THE REMBRANDTS The Rembrandts 1990
47 minutes ago
Thursday 22 April 2010
Wednesday 21 April 2010
yakawow Have you considered a PhD in Yaka-Wow studies? You appear to be a nuanced appreciator of #yakawow RT @exilestreet: Yaka-Wow just IS!
Security Brief: Radical Islamic Web site takes on 'South Park'
"South Park" showed the Prophet Mohammed
disguised in a bear suit.The radical Islamic Web site Revolutionmuslim.com is going after the creators of the TV cartoon series "South Park" after an episode last week included an image of the Prophet Mohammed in disguise.
Revolutionmuslim.com, based in New York, was the subject of a CNN investigation last year for its radical rhetoric supporting “jihad” against the West and praising al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Its organizers insist they act within the law and seek to protect Islam.
On Sunday, Revolutionmuslim.com posted an entry that included a warning to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that they risk violent retribution – after the 200th episode last week included a satirical discussion about whether an image of the prophet could be shown. In the end, he is portrayed disguised in a bear suit.
The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com says: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
Theo van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004 after making a short documentary on violence against women in some Islamic societies. The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com features a graphic photograph of Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest.
The entry on Revolutionmuslim.com goes on to advise readers:
“You can contact them [the makers of South Park], or pay Comedy Central or their own company a visit at these addresses …” before listing Comedy Central’s New York address, and the Los Angeles, California, address of Parker and Sloane’s production company.
Contacted by CNN, the author of the post, Abu Talhah al Amrikee, said that providing the addresses was not intended as a threat to the creators of South Park but to give people the opportunity to protest.
Over still photographs of Parker, Stone, van Gogh and others, the Web site runs audio of a sermon by the radical U.S.-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who is now in hiding in Yemen. The sermon, recorded some time ago, talks about assassinating those who have “defamed” the Prophet Mohammed – citing one religious authority as saying “Harming Allah and his messenger is a reason to encourage Muslims to kill whoever does that.” U.S. officials say al-Awlaki is on a list of al Qaeda leaders targeted for capture or assassination.
The clip ends with a warning on a graphic directed at Parker and Stone, saying “The Dust Will Never Settle Down.”
Al Amrikee said the purpose of including the al-Awlaki sermon in his posting was to remind Muslims that insulting the prophet is a severe offense for which the punishment in Islam is death. He said RevolutionMuslim may hold protests about the show.
Calls to Comedy Central were not returned.
The Case of the Cursed Bread
A funeral cortege for the village's victims passes in front of a local bakery.
A 60-year-old French medical mystery concerning hallucinogenic bread and mass hysteria has now been blamed on undercover operations by the CIA. According to American investigative journalist Hank Albarelli, the agency spiked French baguettes with LSD in secret experiments just after World War II. Citing anonymous US Army and CIA sources, Albarelli claims that members of the US Army’s Special Operations Division contaminated “local food products” with diethylamine – the D in LSD – to gauge the effect of the newly synthesised drug on French civilians.
The CIA connection is the latest in a number of possible explanations for a series of tragic events that unfurled at Pont-Saint-Esprit, a small town on the banks of the River Rhône in southern France, in August 1951. After an outbreak of food poisoning, upset stomachs, vomiting and diarrhœa soon gave way to mass folly and collective hallucinations. Victims imagined themselves to have copper heads, stomachs full of writhing snakes or bodies engulfed by flames. One girl thought she was being attacked by tigers. A patient undergoing treatment thought he could fly and threw himself from the second floor of a hospital, breaking both legs. In a fit of madness, a young boy tried to strangle his mother.
Within days, almost 300 people had reported poisoning symptoms, more than 30 had been hospitalised and at least five had died. Many of the victims were found to have shopped at the same bakery and suspicion soon fell on Roch Briand’s baguettes. The tragedy became known as the affair of the pain maudit (‘cursed bread’).
One of the first to come up with a possible explanation for the tragedy was local physician Dr Gabbaï, who had treated some of the victims. Writing in the British Medical Journal, he suggested that the symptoms indicated an outbreak of ergotism, caused by the parasitic mould ergot affecting grain. The disease was thought to have died out in France during the 18th century, but could it have resurfaced again in the Rhône Valley in 1951? Not all were convinced by the ergot diagnosis. The judge responsible for the enquiry suggested a possible criminal connection and referred to contamination by a very toxic form of synthetic ergot.
The Case of the Cursed Bread drew the attention of foreign experts as well. Dr Albert Hofmann, who first synthesised LSD-25 from ergot in 1938, travelled to Pont-Saint-Esprit and confirmed the hypothesis of ergot poisoning. But once back in Basle, the Sandoz Laboratories, where Hofmann worked and which had introduced LSD as a drug for various psychiatric uses four years earlier, rejected the connection. Experiments with ergot-infected bread in the US also suggested that the effects seen in Pont-Saint-Esprit were unlikely to be due to ergotism.
