72 year old milkman Robert HoldingMonday, 9 February 2009
UPDATE: 108 are now confirmed dead in Victorian bushfires
"I knew something was not right. The sky went crimson with ash and I could smell all the smoke in the atmosphere.
It was like a thick, dense, dirty fog. There was smoke everywhere. It looked like Armageddon or something from a horror movie. I hope I never experience anything like that again."
Read this Brit's account of what Melbourne was like yesterday at the 'BBC' here.
More here.
It was like a thick, dense, dirty fog. There was smoke everywhere. It looked like Armageddon or something from a horror movie. I hope I never experience anything like that again."
Read this Brit's account of what Melbourne was like yesterday at the 'BBC' here.
More here.
Crazy & fuct up
Satellite image of the fires in Victoria."...One silver lining amid the devastation: the fires have not posed a significant threat to more populous areas, including Melbourne, as they sweep across rural outskirts of southeastern Australia...Still...the state is so dry from lack of rain that there are no safe areas. Wildfires are an annual event in Australia. But this year, a combination of factors has made them especially intense: a drought, dry bush and one of the most powerful heat waves in memory. Temperatures in parts of Melbourne reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in the last few weeks. Dozens of heat-related deaths have been reported.
By Sunday, the temperatures had dropped to the mid-20s in the area. Officials were hoping for some help from milder weather moving in. Droplets of rain had started to fall in some areas. Northern Australia, on the other hand, is grappling with a different problem. Sixty percent of the state of Queensland was flooded, officials reported, and residents were warned to be on the lookout for crocodiles in urban areas..."
From 'CNN' here.
From 'CNN' here.
SADDER UPDATE: 96 dead in Victorian bushfires
A fire truck is dwarfed by flames from a bushfire about 125 kilometres west of Melbourne on Saturday. (Associated Press)Story from the 'BBC' here.
"In Victoria, witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash on Saturday as temperatures of up 47 C combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.
Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss.
But Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed deaths at a dozen sites. At least 18 people were hospitalized with burns and eight were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Police said they believed groups of bodies had been found in cars in at least two places — suggesting families or groups of friends were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee.
In total, 49 deaths were confirmed by Sunday evening, said police spokeswoman Leanne Quentin, and officials were still working their way into burned-out regions, meaning the toll could rise.
The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.
Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately. He predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.
Victoria Country Fire Authority official Stuart Ord told Sky News about 1,190 square kilometres had been burned by early Sunday.
Marysville, a former gold rush town that was home to about 800 people, was almost completely wiped out, witnesses said. Video taken from the air showed street after street of burned-out homes in the town, about 130 kilometers north of Melbourne.
"Marysville is no more," Senior Const. Brian Cross told The Associated Press as he manned a checkpoint Sunday in nearby Healesville on a road leading into the town.
The 30 or so town residents who had not fled before Saturday's fire huddled on a sports field overnight to escape the flames and were brought out Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
No deaths were reported in Marysville, but police sealed off the town because they feared bodies would be found there.
Another of the hardest-hit districts was Kinglake, a normally sleepy region of farms and weekend-getaway spots, where at least a dozen people were reported killed. It was there that six bodies were found in one car.
Victoria Country Fire Service spokesman Hayden Lane said 640 houses had been confirmed destroyed — 550 in the Kinglake district — and that tally was expected to rise.
Residents reported the fire tearing through the region at high speed, burning everything before it.
Temperatures in the area dropped to around 25 C on Sunday, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.
Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.
Police said they detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.
Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows that about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.
Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia."
abridged from here.
"In Victoria, witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash on Saturday as temperatures of up 47 C combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.
Police said they were hampered from reaching burned-out areas to confirm details of deaths and property loss.
But Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed deaths at a dozen sites. At least 18 people were hospitalized with burns and eight were in critical condition, hospital officials said.
Police said they believed groups of bodies had been found in cars in at least two places — suggesting families or groups of friends were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee.
In total, 49 deaths were confirmed by Sunday evening, said police spokeswoman Leanne Quentin, and officials were still working their way into burned-out regions, meaning the toll could rise.
The fires were so massive they were visible from space Saturday. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.
Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately. He predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.
Victoria Country Fire Authority official Stuart Ord told Sky News about 1,190 square kilometres had been burned by early Sunday.
Marysville, a former gold rush town that was home to about 800 people, was almost completely wiped out, witnesses said. Video taken from the air showed street after street of burned-out homes in the town, about 130 kilometers north of Melbourne.
