Screaming Pope

In 1953, the British painter, Francis Bacon painted a series of paintings based on Velequez's portrait of Pope Innocent X which was painted around 1650. Bacon was obsessed wth the Velequez painting because as he stated, "It is perhaps the greatest portrait ever painted".
But in Bacons hands, his interpretations of the portrait became a conduit for emotional outrage, the utterly real paranoiac tension of life during the post war periods of nuclear proliferation. For Bacon, also, it became a release of his feelings about religion in general and the controls over his mind and his life that he had to fight.
Today, after reading the statements of Pope Benedict which only confuse and spread false science regarding the use of condoms to combat the spread of AIDS in Africa nad around the world, I feel outrage. I feel outrage that the Catholic Church can support a bishop who denies the holocaust. I feel outrage over and organization which has in an institutional manner protected child abusing secret pedophiles for years, yet harshly and uncompromisingly condemns homosexuals who dare to live their lives openly.

So in homage to Francis Bacon, who I regard as one of the greatest artists of the last century, I created a version of one his screaming popes using Benedict and I urge all of the readers of thebrainpolice to participate and support the present protest now in progress by mailing condoms to the Vatican.
I read that as of yesterday over 25,000 condoms had been mailed to the Vatican. It may seem like a little but it means a lot! If I can find out where you can obtain these classy Pope Benedict "I SAID NO!" condoms, I'll let you know.

Stuck In The Sound

I saw this band last night on the program One Shot Not on the ARTE network. One Shot Not is a music presentation of diverse artists by the great dummer Manu Katche. He presents different artists of differnt genres and tries to give exposure to artists which one might never see on television. He will play with some of the artists and they get a chance to play ttogether as part of the show. I really like the show becauuse it is one of the few music shows which allows you to actually have a glimpse of the personalities of the artists in a very unpretentious manner.

Last night he presented the Parisian band, Stuck In The Sound, and they performed 2 pieces from their latest recording, Shoe Gazing Kids. This was one of the pieces, Ouais!
I was struck by the complexity of the compositions, which always seemed to be coherently about the song...the length and variety of texture made it all the more interesting. The sheer seeming simplicity of layered guitars and bass with a great drummer and vocals propelled by kinetic energy,raw emotion and an understanding of dynamics.
Stuck In The Sound has been around since 2002 and has released 3 records, from what I heard last night, they are worthy of international recognition and have created a body of original work that I find rare in the machine like assembly line of the French Pop Music Industry.

Brother Theodore

Here's someone you may have never seen before. This is Brother Theodore, the man who referred to himself as a "stand up tragedist" rather than a stand up comedian. He held court in the clubs of Greenwich Village in NYC for almost 50 years with his darkly humorous monologues.
He was a man with a real history, he was born Theodore Gottlieb in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1906 in a wealthy Jewish publishing family. He was 32 when the Nazis imprisoned him in Dachau, where he was held until he signed over his family fortune for the sum of 1 Riechsmark.
He was able to go to Switzerland, but was deported for chess hustling! He went to Austria where Albert Einstein, who was a friend of the family, actually his mothers' lover, helped him emigrate to the USA.
He became a monologue artist in clubs and developed a hard core following while occasionally getting work in films. He worked steadily from the early 50's and retired briefly in the 1970's, but only briefly.
A new generation discovered Brother Theodore and he started to appear on televison. This is an appearance on David Letterman from the early 80's...when Letterman had quite a head of hair!
He worked steadily until he died on April 5th, 2001. This is his food rant.....

The Skies Of America

Even though I would never consider myself a jazz musician, perhaps the most inspiring and liberating musician I have ever encountered is Ornette Coleman.
Ornette Coleman is a true American iconoclast who has always stood apart from any trend or mainstream, yet his influence has been felt for many years in American and world jazz. Listening and being influenced by Coleman taught me the art of improvisation and a new way to play and compose music.

Coleman has developed his personal music esthetic which he calls "harmolodics", in which there is no key, no fixed scale. Almost anything can and does happen, yet the music creates its own structure and logic. His modulations have a fresh sometimes abrupt sound to them which seem to be the result of subordinating the chordal underpinning on which most music is based to the movement of melody. A certain melodic interval thus suggests a number of different chord changes, any one of which is "correct".

Ornette played in the 50's and 60's on the West Coast, gradually developing his concepts. I first started to listen to him in the early 1970's with his release, Dancing In Your Head, with his band, Prime Time. Side one of the record was the composition, Dancing In Your Head and the other side was Coleman playing with Morrocan tribal musicians, using his harmolodic technique to create spontaneous music with them.

In 1970, Ornette recorded his symphonic composition called, The Skies Of America. For me it was a powerful and moving experience to listen to. I felt he had created a sound scape in which I could sense the movement of the skies above the land. He had created a kinetic soundscape of geographical dimensions. It was quite by chance that I decided to see if there was any visual record of this music and, Voila!