The possible causes of the affair were taken up again by American historian Steven Kaplan more than 50 years later. Kaplan, a professor at Cornell University and expert on the history of bread, examined all the possible explanations for the cursed bread: ergotism, infected water or contamination by fungicides or other toxins. None, he concluded in his 1,000-page tome Le Pain Maudit, published in 2008, could adequately explain the events of Pont-Saint-Esprit in the summer of 1951.
Then, at the end of 2009, came Hank Alberelli’s CIA allegations published in A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olsen and the CIAs Secret Cold War Experiments. “The most shocking thing to me was the CIA experiment in France,” he told the American Geek Entertainment TV after the publication of the book. “I didn’t want to believe that my government could do that.” But he is adamant he has proof that the CIA is behind the horrifying events at Pont-Saint-Esprit, and that these were part of a wider secret experimental programme. Between the late 1940s and the 1970s, he claims, the CIA tested LSD and other drugs on foreign civilians in Germany and Russia, as well as in France, and on 5,000 US servicemen.
Alberelli asserts that there was a lot of excitement in the CIA at the time about the possible uses of LSD in warfare. It was hoped that the drug could eliminate violence; the idea was that enemies could be bombarded with LSD, which would engender mass hallucinations and acts of madness. The US army would then be free to march into enemy territory with little opposition.
The latest ‘revelations’ have been received with a mixture of disbelief, amusement and shoulder-shrugging by the French media and the population of Pont-Saint-Esprit. Albarelli’s evidence appears flimsy at the very least. And some, including Kaplan, have dismissed the idea on clinical grounds. It’s highly unlikely, they say, that an LSD-like substance would have affected the villagers in the way the pain maudit did. And why, after all, should the CIA have targeted this quiet corner of southern France?
The CIA connection is the latest in a number of possible explanations for a series of tragic events that unfurled at Pont-Saint-Esprit, a small town on the banks of the River Rhône in southern France, in August 1951. After an outbreak of food poisoning, upset stomachs, vomiting and diarrhœa soon gave way to mass folly and collective hallucinations. Victims imagined themselves to have copper heads, stomachs full of writhing snakes or bodies engulfed by flames. One girl thought she was being attacked by tigers. A patient undergoing treatment thought he could fly and threw himself from the second floor of a hospital, breaking both legs. In a fit of madness, a young boy tried to strangle his mother.
Within days, almost 300 people had reported poisoning symptoms, more than 30 had been hospitalised and at least five had died. Many of the victims were found to have shopped at the same bakery and suspicion soon fell on Roch Briand’s baguettes. The tragedy became known as the affair of the pain maudit (‘cursed bread’).
One of the first to come up with a possible explanation for the tragedy was local physician Dr Gabbaï, who had treated some of the victims. Writing in the British Medical Journal, he suggested that the symptoms indicated an outbreak of ergotism, caused by the parasitic mould ergot affecting grain. The disease was thought to have died out in France during the 18th century, but could it have resurfaced again in the Rhône Valley in 1951? Not all were convinced by the ergot diagnosis. The judge responsible for the enquiry suggested a possible criminal connection and referred to contamination by a very toxic form of synthetic ergot.
The Case of the Cursed Bread drew the attention of foreign experts as well. Dr Albert Hofmann, who first synthesised LSD-25 from ergot in 1938, travelled to Pont-Saint-Esprit and confirmed the hypothesis of ergot poisoning. But once back in Basle, the Sandoz Laboratories, where Hofmann worked and which had introduced LSD as a drug for various psychiatric uses four years earlier, rejected the connection. Experiments with ergot-infected bread in the US also suggested that the effects seen in Pont-Saint-Esprit were unlikely to be due to ergotism.
The possible causes of the affair were taken up again by American historian Steven Kaplan more than 50 years later. Kaplan, a professor at Cornell University and expert on the history of bread, examined all the possible explanations for the cursed bread: ergotism, infected water or contamination by fungicides or other toxins. None, he concluded in his 1,000-page tome Le Pain Maudit, published in 2008, could adequately explain the events of Pont-Saint-Esprit in the summer of 1951.
Then, at the end of 2009, came Hank Alberelli’s CIA allegations published in A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olsen and the CIAs Secret Cold War Experiments. “The most shocking thing to me was the CIA experiment in France,” he told the American Geek Entertainment TV after the publication of the book. “I didn’t want to believe that my government could do that.” But he is adamant he has proof that the CIA is behind the horrifying events at Pont-Saint-Esprit, and that these were part of a wider secret experimental programme. Between the late 1940s and the 1970s, he claims, the CIA tested LSD and other drugs on foreign civilians in Germany and Russia, as well as in France, and on 5,000 US servicemen.
