Third World Countries : The United States Of America

The real and present danger to the United States of America.


"Montoya's short life story is the unsung tale of America's crumbling infrastructure—bridges, roads, drinking water, sewage lines, and the list goes on. Essentially, everything we rely on to move through our daily lives, and never stop to consider—until it breaks down.

  

In the next five years, the American Society of Civil Engineers http://www.asce.org/ estimates that the United States will have to spend more than one trillion dollars simply to sustain what we already have."


"We were parked outside his trailer in a rented white SUV. Around us in the darkness: a broken baby carriage, a rattletrap Volvo sedan, an anonymous pile of junk littered on the bare ground. I've seen this kind of chaos in refugee camps in Eastern Congo and gypsy settlements in Rome, but not in America."


"School is essentially a cluster of 27 portables sitting on a gravel lot in a neighborhood of downtown Albuquerque known as the "International District." Inside the chain link fence, the students had planted a small garden of tomatoes and healing herbs they were learning about. A larger garden had just been razed to make room for a larger trailer. There was a charred stump left where once the kids had made a painted pole for ceremonies. One night, it simply vanished—cut down either by vandals or by cold neighbors who could have chopped it up for firewood.

This site is supposed to be temporary. And Bobroff has raised $12.6 million dollars to break ground on the site where her school is supposed to be standing. Yet, due largely to red tape, construction has yet to begin. So her students are stuck in portables. For obvious reasons, winter poses a particular challenge.

For these students, who are used to feeling like second-class citizens, going to school in portables is demoralizing. What makes it worse is that their portables are parked next door to a neighboring public school. Since NACA has no gym, no cafeteria, no basketball court, no library, they have to ask to borrow them for dances or games from the school next door. This, too, has led to trouble. Last year, Montoya nearly got in a fight during lunch at the school next door."

For all the videos that are hard to find elsewhere...

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

(and if all fails you can always go to The Benny Hillifier at www.bennyhillifier.com ). It gave me a whole new perspective on Het Kasteel... :)

Down Drinking At The Bar - Loudon Wainwright III

Down Drinking At The Bar - Loudon Wainwright III


Well, I call you up on the phone: nobody's at home.
Then I do my usual thing: I let the telephone ring and ring and ring.
I'm standing at a phone booth, coping with the ugly truth.
You see, I know where you are... I know where you are
You're down drinking at the bar.

I can picture you there on that stool, drinking like a drunken fool.
Yeah, you're sitting there on your ass, muttering into your glass.
Paying for your lowlife thrills with wet quarters and soggy one dollar bills.
I know where you are, baby.
You're down drinking at the bar.

Dean Martin's on the jukebox, I bet.
Or maybe it's Tammy Wynette.
The tearjerkers are jerking your tears.
Salt water in your whiskey and your beers.
You've got the Miller High Life bouncing balls.
You've got the Utica Club waterfalls.

I know where you are, oh ho.
You're down at the bar.
You're down at the bar.

Go ahead get drunk, it's alright.
Lost weekend on a Tuesday night.
But I'm going to have to give you the score :
I'm not going to call you up on the telephone no more.
I'm sick and tired of listening to that phone ring 15 times.
I'm sick and tired of getting back my dimes!

Because I know what you are.
You're at sot, that's what you are.
I know what you are.
You're a lush.
You got a big red nose!
I know where you are, baby.
I know where you are...
You're down drinking at the bar.

Facebook looks like ass

A fine blog-entry by Fake Steve Jobs about the hideous layout of Facebook. I so agree.

http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/11/has-anyone-not-ever-noticed-that-facebook-looks-like-ass.html

Snapshot...

A picture of my mobile phone...

Quote Of The Day - Mastercard

"There are Some Things Money Can't Buy.
For Everything Else, there's HTTP Error 408 Request Timeout"

The Story So Far...(Wired Magazine)

This is quite an interesting article. Not so very much because of the content but much more because of the date it appeared : June 6 2010. Way before the Wikileaks shit started hitting the fan. Lots of unknowns etcetera, but one has to admit that the military has a remarkably consistent response/opinion.

Thank you Interpol!

Hehehe... Naomi Wolf sees the upside of the arrest of Assange.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/interpol-the-worlds-datin_b_793033.html

"...there is an entire fraternity at the University of Texas you need to arrest immediately..."

World Press Freedom Day 2011 to be held in the United States

Oh, the irony of it all. You just can't make these thing up anymore. The real world will beat you every time.

Elizabeth Edwards

As someone who in intrigued by American politics I read about this courageous woman for the first time some time ago. She was quite frankly more of a special human being than her husband was. She passed away today, age 61. An admirable woman who can perhaps best be quoted by quoting herself. She posted this a day or two ago, in the knowledge that she would soon be gone.

The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered ... The days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful.

Elizabeth Edwards, 61, writing on her Facebook page on Monday. Mrs. Edwards died on Tuesday after a six-year battle with cancer.

 

Power is not a means, it's an end.

Why I sympathize with Wikileaks?
                    
              
  

"In accordance to the principles of Doublethink, it does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, that victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous. The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact. Julia? Are you awake? There is truth, and there is untruth. To be in a minority of one doesn't make you mad."

"The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power."

Because I'm slightly paranoid, that's why I sympathize with Wikileaks...

Office Music - Brothers In Arms

Nowadays I sometimes bring the headphones to work. Connected to these headphone is a cigarette lighter with 8GB of MP3's... Every now and then I replace the music in the MP3-player and I did that again last night. I just selected a number of complete albums and copied them. Stuff like Simple Minds' "Sparkle In The Rain(from before they became famous), Talk Talk's "The Colour Of Spring", This Mortal Coils's "It'll End In Tears", that kind of stuff.
     
