4/30/08
4/29/08
Kick Out the Jams
Here we have MC5, being one of THEE blueprint punk rock bands, was also responsible for the classics "Ramblin' Rose" and the much covered "Looking At You." But it's "Kick Out the Jams" that IS "The Motor City Five".
Oh Detroit.
Chock full o' rock.
Note; Also they were heavily influenced by Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane.
Opening for mega-groups like Cream and Big Brother And The Holding Company they would constantly upstage 'em with endless encores demanded by the rabid frenzy they'd create.
In their early career, the MC5 had a politically provocative stage show. They would appear on stage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of the performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot down the singer Rob Tyner.(con Afro)
Much, much more.......
4/28/08
Fish, Bees and the Cetacean Burn
RT..Bonzer 5 'Bee'
...dropped and schooled by a better surfer than he.
Click for full rez...
"Empty vessels make the most sound".
John Lydgate
Listening Wind and Fake Plastic Trees
David Byrne and Radiohead's Thom Yorke talk music biz
Posted by Cory Doctorow, December 18, 2007|
from Wired via Boing Boing.
David Byrne interviewed Radiohead's Thom Yorke for Wired Magazine about Radiohead's In Rainbows, an album that was released on a pay-what-you-care-to basis online. The conversation is fascinating -- as is anything that David Byrne is involved with. Byrne is not only my all-time favorite musician, he's one of my favorite thinkers and writers too (and a kick-ass blogger besides). Wired's done a great job with the online presentation of the piece, adding in audio from the interview and video of Radiohead performing.
Byrne: I've been thinking about how distribution and CDs and record shops and all that stuff are changing. But we're talking about music. What is music, what does music do for people? What do people get from it? What's it for? That's the thing that's being exchanged. Not all the other stuff. The other stuff is the shopping cart that holds some of it.
Yorke: It's a delivery service.
Byrne: But people will still pay to have that experience. You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends. By making a copy and handing it to your friends, you've established a relationship. The implication is that they're now obligated to give you something back.
Yorke: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just thinking while you were saying that: How does a record company get their hands on that? It makes me think of the No Logo book where Naomi Klein describes how the Nike people would pay guys to get down with the kids on the street. I know for a fact that major record labels do the same thing. But no one has ever explained to me exactly how. I mean, do they lurk around in the discussion boards and post "Have you heard the..."? Maybe they do. And then I was thinking about that Johnny Cash film, when Cash walks in and says, "I want to do a live record in a prison," and his label thinks he's bonkers. Yet at the same time, it was able to somehow understand what kids wanted and give it to him. Whereas now, I think there's a lack of understanding. It's not about who's ripping off whom, and it's not about legal injunctions, and it's not about DRM and all that sort of stuff. It's about whether the music affects you or not. And why would you worry about an artist or a company going after people copying their music if the music itself is not valued?
More....
4/26/08
Free Again
The Jones brothers are on their 3rd round of Bonzers. This time the line up is; one 5′10 E-Wing 5 fin and the other a 5′10 3fin Light V with the E-Wing. Stay posted to the Bonzer Blog for feedback.
Kiped from Duncan...
"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results."
Herman Melville
4/25/08
Demon Ethanol
Via; NY Times
I’m almost never censored at the Times. However, I was told that I couldn’t use the lede I originally wrote for my column following the 2007 State of the Union address, in which Bush made ethanol the centerpiece of his energy strategy: “Before the State of the Union address, there had been hints and hopes that President Bush would offer a serious plan to reduce our dependence on imported oil. Instead, however, he took refuge in alcohol.”
Well, anyway — the news on ethanol just keeps getting worse. Bad for the economy, bad for consumers, bad for the planet — what’s not to love?
And as you may have now heard in starving countries all over the world the effect is rationing already desolate people.
As far as our future 'leaders' I can see no difference in the ethanol problem.
