Yesterday in Madrid 500,000 people took to the streets in protest. Here is a video of a full orchestra playing Betthoven's "Ode to Joy" live at the protest. The chants they say at the end translate to "These are our weapons! These are our weapons!" Un. Real. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJ7s59aLSo
a note to the Occupy Wall Street Movement, specifically written for the Pittsburgh contingent.
I have a theory.
1. The real power of this movement is the coming together of an incredible diverse body of people. Among the occupy movement are many races, classes, political ideologies & belief systems.
2. We all agree that the current state of the world is, *ahem*, fucked. We have a laundry list of issues that most people agree are a problem... wide income disparity, corporate influence in elections, dysfunctional health care, multiple wars, etc...
3. While we can generally agree on what we're up against (what we don't like), it's a much more complex process to decide what to do to fix it. It's hard to be pro-active and constructive because there are as many opinions on what to do as there are members of the movement.
4. However, there is something we can do to make this process easier. Stop bickering... for a while. Let's be constructive in discussions about our personal politics, religion, philosophy or tactical desires. Rather than engaging in conflict over minutiae, focus on helping others to understand the questions. By all means don't be silenced, speak up if you see injustice. Just ask yourself if the world you want to live in requires everyone to agree with you on that one point. If not, maybe it can wait.
5. Instead, let us just occupy this space and time together. Let us work side by side. Let us continue to find consensus on issues we agree about. Let us do the obvious work to build a movement in solidarity with others around the country & the world.
a photo of our hero from my archive of early 20th century anarchists...
i keep hearing great palestinian hip hop on democracy now. i've been hunting for tracks i like for a while. carlos pointed me to slingshot hip hop, a documentary on the scene... the website has this large collection of artist links. hyla sent me a link to checkpoint 303 has a nice set of descriptions of their songs (with accompanying mp3 downloads) on their site.
here's the trailer to slingshot hip hop:
the torrent is here.
the female rapper featured in the preview is called arapyat... this is her myspace.
i still haven't finished my analysis post on the israel-palestine issue (cause it's COMPLICATED!), but in the meantime, here's a rap track with both hebrew and arabic lyrics, which according to one source is
"a song with politically-charged lyrics in Arabic and Hebrew, urging the Israeli and Palestinian youth to distrust their respective leaders and look towards forging a new, peaceful future together."
(mp3) balkan beat box - "ramallah tel aviv" from "nu made"
i'll update this post if i find any palestinian (or israeli) hip hop i'm in love with... in the meantime i'd love it if anyone could translate the lyrics from this track...
often i don't see movies or read books that i assume to deliver a message that i already agree with. this was the case with the film "milk"... it tells the tale of the first gay elected official and human rights activist harvey milk... i was already familiar with the story, thanks mostly to a great jello biafra spoken word piece on "i blow minds for a living". i'm a big advocate of gay rights, so i thought... "why bother?" but it was so much more. life. liberty. riots.
great flick.
download it.
watch it.
the documentary "the times of harvey milk" is supposed to be awesome, too...
"the only true aristocracy is that of consciousness."
- d.h. lawrence as quoted by brian browne walker in his translation of the i-ching
"more harm is done by fools through foolishness than is done by evildoers through wickedness"
- the prophet as quoted here
"to the sinful and vicious, i may appear to be evil. but to the good - beneficent am i."
- mirza khan, ansari as quoted by idries shah in the sufis
"power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. great men are often bad men."
- lord acton as quoted here
"i wonder at a lover who in conceit of his merits walks proudly among the flowers of the garden"
- ibn al-arabi, the interpreter of desires, as quoted by peter lamborn wilson in scandal - essays in islamic heresy
we just had dinner with the wonderful richard woodbury pell (and his talented partner melissa st. pierre. an album of hers is here on boomkat. i don't know her as well so this post will be about rich's work...)
rich is a founding member of the institute for applied autonomy and the creator of some of my favorite artworks, like the graffiti robot(pictured above) and isee. they are purveyors of "contestational robotics" and "electronic civil disobedience". charming folks, overall. rich also plays a mean bowed guitar and runs a small record label (link pending).
the history as far as i am aware is that these folks were working shitty jobs for various DARPA funded projects at CMU and decided they could use their badass technological skills to pull off way better shit. that might be a myth, but it's the origin story i know.
the graffiti writer is amazing. it writes dot-matrix graffiti on the ground (click for large size above) at 15 miles per hour. they once wrote "voting is futile" across the u.s. senate steps and even though the police noticed them, they got away with it, because they assumed that because they had a robot, they had permission (!) video of the little guy in action is here in this short video (.mov 28mb)
rich also made a moving video about a crazy (?) guy in pittsburgh called "don't call me crazy on the 4th of july". it's about mind control, true history, crazy people and real whistle-blowers... watch it (a gripping ~30 min.)...
also, DO NOT MISS the video they made "little brother get's busted". it played in the netherlands at a show we did together in 2001 in between sets of bizarre feedback music my pal jim and i made (wayback machine, thank you!).
no, seriously... don't miss little brother gets busted...it's an "educational film" made for the dutch tourist to america and is HILARIOUS:
welcome this fine friday! here is a picture of my 17-month old son, river...