Alberelli asserts that there was a lot of excitement in the CIA at the time about the possible uses of LSD in warfare. It was hoped that the drug could eliminate violence; the idea was that enemies could be bombarded with LSD, which would engender mass hallucinations and acts of madness. The US army would then be free to march into enemy territory with little opposition.
The latest ‘revelations’ have been received with a mixture of disbelief, amusement and shoulder-shrugging by the French media and the population of Pont-Saint-Esprit. Albarelli’s evidence appears flimsy at the very least. And some, including Kaplan, have dismissed the idea on clinical grounds. It’s highly unlikely, they say, that an LSD-like substance would have affected the villagers in the way the pain maudit did. And why, after all, should the CIA have targeted this quiet corner of southern France?
Chris Hellier @'Fortean Times'
Jahtari unreleased tracks (Smoking # 64)
Download exclusive unreleased tracks from the Jahtari stable
- Listen to 'Rub-A-Dub Market: Fever Demo (Japanese Version)' (Download)?
- Listen to 'Solo Banton: Kung Fu Master (unreleased)' (Download)? @'The Wire'
King Sunny Adé cancels US tour due to deaths
In late March two percussionists in Mr. Adé’s 17-piece touring band, Gabriel Ayanniyi and Omo Olope, died in a car accident in Nigeria on the way to a music video shoot. With just a few weeks before the tour was to start, attempts to get American visas for replacement members of the band proved unsuccessful.
Andy Frankel, the band’s Philadelphia-based manager, said that the band had applied for visas but that American officials in Lagos “just flat-out failed to respond.” For help Mr. Frankel turned to his Congressional representative, Chaka Fattah, Democrat of Pennsylvania, but there was no luck there, either. “We got a response a week later,” Mr. Frankel said, “saying that unless it is a matter of medical emergency or business emergency they will not respond to any issues out of the normal time frame. I don’t know how this doesn’t constitute a business emergency.”
Finding replacement players in the United States was next to impossible, Mr. Frankel said, for financial, logistical and, especially, musical reasons, given Mr. Ayanniyi’s key role: lead talking-drum player. In Mr. Adé’s juju music — a Nigerian pop style rooted in Yoruba traditions — the talking drum is, Mr. Frankel added, “equivalent to the lead guitar in a rock band.” “After King Sunny, it does everything,” he said.
Ben Sisario @'NY Times'
Cannot believe...
...that I went past the 5,000th post without realising it!
Sorry Audiozobe
(but as you say here's to the 10,000th!)
How to put a little more G in your Earth Day
It will make you all warm and fuzzy. Or not.
Imagine for a moment the amount of batteries that it would take to charge up 15 billion dollars worth of sex toys per year, then imagine the majority of those batteries ending up as toxic waste. Along side that there are the manufacturing processes, most of which go relatively unregulated and continue to use phthalates (pronounced thal-ates), chemical plasticizers that have already been banned from use in children's toys in the U.S. and which Greenpeace has now requested the European Union start banning the use of in sex toys as well. All told, it suddenly seems obvious that the sex toy industry is a great place to start going green.
The manufacturers of the Micro-Kitty, the world's first solar powered sex toy (which is also phthalate-free) were apparently thinking the same thing. Using the popular design of a strap-on clitoral vibrator that can be worn by women solo or with a partner, they made the toy from silicone which a handful of conscientious sex toy manufacturers are now turning toward to create phthalate-free toys. They then took it one step further and made the vibrator solar powered just like the grade school calculators but a apparently a whole lot more fun.
No comment from me...
I will let you make up yr own mind!
Disregard the wanky 'youtoob' headline
Memo to TV producers:
There is a great competition there...
Yirrip blondes VS USA blondes
& who do you think will win?
CAVEAT:
I AM a blonde.
(Happy 4:20 BillT!)
(Happy 4:20 BillT!)
Jah Wobble's top ten Dub trax
1 KING TUBBY MEETS ROCKERS UPTOWN
Augustus Pablo I first heard this as a pre-release in 1976. Love the sound of Augustus Pablo's melodica; I am also kinky for the sound of the dubbed-up timbale drums that feature on this recording. King Tubby was the king of pure, heavy-duty dub at that time. It was released in this country on Island Records. Hearing 'King Tubby' for the first time had a profound effect on me: it was like hearing music from another cosmos. There are any number of good King Tubby compilations now around - Trojan Records and the Blood & Fire label are good places to look.
2 CONCRETE DUB Bob Marley
I no longer have this record... in fact, I have not heard it for probably 25 years, so I hope it does really exist and is not a figment of my imagination. If memory serves me well, it was the dub version B-side of an Island 7" single; probably of the track called 'Concrete Jungle', from the Catch a Fire album. It must have been one of the first ever domestically released dub singles. It was great to hear a dub version of a Marley track - I nearly always preferred the dub version of a tune. There was more space, and the bass and drums were pushed to the fore.
