The Snow In The Summer or So-So

Knowledge is liberation

Koan

Give us an army of 15 year old goths and we'll occupy hell. #

17 June 2013
Top Six: Cascading delays

In this Top Six: transport, football, adverts, and a funny cartoon.

  1. Toronto transit geekery, including the station seeing about one passenger per train.

  2. The question was asked:

    FGW train (on time) just waited behind a delayed XC at signals north of Filton Abbey Wood (a FGW station). I thought that on the FGW bit of the network, their trains were prioritised. Guessing that's at least not universal.

    Not only not universal, but not so at all. Network Rail generally operates impartially: the first train available to come down a particular bit of line gets to go down it. In this case, the Cross-Country train got stuck at Wolverhampton, waiting for the Wales train from Aberystwyth to Birmingham Airport to cross in front of it. (The Wales train had lost three minutes at Shrewsbury, for reasons not obvious.) The train then lost its path onto the main line at King's Norton, and eventually turned up a quarter-hour late at Bristol Parkway.

    Would readers prefer that a train already 15 minutes late be delayed further just for the convenience of arrivals from Cardiff? And do readers fully realise just how a slight delay on a branch line can cascade down the network and hit people in Yeovil and Salisbury?

  3. When England last played Ireland, a piece remembering the Lansdown Road riots of February 1995. That's the problem with round-ball football: not enough handpasses.

  4. We note that a Phil Collins single has reached Serie A. Sussudio beat Living Doll in the promotion play-off, and becomes the first release from Collins' 1985 album No Jacket Required to reach the top flight anywhere. Another single from the era, West End Girls, is doing well in the Super League this year.

  5. The lame excuses of advertisers.

    It's not the obligation of artists, feminists, anti-human trafficking activists and animal rights groups to tell you where you should not be advertising. It's your job. Grow up. Quit trying to force us to do your job for you.

  6. A brief cartoon of Twiglet.

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13 June 2013
Top Six for 13 June 2013

Something we're trying, in an effort to get back in the blogging groove: non-regular but reasonably frequent sets of (about) six links.

  1. The unexpected closure of ERT, the Greek national broadcaster. It's a coup d'etat, argues the New Statesman and Society.

  2. "No platform" simply does not work, writes top liberal Emma Revell.

    The best way to defeat views which you deplore is not to ban them, it is to challenge them publicly and defeat them by showing that your argument is stronger and more well reasoned. If you believe something is a bad idea then prove it, convince me, don't ban it and hope it goes away.

  3. Want to find a taxi in the middle of That London? There's an application for that, and it seems to be working better than previous attempts.

  4. Meet the hexagons!. Remember the six-sided cartoon fun from the early 1980s? Now you can cut out your own hexagons, and relive the time Grandpa Hexagon got confused with a 50p piece. (Also works for when you have a game that needs grids made of hexagons. That's Blockbusters!) mefi

  5. Yes! It's the Doctor Who policy tombola! Spend literally seconds putting together the latest half-arsed excuse for a plot. The folks at Us vs Th3m (including Tom Scott of The Internet) coded this in six working lines of javascript. One of them is:

    }

  6. Picture of the day: duck solidarity.

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30 May 2013
K, bye then

A year after we wrote a scathing critique of Kerrang Radio, we are still a little depressed that it is to close, replaced by a relay of Geriatric Rock In Unsatisfactory Mono. Local radio blogger Robin Valk argues that this is all about shoring up Bauer's profit margins, and quite possibly with an eye to future integration of the Virgin 1215 station. It's not at all about any love of music, the short-term profit of playing Geriatric Rock now rather than encouraging the next generation of young and thrusting bands.

On the other hand, Kerrang has always been way too corporate for our tastes. It's never ever been anything other than a minor diversion, a station that was nice to have but that proved completely incapable of breaking new talent. It always left the heavy lifting to the print magazine and Radio 1 and Xfm, leeching on their efforts. Even Paramore and You Me at Six got their breaks elsewhere. Kerrang was a station better on paper than on the wireless.

Replacements? Internet radio is the future, and we're spending far more time listening to The Zone 91.3 in Victoria BC, Ego FM in Munich, and Triple M 104.9 in Sydney.

We are unhappy with the closure of Kerrang Radio, because it means all three of the "regional" stations are now national stations with no significant local content. Soft Rock 100.7 Heart FM long abandoned its distinctive qualities to be the aural equivalent of baby food, piped in from London. Saga 105.7 had five years of serving the over-50s before giving up and concentrating on undistinctive soul classics piped down the line from somewhere else.

We're watching 105.2 like a hawk, ready to challenge on failure to provide programming for the suitably young. We'll also be pouncing on 105.7 if it drops from stereo to mono on DAB when MXR West Midlands closes in the summer.

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17 May 2013
Suzanne COLLINS: The Hunger Games

It's a right page-turner of a book, this one. Suzanne Collins drip-feeds us enough information to be going on with - in the first chapter, she explains what the titular Games are, how they came to be, and the process by which the contestants emerge. Her style is taut, the narration of Katniss Everdeen is from a character who doesn't waste time with long flowing descriptions as Rowling does. Instead, she observes what's around her, and gets on and does stuff.

The book divides into three sections. Preparations for the event, a week-long process during which Katniss is whisked off to the capital, groomed to within an inch of her life by a clearly-camp fashionistus, and given tips on survival by the organisers and her mentor. Then comes the actual event: twenty-four contestants are winnowed down to thirteen in the space of a chapter, and then picked off - mostly within Katniss's field of vision, often by her action. The final section covers the denouement, and the aftermath of (SPOILER) Katniss's victory (Oh). For much of the middle part, Katniss is alone with her thoughts and observations, and dialogue is at a premium.

