meme music look at me me me

I have been passed on the Music Meme. I don't much like these things. I see them closer to chain letters than memes but it was passed on to me by Flop Eared Lucinda Amanda and no man can refuse her. I don't think there's much interesting about my list but I do love peeping at others lists.

Total volume of music files on my computer.
This one surprised me. I don't have an iPod and am unlikely to ever get one. I don't listen to MP3s and I don't listen to music on (off?) my computer. When working I usually listen to talk radio, ABC local or Radio National if I listen to anything. I can't really listen to music and work. If I do listen to music in the office its on my unforgiving but accurate Yamaha NS10's, driven by my suitcase sized but much loved Luxman R-1040. I only tend to have music on my Hard Drive if I'm copying it or converting to Shorten or flac or back to ordinary audio files for burning to CD.
So I expected to have about zero. Imagine my astonishment to find I have 15GIGs - if you count the Dylan film "Eat the Document".

It's mostly stuff I haven't removed after burning or converting. I'm currently converting from flac the Merle Haggard 3 disc set "Tulare Dust Live" Fillmore Auditorium, SF 1995 - partly 2 discs of tributes to Merle from the likes of Tom Russell, Marshall Crenshaw, Billy Joe Shaver, with the last disc by Merle Haggard with the Strangers. I have listened to a bit of it on headphones to check, especially a few times "Sing Me Back Home"

I noticed I have also downloaded a bunch of film and video clips from Captain Beefheart, available legally here, which will stay on the HD. Also I have a failed download of Scott Walker Rare Tracks which doesn't play. The only MP3s I have are one of Van singing "Wild Side of Life" which I couldn't find anywhere else and a bunch of MP3s of my brother's son's songs, which I don't listen to ever much. My brother lives in Scotland and occasionally plays in a Pogues tribute band. I notice I also have an MP3 of that famous phone call between Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock in which they do a lot of naughty serious swearing about John Howard. I'll never scrub that.

The last CD I bought. [Two sets at the same time]
Lucinda Williams Live at the Fillmore 2 CD set $24.95 at JB

Madeleine Peyroux, Careless Love 1 CD. I got this because I thought the version of Careless Love swung like very few songs do. I only listened once or twice and gave it away as a birthday present. I think it's a good album but apparently going on local reviews and this report she isn't too confident live.

Song playing right now
ABC Radio News theme to be truthful right now. Or what ever crap talk radio throws up. I did listen to Merle Haggard doing Sing Me Back Home live earlier. I had to listen to Slipknot yesterday as part of a request to understand what my son's jazz / death / skate punk / Hendrix / Dylan/ jam band is about. My young niece played me some Beatles, Oasis, Jet the other day as a favour.

Five Songs I Listen to A lot
I tend to listen to whole albums. But I often just plop on the odd single track.

Those Three Days - Lucinda Williams - all versions
Just Out Of Reach of These Two Empty Arms - Solomon Burke - Country Soul
Shoppin' For Clothes - The Coasters - I love it especially for the King Curtis sax bits.
Mona Lisa - Aaron Neville and then switch to Nat King Cole's version
Elvis - bootleg and outtakes from the comeback TV show
Heartbreak Hotel - Mary Coughlan
Hey Joe and (She's a) Mixed Up Shook Up Girl - Willy De Ville LIVE

I dunno. Really - I play albums, Western Swing anything, Bob Wills, Milton Brown. I play Tom Waits, Van, Miles, Thelonious Monk, Nasrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sex Mob especially Diaspora Soul live, Bob, Neil, Frank Sinatra, lots of sung Requiem Masses, Opera, Gospel, Blind Boys, Sam Cooke, Zydeco , Cajun, Charlie Christian, Astrid Gilberto, Django and Stephane, Jonathan Richman, Johnny Cash - I dunno - anything etc etc etc . I often listen to Guy Clark "Old No 1" all the way through. It might be my favourite. As I've mentioned before I have 967 favourite albums at least. Same with James Talley's "Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got A Lot of Love."

[Last night I remembered I do in fact play single songs a bit.] A few more:

Somewhere Over The Rainbow / Wonderful World - Israel 'Iz' Kamakawiwo'ole. A seamless melding of two familiar songs into one. In this case the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. Brother Iz had one of the sweetest voices on the planet. You have to order in this stuff from Hawaii, but its fast and reliable.
September Song - by Sinatra, Lou Reed, almost anyone. Thanks Kurt Weill.
Pressure Drop - Toots & The Maytals. One of those songs to dance to, be uplifted, transported and understand the meaning of life. I'm sure it means something but a glance at the lyrics will only confuse you. Mysterious magic.
Oh and of course, Fairytale Of New York. But doesn't everyone.

