Café Gordon

Booker T. - Green Onions (2009) Everybody's Favorite

2011-10-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

This fabulous piece blows me away even now as it did in 1962.

And here's a great version from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty- Green Onions 1999 Hamburg
From: sk8boardercm5 | Jun 22, 2008 | 34,281 views
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
Live at Hamburg 1999
Rockpalast
Green Onions

and of course Telstar

Uploaded by chessmoon on Oct 27, 2006
Telstar by The Tornados a short video Directed by Alan Smithee

Chimes Of Freedom Flashing -Bob Dylan- Youssou Ndour , tracy Chapman, Spingsteen, Sting, Gabriel

2011-10-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

dylan: Chimes of Freedom Flashing
xorbah

Uploaded by xorbah on Apr 15, 2011
Bob Dylan's Masterpiece - from Newport, 1964: Chimes of Freedom Flashing

Youssou Ndour :

"Embraced for his beautiful voice and fine songwriting, N'Dour, with his band the Super Etoile de Dakar, has toured the globe for 20 years, all the while adding other styles such as Afro-Cuban and rock."

"Everyone likes to be in on a secret. And like lots of the best singers, Youssou N'Dour knows how to make listeners feel as if they're not just hearing his music but overhearing it."

"Like the musical storytellers in Africa called griots, Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour is presenting the culture and history of his people"

Youssou Ndour Chimes of freedom
kkanealvine

And here's a live version including Youssou Ndour, peter gabriel Tracy Chapman ,Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Marley's protest song Get Up Stand Up.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Clinton Jubilant Over Ghaddafi's Death ( torture & summary Execution)

2011-10-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

Looks like a parody on SNL. Is it real ?

Hillary Clinton's response to Ghaddfi's death. She shows no concern about the details of his death another possible murder or assassination . If he lived the US would have insisted on keeping him silent and put on trial in a Kangaroo Court like they did Saddam. Another one for American Wild West rough justice rather than the rule of law ie lynchings .

Clinton jubilant over Gaddafi's death: "We came, we saw, he died"
From: PlanetEarthAwakens01 | Oct 20, 2011
A true psychopath if ever there was one...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared a laugh with a television news reporter moments after hearing deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi had been killed.

Anti-War Song Bruce Springsteen Bring Them Home

2011-10-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

Bruce Springsteen Bring Them Home San Francisco 2006 YouTube
Song written by Pete Seeger in 1965 during the Vietnam War
Stevehernandez76701

Now the song is sung to bring the troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan .
These wars can not be won.
The Iraqi people are not America's enemies and their oil belongs not to America but to the Iraqi people.
And staying in Afghanistan for what to protect "the Opium Crops" and to piss off every living soul in the region .
Meanwhile the US government has forced NATO troops to carpet bomb Libya for political, strategic and economic reasons to extend the American Empire

Pete Seeger and Friends, "Bring 'em Home"

Anti-war song Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya

2011-10-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

The Civil War song When Johnny Comes marching Home Again was based upon the Irish song "Johnny I Hardly Kene Ya"

Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya- Tommy Maken & The Clancy Brothers

and a different full throttle version
Toby Johnstons - Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya!
TobyJohnston -2008

Compare this version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

and so it goes,
GORD.

And the band played Waltzing Mathilda Anti-war song

2011-10-19T02:00:00.000-07:00

This is an anti-war song and is an indictment of how the English used the soldiers from the British Colonies especially as mere cannon fodder-sending them into the bloodiest battles or in the first waves of attacks on the enemy the Turks, the Germans- so the Australians, Canadians, the Irish & Scots were treated as mere pieces of meat for the Wars ongoing meat grinder.

"The young people ask
What are they marching for?
and I ask myself The same question"

And the band played Waltzing Mathilda-played by The Pogues
smileynoir

Here's the version by one of my favorites Liam Clancy

Liam Clancy - Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Dubliners Waltzing Matilda : Eric Bogle : Anzacs Gallipoli
celticstar01

Uploaded by celticstar01 on Mar 11, 2008
Tribute video of The Dubliners & Ronnie Drew's classic version of Eric Bogle anti-war song - The Band played Waltzing Matilda, with photos from the Anzacs Gallipoli Campaign. Almost 4,000 members of the Royal Dublin Fusilers also died at Gallipoli.

and so it goes,
GORD.

The Unknown Soldier-Jim Morrison & The Doors

2011-10-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

Jim Morrison & The Doors - "Unknown Soldier "

A BLACK WOMAN'S SMILE BY TY GRAY EL: SPOKEN WORD

2011-10-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

A Black Woman's Smile
A BLACK WOMAN'S SMILE BY TY GRAY EL: SPOKEN WORD

Bruce Cockburn -if I Had a Rocket launcher

2011-10-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Bruce Cockburn -If I Had A Rocket Launcher

Sky Pilot-Eric Burdon & The Animals Hypocrisy of Military Chaplains

2011-10-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

The Hypocrisy of military Chaplains as they ignore the Sermon on The Mount
Sky Pilot by Eric Burdon & the Animals

And here's Bob Dylan's take on the notion that the USA has God on its side but don't other countries even US enemies also claim to have God on their side as well.
Why are Americans unable to understand that they are not exceptional in this regard. The Serbs when they slaughtered their non-Christian neighbors also insisted and still do that God is on their side.
The terrorists who attacked the US on 9/11 also claimed to have God on their side .
The British, the Dutch, the Germans, the French, the Spaniards when they had their empires also believed that their actions were justified because each of them claimed to have God on their side.

Kay Kyser Praise The Lord & Pass The Ammunition

Serj Tankian -Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition

and of course here's Vera Lynn singing "We'llMeet Again" as a backdrop to the finally of the anti-war satirical film "Dr. Strangelove "

and there you go again.
GORD.

Universal Soldier -Donovan Leitch

2011-10-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

Donovan Leitch - Sings Universal Soldier

Buffy St. Marie talking about when she wrote "Universal Soldier"

Anti-War & Other Protest Songs

2011-10-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

Bruce Cockburn - 'They Call It Democracy"

Jefferson Airplane -Volunteers of America

Cream plays "In A White Room"

Bruce Cockburn- " Burn Baby Burn "

Buffalo Springfield- For What Its Worth

Suggested Songs For 9/11 "Messiah Ward" By Nick Cave & "Windowsill" & "Neon Bible" By Arcade Fire

2011-09-11T10:02:00.001-07:00

Note disclaimer not approved by Nick Cave or Arcade Fire

Sad Song & Video for 9/11 -
A Brutal unnecessary barbaric act answered first with shock and tears and then Shock and Awe and a brutal barbaric unnecessary War in Iraq and the torture , humiliation , and muder of one million Iraqis. All to give solace to Americans and to assuage their desire for Revenge.
And still it all continues as America bullies its way around the Globe like the old elephant in a China Shop or in your living room on TV.

NICK CAVE -" Messiah Ward" from ABATTOIR BLUES"
gothgod

America the victim becomes the victimizer -
Battle of the " Bibles"
America declares war on Islam or is it just about the oil or Expanding the Empire
New Apostolic Movement aiming to take the White House and punish all the Heathens
Blessed are the War Mongers

Neon bible- Arcade Fire

Uploaded by arielxcore on Dec 4, 2009
Neon Bible by Arcade Fire

I made this video to show different types of religion, and some of the major harm it has done our country.
I am not attacking religion or saying it is bad, but this song makes a good point of how foolish it all seems

Another song about USA post 9/11

Arcade Fire - Windowsill [Subtitulos Español]

and so it goes,
GORD.

Wounded Heart - A Poem for 9/11

2011-09-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

Wounded Heart - A Poem for 9/11

Wounded Heart
( on the events of 9/11 New York
By Gordon Coombes

watching thousands die in an instant
planes crashing into skyscrapers
liquid fire raining down on Manhattan
leaving a mountain of twisted metal
a memory from a nightmare
forces itself into our waking world
replayed a thousand times on TV screens
& everyone for days on end
say all the right things
sitting on a cushion cross legged
all a tremble trying to be still
images appear vivid violent
shatter our repose
our minds violated raped
needing to scream
watching crowds panic & running
through the shadow strewn canyons
being chased by boiling grey clouds of dust
tv cameras catch people as they stop
in their tracks looking back in disbelief
watching tears streaming down their faces
watching our hearts break
each time the TV replays the horror
buildings exploding against a still
perfect fragile china blue sky
in that moment frozen in time
leaving us to tend our wounded hearts‑

voices are heard speaking of the horror
the shock & disbelief
& a thousand & one cliches
our language inadequate inept
fails us cut too close to the bone
our hearts breaking
our minds in turmoil
wanting revenge to taste blood
to spill someone's blood
our primitive urges rise to the surface
our civilized rational selves overturned
our blood lust over‑powering
& those who call for cooler heads
need to be patient & keep silent
til those waves of emotions subside‑

for some it is an opportune time
to push their political agenda
to pass on their bile & hate
appealing to tribal instincts
appealing to the worst in us
conjuring up demonic powers
& magical solutions
calling for Crusades & jihads
to last a hundred years
to protect our homeland
to destroy the evil all around us
dividing the world into us & them
our society slipping into insanity
to bring on a new Dark Age
as we retreat into our fortress of fear‑

Arcade Fire Fan Video -City With No Children In It

2011-03-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Arcade Fire Hipster Attack -Best Band In The World - Neon Bible In An Elevator

2011-02-24T10:41:00.000-08:00

Arcade Fire Hipster Attack

The music "Know Nothings' in a bizarre twist accuse the Grammy awards of being fixed because the band that won for best album they never heard of. Well that's their problem.

Music critic Steve Tout believes that the proof is that Arcade fire were able to play one of their own songs without having rehearsed supposedly at the auditorium .

Arcade Fire has probably played that song a hundred times or more as with any of their songs.
Why shouldn't they be able to play one of their songs in an impromptu moment as it were.

They are always on tour and before and during tours they work on the musical arrangements in a rather obsessive manner.They do not lip-sync, they are professional musicians but they don't rely on having a stage show with a group of professional dancers or choreographer , at times they do use various lighting and stage effects, big screen tvs and other props but at other times they will appear to be minimalist.

One of Arcade Fire' most interesting and arty and surreal if you like videos is the band performing Neon Bible in an elevator... One member keeps the beat by tearing pages out of a magazine a must see. So since my editor insists I guess here it is from 2007-

Arcade Fire and fans go on the offensive post-Grammy win
Are you still angry about album of the year going to some hipster no-name band? Time to get over it by Drew Grant at Salon.com, Feb. 23,2011

Hey, remember last week, when everyone was really upset that this band no one has ever heard of won the Grammy for album of the year? Everyone was like "Who/what is an Arcade Fire and what do they have to do with the 'Suburbs'?" There was even a whole website dedicated to people not knowing who Arcade Fire was. It's like these people never listened to the trailer for "Where the Wild Things Are."

In one of the most vocal criticisms of the band's win, record executive Steve Toute took out a full-page ad in the New York Times, completely blasting the NARAS and the Grammys for losing "touch with contemporary popular culture" and also fixing the awards. His evidence? Because after their win, Arcade Fire played two songs, one right after each other, and were completely prepared!

As the show was coming to a close and just prior to presenting the award for Album of the Year, Arcade Fire performed 'Month of May' only to, surprise, win the category and, in a moment of sheer coincidence, happened to be prepared to perform 'Ready to Start.' Does the Grammys intentionally use artists for their celebrity, popularity and cultural appeal when they already know the winners and then program a show against this expectation?

Complete conspiracy. Or else, you know, these guys tour a lot and are used to impromptu performances. (Steve is also mad Justin Bieber didn’t win, by the way.)

While Steve's shot is directed more toward the Grammys than with Arcade Fire itself, we have to wonder if NARAS is really "losing touch with contemporary pop culture." Millions of hipsters disagree with you there, Steve. Like the guys in Funemployed, the comedy group behind the "Arcade Fire Hipster Attack" video. These dudes are ready to pound the daylights out of anyone trying to besmirch their favorite soundscape artists.

More Arcade Fire: Grammy Winners" Intervention" Eisenstein's Battle Ship Potemkin , Cover of Clash's "Guns of Brixton" & "My Body Is A Cage" Sergio Leone

2011-02-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

Arcade Fire Cover of Clash song Guns Of Brixton
with french horn, hurdy gurdy, upright bass & megaphones

For those brave citizens rising up against Tyranny in Middle East and Africa

Intervention by Arcade Fire edited with footage of The film Battle Ship Potemkin by Eisenstein
Note this video compilation has been on Youtube since 2007 and has had almost 2 million viewings

and check this out Arcade Fire song My Body is a Cage using the iconic ending of the great Sergio Leone western "Once Upon A Time In The West " (Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda )

Arcade Fire "My Body is a Cage" "with Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West"... my favorite western." hat tip to Youtuber jthelms 2007
this video has received over 3,500,000 viewings.

Happy trails to you,
GORD.

Arcade Fire -Best Band in The World Unknown by Many???

2011-02-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

Arcade Fire -Intervention on SNL Saturday Night Live

How is it that so many Grammy awards viewers never heard of Arcade Fire- they have been on SNL , David Letterman, Conan, Jools Holland's show in the UK etc.
If interested watch some the videos on YOUTUBe. They play songs in various styles-sometimes soft sweet sentimental or full ahead rock ie keep the Car Running or Intervention , Rebellion Lies Each new album has been a revelation -each time we wait to be surprised in the direction they musically and lyrically -They are as it were a Work in Progress -

And here they are performing with David Bowie- great version of Arcade Fire's signature song Wake Up! Bowie and others such as U2 and Clash have been promoting them for years

Grammy Best Album Of The Year 2010- Arcade Fire 2006 Video MTV

2011-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

ARCADE FIRE win Grammy Best album and Brit music Awards Best international Album/group

Suburbs I & II

Arcade Fire's Suburbs Album of The Year-Recognition Well Deserved

2011-02-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

Arcade Fire-Suburbs Film By Spike Jonze

Egyptian Uprising Noam Chomsky Calls "Remarkable"

2011-02-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Website:
http://www.aljazeera.net/english
Stay up to date with Al Jazeera via Livestation.com
or URL: http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english
Get the latest news: http://english.aljazeera.net
Watch live: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Website:
http://www.aljazeera.net/english
http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english

Noam Chomsky gives his analysis of the Egyptian Revolution
Obama did little to in this situation to prove Americans really are in favor of democracy and then speaks as if he is on Mubarak side when all is said and done.

Egyptian Protests Expose Fraudulent U.S. "Spreading Democracy" Meme
Submitted by Steve Horn Via PRWatch.org on January 31, 2011

The Egyptian people have exposed the great myth that prevails in the sphere of United States' foreign policy, namely that U.S. foreign policy elites are concerned with "spreading democracy."

That is because, as Hampshire College's Michael Klare has written, since 1945, the United States has maintained a foreign policy that is centered around "blood and oil." The foreign policy establishment often uses "democracy spreading" as a public relations platitude because it sounds much better than saying, "We went to war for oil." But caring about democracy goes out the window when one truly scrutinizes U.S. foreign policy through a critical lens. Sourcewatch calls this phenomenon Big Oil, Big Lies.
Case Studies Exposing the Mythology

Several case studies ring a bell.

Case in point: The cozy relationship with Azerbaijan, a country with one of the worst human rights track records in the world. It just happens to be next to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, and is strategically located next to Iran, another oil-rich country.

Case in Point: Those who know the history of Iran know that in 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency and the MI6 together overthrew the democratically-elected leader, Mohammed Mossadegh.

The reason? Mossadegh decided to nationalize Iran's oil and British Petroleum, then called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, didn't like that very much. Thus, Mossadegh was overthrown and replaced with the oil-industry friendly Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, a man who happened to be brutally oppressive toward his own people.

To repeat, the U.S. had a democracy in Iran, but because that democracy chose to nationalize its oil, the U.S. overthrew it.

Case in point: The long-standing "special relationship" with Saudi Arabia, a country with one of the worst human rights' track records in the world. Last time I checked, I heard they have quite a bit of oil, too.

Case in point: The overt favoritism by the U.S. toward Israel in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Israel is currently in the midst of its 44th year of the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and on a daily basis commits egregious human rights violations against the Palestinian people, all while the United States showers Israel with expensive toys, to the tune of over $3 billion+ per year in military aid.

Case in point: The "special relationship" with Egypt that has existed since the days of Henry Kissinger-led "shuttle diplomacy", which resulted in the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979 (yes, this Henry Kissinger). Egypt switched from being a Cold War enemy to a Cold War ally, and a country that has had an atrociously bad human rights' record for decades has now erupted from within as a backlash against this. The U.S. is complicit in these Hosni Mubarak-led human rights abuses, as it is caught in a pickle, which is the "special relationship." These abuses are irrelevent to the foreign policy establishment though, for Egypt is located on the Israeli border, and like Israel, serves as a client state in the region.

Some have called this moment in history in Egypt Obama's 9-11, for it is quite obvious that he has no clue what to do about it or what to say about it. While true, the most apparent and least presumptive thing to say right now is that the American Empire has been exposed, its hypocrisy and hubris shed in the limelight, and Nemisis, the Greek Goddess of Revenge, has her eyes peeled and focused on Narcissus -- the United States in this scenario.
The Revolution Carries On

As the days roll on, the Egyptian protests grow in size, with the biggest one yet planned for February 1.

The Middle East, for better or for worse, is a changed place forever and there's no looking back for the Egyptian people now.

Just don't buy the spin about "concern for democratic rights" by Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama -- they could care less about that. They are just scared they are about to lose an obedient regional client.

And then all hell could really break loose in the region, domino effect style.

Only time will tell.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Rachel Maddow & The Rightwing Nutters Response To Egyptian Revolution

2011-02-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

Rachel Maddow examines the right wing media's insane reactions to Egyptian uprising-
* how dare these barbarians reject our friend Mubarak???
* end of the world
* Communist liberal progressive conspiracy
* The muslims are coming???
* Mubarak is a good ally and should be defended by USA-
* invade Egypt
* Nuke or Bomb Iran
* Israel fears for its existence
* Mubarak nor the US need to act according to Geneva conventions or other human rights international agreements
* Anti-Americans wrote the Geneva Conventions and special international agreements on treatment of POWS or non-combatants- we torture if we want to

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Arcade Fire-The Suburbs -& Spike Jonze Film

2011-01-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Wikileaks' Afghanistan Leaked Documents Prove The War Is a Disaster

2010-07-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

WikiLeaks 90,000+ Secret Military Docs Part 2/7 - Democracy NOW! July 26

WikiLeaks 90,000+ Secret Military Docs Part 3/7 - Democracy NOW!
Afghanistan war an abject failure

Democracy NOW! - DN! We host a roundtable discussion with independent British journalist Stephen Grey, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, former State Department official in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, independent journalist Rick Rowley and investigative historian Gareth Porter. More than 90,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years have been published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency.

WikiLeaks Documents: Cenk Hosts MSNBC (Sam Seder & Matt Lewis Debate)

and so it goes,
GORD.

Wikileaks Releases 90,000 Documents Of US & Nato Disastrous War In Afghanistan

2010-07-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

The New Pentagon Papers: WikiLeaks Releases 90,000+ Secret Military Documents Painting Devastating Picture of Afghanistan War
Assange-dn20100726- Democracy Now! July 26, 2010

It’s one of the biggest leaks in US military history. More than 90,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years have been published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared, and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency. We host a roundtable discussion with independent British journalist Stephen Grey; Pentagon Papers whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg; former State Department official in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh; independent journalist Rick Rowley; and investigative historian Gareth Porter. [includes rush transcript]

WikiLeaks 90,000+ Secret Military Docs Part 1/7 - Democracy NOW!

UPDATE: Wikileaks Releases Top Secret Documents ON Afghanistan War Obama Furious About Leaks Not About War Crimes

Wikileaks makes public thousands of government files related to the war in Afghanistan from 2004-2010.
Obama upset over the leak vows to get the culprits rather than deal with America's War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity!!!
Released at Wikileaks, Guardian,UK, & NY Times

Sunday, July 26 5pm EST.WikiLeaks today released over 75,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan.

The Afghan War Diaries an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. They include the number of persons internally stated to be killed, wounded, or detained during each action, together with the precise geographical location of each event, and the military units involved and major weapon systems used.

The Afghan War Diaries is the most significant archive about the reality of war to have ever been released during the course of a war. The deaths of tens of thousands is normally only a statistic but this archive reveals locations and key events behind each of these individual deaths. We hope the impact will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the war in Afghanistan and modern warfare in general.

These reports have been primarily written by soldiers and intelligence officers listening to reports radioed in from front line deployments. However the reports also contain related information from Marines intelligence, US Embassies, and reports about corruption and development activity across Afghanistan.

Each report consists of the time and precise geographic location of an event that the US Army considers significant. It includes several additional standardized fields: The broad type of the event (combat, non-combat, propaganda, etc.); the category of the event as classified by US Forces, how many were detained, wounded, and killed from civilian, allied, host nation, and enemy forces; the name of the reporting unit and a number of other fields, the most significant of which is the summary - This is an English language description of the events that are covered in the report.

also see: In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks ‘Transparency’ By ERIC SCHMITT Published: July 25, 2010

and see:
Afghanistan War Logs, Guardian.co.uk July 25, 2010

Afghan Bombshell: WikiLeaks 'War Diary' exposes US cover-up

Obama administration complicit in coverups and complicit in War Crimes-Obama Fail
CNN tries to undermine WIKILEAKS But Fails.
CNN not interested in exposing US & NATO War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity
White House Furious At WikiLeaks Publishing 'Total History' Of Afghanistan War
MOXNEWSd0tCOM | July 26, 2010

http://MOXNews.com/

Arcade Fire

2010-03-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Another bit from Arcade Fire to keep you amused as you hide from the mosquitoes & black flies in your cottage on a Canadian lake in Northern Ontario or the Maritimes or wherever or just enjoying the fog rolling in which is how I spent part of my vacation in Lunenburg Nova Scotia :

And here is Rebellion by Arcade Fire:

orlink to :

stage six Arcade Fire- Intervention:
Intervention

Stage Six Divx Arcade Fire- Rebellion

Rebellion

Anyway on the lighter side of things I am still entranced by Arcade Fire's " NEON BIBLE" . There are only a precious few good quality videos available on line such as the couple from SNL Saturday Night Live & the British Jools Holland show . But I did find a great video of Arcade Fire live in Paris .

