Requiem for the hipster as James Murphy and his band play last ever gig When LCD Soundsystem announced their final gig at New York’s Madison Square Garden, tickets sold out in just 15 seconds. Would-be concert-goers erupted in hysterical rage when touts began selling tickets priced as high as $1,500 (£930). The band’s front man James Murphy tweeted: “NO MATTER WHAT WE DO, IT IS NOT WORTH THAT KIND OF MONEY TO SEE US!” Evidently some 14,000 people thought it was. The atmosphere in the stadium on Saturday night was somewhere between joyous wake and dance party funeral – as the band announced on their website: “If it’s a funeral, let’s have the best funeral ever!!!” The stands were filled with people known as the hipsters, many were dressed in Murphy’s trademark look (black suit, white shirt, skinny black tie), and all had come to pay their respects to the band that Esquire magazine described as “arguably the most influential indie band of the past five years.” From their breakout 2002 single, Losing My Edge, LCD Soundsystem have offered a unique combination of geek knowledge, passion and intelligent, ironic distance. The ultimate hipster band, they are calling it quits just as the decade of the hipster seems to be coming to an end. American Apparel is facing bankruptcy and the market is awash with Tumblr-to-book titles like Stuff Hipsters Hate and Look At This Fucking Hipster. Brooklyn literary magazine n+1 recently proclaimed: “Hipsters are not dead, they still breathe, they live on my block. Yet it is evident that we have reached the end of an epoch of the type.” Murphy himself was never really a hipster. For nearly a decade, Murphy – at 41, at least a good decade older than the crowd on Saturday night – stood as a self-mocking totem to a certain kind of experience. Losing My Edge was an anthem for the aging music nerd, with lyrics detailing a comically epic list of historical dates, bands and attended gigs: the anti-hipster’s defence against “the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties”. Unlike some of the output of those art-school Brooklynites, which has tended to espouse a tone of context free apathy, Murphy has always been interested in creating a record of the times. And as if to prove he’s still one step ahead, Murphy is now bowing out. The three-and-a-half-hour concert included a guest appearance by Arcade Fire, who sang back-up on North American Scum, prompting chants of ‘North American! North American!’ – as close as a hipster can get to shouting “USA! USA!”. And Murphy closed with the unabashedly elegiac New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, a mournful chronicle of New York’s post-Giuliani transformation. On Twitter, The Believer contributing editor Brandon Stosuy asked: “How many upcoming 30-something novels can we expect to use LCD Soundsystem’s final shows as a metaphor for something?” The question now is what. LCD Soundsystem United States guardian.co.uk
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Army chiefs are worried about the 100ft minarets but local Muslims say they need more space for worshippers Plans to erect a mosque next to Sandhurst that have divided locals and prompted interventions from a Tory minister and the Ministry of Defence are to be considered at a public inquiry this week. The proposals – to demolish a locally listed Victorian schoolbuilding in a conservation area in Camberley, Surrey, and replace it with a £3m domed mosque – have pitted members of the Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey Bengali Welfare Association against thousands of residents, army chiefs and the constituency MP and education secretary, Michael Gove. The residents say the mosque would be out of keeping with the town’s architecture; army chiefs dislike the idea of 100ft-high minarets overlooking the parade ground of Sandhurst Military Academy; and Gove wants the application withdrawn for the sake of community harmony. The mosque is also described as a “supremacist statement” by a collective comprising local churches. The inquiry, to be held at Camberley Theatre, is scheduled to last six days and is the culmination of a year-long struggle between the association and its equally doughty opponents over the fate of the former Roman Catholic school sitting on an unsightly stretch of the A30. Alan Kirkland, from Save Our School, was among those who gathered 7,000 signatures opposing the radical redevelopment of the site. “There is nothing in the Qur’an that says you should have domes and minarets,” he said. “It doesn’t even have to face the qibla [direction of Mecca]. It doesn’t matter what the mosque looks like if you’re only going to pray there. They need a mezzanine floor that is for women only. To most people, that’s objectionable. “They are trying to target us as racist. I’m slightly offended by that. My ex-brother in law is Muslim, so are my niece and nephew.” The Bengalis say the existing building, designed by Charles Buckeridge, does not suit their needs. Camberley Muslims have used