September 2024

What I've been up to

This week has been a tricky one with the censors. My Chinese song 《湖南》’Hunan’ – which I first wrote in 2012 and properly recorded in 2014 - was taken down by YouTube, deemed as ‘hate speech’. Also, ‘Voice of a Generation’ an updated version of a song I first released in 2021, was rejected by distributor Ditto, so cannot appear on the major streaming platforms because it is “offensive or obscene”. You can decide for yourself:

Activities

I will probably complete Sober October. When it comes to alcohol, the good news has been I have been able to have one or two drinks, then just leave it for the night. The bad news is, I have been drinking at all, unlike last year.

Work-wise, I have been dividing my time between a law-firm and Salford University, as I continue as the white-collar equivalent of a handyman. I don’t have any pupils for the guitar a present, but did upload this very brief lesson:

I also completed two new Substack essays, one was on near-death experiences, and the other on the bittersweet nature of even the most successful literary careers. The latter got retweeted by The Literary Consultancy.  

Output

I finished reading ‘Not Your China Doll’ by Katie Gee Salisbury, a biography of Anna May Wong, who was the first Asian-American movie star. As soon as I finished the book,  I recorded this YouTube video about it:

Speaking of what previous generations achieved, how quickly they are forgotten, and how unlikely any of us are to leave a lasting legacy, my newest The Kev song is about all those things:

I also recorded a new pop cover

And a new classical guitar video

Wider World

On both sides of the Atlantic, examples of what columnist Marina Hyde described as the sex-case industrial complex have been exposed. Rapper Sean Combs has been arrested and detained, charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage with prostitution. Many experts are predicting he will never be free again.

In the United Kingdom, it emerged that businessman Mohammed Fayed - a pillar of the establishment who died in 2023 – was a prolific sexual abuser with at least 37 victims. Both the Fayed and Combs cases are examples of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

As more details of the crimes emerge, thousands of enablers and accomplices will be publicly embarrassed. As much as I sometimes daydream about becoming famous and headlining massive venues, rubbing shoulders with the establishment seems to be highly overrated. Becoming the establishment is even more morally compromising.