You see essentially all of the things you need in life are free- somewhere to sleep, food and water and clothing . All the raw materiels for these things are lying around , but the cost comes in the form of how long it takes a person to translate their time and the raw materials into the thing you need.So you pay the apple picker and the weaver and the butcher for the cost of their time , the time it took to raise the animal , grow and pick the apple, the time it took to gather the wool and weave the cloth. this sounds old fashioned but the model works however you apply it . Even with musicians and healers and the other invisible arts, we bring stories gathered , or releif, so its a fair trade.

So you go to the market place with the thing you have taken the time to produce and you prepare to trade

Here you have to be fair and just ,and trade time for time, effort for effort , and make sure nobody leaves empty handed who has worked and offered something. But the banks are the equivalent of a guy who sticks his hand between each trade, insists that he gets a cut , then gambles it to make more.He says he is necessary to 'hold ' the money , but takes a piece each time. He lends money , money that rightfully belongs to lots of other people , and charges you and the owners of the money for the privelidge. he has bank radio stations, uniforms which change yearly, wall to wall carpeting , tv screens, expense accounts and people to badger you to buy all the other financial products you can imagine. And it is all apid for by that little cut he gets from each of our transactions.

And one of these banks tells you it  gives YOU  £5 a month to have the account . I had this account- it costs me £12.00 a month to have it , and then they refund you £5 if you stay in credit or pay over £1000 into the account. So if you are overdrawn you are fuc***d

What has this got to do with music and band blogging I hear you ask ? Well, when your energies are spent trying to earn enough money to fend off these unscrupulous bastards and their ingenious schemes, you  have precious little time left to spend doing anything else. But fear not dear reader, we are nearly out of their clutches. Just one more month to go Mwahahahahahaha .....

I noticed that there were no shoeless rioters- so why was it necessary to steal more? How many shoes do you need really? And the Tv thing- is jerry Springer really so much better when its plastered 2 foot across the wall on a plasma screen? or Corrie? or any of this shit?

if you really want a revolution, and you really want to fuck the government up, stop buying stuff. Turn off the TV and the commercial radio and stop buying stuff. use money as only a last resort. Swap with your neighbours and friends, buy from people directly, pay no tax and don't give all the upper echelons what they need- a slice of your money, which is actually your time but in paper form.

I know rents have to be paid and mortgages etc etc , but over time if you set it as a goal, you may be suprised at how much you can do for nothing . We are just swapping time and skills, but with money involved the invisible hand comes out and snatches its slice .

I know that most people will immediately tell me loads of reasons why this is too hard and it won't work. But i never said it would be easy, nor did i say i had managed to do it myself YET , but that doesn't mean i am not trying to find more and more ways of acheiving this simple yet seemingly imposible ideal. It is one of my life's ambitions. And if more people thought that way then ways would be found rather than just reasons why we have to stay as we are .

There is a competition for all budding animators in Jan so watch this space for details, and don't forget to collect your free tracks  as they appear week by week.

Happy Solstice

Kat

What- pay the band and the stage crew, well no, who is going to pay them, they just do it because they love it surely ?? I mean its an honour for them ;to buy diesel, drive to said ( fictitious ) site, work a 14 hour day bringing all their expensive equipment with them, then pack down and go home.

Sorry? did you say they could maybe have a rider? Well no- then the pub/food outlet would not make so much profit, and after all they have to provide food and drink for themselves every other day so why would this day be any different? Yeah and then there would be a knock-on trade for the chip shops and the souvenir shops and people would come from far and wide to hear the music, and once they got here they would need to spend a bit of money and hey presto - everybody wins.

Yeah but there's only one flaw- which bands in their right mind would come and do all that for absolutely nothing ??????

Yes you're right.... silly idea... don't know why i even mentioned it.

'When you are entertaining the ladies, don't give them second best.. offer them Whiskas... guaranteed to get you pussy, aye '

Now I thought that was worth a years worth of whiskas but obviously not as some dull as ditchwater tabby won it with something as entertaining as ' pebbles eats up every bite' yeah right very original.

But i have probably found the ad firm who would appreciate my talents. The latest ad for the latest ladyshaver from a well known razor firm. Picture the scenes here- a lady walks past various pieces of topiary, and as the sways by they each become neatly clipped- get it........ a bush trimmer, ...BUSH TRIMMER!!!!! I nearly fell off the sofa and I hope to christ i don't get any misshaps with the shears or that will surely smart like a bitch.

I thought I'd seen it all when Isaw the first tampon ad, but this was way better.

I think i will leave you with a small poem set to the music of my old man's a dustman by my dear friend Steve

oompah oompah oompah oompah x2

O my old mans a gynocologist

He likes to cure the pox

he decorates his hallway

through the letterbox

I thank-you.

Kat

I suppose it'll be virtual gigs next. that'll be me in the bedroom in my pyjamas, with my virtal cyber suit on top of my clothes, performing in front of thousands of raptly attentive people, also in their pyjamas with their virtual reality receptors strapped to their heads like lawnmower man, eating shreddies and smoking with a devil may care look on their faces- ( remember when you used to be able to smoke in a venue!!)

You wouldn't need to do a costume change, just press a button. If you sat on a commode you wouldn't need a shit break either, oh how seamless and fantastic that would be. Mind you I'm sure that  happens already, I don't mean the shit break, just the cyber singers. if Cheryl Cole wasn't so relentlessly behind the beat ( quantise darling surely??) I would swear she was a robot or virtual e-thing.

Of course I dreamt all this many years ago. Honestly, I had a dream where James Earl Jones' voice boomed down from the heavens and told me-' talk into your computer' he said, or spake he- he was doing his kind of God voice at the time, but we only had one of those cheap 'knick it off the catalogue' computers

so it didn't have the facility to accept speech. But now joy of joys, I can indeed speak into my computer.  Well type, and record things . So here I am in sunny Bohemia looking at the sea through my kitchen window. Actually if I had a commode right now I could carry on typing but I don't so must be off. See you at the 6 bells tonight  and stay freaky.

Kat x