Spizzenergi - Where's Captain Kirk? 7''
44 minutes ago
Sunday, 24 January 2010
A worthy woman's cause
kristinhersh 
a throwing muses CASH project - my dream come true - i'll be sharing demos and more here: http://bit.ly/7cx6UF & here: http://bit.ly/60ozCH
LURVE
You know what they say: BIG thumbs...
(Normally of course I would thank SirM for this but until I get my 2 cases of beer well I just ain't gonna!)
Four Tet - BBC Essential Mix 23/01/10
One of the UK's most creative music brains delivers a lush two hours of genre bending electronic music.
Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, is a London based producer and DJ who has held residencies at The End and Plastic People in the capital and regularly plays venues as diverse as The Plug in Sheffield to the Cartier Foundation in Paris.
His fifth album as Four Tet is released this week, entitled 'There Is Love In You'.
Broadcast on:BBC Radio 1, 3:00am Saturday 23rd January 2010 Duration: 120 minutes
Four Tet -BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix 23.01.2010
Tracklist
Four Tet — Angel Echoes
Floating Points — Vacuum
Robert Owens — Bring Down The Walls
STL — Jungle Sometimes
Oni Ayhun — Oar003 B Oni
Weather Report — Non-Stop Home
DJ Sprinkles — Grand Central Pt1 (Mcde Bassline Dub)
Four Tet — Sing
Benge — 1981 Yamaha Cs70m
Joy Orbison — So Derobe
Melchior Productions — Different Places
Dem 2 — Luv's Hard New York
Seelenluft — Manila (Manitoba Remix)
William Onyeabor — When The Going Is Smooth And Good
Pryda — Muranyi
Moodymann — Det.Riot
Zomby — Digital Fauna
Joyce — Aldela De Ogum
Joe Goddard — Apple Bobbing (Four Tet Remix)
Roman Cassy — Soul Saviour
One Little Plane — Lotus Flower (Avus She's Singing Mix)
Hard House Banton — Reign
Four Tet — Sing (Floating Points Remix)
Troy Pierce — Oxytocin
Laurie Spiegel — Patchwork
Philo Eluvium — The Motion Makes Me Last (Four Tet Remix)
Four Tet interview
BBC
Via'Extra Music New'
Top Five (Less Sensational But More Dangerous) Things to Remember About Pat Robertson
Few things are less surprising than Pat Robertson making ignorant and offensive comments about the earthquake in Haiti. As I will explain, I am not sure that attacking him is the best use of anyone’s time. Nevertheless he has provoked me to rank my top five things to remember about him—less as a direct response to his comments than as a way to cut though the media frenzy caused by the comments and to address wider issues raised by his career.
Most people know that Robertson interpreted the quake in the context of Haitians who supposedly “swore a pact to the devil” during Haiti’s war for independence from the French. According to Robertson, they told Satan “we will serve you if you will get us free.” Satan then responded, “OK, it’s a deal” and “ever since, they have been cursed.”
Is this worth acknowledging? Comments by Robertson that are racist, sexist, arrogant, complacent, misleading, and/or embarrassing are like a bus: if you miss one today, there will be another tomorrow. Those who stir the pot by writing “can you believe he said that!” do not always seem to grasp that Robertson makes such comments continually. The question is when and why a larger public tunes in and makes an issue of it—and who benefits if they do.
Often it is Robertson who benefits, and a ritual of liberals mocking him actually strengthens his subculture. Susan Harding’s Book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics (Princeton U. Press, 2001) shows how leaders of the New Christian Right (NCR) purposefully hone a rhetoric that creates “gaps” of credibility for listeners. Such gaps continually challenge people who are tempted by NCR rhetoric to reaffirm loyalty to their leaders—and by extension to burn bridges that could change them from believers to skeptical outsiders. The more outrageous the gaps, the more that reaffirming loyalty in the face of them allows conservatives to maintain their self-image as misunderstood and persecuted. Thus they can discount Robertson’s flaws within frames like “the sincere leader with feet of clay” (who, like King David, models repentance and rehabilitation) or the “truth-teller quoted out of context” (who, like Christ, will triumph in the end.)
Meanwhile, beyond an NCR subculture, sensational images of Robertson as a fringe figure—an extreme loose cannon—underplay continuities between him and mainstream conservatives, making allies with roughly similar ideas seem like lesser evils.
So I wondered whether to acknowledge Robertson’s latest provocation. It bores me, and I feel cheapened even to think about it as I worry about one of my students who has not yet returned from a mission trip to Haiti. When I needed a religion-oriented news tidbit to pique student interests, I did not seriously consider Robertson above Brit Hume’s suggestion that Tiger Woods should convert to Christianity, since Buddhism does not “offer the kind of forgiveness and redemption” he needs.
