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Bin Laden Is Dead. Will The Patriot Act Live On?

Osama Bin Laden is dead, but will the Patriot Act live on?  The Patriot Act was enacted as a supposedly temporary measure in the wake of 9-11.  With Bin Laden's passing, the era of the Patriot Act, of spying on Americans who aren't suspected of crimes, of heavy-handed abuse of our dearly held civil liberties, must come to an end.

The Patriot Act is up for renewal this month and a key debate is brewing: Our opponents will argue that his death is evidence that the post-9-11 spying regime was justified.  We believe it means that it's time for the government to fix the Patriot Act and start protecting Americans' civil liberties.
We need to act now to make sure we win this fight.  Tens of thousands of Demand Progress members have already urged Congress to fix the Patriot Act.  Will you ask Congress and the President to return us to the legal norms that existed before 9-11 and start respecting our civil liberties?  Please fill out the form at right to sign on to this petition:

PETITION TO MY LAWMAKERS AND PRESIDENT OBAMA: The perpetrator of 9-11 is dead.  The Patriot Act was enacted as a supposedly temporary measure in the wake of 9-11:  With Bin Laden's demise, the era of the Patriot Act, the era of spying on Americans who aren't suspected of crimes, the era of blunt abuse of our dearly held civil liberties, must come to an end.

Just sign on at right and we'll forward the petition to Congress and the President.

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Puppy to adult in 40 seconds

Did You Know That During WWII German soldiers would booby trap paintings and hang them crooked..

Aesthetically Pleasing: Blonde Sexiness

Underwater Sculpture , Grenada

When slave traders brought African's overseas and if one got sick or they wanted to lighten the load, they would throw them all over board chained together like this.
The artist doesn't want us to forget that. It's not meant to be creepy.

Robert Fitzpatrick, the MTA worker who gave his life savings of $140,000 for doomsday billboards, waits in Time Square yesterday for the rapture. (Photo)

The Oldest Known Melody from 1400BC

This unique video, features my arrangement for solo lyre, of the 3400 year old "Hurrian Hymn no.6", which was discovered in Ugarit in Syria in the early 1950s, and was preserved for 3400 years on a clay tablet, written in the Cuniform text of the ancient Hurrian language - it is THE oldest written song yet known! Respect, to the amazing ancient culture of Syria...السلام عليكم

Although about 29 musical texts were discovered at Ugarit, only this text, (text H6), was in a sufficient state of preservation to allow for modern academic musical reconstruction.

In short, the Cuneiform text clearly indicated specific names for lyre strings, and their respective musical intervals -- a sort of "Guitar tablature", for lyre!

Although discovered in modern day Syria, the Hurrians were not Syrian -- they came from modern day Anatolia. The Hurrian Hymn actually dates to the very end of the Hurrian civilisation (c.1400BCE) . The Hurrian civilization dates back to at least 3000 BCE. It is an incredible thought, that just maybe, the musical texts found at Ugarit, preserved precious sacred Hurrian music which may have already been thousands of years old, prior to their inscription for posterity, on the clay tablets found at Ugarit!

My arrangement here, is based on the that the original transcription of the melody, as interpreted by Prof. Richard Dumbrill. Here is a link to his book, "The Archeomusicology of the Near East": http://bit.ly/d3aovp

It is played here, on a replica of the ancient Kinnor Lyre from neighbouring Israel; an instrument almost tonally identical to the wooden asymmetric-shaped lyres played throughout the Middle East at this amazingly distant time...when the Pharaoh's still ruled ancient Egypt.

A photograph of the actual clay tablet on which the Hurrian Hymn was inscribed, can be seen here:

http://www.phoenicia.org/music.html

The melody is one of several academic interpretations, derived from the ambiguous Cuneiform text of the Hurrian language in which it was written. Although many of the meanings of the Hurrian language are now lost in the mists of time, it can be established that the fragmentary Hurrian Hymn which has been found on these precious clay tablets are dedicated to Nikkal; the wife of the moon goddess.