At YOUTUBE I found this video of the group performing in an elevator which I have to share since it is so strange & a bit off the wall.It adds new meaning to elevator music.

& here is a bizarre & funny ad for " NEON BIBLE" which can be seen in full at the Arcade Fire website but this version is found at YOUTUBE . The ad is done in the style of a 70s KTEL TV ad which were rather campy for selling crappy records but made the founder of the company extremely rich . The ad tries to convince the buyer that the lyrics are family friendly & support " Family Values" . Link to their website is in the links list to the side to the right.

And now for something completely different Sen Patrick Leahy in US SEnate speaking about the the two to five million EMAILS the Bush administration have just gone missing - are they corrupt or just inept -
Leahy says this is like saying The Dog Ate My Homework & reminds him of Nixon Tapes in which 20 minutes was missing erased on purpose.
It should be noted during the Plame affair the Bushites claimed that a number of Emails & documents had gone missing.

See article at TRUTHOUT :

Fitzgerald Cited Missing Emails During Plame Probe
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Friday 13 April 2007

In late January 2004, Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney appointed as special prosecutor to investigate whether White House officials knowingly leaked the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, sent a letter to then-acting Attorney General James Comey. Fitzgerald was seeking confirmation that he had the authority to investigate and prosecute suspects in the leak case for additional crimes, including evidence destruction.

The leak investigation had primarily been centered on an obscure law that made it a felony for any government official to knowingly disclose the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

Comey responded to Fitzgerald in writing on February 6, 2004, confirming that Fitzgerald had the authority to prosecute those crimes, including "perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses."

Fitzgerald wrote Comey in part because he had become suspicious that White House political adviser Karl Rove had either hidden or destroyed an important document tying him to the leak and the effort to discredit Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. The document Fitzgerald believed Rove had destroyed or withheld was an email Rove sent to Stephen Hadley, then deputy national security adviser, in early July 2003. That email proved Rove had a conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper about issues related to the CIA leak. Rove did not disclose that conversation when he was first interviewed by the FBI three months after he had emailed Hadley.

The same day that Fitzgerald received the written reply from Comey, the White House faced a deadline to turn over administration contacts with 25 journalists to the grand jury investigating the Plame Wilson leak. Cooper was one journalist cited in the subpoena sent to the White House on January 22, 2004. Curiously, the email Rove sent to Hadley did not show up during a search ordered by then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales in September 2003. Gonzales enjoined all White House staff members to turn over any communication pertaining to Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, had accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar Iraq intelligence.

Anyway that's all for now,
stay tune for more updates on these & other important issues - it could save your life,
love you too,
GORD.

Arcade Fire-Music For Driving & Sight-seeing

Anyway I am still on vacation but here's a couple of music videos by Arcade Fire - good driving music when you are heading to the beach or cottage or just sight-seeing so enjoy & don't mention the war or Bush or Cheney or torture etc.

Arcade Fire live - No Cars Go

Keep The Car Running - live eurockeennes 2007 c/o jaro youtube

Arcade Fire at Coachella 2007 - Antichrist Television Blues

Take care,
GORD.

ARCADE FIRE: A REVELATION " NEON BIBLE " MUSIC IS NOT DEAD AFTERALL

PHOTOS ARCADE FIRE
"MUSIC LIVES IN THE REVELATION KNOWN AS ARCADE FIRE
ROCK/POP MUSIC HAS BEEN RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD!!!" My friend says and goes on & on...
There is an intensity & a sense of desperation which says these songs must be written & performed before it is too late. So WAKEUP all those singing poets who seem to have given up for your time has come.

A bit much don't you think I tell my friend.

No you see all we hear is all this rather empty-headed vapid shallow phoney balloney pop crap written for rich spoiled kids & the wannabees who pray at the feet of the beautiful people who haven't got a clue.

So beware this music might make you feel something real & you might be surprised & a bit frightened at first but let it go -just go with it-
---- Well that's about enough of that I think; so bye for now...GORD.

Here is part of a review of NEON BIBLE from Alexis Petridis in THE GUARDIAN:

...The first intimation of coming Armageddon arrives fewer than 90 seconds in and Neon Bible is still waving its End is Nigh placard as it draws to a close. Every song is replete with dread, nameless or otherwise: you're never far away from a rising tide or a grim prognosis or persons unknown kicking in your door in the dead of night. The sources of the apocalyptic disquiet are diverse - Windowsill manages to finger both "a holy war", and, more originally, MTV - but the end result never varies: "a time is coming - all words will lose their meaning", "not much chance of survival", "nothing lasts forever".
Nor does there seem much chance of the end of days being enlivened by the reappearance of a Messiah. The Christian figures on the album are subject to mockery. Building Downtown (Antichrist Television Blues) scornfully depicts a God-fearing father who seems to believe he can escape the horrors of the post-9/11 world by pushing his teenage daughter into showbusiness. Intervention is musically breathtaking - it opens with a pipe organ playing a portentous fanfare that quickly resolves into a sort of garage-rock riff, then gradually builds into an utterly glorious climax - but it's fuelled by withering disgust at anyone claiming God is on their side.
Intervention is perhaps the prime example of Neon Bible's masterstroke, which is to set all this doom-mongering to joyously uplifting music. There are soaring string arrangements, beautiful backing vocal harmonies, harps and French horns, great welling choruses and, perhaps more surprisingly, thwacking, propulsive rhythms. It's hard to think of another album that rocks in such an epic manner without sounding completely ridiculous. The effect is of a kind of triumphant gloom. The music implies you should be throwing a party at exactly the same time as the lyrics suggest you should be hiding under the table with your jumper pulled over your head. Throughout, it's difficult to work out what the Arcade Fire might have been listening to: a rare and satisfying sensation in 2007, when virtually everything sounds a bit like something else. The album's originality carries you through the odd moment when ambition outstrips ability, not least the closing My Body is a Cage, which rather overdoes the church organ in service of a lyric that sails perilously close to the perennially disheartening topic of how terrible it is being in a successful rock band.
But that's a rare misstep on an otherwise remarkable piece of work that at times seems magical. An album this mired in fathomless darkness shouldn't sound so dazzling, but it does. Like the band who made it, Neon Bible is a thrilling enigma.

Anyway here are the lyrics to:

Antichrist Television Blues

I don't wanna work in a building downtown,
no I don't wanna work in a building downtown
I don't know what I'm gonna do,
'cause the planes keep crashing,
always two by two.
I don't wanna work in a building downtown,
No I don't wanna see when the planes hit the ground.

I don't wanna work in a building downtown,
I don't wanna work in a building downtown,
Parking their cars in the underground,
Their voices when they scream, they make no sound.
I wanna see the cities rust
and the trouble makers riding on the back of the bus

Dear God, I'm a good Christian man,
In your glory, I know you understand,
That you gotta work hard and you gotta get paid,
My girl's 13 but she don't act her age.
She can sing like a bird in a cage,
Oh Lord, if you could see her when she's up on that stage!

You know that I'm a God fearing man,
You know that I'm a God fearing man,
But I just gotta know if its part of your plan
To seat my daughters there by your right hand
I know that you'll do what is right, Lord.
For they are the lanterns, and you are the light.

Now I'm overcome,
By the light of day.
My lips are near but my heart is far away.
Tell me what to say,
I'll be your mouthpiece!

Into the light of a bridge that burns
As I drive from the city with the money that I earned.
Into the black of a starless sky,
I'm staring into nothing and I'm asking you why:
Lord, will you make her a star?
So the world can see who you really are.

Little girl, you're old enough to understand,
That you'll always be a stranger in a strange, strange land.
The men are gonna come while you're fast asleep,
[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]

so you better just stay close and hold on to me.
If my little mocking bird don't sing,
Then daddy won't buy her no diamond ring.

Dear God, would you send me a child?
Oh God, would you send me a child?
'Cause I wanna put it up on the TV screen,
so the world can see what your true word means.
Lord would you just send me a sign?
'Cause I just gotta know if I'm wasting my time!

Now I'm overcome,
By the light of day.
My lips are near but my heart is far away.
Now the war is won,
Howcome nothing tastes good?

You're such a sensitive child!
Oh, you're such a sensitive child!
I know you're tired but it's alright,
I just need you to sing for me tonight.
You're gonna have your day in the sun;
You know God loves the sensitive ones.

Oh! My little bird in a cage!
Oh! My little bird in a cage!
I need you to get up for me, up on that stage,
and show the men that you're old for your age.
Now ain't the time for fear,
But if you don't take it, it'll disappear.

Oh! My little mockingbird sing!
Oh! My little mockingbird sing!
I need you to get up on that stage for me, honey,
And show the men it's not about the money.

Wanna hold a mirror up to the world
So that they can see themselves inside my little girl.

Do you know where I was at your age?
Any idea where I was at your age?
I was working downtown for the minimum wage.
And I'm not gonna let you just throw it all away.
I'm through being cute, I'm through being nice,
Oh tell me, Lord, am I the Antichrist?!

[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]
UPDATE: also check out review at CBC
ARCADE FIRE REVIEW

GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK

GORD.

-----------

ARCADE FIRE " NEON BIBLE " ENDTIMES & NEOCON PARODY ???

Anyway little did anyone know that Arcade Fire would release such a great new album called NEON BIBLE . Listening to NEON BIBLE is somewhat infectious or addictive . The tunes repeat themselves over & over in my head. I found their earlier work also hypnotic but these songs & the music is to say the least awesome & prove ARCADE FIRE’s sound is original & unique& not just some one hit wonder or even a “Nine Day Wonder” but a force to be reckoned with & enjoyed .

Their sound is as energetic & original as any of the Great rock & roll bands in the history of Pop & rock & roll .But they are far & above most of what passes as Pop or Rock & Roll these days. & they are beyond most labels or categories of music since they have a Grunge- Goth-Folk & a wild energetic experimental sound with some of the most interesting & captivating lyrics this side of Nick Cave or Tom Waits or The Dead Can Dance or even a Lou Reed or John Cage & whatever else they might throw into the mix.

The thing of it is as they say is that Arcade Fire uses certain repetitive sounds or musical phrases combined with repetitive words as in the phrase “ NEON BIBLE ” repeated over & over til it sounds like a child’s nursery rhyme which you had learned as a child & are now reminded of it or as if they had coaxed it out of some long lost memory so the tune & words stay with you for days after just hearing it once. But listen & judge for yourself.
A number of the songs are already available on YOUTUBE so check them out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Here is a short bio from Answers.com :

Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Richard Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Win's kid brother William Butler formed the Arcade Fire in summer 2003. The experimental indie rock quintet, who hail from Montreal, initially began when the elder Butler spotted Chassagne singing jazz standards at a local art exhibit at Concordia University in their hometown. From there, two became inseparable, both professionally and personally. Gathering Parry on organ, Kingsbury on bass, and the younger Butler on synthesizer and percussion, the Arcade Fire fleshed out an eclectic mix of bossa nova, punk, and classically tinged songs.

Here is a sample of the reviews the album is getting:

Arcade Fire parodies with Neon Bible
Justin Smith
March 8, 2007
The Daily O’Collegian
Oklahoma State University

Arcade Fire is back with Neon Bible, the Quebecois band’s new album on Merge Records.

The seven band members, including violinists, an organist/pianist and a horn player, introduced themselves to the world in 2004 with an interestingly titled first album, Funeral. While that album was more introspective, with songs about personal experiences of loss and redemption, Neon Bible is more evangelical, with outreaching messages of warning.

The band’s sound has many folk sensibilities with touches of punk in the lyrics and, this time, a more gothic quality.

Here gothic means the album was recorded in cathedrals, capturing the atmosphere. Fans experienced this gothic element during the band’s January and February church tour in Montreal, London and New York City.

The music is very important, conveying a feeling of paranoia and uncertainty about the world’s future. But, like any good folk-based album, the music takes a supporting role to the lyrics’ message, sung with the distinctively quavering vibrato of lead singer Win Butler.

The band continues to play off its moniker, presenting more songs about the loss of innocence and coming of age. The songs also call attention to the disconnect between common sense and the world’s current reality.

Every chapter and verse of Neon Bible, printed as such in a Bible-inspired booklet, reveals a different view and opinion on governments and religions. In the right margin of the pages are images that form a flip book, which seems blasphemous of the sacred text of the Bible. But, when taken with the context of the lyrics printed just to the left of the images, it’s revealed as more of a parody of the current, sometimes flippant, handling of the Bible’s message by its followers.

Nearly every song uses a Biblical reference to illustrate contemporary events: “cause the planes keep crashing/ always two by two” from Building Downtown (“Antichrist Television Blues”) and “MTV, what have you done to me?/ Save my soul, set me free,” from “Windowsill.”

ARCADE FIRE NEON BIBLE

Arcade Fire Neon Bible Lyrics
A vial of hope and a vial of pain,
In the light they both looked the same.
Pourred them out on into the world,
On every boy and every girl.

It's in the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is right.

Take the poison of your age,
Don’t lick your fingers when you turn the page,
What I know is what you know is right,
In the city it's the only light.

It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,

If the Neon Bible is right.

Oh God! well look at you now!
Oh! you lost it, but you don’t know how!
In the light of a golden calf,
Oh God! I had to laugh!

Take the poison of your age,
Don’t lick your fingers when you turn the page,
It was wrong but you said it was right,
In the future I will read at night.

In the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival,
If the Neon Bible is true.

“ WINDOSILL ”

Arcade Fire Windowsill Lyrics
Don't wanna hear the noises on TV,
Don't want the salesmen coming after me,
Don't wanna live in my father's house no more.
Don't want it faster, I dont want it free,
Don't wanna show you what they done to me,
Don't wanna live in my father's house no more.
Don't wanna choose black or blue,
Don't wanna see what they done to you,
Don't wanna live in my father's house no more

'Cause the tide is high,
and its rising still,
and I don't wanna see it at my windowsill.

Don't wanna give 'em my name and address,
Don't wanna see what happens next,
Don't wanna live in my father's house no more.
Don't wanna live with my father's debt,
You can't forgive what you can't forget,
Don't wanna live in my father's house no more.
Don't wanna fight in a holy war,
Don't want the salesmen knocking at my door,
I don't wanna live in America no more.
'Cause the tide is high,
and it's rising still,
And I don't wanna see it at my windowsill.

MTV, what have you done to me?
[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]

Save my soul, set me free!
Set me free! What have you done to me?
I can't breathe! I can't see!
World War III,
when are you coming for me?
Been kicking up sparks,
we set the flames free.
The windows are locked now,
so what'll it be?
A house on fire, a rising sea?

Why is the night so still?
Why did I take the pill?
Because I don't wanna see it at my windowsill!

Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!
Don't wanna see it at my windowsill!

Arcade Fire Intervention Lyrics

The king's taken back the throne.
The useless seed is sown.
When they say they're cutting off the phone,
I tell 'em you're not home.

No place to hide,
You were fighting as a soldier on their side.
You're still a soldier in your mind,
Though nothing's on the line.

You say it's money that we need,
As if we're only mouths to feed.
I know no matter what you say,
There are some debts you'll never pay.

Working for the Church while your family dies.
You take what they give you
And you keep it inside.
Every spark of friendship and love
will die without a home.
Hear the soldier groan, «We'll go at it alone.»

I can taste the fear.
Lift me up and take me out of here.
Don't wanna fight, don't wanna die,
Just wanna hear you cry.

Who's gonna throw the very first stone?
Oh! who's gonna reset the bone?
Walking with your head in a sling
Wanna hear the soldier sing:
«Been working for the Church while my family dies.
Your little baby sister's gonna lose her mind.
Every spark of friendship and love
will die without a home.»
Hear the soldier groan, «We'll go at it alone.»

I can taste your fear.
It's gonna lift you up and take you out of here.
And the bone shall never heal;
I care not if you kneel.

We can't find you now,
But they're gonna get their money back somehow.
And when you finally disappear,
We'll just say you were never here.

Working for the Church while
your life falls apart.
Singin' hallelujah with the fear in your heart.
Every spark of friendship and love
will die without a home.
Hear the soldier groan, «We'll go at it alone.»
Hear the soldier groan, «We'll go at it alone.»

Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bye for now,
GORD.

Earthbound Angels #1 Leaden Winged Angel

2010-03-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

PAINTING BY SURREALIST JOAN MIRO(1893-1986) " CARNIVAL OF HARLEGUINS"

PAINTING BY FRANCISCO GOYA (1746-1828) " THE THIRD OF MAY"

PAINTING BY SURREALIST RENE MAGRITTE(1898-1967) "ATTEMPTING THE IMPOSSIBLE"

all pics from Hello & Picasa

So here is a poem from my series Earthbound Angels:

earthbound angels
#1 leaden-winged angel
edited 1/11/02

Sexually ambivalent
she sighs speaking
a woman's name
she secretly loves
she desires in dreams
fantasies only
caressed at night by angels
meditating on red & gold cushions
burning candles & incense
she bows to a photo of her Guru
her sensuousness left untouched
a citizen of a celestial city
a lost city in a valley paradise
in the mountains of Tibet
dreaming of Nirvana
the world around her too crude
her words whirl about
in a joyous frenzy
turning slowly into a mad angry dance
forced to live on this banal plane of existence
where sometimes even angels
cannot bring her solace
to her fevered mind
each step through deep snow
on slippery ice
a burden on her soul
the weight of earth's air & gravity
weighs down upon her
talking late into the night
unable to stop the rush of words
unwilling to accept
a world gone mad
a world of pettiness
a world of poverty
a world of intolerance
a world of brutality
a world where the rich stone the poor
cut off a hand for stealing bread
for each injustice
she dips her angel wings
into molten led
til her waking becomes
slow & ponderous
wondering where God's sympathies lie
seeking salvation in heresies
in the minds of muddled
addle-headed greedy
grasping half-drunk
spiritually materialistic mystics
seeking a soothing theology
a philosophy to ease the mind
to ease us all into a soothing sleep
a false hypnotic narcotic induced sleep
& not the sleep of angels
for the angels wander about
eyes wide open pierced by the light-

Earthbound the leaden-winged angel
cannot hear celestial voices
meets the prophet Elijah
does not recognize him
watches the Messiah approaching
only sees a solitary stranger in rags
fearful of his coming near her
she turns away
heads down another street
hearing his footsteps echoing
hurries home & locks her door
& begins her nightly ritual
retreating into her fantasies
lighting her candles & incense
chanting empty soothing phrases
dreaming of her secret lover
behind the masks she wears
beneath the lump of flesh
which weighs her down she searches for a way
to scrape the led
from off of her wings
still unable to accept
she is made of flesh
& not of pure shimmering light-

So long for now,
GORD

“ AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME: A REQUIEM ” Parts 8 & 9

2010-03-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Anyway here’s the next installments of the poem
“ AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME: A REQUIEM ”

ASSASSINS BY RENE MAGRITTE

- PART VIII -

The Boys in the Back Rooms

and the boys in the back rooms they know the score
they’ve got it all worked out
they’ve got it down pat
just the threat of hunger
or prison or execution
ah what people will do for just a crust of bread
& for three square meals a banquet to them
they will kiss their Saviours’ feet
& kneel before them as if they were Gods
toss them in prison a year or two will soften them up
an electrode or two clipped to their genitals wouldn’t do any real harm
a little dunk in a tub of water what a joke
making them malleable for the new world order
besides we have a civilization to protect don’t forget -

And the people march in the streets
in their hundreds then thousands
and even in their millions but do not fear my friend
because the boys in the back rooms are making deals
stabbing everyone they can in the back
ah they got it all figured out so don’t worry your empty head
they’ve worked out all the angles they could imagine
they’ve calculated the upside & downside
and the hucksters & the front men & the PR Guys & Gals
know just what to say
to keep the people from rising up
to keep the people in their place
to keep the people in the dark
and if the people go marching in the streets
demanding a change demanding abstract justice
causing traffic jams slowing down the clockwork machine
making the empty headed hedonists late for work
unable to shuffle papers or cheat & lie
in the name of their unholy masters
protecting the rich the powerful the well connected
& the boys in the backrooms keep pulling the strings -

ah the boys & gals in the backrooms they know the score
and they know just what to do
they’ve done it all so many times before
a little tear gas a couple of hundred m16s blazing away
gunship helicopters swooping down
disappear a few here & there
just a little glitch in the machinery & nothing more -

and the boys in the back rooms plan another war or two
digging in for another hundred years or more
and they’ve got it all worked out
fighting the enemy within
finding traitors everywhere
hiding in cellars in attics & closets
in cafes in bars & on street corners
in the town square in the city’s gardens & parks
in schools & churches
in temples & mosques & union halls
in soup kitchens & food banks
in factories & orchards
in fields of wheat & snow
even in towers of steel & glass -

and the boys in the back rooms know what to do
and they’ve got it all figured out
silencing any who dare disagree
silencing any who dare object
silencing any who dare protest
silencing any who dare resist
silencing any who dare talk of peace
silencing any who dare talk of justice -

- PART IX -

Our Safe Zones

the world’s gone grey but we’re alright
in our gated communities
commuting to work with police escorts
passing billboards which hide the slums from our view
while soldiers roundup the homeless & street urchins
& other disturbers of our peace
the complainers & malcontents
who dare question our God Given social order
returning home the TV reassures us
that it’s all ok telling us only Good News
never showing scenes that might upset our sensitive souls
so a neighbor or friend disappears but who cares
besides our memories are just a burden
as each day our world is made anew
living under a plastic bubble
and we haven’t a care
as all our air is filtered
and our water purified
our food all sterilized
no need to worry we’ll live to a hundred or more
and those beyond the walls why should we care
if they don’t make it to fifty
in their broken down world
as they breathe dirty air
and drink from cess pools
which once were lakes
but it’s alright
cause we who deserve it will go on
by the Grace of God
and by the Grace of Darwin
being the fittest we shall survive
and we’ll go on generation after generation
feeding upon the earth & those who are inferior
for that after all is their role
their raison d ‘ete
sucking life out of the earth
& the billions we have enslaved
without the use of chains -

SEE YOU LATER,
GORD.

