Sunday, 22 April 2012

The Flaming Lips’ gummy skull with marijuana flavored brain

Evolution

Joy Division - Live at Bowdon Vale Youth Club, Altrincham (March 14th 1979)

Full gig (SBD)

Setlist:
01. Exercise One 0:00
02. She's Lost Control 2:54
03. Shadowplay 7:11
04. Leaders Of Men 10:58
05. Insight 13:23
06. Disorder 17:04
07. Glass 20:36
08. Digital 24:03
09. Ice Age 27:00
10. Warsaw 30:15
11. Transmission 32:37
12. I Remember Nothing 36:07
13. No Love Lost 42:40

Saturday, 21 April 2012

Megaupload Trial May Never Happen, Judge Says

Kim Dotcom Lashes Out Against “Corrupt” US Government

Pot Legalization Could Save U.S. $13.7 Billion Per Year, 300 Economists Say

Bahrain protester found dead on eve of grand prix

Indies go on the record (or how the BIG players tried to fuck up the idea of Record Store Day in Australia)

Anti-Immigrant Group Runs False TV Ad Blaming Global Warming On Immigrants Entering The U.S.

The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal

Eric Burdon & War (Beat club 1970)

You can never get enough cowbell!!!

(Thanx Reinhard!)

'Tactfulness of the Heart' - Angela Davis on Jean Genet and The Black Panthers

(Excerpts from an unpublished Angela Davis speech at the Odeon seminar in Paris, organized by Albert Dichy for IMEC, May 25th, 26th and 27th 1991.)
When Jean Genet came to the USA in spring 1970, although it was our first meeting with him, there were many of us Black Americans who already considered him an ally because of his play The Blacks that had showed in New York a few years before. The Black Panther Party invited Genet so he could help them, holding conferences in different universities over the USA. It was a major critical stage of the black of struggle in the USA. I was in charge of translating his speeches, for instance at UCLA where I was teaching philosophy. A party was arranged for him in the house of filmmaker Dalton Trumbo in Hollywood: many stars showed up and it helped raise funds to pay the imprisoned Panthers' lawyers. David Hilliard, a member of the Black Panther Party, largely mentioned in Prisoner of Love, told me Genet had arrived with worn out clothes and was asked to get a bit dressed up. He was taken to a San Francisco shop run by a Black man so moved that Genet came to the USA to help the Panthers, he offered him a jacket, a pair of trousers and a shirt. I remember him, so happy to wear these gifts, and me, so excited to meet him. I knew his writings, he was a mythical character to me but, face to face with him, I had an almost motherly feeling. He was like a little boy, very kind and laughing a lot . . .
At the time he gave his speeches, the situation was quite complicated: there were not many White folks willing to support an organization very wrongly described as a "terrorist" one, made up of people willing to kill policemen, etc. At the time, I was a member of this movement and had lost my job as a teacher in UCLA but I quashed the decision on appeal and was reintegrated. It was very difficult to succeed in spreading out the movement and find support for Black political prisoners. On the campus, teachers and students alike would often demonstrate against the war in Vietnam. For instance, there had been a demonstration against Nixon's policy in Vietnam with ten to fifteen thousand persons; nevertheless, two weeks later, when we tried to arrange another demonstration to obtain the release of Bobby Seale, Erika Huggins and the "Soledad Brothers" ( George Jackson, John Clutchette, Fleeta Drumgo) who were in jail, we only managed to gather two hundred persons, most of them Blacks. We just didn't succeed in raising a great multiracial movement and thought Genet, thanks to his fame, could help us reach White progressives.
When we advertised for his conference, the posters did not mention that Genet would talk about the Black Panthers. We just said he would speak and a huge crowd came to hear him because he was Jean Genet, the great writer. He started saying he would talk about the Black Panthers and made a very moving appeal - a very theoretically advanced one, I'd say - about how to fight racism. Genet had made some proposals twenty years before that we just started to develop; for instance the White participation in the struggle against racism. After a quarter of an hour, many members of the audience started to get upset and to whisper and, suddenly, someone even interrupted Genet asking him to speak, at last, of himself and his work! Genet answered: "No, I'm not here to talk about literature or my books. I came to defend the Black Panther Party."
Then, something deeply shocking to me occurred: half of the audience progressively left the place. They didn't want to hear about the BPP. For us, it was a real lesson. We could judge how much work had to be done to generate a real movement against racism. Many teachers I was familiar with were unable to attend such debates because, in a way, they felt Genet was accusing them of collusion. However, those who did stay were giving us something invaluable. Genet knew how to speak his heart without pity or condescension. Now, we have learned how not to mistake solidarity feelings for feelings of pity among the representatives of the ruling culture. Genet, he already knew how to distinguish them. In his Yale speech, on the Mayday Speech day, he even goes so far as to advocate the development of a "tactfulness of the heart" when dealing with Black folks. He also says that Blacks had silently been observing Whites for centuries and had learned a lot about them and their cultural background. And Whites did not even realize they were being observed. What we develop nowadays in our lectures means the same: White folks have got to go to Black school; they have to learn something from them. From Black folks but also Indians, Chicanos and the whole multicultural U.S. population.
One last important point: it was Genet who heightened the Black Panther Party awareness to the Homosexual Rights issue. David Hilliard told me that when they were traveling together from state to state, from one university to another, some members of the Party were using very rude and homophobic words to insult Nixon or Mitchell. Genet was hurt by these words and told them they should not use such vocabulary. One night, he even showed up at the hotel - there used to be four or five men per room during these trips - dressed in a sort of pink negligee, and a cigar in his mouth. Well, they all thought Genet was going crazy! He had just wanted to bring about a discussion on the similarities between the struggle against racism and the struggle against homophobia. After these trips in 1970, David Hilliard and his mates largely spoke of the matter with Huey Newton (the BPP's president, in jail at the time) and later published soon after an important article in the BPP's newspaper saying: "Whatever your personal opinions and your insecurities about homosexuality and the various liberation movements among homosexuals and women (Genet also had spoke about women's liberation during his stay - Angela's note), we should try to unite with them in a revolutionary fashion. I say: 'whatever your insecurities are' because as we very well know, sometimes our first instinct is to want to hit a homosexual in the mouth, and want a woman to be quiet. We want to hit a homosexual in the mouth because we are afraid that we might be homosexual; and we want to hit the women or shut her up because we are afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with. [ . . . ] Remember, we have not established a revolutionary value system; we are only in the process of establishing it. I do not remember our ever constituting any value that said that a revolutionary must say offensive things towards homosexuals, or that a revolutionary should make sure that women do not speak out about their particular kind of oppression. [ . . . ] And I know through reading, and through my life experience and observations that homosexuals are not given freedom and liberty by anyone in the society. They might be the most oppressed people in the society. [ . . . ]"
(Thanx Ken!)