"Marysville is no more," Senior Const. Brian Cross told The Associated Press as he manned a checkpoint Sunday in nearby Healesville on a road leading into the town.
The 30 or so town residents who had not fled before Saturday's fire huddled on a sports field overnight to escape the flames and were brought out Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
No deaths were reported in Marysville, but police sealed off the town because they feared bodies would be found there.
Another of the hardest-hit districts was Kinglake, a normally sleepy region of farms and weekend-getaway spots, where at least a dozen people were reported killed. It was there that six bodies were found in one car.
Victoria Country Fire Service spokesman Hayden Lane said 640 houses had been confirmed destroyed — 550 in the Kinglake district — and that tally was expected to rise.
Residents reported the fire tearing through the region at high speed, burning everything before it.
Temperatures in the area dropped to around 25 C on Sunday, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.
Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.
Police said they detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.
Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows that about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.
Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia."
abridged from here.
Sunday, 8 February 2009
$10 million government fund for bushfire victims
Premier John Brumby breaks down while speaking at a press conference at Kilmore. Photo: John Woudstra
A fund to help communities affected by what have been called the worst fires in Victoria's history has been started with a $10 million contribution equally shared by the State and Federal governments.
Outside the CFA station at Kangaroo Ground, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also pledged the strength of the Australian Defence Force to help Victoria in its time of crisis.
Brian Naylor and wife Moiree amongst the dead
I had better explain to non Australian readers that Brian Naylor was perhaps the Australian equivalent of the American newsreader Walter Cronkite or in Britain Trevor McDonald.
Story here.
Now 84 dead
The number of dead is likely to rise even further as blazes continue to ravage the state with almost 312,000 hectares affected. At least 700 homes have been destroyed - 550 of those in Kinglake and surrounding areas.
UPDATE:
Hell on earth hits Kinglake
Greg Roberts
February 8, 2009 - 10:09PM
The end of the world reached the Victorian mountain town of Kinglake on Saturday, February 7.
Burnt out cars, many containing charred bodies, litter the road leading up to the town which now consists of a handful of still standing shops and hundreds of blackened piles of ash which used to be home to Kinglake's 1,500 residents.
As Victoria burnt on Saturday, a raging inferno raced through the state's central highlands, killing at least 12 in Kinglake itself and 10 in Kinglake West, leaving the once-idyllic community a charred ghost town.
Among the tragic stories to emerge from Kinglake were of a young boy and a girl burnt alive inside their home.
"The kids perished, their mother got out but she couldn't get the kids out," Kinglake resident Mary-Anne Mercuri told AAP.
Ms Mercuri also spoke of sisters in their 20s whose bodies were found in the front of their rented house.
"Two young girls around the corner from me were found in the front of their house. There's no way they could have got out. They would have tried to escape but there was nowhere to go."
The mother-of-three said that when the fire arrived it felt like exploding red burning bullets were being shot horizontally at them.
"These big burning chunks started falling from the sky, there was a lot of power behind them. I guess they were exploding parts of trees," Ms Mercuri said.
"We are lucky to be alive."
Her friend, Mandy Darkin, described the terrifying moment the fire arrived at Kinglake without warning.
"I was working at the local restaurant and we were all carrying on like nothing was going on but then word came that we should go home," the mother of five said.
"Soon after, I looked outside the window and said: `Whoa we are out of here, this is going to be bad'.
"I could see it coming. I just remember the blackness and you could hear it, it sounded like a train.
"I raced home in my car, straight into the driveway, placed all the kids in the house and within two minutes it was here and it was as dark as midnight at 4.30pm."
The 25km journey by road from Whittlesea to Kinglake is a cross between a trip into a war zone and a natural disaster zone.
The typical sunburnt landscape of southeast Australia gives way to a fire-burnt one with black scorched trees and earth.
Property after property is destroyed, burnt out cars line the side of the road, some sit stranded in the middle of the street, while a dead horse, carcass still smouldering, blocks the sporadic traffic.
The remains of two cars which collided head-on in their frantic bid to escape the blaze lie mangled on the road, and a five-car pile-up reveals the desperation of residents fleeing for their lives when the fire arrived.
It is believed six bodies were found in one car.
A media convoy being escorted to Kinglake was delayed at one stage as emergency crews removed another body from one of the burnt-out cars.
