Sunday, 26 June 2011
Origin of Song: Gil Scott-Heron’s Revolution of the Mind
“The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In four parts without commercial interruptions.”
Excoriating the media and marketing, the song’s structure burrowed its way into the collective conscious of musicians—both mainstream and underground—and listeners alike; it is referenced throughout music, and rather un-ironically the title phrase has been repurposed to advertise consumer goods, from sneakers to television itself. The piece is also, of course, foundational to hip-hop, its words potent and direct, even if some of the allusions and references may be lost on those uneducated in ‘60s or ‘70s culture. It also sounds great, which explains why musically it’s a standard-bearer for everything from politicized and sexy neo-soul with funk grooves to jazz. Yet pulsing throughout the piece is Scott-Heron’s projection, similar to the theories of McLuhan and scientists like Tesla who foreshadowed the actual facts of global connectivity as well as the pacifying effect on the brain from viewing from a small screen. Heron was channeling his times while bringing a word to the wise:In four parts without commercial interruptions.”
“The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal…
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised.”
We’re heard via media channels that the revolution will be “digitized,” the revolution will be “synthesized,” but so far, the revolution has not been “organized.” One ill-fated ad campaign suggested the revolution will be televised. But Scott-Heron was well ahead of the ball when he posited a necessary parsing of media-generated “reality” from truth and set his poem to music on his 1971 album, Pieces of a Man. With that release, Scott-Heron was caught in the chasm between jazz and soul, poetry and rock, and few knew just what to do with the new poet and big bass voice on the scene, though time would reveal his impact, as he would later weigh in on matters environmental and racial, as well as political and social. Though often his was a cry in wilderness, it served as a clarion for future generations of conscious voices...The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised.”
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Denise Sullivan @'Crawdaddy'
Do you feel that you have been cheated? A rant at U2 live at ‘Glasto’
'ohnoit'sbon(g)o' yesterday
Do you ever feel you have been cheated?There will be a mighty roar when the dark prince Bono takes to the Glastonbury stage this evening- like a choreographered rally thankfully punctuated by the UK UNCUT protestors waving the placards of doom at the showbiz monolith U2 winning the war in the law of averages.
We will stand there, dumbfounded, soaked in Bono’s vile sweat as the clown prince of Jesus Rock stalks onto the stage in his midget heels, with his God hard on and back pocket stuffed with business cards from the Bush family and I will be left wondering just where it all went wrong, knowing that the Wombles are not only sexier but more rock n roll than his band.
Somehow, as a rancid schoolboy, I was conned by the great froth mouthed, amphetamined sex beast known as punk rock into believing that I was going to be part of some sort of stink breathed, gakk infested, terror monkey stukka diving assault onto the vile and badly haired pop mainstream.
For a few brief months I took the beatings on behalf of the skinny trousered punk rock uberlords as I stalked the beer washed streets of my windswept hometown of Blackpool where anti punk violence was an Aperitif before the main course of lard soaked fish and chips.
It was worth it because I felt like I was on the barricades for some sort of revolution collecting bruises was all part of the punk rock experience as much as collecting seven inch singles.
Imagine my shock and disappointment when I realised that all this was for nowt. And that all we were doing was paving the highway for the likes of U2 to launch into their huge international taking the piss philanthropist carrier by bolting together the genius guitar of John McGeogh (god bless his brilliant soul) the bass lines of Lord Peter Hook and the Combat rock chic of our beloved Clash.
They then worked hard and grinned like Christians in an orgy and became the biggest band in the world that no-one really loved.
It all felt very wrong but the Americans made them superstars and their admittedly okey dokey songs sold out the stadiums that superior bands would not even be allowed to piss on.
This all came rushing back to me when I heard that the band were to be playing Glastonbury and that somewhere in the middle of all that mud and expensive Wellington boots there would be the most hideous shrieking since Sting was told that he was not an ‘interlektual’.
The thought that Bongo and his cloth eared Afrika corpse corps would be stukka diving Glass Stoned Bury and entertaining the backstage great unwashed micro celebs who would be leaving their expensive portacabins that are larger and more comfortable than your flat for a glimpse of the pint sized messiah was too much to bear. The micro celebs and their jolly hockey sticks good friends the Eton Rifle Tories will be glorying at the side of the stage, dancing like accountants at a Christmas party whilst on their mobile phones as the band launch into their ill gotten booty of hits whilst I unleash my lunatic fringe and spray-paint the computer screen with spittle and furious words in a spray gun of molten word jism of AK! AK! AK! AK47 adjectives that somehow fail to capture my dissolution with my utterly wasted youth as I realise with a sickening curse that…
U2 made punk rock a waste of fucking time...
John Robb @'Louder Than War'
hmmm...
Photo
I SO hope that is spit...
and why oh why did NATO not authorise a humanitarian bombing sorty that cld have got rid of Coldplay at the same time?
