Now they wish they'd given Jack, more affection and respect : "Excerpt From A Global Icon Opera"

My knees, my legs are in a lot of pain as we wait for our first baby to make his first appearance any day now. Joint and nerve pressure, aaahhh! Things they don't tell you about in Yummy Mummy school...

Anyway, years ago, my friend

Cliff Malloy

who ran more than a few records stores in good ol Santa Rosa, California, turned me on to "Tomorrow" , a semi-obscure 1960s psychedelic rock band fronted by Keith West. Their most well known, eponymous titled album yielded a very interesting hit song, semi mini rock opera called, Excerpt from "A Teenage Opera" (also known as "Grocer Jack")
It is whimsical, wonderful, sad with an authentic children's chorus.
The song is referenced in Pete's "Keep Me Turning" off of his solo album, "Rough Mix" with Ronnie Lane. "Oh Jack are you ever comin' back? Will your operatic soul turn black?"
First season, "In The Attic" fans will remember Pete talking about it once.



This is the song I had in my head when I woke up today. It reminds me of Michael Jackson and his funeral which is due to start in about a half an hour. I truly believed he would have really enjoyed the song and the sentiment.


Rest in peace Thriller.

"Excerpt From A Teenage Opera"

Count the days into years
His fifty years brings many fears
Yesterday's laughter turned to tears
His arms and legs don't feel so strong
His heart is weak, there's something wrong
Opens windows in despair, tries to breathe in some fresh air
His conscience cries: "get on your feet
Without you, Jack, the town can't eat"

Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, get off your back
Go into town, don't let them down, oh no no
Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, get off your back
Go into town, don't let them down, oh no no

The people that live in the town don't understand
He's never been known to miss his round
"It's ten-o'clock", the housewives yell
"When Jack turns up we'll give him hell"
Husbands moan at breakfast tables
No milk, no eggs, no marmalade labels
Mothers send their children out
To Jack's house to scream and shout

Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, get off your back
Come into town, don't let us down, oh no no
Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, get off your back
Come into town, don't let us down, oh no no

It's Tuesday morning bright and clear
Lovely flowers decorate a marble square
People cry and walk away and think about the fateful day
Now they wish they'd given Jack more affection and respect
The little children dressed in black
Don't know what happened to old Jack

Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, is it true what mummy says
You won't come back, oh no no
Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, is it true what mummy says
You won't come back, oh no no
Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, is it true what mummy says
You won't come back, oh no no
Grocer Jack, grocer Jack, is it true what mummy says
You won't come back, oh no no ....

Madonna the attention greedy vulture tries to use Michael Jackson's death for self promotion

Mange called him a 'space alien freak' now she's honoring him?

Where was she all of these past fifteen years as the "most famous" pop singer when Michael Jackson was being vilified in court and the media ceaselessly? When did they ever duet? Why now is she SO attached to him?

Madonna did this "look at me too" rubbish when Princess Diana died, crying out against the media/paparazzi driven culture she nearly single handedly helped to accelerate with her fame whore/reality MTV life of raunch by exploiting Diana's death in a tacky video reenactment of her final hours. Does the press REALLY think she should be given a platform during Jackson's moment? This foul woman who exploits even her OWN MOTHER's death?

Did her sleazeball manager, Guy Oseary, really need to announce the day of Michael Jackson's' death, the unverified plans on her "being part of his comeback?"

No one but her slimy camp has ever confirmed she was to be part of anything.

She is simply the sacred media cow, who has trashed Michael Jackson's family repeatedly throughout most of her career, was clearly never his "close friend" , and is also not getting any attention this week for her African child trafficking ("adopt a child and go back out on tour the next week school of parenting") and "pay as you go" relationship, it only makes sense that she would try desperately to siphon attention from Michael Jackson's death by adding a VERY tacky Jackson impersonator to her upcoming tour.

Madonna is now clearly foaming at the mouth in trying to hijack some of the massive global adoration and ceaseless reverie Jackson is deservedly receiving from world leaders, entertainment industry giants and hundreds of millions of fans on all seven continents.


Madonna turned down "We Are The World" (thankfully), she has insulted, without provocation, Jackson's family, especially his sisters, Janet and Latoya, on numerous occasions and let's face it; she may be famous and model a bunch of clothing in photo shopped mags, but she has virtually zero talent when compared to Jackson. His unparalleled career has dwarfed her's across the boards especially as someone who fought racism within the music industry and who raised the bar as high as it could be raised for popular music, dance and record producing.

Madonna is an insipid parasite, and thankfully the Jackson family won't buy her BS line and have her attend his memorial. Considering how nasty she has been to other women (until she grew too old and haggard to get away with it), how much she's trashed the UK (eg: council housing, NHS), never had any emotional complexities play out, and how the media has protected image has done nothing but spawn more vulgar , talentless, hair dye Pussycat Doll style acts, she has no place alongside Michael Jackson's positive and cautionary legacy.

To paraphrase Francis Bacon, fame crushes the heavy, complex talents and pushes up the light and airy bits. Queen of POP? Please, she's a tiny little desperate wimp who pays for her intimate relationships in cash and who will NEVER be MY Queen!

Jackson, Entwistle , Moon and The Dark Industry: Part One

"The person I failed to help is being transferred right now to the LA County Coroners office for his Autopsy. The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow. After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret. Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation. At some point, I truly became Indifferent, until now."