At first McCain was against it as he saw it was no better and actually even more harmful. Then he kissed Bush ass and is now on board. Clinton also was against it and eventually swayed by monies backing the direction. At this time Obama seems no better on the issue yet I feel when the late news and more research is in the man will try a different route of alternatives. (my personal hope)
Here's a breakdown of how our variety of 'alternative' fuels from Consumer Reports.
4/24/08
Tide Spin
John Stewart always on his game.
Still the best news show, fake and real for the facts.
Most other media just perpetuates all the bullshit that does sway ignorant America.
4/22/08
Khebar
Zorn's Bar Kokhba troops performing Khebar (available on the LP "The Circle Maker")
John Zorn- Sax / Master of cerimonies
Marc Ribot - guitar
Cyro Baptista - percussion
Mark Feldman - violin
Erik Friedlander - cello
Greg Cohen - bass
Joey Baron - drums
The Stone
- A New Artists' Space in the East Village
artistic director John Zorn
The Stone is a not-for-profit performance space dedicated to the experimental and avant-garde. All expenses are paid for by the MUSIC itself—through the online sale of Special Edition CDs released yearly on the Tzadik label. Each month a different musician is responsible for curating the programs with 100% of the nightly revenue going directly to the musicians. There are no refreshments or merchandise at The Stone. Only music.
"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you".
Deepak Chopra
4/21/08
Exerpts From The 'Alien Invasion Manual'
#3. When confronted face to face with an amoeba-like life form....
#4. Finding cover is your best bet for survival.
(Bonzer being the recommended tool for eventual cover exit)
I'm Branded
"No Logos" by Naomi Klein from 2000
Once a poster boy for the new economy, Bill Gates has become global whipping boy. Nike's swoosh - the marketing success of the nineties - is now equated with sweatshop labour, and teenage MacDonald's workers are joining the Teamsters. What is going on? No Logo, an incisive and insightful report from the frontlines of mounting backlash against multinational corporations, explains why some of the most revered brands in the world are finding themselves on the wrong end of a bottle of spray paint, a computer hack, or an international anti-corporate campaign.
No Logo uncovers a betrayal of the central promises of the information age: choice, interactivity, and increased freedom. And as job security disappears, the respectful reverence which corporations enjoyed as engines of the economy is also dissipating - as is their protection from worker and citizen rage.
Equal parts cultural analysis, political manifesto, mall-rat memoir, and journalistic exposé, No Logo is the first book to put the new resistance into pop-historical and clear economic perspective. Naomi Klein tells a story of rebellion and self-determination in the face of our new branded world.
Text Via....
Note: Yes, this book is from the year 2000 yet these issues are still relevant today.
Since this book Klein has been feverishly on message with this and related topics such as "Disaster Capitalism" or "The Shock Doctrine".
Read and or listen to her speak and if you are of an open mind than these points cannot be ignored.
Neither can the popularity of her and her material. She's struck a chord with the PEOPLE. Yes, the people who think. The people who don't just eat the gruel that is served to them, they ask Questions like....."what exactly is this clump of pulsating movement in my super-sized gruel meal"!
These inQuries cannot be dismissed as conspiracy. Just Questions.
The people who claim "conspiracy" are simply those scared to investigate.(in my opinion)
4/20/08
Golden Lines
Today's thought for the day is appropriate for this certain break!
"Ethics? Obedience to the unenforceable."
unknown
Phase Shifter
"Piano Phase" (1967)/ by Steve Reich & video by David Cossin...
Steve Reich, as an early pioneer in tape music and American minimalism, has established himself as one of the foremost composers of our time. Following studies in philosophy Reich then turned to composition.
His music is characterized by a strong, steady pulse and strictly diatonic and tonal harmonies. He is typically grouped together with other "first generation" minimalist composers such as Philip Glass and La Monte Young.
His music is deeply "American" in its roots, with an unrelenting pulse and short, repeating melodic figures often compared to rock-and-roll and be-bop.
Text continues here....