3 MARCUS GARVEY (DUB VERSION) Burning Spear
One of the very first dub versions I ever heard. I heard it in 1975 on a Friday night on the Capital Radio reggae show. I used to listen to that show religiously - Tommy Vance was the DJ. I now occasionally hear him DJing on heavy-rock stations as I channel-hop.
4 PROMISE IS A COMFORT TO A FOOL Trinity/Yabby You
A classic bassline, with a beautiful vocal refrain, and DJ chat. There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them. This is one of them. Other examples are Roy Budd's bass line to the title track of Mike Hodges Get Carter, and Cecil McBee's line on Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions' are two that come immediately to mind. The crediting of reggae musicians is notoriously lax. There are three possible players, re this particular tune. All giants of the bass - Robbie Shakespeare, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Clinton Fearon. If I had to put money down on who it is on this track, I would say it was Mr Fearon.
5 TWO SEVENS CLASH Culture
For a while back in 1977, you could not get away from this tune. It still sounds heavenly. It reminds me of walking back from a party in Hackney on a Sunday morning as the sun was coming up. I couldn't get the tune out of my head.
6 JUJU MUSIC King Sunny Ade
There was a little-known dub version of this classic album, mixed by an engineer that I worked with, called Groucho. What he did was devastating. I would love to hear it again. It was on Island (again!) and was released around 1982.
7 ROWING Dennis Bovell
One of the great musicians of his generation. I used to watch him perform this with his band Matumbi. As with "Juju Music", I hankered after hearing it again. I'm pleased to say that the label Pressure Sounds has released a compilation of Dennis's dub stuff, which includes this track.
8 THE SAME SONG Israel Vibration
Similar to our own late, and very great Ian Dury, 'Skeleton,' 'Apple' and 'Wiss' [Israel Vibration's three members] were stricken by polio in the fifties. This blend of their vocals within a dub context is wonderful. Yet again, there is a great compilation on Pressure Sounds.
9 CONSCIOUS MAN DUB Lee Perry and the Jolly Brothers
You could not have a dub selection without Lee "Scratch" Perry appearing. This is a great example of his idiosyncratic style.
10 SMILING STRANGER John Martyn
This is taken from his 1980 album One World. It was one of the first records outside reggae to utilise dub techniques. Superb.
Augustus Pablo I first heard this as a pre-release in 1976. Love the sound of Augustus Pablo's melodica; I am also kinky for the sound of the dubbed-up timbale drums that feature on this recording. King Tubby was the king of pure, heavy-duty dub at that time. It was released in this country on Island Records. Hearing 'King Tubby' for the first time had a profound effect on me: it was like hearing music from another cosmos. There are any number of good King Tubby compilations now around - Trojan Records and the Blood & Fire label are good places to look.
2 CONCRETE DUB Bob Marley
I no longer have this record... in fact, I have not heard it for probably 25 years, so I hope it does really exist and is not a figment of my imagination. If memory serves me well, it was the dub version B-side of an Island 7" single; probably of the track called 'Concrete Jungle', from the Catch a Fire album. It must have been one of the first ever domestically released dub singles. It was great to hear a dub version of a Marley track - I nearly always preferred the dub version of a tune. There was more space, and the bass and drums were pushed to the fore.
3 MARCUS GARVEY (DUB VERSION) Burning Spear
One of the very first dub versions I ever heard. I heard it in 1975 on a Friday night on the Capital Radio reggae show. I used to listen to that show religiously - Tommy Vance was the DJ. I now occasionally hear him DJing on heavy-rock stations as I channel-hop.
4 PROMISE IS A COMFORT TO A FOOL Trinity/Yabby You
A classic bassline, with a beautiful vocal refrain, and DJ chat. There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them. This is one of them. Other examples are Roy Budd's bass line to the title track of Mike Hodges Get Carter, and Cecil McBee's line on Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions' are two that come immediately to mind. The crediting of reggae musicians is notoriously lax. There are three possible players, re this particular tune. All giants of the bass - Robbie Shakespeare, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Clinton Fearon. If I had to put money down on who it is on this track, I would say it was Mr Fearon.
5 TWO SEVENS CLASH Culture
For a while back in 1977, you could not get away from this tune. It still sounds heavenly. It reminds me of walking back from a party in Hackney on a Sunday morning as the sun was coming up. I couldn't get the tune out of my head.
6 JUJU MUSIC King Sunny Ade
There was a little-known dub version of this classic album, mixed by an engineer that I worked with, called Groucho. What he did was devastating. I would love to hear it again. It was on Island (again!) and was released around 1982.
