Sonny Bono seems more than a little stoned in this US government anti-marijuana film from 1968. It includes an hilarious final piece to camera (which looks edited to best comic effect) where Bono trips over his words, as he tells the audience:
“Well now, you’ve heard from both sides of the question, but what you do with your life is up to you.
“If you become a pothead you risk blowing the most important time of your life: your teen age. That unrepeatable time for you to grow up and to prepare for being an adult that can handle problems, and make something meaningful out of life.
“Or, you have the choice to have the courage to see and deal with the world for what it really is - far, far from perfect but for you and for me the only one there is.
“While it’s true that some of you will actually go to the moon and perhaps other planets, it’s also true that in a few short years, this world will be your establishment, and you will be the Establishment and what you do or don’t do about it will be your scene. Your the generation with the brain power and the opportunity to do more for the human needs of this world than any other generation in history.
“Let’s hope your teenage children don’t have too much criticism of what you did or didn’t do because you were on pot.”
O, roll me a fat one Sonny.
With thanks to Debbie Rochon
Morrissey premiered 3 new songs on Janice Long‘s BBC 2 radio show today. The tracks “Action Is My Middle Name”, “The Kid’s a Looker” and “People Are the Same Everywhere” were recorded last week at the Maida Vale studios, and will be included on Morrissey’s forthcoming tenth album release.
‘Action is My Middle Name’ (BBC Sessions) - Morrissey
‘The Kid’s a Looker’ (BBC Sessions) - Morrissey
‘People Are The Same Everywhere’ (BBC Sessions) - Morrissey
With thanks to NJUnderground
If you caught the new Adam Curtis BBC documentary series All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, you may have noticed the lovely opening theme. “Baby Love Child” is from Japan’s Pizzicato Five. I thought it was a weird choice, although I love the song. In 1994 I made a music video for “Baby Love Child.” The video mostly consists of already existing footage of Maki Nomiya, P5’s beautiful lead singer, taken from outtakes from other shoots and bits of a documentary. I shot the in-studio lip-sync, and once back in LA, I did the (primitive) art and the animated Nam June Paik-wanna be segments where I was working at the time. The budget was pretty much a free trip to Tokyo and a $1000. I haven’t seen this in years but I think it came out pretty good. If you want to hear the song I recorded with Pizzicato Five in Japan, I played it in one of the Dangerous Minds Radio Hour shows.
Well played! And well deserved, too.
Via Joe.My.God.
Here’s something very special, a fabulous Gil Scott-Heron Tribute Mix created by legendary DJ Gilles Peterson. Enjoy.
RIP Gil Scott-Heron (1st April 1949 – 27th May 2011)
01. Gil Scott Heron — Offering (Midnight Band - The First Minute Of A New Day, 1974) Flying Dutchman
02. Gil Scott-Heron — Essex (From South Africa To South Carolina, 1975) Arista
03. Gil Scott-Heron — Fell Together (From South Africa To South Carolina, 1975) Arista
04. Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson — The Bottle (Winter In America, 1974) TVT
05. Gil Scott Heron & Jamie XX — I’ll Take Care Of You (We’re New Here, 2011) XL
06. Gil Scott-Heron — Alien (1980, 1980) Arista
07. Gil Scott-Heron — Whitey On The Moon (Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, 1970) Flying Dutchman
08. Gil Scott-Heron — Did You Hear What they Said (Free Will, 1972) Flying Dutchman
09. Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson — We Almost Lost Detroit (Bridges, 1977) Arista
10. Gil Scott-Heron — Angel Dust (Secrets, 1978) Arista
11. Gil Scott-Heron — No Knock (Free Will, 1972) Flying Dutchman
12. Gil Scott-Heron — The Revolution WIll Not Be Televised (The Revolution WIll Not Be Televised, 1974) Flying Dutchman
13. Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson — It’s Your World (It’s Your World, 1976) Arista
14. Gil Scott-Heron — Fast Lane (Moving Target, 1982) Arista
15. Gil Scott-Heron — B Movie (Reflections, 1981) Arista
16. Gil Scott-Heron — Lady Day & John Coltrane (Pieces Of A Man, 1971) Flying Dutchman
17. Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson — It’s Your World (It’s Your World, 1976) Arista
18. Gil Scott-Heron Gil Scott-Heron — Fast Lane (Moving Target, 1982) Arista