Reagonomics In Reverse

I've been hearing this bright idea from the GOP for a few weeks now. Let's drug test welfare and unemployment recipients to make sure that when there finally are jobs available, they are able to fill them competently...If they fail the tests, cut them off!
More compassionate conservatism from the party who loves the lower classes...
But, hey, this is America and what's good for one is good for all, isn't it?
I mean, if you are going to drug test welfare recipients and laid off workers as a qualification to recieve government assistance and most of these folks are recieving a mere pittance, then why can't we demand that the ones who are recieving the big bucks, the bail out bucks, the real mazooma if you know what I mean, why can't these guys be held to the same standards?
If you mismanage a giant corporation and have to be bailed out to the tune of oh, say 168 billion dollars, then why must we asssume that you are competent to continue to recieve these funds? You must have been "on something" to have fucked things up so badly. What do you have to say for yourself?

Can't we at the very least demand CEO drug testing?

At the very least, these geniuses must have the staff and brains to figure out how to get around a simple drug test. If we start demanding urine analysis from CEO's as a prerequisite to recieve billions of dollars, the black market in drug free urine is going to go bonkers! This will probably create an entire underground industry.
The price of drug free urine will sky rocket and create an unprecedented demand. An entrepreneur with a healthy bladder will be able to make a fortune as the execs scramble to get a healthy sample.
Hmmm...Reagonomics was all about trickle down...but.....

Ruining The Brand Name

Yesterday, Pat Oliphant, the Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist, published the above cartoon which has already caused Pro Israeli groups to rise en masse to condemn him as an Ant-Semite. The Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman commented, "Pat Oliphant's outlandish use of the Star of David in combination with Nazi-like imagery is hideously Anti-Semetic. It employs Nazi Imagery by portraying Israel as a jack booted, goose stepping headless apparition. This implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart."

Can we back up here? To quote Mr. Foxman, "An Israeli policy without a head or a heart"
After what the world witnessed and is now uncovering regarding Israels action is Gaza in late December, the use of white phosphorus on civilian populations, cluster bombs and a strategy which did not bother to differentiate between civilian and Hamas targets, Mr. Foxman's protest seem more like an endorsement than a criticism of the cartoon.

More over, if Israel has adopted the religious symbol of the Star of David as it's national symbol and protests when the symbol is used to portray the state in criticism of it's actions, isn't Israel guilty of using a religious symbol as a shield?

Isn't Israel guilty of debasing the Star of David as a symbol of identity for all people who identify themselves as Jewish? Remember, not all people who identify themselves as Jewish are even allowed to live in Israel. If you are Ethiopian and black, you might not be really the right kind of Jew.

A few days ago, I published this picture of Israeli soldiers with their t-shirts in my post, 1 Shot=2 Kills=Genocide. Israel has pursued an agenda with a hidden face, like they pursued their quest for nuclear arms. They are going to destroy the Palestinians and they will silence anyone who gets in the way of this goal. If they don't want the Star of David to be used in political cartoons criticizing their actions, perhaps it's time for a new flag. Perhaps, Oliphants cartoon signifies a new awareness of Israels tactics.

Send Us Your Virgins!

As the Alaskan volcano, Mount Redoubt exploded again at 4:31 this morning, Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal reiterated his claim that the provisions in the Stimulus Bill to monitor volcanic activity were a waste of taxpayers money.
"We are wasting taxpayers dollars on speculative science!" fumed Jindal, "The evil spirits of the mountain must be appeased!"
The Louisiana governor stood at the base of a stairway that ascended to a flaming altar flanked by hooded chanting figures on the side of the erupting volcano.
"All we need are some pure and willing virgins to satisfy and calm the angry volcano gods" he said wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. The temperature seemed to be rising as lava began to flow nearby.
Governor Palin, in nearby Anchorage was wiping the volcanic ash off her desk when she first heard of Jindals request and stated, "Virgins? I'll have to get back to you on that..."

The White Trash Pyramids

Sometimes, words cannot truly convey the emotional and sheer eloquence of the visual evidence. Let me take you on a tour into the designer elegance of Mormonism. Is that real Corinthian leather? The tastefully layered and restrained opulence of a Marriot Inn hotel lobby tells you with out a doubt this is a class act. In fact the Marriot Hotel chain is a Mormon owned enterprise. They must have gotten a really good deal on the wall light sconces.
Maybe a tasteful touch of neon? No, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves....

VOIDOIDS

This is absolutely, absolutely....well, it's Richard Hell and the Voidoids performing the anthem of NYC Punk Rock, Blank Generation in 1977 at CBGBs...
Richard Quine was the guitarist. This is about where I fell from the sky into the East Village. As I said, this is absolutely, absolutely.........

1 Shot 2 Kills = Genocide!

The two T Shirts in the picture are just part of a series of shirts being worn by Israeli soldiers. The black shirt depicts a pregnant Palestinian woman in the crosshairs of a gun sight with the legend in English and Hebrew, "1 Shot 2 Kills", get it?
The white shirt has a Palestinian child in cross hairs with the legend in Hebrew, "The Smaller, The Harder".

According to a soldier in the sniper squad that sports the shirst, the legend means, the smaller the child, the harder to kill, morally and as a smaller target.
There are a number of other designs such as an Israeli soldier blowing up a mosque with the legend, "Only God Forgives", a ninja figure with the legend, "Won't Chill Until I Confirm A Kill" and perhaps the most shocking, a weeping mother in the crosshairs of the rifle next to a dead baby with the legend, "Better Use Durex".

During the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip which left hundreds of children dead and thousands injured, it was revealed that the head rabbi of the Israeli army distributed a pamphlet to all sodiers which told them that they were fighting a holy war and that there was no mercy to be given to the enemy.

The atrocities of the attack have been well documented and the Israeli Armed Forces have been accused of grevious war crimes involving denying medical asssistance to dying civilians, moreover, the use of cluster bombs and white phosphorus on this confined civilian population has been confirmed.

During the early 1990's I sublet my apartment for a few months to an Israeli couple. I met them a few times before they moved in and I thought they were very nice until we spoke of Palestinians. The language used by these "nice people" to talk about Palestinians was dehumanizing in the extreme. They were filthy animals. They lived like pigs. They were subhuman and incapable of intelligent thought. All Palestinians to them were the enemy, a grotesque cariacature.

But isn't this the first step in eliminationist, extremist thought? You dehumanize the ones you want to eliminate. The American settlers habitually did it to the Native Americans, The English did it to the Irish for centuries.....The Germans did it to the Jews.
The Israelis have long embarked on an unspoken policy of eliminationism and it has become institutionalized in their society. They have convinced themselves that there is no other way and cowed us into acceptance. If you are a politician and speak out, expect the full weight of the pro Israeli lobby to be used against you. If you are a member of private organization or an individual guided by consience to protest, you will be a target.

The Israelis are going to destroy the Palestinians. They are going to eliminate the Gazans. You are going to read about it as it happens incrementally in little steps and big boot heels. You will see the pictures and reports on the internet and television news. It has been happening and the Israelis confidently believe that there isn't anything anyone can do to stop them.

Door Of The Cosmos

Here's a cut from a Sun Ra album I never heard before. The record was Sleeping Beauty and of course it's out of print...Probably from the early 70's.
Everything about Sun Ra to enchant you if you understand his music and everything you need to drive you up the wall if you don't....
Me? I have been a an admirer of Mr. Ra for many years. A man who could create the cosmos from debris, bring order to chaos and vice versa.

First day Of Spring!

Today, at 12:41, spring officially began. Everything changed, I could tell. The bald spot on my head suddenly felt slightly sunburnt. I took a bike ride up to Badefols to post some letters and on the way back, I saw that my neighbor Dede was out on his tractor.
Normally, every year, Dede comes over to plow up our garden. Last year was so wet and cold, that we didn't have the garden plowed until June! Everything was late. There had been a few warm days in March. The plants started to bloom and then in April, a real killing frost. We had no plums, kiwis or figs.

This year, again, we have had a profound early warm spell, but it has been much dryer.
There are leaves and buds on the kiwi, the mirabelle plum is about to begin to flower...in fact the lilacs and wisteria are beginning to show real promise! Last year, I did have a bumper crop of raspberries and I expect to have even more this year.
As the land around the house becomes less fertile and more naturally wild, because it is not being used as cow pasturage, more wild flowers are beginning to reappear.
Last year, a few bumblebee and goat orchids appeared. This year, I have identified at least 6 more orchid plants making their presence known. It's pretty early for many, so maybe more will show up later. I have to be very careful cutting the lawn when they are growing.

So, on my way back from Badefols, I stopped and talked to DeDe and told him our ground was dry enough and would it be possible for him to turn it over when he had a chance?

Sure enough, about an hour later, he showed up on his old Massey-Ferguson and had turned over and the first cultivation done in about a half hour. He will come back and do a fine cultivation when it dries out for a few days. During the winter, I put almost a ton of aged horse manure and the ashes from the fireplace on the garden and all of that was turned into the soil!

On May 1st, we go to a village near here called Clairvivre, which is a gleaming pre WW2 art deco social community for the rehabilitation and education of underpriveleged and troubled people...one of the specialities of Clairvivre is gardening and they have a series of very beautiful art deco greenhouses which are used to raise vegetable starters and the money raised supports the community services. It is also a great source for flowers and shrubs. We always buy at least one new rose there each year. Last year, the plants sat until June. This year, we are ready to have the best garden ever!

