Nouveau Yehudar

//DUH//

2008-10-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

WESTFIELD, Mass. — With an instructor watching, an 8-year-old boy at a gun fair aimed an Uzi at a pumpkin and pulled the trigger as his dad reached for a camera.

It was his first time shooting a fully automatic machine gun, and the recoil of the weapon was too much for him. He lost control and fatally shooting himself in the head.

Now gun safety experts — and some gun enthusiasts at the club where the shooting happened — are wondering why such a young child was allowed to fire a weapon used in war. Local, state and federal authorities are also investigating whether everyone involved had proper licenses or if anyone committed a criminal act.

"It's easy to lose control of a weapon like that ... they are used on a battleground for a very good reason," said Jerry Belair, a spokesman for Stop Handgun Violence, based in Newton, Mass.

"It's to shoot as many times as you possibly can without having to reload at an enemy that's approaching. It's not a toy. It's not something to play with." Police said Christopher Bizilj (Bah-SEAL) of Ashford, Conn., was pronounced dead at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., on Sunday afternoon, shortly after firing a 9mm micro Uzi submachine gun at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club, co-sponsored by C.O.P. Firearms & Training.

"The weapon was loaded and ready to fire," Westfield police Lt. Hipolito Nunez said. "The 8-year-old victim had the Uzi and as he was firing the weapon, the front end of the weapon went up with the backfire and he ended up receiving a round in his head." Nunez said the investigation is continuing.

Christopher, a third-grader, was attending the show with his father and sixth-grade brother, Colin. Christopher had fired handguns and rifles before, but Sunday was his first time firing an automatic weapon, said his father, Charles Bizilj.

Bizilj told the Boston Globe he was about 10 feet behind his son and reaching for his camera when the weapon fired. He said his family avoided the larger weapons, but he let his son try the Uzi because it's a small weapon with little recoil.

"This accident was truly a mystery to me," said Bizilj, director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, Conn. "This is a horrible event, a horrible travesty, and I really don't know why it happened." Police are calling the shooting an accident but are investigating whether everyone connected with the incident had proper weapons permits. Massachusetts requires licenses to own firearms, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issues different licenses to possess machine guns.

The machine gun shoot drew hundreds of people from as far away as Maine and Virginia. An advertisement said it would include machine gun demonstrations and rentals and free handgun lessons.

"It's all legal & fun — No permits or licenses required!!!!" reads the ad, posted on the club's Web site.

"You will be accompanied to the firing line with a Certified Instructor to guide you. But You Are In Control — "FULL AUTO ROCK & ROLL," the ad said.

The ad also said children under 16 would be admitted free, and both adults and children were offered free .22-caliber pistol and rifle shooting.

Massachusetts has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

It is legal in Massachusetts for children to fire a weapon if they have permission from a parent or legal guardian and they are supervised by a properly certified and licensed instructor, Nunez said. The name of the instructor who was with the boy at the time was not released.

"We do not know at this time the full facts of this incident," Nunez said Monday.

//Barking & kissing & leaving//

2008-06-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

George Carlin, 71, Irreverent Standup Comedian, Is Dead

By MEL WATKINS

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas.

Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/samuel_langhorne_clemens/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Samuel Langhorne Clemens.">Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/kennedy_john_f_center_for_the_performing_arts/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts">Kennedy Center in November. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Jack Burns, who performed with Mr. Carlin in the 1960’s as one half of a comedy duo, said “He was a genius and I will miss him dearly.”

Mr. Carlin began his standup comedy act in the late 1950s and made his first television solo guest appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1965. At that time, he was primarily known for his clever wordplay and reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.

But from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet. “The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight’s forecast . . . dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning.”

Mr. Carlin released his first comedy album, “Take-Offs and Put-Ons,” to rave reviews in 1967. He also dabbled in acting, winning a recurring part as Marlo Thomas’ theatrical agent in the sitcom “That Girl” (1966-67) and a supporting role in the movie “With Six You Get Egg-Roll,” released in 1968.

