LIBÉRATION ARMY COMMUNIQUÉ

Moving House

2010-05-29T14:45:00.003+10:00

Dear all, time to move house. Manifestos will ring no more from these pages. I'm ringin' them bells over here++++++: www.cammackellar.com
cm

More Washington Phillips & His Dolceola

2010-05-10T10:51:00.004+10:00

One Shot Shed Shooting

2010-05-03T12:26:00.006+10:00

We shot and recorded a couple of songs to camera in the One Shot Shed yesterday with the generous help of Ev and an incredible camera 'borrowed' from a major pay tv commercial shoot.

We filmed a single shot of a couple of live performances from start to finish to a little stereo recorder. I've been wanting to do this for awhile.

The One Shot Shed is in Ev's grannies backyard. You can find it between the bee hives, the vege patch, the East Timorese renters' garden flat and granny's beautiful house decorated with Greek religious icons. I think the shed is mostly for Ev's grandfather's stuff. There's a few things in there that look like they have been banished from the house; most notably a poster of Marilyn Monroe, another kind of religious icon I guess.

Granny must have liked the music because she gave me one of her huge home-grown avocados to share with A.

Granny is simply one of the most beautiful 83yr women you could hope to meet. She's fun and pretty firey. She's been married for 63 years. I asked her what the secret was? "Respect. Neither the man or the woman in charge." I got the feeling she was in charge.

I have to learn how to use some kind of 'borrowed' film editing software (final cut???//imovie??) and then you can see the results. Editing offers are of course always welcome.

We recorded "Wages of Fear" beautifully. If only I had pressed record instead of pause on the stereo recorder. Much swearing. Still, there's some other good stuff including "Where I'm Calling From".

Swing Low

2010-04-30T08:49:00.003+10:00

This made my morning. Sister O.M Terrell playing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".

(with thanks to http://norestingplace.tumblr.com)

Largest Banjo in the World with good ol' Kangaroo Gut Strings

2010-04-16T11:36:00.001+10:00

The difference between lying and bullshitting

2010-04-05T00:33:00.005+10:00

This is just so absolutely perfect.

The difference between lying and bullshitting:

"It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."

From Harry G Frankfurt - On Bullshit (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/04/philip-pullman-on-new-labour)

How to Sink Your Integrity (and a warship_

2010-03-23T16:40:00.004+11:00

{update: 25th March///after a submission by the Environmental Defenders Office, a judge has put a stay on the scuttling until further notice. Huzzah!}

This Saturday the NSW government are going to sink a decommissioned warship, the 4000 tonne ex-HMAS Adelaide, less than 2 km's off Avoca Beach.

I wrote an article about it for New Matilda here

The warship was given to NSW by the federal government. Peter Garrett, as the Minister for Environmental Protection, was responsible for giving the final sign off on the "sea dumping permit" allowing the ship to be scuttled legally.

It's a disgrace.

I remember the night of the election when John Howard was voted out of office. After 11 stifling years there was a great sense of hope for the future in the house where we celebrated till around 4am.

The thought of Peter Garrett carrying his environmental passion into a ministerial portfolio was inspiring. On that night, it seemed as though someone who stood for us, heard us and understood us, was going to be in power. We thought the same things at the same time and hoped that Garrett could do something about it.

No more putting profit and convenience before the environment. Recognition and energy for closing the gap in life expectancy and living conditions for indigenous Australians. No more invasion and war on false pretenses. No more demonisation of asylum seekers for short term political gain. No more big government or big business fudging proper environmental process to quickly push through questionable projects.

How times have changed.

The scuttling of the ex-HMAS Adelaide is just the kind of issue Peter Garrett used to stand against.

Growing up near Manly, this kind of confrontation was part of my DNA:
a stage set up in Keirle Park, draped in Surfrider Foundation banners. A towering Garrett spinning across the stage with the spiritual fervour of a Sufi, hands pleading with the heavens and the powers that be, backed by a rhythmic fury and every member of the crowd.

In a country like Australia; a country so perplexed by our own national identity - our historical narrative for so long little more than a grotesque paper-mache that ignored 40,000 years of culture prior to invasion (or was it settlement?), failed to face the difficulties of that moment of contact, and chose instead to build a national myth on the overburdened backs of soldiers cruelly sacrificed by an imperial power - Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil stood for something.

They made a career out excavating the past and parts of Australia so many would rather ignore. They offered a way forward. They stirred things up.

I feel sadly that Garrett has abandoned this legacy and foolishly spent the political capital he took into the Labor Party.

I don't doubt his anguish over decisions, nor the good intentions he took into federal politics to make a change from within - few are so committed to even attempt to step into the fray - but to use a hackneyed phrase, 'politics is the art of compromise', which is fine, it's just that I don't know what Peter Garrett stands for anymore.

[if you want to get involved contact the No Ship Action Group - see www.noship.com.au - they are planning a legal challenge to stop the dumping of the ship]

iVictrola

2010-03-23T14:01:00.002+11:00

This would go rather well at the new place in Marrickville. #mybirthdayisinaugust

Behold the Steel Butterfly>>>David Byrne on Imelda Marcos

2010-03-18T10:24:00.004+11:00

I love this clip, even though Imelda's shoes are conspicuously absent.
The footage of her dancing and cavorting with Kissinger is priceless.
Corrupt Dictator Chic?

Behold the Steel Butterfly:

ps for some reason the clip doesn't appear correctly in this format. So just click the fullscreen button (rectangle within a rectangle) in the bottom left corner of the clip.

The History of Music Making in Australia

2010-03-16T11:38:00.003+11:00

I know Jon Rose from his fence playing (which I love)(see video below): but Here http://www.abc.net.au/rn/artworks/stories/2008/2300198.htm via ABC's Artwork Features is a great lecture he gives on the history of music making in Australia.

This is worth a listen.

The Wrath of Music Dad

2010-03-12T15:45:00.009+11:00

This week's show was wonderful - great sound, great audience ////except for the fact that my lexicon pedal whacked out again and in an unrelated incident, I experienced the wrath of not one, but two "Music Dads".**

Music Dad**

Definition: A Music Dad (MD) is the father of a young music Child Genius. This Dad attends the performances of the Child Genius with a vigour unmatched in devotion by even the most fervent graduates of the Pakistani madrassas.

Plummage: MD's are easy to identify. Their plummage is similar to that of Tennis/Sport Dad's in that they mimic the plummage of their Child Genius as best they can. Instead of tennis shirts and track suits, imagine the musical Damir Dokic in his finest 'cool' nocturnal attire. See below.

Polished RM Williams boots (hardcore MD's will work a side zip boot or a cuban heel), stifly ironed jeans and striped button-down collared shirts, tucked in to within an inch of their life.

MD's often put one leg up on a chair and dangle the keys to the BMW loudly in the vicinity of their crotch. This is a kind of territorial thing.

A full or receding head of grey hair accompanied by a Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop Stare is another easy giveaway.

Often accompanied by a Julie Bishop look-a-like Music Mum (MM). Pearl Earrings!

MD's are mostly useless and so usually hang around the Child Genius at the show like a bad smell. The Child Genius' chances at success can be gauged by how embarrassed the Child Genius is by MD's behavior. The higher the embarrassment, the greater chance of success. (NB a wise Child Genius will send MD and MM to the wrong venue on a regular basis).

Known Behaviours:

MD's carry keyboards for waif like singer-songwriter daughters who in turn impersonate Missy Higgins or Sarah Mclachlan, badly.

MD's run crowd interference for sensitive male songwriter Child Geniuses.

