Thursday, 15 July 2010
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Spiritualized's Jason Pierce Talks Ladies and Gentlemen Shows
After reissuing Spiritualized's 10.0 masterpiece Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and playing the album in full on European stages last year, Jason Pierce (aka J. Spaceman) will bring a choir, strings, and horns to New York City's Radio City Music Hall for one more Ladies and Gentlemen show July 30. It's being touted as the last gig of its kind-- which makes sense since Pierce is well on his way toward a new album, as he told us in a recent interview. He said we could expect a new Spiritualized LP "early next year, if I'm lucky."Pitchfork: How did these Ladies and Gentlemen shows originally come about?
Jason Pierce: We did an All Tomorrow's Parties show in Australia with Nick Cave. We did one show on top of Mount Buller and played down the mountain-- the crowd sort of comes down the slope with you. We stayed up all night and the guys from ATP asked if we'd ever play Ladies and Gentlemen live, and I said, "Yeah." It was a decision made at altitude-- they got me at the right time. It could've been any album. If they'd asked for Pure Phase or Let It Come Down, we would've wound up doing that.
As much as an audience wants to hear new stuff, they're rarely receptive to hearing a whole new record as a live show. But with Ladies and Gentlemen, they've had 13 years to sit with it and they've got these ideas about where the songs take them. We did the shows in England, and I wasn't going to do this for the rest of my life, so we wound it down. And then we got talking, like, "If we don't take it to America now, we ain't never gonna take it." New York is as far as we could go, unfortunately.
Pitchfork: It doesn't seem like you're somebody who looks back a lot. Has it been hard for you to dedicate your time to this 13-year-old album?
JP: Well, I'm making a new record right now. But, for a lot of bands, it seems like these kinds of shows with all old songs are the best thing they can do. I'm not saying that with any disrespect, but I don't think that's the case with what we're doing. I don't even want to chance it.
And, with Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't think that the band that made that record could've played it when it came out. It's like it's taken this amount of time to do it real justice live. Now we can play it from beginning to end and it's going to make real fucking sense. I think the album I'm working on now is already more important.
Pitchfork: How far along are you with the new album?
JP: Quite a ways. I'm all over the place when I make a record; I don't even know what I'm doin'. As soon as things start to work, that's when a lot of problems start because you have to start raising everything to that level.
Pitchfork: Has revisiting Ladies and Gentlemen inspired you to do more of those types of big arrangements on the new material?
JP: Yeah, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't influencing the music I make now.
Jason Pierce: We did an All Tomorrow's Parties show in Australia with Nick Cave. We did one show on top of Mount Buller and played down the mountain-- the crowd sort of comes down the slope with you. We stayed up all night and the guys from ATP asked if we'd ever play Ladies and Gentlemen live, and I said, "Yeah." It was a decision made at altitude-- they got me at the right time. It could've been any album. If they'd asked for Pure Phase or Let It Come Down, we would've wound up doing that.
As much as an audience wants to hear new stuff, they're rarely receptive to hearing a whole new record as a live show. But with Ladies and Gentlemen, they've had 13 years to sit with it and they've got these ideas about where the songs take them. We did the shows in England, and I wasn't going to do this for the rest of my life, so we wound it down. And then we got talking, like, "If we don't take it to America now, we ain't never gonna take it." New York is as far as we could go, unfortunately.
Pitchfork: It doesn't seem like you're somebody who looks back a lot. Has it been hard for you to dedicate your time to this 13-year-old album?
JP: Well, I'm making a new record right now. But, for a lot of bands, it seems like these kinds of shows with all old songs are the best thing they can do. I'm not saying that with any disrespect, but I don't think that's the case with what we're doing. I don't even want to chance it.
And, with Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't think that the band that made that record could've played it when it came out. It's like it's taken this amount of time to do it real justice live. Now we can play it from beginning to end and it's going to make real fucking sense. I think the album I'm working on now is already more important.
Pitchfork: How far along are you with the new album?
JP: Quite a ways. I'm all over the place when I make a record; I don't even know what I'm doin'. As soon as things start to work, that's when a lot of problems start because you have to start raising everything to that level.
