My Humble Ivory Tower.

No pizza delivery
to the top floor.

Deutsche Bank e-mail wir zu prüfen

The German language in every-day-use. Lesson 1:

"Sehr geehrter Kunde,
Die wichtigste Richtung der Entwicklung vom Online-Service der Deutsche Bank ist Gewaehrleistung der Sicherheit unserer Kunden. Wir setzen daher technische und organisatorische Sicherheitsmass- nahmen ein, um Ihre Daten - welche Sie der Deutsche Bank zur Verfuegung stellen - gegen Manipulationen, Verlust, Zerstoerung oder den Zugriff unberechtigter Personen zu schuetzen.
Um Ihren E-Mail-Adresse wir zu prufen - Wir bitten Sie, das spezielle Formular auszufullen:

http://......ellenlanger Link.de

Wir danken Ihnen fuer die schnelle Reaktion auf unsere Bitte. Wir hoffen auf Ihr Verstaendnis, weil unser Endziel die Sicherheit unserer Kunden ist."......................- spam mail I got today -


Also ehrlich, Leute - jeder der darauf reinfällt gehört weggesperrt. Zumindest weg vom Computer, rein in den Laufstall... Die aktuelle c't hat nen schönes Editorial zu dem Thema: "Wie bescheuert muss man sein um auf so eine email reinzufallen und fällt diese Dummheit möglicherweise unter die Genfer Konvention?".

National Health.

No, not what you think. National Health was one of the most interesting, but lesser-known bands from the 1970s British progressive rock scene. They played some of the most intricate and engaging music ever attempted by a rock group (says record label Northside). Largely instrumental, the music is characterized by shifting time signatures and virtuoso playing, yet it somehow remains accessible. Mind you, if you're a BoyGroup or Roland Kaiser fanatic, then probably not.

Over its history, band members included:

• Bill Bruford Percussionist. Original drummer of Yes,
• longtime drummer for King Crimson.
• Mont Campbell Bassist (also French horn).
• Alan Gowen Keyboardist and founder.
• John Greaves Bassist and vocalist. Formerly with Henry Cow.
• Steve Hillage Guitarist. Formerly with Gong,
• now a record producer.
• Phil Lee Guitarist.
• Phil Miller Guitarist.
• Neil Murray Bassist. Replaced Mont Campbell
• and appeared on the first album.
• Amanda Parsons Vocalist. Amanda was one of the
• "Northettes," a trio of female singers who supplemented
• the lineup of Hatfield and the North.
• Pip Pyle Percussionist.
• Dave Stewart Keyboardist and founder.

Dave Stewart, over the years, played in a lot of bands and projects, such as Egg, Arzachel, Khan, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Bruford and Rapid Eye Movement. Here's a biography, and here the website of Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, who (amongst others) are responsible for the most amazing version of What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted I have ever heard. Here's a list of their collaborations, I recommend you explore D&B's site and links.
Digging the net, one finds arcane places dealing with all this Canterbury stuff. Here's Calyx, a website dedicated to the Canterbury Scene. Here is The Canterbury Homepage (which claims there'd be a new Hatfield & The North record out in Jan 2005 - anyone??). Next is the Music Resource Page, and if you haven't enough already, go google for HATN.

Finally - for what it's worth - here's a link to a "Top 25 Albums of All Time" list compiled by Exposé writers. Some interesting stuff there, though I must admit I haven't heard of any of them Exposé writers nor am I aware of what it is they write about. Needless to say, many of those records have their place in my vinyl collection, so if you provide the island, I''ll bring the music. See you then.

Hello World!

Good day Munich, Madrid, Scottsbluff, Scottdale, London, Hamburg, Latrobe, West Des Moines, Tampere, Salt Lake City, Mumbai, Oklahoma City, Nantes, Pittsburgh, Prescott, Stockholm, College Park, Nashville, Los Angeles, Slough, Wichita, Montreal, Calgary, Perth, Sydney, Cambridge, Prairieville, Aachen, Elizabeth, Longjumeau, Berkeley. And all the unknown rest of you. Today, you know, is the first day of the rest of your lives. Enjoy!

