Tuesday 28 February 2012
Chappaqua
Directed by Conrad Rooks in 1966 (starring William S. Burroughs, Ravi Shankar, Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs).
Music by Ornette Coleman. Conrad Rooks' hallucinogenic gem also boasts one of the most hypnotic film scores of all time by Ravi Shankar.
Rooks knows his story, and although he tends to wander at times, he's always keeps the action moving on course. Russel Harwick's (Rooks) attempts to "escape" the rehab center are hilarious. This film probably captures the essence of the sixties counter-culture like few films ever have. Although you might be tempted not to see this trip all the way through, you will only be cheating yourself out of one of the greatest movie endings of all time.
Jello Biafra: Caught in the crossfire - Should musicians boycott Israel?
San Francisco, CA - So now I have been to Israel. I have also been to Palestine. I got a taste of the place, but not in the way I'd originally hoped.
In many ways I really wish my band, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, had played in Tel Aviv. But I also share most of the boycott's supporters' feelings about Israel's government, the occupation and ongoing human rights violations.
I hope people take the time to understand how deeply this has torn at the fabric of our band. The promoter in Tel Aviv lost thousands, and I am eating thousands more in lost and re-booked airfares that I have no idea how I am going to pay, or how I will pay my bills for the rest of the year. Real human beings got hurt here.
This whole controversy has been one of the most intense situations of my life - and I thrive on intense situations. But the rest of the band was not used to this. How fair was it to drag them there in the first place? This is not like fighting Tipper Gore and the Los Angeles Police Department, greedy ex-Dead Kennedys members or more-radical-than-thou thugs who think it's OK to put someone in the hospital for being a "sellout". I gradually felt like I had gotten in over my head sticking my nose into one of the longest and nastiest conflicts on earth.
So with the rollercoaster still in my stomach and my head, I flew solo to Israel instead. The mission: to check things out myself and hopefully at least get closer to some kind of conclusion on whether artists boycotting Israel, especially me, was really the best way to help the Palestinian people.
The first people who wrote asking us to boycott went out of their way to be diplomatic and communicate how they felt. Then the gloves came off, and so did some of the masks. Our Facebook page went from eye-opening and educational to a childish, bickering orgy between a handful of people. Racial slurs began to appear on this and other boycott sites. Many writings seemed to have no idea who I was or what punk is. One called me a "fanatic Zionist with a clear touch of cultural racism".
I also got an invitation from a self-proclaimed fan to "come meet the Israeli right" and see the settlements through their eyes, complete with a wine-tasting party.
Many people I met on my trip to Israel feel that the boycott has damaged the Israeli opposition more than it has anyone else and "helped silence the peace camp in Israel". A veteran journalist I met later told me, "the best way to contribute to peace is to try and work to understand both sides" and that he felt that boycotts strengthen extremists by keeping people apart.
Others felt the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement "is not all bad", and can raise awareness across the pond of what the US is letting Israel's government get away with. One wrote to me later, saying that: "I don't disagree with BDS myself … and I definitely feel that BDS is a legitimate way to do so [raise awareness]. But if the price paid for this is worldwide ignorance, then I think I believe the price is too high. If musicians were to boycott Israel or Palestine, they would miss out on the opportunity to educate themselves - and then hopefully preach that opinion when and where they see fit..."
Continue reading
(Thanx Chuck!)
♪♫ Lucky Dube - I'm Still Here in the House of Exile
Live in Uganda from 2003
House of Exile was originally released in 1991.
Monday 27 February 2012
The Existence of Time
Third test for the upcoming Monolake Surround tour.
Track: The Existence of Time (edit)
Sound: Robert Henke (monolake.de)
3D animation: Tarik Barri (tarikbarri.nl)
Editing: Robert Henke / Tarik Barri
Track: The Existence of Time (edit)
Sound: Robert Henke (monolake.de)
3D animation: Tarik Barri (tarikbarri.nl)
Editing: Robert Henke / Tarik Barri
Spiritualized - Hey Jane
I bought [Iggy and the Stooges’] “Raw Power” when I was 14, that was the first record I bought. I didn’t know anything about it, I had no friends that were listening to it. They used to sell records in the chemists’, Boots chemists. I saw the sleeve to “Raw Power,” I saw the silver pants, and I went home holding that. If you’re going to start anywhere in music — I got lucky- Jason Pierce
To hear the new album played live last year at The Royal Albert Hall go to spz2011-10-11 in this list...
Saturday 25 February 2012
Friday 24 February 2012
Are women cyclists in more danger than men?
Via
...and don't get me started on the compulsory helmet laws we have out here!!!
John Peel's record collection to be made into online museum
Peel's collection, which contains 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and many thousands of CDs, will become part of The Space, a new experimental digital service organised and funded by the Arts Council and the BBC.
The Arts Council will provide initial funding while the BBC will provide support and development advice. Further funding will be sought in the future to complete the project and make every record available online.
Tom Barker, Director, John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, said: "It is the first step in creating an interactive online museum with access to the entire collection, one of the most important archives in modern music history."
Frank Prendergast of Eye Film And Television added: "The idea is to digitally recreate John’s home studio and record collection, which users will be able to interact with and contribute to, while viewing Peel’s personal notes, archive performances and new filmed interviews with musicians."
Sheila Ravenscroft, John Peel's wife and Patron of the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts also commented, stating: "We’re very happy that we’ve finally found a way to make John’s amazing collection available to his fans, as he would have wanted. This project is only the beginning of something very exciting."
The Space will run from May to October across various platforms including PCs and smartphones, while it will also be available as a red button on-demand service via Freeview HD.
Arts Council England is committing up to £3.5m, while the BBC is contributing to the partnership by developing the technological solutions and providing ongoing support.
Via
(Thanx Marco!)
Thursday 23 February 2012
From The Vaults: Interview with Jigoku
The affinity for the weird, obscure and bizarre has gained momentum in the last few years reinforced by the likes of tumblr as catalysts of visual ‘debris’. The hunt for the abstruse and low-brow is no passing pop culture fad for audiovisual bricoleurs Jigoku though. Driven by the need to unearth and manipulate random VHS tapes of exploitation cinema classics adding a custom-made soundtrack, the AV collective is hardly a novice on the scene. Jigoku have collaborated with the likes of Italian soundtrack legend Alessandro Alessendroni or Rekids’ Matt Edwards. With the launch of their label Iron Triangle and DVD ‘From the Vaults Vol 1’, a compilation of trailers and edits from their vast collection of exploitation video tapes carefully hand-picked over three decades of digging all over the world, we have caught up with Jigoku’s Lovely Jon, old school East London free party veteran, to talk about the medium and the message...MORE
Dr. Kent Hovind - Dinosaurs and the Bible
Dr (?) Hovind traces the Biblical and historical references to dinosaurs and interviews people who claim they have seen living dinosaur!!!
NB: that he is currently in prison
The Dissertation Kent Hovind Doesn't Want You to Read
I do hope that he has met 'Dino' in prison :)
(Thanx Gavin!)
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