the old school as a mosque since 1996, purchasing it for £300,000 following a generous contribution from a Kuwaiti billionaire. But it is dilapidated, inside and out, and lies empty for much of the week except Friday, when Muslims pour into every available space, including the kitchen, for prayer. The capacity is 350, which the association estimates is a fraction of the Muslim community within a 10-mile radius. The new mosque would accommodate classrooms, segrated facilities for men and women, a morgue, a community centre and thousands of people. The Bengalis agreed to restrict access to the minarets – making them ornamental and partially solid – but only after the Ministry of Defence raised concerns over them. The compromise – the only one to date – has failed to appease to Save Our Schools, which has raised £10,000 to ensure it has legal representation at the inquiry. Ivar Hellberg, also from Save Our School, is outraged at the BWA’s perceived indifference to Camberley’s heritage. “They are bad stewards,” he said. “Why haven’t they looked after the house of Allah?” Abdul Wasay Chowdhury, from the association, said: “It is hard to collect money to renovate the school. It is not a religious building, it is not a mosque. We don’t want to extend from the back because then it won’t be a school or a mosque. It will be neither. If people were so concerned about heritage, why didn’t they buy the building? If we hadn’t bought it, it would have been empty for the last 15 years. That would have been worse.” “The local church is out of keeping with the area. The steeple will be taller than our minarets – why don’t they complain about that?” He points to Robins Cinema, a building with art-deco frontage, and the boarded-up Duke of York Hotel, built in 1816, opposite. Both face demolition. “The problem is, if you try to save everything, you end up saving nothing.” Religion Islam Development Riazat Butt guardian.co.uk
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Small majority for Icesave compensation package shrinking before referendum A £2.35bn agreement to pay back the British government after it stepped in to guarantee UK deposits following the failure of online bank account Icesave has split public opinion in Iceland ahead of a critical referendum this week. Iceland goes to the polls on Saturday over the Icesave settlement after opposition to the agreed deal prompted president Ólafur Grímsson to call a plebiscite. He took the unusual step despite the agreement having been passed by the Icelandic parliament. Latest indications suggest a narrow but shrinking majority in favour of the latest agreement, with 55% of voters who have made up their minds intending to back it. A significant proportion are yet to make up their minds. The agreement offers Iceland less severe loan terms than a previous proposed settlement but is still unacceptable to many Icelanders. The earlier agreement was rejected by more than 90% in a similar vote 13 months ago. Frosti Sigurjónsson, an internet entrepreneur and leading “no” campaigner, said: “It is going to be very, very close. We have 45% at the moment but we are hoping perhaps, when it comes to turnout, people who don’t want to pay are more motivated than those who want to open their purse.” He claimed voters were becoming increasingly emboldened, despite the prospect of a jump in Iceland’s cost of borrowing because of probable credit rating downgrades. “In the beginning there was a lot of fear. People felt, although the agreement was not great for them, not to say ‘yes’ would mean something terrible would happen. That’s just not the case.” Landsbanki, the bank behind Icesave, failed at the height of the international banking crisis in October 2008 along with much of Iceland’s over-heated financial sector. The meltdown left the island in effect bankrupt, forcing it to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Under pressure from the British and Dutch, bailout loans required Iceland to accept some taxpayer liability for Icesave deposits from overseas. The two government’s had stepped in to guarantee their domestic retail depositors with Icesave after a run on savings. Savers had feared – rightly, it turned out – that Landsbanki was heading for bankruptcy and an Icelandic guarantee fund could not meet its promises. Web pages had told UK savers: “You can also rest assured that with Icesave you are offered the same level of financial protection as every bank in the UK.” As a result, retail depositors, charities, councils and other public institutions, lured by market-beating interest rates, poured £4.52bn into Icesave before Landsbanki went bust. Of these, the UK Treasury ended up guaranteeing in full deposits from 229,000 retail savers. Britain then effectively billed Iceland £2.35bn plus interest for a the partial guarantee that had not been honoured. The British government – and Dutch counterparts who agreed a £1.3bn settlement – are believed to be dreading a “no” vote, which would probably see the dispute thrashed out