George FM
Monday 2-4pm
www.georgefm.co.nz
Sigur Ros - Sqlplus (EMI) 2005
Joanna Newsom - This Side OF The Blue (Drag City) 2004
Catpower - Cross Bone Style (Matador) 1998
Lambchop - Up With People (Merge) 2000
Stereolab - Lo Boob Oscillator (Flying Nn) 1995
Smog - Cold Blooded Old Times (Drag City) 1999
Jonathan Richmond & The Modern Lovers - Dodge Vege O Matic (Castle Music) 1999
Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You (Sounds Familyre) 2004
Yo La Tengo - Little Eyes (Matador) 2003
Cornelius - Point (Matador) 2002
Azure Ray - The Drinks We Drank Last Night (Saddle Creek) 2003
The Notwist - Pick Up The Phone (Big Store) 2002
King Biscuit Time - I Walk The Earth (Regal) 2000
3D's - Strange News From The Angels (Flying Nun) 1996
Abel Tasmans - Snow White Chook (Flying Nun) 1987
Belle & Sebastian - Judy Is A Dick Slap (Jeepster) 2000
The Chills - The Great Escape (Flying Nun) 1986
The Hidden Cameras - Music Is My Boyfriend (Ouside Music) 2004
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - (CYHSY) 2005
Tall Dwarfs - Crush (Flying Nun) 1984
Jim O'rouke - Therefore I Am (Drag City) 2001
Beta Band - Squires (Regal) 2001
Arab Strap - The First Big Weekend (Chemikal Underground) 1996
The Langley Schools Music Project - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (Bar None) 2001 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - (Are You) The One I've Been Waiting For (Mute) 1998
Best taken with a cold one on a slow grey day
Monday, February 27, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
losing shit
So after about a year of casually looking I finally stumble upon my Lambchop "Nixon" album.
Tucking away for a special night, after a long day I sit meself down, whiskey and fags to delve back into this wonderful album.. and wot do you know, the fucking CD isn't in the case.
I hate CDs
Tucking away for a special night, after a long day I sit meself down, whiskey and fags to delve back into this wonderful album.. and wot do you know, the fucking CD isn't in the case.
I hate CDs
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Them cartoons
It really is fascinating the debate/range of opinions these cartoons have lead to, these differences in opinion are perhaps the most interesting part of the whole sorry affair. Way more than the cartoons themselves, thats for sure.
For we choose to take sides and debate out position on them, from our unique cultural and ethnical corners, yet here there is also a valubale opportunity to see things through someone elses eyes, not always comfortable but enlightening to varying degrees none the less.
The more we can understand others the more these catch words like mulitcuturalism can actually take substance and form, and from there we can learn not only to live together but to benefit as individuals and societies in the differences of our brothers and sisters of every colour, culture and faith.
I've read thousands of words on the topic and expect to read many thousands more. I really can't get enough of it to be honest for the more views I read the more I realise I have so much to learn about the peoples of the world I live in, how sheltered I am and how ignorant I am of most peoples history from anything but a Western perspective.
Here's a bunch of words that I feel best sum the whole sorry affair up best, that I've read thus far.
"What was being put to the test in the cartoon affair was the willingness of a minority group to conform to majority assumptions.
IT is impossible not to be dismayed by the spiral of events. A witless racist cartoon is elevated into a totem of Western democracy and holocaust denial becomes a symbol of resistance to imperialism.
The message contained in the Danish cartoon was blunt: it drew an equation between Muslims and terrorists, between Islam and murderous violence. It was devoid of humour, irony, artistic or social merit, yet editors across Europe took it upon themselves to publish it. They did so, they claimed, as a "test" of free speech. Now, more often than not, the Western media is cautious about testing free speech, especially when it comes to exposing government secrets or embarrassing rich people who enjoy recourse to libel lawyers. There are a wide range of offensive images — racist, pornographic — that they routinely refuse to publish. But when it came to the Danish cartoon, the usual inhibitions were cast aside. What's apparent from statements made by the editors and their supporters is that what they were eager to put to the "test" was not an abstract principle but the willingness of a minority group to conform to majority assumptions.
