Shared posts

19 Feb 16:50

8-Track: Iron Maiden

by Heavy Blog

8-Track takes a band with a storied history and identifies eight songs throughout their career that define their strengths as a band, musically, lyrically, and conceptually. Read previous installments here.

Iron Maiden are probably one of metal’s most famous names; with their origins rooted all the way back in 1975, it was perhaps heavy metal before heavy metal properly existed, one of the harbingers of the style. To be sure, metal has done a lot since they were in their prime but somehow, whether via nostalgia or their uncontainable personal energy, Iron Maiden have managed to stay relevant. Their shows are still jam-packed and their performances are just as vibrant as they used to be. Some of them are well into their 50’s, adding a certain admirable quality to their recalcitrance against voices calling for them to slow down.

The most interesting thing about Maiden’s career is how much they’ve been able to change while still keeping the basic elements that made them when they first started out. While there’s a huge difference between Dance of Death and Killers, some unquantifiable quality ties the two albums together, creating a distinct, instantly recognizable Iron Maiden sound. Lastly, Maiden are interesting in their unique blend of conceptual work and immediacy: while their music relies on simple, fast and technical solos and galloping riffs, their lyrics range across history, storytelling and philosophy. Stubbornly holding on to their desire to explore different concept and ideas, the urge for more intellectual subject matter has never slowed down Iron Maiden’s direct and often simplistic approach to music.

Without further ado, let us begin. Keep in mind that the below is not organized in any specific matter but is engineered towards displaying most, if not all, of the band’s era, each entry focusing on something a little different from their career.


Hallowed Be Thy Name – The Number of the Beast [1982]

number of the beast

Iron Maiden, as the quintessential metal band, must also have their own quintessential song to accompany their unfathomable immensity. What better song than “Hallowed Be Thy Name” to set the precedent from which all other Iron Maiden songs would be judged by? Though the last track of their third album, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” was the first of its ilk in Iron Maiden’s massive catalog, later spawning other such lengthy hits, like “Alexander the Great” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Though preceded by the powerful “Phantom of the Opera” on their self-titled release two years prior, Paul Di’Anno’s work with the band was doomed to be forgotten when Bruce Dickinson’s iconic voice entered with “Invaders,” but was forever embedded in our hearts and minds with the 7-minute wonder known as “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”

The story of a man in a cell waiting for his last moments, quietly gasping in terror as his life is about to be extinguished and damning existence itself, only to find a small point of illumination that life has many twists and corridors, but that his immortal soul lives on in some form or another. The afterlife? Another life? It is unclear, but there is a moment of self-absolution that is found in the narrator’s point of view.

Other bands have tried and failed to capture the enormity of “Hallowed Be Thy Name.” Even now, more than thirty years later, there have been very few contenders. Nevermore’s “This Godless Endeavor,” shy of nine minutes, is about the one track that nails a similar tone and has a staying power that rivals Iron Maiden’s classic from The Number of the Beast. Regardless, this track stands far and above many when it comes to Iron Maiden’s work. If there’s any one song that can be called “THE Iron Maiden song,” it’s certainly this one.

 

-Kyle Gaddo

The Trooper – Piece of Mind (1983)

piece of mind

“The Trooper” is more than just one of Iron Maiden’s greatest songs, it’s one of the greatest metal songs of all time. Hell, it’s one of the greatest songs of all time, period. From the moment it begins with its sharp, aggressive riffing, this track absolutely demands attention as it establishes itself as one of Maiden’s quicker, more forceful tracks. 12 seconds in we’re hit by one of the most memorable harmonised lead guitar riffs you’ll ever hear, a singable riff which has captivated millions and helped propel Maiden as the flag-bearers of heavy metal. To this day such energetic and melodic riffing can be heard in countless other bands, Maiden’s influence still looming large over our scene four decades after their arrival.

Another notable feature is the galloping rhythm provided by Steve Harris’ bass from its prominently high position in the mix. Few terms are as cliché as galloping bass lines when describing Maiden’s sound, yet when it comes to “The Trooper” there is simply no better way to describe them. The track’s lyrics draw upon the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, where a miscommunication during the Battle of Balaclava saw over 600 British light cavalrymen suicidally charge against a well-entrenched Russian artillery battery, the result hundreds of men and horses dying. Harris’ bass lines thus serve a dual purpose, providing both the rhythmic backbone to the track and a conceptual link between the music and the subject matter, supporting the vivid lyricism and Bruce’s frantically emotional delivery. Finally, no analysis of an Iron Maiden track is complete without discussing the guitar solos. Smith and Murray are both on top form here, the two iconic shredders playing distinctive and memorable solos which complement each other and the remainder of the track, adding yet another layer of melody to this bona fide classic.