19. Gil Scott-Heron — Lady Day & John Coltrane (Pieces Of A Man, 1971) Flying Man
20. Gil Scott-Heron — Everyday (Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, 1970) Flying Dutchman
21. Gil Scott-Heron — Grandma’s Hands (Reflections, 1981) Arista
22. Gil Scott-Heron — Winter In America (Winter In America, 1974) TVT
23. Gil Scott-Heron — Spirits (Spirits, 1994) TVT
24. Gil Scott-Heron — Is That Jazz (I’m New Here, 2010) XL
25. Gil Scott-Heron — Rivers Of My Fathers (Winter In America, 1974) TVT
26. Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson — Home Is Where The Hatred Is (I’m New Here, 2010) XL
27. Gil Scott-Heron — Johannesburg (1975) Arista
28. Gil Scott-Heron — Peace With You Brother (Winter In America,1974) TVT
With thanks to Paul Cawley
‘Hanging Piece’ - Kendell Geers
An estimated 60,000 people will attend this year’s Art Basel fair, which opens Wednesday until June 19. Art Basel is considered the world’s top fair for modern and contemporary art, with 300 galleries displaying more than 2,500 artists, with an estimated combined value of nearly $2 billion.
Art Basel is important as it gives a better idea of the international art market than other fairs, which tend to be dominated by galleries from the host country. This year Art Basel has 73 galleries form the USA, 50 from Germany, 32 from Switzerland, 31 from England, and 23 from France. The still-emerging markets of India, Brazil, China and Russia are less well represented, with a combined total of 12 galleries, while Hungary, Thailand, and Lebanon represented for the first time.
Here’s a selection of some of this year’s exhibits, more of which can be seen here.
‘Fall’ - Jonathan Monk
‘Untitled’ - Keith Haring
Via the Daily Telegraph
More exhibits from Art Basel, after the jump…
They’re as perplexed as you’re going to be…
Doctor Who Girl’s Knickers is perhaps the single greatest site on the Internet. You think I’m kidding, don’t you? I am not.
Here’s what the proprietor has to say for himself:
I first started collecting knickers in 1983 when at the Longleat Exhibition I was sold a pair of Janet Fielding’s underwear by a make-up lady. But let me be clear on this; there is nothing “perverted” or “weird” about my collection. We all collect things we like, and I find knickers more personal than an autograph on the back of a plastic cup.
To date I have ninety four pairs of knickers which I think you’ll agree is a wonderful achievement! I have built this collection up by begging, borrowing and on three occasions stealing. I like to write to female Doctor Who celebrities for items of their clothing and over the years it’s become pretty clear to me that the way to ask is to not refer to their “knickers” but their “feminine undergarments”.
Once the full gallery is up you’ll see just how wonderful and original my collection is. I also intend to include a gallery of the various rejection letters I’ve received, as well as some of the more surprising replies.
People are *always* asking me if I have any men’s pants from Doctor Who. I’d like to make it absolutely clear right now that I am not a gay pervert. Lots of my very best friends are gay but the thought of asking for another man’s pants is frankly dirty. To this end I rather hope I’ve heard the last of one cast member who continually *insisted* on sending me items of his clothing.
There is a tab on the left for anyone from the press who is as interested and excited in these knickers as I am. Please feel free to browse the galleries and if you do use pictures elsewhere please do give me full credit for them.
Finally I’m *frequently* asked which item from my collection is my favourite. It’s so hard to say, but if I’m honest, if I’m really honest, then in all honesty and at the end of the day it’s actually the ones I got first of all - Janet’s.
I hope you enjoy my collection as much as I do all the time.
A
Where to start, right? (Or why even bother trying?). The real comedy here is in the details. Certain things slip out in his descriptions that are bust-a-gut funny. For instance, here’s his caption that is next to a shot of Freema Agyeman’s (supposed) panties:
She played Martha in Doctor Who and was rubbish. I got these knickers from the set when they filmed on location for the one with the scarecrows.
I can’t go into details because I might get arrested. They smell of lavender and last summer I noticed two bees sitting on them in August.
