Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Kesey’s Trip in Living Color
But the Pranksters were lousy moviemakers; the footage was chaotic, out of focus and all but impossible to edit. It ended up moldering in rusty cans on Kesey’s Oregon farm. Still, we saw the film another way, by reading “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” Mr. Wolfe’s still-dazzling retelling.
And now — hold on — with that merry band long dispersed or dead, the amazing moment has arrived after all. “Magic Trip,” a new documentary by Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood, rescues the old footage, and Kesey’s vision, through a miracle of digital restoration and editing.
To which we can only say: Whoa! How often does that happen? A book gets its own corroborative video, 40-some years late. The same indelible images, the word made fleshy. Here’s Kesey in his prime, his legendary charisma made obvious. There’s Neal Cassady, hopped-up at the wheel, and, man, he won’t shut up. And there are those other young men and the women they loved, ogled, chased and ignored. There’s Stark Naked at Larry McMurtry’s house, tripping badly. Here’s Generally Famished, pregnant and tired and mostly not acting like an idiot. The whole story of what free love was like for women in the prefeminist ’60s is captured in her weary, wary eyes.
Nearly 50 years on, the film shows why squares in shiny shoes thought the Pranksters were ninnies. It helps explain why the ’60s were necessary, if not always interesting. And it only deepens our admiration for Mr. Wolfe, who married a wild imagination to a writer’s discipline, and got his raw material into shape. In 1968.
@'NYT'
Film Hitches a Weird Ride on Kesey’s Bus
Kim Salmon: Spare a dollar for the maker, music doesn't play itself
When I began working as a musician in Fremantle some 35 years ago, I earned around $600 per week. I had a regular gig and it was ongoing. Nowadays I'd think myself very lucky to make that sort of wage playing music. It's usually much less. And compared to many musicians, I'm doing very well.
Last year in Melbourne, the city's entire live music industry rallied to get the Victorian government to recognise the industry's cultural and economic contribution to the state.
This town's reputation as the best live music scene in the country was trumpeted proudly throughout the media. Much was made of a loved pub, the Tote, being forced to close as a live music venue thanks to restrictive licensing laws. It became the symbol of the struggle to maintain a vibrant music scene in a heartless environment of profiteers, bureaucrats and dollar-driven decisions.
Thanks, however, to the industry figures and musos who took part in the rally, public awareness of the importance of the industry grew and became something that government would notice. Thanks to the rally, the Tote reopened as a music venue just a few months after its high-profile closure. It was considered a victory for live music in this state.
And, one year after the Tote's historic reopening, what of the musicians who create this live music so cherished by the state? Are they able to get a guaranteed fee for playing in this victorious, symbolic pub?
Err, actually … no.
Why is it that after dedicating my life to playing music, I now earn less than ever?
People like to blame digital technology for the ease of obtaining music free, doing its makers out of their income. Technology will always change things - it is said that some theatre organists committed suicide with the advent of the talkies. Maybe true, sadly, but there are still organists.
I blame attitudes.
''It must be wonderful doing what you love for a living,'' people often say to me.
Or, ''Put yourself in my shoes, I've got a business to run,'' which is a common refrain to working musicians from those who don't want to pay much for their services. The attitude behind this remark is taken as some kind of given and perfectly acceptable.
Well, I am in your shoes, Mr Publican. I've also got a business to run. The business of paying the sound guy, fellow musos, transport, rent. I've walked more than a mile in your shoes and I'm still not where you are.
Another thing I've heard said too many times is ''Why don't you get a real job?'' as if it's too much fun to be a real job.
Others will tell you to treat your music like a hobby and if you get paid for it, that's the icing on the cake. This is a big part of the problem; in my view there are so many people who are prepared to treat it like a hobby, that the professional musician is undermined.
Dodgy preconceptions dog other professions: nurses will work unhealthy shifts for inordinately low wages because they ''have a desire to help the sick''; teachers ''only work during school hours and they get all those holidays'' - students' reports seemingly writing themselves … so they don't need to be paid as much as people from the private sector; CEOs ''are all psychopaths so we have to let them have seven-figure salaries … '' I could go on.
What I'm driving at is that the way certain professions are treated seems to be dictated by entrenched preconceptions. It seems perfectly reasonable to many that music publishers, record labels and publicans have a business to run and should be compensated for their work.
Yesterday, the government released its report into the live music industry's annual economic contribution to the state, which was calculated at more than $500 million.