Now, on a side note; I do kind of like Dire Straits. I find some of their stuff brilliant although a lot of it is a bit too boring for me. So imagine my pleasure when I discovered this morning that I had also copied 'Brothers In Arms', played it and found it to be the perfect background music while doing software engineering and analysis.

This album will be on my player for a while me thinks. Especially the song "Brothers In Arms". Still one hell of a song after all these years, and also a song that impressed me incredibly when it was used as the closing theme of a very sad episode of The West Wing.
                       

"These mist covered mountains

Are a home now for me

But my home is the lowlands

And always will be

Some day you'll return to

Your valleys and your farms

And you'll no longer burn

To be brothers in arms

Through these fields of destruction

Baptism of fire

I've watched all your suffering

As the battles raged higher

And though they did hurt me so bad

In the fear and alarm

You did not desert me

My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds

So many different suns

And we have just one world

But we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell

And the moon's riding high

Let me bid you farewell

Every man has to die

But it's written in the starlight

And every line on your palm

We're fools to make war

On our brothers in arms"

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish - R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen

Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.


Jane: A Goodyear?

Frank: No, the worst.
                        

                              

Thanks for all the laughs Oh Master Of Confusion.

For all interested Dutch readers.

Here they are, the collected song-lyrics of Bram and Freek a.k.a. Neerlands Hoop In Bange Dagen.
            
http://neerlands-hoop.lyrics-songs.com/
                         
Shit, I miss people who write like this nowadays. Rap and HipHop just ain't no replacement.

My New Toy!

By chance my girlfriend came across this camera. As she finds it way too complicated she gave it to me to play with so it will be used. And it will be... This is an Olympus, a better make than Canon when it comes to camera's.

Now first I will need to download the software suite, because all of these things come with software nowadays.

Oh yes: I also have to make it work... Good Times!

Just some lyrics late at night

Great King Rat died today
Born on the twenty first of May
Died syphilis forty four on his birthday
Every second word he swore
Yes he was the son of a whore
Always wanted by the law

Wouldn't you like to know?
Wouldn't you like to know people?
Great King Rat was a dirty old man
And a dirty old man was he
Now what did I tell you
Would you like to see?

Now hear this
Where will I be tomorrow?
Will I beg will I borrow?
I don't care I don't care anyway
Come on come on the time is right
This man is evil and that is right
I told you ah yes I told you
And that's no lie oh no no no

Wouldn't you like to know?
Wouldn't you like to know?
Wouldn't you like to know?
Great King Rat was a dirty old man
And a dirty old man was he
Now what did I tell you?
Would you like to see?

Show me

Wouldn't you like to know?
Wouldn't you like to know people?
Great King Rat was a dirty old man
And a dirty old man was he
Now what did I tell you
Would you like to see?

Now listen all you people
Put out the good and keep the bad
Don't believe all you read in the Bible
You sinners get in line
Saints you leave far behind
Very soon you're gonna be his disciple

Don't listen to what mama says
Not a word not a word mama says
Or else you'll find yourself being the rival
The great Lord before he died
Knelt sinners by his side
And said you're going to realise tomorrow

No I'm not gonna tell you
What you already know
'Cause time and time again
The old man said it all a long time ago
Come come on the time is right
This evil man will fight
I told you once before

Wouldn't you like to know?
Wouldn't you like to know?
Just like I said before
Great King Rat was a dirty old man
And a dirty old man was he
The last time I tell you
Would you like you see?

Shit my dad says

For those who are blind to the Twitter-verse(like me) a simple direct link to one of the funniest, actually probably the funniest Twitter-account available. Also been made into a sit com with Bill Shatner, who is very very funny in it apparently.

http://shitmydadsays.com/

Added to my links-list.

Get rich fast or die tryin' !

This spam arrived at our inbox at the company helpdesk today. I just love emails like this. Check the underscored text.
            
********************
           
Landstar company is a full-service logistics company headquartered in USA owned and operated, the company has offices in Europe. At the moment we are looking into opening new offices and hiring new agents.
     
We are experienced mail forwarders who are committed to our community and building long-term relationships with our clients. We fully accept the importance for economic development of efficiency of the allocation of real and financial resources, and subscribe the view that mail forwarding development is an important facet of the process of development.
              
The company is pleased to introduce a new level of personal mail forwarding service to public. At Landstar company it is our goal to offer the best possible service to our clients by consistently delivering innovative, responsive mail forwarding excellence.
           
For candidates interested in reviewing our current opportunities, the following are the basic requirements:
         
Requirements:

1. Basic knowledge of the PC
2. Basic knowledge of the Internet and e-mail
3. Basic knowledge of the MS Office or Open Office
5. Bank account
6. Fax machine or Scaner
7. Team work
8. Accuracy

To Apply:

Forward your contact details and questions back to our e-mail contact@landstar-carrer.com and await for response next 24h - 48h

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

I'm being arrested for WHAT ?

Some bizarre laws in the United States of America


In Wyoming, unless you have an official permit, you may not take a picture of a rabbit from January to April.

Live From Daryl' s House - Watch Online

I found a torrent with some video of Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren so I checked it out. Very nice for the fans and it turned out to be episode 23...
            
Also; these programs are apparently being made especially for the web, so they can be watched via streaming video.

Thanks go to Erik for finding the link : http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/

The Chalk Guy

Mister Julian Beeve is a true artist. How the Hell can he come up with these drawings? They only make sense when seen from a specific angle.

