Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft

Isaac Hayes is introduced on this live video by Jesse Jackson saying "yeah" for about a minute. I believe this is from the Watts concert film of the early 70's.

Chris Matthews, Howard Dean & Hillary Clinton

Chris Matthews is a fraud, not a journalist and he is very balanced toward the GOP but not when it comes to Democrats. Howard Dean points out (and handles the situation easily) that Matthews obsession with the Clinton's personal life is silly and gossip and nothing else. I wonder if Chris is going to be as interested in John McCain's personal life? Like having an affair while married? Nah, why would Matthews be interested in that it's just gossip about a Republican. Or if McCain is so close to his wife why didn't he know she had an addiction?

I personally don't care what a politician does between the sheets, or doesn't do for that matter, but it does show how the "liberal" media (one of the most idiotic terms ever invented) really do have a double standard and bias. As for conservatives calling the moderate Bill and Hillary Clinton liberal, that would be funny if they didn't actually believe it was true.

Simple Minds - Someone, Somewhere In Summertime

Simple Minds performing Someone, Somewhere In Summertime live on the New Gold Dream tour from 1982 it looks like to me.

The album it is off of, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), is one of my favorite new wave records of the early 80's and you can buy it here.

Kinks - You Really Got Me

A kick ass performance by the glorious Kinks to blow the cobwebs out of you skull after the long holiday weekend.

Sigur Ros - Sven-G-Englar

A great concert video clip of Sigur Ros doing Sven-G-Englar live. Or the first song on the alien baby record!

Buy the studio version here.

George Harrison's - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for George Harrison featuring Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Prince playing a ripping guitar solo at the end. Well worth viewing if you haven't seen it yet.

Ken Lay, Enron & The Bush Family

A short little video by Greg Palast about the corruption of Enron, Ken Lay and the Bush family. Fun for all.

Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Are 'Friends' Electric? Live Video

Great live video clip of Gary Numan & Tubeway Army performing the classic song Are 'Friends' Electric? from 1979. Those vintage synthesizers are highly sought after high dollar items now I believe.

Al Franken Explains Rush Limbaugh's "Facts"

Watch Al Franken give an example of Rush Limbaugh making up his "facts" so that his listeners believe they are real and not the crap that they are.

George Carlin On Organized Religion

One of my favorites, George Carlin, explains his views of organized religion. If you are easily upset and are a follower of one of the three Middle Eastern "Sky God" religions as Gore Vidal calls them then I wouldn't watch it.

PJ Harvey - Meet Ze Monsta Live Video

See PJ Harvey in all her glory performing Meet Ze Monsta in this live video.

Enjoy.

Terror Alerts: Do You Remember Them?

When was the last time you heard about a terror alert? It just popped into my mind today that we haven't had one in quite a while. Maybe I have just missed them. Here is a great report Keith Olbermann aired last October on the subject.

Randi Rhodes Meets The Young Republican Chickenhawk

It ain't pretty for the young hawk especially when he says that you don't have to wear the uniform to be a Yankees fan.

I agree. But there is a big difference between the Yankees and the Army.

He couldn't make the Yankees if his life depended on it but the Army will take you in a split second and in a matter of months you could be in Iraq patrolling the streets with your very own m-16.

Doesn't that sound like fun promoting "democracy" in the Middle East?

This video is from a week ago I believe but still worth seeing if you haven't watched it already.

Herbie Hancock - Cantaloupe Island Live Video

Featuring Freddie Hubbard, Tony Williams, Joe Henderson and Ron Carter.

You may have heard of some of these guys before!

Johnny Cash & Stevie Wonder - Get Rhythm Video

From the Johnny Cash Show in 1970.

Fun, short little video.

Stevie shows off his skills on a few different instruments.

The Proposition Movie Trailer

Movie trailer for the Nick Cave penned Australian western The Proposition starring Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Emily Watson.

