Kansas City music: The Futants

Music Review: The Futants:
Pass Me the Butter
Review by Pete Dulin.

The Futants picked a helluva song title for the lead track, “Those Who Danced Were Thought to be Quite Mad by the Deaf.” It’s bold and bizarre like the plotline of a B-movie airing at three in the morning. The Futants aren’t going for a sub-par horror flick soundtrack. They aim to deliver A-list progressive metal with an imaginative flair. About the name, Futants is a mashup of future and mutants. The band seized inspiration for its name from a theory by psychedelic shaman Dr. Timothy Leary, who proposed that a type of genetic wild card exists as a small percentage of the population at any given time. Futants aid humans as a species to adapt and advance in the Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest, given the proper environmental recognition and support to exist. When Futants in the form of scientists, philosophers, artists, athletes, or other roles push our threshold to new ground, then the entire race evolves. It’s heady stuff with a sci-fi bent that gives the band ample conceptual room to maneuver as they pound out chords, crash cymbals, and unleash their message with a guttural growl.

For the rest click here.

Article and me on TV - I love to watch myself on TV

From: Wichita Peace and Freedom Party Examiner Steve Otto

Now and then, in Wichita. we are known for something good. This time Playboy Magazine (Aug. 2010) has designated our favorite counter culture bar Kirby’s Beer Store one of the country’s best “dive bars.”
The article explains that a dive bar gets its name from a term first used in the 1880s to describe an illegal drinking den in someone’s basement.
It also describes a place where the high and low can rub elbows together…the bums and poets…thieves and slumming celebrities.
We don’t have many thieves at Kirby’s and most of the bums take a few classes at Wichita State University. Most of the celebrities are local. We do have our artists, writers and musicians and we have our DJs. And they can be found here. It is a place where everyone gets treated the same and there are few fights. Gays are tolerated along with Goths, hippies and political radicals (even the socialists). No one will provoke anyone over his/her politics or religion.
The Playboy article also says a good dive “wears its history proudly.” Kirby’s has posters that go back to the 1970s including an old opium poster. It has a joke about Nixon and the Watergate Hotel The wall is covered with poster both old and new. If a person gets bored they can read the wall. .
Kirby’s opened some time in the 1970s and at that time there were plenty of other “counter-culture” bars including the Head, A Blackout, and the Riverside Chalet. All were known for their clientele of hipsters, drugsters and intellectuals. Only Kirby’s remains and there’s not much of the drug use going on there anymore.
The list includes:
PLAYBOY'S BEST DIVE BARS, listed by Wichita’s KWCH Channel 12
•Austin: Mean-Eyed Cat
•Boston: Lucky's Lounge
•Chicago: Cal's
•Dallas: Lee Harvey's
•Lompoc, California: Jasper's
•Memphis: Ernestine and Hazel's
•Miami South Beach: Ted's Hideaway
•Nashville: Springwater Supper Club
•New Orleans: The Saint
•New Orleans: Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge
•New York City: Milano's
•New York City: Subway Inn
•San Francisco: Specs
•Washington, D.C.: The Big Hunt
•Wichita: Kirby's Beer Store

-សតិវ អតុ

Happy Birthday Ringo

Ringo Starr - "I'm The Greatest"




Ringo Starr

Another 4th of July celebration comes and goes

Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart - 200 Years Old

RIP the Big Guy

He has been one of my favorite pets now for about 27 years. I got him right before I met my wife. He grew from a salamander larva I bought in a fish bait store and raised him to a land living pet.
I had four of these pets until a little over a year ago. Within a few months all but my last salamander died. I was beginning to believe he would outlive me. But sometime yesterday he died. He was losing his appetite and losing weight. I knew he was running out of time and he finally did.
It is the nature of living things to die. I had this pet longer than he was supposed to live in the wilds. I only hope he got some happiness out of living in his cage with his friends for all these years I had him. I never gave these guys names because they can’t hear or read. After they all died I gave them names so I could mark their graves. Since this was the largest of my Salamanders I just call him “The Big Guy.” He was a tiger salamander, our official state amphibian. For a small animal he probably had more intelligence than some of our political leaders, especially Rep. Todd Tiahrt.
His name in Spanish was El Grande Mui Macho, In Chinese 大的人, in Russian Большой человек, in Korean 사람 in Hindi बड़ा आदमी.