in court under the auspices of the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) authorities. Many in Iceland believe a court judgment could ultimately shatter the assumption at the heart of the Icesave settlement – that, under European law, a state must make up for any shortfalls in deposit guarantee funds. A clear legal ruling on this point would be extremely unwelcome internationally as it would throw a spotlight on huge funding shortfalls in depositor guarantee schemes in Britain, the Netherlands and indeed around the world. In May last year, however, EFTA’s Surveillance Authority provisionally ruled that Iceland was legally required to stand behind its woefully underfunded guarantee scheme. Nevertheless, legal opinion remains split on whether such a finding could be challenge. Sigurjonsson said: “The risk of accepting the current Icesave agreement [which involves an exposure to currency market movements and bankruptcy recoveries] is much greater than taking this matter to court, which is our civil right.” Icesave Banking Credit crunch Financial crisis Iceland Savings Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk
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Programmes such as Glee and 90210 responsible for increasing popularity of US-style school-leaving parties, research shows US television programmes such as Glee and 90210 may have given more to British youngsters than rising intonation, saturated use of the word “like” and a lust for fame. The small screen exports, coupled with the unheralded success of the High School Musical trilogy and other teen programmes, have contributed directly to a rise in the number of UK school-leavers attending proms, according to one hotel chain. Prom attendees are now spending an average of £244 per student on the gatherings, according to research carried out by OnePoll for Holiday Inn, with parents set to shell out a total of £31m in the next year. Holiday Inn says it has seen a 500% rise in the number of proms being booked at its hotels, and the chain says the surge has come as a direct result of the success of US television programming. Glee follows the fortunes of a group of US high school students who sing in a choir. In the TV film High School Musical and its sequels, the decision of a basketball-playing Zac Efron and a bookish Vanessa Hudgens to audition for a musical turns – in Disney’s words – ” their world and their school upside down”. OnePoll’s survey of 1,000 people found that 40% of 18-year-olds were planning to attend prom events this year. “The increase in US TV shows is having a huge influence with American-style proms in particular growing in popularity,” said Holiday Inn spokesman Tom Rowntree. “Over the past year alone we’ve seen a 500% increase in prom bookings at our hotels and each year they become more extravagant.” Pam Jones and Leanna Garant set up their Prom World business , based in the Midlands, earlier this year to respond to the demand for all things prom-related. Jones agreed the exposure to US culture was having an influence on teenagers’ desire for school-leaving parties. “As a teacher myself, I’ve seen it with the kids – it’s becoming more and more important for them,” Garant said. “US programmes definitely have an impact. “The kids are seeing they can have something special at the end of their school life. “It does mark the end of their school life and the start of a new journey and it’s important for them to have that last gathering together.” US television Children’s TV Television Secondary schools Schools Children United States Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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British Library will display unpublished letters, which show that the dramatist worked on his last play while nearing death The British Library has acquired four unpublished letters written by Sir Terence Rattigan towards the end of his life, when, despite the extreme pain of his terminal illness, he felt driven to finish his last play. A junior curator saw them in an antiquarian bookshop and bought them for £22 – a snip, given their worth, as a link to one of the 20th century’s most celebrated and popular playwrights. The letters reveal that, though suffering, Rattigan maintained his professionalism and passion for the theatre. Leukaemia took its toll on his body, but the show had to go on for the English dramatist who penned classics such as The Browning Version and The Deep Blue Sea. It was in those letters that this master explorer of British insecurities about sex and class fine-tuned his 1970s courtroom drama, Cause Célèbre, revived at the Old Vic last week to rave reviews. The play was based on the true story of Alma Rattenbury, who was tried in 1935 with her teenage lover for murdering her husband. Rattigan was writing from his Bermuda home to Robin Midgley, director of the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, who planned to stage it. There are moving passages, such as his reference to days when he was