Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: November 2024
3 hours ago
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Jerry Leiber RIP
"When Jerry and I started to write, we were writing to amuse ourselves," Stoller told Rolling Stone in 1990. "It was done out of a love of doing it. We got very lucky in the sense that at some point what we wrote also amused a lot of other people."
Leiber met Stoller in Los Angeles in 1950 when he was still a senior in high school. They had a mutual love of R&B, blues and pop, and began writing music together almost instantly, with Stoller mostly handling the music and Leiber mostly handling the lyrics. "Jerry was an idea machine," Stoller says in their 2009 memoir Hound Dog. "For every situation, Jerry had 20 ideas. As would-be songwriters, our interest was in black music and black music only. We wanted to write songs for black voices. When Jerry sang, he sounded black, so that gave us an advantage . . . His verbal vocabulary was all over the place – black, Jewish, theatrical, comical. He would paint pictures with words."
In the early days, they pulled 12-hour days writing on an upright piano in Stoller's house. "We're a unit," Leiber told Rolling Stone in 1990. "The instincts are very closely aligned. I could write, 'Take out the papers and the trash,' and he'll come up with 'Or you don't get no spending cash.'"
Within three years of meeting each other, Leiber and Stoller were the hottest songwriters in the business –writing hits for the Drifters, Coasters and the Robins and many other R&B groups of the era. In 1956, their career went to a higher level when Elvis Presley took "Hound Dog" – which they wrote for Big Mama Thornton four years earlier – and turned it into a gigantic hit.
Leiber was extremely irritated by the changes that Presley made to the original lyrics. "To this day I have no idea what that rabbit business is about," he said in 2009. "The song is not about a dog; it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo. Elvis' version makes no sense to me, and, even more irritatingly, it is not the song that Mike and I wrote. Of course, the fact that it sold more than seven million copies took the sting out of what seemed to be a capricious change of lyrics."
Despite their success with Presley, most of the acts that Leiber and Stoller worked with were black. "I felt black," Leiber told Rolling Stone in 1990. "I was as far as I was concerned. And I wanted to be black for lots of reasons. They were better musicians, they were better athletes, they were not uptight about sex, and they knew how to enjoy life better than most people."
Not all of their songs were as innocent as they seemed. "Pure and simple, 'Poison Ivy' [a 1959 hit they wrote for The Coasters] is a metaphor for a sexually transmitted disease – or the clap – hardly a topic for a song that hit the Top Ten in the Spring of 1959," Leiber said in 2009. "But the more we wrote, the less we understood why the public bought what it bought."
The hits continued into the early 1960s with such classics as "Stand By Me" and "Spanish Harlem," but when the Beatles broke in America in early 1964, the music industry changed very quickly. The duo never stopped working together, and in 1972 they produced "Stuck In The Middle With You," which was recorded by Stealers Wheel. In 1995, their catalog of hits was turned into the Broadway musical Smokey Joe's Cafe, and this past May, American Idol devoted an entire evening to their music.
Andy Greene @'Rolling Stone'
Australia Steps Closer To 3-Strikes for Pirates
Last month we reported on a threat made by AFACT to Australian ISP’s – talk to us on a ‘graduated response’, OR ELSE. Since no-one apparently took the offer up, the ‘or else’ has appeared, in the form of the Australian Attorney General.
The Australian has confirmed that Attorney-General Robert McClelland will be holding a meeting with copyright advocacy groups next month and has invited some ISPs to take part. The meeting will reportedly be to negotiate more copyright ‘protection’ laws.
A letter, obtained by The Australian, has stated that the meeting will allow stakeholder (read: Copyright Industry) views to be pitched to the government, as ‘advice’. While ISP’s have been invited, no invitations have apparently been sent to groups looking out for the public interest.
Telstra has already confirmed it’s attending, as will AFACT. Time will tell if the meeting, scheduled for September, will end up with the same whitewash as has characterised the introduction of such laws in other countries.
Ben Jones @'Torrent Freak'
The Australian has confirmed that Attorney-General Robert McClelland will be holding a meeting with copyright advocacy groups next month and has invited some ISPs to take part. The meeting will reportedly be to negotiate more copyright ‘protection’ laws.