Is that nearly 5?

I think I'm supposed to pass this on. I can't think who to. It occurred to me I'd like to see the whole Troppo Crew do a list each. I would really look foward to a long argument between Kath & Kel, Martha & George, Jen & Ken and how each others list annoys them. I also wonder about what Geoff Honnor listens to, Don Arthur, Nic Gruen and all the rest. They are a funny old bunch but lovable.

I sometimes wonder what Gummo might be listening to.

killer hairdo or hair today gone tomorrow

Music producer Phil Spector shown above in Superior Court Monday, May 23, 2005, in Los Angeles. A judge said he will allow four of 10 incidents of evidence in Spector's murder trial that prosecutors say illustrate the music producer's history of pulling guns on women. Spector is on trial for the Feb. 23, 2003, fatal shooting of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson.

In 1969 The Beach Boys' released their last album with Capitol records called 20/20
Not their worst – not their best.

It a was / is a pastiche containing a few covers.

It’s the covers that may make it famous.

If Phil Spector is convicted of murder it will be the first, and possibly only, album to have cover versions of songs written by 3 separate convicted murderers. Not only that, the songs were released on 7 inch singles at the time to help promote the album. [This might be a goldmine for trivia buff’s quiz questions]

The songs:
I Can Hear Music – written by Phil Spector – released as an A side single
Cottonfields - written by Leadbelly– released as an A side single
Never Learn Not To Love - written by Charles Manson – released as a b side of the single "Bluebirds Over The Mountain".

Important late breaking news:
The, increasingly remarkable, album 20/20 also has another claim to fame. Supposedly on the track 'All I Want to Do,' a female is recorded having sexual horticulture with the drummer in the studio. This 'sound effect' is layered onto the fade-out of the song's final mix, and is just about audible on the released version.
Snaffled from Snopes Urban Legends who gives it an Undetermined rating.

It sounds unbelievable to me. I mean, having sex with a drummer! uuurgh.

pontifficating

Continuing on the mystical musical theme I snaffled this bit from the Rock Snob site:

Begin extract from RockSnob:
His Holiness John Paul II was the closest a pontiff could come to being a Rock Snob: he met with Bono and Bob Dylan, attended a Rome benefit concert at which Lou Reed performed, and waved his arms encouragingly at some breakdancers who were spinnin' and poppin' on the floor of the Vatican. His successor, however, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger --who, as of today, goes by the vaguely hip-hoppish tag of Benedict XVI--is defiantly anti-rockist. In a small volume published in 2000 called The Spirit of the Liturgy, itself an expansion of an essay Ratzinger wrote in 1986, the future pope argued,

" 'Rock'... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals, it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe.

"Well, before we dismiss the new pope as an out-of-it fuddy-duddy, let's parse his words. He only seems to be talking about rock "festivals" with "special lighting effects," which, generally, are as dreadful as he says. And one of his pet peeves, the implementation of quasi-rock music into the liturgy at some churches, is indeed an abomination, as anyone who's ever sat through a Rockin' Mass with amplified guitars can attest. (Tony Hendra, the Benedictine monk turned gonzo humorist, and the guy who played Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap, wrote a brilliant essay on this subject for GQ some years back.)

Nevertheless, Pope Benedict's blanket condemnation of rock as a whole is tin-eared and unfair. We expect Bono to "open a dialogue" and rectify this situation ASAP.

Meanwhile, over here at Rock Snob HQ, the conclave we're puzzling over is the one at Roger Taylor's Surrey mansion at which it was determined that Paul Rodgers should fill Freddie Mercury's tights in the 2005 touring version of Queen.
End extract from Rock Snob

FXH says: "Amen to that bit about "rock masses" and that last paragraph about Rodgers and Queen"

hymns, love, nick cave, van, god

In the comments on the post below this one , about Van Morrison books, boynton, mentions that, along with many others, Martin Buzacott, co-author of the new book, Speaking In Tongues, dismisses Have I Told You Lately That I love You as "soppy" and not a great song.

I disagree and have always primarily seen it as a hymn. I mentioned that Nick Cave agreed with me and I finally found the quote. [This does however bring up another issue. That is how did Rod Stewart descend from being a rock interpreter par excellence to being the sad old schlock hack he is today. It's Stewart's version of HITYLTILY that cannot raise above terrestial lerve sop and colours listeners views of the song]


Extract from Salon:
Over the last few years, Cave has written a number of love songs in which it is ambiguous whether the figure being addressed is a woman, or God, where there appears to be a deliberate conflation of earthly and divine love. On "No More Shall We Part," the song "Love Letter," among the most memorable he has written, seems like a classic love song until near the end, when he sings:

Rain your kisses down upon me
Rain your kisses down in storms
And for all who'll come before me
In your slowly fading forms.

