Jonathan Chatwin RSS

Glastonbury - Day One

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-07-17T12:53:30+01:00

This is the morning after Michael Jackson’s death, an event we commemorated by watching about thirty seconds of the coverage, getting bored and carrying on with our last minute rehearsal. ...Our plan is to make it in, get the tents up and head off to the main stage for Fleet Foxes. ...This time I get out of the car and speak to a supervisor who immediately understands that we are indeed allowed access and waves us in.

Like, our refusal to commit, you know?

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-05-23T15:28:07+01:00

Not only has the internet and email made it easier than ever previously to distance oneself from one’s opinions (just look at the mind-numbingly idiotic comments on any public news site - full of observations you would never hear expressed in speech), but the professional culture that surrounds us in white collar work constantly encourages us to hedge our bets, and refrain from speaking with conviction, lest our words lead to our being held accountable. This argument is briefly and cogently expressed in an excellent article in the New York Times, called ‘The Case for Working With Your Hands’ by Matthew Crawford: “Survival depends on a crucial insight: you can’t back down from an argument that you initially made in straightforward language, with moral conviction, without seeming to lose your integrity.

Web 2.0

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-05-22T19:44:23+01:00

I fear I may have fallen out of love with New Media - hence the sporadic blog posts. However, allow me the indulgence of sharing some recent unrelated photos with you. That is all.

It's finally here....

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-05-19T14:05:39+01:00

After some months of procrastination, I’m pleased to announce: You Can’t Reach the Highway from Here ...Also to be available on iTunes & boothillrecords.com

Hard Times

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-04-14T21:49:13+01:00

Trading a rich man’s money for a rich man’s name ...But for the failures there’s no one left to take the blame. ...There’s other people’s money in the drawers of the offices

Date for your diaries

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-15T12:10:19+00:00

I’m honoured to have been invited to chair a session at this year’s Oxford Literary Festival on the work and life of Bruce Chatwin. ...In this session, a panel of the author’s friends, family and critics will examine Chatwin’s work and legacy, discussing the significant contribution of the author to post-war British fiction and travel writing. The panel will include Hugh Chatwin, Bruce’s brother, his friend Katherine McLean and the Chatwin scholars Nicholas Murray and Jonathan Chatwin and will take audience questions at the end of the session.”

Grayling

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-03T13:59:43+00:00

“There is a very good reason why the lives, loves and tragedies of “celebrities” and public figures are so interesting to so many people. It is the same reason why people watch television soap operas, go to the cinema, read novels and gossip. It is that we need to peer into other lives in order to understand and manage our own.

Alive and Kicking

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-11T13:45:45+00:00

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The lure of live performance has once again called me back into its warm embrace, both in my capacity as songwriter (the forthcoming EP must not just be left to flounder) and guitarist (for the lovely and very talented Miss Ellie Williams). ...The Transatlantic Sessions, Exmouth Festival - 26th May, The Manor Hotel

The Briefcase

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-11T13:42:48+00:00

For those of you who simply can’t get enough of my subtle wit, I’ll now be periodically contributing to the blog of friend and fellow traveller, Struan McRae Spencer. You can find him, and me, at vitaminbriefcase.com. Don’t think, however, that I’ll be neglecting the loyal followers of this here website; updates will continue as sporadically as always.

Let's all go back to sticks and hoops.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-04T12:59:44+00:00

Coming Soon...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-03T12:52:27+00:00

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Fred the Shred

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-03-03T08:14:08+00:00

Not a popular pursuit at present, I understand, but it strikes me that the British media and public are currently embarked upon a witch hunt intended to obscure the real truth of the current economic crisis - namely that we all, individually, have been too greedy, and too willing to borrow other people’s money. We can’t separate our economic institutions from the rest of our lives in the way one can an enemy in war time. Yet it seems apparent that, at the present moment, we are turning the banking system and those who work in it into the modern equivalent of Social Democracy in 1930s and 40s Germany.

Coming Soon...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-02-26T16:04:31+00:00

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Trimble

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-02-24T12:45:20+00:00

I’m pleased to see that Exeter did indeed get knocked out of University Challenge by a championship side, but I do wish people would stop making vast generalisations about what the show says about our culture/society. I haven’t read an article yet that hasn’t used the programme to illustrate some vague point about falling standards or the value of a classical education. ... It just happens to be the visible peak of a world of intelligence that hides itself away at University.

Onion

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-02-23T21:09:15+00:00

With thanks to Faceometer, whose excellent blog you should be checking out as a matter of course.

Better and Better

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-01-29T15:11:00+00:00

Bush moved in, he exercised his presidential decorating prerogatives and asked his wife, Laura, to supervise the design of a new rug. ... Bush loved to regale visitors with the story of the rug, whose sunburst design, he liked to say, was intended to evoke a feeling of optimism. ...During a meeting last week with retired military officials, before he signed an executive order shutting down the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Mr.

RIP

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-01-27T21:15:42+00:00

Photo: Robert Spencer for The New York Times

The fate of the humanities

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-01-19T21:20:03+00:00

Here is a statement by the philosopher Michael Oakeshott that may stand as a representative example: “There is an important difference between learning which is concerned with the degree of understanding necessary to practice a skill, and learning which is expressly focused upon an enterprise of understanding and explaining.” ...The answer is understanding and explaining anything as long as the exercise is not performed with the purpose of intervening in the social and political crises of the moment, as long, that is, as the activity is not regarded as instrumental – valued for its contribution to something more important than itself. ...It may be fun to argue its merits (as I have done), but that argument may be merely academic – in the pejorative sense of the word – if it has no support in the real world from which it rhetorically distances itself.

PR

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-01-19T17:58:33+00:00

Jonathan Chatwin's fascination with American music results in no small part from his having been subjected to his father's constant repetition of the same old John Denver and Don McLean CDs in the early years of his childhood. 'Some of it must have seeped in somewhere,' says Jonathan, 'though I'd be unhappy to a degree to credit the whole of my musical career to the influence of John Denver.' With a songwriting style which owes much to the tradition of Springsteen and Steve Earle, Jonathan's music certainly doesn't convey the easy emotions of commercial country artists, with a hard edge of disillusion running through much of his writing.

Panic!

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-01-05T12:39:44+00:00

It’s time to cancel any plans for the next couple of days, make sure you have plenty of food and water in the house, and fit the snow chains to the car. ...“[A] belt of sleet and snow showers running down through East Anglia and the South East could leave 1cm (0.4in) of snow on the ground this morning. It could also wash away the grit spread by councils during the night and leave widespread ice on roads and pavements during the morning rush hour.”

The Far Side

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2009-01-01T17:54:22+00:00

I’m sure we all have high hopes for the coming 365 days; personally, I’m hoping to attain my goal of owning a small Caribbean island before the year is through (who says New Year’s Resolutions suffer from a lack of realism?). ...2) The rest of the world discovered that people really are as stupid as I’ve always said they are and that we’re slowly turning into a country of reactionary, small minded idiots. ...6) I fell in love with Wales all over again, and began to foster dreams of a small cottage in the Black Mountains where I can curl up and read whilst the rest of the world descends into chaos.

The wrong side of New Year

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-12-26T12:46:26+00:00

They say you can’t reach the highway from here. ...She says you can’t reach the highway from here. ...They say you can’t reach the highway from here.

Festivities

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-12-17T11:52:58+00:00

However, in the brief shopping period left before Christmas, I wanted to refer back to a passing allusion I made to the greatness of Richard Ford some weeks ago and encourage those of you who, like me, had left him on the shelf in favour of those great misanthropes Updike and Roth, to acquire from St Nick all three volumes of his Frank Bascombe trilogy. ... If the point of literature is that it reflects life back at one and allows the communion of solace with a more romantic version of the self, then Richard Ford may very well be the great writer of the late twentieth century. And I’d stand on Don Delillo’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

Infantile, I know, but I couldn't resist

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-12-09T21:31:20+00:00

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Boot Hill Christmas

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-12-09T21:29:59+00:00

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I lost my heart...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-12-09T21:29:46+00:00

Angelus Novus

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-11-20T22:40:52+00:00

Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. ... But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward.

America, America

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-11-11T12:05:15+00:00

This is a county-by-county representation of electoral results. Oddly beautiful, don’t you think?

Straight outta Camden (Kings Cross, actually)

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-11-11T09:48:13+00:00

Exeter St Davids-London Waterloo. 22/10/08

The content of their character.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-11-05T21:12:45+00:00

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Sportswriter

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-10-16T11:30:10+01:00

And you think: this must’ve been the way it was once in my life, though you didn’t know it then, and don’t really even remember it - a feeling of wind on your cheeks and your arms, of being released, let loose, of being the light-floater. And since that is not how it has been for a long time, you want, this time, to make it last, this glistening one moment, this cool air, this new living, so that you can preserve a feeling of it, inasmuch as when it comes again it may just be too late. ... And in truth, of course, this may be the last time that you will ever feel this way again.”

