Corrosive Material

Mostly music, most of the time.

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Mums the WISE word for Obama on Iran…

June 22, 2009

iran

Iranian police use force to break up protest

CAIRO – Riot police attacked hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas and fired live bullets in the air to disperse a rally in central Tehran Monday, carrying out a threat by the country’s most powerful security force to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election.

Britain, accused by Iran of fomenting post-election unrest, said it was evacuating the families of diplomats and other officials based in Iran — the first country to do so as Iran’s worst internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution escalated.

Witnesses said helicopters hovered overhead as about 200 protesters gathered at Haft-e-Tir Square. But hundreds of anti-riot police quickly put an end to the demonstration and prevented any gathering, even small groups, at the scene.

At the subway station at Haft-e-Tir, the witnesses said police did not allow anyone to stand still, asking them to keep on walking and separating people who were walked together. The witnesses asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisals.

Just before the clashes, an Iranian woman who lives in Tehran said there was a heavy police and security presence in another square in central Tehran. She asked not to be identified because she was worried about government reprisals.

“There is a massive, massive, massive police presence,” she told The Associated Press in Cairo by telephone. “Their presence was really intimidating.”

Iran says at least 17 protesters have been killed in a week of unrest so far after the electoral council declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winner of the June 12 election. His main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, charged the election was a fraud and insists he is the true winner. His followers have been staging near-daily rallies, at least one of them drawing a massive crowds of hundreds of thousands.

Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify any reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered reporters for foreign news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from any reporting on the streets.

The country’s highest electoral authority, the Guardian Council, acknowledged on Monday that there were voting irregularities in 50 electoral districts, the most serious official admission so far of problems in the election. But the council insisted the problems do not affect the outcome of the vote.

Earlier Monday, the elite Revolutionary Guard issued its sternest warning so far in the post-election crisis. It warned protesters to “be prepared for a resolution and revolutionary confrontation with the Guards, Basij and other security forces and disciplinary forces” if they continue their near-daily rallies

rest of article here

COULD YOU IMAGINE IF THIS PSEUDO HERO WAS IN CHARGE! I SHUDDER AT THE THOUGHT!

John Mccain sing “Beach Boys” song Bomb Bomb Iran…

Bat For Lashes Interview and Letterman Performance…

June 22, 2009

natasha

by Marc Hogan

June 8, 2009

Photos by Brooke Nipar

Natasha Khan is a performer in the truest sense of the word. On her second album as Bat for Lashes, this year’s Two Suns, the UK singer and songwriter hitches her real-life tale of a dying trans-Atlantic relationship to one of the oldest tropes in the book– star-crossed lovers. Then, bolstering her astronomical metaphors with a tragic character inspired by the seamy underbelly of old New York, and trading debut album Fur and Gold‘s orchestral druid-rock trappings for booming percussion and 1980s electro synths, she makes the whole thing magnificently her own. Cult crooner Scott Walker e-mails in a rare guest performance. Exeunt omnes.

However, Khan’s performance goes beyond the records, as well. Bat for Lashes music videos would be memorable just for the visuals, which have included not only synchronized BMX bike jumps, but also a painting of The Karate Kid‘s Ralph “Daniel-san” Macchio across Khan’s back. In concert, elaborate staging and costumes– elaborate for a still relatively little-known artist’s budget, anyway– help bring her songs to life. Downstairs at Bowery Ballroom the day of Bat for Lashes’triumphant New York return gig, Khan talks conversationally and expressively about Two Suns, hippies, the state of the music industry, the time she punched Thom Yorke, Walker’s indie cred, James Taylor’s indie cred, and how she feels about constantly only being compared to other female artists. Inevitably, Khan’s performance goes beyond what can can be translated to text, so you’ll just have to imagine the way her voice warms when she talks about Yeasayer, or what it sounds like when she starts singing 1980s pop hit “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off”. One night after this interview, Bat for Lashes made their U.S. network TV debut on “The Late Show With David Letterman”.

Pitchfork: “Moon and Moon” was kind of the beginning for Two Suns. Can you tell me a little bit about how that song came about and how it helped pave the way for the album?

