By an amazing coincidence, I've already done that twice...
Friday, April 13, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Arab Psycho Therapy, Arab Psycho Therapy, whatcha gonna give me?
I can't quite tell if this is serious.* Even worse, I now can't think of a band name, even though I'm always thinking of totally cool band names when I'm out buying milk or somesuch. If you're in a band and need a name, though, try "FuN tiGer !.!" or "my brother wore army shirt".
*I'm thinking not... but it's hard to say... and it's a lot more fun than "If you were a car, what sort of car would you be?"
*I'm thinking not... but it's hard to say... and it's a lot more fun than "If you were a car, what sort of car would you be?"
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
The Thesis Fairies
It's 9th April. I have half of an honours thesis due in on 1st June. I have a 6000 word essay on the relationship between democracy and terrorism due in on 4th May. So, that's less than 4 weeks for the essay (I don't think they'll accept "There isn't one" as my full text, even though that's pretty much it), and less than eight weeks for the thesis, which has maybe another 6000 words to go, plus maybe 1500 words of conclusion. I've never had to write this much before, and I don't think my undergraduate degree has prepared me well for this workload. Seriously - you go from little baby essays to novellas. It's like, "OK, you've boiled a few eggs, now let's try making a five-course formal dinner involving souffle, thousand-year-old eggs, bombe alaska and homebrewed poitin".
To add a razor blade behind the eyeballs, I'm currently bleeding so hard I'm crying out for heroin, and I can't afford my happy pills, which doesn't just make me unhappy - I can deal with unhappy - it makes me gluggy and snotty, like a Clayton's head cold. I am basically out of action for one week, and obviously, there's one more due before the thesis has to be handed in. My sleeping habits have gone to hell for various reasons, meaning that I sleep until some stupid o'clock in the afternoon then feel like shit until I go to bed again.
It's times like these I like to try to invoke the Thesis Fairies. These mythical beings not only work for free, they leap into your ear, crawl into your brain, and pull out the delicious, gooey reasoning inside. The point is not that you haven't done your research - it's that you HAVE, and the Thesis Fairies crawl among the neurons and axons, find out what has to go on the page and where it came from, and voila! All your boring writing and referencing is done for you when you wake in the morning, refreshed and perky, to find your computer on and your fully footnoted (Harvard), beautifully and individually written thesis, which will totally pass a plagiarism Google because it's steaming fresh from your brain, all prettied up and exported to PDF ready for printing and distribution.
How do I call up these fairies? I certainly have enough blood to make a very decent sized pentagram, but it's a condition of my lease that I have to have the carpet cleaned before I move out, and I'd like half a chance of getting my bond back. Incense? Chanting? Poitin? What do you do to summon the Thesis Fairies?
To add a razor blade behind the eyeballs, I'm currently bleeding so hard I'm crying out for heroin, and I can't afford my happy pills, which doesn't just make me unhappy - I can deal with unhappy - it makes me gluggy and snotty, like a Clayton's head cold. I am basically out of action for one week, and obviously, there's one more due before the thesis has to be handed in. My sleeping habits have gone to hell for various reasons, meaning that I sleep until some stupid o'clock in the afternoon then feel like shit until I go to bed again.
It's times like these I like to try to invoke the Thesis Fairies. These mythical beings not only work for free, they leap into your ear, crawl into your brain, and pull out the delicious, gooey reasoning inside. The point is not that you haven't done your research - it's that you HAVE, and the Thesis Fairies crawl among the neurons and axons, find out what has to go on the page and where it came from, and voila! All your boring writing and referencing is done for you when you wake in the morning, refreshed and perky, to find your computer on and your fully footnoted (Harvard), beautifully and individually written thesis, which will totally pass a plagiarism Google because it's steaming fresh from your brain, all prettied up and exported to PDF ready for printing and distribution.
How do I call up these fairies? I certainly have enough blood to make a very decent sized pentagram, but it's a condition of my lease that I have to have the carpet cleaned before I move out, and I'd like half a chance of getting my bond back. Incense? Chanting? Poitin? What do you do to summon the Thesis Fairies?
