Friday 28 August 2009

The Teardrop Explodes!

Thanx Walker!

Thursday 27 August 2009

Emilie Simon - Flowers

Hey Yoo! WTF?

Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?
Yoo: No treaty.
Cassel: Also no law by Congress. That is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo.
Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

16: Moments

Hyperdub's 5th anniversary (tracklist) NB: New Burial track!


The London-based dubstep label Hyperdub is now old enough to get into kindergarten. Over the past five years, Hyperdub has put out records by a hell of a lot of that genre's greatest artists, including Burial, Kode9, Joker, Zomby, Darkstar. And the forthcoming 2xCD comp 5: 5 Years of Hyperdub will collect both new and/or classic material from all of them, plus tracks from kindred sprits such as Mala, Martyn, and Flying Lotus. And yes, to answer your question, that means a new Burial song. It's called "Fostercare". Get ready. (That's the 5 album cover above.)

5 is due October 19 in the UK and the very next day in the U.S. This summer and fall, Hyperdub is putting out a series of 12" singles featuring new material from many of Hyperdub's artists. The first disc of 5 will collect all those tracks, with some bonus jams. The second disc, meanwhile, will function as a sort of greatest-hits, collecting older joints like Burial's "Distant Lights", Joker's "Digidesign", and Kode9 and the Spaceape's remix of the Specials' "Ghost Town". Tracklist below.

5: 5 Years of Hyperdub:

CD1:

01 King Midas Sound: "Meltdown"
02 Kode9 & the Spaceape: "Time Patrol [ft. Cha Cha]"
03 Darkstar: "Aidys Girl's a Computer"
04 Samiyam: "Roller Skates"
05 Flying Lotus: "Disco Balls"
06 Black Chow: "Purple Smoke"
07 Burial: "Fostercare"
08 Cooly G: "Weekend Fly"
09 Zomby: "Tarantula"
10 Martyn: "Mega Drive Generation"
11 LV: "Turn Away [ft. Dandelion]"
12 Mala: "Level Nine"
13 LD: "Shake It"
14 Quarta 330: "Bleeps From Outer Space"
15 Ikonika: "Sahara Michael"
16 Joker & Ginz: "Stash"

CD2:

01 Kode9: "9 Samurai"
02 Burial: "South London Boroughs"
03 Kode9 & LD: "Bad"
04 The Bug: "Money Honey Remix [ft. Warrior Queen]"
05 LV: "Globetrotting [ft. Erol Bellot]"
06 Burial: "Distant Lights"
07 Kode9 & the Spaceape: "Ghost Town"
08 Kode9 & the Spaceape: "Fukkaz"
09 Samiyam: "Return"
10 Darkstar: "Need You"
11 Zomby: "Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix)"
12 Ikonika: "Please"
13 Zomby: "Kaliko"
14 2000F & J Kamata: "You Don't Know What Love Is"
15 Joker: "Digidesign"
16 Quarta 330: "9 Samurai (Quarta 330 Remix)"

@ 'Pitchfork'

A tribute

"In our lifetime, no one has done more to champion health as a universal right than Senator Ted Kennedy. He was a passionate advocate for quality, affordable, accessible healthcare for the many, not just for the few, and a tireless champion of the human rights of all people everywhere. During his career spanning five decades, he passed landmark legislation to secure the right to health for all."

Anna Paquin on vampire sex and no nipples...


How true

"War with Iraq before a genuine attempt at inspection and disarmament, or without genuine international support -- could swell the ranks of Al Qaeda sympathizers and trigger an escalation in terrorist acts."
Teddy Kennedy - September 27, 2002
Full Transcript here.

Argentina’s Supreme Court ‘legalizes’ marijuana (The Argentine Post)

If Cheech & Chong were here, they’d grab a bong and celebrate.

Argentina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that it is unconstitutional to punish adults for consuming marijuana as long as doing so doesn’t put anyone else at risk.

As the court itself recognized, its decision “implies legalizing the drug.”

But for anyone hoping this would turn Buenos Aires into a kind of Amsterdam 2.0, that’s not going to happen. The court limited the scope of its ruling to low-level private consumption.

That means you shouldn’t expect to see Marijuana Shops popping up alongside regular coffee joints. Anyone interested in buying pot will still have to go underground to do so.

Technically, only Congress can legalize the consumption of drugs, per se, but the court’s move is significant. It strikes down part of an earlier law that arguably allowed for penalties against personal use. Congress could follow the court’s lead and pass legislation formally legalizing personal consumption.

The court also called on the government to crack down on narco-trafficking and implement programs to prevent people, especially kids, from becoming addicted to drugs.

