Paul Kelly @ Basement Discs yesterday

(Photos: TimN)

Was a great day here in sunny Melbourne yesterday. 
Got my tickets for the Leonard Cohen gig at Hanging Rock with Paul Kelly supporting and then trooped off to the city to see a little lunchtime session with PK reading and performing  from his new A-Z collection down at Basement Discs, which I have never seen so packed for one of their instore gigs. 
 A much more eloquent review
HERE

The "legal blackmail" business: inside a P2P settlement factory

Read Hollywood producer Mike Jeffries open letter to Tom Hicks [extract]

So Tom Hicks wants to refinance and hang on to LFC. Hasn’t he got the message?

Doesn’t he know he has become the most despised person on Merseyside since Kelvin f***ing McKenzie? Doesn’t he realise the damage he’s doing to our club?

Just look at what he’s been doing:

•He promised that the acquisition of LFC would not be a Glazer-Style LBO. It ended up being as bad – if not worse – with all the debt being loaded onto the club’s balance sheet. The net result is that the club is now up to its ears in debt. And it could get worse!

•He’s been behind a policy to sell many top players and replace them with (significantly) cheaper alternatives. This, despite promises of “Snoogy Doogy” and “Big Summer 2010”.

•Despite promises made to the contrary, he’s failed to start work on a new stadium – despite circa $100M being spent on Architect fees.

•He undermined Rafa Benitez by (scandalously) having public discussions with a possible successor, Jurgen Klinsmann.

•He resorted to nepotism and appointed his son to the Board of Directors, who soon had to resign after sending an email to a fan in which he wrote: “Blow me f**k face”.

•He’s treated the King with sheer disrespect. Apparently he has “bigger things” in mind for KD than being Manager of LFC.

•He’s embarrassed the hell out of us in the media (and amongst our peers) with endless reports of trying (unsuccessfully) to shop the club like a clapped-out second-hand car – all over the world from Hong Kong to India, and from Saudi Arabia to the good old USA. Even to Syria! Everyone’s said no. Because of his ridiculous valuation(s).

The above list of ‘Crimes Against LFC’ is pretty shocking. And it’s why we are now languishing above the relegation zone. And out of the Carling Cup (to fourth Division Northampton… @ home!). And with no Champions League football. And with not much likelihood of it next season.

But Tom Hicks doesn’t care. By trying to refinance – instead of showing some class and cutting a reasonable deal with someone and cutting his losses - he is saying “f**k you”.

So what should we say in reply?

“ENOUGH!”

The only way we – as fans and stakeholders – can get him to change his arrogant mindset is to shame him and embarrass him in front of his family, friends, business associates, investors, and political contacts etc. And of course in the media. Especially in the USA. Especially in Texas!

He doesn’t give a s**t what we do in Liverpool….

We have to take this to him in America!

Therefore, I just flew up from Cape Town last night to come to Liverpool to make a short film here this weekend in which Liverpool fans and stakeholders will tell Tom Hicks – and the world! - exactly what they think of him.

And when friends of Tom Hicks see it, they will either start asking him some very painful questions, or they’ll no longer take his calls. We are going to shame him.

Liverpool fans everywhere are coming together this weekend with LOADS of local celebs, former players, high profile Redmen, actors, musicians, politicians and everyone who cares about our unique football club to send a simple, powerful and definitive message to Tom Hicks: GET OUT OF OUR CLUB.

But we want the fans to be included too. So if YOU want to come along and tell Tom Hicks what you think of him, we will be filming on Saturday from 10.00am – 6.00pm at the Hope Street Hotel in Liverpool. Please form an orderly queue and be prepared for a wait....

And we'll be filming on Sunday too around the ground and in the pubs.

Our aim is to work night and day so that we can have the film uploaded onto YouTube by Tuesday and we would like the fans to then email the URL to their entire address books. Spread the word! To the media. To the financial community. To everyone. To the world!

Imagine if we can get a MILLION HITS on YouTube! If we achieve that, then we can rest assured that everyone who counts will know that Tom Hicks is utterly despised. And more importantly, Tom Hicks will know….