Luckily, I had a bottle of Pineau rouge in the cave and gave it to DeDe as thanks for his work. We used to buy all of our wood from him, but in the last few years, he has had a lot of back problems, so he is out of the wood business and I hadn't seen him around most of the winter. He looks pretty good today, though. I think he will be around for quite a few more seasons.
(click on the pictures to enlarge them, there is a lot of great detail)

Alain Bashung

Yesterday, the French artist, Alain Bashung was laid to rest.
He was one of the good guys. A political artist who wrote great poetry and never compromised his integrity. He appeared 3 weeks ago to recieve a "Lifetime Achievment" Award at the Victoire de Musique, sort of the French Grammys for pop music.
He performed well, in fact he did a brilliant version of Resident de la Republique, but it was obvious to all that he was not well and he earlier this week.
The video is of his song Volontaire and he performs it with the great and also very political French Rock Band, Noir Desir...this must have been from around 2000.

On Greve!

The Collapse Of Capitalism

Thanks to crooksandliars for this link!
Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) demonstrates the motivating force behind the collapse of capitalism.
Here is the link to the entire cartoon.

Indian Superman

Here, because you bothered to look at thebrainpolice today...you're so special!
This is a charming little dance number from a Southern Indian Bollywood version of Superman!

1966

I stopped at a fellow bloggers blog today, Sepp at Uncommon Squalor and he had posted a video by Roger McGuinn of a Bob Dylan song, It's All Right Ma. Roger who was originally Jim McGuinn was one of the writers of The Byrds. He was also a highly original musician and is still performing. He came out of a folk/bluegrass tradition and played an electric 12 string Rickenbacher guitar. The Byrds used a lot of folk guitar styling but with in a rock context it became something new. Of course, they became famous covering Dylan and Pete Seegar and re interprting the music as futuristic electric folk.

I keep thinking that 1966 was one of the most exciting years for pop music, the Beatles released Revolver, the Who were at their creative peak...bands like Arthur Lee's Love were creating music that was breaking the ruless.
People were exploring sound and I suppose it was even more interesting because it was still restrained style on the edge of psychedelic excess. The songs still had to fit the context of a 3 minute pop single.

A piece of music which still raises goosebumps is the Byrds, 8 Miles High. Roger McGuinn uses his 12 string guitar to bridge the ocean between bluegrass and John Coltrane via Ravi Shankar. The sleek harmonies and chiming guitar riffs hint of a sleek gleaming future that never was, but the poetry takes us back to the painful reality....

1966, the edge of a future....are we there yet?

Stop Me, I'm Hurting Myself.....

Force of habit, fear of change and guilt, these are all self destructive tendancies which have to be dealt with by each of us personally to stop negative behavior in our own lives.

We do things by rote which might have made sense at one time, but because of the effort required to conciously change, we continue on the same path when it doesn't make sense any more.

We do things because of guilt because we are locked into patterns of thought that can be manipulated to make us do what is not iin our best interest.
We do things out of fear, because we let someone assume the position of power and they take advantage of it.

America, collectively has let itself become locked into patterns of behavior and controlled thought by another country, which uses guilt, fear and our force of habit to manipulate us into situations which are not in our best interest.

It has become increasingly apparent that the course of actions by the state of Israel is not in Americas's best interest. Without laboring the point, we have let our knee jerk support of Israel destroy our relationship with the Middle East and millions of Islamic and non-Islamic Palestinian Supporters all over the world.

We almost allowed Israel manipulate America into a disasterous course of action in a pre emptive strike in Iran, which would have certainly catastrophically escalated. Israel still tries to push for this action in spite of the evidence presented daily that Iran is does not possess nuclear weapons and is even a long way off from it's program to develop nuclear energy for its own domestic power needs.

We know collectively that we have to change. We have to break this pattern. We have to realize that our massive aid monetarily and militarily to Israel is a bad habit we have to break.

The Obama Administration tried to inject a breath of fresh air by trying to install Charles W. Freeman Jr., a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Bush Sr. administration in a top intellgence position.

Mr. Freeman had long been a critic of Israel and voiced his opinions with a bluntness not usually heard about an American ally. In 2006, he warned, "Left to it's own devices, the Israeli establishment will make decisions that harm Israelis, threaten all associated with them and enrage those who are not."
Just last Wednesday, he said in an interview that "Israel is driving itself towards a cliff, and it is irresponsible not to question Israeli policy and to decide what is best for the American people."

This was just too much for AIPAC and the lobbying effort led by Stephen J. Rosen, a former top official of AIPAC, led to the derailment of of Mr. Freeman's nomination.
He walked out of the hearings, disgusted after being opposed by New York Senator Charles E. Schumer and Senator Joe Lieberman.
They expressed concern with his critical views of Israeli policy and this could simply not be tolerated in someone who, as chairman of the National Security Council, would have overseen the the production of what are supposed to be policy-neutral intelligence assessments for the president.

