Art of the Cover - Paranoid Visions' "Outside In" (2005)

Attention-grabbing, punktastic artwork adorns this mighty compilation of the vinyl years 1986 - 1989 from the legendary and incendiary Irish punk combo. 

Formed back in 1981, Paranoid Visions are Dublin's longest running Punk band - and the best.

On top of that, they're also Bono's favourite band of all time, apparently! FOAD2U2 ... indeed!

Paranoid Visions are an infamous punk band from Dublin, Ireland who formed in 1981. They broke up in 1992, had reunion shows and eventually decided to reunite. 

The band ran their own label, F.O.A.D. (Fuck Off And Die), during the 80s and 90s. In 1987, the band started the FOAD2U2 campaign (meaning Fuck off and die to U2). These letters could be seen sprayed all over Dublin at the time. 

On top of that, their wonderful EP, I Will Wallow really took the piss out of U2's album, Boy, and especially their silly single "I Will Follow".

Back in 1981, Paranoid Visions clearly allied themselves to the anarcho punk fraternity of the second wave of punk rock in the early 80's. The band were poles apart from the other Irish bands that graced the 1980’s Dublin gig scene.Surprising everyone, including themselves, with their success in both Ireland and the UK in terms of critical acclaim and record sales, they maintained a stance outside of the music industry norms and closely protected their independent status, licensing all of their material directly from their F.O.A.D label.  

Records such as Autonomy, Schizophrenia and city of screams all sold very well, but it was the attack on the Irish music industry U2Clone assembly line, in the form of the “I Will Wallow” 10” EP that brought the band to a wider and more mainstream audience. FOAD2U2 graffiti adorned walls all over the country….some of it wasn’t even done by the band!  

Heavily influenced by the Crass ethic of DIY music, the band formed their own F.O.A.D label and licensed their records to All The Madmen, home of the Mob, Thatcher on Acid, Blyth Power and the Astronauts. 

Paranoid Visons played gigs and toured with the likes of Poison Girls, DIRT, Blyth Power, Subhumans and The Instigators. In the early 90's they played with bands like Snuff, the Macc Ladds and Manic Street Preachers before calling it a day in 1992. 

Despite their disbanding, the 90's saw Paranoid Visions becoming the biggest punk band Ireland had ever produced, featuring on several TV shows, newspapers and being offered numerous record deals from Major labels. 

In 1996 they reformed to play support on some dates for the Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre tour. In 2001 they reformed again and played with the Damned, The Dickies and at the Wasted Festival in Morecombe. While these reunions were always designed to be short lived, with the 2005 reunion, formed in support of the re-release of their back catalogue, it was decided to continue the momentum. 

April 2007 saw the release of the bands first new album since 1990. Entitled “40 Shades Of Gangreen” it captures the band at their most tuneful and caustic. General critical reaction was that it represented  the best work the band had ever done, being described glowingly  ...

-- "highly melodic aswell as being deeply, deeply raucous" (Hot Press review) 

-- "a blockbuster" (The Evening Herald)

-- "a blistering collection of anti establishment polemic" (Hot Press editorial)

In November 2013, the band released a new album "When?", featuring Steve Ignorant (from Crass) as guest vocalist.

 
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Sinister Douchebags - The white guilt of Bono is keeping Africa down

Bono (and Beyoncé) in Africa (Photo: Getty)

The white guilt of Bono is keeping Africa down
By Mic Wright
telegraph.co.uk
September 23rd, 2013

This weekend I was in a cab in Dublin and got talking to the driver. He had lived another life in the 1970s as the drummer in a minor Irish success called Street Talk. Now arthritis has ruined his hands and he can’t even drum in the events bands that once provided a handsome living. He was not bitter and spoke with fondness of the days when he rubbed shoulders with Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats and, most intriguingly, with Bono and U2.

He told me with no trace of anger that U2, in its earliest form, was frankly unlistenable. A band with no swing. Less a group and more of an onstage shambles. But, he said, there was always "something" there, that spark that can catch flame in the right conditions. He couldn’t remember when Paul Hewson became Bono. But even after all these years, he still thought it more than a little laughable. “Don’t get me started on ‘The Edge’," he said.

I was thinking about the taxi driver and his daily grind on the streets of Dublin as I read The Observer’s interview with Bono. The U2 singer is like an Easter Island head of patrician arrogance, the "fixer" of Africa whose relationship to his native land’s struggles is very vague. While he has wrung his hands so much over foreign aid it’s a surprise they still function, he has left Ireland to it. To many it seems as if Ireland is just too small, too petty a problem for the great Bono Vox to turn his gaze upon it.

The Observer gave Bono a largely soft-soaping treatment. It threw a few tricky questions his way but they were easy hits for a man well practised in the art of self-justification. The profile gave Bono the opportunity to boast about his meetings with great men of state. He says of his time in the company of President George W Bush:

I lambasted Bush face to face for not getting the ARV drugs to people “on bicycles and motorcycles” as he had promised in his State of the Union speech… at one point he banged his hand on the table: “Hold on here, I am President of the United States!” To this day, when I see him, he stands up and salutes me.

Bono has good intentions. The road to hell is paved with them. The superhighway to hell is paved with the good intentions of dilettante rockstars whose attitude to aid has kept much of Africa under the boot of foreign powers. The world still imagines Africa is a land of malnourished children, starvation and death. But take Nigeria, for instance, a country of over 200 million people with more than 200 spoken languages and an artistic heritage that includes Chinua Achebe and Fela Kuti. The white guilt of men like Bono is keeping Africa down.

What’s more, the manner in which Bono recounts his encounter with Bush is sickening. He presents himself as the teller of truth, the man who cowed the world’s most powerful leader. Bush was a terrible president but he had the guts and the belief to stand for the office. He took the tough decisions. Bono is a part-time statesman, sponsored by banks and big consumer electronics firms for massive rock’n’roll tours; he pops up now and then to hector politicians who have to do politics for a living.

