Griff says; Bring a Torch (for Bradley Manning)

Exactly a year ago today (see 'here') the whistle-blowing organisation Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange were all over the news and I took the opportunity to remind you all of the fate of Bradley Manning, the US serviceman accused of leaking; a video of the Granai airstrike, around 260,000 US diplomatic cables and the notorious "Collateral Murder" video.


When I last wrote of this, 17th december 2010, Manning was 'celebrating' his 23rd birthday at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico where he had been held in solitary confinement since July 29, 2010. Today, 17th December 2011, on his 24th birthday, he is once again back in the news. Yesterday, after 17 months of pre-trial imprisonment, Manning finally got to see the inside of a courtroom, at the preliminary stage of his military trial at an army base in Maryland.
Since his arrest, Manning has been treated as one of America's most heinous traitors. He faces 23 charges, the most serious of which is that Manning knowingly gave "intelligence to the enemy, though indirect means".

The sadistic conditions to which he was subjected for 10 months at Quantico, which Amnesty International condemned as 'inhumane', are well-documented and provoked an international scandal. Even so, PJ Crowley, a US state department spokesman, was forced to resign after denouncing Manning's treatment. In April 2011, 295 legal scholars and philosophers signed a letter stating that the conditions he experienced amounted to a violation of the U.S. Constitution; later that month the Pentagon transferred him to the Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, a new medium-security facility in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The attempts to crush Manning, and with him conscientious objection to government venality, are not yet over, however. One of the stranger aspects of the pre-trial is that it begins on a Friday and will run throughout this weekend. The military authorities have indicated that each day's proceedings could be extended late into the night. Jeff Patterson of the Bradley Manning support network has explained this decision thus;

"To run the hearing through a weekend right before the Christmas vacation is clearly designed to minimise both media coverage and public protests,"

It seems that, though it is Manning who is nominally on trial, these proceedings reveal the US government's fixation with extreme secrecy, covering up its own crimes, and intimidating future whistleblowers.

Today, I wanted to bring you a beautiful artistic response to Bradley Manning's treatment at the hands of the authorities, and at the same time, to remind you all that each of us, every one of us,is responsible for keeping the flame of liberty alive during our lives. Below I've embedded the video of the song 'Bring a Torch (for Bradley Manning)' by Cabin of Love.




I think that's truly beautiful. A free MP3 of the song can be downloaded from 'here'. Cabin of Love is Julia and Nathan Bloom, an acoustic duo from Owatonna, Minnesota. They have been making music together since 1988 and the best place to keep up with them is probably their Youtube channel. Julia also has a fine site of her own 'here' where you can read her thought on various issues. 'Bring a Torch (for Bradley Manning)' is based on the 16th. century French Christmas Carol 'Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle' (Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella). To this day, in the Provence region of France, children dressed up as shepherds and milkmaids, carry torches and candles to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, while singing the carol. The wonderful chiaroscuro painter Georges de La Tour was inspired by the carol to paint this exquisite nativity scene.


As I look on those tender and gentle faces looking on the vulnerable yet peaceful child, I am reminded of the hope that must attend all births; the hope of a better and brighter future. This year, 2011, has seen the advent of a spirit of change and optimism throughout the world. The Arab Spring, The Occcupy movement, Los Indignados in Spain, the White Ribbon movement in Russia, and the Europe wide anti-austerity protests have all spoken of the re-birth of old and noble human ideals. The young people involved in these protests are the midwives of that rebirth. They hold in their hands the hopes of humanity; freedom of speech, the freedom to participate in free and open elections, the right to a fair trial, social justice, an end to acquisitive wars. These are the ideals I think of over the weekend of Bradley Manning's pre-trial. These are the ideals that, I believe, prompted Manning to release the material that so damned his own government. In doing so, this 24 year old man lost his liberty but took his place, along with so many of his generation, to endeavour to ensure that the fragile arrival of hope in the world is not crushed by those who would see us live under the weight of fear and hate.
Now is the time to ask yourself,where do you stand? Are you prepared to carry the hope born in 2011 forward and into 2012? Ask yourself, what will you bring into the world? Will it be darkness or light? Are you prepared, as Bradley Manning was, to bring a torch into the darkness and light up the world with hope?


Griff

Griff says; A purrfect excuse for some kitten art

I've been feeling a little tense recently and I think it has been reflected in my blogs. Christmas always makes me feel grumpy; it really seems to exacerbate my alienation from consumer society. Gordon, on the other hand, as regular readers will know, loves Christmas and feels full of joy and peace and goodwill to all men etc etc, which , quite frankly, just makes me grumpier. So, I was looking through my recent posts and realised that, rather than giving you my usual fare, i.e. something about undemocratic corporate oligarchies, or suicide, or homelessness in Russia, I'd reveal a little of my sweeter, more gentle side. If you think you can take it, that is.