Selective memory
Listening to Western commentators exercise themselves over whether "we" have made too many concessions to "cultural differences" and to what extent "cultural diversity" is compatible with "our democratic values", I wonder what history books these people have read. Did they miss the 100-odd years during which non-Western peoples fought for elementary democratic rights against Western colonial powers? Did they miss "our" slave trade, "our" genocides, "our" use of weapons of mass destruction? Have they missed the "culture wars" that have ravaged the United States for two decades, in the course of which a well-funded right-wing religious movement has mounted successful attacks on science and personal freedom? The current relative openness of Western society has had to be extracted from recalcitrant elites inch by inch, and is today threatened first and foremost by its own governments.
Coming from British commentators, members of a notoriously mono-lingual majority whose knowledge of other cultures is often limited to the menu at an "Indian" restaurant (usually run by a Bangladeshi or Pakistani), the complaint that Muslims have cut themselves off from the wider world is rich. Not as rich, of course, as lectures on democracy and tolerance coming from those who breach international law, inflict violence on civilian populations and abuse human rights. The mythology crudely expressed in the cartoon acquires a daily deadly impact in Iraq, Palestine, Guantanamo and on the streets of Europe, where innocent Muslims are treated and punished as "terrorists".
Many of those who proclaim the right to offend seem shocked and outraged when offence is duly taken. Surely, the same principle that protects the cartoonist protects the idiot dressed as a suicide bomber. But while the Muslim response to the cartoon is presented as pathological, the Western mentality that begat the cartoon escapes scrutiny.
The affair has been driven in part by media sensationalism. Ethnic polarisation — real or imagined — provides drama, stirs emotions. Crucially, across Europe, the market the media aim to capture is overwhelmingly white and non-Muslim. In this market, coverage of jihadi extremism takes on a prurient tinge. It's exotic, it's threatening and it makes the white European feel smug and superior. Producers and editors are reluctant to admit it, even to themselves, but the ingrained assumptions and festering resentments of white supremacy make the story resonant for readers and viewers and shape the way it is constructed.
The debate about whether, where and when it might be acceptable to restrict freedom of speech is both difficult and necessary. But that's not the terrain that's being explored or "tested" here. Instead, discussion has been imprisoned in two related paradigms, both of them unreal and distorting. One counterposes "multi-culturalism" to "integration" and the other sets "Islam" against "the West". The first does not remotely reflect the way people live, the multiplicity and fluidity of actual social relations. The choices it offers are unreal. The second offers a clash of incommensurable abstractions, in which so much is left out, not least the authoritarian and hierarchical strands in Western thinking and the humanist and egalitarian strands in Islamic thinking."
For the full article, you know click here
I dread the possibilty of a world where the west squares off against the Muslim world in some sort of global conflict and it seems some in the west are hell bent on pushing us all into this sort of conflict. On the other side the Muslim extremists may also get their wish and the many millions of peace loving Muslims may just tire enough of the constant pushing of the west to say enough is enough.
If it happens and both sets of extremists loons get their way the world is truely fucked.
You know ot, grab ya peas and give em a chance.
For we choose to take sides and debate out position on them, from our unique cultural and ethnical corners, yet here there is also a valubale opportunity to see things through someone elses eyes, not always comfortable but enlightening to varying degrees none the less.
The more we can understand others the more these catch words like mulitcuturalism can actually take substance and form, and from there we can learn not only to live together but to benefit as individuals and societies in the differences of our brothers and sisters of every colour, culture and faith.
I've read thousands of words on the topic and expect to read many thousands more. I really can't get enough of it to be honest for the more views I read the more I realise I have so much to learn about the peoples of the world I live in, how sheltered I am and how ignorant I am of most peoples history from anything but a Western perspective.
Here's a bunch of words that I feel best sum the whole sorry affair up best, that I've read thus far.
"What was being put to the test in the cartoon affair was the willingness of a minority group to conform to majority assumptions.
IT is impossible not to be dismayed by the spiral of events. A witless racist cartoon is elevated into a totem of Western democracy and holocaust denial becomes a symbol of resistance to imperialism.