A Reich influenced piece I saw and loved was composed by Mark Lightcap (Acetone/ Dick Slessig)and performed by Steve Goodfriend (Radar Bros/ Slessig) and Carl Bronson.(Slessig)
It was basically a similar work with phase but with more rock leanings.
It was done using the Bo Diddley riff on two guitars slowly phasing apart and back thru a 4/4 rock time signature while one person kept a steady pulse with two sets of maracas.
Just that Bo Diddley riff on it's own is hypnotic but when it sets off in phase it's
intense.
4/19/08
Liquification
Decent to 131 ft.
Accent.
My brother is new to the freedive thang and is on a Cayman Islands trip working with top divers on getting his 'personal best'.
I'm pretty sure he's working with Kirk Krack (World Champion Trainer / Coach) and Mandy-Rae Cruickshank (PFI Instructor / Freediving World Champion) from the
Performance Freediving Team.
I know nothing about it except it scares the shit out of me.
Anyway, I got a mail that he increased his best dive up to 150 ft. and was sure he was ready for more then blew out his left ear drum.
Trip over.
This may be nothing to some, but as I said he's fairly new to the genre.
Congrats to him.
Liquification is....
4/18/08
4/17/08
Tweeked
Just had to mess a bit with this pic. Not from this AM, but the sepia tone helps out in hiding the pixels when zooming in with your point and shoot. Super styling hull trim illuminating the displacement wake for your pleasure.
Click to ENLARGE!
Albatross
Peter Green had been working on the 1969 piece for some time before the addition to the band of 18 year old guitarist Danny Kirwan.
I love the whole Peter Green era yet when Danny Kirwin entered, these ambient instrumentals really came together. I believe he and Green had similar vision for the band's direction.
The line up at the time was Peter Green - guitar, Danny Kirwan - guitar, John McVie - bass and Mick Fleetwood - drums.
It has been suggested that the piece is associated with the metaphorical use of the word albatross to mean a wearisome burden. The use of the word "Albatross" to mean an encumbrance found somebody's neck is an allusion to Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798). Not a coincidence that the LP title, "The Pious Bird of Good Omen", alludes to and quotes from the Coleridge poem.
The LP release also contained "Black Magic Woman" unknown by most to be a Green composition.
Personal note: Another favorite song of mine is post Green's departure. "Sunny Side Of Heaven."(currently on podcast written by Kirwin on 1972's 'Bare Trees'. "Danny's Chant" is another highlight although with the addition of Bob Welch "Sentimental Lady" garnered the pop accolades.
Albatross was 1st released as single with "Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" as Kirwin B-side.
Apologies for going link nutty.
4/16/08
Temper Temper, Lie Lie....
Why do the Clintons get a pass on all these "misstatements"?
MISSTATEMENTS??????
Freaken lies!
Quote; "I remember greatly this trip...."
Then there's McCain's 5th time "confusing" the Sunnis and Sheits?
5 times???
There's a problem here.
How many times can you misspeak before you're held accountable?
Hillary in Bosnia lied I think 3 or more times as well.
And now it's attack Obama!
Hillary now recounts her "duck hunting days"?
Yeh, She's no elitist!
Then there's the McCain temper!
This temper is well known with people from Arizona.
ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE FOR PEACE WITH McCAIN AS A "LEADER".
4/15/08
Surf's Up
Brian Wilson....
The title track of a 1971 Beach Boys album (released originally on their Warner-distributed label Brother Records), but the song (and the recording) dates back to the abandoned Smile LP of 1966/67. Music by Brian Wilson, and lyrics by Van Dyke Parks, whose inability to write songs about kars and gurls was a source of friction with the non-Brian members of the band. Wilson stretched the music in those days as Parks stretched the possibilities of what could come out of the mouths of Boys named Beach. But cousin Mike was well pleased here at the sight of some words about surfin'.(what a dick)
The song was certainly fully composed by November 1966, when Brian Wilson was filmed performing the song on piano for a CBS News special on popular music, hosted by Leonard Bernstein. An apparently complete backing track for the first (2:20) section was recorded and mixed in November 1966, but vocals and other overdubs were still to be added, and work on the middle and closing sections was either never undertaken, or never finished. It is notable that the flourishes played on muted trumpet in the verses of "Surf's Up" are almost identical to the familiar 'laughing' refrain of the theme for the Woody Woodpecker cartoon series. This musical reference recurs in the instrumental piece "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter" on the album Smiley Smile, (which was in fact subtitled "Woody Woodpecker Symphony").
