My Mate Google

More information is now available to individuals than ever before.  When I was a student in the early 1980s, you had to be a card carrying member of a library to access books and scientific articles.  Access to a book was just the start.  You had to know how to search books for information.  The good and respected authors were known amongst the peers.  It was critical to know how to formulate a question and evaluating the written work was a skill that you learnt early.  

These days we hit the web, type a few words into the html bar and expect a zillion links to information to be delivered by Google or Bing.  So we become, one and all, experts on everything we can imagine.  So we imagine.

Man is lazy, so we look at the first few hits, read the links, and make up our mind.  It is the most important links first we imagine, so it must be the truth.  It is written and published, so it must be the truth, or it must at least be of value.  This information shapes our views and influences our decisions.  Sometimes it influences decisions that should remain within the realm of the real experts, not the Google-enabled ones.

Let’s look a a real example.  Is the fluoridation of drinking water a good thing or should it be abolished?   Two camps here:  On the one hand we have those supporting it citing the good dental health of populations where fluoridation is in place, and then there is the camp saying that blanket fluoridation is mass medication with a questionable chemical compound that affects intellect, etc.  

Assume the city council runs a referendum on this topic.  How would you vote:  Yes or No for fluoridation of drinking water?  Where would you start your ‘research’  (an over-used word these days, denoting anything from asking about the views of people right down to PhD studies)?  I bet you would hit Wikipedia and Google.  Why would you go to the academic library at the University?  That is hard work and if it is really significant, it should be available on the web, not so?  Or perhaps we can just listen to the experts, those that have read the posts and articles already.  

Many dentists agree that fluoridated water has a positive effect in preventing dental decay.  They agree that too much fluoride may stain teeth.  There are also several untested theories that claim fluoride will lower intelligence, influence weight management and may increase fracturing of bones.  The problem here is that medical people have a professional view, which is offset by the perceptions of the activists, that are vocal and self-taught experts, using their friend Google to make convincing and emotional cases that will swing city councils to abandon fluoridation.  

My position is that the activists must be willing to put their money where their mouths are.  If we stop fluoridation in a community under pressure of lobby groups, they must also pay for the effects of tooth decay in that community ten years down the line, out of their own, personal pockets.  I mean, if you are convinced, do the right thing and pay up. If you have done the proper research, you should have nothing to fear.

Unfortunately Google can easily be used to scare the masses in the name of research.  Perhaps we should all work hard to ensure that research remains grounded properly.  We should also stand up to the self-informed, Google-dictated loud-mouths and insist on facts and evidence, not Google-based ‘we all know this’  crap.  

Southern Coffee Café Culture

I remember many years ago a tea shop opened in the Cape Town waterfront.  I was fascinated by the whole culture around the consumption of tea.  From the rituals in Japan, to the high teas of the Empire, it seemed that it was not only about the tea, but about a community of practices inspired by tea.  For me this was different for coffee (at least in South Africa), where coffee was synonymous with instant stuff containing chicory and who knows what else.  You added heaps of sugar to it  and you dunked rusks in it for a quick breakfast.

Back to the tea for a moment: it was interesting that the shop sold lots of tea in bags and tins, special tea cups and all sorts of paraphernalia, but it felt like just another shop.  You could not even order a cup of tea.  

I was introduced to really good coffee by my friend François Collin.  With his Brazilian-French-Moroccan something genetic make-up he obviously grew up with the real stuff.  His passion for the cultivars, the machines to grind the stuff, the making of a strong black concoction and the look of bliss when he sipped it, convinced me that there was another culture around coffee that I needed to investigate.  Easier said than done.  Only when I finally visited France on a business trip did I get to actually drink coffee (espresso style) in a café setting.  I loved it.  Just like I enjoyed getting a glass of a crisp white wine at a street café.  Why was this not available in South Africa?  Or if it was, why was it hidden away?

Then I moved to New Zealand.  Here we imagine we invented the whole art of coffee, I guess.  We are passionate about our coffee.  We drink short blacks, long blacks and flat whites.  None of the foam or cream choices, no stupid froth made from coconut waste or synthetic long fatty chains in our coffee.  Nope.  Straight stuff, from beans carefully selected by the team to represent their style, roasted and ground daily, often in the café.  Every morning early here in Dunedin you can smell the coffee being roasted and you can hear the grinding of the beans.  It is insane!  And not cheap.  I have become a long black person, with a flat white thrown in every so often.  No sugar!  

That is not all.  We have a coffee café culture I guess.  Lovely spaces built around our love of sharing a cuppa are to be found on every street and around every corner.  Soon you develop an attachment to to some of these spaces, it becomes yours to share with others.  It becomes a space where you meet to talk about work, or share ideas, to get work done, to meet lots of people, to mingle and some days, a space to roll up into to just sit and reflect.  Quietly, with just the grinding and stamping of the coffee going on in the background and the southern weather outside blowing people in and grabbing them by their coats as they leave again.  