The message contained in the Danish cartoon was blunt: it drew an equation between Muslims and terrorists, between Islam and murderous violence. It was devoid of humour, irony, artistic or social merit, yet editors across Europe took it upon themselves to publish it. They did so, they claimed, as a "test" of free speech. Now, more often than not, the Western media is cautious about testing free speech, especially when it comes to exposing government secrets or embarrassing rich people who enjoy recourse to libel lawyers. There are a wide range of offensive images — racist, pornographic — that they routinely refuse to publish. But when it came to the Danish cartoon, the usual inhibitions were cast aside. What's apparent from statements made by the editors and their supporters is that what they were eager to put to the "test" was not an abstract principle but the willingness of a minority group to conform to majority assumptions.
Selective memory
Listening to Western commentators exercise themselves over whether "we" have made too many concessions to "cultural differences" and to what extent "cultural diversity" is compatible with "our democratic values", I wonder what history books these people have read. Did they miss the 100-odd years during which non-Western peoples fought for elementary democratic rights against Western colonial powers? Did they miss "our" slave trade, "our" genocides, "our" use of weapons of mass destruction? Have they missed the "culture wars" that have ravaged the United States for two decades, in the course of which a well-funded right-wing religious movement has mounted successful attacks on science and personal freedom? The current relative openness of Western society has had to be extracted from recalcitrant elites inch by inch, and is today threatened first and foremost by its own governments.
Coming from British commentators, members of a notoriously mono-lingual majority whose knowledge of other cultures is often limited to the menu at an "Indian" restaurant (usually run by a Bangladeshi or Pakistani), the complaint that Muslims have cut themselves off from the wider world is rich. Not as rich, of course, as lectures on democracy and tolerance coming from those who breach international law, inflict violence on civilian populations and abuse human rights. The mythology crudely expressed in the cartoon acquires a daily deadly impact in Iraq, Palestine, Guantanamo and on the streets of Europe, where innocent Muslims are treated and punished as "terrorists".
Many of those who proclaim the right to offend seem shocked and outraged when offence is duly taken. Surely, the same principle that protects the cartoonist protects the idiot dressed as a suicide bomber. But while the Muslim response to the cartoon is presented as pathological, the Western mentality that begat the cartoon escapes scrutiny.
The affair has been driven in part by media sensationalism. Ethnic polarisation — real or imagined — provides drama, stirs emotions. Crucially, across Europe, the market the media aim to capture is overwhelmingly white and non-Muslim. In this market, coverage of jihadi extremism takes on a prurient tinge. It's exotic, it's threatening and it makes the white European feel smug and superior. Producers and editors are reluctant to admit it, even to themselves, but the ingrained assumptions and festering resentments of white supremacy make the story resonant for readers and viewers and shape the way it is constructed.
The debate about whether, where and when it might be acceptable to restrict freedom of speech is both difficult and necessary. But that's not the terrain that's being explored or "tested" here. Instead, discussion has been imprisoned in two related paradigms, both of them unreal and distorting. One counterposes "multi-culturalism" to "integration" and the other sets "Islam" against "the West". The first does not remotely reflect the way people live, the multiplicity and fluidity of actual social relations. The choices it offers are unreal. The second offers a clash of incommensurable abstractions, in which so much is left out, not least the authoritarian and hierarchical strands in Western thinking and the humanist and egalitarian strands in Islamic thinking."
For the full article, you know click here
I dread the possibilty of a world where the west squares off against the Muslim world in some sort of global conflict and it seems some in the west are hell bent on pushing us all into this sort of conflict. On the other side the Muslim extremists may also get their wish and the many millions of peace loving Muslims may just tire enough of the constant pushing of the west to say enough is enough.
If it happens and both sets of extremists loons get their way the world is truely fucked.
You know ot, grab ya peas and give em a chance.
