where is the cerebral jester?

where is the cerebral jester?
visit him and his friends at the house of dandridge by clicking above

Monday, October 29, 2007

the sensual counterpoint



a letter from allison herself!

Brand New Album: "Seventh Tree"
Released On 25th February 2008

Howdy Deers

And without further ado, we can reveal the news that you have all been waiting for... exclusively announced here for the very first time...

We are very pleased and proud to announce that Goldfrapp will release their fourth album, Seventh Tree, through Mute on 25th February 2008. Seventh Tree is written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory and was recorded at their own studio deep in the English countryside.

A sensual counterpoint to the glitterball glamour of Supernature, Seventh Tree is gilded in the butterfly colours of an English surrealism shared from Lear to Lennon. It shimmers and shines with the warmth of a hazy summer, an electric whirlpool over which Alison's glistening voice soars.

Alison and Will say, "We can't wait for you to hear what we've been doing. It comes from the heart and was made with love, so we hope you will be into it too."

We'll let you know the track listing and get you a sneaky peak of the album artwork just as soon as we can. Naturally you'll be the first to know.

Let the fun begin...

Lots of love and wrap up warm

Deer
x

such exciting news! and madonna's album is supposedly out in march!...2008 is gonna be a great year!

disasters in the united states

Fires



Floods



Hurricanes



Earthquakes



Landslides



Tsunamis



Volcanoes



Tornadoes



Republicans

you are the murderer


artwork by sparanoid

the following is a list of some of my favourite songs to get me into the halloween spirit. as we get older...the holidays that we once looked forward to are just shoved inbetween work weeks and paychecks and lose a lot of their magical aspect they possessed when we were children...halloween was always one of my favourite holidays and now, much to my dismay, i have so much trouble even coming up with a glimpse of an idea of what to think about a possible costume idea...let me clear things up...

i don't mean songs like Monster Mash or Thriller...i mean songs that when you listen to them they instill either a fear or longing or helplessness or anger or some sort of romanticized evil in you...they are not really in any particular order but in order of which ones popped into my head

1. poe - WILD
2. concrete blonde - BLOODLETTING
3. she wants revenge - TEAR YOU APART
4. rabbit in the moon - WAITING FOR THE NIGHT
5. siouxsie and the banshees - PEEK-A-BOO
6. annie lennox - LOVE SONG FOR A VAMPIRE
7. nine inch nails - CLOSER
8. the knife - SILENT SHOUT
9. lamb - GORECKI
10. patrick wolf - THE LIBERTINE
11. goldfrapp - DEER STOP
12. portishead - STRANGERS
13. david bowie - BRING ME THE DISCO KING

i will eventually make some of these available for download for you but i had a long ass day and i'm t.i.r.e.d.

blog soon,
chauncey d

Saturday, October 27, 2007

less "britney"...more "no war"




Incredibly enough, while everyone else is saying that we should end the war in Iraq and talk with Iran and Syria, President Bush is now sending more troops to Iraq, and clearly preparing, in words as well as actions, to launch a military strike against Iran (or let Israel do it for him). Even more than not understanding his behavior was my questioning of my own...now more than ever we need to actually become active U.S. citizens.

A wider war in the Middle East would be a catastrophe unlike any we've seen before, and could very possibly usher in a third World War. I signed the "No War with Iran!" petition, which is being organized by the group Peace Action, and would recommend it to you as well. You can sign the petition by clicking here


Thanks for joining me in signing the "No War with Iran" petition!

You can find out more about Peace Action at their website, www.peace-action.org

Thursday, October 25, 2007

blood on rice

Anti-war protester accosts Rice at House hearing

BY BETH MURTAGH | beth.murtagh@newsday.com
October 25, 2007

IPB Image

IPB Image

WASHINGTON - An anti-war protester ambushed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a House hearing Wednesday, thrusting "blood"-stained hands in her face and accusing her of having the "blood of millions of Iraqis on your hands" before being dragged away by police.

"War criminal! War criminal!" bellowed Desiree Ali-Fairooz, 51, a former teacher from Arlington, Texas, after a security guard grabbed her wrists and another officer led her out of the Rayburn House Office Building.

The incident caused chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) to order the removal of several other CodePink members, an anti-war group with a semi-permanent protest presence on Capitol Hill.

Capitol police said Ali-Fairooz was charged with assault on a federal officer and three other counts. Police deflected questions about how she was able to get close enough to Rice to confront her, but insisted that the incident did not constitute a security breach.

"Because it's an open hearing and the building is open to the public, anyone can come in," said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a spokeswoman. "However, if anyone is breaking the law, the Capitol Police will take appropriate action."

She said police have a variety of procedures to deal with protesters and thwart personal attacks on high-ranking officials, but refused to say what they are or how they came into play Wednesday.

The incident provided a startling moment at the start of a hearing featuring Rice testifying about the Middle East.