-Lisa Marie Presley


Michael Jackson's shocking death reminds me greatly of two of my most favorite people who are now in Rock n' Roll Heaven: John Entwistle and Keith Moon. Like Jackson, on the eve of his death, John was starting a tour that he needed to do for money, that he'd been warned against attempting due to a weak heart and which he would have not missed for anything in the universe. A human beat box and impeccable, fanciful dresser in his own right, John loved to spend, spend, spend money just like Jackson. He loved to party as well. Jackson had huge hands as did Entwistle, when I shook them at The Fillmore in 1996, it was an out of body experience, like greeting a congenial human scale version of Ray Harryhausen's Talos.


Like Jackson's icon, Peter Pan, Keith Moon never wanted to grow up and never did to the point where his life becoming a raucous non-stop B-movie carnival fantasy with a first rate soundtrack. Perhaps more so than any other performer to date, Moon embodied the Peter Pan spirit that Jackson coveted, albeit tragically. Only one biographer ever caught the fact that he even knocked one year off his age so he could appear perennially as the "baby" of The Who. He died at age 31 or 32 , depending on which biography you consult. Like Michael, he'd been under the care of a doctor who was administering drugs (in Moon's case Clomethiazole aka Heminevrin , an alcohol withdrawal sedative) that are specifically contraindicated for unsupervised home use. Moon also had a recklessly impulsive nature and long history of alcohol and prescription drug abuse, another aspect that his doctor (who was never cautioned following his death) neglected to "look into." Ironically the most physically self destructive of the three (Moon) had the best hope of kicking his addiction and had been obsessed with getting clean, but it was sadly not to be. All three men were unique, living musical legends without equal but most importantly all died looking forward to something wonderful in their lives that was around the corner, they left when they were really on a huge "up" so to speak. Hugely important if you believe in reincarnation, resurrection or even just the positivity of the human spirit.

I bring them up in juxtaposition to Jackson because, while I loved Jackson's music and the fact that he flickered subliminally throughout my entire life, I'm surprised at how much his death has effected my idea of celebrity and the entertainment industry and how much sadness I feel. In some ways its the last straw, I sincerely believe that the industry and its endless parade of hangers on, enablers and lawyers, consciously destroys the greatest artists via indulgence, ostracism, ass kissing and thievery, while feting and rewarding the mediocre ones who have few personal complexities. I'm also disgusted by how there are those who, even after and during this unprecedented global mourning for Micheal Jackson, seem to think that world leaders and religious figures actually 'matter more' to the peoples of the world than entertainers.

For all the entities and good people that did try to save Michael Jackson's life, there was one person who sealed his doom while simultaneously siphoning off as much of his celebrity status that he could and still can: Martin Bashir. Martin Bashir reminds me of a type of personality you occasionally meet in the South London "Yummy Mummy & Daddy sect". A self conscious, non-indigenous stock Brit that is silently killing to blend in with this type of affected old school, water tight middle class British attitude that is mostly as dead as the Dodo. More pointedly someone who is, "trying really hard to be white". Martin Bashir's wife is white and he's accusing someone else of having "light kids?"
Ironically the very thing Bashir accused Jackson of doing in his now infamous documentary "Living With Michael Jackson."

To be continued

Goodbye

No apologizes no excuses, Michael Jackson was the greatest performer of the past fifty years and one of the most talented entertainers of all time.

Cintra Wilson has penned the best take on his shocking death that I have read so far.
NOT to be missed!

Cintra Wilson

I remember when he visited Stockton after the Cleveland School massacre in 1989 for no other reason then he simply cared enough to do so. So many other memories like Walter Yetnikoff threatening to pull all of A&M's videos off of racist Mtv if they did not play Billie Jean.

Rest in peace Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett-I'm blessed and glad that I came of age when performers actually had talent and were like glittering stars on earth.


Watch the below rare performance, post Jackson Five but pre-Off The Wall and solo fame, sort of the "Inter-War" Jackson. Your heart is rotting stone if you don't tear up.

Hot Rod Monsters Film Festival ! Come see me act and sing on the Silver Screen!

TWO NIGHTS OF ZOMBIES, CHOPPERS, MONSTERS & HOT RODS!
(two nights 12 hours of films and shorts total!)
Saturday July 18th & Sunday July 19th
At the 911 Media Arts Center
402 9th Avenue North Seattle, WA 98109 - (206) 682-6552

Films include:
Award winning documentary Choppertown: The Sinners Directed by Zack Coffman
Seattle premiere of Hot Rod Girls Save The World Directed by D.A. Sebasstian "Great!" - Film Threat Magazine
Crash Fans Directed by Paul Killebrew "Crash Fans has what the art film 'Crash' painfully lacks: Exuberance!" - The Seattle Weekly
RetarDEAD Directed by Rick Popko & Dan West and featuring Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy's
Hot Rod Havoc featuring the Shifters Car Club and music by Mad Sin, Koffin Kats and Three Bad Jacks
Mondo Scooterama Directed by Timothy Johnston
The Road To Bonneville Directed by Brian Darwas
The Vintage Vehicle Show Produced by Lance Lambert
also
Music Videos and Short Films

Tickets available online at or at the door (get there early!)
http://www.hotrodmonstersfilmfest.com

Refreshments provided by The Pin-Up Angels (Support The Angels- Support Our Troops)
Sponsors
Go-Kustom Rekords
Ol' Skool Rodz Magazine
Car Kulture Deluxe Magazine
Rat Bastards Car Club

Super Amanda's Best of The Internet 2009

The Best websites for 2009-I love or revile them ALL so in no particular order of preference:

THE BEST WEBSITES!!!


