New MashUptheTown podcast

Podcast 36 - Dreadlocks Returns to the 36th Echo Chamber

This podcast contains:
Artist; Song; Album

1. King Tubby: The Roots Prophet; Balmagie Jam Rock
2. Niney featuring the Soul Syndicate; Smile Dub; Present Dub
3. Solomon Jabby; Rootsman Dub; Revolutionary Dub Vibrations Chapter 1
4. Lennox Miller/Jah Coller; Better Must Come/Speaks His Mind; Jack Ruby Hi-Fi
5. Dennis Alcopone; Segregation Is Wrong; The Good Old Days of the 70's
6. Dubmatix; Dub in Me Hand, Rengade Rocker
7. Oneshot; Rotten Town; 1st Shot
8. Dub Killer Combo; Balistica; Root Boy
9. Big Joe, Natty All in a Row; Keep Rocking and Swinging
10. Jama Sound; Rapido Sol; Superpanorama
11. Ring Craft Posse; Waterford; St. Catherine in Dub
12. Crystalites; Undertaker's Burial; Blow Mr. Hornsman: Instrumental Reggae 1968-1975
13. King Tubby and Soul Syndicate; Great Stone; Freedom Sounds in Dub
14. Herman's All Stars; Nightmare; Blow Mr. Hornsman: Instrumental Reggae 1968-1975
15. Midnite; Frequency; Infinite Dub
16. Charlie Chaplin; Chaplin Chant; Bushyard Telegraph
17. Phil Pratt; Danger Ubx; Dial M for Murder in Dub Style
18. Brad Osbourne; King Zion; King of Dub

This podcast was initially just about the reggae, and that it is a global phenomenon now, much to the pioneering efforts of the late Bob Marley, but it is also about the continued musical explorations and initatives of many other musicians, initially in Jamaica, and now the world. It is also about the message, that the world needs to be shared, that the colonial mentality of the past should be a thing of the past, and not something daily rekindled by corporations and armies.
I reference in particular here the plight of the people of West Papua, and their ongoing struggle against the oppression of the Indonesian military, who pay their soldiers in seized properties, and the neglect of governments' around the world on the West Papuan's struggle for their own independence. The large corporations intent on stealing, with assistance of corrupt officials, is the modern colonialist plague that was meant to be left for the scrapheap and the history books, instead it is OUR modern history of the world.
Reggae has always been about the struggle against oppression, and one hopes that the New Year will bring the changes the world needs, that people's lives and lands will be respected before and after any contact with government and corporation, there are too many living daily lives of destruction, violence and horror solely to feed the greedy pockets of a few, the struggle continues, hope you like the mix...

 @'Pod-O-Matic'

Once again my friend Paul has surpassed himself (!)

Do also check out his previous podcasts, some of the best compilations currently doing the rounds of the interwebbythingy
PS: Was indeed a drag that we didn't catch up last week, have a good hexmass and we have to catch up soon
Regards/

Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce

Monsieur et Madam Kent (and a hanger-on)

Laurence R

"That drives a lot of The Dark Stuff. Another thing that drives it is the thing that we were talking about: the big hard man, the tough man. Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, Iggy Pop: big tough men. Let’s see how tough they really are. What is a real tough man: is it someone who goes out and can drink and drug more than anyone else, but who doesn’t really look after their own children?

Or is it someone like Neil Young, who has two children — one in particular — who suffers chronically from cerebral palsy. And he has devoted his life to making his son the centre of his life; to making him as loved and as wanted as possible. He’s tried to create things to help his son communicate with other children. There’s a big difference. That’s what a man is, to me; that’s what a fucking man is.

And Neil Young also goes out and he does the stuff. Every show he plays. He’s not going to turn up and be too drugged out to perform. Now that’s what a man is; it ain’t this guy that goes out and is completely in the bag all the time. And whoopee, man: wow, you can drink more than everyone else, you can take drugs more than anyone else. But, look at his family life: that’s where it counts for me."

(Nick Kent on 'manliness')

"For me, the bane of the seventies was white guys trying to play funk music — and that includes the Rolling Stones — and white guys playing reggae music (and that also includes the Rolling Stones)."

(Nick Kent on the seventies)

Robert Kirby RIP

Heard about Robert Kirby's sad passing  a month ago & completely forgot to post anything...

Born in 1948, Kirby met Drake at Cambridge University in early 1968 and put together a string section to accompany the singer-songwriter at live appearances.

When Drake recorded his debut album, ‘Five Leaves Left’, in the summer of 1968, producer Joe Boyd had already lined-up another string arranger – but the singer rejected his arrangements and insisted Kirby was brought in.

