The Shaolin Afronauts
End Of a Sun
from the lp Quest Under Capricorn
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
David Lynch’s MasterClass Is As Surreal and As Banal As You’d Expect
When you hit play, Lynch gazes out at you. Well, not actually at you—most of the time he’s looking directly above the camera, presumably at an interviewer, or at the space up and to the left that people look to when they’re trying to remember something. He sits at a desk, either caressing a rarely used sketch pad or watching a scene from one of his movies. His fingers flutter like they’re ears of wheat being harassed by a breeze when he’s talking about something delicate, and when he mentions ideas, his hands wave like he’s asking an invisible orchestra for vibrato. At times, he scrunches his eyes tight, extra tight, particularly when talking about tension or negativity. He smokes cigarette after cigarette, and you can hear the effects of a lifetime of chain-smoking on his breath—the low wheeze as he inhales is at least as scary as anything in his movies.
The Barbie Liberation Organization
The Barbie Liberation Organization
short film by Meryn Cadell (1994)
Monday, April 29, 2019
Algorithms Are Already Making Decisions For Humans, And It's Getting Weird
We have progressively restricted our own decision-making capacity and allowed algorithms to take over. We have become artificial humans, or human artefacts, that are created, shaped and used by the technology.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Nigeria’s Ogu Omunwanyi: The Aba Women’s War of 1929
During the 1920’s, trouble began to stir in southeastern
Nigeria. British colonialists had begun to encroach on what they
thought of as the “dark heart of Africa”. The region was
primarily populated by tribal Igbo people, though members of several
other tribes also called that land home. They lived according to
their own laws, customs, politics and economic structures. This way
of life was so different from what the English people knew that they
could not make any sense out of it. Their attempt to dominate the
Nigerian people for their own economic gains led to chaos and soon
the Women’s War had begun.
Upon arrival, the British colonialists began building houses,
factories, courthouses, and colonial administrative offices. The Igbo
people also had their own traditional versions of houses, courts, and
tribal meeting places. At first they were not bothered by the
presence of the new people. But by 1925, the British had chosen a
team of men to act as the puppet government for the colonialists and
begun employing the local people as factory and farm workers.
In 1927, the British thought that their industries and
businesses were not running efficiently enough; they blamed the Igbo
for this shortcoming even though a worldwide economic depression had
reduced the need for palm oil, the biggest export industry in
Nigeria. They decided that Nigerian society was too disorganized to
serve the needs of the modernized colonialists. Frustrations among
the Igbo people had been growing because the wages paid by the
colonialists kept shrinking while the prices of food kept rising.
Hyperinflation set in and the currency began dropping rapidly in
value. No matter what the Nigerians did, the British had an
insatiable appetite for cash and kept increasing the amount of money
they sucked out of the local population. Some of the African people
were even being forced to work without pay. In 1928, the British
declared that they would be raising taxes but in exchange more
schools would be built and the roads would be repaired. The Igbo
women who frequented the market at Aba, along with women from six
other nearby tribal villages, began to show signs of anger.
The colonial administrators made a plan to collect taxes by
taking a census of the local population. English officials and
sometimes members of the Igbo puppet government went to each house to
count the number of possessions owned by each family unit. They
counted each piece of clothing, every door and window, each farm
animal, every tool, every dish, and whatever else they could find in
order to declare them taxable items. The worst part of it was that
each woman was counted as a piece of property, especially since the
locals practiced polygamy and the husband of more than one wife
should be able to afford to pay higher taxes. This made the Nigerian
women furious. Traditionally the tribal people of that region allowed
women to be part of the economic decision making in each village and
then the colonialists objectified them by reducing their value and
status to that of windows, spoons, and goats. In addition to that
insult, the British never came through on their promise to use the
tax money to improve the schools and roads.
By November of that year, the women of the region began
gathering on the road leading from Abasi Township to the market at
Aba to protest. The demonstrations were peaceful but passionate with
chanting, singing, dancing, and beating on drums. Some women dressed
in ritual clothing and some wore dresses made from palm leaves; some
women stripped off their clothing and danced nude, an Igbo tradition
that represented defiance, aggression, and sometimes the potential
for violence. Some of the women went off in groups to “sit on”
the men running the colonial administration. “Sitting on” a man
was a traditional term that meant surrounding a man in his property,
getting very close to him, shouting at him, insulting him, and
verbally humiliating him. This practice was a customary way of
publicly shaming men who had violated social norms of decency. The
Igbo men would never go to the defense of a man being sat on because
they knew he had done something to deserve it. Besides, they also
knew that no physical violence would take place and, as annoying as
it could be, at the end of the day when the sitting on was over,
everyone would return to their ordinary way of life.
