“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”
“To live in the city is to take a kind of risk, while to live in suburbia is to avoid it. Cities are amazing places because, in exchange for all their downsides – crime, noise, congestion, metal detectors – there is always the possibility of stumbling upon a bar or a person or an idea that doesn’t exist in less cacophonous places. But you have to accept that risk.”
The Museum of Endangered Sounds
On the other side of the Internet Brendan Chilcutt is gathering sounds from a not so distant past. Think the spinning of a blank cassette tape, the processing of a floppy disc, the 8-bit voice of a Speak and Spell, all presented as animated gifs.
Via Chilcutt:
I launched the site in January of 2012 as a way to preserve the sounds made famous by my favorite old technologies and electronics equipment. For instance, the textured rattle and hum of a VHS tape being sucked into the womb of a 1983 JVC HR-7100 VCR. As you probably know, it’s a wonderfully complex sound, subtle yet unfiltered. But… imagine a world where we never again hear the symphonic startup of a Windows 95 machine. Imagine generations of children unacquainted with the chattering of angels lodged deep within the recesses of an old cathode ray tube TV. And when the entire world has adopted devices with sleek, silent touch interfaces, where will we turn for the sound of fingers striking QWERTY keypads? Tell me that. And tell me: Who will play my GameBoy when I’m gone?
Imagine!
We love ourselves the collector’s passion, and that someone, somewhere, has taken it upon himself to organize the buck, ping and hum of the electronics we grew up on.
“return of the tmnt”
by Galit Weisberg
“You know I’m not big on apologizing. So I’ll just skip it if it’s all the same to you…Anyway, I’m sorry.”
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
Breakfast! BBQ pork belly and sweet corn pancake with two over easy eggs and sweet slaw. YUM
Peggy Lee Jones: Lady Bo.
One of the first female lead guitarists in rock & roll, Peggy Jones is most notable for her work in Bo Diddley’s backing band, for which she earned the affectionate — and appropriate — nickname Lady Bo. However, her musical resume is much longer, boasting stints as a doo wop singer and an R&B/soul bandleader. Born in New York, Jones began her career as a professional dancer, attending the famed High School for the Performing Arts. She later joined a Harlem doo wop group called the Bop Chords, becoming their first female singer; though she didn’t perform on their regional 1956 hit “Castle in the Sky,” she was present for the follow-ups “Baby” and “So Why.” The Bop Chords disbanded in 1957, and Jones joined up with Bo Diddley as a guitarist and backing vocalist. She recorded with him on a number of singles from 1957-1963, at which point the prime of his recording career was effectively over; nonetheless, she remained in Diddley’s touring band for the next several decades. One of the sides she wrote and recorded, the 1961 instrumental “Aztec,” actually became a hit in Europe two years after the fact (though it was Jones’ track, the record company mistakenly credited Diddley as the performer). Jones was also the guitarist on Les Cooper’s 1962 instrumental hit “Wiggle Wobble.” Jones also engaged in several side projects while a member of Diddley’s band. In 1957, she recorded a single for Ro-Nan as one-half of Greg & Peg, and followed the same format for a 1959 as part of Peggy & Bob. She played guitar on Les Cooper’s 1962 instrumental hit “Wiggle Wobble” and percussion on Eric Burdon & the Animals’ 1967 hit “San Franciscan Nights.” Her main endeavor, though, dated back to the ’50s, when Jones formed her own R&B band, the Fabulous Jewels. Serving as lead vocalist, guitarist, arranger, and sometime songwriter whenever she had time off from Diddley’s band, Jones made her outfit one of the top R&B bands on the East Coast club circuit during the ’60s and ’70s, playing primarily around New York, New Jersey, and Boston. The group also recorded two single sides for MGM in 1961, “Forever Blowing Bubbles” and “Togetherness,” and opened for prominent rock, soul, and jazz acts. Jones has maintained her association with Bo Diddley over the years, and fully mastered his approach, making herself worthy of the billing Lady Bo. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi MORE
Happy Birthday, Walt Whitman!
Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons,
and with the young, and with the mothers or families,
re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
and dismiss whatever insults your own soul;
and your very flesh shall be a great poem….
