Bold in Iran

Alikhani's Speech in Majlis in Support of Mousavi

Alikhani defending Mousavi and his alies in front of rowdy conservative Majlis members trying to prevent him from talking.

There has been a lot of confusion about the date. The date on the video refers to Iranian calendar 26th of Khordad 1388 which is 16th of June 2009. This video is from 4 days after the election day

(thanks, Doug)

The Pyramid of North Dakota

In the middle of the expansive North Dakota landscape a small pyramid appears, but there is nothing ancient about this pyramid

The Safeguard Program was developed in the 1960s to shoot down incoming Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. Built at a cost of 6 billion dollars in Nekoma, North Dakota, the site was a massive complex of missile silos, a giant pyramid-shaped radar system, and dozens of launching silos for surface-to-air missiles tipped with thermonuclear warheads.

However due to both its expense, and concern over its effectiveness and the danger of detonating defensive nuclear warheads over friendly territory, the program was shut down before it was even operational. Today its a military-industrial shell in the middle of nowhere, or in the words of Kaluz who added this great site to the Atlas, "a monument to man's fear and ignorance."

More on the Atlas Obscura "THE GIANT PYRAMIDS OF NORTH DAKOTA"

(thanks, again BoingBoing)

recent Ralph Nader Interview... Always worth listening too

"New GM", New Leadership - Nader Takes Side of GM Shareholders, Also Talks Healthcare and Tobacco (Bloomberg News)

MICHAEL JACKSON (1958-2009) BY NELSON GEORGE

got this from my friend Nelson George

Orson Wells' rich, brilliant & ultimately doomed character Charles Foster Kane died, alone and unloved, in his California mansion. At the time of his passing he was a deformed, corrupt and far removed from the genius displayed in creating his mass media empire. In the aftermath of Michael Jackson's I couldn't help but think of 'Kane..' Michael's Zanadu had been stripped from him a few years back, leaving him wandering from rental to rental home, such as the one he died in in Los Angeles yesterday.

Michael was prepping to try to recapture his once elevated status with 50 sold out shows at London's massive O2 arena. But that was not to be. In fact I believe that the stress of preparing for that show, after his long performing layoff, played a role in his demise. With the music, videos and event tour that supported 'Thriller' Michael re-invented the art of the blockbuster album, creating an international stardom that endures. And, sadly, for the last twenty five years of his life Michael was in a losing battle with himself, trying to match that magical year even as the culture changed, the record industry imploded, and his personal demons ruined his reputation.

At several points in his life Michael revolutionized pop culture. He lead the first black teen group to cross racial lines. With Quincy Jones, he produced a trio of albums (Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad) that reinvented the rules for black artists musically and in terms of international appeal. The videos, grandiose, elaborate and full of wonderful dancing are still the gold standard for the merging of music & image. Along with Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, and so many other media legends, Michael made the '80s a golden age for black pop culture.

I, like so many of you, grew up with Michael Jackson. With my mother, sister and family friends I attended the Jackson Five's first Madison Square Garden show. Over the years I attended eight Jacksons/Michael Jackson shows and spend countless hours over the last forty years thinking about and, often writing about that man. In fact a book I did about him, The Michael Jackson Story, in 1984 jump started my career. It was first book and first exposure to the media machine that both celebrated, reported about and, ultimately, ripped him apart.

It’s hilarious how one sided much of the immediate commentary about the man has been. Sinner or saint? More apt is artist and sinner. People want to simplify a truly complex life. We have to be sophisticated enough to acknowledge that greatness and a touch of evil dwelled in the man. I've always believed that transcendent art emanates from the purest, most evolved parts of our soul. But that highly spiritual achievement doesn't absolve us of our daily misdeeds. To simply brand him a smooth criminal, as some have, or to overlook his tragic nature, as have others, is to deny his humanity. The meaning of Michael Jackson's life -- as a black man, a sexual being, a abused and abusing adult -- will be interpreted to fit the prejudices of the speaker. His music -- it speaks volumes.