Where was AIPAC's concern for neutral intelligence during the 8 years we just experienced in the Bush administration?
As Robert. W. Jordan, who was the Saudi Ambassador from 2001 to 2003 said, " The reality of Washington finds it difficult to assimilate any criticism of any segment of the Israeli leadership."

Stop me I'm hurting myself.....

Rosen's lobbying effort began 3 weeks ago. Why are we letting Stephen (Mr. Policy Neutral) Rosen Jr. dictate foreign policy. Mr. Rosen is currently under federal indictment and awaiting trial from violation of The National Espionage Act acting on the behalf of Israel. This wasn't mentioned in any of the press coverage, but wouldn't you think that this was relevant?

Now let's talk about the Israeli Army's record of targeting foreign protesters who demostrate against Israeli's Palestinian policies...

Tristan Andersen of Oakland, California was shot at close range in the face with a high velocity tear gas canister by an Israeli soldier just this Friday as he participated in a protest in Naalin, on the West Bank. At first, the Israelis even refused to allow medical help for Mr. Andersen.
The British woman, Rachel Corrie who was killed by a bulldozer in 2003.
Brian Avery, shot in the face in 2003.
Tom Hurndall, shot to death in 2004.

Just another way of getting a point across. If your are a politician and you speak out against Israel, you will face the fury of AIPAC. If you are a private foreign individual who protests against Israeli policies, you will be a target.

How long will we let ourselves be intimidated into actions which only hurt ourselves?

Brillat-Savarin

"Un Dessert sans fromage est une belle a qui il manque un oeil"
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savain

I guess I should translate the quote: A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye.

The author, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin could make such a statement with such authority. Perhaps the level of appreciation and elevation of gastronomy to an art, or even a science, which he most certainly did, gave him the authority.

Turn about being fair play, Brillat-Savarin had a cheese named after him. It is a rich, triple creme cows milk cheese made in Normandie, Bourgogne and Ile de France. It was created around 1930, and while not an AOC cheese, the affinage is a closely guarded secret. It is rich, creamy unpressed, uncooked cheese with a white floury rind usually about 500 grams or a 250 gram half size. The aging time is 2 to 3 weeks. The winter and early spring months are the best time to buy and enjoy this cheese.
Today, I bought one that had been coated in cracked pepper and it was a real treat with lunch.

But, the man, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who had the cheese named for him as well as the dessert cake, a Savarin, was a real character who lived during one of the most tumultuous periods of history.

He was born in 1755 in Belley, France on the border of the Savoy. He studied law, chemistry and medicine in Dijon where he went on to practice law. At the time of the Revolution, he was elected as a deputy and sent to Paris. He was a member of the Estates General and made his mark as a politician, but on the tightrope of revolutionary politics, he soon found himself an enemy with a bounty on his head.
He escaped to Switzerland and on to Holland and then for a few years, he lived in New York, Boston and Philadelphia and made his living teaching french and giving violin lessons. He actually was the first violin at The Park Theater in New York.

He went back to France in 1797 and was able to resume his life and was appointed a judge, a post he held until the end of his life in 1825.
He was a philosopher whose passion was the realm of the senses. He investigated and wrote about food. Perhaps he was the father of the low carb diet. He wrote about the ill effects of processed white flour and the dangers of sugar, but that did not mean he did not know how to enjoy food.

He enjoyed food and drink and wrote recipes and anecdotes. He was probably the first person to write of salads and their preparation. His collected anecdotes are published in English in a volume called "The Physiology Of Taste".

In the book you learn about his theories of dreams, weight loss, but more than that, you learn about his life. Stories of a man who fought for his honor on ships, was able to scientifically drink English braggarts under the table, seduce the wife of his

persuer when on the run to Switzerland. You learn of his love of music and be regaled with portraits of epicurean abbots, the perfect breakfast and much much more.
Before he died, he finished his collected volume of essays called "Physiologie du gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante" or "The Philosophy of Taste"
In it is revealed his basic philosophy, which dates to Epicurius and is timeless...The simplest meal is the most satisfying if it is executed with artistry.

"Those persons who suffer from indigestion or become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true pleasures of eating and drinking."

Wild About You Baby

Well, well, well, here we are in perhaps 1971 at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.
It's a lousy video, but the man sure rocks. It's Hound Dog Taylor!
I must admit, Mr. Taylor was always one of my personal heroes. He had 6 fingers on his left hand and played a crappy Tiesco electric Japanese guitar with lots of useless toggle switches, but the overdriven badly wound cheap pick ups created a slide sound that lesser men spent fortunes trying to duplicate...only a barebone drum set and and another guitarist, no bass...Hound Dog Taylor was pure over driven treble energy.
Some where there has to be a video of his signature song, Give Me Back My Wig...baby let you head go bald!! If I find it, I'll post it.

