The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Louis Belanger: Macaroni & fruits blocked from entering Gaza - Aid agency Oxfam demands access to the Strip
- "Rescue Me" Tackles 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
- Mike Ragogna: HuffPost Review: Buddy Holly - Down The Line/Rarities
| Louis Belanger: Macaroni & fruits blocked from entering Gaza - Aid agency Oxfam demands access to the Strip | Top |
| We just issued this press release in Jerusalem and Geneva where the UN is calling for funds to bring relief to the people of Gaza. Along with vital aid money, we're also calling for Israel to open the crossings... The latest is that dates and macaroni have been rejected at the southern crossing of Kerem Shalom! ******************************* UN Appeal on Gaza: Access for aid just as crucial as funding Israel denies Gaza more than 50 percent of minimum daily needs; Provision of pasta or dates also denied entry arbitrarily, Oxfam charges As the UN is launching an appeal for funding to Gaza in Geneva today, aid agency Oxfam International insists that access of goods to the Strip is equally important as fundraising. Without further delay, Israel must allow for all existing crossings to function at maximum capacity, Oxfam said. Oxfam estimates that Israel is denying Gaza more than 50 percent of its normal minimum daily requirements, when the needs are even greater today after 3 weeks of heavy bombardments and conflict with Palestinian armed groups in the Strip .* Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam International said: "The Israeli authorities are drip feeding 1.5 million people when vital supplies are urgently needed. Humanitarian access to Gaza must be improved and guaranteed. Using Kerem Shalom crossing, too far to the south of where most of the needs are, is inadequate, inefficient and wasteful of aid resources. Nothing less than a 24hours/7days a week opening of all crossings is what's needed today. Hobbs: "On top of blocking key access points, Israeli authorities have been denying entry for items such as dates or provisions of macaroni. This is unacceptable." Along with the daily needs and humanitarian assistance, Gaza needs to bring in goods for reconstruction. There is a tremendous shortage of building materials and spare parts for repair of houses, water, sewage and electrical facilities. For example, Gaza is in dire need of cement, since the cement-processing factories were destroyed by the Israeli air attacks. Oxfam also said that money alone will not solve the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Political will and long term investment by the international community to tackle the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are also urgently needed. "It's not enough for donor countries to reach out for their cheque books. They must also press Israel to open up the border crossings and make sure their aid money is being used effectively. The people of Gaza cannot indefinitely continue to be dependent on external aid," Jeremy Hobbs concluded. Note to Editors: *The figure is based on the number of trucks for humanitarian purposes coming into Gaza before the start of the Israeli blockade in June 2007 when 1320 trucks a week were allowed in. Israel told the humanitarian community last week it will only admit a maximum of 90 trucks with humanitarian goods a day (not on Friday afternoons and Saturdays) to pass through Kerem Shalom, the only crossing which is now open to trucks. The Karni crossing to the north has the capacity to import 750 truckloads a day. The crossing has been closed to trucks since June 15 th 2007. http://www.oxfam.org | |
| "Rescue Me" Tackles 9/11 Conspiracy Theories | Top |
| A coming episode of the acclaimed FX drama "Rescue Me" will tackle what may sound like a far-fetched plot line: that the attacks of Sept. 11 were an "inside job." The actor who espouses the theories on camera, it turns out, also subscribes to them in real life. Claims that Al Qaeda terrorists were not solely responsible for the attacks have a lively following on the Internet, including on YouTube, but the second episode of "Rescue Me's" fifth season, starting in April, may represent the first fictional presentation of 9/11 conspiracy theories by a mainstream media company (FX is operated by the News Corporation). | |
| Mike Ragogna: HuffPost Review: Buddy Holly - Down The Line/Rarities | Top |
