iblog

Caroline: There was a time when sausages were pretty revolting and were only eaten by those on a very low budget. Nowadays good sausages have become fit for the gourmet and it looks as if bacon is going that way too. People are no longer prepared to put up with the rubbish which shrinks to almost nothing and leaves that grim white scum when cooked. Sales of top-notch bacon have increased by more than 30% in a year and it not only appears on the breakfast table but on the restaurant menu in pasta dishes such as carbonara and, one of my favourites, wrapped around monkfish. The supermarkets all have their own premium brands but my prize has to go to the Scottish producer Ramsay of Carluke. They have a website where you can place an order online, not only for bacon but sausages, hams and black pudding too.

Caroline: Although it’s a good few years since I commuted into London on a daily basis I can still remember how grim it was. Things have got much worse in the intervening years so I thought that perhaps the academics at Nottingham Trent who have come up with a study entitiled “Resilience and Positive Coping as Protection from Commuting-Related Stressors and Strain”, were on to a winner. They found that the worst stress comes from lack of space (and I would think,seats), loud music, delays and bad smells. Ideas for coping include listening to music (could be stressful for other commuters though), admiring attractive people (could get you into trouble), use of tobacco and alcohol (not an option on many trains), talking on a mobile(extremely irritating to others), travelling outside rush hour (not an option for the majority of workers), reading, writing or using a laptop (hard when there is so little space) - hmm - no ground-breaking solutions there then!

Anna: Members of the East African Community (EAC), that’s Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania with Burundi and Rwanda set to join in July 2007, last week signed a protocol that establishes the East African Civil Aviation Safety and Oversight Agency (CASSOA). This is the first such agreement on the African continent, and it is hoped CASSOA will help promote growth in vital regonal industries, including tourism and flower, fruit and vegetable growing. These are sectors where rapid transfer of goods and a lack of red-tape are essential. It will also have an impact on disaster management and make the movement of emergency staff and resources easier. Hopefully, the USA will see the CASSOA accord as a good opportunity to implement its Open Skies Agreement to allow direct flights. Currently, it’s an agreement on paper only, and no commercial airline is at present allowed to operate direct flights to the US from any EAC airport.

Anna: I’m normally a fan of the Observer Food Monthly supplement, anyway, but given that the April 07 edition is dedicated to veggies, I’m loving it more than usual! As well as a host of lip-smackingly good recipes from Nigel Slater, there are recommendations for meat-free restaurants, veggie wine and an amusing list of “veggie-come-latelies” - famous types who have fallen off the veggie wagon. Did you know Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly Osbourne, Josh Hartnett and Avril Lavigne are all committed vegetarians, while Liv Tyler was once vegan but now quite likes a steak, and even animal-loving Anthea Turner succumbed to a bacon buttie, apparently. It’s a great read, far better than some of the foody magazine that you can buy, which is not bad when you consider it comes free with the Observer. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to do some cooking…

Rushda: I was a little surprised to see recent research saying that there is actually no long-term benefit of babies having toys to play with. Though games and books are good for development at the time, the Institute of Education has found no significant future associations, and apparently the most important thing is for mothers to talk to children and play with them themselves.

Now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. What is most important to little kids is having all the attention, love, and real communication they need. My own little niece is very bright (though I do say so myself!) and has little interest in toys compared to playing games with and chatting to her family. I think it’s important to realise however, that it may not be the toys themselves which are the key factor here. What may matter more is simply happiness, where the happier a kid is when younger, the better their future prospects. It just so happens that human interaction gives more happiness than toys.

Rushda: I’ve always been a great fan of Monopoly, and like many people I think it’s the most fun boardgame there is. But I’ve never really been able to recognise many of the street names. It was therefore interesting to see that a new board is in production, the streets of which will be decided entirely by user votes online. Named the Monopoly Here and Now UK Edition, each street will be an individual city, and the more the votes there are for the city, the better the street it gets on the board. Everyone can cast their votes for any city they like here and you are allowed one vote per day until the deadline which is in 26 days. So if you want to show some city patriotism and make sure Exeter isn’t the new Monopoly’s Mayfair (indeed, it currently tops the leaderboard with over 3000 votes!), then get voting and maybe your city will make its mark in Monopoly history.