On the subject of his meetings with the US military, Bono sounds like a little boy allowed to play with giant toy soldiers:

One of the most surreal moments of my life was spent sitting around a table there with all these four-star generals. I said to them: why are you all so interested in what we do? … in asymmetrical conflicts the largest military force in the world has to think differently.

Remember, this is Bono. He is a charity campaigner and a rock musician. He’s written some incredible songs. He has not fought in any war. He knows the stakes as well as I do: through other people’s anecdotes, through conflict tourism and the pop culture prism of war films. For him to sit and lecture generals who have spent their lives in uniform is utterly farcical. It speaks poorly of them that they allow him to do so.

There are some salient points in Bono’s answers. He clearly thinks deeply about the issues and it would be unfair to claim he doesn’t care. The issue is that his “caring” is ineffectual and based on false principles. He has to speak unequivocally in favour of corporations that bankroll both his charitable work and day job with U2:

I know a lot of your readers might think corporations are inherently bad things. I have to say I really don’t. I miss the corner shop as much as the next man…

His incredible press people – bruisers all – will spin The Observer interview as Bono answering the tough questions, but he hasn’t even come close. Bono knows that the issues are more complex than simple slogans but he peddles them regardless. He has cosied up to hardline Republican senator Jesse Helms, hugged Tony Blair close and given Paul Wolfowitz a pass on Iraq.

After Ireland’s long, complicated and frequently bloody history with Britain, why does Bono bow so low before the Queen? Why are his foundations so closely linked to vast corporations? Why doesn’t he decry the atrocity of discouraging condom use in Africa more robustly? Why did he call the CEO of Bank of America, Brian Monynihan, “a very special man”?

Bono is not an idiot – contrary to what graffiti across Dublin claims. He has read his history and written powerful songs about it. Sunday Bloody Sunday and Pride (In The Name Of Love) are just two tracks that have earned their place in pop’s pantheon. But he seems to deny Irish history and fail to relate the Great Irish Famine to what he has observed in Africa.

The famine wasn’t down to food shortages. There were enough crops but they had to be exported to pay rents. The famine was a failure of free markets and the result of an avaricious elite, the same kind of elite that Bono fails to subject to proper scrutiny. He talks of freeing political prisoners and releasing the poor of the world from the grinding reality of daily hunger. That is laudable. However, his solutions tend to rest on the largesse of men and women whose lives have been dedicated to making the rich richer – and keeping the poor in their place.

  

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NWO Nonsense - Burmese Drone Aung San Suu Kyi's New Party Logo

All you need to know about Burmese puppet Aung San Suu Kyi is the occult/masonic meaning of the nefarious Pentagram and Peacock/Phoenix logo her party has "chosen" and just unveiled; a thing that tells us a lot about the vile luciferian/satanic entity pulling the strings in Myanmar, as well as worldwide!

The pentagram very prominently adorns the forehead of the lovely horned luciferian god Baphomet (i.e. satan)

The five-pointed star, known as the pentagram, is probably the most blatant occult symbol in use today. Witches Janet and Stewart Farrar explain that the five-pointed star is "one of the main symbols of witchcraft and occultism in general" ('Hidden Secrets of the Eastern Star' p. 82).

The star itself is known by different names throughout the occult world, such as a witch's foot, a goblin's cross, a wizard's star and the dog star. Wiccan witches use its five points to mystically represent the elements of nature, earth, fire, water, air and spirit.

This symbol is one of the most prominent emblems within Freemasonry, though its significance, like every symbol inherited from the occult, is concealed behind a smokescreen of secret society ambiguity.

The five-pointed star is found on most Masonic memorabilia and represents the blasphemous resurrection rite of the five points of fellowship, each point mystically symbolizing a part of the resurrection act. First - Foot to foot. Second - Knee to knee. Third - Hand in hand. Fourth - Breast to breast. Fifth and last - Left hand behind back.

via delusionresistance






The pentagram is also alluded to in one of the freemasons' key symbols, the so-called "Square and Compass" (below.)







Albert Pike states in the tome "Morals and Dogma" [page 631-32] that the Monad symbol here represents the male, and the Duad represents the female. Their sexual union produces the Triad, which is "represented by the letter 'G', the generative principle" ( i.e. code for the sex act.)






Meanwhile, there's the favourite bird of the vile NBC and of course insidious luciferian drone and muzak monger Bono, the peacock - which is another prominent occult symbol of lucifier (aka satan) being thought to represent knowledge (Gnosis) and immortality.

As well as screaming like a motherf*cker and annoying Dublin folk more than Bono's bullshit caterwauling, the peacock was an object of veneration in ancient times back in the NWO crowd's beloved Egypt. Meanwhile, the Greeks dedicated the Peacock to Juno.

Because of the myriad "one-eye" symbols (representing the "All Seeing Eye" ... aka "The Eye of Horus" ... aka "The Eye of Satan") in the bird's tail feathers, the peacock was accepted as the symbol of wisdom, and on account of its general appearance it was often thought to be the fabled phoenix of the Mysteries.

Alchemical illustration of Cauda Pavonis (i.e. The Tail of the Peacock)

There was also a curious belief that the flesh of the peacock will not putrefy even though kept for a considerable time.

As a consequence of these aspects, in occult circles, the peacock became the emblem of immortality, based on the 'belief' that the spiritual nature of man (like the flesh of this bird) is incorruptible.