MP3, MUSIC: so, in honor of the riaa ending it's policy of lawsuits against music sharing, let's start with some tracks... just some heat i've been scorched by recently all .zip'ped up on mediafire...
(mp3)bass clef - cannot be straightened
(mp3)adam tensta - dobeboy feat. eboi
(mp3)reso - if ya can't beat em
(mp3)barry lynn - new orleans
(mp3)king midas sound - lost (flying lotus mix)
(mp3)black lips - veni vidi vici (diplo remix)
note: i've noticed some of my links to mediafire were dead, even if the files are still there, so feel free to hassle me about fixing broken links... it doesn't take long once i know about it. i just fixed the links on "8 songs, 1 spirit" for instance.
NATURE, WEIRD: a lot of attention has been paid to the thailand tiger temple monks, but you should watch out for their dubious conservation claims. if you want heart-warming animal-human friendships stories you should stick with (warning: youtube link with cheesy music)christian the lion. more on christian here.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, WEIRD: another dream (nightmare?) come true... scientists have made it possible to reconstruct the images in a person's mind and display them on a computer monitor. all i want is "audio out". forget playing music, just imagine music and record it! it's similar to this bionic eye device that goes from video to neuron. anyway, a brain cell totally looks like the universe. that's no surprise to fans of the holographic model, or self similarity. anyway, belief likely exists in the brain, but did you know that more people believe in aliens and ghosts than believe in god? one burglar believed enough to be trapped by a ghost for three days (unless it was real!).
ART: both zoe lacchai and thomas woodruff do good figural work. there is occasionally good work on cgunit (NSFW), but it's a bit obsessed with naked ladies and reminds laura of the style of work in juxtapoz. some swedish guy has been investing in unethical companies and distributing the profits for art purposes. fine, but it reminds me of that old refrain, "i need to make money before i can do good..." that MIGHT be the case occasionally... but it usually is an excuse. other good art on the web recently has been the skull-a-day, this visionary art collection, and this surreal art collection. also, is selling your life art?
HUMOR: potty-mouthed chemists naming weird molecules. 20 ways to win spiritual arguments. also, good ammo against those anti-gay marriage who talk about upholding biblical marriage standards.
POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY, ANARCHY: is history repeating itself? given recent predictions of dire straights in the US soon, preposterous expenditures by the government, revolutions seem more likely in our future. it's been argued that a democratic president is actually better for helping these revolutions occur, of course, it's been argued it won't. the yinsurgent continues to be a site of this debate, and the greek riots, including updates from some of our comrades on the ground there. I liked the article on the possible role of labor in revolutionary structures. also, given some of the pardons dubya has made already, i'm surprised people aren't after bush legalizing drugs (obama recently said he isn't in favor of legalization).
MOVER: great post on the passing of studs terkel with information on oral histories. alton ellis just died in october. his political reggae like "arise black man"(torrent) was classic, but equally so we're tracks like "dance crasher" and "girl i've got a date" from his lover side... i'm also a little sad it took me this long to learn about superbarrio.
D.I.Y.: indian food-making videos. benga dubstep-making videos. cop-busting. coupons for online stores. incredible text techniques in photoshop.
LEFTOVERS: some great writing (and great music) in a recent post by carlos...
"I simply wish to underline the extremely complex interplay between the local and the foreign in the non-space that is the internet. English-speaking Spanish folks tipped off to the situation in the Western Sahara, adolescent racists with shitty spelling, French and Spanish kids of Arab descent, stereotyping hip-hop fans, a French speaker from Marrakech, all participating in the politics of a music video with a political bent of its own. YouTube as a behavioral economist's nightmare: a true Tower of Babel in which transient avatars are speaking in different languages, exchanging imperfect information with no shortage of subjectively invisible linguistic violence, slicing through a vast majority made up of Arabic-language commenters."also, getting good press is as easy as paying people, revenge of the nerds filmaker makes something for the homeless, expensive but awesome log bowls and a (useful?) start page.
while researching my delayed response to the still thought-provoking thread on the yinsurgent's open letter to "anarchists" who voted for obama i came across the crimethinc far east blog.
laura and i were loosely affiliated with some of the folks who began the crimethinc "ex-workers collective" for many years and still promote some of their early works.
i had long ago written off the web presence of crimethinc due to some seriously stupid web forums, and to a certain extent grown indifferent to their continuing literary and artistic output.
