just the straight, natural blues...

He was born in 1904 in Rossville, TN, and was playing the guitar by the age of 14 with a slide hollowed out of a steer bone. His parents died when Fred was a youngster and the wandering life of a traveling musician soon took hold. The 1920s saw him playing for tips on the street around Memphis, TN, the hoboing life eventually setting him down in Como, MS, where he lived the rest of his life. There McDowell split his time between farming and keeping up with his music by playing weekends for various fish fries, picnics, and house parties in the immediate area. This pattern stayed largely unchanged for the next 30 years until he was discovered in 1959 by folklorist Alan Lomax. Lomax was the first to record this semi-professional bluesman, the results of which were released as part of an American folk music series on the Atlantic label. McDowell, for his part, was happy to have some sounds on records, but continued on with his farming and playing for tips outside of Stuckey's candy store in Como for spare change. It wasn't until Chris Strachwitz — folk-blues enthusiast and owner of the fledgling Arhoolie label — came searching for McDowell to record him that the bluesman's fortunes began to change dramatically.

When Mississippi Fred McDowell proclaimed on one of his last albums, "I do not play no rock & roll," it was less a boast by an aging musician swept aside by the big beat than a mere statement of fact. As a stylist and purveyor of the original Delta blues, he was superb, equal parts Charley Patton and Son House coming to the fore through his roughed-up vocals and slashing bottleneck style of guitar playing. McDowell knew he was the real deal, and while others were diluting and updating their sound to keep pace with the changing times and audiences, Mississippi Fred stood out from the rest of the pack simply by not changing his style one iota
(read more...)

IF IT WASN'T FOR THE IRISH AND THE JEWS

Last October, Moloney completed an album celebrating these Irish-Jewish relationships both within his own life and in American musical history. Growing up in Limerick, Moloney says, he knew “very little” about Jews or Jewish culture. He met Jewish people for the first time while at college in Dublin, and later learned that Limerick was one of few Irish cities ever to have a pogrom, in 1904. Moloney sees this project as “turning the circle, as it were,” celebrating Irish-Jewish cooperation. “If It Wasn’t for the Irish and the Jews” includes 14 songs, all researched and performed by Moloney, and products of the fruitful and nearly forgotten era of collaboration between Irish and Jewish songwriters in New York’s pre-World War I Tin Pan Alley.

Between 1880 and 1920, waves of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe shifted the makeup of New York City and its entertainment industry. In 1880, Irish immigrants made up one-quarter of New York City’s population and dominated the popular minstrelsy, variety theater and vaudeville scenes. First the Irish took to the New York stage and later the Jews did so, partially because of limited job opportunities elsewhere. The two groups were living on the fringes of society and in close quarters on the Lower East Side, where they often clashed along the rocky road to acceptance into mainstream American society.
Within popular culture, this reciprocity and competition led to fruitful cross-cultural pollination. Moloney points to upstart Jewish songwriters like Leonora Goldberg, who thought that to succeed, she had to “go Irish,” and so she changed her name to Nora Bayes. At the same time, farsighted Irish musicians were “hedging their bets,” worried that the only way to survive was to “go Jewish,” Moloney explained. Though he has heard thousands of songs from this era, Moloney still cannot guess the ethnicity of a song’s writers just by listening. “These were commercial songwriters,” he explained. “They knew what went over. Their genius was that they created these beautiful, crafted songs that just tugged at people’s heartstrings.”(read more...)

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!

Watch and enjoy Life of Brian... with arabic subtitles!
Brian: Excuse me. Are you the Judean People's Front?
Reg: Fuck off! We're the People's Front of Judea

Reg: All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Attendee: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace - shut up!
Reg: There is not one of us who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of the Romans once and for all.
Dissenter: Uh, well, one.
Reg: Oh, yeah, yeah, there's one. But otherwise, we're solid.

Brian: Have I got a big nose, Mum?
Brian?s mother: Stop thinking about sex!
Brian: I wasn't!
Brian?s mother: You're always on about it. "Will the girls like this? Will the girls like that? Is it too big? Is it too small?

Brian: I am NOT the Messiah!
Arthur: I say you are Lord, and I should know. I've followed a few.

Reg: If you want to join the People's Front of Judea, you have to really hate the Romans.
Brian: I do!
Reg: Oh yeah, how much?
Brian: A lot!
Reg: Right, you're in.

