bicyclemark

Tsunami Update…

The way mass media chew up and spit out news, you don’t tend to get much in terms of history or updates for different issues and events. So today I’ve been combing the internets for info about the Tsunami recovery. Bet you hadn’t thought about THAT for awhile. 150,000 + died, yet it terms of news value – it couldn’t hold a candle to 9-11. Ponderous.

My search was for updates. How the recovery effort was going, across the region; how crops have been effected, how populations are coping, and if there’s any good news.

So far what Ive been able to find is that some people see a silver lining. That rice crops survived fairly well in places like Indonesia. But on the other hand, still lots of bad news, including that many people are still living in constant fear of another such disaster. Forever traumatized. To further add to the bad news about recovery list, is that in some places, like Yemen; the international community and agencies pretty much failed to notice how bad the effects were.

For all those named Katrina, such as one beautifully crazy friend of mine, you gotta love the headlines today. Including my recent favorite, cause I know she’d be proud:

Katrina may cost insurers $30 billion

Most Importantly today — go and listen to me discussing the world with Madge, a Woman of Luna, on Yeast Radio.

bicyclemark62_050827

Progressive Podcasts Review; What I listen to and why.

AudioCommunique #62(mp3)
30min+, 64kbps, 14Mb+

Public Radio Podcasts Discussed:
Democracy Now
Off the Hook
Radio Open Source
Media Matters
On the Media

Traditional Alternative Media Podcasts:
Fire On the Prairie from In These Times magazine, NOT the New republic. Whoops.
Radionation
Indymedia Podcast Feed

Native Podcasts:
Yeast Radio
AudioActivism

Doing it with music:
Tinkoff Radio
Radio Clash

AudioComments from:
Eliott in Canada
Clubside Breakfast Time Podcast, Olympia – Washington

Music from:

Allen Ginsburg DJ Mix – Come Along
G. Love – Lovin You (The Hustle)
Jets to Brazil – In the Summer, You Really Know (Four Cornered Night)
Family Guy – I’m Yours (live in Las Vegas)
Fallout Boy – Grand Theft Autumn

The Orgins

I figure since the blog felt dead for 24 hours… I would tell about the circumstances in which this communique of mine was born:

The year was around 2000 and I was busy playing horn for OCG, working on my bachelors, and plotting a move to France for a semester or so. I’d been an internaut since the early nineties, so it only made sense that I have some kind of website that Geocities provided, where I would throw up some photos I scanned in the WPU art department computer lab, and then I’d rant about world news for a few paragraphs. When I did this, I was thinking of myself as a sort-of columnist for my own little newspaper. I tried to write in a very “i know everything” manner, because when it came to world affairs, I probably believed I knew everything.

So I’d update my little website every week or so, and put up a new, what I called, Communiqué for my readership of 5 or so. Many of those original 5 still come here daily! (I do love you for your courage and dedication!)

Eventually this wasn’t good enough. It was just after Sept.11th and I had moved to Lisbon; Chavez was overthrown for 24 hours, Israel was shooting up churches in Bethlehem, and fascist patriotism had taken over the United States. I needed a better outlet for my rants, and I felt like newspapers had too many gatekeepers who wouldn’t accept my work. But I hadn’t heard about blogs, so I kept on writing articles for my site, more and more.

And then I moved to Amsterdam right around this date in 2002, and I discovered blogger, and I purchased bicyclemark.org, because I had often been called that name, and I wanted to express my dedication to people and progress by making it a .org instead of a .com .

The rest is history, especially in 2004 when this thing began to really bloom. And I made tons of fellow blog friends as well as reader friends. Many of them are still going today, like brian, tony, and the wonderful bronwyn. So as my blog birthday approaches, I just wanted to share and remember how and when it all started. Thanks for reading, and you can bet- I’ve only just begun.

Conspiracy

Dear Readers, the site was down for 24 hours. During that 24 hours I was mentioned on Adam Curry’s Podfinder amongst other places. Meaning hundreds of new visitors came here and throught — doesn’t work, this sucks.
Thus is life when your domain registrar is probably run out of a shack in southern cal. Still, I’m thankful to all of you who were patient, wrote me emails, called me, and offered money. The tip jar is always open of course, but that wasn’t the problem.

So a big thank you to my host Zach at Cast Iron hosting who commiserated with me throughout.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming. (tonight)

Insane German Movie

I don’t often go around pushing the films on all of you out there in blog reading land. But tonight I was unexpectedly left completely shocked and disturbed by a German Film – Das Experiment.

The film is based on the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was basically a psychological experiment involving a fake prison where volunteers are divided into guards and prisoners and told to live that way, acting like a normal prison, for 2 weeks. And of course, the experiment got rapidly out of control, guards started using insane torture methods, inmates became mentally disturbed, and I think lots of people got in trouble for all the damage that was done. Sure enough, rebellions at prisons like Attica and San Quentin took place not too long afterwards.

The movie is by far one of the most disturbing I have ever seen. I actually felt sick, nervous, and angry by the end. And there were no special effects, which makes me think this german director is a fantastic artist. It also reminds me of Abu Ghraib and the way soldiers/guards tortured and humiliated prisoners. Come to think of it, I’ve known a number of American prison guards in my life and their stories and the way they spoke of their job was pretty disturbing.

So if you’re up for such things — go rent it! Or check the bittorent.

bicyclemark61_050823

Almost Eaten by wild animals in the Ardennes forests; hear the sounds of wild streams and trees as I was in Belgium this past weekend.

AudioCommunique #61(mp3)
30min+, 64kbps, 14Mb+

Some Highlights:

Pictures Here
About the Ardennes
Fishtank (Work) Fieldtrip
French Speaking
Items in Belgian News
Missick was on the DailyShow and…

Music/audio from:
Bob Dylan – High Water (Love and Theft)
Eddie Izzard – The great flood (Glorious)
David Rovics – Falluja