"Breathless," from "The Lyre of Orpheus," is ambiguous throughout:

The red-breasted robin beats his wings
His throat it trembles when his sings
For he is helpless before you
Still your hands, And still your heart
For still your face comes shining through
And all the morning glows anew
Still your mind, Still your soul
For still the fire of love is true
And I am breathless without you.

These songs remind me most of poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Emily Dickinson, in which religious ecstasy sometimes sounds decidedly romantic in nature. Cave agreed with me that there was a link to those poets, and pointed out that Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately" does something similar. He also told me that there's never any ambiguity in his mind about who is being addressed in his songs -- but declined to be any more specific than that.

End Salon extract.

I rest my case.

glossy geeks grok glossolalia

Three new books on Van.

Speaking In Tongues:The Songs Of Van Morrison by Andrew Ford and Martin Buzacott . An all Australian effort. Out now. In ABC bookshops. Here's an extract.

Johnny Rogan's Van Morrison: No Surrender will be on my buy list if it's half as good as Rogan's other writings on Neil Young and his earlier biography of Van. Actually it will be on my buy list whatever its quality.

As a Van tragic I will also be ordering Van Morrison Them and the Bang Era, 1945-1968 by Howard Dewitt

apollo bay music quick roundup

The Apollo Bay Music Festival will now be held on the 4th weekend in April, avoiding Easter holidays and being squashed too close to Port Fairy Folk Festival. Hopefully this will also slow down the migration of the folding chairs in shoulder bags, wholemeal knitted jumpers, full beard and "shushing" types who drift up the Great Ocean Road from Port Fairy. To that end I see there seems to be more emphasis on rock music for the younger persons. All we need now is more jazz and classic / avant-garde. The weather last weekend was balmy almost up in the mid 20Cs most days and only slightly cooler at night.

THE RED HOT POKER DOTS [pic above] are on my list to follow up at a decent venue. No ironic pretend country here but a barrel of full on country honky tonkin' rockin' with Johnny Cash twanging guitar as needed plus verve, swing and engaging stage flash. I can't work out why I hadn't heard or seen them before. Maybe its because they spend lots of time touring in USA. Anyway they are up at Katherine now and heading to Darwin and then QLD and NSW and back to USA. Catch them.

ASH GRUNWALD is highly recommended. One guy with his guitars and thumping beat box with modern high energy blues rooted in skills from deep soil. CLAYMORE (Scottish folk and pub rock?) I can take or leave most of their set but their final version of Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll) is one of the best I've heard - fully sick - bagpipes and all. DAVE HOGAN'S MELTDOWN was the best of too many blues combos. COSMIC PSYCHOS did a few gigs - I guess it would have helped to be a fan first time around. DAVID BRIDIE as himself and also with MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE played well attended satisfying sets but hampered, like almost everyone, by bad sound, of which more later. DIRTY LUCY, two young women to watch for musical growth and bigger things in the near future (country neo grunge?). DEBORAH CONWAY competent and professional.

MIA DYSON suffered from the bad sound mixes too but showed enough of her licks and Lucinda type approach to make me want to follow her up.

THE YEARLINGS in the small wooden Anglican Church were truly moving. [My pic below] Lo-Fi completely acoustic, no amps, no pickups, no mikes on vocals or instruments. Infused with John Fahey like yearnings, high mountain imprints and perhaps even some wild mercury (wink). Their bond as a couple charmed and disarmed.

Worth the money? Yes. But. And it's a big but. Why does a festival such as this put up with bad sound mixes / mixers. Why do bands and performers not check the sound from a punters' point of view. Many, if not most gigs at Apollo Bay, had a dreadful mix, muddy with over screaching top end, no middle and loose sloppy muddy bottom end of drums and bass. Are all sound men (and as far as I could see they were all men) deaf old drug soaked hippies? In one pub the sound guy wandered off into the second song of one band and the lead vocal mike dropped out completely - for the whole song! The foldback was apparently still working ok as no one in the band seemed to twig. What the hell is going on? Don't bands and performers these days have any friends who care about how they sound? After the second song the sound hippy wandered back with a plate of steak and chips in his hand and a bemused look, as if to say, " What are you whingeing about - its my show - I'm the sound dude".