By the end of the decade, he was one of America’s best known comedians. He made more than 80 major television appearances during that time, including the Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show; he was also regularly featured at major nightclubs in New York and Las Vegas.

That early success and celebrity, however, was as dinky and hollow as a gratuitous pratfall to Mr. Carlin. “I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and in some cases associated with, and whose point of view I shared,” he recalled later, as quoted in the book “Going Too Far” by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. “I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie.”

In 1970, Mr. Carlin discarded his suit, tie, and clean-cut image as well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him to the top. Mr. Carlin reinvented himself, emerging with a beard, long hair, jeans and a routine that, according to one critic, was steeped in “drugs and bawdy language.” There was an immediate backlash. The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas terminated his three-year contract, and, months later, he was advised to leave town when an angry mob threatened him at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. Afterward, he temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges where he found a younger, hipper audience that was more attuned to both his new image and his material.

By 1972, when he released his second album, “FM & AM,” his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the “AM” side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the “FM” side. Among the more controversial cuts was a routine euphemistically entitled “Shoot,” in which Mr. Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement. The bit was part of the comic’s longer routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which appeared on his third album “Class Clown,” also released in 1972.

“There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time ‘ass’ is all right on television,” Mr. Carlin noted in his introduction to the then controversial monologue. “You can say, well, ‘You’ve made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.’ You can use ass in a religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on one — perfectly all right.”

The material seems innocuous by today’s standards, but it caused an uproar when broadcast on the New York radio station WBAI in the early ‘70s. The station was censured and fined by the FCC. And in 1978, their ruling was supported by the href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Supreme Court.">Supreme Court, which Time magazine reported, “upheld an FCC ban on ‘offensive material’ during hours when children are in the audience.” Mr. Carlin refused to drop the bit and was arrested several times after reciting it on stage.

By the mid-’70s, like his comic predecessor Lenny Bruce and the fast-rising Richard Pryor, Mr. Carlin had emerged as a cultural renegade. In addition to his irreverent jests about religion and politics, he openly talked about the use of drugs, including acid and peyote, and said that he kicked cocaine not for moral or legal reasons but after he found “far more pain in the deal than pleasure.” But the edgier, more biting comedy he developed during this period, along with his candid admission of drug use, cemented his reputation as the “comic voice of the counterculture.”

Mr. Carlin released a half dozen comedy albums during the ‘70s, including the million-record sellers “Class Clown,” “Occupation: Foole” (1973) and “An Evening With Wally Lando” (1975). He was chosen to host the first episode of the late-night comedy show
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/saturday_night_live/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about the Saturday Night Live.">“Saturday Night Live” in 1975. And two years later, he found the perfect platform for his brand of acerbic, cerebral, sometimes off-color standup humor in the fledgling, less restricted world of cable television. By 1977, when his first HBO comedy special, “George Carlin at USC” was aired, he was recognized as one of the era’s most influential comedians. He also become a best-selling author of books that expanded on his comedy routines, including “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?,” which was published by Hyperion in 2004.

He was “a hugely influential force in stand-up comedy,” the actor Ben Stiller told The Associated Press. “He had an amazing mind, and his humor was brave, and always challenging us to look at ourselves and question our belief systems, while being incredibly entertaining. He was one of the greats.”

Pursuing a Dream

Mr. Carlin was born in New York City in 1937. “I grew up in New York wanting to be like those funny men in the movies and on the radio,” he said. “My grandfather, mother and father were gifted verbally, and my mother passed that along to me. She always made sure I was conscious of language and words.”

He quit high school to join the Air Force in the mid-’50s and, while stationed in Shreveport, La., worked as a radio disc jockey. Discharged in 1957, he set out to pursue his boyhood dream of becoming an actor and comic. He moved to Boston where he met and teamed up with Jack Burns, a newscaster and comedian. The team worked on radio stations in Boston, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles, and performed in clubs throughout the country during the late ‘50s.