Monday, February 20, 2006
The Long & The Short Of It
George FM
Monday 2-4pm
www.georgefm.co.nz
Millie - My Boy Lollipop (Island) 1964
Joe Gibbs - Chapter Three (Joe Gibbs) 1978
Prince Buster - Al Capone (Melodisc Music/Island) 1965
Lloyd Parks - Mafia (Pressure Sounds) 1999
Folkes Brothers - Oh Carolina (Melodisc/Greensleeves) 1960
Little Roy - Tribal Warfare (Pressure Sounds) 2000
KC White - No No No (Trojan) 1983
U Roy - True True (Nuphonic) 2001
Desmond Dekker - Israelites (Blue Mountian/Island) 1968
Jackie Matoo - Disco Jack (Pressure Sounds) 1997
King Tubby - Bag A Wire (Select Cuts)
Rhythm & Sound /Cornel Campbell - King In My Empire (Burial Mix) 2001
The Light Of Sabra - Lambs Bread Collie (Honest Jons)
Fat Freddies Drop - Ernie (Live) (best Seven) 2003
African Headcharge - Heading To Glory (on U Sound) 1993
Dub Syndicate - No Alternative (Bit To Fight) (On U) 1988
Nick Holder - Moments In Dub (NRK) 2000
Ballistic Brothers - Prophecy Revival (Afro Art) 2000
Adrian Sherwood - Zero Zero One (Greensleeves) 2001
Rockers Hi Fi meet Ella Fitzgerald - Sunshine Of Your Love (Leftfoot Recordings) 1999
Frogsnatcher - Dream Rabbit (Afro Art) 2002
Mutaburuka - Dis Poem ((Reel house Da Rub) (Zomba) 1984
Loudspeaker - The Circuit (On U) 1999
Best taken with large lashed ones and cold cold beer
Monday 2-4pm
www.georgefm.co.nz
Millie - My Boy Lollipop (Island) 1964
Joe Gibbs - Chapter Three (Joe Gibbs) 1978
Prince Buster - Al Capone (Melodisc Music/Island) 1965
Lloyd Parks - Mafia (Pressure Sounds) 1999
Folkes Brothers - Oh Carolina (Melodisc/Greensleeves) 1960
Little Roy - Tribal Warfare (Pressure Sounds) 2000
KC White - No No No (Trojan) 1983
U Roy - True True (Nuphonic) 2001
Desmond Dekker - Israelites (Blue Mountian/Island) 1968
Jackie Matoo - Disco Jack (Pressure Sounds) 1997
King Tubby - Bag A Wire (Select Cuts)
Rhythm & Sound /Cornel Campbell - King In My Empire (Burial Mix) 2001
The Light Of Sabra - Lambs Bread Collie (Honest Jons)
Fat Freddies Drop - Ernie (Live) (best Seven) 2003
African Headcharge - Heading To Glory (on U Sound) 1993
Dub Syndicate - No Alternative (Bit To Fight) (On U) 1988
Nick Holder - Moments In Dub (NRK) 2000
Ballistic Brothers - Prophecy Revival (Afro Art) 2000
Adrian Sherwood - Zero Zero One (Greensleeves) 2001
Rockers Hi Fi meet Ella Fitzgerald - Sunshine Of Your Love (Leftfoot Recordings) 1999
Frogsnatcher - Dream Rabbit (Afro Art) 2002
Mutaburuka - Dis Poem ((Reel house Da Rub) (Zomba) 1984
Loudspeaker - The Circuit (On U) 1999
Best taken with large lashed ones and cold cold beer
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Define me, come on its just words
"I have been writing about terror for 25 years, ever since the Reagan administration declared its War on Terror. I’ve been using definitions that seem to be doubly appropriate: first, they make sense; and second, they are the official definitions of those waging the war. To take one of these official definitions, terrorism is “the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature...through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear,” typically targeting civilians. The British government’s definition is about the same: “Terrorism is the use, or threat, of action which is violent, damaging or disrupting, and is intended to influence the government or intimidate the public and is for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, or ideological cause.” These definitions seem fairly clear and close to ordinary usage. There also seems to be general agreement that they are appropriate when discussing the terrorism of enemies.
But a problem at once arises. These definitions yield an entirely unacceptable consequence: it follows that the US is a leading terrorist state."
Norm Chomsky
But a problem at once arises. These definitions yield an entirely unacceptable consequence: it follows that the US is a leading terrorist state."
Norm Chomsky
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Curling is weird
Breakfast TV news is on hold currently, instead its winter olympics action. I should be bitter not being a sports fan, yet for some lovely reason the last two mornings I've been given Curling on da box.
What a truely strange sport/game.
I think I love it, not for the competitive parts, more the sweeping.
I can't help wondering if when retired Curlers become street cleaners
a sport and a career path
Sure maybe not the aspirations ones folks would desire for most, but hell who ever listens to their folks
Perhaps I should suggest taking the sport up to the really friendly guy who cleans the area around where I live
Speaking of streets, bastard council dug up the road in front all last night, now there's some noisy action to really enhance ya dreams... I'd have been up all night I reckon if not for the whiskey prior to sleepy bye bye lands I induged in
yay for whiskey and curling
What a truely strange sport/game.