TOAST

In an interview in this week's GQ Magazine, RNC Head, Miuke Steele made these two or three or four statements:

On if women have the right to choose an abortion: "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice."

On whether homosexuality is a choice: "Oh, no. I don't think I've ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap. Um, you know, I think that there's a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can't simply say, oh, like, 'Tomorrow morning I'm gonna stop being gay.' It's like saying, 'Tomorrow morning I'm gonna stop being black.'"
and....
And while he said he was personally opposed to gay marriage, he came out forcefully against a Constitutional amendment banning it — as the Republican Party platform recommends for both gay marriage and abortion.

"Just as a general principle, I don't like mucking around with the Constitution. I'm sorry, I just don't," he told the magazine.

BLOGPOWER

Perhaps this is a testimony to the reality of blog power. Italy, the traditional testing ground of fascism for the timid, is proposing legislation to license bloggers.
Any blogger who generates income from a blog, such as with Google's Adsense or Amazon's Partner program will have to be licensed!
The new legislation not only licenses bloggers, but it will enable Italy to become like China and block ISP's, not only blogs, but social media like YouTube or Facebook...the entire site!...at the requesst of the Minsiter of The Interior for crimes of opinion, for example: a film clip or a group that invites people not to observve a law that is considered to be unjust, without any verdict from a magistrate.
Today, this only happens in China, a dictatorship.
Now a right wing senator, Carlucci is proposing a law to make it illegal to publish anything on line anonymously.

Tens of thousands have already wrote to the Parliamentarians and often they thought twice before going on. Today though we want to tell all of them that that is enough, to keep their hands off the Internet, to keep bloggers free. Help the Italian bloggers! Let them see that we all want to remain free bloggers.

Send in your photos with the words: "FREE BLOGGER"

Send an email to freeblogger@beppegrillo.it with:
- subject: your name
- text: the address of your blog
- attached: a photo of you with a sign saying "FREE BLOGGER"

You'll see it among the two thousand already arrived.

Ne Me Quitte Pas

Too bad for the non French speaking world that Jacques Brel is inaccessible because of the artistry of his language. He was an iconic, unique, passionate artist. He wrote songs that swept in a tsunami of emotion. Words flowed like an unstoppable inevitable volcanic eruption. This piece, Ne Me Quitte Pas, which translates to, Don't Leave Me
was recorded in 1959. It is significant that his arranger, the pianist on this piece is now working as the arranger for one of France's premier rap/poets, Abd Al-Malik who produces cross over jazz classical hip hop verbal socialogical avalanches of his own....
Brel was a star that that burned too briefly. He wrote many songs and recorded many records. He wrote the musical, The Man of LaMancha and had embarked on a film acting carreer when he died of lung cancer in 1976.
His film, L'emmerdeur with Lino Ventura is proof of his ability....

Do not leave me now We must just forget
Yes, we can forget All that’s flown beyond
Let’s forget the time The misunderstands
And the wasted time To find out how To forget these hours
Which sometimes kill The blows of why, A heart full of joy.
Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now
I offer you Pearls of rain Coming from the lands Where it never rains
I will cross the world Till after my death To cover your bosom With gold and light
I will make a kingdom where love will be king W here love will be the law
Where you will be queen
Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now
I Will invent for you The insane words That you’ll understand And I will tell you
Of these lovers who Were seen twice With their hearts in blaze
I will say in detail The story of this king Dead, from having not Encountered you.
Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now
One often recalls Flames light anew From an old volcano Thought to be too old.
It appears that The scorched fields Can give more corn Than the best of springs.
And when evening comes In this blazing sky The red and the night Marry nevermore.
Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now Do not leave me now
I will cry no more I will talk no more Will hide somehow
Just to look at youDance and smile
And to hear you Sing and then laugh
Do not leave me now

Do not leave me now

Down In Bushville

The kids are singing rap songs in the middle of the night
By a hip hop campfire and an LED light
How can you have a lifestyle when
you're living in a tent?
A dirty little secret that you don't have a cent....

You walked out of your home and you never even looked back
Don't have to lock the door when you've fallen through the cracks
You tried so hard, so hard to live a dream,
But this American Nightmare just aint what it seems

C'mon down to Bushville
There's a spot for you down by the tracks
Just don't go out after curfew or
You won't be comin' back....

Down to Bushville
Another forgotten family
There ain't no more jobs and
we're livin here for free
Down in Bushville....

Spare a dollar or a dime?
It really doesn't matter
when you're runnin out of time....
Down in Bushville

Hey, there's a Bushville in a city near you...Seattle, Nashville, Detroit, Sacramento
Just don't look too hard, because you just might find yourself down in Bushville....