The British colonialists, however, had little knowledge of
southeastern Nigerian social customs. They thought the women had
become crazy, hysterical, and completely out of control. Meanwhile,
news of the protests spread rapidly through the surrounding
provinces. Women began cutting telegraph wires while others went on a
rampage destroying factories, looting stores and banks, burning
administration buildings and destroying whatever British property
they could find. Extra police and peacekeeping troops were called in
but they did not have enough manpower to put down the riots. A
British doctor became so scared and agitated that he got in his car
and ran over two women. The crowd of frenzied, rioting women began to
swell through December and after the murders they decided to start
attacking the soldiers. The officers started shooting them and soon
more than 1,500 women had been slaughtered. The rioters calmed down
and the British retaliated by burning down several villages nearby.
By the end of the year, the British government was embarrassed.
They recalled all the Nigerian colonial administrators from the
region and replaced them with new men. Meetings were held with the
leaders of the Women’s War and a new political system was
established, one that allowed women to both voice their grievances
and have a say in governmental matters.
Some would later say that the outcome of the Aba Women’s War
of 1929 was beneficial because it brought attention to the chauvinism
and sexism inherent in the colonial mentality. Some would also
question the concept of “civilization” itself. After all, the
British colonialists were never invited to southeastern Nigeria,
their taxation was humiliating, and still they saw themselves as
being the ones who were responsible for teaching the “primitive”
African people how to be modern. But the so-called “primitive”
people had planned to bother and harass the British and destroy their
property but never to hurt or kill them. In the end, it was the
“civilized” British who committed mass murder in response.
Reference
Vollmann, William T., Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on
Violence, Freedom, and Urgent Means. Ecco Press, 2003.
The Frogs - (Thank God I Died In) the Car Crash
The Frogs
(Thank God I Died In) the Car Crash
from the lp It's Only Right and Natural
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Death Sentence: Panda! - Island of Sexual Violence
Death Sentence: Panda!
Island of Sexual Violence
live in Oakland 2007
Sound by the Pound: Surprising Discovery Hints Sonic Waves Carry Mass
Some sounds might possess a tiny but measurable amount of negative gravitational mass
Friday, April 26, 2019
James White and the Blacks - Contort Yourself (August Darnell Remix)
James White and the Blacks
Contort Yourself (August Darnell Remix)
History of Sound Effects
Before machines, the first iteration of sound effects were created manually using fruit, glass, and other objects.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
OHN CALE : THE MIDWIFE OF PUNK ROCK
It is Billy Hough’s passionate belief that our musical world would be a different place if this brilliant Welshman hadn’t collided with Lou Reed, Nico, Jonathan Richman, Patti Smith, Iggy and the Stooges, and so many others.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
The True Case of Max Cantor: Monika's Ghost
Max's saga originated when the dancer, a Swiss native named Monika Beerle, made the mistake of bedding down with a 28-year-old screwball named Daniel Rakowitz in his East Ninth Street apartment. Then, after she succeeded in getting her own name on the lease, she compounded her mistake by trying to kick this sickoid out of his pad and out of her life. This was in August of 1989 and Rakowitz took great offense, to say the least. A mental case who already had served four hitches in psycho wards, Rakowitz believed himself some kind of supernatural divinity and---abracadabra!---Monika ended up in the human food chain. Rakowitz is now day-dreaming about receiving an early release from the loony bin after a jury found him too nutty to be squirreled away in the clink. The jury kept voting 11 to 1 to send Rakowitz up the river for from 25 years to life, but the lone holdout on the panel was an unemployed member who wanted to keep the jury deadlocked for as long as possible because he needed the $15 that jurors got paid every day.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Dirt: A Year in East Village Gardens
Dirt: A Year in East Village Gardens
short film directed by David Evans (1999)
Monday, April 22, 2019
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat (Acoustic Version)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The Mercy Seat (Acoustic Version)
live
When Jerry Lee Lewis Married His 13 Year Old Cousin
Jerry Lee Lewis had been warned ahead of his British tour in May 1958. He’d been told by his advisers that he shouldn’t take his new wife to the U.K. with him, but he didn't listen. He couldn’t see any problem with bringing her with him on the road. He was one of the few who saw things so simply.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Severino di Giovanni: Anarchist Bombs and Anti-fascism
The
time period between World War I and World War II saw the rise of
anarchism and fascism, two of the modern era’s most dangerous
political movements. Italy was one of Europe’s hotbeds for radical
extremism and as migrants went abroad in search of work and to escape
poverty, they brought these ideologies with them. Argentina became
one place where the two philosophies clashed with the anarchist
Severino di Giovanni on
the advanced guard, instigating
the violence.
