Sunday 30 November 2008

Phil Minton's Feral Choir - Arnolfini Venn Festival 2008

Phil Minton & Maggie Nicols - Battersea Arts Centre London January 2008

Ken Hyder's Talisker - Land of Stone (ECM 1977)

You can get 'Land of Stone' here.

Talisker
Ken Hyder: drums
Marcio Mattos and John Lawrence: basses
Davie Webster: alto saxophone
John Rangecroft: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Ricardo Mattos: soprano and tenor saxophones, flute
Maggie Nicols, Frankie Armstrong, Brian Eley, and Phil Minton: vocals


Ken Hyder has two web sites here and here.
There you will find tracks from the past and the present to download.
Here is an interview with him from 'The Wire'.
The vocalists, substituting Julie Tippetts (nee Driscoll) for Frankie Armstrong had worked together as 'Voice'.


"...it sounds for all the world like an Albert Ayler album released post-New Grass when the tenor alchemist was experimenting with a woodwind contraption called the chanter—the blown portion of Scottish highland bagpipes. The twin sax / twin bass lineup of Hyder's quintet creates a droning, cantatorial spiritsound one can imagine as the sound of Ayler's dreams."
(From a review of the first Talisker album)

This is my 'desert island disc' and it has never been reissued on CD!

Finally for those of you who were in the Feral Choir when Phil Minton came out here to Melbourne, you can watch (and hear) yourself here and you may recognise one of the vocal motifs from the above album.

Speeq - Trine (featuring Phil Minton on vocals)

Phil Minton with The Mike Westbrook Band - Concrete (from 'Mama Chicago')

Phil Minton - The Cutty Wren

Saturday 29 November 2008

The editorial team here at 'Exile' busy uploading dead links

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Dead Links

When I started this blog I had download links through Zshare.
These no longer work.
I will re-up them over the coming days.
If you find a link that doesn't work leave a comment and I will rectify it.

Winona Ryder 'loses' 125,000 US dollar Bulgari diamond bracelet. Police investigate

Story from 'The Daily Mail' here.

Husker Du - Eight Miles High (Live Pink Pop Festival Landgraaf Netherlands 1987)

Do you remember?

Here are Husker Du's 'Northern Lights' demos recorded by Colin Mansfield in 1979.

William S. Burroughs blows Amy Winehouse's brains out!


Story here.

Installation 'The Only Good Rock Star Is A Dead Rock Star' by Marco Perego at Half Gallery in NY.

Sennheiser announce wireless earbud headphones

Story at 'boingboing' here.

Friday 28 November 2008

Grateful Dead - He's Gone (Tivoli Konsertal Copenhagen April 17 1972)

More than half of Atlantic Records' sales in US now digital


Story from 'International Herald Tribune' here.

Girlz With Gunz #'s 7 - 17!!!


Yes I can count, it's just that one silly 'soldier' was SO busy getting her beret at such a jaunty angle that she forgot her gun!

William Blake 1757 - 1827

William Blake was born on this day in 1757.

Here is Van Morrison's cover of Mike Westbrook's setting of Blake's "Let The Slave/The Price of Experience'.
Original sung by Phil Minton.



Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is Rick - Rolled

The Tech Assistant (AKA Son # 2) is no longer a teenager

Taken 15 years and 5 months ago by Josh Ellis.

The boy on the bib may be worth billions.
The boy in the bib is priceless!

Happy Birthday!

Thursday 27 November 2008

Political Gridlock posters


Website here.

A Thanksgiving Prayer - William S. Burroughs


For John Dillinger.
In hope he is still alive.
Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1986.

Thanks for the wild turkey and the Passenger Pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts

thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison —

thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger —

thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot —

thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes —

thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through —

thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces —

thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers —

thanks for laboratory AIDS —

thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs —

thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business —

thanks for a nation of finks — yes, thanks for all the memories... all right, let's see your arms... you always were a headache and you always were a bore —

thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

Watch it here.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Bloody Bandwith - Back As Soon As (Soon)

Monday 24 November 2008

Chairman Rudd: one year in power today

Richey Edwards declared dead


The photo above was taken after he carved '4 REAL' into his arm while being interviewed by the NME.

Richey Edwards the guitarist with the Manic Street Preachers, who disappeared in 1995 has been declared legally dead.
Story here.

A Song For Me


Quicksilver Messenger Service - "Mona"

'Mona Medley' - here.

Also another version of 'Mona' by Quicksilver Messenger Service was the very first song that I uploaded on this blog - before I even knew what I was doing (!)

