filmmakers are unashamedly along for the ride as he wages his quixotic campaign of rebellion against the Kremlin, famously exposing his would-be murderers, and heroically (and/or self-destructively) plunging back into the viper's nest by flying back to certain arrest in Moscow in January 2021.

Ali & Ava (dir. Clio Barnard, UK, 2021)

A pleasing drama of middle-aged romance in working-class Yorkshire between hyperactive, kindly Ali, who's hiding the secret of the breakdown of his marriage from everyone including his in-laws, and stalwart mum Ava, whose children are everything to her, but has been unable to put herself first since the death of her abusive ex. A solid mix of believable performances from the supporting cast and a very watchable turn from the two leads help Clio Barnard's fairly conventional material remain memorable.

Godland (dir. Hlynur Pálmason, Iceland, 2022)

An Icelandic odyssey in which a 19th-century Danish priest treks across the blasted wilderness, enduring Fitzcarraldo-like hardships to build a new church in a remote settlement, where he wins the attention of the local farmer's beautiful daughter - but all is not as it seems. The outsider learns harsh lessons of the Icelandic way of life and how men take the law into their own hands in a land where crime and retribution live on in the spirit of Norse vendettas. The film's visual appeal is considerable, with tremendous cinematography, and its premise - based on seven real wet-plate photographs discovered from the era - is intriguing. My only minor niggle is the use of Academy ratio throughout, when the Icelandic scenery cries out for widescreen treatment.

Exposing Muybridge (dir. Marc Shaffer, US, 2021)

An effective photography doco on the pioneer of early motion photography, Eadweard Muybridge, whose colourful life and photographic innovations in the service of millionaire Leland Stanford revolutionised 19th-century understanding of animal and human motion, and laid the groundwork for the cinematic revolution after 1895. The traditional talking heads are much enlivened by the presence of actor Gary Oldman, who is quite a Muybridge expert and lends a pleasing enthusiasm to the story of this strange, sometimes deceptive, fellow.

Corsage (dir. Marie Kreutzer, Austria, 2022)

The much-filmed life of the glamorous, dangerously wasp-waisted Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, is depicted with engaging skill by Luxembourger actor Vicky Krieps, in the Empress' middle-aged years of increasing alienation from her husband, the Emperor Franz Josef. Writer-director Marie Kreuzter prefers to tell a stylised version of the famous 'Sisi' tale, highlighting the notorious tight-stayed corsetry Elisabeth used to maintain her impossibly thin figure, but adding intentionally anachronistic flourishes such as 20th century music played on 19th century instruments, an appearance by a movie-camera years before their invention, and, most jarringly, in the use of a 21st-century ferry for the film's admittedly impressively staged finale. Rather than acting as subtle treats as in Sofia Coppola's films, these intentional breaks in authenticity - a defiant middle-finger flip to the Viennese court here; a modern tractor left in a rural scene there - distract from the otherwise impressive period detail and the intriguing tale at hand.

Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund, Sweden, 2022)

Ruben Östlund's Palme-d'Or-winning film Triangle of Sadness brings a wicked satirical skewering to its vacuous, uber-moneyed subjects but is anything but subtle. Crass excesses such as the copious vomiting sequences second only to those of Monty Python's Mr Creosote will divide audiences, and Östlund's sledgehammer scorn for the film's subjects make this an almost unremittingly bleak perspective on the supposed irredeemable one-percenters. Throw in plenty of raucous physical comedy, sharply pointed satirical commentary on the class divide, an engaging Woody Harrelson cameo, and the hypocrisies of the gig economy, and you've got a mostly entertaining amalgam of slapstick, didacticism and the commodification of human existence. Whether it amounts to a wholly enjoyable experience - at 150 minutes, it's certainly overlong - depends on personal taste. Perhaps the film's blunt finger-wagging takes some of the shine off, particularly in comparison with the wittier, precision-honed Parasite by Bong Joon-ho.

Movies: Film festival roundup 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 part 1 / part 2, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009

Jackson St, Petone

 

Hard hands, get your soul together

Thursday music corner: New York-born Latin musician Ray Barretto (1929-2006) had his first hit, El Watusi, in 1962 and was a stalwart touring artist until his death. A variety of names for the genre of music he help popularise include salsa, boogaloo and pachanga, all influenced by his Puerto Rican heritage. Barretto was primarily a solo artist, but was also a long-term member of the Fania All-Stars until 1990, when he formed his own New World Spirit jazz ensemble. His many collaborations with fellow artists include playing congas for the Bee Gees on their 1975 album Main Course (which featured the smash single Jive Talkin'), and playing percussion on George Benson's 1970 album The Other Side of Abbey Road.