He then returned to arrange the strings on 1970’s ‘Bryter Layter’ and during the following decade he arranged the strings on more than 40 albums. Many of them were by folk artists such as Ralph McTell, Al Stewart and Vashti Bunyan, but he also worked on Elton John’s ‘Madman Across The Water’, David Ackles‘ ‘American Gothic’ and John Cale’s ‘Helen Of Troy’.

Kirby also spent three years playing keyboards in The Strawbs in the mid-1970s, but at the end of the decade opted for a career in marketing.

He made only occasional returns to the studio in the 1980s, most notably on Elvis Costello’s ‘Almost Blue’. However, as Drake’s cult status grew in the 1990s, he returned to the limelight.

Paul Weller invited him to arrange the strings on several tracks on his 2000 album ‘Heliocentric’. Further invitations followed to work on albums by The Magic Numbers, Linda Thompson and on Vashti Bunyan’s comeback, more than 35 years after their previous collaboration.

Kirby also added new string arrangements to several tracks on ‘Made To Love Magic’, the compilation album of Drake out-takes and remixed tracks, released in 2004.

Here from the 1969 debut album “Five Leaves Left” is a prime example of both their work.

“River Man” – Nick Drake

Betty came by on her way
Said she had a word to say
About things today
And fallen leaves.

Said she hadn’t heard the news
Hadn’t had the time to choose
A way to lose
But she believes.

Gonna see the river man
Gonna tell him all I can
About the plan
For lilac time.

If he tells me all he knows
’bout the way his river flows
And all night shows
In summertime.

Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away
Or maybe stay
She wasn’t sure.

For when she thought of summer rain
Calling for her mind again
She lost the pain
And stayed for more.

Gonna see the river man
Gonna tell him all I can
’bout the ban
On feeling free.

If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows
I don’t suppose
It’s meant for me.

Oh, how they come and go
Oh, how they come and go

Much, much more

@'The Helpless Dancer'

Robert Kirby 

(16 April 1948 - 3 October 2009) 

I have always loved Nick Drake's work since discovering him on an Island Record compilation: have it in my head that it was 'Time Has Told Me' on 'Bumpers' but...

This would have been about 1974 or so and obviously I never saw Nick Drake perform but I do remember an Elvis Costello gig at 'Festival Hall' in London in the early 80's where a lot of his work had been orchestrated by Robert Kirby and it was sublime...

...& now

British rock journalist Nick Kent being interviewed at the Crossing Border Festival 2009 in The Hague.

@'Flickr' 

Syd Barrett obituary by Nick Kent

Crazy diamond ... Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett's musical career lasted barely seven years - from 1965 to early '72 - and the past 32 years saw him resolutely refusing to record new music or venture near a concert stage. But Barrett, who died of cancer last Friday at the age of 60, will go down in history as one of the most uniquely inspired creative talents to have sprung up from the pop revolution that gripped Britain in the late 20th century. More specifically, he was the golden boy of the mind-melting late-60s psychedelic era, its brightest star and ultimately its most tragic victim.

Like many other questing spirits who came to age in the mid-60s, he was inspired by taking LSD to create truly daring, other-wordly music - first for the original incarnation of Pink Floyd, then as a solo singer/songwriter - but the drug ended up fatally fracturing his psyche and turning him into a solitary recluse unable to function within the music industry and society in general. The story of his personal meltdown has been told and retold as a cautionary tale for indiscriminate druggies to the point where Barrett's status as rock's most illustrious casualty often threatens to outweigh his actual creative contributions to the form. This is not as it should be.

Barrett started making music in his early teens, not long after the death of his father, an esteemed doctor. He became a regular fixture at Cambridge folk clubs but was generally more attracted by music involving electric instruments. He played in several amateurish blues bands around Cambridge until he won a scholarship to a prestigious London art school in 1964. The following year Barrett started playing with a former Cambridge schoolfriend, Roger Waters, who was studying architecture at London's Regent Street polytechnic, and two of Waters' fellow students, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. Although he was the youngest member of the group, Barrett quickly became its leader and key driving force. He wrote the songs. He sang them, too - as well as playing guitar. He even came up with the name: Pink Floyd, taken from a blues album he owned involving two obscure musicians known as Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Live, Barrett's Floyd quickly earned a reputation as London's most radical musical experience. The four-piece invented a new way for a rock band to express themselves, with eccentric pop songs suddenly melting into long, spaced-out improvisations that would directly open the door first to the UK psychedelia movement and later to the oft-derided form we now call prog-rock. Barrett's guitar-playing was singular enough, always opting for spine-tingling "eerie noise" over virtuoso string-bending, but he was most gifted as a songwriter.

