Women in rock music exhibition

This video from the USA says about itself:

Women Who Rock | Preview | PBS

See the full film at http://video.pbs.org/video/2168854975

From Bessie Smith to Janis Joplin to Lady Gaga, this performance documentary vibrates with energy as it traces the indelible mark that amazing women musicians have made on America’s soundtrack. Inspired by the “Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power” exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, “Women Who Rock” reveals new insights into what it means to be female in the male-dominated world of rock and roll, while exploring how those dynamics between the sexes have changed with time. Cyndi Lauper, who appears in the program, hosts. The film is produced by Susan Wittenberg and Carol Stein with assistance from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

From the Huffington Post in the USA:

‘Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power‘ Comes To National Museum of Women in the Arts In September

Early 20th century French composer Nadia Boulanger once said: “A great work of art is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.” It is safe to say the first ladies of rock-n-roll were no classical composers, shoving obedience to the side as they pursued their own ways to be free in a field dominated by men. …

Whether a pair of studded combat boots or a studded corset, the icons of rock’s female visionaries create an alternative timeline that sparkles, quite literally. A new exhibition entitled “Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power,” will honor the women who blazed the trail for rockers and feminists alike, beginning with those who made a place for women in the music industry, and ending with the ones who eventually took it over. From Billie Holiday to Britney Spears, the show will revisit doo-wop girls, pop princesses, punk rockers, soul queens, rockabilly crooners and a whole lot more.

“Women Who Rock” will explore how women furthered the evolution of rock-n-roll, and how rock-n-roll helped women advance their societal roles in return. With hand-written lyrics by pioneers like Patti Smith and Janis Joplin, we are reminded that our most worshipped rock goddesses are actually human beings. Then again, Madonna‘s cone bra and Tina Tuner’s silver sequined dress depict how the scribbled words can elevate a musician from artist to icon. Whether you were raised on Stevie Nicks or Gwen Stefani, the combo of personal relics and iconic ensembles is enough to keep all ages interested.

The exhibition begins with Bessie Smith, dubbed ‘The Empress of the Blues.’ In the early 20th century the unknown talent began busking around her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, before rising to fame for the vulnerable power of her vocals. Smith broke through norms in every sense, from her identity as one of the first female blues vocalists to her fluid sexuality.

The exhibition continues from the “Roots of Rock” onto a portion called “Get Outta that Kitchen, Rattle Those Pots and Pans: Rock and Roll Emerges.” Female rockers burst onto the scene with an innocent yet unstoppable energy, visible in Ruth Brown’s striped, ruffled dress, emblazoned with treble clefs and Wanda Jackson’s acoustic (and of course bedazzled) guitar.

Continuing on we see the rise of the 1960′s girl group, and thus the crazed teen fans that accompany it. Groups like the Shangri-Las emerged, somewhere between rebellious trendsetters and over-dramatic girl next door, while also beginning the love affair between music and fashion. Music’s messages ranged from teenage trials to national issues in the 1970′s, with some of the greatest female powerhouses like Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin. With the hippie movement in full bloom and birth control revolutionizing a woman’s sexual freedom, this new power was pulsing all over.

Enter disco, feminist rock, and then the punk and post-punk movements. Women were no longer just guest appearing in the narrative of American music — they were starring in it. Punk innovators like Yoko Ono, Deborah Harry and Marianne Faithful

Deborah Harry might be called punk, but Yoko Ono and Marianne Faithful were 1960s

render gender almost irrelevant as consumer interest takes the backseat to DIY creations. And then Madonna comes on the scene. Enthusiastically embodying the powers of her sexuality, she exposed the possibility of women taking control of their image and reaping the benefits of their desirability, paving the way for 90s icons like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

The final aspect of the exhibition taps into the incredibly varied group of female musicians today, from Lady Gaga‘s shocktastic avant-garde antics to Queen Latifah‘s reign over rap. There is no single ending to the story of women and rock, rather the thread that has connected the exhibition frays out into infinite possibilities. You may not think Rihanna is the pinnacle of the feminist revolution, but seeing the Billboard Charts giant atop the timeline that Bessie Smith inaugurated a century ago highlights the huge strides necessary for the possibility of the Barbados chanteuse’s takeover. You may not like all of the artists, you may even shudder at their being referred to as such, but the exhibition succeeds in showing their contributions to the evolution of women’s roles, both in music and outside it. (Plus seeing Cher’s floor-length headdress in person is reason enough to attend.)