drained of energy. “I am stuffed with dope”, he wrote of his medication. “This is the first day of many that I’ve been able to hold a pen … I’ve been officially told I can only get worse.” But he was more concerned about discussing Cause Célèbre, even reworking it once rehearsals had started. The letters reveal the care he took over every detail. There is jocular frustration with a woman who typed his manuscript (a “literary wrecker”), willingness to shorten scenes (“some compensating cuts in the two lawyers’ scenes”) and disparaging views on audiences (“In fussing about the play … I sometimes wonder whether I have … been explicit enough – remembering the stupidity of audiences.” Rattigan attended the play’s premiere in July 1977, but died five months later in November that year. Kathryn Johnson, the British Library’s curator of theatrical manuscripts, expressed excitement at the £22 purchase – it made a change not to have to struggle to raise money. Michael Darlow, Rattigan’s biographer, said: “Rattigan’s archive is very patchy. The more one can fill in the gaps with such letters the better our understanding of him.” The letters, which the library will display from Monday, also reveal his concern about the critics. He need not have worried. Though he had been out of favour since the 1950s, his stature as a master dramatist has been restored in this, his centenary year. As well as a film season at the BFI Southbank throughout April, Terence Davies is directing Deep Blue Sea, and critics have celebrated the latest production of Cause Célèbre. The Guardian wrote: “Rattigan’s final play stands the test of time.” Terence Rattigan British Library Dalya Alberge guardian.co.uk
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Measures to stem leaks at Fukushima plant appeared to have failed, amid discovery of two bodies of men killed by tsunami A senior Japanese official has warned that the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could drag on for months, after another attempt to stem leaks of highly radioactive water appeared to end in failure. Goshi Hosono, an aide to the prime minister, Naoto Kan, said everything possible was being done to contain radiation leaks, which have contaminated the environment and food and water supplies, prompted mass evacuations and fomented fear as far away as Tokyo, 150 miles to the south. “We have not escaped from a crisis situation, but it is somewhat stabilised,” Hosono said on television. Asked how long it would take to bring the plant’s overheating reactors under control, he said. “I think several months would be one target.” The admission that there is no end in sight to the world’s worst nuclear power accident since Chernobyl came after the recovery of two bodies inside the Daiichi plant. The workers were killed when it was struck by the 11 March tsunami. They were found last Wednesday, but had to be decontaminated before they could be handed over to relatives after almost three weeks of exposure to radiation. The men, Kazhiko Kokubo, 24, and Yoshiki Terashima, 21, who were found in the basement of a reactor turbine building, died from multiple head injuries, reports said. Theirs were the first confirmed deaths at the Daiichi plant. “It pains us to have lost these two young workers, who were trying to protect the power plant during the earthquake and tsunami,” said Tsunehisa Katsumata, the chairman of Tokyo Electric Power [Tepco]. The size of the task facing about 600 workers, troops and firefighters at the plant was underlined at the weekend with the discovery of a 20cm crack in a concrete pit connected to the No 2 reactor. The leak generated radiation levels of 1,000 millisieverts an hour in the air inside the reactor, while Tepco said it could also be behind the seepage of radioactive iodine into the sea, sending contamination levels soaring to 4,000 times the legal limit. Experts say that beyond the vicinity of the plant, there is minimal risk to human health in other parts of Japan or overseas. After failed attempts to seal the crack by pouring concrete into the pit, workers have fed it with a water-absorbent polymer, along with sawdust and shredded newspaper, before topping the mixture with more concrete. On Sunday evening, nuclear safety officials conceded that the polymer, which can expand to 50 times its normal size when combined with water, had made no impact on the water leakage, but added they would wait until Monday before deciding whether to abandon the approach. “We were hoping the polymers would function like diapers, but we have yet to see a visible effect,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan’s nuclear and industrial safety agency. He echoed the grim prognosis offered by Hosono. “It will take a few months until we finally get things under control and have a better idea about the future,” Nishiyama said. “We’ll face a crucial turning point within the next few months, but that is not the end of it.” Highly radioactive water has flooded the basement of the No 2 reactor and