An Afghan police commando's story

On 16 April 2012 the Taliban launched their most ambitious ever attack on Kabul, targeting parliament and the diplomatic enclave. The assault caught the city by surprise, but so did the response of Afghanistan's security forces, who for perhaps the first time ever were fully in charge of the fight against the insurgents.
When multi-media project Kabul: A City At Work got exclusive access to police commando Hamidullah – captured on camera in his bloodied combat fatigues – he became the face of Afghan heroism. This is his story…
Via

Marijuana: A Second Look at a Drug of Isolation Booklet (1987)

Tony Clifton on The Dinah Shore Show

Bonus:

Andy Kaufman's first TV appearance as Tony Clifton (1977)

The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state

Jacob Appelbaum on Being Target of Widespread Gov’t Surveillance - 'We Don’t Live in a Free Country'

Via

A flower that smells like shit and resembles vagina dentata

♪♫ Lyle Lovett - Nobody Knows Me

And I like cream in my coffee
And I like to sleep late on Sunday
And nobody knows me like my baby
And I like eggs over easy
With flour tortillas
And nobody knows me like my baby

And nobody holds me
And nobody knows me
Nobody knows me like my baby

But it was a dream made to order
South of the border
And nobody knows me like my baby
And she cried man how could you do it
And I swore that there weren't nothing to it
But nobody knows me like my baby

original version appeared on the album "Lyle Lovett and His Large Band" (1989)

Friday, 20 April 2012

Tasting The Rainbow

Ring of colour: An ant’s transparent abdomen shows the colour of the food they have eaten. (Mohamed Babu / Solent News & Photo Agency)
Via

Just me?

Or is there something wrong with this sentence -
'The restriction on voting rights will remain in place ''for as long as the company deems it necessary to maintain compliance with US law'', News Corp said.'

