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The Fuego This Time: The Rise of Colombia’s Bomba Estereo & Worldwide Tropical Bass
06.24.2010
01:09 am
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Bogota duo Bomba Estereo started out in 2005 comprised of multi-instrumentalist/producer Simón Mejía and singer Liliana Saumet. As the infectious “nu-cumbia” sound started making waves around that time, groups like B.E. have become its young, largely educated face. They’ve become a full band that’s currently on worldwide tour.

As shown by clip #2, the tropical bass scenes currently burgeoning throughout West African and Latin America (along with their European diasporas) are not going unnoticed by global marketing agencies.
 

 

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.24.2010
01:09 am
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Sexual hypocrisy in Minneapolis: Anti-gay Lutheran Pastor Tom Brock ‘outed’
06.24.2010
12:48 am
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I read this story about a magazine called Lavender ‘outing’ an anti-gay Lutheran pastor by crashing his gay ‘chastity’ support group with interest and a chuckle this morning. Pastor Tom Brock, a local radio personality, had notoriously linked a tornado that struck a church and the Minneapolis Convention Center to gay marriage

The story went around the Internet faster than you could say Ted Haggard. Predictably, the judgement on hypocrite extraordinaire Brock was swift and chock full of schadenfreude. The Queerty website had this to say: Lutheran Pastor Tom Brock Blamed ELCA’s Tornado on Homosexuality. Which, Uh, He Suffers From. Ouch!

But then a bunch of articles calling the reporter’s journalistic ethics to task for betraying the anonymity of a support group setting started to appear. Lavender Media’s head Stephen Rocheford confirmed that reporter John Townsend was sent into the program “undercover,” but insists—and I agree with him 100%—that Brock — who broadcasts on a Christian radio station called KKMS-AM nearly every day of the week— is a major “get” for the gay community of Minneapolis:

“I personally, and Lavender Magazine as a matter of policy, do not believe in outing anyone. People are allowed to be crazy and dysfunctional in their lives. There’s one exception: a public figure who says one thing and does another. This is not the first homosexual minister who denounces homosexuality in public and engages in it in private.”

Damn straight (ahem) and every time one of these twisted, self-loathing Christian closet cases is exposed as a hypocrite, displays of public homophobia will become rarer and rarer and this is a very, very good thing. Brock should look at this new chapter in his life as a good thing, too, because he’ll no longer be able to live a lie and hurt the very people he might otherwise (if he is to be honest with himself) be the most appropriate pastor for. Go with God, Pastor Brock, go with God, mi’ fren…

Anti-gay Lutheran pastor protest too much (Lavender)

Lavender ‘outs’ Lutheran pastor—by crashing confidential support group (Minneapolis Post)

Lutheran Pastor Tom Brock Blamed ELCA’s Tornado on Homosexuality. Which, Uh, He Suffers From (Queerty)
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.24.2010
12:48 am
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Charles Hugh Smith: An Open Letter to the Millennials/Gen-Y: Where Are You?
06.23.2010
09:47 pm
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Dangerous Minds pal Charles Hugh Smith has posted an open letter to the folks belonging to the so-called Millennials and Gen Y generations. Many older readers will probably agree with his thoughts on the matter, while younger readers will either be pissed off or agree themselves. I think this is one of those things where there’s never going to be agreement across the various age groups. If you’ve ever had conversations about this and similar “generation gap” type topics, you’ll know why I say this! Surely this is a controversial subject no matter what age you are.

Take it away, Charles:

Here are my first-hand observations of Millennials:

1. They can’t/won’t recycle. Here in a “green” capital of activism, very few American students can be bothered to recycle cardboard, paper or even aluminum. They stuff a cardboard box (unfolded) into a trash container, filling the container, and then pile the garbage on the side since they are too lazy to recycle the box (the recycling containers are right next to the trash cans) collapse the cardboard box or even press it down to make room for more garbage.

2. The males generally own their own vehicles; on my street, that includes Mustangs and Jeep SUVs sporting bumper stickers like “The environment is all we have.” The Millennial owner is apparently blind to the irony.