Pitchfork: Has revisiting Ladies and Gentlemen inspired you to do more of those types of big arrangements on the new material?
JP: Yeah, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't influencing the music I make now.
Ryan Dombal @'Pitchfork'
Was lucky enough to be at that ATP Mt Buller gig, I do hope that ATP returns to Australia in the not too distant future (with The Pop Group in tow???)
Lee Perry 4 President Mix
"a 2 hour Lee Perry extravaganza i recorded for the BluntBeats crew a lil while ago"
(herb)
Lee Perry – I Am The Upsetter [Amalgamated AMG808]
Lee Perry – People Funny Boy [Doctor Bird DB 1146]
Lee Perry – You Crummy [Trojan TR629]
Mellotones – Nonesuch Busted Me Bet [Upset WIRL LP3952]
Upsetter All Stars – Handy Cap [Trojan TR616]
Judge Winchester – Public Jestering [Black Art TSLWB1415]
Lee Perry & The Upsetters – Rude Walking [Blank 10" Dubplate]
Lee Perry & The Upsetters – Run For Cover [Wirl WIRL 1972]
Ansell Collins & Upsetters – Night Doctor [Upsetter FLP 7778]
Lee Perry – Sipreano [Upsetter DYNA LP1545]
Lee Perry & The Soulettes – Doctor Dick [Island WI292]
Charlie Ace & Lee Perry – Cow Thief Skank [Upsetter US398A]
The Upsetters – Black Panta [Upsetter 10"]
Upsetters – Bucky Skank [Downtown DT513]
Upsetters – Bathroom Skank [Justice League DTLP101]
Leo Graham – Doctor Demand[Upsetter FLP 118]
Upsetters – Black Bat [Upsetter FLP 119]
Leo Graham – Black Candle [Upsetter FN7969]
Leo Graham – Big Tongue Buster (Not Leo Graham, is Prince Jazzbo)[Upsetter RRSLP2492]
Burt Walters – Honey Love [Trojan TR636A]
Burt Walters – Evol Yenoh [Blank WIRLLP3959]
Junior Byles – Mumbling & Grumbling [Black Art TSLWB1408]
Inspirations – Tighten Up [Trojan TR613A]
Sir Lord Comic – Django Shoots First [Upsetter FLP7436]
U Roy – Stick Together [Blank]
Jimmy & Glen – Hypocrites [Upsetter RRSLP5086]
Jimmy & Glen – Nine Finger Jerry Lewis [Upsetter RRSLP5087]
Prince Django – Hot Tip [Upsetter SCR27]
Anthony ‘Sangie’ Davis & Lee Perry – Words [Black Art 12"LEE PERRY 2051]
Junior Byles – Beat Down Babylon [Upsetter DSRLP4750]
Maxie, Niney & Scratch – Babylon Burning [Upsetter US386]
U-Roy & The Children – Yama Khy [Perries RRSVP4338]
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Small Axe [Upsetter DYNALP3921]
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Duppy Conqueror [Upsetter DYNAUPSETTER 2110]
Upsetters – Freak Out Skank [Upsetter FLP 7572B]
Upsetters – Jungle Lion [Upsetter FLP7572A]
Devon Irons & Dr. Alimentado – Vampire [Black Art LEEPERRY 2052]
Devon Irons – Vampire [Orchid ORC709A]
158 MB; 2 hours
HERE
US government lifts lid on alleged leak to WikiLeaks
Serviceman Bradley Manning, 22, faces two charges related to the illegal transfer and transmission of classified information from a US military network.
The US said he was suspected of downloading from SIPR Net.
He reportedly then passed on the data, including army videos and diplomatic messages, to the WikiLeaks website.
WikiLeaks has repeatedly said it does not have the confidential messages and the site itself is not mentioned in the charges against Private First Class (Pfc) Manning.
A former hacker, Adrian Lamo, reported Pfc Manning to the US authorities. He said the intelligence analyst admitted, in a series of online chats, to sending data to the whistle-blowing website.
In the redacted charge sheet detailing the accusations against Pfc Manning, the Army alleges that he transmitted, "to a person not authorised to receive it", a classified US Department of State cable described as "Reykjavik 13".