1.The Chestnut:

The Chestnut

The Home of Little Gems- INSANELY GREAT website chronicling the best of British children television from the 60's into the early 1980's and so much more! Laid out expertly with lists, dates, references, photos, links, audio files and detailed information, this site is a joy to behold. DO NOT MISS!


2. AntiRacist Parent:

AntiRacist Parent

Friendly people and gratuitously cute kid pictures while you discuss racial tolerance and parenting. Can't say that I care for Racialicious, their sister blog site as many as the guest bloggers tend to be snobs, anti-diversity and free speech.

3.Crumbs and Doilies:

CupCake Nirvana

Cupcake fetishists will find this blog beyond the realms of desire and artistry. Cupcakes and now macaroons are becoming the credit crunch's answer to a mini-vacation, a trip back to childhood and public food porn all in one.

4. Matt Kent Photography:

Matt Kent Photography

Concert photographer and longtime fellow Who fan, web developer author of Who books and periodcals, Matt Kent's very sharp website features up to the minute photographs of most of the big names who grace London stages weekly with occasional wild cards like Jennifer Aniston photographing John Mayer or the London Burlesque Festival.


5. Bunny Yawns:
Bunny rabbits of all shapes and sizes yawning makes for smiles and endless comedy. Don't ask why just visit the Watership Down of pulling faces.


6. Rachel Fuller and Friends. Absurdly multi- talented British singer songwriter who has been blogging since 2005 shares music and musings. Through the creation of her live webcast, touring with her partner Pete Townshend's band, The Who and her various prolific music projects. Don't miss her visit with legendary British director genius, Ken Russell and various funny anecdotes about luxury handbags and border collies.

7. Cintra Wilson:

Cintra Wilson

Without Cintra Wilson there would have been no Diablo Cody and without Cintra Wilson there would be no one willing to spew humorous and sarcasm where it counts and still be charming and attractive-she just has it! Her pop culture literacy is virtually unrivaled, she writes great books and she's really POLITICAL!


8. The Norwegian Elkhound Club of Great Britain: Wonderful dog breed of the Vikings, deservedly paraded around like Nordic Kings and Queens on there way to a earthly Valhalla of Science diet and "bally time."

9. You Tube: Still the universal TV and repository of what we like when we want it-that is if it has not been removed for copyright violation!

10. Big Cat Rescue:

Big Cat Rescue

Largest collection of very rare wild cats outside of the world's zoos, a must see.

11. Makeup Alley: See how others tried, cried and got water in their eyes before you drop that last 30quid on the new vibrating mascara wand. Fantastic consumer savvy site!

12. Brick Lane Betty aka Super Amanda: My own wildly Buxom You Tube channel , now swelling to 20 million hits, provides real boobs, bum and waist ratio alongside really funny Mise- en-scène and hours of pleasure in the Russ Meyer tradition.

"Gwyneth Paltrow's Confederate Flag Children's Theme Party at Barney's"- Super Amanda's Worst of the Internet 2009

The Worst Websites online

I Saw Your Nanny Blogger

1.Racist, catty and sexless, shrews express their veiled hatred of childcare providers while hiding pathetically behind the internet like faceless cowards. As they post cell phone pictures and circumstantial evidence of what they perceive to be "terrible child care providers" they provide zero solutions or individual responsibility to stop why there may be a childcare/day care /autism crisis in the first place. Their issue is not how it could be ameliorated but how more hatred can be encouraged and stirred up as much as possible from fellow parents who hate themselves. Actual nannies of dubious self esteem will occasionally make appearances to ask the gallery of harpies for advice or vent to the enemy. Classism is this website's Vaseline.

2.Stromfront

Yes, white supremacists, Confederacy kooks and Neo-Nazi actually rate one below the nanny bashers? Why? Because I believe in freedom of speech however abhorrent and this is about as foul it gets. Proving that racial extremism explodes during economic down turns and that there is, as of yet, no real community of anti-racist European pride online. The site has idiot after idiot blaming every single thing that ever went wrong in the world on another race and then claiming every single great civilization and invention in the history of the world that ever flourished was 100% white and Non-Jewish. Many claim both music's origins have nothing to do with RnB or African beats as well. Galleries of "Aryan Beauties" are posted with the occasional accidental pic of a famous beautiful woman who "isn't quite as 'white' as they thought she was" until its pointed out by a fellow raving psycho. A disgusting occurrence to witness as even beauty is hated upon and marginalized by these masturbatory twits. Better they sit at the computer though than walk the streets. Stormfrontm, a site of historical fiction, denial of individual responsibility, bogus Science and of primitive unhappiness and blame.


3.GOOP

The all time worst celebrity website currently active and the least funny-intentionally or otherwise. After becoming Madonna's fawning lap dog of relentless narcissism and self-centeredness, Gwyneth Paltrow has become one of the most boring, sexless and transparent jet-set figures to ever wield a black American Express card in the public's face. The website is a repository for her idea of how to spend money and the results are about as exciting and diverse as George Will's sock drawer. Does Paltrow really believe that during one of the worst recessions in the past 100 years, that people want to know how to pair a trenchcoat from Top Shop with a 495quid dress from Burberry ? Or a horizontal stripe pullover that hits mid hip (universally unflattering even on the slightest of frames) paired with 475$ distressed jeans?


