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Well, for what it’s worth, I’ve executed my democratic rights. I can’t say that trying to find the least worst party (if you’ll forgive my contorted syntax) feels very good. Mr. Bsag on the other hand didn’t even get that opportunity. We submitted a form to get ourselves on the electoral register when we moved, but when my polling card had arrived and his hadn’t, he called the Council. After a long delay, they got back to him and said that they did have a record of our application, but because of a ‘clerical error’ he hadn’t been entered on the register. Oh, and it was too late to do anything about it. Great. So much for democracy in action.

Sorry about the MySQL errors a little earlier—-my fault. It’s been one of those days…

I’ve been living with Tiger for a few days now, tinkering, and reading more about Spotlight, Automator and Dashboard, so here are my thoughts about the new operating system.

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“Baroque calypso!”

That was what I had written in the programme next to the last piece in the ‘Soul Symphony’ concert at Symphony Hall, conducted by Ken Burton. I couldn’t quite believe what I had written—-or, for that matter, what I had heard—-but there it was. The concert was a celebration of the hymn in all forms, with particular reference to the influences and intertwining of various forms of earlier and later music on gospel and spirituals. The culmination of this exploration was a piece called ‘Worship the King’, written by Ken Burton. It involved the whole orchestra, bongo drums, a gospel band, some of the Birmingham Symphony Chorus, the City of Birmingham Young Voices, two community choirs and an all-female a capella group called ‘Black Voices’, who all made—-to put it simply—-a big sound. The piece started in a lively baroque style, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place if it had been written by Handel. Then it suddenly and delightfully morphed into a calypso beat, singing the same phrases. This alternation repeated a couple of times, and then the final section had both styles overlaid on one another, the syncopated calypso phrases slotting in between the more extended baroque ornamentation. It was a work of genius, and I would never have thought that those two styles would sit so comfortably together.

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