Karlo Doroc

Powerslave – Powerslave [1984]

powerslave

If it wasn’t for the monumental leap in quality and cultural significance of 1982’s The Number of the Beast, 1984’s Powerslave would probably be regarded as the definitive Iron Maiden album. Still one of the band’s most consistent, challenging, and yet oddly accessible albums to date, things don’t really get any better on here than the album’s title track. Relying heavily on the harmonic minor scale, the song’s main riff is an instant earworm that takes the band’s trademark gallop into much more hypnotic and imaginative territory.

Once you’ve matched this up with some of Bruce Dickinson’s most adventurous vocal takes ever and Steve Harris’ crushing bass tone and you’re well accustomed to the basic structure of the track, things take a very unexpected turn. The song quickly goes full-on progressive rock, showcasing one of the most seamless and beautiful interludes that the band has cut to tape. The way the song then propels into a vicious solo section which is then closed off by the band’s greatest harmony riff of all time (not joking), the song kicks right back into the main theme, solidifying “Powerlsave” as one of the most cohesive and groundbreaking songs in 80s metal. The band has included it in their live set almost religiously since its premiere, and there’s no secret why.

 

 

-Kit Brown

Caught Somewhere In Time – Somewhere In Time (1986)

somewhere in time

Somewhere In Time saw Iron Maiden in the midst of the synthesizer-driven mid-late 80s, and the beginning of album opener ‘Caught Somewhere In Time’ showcases their embrace of the times, imploring guitar synthesizers into the mix. This was a point of contention for many long time Maiden fans, some of them disregarding this album entirely, even to this day. But a sliver of patience and attention goes a long way with music as timeless as Iron Maiden’s, and the core of their sound remained in place. It’s all there in spades: the air tight galloping backbone of Steve Harris’ bass locked in with Nicko McBrain’s drums, the chorus drenched open guitar chords blanketing the groove, the singing harmonized guitar leads, and Bruce Dickinson’s glorious soaring wail over the top of it all.

The embracing of synths was indicative of a band who had hit a wall creatively, but they kept it to a minimum and used them as a texture tool more than anything. It served them well, as Somewhere In Time was their most commercially successful album to date. While ‘Caught Somewhere In Time’ may not have been one of the singles or even videos from a decade demanding of a band’s MTV presence, it holds up as the perfect gateway into the future of the band, expanding their sound while holding down the foundation that solidified their place as legends and innovators in the rock and metal world.

Dan Wieten

The Evil That Men Do – Seventh Son of A Seventh Son (1988)

seventh son

No, not the Charles Bronson movie, at least not this time. “The Evil That Men Do” is a case study in everything that makes Iron Maiden one of the greatest bands of all time. The melodic intro, the incredible harmonies, Bruce’s soaring vocals and infectious vocal lines. It’s all here in one four-and-a-half minute song. In an album noted for both it’s progressive rock elements and for not having any bad tracks, “The Evil That Men Do” is a more straightforward song, the type you’d expect from a band like Iron Maiden.

Generally, that’s why this track is found on most, if not all, best-of compilations the band has released. It’s popular for a reason, because it’s damn good, and even though it’s hard to pick a standout track on an album like Seventh Son, “The Evil That Men Do” is both a fantastic representation of an album that’s slightly more heady and ambitious than most of the albums preceding it. This was Iron Maiden in their absolute prime, perhaps tied with Powerslave and Piece of Mind, and it shows. Not that they’ve declined in quality, except for perhaps the Blaze Bayley perhaps, as the band still puts out great material, but it was this string of albums that saw the band truly embracing their status as heavy metal royalty. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was a perfect album, and while “The Evil That Men Do” isn’t the most ambitious or longest track on it, it’s the one that gets stuck in my head over and over and over again.