"Surf's Up" although regarded as a teaser to the coveted and mysterious "Smile" is a great Lp. Two of my favorite tracks lie here! (Surf's Up and Til I Die)
Surf's Up Lyrics...
And as for Smile? A full post needs it's attention.
Ck. "The Story of Smile".
4/14/08
Space Oratorio
The Wild Blue Yonder(2005)
starring;
Brad Dourif
Statement by Werner Herzog
'Astronauts lost in space, the secret Roswell object re-examined, an alien who tells us all about his home planet - the Wild Blue Yonder - where the atmosphere is composed of liquid helium and the sky frozen, is all part of my science-fiction fantasy.'
Tip 'o the hat to C. Wilder.
4/13/08
Orange Peel and The Blue Combover
"Before speaking, ask yourself: Does it improve the silence?"
Anonymous
Vapor Manipulation
Here's something you can do if you feel frustrated about what YOU can do to help out in some way or at least SAVE GAS. Please forward this link to people that care and collectively maybe we can make a dent?
TIPS ON PUMPING GAS AND WHERE TO BUY.....
I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in
> California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my
> line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some
> tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon..
>
> Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we
> deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.
> One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and
> premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity
> of 16,800,000 gallons.
>
> Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the
> ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations
> have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground
> the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so
> buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not
> exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and
> the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and
> other petroleum products plays an important role.
>
> When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a
> fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three
> (3)stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping
> on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while
> you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you
> are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your
> tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the
> underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your
> money.
>
> One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is
> HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have
> in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline
> evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an
> internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the
> gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike
> service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is
> temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact
> amount.
>
> Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the
> storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely
> the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and
> you might pick up some f the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
> Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.
>
> DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!
> WHERE TO BUY USA GAS, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. READ ON...
>
> Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we grumbled about it. It
> might even be good for us! The Saudis are boycotting American goods.
> We should return the favor.
>
> An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS.
>
> Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into
> the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that don't
> import their oil from the Saudis.
> I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies
> are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle
> Eastern oil.
>
> These companies import Middle Eastern oil:
>
> Shell........................... 205,742,000 barrels
>
> Chevron/Texaco......... 144,332,000 barrels
>
> Exxon /Mobil............... 130,082,000 barrels
>
> Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
>
> Amoco.............................62,231,000 barrels
>
> Citgo gas is from South America, from a Dictator who hates Americans.
> If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18
> BILLION! (oil is now $90 - $100 a barrel
>
> Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:
>
> Sunoco..................0 barrels
>
> Conoco............... ....0 barrels
>
> Sinclair.................0 barrels
>
> B P/Phillips............0 barrels
> Hess.......................0 barrels
>
> ARC0.....................0 barrels
> All of this information is available from the Department of Energy
> and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much
> they are importing.
Note: Personally I recommend Arco. Ther's an abundance of locations and the fuel has been rated very clean by a reliable source. Also for my Hybrid this tends to get me the best mileage. (Dunno why)
Having this station info. handy in car has been helpful to myself as my memory is not near "Hummer" status.
4/12/08
Submarine Mission
I just had to pass on this great article I found on South Willard Via the NY Times.
'The Great Forgetting'
They say the 21st century is going to be the Asian Century, but, of course, it’s going to be the Bad Memory Century. Already, you go to dinner parties and the middle-aged high achievers talk more about how bad their memories are than about real estate. Already, the information acceleration syndrome means that more data is coursing through everybody’s brains, but less of it actually sticks. It’s become like a badge of a frenetic, stressful life — to have forgotten what you did last Saturday night, and through all of junior high.