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Favourite webgames
When I'm trying to procrastinate on my honours thesis - which is pretty much all the time, given that it's due in on June 1 - I write reviews for Jayisgames under the name Ms .45. It gives me that feeling of having written something as well as justifying my dicking-off. Since I haven't written anything all weekend I figured I'd compile a list of my favourite little webgames.
Menulis
Gorgeous little hand drawn game where you have to get past obstacles to get to bed! Unlike a lot of point-and-click games, this one makes complete sense - things actually work the way you'd more or less expect them to in the real world. Looks pretty, takes maybe five minutes to solve. Check out A!bat, by the same game designers.
Sprout
This is not a game that you really need to replay - once you've solved it, you can feel all warm and fluffy. Until you do solve it, though, you can enjoy the hand-drawn graphics and funny results of making the wrong move.
The Impossible Quiz
This is hilarious. Answers are either severely literal or just bent. My favourite is the "question" where you don't have to do anything except get the characters to beat the crap out of each other.
Grow nano v.1
To be honest, everything at Eyezmaze is incredible, but I'm highlighting this one because I play it with my niece sometimes. It's fun and cute, but not amazingly difficult - for a (comparatively) more grown-up challenge try Tontie.
More to come...
Menulis
Gorgeous little hand drawn game where you have to get past obstacles to get to bed! Unlike a lot of point-and-click games, this one makes complete sense - things actually work the way you'd more or less expect them to in the real world. Looks pretty, takes maybe five minutes to solve. Check out A!bat, by the same game designers.
Sprout
This is not a game that you really need to replay - once you've solved it, you can feel all warm and fluffy. Until you do solve it, though, you can enjoy the hand-drawn graphics and funny results of making the wrong move.
The Impossible Quiz
This is hilarious. Answers are either severely literal or just bent. My favourite is the "question" where you don't have to do anything except get the characters to beat the crap out of each other.
Grow nano v.1
To be honest, everything at Eyezmaze is incredible, but I'm highlighting this one because I play it with my niece sometimes. It's fun and cute, but not amazingly difficult - for a (comparatively) more grown-up challenge try Tontie.
More to come...
Saturday, March 24, 2007
City of b3ta bedroom infringement
How dirty are you?
I owe somebody, preferably not Rob Manuel, £370.50 (that's a whopping $901.98 AUD, or a marginally less whopping $726.99 USD - gotta love those .99c) for my, er, crimes. What I want to know is, why is anyone getting a fine for recieving oral? You should get a little trophy for that!
I owe somebody, preferably not Rob Manuel, £370.50 (that's a whopping $901.98 AUD, or a marginally less whopping $726.99 USD - gotta love those .99c) for my, er, crimes. What I want to know is, why is anyone getting a fine for recieving oral? You should get a little trophy for that!
No more End-Times ads!
Bloggers must be delighted to hear that they'll soon get a choice over what Google ads appear on their blog. I'm sure we're all aware of our favourite alternative blogs running ads that are diametrically opposed to their actual position (my favourite being Palestine-related or pro-Arab blogs which end up with "Israel/Palestine: The End Times Are Nigh! Download Free E-Book"), and have to post plaintive messages saying "We don't have any choice, Google generates these ads by keyword, just ignore them!".
However:
There's another issue, though: Bloggers will now have to take some responsibility for the ads that appear on their site. You would have a much harder time saying "The ads aren't my fault, but click on them anyway just to generate us some money", especially when the model is now pay-per-action rather than per-click.
This raises interesting administrative issues. Would you prefer to put the extra work into carefully selecting your ads, making sure they meet your ideological standards (which don't have to be amazingly high, provided the advertiser isn't a fierce opponent of your cause), choosing advertisers where your audience are likely to actually DO SOMETHING on the clicked-through site, putting the ads in aesthetically desirable positions... or would you prefer to throw your hands up and just go "fuck it, you're getting end times ads and if some loonbars want to send off for the free 750-page book, that advertiser's cash is as good as any"?
It also raises the issue of audience reach. What will happen to blogs who have a tiny audience? (A big hello to everyone who comes here from jayisgames, Kingdom of Loathing, Abu Aardvark and The Arabist - you're pretty much alone here. Issandr, this is Jay, Jay, Issandr. Grab a beer.) Will advertisers have the choice of rejecting ads to go on blogs that they don't approve of, either ideologically or commercially?