Most of the students who recycle with any sort of consistency (i.e. demonstrating their belief via actual action instead of bumper stickers) are Europeans.

3. At the end of the Spring semester, Millennials stuff dozens of huge 20-foot long containers with their waste and tossed-out “stuff”—trash bags full of barely worn shoes, perfectly good beds, desks, books, etc. I have no direct knowledge that any graduating student took all their perfectly good shoes, etc. to the Goodwill, a few blocks from the university. From my informal dumpster diving, I can attest they throw out tons of high-quality food—whole unblemished fruits, canned goods, etc. Based on my direct observation, I would say the Millennials are the most wasteful, profligately consumerist generation in history.

4. My brother-in-law reports that the vast majority of his students are in active denial about the economy or the interlocking problems of the nation and world. They express little to no interest in environmental issues or actions, or in Peak Oil, etc., even though it will most certainly impact them.

5. Local “progressive” politics is still completely dominated by Boomers and Gen Xers. If there is a Millennial political movement or zeitgeist, it is currently invisible in one of the great political hotbeds of the nation and world.

6. The over-arching emotion of the Millennials I have met and observed is fear: fear that they won’t get a cush job with bennies, fear that the “good life” which apparently means a secure job with high pay might not open up, fear that life might not work out easily.

It’s over, so move on to something better. The whole cheap oil, Savior State, consumerist/media/facebook solipsism has no future. Clinging to it in the hopes you can extract some meaning, security or swag is a losing proposition. Where is the excitement about changing things, rather than fearfully hoping the swag lasts long enough for you to get your share? Fearfully clinging to Mommy, Daddy and the Savior State is no path to greatness.

I even make an appearance at one point in the essay. Read more of Charles Hugh Smith’s An Open Letter to the Millennials/Gen-Y: Where Are You? (Of Two Minds)
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.23.2010
09:47 pm
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Notes from the Underground: Dostoevsky-themed subway station feared to become a suicide landmark
06.23.2010
08:51 pm
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An artist was hired to paint scenes from Dostoevsky in a Moscow subway station. Does as asked. Hilarity ensues!

Ivan Nikolayev, the man who painted the murals didn’t understand all the fuss his work caused: “What did you want? Scenes of dancing? Dostoevsky does not have them,” he said. From the Telegraph:

The station, called Dostoyevskaya, is decorated with brooding grey and black mosaics which depict violent scenes from the nineteenth century writer’s best-known novels.

One controversial mural re-enacts the moment when the main character in the novel Crime and Punishment murders an elderly pawnbroker and her sister with an axe.

Another shows a suicide-obsessed character in Dostoevsky’s novel The Demons holding a pistol to his temple. If that was not enough to darken the mood, shadowlike characters are shown flitting across the cavernous new station’s walls and a giant mosaic of a depressed-looking Dostoevsky stares out at passengers.

The new station has been criticised as “gloomy and depressing,” and psychologists have warned that its “negative energy” could make it a favourite spot for committing suicide.

“The deliberate dramatism will create a certain negative atmosphere and attract people with an unnatural psyche,” Mikhail Vinogradov, a prominent psychologist said. He and other experts warned that people who wanted to end their lives by throwing themselves under a train could well choose the new station in future.

Maybe Los Angeles ought to rethink naming those Metro stops after Bukowski, Nabokov and Raymond Chandler, after all.

Moscow’s Dostoevsky station could be ‘suicide mecca’ (Telegraph)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.23.2010
08:51 pm
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Steve Martin: A Wild and Crazy Guy
06.23.2010
06:35 pm
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In 1978, when I was in the seventh grade, I was a total fanatic for Steve Martin. Comedy was as important to me at that time as punk rock was and Steve Martin, Fernwood 2Night, National Lampoon, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Marx Brothers and (especially) the Firesign Theatre were every bit the equal of the Clash or Sex Pistols in my eyes.

I saw Steve Martin “in concert” on the A Wild and Crazy Guy tour just as his career went supernova. King Tut was in the singles charts (I still have the picture sleeve 45) at the time and his latest album had just gone double platinum. Martin, is of course, still a big star, but in 1978, he was a rock star among comedians, arguable the biggest.