I have my spot in Dunedin now.  Diesoline is open from around eight in the morning to two in the afternoon weekdays.  It plays great modern music, often New Zealand artists.  It has an ebb and flow of people as the hours are chimed off by the big bell in the Octagon around the corner.  This is where I meet people for all sorts of discussions.  Ian works upstairs.  He is the owner of The Logic Studio, an innovative software and services company.  The old heritage building in the small back street is owned by Luke, who also works upstairs at his company called BrandAid.  And downstairs is Diesoline, owned by Luke and Tania.    Tania knows us all.  She knows what we typically order.  Sometimes she builds a fire in the fireplace and the old building, with its modern design  signature, comes to life with a warmth that takes you back in time.  Its heart beats to the rhythms of the South: layers of dark clothes, open, friendly faces, the smell of exotic coffee beans, crisp air and some days a ridiculously dark blue sky that brings the eternity of space right to the door of your soul.

The music I love

I was born late in the Baby Boomer era.  Because South Africa was slow to move with the generational changes, I guess that technically I was part of the first wave of the Jones sub-generation rather than the last section of it.  The point of narrowing this down a bit is to link it to the significant changes that I lived through.  The Age of Aquarius, Beatlemania, reaching the moon, heart transplants, the oil crisis and more.  Platform shoes, large rock shows, designer drugs, new poetry, new technology and computers, Star Trek, Star Wars, Thunderbirds... An age of optimism and counter-culture, where we can do things, where we are ready to boldly go.  

Counterculture is probably my middle name.  When the world loved the Beatles, I listened to Pink Floyd.  When ABBA was huge I listened to Tangerine Dream, Yes and later King Crimson.  I loved the early Ultravox, but walked away from the commercial Midge Ure era, preferring the rawness of John Foxx.  Over time I discovered some fantastic music by constantly searching the edge for inspiration.  These days we buy songs, rather than full albums, perhaps not a good thing.  We'll see, but here are a few full album recordings I go back to often, inspired by a request recently to share some bucket list music.  There are more music in my collection, but these came to mind.

Joy Division - Closer 

Released after the death of lead singer Ian Curtis, this album from 1980 captures a darkness and edge quite opposite to the punk of the time.  It moves between raw chords and smooth synths, through rough drumming and grinding bass to deliver deep emotions.  This is a landmark work, and for me something that I listen to from front to end on long dark flights.  The voice of Ian Curtis reflects deep emotional connection with the content of every song.  Peter Saville did a fantastic job with the cover and the music production is vintage Factory Records and Martin Hannett.  Shivers!!

"Existence, well, what does it matter

I exist on the best terms I can

The past is now part of my future

The present is well out of hand"

Ultravox - Vienna

The fourth album from Ultravox was released in 1981.  John Foxx had left and a softer sound emerged.  Still connected to the anger of punk, but now clad in the New Wave sound.  A brilliantly compiled recording that morphed from punk to New Wave and set the scene for the Romantics, it is still a great CD to fire up while you drive into the hills on a winding road.  My first copy was a gift from a special person and listening to it takes me back to tough years in the early 1980's.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

I guess most people think about Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall when you mention Pink Floyd.  For me it simply Wish You Were Here.  I own copies on vinyl, CD, tape and DVD.  SEVERAL!   This is a concept album with no equal.  You have to listen to the whole thing in one go, on headphones in a dark room perhaps, or like I've done often, dark room, big audio system and loud.  The cover shown here is from the first copy I owned.  David Gilmour shines on this with epic guitar.  

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

Not ||, not |V, but the fifth album comes back to me regularly.  From start to finish it just rocks with comfortable blues from the best rock band ever.  This album departs from earlier Led Zeppelin and is something to enjoy with a deep red wine in a room filled with candles.  Jimmy Page plays with a comfortable, unforced style and the band sounds tight and cohesive.

Loud is good.  

Deep Purple - Made in Japan

The loudest concert and the epic versions of songs like Highway Star are included on this album.  These days I'll listen to a few songs at a time, but I used to listen to the whole thing  in one go when I was younger.  I go back to this album for the sheer brilliance on display by each member of ultimately the best version of this band.  Blackmore is agility personified on Highway Star and John Lord paints with the keyboards.

Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here

A dark work full of existential angst and sounds that stood the test of time comes out of the covers in winter.  I remember getting my copy delivered in a nice box from Street Records in Hillbrow and the person at the post office desk asked me what type of music is this that you have to import it.  I looked out of the window at the winter sky of Bloemfontein and said that it is was stuff that would never sell.  Well, I guess, it did sell, but not in the Republic.  Haunting, alive and crisp, it stands the test of time.  

Peter Gabriel - So

From Red Rain to In Your Eyes this album rocks with great production and brilliant lyrics.  Music for the thinking person.  This is one of those albums that will get you drumming along, humming tunes and crying with a sense of loss on one or two cuts.  Be prepared to come through drained and ready for a nap.