MD's are notorious for harassing, second guessing, back seat driving and generally pissing off live sound personnel with continual suggestions as to how the sound could be improved.

MD's know what songs should go on the album and in particular which song should be the (hit) single.

MD's have vast knowledge of the music and entertainment industries as a result of their extensive experience in dentistry/insurance /{.......}middle management.

MD's know their way around a recording studio and how things should sound as a result of their extensive experience with home Hi-Fi's and The Eagles back catalogue. Take it easy.

MD's crash tackle members of the audience who do not listen with rapt attention to their wunderkind. Then they take them out the back for a firm word or two.

MD's stand towards the back/side of the room for maximum audience glaring/performance coaching objectivity positioning.

MD's single-handedly keep the "Recording School Industry" and various "Learn Rock-n-Roll Institutes" afloat. MD's are therefore (unwittingly) superannuation funds for hard of hearing roadies and semi-alcoholic rockers/poodle-hair band retirees from the 80s.

MD's want a return on their investment dammit!

Conculsion:

Music Dad keeps the dream balloon afloat. They insulate the Child Genius from anyone or thing that may threaten to expose Child Genius' lack of talent.

Music Dad secretly prays nightly that "it's just a phase".

Music Dad is guaranteed to stunt and stifle the growth of their genius progeny through over protection. (NB. Over protection can work (see Frank Sinatra and the Mafioso) but your regular Music Dad doesn't have that kind of muscle, nor the ticker.

Music Dad's upper middle class nose for money and respectability will in time, turn on little Jenny/Johnny Child Genius, when the said genius refuses to move on and become a lawyer, dentist, insurance salesperson in due course.

If Child Genius persists, MD will continue to ply his trade, although with less enthusiasm as the years go by. At this stage MD will be hoping to "jam" with Child Genius.

Like me, you too can incur the wrath of a Music Dad!

Just chat quietly during Child Genius' performance and see what happens.

All the way from Marylebone to Bow Hills I thought of you

2010-03-09T11:11:00.005+11:00

..I thought of you
Our love was once like a river
but now it's still
now it's still

A. and I spent the weekend out in North West New South Wales visiting family on the farm between Narrabri and Baan Baa. It was a cracking time. Caught some yabbies, watched some of the senior members of the family falling over drunk, met some interesting folks and a blind epileptic Pug called Dudley.

They've had buckets of rain out there and no one has ever seen it so green. Still, it was sad to see the damage a coal mine does first hand. There's one going in over the road and the noise and dust are insane. My cousin's taking the fight to them.

The food on the farm was fresh and delicious, but I can't understand why so many country pubs in Australia serve the food they do. There they are, surrounded by some of the best produce in the world, but tradition and madness dictate that they serve up overcooked veges and something resembling warmed through road-train retreads, scavenged from the side of the highway, then forcefully splattered with spurts and squirts from the local dysentery outbreak, circa World War 2.

The beer was good, cold and perfect though.

All in all, can't wait to get out there again.

Cam MacKellar Halves The Hour: Episode 2

2010-03-03T15:58:00.003+11:00

The music and musing behind Broken Soul, the second track from the Saudade EP, featuring tracks from The Velvet Underground, Harry Nilsson and rare John Lennon.

Listen below or listen and subscribe for free via itunes here

Andy/Elvis/Bobby

2010-02-18T19:45:00.003+11:00

The last post included Christ so it's only fair to.....

(with thanks to Redmond the former)

The difference between wealth and money

2010-02-17T12:46:00.002+11:00

Do you have any advice for Americans in the face of recession? What would Jesus say?

Jesus would say, Recognize the difference between wealth and money. Wealth is the progressive realization of worthy goals, the ability to love and have compassion, meaningful and caring relationships. There's $2.9 trillion circulating in the world's markets every day, less than 2% of which goes to provide goods and services to humanity. The rest is one big casino, making money off money or losing money off money. We have a culture where we spend what we haven't earned to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like, and now the situation is such that we are being drawn to find the real meaning in our lives. When we shift from consumption to relationship, then we will be doing what Jesus would do.

Freedom Has A New Sound!

2010-02-16T16:34:00.005+11:00

Thinking about future projects.

I want to write something that deals broadly with sound and empire.

What does imperial American "freedom" sound like to Iraqis and Afghans? In other occupied territories? To the Palestinians who suffered under Israeli "sound bombs" over the Gaza Strip? To "enemy combatants" in Camp X-Ray and America's secret prisons?

The image above is from the mid-1950s when the noise of Cold War militarism started to piss off Americans at home. The text in the poster reads:

Freedom Has a New Sound!

ALL OVER AMERICA these days the blast of supersonic flight is shattering the old familiar sounds of city and countryside.

At U. S. Air Force bases strategically located near key cities our Airmen maintain their round the clock vigil, ready to take off on a moment’s notice in jet aircraft like Convair’s F-102A all-weather interceptor. Every flight has only one purpose — your personal protection!

The next time jets thunder overhead, remember that the pilots who fly them are not willful disturbers of your peace; they are patriotic young Americans affirming your New Sound of Freedom!

Her beauty and her terror

2010-02-06T21:24:00.001+11:00

////

To Read List

2010-02-04T12:56:00.002+11:00

Patti Smith "Just Kids"

John McGahern "Love The World'

It's a trap!

2010-02-04T10:14:00.001+11:00

Lord Monckton's doppelganger - "It's a trap!"

Radio Free Europe

2010-01-10T23:53:00.003+11:00

Cam MacKellar Halves The Hour: Episode 1

2009-12-16T14:33:00.006+11:00

Cam MacKellar Halves The Hour Episode Uno by cammackellar

Where I'm Calling From

2009-11-27T09:27:00.007+11:00

This from the good poeple at HUM via Hamish MacDonald of Al Jazeera: (click here to see the original Hum post with links)

PROBLEM: There are 237 countries/territories in the world. Yet, the 4 largest newsgathering and distribution organizations which supply content to 90% of the planet’s media, only report from 121 countries. They overlap operations in 77, and are differentiated only by 45.

RESULT? 116 countries NOT covered by mainstream media – almost half the world, and 4 billion people. (HUM Research, 2009 All rights reserved.)

HUM refers to this as the ‘GEOGRAPHIC GAP™ ’in global media - and the Company’s market opportunity.

Further……….

63 of these 116 countries also feature on the UN’s G77 list of most impoverished global nations and are generally considered `developing countries’. (HUM Research, 2009. All rights reserved.)

This and many of the other stark faces of inequality inspired the song "Where I'm Calling From" (which I've been playing live and can't wait to record properly):

The wire's vibrating with metallic sound
There's a dust storm moving fast over ground
It's midnight the search light cuts oil black sky
Beneath the blind sweep of the camera's eye

I hear politicians talking in rant and in rave
They stoke the fire of fear, but they can't keep us safe
Leaders serve greed, there's a silence that chokes
They lie and deceive like it's some kind of joke

We're in the static and the noise almost gone
Thought you might like to know where I'm calling from

We can see your great lights, see the dollars and pounds
See wealth's golden fountain, but it won't trickle down
Tell me what will you do, and where will you go
When you gain the whole world but lose your soul?

We're in the static and the noise almost gone
Thought you might like to know where I'm calling from

So you can turn a deaf ear, And blind your eyes
Build your great towers into the sky
Don’t ask the questions, just roll on
But I thought you might like to know where I’m Calling From.