After attracting the attention of the comedian Mort Sahl, who dubbed them “a duo of hip wits,” they appeared as guests on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar. Still, the Carlin-Burns team was only moderately successful, and, in 1960, Mr. Carlin struck out on his own.

During a career that spanned five decades, he emerged as one of the most durable, productive and versatile comedians of his era. He evolved from Jerry Seinfeld-like whimsy and a buttoned-down decorum in the ‘60s to counterculture icon in the ‘70s. By the ‘80s, he was known as a scathing social critic who could artfully wring laughs from a list of oxymorons that ranged from “jumbo shrimp” to “military intelligence.” And in the 1990s and into the 21st century the balding but still pony-tailed comic prowled the stage — eyes ablaze and bristling with intensity — as the circuit’s most splenetic curmudgeon.

During his live 1996 HBO special, “Back in Town,” he raged over the shallowness of the ‘90s “me first” culture — mocking the infatuation with camcorders, hyphenated names, sneakers with lights on them, and lambasting white guys over 10 years old who wear their baseball hats backwards. Baby boomers, “who went from ‘do your thing’ to ‘just say no’ ...from cocaine to Rogaine,” and pro life advocates (“How come when it’s us it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken it’s an omelet?”), were some of his prime targets. In the years following his 1977 cable debut, Mr. Carlin was nominated for a half dozen Grammy awards and received CableAces awards for best stand-up comedy special for “George Carlin: Doin’ It Again (1990) and “George Carlin: Jammin’ “ (1992). He also won his second Grammy for the album “Jammin” in 1994.

Personal Struggles

During the course of his career, Mr. Carlin overcame numerous personal trials. His early arrests for obscenity (all of which were dismissed) and struggle to overcome his self-described “heavy drug use” were the most publicized. But in the ‘80s he also weathered serious tax problems, a heart attack and two open heart surgeries.

In December 2004 he entered a rehabilitation center to address his addictions to Vicodin and red wine. Mr. Carlin had a well-chronicled cocaine problem in his 30s, and though he was able to taper his cocaine use on his own, he said, he continued to abuse alcohol and also became addicted to Vicodin. He entered rehab at the end of that year, then took two months off before continuing his comedy tours.

“Standup is the centerpiece of my life, my business, my art, my survival and my way of being,” Mr. Carlin once told an interviewer. “This is my art, to interpret the world.” But, while it always took center stage in his career, Mr. Carlin did not restrict himself to the comedy stage. He frequently indulged his childhood fantasy of becoming a movie star. Among his later credits were supporting parts in “Car Wash” (1976), “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), and “Dogma” (1999).

His 1997 book, “Brain Droppings,” became an instant best seller. And among several continuing TV roles, he starred in the Fox sitcom “The George Carlin Show,” which aired for one season. “That was an experiment on my part to see if there might be a way I could fit into the corporate entertainment structure,” he said after the show was canceled in 1994. “And I don’t,” he added.

Despite the longevity of his career and his problematic personal life, Mr. Carlin remained one of the most original and productive comedians in show business. “It’s his lifelong affection for language and passion for truth that continue to fuel his performances,” a critic observed of the comedian when he was in his mid-60s. And Chris Albrecht, an HBO executive, said, “He is as prolific a comedian as I have witnessed.”

Mr. Carlin is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law, Bob McCall, brother, Patrick Carlin and sister-in-law, Marlene Carlin. His first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, died in 1997.

Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”

Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.”