American Conservatives Vowed Revenge For The Health Care Reform Bill

2010-03-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

To be updated later

Watch Ellen Miller get cut off in Tuesday's hearing:

------
Are Republicans interferring with the war effort by not permitting committees from meeting which deal with Armed Forces

GOP Senators Refusing To Work Past 2PM, Invoking Obscure Rule by Ryan Grim Huffington Post ,March 24, 2010

On Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee was forced to cancel a hearing as was the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) tweeted today : "Disappointed. Rs refusing to allow hearings today. Had to cancel my oversight hearing on police training contracts in Afghanistan."

Sen. Mark Udall also complained that he had to delay a hearing on the cause of Western forest fires.

Making good on Sen. John McCain's threat to withhold all Republican cooperation from Democrats in the Senate in retribution for the majority party using reconciliation to pass health care reform, the GOP used the rule that states committees can only meet when the chamber is in session with the unanimous consent of all members. That consent has almost never been withheld -- until now.

Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) asked for consent for his panel to operate Wednesday afternoon. He noted, ironically, that his request had the support of McCain.

"There is objection on our side of the aisle and therefore I object," said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

The GOP objection blocked testimony from Admiral Robert Willard, United States Navy Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command; from General Kevin Chilton, United States Air Force, Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, and from General Walter Sharp, United States Army Commander, U.S. Forces Korea.

For his part, Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) was livid when his committee was forced to delay consideration of several judicial nominees.

"I have accommodated requests from Judiciary Committee Republicans to delay the Committee's hearing to consider Professor Liu's nomination," Leahy said.

He continued: "For months, Senate Republicans have resisted efforts to enact important reforms to our health insurance system. But when the dust settles and the emotions are calmed, history will show that President Obama and this Congress responded to a pressing national issue, and proved once again that we can act with the purpose of advancing an important national interest. Sadly, actions like today's objections from Senate Republicans to the consideration of a highly qualified, historic nominee will be viewed as little more than petty, partisan politics.

...Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, had his hearing shut down abruptly at 11:00 Wednesday morning, in the middle of a discussion on the effort to end veteran homelessness in the next five years. It is estimated that more than 100,000 veterans are homeless in the United States on any given night.

"AEI hits David Frum where it hurts" by Matt MillerPostpartisan Washington Post March 25,2010
Those Republican brutes! It’s bad enough not to tolerate David Frum’s dissent on health care -- especially since his judgments have been stunningly correct. But in ousting him after a mad overnight revolt among its donors, the American Enterprise Institute has put Frum’s family into precisely the health care hell that Obamacare seeks to remedy. What many people don’t realize about the think tank world is that the policy types who serve as modestly paid fellows do so in large part for the health coverage. In our antiquated employer-based system, middle-aged wonks simply have to be attached to a group to be insurable. If you and your spouse have reached your 40s and have had even modest health bumps along the way, you'll never be able to get coverage in the pre-Obamacare individual market

Talk about a two-fer. In one stroke, David Frum has become not only the poster boy for the Republican party’s incoherent tantrums, but for the need for Obamacare itself! It doesn’t get more delicious than this.

The Conservatie Movement has been sending out via the web an Enemies List that is those who were in favor of Health Reform or who support Obama in any way or those who don't accept all of the platform of the Far Right who now control the part.

Calling All Thugs: Gas Line Cut After Tea Party Leader Posts Enemy’s Address by Mark Potokat Hate Watch SPLC March 24, 2010

The latest news from the opponents of health care reform who like to suggest that supporters should suffer for their transgressions: A day after two Virginia Tea Party activists posted the address of the brother of a congressman who voted for the bill, authorities discovered that someone had severed a gas line at the man’s home.

According to The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Va., Danville Tea Party leader Nigel Coleman was one of the two people who posted the address of Bo Perriello, the older brother of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Ivy), who voted for the health care bill. “This is Rep. Thomas Stuart Perriello’s home address,” Coleman wrote Monday, going on to suggest that others who oppose the health care bill “drop by” and “express their thanks.” He added, “I ain’t holding back no more.”

According to the Politico website, Coleman, upon learning he had posted the wrong address, said on a blog: “Do you mean I posted his brother’s address on my Facebook? Oh well, collateral damage.”

Told by The Daily Progress of the severing of the line that connected a propane tank to a grill on Perriello’s screened-in porch, Coleman said he was “shocked” and “almost speechless.” He claimed innocently that he was against violence, and in any case wasn’t sure that the attack, which is under FBI investigation, was related to his post.

Coleman’s absolutely despicable actions were remarkably similar to those of American neo-Nazi leaders who in recent years have made a practice of posting their enemies’ addresses and other personal information. They, too, often suggested that their sympathizers drop by to let enemies know their feelings. But that certainly didn’t stop Coleman from engaging in his own mindless and dangerous provocation.

As if that wasn’t enough, opponents of health care legislation demonstrating in Washington, D.C., this weekend spit on a black congressman, shouted racial slurs at two others, and shouted an anti-gay epithet at yet another. A week earlier, a group at a Tea Party in Columbus, Ohio, taunted a man sitting on the ground with a sign saying he had Parkinson’s disease. “If you’re looking for a handout,” one of the protesters told the health care reform supporter in a scene captured on video and posted to YouTube, “you’re in the wrong end of town.”

These despicable attacks and those who help foment them are unworthy of any citizen of a democracy, let alone of those who pretend to be standing up for principled conservatism. What we are seeing is the infuriated response of thugs and those who like to encourage thugs. And what may be most appalling of all is the absolute temerity, not to say cowardice, of supposedly responsible leaders of those who opposed health care reform, almost none of whom have condemned the latest round of hate. It’s a sad commentary on America that this is what our political process has become.

EARTHBOUND ANGELS# 6 NOT A PROPHET OR A MISUNDERSTOOD Messiah

2010-03-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

PAINTING BY JOAN MIRO "LADDERS CROSS THE BLUE SKY IN A WHEEL OF FIRE"
Posted by Hello

PAINTING BY JOAN MIRO(1893-1983) "DOG BARKING AT THE MOON"
Posted by Hello

PAINTING BY JOAN MIRO(1893-1983) "WOMAN IN FRONT OF THE SUN"
Posted by Hello

PAINTING BY JOAN MIRO(1893-1983) "THE VILLAGE OF PARDES"
Posted by Hello

Anyway here is the poem Not A Prophet from my series of

poems entitled EARTHBOUND ANGELS:

EARTHBOUND ANGELS
# 6 NOT A PROPHET OR A MISUNDERSTOOD
MESSIAH
edited 1/11/02

Awakened from narcotic induced sleep
hearing a voice reciting 'Kubla Khan'
over the telephone the poet behind the poem
says he'll not return to this city
to this half-baked Bohemian scene
he's off to other parts Paris or Madrid
or no place in particular
leaving behind his winter of solitude
& discontent to reinvent himself
he says he's not who they say he is
remembered in a long black trench coat
hiding a large hunting knife
within easy reach if needed
knowing if needed he would't hesitate
wears black steel-toed army surplus boots
claiming to be ex-military gives
instructions in the use of fire-arms
travels in underground circles
of the shadowy demi-world of drug-pushers
prostitutes & pimps old winos
teenage runaways homeless the centre
for them did not hold
some wear a dozen layers of clothes
their worldly goods stuffed in plastic
garbage bags they drag along
in shopping carts
some write & sell poems sing songs
play guitars trumpets alto-sax
conga drums in front of stores banks
caf‚s libraries & bars for change
to make ends meet some hold out a hand
just stand & wait being obedient citizens

Remembered perched on chairs
in bars a praying-mantis
choosing a woman for the night
these women taken in by his boyish charm
& his sad eyes of a romantic
& an outcast living on the edge
close to the ground
those college girls just looking
needing to go slumming
before they settle down in safe suburbia-

Remembered bumming cigarettes & beers
from friends convincing them
to take him out for supper
besides he'd say " they need the company "
running madly up & down streets
his coat becoming a rising cape
going from bar to bar
dragging along his entourage
later at " Last Call " bopping around
working the crowd
searching for free-wheeling all-night parties
some sweet weed shrooms to share
talking wildly left unquenched-

Remembered walking along the Harbour-Front
of that old historic city
sitting on a quay sharing a joint
just before dawn
his short stories & poems & novels
talked about endlessly
not quite finished barely started-

On the phone says he no longer finds solace
in the ghosts of romance
still he had his part to play
acting so cool so nonchalant
the nights of debauchery
bathing his brain in drugs & alcohol
entertaining his friends with tales
of his nightly adventures-

Remembered calling himself a Pagan praying
to Norse Gods Oden Thor & Frea
to trees & the sea & sky
casting runestones teaching neo-phytes
a misunderstood Messiah-

Now each notch upon his belt
an invisible scar on his back
a reminder of the soul-mate he lost
no longer Master of the Game
new born desires overwhelm him
with a bit of bravado gets through each day
scoffs at his own blind innocence
scoffs at those who wish to follow
in his shoes sending his regards
to former friends in the City
the telephone goes dead -

All these misunderstood Messiahs
sad angst-ridden fallen angels
turning quirky ego-trips
into Holy Dogma turned inside out
dharma bent to suit a corrupted soul
hiding behind masks of Innocence-

So bye for now,
GORD

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES & MY VERSES " AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME: A REQUIEM"- PART VI " THE WAYS OF THE WORLD "

2010-03-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Originally published March 2006

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES is a film version of CHE GUEVARAS roadtrip on a mororcycle across South America during which he became aware of the widespread injustice & oppression throughout the region which led to him becoming political & eventually a revolutionary. The film is also essentially a roadmovie & is quirky & humorous & sad & poignant & is a great piece of film-making at its best.

Before he changed the world the world changed him...

Let the world change you... and you can change the world... TAGLINES FROM THE MOVIE

PHOTO FROM The Motorcycle Diaries ( 2004)
Gael Garcia Bernal AS Ernesto Guevara de la Serna
Rodrigo De La Serna AS Alberto Granado

Director
Walter Salles
Writers
Jose Rivera Screenplay (Adaptation)
Ernesto Che Guevara Source Material (from book: "The Motorcycle Diaries")
Alberto Granado Source Material (from book: "Traveling with Che Guevera: The Making of a Revolutionary")

CHE GUEVARA & FIDEL CASTRO AFTER THE REVOLUTION SUCCEEDED IN CUBA OUSTING THE OPPRESSIVE REGIME of Dictator Fulgencio Baptista in 1959

Anyway I highly recommend this film as a good film & not just for its political overtones.

And now for a few more verse of my poem " AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME : A REQUIEM "

PART VI : THE WAYS OF THE WORLD

and someday the day may come

And when the people are no longer afraid
and the people cry out for freedom
and the people fill the streets protesting
and the people demand their rights -

and the generals send in their troops
and the profiteers hide behind the generals
and the foreign investors cry out for more profits
and the foreigners send in their gunboats
and the Gunship helicopters & fighter jets & B1 Bombers roar overhead
to maintain peace & security
to pacify the natives
with Napalm burning their flesh
charred bodies mere limbless lumps unrecognizable
& cluster bombs left to explode to mutilate for maximum effect
to teach them the ways of the world -

and the children in their hunger & suffering cry out
and wonder what is their crime
and they lay on the ground moaning
missing legs or arms
their bodies riddled with shrapnel & bullets
and the angry or just bored snipers on the concrete walls take potshots
at children going to & from school
and at children are playing soccer in the schoolyard -

every line of your history is tainted with blood & tears
blood of the innocent
tears of the mothers of the wounded & the dead -

and the soldiers & the leaders share jokes
as they toss bodies into mass graves
in the middle of nowhere
in the dry desert sands
in the midst of overgrown jungles
in city parks into quarries & wells
tossing dissenters into the Pacific or Atlantic -

their dirty little secrets growing year after year
and the press & tv praise them
and the well to do in cozy suburbia praise them
their cities & neighborhoods
and the citizens cry out
to hell with those who do not wish us well -

and all the racists are so politically correct
knowing just what words to say
and which words are forbidden
keeping their white robes hidden from view
as they rule from their lofty heights -

words burning your flesh like napalm
words spoken burned like shadows into cement sidewalks
silencing one nation after another -

secret planes secret prisons
secret police secret missions
its all a secret -

just a few bad apples they say
they say turn the other cheek
always say please & thank you
learn to share & play the game fairly
care about others
pray to God & the Flag
& the faces carved on Mount Rushmore
bow before presidents prime ministers & kings
kiss the rings of Popes pastors rabbis & archbishops
heed the orders of Tzars Pharaohs & Generals
while each of us spies on our neighbors
ready to turn them in
for some suspicious & subversive behavior -

as they conquer nations in our name
torture & kill all who dare resist -

blaming the victims
be silent no more -

and chorus girls dance the cancan
in the bowels of hell -

NOTE: VERSES WRITTEN WHILE LISTENING TO VICTOR JARA SILVIO RODRIGUEZ & CHILEAN GROUPS " INTI-ILLIMANI " & " QUILAPAYUN " FOR INSPIRATION & DISORIENTATATION AS IT WERE !

SO THERE YOU GO,
GORD.

Van Gogh & My Poem "The Surrealist Poet Of The Cafe Apollinaire as Art Exhibit"

2010-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

PAINTING "STARRY NIGHT " BY POST-IMPRESSIONIST VINCENT VAN GOGH(1853-1890)
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SCULPTURE BY JOHN COLL "VAN GOGH ON THE ROAD"
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SELF-PORTRAIT VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
POST-IMPRESSIOIST
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PAINTING BY POST-IMPRESSIOIST VINCENT VANGOGH( 1853-1890) " BRIDGE IN THE RAIN" ( AFTER THE JAPANESE STYLE)
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PAINTING " WHEATFIELD WITH CROWS" BY VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)

Above are paintings of one of my favourite artist Vincent Van Gogh
whose works are filled with such passion and an exuberance of bold colouring which was a departure from the pastel pallette of the French impressionists painters who preceded him.

See website: Vincent Van Gogh Art Gallery
WWW.vangoghgallery.com

& John Coll website
Irish artist b. 1956
( THE LIGHT BEHIND THE WRITTEN WORD)
www.kennys.ie/Exhibitions/1998/coll/exhibits

Anyway here is a poem which I first composed about a dozen years ago & has gone through several transformations to to the present version found here.

Tales Of Café Apollinaire: VARIATIONS ON DISTILLED DREAMS-

The Surrealist Poet of the Cafe Apollinaire as Art Exhibit

At Café Apollinaire the Surrealist Poet
after he & the Café had become well known
asked a sculptor to make a statue
to take the poet's place at the café
at intervals of each day
to give him some respite
a life-size mannikin with moving parts
like mechanical oversized dolls
of ancient Persia
to sit at the corner table
by the window overlooking the street
in the Café Apollinaire
with all the paraphernalia
associated with the Surrealist Poet
resembling the poet in every detail
fooling many newcomers to the café
sitting there with a cup of coffee
a cigarette which one hand lowers
to an ashtray then raises to its lips
takes a puff the head moves looking
out the window turns again
with a pen in the other hand
moving hovering above
the open note book waiting
to be written upon
surrounded by stacks of books
borrowed from the Public Library
just around the corner
of artistic movements
all those 'Isms' born
in such a brief span of time
from Impressionism to Expressionism
to Pointillism Vortexism
to the wild Fauves to Dada
to Surrealism to Cubism
to Futurists & Realists
to Photo-Realists Pop art & Folk Art
all at war with one another
all claiming to be the true voice of Modern Art
each a genius of one sort or another
all these works of Art & Music & Poetry
biographies & autobiographies
passing the time giving some solace
to the Surrealist Poet soon wears thin
no end to naive idealistic romantic poets
& artists soaring above mundane concerns
dipping pens & brushes
in the same well of inspiration-

til history intrudes upon the pastoral dreams
& fantasies of the romantic surrealist poet
opening those all too real books
opening Pandora’s Box unleashing the Furies
of the tragedy of humanity’s pride & folly
of the triumph of Tyrants & despots
Emperors & Kings & Queens
destroying in the name of God & Power & Greed
enslaving millions to perpetual poverty
as the High & Mighty rule the world
with an iron fist & the boot to the throat
of social histories & aesthetics
& the admixture of politics & history
& centuries dripping blood
& all those idealists & romantics dying for some cause
& failed revolutions & the horrors of war
& religion & science run amok
our dreams turned into a world of ashes
under ten thousand mushroom clouds
while thousands are tortured murdered
beheaded blown to pieces
strapped to the mouth of cannons
in the name of this country or that
in the name of one God or another
while the Angels look down & weep
as all these lost souls strike the drums
sound their trumpets of war
leading the Big Parade of millions
into the slaughter houses
& other persistent visions of madness
til poets & sages take refuge in the wilderness-

Now the Surrealist Poet is able to roam
about the City's streets
no longer chained to that Chair
& that Table holding court
pestered by would be poets
taken in by his self-manufactured mystique
forced to dredge the sea floor
reliving his life for their distraction
edification & inspiration fulfilling his role
of poet laureate of the oh so cool crowd
at Café Apollinaire-

So long for now,
GORD.

AN Experimental Poem For Marcel Duchamp's Big Glass Sculpture : "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors ,Even"

2010-03-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a poem which I've been working on revising & re-editing over a number of years . It was meant as an attempt to put into words the experience of pondering a work of art by Marcel DuChamp made of layers of glass & involving various mechanized manifestations of DuChamp's wild imagination.
The poem is an exercise in some vague form of concrete poetry though more flexible than concrete. Which means the poem in its physical manifestation on the page reflects to some extent the theme & images presented in the poem.

“ The bride stripped bare by her bachelors,Even”
For Marcel Duchamp

Life & Art are in the details of digressions

a series of progressions
of various distractions
of mental formations
of labyrinth constructions
seen through prismatic glasses
reconstructing
de
con
structing
illusions of dis
tortions
caught in the fish-eye-lens
of a camera held in your hand

the hand
the fingers
sorting through files
layered one upon another
memories
distilled images
of stacked
silicon chips
fingers gliding through
stirring
mercurial
electrolytes
sparking
igniting
synapses
mirrors spiraling
whirling whirling
spiraling mirrors
sheets of glass
tumbling
through
clouds
in the China-Blue Sky
in the curved lens
of your eyes
a mirror you hold up to the world
the soft mercurial mirror
a swirling sea
of waves
ever changing
swirling in
the layered
prisms in the fish-eye lens
of your dreaming mind
Even

crumbling
pyramids
built on
shift
ing
sand
Even time & Space
collapsing
inward imploding
words lost in explosions Even
images of ages of eons
squeezedintoamillisecondofawarenesseven
poets babbling insane babblings

Words in drift-wood broken by crashing waves on the shores of shifting reason
Even
seeking words babbling
discom
bobulated
left babbling

overwhelming

Even
by blinding
brilliant light
over-whelming
shocking left in
fear & trembling
of revelations
of God
of Beauty
of Art
Even-
of all that is
all is lost in language
the de of is
lusion order lost
is not
the Over-Arching Experience
words lost
Over-Whelmed

by a Tsunami
of waves bombarding
wave
upon wave upon wave
of words of colour of sound
of visions of mishapen dreams of twisted memories
drowning the senses

Even -

If you have an opinion one way or the other on this experiment ,let me know.
See you around,
GORD.

My Poem "She Said"

2010-03-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

COFFEE & A MUFFIN
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“ When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. ”

Samuel Lover

“ Hang the bard, and cut the punster,
Fling all rhyming to the deuce,
Take a business tour through Munster,
Shoot a landlord — be of use. ”
Richard D'Alton Williams - Advice to a Young Poet

Here’s a couple of poems for your amusement. These poems were written a number of years ago & were recently re-edited.

she said

don't go beyond your station
she said
as the train stopped -

after all these years
she said
finally you are silent -

read only comic books
she said
while watching television -

never rely on anyone
she said
as she walked away -

in the end we are alone
she said
as she hung up the phone -

COFFEE & MUFFINS:
HAVE A MUFFIN SHE SAYS

the cold rain pounds
against the window
and she says have a muffin -

the brown leaves are blown
to the ground
and she says have a muffin -

the darkness surrounds us
our island of light fading
and she says have a muffin -

the shadows of a thousand crows
pass over
and she says have a muffin -

the universe is winding down
as the sun goes NOVA
and she says have a muffin -

the love we had for each other is dying
just a convenient lie to get by
and she says have a muffin -

death squads patrol the city streets
the madmen have taken over
and she says have a muffin -

empires rise and fall
millions on the tv screen are dying
and she says have a muffin -

thousands roam the streets homeless
and she says have a muffin -

another friend fails in their ambition
as she strikes them off her guest list
and she says have a muffin -

take solace in your success
forget about the rest she says
as she bites into another hot buttered muffin -

a thousand mushroom clouds boiling
above the earth
and she says have a muffin -

missiles rain down upon us
and she says have a muffin -

planes crash into skyscrapers of steel & glass exploding
while she says have a muffin -

friends are rungs on the ladder to success
ditch any who stand in your way she said
and offered her guests coffee and muffins -

And no tea & sympathy from me
she added -

SEE YOU LATER,
GORD

IN THE BEGINNING :The Genesis & Evolution of A Blog/Blogger 2005-2010

2010-03-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

From Gord's Poetry Factory to CAFÉ Gordon to website GORD'S CAFÉ And Beyond...

