Macca's latest release is his third cover album after Choba B CCCP and Run Devil Run; while in the latter two the material he used came mainly from the rock 'n' roll era, in his latest ("Kisses on the Bottom") he interprets songs that come mainly from the first half of the 20th century. Interesting attempt, not that interesting result.
It was last Sunday that, with some hours difference, I experienced two unbelievable comebacks in football and basketball; both came from my favourite teams! Machester City scored twice in stoppage time (!) to win the Premier League while Olympiakos were crowned European champions although 12 minutes before the end of the match they were 19 points down against the mighty CSKA, while their winning 2-point was scored at the last second of the game!
My mediafire account is suspended. Of course nothing can be done now to restore the damage done, but I was expecting if someone wanted one of my uploads to be removed, to request-demand it through an email or a comment (needless to say that all such demands up to now were satisfied without any objection), and not to suspend my whole account. To be honest though, when I started this blog I had in my mind that something like that would happen. This blog will continue, because most of all it is a labour of love. New posts will appear, while for any re-uploading requests please comment in order to put some priorities; just be patient please. I need some time to get back properly. See you all soon.
PS Does anybody know any reliable hosting site, instead of mediafire? Do not mention rapidshare, I prefer whoever is to download not to pay a subscription.
Another major loss, Etta James. A great voice, a great woman and, here, a monumental album. It was her first lp and it was released by Argo, a Chess subsidiary. Her influence to a bunch of artists from Janis Joplin to Diana Ross to Amy Winehouse to Adele is apparent. You can also find bits of her story at an older post.
This post is a tribute to the Greek movie director Theodoros Angelopoulos who died recently when he was hit by a motorcycle while shooting his new movie. Although his slow and dreamlike filming style has caused endless arguments among movie aficionados, he is considered as one of the most important European directors. He has worked with famous actors such as Marcello Mastroianni, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Bruno Ganz and Jeanne Moreau. In 1998, he won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, with his film Eternity and a Day.
The offered upload is the soundtrack of his movie "The Beekeeper", one of the many times he collaborated with the composer Eleni Karaindrou. On the other hand, The Beekeeper is also a very fruitful collaboration between Karaindrou and Jan Garbarek which initiated a mutual respect between the two artists; as a result Karaindrou followed Garbarek and signed in ECM.
I'm in a storng Woody Guthrie mood lately; I find a constant inspiration in his spirit and lyrics, now that his topical songs seem to have been written about the problems of today; isn't there a better proof about his timeless value? So, as an addition to the Bragg-Wilco upload based on his lyrics, I thought that it would be a good idea to upload this "proper" tribute to him as well. Furthermore it is also a brilliant tribute to Leadbelly, as well as a good reason to remember Don DeVito who passed away recently and was the producer of this album which had won him the Grammy for the Best Traditional Folk Recording in 1989. DeVito is mostly known as the producer of Bob Dylan's Desire and Blood on the Tracks lps. As a result Dylan could not be absent from this tribute to one of his idols contributing with, to my opinion, the best song of this compilation. Finally, Dylan and Emmylou Harris are the links with the Hank Williams tribute of the previous post.
Tracklisting:
A1-Sylvie - Sweet Honey In The Rock
A2-Bob Dylan - Pretty Boy Floyd
A3-John Mellencamp - Do Re Mi
A4-Bruce Springsteen - I Ain't Got No Home
A5-U2 - Jesus Christ
A6-Little Richard With Fishbone - Rock Island Line
A7-Arlo Guthrie - East Texas Red
B1-Willie Nelson - Philadelphia Lawyer
B2-Emmylou Harris - Hobo's Lullaby
B3-Taj Mahal - The Bourgeois Blues
B4-Sweet Honey In The Rock - Gray Goose
B5-Brian Wilson - Goodnight Irene
B6-Bruce Springsteen - Vigilante Man
B7-Pete Seeger with Sweet Honey in the Rock, Doc Watson & The Little Red School House Chorus - This Land Is Your Land
The "New Multitudes" lp for which the Mermaid Avenue lp was uploaded in the previous music post has a similar concept to "The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams" lp (which was released on October, last year) i.e. both albums are tributes based on lyrics (written by Guthrie and Williams respectively) to songs that were never recorded, while the participating artists contribute to the composition of each song. Hence, it was a good opportunity to remember and older (and magnificent) Hank Williams tribute album. Bob Dylan is another connecting link between the two Hank Williams tributes since he participates in both of them. Enjoy.