Still I could not resist clicking on a list of Robertson’s top ten greatest gaffes that I found in the blogosphere. It was amusing to ponder the rankings. Does Robertson’s feat of leg-pressing 2000 pounds (thanks to the diet shakes he was selling) deserve first place? Does his blaming 9/11 on LGBTs merit only fourth place? How can we forget Robertson praying for the deaths of liberal Supreme Court Justices? Pondering such matters led me to a comment thread about Robertson on Salon. Amid the predictable responses (much hateful mocking, a few claims that he was quoted out of context, and conflations of his Christianity with “religion” at large) there was a challenge to non-Robertsonite Christians: Given that ordinary Muslims are incessantly challenged to repudiate Osama bin Laden, why aren’t liberal Christians under similar pressure to repudiate Robertson?
I’ll take that bait. An ongoing aspect of my life—one of its taken-for-granted background assumptions—is repudiating people like Robertson. (I suppose most Muslims would say analogous things.) I have written many articles attacking the NCR or pressing liberals to be less wishy-washy in distancing themselves from him, and I wrote a book with a section on the NCR that ends with this reaction to a conservative leader from a radical Nicaraguan priest: “I do not see how we have the same faith; we do not believe in the same Christ.”
Still, I do worry about attacking Robertson in ways that help rather than hurt him.
So here is my own “top ten” list—except that it stops at five, and it spins the morals of its story differently from a standard “let’s mock Pat for being clueless” approach. Feel free to suggest five more in comments.
5) Robertson plays his part in the Iran-Contra scandal.
During the Central American civil wars of the 1980s, Robertson helped fund “cities of refuge” in Guatemala (what were called “strategic hamlets” in Vietnam), and camps for Nicaraguan Contras. Though trivial in scale compared to the policies of Bush and Cheney, allies of Reagan, funded illegally through the Iran-Contra connection and related schemes, were carrying out sadistic massacres in parts of countries they considered to be too leftist. Congressional Democrats were trying to stop the violence; which is what led Reagan, Oliver North, and others to develop illegal channels. Robertson cheerfully presented his piece of this puzzle as an opportunity for Christian mission. He even appeared on camera, with no apparent shame, to pray with Contra troops.
The moral: Since we already knew how Robertson is willing to stretch the law when he feels he has a divine mandate, we merely note this in passing—but we pause to recall the depths of criminality among Reagan’s operatives, and to reflect on how many from this cohort could have been prosecuted for activities related to the Iran-Contra scandal.
4) Robertson fuses with News Corp.
Robertson built what was once the nation’s fourth-largest television network—partly through claiming tax breaks as a religious ministry. Then he cashed in when Rupert Murdoch acquired what was then known as The Family Channel.
This story has two morals: The first is that Fox News and Robertson’s “news” deserve about the same degree of respect from journalists. Second, critics have raised questions about the legality of financial transactions related to Robertson’s business empire. Although at this point there’s no way to determine how well these accusations would hold up in court, we can easily imagine more diligent investigations.
3) Robertson becomes a leading presidential candidate.
In the 1988 presidential primaries, Robertson was the early Republican front-runner—a classic case dramatizing his centrality to the NCR and the NCR’s centrality to the Republican Party.
The moral of this story is not to retell embarrassing campaign anecdotes, but to bear in mind that NCR leaders have worked with considerable success to take over the Republican Party. In With God on Their Side (New Press, 2004), Esther Kaplan estimated that in 2002 the NCR dominated the Republican organizations of eighteen states and controlled at least a quarter of Republican committees in forty-four states. True, this does not eliminate a tug-of-war among the NCR, neoconservatives, and old-time Wall Street Republicans. However, the image of Robertson as president is a good way to focus our attention on how non-Robertsonite Republicans are in bed with the NCR. Here again we can catch this “bus” whenever we wish to ride it.
2) Robertson publishes an anti-Semitic screed and neo-conservative allies yawn.
Robertson’s 1991 book, The New World Order, recycled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and stated that George Bush Sr. was part of a conspiracy to institute “an occult-inspired world socialist dictatorship” (through his work with the United Nations in the first Gulf War). This caused few of Robertson’s neoconservative allies to break with him in any decisive way—although one former neocon, Michael Lind, denounced him in a major exposé in the New York Review of Books.
Moral of the story: I rank this second because it overlaps with the third, but the non-Robertsonite conservatives in the second at least have a fig leaf of an alibi. They beat back Robertson’s 1988 charge and have engaged in related scrimmages ever since. However, I see no such alibi for looking the other way as Robertson made anti-Semitic smears (plus similar attacks on New Agers, feminists, Muslims, and others) and absurd claims about global politics. More than the 1988 campaign (or the subsequent partnership of his lieutenant in this campaign, Ralph Reed, in the criminal schemes of Jack Abramoff) this case dramatizes the moral bankruptcy of alliances between the NCR and neoconservative power brokers.