It is time attitudes changed to more fairly benefit those without whom there would be no music industry - the musicians.
Via
Last year in Melbourne, the city's entire live music industry rallied to get the Victorian government to recognise the industry's cultural and economic contribution to the state.
This town's reputation as the best live music scene in the country was trumpeted proudly throughout the media. Much was made of a loved pub, the Tote, being forced to close as a live music venue thanks to restrictive licensing laws. It became the symbol of the struggle to maintain a vibrant music scene in a heartless environment of profiteers, bureaucrats and dollar-driven decisions.
Thanks, however, to the industry figures and musos who took part in the rally, public awareness of the importance of the industry grew and became something that government would notice. Thanks to the rally, the Tote reopened as a music venue just a few months after its high-profile closure. It was considered a victory for live music in this state.
And, one year after the Tote's historic reopening, what of the musicians who create this live music so cherished by the state? Are they able to get a guaranteed fee for playing in this victorious, symbolic pub?
Err, actually … no.
Why is it that after dedicating my life to playing music, I now earn less than ever?
People like to blame digital technology for the ease of obtaining music free, doing its makers out of their income. Technology will always change things - it is said that some theatre organists committed suicide with the advent of the talkies. Maybe true, sadly, but there are still organists.
I blame attitudes.
''It must be wonderful doing what you love for a living,'' people often say to me.
Or, ''Put yourself in my shoes, I've got a business to run,'' which is a common refrain to working musicians from those who don't want to pay much for their services. The attitude behind this remark is taken as some kind of given and perfectly acceptable.
Well, I am in your shoes, Mr Publican. I've also got a business to run. The business of paying the sound guy, fellow musos, transport, rent. I've walked more than a mile in your shoes and I'm still not where you are.
Another thing I've heard said too many times is ''Why don't you get a real job?'' as if it's too much fun to be a real job.
Others will tell you to treat your music like a hobby and if you get paid for it, that's the icing on the cake. This is a big part of the problem; in my view there are so many people who are prepared to treat it like a hobby, that the professional musician is undermined.
Dodgy preconceptions dog other professions: nurses will work unhealthy shifts for inordinately low wages because they ''have a desire to help the sick''; teachers ''only work during school hours and they get all those holidays'' - students' reports seemingly writing themselves … so they don't need to be paid as much as people from the private sector; CEOs ''are all psychopaths so we have to let them have seven-figure salaries … '' I could go on.
What I'm driving at is that the way certain professions are treated seems to be dictated by entrenched preconceptions. It seems perfectly reasonable to many that music publishers, record labels and publicans have a business to run and should be compensated for their work.
Yesterday, the government released its report into the live music industry's annual economic contribution to the state, which was calculated at more than $500 million.
It is time attitudes changed to more fairly benefit those without whom there would be no music industry - the musicians.
Via
Exile On Fleet Street
In the same year, the BBC — keen to understand the man who some said would transform British media — dispatched one of its cherished sons to interview Murdoch. David Dimbleby — then a 30-year-old reporter, today the august host of the BBC’s flagship political debate program — set about Murdoch with the clipped vowels and polished cunning that will be familiar to viewers of Question Time. Halfway through the report Dimbleby speaks to Murdoch’s second wife, Anna. Here, he strikes on a more informal line of questioning, and says with an almost coquettish lilt in his voice:
“I expect it’s awful to be the wife of a media tycoon. I mean, don’t you feel cut out of so much of his life?”
Anna considers for a moment. Then she says:
“I don’t like it when people call him a tycoon. Tycoon is a sort of Americanism. He’s a good Australian businessman, and he’s come over here.” The beginnings of a smile flicker over Anna’s face; she suppresses it, and adds: “And he’s going to show you how to do it.”
That answer was an impromptu, perfect encapsulation of the Murdoch project as it was then conceived. For 30 years Murdoch has considered himself the ultimate outsider at the heart of the British establishment, a man “over here” and determined to bring a value system shaped by the colonial experience — one that insists on egalitarianism, robustness, and competition — to bear on an old British elite that he considered hypocritical, complacent, and, above all, beholden to repulsive class prejudice. That outsider mentality has lain behind everything Murdoch has done, from the culture of tabloid sensationalism pioneered at the News of the World, to the breaking of the print unions in Fleet Street in the 1980s, to the assault launched on Britain’s sleepy- four-channel television landscape by the Sky pay-TV network. It drove him to sell the British people a new idea of themselves, and their country. In our millions, we bought it...
