Peaches - Forever Dark Takeover
10 minutes ago
Thursday, 17 November 2011
̶S̶o̶r̶r̶y̶,̶ ̶g̶o̶v̶e̶r̶n̶m̶e̶n̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶i̶c̶u̶l̶t̶i̶e̶s̶ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/explosion-opposition-internet-blacklist-bill
xeni Xeni Jardin
A pregnant woman, an elderly woman, and a priest walk into a cloud of tear gas…#occupySeattleJokes #NotFunny
A pregnant woman, an elderly woman, and a priest walk into a cloud of tear gas…
PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet
Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! - fightforthefuture.org/pipa
PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."
The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet.
PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."
The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet.
Stop SOPA, Save The Internet
Thoughts On The House Judiciary Committee's Hearings On SOPA
(Thanx Steve!)
Word Podcast 194 - with Nile Rodgers
He came into the pod to talk about it all, and how he went on to produce Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran and Madonna, while, as the old saying goes, not so much burning the candle at both ends as applying a blowtorch to the middle.
Also covered in a breathless 45 minutes: a novel way to learn the guitar, why the Black Panther movement was a lot like the cub scouts, what it's like to spend much of your childhood in an oxygen tent, and why cults are cool.
Show notes:
Chic doing Le Freak in 1978
Diana Ross and Coming Out (featuring the God-like genius of the late Tony Thompson on the drums).
David Bowie's Let's Dance with the chorus at the beginning.
Madonna, the Thompson Twins and Nile Rodgers doing Revolution at Live Aid.
Via
Transgender Europe: Press Release (November 16th 2011)
Transgender Europe's Trans Murder Monitoring project reveals 221 killings of trans people in the last 12 monthsIn total, since January 2008 the murders of 755 trans people have been reported
The 13th International Transgender Day of Remembrance is being held on November 20th 2011: Since 1999, the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), on which those trans people who have been victims of homicide are remembered, takes place every November. The TDOR raises public awareness of hate crimes against trans people, provides a space for public mourning and honours the lives of those trans people who might otherwise be forgotten. Started in the USA, the TDOR is now held in many parts of the world. In the past, the TDOR took place in more than 180 cities in more than 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.Sadly, this year there are 221 trans persons to be added to the list to be remembered, mourned and honoured as an update of the preliminary results of Transgender Europe's Trans Murder Monitoring project reveals.
The Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project started in April 2009 and systematically monitors, collects and analyses reports of homicides of trans people worldwide. Updates of the preliminary results, which have been presented in July 2009 for the first time, are published on the website of the "Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide" project three to four times a year in form of tables, name lists, and maps:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results.htm
Every year in November, Transgender Europe provides a special update of the TMM results for the International Transgender Day of Remembrance so as to assist activists worldwide in raising public awareness of hate crimes against trans people.
The TDOR 2011 update has revealed a shocking total of 221 cases of reported killings of trans people from November 20th 2010 to November 14th 2011:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results/tdor2011.htm
In comparison to the TDOR updates of the last years (162 reports 2009, 179 reports in 2010), we are witnessing a significant increase, which points to the extreme level of violence many trans people continue to be exposed to. However, this increase may also reflect the TvT project's intensified cooperation and data exchange with trans and LGBT organizations, which document murders of LGBT or trans people in local and national contexts such as Grupo Gay da Bahia (Brazil), Observatorio Ciudadano Trans (Cali, Colombia), Pembe Hayat (Turkey), or TVMEX-Travestis México.
The update shows reports of murdered or killed trans people in 26 countries in the last 12 months, with the majority from Brazil (97), Mexico (23), Colombia (19), and Venezuela (14) followed by Argentina (9), Honduras (9), and the USA (9). In Asia most reported cases have been found in Pakistan (6), and the Philippines (5), and in Europe in Turkey (5).
In total, the preliminary results show 755 reports of murdered trans people in 51 countries since January 2008.
[...]
Yet, we know, even these high numbers are only a fraction of the real figures; the truth is much worse.
[...]
If you have further questions or if you want to support the research project, please contact the TvT research team:
Dr Carsten Balzer and Dr Jan Simon Hutta
research[at]transrespect-transphobia.org
www.transrespect-transphobia.org
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Vale of Leven
and a white bird in the sky
A secret sign to show me
where the ocean comes to die
I arose and left you
sleeping in your silent room
Eternal is the warrior
who finds beauty in his wounds
HEAVEN EARTH
HEAVEN EARTH I 2008 I a film by Rudolf Amaral and Harald Scherz
poetry by Royce S. Alido
HEAVEN EARTH explores amazonian ayahuasca-shamanism culture in context with tourism.