What many of you may not realise is that The Streetlamp team are very much cat lovers. Is that a surprise? I suspect not - if you've thought about it you'll have twigged that dogs are too slavishly obedient to inspire our love. No, it's feisty and independent cats for us all the way; all three of us too, particularly Gordon who is practically Egyptian in his adoration of felines. That being the case, I came across something very cute recently and wanted to share it with Gordon and Ray, but then thought; what the hell, I'll stick it on the blog and cheer everyone up at the same time.
My find was a blog called the kitten covers, which has a very simple but effective premise. Basically, it takes iconic pop and rock album covers, mainly from the 70s and 80s, and faithfully reproduces them but with the crucial introduction of kittens into the image. OK, I know what you're thinking; 'How, very internet. How very lightweight'. Yes, that's true but in my defence all I can say is... look at them, they're soooo cute!

Here are my favourites so far:







Aren't they brilliant? There are loads more on the kitten covers site, so please do pay it a visit.


Now, as you know, I never leave you empty-handed on your Streetlamp visits so I racked my brain for a song to accompany this and had an inspiration. I'm embedding 'One Kitten' by Julia Vorontsova (pictured) below. This charming, slightly eccentric song, features the sombre and melancholic Russian poet/chanteuse both purring and meowing throughout to startling effect.

One Kitten - Julia Vorontsova by SadPanda

Here's a translation of the lyric:

Yawning cavities of the soul
This fluffy snow has covered.
And through this floury powder
An eager and scary morning rushed in.
Where’s heaven for little kitties ? Where is it?
January. Everyone is asleep and I lean to the cold walls.
Why the silence torments today?
So dreadful… At least someone meow!
Where, where did you get lost?
Amused me and enough, come out!
Let’s play! Let’s go to the basement, it’s so dark there!
I’ll teach you to run up and down the stairs.
Please come! I’ll wash you up, I’ll lick you clean!
Something taps in my chest, someone restless is tapping.
You’ll come and you can bite my tail or my paws
And you can sleep on my rug and you can scratch anywhere!..
Oh, I see, that brother you called it!
Once I’m offended you can meow for an hour even
I’ll walk away and sit alone and show you my back,
So that you’ll know how to get a sister upset!
Where’s heaven for little kitties ? Where is it?
January. Everyone is asleep and I lean to the cold walls.
Come back, right away I’ll follow
Come back at once, after all there’s two of us…
Where’s heaven? Where’s paradise for little kittens , where is it?...


Isn't that amazing? I totally love Julia's output, it is by turns solemn and exuberant, but always dramatic. That particular song is from her 2004 debut CD 'From St. Petersburg With Love'. This can be downloaded online at the usual places, or the physical CD can be purchased from Abaton Book Company and includes a 12-page booklet of English commentary and drawings by the artist. Julia is originally from St. Petersburg (a city I featured in a blog just last week) but has lived a markedly peripatetic life and is currently resident in Paris, where she is working on new material and starting to collaborate with other musicians.

Julia's music falls within the Russian бард (bard) tradition. This term came into being in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s/early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today to refer to singer-songwriters who write poetic songs, accompanying themselves with fairly simple guitar arrangements so that the emphasis is very much on the lyric. It is a very direct, powerful and emotionally profound style when done well and Julia is a wonderfully talented modern exponent of the genre.


As the бард tradition puts a heavy emphasis on its commerce-free nature; with the songs written to be sung and not to be sold, I'm hoping that Julia won't mind me making a free MP3 of the above track available 'here'. This track, from my own collection, of course, is provided purely for promotional reasons and I do hope that you will come to love it as much as I do and go on to investigate the rest of Julia's output.

Griff
xx

~Winter Wassailing~#21: December Will Be Magic Again

The idea of a magical looking December goes hand in hand with the whole Christmas package, yet somehow this particular year it isn't living up to much. In the last few days alone we've had 95mph winds, blizzards, severe ice and torrential rain. Where's the enchanting white vistas we so long for to add some seasonal spice to our festivities?
Well, this year, thanks in part to Mojo Magazine, the bewitching depictions of a Winter Wonderland come courtesy of the artist Lisa Evans, whose stunning evocation of a rather odd Christmas scene adorned Mojo's review of the new Kate Bush album '50 Words For Snow'. As soon as as I saw the illustration(see below), I was hooked and immediately set out to try and find more images by this gifted artist.
What I love about the image above is that it has that otherworldly allure that only something as magical as Christmastime would allow us to fall for. The foreboding palette of grey blues and shimmering whites creates a chilly fairytale effect, but like the best fairytales it is shot through with a little sinister surrealism. Take for instance the snowman that seems to hover above the trees, or that rather ominous shadow on the far right hand corner that threatens the Winter idyll that surrounds the children; is it a monster, is it some disreputable adult, or is it a parent following on to make sure the the two children are safe? Also, the eyes of the moon give the whole scene a storybook feel that assures us we are in the realms of fantasy.
If we look at the close-up detail above we can see that the female character could almost pass for the young Kate Bush herself (I'm guessing that's the whole point!), and that both have a wide-eyed innocence coupled with a rather eerie detached look that suggests their faces have been Photo-shopped on, creating further unease.
This is why the image works so well for a songwriter like Kate whose entire oeuvre is enshrouded in that whole blurring of a highly sensualised reality with a child's dreamlike fantasy. And who other than Ms Bush could ever reassure us, in her own inimitable way, that December WILL be magic again?