If you're hardcore, you can reject the idea of ads entirely. Just keep in mind that, as in Soviet Russia, ads may also reject you!
However:
For web-based publishers, the option offers a way to leverage the trust of their audience, Knietz said. For example, bloggers could recommend a particular realtor or law firm that advertises on their site.
"If they are a trusted source, they will eventually drive business to their advertisers," Knietz said.
This could end up creating ethical dilemmas, however, especially if publishers are tempted to recommend high-priced law firms who offer to pay a lot for customer leads.
Dan Gillmor, director of the Centre for Citizen Media, said "These arrangements will raise some interesting questions, such as whether site publishers run the ads likely to make them the most money, whether they believe in what the advertiser is selling or not. So there'll be important issues of transparency and disclosure, too."
There's another issue, though: Bloggers will now have to take some responsibility for the ads that appear on their site. You would have a much harder time saying "The ads aren't my fault, but click on them anyway just to generate us some money", especially when the model is now pay-per-action rather than per-click.
This raises interesting administrative issues. Would you prefer to put the extra work into carefully selecting your ads, making sure they meet your ideological standards (which don't have to be amazingly high, provided the advertiser isn't a fierce opponent of your cause), choosing advertisers where your audience are likely to actually DO SOMETHING on the clicked-through site, putting the ads in aesthetically desirable positions... or would you prefer to throw your hands up and just go "fuck it, you're getting end times ads and if some loonbars want to send off for the free 750-page book, that advertiser's cash is as good as any"?
It also raises the issue of audience reach. What will happen to blogs who have a tiny audience? (A big hello to everyone who comes here from jayisgames, Kingdom of Loathing, Abu Aardvark and The Arabist - you're pretty much alone here. Issandr, this is Jay, Jay, Issandr. Grab a beer.) Will advertisers have the choice of rejecting ads to go on blogs that they don't approve of, either ideologically or commercially?
If you're hardcore, you can reject the idea of ads entirely. Just keep in mind that, as in Soviet Russia, ads may also reject you!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Shock! Comment is Free item concerning Islam actually half-decent!
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the responses to this Comment is Free post by Abdul Monem el-Futouh, spokesman for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, was not so much the steaming pile of bilge that CiF posts concerning Islam tend to be. The responses give a good range of perspectives on the Muslim Brotherhood's activities and the concerns that regular Egyptians have about them. I think it's a bit rough to judge the MB on activities that took place 50 years ago - I don't know if you've noticed, but practically no-one outside the hard left raises Israeli Irgun activities except in a historical context - but there are still areas of current concern that are worth monitoring, such as their lack of support for freedom of artistic speech and, yeah, their funneling of support to Hamas (although I don't know how much actual support has been forthcoming - I assume they were responsible for the contents of some of the briefcases Hamas officials were trying to bring into Gaza by car). Oh yeah, I wrote an essay about them recently that covers some of these issues.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The solution to the Middle East's problems
If this is the worst that Israel inflicted upon the world, many geopolitical problems would be solved.
Really, that whole article annoys me. Aside from Mr. Raphael's extracurricular activities (and, more to the point, his incompetence at being discreet), he is described as "a polished media performer" who has served as Ambassador for Israel in several countries. Yet "his adventure in San Salvador revived last year's criticism from a public service watchdog that the ministry lacked transparency in recruitment and promotion procedures".
It's quite possible that Israel's Foreign Ministry does lack transparency, but I fail to see what that has to do with Mr. Raphael's hobbies.
From 'Aqoul:
Really, that whole article annoys me. Aside from Mr. Raphael's extracurricular activities (and, more to the point, his incompetence at being discreet), he is described as "a polished media performer" who has served as Ambassador for Israel in several countries. Yet "his adventure in San Salvador revived last year's criticism from a public service watchdog that the ministry lacked transparency in recruitment and promotion procedures".
It's quite possible that Israel's Foreign Ministry does lack transparency, but I fail to see what that has to do with Mr. Raphael's hobbies.
