I am a journalist, writer and broadcaster ... lately I've been concentrating on music, I spent many years as a music critic and a travel writer ... I gave up my last editorship a while ago and started concentrating on my blog. I was also asked to join AirTV International as a co host of a new show called Postcard ...
Bitter, bitchy but never boring – has bumbling Biden been trumped by gobby Donald?
It’s been months of bitter bitching bad-tempered barracking but never boring dirty-tricks campaigning but now the US election is drawing to an close.
And the BBC has been fact-checking the candidates all along the trail ..
They say that Donald Trump has been far more active and that there has been a continuation of false claims about the pandemic, his personal record in office and the integrity of postal voting.
The forgetful Mr Biden has been around far less, but also seems to have got a few things wrong – like the president’s name!
Jeremy Corbyn has asked the Labour Party to take him back into the party following his comments on the report on anti-Semitism during his leadership.
He said he was ]’very shocked and disappointed’ after the party said he would have the whip removed.
Corbyn said: “I’ve been in the Labour Party all my life. I want to make it very clear. Anti-Semitism has no place whatsoever in our party or our movement.
“I’ve opposed it and racism in all its forms for all my life.”
Well, is he telling the truth?
Were there just a handful of Labourites who acted in an anti-Semitic way in reality has the new Equality and Human Rights Commission long-awaited report got it all wrong?
And is in fact poor old Jezza the real victim?
Talking about the report, which found “specific examples of harassment, discrimination and political interference” and “a lack of leadership”, Mr Corbyn said: “One ant-Semite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”
But is there a factual basis for his claim?
Well a fact check by Channel 4 went looking for the answers to the following questions… this is their report in full:
Silver screens will flicker on in the long goodnight of entertainment history. But in Moston, Manchester, where I have lived all my life, these ‘stars’ are being extinguished.
The MIP, The Adelphi, The Fourways and the Victory, are all gone for faceless flats and apartments.
The Fourways
We are losing grand elegant Art Deco buildings, electric theatres, screens of dreams, for little boxes of non-entity.
The concrete jungle has become reality.
Why are the powers-that-be allowing this to happen? There has been a sea-change in Manchester in recent years and old Victorian warehouses and tenement blocks in Salford have been turned into luxury – and sometimes affordable – living.
So, why aren’t they protecting the facades and memories of some of the most beautiful buildings in our town?
The Adelphi
The cinema I remember best is the Moston Imperial Palace – the MIP. It started as an Edwardian music hall and around 1916 became a ‘picture house’ catering 925 people.
The last film to be shown there was apparantly The Cruel Sea, starring Jack Hawkins.
Today it is a bustling food market.
But it is not only the history of cinema which is being wiped in this ancient enclave of Manchester … remember Hough Hall?
This sixteenth century mansion was bought by the once-leading cinematic and video artist Roger Barnard.
But soon that too will be lost.
Fahrenheit 451 was a dystopian film. about the burning of books.
And metaphorically speaking that has come true with the closure of so many libraries. Nobody needs books any more, they just download them from that vast emporium in the sky.
Nobody really needs big imposing cinemas any more either – films can be streamed and watched in the insularity of your own home. No need for a grand gathering of a thousand people to share the drama and the visual excesses of From Here to Eternity or The Great Escape.
But isn’t that a loss too? Surely, grand gatherings and shared experiences are part of the roots of stable societies.
***
Do you know, as I look back on the streets of Moston the moonlight serenades me – it glistened on the orderly privet hedges and on the sanctuary of our homes where there were hot coals in the grate, the armchair and the wireless, cocoa.
We’d been to the pictures and it had been exciting – a cowboy which I liked, especially the horses. Gene Autry, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum.
I grew up watching films.
But in l953 the Royal Wedding came along wrought changes that would outshine the silver screen. The rot for the picture house set in.
If you could afford it people got a television. One neighbour in fifty soon had one and the rest poured into those houses to see the wedding.
People still went to the cinema for the big screen though.- cinemas was still the home of technicolour dreams. And stars like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra shared their talents and their colourful lifestyles.