1) The top of my list revealed:
What could top such a list? Since we’re on the subject of disasters, we might note how, amid the response to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA hyped Robertson’s philanthropic arm, Operation Blessing. This organization is small and unorthodox at best, and has been accused of various irregularities. Yet early in the crisis it appeared on a FEMA list of just three places to donate, alongside the Red Cross. If we compare these groups’ track records, this is like addressing a food crisis by listing Joe’s Diner alongside a giant supermarket chain—if Joe’s Diner were under suspicion of money laundering. In effect, these high-profile appeals were a case of FEMA using the Katrina disaster, deliberately or through incompetence, as a pretext to give Robertson a windfall of cash. This is a clear contender for the top ten list, though it doesn’t make today’s because it’s just possible that Robertson did some good in New Orleans, just as it’s possible that he is doing some good in Haiti now.
My actual top pick is Robertson’s casual contempt for, and celebration of outright rebellion against, US government leaders—including imaginative scenarios for armed munity. It is well known that end-times scenarios (such Robertson’s attack on the UN in The New World Order) often teach unilateralism. However, they only reinforce commitments to democracy insofar as US leaders are seen as biblically sound. If leaders are seen as capitulating to the Antichrist, it becomes the believer’s duty to deceive and disobey them by any means necessary, including armed resistance. In Robertson’s End of the Age (a book that restates his argument from The New World Order in the form of a novel), a heroic Christian general lies to the president and secedes from the United States with several nuclear bases.
The moral: Robertson may never again be a major politician, and when he sold out to Rupert Murdoch he gave up some of his power to shape the news. But he still helps form the imaginations of the students at his university and the viewers of his show, and in this role he often channels their hopes and fears into imagining holy wars—scenarios in which believers escalate their commitments into armed struggles against liberals and sectors of the US government. This is the level at which Robertson’s influence remains most disturbing.
Let’s be clear that merely conducting thought experiments—imagining how the United States could disintegrate into a war between the righteous and unrighteous—is not necessarily a problem. Many kinds of legitimate dissent and hopes for the future can be channeled through prophetic images. Some of these are harmless or even constructive. Still, the more that these thoughts point toward the sorts of actions that Robertson seems to consider appropriate, the more disturbing they are; bordering on what ordinary people might perceive as treason.
On most days I suspect that Robertson is engaged in a split consciousness at this point. Just as he may say that he doubts evolution (in one compartment of his brain) while accepting the science of vaccinations against evolving bacteria (in another compartment), likewise he probably brackets certain ideas about Satan’s activities in Haiti or the Antichrist’s role at the UN from “reality-based” evidence. This is one check against us becoming excessively alarmed. Another is to recall that there are also liberal versions of imagining warfare—such as people who fantasize about being Na’vi warriors as they surf the internet in the suburbs. It is no more inevitable that Left Behind fans will move to survivalist compounds and begin paramilitary training to battle the UN than that Avatar fans will give up their iPods and clothes and move to a rain forest.
Still, even if we discount Robertson’s extreme expressions of disloyalty (imagining the president as Satan, praying for the death of Supreme Court Justices) as harmless free speech, are these not remarkable simply at the level of imagination and hate speech? What if secular leftists or radical Muslims were to advocate similar scenarios of armed struggle or to use similar hate speech? What if they controlled television networks and were leading presidential candidates? Would federal prosecutors and mainstream news networks tolerate such behavior? Is it not remarkable that we take such things for granted from Robertson? As a wise media critic once said, “it’s a joke, but it’s not that funny.”
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Weeping Prophet - The Jazz Dispute
The music is "Leap Frog" by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, with Thelonious Monk, Curly Russell and Buddy Rich (1950).
UK terrorist threat level raised to 'severe'
The UK terror threat level is being raised from "substantial" to "severe", Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
The new alert level means a terrorist attack is considered "highly likely". It had stood at substantial since July. It is in response to the perceived increased threat from international terrorism following the failed Detroit airliner bombing on Christmas Day.
Mr Johnson stressed there was no intelligence to suggest a terrorist attack was imminent.
The decision to raise the threat level was made by the UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC).
 | THREAT LEVEL SYSTEM Low - attack is unlikely Moderate - attack is possible, but not likely Substantial - attack is a strong possibility Severe - attack is highly likely Critical - attack is expected imminently  |
He said: "We still face a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism, so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity."
Mr Johnson said the new level meant people needed to be "more aware".
The decision to raise the threat level was not specifically linked to the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on a plane bound for Detroit or to any other incident, he said.
He said the government would not reveal specific intelligence details.
"We never say what the intelligence is and it would be pretty daft of us to do that," he said, adding: "It shouldn't be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter."
But the UK had not reached the highest threat level of "critical", which would mean an attack was imminent.
Move mirrors US
He added: "We have a very adept and very focused counter terrorism facility in this country, which consists of many police officers as well as security officers, so the public should be reassured by that."