| For fans and music efficianados, February 3rd, 1959, always will be remembered as The Day the Music Died, when the Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft carrying Buddy Holly (born Charles Hardin Holley), Ritchie Valens (of "Donna" and "La Bamba" fame), and a popular disc jockey, Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. (aka "The Big Bopper") crashed in a Clear Lake, Iowa, cornfield while navigating a dangerous snowstorm. For those uninitiated in Buddy Holly lore beyond Weezer's pop hit that cleverly utilized his moniker, this texas-centric trend-setter, with and without his back-up band, The Crickets, is revered by most pundits for adding kick, some rockabilly, and an unintended fashion statement to what was the rockier side of '50s rock 'n' roll while balancing it with an emotional honesty. As a songwriter, he wrote and recorded reels and reels of familiar originals such as "Peggy Sue," "That'll Be The Day," "Oh Boy," and "Maybe Baby," and influenced everyone from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen to Elvis Costello. (Listen to Don McLean's "American Pie" with its line "the day the music died" for some poetic, post-Holly apocalyptic reflections.) This particular Febuary 3rd has been memorialized by a very special CD, released last week on Geffen Records, that finally ripped the door off the artist's archival vault. With the double disc arrival of Buddy Holly's Down The Line/Rarities collection, for many of his devotees and for the world of music in general, this is like opening the box in which the government stored the Ark of the Covenant (any Indy fans left out there?). Over the years, awful sounding bootlegs that portioned this material circulated, and a more thoroughly mapped overview was next to impossible to release because of estate and legal concerns. And though there might have been more critical raves, public celebration, and marketplace success for this collection had it been released five to ten years earlier, its appearance, right now, might serve better since its content--even with sonic limitations due to the various methods of recording these pieces at the time--is a personable, stark contrast to what seems like decades of generic, assembly line sounds that has moved further and further from the heart of the art. The first disc starts off with one of Holly's first swings at recording in his youthful, high-pitched cover of Hank Snow's "My Two-Timin' Woman," and then takes us through eight duets recorded with junior high school pal, Bob Montgomery, when they performed as "Buddy & Bob." The pair's Texan take on a sound originally credited to Charlie & Ira Louvin, and, eventually, The Everly Brothers, is showcased perfectly on the track "Flower Of My Heart." On that song, along with "Gotta Get Me Near You Blues" (with Sonny Curtis on fiddle) and their take on bluegrass' Bill Monroe's "Footprints In The Snow," the harmony's the thing until we get to "Down The Line," the prototype for what would become the Buddy Holly sound. But the matrix wasn't complete until, as one can hear in Holly's cover of Elvis Presley's "Baby Let's Play House," he absorbed the concept of "swagger" and Hollified it for his own recordings from that point forward. In '55, backed by Sonny Curtis on guitar, Don Guess on bass, and Jerry "J.I." Allison on drums, Holly's more refined sound graced a batch of demos in Nashville for Decca Records that included "Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight," "I Guess I Was Just A Fool," "Don't Come Back Knockin'" (just begging for a Dave Edmunds cover), and "Love Me." Signed to the label but not scoring a hit in any of his '56 releases, Holly retreated to the garage in November and December and, with Allison and a revamped band, energized his approach by practicing that period's rock 'n' roll hits such as Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," Bo Diddley's self-titled homage, and Fats Domino's "Blue Monday." The second disc leads with early and alternate tracks of Buddy Holly and his Crickets, documenting a time when producer Norman Petty, through his Clovis, New Mexico, studio, oversaw the band's sonic duties for both the Brunswick and Coral record labels (on which Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, J.B. Mauldin, and initially, Niki Sullivan, released recordings as "The Crickets" and "Buddy Holly" respectively and simultaneously). Some of the usual suspects are re-introduced, such as "Not Fade Away" (with a partial overdub), "Peggy Sue" (same--trivia: originally titled "Cindy Lou"), and a non-dubbed version of "Oh Boy," as well as variants of "Fool's Paradise" and "Think It Over," plus humorous "promo" shoutout versions of "That'll Be The Day" to music executives, Bob Thiele and Murray Deutsch. The