Colin Kauffman

The Clansman – Virtual XI (1998)

virtual xi

Though it may come from the Blaze Bayley era, this anthem to end all anthems (I’m Scottish, give me this one) was penned by Harris and as such, merits a place in this list. Now, I’m referring to the far superior Rock In Rio version, not the original. Whether or not you fuck with songs based in medieval Scotland or not, this is one that should sit high on the list of sing along Maiden classics. The acoustic intro and it’s tasty little lick just teases at the hooks that boom out with the call of “freeeeeedom”. Dickinson’s phrasing doesn’t get a much better workout than on this one and he simply knocks Bayley right out of the arena. It might be cheesy as hell but yelling along to this track is mighty cathartic and brings up some serious Braveheart style patriotism, even in me and I’m perennially unfussed with that nonsense.
The first lead section has some of the simplest guitar playing in any Maiden two minute solo but still stands loud and proud. Though they’re trying to pull of a Gaellic vibe, it still sounds like the band themselves and never ever threatens to get too ridiculous. Just as refrained in the opening and closing passages of this nine minute riptide of a forgotten album track, Dickinson, Smith, Harris et al can take a turd and polish into something else all together. Yes, this may be from one of the worst metal albums of the 90’s but fuck me if this version doesn’t make up for the steaming pile that was Virtual XI.

-Mathijsen MacLennan 

 

The Thin Line Between Love and Hate – Brave New World [2000]

brave new world

As Iron Maiden began to progress in their career, and following the departure and then return of Bruce Dickinson, the nascent roots they had in the wider 70’s music scene started to assert themselves more and more. Brave New World, a comeback album of sorts, is one of their finer works, mettling the early aggression with a penchant for storytelling and a brighter touch on the composition. No where is that brighter touch and expansive gaze apparent than in “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate”. First off, it’s much, much longer than most Iron Maiden songs: clocking in at eight and a half minutes, it’s not a poetic epic like their traditional, longer tracks nor is it a simple affair of verse/chorus/verse.

The track obviously relies on the tried and true Iron Maiden tools: Dickinson soars, the guitar solos are abundant and the magical duo of McBrain and Harris are as enchanting as ever. However, something in the approach feels lighter, more carefree and hopeful. Names like Yes, Rush and King Crimson might spring to mind to describe the riffs and the interactions between them across the track somehow makes it seem even longer than it is. Perhaps that is also owed to the solo flight of Dickinson, as the instruments fall off near the end, leaving him to carry the message and tone forward to its powerful conclusion.

Regardless of what you like about Iron Maiden this track, and indeed the entire album, has it all. Emotional, technically impressive solos live side by side with breakneck, galloping speeds and a vocalist who is one of the absolute legends of the genre. As a boy growing up, discovering this album added a whole new hue to what Iron Maiden were for me. It still manages to capture that boyish charm, the open, curious gaze and fill the heart with wonder and joy. More than the power of their earlier releases, Brave New World as exemplified via “The Thin Line Between Love and Hate” is a creation with varied emotional roots and influences. For that, it remains the true opening shot to the modern iteration of Iron Maiden.

-Eden Kupermintz

 

Paschendale – Dance of Death [2003]

dance of death

Yes, Dance of Death is not one of the proudest moments in Maiden’s catalog; out of the album’s eleven songs, there are maybe two that are completely great (“Paschendale” and the title track), and on top of all that the album cover is among the worst ever put out by the band. I believe, though, that “Paschendale” makes up for all of that in spades.

First off, the song structure is a little out of the ordinary when it comes to Maiden tracks; instead of starting off with a roaring, head-banging riff, the band is quiet; the main riff—if one can call it a riff—is delicate and played on the higher guitar strings, and Bruce Dickinson’s vocals are at their softest. Lyrically, “Paschendale” is among the best of the band’s entire discography (in my opinion); the song tells the tale of the brutal Battle of Paschendale,which resulted in around 800,000 casualties back in the heat of World War I (though the numbers are disputed). Dickinson is ruthless in his telling of the tale, delivering his vocals with as much emotion as he can. (“Whistles, shouts and more gun fire / lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire / battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb / be reunited with my dead friends soon” sounds even more shocking and visceral when he sings it.) Live, Dickinson will often recite some of Wilfred Owen’s poetry before the song begins and wear traditional WWI garb while the stage is covered in barbed wire

In short, “Paschendale” defines Iron Maiden as a band that not only rocks hard, but is intellectually and emotionally deep as well.

