I'm in the process of uploading all of my Spain live bootlegs to archive.org.
If you go here you will be able to listen to, and, if you desire, download, a recording of a concert Spain played in Oslo, Norway, at a venue called Mars, on June 13, 1999.
The recording is available for free in a variety of formats, including mp3 and flac.
Please visit the Spain archive.org page to check when I upload more shows, which I will be doing in the coming weeks and months. Also on this page you have an option to subscribe to an rss feed that will automatically notify you when new shows are uploaded.
Of course, feel free to upload any shows you might have in your collection.
Thanks to all the fans who have given me copies of their live Spain recordings over the past 14 years. Thanks especially to Jan Saghaug.
There will be an upcoming Spain show here in L.A. in March of this year, details forthcoming.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Josh Haden On Gaza
Yesterday on my facebook page I reposted (as I did here) Brian Eno's recent article outlining his position on what's going on in Gaza.
The resulting facebook discussion helped me to better formulate my ideas on the matter, and I post my response below, slightly out of context:
I'm not an expert (far from it) on political and religious matters, so forgive me if what I say seems naive, simplistic, or even amateurish.
But it seems to me that Israel is perfect, and so is Gaza, for that matter, because they can't be anything else except exactly what they are at this point in time. They are the epitome of perfection.
Anyone who believes in God, or at the very least, says they believe in God, must concur, because God by definition is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Violence solves no social problems; it merely creates new and more complicated ones. If...victims of oppression succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle for justice, unborn generations will live in a desolate night of bitterness, and their chief legacy will be an endless reign of chaos." (“Non-Violence and Racial Justice”)
I watched on CNN tonight how representatives of both sides of the Israel-Gaza conflict said to the other, in so many words, your killing of our babies justifies our killing of your babies.
How could this way of thinking by both sides ever end the cycle of conflict we’ve been seeing for so many years now.
One of the sides needs to begin an assault from the higher moral ground, and say, no, your killing of our babies does not justify our killing of your babies. This must end now.
On the History Channel this week (can you tell I watch a lot of TV?) there’s been a whole series of programs on “Armageddon.” One such program has Nostradamus, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, even Christians and a whole host of others saying that the world as we know it will end on Dec. 12, 2012.
I don’t know if this is true or not, and I hope it isn’t, but wouldn’t it be sad if it were true, and the only legacy our world could leave for the next world-to-be was one filled with hatred, intolerance, violence, bigotry, narrow-mindedness, selfishness, avarice, greed, narcissism, and an inability to even seek perfection, instead of a legacy filled with love, spiritual enlightenment, reconcilliation, truth and honesty, selflessness, and acceptance of the unknown and unseen by human minds and human eyes?
The resulting facebook discussion helped me to better formulate my ideas on the matter, and I post my response below, slightly out of context:
I'm not an expert (far from it) on political and religious matters, so forgive me if what I say seems naive, simplistic, or even amateurish.
But it seems to me that Israel is perfect, and so is Gaza, for that matter, because they can't be anything else except exactly what they are at this point in time. They are the epitome of perfection.
Anyone who believes in God, or at the very least, says they believe in God, must concur, because God by definition is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Violence solves no social problems; it merely creates new and more complicated ones. If...victims of oppression succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle for justice, unborn generations will live in a desolate night of bitterness, and their chief legacy will be an endless reign of chaos." (“Non-Violence and Racial Justice”)
I watched on CNN tonight how representatives of both sides of the Israel-Gaza conflict said to the other, in so many words, your killing of our babies justifies our killing of your babies.
How could this way of thinking by both sides ever end the cycle of conflict we’ve been seeing for so many years now.
One of the sides needs to begin an assault from the higher moral ground, and say, no, your killing of our babies does not justify our killing of your babies. This must end now.
On the History Channel this week (can you tell I watch a lot of TV?) there’s been a whole series of programs on “Armageddon.” One such program has Nostradamus, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, even Christians and a whole host of others saying that the world as we know it will end on Dec. 12, 2012.
I don’t know if this is true or not, and I hope it isn’t, but wouldn’t it be sad if it were true, and the only legacy our world could leave for the next world-to-be was one filled with hatred, intolerance, violence, bigotry, narrow-mindedness, selfishness, avarice, greed, narcissism, and an inability to even seek perfection, instead of a legacy filled with love, spiritual enlightenment, reconcilliation, truth and honesty, selflessness, and acceptance of the unknown and unseen by human minds and human eyes?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Brian Eno On Gaza
This was posted over the weekend on counterpunch.org.
I hope they don't mind me reprinting it.
I would also add something about the importance of water-rights to the conflict. There's a good article about it here.
Stealing Gaza
By BRIAN ENO
It's a tragedy that the Israelis - a people who must understand better than almost anybody the horrors of oppression - are now acting as oppressors. As the great Jewish writer Primo Levi once remarked "Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it's the Palestinians". By creating a middle Eastern version of the Warsaw ghetto they are recapitulating their own history as though they've forgotten it. And by trying to paint an equivalence between the Palestinians - with their homemade rockets and stone-throwing teenagers - and themselves - with one of the most sophisticated military machines in the world - they sacrifice all credibility.
