The Quality of the Cloth
Caught 30mins of second part of the Dylan thing, superb, Scorceses editing coming to the fore. Beers with Leif and Gordon, and a tube trip scratching in my moleskin. Watching Tony speak today, flying in the face of Fleet Street speculation, wholeheartedly pledging another full-term as leader, the BBC coverage deftly cutting to isolated specimens of the party-faithful, the commentators and foot-sloggers.
Here was a man who had lost the trust of his minions, having reneged on a social contract and waged war in the name of another state - the most fundamental flaws of his political career. He stood defiant, ranging the gathered flock with that Steve Bell cyclops styled 'glad-eye'. Indeed, in spite of the protective layers, the make-up and recently dyed barnet, he looked desperate, He looked cocky but exuded anxiety.... he looked like a man seeking to over-subscribe on his own sense of leadership.
And it was the audience you felt really sorry for, those that stood listening, and knowing they were hearing something they weren't sure they believed, and those more unfortunate souls that appeared to rejoice, so glad were they to hear his clarion to arms, as empty as it was. At the end the cameras caught someone encouraging Brown to "keep smiling"... he responded "Yes, I've learned to do that", laughing faux-heartily.
In India the Sari is under threat, not from Indian modernity, but from China. The Sari, the latest regional industry to suffer the Catch 22 of the global market - you could call it the reappraisal of cultural proximity. It disregards all ties with tradition and promotes the rapid switch of emphasis from production process to resources - it's all a question of capitalist propriety. A fragile thousand-year-old reality bows to the vaguaries of Indo-Sino silk-wars, and precipitates the immediate poverty of generations of craftsmen. The 'traditional methods' of the the lower castes weavers are suddenly off the pace, and within a few years they are quite literally starving. And in the midst of their suffering let nobody do them the dishonour of advising them to keep smiling.
Here was a man who had lost the trust of his minions, having reneged on a social contract and waged war in the name of another state - the most fundamental flaws of his political career. He stood defiant, ranging the gathered flock with that Steve Bell cyclops styled 'glad-eye'. Indeed, in spite of the protective layers, the make-up and recently dyed barnet, he looked desperate, He looked cocky but exuded anxiety.... he looked like a man seeking to over-subscribe on his own sense of leadership.
And it was the audience you felt really sorry for, those that stood listening, and knowing they were hearing something they weren't sure they believed, and those more unfortunate souls that appeared to rejoice, so glad were they to hear his clarion to arms, as empty as it was. At the end the cameras caught someone encouraging Brown to "keep smiling"... he responded "Yes, I've learned to do that", laughing faux-heartily.
In India the Sari is under threat, not from Indian modernity, but from China. The Sari, the latest regional industry to suffer the Catch 22 of the global market - you could call it the reappraisal of cultural proximity. It disregards all ties with tradition and promotes the rapid switch of emphasis from production process to resources - it's all a question of capitalist propriety. A fragile thousand-year-old reality bows to the vaguaries of Indo-Sino silk-wars, and precipitates the immediate poverty of generations of craftsmen. The 'traditional methods' of the the lower castes weavers are suddenly off the pace, and within a few years they are quite literally starving. And in the midst of their suffering let nobody do them the dishonour of advising them to keep smiling.
posted by johnnytoobad at 10:58 pm
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