As if there isn’t enough to get excited about, Melissa Etheridge will perform an acoustic set as part of a benefit for the museum, receiving the National Museum of Women in the Arts Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts that night. You can purchase tickets to hear Etheridge’s raspy power ballads in person on Sunday, November 4th at 7 p.m.

“Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. will run from September 7, 2012 – January 6, 2013.

German nazi crimes news

This video from the USA is called Norway Terrorism: Its time to talk about real Western Christian Nazi Terrorism | Oslo Utøya 22/7/11.

From weekly Der Spiegel in Germany:

08/13/2012

Right-Wing Extremist Terrorism DNA Tests Solidify Suspicions in Police Killing Case

German police have uncovered evidence that could help link the 2007 murder of a police officer to a neo-Nazi group thought to be responsible for a series of brutal killings. With the spotlight on far-right crime, calls are also increasing for a ban on the country’s most prominent right-wing extremist party, the NPD.

Investigators with Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office and Federal Criminal Police Office have made an important step towards resolving the 2007 murder of police officer Michèle Kiesewetter in the southern city of Heilbronn.

It was already believed that she was likely murdered by members of a neo-Nazi terror cell linked to the killing of nine small business owners across Germany, mostly of Turkish descent. But SPIEGEL has learned that police recently detected blood on a pair of sweat pants found in the last apartment where the group, who called themselves the National Socialist Underground (NSU), hid out in the city of Zwickau in eastern Germany. DNA tests on the clothing conducted by forensics experts confirmed with a high certainty that it was Kiesewetter’s blood.

Investigators also found two used tissues in the pockets that contained DNA traces from NSU terrorist Uwe Mundlos. After robbing a bank in Eisenach in eastern Germany in November, Mundlos and his accomplice and fellow NSU member Uwe Böhnhardt committed suicide in a trailer.

Hundreds of Pieces of Evidence

The DNA traces add to circumstantial evidence already gathered by investigators in the case. Police also found both Kiesewetter’s service weapon, as well as that of her seriously injured colleague Martin A., at the home in Zwickau where the NSU had been hiding out.

The two police officers were attacked from behind in their police car in Heilbronn in the southern state of Baden-Württemburg in 2007. The perpetrators shot each of them in the head once. Investigators later found weapons used for the crime — Tokarev TT 33 and Radom semi-automatic pistols — in the Zwickau home along with other equipment stolen from the police.

From the very beginning, investigators believed that the culprits must have somehow come into contact with the blood of their victims. It remains unclear today why the perpetrators would have kept that clothing and the weapons years after the crime took place. One of the investigators’ theories is that the group may have kept the objects as trophies.

After the deaths of Böhnhardt and Mundlos, their alleged accomplice Beate Zschäpe — the only living NSU suspect who is currently in police custody — set fire to their shared apartment in Zwickau. But she didn’t succeed in burning the entire house down, and hundreds of pieces of evidence of the terrorist group’s apparent crimes were recovered.

Calls in Germany to Ban Far-Right Party

The uncovering of the far-right terrorist group in November 2011 triggered renewed debate in Germany about action the government could take to curb right-wing extremist activities, including repeated calls to ban the National Democratic Party. Although not directly linked to the NSU, the NPD is a party that promotes radical ideology, including “racism, anti-Semitic and revisionist” thinking, according to the German government agency responsible for monitoring extremist activity in the country.

Fascists in Germany more violent: here.

HSBC banksters want to kick out Occupy Hong Kong

This video is called Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” Protest.

