Jul 30, 2011

Bob Dylan X Tom Waits


"Theme Time Radio Hour (TTRH) was a weekly, one-hour satellite radio show hosted by Bob Dylan originally airing from May 2006 to April 2009. Each episode was an eclectic, freeform mix of blues, folk, rockabilly, R&B, soul, bebop, rock-and-roll, country and pop music, centered around a theme such as "Weather," "Money," and "Flowers" with songs from artists as diverse as Patti Page and LL Cool J. Much of the material for the show's 100 episodes was culled from producer Eddie Gorodetsky's music collection, which reportedly includes more than 10,000 records and more than 140,000 digital files."wiki

             So this is 5 little sections of the show featuring Tom Waits.

-source-

Jul 25, 2011

The Good The Bad


"The Good The Bad are neither just good, nor bad & they’re definitely not ugly. They’re three Danish desperados, bringing the finest New School Surf & Flamenco to the worthy masses.When they’re not touring Europe, The Good The Bad can be found blowing the faces off people in their native city of Copenhagen, where they’ve impressed the more established underground scene and gained a firm fan-base. TGTB includes Adam Olsson (Baby Woodrose, The Setting Son) on lead guitar, Johan Lei Gellett (Baby Woodrose, Kira and the Kindred Spirits) on drums and Manoj Ramdas (The Raveonettes, SPEkTR) on baritone guitar."-The Good The Bad official sites


“We don’t have a singer because we couldn’t find one that would stand behind the drummer. But we don’t need a vocalist anyway. The music speaks for itself. We use the music so we don’t have to say I Love You” ADAM OLSSON / TGTB


"Like Tarantino dry humping Meg White..."-Youtuber A


The Good The Bad-From 001 to 017
The Good The Bad-From 018 to 033

Jul 21, 2011

Rockin Movies: Iden & Tity(2003)






"The story is set in the 80s rock scene and revolves around Nakajima (Kazunobu Mineta), the lead singer of a band called ‘Speed Way’. Because he refuses to write trite, pop-friendly songs he is constantly at odds with his own record company. However, he refuses to bend on his rock principles simply for better record sales. The most interesting parts of this movie is how they pay homage to music icon, Bob Dylan who gave the filmmaker his blessing, which is no small feat itself, especially for a Japanese indie debut."

Well, this is certainly an interesting one. It is about rock musicians, Japanese, and got Bob Dylan(kinda) in it;they even got Bob's blessing in using his likeliness and songs...3 of my musical fetish in one package. Whats not to love?

I dedicate this movie for those unsung warriors carrying the corpse of their dead dreams, in the name of music.




1. Go here--> http://myasiancinema.com/j-movie-iden-tity-2003/ 
2. Register(or Login)
3. Download
4. ??????
5. Profit!

Sherbets-Free






The latest offering from one of my musical deity Mr Asai Kenichi. This time it is in the form of his artsy alter ego Sherbets. This guy, I swear, is the most productive Rockers I ever had the good fortune to know. Lets bring out the numbers yeah; Blankey Jet City-10 albums, Sherbets-10 albums, Ajico-1 album, Jude-7 albums, Pontiacs-1 album, his solo stuff-5 albums. 34 full albums..in less than 25 years. Lets compare this with my 2 other musical deity; Bob Dylan, whose first recorded album was in 1962, had amassed 34 albums under his belt. And throw in the 9 album in The Bootleg Series, thats a total of 43 albums in  49 years. Mr Tom Waits, first album in 1973, had 19 albums minus the one rumored in production.


*Yeah my songwriters 'trinity' is Dylan-Waits-Benzie. 
Others I had found are Dylan-Waits-(Leonard)Cohen, Dylan-Waits(Nick)Cave, or any of that 4 names combination.
I have a sneaking suspicion they never heard of Asai Kenichi before.


Well back to the Sherbets. The bands initially released an official statement that this album would be their last..however a couple of days after the album's released the band take that statement back. An interview later revealed that the bassist(Nakata) and drummer(Sotomura) wanted to leave after Benzie focused more on his new band Pontiacs. Yeah, band politics got ugly. But I kinda missed that guy's bassline (Benzie really got an ear for a great bassists) and Qumico Fucci's piano/keyboard/voice.