There became mesmerising giants 10 feet tall!
But the old stars like James Mason and Olivia de Haviland and Clark Gable weren’t burnt out yet.
***
The first cinema to go in Moston was The Victory. ‘It burned down’, was all I was told as a child during World War II. In fact it was bombed by German aircraft. It was a fierce blaze.
Then the MIP turned into an indoor market with its little cafe. Meanwhile the Adelphi turned into a Bingo Hall, with an Art Deco facia.
The old Adelphi was left standing but became a ruin, though it was still identifiable – the big screen ad the posh tiered seats area.
Today the Art Deco frontage still stands, dilapidated of course, and the the DIY firm that took it over has moved. Will anybody ever think of trying to restore at least part of this icon of cinema?
The Adelphi was initially a tin hut named The Empress on Dean Lane around 1914 or a bit later.
I can only imagine the black and white, silent gems accompanied by the emotive, dramatic piano jingle. A new Art Deco building was standing there by l937. This seated 1312. In l962 it went the way of so many. .
The Fourways emerged into our walking distance in 1939, again with a large seating capacity. It’s last film was ‘Live and Let Die’ with Roger Moore in the lead. It was by then1973. It was demolished and turned into a block of flats named Fourways Walk.
How long before the last vestige of old Moston disappears from our cloud of memories?
Slovakia has decided to impose the first round of nationwide testing over the Halloween weekend, a time when families always get together to remember their dead.
Slovaks at this time usually go to cemeteries and fill them up with flowers and lights.
It began in the ninth century, when families left food on the table for the dead.
But this time they will be standing in line before going into state imposed imprisonment in their high-rise city homes.
Life with the dead is safest if it takes place between the hours of 1am and 5am.
One way or the other though Central and Eastern Europeans will do everything they can to make sure the cemeteries will have their other-worldly glow of memory and love.
Otherwise, here too there will be anarchy on the streets not seen in the last thirty years.
But is the Day of the Dead, like Christmas in the UK, facing irreparable damage because of Covid?
Will it just become a day of devilish costumes and trick-or-treating… trik alebo maškrta ..?
Yes, trick or treating already has adopted a name in Slovakia and America’s ghouls and ghosts – in the guise of Bart Simpson and Harry Potter – now appear at the cemetery gates.
The new Covid lock-down is already set to cost Slovakia at least two billion euros – and there could be an added phenomenal fiscal loss over this holiday too.
The market for the cemetery lamps is estimated to be worth several hundred millions. The numbers of lamps bought are huge. An average grave is covered almost entirely in them through the week of All Saints.
Central Europeans also put fresh flowers and artificial wreaths on graves.
So as Brits abroad, what will you be doing for Halloween?
On the plus side, you will be able to watch a box-set without having to answer the door every few minutes to ‘Bart Simpson’.
And at Christmas you will be able to Skype or Zoom your relatives back in the homeland.
But there is no Skype or Zoom connection to the dead.
Meanwhile it looks like a bleak bleak mid-winter in the UK.
And soon the sporadic bits of civil disobedience we’ve been seeing on the streets could become real anarchy.
Yep, millions of people could soon tell Boris and the government to ‘stuff’ its Covid laws where the turkey doesn’t gobble.
Many believed Boris and his crew haven’t a credible plan to slow infections, that they’ve lost control of the virus – and they are no longer following the scientific advice.
And Maureen Eames, aged 83, may be our new aged revolutionary.
“I don’t give a sod,” she said about the new laws “I’m 83. I want to get out and live.”
She was immediately urged to stand as Prime Minister.
And the backlash has forced Welsh leaders to have a rethink over their Soviet-style shopping ban and their bristling border guards.
So, as we face a cold war on the streets this Christmas, could Boris seize the initiative, put the festive season back on the table and boost the British economy with a feast of spend spend spend?
The Czech Republic has brought in a curfew in its battle to curb coronavirus.
Health Minister Roman Prymula said measures already in place — closing bars, restaurants, most shops and schools — had failed to bring the infection rate down.
