DECEMBER RIOTS ORIGINAL POSTER BY CINEMAD

MASSIVE PROTESTS ON OCTOBER 15TH IN ATHENS....

Top cartoonist Yiannis Ioannou dark and humorous drawing on European Union's and Greece's D-Day.
From middle class to the crematoriums of spreads and hedge funds....

MARIO BAVA'S LEGACY LIVES ON.... (PART 1)

BARBARA STEELE IN "BLACK SUNDAY".

 MARIO BAVA.

 
MARIO BAVA (right) WITH LUCIO FULCI  (pictured left).

Italian’s  master of horror Mario Bava’s legacy influenced from rock legends like Black Sabbath to “slasher” franchises like Friday the 13^th.

In 1960’s BLACK SUNDAY (LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO), a black-and-white gothic classic horror film influenced by the German Expressionism, Barbara Steele is starring as a resurrected witch who was burned to death in a small medieval town in Eastern Europe and now seeks revenge on her persecutors. The exquisitely realized expressionist images of cruelty and sexual suggestion shocked the public in the late fifties and ensured a long-standing ban from the hypocricy of the British censor. Also starring John Richardson and Ivo Carrani among others.

In 1971’s A BAY OF BLOOD (BAHIA DE SANGRE), young people in an isolated house near the water are killed one after the other. One of the most colorful horror movies of Mario Bava, who always performed cinematographer duties on his film, influenced Halloween and Friday the 13^th. The film was starring Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Volonte, Laura Betti. BAY OF BLOOD still remains banned in Germany.

Thanks to legendary American producer Samuel Z. Arkoff dubbing efforts, most of Bava’s films are dubbed in English. BLACK SUNDAY has various language versions (French etc.)

Mario Bava’s photos are from VIDEO WATCHDOG.

ΜΑRIO BAVA (at the left) pictured with BORIS KARLOFF.

OCCUPY WALL STREET GROWS STRONGER: THOUSANDS MARCH IN NYC

Middle class families, unions, students joined the "OCCUPY WALL STREET" movement in a peaceful march....This time the crowd was thousands... Finally New Yorkers woke up to claim the American Dream back...


*Photos from  GOTHAMIST, AP.

NEW POLICE VIOLENCE OUTBREAK IN ATHENS' CONSTITUTION SQUARE....

Swat tean man breaks the teeth of female AFP photojournalist capturing beating of a protester fallen on the sidewalk by 15 SWAT men...

R.I. P. VISIONARY AND INNOVATOR STEVE JOBS

American visionary and innovator Steve Jobs (Mac, Pixar, i-pad, i-pod,i-phone) who changed the globe in the  way we communicate, being entertained, take and deliver information, died at 56 from pancreatic cancer. There are many obituaries around the web about Steve Jobs but the quote that epitomizes this great man's modus vivendi:

'Remembering That You Are Going To Die Is The Best Way I Know To Avoid The Trap Of Thinking You Have Something To Lose'. 

Steve Jobs

AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR-SCREENWRITER PAVLOS TASIOS DEAD AT 69....

Award-winning screenwiter-director Pavlos Tasios died today from cancer. Pavlos was a very dear friend and a top director of his generation. Actually in the top-3 along with Nikos Nikolaidis, and twice-nominated for Best Foreign Picture Oscar Vassilis Georgiadis.

 

....Pavlos wrote and directed many hits including "PARANGELIA" ("REQUEST FOR A SONG", 1980), about a night club slaughterfest-made it look and feel chilling like a Greek tragedy, that grossed 5 million euros in its first month of release (gross adjusted for inflation), starring his ex-wife poet-actress Kaerina Gogou, "VARY PEPONI" ("ΗEAVY MELON", 1977), "STIGMA" (1982) about a single mother with an autistic child and countless others. 

He wrote, produce and directed close to twenty feature films and countless TV series.

He was married twice. Survived by three children (one daughter and two boys) and his second wife Kaiti.

"OCCUPY WALL STREET" HAS ITS OWN NEWSPAPER...

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/09/occupy_wall_str_8.php#more

Occupy Wall Street is starting to look less like an extended camping trip (kind of): It now has a mailing address, an info line, and it will soon have its own newspaper. The Occupy Wall Street Journal has surpassed its $12,000 fundraising goal on Kickstarterand looks like it might actually be a reality. Now, the protesters will have basically everything they need apart from, like, houses. The project's description:

We want to be the people's media. Our first project is The Occupy Wall Street Journal, a four-page broadsheet newspaper with an ambitious print run of 50,000. It's aimed at the general public. The idea is to explain what the protest is about and profile different people who have joined and why they joined. We will explain the issues involved and how the general assembly process operates at Liberty Plaza. It will also offer resources and ways to join. The emphasis will be on quality content, design, photography and artwork that uses incisive humor to make it a lively read.