Although I am a huge fan of Nick's I would still be going to see the film even if he had nothing to do with it because I like westerns and it is getting excellent reviews. Besides having it set in Australia is just a plus.

Here are some of my favorite westerns:
The Wild Bunch
Little Big Man
Once Upon A Time In The West
Open Range
Unforgiven
The Missouri Breaks
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Ox-Bow Incident
Dances With Wolves

My brother says Kevin Costner should only make westerns and nothing else while I don't go that far I do think there is some merit to it.

From the SF Chronicle here is a short interview with Nick Cave promoting the film.

Love and loss. Retribution and redemption. Violence and death. All these are familiar themes to Nick Cave, who has explored them in dark dirges, howling cris de coeur and tender ballads for the better part of his 48 years. It's also the territory that the singer-songwriter mines in the screenplay he wrote for "The Proposition," the stark morality play/Western that's set in late 19th century Australia.

Cave isn't a stranger to films. He performed in Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" (1987) and co-wrote and acted in "Ghosts ... of the Civil Dead" (1988). Fellow Australian John Hillcoat, who directed "Ghosts," again paired up with Cave for "The Proposition."

Cave spoke with The Chronicle from a studio in London, where he is recording music for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," directed by Andrew Dominik (who also directed "Chopper") and starring Brad Pitt as the notorious outlaw.

Q: How would you compare writing songs to writing a screenplay?

A: This screenplay seemed a lot easier to me, mostly because it was just something that I was doing for somebody else, I think. I felt like I was just realizing someone else's ideas, and that's always a lot easier than realizing your own (laughs).

Q: What do you think distinguishes your story from other Westerns?

A: The films that were made in Australia about that era were usually kind of biopics about known bush rangers, as the Irish outlaws are called, people like Ned Kelly and Mad Dog Morgan. So this, for an Australian film, is actually something that Australia's never seen before. It's very much, to me, about how Australians see their history, and it's a very conflicted, muddled view of history that we have. Especially certain aspects of it, like our treatment of the indigenous population.

Q: You're a singer-songwriter, you've written a novel, scripts, plays, poems, you've acted and you've studied painting. Professionally, is there anything that strikes your fancy that you haven't done yet?

A: It's not that I sit around and try to think of new things to do. Basically, most of those things that you're talking about are kind of accidental and are really people asking me to do things, so I give it a shot. Even being a musician started off that way. I had no interest in being in a band or anything like that -- I was just asked at school when I was 15 or something to sing in a band. No one wanted to be the singer, so they got me to do it. I don't really have any idea of where things are going from one day to the next. I'm very much dedicated now to songwriting and being a musician, especially after this excursion into the film world has left me kind of scurrying back to music (laughs).

Q: Why is that?

A: Well, because I feel like I have a little bit of control over my career in music. I kind of call the shots and can do what I like.

Q: Still, it seems that you have taken a liking to scriptwriting.

A: I have written another script, yeah, for John Hillcoat. It's about a sexually incontinent hand cream salesman played by Ray Winstone. It's very different from "The Proposition" in every way except that it may possibly have some of the same cast.

Q: Is this a welcome change for you, to move away from something so dark?

A: Oh, it's dark. It makes "The Proposition" kind of look like, I don't know, a comedy (laughs). It's not violent, but it's pretty sad. It's a weepie.

The Original Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well Video

This version of Fleetwood Mac kicks ass, as does this song.

Shriekback - Nemesis Promo Video

A great song from a great record called Oil & Gold.

Joe Lieberman's Worst Nightmare Video

The GOP's favorite "Democrat" Senator, Joe Lieberman, is being challenged by Ned Lamont. Lamont got more than enough votes at the state convention to challenge ol' smoking Joe in the primary. This video is Joe's waking nightmare. Enjoy it.

Joe Lieberman's time is up.

Grassroots Democrats are not what DLC Joe or Paul Begala like.

Too fucking bad.

