Kicking Against The Pricks

doomandgloomfromthetomb: The Darkness Doubles A dip into the...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:16:38 +1100

The Darkness Doubles

A dip into the archives — this was the second thing I ever posted on this blog. If you didn’t get it way back then, here ya go.

Tom Verlaine, Fred Smith, Bill Ficca and Richard Lloyd make their bid for the coveted Best Fucking Band Ever title with this unbelievable show, recorded on 7/2/78 in Portland, OR — far, far away from their regular NYC haunts. The club was called the Earth Tavern, and while I don’t know what the interior looked like, I like to imagine it with trees growing out of the floor, moss on the walls and owls perched on the rafters. Incredibly, within a month or so, Television was kaput (at least for the time being; they’ve fitfully reunited and re-reunited over the years). You wouldn’t know it from this recording, though: holy shit, it smokes from beginning to end, with Verlaine and Lloyd showing off their legendary guitar interplay and Ficca and Smith providing a firm but flexible rhythmic backdrop. This show was a couple days after the San Francisco gig that was officially released in limited quantities back in 2003; that one might have the edge in terms of sound quality but the Portland show has the edge in terms of performance … If the version of “Little Johnny Jewel” here doesn’t convince you of the greatness of Television … well, I feel bad for you, son.

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The Church at Milton Theatre last night

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:07:40 +1100

The Church at Milton Theatre last night

Jerry Brito: Top ten myths about introverts

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:54:15 +1100

Jerry Brito: Top ten myths about introverts:

jerrybrito:

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to…

Rush of Sun: Occupy Sydney Day 10 - You are no longer the public. You are 'them'

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:44:33 +1100

Rush of Sun: Occupy Sydney Day 10 - You are no longer the public. You are 'them':

onmyshore:

This is my opinion. I speak as an individual supporting Occupy Sydney and in solidarity with others worldwide. This is only one experience and I know many people all over world suffer far worse at the hands of police and other’s supposed to help.

Last night I went to Martin Place and attended…

indiaknight: Possibly my favourite letter ever, found last year...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:00:17 +1100

indiaknight:

Possibly my favourite letter ever, found last year via the really wonderful, day-enhancing Letters of Note (the transcript is here). Now Letters of Note is being turned into a book, to be published by Unbound with your help. Here’s the pitch and all the information. Unlike many blogs that get turned into books, this one is *made* for paper, and I can’t wait for it to exist. Please go and have a look and give the project your support.

animalstalkinginallcaps: WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:19:14 +1100

animalstalkinginallcaps:

WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE. IT’S A SERIOUS PROBLEM AND CAN TAKE HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF PREEMPTIVE ACTION TO EFFECTIVELY PROTECT FUTURE GENERATIONS.

WHY DON’T YOU POST SOMETHING ON TWITTER? YOU TOTALLY TOPPLED MUBARAK LAST YEAR WITH YOUR CLEVER HASHTAGS. I ERASED THE MESSAGE ON ACCIDENT BUT YOUR PRAYERS REALLY HELPED JAPAN, TOO. THEY ACTUALLY CALLED AND SAID THANK YOU; EVERYTHING WAS FIXED IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE OF YOUR TOKEN TWEET OF SUPPORT. BRITTANY MURPHY CALLED AS WELL. SHE WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR SPELLING HER NAME WRONG WHEN YOU POSTED YOUR HEARTFELT R.I.P.

TWITTER IS A POWERFUL TOOL.

I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY THE SAME THING ABOUT YOU. STOP TALKING AND DO SOMETHING FOR ONCE.

liveandactivecultures: The whole world is watching. Mass...

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:48:31 +1100

liveandactivecultures:

The whole world is watching. Mass arrests from the Brooklyn Bridge protests today. #occupywallstreet

http://www.protectyourfirefighters.com/homepage/w1/i2/

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 18:22:40 +1000

http://www.protectyourfirefighters.com/homepage/w1/i2/

Bliss

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:46:49 +1000

Bliss

Friends of Turia Pitt are friends of mine

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:04:28 +1000

Friends of Turia Pitt are friends of mine

Audio

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:40:33 +1000

For the ABC crew-Beautiful people do not just happen

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:28:01 +1000

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

Elisabeth Kubler Ross

My | [R]evolution: Sept 8 Public Sector Rally for firefighters - join us.

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:30:16 +1000

My | [R]evolution: Sept 8 Public Sector Rally for firefighters - join us.:

darinsullivan:

Round 2 against O’Farrell’s IR laws – 8 September

With the O’Farrell Coalition Government refusing to restore the rights of public sector workers in NSW, it’s time to step up the campaign.