Witnesses sit alone at a table at the room's front, facing House members, with their backs to the audience. There are no barriers between spectators, witnesses and House members. Metal detectors at the building's entrance screen for weapons and hazardous chemicals.

Wednesday's confrontation seemed to happen in an instant. Rice entered the hearing room from a side door with Lantos, an aide and State Department security. Ali-Fairooz strode up the aisle and met Rice at the table with arms outstretched, moving her hands toward Rice's face but apparently not touching her.

Four other protesters at the hearing were charged with other disruptions.

Rice appeared unfazed by the confrontation, chit-chatting with others as guards hauled away another CodePink protester.

After she was taken outside the hearing room, Ali-Fairooz smeared her painted hands on the hallway wall. A crew of Capitol painters was dispatched immediately to paint over the marks.

check out codepink for tons of protest news and information

united police states of america


Wednesday October 24th 2007

Medea Benjamin was filmed making statements about her unlawful arrest after being removed from a Congressional hearing for holding up a peace sign.


i am in shock at this video! why isn't this video shown all over the media like the fucking paris hilton sex tape and the photos of britney's or lindsay's battered vaginas. medea benjamin should be the celebrity in their place..

go here to read more about medea, a modern day peace monger and hero in my eyes.

happy 13th birthday bedtime stories!



definitely not my favourite madonna album but it's still part of her career and the events that took place around it are gems..

i do remember taking the day off work to go into manhattan to get the album the day it came out and i actually waited until i got home to listen to it...i had just gotten new colored contacts (green...silly though cause my eyes are hazel hehe) and was beginning to go through my freak phase...dressing wild and coloring my hair (when i had it) all different colors. i had just turned 18 earlier that year

my fondest memory of the cd is the opening bleeps of survival and how i thought she sounded like an angel throughout most of the songs. i used to love the transition from sanctuary to bedtime story...sanctuary remaining my favourite track from that album

i also would have preferred either Let Down Your Guard being on the album or replacing the god awful but annoyingly catchy Don't Stop

i remember going to the Pajama Party at Webster Hall with the unveling of the then mind blowingly state of the art video for 'bedtime story' and me and my friend Pedro taking the PATH train (i grew up in NJ) dressed in our pajamas with teddy bears in our hands...boy were we harrassed!
i remember her interview with 'advocate' magazine where she exclaimed to much negative gay press "i'm not a lesbian".


It was the weekend before or after my birthday and i had a pajama party at my apartment in new brunswick...posting original stories and poetry about sex on the walls for people to read (my first little showing eheh)


this gorgeous photo was supposed to be used as the album cover but was replaced with the telemundo star upside down shot that was used instead. i think warner thought this one was too dark..but i think it speaks for the melancholy sounds the album evokes...too bad

here's the herbie hancock track that madonna used a sample from to create the surreal track 'sanctuary', my favourite track off the album

herbie hancock - watermelon man
and here is the walt whitman poem that she added to the song in spoken parts throughout

VOICES

NOW I make a leaf of Voices--for I have found nothing mightier than
they are,
And I have found that no word spoken, but is beautiful, in its place.

O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?
Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall
follow,
As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere
around the globe.

All waits for the right voices;
Where is the practis'd and perfect organ? Where is the develop'd
Soul?
For I see every word utter'd thence, has deeper, sweeter, new sounds,
impossible on less terms.

I see brains and lips closed--tympans and temples unstruck,
Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose,
Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies
slumbering, forever ready, in all words.


and here's a rough mix of a b-side to 'secret' that i really wish was on the album instead of the silly 'don't stop'
madonna - let down your guard (rough mix)

Madonna
Bedtime Stories

w
hen Madonna declared, "Only the one who inflicts the pain can take it away," on 1992's "Erotica," she wasn't kidding. Following the funk of the album and her notorious Sex book, Madonna provided the creamy balm of Bedtime Stories, a fluffy-pillowed concept album that unfolds like a musical fairy-tale. The album's first single, "Secret," is perhaps the most naked performance of her career. Acoustic guitars, expertly sweetened vocals and producer Dallas Austin's signature R&B beats soulfully transport the listener into Madonna's troubled yet soothing world. For years, Madonna spoke in metaphors, fantasies and blatant shock tactics, but the performer indignantly struck back at her critics on "Human Nature." She didn't just hold up a mirror, she became the mirror: "Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex/I musta been crazy...I didn't know I couldn't talk about you." But whether it's the poetic ballad "Love Tried To Welcome Me," which was inspired by a stripper Madonna met in a club, or the enchanting "Sanctuary," in which she quotes Walt Whitman's "Vocalism," Madonna seemed more interested in literature and human psychology than sexual biology. The album's mix of sorrow and romance (she compares rejection to an aphrodisiac on "Forbidden Love" and equates death and desire on "Sanctuary") exposes a woman who might have been in need of some serious therapy. Despite the album's multiple producers and genre jerkiness, it's this theme of yearning that holds it all together. Working with superstar producers is a rarity for the singer, so Babyface, who penned and produced "Take A Bow," was in scarce company. The ballad is at once syrupy and bittersweet, calling on the words of one William Shakespeare to help recount the tale's dramatic conclusion: "All the world is a stage/And everyone has their part...But how was I to know you'd break my heart?" "Take A Bow" became Madonna's longest-running chart-topper, but it's the Björk-penned "Bedtime Story," perhaps the single with the most unfulfilled hit potential in Madonna's 20-year career, that could have been the next "Vogue." "Let's get unconscious, honey," she sings hypnotically over pulsating beats and electronic gurgles courtesy of Nellee Hooper and Marius DeVries. The song was the germ that would later inspire Madonna to seek out and conquer electronica with the likes of William Orbit and Mirwais.