I think I love it, not for the competitive parts, more the sweeping.
I can't help wondering if when retired Curlers become street cleaners
a sport and a career path
Sure maybe not the aspirations ones folks would desire for most, but hell who ever listens to their folks
Perhaps I should suggest taking the sport up to the really friendly guy who cleans the area around where I live
Speaking of streets, bastard council dug up the road in front all last night, now there's some noisy action to really enhance ya dreams... I'd have been up all night I reckon if not for the whiskey prior to sleepy bye bye lands I induged in
yay for whiskey and curling
Monday, February 13, 2006
The Long & The Short Of It
George FM
Monday 2-4pm
www.georgefm.co.nz
King Loser - Morning Dew (Flying Nun) 1995
Flunk - Blue Monday (Beatservice) 2002
The Ukrainians - Nothing Compares To You (U got the uke mix) (Cooking Vinyl) 1998
Cassio - Baby Love (Black Science Orchestra Superman Lover Vocal) (Glasgow Underground) 1999
Soultrust - I Think I Love You (Soultrust) 2006
Bernard Badie - Train (Radio edit) (Cajual) 2005
LHK Productions - Original Funk (Glasgow Underground) 1999
K Rd Project - Troughman (Shaboom) 1999
Negativland/Chumbawamba - C is for Stupid (ABC remix) (Seeland) 1999
Swiss Tony - Shabooya (white) 2005
Muskat Love - Misteek Drive (Bobby Dee's truncated by hate version) (Dirty Dancing) 2006
Lil MNark - Say You'll (Freaks rmx) (Paranoid Music) 2005
One Fingered Pocket feat Princess Superstar - On The Dancefloor (Greenskeepers rmx) (Amfibius) 2006
Derrick L Carter - ? (White) 2006
Jully Black - Sweat Of Your Brow (Jason Hodges rmx) (Aroma) 2006
DJ Mes - Lie Detector Blues (Del Costa & Pedro Goya rmx) (Aromare Recordings) 2006
Fries & Bridges vs Rice & Beans - Street Fame (minority Music) 2006
Bear Who? - Funky City (Crump Daddy Club) (Dust Traxx) 2005
Best taken with red roses and melted chocolates
Monday 2-4pm
www.georgefm.co.nz
King Loser - Morning Dew (Flying Nun) 1995
Flunk - Blue Monday (Beatservice) 2002
The Ukrainians - Nothing Compares To You (U got the uke mix) (Cooking Vinyl) 1998
Cassio - Baby Love (Black Science Orchestra Superman Lover Vocal) (Glasgow Underground) 1999
Soultrust - I Think I Love You (Soultrust) 2006
Bernard Badie - Train (Radio edit) (Cajual) 2005
LHK Productions - Original Funk (Glasgow Underground) 1999
K Rd Project - Troughman (Shaboom) 1999
Negativland/Chumbawamba - C is for Stupid (ABC remix) (Seeland) 1999
Swiss Tony - Shabooya (white) 2005
Muskat Love - Misteek Drive (Bobby Dee's truncated by hate version) (Dirty Dancing) 2006
Lil MNark - Say You'll (Freaks rmx) (Paranoid Music) 2005
One Fingered Pocket feat Princess Superstar - On The Dancefloor (Greenskeepers rmx) (Amfibius) 2006
Derrick L Carter - ? (White) 2006
Jully Black - Sweat Of Your Brow (Jason Hodges rmx) (Aroma) 2006
DJ Mes - Lie Detector Blues (Del Costa & Pedro Goya rmx) (Aromare Recordings) 2006
Fries & Bridges vs Rice & Beans - Street Fame (minority Music) 2006
Bear Who? - Funky City (Crump Daddy Club) (Dust Traxx) 2005
Best taken with red roses and melted chocolates
Sunday, February 12, 2006
What to do... no moose in the freezer
As I type this my soon to be flatmate or roomie (for you weirdos up north) is flying down to New Zealand from Toronto, Canada
Now where can I buy moose in New Zealand? Or do they eat similar food to us?
Do I have to sew a flag on my backpack?
Do I have to buy a back pack?