In the beginning (2005) I began blogging in part as a showcase for my own poetry and thoughts on poetry.

Second stage I began to include poetry and short bios of other poets those I enjoyed or learned something from or who inspired me from Robert Burns & William Blake to Emily Dickenson & Walt Whitman to William Carlos Williams & Robert Lowell & Elizabeth Bishop to Alan Ginsberg & Kerouac to Charles Bukowski.

Later I decided to add images that went with a particular topic or poet or poem. This soon morphed into doing posts about art history; artistic movements and individual artists especially from the Post Impressionist period to the present including the German Expressionists Edward Much etc. to the Fauves to DADA & Surrealism to folk art & super-Realism & Pop Art -from Bruegel & Bosch to Goya , James Whistler,Gustav Klimt to Van Gogh , Gaugin, Rousseau, Diego Rivera & Frida Khalo Max Ernst, George Grosz to Picasso & Chagall and beyond to super-realism and photo-realism.
This then led me to DADA & Surrealism etc. which led to art as revolutionary and as propaganda. So I began working on the relationship of art to politics, social reforms , revolutions, rebellions , and other upheavels .

Thequestion arises again and again about the role of art in society should art merely reflect the mindset of the Elite or of the petty bourgeoisie . Is the role of art mainly used to maintain the status quo or should it question the status quo in order to change the status quo or just to raise questions and doubts about the status quo ?

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD LOGOS

WILLIAM BLAKE THE ACT OF CREATION

In the beginning was the word-logos.

I will be posting my poetry on this site.

I intend to add more of my poems as frequently as possible. And I would appreciate any constructive criticism.

I will also try to share the process of writing as I have experienced it.

To follow the creation of a poem from the first glimpse of an image or feeling to adding & subtracting details & the generation of images & flights of the imagination as the core & heart of the particular poem is revealed over a period of time.

The experience of writing is at times like entering into a trance like state to a state in which for a moment everything crystilizes & a breakthrough is made & there is a feeling of nakedness & rawness sometimes euphoric sometimes seeing an image stripped of all its encumbrances though sometimes just simply enjoying the act of playing in the fields of poetry manipulating images & words for the sheer hell of it.

I have been writing poetry for over twenty years. I have been influenced by a number of writers of various styles from Robert Burns William Blake to Whitman & W.B. Yeats Emily Dickenson to Baudelaire Apollinaire Rilke Robert Lowell to Dorothy Livesay & Allan Ginsberg Charles Bukowski to Jack Kerouac Elizabeth Bishop to song writers like Kurt Weil Jacques Brel Bob Dylan to Leonard Cohen to Nick Cave to a hundred others that I have encountered & then moved on including a number of good friends who have been struggling in this strange bloodied field of poetry & art. To these friends I owe a great deal though we have gone our separate ways.

Poetry for me is like a photo of a particular experience of the outer world or of the interior world of a mental state mood or feeling. It is a form of psychological realism. It is not always purely rational. It is a way to express the inexpressable & the inexplicable. My poems take the form of confessional poetry with a sometimes heavy dose of surrealism. Though surrealism these days may seem a bit pedestrian since we are awash in surrelistic images on tv especially tv commercials & the news or in movies from the films of Luis Bunuel & Cockteau to Brazil & The Life of Brian to Clockwork Orange & Dr. Strangelove to Catch 22 & the Matrix to Big Fish & Moulon Rouge to Chicago to Kill Bill 2 or The Butterfly Effect Or Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind & to movies like Shrek 1 & 2 to the bizzare like John Carpenter's The Thing to Basket Case to the House of A Thousand Corpses a few dozen others.

I will also be sharing my views on my other enthusiasms from poetry to music movies art & politics & religion. My interest in these subjects varies from day to day. One day I might be obsessing over the war in Iraq & George Bush's extreme right-wing agenda & then I could be exited by listening to the latest recordings of Nick Cave.
( I would recommend highly Nick Cave's newest cd The Lyre of Orpheus & Abattoir blues it contains some of his best songs yet. )

There is nothing about Bush on the other hand that I could recommend. But I am told I should be careful what I say in this post 9/11 world who knows who's listening in. He is in my opion ushering in a new age of mccarthyism & a dark age of US against THEM - we always seem to be in need of an enemy a great threat against our society.Many people it seems are like Bush & see everything in nice clean black & white terms . To insist that some issues are more complicated than this is seen as a form of moral cowardice.

I shall instead proceed as if we still lived in a free society where there is a free exchange of ideas. And further to add that the opions of others matter & not just those of the varying degrees of conservative thinking on social ,economic & foreign policy .
In part it is through art in all its myriad forms & through the study of history that we can try to get a better perspective on what is happening at the moment.

Anyway that's all for now ,hope to hear from you soon.

"MAY DAY 1956" BY DIEGO RIVERA

DIEGO RIVERA & FRIDA KAHLO

"THE BANDIT HERO" BY DIEGO RIVERA

And someone asks:

Why Factory ? & Who is the Ancient Sage ? 1/16 05

POETRY FACTORY

MURAL PAINTING BY MEXICAN PAINTER DIEGO RIVERA

So why refer to this site as a factory ? Because there is a need that qoutas on a weekly or daily basis be filled. Otherwise I feel as if I were merely dabbling & not taking the role which I have invented for myself seriously enough .
So who is the Ancient Sage ? The Ancient Sage is to some extent a composite of various people I have known combined with some quasi-fantasy elements & an archetype of the Wise One & the visionary artist.

Here is my poem about the Ancient Sage:

the ancient sage wandering the streets

Years ago the ancient sage with literary aspirations wandering the streets
through the darkening shadows of the towering towers of steel & glass
always in a state of crisis
dreams of fame
having no shame
lays his heart bare
in the tradition of Baudelaire
sleeps in a coffin
while candles flame and flicker
in the eyes of four skulls
placed upon the mantle-piece
in his heavily curtained room
borrows money from his friends & exlovers
& poor seminary students
to pay for rent & food
for packs of cigarettes & a few beer
steals from young seminary students
is proud to beg in the streets
waiting to be put in debtors' prison
under lock & key & waits for
the telephone line to be severed
for never paying his bills -

reading from midnight to dawn
a book or two each night
obssessed possessed by the Nine Muses
writing a dozen or so verses a day
he writes & reads too much
some say it will lead to brain fever
& an early death
declaring his own body as his enemy
an agent provocateur
an agent of the underground
his body is in anarchy
out to destroy him
to undermine his feeble efforts
as he is barely able to get out of bed
at any moment death will knock
upon his door
some say it's those morbid books he reads
obsessed with Nazi Death Camps
& he's not even a Jew
listening to classical music
so sad & somber& that oh so mournful jazz
of the nineteen -fifties & sixties
and poets singing songs of the naked streets
& his room is plastered with those
glossy copies of paintings
of swirling stars & men & women
sitting alone late in the night
at a café or bar
of a boulder in the sky
with a castle on top
of riders on blue horses
riding over a battle field
of corpsess ripped apart
Of fiddlers on roof-tops
of melting clocks
always someone gives their opinion
like some over the hill hippie
brain half-starved living off soy
new age health food a hundred natural vitamin pills
bland music & uplifting movies
no need to be sad & somber just smile
put your faith in Jesus or the Mother Goddess
wondering out loud why can't they paint
pretty pictures & sweet sentimental poems
of the sea & trees green not purple
of freckled little boys going fishing -

See you later,
GORD

--------
ELIZABETH BISHOP 'S POEMS " MAN MOTH " & "ONE ART"

MURAL BY DIEGO RIVERA
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PAINTING BY SURREALIST RENE MAGRITTE "SELF-PORTRAIT IN MIRROR"

PAINTING BY EDWARD HOPPER 3am?

PAINTING BY SURREALIST MAX ERNST "SIGN FOR A SCHOOL OF MONSTERS"

Oh yeah this site is in part about poetry so here we go...

Here is a poem by the American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) about the sense of alienation, fear, fantasy & desire experienced by the individual in modern society.

The Man-moth

Here, above,
cracks in the buildings are filled with battered moonlight.
The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
It lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on,
and he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized to the moon.
He does not see the moon; he observes only her vast properties,
feeling the queer light on his hands, neither warm nor cold,
of a temperature impossible to records in thermometers.

But when the Man-Moth
pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface,
the moon looks rather different to him. He emerges
from an opening under the edge of one of the sidewalks
and nervously begins to scale the faces of the buildings.
He thinks the moon is a small hole at the top of the sky,
proving the sky quite useless for protection.
He trembles, but must investigate as high as he can climb.

Up the façades,
his shadow dragging like a photographer's cloth behind him
he climbs fearfully, thinking that this time he will manage
to push his small head through that round clean opening
and be forced through, as from a tube, in black scrolls on the light.
(Man, standing below him, has no such illusions.)
But what the Man-Moth fears most he must do, although
he fails, of course, and falls back scared but quite unhurt.

Then he returns
to the pale subways of cement he calls his home. He flits,
he flutters, and cannot get aboard the silent trains
fast enough to suit him. The doors close swiftly.
The Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way
and the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed,
without a shift in gears or a gradation of any sort.
He cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards.

Each night he must
be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams.
Just as the ties recur beneath his train, these underlie
his rushing brain. He does not dare look out the window,
for the third rail, the unbroken draught of poison,
runs there beside him. He regards it as a disease
he has inherited the susceptibility to. He has to keep
his hands in his pockets, as others must wear mufflers.

If you catch him,
hold up a flashlight to his eye. It's all dark pupil,
an entire night itself, whose haired horizon tightens
as he stares back, and closes up the eye. Then from the lids
one tear, his only possession, like the bee's sting, slips.
Slyly he palms it, and if you're not paying attention
he'll swallow it. However, if you watch, he'll hand it over,
cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink.

See website PoemHunter.com

“ Elizabeth Bishop was born in 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. When she was very young her father died, her mother was committed to a mental asylum, and she was sent to live with her grandparents in Nova Scotia. She earned a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1934. She was independently wealthy, and from 1935 to 1937 she spent time traveling to France, Spain, North Africa, Ireland, and Italy and then settled in Key West, Florida, for four years. Her poetry is filled with descriptions of her travels and the scenery which surrounded her, as with the Florida poems in her first book of verse, North and South, published in 1946.

She was influenced by the poet Marianne Moore, who was a close friend, mentor, and stabilizing force in her life. Unlike her contemporary and good friend Robert Lowell, who wrote in the "confessional" style, Bishop's poetry avoids explicit accounts of her personal life, and focuses instead with great subtlety on her impressions of the physical world. Her images are precise and true to life, and they reflect her own sharp wit and moral sense. She lived for many years in Brazil, communicating with friends and colleagues in America only by letter. She wrote slowly and published sparingly (her Collected Poems number barely a hundred), but the technical brilliance and formal variety of her work is astonishing. Considered for years a "poet's poet," her last book, Geography III, was published in 1976 and finally established her as a major force in contemporary literature.”

And THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS
www.poets.org/poets/

And about her poetry:

“ Elizabeth Bishop's poems were always admired for the purity and precision of her descriptions, and now readers have come to see how, even in her early poems, the attention to external detail reveals an internal emotional realm. Bishop's early works use surrealism and imagism to create a new reality in which she minimizes the reference to self in poetry, but her later poems become more autobiographical and more concerned with a quest for personal identity.”

From website :VOICES & VISIONS VIDEO SERIES
also has audio of the poet reading “ONE ART”
www.learner.org/

And from website ;MODERN AMERICAN POETRY
(www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/ )

“ Bishop often spent many years writing a single poem, working toward an effect of offfhandedness and spontaneity. Committed to a "passion for accuracy," she re-created her worlds of Canada, America, Europe, and Brazil. Shunning self-pity, the poems thinly conceal her estrangements as a woman, a lesbian, an orphan, a geographically rootless traveler, a frequently hospitalized asthmatic, and a sufferer of depression and alcoholism. "I'm not interested in big-scale work as such," she once told(ROBERT) Lowell. "Something needn't be large to be good." ”

Here is her strangely funny & sad poem:

ONE ART

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Anyhow so long for now,
GORD

--------------
NICK CAVE " INTO MY ARMS " & DIEGO RIVERA ART IS PROPAGANDA

One of my favourite Nick Cave songs-

Nick Cave - Into My Arms Lyrics

I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Not to touch a hair on your head
To leave you as you are
And if He felt He had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms

Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms

And I don't believe in the existence of angels
But looking at you I wonder if that's true
But if I did I would summon them together
And ask them to watch over you
To each burn a candle for you
To make bright and clear your path
And to walk, like Christ, in grace and love
And guide you into my arms

Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms

And I believe in Love
And I know that you do too
And I believe in some kind of path
That we can walk down, me and you
So keep your candlew burning
And make her journey bright and pure
That she will keep returning
Always and evermore

Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms, O Lord
Into my arms

Next is a video of Mexican artist Diego Rivera in America :
" ALL ART IS PROPAGANDA "

Take care,
GORD.

[ Download ]

FILM " GLORY " & ROBERT LOWELL 'S " FOR THE UNION DEAD UPDATED &amp;amp; REVISITED IN POST BELOW THIS ONE....

......... KEEP GOING.......

...........

John Mellencamp "Eyes On The Prize" at Whitehouse Performance Live

2010-02-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

John Mellencamp takes the stage with his band at the White House and performs "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" at the White House Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement: 3 of 11.

HAITI- Rene Chassagne of Arcade Fire Asks For Aid For Haiti

2010-01-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

Arcade Fire Canadian Indy Rock Band

Regine Chassagne & Win Butler of Arcade Fire

Rene Chassagne of Arcade Fire Talks about her parents homeland Haiti

Rene Chassagne's Song Haiti

bevanl Youtube user:

June 08, 2008

From the album: Funeral Released: September 14, 2004 Lyrics:

Lyrics:

Haiti, mon pays,
wounded mother I'll never see.
Ma famille set me free.
Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nes
hantent les nuits de Duvalier.
Rien n'arrete nos esprits.
Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see.

In the forest we are hiding,
unmarked graves where flowers grow.
Hear the soldiers angry yelling,
in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nes forment une armee,
soon we will reclaim the earth.
All the tears and all the bodies
bring about our second birth.

Haiti, never free,
n'aie pas peur de sonner l'alarme.
Tes enfants sont partis,
in those days their blood was still warm.

Tags:
indie rock classical alternative art win butler regine chassagne arcade fire montreal canada post punk revival baroque funeral haiti richard reed parry william tim kingsbury sarah neufeld jeremy gara merge records rough trade

HAITI:Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" - Bill O'Reilly - 01/15/10

2010-01-19T14:16:00.001-08:00

Haiti and the UberConservatives who have no compassion for anyone but the rich .
Limbaugh lands 40 million a year contract 2008 claims to be one of the people an average American
Glenn Beck earns only 23 million a year poor guy and his followers think he's one of them.
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" - Bill O'Reilly - 01/15/10

HAITI Inside Story - Has the world failed Haiti? Al Jazeera

2010-01-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Inside Story - Has the world failed Haiti?

After the catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti last week, the US is working closely with the UN and the Haitian government. The US army has been actively involved in helping distribute aid. But after decades of neglect, are Washington and other powers returning to a bigger role in this poor country? And would that come at a price?

HAITI:Disputes emerge over Haiti aid control

2010-01-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

It is five days since a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, spreading fear and misery across an already fragile nation.

After a relatively slow start, US forces appear to be taking the lead in organising international aid efforts on the ground.

But there is a long way to go. Residents outside the capital complain they have been forgotten.

In rural towns and villages survivors have largely been left to fend for themselves. Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker reports from Port Au Prince, the capital.

(Jan 17, 09)
Category: News & Politics
Tags:
americasnews Haiti aid control US forces earthquake Al Jazeera English Sebastian Walker

Limbaugh's Crazy Conspiracy On Haiti Donations & Obama THE YOUNG TURKS Cenk Uygur

2010-01-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

Limbaugh's Crazy Conspiracy On Haiti Donations & Obama

Vote TYT everyday through 1/15/10 @ streamy.org: http://tinyurl.com/ycwk6cv

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/theyoungturks

Check Out TYT Interviews http://www.youtube.com/user/TYTInterv...

Watch more at http://www.theyoungturks.com

Haiti and Obama & THE UGLY AMERICANS Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck Against any aid to Haiti

2010-01-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

Beck and Limbaugh lead chorus of negative reactions from media conservatives to Obamas handling of Haiti, questioning U.S. aid to disaster relief.
Category: News & Politics
Tags:
Haiti Rush Limbaugh Glenn Beck Media Matters Jim Quinn Obama Fox News

HAITI-Pat Robertson & Rush Limbaugh Indifference to deaths of Haitians

2010-01-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

pat robertson applies is inimitable style of hatred and self-righteous bigotry towards the people of Haiti who have been hit with a terrible disaster. http://www.worldvision.org/worldvisio... robertson attributes everything to god/s, not being bright enough to know how Science works and how Our environment works. robertson beieves the tides go in and our when god/s flushes her toilet. robertson is worthless human garbage . https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?df... http://www.paybyweb.com/mainsite/redc...
Category: News & Politics
Tags:
pat robertson Haiti made apact with the Devil scumbag maggot moron liar religion christianity pope rush limbaugh President Barack Obama Keith Olbermann Rachel Maddow Ed Schultz

Régine Chassagne (of Arcade Fire) talks about Haiti and Partners In Health

2010-01-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

Régine Chassagne (of Arcade Fire) talks about Haiti and Partners In Health

HAITI-ARCADE FIRE

2010-01-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

ARCADE FIRE-HAITI

From the album: Funeral
Released: September 14, 2004

Lyrics:

Note: Certain parts of the song is in French

Haiti, mon pays,
wounded mother I'll never see.
Ma famille set me free.
Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nes
hantent les nuits de Duvalier.
Rien n'arrete nos esprits.
Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see.

In the forest we are hiding,
unmarked graves where flowers grow.
Hear the soldiers angry yelling,
in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nes forment une armee,
soon we will reclaim the earth.
All the tears and all the bodies
bring about our second birth.

Haiti, never free,
n'aie pas peur de sonner l'alarme.
Tes enfants sont partis,
in those days their blood was still warm.

Category: Music

Film Review: "Ravenous" ," Dead Birds", "Burrowers"", "CannibalsThe Musical"

2010-01-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

I just watched the horror film Ravenous in the past week and it is indeed a vastly underrated horror flick. The film is gritty and realistic in its depiction of a US outpost in the 1840's in Northern California. It is disturbing and at time funny or at least bizarre. This is a must see for horror film fans but also anyone who can appreciate an original film if they can get past the gore. It is after all a film about Cannibalism and the Native American Wendigo myth .

Trailer for Ravenous-

Ravenous -scene "He was licking me"
at once disturbing and darkly humorous

Ronnie Angel give the film a great positive review.
But one minor point is that there have been horror movies even one dealing with Cannibalism . For instance Troma's Cannibals The Musical which is a hoot though it could have been shorter and the more recent Dead Birds and The Burrowers.
See Burrowers (2009) Directed by J.T. Petty
Starring Clancy Brown Karl Geary William Mapother

Movie review of Ravenous by Ronnie Angel at Best Horror Movies.com

Ravenous Is a Horror Movie That Few Have Actually Seen

If you have not seen Ravenous my question to you is "Why?" This one is off the beaten path and destined to become a cult classic.

Written by The B Movie Specialist Ronnie Angel
August 7, 2007

Ravenous DVD Cover
Release: 1999
Directed by: Antonia Bird
Written by: Ted Griffin

Starring:
Guy Pearce as Capt. John Boyd
Robert Carlyle as Col. Ives/F.W. Colqhoun
David Arquette as Pvt. Cleaves
Jeremy Davies as Pvt. Toffler
Jeffrey Jones as Col. Hart
Joseph Running Fox as George

I have said it before I know, and I will say it time and time again. One of the most important elements in any type of entertainment is originality. Be it in movies, music or (cough) wrestling, originality is the key to staying ahead of the pack. Sometimes, however, too much originality can turn off the main-stream movie goers. Such is the case with Ravenous, one of the most original and most underrated horror movies ever. It is one of my favorites.

Ravenous, set in the 1800's, begins with war hero Captain Boyd (Guy Pearce.....what the hell ever happened to him anyway?) being sent to the remote, odd, cold, slightly dysfunctional military outpost of Fort Spencer in Sierra Nevada after an act of Ravenous - traditional 1800s uniforms"cowardice" in the Mexican war is found out. Boyd is reserved, quiet and usually seems deep in thought throughout Ravenous, and meets some interesting characters when he arrives at Fort Spencer.

There is the drunk Lt. Knox, the bored Col. Hart (Jeffrey Jones speaking of where the hell did they go..), the slightly psychotic tough guy soldier Pvt. Reich, “churchy” Pvt. Tofler (half retarded? Seriously, watch it and see) and the odd Pvt. Cleaves (David Arquette) along with locals George and Martha.

Boyd settles in, and for a little while, things seem alright…until one night when a mysterious man appears at the Fort, half dead, freezing and starving. He says his name is FW Calhoun and proceeds to tell the tale of Ravenous Duo how he got there. Much like a campfire tale that unfolds in similar fashion to the infamous Donner Party, he tells of his wagon party getting stranded in the mountains and having to take shelter in a cave where the leader of the party, Col Ives, proceeded to gradually kill and eat nearly the entire group. Calhoun, he says, made an escdape and found his way to the Fort.