Hats off to this guy! http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

More here : http://www.joevautour.com/funandgames/inbox/chalk.html

Great Moments in Earth History

274 B.C. : Roman actor Livius invents pantomime for his short-lived show, "Help, I'm Choking on an Olive"

Earth - The Book

Just ordered a book online. After all these years... *sniff*





http://earththewebsite.com/

"To sum up, religion provided great comfort to a world torn apart by religion."

#EarthTheBook #TheDailyShow

Taking the piss out of Prog Rockers, an enjoyable pastime

Much better than the official website :

http://mockillion.weebly.com/index.html

On the way to the gig, the band had to travel through the barren lost third world of Bradford. H pointed out "life could be worse, we could be living here”

System Down, I Repeat; System Down. Forced to work now...

Apparently Facebook was down a couple of times recently. Read some funny responses to the outage by clicking here or here(Twitter feed).

Here is another link to make you smile.

"Breaking News! Facebook is down. Worker productivity rises. U.S. climbs out of recession." 


.

Read on the InterWebs

"Humans are just a car's way to produce more cars."

When Good Rockets Go Bad

Spectacular, often tragic, always impressive, what happens When Good Rockets Go Bad.
  
It's even worth the odd annoying commercial you have to sit out.

Always Fun; Baffling Movie Plot Holes

Found on the Web : http://www.totalfilm.com/features/40-baffling-movie-plot-holes

CD Review : Phil Collins - Going Back

Phil Collins - Going Back


Every once in a while an artist who is generally considered to be over-the-hill emerges from his or her retirement with a 'new' CD. These CD's typically repeat the period in the artist's life that he or she was most successful in a vain attempt to recapture the magic of those Golden Days. Phil Collins has taken a different approach.


Let's get the technical details out of the way first : In spite of the old songs on the disc, there is something refreshingly modern about this album too; the format of the double-pack. Disc One is the official audio CD that can also be bought separately(although I really wouldn't know why one would do so). The second disc is a DVD that contains not only the bonus video's; shove this disc in your computer's DVD-player and a menu will automatically appear giving you the option of copying all the songs to your hard disk. And to top that, the production company has already included all the official songs plus 5 bonus track in MP3- and WAV-format! No Jacket Required And No Ripping Necessary!


On to the music : Much has been said about Collins' physical problems; his back is shot to hell, he can no longer use his left hand to drum for any lengthy period, and so on. All this a result of his 40+ years of making music everywhere with anyone on anything. The chances that Phil Collins would record more music were therefore slim and yet Phil Collins wouldn't be Phil Collins if he could leave playing music alone. The man is and was a born musician.

On Going Back, Phil Collins faithfully copied the sound of the original Motown songs as much as possible. Normally this would turn out a boring repetitive album and of course Going Back is not your typical original album. What it turns out to be, is proof that Collins would have fit in with sixties groups like The Temptations seamlessly.

Every now and then the music veers off in the direction of sugary pop a bit too much. This flaw can be forgiven because some of the original versions of the songs were in fact, wel... saccharine would be the word. Fortunately this only happens on a few songs. As there are 25(!) songs on this album - not counting the bonus tracks - the damage from sugar-overdose is kept very limited. Songs like 'Standing In The Shadows Of love' and the inevitable but very well covered 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' have the upper-hand on this album. My personal favourite(so far) is 'Jimmy Mack'. I think the glorious Martha Reeves can be very happy about this version. This song is also the one that comes closest to Phil's original solo work. Indeed; when you listen to this record properly, you can definitely hear that Motown heavily influenced most of his 80ies solo efforts(even in the 'Real Original Phil Collins Songs').
All of these songs show us that, although his best work may be behind him, Phil Collins still remains a true musician at heart. Worse albums, much worse albums, have been released under the veil of being 'modern'. Phil Collins could grow older and older just making these kind of albums. It is unlikely that he will record another record like this but if he did my household would be playing it. Because there is nothing wrong with old music that is re-recorded and re-issued, as long as it is done well.

'Going Back' sounds like it was recorded in the sixties and that may very well be the biggest compliment you can give Phil Collins and his co-musicians.

Talk about Old School.

Awesome, just awesome...

Check out the clip via the link below. I just have this to say :

Not.In.A.Million.Zillion.Years!

http://www.artifacting.com/blog/2010/09/15/climbing-a-1768-foot-transmission-tower/

Catfish...

 

The best song Joe Cocker ever recorded.


Lazy stadium night
Catfish on the mound.
'Strike three,' the umpire said,
Batter have to go back and sit down.

Catfish, million-dollar-man,
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.

Used to work on Mr. Finley's farm
But the old man wouldn't pay
So he packed his glove and took his arm
An' one day he just ran away.

Catfish, million-dollar-man,
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.

Come up where the Yankees are,
Dress up in a pinstripe suit,
Smoke a custom-made cigar,
Wear an alligator boot.

Catfish, million-dollar-man,
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.

Carolina born and bred,
Love to hunt the little quail.
Got a hundred-acre spread,
Got some huntin' dogs for sale.

Catfish, million-dollar-man,
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.

Reggie Jackson at the plate
Seein' nothin' but the curve,
Swing too early or too late
Got to eat what Catfish serve.

Catfish, million-dollar-man,
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.

Even Billy Martin grins
When the Fish is in the game.
Every season twenty wins
Gonna make the Hall of Fame.

Catfish, million-dollar-man,
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.

Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired

A great song from a great band.



Traffic - Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired.