This became abundantly clear when the group released their first single at the outset of 1967. Arnold Layne was a Barrett composition that was both light-heartedly mischievous and creepingly sinister, evoking a figure from his Cambridge past, a disturbed individual who often stole women's underclothing from local washing lines. David Bowie - then a struggling singer/songwriter - was just one among many who found Barrett's groundbreaking blending of "light" and "dark" subject matter in popular song lyrics deeply liberating for his own personal muse. Last May, Bowie took the stage with David Gilmour, Barrett's Floyd replacement, to perform Arnold Layne as a homage to Syd -and also a personal thank-you for the considerable influence Barrett's music has had on him.

Barrett continued his masterful marriage of light and dark emotions on the group's next single, See Emily Play, and also alchemised the whimsical new bohemian spirit of the summer of love into an entire album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But the dark aspects of his art soon eclipsed the light and euphoric side of his vision. In the late summer of '67 he wrote several disturbing new songs, one of which, Jugband Blues, appeared to be a stark autobiographical cry for help from a man desperately struggling with schizophrenia. The rest of the Floyd refused to release the other compositions and stood on horrified as they watched their guiding light turn int a catatonic human train-wreck. In early 1968, they booted him out of his own group.

This should have been a wake-up call for Barrett, but instead he sank even further into a world of drug-induced dislocation. Yet he continued to write songs that more and more sounded like open psychic sores, as this illuminated but desperately isolated soul struggled to make sense of his condition. He made two albums from this material - The Madcap Laughs (1970) and Barrett (1971) - with considerable assistance in the studio from his ex-Floyd cohorts Waters, Wright and Gilmour. But neither record sold many copies when released and Barrett returned to his mother's house in Cambridge to live like a hermit. He briefly played concerts with a local band called Stars in early 1972 but a negative review of one show caused him to jettison any further musical ambitions and become a full-time social recluse.

Yet his ghost has continued to exert an ever-more potent fascination over rock musicians of all generations. That Pink Floyd themselves were haunted by the tortured spectre is confirmed by Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, their three most momentous post-Syd recordings. David Bowie re-channelled Barrett's dislocated, quintessential English style of vocal projection into songs such as The Bewlay Brothers. In early 1976, just before John Lydon joined the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren tried (unsuccessfully) to convince the band to perform a couple of Syd's songs in their repertoire. The Damned, meanwhile, attempted - in vain - to get Barrett to produce their second album. Then came the new-wave bands such as the Soft Boys who feverishly appropriated the Madcap's surreal take on the modern pop-song aesthetic. He became a spiritual pied piper of 80s indie rock and by the 90s his madly spellbinding music was being referenced by everyone from Blur to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. In the new millennium, one needs to look no further than the recorded works of the Libertines and Babyshambles to hear that Syd's crazy diamond music is still bewitching and informing the creative choices of rock's latest generation of bohemian spirits.

A private funeral is apparently being planned that will pointedly exclude all Barrett's past musical compadres. No matter. All of us who were ever deeply touched by his unique gifts and his tragic life story should bow our heads and offer up a minute's silence to this remarkable individual for the way he enriched our lives. And pray that he is finally fully at peace.

@'The Guardian'

For those of you unlucky enough to not have been readers of the music press back in the late 1960's or early 1970's  there were some astonishing pieces by people like Lester Bangs and Nick Kent and it was a time when you could 'dance about architecture'.
(My tuppence worth: It was actually Eno in the seventies who said it first.)

I would suggest that 'The Dark Stuff' would make a wonderful present to yourself. 
His original article in the NME on Syd written at the time of his death is one of his best pieces.

Nick Kent interview regarding the reissue of 'The Dark Stuff'
'Diluting the Essence'
@'3A.M.'

Icon

Hermine Demoriane

 'Veiled Women' / 'Dub'
Written with Nick Kent. The Subterraneans version
HERE

Two and a half questions w/ Robert Henke

The story on the liner notes of Silence – where is that from?
I wrote it by myself. I like to play with my imagination, and fragments of stories help me finding a topic or a common color for an album. Sometimes when making music these stories just arrive and if I am in the right mood I dive into them and let them grow and write them down. I think very much in film scenes.

