PIG OF THE WEEK!!!!

That power-freaking miserable wanker from a hydraulic hoses factory who was on one of those current affairs shows on commercial tele Thursday night, who was in seventh heaven and almost having orgasms at his new-found sack power with the negation of Unfair Dismissal laws in the new IR legislation.
And that dickhead who backed him up from the shop floor will learn the hard way, when he has to work harder and will eventually burn out, will be sacked as soon as his usefulness diminshes. No doubt he will squeal louder than a stuck piglet!
Anyone who could possibly support this rubbish legislation after watching this report must surely have a distorted sense of values.

This makes me see RED!

Melbourne City Councillor Peter Clarke has either got to be joking or he was mouthing off while pissed! (I know nothing of his drinking habits, so to be kind, I presume it is the former).
He wants quarterly auditions to be passed by buskers to operate in the CBD to ensure that they are adequately talented and skilled.
Great idea, til the proposed arbiter of acceptable ability is that pompous, arrogant, self opiniated weasel Red Symons, who:
One: Is no where near as good himself as he thinks he is
Two: Is sickening the way he acts so cute on the radio. Some GIRLS are cute, and this is acceptable only if it is natural and not bunged on. I find guys who act cute to be revolting. (In Symons case, I think it is a smokescreen to hide the fact that he is not particularly articulate or intelligent).
Anyway, Mr Clarke, why set yourself up to appear to be an idiot?, the best judges of buskers are the public, who drop the coins. No pay, no keep coming to play!!!
Yes, the buskers are noisy, and so are the spruikers, but so are Myers Christmas windows, and the ever proliferating City tickertape parades.

Worthy of more serious attention is Corporate Graffitti, where public property or airspace is defaced by insulting or offensive advertising or Government propaganda.

While the current example is the FCUK fuss, a few months ago every tram stop and railway station had the anti terrorist scam that the Federal Government is foisting on us.

In a sane and balanced society, advertising on buildings would be restricted to the logo/products of the occupant business, as long as there was nothing that could reasonably be construed to cause public offence.

Give me the colourful but inoffensive brick walls and Railway viaducts that our abandoned and bored youth express themselves with, anytime!

Carlos Santana speaks out against Bush

A couple of stories on Carlos Santana, dated 3 years apart: Of note, is his pacifism. My favourite Santana albums, most of which are difficult to get now, are from the days when his spiritual quest was represented on record. I highly recommend "Welcome".

Also significant in his earlier story is his rejection of the concepts of patriotism and nationality.
(John Lennon said it too: "Imagine there's no countries".)
Carlos said:"This whole planet, everyone, should have free electricity, water and education."
(See my earlier post on Bolivia insisting water is a right for everyone, not just important for health.)

Another story on the internet pays tribute to Santana's earnings from the American leg of their 2003 "Shaman" tour being donated to fighting the African AIDS pandemic.

I finish my Santana post with an interview quoting his desire that: "I want men to be real men and move aside and cheer for your wife, sister, mother, daughter".

Posted on Tue, Mar. 21, 2006
Carlos Santana speaks out against Bush
Associated Press

LIMA, Peru - Carlos Santana quoted his old friend Jimi Hendrix in an anti-war message here Monday and said his philosophy is the antithesis of President George W. Bush's.

"I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing," the 58-year-old rock icon said. "My concept is the opposite of George W. Bush."

Santana, speaking to Peruvian journalists ahead of a Tuesday concert, said young people's opposition to the war in Iraq is reaching the dimensions of the anti-Vietnam war sentiment in the 1970s.

"There is more value in placing a flower in a rifle barrel than making war," he said. "As Jimi Hendrix used to say, musical notes have more importance than bullets."

In 1971, Santana was prevented from performing in Peru by the military dictatorship, which deemed his music an "alienating" force. Santana returned to perform in 1995.