The US also alleges Pfc Manning obtained 150,000 US diplomatic cables without proper authorisation.
Previous incidents
In February this year, WikiLeaks released a diplomatic cable from 13 January 2010 recording details of a meeting in Iceland between US diplomat Sam Watson, British ambassador Ian Whitting, and members of the Icelandic government.Now the state department has told BBC News how Bradley Manning, based at the Hammer military field base in Iraq, could have accessed information unrelated to the US mission in that country.
In an e-mail, US state department spokesperson Megan Mattson said: "After the events of 11 September 2001, agencies across the federal government understood that greater information sharing was vital to protecting our national security interests.
"As part of our efforts to make Department of State information available to those who have a legitimate need to know, we established the Net Centric Diplomacy initiative, which allows Department of State information to be shared on the Department of Defence's SIPR (Secret Internet Protocol System) Net system."
Ms Mattson said that access to the system was only permitted to those "civilian and military users with appropriate security clearances".
She said that Bradley Manning was "suspected of violating the trust and confidence given to him".
Pooled resources
Catherine Lotrionte, associate director of the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security, has a background in US intelligence work She told BBC News that there was "a push after 9/11 that information was going to be shared - and databases connected."
In her view, data-sharing is necessary for effective intelligence work, and the risk that it may make large data breaches easier is simply "the cost of doing business - the downside is that someone may break the rules".Speaking on condition of anonymity, a retired US General, with extensive military intelligence experience, told BBC News that there were, "layers of clearances designed to protect and restrict access to data."
He said that sharing information was the right thing to do and the military benefits far outweighed the risks.
But Crispin Black, a former intelligence analyst for the UK government, says the content of cables can be very sensitive.
"Diplomatic cables don't usually contain huge secrets but they do contain the unvarnished truth so in a sense they can be even more embarrassing than secrets."
He told the BBC that the possibility that someone in a base in Iraq could potentially access cables about Iceland violated, the principle of "need to know" in intelligence.
According to claims by Adrian Lamo, Pfc Manning told him in online chats that he removed information by burning it onto a CD.
Mr Lamo claims that Pfc Manning told him that he disguised his activities by pretending he was listening to music by Lady Gaga.
According to Lamo, Pfc Manning is alleged to have said in one online-chat that "Hilary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack…"
Top secret
WikiLeaks has consistently denied possessing the thousands of diplomatic cables Mr Lamo alleges were passed to them.WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange told BBC News on Thursday that he was "disturbed" by the charges against Bradley Manning.
Mr Assange said that it was "clear that some of those charges relate to information that should not have been classified".
While WikiLeaks says that it is technically impossible for it to know if Pfc Manning is indeed its source, it is trying to assist in his defence.
Mr Assange said that contact had not been established with Pfc Manning personally but that he expected that would change shortly.
He said that whoever had leaked the information was a "hero" for exposing wrong-doing by the US military and accused the army of a "double standard" in prosecuting Pfc Manning.
Chris Vallance @'BBC'
Modded Gristleisms for TG
Gristleisms with LFO pitch modulation and loop auto trigger for Throbbing Gristle.
by A.S.M.O.
by A.S.M.O.
(Thanx to Chris Carter!)
The Vienna Declaration
The Vienna Declaration is a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. We are inviting scientists, health practitioners and the public to endorse this document in order to bring these issues to the attention of governments and international agencies, and to illustrate that drug policy reform is a matter of urgent international significance. We also welcome organizational endorsements.
This is the official declaration of the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) to be held in Vienna, Austria from July 18th to 23rd. The declaration was drafted by a team of international experts and initiated by several of the world’s leading HIV and drug policy scientific bodies: the International AIDS Society, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
Create Art While You Work
There are many ways to measure the productivity of a day's work, but a Moscow-based designer has an artistic approach that produces an infograph out of the work you've done on the computer.
Created by designer Anatoly Zenkov, 'IOGraph'is an app that tracks your computer's mouse movement while you work.
All that needs to be done is to run the app and do your usual stuff on the computer, and while you're at it, the app actually captures the movements of your mouse by drawing them on a blank canvas.