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David Mattin @'LA Review of Books'
These riots show the cost of consumption
Every society must bring the aggressive instincts of its individual members under control. This can never be achieved simply by outright repression or by moral precepts, but only by sublimation, that is by providing legitimate outlets for dangerous feelings.Different cultures -- traditional and modern -- achieve this in different ways of course. However, in market economies there can be little doubt that such sublimation is achieved mainly by consumption. It is the great driver of human endeavour and aspiration. Indeed, in an advanced economy like the UK, consumption makes up around two thirds of all economic activity.
But as anthropologists would point out, the sort of consumption most readers of this blog will be familiar with -- the simple and complex decision-making involved in the purchase of particular types of goods and services -- is far from universal. It therefore cannot be explained simply as a "natural" aspect of human behaviour by the sort of "rational choice" theory beloved by economists.
Instead, it is necessary to dig deeper and ask why certain categories of goods and services available in our society are valued differentially by different groups of people.
Yesterday and today, UK political leaders have been keen to point out that the looting of shops in London and other UK cities has little if any connection with the shooting by the Metropolitan Police's Operation Trident team last week of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man from the Tottenham area of North London.
But are they right? I am not so sure. Whatever the truth of the matter, politicians are certainly wrong to fall back on a variety of explanatory clichés, like "mindless acts of violence and destruction" and "mindless criminality" carried out by "mindless thugs". Mindlessness would create randomness, but the events unfolding are far from being random.
Instead, I would argue that what we are witnessing is a significant symbolic statement about the way power -- the power of life and death exercised by police officers as well as the power to consume -- is arranged in British society.
There is a further point. Given the accusations of "mindlessness", it has been interesting to monitor the behaviour of the mainly young people -- predominantly male, but also female -- involved in the social disorder that has affected London and other major cities in England. One intriguing aspect of events has been the selection of targets by young people involved in the disturbances, which have mainly affected so-called "inner-city" areas.
There have been some odd choices -- last night on BBC TV, for example, I saw that a small shop selling items for children's parties had been ransacked in one part of London -- but by and large the focus has been on breaking into major electrical retailers like Currys and Dixons, mobile phone chains like Carphone Warehouse, supermarkets including Tesco, jewellers, and top-of-the- range "casual" and sports clothing stores.
This is why most of disorder has occurred either in high streets, shopping malls or out-of-town retail park locations. Put simply, these young people, most of whom I would guess live on the margins -- that is they do not come from comfortable middle-class homes -- wanted to access physical products which typically have high financial and symbolic value either within their primary peer group or because they can be sold on to others.
But they also wanted something more: the sort of social power -- even temporarily -- that is normally only exercised by affluent Britons equipped with nice houses, nice cars and credit cards.
The other interesting feature is that most of the violence has been directed by the rioters at the police, but not -- apart from one unlucky victim who was shot in Croydon last night and died in hospital today -- so far at ordinary groups or individuals. This may change as social tensions around race and ethnicity surface but at the moment these scenarios seem unlikely given the multi-ethnic make-up of those participating in the disorder.
But given the fact that property theft is a prototypical criminal offence in a Western-type economy, where affluence forms the bedrock of the dominant culture, it is little wonder that British Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson have cut short their holidays or that Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday. The political class and many other ordinary citizens evidently feel that the very fabric of society is under threat. Where now for the big society?
Sean Carey @'New Statesman'
London riots: Twitter says all tweets must continue to flow
The spokesman referred to the post, which is entitled 'The Tweets Must Flow', when asked by The Telegraph as to whether any rioters' accounts had or would be shut down. It says: “Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them. For this to happen, freedom of expression is essential.
“Some tweets may facilitate positive change in a repressed country, some make us laugh, some make us think, some downright anger a vast majority of users. We don't always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content.”
Twitter’s spokesman refused to reveal whether the company was working with the police to help locate people who have used the service to organise lootings and riots.
They also refused to disclose whether they had already handed over contact details of certain Twitter users to the authorities.
During the Arab revolutions earlier this year, attention focused on Twitter’s role in organising the protests, but for the looters and rioters of Tottenham, Enfield and Brixton, the communications tool of choice has apparently been BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). It appears to have acted as their private, encrypted social network over the past two nights’ violence.