Now I'm sure that the organisers will get a lot of complaints - but the complaints will be that "the music was too loud". Now this is what it sounds like to the average punter when the mix is stuffed like it was. But a good mix can be loud and not painful. A good mix doesn't need to be loud. No doubt the organisers will dismiss the "too loud" comments as from old farts who can't appreciate the focus on younger bands. Wrong. Good sound isn't too difficult - even in a tent.

where the dingoes & crows won't molest me

Following the Schaivo schemozzle myself and other family and friends have been working out how to make very clear our wishes in an Advanced Healthcare Directive (AHD). Whilst looking at the current state of play for NFR I came across this AHD by Michael Mackay, a senior doctor in an Australian Emergency Department.

"Should I have my cardiac arrest while going about my duties in the emergency department — immediate defibrillation please! And maybe a whiff of oxygen. (If I don’t survive, I will be quite surprised.)

Should I arrest in the hospital dining room, forgo the mouth- to-mouth (I am squeamish about these things). I may (grudgingly) accept some chest compression, until the defibrillator arrives. But if you have not got me back after three shocks — call off the circus. Go back and finish your lunch.

If I arrest in the street, you will do what you will. But I won’t be happy. I doubt you will be able to get a defibrillator to me quickly enough. If I arrest at home, I know it will be very difficult for you to do nothing. But it will be 15 minutes before the ambulance arrives. And to end up brain damaged on a ventilator is something I do not want. (But if you are clever enough to call the ambulance so that I arrest after it arrives, by all means use the defibrillator.) When I am in a bed in a hospital ward “old and grey and full of sleep”, do not use your hands to commit violence upon me — use them to comfort me."

The above was taken from a complete article on A Time To Die by Mackay in the eMJA .

Discussion on the Schiavo case, occasionally the broader Not For Resuscitation and (sometimes) related palliative care issues at Troppo, Mark Bahnisch's new blog Larvatus Prodeo plus Currency Lad and Saint.

Another eMJA article on the Victorian Supreme Court ruling on tube feeding.

A variety of Advanced Healthcare Directives (AHD) (Advance Directives, Living Wills) templates and information from the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria. Forms and information about an enduring power of attorney (medical treatment) from The Public Advocate Office Victoria

lean on me

Sometimes things fall apart. At the centre. Other times everything comes together.

Tonight at 2 am I flicked on RAGE ABC TV. First up was Bill Withers doing USE ME live. It reminded me how great this guy was.

Then at his peak he just retired. No drugs. No gambling. No marriage or money problems. He lives happily in the suburbs - not performing.

He's one part folk, one part R&B, one part blues, a lot of jazz and a whole lot of funk and soul. It's seamless. No one else seems to be able to do this combination so effortlessly. No one else even does it with effort.

One of the greatest live albums is Bill Withers LIVE at Carnegie Hall. [There are few lasting live albums. Bob Marley is one, Van's Too Late To Stop Now is another]

The Bill Withers USE ME clip was engrossing, encompassing all the elements of his style.

Next there was a clip of Chuck Berry live doing Johnny B Goode. His striped trousers reminded me of Hendrix. His duckwalk reminded me of Hendrix. His bit of free forming guitar solos slung low and between his legs reminded me of Jimi. I did think that whilst Chuck's backing band was clearly not important and much lesser than him Jimi's was integral.

The RAGE logo / theme clip with Iggy Pop always reminds me of how I like Iggy and then reminds me of Molly Meldrum. I like Molly too.

Then a clip of Johnny Cash singing HURT.

Then Radiohead doing CREEP. I understood them then. Great song. Only song I can remember where the word fuck worked.

Yesterday I walked into the local library vaguely looking for a Wiggles, or something, DVD to assist uncle type babysitting duties that night. Not much around that I recognised but I did grab the DVD of Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young. Had a quick flick through for 30 minutes. Crazy Horse makes old Shakey work at his best. Teetering on the edge of chaos they propel forward each song forcing Neil to pour everything into the tune to hold it together in whatever shape he vaguely imagined it. Just like they did at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne last year.

Sometimes I think Powderfinger is my favourite song. [I have about 900 favourite songs]. Every time I hear "Look Out Mamma There's White Boat comin' Down the Riv - arrgh…", I tense up in anticipation and then relax into the song thinking that perhaps it's the best opening salvo, lyrics & riff, of any song. I like Neil very loud and noisy. The DVD is highly recommended. There's a great version of Tonight's The Night at the end. And I can, if I choose, start with Welfare Mothers (make better lovers) and then run Powderfinger into Cinnamon Girl and Hey Hey My My or Hurricane or any combination I like.