© 2009 AAP
UPDATE:
Hell on earth hits Kinglake
Greg Roberts
February 8, 2009 - 10:09PM
The end of the world reached the Victorian mountain town of Kinglake on Saturday, February 7.
Burnt out cars, many containing charred bodies, litter the road leading up to the town which now consists of a handful of still standing shops and hundreds of blackened piles of ash which used to be home to Kinglake's 1,500 residents.
As Victoria burnt on Saturday, a raging inferno raced through the state's central highlands, killing at least 12 in Kinglake itself and 10 in Kinglake West, leaving the once-idyllic community a charred ghost town.
Among the tragic stories to emerge from Kinglake were of a young boy and a girl burnt alive inside their home.
"The kids perished, their mother got out but she couldn't get the kids out," Kinglake resident Mary-Anne Mercuri told AAP.
Ms Mercuri also spoke of sisters in their 20s whose bodies were found in the front of their rented house.
"Two young girls around the corner from me were found in the front of their house. There's no way they could have got out. They would have tried to escape but there was nowhere to go."
The mother-of-three said that when the fire arrived it felt like exploding red burning bullets were being shot horizontally at them.
"These big burning chunks started falling from the sky, there was a lot of power behind them. I guess they were exploding parts of trees," Ms Mercuri said.
"We are lucky to be alive."
Her friend, Mandy Darkin, described the terrifying moment the fire arrived at Kinglake without warning.
"I was working at the local restaurant and we were all carrying on like nothing was going on but then word came that we should go home," the mother of five said.
"Soon after, I looked outside the window and said: `Whoa we are out of here, this is going to be bad'.
"I could see it coming. I just remember the blackness and you could hear it, it sounded like a train.
"I raced home in my car, straight into the driveway, placed all the kids in the house and within two minutes it was here and it was as dark as midnight at 4.30pm."
The 25km journey by road from Whittlesea to Kinglake is a cross between a trip into a war zone and a natural disaster zone.
The typical sunburnt landscape of southeast Australia gives way to a fire-burnt one with black scorched trees and earth.
Property after property is destroyed, burnt out cars line the side of the road, some sit stranded in the middle of the street, while a dead horse, carcass still smouldering, blocks the sporadic traffic.
The remains of two cars which collided head-on in their frantic bid to escape the blaze lie mangled on the road, and a five-car pile-up reveals the desperation of residents fleeing for their lives when the fire arrived.
It is believed six bodies were found in one car.
A media convoy being escorted to Kinglake was delayed at one stage as emergency crews removed another body from one of the burnt-out cars.
© 2009 AAP
Hell on Earth
"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours. Many good people lie dead, many injured," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters, deploying army units to help 3,000 firefighters battling the flames.
UPDATE: 65 confirmed dead.
UPDATE: 65 confirmed dead.
UPDATE: 'Worst day in history' Vic fires kill 14
Authorities in Victoria will on Sunday begin the grim search for bodies following Saturday's devastating bushfires, which have already claimed 14 lives.
Police expect the death toll to surpass 40.
All 14 of the confirmed deaths were in towns northwest of Melbourne - six people in one car were killed at Kinglake, four died at Wandong, three at Strathewen and one in Clonbinane.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police would be able to undertake a more thorough search of burnt-out properties on Sunday with the fire in the area under control and cooler conditions.
"This is an absolute tragedy for the state and we believe the figure may even get worse," Mr Walshe told reporters late on Saturday.
"We base that on the fact we're only just getting into these areas now... to search buildings and properties these have been very very significant fires... the figure could get into the 40s."
Police spokesman Senior Constable Wayne Wilson said the clarification on a final death toll would take time.
"We have the official toll at 14. Obviously under the conditions we expect it to go higher, (but) we've got to go through these places in the daylight, where we can search them properly," he told ABC Radio.
"These sort of situations it does take time for clarification to come through... particularly when you are dealing with death.
"We do it as quickly as we can but we've got to do it in a methodical and accurate way."
Meanwhile, the bushfire burning around Kilmore was continuing to cause concern early on Sunday morning, despite a cool change moving in.
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) said the Kilmore East fire, burning in the Yarra Valley near Kinglake, was burning in a northeasterly direction.
The CFA said the wind change at 7.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday produced strong southwesterly gusts, moving the fire activity to a northeastern direction.
Weather conditions have turned favourable overnight and expected to continue to moderate.