"Moved on to another town

Tried hard to settle down

For every job, so many men

So many men no-one needs"

Martha and the Muffins - This is the Ice Age

1981 yielded a gem of an album from this Canadian band.  It has dark and bright spots of music, layered to paint a stunning image of the things we were experiencing. It was clear our optimism was wasted, we were thinking about better times past, we were coming to grips with the restlessness of love, realising we should be careful what we call love.  And we retreated behind manufactured personas.  A difficult album to get into, but absolutely worthwhile.

"We talk of parks and simple places,

Sense the thickness of the air.

Highly strung like nervous guitars

My fingers make waves in you.  

We're afraid to call it love,

Let's call it swimming..."

Roxy Music - Avalon

I know, I know, it should be an earlier work that I mention, but no, this is the one that swings and flows like dark chocolate laced with chili.  This was one of the big releases of 1982.  The title track is stunning, bass in front, sweeping synths and harmonies, Bryan  Ferry sounding fragile, Andy Mackay hits the mother of sax solos and Phil Manzanera does great work on guitar.  Andy Newmark drums to within an inch of your soul rhythm on every track.  Pour some wine, get comfy on a couch with someone you can trust in love, and flood the room with this sound.  Tip: put on repeat play. 

Rush - Moving Picture

If you love progressive hard rock then this is a must.  This is the eighth album from the three guys from Canada.  The songs tell stories, each a little movie of sorts.  If you ever go racing in your car, load up Red Barchetta, and wait for the adrenaline to kick in.  Only once is enough to trigger the rush every time you play this song.

The recording is crisp and it is best to listen to this loud and on a proper sound system.  

Steely Dan - Aja

This album from 1977 is the definition of the rare alloy called jazz-rock.  It swings, rocks, oozes blues and jazz rhythms. Lounge lizards in disguise, hip kids in normal pants... you go and give it a spin.

"This is the night

Of the expanding the man 

I take one last drag 

As I approach the stand 

I cried when I wrote this song 

Sue me if I play too long 

This brother is free 

I'll be what I want to be" 

Keith Jarrett - My Song

Jarrett, Jan Garbareck, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen recorded a hauntingly beautiful album that almost defines the jazz from Scandinavia for me, even though Keith is an American.  If you buy one song off this LP, it must be Country.  So you can be infatuated and buy the rest!

Talking Heads - Remain in Light

This is the fourth studio album from Talking Heads and it showcases Brian Eno and Adrian Belew (one of the best guitarists at the time).  The music was way ahead of the times and the songs are about important things.  This was, to my mind, the last worthwhile TH album.   The rhythms are frenetic on some of the songs, and David Byrne works through emotions with a voice that burns holes in your soul.  Whispering Wind is still relevant, and The Great Curve is a gut wrenching masterpiece.  

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

From Canada, this band performs music that kicks you in the gut.  Mangled pop tunes, tough lyrics and current issues.  A new album is due out this year, but rush over to iTunes and get this full CD.  It is not easy stuff, you will not sing along in the car on all of them....  I think this one will stand the test of time.  

Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal

I love the Icelandic sound: Jónsi, Sigur Rós, Björk.  Sometimes difficult to get into, but really good, and this is a lovely way to be exposed to the sound.  The music is fresh, honest and different.  

We all have different tastes.  For me the test is whether I am emotionally touched again and again by the music.  Will it take me to new places?  These albums do it for me.  Respond here and tell us what is an exceptional album you like to listen to.  Could be fun.

The Oceans Are Dying

Yeah right mate!

Yes, you read that right.  We have no idea what the oceans are about.  It may be changing under the pressure we are putting on the life in it, but to be honest, we have no clue.

Why are we saying it is dying? Because humans are raping the resources?  Because we see fewer species around?  More species in the oceans have survived extinction cycles than those on dry land it seems.  Mammals are young compared to fish, for example.  I look at the power of the rising seas and I see a different story emerging.  Climate change, and we again have so little evidence to show we brought it on or that we can control it, will cause oceans to expand and to limit the land we can use. Perhaps we'll kill ourselves when we keep on breeding like we do and when we keep on wasting like we do.

But when it is over, the waves will crash on a beach, all sorts of animals will continue to live like before, and perhaps a new species will colonise the planet.  The waves will still be there, like they were there today and every day before.

As a Christian I know that we are not looking after the beasts of this planet and the planet itself as we were instructed to do.  For that we will surely pay a price.  I also know that saying this here in this blog will irritate the living daylights out of some of you.  So be it.  Let us just agree that as a species we are too smart for our own good.  We are greedy and selfish, we have given up the simple norms that can help us be responsible and we have decided to become the masters of our own reality.

Let me ask the obvious question to end this piece: why would our reality be the ultimate truth?  Or a final outcome?  Why would the twisted logic we now try to steer by be the right star to follow?  You answer that while I walk on the beach and celebrate the oceans.  From there, by the Grace of God, we'll see a new beginning.

April 2013, Rarotonga, Pacific Ocean.