Sal Cinquemani
© slant magazine, 2003.


met him in a hotel


tori amos just released a live "bootleg" album from montreal called 'legs & boots' (she's so witty ain't she?). i absolutely love the 70's fashion drawing inspired cover of one of her current muses/incarnations, isabel. it features a bunch of new tracks that i'm not too familiar with but it's also home to brilliant renditions of some of her major classics! i haven't seen tori live in years because her last couple albums have honestly bored me and i lost interest but hearing her reworkings of the songs i love from her is always a pleasure. the track i'm going to share with you is one of my favourites from 'from the choirgirl hotel'. it's not from the actual release but from a recent show in philly. enjoy!

tori amos - hotel (live in philadelphia 2007)


Wednesday, October 24, 2007

ignorance is not bliss



reuters

Catholic condom ban helping AIDS spread in Latin America: U.N.

Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:30am EDT

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The rapid spread in Latin America of the virus that causes AIDS is made worse by the Roman Catholic Church's stand against using condoms, a U.N. official said on Monday.

Some 1.7 million people across Latin America are infected with the HIV virus or full-blown AIDS, and the epidemic is spreading swiftly with up to 410,000 new cases in 2006, up from as many as 320,000 new cases in 2004, according the UN AIDS program, UNAIDS.

"In Latin America the use of condoms has been demonized, but if they were used in every relation I guarantee the epidemic would be resolved in the region," said Alberto Stella, the UNAIDS Coordinator for Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The Catholic Church, which holds sway in Latin America despite the rise in evangelical churches, opposes all forms of contraception and instead promotes abstinence as a way to avoid spreading AIDS.

"The fact young people start to be sexually active between 15 and 19 without sex education contributes to the spreading of the virus, as well as the fact that the evidence shows abstinence is not working," Stella told Reuters.

Latin America is home to nearly half the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, but the Church's position on premarital sex and contraception often clashes with modern values. Brazil, the region's largest Catholic nation, regularly distributes free condoms to try and bring down HIV infection rates.

322 the magic number!


i just noticed that since september 24th, 322 people have visited my blog! yay! 3/22 happens to be my birthday! i know its probably a lot of the same people visiting but it gives me hope that my quirky thoughts and fantastic taste in dirty tracks and political propagandizing is actually acquiring an audience!

thank you so much for visiting! i know who a few of you are...leave a comment here and there so i can see what things you like that i
post and things you are indifferent about..

love beams and dirty beats,

the cerebral jester!

dirty chauncey treat # 435



here's a nasty remix of david guetta's 'baby when the light' by laidback luke. two producers that i can always count on for some good aural sex with. just found that yummy picture of david online...usually all his pics for his singles are heavily altered or his face is covered in makeup or something. he's actually kinda hunky...in that sexy geeky sorta way...nice chest...woof! all this even though he's a blonde hehe

take a listen for yourself...it's a hot one!

david guetta - baby when the light (laidback luke remix)

Monday, October 22, 2007

not as we

alanis morisette has a new album coming out...called 'flavors of entaglement"

a portion of it was recently played during the newish doctor tv drama "house"

it sounds beautiful...here are the lyrics and you can watch the clip below

not as we

Reborn and shivering
Spat out on new terrain

Unsure unconvincing
This faint and shaky hour

Day one day one start over again
Step one step one
I'm barely making sense for now
I'm faking it I'm pseudo making it
From scratch begin again but this time I as i
And not as we

Gun shy and quivering
Timid without a hand

Feign brave with steel intent
little and hardly here

Day one day one start over again
Step one step one
I'm barely making sense for now
I'm faking it til I'm pseudo making it
From scratch begin again but this time I as i
And not as we

Eyes wet toward
Wide open frayed
If god's taking bets
I pray He wants to lose

Day one day one start over again
Step one step one
I'm barely making sense for now
I'm faking it til I'm pseudo making it
From scratch begin again but this time I as i
And not as we



tim kring is a genius!


go to www.heroesrevealed.com for all the latest info and speculation!