But the CFA has warned communities of Kinglake, Kinglake West, Toolangie, Glenburn, Strathewen, Chum Creek, Dixons Creek, Castella, Pheasant Creek, Doreen, Yan Yean, Woodstock, Mernda, Mittons Bridge, Hurstbridge, St Andrews, Panton Hills, Arthurs Creek, Smiths Gully, Christmas Hills, Healesville, Yarra Glen, Coldstream, Tarrawarra and Steels Creek have been and may be directly impacted upon by this fire.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
47 degrees of perspiration
The hottest February day in recorded history here in Melbourne.Not only stinking hot but also a northerly wind coming straight from the central land mass that brought with it so much soil dust that at times reached 80 kms an hour!.
Also the whole sky was just filled with smoke all day.
The change eventually came through and tomorrow looks like being a much cooler day.
Thank god!
UPDATE:Fourteen killed in Kinglake ( which has been completely wiped out), Wandong, Strathewen and Clonbinane, northwest of Melbourne.
More than 60 houses reported to be lost.
At least 30,000 hectares burnt out, started around 4km east of Kilmore and winds pushed it 30km to the east through Whittlesea, Wandong and into Kinglake. Was also threatening Broadford late Saturday night.
There are reports just in that it is feared that the death toll could be as high as 40.
At least 30,000 hectares burnt out, started around 4km east of Kilmore and winds pushed it 30km to the east through Whittlesea, Wandong and into Kinglake. Was also threatening Broadford late Saturday night.
There are reports just in that it is feared that the death toll could be as high as 40.
Obama changes tone
"...In a fired-up, mostly impromptu speech to House Democrats in Williamsburg, Va., Thursday night, Obama accused his Republican critics of wanting to return to “the same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin.”“I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV,” he said. "If you’re headed for a cliff, you have to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver.”..."
Full Story from 'Politico' here.
Friday, 6 February 2009
"I have the key to the mysteries of all things wanted, and here it is: Doo dum dum ..."
Leonard Cohen - Melbourne 5/02/09(Photo TimN)
Start here on May 11, 2008 at the Fredericton Playhouse Canada and keep following the links and you will get reviews/setlists and videos of every concert of this world tour that brought us to this point.
My thoughts on this truly profound experience (and that is not a word that I often use in regards to this crazy thing called rock'n'roll I can assure you) will hopefully appear here tomorrow.
Hallelujah - Melbourne 5/02/09
לא נראה כמוך שוב
'Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/ That's how the light gets in.'Leonard Cohen - Melbourne 5/02/09
(Photos by TimN)
In case you are wondering the Hebrew reads 'we will not see your like again' (I hope).
In case you are wondering the Hebrew reads 'we will not see your like again' (I hope).
Setlist
Leonard Cohen - Melbourne 5/02/09(Photo TimN)
THE BANDLeonard Cohen - vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboard.
Roscoe Beck - bass, double bass, background vocals
Neil Larsen - keyboards, Hammond B3, accordion
Bob Metzger - guitar, steel guitar, background vocals
Javier Mas - bandurria, laud, archilaud
Rafael Bernardo Gayol - drums, percussion
Dino Soldo - keyboard, saxophone, wind instruments, dobro, background vocals
Sharon Robinson - vocals, shaker
Hattie Webb - vocals, harp
Charley Webb - vocals, guitar
Thanx to Crimpies over at the Leonard Cohen forum for the setlist.
Leonard Cohen - Rod Laver Arena Melbourne February 5 2009
Leonard Cohen - Melbourne 5/02/09(Photo by TimN)
Just returned home from this amazing, uplifting and truly inspiring concert.
There will be much, much more later I promise.
In the meantime I give you Leonard Cohen's recitation of 'A Thousand Kisses Deep' & 'If It Be Your Will' as performed by the absolutely sublime cartwheeling (!) Webb sisters.
"You came to me this morning
And you handled me like meat.
You´d have to be a man to know
How good that feels, how sweet.
My mirror twin, my next of kin,
I´d know you in my sleep.
And who but you would take me in
A thousand kisses deep?
I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique -
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.
All soaked in sex, and pressed against
The limits of the sea:
I saw there were no oceans left
For scavengers like me.
We made it to the forward deck
I blessed our remnant fleet -
And then consented to be wrecked
A thousand kisses deep.
I know you had to lie to me,
I know you had to cheat.
But the Means no longer guarantee
The Virtue in Deceit.