FBEU members have already campaigned at community rallies, at meetings with MPs,…

Photo

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:25:34 +1000

Milne Article

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:55:13 +1000

PM A LOST CAUSE FOR WARRING UNIONS

Australian, The (Australia) - Monday, August 29, 2011Author: GLENN MILNE
Julia Gillard has lost all authority within the broader Labor movement

THE real import of the alleged brothel creeping scandal surrounding Craig Thomson has been missed. And it is this: key factions and unions within the Labor movement are now openly indifferent to the fate of either Julia Gillard or the federal government. They simply don’t care any more.

Gillard has now lost all authority within the broader Labor movement. By their actions in the Thomson saga they have signalled a judgment that she cannot win the next election. Settling internal scores and power struggles is therefore now more important than whatever happens to a lame-duck PM who can’t haul her primary voting numbers out of the pathetically fatal mid 20s.

The Mafia-style dirt-covered shovel — code for digging your own grave — dumped on Friday at 3.30am on the doorstop of Kathy Jackson, the union official who had the courage to refer Thomson’s activities to the police, may as well have been delivered to the Lodge. For Gillard it is now that bad. She is simply regarded as collateral damage and large sections in the Labor movement are uninterested about whether she’s terminally wounded or not as they go about their internal bloodletting. It is about to get worse as elements of the Australian Workers’ Union seek to settle up with Thomson’s accusers by demonstrating that Gillard herself was implicated, albeit unknowingly, in a major union fraud of her own before she entered parliament.

On Friday, Michael Smith of 2UE contacted me to check the veracity of material in a statutory declaration drawn up by Bob Kernohan, the former president of the AWU, and dealing with the relationship between Gillard and Bruce Wilson, which I outline below.

On Saturday, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph columnist Andrew Bolt wrote on his blog: “On Monday, I’m tipping, a witness with a statutory declaration will come forward and implicate Julia Gillard directly in another scandal involving the misuse of union funds. Gillard herself is not accused of any misbehaviour at all. I do not make that claim, and do not hold that belief. But her judgment — and that of at least one of her ministers — will come under severe question. She will seem compromised. It could be the last straw for Gillard’s leadership.”

Big call. But I do have a good deal of knowledge regarding Bolt’s claims. On Sunday November 11, 2007, just days before the November 24 election I interviewed Gillard, then deputy leader of the opposition, in my capacity as political editor for News Limited’s Sunday newspapers. The interview concerned the embezzlement of union funds — not disputed — and later the subject of a court conviction by a former boyfriend of Gillard, Bruce Wilson. I had researched the piece for months. It was the most heavily lawyered article I have ever been involved in writing. The story said that as a solicitor acting on instructions, she set up an association later used by her lover to defraud the AWU. But she has strenuously denied ever knowing what the association’s bank accounts were used for.

Gillard, then in her early 30s, was a lawyer with Melbourne-based Labor firm Slater & Gordon. At the time of the fraud she acted for the AWU. She met Wilson, then the West Australian AWU secretary, while representing the union in the Industrial Relations Commission. Wilson later moved to Melbourne to become Victorian secretary of the union.

“These matters happened between 12 and 15 years ago,” Gillard told me. “I was young and naive. I was in a relationship, which I ended, and obviously it was all very distressing. I am by no means the first person to find out that someone close turns out to be different to what you had believed them to be. It’s an ordinary human error.

“I was obviously hurt, when I was later falsely accused publicly of wrongdoing. I didn’t do anything wrong and to have false allegations in the media was distressing.”

What the lawyers would not allow to be reported was the fact that Gillard shared a home in Fitzroy bought by Wilson using the embezzled funds. There is or was no suggestion Gillard knew about the origin of the money. We now await the issue to which Bolt refers.

If it comes, and if it is powerful as Bolt suggests, it will be further evidence that the Victorian Right represented by the AWU is involved in a life and death struggle with the Right as represented by the Hospital Services Union. Thomson was a senior official of the HSU for 20 years before entering parliament via the seat of Dobell.

The HSU split several years ago into two factions. Thomson was supported by Jeff Jackson, Kathy Jackson’s former husband. This so-called old guard was the support base for Victorian right-wing power boss, David Feeney. Feeney is now looking for a parliamentary seat because Gillard’s abysmal numbers have made his third Senate spot vulnerable.

A defeat for the old guard by way of a successful prosecution of Thomson by police, would leave Feeney powerless and without a base or a seat.