In your mind, who is the protagonist of the story told by Silence.
There are many possible options. One story could start like this: The protagonist is a biologist. He is in his thirties, very bright as pretty much everyone at the station. He used to work for a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland, but he is from another country. Whilst working for the company he felt more and more unhappy. He is an idealistic person, and wanted to move things, change the world etc… Instead he got stuck in administrativa. In his spare time ( and sometimes during working hours too…) he was following his special topic, research on some bacteria which usually is found next to super hot spots on the ground of the ocean. He got in contact with a researcher from Australia, Carl Miller. Miller at some point told the protagonist that he got a very interesting job offer for him: Joining an international team of high profile researchers who are supposed to work in a newly built laboratory high up in the mountains of Patagonia. The lab is privately financed by a group of entrepreneurs who are confident that they can find out some very interesting immunologic mechanism of a particular plant which might have a dramatic impact on the creation of new pharmaceutical products. The protagonists relationship in Basel is not really working out anymore, he is bored by his job, and he likes the adventure. So, he takes a plane to Melbourne to meet with Miller.

That was two years ago.

At the beginning it all went very well, Miller had a good hand with finding the right people, everyone liked the idea of living in this kind of film like scenario and they indeed found out amazing things. However, living up there in total isolation became more and more an issue. The project had to be secret, and the security was tight. For the outside world everyone working there pretty much vanished from the planet. And then that stupid accident happened …

@'Headphone Commute'

Their review of 'Silence' (definitely in my top 10 of this year)

HERE

Love it

'twitteren' (to twitter) and 'ontvrienden' (to unfriend someone) are the Dutch words of the year.

(Thanx Ings)

The Teardrop Explodes - Passionate Friend

In his autobiography Head-On, Cope describes what was going on from his perspective:

 

******

"We piled into the Toppy studios for what was to be a 'live' broadcast. Of course, we were still going to be lip-synching but it was screened directly to its regular 10 million viewers.

Gary [Dwyer, drummer] and I took huge hits of LSD during the afternoon and our dressing room had a vague narcotics lab feel about it, what with Droyd and Bates and the head of [record label] Phonogram TV punishing large quantities of powder.

We lurched over to our set. I was going to perform the whole song on top of a grand piano, in bare feet with leather pants and a shit embroidered top that I'd made from a Columbia hotel pillowcase.

I climbed on to the piano and freaked. No way. I could barely stand up on the ground. Up on the piano I felt like Basketball Jones, the cartoon kid from the Cheech and Chong video who keeps getting bigger and bigger. I looked up into the ceiling of the studio, the lights twinkled like distant stars. From my elevated position on the piano, studio technicians and members of other groups looked grotesque.

The acid heightened the fake tans of everyone in the room and only accentuated the paleness of the Teardrop members. Of course, if they'd had a chance, Alfie, Jeff and Gary would have been sun-worshippers, but I had to keep those bastards in check.

We ran through the camera rehearsal and loped back into the dressing room. The next few hours were spent smoking spliff and everyone trying in vain to persuade me from wearing the orange pillow case. 'Okay, Copey, five minutes and you're on'. Uh? Wow, Batesy was right. I sat, head down, with the front of my leathers undone. Sweat coursed down my belly and I mopped it up with my shitty top.

I was paranoid as hell. The BBC make-up woman had scared the shit out of me. They had asked me if I'd just come back from the Bahamas and said they loved my tan. Of course, irony is lost on someone who's tripping his brain out, so I figured that I must be turning brown.

'I'm not too dark really , am I?'

'Fuckin ell Copey, you're dead pale, honest'. Gary was trying to make me feel better, but what did he know? He was tripping too and I didn't want people placating me. It was time to go. I wasn't ready. We had to go. I wasn't ready. Why aren't you ready? I don't feel tall enough. Well, you're gonna be standing on top of a piano. Is that tall enough for you. Eh?

They led me reluctantly out to the studio floor. It was total chaos out there. People were running around and freaking out and winding everyone else up. I suddenly felt very becalmed. A group called Buck's Fizz were doing their thing on the other side of the studio. They were a two-boy, two-girl, fun group with cutesy expressions and dance routines. We were to follow them.

[The Buck's Fizz song was One Of These Nights. The TOTP performance doesn't seem to be archived online, but it must've been pretty darn similar to this one]

I watched fascinated. Then as time moved slowly on I felt sucked into their scene. God, they were brilliant. I wanted to be in Buck's Fizz. I rushed over to Gary and hit him with the idea. The two of us should join. Imagine an acid-soaked dance group with showbiz routines, it would be incredible.

It was two minutes to our performance. We had to be exact as it was live, so no mistakes. Bates dragged me to the grand piano. Shit, it's like an ocean liner. The piano was exquisite and moved gently past me as I walked around it. Little girls ran over towards me as I climbed aboard the piano. I smiled my most ridiculous and inane grin and, after much manoeuvring, scrambled to the top of this vast and polished plateau.

The finish of the piano was unbelievable. I waded in its high gloss black syrup, my bare feet sinking deeper and deeper into the surface like hot wet tar on a newly completed road. It was all I could think about. 'Don't jump around too much, Copey. It'll cost us a fortune if you wreck that thing'. Oh, thanks a lot, Batesy. Thanks fucking loads. That's just what I want to hear when I'm tripping on live TV.

