Travelling today …

I am in transit for most of today on my way to Scotland for the first of the presentations in my current speaking tour. You can find details of all the activity during this tour on my – Events page. The blog will resurface on Thursday. But don’t despair – overleaf is a movie, some audio and some great guitar playing to while away the hours. Or there are plenty of past blog posts to re-read and think about.

Please note that for around 24 hours I may not moderate any comments on my blog that get stuck in the queue for one reason or another.

Real Progressives Interview – May 6, 2019

On Monday, I did an interview with Steve Grumbine for Real Progressives. There were technical problems with the connection so the session was cut short and we didn’t complete the topics we had planned.

But I admire the work that the activists at Real Progressives do and will support them whenever I can.

In a day or so, I will also make an announcement about the creation of the MMT Foundation, which we have created to raise funds for the MMTed (aka MMT University) project, in the first instance.

Micro activity

While I spend most of my time up there in the macro end of the world, I am also involved in a community group – Open Newcastle – which is organising opposition to over-development in our city. Very micro I can tell you.

We staged a balloon rally a few weeks ago – you can see the photos – Photos from Mosbri Crescent Rally, April 13, 2019.

We are going to broaden our campaigns to try to gain seats on the local council.

Relatedly, yesterday the public broadcaster ran a segment during its drive program (May 6, 2019) – What impact will Newcastle’s growing residential development have on jobs? – which covered issued relating to the apartment development boom in Newcastle.

They interviewed me in my guise as a Professor of Economics and employment expert (I am sort of their go to person on these issues) and the discussion soon turned to over-development and the rest of it.

You can download the audio (15 mins 14 secs) as a MP3 Podcast or listen live at the ABC link above.

Music while travelling

Today’s listening experience comes from the French sound engineer and producer – St German – aka Ludovic Navarre.

Not that I am in Tourist mode, but his third studio album – Tourist – which was released in 2000, has some great horn playing and some even better guitar playing.

It is one of the better ‘nu-jazz house’ albums around, which I play regularly.

One of my favourite guitar players Ernest Ranglin features on track 2 – Montego Bay Spleen.

That track also extracts samples from two great albums by the reggae sound engineer and producer – Scientist – ‘First Dangerous Match’, from 1983 album Scientist Wins the World Cup and from ‘Laser Attack’, from the 1981 album Scientist Meets the Space Invaders.

Here is that track:

And if you want to listen to the whole album (and I think that is a good idea), here is the link to St Germain’s – Official YouTube channel.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2019 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.