From 'Aqoul:
Even worse and most significant, however, is punishing that all too rare thing these days --- an Israeli diplomat associated with a compromising position.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Give me back my headless lion woman!
Great little article by one of the Marines in charge of preserving any Mesopotamian antiquities that may still exist in Iraq (there's a great opportunity for some enterprising screenwriter to do "Grandson of Indiana Jones" right there), in which he acknowledges the pushing-shit-uphill aspects of his job - "diverting resources to save cultural artifacts during a war may seem like cutting funds for the police and firefighters in order to expand the public library."
He raises practical issues to drum up support for his activities, such as the strong possibility that if you buy antiquities of dubious provenance you may well be supporting the insurgency (this may not be a problem for you, of course) and that in not looking after the antiquities, the West is demonstrating to the Arab world that we don't give a fuck about their culture, losing the battle for hearts and minds.
I have another issue, which is that Mesopotamian antiquities aren't just Arab culture, they're everyone's culture. Mesopotamia was the site of the earliest literate and Bronze Age societies: that is your and my heritage, whether you are Arab, African or Anglo. It is called the Cradle of Civilization for a reason.
Here's some examples of what we're missing when antiquities in Iraq are looted:
Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago holds some gorgeous little statues, including the Pazuzu demon, whose enmity towards the demon of childbed illness makes him handy to have around when you're giving birth. This institute also has more information about the quest to recapture artifacts stolen from the Iraq Museum.
Treasures of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad Extremely rich site of artworks, like these two new wavers and this gnarly old bat. Also check out the Iraq Cultural Heritage Worldwide site, which brings together artworks and articles from the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of New York (there's a Swedish museum mentioned, but its site doesn't seem to be online). You can use the drop down menu to navigate, then break out of the frame by opening links in a new window.
What I love about the Mesopotamian sculpture in particular is that it seems to be vastly more naturalistic than other antiquities, the gnarly old bat above being a prime example. The fact that statuary seems to have retained its eyes (like so) more often than others seems to help. Even this lioness has a kind of pathetic facial expression. Whereas, for instance, Egyptian artworks have a distancing effect - I can appreciate how beautiful and important they are, but the Iraqi antiquities make me feel like I'm looking at photographs of ancient people.
That said, I don't know anyone who looks like this.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
My my, hey hey, it's Dolorean
When I first visited Dolorean's Download.com page and downloaded The Search, I thought "whahey, these guys really like Neil Young huh." Big, BIG surprise when I visited their wordpress page and the first post is about... oh go on, you'll never guess...
They also have an artist page at YepRoc Records, which is itself a rich repository of streaming media and downloads that I must mine further.
In the meantime, could someone please tell me which Neil Young song The Search reminds me of?
They also have an artist page at YepRoc Records, which is itself a rich repository of streaming media and downloads that I must mine further.
In the meantime, could someone please tell me which Neil Young song The Search reminds me of?
Free Kareem
If you're reading this blog, you're probably already familiar with the recent arrest of the Egyptian blogger calling himself Kareem Amer. Failing that, here's a brief recap:
Egypt is an authoritarian republic with tokenistic elections and restrictions on the press and freedom of association stop Egyptian authorities have arrested or threatened a number of bloggers in Egypt from various sides of politics stop Kareem Amer was arrested and sentenced for four years in prison for ‘contempt of religion’ and ‘defaming the President of Egypt’ stop Bloggers from all sorts of backgrounds have stepped forward to support Kareem stop contact the Free Kareem website to see if you can help in any way.
Check out Marc Lynch's "Brotherhood of the Blog" in the Guardian's almost-useless Comment is Free section (which really ought to be retitled Opinions Are Like Assholes) - he makes the excellent point that, whether you like the Bro's or not, they are entitled to the same transparency, justice and freedom of expression as the rest of us.
In this context you may also like to consider signing up for Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign, where you agree to post blocked text on your site. This may not be too useful for people using Blogspot, which is a seriously blocked domain, but if you have a university or private website it could be valuable.