//KIMBO//

2008-06-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

KIMBO SLICE KIMBO SLICE

//CC//

2008-04-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

LIBREVILLE, gabon–When the body of 13-year-old Ralph Edang N'na was found drained of blood and with gaping wounds in his genitals, chest and neck last month, many in Gabon thought it was politicians who had ordered his killing. The murder of children and young adults, whose organs are eaten or used to make magical amulets, has increased in recent years in the oil-rich central African nation. Campaigners say some Gabonese politicians use the black magic rituals to boost their chances of winning lucrative government posts. With elections to municipal councils on Sunday, many fear a spate of gruesome child murders. Every week, mutilated bodies are discovered in the capital Libreville, despite police patrols. Anxious parents keep a close eye around schools so children aren't snatched. "It's before elections and ministerial reshuffles that the vilest crimes are committed and the capital empties of certain kinds of politicians who go to the interior to carry out witchcraft," said pastor François Bibang, a member of the Association to Fight Ritual Crimes (ALCR). In ritual killings, which still take place in several African countries, victims' body parts and blood are used in ceremonies to bestow social success and political power. The ALCR says February alone saw 12 such killings in Gabon. "Unfortunately, this practice seems to be spreading again in Gabon," said Jean-Elvis Ebang Ondo, who founded ALCR after his 12-year-old son was kidnapped, killed and mutilated in 2005. The government set up a National Observatory for the Rights of Children in fall 2006 to implement a UN children's charter that enshrines, among other things, the right to protection from abuse. Gabon is one of sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producers but most of its citizens live in poverty. Omar Bongo, who has ruled Gabon since 1967, used oil funds to weave a web of patronage which has created bitter competition for lucrative political jobs. Ondo decried "the silence of the state," – a penal code approved in January omitted any mention of ritual crimes. No clear figures exist for the number of such victims. Another activist, Frederic Ntera Etoua, tallied 290 such killings in the jungles of Ogooue-Ivindo province where Ralph Edang N'na died. Parliamentary speaker Guy Nzouba Ndama opened a session of the assembly on March 3 by denouncing ritual crimes by politicians. But no politician has been convicted for such crimes. An attempt to prosecute a legislator from Gamba region last year failed after he claimed parliamentary immunity. Psychologist Philippe Ndong of Libreville University traces the rise in ritual murders to 2001. "As legislative elections approached, mutilated bodies were discovered around the country," he said. "An 8-year-old girl was snatched in Ndolou department and killed in Mouila. The man allegedly responsible was a candidate to Parliament who entered the government after this crime."

//DAS//

2008-04-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

***DAS***

BHUBANESWAR, India–The former coach of Budhia Singh, a six-year-old child prodigy dubbed India's "marathon boy," was shot dead last night, police said.

Biranchi Das was shot at several times by unknown assailants near a hall in Bhubaneswar, where he used to train students in judo, according to senior police official Sarat Sahu.

In 2006, Budhia Singh entered the Limca Book of Records after running 65 kilometres in little more than seven hours under the stewardship of Das.

But the coach was accused of using the boy for his own personal gain and was arrested last August on suspicion of torturing Budhia. Das said the charges were baseless and in retaliation for not giving the boy's mother money she had asked for.

A police official said Das had apparently been killed because of "personal rivalry" and that an investigation was under way.

***DAS***

He runs seven hours at a stretch, sometimes as much as 48km (30 miles). On a daily basis.

And Budhia Singh is just three and a half years old.

When Budhia's father died a year ago, his mother, who washes dishes in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern Indian state of Orissa, was unable to provide for her four children.

She sold Budhia to a man for 800 rupees ($20).

But the young boy came to the attention of Biranchi Das, a judo coach and the secretary of the local judo association.

Mr Das said he noticed Budhia's talent when scolding him for being a bully.

"Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back," Mr Das told the BBC.

"I got busy in some work. When I came back after five hours, I was stunned to find him still running."

Siesta

Mr Das, also the president of the residents' association of the run-down area where Budhia used to live, summoned the man who had bought Budhia and paid him his 800 rupees back.

Then started a strict diet and exercise regimen that saw Budhia adding a few kilometres to his daily marathon every few days.

A few stretching exercises for the marathon boy

In place of a few lumps of rice that he used to get at his mother's place, he now has a diet of eggs, milk, soybean and meat.

He starts running at 0500 each day and does not stop till noon.

After a few stretching exercises, he has lunch and goes for a siesta.