For "kid friendly restaurants" in London, Paltrow has never ventured out of the W postcode's assortment of very high end eateries, so how kid friendly can they really be? Her list of places to take your children out in the states are out of some Ivana Trump wedding planner fantasy.
Here is her idea of a place to take the kids for ice cream:

Sweetie Pie

What about the children living in motels or caravans because their parents lost everything? What about the credit crunch? What about that awful personal trainer of her's who looks like an Oompa Loompa on steroids? It is truly sick to push it into everyone's face that this is how much she HAS. Very poor taste to gush on and on about one's own delicious, pampered life but even worse when it is not even an enviable and fun looking life.

David Carradine: I walked around middle school with a flute trying to be him

DAVID CARRADINE REST IN PEACE

Mike Post and Ken Aldin Themes:

Don't say you don't love them more than religion!

You're not STRONG ENOUGH!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETE!

Here's to a fun filled, peaceful but looney tooney year with many happy, sunny days!

And yummy cake that I found on Google.

Marble Hill, Richmond/Twickers Fun

Sadie on the Tube to Twickers




Marble Hill House


Last week we took the dog, Sadie, a mostly Jack Russell, and went to Richmond. We walked all the way to Marble Hill, into Twickers along the river, went to The White Swan and then up to the Cabbage Patch to watch the football. It was one of the warmest days of the year so far and the grass at Marble Hill was freshly mowed. I had to go back up to the high street and get my diary which we'd left in the corner shop which left Kevin with his Carslberg, Sadie dog and my copy of the Daily Sport. When I came back he was surrounded by four adorable little girls from the nearby playground, who were fascinated by Sadie dog and who wanted to take her home. He was glad to see me! Then the Sport blew in two directions and there we all were trying to catch the pages as they flew about hoping our young friends would not notice the content. Their childminder came over to greet us and apologize for her charges hovering but it was all welcome as being surrounded by kids is in the cards for both of us!

Sadie met all the dogs on the common including a Sharpei no one really cared for as he acted as if each dog in the park was a chew toy. Sadie scared off a giant whippet and made friends with a miniature Akita. Our goal is to do a flat swap with someone who wants the Hoxton/Shoreditch/Square mile proximity garden flat so we can move to Richmond, Kew or Twickers. The air is so sweet. I spent a week there in 2006 during the heatwave and have such fond memories of a daily afternoon's kip on the green. I plan to join the lawn bowling club.

It's a boy, Super Amanda, it's a boy....

Ha ha! "Super Amanda seems to get bigger everyday...."

Actually not really as I'm watching the scale but yes, like the song says I'm expecting a baby this summer, my first child with my husband Kevin which is very exciting and the reason for my lengthy You Tube abscence, though some footage from a few months ago will go up next month. We have a few names picked out and baby belly pics to follow. Our bundle will be half British Anglo-Saxon and half Italian American with some Irish and Sicilian thrown in for emotional balance. I already want him to attend Aldro prep school in Surrey just as Kim Philby did, as I know he is going to a smart and crafty boy! Being preggo is not overrated and I highly rate responsible and well planned out baby making to everyone. After I get my figure back then I'm going to be making some kind of appearance in "Rat Rod Rockers", DA Sebasstian's latest film which is exciting plus a long awaited personal website and Who covers EP will finally be surfacing. VERY HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!

The Artist Must Take Sides

Paul Robeson and The Spanish Civil War

Ode to Krakow While Thinking of Ryan Graham Deceased

Sometime in the early hours of February 27th 2009, my best friend's cousin died suddenly in San Francisco, California. He was 24 years old.

Ryan Graham was more like my best friend Brian's little brother. I last saw him in Krakow, Poland in summer 2008, where Brian had immigrated in 2007. Ryan and I had a mini-falling out in the Eastern European humidity over something pointless when we were both visiting Brian. Two embarrassingly bombastic types throwing jibes and insults over dry Sacher torte and Tyskie Beer. He and Brian had just comeback from Croatia and a series of family drama fueled adventures inspired by Ryan's endless amount of energy and ceaseless will to party round the clock.

Ryan was a sous chef, the child of a single mother who'd left an abusive husband when Ryan was little. Ryan spent his last day alive fighting against the aggression of those less openhearted than he was.

Ryan was really funny. Is really funny. I still hear all his animated expressions and snappy rejoinders. His jokes were NEVER mean. Great sense of humor and always full of energy...I don't think I ever saw him frown.

[Above]Ryan came to visit Brian in Krakow in May 2008 and he thought he'd treat him to a haircut, Polish style, on the balcony of the apartment in which Brian was living.]

Friends of mine had become his best friends. Every one had seen him on an upswing in his life lately. He and Brian, both being half Jewish, had gone to Auschwitz in May. I did not get a chance to say goodbye to him. I had wanted to write him on MySpace, let bygones be bygones, and suggest that he become chef in Sonoma/Napa, where the recession was not hitting cooking jobs as hard as in Frisco. The Wine country is quiet but it has a good effect on people. I thought he'd mellow out and "get on back to Grass roots" as the Freak Brothers comics say. The inner Bay Area is not a particularly nice place these days.

I had recently heard that he had been doing great so I decided to wait until Brian's wedding or some other event so being friendly again wouldn't seem like such a big deal. I of course wish I had not waited but I know he was not an intrinsically begrudging person. Years ago, I lost a brother who was a lot like Ryan and only 25. It shocks me to think of my best friend and his sister losing there brother. Ryan was animated enough to leave enough memories for many lifetimes. We have that intact.