The documentary film portrays all day activities of Percy, a peruvian healer and another western ayahuasquero, named Ron. Both live near Iquitos and work with ayahuasca.
Participants of ayahuasca ceremonies, touroperators and –guides, as well as western visionquesters recount episodes of their internal imagery and journeys, related to a growing global pop cultural phenomenon, swinging between psychotherapeutical healing procedure and spiritual sell-out.
The film follows indepth interviews of its protagonists and persons linked to the field of ayahuasca-shamanism in Iquitos and explores the social, and cultural framework of a global subculture.
MORE
(Thanx SJX!)
poetry by Royce S. Alido
HEAVEN EARTH explores amazonian ayahuasca-shamanism culture in context with tourism.
The documentary film portrays all day activities of Percy, a peruvian healer and another western ayahuasquero, named Ron. Both live near Iquitos and work with ayahuasca.
Participants of ayahuasca ceremonies, touroperators and –guides, as well as western visionquesters recount episodes of their internal imagery and journeys, related to a growing global pop cultural phenomenon, swinging between psychotherapeutical healing procedure and spiritual sell-out.
The film follows indepth interviews of its protagonists and persons linked to the field of ayahuasca-shamanism in Iquitos and explores the social, and cultural framework of a global subculture.
MORE
(Thanx SJX!)
Save Melbourne's Keith Haring Mural
1984
2011
While visiting Australia in 1984, American artist Keith Haring painted an outdoor mural at the Collingwood Technical College in inner city Melbourne. This mural is the only remaining publicly-sited work made during Haring’s three-week visit. More than 25 years later, the mural is now a shadow of its former self with a bleached pallor that has overcome Haring’s signature sensibility of life and vitality. Despite being in the care of the Victorian Government and registered as a site of state significance with the Victorian Heritage Council, the mural has received no regular maintenance or care since conception.Recently, positive steps have been undertaken to develop the old Collingwood Technical College into a home for Circus Oz and other organisations. As part of the proposed development, the Victorian Government, along with Arts Victoria, has commissioned a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) that proposes spending 1 million dollars of taxpayers money on stabilising the Haring mural in its current neglected state.
This plan directly contravenes the wishes of the Keith Haring Foundation, which was established by the artist before his death. The Foundation have publicly stated that they wish to see the mural returned to the people of Collingwood through its re-painting. They do not believe Haring would have agreed nor wanted to see an excess of money spent on preserving the mural in its current state.
MORE
(Thanx Gram and SJX!)
Jackie Leven RIP (18 June 1950 - 14 November 2011)
Leven never achieved the level of success he deserved. Photograph: Brigitte Engl/ Redferns
Jackie Leven, who has died of cancer aged 61, was a brilliant outsider, a remarkably prolific Scottish singer-songwriter who built up a devoted cult following during his lengthy, wildly varied and often turbulent career, but never achieved the level of success that he deserved. An intense, passionate giant of a man, he first came to attention in the late 1970s and early 80s, as leader of the highly praised but commercially unsuccessful band Doll By Doll. He went on to found a successful charity, the Core Trust, which treats "addicts of any sort", before continuing his musical career as a soloist – still acquiring devoted fans, but never selling many albums.
Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, of Romany descent, he began singing his own, blues-based songs in local folk clubs, but said he was forced to leave the area because he was picked on by a local gang. He was first married at 16, but began travelling, sometimes working as a labourer, although still performing, now sporting orange hair and using the name John St Field.
His friend Joe Shaw, the guitarist with Doll By Doll, remembers meeting him in a folk club in Bridport, Dorset, and finding that their common interest was "not folk songs about young maidens, but Hendrix and Van Morrison". He says that Leven was "very intense. He could make you feel uncomfortable or the best ever – and he made me feel the best ever. He was the best friend I ever had."
They shared a squat in a farmhouse in Dorset, and met up again in Hamburg "and spent all our time jamming on guitars". Later, when Leven moved to another squat, in Maida Vale, London, he suggested they bring in a bass player and percussionist to form a band, and they started rehearsing "with mattresses around the walls to deaden the sound, but still annoying the neighbours".