That truth is bent, that beauty spent,
That style is obsolete -
Ever since the Holy Spirit went
A thousand kisses deep.
(So what about this Inner Light
That´s boundless and unique?
I´m slouching through another night
A thousand kisses deep.)
I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,
I´m back on Boogie Street.
I tried to quit the business -
Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.
But sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go
A thousand kisses deep.
(And fragrant is the thought of you,
The file on you complete -
Except what we forgot to do
A thousand kisses deep.)
The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it´s done -
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it´s real
A thousand kisses deep.
(I jammed with Diz and Dante -
I did not have their sweep -
But once or twice, they let me play
A thousand kisses deep.)
And I´m still working with the wine,
Still dancing cheek to cheek.
The band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" -
The heart will not retreat.
And maybe I had miles to drive,
And promises to keep -
You ditch it all to stay alive
A thousand kisses deep.
And now you are the Angel Death
And now the Paraclete;
And now you are the Savior's Breath
And now the Belsen heap.
No turning from the threat of love,
No transcendental leap -
As witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep."
"You came to me this morning
And you handled me like meat.
You´d have to be a man to know
How good that feels, how sweet.
My mirror twin, my next of kin,
I´d know you in my sleep.
And who but you would take me in
A thousand kisses deep?
I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique -
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.
All soaked in sex, and pressed against
The limits of the sea:
I saw there were no oceans left
For scavengers like me.
We made it to the forward deck
I blessed our remnant fleet -
And then consented to be wrecked
A thousand kisses deep.
I know you had to lie to me,
I know you had to cheat.
But the Means no longer guarantee
The Virtue in Deceit.
That truth is bent, that beauty spent,
That style is obsolete -
Ever since the Holy Spirit went
A thousand kisses deep.
(So what about this Inner Light
That´s boundless and unique?
I´m slouching through another night
A thousand kisses deep.)
I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,
I´m back on Boogie Street.
I tried to quit the business -
Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.
But sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go
A thousand kisses deep.
(And fragrant is the thought of you,
The file on you complete -
Except what we forgot to do
A thousand kisses deep.)
The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it´s done -
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it´s real
A thousand kisses deep.
(I jammed with Diz and Dante -
I did not have their sweep -
But once or twice, they let me play
A thousand kisses deep.)
And I´m still working with the wine,
Still dancing cheek to cheek.
The band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" -
The heart will not retreat.
And maybe I had miles to drive,
And promises to keep -
You ditch it all to stay alive
A thousand kisses deep.
And now you are the Angel Death
And now the Paraclete;
And now you are the Savior's Breath
And now the Belsen heap.
No turning from the threat of love,
No transcendental leap -
As witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep."
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Lux Interior - RIP
(Photo by Theresa K)Erick Lee Purkhiser
(October 21, 1948 - February 4, 2009)
Lead singer of The Cramps.
The Official Statement (from Girlie Action, The Cramps’ media representatives):
For Immediate Release:
February 4, 2009
Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, passed away this morning due to an existing heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California at 4:30 AM PST today. Lux has been an inspiration and influence to millions of artists and fans around the world. He and wife Poison Ivy’s contributions with The Cramps have had an immeasurable impact on modern music.
The Cramps emerged from the original New York punk scene of CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, with a singular sound and iconography. Their distinct take on rockabilly and surf along with their midnight movie imagery reminded us all just how exciting, dangerous, vital and sexy rock and roll should be and has spawned entire subcultures. Lux was a fearless frontman who transformed every stage he stepped on into a place of passion, abandon, and true freedom. He is a rare icon who will be missed dearly.
The family requests that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.
'Tear It Up'
'Goo Goo Muck'
More Videos here and here and here.
Get the Ohio 1979 demos here.
Finally this will get you a whole heap of goodies!!!
Great fan site here.
I wanna leave a happy memory
when I go, I wanna leave something
to let the whole world know,
that the rock in roll daddy has
a done passed on, but my bones
will keep a rockin' long after I've gone
Roll on
Rock on
Raw Bones
Well I still got all the rythem in these
Rockin' Bones
Well when I die don't you burry
me at all, Just nail my bonesup on
the wall, Beneath these bones let
these words be seen, "This is the
bloody gears of a
boppin' machine"
Roll on
Rock on
Raw Bones
Well I still got all the rythem in these
Rockin' Bones
BIG thanx to Luke & Bella for passing on the sad news.
Get the Ohio 1979 demos here.
Finally this will get you a whole heap of goodies!!!