One of my other friends wrote, he's a huge MJ fan and asked me why would nelson bring up the negatives of MJ's life at such a time? I told him nelson is not a hater by any means, he is easy with the truth when it hurts, so i believe if NG brings it in it was more seriously bad than any of us know.

A few interesting notes from the net:

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela called the star’s death “lamentable news,” though he criticized the media for giving it so much attention...

Google , AIM and TWITter also all failed to some degree under the pressure to find out about MJ as the news was spreading on thursday afternoon... crazy stuff.

I really did not want to add to this media insanity, but Nelson did write a good piece that i'm not sure where/if it would be published and i thought a few of you might appreciate.

You get better results asking for stuff when you talk to the right ear

Researchers at University "Gabriele d'Annunzio" in Chieti, Italy have published the results of three cleverly designed studies that indicate that humans are more apt to act on information heard through their right ears than through their left.

Tommasi and Marzoli's three studies specifically observed ear preference during social interactions in noisy night club environments. In the first study, 286 clubbers were observed while they were talking, with loud music in the background. In total, 72 percent of interactions occurred on the right side of the listener. These results are consistent with the right ear preference found in both laboratory studies and questionnaires and they demonstrate that the side bias is spontaneously displayed outside the laboratory.

In the second study, the researchers approached 160 clubbers and mumbled an inaudible, meaningless utterance and waited for the subjects to turn their head and offer either their left of their right ear. They then asked them for a cigarette. Overall, 58 percent offered their right ear for listening and 42 percent their left. Only women showed a consistent right-ear preference. In this study, there was no link between the number of cigarettes obtained and the ear receiving the request.

In the third study, the researchers intentionally addressed 176 clubbers in either their right or their left ear when asking for a cigarette. They obtained significantly more cigarettes when they spoke to the clubbers' right ear compared with their left.

Need Something? Talk To My Right Ear

(Thanks, BoingBoing)

"We Want the Public Option, a novel approach to online petitions."

Adam sez, "Online petitions are a dime a dozen these days -- it takes something special for the citizens to break through and get the attention of politicians. The folks at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (founded by Reddit co-inventor Aaron Swartz and former MoveOn.org folks) may have found it. Today, they unveiled www.WeWantThePublicOption.com featuring a new TV ad that you can sign -- which will then be aired in Washington DC on MSNBC, CNN, and the Daily Show. It contrasts the 76% of Americans who support President Obama's proposed public health insurance option with the insurance interests who oppose it and have given Democratic senators $80 million. It asks those senators to pick a side. You can sign your name as a member of the 76%, and names will be continually rotated into the actual ad aired on TV. Pretty innovative. Check it out."

We Want the Public Option (Thanks, Adam and BoingBoing)

I'm not 100% sure but It seems like we're all getting hoodwinked by this "Public Option" thing going on when we really need and want SINGLE PAYER!!!

This was clearly brought to my attention in comments the other day from a reader of this blog Mark:

You probably know already, but this "public option" thing will help some folks (10 million?) get insurance but it does nothing to control costs & expand coverage for those ~200 Million *with* insurance. It's just another layer on our fucked up patchwork system that doesn't work for the insured or the uninsured.

Add in the $300 billion price tag (we don't have to spend more money for single-payer, just eliminate the insurance companies and their profits, denials of care, advertising, etc) and it's possible that this "public option" will make it harder to win single-payer.

http://www.pnhp.org -- physicians for a national health program has a great site & talk about this

http://www.healthcare-now.org -- the national coalition working to win H.R. 676/Single-Payer... our group in Gainesville is a part of HCN.

keep kicking butts!

Thanks again Mark. I wonder if this step is the only decent choice and best/only step for now? can we hi-jack this public option thing to become single payer realistically?

make up your own mind and let's see what else we read in the comments... I'm in europe now and everyrthing seems to work pretty well over here as i've told you before from personal experience.