Egypt is an authoritarian republic with tokenistic elections and restrictions on the press and freedom of association stop Egyptian authorities have arrested or threatened a number of bloggers in Egypt from various sides of politics stop Kareem Amer was arrested and sentenced for four years in prison for ‘contempt of religion’ and ‘defaming the President of Egypt’ stop Bloggers from all sorts of backgrounds have stepped forward to support Kareem stop contact the Free Kareem website to see if you can help in any way.
Check out Marc Lynch's "Brotherhood of the Blog" in the Guardian's almost-useless Comment is Free section (which really ought to be retitled Opinions Are Like Assholes) - he makes the excellent point that, whether you like the Bro's or not, they are entitled to the same transparency, justice and freedom of expression as the rest of us.
In this context you may also like to consider signing up for Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign, where you agree to post blocked text on your site. This may not be too useful for people using Blogspot, which is a seriously blocked domain, but if you have a university or private website it could be valuable.
Monday, March 05, 2007
That MB essay I promised
About three posts ago, I mentioned an essay that was currently being procrastinated via the magic of online comics. Here it is. If you actually know anything about the topic, I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.
http://yoyo.its.monash.edu.au/~baker/Kerr-EgyptianMB.pdf
http://yoyo.its.monash.edu.au/~baker/Kerr-EgyptianMB.pdf
Monday, January 29, 2007
Tex Arcana
Ever craved a horror comic that looked like a cross between Gahan Wilson, Robert Crumb and Maurice Sendak and read like Evil Roy Slade?
Today is your lucky day.
Today is your lucky day.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Fair and Balanced Reporting
In the interest of countering some of the more creative editing on the part of Melbourne's high quality TV news services (this would be why I don't watch television), I'm posting this PDF of photos of the recent G20 protests from indymedia. This is not to justify the violence that did take place or claim that the protestors were poor little innocent victims (although I'm sure some were), but simply that these photos are an accurate reflection of what I saw on the day.
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/uploads/stopg20_pics.pdf
In the interests of balancing the balance, I should point out that police were walking around the State Library lawns handing out flyers on what constitutes breach of the peace or somesuch, so that protestors would know what would get them into trouble. At least, I think that's what they said - I'm guessing from what I heard of a conversation between an ossifer and a group of kids in front of me - because obviously my friends and I look far too respectable to be the kind of people who go around throwing rubbish bins, and as a result I don't have the flyer.
I have a complaint of my own. When I attended what I now think of as "the original S11", in September of 2000, there was a genuine carnival atmosphere, a huge crowd of genuinely diverse people, and a real sense of possibility. This time around, there was the prospect of such things - I attended on the strength of this flyer, promising a "Really Really Free Market". Great idea! I stocked up on books to take in, looking forward to sharing resources in an open source, creative commons, free science for the benefit of humanity spirit.
What I got was to a large extent the usual gang of idiots standing up and regaling us with their bullshit grandstanding, then a bit of padding around the streets, then the predictable protest stuff - bit of effigy (to be fair, I don't think they burnt the effigy or it would've been on the news), bit of doof, lot of boredom. Although I enjoyed the costumes and the signs, I didn't see much of practical actions for moving forwards on world issues.
Which invites the question, "well, what are you doing about it, smartarse?" A very good question, and a question to which the answer is most definitely "fuck-all".
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/uploads/stopg20_pics.pdf
In the interests of balancing the balance, I should point out that police were walking around the State Library lawns handing out flyers on what constitutes breach of the peace or somesuch, so that protestors would know what would get them into trouble. At least, I think that's what they said - I'm guessing from what I heard of a conversation between an ossifer and a group of kids in front of me - because obviously my friends and I look far too respectable to be the kind of people who go around throwing rubbish bins, and as a result I don't have the flyer.
I have a complaint of my own. When I attended what I now think of as "the original S11", in September of 2000, there was a genuine carnival atmosphere, a huge crowd of genuinely diverse people, and a real sense of possibility. This time around, there was the prospect of such things - I attended on the strength of this flyer, promising a "Really Really Free Market". Great idea! I stocked up on books to take in, looking forward to sharing resources in an open source, creative commons, free science for the benefit of humanity spirit.
What I got was to a large extent the usual gang of idiots standing up and regaling us with their bullshit grandstanding, then a bit of padding around the streets, then the predictable protest stuff - bit of effigy (to be fair, I don't think they burnt the effigy or it would've been on the news), bit of doof, lot of boredom. Although I enjoyed the costumes and the signs, I didn't see much of practical actions for moving forwards on world issues.
Which invites the question, "well, what are you doing about it, smartarse?" A very good question, and a question to which the answer is most definitely "fuck-all".
Friday, October 20, 2006
I'm supposed to be writing an essay
What do you do when you're supposed to be researching and writing a 5000 word essay on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood? Why, read comics of course!
I found Thingpart through the Daytrotter website and have been stuck here for two hours. Highlights include:
Number 47
Number 42
Number 57
(They have titles, I just don't wanna blow the punchline.)
Daytrotter is surprisingly good. I've never thought of myself as one of those indie square glass and cardigan wearing hipsters, but I've found a lot of music I quite like on the Daytrotter site, although it usually takes a few listens to grow on me.
Go here for a mindless orgy of downloading, but you should probably check out the artist pages (and the illustrations). People I've liked recently have included Langhorne Slim, The High Strung and Thao Nguyen.
Missed Easily - The High Strung
should totally be released as a single.
I found Thingpart through the Daytrotter website and have been stuck here for two hours. Highlights include:
Number 47
Number 42
Number 57
(They have titles, I just don't wanna blow the punchline.)
Daytrotter is surprisingly good. I've never thought of myself as one of those indie square glass and cardigan wearing hipsters, but I've found a lot of music I quite like on the Daytrotter site, although it usually takes a few listens to grow on me.
Go here for a mindless orgy of downloading, but you should probably check out the artist pages (and the illustrations). People I've liked recently have included Langhorne Slim, The High Strung and Thao Nguyen.
Missed Easily - The High Strung
should totally be released as a single.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Anti yatakallamina aarabii?
I've been taking Arabic* classes for the last few months, with limited success - I can read tolerably well, especially once I already know a word, but I can't pronounce worth shit and I need more vocabulary. I occasionally check out news at Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt Daily), not because I can actually read it, but because it's kinda exciting to realise that I can now easily read English words like "Condoleezza Rice" and "Washington" as well as common Arabic words (from, in, and - hotel, long, old).
If you scroll down on this blog, there's an interesting post on the use of words like "alhamdulillah" and "insha'allah". Suffice to say, the author likens them to the invocation of God in everyday English.
*Modern Standard - my teacher is Egyptian (the New Zealanders of the Middle East), which I assume will have interesting effects on my accent.
If you scroll down on this blog, there's an interesting post on the use of words like "alhamdulillah" and "insha'allah". Suffice to say, the author likens them to the invocation of God in everyday English.
*Modern Standard - my teacher is Egyptian (the New Zealanders of the Middle East), which I assume will have interesting effects on my accent.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Master Higgins, not to be confused with Missy Higgins
Master Higgins at Download.com
It's so rare for me to like music instantly that I thought I should bring this to your attention. (And yes, I'm aware that things I like instantly may fade in my appreciation, much as the hottie who tutored Politics and the Media 101 becomes less hot over time and distance, but I instantly liked the Hoodoo Guru's "Miss Freelove '69" and that hasn't faded at all. I also couldn't find it online to link to it, but when I first heard it back in 1991 - which I just had to look up, and I can't believe it was in the 90s, I could have sworn it was late 80s - I ran out and bought it immediately, and I regret it not. It's utterly worth paying for. Oh yeah, I'm really drunk in case it's not obvious.)
The download.com description says "Electronic music that's sample-based, silly, and with no deeper intentions than to make people dance", and, more to the point, he's a 21-year old Swedish student. I'm getting a girly-fat just thinking about it. (A cholesterol?) Unfortunately I can't understand Swedish (Ana atakallam Aarabyy, qaliilan), but if you do, his website is at www.masterhiggins.se. The recommended track was "That's Right You Heard Me. Have Him Drop His Pants.", and I also downloaded "Queen of New Orleans". Go ape! (Or go vespa, I don't care.)