The bird on here - like on the original US seal (later "hidden" via the Eagle symbol) and suggested on the dollar bill - also represents the Egyptian phoenix - and the rebirth of all things luciferian on what was once God-fearing Earth,







And here in  Suu Kyi's insidious logo, for extra good measure (and just to slightly over-egg the pudding - so to speak - as is the wont of these fuckers!) the face on this thing houses another luciferian fave, the ubiquitous Horns of Satan ... so beloved by luciferian drones like Dopey Dubya (and his evil pawww!), Drugrunner Clinton, Midget Sarkozy, Thaksin Shitwad and some Kenyan named Obama!

Aung San Suu Kyi party unveils logo in Burma politics run

... Aung San Suu Kyi’s party has chosen the image of a fighting peacock gazing at a white star as its new voting emblem to contest Burmese elections for the first time in a generation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk
12 Dec 2011

The image, which is similar to the party’s flag and will be its official insignia at the ballot box, is a symbol of the country’s struggle for change, said Win Htein, a senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

“In our new seal, the white star represents the revolution. It was used many years ago as revolutionary symbol,” he said.

The choice is a potentially provocative move against the military-backed government, which has consistently sought to suppress use of the peacock symbol. First used as a national symbol, the dancing peacock has since been adopted by Aung San, Miss Suu Kyi’s father and founder of independent Burma as well as the 1988 student’s democracy movement.

The military blocked two breakaway opposition parties from using the symbol in last year’s general election.

But the announcement was broadcast on the state-run media in an unusual concession by the army-dominated government, which has embarked on a series of reform measures in recent months, including holding talks with critics.

The NLD has accepted an invitation to rejoin the political mainstream and applied in November to re-register as a political party. Suu Kyi has said she will take part in forthcoming by-elections, although no date has been set.

Win Htein said the peacock was chosen in an homage to student protesters involved in the country’s 1988 rallies against the military which were brutally crushed by the then ruling junta.

“Students demonstrated against the government under the fighting peacock symbol during the 1988 democracy uprising. So we used this image to acknowledge the struggle of students,” he said.

At least 3,000 people were killed in the crackdown, and many democracy activists including Suu Kyi were later locked up. Some student leaders remain in prison and their release is a key demand of the international community.

Emblems are used in Burma as a visual marker for voters unable to read.

The NLD’s new symbol replaces its well-known bamboo hat trademark, which was used by a breakaway group that participated in the much-criticised November 2010 elections.

The hat symbol became a source of bitter contention during the run-up to the poll – the first since an NLD victory in 1990 that was never recognised by the junta.

Suu Kyi’s party refused to participate in the 2010 vote because of rules that appeared designed to exclude the Nobel laureate.

Its boycott led to a splinter group forming a new party, the National Democratic Force (NDF), which appropriated the hat sign.

The NDF now has a handful of seats in the new parliament and continues to use the symbol, despite complaints by Suu Kyi’s party.

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NWO Nonsense - Senator Cardin's affection for Bono's foundation is indefensible

Senator Cardin's affection for Bono's foundation is indefensible

A Letter to the Baltimore Sun
from Simon Moroney, Baltimore
July 7, 2011

Sen. Benjamin Cardin's recent letter defending Bono and his ONE foundation puts him in direct opposition to President Obama's appeal for "corporate jet" owners to pay their fair share of tax ("Cardin: ONE Campaign works," June 27). U2 are major tax evaders. I am also perturbed by Senator Cardin's statement that Bono and the ONE campaign exercised significant influence on framing legislation in the financial services bill.

Paul Hewson, aka Bono, exemplifies the worst characteristics of Wall Street, both for excess and tax evasion. He is the major financier of Spiderman, the most expensive and lavish show ever staged on Broadway. His hotel in Ireland, the Clarence, is undergoing renovations to make it the most exclusive hotel in Dublin. He set up and has a large stake in Elevation, a private equity fund whose first act was to buy a controlling share of Forbes magazine, which celebrates wealth and over-consumption. U2 has a private jet, and Bono has a half share in a $15 million yacht, a mansion in Dublin, a house on the French Riviera and an A-list apartment in Manhattan.

Ireland created a tax exemption in the early 1980's to help artists make a modest living in a small country. U2 used and abused this exemption to amass hundreds of millions of dollars, tax free. When the Irish government put a cap on the tax exemption on royalties in 2006, U2 promptly moved that portion of their business to a Dutch tax haven. So while Bono was getting access to many of the world leaders to pressure them to double their aid budget to 0.7 percent of GDP, he himself was not even paying basic taxes. He wants ordinary people like me to pay for the causes he berates world leaders for not embracing.

Ireland is now bankrupt, and there have been calls from some government ministers for Bono to pay his taxes so the country can keep hospitals and schools open. Those appeals have fallen on deaf ears, despite the fact that Bono and U2 have extensively traded on being Irish to engender fan loyalty.

While the myriad of causes Bono has taken up may seem contradictory, they are actually consistent. They all serve the purpose of either promoting U2 or giving Bono access to power at the nexus of celebrity and politics; usually both. The recent appointment of Michael Elliott as CEO of ONE demonstrates the point: He is not a poverty advocate, he has been a senior editor at Time magazine since 2001. Time named Bono its Man of the Year, gave the band tremendous coverage and even let Bono write editorial articles.

The ONE campaign is a lobbying group with no mandate or accountability, set up by a man who is not even a U.S. citizen. It has no relevant expertise on aid policy, let alone on the best interests of Maryland taxpayers.

As a federal worker awaiting the outcome of the debt ceiling talks to see where I will endure cuts and taxes, I am not amused by Senator Cardin's endorsement of Bono and ONE. As a registered Democrat and someone who voted for him, I expect him to condemn Bono's tax evasion and refuse to work with the ONE campaign any longer.

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Muzak Biz Madness - Insidious Douchebags U2 Avoid Dialogue ... again!

from rock&rap confidential ...