Words of comfort for the dead and mourners;


"All men, aware of the wretchedness of life, suffer for their whole lives in trouble and fears, telling false stories about fear after death." - Democritus,

"Living is transformed into dying, lifeless matter is transformed into living beings. I propose that when people over the age of 50 die, a party should be held to celebrate, for it is in inevitable that men should die- this is natural law." - Mao Zedong

“Dying for the sake of the people has even more weight than Sacred Mount Himalaya; dying for the capitalists, feudalists, and reactionaries does not weigh more than a goose’s feather,” - Angkar Padevoat

“Why do the people make light of death?
Because those above them make too much of life.....
The people have simply nothing to live upon!
They know better than to value such a life!" – Lao Tzu

Summer Solstice Mead

Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can Marathon
2010 Schedule
Choose a year... 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2003 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987
Bang on a Can Marathon
June 27, 2010 12:00pm
World Financial Center Winter Garden, New York, NY
The Bang on a Can Marathon 2010June 27 – 12 HOURS of LIVE MUSIC!at the World Financial Center Winter Garden
12pm (noon) – 12am (midnight)Co-presented by the River to River Festival® and arts>World Financial Center
Bang on a Can’s annual incomparable eclectic super-mix of genre defying music! On Sunday, June 27, a mass of musicians, composers, and listeners from all over the world will descend on the Winter Garden in New York City for 12 HOURS of uninterrupted live ear-bending border-crossing music from around the corner and around the globe. This year’s program will feature the US Premiere of the celebrated work Professor Bad Trip composed by Fausto Romitelli, plus many more soon to be announced highlights by musicians and composers from throughout the US, Europe, Mexico, Central Asia, and more.
12pm
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble featuring Jeremy Viner, Tony Malaby, Ellery Eskelin performing Perseverance by John HollenbeckQuartet New Generation performing Danse macabre*** by Dorothee Hahne, Mortal Flesh by Paul Moravec, and Flea Walls* by Moritz EggertKambar Kalendarov & Kutman Sultanbekov from Kyrgyzstan performing Janglyk by Nurlanbek Nyshanov and traditional songs from Kyrgyzstan: Bek Tash, Kukuk, and Erke KyzFlorent Ghys performing Simplement by Florent GhysMoritz Eggert performing Hammerklavier III: One Man Band by Moritz Eggert
2pm
Face the Music performing Mesh by Graham FitkinJessica Schmitz, Eric Lamb, and Claire Chase performing Halftone (for 3 floutes and 3-channel 1-bit electronics)* by Tristan PerichSteve Coleman, Jonathan Finlayson, and David Millares performing Formation - Lunar Eclipse by Steve ColemanSlagwerk Den Haag performing DaDeRimGil*** by Seung-Ah Oh and Ludica by Marco Momi
4pm
JACK Quartet performing Tetras by Iannis XenakisGamelan Galak Tika performing Tire Fire by Evan ZiporynQuartet New Generation w/ Mortiz Eggert performing Oh, I am sorry, did I break your concentration? by Michiel Mensingh and Black Box* by Mary Ellen ChildsBang on a Can All-Stars performing Snakes and Ladders by Fred Frith
6pm
Talea Ensemble performing Professor Bad Trip** by Fausto RomitelliA performance by Buke and GassMoritz Eggert performing Hammerklavier V: Study in Fall** and Hammerklavier XX: One Man Band 2 by Moritz EggertSlagwerk Den Haag performing I Delayed People's Flights By Walking Slowly In Narrow Hallways** by Mayke Nas & Wouter Snoei
8pm
Vernon Reid, Mazz Swift, and Leon Gruenbaum performing Ghost Narratives by Vernon ReidBang on a Can All-Stars performing Ridgeway by Kate MooreA performance by Mira CalixBang on a Can All-Stars & Mira Calix performing spring falls back* by Mira CalixTim Brady performing Switch (Seconds / Liquid / Leaps / Singularity / Melismatic)** and Strumming (Hommage a John Lennon)** by Tim Brady with Video by Martin Messier
10pm
Kambar Kalendarov & Kutman Sultanbekov from Kyrgyzstan performing Chyibyldyn Kyzynyn Koshogu by Asanbai Karimov, traditional song Tagyldyr Too, Mash Botoi by Atai Ogonbaev and Ala Too Jazy by Nurlanbek NyshanovFlorent Ghys performing 4 by Florent GhysA performance by Burkina ElectricSIGNAL conducted by Brad Lubman performing Shelter by Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe with libretto by Deborah Artman and film and projections by Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder
SET TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE

How To Celebrate the Summer Solstice

The invisible hand of the Free Market Man

To see this better, click on it and it will enlarge it.