Great fan site here.
I wanna leave a happy memory
when I go, I wanna leave something
to let the whole world know,
that the rock in roll daddy has
a done passed on, but my bones
will keep a rockin' long after I've gone
Roll on
Rock on
Raw Bones
Well I still got all the rythem in these
Rockin' Bones
Well when I die don't you burry
me at all, Just nail my bonesup on
the wall, Beneath these bones let
these words be seen, "This is the
bloody gears of a
boppin' machine"
Roll on
Rock on
Raw Bones
Well I still got all the rythem in these
Rockin' Bones
BIG thanx to Luke & Bella for passing on the sad news.
J.G. Ballard - Crash (Directed by Harley Cokliss 1971 Starring J.G. Ballard & Gabrielle Drake)
NARRATOR: In slow motion, the test cars moved towards each other on collision courses, unwinding behind them the coils that ran to the metering devices by the impact zone. As they collided the debris of wings and fender floated into the air. The cars rocked against each as they continued on their disintegrating courses. In the passenger seats the plastic models transcribed graceful arcs into the buckling roofs and windshields. Here and there a passing fender severed a torso. The air behind the cars was a carnival of arms and legs.
J.G. BALLARD: I think the key image of the 20th century is the man in the motor car. It sums up everything: the elements of speed, drama, aggression, the junction of advertising and consumer goods with the technological landscape. The sense of violence and desire, power and energy; the shared experience of moving together through an elaborately signalled landscape.
We spend a substantial part of our lives in the motor car, and the experience of driving condenses many of the experiences of being a human being in the 1970s, the marriage of the physical aspects of ourselves with the imaginative and technological aspects of our lives. I think the 20th century reaches its highest expression on the highway. Everything is there: the speed and violence of our age; the strange love affair with the machine, with its own death.
The styling of motor cars, and of the American motor car in particular, has always struck me as incredibly important, bringing together all sorts of visual and psychological factors. As an engineering structure, the car is totally uninteresting to me. I’m interested in the exact way in which it brings together the visual codes for expressing our ordinary perceptions about reality — for example, that the future is something with a fin on it — and the whole system of expectations contained in the design of the car, expectations about our freedom to move through time and space, about the identities of our own bodies, our own musculatures, the complex relationships between ourselves and the world of objects around us. These highly potent visual codes can be seen repeatedly in every aspect of the 20th century landscape. What do they mean? Have we reached a point now in the 70s where we only make sense in terms of these huge technological systems? I think so myself, and that it is the vital job of the writer to try to analyse and understand the huge significance of this metallised dream.
I’m interested in the automobile as a narrative structure, as a scenario that describes our real lives and our real fantasies. If every member of the human race were to vanish overnight, I think it would be possible to reconstitute almost every element of human psychology from the design of a vehicle like this. As a writer I feel I must try to understand the real meaning of a lot of commonplace but tremendously complicated events. I’ve always been fascinated by the complexity of movement when a woman gets out of a car.
NARRATOR: Her ungainly transit across the passenger seat through the nearside door. The overlay of her knees with the metal door flank. The conjunction of the aluminized gutter trim with the volumes of her thighs. The crushing of her left breast by the door frame, and its self extension as she continued to rise. The movement of her left hand across the chromium trim of the right headlamp assembly. Her movements distorted in the projecting carapace of the bonnet. The jut and rake of her pubis as she sits in the driver’s seat. The soft pressure of her thighs against the rim of the steering wheel.
J.G. BALLARD: The close relationship between our own bodies and the body of the motor car is obvious. American automobile stylists have been exploring for years the relationship between sexuality and the motor car body, the primitive algebra of recognition which we use in our perception of all organic forms. If the man in the motor car is the key image of the 20th century, then the automobile crash is the most significant trauma. The car crash is the most dramatic event in most people’s lives, apart from their own deaths, and in many cases the two will coincide.
Are we just victims in a totally meaningless tragedy, or does it in fact take place with our unconscious, and even conscious, connivance? Each year hundreds of thousands of people are killed in car crashes all over the world. Millions are injured. Are these arranged deaths arranged by the colliding forces of the technological landscape, by our own unconscious fantasies about power and aggression, our obsessions with consumer goods and desires, the overlaying fictions that are more and more taking the place of reality? It’s always struck me that people’s attitudes towards the car crash are very confused, that they assume an attitude that in fact is very different from their real response. If we really feared the car crash, none of us would ever be able to drive a car.