A letter, obtained by The Australian, has stated that the meeting will allow stakeholder (read: Copyright Industry) views to be pitched to the government, as ‘advice’. While ISP’s have been invited, no invitations have apparently been sent to groups looking out for the public interest.
Telstra has already confirmed it’s attending, as will AFACT. Time will tell if the meeting, scheduled for September, will end up with the same whitewash as has characterised the introduction of such laws in other countries.
Ben Jones @'Torrent Freak'
WTF???
IMPORTANT @wikileaks @rixstepnews @m_cetera @ChrisStoecker
WTF DDB now states to a heise "journo" he DIDN'T! delete the files but the Keys! translation: To all my readers: according to Daniel Domscheit-Berg some minutes ago: His statement: "Right now only the key material is deleted. regarding the ongoing of this action there will follow an extra, extensive statement which will also explain the origin of this data backup" link http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/S-Fuer-alle-meine-Leser-nach-Auskunft-von-Daniel-Domscheit-Berg-vor-paar-Min/forum-207712/msg-20673342/read/
Via
WTF DDB now states to a heise "journo" he DIDN'T! delete the files but the Keys! translation: To all my readers: according to Daniel Domscheit-Berg some minutes ago: His statement: "Right now only the key material is deleted. regarding the ongoing of this action there will follow an extra, extensive statement which will also explain the origin of this data backup" link http://www.heise.de/newsticker/foren/S-Fuer-alle-meine-Leser-nach-Auskunft-von-Daniel-Domscheit-Berg-vor-paar-Min/forum-207712/msg-20673342/read/
Via
Patti Smith Co-Writing ‘Just Kids’ Film
Via
Coulson got hundreds of thousands of pounds from News Int. while working for Cameron
Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World who has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and bribing the police, received several hundred thousand pounds from News International after starting work as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications in July 2007.
These payments were part of his severance package, under what is known as a "compromise agreement". According to sources, Mr Coulson's contractual leaving pay was given to him in instalments until the end of 2007 - which means he continued to be financially linked to News International for several months of his tenure as David Cameron's main media adviser.
The disclosure that Mr Coulson maintained a financial relationship with News International after moving into a sensitive role in the Tory Party will be controversial.
According to a senior member of the government, Tory Party managers at the time say they were not aware Mr Coulson was receiving these payments from News International while employed by the Conservative Party.
As I understand it, after Mr Coulson resigned from News International on 26 January 2007, News International said it would pay him his full entitlement under his two-year contract as editor of the News of the World - although the money would be paid in instalments.
I am told that Mr Coulson also continued to receive his News International work benefits, such as healthcare, for three years, and he kept his company car.
Mr Coulson was appointed as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications on 31 May 2007 and took up the post in July of that year. He was reportedly paid £275,000 a year by the Conservative Party.
News International is the UK arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. For decades, leaders of the Tory and Labour parties have battled to win the support of Mr Murdoch's influential newspapers, including the Sun and the Times.
The Tories and Labour have both had to respond to criticisms that they became unhealthily close to Mr Murdoch and his senior executives, including Mr Coulson's predecessor as editor of the News of the World, Rebecca Brooks, who went on to become chief executive of News International - and who has also been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and making illegal payments to police officers.
Some will question whether Mr Coulson could give impartial advice on media issues to Mr Cameron when in opposition, given that he retained financial ties to News International.
Mr Coulson's supporters would dispute that his impartiality had been compromised.
When the newspaper's then royal editor, Clive Goodman, was convicted of phone hacking in January 2007 and was imprisoned, Mr Coulson resigned from News International.
Mr Coulson denied any knowledge of the phone hacking but said he felt obliged to quit because the hacking had taken place while he was editor of the News of the World.
A letter written by Mr Goodman in March 2007, disclosed last week by the Culture Media and Sport Committee, claims that phone hacking was routinely discussed in the News of the World's editorial conference, although it does not explicitly say that Mr Coulson knew about hacking.