The Back Road to Cudal

2009-11-25T18:06:00.002+11:00

on the way to the last show of the year (iphone from gypsy caravan)

John Cage Walking on Water

2009-11-11T17:15:00.000+11:00

Haruki Murakami

2009-11-05T21:15:00.001+11:00

“I’m not pretending it’s the real thing. We are living in a fake world; we are watching fake evening news. We are fighting a fake war. Our government is fake. But we find reality in this fake world. So our stories are the same; we are walking through fake scenes, but ourselves, as we walk through theses scenes, are real. The situation is real, in the sense that it’s a commitment, it’s a true relationship. That’s what I want to write about.”

Haruki Murakami

From Van to Townes Van Zandt

2009-10-24T11:00:00.001+11:00

(with many thanks to Van Truong)

Van

2009-10-22T13:54:00.001+11:00

'//the thing is to transcend...'

Refugees Re-visited

2009-10-21T10:41:00.007+11:00

(A Sri Lankan hunger striker is stretchered off the boat by fellow asylum seekers after fainting Photo: Roy Rubianto)

I'm just back from the South America to find that refugees are again in the Australian news. Sadly, it seems that Australia is still a deeply xenophobic country with a habit of electing leaders who choose to cynically harness the energy of that xenophobia for political advantage.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, like his predecessor John Howard, has chosen to get "tough" and take a "hardline" approach to refugees. This kind sentiment rates in Australia, as do TV shows like 'Border Security' - they push the same fear/comfort emotional buttons.

What the Prime Minister should have done is put this current rise in refugees arriving in Australia in an accurate historical and global perspective. He should have demonstrated leadership by appealing to the better, more compassionate nature of the Australian public rather than perpetuating the irrational fears so many here hold of being 'swamped' by a rising 'tide'/'wave'/'tsunami' of the poor, the persecuted and the weary.

Some perspective:

Getting "tough" doesn't work.

Have 'tough'or 'harsh' immigration policies been effective?

There is no evidence that the policy of mandatory detention introduced by Labor in 1992 and toughened by the Coalition deterred arrivals. When mandatory detention was introduced, there were only a very small number of boat arrivals. Ten years later, there were 5000. The current government maintained the same policy of mandatory detention when they were elected and numbers have continued to rise.

The same is true for the Australian government's policies of charging people (sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars) for the cost of their detention, and refusing to give permanent protection to people found to be genuine refugees. Despite these deterrents numbers have continued to rise.

Why?

The historical and global perspective.

The current rise in arrivals is clearly a result of geo-political factors.

Globally the number of refugees has increased recently:

In 2008: according to UNHCR there were 15.2m refugees (one-third were in our own region)
In the same year, globally, the number of asylum claims rose by 28 per cent to 839,000

Of the current arrivals, 48% are Afghans, and 36% are Sri Lankan. In short, events in Pakistan and Sri Lanka account for nearly 85% of the current increase.

Consequently, to labour the point, irrespective of the tough talk, Australia and many other countries have been recently confronted with an increase in people seeking protection as a result of persecution and conflicts.

Australia deals with a tiny amount of asylum seekers relative to other nations:

80 per cent of the world's refugees are hosted by developing countries: Pakistan, Syria, Iran and Jordan

Among the developed countries, the US received 49,600 applications for asylum, France 35,400, Canada 34,800, Britain 30,500, and Italy 30,300. Australia received - and this is taking together all people arriving by boat and plane - 4500 asylum claims. South Africa received 207 000 claims from asylum seekers.

Historically large numbers of refugees have come to Australia, worked hard and contributed greatly to the country

The protection Australia offered to the 90,000 Vietnamese who found asylum in here during the mid 1970s - mid 1980s has been overwhelmingly successful.

The vast majority of arrivals by boat are genuine refugees:

Of asylum claims made within Australia by people who have arrived by aircraft, 55% are rejected. The rejection rate of claims made by people who arrive by boat varies between 2-15%.

It's heartbreaking that our current Prime Minister and our former Prime Minister have the same fetish for stroking the redneck nerve in Australia - all pandering, bluster and tough talk - no real leadership.

I'm sadly reminded of the little remembered tragedy of SievX (Suspected Illegal Entry Vehicle X of "A Certain Maritime Incident" infam). 353 men, women and children drowned in criminally suspicious circumstances seeking a better life in Australia. They were fleeing the noise, terror and criminal negligence of life in Iraq brought on in part by Australia's role in the mess created by "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Despite the admirable efforts of Tony Kevin and others to bring this to the attention of the Australian public, most people know little about this incident. Read about it here and here

It's worth noting that Australia has signed the UN Refugee Convention. Read about Australia's obligations under this treaty here.

353 drowned in Siev X today //
if you come to our country we’ll turn you away //
but first we’ll lock you up in a barbed wire cage //
And then wonder what fuels your suicide rage //
One day to be free

Fortress Australia what a joke //
it's just something they made up to steal your vote //
while they stroked your sensitive redneck nerve //
you reach around, re-elect, "humbled to serve" //
One day to be free //

Demonise, victimise, polarise, lie //
Invent the fear then magnify //
spin about children not thrown overboard //
harness the fear and put truth to the sword //
One day to be free

Washington Phillips on the dolceola

2009-09-11T09:05:00.004+10:00

I love this track.

1-09 Lift Him Up That's All

How to pick your favouite Indie Band

2009-09-10T11:33:00.001+10:00

from http://www.cracked.com/funny-1677-indie-music/

Worth a Read: Historian Marcus Redicker talks pirate and slave communities with Auburn State prisoners

2009-09-04T22:37:00.008+10:00

http://www.counterpunch.org/rediker09032009.html

In the lecture I talked about the broad context of the Atlantic slave trade, how the many millions transported were central to the establishment of the plantation system and, therefore, to the rise of modern capitalism. I talked about the slave trade as a human experience, the deliberately inflicted violence and terror of the Middle Passage. I talked about the nature of community among the enslaved aboard the ship, how they overcame ethnic differences to create a common culture of resistance that would be carried off the ship and into the slave societies of the United States, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Brazil. (This point seemed to have a special resonance.) I concluded by talking about what kind of movement from below was necessary to abolish the slave trade, in Great Britain (1807) and the United States (1808).

Yoko Ono//change change

2009-08-31T10:13:00.006+10:00

I love this answer from Yoko Ono during her regular Friday Q and A session on Twitter (@yokoono) (http://imaginepeace.com/news/archives/7703):

///////
Q: Is art necessarily/always political or can “autonomous” art effect social change as well?

Yoko: All art is communication. All communication sends vibration to outside. All vibration effects social change.
///////

Beats the hell out of "don't mix music and politics"

Communique: Tales from the Afterlives

2009-08-27T08:41:00.006+10:00

Just one of David Eagleman's forty tales - thoroughly enjoyable///

Egalitaire

In the afterlife you discover that God understands the complexities of life.

She had originally submitted to peer pressure when She structured her universe like all the other gods had, with a binary categorization of people into good and evil. But it didn't take long for Her to realize that humans could be good in many ways and simultaneously corrupt and mean-spirited in other ways.

How was She to arbitrate who goes to Heaven and who to Hell?

Might it not be possible, She considered, that a man could be an embezzler and still give to charitable causes? Might not a woman be an adulteress but bring pleasure and security to two men's lives? Might not a child unwittingly divulge secrets that splinter a family?

Dividing the population into two categories - good and bad - seemed like a more reasonable task when she was younger, but with experience these decisions became more difficult. She composed complex formulas to weigh hundreds of factors, and ran computer programs that rolled out long strips of paper with eternal decisions. But her sensitivities revolted at this automation - and when the computer generated a decision She disagreed with, She took the opportunity to kick out the plug in rage.

