Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Patrick McHale - Fall Guy (2011)

Via

Gillard slow to read WikiLeaks briefings

Noam Chomsky: When Did America Completely Jettison the Rule of Law?

blakehounshell Blake Hounshell

Yemen is blowing up, y'all.

Spaceboy - This one's for you!

XXX

Reinventing the veil

Dylan tapes reveal heroin addiction

A previously unheard interview with Bob Dylan has revealed that the singer was once addicted to heroin.
After a concert late one Saturday night in March 1966 Bob Dylan, while on tour in the US, boarded his private plane in Lincoln, Nebraska bound for Denver with his friend Robert Shelton.

Over the next two hours Shelton taped an interview with Dylan which he later described as a "kaleidoscopic monologue".
At one point, the singer, who turns 70 this week, admits he had been addicted to heroin in the early 1960s.
"I kicked a heroin habit in New York City," he confesses. "I got very, very strung out for a while, I mean really, very strung out. And I kicked the habit. I had about a $25-a-day habit and I kicked it."

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When the Internet Thinks It Knows You

Monday, 23 May 2011

The Israeli reality that Obama doesn't understand

"President Obama doesn't understand the reality," according to "associates" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke after the meeting between the two leaders. And when that is the headline of the daily Yisrael Hayom, it is clearly Netanyahu's headline: "President Obama doesn't understand the reality."
You can't blame him: It really is impossible to understand this reality. It's impossible to understand why a country and a people continue to refuse to do the right thing, something that could have been done a long while back, and prefer to continue to bang their heads against the wall until blood flows, with absolutely no logic, literally amok, like someone who has gone insane. It's hard to understand a reality in which a prime minister sits and, contrary to all logic and every code of conduct, arrogantly lectures his host, the president of the United States. It's hard to understand a reality in which a day before their scheduled meeting, a prime minister responds to the speech of the U.S. president, who is about to host him, with an announcement that is as good as spitting in his face.
So President Obama, here is the reality: The reality is that in the prime minister's own reality show, he is "the leader of a persecuted people" and he likes being "the leader of a persecuted people." That is why no reality in the world has ever convinced our leaders to stop being a persecuted nation. Even Abe Foxman, the chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, who can't be accused of being a leftist, says that Obama's speech is not against Israel and is not bad for Israel and that it includes many things that are good for Israel, but that doesn't make any impression on Bibi Netanyahu and his friends.
But it's not only you, Mr. President. Nine years ago, the 22 Arab League countries submitted a proposal for ending the conflict with the Palestinians and for full normalization with them. The leaders of the people that insist on being persecuted chose not to confuse themselves with the fact that 22 Arab countries were recognizing Israel and accepting its right to exist in peace alongside them. That is why our leaders simply ignored it. To the point where barely 15 percent of the Israeli public is even aware of the existence of the Arab initiative. That is why on Thursday, when we, members of the Israeli peace initiative delegation, presented the Egyptian foreign minister with the initiative that for the first time responds to the Arab peace initiative, he rightly said: For nine years the initiative has been on the table. Now you remembered?
The reality, Mr. President, is that change - thanks to which you were elected, and in which you believe - is the thing that Israel in general and Netanyahu in particular fear most. The reality is that the State of Israel has become accustomed to the present situation and does not recognize itself without it. Israel has existed longer with the occupation than without it; it has existed for most of its years with no border and is deathly afraid of change.
The reality is that Netanyahu never wanted or thought to initiate change. When he was elected two years ago, he understood that in order not to initiate change, he would have to play at negotiations that lead nowhere. But alas, there was nobody in the White House who would play this nice little game with him, and his true colors were exposed: He wants settlements, he wants occupation, he wants the situation as it is and sees no problem with it. And now, Netanyahu prefers confrontation. Confrontation with you, confrontation with the Palestinians, confrontation with anyone he sees as coming out against the persecuted people. The reality is simply that confrontation we already know, Mr. President, but peace we do not know at all.
Merav Michaeli @'Haaretz'

New Order - Hellbent (Previously Unreleased)

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Ai Weiwei - I think just walking in the other direction is a smart choice

Ai Weiwei: The Numbers Project

Each candle commemorates one victim of the Sichuan earthquake in 2007 and was added to Ai Weiwei's blog when publishing their names as part of his research project.

Ai Weiwei grew up under horrible conditions, living literally underground in a burrow in the Chinese regions of Manchuria and Xinjiang. Born in 1957 in Beijing, Ai Weiwei was the son of Ai Qing, a renowned poet denounced by the Chinese Communist Party and during the Cultural Revolution forced into exile in a labour camp. Under strong political control, his father had to clean public toilets.
In 1976, after Mao’s death, Ai Qing was rehabilitated and, two years later, Ai Weiwei enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and became active as a member of the famous group ‘Stars’. These few self-taught artists made history in 1979 by displaying provocative and subversive works of art right on the steps of the National Gallery in Beijing. Soon after, they were an international sensation.
In order to become ‘another Picasso’, he set out in 1981 for the United States. But once in New York City, he wasn’t producing a particular body of art. He studied at the Parsons School of Design for a short period, lived next to Allen Ginsberg and was working as a card dealer besides other odd jobs. During his 12 years in the US, he documented his life there with thousands of photos.
Ai Weiwei returned to Beijing in 1993, to the bedside of his dying father. Upon his arrival, he became a vital contributor to the new art scene in China. He published a series of books about the up-and-coming generation of artists in China and even co-curated with Feng Boyi the exhibition Fuck Off in Shanghai in 2000, showing his and others’ contemporary works of art within the country. Besides his photography, Ai Weiwei’s work during this period involved experimenting with traditional objects and handcraft. One result of his experimentation with that subject matter was his famous piece Dropping of a Han Dynasty Vase.
In 1999, he completed his house and studio in the suburbs of Beijing without having any prior training in architecture. Weiwei could not have known then that the project would mark the starting point for almost 60 different architectural projects for his office, Fake Design, in the upcoming years, culminating in his collaboration with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron in designing the Olympic Stadium in Beijing. Shortly after this accomplishment, he refused all architectural work and became instrumental in curating architecture. He curated Ordos 100, a project of 100 villas to be built in the Mongolian desert by 100 chosen architects.
For the Documenta 12 in Kassel, Fake Design selected 1,001 Chinese citizens and invited them to come to Germany for a week. The whole process, from the selection to organization of the project, called Fairytale, was a huge undertaking: For almost every participant, it was the first trip outside of China, and the story behind each visitor was recorded in photos, film and interviews.
Parallel to this first social sculpture and maybe reinforced by what he had learned from it, Ai Weiwei’s role as a cultural and social commentator, as a political activist and critic of the government has only intensified ever since. His blog is his platform for spreading social criticism, discussing ideas and initiating investigations. His constant criticism of the repressive system in China has put him under police observation and led to his arrest on several occasions, but these intimidation tactics seem only to amplify his importance as a spokesman for a new generation.
Mathieu Wellner @'mono.kultur'
Lived next door to Allen Ginsberg? That means that Richard Hell was a neighbour too!
(Thanx Ian!)