Personal MGCK

Mon 26 January 2010 - MGCK Music

Looking back.. ain't far enough for me.

Yeah... ok.. pretty frickin' remarkable if I say so myself. I got a WHOLE YEAR on one page. And years can be deceptive... as I scroll down and note the apparent conspicuous in their absence 'events'.. it reminds me, 'life is different in the desert.' No see and tell out here.. you just keep your mouth shut.. and your eyes to the horizon.. you don't even speak when you are spoken to. Too much to say and you just might blow it.... the whole future that lies ahead, a lake of cool water.. access to other stars and constellations... a view from a snowy peak and the kiisses of loved ones... yes.. just keep your mouth shut, one foot in front of the other, eyes to the setting sun.. my life for a beach... and then you stay there. 26 January 2010 - I like this decade coming up.. feels good already... clarity.

IIan Jones was cremated today in Leicester, England, wearing his favourite rugby shirt and holding his favourite teddy bear. The vicar wore motorcyle leathers and a dog collar. The song Ian wanted played as he exited this reality and transformed through fire, was BLITZKRIEG: the song he wrote with his BLITZKRIEG band members almost 30 years ago,. The song that Metallica covered and said was a seminal influence to their sound and direction. The song that bought Ian a lot of Jack Daniels and some good times over the years...

Art Quote of the Day
A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.
Jean-Luc Godard

I wrote the following DEAD EASY blog on Saturday, September 22, 2007 Re IAN JONES:

Ian Jones has been ill for a while and I tried all kinds of ways to contact his 'friends' of old, the Metallica's, the Metal Church people, Blitzkrieg folk who have taken the band and it's songs out on the road. Yup I tried to reach everyone from Lars and James to Billie and Binkie. Nuthin'. Not a sausage. Not a bit of a whiff of 'once was'. This business is an odd one. There is a time, when you are so close to people - too close - in the back of vans or spilling beer and 'Jack' all over each other backstage or during hotel room smash-ups. There are the times when you feel you will always know them and they will always think you're cool. Then comes a day, when they no longer know who the fuck you are and care even less, and there's this 'layer' between them and the rest of the people they used to know.

I wonder if after all of my attempts, any of Ian's 'friends' actually ever heard that he WAS/IS ill. Still alive...just. I'm not saying much. But it's hard to get through that wall, even when the news matters.

As of today, 5 August 2009 - I must add, that Ian Jones is apparently, as I write this.. breathing pretty close to his last. I want to thank ALL of the people who have stayed by him and kept in touch with me, though I am thousands of miles away in the middle of the Sonora Desert. I want to thank Japanese Janis for making the many thousands of miles trip to Leicestershire. Ewen for always being just around the corner. Mark Buckle the 'Buxta' for being the closest and best throughout everything (and also for being a great musician and songwriter and producer - all of that stuff is part of the loving musical relationship mix!). Susannah Wolf for remembering us all and my partner Jim for fielding the phone calls in my absence.. and Pete Riley who's facing his own demons.. Ian's mother for making the best Sunday dinners and keeping her heart open no matter what the pain.. and just everyone who's been there and around through this time. Ian's not gone yet.. and I'm hoping it's not soon... but ya know.. This will mark the end of an era. Let's call it The Metallic Age. It will go down as one of those anthropological periods, when life had a specific cut and shine. It was all part of my life and yes... i loved it and will always miss it.. and when he goes.. boy, will I miss Ian Jones.

Electra

[DEAD EASY: Nick, Electra, Ian & Pete - photograph taken by our EX-manager, Paul Loasby at Marble Arch in London...a long time ago ...]

AND WE ARE STILL HERE ON MARS!!! The Sabino Canyon sunsets vibrate with FIRE and Universal MUSIC!

It's been a while since I've visited this page or written a single thought. So much has been swirling in the heavens of my mind. So many stars above.. so many pitfalls below and so much nonsense to either side.. But we persevere... I thought I'd post Jimmy Miller's email to me and his Moonwalking paraphernalia here..

Hello there Space girl

Did we or didn't we ?
I always believed ......
Anyway
Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin and Edwin Collins
It's the forty years
Did it or didn't it

I believe
Why am I not there....out there
Anyway darling
Anything is possible
We need to come to terms with true love
It's our universe because we are becoming aware !