The court based its ruling on three factors:

1) According to the constitution, “each adult is sovereign when it comes to making free decisions about the style of life he or she wants to pursue, without the state intervening…” (Article 19 of the Constitution.)

2) “You can’t penalize private conduct that doesn’t hurt third parties.”

3) Private conduct is “licit,” except when it constitutes a concrete danger or causes damage to goods or the rights of others.

In other words, keep it to yourself, and if nobody and nothing gets hurt or damaged, you’re legal.

Legal scholars and supreme court justices (individually) have long maintained that the personal consumption of drugs (even cocaine) is legal under Argentina’s constitution.

Courts have frequently ruled against attempts to penalize personal possession. Despite this, law enforcement officials in various parts of the country have at times arrested and persecuted individuals for the personal use and transportation of drugs.

Argentina is not a major drug producer or exporter. But in recent years the country has become a key gateway for the transportation and triangulation of drugs produced in elsewhere in Latin America for export to the US and Europe. Drug enforcement officials say that most days at least one flight out of Ezeiza contains a drug smuggler.

Link: A summary of the Court’s ruling (from the court itself, in Spanish)
Link: Slightly Outdated World Marijuana Legality Map
Link: “Up In Smoke” Cheech & Chong Trailer
Link: Marijuana Dictionary

@ 'Micropsia'

Boris & Torche - Chapter Ahead Being Fake

Exploding iPhones alert

Vale Edward Kennedy

The Kennedy brothers have left an enduring legacy in the annals of American politics and history

Veteran US Senator Edward Kennedy, the brother of former President John F Kennedy, has died at 77, after a long battle with a brain tumour.

He became a Democratic Massachusetts senator in 1962, replacing his brother when he resigned to become president, and was re-elected seven times.

Senator Kennedy was a dominant force in US politics for almost 50 years.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON THE PASSING OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY

Blue Heron Farm

Chilmark, Massachusetts

I wanted to say a few words this morning about the passing of an extraordinary leader, Senator Edward Kennedy.

Over the past several years, I've had the honor to call Teddy a colleague, a counselor, and a friend. And even though we have known this day was coming for some time now, we awaited it with no small amount of dread.

Since Teddy's diagnosis last year, we've seen the courage with which he battled his illness. And while these months have no doubt been difficult for him, they've also let him hear from people in every corner of our nation and from around the world just how much he meant to all of us. His fight has given us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you -- and goodbye.

The outpouring of love, gratitude, and fond memories to which we've all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives. His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives -- in seniors who know new dignity, in families that know new opportunity, in children who know education's promise, and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just -- including myself.

The Kennedy name is synonymous with the Democratic Party. And at times, Ted was the target of partisan campaign attacks. But in the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth, and good cheer. He could passionately battle others and do so peerlessly on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintain warm friendships across party lines.

And that's one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.

His extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. And the extraordinary good that he did lives on. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was the defender of a dream.

I spoke earlier this morning to Senator Kennedy's beloved wife, Vicki, who was to the end such a wonderful source of encouragement and strength. Our thoughts and prayers are with her, his children Kara, Edward, and Patrick; his stepchildren Curran and Caroline; the entire Kennedy family; decades' worth of his staff; the people of Massachusetts; and all Americans who, like us, loved Ted Kennedy

The Clash - What's My Name (Live October 1977)

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Boy's Own



Thicker than 3 Blue Peter annuals

To own a full set of Boy's Own fanzines you'd have to hang out on eBay for months and shell out at least a grand, and that's assuming you could find enough middle-aged ravers prepared to give up such an important chunk of their glory years. Even the Boy's Own boys themselves are "a few mags short of a binder". Weatherall gave all his away in a happy potlatch moment; Terry and Steve managed to muster almost a full set between them but even then we found a definite gap between issue three and issue five which we had to dip into Harry Patch's collection to fill. Once we had the full 12 we hired a team of Polish monks to engrave exact copies of every issue, and hand-bind them using antique vellum. The result is our heftiest book to date, 440 Balearious pages of acid house mirth, mayhem, insight and insult. Just £24.95 with dirt cheap postage.

Buy it @ DJ History.
Download FREE 44 page sample here. (PDF)

(Bugger! I used to have a Blue Peter badge somewhat ironically for a drawing that I did of a duck-billed platypus that was shown on the programme when I was about 7 and I cannot for the love of me remember when/where I lost that...1978/79?/ Who knows!)

Trailer for Herzog's reinterpretation of Ferrara's 'Bad Lieutenant'