Talkin’ About My Revolutions

The following is posted at Malaysia Today.

A Walk Down The Yellow Brick Road Of Malaysia’s Corridor Of The Future
By Bernice Low, Malaysia

If you’ve tried to log into Malaysia-Today.net, you will see this.

Malaysiakini.com has the story that ISP TMNet was under orders to block the DNS of Malaysia-Today.net on the basis that

It is being blocked because we found that some of the comments on the website were insensitive, bordering on incitement, - Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chief operating officer Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi quoted by Malaysiakini.

According to various blog sources, the original malaysia-today.net URL remains accessible only via ISPs Time, Jaring and Maxis (watch for those to go down soon).

Malaysia Today’s Administrators have set up a blog on Livejournal to keep Malaysians updated in the event that MToday is hacked or blocked. Its administrator has posted this singular message:

As of 26th August 2008 @ 8.20PM, if you are having trouble accessing Malaysia-Today.net please use:-

http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008

More to be added soon. Help spread the word!

This will be a temporary site. TMNet Streamyx is blocking http://Malaysia-Today.net on their service-level. Please check back here if you are unable to view MT and in case the alternative site is inaccessible.

An additional comment at the bottom of the page adds another fix:

Please be informed that TM is blocking access to Malaysia Today
(www.malaysia-today.net) via its DNS servers. To overcome this problem, you need to define your primary DNS server as 208.67.222.222 and secondary server 202.188.0.133 208.67.220.220 either on your router or your PC/notebook. This will beat the blockage.

Updated: You can also type the IP address of Malaysia-Today.com directly into your browser URL - 117.120.1.155. (thanks to reader Pakac Luteb)

Kindly do all Malaysians, living in Malaysia and overseas, a favor, and let them know where to point their browsers.

This is a grim development indeed.

Malaysianinsider.com carries a story that the government is planning to target the blogosphere next.

Is this a sign of things and times to come for Malaysians and the alternative media?

The following was posted at Malaysia Today:

Newly-elected Permatang Pauh MP, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, will be taking his oath in Dewan Rakyat (Parliament) on Thursday, August 28.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia made the announcement at 10 am today, August 27. The Speaker’s office confirmed receiving the letter from the Election Commission on the Permatang Pauh by-election result on Wednesday morning.

This means Anwar will be able to attend the Parliament sitting starting Thursday and he will be in the House for the tabling of the Budget on Friday.

Anwar on Tuesday won the Permatang Pauh by-election by a resounding 15,671 majority, beating Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah who only managed 15,524 votes and Akim’s Hanafi Hamat who got 92 votes. - The Star

The opposite of hard rock, this new blend was very popular all around the world. It can be traced back to the sensitive singer-songwriters of the ’70s.

KARLA BONOFF
Nashville 1978 [no label, 1CD]
Live at the Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN, Feb 22, 1978. An excellent stereo soundboard.

Here is a nice early live performance from Karla Bonoff, on the road to promote her self-titled debut album. Bonoff also spent her early career as backup singer for Linda Ronstadt. Ronstadt returned the favour recording three of her songs off Bonoff’s debut. This show also illustrates how influential the West Coast soft-rock sound was. Bonoff’s moves are all familiar. The playing style is the same as Ronstadt’s. It sure sounds like Russ Kunkel and Waddy Wachtel playing at this show. In fact, the pair played on both Ronstadt’s and Bonoff’s albums.

1. I Can’t Hold On
2. Home
3. The Water Is Wide
4. Lose Again
5. Rose In The Garden
6. Someone To Lay Down Beside Me
7. Trouble Again/ band intros
8. Isn’t It Always Love
9. Falling Star

Click here to download the tracks - high quality stereo MP3s (sample rate of 256 kbps).