At 1600 it is time to run again.

Budhia is enjoying his stay at the judo hostel. "I can run and eat to my heart's content here," he says.

His speech is not yet easy to understand. Though he has yet to go to school, he has completed learning the alphabet of Oriya, the local language.

Budhia's coach has now set his eyes on a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

That, he says, will be possible when he can run for 90km at a stretch.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that he will achieve it soon", Mr Das says.

//BARS//

2008-04-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Before he was stabbed to death outside a Mississauga strip club, Luis Estrada-Lemmon was charged with sexually assaulting his alleged killer's kid sister. The 19-year-old victim was scheduled to appear in a Brampton courtroom in July to set a trial date for an alleged sexual assault against Katie Struc that is said to have taken place last summer.
Instead, the Sheridan College student, who was remembered as a "beautiful, kind and caring boy" by his devastated mother, was found stabbed to death in the back parking lot of Kennedy's Adult Club early Saturday. It didn't take long for police to sweep down on Michael James Struc, 23, and charge him with first-degree murder.

"My brother is not some crazy lunatic who stabbed a kid because of a bar fight," Katie Struc, 19, told the Sun in an e-mail yesterday. "My brother is a big brother who lost his mind over his little sister. A brother's love knows no bounds, and unfortunately my brother (allegedly) crossed the line."

FACEBOOK RIDDLED A Facebook group dedicated to Estrada-Lemmon has been riddled with comments about the alleged sexual assault, with some saying the young man got what he deserved and others pinning the blame of his death on Katie Struc. The allegations against Michael Struc haven't been proven in court, nor had Estrada-Lemmon been found guilty of his charge. "It's disgusting, and sad, all of it. I'm receiving threats (bred) from ignorance, and directed in anger. People wanna say things to my brother and they can't, so they're saying it to me," Katie Struc said. "Only I know and Luis knows what happened that night."

Katie Struc alleged that Estrada-Lemmon -- a high school classmate and former "good friend" -- was high on ecstasy and "had been drinking all night" when he allegedly pinned her hands down and tried to have sex with her July 17, 2007. Court records show the Crown attorney elected to proceed with the case by indictment and Estrada-Lemmon's preliminary hearing was to begin this September. "All I could do was beg for him to stop. As soon as I could, I hit him, and that's when he stopped. I told him to leave, and he did," she said. Struc filed a police report, spent the morning in the hospital undergoing tests, and handed over her bed sheets and clothes as evidence. But she didn't tell her older brother, she said. "It wasn't until Luis started telling people I was 'accusing him' that word hit the streets," she said. "My brother told me when he found out (in January) that this was his worst nightmare," she said. "He had no intention of hurting Luis, because when I talked to him I told him I'd much rather have him in my life for the next 20 years than behind bars, and thought he had moved on. "My brother has the biggest heart, and loves his family more than anything, and this is why this happened." Struc said her brother was at a bakery with Eric Jacome, 24, who has since been charged with accessory after the fact to murder, around 10:30 p.m. on Friday "and everything seemed okay."

*** WE FOUND THIS ON A MEMORIAL WEB-SITE FOR THE DEAD***
Added: 17 hours ago
By: jloc

"luis helped me from almost gettin ma ass kicced 6y 30 drunk white ppl .. he didnt even kno me yet he told me to get in his car n he drove me away from the area ... dat forever i kno hes an angel RIP LUCHO "

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - WE DID IT in a PARKING LOT

//Max's Aunt//

2008-04-10T19:40:00.001-07:00

Mosley, 67, was filmed playing a SS death-camp commmandant barking orders in German and lashing uniformed girls in a five-hour video.

The married dad-of-two – son of infamous wartime fascist Sir Oswald Mosley – also posed as a concentration camp victim having his genitals inspected before being whipped until his buttocks bled.

OSWALD Mosley (right) was the closest thing the UK had to a rabble-rousing Hitler in the years leading up to World War II.