7 ROWING Dennis Bovell
One of the great musicians of his generation. I used to watch him perform this with his band Matumbi. As with "Juju Music", I hankered after hearing it again. I'm pleased to say that the label Pressure Sounds has released a compilation of Dennis's dub stuff, which includes this track.
8 THE SAME SONG Israel Vibration
Similar to our own late, and very great Ian Dury, 'Skeleton,' 'Apple' and 'Wiss' [Israel Vibration's three members] were stricken by polio in the fifties. This blend of their vocals within a dub context is wonderful. Yet again, there is a great compilation on Pressure Sounds.
9 CONSCIOUS MAN DUB Lee Perry and the Jolly Brothers
You could not have a dub selection without Lee "Scratch" Perry appearing. This is a great example of his idiosyncratic style.
10 SMILING STRANGER John Martyn
This is taken from his 1980 album One World. It was one of the first records outside reggae to utilise dub techniques. Superb.
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Going out...
OOPS!!!
Actually I am going up to the Northcote Social Club to see The Paradise Motel...
Laterz/
Laterz/
Jah Wobble's top ten Dub trax
1 KING TUBBY MEETS ROCKERS UPTOWN
Augustus Pablo I first heard this as a pre-release in 1976. Love the sound of Augustus Pablo's melodica; I am also kinky for the sound of the dubbed-up timbale drums that feature on this recording. King Tubby was the king of pure, heavy-duty dub at that time. It was released in this country on Island Records. Hearing 'King Tubby' for the first time had a profound effect on me: it was like hearing music from another cosmos. There are any number of good King Tubby compilations now around - Trojan Records and the Blood & Fire label are good places to look.
2 CONCRETE DUB Bob Marley
I no longer have this record... in fact, I have not heard it for probably 25 years, so I hope it does really exist and is not a figment of my imagination. If memory serves me well, it was the dub version B-side of an Island 7" single; probably of the track called 'Concrete Jungle', from the Catch a Fire album. It must have been one of the first ever domestically released dub singles. It was great to hear a dub version of a Marley track - I nearly always preferred the dub version of a tune. There was more space, and the bass and drums were pushed to the fore.
3 MARCUS GARVEY (DUB VERSION) Burning Spear
One of the very first dub versions I ever heard. I heard it in 1975 on a Friday night on the Capital Radio reggae show. I used to listen to that show religiously - Tommy Vance was the DJ. I now occasionally hear him DJing on heavy-rock stations as I channel-hop.
4 PROMISE IS A COMFORT TO A FOOL Trinity/Yabby You
A classic bassline, with a beautiful vocal refrain, and DJ chat. There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them. This is one of them. Other examples are Roy Budd's bass line to the title track of Mike Hodges Get Carter, and Cecil McBee's line on Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions' are two that come immediately to mind. The crediting of reggae musicians is notoriously lax. There are three possible players, re this particular tune. All giants of the bass - Robbie Shakespeare, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Clinton Fearon. If I had to put money down on who it is on this track, I would say it was Mr Fearon.
5 TWO SEVENS CLASH Culture
For a while back in 1977, you could not get away from this tune. It still sounds heavenly. It reminds me of walking back from a party in Hackney on a Sunday morning as the sun was coming up. I couldn't get the tune out of my head.
6 JUJU MUSIC King Sunny Ade
There was a little-known dub version of this classic album, mixed by an engineer that I worked with, called Groucho. What he did was devastating. I would love to hear it again. It was on Island (again!) and was released around 1982.
7 ROWING Dennis Bovell
One of the great musicians of his generation. I used to watch him perform this with his band Matumbi. As with "Juju Music", I hankered after hearing it again. I'm pleased to say that the label Pressure Sounds has released a compilation of Dennis's dub stuff, which includes this track.
8 THE SAME SONG Israel Vibration
Similar to our own late, and very great Ian Dury, 'Skeleton,' 'Apple' and 'Wiss' [Israel Vibration's three members] were stricken by polio in the fifties. This blend of their vocals within a dub context is wonderful. Yet again, there is a great compilation on Pressure Sounds.
9 CONSCIOUS MAN DUB Lee Perry and the Jolly Brothers
You could not have a dub selection without Lee "Scratch" Perry appearing. This is a great example of his idiosyncratic style.
10 SMILING STRANGER John Martyn
This is taken from his 1980 album One World. It was one of the first records outside reggae to utilise dub techniques. Superb.
Augustus Pablo I first heard this as a pre-release in 1976. Love the sound of Augustus Pablo's melodica; I am also kinky for the sound of the dubbed-up timbale drums that feature on this recording. King Tubby was the king of pure, heavy-duty dub at that time. It was released in this country on Island Records. Hearing 'King Tubby' for the first time had a profound effect on me: it was like hearing music from another cosmos. There are any number of good King Tubby compilations now around - Trojan Records and the Blood & Fire label are good places to look.