This poem was inspired by Jim Morrison's eulogy to Brian Jones from 1969.


Ode to Krakow While Thinking of Ryan Graham Deceased

A lady born in 1922
Survived the Holocaust
Abandoned in Piedmont
Mummified
Door ajar for five years
Tax liens on St. Mary's Basilica

I've been chosen to
sing
The song of the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion

Poor Rosa Luxemburg

All your friends you never saw
off on the tram
Crowding around Oświęcim
while their candles burned down

Return so we can wire you
Hit the floor
in the Kazimierz instead

Writhing Alameda Beach filth sculptures
Should have been the
driftwood ones by Emeryville, Vistula
the ones that don't fall out
and knife you by
the flea market
hole in the fence entrance

You've left us your
wife beater vest
To compete with
I hope you went out knowing
like a Reform rabbi

A young man
with East Bay silt
coating his arms
and hands
Finally free to
move about
the flyover states

The Intrinsic Liquidation Committee

Rosa

Red hair blushed,
in freckles

Main Market Square
dream
mad
stifled
Witness

The police, the floor
the wallets

You were fighting
the Piedmont Pennywise

You were the burnt
Sunscreen
for Nowa Huta mall high noons

Organic altarpieces
Traveler of Columbia

Look now where it's got
You

in Carpathian heaven
with the sculptors
and the Chasidics

The handyman
Found
The body, royal, pipe down

Lucky got owned
What is this
Cracovian Calendar
You're made of

don't poke holes in Rosa's
Heart

Will he fear
Pushed heavenward
Thru the halls of
one love

Requiem for a Neverwait
That smile
That Golden Years
laugh
has leaped upward

into the Aron Kodesh

This is why I blog

A Hero for All Time-A MUST LISTEN!

A MUST LISTEN AND WATCH!

Stop stalking me Pickipedia editors who know nothing to very little about Paul Robeson. Go back to writing your articles about straight to video movies featuring Jessica Simpson and the Liberal Party of Canada. Set me free little geek girls/boys.

I did this, which I think was a very good usage of my time (nearly 100 hours to be precise)

Paul Robeson

The article was in such sad shape and was missing massive and crucially important periods of his life. Huge editing wars had gone down with freaks blaming Robeson for every possible thing a white supremacist right winger with no life can come up with.

Paul Robeson most famous and unjustly persecuted American of the 20th century erased by a racist US government and now they can't do sh*t about it because we have the internet. Sometimes Robeson reminds me of Pete T, sometimes he seems like a myth and other times I feel shocked that he actually was once on this planet at all. Best of all, after an long period of not being as focused on his legacy as I was from 1997 until 2001, I have come back to it with a completely different take. The 11 years since the Robeson Centennial has seen huge changes in how society interrelates and buys (or does not buy) into the media's brain washing.

Even as recently as the late 90's the Cold War still cast this specter of stupidity and "USA all the way, greatest generation" mythos, but now Communism did not turn out to be "the enemy' did it? Marxism did not cause 9/11, 7/7, the Oklahoma City bombing, school shootings or the ruined economy which is killing people with stress. The enemy turned out to be white supremacy, greed for oil, materialism and laissez faire Capitalism, oh and Mankdonna too because she's such an untalented piece of vapid photo-shopped trash.
Other pages I unearthed or created:

Paul Robeson Filmography

Paul Robeson and the Soviet Union

Peekskill Riots

Paul Robeson: Labor's Forgotten Champion

BOOBPEDIA!

BOOBPEDIA HOME PAGE

I love you BOOBPEDIA. You're not the Harvard Review or a degree from Cambridge but it's what I dooby dooby do and I'm chuffed to be featured and interviewed.

BOOBPEDIA INTERVIEW WITH SUPER AMANDA

A Triumph!

Last spring, when my You Tube account was suspended and I resourcefully fought my second bogus copyright charge, a wonderful fan and friend, Soles Girl Rachel made this for me.

FingerPrint File: Attempted Murder by The FBI and CIA of Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson, the black actor, singer, and political radical, may have been a victim of CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb's MK-ULTRA program. We have previously noted Gottlieb's death and outlined his career of infamy. In the spring of 1961, Robeson planned to visit Havana, Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. The trip never came off because Robeson fell ill in Moscow, where he had gone to give several lectures and concerts. At the time, it was reported that Robeson had suffered a heart attack. But in fact Robeson had slashed his wrists in a suicide attempt after suffering hallucinations and severe depression. The symptoms came on following a surprise party thrown for him at his Moscow hotel.


Robeson's son, Paul Robeson, Jr., has investigated his father's illness for more than 30 years. He believes that his father was slipped a synthetic hallucinogen called BZ by U.S. intelligence operatives at the party in Moscow. The party was hosted by anti-Soviet dissidents funded by the CIA.

Robeson Jr. visited his father in the hospital the day after the suicide attempt. Robeson told his son that he felt extreme paranoia and thought that the walls of the room were moving. He said he had locked himself in his bedroom and was overcome by a powerful sense of emptiness and depression before he tried to take his own life.


