Thursday 6 June 2013

Review of Ken Wark's 'The Beach Beneath The Street' & 'The Spectacle of Disintegration'

Wark’s two books work sequentially, although they also loop around the same figures and concepts. They could be treated as histories of the Situationist milieu and its aftermaths, but to do so would miss entirely what makes them such compelling and, at times, hilarious reading. Wark does not set out to write a conventional scholarly account of the Situationists. As he reminds us at numerous moments, his work has no claim to originality. He does emphasise some of the more neglected figures associated with the movement, but what really drives The Beach Beneath the Street and The Spectacle of Disintegration is their impatience with contemporary cultural and intellectual institutions that, for all of their posturing, are largely complicit with the prevailing political order. Wark is himself a Professor of Culture and Media at the New School in New York City, and while I am guessing that the New School isn’t as obviously neo-liberal as many other universities in the U.S., the sense of him writing angrily about institutional conditions he knows all too well is partly what gives his work its verve and energy.

Low Theory

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Totality For Kids

Shepard Fairey: Free download of Ataturk image

HERE

Samantha Power on the limits of 'Holocaustization'

How the Pro-Israel Right Will Attack Samantha Power: Like They Did in 2008

♪♫ Jon Hopkins - We Disappear


Open Eye Signal

Revealed: NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily

Orhan Pamuk: Memories of a Public Square

Wednesday 5 June 2013

23 Skidoo footage from WOMAD (1982)

23 Skidoo live @The Half Moon, Putney (22/2/13)
(Thanx Fritz!)

Noam Chomsky: How to destroy the future

♪♫ The Orb feat. Lee Scratch Perry - Fussball

If the video above is blocked in your country. Try this link instead

Julian Assange on Bradley Manning's trial

Bradley Manning may not give evidence as to his stated intent (exposing war crimes and their context), nor may he present any witness or document that shows that no harm resulted from his actions. Imagine you were put on trial for murder. In Bradley Manning's court, you would be banned from showing that it was a matter of self-defence, because any argument or evidence as to intent is banned. You would not be able to show that the 'victim' is, in fact, still alive, because that would be evidence as to the lack of harm.
But of course. Did you forget whose show it is?
The government has prepared for a good show. The trial is to proceed for twelve straight weeks: a fully choreographed extravaganza, with a 141-strong cast of prosecution witnesses. The defense was denied permission to call all but a handful of witnesses. Three weeks ago, in closed session, the court actually held a rehearsal. Even experts on military law have called this unprecedented.
Bradley Manning's conviction is already written into the script. The commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, Barack Obama, spoiled the plot for all of us when he pronounced Bradley Manning guilty two years ago. "He broke the law," President Obama stated, when asked on camera at a fundraiser about his position on Mr. Manning. In a civilized society, such a prejudicial statement alone would have resulted in a mistrial.
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Trial Transcripts

Décor by Timothy Leary

DESTROY!!!

(Thanx Robin!)

I've had enough...of journalism

Barney Hoskyns: Stop working for free...

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Embalming The Dead

'Taping, trading and collecting the aura of the Grateful Dead'
A thesis submitted by
Katie A. Harvey

Joe Strummer watching The Sex Pistols (Notre Dame Hall November 1976)

Via

♪♫ 3kStatic + Stephen Mallinder - Nag Nag Nag


Arguably a classic of early-period Cabaret Voltaire - and a defining moment in the emergence of Industrial music - 'Nag Nag Nag' merged Cabs' sense of punk angst with new and distorted sounds.
The 2013 version by 3kStatic + Stephen Mallinder stays true to form, while taking a sinister approach in its own right.
After nearly a year in the works, the final version was recorded, arranged and finalized in record time, with Mallinder's fresh new vocal take in the fore.
EP also includes the 41 minute-plus ambient track 'Retrogressive'

♪♫ Kev Carmody and the Pigram Brothers - Eulogy For A Black Man

R.I.P. Mr Y
(Thanx Craig!)
You couldn't make this up...

The Raincoats (Live @Acklam Hall, London 10th May 1979)

Here's an extraordinary early Raincoats live recording, taped beneath the Westway at Ladbroke Grove's Acklam Hall during their first British tour, shortly before the release of their eponymous debut Rough Trade LP. They were playing as support to Switzerland's ever-vibrant Kleenex, & Cabaret Voltaire were on the bill too, I believe?
HERE
(Mona's faux-pas #1: I had just been given a whole heap pf promo postcards for Odyshape and was at a gig by either Paul Rogers or Paul playing with Talisker and I saw my friend Kent, so I handed him one of the cards not knowing that Gina and him had split up a couple of days before...if looks could kill!)
Image

In Gezi Park

Analysis: The hopes that blaze in Istanbul

Paul White: Time-lapse of a drawing

A time lapse showing the progression of a pencil drawing over 30 hours by artist Paul White.
Film production by Johnny Blank.
More from the artist Paul White here:
paulwhiteart.com
facebook.com/paulwhiteart
More from the filmmaker Johnny Blank here:
johnnyblank.com

Hunter S. Thompson just sitting around

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Bradley Manning Trial

For real time reporting follow Alexa O'Brien

Seven Myths About Bradley Manning

Monday 3 June 2013

How Democratic Is Turkey?

Julian Assange: The Banality of ‘Don’t Be Evil’

'Social media is the worst menace to society' - Recep Erdogan





"There is now a menace which is called Twitter," Erdogan said. "The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society."
MORE PHOTOS

Wednesday 17 April 2013

One more thing...


While normally I wouldn't celebrate anyone's death, for Thatcher I made an exception. A number of glasses of milk were drank the night I heard!

Saturday 2 February 2013

Good night. Go to sleep. May your dreams be beautiful XXX


whispers
This is the last of Exile (at least for the conceivable future.) It's been a blast. Met some great people thru it. (You know who you are.) The 'unreal' world was starting to interfere with the 'real' one and when the two met...well the results were 'interesting'. Time for the flesh and the blood.
- Mona

London anarchist bookshop firebombed

Freedom, London's oldest anarchist bookshop, was firebombed in the early hours of Friday 1st Febuary. Early reports suggest the bookshop on the ground floor and the building's electrics were “seriously damaged”, despite the bookshop having been fitted with metal shutters following a bombing by members of Combat 18, a British neo-fascist group, in 1993. Thankfully, nobody was hurt in last night's attack...
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Does it?

Via

Friday 1 February 2013

Homeopathic A&E



How To Destroy Angels - How Long?

Click arrow at right to download

The Most Powerful Gun Control Speech: Father Of Sandy Hook Victim Speaks Out

Doesn't look as though things are working out quite as planned...

Unmediated: Alan Light and Sylvie Simmons Converse on the Unlikely Yet Enduring Iconhood of Leonard Cohen

Frisk (1996)


Dennis Cooper

TRUTH

Nibs