- J.G. Ballard in ‘Crash!’ (1971; dir. Harley Cokliss).
I know that my own attitudes to the crashed car are just as confused. The distorted geometry of this tremendously stylised object: let’s face it, the most powerful symbol of our civilisation. It seems to pull at all sorts of concealed triggers in the mind: the postures of people in crashed vehicles; deformed manufacturer’s styling devices (crashed General Motors cars look very different from crashed Fords); the stylisation of the instrument panel, which after all is the model for our own wounds. Driving around, each of us knows what is literally the shape of our own death.
NARRATOR: Regaining consciousness, she stared at the blood on her legs. The heavy liquid pulled at her skirt. The bruise under her left breast reached behind her sternum, seizing like a hand at her heart. She sat up, lifting herself from the broken steering wheel, uncertain for a moment whether the car windshield had been fractured. Against her forehead the strands of blood formed a torn veil. Above her knees, her hand moved towards the door lever. As she watched, the door opened and she fell out. Lifting herself, she held tightly to the car, feeling the pressure of the door slip against her hand. Turning, she stared at the waiting figure of the man she knew to be Dr Tallis.
J.G. BALLARD: I remember seeing some films on television of test crashes a few years ago. They were using American cars of the late 50s, a period I suppose when the American dream, and American confidence, were at their highest point. Metering coils trailed out of the windows and they had dummies sitting in them. They were beautifully filmed. They filmed them beautifully because they wanted to know what was happening. They weren’t interested in the aesthetics of the thing. These cars were in head-on collisions, right-angled collisions and sideswipes. And ploughing into other structures like utility poles. One could see four feet of metal suddenly become one foot. Filmed in slow motion, these crashes had a beautiful stylised grace. The power and weight of these cars gave them an immense classical dignity. It was like some strange technological ballet.
I remember looking at these films and thinking about the strange psychological dimensions they seemed to touch. They seemed to say something about the way everything becomes more and more stylised, more and more cut off from ordinary feeling. It seems to me that we have to regard everything in the world around us as fiction, as if we were living in an enormous novel, and that the kind of distinction that Freud made about the inner world of the mind, between, say, what dreams appeared to be and what they really meant, now has to be applied to the outer world of reality. All the structures in it, flyovers and motorways, office blocks and factories, are all part of this enormous novel.
Take a structure like a multi-storey car park, one of the most mysterious buildings ever built. Is it a model for some strange psychological state, some kind of vision glimpsed within its bizarre geometry? What effect does using these buildings have on us? Are the real myths of this century being written in terms of these huge unnoticed structures?
More exactly, I think that new emotions and new feelings are being created, that modern technology is beginning to reach into our dreams and change our whole way of looking at things, and perceiving reality, that more and more it is drawing us away from contemplating ourselves to contemplating its world.
J.G. Ballard 1971.
- Gabrielle Drake in ‘Crash!’ (1971; dir. Harley Cokliss).
NB: Gabrielle Drake is Nick Drake's sister.
More Ballard here.
Bonus:'Warm Leatherette' by The Normal.Inspired by Ballard's 'Crash' this was by Daniel Miller and was the first release from Mute Records.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Oh dear, oh dear!!!
According to 'The Times' sales of Country Life spreads are up 85% since the John Lydon ad campaign started.
Serge Gainsbourg 2008 exhibition - Paris
Go to 'The Weaklings' here and let Dennis Cooper take you through the exhibition dedicated to Serge Gainsbourg.Please note that this exhibition has been extended until March 15th.
Pete Doherty faces eviction
Pete Doherty pictured yesterday in Paris is facing eviction from his country pad following the broadcast of the MTV 24 Hours show. The Babyshambles frontman faces the threat of being turfed-out, due to the state he has let the house get in, reports The Sun. "We've had a few problems. It's high time Mr Doherty found somewhere else to live," the newspaper quotes The Earl Of Cardigan saying.Tuesday, 3 February 2009
There She Blows – Have The La's Ruined Lithuania's Eurovision Chances?
"Though nothing's been officially confirmed yet, news reaches us from NME's Eastern European division that Lithuania is currently in the midst of a musical crisis involving this year's Eurovision Song Contest entrant and… The La's.