Tracklisting:
01-Bob Dylan - I Can't Get You Off My Mind
02-Sheryl Crow - Long Gone Lonesome Blues
03-Keb' Mo' - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
04-Beck - Your Cheatin' Heart
05-Mark Knopfler & His Band with Emmylou Harris - Lost On The River
06-Tom Petty - You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave)
07-Keith Richards - You Win Again
08-Emmylou Harris with Mark Knopfler & His Band - Alone And Forsaken
09-Hank Williams III - I'm A Long Gone Daddy
10-Ryan Adams - Lovesick Blues
11-Lucinda Williams - Cold, Cold Heart
12-Johnny Cash - I Dreamed About Mama Last Night
...in protest over ACTA as well as for the economic and political slavery of Greece (Feb. 3, 2012).
The message in full: "Greetings Greece. We are Anonymous. What is going on in your country is unacceptable. You were chosen by your people to act on behalf of them and express their wishes, but you have derogatorily failed. You have killed the most sacred element your country had and that is democracy. Democracy was given birth in your country but you have now killed it. What an irony! Your own people hate you and you stare at them doing nothing to prevent that. You have joined the IMF against your people's acquiescence. You have so introduced a new dictatorship upon your people's shoulders and allowed the bankers and the monarchs of the EU to enslave them both economically and politically. They pay their government's mistakes heavily and you made foreign people hate them for something they are not responsible for. What a shame! Police is taking advantage of its powers and attacks people who demonstrate in order for justice to be done. They demonstrate against you but you do not want their voices to be heard. You deprive them from their right of freedom of expression and of their right to live. Your arbitrary actions must be punished. By signing the ACTA bill you are going to deprive your people from further freedom and you are pushing them one step towards oppression. You ignored our warnings and now we are in charge. WE ARE ANONYMOUS WE ARE LEGION WE DO NOT FORGIVE WE DO NOT FORGET YOY SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED US People should not be afraid of their governments. It's governments that should be afraid of their people.
In 2012 is the centennial of Woody Guthrie's birth. Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), Jay Farrar (Son Volt, Gob Iron, Uncle Tupelo), Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket, Monsters of Folk) and Anders Parker (Varnaline, Gob Iron) were invited by Guthrie's daughter, Nora, who runs the Guthrie Archives, to pick through Guthrie’s notebooks of lyrics (most of these lyrics were written during Guthrie's time in Los Angeles) in order to add tunes to them. "These guys worked on an amazing group of lyrics. Much of it was culled from Woody’s times in L.A. Lyric wise, it’s a part of the story that is still mostly unknown. From Woody’s experiences on LA’s skid row to his later years in Topanga Canyon, they are uniquely intimate, and relate two distinctly emotional periods in his life”, says Nora Guthrie. The result of this collaboration is the album "New Multitudes" which will be released via Rounder Records, on February, 28, while a respective tour will follow. Additional events and concerts including a Guthrie tribute in his hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma will also take place.
The concept of New Multitudes reminded me of two similar releases by Billy Bragg and Wilco; the first one of those is uploaded here. Mermaid Avenue (the album's title) in Coney Island, is where Woody Guthrie lived with his family in the late 1940's and early 50's were he wrote hundreds of songs which he never recorded. When he died he left only the lyrics; for some of those Billy Bragg and Wilco have written new tunes. As Bill Bragg writes in the album's liner notes "Despite the fact that his (Guthrie's) recording career was more or less over by 1947, he carried on writing songs until he became too ill to hold a pencil. The last years of his life were spent in the Brooklyn state hospital and when he died in 1967, the tunes that he had dreamt up for these hundreds of unrecorded songs, tunes he had carried in his head all his life, were lost forever. Woody's daughter Nora Guthrie offered me access to over a thousand complete lyrics of her father's that are in her care. Handwritten or typed, often bearing the date and place where they were written and sometimes accompanied by an insight into the process at work, they offer us a broader picture of a man who over the past sixty years has been vilified by the American right whilst simultaneously being canonized by the American left. In her letter to me, Nora talked of breaking the mould, of working with her father to give his words a new sound and a new context. The result is not a tribute album but a collaboration between Woody Guthrie and a new generation of songwriters who until now had only glimpsed him fleetingly over the shoulder of Bob Dylan or somewhere in the distance of a Bruce Springsteen song."