Sunday 23 November 2008

The Grateful Dead with David Murray live at Madison Square Garden 22nd September 1993





Following on from David Murray's version of 'Dark Star' yesterday.
David Murray live with the Grateful Dead in 1993 here .
Tracks are: 'Estimated Prophet - Dark Star - Drums & Space'
What can I say about this?
Well by this time Jerry Garcia was just mostly noodling (and nodding) and that had an obvious adverse effect on the rest of the band.
Murray's Ayler like sax obviously works better on these more free-form Dead workouts but I would have loved to have heard him play with them 20 years earlier.



Shane MacGowan entertaining in a bar

You gotta be kidding! ( # whatever)

"There are ... low graduation rates, plummeting North Slope oil prices, proposals to build alternative energy projects, the gas pipeline," the paper said in an editorial. "It's time for the governor to refocus on Alaska's needs."
'Anchorage Daily News'

Your weekly address from Obama

Vatican 'forgives' John Lennon


Story from the BBC here.

Two faced kitten dies

Photo from 'The Sydney Morning Herald'.

The kitten born three days ago died overnight.
Sad.
story from 'The Age' here.

Saturday 22 November 2008

The End of An American Dream Happened 45 Years Ago Today


J.F.K.
May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963

"We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge--and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge--to convert our good words into good deeds--in a new alliance for progress--to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens . . . (and) let the oppressed go free."

And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

-Inaugural Speech of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

A different sort of 'Dark Star'

Get saxophonist David Murray performing the Grateful Dead tune 'Dark Star' from his 1996 album of the same name here.

Use the search engine on the right to find more 'Dark Stars'.

Just say 'No'!

Barbara Amiel & Conrad Black 2000.

Conrad Black asks George Bush for pardon.
Story from 'The Guardian' here.
Australians may remember him from the 90's when he owned 25% of Fairfax, the owners of the Melbourne (and a note for every American band that comes here to play, that's 'Melban' NOT 'Melborn'.) newspaper 'The Age'.

A work of art!

Badge made from wood!
Couldn't resist that.

Friday 21 November 2008

Happy Birthday Doc!

Dr. John was born on this day in 1940.
This will get you Mr. Weller's (rather wonderful) cover of 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters'
as heard on The Wire.


Paul Weller performing 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters' live on 'Later With Jools Holland'.



Lou Reed and Dr. John performing 'Perfect Day' on Dutch TV.

Neil Young: So you want a big electric car?

Story from 'The Huffington Post' here.

Talkin' Turkey



Not much chance of those birds behind her getting pardoned!

Breaking News

Politico reports that Hillary Clinton is to be named as Secretary of State shortly after Thanksgiving.
Would have thought that after Tom Daschle got Health that it was a given.

Nobby's Beach (aptly named)

+


There are some stories that you just cannot make up!
Go here.

The Sex Party - Australia's new political party

Video story from 'The Age' here.

Cat Power - Cross Bones Style

e=mc2 troo!

Nyah - nyah!
Story from the BBC here.

Thursday 20 November 2008

'Change We Need' by Bask

Do check out the Obama Art Report here.

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals announce Australian dates



Sean over at 'a-reminder' blog has the dates and some trax to download.
You can also watch Ryan and some of The Cardinals perform 'Cardinology' acoustically over in The Netherlands here.
Or in Cafe Select in New York here.

Girlz With Gunz # 6

C.N.T. & The International Brigade


More on the Spanish Revolution of 1936 here.

The Durruti Column


Buenaventura Durruti died on this day in 1936.

The Wire - Young Prop Joe (1962)

The Wire - Young Omar (1985)

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - Streets of Baltimore (Live)

Bob Dylan turns up at Neil Young's childhood home.

Story from 'CBC' here.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

58 and counting; Stevens gets the boot

Story from 'Politico' here.

Johnny C & Bobby D Complete Sessions









'Aquarium Drunkard' has all this to download

Dylan/Cash :: Good Ol’ Mountain Dew
Dylan/Cash :: I Still Miss Someone
Dylan/Cash :: Careless Love
Dylan/Cash :: Matchbox
Dylan/Cash :: That’s Alright Mama
Dylan/Cash :: Big River
Dylan/Cash :: Girl From The North Country
Dylan/Cash :: I Walk The Line
Dylan/Cash :: You Are My Sunshine
Dylan/Cash :: Ring Of Fire
Dylan/Cash :: Guess Things Happen That Way
Dylan/Cash :: Just A Closer Walk With Thee
Dylan/Cash :: Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)
Dylan/Cash :: Blue Yodel #2
& more

A Bargain!

Available NOW for $20 (US)
http://store.barackobama.com/Office_s/600.htm

Rumours are that there will be a BIG Shepard Fairey exhibition to coincide with Obama's inauguration.