Upon hearing that there may be another survivor up there still with Ives, Col. Hart organizes a search party to head up into the hills. Before the search party heads out local man George warns that Calhoun should not be trusted, and relays the story of the Wendigo myth which tells of a man being possessed by an evil Wendigo spirit after eating human flesh in a time of famine. This is where the insanity begins. I won't tell much more, but I will say that nothing is quite what it seems. This movie is enjoyable to watch, exciting, and (gasp!) even funny (very dark humor albeit) at times.

Ravenous Mountain Landscape

Cannibalism is not touched upon very often in horror movies, especially not set in the 1800s, making Ravenous very unique. The Wendigo Myth is also seldom the topic of a horror movie. The time period, though, is probably the most original part of the Ravenous - Cannibal Attackfilm. I can’t think of another horror film set in the 1800s, in fact. The setting is absolutely amazing, the scenery is beautiful yet quietly eerie and the musical score will transport you to that time and place in history.

Ravenous also creates a tremendous sense of isolation that you can really feel. I am sure that very few have actually seen Ravenous, so I must ask “why?” It is truly original and I am sure that, one day, it will become a cult classic. Questions or comments about Ravenous? Contact us!

Ravenous horror movie review by BHM: Highly Underrated.

The Burrowers Trailer

Burrowers (2009) Directed by J.T. Petty
Starring Clancy Brown Karl Geary William Mapother
see review at ESplatter

"The Burrowers" starts off as a slow moving Eastwood-style western, with our main character Coffey (Karl Geary), an Irish immigrant in love. He's shown poetically offering his heart to a young plainswoman in the film's opening scene. But when she and her entire family are carried off, it's assumed some damn Injuns were responsible. So a rescue team is put together to bring them back.

As the party rides off into the wild west, torturing Indians they come across, it slowly becomes clear that something else entirely dragged away the family -- and threatens to kill off the would-be rescuers. That would be a group of creatures known as "The Burrowers," which basically poison their victims, paralyzing them, then burying them alive for future feeding purposes. These creatures have been operating in the west since before the white man arrived. Even before the Injuns.

The performances in this film are all top notch, particularly William Mapother of "Lost" fame as a ruthless, bullying cowboy. Also, the movie's subtext that it's always easier to blame an enemy you know -- in this case Indians -- than an enemy you don't know, or are maybe too afraid to fight, actually has some relevance with the Iraq war, in which the United States blamed Iraq for 911.

As a western and a drama, it's rock solid and believable. As a horror film, however, it just doesn't quite stack up. The Burrowers themselves aren't particularly interesting as movie monsters. Much of the film's budget is spent during its climax when we get to see the monsters close up. Yeah, the effects are pretty impressive and all. But there's something rudimentary and un-scary about the proceedings.

A good, but far from great, horror movie that proves once again that the old west still isn't the ideal place to set a monster movie.

DEAD BIRDS takes place in 1863 during the American Civil War. A group of Confederate soldiers hide out in an abandoned plantation after robbing a bank and find themselves at the mercy of supernatural forces.

and one of the more bizarre films funny twisted Cannibals:the Musical

Cannibal :the Musical ... Trailer from Troma

Cannibal! The Musical : Funny Scenes

Websites of Note; GoreZone.net
About.com www.Horrorfest Online

Esplatter.com

The Best Horror Movies.com/

Have a nice day!

Afghanistan "Graveyard of Empires" /Veterans to Obama: Do Not Escalate in Afghanistan

2010-01-03T13:03:00.000-08:00

Afghanistan: 'Graveyard of empires' - 01 Dec 09

Afghanistan has been called the 'graveyard of empires' - a land that has never been conquered by a foreign force.

Russia's red army spent a decade there and returned to the Soviet Union broken and defeated.

As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan, it could learn from the former Soviet Union's experience there.

Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from Moscow on the lessons to be learned.

Veterans to Obama: Do Not Escalate in Afghanistan

Rethink Afghanistan: "Congressman Alan Grayson on Afghanistan"

Why even now under the Obama administration there is still a great deal of secrecy about US and Iraqi prisons where thousands are incarcerated and possibly abused,assaulted, tortured ,raped or sodomized as acts of revenge and sadism or as part of the interrogation processes. Human rights groups are denied access to prisons. So what are they hiding. One wonders that as an American whether Obama feels that he is now responsible for the treatment or mistreatment of POWS aka "detainees" Bush Newspeak. Unfortunately there is no power either of a single nation or a number of Nations and the UN who are willing to take on America and its war crimes dating back to just after 9/11 and which continue today.

Mass-rape of women & children by American soldiers

GORD.

2000 Years of Christian Anti-Semitism Led To Holocaust/Shoah

2009-10-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Anti-Semitism my dear children is a horror visited upon the world by The Christian Churches and the New Testament which has led to the deaths of millions of Jews to satisfy the unquenchable thirst of these Demonic Haters of Mankind known as Christians.

Believing that only the Soul and the Spirit are of any real importance they see little wrong in the brutalizing, torturing, ripping apart this meaningless flesh and so have become themselves destroyers of WORLDS.
In the latter days other peoples and religions were infested with this virulent disease of the mind known as Anti-Semitism.
From Books of Anti-Revelation of the Ancient Sage Vol. 1 TRANS. GORD.

While reading about the case of Rifqa Bary I have come across a number of articles and blogs etc. which have a definite anti-Islamic tone. Putting aside the story of Rifqa Bary which appears not to be as straightforward as her supporters believe it to be.

For instance as I have talked about is the rabid hateful anti-Islamic narrative that has become more and more mainstream. It is this notion for instance which Glenn Beck and others have that good Muslims every time they speak to a Christian or any of their fellow Americans or anyone else they should begin every conversation condemning terrorist acts of Muslim extremists. Maybe every time an American speaks in public or on TV they should apologize to the world for destroying Iraq or botching things in Afghanistan or for abusing and torturing thousands of prisoners. That'll be the day.But they tell us America has never done anything wrong so that 's a moot point.

Anyway what has popped up again on the internet and elsewhere is this twisted narrative which claims that anti-Semitism was invented and promulgated not by Christians but by Muslims and that anti-Semitism is an essential part of Islam. These critics go further with their revisionist history claiming that the facts are such that Hitler became an anti-Semitic because of being influenced by the Quran and by Muslim leaders in the 1920s and 1930s. Well that's news to any historian who has studied the history of anti-Semitism in Europe and in the history of Western Civilization. So the pogroms and the Holocaust/Shoah are the direct or indirect consequences of the teachings we are told of the Prophet Muhammad.

This is a bit of a stretch and I have said this should not go unchallenged . Anti-Semitism in fact precedes the founding of Islam.Further anti-Semitism was rarely as violent or virulent among Muslims as it was among Christians. For most of the 1400 years of Islamic history there was little anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism did begin to take hold with some Muslims in the 19th century and grew mainly in reaction to the Zionist movement which insisted that in order for the Jewish people to survive as a people they should begin returning to Palestine. This does not mean that Muslims have a right to promulgate anti-Islamic lies and fictitious conspiracy theories about the Jews as the hidden hand behind all that happens in the world. This is just another case of demonizing those whom you believe to be your enemy. They cannot just be mere humans with whom you have a dispute for it easier to kill an a enemy which has been demonized and dehumanized.

Anti-Semitism: 2000 Years of Christian Love"By Vexen Crabtree 2004 Oct 06

Romans Judaism and Christians

3. BCE to 4th Century: The Roman Empire Tolerated Jews Until Christianity Arose

The Roman way was tolerance. They allowed religious groups to order their own internal affairs according to their own religious rules. They allowed most religions to exist alongside each other, with the Emperors having various religious affiliations. Sometimes certain cults and sects were suppressed, sometimes bloodily and violently, but historically there was no other empire so tolerant and accepting of a multitude of religious beliefs as under Roman rule.

As Jewish Christianity arose within Judea, inside the Roman Empire, its fundamentally Jewish beliefs combined with pagan sun worshipping religions such as Mithraism and other Roman influences. Pauline Christianity, which is the Christianity we know, was very similar to Judaism and the original Gnostic Christianity. It was these two close neighbours that Christianity first came to view as its two greatest competitors and enemies; all three had similar beliefs, all three competed for the same types of religious convert. But gnostic Christianity and the priestly castes of Judaism were both peaceful. Pauline Christianity was bloodthirsty.

“After the first century, Christianity also crystallized, and the relations of Judaism and Christianity were wholly hostile and external; as we shall see, Christianity powerfully stimulated anti-Semitism. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews had no part in the culture of Christian countries, and were too severely persecuted to be able to make contributions to civilisation [...]. It was only among the Muhammedans, at that period, that Jews were treated humanely, and were able to pursue philosophy.”

"History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell (1946)4

"Within only a few decades of the Crucifixion, many converts to Christianity had already chosen to forget that the four evangelists, the twelve apostles and even Christ himself had been devout and practising Jews", "All that was well done in the Old Testament or that might be interpreted as proof of Messianic authority, the Christians claimed for themselves; the failures and denunciations they allotted to the Jews". The Jews saw the plundering and abuse of their own holy texts and themselves wrote on the life of Jesus. "Christian writers retaliated with hideous accounts of Jewish depravity". "It is here, in the rantings of the early Church Fathers against the Jews, that the first fertile seeds lie buried in the hysterical anti-semitism that was to become so rampant in the Middle Ages.". Quotes taken from "The Medieval Underworld" by Andrew McCall (1979)5.

Even before the Church was the official religion of the Roman Empire, when it was still autonomous, it was producing official anti-Judaism legislation. For example in 306CE "The church Synod of Elvira banned marriages, sexual intercourse and community contacts between Christians and Jews"6.

The aggressive Pauline Christianity gained the upper hand in the 4th century. The Roman Empire became a Christian Empire and under Emperor Constantine from the 4th century "theological diatribes" against the Jews began to appear in law. The first bloodshed was the finalisation of the slaughter of all the gnostics and the destruction and oppression of Judaism. The Roman Empire, once a multicultural tolerant nation became a theocracy ruled by Christian intolerance; and this influence spread through the Roman Empire to all of the Western world. Where Christianity had a stronger foothold, the Jews and non-Christians were persecuted and slaughtered more mercilessly than at any other time.

Due to this "religious fanaticism of such intensity" Jews were forced to live separately, were striped of wealth, belongings and all rights, they were reduced to slavery, ceremonially and regularly dehumanized, scapegoated, humiliated and slaughtered by Christian powers. This intolerance combined with complete enforced ignorance and superstition in all areas of life, resulted in the Dark Ages; that period in the Middle Ages when all of Europe was under the brooding, monstrous shadow of a bloodthirsty, out-of-control, corrupt Christian Church ruled from Rome. Roman Catholicism became most successful and bloodthirsty religion the world has ever known.

“Mixed marriages between Jews and Christians were punished by death. In the Codex Thedosians of the Emperor Theodosius II (408-450), the Jews were forbidden to hold any public office or function or to build new synagogues. Justinian completed this process of discrimination against the Jews in the 6th century by outlawing them altogether with all pagans and 'heretics'.”

"The misery of Christianity - a plea for Humanity without God" by Joachin Kahl (1968)

From Pamela Gellar at Atlas Shrugs celebrating the news that the notorious racist Kert Wilders won an appeal to be permitted to spean in Great Britain.

Wilders Liberated to Travel to UK! Coming to Columbia University Next Week

Geert Wilders won his appeal against the decision barring him from the UK.

"The appeal has been upheld," a tribunal spokeswoman said.

Wilders told AFP he was "very happy".

"It is a victory for freedom of speech," he said in The Hague. "I will now consider if and when I will go to the United Kingdom. I was invited to make a speech to the House of Lords, and I intend to do so."

A Home Office spokesman said the government was "disappointed" by the ruling.

"We are disappointed by the court's decision today. The government opposes extremism is all its forms," he said.

Wilders challenged the Brits on their ban and won! Taking on evil is all in a day's work for the man. Next week he comes to Ahmadinejad's old NY stomping grounds, Columbia University. And Atlas will be there to give you the blow by blow. :)

More on the history of Anti-Semitism In The Catholic Church

A Catholic Timeline of Events Relating to Jews, Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust From the 3rd Century to the Beginning of the Third Millennium at Christian Heitage(Sullivan County.com

Prepared by Jerry Darring

c. 240	Origen of Alexandria writes that the Jews "have committed the most abominable of crimes" in conspiring against Christ, and for that reason "the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election"
248	St. Cyprian writes that the Jews have fallen under the heavy wrath of God, because they have departed from the Lord, and have followed idols
306	The Council of Elvira decrees that Christians and Jews cannot intermarry, have sexual intercourse, or eat together
325	Conversation and fellowship with Jews is forbidden to the clergy by the Council of Nicaea
4^th century	Christian emperors of Rome decree that Christians converting to Judaism, and Jews obstructing the conversion of other Jews to Christianity, will incur the death penalty; Jews can not marry Christians, or hold public office, or own slaves
c. 380	St. Gregory of Nyssa refers to the Jews as "murderers of the Lord, assassins of the prophets, rebels and detesters of God,... companions of the devil, race of vipers, informers, calumniators, darkeners of the mind, pharisaic leaven, Sanhedrin of demons, accursed, detested,... enemies of all that is beautiful"
c. 380	St. Ambrose calls the synagogue "a place of unbelief, a home of impiety, a refuge of insanity, damned by God Himself"
388	A mob of Christians, at the instigation of their bishop, looted and burned the synagogue in Callinicum, a town on the Euphrates. The Emperor Theodosius wants those responsible punished and the synagogue rebuilt at the expense of the bishop, but St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, pressures him to relent and condone the action
400	St. Augustine writes: "the Church admits and avows the Jewish people to be cursed, because after killing Christ they continue to till the ground of an earthly circumcision, an earthly Sabbath, an earthly passover, while the hidden strength or virtue of making known Christ, which this tilling contains, is not yielded to the Jews while they continue in impiety and unbelief, for it is revealed in the New Testament. While they will not turn to God, the veil which is on their minds in reading the Old Testament is not taken away... the Jewish people, like Cain, continue tilling the ground, in the carnal observance of the law, which does not yield to them its strength, because they do not perceive in it the grace of Christ"
c. 400	Calling the synagogue "brothel and theater" and "a cave of pirates and the lair of wild beasts," St. John Chrysostom writes that "the Jews behave no better than hogs and goats in their lewd grossness and the excesses of their gluttony"
413	A group of monks sweep through Palestine, destroying synagogues and massacring Jews at the Western Wall
414	St. Cyril of Alexandria expels Jews from his city
425	Jews are required by law to observe Christian feasts and fasts and to listen to sermons designed to persuade them to convert
442	The synagogue in Constantinople is turned into a church
529-553	The Code of the emperor Justinian decrees that in Christian Byzantine society Jews cannot read their sacred books in Hebrew in their synagogues, and the Mishnah and other rabbinic interpretations are banned
538	The Third Synod of Orléans decrees that Jews cannot show themselves in the streets during Passover Week
591	Pope St. Gregory the Great decrees that Jews are not to be forced into baptism "lest they return to their former superstition and die the worse for having been born again"
600	Pope St. Gregory the Great decrees that Jews should not have excessive freedom, but also "in no way should they suffer a violation of their rights"
681	The Synod of Toledo orders the burning of the Talmud and other books
768	Pope Stephen IV decries ownership of hereditary estates by "the Jewish people, ever rebellious against God and derogatory of our rites"
c. 830	Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, writes anti-Jewish pamphlets in which he refers to Jews as "sons of darkness"
c. 937	Pope Leo VII encourages his newly appointed archbishop of Mainz to expel all Jews who refuse to be baptized
c. 1010-1020	In Rouen, Orléans, Limoges, Mainz, and probably also in Rome, Jews are converted by force, massacred, or expelled
1050	The Synod of Narbonne decrees that Christians are not permitted to live in Jewish homes
c. 1070	Pope Alexander II warns the bishops of Spain to prevent violence against the Jews because, unlike the Saracens, they "are prepared to live in servitude"
1078	The Synod of Gerona decrees that Jews must pay the same taxes as Christians to support the church
1081	Pope Gregory VII writes to King Alphonso of Spain telling him that if he allows Jews to be lords over Christians, he is oppressing the Church and exalting "the Synagogue of Satan"
1084	Rüdiger, bishop of Speyer, grants the Jews a charter allowing them to keep Christian servants and serfs, own fields and vineyards, and carry arms
1096	Massacres of Jews takes place in the First Crusade, destroying entire Jewish communities in Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Cologne and other cities. The Jewish chronicler reports: "The enemies stripped them naked and dragged them off, granting quarter to none, save those few who accepted baptism. The number of the slain was eight hundred in these two days." The chronicler Guibert de Nogent reports that the Rouen Crusaders said: "We desire to go and fight God's enemies in the East; but we have before our eyes certain Jews, a race more inimical to God than any other"
1182	Jews are expelled from France, all their property is confiscated, and Christians' debts to them are cancelled with the payment of one-fifth of their value to the treasury
1190	The Third Crusade, led by Richard the Lion-Heart, stirs anti-Jewish fervor and results in the mass suicide of the York Jews in Clifford's Tower on March 16
1198	Jews are allowed to return to France
1199	Pope Innocent III decrees that Jews are to be allowed to worship in their synagogues, they are not to be coerced into baptism, and that Jewish cemeteries are not to be mutilated
1215	The Fourth Lateran Council decrees that Jews are to wear distinctive clothing, and on the three days before Easter they are not to go out in public
1222	The Council of Oxford prohibits the construction of new synagogues
1227	The Council of Narbonne orders Jews to wear a round patch
1230	Jews in France are forbidden to lend money on interest
1234	The Council of Arles orders Jews to wear a round patch
1235	Thirty-four Jews are burned to death in Fulda on a blood-libel charge
1246	The Council of Béziers orders Jews to wear a round patch
1247	Pope Innocent IV defends the Jews: "they are wrongly accused of partaking of the heart of a murdered child at the Passover... Whenever a corpse is found somewhere, it is to the Jews that the murder is wickedly imputed. They are persecuted on the pretext of such fables... they are deprived of trial and of regular judgment; in mockery of all justice, they are stripped of their belongings, starved, imprisoned and tortured"
1254	The Council of Albi orders Jews to wear a round patch
1260	The Council of Arles orders Jews to wear a round patch, but not when traveling
1267	The Synod of Vienna decrees that Christians cannot attend Jewish ceremonies, and Jews cannot dispute with simple Christian people about the Catholic religion
1267	The Synod of Breslau decrees compulsory ghettos for Jews
1267	Pope Clement IV instructs the Franciscans and Dominicans to deal with the "new Christians" who had reverted to Judaism
c. 1270	St. Thomas Aquinas writes that the Jews sin more in their unbelief than do pagans because they have abandoned the way of justice "after knowing it in some way"
1272	Pope Gregory X defends the Jews: "It happens sometimes that Christians lose their children and that the enemies of the Jews accuse them of having kidnaped and killed these children in order to offer sacrifices with their heart and blood, and it also happens that the parents themselves, or other Christians who are enemies to the Jews, hide the children and attack the Jews, demanding of them, as ransom, a certain sum of money, on the entirely false pretext that these children had been kidnaped and killed by the Jews"
1275	Jews in England are forbidden to lend money on interest
1279	The Synod of Ofen decrees that Christians cannot sell or rent real estate to Jews
1283	Jews in France are forbidden to live in the countryside
1284	The Council of Nîmes orders Jews to wear a round patch
1289	The Council of Vienna orders Jews to wear a round patch
1290	Jews are expelled from England and southern Italy
1294	Jews in France are restricted to special quarters of the cities
1294	Jews are expelled from Bern
1298	The Jews of Röttingen, charged with profaning the Host, are massacred and burned down to the last one
1320	The "Shepherds' Crusade." A Christian chronicler records: "The shepherds laid siege to all the Jews who had come from all sides to take refuge... the Jews defended themselves heroically... but their resistance served no purpose, for the shepherds slaughtered a great number of the besieged Jews by smoke and by fire... The Jews, realizing that they would not escape alive, preferred to kill themselves... They chose one of their number (and) this man put some five hundred of them to death, with their consent. He then descended from the castle tower with the few Jewish children who still remained alive... They killed him by quartering. They spared the children, whom they made Catholics by baptism"

and so it goes-Hi Ho,
GORD.

tom waits -The black rider (magic bullets)- 1

2009-05-04T09:13:00.001-07:00

The Black Rider is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1993 on Island Records. The album contains studio versions of songs Waits wrote for the play The Black Rider, directed by Robert Wilson and co-written by William S. Burroughs. The play is based on the German folktale Der Freischütz, which had previously been made into an opera by Carl Maria von Weber.

Enjoy- suitably bizarre

"The Cat Inside" - William S. Burroughs Tribute (1997)

2009-05-04T08:46:00.001-07:00

William S. Burroughs - food for thought -

Bruce Springsteen 41 Shots - Culture of Police Violence in America

2009-04-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

a song of protest from Bruce Springsteen on American Society & its culture of Police Violence
from http://dearkitty.blogsome.com/ Dear Kitty. Some Blog.

March 20, 2009
Protest songs about police and dictators

American Skin (41 Shots) Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 2000

Springsteen’s lament for Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo – shot 41 times by New York City police officers for reaching for his wallet in 1999 – led to the unthinkable: Bruce being booed at Madison Square Garden. The track, recorded for a live E Street reunion record, also marked the moment in which Springsteen was brought back from the critical and commercial wilds to become the documenting voice of modern America, something he confirmed with 2002’s majestic The Rising album. WD

( OriginalYOUTUBE :Embedding disabled by NYPD & the Neocon Trolls let's see how long this version stays up?)