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0311/S00035.htm
Wednesday, 5 November 2003, 11:04 am
Article: Richard S. Ehrlich
Carlos Santana Calls On Bush To Change Is Evil Ways

by Richard S. Ehrlich

BANGKOK, Thailand -- After denouncing the U.S.-led war in Iraq, rock legend Carlos Santana told more than 10,000 cheering fans at a sensational concert on Monday (Nov. 3) that President George W. Bush must change his "evil ways".

"He is supposed to be America's president, but he's not my president, I didn't vote for him," Mr. Santana said at a news conference on Sunday (Nov. 2) shortly after arriving in the Thai capital during his brief "Shaman Tour 2003" in Asia.

When asked for his opinion about the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Mr. Santana replied: "The only thing I know is all wars are wrong.

"There is no such thing as 'holy war' because this is a contradiction. I believe that if we declare war against anything, it should be war against poverty and ignorance," the moustached musician said.

"This whole planet, everyone, should have free electricity, water and education."

During his packed, boisterous concert in an indoor stadium on Monday night, Mr. Santana suddenly quieted his searing electric guitar and told enthralled listeners, "We represent a different side of the United States.

"We do not feel oneness with Bush at all. We say, God bless humanity first."

The more than 10,000 Thai and foreign fans erupted in wild applause and later cheered their endorsement again when Mr. Santana introduced one of his most famous songs by saying, "To Bush...you've got to change your evil ways".

The fiery guitarist then unleashed a blistering version of the song titled, "Evil Ways."

Mr. Santana's visit comes in the aftermath of President Bush's Oct. 18-21 trip to Bangkok where he influenced an Asia-Pacific economic forum to worry about terrorism's impact on the region's financial profits.

Thailand, a majority Buddhist country, dispatched more than 420 troops to Iraq in September.
Alarmed at the spiraling bloodshed, however, Thai opposition politicians and others have already suggested the government consider bringing them home.

Unlike the female country singers The Dixie Chicks -- who blasted President Bush while on an overseas tour but later expressed regret because some fans complained -- Mr. Santana has consistently been anti-war, dating back to his vocal opposition of the U.S.-Vietnam War during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"As always, our message is 'God bless humanity,' we never say, 'God bless America'," Mr. Santana explained while describing his show in a Bangkok Post interview published on Oct. 24.

"So my band is different from some American performers like Bruce Springsteen and The Beach Boys who wrap themselves in America's flag. I don't want to have a flag.

"I'd rather be like water, clear for all people, than being a nation. I understand that some people need the dimension of patriotism, but that doesn't do anything for me," he told the paper.
"We're not here to push any American agenda, because we don't even see eye-to-eye with America ourselves anyway."
Reminded that President Bush recently visited Bangkok for the economic summit, Mr. Santana, 56, responded: "His agenda is different from ours. His agenda is basically about benefits of rich, greedy, ignorant people."

He added, "To me, George W. Bush doesn't have any power anyway. He's just someone who reads a cue that somebody writes for him -- somebody who's even richer than him.

"Our agenda is different. He sells fear. We push joy."

**-ENDS-**

About Women:

During most of their 32-year marriage, Deborah held down the fort while Carlos chased his muse. Now, they both agreed it was her turn. Carlos would rededicate himself to the family and give Deborah the support she needed to follow her dream.

Earlier this year, Deborah saw her dream become a reality with the publication of her first book, a memoir, called "Space Between the Stars."

The book garnered excellent reviews and at packed book signings across the country, for a change Carlos got to bask in his wife's glow and nothing made him happier.

Carlos Santana: Deborah is my spiritual partner. I want men to be real men and move aside and cheer for your wife, sister, mother, daughter. For her to be like Deborah, a free spirit that can also blossom in her own light, not in my shadow.

Water IS a right!

Bolivia: Water is a human right

Tuesday 21 March 2006, 6:53 Makka Time, 3:53 GMT (story from AlJazeera.net)

Bolivia says the right to life implies the right to water

Bolivia is refusing to sign an international declaration on the importance of clean water because it falls short of calling access to it a human right.

The Bolivian water minister said on Monday that La Paz wanted to call supplies of clean water a human right in a document to be signed at the meeting this week.

