Thursday, September 28, 2006

Menshevik Misprint

Further to my recent post on Julius Martov and the Sexy Mistakes, Daniel from the band has got in touch to thank me for the kind words, but also to politely decline my offer to manage the band.

I think I may have scuppered my chances of becoming the next Simon Fuller when I sent them ten sheets of blank paper in an email attachment, and asked the band members to sign and initial at the bottom of each page. It was either that or my inisistence that, if they signed with me, the debut album had to be entitled 'Pavel Axelrod's Coming Home', and that the sleeve notes for the album were to be written by the editorial committee of the Socialist Standard.

Daniel also had to break the news to me that I had totally misheard the lyric to their song 'Frometa', thus rendering my deciphering of the lyric as totally meaningless. (My words, not his.)

It turns out that it isn't Salma Hayek who is their favourite actress in the lyric, but Zelda Harris of Spike Lee's Crooklyn. Therefore, the following excerpt from my original post: "I'm guessing that with mention of Hayek, who played Frida Kahlo, and the cryptic references in the lyric to Bauhaus and Cubism that the Frometa of the title is this painter. Looks like somebody's doing an Art History course in college . . . " is total bollocks*. However, I will say in mitigation that the lovely Ms Hayek had appeared on Oprah just a couple of days before, and this may have contributed to her being in the *cough* forefront of my mind at the time of listening to the song. And how was I to know that there's an actress called Zelda Harris? Every time I suggest to Kara that we watch Crooklyn when it plays on the IFC Channel, she does her best Roger Ebert impersonation, with the words: "I've seen it; it's crap".

If only I had gone with my original instincts, I wouldn't now be left with egg on my face and my credibility shot to bits. When I first heard the song, I was confused by what I thought was the line: "Salma Hayek, my favourite actress, a lot younger than us." I mean, according to imdb, Salma Hayek has just turned forty this month. How could she be a "lot younger than us"? But I pushed the doubt aside with the rationalisation that the bass player must be the lyricist for the band. I won't make that mistake again, I won't be fooled again.

*I was half right with the suggestion that was someone in the band must be doing an Art History course at college. The half being, Daniel is studying History at college.

3 comments:

Paul Anderson said...

I don't know nuffink about the band, Darren, but Martov was a decent geezer. How about settting up a virtual Menshevik Society? I'm a bit Kronstadt communard myself, but there were links...

Imposs1904 said...

Hello Paul,

Hopefully my puny efforts of publicising that much misunderstood Menshevik - by having a Boston Terrier mix named Martov, and once typing out the whole of 'The State of the Socialist Revolution', only to leave it on the desktop of the computer for a couple of months and allowing someone else to put it on the internet for the first time - will soon be dwarfed by the band hitting the big time: front cover of the NME, Mercury Music Prize nomination and one of their songs being covered by that other misunderstood Marxist, Will Young.

The Che T shirts will be consigned to the laundry basket of history, and every hipster from the East Village to Lowestoft will be wearing this image on their No Sweat T shirts.

Neil said...

Ahlam’s Story

New video.



Ahlam Souidi speaks frankly about her time as an asylum seeker in Glasgow. Her family are at the moment threatened with deportation back to a country, Algeria, where they face grave danger.

Please watch and circulate the links to this video. The idea is to get this woman and her family so well known that the Home Office will not be able to send her back to Algeria.

There will be a demo on 7th October in support of Ahlam and her family, feeding into the main UNITY refugee demo in George Square.

Anyone with a blog or website – lift the html code at the youtube site and please place these on your blog.

Neil



The first minute and a half of this video is silent.


Ahlam’s Story part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sr7jSWLjg8

Ahlam’s Story part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31rojR3prCA

Ahlam’s Story part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl1RIiO1Tgc


Full length videos (1/2 hour) can be sent to those interested by emailing nwsocialist@yahoo.co.uk



Pamela Page did a review of this video:



I used Ahlam's story in my work with a class of students doing a project on Human Rights. I've also used the Dungavel dvd in the past about dawn raids which is also an excellent way to dispel the myths around asylum.

Ahlam's story is powerful in that that is what it is. Her story in her Voice. Her humanity, honesty and vitality shine through everything she says about her experience.

The honesty of one of the Glasgow women who spoke of her own ignorance and racism prior to meeting Ahlam was especially touching and brave. Ahlam is actively involved in many local initiatives and is a valued by her community. Let's make her so well known that it's impossible for her to be forced to leave her home.

It went down great in school and i'm getting copies made. Funnily enough a guy from the local Amnesty group popped into our branch the other night and I think Neil gave him a copy so hopefully they will take it up too.

Great job Nwsocialist!

Px