TESLA

On another blog, there was a discussion about energy and our future. It seemed that there was one faction that believed that only possible future was nuclear and the new undeveloped fusion technology.
The other faction believed that we were doomed so why bother?
I was the only person who even spoke of alternate energy. Normally, the majority of the people on this blog seem like open minded individuals but on this subject I have concluded that the power of the nuclear industry is so great that they have been blinded to the reality of a clean, abundant cheap energy future.
No matter what real advance I tried to show, or suggest. The things that are really happening now in the fields of alternate energy, I got images of giant wind turbines cluttering the skyline of Paris thrown back at me.

I found it very hard to accept that so many people have ignored the rapid progress of tidal, geo, wind, solar and the other technologies in the last few years.
We have lived with the promise of nuclear energy for the last 70 years. In that time, the nuclear industry has been sheilded by the veil of national security and given practically carte blanche to ignore our future health and safety while they made as much money as possible building plants and generating nuclear waste.

It comes down to money, doesn't it? I was reminded of the story of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian genius who was born in 1856 and who was destroyed by the forces of capitalistic greed. Tesla gave us AC Current, he designed the first hydro electric generating system at Niagra Falls. Before 1900, he had built and demonstrated radio controlled robotic devices. He invented Neon, worked with X-rays, developed particle beams. Einstein spent years disproving his Unified Field theory and then before he died, admitted that Tesla was right.

When Tesla died in 1943, an impoverished "crackpot" who had been ruined by J.P. Morgan after Morgan relized that if the project of Tesla's that he was funding succeeded, he would be giving away free energy, Tesla's files were seized by J.Edgar Hoover.
Much of what was in his files when he died remains secret.

Never Wish For Something You Don't Really Want

This was an actual exchange on FOX last night, more blathering from Geraldo Riviera,
as they continue the carnival sideshow exhibition that has taken the place of ideas in the conservative world:

Gallagher: But Geraldo I think you're on to something. Can you imagine the child Rush and Ann Coulter could produce, my gosh. That's conservative gold!

Geraldo: They'd push Octomom right off the front page that's for sure.

Gallagher: That's a genius in the making.

Coulter: Thanks for following up on that, Michael

Well, Okay, but Geraldo, is this what you really want?
Personally, I think it's time to hear what the Ramones have to say....
1991 live in Tokyo, BEAT ON THE BRAT WITH A BASEBALL BAT!

The Banana Man

Sometimes a memory comes back to you as vague dream, something youu are familiar with and has influienced you profoundly as a child, but you weren't sure if it was real or a fantasy...It was this way. I vaguely remembered a performer called The Banana Man from my childhood and he never spoke, just made inane musical noises while he produced item after item from his pockets. I found myself imitating his idiotic falsetto squeals of amazement when playing with my dog.
I remember seeing The Banana Man perform on The Jimmy Durante Show as a regular, but now I know, I never saw the real Banana Man...The Real Banana Man was a Vaudeville Performer, A.Robbins. Little is known about Robbins.
It is known that he was a theatrical prop manufacturer and dealer who had a meticulous shop in Manhattan. He was famouss because on occasion he would operate the shop blindfolded and customers would ask for various size bolts and he would unerringly go to the correct drawer and always be correct.
He originally billed himself as the Walking Music Store, because he would produce and pretend to play a varety of instruments he produced from his pockets...of course, the music was the annoying falsetto miming of the instrument he produced.
As the act evolved, he began to produce bunches of bananas from his pockets and by the time the act was finished, the stage was littered with what looked like a ton of bananas and other assorted fruit.
He seems to have sold the act in the 40's and a number of different Banana Men took the secrets and kept performing until the 1960's.
The original Robbins was amazing, below is a video from a 1936 Variety Movie by Red Skelton. He was a master of an art form that has almost entirely disappeared today, he created a sense of lunatic magic we could all use. There is a website devoted to him.

I'm Sorry.....

click on image to feel even more sorry

76 Years Ago....

"“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. ... Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me. And I welcome their hatred!"

76 years ago today in 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in to his 1st term as president. As the corporate conservatives desparately try to rewrite the real history of America we find ourselves reliving the same struggle for control over the forces of unfettered greed and control of our national destiny.
Below, thanks to crooksnadliars is Roosevelt's 1936 speech from Madison Square Garden on October 31, 1936. After the rhetoric that came out of last weeks CPAC convention it is more evident than ever that is the same fight, the same foes, the same truths.

Wedding Vows In Vegas

Here's a clip from the Letterman Show from, perhaps 1993? I remember seeing it at the time. The song is Wedding Vows In Vegas by Was/not Was and the guest vocalist is Frank Sinatra Junior. it was a cut off of their record, What Up Dog?