Okay, then… Here’s the caption next to Mary Tamm’s underwear. She played the original “Romana” before Lalla Ward took over the role:
These were a gift from a friend of mine who’s a fan and apparently had sex with Mary Tamm in 1991 at a convention in Cardiff. He swears it’s true and that he asked her for the knickers afterwards.
I didn’t believe him at first but then he sent my a letter of authenticity that he’d signed so I know he was telling the truth.
He even cliams that he bought seven pairs of panties from Joan Sims herself via a postal order. Joan Sims??? There’s more, intrepid reader, there is SO MUCH MORE to see at Doctor Who Girl’s Knickers.
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Masturbating to Mary Tyler Moore
R.U. Sirius, also known as Ken Goffman, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Mondo 2000 magazine, has a new blog called Acceler8or. The blog will curate links from around the Internet relating to technological acceleration and transhumanist/Singularitarian culture.
The round of content included an interview with Genesis Breyer P. Orridge, and an interesting essay about the new Adam Curtis documentary All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace.
In other R.U. Sirius news, Vice Magazine interviewed him over I.M. recently about the history of Mondo 2000 and he gives DM a nice compliment:
Where are all the cyberpunks that read Mondo 2000 back in the day? Was someone like Mark Zuckerberg a reader?
Mark was too young. Maybe Sean Parker. I hear from people in the computer industry all the time that they were inspired by Mondo 2000. Also, people working in biotechnology, nanotechnology… I think the Mondoids are all over the map, most of them still have many of the same enthusiasms, tempered with experience and a healthy skepticism.You’ve used the term “gonzo anthropology,” the means of studying the more esoteric and under-researched aspects of human culture—what does that mean, exactly?
Alison Kennedy aka Queen Mu, the Mondo 2000 publisher, practices gonzo anthropology. She was the one who uncovered toad venom containing 5-meo DMT in the West. She also explores very odd and arcane anthropological theories about the uses of plants and animals as aphrodisiacs, the use of Calumas as a sort of natural MDMA-like substance. Her magnum opus appeared in Mondo 2000. It was an article about how Jim Morrison used tarantula venom and got penis cancer, based on an entire gonzo anthropological exploration of implications of tarantula venom use (as an inspirational but self-destructive intoxicant) throughout human experience. The Doors producer, whose name I can’t remember, took it very seriously and got very upset about it. Ray Manzarek, I think, was not happy either. It was a wildly brilliant and hilarious and beautifully written piece.Do you feel that in some ways you guys were too left field for some people?
I think we were too anarchic, playful, and incomprehensible for a mainstream magazine about the uprising of the digital technoculture. One of the first things that I noticed about Wired was that they had letters to the editor from people expressing ordinary Republican or Democratic political views, whereas we would get letters about the green aliens on acid who wrote the letter writer’s new software program and how many different drugs Hitler used. I mean, off the wall stuff. But I think Republicans are on a wall that I can’t relate to. So yeah, there was a limited relationship between us and a mainstream audience. The mainstream media people liked us because we seemed colorful and novel. And as a result of the attention, the people who would read the magazine found out about it. Wired does some great stuff online now, though. It’s an OK institution. I have to say though, they send me the magazine and it usually winds up in recycling, unread.What do you see as your legacy? Who is continuing what you guys started?
Well, Boing Boing have been their own thing from the start. They were the small magazine when we were the big one, but they’re a relative. Maybe Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger’s new site, in spirit. But I think Mondo was unique. It was an art project really using journalism and technoculture as a context. It was just a few unusual individuals following instincts. The mistakes were obvious but the energy of it was so much fun that as Richard Kadrey once said, “You have to have a mighty big stick up your ass not to love it.”
Mondo 2000 and gonzo anthropology (Viceland Today)
July 1937 issue of “True Romance”
Times have changed: From a different era, when women weren’t expected to achieve—from fashion magazines constantly shoving it down our throats—the unrealistic goal of the “emaciated runway model” look.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite message in this ad.
