Tannhauser's Journal

If I can't dance, I don't want your Dance Dance Revolution
(links later)

In the darkly dystopian world of my imaginings, every blogpost about an election would be required by law to be titled with a quote from Election Day by Arcadia. This is a question of if, not when.

However, my theme tune to this election, thanks to the excellent work of Fluxblog, has been "The things that you say that you do" by Dressy Bessy.

I can see the comparisons with the Apples in Stereo, but only, on the strength of limited acquaintance, in the context of Powerpuff Girls: Heroes and Villains. Compare this with, say, Her Wallpaper Reverie and, while one can certainly find 60s influences in both (the main riff to TTTYSTYYD is, I think, a variation on "You Really Got Me"), this only serves to remind us how "60s influence" actually covers an awful lot of ground. I'm an absolute sucker for indie-flavoured girl groups (a weakness reawakened both by the Fiery Furnaces and by finding 'Seether" on my old MP3 player on the bus to Pisa Airport), and this has thrown up a very real problem: how do I avoid reducing myself to penury through the horrible accessibility of the iTunes Music Store?

Back to less important matters. Thank God I live in a safe seat - I spent too long this time round agonising about where to cast my utterly meaningless vote. If there had been any significance attached to my actions, I might never have gotten out of bed. In the end, despite the stern overwatch of ancestors who have been voting Labour for about as long as the Labour Party has existed, I went for the Lib Dem candidate. Not so much a statement of political principle as a declaration of how nice I am. The Lib Dems obviously know they haven't a hope in Hell, to the extent of putting forward a candidate who appeared too be twelve. It was like My First Election Campaign...

It looks as if we'll end up with a reasonably happy outcome: a Labour victory and then hopefully the reasonably swift departure of Blair. In a way, the Goldsmith advice actually makes it a lot easier to forgive the cabinet and the parliamentary party. Obviously, this will become harder again when they forge ahead with ID cards, whack up council tax and start commissioning inquiries into building new nuclear power plants, but at least at that point I can say "don't blame me. I voted Lib Dem. Utterly ineffectually."

I almost feel bad for Blair. He seems genuinely hurt and bewildered that people are not leaving Iraq behind. Possibly nobody has told him that it is hard to leave something behind when it tiresomely insisting on continuing to kill people.

On an unrelated topic, and in response to something kitty_goth and julietk were discussing yesterday: I think LiveJournal facilitates insensitivity, particularly if you're not overly sensitive to start with. You have no immediate cues - so nothing like a grimace to stop you halfway into something. Also, the immediate mechanism for registering disapproval - replying to an offensive post - also inevitably means providing attention, so you're likely to generate further commentary on the situation. It's back to LiveJournal being designed to foster interaction, but being neutral as to whether that action can be subjectively experienced as positive or negative.

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