He rallied his blackshirt army of fascists against Jews and Communists. His famous march through London's East End—an area heavily populated by Jews—sparked the infamous Battle of Cable Street in 1936.

Hitler admired him so much he was guest of honour at his wedding to society beauty Diana Mitford, held at the Berlin home of evil Nazi chief Joseph Goebbels.

Max's aunt Unity Mitford was also a devoted Nazi. After Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, she sent a farewell letter to Hitler and shot herself in the head with the pearl-handled pistol the German leader had given her as a gift. She died of her injuries several years later.

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

Antony & the Johnsons - Atrocities

//Artie was the fucking Lunatic//

2008-03-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Jim Mitchell died of a heart attack on July 12th. He was buried beside his brother and business partner Art, with whom he founded San Francisco's legendary O'Farrell Theatre in 1969 http://www.ofarrell.com/ . The Mitchell Brothers went on to produce such adult film classics as Behind the Green Door (starring Ivory Snow girl Marilyn Chambers and porn's first black superstar Johnny Keyes), The Resurrection of Eve and Autobiography of a Flea. The brothers' partnership ended in 1991 when Jim shot Art to death in what he claimed was a confrontation over Art's drug and alcohol abuse.

Among the Bay Area notables in attendance at the hour-long memorial were former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, ex-District Attorney Terrence Hallinan, Mitchell's trial attorney Michael Kennedy, political operative Jack Davis and former San Francisco Chronicle reporter Warren Hinckle. While the Mitchell Brothers have been credited as a major force in the sexual revolution, Jim Mitchell had no illusions about his films. "The only Art in this business is my brother," he famously said.

Several speakers at Thursday's memorial addressed the relationship between Jim and Art Mitchell. For many who knew the Mitchell Brothers, it became impossible to speak of one without mentioning the other. "I spoke here 16 years ago, and it was very difficult because I was trying to talk about Art, but every time I tried to say 'Art' I kept saying 'Art and Jim,' said O'Farrell Theatre manager Jeff Armstrong. "We all owe personal liberties and rights to the brothers that they fought for on our behalf," Davis said. "To be best friends with Artie and to be best friends with Jimmy was an extraordinary thing. According to Kennedy, Jim Mitchell's three-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter saved his life. "Artie was the fucking lunatic -- he was doing more cocaine and alcohol," he said. "Why in the hell would Jimmy want to kill his brother? [Jim] felt so bad ... if somebody hadn't stepped in like that jury did, he would have killed himself. Killing Artie changed his life."

Hinckle recalled the Mitchell Brothers' battle with San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who attempted to shut down the O'Farrell during the '80s. The brothers responded by placing Feinstein's unlisted phone number on the O'Farrell marquee under the message: "For A Good Time Call..." Judy Foster, who stripped at the O'Farrell for 11 years under the name Katrina, said: "It was the best time of my life. They had to kick me out of there. It's so great growing up being a slutty girl and having a place to go and be accepted." "He was the best boss ever," added another dancer who currently strips at the theatre under the name Kimberly Rio. "He created a safe, classy environment and enabled many of the girls to do other things, like go to school and get degrees. I bought property."
The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother

//FARCE//

2008-03-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

But death also goes through the world dressed as a broom,
she licks the ground looking for corpses,
death is in the broom,
it is death's tongue looking for dead bodies,
it is death's needle looking for thread.

Death is in the folding cots:
in the slow mattresses, in the black blankets
she lives stretched out, and she suddenly blows:
she blows a dark sound that swells the sheets,
and there are bodies sailing to a port
where she is waiting, dressed as an admiral.

Felt - The World is as Soft as Lace

***

PEREIRA, Colombia–Hungry, desperate and afraid for his life, Pedro Pablo Montoya shot the commander he was supposed to protect. He then severed the commander's right hand – as proof he'd killed one of Colombia's most wanted men – and deserted the once-powerful rebel group to which he had pledged allegiance.