Most people are reporting that this is the work of the Yes Men, but a Yes Men rep told us that "we are not behind it, but we are 'backing' it on our Kickstarter channel."

Jed Brandt, a communist writer, is credited on the Kickstarter as head of the Journal. We haven't yet been able to reach him for comment.

Now that the project has raised over $18,000, it looks like at least the first two issues will run. That is, if Mayor Bloomberg allows the occupation to continue.

[rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]

Go to Runnin' Scared for more Voice news coverage.

"OCCUPY WALL STREET" MOVEMENT SPREADS, BLOCKS BROOKLYN BRIDGE, NYPD ARRESTS HUNDREDS....

ä

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/30/occupy-wall-street-protests-new-york_n_989221.html

...Hundreds of people protesting Wall Street abuses were penned in and arrested by police Saturday, two weeks into an ongoing demonstration that has become known on Twitter as #OccupyWallStreet.

Centered at Zuccotti Park since September 17, the gathering that began as a call to arms from anti-consumerist magazine AdBusters has shown no sign of a slowdown.

The movement aims to "express a feeling of mass injustice," according to the group’s declaration for the occupation of New York City released Friday. The injustices include the foreclosure crisis, work place discrimination and student loan debt, among a list of others.

As HuffPost reported recently, the movement is less about specific policy demands and more about an expression of opposition to ever yawning economic inequality driven by Wall Street and its allies in Washington.

Calling themselves an American revolution, the protesters say they plan to stay in the park indefinitely.

George Basta, an official with New York Communities for Change, said that the organizers were encouraged by police to march on the street area of the Brooklyn Bridge, instead of the walkway, then subsequently arrested them for marching in traffic. Two lead organizers, Jonathan Westin and Pete Nagy, were penned in by police. Westin managed to exit the police pen, but Nagy is missing and presumed detained by police, Basta told HuffPost(....)

MATT TAIBI: THE DOWNGRADING OF US BANKS AND THE 5 USD BOFA DEBIT CARD FEE...

....Big news in the financial world yesterday, as Moody’s downgraded three of America’s biggest commercial banks. The ratings agency hit Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup, and the money-shot quote came from the Wall Street Journal: 

Moody's downgraded Bank of America's long-term senior debt two steps to Baa1, which is three steps above a junk credit rating. The outlook on the new rating remains negative. The firm specifically noted that the downgrades didn't reflect a weakening in Bank of America's intrinsic credit quality.

The spin that’s being circulated on this is that Moody’s isn’t dissing the banks per se. Rather, Moody’s has just suddenly decided to become concerned that in the post Dodd-Frank world, the U.S. government would not bail out all of these banks, should they need to be bailed out. The WSJ is selling this as nothing more than the ratings agency deciding finally to apply an equal touch to all the troubled members of the Too Big To Fail club:

Moody's said the probability that the government would allow a large bank to fail is greater now than it was during the financial crisis ...

The ratings for Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi before Wednesday's downgrade reflected a greater level of government support than for five other systemically important financial companies--J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), State Street Corp. (STT), and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) Now all eight companies are rated consistently with regard to possible government support.

But there’s no way this isn’t a serious blow to all these banks. You know you’re seriously fucked when even Moody’s, the most whorishly corrupt ratings company in modern history – one that “accidentally” gave billions in dicey derivatives AAA ratings a few years back (blaming the faux-bullish ratings on a computer error) – can’t find a way to avoid downgrading you.

And here’s my question today for folks keeping their money at Bank of America: How psyched are you today to have your bank downgraded to just above junk status even beforethe inevitable implosion of the Countrywide portfolio, that Yucca Mountain of deadly and still-severely-overmarked mortgages that BofA is toting along?

These three banks control, cumulatively, about a quarter of all America’s deposits. But it’s probably nothing to worry about, right? How about Ted Danson’s CSI debut?  Man, is he having a quirky and idiosyncratic second career, or what?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/moodys-bank-downgrades-what-us-worry-20110922

OCCUPY WALL STREET: US CITIZENS PROTEST WALL STREET GREED AND UNPROVOKED NYPD BRUTALITY....