Walk on Tom. Jog on Tom. We are LIVERPOOL!!!

Mike Jefferies

Martyn - Left Hander/Shook Up

   

The world today...

CRAZY!!!

Ecuador declares state of emergency amid 'coup attempt'

Behind The Magic: Recording Stevie Wonder’s 'Superstition'

When Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” was released in November of 1972, Wonder had already had many hit records under his belt and his trajectory of fame was well underway. In early 1972, he began to assert more autonomy over his creative direction and began collaborating with electronica pioneers Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil.
This era, which was one that saw many artists asserting more artistic control over their recording careers, saw Wonder enter his prolific and introspective “classic period,” which produced some of R&B’s most interesting crossover records such as Music of the Mind, Talking Book and Innervisions. In 1972, Wonder had completed a North American tour with the Rolling Stones and this helped expose his music to larger and more receptive audiences, further catapulting his well-deserved exposure and fame well beyond its Motown base. Interestingly, Wonder had originally written “Superstition” for Jeff Beck (indeed, a different version appeared on a later Beck album entitled Beck, Bogert & Appice). In the end, though, he wisely decided to record and release it himself. He did end up handing over another track to Beck called “’Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”--one of the more emotional tracks on Beck’s Blow by Blow album.  
Electric Lady Studios and “Tonto”
Oftentimes there are people behind the scenes who play an important role in developing an artist’s sound. In the case of Stevie Wonder, this was undoubtedly the case—especially during the early ‘70s.  Robert Margouleff and Malcom Cecil were Wonder’s “production team” and the wheels of his success in the studio. Each of them brought very distinct skills to the table: Cecil was very musically inclined, while Margouleff’s strengths were in synth programming and other areas. They were both more than capable as recording engineers.  
By the time they started recording “Superstition” in 1972, the team already had one record together under their belt. They had settled into New York City at a new studio in Greenwich Village called Electric Lady. Electric Lady was the creative home of none other than Jimi Hendrix until his untimely death in 1970. Designed by legendary studio designer John Storyk, it was also arguably the first “artist-driven” studio in the world...

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Curtis Berry @'ProSound'

Diller, Emanuel, Malone Hatefest: Inside the Live Nation Board Meeting

Minority Rules - 

How Sweden's far-right rose from neo-Nazi skinheads to populist Muslim-baiters to the country's new kingmakers.

♪♫ Françoise Hardy - Find Me A Boy

*SIGH!!!*

1930s version of the Human Centipede

@'boingboing'

John Cage's 4'33'': the festive sound of a defeated Simon Cowell

How long does it take to make an annual tradition? The idea of fixing the Christmas No 1 via Facebook is only three years old, but already feels cosy. In fact, to some of those trying to send a song to the top of the charts, it's a given that Rage Against the Machine scored but the first of many such victories. "It seems obvious that a similar Facebook-inspired campaign will triumph again," writes the webmaster of a Surfin' Bird for No 1 group. It seems even more obvious that it won't, since every fanbase with a grudge against The Man is massing their forces separately and dissension is rife. The Children of Bodom group doesn't even mention Simon Cowell: "Better than Rage, anyway," it huffs. Splitters!

To have any point, this kind of campaign needs to do two things. It should still seem like a clever idea months after you sign up, and it should be funny even if it completely fails to top the charts. The only effort this year with a hope of ticking these boxes is Cage Against the Machine, whose candidate for Christmas No 1 is a recording of John Cage's 4'33". This notorious "silent composition" from 1952 will "make Simon Cowell's head explode", promise the organisers. The piece is already a flypaper for all kinds of official foolishness: one recording on YouTube has had its audio disabled for copyright infringement.

The group's activity so far is predictably jocular – "I'm humming it already," writes one member. Others ask after remixes. It's the social media equivalent of a Radio 4 panel show, and I wonder if that mildly donnish atmosphere would dissipate if the campaign got the kind of momentum that turned the Rage effort from a gag into a cause. You get the impression most of the 15,000 Cage fans so far care as much about showing that they get the joke as any eventual result. And why not – it's a good joke: the well-known horror radio presenters have for "dead air" makes the idea of four blank minutes anywhere in the chart a ticklish prospect.