Both Kate's songs and Lisa's artwork manage to convey that sense of spectral unease that lies within children's fantasies, nursery rhymes and fairytales. There's that sense that children haven't really worked our what 'evil' is yet, so anything threatening or potentially dangerous is viewed by the child as something unknown and slightly peculiar, rather than downright sinister.
Take this next painting of Lisa's; we can see the happiness that the rocking horse and the glove puppet should bring to the child, but the blank look on her face coupled with the overall sense of disquiet brought on by the mute colours suggests all is not as it should be.
Or then there's this beautiful creation in which everything looks rosy, everything is bright and the child is surrounded by her toys and animal friends, yet the sad look on her face and the concerned look of her playmates, not to mention that all furniture is covered in ice, allows a sense of unease to permeate through the scene.
It's not the first time that Lisa has had her wonderful artwork accompany reviews in Mojo magazine; this beautiful and haunting image below was used to illustrate an album by the equally Wintry and sepulchral Bon Iver. Possibly making Lisa Mojo's Winter illustrator of choice!
As you may know, we here at the ~Streetlamp~ worship at the altar of the blessed Kate Bush, although special mention should go out to Ray who has burned the candle longest, seeing the beauty and the mystery of Kate's breathtaking body of work long before Griff or I ever managed to get our heads round it. And so it makes perfect sense that it was Ray who e-mailed me all aglow to inform me that Kate had a whole new album of original material out this month. I don't think Kate sees her new album as a 'Christmas Album' as such, more a celebration of Winter, that most maligned of seasons.
So to round off this Blog I thought I'd finish with a track from that new album, and the video that Ray chose for inclusion in the Blog. Plus an illustration of Lisa's that I think conveys the same feel and essence of the song:



And finally, a portrait of the artist:

You can view more of Lisa's incredible and beautiful artwork here

And you can follow her own Blog here

December IS Magic!!

~Gordon~

~Winter Wassailing~#20: 'Silent Night' by The Dickies

Despite being one of the first Punk bands (formed in 1977) to emerge from the L.A. Punk scene, San Fernando Valley's The Dickies have never really achieved the kudos that many lesser, and certainly much less talented bands have attained. A large part of this probably is down to the fact the band are often seen as cartoonish and a bit of a joke. Something I'm here to hopefully reverse!
For me, The Dickies were always exceptional musicians. Just listening to the musicianship on their recordings; the drumming, the guitars, the Farfisa style keyboards, the incredible speed at which they played (and played well), and their remarkable ability to stop/start on a sixpence belied their much negated reputation.
Also, I think, what worked against them was their geek-chic look, with its shiny plastic jackets and wraparound plastic shades, and the fact that all their records came on coloured vinyl, which added to the contrived New Wave image the band seemed lumbered with, something that more earnest Punks and the NME seemed to take umbrage with.
The Dickies are best remembered among the Punk fraternity for their 1000mph cover versions of Rock Music's sacred cows; everything from Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' to Simon & Garfunkel's 'The Sound Of Silence' to The Moody Blues' 'Nights In White Satin' were covered at blistering, helium-voiced, velocity. This was both a blessing and a curse for the band, as it was the cover versions that gave them their hits, but they also detracted from their own compositions. And some of those, like 'Fan Mail' were rather superb slices of ironic Punk energy.




In Britain, at least, The Dickies are probably most well known for their speedfreak cover of the theme to 'The Banana Splits' TV show which gained them their highest positioned chart hit in the UK (No 7), and which was the only song I danced to (or rather pogoed to) at our school disco that year.
The song has had fresh life breathed into it by it's inclusion in one of the best scenes from the recent movie 'Kick-Ass':


And, as this is a Christmas Blog, it's only right that I should feature their Festive favourite, their cover of the traditional song 'Silent Night' (pressed on white vinyl for those who wish to know), which was released in December 1978 and actually charted in Britain a whole six months before the Banana Splits single. As usual, the playing is immense and the counter-melodic second guitar is something of a joy:


The B-side to the single was the already mentioned cover of the 'Sound Of Silence'; I'm guessing a 'silence' theme was at play here:


After 1980, the hits pretty much dried up on both sides of the pond but the band continued onwards, regularly being featured in the U.S's 'Maximum Rock'n'Roll' magazine (which took a pretty serious look at the American Punk scene), and were still playing in the early 2000s, albeit with a radically altered line-up, the band having suffered a rather tragic spate of deaths (drug related and suicide).

A fine band then, and one, like The Monkees, who deserve a bit more credit than they are usually given. And, as if it was all planned, here they are covering The Monkees!


See, not thrown together at all!!

~Gordon~