There Will Be a Protest to Protest the Treatment of Occupy Wall Street Protesters

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/09/protest_to_prot.php

Occupy Wall Street is now in its 12th day. This morning brought another march on Wall Street. In other cities, similar efforts are springing up. And, there are now efforts to protest the treatment the protesters have gotten from the NYPD -- most dramatically and media-attention-getting, the pepper-spraying of several women who were being corralled by netting. We spoke to Alex Vitale, a CUNY professor who, with Penny Lewis, has organized a demonstration "against police attacks targeting Occupy Wall Street." The event is scheduled for Friday at 5:30 p.m., at One Police Plaza.

In a press release Vitale issued today, he says that more than 1,000 people, including "dozens of trade union leaders, academics, writers, students, and other New Yorkers" are expected on Friday, to communicate their disagreement with how protests are handled in New York City and, ultimately, to attempt to get "the mayor put together a commission to look at the right way to handle protests." (Currently, there are 275 who have said they will attend on the event's Facebook page.)

Vitate writes, 

On September 24th, members of Occupy Wall Street marched to Union Square, and were subsequently met with extreme police violence, including violent arrests of non-violent protesters and pepper-spraying people in police custody.

We are outraged by these police attacks. At the worst protestors were guilty of a minor traffic disruption, which in no way warranted the excessive use of force witnessed on numerous videos. This use of force serves to criminalize dissent and intimidate potential participants.

We call on the NYPD to stop treating dissent as a criminal activity and to acknowledge the legitimacy of non-violent protest--even when it is disruptive. We call on them to end their unreasonably restrictive practices that undermine the very nature of free assembly, such as the use of protest pens, deployment of excessive numbers of officers directly surrounding demonstrations, subdividing of crowds, bag searches, and denials of permits.

As for the rather meta-nature of protesting the treatment of protesters, Vitale told us, "There are people who are maybe supportive in very general terms of the encampment but didn't feel so directly connected or inspired by that style of protest. So they weren't likely to wander down to Zuccotti Park (.....)


Lewis and Vitale both serve on the Executive Council PSC-CUNY, and decided to organize their protest after hearing from people that they wanted to "do something." Along with the event's Facebook page, they have a blog, Solidarity With OWS.

MATT TAIBI: ROGUE WALL STREET, NOT ROGUE UBS TRADER!

(....) In fact, investment bankers by nature have huge appetites for risk, and most of them take pride in being able to sleep at night even when their bets are going the wrong way. If you’re not a person who can doze through a two-hour foot massage while your client (which might be your own bank) is losing ten thousand dollars a minute on some exotic trade you’ve cooked up, then you won’t make it on today’s Wall Street.

Nonetheless, thanks to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed in 1998 with the help of Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, Phil Gramm and a host of other short-sighted politicians, we now have a situation where trillions in federally-insured commercial bank deposits have been wedded at the end of a shotgun to exactly such career investment bankers from places like Salomon Brothers (now part of Citi), Merrill Lynch (Bank of America), Bear Stearns (Chase), and so on.

These marriages have been a disaster. The influx of i-banking types into the once-boring worlds of commercial bank accounts, home mortgages, and consumer credit has helped turn every part of the financial universe into a casino. That’s why I can’t stand the term "rogue trader," which is always tossed out there when some investment-banker asshole loses a billion dollars betting with someone else’s money.

They’re not "rogue" for the simple reason that making insanely irresponsible decisions with other peoples’ money is exactly the job description of a lot of people on Wall Street. Hell, they don’t call these guys "rogue traders" when they make a billion dollars gambling.

The only thing that differentiates a "rogue" trader like Barings villain Nick Leeson from a Lloyd Blankfein, Dick Fuld, John Thain, or someone like AIG’s Joe Cassano, is that those other guys are more senior and their lunatic, catastrophic decisions were authorized (and yes, I know that Cassano wasn’t an investment banker, technically – but he was in financial services).

In the financial press you're called a "rogue trader" if you're some overperspired 28 year-old newbie who bypasses internal audits and quality control to make a disastrous trade that could sink the company. But if you're a well-groomed 60 year-old CEO who uses his authority to ignore quality control and internal audits in order to make disastrous trades that could sink the company, you get a bailout, a bonus, and heroic treatment in an Andrew Ross Sorkin book.

In other words, "rogue traders" are treated like bad accidents and condemned everywhere from the front pages to Ewan McGregor films. But rogue companies are protected at every level of the regulatory structure and continually empowered by dergulatory legislation giving them access to our bank accounts.

There is a movement in the UK for a thing called “ringfencing” that would separate investment bankers from commercial bankers....