Natasha Khan: I wrote it in the studio when I actually was finishing up Fur and Gold. One of the last days in this crazy mansion house in the countryside, I sat down and wrote this “Moon and Moon” song, and it’s actually named after the band and my relationship with the person in the band. So that kind of marked the beginning of our relationship. Two Suns takes you through this whole journey, all the way to the end of the relationship and the end of making the record. So it’s kind of like this strange, synonymous cycle that happened. And then obviously the album’s called Two Suns, so there’s this kind of like “two planets” situation. Just the whole theme of planets chasing each other, you know, night and day chasing each other eternally, and being in England and New York and being separated by an ocean, and lots of different types of landscapes, different types of personalities, and internal conflict. So, all that duality stuff really came as an inspiration from that as well.

Pitchfork: What was the writing process like for these songs? Did it all follow from that overarching theme, or did you just sit down with your piano and go song by song, or…

NK: I don’t really do it song by song, and even though I knew there was obviously an underlying concept occurring, it was very much just whenever I had time to write I’d just quickly steal a moment. I usually write at home, in my bed with my headphones, and I have a sequencer machine. So, I do, like, “Daniel”, you know, I start with a beat, and then the DO-DO, da-DO-DO, da-DOO-DO, da-DO-DO [singing], like the bassline, put the choir part in, then I’ll work out the vocal melody. And so I either write on piano or on my little machine where I’ll do all the elements of the song. So what you’re left with is a mixture between kind of piano-based songs and then like more electronic-based songs. And then we flesh those out and work on those and I’ll bring people in to play certain aspects of them, but I have a really strong kind of vision and idea just from the demo stage. By the end of it, when I looked at it, I was like, “Ah, OK, there’s like a story here,” which I kind of knew would be there, but I didn’t realize it was such a concept album.

Pitchfork: Was the sequencer part of what– you know, starting with [Fur and Gold's] “Prescilla”– kind of shifted you toward this kind of focus on being more rhythmic-oriented, the drums being in the forefront?

NK: Well, on the first album, that “Prescilla” beat was me and my friend stamping on bits of wood and clapping in my bedroom. A lot of the first album, we kept so much of what I had made myself. This one I kept quite a few elements but, rhythmically, I think I just got a little bit more confident in terms of my drum programming ability and what I wanted and I was experiencing living in Brooklyn and hearing like Gang Gang Dance, TV on the Radio, Moon & Moon, and the early incarnation of Amazing Baby– these weird, psychedelic kind of bands. Steven [Kurtz], who played for Moon & Moon, has that rolling kind of tom sound that I was just like, “Oh my god, I love that so much,” and I started writing beats that were being inspired by that kind of sound. I just felt like delving into it.

Rest Of Interview Here

Corporate Takeovers and the Working Class…In Durham, N.C.

June 22, 2009

Page from the Herlad-Sun in Durham N.C.

University Apartments sold to a student housing company.

If you walked by University Apartments recently, you could have heard the clatter of dishware and the lilt of folk music wafting through tall, open windows. A yellow tabby snoozed on a sill, clothes dried on a line in the hot sunshine, and a man rung the bell on a paleta cart that he pushed up the street.

For 71 years, University Apartments, a cluster of 14 aging yet handsome brick buildings at 1502 Duke University Road, has housed thousands of Durhamites attracted by low rents and a sense of history: potters and produce managers, curators and caterers, waiters and bartenders.

So many have passed through that current and former residents have adopted their own slang. They refer to the community as “Univapts” or “Free Heat,” so named because of the siren-red sign emblazoned with those words and a sketch of a moneybag that was posted in front to lure potential tenants. Even the buildings are in code: Resident Jess Schell tattooed “L3C” on her forearm, which translates to Building L, Third Floor, Apartment C.

lc3

So, when the rumor, which turned out to be true, circulated last week that University Associates, based in Winston-Salem, had sold Univapts for $3.3 million to Capstone Development, a Birmingham, Ala., company that specializes in student housing, tenants gathered in the courtyard with their dogs and a bowl of watermelon to share their concerns.

“I see we’re poolside,” joked Dylan Mulrooney-Jones. The courtyard will become a swimming pool and outdoor fire pit adjacent to a “lifestyle center,” two apartments that will be converted into a common area. The Voltaire Nature Garden (which refers to the last line of Candide, “We must cultivate our own garden”), and its tomatoes, Swiss chard and snap beans, will turn fallow.

“This place has character,” Mulrooney-Jones said. “It does need renovating, but they could create apartments that would keep people here and keep them happy.”

Inarguably, Univapts needs repairs. The wiring is pre-microwave, pre-iMac. The plumbing is creaky. Several ceilings sag. But the galley kitchens, radiator heat, high ceilings, hardwood floors and wide windows are worth the inconvenience, residents say.