Born
in Abruzzi to an impoverished family, Severino di Giovanni later
claimed that the constant hunger pangs and fear of starvation would
be the primary motivation for his interest in anarchist revolutionary
politics. Anarchists
of that time believed all people were naturally equal and blamed the
mechanisms of government, economics, and private property for the
social disequilibrium that resulted in some people having so much
food they could never possibly ear it all while others were condemned
to a life of scarcity, malnutrition, and the soul-destroying search
for adequate means of survival. Therefore, a world without government would be a world of equality and peace. After growing up so poor, Giovanni
emigrated to Buenos Aires, got involved in trade unionism, and
embraced the convulsively liberating theory of anarchist violence.
Fascism
was also on the rise in Argentina and many Italian fascists had also
emigrated to that Latin American country. Upon his arrival, di
Giovanni immediately began attending meetings with anarchist groups
who planned to fight against the fascists who believed in enslaving
the masses of industrial workers for their own capitalistic gain. In
1925, the fascists of Argentina held a public celebration in honor of
the Italian king Victor Emmanuel III’s accession to the throne.
Many prominent politicians and public figures from both Argentina and
Italy were present along with a cadre of Black
Shirt
thugs,
present to maintain order in the crowd. When the orchestra began
playing the Italian national anthem, Severino di Giovanni and his
companions began throwing anti-fascist leaflets in the air and
shouting “Assassins! Thieves!” The Black Shirts beat them up and
sent them on their way.
That
same year, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti took place in America. The
two factory-working anarchists were accused of detonating a bomb that
killed several people. The prosecution’s case rested on the fact
that the two men had been caught with Italian language anarchist
newspapers. The lawyer also argued that their Italian ancestry proved
their guilt since, in the eyes of many Americans at that time when
anti-immigration sentiment was at fever pitch, Italians were
fundamentally incapable of civilized behavior. The judge was also
well-known for having extreme anti-immigrant views. The defense
claimed that the newspapers were planted by the police but the judge
refused to allow that claim to be admitted
as
evidence and abruptly ended the trial. The jury found Sacco and
Vanzetti guilty and sentenced them to death. A mistrial was declared
but the judge refused to reopen the case, citing his dislike of
Italian people as the cause. Eventually, Sacco and Vanzetti were
executed. The case has since been seen as an example of American
racism, xenophobia,
and an
unhealthy fear
of immigrants. In the trade union and anarchist movement, it was seen
as a rallying cry for revolution.
Severino
di Giovanni had started his own newspaper called Culmine.
It
was a left wing political paper dedicated to labor issues; he
quickly took up the cause of Sacco and Vanzetti and furiously
published a storm of articles denouncing the injustice of the trial.
Many of those articles made their way to newspapers in America. Di
Giovanni was deeply impressed with the Galleanist idea of “propaganda
of the deed”, a term signifying the use of public political actions
to serve as an example for
inspiring
further political action. Severino di Giovanni had decided to take
action.
The
campaign started with a bombing of the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires;
the front of the building was demolished. The Argentinian police
sought help from the fascists in the Italian embassy who captured
di Giovanni, imprisoned him for five days, then released hum after
torturing him the entire time. Di Giovanni and two of his friends
then blew up a statue of George Washington and, later in the same
day, set off a bomb at the office of the Ford Motor Company. The next
day they blew up the house belonging to the Buenos Aires chief of
police; he
just barely escaped being killed because, without any knowledge of
the impending attack, he had left his home and walked down the street
to buy a pack of cigarettes. No doubt, ling cancer must have later
accomplished the task that the bomb had failed to do.
Di
Giovanni’s bombings continued into 1927 and 1928. The next targets
were an American owned tobacco warehouse and branches of two American
banks, Then di Giovanni and his two friends, the Scarfo brothers,
killed
a whole bunch of fascists when they bombed the Italian embassy; it
was the deadliest terrorist
attack in Argentinian history.
Severino
di Giovanni’s propaganda of the deed turned out to have
a polarizing effect.
Some anarchists and unionists began accusing him of making their
movements look reckless and evil.
Others
fell
in love with his campaign of terror. Fighting broke out between the
two sides until the publisher of an anarchist newspaper got
assassinated. Some blamed di Giovanni for the murder but evidence
seemed to point to other members of the anarchist community. Di
Giovanni decided to end his bombings in order to make peace between
the fighting workers.