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-2-billion-ubs-incident-rogue-trader-my-ass-20110915

LESSONS FROM GREECE.....

....Χειρότερο απ’ το βλέμμα ενός δαρμένου σκύλου είναι το βλέμμα ενός ανθρώπου σαν δαρμένου σκύλου. Το βλέμμα του φόβου που δεν τον φιλτράρει η λογική, που δεν τον αναιρεί καμιά ελπίδα. Δεν υπάρχει χειρότερος φόβος απ’ τον αόριστο φόβο. Δεν ξέρεις τι πρέπει να φοβάσαι και καταλήγεις να φοβάσαι τα πάντα. Λίγο πριν απ’ το τέλος, φοβάσαι τον φόβο σου και καταλήγεις να φοβάσαι τον εαυτό σου.

Γέμισαν οι δρόμοι τέτοια βλέμματα. Άνθρωποι που δεν ξέρουν τι πρέπει να φοβούνται, σαν τα σκυλιά που περιμένουν το χτύπημα. Πού πάμε; Τι θα μας συμβεί; Κανένας δεν μπορεί ν’ απαντήσει αλλά και κανένας δεν θέλει. Τι κακό θα συμβεί; Θα χάσουμε τη δουλειά μας, το σπίτι; Θ’ αναγκαστούμε να ζήσουμε με λιγότερα; Η τηλεόραση 52 ιντσών δεν θα προσφέρει καμιά απόλαυση; Θ’ αναγκαστούμε να ψάχνουμε στα σκουπίδια; Θα είμαστε υποχρεωμένοι να πίνουμε ρετσίνα με τον γείτονα που δεν γνωρίζουμε καν, όπως σ’ εκείνες τις ταινίες με τον Ρίζο και τη Βλαχοπούλου; Υπάρχει περίπτωση να χτυπήσει η πόρτα και να είναι ο διπλανός που ζητάει ένα λεμόνι; Ποιο απ’ όλα είναι το δικό μας σενάριο;
Δεν είμαι σίγουρη πως η πτώχευση είναι η καταστροφή της Ελλάδας. Προσπαθώ να καταλάβω τι είναι αυτό που θα πτωχεύσει. Ή Παιδεία των προσωπικών Πανεπιστημίων και της κομματικής συναλλαγής; Οι εφορίες της διαφθοράς; Τα νοσοκομεία με το φακελάκι; Μήπως θα συντριβεί το πολιτικό μας σύστημα, αυτή η μεγάλη αποθήκη με ψεύτες, φαφλατάδες και ανεπάγγελτους; Θ’ αναγκαστεί ο Δημήτρης Ρέππας να γίνει οδοντογιατρός, ο Καραμανλής δικηγόρος και ο Βενιζέλος αδύνατος; Ποιά, αλήθεια, είναι η μεγάλη καταστροφή που φοβούνται όλοι;

Υπάρχουν πολλά που θα χάσουμε, αλλά δεν ξέρω αν είναι αυτά που δικαιούμαστε και πολύ περισσότερο αυτά που χρειαζόμαστε. Στη γειτονιά μου θα κλείσουν τα 7 καταστήματα μανικιούρ-πεντικιούρ και τα 6 κομμωτήρια και θα μείνει μόνο ο ένας φούρνος που θα πουλάει είδος ανάγκης: ψωμί. Οι κυρίες θα πάψουν να ισορροπούν επικίνδυνα πάνω σε αφόρετες γόβες και τεχνητές επιθυμίες. Οι τράπεζες δεν θα έχουν διακοποδάνεια. Ό Ρέμος δεν θα βρίσκει κανέναν να του ρίξει δυο γαρύφαλλα. Ή Φιλιππινέζα δεν θ’ αναθρέφει πιά τα παιδιά. Οι σύγχρονες μανάδες ίσως δεν θ’ αναφωνούν «δεν αντέχω», γιατί θ’ ανακαλύψουν τη σημασία και της λέξης και της αντοχής. Τα παιδιά, όταν βγάζουν με 10 το λύκειο, θα πηγαίνουν σε κάποια τεχνική σχολή και όχι στο ιδιωτικό Πανεπιστήμιο του Λονδίνου που αναλαμβάνει να βαφτίσει τους κατιμάδες επιστήμονες με το αζημίωτο.
Ίσως χρησιμοποιούμε το κινητό τηλέφωνο όπως σε όλη την Ευρώπη, για να επικοινωνούμε και όχι για να εξευτελιζόμαστε. Το «ουάου» θα πάψει να είναι το υποκατάστατο του οργασμού στις κουβέντες που ψάχνουν την επιβεβαίωση της ανοησίας. Μπορεί να ψάξουμε περισσότερο τον πραγματικό οργασμό, μαζί με τους κανονικούς ανθρώπους που θα μας κάνουν να τους εκτιμάμε. Θ’ αρχίσουμε να αξιολογούμε ποιος είναι ικανός και χρήσιμος και όχι αναγνωρίσιμος.Οι μανάδες δεν θα ζητάνε αυτόγραφο από την Τζούλια για τις κόρες τους.