Jackson himself has been accused of using union money on escorts with enemies of the Victorian HSU boss releasing bank statements showing payments to the same Sydney brothel where federal MP Thomson’s credit card was allegedly used. Jackson has denied the claims. Ultimately at issue here could be the succession to Gillard, and I’ll explain why.

When Kathy Jackson called in the wallopers, the stakes were high. Because a federal defeat for Thomson and his allies would enhance the power base of Victoria’s two other factional king makers, Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy who are both aligned with the new guard in the HSU. And we all know what Shorten’s ultimate ambition is.

What a tangled web we weave especially when you consider Thomson is married to Zoe Arnold, a former Transport Workers Union official and adviser to former NSW Health Minister Reba Meagher. Alex Williamson, daughter of HSU national president Mike Williamson, is an adviser to Gillard. And, of course, as mentioned, Kathy Jackson, who blew the whistle on Thomson, was married to former Victorian state HSU secretary Jeff Jackson.

Truly the NSW Disease has arrived in Canberra.

Meanwhile amid all this interbred internecine manoeuvring Gillard attempts to adopt the high ground, attacking shadow attorney-general George Brandis for intervening in the course of justice. On Thursday morning Gillard attacked Brandis for speaking to NSW Police Minister Michael Gallacher at a time when the allegations against Thomson were being assessed by NSW Police. Unfortunately she got her facts wrong because the NSW police only announced they were conducting an assessment four days after Brandis spoke to Gallacher and in fact only got Brandis’s dossier three days after he spoke to Gallacher.

A small point but one that indicates the pressure is beginning to show on Gillard as she desperately searches for points of deflection. During the same press conference she also vainly tried to defend Thomson’s decision not to make a statement to the parliament on the facts. We all know why; if he lies he’s finished as an MP and Gillard is washed up as Prime Minister. Gillard and Thomson are shackled together just as surely as two First Fleet convicts.

Oh, and here’s a small postscript on which to end. On September 7 at the Wyong Christian School at 2pm there will be the opening of a new hall built with funds from Gillard’s time overseeing the Building the Education Revolution. Thomson is scheduled to attend as the local member. My gut instinct is that both he and the Prime Minister will be otherwise engaged.Edition: 1 - All-round Country
Section: Features
Page: 014
Record Number: AUS_T-20110829-1-014-519715
Copyright, 2011, Nationwide News Pty Limited
To bookmark this article, right-click on the link below, and copy the link location:PM A LOST CAUSE FOR WARRING UNIONS

The Ship Song- Nick Cave, Eddie Vedder and PJ Harvey

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:15:04 +1000

The Ship Song- Nick Cave, Eddie Vedder and PJ Harvey

veritychambers: Packing up the bookshelves: A birthday present...

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:42:32 +1000

veritychambers:

Packing up the bookshelves: A birthday present for @ThinAt1End on our honeymoon - Patti Smith’s ‘Early Works’ signed by the author and bought at the old Gotham Book Mart.

A society that is slipping into Dickensian darkness

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:45:03 +1000

A society that is slipping into Dickensian darkness

Published on 18 Aug 2011

It’s been like one of those rather clunking agit-prop theatre productions from the 1970s.

Boy steals bottled water worth £3.50 and gets six months in jail, while bankers who wrecked the economy are rewarded with billions in public money.

Politicians demand exemplary sentences for vandals who nicked clothes from Debenhams, ignoring the way MPs helped themselves from the John Lewis list courtesy of their fiddled expenses. Tabloid newspapers demand a crackdown on lawlessness, at the very moment they are found to be engaged in law breaking on an industrial scale.

The only person who has faced any punishment in the phone hacking scandal in recent weeks has been the comedian who threw a custard pie at Rupert Murdoch.

He was sent to jail faster than his feet could carry him. The rest of the Murdoch suits walk free, even as documentary evidence emerges suggesting that they have misled parliament and the police. No exemplary sentences for them. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the fact senior police officers have been revealed to have been close to the Murdoch clan.

As London experienced its worst civil disturbances since the 1930s the Metropolitan police was reeling from the resignations of the Met Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, and his assistant, John Yates over allegations of improper conduct. No, you couldn’t make it up – as Sun columnists say.

If David Hare or 7:84 theatre company had produced a play with these characters and plot lines reviewers would have said: “Crude Marxist propaganda…conspiracy theory…lacking in nuance”.