The boom camera swung away from Buck's Fizz as their song faded out. Everyone was in position and I forgot to duck as the camera crane whizzed past my head, nearly knocking me from my dubious perch. Okay, I'm not in Buck's Fizz. I'm not. Better remember.

'The friend I have is a passionate friend, but I can't see you buying...'. Passionate Friend doesn't have an intro or anything. It just starts - vocals, drums, guitar, everything. All together. In a split second, I was fighting for my life up on the piano. I looked back at Gary who was off his head. His blond quiff was hanging straight out over his face, jiblike and starched and strong like a newly creosoted fence. I wanted to climb on to it and walk along its length, like a sailor walking the plank.

Around me, the song waged war with itself. So much going on. How can I keep this together? Who cares, I'm doing fine. I looked down at Jeff, thousands of feet below me at the piano keyboard. He looked ridiculous to me, like the phantom of the opera or some such shit.

Now, Passionate Friend is also one of those songs that has a reprise. See, the whole song builds to a climax then we come to a stop, and start the whole thing again. Suddenly, I was miming, 'the friend I have is a passionate friend, but I can't see you buying...'. Hold on, I thought. What's all this? My mind did double-takes and I battled for some sense of reality. Maybe this was the real start of the performance. Maybe I'd imagined the first half of the song. What the hell is going on?

I felt the song disappearing into a tunnel. It was fading out and the Top of The Pops audience was cheering. I felt as though I had been up there for days. But I'd done battle and I seemed to have won."

@'Bristling Badger' 

via 'Fifi' w/ thanx!

(Just because...)

Scientists crack 'entire genetic code' of cancer

Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers - skin and lung - a move they say could revolutionise cancer care.

Not only will the cancer maps pave the way for blood tests to spot tumours far earlier, they will also yield new drug targets, says the Wellcome Trust team.
Scientists around the globe are now working to catalogue all the genes that go wrong in many types of human cancer.
The UK is looking at breast cancer, Japan at liver and India at mouth.
China is studying stomach cancer, and the US is looking at cancers of the brain, ovary and pancreas.

These catalogues are going to change the way we think about individual cancers Wellcome Trust scientist Professor Michael Stratton

The International Cancer Genome Consortium scientists from the 10 countries involved say it will take them at least five years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete this mammoth task.
But once they have done this, patients will reap the benefits.
Professor Michael Stratton, who is the UK lead, said: "These catalogues are going to change the way we think about individual cancers.
"By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments.
"We can envisage a time when following the removal of a cancer cataloguing it will become routine."
It could even be possible to develop MoT-style blood tests for healthy adults that can check for tell-tale DNA patterns suggestive of cancer.
Russian roulette
The scientists found the DNA code for a skin cancer called melanoma contained more than 30,000 errors almost entirely caused by too much sun exposure.

Most of the time the mutations will land in innocent parts of the genome, but some will hit the right targets for cancer Wellcome Trust researcher Dr Peter Campbell

The lung cancer DNA code had more than 23,000 errors largely triggered by cigarette smoke exposure.
From this, the experts estimate a typical smoker acquires one new mutation for every 15 cigarettes they smoke.
Although many of these mutations will be harmless, some will trigger cancer.
Wellcome Trust researcher Dr Peter Campbell, who conducted this research, published in the journal Nature, said: "It's like playing Russian roulette.
"Most of the time the mutations will land in innocent parts of the genome, but some will hit the right targets for cancer."
By quitting smoking, people could reduce their cancer risk back down to "normal" with time, he said.
The suspicion is lung cells containing mutations are eventually replaced with new ones free of genetic errors.
By studying the cancer catalogues in detail, the scientists say it should be possible to find exactly which lifestyle and environmental factors trigger different tumours.
Treatment and prevention
Tom Haswell, who was successfully treated 15 years ago for lung cancer, believes the research will benefit the next generation:
"For future patients I think it's tremendous news because hopefully treatments can be targeted to their particular genome mutations, hopefully... reducing some of the side effects we get".
Cancer experts have applauded the work.
The Institute of Cancer Research said: "This is the first time that a complete cancer genome has been sequenced and similar insights into other cancer genomes are likely to follow.
"As more cancer genomes are revealed by this technique, we will gain a greater understanding of how cancer is caused and develops, improving our ability to prevent, treat and cure cancer."
Professor Carlos Caldas, from Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute called the research "groundbreaking".
"Like molecular archaeologists, these researchers have dug through layers of genetic information to uncover the history of these patients' disease.
"What is so new in this study is the researchers have been able to link particular mutations to their cause.
"The hope and excitement for the future is that we will eventually have detailed picture of how different cancers develop, and ultimately how better to treat and prevent them."