(via World of Wonder )
Before he started Factory Records or the Hacienda nightclub, as the host of And So It Goes on Granada Television, the late Tony Wilson was personally responsible for some of the most iconic punk bands getting preserved on film and videotape. The Sex Pistols, Magazine, The Buzzcocks, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, The Banshees, The Fall, The Jam and many other performers found a TV outlet on And So It Goes that they wouldn’t have had elsewhere. It ran for two years until a foul-mouthed moment by Iggy (wearing a horse’s tail, I might add) got it canceled.
This And So It Goes footage of The Clash playing at the Elizabethan Ballroom in Manchester on November 15th, 1977 is probably the best footage of the Clash that there is. It’s certainly the best I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a helluva lot of it. The camera placement is perfect for showing what utter havoc and mayhem the band could cause. You can practically feel the gob in the air that night. According to The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town by Marcus Gray (highly recommended, btw) fans queuing up for the show got rowdy and pushed the door in causing quite a bit of damage.
Richard Hell and the Voidoids were not in fact the opening act. The were replaced at the last minute by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Note ticket price!
During “What’s My Name?” Strummer sings “Here we are on TV. What does it mean to me? What does it mean to you? FUCK ALL!”:
Israeli musician, composer, producer and videographer Ophir Kutiel does his art as Kutiman. You may recognize his name from Thru-You, the hypnotically rhythmic collage of non-pro musician YouTube videos from across the globe that he made in 2009, and which scored 10 million views, sent him to the Guggenheim, and made it into Time magazine and landed him at the Guggenheim.
Welp, he’s got a new one, and it’s a burner. With sectarian and ethnic tensions in his Jerusalem birthplace at what seems a permanent high, Kutiman has given the city a similar and very necessary visiosonic treatment with the help of 15 of its Arab and Jewish musicians. Check it.
After the jump: Kutiman’s mega-video-mashup from late last year Sue You...
I would definitely give this guy a dollar:
Thanks to Chistopher McEwan!
I attended a Noam Chomsky lecture in the early 90s where he was explaining why he thought that the Wall Street Journal was the best source of information available at that time. The reason he felt this way was because the WSJ was a newspaper catering to the bigwigs of capitalism, and it wasn’t pretending to be anything else. With a little reading between the lines, you could see where things were going to trend or what the attitudes of the elites really were. I never forgot that and have always tried to read a wide variety of daily “business news” sources for this reason.
Today, via the often quirky Business Insider website, I came across an alarming presentation from Jeremy Grantham. Does his name ring a bell? Jeremy Grantham is a co-founder and the Chief Investment Strategist of Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO), an asset management firm with more than $108 billion dollars in assets under their care. It’s one of the largest asset management firms in the world.
Grantham is noted for his prediction of various bubbles in asset classes and his knack for seeing which direction the market is moving in. Lately he’s turned very, very bearish. Now, Grantham’s insisting: “We’re headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.”
Summary of the Summary
The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly.
Summary
Until about 1800, our species had no safety margin and lived, like other animals, up to the limit of the food supply, ebbing and flowing in population.
From about 1800 on the use of hydrocarbons allowed for an explosion in energy use, in food supply, and, through the creation of surpluses, a dramatic increase in wealth and scientific progress.
Since 1800, the population has surged from 800 million to 7 billion, on its way to an estimated 8 billion, at minimum.
The rise in population, the ten-fold increase in wealth in developed countries, and the current explosive growth in developing countries have eaten rapidly into our finite resources of hydrocarbons and metals, fertilizer, available land, and water.
Now, despite a massive increase in fertilizer use, the growth in crop yields per acre has declined from 3.5% in the 1960s to 1.2% today. There is little productive new land to bring on and, as people get richer, they eat more grain-intensive meat. Because the population continues to grow at over 1%, there is little safety margin.
The problems of compounding growth in the face of finite resources are not easily understood by optimistic, short-term-oriented, and relatively innumerate humans (especially the political variety).
The fact is that no compound growth is sustainable. If we maintain our desperate focus on growth, we will run out of everything and crash. We must substitute qualitative growth for quantitative growth.
But Mrs. Market is helping, and right now she is sending us the Mother of all price signals. The prices of all important commodities except oil declined for 100 years until 2002, by an average of 70%. From 2002 until now, this entire decline was erased by a bigger price surge than occurred during World War II.