Πιο πολύ, νομίζω, θα καταστρέψουνε με τα χέρια τους εκείνο το διεστραμμένο «εγώ» που επιμένει να τους αξιολογεί και να τους συγκρίνει με βάση τις πισίνες, τη μάρκα του αυτοκινήτου και τις κακόγουστες καρό ταπετσαρίες που φοράνε επειδή γράφουν Burberry. Μπορεί να μη θέλουνε πια να γίνουνε πλούσιοι, αλλά ουσιαστικοί. Μπορεί ίσως και ν’ αγαπηθούνε περισσότερο, ανακαλύπτοντας τη συλλογικότητα και το ενδιαφέρον για μια ζωή που είναι κοινή. Οι επιπόλαιοι θα ξαναγίνουν επιπόλαιοι και δεν θα είναι πια τρέντι.
Οι αγρότες θα επιστρέψουν στα χωράφια. Και οι Ουκρανές, που έτρωγαν τις ψεύτικες επιδοτήσεις, στα σπίτια τους. Στα καφενεία των χωριών θα συζητάνε ξανά ποιό παιδί πρόκοψε και όχι ποιό πήγε σε ριάλιτι. Οι image makers, οι κουρείς σκύλων, ίσως χρειαστεί να βρούν μια άλλη δουλειά.

Το σύστημα της αξιολόγησής τους θ’ αλλάξει και ίσως απαιτήσουνε πραγματικά να τιμωρηθούν αυτοί που τα έφαγαν. Παρουσία τους, πάντα. Ίσως δεν ξαναψηφίσουνε εκείνους που τους έφεραν σε αυτήν τη θέση. Και ίσως καταλάβουνε πως τα κοράκια του εξτρεμιστικού καπιταλισμού, που φαίνονταν καναρίνια μέσα από τα κουστούμια και τις τηλεοράσεις, ήταν αυτοί που τους εξαπάτησαν την ώρα που ζαλίζονταν με Johnnie Black. Ίσως ψάξουνε για μιά πιό δίκαια ζωή, χωρίς να μετράνε την απόδοση δίκιου με τη σύγκριση τραπεζικών λογαριασμών.
Μπορεί ξαφνικά οι καλλιτέχνες ν’ αρχίσουν να παράγουν κι αυτοί, πατώντας σε αυτό που είναι ζωή και όχι στις κρατικές επιδοτήσεις, σαν να πουλάνε βαμβάκι, και στις δημόσιες σχέσεις.
Δεν είμαι σίγουρη πως όλα αυτά είναι κακά. Ναί, θα υπάρξουν χιλιάδες άνεργοι. Θα χτυπηθεί το Δημόσιο. Αυτό που βρίζουμε όλοι πως είναι αντιπαραγωγικό, μας ταλαιπωρεί και δεν μας εξυπηρετεί. Θ’ απολυθούν κάποιοι απ’ αυτούς που μπήκαν με ρουσφέτι, γλείψιμο, αναξιοπρέπεια. Τα επαρχιακά μουσεία της χώρας δεν θα έχουν δέκα κηπουρούς, θα καταργηθούν οι «Οργανισμοί Αναξιοπαθούντων Κορασίδων» και οι «Πολιτιστικοί σύλλογοι για τη σουρεαλιστική προσέγγιση της ζωής του Λάμπρου Κατσώνη». Οι ανύπαντρες κόρες αξιωματικών δεν θα παίρνουν επίδομα. Και όσες απ’ αυτές είναι επώνυμες δεν θα είναι «κατά του γάμου από άποψη», για να παίρνουν το επίδομα.

Φοβάμαι, όπως όλοι. Αλλά είμαι και έτοιμη!!!! Και θέλω και να συντριβεί ένα σύστημα πού αναπαράγει τη σαπίλα. Πού βαφτίζει Δημοκρατία τον διεφθαρμένο του εαυτό. Δικαιοσύνη την ατιμωρησία του, κι ευτυχία την κενότητα και τον ευδαιμονισμό...... Γι’ αυτό καλύτερα, να τελειώνουμε. Καλή Λευτεριά και Σύντομα. 3E


DANAI FREEDOM

BELGIUM HAS NO PROBLEM BEEN WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT...