This month's slaying of Manuel Jesus Munoz, (a.k.a. Ivan Rios), a member of the ruling directorate of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was a dramatic signal that a rebel group known for its resilience is engulfed in an internal crisis that could lead to its implosion after four decades of armed struggle.

"The civilian population does not want to collaborate. There is a complete rejection. Even civilians are telling guerrillas: `Desert. Don't let yourself get killed.'"

The deserters also say increasingly paranoid commanders have started to stage more "war councils," jungle trials in which guerrillas face execution if found guilty of treachery.

***

RIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIP

JSUBDJJSUBDJ JSUBDJ JSUBDJJSUBDJJSUBDJ JSUBDJ

Jive Bombers - Bad Boy

JSUBDJJSUBDJJSUBDJ JSUBDJJSUBDJJSUBDJ JSUBDJ

//CE!N!//

2008-03-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Iris, Athena, Alice.

//∆∆//

2008-03-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

"How did drinking turn into such a hobby of ours. We forsook the things we hadn't done yet,
to repeat the same lifting,
from tabletop to mouth" - Sisqou

I say this often but this time I intend to do it. I am taking time away for my own good keeping. The Crest of Islam is a breach on a beach. A Gull a ratted pair of wings. The fact that I am going to spend the rest of my life on the back of a fly is at its greatest a joke in radish.

P.S. I can't share some songs because I feel like musicians should get the money they deserve.

//That's Weed//

2008-03-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

I have new slang now. Whenever someone cannot remember what they were thinking about, I am determined to follow with "That's weed". So if your forgetting something you were just thinking, "that's weed".

Giant Drag - Drugs

//Yierd Nuse//

2008-03-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't want to go to Africa? One of my favorite books of all times is the Sheltering Sky (North Africa) by Paul Bowles. The movie was good also. In some ways better because it was very feminist. The sort of feminism I am very thrilled to see.
An ex-girlfriend of mine recently met Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi's son. The son is half white which is a paradox. The son is living in Poland.

King Sunny Ade - Synchro Series Synchro System

//Weazzle//

2008-03-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Lil' Wayne - Pussy Monster

//Brazibilla//

2008-03-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

In this wonderful country of ours everyone is entitled to the Dough Nut. Some get the Dough Nut. Others get the hole of the Dough Nut.
This is a funny thing I heard not to long ago.
After the killing must come the digging.

//REST IN PEACING OFF//

2008-03-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

//A man & G.d Bless//

//This is all...//

2008-02-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have a number of regrets regarding school. Always though I keep my reservations cool cause I still feel that in some way I am doing the right thing. Had I left school I feel like I would have met Ol' Dirty Bastard. I regret never seeking him out like Dylan did Woody. This video makes me miss Ol' Dirty Bastard. He was funny.

//Goop//

2008-02-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

"If the monkey of time had climbed up the wrong tree where would time be now? Maybe strangled by a toxic vine made out of Mercury Goop!" - Allen Ginsberg

//Keeva//

2008-02-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

Keeva!

//MBR//

2008-02-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

"And I do recall that my very best friends are the ones who left me empty and ready to be filled again" - Diane Cluck

//B.I.B.L.E//

2008-02-17T19:47:00.000-08:00

I started studying economics a long time ago. A long time ago I started hoping for something. Hope always dies last.

"Why should you die to go to heaven? The Earth is already in space" - Killah Priest

//Å//

2008-02-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

Spoke to Alexandra in Sweden today.

//†//

2008-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is the first music video I ever cried to. I was baby sitting and it must have been really weird for Devin and Danielle to see me cry for what would seem to be no reason at all. Also if you read the comments on this page its pretty obituary.