Goth Blocked

Patti Smith

Patti Smith dancing barefoot

Dennis Hopper is dead

He’s been in a lot of movies and even showed up in a Twilight Zone episode. But we remember his best for his role as Billy in Easy Rider. It was a cult classic and he played in such movies as Apocalypse Now and The Monkey’s Head.
Dennis Hopper gave up pot and booze in his later years but who can forget the hedonistic freak he played in Easy Rider.
He was from Kansas, raised in Dodge City.

According To CNN;
Hopper's acting career has spanned almost six decades. In the 1950s, he had roles in several TV shows and films, including "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955) and "Giant" (1956). He became a Hollywood sensation for "Easy Rider," the 1969 film he directed and co-wrote in which he played a dissolute, counter cultural biker. He was twice nominated for Oscars.

DEVO - secret agent man

On my Facebook page, for a joke, I was going to say that I shot a gram of coke this afternoon and I paid for it with the money I got from selling bomb making material to an al Qaeda cell here in Wichita. Then I c hickened out. The FBI slamming my door down and hand cuffing me while I'm on the floor just seemed too real a possiblility. No one can take a joke these days.

Yoko Ono's MAYORS OF THE WORLD FOR PEACE SPEECH:

POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Yoko Ono Lennon, May 4th, 2010

We are gathering here this evening with one concern all of us have. What can we do to stop Hiroshima and Nagasaki from being repeated again to destroy the lives on this planet? This time, it will not be two cities. It will be the world.

It seems the choices we have are either to blow up the planet with all its lives, or stay alive maimed, and slowly die from cancer or other unpronounceable ailments we don't have the cure for yet. Of course, there is another choice. A good one, the one we are all hoping for. But it's up to us to do something about it. There is no big powers we can count on.

The governments of the world owe their very existence to the backing of powerful corporations, so, sadly, their initial allegiance will have to be to the corporations, not to the people.

Remember Mad Cow disease? It was covered up for ten years in the United Kingdom, while people were dying from it and not knowing why. At the midst of it, a minister demonstrated on TV to show how it was safe for him and his son to eat beef. This was made as a strong gesture of assurance to the people! People were in a shock, watching that program on TV, still not wanting to believe that a minister of a powerful position may have to comply to the wishes of corporations even at the risk of endangering people's lives - and in this case, his son's. Yes. All of us are good at burying our heads in the sand.

I've read a very interesting article a few years ago by Michael Fitzgerald called Militarism:

Fitzgerald spoke of being the son of a working class Navy man, and has realized how millions of Americans depended on the permanent war economy for their livelihoods - not limited to people in the military, but people who worked as defense contractors and their employees. "A person cannot be elected to be the President of the country, unless they are supported and voted by the military and defense Industries," he says. Therefore, "if the President does not take the nation to war, he will not be able to stay President." The article refers to the fact that Lyndon Johnson said, privately, he feared impeachment if he pulled out of Vietnam. Well, that's a hell of a statement. If some people immediately wished to bury their heads in the sand again, I understood why.

Most recently, last week, to be exact, the State of Arizona shocked the world by announcing a new law, which seemed predictablly, to point to a very grave future of this country, and for the people who are still holding on to the American dream. The American dream once was a dream for all world citizens. And this announcement from Arizona confirmed the worst to us. John Cory immediately hit back with a strong article called "STORY IN SIX WORDS." . He mentioned that there was a legend that a colleague once bet Hemingway he could not write a story in ten words or less. Hemingway used six: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never used." John Cory wrote his own six words at the end of his article: "For sale - By owner - American Dream."

But, when it was at the darkest, something incredible happened. Our dream was not over yet! It took such a sad situation for people of America to stand up. But we did.

An ocean of people protested Arizona's new law on May Day in every American city right after the law was announced. One light, a big one, was lit in the world of darkness. Now we know where we are going - towards the light, together. No more burying our heads in the sand!

In such a historical moment, it is very important that the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be brought up again as a reminder of what can happen to the world if we forget, and fall back to the world of darkness.

Mayors of the World, Thank you for being here in this room, at this very historical moment in America, to encourage and inspire all of us - that we can do it! What the big power of the government can't do, we can. We of this planet are still in our embryonic stage. But with your efforts and the strong wishes of the people of the world, I know we can and we will create a peaceful world for ourselves and for this planet.

One day, not too far in the future, we will see ourselves living peacefully and having fun together on this planet without War. Let's look forward to that day and start working intelligently, to make it happen. Clearly, if the whole world stood up and spoke out for World Peace, we'll get it.

Please pass my message to the people of your towns and the cities - I say to them that we can do it. We can do it together. With your help, with the help of the mayors of the world, our voice will be made still stronger. We are the Family of Peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you again, for your wisdom and courage to speak out as the Mayors of the World. You are opening the door to many professional people who will learn from your stand.