There are several such interpretations of this melody, but to me, the fabulous interpretation just somehow sounds the most "authentic". Below is a link to the sheet music, as arranged by Clint Goss:

http://www.flutekey.com/pdf/HurrianTabLtd.pdf

In my arrangement of the Hurrian Hymn, I have attempted to illustrate an interesting diversity of ancient lyre playing techniques, ranging from the use of "block and strum" improvisation at the end, glissando's, trills & tremolos, and alternating between harp-like tones in the left hand produced by finger-plucked strings, and guitar-like tones in the right hand, produced by use of the plectrum.

I have arranged the melody in the style of a "Theme and Variations" - I first quote the unadorned melody in the first section, followed by the different lyre techniques described above in the repeat, & also featuring improvisatory passages at the end of the performance. My arrangement of the melody is much slower than this actual specific academic interpretation of the melody- I wanted the improvisations in the variations on the theme to stand out, and to better illustrate the use of lyre techniques by a more rubato approach to the melody.

100 Best Albums of the Nineties

  

Intro/100 next 

 

The Nineties as a musical era started late and ended early — kicked in by the scritchy-scratch power chords of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," ushered out by the doomy piano intro of ". . . Hit Me Baby One More Time." Anti-pop defeated by pop — full circle, all apologies. You've heard the story.

But the real Nineties were richer, funnier and weirder than that, with fake grunge bands writing better songs than some of the real ones, Eighties holdovers U2 and R.E.M. reaching creative peaks with Achtung Baby and Automatic for the People, Metallica and the Black Crowes co-existing on MTV, Phish tending to the Deadhead nation after Jerry's passing — and Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer ceding their pop thrones in a few short years to Dr. Dre, Snoop and Eminem. — Brian Hiatt
This is an excerpt from the introduction to Rolling Stone's book The '90s: The Inside Stories From the Decade that Rocked.

Something For the Eye: Abandoned Mill from 1866- Sorrento, Italy

Psychedelic Pioneers: The Blues Magoos

The Blues Magoos





The Blues Magoos were a rock group formed in The Bronx, New York. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend as early as 1966.

The band formed in 1964 as "The Trenchcoats". The original members were Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm aka Peppy Castro (vocals and guitar), Dennis LePore (lead guitar), Ralph Scala (organ and vocals), Ronnie Gilbert (bass) and John Finnegan (drums). The band made a name for itself in various clubs in Greenwich Village. By 1966 the band had changed its name to fit in with the psychedelic vibe of the times - to the more conventional Blues Magoos. They also made some line-up changes, bringing in Mike Esposito as lead guitarist, and Geoff Daking as drummer.

Like their name, the group's sound was of the psychedelic variety. Mercury Records signed the band to a record deal in late 1966 and the group's debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop was released shortly thereafter. It was one of the first records to contain the word "Psychedelic" on the sleeve.

In a tour of the US in 1967 they were the opening act followed by The Who and then the headliners Herman's Hermits. The group's biggest song, "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet", was released as a single in 1967 and hit number 5 on the US charts and was used for the movie Easy Rider in 1968.




The Music of The Blues Magoos

The HoTTness of: Mila Kunis

Bob Dylan's Top 10 Songs of All-Time

Rolling Stone Readers Pick Their 10 Favorite Bob Dylan Songs From 'Forever Young' to 'Like a Rolling Stone,' the Dylan tunes you like the most

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In the May 26th issue of Rolling Stone, a panel of experts selected their top 70 Bob Dylan songs in honor of the songwriter's 70th birthday. Last weekend we asked our readers to name their own top 10. The results weren't extremely different  though they did show a little less interest in his post-Blood On The Tracks work. We tried to pair all of these with videos of Dylan performing the tracks, but the Dylan camp has been aggressive about removing clips from YouTube, which used to be an unbelievable treasure trove of rare Dylan footage. Now it's tough to find much more than random guys in their basement playing "Mr. Tambourine Man" and a handful of clips that the Dylan police haven't yanked. When necessary, we included covers of the songs.
By Andy Greene