@'BBC'

Robert Henke on Max

More here.

Can - Silent Night

Xmas pressie download from Mute Records

HERE

The Subterraneans - My Flamingo/Veiled Women

One time member of The Subterraneans Chrissie Hynde with then partner Nick Kent.

Various members of The Damned played gigs with Kent as The Subterraneans but from memory I am pretty certain that Henry Padovani played guitar on this single. The line "like a deaf mute in a phone booth" came from an interview Kent did with Lou Reed I also seem to recall.

See what sort of things I keep in my brain...

My thanx to Malcolm as this was one of my holy grails...

Get it

HERE

HA!

@'Flickr'

Kilowatts - Six Silicates

HERE

Brothers of End - Big Bird

   

Amazing who jumps into bed w/ each other!!!

Insurgents hack US drones

Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights. Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance...

@'Wall Street Journal'

Frances Bean gets restraining order against Courtney

Book staircase

@'Fubiz'

People of Connecticut: What have u done 2 this country? We hold u responsible. Start recall of Lieberman 2day or we'll boycott your state. about 19 hours ago from TwitterBerry

MMFlint

Michael Moore

Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel Live '85

I wish I had kept my 'Foetus of Excellence' t/shirt!

Psychiatry's civil war

When doctors disagree with each other, they usually couch their criticisms in careful, measured language. In the past few months, however, open conflict has broken out among the upper echelons of US psychiatry. The focus of discord is a volume called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, which psychiatrists turn to when diagnosing the distressed individuals who turn up at their offices seeking help. Regularly referred to as the profession's bible, the DSM is in the midst of a major rewrite, and feelings are running high.

Two eminent retired psychiatrists are warning that the revision process is fatally flawed. They say the new manual, to be known as DSM-V, will extend definitions of mental illnesses so broadly that tens of millions of people will be given unnecessary and risky drugs. Leaders of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which publishes the manual, have shot back, accusing the pair of being motivated by their own financial interests - a charge they deny. The row is set to come to a head next month when the proposed changes will be published online. For a profession that exists to soothe human troubles, it's incendiary stuff...

@'New Scientist'

Malcolm - thank you so much for 'My Flamingo'

Julian Cope's post-punk sampler

Actually, learn...(and listen)

@'Head Heritage'

Scientology: 'The Crusade' Continues

Pancake Mountain and Andrew W.K. wish you a happy holiday!

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals bassist Chris Feinstein R.I.P.

According to Lost Highway, Chris "Spacewolf" Feinstein-- bassist for Ryan Adams' former band the Cardinals-- has passed away. No further details were given.
Feinstein played on recent Ryan Adams & the Cardinals albums Easy Tiger, Follow the Lights, and Cardinology. He also contributed to Santigold's debut album, the I Am Sam soundtrack, and Albert Hammond Jr.'s Yours to Keep.

@'Pitchfork'

Girlz With Gunz # 87

Will Iran ignite?

Tehran’s missile test triggers calls for sanctions—just the latest flash point in what promises to be a tense month ahead. Gary Sick on what to watch for as Iran’s dissidents turn up the heat.

The next month in Iran is likely to be extremely hot.

The Shiite mourning month of Muharram begins on December 18. It involves massive street marches of citizens mourning the death of Imam Hossein, the quintessential martyr in the Shiite faith. He was killed on the tenth of Muharram (Ashura) in the year 680 on the plain of Karbala, in what is now Iraq. He and a small band of devoted followers were killed, according to Shiite tradition, while opposing the oppression and the wrongful rule of the Caliph Yazid.

This event is rich in symbolism and is extremely emotional. The life and martyrdom of Hossein is relived in sermons and passion plays that touch all Iranians from their earliest days. It is well known for the sometimes grisly marches of thousands of young men, some dressed in shrouds, who march through the streets rhythmically beating themselves with chains or other instruments, not unlike the “mortification of the flesh” sometimes practiced by Christian believers, with the same intent of purification and as a demonstration of utter devotion.

@'Daily Beast'

Brazil boy found with 40 needles in 'black magic rite'

A Brazilian toddler has been found with up to 40 needles inside him, which police say his stepfather deliberately inserted in a "black magic" ritual.

Police said Roberto Carlos Magalhaes has confessed to sticking the sewing needles into the two-year-old boy, who is in intensive care at a hospital.

Mr Magalhaes said his mistress told him to ritually kill the child to take revenge on his wife.

Doctors will try to remove the needles, some 2in (5cm) long, from the boy.