These so called "moderate" Democrat's or as most people would call them Republican Lite's want a top down Democratic party. All they do is lose elections and stand for almost nothing of real Democratic party values.

We are the party of FDR. They seem to forget that as they chase that illusionary "center" that is not as right wing as they think it is.

Captain Beefheart - Upon The My Oh My Video

The Captain must be seen to be believed Upon The My Oh My.

An Inconvenient Truth Movie Trailer

The documentary starring Al Gore about global warming, you know, the thing some people say isn't really happening. And if it is, we, meaning humans, aren't contributing to it.

Next up an interview with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy!

To quote George Carlin "the planet is fine....the PEOPLE are fucked!"

Fast Food Nation Movie Trailer

Based on the book Fast Food Nation. Of course.

The Skids - Into The Valley Video

Guitarist Stuart Adamson of course formed Big Country after leaving The Skids and went on to bigger glory than with his previous band but I still think they were great. Vocalist Richard Jobson helped form The Armoury Show with guitarist John McGeoch (Siouxsie & The Banshees, PIL, Magazine & Visage...quite a resume) after the band broke up and is now apparently a broadcaster.

Allmusic guide called this art-punk.

I call it a monster good song.

The Skids-Into The Valley.

Into the Valley
Betrothed and divine
Realisations no virtue
But who can define
Why soldiers go marching
Those masses a line
This disease is catching
From victory to stone

Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die

Out of concealment
Blank and stark eyed
Why so uncertain
This culture deceives
Prophesised, brainwashed
Tomorrow's demise
All systems failing
The placards unroll

Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die

Time for the audit
The gathering trial
A collectors dilemma
Repositioned and filed

Update: Here is the Armory Show promo video for Castles In Spain. I don't quite get what those people are doing hanging around, like mindless extras from American Bandstand, dancing in the video but it must have made some sense at the time. I hope. Because it doesn't now.

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

T. Rex mania swept the U.K. in 1971 after the release of this record featuring the classic (much overplayed on radio even though I never seem to tire of it) song Bang A Gong (Get It On) which jump started the glam rock craze of the early 70's.

Judging by the cover of the record you would think it was an all out electric assault but it is filled with quite a few mellow songs and many acoustic guitars, strings and heavenly back up vocals. Marc Bolan took the spirit of 50's rock & roll threw in some hippie cosmic mystical imagery, an unencumbered confidence and a healthy dose of sexual swagger all wrapped in a glorious production job by Tony Visconti (who would go on to produce many classics for one David Bowie) to make himself a star with Electric Warrior.

Listen to it to find out why.

Check out the chugging riffs of Jeepster or the flying saucer inspired grooviness of Planet Queen.

Buy it here.

Mark Crispin Miller

Mark Crispin Miller is a media critic and professor at NYU and the author of Fooled Again: How The Right Stole The 2004 Election . Mark was on a show called Digital Age with Ed Rollins to discuss his book.

You can watch it here if this interests you.

I hope it does.

Persephones Bees - Live Performance

Persephone's Bees have their own page on Yahoo music now and you can catch a live performance of Nice Day and a short interview with Angelina on there as well.

The band's website is here.

Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room

Repost from April 8th.

Statement: Mark Klein, April 6, 2006

My background: For 22 and 1/2 years I worked as an AT&T technician, first in New York and then in California.

What I observed first-hand:

In 2002, when I was working in an AT&T office in San Francisco, the site manager told me to expect a visit from a National Security Agency agent, who was to interview a management-level technician for a special job. The agent came, and by chance I met him and directed him to the appropriate people.

In January 2003, I, along with others, toured the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco -- actually three floors of an SBC building. There I saw a new room being built adjacent to the 4ESS switch room where the public's phone calls are routed. I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room. The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.

In October 2003, the company transferred me to the San Francisco building to oversee the Worldnet Internet room, which included large routers, racks of modems for customers' dial-in services, and other equipment. I was responsible for troubleshooting problems on the fiber optic circuits and installing new circuits.