That the giant HSBC bank has helped drug gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists is not the only reason why they are in the news.

Today, from daily The Morning Star in Britain:

HSBC wins court bid to kick out Occupy activists in Hong Kong

Monday 13 August 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Banking giant HSBC won a legal bid today to clear out anti-capitalist protesters from a public space below the bank‘s Asian headquarters in Hong Kong.

A judge ruled that the activists must leave by 9pm on August 27.

Occupy protesters have been living under the bank’s headquarters since October last year, when protesters in Hong Kong joined others around the world in demonstrating against corporate excess and economic inequality.

About a dozen activists are still living in the large open space on the ground floor of the HSBC building which was occupied by more than 200 protesters at the height of the movement.

The activists have made themselves at home by setting up tents, tables, sofas and chairs, bookcases, lamps and gas cookers.

They have outlasted many other Occupy encampments around the world that have been shut down by authorities and their members have vowed not to budge.

“We’ve never asked for permission from the law, we’ve never asked for permission from the courts, we’ve never asked for permission from HSBC,” said Occupy activist Nin Chan.

“From the very beginning we’ve never recognised these authorities as legitimate.”

While HSBC owns the land, it’s legally designated as a public passageway.

The judge ruled that the activists’ use of the space goes beyond the land’s designated use.

Bailiffs clear out Hong Kong Occupy camp: here.

Scandals emerging from the financial services industry on an almost daily basis point to the ongoing criminal practices of British banks. They expose the complicity of the regulators—the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Bank of England (BoE), who famously practice “light touch” regulation—and successive governments that function as the advocates and protectors of these financial gangsters: here.

On August 6, police forcibly evicted Occupy protesters in front of the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt-Main: here.

On August 9, the US Justice Department announced it was ending a criminal investigation into allegations that Goldman Sachs committed securities fraud in its underwriting and marketing of mortgage-backed securities in the months leading up to the Wall Street crash of September 2008. The department said it would not file charges against the bank or any of its employees: here.

Good Dutch great reed warbler news

This is a video of a singing great reed warbler – Acrocephalus arundinaceus.

There has been a great reed warbler decline in the Netherlands.

However, today Dutch conservation organisation Natuurmonumenten reports that this species is doing well in the Zwarte Meer nature reserve.

There was an average of two fledglings per nest, enough to sustain the species in the Zwarte Meer.

Sanderling video

This video from Florida in the USA is called Sanderlings on Fort Walton Beach.

Polish CIA torture prison investigated more thoroughly

This video is called CIA Torture Secrets: ‘Nazi-like’ Polish black site confession.

From AFP news agency:

Poland to probe into clandestine CIA prisons

Published: August 10, 2012

WARSAW: Poland’s prosecutors said Friday they had extended to February an ongoing probe into the country’s alleged hosting of a CIA secret prison where top al Qaeda terror suspects were tortured.

Prosecutors launched an investigation in August 2008 into accusations that Warsaw had allowed the US Central Intelligence Agency to operate the prison from 2002-2003 in the north-eastern village of Kiejkuty to interrogate suspects in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Maciej Kujawski, a spokesman for the prosecutor general, refused on Friday to explain the reasons behind the extension to the probe, subject to rules on state secrets, being conducted by prosecutors in Krakow, southern Poland.

In March, former Polish spy chief Zbigniew Siemiatkowski said he had been charged in connection with the probe, but prosecutors working on it refused to confirm his claim.

Polish authorities have repeatedly denied authorising any so-called CIA “black sites” and in March Prime Minister Donald Tusk vowed to finally resolve the issue.

The Council of Europe has said the Polish site, opened in December 2002, held several so-called “high-value detainees”, and claimed that other secret prisons were also set up in Romania and Lithuania.

…

Polish campaigners have said they obtained official records of seven CIA planes — five of them carrying passengers — which landed in 2002 and 2003 at Szymany, a Polish military base in northeast Poland, near the alleged black site in Kiejkuty.