That afternoon She was listening to the grievances of the dead from two warring nations. Both sides had suffered, both sides had legitimate grievances, both pled their cases earnestly. She covered Her ears and moaned in misery. She knew Her humans were multidimensional, and She could no longer live under the rigid architecture of Her youthful choices.

Not all gods suffer over this; we can consider ourselves lucky that in death we answer to a God with deep sensitivity to the byzantine hearts of Her creations.

For months She moped around her living room in Heaven, head drooped like a bulrush, while the lines piled up. Her advisors asked Her to delegate the decision making, but She loved her humans too much to leave them to the care of anyone else.

In a moment of desperation the thought crossed Her mind to let everyone wait in line indefinitely, letting them work it out on their own.

But then a better idea struck Her generous spirit. She could afford it: She would grant everyone, every last human, a place in Heaven. After all, everyone had something good inside; it was part of the design specifications. Her new plan brought back the bounce to Her gait, returned the colour to her cheeks.

She shut down the operations in Hell, fired the Devil, and brought every last human to be by Her side in Heaven. Newcomers or old timers, nefarious or righteous: under the new system, everyone gets equal time to speak with her. Most people find Her a little garrulous and over solicitious, but She cannot be accused of not caring.

The most important aspect of Her new system is that everyone is treated equally. There is no longer fire for some and harp music for others. The afterlife is no longer defined by cots versus waterbeds, raw potatoes versus sushi, hot water verses champagne. Everyone is a brother to all, and for the first time an idea has been realized that never came to fruition on Earth:true equality.

The Communists are baffled and irritated, because they have finally achieved their perfect society, but only with the hel of a God in whom they don't want to believe.

The meritocrats are abashed that they're stuck for eternity in an incentiveless system with a bunch of pinkos.

The conservatives have no penniless to disparage, the liberals have no downtrodden to promote.

So God sits on the edge of Her bed and weeps at night, because the only thing that everyone can agree upon is that they're all in Hell.

Smokey & The Miracles

2009-08-25T17:20:00.001+10:00

got that late afternoon feeling///

What have you been listening to?

2009-08-17T11:08:00.005+10:00

What have you been listening to? I've been asked this question by people in need of some new music in their lives a few times over the last week so I thought I'd post on what's been getting into my ears and open it up for others to suggest some good sounds.

Sadly I'm probably the worst person to ask because my listening habits are eclectic and related more to what I'm trying to make / staying sane / getting some sleep, rather than checking out the latest thing-a-me-jig.

That said, here's some kind of list:

Alice Coltrane - the sounds the sounds the sounds
John Lennon's home demos and solo - Plastic Ono Band
Stuff produced by Peter Katis (he has a good ear - would love to work in his studio in any capacity)
I have a playlist of new song seeds, soundtrack snippets and almost done recordings that I'm always listening to walking or in the car
Broken Records - I found these guys because they use the new Topspin music platform - kind of Arcade Fire-ish. I have their 1st EP which I think is great.
Gonzales 'Solo Piano' - good to read and write to. Have been looking for a record like this ever since i visited the Brett Whiteley studio in Raper St. and found a great solo piano record he painted to in his collection. Can't remember what that record was though
I like the new Doves record
Leonard Cohen - constant arse-kicking inspiration
Radio Serials - This American Life, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, The Vinyl Cafe (this is good for discovering new Canadian artists), Late Night Live with Phillip Adams, Coversations with Richard Fidler
Folk and Gospel collections - Been in the Storm So Long, Goodbye Babylon and the Harry Smith Folk Anthology
At the moment i seem to be listening a little to artists who are active on the web - Clare Bowditch (fantastic Australian songwriter and singer), Fanfarlo (good first record), Imogen Heap, Joe Pug
Van - Astral Weeks for hi hats, double bass, strumming, inspiration
The BBC World Service - check the shipping weather forecasts - now there's a sense of place in sound
Dylan - live in 1966 plus some early acoustic bootlegs
Tinariwen - water is life.
I love some of the sounds on the Riceboy Sleeps record.

What are y'all listening to?

Sleep//Insomniac - 1st draft of cover

2009-08-12T14:09:00.002+10:00

Yurt Holidays

2009-08-12T08:26:00.007+10:00

yurts...is there anything they can't do?

woke up this morning to the chirping of two beautiful green and red Australian King Parrots on the yurt's verandah.

Even birds like yurts.

for all our American friends here is a list of ten great yurt holidays - clickety click

back to work on 'swinging through the noise' thesis chapter and opening track of 'sleep/insomniac'......

Woody

2009-07-20T09:39:00.004+10:00

last night I dreamt I helped Woody hear an original recording of This Land Is Your Land at some museum by holding up a recording device for him. We cried together as we listened to it but then we were thrown out of the museum. Woody was living on the streets and smelt pretty bad.

Arundati Roy - Is there life after democracy?

2009-07-18T11:20:00.005+10:00

In t his New Statesman article Arundati Roy critiques the formidable language of democracy.

She pulls apart the processes at the heart of terms such as "progress", "development" and "best practice" arguing that in many parts of the world, and especially in India, this language wraps the dispossession of the vast underclass and the insatiable appetite of the new middle class with a false sheen.

She questions the benefit of the huge infrastructure projects in India to the poor and the environment, going on to suggest other ways to 'develop'.

Why not grow sustainable food crops, suitable to local soil conditions and microclimates, instead of creating 'water-guzzling hybrid and genetically modified “cash” crops which, apart from being wholly dependent on the market, are also heavily dependent on chemical fertilisers, pesticides, canal irrigation and the indiscriminate mining of groundwater'?

An excerpt which will interest supporters of The Long Now:

What we need today, for the sake of the survival of this planet, is long-term vision. Can governments whose very survival depends on immediate, extractive, short-term gain provide this? Could it be that democracy, the sacred answer to our short-term hopes and prayers, the protector of our individual freedoms and nurturer of our avaricious dreams, will turn out to be the endgame for the human race? Could it be that democracy is such a hit with modern humans precisely because it mirrors our greatest folly – our nearsightedness?

The Great American Bubble Machine : Investment Bank Goldman Sacks

2009-07-14T15:20:00.003+10:00

Click here for a must read article (from an unlikely source) about Goldman Sacks called The Great American Bubble

A Small Except:

After playing an intimate role in four historic bubble catastrophes, after helping $5 trillion in wealth disappear from the NASDAQ, after pawning off thousands of toxic mortgages on pensioners and cities, after helping to drive the price of gas up to $4 a gallon and to push 100 million people around the world into hunger, after securing tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through a series of bailouts overseen by its former CEO, what did Goldman Sachs give back to the people of the United States in 2008?

Fourteen million dollars.

That is what the firm paid in taxes in 2008, an effective tax rate of exactly one, read it, one percent. The bank paid out $10 billion in compensation and benefits that same year and made a profit of more than $2 billion — yet it paid the Treasury less than a third of what it forked over to CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who made $42.9 million last year.

Television Screen Smash - Take No. 128 - Peter Gabriel

2009-07-13T14:18:00.001+10:00

Australia // Racism

2009-07-10T11:20:00.004+10:00

the word is that the aussie racists are on the rise again. see articles on the rise of the racist right here and here

I doubt the mainstream polling potential of these groups but the stubborn endurance and strength of racism in Australian culture is deeply troubling.

The majority of young white males at my gym have southern cross tattoos.

The majority of P plated cars on the coast have southern cross stickers on their back window.

Out here it's patently obvious that patriotism, racism and xenophobia are good mates

We need a powerful symbolic language that appeals to our better nature and counters the strong emotional attraction of aussie tribalism to many 'white' Australians

Any thoughts?