Kring: More Heroes Will Appear

Sharp-eyed viewers of NBC's Heroes may have noticed several familiar faces in the group photo glimpsed in last week's episode, "The Kindness of Strangers," and creator Tim Kring promised that they will soon show up.

"We will be seeing the people ... in the photo," Kring confirmed during an Oct. 16 conference call with reporters. "I think all of them will be [played by the actors in the photo]. I just have to tell you, the photo has got a life of its own, because, logistically, it was so difficult to actually come up with this photograph that's used now and refers to things that are shot well in the future here. It was very difficult to get that all lined up. But, yes, the photo is as accurate as we can make it."

The photo depicted a character who appeared to be played by Joanna Cassidy (Blade Runner, Six Feet Under). Kring wouldn't confirm her casting, but said: "It did look an awful lot like Joanna Cassidy in there."

Another new character in the photo is the father of Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), and it's the elder Parkman who's the boogeyman in Molly's (Adair Tischler) nightmares.

The photo also featured the by-now familiar faces of Daniel Linderman (Malcolm McDowell), Charles Deveaux (Richard Roundtree), Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose), Bob (Stephen Tobolowsky) and Kaito Nakamura (George Takei).

With the addition of several new characters so far this season—including Kristen Bell's Elle, who shows up next week—Kring admitted that some characters—even major ones—may not appear in every episode. And some characters will die—perhaps even permanently, Kring acknowledged.

"Yes, on a show like this, you have to be able to fold people in and fold people out," Kring said. "So the audience should fully expect to see characters leaving in the near future." —Ian Spelling

Heroes' Bell Offers Hints

Kristen Bell, who will join the cast of NBC's Heroes in the Oct. 22 episode, told reporters that her character, Elle, is duplicitous, manipulative and just "a little off."

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Bell declined to divulge Elle's super power, but hinted that the character arrives with a link to several others, most notably Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), whom she encounters in Ireland.

"I have been crossing my fingers in hopes that I would get a job soon where I could play someone who was, as [creator] Tim [Kring] likes to call it, 'a little off,' or perhaps didn't have the brightest and shiniest of intentions," Bell said. (She spoke along with Kring, the show's executive producer.) "And I think the depths at which they've written Elle, this character, she's so conflicted and sort of comes across as such a victim. It's so much fun to play with."

Bell, who gained fame in the title role of The CW's Veronica Mars, is one of several new characters introduced in Heroes' second season. As for Elle's interactions with the other characters, Bell said, "I have a lot of information about Peter's past. ... "

Kring added: "We introduce the character, and she is looking for Peter Petrelli. So I think one can assume that she finds him."

Asked if she could reveal anything more about Elle's power or the character's relationships with the show's familiar faces, Bell replied, "I can't reveal her secret power. You'll have to watch next Monday. But it's a very cool power. She has ties to H.R.G. [Jack Coleman] and Claire [Hayden Panettiere], and I think there's going to be a very interesting dynamic, I think, between her and Claire as far as what is and what is not. I think there's going to be a deeper relationship there than people are expecting. Or they're going to see maybe some parallels. She also has ties, a little bit, to Suresh [Sendhil Ramamurthy]."

Bell's first episode, "Fight or Flight," airs Oct. 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Ian Spelling

i'm so upset that i'm going to miss tonight's episode when it airs live (sniff sniff). i have things to do at exactly that time and will have to catch it on a friend's dvr later on or later this week! uggh! this season is reaching heights far above my expectations and each episode is building so much from the last leaving me with a voracious appetite for answers and new questions to follow! tim kring is a genius!!


the sequel is out there!



Duchovny Has X-Files Reunion

The X-Files star David Duchovny told SCI FI Wire that he had a reunion lunch with co-star Gillian Anderson and series creator Chris Carter in Los Angeles recently to discuss the long-gestating X-Files big-screen sequel film.

"That was nice," Duchovny said while promoting his latest film, Things We Lost in the Fire. "I see Chris quite a bit. We live kind of in the same neighborhood. We live within maybe 10 or 15 miles of one another, but I hadn't seen Gillian in a while. So it was like a reunion. It really was. It was more emotional than I would have thought it was [going to be]. If you spend that much time with people and go through that much, there's a lot of residual feeling."

The X-Files 2 is tentatively set to go before the camera in December, with Carter directing, based on a script he wrote with veteran X-Files writer-producer Frank Spotnitz. Duchovny will reprise his role as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, and Anderson will return as Special Agent Dana Scully.

The plot remains a secret, but Duchovny expressed his hope that the second feature will recapture the essence of the series, which ran for nine seasons, from 1993 to 2002. It also spawned a spinoff TV show (The Lone Gunmen) and the first movie, The X-Files, which premiered in 1998.