Took me back to Greenwich Village NYC 1979 when I went to the premier of the Rust film. It was as exciting as any live concert. You could smoke and drink in USA cinemas then and there were joints and beers floating freely through the seats. Well my seats anyway. I still have those cardboard and paper "Rust -O-Vision" glasses handed out.

I'll probably still be listening to them all in 10 years time. Johnny Cash the most. More than likely Bill Withers is the best.

Late note. Food for Thought:
I've only just noticed that beginning with his article on Plunderphonics on March 8, Gary Sauer-Thompson has written 4 or 5 blog pieces on music, ranging from the piece on Plunderphonics through to Jacques Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music, and then a bit on Aesthetics & Rock Criticism.

cigarettes, whisky, catholics, words, funny

Dave Allen is dead.

A small note to those who can't remember or weren't there.

There was a time, when it was possible to have a successful, and popular, television show that consisted of not much more than an intelligent, articulate, neatly dressed person sitting on a stool, smoking a cigarette, whilst drinking a whisky, talking to you but not at you, and being funny.

Requiescat in pace you funny nine and a half fingered bastard.

macquarie fields riots and societies spongers

There has been much discussion and attempts to tease out the causes of the recent riots at Macquarie Fields in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney.

There are substantial threads and ideas, to stimulate even the most reluctant commentators, running at Troppo Armadillo and Catallaxy. Well worth reading and jumping in to comment.

We are all familiar with the idea that the bulk of the welfare burden, child abuse cases, single teenage mums and prison population in Tasmania can be traced back to just 30 families. Many solutions have been suggested from just giving each of these families a house of their own for life and a stipend of about $2,000 a week for life. All of which would be cheaper than the existing bill for the current Welfare Dependency. In addition a few hundred welfare public servant bludgers could be made redundant thus ensuring a sizable profit on the whole deal.

These sort of "problem families" do not exist only in Tasmania. Melbourne has its own problems.

I can reveal one family in particular, whose husband shot through owing money, and refused to pay child support, now they are bludging off welfare, there is terrible family violence involving knives, legal squabbles, grandfather who allegedly died in the arms of a woman other than his wife whilst still married, one of the children driving whilst drunk and attacking police in public, once or twice, and using dodgy accounting to keep getting the pension.

Let get rid of these types who set a bad example, don't respect our laws, attack police, clog our law courts and can't get a proper job.

loathing rolling stone

I first came across Hunter S Thompson in Rolling Stone. I guess in the late 60's. It wasn't all that easy to regularly find copies of Rolling Stone in those days. It was great to read his take on USA politics "live" as it were. Then in 1971 (or was it 72) he wrote some articles on Nixon's campaign also "live". He careered through the campaign like a rocket fuel powered 360 degree video camera and recording machine. It was surreal but somehow more real than anything else around. Many a time since then I have dreamed of having my own Samoan Attorney.

During the last Australian election campaign I would have liked to lend my Samoan attorney to Nabakov, put up a Paypal button to collect money for drugs and send Nabs on Latham's Bus, or perhaps an orange or yellow Datsun 180B with a cloth top, to write a daily blog about it. It's now one of my great regrets in life that I didn't do it.

I was going to have a rant about the current state of Rolling Stone. But I've lost all passion. I don't care. It seems Rolling Stone doesn't care either.

I went to their web site expecting to see the front page at least dedicated to Hunter S. Nothing. Not a bloody thing. Not even a link. This is what we have come to. UPDATE: It took them about 48 hours but finally there is a link up. Weak as.

UPDATE: I didn't think I'd ever say this but Professor Bunyip has written something on Hunter S I can largely agree with.

fear & loathing writer shoots through

The guy who started the whole blogger style, Hunter S. Thompson, 'Gonzo' Journalist Who Wrote 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' Kills Himself
By CATHERINE TSAI Associated Press Writer [..full article here..]
DENVER Feb 21, 2005 — Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Thompson's visit to Las Vegas, he also wrote "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.

Thompson is credited with pioneering New Journalism or, as he dubbed it, "gonzo journalism" in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. Much of his earliest work appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist," Thompson told the AP in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."

Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and Richard Nixon once said he represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character."

His compound in Woody Creek, not far from Aspen, was almost as legendary as Thompson. He prized peacocks and weapons; in 2000, he accidentally shot and slightly wounded his assistant, Deborah Fuller, trying to chase a bear off his property.

cornelia rau

No time. A short post.

Any time we take away anyone's freedom of movement and association we must also allow scrutiny of that action, and especially if the deprivation continues beyond a few days, by independent people or advocates for the detainee. We must also ensure that the person's health is maintained in a reasonable manner.

