Say what you want to about our brand of highly marketed politics, it has been a virtual stranger in other parts of the world. Television as a tool for "getting the message across" was something avoided in Britain up until the advent of Margaret Thatcher. Prior to that it was the occasional odd televised Press conference and holiday message. But mostly it was ignored and viewed much the same way as one would view bacteria.

In retrospect, it was really only during the time of the 1960 election that TV became a medium of great potential in U.S. politics, and people like JFK who saw that potential ran with it. It has never been the same since.

Here is a radio documentary first aired by the BBC World Service on December 31, 2000 which traces the evolution of TV and Politics in Britain from the post-World War 2 period all the way up to Tony Blair - at the time of this broadcast there still were no televised debates as those didn't happen until 2010.

It's a fascinating comparison in just how the message is put across and how image has shaped our politics in a much more all-encompassing way than in other countries.

It could probably explain why there's been a recent trend in Britain to have all politicians looking somewhat the same, just as we do.

Heaven help the world from the invasion of the clueless and ruthless Pretty People. But alas, I'm afraid it may be too late . . . .

As long as we're in a Singer-Songwriter vein this week, I thought I would toss some PJ Harvey into the mix. Harvey hasn't captured the mainstream market, and its doubtful she ever will. Her material is too unflinching and visceral to be neatly tied into a convenient package. And that's a good thing, because she's been influential to a number of up-and-comers in recent years who have borrowed liberally from her in many different ways. But PJ Harvey is an original, and however you feel about her, you don't feel ambivalence.

Tonight it's a session she recorded for John Peel at The BBC on November 10, 2000.

Here's the track lineup:

1. This Wicked Tongue
2. Somebody's Down, Somebody's Name
3. Beautiful Feeling
4. Nickel Under The Foot.

Music that screams "Don't Blend In." So don't.

As days in history go, June 29, 2000 was probably less memorable but no less frantic. It started off with news that the Wild fires in Southern Washington State, having consumed some 180,000 acres were heading towards the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, but hopeful spokespeople painted optimistic pictures saying everything would be okay, just as long as the wind didn't whip up . . .again. And the Happiest Place On Earth was scene of a hostage situation, as a distraught husband and father took his 4 year old and a Concession worker at gunpoint demanding to see the ex while at Disney World in Orlando. Disgraced Atlanta Braves Pitcher John Rocker, who managed to piss off an entire city and several races in the process, returned to baseball briefly. His return was greeted with such reverse warmth and abhorrence that he was accompanied by a phalanx of armed police and escorted from the ballpark in an armored car when the show was over. The Elian Gonzalez case got something of a recap when Janet Reno gave a presser to air her views on the fiasco. When asked if she learned anything from the ordeal she said, no because nothing like that was ever going to happen again. President Clinton nominated Norman Mineta to Secretary of Commerce, the first Asian American to land the gig. British Scientists tossed a wet blanket on the Aspirin for Heart Health theory, saying dousing yourself with the tiny pharmaceutical would probably do more harm than good in the long run. Oh well.

And if you were a former American Cancer Society exec named Daniel Wiant you'd be sweating bullets on this day as the Feds just handed you a Fraud indictment for the $7million you embezzled from the Charity.

Eleven years ago this day, as it sound on the CBS World News Roundup Late Edition for June 29, 2000.

A rather light news day, unless you were paying attention to the New York Senate race. New York Mayor and Senate hopeful Rudy Giuliani calls it quits, citing a Cancer scare and a marriage Tsunami and leaving the Republican contenders racing to shore up the cracks. The Attorney General's Office reveals a new computer virus making the rounds, targeting Microsoft Windows Operating systems (of course). The Wen Ho Lee spy case drags on. Rumor circulates of an oral vaccine being developed for the AIDS virus and the first portion of a liver to be transplanted is hailed as a success, particularly notable since the donor came via the Internet.

All on this particular day in 2000 via the CBS World News Roundup Late Edition.

(The Dears - just a bunch of fun-loving electronic chaos merchants)

A nice dose of Experimental compliments of The Dears tonight. The Dears are an indie/experimental/quasi-electronica group who have been around for at least the past ten years, have a ton of albums out, have a huge underground following and come from Montreal. This track, Where the World Begins And Ends comes from their 2000 album "End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story".

Their site has everything they've ever released available (mostly) and it would do your world-weary brain untold good to check them out.

And here's a little something to set the weekend in just that kind of motion.

(Pulp - didn't happen overnight - but once they got there . . )

Continuing the Special Fundraiser Edition of Nights At The Roundtable tonight - Pulp Live at Leeds University from 2000.

Check it out, turn it up, spend a half hour with Jarvis Cocker and the band and drop a few quarters into the kitty to help keep this thing going.

(The future, it would appear, is one wild idea right after the other)

I always get a kick out of listening to programs discussing the future, especially when it's the year 2000 as viewed from the perspective of 1966.

Part of the Second Sunday radio series for NBC, newsman Chet Huntley did some in-depth crystal ball gazing and came up with some bizarre ideas as to what the future, 34 years from the comfort zone of 1966, would look like.

For example - computers:

I.A. “Bud” Lewis (computer tech for NBC): “There will be this society of the computer programmer. The man who will tell the machine how to perform its task. See, the thing about a computer is, that it is the first, I think, universal machine. It is the machine which can perform any task, as a matter of fact, it doesn’t even know what it’s supposed to do until you tell it what to do. The telling of a machine what it’s to do, that is the program. And it is the programmer who really controls the means of production. It seems to me that, if we must have as I suggested before, an ethos in which work is not important then we must also have a kind of a noblese oblige in which certain electronic elite people realize it as their duty to help to supervise the economy.”

There's always the "things we could never dream" asides as well as the tons of leisure time all Americans are supposed to have.

Some of the predictions are eerily spot-on while some are just hilarious.

But remember; this is 2000 as seen through 1966 eyes. And we are a scary bunch - even then.