Boris for Mayor? HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Sometimes new items can pass me so I was quite surprised to see the Standard headline that Boris Johnson is being considered as a Tory candidate in next year’s London mayoral election.

Does this mean that the Tories are scraping the bottom of the barrel? Wwell perhaps not – I don’t hear any news of my MP Andrew Rosindell being lined up as a candidate!. Perhaps they want someone who will make damned sure that there are mothers piling burgers through the fences of every one of our city’s primary schools. Perhaps too he can spend his free time driving around the more deprived parts of the capital in a Rolls Royce and writing about what awful places they are.

Alan Johnston freed

BBC journalist Alan Johnston has been freed after 16 weeks as a hostage in Gaza. He was handed over to Hamas officials early this morning. A witness said he was well, but had lost a lot of weight.

Speaking after his release, Mr Johnston said: "It's the most fantastic thing to be free...It became almost hard to imagine normal life again... Now it really is over and it is indescribably good to be out."

Alan Johnston had been the only western correspondent working full-time in Gaza when he was taken hostage on 12 March by the Army of Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group. The Army of Islam had also been involved in the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who remains in captivity in Gaza.

Wordless Wednesday - Burnet Moth

This week's Wordless Wednesday entry

Wagner bored everyone?

I always thought that the Nazis would cheerfully listen to Wagner day in, day out stopping only for lunch and to annex the Sudetenland. But according to a new book (the Wagner Clan) by Jonathan Carr, Wagner actually became much less popular during Hitler's rule. Apparently, Germans much preferred the likes of Carmen and Madame Butterfly. According to Carr, while Hitler himself was obsessed Wagner the party faithful were not had to be dragged kicking and screaming to performances. "We are all told that the Germans poured into opera houses to listen to Wagner as soon as Hitler came to power. The opposite is true."

Most Nazis were bored silly at the prospect of watching five-hour-long epics in which, frequently, little happens. At the 1933 gala performance of Die Meistersinger so few turned up that a furious Hitler sent patrols to drag party members out of beer gardens and brothels, according to Speer. Meanwhile, during one performance of Tristan and Isolde, Junge recalled a member of Hitler's group dropping off and having to be rescued before collapsing over the railings of the box they were in. His rescuer had himself been asleep for most of the performance!

The author has analysed the operas performed in Germany in the 1930s. In the 1932-33 season Carmen was the most performed opera in Germany, with Weber's Der Freischütz in second place. Four Wagner operas were placed next. By 1938-39 however, the highest ranked Wagner opera - Lohengrin - achieved only 12th place. It is true, though, that Wagner's music was used at key moments in the Nazi regime. The Ride of the Valkyries was broadcast to accompany reports on German air attacks, Siegfrieds Tod from Götterdammerung would be heard on German wirelesses to announce important deaths - including Hitler's own. And the overture from Rienzi was often heard on ceremonial occasions.

Hitler's personal obsession with the composer was, perhaps, partly to do with his identification with Wagner the man: he saw him as a lonely figure who had battled against the odds to achieve greatness. And as a man who clearly understood the power of spectacle he was, according to Carr, fascinated by the "nuts and bolts of the staging" of the operas.

My favourite songs normally start with “ONETOOTHREEFOR” and a buzz saw guitar riff. I am thus an utter philistine where opera is concerned and , I thus have no idea whether Carr’s views hold water or not... The idea of an opera that starts at breakfast and goes on until well after last orders fills me with dread... I would not be surprised if anyone else, including Nazis, felt the same......

Ahmadinejad shuns the limelight for once

Ahmadinejad never seems to be a man who is backward at coming forward when publicity is in the office. It is a little surprising that he has turned down a request by Oliver Stone to make a documentary about him. Apparently he refused because he considered Stone as "part of the Great Satan".

Mr Ahmadinejad apparently considers Hollywood to be a bastion of “pro-Zionist” interests, was unimpressed by Stone;s request: "While it is true that Oliver Stone is considered to be among the opposition in the US, the opposition is still part of the Great Satan," the president's media adviser, Mahdi Kalhor, told the semi-official Fars news agency. "We believe that the American cinema system is devoid of all culture and art and is only used as a device. In the last two years, the global arrogance [Iranian shorthand for the US and Britain] has made a lot of effort to portray their own image of Ahmadinejad, not the one which exists in reality. Hollywood and other Zionist media react to phenomena they don't like through different processes."

Hmm I would have thought Ahmadinejad would have jumped at the chance. It’s his loss, I suppose. Perhaps Stone will have better luck with Kim Jong Il!

Piranhas not so fearsome?

Conservationists working in Brazil have uncovered evidence that indicates that the red bellied piranha may not warrant its grisly image. A team led by Anne Magurran at the University of St Andrews studied the fish in their natural habitat and in large tanks at the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Institute in Brazil. Their observations of piranha shoals suggest the fish may have a nervous disposition and huddle into shoals out of constant fear of being eaten by other predators.