Shows

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-10-16T11:27:53+01:00

Upcoming shows at The Oddfellows, Exeter (22nd Oct) and The Cross Kings, Kings Cross, London (24th Oct). The Oddfellows gig is free to come along to, and is in the very civilised downstairs room of that pub. Cross Kings is £5, but there are a number of other fabulous bands on the bill!

White Noise

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-09-08T15:36:41+01:00

"We create beautiful and lasting things, build vast civilizations." "Gorgeous evasions," he said. "Great escapes."

Contemporary Fictions

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-09-07T20:13:56+01:00

"As I keep saying in this space, the problem with contemporary publishing is the narrowing of range, the lack of ambition, the failure to encourage real originality and real innovation, the playing safe with more-of-the-same which is what you get when the marketing people rather than the people with genuine literary taste are calling the shots." Nicholas Murray - The Bibliophilic Blogger

The Mighty Ho!

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-09-07T20:11:57+01:00

Finally - I can announce that Daddy Ho! will be making their triumphant return to live performance at a secret London venue at the end of October. More details via www.daddyho.com coming very soon.

Eagleton

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-09-07T20:06:48+01:00

Sarah Palin - whatever the polls say right now - will turn out to be an albatross around McCain’s neck. The last VP candidate to wait this long to give a press interview was Thomas Eagleton - and we know how that turned out.

Springsteen w/ Tom Morello - The Ghost of Tom Joad

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-09-07T20:04:53+01:00

Promo shout out

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-08-26T12:51:00+01:00

For those of you who fancy hearing some of my melancholy solo songs, you can now head over to this last.fm page, where the whole of the December Nights EP is streaming for free. Also, for no particular reason, please enjoy some recent mobile snapshots, including one of my boy Nick Rosier whipping some cream into shape.

I know, they don't have the interweb in Vietnam.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-08-26T12:46:21+01:00

“Is a man who is just discovering the Internet qualified to lead a restoration of America’s economic and educational infrastructures? Is the leader of a virtually all-white political party America’s best salesman and moral avatar in the age of globalization? Does a bellicose Vietnam veteran who rushed to hitch his star to the self-immolating overreaches of Ahmad Chalabi, Pervez Musharraf and Mikheil Saakashvili have the judgment to keep America safe?”

Hot Town

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-08-17T11:58:40+01:00

This kind of thing represents exactly why I stopped reading The Guardian; it represents the sort of soft-headed thinking that seems to pervade editions of the paper, particularly at the weekend. Fabulously, the BBC monthly forecast is assuring me that things won’t be getting better until September (in weather terms, that is - I don’t look to the BBC meteorologists for predictions of a more existential nature). ... It isn’t helped that this time last year I was in a sweltering New York City, eating bagels, drinking coffee and generally wondering why, when I dislike urban spaces in general, I can’t resist a big sweaty city like Barcelona or New York.

State of the nation

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-08-03T09:39:34+01:00

You can be on the end of a wharf in Provincetown and still feel as if you're in downtown Manhattan or central London. ...McCain from the one who said in South Carolina last year that it was important for leaders to communicate with bloggers, “as painful as that might be.” ...McCain who in an interview with Fortune magazine two years ago called himself a “Neanderthal” about computers, in contrast to his wife, Cindy, whom he called a “wizard.”

But does it come in international rescue orange?

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-07-15T12:56:19+01:00

The NY Times clearly has journalists to burn.

Mmmm, bendy.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-07-04T14:29:48+01:00

In other news since I’ve been off air, Madam Marie, spiritualist and fortune teller made famous by Bruce Springsteen’s 4th of July, Asbury Park, has died. ...“Back in the day when I was a fixture on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, I'd often stop and talk to Madam Marie as she sat on her folding chair outside the Temple of Knowledge. I'd sit across from her on the metal guard rail bordering the beach and watch as she led the day trippers into the small back room where she would unlock a few of the mysteries of their future.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-06-14T22:08:55+01:00

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'The World Is What It Is'

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-06-02T22:30:11+01:00

Anyway, I was thinking about the subject mainly as a result of review in this week’s TLS of a biography by Patrick French of the novelist and arch-solipsist VS Naipaul. The review concludes with a quotation from JA Froude’s Life of Carlyle which offers a redemptive opinion on the matter, and one with which I would like, but ultimately find impossible, to wholly concur: ...Such faults were but as the vapours which hang about a mountain, inseparable from the nature of the man.

