23 MAR 02: DEMOS AND
COSMOPOLIS
From New
Left Review 13, January-February 2002:
“As representative democracy
spreads it is steadily thinning: the nation-states that have been its traditional
framework are losing much of their power. Popular sovereignty can only
be recovered, Daniele Archibugi argues, in a cosmopolitan order antithetical
to its simulacrum in the international community of today.” More.
from http://members.aol.com/olandem4/reflections.html
Sterling Morrison, 1980:
“Maybe I’m trapped by certain beliefs, but in the early ’60s, on college campuses, you went one of two ways. Either you were a very sensitive young person, who cared about air pollution and civil rights and anti-Vietnam or you were a very unsensitive young person, who didn’t care about civil rights because all the blacks he knew were playing in his band or in his audience. I was a very unsensitive young person and played very unsensitive, uncaring music. Which is Wham, Bam, Pow! Let’s Rock Out! What I expected my audience to do was tear the house down, beat me up, whatever. Lou and I came from the identical environment of Long Island rock ‘n’ roll bars, where you can drink anything at 18, everybody had phony proof at 16; I was a night crawler in high school and played some of the sleaziest bars. You can’t quite imagine them in Texas – people didn’t carry guns, that’s the only difference. In the ’60s I had King Hatreds. I was a biker type and hung around with nasty black people and nasty white people and black rock ‘n’ roll music. On the other hand, you had very sensitive and responsible young people suddenly attuned to certain cosmic questions that beckon us all, and expressing these concerns through acoustic guitars and lilting harmonies and pale melodies. I hate these people.”
CLUED IN BY M. WATT!
21 MAR 02: SOUNDTRACK
OF OUR LIVES RADIO PERFORMANCE VIA WEB
“Swedish band Soundtrack
of our Lives brings their groove driven rock to Morning Becomes Eclectic
at 11:15 a.m. After 10 years and three full length albums, Soundtrack
is finally bringing the magic of their third release, Behind The Music¸
to the States.
Hear a live broadcast of this breakthrough band first on KCRW.“
“Alright now, I wanna talk to you all about this song, the name of this song is Dominance and Submission. Now along about this time every night I like to get down with a little Dominance and Submission, tell you all about it. Now,
Dominance and Submission, why that can mean a lot of things in your life. Some of them bother me, some
of them bother you. Ill tell you about two of ’em here tonight. Only because this is so close to my heart and I’m sure it’s close to yours too. Tonight I want to talk to you about getting high a little bit.
[cheers] Now, from what I understand, all my friends here, all 14-15,000 of you people here tonight, get a little hassled on the way in. Maybe somebody’s taken away something from you that you paid some good money for just to get high for the show. [bass blast] Now that’s not so unusual considering how close to Washington DC this place is. I wanna ask you a question, you tell me if this is true: You ever wonder why the price of good Colombian keeps getting higher all the time? [cheers] I’ll tell you why, here’s the answer, it’s very simple: it has to do with all those people who work there in those big buildings in Washington DC.
Some of you people, you might think there’s nothing you can do about it but you’re wrong, there’s plenty you can do about it, I’ll tell you what. You know, here we are in Maryland playing a little rock n roll for you people, you don’t want to… In the whole world, theres no place better to play rock n roll in than the United States of America. [cheers] We played everywhere. Without a doubt, I will tell you. We’ve been to Scandinavia, we’ve been to Germany, we’ve been to Spain, we’ve been all over Europe. United States of America is the greatest country in the whole world. [cheers] And I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you why. That‘s because this is a true democracy. This is where the majority of the people say what’s happening. Why, do you know how much power you really have? Half the population in the United States is under the age of 25 years old. [cheers] All you have to do, you have to let the people down there in DC, you have to let em know the way you feel.