Love you Jim

AND WE ARE STILL HERE ON MARS!!! The Sabino Canyon sunsets vibrate with FIRE and Universal MUSIC!

[PHOTOS of MY ELECTRIC LOVER AFFAIR @ The Wee Red Bar Edinburgh, courtesy James Miller.]

[Photo of poet Rodney Relax @ The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, courtesy James Miller]

Mon 20 April 2009 - MGCK Music

THE KILLS @ Club Congress, Tucson AZ

THE KILLS play the Congress Club @ The Congress Hotel, Tucson AZ 20 April 2009. I can't remember the names of the support bands.. should do them the honour, but it's on the ticket and who knows where the ticket is! The gig was enjoyable, but no lighting on the stage, so very bad photography ensued.. I left about 2/3's the way through when my batteries died, but caught this one small clip I liked.

TWO nights in Edinburgh I missed.. Sunday night HAWKWIND, Monday night MY ELECTRIC LOVE AFFAIR

[photo MY ELECTRIC LOVE AFFAIR @ The Ark and the 7-Inch Single, by James Miller]

and I'm still 'lost in the desert'.... but I'm getting to like it. It's kinda beautiful here...

"First comes the action, then comes the thinking about it."

or something like that.

He also said:
Any cook should be able to run the country.
Vladimir Lenin

Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps.
Vladimir Lenin

Fascism is capitalism in decay.
Vladimir Lenin

Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.
Vladimir Lenin

If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.
Vladimir Lenin

One man with a gun can control 100 without one.
Vladimir Lenin

Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.
Vladimir Lenin

The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.
Vladimir Lenin

The goal of socialism is communism.
Vladimir Lenin

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Lenin

There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.
Vladimir Lenin

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.
Vladimir Lenin

He was a pretty bright guy. I wonder HOW these people get so bright. How they have these original thoughts... or were all of these thoughts thought by Marx first? Or Socrates or Plato.

I was at the gym yesterday (I'm at the gym every day... religion is the opiate of the masses. Exercise is the opiate of Electra.) And a car in the parking lot was covered wtih stickers about how fucked up liberals were and ya da ya da... and as I entered the gym... I thought.. well... am I a liberal lefty pinko commie New Yorker? And I thought, as a role I play... the devil's advocate.. I can be. Am I a conservative? From time to time... definitely when it comes to some things... Am I a fascist? In Lenin's terms probably.. the decadence of my capitalist upbringing has collapsed me into a potentially fascistic outlook. Am I a socialist? Only when I go down to sign on. Am I a Bolshevik? Yes... actually a STALINIST when I read about the banking crisis and the embezzlement of money 'out' of the system by the people at the top..

So... I look at all of these people on either side of the issues. The people who call themselves liberals, the people who call themselves conservatives.. and all the others who call themselves whatever.. and I realise.. I am not any of these things. I see the 'point' about things inside each argument. I guess.. i'm an eclecticist.

That's it for today ... I think I should read about Lenin next after I finish reading Che's journals... quite a guy.

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Art Quote of the Day
What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.
Logan P. Smith

And yes... I'm still in Tucson Arizona. Bearing up. Getting on with it.

Yesterday... I felt like a million bucks. I had a WONDERFUL day... doing nothing different than any other day. Then I went to the gym, to see all my gun-totin' Aryan Nation or lesser white supremacist pals (please don't shoot the messenger... the guys down the gym just happen to talk that way) and found something incredible. I was looking at the magazine rack and aside from a Commemorative Addition of AMERICAN RIFLEMAN with Charlton Heston on the cover, the rest of the rack was all MAXIMs and other softcore rags full of photos of silicone breasts with open-lipped compliant women attached. Well... one of the young guys who runs the gym said, 'here Electra, read this and tell us what you think.. I want your experienced eye on this." The article, purportedly written by a woman was entitled 'Sexual Kryptonite', and the meat of the message was "Male behaviour that drives women wild and melts their strongest defences." ie. what turns women on.

First paragraph, this alleged authoress, said her boyfriend (who normally wears contacts) wore his glasses out to dinner... she found herself in an uncontrolled spasm of lust, mounting him in the bathroom moments later. Then she went on to state that her other big turn on was snaggle teeth.. or men who had little sharp vampire style canines.