In May 2010, after the Tories formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, Mr Coulson became Director of Communications for the government. In January of this year, he resigned from that post, following disclosures that criminal activity at the News of the World may have been more widespread than News International had been saying.
Mr Coulson was arrested in July.
David Cameron has had to defend his recruitment of Mr Coulson, following claims he ignored warnings that phone hacking went wider than Mr Coulson had claimed.
A spokesman for News International said: "News International consistently does not comment on the financial arrangements of any individual."
Mr Coulson did not return calls.
Robert Peston @'BBC'
Tinariwen - Tassili (2011 - Albumstream)
Imidiwan Ma Tenam (Feat. Nels Cline)
Asuf D Alwa
Tenere Taqhim Tossam (Feat. Tunde Adebimpe & Kyp Malone)
Ya Messinagh
Walla Illa
Tameyawt
Imidiwan Win Sahara
Tamiditin Tan Ufrawan
Tiliaden Osamnat
Djeredjere
Iswegh Attay
UK release date: 29 August 2011
Review
Free Live Album Download
From The Sahara to NYC
ALBUMSTREAM
Monday, 22 August 2011
ChasLicc Chas Licciardelli
BREAKING: Gaddafi captured for ninth time today, after being killed six times.
...and here's what #qanda guest Daniel Pipes wrote about the tragic bushfires here in Victoria in 2009!
Critics label Australia's cybercrime bill 'invasion of privacy'
The new cybercrime bill, introduced in June by Attorney-General Robert McClelland, lays out legislative changes that will let Australia accede to an international cyber law convention, touted by the United States as an important bulwark in the fight against cybercrime.
However, critics of the bill - which will also create provisions that allow foreign agencies such as the FBI to request data retention - say it goes too far and will be a significant invasion of privacy and civil liberties.
Many of those submissions included concerns about the extended reach the bill would provide to law enforcement and security agencies, and that there were no legal restrictions regarding how data was used by foreign nations once it was handed over.
''We are [concerned that] there appears to be no way of guaranteeing or enforcing limitations that are supposedly placed on overseas law enforcement agencies,'' spokesman for the Australian Privacy Foundation, Nigel Waters, told the committee during a public hearing earlier this month.
Australia was, per capita, home to more data interception than almost anywhere else in the world, he said, making the concerns about this bill particularly important.
There was some recognition of that concern yesterday, with the joint select committee on cyber safety recommending 13 changes that it said would clarify and tighten conditions under which agencies could access information.
''We want to ensure powers are available to fight cyber crime and that the public has confidence in the scheme,'' the committee chairman, Labor senator Catryna Bilyk, said.
She rejected claims, however, that the bill would allow wholesale retention of people's private data. ''It is not a data retention scheme and it does not allow foreign countries to demand access to private communications, as has been alleged,'' she said.
Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam applauded the committee's report, which he said was ''highly critical'' of the draft bill.
''We all want to see enhanced collaboration by law enforcement agencies fighting serious crime, but the proposed law goes well beyond the already controversial European convention on which it is based and could encroach on civil liberties,'' Senator Ludlam said yesterday.
He also criticised the speed with which the bill had travelled through Parliament, saying ''a disturbing pattern of behaviour'' had emerged, with the Attorney-General's Department fast-tracking several national security bills through the parliamentary process. That reduced scrutiny of legislation that could affect civil liberties, he said.
Online users' lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia said it was keen to see functional and appropriate legislation to combat cybercrime but it was not going to welcome laws that limit civil rights and unnecessarily increase surveillance on Australian citizens, particularly by other countries.
"There are a number of provisions in [the bill] that go well beyond the [European] Convention, into areas such as collection and retention of material on Australians that can potentially be used by third states to undertake legal action against Australians where no Australian law has been broken," said EFA spokesman Stephen Collins.
David Vaile, executive director of the UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, said many of the concerns about the bill raised by himself and others had been left "unaddressed or unresolved" by the committee, which he said made minor suggestions for tweaking the Bill.
The Attorney-General, Mr McClelland, welcomed the report.