[a line of prisoners files past a jailer]
Coordinator: Crucifixion?
Prisoner: Yes.
Coordinator: Good. Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each.
[Next prisoner]
Coordinator: Crucifixion?
Mr. Cheeky: Er, no, freedom actually.
Coordinator: What?
Mr. Cheeky: Yeah, they said I hadn't done anything and I could go and live on an island somewhere.
Coordinator: Oh I say, that's very nice. Well, off you go then.
Mr. Cheeky: No, I'm just pulling your leg, it's crucifixion really.
Coordinator: [laughing] Oh yes, very good. Well...
Mr. Cheeky: Yes I know, out of the door, one cross each, line on the left.

Wise Man #1: We were led by a star.
Brian's mother: Led by a bottle, more like.

Suicide Squad Leader: We are the Judean People's Front crack suicide squad! Suicide squad, attack!
[they all stab themselves]
Suicide Squad Leader: That showed 'em, huh?

Brian?s mother: He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!

Brian: I'm not a roman mum, I'm a kike, a yid, a heebie, a hook-nose, I'm kosher mum, I'm a Red Sea pedestrian, and proud of it!

Brian: I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand? Honestly!
Girl: Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.
Brian: What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!
Followers: He is! He is the Messiah!
Brian: Now, fuck off!
[silence]
Arthur: How shall we fuck off, O Lord?

Ex-Leper: Half a dinare for me bloody life story?
Brian: There's no pleasing some people.
Ex-Leper: That's just what Jesus said, sir.

Ex-Leper: Okay, sir, my final offer: half a shekel for an old ex-leper?
Brian: Did you say "ex-leper"?
Ex-Leper: That's right, sir, 16 years behind a veil and proud of it, sir.
Brian: Well, what happened?
Ex-Leper: Oh, cured, sir.
Brian: Cured?
Ex-Leper: Yes sir, bloody miracle, sir. Bless you!
Brian: Who cured you?
Ex-Leper: Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business, all of a sudden, up he comes, cures me! One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by-your-leave! "You're cured, mate." Bloody do-gooder.


Brian: Well, why don't you go and tell him you want to be a leper again?
Ex-Leper: Uh, I could do that sir, yeah. Yeah, I could do that I suppose. What I was thinking was I was going to ask him if he could make me a bit lame in one leg during the middle of the week. You know, something beggable, but not leprosy, which is a pain in the ass to be blunt and excuse my French, sir.

Brian: Please, please, please listen! I've got one or two things to say.
The Crowd: Tell us! Tell us both of them!
Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...
The Crowd: Sch!

Reg: [arriving at Brian's crucifixion] Hello, Sibling Brian.
Brian: Thank God you've come, Reg.
Reg: Well, I think I should point out first, Brian, in all fairness, we are not, in fact, the rescue committee. However, I have been asked to read the following prepare statement on behalf of the movement. "We the People's Front of Judea, brackets, officials, end brackets, do hereby convey our sincere fraternal and sisterly greetings to you, Brian, on this, the occasion of your martyrdom. "
Brian: What?
Reg: "Your death will stand as a landmark in the continuing struggle to liberate the parent land from the hands of the Roman imperialist aggressors, excluding those concerned with drainage, medicine, roads, housing, education, viniculture and any other Romans contributing to the welfare of Jews of both sexes and hermaphrodites. Signed, on behalf of the P. F. J. , etc. " And I'd just like to add, on a personal note, my own admiration, for what you're doing for us, Brian, on what must be, after all, for you a very difficult time.

Matthias: Look, I don't think it should be a sin, just for saying "Jehovah".
[Everyone gasps]
Jewish Official: You're only making it worse for yourself!
Matthias: Making it worse? How can it be worse? Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!
Jewish Official: I'm warning you! If you say "Jehovah" one more time (gets hit with rock) RIGHT! Who did that? Come on, who did it?
Stoners: She did! She did! (suddenly speaking as men) He! He did! He!
Jewish Official: Was it you?
Stoner: Yes.
Jewish Official: Right...
Stoner: Well you did say "Jehovah. "
[Crowd throws rocks at the stoner]
Jewish Official: STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! STOP IT! All right, no one is to stone _anyone_ until I blow this whistle. Even... and I want to make this absolutely clear... even if they do say, "Jehovah. "
[Crowd stones the Jewish Official to death]

Brian: You have to be different!
The Crowd: Yes, we are all different!
Small lonely voice: I'm not!

Brian?s mother: What star sign is he?
Wise Man #2: Capricorn.
Brian?s mother: Capricorn, eh? What are they like?
Wise Man #2: He is the son of God, our Messiah.
Wise Man #1: King of the Jews.
Brian?s mother: And that's Capricorn, is it?
Wise Man #3: No, no, that's just him.
Brian?s mother: Oh, I was going to say, otherwise there'd be a lot of them.