Your Debut Album

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-06-02T17:51:17+01:00

The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. If you want to do this again, you’ll hit refresh to generate new quotes, because clicking the quotes link again will just give you the same quotes over and over again. 3 - Go to flickr’s “explore the last seven days” http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/

Before this city belonged to me, it belonged to my dad.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-06-02T17:10:19+01:00

Daily Sport

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-05-30T00:12:24+01:00

My opinion is that 95% of the problems that we currently face are the result of factors not under the control of our national government. Granted, I don't think that Brown has managed the perceptive issues around this downturn particularly well, but I hardly think that he can control the upward cost of crude oil. The irony comes when one realises that the people moaning about the increased cost of living, and who are demanding a cut in fuel duty/tax/food prices are those same Daily Mail reading, middle-England xenophobes who constantly deride the welfare state and believe that the government should not interfere in people's lives.

Everything's coming up roses

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-05-19T13:14:55+01:00

NY Times explains Microsoft's attempts: 'to refute what we might call the Single-Era Conjecture, the invisible law that makes it impossible for a company in the computer business to enjoy pre-eminence that spans two technological eras. Good luck to Steven Ballmer, the company’s chief executive since 2000, as he tries to sustain in the Internet era what his company had attained in the personal computing era. ...It’s unfortunate, as a $300 billion prize could be collected by Microsoft shareholders: that would be the increase in market capitalization, should the share price return to its high of $59.56, attained in 1999, from its current price of $29.99.

But why would anyone want it?

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-05-16T14:46:26+01:00

(Fortune) -- Microsoft and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative announced Thursday that the Windows operating system would soon be available on the so-called XO, also known as the "$100 laptop." In interviews, executives made it clear that this could be a catalytic shift in perception and market success for the innovative but up-to-now aberrant laptop intended for the poor children of the world. ...Like the regular, Linux-based version, it will at first actually cost closer to $200, because the project has not yet achieved the volumes that could drive costs down.

No Way Back

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-05-13T18:32:04+01:00

We have the Boot Hill Records Revue on the 25th May, which will feature Hannah Martin playing a lovely solo set, as well as Tom Allen and others not yet confirmed. On the 27th, I will be in Plymouth, at a venue as yet unknown to me, whilst on the 28th, I'll be at 11a in Exmouth. ... On a related matter, anyone who finds themselves at a loss this Thursday evening should head to the Amber Rooms, Exeter, for this:

Vacilar

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-05-06T23:08:31+01:00

I'm very pleased to note the release of Tom Allen's EP 'Vacilar' on the Boot Hill site; Tom has been a great friend and staunch supporter of mine for some time, and it's great to see his stuff gaining a wider audience. If you live London-way be sure to check out his myspace for upcoming gigs: www.myspace.com/tomallen400. Alternatively, just look for the zebra skin cowboy hat at this year's festivals.

Home

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-05-05T21:11:06+01:00

The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude which suits ...'Frost at Midnight'

Fork Handles

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-30T22:29:26+01:00

I find it astonishing that, living in a city with at least 5 big record shops, I was unable to not only buy the album, but struggled to find anyone in said shops that had ever heard of either Helm or The Band (what band? ...Anyway, it is, unsurprisingly, awesome; stand out tracks include SIngle Girl, Married Girl and the fabulous The Mountain, written, of course, by Steve Earle. He recorded a pretty smoking version with the Del McCoury band, but the layering of vocals and great violin playing on Helm's recording blows Earle out of the water.

The home front

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-22T17:51:54+01:00

Whilst I'd argue that the outcome of goings-on across the pond is perhaps more significant to our lives and culture than the upcoming local elections, I'd also accept that British politics is not, at present, of great appeal. ...Yet, our whole tax system is based on the principle that there will always be winners and losers and - to be frank - the sums involved here are truly insubstantial. ...As far as I can see, this controversy has been provoked by a hostile media, and has been given longevity by the desire of middle England to attack this Labour government.

Don't screw it up America...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-22T12:06:53+01:00

Barack Obama by Rick Meyerowitz

You'll be coming down...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-21T10:31:10+01:00

I'm thankfully getting close to the point of completing the work I've been engaged upon for almost four years, and am just beginning to re-adjust my word-addled mind to the idea that I'm not going to have to be constantly thinking, and constantly working. One nice thing about such a long undertaking, however, is that it lends life the sense of a continuum; looking back over the last years, I can map out my life in the progress of my thesis. ...I've been lucky to have had all this time to work so single-mindedly, and it strikes me now that writing a thesis isn't so much about the research or even the physical act of construction, but is rather designed to alter one's patterns of thought.

