1-2-3-4 Festival Shoreditch Park

Just got back from this rather excellent little free festival in fashionable Shoreditch today. They were helped by the weather which made everyone happy and meant that the day would always really be a success - outdoor events in England are so affected by the weather - lets face it so one of the best days this year made everything seem OK. The organisation could have been better - we were told to walk around the park to a different entrance by a steward when 10 yards away there were at least twenty people hopping over the little park fence and he was doing nothing to stop it - its a free festival so why be difficult about letting people in?
Also there was a lack of toilets - it was alright for the men who had urinal cubicles (once they had realised that's what they were...) but the queues for the individual portaloos suggested that the organisers had well underestimated the amount of people turning up - either that or everyone there had real bladder problems...

So what about the music? Well there were several stages and some good dance music coming from a couple of them but I'll concentrate on the three acts that we properly saw during the day. The Whip on the main Myspace stage were excellent - on in the afternoon and they just happened to be on as we were looking for something to see but their eighties style electro rhythms immediately got us interested and they played 3 or 4 good tunes before going into an excellent instrumental number which went on for a while and had the crowd jumping and waving arms. They carried on for a while after that and we slightly lost interest but they were great while it lasted.

Secondly Bono Must Die on the XBox360 Stage were a must see because of the name - but turned out to be a good choice anyway - I can't help thinking they are going to struggle to actually get anyway with that moniker and it is a shame because their angular guitar sound and engaging front man had the crowd singing along. We even started clapping along at one point and the singer seemed surprised "That's the first time that has ever happened!"
An excellent cover of Justin Timberlake's SexyBack was a highlight.

Finally, and the reason I went to be fair, was Har Mar Superstar - headlining with Fab Moretti from The Strokes on drums (and he did appear to be playing the rest of the backing track from an iPod..)
What a treat to see such a confident performer - although that could have been all the coke he kept referring to throughout.
It was mainly fucking he talked about though - picking out one girl on shoulders in the crowd "You in the white top - I will fuck you tonight"
"Is that your boyfriend?" - referring to the guy whose shoulders she was on and after receiving the thumbs up "I'm sorry dude but I'm fucking your girlfriend tonight".
His dancing and strip tease act were all present and correct and as usual he ended up dancing around the stage in his pants - during EZ Pass he and Moretti did a Flashdance sequence - running on the spot and turning.
DUI was probably the other big highlight but it was an engaging show throughout and the tunes are really an extra on top of the personality and the comedy of the performance.

Transformers, George Galloway and Fingerprinting

So I went to see Transformers the other day - how good was that?
Entertainment ramped up to ten with the cheesiest of plot lines, the most impressive effects I've seen in a while and some action that was second to none.

Today I watched some footage from parliament TV of George Galloway being kicked out of the house for his defence of the criticism he had faced from the Select Committee looking into the Mariam appeal where he had allegedly used the charity foundation as a front for siphoning off funds. It appears these allegations were groundless but Mr Galloway took offence to the way the investigation was carried out and his usual bullish response left him in contempt and facing temporary expulsion from the house.
I like Galloway - I'm a supporter of most of what he believes in and I do genuinely think most of the time he is fighting for the right side - I'm not so sure he does it in the right way but there you go. The newspapers made out he was ejected after making remarks about the house being corrupt - stating the double standards that led to this report in the first place considering the Cash for Honours scandal which has plagued the commons in recent months. In fact his more outrageous statements were early on and it was after well over an hour that the speaker eventually felt the need to Name Galloway after repeated frustrations meant he went against the rulings of the house one time too many.

I was actually watching to see the debate (if you can call it that with about 3 MPs present) over fingerprinting in schools. The argument against is a strong one for me - I'm naturally averse to this sort of function creep and the idea of a Big Brother style country is far to close for comfort in my view. However I felt the minister responding to the argument made a good case for these algorithmic readers which don't actually store a fingerprint and I can see how they might have their uses. I still think it should be compulsory to gain the permission of parents before this is done in any school though and I am worried that children will see this sort of thing as the norm.