Song(s) of the Day # 4,354 Momoko Gill
40 minutes ago
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Jørgen Leth - A Sunday In Hell (1976 - Documentary)
A Sunday in Hell (original title: En Forårsdag i Helvede) is a 1976 Danish documentary directed by Jørgen Leth. The film is a chronology of the 1976 Paris–Roubaix bicycle race from the perspective of participants, organizers and spectators.
Paris–Roubaix is the most famous and usually the most dramatic of the spring classics. Much of the latter portion is over narrow, cobbled tracks that choke with dust on dry days and become slick and muddy in rain. For the riders it's a challenge to keep going without puncturing or crashing.
The film captures not just the events of the 1976 edition but the atmosphere of a professional race. It begins by introducing the contenders: Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck (the previous year's winner), Freddy Maertens, and Francesco Moser, each with their supporting riders (the domestiques), who are charged with helping their team leader win. The film gives views of the team director, protester (the race is halted for a while), spectator, mechanic and rider. As the cobbled section is entered the selection begins. Riders puncture, crash, make the wrong move - the race plays out. By the finish in the velodrome in Roubaix only a few are in with a chance. The winner is a surprise, but that is part of the appeal. Post-race the exhausted riders, mired in dirt, give interviews in the velodrome's showers. They look like men who have been to hell and back. (wikipedia)
"You can see every bead of sweat on the cyclists and every smashed-up ankle. It really makes you never want to get on a bike again. But it is an amazing film." - Nick Fraser, BBC commissioning editor
"Arguably the best film ever made about professional cycling" - Peter Cowie, International Film Guide
Today the 109th edition of Paris-Roubaix takes part
Dennis Coffey - Knockabout
The undisputed heavyweight champion of sizzling guitar funk returns with a new batch of Motor City funk. On “Knockabout,” thick breakbeats segue into a ziplock tight groove complete with a choir refrain; perhaps a nod to the Blaxpoitation arrangement aesthetic he mastered on the classic “Black Belt Jones.” As the LA Times says, “Coffey’s funk has a fresh coat of paint, but remains dirty as ever… you might not hear anything with a nastier groove all year.”
Album release date: Apr 26, 2011
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5 Songs: Steve Kilbey
Tyrannosaurus Rex - 'Lofty Skies' (A Beard of Stars, 1970)
Donovan - 'Atlantis' (1968)
Genesis - 'The Lamia' (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, 1974)
Kate Bush- 'Lily' (The Red Shoes, 1993)
@'ABC'
Julian Assange claims WikiLeaks is more accountable than governments
WikiLeaks 'is more responsive than a government that is elected after sourcing money from big business every four years,' Assange told the audience. Photograph: Akira Suemori/AP
WikiLeaks is more accountable than democratically elected governments because it accepts donations from members of the public, Julian Assange has claimed, in his first formal public appearance since being arrested in December following accusations of rape and sexual assault.
Questioned at a public debate about the whistleblowing organisation's own transparency, Assange told an audience of 700 people, many of them supporters: "We are directly supported on a week-to-week basis by you. You vote with your wallets every week if you believe that our work is worthwhile or not. If you believe we have erred, you do not support us. If you believe we need to be protected in our work, you keep us strong.
"That dynamic feedback, I say, is more responsive than a government that is elected after sourcing money from big business every four years."
The WikiLeaks founder, who is currently appealing against his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault, told the audience at a packed debate organised by the New Statesman and the Frontline Club that whistleblowing was essential in a democracy because "the only way we can know whether information is legitimately kept secret is when it is revealed".
He cited the examples of Vietnam and "the disaster that was the Iraq war", saying that if whistleblowers had had the courage to speak up earlier about both conflicts, "bloodbaths" could have been avoided.
He said he "could speak for hours" about the impact of the publication of leaked US embassy cables, much of it through the Guardian, and that leak's positive impact.
The Hindu newspaper had in recent weeks published 21 front pages based on so-called "cablegate" revelations, he said, leading to the Indian government walking out four times and a growing anti-corruption movement in the country.
But the political commentator Douglas Murray, director of the centre for social cohesion, challenged Assange over the website's sources of funding, its staffing and connections with the Holocaust denier Israel Shamir, who has worked with the site.
"What gives you the right to decide what should be known or not? Governments are elected. You, Mr Assange are not."
Murray also challenged the WikiLeaks founder over an account in a book by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding, in which the authors quote him suggesting that if informants were to be killed following publication of the leaks, they "had it coming to them".
Assange repeated an earlier assertion that the website "is in the process of suing the Guardian" over the assertion, and asked if Murray would like to "join the queue" of organisations he was suing.
The Guardian has not received any notification of such action from WikiLeaks or its lawyers.
Jason Cowley, the editor of the New Statesman and chair of the debate, interjected to ask: "How can the great champion of open society be using our libel laws to challenge the press?"