Dylan Welch and Asher Moses @'The Vine'
Teenager cleared of setting fire to Miss Selfridge during Manchester riots
A teenager who spent nine days in prison after being charged with setting fire to Miss Selfridge during the Manchester riots has been cleared after new evidence emerged confirming his innocence.
Dane Williamson, 18, said he had had a nightmarish ordeal after he was charged with being involved in causing £500,000 damage to the Market Street store during the riots, despite having five alibis.
He was charged with criminal damage and being reckless over property damage or endangering life. His name was widely reported and Facebook groups were set up on which he was identified and subjected to abuse.
Williamson's flat in Salford was damaged by fire while he was on remand in Forest Bank prison; he lost all of his possessions and is now homeless. He suffered panic attacks after he was targeted by other prisoners who taunted him about what he had supposedly done.
A 50-year-old man has since been arrested in connection with the incident but Greater Manchester police say they are still searching for those who started the fire.
During his time on remand, Williamson said, he was called a firebug, told by prison staff he would be jailed for life, and initially locked up for 23 hours a day as a category A prisoner.
His solicitor, Kerry Morgan, criticised the judicial system for pursuing instant justice so much it resulted in an innocent man being locked up.
Williamson, who has spent much of his life in care and has two previous convictions, told the Manchester Evening News: "Being in Forest Bank was horrible. I had heard my name all over the radio. In prison I was being treated as if I was already guilty. It was quite scary and an experience I don't want to repeat.
"I was in there for nine days, 23 hours a day locked up in a cell. I was categorised as a category A prisoner at first then reduced to category B. I had a lot of snide comments from officers about the arson, like: 'You're that firebug,' 'You're gonna get time for this,' and 'They're gonna put you in Strangeways.'"
He added: "The worst thing that was said was: 'You're getting life and you're scum.' They must have told other prisoners because some would flick their fingers like a lighter in my face.
"I was going through hell. I was depressed. I was having panic attacks. The stress was awful. I feared I was going to get convicted for something I didn't do, which potentially carried a life sentence.
"While I was in custody I got the news from my solicitor that there had been a fire at my flat. That was very distressing. All my personal belongings and photos were destroyed. I lost my home. On top of everything else it was a final blow."
Williamson told how he had been arrested, saying: "One of my mates had said: 'Are you sure you were not involved in the riots? The photo of the arsonist looks a bit like you.'
"We had a laugh and a joke about it. Two police officers were stood in front of Phones 4 You, and I said: 'I'll prove it's not me,' and walked in front of the coppers. When I came out of the shop they grabbed me and then three more approached and asked if I had been involved in the riots. I said no.
"The next thing I was arrested in the middle of the street on suspicion of arson. I couldn't believe it. It was surreal. I was taken into police custody and it was all very distressing. I was interviewed at Pendleton police station and gave an account of where I was that day. Then I was interviewed again and they were trying to pin the offence on me and get me to admit it. I wasn't having any of it because it was not me."
He was charged with damage to the shop and presented before magistrates. He had been selling CDs on Market Street on the day of the riot but was at his brother's home in Salford during the evening.
Morgan, senior partner with Morgan Brown & Cahill, who represented Williamson, said: "They notified us as part of their duty of ongoing disclosure that they had checked footage in relation to Dane's account of where he was during the day and that CCTV showed him wearing similar clothes to the arsonist, but slightly different.
"Also a police officer had identified someone other than Dane who he thought was the suspect. Those two things undermined their case and as a result Dane was bailed on Thursday by the recorder of Manchester and later that day we received notification that the case against him was being discontinued."
Williamson has spent 17 of his 18 years in care, living in children's homes and foster homes. He has two previous convictions: for possession of cannabis in March this year, and burglary three years ago, when he and friends broke into the reception of a holiday camp. For both offences he was given a youth referral order.
He is annoyed that people were setting up Facebook pages about the riots, naming him and defaming him. He says he does not condone violence or rioting. This year, with the help of the charity Barnardo's, he moved into his own flat in Broughton, Salford, and has completed business courses at college.
Helen Carter @'The Guardian'
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