I found the group particularly appealing because I was in the audience for a performance of Cage's piece earlier this year. In fact, I was the audience: one friend performed the piece, another recorded it, and I listened. I'd wanted to hear 4'33" for ages – one of the peculiarities of it is that statements like that invite derision, but it's true. And I wasn't disappointed: as in a long ceremonial silence you become aware of the tiniest sounds, which is part of the point. Cage saw the piece as an experiment in interpenetration: letting chance sounds affect – and in this case overwhelm – what the composer intends. The performance ended just when I'd stopped expecting it to. Afterwards, with those 273 seconds sealed off as a recording, time seemed to race: so many sounds just getting lost. The moment passed and we went to the pub.

Researching 4'33" later I found that we'd got the piece wrong – it was composed as three separate movements, and Cage was explicit that it be presented as such. He took five years between his conceptualising the idea and actually writing it – he knew 4'33" would be seen as a joke or a stunt and deliberately took as much effort over it as possible in order to prevent that interpretation. That was surely in vain: the piece reflects preconceptions. If you come to it as art, or a joke, or a stunt then everything new you find out about it will point in that direction.

So would Cage have disapproved of the Facebook campaign? I'm not so sure. You could try an elaborate justification along the lines of social media events interpenetrating the established order, but it's easier just to look at why the piece is 4'33" long. According to Cage historian Larry Solomon, the original conception of the piece was as a response to canned music, and he knew it would be roughly four and a half minutes long, since that was the average Muzak song length. So while he might raise his eyebrows at the campaign's tone, stopping Cowell is as true a use of 4'33" as any.

Tom Ewing @'The Guardian'

http://bit.ly/cUly66

HA!

NOTICE This video contains an audio track that has not been authorised by WMG. The audio has been disabled. More about copyright

'Exile' received yet another DMCA take down notice yesterday, this time for linking to the legal Grinderman stream at VPRO in The Netherlands, which incidentally is still up.

WTF??? 

The RIAA/BFPI are making it very hard to like record companies to say the least...

Smoking # 82 (Sacrow 1934)

(Thanx Luke!)

Which Is the Fly and Which Is the Human?

Settlement freeze? It was barely a slowdown

The official statistics supplied by the Central Bureau of Statistics describe the story behind the 10-month construction moratorium in the West Bank. The story can be called many things but "freeze" is certainly not one of them. What took place in the past few months is, in the best case scenario, not more than a negligible decrease in the number of housing units that were built in settlements.

The data that appeared in the bureau's tables clearly show that. At the end of 2009, the number of housing units that were actively being built on all the settlements together amounted to 2,955. Three months later, at the end of March 2010, the number stood at 2,517. We are therefore talking about a drop of a little more than 400 housing units - some 16 percent of Israeli construction in the West Bank over that period.

The sounds of lamentation and wailing coming from the settler functionaries, for whom moaning is a profession, shouldn't surprise anyone. After all, they did not cease to whine even when Ehud Barak, "the leader of the peace camp," built 4,700 housing units for them in 2000, the only entire year he held the position of prime minister.

But the truth is that the settlers know better than anyone else that not only did construction in settlements continue over the last 10 months, and vigorously, but also that a relatively large part of the houses were built on settlements that lie east of the separation fence, such as Bracha, Itamar, Eli, Shilo, Maaleh Mikhmas, Maon, Carmel, Beit Haggai, Kiryat Arba, Mitzpeh Yeriho and others.

The real story behind the PR stunt known as the freeze took place in fact in the months prior to that, during which the settlers, with the assistance of the government, prepared well for the months of hibernation foisted upon them. In the half year that preceded the declaration of the freeze, which started at the end of November 2009, dozens of new building sites sprang up, especially in isolated and more extreme settlements east of the fence.

This piece of information is also well documented in the bureau's numbers. In the first half of 2009, they started to build 669 housing units in the settlements, and then, as the months wore on, the pace of construction increased. Thus in the second half of 2009, no fewer than 1,204 housing units were built - an increase of some 90 percent in construction starts as compared with the first half of the year...

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Dror Etkes @'Haaretz'