I do fancy curling as a pursuit... single malts and sweeping ice - now thats a sport!
Kia ora Angela, welcome to my world
poor thing
Now where can I buy moose in New Zealand? Or do they eat similar food to us?
Do I have to sew a flag on my backpack?
Do I have to buy a back pack?
I do fancy curling as a pursuit... single malts and sweeping ice - now thats a sport!
Kia ora Angela, welcome to my world
poor thing
Saturday, February 11, 2006
damn, missed it
So I get up early, nothing unusual there, and I'm watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, not cause I enjoy this sort of thing, but because I wanted to see Ritchie Hawtins piece:
"Canada’s Richie Hawtin creates music for the XXth Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremonies in Torino, Italy Olympic ceremony producers K2006 invited Richie Hawtin to collaborate with renowned Italian choreographer, Enzo Cosimi, on a key section of the XXth Olympics Winter Games Opening Ceremony taking place in Torino on February 10th.
The new composition titled 9:20 was written & produced by Hawtin and will accompany Cosimi’s provocative choreography featuring famous Italian dancer Robert Bolle along with dozens of other dancers, performers and acrobats.
Hawtin & Cosimi worked together in Hawtin’s Berlin studio to fully realize the drama and emotions of Cosimi's performers, building an evolving soundscape of sounds and effects to accompany the different movements of Cosimi’s piece.
Ceremony producers have assembled an energetic program planned for the Opening Ceremonies with a theme originating around the foundation elements of Rhythm, Passion and Speed.
Internationally renowned not only for his music and global DJ performances, but also for his interest in new creative technologies, Hawtin is in perfect harmony with both the concept and its global audience. “Enzo and I are very much interested in pushing boundaries, both as artists and for our audiences. Working together for the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games delivers the creative endeavor to not only entertain a huge audience, but to also introduce them to sights and sounds that they may have never experienced before," says Hawtin from his studio in Berlin."
So after what seemed an enternity, I pop off for a quick shower and miss his part, damn it. Bloody typical. No doubt it was a bunch of minimal toss, but I'm still a tiny bit gutted.
Still I did watch the teams enter the stadium and I must admit to a bit of patriotic pride when New Zealand entered the stadium. I really am a sucker for such things.
I don't really enjoy the olympics, to put it mildly, too much running. The winter olypics I enjoy so much more, maybe because I spent a large chunk of my younger years skiiing, or perhaps Its just cause I really like snow.
Speaking of, watching the snowstorms hitting the US and Canada on telly really is a sight to behold for someone whose been complaining about the humidity we are currently enduring. Its hard to comprehend huge cities like New York covered in snow, having lived in London and seen what happens to snow after a few short minutes on the ground, I imgine New York will go from the lovely white covering I witnessed courtesty of my favourite comedy channel Fox News to a yucky grey/brown.
I once got sent home from my London job, for I turned up soaking wet from the waist down.... yep, I'd challenged some local school kids to a snow fight as I walked to work and well I was outnumbered... my boss thought I was mad, one for walking through the snow and two forhaving a snow fight in my suit. Me I got a day off and spent the rest of it after a change of clothes sipping on pints of guinness in me local.
On that rather frosty thought I am now about to get ready for a day at the Beach, for its a George beach party day and the day is shaping up to be a cracker, wine washed down by the tunes provided by a bunch of DJs - not a bad way to pass time, now is it.
Remember now - never let an opportunity to let the child in loose pass you by!
"Canada’s Richie Hawtin creates music for the XXth Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremonies in Torino, Italy Olympic ceremony producers K2006 invited Richie Hawtin to collaborate with renowned Italian choreographer, Enzo Cosimi, on a key section of the XXth Olympics Winter Games Opening Ceremony taking place in Torino on February 10th.
The new composition titled 9:20 was written & produced by Hawtin and will accompany Cosimi’s provocative choreography featuring famous Italian dancer Robert Bolle along with dozens of other dancers, performers and acrobats.
Hawtin & Cosimi worked together in Hawtin’s Berlin studio to fully realize the drama and emotions of Cosimi's performers, building an evolving soundscape of sounds and effects to accompany the different movements of Cosimi’s piece.
Ceremony producers have assembled an energetic program planned for the Opening Ceremonies with a theme originating around the foundation elements of Rhythm, Passion and Speed.