While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal. I saw this in a design document available to me, entitled "Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco" dated Dec. 10, 2002. I also saw design documents dated Jan. 13, 2004 and Jan. 24, 2003, which instructed technicians on connecting some of the already in-service circuits to the "splitter" cabinet, which diverts some of the light signal to the secret room. The circuits listed were the Peering Links, which connect Worldnet with other networks and hence the whole country, as well as the rest of the world.

One of the documents listed the equipment installed in the secret room, and this list included a Narus STA 6400, which is a "Semantic Traffic Analyzer". The Narus STA technology is known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets. The company's advertising boasts that its technology "captures comprehensive customer usage data ... and transforms it into actionable information.... (It) provides complete visibility for all internet applications." My job required me to connect new circuits to the "splitter" cabinet and get them up and running. While working on a particularly difficult one with a technician back East, I learned that other such "splitter" cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.What is the significance and why is it important to bring these facts to light?

Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment at issue, it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the internet -- whether that be peoples' e-mail, web surfing or any other data.

Given the public debate about the constitutionality of the Bush administration's spying on U.S. citizens without obtaining a FISA warrant, I think it is critical that this information be brought out into the open, and that the American people be told the truth about the extent of the administration's warrantless surveillance practices, particularly as it relates to the internet.

Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA. And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.

Here is the story titled: Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room .

Just for some background information, I am on SBC DSL and I live in the SF bay area, it goes without saying that many of the sites I have visited, emails I have sent and posts I have made would fall into the category of "subversive", to put it mildly, to the Bush/Neo-con administration currently destroying the country.

There is no doubt that there are millions of people in this country that would be considered "subversive" as well.

It's all being done for YOUR security.

Don't ever forget!

President Al Gore On Saturday Night Live

Pretty funny little opening to the show.

I have a youtube...addiction...no it's an obsession that's what it is.

Award Winning Video

I am presenting the first ever Sheer Golden Hooks unintentionally hilarious video award to this woman. I have no idea who she is but she is very deserving. She displays the "deep" and "informed" thought that passes for intelligent and critical thinking of conservatives today. The question can now be answered, in part at least, about what kind of people still support George Bush. She is the poster child of the 29% and still falling poll numbers.

Keep this in mind as you enjoy the video.....

Cognitive dissonance: The theory of cognitive dissonance holds that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions.

Lords Of The New Church - Open Your Eyes Video

I had this video of Open Your Eyes by The Lords Of The New Church on a couple of months ago and it was pulled from youtube.com really quickly so here it is again. More timely than even that short time ago I would say.

Video games train the kids for war. Army chic in high-fashion
stores. Law and order's done their job. Prisons filled while
the rich still rob. Assassination politics. Violence rules
within' our nation's midst. Well ignorance is their power tool.
You'll only know what they want you to know. The television
cannot lie. Controlling media with smokescreen eyes. Nuclear
politicians picture show. The acting's lousy but the blind don't
know.

Open your eyes see the lies right in front of ya.
Open your eyes.....

They scare us all with threats of war. So we forget
just how bad things are. You taste the fear when you're all
alone. They gonna git'cha when you're on your own. The silence
of conspiracy. Slaughtered on the altar of apathy. You gotta
wake up from your sleep. 'Cause meek inherits earth...six feet
deep.

Open your eyes see the lies right in front of ya.
Open your eyes.....


I remember this video when it first came out it got a decent amount of airplay on MTV.

Dating myself I know.

Friday Music

The O'Jays-For The Love Of Money.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood-War(hide yourself).

Devo-Beautiful World.

John Lennon-Gimme Some Truth.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Fascism?

Does George Bush think he is an emperor and the constitution means nothing? Is he above the laws of the land?

These neocons are something else. They despise democracy itself.

Read it and weep.

Check out my April 8th post for information relating to this.

Update: I am sure many of you know this but Bush is at a 29% approval rating and you have to wonder who the 29% are.