Le Tour

2009-07-09T09:26:00.003+10:00

whilst not on tour at the moment I'm happily and deeply into le tour de france. the hours are perfect for me - it starts at around 10pm and finishes around 3 or 4am. I can get a heap of work done with the meditation of the ride on the tv in the background.

the night before last there was a team time trial in my old home town of Montpellier. It was wonderful to see cadel and armstrong riding some of the same streets I used to bike around. bittersweet to see the tree lined streets around the aqueduct. we finish in Barcelona tonight.

The Power of Symbols

2009-07-01T10:28:00.008+10:00

McDonalds understands the power of symbols - they have the golden arches

Shell understands the power of symbols - they have the golden shell

Racist Australians understand the power of symbols - they now have the stars of the southern cross, tattooed or stuck on the windscreen of a car

Neo-nazis understand the power of symbols - they still have the swastika

These symbols are designed to manipulate us.

Symbols manipulate by reducing and re-packaging knowledge until it becomes deeply intertwined with how we feel.

Investigative journalists, human rights groups, consumer watchdog organizations and advocacy agencies have bombarded the public with torrents of facts and figures in an attempt to counter the powerful symbolic language of exploitative corporations, racists, the xenophobic and the neo-fascist.

As every Spin Doctor working today will tell you - the facts don't count for much.

The challenge for those groups and those of us who still believe in the value of the soul, the sacredness of diversity and the rights of the discarded, is to marry the facts with passion and emotion.

The challenge is to develop a powerful symbolic language that counters the cynical mass manipulators and the slick seductive chrome of corporate speech.

We need to develop a language that empowers and inspires people, in order to replace the symbolic language that dis-empowers and hates people.

This challenge has been met before////

Here's to looking for the symbols and songs of thrift and ingenuity, tolerance, compassion and justice.

* This post was inspired by a recent discussion on refugees with the old man and this article called 'The truth Alone Will Not Set You Free by Chris Hedges

Thoughts On Iran

2009-06-30T11:15:00.004+10:00

I'm in no doubt that the election was rigged.

I couldn't agree more with the approach of Craig Murray to any discussion of Iran.

He argues that any sensible discussion of Iran must begin with the acceptance a two sets of facts and notes that both sets are true.

Crucially, ideologues on the Right routinely disregard Set A, while ideologues on the Left routinely discount Set B.

As a result, most discussion on Iran is hamstrung.

Here are the two sets of facts copied from his blog post on June 14 this year:

Set A

Iranian Islamic fundamentalism allied to fierce anti-Americanism was born from CIA intervention to topple democracy and keep in power a ruthless murdering despot for decades, in the interests of US oil and gas companies

Iranian anti-Americanism was fuelled further by US support for US friend and ally Saddam Hussein who was armed to wage a murderous war against Iran, again in the hope of US access to Iran's oil and gas

The US committed a terrible atrocity against civilians by shooting down an Iranian passenger jet

Iran is surrounded by US military forces and has been repeatedly threatened to the extent that the desire to develop a nuclear weapon is a reflex

There is monumental hypocrisy in condemning Iran's nuclear programme while overlooking Israel's nuclear weapons

Set B

Iran is governed by an appalling set of vicious theocratic nutters

Iran is not any kind of democracy. It fails the first hurdle of candidates being allowed to put forward meaningful alternatives

Hanging of gays, stoning of adulterers, floggings, censorship and pervasive control are not fine because of cultural relativism. Iran's whole legislative basis is inimical to universal ideals of human rights.

Iran really is trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme, though with some years still to go.

Propaganda - No Spin Zone.

2009-06-25T13:29:00.007+10:00

Just hours after 2 U.S unmanned drone aircraft murdered up to 80 mourners at a Pakistani funeral, Fox News released the video above noting (in case you missed it) the extreme lengths the U.S military goes to in order to minimize 'collateral damage', that is, murdering civilians.

It's an interesting piece of media propaganda: the video desensitises the act of killing and reinforces existing notions of superiority and safety for many in the Fox News audience.

How is this achieved?

The act of killing here is almost completely dehumanised. The senses of the pilots and the audience are insulated from the reality of the murders. The dead and soon to be dead can't be heard, touched or smelt. They have no names, families, narratives, cultures, histories or facial expressions. Visually they appear only as a kind of thermal avatar, almost exactly as an enemy would appear in a nintendo/PS2 game.

The point of view is always from above, powerful and all seeing. The enemy never threaten this position of power. The video is not temporally or geographically specific. Visually it is not unlike footage of the first moon landing. The video gives the impression that killing is an act of technical skill, carried out in hyper-reality within a strict moral framework.

War and killing are more easily justified when this is the case.

This sensory world plays perfectly into the opiate bliss of U.S superiority in theatres of conventional warfare. The Americans are of course superior in terms of conventional warfare, it's just that as a result nobody is dumb enough to oppose the U.S conventionally.

In contrast the pictures and video emerging from the current crisis in Iran are highly sensitized and are more likely to evoke an empathetic response in the audience.

The victims are individuals - we see their faces, we hear their cries, we learn of their names, like Neda Angha-Soltan; we have walked with our fathers also, our streets are not unlike Iranian streets, we wear denim jeans and have mobile phones with cameras, we have protested peacefully and prayed to our gods also. We are humans just like them.

Of course there are important differences between these videos, but still, the familiar and tangible sensory world depicted in this video heightens our empathic response.

Killing is less easily justified in this sensory world.

I've seen the future Brother, and it is murder

2009-06-17T09:40:00.004+10:00

http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20090614_the_american_empire_is_bankrupt/ Chris Hedges at Truth Dig

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n10/lanc01_.html John Lanchester in The London Review of Books

oh and check out Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road" and Leonard for good measure.

"The Future"
(leonard cohen)
Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I'm the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
but love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide ...

When they said REPENT REPENT ...

Daily Weather Report

2009-06-16T20:13:00.001+10:00

http://www.davidlynch.com/

Reviewed++making movies

2009-06-01T12:17:00.004+10:00

I'm laid up with a dodgy throat, hoping it's not bovine and self soothing with a good dose of rest, Jameson and Jim Jarmusch to keep me ticking over - Ghost Dog if you must know. Calcium Calcium Calcium!

It's so satisfying to make some music from the start, to try and guide the sound and the pictures through machines that capture and replicate, to twist and turn and then find this:

http://whothehell.net/archives/3118

In an ideal world, all singer-songwriters would have the qualities Cam MacKellar posesses in spades - life experience, a strong musical skill-set and a great voice. That said, the lackustre competition just highlights how rare it is to find talent like his.
An accomplished musician, MacKellar has worked alongside Shane Nicholson as a guitarist and received considerable critical acclaim for his work as a composer on Silent Soundtracks, a soundtrack project featuring Paul Kelly, The Necks and Paul Grabowsky.
His debut EP Saudadé is a gorgeous piece of work. MacKellar has crafted five strong songs, his voice carried by piano, strummed guitars and impeccable string arrangements, best showcased on the title track. The whole package is pressed onto a mock-postcard disc in mock-fabric packaging, a nod to MacKellar’s years spent travelling overseas.

What else is going on? We're trying to make movies, which is harder than you might think or at least than I thought. Making posters. We're taking pictures too. listening to old gospel, the last two grizzly bear records, harry nilsson, am radio. more shows coming late july/august.

adieu to you and you and you

What are we eating?

2009-05-21T09:10:00.004+10:00

I've been trying to post more original material on the Communiqué but sometimes you read something that just resonates and makes you think.