Robeson left Moscow for London, where he was admitted to Priory Hospital. There he was turned over to psychiatrists who forced him to endure 54 electro-shock treatments. At the time, electro-shock, in combination with psycho-active drugs, was a favored technique of CIA behavior modification. It turned out that the doctors treating Robeson in London and, later, in New York were CIA contractors. The timing of Robeson's trip to Cuba was certainly a crucial factor. Three weeks after the Moscow party, the CIA launched its disastrous invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. It's impossible to underestimate Robeson's threat, as he was perceived by the U.S. government as the most famous black radical in the world. Through the 1950s Robeson commanded worldwide attention and esteem. He was the Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali of his time. He spoke more than twenty languages, including Russian, Chinese, and several African languages. Robeson was also on close terms with Nehru, Jomo Kenyatta, and other Third World leaders. His embrace of Castro in Havana would have seriously undermined U.S. efforts to overthrow the new Cuban government.


Another pressing concern for the U.S. government at the time was Robeson's announced intentions to return to the United States and assume a leading role in the emerging civil rights movement. Like the family of Martin Luther King, Robeson had been under official surveillance for decades. As early as 1935, British intelligence had been looking at Robeson's activities. In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services, World War II predecessor to the CIA, opened a file on him. In 1947, Robeson was nearly killed in a car crash. It later turned out that the left wheel of the car had been monkey-wrenched. In the 1950s, Robeson was targeted by Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist hearings. The campaign effectively sabotaged his acting and singing career in the states.

Robeson never fully recovered from the drugging and the follow-up treatments from CIA-linked doctors and shrinks. He died in 1977. Robeson, Jr. has been pushing the U.S. to release classified documents regarding his father. He has already unearthed some damning stuff, including an FBI "status of health" report on Robeson created in April of 1961. "The fact that such a file was opened at all is sinister in itself," Robeson recently told the London Sunday Times. "It indicates a degree of prior knowledge that something was about to happen to him."



--Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn

HoT RoD GiRlS SaVe tHE WoRLd: The Indie film I'm in

All deliciously edited!! Here are the first ten minutes!

Doing Work on Paul Robeson's Wikipedia Article and then I got Sidetracked

This entire and very volatile part of Jackie Robinson's life was absent from his Wikipedia article so I spent the better part of a day making sure it was included.

Statement About Paul Robeson to HUAC

Jackie Robinson struggled with his decision to testify before The House Committee on Un-American Activities regarding the widely misquoted[69] declaration made by the famous entertainer Paul Robeson that African Americans would not support the United States in a war with the Soviet Union due to their continued second-class citizen status under law following World War II[70]. Technically, Robinson was not required to testify, but he knew there would be repercussions if he did not.[71]

Paul Robeson had done previous service on behalf of Jackie Robinson's entry into professional baseball. At their annual meeting in December of 1943, Robeson had addressed the baseball owners. As both a former athlete and a leading man on stage, he assured them that integrating baseball would not cause violence but would in fact propel the country closer to its ideals.[72]Robeson was the first black man to speak before the owners on the subject and afterward they gave him a round of applause. After the meeting commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis remarked that there was no rule on the books denying blacks entry into the league.[73] Two years later Robinson became the first black baseball player in professional baseball.[74]

During week of July 13th 1949, Robinson eventually agreed to testify fearing that it might negatively and permanently and damage his career if he declined.[75] It was a major media event with Robinson's carefully worded statement appearing on the front page of The New York Times the following day. Robinson said that Robeson “has a right to his personal views, and if he wants to sound silly when he expresses them in public, that is his business and not mine. [76]He’s still a famous ex-athlete and a great singer and actor.” Robinson also stated that "the fact that it is a Communist who denounces injustice in the courts, police brutality, and lynching when it happens doesn't change the truth of his charges";racial discrimination in America was not "a creation of Communist imagination."[77] Neither immediately following his testimony nor at any time thereafter did Paul Robeson quarrel with or denigrate Jackie Robinson.[78] He refused to be “drawn into any conflict dividing me from my brother victim of this terror.”[79] Jackie Robinson never forgot the experience or what he perceived as Robeson's magnanimity. Near the end of his life Robinson wrote in his autobiography about the incident, [80]

"However, in those days I had much more faith in the ultimate justice of the American white man than I have today. I would reject such an invitation if offered now…I have grown wiser and closer to the painful truths about America’s destructiveness. And I do have increased respect for Paul Robeson who, over the span of twenty years, sacrificed himself, his career, and the wealth and comfort he once enjoyed because, I believe, he was sincerely trying to help his people."[81][82]

The reaction to Robinson's statement at the time in the white press was positive including an article by Eleanor Roosevelt in which she wrote, "Mr.Robeson does his people great harm in trying to line them up on the Communist side of political picture. Jackie Robinson helped them greatly by his forthright statements." [83]Reaction in the Black press was mixed. The The New York Amsterdam News was supportive, saying that "Jackie Robinson had batted 1,000 percent in this game" but the Black newspaper 'New Age' remarked that "being Jim Crowed by Washington's infamous lily white hotels In 1963" Robinson had left the capital immediately after his testimony.[84] and The Afro American Newspaper ran a disparaging cartoon depicting Jackie Robinson as a frightened little boy with a gun vainly attempting to "hunt" Robeson.[85] In 1963, when Robinson criticized the Black Muslims, Malcolm X harshly alluded to Robinson's earlier and potentially damning testimony of Paul Robeson.[86]