It's so rare for me to like music instantly that I thought I should bring this to your attention. (And yes, I'm aware that things I like instantly may fade in my appreciation, much as the hottie who tutored Politics and the Media 101 becomes less hot over time and distance, but I instantly liked the Hoodoo Guru's "Miss Freelove '69" and that hasn't faded at all. I also couldn't find it online to link to it, but when I first heard it back in 1991 - which I just had to look up, and I can't believe it was in the 90s, I could have sworn it was late 80s - I ran out and bought it immediately, and I regret it not. It's utterly worth paying for. Oh yeah, I'm really drunk in case it's not obvious.)
The download.com description says "Electronic music that's sample-based, silly, and with no deeper intentions than to make people dance", and, more to the point, he's a 21-year old Swedish student. I'm getting a girly-fat just thinking about it. (A cholesterol?) Unfortunately I can't understand Swedish (Ana atakallam Aarabyy, qaliilan), but if you do, his website is at www.masterhiggins.se. The recommended track was "That's Right You Heard Me. Have Him Drop His Pants.", and I also downloaded "Queen of New Orleans". Go ape! (Or go vespa, I don't care.)
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Seen at today's rally in support of Lebanon
*A0 sized posters of the images of the little girls signing Israeli bombs – with the words "Olmert! Leave the kids out of it!"
*Hizballah supporters carrying a picture of Nasrallah, signs saying things like "Only evil is dumb, deaf and blind to the truth. Bush there is no running the truth will prevail. It's coming!". "Killing our people and feeding the media with your lies won't damage our hope! Isreal leave us alone!".
*the words below, with a picture of a victim of the bombing and the website http://www.lebanonunderattack.com/
-Impostor
-Slaughter
-Ridiculous
-Atrocious
-Evil
-Liars
-Inequitable
Later, during the march, people wearing Lebanon baseball caps (as in this photo) were vigourously chanting "Hiz-bal-lah! Hiz-bal-lah!". This includes unveiled women in heaps of makeup and groovy clothes – draw your own conclusions. There was chanting in Arabic, which obviously I didn't understand.
*Representatives of http://www.architectsforpeace.org/
*Women for Palestine
*Signs...
- "You are the chosen people choosing to be assholes!"
- "Zionists prefer genocide to justice"
- "What about Lebanon's right to exist?"
- "You don't just look like a devil you are one" (Bush with huge red devil horns)
- "Condi – we don't want your new Middle East!"
- "For just 3 abducted soldiers the IDF will give you 400+ dead civilians" (obviously an old sign)
*Queers Against State Terror – t-shirts saying "I'd rather fuck who I want to than kill who I'm told to". A Kefaya moment!
*Collection for http://www.aidlubnan.com/. This site has photos of a demonstration from last week with many of the same attendees.
*S11 conspiracy theorists - an Asian woman and her kid who held photos of the plane hitting the Pentagon. They were hippies, not Mohammed Omran's group - they carried rainbow peace signs, pics of doves etc.
UNITED SNAKES CHECKLIST
BLOW UP BUILDINGS (tick)
BLOW UP MORE BUILDINGS(tick)
KILL CIVILIANS(tick)
KILL MORE CIVILIANS(tick)
KILL HEZBOLLAH [ ]
TAKE OVER COUNTRY [ ]
UNITED (pictures of snakes – letters and snakes filled in with US, UK and Israel flags)
lone wingnut painting a large sign -
MEL GIBSON
[heart] FOR PM
HOWARD FUNDS
WAR MACHINE
(DEMOCRACY)
OZ TAXES > £ UK ARMS MANUFACTURE
UN/UK/USA |
CRIMINALS <
NO DBL STDS
WAR (heart) IS BIG
BUSINESS
LET MELBOURNE MAKE
PORTABLE GAS OVENS
(Later, the "portable gas ovens" line had hearts drawn over the top of it.)
Your music post: TISM (who else?) Australia, The World's Suburb. A song apparently inspired by the following information:
"...before the birth of Israel in 1948, Australia, along with Canada and Argentina, was one of the leading sites proposed for a Jewish homeland, as a refuge for thousands of Jews escaping pogroms and persecution in the 1920s and Nazism in the 1930s. The most ambitious scheme in Australia proposed the purchase of seven million acres in the remote East Kimberley to accommodate up to 75,000 refugees from Nazism in the 1930s. The Kimberley Jewish Settlement scheme won the support of Western Australia’s state government but was rejected by PM John Curtin in 1944."
