Les Voeux de Mini-Sarko

The Mini-hyper president tries to upstage Hollande...before the traditional Prsidential New Years Message ce soir!

30 Decembre 1888

Local newspaper report dated 30 December 1888 recording Vincent’s self-mutilation. ”Last Sunday night at half past eleven a painter named Vincent Vangogh, appeared at the maison de tolérance No 1, asked for a girl called Rachel, and handed her … his ear with these words: ‘Keep this object like a treasure.’ Then he disappeared. The police, informed of these events, which could only be the work of an unfortunate madman, looked the next morning for this individual, whom they found in bed with scarcely a sign of life.

The poor man was taken to hospital without delay.”

KILLIN RATS

In the early 1990's there once was a French band named Mano Negra...The Black Hand....

They never managed to cross over into the English speaking market but fora few years they were the one of the best rap/rock/ska punk/fusion units on the planet. The core of the band was Manu Chao, his brother Antoine and their cousin, Santiago Casariego. They were originally from Barcelona and they were totally, passionately and radically political. Totally out of the mainstream, they managed to sell millions of records and embarked on epic adventures through out Latin and South America. There last tour was chronicled by Ramon Chao,  Antoine and Mano's father, in his book, Train of Ice and Fire. You might have seen a few posts on this blog about Manu Chao, who has continued his career as a political activist and musician to this day. He is currently in Argentina organising against Monsanto and working with South American artists. The video above is from a tour of Central America in 1992 and the location is Havana, Cuba! Great song and the performance stands alone. They were one of the best bands anywhere at the time. Manu Chao was and is a great performer. The lyrics of this song, Killin Rats are more relevant today even than they were in 1992!

There's a place in the city

Just down by the River

All the Rats went crazy

Got fangs made of Silver

KILL THOSES RATS

They're cruisin downtown

Their eyes full of anger

If they can't hurt you

They will find another

KILL THOSES RATS

They will shotdown your father

They will spit on your mother

Rape browny girl

& slaughter your brother

Killin' Rats

Thoses Rats need a SCRATCH!

LIKE THAT!

All you Real cool cats

Put yourself together

Got them Back to their

Swamp!

Before they make you surrender

Old cats they quiver!!

Cause it makes them remember

About a long time ago

When they fought Rats father

Was a Rat called Hitler

Set the world on fire

This is no fare game

They wanna do it again

Here's a video Manu made in 2007 with the brilliant Serbian director Emir Kustarica.

meanwhile...back on planet earth

Kaboom Karavan/Omsk

McLuhan & Keaton

Video: Buster Keaton in a scene from 

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

THE DIFFICULTY OF LIVING IN THE PRESENT

Most people…still cling to what I call the rearview-mirror view of their world. By this I mean to say that because of the invisibility of any environment during the period of its innovation, man is only consciously aware of the environment that has preceded it; in other words, an environment becomes fully visible only when it has been superseded by a new environment; thus we are always one step behind in our view of the world.

Marshall McLuhan

Playboy interview, March 1969

(an aside, when the front of the building falls on Keaton, if you look close, the window brushes his elbow. He doesn't even flinch...)

Know Your Rights!

The Clash/Know Your Rights/Combat Rock/1982

Just another big reason The Clash will always be one of the greatest bands ever!

Really, these guys practiced what they preached. 

Surrender Dorothy

I have such mixed feelings about the need we have for a police force and the way we police ourselves in a supposedly free society. I have had a few friends who were in the police force in Detroit. Sad to say, all three left disillusioned and deeply disturbed. I have a very good friend who I admire who is presently a career cop in The Netherlands. He rose up through the ranks and is now in charge of an arbitration unit. He sees his role as keeping people out of jail and resolving conflicts with out criminalising the accused. It is virtually impossible to imagine a society that could exist with out a police force. But who is attracted to the profession and why? What is the criteria? In many cases there is a very fine line between a cop and a criminal. 
New York City has had a long, troubled and violently corrupt history of law enforcement. You could go back to 1857, when the force was so corrupt that the New York State Government had to step in and disband the Municipal Force and create an alternative Metropolitan Police Force. The Municipal Force was loyal to the corrupt Mayor, Fernando Wood who was accused of selling city government positions for $50,000 apiece. When the Metro Police Force tried to enforce an arrest warrant against Wood, a battle royal erupted between the two forces and the State Militia had to come in and intervene. The two forces existed for months and interfered with each other. When a Metro Cop arrested someone, Municipal Cops often would appear and let the criminal go free, especially if the criminal was in their "club".

