Here is an astonishingly good audio recording (for the setting — there are a couple moments of warble, one presumes a consequence of the aged analog tape) and better than fair video of the Highway Kings and me at the Four G’s Hotel in Bethlehem, ca. 89-91. Amusing, no? I still have the hat. (It was my father’s which probably makes it 60 or close to it.)
It was recorded and shot by Joe Hancaviz who made an amazing series of such recordings. They documented the independent music scene on the south side of Bethlehem, PA, from ’89-’91. The bands shot revolved around the Four G’s and you could often hear their records and tapes played by the community staff at Lehigh University’s radio station, WLVR, of which Joe was and is a member. It was grass roots modern rock, every bit as vital as what was going on in the big metropolitan centers of the country and Joe Hancaviz recorded the warp, woof and flavor of it. This was the CBGB’s of the Lehigh Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania.
I can only assume that for Joe it was a labor of love. He did it free of charge. Believe me, readers, it took time to set up and tend to during these evenings. And the patience needed to endure the unique atmosphere in the place? Well, let’s just say not everyone had it.
Years later Joe shouldered the job of restoring these old and deteriorated videotapes, digitizing them and uploading the results to YouTube, where they make an impressive archive.
On Facebook, he briefly described how he made the recordings back in the day:
I figured it out as I went along, using cheap equipment from Radio Shack. I did this one before I even had a proper mixer. I used a cheapo DJ mixer that only had two mic inputs. To get four more, I used the mic inputs on two cassette decks (set on record/pause) and ran them into the mixer through the RCA jacks. Necessity is the mother of invention!
I’d say!
Joe continues to shoot the locals in the Lehigh Valley, doing an extraordinary job.
The original studio version of Highway Patrol is here. By the time the video was shot we’d been playing it for four years and the live version had evolved into it’s own thing, distinct from the original.
What’s worth remembering goes a little deeper than what Americans are comfortable with.
It put the country into a war with the Axis Powers, Japan and Germany (and Il Duce’s Italy), the first two countries possessing militaries that could smash American forces.
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the most powerful naval force in the world on December 7th. And it would remain a dangerous and formidable foe for years.
Even after Midway, the Japanese fleet still had nasty surprises in store for American fighting men. In August of 1942, a Japanese heavy cruiser force utterly destroyed a US cruiser force off Guadalcanal in the Battle of Savo Island. It was the worst surface action group defeat this country has ever suffered.
The Japanese Navy fought at night, had deadly destroyer-launched torpedo tactics, and at Savo achieved complete tactical surprise.
James Hornfischer’s Neptune’s Inferno chronicles that battle and many others off Guadalcanal and in the Solomon’s at a time during the war when US fighting men often went into action out gunned, frequently with the expectation that they would die at the hands of the Japanese.
Today, all that’s lost in the memorial of December 7. To Americans it’s a day when the Japanese sneak attacked the US Navy, achieving a victory that’s flamingly chronicled in old movies.
And then we joined the war, kicked their asses and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yaaaay!
It’s transformed into another ritual reference with virtually no meaning, particularly when contrasted with the country’s current relationship with its military.
The US military is the most powerful in world history and it never goes into action expecting to lose. And in the last twelve years it has never faced a capable opponent. Not even close.
It exists, and does its thing, whatever the current political leadership asks. This has no linkage relationship with what the US, and everyone, had to do in WWII in cooperating to destroy the Axis powers and preserve freedom in the west. Anyone who believes differently is a fool and insulting to history.
Wrote itself. Play loud. Theme and film trailer for the upcoming cable reality show on National Geographic, Living Like John McAfee. Promotional tie-ins: graphic novel and tell-all books, also available for Kindle.
Just in e-mail:
I’m worried.
You’re starting to become a news source for me.
How the new Jonas Salks and Wright Brothers of the modern American tech economy are boosting innovation and better living can never be overstated. Today, news again from the wire on the invention of the year, the development of a digital posh hotel room lock pick.
We booked hotel rooms in New Jersey where he did it again and again — at a Hyatt, a Ramada, a Doubletree Hilton. This security flaw is so alarming, even hotel managers are stunned. “That’s absolutely insane,” one said when we showed him …
The device is so small, thieves can hide it in a magic marker. And criminals are learning how to make it watching videos posted online.
