(BIG thanx Mogadonia for the .gif!)
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Psychic TV - Hurry On Sundown (Hawkwind cover) @ Toff In Town, Melbourne (6th Mar 2012)
We have lots of wonderful footage of my face being peeled off, getting cheek implants, and my chest being split open to put in breasts. We can maybe make an art film out of it—for more limited audiences. We want to put the cost of each surgery in ticker tape on the bottom of the screen!PHOTO SET by Carbie Warbie
'There are no Homeless in Aceh, there are only Punks'
In early December 2011 64 music fans at a punk charity concert in Banda Aceh’s Tamen Budaya park were violently arrested by the Shari’ah police. The were not (and cannot) be charged with any crime but were forced to undergo religious education which included their heads being shaven and forced into the lake to bathe.
"The presence of the punk community is disturbing, and disrupts the life of the Banda Aceh public. This is a new social disease affecting Banda Aceh. If it is allowed to continue, the government will have to spend more money to handle them. Their morals are wrong. Men and women gather together, and that is against Islamic Shariah. We will keep conducting raids until they're all caught, then we'll bring them for re-education here. Aceh is a Shariah region. Everyone should obey it and the punk community is clearly against Shariah. This training will be an example in Indonesia of the re-education of the punks."
The religious police have threatened a continuation of arrests and re-education against the punks “until they are better.” When questioned about the targeting of punks due to their cleanliness the Police Chief justified the actions by drawing a distinction between them and “the clean punks that exist in different classes.” Asked why the police aren’t then targeting the homeless he stated “there are no homeless in Aceh, there are only punks.”
The Governor of Aceh has denied that the punks were even arrested saying, “the truth is that police are helping them develop (their skills).”
Human Rights Watch have pointed out the multitude of ways the authorities have abused the rights fo the detainees including the violation of freedom or expression and not receiving proper legal treatment. They are understandably concerned that this treatment will continue unless the case is processed legally.
"What did we do to deserve arresting? We didn't steal and we didn't bother anyone. The punk community in Banda Aceh is not involved with criminality. So what's the crime that justifies us being brought to this camp? This country hasn't yet made it illegal to express yourself, right?"
James Ball on the WikiLeaks/Stratfor cache
A cache of more than 5m emails taken from an attack on the company's servers in December 2011 is currently being published by WikiLeaks, but the indictment documents reveal that straight after the attack, Sabu offered an FBI-owned server to store the cache – which was quickly accepted.
"btw I started unpacking on [CW-1]'s new server," an online identity alleged to be Hammond notes.
This not only gave the FBI access to review or even potentially amend the cache, but also an inside track on Anonymous' discussions on how to use the documents, and potentially – though not revealed within the files unsealed to date – conversations between Anonymous and WikiLeaks.
The US department of justice has convened a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks, based in Virginia. If through Sabu or information he had gleaned from other Anons the US could glean any evidence to tie Julian Assange to hacking attacks on US soil, such as Stratfor, the case for extradition would be substantially strengthened.
The extent of communication between WikiLeaks and Anonymous regarding the Stratfor leak is currently unknown.
Throughout the logs detailed in the indictments published to date, the informer talks to other hackers in the room, at one stage even proposing publishing private password details: "Wanna release that list of 92% cracked stratfor hashes?" he asks. "Hrm, your call..." the defendent replies. "I'd err on the side of no, so that way we can more fully exploit."
MORE
LulzSec Hacking Suspects Are Arrested
LulzSec Leader Was Snitch Who Helped Snag Fellow Hackers
So that would explain why he disappeared from Twitter for a while...and I do wonder how much info the WikiLeaks/Anon fanboys and girls passed on about themselves trying to impress! I also wish that self promoting asshat Barrett Brown would just STFU!!!Mona's handy internet tip o'the day: NOT everyone is who they say they are on this here intertoob thingy!!!
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Sir Viv Richards at 60
The 60th anniversary of the master blaster's birth is a reminder how his strut alone could turn bowlers to quivering wrecks...MORE
Dear Mr Gove: Letter from a curious parent
I wonder if I can tell you about some rumours that are doing the rounds?
First, we've all seen that you're going to perform that miracle much beloved by those who like measuring human beings: changing the pass level of exams.