I've done worse.... With a 2-month delay (...) here's the post dedicated to the 50 years of minimalism. It was in London's Kings Place on Nov. 24, 25 and 26 that the relevant events took place to honour artists such as John Cage, Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, La Monte Young, Howard Skempton, Terry Riley, Eric Satie, Brian Eno and Glenn Branca among others.
Today's upload offers a fundametal work of minimalism. "In C is a semi-aleatoric musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for any number of people, although he suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work". It is a response to the abstract academic serialist techniques used by composers in the mid-twentieth century and is often cited as the first minimalist composition." (quote from wiki)
download link: here
IMPORTANT UPDATE: A bad vinyl rip had been uploaded. I had ripped the album with the option "Enable audio enhancements" ticked (one of those initiatives that our PCs take from time to time) and the result was dreadful; it totally destroyed the album's sound. I only realised it today when I went to hear the mp3s. Whoever downloaded the album up to Feb, 8, 21.54 GMT please do download it again. I ripped again the album and replaced the old link. Sorry.
This is the final post of the Bert Jasch tribute. Here as a part of a dream team of musicians including John Renbourn, Danny Thompson, Terry Cox along with the angelic voice of Jacqui McShee. Enjoy.
It's the first time that the three major UK music mags (Mojo, Uncut, NME) chose the same best album of the year. It was of course PJ Harvey's Let England Shake. I have to admit I didn't expect from Polly Harvey to return with such a magnificent album since in her last two she seemed to have lost the plot. Her glorious return is thus celebrated with these Peel Sessions. Enjoy.
Happy holidays to all of you. Today it's also the 5th birthday of this blog. Thank you all for your support.
Tracklisting:
01-Phantom Planet - Winter Wonderland
02-Ron Sexsmith - Maybe This Christmas
03-Coldplay - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
04-Vanessa Carlton - Greensleeves
05-Bright Eyes - Blue Christmas
06-Sence Field - Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
07-Jimmy Eat World - 12/23/95
08-Jack Johnson - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
09-Barenaked Ladies Feat. Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
10-Ben Folds - Bizarre Christmas Incident
11-Dan Wilson - What A Year For A New Year
12-Neil Finn - Sweet Secret Peace
13-Loreena McKennitt - Snow
Following the previous post's subject, this is about the reunion of the Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto for two special shows as part of the Buzzcocks "Back to Front" tour on the 25th and 26th of May 2012 in Manchester and London. Their sole release while Devoto was in the group was the EP that is offered today; an inflammable material that captured the sign of the times in the most natural way and at the same time a fundamental independent release since it was the group itself that manufactured, released and distributed it making it sensible for any group after them to work outside the established record industry.
Last year, it was the reunion of the Pavement that was nominated (by me!) as the reunion of the year. This year it's a very tough competition. We have two groups, both coming from my beloved Manchester, both being among the leaders of the music movements they belong to.
The first one is the Stone Roses. Their reunion was announced in October and they've already booked two reunion concerts in Manchester at the end of June, followed by a world tour. They even plan to record new material together.
This was a brilliant opportunity to upload Fools Gold, a mythical single back from 1989. In a recent issue of Mojo (September 2011), Noel Gallagher describes brilliantly what Fools Gold is all about: "Everything comes together for a brief moment. The Stone Roses get into one of the greatest grooves in the history of music as a result. You get records that could have been recorded yesterday and this is one of them. It's also the sound of a band peaking: they never did anything that matched it. This is 20 years old and it still sounds like the future. (...) The amazing thing about it is: There's barely a tune in it. Try and play it on an acoustic guitar. There is no song. It's a bass line. It's alchemy. I can imagine how it would have happened. Someone would have started playing something and someone else would have said, "Do that again." It's an unbelievable piece of music. How can it have never dated, when it was so of its time?"
Let's start a tribute to Bert Jansch who left us recently. A musician of tremendous importance but, sadly, relatively unknown outside the folk circles although his influence on rock artists is huge. Donovan has covered Do You Hear Me Now, Bob Dylan was based on Jansch's cover on the traditional Nottamun Town to create Masters of War, while Jimmy Page did the same with Blackwaterside and Waggoner's Lad to create Black Mountain Side and Gallows Pole (Nottamun Town, Blackwaterside and Waggoner's Lad can be found in Jack Orion lp, posted here some years ago). Jansch's influence is also apparent on Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Neil Young, Johnny Marr, Devendra Banhart, Fleet Foxes, to name just a few, while Jansch's major influence was Davy Graham, the subject of an older post as well. In addition, every "best guitarists ever" list that respects itself includes Jansch; his ability on acoustic guitar was so unique that Neil Young has said that what Hendrix was to the electric guitar, Jansch was to the acoustic. And of course we shouldn't forget Pentangle, one of the greatest folk acts of the 1960s to which Jansch was a member, for whom there will be a post and an upload as well. The album offered here is Jansch's first; his last is also on the way.