Judith: [on Stan's desire to be a mother] Here! I've got an idea: Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb - which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans' - but that he can have the *right* to have babies.
Francis: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother... sister, sorry.
Reg: What's the *point*?
Francis: What?
Reg: What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies, when he can't have babies?
Francis: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
Reg: It's symbolic of his struggle against reality.

Centurion: You know the penalty laid down by Roman law for harboring a known criminal?
Matthias: No.
Centurion: Crucifixion!
Matthias: Oh.
Centurion: Nasty, eh?
Matthias: Could be worse.
Centurion: What you mean "Could be worse"?
Matthias: Well, you could be stabbed.
Centurion: Stabbed? Takes a second. Crucifixion lasts hours. It's a slow, horrible death.
Matthias: Well, at least it gets you out in the open air.
Centurion: You're weird!
(read more...)
Graham Chapman ... Wise Man #2 / Brian Cohen / Biggus Dickus

John Cleese ... Wise Man #1 / Reg / Jewish Official / Centurion / Deadly Dirk / Arthur

Terry Gilliam ... Man Even Further Forward / Revolutionary / Jailer / Blood & Thunder Prophet / Frank / Audience Member / Crucifee

Eric Idle ... Mr. Cheeky / Stan (Loretta) / Harry the Haggler / Culprit Woman / Warris / Intensely Dull Youth / Jailer's Assistant / Otto / Lead Singer Crucifee

Terry Jones ... Mandy Cohen / Colin / Simon the Holy Man / Bob Hoskins / Saintly Passer-by / Alarmed Crucifixion Assistant

Michael Palin ... Wise Man #3 / Mr. Big Nose / Francis / Mrs. A / Ex-Leper / Announcer / Ben / Pontius Pilate / Boring Prophet / Eddie / Shoe Follower / Nisus Wettus

A Penis Duel (not in Ein Hod)

Created anonymously by a group of professional animators in about 1929, the silent short Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure is a gleeful exploration of the penetrative arts. The four-and-a-half-minute short follows the travails of the uncomfortably well-endowed title character as he wanders a barren landscape in search of satisfaction. Along the way, he encounters a self-pleasuring maiden, various sexually aroused animals, a surprised husband, and a donkey-humping farmer, whom Harton challenges to a duel. A penis duel.(read more...)

Through the Facebook, and What Jessie Found There

 Professor Jessie Schell , a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, kicked off DICE schedule by talking about the importance of social media in the gaming landscape.
He started out by reminding the DICE audience that there are more Farmville players than there are people with Twitter accounts. After pointing out surprise successes such as Club Penguin, the Wii, Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, Webkinz, and the popularity of the 360's Achievement system, he connected them by the psychological tricks behind their popularity.
Club Penguin's recurring charges seem trivial to parents at $6 a month, but that seemingly insignificant amount of cash adds up annually. Along the same lines, Schell says Webkinz is successful because to parents, $12 and $20 are interchangeable amounts of money.

Most importantly, these games all break into reality in interesting ways. Guitar Hero's peripheral, Webkinz's stuffed animals, and the 360's metagame all give players a tie to their real lives. Consumers have lost touch with authenticity, Schell says, citing the book Authenticity by James J. Gilmore, making them crave ways to better connect with the "real" world.
Gameplay is hidden in activities such as the Simpson's 20th anniversary scavenger hunt, fantasy football, geocaching and other places games didn't exist, Schell says. A teacher Schell knows has even changed his grading system to an XP system, and attendance is supposedly up.
Schell predicts that in the near future we'll have embedded CPUs, cameras, and screens in everyday objects like soda cans and cereal boxes. People will be gain XP as they brush their teeth and eat corn flakes, the government will give tax incentives (and XP) for people who travel by bus. Dreams will be infiltrated by ads, and answering quizzes on the content will be rewarded with huge XP bonuses. Essentially, he sees a world where everything people do is connected to a massively comprehensive gamerscore. Schell was definitely trying to entertain the crowd with his increasingly odd predictions, but they were as plausible as they were creepy.
The presentation ended with Schell posing the question to the developers in the room: "Who's going to lead us into the future?" (via Gameinformer)

Insight into the Soul of an Orthodox Jew

Usually orthodox Jews are suspicious and don’t like to be interviewed. Swiss filmmaker Jürg Da Vaz succeeded, however, to get close to them. In his amazing film “Itzhak Frey&Son” he reveals the mind of Itzhak Frey, an old wise Jew with Central European roots and deep Jewish convictions who sells pastries while giving Da Vaz some history lessons and - as a cashier counting the coins - is teaching Da Vaz religious philosophy.
His colourful movie, which also has touching encounters with Frey’s son David, is a revealing document of orthodoxy in the 21st century.