Slovakia too is tightening restrictions with shopping times for different age groups, bar and cafe closures – except for off-sales – and the mass testing of the population. Meanwhile, protests began again across Europe calling on governments to change the second round of lock-down restrictions.
In Italy there was violence in Milan and Turin, as crowds took to the streets as the sun went down.
The new state of emergency in Spain will last for 15 days but the Government plans to ask for a six-month extension, meaning restrictions – including a 11pm to 6am curfew – could stay until May next year.
Conspiracy theories are being viewed as the truth according to the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, a survey of about 26,000 people in 25 countries.
Among the most widely believed conspiracies is that the death rate from the John Hopkins University tracker has killed 1.1 million people worldwide, has been “deliberately and greatly exaggerated”.
Nearly 60pc of respondents in Nigeria said this was definitely or probably true, along with more than 40pc in Greece, South Africa, Poland and Mexico. About 38pc of Americans, 36pc of Hungarians, 30pc of Italians and 28pc of Germans felt the same.
As the second wave of coronavirus locks down central Europe fears are growing over pressure on already-strained health staff.
Two decades of emigration and historic underfunding are being blamed.
Staffing could become even more critical than equipment shortages across the region.
Medical staff have been leaving central Europe in their thousands since 2004 when their countries joined the EU.
Now Peter Almos, vice-president of the Hungarian Chamber of Doctors, has said the problem is compounded by the fact that doctors in their 40s and 50s, who could train colleagues, are missing from health care services.
And Slovak president, Zuzana Caputova, supported his view by saying many of Slovakia’s doctors now fall in to the older age categories and are vulnerable to Covid-19.
Almos said that many trained doctors ‘leave and don’t come back complaining about the low salaries and poor working conditions at home’.
He said: “At the moment resident doctors make €3 per hour after taxes, or €6 as a specialist. If you work in Tesco in Hungary as a cashier you can earn more.”
Things are a bit different in Slovakia however, where official figures say that physician earn from 1,880 EUR to 8,660 EUR a month.
But Hungary has recently approved a significant pay increase for doctors. People fear, however, there are too many ‘strings’ attached.
According to Eurostat data, Poland has the lowest number of practising physicians per capita in the EU, with 238 per 100,000 inhabitants, while Romania has 304 and Hungary 338.
Slovakia has 352 for every 100,000 inhabitants.
By comparison, just over the imaginary borders Austria has 524 and Germany 431.
Because of the crisis Milan Kubek, head of the Czech Medical Chamber, has asked Czech doctors working abroad to come home.
This plea has gone out to Slovak medics aboard too.
Meanwhile, the number of new confirmed cases over a one day period in Slovakia has reached what the Health Ministry described as a record high with more than 40,800 confirmed and 159 virus-related deaths.
The ministry said this as Slovak authorities ambitiously set out to test almost the entire population for coronavirus.
At the same time most countries are referring to a ‘common map’ that gives an overview of the pandemic.
This map looks at the notification rate – the total number of newly notified COVID-19 cases per 100 000 population in the last 14 days in each region
Data is then compiled and analysed by the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC).
The Common Map works on a traffic light basis.
Sadly, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has tested positive for coronavirus.
We at the Preservation Society know it can be difficult being a foreigner in a foreign land … not having a command of the language, feeling isolated and simply not being sure what is going on.
So we will be giving regular updates on the extraordinary lock down in Slovakia, the reasons for it, what’s going on and what is the best thing we, as ex-pats, can do.
They will appear on the site and YouTube.
One thing you can be sure of is that your Slovak friends will be on hand to help out where they can and explain what is going on in this little enclave of the world brought to its knees by a greasy little ‘bad bug’.
Okay, so here we go… 2,890 new cases of coronavirus were reported last Friday bringing the total number to 40,801.
This is the highest number of cases since the beginning of the epidemic.
The results of testing with antigen tests in Northern Slovakia are not included.
The post-mortem of 25 patients confirmed they died because of Covid-19 increasing the number of victims to 159.