-Jimmy Mullett

01 Mar 18:27

Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase.

by Eden Kupermintz

steven-wilson-hce-review

Names are powerful things, we’ve discussed this in the past. It bears repeating though in the light of the album we are now looking at: Steven Wilson‘s name is one of those which shine brightest in the skies of contemporary music. From a solo project through one of the most successful progressive acts of the past two decades, finally back to a solo project, Wilson is one of the most varied creators working today. His last album, The Raven Who Refused To Sing, was an amazingly well-made record but also touched on one of the gripes that many people have with Wilson: his slow drift into aural nostalgia that some feel is holding him back from creating new and exciting music.

What say we then about Hand. Cannot. Erase., his latest outing? We say that it seems as if Wilson has tempered his bent for the past with his more contemporary influences, producing an album that is both touching and innovative, whimsical and refreshing. The album focuses more on story-telling rather than on checking off a list of influences to pay tribute to. The result is a creation that’s more emotionally compelling than technically exciting, unlike The Raven which was filled with bombastic passages, all odd time signatures a-flaring.

The core of this album lies in the unmistakable sense of longing and homesickness it aims to invoke, a key characteristic of Wilson’s Porcupine Tree days. Tracks like ‘Three Years Older’ or ‘Happy Returns’ are all about the inescapable passage of time as seen through the eyes of loved ones and family, the impossible yet all too tempting desire to freeze the happy days in place. No one does those better than Wilson and the familiar tactics are employed here as well: his sweet voice over acoustic guitars intoning beautiful choruses filled with expertly written lyrics.

The more technical parts of this album, like the coupling of ‘Home Invasion’ and ‘Regret #9′ or ‘Routine’, hark back to influences similar to The Raven but slightly different: where that album went for more classic, 60’s tinged progressive rock, these tracks draw more from the 70-80’s era of bands like Yes or Rush. So, on one hand, one feels the unmistakable hands of Yes all over the first half of the album, with high speed guitar strumming setting the pace for the break-neck bass. As the album progresses however, the sound gets a bit darker, introducing haunting synths that remind us more of Rush.

All that being said, the question which remains is: “Is this an interesting album?”. I’ll be honest with you dear readers, breaking our cardinal objective pronouns rule for a moment. I honestly can’t not like a Steven Wilson album for a simple reason: he makes me remember my childhood and then I start crying and smiling. All the time. However, we’re back to objective analysis now and it must be said that you’ll find no game changers on this album. It’s produced perfectly, obviously, and there are no filler tracks but there are also no reality defying moments of transcendence.

And that’s OK. This album is for those who’ve missed a little moderation in their 70’s influenced Wilson, who still hold the hope that Porcupine Tree might return one day. Until then, o frabjous day!, we have this: Wilson’s golden voice. Moving tracks that cut deep. Solos and bridges that call back to great bands of old. This album isn’t a game changer but it will make you think of home and we all need to think of home more.
 

Steven Wilson’s Hand. Cannot. Erase. gets…

4/5

-EK

19 Aug 17:40

The Internet: We're Doing It Wrong

by Jon Evans
fail

This week Facebook’s ban-bot went berserk; Github went down; and all Google services collapsed for a few minutes, taking 40% of the Internet with them. Just another week on the Internet, then. We love our centralized services, until they let us down.

Bruce Sterling calls them “the Stacks”: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. In his most recent (always riveting) State of the World conversation, he wrote:

In 2012 it made less and less sense to talk about “the Internet,” “the PC business,” “telephones,” “Silicon Valley,” or “the media,” and much more sense to just study Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. These big five American vertically organized silos are re-making the world in their image.

Other proto-Stacks want to join that number. Once upon a time, Twitter was essentially a protocol: then they became aware of “the increasing importance of us providing the core Twitter consumption experience through a consistent set of products and tools.” Meaning they want to be a Stack. Github used to just host git repositories; now it does issue tracking, project management, and more. Call it a specialized business Stack for software development. And Yahoo is either a second-tier Stack or a Stack wannabe, depending on how generous you’re feeling today.

They don’t want much, those Stacks. Just your identity, your allegiance, and all of your data. Just to be your sole provider of messaging, media, merchandise, and metadata. Just to take part in as much of your online existence as they possibly can, and maybe to one day mediate your every interaction with the world around you, online or off.

The essay “Android is better” was all over my Internet this week. Its money quote:

Most services I rely on daily are owned by Google. My world revolves around GMail and Google search. I could start listing Android features I adore, but this succinctly states why Android makes sense for me: The number of Google products I use each day boggles my mind. No other company has embedded itself this deeply into my life.”

