Thursday, August 18, 2011

NOT SEXY BUT CRUCIAL





















The conservatives of the world howl and gnash their teeth in the face of imagined debt and the IMF seek to impose punitive austerity on what had once been the workers of the developed world before capitalism descended into voodoo abstraction. All economists to whom I care to pay attention tell me that that current drastic cuts to public spending are nothing short of suicidal. In the instance it’s Robert Reich – formerly Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor (remember peace and prosperity?)

“Not only is the United States slouching toward a double dip, but so is Europe. New data out today show even Europe’s strongest core economies – Germany, France, and the Netherlands – slowing to a crawl. We’re on the cusp of a global recession. Policy makers be warned: Austerity is the wrong medicine. We all know about the weaknesses in Europe’s “periphery” – Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. But the drop in Europe’s core is dizzying. Germany grew at an annualized rate of just half a percent last quarter, down from 5.5 percent in the first quarter of the year. France didn’t grow at all. What’s going on in Europe’s core? Partly it’s a loss of confidence due to debt crises in the periphery. But that’s hardly all. Europe depends on exports – especially to Asia, India, Latin America, and the United States. But exports to China and other emerging markets have been dropping. China, worried about inflation, has pulled in the reins on its sizzling economy. Brazil has been pulling back as well. And as the United States economy sputters, exports to America have been slowing. But chalk up a big part of Europe’s slowdown to the politics and economics of austerity. Europe – including Britain – have turned John Maynard Keynes on his head. They’ve been cutting public spending just when they should be spending more to counteract slowing private spending.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Barrett Strong

The secret word is Clueless

NOT SEXY BUT DANGEROUS

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Pavia and Abigail Frozdick failed to grasp the reality of the Nazi Party.

HOW DO YOU OUTLAW THE OUTLAW’S MASK?

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

THE CHELSEA TO BE REMODELED? THE WORLD MAY INDEED BE ENDING










Everything ages, everything changes, do what you think you should do, but there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden. So rage, rage against the dying of the light.

“The bohemian long-term residents of Manhattan’s Hotel Chelsea may be about to meet their match in the New York landmark’s new owners: a Moroccan-Jewish family with vast American real estate holdings and past legal difficulties. The Chetrit family, who purchased the famous property on August 1, has made clear its intention to remake the West Side building. And that is making at least some of the Chelsea’s famously bristly residents a little nervous. “I would say it’s very clear their intentions are to get tenants out, because that’s what the practical nature of business demands,” said theater producer Scott Griffin, a 20-year resident of the Chelsea. Griffin described the hotel’s atmosphere as “funereal,” since the family took control and closed the property to transient guests. “They’re being very formal and very respectful right now, as they make their changes,” he said. “But I don’t anticipate that to last. Not because they’re bad human beings, but they’ve made an investment and they need to make sure the investment realizes itself. Such cautious anticipation has not always characterized the hotel tenants’ attitude toward its owners. Following the removal of the hotel’s popular longtime manager in 2007, someone sent a fish head and a pile of excrement to one of the building’s owners. Though the manager wasn’t reinstated, his replacement was eventually chased away. The hotel — usually known as the Chelsea Hotel — holds an unparalleled place in American pop culture myth: It was the site of the sexual encounter recalled in Leonard Cohen’s song, “Chelsea Hotel No. 2,” and of the murder of Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistols member Sid Vicious. William Burroughs wrote “Naked Lunch” at the Chelsea, and everyone from Dee Dee Ramone to Bob Dylan spent long hours in one or another of its rooms.” (And me, many times! Click here for more)

Click here for Nico

The secret word is Desecration

FREAKS OF GRACELAND – A MEMORIAL

DON’T FORGET THE STAR FLEET PRIME DIRECTIVE

If you have inter-entity sex with The Captain, you will probably die before the end of the episode. 

GRATUITOUS BARDOT

Sunday, August 14, 2011

SUNDAY BREAKFAST













The eggs are looking back at me and I’m very tempted simply to go back to bed. Maybe until September. Let’s face it, friends and neighbours, it’s been one hell of a week. The world feels as though it’s teetering on multiple brinks, and now the eggs are looking back at me. I woke up this morning seeking for respite but all I found was a TV awash in facile social commentators talking unmitigated crap about the UK riots without even the insight of my friends on Facebook. Meanwhile, back in the USA, after barely avoiding an economic apocalypse – which has not exactly gone away – the wholly insane Michele Bachmann has won the GOP Iowa Straw Poll that sets her on track for a run to the White House, and I blanch at the idea that this madwoman should control nuclear weapons. And just to cap it all, my email was hacked and everything I sent out for some 24 hours was going out under the name Clerissa Kahlil. (You figure it.) And yes, brothers and sisters, the eggs are looking back at me.

Click here for Patti singing Bob

The secret word is Contact

MARILYN SEZ...

“But you do realise, darling, if you go back to bed, it’ll all still be there when you wake up again.”

THE FROZDICK FAMILY













Lilo and Niki Frozdick had excellent seats for the atomic blast.

IT’S THE REAL THING