Chlishdi snees of ourmhu

You'll have to forgive me. Some things come round only once in a few years. Amusing Countdown choices are one of those things which add to the national gaiety. Neither contestant took the opportunity to win big with the obvious choice.

Meanwhile, what musical treats do we have for you today?

Back to modern(ish) Classical today: Symphonies 4 and 6 with McKonkey's Ferry, by George Antheil, part of Naxos's campaign to bring back every overlooked American composer who ever hummed a note. 

He called himself the 'bad boy of music' which is a bit presumptuous, but he was quite radical for his time. Basically, he liked playing with machines and loud noises, which annoyed conservative audiences, especially in Europe. He was also interested in literature, medicine and science, even patenting a torpedo guidance system with film star Hedy Lamarr. He also seems to have been an arrogant bastard and greedy beggar. 

Here's a clip from the Jazz Symphony, followed by his (badly received - and bad) Ballet Mécanique. The symphonies I have are from his less experimental later phase. Worth hearing but nothing outrageous. 

Escape at last

I'm giving up before my potty-mouth gets me in more trouble. I haven't even been able to follow the cricket today. Hope Onions did well again. See you all on Monday.

Now I'm embarrassed

Someone's just come in to ask me to turn down my swearing because students are doing an exam. I'm normally very mild-mannered, but PebblePad is turning me into a dishevelled wild-eyed monster. I've had to turn up Tosca to drown out my Tourettish cursing. I could actually have finished the outstanding piece of work, were it not for the 4 hours it's taken so far to upload a few documents. It shouldn't take 5 goes to highlight a piece of text or add a link.

I've also sent an angry letter to the PGCE people.

The freakin' FCC

Considering their fondness for gunning each other down, polluting the world and invading everywhere, our American cousins are remarkably sensitive when it comes to naughty words onscreen. Unless, of course, you have cable television, upon which the naughtiest of words were repeatedly uttered by Ian McShane in Deadwood and James Gandolfini in The Sopranos. Perhaps poor people are thought to be more sensitive.

So anyway, the Supreme Court heard the case of the Federal Communications Commission and judgement came in today. It's fine to ban all swearing, however weak, in case Hank chokes on his burger or jerks the trigger. Except he won't be watching TV, he'll be listening or watching to Howard Stern (satellite radio isn't covered either).

So in honour of Justice Scalia's judgement and distaste for us big city types, quoted by the Huffington Post:

"We doubt that small town broadcasters run a heightened risk of liability for indecent utterances... their down-home local guests probably employ vulgarity less than big city folks, and small town stations generally cannot afford or cannot attract foul-mouthed glitterati from Hollywood."

I give you Family Guy's homage to the FCC:

Can't we all just get along?

I enjoy a good argument, but when commenters start calling each other 'wanker', I can't help thinking that a little more imagination is required. So henceforth, a new rule:

only made-up nouns and adjectives when insulting people

Do, please, carry on with the spats, because it's fun. I will deleted boring swearing though. So you have to make a bit of effort. I know that many of you will find it fun.

Meanwhile, I am sitting in the sun, on the balcony, marking. It feels slightly less like slavery that way. I will resist the temptation to apply made-up words to various students on this blog. Perhaps I'll use said words on the coversheet. Perhaps some of the little Einsteins will even realise that they're actually not real words…

I'm off to the farm to buy parcels of bloody meat later: trotters, rabbit, pheasant mmmmmmm. And some oatcakes for the unenlightened masses outside Stoke and its environs.

O Brave New World

I blogged recently about a Digital Media lecture on social networking I went to - and asked for your responses to the new social formations promised by the information age. One of the participants has certainly responded to our suggestions that social-networking trains us to surrender personal information to any authority, commercial and public: the gentleman behind Unluckydip.com is closing down many of his accounts.

If you're bothered, matey, read this: 'Facebook users unwittingly reveal details' and this: 'Mobiles could spell the end of privacy': basically, Google et al. are tempting you to run location-sensitive applications - so that they (and whoever is tapping in to your account) and all the world's advertisers, know where you are for the rest of your life.

On the other hand, if you think technology can be fun, you'd be right. You can now use free Guardian APIs to do odd stuff, and one fan has tracked the history and characteristics of swearing in the Guardian. According to the graph, 'wank' is much underused. To the comment boards!