//◊//

2008-02-16T21:33:00.000-08:00

The Simple Truth
By Philip Levine

I bought a dollar and a half's worth of small red potatoes,
took them home, boiled them in their jackets
and ate them for dinner with a little butter and salt.
Then I walked through the dried fields
on the edge of town. In middle June the light
hung on in the dark furrows at my feet,
and in the mountain oaks overhead the birds
were gathering for the night, the jays and mockers
squawking back and forth, the finches still darting
into the dusty light. The woman who sold me
the potatoes was from Poland; she was someone
out of my childhood in a pink spangled sweater and sunglasses
praising the perfection of all her fruits and vegetables
at the road-side stand and urging me to taste
even the pale, raw sweet corn trucked all the way,
she swore, from New Jersey. "Eat, eat," she said,
"Even if you don't I'll say you did."
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.
My friend Henri and I arrived at this together in 1965
before I went away, before he began to kill himself,
and the two of us to betray our love. Can you taste
what I'm saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, that metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.

//Sables Chantans//

2008-02-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

I really regret never having gone to Warren High School in San Antonio. I always wanted to go to an inner city high school where there would be legit ciphers and rap battles at lunch break and two-dollar house parties after school. Instead I got stuck with intelligent black kids who were not urban and straight ignorant black kids who were too violent. Damien who happened to be black was also my best friend for the time he spent at Thorn Secondary School but soon moved back to Malvern with his mother. I couldn’t visit him cause during this time Malvern was too dangerous to go to. Hell…when Damien came back to get his transcript he was too dangerous to talk to. He had three pagers and a cell phone and this is when no kids had cell phones. At least I could call him. Damien went on to have a baby with some white girl who he met and fell in love with at Wendy’s Hamburgers. It was a sad day when I congratulated him on his baby girl and afterwards asked how his aspirations to become a lawyer were going to which he replied, “The closest I am getting to a lawyer is standing beside one”. It was around this time when I traded in a lot of my Rap music for Cat Power and Blonde Redhead. I still ran the Afro-centric club even though it lost a lot of its meaning. I came to terms with the divide that existed. Sunset Park was a good movie but my parents would have moved my family to avoid such a school. Teens in Dangerous Minds were introduced to Bob Dylan at school I was introduced to Bob Dylan at birth on account of my father, Clockers had a lot of dialogue about drugs inside of Rodney Little’s barber shop the only time I ever heard drugs being discussed in my Mother’s salon was when Geoff Morris from my hockey team got addicted to weed. After the divide set in I only read Sartre’s preface to Wretched of the Earth and didn’t bother with Fanon’s book. But don’t fret! The divide came to a wonderful end one day when I met the lovely Bethany. Bethany was from Queens, New York and reminded me of Pam Grier. She was cool like Pam, dressed well and I wanted to marry her! To make a stupid story short, we went camping and while we were hiking I told Bethany a secret. It came off like a racist remark. Shit! However the history of Black people bifurcates and entangles itself with the history of crackers so much so that I found peaceable common ground. Hiking to our favorite spot at a beach in Tobermory I told Bethany “You are my second Black experience” to which she gave a very uncomfortable and shocked silence. I was sort of freaking out because we really didn’t know each other that well and I may have fucked up the next four days that I had with Bethany. On the purlieu of my existence came a rare moment that was exactly like beating an opponent in a rap battle. You come up with something astonishingly witty, a numinous quip and a powerful negation to a desolate lacuna. In one bar I ended all our suffering, it was very much like Whitney Houston singing Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You. The racial harmony we had so much sought for came to be. I told Bethany “Jimmy Hendrix was my first” and she laughed and we swam and drank beer in the hot summer sun and I got sun burnt and she did also but just a little bit!
P.S. Can’t Wait to see Bethany next summer!

//L†ß//

2008-02-14T08:45:00.001-08:00

//Taken//

2008-02-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Took this photo.

Didn't make this movie though.

//FUQ U//

2008-02-14T00:37:00.000-08:00

//Koudys//

2008-02-13T21:32:00.001-08:00

Bloody called me a young man.

If Bloody was a girl I would surely fall in love him. Tall and gorgeous with a sweet Aryan look!
Lucky though I have my own sweet plum!

//Gravestones//

2008-02-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Being languid in the mornings is a sign that your mornings must be dull and that you haven't much to look forward to.