It was the first really big show I’d ever seen, held at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, a venue normally reserved for the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Emerson. Lake and Palmer. The place was huge and we sat in the very, very last row of the section furthest back from the stage. I get vertigo easily and it was acute for me sitting there, but no matter, I was about to see one of my heros in person!

When Steve Martin walked out onto the stage that night, frankly he could have been anybody with a white 3-piece suit (his then trademark attire), grey hair, some balloon animals and an arrow through his head. He was so far away that it was impossible for him to have had any rapport with the cheap seats other than to do the standard “How are we doin’ up there?” banter. But like I gave a shit, I was in heaven. Here I was in the same room with Steve Martin!  Well me and 11,000 other people…

The encore, predictably, was King Tut. Performing to a recorded backing track, at one point an electric guitar was lowered from the flies, Martin grabbed it, attacking it furiously, strumming five chords in the space of about two or three seconds and up and and away it went again. I was buzzing about this show for at least the next three days.

Below are some examples of primo 70s Steve Martin appearances and an in-concert clip of King Tut. I noticed that one guy on YouTube has a 7 DVD set of Steve Martin on TV in the 70s. I might have to get that.

 

 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.23.2010
06:35 pm
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Diego Maradona loves his players but he’s so not gay. OK?
06.23.2010
05:01 pm
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Even if you’re a soccer layman who knows the name Pele, you’ve likely also heard the name Diego Maradona. The legendary 49-year-old Argentine player and coach, who captained his national team to win the 1986 World Cup is known as much for his off-field controversies (like his 20-year cocaine habit) as for those on-field, including his “Hand of God” goal.

During this week’s World Cup activity, Diego got handed a true moment when a journalist’s question about the current Argentine captain’s cuddly treatment of his excellent players got mistranslated into an intimation about the way El Diego swings.
 

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.23.2010
05:01 pm
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Lost Belgian no wave prog band: Des Airs
06.23.2010
03:43 pm
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Once again Tony Coulter has drawn my attention to another lovely gap in my knowledge of obscure 80’s post-punk Belgian no wave prog something-or-other music. Des Airs, who released only one E.P. were a co-ed affair, the distaff portion being especially notable for boasting vocalist Catherine Jauniaux of Aksak Maboul (about whom, more later), The Work, etc. and bassist/vocalist Fanchon Nuyens who would later go on to form Zap Mama. The first clip below starts out as a slovenly take on of all things an appropriately perverse Peter Cook and Dudley Moore song! What could at first be written off as a novelty tune turns seriously funky at around 2:30 when the drunken waltz groove turns itself inside out. Surprising ! The second clip is another spartan and funky no wave workout from the same E.P.

 

 
Des Airs- Lunga Notte E.P. (La Folie Du Jour)

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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06.23.2010
03:43 pm
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K-Strass the yo-yo prankster strikes again !
06.23.2010
11:37 am
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How does he manage it ? God, I love this guy !

 
Previously on DM : BRILLIANT YO-YO PRANKSTER K-STRASS

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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06.23.2010
11:37 am
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Toy Story meets The Wire
06.23.2010
07:53 am
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“You happy now, bitch?”
 
Thank you Nathaniel Wice of New York City, NY!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.23.2010
07:53 am
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The Equals: British Multiracial Soul
06.23.2010
01:27 am
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Before he went off to make a mint singing about the main market street in Brixton, Guyanese-born London resident Eddy Grant put together the Equals, one of England’s most stomping multi-racial soul-rock bands.

Before the Equals scored their first hit in the UK with “Baby Come Back,” it went #1 in Germany, from which the first clip below originates, featuring a rather bossy 19-year-old Grant. It would take Top of the Pops a full year until they booked the Equals to perform the same tune. Oh yeah, they tossed over the song in clip #2 to a bunch of punks a few years after they recorded it in ’69.

Original North London skinhead psychedelia!
 

 

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.23.2010
01:27 am
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