Month: June 2009

R.I.P

Rest in Peace:
Ali Akbar Khan (well known and respected sarod player and the first man to record an album of Indian classical music in the USA and the first to perform Indian classical music on USA television)

Charlie Mariano (alto saxist – from playing with the original beboppers to explorations with Eberhard Weber’s Colours, Supersister and various ‘world music’ players, Charlie never stopped exploring)

Bob Bogle (lead guitarist and co-founder of The Ventures)

Bob Stearman (drummer for Pocket Orchestra – an excellent although little-known avant/progressive band)

Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

:31 PM ET — “I was in the middle of a war.” Another email from a contact in Iran:

You couldn’t imagin what I saw tonight, I walked down many streets(Vali asr, keshavars, amir abad, Fatemi, Shademan, Satarkhan, Khosro), and I was injured by tears gas, but the main thing : The big killer group, called “Basij”, weared our special military service group -“Sepah”- dresses and they were all armed , I saw by myself one of them had only around 15 years old!!!! and he had the shot order! I saw a girl injured by gon shot (in Amir abad St.)! and there weren’t enough ambulances . I walked through Shademan St. they start shooting , a young boy in front of my eyes murdered , and 3 other people were injured , there were also a big fight between people and Basij at Tohid Sq. 7 people was murdered there, I walked from my company to my home , It was taken 4 hours and I couldn’t be able to make a video , cause I was in the middle of war!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[From Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising]

wow

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Bunny Project at Kalmar Konstmuseum, Sweden 2008

Performance commissioned by Kalmar Museum of Art, Sweden. During the inauguration of the new art museum in Kalmar a suspicious individual sneaked around the premises mounting sculptures made of carrots, alarm clocks, red and blue cables, metal wire and tape. On direct orders from the Swedish secret police the performance was stopped since the Culture Minister refused to give her inaugural speech if it were to continue. The speech , as it later turned out, was about how art must be allowed to be free and provocative.

Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is a day of destiny.

Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before.

Where is this place? Where is this place where every door is closed? Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder?

I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases. It shakes me. I wonder if God is shaken.

Where is this place that where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where is this place where no one comes to our aid? Where is this place that only with our silence we are sending our voices to the world? Where is this place that the young shed blood and then people go and pray — standing on that same blood and pray. Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants?

Where is this place? You want me to tell you? This place is Iran. The homeland of you and me.
This place is Iran.

[From Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising]

Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

2:53 PM ET — “Basiji Hunting.” Steve Clemons posts an email describing a new trend:

By the way, two nights ago I went out to see a few things … as the general crowds spread into their homes militia style Mousavi supporters were out on the streets ‘Basiji hunting’.

Their resolve is no less than these thugs — they after hunting them down. They use their phones, their childhood friends, their intimate knowledge of their districts and neighbours to plan their attacks — they’re organised and they’re supported by their community so they have little fear. They create the havoc they’re after, ambush the thugs, use their Cocktail Molotovs, disperse and re-assemble elsewhere and then start again – and the door of every house is open to them as safe harbour — they’re community-connected.

The Basiji’s are not.

These are not the students in the dorms, they’re the street young — they know the ways better than most thugs – and these young, a surprising number of them girls, are becoming more agile in their ways as each night passes on.

[From Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising]

More VDO releases…

image635169704.jpgI am currently on the way to Dallas to cut the Shits and Giggles record (Ariel Pink and VDO) to vinyl. We have a release date somewhere around the end of July. While I am there VDO will be in the studio again to record a another record with Brad Laner. Looking forward to this one as Brad is at the top of his game!

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Hugh Hopper R.I.P. Date: June 8, 2009 9:45:07 AM PDT Hugh Hopper R.I.P. Date: June 8, 2009 9:45:07 AM PDT Hugh Hopper R.I.P.

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Hugh Colin Hopper (born 29 April 1945, Whitstable, Kent, England, grown up in Canterbury; died 7 June 2009)

Hopper was diagnosed with leukemia in June 2008 and has been undergoing chemotherapy. As a result of his illness and the treatment, he has had to cancel all his concert appearances.[3] A Hugh Hopper benefit concert took place in December 2008 at the 100 Club in London and featured In Cahoots, members of Soft Machine Legacy, Delta Sax Quartet, Sophia Domancich and Simon Goubert, Yumi Hara Cawkwell, and the Alex Maguire Quartet.[4] Another benefit : Hugh Hopper Benefit : Le Triton, Les Lilas (near Paris), 27 june 2009, 9pm. [5] His death was announced 7 June 2009.

[From Musicalnews.com: Prog jazz rock genius: addio a Hugh Hopper storico bassista dei Soft Machine !]