Techno Prisoners

Oh dear...
Just as I thought I was getting the hang of this Blog stuff, I realise I'm all at sea with the technology.
I happily deleted all my posts I didn't want, but there they all are stranded in some kind of cyberspace prison, apparently impossible to get rid of, there for anyone and everyone to view, (or not?). Some of them in plain old English, others in HTML, others a rough mix down of the two. And I still don't quite understand exactly how to access or edit everything on my Blog - sometimes feels like being in a house with several different front doors -which one should I knock on? The BlogHelp is still mainly mumbo jumbo to me. Still, I'm slowly making progress - improvise and hope for the best. Understand more about my profile, although still a way to go. But I'm still fed up to the back bloody teeth with the endless stream of DodgyBlogs that link to sites advertising "How To Get Sex In Burnley". (Burnley?? I can't wait! Do they have live alien sex online?), not to mention all those poor sad souls who think "Oh great, a Blog! Wow! All mine", then find they can't hack it (no pun intended) and end up leaving this microscopic byte of their miserable earthly life with one post, no photo, half a profile, nothing to shout about except a projected blank space of their own creation.
So here I am with a fellow time traveller desperately trying to hotwire this earthbound technology so we can communicate with the mothership before our time here runs out.

TECHNO PRISONERS - DIVIDE & RULE!

You have nothing to lose but your wireless virus.

George Bush - Golf in the Gulf

Well I guess finally I have to get into some real realtime politics here after all this arty stuff, which can become completely divorced from the real-world, leading to head-up-arse-syndrome, rendering us all couch-mash-potato-like, stranded in the semi-unconscious fascist right-hemi-segment of our incredibly intolerant minds and brains........unlike George Bush of course.

Have you ever watched him play golf?
He has a curious style, although I've heard from other golfers (I need to say right now that I've never played the game and intend to keep it that way) that it isn't unique, although I don't find that particularly reassuring.

You know what these golf people do......look at the target, checking out the distance to the hole, even though they know it anyway, choose the appropriate club, make sure the ball is sitting really comfortably on the tee, fiddle about with their shades or whatever, get their balance and stance sorted out, generally with much shuffling of the feet, do a few dummy runs without actually touching the ball, then.......contact.

George? No messing with all that wishy-washy liberal stuff......like a real hero he strolls casually up to the tee, stands somewhere in the general area of the ball, looks around to make sure everybody is watching, then swings his club just once, hitting the ball. Quite amazing. I can't say whether this approach actually works as well as the more conventional ones. Maybe any golf bloggers (blog golfers?) out there could shed more light on this? But I get a strange feeling that this is the way he approaches everything, and that really does make me nervous.

Having old-wave evangelical post-Alpha nutter Billy Graham as his "personal spiritual adviser" is bad enough, but at the end of the "war" and the beginning of the"liberation" of Iraq, our George wanted to send Billy's son (can't remember his name) over there to spread the word of the Lord to the infidels........is this what they call "intelligent design"?

Maybe the Yanks should change the name of their fave missiles from "Cruise" to "Crusader", although Tom-you-know-who might get pissed off, and then we'd have to start worrying about Scientologists as well as Fundamentalist Christians.

At the end of the 1st Gulf War, several Americans went over there just to make sure the oil was in the right hands (no mixed metaphor intended), including pre-Bush government topdogs Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both representing consortiums of major American oil companies.
And they say the war (sorry, occupation) has nothing to do with oil.
American companies based in Iraq who lost money the 1st time round are actually still being paid compensation by the Iraqis! Economic madness.....

One of the most positive signs in the buildup to Golf War 3 was the way the American government handled themselves in the media, especially on TV of course. Time after time we heard top military brass and leading politicians say "I can't really comment on that, given the sensitive nature of the security risks involved etcetcetc". Fair enough. But then even after seeing various ex-military/political experts telling us "This war will make Vietnam look like a picnic etcetc", strategic plans were suddenly being revealed and even discussed quite openly. The most classic example was the continual insistence on the importance of winning the war quickly, with as little danger to the troops as possible, by first using massive air-strikes to "soften up" the Iraqis, so the ground troops would be able to move in with as little resistance as possible. "THE LAST THING WE WANT IS A GROUND WAR" they all said......on TV.....again and again.....Mmmm.....very cunning.......sounds like an intelligent design strategy to me comrades. I mean imagine all those anti-USA Iraqis sitting around watching TV and thinking "Yes....no ground war......aah.....now how the hell can we build a counter-strategy for this plan.....phrr.....ah...yes!...BRILLIANT IDEA! We have nowhere near enough military resources to resist a total invasion, so we put on a brave face, make the best effort we can to fight back without losing too much pride and honour, wait a bit, and then...... mmm.....yes..... GIVE THEM A GOOD BLOODY GROUND WAR!" (OK I'm taking liberties with the truth here - this is just an imaginary situation, and it isn't my intention to offend anyone, unless they happen to be BushBaby supporters).