I was reading this article and laughing... then she got to the bit entitled 'dirtbags'.. men who don't wash being the biggest surprise turn-on and then a bit about geeky nerdy guys and finally the bit about 'unusual men you thought you wouldn't date.. i.e. HUNCHBACKS!!!!

I was laughing so hard at this point I almost wet not only myself, but the two guys now sprawled out on exercise mats waiting for me to give them some benediction on what turns women on. The final line in the article was advice to men to be passive. Not aggressive. To 'act like a vagina.' That was it.. I couldn't take any more.. I said to them.. 'Look, I've GOT ONE and I don't even know how a vagina acts.'

By this point, these men, one about 20 and the other about 35, looked incredibly anxious and nervous and quite upset.. They've been reading these magazines, looking for information on how to behave. The young one even started huffing and puffing about, 'well.. what turns you on then.' I said, 'certainly not specky Hunchbacks with dirty toe-nails! A personality might help. In this entire article, the writer never mentions a personality!!!' That woke them up and gave them hope. They felt better about things then because they both felt they had personality. Enough personality to spare. Anyway.. I threw the magazine away and said, 'gentlemen, my only advice is that you go home, lock your doors and make the sign of the cross any time you see one of these crazy bitches comin' your way.'

So... even for their beautiful perfectly muscled bodies and flawless skin and clear eyes and apparent robust good health, these men are anxious and possibly incredibly unhappy when it comes to personal relationships. Perhaps, what we're really missing, is the invasion of 'media' in our world and how we're sold endlessly an idea of what the components of happiness are. None of which apply directly in our own lives, but help to keep some fucked up economy going 'round, like the lunch hour 'retail therapy' or the bucket shop quick getaway holidays in the sun. All 'quick fixes' that fix nothing.

So what turns women on? A personality might help. Then again.. in this world.. maybe not.

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Art Quote of the Day
I cry out for order and find it only in art.
Helen Hayes

and please don't shoot the messenger... I'm just a journalist, observing how the other half live.

A Winchester 12 Gauge Pump action Shotgun - $525.00. A Mini-14 w/ scope, in the box with all the trimmings - $799.00. A Bushmaster .223 - $1,150. A classic AK47 .223 - $789.00. (Of course, I covet the AK-74). A Ruger M-77 22 Cal w/ Redfield Scope - $840.00. Voodoo Tactical Weapons case - $49.00. I'm already an expert and I saw the gun I want. An incredible camouflage M-16. This guy was trying out Tactical Weapons rugs on it and I just fell in love and, of course, asked him if I could 'touch it'. . Such is the story of the gun. T-shirts reading, 'I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy.' And "The 2nd Amendment. It's there for a reason" start you pondering the case for sidearms. I overheard a guy coming out of the show saying, "People are buying guns like crazy!" And yes ma'am, they are. While walking up to The Old Pueblo at Pima County Fair, I saw more guys exiting the show, backs heaving with weapons and ammo; like they were going off to raise a revolution or join Ché or just shoot the shit out of every coyote from here to the Grand Canyon. At the door, there was a sign asking that you hand in your guns before entering the show. I saw a load of people walking through and no one asking them if they might be carrying concealed weapons. But BANG! they took one look at my camera and stopped me in my tracks. "NO CAMERAS ALLOWED INSIDE". Ok.. I get it. Issues of privacy, etc. They don't want me 'shooting' any pictures of people, I just wanted to capture the glory that is man's best friend: his weapon. And boy is it man's best friend.

With the number of guns for sale and the number of guys buying them, I can't believe there's a living thing left alive in the state of Arizona or Nevada or ANYWHERE. And there were numerous stalls asking you to sign petitions to the new government in Washington (Monsieur Obama in particular) to not effect any changes to the Second Amendment, or God Forbid! REVOKE IT!!!! I think the petitions are unnecessary. If anyone out there in 'citified', 'liberal', 'pinko', 'lefty' America thinks they're going to banish the Second Amendment and take guns off people in the rest of the country – they're too late. These folks are armed to the teeth. The real observation of the day? Forget Sex & The City's Manhattan and going to yoga classes, book fairs or swanky night clubs to find men. Unless you're a gay man, you'll roam around town like a hungry puppy never getting a good meal. My advice to all the single women out there? You want to meet men? And GOOD LOOKING MEN of all ages in Arizona or Nevada (yeah the Tactical Forces Nevada table had some very fit dudes) – join a Gun Club. They've all got that caveman killer gene thing goin' on. And man... the smell of cordite and testosterone fills the air like the sweetest aroma. Calvin Klein should bottle it.

