Madam Miaow sings "Mercedes Benz" at the St Ives Festival

So this is how I amuse myself while I'm in St Ives for the festival. I sang for the first time, not including the occasion two years back when I provided backing vocals for Buffalo Bill Smith and Charles Shaar Murray at the Kettle and Wink and forgot the lyrics to Who Do You Love?, even though it was me who was pressing for them to play the song.

Didn't mangle Janis Joplin's comment on consumerism too much. And I'd rather have a tiny Mazda sports car or anything driven by Emma Peel.

Notes on St Ives for anyone else planning a trip down: best pasties, scones and jam from Pengenna Pasties in the High Street opposite Lloyds Bank. Clotted cream ice-cream with clotted cream on top from Waller's on the corner of Fish Street. Internet at The Hub — and they now serve Rattler cider, the finest fruit-based drink on the planet except for Dunkertons. Yay for the Hub!

Lunchtime sessions at Norway Square, St Ives Arts Festival, September 2010. Hosted by Bob Deveraux.

More live performance from Anna here

Madam Miaow sings "Mercedes Benz" at the St Ives Festival

So this is how I amuse myself while I'm in St Ives for the festival. I sang for the first time, not including the occasion two years back when I provided backing vocals for Buffalo Bill Smith and Charles Shaar Murray at the Kettle and Wink and forgot the lyrics to Who Do You Love?, even though it was me who was pressing for them to play the song.

Didn't mangle Janis Joplin's comment on consumerism too much. And I'd rather have a tiny Mazda sports car or anything driven by Emma Peel.

Notes on St Ives for anyone else planning a trip down: best pasties, scones and jam from Pengenna Pasties in the High Street opposite Lloyds Bank. Clotted cream ice-cream with clotted cream on top from Waller's on the corner of Fish Street. Internet at The Hub — and they now serve Rattler cider, the finest fruit-based drink on the planet except for Dunkertons. Yay for the Hub!

Lunchtime sessions at Norway Square, St Ives Arts Festival, September 2010. Hosted by Bob Deveraux.

More live performance from Anna here

Supurbia: "The Afghanistan Song", St Ives Festival 2010.

Still in St Ives for the festival. Here's the first of my videos of the talent. Superbia play their great anti-war song, "The Afghanistan Song" during the lunchtime sessions in Norway Square for the St Ives Arts Festival, September 2010.

Supurbia: "The Afghanistan Song", St Ives Festival 2010.

Still in St Ives for the festival. Here's the first of my videos of the talent. Superbia play their great anti-war song, "The Afghanistan Song" during the lunchtime sessions in Norway Square for the St Ives Arts Festival, September 2010.

Morrissey brands Chinese people "sub-species": this little China Girl says "just you shut your gob"

The Guardian plugs their "Morrissey sparks racism row calling Chinese 'subspecies'" Weekend magazine article on their front page.

The old miserabilist has used the excuse of an animal cruelty scandal in China to brand the entire Chinese race as a "sub-species". What, even Buddhists who don't eat meat? Even the Chinese environmentalists and animal rights activists who work hard to protect pandas and tigers in their natural habitats? Even the Chinese people who are shocked and furious to find private zoos mistreating the animals they've been trusted to look after? Even the Chinese investigative team at Xinhua News Agency who uncovered the scandal of the deaths of tigers in Harbin zoo?

While he understandably described the latest scandal as "absolutely horrific", which it is, he neglected to extend his empathy to fellow human beings when he said, "You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies."

There's been a wave of anti-Chinese Yellow Peril fever whipped up coinciding with the rise of China as a superpower, surfacing in sensationalist scapegoating every time there's a disaster. They've attempted to stick us with the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in rural England, the Gulf Of Mexico BP oil leak, even climate change when the West has been belching out carbon emissions for 160 years since the industrial revolution and look set to continue doing so at four times per capita that of the Chinese.

Loved One (Jewish) just chimed in to say it's like being Jewish between the wars. "No wonder Jews are so fond of Chinese food. In New York it's practically the staple diet. Red star, yellow star, what's the difference?"

Turn to any nation and you will find a callous money-grubbing section of society which views animals and humans as objects to be stripped down and used. These are the enemy and the ignorant who need to be educated (possibly, if all else fails, with steel-toed boots). We could count the ways that this particular barbarism manifests in the West, but I respect my readers sufficiently to assume that they know what those issues are.

It was Spaniards themselves who halted bull fighting in Barcelona, but it took a long time and a hard fight. The same is happening in China. At least they don't bomb people from 30,000 ft as some civilised nations do.

I know animal rights activists who care about humans as well. Pity Morrissey isn't one of them. Fading old rock stars will do just about anything to grab a headline — and the best thing about The Smiths was always Johnny Marr's guitar-playing.


Sherlock and wily orientals. Review of "The Blind Banker", Episode 2.

BBC jumps racist shark with "Fu Manchu In Edinburgh"

Racism for fun. Fu Manchu producer pleads irony on BBC.

The Independent publishes article by Sonny Leong, Chair of Chinese For Labour, 6th October 2010, asking if the Chinese have lost face by their lack of response.

Lang Lang plays Chopin, Berlin Philharmonic 31 Jan 2009

For the Crosstown Lightnin' detractor who wrote to me saying Jeff Beck is a "pub band", here is a musical interlude of a classical persuasion to help you focus your thoughts while you bone up on your genres.

The sublime double-monikered One plays Chopin Etude No. 3, Op. 10 in E major as an encore at the Berliner Philharmoniker on January 31st in Berlin.