rest of the CD visits Holly's legendary "apartment tapes," recorded by him with guitar in his Manhattan home in late '58 and early '59 (strings were added later to fill-in the blanks). Of these, the most magnificent recordings are "Learning The Game" (fyi Andrew Gold's version is one of the best interpretations out there), and "Peggy Sue Got Married," a sweetly sentimental sequel to "Peggy Sue" whose title inspired the Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage '86 time-travel comedy. Though not written by Holly, his personal, almost moody reads of Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" and The Robins' "Smokey Joe's Café," together with his banter with wife Maria Elena, invite us into the living room of the last recorded moments of a legend. This double disc collection marks the first official release of the bulk of the non-dubbed garage recordings and apartment tapes, and it doubles as an education in music, our teacher here being the music business' reigning reissue king, Andy McKaie. Over the years, he brought us some of the best and most respectful assemblies of this artist's catalog as well as those by Etta James, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and everyone whose vinyl bore the Chess, Brunswick or Decca Records logos. Its mastering was sculpted warmly and lovingly by engineer Erick Labson, its liner notes handled by Bill Dahl with his usual, fly-on-the-wall perspective, and its art direction was protected by Vartan who maintained the spirit of Buddy Holly's simple visuals without splashing the project with gaudy graphics. In a business environment where more value has been placed on the marketing aspects and downloadable convenience of a project than the craft of its assembly, it's commendable that this team was allowed to present such a respectful statement of Buddy Holly's rarest and now essential works. And for the casual consumer who couldn't care less about such things, Down The Line/Rarities is an easily digestible, 59-track assembly of some of the coolest, musically historical moments you can invite into your home as well as yours and your children's hearts. If that's not enough, there is a complete overview of Buddy Holly's career, including tracks from Down The Line/Rarities , on the brand new, three disc set titled, Memorial Collection , that will be available nationwide a week from Tuesday. Disc One 1. My Two-Timin' Woman 2. Footprints In The Snow - Buddy & Bob 3. Flower Of My Heart - Buddy & Bob 4. Door To My Heart - Buddy & Bob 5. Soft Place In My Heart - Buddy & Bob 6. Gotta Get You Near Me Blues - Buddy & Bob 7. I Gambled My Heart - Buddy & Bob 8. You And I Are Through - Buddy & Bob 9. Down The Line - Buddy & Bob 10. Baby, Let's Play House 11. Moonlight Baby (aka "Baby, Won't You Come Out Tonight") 12. I Guess I Was Just A Fool 13. Don't Come Back Knockin' 14. Love Me 15. Gone 16. Gone (alternate take) 17. Have You Ever Been Lonely (alternate take) 18. Have You Ever Been Lonely 19. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man 20. Good Rockin' Tonight 21. Rip It Up 22. Blue Monday 23. Honky Tonk 24. Blue Suede Shoes 25. Shake, Rattle And Roll (partial) 26. Bo Diddley 27. Ain't Got No Home 28. Holly Hop Tracks 15 - 28 non-dubbed garage tapes Disc Two 1. Last Night (non-dubbed) 2. Not Fade Away (partial, alternate overdubbed) 3. Peggy Sue (alternate take) 4. Oh Boy (non-dubbed) 5. That's My Desire (two false starts, non-dubbed, master take) 6. Take Your Time (false start, partially non-dubbed) 7. Fool's Paradise (non-dubbed, alternate take) 8. Fool's Paradise (non-dubbed, master take) 9. Fool's Paradise (non-dubbed, alternate second take) 10. Think It Over (false start, rehearsal take) 11. Think It Over (non-dubbed alternate second take) 12. Think It Over (non-dubbed third take, master take) 13. Love's Made A Fool Of You (non-dubbed) 14. That'll Be The Day (Bob Thiele shoutout version) 15. That'll Be The Day (Murray Deutsch shoutout version) 16. That's What They Say (fragment) 17. What To Do 18. Peggy Sue Got Married 19. That Makes It Tough 20. Crying, Waiting, Hoping 21. Learning The Game 22. Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie 23. Slippin' And Slidin' (slow version 1) 24. Slippin' And Slidin' (slow version 2) 25. Slippin' And Slidin' (fast version) 26. Buddy & Maria Elena talking in apartment 27. Dearest (fragment) 28. Dearest 29. Untitled Instrumental (aka "Buddy's Guitar," also listed as "Tremlo Instrumental") 30. Love Is Strange 31. Smokey Joe's Café Tracks 16 - 31 non-dubbed versions | |
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