American Amnesia & NY POLICE Anti-Free Speech
If NYPD not guilty why did they fire 41 shots into an unarmed man ???

New York police want to boycott 'the Boss', Martin Kettle in Washington * The Guardian, Tuesday 13 June 2000

His New York concerts have sold out - but Bruce Springsteen certainly hasn't. So much so that the police officers' union wants members to boycott the Boss because of his new song about a police killing.

The song, American Skin, does not mention Amadou Diallo by name. But the repeated line "41 shots" leaves no room for doubt that its subject is the killing of the unarmed West African immigrant by New York police officers in February 1999.

Four white NYPD officers fired 41 shots at Diallo in the entrance to his Bronx block of flats. The four were acquitted earlier this year, after claiming they thought that a wallet the dead man was reaching for was a gun.

As Springsteen and the E-Street Band began a 10-night run in New York last night, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the main NYPD union, has urged members to boycott any duties during the concerts and not to attend as paying guests. The president of the Fraternal Order of Police called the singer "a dirtbag".

Springsteen's song, not yet recorded, opens with eight repetitions of the line "41 shots". The chorus runs: "Is it a gun? Is it a knife? Is it a wallet? This is your life. It ain't no secret. The secret my friend, you can get killed just for living in your American skin."

"I happen to like Springsteen," New York police officer Orlando Vega told the New York Daily News yesterday, "but we're trying to work in the community, and him opening up old wounds just makes our jobs more difficult".

Diallo's mother has said she wants to meet Springsteen to thank him for keeping her son's case in the public eye. Since the acquittal, the Diallo killing has largely disappeared from the front pages and has barely figured in the Senate election battle between Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio.

"The anger is nowhere and nothing is happening," the veteran New York columnist Jimmy Breslin wrote on Sunday. "At the last hour, only Bruce Springsteen comes in to remind this city of its duty never to forget a horror."

take care .
GORD.

Flobots- "Handlebars"

2009-01-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share this little ditty by the Flobots

Flobots- "Handlebars"

and here's some verses of my own :

Those Thousand Hour Nights

Those thousand hour nights
twisting the knife in
becoming a spectre
roaming the streets of this desolate city
from 3am til dawn
waiting for a sign
that never comes
feeling absurd
without a friend or lover
without a purpose
just to go on
crawling up the walls
and across the ceiling
and down again
amazed at the creature alone
losing himself in books
on art on poetry
in fantasies walking along the Seine
living in a garret
surrounded by artists and poets and revolutionaries
killing rats for a little nourishment
soon it all fades
ending the facade
so he kills a rat he says out of fear
or out of resentment
why should the rat feel free to come and go
as it pleases -

Take care,
GORD.

'Life Put On Pause' For David

2009-01-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

First a little musical interlude

Nathalie Cardone Comandante Che Guevara Hasta Siempre

And so another year begins .But it is just an arbitrary distinction of the passing of time. Were you or the world reborn at 12:01 AM. Always hoping this year will be as good as or better.Fearing that moment of joy you felt last night might be your last. Ah but we have our ways to fool ourselves .

Anyway an old friend reminded me how long I have been asleep. He and others have lived whereas I am just doing time fearful of leaving this self-imposed exile. Giving up on a life of winners and losers. A ghostly message stirred inside this sea silicon chips carrying messages from the living and the dead. Just refuse to take part.

so here's some verses for your amusement:
For David

Life Put on Pause
Jan. 1, 2009

I stood out of sight in my garden
building wooden bridges
a zen piece of soil eluded me
still at the center
broken shattered
found lost in a strange country
flesh and bone too much to carry
wandering through labyrinthine forests of clocks
a dead world of gadgets stealing time
haunted and hunted
sitting in nearly deserted cafes
is everyday so slow
on patios overlooking the harbor
monstrous oil rigs
a city on stilts
cruise ships shift gears parking dockside
like cars lined up outside a shopping mall
the plaid shirt he says helps his writing
off to hospital for another 30 days
each day a kick in the guts
watching the minutes tick by
waiting for silence
pitiless and pathetic
days lost to jagged knives
ripping through
mere synaptic rods of lightning
for pleasure for pain
going on a march or two
filling up spaces
as if to stop the swirling seas of stars
Buddha in the mirror mocks every word every move
every thought every dream every nightmare
all the same
pain and pleasure the same
tiresome empty
every moment a new death
reediting memories
decades like waves crashing
days streaming through my little garden
a thousand years sitting on a cushion breathing
frogs on heated electric grills jumping
walking fast to catch myself unawares-

switching channels
peeking inside ten thousand souls
words and images swirling about
broken hearts broken minds broken bones
salivating as their lives crash against rocks
turning away at the last moment
greedily devouring pain and confusion
drinking a million tears
hoping for more
life put on pause
laughter and smiles an accusation
no joy in mudville
as I climb earth's ladder
listening to songs
feeling the singer's pain or joy
in languages I do not understand
drifting around the sun and back again
the Gods have the last laugh
imprisoned in a cell underground
remembering years sitting in cafes
in a sad little city with big dreams for itself
surrounded by a wall of borrowed library books
in The green Bean on Argyle or
cafe Mokka on Brunswick
reading poetry to crowds of a dozen sometimes a hundred
a way to pass the time
escaping on Fridays to the Roadhouse
at the heart of this city
dancing and drinking in the war torn ruins
in the underbelly
where the music sounds like dueling chainsaws
dreaming of Paris Madrid Copenhagen
travelers return telling their tales
imagining I was with them-

staggering through the streets at 3am
crowds emerge in desperation from bars
imagining kerouac bukowski ginsberg
imagining chagall vangogh whistler
lost in sweet absinthe green dreams
drowning the pain in laudanum
too awake for my own good or yours
smoothing the edges
months spent in self imposed exile
taking a vow of silence
driving for years on switch-back mountain roads
til we meet the sky
then meet ourselves on the way back down
as the big hand picks us up
dumps us in this place or that
never where we expected
our desires crushed by fate and chance
on a spinning ball hanging in space
our tasks our gestures empty
seeing the pain in your eyes
I cannot fathom the meaning
as you walk away into the wilderness
so put it on pause
I can stand no more
tossing into the flames the mocking books of his poetry
published once gave him false hope
mere printed words
as if the word filled world could be tamed
beneath the still china blue sky
two doves fly over the wooden arched bridge
as vultures nearby tear at the flesh
of another of the disappeared tossed on a heap of garbage
recycled humanity
as some brutish general breaks down your door at 3am
rewinding to a day on the beach entitled 'Fun in the Sun'
no don't go there
years wandering the halls on a college campus
in a cheap blue uniform
guardian of the silence
fearing one day
finding the apartment rock hard with sharp edges everywhere
the softness becoming razor wire draped across the living room
and you sadly sitting inside
in a moment of despair gone
draping me in a grey burial shroud
with no exit strategy
never preparing for the worse
putting our love on pause
our love and our child both dead
deluded sitting on the cushion twenty years
outside the meditation hall just the darkness of space-

Music For Dave -

Victor Jara

Victor Jara -El Cigarrito

Luchin-Victor Jara

see you around,
GORD.

Frank Sinatra & Elvis Presley Singing MY WAY Amazing Grace & In The Ghetto

2008-10-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

And so last time I posted The Gipsy Kings performing MY WAY so here's here's Frank Sinatra singing MY WAY followed by Elvis Presley. I hope you enjoy these versions as I do.

My Way Frank Sinatra

Elvis Presley Live-My Way

and one of my favorite Elvis' songs.
Elvis Presley-In The Ghetto

and one of the truly great spirituals Amazing Grace sung by Elvis Presley

Music of The Gipsy Kings & Ritchie Valens & Los Lobos

2008-10-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

And now for your listening pleasure some Gipsy Kings & Los Lobos & Ritchie Valens:

Gipsy Kings - AMi Manera ( My Way )

Gipsy Kings- Volare

Los Lobos-La Bamba

Ritchie Valens -La Bamba

see you later,
GORD.

Arcade Fire & Los Kjarkas

2008-10-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

So here's some of the music I enjoy.

Arcade Fire Windowsill

Arcades Fire :My Body Is A Cage
& "Once Upon A Time In The West"

from:
http://jtylerhelms.com (Unofficial) - WARNING: This will potentially spoil the end of the movie if you haven't seen it - Upon listening to the new Arcade Fire album, the last song in particular evoked an intense spaghetti western scenerio in my mind. I created a music video for the song with edited clips from Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West"... my favorite western.
hi-res version: http://jtylerhelms.com/films/bodycage...

and now for something a little different. Note the use of traditional instruments with contemporary instruments and the great orchestration involved.Not as easy as it appears - simple and complex .

Kjarkas--"LLorando se fue" en escenario

Ave de Cristal: Los Kjarkas

KALAMARKA (aguas claras)YouTube
From: Roncon1
Added: October 02, 2007

The Island AGreatly Under-Rated Gem of A Movie

2008-10-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Island came out several years ago but I only saw it a within the last week. I'm not too sure why it didn't get good reviews or didn't get wide release.It is another sci-fi futuristic dystopian film in which clones are bred in an underground city inorder to provide replacement parts for wealthy sponsors. The clones of course don't know this and are told that the earth is contaminated but that there is an Island which they can go to and there live an idylic life but only winners of the "lottery" get to go to the Island.

It all takes place in the near future and we get a good glimpse of the futuristic city . The city where our clone escapees end up for me was quite believable. It is filled with some great chase scenes for those who like action. So part of the film has some similarities to the Matrix series but also to films such as Logan's Run and to Blade Runner or Equilibrium. But it also has a very good basic story line.Part of its charm is that the Clones we are told are non-sexual beings who are at a low mental age of between 12 to 15 or even less.Anyway I don't want to give too much away . But it is a greatly under-rated film as was Equilibrium.

The Island Music Vid (Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson)
Fanvideo for "The Island" (spoiler alert!), centering on Lincoln & Jordan running for dear life. Starring Ewan McGregor & Scarlett Johansson. Set to "Imperial Force" by X-Ray Dog.

The Island Trailer

Custom made trailer with some *spoilers* for the 2005 Michael Bay film THE ISLAND starring Scarlett Johansson, Ewan MacGregor, Djimon Hounsou, and Sean Bean. Edited and Scored by Teddy Blass.

www.teddyblass.com

Children of Men

2008-10-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yes ,I know its been awhile.

I just recently saw the film Children of Men which is a great piece of fim-making and it does have a message. I guess that's why it never received the attention it should have. People in general prefer their films to be entertaining froth and nothing more.They want movies which will tell them that their values and their perception of the world is valid and unquestionable. Most citizens do not want a film to tell them that they are selfish, narcissitic, greedy, souless creatures.

One of the issues it raises is that of immigration.

In this futuristic dystopia there is no future since no children are bein born. Is the infertility caused by pollution and how we have treated the planet & our selves. But the possible extinction of humanity just seems to bring about more inequality and more injustice. Humanity does not pull it together as it goes into decline but becomes even meaner and nastier. Immigrants in Britain are treated as if they were not persons deserving of fair treatment but are used as scapegoats and hunted down and place in over-crowded detention camps where they are being left to die. In Britain and America today there are many who would see nothing wrong with such a policy. In America there are over 12 million illegal immigrants and the solution to this complex problem is simplified by many on the right who just say hunt them down and put them in internment camps . The anti-immigration forces believe that no one who is a true patriot should have any concern over illegals who are viewed as " an infestation ", " a disease", or as if they were " cockroaches '. So the right uses all its means available to it to soften up the public to accept an inhumane and Nazi-like solution to the issue.

Children Of Men Trailer

Video below contains Spoilers & offensive language so beware.

Why "Children of Men" should be nominated for best picture

VIDEO CONTAINS SPOILERS!

A video made to help publicize a criminally underrated masterpiece. Alfonso Cuarón's amazing dystopian vision "Children of Men" was completely ignored by Universal and dumped quietly at the box office despite glowing praise from critics. I made this short to help generate more buzz behind this overlooked masterpiece. Read press and more info about what happened from this here:

http://www.blairerickson.com/children...

Sante Maria Iquique Massacre- A Reminder For Labor Day

2008-09-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Quilapayun Performing Cantata Sante Marie Iquique -
It is a composition made as a tribute to the Massacre of Nitrate mining workers in Chile December 21, 1907. The death toll has been estimated as 2,000 to 3,000 unarmed miners and their families by Federal Troops who opened fire on the crowd with machine guns.

Cantata Completa «Santa Maria de Iquique» - Quilapayún

Dave Mathews: All Along The Watchtower

2008-08-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

Dave Mathews Performing Dylan's All Along The Watchtower

take care ,
GORD.

MISSING By Costas Gavras Spreading American Values One Bloody Coup At A Time

2008-07-09T12:05:00.000-07:00

Missing Directed by Costas Gavras 1982

a film about the American backed coup in Chile 1973 ousting President Allende by General Pinochet to protect American Interests as usual. A great piece of film-making combined with stellar & realistic performances by Jack Lemmon and Sisy Spacek . It is a film that is serious and profound and deeply moving while always returning to its core of a study of humanity of the fanatical cold-warriors to the the fear, apprehension and sorrow of ordinary people. It is a film that makes one angry and sad while presenting the entire episode as surreal and baffling. For what was the great evil being committed by Allende and others that they deserved to be shot down like mad dogs or tortured and then executed . It raises the question whether Americans truly believe in the right to dissent. They claim they do . But their actions from Vietnam to Iraq , from Kent State to Gitmo & Abu Ghraib to the Media blackouts as in refusing to cover or to cover accurately and fairly anti-war demonstrations in America today suggest otherwise.

It is one of my favourite films. It is I believe a great film not just because of its politics. Gavras has done a wonderful job of turning a somewhat prosaic and political story into a heartfelt plea for sanity in a world gone mad. A world dominated by Cold War Warriors who see the world in stark black and white terms and fail to see what may be worth supporting and valuing. Democracy and freedom and capitalism and the fight against evils of Communism they see as incompatible . They therefore prop-up oppressive regimes while forgetting what supposedly differentiates American and Western values from those of Communist China and Communist Soviet Union at that time. The question is should the American and Western life styles be maintained by oppressing and even murdering the voices of change in other countries such as Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua etc'
added by steve2000a
Music of Vangelis for end credits.
End Credits/Finale (Missing) Music by Vangelis

Missing is a profoundly disturbing political film based on a true story. Very little is exaggerated as the Neocons & the Religious Right and their fascist friends have claimed. Most Neocons and other twisted patriots American or Canadian believe such a film should have never been shown in theatres. They see it as a subversive anti-American and therefore anti-capitalist and anti-Christian and anti-Western film. They see nothing at all wrong with executing unarmed students, professors, scholars, musicians, artists, journalists, poets, novelists, social workers and all community activists and other so called agitators or free thinkers.

As film Missing is one of the truly great films like Citizen Kane . It is a mater piece of editing which turns what could have been a rather obvious piece of politicising or as a political biopic. Instead Gavras has turned the story into a mystery in which we are given clues along the way from Flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks.
The director uses some great bits of juxtapositions such as a crowd of rich people at a party singing along to the pop song my ding-a-ling as we hear gunshots and then the well to do go out on a balcony and applaud a general and soldiers who pass by on the street - possibly it is General Pinochet himself.

From: trauld at YouTube Missing by Costas Gavras 1982 (part 1 )
the rest is available at YouTube

Spreading American Values.
Missing is the story of a young America caught up in the Military Coup in Chile. General Pinochet backed by the American government and the American people and the complicity of much of the West overthrew the legally elected and popular President Allende. But even thirty five years later one will get hate e-mail just for mentioning it. America more often than not supports the anti-democratic forces in favor of friendly fascist or authoritarian regimes.

Americans prefer to drink the Kool-Aid rather than face the truth. they prefer ignorance . They rationalize this by claiming all true Americans are patriots who would not dare question their government, the CIA, the Pentagon -

Missing part 1.

This next clip is a pivotal scene at the end of the film.

After being lied to again and again by officials they finally reveal that his son was executed .
Mr. Horman Jack Lemmon sheds his old self & his view that America could do no wrong. He is a typical American who is patriotic and believes in his country.
Now he knows what those in power in America are capable. They gave the order to have his son arrested, tortured and executed because he knew too much .
Should those who order such actions be treated any better ???

Missing (part 12 ) Costas Gavras

TYGER- WILLIAM BLAKE POET, ARTIST, Mystic

2008-06-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

TYGER- William Blake
An absolutely magical short by Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil, based on a William Blake poem. Tyger blends puppetry, illustration, photography and CGI. Dreamy, mesmerizing, brilliant. Wow.

(From: alexandrianima )
or from:

kira1990shaky1990nnnTYGER YouTube

The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

chimney sweeper william blake

chimney sweeper by william blakeas a nineteenth century english poet blake depicts the concept of child just after the industrial revolution

Auguries of Innocence- William Blake

"Man was made for Woe and Joy "

"Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to endless night "

for more on William Blake see Poets.org/ William Blake
and William Blake Archive

Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell through all its regions.

A dog starved at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.

Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.

The game-cock clipped and armed for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer wandering here and there
Keeps the human soul from care.

The lamb misused breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.

The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be beloved by men.

He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.

He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.

Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the Last Judgment draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.

The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them, and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from Slander's tongue.

The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of Envy's foot.

The poison of the honey-bee
Is the artist's jealousy.

The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.

A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.

Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

The babe is more than swaddling bands,
Throughout all these human lands;
Tools were made and born were hands,
Every farmer understands.

Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;
This is caught by females bright
And returned to its own delight.

The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.

The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes Revenge! in realms of death.

The beggar's rags fluttering in air
Does to rags the heavens tear.

The soldier armed with sword and gun
Palsied strikes the summer's sun.

The poor man's farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric's shore.

One mite wrung from the labourer's hands
Shall buy and sell the miser's lands,
Or if protected from on high
Does that whole nation sell and buy.

He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mocked in age and death.

He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.

The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

The questioner who sits so sly
Shall never know how to reply.

He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.

Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour's iron brace.

When gold and gems adorn the plough
To peaceful arts shall Envy bow.

A riddle or the cricket's cry
Is to doubt a fit reply.

The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.

He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.

If the sun and moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.

To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation's fate.

The harlot's cry from street to street
Shall weave old England's winding sheet.

The winner's shout, the loser's curse,
Dance before dead England's hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born.

Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not through the eye
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night,
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

Nick Cave revisited

2008-06-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

Due to some technical difficulties many of the videos I have posted are not working properly. I have not determined the problem though it could be due to overload or some misunderstanding with YouTube or my server.So I will be reposting a number of videos over the next couple of weeks. I will try to add other versions or new one.

So here's a couple of my favourites from Nick Cave:
These were taken from the Video site Dailymotion.

Nick Cave : Into My Arms/ Dailymotion Videos
Recorded: 17 November 2006Location: Brazil

Nick Cave - into my arms live npa
Uploaded by npanthony

Nick Cave: As I Sat Sadly By Her Side

Nick Cave - As I sat sadly by your side
Uploaded by bonitao224

And here's Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds performing Abattoir Blues on the Jules Holland show:

Jacques Brel on Love And War

2008-06-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

Brel If we only have love
Jacques Brel- Quand on n'a que l'amour
( If we only have love )

" If we only have love
We can melt all the guns
And then give the new world
To our daughters and sons
If we only have love
Then Jerusalem stands
And then death has no shadow
There are no foreign lands
If we only have love "

From Daily Motion Videos Belgium

Jacques Brel - Quand on a que l'amour
Uploaded by smileynoir

Thom Yorke - Black Swan / Radiohead / P. J. Harvey / The Mess We're In

2008-06-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Black Swan - Thom Yorke

THOM YORKE LYRICS

"Black Swan"

What will grow quickly, that you can't make straight
It's the price you gotta pay
Do yourself a favour and pack you bags
Buy a ticket and get on the train
Buy a ticket and get on the train

Cause this is fucked up, fucked up
Cause this is fucked up, fucked up

People get crushed like biscuit crumbs
And laid down in the bitumen
You have tried your best to please everyone
But it just isn't happening
No, it just isn't happening

And it's fucked up, fucked up
And this is fucked up, fucked up
This your blind spot, blind spot
It should be obvious, but it's not.
But it isn't, but it isn't

You cannot kickstart a dead horse
You just crush yourself and walk away
I don't care what the future holds
Cause I'm right here in your arms today
With your fingers you can touch me

I'm your black swan, black swan
But I made it to the top, made it to the top
This is fucked up, fucked up

You are fucked up, fucked up
This is fucked up, fucked up

Be your black swan, black swan
I'm for spare parts, broken up

Thom Yorke, Radiohead - Speed Painting by Nico Di Mattia
song Street Spirit (fade out )
February 09, 2007 Nico Di Mattia
A time lapse digital painting, in Photoshop. The real time of drawing was 4 hours.
Category: Film & Animation

RADIOHEAD LYRICS

"Street Spirit (Fade Out)"

Rows of houses, all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out

This machine will, will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again

Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see its beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again

Immerse your soul in love
IMMERSE YOUR SOUL IN LOVE
[ www.azlyrics.com ]

THOM YORKE LYRICS

"The Eraser"

Please excuse me but I got to ask
Are you only being nice
Because you want something
My fairy tale arrow pierces
Be careful how you respond
'Cause you'd not end up in this song
I never gave you an encouragement
And it's doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in

The more you try to erase me
The more, the more
The more that I appear
Oh the more, the more
The more you try the eraser
The more, the more
The more that you appear

You know the answer so why do you ask
I am only being nice
Because I want someone, something
You're like a kitten with a ball of yarn
And it's doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in
Doing me in

The more you try to erase me
The more, the more
The more that I appear
Oh the more, the more
The more I try to erase you
The more, the more
The more that you appear
No, you're wrong, you're wrong
You're wrong, you're wrong
You're wrong, you're wrong
You're wrong

[ www.azlyrics.com ]

For more on Thom Yorke see: wired Thom Yorke and David Byrne at WIRED.COM /12/18/07

also see: blog The Eraser Lyrica

Radiohead ALL I NEED video for MTV's EXIT CAMPAIGN

May 02, 2008 End Exploitation and Trafficking
MTVEXIT

RADIOHEAD LYRICS

"All I Need"

I'm the next act
Waiting in the wings

I'm an animal
Trapped in your hot car

I am all the days
That you choose to ignore

You are all I need
You are all I need
I'm in the middle of your picture
Lying in the reeds

I'm a moth
Who just wants to share your light

I'm just an insect
Trying to get out of the night

I only stick with you
Because there are no others

You are all I need
You're all I need
I'm in the middle your picture
Lying in the reeds

It's all wrong
It's all right
It's all wrong

[ www.azlyrics.com ]

This Mess We're in with Trent Parke/ P. J. Harvey & Thom Yorke
the song "this mess we're in" by pj harvey and thom yorke combined with the photographes of trent parke, from his dream/life exhibition.