2 CONCRETE DUB Bob Marley
I no longer have this record... in fact, I have not heard it for probably 25 years, so I hope it does really exist and is not a figment of my imagination. If memory serves me well, it was the dub version B-side of an Island 7" single; probably of the track called 'Concrete Jungle', from the Catch a Fire album. It must have been one of the first ever domestically released dub singles. It was great to hear a dub version of a Marley track - I nearly always preferred the dub version of a tune. There was more space, and the bass and drums were pushed to the fore.
3 MARCUS GARVEY (DUB VERSION) Burning Spear
One of the very first dub versions I ever heard. I heard it in 1975 on a Friday night on the Capital Radio reggae show. I used to listen to that show religiously - Tommy Vance was the DJ. I now occasionally hear him DJing on heavy-rock stations as I channel-hop.
4 PROMISE IS A COMFORT TO A FOOL Trinity/Yabby You
A classic bassline, with a beautiful vocal refrain, and DJ chat. There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them. This is one of them. Other examples are Roy Budd's bass line to the title track of Mike Hodges Get Carter, and Cecil McBee's line on Lonnie Liston Smith's 'Expansions' are two that come immediately to mind. The crediting of reggae musicians is notoriously lax. There are three possible players, re this particular tune. All giants of the bass - Robbie Shakespeare, Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and Clinton Fearon. If I had to put money down on who it is on this track, I would say it was Mr Fearon.
5 TWO SEVENS CLASH Culture
For a while back in 1977, you could not get away from this tune. It still sounds heavenly. It reminds me of walking back from a party in Hackney on a Sunday morning as the sun was coming up. I couldn't get the tune out of my head.
6 JUJU MUSIC King Sunny Ade
There was a little-known dub version of this classic album, mixed by an engineer that I worked with, called Groucho. What he did was devastating. I would love to hear it again. It was on Island (again!) and was released around 1982.
7 ROWING Dennis Bovell
One of the great musicians of his generation. I used to watch him perform this with his band Matumbi. As with "Juju Music", I hankered after hearing it again. I'm pleased to say that the label Pressure Sounds has released a compilation of Dennis's dub stuff, which includes this track.
8 THE SAME SONG Israel Vibration
Similar to our own late, and very great Ian Dury, 'Skeleton,' 'Apple' and 'Wiss' [Israel Vibration's three members] were stricken by polio in the fifties. This blend of their vocals within a dub context is wonderful. Yet again, there is a great compilation on Pressure Sounds.
9 CONSCIOUS MAN DUB Lee Perry and the Jolly Brothers
You could not have a dub selection without Lee "Scratch" Perry appearing. This is a great example of his idiosyncratic style.
10 SMILING STRANGER John Martyn
This is taken from his 1980 album One World. It was one of the first records outside reggae to utilise dub techniques. Superb.
'Yaka-Wow' hits Boing Boing!
Are you a breezy person who goes, "Yaka-wow!"? Maybe you already were, and just didn't know it. Alice Bell, science communication lecturer at Imperial College, London, explains:
The main reason we've all been saying yakawow is simply because it's a cool word. It should be used more. Try saying it yourself out loud - yakawow, yaka-wow. Doesn't it just make your mouth happy?More specifically, yaka-wow is the accidental brainchild of British neuroscientist Susan Greenfield. In the UK, Greenfield is known for holding the rather controversial position that use of computers and video games irreparably damages children's brains—unless, of course, said children are using her computer games, in which case they will become smarter. You see the problem. Last Thursday, Greenfield gave an interview to the London Times, which led to this fabulous exchange:
She doesn't think computer games are life-threatening, like smoking, but she says that they are as much of a risk to mankind as climate change. [...] She is concerned that those who live only in the present, online, don't allow their malleable brains to develop properly. "It's not going to destroy the planet but is it going to be a planet worth living in if you have a load of breezy people who go around saying yaka-wow. Is that the society we want?"Within hours, yaka-wow had inspired a Twitter stream, poster, T-shirt and burgeoning personal philosophy. But why yaka-wow? Bell says it's probably a fortuitous typo:
As it turns out, Greenfield wasn't just making up an odd phrase. It seems to be a transcription error of "yuck and wow", a phrase Greenfield has often used to describe the way people act online, running quickly from one sensation to another. Greenfield famously refereed to the banality of twitter as, "Marginally reminiscent of a small child saying, 'Look at me, look at me mummy! Now I've put my sock on. Now I've got my other sock on.'"Naturally, that quote inspired mathematician Matt Parker to thoroughly wow the web by pulling both his socks on at the same time.