Sometimes I feel so uninspired
Sometimes I feel like giving up
Sometimes I feel so very tired
Sometimes I feel like I've had enough

Sometimes you feel like you've been hired
Sometimes you feel like you've been bought
Sometimes you feel like your room's been wired
Sometimes you feel like you've been caught

But don't let it get you down
There is no reason for not failing
You've got to smile and turn the other cheek
So today you might get up
But by tomorrow you'll be sailing
And you won't even hear these words I speak

Some people want to be so desired
Some people can't stand the light of day
Somebody's laughing while someone is crying
But for to want in the close of the day

But sometimes I feel like my head is spinning
I'm gonna cave with all I see
I don't know who's losing and I don't care who's winning
Hardship and trouble following me




And then one from one of the best lyricists in the history of English Rock Music(as proven by his awards track-record as well as the send off he received after he passed away).

Not every line may be the best in the world, but there is a lot of strength in many lines.

"We live in hope waiting for the day, when all our dreams can begin.
But the time it takes for the rain to fall, is the time it takes to give in.
They said that you'll expire. You're wasting your time to try.
But inside a heart of fire is a force you can't deny"

Indeed. Rest in peace Mr. Capaldi.




 Jim Capaldi - Something So Strong

We started off heading for the top and set our sights on the sun.
Now there's no more tears as we're standing here, and the morning light has begun.
They said that you'll expire. You're wasting your time to try.
But inside a heart of fire is a force you can't deny.

Something so strong driving me on, never tire.
Something so strong, born of the sun.
Like a fire burns inside me so strong

We live in hope waiting for the day, when all our dreams can begin.
But the time it takes for the rain to fall, is the time it takes to give in.
They said that you'll expire. You're wasting your time to try.
But inside a heart of fire, is a force you can't deny.

Something so strong driving me on, never tire.
Something so strong, born of the sun.
Like a fire, sea of fire, burns inside me so strong.

Love is what brought us here.
And no one can deny.

Something so strong driving me on, never tire.
Something so strong burning so long, like a fire.
Something so strong born of the sun, taking me higher.
Something so strong been coming so long, burning desire.

Something so strong driving me on, never tire.
Something so strong burning so long, like a fire.

Please Don't Come Back To New Orleans

An interesting story about the current state of affairs in New Orleans, written by someone who actually lives there.


Last October, while running an errand, I made the mistake of thinking that I could walk four blocks on a sunny Saturday afternoon in New Orleans. I was in my old Bywater neighborhood and inevitably found myself stalled by spontaneous conversation with my former neighbors; this camaraderie is what I missed about the neighborhood, but it was also why I should have driven. I didn't have time for it, and in the years since Katrina I felt burned by what I now felt was a false front that we were all in this together.

My neighbors and I parted ways, and within half a block everything changed. I saw a group of kids on bikes ahead of me and turned to avoid what looked like trouble. Two stray dogs came charging toward me, but I was too slow to realize it was because someone was about to club me from behind. Because it was from behind, I never got a good look at who it was, but he probably used a two-by-four to hit me, a popular weapon in New Orleans these days. I hit the pavement and skidded across. It was the kind of impact that leaves logic knocked loose, so when the kids jumped on top of me asking "What have you got?" I lifted my head as if to respond. Fortunately, the damage from the blow kept me from saying what I was really thinking, otherwise they might have finished the job. I lay paralyzed in the middle of the street while I felt their hands in my pockets. They took my iPhone, left the cash, and then they were gone.



Read On...

The Onion Kills!

One of the more memorable articles to come out of The Onion.

"Unfortunately, the sterilization programs of a generation ago failed to prevent Miley Cyrus, Jaden Smith, and countless other second-generation stars, so we're left with no choice now," McWane said. "But rest assured, population-thinning will be quick and efficient, while primarily targeting the sick, elderly, and C-list."

Lyrics on a Thursday morning...

Just because everybody else seems to hate the guy and I don't.

Deep inside the border
Children are crying

Fighting for food
Holding their heads
Breaking their bread with a stone

All along the roadside
people are standing
watching the sun
shielding their eyes
Brushing the flies from their face

Tell me, what can you say
Tell me, who do you blame
Like a mirror you see yourself
These people each have a name

All around the township
Young men are dying
(of) hunger and thirst
The well has run dry
The tears from her eye feeds her son

Tell me, what can you say
Tell me, who do you blame
Like a mirror you see yourself
These people each have a name

You can say you're pulling back
We see the pictures everywhere
But what we don't see is what's
Going on behind the closed doors
And you don't seem to care

Do you expect me to believe you
How can you really think
You can take your horse down to the water
Hold a gun at his head
And make him drink

No matter what you say, it never gets any better
No matter what you do, we never see any change

People living without rights
Without their dignity
How loud does one man have to shout
To earn his right to be free

You can keep your toy soldiers
To segregate the black and white
But when the dust settles
And the blood stops running
How do you sleep at night?

No matter what you say, it never gets any better
No matter what you do, we never see any change
What makes you so high and mighty
What makes you so qualified
You can sit there and say
How many have their freedom
But how many more have died

You decide to sit in judgement
Trying to play God yourself
Someday soon the buck is gonna stop
Stop with you and noone else

No matter what you say, it never gets any betterNo matter what you do, we never see any change

Reading Material; The Ecstasy Of Empire

An interesting article over at Infowars.com about the future of the United States as a prosperous nation. Grim reading but eerily plausible.

"Americans have no greater enemies than Wall Street and the corporations and their prostitutes in Congress and the White House.

The neocons allied with Israel, who control both parties and much of the media, are strung out on the ecstasy of Empire. "

The Pentagon Papers

Years ago I saw 'All The President's Men' for the first time. Ever since then I wanted to get my hands on a copy of the 'Pentagon Papers', the documents about the reality of the Vietnam war as Ellsberg leaked them to the New York Times. And lo! and behold I found them. Not for people who only like spectacular plot changes...

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html

Best news topic of the year so far...