Statistically, most commodities are now so far away from their former downward trend that it makes it very probable that the old trend has changed – that there is in fact a Paradigm Shift – perhaps the most important economic event since the Industrial Revolution.
Climate change is associated with weather instability, but the last year was exceptionally bad. Near term it will surely get less bad.
Excellent long-term investment opportunities in resources and resource efficiency are compromised by the high chance of an improvement in weather next year and by the possibility that China may stumble.
From now on, price pressure and shortages of resources will be a permanent feature of our lives. This will increasingly slow down the growth rate of the developed and developing world and put a severe burden on poor countries.
We all need to develop serious resource plans, particularly energy policies. There is little time to waste.
You can go through the entire presentation at Business Insider. His charts show long, long term patterns and trends. Numbers don’t lie. There is very definitely a cause for concern. I’d very very curious what the Freakonomics guys had to say about this…
My first reaction on hearing of the international “Slut Walk” movement was “brilliant.” About bloody time! What a horribly demeaning word, one loaded with judgement that denies a person the basic enjoyment of their own sexual activities and bodies. “Slut” is rife for reclaiming - because there is no term for a person who enjoys copious amount of sex that is not pejorative. Why not, as other social groups have done in the past, take an already existing term of abuse and strip it of its negative meaning? It’s hard to fathom that the word “slut” still holds so much power in this, the twenty first century. Are we still to feel shame for our sexual desires and appetites? Does Michael Sanguinetti believe that if all women were to suddenly don burkhas all rape would be wiped out? No, because a rapist will commit a rape regardless of what a person is wearing, slutty or otherwise - the risk factors lie with the rapists not the victim.
So, my partner and I turned out for Slut Walk Manchester on last Friday evening, to show our faces and bodies and in some small way reclaim the place will live as being safe from harassment and abuse. Of course it’s only a small gesture but that in itself does not make it invalid or worthless. By all accounts Manchester is a very protest-friendly city, but the turnout of roughly a thousand was very healthy and exceeded expectations. We walked for over an hour, winding our way through the city centre streets, stopping traffic and emptying public transport. The reaction from passers by was supportive and not negative like I had assumed it would be, and even though no official license had been granted for the march by the council, the police were helpful and friendly, and guided the mass of people on their way rather than hemming them in.
The crowd was mixed, with a lot of men walking and a good range of ages (though most on the march were young). There were a handful of drag queens and queer activists as well - Manchester has a large gay population and an active male sex industry, so male rape is not uncommon. If I have one gripe it was with the placards handed out to the crowd by the Socialist Worker Party, an act that to me seemingly hijacked an apolitical march for its own ends. The placards read “No Means No” on one side, with “Clarke Must Go” on the other. Sure, Ken Clarke, the British Secretary of State for Justice made some very unwise comments on rape a few weeks ago, but I did not need the SWP to help me call for his resignation, or tell me that my body was my property. It just came across as petty point scoring. Other placards of interest held by members of the march included “Police Rapists, Not My Fucking Wardrobe”, “My Minge My Rules” and “Queer As in Fuck You (But Only If You Consent)”.
At one point during the march I was approached by a man for a cigarette an we got chatting. He seemed not to be of the typical student/protester mould, more a working class guy fond of a few pints, but I had noticed him before and though he might have been one of the organisers. As we were walking he asked me if I had been raped. I answered that thankfully I hadn’t, but I still wanted to show my support as I know people who have. Almost with a sense of confrontational pride he told me that he had been raped, and that it had happened while he was 9 years old and living in care. He asked me what the march was about and if it was specifically for women. He didn’t know what a “Slut Walk” was, he had never heard of it, he just happened to be in town and saw it passing. So I explained about the concept, the reclaiming of the word, and the comments on rape Ken Clarke had made. He kept clarifying that he was not gay - at first I thought this might have had to do the leather gear I was wearing, but soon realised it was more to do with the societal taboo of male rape and this man’s own experience of it. Eventually he turned to me, looked me in the eye and said he had never told another man about this before. I shook his hand. I understood where the confrontation was coming from - it was not with me but it with himself and the fact that he was facing up to a dark part of his own past he had buried for god knows how long. A part he probably would not have faced up to had it not been for the Slut Walk.