This is a link to an interview with Michael Pollan, a professor of science and environmental journalism at University of California, Berkeley, on swine flu, food production and consumption - i highly recommend giving it a read.

Stephen Fry

2009-05-19T09:01:00.004+10:00

Every now and then, whilst trudging doggedly through the blizzard of binary code that increasingly defines our age, you come across something worthy of attention. Stephen Fry's Blog is clever, funny and human. His podcast is good too.

new wilco

2009-05-14T10:04:00.002+10:00

hubba hubba

Communique: To Ramona, An Elegy Last Sunday Night at The Fringe Bar

2009-05-12T22:05:00.003+10:00

Although I’ve rarely played on the stage of The Fringe Bar, we share a history. The first time I drank there it was at the invitation of some friends from uni. There was none of the faux bohemian interior; it looked and smelt more like beer barn. We watched some bad stand up comedy, I nervously sipped beer and wished my conversation with the beautiful, smart uni girls would stop racing from gibberish to the grinding opera of a slow motion car crash, to return inevitably to a vacant, silent and empty pot hole.

Look at shoes, eyes askance.

Still there was something subterranean and thankfully outside the realm of language exchanged that night. Instinct found bravery in solitude and then words found their rhythm too. They made their way into skilful hands that held pen and ink. Ink in turn stained paper, which reached me via an envelope from Africa addressed to ‘The Gardener’. A blizzard of pages followed and led via ‘The Wages of Fear’, across the world and somehow to Saudade.

I watched a movie called Elegy this week. It’s an absolutely brilliant meditation on time and fear. The movie begins with (Sir) Ben Kingsley’s character teaching a class on Barthes and asking them if and how a book would change if you were to read it again ten years later. Of course it does change; everything passes and everything changes , just do what you think you should do... Something of the same happened for me on Sunday night. Some of the songs on Saudade come from a long way back, but that night it felt like they were well and truly re-born, remade and released a bit from the history that formed them.

Then again maybe it was just the Tequila.

What I’m trying to say is that the night was a pleasure of circular and linear time, with a few little surprises thrown in for good measure. In front of the stage was Ian. I had no idea he was going to be there. When I was fifteen he came round to my house and told me what chords I was playing on the guitar. He taught me a few more, encouraged me and let me play in his band at the little neighbourhood church as long as I didn’t turn the guitar up loud enough for anyone in the congregation to hear. Keeping the circle unbroken I gave a guitar Dan who played first on Sunday. I think the guitar was his first too. He was good enough to learn it on his own. There were other new and old friends moving through. Alex and Kate sadly setting sail for Dublin, Stafford MC and Jon and Brydie back from Dublin via Sydney. Ange scooted down from the yurt, directed no doubt by her iphone. Mags drove a quick four and half hours from Cudal. Jim came, played keys and spread his good energy around. Plenty of others came too.

To me it felt like a petit celebration. No fireworks, just a hold up in the servo over the road, good chat, some songs and the feeling of good people in a room, oh and a bar tab. I have little idea why you all turn up. I cringe when I think it might be from loyalty or pity to me alone. I’m find ease in the realisation that it has little to do with me, and more to do with friendship. That and the fact that a night of wine and song is a night well spent.

For the record and for those of you that have asked we played: An as yet untitled song (Release??)/Saudade/Go and Find Someone/Broken Soul/BBC (changed to RTE for the Irish )/Glebe Point Road/Where I’m Calling From/White Waratah and a bit of Cohen’s Hallelujah. Many thanks to all those who came out. I’m still astounded, I mean the Logies were on!
The final show of this little Sydney run is on Thursday 14th May at the Hopetoun on stage at 8pm for a short set of . I’m not sure what TV it clashes with, but there’s Mexican food upstairs at the pub///+++looking forward to it.
cm.

ps

I've never seen someone who wielded such great power so rattled by simple questions from two students

2009-05-08T09:13:00.002+10:00

note the pointing fingers, the aggression and the belittling 'no dear'.

there's got to be a better way

2009-04-28T09:12:00.000+10:00

///

2009-04-27T23:24:00.001+10:00

waves crashing on the beach at night

Double Thumbs: Liberation Army Recommends

2009-04-19T18:33:00.000+10:00

This American Life
a great weekly podcast from Chicago Public Radio. just really well done. great background music. the host ira glass has a kind of jewish woody allen charm. extended use of quasi-intellectual monotone is particularly thrilling

Bob Dylan Interviews
Columbia Records are drip releasing parts of an interview Dylan has done with Bill Flanagan to promote his new record. The interviews are so good I think I'm looking forward to the next installment more than the record.

Photoshop Filters
just fun. not too techy. cheating.

Dogs
unrelenting positivity. nuff said.

Lucie Thorn
my friend kane put me onto her music. This is just a really great sounding record - Black Across The Field. I haven't heard the whole thing but felt compelled to buy a copy after hearing just a copy of tracks (it's 'in the mail'). You know, the good stuff, guitars that sound warm and dark and like someone has listened to Neil Young and meant it. http://www.luciethorne.com

Music /// Money // France // The Sound of Community

2009-04-16T17:03:00.005+10:00

I was interested to see Paul McGuinness, U2 and PJ Harvey's manager, speak out in favour of the french model for protecting artist's intellectual property rights. You can read about it here in The Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/apr/07/france-solution-online-piracy. McGuiness is a canny fella and it's to his credit that he's having a go at this and sticking his arse out there. He doesn't really have to. He's made his money and will prosper to exceedingly flush levels in the future on touring revenue alone.

Thinking about the issue of music piracy brings up all kinds of thoughts for me as an artist. I'm happy to ramble on///follow thoughts in progress if you wish+++

The dropping value of recorded music really hit me hard when having spent a lot of time, money and effort on an ep, a close friend remarked to their acquaintance who had just asked me where she could buy the EP 'oh you haven't got the cd!? I'll just burn it for you.' A minor incident in light of the GFC bear, but enlightening nevertheless and by the way, I'm a hypocrite - I burn cd's to share music all the time. I think word of mouth is the best way to spread music, but I like to think I share music like I share books - the art is given with an intent and a shared knowledge that this or that person of taste will share my taste and get back to me.

The biggest problem as I see it (and this is outside of the issue of rights, indeed it's a wider cultural problem) is that music has become ubiquitous and disposable. It's increasingly easy to make and throw away. There's so much of the stuff around that you have to wade through piles of it every day. In the cafe, car, at home, on the tv - it's everywhere. It's easy to forget that not so long ago this was not the case. I used to strain to stay up and listen to music I loved on the radio late at night as it beamed in from Manchester, England. Whilst I was at school, I carried Bob Dylan's 'Highway 61 Revisited' around on a cassette walkman and listened to it for a minimum of 2 hours a day - for about a year. It re-wired my synapses. It would be more difficult to do that now. It's hard to find a radio station like say KCRW (L.A) or 2SER(Sydney) with artistic rather than purely commercially driven agendas. People don't love music any less, it's just that music is everywhere and losing value. When something of value is scarce and difficult to access its value goes up, and vice-versa.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of music made by communities who have not been exposed to mechanically reproduced music on the radio or gramophone. If they wanted to hear songs they would have to sing them. I am drawn to this music. I hear something special in it; I think that it might be the sound made by people singing together in a soundscape where their ears have not been invaded constantly by music and other sounds. It's the sound of community. The sound of humanity. It's a valuable sound. I miss this sound.