It doesn't matter if it is in a prison, a hospital, a refuge, a safe house, child protection, self protection, or refugee camp.

It doesn't matter if the person is sly, tricky, misguided, criminal, inarticulate, educated, uneducated, clever, wordy, well dressed, dishevelled, drunk, drugged or mad. Difficult and often dishonest people are mostly dealt with humanely and in a dignified way everyday in prisons and other places. We shouldn't have to wait until it seems as if it could be our own neighbour, sister, daughter or mother.

On another tack 1 & 2 newspapers allege that the name Ms Rau was using when arrested by police – Anna Schmidt – is a composite of the names of two other cult members who she met when involved with Kenja in 1998.

I believe Kenja is an "official" enemy of Scientology. This usually means it is an offshoot or breakaway cult.

Kenja gains a mention in the book Dangerous Persuaders: An Expose of Gurus, Personal Development Courses and Cults, and How They Operate in Australia. By Louise Samways

Also a mention in NSW Parliament by The Hon. S. B. MUTCH: on Tuesday, 15 March 1994 - about halfway down the page.

"The document "Our Australian Freedoms are Under Threat" was issued by members of a group known as Kenja, which I have had a go at in this House. The principal of that organisation has been charged with serious offences. I shall refrain from talking too much about that organisation because of the sub judice rule and I do not want to do anything that might prejudice that upcoming trial. It seems, from the way members of that group are running around, they are becoming concerned." [..more..]

A comprehensive list of issues and thoughtful discussion at dogfightatbankstown and troppoarmadillo and Prof Quiggin and Northcote Knob and others as they come to hand. Currency Lad writes about Ministerial responsibility, and other stuff, with regard to this case. Naturally barista always has a shot of short black for the brain.

story for australia day

Dragster mum shocks police
By Lou Robson - 16 jan 05 - Sunday Mail
A QUEENSLAND woman caught drag racing along a busy suburban road at 144km/h in a 60 zone with three young children in the back seat says getting caught is her only regret. Rachael Weymouth appeared in Redcliffe Magistrates Court this week after being clocked doing 84km/h over the speed limit with children aged one, five and seven in the hotted-up car. Two of the children were hers, the other her sister's.

Weymouth, 27, from Margate in Redcliffe, was racing a friend, Michael Torrisi, 25, who had his fiance and 18-month-old child in his car, along Redcliffe's busy Anzac Ave when caught by police on a Sunday afternoon in December.

But Weymouth, who was fined $850 and disqualified from driving for six months, said her only regret was getting caught.

"The only thing I'm sorry about is losing my licence," Weymouth told the Sunday Mail outside court.
"Now we'll have to walk everywhere, but I'm not sorry because those kids were never in any danger."
In court this week, police prosecutor Senior-Constable Don Baille said Weymouth was racing Torrisi on Anzac Ave when traffic police pulled them over at 4.25pm on December 19.
Sen-Constable Baille said Weymouth was driving a Holden Torana and racing Torrisi when they both recorded speeds of 144km/h.

"(Weymouth) had a male passenger in the front and three children in the car in the back seat and Torrisi had a female passenger in the front and an 18-month-old child in the back."
The friends, who pleaded guilty to conducting a speed trial, said they'd just registered Torrisi's vehicle and were "going for a drive" when the incident took place.


Police then had to remove Weymouth's partner, who didn't want to be identified, from the court when he became abusive.

The man, who wore a Holden Racing Team shirt and cap, told the court the justice system was "f-ed".

Footnote: I'm guessing she's NOT Tina Weymouth's sister. But you never know.

rudd rocks with khe fuckin sanh

Our own Papa Legba guarding the crossroads at Backpages is called forth from the nether world to comment on the unreleased but widely circulating, ALP Lost Basement Tapes. CS finds Rudd is the star on the important tracks. Sheil has personal access to the early Rudd tunes and demos. He has loaded these onto his old SuperScope machine and fiddled around with the speeds, with the advantage of inside knowledge from previous producers and mixers such as Peter "Simply Red "Beattie.

CS can reveal "he talks in three different local dialects - the dialects of the media, the professional and the so-called punter."

Holy shit. Rudd is not only Bob Dylan, he's Elvis Costello and Tom Waits jivin' in Mandarin with a good dose of Van the Man and Vegas Presley and to top it off he's fuckin' Barnsey singing "Khe Sanh" and "Star Hotel" at Chisel's peak.

