Sonic Youth perform a free concert at the annual Chinati Foundation Open House Weekend event on Saturday, October 6, 2007, in Marfa, TX. Kim dedicates this song to "all the UFOs out there," alluding to the unexplained Marfa "mystery lights."
I went to this concert and filmed some video coverage of it which is posted below. I didn’t see the mystery lights this time, but I saw them years ago and they kind of zipped around just above the horizon and then disappeared and reappeared.
A couple friends of mine talked with Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore before the show. Their conversation went something like this:
Jim & Rhett: Thanks Thurston for all the music you've played.
Thurston: I appreciate the thanks. The opening band is Houston-based noise rock called Black Leather Jesus. They have released on cassettes and CDRs. I asked them to open this show.
Jim & Rhett: This trip has been great. We drove out here from Austin. We were at the Sonic Youth show last night in Austin. (to girl who hasn't seen Sonic Youth live) You're gonna see some guitar rock.
Thurston: Yeah that Austin show was totally guitarted.
On the drive from Austin to Marfa we listened to Bill Hicks' Rant in E Minor and as Bill described his third eye squeegee on a ranch in Fredericksburg we were passing through the Fredericksburg area which was cool.
“The heavens parted, God looked down and rained gifts of forgiveness onto my being, healing me on every level: psychically, physically, emotionally, and I realized our true nature is spirit not body, that we are eternal beings and God’s love is unconditional and there is nothing we can ever do to change that. It is only our illusion that we are separate from God or that we are alone. In fact the reality is that we are one with God and he loves us.” -Bill Hicks
The Sonic Youth show was free and BYOB! Unofficial set list: Incinerate, Reena, Hey Joni, The Sprawl, Cross the Breeze, Do You Believe in Rapture, Candle, 100%, Skip Tracer, Teenage Riot, Jams Run Free, Pink Steam, What a Waste, Silver Rocket, Shaking Hell
What you are about to see is quite remarkable. It seems that some of the stars above us are not stars at all…as you shall see. A young man by the name of John Lenard Walson has discovered a new way to extend the capabilities of small telescopes and has been able to achieve optical resolutions – at almost the diffraction limit – not commonly achievable. With this new-found ability, he has proceeded to videotape, night and day, many strange and heretofore unseen objects in earth orbit. The resulting astrophotographic video footage has revealed a raft of machines, hardware, satellites, spacecraft and possibly space ships which otherwise appear as 'stars'…if they appear at all.
This is a video I made for the song Flying Saucer by Brave Combo. It is
a tribute to my love for the stranger things in life. If you like this
come visit me at DrFong.org
December 16, 2007 – On the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Ron Paul supporters marched from the Texas State Capitol Building to Town Lake in Austin, TX and proceeded to throw stenciled crates into the water to symbolize that which U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul is against:
In the early afternoon of September 8, 2005, police encountered Fouad Kaady shortly after he was in an accident that left him in shock and bleeding, burned over much of his body. Rather than calling for medical help, the police commanded him to lie on the pavement, even though they could see the burned flesh hanging from his body, and even though they said he appeared to be "in a catatonic state." When he did not comply with their orders, but instead continued to sit on the ground in a daze, they tasered him repeatedly. And then, they shot him to death.
In a report that was typical of the corporate media's response to this killing, Channel 8's ever-mealy-mouthed Kyle Iboshi held up a wad of papers left over from the "investigation" into the death, saying, "you can see how extensive this investigation was." He then commenced to highlight (literally, with a yellow highlighter pen) what he claimed to be the relevant details of the case. Not surprisingly, Iboshi was very selective in what he chose to focus on. He accepted, without question, everything that the PIO had told him to say. He never asked a single question about why two officers might have shot an obviously unarmed man to death. And, he concluded his report by implying that Kaady must have been "on drugs" at the time of the killing, as if that might excuse the officers' behavior.
And so, in a pattern of violence that is repeated almost every day in this country, the police got away with murder. So far, anyway. They did so because they have the power and the authority to carry guns and to use them, and to avoid facing the consequences of their actions. And, they got away with it because the complicit corporate media helped them to weave a story that would lull the public into silence. As in so many incidents like this one, they told a story that was engineered to cause people to blame the victim, and accept the violence. No questions asked.
The truth about what happened to Fouad Kaady is important. It's important to bear witness when a member of our community is cut down like this. It's important to stand up for the person he might have been, rather than accepting the media's portrayal of him as merely some drug-crazed monster who "had it coming." It's important to know just how deep the culture of police violence runs through our cities and towns, and just how fist-in-glove the corporate media has been with the police state. And that's why this video is important. Even if you think you know the story, you're not going to believe this. Over the course of a year and a half, Videoistas painfully and meticulously gathered evidence, combed through records and reports, spoke with witnesses, and pieced together the real story. It's much more disturbing than what you might have seen on KATU, but it's the truth. And the least we can do for a fallen comrade is to take the time to learn the truth about what really happened to him.
Believe it or not, this story is told in the officers' own words. And you won't even believe what you hear.
This video is of The Portland Indymedia video Collective and does not represent or speak for the kaady family.
Call-in Number: (512) 879-3805
The Premier Issue of ANOMALY is Now Available.
Armadillo Christmas Bazaar at the Austin Convention Center
