Saturday, July 26, 2014

Letter to the Irish Prime Minister with advice about resurrecting the Irish music art/industry

"A Thaoisigh, a chara,

I am using this channel to inform you of issues that you may later choose to delegate to your ministers.

You probably know that the Irish music industry is in crisis. From where we were in the 1990's, with several acts like Enya selling in the tens of millions, we have descended to the point that Iceland is doing better than us with many bands including Sigur Ros and “Of monsters and Men” getting primetime US TV and selling in the millions. In the meantime. South Korea spends $300 million annually promoting its “K-Pop” which even has its own US TV channel.

The disaster that befell Irish music is not just lack of investment; it is in fact mainly a story of Fianna Fail/Green corruption, which you can read in the attached file (see my "Ireland in crisis" book for details - editor). In any case, we don't have $300 million. Here I'm going to outline a set of solutions. Some of them are large-scale, but some are simply related to what it will take on the ground to establish an Irish presence in the markets that other countries like south Korea have kicked us out of.

First of all, a very simple basic example of how it works here. Having met you at the UICC in san Fran  with Melanie O'Reilly, I know you like jazz - or at least the idea of jazz .On Wed last (June/Meitheamh 25 2014), we did a gig in the very prestigious Angelique's in Redwood city featuring our songs which include Irish lyrics by Sean O Riordain and Nuala ni Dhomhnaill set to jazz. The owner liked it so much that he asked Melanie back to do her show, premiered at the Edinburgh festival in 2010, in tribute to the great jazz singer Anita O'Day. (Note that  this indeed took place http://events.sfgate.com/redwood_city_ca/events/show/371052799-jazz-on-a-summers-day-a-tribute-to-jazz-vocal-legend-anita-oday - edito
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A Thaoisigh, that's what it will take; apparently small gigs done by hundreds of Irish acts. The state should also support small venues like the Starry Plough in Berkeley, which has had an Irish dance session every Monday night for 35 years to which the cream of America's youth come, and the “”Lark camp” educational summer project. By support, I mean at least sending a diplomat once to acknowledge the contribution.

However, this should be complemented by the following;

  1. IMRO is a hopelessly corrupt Fianna Fail gazebo. It should be closed down, with its functions transferred to a well-regulated state institution. IMRO's revenue is around $50 million per year. Much of that is profit. Venues and radio/TV playing quality music could have their “licensing” paid to IMRO reduced by 75% as this money never makes it to the musicians, but rather goes on administration. Even if the income is cut to $25 million, it will still be plenty for the following steps;
  2. In particular, IMRO's claim that it OWNS all of Irish traditional music, as an arts council report exposed, should be refuted and the property should be held in trust.
  3. All the theft done by IMRO and its companion MCPS should be reimbursed to the musicians. Between 1999 and 2003, the Gardai collected much evidence on IMRO and only a blatant interference with the DPP prevented their being prosecuted. The case was resolved in 2010 in US federal court instead but the musicians cannot enforce the verdict for lack of funds and it is in Ireland's interest that the state should help them do so perhaps through the WTO;
  4. The state should emulate the French and introduce an “intermittent” system. This would mean that, instead of going on the dole and trying to hide their gigs, full=time artist/musicians who do over 50 concerts a year at state-recognized venues should get a grant;
  5. The state should reimburse all the musicians who had their CD's illegally licensed through an enterprise Ireland trade stand in midem in France at 1998. That will pay many outstanding bills, as we found through our successful federal court action that the sales through Walmart in particular were in the millions;
  6. The state should return the copyrights taken by IMRO to the musicians
  7. The state should return the money due to musicians from U2's use of dissolved “distribution” companies like Record services Ltd to destroy independent labels. This was done with FF connivance, and while we won a lawsuit against U2 on this, Paul Appleby refused to act even after we met him one-on-one at his request in 2006;
  8. The state should investigate the use of fake tune titles in Irish by IMRO – the Gardai believed this indicated massive fraud as these could launder money;
  9. The state should use existing media like the “Today's Ireland” program in the USA to introduce the American public to quality Irish music, not bad country music as now;
  10. The state should stop the FF dominance of the festivals that Ireland will get every year like Celtic connections and Lorient and ensure new bands get a break there
  11. If there is any grant money for tours in the USA, it would best be used by ensuring safe transport and accommodation.

After that, leave it up to the market; many Irish musicians are in my experience very hard-working and able. Under FF, they experienced nothing but state collusion with criminals. I know you are better than that.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

DCU's Prondzynski went into Leinster House to offer a bribe

 Over the next few weeks I will publish excerpts from letters I sent to the Irish authorities over the past few months Given the level of media spin against academic freedom in Ireland  up to Prondzynski's departure, and the very odd coverage of mine, Cahill's and Fanning's cases, which required several apologies from the Irish Times, we need to look further

 It does rather look as though Ronnie Ryan of the dept of Ed and others were expecting a massive payday from privatization. Here is one letter I sent;

"In January 2003 Rights commissioner Gerry Fleming ruled that I be reinstated with full backpay

Of course, DCU had a right to appeal - though the ECHR may see things differently, particularly the use of taxpayers' money ensuring disparity of representation

In any case, Ferdinand von Prondzynski decided, ar eagle na heagla, to head off the situation. He (unsolicited) visited my local TD, John Gormley, in Leinster House in Feb/March 2003. In that meeting, he offered to pay my salary until I got a new job if I dropped my appeal. Gormley put the deal to me and I refused. These were many moral issues.....

I believe that's called bribery. I have had no contact with Gormley since 2006,"

Saturday, July 12, 2014

FoM seminars on a break as we finish the proceedings book



We have a lot to be
proud of; a proceedings with a book forthcoming and this very well
attended seminar series, with record audiences for a not-for-credit
seminar. It is therefore all the more regrettable that an ex-member of
our discussion group sullied the level of discourse in an incident
currently playing out in the media of a $1 million reward for
“solving” the so-called  “hard problem”.

Such challenges are often deliberately attention-seeking, for example
proposing a reward for a perpetual motion machine which the laws of
physics expressly forbid. Some are genuine, and as such often see the
rewards rejected, as Grisha Perleman did after solving the Poincare
conjecture on the grounds that science should be its own edifying
reward.

 Some others, however, display a cynical nihilism and show a refusal
to accept any evidence. It is like saying that someone did not jump
seven feet because a foot is now a meter. This incident is likely to
become notorious. For the record, a full solution to the problem as
stated was given to Deepak Chopra within 48 hours of his announcing it
in the SF Chronicle. The $1 million was claimed, and we look forward
to receiving it to amplify the activities of our group.



The talks

Terry Deacon confronted the issue of information, a concept which is
variously being used to explain consciousness, the emergence of order
in evolution, and much else. Len Talmy adduced evidence to show that
certain linguistic features presented themselves to consciousness more
than others. As was pointed out, this is remarkable work, particularly
if combined with his attack on embodiment as a universal panacea,
epitomized by spatial prepositions like “along” which are defined in
Euclidean space