Indeed. It’s very convenient to live in a Stack. It’s easy, it’s seamless, it’s comfortable. And it means putting much, or very nearly all, of our increasingly important online existences into the hands of a few titanic megacorporations. It means relying on their benevolence, not just today, but for the foreseeable future. Remember back in the early days of Google Plus, when Google started disabling users’ accounts for violating Google Plus’s astonishingly poorly-thought-out real-name policy? Remember how betrayed those users sounded?

They believed in Google. And then Google turned on them. Just like it recently turned on and banished people who wanted to run their own servers…or, in other words, wanted to build their own personal nanoStack.

But life inside the Stacks is so much easier, so much better, so much more comfortable, than life in the untracked wilderness outside. Better to live amid the comforts of city-states ruled by benevolent tyrants than to have to hunt your own food, make your own camp, and maintain your own mail servers, amid the beasts and bandits in the trackless wastes outside their walls.

That’s why the hackers who want to jailbreak the Internet will never be more than a curiosity, right? That’s why App.net (which really wants to be a Stack itself, anyway, just a classier one) only just hit 1% of 1% of the population of Facebook…after it introduced a free tier. That’s why new initiatives like Trrst, “a secure and distributed blog platform for the open web,” which is raising money on Kickstarter, will never get anywhere significant. Right?

If technology was a meritocracy I'd be sending this as a peer-to-peer RDF tweet from an Amiga 10,000 running GNU NLS on top of SmallTalk.—
Paul Ford (@ftrain) August 16, 2013

Which, I mean, that would probably be a disaster too.—
Paul Ford (@ftrain) August 16, 2013

These online anarchists, these idealists, don’t just claim that people should control their own data, and where it lives, and who’s allowed to access it; they claim that people want to. They claim that people don’t, and shouldn’t, trust for-profit megacorporations. They claim that client-server Stacks are only big because they’re good for business, while really, in a pure true noble world untrammeled by money and capitalism, everything would be purely peer-to-peer.

Unfortunately these claims are nonsense. Webmail is inherently insecure; and yet, among a group of those people most aware and most perturbed by this fact–the clients of Silent Circle’s recently shuttered email service

98% of Silent Mail customers opted to let Silent Circle hold the encryption keys, which made using the service much easier. When users manage their own keys, they have to log into a special system to exchange cryptographic keys with each person they want to email with.

Most damning of all, look at Github. It’s a great site, great service, great business. I use it every day. But its name and very existence are also, in a way, fundamental oxymorons:

Today is our quarterly reminder that Linus gave us a completely distributed VCS, so we stored all of our repos in a single point of failure.—
Gary Bernhardt (@garybernhardt) August 15, 2013

The sad truth is that the overwhelming majority of people, including highly technical capable people, don’t want peer-to-peer protocols. They don’t want to own their own data. They just want ease. Convenience. Someone else to take over and take care of their data problems. They want the Stacks.

…Mostly.

However. There have been a couple of odd and interesting exceptions.

Consider Skype. It was brilliantly peer-to-peer…for a while. But a few years ago it too turned to centralized servers. Not, its principle architect maintains, to make surveillance easier, but because in today’s mobile world, where any given node is very likely a phone with limited battery, bandwidth, and processing power, peer-to-peer protocols are less effective. But is that only a temporary truth? Might they raise their hydra heads again in five or ten years, when even phones can serve as supernodes?

Consider Bitcoin.

Most of all, consider BitTorrent, and the hundreds of millions of users of its distributed swarming protocol. It is the anti-Stack; it is immensely popular; and it is a sign that another way is possible. Might the city-states yet be overrun by Khan-like nomads? Might you you one day only need to install a StackSeed app on your phone, or computer, in order for it to become a node in one of several ever-shifting peer-to-peer clouds, striping multiple copies of your encrypted data to a motley crew of other member devices, flickering chaotically around the planet like weather?

Maybe. But only if, somehow, ad-hoc encrypted peer-to-peer services become as seamless and easy to use as today’s Stacks. It seems unlikely, yes; but look at Skype, look at BitTorrent. It doesn’t seem inconceivable. Maybe, just maybe, the reign of the Stacks will be temporary after all.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.