But Seriously, Folks.

If you're just being stumbled here via "next blog" or something, you might be slightly confused and wonder what this is all about. This is all about me and Bobby McGee. No more, no less. There's no consistency to be found on this blog, except maybe the fact that I was the one putting all this here. This ain't my diary or my poor substitute of a social life. It is sort of a test, though, to see if anyone out there finds something in this local shop for local people, but given the fact that I don't advertise this most entertaining piece of something, those of you coming here by chance from another blog where someone weeps over their broken heart or what new shoes they have just bought... well, I can understand you're not becoming a regular. There's little to be found beetween the lines if you don't bother reading them. In short - this is not your average blog. No, of course not - it's mine.

You Make Me Diserpointet.

Okay, I'm grounded. And is all your fault! Thanks for nothing. Why is you all come and reed my good stories and when I needing help onse in a lifetime you peoples pertand as if you are no there?? I can see you! You don belief? HA! I don care.

Problems With Download (Noob).

Okay, I figured out to download my self. But now is getting dark one hour early? How can I uninstall?? Pleaze, anybody help! I have to fix this befor my perents came homme!!

Noob Here. Pleaze Help!

I read we get an extra hour today. Now where can I download this one hour? Where is it??? And how can I make it glitch?

The Wind Cries Mary.

After all the Jacks are in their boxes
and the clowns have all gone to bed,
you can hear happiness
staggering on down the street -
footprints dressed in red.
And the wind whispers Mary...

A broom is drearily sweeping up
the broken pieces of yesterday's life.
Somewhere a queen is weeping,
somewhere a king has no wife.
And the wind it cries Mary...

The traffic lights they turn blue tomorrow
and shine their emptiness down on my bed.
The tiny island sails downstream
cause the life that lived is dead.
And the wind screams Mary...

Will the wind ever remember
the names it has blown in the past?
And with this crutch, it's old age and it's wisdom
it whispers No! This will be the last.
And the wind cries Mary...

James Marshall Hendrix, * 27. November 1942 in Seattle, Washington; † 18. September 1970 in London, England.

Competition.

It's not like we ain't got our share...

Tumbleweed.

One of my favorite subjects. Today: a progressive-minded selection of web sites about the Bushy Tumbleweed of Connections.

Leftfield.

One of the greatest creators of electronic art, the London based duo Leftfield, ceased existence in 2002. Whoever may be interested, here's their online representation, as the band recently released their best-of compilation One Final Hit. Or maybe it was more of a Sony release? Strange - they simply disappeared, and three years later there's this forum with hardly any posts and stuff.
"A million guys they want free style / There will be no blows not freestyle / This style is not free / This style is expensive, alright". Dusted.

Sorry, George - Couldn't Resist.

Such a grateful victim.

It's Been A Long Time...

... to speak with Rakim, and there's been some sad occurrences which I won't go much into detail about. Ever encountered someone with a huge tag nailed to their forehead reading "Look y'all, here come the supanatural world's dumbest being end you betta get outa my way, biotch, becuz when I be grown up I'll go to the world most expansive universety and you not!" - well, I have and it failed to make me laugh. And it doesn't spell biotch, among others. Work on your grammar instead of giving others a hard time, poc. And insert spaces when using parenthesis and punctuation marks, if you even know what that is. Oh, and grow up before it's too late (if you're not smelling already). Tssk.

The Long And Winding Rhodes.

As some sort of contrast to yesterday's apocalyptical post, here's one that probably many of you few won't relate to. Still, it makes an interesting read if you're into music and / or musical instruments, namely the Fender Rhodes electric piano. The site I'm linking to devotes entirely to the instrument that was invented in the mid fifties and took music and its live performances to a new level. Find info on the Rhodes' history, interviews, a showcase featuring a young Herbie Hancock demonstrating what you could do with a Fender Rhodes if you had one, and much more at The Super Site. What a name.

Fire In Babylon.