a connecting underground trench. The water in the cracked pit is thought to have come from partially melted fuel rods in the reactor’s core. In their battle to cool overheated reactors and prevent a dangerous meltdown of highly radioactive fuel rods, workers have doused reactors with huge quantities of seawater. The contaminated runoff, however, has prevented technicians and engineers from getting closer to the reactors to make proper repairs. Fresh water is being pumped into No 1, 2 and 3 reactors using external power, Nishiyama said, adding that the remaining three reactors were considered stable. More than 12,000 people are known to have died in the earthquake and tsunami, while 15,472 are missing, according to police. More than 163,000 people are still living in evacuation shelters. Japan disaster Japan Nuclear power Energy Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Vermont Moves to Improve Health Care Reform With Single Payer Health Care Plan
April 3, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media As Karoli already noted, Vermont is now moving towards passing a single payer health care plan in their state. President Obama recently stated his support for allowing waivers for states that want to implement single payer health plans before the date of 2017 called for in the Affordable Care Act. And as Rachel Maddow noted here, despite all of their rhetoric about how Republicans supposedly have better ideas for how to reform our health care system, we’re not seeing any of these red states step up in the manner Vermont has and offer any alternatives like we’re seeing in Vermont. I hope to hell we see this end up being implemented in Vermont since it could lead to other states following their model, which is similar to how Canada ended up with their system. One province started it and others followed and eventually the entire country. Something needs to give to get us out from under the grip of the insurance companies and their lock on our system of providing health care to our citizens that puts profits and their stock holders above the needs of those paying into the system. And thank you to Bernie Sanders for helping to promote this in your state.
Continue reading …Fox Yappers on Cashin’ In Love the Idea of Replacing Union Workers With Welfare Recipients
April 3, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media If there’s anything you can count on from the yappers on some of the Fox Business Channel shows that they air on Fox News on Saturdays, it’s that if there’s a way to trash unions or to paint anyone who receives any sort of government assistance as lazy, good-for-nothing loafers who just want to suck off of the government teet, they’re going to do it. With this story, they got a two-fer. What could possibly be wrong with getting rid of union MTA workers only to have them replaced with welfare recipients? It’s nothing but a big race to the bottom where the Wall Street bankers in New York get their tax breaks and after saying the layoffs are necessary because the city’s broke, union workers get replaced by those with no protections in place working for minimum wage. And if these welfare recipients are single mothers, just who is supposed to be paying for their daycare while they’re out there cleaning the subways in New York City? And just what type of meaningful job training are you giving anyone by teaching them how to push a broom? Looks like none to me. I’m all for programs that help those on welfare gain some skills so they can get back into the workforce and earn a decent living instead of having to be dependent on the government and where they’re allowed to work without being cut off of their benefits if that job training is going to lead to them being independent and able to earn a living wage where they can take care of themselves and their families. I don’t see how this is one of them. I agree with the one outnumbered “liberal” on the panel who they actually allowed some air time. When host Cheryl Casone asked Christian Dorsey about whether this might help any of those workers get a full time job, we got one of the few moments of truth out of this segment. DORSEY: Look, I’m all for making sure that people who have been left out of the workforce and who are on welfare receiving public assistance get the skills to be self sufficient, but remember, welfare is now administered by the states. It’s not an overall federal program. It’s block granted. And what’s happening in New York is cause for alarm, not praise Cheryl. They’re laying off transit workers and replacing them with lower cost transient workers, so this is in essence getting rid of decent jobs for people, adding to unemployment and then saving money by putting welfare recipients in those jobs that used to be held by non-welfare recipients. It’s not improving the overall job situation in New York or in the country. This is bad policy. And one of the worst parts of this segment was Fox hack Jonathan Hoenig letting everyone know what conservatives think about