The US Department of Homeland Security said the move meant the UK would be on a similar level of alert to America.
 The threat level was last at severe in July 2009 |
"We have enhanced our security measures and communicated specific information to industry, law enforcement and the American people."
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said the perceived threat from Yemen since the Christmas day attempted attack may be one factor behind the decision to raise the threat level.
But he added that there might be additional factors which have not been revealed by the government.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on Wednesday that direct flights between Yemen and the UK were to be suspended over fears about their safety.
The change in threat level comes days ahead of two major international conferences on Yemen and Afghanistan in London on Wednesday and Thursday.
There are five levels of terror threat, ranging from low - meaning an attack is unlikely - to critical - when an attack is expected imminently. Severe is the second highest level on the scale.
The threat level was first made public on 1 August 2006, when it was set at severe. It was raised to critical on 10 August that year after a series of arrests over an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic aircraft but lowered to severe again the following week.
The threat level was last at critical in June 2007, following the attack on Glasgow Airport and the failed car bombings in central London.
The Girl On The Train [trailer]
André Téchiné’s moody character study springs from a recent cause célèbre in France: a young woman’s trumped-up story of an anti-Semitic assault on a train.
The act itself is of less importance than the before-and-after for the ever-curious French director, who sections his societal and psychological probe of the scandal into “Circumstances” and “Consequences.” Throughout both, the camera drifts along with the spacey, superficially carefree Jeanne (a magnetic Emilie Dequenne) as she rollerblades around the sun-dappled purlieus of Paris; falls in amour fou with a would-be Olympic wrestler; spends dutiful time with mom Catherine Deneuve; and riles up the country with her troubling make-believe.
While Téchiné’s picture touches upon race, religion, and the all-in nature of media in contemporary France, it’s his insoluble portrait of this femme — folly and all — that lingers long after.
Read the New York Times’ recent profile on Catherine Deneuve and her illustrious career, pore over critic Manohla Dargis’ review, and see how the BBC covered the real-life maelstrom.
The Israel Lobby (Part II)
Following my post of a week or so ago, I have just come across an excellent documentary from a couple of years ago of the same title over at VPRO's Youtube channel.
You can watch it
It is for the most part in English with occasional Dutch w/ English subtitles but it is very, very good.
As an aside when Christian fundamentalist ministers use the expression "intellectual honesty" I shudder!
Money quote:
"Dick Cheney and his minions (...) have brought the art of lying to a new scale, a new level."
- Col. L. Wilkerson
(Former Chief-of-Staff to Colin Powell)
Money quote:
"Dick Cheney and his minions (...) have brought the art of lying to a new scale, a new level."
- Col. L. Wilkerson
(Former Chief-of-Staff to Colin Powell)
Ubudoll @ VPRO
Can anyone help me with this?
There is a link at the Pere Ubu web site that used to link to an Ubudoll (David Thomas & Jackie Leven) gig that was recorded for VPRO in The Netherlands.
Unfortunately it has disappeared since I last listened to it (probably within the last year)
Unfortunately my Dutch isn't good enough to navigate around the site...
If anyone can find it there or indeed if they have a copy of it I would be really grateful if they could get in touch.
Bedankt/
PS: I believe there might also have been a recording made of a gig in Leiden. I do have the Paris gig recording.
PS: I believe there might also have been a recording made of a gig in Leiden. I do have the Paris gig recording.
WANT!
I did try back in the 60's with my home made cardboard Dalek outfit but this is what I should have had.
There was a wee toyshop in an arcade in Glasgow (details lost in the mist of time) but it was such a treat to get in there every couple of months or so and buy these little one inch tall Daleks.
I know my room was messy as a kid but I never forgave my father for the time that he just emptied everything that was in there (all my comics and toys) and took them up to the dump.
G'day Slim
Photo by Jeanette Beckman
How are you my friend?
All round (!) nice guy Slim who came to prominence after winning The Blockhead competition in the NME and was then to be found playing his squeezebox with Roddy Radiation in The Tearjerkers (still have my denim jacket with the logo on the back!)
Played with Wreckless Eric, Wilko Johnson, The Boothill Foot Tappers (even managing to get on Top of the Pops), The Blubbery Hellbellies amongst many others and was the accordian player of choice for visiting luminaries such as Joe Ely when they hit the UK.
Currently to be found fronting Slim's Cyder Co.
PS:Scurvy Bastard will be bringing a message next time he catches up with you...
(Thanx Stan!)
Played with Wreckless Eric, Wilko Johnson, The Boothill Foot Tappers (even managing to get on Top of the Pops), The Blubbery Hellbellies amongst many others and was the accordian player of choice for visiting luminaries such as Joe Ely when they hit the UK.
Currently to be found fronting Slim's Cyder Co.
(Thanx Stan!)