"It's very clear that we all have a right to life and health," Abel Mamani said. "The right to life and right to health without water is contradictory."

South America's poorest country, increasingly vocal on the world stage since the election of Evo Morales as president, is resisting other nations and international bodies at the World Water Forum being held in Mexico City.

A draft of the declaration calls water important to the poor and to people's health, but does not describe it as a human right.

Morales created a water ministry after taking power in January and appointed Mamani, an activist in recent years who was chasing foreign water companies, such as French utility Suez, out of Bolivia.

Survival necessity

Mamani said privatisation of water services in Bolivia led to soaring prices that left clean water out of the reach of the poorest people.

Abel Mamani, Bolivian water minister
"You can't use a thing as important as water, which is synonymous with life, to make money," Mamani said.

"We're talking about something that unfortunately is necessary for survival."

The World Water Forum's ruling body is made up of members from governments, international organisations such as the World Bank, scientists and business people.

About 1.1 billion people, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, lack easy access to safe drinking water.

Delegates at the meeting have said new ideas and investments are needed to meet a UN goal of halving the number of people without safe drinking water by 2015.

Mamani complained that the entry fee to the forum, at $120 a day, effectively excluded the poor from taking part.

There we have it! The World Bank, the non-elected monolith which tells elected governments from poor countries what they can and can't do, but let's make it difficult for them to attend so we don't have to listen to their nonsense!

Les Paul with P90's - how to amplify

Because the pickups are so HOT, they cut, but they can also sound oversaturated at the bottom end.
I have always adjusted my amps with this guitar to full treble, full middle, and just a LITTLE bass.
Maybe two or three.
And to get that CREAMY sound, I back off the tone controls on the guitar to 7.

Fender Twin amps are very revered, but if there was an amp I would prefer NOT to use with the LP with P90's, this is it!

Les Paul Gold Top with P90's

What a guitar!
A BIG beautiful rich sound, and the treble pickup absolutely cuts!
the best solid bodied guitar ever, the ultimate rock machine, and close to the only solid body guitar that sounds rich, full, and clean enough to play jazz standards.
A great action and accurate intonation so there is no excuse not to play well and to sound great!
I think of this guitar as a very well engineered V8 when everything else is either just a 4 or 6 cylinder hack.
Tim O'Halloran from World of Music compares this guitar to a Strat on steroids.

In 1968 the Les Paul range consisted of two models: the Custom (Black Beauty) with humbuckers and the Gold Top Standard equipped with single coil P90's.

I have only ever bought two electric guitars brand new, and both have been Gold Toppers with p90's.

The first was a 1968. The shops were full of Strats, but I wanted something different. I went to Mick Lewis's in Russell Street (the shop is still there, but Mick is long gone!) and said I was after a Les Paul.He promised to get one sent down from Sydney. I had an anxious wait as it arrived two hours later than promised!
I sold it in 1983 and regretted it for a large part of the the intervening years. I bought second one about 38 years after the first!

The first one cost AU$495, the second one 10 times that. OUCH!! I think the quality of the new guitar is probably better than what I bought in '68, even though it reproduces the scungy plastic jack plate that inevitably breaks when one sits down to play without an angled jack plug on the guitar lead.
The new one is a '56 reissue with the fat 50's neck.
The screw on knob cover on the pickup selector switch is now rubberised and should outlast the brittle plastic rubbish that used to snap and break off.

Although they come very close, the reissues are NOT 100% exact replicas.
The string nut slots are cut narrower to fit the current use of thinner gauge strings.
When I bought my first Gold Topper, the Gibson standard was to ship the buggers with 10 to 56ers!

A dying world writhing in agonising death throes

To quote from a Dylan song, "this aint a game no more, it's the real thing".

Among recent reports, the rate of species extinction is increasing.
Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is the highest it has been in at least one million, and possibly 10 million years.