This post is a good reminder of an era, not many years ago, when an indie album was expected in much anticipation, when an indie album was full of fuzzing guitars and songs were according to the definition of the rock sound. It is also a good reminder of my beloved Sleater-Kinney, now that Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss (along with Mary Timony from Helium and Rebecca Cole from Minders) formed the female super group Wild Flag. Their first release is highly recommended.
Thank you for the great songs and the brilliant albums, for the consistency, for the memories. Thank you Peter, Mike, Michael and Bill.
Tracklisting:
01-Living Well Is The Best Revenge
02-What's The Frequency, Kenneth
03-Drive
04-Man-Sized Wreath
05-Ignoreland
06-Bad Day
07-Hollowman
08-Electrolite
09-(Don't Go Back To) Rockville (vocals by Mike Mills)
10-The Great Beyond
11-The One I Love
12-She Just Wants To Be
13-Losing My Religion
14-Let Me In
15-Horse To Water
16-Orange Crush
17-Imitation Of Life
18-Supernatural Superserious
19-It's The End Of The World As We Know It
20-Man On The Moon
Another post prepared months ago... There isn't much to write about Scott-Heron rather than to copy the wiki paragraph about his tremendous infulence:
"The music of Scott-Heron's work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as "the godfather of rap" and "the black Bob Dylan". Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot comments on Scott-Heron's collaborative work with Jackson, "Together they crafted jazz-influenced soul and funk that brought new depth and political consciousness to ‘70s music alongside Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. In classic albums such as 'Winter in America' and 'From South Africa to South Carolina,' Scott-Heron took the news of the day and transformed it into social commentary, wicked satire, and proto-rap anthems. He updated his dispatches from the front lines of the inner city on tour, improvising lyrics with an improvisational daring that matched the jazz-soul swirl of the music". Of Scott-Heron's influence on hip hop, Kot writes that he "presag[ed] hip-hop and infus[ed] soul and jazz with poetry, humor and pointed political commentary". Ben Sisario of The New York Times writes that "He preferred to call himself a "bluesologist," drawing on the traditions of blues, jazz and Harlem renaissance poetics". Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger writes that "The arrangements on Gil Scott-Heron's early recordings were consistent with the conventions of jazz poetry – the movement that sought to bring the spontaneity of live performance to the reading of verse". On his influence, a music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists". The Washington Post wrote that "Scott-Heron's work presaged not only conscious rap and poetry slams, but also acid jazz, particularly during his rewarding collaboration with composer-keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson in the mid- and late '70s." The Observer's Sean O'Hagan discussed the significance of Scott-Heron's music with Brian Jackson, stating: "Together throughout the 1970s, Scott-Heron and Jackson made music that reflected the turbulence, uncertainty and increasing pessimism of the times, merging the soul and jazz traditions and drawing on an oral poetry tradition that reached back to the blues and forward to hip-hop. The music sounded by turns angry, defiant and regretful while Scott-Heron's lyrics possessed a satirical edge that set them apart from the militant soul of contemporaries such as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield." Will Layman of PopMatters writes of the significance of Scott-Heron's early musical work, "In the early 1970s, Gil Scott-Heron popped onto the scene as a soul poet with jazz leanings; not just another Bill Withers, but a political voice with a poet’s skill. His spoken-voice work had punch and topicality. 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' and 'Johannesburg' were calls to action: Stokely Carmichael if he’d had the groove of Ray Charles. 