DudeAsInCool

Guitarist, Mjarka Player, Singer, Songwriter, Farmer. 16 albums; one Grammy; the Merite National du Mali Award. Born in the Timbuktu region of Mali, Ali Farka Toure got serious about the guitar at the age of 17. More than a decade later, he saw Detroit bluesman John Lee Hooker playing a show in Bamako. On first listen he thought Hooker was playing Malian songs. Roughly 20 years later, with the release of his first albums in the West, Toure was being billed as the African John Lee Hooker. Despite the occassional collaboration with Ry Cooder and others, Toure prefers to play traditional Malian music and he likes to play it straight. Sometimes (he) picks up his Njarka, a one string African violin, and saws away at it like someone possessed. Toure has mixed feelings about making a living by turning his music into popular entertainment--since releasing the typically great Niafunke, in 1999, and touring the world soon afterward, Toure has returned to his fruit-and-rice farm in his native country. (Vanity Fair - November '04)

He's often mentioned with Ravi Shankar - dont know if he worked with George Harrison or not, but it wouldnt surprise me if he did

Sarode Master, Composer, Educator. More than 100 albums; more than 20 international awards including a MacArthur Foundation 'genius grant.' Credited with introducing classical music to the West in 1955. Ali Akbar Khan has had a career thus far that is nothing shor of amazing. He has won respect the world over for his mastery of the sarode--a 25-stringed northern Indian lute. In 1967, he opened the Ali Akbgar College of Music, now in San Rafael, California, recognizing what he called "the extraordinary interest and the abilities" of his students in the West." (Vanity Fair, November '04))

Tabla Player, Remixer, Groove Master, Producer, Arranger, Composer In his very own musical genre, 'tablatronics,' Talvin Singh blends classical Indian tala playing and the British subspecies of European electronica known as Drum 'n Bass. Born in 1970 to Indian parents who had fled Idi Amin's Uganda for London, Singh grew up enamored with the sounds he heard on the streets ofhis neighborhood as well as the ragas he studies in the Punjab region of India. In 1995, he started an East London dance-club, Anokha, where Asian Drum 'n Bass DJ's sometimes did battle with latter-day punk bands. Singh also found time to lend his remixing and percussion talents to Bjork, Madonna, Sun Ra, and other artists. In 1998, he released his first proper solo album, 'OK,' a clear musical statement on the melting away of the borders between East and West." (Vanity Fair, November '04)

Singer, Unicef Goodwill Ambassador "More than 450 albums; more than 300 million albums sold worldwide; at least 300 gold, platinum, and diamond albums; 14 European arts awards. Greek songstress Nana Mouskouri grew up in Athens in the shadow of an open-air cinema's movie screen, and hearing Judy Garldn in The Wizard of Oz" inspired her to sing (and taught her how to sing in English). One six-decade career later, Mouskouri, 70, is a CinemaScope presence among pan-and-scan performers, having sold more albums internationally than any other female artists (yes, even Madonna)..." (Vanity Fair, November '04 Issue)

"Caetano Veloso - Singer, songwriter and eternal bohemian. Seventy-one albums; one grammy; three Latin Grammys; the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame Award, 2001, for his 1967 album Caetano Veloso." "For nearly 40 years, Caetano Veloso has been devouring cultural influences--from bossa nova and samba to rock, pop, and reggae; from avant-garde poety to cinema novo and radical politics-with astonishing results. IN the late 60s, he helped create Tropicalia, an iconoclastic movement which 'cannibalized' elements of Brazilian and American music and pop culture-and which landed Caetano and co-conspirator Gilberto Gil in prison under Brazail's repressive military dictatorship. Undaunted, Caetano returned to his homeland from exile in London and set off on a path of perpetual transformation. There's been a Fellini-tribute album; the jazzy melange of 1989's Estrangeiro; the 1999 Grammy for best world music album, Livro; and even a book, Tropical Truth; A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil. On his latest record, A Foreign Sound, Caetano sings American classics from Cole Porter to Kurt Cobain, entirely in English" (Vanity Fair, November '04 issue)

Vanity Fair's November, 2004 edition is dedicated to the World Music Scene, and Sting was chosen to write the forward. "His collaboration with Algerian singer Cheb Mami n the song 'Desert Rose', a hit track from his Grammy-winning 1999 album, Brand Ne Day, helped forge a link between Western pop and Middle Eastern sounds. The Sting spirit extended into the summer of '04. He performed his 'A Thousand Years' as a duet with one-named Portuguese fado singer Mariza on 'Unity', the official pop-music album of the 28th Olympic Games (intro from the editors at Vanity Fair)."

Jay-Z & R. Kelly Unfinished Business [Jive; 2004] Rating: 6.7 Jay-Z and R. Kelly don't like each other. They've been canceling dates on their co-headlining tour, and the rumors are flying. Kelly doesn't like that Jay got a better reception at the tour's opening show in Chicago. Jay doesn't like that Kelly simulates sex with two women in a cage/jail cell as part of his act. When they're onstage together, they barely look at each other. So why did they make another album together Read the full review here to find out. (Hint - $$$$$$$$$) http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-revie...-business.shtml

http://www.hip-oselect.com/pitchfork/alfie.mp3

:P

Ouch! Here are some more pics to add to that: http://www.pixyland.org/peterpan/guava2001.html