Friday, 22 January 2010
Does anyone have this to share?
FLYING MIJINKO BAND - Central Asian Tour
This 2 disc set was issued by the Japan Foundation in limited quantity for "donation to qualified institutions". It centers on a tour set up by the Foundation during August and September 1994, through the Far East. It features musicians from America, Asia and Africa as well as native musicians from the countries visited.
Disc one: Section 1 (16:36): Qi Baoligao - Two Fleet Steeds of Genghis Khan (Mongolian Folk Song) 5:24; Flying Mijinko Band - Niikawa Kodaijin (Japanese Folk Song) 7:11;
Section 2 (16:03): Flying Mijinko Band - Tugrug Man From Texas (BL,Suso) 14:46;
Section 3 (13:55): Uzbekistan Troupe - Azim Daryo Uygurcha (Usbek. Folk Song) 8:35; Flying Mijinko Band, Qi Baoligao and Yema - Kohjoh No Tsuki (Taki) 5:43;
Section 4 (14:38): Flying Mijinko Band - Tsugaru Jongara-Bushi (Japanese Folk Song) 11:35.
Disc two: Section 1 (10:12): Flying Mijinko Band - Tsombon Tuuraitai Khuren (Mongolian Folk Song) 8:00;
Section 2 (6:17): Mongolian Troupe - Gepee Busgui gooj Nanna (Mongolian Folk Song) 3:22; Flying Mijinko Band and Uzbekistan Troupe - Leave Me (Turkish Song) 1:12;
Section 3 (10:23): Flying Mijinko Band - Morioka Sansa Odori (Japanese Folk Song) 9:42;
Section 4 (9:43): Flying Mijinko Band and Uzbekistan Troupe - Wica (Epo) 9:43;
Section 5 (7:00): Flying Mijinko Band - Sii Mai Yahlong (African Song) 4:48;
Section 6 (10:44): Flying Mijinko Band - Akita-Ondo (Jap. Folk Song) 7:25; Flying Mijinko Band - Kelafa (African Song) 1:30.
Akira Sakata: reeds; Febian Resa Pane: piano, keyboards; Asuka Kaneko: violin; Shozan Tanabe: shakuhachi; Michihiro Sato: tsugaru-shamisen; Nicky Skopelitis: electric guitar; Hiroshi Yoshino: contrabass; Bill Laswell: electric bass; Anton Fier: drums; Aiyb Dieng: percussion; Shigeri Kitsu: vocal, percussion; Foday Musa Suso: kora, voice, doussongoni; Kaori Kitsu: vocal, percussion; Epo: vocal; Guest musicians: Qi Baoligao: morin khoor; Yema: ????; Uzbekistan Troupe: Ismailov Khashimzhon: gidjak; Abdurashidov Abdulakad: nai; Turaev Bakhodir: doira; Kholtozhiev Abdurakhman Akbarovich: kanun; Mongolian Troupe: Dashijaviin Tsogbadrakh: morin khoor; Myagmarin Altangerel: khoomii; Segseegiin Enkhbayar: yadag.
Recorded at Ulan Theater, Hohhot on September 21, 1994 and at The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Japan, on September 25 & 26, 1994. Mixed at Greenpoint Studio. Engineering by Oz Fritz.
Executive Producer: Harumi Nakajima for the Japan Foundation.
Produced by Akira Sakata and Bill Laswell.
1995 - The Japan Foundation, JF-CD 0001-2 (2CD) *****
This 2 disc set was issued by the Japan Foundation in limited quantity for "donation to qualified institutions". It centers on a tour set up by the Foundation during August and September 1994, through the Far East. It features musicians from America, Asia and Africa as well as native musicians from the countries visited.
Disc one: Section 1 (16:36): Qi Baoligao - Two Fleet Steeds of Genghis Khan (Mongolian Folk Song) 5:24; Flying Mijinko Band - Niikawa Kodaijin (Japanese Folk Song) 7:11;
Section 2 (16:03): Flying Mijinko Band - Tugrug Man From Texas (BL,Suso) 14:46;
Section 3 (13:55): Uzbekistan Troupe - Azim Daryo Uygurcha (Usbek. Folk Song) 8:35; Flying Mijinko Band, Qi Baoligao and Yema - Kohjoh No Tsuki (Taki) 5:43;
Section 4 (14:38): Flying Mijinko Band - Tsugaru Jongara-Bushi (Japanese Folk Song) 11:35.
