Friday, 1 January 2016

Karl Ove Knausgaard: The Terrible Beauty of Brain Surgery

Happy new year from all of us at Exile Towers

გილოცავ ახალ წელს

buon anno

šťastný nový rok

godt nytår
幸せ新しい年

gelukkig nieuwjaar

manigong bagong taon

hyvää uuttavuotta
新年快樂

godt nytt år

szczęśliwego nowego roku

с новым годом

feliz año nuevo

chúc mừng năm mới

bonne année

Frohes neues Jahr

ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος

שנה טובה

नया साल मुबारक हो

selamat tahun baru

laimīgu Jauno gadu

laimingų Naujųjų metų

كل عام وأنتم بخير

새해 복 많이 받으세요

Ghetto Priest - Auld Lang Syne/The Slave's Lament Live mix by Adrian Sherwood
Have fun and cause trouble XXX

Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Lemmy

OK I have a few Lemmy stories but my fave is yet another night when I was working in Dingwalls back in early eighties London and Lemmy was (as per) there and playing the machines and come closing time, (technically 2 but 3AM by the time all was finished) his trick usually was to borrow one of the BIG bottles of vodka that went up on the optic and the next day about 5PM - just as I was bottling from the night before - a replacement would arrive by taxi but this night he asked me what I was doing and I said I was just going back to my girlfriend's place up in Tufnell Park. now at this point I should say that Deb E who he knew was a young blonde rock chick who prob fitted in with his preferred demographic of women but whatever...anyway we had to walk I don't know half hour or 40 mins up the road and he suddenly stopped half way and offered me a couple of these black six sided large pills which I had never seen before. Fuck me! It was how I imagine adrenalin would feel injected straight into your heart with the added 'bonus' of immediate lockjaw! I couldn't speak my teeth were that clenched. But I prob walked a bit faster up the road *ahem.
Anyway getting up to Deb's place I'd forgotten that Roddy from the Specials was crashing up at our place that night. Now I'd always loved Roddy's company especially when I found out he was called Roddy Radiation because his face turned red when he drank beer!!! I also really liked his post Specials band The Tearjerkers and I still have my old denim jacket with that logo on the back, prob doesn't fit me anymore but hey ho...
Anyway on the walk we'd chatted at my instigation about hippies (as one thing I cannot stand...) and it was interesting as Hawkwind were never hippies in my book (and the amount of times I fell asleep to Space Ritual with those big mid 70's 'cans' stuck to my head. Boy did my head hurt the next day...) and there was some other stuff after asking about his dad etc...anyway get to Deb's place oh and fuck me Roddy is in tears...he'll never get back to the USA again to get great clothes again etc etc. A bit of speed in Roddy's blood and a wee bit of the vodka that suddenly appeared and oh man...one of the best nights ever. Rock'n'roll tales, talking about this and that with all of us with the biggest smiles. I at that time had a particularly good relationship with a (some would say well dodgy but I wouldn't)) kebab place around the corner and they are STILL there come 8AM or so...and so it went on until about midday. One of my fave nights for sure...as he left Lemmy gave me the address of his flat in Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove (wherever) and said come round anytime but it was not my stomping ground at all and besides he was nearly always round at my workplace.
He was a fugn gentleman.

John Bradbury dead: The Specials drummer 'Brad' dies aged 62

HA!

Via

Peppa Pig is into Sunn O)))

Monday, 28 December 2015

What happened when slaves and free men were shipwrecked together

It is time for Australia to set the refugees free

Not since the Second World War has there been displacement of people on the scale that occurred in 2015; nor it seems, since that dark nadir of the 20th century, has there been such ugly division over how millions of people fleeing war and persecution might be helped.
They sailed in tiny rubber boats or wooden fishing vessels. They tramped through fields and along railway tracks, with children slung over their shoulders and old people leaning on canes. Some nations built wire fences and walls to keep them out. Some deployed armed forces, water cannon and dogs to deter them at border crossings.
Terrorism and civil wars have destabilised the governments of their nations, and always the wickedness of persecution rolls on. But instead of demonstrating compassion and care for the disadvantaged and dispossessed, political opportunists and fear-mongers have fomented wicked cynicism, racism and malice.
In Australia, our government continues to use the most despicable tactics to deter asylum seekers. For the past two years, this nation has turned back boats at sea, directing them to other countries. It has detained asylum seekers on naval vessels and handed them back to nations that persecute them for fleeing. Have we shown these people that this is a nation governed by wise and kindly people, or by political grandstanders pursuing their own interests?
The Age believes strongly, and we will say this until the policy ends, that the strategy of turning back boats carrying asylum seekers is ignoble. It demonstrates a paucity of imagination. It has been ruthlessly executed, without proper regard for the asylum claims of those people intercepted. And it has brought this nation into disrepute around the world.
The asylum seekers who arrive here have not broken the law. We will say it again: they are not "illegals". They have used the avenues allowed to anyone under international law – under the United Nations covenants to which Australia subscribes – to seek refuge from all forms of persecution.
It is time to call an amnesty, to end the imprisonment of people who came here seeking help and a better life. It is time to recognise that jailing people in detention facilities for years on end, denying them hope or any alternative, and treating them without compassion, is the most inhumane thing that we could do – short of shipping them back to the situation that they fear in their own countries.
No good can possibly be served by detaining people a day longer in camps in Third World nations. No good is served by denying refugees who are living in Australia the right to work. No good comes from demonising refugees, by ostracising them from the mainstream community.
Good will come by dissolving the oppressive, offshore prisons, by allowing the 827 people who have been detained for more than a year (436 for more than two years) to be let free and to be given a chance to make their way in this country.
The policy of locking up those who did arrive on Australian shores before late 2013, and detaining them on Nauru or Manus Island – where their options, if resettled, are extremely limited – defies common sense. It is costly, and it is a corruption of our vows to pursue humanitarian principles.
We call on the Turnbull government to allow all asylum seekers who are found to be refugees to join our community, on Australian soil. Give them the freedom to be productive members of our democracy, and show the world that we are made stronger by doing so, that we are a compassionate and free people, a resolute and confident nation that properly respects the full range of human rights.