In 2008, Bono agreed to debate RRC (rock&rap confidential) editor Dave Marsh on the effectiveness of celebrity politics on Dave's Sirius radio show. Of course, Bono subsequently backed out of the chance to defend himself in a public forum. The events at the Glastonbury Festival over the weekend confirm that Bono still wants his to be the only voice we hear!

U2 avoid dialogue ... again

by Rob Edwards,
Herald Scotland
26 Jun 2011

GLASTONBURY – the home of free thought, UK counter-culture and youth rebellion?

Not quite. This weekend a group of idealistic demonstrators attempted to embarrass Friday night headline band U2 over their moves to pay less tax.

Activists in the crowd inflated a 25-foot balloon saying “U Pay Your Tax 2”, planning to float it in front of the stage so that the band, their fans and thousands of TV viewers would get the message. But security guards took control of the balloon, deflated it and took it away. Several protesters were pinned against a fence, and one reported a broken finger. A guard told a photographer: “If you are press, I’ll have you.”

The protest was organised by Art Uncut, an offshoot of UK Uncut, a radical group of activists whose targets are what it deems to be big company tax-dodgers.

In a statement yesterday Art Uncut said: “We wanted a dialogue with U2, on an issue which is crucial for international development. Instead we got heavy-handed security tactics.”

A Glastonbury Festival spokesman said: “The stewards decided to stop the banner going up, but it was their decision and not under instruction from organisers.

“They clearly decided the banner could be dangerous and could disrupt people’s view. It was a decision taken on the grounds of health and safety, not on the grounds of censorship.”

Against the background of escalating opposition to the government’s spending cuts, the Art Uncut activists are posing an uncomfortable question: why are ordinary people being asked to endure painful cuts in public services, while rock stars, sportsmen and businessmen manage to avoid paying billions of pounds in taxes, albeit legally?

For the protesters, U2 are just one high-profile symbol. They are one of the world’s biggest rock bands, fronted by Bono, a man almost as famous for trying to persuade world leaders to make poverty history as for his music.

But by arranging their business so it does not incur tax bills in their home country of Ireland, the members of U2 stand accused, along with other celebrities and multinational corporations, of depriving governments of money to pay for schools, hospitals and other crucial public services.

The total sums of money involved are enormous. The official estimate of how much tax is missing from UK coffers was £42 billion in 2008-09. But many experts suggest the real amount could be £120bn.

To put that into context: the UK’s total public spending last year was £669bn, and the government wants to cut some £81bn over the next four years. Scotland’s budget is £35bn.

U2 moved part of their business empire to a finance house in Holland (where there is no direct tax on royalties) in 2006 after the Irish government capped a tax exemption on royalties earned from the sale and performance of their work for artists.

The band is among the world’s highest-earning musicians, reportedly earning the equivalent of about £80 million last year.

Charlie Dewar from Art Uncut said U2’s tax move “is depriving the Irish people at a time when they desperately need income to offset the Irish government’s savage austerity programme”.

He added: “There is also a whiff of hypocrisy here with Bono being so well-known for his anti-poverty campaigning, since each year developing countries lose more in tax avoidance … than they receive in aid.”

U2 hasn’t responded to the protest, though their manager, Paul McGuinness, has previously said that as a global band, U2 paid many different taxes all over the world. And the band’s guitarist, The Edge, has said in the past: “Of course we want to be tax-efficient – who doesn’t?”

The protest at Glastonbury was the first to target celebrities. In recent months, activists from UK Uncut have caused disruption at branches of companies that have allegedly avoided taxes, including Vodafone, Topshop, Barclays and Fortnum & Mason.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, told the Sunday Herald: “It’s shameful that some individuals and organisations arrange their affairs to pay as little tax as they can, depriving our country’s finances of tens of billions of pounds.”

A group of campaigners known as the Tax Justice Network has also provided research that backs up the protesters’ claims.

John Christensen, an economist who directs the network, said: “While [firms] like to claim that avoidance is not illegal, the consequences are the same as tax evasion: loss of revenue for the government, declining public services, and higher taxes forced on ordinary people.”

The charity Christian Aid has estimated that tax avoidance worldwide costs poor countries £100bn a year. In most cases this will be less than the amount they get in aid from rich countries.

After the protest at Glastonbury U2 played on, seemingly oblivious. During the song One, Bono, his trademark wrap-around sunglasses blurred with raindrops, sang: “Did I disappoint you, or leave a bad taste in your mouth?”

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The Muzak Biz - U Burn 2: 'Tax Dodge' Protest at U2's Glastonbury Gig

Masonic drone and fascist capitalism poster-grandad 'Forbes Boner' and the other muzak mongering leprechaun bozos from his vile band had a hot night performing in the insidious Glastonbury festival (a masonic reincarnation of the ancient satanic celebration of the sun's zenith at the summer sostice, celebrated for centuries as the feast of human sacrifice Litha) where they performed on the Pyramid (... Masonic much?!! Give me a f*cking break!) stage last night!

Not hot enough though!! Far from it!

.... Yap, in keeping with the satanic theme and function of Glastonbury, and indeed U2, these douchebags (and their slimeball fat fuck 'manager') should have been locked in a giant Wicker Man and burned!

Shove Coldplay and Beyonce in there too, for good measure!

Now, that's something I'd pay to see!

'Tax dodge' protest at U2 Glastonbury show turns violent

By Adrian Dennis
AFP

Violence erupted in the crowd watching U2's debut performance at Britain's Glastonbury festival Friday, as security guards foiled a protest against the Irish rockers' tax status.

As the band came on stage to play to around 50,000 revellers, campaign group Art Uncut inflated a 20-foot (six-metre) balloon emblazoned with the message "U Pay Your Tax 2."

But as they tried to release it over the crowd, a team of 10 security guards waded into the crowd and wrestled them to the ground before deflating the balloon and taking it away.