The thin lines represent your mouse movements, the small circles represent the clicks, and the big circles represent a break -- the bigger the circle, the longer the break.
Zenkov initially created the app to brighten up the mundane routine of work. However, an image of the results were uploaded online which gained much interest, coincidentally turning the productivity app into an art-producing one.
Created by designer Anatoly Zenkov, 'IOGraph'is an app that tracks your computer's mouse movement while you work.
All that needs to be done is to run the app and do your usual stuff on the computer, and while you're at it, the app actually captures the movements of your mouse by drawing them on a blank canvas.
The thin lines represent your mouse movements, the small circles represent the clicks, and the big circles represent a break -- the bigger the circle, the longer the break.
Zenkov initially created the app to brighten up the mundane routine of work. However, an image of the results were uploaded online which gained much interest, coincidentally turning the productivity app into an art-producing one.
JPBarlow In 1994, the Chinese asked for my help to connect to the Internet. DOE didn't want to 'em on. 'Fraid they'd spy with it. There are 384 million Chinese online, 346 million have broadband. http://bit.ly/ChiNet
Smoking # 77 (Smoking Mind Over Smoking Matter)
Nicotine patches and gum are common -- and often ineffective -- ways of fighting cigarette cravings, as most smokers have discovered. Now a new study from Tel Aviv University shows why they're ineffective, and may provide the basis for more successful psychologically-based smoking cessation programs.
In the new study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Dr. Reuven Dar of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology found that the intensity of cravings for cigarettes had more to do with the psychosocial element of smoking than with the physiological effects of nicotine as an addictive chemical.
"These findings might not be popular with advocates of the nicotine addiction theory, because they undermine the physiological role of nicotine and emphasize mind over matter when it comes to smoking," Dr. Dar says. He hopes this research will help clinicians and health authorities develop more successful smoking cessation programs than those utilizing expensive nicotine patches or gum.
Up in the air
Dr. Dar and his colleagues' conclusions are based on two landmark studies. In the most recent study, he and his colleagues monitored the smoking behavior and craving levels of in-flight attendants, both women and men, who worked at the Israeli airline El Al. Each participant was monitored during two flights -- a long flight of 10 to 13 hours in duration, from Tel Aviv to New York, for example; and a two-hop shorter trip from Israel to Europe and back, each leg lasting three to five hours. Using a questionnaire, he sampled craving levels of the attendants throughout the duration of their flights.
Dr. Dar and his colleagues found that the duration of the flight had no significant impact on craving levels, which were similar for short and long flights. Moreover, craving levels at the end of each short flight were much higher those at the end of the long flight, demonstrating that cravings increased in anticipation of the flight landing, whatever the flight's total duration. He concluded that the craving effect is produced by psychological cues rather than by the physiological effects of nicotine deprivation.
No smoking on the Sabbath
In an earlier 2005 study, Dr. Dar examined smokers who were religious Jews, forbidden by their religion to smoke on the Sabbath. He asked them about their smoking cravings on three separate days: the Sabbath, a regular weekday, and a weekday on which they'd been asked to abstain. Participants were interviewed at the end of each day about their craving levels during that day.
What Dr. Dar found is that cravings were very low on the morning of the Sabbath, when the smoker knew he would not be able to smoke for at least 10 hours. Craving levels gradually increased at the end of the Sabbath, when participants anticipated the first post-Sabbath cigarette. Craving levels on the weekday on which these people smoked as much as they wanted were just as high as on the day they abstained, showing that craving has little to do with nicotine deprivation.
Dr. Dar's studies conclude that nicotine is not addictive as physiological addictions are usually defined. While nicotine does have a physiological role in increasing cognitive abilities such as attention and memory, it's not an addictive substance like heroin, which creates true systemic and biologically-based withdrawal symptoms in the body of the user, he says.
Dr. Dar believes that people who smoke do so for short-term benefits like oral gratification, sensory pleasure and social camaraderie. Once the habit is established, people continue to smoke in response to cues and in situations that become associated with smoking. Dr. Dar believes that understanding smoking as a habit, not an addiction, will facilitate treatment. Smoking cessation techniques should emphasize the psychological and behavioral aspects of the habit and not the biological aspects, he suggests.
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