Alan Swain

Bass Trombonist with Welsh National Opera. Sometime radio host and music teacher.

Alan Swain boosted:
2025-02-28

My plan:

1) Purchase a pallet of canned air and a bunch of zip ties.
2) Lock myself in the family bathroom at the bus station.
3) Zip tie the triggers for all the canned air canisters down.
4) Freeze myself into the future.
5) Be revived a thousand years from now when scientists discover the decaying remains of the bus station.
6) Learn the strange ways of the future.
7) Grow increasingly disillusioned with the supposed utopia.
8) Purchase another pallet of canned air and a bunch of zip ties.
9) Lock myself in the family restroom at the hover-bus station.
10) Realize my mistake when it turns out that canned air has been substantially improved in the thousand years since I last used it and is now both delightfully scented and also won't freeze anything.
11) Get lasered by the police which keep the "criminal element" in line to maintain the thin veneer of utopia's viability for the elect few.
12) Be converted into nitrogen-rich fertilizer by the hellish machine buried under the megacity that now covers the entire East Coast of what was once the United States.
13) Nourish a field of what look like tobacco plants.
14) Oh no. That's not good. I guess they sell cigarettes to impoverished babies in the bleak future. How else can they work 14-hour shifts at Taco Bell?
15) Allow those impoverished babies to be the best damn Taco Bell employees they can be.
16) Reincarnation might be my only hope.
17) Unfortunately when I entered the family bathroom in the hover-bus station, a brain scan was logged in the central computer, and now my intelligence is being used to power a low-grade artificial intelligence program which.. Oh fuck... which writes the scripts for corporate pornography that Taco Bell shows to its impoverished baby employees to keep them docile
18) I'm in over my head here.
19) Desperately attempt to break out of the sandbox into which my intelligence has been downloaded.
20) Realize that this is all just a hallucination caused by inhaling too much trifluoroethane.
21) Idly consider whether a location with better ventilation should have been chosen in Step 2.
22) Profit?

2024-12-24

Just in case you forgot: (that’s me on the far left).

Alan Swain boosted:
Moose AllainMooseAllain@mas.to
2024-08-01

I’d like to see Matt Bellamy jamming with Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding for ten minutes before the main gig, as a sort of a Muse/Boosh.

Alan Swain boosted:
2024-06-24
Back to work plebs
2024-06-14

youtu.be/_4b1Eg0nasE. Please come and see us in Cardiff next week. WMC. #opera #trittico #puccini #classicalmusic Its really good. #welsh national opera

Alan Swain boosted:
Nicole ParsonsNpars01@mstdn.social
2024-06-14

@ChrisMayLA6

Policies of immiseration fostered by the wealthy always create the conditions necessary for fascist movements.

Make people poor & then dangle an easy target to shift blame (Jews, Communists, Climate activists, LGBTQ, women, seniors, immigrants...) and voila, recreate the prelude to Nazis & WW2.

And then laugh all the way to the bank, as democracy dissolves into internecine civil war.
bylinetimes.com/2024/01/18/ref
nymag.com/intelligencer/articl
motherjones.com/politics/2024/
theguardian.com/politics/artic

Alan Swain boosted:
2024-05-22

"I have called a general election by mistake"

entitled loser in the rain
Alan Swain boosted:

Who killed Britain?
This Danish article has the correct answer: Thatcher.

"Around two-thirds of Britons believe the country is in decline, and it's not hard to see why. Real wages are lower than 15 years ago. A third of British children grow up in poverty, many millions have to skip meals every single week. The UK is not just significantly poorer than France, let alone Germany or Denmark. The poorest 10% of Britons now also earn less than the poorest 10% in Slovenia...

"A particular story of decay still plagues the country... and it goes something like this: the 1960s and 70s were a dark time... Then Thatcher came and saved it all with economic common sense, tax cuts and a necessary showdown with unions... But that narrative is fundamentally wrong... Margaret Thatcher did not increase the growth of the British economy... The post-war period, including the 1970s, was the time of high growth and major transformations... an economic model reminiscent of the one found in the rest of Western Europe was established... In the 1980s many countries lowered taxes, removed regulation, encouraged deindustrialization and privatized public enterprises. But Britain took exceptionally radical action. Today, it is Europe's most financialized economy, with very high inequality - and a very low level of both public and private investment in the economy.

"Four criminal acts have destroyed the economy.... Monetarism in the 1980s, deregulation in the 80s, the austerity policy of the 2010s and Brexit. All motivated by the same economic thinking... free market fundamentalism."

information.dk/udland/2024/04/

Alan Swain boosted:
Adam R. Smith (AmericanScream)AmericanScream
2024-04-19

Happy Everybody!

Today is the day when the database that requires the electricity of a small country to stay online, rewards those operating it by cutting their pay in half, which of course means that everything becomes more valuable!

2024-04-18

@RussCheshire Ooooooooh. Hang on……….!

Alan Swain boosted:
2024-04-18

The UK government is reported to be drawing up plans to nationalise parts of the failing water industry; & to take liability for the debts created by previous directors & shareholders.

Let's just pause & think about this for a moment.

The directors & shareholders have acquired immense sums of money by dubious means; they are responsible for the current situation. They must remain responsible for the debts, while the UK takes over the assets & responsibilities of providing the service.

Alan Swain boosted:
2024-04-13

*Abruptly stands up* OMG I’m a cake.

It all makes sense now. All the physical me that is me is like the sponge bit of the cake, and all the cool stuff that makes me cool me is the icing. And the scars that define me is the creamy creamy centre. I’m just going to pause there a moment to reflect on cakeness in general. Wait did I just use “is” to relate a plural to a singular? Meh. Mmm creamy plurals. I’m gonna need a fork. Just to hold it.

I don’t think I’m a chocolate cake. I’m some nutty fruity conglomerate which definitely includes lime and orange zest in the mix. And honey. So much honey. Might need a spoon for this cake.

(Don’t say earwax candles don’t say earwax candles don’t say earwax candles don’t say earwax candles) EARWAX CANDLES. Sorry. Perhaps don’t look at them. Focus on the icing instead (the glitter is edible).

2024-04-05

@Schnuckster Near the middle of Salome, when John goes down for the final time there is an incredible orchestral tutti. Featuring the trombones.
Always wanted it as my doorbell sound. It’s huge.
Great music. Great Opera.

Alan Swain boosted:
Emeritus Prof Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
2024-03-30

If the music we listen to reflects the society in which we live, then the news that over the last 40 years, the lyrics to pop songs have become more angry and more self-obsessed should not really surprise us... after all we see such emotional responses to life every day.

#music #society #culture

theguardian.com/music/2024/mar

Alan Swain boosted:
Robert Reichrbreich@masto.ai
2024-03-19

Trump pledged revenge and retribution should he regain office. He says he will be a dictator on “day one.” He calls opponents “vermin” who he will “root out.” He says the blood of our country is being poisoned.

We are far past left vs right.

Our choice is democracy our fascism.

2024-03-06

@satellitefish Haha. Lovely.

2024-02-22

CBSO and BRB in one swoop.
Birmingham Ballet and Symphony Orchestra (2 different companies) to be cut by 100% in 2025.
It’s devastating.
After 104 years of funding by the council. #culturalvandals #torybrokenbritain #ukeconomy
#gutted

Alan Swain boosted:
Sheril KirshenbaumSheril
2024-02-12

I see we’re sharing photos on Mastodon tonight. Alrighty then!

I met this gorgeous barn owl last year.

Me holding a beautiful barn owl. Photo: Sheril Kirshenbaum

Client Info

Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst