Friday, December 19, 2003

from the Testimony of Phillip Ochs in the Chicago Seven Trial
"MR. KUNSTLER: After you arrived in Chicago did you have any discussion with Jerry?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I did. We discussed the nomination of a pig for President.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what you said and what Jerry said.
THE WITNESS: We discussed the details. We discussed going out to the countryside around Chicago and buying a pig from a farmer and bringing him into the city for the purposes of his nominating speech.
MR. KUNSTLER: Did you have any role yourself in that?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I helped select the pig, and I paid for him.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, did you find a pig at once when you went out?
THE WITNESS: No, it was very difficult. We stopped at several farms and asked where the pigs were.
MR. KUNSTLER: None of the farmers referred you to the police station, did they?
THE WITNESS: No.
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT: I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Mr. Ochs, can you describe the pig which was finally bought?
MR. FORAN: Objection.
THE COURT., I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Would you state what, if anything, happened to the pig?
THE WITNESS: The pig was arrested with seven people.
MR. KUNSTLER: When did that take place?
THE WITNESS: This took place on the morning of August 23, at the Civic Center underneath the Picasso sculpture.
MR. KUNSTLER: Who were those seven people?
THE WITNESS: Jerry Rubin. Stew Albert, Wolfe Lowenthal, myself is four; I am not sure of the names of the other three.
MR. KUNSTLER: What were you doing when you were arrested?
THE WITNESS: We were arrested announcing the pig's candidacy for President. "
Phil Ochs remembered
Happy Birthday Phil Ochs

William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed



As I went out one evening to take the evening air
I was blessed by a blood-red moon,
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning.
I spied a fair young maiden and a flame was in her eyes
And on her face lay the steel blue skies
Of Lincoln Park, the dark was turning
Turning

They spread their sheets upon the ground just like a wandering tribe
And the wise men walked in their Robespierre robes,
Through Lincoln Park the dark was turning
The towers trapped and trembling, and the boats were tossed about
When the fog rolled in and the gas rolled out
From Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning

Like wild horses freed at last we took the streets of wine
But I searched in vain for she stayed behind
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
I'll go back to the city where I can be alone
And tell my friend she lies in stone
In Lincoln Park the dark was turning
Turning
Phil Ochs
A writer's life: Anthony Lane: "The truth is, that if you're working on a piece at three in the morning, you're not Keats; you're just late. "
Law & Order Colouring Book
Todd Rundgren on RIAA : "The reason why the RIAA comes off as a gang of
ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this --
they are. I came into this business in an age of
entrepreneurial integrity. The legends of the golden
age of recorded music were still at the helm of most
labels -- the Erteguns, the Ostins, the Alperts and
Mosses by the dozens. Now we have four monolithic (in
every sense of the word) entities and a front
organization that crows about the fact that they have
solved their problems by leaning on a 12-year-old.
Thank God that mystical fascination with the world of
music has been stubbed out -- hopefully everyone will
get the message and get over the idea that the
musician actually meant for you to hear this."
Jason Gross's Favourite Scribings for 2003 long, very interesting list of music articles

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Toll road built on pulped fiction: "Unsold copies of the books were shredded into a paste and added to a mixture of asphalt and Tarmac. It helps to bind the asphalt and the Tarmac, preventing the surface from splitting apart after heavy use."
amazing Stop Motion Studies thanks Reid!
What Have The Victorians Ever Done For Us?
What a Crappy Present - CD Gift Advice, Parents and Kids

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Googling (I wrote "looking") for Williams' "To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven" to post for Ford's birthday--nowhere in sight of course--the modernist canon deep in copyright--I found this by a band I'd only heard the name of. Much more worked out than the "Gertrude Stein" song I performed in the late 70's, at least lyrically. But the Vacant Lot (later The Band Without Qualities) rocked pretty hard. Anyone heard the Ass Ponys?