It is reported that they include two women aged 33 and 48 who died at the University Hospital in Bratislava, a 55-year-old man who died at the hospital in Brezno and another 55-year-old man who died in Vel’ké Kapušany. Other victims were 69 to 92.
New cases are focussed on Sabinov (172), Prešov (160), Nitra (140), Námestovo (127), Tvdrošin (117), Košice (113), Bratislava (109), Prievidza (102), Banská Bystrica (99) and Bardejov (91).
The new cases are said to be linked to family celebrations and weddings in Northern Slovakia (Tvrdošin, Námestovo, Dolný Kubín) and in the district of Bardejov.
A new local outbreak was reported at a textile factory in Bánovce nad Bebravou. In Bratislava there are cases of pupils and staff of a few schools and kindergartens who tested positive.
Positive cases were reported among ice hockey players of the top league club HC Košice and HK Poprad and among football players at lower league clubs. The ice hockey club in Liptovský Mikuláš also has positive cases in their team.
Covid 19 is a runaway train according to Slovak PM Igor Matovič as he mobilises the army to carry out millions of tests and imposes a curfew-style lock-down.
“It’s as if we were travelling on a train whose brakes have stopped working,” he said, according to the SITA newswire. “We have to stop the train in some way.”
The number of people infected by coronavirus keeps growing despite measures introduced on October 15. Now Slovakia is facing a three week lock-down from Halloween.
And it could cost the country €2 billion.
Matovic has ordered the testing of the country’s 5.45 million people and the military is setting up 5,000 sites across the country.
The army will be testing citizens over 10 years old. Those who refuse face 10 days quarantine or a fine of US$1,949.
A group of lawyers are reported to have described Matovič’s actions as unconstitutional and against fundamental personal rights.
But Matovič said “it’s the hardest decisions that any Slovak government ever had to take”.
The decision was taken as Slovakia faced a record increase of daily cases, after 2,202 people tested positive for the coronavirus on October 20.
At least 1,273 medical workers have been infected with the coronavirus so far, including 286 doctors.
The Slovak Medical Chamber called on Slovak doctors working abroad to come home to help. “Please, come home, we need you,” the head of the chamber, Marian Kollar said.
The situation is worsening in the districts of Martin, Ružomberok, Liptovský Mikuláš, and Sabinov, which are close to the four most affected districts of Námestovo, Tvrdošín, Dolný Kubín and Bardejov.
The Ukraine has put Slovakia in the red zone, and people arriving in the country have to show a negative PCR or go into isolation.
Slovakia has been praised for its response to the pandemic. It was one of the first countries in Europe to close its borders and introduce mandatory mask-wearing even before it had any cases.
Meanwhile, the number of people dying of coronavirus in England and Wales rose for the first time in five months in September. But it is still only the 19th most common cause of death.
Office for National Statistics data show 725 people died with Covid-19 – although not necessarily because of it – up from 576 in August.
This was the first time the number had increased since the first wave of disease slammed into Britain in April, when deaths soared from 1,700 to 31,000 in a month.
On the positive side however, a covid-19 vaccine developed at Oxford University is said to work perfectly and builds strong immunity.
The hopes over the vaccine, which is said to safely trigger an immune response in volunteers given it in early trials. But, unlike traditional vaccines which use a weakened virus, or small amounts of it, the innovative Oxford jab causes the body to make part of the virus itself.
Rodney Hearth, president and managing editor at Airtv, said: “This is great for us and has meant a lot of work for our ‘backroom’ boys. But we’ve got there … the station came into being almost 30 years ago when we spotted a gap in the market for a family-friendly broadcaster.
“The main TV channels were becoming punctuated with violence, foul language and sex – not to mention such a narrow playlist of pop music. Not everybody wants to listen to Agadoo or Tie a Yellow Ribbon and watch negative films and soaps.
“We were living in Spain at the time and I have a background in television, so we decided to launch our own station with good music, wholesome programming and good interesting politics.
“We did well but decided we needed to move with the times. Roku and streaming are the way ahead for us. We are a breath of fresh air.”
Airtv describes itself as Family Safe sharing arts, film, comedy, music, documentary, opinion and news.
