NOT SO SUPER MARIO

Wait – I think I see a solution to all our problems!

Whatever else you say about Italy’s caretaker premier Mario Monti, he is not usually a man to speak first and think afterwards.

His measured, robotic voice shows that he is not in the business of making a drama out of the financial crisis.

He restores the notion that economics is a boring but necessary part of political life.

But his skills as a economist are greater than those as a politician.

In response to the latest match rigging / bribery scandal to hit Italian soccer he has stated publically that it would be better if soccer matches were halted for up to three years. This, he reasons, would allow the time for reflection needed to set the sporting house in order.

Monti was at pains to point out that he was voicing a personal opinion but, predictably, the media are not about to let facts get in the way of a good story and report his statement as if it had become official government policy.

THE MURDER OF CARLOS DE LUNA

Carlos de Luna

Shocking, but in no way surprising, to learn of the execution of an innocent man in Texas .

The Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman who headed a team of students to uncover the truth states : “Sadly, his story is not unique. The same factors that sent Carlos de Luna to his death – faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance – continue to put innocent people at risk of execution today.” 

The death penalty, even when the guilty party is correctly identified, is nothing more that state sanctioned murder with an eye for an eye style revenge the only motive. It does not serve as a deterrent and has no place in a civilised society.

A powerful voice that says the same is Steve Earle,  whose brilliant song Billy Austin tells it like it is:

HOMELAND – TURN AND TURN AGAIN

Carrie and Brody lost in the maze on Homeland’s opening credits.

As the weeks have gone by, I’ve become more and more hooked on the TV series Homeland. and the final episode ,aired on Channel 4 on Sunday night , was so tense and gripping it left me drained.

What made (makes) this drama so absorbing is that all the main characters have secrets and issues with CIA agent Carrie and Sergeant Brody (Damian Lewis) having more than their fair share.

Carrie, brilliantly played by Claire Danes, is  a cocktail of positive and negative attributes – reckless, professional, brave, lonely, erratic, intuitive, manic, sexy and impulsive. Knowing that she’s a big fan of Jazz alerts us to the fact that she is no conventional heroine.

THE DESERT BLUES OF TINARIWEN

TINARIWEN live at the Bronson Club, Ravenna 16th April 2012

There aren’t many live shows you can truly call spectacular but this the word that most accurately describes the mind-blowing ninety minute set Tinariwen played at this small, packed venue.

Dressed head to toe in desert robes (thawbs) the five performers both look and sound amazing.

While this is a band with good reason to sing the blues I was struck by how upbeat and joyous their music was.

NPR described their sound as “trance music with attitude” since while the vocals are plaintive and melancholy, the extraordinary guitar rhythms are hypnotic and energizing. It is electric blues is both familiar and singular – no Western band plays like this.

TEPID WHITE HEAT

WHITE HEAT – written by Paula Milne, directed by John Alexander (BBC Two)

The White Heat seven - the way they were.

White Heat reached a lukewarm finale this week.  What began promisingly eventually fizzled out  to a largely predictable and heavily stage-managed conclusion.

In the six part drama we followed the fortunes of seven characters over a heady 25 year period.

This group first meet as students in a shared house in North London. Each part is set in a different year, beginning in 1965 and ending in 1990.

A present day perspective is established from the outset with the now ageing group gathering at the home of one of the seven who has been found dead at his or her home.

The identity of the deceased is not revealed until the final episode and the contents of a locked safe is not opened until right at the end – this plot device  kept me watching to find out who had snuffed it and what his or her secret was; I’m not entirely sure I’d have made it to the finish otherwise.