The intervention took place after U2's first song "Until The End of The World" and sparked clashes between some 30 protesters and security guards. No arrests were made.

One campaigner, who did not give his name, said: "Political activism used to belong at Glastonbury. This was all going to be completely peaceful."

But the violence did not stop U2 rattling through an array of their smash hits, including "I Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

Frontman Bono was wearing his trademark sunglasses and the heavy rain that poured down during the band's set did not seem to affect his performance.

Art Uncut had earlier announced their plans to protest against U2, whose frontman is more used to receiving plaudits for a crusade to tackle African debt, poverty and disease.

"Bono is well known for his anti-poverty campaigning but Art Uncut is accusing him of hypocrisy," campaigner Charlie Dewar said.

"U2's multimillion-euro tax dodge is depriving the Irish people at a time when they desperately need income to offset the Irish government's savage austerity programme."

The group said U2 had switched their tax affairs from Ireland to the Netherlands to pay less tax following a change in the law in 2006.

Ireland needed a massive international financial bailout last year after falling into heavy debt when a property bubble burst.

U2 -- who were unable to headline Glastonbury last year after Bono was rushed to hospital for emergency back surgery -- were not available for comment.

Around 170,000 revellers are expected this weekend at the dairy farm in Somerset, southwest England, where the world's largest greenfield music and performing arts jamboree is held.

Earnest British rockers Coldplay headline on Saturday night and R&B superstar Beyonce takes the honours on Sunday.

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Lost Classics - Neil Jordan's "The Good Thief" (2002)

We give you Elvis, we give you Dylan, we give you Hendrix, what do you give us? Johnny Hallyday!

-Bob Montagnet

Aging and tired gambler/drug addict/retired thief Bob Montagnet, who's been on a long losing streak, plans a major last heist from a casino in the South of France. But he's been betrayed. Someone's already tipped off the cops before he even makes a move!

That's the helicopter view of "The Good Thief", a wonderful 2002 film starring Nick Nolte and the lovely Nutsa Kukhianidze and directed by Neil Jordan.

"The Good Thief" is a loose remake of the classic and hugely influential 1955 French film noir Bob le flambeur, by Jean-Pierre Melville. Jordan though takes the plot firmly into the twenty first century.

I caught this back in 2002 on its theatrical release but hadn't seen it since. However, I got my mitts on the DVD the other day and was delighted to find the film was just as wonderful as I remembered!






The performances (especially the supreme work by Nick Nolte), the witty intelligent script, the dazzling cinematography and Jordan's direction are all impeccable!

On top of that,there are many other joys to be found here, including a great cameo from renowned Serbian director Emir Kusturica as a wild and crazy security expert.

There's also a wonderful soundtrack - with a prominent role played by Leonard Cohen's classic "A Thousand Kisses Deep" (there's even a decent Bono cover of the Sinatra sung classic "That's Life" in there too)!






The film garnered critical accolades on its release but never attained the recognition it rightly deserved.

It's a film that's poetic, dark, ebulliant, stylish, humorous, humanistic, uplifting and supremely entertaining! A combination of qualities very very rarely found in modern cinema!

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Muzak Monger Madness - Commission Rejects U2 Moron's Mad Obscene Egomaniacal Plan

Coastal Commission rejects U2 guitarist's Malibu development plan

.... The plan for five mansions on a rugged ridgeline was rejected on an 8-4 vote. The agency's executive director called it 'one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation.'

June 17, 2011
By Martha Groves & Tony Barboza (contact:   martha.groves@latimes.com  / tony.barboza@latimes.com)
Los Angeles Times

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected a controversial proposal by U2 guitarist the Edge to build five mansions on a rugged ridgeline above Malibu that is home to mountain lions and native chaparral.

The 8-4 vote was the culmination of what has become a closely watched property rights battle between the musician, whose real name is David Evans, and the agency that regulates development along the California coastline.

"In 38 years of this commission's existence, this is one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation," Peter Douglas, the agency's executive director, said in an interview after the vote. "It's a contradiction in terms — you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location" given the effects on habitat, land formation, scenic views and water quality.

Douglas said he expected the matter to end up in court.

Evans has been trying to win permits since 2006 to build his home and four others in the Sweetwater Mesa area, hiring prominent lobbyists and promoting the development as environmentally friendly — a notion many conservationists derided.

Spokeswoman Fiona Hutton said Evans and the other property owners would be exploring their options.

"They undertook this effort with a deep personal commitment and sense of responsibility to protect environmental resources and develop environmentally superior homes," she said in a prepared statement. "This commitment was recognized and praised by many of the commissioners during their lengthy and complex deliberations. The property owners remain steadfast in their vision."

The final minutes before the vote saw a flurry of maneuvering after it became clear that the commissioners would be rejecting the project. An attorney for one of the owners unexpectedly withdrew the application for one of the houses, and project consultant Don Schmitz asked the commission to postpone its vote on the entire proposal.

Hutton later said a lawsuit was "a strong option."

If the matter goes to court, at issue would be whether the proposal constituted five distinct projects or one large one and whether the commission's denial represented an unconstitutional "taking" of property, attorneys from both sides said.

Before Thursday's vote, commission staff reports twice recommended the project be rejected, saying it would disturb sensitive habitat and scar a scenic hilltop visible from much of the Malibu coast.

Staff members also had expressed concern that the 156-acre development, if approved, could have paved the way for other earth-altering housing projects throughout the Santa Monica Mountains.

Evans' house is planned as a 12,785-square-foot contemporary abode, called "Leaves in the Wind," so named for the undulating green roof meant to emulate fluttering leaves. A website explains that the five houses were designed to meet the highest environmental standards by incorporating recycled and renewable materials, rainwater catchment systems, solar panels and native landscaping.

