The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Happily used Apple products over the years, as noted recently, and work in a mixed Apple/PC environment so no dog in any particular races. But for all that there are good points there are also inexplicable ones. For example. This:

Apple just surprised us all by announcing the iPhone Pocket — an all-new, but limited edition phone/fashion accessory. And it’s not cheap.

When sales open for the iPhone Pocket on Friday, November 14, pricing will begin at 149ドル for the small strap version, which is available in lemon, mandarin, purple, pink, peacock, sapphire, cinnamon, and black colorways. For 229,ドル you can get the long-strap iPhone Pocket, which is long enough to wear satchel-style. That version comes in a choice of sapphire, cinnamon and black.

It looks like a sock. A sock for your mobile. I wonder who will use it.

There was, no other word for it, incredulity at this announcement on the MacWorld podcast. As one contributor noted the price is extraordinary and it is ‘a little tone deaf’ at this point in time as they continued, with a cost of living crisis, food prices, etc and the time of year.

This looks good, if challenging.

Over the last seven decades, some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most celebrated figureheads have flirted with the imagery and theatre of the Third Reich.In This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll, award-winning music historian Daniel Rachel navigates these turbulent waters with care, asking us to look anew at the artists that have defined us, inspired us and given us joy – and consider why so many have been drawn to the imagery of a movement responsible for the twentieth century’s worst atrocities.

Oddly, I was at a Saxon/Dirk Schneider gig this last week. During Denim and Leather (trust me, it’s a classic) there were photos on the screen behind the group of jackets with patches on them of various metal bands, Metallica, Saxon (natch!), Kiss, AC/DC and in amongst them on one jacket was Gegen Nazi’s. I’ve been about ten gigs this year, ranging from BJM, High Llamas, Air. That was – bar John Grant and perhaps the Psychedelic Furs (President Gas – natch squared!), the only reference to such matters. There was a certain class about the way it was done.

Anyway here’s an accompanying playlist.

Saw these recently and was quite taken with it. Lullahush “fuses traditional Irish folk music with provocative contemporary electronic production.” A Dubliner Daniel McIntyre is the genius behind it. There’s an interesting interview with him here.

[フレーム]

[フレーム]

[フレーム]

[フレーム]

[フレーム]

From the Journal.

"I know of no other business that is so riddled with conflicts of interest other than the media," Ivan Yates told David McCullagh during the host’s first appearance in the new slot.

Following the coverage of the response by the government to the housing crisis it is difficult not to come away with the very strong sense that fundamentally this is a government that has no idea whatsoever what to do with the situation.

Indeed for all the hollow, and politically illiterate, complaints from the right and hard right amongst various media columnists in recent times (particularly around the time of the Steen failed candidacy) about this being a ‘social democratic’ government led by centre left parties the reality is that neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael appear to be willing to throw the weight of the state in any great respect – other than funding -and even there with caveats, behind solutions to ameliorate the situation. As the RTÉ politics podcast put it, this is the fourth go at this and with much the same mix.

Notable too is the lack of interest in the rental sector, one which has been under particular pressure with resulting negative outcomes for a wide number of renters. These things simply do not appear to register with them.

But then this is class politics. It was mentioned on the RTÉ podcast that it was permeating the society – and (horror!) middle class people too. Must be serious so! But the general consensus was that not a lot was going to change. Which surely raises the question what is the point of successive plans which amount to little or nothing with regard to resolving the situation?

All very good of the Taoiseach this week to say in relation to town councils that:

he had opposed the scrapping of town councils which had played an important role.

He described them as effective and bemoaned their loss, particularly when towns were flooded in recent years and adequate local resources were not in place.

But he said that once something is abolished, the system has the be brought “kicking and screaming” to restore it.

Now, remind us again who is Taoiseach, and how long he has been in office, and how long he has to go? Perhaps, given there is a Taskforce on local democracy set to report next year he might use some of his political influence in his waning years in the role to do something about this issue.

Interestingly this is on foot of a contribution from the left:

Micheál Martin was responding to Independent TD Seamus Healy who called for the return of town and borough councils which were abolished in 2014.

Mr Healy said the town of Clonmel, Co Tipperary – in his constituency – had a council dating back hundreds of years and it has been badly affected by the change.

Mr Healy added that a politician who was part of the Government that culled the councils, former minister Brendan Howlin, has publicly stated that, in hindsight, it was the wrong decision.

And perhaps Martin believes that since his fingerprints weren’t on the decision since FF weren’t in government then, this is something that can provide a point of distinction with FG. Certainly few would argue that our local government institutions have improved since abolition despite that being a rationale for the move:

On 16 October 2012, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government published Putting People First, an “action plan for effective local government”.^[4] This recommended the abolition of town councils. The town councils were abolished in June 2014 under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 ^[5]

At the time of abolition there were about 80 town councils with limited functions but at least some aspect of representation. In a state where local government is so constrained any move to constrain it further is problematic.

The Taoiseach talks of trialling the idea in a limited number of areas. Wonder how that will go.

Famously Seamus Costello was elected as a town councillor for Bray Urban District Council in 1967 (as well as being elected to Wicklow County Council at the same time).

The headline on RTÉ’s live coverage is:

Govt aims to use new builds to achieve 12,000 social homes per year

Worth following this here on RTÉ.