Mick Jagger Forms Supergroup with Dave Stewart, Joss Stone and Damian Marley

 

For the first time since the Rolling Stones formed nearly 50 years ago, Mick Jagger is part of a new band: Super Heavy – featuring Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and Indian film composer A.R. Rahman. The band has quietly been recording together over the past 18 months, with their debut LP planned for sometime around September. "It's different from anything else I've ever been involved in,"  Jagger tells Rolling Stone. "The music is very wide-ranging – from reggae to ballads to Indian songs in Urdu."

By Andy Greene

'It's different from anything else I've ever been involved in'

The group got its start two years ago when Dave Stewart called Jagger from his home in Jamaica. "I live in Lime Hall right above St. Ann's Bay," says Stewart. "It's kind of the jungle, and sometimes I'd hear three sound systems all playing different things. I always love that, along with Indian orchestras. I said to Mick, ‘How could we make a fusion?' We were talking about an experiment, and then we started talking about voices. It was all born from that conversation."
Jagger loved the idea, and after lots of brainstorming and phone calls around the world, they settled on Stone, A.R. Rahman and Marley - whose rhythm section helped flesh  out the band. "We wanted a convergence of different musical styles," says Jagger. "We were always overlapping styles, but they were nevertheless separate."

About 18 months ago, the band gathered in a Los Angeles studio. None of them had prepared any music. "We didn't know what the hell we were doing," says Stewart. "We were just jamming and making a noise. It was like when a band first starts up in your garage. Sometimes Damien would kick it off and then Joss would sing something on top of it. We might have a 22 minute jam, and it would become a six minute song."


The loose method was inspiring for Jagger. "One of the beauties is that, just speaking as a vocalist, I did other things," Jagger says. "I played guitar and harmonica, but there's four vocalist on the album. Not everything was reliant on me.” The band’s name came from some improvised vocals by Marley. "He was just singing 'Heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, super heavy,'" says Stewart. "We thought that sounded good and it sort of stuck with us."
Jagger is confident that Stones fans will embrace the group. "It is a different kind of record that what people would expect," he says. "It's not all weird and strange though. I think Stones fans will think it's a bit odd, but they'll find most of it accessible. They've heard me play harmonica before and a lot of it is pretty high energy."


As of now, there are no plans to bring Super Heavy on the road. "We're experimenting at the moment and just taking it day by day," says Stewart. "I think if we're rehearsing and it sounds great and people love the idea then nobody would rule out the possibility of it."
Might Jagger's other group be hitting the road at some point in the future? In an interview with USA Today, Keith Richards said he was optimistic. "Something's blowing in the wind," he said. "The idea's there. We kind of know we should do it, but nobody's put their finger on the moment yet. This is what we want to ask each other: Do we want to go out in a blaze of glory? We can, if Mick and Charlie feel like I do, that we can still turn people on. We don't have to prove nothing anymore. I just love playing, and I miss the crowd."
When asked if the Stones are going to tour next year, Jagger just chuckles. "I don't have any announcement to make at the moment," he says. "I'm just, uh, ya know...just doing this right now."

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Very Graphic: Dead Syrian protesters kept in a refrigerated truck.

For a month, the Syrian army and security forces have been besieging Daraa city, killing hundreds of civilians, and banning electricity, water,food and medical care from its people. In such conditions, refrigerated trucks have become the only option for keeping the dead bodies.
Daraa was the first Syrian city to protests against the Syrian regime. The regime has followed the same terrorizing and r More..etaliation plan in other protesting cities.



LiveLeak.com - Very Graphic: Dead Syrian protesters kept in a refrigerated truck.

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