In the Amazon, when water levels are shallow, the fish are more easily picked off by large predators including river dolphins, caymans (a relative of the crocodile) and big fish such as the pirarucu. Piranhas formed large shoals, gaining safety in numbers. Although larger shoals are easier to spot, predators find it harder to pick off a single fish because of the 'confusion effect', caused by the erratic movements of the shoal. Using giant water tanks and models of birds of prey, the team simulated airborne attacks on different shoal sizes.

They found piranhas in smaller shoals were more distressed and took longer to calm down. The nervousness was monitored by observing a structure near the gills which quivers rapidly with stress. "Our study has given us a better understanding of the function of shoaling. Previously, it was thought piranhas shoaled as it enabled them to form a cooperative hunting group. However, we have found it is primarily a defensive behaviour," said Professor Magurran.

Hmm, they’ll be drummed out of the predator club for this sort of timidity, I'm sure!

Brzezinski strikes a cord

I had not heard of Mika Brzezinski until I read an interview in today’s Observer . If you have never heard of her she is an anchor on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Last week she shot to fame by kicking against the cult of celebrity by refusing to read a news story about Paris Hilton.

To the amazement of viewers she simply into the camera and apologised for the decision to put the hotel heiress's release from jail at the top of news, ahead of an important political story linked to the war in Iraq. 'I didn't choose it,' she said of the Hilton story. When her co-host, Joe Scarborough laughed at her words, she simply refused to read the story. 'No,' she said, 'I hate this story and I don't think it should be the lead.' Then she put the Hilton story down and began to read the rest of the script, opening with the phrase 'To the news now...' The moment was the first of repeated refusals by Brzezinski to read the Hilton story throughout the show. It has made her a heroine to people across America and around the world. Clips of her refusal have spread like wildfire all over the internet. Including the Poor Mouth:

Brzezinski said her actions were not planned before last Thursday, but it was at that morning's news meeting that she had just felt that she could not stand silent as the Hilton story was put on the top of the news agenda. 'My co-host and I had problems with the story at 6am, when we had our first morning meeting. I let my co-host Joe know and he told me to go with my gut. I want to thank him for his support in that,' she says. Though Scarborough knew Brzezinski was going to make a stand, he probably did not know exactly how far she would push it. 'We were making a statement on our show. I hope making it will start to change something. It became like a piece of theatre,' Brzezinski says.

Her move could easily have been a career-ending disaster. But for the moment at least it looks as if she has got away with it and perhaps even succeeded in making her point - that the news media is so saturated with celebrity gossip that serious issues are not getting discussed. It's a big problem. We need to have an open discussion about what is news and what is not,' she explains.

The Hilton story occurred at the same time as Republican senator Richard Lugar was attacking President George Bush's position on the Iraq war. Yet MSNBC's producers wanted to give the Hilton story precedence. 'It was not a story. My gut was telling me that,' she says. Nor does she regret her move. 'No regrets,' she adds defiantly 'Absolutely not.' It remains to be seen whether Brzezinski's lone voice in the wilderness will become a chorus of meaningful dissent in other newsrooms in America and around the world. By the weekend Hilton was still dominating the celebrity magazines, the tabloids and many of the cable channels. Larry King had interviewed her live on CNN. But Brzezinski thinks she may have started something.

Personally I applaud what she did. There’s far too much non news in the news. Paris Hilton is a vacuous little celebrity who adds nothing to the sum of human existence. She was arrogant and stupid enough to drive when banned so she got some jail time. Big deal! On the other hand, more fool the people for lapping up this shit .

Robyn at Three Kings III

Last few photos

Robyn at Three Kings II

Robyn

Kimberley

Morris Windsor

An ex-Higson and an ex-Department S guitarist

Mak Lamar auctioning a plastic cone (it went for £125)

Robyn (and Kimberley) at the Three Kings 30 June

Kimberley Rew

The Three kings, Clerkenwell, is a tiny pub. I think it can hold 95 people packed in like sardines. I was glad that I was one such sardine last night. Every so often Robyn does benefit gigs for Medecins sans Frontieres at the Three Kings. They are well attended and they raise a couple of £k for a very worthy cause. Rather than play his usual set he'll do a classic album (last time it was Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the time before it was the White Album) This time it was Sgt Pepper.

And an excellent night it was. Robyn was supported by fellow ex Soft Boys Kimberley Rew on guitar and Morris Windsor on drums, ex Higson Terry Edwards (a true gent) on keyboards and brass and (dammit his name escapes me!) on bass. They were tight. They also played a smattering of other 60s songs, including Rain, See Emily Play and Sunny Afternoon. I drank a lot of beer and I am suffering an appropriate hangover this morning.

It's a shame that tonight's gig had already sold out.