'The Bottle' was a poignant story of the streets: Richard Wright as sung by a husky-voiced Marvin Gaye. To paraphrase Chuck D, Gil Scott-Heron’s music was a kind of CNN for black neighborhoods, prefiguring hip-hop by several years. It grew from the Last Poets, but it also had the funky swing of Horace Silver or Herbie Hancock—or Otis Redding. Pieces of a Man and Winter in America (collaborations with Brian Jackson) were classics beyond category". Scott-Heron's influence over hip-hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron's indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Brian Jackson's compositions, which have been sampled by various hip-hop artists. "We Almost Lost Detroit" has been sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba ("Keep On"), Native Tongues duo Black Star ("Brown Skin Lady"), and underground notable MF DOOM ("Camphor"). Scott-Heron's 1980 song "A Legend in His Own Mind" was sampled on Mos Def's "Mr. Nigga". The opening lyrics from his 1978 recording "Angel Dust" were appropriated by rapper RBX on the 1996 song "Blunt Time" by Dr. Dre. CeCe Peniston's 2000 song "My Boo" samples Scott-Heron's 1974 recording "The Bottle". Among the most notable is rapper/producer Kanye West, who has sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson's "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" for his song "My Way Home" and the single "The People," respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts between West and Common. Scott-Heron, in turn, has acknowledged West's contributions, sampling the latter's 2007 single "Flashing Lights" on his latest album, 2010's I'm New Here. Scott-Heron admitted ambivalence about his association with rap, remarking in 2010 in an interview for the Daily Swarm, "I don't know if I can take the blame for it", referring to rap music. He preferred the moniker of "bluesologist". Referring to reviews of his last album and references to him as the "godfather of rap", he said, "It’s something that’s aimed at the kids." He added, "I have kids, so I listen to it. But I would not say it’s aimed at me. I listen to the jazz station.”
I know, I know. I've been missing for too long again. Things got tough lately, so I wasn't in the mood for my labour of love here. Nevertheless, since I have prepared some uploads I'll post them, even if their subject is a little bit dated.
The first one is about Jerry Ragovoy, who left us recently. He composed Time Is on My Side, Cry Baby, Piece of My Heart, Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) among others; these songs alone are more than enough to earn him a prominent place in music history.
The obvious upload for Ragovoy would be a Janis Joplin album, most obviously Pearl, where five of his songs are interpreted in the most unique way. Nevertheless, trying once more to avoid obvious selections, I chose the brilliant original cast of Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope, the Broadway play that was nominated for four Tony awards in 1972, with the two being for Best Musical and Best Original Score. The production was by Ragovoy, earning him the Grammy Award as producer on Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album in 1973. Enjoy.
These two uploads were requested by my fellow blogger David, the famous metalbastard. Since in the previous TTRH post, a broadcast from season 2 was uploaded, I chose to upload one broadcast for each of the remaining seasons. Furthermore, the themes chosen were "Summer" (an obvious selection amidst a mild heatwave) and "Happiness" (for which all of us are in its constant pursuit).
Tracklisting for "Summer": Summertime — Billy Stewart (1966) Summertime Blues — Eddie Cochran (1958) (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave — Martha & the Vandellas (1963) Heat Wave — Sol K. Bright and His Hollywaiians (1935) Sunny — Bobby Hebb (1966) Juneteenth Jamboree — Fatso Bentley (?) So Nice — Astrud Gilberto and Walter Wanderley (1966) Youth of 1000 Summers — Van Morrison (1990) Hot Weather Blues — Mr. Sad Head (1951) Summer in the City — Lovin’ Spoonful (1966) Too Hot — Prince Buster (1967) In the Summertime — Mungo Jerry (1970) Ice Cream Man — John Brim (1953) Fourth of July — Dave Alvin (1994) Hot Fun in the Summertime — Sly & the Family Stone (1969)
Tracklisting for "Happiness": Feelin' High and Happy - Hot Lips Page (1938) Love and Happiness - Al Green (1972) (I Wanna Go Where You Go) Then I'll Be Happy - Jimmy Heap and The Melody Masters Happy Home - Elmore James (1955) Happy - The Rolling Stones (1972) I Want To Be Happy - Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb & His Orchestra (1937) Happy - Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins (2006) You've Made Me So Very Happy - Brenda Holloway (1967) Happy Rovin' Cowboy - The Sons of the Pioneers (1935–1936) Everybody's Happy Nowadays - Buzzcocks (1979) Smile - Judy Garland (1963) - [music by Charlie Chaplin, from "Modern Times"] Happy Trails - Roy Rogers & Dale Evans with Frank Worth & His Orchestra (1950)
download link for "Summer": here download link for "Happiness": here
Quoting from exandas, a text written by Yorgos Avgeropoulos. A must read (and watch). All videos and photos were shot during June, 29, 2001 in Athens, during the mostly peaceful protests that began in May, 25 and take place everyday in the centre of Athens (Syntagma square opposite the Greek Parliament) and in many other Greek cities as well.