Rodney said: “We would invite you to forgo just one cup of coffee per month – for only $4.95 per month you can watch eight exciting and educative TV channels and in addition more than 20,000 clips and programmes.
“We believe in free speech, and challenging up-to-the-minute news and comment.”
And controversy is always part of freedom of speech – regulars on AirTv are Peter Hitchens, Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage and Jordan Peterson.
A new addition to the regulars is ex-Fleet Street journalist Leigh G Banks who does an opinion programme with Rodney, Postcard, every week where they tackle racism, covid, politics – in fact anything in the news.
Leigh said: “Some of the guests on Airtv are a bit controversial and I was invited along simply because I don’t always agree with them.
“Rodney and I also see it as part of our job to puncture conspiracy theories and the fake news on social media.
“I have always been a newsman and it is good to have a platform to attack liars and cheats.”
Roku stock has soared 74% in 2020 as covid has kept people at home and streaming has taken off.
AirTV Arts: Ballet – Opera – Classical Music
AirTV Film Classics: Classics from the Silver Screen
AirTV Entertainment: Comedy – Shows – Documentary
AirTV Jazz: Top Worldwide Artists
AirTV Total Music: All Genres and some Surprises.
AirTV Opinion: Challenging up to the Minute Commentary on Today’s Headlines
The hedonistic 60s are making a hazy comeback thanks to the predilections of some of the era’s greatest artists.
We already know that Bob Dylan was the Mr Beaujolais Jangles of his generation and his mate Carlos Santana was one of the smoothest tokers in Vegas.
But some say that Bob gave up the booze in 1996 and that Carlos refused to take drugs on stage after he got stoned at Woodstock.
But things have changed!
A quarter of a century later, in his mid-70s the world’s greatest travelling troubadour bar none hit the rocks again … but this time with his own brand of whiskey.
Now he is known as a whiskey aficionado although his people insist it’s “not a vanity project but a passion project”.
Carlos Santana has jumped on the bandwagon too by doing a deal over his own cannabis brand.
Cheers to a whiff of success eh?
Carlos is actually joining Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson and Wiz Khalifa in sparking up a renewed interest in ‘blowing your mind’ and ‘smoking your brain out’.
His Mirayo ‘weed’ is described as a premium product created in partnership with Santa Rosa, California-based Left Coast Ventures. The company also produces brands like Marley Natural and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart’s Mind Your head.
And Dylan’s not the only musician with a spirits brand either. Booze is a popular hobby for rappers like Jay-Z and Drake, rockers like Sammy Hagar and country singers including Toby Keith.
Bob’s Heaven’s Door international portfolio includes a Tennessee straight Bourbon (84 proof, 700ml), Double Barrel Whiskey (100 proof, 700ml) and Straight Rye Whiskey finished in cigar barrels from Vosges, France (86 proof, 700ml). Each bottle features his ironwork designs.
Dylan’s songs are not short of whiskey references either, ‘Daddy he made whiskey, my grandaddy he did too / We ain’t paid no whiskey tax since 1792’, ‘He’s dressed up like a squire / Boot-legged whiskey in his hand’, and ‘I’ve spent all my money / On whiskey and beer’.
Dylan’s move into whiskey is a savvy one though. Whiskey, brandy and cognac have experienced a boom recently.
Drinking was a trademark of Bob’s generation and Beaujolais was his drink of choice.
Guitar god Carlos Santana – in what could be seen as a bit of anti-advertising – says he cringes whenever he watches his debut performance at the legendary Woodstock festival in 1969 because he was so high after having a back-stage party with Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.
But his Mirayo by Santana is described as “a sun grown cannabis line that honours the spiritual and ancient Latin heritage of the plant.”
The name is a combination of “my” and “ray” in Spanish.
Santana says it reflects his own philosophy of “determination, discovery, and self-actualization”.
“In my experience, it can enhance meditative reflection and creative expression,” he said. “It can dispel negative doubt to reveal the everlasting gift of our uniqueness. With Mirayo, I hope to help people use cannabis as a door to a more benevolent behaviour like kindness and compassion.”