Collins based her work, in part, on reality television. She gives her Gamesmakers complete omniscience - not only are they able to unleash a wall of fire on command, not only can they stop a stream from flowing, but they're able to control the weather, make hot days hotter and cold nights colder in ways completely unknown to meteorology. "The sort of thing the Big Brother producers would like to do", a thought that crossed our mind more than once. Perhaps some of the stunts they pulled in the final (2010) series were inspired by these pages. We had a few chuckles at the random stunts pulled by the Gamesmakers, it's just the sort of thing bored television producers would do for lulz and sod the contestants' sensibilities. We were intrigued by the sponsorship element, a way for outsiders to provide equipment and influence the events in the studio. Certainly the players know they're on television, but quickly forget it, except when they think about it.

We appreciated Collins messing with the gender roles - Katniss is the hunter-gatherer-provider protagonist, Peeta just sits around being cared for. The work does pass the Bechdel test, of two named female characters talking about something other than a man, but only in the opening chapters.

Collins does a lot of foreshadowing. Some of this is only obvious in retrospect - the "Foxface" character is brilliantly played. A depressingly large amount is blatantly obvious telegraphing, amounting to a spoiler as soon as it's introduced: by the close of this book, the red-headed girl is still a mystery, but we know enough of Collins' style that she's not in as background.

And there are enough detail problems to make us grouse: Katniss throws table knives, uses the complex bow-and-arrow rather than the simple sling (ask Goliath). Almost all of the deaths are off-page, and too often the narrative focusses on Katniss being in a pickle rather than the abject horror of the setting. We get a distinct whiff of Rural = Poor = Good, City = Rich = Bad. This really ticks us off about Pulp's Common people song, it really ticks us off here.

Collins knew where she wanted her chapters to end - almost all of them conclude with some sort of cliffhanger, begging the reader to continue into the next chapter. At times, it feels like she's padding out the book - one chapter where Katniss is in a crevice and absolutely nothing happens could be excised. It's also clear that this is the start of a series of works: Katniss changes in the studio, her mentor Haymitch has depths we've not yet seen. Notwithstanding the flaws, it's a well-written book, sensibly paced, and while it sets up the next in the series, it works as a standalone piece.

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11 May 2013
Two lists

Wolverhampton Wandererererers Nil have been relegated to Division III. It's the first time the Wolves have been this low in the football pyramid since 1989. Next season, they will meet the following sides that were not part of the Football League back then.

* - Wolves playing Yeovil is subject to the latter side not winning promotion next weekend.

** - The South Midlands League was affiliated to the Southern League, but promotion and relegation up and down was rare and by agreement. This situation persisted until the SML merged with the Spartan League in 1997, forming the Spartan South Midlands League at level 8 (now 9).

The BBC's random wheel of past-it popstars has this year alighted on Bonnie Tyler. Her last substantial hits were in 1985. The following world famous pop stars were all born in 1986 or later, since Bonnie Tyler was last in any way relevant.

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8 May 2013
Popular in late 1994

We move into the second half of 1994 with Wet Wet Wet about half-way through their 15-week reign at number one. It was the summer when Love is all around (live performance) was all around. For seven of those weeks, the number two slot was occupied by All-4-One and their hit I swear (video). The four-piece soul group made exceptionally smooth pop-soul records, and had the good fortune to work in an era when smooth pop-soul was the fashion. Their massive hit record was actually a cover, as John Michael Montgomery had had a smash with it at North American country radio early in the year. It is an absolutely lovely song, and sold tremendously well, but the combination of country songs and pop vocals set an unfortunate precedent for Take That's successors.

(More: With number ones from Whigfield, Take That, Pato Banton, Baby D, and East 17. And a whole lot more in positions 2-5.)

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6 May 2013
County councillors

The points we're taking from last week's county council elections.

1. Philosophical notes

Attempting to extrapolate from local polls to the Westminster election scheduled for 7 May 2015 is a fool's errand. The interim poll with the greatest ability to alter the result and the debate is the referendum vote on Scottish independence, scheduled for 18 September 2014.

Local elections do help to set the mood music, establish a narrative of winners and losers. Journalists - print, broadcast, online - have a regrettable tendency to put out the first thing that springs to mind, relying on stereotypes. Local elections are the best opportunity to update those stereotypes. This blog has a sketchy sociological argument that voters do use them to send a message - not to the politicians, but to the journalists and broadcasters.

(More: On the UIP, other parties, a self-inflicted wound, and someone's invoked the Rhinoceros.)

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1 May 2013
Cricket in May 2013

India completed their Test series against Australia, winning the last two games handsomely. New Zealand hosted England; the official result in the Tests was three draws, we reckon the Kiwis shaded the series overall. South Africa beat Pakistan 3-2 in one-dayers, and won their 20/20 match.

Bangladesh visited Sri Lanka, drawing and losing the Tests, and winning one of the three one-dayers. Zimbabwe were comprehensively beaten in two Tests and two 20/20 matches in the West Indies. Zimbabwe then hosted Bangladesh, each securing a strong win in a Test.

Ireland went to the UAE, and swept the board. Afghanistan hosted Scotland, and won all their games; the hosts lost a 20/20 match to the UAE. Canada and Kenya split a pair of 20/20 games; Kenya won the one-day fixtures. The Netherlands also travelled to Namibia, where they won the one-dayer but lost the "Test". The sides were joined by Kenya and a South Africa development side for a 20/20 side; the Dutch lost all their matches, and Namibia beat the Kenyans in their group and final games.

International cricket is effectively off during April, allowing for the quick money of the ITV4 Indian Premier League.

(More: The full tables)

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