So I say "positive sign" because it's now clear that the majority of Americans seem to be following George's example, and are apparently mindlessly golfing their way into oblivion under a growing mountain of governmental and corporate corruption, lies, acts of violence against anyone and everyone in America or anywhere else who won't toe the crooked line of the creator gone crazy.
Up against the wall mothers.....

To be continued. By others.

Live Update

Private House Party - Saturday 18th February - Hastings area.

By invitation only. Email for details.

HomeGrown dishing the dirt with live musicians, realtime processing,

vocals, beats, loops, scratch, tunes, extreme free electronics, and visuals.

Mental Zirkus @ Supamolly Club, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 3rd & Saturday 4th March.

Mini-mixed-media-festival with many artists from Berlin & Rotterdam.

Music, performance, words, visuals, installations etc.

Ghetto Raga / Echodrive are

Tom Zunk (waterphone, percussion, devices)

Gunter Schickert (guitar, trumpet, electronics)

Geoff Leigh (soprano sax, flutes, voice, bits & bobs, electronics)

Elke Postler (dance, performance, slides, video)

and will be playing on Friday.

Special Guest Jean-Herve Peron (Faust).

On Saturday I'll be performing "Art Is Not A Mirror",

an audio-visual-x-traver-gender incorporating

music, lights, a mirror, & a well-known tool.

Full details to be announced on the day.

Why give away the whole story in advance?

Always expect the unexpected.

How many anagrams can you make from "Ghetto Raga"?

The Black Sheep

Photo below - Left > Right ---> Rock Steady, Daddy Longlegs, Red Phantome and Lamron (collectively the infamous Black Sheep) sit around planning the downfall of absolutely everything & everyone they don't like, which doesn't leave much room for anything else because they don't like very much, and they want to keep it that way thank you very muchmuch. Reformed in 2005 having not played together since 1982, nothing has really changed, except it now takes us a lot longer to get ourselves organised - gone are the days of communal living/playing/working, (our home-base is still in the old Quarantine Hospital in Rotterdam, an official squat in existence since 1980), now replaced by geographical separation & at last maybe a few other more interesting things to do. Working on a new album in fits & starts & getting the old (al) chemistry together has been successful to the extent that we neither repeated our original unrepeatable formula, or fell into cliches (apart from our own unique personal collection) - the death of creativity lords are still on holiday where we're coming from.
The only major problem we now have is a delicate affair of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
Who are the REAL Black Sheep?
And can we prove it? (Because we know we are the black sheep). There are people out there who've stolen our identity & used it for their own nefarious purposes - total surrender or legal action remain our only demands. We have been using the name since 1980.
Watch this space.

Alien@T Ceremony

Ok.....screw logic, forget the hour, day, week.....don't believe everything you read, especially online. It's always time. I thought maybe a pre-emptive postscript xmas/new year strike would do the job......it almost worked last year, so...... nothing to lose this time except maybe what's left of my feverish imagination's wildest dreams, and they're pretty much knackered or at least on temporary hold these days.
But why can parties be so boring?
The people?
The excess?
The ritualistic nature of these semi-inherited archetypal tribal gatherings has become so predictable it baffles me let alone the experts - there I am drinking cups of tea while the booze/dope/wizz/coke/e-heads make out real kool all around me.......well I did smoke a load of weed myself, but 5am arrives and all the idiots have passed out or at least dissolved into the night, and I AM BUZZING dear friends......crystal clear cannabinoid clarity cutting straight through the arty farty tarty party not so hearty state of under-life's clouded vision, thinly (sometimes very thickly) disguised as hipness, one of the few truly inner qualities left once the fancy packaging is taken away for recycling.
Booked to jam some nu-jazz grooves with DJ crew The Illuminati, but the arty party dwellers want Michael Jackson, they don't want living breathing humans spoiling their fake fun suntan over-exposure; it's too real. Then I had to hang around until 9am to make my move out into the snow/sleet/icy bleakness, which gave me plenty of time to observe, notate, record, and un-dig the inner remnants and workings of the rapidly coming down last guests & (g)hosts, (although I have to say the main mein host was ok). Not a very pleasant job but someone has to do it & it is a job + a half & it is mass culture and we can only control it by not taking the external manifestations of the control bureau too seriously, or we blow our cover.
Alternatively........

FCUK / SCUX