210503 8:32

went to see henry rollins a couple of weeks ago, which i think i neglected to mention. the old dog is still having his day, still swerving between finely honed political critiques and hilarious / moving anecdotes from deep within his ever-pulsing neuroses. good bless 'im, three hours of fine entertainment, you can't help but love him. ultimately, the clarity of his views is bringing refreshement to the masses - of course there's an element of preaching to the converted, but there's nothing wrong with some communical affirmation + reinforcement. anyway, never a man to stop to catch breath, henry is back on the road again in two weeks (!), this time he's bringing an entourage complete with the black flag back catalogue in his pocket ::: 21361.com

the reason for henry's new road trip is to raise money for the defence of the west memphis three. if you've not been party to this story, i recommend you take a look at their site at wm3.org. there's also a good short precis at nodeathpenalty.org.

whose war have you been following? the voodoo room offers a series of screen shots and front covers from around the world, so you can now compare CNN with some of the less pervasive media outlets around the world. n.b. a few of the images on this page may cause distress to some ::: voodoorom.com


110503 20:22

i'm still looking for a great mp3 site where i can download preview tracks of artists who don't fall into the major label category. epitonic.com is usually a good source of such things, but in lieu of anything truly worth its salt, i've created my own modest pick'n'mix bag of links to all breeds of mp3 sounds worldwide.

today's update includes mp3s from ANTICON, ARAB STRAP, CALIFONE, PHILIP JECK, RADIO4, THE DONNAS and THE FAINT ::: go to mp3 links


110503 08.50

a federal judge in the u.s. has ruled that saddam hussein "provided material support to bin Laden and al-Qaeda" and is thus liable for the september 11 attacks. whether or not the plaintiffs will now try to wrestle the $104m award from saddam's seized assets remains to be seen ::: nynewsday.com

london's evening standard have been accused by the memoryhole.org of an apparently "hamfisted" piece of photoshop work on one of their recent front covers where they increased the size of a celebratory iraqi crowd, cheering saddam's demise. the standard deny the accusation. ::: story at thememoryhole.org ::: see also media.guardian.co.uk with response from the standard

also at thememoryhole.org is a story of another alleged media manipulation, this time from the associated press ::: thememoryhole.org

the director of a paris theatre was attacked by two men last week who punched him and slashed his face - his crime? to stage a play that criticises george bush ::: salon.com

pete townsend has been cleared of any kiddie porn charges, but will however spend the next five years on the list of known sex offenders in the u.k. ::: the smokinggun.com

apple have stolen the thunder from other napster wannabes by creating an online music store within their itunes application. only available thus far in the u.s., the songs are available for 99c each. one million songs were downloaded in the frist seven days ::: apple.com

birth of a superhero : a masked and caped man has being righting wrongs + fetching stolen purses in turnbridge wells (nr.london). alas no photos as yet ::: cnn.com


090503 07:27

the subject of grant morrison's early controversial work the new adventures of hitler came up in conversation last night, so it made me go and have a browse for some info this morning. i came across igor goldkind's original introduction to the comic strip back in 1990, which closed with the following remarks:

"fascism lives. it lives in your neighbourhood. it lives in the mechanical blood-lust of the speeding motorist as he accelerates to meet the pedestrian. it lives in the licensing of individual will for the sake of conformity. it lives in the unquestioning adherence to bureaucratic instructions. it lives in the hand that hits a loved one. it lives in the compulsive need to control other people. it lives in the preference for structure and systems at the expense of human beings. it lives in racial generalizations. in effect, fascism lives in each and every attempt by people to categorise or dehumanise other people. this is the legacy of adolf hitler. this is the evil that lives after him."

there was a small uprising when the strip was first published in the scottish-based magazine 'cut'. the jolly ex-hue and cry "pop" "star", and sometime "socialist" flag bearer, pat kane walked off the magazine in disgust, believing the piece to somehow glorify the image of hitler (if i remember correctly, i might be wrong, the memory is hazy). anyway, such a reading misses the point - it's important to return to hitler again and again to remind us all of the baseline evil that men do. and in humanising him, as goldkind says elsewhere in his article, we show that it's not magic or science or 'the bogeyman' that kills and destroys - it's man.

::: goldkind intro
::: grant m. interview (with brief info on 'cut' etc)


060503 19:31

new article from naomi klein at nologo.org which relates the recent story of seemingly standard-issue riot police brutality - and all because of the danger of the 'socialist utopia': "Here in Buenos Aires, every week brings news of a new occupation: a four-star hotel now run by its cleaning staff, a supermarket taken by its clerks, a regional airline about to be turned into a cooperative by the pilots and attendants. In small Trotskyist journals around the world, Argentina's occupied factories, where the workers have seized the means of production, are giddily hailed as the dawn of a socialist utopia. In large business magazines like the Economist, they are ominously described as a threat to the sacred principle of private property. The truth lies somewhere in between." ::: nologo.org

thomas pynchon has written a new introduction to orwell's 1984. an edited extract appears on the guardian site at guardian.co.uk

disinformation have just brought out anarchy for the masses : the disinformation guide to the invisibles by patrick neighly and kereth cowe-spigai. this is an early pitch for the definitive history of the legendary comic series. my more modest effort can be found in the primer section ::: disinfo.com

on the stereo ::: 'fever to tell' by the yeah yeah yeahs; 'parts in the post' by plaid; 'monday at the hug and pint' by arab strap (highly recommended) and califone's superb 'quicksand / cradlesnakes'.

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