"I want us to go out and do what the show always did best, which is really smart, scary, ultimately ambiguous stuff," Duchovny said. "I think there's been a lot of shows and movies that kind of tread the same area, or tried to, and I think we always did it best. And I hope we can go out and do it best again." —Ian Spelling

i am so excited about this! i've been addicted to catching x-files reruns on the sci-fi channel much too late at night lately (now that i have that day job) and would love to see the two of them back on the screen once again! it's funny that even though i was a sci-fi loving gay boy, i had more of a crush on scully than i did mulder hehe


glbt history month week 4!

Celebrate GLBT History Month 2007


Columbia H.S. (Maplewood, NJ) celebrates GLBT History Month

Christian Fuscarino, president of Spectrum, the gay-straight alliance of Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, shares the group's GLBT History Month display created from downloadable resources at www.glbtHistoryMonth.com. The display is open to all students throughout October.

In 1991, Sherry Harris of Seattle became the first openly lesbian African-American city council member of any major city, and is today's featured Icon for GLBT History Month.

Each day, a new Icon's video, biography and bibliography becomes available at www.glbtHistoryMonth.com. This week's Icons are:

October 22nd
Sherry Harris
Politician
October 23rd
John Maynard Keynes
Economist
October 24th
Gertrude Stein
Author
October 25th
Zhou Dan
Chinese Gay Pioneer
October 26th
Carolyn Bertozzi
Scientist
October 27th
Cole Porter
Songwriter
October 28th
John McNeill
Theologian

this is spooky

the american resistance movement




i decided to post this as soon as i saw it but i need to digest it a bit more before i can properly comment on it...but feel free to comment yourself...people think we're very close to another american revolution...i wouldn't doubt it

Sunday, October 21, 2007

happy 15th birthday erotica!


wow! 15 years have passed since the ubersexual maelstrom of madonna's erotica was released! i was still in high school...a couple years into actively being a fag as well as along my way to being a devoted and obsessed madonna fan. after the insanely magical moments of 'justify my love 'and 'the immaculate collection', she released the soppy and sappy 'this used to be my playground'. where would she go next we all thought? no one had a clue. then came the not so popular yet extremely infamous trifecta of the 'erotica' album, the 'sex' book and the film 'body of evidence' exploded onto the world like a sheer act of marketing terrorism and genius! i remember listening to this album over and over again with my dear friend damian...i remember rushing out to the newport center mall in jersey city to buy the album on that tuesday in 1992 followed by rushing out to buy the 'sex' book that wednesday in 1992...every act of fueling the madonna machine was also simultaneously fueling my own destruction of my inhibitions. every moment felt naughty and taboo along with the increased concern to hide my own budding homosexuality. you would hear the album playing in every little avant garde clothing shop on 8th street in manhattan and remixes of fever eventually echoed throughout the walls of the roxy later that following year. the video was banned again, the book took the world by storm and the album became a true madonna fan gem. 'thief of hearts' uttering the word 'bitch' before every refrain, the flamenco guitar bridge in 'deeper and deeper', the eerie 'i'd like to hurt you' bit in 'bye bye baby', the epic keyboards and harmonies and lyrics in 'rain', the breathy spoken beat poetry and sexiness that had quite the presence on most of the tracks and the overall feeling that you were listening to something you weren't supposed to be listening to will all strongly resonate in my memory when i think of my latter high school years. thank you dita...you wanted to put us in a trance...and you certainly did.


below is a review of Erotica from the rolling stone fifteen years ago...its funny how the album was pretty well recieved critically but commercially it bombed...this time around i side with the critics..it propelled her deep into an artistic world noone knew she was capable of.


Rollingstone 4/5 Stars -- Arion Berger
It took Madonna ten years, but she finally made the record everyone has accused her of making all along. Chilly, deliberate, relentlessly posturing. Erotica is a post-AIDS album about romance – it doesn't so much evoke sex as provide a fetishistic abstraction of it. She may have intended to rattle America with hot talk about oral gratification and role switching, but sensuality is the last thing on the album's mind. Moving claustrophobically within the schematic confines of dominance and submission, Erotica plays out its fantasies with astringent aloofness, unhumid and uninviting. The production choices suggest not a celebration of the physical but a critique of commercial representations of sex – whether Paul Verhoeven's, Bruce Weber's or Madonna's – that by definition should not be mistaken for the real thing. It succeeds in a way the innocent post-punk diva of Madonna and the thoughtful songwriter of Like a Prayer could not have imagined. Its cold, remote sound systematically undoes every one of the singer's intimate promises.

Clinical enough on its own terms when compared with the lushness and romanticism of Madonna's past grooves, Erotica is stunningly reined in; even when it achieves disco greatness, it's never heady. Madonna, along with coproducers Andre Betts and Shep Pettibone, tamps down every opportunity to let loose – moments ripe for a crescendo, a soaring instrumental break, a chance for the listener to dance along, are over the instant they are heard. Erotica is Madonna's show (the music leaves no room for audience participation), and her production teases and then denies with the grim control of a dominatrix.