Alex: As my iblog colleague Anna noted, the first round of the French presidential election witnessed an incredible 85% turn-out. In part this might be the result of the leading lights of French hip-hop getting behind the push to vote, but particularly behind the vote to keep crypto-Fascist Le Pen (for definite) and neo-Thatcherite Sarkozy (very often) out of the running. The message is clear “You have got to vote and you have got to learn about politics. The most dangerous thing in the world is ignorance”.

Recommendations? The diversity in French hip-hop is huge - almost every sub-genre is represented, but I’ll make two selections. The first is TTC. They come over at times like an equally electro, equally floor filling, equally Casio-rave French version of Spank Rock - hence, occasionally big dumb fun. At others they hit like the glitched delights of Prefuse 73, Machinedrum, Push Button Objects et al. Their Modeselektor collaboration entitled “Dancing Box” is too good for mortal ears. Incidentally, Thom Yorke of popular beat combo The Radioheads is a Modeselekor fan and included them on his rather hip-hop-centric iTunes mixtape. Watch this video and tell me they don’t tear it up with their filthy Gameboy twitchiness (the lyrics are about as stupid as they come, or so I am told). Secondly, Saïan Supa Crew, whose beats are more straight cut, but whose flows and beatboxing are staggering - a more serious group generally, whose lyrics reflect the problems of those living on the margins of French society, those who live in the Parisian banlieues for example. And MC Feniski is quoting the linked article, stating “Though his vision of France is worrying, economically there are some things in the programme of Sarkozy that look logical to us” - a fairly balanced view.

Rushda: I’d like to think I’m at least a little clued up about fashion, but I’ve never ever understood the mentality behind camping outside shops at ridiculously hours to be the first to grab hold of new clothing. If it’s a sale and there’s not much to go round, sure, if early buyers will get better deals, that’s fine too. But why queue up forever in the freezing cold just to simply buy it first. As Lottie pointed out a while back about shoppers rioting in a new Primark, it was not as if the customers were actually gaining anything from getting such budget clothing early anyway. And now, the next thing in line is Topshop’s new Kate Moss collection which will hit the streets on 1st May. Topshop is already taking various steps to prevent crowd control problems by allowing shoppers to buy online from 4.30am on the day. I really don’t get the excitement over buying it early. I mean, surely any attempt at being unique in owning the first pieces will be clouded by the fact that only a few days later hundreds of other young women will be seen wearing the same thing.

Alex: Prog, or progressive rock, is perhaps one of the most maligned genres in history, particularly in punk’s aftermath. This is probably due to one man more than any other - Rick Wakeman - whose excursions into the genre verge on the absurd. This is the man whose music sound-tracked on ‘on ice’ spectacular and whose albums attempt to capture the life of Henry XIII. Yet when you replace the words pointless pretension with the genres true aim, ruthless experimentalism, you are far closer to getting a handle on what prog means, and why it is an incredible genre to lose yourself in. Most of the fun the the exploration itself, discovering new bands and revelling in the worlds they create. No band is better at creating worlds than the sublime French act Magma. From bleak post-apocalytic soundscape, to operatic explosions, to jazzy textures, to through-going classic minimalism. From the blast of the drums, the infinite depth of the horns, to the insane vocals to the Miles Davis fusion sound of their early work - they are beyond reproach. The albums are sung in Kobaïan, a language created by their drummer Christian Vander to explain the story of the planet Kobaïa. It preceded Sigur Rós’ hopelandish constructed language by thirty years. Pretentious, yes. Brilliant, yes.

After all as John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and (the far, far better) Public Image Limited supposedly said there is only so long you can resist the lure of prog… There is no doubt in the line of influence here - PiL where certainly listening to the same elements of the avant garde as the prog pioneers when they made the fantastic and post-punk defining “Metal Box” record.

So leave your cool at the door and get into Zehl or the amazing bands that formed the Rock in Opposition movement. Then get into their heirs, such as Present, Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses and Guapo. Only by listening will you realise that in fact you really are that cool. No scene, no money - all art.

Rushda: Sheryl Crow, the once popular singer who no one really hears much about nowadays, is doing her bit for the environment by campaigning for a ban on toilet paper. She has suggested “only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required”. I think this is crazy. I’m all for helping the environment but this is really going too far. You can’t start going economical to such an extreme about basic important hygeine issues. What’s next, use your hands? Not to be crude but I really pity her partner for what he has to deal with.