Cherry blossom watching in Fukushima Prefecture

今年も桜は精一杯咲いている。

いわき市久ノ浜にあった自宅から車ですぐ、
お隣さんの町、福島県富岡町の夜ノ森公園。
浜通りでも有数の桜の名所。
立ち入りができない、人のいない夜ノ森公園で
今年も桜たちは思いっきり咲いてくれている。
Via
(Thanx Katherine!)

Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney

http://www.ted.com Surgeon Anthony Atala demonstrates an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using similar technology, Dr. Atala's young patient Luke Massella received an engineered bladder 10 years ago; we meet him onstage.
Via

Lucinda on Levon

A little over a year ago, Levon Helm invited me to open two shows for him in Toronto.
Well aware of my Louisiana heritage, he enthusiastically let it be known that he and his band had worked up a version of "Crescent City" and asked if I would sing that song with them and also sit in on "Evangeline". I'll never forget Levon's ear to ear grin as we played those songs.The short time I spent with him over those two nights left a deep and lasting impression on me.
I heard the sad news today and I am in tears as I write this. I lost a hero and a friend. His music inspired and influenced me during my early years and still does, to this day. And now that I've been honored to have spent some time with Levon, I have to say that I will always remember him with a twinkle in his eyes, a smile as warm and friendly as his native Arkansas land and an endearing and infectious spirit that will live on forever.
Thank you for your musical lessons, Levon. Rave on, brother.
- Lucinda Williams

Hong Kong student behind Steve Jobs-Apple logo tribute lands Coca Cola ad project

What to consider before signing up for Google Drive

♪♫ Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan - One Too Many Mornings

Moving at the sound of speed!!!

Greenwald: Assange show - Kremlin propaganda? Look who’s talking!

HERE

Why you should care about the TPP

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ("TPP") is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated by nine countries: The United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Although the TPP covers a wide range of issues, this site focuses on the TPP's intellectual property (IP) chapter.
The TPP suffers from a serious lack of transparency, threatens to impose more stringent copyright without public input, and pressures foreign governments to adopt unbalanced laws.
Many of the same special interests that pushed for legislation like SOPA and PIPA have special access to this forum—including privileged access to the text as well as US negotiators.
Excessive copyright rights and enforcement adversely affect that ability of creators to create content, the ability of technology companies to make innovative products, and that ability of users to use content in new ways...
MORE

Living The Language

Australia, which was once home to 200 languages, now suffers from the highest rate of language extinction in the world.

Free $10 Million Loans For All! and Other Wall Street Notes

God save the fugn Queen???

1. Oh Susannah
2. Clementine
3. Tom Dula
4. Gallows Pole
5. Get A Job
6. Travel On
7. High Flyin' Bird
8. Jesus' Chariot
9. This Land Is Your Land
10. Wayfarin' Stranger
11. God Save The Queen

'Americana' is the first album from Neil Young & Crazy Horse in nearly nine years. Crazy Horse is: Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, Poncho Sampedro and Neil Young. As you’ll see from the track listing, 'Americana' is collection of classic, American folk songs. In their day, some of these may have been referred to as “protest songs,” “murder ballads,” or campfire-type songs passed down with universal, relatable tales for everyman. Some of these compositions which, like “Tom Dooley” and “Oh Susannah,” were written in the 1800s, while others, like “This Land Is Your Land” (utilizing the original, widely misinterpreted “deleted verses”) and “Get A Job,” are mid-20th-century folk classics. It’s also interesting to note that “God Save The Queen,” Britain’s national anthem, also became the de facto national anthem of sorts before the establishment of The Union as we know it until we came to adopt our very own “The Star Spangled Banner,” which has been recognized for use as early as 1889 and made our official national anthem in 1931. Each of these compositions is very much part of the fabric of our American heritage; the roots of what we think of as “Americana” in cultural terms, using songs as a way of passing along information and documenting our past. What ties these songs together is the fact that while they may represent an America that may no longer exist, the emotions and scenarios behind these songs still resonate with what’s going on in the country today with equal, if not greater impact nearly 200 years later. The lyrics reflect the same concerns and are still remarkably meaningful to a society going through economic and cultural upheaval, especially during an election year. They are just as poignant and powerful today as the day they were written.

Via

Obama sits on the Rosa Parks bus

Via

Oh please do just fuck off!!!

