If you like popular music, I can recommend Radio Paradise. It’s not really a radio station, as such, but a curated playlist that lives on the internet. However, it has four strong features: no adverts, no chatter, 24/7 availability and no cost (though donations are solicited). Occasionally, the DJ (there is only one and he has the superhuman quality of needing no sleep) does interject, sometimes to inform, sometimes to comment briefly on the music. For example, after the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter he said, “Ah, that one always has me reaching for the volume knob – clockwise, of course”. As it happens, I agree, though there are tracks to which the opposite could apply. But that’s the beauty of an eclectic playlist: it’s a roller-coaster of musical highs and lows, with the capacity also to broaden listeners’ horizons. I mean, I had never heard of Melody Gardot until RP played her version of Who Will Comfort Me? but it was definitely clockwise-volume-worthy.
This week I was roped into door-to-door leafleting for the Green Party’s candidate in the local elections. Usually, I am more comfortable with armchair politics but my Other Half, who is more of a doer, urged me to share the foot soldier experience and I could think of no convincing reason not to. There was no canvassing involved, no door-knocking or face-to-face encounters of the kind that might result in altercations. The only threats were fiercely-sprung letterboxes and the aggressive dogs that sometimes lurk behind them, both of which could be dealt with by folding the leaflet around the end of spatula before poking it through. Nevertheless, I was out of my comfort zone. It was not our ward, but a suburban estate of a type to be found all over the country: every house set in its own plot and every street jammed with cars – just the sort of heavy carbon footprint lifestyle that ought to make a Green candidate shudder.
Fortunately, any concerns I had about confrontation quickly dissipated. The few people who were out on the streets responded to my proffered “Good Morning!” with civility and, reassuringly, there were pro-Green posters in a few of the windows. One man, however, did pop out to hand the leaflet back to me, having obviously not glanced at it. “I don’t agree with this Conservative government,” he said. “But it’s for the Green party in the council elections,” I replied. “Whatever. I don’t do politics,” was his response. I tried not to show my dismay at his lack of engagement, but I’m no politician and, by definition, no canvasser. If this was an indication of alternative views people hold outside of my comfort zone, perhaps it is best to get out there and find out, before it’s too late and they come for me. I have just been reading about covid-deniers and the like – people who believe there is an international conspiracy afoot to enslave whole populations – and I think it’s best to hear their reasoning so as to know what to expect and prepare as best I can for the day they take over.
This theory may well be tested at the weekend, since we are invited to attend an actual non-zoom drinks party on our neighbours’ terrace. We know them only from brief encounters in the street and, while they seem sociable and smiley, I have no idea of their political views – nor those of the other couple they have invited to form the regulation maximum party of six. One thing, however, is for certain: the conversation will turn to covid, vaccination and lockdown. I hope for neighbourly accord on these matters, but I do see the potential for heated discussion or worse, especially after drink is taken, the volume starts to rise and there is no one in control of the knob.
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