"Deep Packet Inspection" (serious internet censorship)

from DemocracyNow.org

Deep Packet Inspection: Telecoms Aided Iran Government to Censor Internet, Technology Widely Used in US.

As thousands in Iran turn to the web to make their voices heard around the world, a new report finds telecoms in Europe have helped the Iranian government develop one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms to censor the internet. It’s called deep packet inspection, and it’s also being used here at home. We speak with Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press.


if video player above does not work go here.

“deep packet inspection,” enables authorities to block communication, gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes.

Fuckin' A : KODACHROME Discontinuation

I predicted it was coming, but dreaded the day. It has come:

Eastman Kodak Company announced on June 22, 2009 that it will discontinue sales of KODACHROME Color Film this year, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon. Sales of KODACHROME, which became the world's first commercially successful color film in 1935, have declined dramatically in recent years as photographers turned to other films or digital capture. Today, KODACHROME represents just a fraction of one percent of Kodak's total sales of still-picture films.

Despite all its outstanding features, KODACHROME involves a highly complex development process...

... KODACHROME has very distinct characteristics and no film will give the exact same results...

here's more of Kodak's official statement including FAQ's

and here's their own Kodachrome tribute.

if you want to see my tribute just look at 95% of the color in either Fuck You Heroes, Fuck You Too, The Idealist, or DogTown - The Legend of the Z-Boys. As far as quality products that mean something to me this one ranks above all else, even Apple. This is like loosing your favorite paint brush or camera lens or guitar, forever. Their are others, but none will be the same at all.
Perhaps one day in the future some one will invent a Kodachrome mode in digital photography....

peacE.

It's fucking health care stupid!

Reading the headlines this evening in the New York Times, and two, one on top of the other, jump out at me "Obama May Lack Votes on Health, Democrat Says" on top and "In Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health" just below it. Does this not say it all? can we please have just a little democracy? please? What the fuck is wrong with these people, Do they want to continue living in the dark ages? Are they worried the government may be further in debt? (SO WHAT!) Hasn't anyone figured out how much better off the economy would be if we had all that health care money to spend in other places besides the medical industrial complex? I am just fucking sick of this, literally!!! Every opportunity i get, when asked, i call my congress people and senators and tell them if the don't fully support a public if not single payer health care plan for this country and our districts i will do everything in my personal power to see they are unseated come the next election. I really hope you do the same (and if you live in New York keep trying Schumer's office please 'cause i can never get through, and i've hit my re-dial button hundreds of times). we gotta be relentless, this could happen, and at least we must begin now. thank you.

The Library Of Congress' photostream

Some interesting old photos here at The Library of Congress Flicker acct.

(Thanks, Doug)

Homeless people and the Internet

The Wall Street Journal's Phred Dvorak has a thought-provoking feature on the use of laptops and Internet services by homeless people, who, like everyone else, use them for civic engagement with politicians, social interaction, job hunting, and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Here's a prediction: in five years, a UN convention will enshrine network access as a human right (preemptive strike against naysayers: "Human rights" aren't only water, food and shelter, they include such "nonessentials" as free speech, education, and privacy). In ten years, we won't understand how anyone thought it wasn't a human right.

And even then, there will be destitute former music execs, living rough on the streets, using their laptops to argue that no, it's not a human right: you should be deprived of your Internet access if you're accused of copyright infringement, because the Internet is just a machine for making copies of trivial, copyrighted entertainment products.

"You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper," says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. "But you need the Internet..."
Shelter attendants say the number of laptop-toting overnight visitors, while small, is growing. SF Homeless, a two-year-old Internet forum, has 140 members. It posts schedules for public-housing meetings and news from similar groups in New Mexico, Arizona and Connecticut. And it has a blog with online polls about shelter life...

Aspiring computer programmer Paul Weston, 29, says his Macintosh PowerBook has been a "lifeboat" since he was laid off from his job as a hotel clerk in December and moved to a shelter. Sitting in a Whole Foods store with free wireless access, Mr. Weston searches for work and writes a computer program he hopes to sell eventually. He has emailed city officials to press for better shelter conditions...