Disc two: Section 1 (10:12): Flying Mijinko Band - Tsombon Tuuraitai Khuren (Mongolian Folk Song) 8:00;
Section 2 (6:17): Mongolian Troupe - Gepee Busgui gooj Nanna (Mongolian Folk Song) 3:22; Flying Mijinko Band and Uzbekistan Troupe - Leave Me (Turkish Song) 1:12;
Section 3 (10:23): Flying Mijinko Band - Morioka Sansa Odori (Japanese Folk Song) 9:42;
Section 4 (9:43): Flying Mijinko Band and Uzbekistan Troupe - Wica (Epo) 9:43;
Section 5 (7:00): Flying Mijinko Band - Sii Mai Yahlong (African Song) 4:48;
Section 6 (10:44): Flying Mijinko Band - Akita-Ondo (Jap. Folk Song) 7:25; Flying Mijinko Band - Kelafa (African Song) 1:30.
Akira Sakata: reeds; Febian Resa Pane: piano, keyboards; Asuka Kaneko: violin; Shozan Tanabe: shakuhachi; Michihiro Sato: tsugaru-shamisen; Nicky Skopelitis: electric guitar; Hiroshi Yoshino: contrabass; Bill Laswell: electric bass; Anton Fier: drums; Aiyb Dieng: percussion; Shigeri Kitsu: vocal, percussion; Foday Musa Suso: kora, voice, doussongoni; Kaori Kitsu: vocal, percussion; Epo: vocal; Guest musicians: Qi Baoligao: morin khoor; Yema: ????; Uzbekistan Troupe: Ismailov Khashimzhon: gidjak; Abdurashidov Abdulakad: nai; Turaev Bakhodir: doira; Kholtozhiev Abdurakhman Akbarovich: kanun; Mongolian Troupe: Dashijaviin Tsogbadrakh: morin khoor; Myagmarin Altangerel: khoomii; Segseegiin Enkhbayar: yadag.
Recorded at Ulan Theater, Hohhot on September 21, 1994 and at The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Japan, on September 25 & 26, 1994. Mixed at Greenpoint Studio. Engineering by Oz Fritz.
Executive Producer: Harumi Nakajima for the Japan Foundation.
Produced by Akira Sakata and Bill Laswell.
1995 - The Japan Foundation, JF-CD 0001-2 (2CD) *****
As far as I can make out, this was never officially released to the public but was released to libraries and other institutions.
If anyone can fix me up with a copy of this (my Bill Laswell holy grail) I shall be indebted for life!
The Guardian Launches Search Engine for Government Data
The Guardian, ostensibly a UK newspaper, but also a major proponent for opening data held by governments to use by outside software developers, has launched some software of its own: a search engine that unearths datasets and pathways to data sets provided by governments around the world. World Government Data Search is now live. Yesterday the UK government released its new data site, data.gov.uk, to rave reviews (including ours). The new Guardian search engine searches across the UK, US, New Zealand and Australian governments' data sites. The company also offered up a gallery of the 10 best visualizations and mash-ups built on top of government data like this.
The Guardian quotes developer Ben Fry on the future of searching government data: "This is only going one way: there is no trend towards less data."
Following an era when the quantity of data available online increased in orders of magnitude, thanks largely to easy publishing tools for end-users like blogging and social networks, many people expect the next era of development online to focus on strategic moves to make the most valuable data available in standardized formats that facilitate innovation by 3rd parties independent of the original sources of the data.
If large, standardized data sets are a new language, then it's time for a new period of literature to be written.
Talking of (suppressed) government reports, read this and weep
KIng Britt
Intricate Beauty is the final “conventional” dance album King Britt will ever make. And how fitting this final chapter also marks King’s first ever release on seminal house music label Nervous Records. This is the seal of quality. Don’t worry, though, King Britt’s not going anywhere as an artist. He’ll be concentrating on more experimental based music and searching for new avenues to help push the live electronic improvisational end of performance. But for now, you have a real treat to behold with the Intricate Beauty. Eleven tracks of soulful rhythms constructed and mixed together like a grand jigsaw puzzle. Quintessential King.
Intricate Beauty pulls together the different sounds that have helped shape King’s dance DJ mind over the years. This is the story of what he loves to spin and how it all relates. In a sense, this is all the greatness of King Britt wrapped up under one disc. Like a physical incarnation of the intricate mind, the process of how this album was constructed is quite advanced. King based the album on tiny microsounds he procured from various random recordings and CDs. He then took all these tiny pieces and dumped them into Ableton Live where he sewed the puzzle pieces together. Once there were approximately 50 workable combinations of tracks he then constructed the songs musically. “In a few months I intend to release all the bits and pieces from Intricate Beauty as a “Live Pack.” These will be sounds that people can use for inspiration and production,” King says
Beyond the album, this is a period of great change for King Britt. Not only is he working in a new studio but he’s also cleansed spiritually; something that has also enabled him to enter into a new creative space with his newest venture Saturn Never Sleeps with multimedia artist Rucyl (www.saturnneversleeps.com/
It’s been 20 years on the music scene for King Britt and his projects, collaborations and affiliations are always truly mind-blowing. From his time as Silkworm in the groundbreaking, Grammy winning Digable Planets, to starting Ovum Recordings with Josh Wink, producing platinum remixes for Macy Gray, Solange, Donna Lewis and hundreds of others, winning the highest grant in the country as the first dj/producer, The Pew Fellowship or starting his empire, FiveSixMedia, King Britt still tries to live in the NOW and not the then.
