Posts Tagged Politics
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May 5, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 58: Burning Spear – “Marcus Garvey”
I like Burning Spear – but I didn’t know this album. And that seems a crime. But hey, this is all about fixing such crimes… I’m always on the lookout for good reggae. Because I think there’s a perception that I don’t like reggae (not true). But more than that I’m on the lookout for […]Archive
April 7, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
The 1001 Albums Challenge # 49: War – “The World Is A Ghetto”
War – another band I really only know from compilations, from hearing at other people’s places, recommendations that I’ve never quite followed up on. But as with the previous entry in this series (The Temptations) this is so totally in my wheelhouse as to be a gross oversight not knowing it already – and I’m […]Archive
March 14, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
NZ Festival Writers & Readers: A C Grayling – Democracy In Crisis
A C Grayling: Democracy in Crisis Renoulf Foyer, MFC Sunday, March 11 This Writers & Readers session was a straight-up lecture by British author, philosopher, public intellectual A C Grayling. The topic Democracy in Crisis coming from his latest work, Democracy And Its Crisis. He also spoke the previous night, although I missed that on […]Archive
February 20, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Billy Bragg: Bridges Not Walls (ep)
Billy Bragg Bridges Not Walls – EP Billy Bragg/Cooking Vinyl The fucking Brexit nonsense and the rise of Trump and general non-thinking must be exciting to someone like Billy Bragg. I’m not trying to be churlish, but imagine how easy it is for him to write songs around that? Well, actually, it has proved fine […]Archive
December 13, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib Two Dollar Radio I don’t mean this to sound at all trite, I mean it as a huge compliment – even if it might feel a forced comparison, but Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib’s work here in this book of profoundly moving, politically urgent, poetic essays reads […]Archive
December 6, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: The TED.Nugent Talks
* The first I knew of Ted Nugent was ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ – it seemed to be the first thing anyone knew of Nugent then. Now, the way most people know Ted Nugent is through the awful things he says, like: “What’s a feminist anyways? A fat pig who doesn’t get it often enough? (Don’t […]Archive
December 5, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Mavis Staples: If All I Was Was Black
Mavis Staples If All I Was Was Black Anti/Epitaph What a decade it’s been for Mavis Staples – riding on a high note ever since 2007’s We’ll Never Turn Back with a constant victory-lap of touring and this now deep collaboration with Jeff Tweedy’s Wilco. It hasn’t all been amazing, I couldn’t get too excited […]Archive
November 2, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast: Episode 88 – Anika Moa
Welcome to episode 88 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat. This is a conversation with Anika Moa. She need no introduction – but perhaps a warning: this does contain more ‘C’-words than any other podcast I’ve done. Anika burps, she cackles, she abuses me, mocks me – but within […]Archive
October 12, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast: Episode 85 – Stu McKinlay (Yeastie Boys)
Welcome to episode 85 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat. And this one is a conversation with one of those sponsors – Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys. We talk about his life and the creation and development of the Yeastie Boys beer and brand. Based in the UK now, […]Archive
September 23, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny – Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century Timothy Snyder Tim Duggan Books; 1st Edition Timothy Snyder, Professor of History at Yale Univeristy and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, breaks down big concepts into easy-to-digest bites here in a deliberately taut, concise set of fragment-essays that offers a geo-political, historical […]Archive
September 1, 2017 by Simon Sweetman