In 1992, Rudy Giuliani was the presumed Republican Mayoral candidate opposing David Dinkins, New York's first black mayor. Giuliani was the prosecutor who had made a name for himself prosecuting the Mafia. He was a Law and Order candidate in an era in which the City was deeply divided economically and racially. He tried to portray himself as the New Sheriff in town who was going to clean up New York. He used his influence with the police to destroy Dinkins. Dinkins was trying to do the same thing that present day New York Mayor, Bill De Blasio is trying to do. Dinkins proposed to create an independent civilian agency to monitor police misconduct. Giuliani saw his opportunity. He worked with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Police Union to organise a "rally" at City Hall. They succeeded in getting a crowd of 10,000 protestors and whipped them into an emotional frenzy with his rhetoric. They accused the Mayor of not supporting them by among other things, not giving them semi automatic weapons.

"He never supports us on anything," said Officer Tara Fanning of the Midtown South Precinct, echoing the view of many in the crowd. "A cop shoots someone with a gun who's a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family."

Mayor Dinkins, who was not at City Hall during the demonstration, denounced the protest as "bordering on hooliganism" and said he held the P.B.A. president, Phil Caruso, responsible for what happened. He accused Mr. Caruso of inciting his members' passions and suggested the union leader was motivated in part by contract negotiations.

Fast forward to the present, The banner in the illustration above few over Manhattan yesterday morning. Nobody will admit exactly who paid for it. Giuliani is back on FOX news doubling up his racist rhetoric and leading the pack demanding that De Blasio resign, because he doesn't support the cops and coincidentally, it's contract negotiation time again in New York. I am cynical enough to say that this round of hate directed at de Blasio isn't about the killings of two police officers. It's pure politics, intended to soften up the mayor and slam progressive policies. Leverage. After all, they're in the middle of contract negotiations right now, so it's to the union's benefit to put de Blasio in as vulnerable a position as possible in order to keep him from instituting policy and wage decisions they don't like. I know that this issue has many sides and nuances, but the loudest voices aren't the protestors of police violence. It's those with the billy clubs and the bully pulpit of conservative media who see this as a divisive issue to be exploited. 

If the NYPD runs a slow-motion coup against the freely elected mayor of New York, then it is running a slow-motion coup against all the people of New York. There is no exemption from this fundamental truth about the way this country and its system is supposed to work.
It's dangerous that we're losing sight of the basic notion that these people work for us, not the other way around. But we're also surrendering to the notion that we get by in America (or fail to) at the whim of Wall Street and corporate chieftains -- the misnamed "job creators" -- rather than the other way around. The rich don't like regulation, don't like taxation, and don't want us questioning those preferences. Generally, we don't. Remember who Rudy Giuliani really is, his history, his unleashed police force sodomising Abner Louima with a toilet plunger in a precinct basement howling "It's Giuliani Time!"
In each case, we fearfully defer to the powerful because we think the powerful have the power of life and death over us. And the powerful take it as their due.

The December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Purple Snowflakes

Marvin Gaye,1964, Simply Awesome!

Santa Baby

I know I've been bad, but to make up for it, here's one of the greatest Christmas songs ever recorded by one of the sexiest women on the planet. Earth Kitt...Santa Baby!

I was off line for a day to celebrate with friends...and I gave my computer a Christmas present! I upgraded the operating system to the latest Apple OS...Yosemite OS 10.10!

Lots of nail biting and long downloads, but it seems to have been a success. It's like a new machine! Things that were not quite working before are working like a charm now! Hmm...I seem to have a bottle of St. Croix du Mont left over from yesterday...and it's almost l'heure de l'apero!

Santa's Got A Bomb For Whitey

The ultimate anti xmas song of all time by Bootsey X and The Love Masters.

Bootsey X was an unsung hero of Detroit rock. A true original, the best live show in town.

Bootsey X was sort of the bastard love child of Iggy Pop and James Brown.

He died of a brain tumor last year.

I Am The Night

I have been reading conservative blogs and the out of control comments and attempts to politicize and manipulate the feelings of Americans after the execution of 2 NYC Police officers in Brooklyn. Rudy Giuliani is particularly disgusting in his senile attempt to reignite the racial hate and fear in NYC that got him elected Mayor after he incited a police riot in his race against David Dinkins. I kept thinking about this Twilight Zone episode from 1964, I Am The Night. Color Me Black, and the ending remarks by Serling. Hate, the disease that is destroying America. If you don't have time to view the full episode, here it is:

A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ--but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone--look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether.

The German and Soviet pavilions at the 1937 Paris International Exposition.

Punch A Monet

This silly brief browser game lets you virtually punch a certain piece of fine art.

Try it out for yourself here

Texas Hotel Beatles Medley....

The Mothers of Invention destroy the Beatles in a live performance that was never officially released. Listening to the crowd singing "Louisiana Hooker with Herpes" along with the band only reaffirmed my belief in Frank Zappa's utter genius.

Manana me chanto

My niece and her family have been having a family reunion in Chile. The younger son is living in Santiago. She sent me this link to a band, Manana me chanto, she has seen a few times on the street in Santiago. I thought they were great. They are politically involved in the anti Monsanto movement which is gaining support and momentum in Argentina and Chile! I've posted a few videos by the Spanish musician, Manu Chao who is very involved in this movement now. 

Glifosato...Anti Monsanto!