I’d probably have said so myself. But here we are and it is all true, fact not fiction. Read all about it – at least in the papers that are actually reporting the phone hacking scandal. No doubt someone is already penning the Ballad of Tommy Sheridan for the former Scottish Socialist MSP currently in jail for perjury in large part because of evidence given under oath by Andy Coulson, disgraced former editor of the News of the World – the paper that died of shame.

I hold no brief for Mr Sheridan, but what awaitsMr Coulson? Will the forces of law and order be devoting half a million pounds to investigating the veracity of his evidence? Will Rebekah Brooks be woken at dawn, interrogated and asked to explain how she received drinks miniatures? If not, we can all draw our own conclusions.

Trouble is too many young people have already drawn their own conclusions about the kind of society they are living in - about the morality of the overlapping and incestuous political/financial/media establishment that appears to run it – and too many of them are saying that society stinks.

David Cameron talks of a “slow motion moral collapse” – well, I can assure him, from speaking to many young people since I became Rector of Edinburgh University, that the moral collapse is anything but slow.

It has been precipitate following the banking crash, the MPs expenses scandal and the phone-hacking affair. Many young people instinctively distrust the police.

There is widespread discontent in English schools and colleges at the scrapping of Educational Mainten-ance Allowance and the tripling of tuition fees. Many young people feel locked out of society.

Yesterday’s unemployment figures showed that 20% of all people under 24 years of age are now jobless in Britain – that’s over a million young people with no prospects.

Among young black males in areas like Tottenham, unemployment is running at up to 50%. The wonder is that there haven’t been more riots. They see City plutocrats robbing the wealth of the nation and they see red.

Young people with no prospect of affording a home hear lectures from politicians who made a fortune flipping homes bought by public money. Many are stuck at home, dependent on their parents, infantilised and restless, unable to form relationships or start a family.

Products of an education system that builds a sense of entitlement then dumps them in a wasteland of lost hope. Some take drugs, some self harm, some watch TV, some riot and get exemplary sentences.

Of course, none of this justifies violence on the streets, criminality, arson, shop lifting, terrorising people in their homes. The people responsible for the riots should be tracked down, and they should be given the toughest sentences the law allows. But the open secret about the riots is that the real criminals, the organised gangs who arrived outside branches of Curries with balaclavas and transit vans, got clean away and are already selling their stolen goods at carboot sales across Britain.

The rioters given the exemplary sentences are, in many cases, rather dumb young people who got caught up in the excitement. They are now receiving punishments which do not fit the crime – fuelling further discontent and alienation among young people. Foolish Facebook posters getting four years in prison – more than a serious sexual assault. A woman is found with a stolen television in her car and gets 18 months, more than a knife criminal. What moral purpose is there in that?

Will these exemplary sentences apply also in Scotland? Our streets were spared the violence that gripped England’s largest cities.

Opposition leaders have lost no time in denouncing the First Minister, Alex Salmond, for pointing this out. But he was absolutely right to do so. If we don’t understand why Scotland didn’t burn, how can we ensure that we avoid England’s mistakes? We can all hazard a few guesses why young Scots didn’t riot: no tuition fees, EMA, enlightened policing, better ethnic integration, a greater sense of community, less glaring divisions in wealth (Edinburgh aside). Maybe all play a part. Maybe it’s just too wet for rioting. But we need to find out soon.

For you can see how the history of this period will be written, as society slips back into Dickensian levels of inequality, lawlessness and hypocrisy. Corruption and illegality condoned at the top, while those at the bottom fester in idleness and criminality.

As the former UK Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Ken MacDonald, put it: “If you mug someone in the street and are caught the chances are you would go to prison. In recent years, mugging someone out of their savings or their pension would probably earn you a yacht.”

A fish rots from the head. Politicians lecturing on morality would do well to sniff the air around them.

De ja vu #LondonRiots

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:15:00 +1000

De ja vu #LondonRiots:

We’ve been crying now for much too long
And now we’re gonna dance to a different song
I’m gonna scream and shout til my dying breath
I’m gonna smash it up til theres nothing left

Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up

People call me villain oh its such a shame
Maybe its my clothes must be to blame
I don’t even care if I look a mess
Don’t wanna be a sucker like all the rest

Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up
Oooh ooh smash it up, smash it up, smash it up

Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up
Smash it up

Smash it up, you can keep your krishna burgers
Smash it up, and your Glastonbury hippies
Smash it up, you can stick your frothy lager
Smash it up, and your blow wave hairstyles

And everybody’s smashing things down
I said everybody’s smashing things down yeah

Photo

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:06:25 +1000