Velvet Underground meets Velvet Revolutionary

Vaclav Havel died today at the age of 75. A former chain smoker with chronic respiratory problems, Havel had been in failing health the past few months and died at his weekend home in Hradecek in the northern Czech Republic,

Czech independence leader, artist and human rights activist, Havel was elected the first president of a free Czechoslovakia since 1948 on December 29, 1989.

A prominent force in the Velvet Revolution, a bloodless overthrow of the communist regime in in Czechoslovakia, which returned democracy to Czechs after fifty years of Nazi occupation and communist rule, Havel was the very definition of a man of conscience. Soft-spoken, humble, impish and possessing a healthy sense of the absurd, Havel was that rare leader who chose the power of inspiration over rhetoric and empty gesture. He was a revolutionary who recognized that artistic creativity was every bit as important as political dogma or ideologies. Without the humanizing force of literature, theater and music and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all things, civilization is a hollow machine destined for spiritual starvation.

Himself a playwright, Havel was perhaps the only world leader who was closer to rock and rollers like Lou Reed, Frank Zappa and Keith Richards than politicians and bureaucrats. It is reputed that The Velvet Revolution was named after The Velvet Underground, whose music was made popular in Czechoslovakia by Prague’s radical avant-rock band The Plastic People.

Havel was a peacenik who somehow managed to navigate the treacherous waters of political power without losing his sense of perspective or soul.

Havel’s revolutionary message—which helped oust the world’s second strongest power from his country, but which Americans and in that moment the American Congress have not always been ready to hear—is that peace does not come by defeating enemies, it comes by making people free, governments democratic, and societies just. “The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order. Yet, I think it must be anchored in a different place, and in a different way, than has been the case so far. If it is to be more than just a slogan mocked by half the world, it cannot be expressed in the language of a departing era, and it must not be mere froth floating on the subsiding waters of faith in a purely scientific relationship to the world.”

Today’s world, as we all know, is faced with multiple threats,” he said in 1993 in Athens, on accepting one of the countless honors he received. “From whichever angle I look at this menace, I always come to the conclusion that salvation can only come through a profound awakening of man to his own personal responsibility, which is at the same time a global responsibility. Thus, the only way to save our world, as I see it, lies in a democracy that recalls its ancient Greek roots: democracy based on an integral human personality personally answering for the fate of the community.

Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness,” Havel told Congress, referring to a movement toward democracy, “nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe for which the world is headed—be it ecological, social, demographic, or a general breakdown of civilization—will be unavoidable. If we are no longer threatened by world war, or by the danger that the absurd mountains of nuclear weapons might blow up the world, this does not mean that we have definitely won. This is actually far from being a final victory.”

Havel speaks at the Forum for Creative Europe in March of 2009.
 

 
Part two, plus a clip about how rock and roll figured into the Velvet Revolution, after the jump…

 
These clips are hard to find on the Internet and who knows how long they’ll last out there before the dark corporate forces wipe them from view. The teachings of the SubGenius are under relentless assault!

Devo’s appearance on Saturday Night Live on October 14, 1978 was a visitation from a rock and roll galaxy far far away and yet so near. It was as if aliens from another planet had created a concept of Earthlings based on old television transmissions they’d hijacked of industrial training films, Triumph Of The Will, episodes of Hullabaloo and Saturday morning cartoons and then spewed it all back at us in a digitized replication missing a few ones and zeros. It was an attempt at communication, not unlike Klaatu’s failed efforts in 1951.
 

 
I have a fear of flying. When I travel, I do it by car. One of the many joys of driving across the States is checking out local restaurants, junk shops and record stores. So having a GPS-based record store locator in my cell phone is an utterly cool app that I can get behind. The Vinyl District has created software for the iPhone and Android that will lead you to indie record stores throughout the United States and United Kingdom. And it’s free.

All you need to know about downloading the record store locator is at The Vinyl District’s website.

This is a great tool, not only for music freaks, but for the surviving record stores out there. Technology doin’ the right thing. Put some good karma in that irritating plastic rectangle in your pocket.
 
Thanks to Tim Broun

 
Swords, Sandals And Sex mixes international grooves, punk and psyche with ultra-groovy dance sequences from vintage sword and sandal (pepblum) flicks.

01. “That’s Where It’s At” - Van Morrison and The Holmes Brothers
02. “Mabala” - Fathili and The Yahoos
03. “Saman Doye” - The Black Brothers
04. “Negre Africa Dub” - Sly and Robbie
05. “Daughter Whole Lotta Suger Down Deh” - Jah Berry
06. “She Moved Through The Fair” - Jam Nation
07. “Teen Tonic” - Pierre Henry and Michel Colombier
08. “World Destruction” - Afrika Babaata and John Lydon
09. “Fever” - Jingo
10. “El Pescador” - Toto La Momposina and Sus Tambores
11. “Swinger” - The Third Rail
12. “Venetian Glass” - Infinity
13. “Jocko Homo” - Devo
14. “Human Fly” - The Cramps
 

 
Elvin Estella, aka DJ Nobody of LA’s famed Low End Theory DJ collective (and former Dangerous Minds blogger), put out my favorite album of the summer of 2010, the Kanye-esque One for All Without Hesitation on which he played nearly all the instruments (there is nothing better to listen to cruising around LA with the top down on a sunny day than that album). He’s hardly been idle since then, running a weekly club, touring the world with Low End Theory, making beats with fellow LET collaborator Nocando as the “Bomb Zombies,” forming a psychedelic rock group, Blank Blue (that album comes out in 2012) and his current project, Songodsuns with rapper 2Mex.