This kind of singing is healthy and it's a remedy for those of us who have become pokie players when it comes to music - tapping away at the blinking lights with an ever-quickening mania. It's good to sing together, in one place, phones switched off, with no one recording it for youtube, just every once in awhile.

I'd like to think that an artist's intellectual property rights can become reasonably protected again. It's one thing to burn a cd, it's another to instantly swamp your hard drive with music you may never find the time to listen to, from an atomised hard drive owned by a stranger on the other side of the world. Meanwhile your ISP is happily making a packet from your downloads and the artist is getting zip. It's junk food, junk bonds. I'd like to see music continue to grow and continue to be about community. Community requires an investment from everyone involved.

let that be a lesson to you

2009-04-08T21:35:00.001+10:00

Broadway Musicals

2009-03-05T16:18:00.004+11:00

From that great song in the Broadway musical South Pacific "you've got to be taught"

You've got to be taught from year to year.
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear.
You've got to be taught before it's too late.
Before you are 6 or 7 or 8.
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You've got to be carefully taught.

Those leaders do mean well. Sure they make mistakes, bomb and kill the innocent, invade the wrong country in the name of peace, lie, condone torture and cause more harm than good, but it's done with divine inspiration (whispered softly in the ear) and the most honourable of intentions. Right? Right.

don't ask the questions. off to the shops!

with thanks to William Blum

Music Of Resistance

2009-02-24T15:50:00.002+11:00

This documentary on the music of resistance looks mighty interesting.

It includes an episode on TINARIWEN, who made one of my favorite albums of last year. The band are made up of nomadic tribesmen from Northern Mali and the music is incredible; soulful, circular, post-crash and deep past.

Record Making with Duke Ellington

2009-02-15T10:19:00.000+11:00

self serving insomniac indie folk playlist numeron uno

2009-02-04T00:55:00.001+11:00

John Patrick MacKenzie

2008-10-17T13:10:00.002+11:00

killing time in sophia's cafe in erkinsville before mastering the ep the other day I came across this in the paper. JPM is an autistic artist. I like his stuff. there's something so innocent and brutally honest about the prism this painting comes from.

Fleet Foxes

2008-10-14T14:20:00.003+11:00

too heavy and quiet lately. too much in the mix. changes afoot.

this record is really too good

slavery. gone right?

2008-09-10T12:31:00.001+10:00

http://www.iabolish.org/

Sinner's Crossroads

2008-09-08T18:13:00.000+10:00

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/CR

I met the walrus: a reel-to-reel, a 14 year kid and john lennon in 1969

2008-07-08T11:21:00.001+10:00

Save the internet: Net Neutrality - what is it? why is it important?

2008-07-02T10:34:00.001+10:00

Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

beatles from above

2008-06-24T08:47:00.002+10:00

Oil....not getting any cheaper compadres - in fact it's f#$%^&ing expensive

2008-06-19T10:50:00.002+10:00

to get this ad on air - go and clickety clickk here

Tom Waits - What's Wrong With the World?

2008-06-18T07:58:00.004+10:00

Q: What’s wrong with the world?

A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley’s dog made 12 million last year… and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It’s just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

///for the rest of a good interview clickety click///

Q: What are some sounds you like?

1. An asymmetrical airline carousel created a high pitched haunted voice brought on by the friction of rubbing and it sounded like a big wet finger circling the rim of a gigantic wine glass.

2. Street corner evangelists

3. Pile drivers in Manhattan

4. My wife’s singing voice

5. Horses coming/trains coming

6. Children when school’s out

7. Hungry crows

8. Orchestra tuning up

9. Saloon pianos in old westerns

10. Rollercoaster

11. Headlights hit by a shotgun

12. Ice melting

13. Printing presses

14. Ball game on a transistor radio

15. Piano lessons coming from an apartment window

16. Old cash registers/Ca Ching

17. Muscle cars

18. Tap dancers

19. Soccer crowds in Argentina

20. Beatboxing

21. Fog horns

22. A busy restaurant kitchen

23. Newsrooms in old movies

24. Elephants stampeding

25. Bacon frying

26. Marching bands

27. Clarinet lessons

28. Victrola

29. A fight bell

30. Chinese arguments

31. Pinball machines

32. Children’s orchestras

33. Trolley bell

34. Firecrackers

35. A Zippo lighter

36. Calliopes

37. Bass steel drums

38. Tractors

39. Stroh Violin

40. Muted trumpet

41. Tobacco Auctioneers

42. Musical Saw

43. Theremin

44. Pigeons

45. Seagulls

46. Owls

47. Mockingbirds

48. Doves

The world’s making music all the time.

Double Thumbs: Libération Army Recommends

2008-06-10T10:48:00.005+10:00

apologies for Bindy....

1. piclens
www.piclens.com - this thing will blow your little cyber-mind.

best thing I've found on these stupid computer machines for a long dureé

Bo Diddley

2008-06-03T16:33:00.003+10:00

Bo Diddley died today

He sounded black, sounded loud, woke and sexed up the 50s
Sexy fun menace music
The first thing i ever learnt on guitar

she's bound to put a blanket on his bed

Empire-Lite

2008-06-02T12:02:00.002+10:00

because he is/was

2008-05-22T09:36:00.001+10:00

Because he can!

2008-05-21T09:12:00.001+10:00

Play David Byrne's Pump Organ

2008-05-06T15:55:00.002+10:00

David's organ is most skillful

Humphrey Lyttelton, 1921-2008

2008-05-02T09:19:00.002+10:00

Modest and unambitious, he claimed that his career had simply happened to him as he pursued his interests. But his languid manner concealed an immensely agile mind and an inexhaustible capacity for simple enthusiasm. One member of his band remarked, on Lyttelton's 75th birthday: "Humph is the world's oldest teenager."

Know your history - olympia: the eternal flame

2008-04-28T07:56:00.002+10:00

look familiar? read about it here

Double Thumbs: Libération Army Recommends

2008-04-27T15:59:00.000+10:00

fink - distance and time

i think they're a three piece from brighton. if you like jose gonzales then this is like that with more production.

leonard cohen - the book of longing

The Sweetest Little Song

You go your way
I'll go your way too

not the best poem in this book, but the shortest.

richard swift
www.myspace.com/richardswift
your very own funk soul ragtime avant-garde balladeer

Annabel Crabb - SMH columnist
seriously hot stuff - http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/annabel_crabb/
probably the only thing worth reading in the Sydney Morning Herald along with Ross Gittins.

getting out of town
highly recommended. ocean sounds. waves on beaches. less electrical/psychic hum. trees. whodovethunkit?

let's get out of the city
away from here tonight....

The Politics of War

2008-03-09T09:53:00.000+11:00

Why write a book? an author's speech that warrants repeating:

Wrenched from the comfortable confines of what I now recognise as a middle class upbringing in the suburbs of Toronto, I suddenly found myself confronted simultaneously with the public school excesses of Oxford, and the working class world of Cardiff that my parents had left behind - with me in tow - as a five year old. I rediscovered first cousins I had played with on the streets of Cardiff those years back, living very different lives in very different worlds than the one I had found in Canada, and to the one which I was then enjoying in England. One, in prison and the rest like my closest cousin, mostly living in virtual exile in vast ghettoes - council estates on the outskirts of town - oiling the engines of the modern economy, but virtually ignored by what has come to be known as the “chattering classes” who wield so much influence in the press, and apparently living lives divorced from so much of what seemed “mainstream” in Britain. Few people told their stories; few people will tell their stories. On closer inspection, of course, I realised that they, and I, were living lives constrained by class structures that operated in dynamic, but often invidious ways. And those forces were virtually invisible, especially to the middle classes of Britain.