I come from an era when this was standard practice in the 11-plus exam. The pass level in any area wasn't a statement about how good or bad that cohort of children were. It was simply tied to how many grammar school places that particular local authority had created. The collective memory of this sort of thing makes people wonder, you know.
I mean, there couldn't be a tiny possibility, could there, that the reason why you're fiddling around with exam pass levels is so that you can regulate the numbers of school students applying for university? After all, it has become quite embarrassing that thousands of young people we all thought were qualified to benefit from three years more education are now deemed not to be so, with the only visible reason for this shift in view being that you agree with the bankers that we can't "afford" that level of university provision. Handy for you, I suppose, if you can dampen a bit of the young people's ardour for more education by labelling more of them as failures.
Talking of labelling people as failures, I see it's full steam ahead with June's phonics test. The results for your pilot tests are in and they make interesting reading. The pass level was put at 34 correct readings of the 40 single words. (I'm not sure why reading single words, not in sentences nor in passages of writing counts as "reading". Wouldn't it have been more honest to have called it a "decode test"?) Sad to say, only 32% of the children reached the pass score. Now, one rumour I heard was that even the "outstanding schools" that did the pilot scored at this sort of a level. If so, will your new head of Ofsted have to change the word "outstanding" to "crap"? He's rather good at that sort of thing, isn't he?
Moving on, I gather that you say, parents of children who fail will, by law, have to be told they failed (which, in my experience, is the same as telling the children). Perhaps you could prepare the speech that a headteacher could give to the year 1 children: "Hello children, all of you, sitting over there are failures. It's about two thirds of you." What a good way to encourage them to become eager learners!
Now here's the next rumour bit – people are saying that this is all a cunning plan so that you can run a big press conference in the summer announcing that we have a nation of illiterates and the present one-hour a day synthetic phonics lessons should be upped to two hours. There are even some cynical people (tush — who would have thought there could be such people!), who are saying that you'll run the pass level at 34 out of 40 for the time being, and then after a year or so of SP, you'll lower it a bit, more children will pass, and, hey presto, you've improved reading! How can people think such things of you? Shocking.
And then, as if all this wasn't enough, you'll never guess what I heard this week? Someone told me that when you ran a press conference to tell the group of lucky journalists assembled there that the free school experiment in Sweden was a success, one journalist asked you if you were aware of the evidence emerging from Sweden that things weren't going quite as swimmingly as you suggested. Whereupon, you asked him if he was aware of the counter-evidence: a master-stroke of repartee, sir, if I may say so. But I cannot find the counter-evidence you mention anywhere, and dare I say I am a bit worried about that.
It slightly reminds me of your party conference speech that time when you compared the questions on science exam papers in the US and Britain, while failing to point out that the paper in the US was a chemistry exam for students aged 16 to 19 and the UK one was for GSCE biology. In a test on use of evidence, that would have had me telling your parents you were a failure, you know.
But these are all rumours and we really need to dump them in the bin marked "false" as soon as possible, don't we?
Via
First, we've all seen that you're going to perform that miracle much beloved by those who like measuring human beings: changing the pass level of exams.
I come from an era when this was standard practice in the 11-plus exam. The pass level in any area wasn't a statement about how good or bad that cohort of children were. It was simply tied to how many grammar school places that particular local authority had created. The collective memory of this sort of thing makes people wonder, you know.
I mean, there couldn't be a tiny possibility, could there, that the reason why you're fiddling around with exam pass levels is so that you can regulate the numbers of school students applying for university? After all, it has become quite embarrassing that thousands of young people we all thought were qualified to benefit from three years more education are now deemed not to be so, with the only visible reason for this shift in view being that you agree with the bankers that we can't "afford" that level of university provision. Handy for you, I suppose, if you can dampen a bit of the young people's ardour for more education by labelling more of them as failures.
Talking of labelling people as failures, I see it's full steam ahead with June's phonics test. The results for your pilot tests are in and they make interesting reading. The pass level was put at 34 correct readings of the 40 single words. (I'm not sure why reading single words, not in sentences nor in passages of writing counts as "reading". Wouldn't it have been more honest to have called it a "decode test"?) Sad to say, only 32% of the children reached the pass score. Now, one rumour I heard was that even the "outstanding schools" that did the pilot scored at this sort of a level. If so, will your new head of Ofsted have to change the word "outstanding" to "crap"? He's rather good at that sort of thing, isn't he?