The Council of Europe insists black site detainees were held in Poland in secret, solitary confinement and subjected to “enhanced interrogation” that included such torture techniques as waterboarding, or simulated drowning.

Two Guantanamo inmates, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, have lodged complaints that they were subjected to torture on Polish soil.

USA: Only “torture” case brought by the administration involved a former CIA agent who had leaked the names of some torturers: here.

Impunity at Home, Rendition Abroad: How Two Administrations and Both Parties Made Illegality the American Way of Life. Alfred McCoy, TomDispatch: “After a decade of fiery public debate and bare-knuckle partisan brawling, the United States has stumbled toward an ad hoc bipartisan compromise over the issue of torture that rests on two unsustainable policies: impunity at home and rendition abroad”: here.

Ex-CIA officer jailed for two years for leaking torture chief’s name. Activists say John Kiriakou’s punishment has more to do with torture revelations than anyone’s identity: here.

Mitt Romney, president for the 1%, video

This humourous video from the USA says about itself:

Pickpocket :30 TV ad

Mitt Romney‘s creepy hand wants your $2k to pay for tax breaks for his millionaire and billionaire friends. Tell Mitt Romney: Get your hand out of my pocket!

An ART NOT WAR Production

Romney’s tax plan a boon for the rich, study says: here.

Ryan confirms he turned over “several” years of tax returns to Romney: here.

Will the Influence the Mormon Church has over Mitt Romney ever be Questioned? Here.

Romney’s Death Squad Ties: Bain Launched With Millions From Oligarchs Behind Salvadoran Atrocities: here.

Bain Capital linked to death squads? Here.

Romney Still Reaps Huge Profits From Bain’s Vulture Capitalism: here.

Romney event hosted by convicted cocaine trafficker: here.

Romney Uses Banksters’ Money to Play Race Card: here.

New Indonesian bird species discovery?

From Burung-Nusantara in Indonesia:

New bird species potentially discovered in Indonesia!

Last week in Timor, Indonesia, a group of parrotfinch[es] were encountered showing a distinct and seemingly undescribed plumage. The birds were found by James Eaton, leading a tour group from Birdtour Asia around the Lesser Sundas. Two birds were found in the early morning and then during the day several others were encountered, including at least two apparent adults displaying the same distinctive red and blue facial pattern. The birds were photographed and sound recordings were made.

Currently only Tricoloured Parrotfinch Erythrura tricolor is known from Timor, but that lacks any red colouration on the head and adults show wholly blue underparts. The Timor birds are more superficially similar to another Indonesian species – Blue-faced Parrotfinch E. trichroa – but that species again lacks the red facial plumage. The birds perhaps most closely resemble Red-eared Parrotfinch E. coloria, the last parrotfinch to be described to science in 1961, but currently only known from montane Mindanao in the Philippines, 2,000 km away. The facial pattern of Red-eared Parrotfinch also differs significantly from the Timor birds in the extent and location of red and blue on the head.

A follow up visit to further study the birds is already planned for next month. Given the photographic evidence there is confidence that this parrotfinch will indeed be formally described as a new species. That such birds have evaded detection for so long in an area increasing frequented by birders just shows how much there is still to be discovered in Indonesia!

Watch this space!

Field guides to birds of Asia used by the Mystery Birds series: here.

Cars for male, not for female, British Olympians

After the issue of discrimination of British Paralympics gold medal winners compared to their Olympic counterparts … now, discrimination of British Olympics women.

This video from the USA is called Gender discrimination in sports.

By Alexandra Morgan, Women’s Views on News co-editor, about Britain:

BMW gives cars to male rowers but not female rowers

Posted on 13 August 2012

A row over sexism has broken out on Twitter, after it emerged that 12 male Olympic rowers, including silver medallists Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase, had received BMW cars, while the female rowers had not.

Maybe the BMW fat cat bosses agree with the Saudi Arabian absolute monarchy that women should not drive cars.

After all, BMW bosses used to collaborate with Hitler, who discriminated against women as well.