+ + + + +

Due to popular demand, these sets are now available for download:

Neil Young
Living With War Live
click here for the tracks

Simon & Garfunkel
Alternate Bookends
click here for the tracks

Posted on anilnetto.com:

1452: Selvarajah Somiah reports on the unofficial turnout:
I have unofficial reports that the turnout at 2 pm is at 65-70 per cent. At this rate, the voter turnout before 5 pm should be more than 80 per cent. More people are coming out to vote now.

Anwar should be winning with more than 10,000 votes if this is the trend.

1440: Over the last couple of hours I have been walking around the Permatang Pauh town centre. It’s all peaceful folks, nothing to worry about - so far. People are milling at the junction of the town. A chopper “parks” itself in the sky above for several minutes.

Supporters from both sides are just boisterous and exuberant. A bit of pandemonium breaks out when Hishammuddin and Khairy arrived smack in the middle of the junction and walk around a bit. They don’t stay for very long before walking down the road. The BN crowd mobs them, while the PKR supporters jeer, showing the thumbs down.

Hisham walks to a BN service centre. The BN supporters’ chant goes up, “Angkat sumpah! Angkat sumpah!” and “Mana Magnum?” - the latter a reference to Nalla’s allegation against Anwar regarding Magnum shares.

The police and FRU here are adopting a low-key approach, but their presence is visible. A traffic cop directs traffic at the junction.

A rumour spreads that that Najib is about to drive by. The PKR women folk quickly rush to the roadside, ready to give him a “hot” reception. They tell each other excitedly, “Mongolia datang! Mongolia datang!” A guy standing nearby adds, “Ya, Mongolia Altantuya.”

1315: Muhammad Firdaus Christopher shares some unconfirmed information:
I have unofficial reports that the percentage of voter turnout as of noon is between 49 and 50 per cent. Reckon that this is pretty high and should hit above 80 per cent by 5 pm.

I hear from my running mates that there is intimidation of voters not only in Seberang Jaya but at Tanah Liat area as well but the folks there ain’t bothered.

1311: Karma sends us this report:
The support for Anwar can be seen all over. People cheer and approach him wherever he goes. This charismatic politician has won the hearts of most people here. Ariff was relatively a loner this morning. He looked quite subdued when not many people gathered around him. He was quite deprived of the cheers and handshakes given to Anwar.

The sentiment is Anwar will win with a sizeable majority. The people seem to show more support for Anwar, seemingly. Cheers and boos are common but security is tight in all areas.

Readers are reminded to go to Polling Day: Live Reports From Ground Zero for the latest by-election news:
http://anilnetto.com/civil-society/polling-day-live-reports-from-ground-zero/

The Last Ceramah (rally/meet-the-people session): Close to 60,000 people turned up for the big one. This was the scene around 9.45 pm on a wet night (Aug 25). As blogger Anil Netto says, “Now you know why I turned back!”

Today is the big day - the Pematang Pauh by-election in Penang (Malaysia) which will determine opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s return to Parliament. Visit Anil Netto’s blog which is providing live reports of the by-election from Ground Zero:

His recent posts:

0924: Just receive a text message from a friend: “Hopping from foot to foot in nervous energy. Keep us in d loop even if you have 2 pay a phantom voter RM10 to hold an umbrella over your notebook”! Ha ha. Quite. On that note, I am off to scour the streets of Permatang Pauh for a bit.

0020: Huge traffic jams after the ceramah ends. The revised estimate for the size of the crowd is between 50,000 and 60,000, according to my source at the scene. Ceramah speakers have warned people to be on the lookout for any Umno/BN/other people dressed in PKR attire who could be out to create havoc in the morning.

Polling Day: Live Reports From Ground Zero:
http://anilnetto.com/civil-society/polling-day-live-reports-from-ground-zero/

Eve of polling: Live reports from Ground Zero
http://anilnetto.com/civil-society/eve-of-polling-reports-from-ground-zero/

The impending global recession has nothing to do with crafty mortgage lenders, opportunistic loan applicants, dodgy rating agencies, or crooked home appraisers. As commentator Mike Whitney says, “The source of the troubles is the Federal Reserve and monetary policies that are designed to rob people of their life savings.”