Man Caught with Pants Down and an Armless Mannequin in Public Park

Jon Stewart's segment : I Give Up

My favourite American Jon Stewart said it right the other night. Here's the clip :

Jon Stewart : I Give Up

What are you playing now?

Billy Bragg - Leroy Stubb's Tears

With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
It's you and me against the World kid she mumbled to herself

When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face

She ran away from home with her mother's best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort that war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left her anyway

Norman Whitfield and Barratt Strong
Are here to make right everything that's wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you


One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the
floor


When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears...


Cat Power - Rambling Woman

Well I love you baby
But you got to understand
When the Lord made me
He made a ramblin' woman
He made me, he made me

Some folks
Some folks might say that I’m no good
That I wouldn’t settle down but if I only could
I love to see the towns go crawlin' by
There's something I’ve got to do
Before I die

I love you baby
But you got to understand
When the Lord made me
He made a ramblin' woman
He made me, He made me

Some people say
That I do just fine
Cause I hear sweet song
Moving down the line
And when that old southern train comes calling me
There's something over the hill
I just got to see

Well I love you
I love you baby
But you've got to understand
When the Lord made me
He made me
He made a ramblin' woman
He made me, He made me

Now when I'm gone
When I'm gone and at my grave you stand
Just say God called home your ramblin' woman

I love you
I love you baby
But you've got to understand
He made me, a ramblin' woman
He made me


Kenny Rankin - Haven't We Met?

I've ordered some rain for tomorrow
The sky will be sunny but wet
And out of nowhere you're suddenly there
And i say yeah pardon me haven't we met?

I've ordered some sunshine with showers
And i've got my scenery set
Right there with a thump our umbrellas gonna bump
And i say yeah yeah pardon me haven't we met?

Accidents can happen
And into one i'm gonna slide
There's a good chance to get my hands
On a little romance when two hearts collide

And i know that's just how it happened
When romeo met juliet
Somewhere i've read that old romeo said
pardon me haven't we met?

And i know that's just how it happened
When romeo met juliet
Somewhere i've read that old romeo said
pardon me oh he said pardon me
He said pardon me haven't we met?


Kenny Rankin - In The Name Of Love

What Burns And Glows Without Flame
What Is A Rose Without Any Rain
What Brings A Smile That Only Lasts A Little While
And Makes Me Cry Without Shame

Well Now How Can You Please Me
Torture And Tease Me
Do It In The Name Of Love

Don't You Know How To Be Nice
You Leave Me Without Thinkin' Twice
You're Warm Like An Oven
Only When You Want My Lovin'
Then You Go From Fire To Ice

Well Now How Can You Please Me
Torture And Tease Me
Do It In The Name Of Love

Am I Comin'
Am I Goin'
I Got No Way Of Knowin' Your Mine
You Make Me Rise And You Make Me Fall
You Make Me Stumble, Stumble, Stumble, Stumble And Fall
Baby Get With It
Come On Admit It
Whisper To Me If You Don't Really Love Me Anymore

How Can You Please Me
Torture And Tease Me
Do It In The Name Of Love

You Make Me Rise And You Make Me Fall
You Make Me Stumble, Stumble, Stumble, Stumble And Crawl
Baby Get With It
Come On Admit It
Whisper To Me If You Don't Really Love Me Anymore

How Can You Please Me
Torture And Tease Me
Do It In The Name Of Love
Do It In The Name Of Love
Do It In The Name Of Love
Do It In The Name Of Love
Do It In The Name Of Love
Do It In The Name Of Love


The late great Tommy Bolin - Gypsy Soul

We talked for hours of the travels
And all the beauty you had seen.
The south of France where the spring is beginning,
Sunset on the Thames from the village green.
We rolled on and on through the pages,
Of the books you'd taken from the shelf.
Unfamiliar faces and forgotten places,
Landscapes green and rich in wealth.

You've got a gypsy soul, and you love to wander.
Coast to coast to the Canadian border.
In the summer sun, yeah, yeah.

From my window you saw the ocean,
And all the changes that has been.
The south of France where the spring is beginning,
Sunset on the Thames from the village green.


Martha Wainwright - Bloody Motherfucking Asshole

Poetry is no place for a heart that's a whore
And I'm young & I'm strong
But I feel old & tired
Overfired

And I've been poked & stoked
It's all smoke, there's no more fire
Only desire
For you, whoever you are
For you, whoever you are

You say my time here has been some sort of joke
That I've been messing around
Some sort of incubating period
For when I really come around
I'm cracking up
And you have no idea

No idea how it feels to be on your own
In your own home
with the fucking phone
And the mother of gloom
In your bedroom
Standing over your head
With her hand in your head
With her hand in your head

I will not pretend
I will not put on a smile
I will not say I'm all right for you
When all I wanted was to be good
To do everything in truth
To do everything in truth

Oh I wish I wish I wish I was born a man
So I could learn how to stand up for myself
Like those guys with guitars
I've been watching in bars
Who've been stamping their feet to a different beat
To a different beat
To a different beat

I will not pretend
I will not put on a smile
I will not say I'm all right for you
When all I wanted was to be good
To do everything in truth
To do everything in truth

You bloody mother fucking asshole
Oh you bloody mother fucking asshole
Oh you bloody mother fucking asshole
Oh you bloody mother fucking asshole
Oh you bloody mother fucking asshole
Oh you bloody...