Leonard Cohen's poetic thanks as former manager and lover is jailed for harassment

FBI Attack on Anonymous Speech

What Research Says About Working Long Hours

1973 - 2012

Via

♪♫ Levon Helm Band & Wilco - The Weight (Solid Sound Festival 2011)

'Levon was the glue, not just in The Band, but in all of what people think of when they think of North American music. He was a great unifier; a great glue. He unified blues and country, rural and city, and even North and South. Luckily he showed us all the way to keep it together and let it swing.'

- Jeff Tweedy

An Artist's Guide to Facebook Etiquette

Levon Helm RIP

Levon Helm, singer and drummer for the Band, died on April 19th in New York of throat cancer. He was 71.
"He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon surrounded by his friends and bandmates," Helm's longtime guitarist Larry Campbell tells Rolling Stone. "All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity. It was even two days ago they thought it would happen within hours, but he held on. It seems like he was Levon up to the end, doing it the way he wanted to do it. He loved us, we loved him."

Dear Deidre: what the hell do you know about web censorship?

Our communities in crisis

'Nobody comes to investigate why this is happening': Mowanjum community leader Gary Umbagai at the entrance to the town. Photo: Glenn Campbell
It came without warning, triggered by something as trivial as a teenage boy demanding that his brother hand over his mobile phone. It was the 16-year-old's birthday, and he was celebrating by drinking steadily all day, as he did most days. The tiff, really nothing more than a simple squabble between brothers, ended in the early hours of the next morning when the darkest of impulses overwhelmed the child.
An 8-year-old girl raised the alarm. She had sighted the boy's lifeless body hanging from a tree behind the church in the abandoned playground. After several hours police and emergency services arrived, conducted a brief investigation and had the body removed.
As the sun climbed into the sky, scores of children looked on in silence. Witnesses said the grieving and sobbing rolled through the tiny community of Mowanjum like a thick black cloud. In this one small place, just a 10 minute drive from the thriving mining hub of Derby in West Kimberley, there have been six deaths by suicide in six months.
Gary Umbagai, council chairman and mineworker, openly despairs about the rising death toll and community dysfunction. "There is something dreadfully wrong in our community, but what can we do?" Mowanjum and Derby he adds, have the highest youth suicide rates in Australia, possibly the world.
"There is a terrible crisis here, but nobody in authority except the police acts as if there is a crisis." The Age visited Mowanjum this month with the permission of the traditional owners and after being alerted to the community's desperate plight by health workers troubled by what they believe is chronic official indifference.
In January, a 20-year-old surrendered his life after his partner locked him out because he was drunk and violent. In March, a 44-year-old newly unemployed mineworker hanged himself. In yet another incident, a young girl vanished into the bush only to be found days later, also the victim of an apparent uncontrollable impulse after a relationship went wrong.
Umbagai says he has lost count of attempted suicides. A document obtained by The Age reveals that in a four-month period from July last year, 18 females and 22 males were admitted to the Derby hospital, for self-harm, attempted hanging, overdosing and suicidal thoughts. Most cases involved indigenous people and excessive alcohol consumption. The number of young Aboriginal people taking their own lives may be higher as some deaths, such as a recent road fatality, have been classified as accidental...

Continue reading

Russell Skelton @'The Age'

Benjybars - Roots of Kode9 Mix

Download (WAV 639MB)
Kode9 - Sine of the Dub
Kode9 - Sub Kontinent
Kode9 - Spit
Kode9 - Swarm
Kode9 - Stalker
Kode9 - Dislokated
Kode9 - Fukkaz
Kode9 - Ping
Kode9 - Ghost Town
Kode9 - Curious
Deep Alpha - All Think (Kode9 Alphadub remix)
Kode9 - 9 Samurai
Burial - Distant Lights (Kode9 remix)
Massive Music - Find my Way (Kode9 remix)
The Bug - Skeng (Kode9 refix)
Kode9 - Den of Drumz
Kode9 - Stung
Dabrye feat Doom - Air (Kode9 remix)
James Yorkston - Woozy with Cider (Kode 9 remix)

Hyper-Deviation: Benji B VS Kode9

Former top MI6 officer attacks global war on drugs

A VERY interesting read

Crazy

Via

UPDATE:

This is NOT a direct quote from Kerouac but in fact an Apple ad inspired by him from 1997 and apparently - 'Using a Mac computer, if you open your applications and right click on the TextEdit application and select "Show Package Contents" Contents>Resources then open the file "Edit.icns" in the Preview application you will notice that this quote is used in the icon. It is part of the icon but isn't noticeable until the icon is blown up.'

Thanx to Stan for pointing this out.