Against maraca beats and a shimmying horn riff, "Erotica" introduces Madonna as "Mistress Dita," whose husky invocations of "do as I say" promise a smorgasbord of sexual experimentation, like the one portrayed in the video for "Justify My Love." But the sensibility of "Erotica" is miles removed from the warm come-ons of "Justify," which got its heat from privacy and romance – the singer's exhortations to "tell me your dreams." The Madonna of "Erotica" is in no way interested in your dreams; she's after compliance, and not merely physical compliance either. The song demands the passivity of a listener, not a sexual partner. It's insistently self-absorbed – "Vogue" with a dirty mouth, where all the real action's on the dance floor.

Look (or listen) but don't touch sexuality isn't the only peep-show aspect of this album; Erotica strives for anonymity the way True Blue strove for intimacy. With the exception of the riveting "Bad Girl," in which the singer teases out shades of ambiguity in the mind of a girl who'd rather mess herself up than end a relationship she's too neurotic to handle, the characters remain faceless. It's as if Madonna recognizes the discomfort we feel when sensing the human character of a woman whose function is purely sexual. A sex symbol herself, she coolly removes the threat of her own personality.

Pure disco moments like the whirligig "Deeper and Deeper" don't need emotional resonance to make them race. But the record sustains its icy tone throughout the yearning ballads ("Rain," "Waiting") and confessional moods ("Secret Garden"). Relieved of Madonna's celebrity baggage, they're abstract nearly to the point of nonexistence – ideas of love songs posing as the real thing. Even when Madonna draws from her own life, she's all reaction, no feeling: The snippy "Thief of Hearts" takes swipes at a man stealer but not out of love or loyalty toward the purloined boyfriend, who isn't even mentioned.

By depersonalizing herself to a mocking extreme, the Madonna of Erotica is sexy in only the most objectified terms, just as the album is only in the most literal sense what it claims to be. Like erotica, Erotica is a tool rather than an experience. Its stridency at once refutes and justifies what her detractors have always said: Every persona is a fake, the self-actualized amazon of "Express Yourself" no less than the breathless baby doll of "Material Girl." Erotica continually subverts this posing to expose its function as pop playacting. The narrator of "Bye Bye Baby" ostensibly dumps the creep who's been mistreating her, but Madonna's infantile vocal and flat delivery are anything but assertive – she could be a drag queen toying with a pop hit of the past. Erotica is everything Madonna has been denounced for being – meticulous, calculated, domineering and artificial. It accepts those charges and answers with a brilliant record to prove them. (RS 644)


here's possibly my favourite track from the album..."somewhere in fontainbleu...lies my secret garden"

the lyrics are timeless and brilliant and still so poignant today for the queen of the universe

madonna - secret garden

In my secret garden, I'm looking for the perfect flower
Waiting for my finest hour
In my secret garden, I still believe after all
I still believe and I fall
You plant the seed and I'll watch it grow
I wonder when I'll start to show
I wonder if I'll ever know
Where my place is
Where my face is
I know it's in here somewhere
I just wish I knew the color of my hair
I know the answer's hiding somewhere
In my secret garden,

there's

A petal that isn't torn
A heart that will not harden
A place that I can be born
In my secret garden
A rose without a thorn
A lover without scorn

If I wait for the rain to kiss me and undress me
Will I look like a fool, wet and a mess
Will I still be thirsty
Will I pass the test
And if I look for the rainbow, will I see it
Or will it pass right by
'Cause I'm not supposed to see
'Cause the blind are never free
Even at my secret garden
There's a chance that I could harden
That's why I'll keep on looking, for

A petal that isn't torn
A heart that will not harden
A place that I can be born
In my secret garden
A rose without a thorn
A lover without scorn

I still believe, I still believe
'Cause after all is said and done
I'm still alive
And the boots have come and trampled on me
And I'm still alive
'Cause the sun has kissed me, and caressed me
And I'm strong, and there's a chance
That I will grow, this I know
So I'm still looking for

A petal that isn't torn
A heart that will not harden
A place that I can be born
It's in my secret garden
A rose without a thorn
A lover without scorn

Somewhere in Fontainbleu

Lies my secret garden...


Thursday, October 18, 2007

christianity is a turn off


mysanantonio.com

Christian image is turning youths off

Web Posted: 10/12/2007 08:04 PM CDT
Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

Young people have graded Christianity, and so far, the report card doesn't look good.

Majorities of young people in America describe modern-day Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical and anti-gay. What's more, many Christians don't even want to call themselves "Christian" because of the baggage that accompanies the label.

A new book based on research by the California-based research firm the Barna Group found that church attitudes about people in general and gays in particular are driving a negative image of the Christian faith among people ages 16-29.

