May 15 2010
Credit here
I have been wrong in my tags for a long time now! I had misremembered Rimbaud’s manifesto as calling for the derangement of the senses. Actually, the manifesto called for the dissolution of the senses.
My apologies.
I inquired of the I-Ching as to what to tell Docudharmaniacs near and far and got Hexagram 59: Dissolution.
Ha!
There was a changing line in the hexagram which turned it into another hexagram, number 20, “Contemplation.”
Thus the title of this essay.
May 15 2010
One of the most misused and abused terms in language today is “free market”.
The definition of a free market is business governed by supply and demand, and not restrained by government regulation or subsidy.
This definition is often used in conjunction with environmental regulation and minimum wage laws, but almost never with trade between firms and corporations. Which is the problem, because without government protections this “free market” wouldn’t exist.
May 15 2010
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
May 15 2010
On this day in 1937 – Trini Lopez (Trinidad Lopez III) in Dallas, Texas) is an American musician, singer and guitarist. Raised in the barrio of Dallas, dropped out of high school in his senior year because hi father needed financial support. He learned to play guitar from his father and it was this talent that he used to help support his family. He rode to local fame playing in night clubs eventually moving his family out of the barrio.
His first record album included the song “If I Had a Hammer” which rode to the top of the charts around the world. The hits, “I’m Coming Home Cindy,” “Michael,” “Lemon Tree,” Kansas City,” “America,” and, of course, “La Bamba”, followed in quick succession.
During the 60’s and 70’s, he appeared in movies (“Marriage on the Rocks”, “The Dirty Dozen”) and on TV (“Adam-12). He does charitable work and took part in the world wide concert to raise funds for the victims of the 2004 Indonesia Tsunami/Earthquake.
Happy Birthday, Trini
May 15 2010
Camile Saint-Saens is another one of those child prodigy musical geniuses who could read and write at 3, was composing at 4, and performing in public at 5. He was an expert Mathmatician and in addition to scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments, wrote a volume on Philosophy, Problems and Mysteries, about Science and Art replacing Religion; the pessimistic and atheistic ideas of which read like an early version of Existentialism. He also wrote a book of poetry and a theatrical farce as well as several travelogues.
He was considered the greatest organist in the world by Liszt but other contemporaries found his style, while technically flawless, mechanical and devoid of spirit. When he played he sat rock still, only his fingers, hands, and arms moving.
Speaking of philosophy, he underwent some remarkable changes of mind in the course of his life. Initially a big fan of Wagner he cooled on him considerably after the Franco-Prussian War. From being a ground breaking progressive in his early career, he came to despise the work of Impressionists like Debussy, Strauss, and Stravinsky.
Today, of course, his most performed work is the one he most hated- Carnival of the Animals; so much so that he suppressed it’s publication until after his death for fear it would make him look less “serious”. Now it’s a staple of Children’s Concerts along with Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. As a child I loved the 12th Movement, Fossils, because of that crazy Xylophone.
I wanted to find Opus 128, his film score for The Assassination of the Duke of Guise– he was the first major composer to do one. Alas it appears to be unavailable except to those who have better YouTube search skills than I. Instead you will have to settle for an episode of The Shadow which uses the middle section of Le rouet d’Omphale Op. 31 as its theme.
This episode, Triangle of Death, features Orson Wells as The Shadow. Also Borodin. It was posted by TheRadioGhost in three parts, the last 2 of which are below the fold.
May 15 2010
OPPORTUNITY ROCKS
In an attempt to cash in on the old and decrepit from the rest of Asia, the Japanese government is mulling a “medical visa” that would allow rich folks from places like China to seek long-term medical care here.A 29-year-old conductor from Israel has been picked to replace Seiji Ozawa as opera director at the Saito Kinen Festival in Nagano. The 74-year-old Ozawa is recovering from treatment for esophagal cancer.
A man who says he was drunk when he snapped a maraca off a statue of popular manga character Ryotsu Kankichi in Katsushika-ku turned himself in after seeing how much attention the incident received.
Osaka cops, rejoice! Krispy Kreme and Mister Donut’s Cafe Andonand have ignited a doughnut war after opening their first outlets in the region.
Ace pitcher Mika Konishi led the Hyogo Swing Smileys to victory over the Kyoto Asto Dreams 8-0 in the first game of the Girls Professional Baseball League.