This album also sounded a bit more mellow, even by Sherbets standard. Most of the songs got that special calming, soothing vibe I dont even know how to describe in words. Its just..Sherbets, man!



'Lydia & David'





Street Art, The Protest

From Fahmi Reza gallery, People Power














Really love the black and white touch

As seen on Blogserius

Jul 10, 2011

Some Rocking Pics from Bersih 2.0, 9th July 2011

 A portion of the protestors

 
National Laureate A. Samad Said

"THIIIS IS MAH COUNTRYYYY!!"

"HAHAHA...send in the boys.."


'The Boys'









Like a boss

In an online video coverage, this guy then proceed to imitate the 
pose of a dog pissing in front of the police (implying police='obedient' dogs)

-"Patriot wont allow you to destroy this land, O Ber"shit"-
The 'Patriots'-you can tell their level of mentality with that lame wordplay




2 friends praying in the middle of the street. It is said all the nearby mosques
were blocked.




This one is when the police attacked(water cannon/tear gas) protestors taking
refugee in the nearby private hospitals compound. Police attack, in a 
hospital..wtf man. 

                                        


  However my favorite set of images are of this one old Chinese lady called Anne:

Anne, 65, from Setapak, took a bus ride down to KL, ALONE, in support of the rally. She was stopped 4 times, being asked her IC, and questioned by the police on why she's wearing yellow. "why can't I wear yellow?" was her reply. She didn't know what time the rally was scheduled to start, she didn't know where, she has no one with her; all she knew was to get down to KL, and stand for what she believes in. Anne teaches English in government schools for about 35 years (if i remember correctly). but her passion is really singing and dancing; and what she values most in her life now is freedom.







On that day she had been hit by the tear gas 4 times
and blue colored chemical water once..


Anne has rallied in Bersih 2007. She was disappointed as to why no one else was wearing yellow that day. we said chill lah.. that's cuz if we do, we'd be stopped by the cops even before we get the chance to enter KL. "it's so sad.. it's so sad that the police are treating our rakyats like these." "When you come to rallies, there's a spirit of unity... something i cannot describe... when everyone is united for a cause. you don't even get this sort of unity in church."

The first thing she asked when she sat on our table, "what are you guys doing here?"

She left me with a question that still resides in my heart. now may i impose on you to think about it. "Why do we have to feel so scared (and threatened) in our own home land.. and by own countrymen?"

*****************

"When the crowds were expelled by FRU with water cannons and tear gas, the crowds scattered around. Someone advice Madam Anne to run for her life, but she said:

" All I want is just a peaceful petition,why wouldn't anyone listen? We cannot run away,if we run, how could we even walk on our future path?"

-source (her Facebook fanpage-named The Malaysian Lady of Liberty)-


 
 Meanwhile, the real 'First Lady' of Malaysia had just bought a pretty new ring worth RM 24.4 million 
using, I assume, the taxpayers money.
Her body is 4 times bigger than Anne,
but I bet her heart is 10 times smaller.
And I ain't even tainting my blog with posting her picture

Needless to say, history was written that day.




It had been a long fucking time, i know.



It had been a long fucking time, I know..

It just that the last couple of weeks had been very, very hectic. I was choked with a fuckload of assignments and tests, and I kinda got overwhelmed by the sheer overload of it all. And that can kill anybody's mood to write anything ...or at least, just me.

And it is really not helping when all my attempts to download from mediafire return with a goddamn "Network Error" or "temporary error" screen. Well, not all -more to like 85% of the time- but still..fuck, right. I had been using Mediafire as my main downloading option for a couple of years now, favoring it for its speed, parallel download ability and no waiting time between downloads-the benefits you had to pay for with other download sites. And now its dead for me, killed either by the university or the more sinister force, the stupid MCMC. The MCMC, stands for "Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Comission", had already blocked 10 filesharing sites in Malaysia under the pretense of "to protect public revenue and preserve national security under Section 263 (2) of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998".

But last i checked mediafire aint on their deathlist.


************************************************************************************************




And yesterday, the fateful 9th of July, there was this massive peaceful rally in Kuala Lumpur-BERSIH 2.0(literally, clean 2.0), protesting for a more clear,tranparent election, and some other demands. What started as a coalition of some number of NGOs turned somewhat political when the opposition party fully back the rally. And the government shat their pants, sprouting bullshits like the rally is politically motivated and declared it illegal, while using all their influences-the police and mainstream medias-to condemn the rally. The pro-government sides even started a new organization-Patriot- and threatening to hold a counter rally that day.