So I got an idea, why just about two more weeks, we got Mr. Carter coming down here to live. Maybe after the
concert tonight you’ll go home, get out a paper. And a pen. You write a letter [inaud] Georgia, you say ‘Dear Mr. Carter, Me and my friends, Mr. Carter, me and my friends are sick and tired of getting hassled. [cheers] A matter of fact, Mr. Carter, a matter of fact, me and my friends, we wanna get high and we don’t want to go to jail for it. [bass blast] Yeah, right on! Whoo. Yeah! Yeah! Just remember I’m talking to you tonight right here all about Dominance and
Submission.
I’ll tell you one more thing while I’m thinking about it. Here’s another one that bothers me, something you can put right there in that letter. I’ll tell you, this bothers me almost as much as all those repressive drug laws. I’ll tell you what it is. I AM SICK AND TIRED–I AM SICK AND TIRED, EVERYBODY! OF THE 55 MILE PER HOUR SPEED LIMIT! [cheers, bass blast]
I mean I want to get my motor running! I mean, what’s the point of having a hog sitting in the garage and it can’t go over 55?!? [cheers, bass blast]
Yeah! Alright, Dominance and Submission! Don’t forget now, now we’re gonna sing it, we gonna sing it,
lets get a groove on!…”
19 MAR 02: “ICEBERG B-22
CALVES OFF THWAITES ICE TONGUE,” OR “NEW GIANT ICEBERG ON THE LOOSE!!!!!”
Iceberg B-22 is visible
in a satellite photo modified to highlight the berg.
New giant iceberg adrift
near Antarctica
March 19, 2002 Posted: 11:54
AM EST (1654 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new
iceberg — one roughly twice the size of the state of Rhode Island — is
adrift in the icy waters off Antarctica, the National Ice Center says.
The iceberg
— designated B-22 –broke off from the Thwaites Ice Tongue, a peninsula
of ice and snow extending from the mainland of Antarctica into the Amundsen
Sea, in the region of Antarctica closest to the mid-Pacific Ocean.
The new
iceberg is about 53 miles long and about 40 miles wide. It is currently
located at 74.56 south latitude and 107.55 west longitude.
It is
designated B-22 because it is the 22nd iceberg researchers are tracking
in the Amundsen/Eastern Ross Sea (designated Quadrant “B” by the National
Ice Center).
The National
Ice Center does ice analysis for the military and the private sector. It
is operated by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National Oceanographic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Researchers
have noticed an unusually high number of icebergs calved from Antarctica
in recent years, prompting some observers to speculate on a possible connection
to global warming…”
FROM
OUR GOVERNMENT’S NATIONAL ICE CENTER:
Iceberg B-22 Calves Off
Thwaites Ice Tongue
March 15, 2002, Washington
D.C.– The National Ice Center (NIC) confirms an iceberg newly calved from
the Thwaites Ice Tongue (Figures 1 & 2). The Thwaites Ice Tongue is
a large sheet of glacial ice and snow extending from the Antarctic mainland
into the southern Amundsen Sea. This new iceberg is named B-22 and is currently
located at 74.56S/ 107.55W. Iceberg B-22, roughly 46NM long and 35NM wide,
covers an area of approximately 2,120 square statute miles. National Snow
and Ice Data Center scientist Dr. Ted Scambos notified NIC of a large crack
in the Thwaites Tongue discovered by Jennifer Bohlander (also of NSIDC)
using MODIS data from February 10th, 2001. The crack was found to have
significantly widened in MODIS data from March 8, 2001. Analyst Judy Shaffier,
of the National Ice Center, confirmed the calving of Iceberg B22 using
the satellite images shown above from the Defense Meteorological Satellite
Program’s (DMSP) Operational Line Scan (OLS) Visible sensor (Figure 1)
and NOAA’s AVHRR sensor (Figure 2), both dated March 11, 2001.
Iceberg
names are derived from the Antarctic quadrant in which they were originally
sighted. The quadrants are divided counter-clockwise in the following manner:
A = 0-90W (Bellinghausen/Weddell
Sea)
B = 90W-180 (Amundsen/Eastern
Ross Sea)
C = 180-90E (Western Ross
Sea/Wilkesland)
D = 90E-0 (Amery/Eastern
Weddell Sea).