Moving on, I gather that you say, parents of children who fail will, by law, have to be told they failed (which, in my experience, is the same as telling the children). Perhaps you could prepare the speech that a headteacher could give to the year 1 children: "Hello children, all of you, sitting over there are failures. It's about two thirds of you." What a good way to encourage them to become eager learners!
Now here's the next rumour bit – people are saying that this is all a cunning plan so that you can run a big press conference in the summer announcing that we have a nation of illiterates and the present one-hour a day synthetic phonics lessons should be upped to two hours. There are even some cynical people (tush — who would have thought there could be such people!), who are saying that you'll run the pass level at 34 out of 40 for the time being, and then after a year or so of SP, you'll lower it a bit, more children will pass, and, hey presto, you've improved reading! How can people think such things of you? Shocking.
And then, as if all this wasn't enough, you'll never guess what I heard this week? Someone told me that when you ran a press conference to tell the group of lucky journalists assembled there that the free school experiment in Sweden was a success, one journalist asked you if you were aware of the evidence emerging from Sweden that things weren't going quite as swimmingly as you suggested. Whereupon, you asked him if he was aware of the counter-evidence: a master-stroke of repartee, sir, if I may say so. But I cannot find the counter-evidence you mention anywhere, and dare I say I am a bit worried about that.
It slightly reminds me of your party conference speech that time when you compared the questions on science exam papers in the US and Britain, while failing to point out that the paper in the US was a chemistry exam for students aged 16 to 19 and the UK one was for GSCE biology. In a test on use of evidence, that would have had me telling your parents you were a failure, you know.
But these are all rumours and we really need to dump them in the bin marked "false" as soon as possible, don't we?
Via
Hackers Steal Michael Jackson's Unreleased Tracks
The Sony Music archive has been infiltrated by cyber-crooks, who have illegally downloaded more than 50,000 digital files.
Record company bosses paid $250 million (£156 million) to Jackson's estate in 2010 for the catalogue, including unheard material from studio sessions when the superstar recorded Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad.
A source tells Britain's Sunday Times, "Everything Sony purchased from the Michael Jackson estate was compromised.
"It caused them to check their systems and they found the breach. There was a degree of sophistication. Sony identified the weakness and plugged the gap."
The haul is also said to include a duet with the late Freddie Mercury and Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am.
The attack was discovered weeks after hackers targeted Sony's PlayStation Network in April (11), but was only confirmed by a Sony Music representative on Saturday.
Via
DJ Spooky - Infinite Abstraktion Mix
1. Robot Working. Then Stopping
2. Radical Change - Malcolm X
3. Invaders from the Planet Sqratch (feat. DJ Qbert) - DJ Revolution vs Dj Qbert
4. Multiphonic - Dj Spooky featuring Rob Swift
5. 5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO DJ Spooky featuring The Coup (Medeski, Martin & Wood remix)
6. Volcano (Four Tet Remix) Anti-Pop Consortium
7. Bassnectar's Superstylin Smashup - Bassnectar vs Groove Armada
8. Decehall Party - DJ Xela
9. Fakir Alternate Remix - DJ Rekha (DJ Spooky remix)
10. Insh'allah - Sub Swara 11. Hold The Line (Mr Lex and Santogold) - Major Lazer
12. Hi Fidelity (Shambhala Riddim) - Sub Swara
13. Earth Break - Mr. Magic
14. Triple Trouble - The Beastie Boys
15. Big Money Comin' - Crookers
16. Aerodynamic - Daft Punk (Dj Spooky remix)
17 Michael Jackson 2 Many DJs vs DJ Spooky
18. 25 or 6 to 4 (Instrumental Track) [Karaoke In the Style of Chicago]
19. Say It Loud/Mind Power - James Brown
20. Respect - Aretha Franklin
21. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
22. Jamrock Collage - Damien Marley vs Dj Spooky
23. Anonymous Skulls - Medeski, Martin & Wood
24. Everything In Its Right Place (Dub Tribute to Radiohead) - Vitamin Dub
25. Two Face - Ticklah & Victor Axelrod
Download
Via
Monday, 5 March 2012
First Listen: Krzysztof Penderecki And Jonny Greenwood
How do you capture the energy — both positive and negative — of the past 50 years by using instruments perfected in the 18th century and made of wood, glue and horsehair?