I will not pretend
I will not put on a smile
I will not say I'm all right for you
For you, whoever you are
For you, whoever you are
For you, whoever you are


Randy Newman - It's Money That I Love

I don't love the mountains
And I don't love the sea
And I don't love Jesus
He never done a thing for me
I ain't pretty like my sister
Or smart like my dad
Or good like my mama

It's Money That I Love
It's Money That I Love

They say that's money
Can't buy love in this world
But it'll get you a half-pound of cocaine
And a sixteen-year old girl
And a great big long limousine
On a hot September night
Now that may not be love
But it is all right

One, two
It's Money That I Love
Wanna kiss you Three, four
It's Money That I Love
Used to worry about the poor

But I don't worry anymore
Used to worry about the black man
Now I don't worry about the black man
Used to worry about the starving children of India
You know what I say about the starving children of India ?
I say, "Oh mama"

It's Money That I Love
It's Money That I Love
It's Money That I Love

Politics in The Netherlands 2010

I just sometimes wish that HAFMO was still alive.

WikiLeaks and the multi faceted truth

I suppose most people have heard of WikiLeaks and all the muck they dredge up. This time they have started their own sub-website called http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/
                  
I don't know what to think of it. On the one hand it's good that this kind of information becomes public. On the other hand I would really like to know why the people behind WikiLeaks do not also publish the same information about other non-American conflicts(and believe me; as far as their war-record is concerned I am not exactly a fan of the United States).
            
If you're tired of being called 'lop-sided', 'prejudiced' and 'partial', why don't you all start documenting the wars, conflicts and massacres in Africa? I'm sure there's enough material there for another complete website.

Rebuilding My PC - Sound systems, Audio- and Midi-recording and Latency...

Background

After the operation as described here my PC has now operated under WindowsXP for a couple of weeks and it is a very satisfying experience(you see Alfred? I CAN be nice about Windows!). No bugs, no hangups, nothing that I would norrmally expect from the older Windows-versions. How on Earth Microsoft could ever follow up this Windows-version with Vista will always be beyond me. Must have been a marketing thing or something.


Showing off for a minute

My goal for this Fall is to have a working studio in my house. The studio should be centered around my PC and will consist of many components. To name a few(and as an excuse to put up some pictures!) :

Yamaha DX7

I would not know what to write about the DX7 that has not been written thousands of times already. It's an absolute work horse, it's incredibly difficult to program, but once you do you will never look back. This machine is almost 30 years old and still performs on stage as well as in the studio every day. It's up there on the podium with the MiniMoog and the Prophet 5.

Clavia Nord Lead II

What do you do when you can't afford an old PolyMoog or an Oberheim OB-X? You buy a Nord Lead! This synthesizer was the first to get rid of the artificial sound of a analog virtual synth. Until this instrument came along all virtual analog synths could be made to distort just by turning up the values of a lot of functions(the filter usually did the trick immediately). Not so with the Nord Lead; whatever you try to do with it you can't make it clip, just like you can't make an analog synth produce digital distortion.
One other extremely important feature of this instrument is that it stores the complete sound(the patch) in every location that it is used. In the old times(well, not so long ago actually) a synth would have sounds which could be combined into combinations. What happened was that the synth would store the patch-/sound-numbers used in a combination but not the actual parameter-values of the sounds themselves! This meant that if you had a combination that consisted of sound A and sound B, and you altered sound A, the sound of the combination would be altered too. It was cumbersome and the instruments only worked that way to use less memory. Not so anymore! The Nord Lead(and many other synths to come after it) stores the actual parameters of every sound used in a combination. So once you have stored the combination you can fiddle about with the separate sounds again without destroying or altering the combination. If only for this I absolutely love this synth. It is a pure pleasure to work with.

Kawai K4

Aaaah.... the Kawai K4. The K4 is a well kept secret. Not too many of them were produced so it is very rare to see a second hand one being put up for sale. The sounds are based on pre-digitized samples so there are no real sine waves etcetera. Instead, some of the basic wave forms are piano-like, strings-like or percussion-like etcetera. This means that a lot of the 'waveforming' has already been done and the basic sounds therefore sound much more complex then the standard synthesizer. This instrument is exceptionally fit to play industrial and New Wave sounds. In this respect it is the absolute opposite of an analog synthesizer(or a Virtual Analog like the Nord Lead II).

Roland JV30

My little beauty. This synth is so rare it is hard to find a proper picture on the Web. A JV30 is not such a big deal but I use it for one reason ; It saves me from having to play standard Roland sounds like the strings on another synth. This little preset-beastie contains all the standard sounds you need in the studio.

I do have some more synthesizers but they are so obscure that I could't even find a picture of them on the Web! So nevermind...

All of the above and more will be in a configuration with a Behringer 20 channels mixing console and lots and lots of outboard gear(delays, reverbs, flangers, multi-effects, etcetera). All of this is amplified by two 125 watts Hughes and Kettner Power Monitors. All in all you can say I'm good when it comes to the non-PC gear.

Back to the PC

So here comes the next phase : getting some kind of Audio- and especially Midi-recording working on said PC. Normally this would be no problem as I've done this many times before. My first computer for Midi-recording was an Atari 1040STF with Steinberg Pro-24. This was back in the damp and musky mid-eighties. That stuff was brilliant for its time. Pro-24  looked like this :

Pro-24 for the Atari

Since then I've had many a computer running Cubase, Cakewalk and even Logic Audio, although I must say that the latter product was way beyond my requirements and cost me way too much time to figure out. I'd rather spend that time writing and recording music, nerdiness only goes so far.

So... here I am; A nice 2.4Ghz Pentium IV with lots of memory, enough harddisk to store a thousand+ songs, and one standard on-board AC97 soundchip... Mind you : in the future I do not plan on using said on-board chip much. After all; I do have a lot of synthesizers in the house, as well as a very nice 24-channel mixing console and two 19" flightcases full of outboard gear(delays, reverbs, compressors, multi-effects, etcetera). So the external hardware will not be the problem but I want to start using all that once I have the PC up and running satisfactorily. After all; I shall have to re-arrange my hobby room to make all the shit fit and I don't want to do it haphazardly only to find out that it's not what I want.