"The Christian community's ability to take the high road and help to deal with some of the challenges that this (anti-gay) perception represents may be the ... defining response of the Christian church in the next decade," said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and author of the book, "UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity."

"The anti-homosexual perception has now become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians' ability to love and work with people," he said.

The findings were based on surveys of a sample of 867 young people. From that total, researchers reported responses from 440 non-Christians and 305 active churchgoers.

The vast majority of non-Christians — 91 percent — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87 percent who said it was judgmental and 85 percent who said it was hypocritical.

Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did not fare well: 80 percent agreed with the anti-gay label, 52 percent said Christianity is judgmental, and 47 percent declared it hypocritical.

Kinnaman said one of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents — one in four non-Christians — said that modern-day Christianity was no longer like Jesus.

"It started to become more clear to us that what they're experiencing related to Christianity is some of the very things that Jesus warned religious people about," he said. "Which is, avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else's."

Kinnaman said some Christians — including those in the entertainment industry — preferred to call themselves "followers of Jesus" or "apprentices of Christ" because the word "Christian" could limit their ability to relate to people. Even Kinnaman, 33, described himself as "a committed Christ follower," though he has called himself a Christian in the past.

In addition to reporting on the negative statistics, Kinnaman used the book to also give advice — from himself and more than two dozen Christian leaders — on new approaches.

"Our goal wasn't simply to say here's all the problems, but to hopefully point a way forward," Kinnaman said.

"When Jesus pursued people, he was much more critical of pride and much more critical of spiritual arrogance than he was of people who were sinful. And today's Christians, if you spend enough time looking at their attitudes and actions, really are not like Jesus when it comes to that."

Megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., used the book to say he hopes the church will become "known more by what it is for than what it is against.

"For some time now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we've been pretty much reduced to a big mouth," Warren wrote.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

another burning bush?

it just doesn't get any better than this...first grilled cheese...now this! makes me wanna be an altar boy boy scout...real bad! ehhe

Is this Pope John Paul II waving from beyond the grave? Vatican TV director says yes


By NICK PISA
Last updated at 21:21pm on 15th October 2007


IPB Image
Burned into the memory: The image that appeared in the bonfire, Tending his flock: Pope John Paul II at an audience in 2001 (right)

This fiery figure is being hailed as Pope John Paul II making an appearance beyond the grave.

The image, said by believers to show the Holy Father with his right hand raised in blessing, was spotted during a ceremony in Poland to mark the second anniversary of his death.

Details appeared on the Vatican News Service, a TV station in Rome which specialises in religious news broadcasts.

Service director Jarek Cielecki, a Polish priest and close friend of John Paul II, travelled to Poland after hearing an onlooker had photographed the image.

Father Cielecki said he was convinced the picture showed the former pontiff.

"You can see the image of a person in the flames and I think it is the servant of God, Pope John Paul II," he said.

The pictures were being broadcast continuously on Italian TV and also posted on religious websites, some of which crashed as thousands logged on to see for themselves the eerie figure formed by the flames.

The bonfire was lit during a service at Beskid Zywiecki, close to John Paul's birthplace at Katowice, southern Poland, on April 2 - the second anniversary of his death.

Hundreds had attended the ceremony. Gregorz Lukasik, the Polish man who took the photographs, said: "It was only afterwards when I got home and looked at the pictures that I realised I had something.

"I showed them to my brother and sister and they, like me, were convinced the flames had formed the image of Pope John Paul II.

"I was so happy with the picture that I showed it to our local bishop who said that Pope John Paul had made many pilgrimages during his life and he was still making them in death."

the alive nation of madonna


Madonna Joins Forces With Live Nation in Revolutionary Global Music Partnership

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 - Live Nation’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Rapino officially confirmed today that Madonna has entered into an unprecedented global partnership with Live Nation and will become the founding artist in its Artist Nation division.

“The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift,” commented Madonna. “For the first time in my career, the way that my music can reach my fans is unlimited. I’ve never wanted to think in a limited way and with this new partnership, the possibilities are endless. Who knows how my albums will be distributed in the future? That’s what’s exciting about this deal — everything is possible. Live Nation has offered me a true partnership and after 25 years in the business, I feel that I deserve that.”

“Madonna is a true icon and maverick as an artist and in business,” stated Mr. Rapino. “Our partnership is a defining moment in music history. I am thrilled that Madonna, who is also now a shareholder in our company, has joined with us to create a new business model for our industry. Bringing all the varied elements of Madonna’s stunning music career into the Artist Nation and Live Nation family, moves her future and the future of our company into a unique and extraordinary place.”

The first-of-its-kind partnership between Madonna and Live Nation encompasses all of Madonna’s future music and music-related businesses, including the exploitation of the Madonna brand, new studio albums, touring, merchandising, fan club/web site, DVD’s, music-related television and film projects and associated sponsorship agreements. This unique new business model will address all of Madonna’s music ventures as a total entity for the first time in her career.