I'm madly dragging out all my old ALP bootlegs. I'm speeding them up. I'm slowing them down. I've tried it through headphones with a huge spliff. Shit I even listened to them through a 5.1 HomeTheatre set up. I think I can hear it. I think it's the real thing. Perhaps a duet with "Aretha" Gillard will do it.

I'm waiting for irant to tell me the tunings and capo will work out. I'm emailing James Russell to see what old Rudd as a goth/punk film reels he has under the couch. I'm sure Flop Eared Amanda will tell me Ruddy nearly won a Golden Guitar at Tamworth a few years back. I can't wait until next Wednesday morning at 6 am when Macca will have Ruddy on Australia All bloody Over singing a Slim Dusty song or better still Chad Morgan's Threshing Machine

Me, as Nabakov will attest, I'm Baron Samedi the roadie, to CS's Papa Legba, waiting for the call up and the kick arse tour to launch the new album.

robert johnson on speed

James Russell over at Hot Buttered Death has just posted a wonderful bit on Robert Johnson and how there is a theory that he has been recorded, or at least played, at too fast RPM. That is, by slowing down his songs to about 80% of the normal speed we get a more accurate approximation of what his playing and singing might well have been. The argument is that we would hear more of his influencers and contemporaries such as Son House.

There are a few small MP3s of slowed down bits of Love in Vain, Come on in My Kitchen and Crossroads over at Steady Rollin’ Man: A Revolutionary Critique of Robert Johnson which also has some detailed information on the guitar tunings and fingerings that some guitar players might like to comment on. irant - you there?

Funnily enough I have been listening to RJ for the last few days, specifically to listen to "They're Red Hot". This was sparked by the links over at irants on Robert Johnson and the Myth of The Golden Age and the comment that Red Hot is more like a Fats Waller tune. There are further explorations of the definitions, particularly whose definitions, of authenticity that dominate, in selections and arrangments for recording and releasing. Many releases of Johnson's work leave out Red Hot because it doesn't conform to certain blues purists idea of what Johnson is/was.

Although James Russell says that at present he can't hear much difference in the slowed down RJ tunes, I reckon I can and I like it. It excites me. It's a theory I like. Johnson's voice sounds more powerful. Less reedy and disembodied. Engages me more. Sounds more close miked. I even think the guitar work sounds better.

This wrong speed / pitch theory isn't so far fetched given that a re-issue of Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue has had jazz fools nerds experts fans agreeing they had been listening to one side of Kind Of Blue at the wrong pitch for about 40 years. [no wonder some of the poor trumpet players who tried to imitate Miles found it a bit difficult]

In addition recent remasters of Dylan suggest that the vinyl version of Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands from Blonde on Blonde was perhaps mastered at the wrong speed as it plays at a quarter-tone below the remastered CD version.

When I get some time I'll be fiddling with RJ tracks on the PC and slowing them down. Thanks James.

Update: More on this from Dave Rubin - taken from: http://www.guitarseminars.com where there is more discussion.

"I headed the team that produced "Robert Johnson: The New Transcriptions" for the Hal Leonard Corporation and I wrote a companion book for Guitar School that analyzed 15 of the most popular songs. We approached the tunings (A add 9 for "Dust My Broom" and "Phonograph Blues" take 2, open Em - like Skippy James - for "Hellhound On My Trail," etc) and keys with fresh ears and came up with new findings which I believe to be correct.

Most importantly, we had access to virtually all of the original 78s as owned by Steve LaVere. It was quite a thrill to hear these recordings in person. It sounded as if RJ was in the room playing and singing. Steve had corrected the speed with his variable pitch turntable so that the platters turned at exactly 78 RPMs. This produced slower tempos and pitch, resulting in Johnson having a deeper voice and, in my opinion, it gave the songs (especially the uptempo ones like "Preachin' Blues" and "32-20 Blues") a better groove. The 1996 version of the Columbia CD set basically reflects these corrections.

The problem started in the 1960s when they original engineers "corrected" their original source material by bringing all tunes up to natural keys like G and A, not realizing that Johnson really was playing in F#,G#, etc. remember, Johnson was playing SOLO guitar and likely tuned by ear before each session (perhaps each take) without a reference tone like, say, from a piano. Why would he care about concert pitch or A 440? In additon, with a new guitar with new strings, for example, in a hot environment, his guitar may have gone flat. In addition, he capoed extensively like most of his contemporaries. Re; "Love in Vain Blues": I maintain that it is his only song in Spanish (open G) tuned up a half step. Check out our transcription on page 192, the last measuer, where he ends with the tonic chord "open" (actually capoed - the dead giveaway of the tuning. "

Dave Rubin NYC

harping on a bit too much

This started off as a comment over at IRANT's site in response to his report of seeing Jeff Lang and Bob Brozman.