„As we left the bookshop in Mea Shearim where I had met David, he made sure: “Is the tape on?“ Walking through the narrow, busy lanes of Me’a She’arim and listening intently to his fascinating stories, I cautiously asked David: “May we visit your father?“ He first hesitated since he did not know how his father would react to my camera. His father had never allowed anybody to take a picture of him. Then David suddenly stopped, turned to the right and took me to the almost 90 year old Itzhak Frey who was working in his own Pastry Shop at Yecheskei Street as a cashier.“

Швейцарский режиссер Юрг Da Ваз в удивительном фильме "Ицхак Фрей & сын" раскрывает ум Ицхака Фрея, мудрого старого еврея , который продает булочки давая Da Вазу уроки истории и религиозной философии считая сдачу.
" ...я осторожно спросил Давида : "Можем ли мы посетить вашего отеца? Сначала он колебался, поскольку он не знал, как его отец будет реагировать на мою камеру. Его отец никогда не позволял сфотографировать его. Давид вдруг остановился, повернул направо и взял меня к почти 90 летнему Ицхакы Фрею, который работал в своей кондитории на улице Ехезкель у кассы".

Carl Cunningham-Cole: Algutsboda's Potter

"If I can make a piece sing to its beholder, I feel I have succeeded in expressing not only the estethics of art, but the estethics of life itself."

Having been picked out as one of the shining stars of ceramics in the early sixties when, at his first major exhibition, his work stood toe to toe with Miró, Chagall and Picasso, Carl Cunningham-Cole left England and settled in Scandinavia.
Born in 1942 in Farnham Surrey, England, Carl won a local art contest at the age of nine. This was the beginning of a liftime journey in the astonishing and ancient world of ceramic art.
After a few years at Torbay Academy of Art he was accepted at the remarkable young age of fifteen to the Newton Abbot College. At the age of seventeen he had already exhibited together with british sculptor Lynn Chadwick.
After years of studies, including dialogues with masters like Hans Cooper, Lucie Rie and the grandfather of British Ceramics himself, Bernard Leach, Carl age 22, recieved distinction award from Central School of Fine Art London,and came to represent England in the worldwide touring exhibition "British Ceramics".
When he moved to Denmark in the mid-60´s for establishing a Scandinavian studio he met Asger Jorn, co-founder of Cobra Group in Paris. Following an article by Henrik Bramsen, art Journalist at Berlingske Tidende, Jorn purchased, in person, 7 works by CCC for the international Silkeborg museum of art in Denmark.

After travelling throughout Europe, Carl spent three years visiting countries like Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Afganistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal in order to widen his perception of the ancient artform. Following the Silk Route and visiting Korea, China and Japan, a very important impression. - Korea for example, he claims, is perhaps one of the most important regions in ceramic history, its celadon glazes are exquisite. During this time he had intensive dialogues with, amongst others, legendary grand master Dong O Anh (Korea), whose refined porcelains are masterpieces, the Chinese grand master Liu Shengdao (with whom he participated on national Chinese TV) and Kyoto based Japanese grand master Hamada Shoji. A research period in Kyoto at Kawai Kanjiro Studios also contributed to further knowledge of the ancient art of glazes
Carl comments: "What makes me love this art form, is that I can use Ceramics, Stoneware and Porcelain, in Sculpture and Painting combining both into one medium. This makes also the artform in itself much more challenging, especially when you consider the firing processes.
Today Carl, since the early 70´s resides in Algutsboda, in the vast forests of southern Sweden, where he bought an abandoned old-folks-home in traditional Swedish Allmoge-style (1932). Todays gallery hosts visitors on a global scale, placing Algutsboda and its history in focus. As an example of his lifestyle, he kept a deer as a pet (which he saved from death when its mother was hit by a car!).

MICHAEL CROCKER: the mountain potter

Folk potter Michael Crocker taps a thick stack of back orders for his snake jugs and face jugs. "You can't rush clay," he grins. "You can't rush art either." At 39, Michael creates his collectibles carefully, all the while fulfilling the goal of carrying on tradition.

"It would fascinate me so much I couldn't stand it," he says of his childhood days hanging around a nearby pottery shop where, at 12, he was invited to work. "I'd go before school, then go back to work after school," reports the Lula-based potter who absorbed the techniques of older craftspeople. "Later I saw that a window to the past was slip ping away, and I felt the desire to continue it in the future."
A face jug easily brings $600; the snake jugs, executed with slender North Georgia forms and ash glazes, fetch even more. The Smithsonian Institution owns some Crocker pottery. Michael Crocker himself collects pieces from past generations.
"I would do this even if there was no money," he admits. "I want to make pottery--and my son who is 6 is already making pieces." With that thought, Michael smiles. The show, he knows, will go on.