"High Love" by Coryell/Mouzon

Friday Video Watch: "All or Nothing at All" by Steve Khan

Also features guest appearances from the Wire.

More Mourning for Trish Keenan. Includes observations and remembrances.

ITEM: More mourning for Trish Keenan of Broadcast.

From an interesting obit:

Without delving too deeply I feel it's important to make a small reference to Trish's own very physical song writing process which unconsciously resembled an Ester Krumbachová backdrop or something from an alternative Canadian school room. Without knowing it she was also a conceptual visual expert working and arranging her words in Sister Corita Kent's doppelganger print workshop.
 

A few times over the years, Trish sent me demos of new album tracks asking for a critical opinion. Naturally they ticked all the right boxes but also put all sorts of new boxes on the matrix. Personally I was flattered that she valued my taste in records although I felt totally unworthy to judge the mighty Broadcast (I felt the same way when I remixed The Booklovers in 1999 - mission impossible) I suppose I'm trying to illustrate her humble nature towards their own music. The fact that they were probably the ONLY band I've ever known to sound even better than their vintage influences is maybe something I should have told her, but she was never digging for compliments.

More remembrances here and here.

RIP Trish Keenan from Viktor Hernandez on Vimeo.

I've actually posted and made more amateur vids of Broadcast than possibly any other person alive (See here and here.). I happened to have a copy of the only video that Trish Keenan ever directed and starred in, which was done to her song "Black Cat". So I reuploaded that.  I also downloaded her last known recording with Prefuse 73, also a star of "The Acid Jazz Channel", and made a video for that. I also made an older video for "Man is not a Bird", but instead of uploading that to Youtube I used it as a background to create a newer and better, or just "busier", version of "Man is not a Bird". My vid making skillz have improved somewhat due to having better computers and better vid making software. Or you can judge for yourself. The old version is here. New version is below:

Bonus: As some people who knew Trish Keenan have remarked upon, she was actually trying her hand at fiction writing. Here's her one short story that you can find online. I hear she was a fan of HG Wells (Actually, a lot of the people who do futuristic music are science fiction fans of some sort or another. Wayne Shorter and John McLaughlin are science fiction readers. Chick Corea believes in a religion created by science fiction not to mention all the Star Trek references from Return to Forever (Vulcan Worlds anyone?)....). Verdict: Not great but passable. I would describe it as a kind of low key surrealism. She would have gotten better had she had more time. Bonus insight: The alt rock n roll icon who should spend a year writing a novel is probably Robyn Hitchcock, whose prose is continuously abstract. He's already been published in a science fiction anthology...

Why the Internet is better than Cable News.

I guess one reason is that I can have MSNBC on for several hours Saturday morning and only find out on the Internets that Friday night was Keith Olbermann's last show. Sounds hostile and not totally unexpected even though MSNBC still has the most liberal lineup in the history of the cable news universe. I wrote this in a quick response to Micah Wright, who wrote this:

Comcast draws its first blood. Keith Olbermann has just gone off the air. I guess this means that MSNBC is just about to make a hard turn to the right-wing so they can chase Fox News' money. Thanks, Obama! Thanks for letting another massive cable merger go through! Yet another progressive voice silenced. I wonder how long Maddow will be drawing breath?

And I wrote this:

Actually, so far, that doesn't seem to be true. Keep in mind that Cenk Uygar of the Young Turks now takes over the 6 pm slot. Laurence O Donnell takes over Keith's slot, an admitted loss as Laurence is a treachly limp wristed liberal who st...ands for nothing. Just right for corporate media. Rachel Maddow is still there. And Ed Schultz takes over the 10:00 slot over DLC Larry, which is an improvement. Now, if something "bad" were to happen to Dylan Ratigan, Rachel, Ed and Cenk, who is only temporary...Then, yeah, evil corporate media where the Left is Joe Lieberman and the right is Jim DeMint has prevailed again...

I do think there's a very good chance that the latter will happen, as I predicted here:

http://mirroruniverse.blogspot.com/2010/11/dont-be-surprised-if-entirety-of-msnbcs.html

Still think that the Internet, a good Internet where net neutrality is enforced, is Keith's best bet...Amy Goodman runs Democracy Now on less than a million a year...

RIP. Trish Keenan directed video of Black Cat.

People at the Broadcast Forum asked about the one video that Trish Keenan herself made and directed for her own tune Black Cat, which I just happened to have laying around the house somewheres. So I re uploaded it.

Last recorded tune with Trisk Keenan and Prefuse 73

When I downloaded this tune several weeks ago I didn't know the clock was running on Trish Keenan's life. Here's the video that I did for it:

Nicely done tribute video for Trish Keenan done to "Tears in the Typing Pool"

Still depressed over the passing of Trish Keenan, leader singer of Broadcast. There have, however, been some very nice tribute videos posted using the music of Broadcast.

Here's a beautiful video made by Viktor Hernandez:


RIP Trish Keenan from Viktor Hernandez on Vimeo.

The real definition of "Austerity".

I think I saw this on Reddit, where it referred to "Austerity" programs in Canada under their new Republican Premier. Here's what the headline writer said:

"Just so you know. "Austerity" is a fancy way of saying fuck the poor, fuck working people and fuck their kids."

Three disturbing stories about air and water pollution, especially Pennsylvania drinking water.

Three disturbing stories about air and water pollution, especially Pennsylvania drinking water:

One: Pennsylvania Frackers dump undiluted drilling fluids into drinking supply, probably killing many of us without it being obvious. Will anybody go to jail under the  Republican Corbett administration? Will somebody in Harrisburg check their own drinking water? We all live downstream afterall.

Two: Long series about  air pollution from the Post Gazette that will probably change nothing because corporate reporters can't state the obvious repeatedly. Or work to change transparent evil. Remember: when the worst case global warming scenarios pan out and we turn into Venus they'll "objectively" burst into flames. But decent work nonetheless.

Three: Bottled water can't save you. Less regulated than tap water...will a Brita water filter save me from Barium...(See One Above)?

Your Atheist Toon of the Day

ITEM: Your Sunday Atheism toon.

I'll be studying at Khan University this semester...

Let me award Micah Wright a very special no prize for showing this link to a free online university that gives you basic youtube instructions about everything. What are the politics of the one teacher? He has whole sections on the Bush/Obama bank bailouts...Does he think they worked?  Seems to be one guy...on the other hand I could use basic primers on physics, chemistry and biology.

You can find the course curriculum here:

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Here's an endorsement from one of the world's richest men:




And here's something that I would like to learn about: