What is it about hip Swedes with english accents?  Moneybrother released Real Control in 2009 and has been touring the US, a show you should have caught.  I did, at the Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville. Great room, but being taken unawares by Anders Wendin blew it away.  This man is a huge star.  I bought an album from him after the well received set.  Lanky, handsome, real, and a showman.  Against Me! fleshed out the evening with their continued de-identification implosion tour but Moneybrother was the revelation. Later I looked up the band and found out about Monster and the earlier Moneybrother albums.

Real Control seems to be the first release entirely in english.  Anders sings in native Swedish and German too.  Then I had the chance to listen to the album.  Then again, and again.  This is a very good album. The best of punk, rock, Frankie goes to hollywood and ABBA and Violent Femmes and on and on, with a voice like Joe Strummer, if he had had range.  A lovingly crafted album, a sonic psycho-emotional journey far more effective than prozac.  Great to dance to, to make love to, to party to, to stage a resistance to.

Enjoy.

The album makes me mad, happy, sad smiling, dancing… it is a real gift.

So give the brother some money.

Bragging rights claimed by: Lou Wright  ’Sup  (though you had the kewl kids on the lower east side which has not been the cool place for twenty years, and Moneybrother ain’t even playing NYC - catch em at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park)

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Haiti does not need military occupation.

Haiti needs flour, rice, medical supplies, and active compassion.

No geopolitics.

No manipulation.

Only one love.

Is this a press story?  What is anything, but people?  This is a human story, and the tiny,  maligned island which encompasses Haiti, birthplace of African democracy, needs global assistance, nothing more, nothing less.

The nation hated for defeating French colonialism and enslavement, the nation hated for usurping American imperialism, this tiny island alone faces the equivalent total devastation of the asian tsunami.

Forget hatred for Haiti’s pride, and determination.  This time, reward that perseverance with unrestrained assistance.  Let every billionaire and millionaire send their little used yachts laden with food and clothes to this place.  Let every corporation send their jets and freighters to this place.

Stand together now, and set a standard, or face a future alone.

The choice is yours.

Yele Haiti.  Forget the negativists and the injured souls, act now for God’s sake.  The preacher will tell you, God does not care after persons.  That is so we shall learn to care after one another.

Give now, act now, help now.

Help Here

or Here

or even HERE, just help.

Now.

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Ciné Institute Director David Belle reports from Port-au-Prince: “I have been told that much US media coverage paints Haiti as a tinderbox ready to explode. I’m told that lead stories in major media are of looting, violence and chaos. There could be nothing further from the truth. “I have traveled the entire city daily since my arrival. The extent of damages is absolutely staggering. At every step, at every bend is one horrific tragedy after another; homes, businesses, schools and churches leveled to nothing. Inside every mountain of rubble there are people, most dead at this point. The smell is overwhelming. On every street are people – survivors — who have lost everything they have: homes, parents, children, friends. “NOT ONCE have we witnessed a single act of aggression or violence.  To the contrary, we have witnessed neighbors helping neighbors and friends helping friends and strangers.  We’ve seen neighbors digging in rubble with their bare hands to find survivors. We’ve seen traditional healers treating the injured; we’ve seen dignified ceremonies for mass burials and residents patiently waiting under boiling sun with nothing but their few remaining belongings. A crippled city of two million awaits help, medicine, food and water. Most haven’t received any. “Haiti can be proud of its survivors. Their dignity and decency in the face of this tragedy is itself staggering.” David Belle, January 17th, 2010 Go to Ciné Institute’s website for latest photos and footage coming from the students in Jacmel. cineinstitute.com

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In 2009 we conducted a study of online distribution of pirated media.  The questions were: “How do they make money?”, “Why do the sites survive?”, and, “Who pays the operators?”.  The answers were strange, and changed noticeably over the course of a single year.

The pirate media distributors stream their wares out of server farms on sovereign native people’s territories in the West, and in Sweden, Ukraine, and China to the East.  Using legal loopholes, bribery, and protection from mob and government interests, the sites not only survive, they thrive and propagate.

Often it seemed there was hardly any money making involved, where it begged the question why so much time was being spent mounting the pirated materials beside the distribution of malware to steal private data.  Ad revenue visibly increased every month, however.

22% of studied pirate streams had ad placements for major corporate interests on Jan 1st, 2009.  By June major corporate placements had gone to 39.5%, and by September, 52.5%.  By Jan 1st 2010 it was 91%. It is what the slaves to cliche call a tipping point.

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