So...I started out by going through my software. This software was all legally purchased because I do believe that for really complex software you'd better have support. I found an old version of Cakewalk that I put back on the shelf immediately; too simple, too limited, too much 'toy-like'. Then I found my original software box  of Cubase VST! Now that would be exactly what I need. Unfortunately this version was made for Windows95 and does not run on XP. Rats... Look what I missed out on... :

Cubase VST

My third and last option was Cubase 3.0 Go, which I purchased some years ago and runs perfectly on WindowsXP. I checked the requirements and the specs and then dedided to take the chance.

CuBase SX for the PC 

First I had to get the Midisport midi-interface going. This is very simple as I did not only have the drivers on a CD, but I found the latest version of said drivers online within a minute. Installation was a breeze and the midi-interface worked in one go.

The installation of Cubase 3.0 also went without a hitch and getting the sound to actually work didn't take too much time either. I was amazed once again at the amount of detail that this software can display. Of course, when you work with very expensive Audio-/Midi-recording software(like Logic Audio etcetera) this is normal, but Cubase 3.0 Go was really Steinberg's low-budget version!

I tried out Cubase 3.0 for a little while and then decided to try and record a sequence or two using my Nord Lead II. And that is where the problem started...


Latency

As you could have guessed from the title of this entry I experience way to much audio-latency when using my Clavia to play a PC-instrument. So much that it would be virtually impossible to record anything decent. If there is one thing a keyboard player expects it is immediate response from his keyboard.

So what to do now ? Two options : 1) Either I buy a better soundcard or 2) Try to reduce the latency.

For me the challenge is to use the latter option. After all; I can always buy a new soundcard but where is the fun in that? Also; in the future I will not be using any on-board instruments but use the real thing instead. It would be a waste of money to buy a soundcard with super specifications, only to abandon it in a little while.

So I am trying to reduce the latency of an AC97 on-board soundchip. I have googled around a bit and so far I found one very promising website/piece of software. Apparently there's a guy who designed an ASIO-driver specifically to reduce the latency of an AC97. I will try out that software tonight and continue my blog-entry.

This is all great fun. Contrary to some years ago, when you had to really work hard to get this sort of audio-processing to work, it is now much easier to get it up and running.


Update : ASIO4ALL to the rescue!

I'll write more about it later but ASIO4ALL is an amazing piece of software. It comes completely free, it's easy to install, and in no-time my latency was reduced to near to nothing. Michael Tippach(the guy who wrote this stuff) should get his own statue. Unbelievable! Recording in Cubase 3.0 using a midi-keyboard and playing it all back over an onboard AC97 standard soundchip and No Latency!


Update II : Using VST instruments.

First of all; the latency reduction also works for NI Reaktor. The software synthesizers have the same mimimal latency as Cubase has. So that's good news, especially because Reaktor is one Hell of a software package. The sounds are unbelievably good(again; for an AC97 soundchip. I can only image what this stuff will sound like on a really high quality card).

Not so good news is that Cubase 3.0 Go only allows for one VST-plugin/instrument. So.... I'm going back to look at that beautiful box with CubaseVST that I have on the shelf. I've come way too far to stop now. If I can get CubaseVST up and running I would possibly not even have to connect my hardware-synths for quite a while.

It's not like I have tons of space in that room...


Update III : VST Plugins.

Ok, so I managed to install CubaseVST instead of Cubase 3.0. This especially so I can use VST-plugins(e.g. soft synths).
Next stop; getting the VST plugins to work correctly. The latency has stayed the same as under Cubase 3.0, a good sign! Now if I can just get the rest to work I'll be done for a long time to come.

Let's get this done! Onward to the rescue my friends...!!


To be continued...

Duke Forever!

Some talented guy improved on what was a beautiful cover anyway.

Philip K. Dick was right.

He just underestimated the speed with which this crap would be developed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294037/Taranis-The-143million-unmanned-stealth-jet-hit-targets-continent.html

"Autonomous Artificial Intelligence"? "The Matrix" meets "Terminator" meets "Type III".

Those Yanks will NEVER understand the game of football...

If they start by giving everybody the wrong result...

The Netherlands Win World Cup

Update : Ah, they've woken up...

United States Cyber Command

I don't know what I find scarier; that this organization actually exists or that they seem to be necessary.

Of course they are still bloody nerds, as one can conclude from this quote :

"The text '9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a', which is located in the command's emblem, is the MD5 hash of their mission statement."

l'Histoire se répète

This is a pretty good summer so far. And even some people in the U.S.A. have woken up.

Understanding Rap lyrics

Finally! A way to understand Rap lyrics from Bill Maher.

Rebuilding My PC - Back To Basics

I ran Ubuntu Linux on my desktop for quite a while and I noticed that for Multimedia purposes it still really cannot beat the more recent Windows-versions. It's not criticism, it's just a fact. Microsoft's been at it for at least 20+ years so one may expect them to get it right eventually...

So I decided to revert the desktop back to Windows. For the record; I still have a dual boot laptop that runs Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.4 so I can still investigate and use Linux.

I scratch-installed Windows XP Professional on my desktop and gave the hardware a proper check-up. This took the better part of the Friday night. Late that evening I also installed the drivers, the WindowsXP updates as well as AntiVir, Firefox, Thunderbird and Chrome.

Installing Thunderbird turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as there is a know bug in the latest version that prevents you from sending email under certain circumstances. There is a workaround but as an ICT-man myself I don't like workarounds at all.