On Saturday night I saw Fiona Boyes at the Cornish Arms. I really only went just to meet up with an old friend who was going there. Fiona was playing with Chris Wilson's band and, unfortunately, Wilson himself. There was a table of 6. The meal was only $15 and ok, if a bit late and a bit large, and our first two choices were off the menu.

It was the 4th time I had seen Wilson and the last. I had persisted because amongst a lot of people down here he is always touted as great. Nope - he did it again. Played harp everywhere on every tune and as loud as possible. Might be ok as a Barnsey sideman at a plasterer's booze up. I can't see why people keep boosting him. I might just have caught 4 bad gigs but sheesh how many chances can you give someone. Fiona, on those brief moments when Wilson wasn't dominating, sounded as if she could do some tasty licks and generate a bit of fun.

So for most of the night I sat brooding on the last good gigs I'd seen there. Brilliant gig by Brian Kennedy. I can't recommend Kennedy as a live performer enough. His records just don't showcase his talents. He was good enough for Van to have as second sweet voice live for about 5 years and on a few albums.

The other gig I had enjoyed at the Cornish not so long ago was Red Rivers. I've only seen Red twice live. I'd drive almost anywhere to see him. Honky Tonkin' country rockin at its best. The real thing. Great songwriter. Go see him. World class. I think he spends time doing the European Country Festivals thats why he isn't gigging around.

new age health tips - good as gold in oz

Adrian the famous blogging Sydney cabbie does a great line in vignettes of the sydnicity and it's people from a cabbie perspective. Despite a slight lurch every now and then into mildish rwdbeastery he is always worth a read.

I couldn't resist pinching this gem from a longer piece. Out of context of course.

"Briefly I wondered if I was having a mild heart attack then dismissed the thought just as quickly on the realisation I’d passed a medical check-up with flying colours, just a few months ago. So I sat in bed for an hour reading, smoking and drinking tea before lapsing back into a normal sleep till 4.30 pm. Consequently I woke good as gold."

lets talk dirty in hawaiian and robert johnson

Click here for bigger clearer picture.

Robert Crumb who along with Harvey Pekar is my favourite record collector, nerdy hero and cartoonist*see below*has put out a brilliant series of drawings of blues artists. As part of this he has illustrated the story of Charley Patton.

Just bloody Amazing.

Crumb also has a great band called, naturally, Robert Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders. I have a double live CD of their music I sing along loudly to. Mostly songs from the 20's. Bob Brozman plays with them.

Footnote: They don't sing "Lets Talk Dirty In Hawaiian" but they should. It's a party favourite of mine.

*erratta* favourite cartoonist OUTSIDE Australia. Of course I meant Sedgwick is my most favouritist cartoonist of all.

Late Update: As recommended by Nabakov and other commentors I grabbed the "Ghost World" DVD from the video store. I'm not familiar with the comic so the first half seemed a bit forced and didn't grab me but the film just got better and better as it flowed on to the end. I was so proud that I spotted the Cheap Suit Serenaders joke in the garage sale before I had even been told to look out for it by commentors. Thanks.

tsunami sue amy sue me sue you

I’ve had many phone calls on the tsunami crisis many directly family related. All are glad our daughter is safe. All are worried. Most seem to understand our worry. The gap between what the daughter experienced over there and what we see here is enormous. Over there they are aware of it as if it is a bushfire in another state. Its not directly effecting them. Anyway she’s now out of Thailand.

Today a phone call:
-----------------
Hello
Hi Francis?
Hello Gary
We were pleased to hear that Kathleen was ok
Yes so were we Gary
We prayed for her
Thanks
God answered our prayers
Maybe
We think God has special plans for Kathleen
Err - ahh yeah what about the 100’s of thousands killed?
He has special plans for those saved.
Ok. What about the others?
Well a lot of them were sex tourists and Moslems
What does god think about them?
God is merciful if you have personal relationship with Christ
Ok – look I think I have to go soon – thanks for thinking of Kathleen.
Yes we have to go – our prayers are always with her.
Goodbye – thanks for ringing
--------------------------------------
I wanted to ask why did god have special plans for a lesbian atheist with left wing politics but I’m too polite to relatives.

The phone skidded down the hallway into the back room across the wooden floor and stopped at the back door. It woke up the cat who went over to sniff it. In a movie I guess it would have splintered into a thousand pieces and provided some emotional release for me and the audience.
In this case the cat placed his fat paw on it and I picked it up.

It looks exactly the same.

It just doesn’t work anymore.