In
1930, a military coup overthrew the government of Argentina. Severino
di Giovanni married and settled down but eventually left his wife for
a fifteen year old Italian immigrant named Fina, the sister of his
two best friends, the
Scarfo brothers. The couple went into hiding and di Giovanni found
employment at a printing press. The police found out where he was
working and raided the shop. The attempted arrest resulted in a
gunfight; one officer died and the other got injured. Di Giovanni
escaped. On a later date when di Giovanni was with Fina, the Scarfo
brothers, and several other friends, the police again showed up and a
firefight broke out. Di Giovanni was captured and Fina was arrested
then set free because of her age.
Severino
di Giovanni was executed by firing squad in 1931. He shouted “long
live anarchy”, in Italian of course, before eight bullets pierced
his body. His wife was shot a few hours later. The fascists
eventually lost World War II. Both anarchism and fascism fizzled out
and faded away as capitalism and communism took over. Those two
sleeping dogs were not left to lie. Both
anarchism and fascism began to re-emege as political ideologies
starting in the 1960s. Without any chance of ever becoming a
functioning political system, both still have an enormous potential
to inspire destructive and murderous violence.
Vollman,
William T., Rising
Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom, and Urgent
Means. Ecco,
2003.
A Scrap Metal Colossus: Helios Creed Of Chrome Interviewed
Spawned unto the world in 1976 like a mutant beast from an unearthly morass of twisted steel on a splatter movie, San Franciscans freaks Chrome have loomed large ever since as a triumph for murky noise alchemy – borne of technology gone wrong, and thriving in a blizzard of information overload. Forced to lurk in the shadows of relative obscurity for the vast majority of the last four decades, the fevered brainchild of twin ne'er-do-wells Helios Creed and Damon Edge, in the band's most celebrated incarnation, created post-apocalyptic junkyard chic still unmatched for outtasight dementia and Stoogian/Stygian bliss well into the twenty-first century. Somehow a band beyond both punk and psychedelia, their twisted racket came closest to the sound of Martians attempting to reinterpret earthling rock music with a load of old washing machine parts, home-made effects pedals and a copy of the Fill Your Head With Rock compilation on scratched vinyl, played backwards
Saturday, April 20, 2019
The Technology of Wishing - William S. Burroughs
The Technology of Wishing
classroom lecture by William S. Burroughs
Naropa University, 1986
Psychic TV: First Transmission #3
Psychic TV: First Transmission #3
video from Thee Temple of Psychick Youth
featuring films by Monte Cazzaza (1982)
Friday, April 19, 2019
William S. Burroughs on L. Ron Hubbard and “The Big Lie”
William S. Burroughs on L. Ron Hubbard and “The Big Lie”
“I would like to say something about the techniques of “The Big Lie”. L. Ron Hubbard was a master of The Big Lie. He had all these rules…
• Always accuse others of doing what you are doing yourself…
…Now here’s some techniques for cutting off other’s communication lines…
• Premature Acknowledgment
Acknowledge before the other person has come to a point.
Laugh before he finishes a joke
• Under Acknowledgement:
Like you just couldn’t have said anything so stupid and distasteful.
•Over Acknowledgement:
Like there’s nothing more to say on the subject.
• Pretend to not understand the most obvious considerations.
•At crucial moments, create interruptions and diversions.
• Pick out the most meticulous, neat, and fastidious person in the office and call him a slob.
…You see it’s not the truth that hurts, it’s the blatant lie…The Big Lie…
The person will start snorting and gasping with outrage, and this is precisely what you want to achieve…”
- From Uncle Bill’s lecture, “The Technology of Wishing”
The library of the future is in an 80-year-old converted train shed
At LocHal, you can learn new food skills, read books, or hold events inside a massive retired locomotive storage warehouse.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Sand
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
Sand
from the lp Nancy and Lee
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
Some Velvet Morning
from the lp Nancy and Lee
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Gerechtigkeits Liga - Narkomanie
Gerechtigkeits Liga
Narkomanie
from the lp Hypnotischer Existenzialusmus
Gerechtigkeits Liga - Media Distortion
Gerechtigkeits Liga
Media Distortion
from the lp Hypnotischer Existenzialismus
Gerechtigkeits Liga - Evolution and the End
Gerechtigkeits Liga
Evolution and the End
from the lp Hypnotischer Existenzialismus
Monday, April 15, 2019
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Psychic TV: First Transmission #2
Psychic TV: First Transmission #2
video from Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (1982)
Psychic TV: First Transmission Part 4
Psychic TV: First Transmission Part 4
video from Thee Temple of Psychick Youth (1982)
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Psychic TV: First Transmission
Psychic TV: First Transmission
short video featuring "Ritual ov Psychick Youth"
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