Robert Livingston, 49, has carried his Asus netbook everywhere since losing his apartment in December. A meticulous man who spends some of his $59 monthly welfare check on haircuts, Mr. Livingston says he quit a security-guard job late last year, then couldn't find another when the economy tanked.

When he realized he would be homeless, Mr. Livingston bought a sturdy backpack to store his gear, a padlock for his footlocker at the shelter and a $25 annual premium Flickr account to display the digital photos he takes.

thanks, found at BoingBoing and WSJ.com

Russell can't do yoga now for a while - previously unpublished cont.

Russell got hurt by one of his rich people doctors last month, so bad he got an infection, in his hand from a routine blood test. So bad it fucked up tendons in his hand to the point of extreme pain and they had to operate! So now he's wearing a cast on his hand and some other shit on his arm that my wife says makes him look like a Transformer! Not only that, he's got an assistant who's got to help him get dressed and send text messages for him!


So anyway here was a chance to share a previously unpublished photo I took of my boy Russ on his roof top back in the mid 90's some time. (This was actually an apartment that he originally bought from Cher, that I think Chastity used to live in as well, or maybe it was just Elijah Blue, I don't know for sure, just mentioned that since they've been in the news recently with some interesting talk of surgery themselves).

Here's another shot of Russ with Run, Jam Master Jay and DMC, taken around 1985 or '86 during the shooting of "Tougher Than Leather"

Death Metal Parrots

and if you want to see the Death Metal Dog go here.

Banksy Versus Bristol Museum (UK)

This British street artist with an international reputation shows and explains some of his best work.

"If you have a statue in the city centre, you could go past it every day on your way to school and never even notice it, right - but as soon as someone puts a traffic cone on its head, you've made your own sculpture."

“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little."

In case you don't know who Banksy is, click here for the Wiki.
This is a show i'd really like to see...

(thanks, Jeremy)

a british culture show covers the illusive, infamous banksy:

Robots vs. Luddites

Why would a Luddite break a machine? What is the social significance of software piracy? These questions and more are pondered in this brief discussion of the concept of the "forces and relations of production" in Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution.

"In 1812 sabotage crept through the British countryside. By the cover of darkness gangs of weavers organized under their anonymous leader “General Ludd” broke into factories by night and smashed the new automated looms to pieces. Cloaked armies of “Luddites” appeared at factory gates in the day to demand better wages, better working conditions, and the right to produce higher-quality fabric. The weavers had not always been guerilla fighters. For 300 years they had passed down their craft from generation to generation of skilled artisans, weaving fine silk and stockings in the comfort of their own home. But now there was a machine that could do all that. It was called the power-loom.





"But why would a worker break a machine? A machine is supposed to make work easier and make life better. To understand the violence of the Luddite rebellion we need to remember that when a worker uses a machine he/she enters into social relations with people. Work is always a social process entailing some sort of social cooperation. (In a capitalist society we can’t understand this social dimension without understanding the relations of private property which define it.) A machine conceals a social relation. Lift the veil and we see that the machine is an expression of the relationship between capitalist and laborer."

Read the entire text here at Kapitalism101 blog

'Save our CEOs' Teaser for Michael Moore's New Film Hits Theaters!

At select theaters in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. audiences were treated to this surprise teaser for Mike's new film. Since we didn't already give the CEOs enough, ushers entered the theaters with collection jars and some audience members actually pitched in!



Always giving it to the CEOs at http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Sunday "What the Fuck?"

(Thanks to Xeni@BoingBoing)

"strict new controls on the making and marketing of products that eventually kill half their regular users."

I've always hated cigarettes, worse than drinking in clubs because it invaded every ones personal space whether you wanted it to or not. Remember having to shower every night for a half hour to get the smell off your body at 4am before going to sleep just because you went to a club? kids are lucky nowadays, i can barely imagine how much more i would have enjoyed going out if there was no smoking in clubs, i still went out a lot up til the early 90's, but i imagine if there was no smoking in clubs i would have continued a lot longer.