I'm sure this is less fun than it sounds...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-21T02:16:42+01:00

A Spanish fishing boat with 26 crew on board has been seized by pirates off Somalia, officials in Spain say. They say the Playa de Bakio - a Basque tuna boat - was attacked about 250 miles (400km) off the coast. ...Somali coastal waters are among the most hazardous in the world, despite the presence of US navy patrols.

Philadelphia

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-20T12:58:44+01:00

Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Gigs, gigs, gigs

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-19T13:26:36+01:00

Just a quick reminder that we have shows tonight and tomorrow: 19th April - All-acoustic folk showcase at the Manor Hotel, Exmouth. ...

Novamind = Insanely great

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-16T10:52:01+01:00

Don't worry about the detail of this... How great is my mind map, though?

Two Weeks Too Late

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-15T15:50:24+01:00

"The Arabic channel al-Jazeera Children's is to join with the Welsh public broadcaster S4C to co-produce a live action series about a group of singing multiracial sheep in what will be its first UK co-production. The two broadcasters, together with the Welsh independent production company Cynhyrchiadau Ceidiog Creations, will make the 52-part high-definition second series of Baaas, a live action, pre-school show about an extended family of all-singing, all-dancing sheep. Work on the series, which will be made in Wales by Cynhyrchiadau Ceidiog Creations, will begin in May.

Bright Young Things

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-11T12:02:03+01:00

As recently as 10 years ago, a typical campus dining experience was a cafeteria offering overcooked meat, canned vegetables and instant mashed potatoes. But as palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms. ...“I didn’t apply to Bates, because, well, I ate there, the meal was not very good,” said Lucas Braun, a 17-year-old senior at Westtown School, outside of Philadelphia, who has been accepted at several colleges in the Northeast.

Boot Hill Records Revue

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-10T11:42:55+01:00

Upcoming shows in the new accordion themed 'Shows' page. Also enjoy this artistically blurred photo of me and Martin at the Picturehouse last month. ...

RLS

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-06T01:24:44+01:00

'You may paddle all day long; but it is when you come back at nightfall, and look in at the familiar room, that you find Love or Death awaiting you beside the stove; and the most beautiful adventures are not those we go to seek.'

Are Penn. democrats about to do the decent thing...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-04-06T01:21:15+01:00

If you would vote for Hillary ...3 weeks ago, in the same poll, Obama lagged behind Clinton by 26 points.

City of Water

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-30T18:45:58+01:00

From a letter sent by American essayist Robert Benchley upon his arrival in Venice: "Streets full of water. Advise."

Today newsreader laughs. BBC in 'meltdown'.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-28T13:45:15+00:00

Today's Charlotte Green, she of the definitive BBC accent, got caught out by a fit of the giggles whilst reading an obituary live on air this morning. It seems she was amused by the preceding news story, concerning a very early recording of the human voice, and was unable, along with the appropriately named though generally dour Jim Naughtie, to control her hysterics. The brilliance of the story comes in the reporting of apparent 'meltdown' at the BBC press office as a result, which proves two things: 1) Today still matters & 2) Radio 4 listeners clearly have an excess of time on their hands.

Daddy Ho! are now at last.fm

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-24T23:19:23+00:00

You can stream the full album, add to your playlists and share with others all via the magic of the interweb. Check out the page here.

Attack of the Nerds

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-20T22:09:48+00:00

Does anyone else think that the Conservative shadow cabinet is made up of people who look like the nerdy kids everyone hated when they were at school?

Bird's Nest Soup

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-17T00:23:50+00:00

"Tibetan protests against Chinese rule have spread to another part of China, after days of demonstrations and violence in Tibet's main city, Lhasa." from bbc.co.uk. ...The Chinese come out of this looking not only distinctly shoddy in their approach to human rights, but also secretive, disingenuous and deeply untrustworthy. ... The Olympics are ready to roll in a few short months, and what do we find the host country doing?

16/03/08

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-09T13:32:03+00:00

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Lies and Slander

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2008-03-08T14:36:07+00:00

It strikes me that in ramping up her rhetoric, and in particular questioning Obama's qualifications to become commander-in-chief, Hilary Clinton runs the risk of handing the Republicans pre-prepared anti-Obama slogans, should he win the nomination (as still, given the maths, seems likely) and go on to contest McCain in November. HRC needs to be careful, not only to avoid handicapping the Democrats in the race for the White House if the nominee happens not to be her, but also if ultimately Clinton and Obama are offered on a joint ticket. Both need to remember that they are not fighting the presidential election yet, and that whatever arguments they use against each other now may come back to haunt them come the Autumn.