Let's all stay well till we achieve World Peace.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Yoko Ono Lennon
May 2010, new york city.

Lena Horne

Kent State – 40 years ago

It was 40 years ago that four college students were gunned down by the US National Guards. No one has ever been put on trial or punished for these senseless murders, unlike members of radical groups such as the Symbionese Liberation Army, who have been retried years after they committed violence. In modern America, only those on the left are punished for a time when this country was at war with itself.
In the fictional autobiography Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie, there is a chapter that includes an assessment of then President Richard Nixon and it includes his attitude on the Kent State Killings. Here is an excerpt:



“Did you hear?” he shouted. “It’s been on the radio all day long!”
“Hear what?” we all asked almost in unison.
“He resigned. Nixon resigned. The man’s out.”
“That’s great,” Stony said. “Except now we have a president named Ford.”
It took a while for it to sink in. One of the worst presidents of my lifetime had been driven from office over a scandal I had paid little attention to at the time. That night, August 8, 1974, there was jubilation all along the street. Young people were celebrating. We couldn’t have been in a better place. I was surrounded by young people who, as I, felt under siege by Nixon. We felt vindicated. The power mad conservative president, representing all that was old and rotten, had fallen. The Watergate Scandal had finally brought him down.
This was the last time Westport looked like a Mecca for freaks and their counter-culture. My future trips there would bear this out. The year of the festival and the year Nixon

resigned seemed to be the highpoint and the beginning of the twilight of the freak era. Soon after, the era of peace and brotherhood came to an end, followed by a new generation of conservative, self-absorbed egotists. But at least for that one night, we had won.
Even though he was later touted as a “foreign policy expert,” by the mainstream press, Nixon may well have presided over more death and destruction than any other president since World War II. What I didn’t realize until years after I left high school was that Nixon’s meddling in Cambodia led to a bloody civil war. Nixon sent to Cambodia 30,000 US troops, and US planes dropped a quarter-of-a-million tons of bombs in the eastern part of the country in 140 days. The CIA, under Nixon, overthrew the nationalistic Norodom Sihanouk regime and replaced it with the corrupt and incompetent right-wing-military leader Lon Nol. By 1974 most of Cambodia’s countryside was under the control of the National United Front of Kampuchea, a coalition that was mostly Norodom Sihanouk, a few of his supporters, and Pol Pot’s Communist Party of Kampuchea. Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic government and its army were quickly losing control of the country and controlled little more than the capitol, Phnom Penh. In addition to Cambodia, there was Nixon’s disastrous handling of the Vietnam War. He slowly pulled out US troops while using military aid to try and prop up the army of South Vietnam. He called it “Vietnamization.” He fought a ruthless war on drugs. He had contempt for civil liberties.
Nixon and Kissinger could hardly hide their joy at seeing Chile’s President Allende overthrown by the murderous Pinochet. I was beginning to see just how bad a leader Nixon was. I could remember back in 1970 when four students were shot at Kent State in Ohio. The governor had called out the national guards to keep order and prevent turbulent protests. The news media suggested that Nixon didn’t seem to care.
He almost seemed content that students protesting him got shot. He seemed to brutally oppose anyone whom he thought was in his way. Nixon may have been the worst US president of the entire century. It was a great moment when he fell.
OHIO CSNY - Kent State Massacre Montage

Beltane 2008 video - Celtic Women - The Voice

Beltane

Beltane Maypole Dance Glastonbury 2009

Behind Yellow Eyes

Who is the man behind yellow eyes?
Does he drink a lot?
Does he have a tattoo?
Is he high?
Who is the man behind yellow eyes?
Does he sleep in fear?
Does he think about death?
Is he depressed?
Who is the man behind yellow eyes?
Does his feet hurt?
Does he cramp?
Is his skin yellow?
Who is the man behind yellow eyes?
Does he dream of the morning light as it shines through slabs of marble?
Does he remember a day in an old wooden bar laughing with his friends?
Does he remember a tall woman with tan skin and long dark flowing hair?
Who is the man behind yellow eyes?
Does he remember how many times he clocked in to start his day at his job?
Does he remember how many times he climbed out of his mattress of a bed at 6am?
Who is the man behind yellow eyes?
Does he remember his last glass of Moët & Chandon Champagne?
Does he remember his last bottle of Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout?
Does he remember his last taste of Methylenedioxyamphetamine?
Who is that man behind the yellow eyes?

-សតិវ អតុ