They fear the renovations, which, according to Capstone, will include replacing the windows originally installed in 1938, laying carpet in bedrooms and removing walls in former dining areas, will not only destroy Univapts’charm, but also outprice current residents.

cat-apt

“I have a sense of foreboding,” said Noah Goyette, who has lived at Univapts for six years. “The plans are to ruin it and make it so people like us won’t want to live here. Right now, it’s geared toward working people.”

Yet, Capstone Vice President of Acquisitions and Development Rick Hansen said he wants to reassure residents they will be pleased with the renovations. “The character and the uniqueness of the property drove us to buy it in the first place,” Hansen said.

Capstone discovered Univapts in a portfolio of 112 properties that were being brokered by national firm Coldwell Banker. “When I started looking through the photos, it raised the hair on my neck,” Hansen said. “We got on a plane the next week. We fell in love with the property.”

Renovations, the cost of which is still unknown until Capstone contractors examine the wiring and plumbing, will include installing energy-efficient windows and appliances such as washers and dryers in each apartment (currently, there is a common laundry room), refinishing hardwood floors and improving lighting around the building.

Rest Of Indy Article Here

Food For Your Ears…

June 22, 2009

Dr. Who Dat? - “Beat Journey”

whodat

The all instrumental record from Philly’s Dr. Who Dat? This album is great because you can put it on and it gives you a feeling that you are floating through the late 90′s east coast hip hop scene. He also emcees under the name Jneiro Jarel but I have to say he should stick to beat making. He is an excellent producer and this album is perfect for chilling.

Mos Def – “The Ecstatic”

Man it is so good to hear Mos rapping again. This album is so much better than his last release “The New Danger” although its not as great as his classic “Black On Both Sides”. With that being said it is worth the purchase…

Even Pitchfork liked it, and you know how hard they are on hip hop…

Apostle Of Hustle – “Eat Darkness”

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Eats Darkness is the follow up album to National Anthem of Nowhere by AOH. Unfortunatley National Anthem Of Nowhere was an amazing album and Eats Darkness does not measure up. There are some jewels on this new record but for the most part it is boring. Andrew Whiteman the front man for AOH is still and amazing artist. If you are a fan of that Canadian Indie Rock and the Broken Social Scene crew you may still like this. Give it a listen on Amazon.

Why is Single Payer Healthcare off the table?

June 22, 2009 — 1 Comment

Poll: 72% of Americans back Creation of Public Healthcare Plan

A new poll by the New York Times and CBS News has found that 72 percent of Americans support the government creating a public healthcare plan, similar to Medicare, which would compete with private insurance plans. The poll also found the majority of Americans now believe the government would do a better job than private insurance companies in providing medical coverage.

WITH THAT BEING SAID:

While the Obama administration claims ‘all options are on the table’ for healthcare reform, it’s already rejected the solution favored by most Americans, including doctors: single-payer universal healthcare.

Report: Senator Max Baucus Received More Campaign Money from Health and Insurance Industry Interests than Any Other Member of Congress.

Montana Senator Max Baucus, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is the Senate’s point man on healthcare reform. A new article in the Montana Standard finds that Senator Baucus has received more campaign money from health and insurance industry interests than any other member of Congress. The article says, “In the past six years, nearly one-fourth of every dime raised by Baucus and his political-action committee has come from groups and individuals associated with drug companies, insurers, hospitals, medical-supply firms, health-service companies and other health professionals.”

Report: Health Insurers Hold Billions in Tobacco Stocks

A new report in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals U.S., Canadian and British health and life insurance firms hold at least $4.4 billion of investments in companies whose subsidiaries manufacture cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and related products.

Newly Formed 150,000-Strong Nurses’ Union Pushes for Single-Payer Healthcare

Three of the country’s top organizations of direct care registered nurses have come together to form a new national nurses’ union that is advocating for a single-payer national health insurance program.

http://www.pnhp.org/

Physicians for a National Health Program is a non-profit research and education organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.

Click here to learn more!

The trial is over…Now what?

June 22, 2009

South Korea North Korea Journalists Held

I have been trying my best to follow this story as close as I can. Its difficult for various reasons. There lack of american television media attention to the story with the exception of Rachel Maddow and Democracy Now! Also North Korea is such an elusive country that it is incredibly difficult to get proper information. I will continue to post news as it arises. If you do not know the story the following links should tell you everything from the their capture, to the trial, and what is known to date.

Total Story from Wikipedia