However, many of the rioters have also used Twitter as a platform to announce their next targets and as a rallying cry to fellow looters.
The police are now understood to be scouring all tweets which have incited hatred or violence and have promised to bring their original authors to justice.
Emma Barnett @'The Telegraph'
However, many of the rioters have also used Twitter as a platform to announce their next targets and as a rallying cry to fellow looters.
The police are now understood to be scouring all tweets which have incited hatred or violence and have promised to bring their original authors to justice.
Emma Barnett @'The Telegraph'
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Beck - Stormbringer (John Martyn cover)
Beck covers Stormbringer by John Martyn on "Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute to John Martyn."
Monday, 8 August 2011
Adventures In Modern Music
Part 1: The Guilt Structure 1945–1961
Ammer Einheit
“IV. Akt, 08.05.1945, Bunker”
from Deutsche Kriege
(Invisible CD)
Noel Coward
“Don’t Let’s Be Beastly To The Germans”
from This Record Is Not To Be Broadcast (Part 1)
(Fantastic Voyage DL)
Wolfgang Müller & Namosh
“Die Schuld Struktur”
from 25 Jahre Geniale Dilletanten
(Monitorpop Entertainment 7”)
Ernst Busch
“Dank Euch Ihr Sowjetsoldaten”
from Roter Oktober
(BARBArossa CD)
Marlene Dietrich
“In The Ruins Of Berlin”
from La Blonde Venus 1928–1948
(Frémeaux 2xCD)
Ernst Busch
“Denk Daran, Marlene”
from Fort Mit Dem Trümmern
(BARBArossa/Lied Der Zeit CD)
Brötzmann/Van Hove/Bennink
“Hanns Eisler: Einheitsfrontlied”
(FMP 7”)
Part 2: Leaden times 1961–1978
Asmus Tietchens
“Grünschattiger Nachmittag 1979”
from Marches Funebres
(Auf Abwegen CD)
John F Kennedy
“Berlin Wall Speech (26 June 1963)”
from The Best Of The Speeches 1960–1963
(Stardust DL)
Blurt
“Bullets For You”
from Let There Be Blurt Volume One: The Fish Needs A Bike
(Salamander CD)
Trespassers W
“Medley: Macht Kaputt Was Euch Kaputt Macht/Einheitsfrontlied/Shell-Yell”
from Macht Kaputt EP
(A Deaf Mute 7”)
39 Clocks
“Heat Of Violence”
from The Original Psycho Beat
(What’s So Funny About CD)
Freunde Der Italienischen Oper
“Holiday”
from Spannung Leistung, Widerstand: Magnetbanduntergrund DDR 1979–1990
(Verbrecherverlag/Zonic Pbk+2xCD)
Taymur Streng/Ornament & Verbrechen
“Das sentimentale Ufo”
from Spannung Leistung, Widerstand: Magnetbanduntergrund DDR 1979–1990
(Verbrecherverlag/Zonic Pbk+2xCD)
AG Geige
“Wir Lassen Die Fahnen Wehn”
from Raabe?
(Zensor CD)
Der Plan
“Generäle Essen Gerne Erdbeereis”
from Geri Reig Und Normalette Surprise
(Atatak CD)
Abwärts
“Affentanz”
from Der Westen Ist Einsam
(Phonogram CD)
Part 3: Endgames 1979–90
Einstürzende Neubauten
“Steh auf Berlin”
from Kollaps
(Potomak CD)
Camp Sophisto
“Obsession”
from Songs In Praise Of The Revolution
(Pure Freude 7”)
Frauen für Schlechte Tage/Rainy Day Women
“Frauen Für Schlechte Tage”
(Monogam 7”)
Frieder Butzmann
“Verletzter Buddha”
from Vertrauensmann Des Volkes
(Zensor LP)
Die Trummerfrauen
“Gelbkreuz”
(Zensor 7”)
DAF
“Kebabträume”
(Mute 7”)
Mekanïk Destrüktïw Komandöh
“Rhytmus Der Musik”
from Rohe Gewalt
(ZickZack 7”)
Max Müller
“Wir steh’n Hier Jeden Tag”
(Die Tödliche Doris 7”)
Liedertafel Margot Honecker
“Überall, FDJ”
from Vorwärts, Freie Deutsche Jugend
(Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien 7”)
Abwärts
“Sonderzug Zur Endstation (Bananen Mix)”
(Totenkopf Maxi-CD)
Download/Stream @'The Wire'
DJINN - Exclusive DUBSLUDGE mix (Aug 2011)
Boxcutter - Brood (Hotflush)
Djinn - Something You Know (Dub)
TMSV - Cold (Box Clever)