The toddler was taken to hospital in the north-eastern Bahia state by his mother, complaining of stomach pains and vomiting.

X-rays showed scores of sewing needles inside his neck, torso and legs. At least one had punctured a lung.

'Revenge attack'

Police said Mr Magalhaes broke down and confessed after being arrested.

"He did that for revenge, to get back at his wife," the police chief the town of Ibotirama, Helder Fernandes Santana, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

"His mistress told him to kill the child through a macabre ritual," Mr Santana said.

The mother told police she suspected that the boy had been the victim of a black magic ritual after she found suspicious objects in the home she shared with Mr Magalhaes - her husband of six months - and her six children.

Doctors said most of the needles will be removed, but not the ones inside organs as their removal could cause more damage.

They said there were no signs of wounds on the boy.

Reports say the boy is in serious condition, but that he has shown some improvement since being admitted to hospital on Sunday.

Doctors initially said up to 50 needles had been inserted into the child, but later revised that figure to up to 40.

@'BBC'

Iran's jails: An inside view

A female prison guard stands in a corridor in Tehran's Evin prison on June 13, 2006. Evin is Iran's most notorious prison but some detained in 2009 report that treatment is worse in smaller makeshift jails. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Reuters)

Iran’s jails have a notorious reputation for brutal conditions and harsh interrogation methods that include torture.

Now Iranian and international human rights organizations warn that a string of hidden detention sites have been established throughout Tehran and its suburbs by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The disturbing reports come from many of the thousands of Iran’s opposition supporters who have been arrested in the anti-government demonstrations since the disputed June 12 elections. Several of those released describe being kept in unimaginable conditions inside industrial containers, storerooms and a former Revolutionary Guard arms factory hastily converted into a prison.

“They herded us blindfolded into what I thought was a stadium where they beat us solidly for three days and threatened to execute us,” said one recently released prisoner who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. “They said to us that since we haven’t been registered, officially we don’t exist.”

In July, the death of Mohsen Rooholamini, 25, the son of a prominent conservative, spurred Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to order the closure of Kahrizak detention center and the release of 140 political prisoners from Evin Prison.

“The main reason behind Khamenei’s order to close Kahrizak was to prevent Majlis (Iran’s parliament) from doing an investigation on it like it is planning on investigating some detention centers,” said Mehdi Khalaji, a specialist on Iranian politics at the Washington Institute...

@'Global Post' 
 
Basij member describes election abuse

Copying is NOT theft (Thanx HerrB)

Movie posters of the decade

@'The Auteurs' 
(Thanx Stan)

Greens, EFA critical of ISP filtering plans

The chorus of voices critiquing the Federal Government’s mandatory ISP-level filtering plans has grown larger with the Greens and Electronic Frontiers Australia joining the likes of the Federal Opposition and Google in opposing the filter.

Greens communications spokesperson, senator Scott Ludlam said in a statement that the party was “deeply concerned” about the Federal Government's intention to plough ahead on ISP level filtering

“The pointless nature of this proposal is set out in the report itself, which admits that the filters will be circumvented by people seeking blocked material," Ludlam said.

"The Government has also indicated the open-ended nature of the filter by acknowledging they will be importing blacklists from overseas to supplement the Australian list. As many people have said, this is the thin end of the wedge. The policy is simply misguided.”

Ludlum said unless the Government changed tack on its plans, the Greens would move significant amendments to this legislation if it is introduced to the Senate.

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) spokesperson Colin Jacobs claimed in a statement that the criteria for success of the Federal Government’s trial of the mandatory ISP-level filter was set far too low. “Given the pilot’s modest goals, it was designed from the beginning to pass,” Jacobs said. “Although it may address some technical issues, what it leaves out is far more important – exactly what will be blocked, who will decide, and why is it being attempted in the first place?”

The EFA noted that, since the last election, the Federal Government’s cyber-safety plan had shifted away from providing tools to shield minors on the web to a black list of almost exclusively Refused Classification content aimed at adults.

“The Government knows this plan will not help Australian kids, nor will it aid in the policing of prohibited material. Given the problems in maintaining a secret blacklist and deciding what goes on it, we’re at a loss to explain the Minister’s enthusiasm for this proposal,” Jacobs said.

“We’ll be interested to see how the Internet service providers respond. We know they are critical of having such intrusive Government interference in their networks,” he added.

The EFA said that although communication minister Stephen Conroy had hailed the pilot a success, many concerns about the proposal remained ignored, with neither draft legislation nor a comprehensive policy document have yet been released to the Australian public, though legislation is expected in 2010.

“Successful technology isn’t necessarily successful policy,” Jacobs said. “We’re yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers’ money on.”