Conservation groups and homeowners in the canyons and hillsides below have largely opposed it on the grounds that, no matter how green the homes themselves might be, a project that carves out so much earth by definition is not eco-friendly.

One past critic did not speak out against the project this time. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy initially had said the development would have "unavoidable significant adverse visual and ecological impacts."

In April, however, it agreed to take a neutral position in exchange for more than $1 million in cash, consulting services and dedicated open space from the musician and the other property owners. Under the agreement, the agency would not receive that money or the other benefits unless the project wins final approval and survives any appeals or legal challenges.

Commission staffers had said Evans' plan represented a unified development, and suggested they could support two or three smaller homes clustered in a less-visible portion of the property. They also said that the property had changed hands in an effort to conceal actual ownership, and that Evans was trying to skirt environmental regulations by asking the panel to consider each home separately, rather than weigh the overall project.

Evans' team had argued that the five parcels had five distinct owners who were sharing architects, planners, consultants and project managers. Documents submitted to the commission identified the owners as Evans' family, friends and business associates, including Evans' younger sister, Gillian. In the past, the rocker's wife, Morleigh Steinberg, and the project manager also have been listed as principal owners.

Steinberg's father, Robert, spoke at Thursday's hearing, defending the project. "Morleigh and Edge have done everything known to man to respond to the commission," he said.

Evans was not at the meeting in Marina del Rey, although U2 is scheduled to perform Friday night at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.



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In relation to said Anaheim gig, Brad Auerbach at Rock & Rap Confidential adds ....

I was curious if there would be any mention of this news item at last night's gig.

In U2 fashion, Bono did so in a funny and somewhat oblique way: He acknowledged that without drummer Larry Mullen, Jr the band would not be.

Bono then surmised that Mullen would have been a highway patrolman in Dublin, Adam Clayton would have been a ladies handbag designer and the Edge would have been a city planner. Good chuckles for those who knew the backstory.

Bono surmised he'd be a theatre critic, another reference with a backstory to his recent efforts on Broadway.

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The Song - Bono on Bob's "Like a Rolling Stone"

Great Artists Pay Tribute to Their Favorite Bob Dylan Songs ... 

"Like a Rolling Stone" (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965) By Bono

http://www.rollingstone.com
May 10, 2011

That sneer — it's something to behold. Elvis had a sneer, of course. And the Rolling Stones had a sneer that, if you note the title of the song, Bob wasn't unaware of. But Bob Dylan's sneer on "Like a Rolling Stone" turns the wine to vinegar.

It's a black eye of a pop song. The verbal pugilism on display here cracks open songwriting for a generation and leaves the listener on the canvas. "Like a Rolling Stone" is the birth of an iconoclast that will give the rock era its greatest voice and vandal. This is Bob Dylan as the Jeremiah of the heart, torching romantic verse and "the girl" with a firestorm of unforgiving words. Having railed against the hypocrisies of the body politic, he now starts to pick on enemies that are a little more familiar: the scene, high society, the "pretty people" who think they've "got it made." He hasn't made it to his own hypocrisies — that would come later. But the "us" and "them" are not so clearly defined as earlier albums. Here he bares his teeth at the hipsters, the vanity of that time, the idea that you had a better value system if you were wearing the right pair of boots.

For some, the Sixties was a revolution. But there were others who were erecting a guillotine in Greenwich Village not for their political enemies, but rather for the squares. Bob was already turning on that idea, even as he best embodied it, with the corkscrew hair Jimi Hendrix would later admit to imitating. The tumble of words, images, ire and spleen on "Rolling Stone" shape-shifts easily into music forms 10 or 20 years away, like punk, grunge or hip-hop. Looking at the character in the lyric, you ask the question "How quickly could she have plunged from high society to 'scrounging' for her 'next meal'?" Perhaps it is a glance into the future; perhaps it's just fiction, a screenplay distilled into one song.

It must have been hard to be or be around Dylan then; that unblinking eye was turning on everybody and everything. But for all the tirading, the real mischief is in its ear-biting humor. "If you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose" is the T-shirt. But the line that I like the best is "You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns/When they all did tricks for you/You never understood that it ain't no good/You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you."

The playing on this track — by the likes of guitarist Mike Bloomfield and keyboardist Al Kooper — is so alive and immediate that it's like you're getting to see the paint splash the canvas. As is often the case with Bob in the studio, the musicians don't fully know the song. It's like the first touch. They're getting to know it, and you can feel their joy of discovery as they're experiencing it.

When the desire to communicate is met with an equal and opposite urge not to compromise in order to communicate — when those two things are in perfect balance — is when everything happens with rock & roll. And that's what Dylan achieved in "Rolling Stone." I don't know or particularly care who this song is about — though I've met a few people who have claimed it was about them (some who weren't even born in 1965). The real thrill for me was that "once upon a time" in the world, a song this radical was a hit on the radio. The world was changed by a cranky voice, a romantic spirit, somebody who cared enough about an unrequited love to write such a devastatingly caustic put-down.

I love to hear a song that changes everything. That's the reason I'm in a band: David Bowie's "Heroes," Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)," Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing," Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." But at the top of this dysfunctional family tree sits the king of spitting fire himself, the juggler of beauty and truth, our own Willy Shakespeare in a polka-dot shirt. It's why every songwriter after him carries his baggage and why this lowly Irish bard would proudly carry his luggage. Any day.

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The Douchebag - Douche King Boner Sups Champers

King of all Douchebags, masonic drone Bono with another photo-op.

Here, the muzak-mongering moron celebrates his birthday with fans at a restaurant in Mexico City on May 10, 2011.

Happy birthday, cocksucker!!

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NWO Nonsense - Beelzebub Boy Bono Hits Africa with Luxury Handbags

Little Mephisto is at it again .... begorrah!!!