Smokers are some pretty selfish motherfuckers in my opinion, #1 they don't really care for those who love them since they continue to smoke, pretty much assuring their early demise. #2 they effect the air and the health of everyone around them. #3 they think they are rebels by smoking but they are really some of the biggest supporters of corporate culture there are since they continue to buy cigarettes from the horrible corporations and suck up an insane amounts of insurance premiums for health care.

(I read somewhere that Obama still smokes 3 cigarettes a day, at least he does it in privacy, it's a shame that he does not quit, but at least he's not showing it off and disrespecting others personal health).

So that all said it's about fucking time the government let the FDA get involved in the regulation of cancer sticks. Here's a bit of the piece from yesterday's NYTimes

Senate Approves Tight Regulation Over Cigarettes
More than four decades after the surgeon general declared smoking a health hazard, the Senate on Thursday cleared the final hurdle to empowering federal officials to regulate cigarettes and other forms of tobacco for the first time.


The legislation, which the White House said President Obama would sign as soon as it reached his desk, will enable the Food and Drug Administration to impose potentially strict new controls on the making and marketing of products that eventually kill half their regular users. The House, which passed a similar bill in April, may vote on the Senate version as soon as Friday.


“This is a historic step changing the nature of tobacco in society forever,” said Clifford E. Douglas, the director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, which has extensively studied the health effects of smoking and was one of many groups that have long pushed for tobacco regulation...


“This is a bill not for a one-year or two-year splash, but for a long-term impact,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington advocacy group that took a lead in coordinating support for the legislation."

Read the whole article here in the New York Times.
Or to just check out the slide show they put together of old ads go here.

"I Met the Walrus"

In 1969, 14-year-old Beatles fan Jerry Levitan tracked his idol, John Lennon, from a Toronto airport to his room at the King Edward Hotel. Inside, he convinced Lennon to do an impromptu interview. Thirty-eight years later, Levitan teamed with director Josh Raskin to create and edit a five-minute short film entitled I Met the Walrus based on the interview. Amazing, right?

Using the interview as the actual dialogue for the film, the pair hired illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina to do a pen art work that plays off the interview as the background for the film. Raskin later told the EyeOpener.com, "I just wanted to literally animate the words, unfurling in the way I imagined they would appear inside the head of a baffled 14-year-old boy interviewing his idol."

The film went on to premiere at a nightclub in Toronto and has since played at several festivals, ending with a 2008 Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short. Over the summer, the film popped up on YouTube, and you can watch it in full below:

from truthout.org

The Skateboarder's Journal (Australia)

Here's an over sized magazine from down under that I must admit is really well done for a skate rag. After current top of his game skate photog, and all around nice guy, Michael O'meally (who happened to shoot this portrait of me a few years back at the Beautiful Losers opening in Cincinnati) asked me if i would be down, he made the introduction to the editors who were very excited to do a full feature on my work over the years as well as interview. The issue has been out for a few weeks now and i recently got a copy from down there, and I must admit it came out pretty damn cool. They used one of my old 1977 photos for the cover, and although they did take some of my advice on design, someone down there went a bit crazy with the colors and too many blurbs, but it's all in good fun and still looks pretty cool - shit i doubt any of the folks who are on this magazine staff were barely even born when I took that photo! From what i hear it's gotten some good reaction and press of it's own down there. The interview came out pretty cool too, I'll drop in one of the questions below the cover. If you're down there or know anyone down there, you may want to get a copy, the photos printed well and BIGGER than anywhere else before.

SJ: Did you guys have any concept of being on the
forefront of skateboarding history, or was it just
natural progression?
GEF: Forefront? We were kids; we didn’t use words like that. We were just doing what had to be done, skating and punk rock a few years later. Indeed these were natural progressions that were bound to happen in one way or another. Just so happens the people I was hanging with did them more creatively and with more style than anyone ever had or would. In hindsight, there was definitely some ground breaking going on.