SP:MC & LX One - Judgement (Tempa)
D Cult - Theory (Dub)
Dub Child - Mout Zion [Protocol X rmx] (Storming Productions)
Skream - A New Dawn (Swamp 81)
ASBO [All Soundboy Out]
Nanobyte - Ominous (Dub - Forthcoming Sequence Recordings)
Innasekt - Cluster (Boka Records)
Innasekt - Static (Frijsfo Beats)
Nanobyte - Bloodshed (Dub - Forthcoming Sequence Recordings)
Commodo & Lurka - Airtight (Blackbox)
D Cult - Woken (Dub)
DJ Madd - Murder 96 (Blackbox)
Biome - Industrial (Dub)
Sully - Flickers (Creative Space Records)
Lost & I.E. - Levitate (One Gun Salute)
Djinn - Darkness Falls (Dub)
J:Kenzo - Nocturnal Feelings (Tuba Records)
Pinch - Swish (Deep Medi)
Goth Trad - Sunbeam (Deep Medi)
Vivek - Feel It (Deep Medi)
D1 - Missin' (Tempa)
Grapes - Rabbit Stew (Heavy Pressure Recordings)
Cyrus - Beatwise (Random Trio Productions)
King Cannibal - Call Me Mr. Cold Blooded (Rag & Bone)
Djinn - Something You Know (Dub)
TMSV - Cold (Box Clever)
SP:MC & LX One - Judgement (Tempa)
D Cult - Theory (Dub)
Dub Child - Mout Zion [Protocol X rmx] (Storming Productions)
Skream - A New Dawn (Swamp 81)
ASBO [All Soundboy Out]
Nanobyte - Ominous (Dub - Forthcoming Sequence Recordings)
Innasekt - Cluster (Boka Records)
Innasekt - Static (Frijsfo Beats)
Nanobyte - Bloodshed (Dub - Forthcoming Sequence Recordings)
Commodo & Lurka - Airtight (Blackbox)
D Cult - Woken (Dub)
DJ Madd - Murder 96 (Blackbox)
Biome - Industrial (Dub)
Sully - Flickers (Creative Space Records)
Lost & I.E. - Levitate (One Gun Salute)
Djinn - Darkness Falls (Dub)
J:Kenzo - Nocturnal Feelings (Tuba Records)
Pinch - Swish (Deep Medi)
Goth Trad - Sunbeam (Deep Medi)
Vivek - Feel It (Deep Medi)
D1 - Missin' (Tempa)
Grapes - Rabbit Stew (Heavy Pressure Recordings)
Cyrus - Beatwise (Random Trio Productions)
King Cannibal - Call Me Mr. Cold Blooded (Rag & Bone)
BlogsofWar Blogs of War
Announcing that you may arrest people for inciting violence on Twitter sounds like a great way to, well, start a riot.
Learning to Cope With a Mind’s Taunting Voices
It was a command, not a suggestion, and what mattered at that moment — a winter evening in 2000 — was not where the voice was coming from, but how assured it was, how persuasive.
Losing his first decent job ever seemed like too much for Joe Holt to live with. It was time.
“All I remember then is a knock on the bedroom door and my wife, Patsy, she sits down on the bed and hugs me, and I’m holding the gun in my left hand, down here, out of sight,” said Mr. Holt, 50, a computer consultant and entrepreneur who has a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
“She says, ‘Joe, I know you feel like quitting, but what if tomorrow is the day you get what you want?’ And walks out. I sat there staring at that gun for an hour at least, and finally decided — never again. It can never be an option. Patsy deserves for me to be trying.”
In recent years, researchers have begun talking about mental health care in the same way addiction specialists speak of recovery — the lifelong journey of self-treatment and discipline that guides substance abuse programs. The idea remains controversial: managing a severe mental illness is more complicated than simply avoiding certain behaviors. The journey has more mazes, fewer road signs.
Yet people like Joe Holt are traveling it and succeeding. Most rely on some medical help, but each has had to build core skills from the ground up, through trial and repeated error. Now more and more of them are risking exposure to tell their stories publicly...
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