Hard Hands is the title and opening track of Barretto's 1968 album Hard Hands, his second album released on the Fania label. Prior to joining Fania he had released two albums on the Riverside label, five albums on Tico, and five further albums on United Artists in the three years from 1965 to 1967. 

In a 2003 interview with Jazz Times Barretto discussed his formative years:

“I got my first congas from a bakery on 116th Street in Harlem that used to import drums from Cuba. For 50 bucks you would get yourself a nice drum with a tacked-on head that you heated up with Sterno to get in tune. Chefs used to keep food warm by putting these cans of flames under trays. So you would put the Sterno on the floor and turn the conga over, and it would dry the moisture from the skin and bring it up to pitch. This was before there was a rim on the conga drum. Now you just turn a wrench and it tightens the skin.

I used to take those drums and put them on my shoulder and get on the subway, and anywhere between 110th Street and 155th Street in Harlem there were places to jam every night. I spent three, four years just going to jam sessions. It turned out to be the best thing I ever did. I met Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Max Roach, Roy Haynes and Art Blakey.”

Ray Barretto - Hard Hands (1968)

Cairo's haze of heat and odours

Scottish poet G. S. Fraser (1915-1980) was one of many Allied soldiers who visited Cairo during the Second World War. In his memoir A Stranger and Afraid (1983) he recalled his sojourn in olfactory fashion.

When I think of Cairo now, I think of something sick and dying; an old beggar, propped up against a wall, too palsied to raise a hand or supplicate alms; but in a passive way he can still enjoy the sun.... But who can possess a city? Who can possess it, as he possess his own body, so that a vague consciousness of its proportions is always in his mind?...

Cairo probably seemed to me a more confusing city than it really is because I saw it through a haze of heat and odours - the smells of spice, of cooking fat, of overripe fruit, of sun-dried sweat, of hot baked earth, of urine, of garlic, and, again and again, too sweet, of jasmine; a complex that, in the beginning of the hot weather, seemed to melt down to the general consistency of smouldering rubber ... a smell of the outskirts of hell. Ceasing, soon, consciously to notice all this, I would sometimes, in the Garden City near the Embassy, pass a lawn of thin, patchy grass that had just been watered through a sprinkler; and I would realize, for a moment, how parched and acrid my nostrils were. The smell of the Nile itself, of course, was different; by its banks, at night, there was a damp, vegetative coolness, that seemed to have, in a vague, evocative way, something almost sexual about it. And it was voluptuousness, in a cool large room, to bend over and sniff, in a glass bowl on a table, at a crisp red rose. But in such a room there would be European women; and their skins would have dried a little, in that cruel climate, and one would be aware of their powder, and their scent. Beauty, whether of body or character, lay, in that city, under a constant siege. In my memory, that hot baked smell prevails; that, and the grittiness - the dust gathering thickly on the glossy leaves of the evergreens, and the warm winds stinging eyes and nostrils with fine sand - and the breathlessness, the inner exhaustion. Under the glaring day, one seemed to see the human image sagging and wilting a little, and expected sallow fingers and faces to run and stretch, as if they were made of wax.

- G.S. Fraser, quoted in Peter Furtado (ed.), Great Cities Through Travellers' Eyes, London, 2019, p77-78.

Before the pain, the damage done

Thursday music corner: Toronto-born Tami Neilson emigrated to New Zealand in 2007, and now resides in Auckland, where she has built an award-winning musical career through her country and soul-influenced singer-songwriting. She has won eight New Zealand Music Awards since 2009, plus the 2014 APRA Silver Scroll for Walk (Back to Your Arms), co-written with her brother Joshua. Neilson has released seven albums, with 2022's Kingmaker being the most recent. It features a collaboration with octogenarian country legend Willie Nelson, Beyond the Stars, the cinematic, female-empowerment-anthem Baby, You're A Gun, and the newly-released album title track, Kingmaker.

Neilson is currently touring New Zealand, and shortly will appear at the Tønder Festival in Denmark to start a European summer tour that will also visit Paris and a Dutch music festival in Vlieland.

Tami Neilson - Baby, You're A Gun (May 2022)