Jungle Brothers - more underrated 80's

Just another one of the many incredibly talented groups that came out in the 80's was the Jungle Brothers.
here's one of my favorite cuts from their debut LP Straight Out the Jungle.


And below Because I Got It Like That - a classic that put them on the map here in NYC in the late golden era of Hip-Hop (with a little help from co-conspirator, and major player DJ in NYC at the time, DJ Red Alert).



the Wiki:
The Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop group that pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop and also became the first hip-hop group to use a house-music producer. The group began performing in the mid-1980s and released its first album, Straight Out the Jungle, in 1988. With Afrocentric lyrics and innovative beats, the Jungle Brothers were critically acclaimed and soon joined the influential Native Tongues collective. The trio is composed of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam, an homage to Afrika Bambaataa) and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B).

SCREAM - another underrated group from the 80's

Scream were one of the many incredible bands that came out on Dischord in the early 80's. The Stahl brothers Pete (singer) and Franz (lead guitar) were the heart of this band, with a lot of integrity and originality, that had a few different members at different times, notably Skeeter Thompson (bass), and later, Dave Grohl in their last incarnation who eventually joined Nirvana, etc.. It was actually this last incarnation that at one point in 1990 or so had me trying to start my own major label distributed record label. There were problems and it never happened, but the demo we were shopping around was eventually released by Dischord a few years later as their last album, Fumble.


Here are a few of my favorite classics off their debut LP "Still Screaming"

from the Dischord site:
Baileys Crossroads, Virginia lays just a few miles outside of DC, but in the 1980s it was apparently far enough to make it seem like a different world. The Virginia suburbs suddenly stepped up with the formation of Scream. There were punk shows being thrown in the basement of the Scream House, and the DC bands, always looking for a place to play, were making the trek out to what was known as 'BXR'. Scream, like most of the bands in DC, obviously had been extremely influenced by the Bad Brains, but they seemed to be more advanced musicians and had more of a rock and roll sensibility than the others. In 1982, they went into Inner Ear Studio with Ian and Eddie to record Dischord's first full length album, Still Screaming.

HOPE (cont.)

You know he's still speaking better than any president we've had in my lifetime. He's not golden by any means, but he's making some good moves saying some good stuff. I can't say that i've said that about any president in a long time, scratch that, ever. I'm now really hoping that he does something REAL along the lines of single payer with health care, because in the last few weeks its looked like he was caving into the insurance corporatists... we'll see.

In the mean time watch this if you haven't already,
(his speech from Cairo, Egypt, last week).

"A New Beginning"
The President gives a speech in Cairo, Egypt, outlining his personal commitment to engagement with the Muslim world, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect, and discusses how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them. June 4, 2009. (public domain)

here's his most recent weekly address on the subject of healthcare:




*UPDATE* *UPDATE* *UPDATE* *UPDATE*

(thanks, Luke)

the Scenario

Even though it was just Planet of The Apes, growing up with scene's like this on the big screen certainly made an impact on all of us.

It's kind of interesting that it'd be Charleton Heston of all people making the statement about our society's attachement to violence, it's his people.
Have a nice Sunday.

I love the Beatles, and just don't play video games.

But this video game "trailer" released about the upcoming Beatles "Rockband" looks cool as hell. I can't imagine the game itself being this cool and dynamic, but what the fuck do i know about video games? (not much if anything-someone clue me in if you feel like it).

If you're one of those people who enjoys the music of the Beatles, then prepare for your head to explode. This gorgeous animated video is the one that'll play when you put upcoming video game The Beatles: Rock Band into your Xbox, Playstation, or Wii this September (watch it bigger here). You know how every fall they blame low TV ratings on people skipping shows to play video games? That will definitely happen again this year.

