Blair may resign as party leader on Tuesday
Bob Morris @ Apr 28th 2007 16:14 - Category: Unfiled ;
This is a desperation ploy to stave off expected massive defeats for Labour in this Thursday’s elections, says The Telegraph.
Archive for April 28th, 2007
And another one bites the dust
Bob Morris @ Apr 28th 2007 14:44 - Category: Unfiled ;
“Massages, not sex” my ass, says Sue.
The myth of Iraq civil war
Bob Morris @ Apr 28th 2007 12:44 - Category: Unfiled ;
Framing the violence throughout Iraq is a recent report from the Brookings Institution, a pro-imperialist U.S. research institute. The report concluded that 75 percent of attacks are directed at occupation forces, while a further 17 percent are directed at puppet Iraqi forces. This means that at least 92 percent of all attacks are directed at U.S. forces or its proxies.The so-called “civil war” in Iraq is a myth. The war is aimed squarely at the U.S. occupation, and it is growing stronger by the day.
The greening of Germany and NYC
Bob Morris @ Apr 28th 2007 08:08 - Category: Climate change ;
Germany wants to become the most energy efficient country in the world within 13 years. Mayor Bloomberg of New York City released a 127-part plan to make NYC deeply green as well as providing hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes.
The US needs policies like these at the federal level. Thinking big. Looking way ahead. Putting the well-being of everyone ahead of short-term interests.
Changes like this will have to occur at the governmental level because they are the only entities who can mandate them to happen.
Dion Dimucci
Bob Morris @ Apr 28th 2007 00:23 - Category: Unfiled ;
LeftiOnTheNews went on vacation and posted some music, including “Barbara Ann” by The Regents, before he left. This, the original version, is a classic mix of doo wop and rock and roll and got me thinking about another Italian doo wop group from the Bronx, Dion and the Belmonts.
Doo wop was street corner singing. It emerged out of black culture and was people on the stoop outside the tenement building singing. The harmonies, intricacies, and interplay between the voices was often startlingly good, especially considering they had no formal musical training.
The first single by Dion and the Belmonts, “I Wonder Why” is a dazzling classic. There’s so much going on in the song, and it’s made all the more remarkable in that they, as nobodies, walked in off the street and recorded it in two hours. Clearly, they had huge talent.
Dion wanted to do a single, and wanted the best singers. He choose the The Belmonts from members of a rival gang. As a young teenager (”there was no rock and roll then”) he listened to blues and Hank Williams. “For me, putting country and blues together, that’s what I call Rock & Roll.” Indeed.
The Italian doo wop groups from the Bronx did something else, they put doo wop and rock and roll together. The purists may have screamed, but these groups were breaking new ground. They also had serious attitude and were a needed counterpoint to the bland White teen idols of the day.
Dion went through some rough times, including heroin addiction while at the peak of his fame. He spent decades trying to find a spiritual place to call home, and chronicles his search in quite moving terms. Since the 60’s fame, he’s done folk, rock, gospel, and recently recorded a well-received blues album. Clearly, he keeps the creative juices flowing, not content to just do oldies show.
From Lou Reed’s speech inducting Dion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
And then there was Dion — that great opening to “I Wonder Why” engraved in my skull forever. Dion, whose voice was unlike any other I had heard before. Dion could do all the turns, stretch those syllables so effortlessly, soar so high he could reach the sky and dance there among the stars forever. What a voice that had absorbed and transmogrified all these influences into his own soul, as the wine turns into blood, a voice that stood on its own, remarkably and unmistakably from New York. Bronx Soul.
Bronx Soul Music is now the name of one of Dion’s companies. This is music that stands the test of time.
DionDimucci.com[tags]Dion Dimucci[/tags]
OpenDNS: free antiphishing and more
Bob Morris @ Apr 28th 2007 00:08 - Category: Unfiled ;
When you type in google.com in the address bar of your browser, it goes to a Domain Name Server to look up the ip address then takes you to the site. This is completely transparent to you, the user.
OpenDNS replaces your current DNS. Configuring it takes about 30 seconds and is free. It will block you from going to phishing and other such nasty sites. This alone makes it worth it.
But there’s more! It’s extremely fast (they serve about one billion DNS requests a day) and you can create shortcuts (like “goog” to go to google ) plus it automatically corrects typos.
They currently have four locations in the US, one in London, and more coming.
Link via the pay version of Windows Secrets newsletter.
