Sunday 27 January 2013
Stephen King risks wrath of NRA by releasing pro-gun control essay
King, who owns three handguns, aimed the expletive-peppered polemic at fellow gun-owners, calling on them to support a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons in the wake of the December shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school which left 20 children and six adults dead.
"Autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction. When lunatics want to make war on the unarmed and unprepared, these are the weapons they use," King wrote.
He said blanket opposition to gun control was less about defending the second amendment of the US constitution than "a stubborn desire to hold onto what they have, and to hell with the collateral damage". He added: "If that's the case, let me suggest that 'fuck you, Jack, I'm okay' is not a tenable position, morally speaking."
King finished the 25-page essay, Guns, last Friday and wanted it published as soon as possible, given the Obama administration's looming battle with the National Rifle Association and its allies. It was published on Friday on Amazon's online Kindle store, price 99 cents.
The novelist, who has sold more than 350 million books, last year issued a call for the rich, such as himself, to pay more tax. In his latest foray into politics, he acknowledges his liberal inclinations but stresses that he is an unapologetic gun-owner with at least half a foot in the conservative camp of the US divide.
In folksy, salty prose which blends policy prescription with dark humour, King alternately cajoles, praises and insults gun advocates in what appears to be a genuine pitch to change their minds. King kept Barack Obama out of it.
"Here's how it shakes out," the essay begins, before describing 22 ritual steps in which the US experiences a school massacre. Excoriating the media and television voyeurism, he writes: "Sixteenth, what cable news does best now begins, and will continue for the next seventy-two hours: the slow and luxurious licking of tears from the faces of the bereaved."
King recalls that the fictional schoolboy killer in his 1977 novel Rage, which was published under a pen name, Richard Bachman, resonated with several boys who subsequently rampaged at their own schools. One, Barry Loukaitis, shot dead a teacher and two students in Moses Lake, Washington in 1996, then quoted a line from the novel: "This sure beats algebra, doesn't it?"
King said he did not apologise for writing Rage – "no, sir, no ma'am" – because it told the truth about high-school alienation and spoke to troubled adolescents who "were already broken". However, he said, he ordered his publisher to withdraw the book because it had proved dangerous. He was not obliged to do so by law – it was protected by the first amendment – but it was the right thing to do. Gun advocates should do the same, he argued.
The idea that US gun rampages stem from a culture of violence was a "self-serving lie promulgated by fundamentalist religious types and America's propaganda-savvy gun-pimps", he wrote. In reality the US had a "Kardashian culture" which preferred to read and watch comedies, romances and super-heroes, rather than stories involving gun violence.
Much of the opposition to gun control stemmed from paranoia about the federal government, King argued. "These guys and gals actually believe that dictatorship will follow disarmament, with tanks in the streets of Topeka."
He assured gun owners that no one wanted to take away their hunting rifles, shotguns or pistols, as long as they held no more than 10 rounds. "If you can't kill a home invader (or your wife, up in the middle of the night to get a snack from the fridge) with ten shots, you need to go back to the local shooting range."
The mockery continued when he noted semi-automatics had only two purposes: to kill people, and to let their owners go to a shooting range, "yell yeehaw, and get all horny at the rapid fire and the burning vapor spurting from the end of the barrel".
King noted that homicides by firearm declined by 60% in Australia after strict gun controls were introduced. And that about 80 people die of gunshot wounds daily in the US.
In a line sure to affront the NRA, and delight the gun-control lobby, he added : "Plenty of gun advocates cling to their semi-automatics the way Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson clung to the shit that was killing them."
The essay was published as a Kindle Single, a format launched in 2011 for pieces too long for magazines but too short to be books. In a statement following publication, King said every citizen needed to ponder the fact the US was awash with guns. "If this helps provoke constructive debate," he said, "I've done my job."
Rory Carroll @'The Guardian'
Saturday 26 January 2013
Friday 25 January 2013
Thursday 24 January 2013
♪♫ Karl Hyde - Cut Clouds
April 2013 will see the release of Karl Hyde’s debut solo LP, Edgeland. It features nine tracks that were recorded over a year in London with multi-instrumentalist and producer Leo Abrahams (whom Karl met whilst collaborating with Brian Eno on Pure Scenius). Edgeland is a graceful and meditative collection that explores the limitless possibilities of what late film director Anthony Minghella christened ‘esoteric Underworld’ – something that’s existed on record since Dubnobasswithmyheadman.
Edgeland is released in Japan on April 10th and across the rest of the world on April 22nd on deluxe CD/DVD, standard CD, download and 12" vinyl. It is also available for physical pre-order in the underworldlive shop. The first 150 pre-orders from underworldlive (across all physical formats) will each receive a unique, signed and numbered photograph taken by Karl documenting the journeys through the edgelands that inspired the album. Each physical format purchase will also receive a digital version of the album in their inbox on the day of release (we of course aim to have pre-ordered physical stock with you on or very close to that date).
You can hear the first taster from Edgeland - 'Cut Clouds' and for a limited time only download the track for free here
Karl is currently rehearsing a new band in preparation for a series of live shows from the Spring onwards, the first of which is SonarSound in Tokyo on the 7th April 2013. More to be announced soon.
Johnny Cash and his prison reform campaign
Cash's famous live albums recorded at Folsom Prison and San Quentin are the stuff of music legend - likely to feature on any critic's list of defining albums of the 1960s.
But it's much less well-known that these were only two of many prison concerts Cash played over the course of almost 30 years.
Fitting the gigs in around his relentless touring schedule, the "Man in Black" performed for inmates all over the US, always unpaid, and in the process, became a passionate and vocal spokesman for prisoners' rights.
"He always identified with the underdog," says Tommy Cash, Johnny's youngest brother.
"He identified with the prisoners because many of them had served their sentences and had been rehabilitated in some cases, but were still kept there the rest of their lives. He felt a great empathy with those people."
The roots of Cash's empathy lie as far back as 1953, when as a 21-year-old radio operator in the US Air Force, he saw the film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison and was inspired to write a song.
Folsom Prison Blues, released two years later, after Cash had signed to Sun Records, turned the young singer into a star.
The song, and in particular the now-notorious line "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die," was sung with such raw menace that many assumed Cash knew what he was talking about.
"There's people today that you can talk to and they will believe that he actually did that," says WS "Fluke" Holland, Johnny's larger-than-life former drummer.
"Johnny Cash shot a man to watch him die. He was a mean dude," he chuckles then shakes his head. "The only time he was in prison is when we played in them..."
Continue reading
Johnny Cash Live At Folsom Prison (Photos)
The Other Dream Team (Trailer)
Can't view this vid here in Australia but see if you can!
Wednesday 23 January 2013
♪♫ Living Colour with Furious Five's Melle Mel and Wonder Mike - The Message
Bonus:
Rapper's Delight
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