As is customary for most, if not all, Eurovision-participating countries (I don't know, I keep well away from this stuff usually), Lithuania is in the process of choosing its song and performer for the competition via a public TV vote. What makes this year's competition noteworthy is the song by Deivis – a catchy little number called 'Lietuva'. Impressively, the tune scored maximum points in the quarter final heats earlier this month, making it the hot-favourite to go on and be the country's official entry.
Even better than that, though, is that it appears to have been stolen hook, line and sinker from The La's 'There She Goes'. Weirdly, nobody seemed to notice this until it had been performed in front of millions of people on TV. From what we can tell from these news reports (both written in Lithuanian), after 'Leituva' was performed, various viewers alerted Eurovision organisers that the song was just a tiny bit similar to 'There She Goes'. Annoyingly, most of the subsequent reports seem to credit Sixpence None The Richer with the song (in actual fact they butchered it), rather than elusive La's mainman Lee Mavers. It seems an investigation into the similarities is being carried out by some Eurovision suits, and Deivis is waiting to find out if he's been kicked out of the competition or not.
All of which is loads more entertaining than getting Andrew Lloyd Webber involved (as we have here in the UK) has been. Have a listen to 'Lietuva' for yourself. I quite like it actually. It's even got a key change before the end. Didn't think of that, did ya Mavers?"
By Matt Wilkinson Posted on 28/01/09 at 03:32:10 pm @ NME.com
BONUS:Three different versions of The La's 'There She Goes' as produced by
Steve Lillywhite, Mike Hedges & John Leckie.
Steve Lillywhite, Mike Hedges & John Leckie.
The Bureau of Public Secrets
Several documents on Guy Debord's films have recently been added at the Bureau of Public Secrets website:
Technical Notes on Debord's First Three Films
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/technotes.htm
Letter about Debord's Film "On the Passage of a Few Persons..."
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/passage-letter.htm
Original Announcement of Debord's Film "The Society of the Spectacle"
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/spectacle-announcement.htm
The Use of Stolen Films
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/stolen-films.htm
The Themes of Debord's Film "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni"
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/ingirum-themes.htm
Instructions to the "In girum" Sound Engineer
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/ingirum-soundtrack.htm
Debord Chronology
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/chronology.htm
Debord Filmography
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/filmography.htm
Texts Relating to Debord's Films
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/bibliography.htm
* * *
See also Guy Debord's "COMPLETE CINEMATIC WORKS", translated and edited by Ken Knabb and published by AK Press, which includes the scripts to all six of Debord's films plus 62 illustrations and extensive annotations
http://www.bopsecrets.org/cat.htm
For online excerpts from the filmscripts, along with the latest information on the films themselves, see
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord.films/index.htm
Knabb's translation of Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" is online at http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/index.htm
The Situationist International Anthology is online at
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/index.htm
Thanx to Ken Knabb for all the links.
Technical Notes on Debord's First Three Films
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Letter about Debord's Film "On the Passage of a Few Persons..."
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Original Announcement of Debord's Film "The Society of the Spectacle"
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
The Use of Stolen Films
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
The Themes of Debord's Film "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni"
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Instructions to the "In girum" Sound Engineer
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Debord Chronology
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Debord Filmography
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Texts Relating to Debord's Films
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
* * *
See also Guy Debord's "COMPLETE CINEMATIC WORKS", translated and edited by Ken Knabb and published by AK Press, which includes the scripts to all six of Debord's films plus 62 illustrations and extensive annotations
http://www.bopsecrets.org/cat.
For online excerpts from the filmscripts, along with the latest information on the films themselves, see
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Knabb's translation of Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" is online at http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
The Situationist International Anthology is online at
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/
Thanx to Ken Knabb for all the links.
Too True
(Photo by TimN)5 Most Obnoxious Front Men of All Time are...
1 Chris Bailey
2 Chris Bailey
3 Chris Bailey
4 Kate Cerebrano (sic) from I'm Talking ( but she's a religious nutter and can't help it)
5 Courtney Love ( but Kurt had just died)
Great gig though..god bless Ed Kuepper
Big Ern xxx
Melbourne Australia
A comment left at 'That Striped Sunlight Sound' here.
1 Chris Bailey
2 Chris Bailey
3 Chris Bailey
4 Kate Cerebrano (sic) from I'm Talking ( but she's a religious nutter and can't help it)
5 Courtney Love ( but Kurt had just died)
Great gig though..god bless Ed Kuepper
Big Ern xxx
Melbourne Australia
A comment left at 'That Striped Sunlight Sound' here.
Monday, 2 February 2009
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