~ Walt Whitman ~
(from the Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition)
Uniting the Planet for a Journey to Another Star
Former astronaut Mae Jemison (and living legend) will spearhead the audacious 100 Year Starship plan to send mankind on an interstellar adventure.
Eggs Benedict on sourdough English muffins with balsamic-garlic dinosaur kale #food #thingsimade #eggs (Taken with instagram)
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Ookah
“These are some of the things hydrogen atoms do, given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution. It has the sound of epic myth, but it’s simply a description of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time. And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears, and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we’ve begun at last to wonder about our origins. Star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet Earth and, perhaps, throughout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves, but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.”
‘I think the most important thing is to bring the people to a point where they have self-confidence, and understand that they can, at last…be the authors of their own well-being… And at the same time, have a sense of the price to be paid for that well-being.’ ‘Ideas cannot be killed, ideas never die.’
- Thomas Sankara, 1st President of Burkina Faso c. 1983 ..martyred.
What a man.
BILL MURRAY!!
Hello Street (by Ju.lse)
Radical Life Extension Is Already Here, But We’re Doing it Wrong
Not everyone is thrilled by the prospect of radical life extension. As funding for anti-aging research has exploded, bioethicists have expressed alarm, reasoning that extreme longevity could have disastrous social effects. Some argue that longer life spans will mean stiffer competition for resources, or a wider gap between rich and poor. Others insist that the aging process is important because it gives death a kind of time release effect, which eases us into accepting it. These concerns are well founded. Life spans of several hundred years are bound to be socially disruptive in one way or another; if we’re headed in that direction, it’s best to start teasing out the difficulties now.
But there is another, deeper argument against life extension—the argument from evolution. Its proponents suggest that we ought to avoid tinkering with any human trait borne of natural selection. Doing so, they argue, could have unforeseen consequences, especially given that natural selection has such a sterling engineering track record. If our bodies grow old and die, the thinking goes, then there must be a good reason, even if we don’t understand it yet. Nonsense, says Bennett Foddy, a philosopher (and flash game developer!) from Oxford, who has written extensively about the ethics of life extension. “We think about aging as being a natural human trait, and it is natural, but it’s not something that was selected for because it was beneficial to us.” Foddy told me. “There is this misconception that everything evolution provides is beneficial to individuals and that’s not correct.”
Foddy has thought long and hard about the various objections to life extension and, for the most part, has found them wanting. This is our conversation about those objections, and about the exciting new biology of aging.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]
“Another example at the international level of how skillfully they use this trickery was in the Congo. In the Congo, airplanes were dropping bombs on African villages. African villages don’t have a defense against bombs. And the pilot can’t tell who the bomb is being dropped upon. When a bomb hits a village, everything goes. And these pilots, flying planes filled with bombs, dropping these bombs on African villages, were destroying women, were destroying children, were destroying babies. You never heard any outcry over here about that.
And it had started way back in June. They would drop bombs on African villages that would blow that village apart and everything in it — man, woman, child, and baby. No outcry, no sympathy, no support, no concern, because the press didn’t project it in such a way that it would be designed to get your sympathy. They know how to put something so that you’ll sympathize with it, and they know how to put it so you’ll be against it. I’m telling you, they are masters at it. And if you don’t develop the analytical ability to read between the lines in what they’re saying, I’m telling you again — they’ll be building gas ovens, and before you wake up you’ll be in one of them, just like the Jews ended up in gas ovens over there in Germany. You’re in a society that’s just as capable of building gas ovens for Black people as Hitler’s society was.
This was mass murder in the Congo, of women and children and babies. But there was no outcry even from the white liberals, even from your “friends.” Why? Because they made it appear that it was a humanitarian project. They said that the planes were being flown by “American-trained anti-Castro Cuban pilots.” This is propaganda, too. Soon as you hear that it’s American-trained, you say, “Oh that’s all right, that’s us.” And the anti-Castro Cubans, “Oh that’s all right too, ‘cause if they’re against Castro, whoever else they’re against that’s good, ‘cause Castro is a monster.” But you see how step-by-step they grab your mind?