(hit the full screen view button on the right to watch it here or got to the link above and see the sharper version there)

(from New York magazine - nymag.com - Thanks, Luke)

Previously Unpublished - DANZIG

Here are a couple of photos from the first photo session ever of the band DANZIG (circa 1988). Not one of these was used for the original purpose of publicity, for one reason or another, but when you look back at them it's just hard to believe.


I shot this whole day more as a favor to Rick Rubin than anything else. Rick has always been a big fan and supporter of my work. I actually introduced him to Glenn Danzig at his request, and he signed him shortly thereafter. I even had the idea to introduce them to Chuck Biscuits when i heard they were looking for a drummer, and i had heard Chuck was no longer in any bands at the time (although i probably never saw a better fit for Chuck than the few years he played with the Circle Jerks - not to say he was not totally incredible in Black Flag, because of course he was, i believe he just couldn't keep up the work ethic - and of course you can never downplay his teen years as a member of the groundbreaking DOA) truthfully Chuck adds to any group he's in, hands down one of the greatest if not the greatest punk drummer of all time.

Anyway, unless you have my Fuck You Too book you've never seen any photos from this session anywhere (and there are quite a few more good ones too!)

Let's throw in this poorly scanned still i took from the Tougher Than Leather movie shoot of Rick with adult film star, Lois Ayres, for good measure:

What the?

Praying man gets tazed by police and escapes...
(This certainly wasn't in Los Angeles or New York)

Two police officers pin a man to the ground and try to handcuff him. The man wriggles and prays to Yahweh. Eventually, one of the officers shoots him with a Tazer, which instead of subduing the man, gives him the strength to break free and run away.
(thanks BoingBoing)

Rebel without a cause (?)

from gaurdian.co.uk
Boy chosen by Dalai Lama turns back on Buddhist order

As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.

Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.

Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.


He is now studying film in Madrid and has denounced the Buddhist order that elevated him to guru status. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India. "It was like living a lie," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community. A prayer for his "long life" still adorns the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 centres around the world. The website features a biography of the renegade guru that gushes about his peaceful, meditative countenance as a baby. In Tibetan Buddhism, a lama is one of a lineage of reincarnated spiritual leaders, the most famous of which is the Dalai Lama.

According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually "enthroned".

At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's cabin.

By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. "I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"


(thanks Ryan)

UPDATES
Here's a great piece just submitted in the comments section by Tobester (Thank you).

Read this from Osel himself http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/osel/.

“Don’t Buy Any Food You’ve Ever Seen Advertised”

That's new advice on buying food from “Omnivore’s Dilemma” Author Michael Pollan.


if the video does not play go here.

Michael Pollan is one of the nation’s leading writers and thinkers in this country on the issue of food. He is author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. In light of what he calls the processed food industry’s co-option of “sustainability” and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food that’s advertised.

from Democracy Now

(monday) Inspiration.

This just chokes me up it's so great.

Why you should listen to them:
The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra (Sinfónica Juvenil Teresa Carreño) is the national high school age youth orchestra of El Sistema, Venezuela's groundbreaking, life-changing musical education program. To put this ensemble's musicianship in context, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela is the next step for many of these young musicians. That orchestra, containing musicians from 18 to 28 years old, has toured the world with conductor Gustavo Dudamel and has made a number of recordings on Deutsche Grammophon. The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra is the next level below, and will succeed the Simón Bolívar.

Their conductor in this TEDTalk is Gustavo Dudamel, himself a product of the El Sistema. Dudamel conducted the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela for several years, and recently was named the Los Angeles Philharmonic's music director. He also continues to conduct other orchestras around the world.

The orchestra's namesake, Teresa Carreño, was a legendary Venezuelan pianist after whom the main theater/concert hall complex in Caracas is also named.

"El Sistema" • Trailer for the documentary film

The film shows the gripping way "El Sistema" functions on a daily basis in a typical nucléo in one of the most dangerous and poorest areas in Caracas.

Visit www.el-sistema-film.com for further information!