anyone receiving welfare at all. HOENIG: What about just getting rid of welfare? Let me just throw that one out there Cheryl as a real alternative idea. I mean, point to me somewhere in the Constitution where it says anything about charity. It does not. Now were the founders such (?) were they such jerks that they didn’t want to put that? No. Of course because charity is something that should be privately motivated. And I’m sorry Cheryl, working for money. That’s called a job, not another government assistance program, another government handout program. And of course in Hoenig’s mind, anyone on welfare is just some lazy person who wants to destroy our economy, unlike those poor businesses that might be forced to pay more taxes so women and children aren’t left to starve on the streets while they outsource the jobs they’d probably love to have to China and India, where the workers there can work for slave wages instead. When this country relied on the good will of the rich to provide for the welfare of the least among us instead of asking all of us to take care of each other, things didn’t work out so well . People like this tool Hoenig are more than happy to perpetuate a system that’s taking us right back there, along with his buddies at Fox News and Fox Business Channel. Here’s more from FindLaw on the legal predicament the city may have put themselves in as well — MTA Wants to Put NYC Welfare Recipients to Work : One of the foremost problems with the nation’s welfare system is that it often fails to provide recipients with the skills necessary to find and maintain employment. New York City’s Work Experience Program is designed to do just that–place welfare recipients in “unpaid” city jobs to build employable skills. The news on the street is that WEP will be getting an influx of new positions, as the money-challenged Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has plans of hiring welfare recipients to clean the city’s subways and buses. Last year, budget cuts required the MTA to cut 3,500 jobs, 173 of which the Daily News reports were cleaning positions. Because the MTA has previously and successfully participated in the WEP, it is looking to fill those positions with welfare recipients who wish to acquire on-the-job skills. This may sound like a great idea for all parties involved, but it might present some legal problems for both the MTA and New York City. The Constitution restricts government agencies’ ability to discriminate between different groups of citizens. This includes in the area of employment. An argument can be made that the city and the MTA are discriminating in favor of welfare recipients in terms of who it employs in city jobs. In effect, it’s rehiring employees to fill cleaning positions, and is requiring that any applicants be currently receiving some form of welfare. Chances are city attorneys and the MTA have already analyzed this possibility and found that it passes constitutional scrutiny. But if they haven’t, they should get on it quick before an ex-MTA employee decides to file suit.
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• Bash F5 or use our auto-refresher for the latest updates • Click here for today’s other latest scores • Send your thoughts to john.ashdown@guardian.co.uk • Or get in touch via Twitter First things first, then . Is this the worst thing ever seen at a football ground? Hang on, let me rephrase that: this is the worst thing ever seen at a football ground. To the general outrage of all right-minded Fulham fans, and the hilarity of everyone else, Mohammad Al-Fayed unveiled his statue of Michael Jackson outside Craven Cottage this afternoon. Look at it. You might, might , get away with it, if you produce something vaguely classy and understated, perhaps something in burnished bronze or marble. But this embarrassing full colour Play-doh sculpted, Madame Tussauds reject? Really? You have to feel sorry for Fulham fans, you really do. And Fayed, having unveiled this monstrosity, further endeared himself to the home faithful: “Why is it bizarre? Football fans love it,” he gibbered. “If some stupid fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift they can go to hell. I don’t want them to be fans. If they don’t understand and don’t believe in things I believe in they can go to Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else.” So, Fulham fans, your chairman says if you don’t like this unspeakably tacky, gobsmackingly cheap, eyewateringly ugly, teeth-gratingly embarrassing, utterly, utterly awful monument to a ‘controversial’ pop star whose private life means the word controversial has to be placed in inverted commas before his description as a pop star and who has as much to do with Fulham Football Club as the Teletubbies have to do with the Denver Broncos, then you can do one down the road to Stamford Bridge. Nice one Chairman Mo. Nice one. Premier League Fulham Blackpool John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
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