I SO hope that is spit...
and why oh why did NATO not authorise a humanitarian bombing sorty that cld have got rid of Coldplay at the same time?
Saturday, 25 June 2011
If you mention George Clinton or Funkadelic I will sing to you...
p_funk_bot GC Bot
@exilestreet I'm glad to come back and help raise your kids Show you the way, the right way I feel you gotta live
LulzSec Arizona Leak: We Called Public Safety Officers' Cell Phones, and They're Not Laughing
LulzSec, the anonymous hacker group best known for attacking
... has yet to be determined. But the LulzSec hack into the Arizona Department of Public Safety servers yesterday was the groups's most significant yet -- both in terms of volume and personal impact at the other end.
We began by calling Lieutenant Larry Parks, from the DPS' Highway Patrol division, on his cell phone. "You're the first one who's called," he says.
And he's surprised. Although Parks says he has no clue "what they put on there," he didn't think his cell phone had been leaked. (Parks' number was not included in the LulzSec press release, like a few of the other officers; instead, interested parties had to download the 470 MB file to find it. Call us devoted.) The officer says he feels terrible for a few of his colleagues, who had their personal info -- wives' names, home addresses, cell phones -- posted on the "Chinga la Migra" home page.
"I find that a little disconcerting," he says. "It makes it a little personal -- makes you worry every time the phone rings."
We called the rest, too. Steven Loya's cell had been disconnected. Horacio Lomeli and Daniel Scott's phones went straight to message. And Charles Springstun Jr., turns out, had gone so far to get a stuffy lawyer-sounding lady to record the following public service announcement for all callers:
"You the public have been victimized by Internet hackers attempting to incite harm, riots and disobedience by stealing the Springstun identity and the employee identities from the Department of Public Safety. DPS employs police officers, secretaries, records clerks, photographers, mechanics, forensic experts and many other occupations of all races and ages. ... Mr. Springstun was a retiree, but due to the economy, had to seek employment and was hired by DPS earlier this year. ... The Springstuns have not made any statements or opinions on the Internet. the Springstuns have not sent or made made any emails, statements or opinions on SB 1070."Parks says DPS has "launched an investigation" into how such a security breach was made possible. (Good luck with that. Judging by the DPS web correspondance released by LulzSec, officials are still on page 2 of their 'puter manuals.) FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson says, ever cryptically, that it "wouldn't be uncommon for the FBI to assist" in such an investigation -- but the FBI isn't exactly one step ahead of the Lulzers, either.
However, Parks does confirm that the DPS email server can now only be accessed from within department buildings -- making much of the leaked login/password info pretty useless to the general public.
We asked him what he thinks LulzSec wants to get from all this.
"I'm familiar with what an anarchist group is," he says, "but we don't really run into these kind of individuals in my part of the state."
Parks says he patrols the "rural northeast" -- where towns aren't likely to come much larger than 6,000 people. He tries to think of an equivalent near Los Angeles, but can't. "I'm kind of in the sticks," he says.
Because of the smalltime, intimate nature of the e-mails in LulzSec's mass download (and with no time for redactions, a la Palin's Alaska stock!), the DPS correspondence contains many a facepalmy, "Reno 911" moment, like when officers can't get their dial-up Dells to work, or when they use their government accounts to talk about their wives' labor pains. Awkward.
But there are also borderline admissions to racial profiling, by way of warnings to each other -- having everything to do with SB 1070, and making the alleged LulzSec mission, well, kind of accomplished.
For instance, re: ACLU racial-profiling probe, one official says:
"The statistics are from our own data. We need to monitor our personnel and act if there are indications of bias. If we fail to act, I am confident that an outside entity will be established to act for us."Officers are also very wary of the media:
"Though media representatives may tell you that all of them are critical and time sensitive... if in doubt as to whether a release is time sensitive, it is probably not. Please do not overuse this option."In one Yuma County traffic stop, a vehicle is pulled over because it looks "suspicious" (aka, has brown people inside); soon after, both driver and passenger are found to be "illegally present in the United States." Kind of hard to pretend that one didn't put a little profiling to use.
The emails and attachments go on in that fashion. No blatant admissions, but lots of gaps in judicial process and cautionary tales between coppers.
Best of all, though, are the hilariously designed "newsletters" and various for-dummies guides (i.e., "How to Crack Your Child's Secret Online Language") circulated within the department. As with the Palin emails, the leak is more embarrassing than anything. Very "The Office." (Boing Boing has a pretty nice collection of excerpts going, too.)
Still, one non-lulzy thing is clear: Arizona law-enforcement officials, however bumbling, knew not to be blatant.
We'd be very interested to see a leak like this in SoCal, perhaps in Orange or San Diego Counties -- those closet Yumas where officials feel they can get away with anything under the guise of being a liberal blue state. Not that we're asking a major hacker group for a highly illegal government breach or anything. Ahem.
[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]
Simone Wilson @'LAWeekly'
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