Google has also expressed its concern over the Federal Government’s plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, arguing that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide.

@'Computer World'

Child groups slam Conroy’s ISP filtering plans

When free speech is criminalised,

only criminals will be free

(Thanx Loki)

Computer says no: Google slams filter

Internet search giant Google has come out in opposition to the Federal Government's push to introduce mandatory ISP filtering.

In a post on Google Australia's official blog, the company said the plan raised concerns about censorship.

"At Google we are concerned by the Government's plans to introduce a mandatory filtering regime for Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Australia, the first of its kind amongst Western democracies," the post said.

"Our primary concern is that the scope of content to be filtered is too wide."

While Google accepted there must be some limits on internet content, it condemned the Government's filtering approach as heavy-handed.

"We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression," the post said.

"While we recognise that protecting the free exchange of ideas and information cannot be without some limits, we believe that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual.

"Some limits, like child pornography, are obvious. No Australian wants that to be available - and we agree. Google, like many other internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results.

"But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy-handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information."

Citing a recent report into filtering, Google said the use of refused classification (RC) as a screening tool would go far beyond restricting illegal content.

"The recent report by Professors Catharine Lumby, Lelia Green and John Hartley - Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering - has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited under the proposed filtering regime," the post said.

'Grey realms'

"Refused classification is a broad category of content that includes not just child sexual abuse material but also socially and politically controversial material - for example, educational content on safer drug use - as well as the grey realms of material instructing in any crime, including politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia.

"This type of content may be unpleasant and unpalatable but we believe that government should not have the right to block information which can inform debate of controversial issues."

But the Federal Government maintains the new filter rules are not intended to curtail freedom of speech.

Google said the Government should instead focus on education and providing effective filtering tools for individuals.

"While the discussion on ISP filtering continues, we should all retain focus on making the Internet safer for people of all ages," the post said.

"Our view is that online safety should focus on user education, user empowerment through technology tools, and cooperation between law enforcement and industry partners. The Government has committed important cyber safety education and engagement programs and yesterday announced additional measures that we welcome."

Google also defended weighing into the controversy, saying discussion on contentious issues was needed for effective democracy.

"Exposing politically controversial topics for public debate is vital for democracy," it said.

"Homosexuality was a crime in Australia until 1976 in ACT, NSW in 1984 and 1997 in Tasmania. Political and social norms change over time and benefit from intense public scrutiny and debate.

"The openness of the internet makes this all the more possible and should be protected.

"The Government has requested comments from interested parties on its proposals for filtering and we encourage everyone to make their views known in this important debate."
@'ABC'

DEA recruits Lil' Wayne to use up all Mexico's drugs

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.

Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.

"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.

"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.

The IMF estimated that large US and European banks lost more than $1tn on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009 and more than 200 mortgage lenders went bankrupt. Many major institutions either failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover.

Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.

British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks."

@'The Guardian'

Smoking # 40

Fela: King of the Invisible Art

Christopher Hitchins: In defence of foxhole atheists

It’s no secret that conservative Christians dominate the U.S. military, but when higher-ups start talking about conversion missions, it’s time to worry. The author meets a group of soldiers who aren’t having it.

@'Vanity Fair'

One of this year's most overlooked albums

Pop Crimes by Roland S. Howard

Get a recording of the Sydney album launch at Oxford Arts Club on October 22, 2009

Setlist:

Pop Crimes/Dead Radio/Shut Me Down/She Cried/Wayward Man (False Start)/Wayward Man

Avé Maria/Life's What You Make It/The Golden Age of Bloodshed/Sleep Alone

Encores: Exit Everything/Autoluminescent

HERE

He Hongqing's Chinese face mask changing

Nicole Kidman refuses to discuss Scientology

Nicole Kidman iced over when British reporter Andrew Marr brought up "one of the things you haven't talked about before" on his BBC show. That topic was her ex-husband's religion.

"Scientology," said Marr. "A lot of people would say it is a bullying cult."

Kidman stumbled over her response before deciding she wasn't going to give one.

"I just don't . . . This is just so not . . ." she said. Then, "I'm here to publicize 'Nine.' If I was here to do an expose on myself then I'd be like, 'Let's go,' but I have no interest in discussing any of that."

"You don't want to talk about Scientology?" Marr persisted.

"No, I'll talk about 'Nine,'" said Kidman.

The tense exchange was scrapped from the television version of 'The Andrew Marr Show' but released online by the BBC.

Watch video @'HuffPo'

Hmmm!

@'Neatorama' via 'Mogadonia'

More creepy Santas (whose laps we want nothing to do with) @'Mental Floss'