"Flirting with death
I have covered conflicts of protestors and police in various places around the world outside Greece, such as in Argentina, Italy, Bolivia, and Mexico. Especially in Mexico the police, as many know, are considered savage, untrained and corrupt. However, what I lived through and recorded along with my co-workers yesterday Wednesday 29/6 at Syntagma, surpasses all limits in savagery. The Greek police rightly, and by a wide margin, gets the prize for barbarity. A barbarity which has no relation to repression but which was a constant flirt with death.
It is a miracle that we did not mourn any dead. And Mr. Papoutsis [the Minister of “Citizen Protection”] should light a candle to the God he believes in, since it is only due to his good luck that he is not apologising today for any dead.
The plan to clear Syntagma Square during the last two days, was a violent attack, an “onslaught” as it was put aptly by Ayman, a Spanish journalist who works for Al Jazeera. An onslaught against everyone and anyone to the death. “But what kind of police is this that you have”?, he asked me indignantly. You are a member of the European Union, at least for now” he said to me with a meaningful smile.
Let’s take things from the beginning. At about 13.30 there are a lot of people gathered in front of the Parliament. They are not hood-wearers. They are not throwing rocks. They are elderly, young, women, men, students, workers, unemployed who are shouting slogans, who are making the familiar hand gesture to the Parliament, and the most hot-blooded are right in front---at the most they launched insults and shook the railings which were set up in front of the monument of the Unknown Soldier. Nothing important in other words which would justify what would follow. All of a sudden, from everywhere, from right, from left, and from the centre, a general attack of the police forces began which pushed the protestors towards the steps of Syntagma Square. Imagine thousands of people running frantically towards a narrow opening of a width of not more than 10 metres. From behind them the riot police throw stun and flash grenades into the crowd and teargas, creating panic. People are burned by the flames, drowned in the tear gas, they can’t see in front of them, and they start to step on one another and to tumble down the steps. People faint, others are stepped on in the blood. Despite all this, the police to do not leave. They hit anyone they find in front of them with their clubs, people in other words who are running to save themselves, stepping on one another.
What follows is well-known. Beyond the action of the agents provocateurs, which has been recorded on video and in photographs which have been released and which will continue to be released in the following days, beyond the action of the troublemakers who I despise and totally disagree with, it is now easy for a rock to be thrown from anyone’s hand, anyone who has been hit, chemically sprayed, who is unemployed, homeless---yes there are now neo-homeless---and every day becomes poorer without seeing a way out anywhere.
I won’t hide from you that I was scared watching a savagery without precedence taking place before my eyes. I felt the same fear that I have felt in tough regions of the planet. I felt the fear of death. As I thought it was my imagination and that I was unaccustomed to working in Greece---I hadn’t worked in my country since 2000—I asked my old colleagues if they had ever lived something like this before here. They answered that they had never experienced anything like it.
(Comment on video: The officer has been put repeating that "no cs gas was thrown in metro stations", were the videos in between were shot in Syntagma and Acropolis metro stations.)
Therefore, as a rational person, I would like the Ministry of “Citizen Protection” (I put it in quotation marks as the title reminds me of the Ministry of Love in 1984 by Orwell) to answer the following question:
1. Who gave the command for the general attack at 13.30 and why? Whose idea was it to order the police forces to hunt down a panicked crowd stepping on one another on the steps, to throw stun and flash grenades and tear gas, to beat indiscriminately, taking a 50-50 risk that someone among the thousands would leave their last breath in the square?
2. Why didn’t the police respect the medical centre of Syntagma Square? Professional doctors, pulmonologists and others, all of them volunteers, were treating those injured during the entire duration of the attacks. They were not “hood-wearers”, they were doctors. They shouted at the police “this is a medical centre” but the police paid no attention. Fanatically, the police threw tear gas and beat them. As one doctor said to us “These things don’t even happen in war. Even in war, there is a truce, so that the wounded can be picked up and treated.” The doctors gathered everything up in haste and set up the medical centre down in the metro, but they didn’t escape the chemicals which were thrown in down there either.
3. Why were the teachers at the Teaching Federation of Greece beaten? Were they hood-wearers too? I don’t think so. After the riot police threw tear gas into the entrance of their building at 15 Xenofondos Street, they threw rocks (!) and hit teachers on the head using their clubs upside down, hitting with the handle, according to their testimonies. Three were wounded: one with broken ribs, one with head injuries, and one with light injuries on his arm. The teachers said: “When a society abuses its teachers, it can’t go any lower”.