Was/not Was is/was one of the great conceptual bands of or time. Los Bros Was, Don and Dave were very influential in the developement of techno in Detroit and still are influential producers and musicians working today. Last year, Was/not Was reunited to release the record BOO on Rykodisc. They have been playing and are still doing dates.
I am trying to psychically influence them to do another European Tour....

Part of what made them so conceptually great was their ability to persuade unlikely artists to collaborate with them. The 1982 record, Born To Laugh At Tornados had among others, Doug Fief....you know, the My Sharona guy? Mitch Ryder, Ozzie Osbourne and probably the last recording of Mel Torme... on the epic ballad, Zaz Turned Blue.

The bassist, Don Was produced some of the greatest hits of 90's...Bonnie Rait's Luck Of The Draw, Records by Bob Dylan, Paula Abdul, the breakthrough Rai classic, N'issi N'issi by Cheb Khaled, Dave was responsioble for the comeback records of Ricki Lee Jones....I believe somewhere on thebrainpolice I posted a song by Was/not was that was written by Dylan and Los Bros Was for Paula Abdul.....

Don released a solo project in the late 90's...a short movie that was a collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola called Forever's A Long Long Time, the mucical collaborators were Herbie Hancock, Wayne Kramer, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson. The piece, Excuse Me Colonel, Can I Borrow Your Newspaper, a techno/jazz/rock dance riff is worth the price of admission alone, when Wayne Kramer rips his guitar solo, your speakers will explode!
Worth checking out.

Impeccable musicianship, unclassifiable conceptual humor and real soul...
These guys are a legend......

Russoamoeba limbaughiarus

Thebrainpolice has obtained an exclusive report of an explosive medical break through.
Here is the first exclusive picture of the newly discovered parasitic intestinal amoeba known as Russoamoeba limbaughiarus as it engulfs and prepares to assimilate the intelstinal flora known as the common Michaelus Steeloflora. Scientist have identified the newly discovered Russoamoeba as a parasitic predatory specie which has now totally infested the lower intestine of the Republican party and is causing great discomfort.
What makes this particular amoeba so fascinating is the fact that it does not seem to want to divide and reproduce and it only seems to be growing and assimilating more and more bacteria and the other natural republican intestinal flora.

In other words, we have a dangerous stoppage of intestinal fuctions which can only be relieved by drastic measures. The scientists who are examining the republican party have located the blockage which they have indicated in the diagram on the right.
The Limbaughiarius imflamation seems to have reached a critical point, but so far the patient is in extreme denial and seems to accept that the painful bloat and inflammation is "normal".

The prognostication is not good. We have a patient who is denial and rejects all attempts at intervention to relieve this dire situation. If treatment is not initiated in the near future, we, at thebrainpolice, warn all of those who might take this threat seriously, to run, run far, run fast and DON'T LOOK BACK!

Break On Through!

...to the other side.
The mirror sequence from Jean Cocteau's 78 year old film, Blood Of A Poet.
Still as powerful and poetic as it was in 1930, this film was a miracle of improvised, inspired special effects, long before the age of computers. Still a film outside of time. You've seen it?

The Pottery Barn Rule

Yesterday in the French news, I heard the numbers that the European Union is allocating to the reconstruction of The Gaza Strip after the Israeli assault on the civilian population to punish them for the acts of Hamas.
This is money that we in Europe pay to the EU as taxes.
Obviously, the aid and reconstruction of Gaza is a real immediate priority which I unconditionally support and I have no problem with my tax Euros going to this end.
On the other hand, I read yesterday in the NY Times, that Hillary Clinton has ellicited shock and outrage from Pro Israel groups in the United States by telling Israel in a letter that they have not honored their pledges of aid to the reconstruction of Gaza.
Of course, where does Israel get a lot of the money that makes up its annual budget?
Massive American monetary aid, millions of dollars everyday.
The relationship between Israel and The United States is a complicated shifting affair. Who is the client? Who uses who?
Much of the damage done to the Gaza Strip and the attrocities against the civilian population by the now documeted use of white phosphorus and cluster bombs was accomplished with weaponry provided by the United States.
I am reminded of Colin Powell's Pottery Barn Rule at the onset of the invasion of Iraq:
"You Break It, You Pay For It!"
Again, The United States has pledged massive amounts of aid to rebuild Gaza, but this is taxpayers money.
A massive amount of money has been earned by the American Arms Industry, one of the most powerful lobbies on the planet. The White Phosphorus, the cluster bombs and all of the new generation ordnance being tested on the Gazan People came from American companies who reaped massive profits and are allowed to keep them without any scrutiny.
Is it fair that your tax dollars are being used to rebuild Gaza while the companies that supplied the weaponry reap huge profits , enjoy subsidies and tax breaks?
Isn't there an honest opportunity to apply Colin Powell's Pottery Barn Rule here?