'Fortunately' (and I use the word loosely here) the next morning I rebooted the PC and immediately got a disk error message. After a lot of work I decided to switch the master and the slave disk(they are both identical and could both be formatted) and then try again. The disk I used for this second install however, was older and much much slower, so the new installation seemed to take forever. After the installation had completed the system was still much much slower than before. To solve this problem I downloaded a freeware software package called Easeus Todo Backup and cloned my C:-disk to the faster D:-disk(including a format to get rid of the disk-errors I mentioned before). Obviously I let this run at night as it is as much fun to watch a clone-operation as it is to watch paint dry...

The next morning I swapped the two disks back again, so the new and faster(cloned) hard disk became the C:-disk again and Lo and Behold! Speed!! I then disconnected the D:-drive because it may interfere with the operation of my PC and make it slow down, and I will only use that drive if my C:-drive fails to recover the system. As I have external USB-disks I am not short for disk space anyway. My C:-disk NEVER holds user-data.

As a part of the rebuild of the PC I also removed everything that was/is not completely necessary for the PC to work properly. I now have my sound back. The SoundBlaster Live! turned out to be defective so I'm now running the audio over the on-board sound chip(a standard Realtek AC97). To my big surprise I have absolutely no complaints about the audio-quality. I installed the Realtek driver-suite though, instead of just the driver, and that makes all the difference. For such a simple on-board chip it has very extensive settings, including an effects section and most importantly; a 16-band equalizer.

I can also play video properly again, something that I could not do for about one and a half years when it ran Ubuntu 10.4. And yes, to all you Linux-lovers out there; I did install ALL the codecs I could find.

On top of that I found that one of the disks was getting really old and therefore terribly slow. This may have cause sluggishness in the old configuration because I suspect that Linux checks all disks frequently and writes a control record to each disk. As the write operations on the slow/old disk really took a long time to complete, I experienced 'hick-ups' when using the system. Especially Firefox would just 'hang' for 5 to 10 seconds and then continue as if nothing had happened.

My PC is now really really fast. As a properly tuned 2.4Ghz PC should be...


Configuration :

Hardware :

• Processor        : 2.4Ghz Intel
• Memory          : 1024MB
• Motherboard   : Intel PB4GL(82845G chipset)
• Internal disks   : 1x 40GB(I do not keep data on my internal disks)
• External disks  : 1 x 160GB USB and 1 x 460GB USB
• Audio/Video     : Onboard chips, no additional cards.
• Sound system  : Soundblaster 5x Sensurround Set with subwoofer

Software :

• OS                  : WindowsXP Professional
• Virus checker  : AntiVir
• Browsers        : Firefox 3.x, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8.x
• Email               : Outlook 2007
• Office software: Microsoft Office 2007
• Audio Software : Virtual DJ 6.0
• Utilities             : ToDo Backup-/cloning-software, WinRAR, uTorrent
  

Music of the sun

The sun has been the inspiration for hundreds of songs, but now scientists have discovered that the star at the centre of our solar system produces its own music.

Source.

I'm going slightly mad...

Laptop has been in for repairs for about five weeks now. And I am slowly but surely going around the bend.

What I Am Reading Now - The Hotel New Hampshire

The Hotel New Hampshire is probably Irving's best novel to date, although "The World According To Garp" was a masterpiece too and "A Prayer For Owen Meanie" still reverberates in my mind. The Hotel New Hampshire though, is absolutely the most emotionally gripping novel by Irving that I have read.

The story is way too complicated to explain here so let me just make a few observations. You can read the whole(very accurate) wiki-entry by clicking on the link above.

The book contains all the basic elements of a true John Irving story; bears, wrestling, death, incest, you name it, it's in there. It tells the story of the Berry-family(mother, father and five children) from the moment the parents meet each other until the father's death and everything in between.

The parents run a hotel, first in the U.S.A. but later on in Vienna(Austria). They have to deal with bears(and 'State O' Maine' is not the only one), with prostitutes, with left-wing terrorist bombers, and so on. And that is really just a small part of what the book is about, the mis-en-scene. Irving never loses sight of what I think the book is about; the impact of these circumstances on the Berry family.

As far as I can see the story Irving wrote tells the path from being pretty much a dysfunctional family - or at least a super weird one - to coming to terms with each other and accepting each other for what they are. One brother is in love with his sister, another one is gay, one of the sisters doesn't grow and is basically a dwarf, etcetera.

The book was made into a movie that starred - among others - Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe. I saw it by chance, way back in the late 80ies or early 90ies, in the loft of a local cafe, because a movie had been cancelled and they had replaced it with this one. I still distinctly remember expecting nothing and consequently being extremely impressed with Rob Lowe. I knew that Jodie Foster was a brilliant actress but at the time Lowe was considered to be an actor for 'bubblegum-movies' like 'St. Elmo's Fire'. Yet here he was, convincingly playing a gay teenager coming to terms with himself as well as the people around him. Of course I was wrong about Lowe; he starred in many a good movie and I just loved his acting in The West Wing. Oh well, it's great to be wrong that way.


For me personally, after all the books I have read through the years, the words "Sorry, just not big enough" can still move me to tears as they have done many times in the past.

Read the book and judge for yourself. And Keep Passing The Open Windows.

Notes From The Organization

Most of the DJ-gig of Sunday afternoon 6th of June 2010 :

Roger Waters - The Tide Is Turning

Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons Of Hitchhiking

Laurie Anderson - O Superman

Syd Barrett - Terrapin

Peter Gabriel - I Think It's Going To Rain Today

Steve Hackett - Spectral Mornings

Muse - Knights Of Cydonia

Glass Hammer - Empty Space / Revealer

Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down

Genesis - It's Gonna Get Better