19 Aug 17:09

An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC

by Stephen Fry

Dear Prime Minister, M Rogge, Lord Coe and Members of the International Olympic Committee,

I write in the earnest hope that all those with a love of sport and the Olympic spirit will consider the stain on the Five Rings that occurred when the 1936 Berlin Olympics proceeded under the exultant aegis of a tyrant who had passed into law, two years earlier, an act which singled out for special persecution a minority whose only crime was the accident of their birth. In his case he banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations inflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them.

He claimed they “polluted” the purity and tradition of what it was to be German, that they were a threat to the state, to the children and the future of the Reich. He blamed them simultaneously for the mutually exclusive crimes of Communism and for the controlling of international capital and banks. He blamed them for ruining the culture with their liberalism and difference. The Olympic movement at that time paid precisely no attention to this evil and proceeded with the notorious Berlin Olympiad, which provided a stage for a gleeful Führer and only increased his status at home and abroad. It gave him confidence. All historians are agreed on that. What he did with that confidence we all know.

Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime, only this time against LGBT Russians. Beatings, murders and humiliations are ignored by the police. Any defence or sane discussion of homosexuality is against the law. Any statement, for example, that Tchaikovsky was gay and that his art and life reflects this sexuality and are an inspiration to other gay artists would be punishable by imprisonment. It is simply not enough to say that gay Olympians may or may not be safe in their village. The IOC absolutely must take a firm stance on behalf of the shared humanity it is supposed to represent against the barbaric, fascist law that Putin has pushed through the Duma. Let us not forget that Olympic events used not only to be athletic, they used to include cultural competitions. Let us realise that in fact, sport is cultural. It does not exist in a bubble outside society or politics. The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong. Everyone knows politics interconnects with everything for “politics” is simply the Greek for “to do with the people”.

An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillehammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I know whereof I speak. I have visited Russia, stood up to the political deputy who introduced the first of these laws, in his city of St Petersburg. I looked into the face of the man and, on camera, tried to reason with him, counter him, make him understand what he was doing. All I saw reflected back at me was what Hannah Arendt called, so memorably, “the banality of evil.” A stupid man, but like so many tyrants, one with an instinct of how to exploit a disaffected people by finding scapegoats. Putin may not be quite as oafish and stupid as Deputy Milonov but his instincts are the same. He may claim that the “values” of Russia are not the “values” of the West, but this is absolutely in opposition to Peter the Great’s philosophy, and against the hopes of millions of Russians, those not in the grip of that toxic mix of shaven headed thuggery and bigoted religion, those who are agonised by the rolling back of democracy and the formation of a new autocracy in the motherland that has suffered so much (and whose music, literature and drama, incidentally I love so passionately).

I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian “correctively” raped, gay men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one, weep anew at seeing history repeat itself.

“All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” so wrote Edmund Burke. Are you, the men and women of the IOC going to be those “good” who allow evil to triumph?

The Summer Olympics of 2012 were one of the most glorious moments of my life and the life of my country. For there to be a Russian Winter Olympics would stain the movement forever and wipe away any of that glory. The Five Rings would finally be forever smeared, besmirched and ruined in the eyes of the civilised world.

IOCLetter500x445

I am begging you to resist the pressures of pragmatism, of money, of the oily cowardice of diplomats and to stand up resolutely and proudly for humanity the world over, as your movement is pledged to do. Wave your Olympic flag with pride as we gay men and women wave our Rainbow flag with pride. Be brave enough to live up to the oaths and protocols of your movement, which I remind you of verbatim below.

Rule 4 Cooperate with the competent public or private organisations and authorities in the endeavour to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace

Rule 6: Act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement

Rule 15 Encourage and support initiatives blending sport with culture and education

I especially appeal to you, Prime Minister, a man for whom I have the utmost respect. As the leader of a party I have for almost all of my life opposed and instinctively disliked, you showed a determined, passionate and clearly honest commitment to LGBT rights and helped push gay marriage through both houses of our parliament in the teeth of vehement opposition from so many of your own side. For that I will always admire you, whatever other differences may lie between us. In the end I believe you know when a thing is wrong or right. Please act on that instinct now.

Yours in desperate hope for humanity

Stephen Fry

 

The post An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC appeared first on Official site of Stephen Fry.

28 Jul 22:24

Life Without Sex

by By SOPHIE FONTANEL
When the body wants the skin of someone else, it knows how to behave.