The Experimental Party has a candidate!

Running as an independent under the Experimental Party, “the party of experimentation,” Mr. Golam, legendary info-shaman and digital avatar, discussed his candidacy outside his home in the Electrosphere, where he tried to paint a sharp contrast between himself and President Bush. He also tried to separate himself from other Democratic candidates, and indeed from politicians in general.

“If the American people want a lifelong, corporeal politician in the White House, that’s not me,” Mr. Golam said in a webcast news conference. “They’ll have a group of people to choose from if that’s what they want. If they want instead somebody who is closer to them, more connected to them, someone who will subvert the dominant paradigm, who is willing to gnaw into the body politic, inhabit it, and lay his demon seed, that is me.”

No Comments »

Brazil President says arrest the money launderers, not the small drug dealers

The democratically elected president of Brazil issued a declaration of war last Tuesday… or so his words were received in some powerful quarters.

“The real narco-traffickers,” President Lula da Silva pointed the finger, are not found in the neighborhoods where poor people are “pressured and induced into crime in order to earn their daily bread.”

The kingpins of narco-trafficking are to be found, Lula dared to say, “in the large centers of capital.”

The president is now assembling a posse, he says, to hunt them down.

President Lula continued:

“Possibly, on a day when the Police intelligence is greater and stronger, the people won’t want them to invade a favela, but, rather, who knows…? They will go, instead, to the large centers of capital of this country and arrest the real narco-traffickers”

“And that is why we have fought for so long…for external control of the Judiciary. Not to interfere with the decisions of a Judge, but rather to at least know how the Black Box of the Judicial Branch, that is often untouchable, functions.”

NarcoNews comments in an email newsletter that Lula may be signalling the narco elites / ruling class they either support legalizing drugs or face serious consequences. And NarcoNews has a way of being correct about such things, and also of being way ahead of the curve.

No Comments »

The Ballad of Carlos Guitarlos

Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs were legendary/notorious in the post-punk L.A. days for their ferocious blues and massive drinking and drugging. Carlos Guitarlos played guitar for them. Top Jimmy died two years ago when his liver finally gave out. Carlos decided to get clean and sober at Top Jimmy’s funeral, and has stayed that way.

Now, after many years of playing on the street, he’s got a CD out, Y’see, he’s an amazing songwriter and can really really sing - R&B, blues, raw, feel the pain stuff. Even in the worst of years he kept writing and singing. He’s backed on the new CD by compatriots Dave Alvin (Blasters), John Doe (X), and Mike Watt (Minutemen).

As one who has been clean and sober a long time, it’s always heartening to see someone make it back.

From the SF Bay Guardian

“It would appear that the fortunes of Carlos Guitarlos might be on the turnaround. Most of you probably know him as the guy with the red Stratocaster playing outside the 16th Street BART station. Or maybe you remember him as the dude who, at one of his rare club dates, cleared the room with his bellowing voice (like B.S. Pulley, Carlos doesn’t require a mic or a telephone if you’re within eight blocks of earshot). Once a member of Los Angeles’ legendary Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs (who toured the circuit with blood brothers X and the Blasters), and currently scraping by as a street musician, Carlos will unveil a new solo album, Straight from the Heart (Nomad), this May.

Though 2001’s Mission Blues is mostly acoustic, Heart finds him surrounded by a core group consisting of Joey Morales, Bill MacBeath, Dave Black, and Marc Dote, as well as old friends John Doe, Dave Alvin, and Mike Watt. The old buzzard swings like he never has before, on an album featuring 13 well-penned originals and a couple of covers. A prerelease buzz is building in L.A. and New York, and for good reason – it’s a terrific album by a soulful guy. Carlos has booked a slate of shows to coincide with its release. He doesn’t suffer fools (or anyone else) easily, and given that he’ll receive a lot of attention, it’ll be interesting to see how (or if) he makes nice.”

No Comments »