Internationally renowned not only for his music and global DJ performances, but also for his interest in new creative technologies, Hawtin is in perfect harmony with both the concept and its global audience. “Enzo and I are very much interested in pushing boundaries, both as artists and for our audiences. Working together for the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games delivers the creative endeavor to not only entertain a huge audience, but to also introduce them to sights and sounds that they may have never experienced before," says Hawtin from his studio in Berlin."
So after what seemed an enternity, I pop off for a quick shower and miss his part, damn it. Bloody typical. No doubt it was a bunch of minimal toss, but I'm still a tiny bit gutted.
Still I did watch the teams enter the stadium and I must admit to a bit of patriotic pride when New Zealand entered the stadium. I really am a sucker for such things.
I don't really enjoy the olympics, to put it mildly, too much running. The winter olypics I enjoy so much more, maybe because I spent a large chunk of my younger years skiiing, or perhaps Its just cause I really like snow.
Speaking of, watching the snowstorms hitting the US and Canada on telly really is a sight to behold for someone whose been complaining about the humidity we are currently enduring. Its hard to comprehend huge cities like New York covered in snow, having lived in London and seen what happens to snow after a few short minutes on the ground, I imgine New York will go from the lovely white covering I witnessed courtesty of my favourite comedy channel Fox News to a yucky grey/brown.
I once got sent home from my London job, for I turned up soaking wet from the waist down.... yep, I'd challenged some local school kids to a snow fight as I walked to work and well I was outnumbered... my boss thought I was mad, one for walking through the snow and two forhaving a snow fight in my suit. Me I got a day off and spent the rest of it after a change of clothes sipping on pints of guinness in me local.
On that rather frosty thought I am now about to get ready for a day at the Beach, for its a George beach party day and the day is shaping up to be a cracker, wine washed down by the tunes provided by a bunch of DJs - not a bad way to pass time, now is it.
Remember now - never let an opportunity to let the child in loose pass you by!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
holocaust with an H
Over Christmas I read about the Armenian genocide during the First World War by the Turks.
Just another horrific crime against humanity that very rarely ever gets mentioned. One that unlike the Holocaust of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, one that never gets a capital H.
I have this propensity to read about the very things that sicken me to the core. I am fascinated by our inhumanity to one another. I really do need a proper hobby, perhaps I should take up some physical pursuit, maybe kayaking or something.
Anyways, as I travelled around the internetweb I stumbled on an article that was about Britain’s holocaust(s), which also mentions the Armenian case and has brought more human suffering from our past into my world.
“In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, published in 2001, Mike Davis tells the story of the famines which killed between 12 and 29 million Indians. These people were, he demonstrates, murdered by British state policy.
When an El Nino drought destituted the farmers of the Deccan plateau in 1876 there was a net surplus of rice and wheat in India. But the viceroy, Lord Lytton, insisted that nothing should prevent its export to England. In 1877 and 1878, at height of the famine, grain merchants exported a record 6.4 million hundredweight of wheat. As the peasants began to starve, government officials were ordered "to discourage relief works in every possible way"(2). The Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877 prohibited "at the pain of imprisonment private relief donations that potentially interfered with the market fixing of grain prices." The only relief permitted in most districts was hard labour, from which anyone in an advanced state of starvation was turned away. Within the labour camps, the workers were given less food than the inmates of Buchenwald. In 1877, monthly mortality in the camps equated to an annual death rate of 94%.
As millions died, the imperial government launched "a militarized campaign to collect the tax arrears accumulated during the drought." The money, which ruined those who might otherwise have survived the famine, was used by Lytton to fund his war in Afghanistan. Even in places which had produced a crop surplus, the government's export policies, like Stalin's in the Ukraine, manufactured hunger. In the North-western provinces, Oud and the Punjab, which had brought in record harvests in the preceding three years, at least 1.25m died.”
From How Britain Denies its Holocausts
As we know the victors write the history books and in my former British colony this is one chapter that was never taught me in history class.
Lets never forget this, it is our ignorance and pettiness that allows our power brokers to abuse our trust whilst they carry out polices that are not in humanities best interests. It is high time we put our collective well being ahead of the interests of a powerful few.
It does beg the question once posed by Mark E Smith, Who makes the Nazis’?