The result was Doll By Doll, dominated by Leven, whom I described at the time as "a mixture of Van Morrison and a psychopath", but who could mix edgy, brooding rock songs, such as Butcher Boy, with stirring, lyrical Celtic soul, including the exquisite Main Travelled Roads.
The band recorded four albums between 1979 and 1982, including Gypsy Blood, which would later be hailed as a forgotten rock classic. At one memorable show at the London Venue, they were supported by the young U2. Shaw says: "It's a mystery why we didn't make it, when all our contemporaries did well. And our live shows were something else."
In 1984, Leven's musical career was brutally interrupted when he was mugged as he walked home at night in north London. His ribs were broken, and his larynx was "almost destroyed". With his career apparently wrecked, he turned to heroin, and told me later: "I was spending £150 a day, and found I had no money." He beat the heroin habit using acupuncture and reflexology, and with Carol Wolf founded the Core Trust to help addicts by using alternative medicine. He and Wolf recruited other counsellors offering free treatment, and was helped by Pete Townshend and Westminster city council. When I met him in 1988 he seemed far keener to discuss Core than Concrete Bulletproof Invisible, the short-lived band that he and Shaw had then started with the former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock.
For the last 17 years, Leven worked as a solo artist, recording for the independent label Cooking Vinyl. "It took me two years to sign him," according to Martin Goldschmidt, who runs the company, "and since then we have released 26 of his albums. I kept telling him there were too many, but he kept coming up with scams to get another album out." Some of his albums were credited to Sir Vincent Lone.
His remarkable solo output also included the 1994 album The Mystery of Love is Greater than the Mystery of Death, which included contributions from the poet Robert Bly and musician Mike Scott, along with one of his most thoughtful, lyrical songs, Call Mother a Lonely Field. It was ranked by Q Magazine one of the "best 100 albums of all time". On other albums he was backed by former members of Doll By Doll, by his partner Deborah Greenwood, and by David Thomas of Pere Ubu. After finding that he was mentioned in one of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels, he contacted Rankin, and the result was the stage show and 2005 album Jackie Leven Said (a parody of a Van Morrison song) in which a Rankin story is matched against Leven's music.
Leven was himself a great story-teller, and delighted in teasing his followers. According to Goldschmidt, his much-publicised whisky brand Leven's Lament was "a complete scam – new labels on old bottles", and so was Leven's claim to have written a song with Bob Dylan on a train to Moscow. He was a hugely likeable, larger-than-life figure, with a legacy of more than 400 songs, and I suspect his music will reach a wider audience still.
Leven was married twice, and is survived by Deborah; his son Simon, from an earlier relationship; and his sister, Wendy.
Robin Denselow @'The Guardian'
Damn, damn, damn...
Occupy Wall Street: NYPD attempt media blackout at Zuccotti Park
New York police attempted to impose a media blackout as they cleared Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park late last night.
As police swooped on the park in the early hours of Tuesday, the city closed airspace in lower Manhattan to prevent news helicopters taking aerial shots of the scene. Vans were used to obscure views of the park and a police cordon effectively blocked accredited media from reaching the site. Some of those members of the press who were in the park or were able to get there say they were arrested, pepper sprayed or treated aggressively.
One of the few reporters on the scene when the police moved in was Josh Harkinson, a writer for Mother Jones magazine. As police used tear gas to remove the last protesters from the park Harkinson identified himself as a member of the media and was physically dragged out of the park. He was told that reporters had to stay in a "press pen".
Reporters tweeted their frustration using the hashtag #mediablackout and said police were ignoring and even confiscating press passes.
A New York Post reporter was "roughed up" according to the New York Times' Brian Stelter. Lindsey Christ, of local cable-news channel NY1, said on-air this morning that "the police took over, they kept everybody out and they wouldn't let media in. It was very planned."
At a press conference after the raid, mayor Mike Bloomberg defended the decision to raid Zuccotti Park as "mine and mine alone." He said the decision to clamp down on media coverage was made to "protect the members of the press. We have to provide protection and we have done exactly that." He said the move was made "to prevent a situation from getting worse".
Bloomberg said that "from the beginning, I have said that the city had two principal goals: guaranteeing public health and safety, and guaranteeing the protesters' First Amendment rights. But when those two goals clash, the health and safety of the public and our first responders must be the priority."
The New York Police Department did not return calls for comment.