Image courtesy the brilliant mind of Adam Rutherford.
Iran bans the country's two remaining official opposition parties
Iranian authorities banned the country's two remaining official opposition parties Monday after two of their leaders received prison sentences.
The move, subject to confirmation by Iran's judiciary, effectively silences the last parties legally permitted to promote political change in Iran and prevents foes of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from gaining power through elections.
The parties, the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mujaheddin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, advocated more civil liberties and changes in Iran's system of Shiite religious rule. Together they formed one of the country's main political blocs.
The action follows the sentencing Sunday of two of the parties' leading ideologues -- Mohsen Mirdamadi of the Front and Mostafa Tajzadeh of the Mujaheddin -- to six years in prison. They were also banned for 10 years from political activities after being found guilty of illegal assembly, conspiring against national security and propagating falsehoods against the state.
Both were among the leaders of young militants who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and held 53 Americans hostage for more than a year. They backed Ahmadinejad's main challengers in Iran's presidential election last June.
Iran's main political opposition group, the Green Movement, is not a recognized party and has never had permission to operate. Its leaders, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and Shiite cleric Mehdi Karroubi, ran independently of party affiliation when they challenged Ahmadinejad in last year's election.
After Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by a landslide, Mousavi, Karroubi and the opposition parties silenced Monday charged that the election was marred by massive fraud and backed street protests against the results.
Thomas Erdbrink @'Washington Post'
Coming soon...
WORDS OF ADVICE
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS ON THE ROAD
A Film by Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen
In 1983, the counter culture icon and author of the cult classic Naked Lunch (1959), William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), traveled throughout Scandinavia making a series of personal appearances. Twenty years later, filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen found never-before-seen footage of his Copenhagen visit and set out on the road to record new material, telling the story of the acclaimed authors later work – especially what is known as The Last Trilogy - and his unique performance skills. The result is Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs on the Road, a compelling portrait of one our most enigmatic public figures.
Featuring:
James Grauerholz, John Giorno, Hal Willner, Jennie Skerl, Ann Douglas, Regina Weinreich, and others.
James Grauerholz, John Giorno, Hal Willner, Jennie Skerl, Ann Douglas, Regina Weinreich, and others.
Music by:
Bill Laswell/Material, Patti Smith, Islamic Diggers, and others..
Bill Laswell/Material, Patti Smith, Islamic Diggers, and others..
Extras include:
- A nearly complete documentation of Burroughs reading in Copenhagen,
Oct. 29th 1983.
- A statement by Ann Douglas, Professor at Columbia University, New York.
- Two short tribute films, One Shot I + II.
- A nearly complete documentation of Burroughs reading in Copenhagen,
Oct. 29th 1983.
- A statement by Ann Douglas, Professor at Columbia University, New York.
- Two short tribute films, One Shot I + II.
Capital Radio - The Tommy Vance Show (July 16 1977)
Johnny Rotten on Capital Radio
The interview was a turning point in people's perception of John Lydon and his public image. Malcolm McLaren and Glitterbest hated it. They never wanted him to do it; and were horrified at his record selections. However, this wasn't just a case of breaking rank – if it ever even was – it was about music. MUSIC. "Just play the records. They'll speak for themselves. That's my idea of fun…" The records highlighted John's eclectic musical tastes, and his open-mind. Reggae, folk, soul, avant-garde, and good old rock'n'roll, it was all there. And not a Stooges or Dolls record in sight.
Full transcript and tracklist @'Fodderstomph'
Get it
(Thanx Stan!)
You can grab that
HERE
Green means Go: U.S. Government Permits the Export of Anti-Filtering Technology to Iran
The Internet has its enemies: Iran, China, Burma, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, and more. As an increasing number of countries attempt to restrict Internet access, the U.S. government made freedom of expression on the Internet a primary foreign policy goal. A step toward achieving that goal was demonstrated in a press release issued April 13, 2010 by Censorship Research Center (CRC) announcing the acquisition of the license required to export their anti-filtering software, Haystack, to Iran.
Anxious to learn more about what this authorization means for the people of Iran and provide a follow-up on a recent post, "Effective Tools and Strategy: Kicking it up a Notch in Cuba and Beyond," I interviewed CRC Executive Director, Austin Heap. He shared his journey to this pivotal development, the technology behind Haystack, as well as both the considerations and limitations involved in disseminating this same type of filter-circumventing software to other countries similarly affected by government controlled Internet filtering. Heap's commitment to upholding Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- that all people have the right to seek, receive and impart publicly available information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers -- is abundantly clear. From learning his first programming language at 8-years-old and knowing code in 20+ languages at the age of 26, Heap is thrilled to see technology being used to tear down walls that inhibit tolerance and promote human rights. While I was aware of this recently developed tool, I wondered how many people the software can empower and if there are limits to its impact. In a candid interview, Heap explained how the Haystack software works securely and CRC's hopes to provide this complex anti-filtering software around the globe.