Anyone who can see outside 'the matrix' will know how nigh all these crazy 'Telethons' and so-called 'celebrity-endorsed' "Charities" (many normal so-called 'Charities' too) are nothing more than freemason tools for draining even more money from the moronic masses (adding moolah to the brotherhood's coffers, in the process.) Yap, that's everything from Jerry Lewis' crazy telly telethons to bullshit like vile muzak-mongering mason Gandalf / Geldof's 'Live Aid' to the 'We are the World' nonsense to the recent Haiti sham - and the countless others in between

A certain insidious little muzak-mongering, globalisation-loving, warmonger-rimming, leprechaun cocksucker and masonic drone has really been taking the piss! This time in Africa - the continent being now a key target for (mincreased) mason manipulation (see the recent World Cup tournament, for example) as there are still vestiges of freedom there and in many territories the populous has not yet been totally brainwashed and fucked up, as in the west.

This BS involves Louis Vuitton handbags! Exactly what the starving, suffering masses in Africa need!

The new masonic so-called "Campaign" fronted by the owner of the vile capitalist/globalisation wankmag "Forbes" also incorporates the nonsense, neo-Darwinist 'All modern humans can be traced back to Africa' soundbyte for the unthinking masses, for good measure!

What a nasty little luciferian c*nt .... begorrah!!!

Some celebrities give while Bono wastes his time with spendy handbags

By Derrick Z. Jackson

Boston Globe  
December 25, 2010

AS SANTA rides across America with toys on a sleigh, Bono is dropping into Africa on a bush plane bearing gifts from Louis Vuitton. This charity stunt is a little rich — in the literal sense.

In a current ad campaign, Bono and wife Ali Hewson disembark from their plane carrying a new Vuitton bag and wearing clothing for their African fashion house. Proclaiming that “every journey began in Africa,’’ the ad says proceeds from sales of this bag and Bono’s and Newson’s “fee’’ go to an Ugandan cotton conservation initiative.

The ad is bizarre on its face. It is not easy to link Africa’s salvation to the world’s largest luxury-goods company and its universe of conspicuous consumption. But then, this is the same Bono who hobnobs with world leaders in the name of Africa’s poor, but occupies a poor rung in the realm of celebrity charity. The New York Post this year reported that his ONE awareness campaign for Africa raised $15 million in donations, but distributed only $185,000 to three charities while spending more than $8 million on executive and employee salaries.

The nonprofit’s explanation, expressed in the British press by ONE spokesman Oliver Buston, was, ’’We don’t provide aid programs on the ground. We are an advocacy and campaigning organization.’’

Sorry, but far more important are organizations that deliver money to programs on the ground. In this season of high giving, it can be maddening to try to figure out whether the money going to charitable organizations is really helping people in need.

On the local scene, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley last week issued a report that found that of $329 million raised last year by professional fund-raisers, only 43 percent of those funds made it to the actual charity. Coakley urged people to ask solicitors how much of the money is going to charities, and which ones, so that givers’ generosity will not be “diluted.’’

Dilution can come in other forms. Consider the fabled September car accident of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. He was driving a $97,000 Audi that was a perk for laudable involvement with the Best Buddies International charity, which assists the learning-disabled. The accident became an instant symbol of clubhouse charity, where elites convince themselves they must lavish luxury upon one another in order to assist the unfortunate.

In light of those examples, it is all the more important to praise those who put money where you think it’s going.

In Massachusetts, the organizations that raised at least $10,000 through professional fund-raisers and received an average of least 80 cents of each dollar from all programs in Coakley’s report included AmeriCares, ChildFund International, the Christian Appalachian Project, UNICEF, Food and Water Watch, and Lutheran World Relief. The first four groups also have excellent efficiency ratings in Forbes.com’s annual list of America’s 200 biggest charities.

Meanwhile, many celebrity charities are far more than mere bullhorns for superstars. You can start with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. According to a Forbes.com analysis of their 2008 tax return, the couple, with causes ranging from Haitian earthquake relief to Hurricane Katrina restoration and from Ethiopian health care to refugee protection, gave out $6.4 million, with overhead of only around $288,000, or 4.5 percent. Other celebrity foundations with overhead of 5 percent or less according to Forbes carry names as varied as Celine Dion, Ron Howard, Stephen King, Bette Midler, David Letterman, Alec Baldwin, and Martha Stewart.

Last month, the New York Times described Pitt, Jolie, and actors such as Cambridge Rindge and Latin’s own Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as members of a new “Brat Pack’’ who are going beyond telethons, honorary board memberships, and galas to “become experts on the issues they care about.’’ At Christmastime, it’s refreshing to hear about brats like these, rather than loudmouths dropping Louis Vuitton bags into Africa.

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NWO Nonsense - More Brazen Bono Bullshit

A recent issue of the vile Forbes (the wank mag of the satanic freemason sect)  - the rag owned by masonic puppet Paul Hewson, aka Bono (isn't this c*nt a little too old to still be using a nickname? Of course though, masons like to change a proper Biblical name to something stoopid!) - featured a mutually fawning conversation between masonic billionaire so-called "investor" Warren Buffet and masonic puppet (speaking of dumb nicknames) Jay Zzzzzz (the guy who realy puts the Zzzz into muZzzzak ..... aka 'the younger, taller, blacker Bono'!) The two of 'em got on so famously they probably spent hours ina a jacuzzi together after!

In the piece, Buffy (the Vampire!) spoke animatedly about how he loves to get up every morning because every morning he gets to do what he loves to do!

Erm ... what exactly is that? Well, Buffy described it this way to the New York Times: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class that's making war and we're winning."

What he means is he loves his work as a cog in the masonic machine that's enslaving ever more of the masses under the evil yoke of so-called 'Globalisation'!

Yap, greed is good, baby! .... Greed is fucking great!

