There’s an oldish interview with Glen Hansard (the frames / swell season) in TMO, where he talks about poetry, saying “Poetry stirs the blood. Poetry makes men go to war. If you listen to any of the speeches from Bush or the statements from Al-Qaeda, it’s all poetry, and that’s what makes men kill. ”

I heard the news today, oh  boy, and amidst security council vetoes, schools being bombed, and the inability to do anything, I’ve momentarily lost my appetite for singers singing songs. 

Offering a moment of peace and reflectionis the Italian pianist Giovanni Allevi, with his melancholy and beautiful track Back to Life. Allevi, a shy and akward composer who has touched a chord with a wide and diverse audience in his native Italy, plays music that would be classified by the short-sighted as ‘classical’ but it transcends boundaries and snobbish pigeonholes.

Just what’s needed in these dark days. (if you feel like doing something, how about signing the avaaz petition ‘stop the bloodshed in Gaza‘)

httpv://it.youtube.com/watch?v=77TED1KYdKc