God - My Pal
One of the best singles EVER!!!
Written and performed when they were what...16?
Here is the finalised track listing for the forthcoming GOD reissue:
DISC 1
FOR LOVERS ONLY LP
1. Gunk
2. Headin' For The Id
3. Golly Wolly Golly Wolly Hoo Hoo Ha
4. Sook
5. Snake Charmer
6. Talkin' Rude On The Telephone
7. Blistered Mind
8. She's Hungry
9. Half-Ass
10. Bone Dry
11. The Day They Buried Hemensley
12. Dominatrix
13. Life's So Hard
14. Love You To Death
MY PAL 7"
15. My Pal
16. A Man Without A Woman Is Like A Nun Without A Jackhammer
ROCK IS HELL Mini-LP
17. Rockin' Marky
18. Human Abbreviation
19. Magic Crayfus
20. Meat Cleaver Boy
21. Chockablock Rock 'n' Roll (unabridged version)
22. Rok Zombi
23. Wormsweat
24. Tommy The Toilet
DISC 2
COVERS
1. Real Cool Time (Stooges)
2. Strutter (Kiss)
LIVE (GOD's Final Show 30/9/1989)
3. Gunk
4. Headin' For The Id
5. The Day They Buried Hemensley
6. Rok Zombi
7. Talkin' Rude On The Telephone
8. Blistered Mind
9. She's Hungry
10. Half-Ass
11. My Pal
12. Meat Cleaver Boy
13. Human Abbreviation
14. Snake Charmer
15. Chockablock Rock 'n' Roll
16. Love You To Death
Coming soon:
And if you only buy one record this year, make it this one!
Track listing for GOD reissue - 2CD - 40 tracks Here is the finalised track listing for the forthcoming GOD reissue:
DISC 1
FOR LOVERS ONLY LP
1. Gunk
2. Headin' For The Id
3. Golly Wolly Golly Wolly Hoo Hoo Ha
4. Sook
5. Snake Charmer
6. Talkin' Rude On The Telephone
7. Blistered Mind
8. She's Hungry
9. Half-Ass
10. Bone Dry
11. The Day They Buried Hemensley
12. Dominatrix
13. Life's So Hard
14. Love You To Death
MY PAL 7"
15. My Pal
16. A Man Without A Woman Is Like A Nun Without A Jackhammer
ROCK IS HELL Mini-LP
17. Rockin' Marky
18. Human Abbreviation
19. Magic Crayfus
20. Meat Cleaver Boy
21. Chockablock Rock 'n' Roll (unabridged version)
22. Rok Zombi
23. Wormsweat
24. Tommy The Toilet
DISC 2
COVERS
1. Real Cool Time (Stooges)
2. Strutter (Kiss)
LIVE (GOD's Final Show 30/9/1989)
3. Gunk
4. Headin' For The Id
5. The Day They Buried Hemensley
6. Rok Zombi
7. Talkin' Rude On The Telephone
8. Blistered Mind
9. She's Hungry
10. Half-Ass
11. My Pal
12. Meat Cleaver Boy
13. Human Abbreviation
14. Snake Charmer
15. Chockablock Rock 'n' Roll
16. Love You To Death
WTF? Rush Limbaugh says:
"There are a lot of people, when you say banker, people think Jewish. ... People who have a little prejudice about them. ... To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s – if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there."
Hope I don't ruin your Australia day listening
Don't click to enlarge if you don't want to know 2010's Hottest100 #1!
Bill Hicks said
"A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourselves off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what you can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defence each year, and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, for ever, in peace."
A Common Cut in Cocaine May Prove Deadly
It was a medical mystery. In the summer of 2008, a man and woman, both in their 20s and both cocaine users, were separately admitted to a Canadian hospital with unremitting fevers, flulike symptoms and dangerously low white-blood-cell counts. Their symptoms were consistent with a life-threatening immune-system disorder called agranulocytosis, which kills 7% to 10% of patients and is rare except in chemotherapy patients and those taking certain antipsychotic medications.
Neither of the Canadian patients fit that bill, but they did have one thing in common: illegal drug use, says Dr. Nancy Zhu, who treated the patients during her hematology fellowship at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. "We were theorizing that maybe it was something in the cocaine," she says.
he medical literature didn't contain any studies linking agranulocytosis with cocaine. However, in April of that same year, a New Mexico lab had identified a small number of unexplained cases of the disorder, also in people who had snorted, injected or smoked cocaine. Later, in 2009, a few cocaine addicts in San Francisco — crack smokers, mostly — began displaying even stranger symptoms, like dead, darkened skin. "It looked like people were getting burns all over their body," says Dr. Jonathan Graf, a rheumatologist at the University of California, San Francisco. "[Their skin was] black, as if you had taken a cigarette butt to it. In some people, it was all over, on their legs and bellies."
