Sunday, 8 May 2011

'Patti Smith - Horses' review by Lester Bangs

Patti’s heroes may be gone, but she is both with us and for us, so strongly that her music is something, finally, to rally around. For one thing, she has certain qualities that can make her a hero to a whole generation of young girls; Patti has done more here for woman as aggressor than all the Liberation tracts published, and has pushed to the front of the media eye that it is just as much a process (ordeal) learning to “become” a “woman” as it is for men wrestling with all this ballyhoed “manhood” business. It’s this tough chick who walks like Bo Diddley and yet all is all woman like we’ve been waiting for so long, a badass who pulls off the feat of being simultaneously idol of women and lust object of men (and women, no doubt).
And even more than that, Patti’s music in its ultimate moments touches deep wellsprings of emotions that extremely few artists in rock or anywhere else are capable of reaching. With her wealth of promise and the most incandescent flights of and stillnesses of this album she joins the ranks of people like Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, or the Dylan of “Sad Eyed Lady” and Royal Albert Hall. It’s that deeply felt, and that moving: a new Romanticism built upon the universal language of rock ‘n’ roll, an affirmation of life so total that, even in the graphic recognition of death, it sweeps your breath away. And only born gamblers take that chance.
(Creem) February 1976
Via

Shaking The Dust (Hip Hop speaks the truth)

“Shake the Dust” is a must-see feature documentary by Adam Sjöberg that kicked off production in late 2009, and tells the stories of break-dancers in struggling communities around the world.
Although many of them are separated by cultural boundaries and individual struggles, they are intrinsically tied to one another through their passion for break-dancing and hip-hop culture

Yemen

Somalia

Uganda
Via

Shake The Dust

Face That Screamed War’s Pain Looks Back, 6 Hard Years Later

Writing on the wall

Buy it here (€9,95)
(Thanx HerrB!)

The Kills - Pull A U 04/14/11

Plan B - Love Goes Down

Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death

Saturday, 7 May 2011

'Co-ordinated attacks' hit Afghan city

Loud explosions and gunfire have been heard in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where witnesses say the provincial governor's compound as well as other sites are under a co-ordinated attack.
Sounds of gunfire and explosions were heard coming from near the provincial governor's heavily guarded compound on Saturday, as well as from four other locations in the city. Hospital sources in the city told Al Jazeera that 12 people had been injured in the attacks so far - three of them were members of the police, and the rest were civilians.
Gunmen were holed up in a five-storey shopping mall, and traded fire with security forces at the governor's compound, with the Associated Press reporting that fighting was focusing on the rear of the compound, near the governor's residence.
An Afghan government spokesperson said that in all six suicide attacks had taken place across the city.
"So far there have been 10 explosions in Kandahar today. We have confirmation that six of the explosions have been suicide attacks," Zalmay Ayubi told AFP.
"Small arms fire is still going on. Two RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] have been fired onto the [governor's compound] so far. The northern and eastern sides of the compound are under direct attack," Ayubi said.
An explosion was heard at governor Tooryalai Wesa's compound, while another was heard several minutes later in the west of the city. Black smoke was seen rising from the compound, a witness told Reuters.
James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital, Kabul, reported that the RPGs landed 300m from the compound. It was not immediately clear whether Wesa was in the compound.
Local authorities have blocked journalists from accessing the site, as fighting is continuing.
Bays reported that shooting had also been reported from near the city's intelligence headquarters, from an Afghan Civil Order Police (ANCOP) compound in the city's eastern District Five, and also from near a jail in the west of the city where the Taliban had last month helped hundreds of inmates escape.
Firing was also reported from near a school and police station on the road to Camp Gecko, a US Special Forces base built on the site of Osama bin Laden's former home in Kandahar. That gunbattle was taking place in the northwest of the city, in District Eight.
It was not clear if the shooting near the Kandahar headquarters of the Afghan intelligence service was targeting that building, or the nearby traffic police headquarters.
At the ANCOP compound, police said they shot two would-be suicide bombers, Bays reported.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the chairman of the provincial council, told Al Jazeera that authorities were attempting to bring the situation under control, but that Taliban fighters were still hiding at some of the attack sites.
'Spring offensive'
Last week, the Taliban announced the start of their "spring offensive" against US-led coalition troops and the Afghan government.
Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace, has been the focus of military operations for the last year, with commanders saying they have made gains, but qualifying successes by terming them "fragile" and "reversible".
In a message released on Friday, the Taliban warned that this week's killing of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader, would give their fight against foreign and Afghan forces "a new impetus".
@'Al Jazeera'