The Israelis are a gifted and resourceful people who fully deserve the right to live in peace, but who seem intent on squandering every chance to allow that to happen. It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that this conflict serves the political and economic purposes of Israel so well that they have every interest in maintaining it. While there is fighting they can continue to build illegal settlements. While there is fighting they continue to receive huge quantities of military aid from the United States. And while there is fighting they can avoid looking candidly at themselves and the ruthlessness into which they are descending.
Gaza is now an experiment in provocation. Stuff one and a half million people into a tiny space, stifle their access to water, electricity, food and medical treatment, destroy their livelihoods, and humiliate them regularly...and, surprise, surprise - they turn hostile. Now why would you want to make that experiment?
Because the hostility you provoke is the whole point. Now 'under attack' you can cast yourself as the victim, and call out the helicopter gunships and the F16 attack fighters and the heavy tanks and the guided missiles, and destroy yet more of the pathetic remains of infrastructure that the Palestinian state still has left. And then you can point to it as a hopeless case, unfit to govern itself, a terrorist state, a state with which you couldn't possibly reach an accommodation.
And then you can carry on with business as usual, quietly stealing their homeland.
Brian Eno is a musician and music producer.
I hope they don't mind me reprinting it.
I would also add something about the importance of water-rights to the conflict. There's a good article about it here.
Stealing Gaza
By BRIAN ENO
It's a tragedy that the Israelis - a people who must understand better than almost anybody the horrors of oppression - are now acting as oppressors. As the great Jewish writer Primo Levi once remarked "Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it's the Palestinians". By creating a middle Eastern version of the Warsaw ghetto they are recapitulating their own history as though they've forgotten it. And by trying to paint an equivalence between the Palestinians - with their homemade rockets and stone-throwing teenagers - and themselves - with one of the most sophisticated military machines in the world - they sacrifice all credibility.
The Israelis are a gifted and resourceful people who fully deserve the right to live in peace, but who seem intent on squandering every chance to allow that to happen. It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that this conflict serves the political and economic purposes of Israel so well that they have every interest in maintaining it. While there is fighting they can continue to build illegal settlements. While there is fighting they continue to receive huge quantities of military aid from the United States. And while there is fighting they can avoid looking candidly at themselves and the ruthlessness into which they are descending.
Gaza is now an experiment in provocation. Stuff one and a half million people into a tiny space, stifle their access to water, electricity, food and medical treatment, destroy their livelihoods, and humiliate them regularly...and, surprise, surprise - they turn hostile. Now why would you want to make that experiment?
Because the hostility you provoke is the whole point. Now 'under attack' you can cast yourself as the victim, and call out the helicopter gunships and the F16 attack fighters and the heavy tanks and the guided missiles, and destroy yet more of the pathetic remains of infrastructure that the Palestinian state still has left. And then you can point to it as a hopeless case, unfit to govern itself, a terrorist state, a state with which you couldn't possibly reach an accommodation.
And then you can carry on with business as usual, quietly stealing their homeland.
Brian Eno is a musician and music producer.
David Mauk's "12 Months"
Right now I'm listening to David Mauk's new cd "12 Months".
Its really great new age/ambient music. It puts me in a retrospective, thoughtful mood.
I was first introduced to David's music through his excellent soundtrack to the Tutenkhamen museum tour.
Check out his website for more info about this cd, from which the video below is taken.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Frida's Taqueria
Lisa and I were on the Westside of L.A. a few days ago and decided to try Frida's Taqueria, which Lisa had been hearing a lot of good things about.
Frida's Taqueria is a kind of "taco stand" version of the much more upscale Frida's Restaurant chain that has three locations around Southern California. Lisa and I ate at the Glendale Frida's and I didn't really like it. Its located in a shopping mall which really doesn't help the food any. The food might have been good but I couldn't tell because it was so cold by the time it got to us. Plus the entire restaurant staff seemed like they really didn't want to be there. It was just before Christmas so maybe that's understandable, but I won't be going back.
Frida's Taqueria, on the other hand, was great. I had the chicken burrito and it was one of the best burritos I've had in my life. It was simple (and pretty cheap) but had great flavors. The hot sauce was really good too. Also, its located in the Brentwood Country Mart which brings back nice childhood memories of going there (way before Frida's ever existed) with my parents when I was a little kid. I'll definitely be going back.
FYI last time I went to Paco's Tacos and ordered Paco's Burrito it had tortilla chips inside! Horrible! I asked my waitress if it was a mistake and she said the cook told her it always comes like that. I've never encountered this before, and I've been going to Paco's for a long time. Has this happened to any of you out there? Or is it a cover-up?!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
New Flickr Page
I've opened a flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshhaden/.
Click on the link to view the photos I've taken in my "Los Angeles Religious Iconography" collection.
I'll be adding lots of photos to my page, including photos from old Spain gigs, and more.
Feel free to subscribe to my photostream and/or add me as a friend and/or contact.
Click on the link to view the photos I've taken in my "Los Angeles Religious Iconography" collection.
I'll be adding lots of photos to my page, including photos from old Spain gigs, and more.
Feel free to subscribe to my photostream and/or add me as a friend and/or contact.
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