And, oh yes, oil production has peaked, that is we have used over half of natural oil reserves and aren't discovering very much in the way of new supplies.
World oil production in 2005 was up by 0.8%, but demand had increased by 3 %.
Ghawar, the supergiant Saudi oilfield, is producing increasing amounts of water along with the oil. Previously, the water cut at Ghawar was around thirty percent. Later reports on the Internet have water cuts as high as 55 percent. (This would indicate that we have hugely overestimated the amount of oil in this particularly vital field!)
To quote from Bill Totten, "Ghawar has been producing four million barrels per day; when the Ghawar field waters out, you can kiss your lifestyle goodbye".
Bill also states that "By 2025, we're going to be back in the Stone Age".
You can read his post dated 05 March 06 in full on his blog.
http://billtotten.blogspot.com/

I believe in speaking out in an attempt to warn people to initiate change.
I periodically email our media on issues I believe in. I often get published in the Herald Sun, but never crack it in The Age, which is a pity, because they get my best letters. I do keep trying.....

My unpublished letter submitted 5th March 06 is shown below.
The actual letter was sent in response to an article calling for free public transport, an idea I had submitted letters on before, unsuccessfully. I had expanded on the core issue to discuss related streams, that is overcrowded roads due to forced commuting on infrastructure that is neglected other than for the building of roads.

My contention is we very urgently need to totally re-engineer society, and even then it may be way past the midnight deadline for change.
I have bolded the parts of my letter relevant to the drying up of oil supplies and the need for urgency to effect dramatic social change.

"Dear Mr Editor

The relief of overcrowding on the roads and the cutting of greenhouse
gas emissions both stand as excellent reasons for free public transport,
and an extremely meritorious support reason is the simplification of
administering the system, the contrary arguments of nervous nellie
beauracrats not withstanding.
I firmly believe that there is a very strong moral imperative to provide
free public transport.This is because we lack genuine full employment
and proper care for the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged in a
city environment where the social engineers lack the will to facilitate
having jobs, hospitals, centrelink and other public facilities where
people live.
Good government would also jump in and provide cross-town non radial
public transport with new services and expanded hours and frequency of
timetables.
The other part of the solution to overcrowded roads and environmental
vandalism caused by forced large scale commuting is to make it much
cheaper for people to be able to sell their existing homes to move
closer to where their jobs are situated. The solution to this is to
remove stamp duty on buying and selling of residential property.
Petrol supplies will dry up within the next five to fifteen years
regardless of the lack of foresight and courage from state and national
governments or involvement in ever more frequent oil wars. People will
be stranded within sight of highways and freeways including a newly
completed Eastlink tollway. Maybe they could all become shared pathways
for bicycles and pedestrians with E-tags attached to Rover!
The antipathy to the free public transport concept by Bracks, Batchelor,
and the State government highlights yet another reason for the almost
total lack of confidence in the Labour party as being the party for
compassion and social justice, as it endeavours to outdo the Liberals
as the best pragmatic economic rationalist front for the ruling elite".

One of the worst contributors to excessive oil consumption and greenhouse polution is aviation.
We cannot afford to have all these military jets wizzing around, apart from the damage they do when used in our wars of aggression.
In fact, if we are to have any chance of saving either the planet or some form of comfortable civilization, commercial air traffic needs to become at least ten times more expensive to cover for a huge cutback in flying frequency. Business and Governments would need to be controlled so that the goods we buy and taxes we pay wouldn't be subsidising frequent overseas meetings and jaunts.

B.T.G.S.S - a poem that I wrote....

Beware the giant space spider,

Hatched out of the moon

Who'll drop a strand of web to earth,

And come down all too soon!

He'll plant one foot on Darwin,

Another one on Perth,

And with one lash of a hungry tongue,

He'll sweep Melbourne off the Earth!

Shakespeare said "if music be the food of love play on".
Thus, the three minute pop song, as well as not having a lot going for itself musically, lacks a lot as the soundtrack for passion.
Good for a quickie, that's about it!





Some Miles Davis is always nice, or even Paul Butterfield's East West,
but the best of the lot is Beethoven's Ninth, with a long and varied build-up to the Song of Joy as the triumphant climax!