According to the plan, the Bersih rally participants are gonna met up in several strategic places in the city center and then peacefully march to the Istana Negara(National Palace) and pass the memorandum to the Sultan. But the government blew everything out of proportion, saying chaos and violences and "possible anarchy" will surely happen on the street that day-and said they will only allow it if it is hold in a stadium or something. So the rally organizer held a meeting with the Sultan and after a discussion, said"OK, we'll take the stadium offer". But then, at the last moment, the government reneged on its offer, saying that the rally can use a stadium but not the one in Kuala Lumpur, and refused to grant the permit to use that stadium. And Bersih answered that with a collective "Fuck You!".


Although the organizer repeatedly claim that the rally is a peaceful one, even back it up with the record of the first Bersih rally-where the only violence came from the police- the police, under the order of government, issued a total lockdown on Kuala Lumpur on that day. Roadblocks are being held on most of the main streets to the city center, resulting in one of the most legendary traffic jams in recent history. Several public transports are stopped. The riot squads, the FRU(Federal Reserve Units) are mobilised with their water cannons and tear gasses.


The rally supposedly start at 2.00 pm until 4.00 pm, but the police had already start searching and arresting civilians since the morning. Most of them were caught just because sporting, or hiding in their bag, the yellow Bersih T-Shirt-under the charges of "attempt to cause social unrest" or something. So to cut the story short, at 2.00 pm the civilians started to gather at different spots designated, with the total number of maybe 15-18k people(I dont know, there are fuckloads of people allright. Some even said there were some 50 k that day). There were some actions, the police fired the water cannon(with chemicals) and tear gasses on the crowds, but maybe the heavy rain that evening help lessened the effects of those irritant-chemical weapons a little. The crowds reacted only with more 'Bersih' and 'Clean the election' chants and singing the national anthem, "Negaraku".


In the end, after braving chemical waters and gasses and roadblocks, part of the protestors managed to arrive to Stadium Merdeka. The stadium was chosen for its historical value, it was the stadium in which the Declaration of Malaysian Independence was held in August 1957. After doing their rally..thingy..outside the stadium, the crowds dispersed peacefully on the order of the protest organizer some time after 4.00 pm. A smaller, separate group led by National Laureate A. Samad Said walked to Istana Negara to hand over the petition only to be blocked by the police which refused to let them pass. The petition handing was unsuccessful, though the Sultan himself agreed to receive the memorandum.


The police confirmed the arrest of more than 1400 people, and at least one death of a senior civilian, one 58 years old Baharuddin. He got stroke(or something) after been teargassed by the police. The protests are also held by Malaysian on other parts of the world such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, London and Australia without much fuss from their polices.


The 'counter rally' by the red-shirt wearing Patriot only managed to gather up some 500 persons for their cause and marched for 200m and then blocked by the police and dispersed quietly, stating they had "accomplished their objective and won the moral victory"...moral victory my ass. They handed their red shirt to anyone(with also a single note of RM50) so some of their 'members' that day are Bangladesh and Pakistani foreigners..and they dare used the name PATRIOT. What a bunch of fucking clowns..

All the mainstream medias then aired stories like they were violence started by the protestors and the total attendances were just 5-6000 people only. There was even this little story of how the police found a couple of bags with machetes, molotov cocktails(in fuckin plastic bottles,haha) and Bersih shirts 'hidden'. But after the people laughed at the very obviously lame setup, I never heard any mention of that story.


I did not attend the protest actually, eventhough my university is kinda near(like 45minutes  bus travel). The government had already released a notice saying all government workers and students under government universities cant attend the gathering. If any were caught there, they will be immediately expelled from their respective institute. Even my mom, a primary school teacher, called me the night before and advised me not to go there. My university, in order to prevent any of its student go to the protest, rescheduled any remaining test to be held on that fateful Saturday. Well at least I said 'Fuck Off' to my test and monitor the protest's progression from the safety screen of my laptop's monitor.

It was the least I could do.
I am ashamed.

Bersih 2.0 Protest Timeline




*For the record, the ruling party had been in power since the Independence(1957).