PS - If you read the history of the Second Amendment.. it's very interesting. It was a right given to the American Colonists who happened to be 'British Subjects', by the English.

Sorry kids, but it's a DESERT out here. I am currently in Tucson Arizona and apart from Friday at the RODEO and a future gig date by THE KILLS - I wonder what people do here????!!??

It's hot. It's dry. It's got a lot of wide open spaces. It's got a big sky and no water.

In the process of attempting to 'discover' myself in this new environment, I have, of course, spent many hours weeping for 'Baghdad by The Bay'.. i..e. SAN FRANCISCO.. open your golden gate sister.. this long time exile would like to come home.

In the coming days that may stretch into weeks and could... uhm.. even become months.. I am hoping I discover something to love here. Got to stay up. Got to stay positive. Last week was the ro-de-o. This week is the 'i-don't-know'. Next week is probably the Gun Show. Everything ends in the phonetic 'oh'.. as in OH MY.

Photographs of the journey so far, although I have not been particularly inspired. I must just be TIRED!!!!

flying into LA was like my last weekend of liberty before incarceration in my own little Guantanamo.

Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism".
-Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867

Re new locations... still finding my feet. Not wanting to praise or condemn before I give it time.

Saw the film 'CHE'. Everyone should see 'CHE'. And after that, everyone should read his journals. I have to admit my previous complete ignorance re Ernesto Che Guevara. I saw the t-shirts and didn't like the look of the people wearing them.... decided he was too cheesy populist for me. But what did I know? Nothing. I remember stumbling into a 'revolutionary' bookshop in Bogota Colombia many years ago, run by wild young women with wild emphatic eyes and incredible bird of paradise blue and green make-up to match. All of the books and pamphlets were Marxist or by or about 'Che'. And still... even in that environment I have to admit, I was more interested in the sheer physical presence of those women and what they looked like than what they were selling, i.e. revolution. Being a comfortable young white-bread girl from the upper crusts of New York life, I had no particular or profound interest in the Guerrilleros living in the jungles (who I was reading about in the newspapers there every day) or what they were fighting for. I had no interest in the assassinated 'Che'. But now, with the future of a stupid, barnyard-style domesticated 'humanity' in the hands of a handful of 'masters of the universe' hanging out this week in Davos, well... it's all too evident that we need a radical change, i.e. must wake up and 'act'. 'Che' is a good place to start. To familiarise yourself with some basic truths. His humanity and contribution to the political dialogue and to 'the revolution' are completely unique and irreplaceable. Men like him, don't come around too often, if at all... Being brought face to face with the pure legacy of such a man, who actually died for his principals and died so young, lets you 'know' you are small, insignificant and completely irrelevant. Nothing more than a stupid 'spare' floating around in an inconceivably 'wrong' culture. Where are all the 'Che's' when we need them??? Where are the next generation of 'Che's' coming from???

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I received this message from Brian of ALTRES:
""Another piece of proposed legislation that will adversely affect live music in the UK:

It appears that the government wish to consider, (for consider read "implement"), it a legal requirement in the new tax year to introduce laws insisting anyone applying or re-applying for an entertainment license must have a noise control device fitted to the venue. This will be the final NAIL for ALL entertainment in the UK as the level at which these devices CUT you off is dreadfully low and damaging. I posted a blog in November about this and the proposed level mentioned then was 70Db. About the same as a
hair dryer.

Someone has organised a petition on the Government Petition Site. I urge you ALL to sign it. Not only will this law affect musicians but the whole musical instrument industry, fans, venues....... Just imagine, that vast stock of gear you have would become worthless.

PLEASE DON'T DISMISS THIS. Spread the word and get everyone you know who loves live music to sign the petition.

Bands, family, pets, venues, fans just get everyone you know to sign it. No one is saying it will make a difference, but if you don't try, you don't know.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoNoiseControl/

{I had always thought something like this would be useful, if it could be controlled by the audience.. i.e. crap band, 'turn them down'.. good band, 'turn them up..' but apparently, this goes for ALL bands. What a ya-ya-nanny state we live in on this island. Control after control after control. 1984 becomes 2014... just wait for it.}