Bob Dylan Where is he now?

He has easily been the most significant musician of the last sixty years, a world icon, a great writer, bandleader and performer.
And he did it from within the system. He lay down with dogs, thinking he could be true to himself and never catch fleas!
He succeeded, sort of!
He never lost the muse, even after he sold out. Perhaps he had to sell out, otherwise the narrow minded circles he moved in may have made it impossible for him to write away from the excellent political and social commentary he was producing. Yet there was so much more for him to explore, mystical themes, romance, religion, sagas, his own life and soul.
For most of these years he still commented on the world around him much better than most. Although by the time we got to Iraq and Greenhouse he seems to have burnt out , for he has neither sung out or stood up publicly to be counted on these issues.
And yes, Bob, we do remember you aren't a protest singer, you have told us often enough.
But Kris, Willie, Steve Earle and others still spoke out, at risk to their careers.
But now he is old, and despite his significance, and the mega millions they made off him, the record companies no longer seem very interested in investing in him. It has been years of silence.Although I do believe he is at last recording a new album, I also believe it is way overdue.
Yet they have heaps of projects where they are cashing in on his past. There seems to be more than enough money to be made that way.
But obviously not in spending big to market anything contemporary. The pity is that Bob has been a willing accomplice to this strategy.
The priority for big business is to make money, not to produce art. Any merit in "product" is usually co-incidental, as long as "product" is marketable.
It obviously is quicker and cheaper to work with recycled components where Bob is concerned.
He used to be Bob Dylan!

The Writer....

Kris Kristofferson said
"And you still can hear me singin' to the people who don't listen,
To the things that I am sayin', prayin' someone's gonna hear.
And I guess I'll die explaining how the things that they complain about,
Are things they could be changin', hopin' someone's gonna care.

I was born a lonely singer, and I'm bound to die the same,
But I've got to feed the hunger in my soul.
And if I never have a nickle, I won't ever die ashamed.,
'Cos I don't believe that no-one wants to know."

The writer who bares his soul for all the world takes a risk with his ego putting it all on the line. He is a hero.
And he does it knowing the world may never hear him anyway, so he is in fact bearing his soul to himself, and this takes a courage few of us have,and we lie to ourselves rather than endure the pain that honesty brings along with joys.

The writer who just makes product and inane output inadvertently exposes his soul anyway, for those with discerning eyes and ears he is seen as just a mercenary, certainly no one to admire, certainly no hero.

Since the eighties much of his writing has been overtly radical. A while ago at JB HiFi I picked up a bargain CD, Kris Kristofferson The Country Collection. The songs were written during the era when the U.S. was up to their dirty tricks in El Salvador, Chile, Nicaragua, and the rest of Central and South America.
None of these songs were hits, but at least Kris tried to make us aware, and these are amongst the strongest and best songs he has written.
He carried on his political expression with the Highwaymen and ever since.
He was amongst the first to put his hand up as a Vietnam veteran to criticise the U.S. in what was at the time its imminent attack on Iraq. It takes guts as a performer in the U.S. to take a stance on social conscience issues, as the Bush government is more than ready to use its own power and the fanatical fundamentalist Christian right to crucify the careers of its opponents.
Kris is three months shy of turning seventy. I saw him at the Palais last August, this old man standing there singing, just him and his guitar. And still singing and saying what needs to be said, complete with some alarming statistics about poverty, U.S. nuclear weapons, et al.

I have just listened to Kris's new album, This Old Road, due to be released this coming Tuesday, 7th March 2006.
He even sings a 12 bar blues, and a real rock"n"roller, and acknowledges that he is approaching the end of his days with contentment, grace, and good humour, still with a lot of truth to share:
"Lord help me to shoulder the burden of freedom
And give me the courage to be what I can
And when I am wounded by those who condemn me
Lord help me forgive them, they don't understand"
and I certainly intend to buy it, and I hope that Kris isn't singing to "to the people who don't listen 'Cos I don't believe that no-one wants to know"