When
an iceberg is first sighted, NIC documents its point of origin. The letter
of the quadrant, along with a sequential number is assigned to the iceberg.
For example, B-22 is sequentially the 22nd iceberg tracked by the NIC in
Antarctica between 90-180 (Quadrant B).
The National
Ice Center is a tri-agency operational center represented by the United
States Navy (Department of Defense); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Department of Commerce); and the United States Coast Guard
(Department of Transportation). The National Ice Center mission is to provide
world-wide operational ice analyses for the armed forces of the United
States and allied nations, U.S. government agencies, and the private sector.
18 MAR 02: BEEFHEART
SPEAKS
In the brand new issue of
MOJO, the one with Elvis on the cover:
“Photographer Anton Corbijn
places a conference call with old pals
Bono and Don Van Vliet,
aka Captain Beefheart, to jaw about the Pope, painting,
fish, mud and skeletons.”
17 MAR 02: “WE’RE ALL
DEAD AMERICANS NOW.”
Sunday March 17, 2002
The Observer
Six months that changed
a year
Introducing an absolute atrocity special
by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris
9/11: The planes strike –
as Martin Amis memorably describes them – ‘sleeking in
like harsh metal ducklings’.
Tony
Blair publicly drains every drop of blood from his wife to help the injured
of New York.
Taking
his time, George W. Bush formulates a measured response – which turns out
to be the most expensive
bollocking ever unleashed against shepherds.
But are
we starting to forget?
Figures
show that even as the second tower fell, people were switching off their
televisions, complaining
they’d seen it all before.
Today
in these pages, we help you make up your own mind about the absolute
necessity of fighting the
ongoing war that is Operation Improving Bloodbath.
Inside: Highlights of
our award-winning coverage:
Polly Toynbee: My 14 months
undercover in an al-Qaeda training camp
Peregrine Worsthorne: How
I parachuted with the Marines into Kabul and found a
bearded Polly Toynbee shouting
anti-American obscenities
Robert Fisk: How I smashed
my own face in shouting ‘Don’t help me, I deserve
this’ in front of thousands
of bewildered refugees
Christopher Hitchens: How
to drink Kabul dry in 72 hours and still keep your
forelock fetchingly draped
over your forehead
Decca Aitkenhead: How I got
spazzed off my baps on Afghan Spangles to the sounds
of DJ Smack Poppy’s bangin’
US Barrage
Arthur Smith: How I missed
the plane
Piers Morgan: How I became
the new Hugh Cudlipp by digging up James Cameron and
Malcolm Muggeridge and sitting
their corpses behind desks at the Mirror
Julie Burchill: How I liberated
Kandahar with the news that Tony Parsons is a
bastard
Also…
The resurgence of Kenneth
Branagh since 11 September: pure
coincidence?
15 FEB 02: “WOW!
THAT IS REALLY OLD.”
Bush
wrote a note in 1997 wishing Enron exec Ken Lay a happy birthday: “55
years old. Wow! That is really old. Thank goodness you have such a young,
beautiful wife. … Laura and I value our friendship with you.”
14 FEB 02: OLD MAN BURROUGHS
ON PRECISION WRITING
from Burroughs
Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997:
“It’s a question of getting
a sufficient degree of precision.
If I really knew how to
write, I could write something that
someone would read and it
would kill them.”
13 FEB 02: WATT SPOTS
MAGPIES IN SALT LAKE CITY
from mike
watt‘s current Banyan tour diary:
“pop to find the strangest
sight outside the window, a
swimming pool piled high
w/snow. don’t find that too much when you
pop in pedro! magpies are
darting all over, another missing in pedro.
they’re pretty smart, one
will distract don’s two dogs while another
will chow from the dog bowl,
then they switch roles. poor dogs never
do figure it out.”
Arthur Magazine 