In honor of the newest PUNKASSBLOGGER, Quin! Who sent me this link. It is from Iraq’s only heavy metal band, and for that reason alone I wanna promote it. Also, it ain’t too bad in of itself. Enjoy!
Note: Requests and suggestions for the Friday War Protest Video are always welcome! and will only be rejected if the video just really sucks butt. And even then I will still send you a nice thank-you note.
Combining the old with the new…Faith No More’s even-better-than-the-original live cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”
As some of you may know, Utah Phillips, the great storyteller, musician, hobo, and Wobbly, passed away last weekend. I posted a bit about him here, but since then, the tributes from friends and Fellow Workers have been pouring in, and I thought I’d share one of the more inspiring with the PunkAss crew.
This is from Len Wallace, a pretty awesome musician in his own right. I disagree with the first one, but there you have it.
The Things I Learned From Utah Phillips
I am still stunned by the news of Utah’s passing and figuring out ways on how to respond to this loss. So I thought I’d take pen in hand and jot down some of things Utah taught me over the years. Here they are transferred to computer.
1. Utah was correct. Computers suck. They rob you of the ability to write and read.
2. Mean people suck. Nice people can suck too sometimes.
3. Bertold Brecht had the right idea when he said that the barrier between the performer and audience must be abolished.
4. When you’re performing with other musicians adjust your microphone stands at an angle where you can see both the audience and the other performer. You want to work off that other performer, see them perform and look them in the face, see their movements and hands. It’s not all in the listening.
5. You can drink out of your hat if you must, but only by necessity.
6. The past and remembering the past is a very subversive thing. It points to the not now. The powers that be want us to think that the way things are are the way they have always been and always will be.
7. Be careful of the garp you put in your brain from reading newspapers, listening to radio and watching TV. If you stuff your brain with garbage then garbage will come out.
8. You can teach an old dog new tricks but the old tricks are still the best.
9. Old age and treachery will always overcome youth and passion.
10. You too can be a part of the hidden agenda.
(more…)
I saw Nightwish a bit earlier. Opening for them was a band called Sonic Syndicate, who I think really demonstrated admirable restraint in not calling themselves Sønïc Sinndikæt. At one point, the lead singer said something that led to the following exchange:
“Did he just say this song is about…”
“…gay rights”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Neat!”
Death metal being what it is, I had no way of knowing if the song was in fact about gay rights, but I bopped my head along agreeably all the same.
Nightwish made me really want to see a big, steampunk-anachronistic blockbuster about Anne Bonny and Mary Raed.
I may start posting one every Friday or so. Expect music that will span the decades.
Historical perspective note: My boyfriend first watched this three or four years ago when he was in Kuwait, waiting to be sent on to Iraq.
Mother Jones has gotten a hold of some of the music that U.S. troops use to “induce sleep deprivation, “prolong capture shock,” disorient detainees during interrogations—and also drown out screams.”
Lovely.
I find the use of Rage Against the Machine and Springsteen particularly abhorrent (not only because of the artists’ politics, but because I happen to like those songs). I wonder if they know about it. The music used to smoke out Noriega was far more creative.
This prompts me to ask: What music would you choose to drown out the screams of your victims? I’m thinking Anal Cunt’s “Hitler Was a Sensitive Man.”
Hat tip: Corvus.
For your viewing and listening pleasure, the Bill O’Reilly sex tapes as baroque oratorio, performed live at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall (needless to say, this is NSFW):
If you want more, apparently Igor Keller made an entire CD of it. This basically puts to rest all of those arguments that modern society no longer produces works of sheer genius.
Hat tip: Rohmie.
Several weeks ago, Oklahoma State head football coach Mike Gundy had an epic YouTube Hall of Fame meltdown at a press conference. Despite having just pulled out a tough win, he was upset over an article written about the benching of his QB. Here’s the rant:
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Oh, and did I mention that the article he was spazzing over was written by a woman? Kinda sheds an even uglier light on some of those comments.
Anyway, the unintentionally hilarious assholery insipred me to mash it up. Enjoy!
Unlike John Christopher Bain, 58, a mortgage broker, and his wife, Victoria Fox, 55, a teacher, who also died in the California wildfires, we are unlikely to learn the names of these victims.
It brings to mind another tragedy. On January 29, 1948, a plane crashed near Los Gatos Canyon, killing four Americans and 28 migrant Mexican workers who were being deported from California. The newspaper reported the names of the dead Americans, but not the Mexicans, who were buried in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California. The discrepancy led Woody Guthrie to write “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).”
Here—have a listen:
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