I saw this commercial for the first time on tv tonight and I thought, hang on, is this, if not quite racist, at least a bit dodgy? Beheaded male and female Black bodies and stereotypical African imagery, all very sensual to sell a brand of chocolate called Afrodisiac? When the reality of chocolate production even in 2011 still depends for a frighteningly large extent on slave labour, including child labour in cocoa production in West Africa? To be fair Kraft foods, the owner of Cote d’Or, has signed the socalled Cocoa protocol which aims to child labour in cocoa production altogether, but as the Wikipedia article says, “ten years after implementation, it is unclear if the protocol had any effect in reducing child labor”.
So yeah, it makes me a bit uncomfortable watching this.
So much of the music I like today was formed through Sandra’s tutoring. She was a child of the seventies as I was of the eighties, but much more involved in music and listening to music than I ever was. So she told me of the time she saw Blondie perform in Plymouth at a time when nobody knew them yet, of going to see Depeche Mode in Atlanta when she lived there because you went to every English band coming over because not so many English bands hit Georgia back then, of dancing in the Wigan Casino and other near-mythical discotheques. She collected music and rare records at a time when that didn’t mean having a large hard drive and a fast internet connection, when you still had to hunt for that import single in scruffy record stores in dodgy neighbourhoods, building up a massive collection of vinyl, then losing it all when one of her uncles cleared out her father’s house after his death…
In day to day life she prefered to have the radio on (BBC radio 4, natch) rather than have music on in the background, having to a certain extent grown tired of it, or at least having it on all the time. She wasn’t really interested anymore in being nerdy obsessive about her music, though was still open to new stuff. She liked hip-hop, funk, pop music like the Style Council, baroque composers like Handel or Telemann but not twentieth century composers like Stravinsky, jazz of course, everything that sounded mellifluous, so Dutch language songs were right out…
She introduced me to everything from Ann Peebles, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, the Brothers Johnson and George Benson (which would always recall summer holidays in France with her parents for her), Chaka Khan/Rufus, Outkast, De La Soul, Digible Planets, Dizzee Rascal, The Streets, Billie Holliday, Ella, Half Man Half Biscuit, and so on unsoweiter.
Sandra is not doing well, as is to be expected, but while she’s getting weaker, there still is the possibility that she can hang on a while longer, as her stubborn body fights her will to die… Not a nice position to be in. Sadly, there isn’t much we can do to help her, other than be there.
For myself, it’s all right as long as I don’t have to think too much.
Update: forgot to mention what also helps a lot is the well wishes and sympathy you all have shown over this. Thank you.
I only got an Ipod in 2007, a freebie I got at an ultimately failed job interview. With 2gb of storage it had enough room for a dozen or so albums, i.e. enough variety to last a medium length commute. Loved that thing, even if I’m no great Apple fan — something about them presenting locked down computer products as tools of freedom rubs me the wrong way — but sadly I lost it when it slipped out of a pocked while biking one day. Progress being what it is, that specialised piece of consumer electronics has been replaced by a more generalised bit of kit, my mobile phone which has the same amount of space and which cannot just hold music, but also books and movies undsoweiter.
Also ten years old today: Grand Theft Auto III. The first Grand Theft Auto was cool enough already, in all its old skool topdown 2d glory and controversial enough with its antisocial, crime glorifying violent gameplay, but once it all became 3d and the violence became up close and personal, whoa boy… Brilliant though.