REFERENCES:
69^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg358The Paris Speech and After
70 ^ Foner, Phillip,Paul Robeson Speaks 1978.pg197Address to The Paris Peace Conference
71 ^ Robinson, Rachel,Jackie Robinson:An Intimate Portrait 1996pg 225
72 ^ Pringle, Kenneth,Robeson, & Robinson," APBnews.com24 August 2001, p. 1
73 ^ Tygiel, Jules,Baseball's Great Experiment 1983pg30 Conspiracy of Silence
74 ^ Robinson, Jackie,I Never Had It Made 1972pg37 Breaking The Color Barrier
75 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
76 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
77 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
78 ^ Foner, Phillip,Paul Robeson Speaks 1978.pg219Lets Not Be Divided
79 ^ Foner, Phillip,Paul Robeson Speaks 1978.pg219Lets Not Be Divided
80 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
81 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
82^ Robinson, Jackie I Never Had It Made 1972.pg98The Price of Popularity
83^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
84 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
85 ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg361-362The Right to Travel
86^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.pg527Attempted Renewal

F*ck Richard Corliss: Time and Low Life

What's sad is that if someone like say Jeremy Paxman had written a similar piece and made similar points it would have been so much better.

Ol' Man Charisma/PAUL ROBESON: 1898-1976 By RICHARD CORLISS :

"If Robeson rejected a homegrown system of oppression to embrace another (referring to the Soviet Union), more toxic one, that was his right. He should no more have been denied a passport then than he should be praised for stainless political acuity now."

"More toxic one?" Talk to someone in Iraq or Vietnam or World War II veteran Issac Woodard who had his eyes gouged out simply for being black. Hell, even someone on an Indian reservation but no, our American way of life 'worked' in the 1950's, it was 'the free world, the 'lesser evil' right Richard?"

"In one Promethean figure were packed the power, glamour, pathos and tragedy of black dreams and leftist myopia in the 20th century. "

Just such UTTER SHIT writing!F*cker can't review a film so I don't know why I'm surprised.

"Through three decades of Soviet tyranny (including the murder of one of his Russian-Jewish friends), he remained faithful to the U.S.S.R. And here his charm failed him. He could sell sand to Saharans, but he couldn't peddle Stalin to America."

Robeson never 'peddled anything' and Richard Corliss is a lying sack of sh*t. To paraphrase Pete: Robeson went INTO the darkness, you don't just shove it up your nose and get into a limo."

Richard Corliss is just horrendous a great example of how right wing journalism is actually most mainstream journalism in the states. Still, like Ann akaMann Coulter they can only just annoy you and not much else because in reality they are just too historically-and culturally- inept to be any real threat. Why do I even care?!!!

Year of The Ox

My Wikipedia Pages by Catherine

Paul Robeson

Rachel Fuller

Russ Meyer

Paul Robeson and the Labor Movement

Peekskill Riots

Council on African Affairs

Paul Robeson and The Spanish Civil War

Paul Robeson, The Soviet Union and Communism

Paul Robeson filmography

The POOL Group

The Proud Valley

Native Land

Jericho/Dark Sands

Spanische Windtorte

The nature of 2009 is IRREPRESSIBLE!

Katy Perry : Generic Tone Deaf Corporate Music Shill and Anti-Feminist piece of trash

Ned Flanders in a padded playsuit. There will be no pics of that tone deaf piece of corporate swill known as Kate Perry and her sexless and linear interpretation of the pinup aesthetic via heavily padded dresses that display early onset osteoporosis , photo shop and makeup applied with trowel on this post. Nor will there be links to her erotic-less "Girls, Gone, Wild, Brazzers, raunch culture" airhead songs.
I just felt the need to state what a catty, talentless , tone deaf, knock kneed anti-feminist load of tripe she is-definitly the heir to the Mandonna corporate shill legacy. Kate Perry is nothing but Sandi Thom in a padded bra but with a poorer singing voice. But its that desperate Christian upbringing trying to hijack Kustom culture that is the most pathetic.

Virtually Katy Perry's entire career is owed to that right wing Cuban Walter Winchell aka Perez Hilton which is frankly like saying you owe it all it to a piece of vapid shit. The "challenge" to her Methodist religious freak roots are so pathetically evident in her attempts to be "edgy" that it's almost a case study in how someone's boring childhood can be taken out on the public via a media onslaught.


"When I met her I was bit frosty with her because someone asked her to describe herself. She's like, 'Aha, I'm like a fatter version of Amy Winehouse and a skinnier version of Lily Allen!' It's like, you're not English and you don't write your own songs, shut up!"

-Lily Allen

Exactly, she and her crappy 'catalog of songs' need to be banished to the cut out bins.

Reflections on Gaza by Gorgonzola a blogger from SF Gate

I found this person's observations to be the most astute regarding the conflict. The US has been branding Hamas as the reason behind all the fighting which is only part of it. Many pro-Israel bloggers are branding anyone with even a slight critique of Israel as "anti-Semitic." Those of us non Jews who love Jewish culture very deeply and feel it is separate from Israel and Israel conflicts are for lack of better term "ass out."
I respect Israel's right to exist, I'm very pleased they were able to set up a Jewish homeland after so many years of being driven away and liquidated via atrocities that the world allowed. If I was Jewish I sure I would not trust many in the international community. But as a non-Jew I want there to be peace in The Middle East and I want to see a Palestinian State as well as a Jewish State. Israel is in many ways an island unto themselves and will do what they want, I just wish the US did not have to fund them and support yet another war.

-Super Amanda


Reflections on The 2009 Gaza Conflict by "Gorgonzola", a blogger from SF Gate:

"ok you're right: the nuclear-armed Israel is really under existential threat and the "animal Palestinians" are about to wipe out the 5th largest army on the planet with their rockets and hand grenades. won't someone defend helpless Israel with plane loads of anti-personnel cluster bombs for use in one of the most densely populated corners on earth!? as long as the deaths they cause are accidental, its AOK. but if you mean it even a little bit, then its immoral."