Confronted with the stark duality of daily life in the UK at just about the same time I began to wonder about the monolithic history of Virginia, and the dominance of Virginia gentlemen, the multi-layered structure of Virginia society suddenly became all too clear – a vision only reinforced by several short trips and one long research trip to Virginia itself, where I soon also discovered a shadowy “otherworld” of labourers and the poor propping up the sprawling rich white suburbs of Richmond, servicing the gleaming malls and shops of Charlottesville, and riding the few dilapidated buses past the acres of shiny new car lots on Highway 29.
Here in the US, racial distinctions seemed to take the place of class distinctions in the UK, but ultimately, looking closer, the two were inextricably entwined. The rest, they say, is history…. This book, then, was forged in the midst of my own politicisation. But the book, and the research for the book, also helped politicise me – it opened my eyes to problems in the past that illuminated problems today, and vice versa.

We historians are often told to keep our politics out of our histories. It is, arguably, one of the central tenets of the modern historical profession that we strive for objectivity – a certain detachment - in our research. I don’t dispute this noble dream, as Peter Novick put it, but I think we also have professional – perhaps moral – responsibilities to the communities in which we live as much as we do the communities about which we write. We have a responsibility, I think, to keep our eyes wide open for the contradictions, inequities, and hypocrisies that have plagued the development and histories of our so-called free and democratic societies in particular and which continue to plague our globalising world.

We historians are often told to keep our politics out of our histories. But our politicians keep re-writing history (George Bush’s latest creative re-interpretation of the legacy of Vietnam a case in point; his invocation of the need to spread the ideas of freedom and democracy emerging from the American Revolution another). And as we meet in the shadow of the armed forces protecting some of the leaders of our democratic societies – not as they claim from the threats of so-called terrorists, but from the stinging protests of their own citizens – protests that should, of course, be recognised as part of a healthy functioning free and democratic society, we need to continue to question what “free” and what “democratic” really means – and ask, whatever happened to the ideal of “equality” promised in the Declaration of Independence? And as we allow our leaders to lead us into another round of destructive, endless, and senseless wars in the name of spreading some kind of idea of freedom and democracy around the globe while – as we’ve just learned last week, almost 1 in 10 Australians in our midst (2 million people) live below the poverty line - the imperative to examine those terms at their core is ever greater.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But the real meaning of the American Revolution cannot be more relevant today.

a path that flows on before i can clearly see

2008-03-07T20:00:00.004+11:00

I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. ...You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right.

- author Anne Lamott, in a recent interview.

because he can...

2008-03-03T13:40:00.001+11:00

something good blowing in the wind...

2008-02-12T20:10:00.000+11:00

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

peace of the yurt

2008-02-05T13:39:00.000+11:00

The Sight of Sound

2008-01-30T16:43:00.000+11:00

Have a Plan To Kill Everyone You Meet

2008-01-05T14:14:00.000+11:00

A sign on the door leading out of U.S Marine Corp India Company’s Combat Operations Center in Fallujah, Iraq

the vast and gentle insistance that goodness shall return

2007-11-28T10:31:00.000+11:00

Where no storms come

2007-11-20T13:18:00.000+11:00

o the mind, the mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
frightful, sheer, no-man fathomed. hold them cheap
i wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
and I have asked to be
where no storms come.

Motorhead Messiah

2007-11-15T10:32:00.000+11:00

Johnathan Goodwin

turning Neil Young's 1960 Lincoln Continental into a biodiesel--electric hybrid that gets 100 miles to the gallon

can convert a hummer to run on bio-diesel/KFC fat, double the horsepower and reduce the emissions by 80%

clickety click

In the service of God.....

2007-11-07T17:24:00.000+11:00

In the service of God one can learn three things from a child and seven from a thief

From a child one can learn:
always be happy
never sit idle
and to cry for everything one wants

From a thief you should learn:
to work at night
if one cannot gain it in one night to try again the next night
to love one’s co-workers just as thieves love each other
to be willing to risk one’s life, even for a little thing
to not to attach too much value to things even though you’ve risked your life for them, just as a thief would resell a stolen article for a fraction of it’s worth
to withstand all kinds of beatings and tortures but to remain what you are
and to believe that your work is worthwhile and not be willing to change it

emerging

2007-11-02T10:39:00.000+11:00

stop your whinging

2007-10-24T12:19:00.000+10:00

Werner Herzog:

quit your complaining. it's not the world's fault that you wanted to be an artist.

it's not the world's job to enjoy the films you make, and it's certainly not the world's obligation to pay for your dreams.

nobody wants to hear it.

steal a camera if you have to, but stop your whining and get back to work.

cam x

Rich //// Poor

2007-10-15T21:49:00.000+10:00

from an army soldier:

The Latest Future Survey by the World Federation of United Nations Associations announces that the top 225 richest people in the world collectively earn the same income as the poorest 2.7 BILLION people, or 40% of the rest of humanity.

One in five women in the world will be a victim of rape or attempted rape.

Yet what byline does even the left-leaning Guardian in the UK head their
story about this survey: "Organised Crime: the $2 trillion threat to the
world's security" [sic - ought to be, threat to world's propertied people]

See: this link at The Guardian

Joe Strummer

2007-10-09T23:44:00.000+10:00

go and see this movie......NOW!!

Bougner

2007-10-04T22:55:00.000+10:00

bougner: (pronounced "Boo" - "Shhhh" -"Ner")
Derived from the Aussie Joe: as in 'Aussie Joe Bugner'.
A term of derision.
Definition: see image above

Dr Andre Renzaho has more class : Have a look see (clickety click)
whatever happened to the common ground? have a look see here [click click]

A Sort of Homecoming

2007-10-03T10:55:00.001+10:00

back from computers that fail, immune systems regenerating, the black dog a'growlin', lights shining, king island, the boatshed (above) and oxygen...breathe

Double Thumbs: Libération Army Recommends

2007-09-10T09:36:00.000+10:00

fionn regan - the end of history
this record made me want to write music again. it restores faith like a good spell in the hydro majestic in the 1920s

tobias jones - utopian dreams
this is a travel book. tobias gets sick of his bad case of middle-class comfortable consumption, and goes on a pilgrimage through various communities looking for alternatives. I like the name tobias. others disagree.

kcrw - morning becomes eclectic
if you're stuck in a McJob with access to the net, this internet radio station could quite possibly save your life. it saved mine as I tested university student administration software for years. the archives are a true blessing. thankyou nic. Go to this website http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb

fitzgarraldo directed by werner herzog
an irish band 'the frames', well specifically their singer glen hansard, started off this chain of events: he sung a song about the film in sydney, sgt. reg talked to glen about it after the show, pete short ridiculed me for not knowing about the film (at least I think that's what he said), sgt reg subsequently gave a copy to me at the dylan show the next night, i watched the film and was gobsmacked, as was a great historian we had dinner with the next week, i then rode the libération army staff bike over the apec fence (think steve mcqueen) to purchase burden of dreams (a film about the making of fitzgaraldo) at the art gallery and was gobsmacked. again! (herzog eats his shoe) just watch these films. they'll change your life, though your relatives and loved ones may not approve of your subsequent decisions (cross ref: Dylan after learning to paint again - see Blood on The Tracks)

once
this is a great film. great music. beautiful honest good good stuff. pete short shines in the lead role, glen hansard plays a capable supporting part, we blush whenever marketa iglova looks our way whilst playing the piano

Survival

2007-09-02T21:38:00.000+10:00

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

SURVIVAL OF THE WEAKEST