National treasure Ornette Coleman has been showing people what freedom sounds like for more than 50 years. Here are two takes on his wildly manic (yet strangely accessible) “Dancing in Your Head” seperated by twelve years, from a small room in Rome for a film crew to a huge amphitheater in Japan for a rapt and adoring crowd. Coleman has long been a thorn in the side of so-called “jazz” lovers the world over with his self-styled harmelodic excursions . Just take a look at these anguished comments and witness some hapless musos trying to come to grips with what they’re hearing. Fun tip: play both clips simultaneously for extra harmelodic goodness !

 
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, a Costco in Salt Lake City took tomatoes off its shelves last week in preparation for Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” book-signing appearance at the store. A man was arrested on Dec. 7 at a Palin event at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., for allegedly throwing a tomato at the former Alaska governor, and Costco management was “determined” to avoid a repeat. Helen Rappaport, a Democrat, was happy to browse the nearly empty aisles of the big-box giant while other shoppers clustered around the Palin event area, but she was puzzled as to why she couldn’t seem to find any tomatoes:

No tomatoes? At Costco?

As she was leaving, she noticed a man with a store manager’s name tag and asked him why they had no tomatoes. He informed her the store did have tomatoes, but they were taken off the shelves for a few hours.

It turns out that Palin had been pelted with a tomato at an earlier stop on her book tour and the management at the Costco was determined it wouldn’t happen here.

No word on whether eggs, watermelons, apples or other potentially useful foodstuff projectiles were available during the Palin event.

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
If a picture paints a thousand words, then this time-lapse video can represent an entire book’s worth ... a book by Al Gore, that is. A new multiyear study from the University of Colorado illustrates how a large swath of the Alaskan coast is eroding at the alarming rate of 45 feet per year. Three factors contribute to the loss: warmer water, melting permafrost and lashing waves. The coastline generally consists of frozen silt, which once it starts going, really doesn’t stop.

Jaymi Heimbuch writes on Treehugger:

With less ice cover during the summers to protect the shore from the ocean, and warmer ocean waters almost guaranteed, the erosion seems unstoppable. In fact, the scientists working on the study say as much. There is little evidence that this erosion has an end point. As the shoreline is made up of blocks of permafrost, the conditions basically ensure that large chunks are taken off at a time during stormy weather.

“Once one of these blocks topples, the process continues on to the next block,” Anderson said.

Deny this, climate change skeptics!

Cross posting this from Brand X

For anybody who missed this cultural trainwreck, somebody gave Chuck Norris a blog. And he is currently mouthing off about Democrats and how they want to abort the future of humanity. Vide:

I’m not exaggerating. Here are the relevant passages:

“In short, while President Obama was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, the Democrats in Congress drove a sword through the womb of the unborn.”

(Yes, the womb of the unborn. They had to use those tiny plastic swords they put in drinks.)

And:

“Lastly, as we near the eve of another Christmas, I wonder: What would have happened if Mother Mary had been covered by Obamacare? What if that young, poor and uninsured teenage woman had been provided the federal funds (via Obamacare) and facilities (via Planned Parenthood, etc.) to avoid the ridicule, ostracizing, persecution and possible stoning because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy?”

He brings up this original argument:

“Imagine all the great souls who could have been erased from history and the influence of mankind if their parents had been as progressive as Washington’s wise men and women!”

Here’s a relevant Biblical question lawmakers should ask themselves before they proceed with the bill:

“Will Obamacare morph into Herodcare for the unborn?”

(AlterNet: Chuck Norris: Health Reform = Aborted Jesus)

(Bonus CN Caring About the Youth)

Good AP report on the stresses faced by women enlisted in the military on their return home (not to mention while they’re on active duty). We don’t need another post-Vietnam in this country. Treat veterans right and provide the services they need.

WASHINGTON ?

Via Dave Snoob at Arthur:

[Huxley] reminded me that drugs are beneficial if they provide the only access to our nightlife. I realized that the expression ?

Dangerous Minds friends Feral House / Process Media are having a Winter Solstice Mega-Sale. FH/Process are the publishers of the recently mega-covered books Thee Psychick Bible and Love Sex Fear Death. They have a buy-2-get-1-free sale. Which means that you could buy the two books above and get a copy of any of their fine books… including the just-released Opium for the Masses. Which means you could be in a candy-colored-cloud and doing godawful sorcery in NO TIME. FH says:

For you Solstice gift givers, we offer you a special HOLIDAY BOOK SALE: for the next three weeks only, buy any two books from Feral House and get a FREE book of your choice! (Book must be of equal or lesser value to the least expensive book). Offer good until January 1, 2010.

(Feral House / Process Media: Thee Industrial Poppy Cult Has Come)

 
Wonderful time yesterday as Dangerous Minds taped for an upcoming show “cultural engineer” Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.  Not to tease something that won’t show up here for a week or so, but Richard’s interview with Gen was at times so captivating I was practically crawling into the speakers beyond our “black box studio” so as to not miss a single word.  In the meantime, check out Psychic TV covering the Velvet Underground classic, Foggy Notion:

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Thee Psychick Bible Now Out! , The Infinity Factory: Genesis P-Orridge Interview,
The Infinity Factory: Robert Anton Wilson, Genesis P-Orridge and Me

 
Could the artistry of David Bowie be tied somehow to the appearance of his teeth?  That appears to be the subtext of the following video.  Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie?  As “Surgeon To The Stars” Alex Kardis points out, “his teeth don’t look particularly great.”  By the time he got around, though, to recording Let’s Dance, Bowie’s choppers look brighter and tighter.

I find it interesting that Rolling Stone’s Alan Light feels that after Bowie cranked out not only Ziggy Stardust, but Hunky Dory, Low, Station to Station, etc., the one thing “holding him back” was a self-consciousness about his teeth.  Hmm, by that logic…did cosmetic surgery beget Tin Machine?!

 
What’s wrong with “bite the wax tadpole” as a slogan for Coca-Cola ?
 
via Coca-Cola Conversations :

When Coca-Cola was first sold in China in 1927, it was obvious to the Coke employees in China that the Coca-Cola trademark must be transliterated into Chinese characters. To find the nearest phonetic equivalent to ?