Sharp contractions in the money supply and recession are two spokes on the same wheel. When the money supply shrinks, there’s less economic activity, and the economy slows. An article in this week’s UK Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard removes any doubt that a deep recession can still be avoided.

Click here for the article.

The sins of a man are visited on the grandchildren in Keith Li’s Centipede Horror, where evil bomohs (witchdoctors) cast their scorpion and centipede spells and whose victims die horrible deaths, before they can vomit out the deadly critters. Stephen Tan reviews.

What makes Centipede Horror a standout cult movie is not its sex or nudity or even gore. It’s the two vomitting scenes that are astounding - one where a large number of scorpions are vomitted out; the latter, involving innumerable centipedes. Unlike the computer-generated barfing in Herman Yau’s Gong Tau (2007), the critters are real here.

Click here for the article.

A group of Japanese musicians and fans has released Hoshizora No Drive: Syd Barrett Tribute Compilation Album (Heart Lord Studio).

BigO has a number of copies of the double CD for sale to its readers.

The CD is priced at US$30 (airmail postage and handling an extra US$3).

For a start, we are offering an early bird special. Readers who order the CD now need pay only US$30.

We hope sales will help to partly offset the cost of running our BigO site.

You can order the CD here (PayPal):
http://www.bigozine2.com/theshop/cds/VAhoshi.html

BigO’s Philip Cheah notes: “Aren’t the Japanese the ultimate fans? The late leader of early Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett may have been weird, quirky and whimsical but he could never possibly imagine how much the Japanese loved him… for his craziness, of course. Barrett wrote the quintessential riff-jamming track, Interstellar Overdrive. When you hear the fuzz-drenched version here, you are not prepared for a second version, the 25-minute live jam on CD2.”

Various
Hoshizora No Drive: Syd Barrett Tribute Compilation Album
(Heart Lord Studio)

Disc 1
1. BabyLemonade - Big Orange
2. SeeEmilyPlay - MILCRYN’
3. NoGoodTrying - Fujii Masahide Electric
4. Scarecrow - Mond’rean
5. NoMansLand - Warsawpact
6. Feel - Morimoto Ariomi
7. InterstellarOverdrive - Koucha!
8. SeaSlug (original) - Aural Fit
9. Wined&Dined - Epigonen
10. Dominoes - notan
11. Octpus - Pubrof’s Dog
12. ShininOnCrazyDiamond - T. Aoki (Up-Tight)
13. LoveSong - Shinseinen

Disc 2
1. ArnordLane - Baby & Cool Vive with Shinobu Goto
2. NoGoodTrying - Girnenmujima
3. Syd Barrett Session (Live 2007/7/7) - All-Star Cast
4. Wouldn’t You Miss Me - Shinobu Goto

Note: Readers without PayPal can email us at mybigo@bigozine.com for ordering details.

Due to popular demand, these sets are now available for download:

Linda Ronstadt
Keeping Out Of Mischief
Famed record producer Jerry Wexler died on August 15, 2008. He was 91. Apart from greats such as Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan, Wexler also recorded this album.
click here for the tracks

Miles Davis
Fillmore East 1970
click here for the tracks

When Eddie Vedder comes to town as part of his solo tour, Karen Barry Schwarz decides to cosy up to the man. Well… as close as she can get to the Pearl Jam frontman.

So I just spent the week with Eddie Vedder, who was in town this week and flying solo. You better believe that I was going to take full advantage of my chance to spend some time with HIM, oh yes I was. We really weren’t getting along at first, but by the end of the week we really connected, and ended up sharing a tearful goodbye last night. I mean, you know. When he left. The stage. I was… in the audience. For each of his three sold-out shows in the area. What did you think I meant? Honestly.

Click here for the article.