Archive for 2009

MESSAGE TO OBAMA: YOU CAN’T HAVE MUHAMMAD ALI

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

President Barack Obama praises war resister Muhammad Ali and then two weeks later, he okays 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. As sports commentator Dave Zirin says, it's time to stop warmongers from using Ali's image to sell a war that will create more orphans than peace. On November 19, President Barack ...

UP, UP AND AWAY

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Life seems to imitate art (or is that vice versa?) when a man flies through the air on a lawn chair tied to a bunch of helium balloons. When he practically lands on the lap of a lonely young woman, it's your typical rom-com land, even if it is from ...

“AND THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE…”

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

In American Casino, the edgy, fast-paced documentary by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, it's imperative viewers see the faces of the victims of the US financial crisis and hear their stories first-hand. These are the people whose lives will be forever marred by the reckless, high-stakes gambling of Wall Street speculators. ...

THE BEST OF LIVE! MUSIC REVIEW - DEEP PURPLE (PART 1)

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

A look at Deep Purple, through the pages of Live! Music Review, edited by Bill Glahn... where Roger Glover said that bootlegs "presented me with something I've not heard in years, which was a recording of us doing 'In The Morning' for a BBC session. It was never formally written ...

THE RETURN OF LIVE! MUSIC REVIEW

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

As a hard copy magazine, Live! Music Review, edited by Bill Glahn, spanned seven years from 1993 to 2000. Since that time, the music industry, as represented by the RIAA, is still trying anything, no matter how unethical, to retain control of an industry that is becoming independent of its ...

BitTORRENT’S FUTURE? DHT, PEX AND MAGNET LINKS EXPLAINED

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Last week The Pirate Bay confirmed it would shut down its tracker for good, instead encouraging the use of DHT, PEX and Magnet links. This move confounded many BitTorrent enthusiasts, who although wishing to adapt, were confronted with hard to grasp terminology and technology. As Ernesto of TorrentFreak says, time ...

TARANTINO’S TALKATHON

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds might be stupid and pointless, if occasionally amusing, but as Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, Tarantino is quite good at dialogue, casting and the occasional striking image and his greatest films may be ahead and not behind him if he would ever consider mounting a ...

FREE THE FORGOTTEN BIRD OF PARADISE

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

After much sacrifice and showing strong resilience, East Timor became independent in 2002. The people of West Papua deserve nothing less. As veteran foreign affairs commentator and filmmaker John Pilger points out, on December 1, which West Papuans call their independence day, those exiled in Britain and their supporters will ...

PART 2: BALA’S PRISON WITHOUT BARS

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

On July 3, 2008, during the murder case of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaaribuu, Malaysian private investigator P. Balasubramaniam had made a statutory declaration indicating that (the then deputy prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak had a sexual relationship with Altantuya. Within 24 hours, he signed a second statutory declaration contradicting the ...

PART 1: THE PI, THE DEAD MODEL AND MALAYSIAN CORRIDORS OF POWER

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

On July 3, 2008, during the murder case of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaaribuu, Malaysian private investigator P. Balasubramaniam had made a statutory declaration indicating that (the then deputy prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak had a sexual relationship with Altantuya. Within 24 hours, he signed a second statutory declaration contradicting the ...