however, i found the blog compelling and refreshing. i was unaware of their new biannual journal, rolling thunder and it looks a positive venture. i'll read some of the pdfs soon, and maybe buy one.
they had their own take on the obama debate... it focused more directly to an anarchist audience than their less-confrontational 2004 effort, but similarly posed some good ideas.
among them was the notion of side-stepping the pro or anti obama debate altogether to focus on the direct economic and environmental threats facing us regardless.
one commenter brought up the notion of very localized efforts, promoting debtor's cartels in response to the economic mess. i've always found local action more appealing.
overall i am honored to debate the issue with such bright folks, and i think everyone is making good points. it may be a distraction from rioting, but debate is healthy.
the real stuff will always be autonomy, food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and the sacredness of the environment. i'll detail how i pick which tactics when i write my response.
i doubt it has anything to do with alcoholic buddhists like guru rinpoche, but someone built this buddhist temple out of 1 million beer bottles. via lloyd khan. earlier temple.
speaking of temples, the world's oldest temple was recently discovered... supposedly it's older than stonehenge by about 6,000 years. nice. someone got to call it gobekli tepe, and it's beautiful. via smithsonian.
totally awesome splash sculpture realized through computer modeling of water and lots of metal. beautiful... definitely check the other photos on this link: via we make money not art.
i'm so glad there are serious geeks out there to do stuff like this real, physical, escher realization so i don't have to. click this next link to see the view that explains how they made the "belvedere" and other classics: via gershon elber.
great wheatpastes in india by c125. great photos of shoe shine boys selling grafitti stickers and tons more on the link: via c125 via wooster collective.
last but not least, my friend lily visited and told us about family friend liu dan's work... i can't find much online, but what i've seen is beautiful. huge ink landscapes and goregous studies of rocks. another here. they're really expensive, unfortunately, cause i want one.
from the 3rd volume of AWOL (a rarely released revolutionary mag...)
these covers are priceless... click for super-high resolution versions...
bush and the gang (circa 2004) as blinged out thugs:
definitely should click this back one to read the ad... you might need revolution:
DJing is one of the most spectacular privileges. having a few thousand watts of sound at your disposal at a burning man event is even better. what a good time. frankly, PDF wasn't as overall beautiful as wickerman was, but great music and great people. i really love my party liberation front people and we combined camps with the philadelphia experiment people, who were quite cool, too... and plf's covered wagon dj booth (which you can see part of the inside of above) is totally, unstoppably awesome.
i spun tons of dubstep, ghettotech, grime, dancehall, tabla music, etc... some of the big hits of my sets are here:
this track crushed my dubstep finale:
(mp3)emalkay - "overflow" from boka records
this track was perfect sunshine music:
(mp3)zakir hussain - "lineage" from "zakir hussain and the rhythm experience"
this was another hot sunshine track, though i played just the part of it in dj c's mix: (mp3)m.i.a. - "paper planes (rock city obama version)" from mashit.com's awesome collection of "paper planes" remixes
and i'm embarassed to admit gucci mane's "pillz" was probably the biggest hit... but most of my pulls were a lot less offensive.
UPDATE: courtesy of (the ableton don) michael nighttime, here's an exterior shot of the covered wagon dj booth, our shade, bar and dome in the background...
the wooster collective blog stays fresh.
rene gagnon:
JR does beautiful work in favelas in brazil:
Banksy takes on the kkk in birmingham, alabama:
dolk & pøbel:
she said it... "this is outrageous". amy goodman... host of the 12 year running "democracy now!" an ESSENTIAL piece of freedom of the press arrested at the repuglican national convention. article and live thread here. WATCH THIS VIDEO AND SEE WHAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT THINKS ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION:
(UPDATE BELOW)
update from democracy now!
Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC
Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar
ST. PAUL--Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.
All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Salazar's violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, "I'm Press! Press!," resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman's arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.
On Tuesday, Democracy Now! will broadcast video of these arrests, as well as the broader police action. These will also be available on: www.democracynow.org
Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were arrested on suspicion of rioting, a felony. While the three have been released, they all still face charges stemming from their unlawful arrest. Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion of felony riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a "peace officer."
Democracy Now! forcefully rejects all of these charges as false and an attempt at intimidation of these journalists. We demand that the charges be immediately and completely dropped.
Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities' law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.
During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, including a photographer for the Associated Press.
Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and the subsequent criminal charges and threat of charges are a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists.
Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.
Mayor Chris Coleman can be contacted at: 651-266-8510 or e-mailed at: https://mn-stpaul.civicplus.com/forms.asp?FID=69
Governor Tim Pawlenty can be reached at: (651) 296-3391 or e-mailed at tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us
Ramsey County Jail: 651-266-9350
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