4. What was the logic behind the police using chemical sprays and beating people in the greengrocers and souvlaki restaurants of Monastiraki and Plaka, terrorising the customers and the tourists?
5. And finally, something personal for Mr. Papoutsis: Why did you hit me? Not you, in other words, but one of the men of your police. Because however I don’t know the “anonymous” riot policeman, but I do know you, I would truly like a response. The situation was relatively calm at that time and, with my camera, I was recording a riot squad which was going up towards the Parliament, when one of them left his squad, came up to me, and stood in front of me, a breath away. I stopped shooting and lowered the camera. He looked at me in the eyes. I said to him, what do you want, and his response was to hit me with his club, so I could remember this day. People started to shout: “Hey, you’re hitting Avgeropoulos!!?” I didn’t react at all and he went away. If I had reacted we might be talking in the police department where you would be apologising for the.... “misunderstanding”.
By the way: in Oaxaca, when I was cornered along with my cameraman by Mexican police, who as I said before, are considered savage, untrained and corrupt, I shouted “Journalist” and they didn’t do anything to me. In my own country I was beaten for the first time.
*Yorgos Avgeropoulos (Greek: Γιώργος Αυγερόπουλος; born 1971) is a Greek journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is the creator of the Greek awarded documentaries series "Exandas". He was born in Athens in 1971. He has worked for Greek television stations covering news stories in Greece and major events around the world. He has, also, worked as a war correspondent in the wars in Bosnia, Croatia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Palestine. In 2000, he created the documentary series "Exandas" (meaning sextant) which has won many awards in film festivals and documentary festivals in Greece and around the world and is currently broadcasted on Greek public television."
It's always tough when trying to have a post about artists and groups with tremendous importance such as Dylan since I believe that whoever is seriously interested in music will own at least 12-15 Dylan albums. So, avoiding to upload something from his official discography, here is one of the very many Dylan bootlegs circulating among fans, considered by many as one of the best ones both in sound quality and in recorded material.
Bob Dylan turned 70 on May 24. For the most important composer of the second half of the 20th century we're celebrating his birthday with a party. So, for the first of the three posts dedicated to him, I uploaded one of his broadcasts for the Theme Time Radio Hour, with the theme being... "Party"
Tracklisting: All Tomorrow’s Parties — Velvet Underground (1967) Ain’t Nothin’ But A House Party — Showstoppers (1968) Hot Barbeque — Brother Jack McDuff (1965) Let’s Have A Party — Wanda Jackson (1958) Let’s Party — Jesse Allen (1952) Baby Gotta Party — Don & Dewey (1957) It’s My Party — Lesley Gore (1963) Soul Bossa Nova — Quincy Jones & His Orchestra feat. Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1962) Party Doll — Buddy Knox (1957) Caldonia’s Party — Smiley Lewis (1953) I Paid For The Party — The Enchanters (1965) Party Lights — Claudine Clark (1962) Carnival Time — Al Johnson (1960) House Party — Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1953) The Party — Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner (1968) After The Bacchanal — Lord Beginner (1939) Party Girl — Elvis Costello & The Attractions (1979) The Party’s Over — Blossom Dearie (1959)
"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency." This is the first paragraph of a recent article of the Centers of Disease Controls and Prevention (CDC) in its attempt its guidelines for the upcoming US cyclones as well as for a possible future pandemic to reach to a wider percentage of people than usual. The attempt was very successful; during the first few days CDC had 60,000 hits, while the normal was around 3,000.
So, this was a very good chance to upload something to add my bit to CDC's effort. I though that the soundtrack of I Was a Teenage Zombie, a brilliant cult splatter comedy with an equally enjoyable soundtrack, was the wisest choice. Enjoy.
Tracklisting:
A1-Fleshtones - I Was A Teenage Zombie
A2-Del Fuegos - Have You Forgotten
A3-dB's - Neverland
A4-Dream Syndicate - Halloween
A5-Violent Femmes - Good Feeling
A6-Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like
B1-Smithereens - Time and Time Againhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
B2-Los Lobos - Why Do You Do
B3-Alex Chilton - Stuff
B4-Ben Vaughn Group - Vibrato in the Grotto
B5-Bob Pfeifer - Nobody Knows Where Love Goes