By that time, back in Canada, a toxicologist at Alberta Hospital had noticed an unusual chemical in the urine of the two cocaine-using patients: levamisole. Zhu contacted him, and they put the puzzle together. Further research revealed that levamisole, a drug that was once used to treat colon cancer but is now reserved for veterinary use as a medication to get rid of worms, can cause agranulocytosis in humans. The "burns" seen on Californian patients, who also were suffering from agranulocytosis, were the result of skin infections related to patients' compromised immunity. There have now been several dozen cases of cocaine-related agranulocytosis reported in North America — and one known death. "For some reason, this drug called levamisole keeps popping up," Zhu says.
Where is it coming from? According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, levamisole has become increasingly popular as a "cut," or diluting agent, in cocaine and possibly some heroin. It is now found in 70% of all cocaine seized in the U.S., up from 30% in 2008. Unlike most cuts — usually inert or relatively harmless substances like the B vitamin inositol, which are added by lower-level dealers looking to stretch supplies — levamisole appears to be added to cocaine from the outset, in the countries of origin. The substance has been found in various concentrations in cocaine analyzed in countries around the world, from Switzerland to Australia. And urine tests of cocaine users attending a drug clinic at San Francisco General Hospital in 2009 — one floor above Graf's office — found that 90% of samples were positive for levamisole; similar tests in Seattle revealed that 80% of cocaine users there had levamisole in their systems.
"If it's showing up in all those different places, that's a prima facie indicator that it's happening at the highest levels of production," says Craig Reinarman, a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has long studied cocaine. But since cocaine is illegal, there's no easy way to remove levamisole from the supply chain. Law enforcement could instead target large purchasers, possibly putting pressure on dealers to switch to other cuts.
Levamisole is cheap, widely available and seems to have the right look, taste and melting point to go unnoticed by cocaine users, which may alone account for its popularity. "Ease of availability seems likely to be important," says Reinarman. "Let's remember that producer countries are widely agrarian." Levamisole is used on farms, and its cost per gram is minimal.
An understanding of how levamisole affects the body, however, may better explain its explosive popularity. A 1998 paper found that levamisole relieved symptoms of heroin withdrawal in rats and also raised levels of various brain chemicals related to drug highs. "It may increase dopamine and by so doing may enhance cocaine effects," speculates Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Research conducted by Eldo Kuzhikandathil, assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, suggests that levamisole may indirectly increase the number of D1 dopamine receptors in the brain by affecting gene expression there. "Cocaine increases D1 expression," he says, "and this would probably accentuate that," which could enhance both highs and craving.
Levamisole also affects acetylcholine receptors throughout the body, which can boost heart rate — and studies of cocaine users show that they associate jumps in heart rate with getting high, spurring good feelings even before the drug hits the brain. A cut that accelerates heart rate might make them think they're getting the real thing. In the brain, levamisole may affect the same acetylcholine receptors activated by nicotine, another addictive drug that raises dopamine levels — which may be another clue to levamisole's lure.
But despite the wide use of levamisole, cases of agranulocytosis are relatively uncommon. According to government surveys, nearly 2 million Americans have used cocaine at least once in the past month. "Why aren't 90% of cocaine users [in San Francisco] getting sick?" wonders Graf, who says he sees about one case every few weeks, mostly in women. He suspects that men are less likely to be affected because they are less vulnerable to autoimmune disorders than women, but says the truth is that no one really knows why certain users become ill. Zhu and Graf urge users who are suffering from fever or unexplained infections to seek medical help immediately — the sooner agranulocytosis is treated, the greater the odds of survival.
To both physicians, the biggest mystery may be the power of cocaine addiction itself. Some of Graf's patients waited months before seeking help, as patches of painful, blackened skin continued to grow — and some continued to use cocaine despite learning that it caused their immune problems and that they could require plastic surgery to avoid permanent disfigurement. Zhu has treated several patients with life-threatening infections, some needing breathing tubes and intensive care. "It's quite sad — every time they use [cocaine], it happens. They wind up in the hospital for several weeks and almost die. But as soon as they go home and back into that environment, the cycle begins again."
To Dray
Your hotmail inbox appears to be full...was trying to send you something and that was the message that came back!
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Scientists Show How Brain Tumors Outsmart Drugs
Researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center have shown one way in which gliomas, a deadly type of brain tumor, can evade drugs aimed at blocking a key cell signaling protein, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR),that is crucial for tumor growth. In a related finding, they also proved that a particular EGFR mutation is important not only to initiate the tumor, but for its continued growth or "maintenance" as well...
Continue reading
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