May 15 2010
While it is important to point out the inconsistencies and lies that are the hallmark of most of our public institutions we also need to start with some firm foundations to future essays and comments. I feel one of the first things we need to face is that the situation we face today is no longer a political struggle between conservatives and liberals or even reactionaries and progressives. As has been brought out by several people here at DD the struggle is between criminal entities (most large corporations, big banks, traditional organized crime, the military (yes I believe much though not all of the military has become a criminal enterprise), the covert ops part of the intel agencies, the MSM (the worst of the lot), the federal government and many state and local governments. No, it is not a matter of “incompetence” that has brought us to this situation but of what I consider criminal behavior.
There are two aspects of criminal behavior. The first, obviously, is the breaking of laws on the books–well, in this country with more laws (I’m sure) than any entity that has ever existed, it is pretty easy for anyone to break the law but still even if you look at major statutes the fact is that major corporations and the elites escape the law while the poor do not. The Federal government now no longer even pretends to follow the law, for example, the Geneva Conventions and protocols are routinely ignored despite the fact that they are the law. Of course, laws against fraud were ignored during and after the financial crisis. Disappearance of trillions from DOD elicited no action and no response from the media, criminal fraud by contractors in Iraq almost completely ignored by any agencies and, generally, underreported in the MSM. The list can go on and on and this blog has at one time or another reported on nearly all of them. These aren’t arguments over policy but clear criminality that, in a healthy society, would have been prosecuted. This criminality and corruption has rapidly increased in recent years.
The second aspect of criminal behavior I would like to describe as follows:
The deliberate attempt by private interests to undermine public welfare, public spaces, public health and the future of the species for financial gain.
This aspect of criminality is far worse than simply breaking particular laws. It is about the deliberate destruction of society and government itself. I suggest to you that this has been the conscious and deliberate intention of most (not all) of the ruling elite for the past few decades but particularly since the stolen election of 2000. I believe their intention was then and is now the looting of the entire world and the destruction of American society and any other society for the purpose of instituting a New World Order based on a global imperial system on the macro-level and various modes of neofeudal social arrangements at the local level with most of the population either expendable or in a state of serfdom. This system is not in place yet and can be stopped but this is the agenda of most of the power players.
As has been made abundantly clear on this blog, the Obama administration is only cosmetically different than the previous administration. The differences are largely cultural rather than political. We can mostly agree here that we are no longer fooled by the Kabuki of Obama and his allies in Congress. Obama simply is beside the point.
May 15 2010
This week’s selection, recorded in 1952, was remarkable for its association with many firsts. Released in March, 1953, it was the first song ever produced by composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and was to be the biggest hit ever for blues singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. Her rendition would occupy the #1 slot on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues charts for seven weeks. Wasting no time, five country artists would record their own versions of this song during the following month.
May 15 2010
There are several things that most people don’t understand about humanity, traveling the universe, extrasolar planets and extraterrestrial civilizations.
Unfortunately, space based science fiction tends to amplify ideas and thought processes about life and the universe that are just not true or are vanishingly implausible.
One false idea, that I notice even intelligent progressive science educated people espousing, is that if and when we encounter an extraterrestrial civilization, it is likely to be like us, similar to us, and at a level of technology that is graspable by us.
To illustrate the truth, let me focus the gentle reader’s attention on an admittedly only somewhat accurate but illustrative graph below:
The bottom graph is the one of planet earth. There is an assumption built in that microbial life has been around for the entire history of the planet, but it could be just as easily read as “no life / microbial life”.
May 15 2010
The ACLU, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, The Transgender Law Center, and Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund have joined in the drafting of a letter (pdf) in support of the national standards for the prevention, detection, response, and monitoring of sexual abuse as recommended (pdf) by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people are at heightened risk of being abused when in detention, both at the hands of other inmates and at the hands of facility staff.
May 14 2010
By Kathy Kelly and Joshua Brollier
Photos by G. Simon Harak
May 14th, 2010
In May of 2009, under tremendous pressure from the United States, the Pakistani military began a large-scale military operation in the Swat District of Pakistan to confront militants in the region. The UNHCR said the operation led to one of the largest and fastest displacements it had ever seen. Within ten days, more than two million people fled their homes.
Now, a year later, our small delegation visited the Swat District. After a breathtaking ride through the Hindu Kush mountains (pictured), traveling in a pick-up truck from Shah Mansour in the Swabi district, we arrived in Swat’s capital, Saidu Sharif.
Saidu Sharif is a small town, ringed by mountains. The Swat River, a few hundred yards in width, runs through it. It’s easy to imagine a former time when tourists would flock to visit this scenic treasure. While we were there, the town seemed tranquil. Stores were open and the streets were bustling. Merchants, children, shoppers, bicyclists, goats, cars, donkey carts, rickshaws, and tractors jostled for space in the narrow roadways. But, we also saw dozens of uniformed men, carrying weapons, suggesting that tensions still prevail in Swat.