I love Bush of another color

The school district people in this article and the anti-Halloween folks need to get a life! *** Halloween Hits Streak Of Bad Luck in School By Blaine Harden Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 31, 2004; Page A03 PUYALLUP, Wash. -- The school superintendent's order was final. Halloween was "prohibited" during school hours. Black cats, pointy hats and all images of witches could no longer be displayed in any of the 31 schools in this suburban city south of Seattle. The first official reason: Halloween parties and costumes detract from the district's core mission of academic achievement in a competitive world. The second official reason: "We have been contacted by followers of the Wiccan religion, and they indicated they have been offended after seeing elementary school depictions of witches with long noses, warts, cauldrons and such," said Tony Apostle, the superintendent who banned Halloween. You can read all about it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Oct30.html

Smoke and mirrors

The VP gets into the spirit

My sister lives in Santa Fe. We should hook up next time im in your universe, Wolfman *** Analysis. 12/31/04. We haven't moved any states since Thursday, but looking over previous polling and the data of the last two nights, we think we see three states separating from the rest. Several of the states we've been watching closely—let's call them Tier 1--are pretty consistently going to one candidate or the other: Nevada, New Mexico, and Iowa to Bush; Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, and now Wisconsin to Kerry. Of these, only Wisconsin and Iowa show signs of vulnerability. Florida, Ohio, and Minnesota have not settled into such a pattern. In those three states—let's call them Tier 2--polls are far from agreement. Our tentative theory is that these are the states in which poll results are most influenced by variations among likely-voter screens. To put it another way, these are the states in which turnout will most certainly decide who wins. If the Tier 1 states are distributed as current data suggest, then the election reduces to a simple equation. Whichever candidate takes two of the Tier 2 states is the next President. http://slate.com/id/2108751/

Worked earlier...

Hang up your hat and make yourself at home :strumma:

Pathetic...

I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, even if they were the the last people on earth, I would never vote for GWB or the big Dick

Catchy tune :good job:

Fixed - try it again :)

Focus Narrowing as Close Contest Nears Finish Line By R. W. APPLE Jr. Published: October 31, 2004 CLEVELAND, Oct. 30 - The 2004 presidential campaign is ending as it began, focused with blazing intensity on no more than a dozen hard-fought states, with the tinglingly close contest between President Bush andSenator John Kerry depending most, both parties agree, on three pivotal states: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The candidates have invested tens of millions of dollars on advertising there, deployed armies of field workers and spent hundreds of hours on the stump, including visits in the campaign's final weekend. As a result, cities like Orlando, Pittsburgh and Columbus, and their suburbs, have watched the struggle from close range while Chicago, Dallas, New York and Los Angeles have squinted at it from bleacher seats. In the end, the outcome is likely to be decided by what political pros call "the ground war": the effort by both parties to get every supporter to the polls on Tuesday. Although there are almost limitless ways either candidate could reach the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to win, whoever wins two of the big three states would have an advantage that would be difficult to overcome. With only 72 hours left until the polls begin opening, Pennsylvania, with 21 electoral votes, appeared to be trending Mr. Kerry's way, with most but not all opinion surveys showing him ahead by about three percentage points. Mr. Bush has failed to dent the four suburban Philadelphia counties, whose liberal attitudes on social issues like abortion and gun control have overshadowed their economic conservatism. Florida, with 27 electoral votes, was agonizingly close four years ago, with far-reaching consequences, and it is the hardest of the big states to read this year. If anyone holds an advantage, it is probably Mr. Bush, if only because of the influence of his brother Jeb, the governor. But the Democrats, energized by the sting of their agonizing defeat in 2000, seem to be benefiting more from the outpouring of early voters. Here in Ohio, which has 20 electoral votes, Mr. Kerry has capitalized on job losses during the Bush administration. He seems to hold a tenuous lead as volunteers from both parties pour into the state, often seen as a microcosm of the nation, to get out the vote. He has taken to carrying a lucky buckeye in his pocket. No Republican has ever been elected president without carrying Ohio, and the state has gone with the winner in all but two elections since 1892. "It's as close as it could conceivably be," said Eric Rademacher, who directs the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll. "Closer than I've ever seen before. Close here and several other states. We may not know the outcome until mid-November." Searching for ways to salvage a victory even if beaten in the big shows, both Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush belatedly began wooing the voters of Michigan (17 electoral votes). A win there could very nearly make up for a loss in Ohio. They have also intensified their pursuit of a troika of smaller Midwestern states that Al Gore won by narrow margins in 2000: Minnesota and Wisconsin (10 each) and Iowa (7). All three are treacherously close this time, withRalph Nader a real threat to Mr. Kerry in Minnesota, a state notably fond of third-party candidates. Colorado (9), New Mexico and Nevada (5 each) and New Hampshire (4) are all in play as well, with the potential of contributing to a winning equation. A series of hairbreadth finishes could plunge the nation into treacherous straits, with lawsuits in multiple states, a far more complex prospect than the legal contest in 2000, which was confined to Florida. Several suits have already been filed. But the huge numbers of newly registered voters could confound all the forecasts. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/politics...artner=homepage

http://www.fetchfido.co.uk/games/squares-2/squares-2.htm

Police struggle to stop naked street lovers Sat Oct 30, 1:00 PM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - German police say they have detained a naked 25-year-old woman and her 23-year-old partner who were engaged in sexual intercourse on the pavement in the middle of a busy shopping district. Police in the western town of Duelmen said the couple were spotted by pedestrians late on Friday morning having intercourse. Pedestrians in the town of 40,000 called police, but the couple initially ignored police orders to stop. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._germany_couple