P J HARVEY LYRICS

"This Mess We're In"

Can you hear them?
The helicopters?
I'm in New York
No need for words now
We sit in silence
You look me
In the eye directly
You met me
I think it's Wednesday
The evening
The mess we're in and
The city sun sets over me

Night and day
I dream of
Making-love
To you now baby
Love-making
On-screen
Impossible dream
And I have seen
The sunrise
Over the river
The freeway
Reminding
Of this mess we're in and
The city sun sets over me

What were you wanting?
I just want to say
Don't ever change now baby
And thank you
I don't think we will meet again
And you must leave now
Before the sunrise
Above skyscrapers
The sin and
This mess we're in and
The city sun sets over me

[ www.azlyrics.com ]

take care,
Gordon

" WAR, INC. " John Cusack's Satire on The Iraq War

2008-06-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

WAR, INC. - John Cusack plays a hit-man for the US Goverment

WAR, INC.

WAR,INC. John Cusack meets Yonica Babyeah( Hilary Duff )

WAR,INC.

Though the movie is supposed be taking place in the near future as in the day after tomorrow most of what it satirizes has to a great extent already happened. The Iraq war is the most privatized war in American history. And this is all thanks to Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the neocons. The company with some of the biggest contracts in Iraq is Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR : Kellog , Brown & Root. These and other companies have ripped off the American government for a billion here , a billion there. Dick Cheney so happened to be the former CEO of Halliburton. Isn't this a conflict of interest.

Anyway the film is entertaining , funny, satirical, disturbing and a little too close to the truth for most Americans. So it probably not get to play as much as it should . Americans as we know can't handle the truth. They prefer the comforting propaganda of the Bush neocon Noise Machine and Echo-Chamber which helps them to sleep at night.

Film Clips removed by YouTube.

Here's an interview of John Cusack on CBC's THE HOUR with George Stroumboulopoulos
John Cusack on his passion for politics, War Inc. and working with friends in Bulgaria.
Category: Entertainment

Trailer

Hilary Duff Arrives in Emerald City

Hilary Duff :Yonica BabyYeah- I Want to Blow You Up

Terry Jacks ' Seasons in the Sun ' English Version of Jacques Brel's Superior 'Le Moribond '

2008-04-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

The original lyrics of the song Le Moribond by Brel in 1961 are far darker and sarcastic and a little bitter in comparison to the Rod McKeun English 1964 translation and the version made famous by Terry Jacks " Seasons in the Sun " in 1974. Though each version has its own appeal. Brel's style is chock full of images and interpretations and social criticims popular in France and Belgium at the time.

Terry Jacks version is sad and sentimental but lacks the sarcasm and bitterness and the dark humor of the original Jacques Brel song. Jacques Brel in the original also takes potshots at the clergy and others including the institution of marriage and his wife's unfaithfulness with his best friend.

Jacques Brel- Le Moribond/ The Dying Man

Jacques Brel: Le Moribond/ Dailymotion Videos

Recorded: 15 November 2007Location: France

jacques brel le moribond
Uploaded by moriganne

The Dying Man

Goodbye, Emile, you were my good friend
Goodbye, Emile, you were my good friend, you know
We sang together of the same great wines
We sang together of the same great women
We sang together of our shared sorrows
Goodbye, Emile, I'm going to die
It's difficult to die in the Spring, you know
But I'm going to the flowers with peace in my heart
Because I know that you are a good man, good as white bread
You'll take care of my wife after I'm gone

(Chorus)
I want everyone to laugh
I want everyone to dance
I want everyone to party like a bunch of fools
I want everyone to laugh
I want everyone to dance
When they come to put me in my grave

Goodbye, Father Priest, I liked you well enough
Goodbye, Father Priest, I liked you well enough, you know
We weren't always on the same side
We didn't always take the same path
But we were both looking for Heaven just the same
Goodbye, Father Priest, I'm going to die
It's hard to die in the Spring, you know
But I'm going to the flowers with peace in my heart
Because you were her Confessor
I know you'll take care of my wife when I'm gone
(Chorus)

Goodbye, Tony, I didn't like you too much
Goodbye, Tony, I didn't like you too much, you know
It's killing me to be dying today
While you are so vigorous and full of life
And stronger even than boredom itself
Goodbye, Tony, I'm going to die
It's hard to die in the Spring, you know
But I'm going to the flowers with peace in my heart
Because you were her Lover
I know you'll take care of my wife when I'm gone
(Chorus)

Goodbye, my wife, I love you still
Goodbye, my wife, I love you still, you know
But I'm taking that trip to see the Good Lord today
I'm taking the trip before you do
But we all take that trip when we must
Goodbye, my wife, I'm going to die
It's hard to die in the Spring, you know
But I'm going to the flowers with my eyes closed, once more
And because I closed them so many times before
I know you'll take good care of my heart
(Chorus)

from LeMoribond@Everything2.com

compare Brel's version to Terry Jack's
Terry Jacks - Seasons in the sun

From Noel Megahey's review of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at www.dvdtimes.co.uk

and see : JACQUES BREL: THE BELGIAN POP & ROCK ARCHIVES

Mich en Scene:Songs of Jacques Brel by Micheline Van Hautem review by Michael Dwyer

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris Soundtrack Lyrics

Check out version of " If You Go Away " by Shirley Basseyat YouTube

see you later,
GORD.

Keith Wigdor' Surrealist Website

2008-04-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

" my abs " by Fatima Azimova
" Take Me To The City " by Fatima Azimova
" La Cabeza " by Alicia Maria De La Camp
" Hondoes Dolores" by Alicia Maria De Lacamp
"Conversacion" by Alicia Maria de la Camp
" The Demon Mother " By Carrie Ann Baad
"THE RED QUEEN "By Carrie Ann Baad
"Cupid Complaining to Venus " By Carrie Ann Baad

The above works of art were found at the fairly new Keith Wigdor Presents Surrealism Now!
The website's purpose is to showcase works of art which are Surrealist or the Fantastic and the Imaginative.

If your interested take a peak.

Other sites of interest:

Virtual Museum Of Art

SURREALISM VIRTUAL Gallery

ARTCYCLOPEDIA

Robin Urton Eyecon Art

Take care,
Gord.

Garcia Lorca :Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias

2008-04-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Garcia Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) is considered Spain's greatest poet and dramatist of the 20th century, and the most famous victim of its civil war. Lorca was assassinated on the orders of the fascist dictator Franco . Lorca's approach to poetry combined traditional and modern forms and ideas. His struggle with his identity and the modern world permeates his work, and finds its most critically admired expression in Poet in New York.
IMAGE Posted by Picasa

Anyway I just wanted to share a few verses by the poet Garcia Lorca & a tid bit or two about his life & work & his death .

Federico Garcia Lorca Writer Poet Artist
Martyr of the Spanish Civil War
1898 - 1936
http://www.geocities.com/

"Federico Garcia Lorca was one of the great Spanish writers and artists of the 20th Century. In his short lifetime he produced a wide variety of novels, short stories, poetry as well as paintings,drawings and even musical compositions.
He influenced such politically disparate artists as the poet Neruda and the painter Dali.
On August 19, 1936, at the age of 38, Lorca was beaten to death by Franco's falangists along with several other 'disappeared' political opponents of Franco.
While his homosexuality was known even then, his fascist assassins used this to make his assassination look like a bit of 'rough trade' gone wrong,(see Why Lorca Was Murdered) the real reason for his death was his outspoken defense of the Republic and his criticisms of monarchism, Catholicism and Fascism. "

And from MEMOIRS by Pablo Neruda ( 1904-1973 )Chilean poet & friend of Garcia Lorca :

“ Federico Garcia Lorca was not merely shot; he was assassinated. It would never have crossed anyone’s mind that they would kill him one day. He was the most loved, the most cherished, of all Spanish poets, and he was the closest to being a child, because of his marvelous happy temperament. Who could have believed there were monster on this earth, in his own Granada, capable of such an inconceivable crime? “ P. 125

Anyway here is one of Lorca's poems which I wish to share...

Federico Garcia Lorca

Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias

1. Cogida and death

At five in the afternoon.
It was exactly five in the afternoon.
A boy brought the white sheet
at five in the afternoon.
A frail of lime ready prepared
at five in the afternoon.
The rest was death, and death alone.

The wind carried away the cottonwool
at five in the afternoon.
And the oxide scattered crystal and nickel
at five in the afternoon.
Now the dove and the leopard wrestle
at five in the afternoon.
And a thigh with a desolated horn
at five in the afternoon.
The bass-string struck up
at five in the afternoon.
Arsenic bells and smoke
at five in the afternoon.
Groups of silence in the corners
at five in the afternoon.
And the bull alone with a high heart!
At five in the afternoon.
When the sweat of snow was coming
at five in the afternoon,
when the bull ring was covered with iodine
at five in the afternoon.
Death laid eggs in the wound
at five in the afternoon.
At five in the afternoon.
At five o'clock in the afternoon.

A coffin on wheels is his bed
at five in the afternoon.
Bones and flutes resound in his ears
at five in the afternoon.
Now the bull was bellowing through his forehead
at five in the afternoon.
The room was iridescent with agony
at five in the afternoon.
In the distance the gangrene now comes
at five in the afternoon.
Horn of the lily through green groins
at five in the afternoon.
The wounds were burning like suns
at five in the afternoon.
At five in the afternoon.
Ah, that fatal five in the afternoon!
It was five by all the clocks!
It was five in the shade of the afternoon!

2. The Spilled Blood

I will not see it!

Tell the moon to come,
for I do not want to see the blood
of Ignacio on the sand.

I will not see it!

The moon wide open.
Horse of still clouds,
and the grey bull ring of dreams
with willows in the barreras.

I will not see it!

Let my memory kindle!
Warm the jasmines
of such minute whiteness!

I will not see it!

The cow of the ancient world
passed had sad tongue
over a snout of blood
spilled on the sand,
and the bulls of Guisando,
partly death and partly stone,
bellowed like two centuries
sated with threading the earth.
No.
I will not see it!

Ignacio goes up the tiers
with all his death on his shoulders.
He sought for the dawn
but the dawn was no more.
He seeks for his confident profile
and the dream bewilders him
He sought for his beautiful body
and encountered his opened blood
Do not ask me to see it!
I do not want to hear it spurt
each time with less strength:
that spurt that illuminates
the tiers of seats, and spills
over the corduroy and the leather
of a thirsty multitude.
Who shouts that I should come near!
Do not ask me to see it!

His eyes did not close
when he saw the horns near,
but the terrible mothers
lifted their heads.
And across the ranches,
an air of secret voices rose,
shouting to celestial bulls,
herdsmen of pale mist.
There was no prince in Sevilla
who could compare to him,
nor sword like his sword
nor heart so true.
Like a river of lions
was his marvelous strength,
and like a marble torso
his firm drawn moderation.
The air of Andalusian Rome
gilded his head
where his smile was a spikenard
of wit and intelligence.
What a great torero in the ring!
What a good peasant in the sierra!
How gentle with the sheaves!
How hard with the spurs!
How tender with the dew!
How dazzling the fiesta!
How tremendous with the final
banderillas of darkness!

But now he sleeps without end.
Now the moss and the grass
open with sure fingers
the flower of his skull.
And now his blood comes out singing;
singing along marshes and meadows,
slides on frozen horns,
faltering soulless in the mist
stumbling over a thousand hoofs
like a long, dark, sad tongue,
to form a pool of agony
close to the starry Guadalquivir.
Oh, white wall of Spain!
Oh, black bull of sorrow!
Oh, hard blood of Ignacio!
Oh, nightingale of his veins!
No.
I will not see it!
No chalice can contain it,
no swallows can drink it,
no frost of light can cool it,
nor song nor deluge of white lilies,
no glass can cover it with silver.
No.
I will not see it!

3. The Laid Out Body

Stone is a forehead where dreams grieve
without curving waters and frozen cypresses.
Stone is a shoulder on which to bear Time
with trees formed of tears and ribbons and planets.

I have seen grey showers move towards the waves
raising their tender riddle arms,
to avoid being caught by lying stone
which loosens their limbs without soaking their blood.

For stone gathers seed and clouds,
skeleton larks and wolves of penumbra:
but yields not sounds nor crystals nor fire,
only bull rings and bull rings and more bull rings without walls.

Now, Ignacio the well born lies on the stone.
All is finished. What is happening! Contemplate his face:
death has covered him with pale sulphur
and has place on him the head of dark Minotaur.

All is finished. The rain penetrates his mouth.
The air, as if mad, leaves his sunken chest,
and Love, soaked through with tears of snow,
warms itself on the peak of the herd.

What are they saying? A stenching ( stinking?) silence settles down.
We are here with a body laid out which fades away,
with a pure shape which had nightingales
and we see it being filled with depth less holes.

Who creases the shroud? What he says is not true!
Nobody sings here, nobody weeps in the corner,
nobody pricks the spurs, nor terrifies the serpent.
Here I want nothing else but the round eyes
to see his body without a chance of rest.

Here I want to see those men of hard voice.
Those that break horses and dominate rivers;
those men of sonorous skeleton who sing
with a mouth full of sun and flint.

Here I want to see them. Before the stone.
Before this body with broken reins.
I want to know from them the way out
for this captain stripped down by death.

I want them to show me a lament like a river
which will have sweet mists and deep shores,
to take the body of Ignacio where it looses itself
without hearing the double planting of the bulls.

Loses itself in the round bull ring of the moon
which feigns in its youth a sad quiet bull,
loses itself in the night without song of fishes
and in the white thicket of frozen smoke.

I don't want to cover his face with handkerchiefs
that he may get used to the death he carries.
Go, Ignacio, feel not the hot bellowing
Sleep, fly, rest: even the sea dies!

4. Absent Soul

The bull does not know you, nor the fig tree,
nor the horses, nor the ants in your own house.
The child and the afternoon do not know you
because you have dead forever.

The shoulder of the stone does not know you
nor the black silk, where you are shuttered.
Your silent memory does not know you
because you have died forever

The autumn will come with small white snails,
misty grapes and clustered hills,
but no one will look into your eyes
because you have died forever.

Because you have died for ever,
like all the dead of the earth,
like all the dead who are forgotten
in a heap of lifeless dogs.

Nobody knows you. No. But I sing of you.
For posterity I sing of your profile and grace.
Of the signal maturity of your understanding.
Of your appetite for death and the taste of its mouth.
Of the sadness of your once valiant gaiety.

It will be a long time, if ever, before there is born
an Andalusian so true, so rich in adventure.
I sing of his elegance with words that groan,
and I remember a sad breeze through the olive trees.

Websites of note :

Ben Harnett,s Home Page / Garcia Lorca

Garcia Lorca

Cyberspain Spain/ Federico Garcia Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca/Martyr of the Spanish Civil War

SPANISH/Hispanic LITERATURE

POETS.ORG
from the Academy of American Poets

Abe.Books.com/Lorca

Famous Poets & Poems/ 34 Lorca’s poems in translation

Federico Garcia Lorca

see you later,
GORD.

Pablo Neruda ( 1904- 1973 ) : Poet & Activist " I'LL EXPLAIN SOME THINGS "

2008-04-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

First a poem by Pablo Neruda :

Pablo Neruda
Ode to the Book
translated by Nathaniel Tarn

When I close a book
I open life.
I hear
faltering cries
among harbours.
Copper ignots
slide down sand-pits
to Tocopilla.
Night time.
Among the islands
our ocean
throbs with fish,
touches the feet, the thighs,
the chalk ribs
of my country.
The whole of night
clings to its shores, by dawn
it wakes up singing
as if it had excited a guitar.

The ocean's surge is calling.
The wind
calls me
and Rodriguez calls,
and Jose Antonio--
I got a telegram
from the "Mine" Union
and the one I love
(whose name I won't let out)
expects me in Bucalemu.

No book has been able
to wrap me in paper,
to fill me up
with typography,
with heavenly imprints
or was ever able
to bind my eyes,
I come out of books to people orchards
with the hoarse family of my song,
to work the burning metals
or to eat smoked beef
by mountain firesides.
I love adventurous
books,
books of forest or snow,
depth or sky
but hate
the spider book
in which thought
has laid poisonous wires
to trap the juvenile
and circling fly.
Book, let me go.
I won't go clothed
in volumes,
I don't come out
of collected works,
my poems
have not eaten poems--
they devour
exciting happenings,
feed on rough weather,
and dig their food
out of earth and men.
I'm on my way
with dust in my shoes
free of mythology:
send books back to their shelves,
I'm going down into the streets.
I learned about life
from life itself,
love I learned in a single kiss
and could teach no one anything
except that I have lived
with something in common among men,
when fighting with them,
when saying all their say in my song.

Most people in our society have lost the ability it seems to EMPATHIZE with others especially if they are different from them in some way ie. color, race, language, culture or religion . Only our group actually feels all those others are incapable of being sensitive or care about life as we do since they are all brutes mere animals in comparison to ourselves - this is racism & Xenophobia at its worst .

It is not just those who commit these acts in our name & those who give the orders & set the policies but all who stand by & do nothing are also guilty & so we all STAND ACCUSED . It is not just George Bush & his fanatical Neocons who are guilty but all those politicians, bureaucrats & organizations & individual citizens who have stood back & did nothing to stop the carnage & madness that has now engulfed Iraq & Afghanistan & Palestine & Lebanon & whatever countries are next on our " HIT LIST " -

Unfortunately too many people in our society put far too much trust in our leaders & our Secret Police & the military personnel who claim “ WE WERE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS ”-

Pablo Neruda
From Wikipedia,
Neruda recording poems at the U.S. Library of Congress in 1966

Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name of the Chilean writer and communist politician Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto.

Having his works translated into dozens of languages, Pablo Neruda is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century. Critic and biographer Alistar Reid has stated that Neruda is the most widely read poet since William Shakespeare.

Neruda was accomplished in a wide variety of styles, ranging from erotically charged love poems, surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos. Some of Neruda's most beloved poems are his "Odes to Common Things," collected in several volumes. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez has called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language". In 1971, Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature after several years of being overlooked for his political activism.

During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic posts and served a stint as senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When Conservative Chilean President Videla outlawed communism in Chile, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months in a basement of a home in the Chilean port of Valparaiso. Neruda then escaped into exile through a mountain pass into Argentina.

Years later, Neruda was a close collaborator to Socialist President Salvador Allende. Upon returning to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Allende invited Neruda to read at the Chilean national soccer stadium before 70,000 people, the largest poetry reading in recorded history.

Pablo Neruda, hospitalized with cancer at the time of the Chilean coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet, died of heart failure twelve days later. Already a legend in life, Neruda's death became charged with an intense symbolism that reverberated around the world. Pinochet had denied permission to transform Neruda's funeral into a public event, but thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew, flooding the streets in tribute. Neruda's funeral became the first public protest against the Chilean military dictatorship.

And from website:
Blues For Peace
And they shall beat their swords into Guitars...
http://www.bluesforpeace.com/

“ In 1933, Neruda published Residence on Earth which was a literary breakthrough. The two parts of Residence on Earth contain his poetry from 1925 to 1935. They show Neruda at his most surrealistic. Neruda used obscure and violent imagery to convey a sense of universal chaos.

The murder of Garcia Lorca, who Neruda knew, effected him strongly and he joined the republican movement in Spain. Because of his political views, and the danger of civil-war torn Spain, he left in 1937 to return to Chile. In 1939, he was appointed consul of Spanish emigration and moved to Paris and then Mexico. During this time he wrote Canto de Chile and Canto General which was an epic about the South American continent. It was published in Mexico and underground in Chile. It was hard living abroad and by 1943 he returned to Chile. In 1945 he was elected senator and joined the communist party. He protested President Gonzales Videla’s oppressive policy against the striking miner’s union and had to live underground for two years until he was able to leave in 1949. Returning to Europe he was only able to return in 1952. Because of these experiences, he honed his message and published work closely related to his experiences. During this time he also won the Stalin prize and Lenin Peace Prize. ”

PAINTING " WAR " BY EILEEN AGAR RA (1899-1991) BRITISH SURREALIST
IMAGE Posted by Picasa

“ Poetry is an act of peace. Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread.

Arsonists, warmongers, wolves hunt down the poet to burn, kill, sink their teeth into him. A swordsman left Pushkin mortally wounded under the trees in a dark and gloomy park. The fiery horse of war charged over Petofi’s lifeless body. Byron died in Greece , fighting against war. The Spanish Fascists started off the war in Spain by assassinating its greatest poet. ( Garcia Lorca )

But poetry has not died, it has a cat’s nine lives. They harass it, they drag it through the streets, they spit on it and make it the butt of their jokes, they try to strangle it, drive it into exile, throw it into prison, pump lead into it, and it survives every attempt with a clear face and a smile as bright as grains of rice. ”

PABLO NERUDA ( 1904-1973 )
from MEMOIRS
Translator Hardie St. Martin pub. 1977

PABLO NERUDA RECORDING POEMS AT U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

I'll Explain some Things
PABLO NERUDA

You’ll ask, Where are the lilacs?
And the philosophy dreamy with poppies?
And the rain which kept beating out
Your words, filling them
With water-specks and birds?