“Do you have to be a computer whiz to build one of these?” we asked.
Anti-virus software guru John McAfee was arrested by Guatemalan police on Wednesday, for illegally entering the country, interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said.
Earlier today:
“Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity,??? McAfee said. “I chose Guatemala carefully??? …
[Now], all the misdirection may be coming to any end. Asked if he feels safe, McAfee told ABC News, “Oh, absolutely. I feel like I’ve come home.???
Fun time’s over. Lonely war against Belize cut short.
The Republican Party was wiped out in California in the election. It has no political power to do anything in the state legislature, thus opening the way to the first significant change here in well over a decade.
But there are still red areas where the right white man sits, boiling in a stew of fears over the president, the imminent loss of freedom, the overthrow of the republic, non-white people and the homosexuals, too.
And the ferment has resulted in major gun sales for the Christmas season.
From the Orange County Register:
Californians are buying more guns than ever …
“I think it’s a direct outgrowth of the strategies employed in the recent election,” said John Eastman, a professor and former dean of the Chapman University School of Law who in 2010 sought Republican nomination for state Attorney General.
Eastman pointed to the discord brought by groups like Occupy Wall Street, which in some cases clashed with police. The breakdown in public order inspired more people to think about self-defense, he said …
“The National Rifle Association has done a wonderful job of demonizing President Obama,” said [one observer to the newspaper].
In fact, Blek said, Obama’s gun policies have either been nonexistent or a step backward in the eyes of safety advocates …
“A lot of people are just recently learning about what the Constitution says and the rights that we have and starting to exercise them now,” a [gun shop owner] told the newspaper.
“There is a big scare that guns are going to begin to get scarce,” [said another firearms store owner].
The newspaper added the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System had run almost one million background checks “related to guns in California” this year.
Want to give a God Save WhiteManistan T-shirt to the closet bigot in the family or office? Think of the merry conversation it could make at the holiday table!
If so, say so in comment. Perhaps I’ll put the image on-line at one of the insta-T-shirt printers!
I saw the professor deliver a March 2010 speech to California Tea Party activists in Buena Park during his failed attempt to win the Republican Party nomination for attorney general. Calling himself a constitutional scholar, he declared that if the state allowed gay marriages, citizens had a duty to “rise up and abolish” the government. Eastman also proudly noted his philosophical attitude could be summed up by the declaration Justice Thomas has on an office plaque: “I ain’t evolving.”
Tony Fadell is a perfect fit for The Purpose Drive Life (see below). As the designer of the iPod he made something that allowed all the money formerly made by the music industry to be given to Apple by laundering through Luxembourg while at the same time making it virtually impossible for musicians except maybe Carly Rae Jepsen, the Gangnam Style dude, and Taylor Swift, to earn any on the company’s industry-controlling jukebox.
No excerpts, the guy’s a crushing bore.
Best comment, ever, though:
When will this be available at ChinaMart?
Unintentional sidesplitter:
I discovered there was your thermostat that controls 50-60% of your energy costs every year — and no one knows how to use them and they’re ugly and frustrating.
If you say so.
I’m taking nominations and suggestions for The Purpose Driven Life. If you have someone you think ought to be part of the series, send a link and a short excerpt you’d like used, plus any snark you think is appropriate.
The purpose of The Purpose Driven Life is to profile the wizards of American tech innovation where all the advances never seem more than trivial but are lauded as game-changers because you can download them, log on or buy them at a consumer electronics Apple-like store. They’re replacements for stuff that already works, only newly controlled by smartphones, useless schemes and software for ripping off society or, in general, things that enrich the geniuses and the shoeshine class but no one else.
DD cannot be nominated for The Purpose Driven Life.
Cyberattacks come first. Hurricane Sandy gets second billing.
Excerpted:
Proclamation 8910 of November 30, 2012
Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience
Month, 2012
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Every day, Americans across our country–from
entrepreneurs and college students to families and
community leaders–rely on critical infrastructure to
travel and communicate, work and play. The assets and
systems we depend on are essential to our way of life,
and during Critical Infrastructure Protection and
Resilience Month, we maintain our commitment to keeping
our critical infrastructure and our communities safe
and resilient.
Our Nation’s critical infrastructure is complex and
interconnected, and we must understand not only its
strengths, but also its vulnerabilities to emerging
threats. Cyber incidents can have devastating
consequences on both physical and virtual
infrastructure, which is why my Administration
continues to make cybersecurity a national security
priority. As we continue to work within existing
authorities to fortify our country against cyber risks,
comprehensive legislation remains essential to
improving infrastructure security, enhancing cyber
information sharing between government and the private
sector, and protecting the privacy and civil liberties
of the American people.
Physical threats also put our Nation’s most important
assets at risk. Destruction caused by devastating
storms and other natural disasters this year
underscored our reliance on our critical
infrastructure. Yet, these tragic events also
demonstrated once again the strength and resolve of the
American people when we work together to recover and
rebuild …
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim December 2012 as
Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience
Month. I call upon the people of the United States to
recognize the importance of protecting our Nation’s
resources and to observe this month with appropriate
events and training to enhance our national security
and resilience.
Anything else that happens will have to be taken care by the government and other top officials around the world. I can’t really say how bad it will get, but if you think it’s going to be catastrophic, save up supplies like food and water and be prepared for looters, just like you would for a zombie apocalypse, and make sure to get in bunkers, in case an all out nuclear war happens.
The looming threats of cyber attack are real and growing. Have your individual, personal Internet Disaster Recovery Plan ready and make it a priority — and prepare for the worst possible outcome—human annihilation.
Software tycoon John McAfee, wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor, has made his escape from Belize to Guatemala, where he told ABC News he will be seeking asylum.
“Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity,” McAfee said. “I chose Guatemala carefully” …
[Now], all the misdirection may be coming to any end. Asked if he feels safe, McAfee told ABC News, “Oh, absolutely. I feel like I’ve come home.”
Go now to Guatemala for the holidays, journalist suckers.
Now, it’s important to underline that John McAfee, a pioneer in the anti-virus industry, has had nothing to do with the business since the 1990s.
One thing John McAfee remains, however, is a character …
But it would be ironic indeed if John McAfee, a man who was a leading light in the anti-virus industry 20-25 years ago, was located by the authorities because of sloppy IT security. [Cluley describes an iPhone snapped picture of McAfee that made news because it contained the ex-anti-virus king’s coordinates] The lesson that all of us should learn is to be very careful about what information a photograph might be secretly carrying within it regarding the when and where a picture was taken.
This wasn’t an easy article to write, as it involves someone who – although I never met him – I feel was an important element in the early years of my career in computer security.
From deep inna hart of WhiteManistan, worth 10,000 words.
Above, Cody Wilson, the now much publicized University of Texas student determined to make 3-D manufacturing plastic gun plans available to everyone via the Internet.
Defense Distributed has applied to the IRS to become a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that will focus on “charitable public interest publishing” – or distributing schematics of the weapons online for free. A new research and development limited liability company called Liberty Laboratories will manufacture and test the guns. A third company, the name of which Wilson would not provide, will manage the finances of the project as a private asset organization.
“[Wilson] met independently with ATF officials and even applied for another license, or ‘special occupation taxpayer,’ [for the manufacture of] more powerful weapons like machine guns,” continues the Guardian.
More recent news stories show at least the 3-D manufacturing publicity trip is honest. A YouTube video of an AR-15 — the lower bout of which is a 3-D plastic piece — falls apart in the hands of the shooter on the range after a few shots. (No link, Google)
“How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet?” Wilson’s company site asks, rather brainlessly, here.
We already know how the US government acts, despite loud protestations of UN conspiracies to take away all firearms by the National Rifle Association.
So it’s quite obvious Americans really do need home 3D printers and plans to make plastic guns because soon, really soon, all their boom sticks will be taken away.
And in central Africa everyone will access to the Internet and 3-D printing very shortly so all the despots better watch out! 3-D gun manufacturing, a revolution in, basically — nothing, is upon us.
“Based on the limited data that are comparable among nations, the U.S. income distribution appears to be among the most unequal of all major industrialized countries … Empirical analyses estimate that the United States is a comparatively immobile society,” it reads.
Obviously, we have offsetting benefits. Like a geek and supporters who will bring us a “redoubt” of 3-D plastic gun manufacturing.
Disruptive technology is giving us such innovation, progress and collective and individual empowerment to the trivial gadgeteers and extremists, it’s hard to know what’s next. God bless the USA.
From deep inna hart of WhiteManistan, worth 10,000 words.