<font face=garamond>OctoberFest</font>

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-10-01T11:09:56+01:00

These shows will feature a new addition to the fold, namely the wonderful Hannah Martin on violin and vocals. Even if heartily sick of my depressive country schtick, Hannah is guaranteed to be worth a view. ...My moment of the festival below - getting another chance to see I'm from Barcelona on a big stage.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-08-06T11:42:40+01:00

The sun was shining, the real ale was lukewarm (I get very upset these days when you order a pint of ale and it's as cold as the lager) and the metal was heavy. ... Don't despair, dear reader, for I will return in anticipation of the End of the Road festival on the 14th of September where you might well find some friends and I performing country music in a large tent for your listening pleasure.

...I'm taking rather more edifying literature with me Stateside: some Borges; Jan Neruda's Prague Tales; perhaps even the second volume of Simon Callow's Orson Welles biog, 'Hello Americans', which I've been dying to read, oh, ever since I finished the first one.

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-07-23T11:44:51+01:00

Unlike many, I don't for a second believe that the books fail in their duty as good reading material for children; those who point out the derivative nature of the literary world inhabited by Potter et al. are somewhat blind to the formulaic nature of all children's novels - even (or perhaps particularly) C.S. ... I don't even worry particularly about the fact that many young fans of the series struggle to find other books to their liking; it must be hoped that the magic of those childhood experiences may translate into an adult faith in the power of reading, and that those who read nothing but Potter as children may progress, through perhaps Pullman, Tolkien or Lewis to the adult imaginative world of Garcia Marquez, Rushdie or Borges. ...Not only has an ailing trade begun to bank all of their annual hopes on one boy wizard, leading to endless promotion and the absurdity of pre-ordering (have you been anywhere in the last three days - be it supermarket, book shop or newsagent - that doesn't have stock of Harry Potter VII?)

Let Me Tell You A Story, Straight and True

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-04-03T14:05:37+01:00

The following day, after attempting to swipe a vintage Fender Rhodes from Femi Kuti (only kidding Femi...), we hit the road, cars packed with flight cases and speakers, in order to deliver said equipment back to whence it came in Sherborne. ... As we cruise up the A30, Tom Waits crooning from the Peugeot's stereo, I suddenly feel the need for some caffeine and suggest that we should, perhaps, stop in Honiton for a hot beverage before continuing. ...Thanks goes out to Boston Tea Party for their excellent Paninis, Honiton Dairy for agreeing to store the Bimble Inn PA, and Michael Goodden for his contribution to the Boot Hill suntan slush fund.

Take Note

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-03-21T11:12:19+00:00

We'll be playing at a number of festivals, including Glastonbury, so keep your eyes peeled for further details.
Also of interest in the upcoming Boot Hill evening on April 7th at the Exeter Phoenix. ...Finally, as part of the ongoing 'Bruce-Watch' section of this website, I feel compelled to draw your attention to the following news story. ...
PS I realise that I made a spelling error in the filename of Franklin/Franklyn below (the former is correct), but I can't really be bothered to re-upload the whole thing, so you'll just have to live with it, I'm afraid.

Firehouse/Vibraphonic

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-02-24T11:47:49+00:00

A late entry; I'll be playing at the Firehouse in Exeter tomorrow (Sunday) night, with a special guest appearance from the School of Trobar's Phil. Also, a date for your diaries for next weekend:

Right Now...

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-02-14T17:14:19+00:00

Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman & the Louisiana Philharmonic ...Steve Earle, who, when asked about the influence of Townes van Zandt, said: 'He was a real good teacher, and a real bad role model.' And, because it wouldn't be right without a bit of Bruce,

Taking lessons from Arcade Fire - NBI 23rd Feb/Picturehouse 8th March

jonathanchatwin@gmail.com — 2007-02-12T13:13:40+00:00

For someone with a literary affectation, such as myself, such cerebral Springsteen-esque rock is bound to appeal; I do, however, have a real problem with the mix of the album. I mean, I know it's currently trendy to have your vocals mixed so low you can barely hear them and, truthfully, I was never really bothered by that with the Arcade Fire or the Killers, as they aren't exactly Bukowski, are they? ... Anyway, just to inform everyone that I'm playing on 23rd Feb with Faceometer at the Picturehouse, and then again at the Picturehouse on the 8th March.