I’m going to tell you everything that happened to me.
I lived in a neighborhood
In Madrid with church bells
And clock towers and trees.

From there you could see
The dry face of Castille
Like a sea of leather
My house was called
“The house with the flowers” because around it
Geraniums exploded. It was
A beautiful house
With dogs and kids.

Raúl, do you remember?
Federico, do you still remember
Under the ground?
Do you remember my house with the balconies
Where the June light soaked your mouth with
The taste of flowers?
Brother! Brother!
The market place of Arguelles, my neighborhood
With its statue like a pale inkwell among
The fish stalls.
It was all
Loud voices, salty commerce,
A deep rumble
Of feet and hands filled the streets,
Meters and liters,
The sharp essence of life,
Fish stacked up,
The texture of roofs in the cold sun in which
The weather-vane grows tired.
Fine, crazily carved ivory of potatoes
Lines of tomatoes to the sea.

Then one morning flames
Came out of the ground
Devouring human beings.
From then on fire,
Gunpowder from then on,
From then on blood.
Bandits with airplanes and Moorish troops
Bandits with gold rings and duchesses
Bandits with black monks giving their blessing
Came across the sky to kill children
And through the streets, the blood of children
Ran simply, like children’s blood does.

Jackals that a jackal would reject
Stones that a dry thistle would bite and spit out
Vipers that vipers would hate!

I have seen the blood
Of Spain rise up against you
To drown you in a single wave
Of pride and knives!

Generals
Traitors
Look at my dead home
Look at broken Spain –
But from each dead house
Burning metal shoots out
Instead of flowers.
From every shell-hole in Spain
Spain will rise.
From every dead child a rifle with
Eyes will rise.
From every crime bullets will be born
Which will one day find a place
In your hearts.

You ask “Why doesn’t your poetry
Speak to us of dreams and leaves
Of the great volcanoes of your native land?”
Come
See the blood along the streets
Come see
The blood along the streets
Come see the blood
Along the Streets!

Here are some websites to check out for more on Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda at Culture Cafe: Lone Star Internet

Poet Seers

Pablo Neruda Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 Bio

Pablo Neruda Wikipedia

Pablo Neruda at PoemHunter.com

Pablo Neruda Page

so see you later,
GORD.

Victor Jara - Butchered By Pinochet & The American People

2008-03-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a bit more on Victor Jara who has been a great influence in folk Music and in politics or social reform throughout the Americas. But very little on the United States since the Americans are quite content to live in a country run by an elite. It is of course the very nature of a class based society that those in the upper-classes promote the lie that the society is an egalitarian society. Yes everybody gets to vote though your vote may or may not be counted and the difference between the two parties is more a matter of style and rhetoric rather than substance. From earliest childhood on we are taught the great myth that our society is the best ;it is the most egalitarian; it is the most just ; it is the most compassionate. Meanwhile the rich get richer and the middle class dream of becoming members of the class of the rich and the privileged .

Victor Jara-Plegaria a un labrador

Victor Jara- Vamaos por Ancho Camino

TE RECUERDO AMANDA - VICTOR JARA

Victor Jara
words by Adrian Mitchell, music by Arlo Guthrie
see video at YOUTUBE
Victor Jara of Chile
Lived like a shooting star
He fought for the people of Chile
With his songs and his guitar
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Victor Jara was a peasant
He worked from a few years old
He sat upon his father's plow
And watched the earth unfold
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Now when the neighbors had a wedding
Or one of their children died
His mother sang all night for them
With Victor by her side
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

He grew up to be a fighter
Against the people's wrongs
He listened to their grief and joy
And turned them into songs
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

He sang about the copper miners
And those who worked the land
He sang about the factory workers
And they knew he was their man
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

He campaigned for Allende
Working night and day
He sang "Take hold of your brothers hand
You know the future begins today"
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Then the generals seized Chile
They arrested Victor then
They caged him in a stadium
With five-thousand frightened men
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Victor stood in the stadium
His voice was brave and strong
And he sang for his fellow prisoners
Till the guards cut short his song
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

They broke the bones in both his hands
They beat him on the head
They tore him with electric shocks
And then they shot him dead
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Repeat first verse

(©1977, 1990 by by Adrian Mitchell & Arlo Guthrie
All Rights Reserved.)

And from American Nihilist: Please Remember Victor Jara(sept. 11, 2007 )

Here is the last unfinished poem Victor wrote which was smuggled out of the Santiago boxing stadium where he would shortly be martyred. It has been translated from spanish by his wife Joan:

There are five thousand of us here
in this small part of the city.
We are five thousand.
I wonder how many we are in all
in the cities and in the whole country?
Here alone
are ten thousand hands which plant seeds
and make the factories run.
How much humanity
exposed to hunger, cold, panic, pain,
moral pressure, terror and insanity?
Six of us were lost
as if into starry space.
One dead, another beaten as I could never have believed
a human being could be beaten.
The other four wanted to end their terror
one jumping into nothingness,
another beating his head against a wall,
but all with the fixed stare of death.
What horror the face of fascism creates!
They carry out their plans with knife-like precision.
Nothing matters to them.
To them, blood equals medals,
slaughter is an act of heroism.
Oh God, is this the world that you created,
for this your seven days of wonder and work?

Within these four walls only a number exists
which does not progress,
which slowly will wish more and more for death.
But suddenly my conscience awakes
and I see that this tide has no heartbeat,
only the pulse of machines
and the military showing their midwives' faces
full of sweetness.
Let Mexico, Cuba and the world
cry out against this atrocity!
We are ten thousand hands
which can produce nothing.
How many of us in the whole country?

The blood of our President, our compañero,
will strike with more strength than bombs and machine guns!
So will our fist strike again!
How hard it is to sing
when I must sing of horror.
Horror which I am living,
horror which I am dying.
To see myself among so much
and so many moments of infinity
in which silence and screams
are the end of my song.
What I see, I have never seen
What I have felt and what I feel
Will give birth to the moment ...

Home Page Eye For Talent The Best in World MUsic

take care,
gord

VICTOR JARA-MARTYR /POET/MUSICIAN / POLITICAL FOLK ARTIST

2008-03-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

Victor Jara- el cigarrito

Anyway here is some music dedicated to those struggling against oppression in the Americas or in Burma/Mynamar or Iraq or the Middle East or America wherever the Fascists and Neocons are trying to undermine Democracy, Freedom and Justice .

Here's an english song by Christy Moore about Victor Jara:

Victor Jara Manifiesto

Artist: Victor Jara
Song: Manifiesto

Yo no canto por cantar
ni por tener buena voz
canto porque la guitarra
tiene sentido y razón
tiene corazón de tierra
y alas de palomita
es como el agua bendita
santiguas glorias y penas
aquí se encajó mi canto
como dijiera Violeta
guitarra trabajadora
con olor a primavera

Que no es guitarra de ricos
ni cosa que se parezca
mi canto es de los andiamos
para alcanzar las estrellas
que el canto tiene sentido
cuando palpita en las venas
del que morirá cantado
las verdades verdaderas
no las lisonjas fugazes
ni las famas extranjeras
sino el canto de una lonja
hasta el fondo de la tierra

Ahí donde llega todo
y donde todo comienza
canto que ha sido valiente
siempre será canción nueva
siempre será canción nueva
siempre será canción nueva

Joan Jara:
"I don't sing for love of singing
or to show off my voice
but for the statements
made by my honest guitar
for its heart is of earth
and like the dove it goes flying
tenderly as holy water
blessing the brave and the dying
so my song has found a purpose
as Violetta Parra would say
yes, my guitar is a worker
shining and smelling of spring
my guitar is not for killers
greedy for money and power
but for the people who labour
so that future may flower
for a song takes on a meaning
when its own heartbeat is strong
sung by a man who will die singing
truthfully singing his song

I don't sing for adulation
or so that strangers may weep
I sing for a far strip of country
narrow but endlessly deep
in the earth in which we begin
in the earth in which we end
brave songs will give birth
to a song which will always be new"

Lyrics and translation from ST Lyrics.com

Commandante Che Guevera-Victor Jara

Victor Jara Manifiesto
Brief Biography of Victor Jara

On September 16, 1973, Chilean political songwriter and activist Victor Jara was brutally murdered in Santiago's boxing stadium during the aftermath of the U.S.-backed September 10-11 coup d'etat which resulted in the death of the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and the installation of a repressive military dictatorship. The US-influenced regime change frustrated the Chilean people's hope for a government that would bring their country socio-economic justice, replacing it instead with a despair that would continue for the next 17 years under the repressive leadership of Augusto Pinochet, who after the coup abolished civil liberties, dissolved congress, banned unions activities and workers' strikes, and reversed the agrarian and economic reforms of Allende's socialist government. More than twenty-two hundred people were 'disappeared' under Pinochet's authoritarian rule.

Victor Jara was born in the small town of Lonquen, Chile on September 23, 1932 to Manuel and Amanda Jara. As a child, Victor experienced first-hand what it was like to live a humble life. His father provided for his family with the wages he earned as a day laborer while his mother added to the family's income by working odd jobs. When Victor was still a young child his father, who had an alcohol problem and was an abusive husband, left home to work as a field laborer in the countryside. Conditions were rough for his mother who was left alone to raise Victor and his siblings. Notwithstanding, she managed to spend a great deal of time with her children, often playing the guitar and singing Chilean folk songs for them. Victor's mother died when he was only fifteen years old.

After spending a short time in a seminary and then in the military, Victor went on to study theater at the University of Chile, where he developed an interest in directing. After finishing school, he began his career as a director and was involved in numerous theater productions. It was during this time that Victor Jara experienced a renewed interest in traditional Chilean folk songs as well as national politics. Also during this time, he met Violeta Parra, another Nueva Cancion artist, who was the owner of a small café. In 1966, Victor Jara released his first LP, the self-titled "Victor Jara." That same year, he joined another Nueva Cancion group, Quilapayún, serving as the band's art director until 1969. In 1970, Victor ended his career as a director and turned his energy towards furthering the Chilean people's struggle for peace and justice through his songs, political activism, and support for leftist Chilean President Salvador Allende.

Allende, who belonged to the leftist coalition party, Unidad Popular, had been voted into office on a platform promising to take-over large foreign companies and monopolies, expropriate all landholdings over 80 hectares, and increase spending on social programs. His first year in office was a remarkable success - the working population saw their income increase by 50% while the real income of all Chileans rose an equally impressive 30%. But in spite of these early advances, by 1973, dissatisfaction with his presidency grew when economic conditions soured. While these difficulties were in part due to general market conditions and the side effects of his socially progressive policies, a major factor in the decline were the activities of his domestic and foreign critics. At home, the entrenched conservative elite controlled 95% of the radio stations, 90% of the newspapers, and all of the weekly magazines. The Catholic Church was adamantly opposed to his policies and the working class was divided largely as a result of the conservatives' stranglehold over public discourse. Overseas, hostile foreign interests had successfully influenced a significant reduction in both foreign investment and multilateral aid. Moreover, between 1970 and 1973, the United States Government spent $8 million pursuing a policy intentionally aimed at destabilizing the Chilean economy - a policy that had been authorized by then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who was just recently honored by President George Bush with an appointment as the chairman of the 'Independent' 9/11 Investigative Commission, which Mr. Kissinger declined)

Take care,
GORD.

La Vie En Rose- Marion Cotillard Won the Oscar for Best Actress

2008-02-25T13:09:00.000-08:00

Just a little update-

La Vie En Rose- Trailer
From the streets of the cutthroat Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling
limelight of New York's glamorous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant
battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in abject poverty, surrounded by hookers and pimps, Edith's magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. Her passionate romances and friendships with the greatest names of the period -- Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Deitrich, boxing world champion Marcel Cerdan -- made her a household name as much as her memorable live performances and beautiful renditions of songs she made famous internationally, "La Vie en Rose", "Milord", "Hymn to Love", "Non, je ne regrette rien" and many more. But in her audacious attempt to tame her tragic destiny, the "Little Sparrow" -- as she was nicknamed -- flew so high that she could not fail to burn her wings

Here's one of the great scenes from the wonderful film La Vie En Rose
One of the best films of the last year
For which Marion Cotillard who played Edith Piaf received the Oscar for Best Actress and she deserves it.

for more see:Official Move Site , La Vie En Rose

see you later,
gord

Johnny Depp's Films " Finding Neverland " & Tim Burton & John Waters

2008-02-17T00:25:00.000-08:00

JOHNNY DEPP " FINDING NEVERLAND "

Odd he should take the part of a pirate in the film when playing with the childre. Shades of things to come as he plays in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

she went to Neverland
Johnny Depp is a wonder

SWEET & SAD STORY OF THE REAL PETER PAN

So I’d like to talk about some films which I enjoyed which starred Johnny Depp. One of these films FINDING NEVERLAND directed by Marc Forster(2004) which I wasn’t sure if it were my cup of tea. But I was wrong about that. I was captivated & enchanted with the story from the first scene to the last. It is the story of J. M. Barrie & how he came to write his most famous play Peter Pan . The film begins with J. M. Barrie(Johnny Depp) who is not a very successful playwright but who keeps plugging away at his chosen profession . He is stuck in a somewhat drab loveless marriage but happens to meet a widow Sylvia Davis (Kate Winslet ) & her four sons & he begins to spend a great deal of time with the family going to the park &amp;amp; playing with them; inventing elaborate scenarios about Pirates & cowboys & Indians etc.& a place he calls Neverland where anything is possible & where children need not grow up. All of this becomes the basis of his play Peter Pan .

The film explores the drama of the story but combines elements of fantasy as we are treated to a wonderful series of the writers flights of imagination which are finally realized in the production of his play Peter Pan. So the film takes on that enchanted quality & yet continues to reveal the reality of the situation J. M. Barrie has entangled himself & others in. He is after all a married man spending most of his free time with another woman & her children so people are bound to talk & speculate that he is having an affair or worse that he might be some sort of pedophile . Barrie is really Peter Pan since he has never really grown up or just doesn’t wish to.

Anyway I just wanted to recommend this film to anyone who may have thought as I did that it would be one of those slow dull period pieces which take a long time to say very little. Besides it is worth it just to see Johnny Depp’s performance . The film is funny & magical &amp;amp;amp; moving.

You’ll laugh & cry & all that jazz. In some ways it reminded me of Tim Burton’s wonderful film Big Fish which also combined real life drama interwoven with fantasy sequences .

STILL TEARS TO SHED IN THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

Corpse Bride- Remains of the Day

A WONDROUS FANTASY FILM

And that brings me to another wondrous film which is Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride. The film is done with stop-motion animation like his earlier film Nightmare Before Christmas. The film stars Johnny Depp as the main character Victor who is quite unhappy that his parents have arranged for him to be married in order to help them out of their desperate financial situation . But just before the wedding rehearsal he & his intended bride Victoria (Emily Watson) meet & fall in love. Then he goes off to the nearest graveyard(of course) to practice his vows which he says out loud & a female corpse (Helena Bonham -Carter) rises up to accept his hand in marriage but she is dead & he is still among the living.

It is in some ways a typical theme for a romantic comedy or possibly a tragedy of star-crossed lovers & all that . So Victor gets dragged off to the world of the dead & then convinces the corpse bride she should meet his parents & so they return to the world of the living & he tricks her leaving her waiting for him in the woods but as he returns to his intended & tries to explain what has happened the corpse bride appears & drags him back to the land of the dead. Then the real villain shows up claiming to be a Lord & to be very wealthy who will be willing to marry the young bride to be to save her from public ridicule & then it all gets delightfully weird which is quite to my liking.

Of course what is fascinating about the film is that the world of the living is done in black and white and shades of grey while the world of the dead is in vibrant colors. The dead are depicted as more lively and full of life and seem to be enjoying themselves singing and joking and having a grand old time of it.

The world of the living on the other hand is restrained and the people are in a state of constant worry and anxiety. It is a world of rules with little room for individual expression. It is a world of conformity as in Tim Burton's Edward Scissor Hands also staring Johnny Depp.

There are of course musical numbers as there were in Tim Burton’s earlier films “ Nightmare Before Christmas “ & “ Beetlegeuse ” & his more recent “ Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” .

TIM BURTON'S CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

OOMPA LOOMPAS IN CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY ( 2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Trailer 2005

Another wonderful performance of Johnny Depp can be seen in Tim Burton’s “ Charlie & the Chocolate Factory”. I really enjoyed this newer version of “ Willie Wonka “ . Johnny Depp as Willie Wonka is a quirky, bizarre, & almost malevolent sort of character which is closer to that of the character in the Roald Dahl’s books which are delightful yet a little bit sinister & we feel a bit of unease about Willie Wonka . The visuals & sets are a wonder to see .The factory with its glass elevator & hundreds of Oompa Loompas is awesome.

The story is about Charlie Buckett finding a Golden Ticket in a Wonka Bar which entitles him & Grandpa Joe to meet Willie Wonka & take a tour of his factory & a chance at winning a mysterious grand prize.

The oppressive poverty of Charlie & his family is presented in stark terms. The four grandparents live in a bed which they never leave & they all dine on cabbage soup night after night as they huddle in the cold. The father works at a toothpaste factory but is poorly paid & then gets replaced by a machine. They have very little to eat & so dine on cabbage soup everyday .

Grandpa Joe in this version once worked at Willie Wonka’s candy factory before Willie Wonka shut it down because spies were working in his factory who were selling his secrets to his competitors. Of course he reopens his factory & produces candy again but no one knows who or what his workers are. We get the story of how Wonka found the Oompa loompas & brought them to his factory to work for him. We also get a very strange back-story on Willie Wonka whose father was a dentist who wouldn’t allow Willie Wonka to eat sweets so in an act of rebellion Wonka becomes a candy maker.

I should admit I have enjoyed most of the films in which Johnny Depp has been in from his role of the boyfriend eaten by his bed ,actually it was the demonic Freddy in Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street who swallows him up, to John Waters irreverent “ Cry Baby” to Jim Jarmusch’s outre film “ Dead Man “ to the delightful “ Benny & Joon “ to” What’s Eating Gilbert Grape “ to the intriguing “ Secret Window” & Polanski’s supernatural thriller about Book lovers & Satanists “ The Ninth Gate “ to of course Tim Burton’s surreal & touching “ Edward Scissorhands “ & the marvelous & funny & endearing “Ed Wood “ & his gothic rendition of“ Sleepy Hollow” .

Here’s the connection & a bit of movie trivia - SECRET WINDOW & THE DARK HALF

As for Secret Window in which Johnny Depp plays a writer going through a messy divorce & is suffering from severe depression & acute writer’s block . He is staying in a cottage in the woods by himself . Suddenly he is confronted by some psychotic who claims the writer has plagiarized a story he has written. But there is something not quite right about any of this .But even after the ending is revealed the movie still holds together after repeated viewings like a similar film “ Identity” or Hitchcock’s best films. Such as Rear Window, Psycho etc.

Johnny Depp Secret Window

Yes part of the plot for Secret Window has been done before & it may seem very familiar to viewers & part of the reason is that a similar story was told in George A. Romero’s adaptation of Stephen King’s story The Dark Half.

The tip off for me was that Timothy Hutton in Secret Window plays the boyfriend of Johnny Depp’s characters ex-wife.& Timothy Hutton was in George A. Romero’s supernatural film adaptation of a Stephen King story “ The Dark Half ”which is also about a writer who teaches at a college who writes critically acclaimed books which do not sell & so for years writes under an assumed name popular crime stories about a nasty character named Machine so what ‘s the connection. Well one day a low life character played by Rob Joy shows up & threatens to reveal that the professor also writes these trashy novels so the writer decides to kill off his alter ego & as a publicity stunt even pretends to bury him in the town’s graveyard & has it all photographed for a magazine as he decides to go public .

But of course things begin to take a turn for the worse. Something’s not quite right as friends & associates of the professor are being murdered one after the other & we discover that the professor /writer had epileptic seizures as a child . He was finally operated on to see what's causing the seizures . What they discover is that he was supposed to be a twin and that part of the twin had continued to grow inside his head or whatever and then it gets weird. Back to the present as it seems his alter ego Machine has managed to become part of the real world and confronts the writer for he wants to become human or enter the world of the living.

Anyway it is a neat touch to have Timothy Hutton in this other film version of a Stephen King story which is also about a writer in a crisis situation .

Other Johnny Depp films I would recommend include Benny & Joon which is just a little gem of a movie . It is touching and funny .

a funny scene from Benny and Joon -Johnny Depp being wacky

another funny bit from Benny & Joon
Benny & Joon - Johnny Depp, Spokane Riverfront park
Depp doing his Buster Keaton Schtick

Another film I like which didn't get much exposure was John Waters teen musical Cry Baby also starring Johnny Depp. Maybe now that John Waters' Hairspray is a hit more people will take a look at John Waters other films such as Serial Mom and Pecker .

Another film to watch out for is What is Eating Gilbert Grape which is good but a bit uneven .The other great performance in that film is Leonardo DiCaprio who plays Gilbert's ( Depp) younger brother who is mentally delayed and has a thing about climbing the town's water tower and only Gilbert is able to talk him down. Di Caprio is completley immersed in his part. Meanwhile they have a mother who is in a state of depression since the father hanged himself in the basement. As a result she over eats and weighs three hundred pounds or more .

Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate Trailer

Anyway that’s all for now ,

GORD.