"So what if any has any of this got to do with us Americans? There's Islamic terrorism all over the world: Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Spain, the UK. Don't see any bleeding heart Americans crying for the fallen in those nations. Why this gigantic rush from the United States to show solidarity with Israel? Didn't see Mayor Bloomberg rush to Mumbai to show solidarity with Indians after gunmen killed far more people than the Hamas have managed to kill with their pathetic rockets? Did Israel send their Prime Minister to show solidarity and offer support to the US after 9/11? Tony Blair was the person who stepped up and supported us then. And he's from the UK and W said "The United States has no greater friend than Great Britain". I don't see why Israel should be more special to the US than dozens of other democracies the world over (yes: Spain, UK, India - are all democracies). Israel should sort out its own problems without American moral support and American aid."


"...Three Israeli prime ministers were or are terrorists: Menachim Begin took part in terrorist acts in the 1940s, including the attack on the King David Hotel which killed 91 people. Yitzhak Shamir was the operations commander, and later leader, of the Stern Gang, a terrorist group which was responsible for a string of political assassinations. Ariel Sharon initiated the Sabra-Shatila massacre in which between 1000 and 3000 people (mostly Palestinians) were murdered and led a terrorist campaign against all Palestinians living in the occupied territories of the West Bank. As commander of the notorious Unit 101, Sharon led attacks on Palestinian villages in which women and children were killed. The massacre in the West Bank village of Qibya, on October 14, 1953, was perhaps the most notorious. His troops blew up 45 houses and 69 Palestinian civilians, half of them women and children, were killed."

"It's obvious from Israel's vastly disproportionate response that its goal is more about ethnic-cleansing than self-defense. Similar repeated conscious-shocking behavior over the years makes it very reasonable and predictable that many people in Gaza and the rest of the world will want to retaliate in understandably desperate ways for Israel's state-sponsored terrorist action. We in the U.S. have now been put at increased risk thanks to Israel's savage acts (with U.S. complicity). Over the last week, many more people in Gaza and the rest of the world have become so angered at what Israel has done that we can naturally expect retaliation. Neither Israel nor the U.S. will have just cause to complain when that happens, even if it's similar to our WTC comeuppance."

Listen Up To Tony Benn

Great Cover of John Entwistle's 905

I loved the tribute to Pete and Roger as the Kennedy Center Honors, it really stole the show away. To see them FINALLY get recognition from the establishment for their life's work was priceless to me. I am disappointed though that the expression "their Bassist vanished into the haze" was read and then they cut to 9/11 in the tribute film.

John played 9/11 right alongside Zak, Pete and Roger...

Ox dude, next time don't do so many drugs and drink so much!

Rest in peace Thunder Strings.

Today is Baba's Day

"A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine." -Meher Baba


This New Life is endless, and even after my physical death it will be kept alive by those who live the life of complete renunciation of falsehood, lies, hatred, anger, greed and lust;

and who, to accomplish all this, do no lustful actions, do no harm to anyone, do no backbiting, do not seek material possessions or power, who accept no homage, neither covet honor nor shun disgrace, and fear no one and nothing;

by those who rely wholly and solely on God, and who love God purely for the sake of loving;

who believe in the lovers of God and in the reality of Manifestation, and yet do not expect any spiritual or material reward;

who do not let go the hand of Truth,

and who, without being upset by calamities, bravely and wholeheartedly face all hardships with one hundred percent cheerfulness, and give no importance to caste, creed and religious ceremonies.

This New Life will live by itself eternally, even if there is no one to live it.

-Meher Baba

Baba O Kennedy

"Others tried to open that door, unlock it, or force it, or jimmy it, or slide under it in the night. The Who kicked it open. And The Who was on the other side."


Hahaha everybody on the internet! Highest US honours possible for any artist and Pete and Roger got it! Paul McCartney? GREEN as GREEN with envy can be! Sir Michael of Dartford? Swimming in jealousy!!!! haha haha ha!!

I'd somehow convinced myself the telecast would be tonight but it turns out I have to wait until December 30th which is ok as I'm waiting a lot lately. I was also in Borders tonight and saw the giant all new Pete deluxe bio...sigh, I like flipping through it but don't want to buy it just yet. Why Joss Stone sang "My Generation" I don't know but I'll take her over Kate Perry any day! I'm sure I'll love it when I hear it.

hahaha all those snotty naysayers and defamers from the chicken shit British tabloids and look where Pete and Rog are! Pete never need worry about being part the 'establishment' he and Roger have full East London props to this day if there name comes up in conversation; they are proper geezers. Few stars of their generation can command respect from working class Britain like they do not to mention here in the states.
They really deserve this, tremendously so. For all the grueling tours, all the American fans who would have never heard of Sonny Boy Williamson, Driftin Blues, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker et al without them and all carefully crafted albums that make the majority of whats on the "rock charts" today sound like Bananarama. It's never easy been easy to classify or explain The Who and that's why they've always fit in so well in the states.

"Yoga for the East is a means towards the fulfillment of the spiritual life, just as Art in the West is a process toward the realization of the sacred within"-Meher Baba

I think Rach might be wearing Stella McCartney in the photos, she and Heather Daltrey looked so beautiful. xoxox ;)