"The volume of chemical substances at a global level has gone from 1 million tons during the 1930s to 400 million tons today (that's an increase of 40,000 percent)! The chemical industry has thus put on the market - without evaluating them - substances that will sometimes be withdrawn once the damage to the population's health is assessed. That's the "proof by people" to demonstrate toxicity that was the rule at the end of many long years. Still, that's only the case for a minority of substances, since for 97% of the substances data is incomplete or nonexistent."

Sorry, fellow bloggers, not the average good news I'd usually issue on a beautiful Monday evening. But I can't help but think - are we ever gonna pay attention? Herb Ruhs, MD, writes in Unknown News (Oct. 14, 2005):

"If it was revealed that we -- all of us, some more than others, but all of us were being fatally poisoned, with millions of deaths already, and billions more deaths in the pipeline, don't you think that would be news?
Don't you think that, in its universally mortal effect, it would be such big news that it would push all other news items out of the public awareness? Wouldn't you think that no one would rest comfortably until this mass murderous assault was stopped and the injured helped?
Guess again.
André Cicolella, writing in Le Monde (English translation available at TruthOut) explores this conundrum in the context of a discussion of European Union political corruption. In the US we have the corruption but not the discussion, at least not in major news outlets comparable to Le Monde. Google "body burden" to discover that the scenario outlined above (and in Cicolella's article) is exactly what is happening to us."

Climate change, oil-shortage, famines... that's no news. World-wide poisoning? Never heard of?

Ruhs writes: "Arguably, this is the most important under reported news story in history. It is the biggest item of unknown news that I am aware of." He points out that it's not only the effects of individual substances, but "we are all being effected by a 'soup' of pollutants that have unexplored, and unexplorable, effects when combined." Read the full article here. And be sure to check out André Cicolella's article, part of which taken as introductory quote. It's real, folks. No conspiracy theory - mere facts. You, the average hard working citizen, pay politicians (to protect us) who then get payed by those poisoning us to make laws to protect them. Are you receiving?

An American In Chains.

"My cell was 8ft by 6ft, the same size as the detainees’ cages at Guantanamo. Barely a week ago I had received a glowing evaluation for my work as the US army’s Muslim chaplain among the “Gitmo” prisoners. Now I was the one in chains.

It was my turn to be humiliated every time I was taken to have a shower. Naked, I had to run my hands through my hair to show that I was not concealing a weapon in it. Then mouth open, tongue up, down, nothing inside. Right arm up, nothing in my armpit. Left arm up. Lift the right testicle, nothing hidden. Lift the left. Turn around, bend over, spread your buttocks, knowing a camera was displaying my naked image as male and female guards watched.

It didn’t matter that I was an army captain, a graduate of West Point, the elite US military academy. It didn’t matter that my religious beliefs prohibited me from being fully naked in front of strangers. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been charged with a crime. It didn’t matter that my wife and daughter had no idea where I was. And it certainly didn’t matter that I was a loyal American citizen and, above all, innocent." Read the full article here (Sunday Times, October 9, 2005). Thanks to Tom Plaine over at the NI-OD forum for posting that link! Added: James Yee's story has also been covered by the Seattle Times (thanks to Bowings, NI-OD).

The Long Tail.

"Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream." Says Chris Anderson in this well written, in-depth article on wired.com. Chris is expanding that article into a book, due out in May 2006. Follow his continuing coverage of the subject on The Long Tail blog.

Unto Thy Own Self Be True.

*note to self*

Money Makes The World Go Round.

Hier mal was für die kritischen Köpfe, die der deutschen Sprache mächtig sind sowie Eins und Eins zusammenzählen können. Wenn dabei auch noch Zwei herauskommt - um so besser...
DLF - Filz, Fälscher und Millionen.

Joy And Pain.

Oh Come All Ye Filthfull...

Unfortunately phrased announcements in church bulletins:

"There will be a baked bean supper next Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Music to follow."

"At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice."

"Life groups meet on Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM for food, fun, and fellowwhipping."

"Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa."

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

"Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."

The Rector will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

"The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment, and gracious hostility."

"The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon."

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

"This afternoon there will be a meeting in the South and North ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends."

"For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs."

Octopussies.