That challenge lies at the very heart of this album, which brings together one of rock and electronic music's superheroes, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, with one of his own idols: the septuagenarian Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The collection features two string pieces written by the elder composer, 1960's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and 1961's Polymorphia for 48 strings, juxtaposed with two of Greenwood's similarly set answers to Penderecki's work: Popcorn Superhet Receiver (inspired by Threnody) and 48 Responses to Polymorphia. Here, they both choose to use a seemingly antiquated vehicle — orchestral strings — to convey the noise, chaos and energy of our time. The results are ear-tingling.
Penderecki is an idol to Greenwood: In a recent charming joint interview with the London Guardian, Greenwood describes the unlikely duo's first meeting: "I shook his hand after a concert like a sad fan-boy." But there's no fan-boyism here: What we hear on this album is a meeting of two artistic visionaries connected in a real dialogue, the decades separating their work and their chronological ages all but collapsed and deflated. Recorded in Kraków after a joint performance of their music last September, the performances are by Poland's AUKSO Ensemble with the composers' direct oversight; Penderecki conducted his own scores, while violinist, chamber musician and conductor Marek Moś led the group for Greenwood's pieces.
Penderecki's Threnody originally carried a thoroughly abstract and deliberately unevocative title: 8'37" (a nod to composer John Cage's infamous 4'33"); it was only after the piece premiered that Penderecki linked his work explicitly to the horror of the atom bomb, though the piece's howls of anguish, expressed in all kinds of screams, rumbles and wails, speak clearly enough. The title change struck some observers as an opportunistic move, but the piece's popularity — and Penderecki's renown — skyrocketed after the name switch.
Written in 2005 with 34 individual string parts, and written as a response to Threnody, Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver takes its name and inspiration from shortwave radio: It's the sharply articulated chaos of 34 individuals often going on their own trajectories, not the tightly controlled, gleaming unified mass that one might traditionally associate with classical players.
Penderecki's Polymorphia also had a fascinating birth. The composer played a recording of Threnody for patients with mental illnesses at the Krakow Medical Center while the patients had encephalographs (brain-wave charts) made; he then based Polymorphia's musical lines around the shapes on their charts. In his reply to Polymorphia, Greenwood takes up that big, glorious and triumphant C Major chord — and then shatters that harmonic glow into smithereens. He begins with a strangely Bach-reminiscent chorale ("Es Ist Genug," or "It Is Enough," which is also the name of a famous Bach chorale) that Greenwood then distorts and dissolves over and over again. He builds tension and lets it drain away, takes up an idea and then lets it go in swirling eddies of motion.
Anastasia Tsioulcas @'npr'
Hear 'Krzysztof Penderecki And Jonny Greenwood' In Its Entirety
♪♫ Eddie & The Hot Rods - Get out of Denver (Live The Rainbow London 19 February 1977)
One of the greatest live bands I ever saw and I saw them a number of times. Moving at the sound of speed indeed!!!
The Department of Homeland Security is searching your Facebook and Twitter for these words
Via
(Thanx GKB!)
Yes, the Department of Homeland Security is searching social media for…'social media' LOL!!!
Yes, the Department of Homeland Security is searching social media for…'social media' LOL!!!
A short film about Alan Vega
Bonus:
Suicide performing live at Rothko NYC on Sep 3 2004. This was the evening of the last day of the Republican Convention and the 'devil' he refers to is, of course, George W. Bush
Tony Fletcher, author of ""All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York" reads from the book and interviews Alan Vega of Suicide at Brooklyn Public Library NYC on Dec 10 2009
(Thanx Joly!)
Who woulda thought that young what 14/15 year old hawking copies of his (really good) fanzine 'Jamming' would end up here...
Africa Hitech Interview - AllSaints Basement Sessions
Africa Hitech is the collaboration between the multi-alias production wunderkind Mark Pritchard and the celebrated soul singer Steve Spacek. The project combines the clinical beats and heavy bass dynamics of grime with the organic feel of soca and reggae to devastating effect.
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