Richard Ashcroft - Are You Ready?

Art by Chris Earnhart

Description:

boring, stupid and lazy. sarcastic, always working on something. tattoo maker, former hand model, artiste, bass player (the gore-gons, deadbolt), international jet setter. had a few drinks. once shook hands with desmond dekker. MySpace 

@'Art is Useless'

Allan - does this mean I can write for you again?

adamficek

  

On a brighter note, The Melody Maker is coming back only on an online platform, I used to love that mag. 36 minutes ago from web

Stupido!

2 minutes ago someone tried to break into our backyard.

I thought it was son #2 but as there was no reply when I shouted "hello" I went outside and heard someone running off down the street...

So message to whoever - please come back...!!!

Kate McGarrigle, death of a matriarch

Sad news today that Kate McGarrigle has passed away, after a battle with cancer. To many music listeners, she’s probably best known as the matriarch of the Wainwright clan. Married for some years to influential American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, she is the mother of popular contemporary singer-songwriters Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright.

Being head of that dynasty might be enough to earn her a place in popular music history, but Kate was a wonderful musician in her own right, recording 10 albums with her sister Anne McGariggle. The sisters had high, thin voices but they weaved around each other in such tight, flowing harmony that the effect was completely magical and bewitching. Bi-lingual Canadians, their repertoire included traditional folk in English and French, and original songs of their own (which are striking enough to have been recorded by such artists as Linda Rondstadt, Maria Muldaur, Kirsty MacColl, Billy Bragg, Alison Moorer, Emmylou Harris, The Corrs, Annie Sophie Von Otter and Elvis Costello. And even her ex-husband, Loudon).

One Kate And Anna McGarrigle album in particular occupies a special place in my heart (and record collection). ‘Entre Lajeunesse et la sagesse’ was released in 1980, and is better known to (English speaking) admirers as The French Record. My editor used to play it in the offices of Hot Press, where I worked as a 19-year-old graphic designer, and I fell in love with it. I speak only high school French, and I really have no idea what these songs are about, but the album just worked its way into my consciousness and my heart. I still have the office vinyl copy, covered in masking tape, cow gum and letraset. The songs just communicate so much that is beyond language, with simple yet zesty, organic arrangements and voices weaving in and out of each other. It is a record shot through with humour and pathos and a kind of wisdom beyond language, the kind of music that bewitches everyone who hears it, no matter what their taste. You can find it on Spotify here. So give yourself a treat and honour the memory of a great musical artist and, perhaps more significantly, a good mother.

And how do I judge the latter? Well, following a difficult divorce, her gifted children have all taken quite hefty musical pot shots at their father (Martha on ‘Bloody Mother****ing Asshole’ and Rufus on ‘Dinner At Eight’) but have shown nothing but love to their mother. So she must have  been doing something right.

I was going to end this with Rest In Peace, but somehow  it doesn’t seem appropriate. So how about Rest In Music, Kate.

@'The Daily Telegraph'

Girlz With Gunz # 91 (Happy Birthday Magnolia)

"Happy birthday to you...may you live long and prosper!

Love MonaXXX"
Give your Daddy a big kiss from me too!

Who woulda thought?

"A little older a little more confused..."

JEEEBUS...

Coded References to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

HERE

Almost time to kick out the jams
  motherfugers!

Ready steady... (Girlz with Gunz #...)

Chris Carter says:

     

chris_carter_
so Eno wouldn't admit he liked Abba in the 70s. I never had a problem admitting that myself - check out my badge on cover of Heathen Earth                 7:32 AM Jan 18th      from Twitterrific       

Eno says:

"I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. “The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it."

 Brian Eno interviewed by Paul Morley
(Thanx Don!)

Sacred Dub podcasts (The music & projects of Bill Laswell)

Now up to episode 62.
These podcasts use the music of Bill Laswell as a starting point and go off in all directions from there.

Well worth your listening time as I am sure you will discover some new sounds.

 

HERE

Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines faced a difficult decision over whether to dock as per itinerary at Labadee Beach, Haiti after last week's tragic quake. Photograph: Daniel Morel/AP

Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks.

The 4,370-berth Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on Friday; a second cruise ship, the 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas is due to dock.

The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to "cut loose" with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''

Some booked on ships scheduled to stop at Labadee are afraid that desperate people might breach the resort's 12ft high fences to get food and drink, but others seemed determined to enjoy their holiday."I'll be there on Tuesday and I plan on enjoying my zip line excursion as well as the time on the beach," said one.

The company said the question of whether to "deliver a vacation experience so close to the epicentre of an earthquake" had been subject to considerable internal debate before it decided to include Haiti in its itineraries for the coming weeks.

"In the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti's recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood," said John Weis, vice-president. "In our conversations with the UN special envoy of the government of Haiti, Leslie Voltaire, he notes that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from each call …

"We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti. Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most."

"Friday's call in Labadee went well," said Royal Caribbean. "Everything was open, as usual. The guests were very happy to hear that 100% of the proceeds from the call at Labadee would be donated to the relief effort."

Forty pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water, and canned foods were delivered on Friday, and a further 80 are due and 16 on two subsequent ships. When supplies arrive in Labadee, they are distributed by Food for the Poor, a longtime partner of Royal Caribbean in Haiti.

Royal Caribbean has also pledged $1m to the relief effort and will spend part of that helping 200 Haitian crew members.

The company recently spent $55m updating Labadee. It employs 230 Haitians and the firm estimates 300 more benefit from the market. The development has been regarded as a beacon of private investment in Haiti; Bill Clinton visited in October. Some Haitians have decried the leasing of the peninsula as effective privatisation of part of the republic's coastline.

@'The Guardian'