In the era of an aging population, memory is the new sex.
Society is now riven between the memory haves and the memory have-nots. On the one side are these colossal Proustian memory bullies who get 1,800 pages of recollection out of a mere cookie-bite. They traipse around broadcasting their conspicuous displays of recall as if quoting Auden were the Hummer of conversational one-upmanship. On the other side are those of us suffering the normal effects of time, living in the hippocampically challenged community that is one step away from leaving the stove on all day.
This divide produces moments of social combat. Some vaguely familiar person will come up to you in the supermarket. “Stan, it’s so nice to see you!” The smug memory dropper can smell your nominal aphasia and is going to keep first-naming you until you are crushed into submission.
Your response here is critical. You want to open up with an effusive burst of insincere emotional warmth: “Hey!” You’re practically exploding with feigned ecstasy. “Wonderful to see you too! How is everything?” All the while, you are frantically whirring through your memory banks trying to anchor this person in some time and context.
A decent human being would sense your distress and give you some lagniappe of information — a mention of the church picnic you both attended, the parents’ association at school, the fact that the two of you were formerly married. But the Proustian bully will give you nothing. “I’m good. And you?” It’s like trying to get an arms control concession out of Leonid Brezhnev.
Your only strategy is evasive vagueness, conversational rope-a-dope until you can figure out who this person is. You start talking in the tone of over-generalized blandness that suggests you have recently emerged from a coma.
Sensing your pain, your enemy pours it on mercilessly. “And how is Mary, and little Steven and Rob?” People who needlessly display their knowledge of your kids’ names are the lowest scum of the earth.
You’re in agony now, praying for an episode of spontaneous combustion. But still she drives the blade in deeper, “That was some party the other night wasn’t it?”
You lose vision. What party? Did you see this person at a party? By now, articulation is impossible. You are a puddle of gurgling noises and awkward silences. After the longest of these pauses, she goes for the coup de grâce: “You have no idea who I am, do you?”
You can’t tell the truth. That would be an admission of social defeat. The only possible response is: “Of course, I know who you are. You’re the hooker who hangs around on 14th Street most Saturday nights.”
The dawning of the Bad Memory Century will have vast consequences for the social fabric and the international balance of power. International relations experts will notice that great powers can be defined by their national forgetting styles. Americans forget their sins. Russians forget their weaknesses. The French forget that they’ve forgotten God. And, in the Middle East, they forget everything but their resentments.
There will be new social movements and causes. The supermarket parking lots will be filled with cranky criminal gangs composed of middle-aged shoppers looking for their cars. As it becomes clear that a constant stream of blog posts and e-mails decimates the capacity for recall, people will be confronted with the modern Sophie’s choice — your BlackBerry or your mind.
Neural environmentalists will emerge from the slow foods movement, urging people to accept memory loss as a way to reduce their mental footprint. Meanwhile, mnemonic gurus will emerge offering to sell neural Viagra, but the only old memories the pills really bring back will involve trigonometry.
As in most great historical transformations, the members of the highly educated upper-middle class will express their suffering most loudly. It is especially painful when narcissists suffer memory loss because they are losing parts of the person they love most. First they lose the subjects they’ve only been pretending to understand — chaos theory, monetary policy, Don Delillo — and pretty soon their conversation is reduced to the core stories of self-heroism.
Their affection for themselves will endure through this Bad Memory Century, but their failure to retrieve will produce one of the epoch’s most notable features: shorter memoirs.
David Brooks
4/9/08
Body Of War
Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.
Local screening April 25
Nuart Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
Location...
"When people talk, really listen. Most people never listen."
Ernest Hemingway
4/8/08
Round, Brown and Shallow
'Lefty' hangin' on rail as not to snap his Bonzer 5.....again.
Today's conditions?.....challenging and kinda shitty.
"The real art is in how we live our lives: once we recognize that, theater happens all around us and music is everywhere."
John Cage
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