From the LA Times:

But in 1998, the first record he ever released was with 2Mex, the erstwhile member of the Visionaries who has spent the last decade and a half entrenched as one of Los Angeles’ most celebrated cult rappers. Currently signed to Sage Francis’ Strange Famous Records, 2Mex puts Lil Wayne’s prolificacy to shame, dropping 35 records in the last dozen years alone. Along the way, he’s cut a reputation as the right kind of underground rapper: uncompromised, raw and fiercely original.

Though they’ve frequently collaborated, Nobody and 2Mex had never cut a full-length record until now. Slated for release on Nobody’s own Nobody’s Home imprint (distributed by Alpha Pup), “Fallin’ Angels” finds the duo getting weird and turning pro.

First single, “Do That Trick,” finds them channeling the Cure, “getting high in the park in Highland Park,” creating anti-“American Idol” art, meeting South Central sailorettes, and inventing new ways to pay the rent. Nobody creates a scuzzy minimalist banger that allows 2Mex an ideal canvas to “crank call Russell Simmons from Brussels.”

In an email to me this morning Elvin/Nobody writes:

Here is a new video that I did with my latest project, a rap group with my friend Alex (2mex) called Songodsuns.  It’s got some themes I think your readers would like i.e. weed and naked nuns

He’s probably right about that. NSFW unless naked nuns and two guys smoking massive amounts of herb are cool in your office:
 

 
Bonus: DJ Nobody presents his 2011 Winter Mix:
 

 
“I’m Rick Perry and I approve this message.”
 

 
Via I Heart Chaos

 
A rather drab ad for TDK videotape is haunted by history unforetold, giving it dark power from the future.

As a former New Yorker who loves the city, the twin towers still loom in my mind, casting shadows forever.
 
Via Copyranter

 
The talented bods at Bird Box Studios have made this fun animation, Singing Christmas Hedgehogs, where you can pick and dress a hedgehog to serenade you. How neat is that?
 

 
Via b3ta
 

 
Vice published an interesting article a few months back on a recent Mexican fashion and music trend: Kids who call themselves “Colombianos.”

Colombianos dig Colombian “cumbia” music and, apparently, lots and lots of hair gel. Now if they would only wear those boss Mexican pointy boots to go with their elaborate, sculpted hairdos. That would really complete the look, if you ask me.

An 8 cent stamp from 1973

On December 16th, 1773, a group of between 70 and 130 citizens of Boston, outraged they were obliged to pay taxes to the British government (who did not represent them) and by the monopoly held on much of what was imported into America at that time (like tea, silks, spices, saltpeter for making gunpowder) by the East India Company—the world’s very first mega-corporation that was somewhat synonymous with the British Empire, especially in India—took direct action and threw 342 chest of tea into Boston Harbor.

The background is probably unknown today by most Americans, but considering the irony that the name of this most iconic of American historical events has been hijacked by folks who want to give tax cuts to billionaires, it’s worth sketching out:

The East India Company, trying to stave off bankruptcy due to the undercutting of their markets by Dutch tea smugglers, asked for financial help from the British Parliament who passed Tea Act in 1773. This law exempted East India from having to pay a 25% duty (to Britain) on tea exported to America, where it was still taxed as an import. Although the price of tea actually dropped in America—pissing off the domestic tea merchants, who weren’t exempt—the Tea Act of 1773 would have set a precedent for the crown to impose more taxes in the future (like the hated Townshend Acts of six years earlier). Three colonies turned away the tea at their harbors, but in Boston, Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be boycotted. To his surprise, the angry colonists boarded three ships (dressed as Mohawk Indians) and destroyed $18,000 worth of tea, egged on by up to 7000 supporters on the shore.

Parliament’s reply was the Coercive Acts of 1774 which included tighter British military control of the colonies and a tax to repay the East India Company for the destroyed tea. Boston was to be punished by a closed port until that happened. This in turn, led to seething resentment and to the convening of the First Continental Congress, which demanded that the monarchy repeal the acts.

As most Americans know, or should know, these acts of civil disobedience lit the fuse of what would become the American Revolution. The American Revolutionary War began in 1775, but had been “brewing” for years

Dorian Cope had this to say about the Boston Tea Party at her On This Deity blog:

“As a historical and iconic act, the Boston Tea Party is to modern Americans synonymous with the spirit of their country’s independence – being the very embodiment of the New World’s rejection of Old World tyranny. It is also significant as one of the first examples of mass civil disobedience; resistance to taxation had never before resulted in the large-scale and deliberate destruction of property. But it is worth noting that, were the Tea Party to take place today, then every one of those so-called great patriots who participated would – under the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s current guidelines – be classified as “terrorists”. Hence, when casting our judgement on current resistors and freedom fighters, it is wise to remember that past political actions have always been measured by future generations solely by their success or failure – for, as Winston Churchill said, “history is written by the victors.’”