While it would appear that the cars given to the Team GB athletes have been provided by individual BMW dealerships, rather than as a marketing strategy by BMW, it has still struck a nerve, particularly as this has been the most inclusive Olympics to date, with women from ever[y] country taking part for the first time.

Anna Watkins, a gold medal winner with Katherine Grainger for the women’s double sculls, was asked on Newsnight whether the men had received BMWs while female athletes had not.

Watkins confirmed: “It did work out that way, yes. It’s a bit of a coincidence because it’s the individual dealers that chose who to give the cars to, so it wasn’t any grand strategy but it did just happen that there were a dozen or so for the men and none for the girls.”

…

Concerns over sexist attitudes to women’s sport were raised last year during the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, which featured no women on the shortlist, despite strong performances from several women, including swimmers Keri-Anne Payne and Rebecca Adlington.

The BMW story is likely to reignite this debate, especially as the GB women have performed so well at London 2012, taking home a huge number of medals.

The BMW sponsorship deal involves 150 athletes being given 2-year leases of either BMWs or Minis. BMW claims that the selection of most of the athletes was made prior to the London 2012 games and is not related to performance, but there have still been claims of misogyny levelled at BMW, and calls for the women rowers to also receive BMWs like their male counterparts.

From the BBC:

13 August 2012 Last updated at 15:29 GMT

Japan’s women footballers get Olympic flight upgrades

The Japanese women’s football team was upgraded to business class on its flight home from the Olympics, Japan’s football association has confirmed.

Team members had complained they had flown economy class to London while the men’s team sat in the business cabin.

The women’s team returned on Saturday from Britain after losing in the Olympic final to the US.

The Japan Football Association said the women had their flights upgraded because they won the silver medal.

The men’s team came home empty-handed.

The Associated Press news agency quoted the JFA as saying the men’s team had flown business class to London because they were professionals.

But after both teams arrived in London, members of the women’s squad had complained they had been treated unequally.

When the modern Olympics were first conceived, they were intended as a peaceful alternative to war. The nations of the world were supposed to lay down their arms and stop fighting during the games out of respect for the Olympic ideal. That, of course has not happened: here.

BP’s Olympic Ads Seek To Erase Oil Spill From Memory: here.

A successful Freedom of Information request has revealed that additional public costs of hosting the Olympics Games in London are close to £24 billion: here.

The spectacle of the 2012 London Olympics should be subtitled “The Bashing of the Chinese Athlete”: here.

Dutch workers fight austerity

This video from 1977 is about strikes by Rotterdam dock workers and other workers in the Netherlands.

This Dutch video from June 2012 is about government plans making it easier for bosses to sack workers.

Translated from regional Rijnmond radio in the Netherlands:

Possible strike in port and public transport

08/13/2012 | 7:57

There may be strike action in the port and public transport in Rotterdam on September 10. The trade union federation FNV then wants to protest against government policy.

FNV executive member Stanly Bergwerf has announced this on Radio Rijnmond. The union began this Monday morning handing out flyers at Rotterdam Central Station. According to the union, the plans of the Kunduz coalition

There was a minority Rightist government in the Netherlands, with support in parliament by Geert Wilders’ xenophobic PVV party. After a quarrel with Wilders, the government collapsed, causing new elections on 12 September. The collapsed Rightist coalition reached an agreement on further anti-worker cuts. Shamefully, partners in this agreement were the D66 and GroenLinks parties, supposedly left of center. These two parties had earlier agreed with the Rightist government to have Dutch soldiers and police in the north Afghan Kunduz province as Dutch participation in the Afghan war. Hence, the name “Kunduz coalition”.

disastrous for workers and also for some employers. The union means the government policies of making it easier for bosses to sack workers, raising the retirement age and the abolition of the commuter support.

On September 8, four days before the election, there is a national day of action with meetings across the country. Two days later, there may be the strike action in Rotterdam.

Europe is paying the price for its leaders’ catastrophic austerity policies, the EU’s own statistics agency revealed today: here.