Arthur Fogel, Chairman of Live Nation’s Global Music Division and Chief Executive Officer of Global Touring, who has produced the artist’s last three worldwide tours with the company which generated close to $500 million in the last six years commented, “Madonna is without a doubt one of the most fiercely original artists in history. It is a great opportunity for Live Nation and Artist Nation to build upon our years of success with Madonna as a touring artist.”

Artist Nation was created to partner with artists to manage their diverse rights, grow their fan bases and provide a direct connection to fans through the global distribution platform and marketing proficiencies that have made Live Nation the world’s largest live music company. Headed by the division’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Cohl, Artist Nation has significant infrastructure in place to execute additional revenue streams including recorded music, merchandise, studios, media rights, digital rights, fan club/website and sponsorship divisions.

Joining with Artist Nation to work with Madonna will be Live Nation’s unmatched global distribution platform and artist-to-fan-reach, including over 80 offices in l8 countries, over 200 national and local sponsorship personnel, over l60 venues, access to over 35 million fans that attend well over l0,000 shows that Live Nation produces, promotes and/or hosts each year for over l,000 artists including fan access via Live Nation’s growing database of over 25 million fans.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Madonna for half my life. She has always encouraged me and set a great example for me to push the boundaries to reach our full potential. This partnership exemplifies just that,” commented Madonna’s co-manager Guy Oseary.

Angela Becker, Madonna’s co-manager added, “The partnership and vision for the future that Artist Nation along with Live Nation presented to us assured me that this is the ideal home for Madonna. It is with great trust and optimism that we collectively move ahead together.”

In regard to Madonna’s relationship with her current label, the artist commented, “My time with Warner Bros. Records has been great. I appreciate their hard work and value the many relationships I have developed over the years with the label in the U.S. and around the world. I have an album coming out with them next year and I’m excited about it. We still have work to do together.”

radio 1 established 1967



so radio 1 just recently released a compilation called "radio 1 established 1967" featuring modern day artists covering 40 years of hits. there's some really brilliant covers...actually they are all pretty amazing in their own way...here's the tracklist. i chose the rocking cover of "careless whisper" by the gossip and "crazy for you" by groove armada because i love them both...i strongly suggest going out and grabbing yourself a copy...it's fun to mix into your sets...and even better for house parties to just let play through
shiners are amy winehouse (of course) doing "cupid" and the klaxons covering "no diggity"..yes that's right "no diggity"


enjoy
the gossip - careless whisper

groove armada - crazy for you

Monday, October 15, 2007

definite eleven october 2007



so here's my favourite songs of the moment...songs you can expect me to play out at the various venues i've been lucky to spread my sexy, slinky, sonic sermon at and preach my go go gospel as well...the ones that are underlined you can download if you want...

dj chauncey d's definite eleven
october 2007



1.billie ray martin - UNDISCO ME (edison mix)
2.muzzaik feat. zaida - WORK IT (rene amesz mix)
3.delerium - SILENCE (tim le el mix)
4.david vendetta - LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY
5.armand van helden - I WANT YOUR SOUL (tv rock mix)
6.yelle - A CAUSE DE GARCONS (tepr mix)
7.samim - HEATER
8.whitney houston - I'M EVERY WOMAN (vndlsm mix)
9.russ chimes - AFTERBURNER
10.the start - WAR TIME (IT'S TIME TO GO NOW)
11.amy winehouse - BACK TO BLACK (mushtaq remix)

dirty chauncey treat


billie ray martin (of "your loving arms" fame) is back with a vengeance! her new song "undisco me" in its original form is a moody dance track built over a warped giorgio moroder bassline and vocals that make you think she's singing a particular donna summer song but it's quite the opposite. she wants you to undisco her...what could it mean? does it really matter? but edison has taken the track and turned it into a dirty, cunty, sexy, languid slop of a dance track clocking in a little over nine minutes that incites the nastiest thoughts in my mind...the acid jacks remix of this song was my number one pick in my definitely eleven in september...and i'll be releasing my definitely eleven for october momentarily and this mix will most likely top the list as well....

hope you enjoy!

billie ray martin - undisco me (edison vocal mix)


glbt history month week 3!

Celebrate GLBT History Month 2007

Virginia Uribe, a high school counselor and science teacher, founded Project 10 in 1984 as a drop-out prevention program for GLBT youth--and is today's featured GLBT Icon.

Each day, a new Icon's video, biography and bibliography becomes available at www.glbtHistoryMonth.com.

This week's Icons are:

October 15th
Virgina Uribe
Educator
October 16th
Frank Kameny
Gay Pioneer
October 17th
Nancy Mahon
Philanthropy Advocate
October 18th
David Hockney
Painter
October 19th
Audre Lorde
Author
October 20th
Cary Grant
Actor

Apture

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