Jackson Browne - Lives In The Balance

Great video to the 20 year old Jackson Browne song Lives In The Balance. This version is from Jackson's recent solo acoustic record. Tipped by Crooks & Liars.

Frank Zappa - Stairway To Heaven Video

Frank Zappa does a fairly straight reading of the Led Zeppelin "epic" Stairway To Heaven. Believe it or not.

Grant McLennan - Rest In Peace

Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens was found dead on Saturday, May 6th, he apparently died in his sleep at the age of 48. Very sad news. Although I like the Go-Betweens I don't have any of their albums, but I do have Grant's solo record Watershed and the two albums he did with Steve Kilbey as Jack Frost which I like very, very much.

Easy Come Easy Go from Watershed.

Everything Takes Forever from the self titled first Jack Frost album.

Jack Frost Blues from the second Jack Frost album Snow Job.

I think these songs show off his range quite well. I was planning on doing a post about Jack Frost in the future and still will but these songs will give you a taste until then.

Buy them here, here or here.

The Proposition

I happened to catch Ebert & Roeper last night just in time to hear them review John Hillcoat's new film The Proposition written by Nick Cave. They mentioned that he wrote the screenplay and the wonderful atmospheric score while giving it two thumbs up. They also mentioned that it was a violent western with great acting and cast, with no real "good guys."

I am looking forward to seeing it but it doesn't seem to be distributed very well as it isn't coming close to my area until May 26th. Ebert did mention on the show he gets many emails from people saying that if it weren't for dvd they wouldn't be able to see many of the movies he recommends. He said something about multiplexes of stupidity in response and how horrible film distribution is in this country.

I couldn't agree more.

Love the Spaghetti Western style poster.

Here is the website for the film.

The Doors - 40th Anniversary

I am a big Doors fan so it was interesting to read that they are taking a page out of the Beatles playbook by releasing a book called The Doors by The Doors compiled with Ben Fong-Torres, a theatrical documentary produced by Dick Wolf of Law & Order fame and apparently this also:

"In October, Rhino will release a new box set. The box will contain two-disc sets of every studio album--a CD with new stereo mixes by Botnick as well as freshly remastered classic mixes, and a DVD with 5.1 and 96k stereo mixes of the album along with outtakes, alternate takes and video clips."

I don't like new mixes of old material, I think it is like coloring black and white films which is really stupid and ridiculous looking as well, it was mixed that way for a reason and quite frankly there is no way to improve them in my opinion. They hold up very well as does the production by Paul Rothchild which is why the group doesn't sound dated like many others from that era. What are they going to do add more bass to make it sound "contemporary" as some might call it?

I have the newest remasters of all the studio albums that were done in 1999 by Bruce Botnick who was the original engineer on the records and they sound fantastic (because they were done with the original masters rather than a copy of a copy of a copy of an LP master and with better techniques as well) so I see no need to buy them all over again. I will be buying the book however and if it is as good as the Beatles Anthology I will be very happy.

Read about it here.

Transglobal Underground - Boss Tabla

Transglobal Underground make a nice fusion of electronic "dance music" with Arabic, African and Asian world music influences. I like this cd quite a bit and have had it since it came out in 96'. I also have a few cd's of the Six Degrees Records label out of the bay area which specializes in electronic/world fusion records.

Here is Boss Tabla featuring the vocals of Natacha Atlas for you to check out.

Buy it here.

Greg Kihn - Rockihn Roll

Greg Kihn was the popular bay area artist who was a constantly recording/touring cult act signed with Beserkley Records until the top 20 hit The Breakup Song (They Don't Write Em') in 1981 and then he really hit the big time with the 1983 number two hit Jeopardy. He wrote really good, mainly 60's influenced melodic guitar (power?) pop that holds up quite well over twenty years later. Nuthin' fancy...just good music. Try it you might like it.

Check out Can't Stop Hurtin' Myself

and Happy Man.

Buy it here.