"FORD MADOX FORD

sarah stood upon the bridge
on the railing, near the edge
the only thing that brought her in
was a book that she had read
the novel's name was long since lost
never mind the cost
the only thing she could recall
was that the author's name was ford

it was written in nineteen ten
you could never have met a finer man
worked a farm for fifteen years
just to see if he could
he lost his memory in the war
he forgot what he was fighting for
the only thing he knew for sure
his name was ford madox ford

ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford

joseph conrad and henry james
were two of the many famous names
that fat boy ford could claim
to be his bosom friends
then one day conrad said to him
i may be climbing out upon a limb
but it would help you out my friend
if you would lose a little weight

ford madox ford
the fattest poet who ever lived
his name was ford madox ford"
100 aspects of the moon

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

The Ultimate on-the-fly Network: "'Up until now, a biologist from the 1920s could have dropped into today's world and understood everything we do.' He shakes his head. 'No longer.' The instruments that unobtrusively observe the petrels will unleash a stream of information biologists have craved for decades. When I ask what other tool has delivered a comparable advance in his field, Anderson's answer is succinct and telling: 'Binoculars.'"
Hey Ya!: "'Polaroid Canada thanks Canadians for making Polaroid One the country's number one instant camera, and for making 'Shake it like a Polaroid picture' the
country's number one instant party call,' said Jeff Carpenter, National Sales & Marketing Manager, Canada. 'From Andy Warhol to the D.I.Y home renovator, the world has embraced our products to capture one-of-a-kind moments. We congratulate OutKast for their imaginative use of the Polaroid brand and spirit.'"
Wagner vs. Tolkien

Monday, December 15, 2003

Valerie Dore "It's So Easy" is sheer ecstacy, Abba with a huge 4/4 whomp and slap bass. How can it be so easy?
Boogieing across the house to Sandy Marton's "People from Ibiza" for a refill I managed to spill cold coffee on myself. The guy on the next track (urging me not to cry) sounds like Geddy Lee's Italian cousin.
Neil Tennant in 1985 on Italo Disco (which I had to switch to): "...It used to be regarded as utterly tragic... that 'boom clap boom clap boom clap - clap clap', that's what I particularly like about eurodisco. And normally they have very good tunes as well. The other thing it that it's very sad. They have very sweet tunes, like Savage's 'Don't Cry Tonight'. A lot of the records we like are Italian. The other thing about eurodisco records it that they always sound like they're dead cheap. I think that's their appeal. They're a bit like punk records - they go in and get very excited by the most banal sounds. We're very attracted to banal sounds and rhythms. They'll quite often be a sound that is the sound of the moment, and every record will have that sound. At the moment, there's that vocal that goes 'oh woah oh'. This summer, on every italian record, there was at least one 'oh woah oh'. I think that's been the theme for 1985. RAFF's 'Self Control' started it, which of course was originally an italian disco record, and Laura Branigan covered it. And of course, Baltimora used it. That was the ultimate 'oh woah oh' record. It was very clever the way that was the foundation of 'Tarzan Boy'. Before that, the syndrum was a popular sound. But they're constantly changing, these euro records. And they normally have very good female vocalists, in the same way a lot of hi-NRG and Bobby O records do. The male vocal aren't usually very good. ... Often the lyrics are very banal, there's this great one called 'Capsicum' that's a green pepper isn't it. And the chorus goes 'Capsi capsicum oh woah oh'. That is brilliant. The banality of them often makes them strongely moving, somehow. I don't think a lot of people will appreciate things like this. The thing is, of course, that this music is terribly unhip in Europe. We go abroad and they think we're absolutely insane; they say "You do not like Simple Minds?" They can't believe we like "capsi capsicum". I think part of the delight of it in my case is liking something obscure that's obscure for the sake of it I think I genuinely like it, actually. I like it because it's obscure and also because it's fantastically unfashionable."
Joss Stone: The Soul Sessions
and Sam Cooke's SAR Records Story on the old victrola today.
Jesus hates it when you smoke
scary cats for Mina

Sunday, December 14, 2003

from wood's lot--
PEDESTRIAN CULTURE THROUGH THE AGES: "In 1913 Wyneken proclaimed the ideas behind the Wandervögel by stating that the youth had the right to live according to their own ideas, outside the rules of society in which there were born involuntarily. Bored with the industrial artificiality of urban life, disgusted by the hypocrisy of life they fled into wild nature. they drifted for days, sometimes weeks on end through the woods. They lived on the food nature provided, in the evening the partook in excessive community singing around bonfires. The nights were dedicated to the first detours in the field of sexuality."