While most media were left scrambling to catch up with the surprise midnight raid, some sections of the local press appear to have had some forewarning of what the police were planning. The New York Post, a persistent critic of Occupy, was able to splash on the news even though it happened after most papers had gone to press. The New York Times too was able to get early coverage on its website as the raid happened.
"Maybe Mayor Bloomberg has been watching Syrian TV or perhaps taking to Assad. His tactics are more akin to something you would see in Damascus than you would expect in country that claims democracy and freedoms of speech such as the United States," said Karanja Gaçuça, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press working group.
Josh Sterns, associate program director at Free Press, has been tracking the arrests of journalists at Occupy rallies across the US. So far he has counted 14 media arrests and many incidents of violence against media covering the events.
Dominic Rushe @'The Guardian'
As police swooped on the park in the early hours of Tuesday, the city closed airspace in lower Manhattan to prevent news helicopters taking aerial shots of the scene. Vans were used to obscure views of the park and a police cordon effectively blocked accredited media from reaching the site. Some of those members of the press who were in the park or were able to get there say they were arrested, pepper sprayed or treated aggressively.
One of the few reporters on the scene when the police moved in was Josh Harkinson, a writer for Mother Jones magazine. As police used tear gas to remove the last protesters from the park Harkinson identified himself as a member of the media and was physically dragged out of the park. He was told that reporters had to stay in a "press pen".
Reporters tweeted their frustration using the hashtag #mediablackout and said police were ignoring and even confiscating press passes.
A New York Post reporter was "roughed up" according to the New York Times' Brian Stelter. Lindsey Christ, of local cable-news channel NY1, said on-air this morning that "the police took over, they kept everybody out and they wouldn't let media in. It was very planned."
At a press conference after the raid, mayor Mike Bloomberg defended the decision to raid Zuccotti Park as "mine and mine alone." He said the decision to clamp down on media coverage was made to "protect the members of the press. We have to provide protection and we have done exactly that." He said the move was made "to prevent a situation from getting worse".
Bloomberg said that "from the beginning, I have said that the city had two principal goals: guaranteeing public health and safety, and guaranteeing the protesters' First Amendment rights. But when those two goals clash, the health and safety of the public and our first responders must be the priority."
The New York Police Department did not return calls for comment.
While most media were left scrambling to catch up with the surprise midnight raid, some sections of the local press appear to have had some forewarning of what the police were planning. The New York Post, a persistent critic of Occupy, was able to splash on the news even though it happened after most papers had gone to press. The New York Times too was able to get early coverage on its website as the raid happened.
"Maybe Mayor Bloomberg has been watching Syrian TV or perhaps taking to Assad. His tactics are more akin to something you would see in Damascus than you would expect in country that claims democracy and freedoms of speech such as the United States," said Karanja Gaçuça, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press working group.
Josh Sterns, associate program director at Free Press, has been tracking the arrests of journalists at Occupy rallies across the US. So far he has counted 14 media arrests and many incidents of violence against media covering the events.
Dominic Rushe @'The Guardian'
Reporters Say Police Denied Access to Protest Site
Zuccotti Park’s OWS cleared out while the media is blacked out
ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald
"We must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws"- Michael Bloomberg, as he knowingly ignores a Court Order#TwoTieredJustice
"We must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws"- Michael Bloomberg, as he knowingly ignores a Court Order
Statement by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on Clearing of Zuccotti Park
“Protecting public safety and quality of life for downtown residents, and guaranteeing free expression are not exclusive of one another. Mayor Bloomberg made a needlessly provocative and legally questionable decision to clear Zuccotti Park in the dead of night. That some media and observers were prevented from monitoring the action is deeply troubling.
“I know of no one—protesters included—who desires a permanent occupation of lower Manhattan. But provocations under cover of darkness only escalate tensions in a situation that calls for mediation and dialogue. I call on the Mayor to find a sustainable resolution—as other cities have done—that allows for the exercise of free speech and assembly, with respect for the rights of all New Yorkers to peaceful enjoyment of our great city.”
Bill de Blasio
“I know of no one—protesters included—who desires a permanent occupation of lower Manhattan. But provocations under cover of darkness only escalate tensions in a situation that calls for mediation and dialogue. I call on the Mayor to find a sustainable resolution—as other cities have done—that allows for the exercise of free speech and assembly, with respect for the rights of all New Yorkers to peaceful enjoyment of our great city.”
Bill de Blasio
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