[EDIT: that download now works.]
*Hizballah supporters carrying a picture of Nasrallah, signs saying things like "Only evil is dumb, deaf and blind to the truth. Bush there is no running the truth will prevail. It's coming!". "Killing our people and feeding the media with your lies won't damage our hope! Isreal leave us alone!".
*the words below, with a picture of a victim of the bombing and the website http://www.lebanonunderattack.com/
-Impostor
-Slaughter
-Ridiculous
-Atrocious
-Evil
-Liars
-Inequitable
Later, during the march, people wearing Lebanon baseball caps (as in this photo) were vigourously chanting "Hiz-bal-lah! Hiz-bal-lah!". This includes unveiled women in heaps of makeup and groovy clothes – draw your own conclusions. There was chanting in Arabic, which obviously I didn't understand.
*Representatives of http://www.architectsforpeace.org/
*Women for Palestine
*Signs...
- "You are the chosen people choosing to be assholes!"
- "Zionists prefer genocide to justice"
- "What about Lebanon's right to exist?"
- "You don't just look like a devil you are one" (Bush with huge red devil horns)
- "Condi – we don't want your new Middle East!"
- "For just 3 abducted soldiers the IDF will give you 400+ dead civilians" (obviously an old sign)
*Queers Against State Terror – t-shirts saying "I'd rather fuck who I want to than kill who I'm told to". A Kefaya moment!
*Collection for http://www.aidlubnan.com/. This site has photos of a demonstration from last week with many of the same attendees.
*S11 conspiracy theorists - an Asian woman and her kid who held photos of the plane hitting the Pentagon. They were hippies, not Mohammed Omran's group - they carried rainbow peace signs, pics of doves etc.
UNITED SNAKES CHECKLIST
BLOW UP BUILDINGS (tick)
BLOW UP MORE BUILDINGS(tick)
KILL CIVILIANS(tick)
KILL MORE CIVILIANS(tick)
KILL HEZBOLLAH [ ]
TAKE OVER COUNTRY [ ]
UNITED (pictures of snakes – letters and snakes filled in with US, UK and Israel flags)
lone wingnut painting a large sign -
MEL GIBSON
[heart] FOR PM
HOWARD FUNDS
WAR MACHINE
(DEMOCRACY)
OZ TAXES > £ UK ARMS MANUFACTURE
UN/UK/USA |
CRIMINALS <
NO DBL STDS
WAR (heart) IS BIG
BUSINESS
LET MELBOURNE MAKE
PORTABLE GAS OVENS
(Later, the "portable gas ovens" line had hearts drawn over the top of it.)
Your music post: TISM (who else?) Australia, The World's Suburb. A song apparently inspired by the following information:
"...before the birth of Israel in 1948, Australia, along with Canada and Argentina, was one of the leading sites proposed for a Jewish homeland, as a refuge for thousands of Jews escaping pogroms and persecution in the 1920s and Nazism in the 1930s. The most ambitious scheme in Australia proposed the purchase of seven million acres in the remote East Kimberley to accommodate up to 75,000 refugees from Nazism in the 1930s. The Kimberley Jewish Settlement scheme won the support of Western Australia’s state government but was rejected by PM John Curtin in 1944."
[EDIT: that download now works.]
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
You Must Have This - Leather Donut, etc
http://blackeyerecords.blogspot.com/
Cousin Creep has heroically started cataloguing the Leather Donut and Waste Sausage compilations, as well as other related Black & Red Eye artistes. You particularly must have:
Cousin Creep has heroically started cataloguing the Leather Donut and Waste Sausage compilations, as well as other related Black & Red Eye artistes. You particularly must have:
The Cunt – Me & A Great Big Leather Man
The Furry Men of the North – I Like Looking At Naked Men
(Click on the link and scroll down.)
Plus, how can you not like a band called Purple Vulture Shit? Get over there and get downloading!!!
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