We do
Just another horrific crime against humanity that very rarely ever gets mentioned. One that unlike the Holocaust of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, one that never gets a capital H.
I have this propensity to read about the very things that sicken me to the core. I am fascinated by our inhumanity to one another. I really do need a proper hobby, perhaps I should take up some physical pursuit, maybe kayaking or something.
Anyways, as I travelled around the internetweb I stumbled on an article that was about Britain’s holocaust(s), which also mentions the Armenian case and has brought more human suffering from our past into my world.
“In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, published in 2001, Mike Davis tells the story of the famines which killed between 12 and 29 million Indians. These people were, he demonstrates, murdered by British state policy.
When an El Nino drought destituted the farmers of the Deccan plateau in 1876 there was a net surplus of rice and wheat in India. But the viceroy, Lord Lytton, insisted that nothing should prevent its export to England. In 1877 and 1878, at height of the famine, grain merchants exported a record 6.4 million hundredweight of wheat. As the peasants began to starve, government officials were ordered "to discourage relief works in every possible way"(2). The Anti-Charitable Contributions Act of 1877 prohibited "at the pain of imprisonment private relief donations that potentially interfered with the market fixing of grain prices." The only relief permitted in most districts was hard labour, from which anyone in an advanced state of starvation was turned away. Within the labour camps, the workers were given less food than the inmates of Buchenwald. In 1877, monthly mortality in the camps equated to an annual death rate of 94%.
As millions died, the imperial government launched "a militarized campaign to collect the tax arrears accumulated during the drought." The money, which ruined those who might otherwise have survived the famine, was used by Lytton to fund his war in Afghanistan. Even in places which had produced a crop surplus, the government's export policies, like Stalin's in the Ukraine, manufactured hunger. In the North-western provinces, Oud and the Punjab, which had brought in record harvests in the preceding three years, at least 1.25m died.”
From How Britain Denies its Holocausts
As we know the victors write the history books and in my former British colony this is one chapter that was never taught me in history class.
Lets never forget this, it is our ignorance and pettiness that allows our power brokers to abuse our trust whilst they carry out polices that are not in humanities best interests. It is high time we put our collective well being ahead of the interests of a powerful few.
It does beg the question once posed by Mark E Smith, Who makes the Nazis’?
We do
Time Off for good behaviour
No radio show this week, instead as is now custom Waitangi day which happened this year to fall on a Monday, was a day for George FM to celebrate all things summer in Auckland with a big free party in a park.
With somewhere between 30 and 45,000 in attendance on what I'd wager has been the most summery day thus far this year it really was a big day of fun.
My personal highlight was Dick Johnson dropping Blue Monday by New Order, a song that anyone mildly familiar with modern music will be aware of.
In my personal world it was for far too many years the only song I could expect to hear at any given social function I attended as a youngster that I'd like. Hence whenever I hear it I am reminded of just how much better the youth of today have it, in musical stakes if nothing else.
I’m still getting to gripes with this 2006 thang….
I’m busy starting a bunch of new projects that are taking up much of my time and energy which will increasingly do so, thus my routines are out of synch and anyone who knows me well will know I really hate having my established routines change.
I can’t wait for a new set to establish themselves and thus I can be slightly more settled in mind and body... yeah right, its nearly 2am and here I am wrting this watching Fox News... theres nothing settled about any part of me.
life truely doesn't get any better than this
With somewhere between 30 and 45,000 in attendance on what I'd wager has been the most summery day thus far this year it really was a big day of fun.
My personal highlight was Dick Johnson dropping Blue Monday by New Order, a song that anyone mildly familiar with modern music will be aware of.
In my personal world it was for far too many years the only song I could expect to hear at any given social function I attended as a youngster that I'd like. Hence whenever I hear it I am reminded of just how much better the youth of today have it, in musical stakes if nothing else.
I’m still getting to gripes with this 2006 thang….
I’m busy starting a bunch of new projects that are taking up much of my time and energy which will increasingly do so, thus my routines are out of synch and anyone who knows me well will know I really hate having my established routines change.
I can’t wait for a new set to establish themselves and thus I can be slightly more settled in mind and body... yeah right, its nearly 2am and here I am wrting this watching Fox News... theres nothing settled about any part of me.
life truely doesn't get any better than this
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