Saturday, 12 March 2011

Kate Bush Reworks Old Songs for New Album

It isn't very often that influential art-pop siren Kate Bush puts out a new LP; her last one, Aerial, came out six years ago. But lo and behold, Bush has announced that a new record is on the way: Director's Cut is coming out May 16 via Kate's own Fish People label, in conjunction with EMI.

Although Director's Cut is a new release, it's not entirely comprised of new material, per se. The record features Bush re-recording elements of songs from two of her previous solo albums, 1989's The Sensual World and 1993's The Red Shoes, while "keeping the best musical performances of each song," according to a press release.

The record will be released digitally, on CD in a case-bound book, as part of a three-CD package that will include Director's Cut, The Sensual World, and the remastered The Red Shoes in a case-bound book, and a double vinyl edition. A reworked take on The Sensual World's "Deeper Understanding" will be released in April. The press release also notes that "Kate is currently working on new material although no release date has been set for this.

@'Pitchfork'

Steve Riley And The Mamou Playboys - Tiny Desk Concert 3/7/11

"Lyons Point"
"Valse de Chagrin/Waltz of Sorrow"
"Grand Isle"
"Honest Papas Love Their Mamas Better"

This Mardi Gras will be a bittersweet celebration for Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. For 23 years, accordionist Steve Riley has been making music with his friend and fiddler, David Greely, but this Mardi Gras will be their last together. Greely is leaving the Mamou Playboys to save his ears; the loud volume of dancehall shows has been harmful to his hearing, and his doctor has told him that he needs to stop. So this Tiny Desk Concert is one of his last shows with the Grammy-nominated Cajun band.
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys make sweet Cajun music together: music steeped in the French heritage of southwestern Louisiana and driven by accordion and fiddle. It's sweetly melodic, danceable music with origins in French-Canadian history that dates back to the 1760s — think of it as their country music. Over the last 23 years, there have been 11 Mamou Playboys records; the latest, Grand Isle, is self-released. In the album's title track, Greely finds more that's bittersweet to sing about: Grand Isle is not only the place he loved most as a child, but it's also a place hit hard by the gulf oil disaster last spring.
Come Mardi Gras this week, the band will play its last dancehall together. During this visit to NPR, Greely joked about putting together an acoustic tour of office spaces. If such a thing would keep this great team together, I'd say it's not a bad idea. (Bob Boilen - npr)

AUDIO DOWNLOAD
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Bradley Manning being mistreated, says Hillary Clinton spokesman

Earthquake turns TV networks into print

仙台空港滑走路に津波が到達

bengoldacre ben goldacre

"Supermoon caused earthquake" - total, utter, stupid, offensive made-up bollocks in the Daily Mail http://post.ly/1jWNa

気仙沼市で大規模火災、現在も延焼中

Friday, 11 March 2011

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users:
The eBook User’s Bill of Rights
Every eBook user should have the following rights:

* the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
* the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
* the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
* the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks

I believe in the free market of information and ideas.
I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.
Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.
I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.
I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.
These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand. To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.
To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

@ Librarian In Black

Orpheum Marquee: 'Gov Scott Walker Starring in Total Recall' #wiunion

(Thanx Carolyn!)

Japan hit by massive earthquake

The Johann Hari Podcast: Episode 1 - The Dalai Lama called me fat!

Cube

(GB2011) Energy policy role at No 10 for former BP man

Downing Street is set to appoint former BP employee Ben Moxham to head up its energy and environment policy, as one of nine new policy advisers due to beef up No 10.

Moxham is currently employed at the Riverstone private equity group run by former BP boss Lord John Browne, which specialises in oil and renewable energy investment.

The 31-year-old has been put forward on a shortlist of one to David Cameron and Nick Clegg for approval, having been vetted by an impartial civil service appointment process. The two party leaders will meet six civil service candidates and three private sector recruits, of which Moxham is one, in the final round of the process to bring nine extra policy experts into government. All will be appointed as civil servants in order not to breach Cameron's stipulation on the number of political appointees.

The new advisers are intended to bulk up the No 10 policy unit. Cameron had said he wanted his tenure as prime minister to be hands-off but recent fiascos over the attempted sell-off of forests and the concern about the NHS convinced him to reinforce his policy specialists at the heart of government. The new recruits will "man-mark" their respective ministries and draw up policies for the second half of the current parliament, when the coalition agreement will have run out of specific policy road.

Downing Street is happy with Moxham's shortlisting by the civil service, pointing to his experience heading up the alternative energy department at BP under Browne. The government regards its energy policy increasingly to be the implementation of the kind of renewables agenda Moxham took charge of when at BP.

Moxham was a founding member of the team of BP Alternative Energy as its director of policy, looking after BP's interests in renewables, gas power, and carbon capture and storage.

While Moxham will have been key in helping BP move "beyond petroleum", as its strapline became, there were some concerns among environmental campaigners that BP's alternative energy department was ill-fated. The unit run by Moxham was shut down in June 2009.

Allegra Stratton @'The Guardian'

David Simon, Creator of The Wire, Speaks on Felicia "Snoop" Pearson's Arrest

"First of all, Felicia's entitled to the presumption of innocence. And I would note that a previous, but recent drug arrest that targeted her was later found to be unwarranted and the charges were dropped. Nonetheless, I'm certainly sad at the news today. This young lady has, from her earliest moments, had one of the hardest lives imaginable. And whatever good fortune came from her role in The Wire seems, in retrospect, limited to that project. She worked hard as an actor and was entirely professional, but the entertainment industry as a whole does not offer a great many roles for those who can portray people from the other America. There are, in fact, relatively few stories told about the other America.
Beyond that, I am waiting to see whether the charges against Felicia relate to heroin or marijuana. Obviously, the former would be, to my mind, a far more serious matter. And further, I am waiting to see if the charges or statement of facts offered by the government reflect any involvement with acts of violence, which would of course be of much greater concern..."