"This license permits CRC to provide safe and uncensored Internet access via our Haystack software to those in Iran who live under government-imposed limits on free speech. Any organization looking to do humanitarian work in a sanctioned country has to go through the license application process. We are deeply committed to the idea that everyone has a human right to free expression, and censorship is a direct infringement of that right," he says. "This project is our attempt to make the world a better place by safeguarding the peoples right to free expression and access to information."
Heap claims authorities can block Haystack only by entirely disabling access to the Internet. According to him, their Haystack permits users to securely use normal web browsers and network applications while hiding traffic from the user inside other Internet traffic between ordinary web connections to innocuous sites. "To a computer, anyone using Haystack appears to be engaging in normal, unencrypted web browsing, which raises far fewer suspicions than many encrypted connections." Heap adds, "We would like to see as many people as possible assert their right to free expression. While Haystack is free-of-charge, CRC is dispersing it by invitation only while they build out capacity and organizational resources. To start, we aim to provide secure and uncensored Internet access to as many people as possible in Iran."
Haystack may be successful in other countries but CRC has not yet discovered the similarities and differences in the censoring methods used elsewhere. Heap explained to me that each country has a specific set of issues when it comes to online censorship and the way it's performed. While Cuba, Iran,and China all filter the Internet, the way it's done from a technical standpoint is different and may not be the exact same thing as what he and his partner, Daniel Colascione, developed for those in Iran. "Right now, our focus is Iran. Haystack was developed specifically to target the methods in which [the Iranian government] filters the Internet although we look forward to the opportunity to providing the freedom of speech to citizens of many more oppressed countries sooner than later," says Heap.
Ultimately, there's no way for CRC to know who is using their network. Part of the protection built into Haystack is meant to protect them from the users and the users from us, "That's just the nature of the dragon!" says Heap. When I asked how CRC intends to stop opposition authorities from discovering how Haystack works and creating a block specifically for Haystack, Heap acknowledge the charge as "difficult to rebut." "Under normal conditions, 'security through obscurity' is indeed false security, but Haystack has several properties that make it unique. To start, we do not rely on "obscurity" for protecting our users' privacy -- everything that one of ours users sends and receives is encrypted and it would take centuries for all the world's computers to decipher one of our users' browsing sessions even with full access to the Haystack source code," explained Heap. Their thorough design, however, is obscure as it was developed to make it very hard to find the software, let alone the user.
Heap and Colascione are not planning on leaving well-enough alone. They anticipate authorities will invest resources into finding a way to do prevent Haystack from being effective. Should they succeed, Heap is confident it will be temporary. "We will diligently refine our software and issue a new version that circumvents the restrictions. We will not, however, give the authorities any assistance in this process. By retarding their efforts, we ensure that the Haystack network operates more robustly for longer periods," Heap stated assuredly. When pushed further on the development of any solution for those affected by government initiated censorship, Heap could not have made his stance on safeguarding the peoples right to free expression and access to information more clear, "We are deeply committed to the idea that everyone has a human right to free expression, and censorship is a direct infringement of that right. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'"
Learn more about Censorship Research Group and how you can support Haystack by visiting www.CensorshipResearch.org.
Stephanie Rudat @'HuffPo'
(Maybe that can export it here if Conroy's filter comes into effect)
Women to blame for earthquakes, says Iran cleric
A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.
Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate."Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair. "What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?" Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon last week. "There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes." Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future. Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.
In 2003, a powerful earthquake hit the southern city of Bam, killing 31,000 people – about a quarter of that city's population – and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.
"A divine authority told me to tell the people to make a general repentance. Why? Because calamities threaten us," said Sedighi, Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader. Referring to the violence that followed last June's disputed presidential election, he said: "The political earthquake that occurred was a reaction to some of the actions [that took place]. And now, if a natural earthquake hits Tehran, no one will be able to confront such a calamity but God's power, only God's power ... So let's not disappoint God."
The Iranian government and its security forces have been locked in a bloody battle with a large opposition movement that accuses Ahmadinejad of winning last year's vote by fraud.
Ahmadinejad made his quake prediction two weeks ago but said he could not give an exact date. He acknowledged that he could not order all of Tehran's 12m people to evacuate. "But provisions have to be made ... at least 5 million should leave Tehran so it is less crowded," the president said.
The welfare minister, Sadeq Mahsooli, said prayers and pleas for forgiveness were the best "formulae to repel earthquakes. We cannot invent a system that prevents earthquakes, but God has created this system and that is to avoid sins, to pray, to seek forgiveness, pay alms and self-sacrifice," Mahsooli said.
(Thanx Lauren!)
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