Monday, 11 July 2011

(Thanx Linda!)

John Pilger: The strange silencing of liberal America

The News Of The World Scandal Could Cost Rupert Murdoch His FCC Licenses

Ex-Murdoch editor Andrew Neil: everybody knew the NOTW newsroom was out of control

Phone hacking: 9/11 victims 'may have had mobiles tapped by News of the World reporters'

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could face $100m bill for US investigation into 'police payments'

Over more than three decades, no one dared question the perversion of politics by and for Rupert Murdoch

New Dexys Album In 2012

Two new songs were recorded for a best of in 2003, Rowland then talked about a new Dexys album during a Radio 2 interview in 2005 and even posted a demo of a song, “It’s OK Johanna”, on his myspace page in 2007, but nothing further materialised. This time, however, it really seems to be happening. Yesterday (July 10), Rowland posted photos of himself, Talbot and Williams in rehearsals, while he opened the Dexys twitter account on June 24 with the comment: “Dexys new album. Can’t really say why, because it’s hard to put it down to any 1 thing, but it’s working. It’s early days, but so far so good.”
Dexys Midnight Runners – or Dexys, as the band now prefer to be known – have started work on their new album, which is expected to be released in 2012. Singer Kevin Rowland, who is due to play a rare DJ set at indie club How Does It Feel To Be Loved? in London on July 16, revealed on twitter that Dexys are currently rehearsing songs for the group’s first album since their 1985 masterpiece, Don’t Stand Me Down.
The new Dexys twitter account, opened in June this year, lists the bands members as Rowland, ex-Style Council keyboardist Mick Talbot (who was briefly in Dexys Midnight Runners in 1980, and featured in the short-lived 2003 live incarnation), original Dexys bassist Pete Williams and guitarist Neil Hubbard. Talking about the inclusion of Talbot in the line-up, Rowland said on twitter: “Mick Talbot is a huge part of this, not just his playing, he's influential in the whole of this process. Commitment beyond the call of duty.”
Via

For Bob XXX

(Thanx Stan!)

For sale: futurologist JG Ballard's old home. In need of modernisation

JG Ballard's rather drab semi-detached home in Shepperton is inextricably linked with the life of one of post-war fiction's greatest talents. Many of the country's best writers, often Ballard's disciples, visited the author during the 49 years that he lived in this sleepy suburb, where he crafted the dystopian thrillers Crash and Cocaine Nights.

Now, Mr Ballard's former partner, Claire Walsh, has told friends the house is finally on the property market following the writer's death in 2009. Estate agent Haart is carrying an advertisement for the property, a "spacious three-bedroom semi-detached house situated just moments from Shepperton High Street" which is "in need of refurbishment". Ballard did little work on it, according to his neighbours. The asking price for this piece of literary history is just under £320,000.

Such a modest sum does not do justice to the life which played out behind its clipped privet hedge. Mr Ballard moved to Old Charlton Road, Shepperton, in 1960, and wrote his first novel, The Wind From Nowhere, two years later, before becoming a full-time writer. His wife died in 1964, leaving him to raise his three children, James, Fay and Bea, on his own.

In the house, he would write longhand between 10am and 1pm in his sitting room, producing around 1,000 words a day. He produced 18 novels in his career. In his later years, visitors to Mr Ballard's house often remarked on how different it was to the apocalyptic scenes seen in his books. In a piece on Ballard in the The Atlantic in December 2009, Christopher Hitchens described Shepperton as "almost laughably tranquil".

Of meeting Ballard at his home, Martin Amis wrote in 2009: "He told me that 'Crash freaks', from, say, the Sorbonne, would visit expecting to find a miasma of lysergic-acid and child abuse. In fact, what they found was a robustly rounded and amazingly cheerful suburbanite."

Also in 2009, the writer Iain Sinclair made a "pilgrimage" to the house. He described a "silver Ford Granada tilted at a drunken angle, like a sinking cabin-cruiser, in the vestigial driveway". Many of the features Sinclair describes can be seen in Haart's advertisement: "a napkin of lawn... the Crittall window of the front room".

There is no "for sale" sign outside the house, which a neighbour said had been empty since Mr Ballard's death. Asked whether she felt the property would attract more interest because of its famous occupant, the neighbour rather pessimistically replied: "I doubt many people will know who he is."

Rob Sharp @'The Independent'

News of the World final crossword has a message for 'catastrophe' Rebekah Brooks

John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interview Complete Audio Tapes

AUDIO
Rolling Stone issues # 74 & 75
(21 Jan & 4 Feb, 1971)
John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interview, Complete Audio Tapes
Interviewed by founding editor Jann S. Wenner
This interview took place in New York City on December 8th 1970, shortly after John and Yoko finished their ‘Plastic Ono Band’ albums in England.
They came to New York to attend to the details of the release of the album, to make some films, and for a private visit.
Via