The WikiLeaks founder was obliged to leave before responding to all the questions in order to comply with the curfew conditions of his bail.
WikiLeaks' lawyer Mark Stephens could not be reached for comment. Asked after the debate whether he could shed any light on the supposed legal action, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristin Hrafnsson said "not really".
Esther Addley @'The Guardian'
Questioned at a public debate about the whistleblowing organisation's own transparency, Assange told an audience of 700 people, many of them supporters: "We are directly supported on a week-to-week basis by you. You vote with your wallets every week if you believe that our work is worthwhile or not. If you believe we have erred, you do not support us. If you believe we need to be protected in our work, you keep us strong.
"That dynamic feedback, I say, is more responsive than a government that is elected after sourcing money from big business every four years."
The WikiLeaks founder, who is currently appealing against his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault, told the audience at a packed debate organised by the New Statesman and the Frontline Club that whistleblowing was essential in a democracy because "the only way we can know whether information is legitimately kept secret is when it is revealed".
He cited the examples of Vietnam and "the disaster that was the Iraq war", saying that if whistleblowers had had the courage to speak up earlier about both conflicts, "bloodbaths" could have been avoided.
He said he "could speak for hours" about the impact of the publication of leaked US embassy cables, much of it through the Guardian, and that leak's positive impact.
The Hindu newspaper had in recent weeks published 21 front pages based on so-called "cablegate" revelations, he said, leading to the Indian government walking out four times and a growing anti-corruption movement in the country.
But the political commentator Douglas Murray, director of the centre for social cohesion, challenged Assange over the website's sources of funding, its staffing and connections with the Holocaust denier Israel Shamir, who has worked with the site.
"What gives you the right to decide what should be known or not? Governments are elected. You, Mr Assange are not."
Murray also challenged the WikiLeaks founder over an account in a book by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding, in which the authors quote him suggesting that if informants were to be killed following publication of the leaks, they "had it coming to them".
Assange repeated an earlier assertion that the website "is in the process of suing the Guardian" over the assertion, and asked if Murray would like to "join the queue" of organisations he was suing.
The Guardian has not received any notification of such action from WikiLeaks or its lawyers.
Jason Cowley, the editor of the New Statesman and chair of the debate, interjected to ask: "How can the great champion of open society be using our libel laws to challenge the press?"
The WikiLeaks founder was obliged to leave before responding to all the questions in order to comply with the curfew conditions of his bail.
WikiLeaks' lawyer Mark Stephens could not be reached for comment. Asked after the debate whether he could shed any light on the supposed legal action, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristin Hrafnsson said "not really".
Esther Addley @'The Guardian'
kevinmitnick Kevin Mitnick
I requested my FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act, The LA office claims they lost my file. Maybe Wikileaks can find it for me :-)
Lee "Scratch" Perry - Higher Level (feat. Tunde Adebimpe)
Taken from forthcoming Lee Scratch Perry album "Rise Again":
Eleven all-new songs, mixed in the dub style by Bill Laswell
and featuring:
Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio)
Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw (Ethiopian superstar)
Hawkman (Methods Of Defiance, Tricky)
Jahdan Blakkamoore
Bernie Worrell (P-Funk legend)
Josh Werner (Matisyahu, Wu-Tang)
Sly Dunbar (Sly and Robbie)
Hamid Drake (master drummer/percussionist)
Aiyb Dieng (Senegalese percussionist)
Dominick James (Angelique Kidjo, Shakira)
Release date: May 10, 2011
Why, Kate? WHY?
So, Kate Bush has a new album - Director's Cut - on the way. It'll contain re-recorded versions of a selection of songs from from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) and the first single from it - Deeper Understanding - is up on YouTube. And, having been looking forward to some new tunes from KB, I have to say I think it's a real disappointment but y'all can make up your own minds:
Sorry, Kate, but it really doesn't do anything for me. Maybe I'm unimpressed because it's my favourite song on my favourite album of hers and didn't really think it needed another version - but mostly it's the autotune that I think spoils it. It may be The Law Of The Music Biz that all pop albums in 2011 must have at least one track with it on, but if there was ever an effect that I thought was old from the first time I heard it (Cher's Believe), it's autotune.
So here's another old track - not by Kate Bush - to relieve my disappointment: Marina & The Diamonds I Am Not A Robot (Starsmith's 24 Carat Mix):
Where was I, before I got sidetracked by a wave of meh? Oh yes. All the news that's fit to pront. Kate Bush's new album Director's Cut is slated for release on 16 May 2011 and the tracklist (according to Wikipedia) is:
1. Flower of the Mountain2. Song of Solomon
3. Lily
4. Deeper Understanding
5. The Red Shoes
6. This Woman's Work
7. Moments of Pleasure
8. Never Be Mine
9. Top of the City
10. And So is Love
11. Rubberband Girl
I'm just hoping that the remakes of Never Be Mine and This Woman's Work (in particular) actually do something new with the originals. Something that's not autotuned...
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