Meanwhile of course, that pillar of 'capitalism' and bestest buddies to warmongers like Bush and Blair, Bono fraudulently claims to be the champion of the world's poor!

Well, Lucifer's dark duplicitous work is never done! And there's always one more muddafucken moronic Macphisto / Mephisto waiting, his mouth gaping to suck on something slimy!

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Douchebaggery - Paul McGuinness: Saviour of the Music Industry

YOU CAN ONLY FIND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IF IT EXISTS ..…

from ROCK & RAP CONFIDENTIAL
Subscribe here; rockrap@aol.com

Paul McGuinness is the perfect manager for U2: Self-righteous, most confident that he’s expressing Truth when he recites cliché and propaganda, smug in his conviction that nobody out there is smarter, arrogantly dismissive of dissent. It’s an ugly blend, fulsomely displayed in McGuinness’ article from British GQ’s July edition, modestly entitled “How to save the music industry.”

The article is crammed with the boiler plate nonsense typical of copyright maximalists in general and the U2 camp in particular: Bono is a brave man for using his New York Times column to stand up for copyright against the Big Meanies in the blogosphere. Copyright is the only imaginable defense for young and poor artists since nobody will make music unless somebody can get rich. All critics speak with “inchoate, abusive voices.”

Superficially, McGuinness’s strongest argument is that the beneficiaries of copyright are creative people and therefore the victims of infringement are also creative people. However, he never mentions a single artist who has been harmed and even acknowledges that U2 hasn’t suffered. His only specific example is the fact that Tower Records and Virgin Records are no longer operating in the US—we’re supposed to pity the poor music business because file-sharing might prevent the system from churning out another creative genius like Richard Branson?

According to McGuinness, the solution to all the music world’s problems lies in a subscription service along the lines of Spotify. Specifically “a per-household monthly payment” keyed to “usage rather than units sold. Why should the price paid not correspond to the number of times the music is ‘consumed’?”

That means the cost of the subscription is keyed to how often you listen to music. The more you listen to a song or an album, the more you pay. One can only imagine the cries down the hallway in tomorrow’s teenage-ridden household: “Tommy, turn that off when you leave the goddamn room! What do you think, we own stock in U2?”

Pay-per-usage already exists in terms of broadcast revenues to the performance rights societies. But unlike fans, radio, TV, satellite and internet broadcasters make their living from such airplay. A kid who wants to play “Get On Your Boots” is either just loving the hell out of U2, getting ready to have his own band play it, or (in this case) perhaps possessed by a bad song demon. It makes no more sense for him to pay every time he listens than it would to pay a fee to General Motors every time he turns the ignition key in the family Chevy.

How will it help struggling creators if listeners confront the choice of experimenting with something new or relistening to an old favorite as an economic decision?

McGuinness ignores this problem and simply blathers on, proving once again that he knows nothing about the condition of struggling musicians. “Spotify could be the future model,” he writes, “but it will have to demonstrate that not only can it collect revenue from its users and advertisers, but that it will fairly pass on those sums to the artists, labels and publishers.” If that’s an issue, why doesn’t McGuinness write articles attacking SoundExchange, which has collected hundreds of millions of undistributed dollars? Why doesn’t he attack his business partners at Universal Music, whose prosperity is largely dependent on old masters for which the artists (list upon request) are seldom if ever compensated even though their contracts call for royalties? Why doesn’t he assault the rest of the record labels which do the same?

McGuinness concludes by saying, “I'm convinced there are sunlit uplands for the music industry ahead. What will those sunlight uplands be like?... It will be a world in which the norm will be for artists to get paid for their work when it is downloaded or streamed off the internet.” It is not the norm now, but that isn’t the product of the Internet, file-sharing and other modern technology. It’s the product of music industry business practices over the past century.

A subscription “solution” to file-sharing would not benefit creators. It would benefit the worst forces in the music world--the corporations that have been consolidating control and income during the entire recorded music period. New artists would have to “buy in” to a system of consolidation that would require as a down payment surrender of rights to records and songs in virtual perpetuity. If, by chance, the new system turns out stars like U2, they will have to claw their way to a reasonable share of the proceeds—just as McGuinness helped U2 to do. This is not a route to fairness. It is a route to the usual scenario: Prosperity for the few, poverty for the many.

McGuinness is most scathing about a blogger critic named Anonymous Coward, who apparently said some particularly abusive things about his and Bono’s previous rants. But Anonymous Coward is not alone. For instance, there’s RRC and its editor Dave Marsh. Two years ago, Bono personally challenged Dave, before several witnesses, to a public debate on such issues as these. When Bono unilaterally backed out of that conversation, who was being abusive? Who is being abusive when Bono and McGuinness make assertions without evidence; insulate themselves from contrary opinions, not to mention inconvenient facts; and dismiss anyone who disagrees with them as “inchoate”?

It’s true that for the one or two per cent of recording artists who got rich off the old system, the new one seems stingy and unfair. It’s beyond question that ISP owners and Apple have gotten much richer partly as a result of artists being uncompensated in the present system. It’s also irrelevant to McGuinness’s proposal, which amounts to the same There Is No Alternative that Bono espouses for solving the problems of the world’s poor.

But there are alternatives. It is NOT essential that capitalist markets be the vehicle for meeting the needs of the poor. It is NOT essential that listeners and less well-known artists be subjected to a “new” system that strengthens the same old villains.

Rather than wasting time on such scheming follies as subscriptions that cost far more than what consumers can spend, it would be better to consider how to take the money grubbing and hustling out of the music world. This can be done by creating a society in which artists—like everyone else—have sufficient support in obtaining the basics of life that they wouldn’t need to suck up to big corporations in hopes of paying the rent, feeding the kids, and paying for their next recording session.

The price might be no more Bonos.

Boo fucking hoo.

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