Political squabbles mean Belgium has been without a federal government for 15 months.

A caretaker government with limited powers is in charge.

Europe has been plunged into a deep economic funk.

Belgians, however, seem oblivious to the chaos around them.

England responded to bad economic news with cuts, but Belgium’s caretaker government does not have the power.

Belgians were spared from austerity measures.

It doesn’t hurt that salaries and pensions are indexed to inflation.

Belgium is experiencing healthy growth while many Eurozone rivals remain stalled.

Maybe more countries should go without governments.

9/11: A DATE TO REMEMBER

9/11 changed the globe and the way we think about terrorism on a global level. So many years later the unbearable pain and emotional suffering of the families, and all the heroes who fell in the line of duty,  who lost their beloved ones is still haunting and shaping the universal geopolitical landscape.

SENATOR JOHN McCAIN:"NO MORE WARS IN MIDDLE EAST FOR AMERICA".

IN a surprising statement, former presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, said that USA learned a lot from the wars  that has been involved in recent years, and these lessons are more than enough to prevent USA to enter in another war.

Time to bring the troops back home and focus on the rapidly deteriorating middle class and unemployment. 

RIP:JOHN CULLEY

John Calley producer, studio mogul, and recipient of many awards, including the Irving Thalberg award, died at 88. He was instrumental to build up THE DA VINCI CODE franchise among others.

RIP John Culley.

THESSALONIKI IS BURNING....

More taxes and more riots in Greece...
PHOTOS from the SAlonica Riots are from www.indymedia.org

BRIAN DE PALMA'S "SCARFACE" SPECIAL EVENT...

RIOTING IN LONDON AND "DECEMBER RIOTS"...

...Rioting in London, the last few days, that reminded me the riots of December 2008 in Athens, Greece,  is another apt proof that  my apofthegm that: "What's happening in Greece, is happening, or about to happen everywhere else; Greece is just the canary in the mineshaft!"

The crisis in the Eurozone and the plunge of the Dow Jones index in Wall Street are recent examples that globally we are experiencing from 2008 an unprecedented change in the economy, unlike any other in recent history.


The extinct species called "middle class" instead of sitting home and gulping down the faux reality of  television, the opium of the people according to Marshall Mc Luhan, is taking the streets by storm.


In UK citizens are not tolerating their hacked lives... 


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/08/hackney-peckham-and-lewis_n_921375.html#s325110&title=Croydon

AMY WINEHOUSE DEAD:NIKKI FINKE EXCLUSIVE DEADLINE.COM

The singer who was a staple of TV and movie soundtracks ranging from Glee to Valentine's Day was 27. The UK Press Association is reporting that Amy Winehouse was found dead at her London apartment. Her troubles with drug addiction and alcohol were well documented and they prevented her from performing the theme song for the James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace since she was the producers' first choice. (Instead, artists Jack White of the rock band The White Stripes, and Alicia Keys, recorded it.) News reports say the "Rehab" singer recently left a British rehabilitation program that a representative said was intended to prepare her for scheduled European concerts. But she cut short the European concert tour in Belgrade last month after she staggered around the stage and stumbled through several songs.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/amy-winehouse-found-dead-in-london-home/

AMY WINEHOUSE DEAD AT 27:RIP

Amy Winehouse found dead at 27.

A MODERN GREEK TRAGEDY....

It's a tragic end that most of the world's richest countries may face as well. What's happening in Greece is a window into the future of the West. True, the U.S., U.K. and other debt-heavy nations may never tumble into crises as severe as Greece's. America, for a host of reasons, is not Greece. But the Americans, Brits, French, Italians and most other Westerners can't avoid the budget cuts and potentially lower living standards the Greeks are suffering through today as governments across the developed world will inevitably be forced to restore order to their shattered finances. It's the price of living beyond our means like the Greeks have done. Those painful adjustments will have to be made as the West confronts a challenge to its dominance and competitiveness from a rising East. The Greeks need to reform their economy to have any hope of a bright future. So does the rest of the West.

Centuries ago, Greece was the leading light of Western civilization. Now Greece may be leading the way towards the decline of that civilization, at least economically. It's enough to make Antigone cry.


Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/06/17/watching-a-modern-greek-tragedy/#ixzz1Sg5efN6A