Bill Ayers Talks Back

Sarah Palin called him a terrorist, Barack Obama called him an acquaintance. A Salon editor who knew Ayers back when talks to the ex-Weather Underground member turned Republican talking point.

Full interview at Salon.com here.

Cool (again!)

1968 - Bobby Kennedy Predicts African American President In 40 Years Time



Tuesday 18 November 2008

Girlz With Gunz # 5

Still from 'Baise - Moi'.
A film completely banned here in Australia.



'Baise - Moi' Trailer.
Story behind the film from 'The Observer' here.

The Bush Cheer by Steve Bell

Bush Administration Moves to Protect Key Appointees

Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts.

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs.

Full story from 'The Washington Post' here.

Iggy Pop & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Risky

Grateful Dead - Truckin' (Tivoli Konsertal Copenhagen 17th April 1972)

Open letter From Tim Robbins to the New York City Board of Elections


Mr. Gregory C. Soumas
Board of Elections in the City of New York
Executive Office
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004-1609

November 17, 2008

Dear Mr. Soumas:

I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th St. poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am. If Ms. Williamson saw my name in the book in September that would mean that you are lying. Certainly you wouldn't lie about a thing like that. That is unbecoming of a man of your bureaucratic stature. And why would anyone in the Board of Elections be eliminating legitimate voters from the rolls in late September and October of 2008? That's just crazy and un-democratic.

I should also apologize for the misguided actions of Justice Paul G. Feinman in issuing a court order on Election Day allowing me to vote on 14th St. He apparently thought that a printed out record from your own Board of Elections computer verifying my polling place as 14th St was justification for issuing the court order. If he had only thought to contact you, you could have helped him understand the logic and wisdom of eliminating my name from the book on 14th St. where I have always voted and leaving my name registered at a place I have never voted.

I must also thank you for sending your letter not to me but to all the major newspapers in the New York area and across the internet. I understand it was your way of clearing up this matter and for that I am grateful. I am particularly appreciative of your sending a copy of my voter registration card with my home address and driver's license number to all the newspapers and, by extension, to millions across the internet. What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right? I was thinking of returning that favor by publishing your home address in this letter but then I thought that maybe one of the thousands of New Yorkers that were taken off the voter rolls in the last two months might not understand what a patriotic upstanding man you are and might show up at your doorstep with the misguided assumption that you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag.

Tim Robbins
New Yorker since 1961
Voter since 1976

P.S. If anyone reading this letter had a similar experience on Election Day it can and should be reported at 866ourvote.org


cc:
Commissioners of Elections
Marcus Cederqvist, Executive Director
George Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director
Pamela Perkins, Administrative Manager
Beth Fossella, Coordinator, Voter Registration
Steven H. Richman, General Counsel
Troy Johnson, Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk

You've gotta be kidding!


Palin Book Deal Said To Be Worth Seven Million Dollars (US)
Full story at 'The Huffington Post' here.


"If there is anything that I can do in terms of assisting there and allowing the credence, the credibility that that great vocation, that cornerstone of our democracy called the press, if I can help build up that credibility in the press and allow the electorate to know that they can believe everything that is reported through the airwaves and through print, I want to be able to help."
-- Sarah Palin to Larry King

Monday 17 November 2008

All US forces will leave Iraq by 2011

Story at 'The Guardian' here.

Alice Walker to Obama


Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy, Alice Walker


You can watch a reading of the above at 'Democracy Now' here.

Obama links Israel peace plan to 1967 borders deal

Full story from 'The Sunday Times' here.

Sunday 16 November 2008

Me would like! - Santa are you listening?

Adrian Sherwood - Boogaloo (Drowning Not Raving Mix)

First Weekly Address From President - Elect Obama

Ka - Boom! (The Sound of Not So Distant Thunder?)


"The Obama team's pre-inaugural signals indicate strongly that Israel's next government will need to strike Iran's nuclear installations before two rapidly approaching deadlines. The strike will have to occur before the mullahs enrich sufficient quantities of highly enriched uranium to produce nuclear bombs. And Israel will need to neutralize Iran's nuclear program before the Obama administration begins implementing America's new foreign policy."
The concluding paragraph of 'The Perils Ahead' by Caroline B Glick at www.jewishworldreview.com

(!!!)

The same woman wrote this:

"McCain's selection of Palin as his running mate, then, came after he had set the conditions for a strategic assault on Obama by successfully weakening him and discrediting his support base. The surprise entry of a young, accomplished woman with a compelling personal story who was all but unknown to the national audience, placed the Obama campaign and particularly his media supporters in a state of shock. And in their shocked reaction to her selection, the liberal media destroyed their own credibility - not to mention likability - among the general public."

(!!!)