And these pilots are hired, their salaries are paid by the United States government. They’re called mercenaries, these pilots are. And a mercenary is not someone who kills you because he’s patriotic. He kills you for blood money, he’s a hired killer. This is what a mercenary means. And they’re able to take these hired killers, put them in American planes, with American bombs, and drop them on African villages, blowing to bits Black men, Black women, Black children, Black babies, and you Black people sitting over here cool like it doesn’t even involve you. You’re a fool. They’ll do it to them today, and do it to you tomorrow. Because you and I and they are all the same.
They call it a humanitarian project and that they’re doing it in the name of freedom. And all of this, these glorious terms, are used to pave the way in your mind for what they’re going to do.
Then they take Tshombe. You’ve heard of Tshombe. He’s the worst African that was ever born. The lowest type that was ever born. He’s a murderer himself. He’s the murderer of Lumumba, the former prime minister of — the first and only rightful prime minister of the Congo. He’s an international — he’s a murderer with an international stature as a murderer. Yet the United States government went and got Tshombe in Spain, and put him as the head of the Congolese government. This is criminal! Here’s a man who’s a murderer, so the United States takes him, puts him over the Congo, and supports his government with your tax dollars. Now — they hired him to occupy the position as head of state over the Congo — a killer! He is a hired killer himself! His salary’s paid by the United States government. And he turns — his first move is to bring in South Africans, who hate everything in sight. He hires those South Africans to come and kill his own Congolese people. And the United States, again, pays their salary.
You know, it’s something to think about. How do you think you would feel right now if some Congolese brothers walked up to you — and they look just like you, don’t think you don’t look Congolese. You look as much Congolese as a Congolese does. They got all kinds of Congolese over there. How would you feel if one of them walked up to you and asked you about what your government is doing in the Congo. I was asked that when I was over there. But they don’t have to come to me like that, ‘cause they know where I stand automatically. And for one time I’m thankful to the press, for letting everybody know where I stand. They — but you have no explanation. Your tongue stays in your mouth. And then you have to become — you have to go to the extreme to convince them that you don’t go along with what the United States government is doing in the Congo.
And they justify the usage of Tshombe as the present head of state by saying that he’s the only African who can unite — or bring unity to the Congo. Has he brought unity to the Congo? But, see, this is their game! And their real reason for wanting Tshombe there was so that Tshombe could invite them to come in. Now, what African head of state would have dared to invite outside powers? So they put Tshombe there, and as soon as Tshombe got there he invited them to bring paratroopers from Belgium in the United States’ transport planes to try and recapture Congo.
This is all a cold-blooded act on the part of your Western powers, namely the Western powers here in the United States — interests in the United States, in England, and France, and Belgium and so forth. They want the wealth of the Congo, plus its strategic geographic position.
The step-by-step process that was used by the press: First they fanned the flame in such a manner to create hysteria in the mind of the public. And then they shift gears and fan the flame in a manner designed to get the sympathy of the public. And once they go from hysteria to sympathy, their next step is to get the public to support them in whatever act they’re getting ready to go down with. You’re dealing with a cold calculating international machine, that’s so criminal in its objectives and motives that it has the seeds of its own destruction, right within. They use the press to emphasize that white hostages are being held by [inaudible] — imagine that — or white priests, white missionaries, white nuns — they don’t say nuns: white nuns. You know what the paper said right here in Detroit: white missionaries, not just a missionary; a white nun — as if there’s a difference between a white nun and a black nun; or a white priest and a black priest; or if the light that’s in a white skin is more valuable than a light within a black skin. This is what they’re implying! And the press — look at the press when this thing was going on — and you will see what I’m talking about. They’re vicious in their whiteness.
But still, I wouldn’t judge them just ‘cause they’re white, or they’d call me a racist. [I’m] judging by their deeds, by their conscious behavior — and you know how they’ve been consciously behaving in the Congo, and how they consciously behave in Vietnam, and how they consciously behave right now in Alabama and Mississippi. So you and I got to get conscious, and start behaving in a way that we can offset this thing before it’s too late — and this is what they don’t want to hear.”
| Malcolm X (February 14th, 1965 in Detroit)