Is this man irrelevant to Malaysian politics?

Throughout Anwar Ibrahim's six years in prison on trumped up charges, he conducted himself impeccably and with supreme dignity. That was Anwar's trial by fire. He spent 16 years in Dr M's shadow understudying the PM's job. This man has paid his dues. If he wants to be head of the nation, I say why not? More power to him - and to his beautiful wife Wan Azizah and daughter Nurul Izzah!

"UNDI DACING DAPAT CACING!"

UNDI DACING DAPAT CACING!*

That's what I'd call an inspired campaign slogan against the Embarisan Nazional party that has enjoyed 50 years of arrogant, incompetent, and mediocre misrule in Malaysia. I borrowed it from an SMS a friend sent a couple of days ago detailing an unending catalogue of sins committed by the BN.

I'm thoroughly fed up of apparently intelligent folks telling me: "Let's say we vote the Opposition into power. Is there any guarantee they won't be just as bad as the BN?" For the last time let's make this perfectly clear: the government exists, in theory, to serve the public. Even the highest paid minister is a public servant. Never let them forget that. As our servants, they either do the job we're paying them to do - or they get the sack. It's as simple as that. Or it ought to be. What has complicated matters is that any political party that has been in power long enough can amend the Constitution and bend the rules to suit itself. In our case, the outright ownership of the press and indirect control of radio and TV stations by the BN means you get nothing but official propaganda from the mainstream media. Even if you had the money to start a newspaper, magazine or TV station, the licensing laws in the country makes it imperative that you toe the party line or have your operating licence revoked.

And, of course, there are countless repressive laws like the Internal Security Act and the Official Secrets Act and the Police Act that serve one purpose only - and that's to keep the BN in power forever. Once we succeed in overthrowing these obsolete and oppressive laws, it no longer really matters who we hire to pilot the ship of state. If they do a great job we'll slap them on the back and offer them a pay rise. If they fuck up, we issue them their walking papers (perhaps after at least one warning, just to be fair).

My friends, the land belongs to nobody. However, all of us belong to the land. Never forget that. The government of the day are elected into office to administer the country, make sure the machinery is properly maintained, and to work constantly and devotedly towards the continued well-being of every citizen. They are not put there to enrich or aggrandize themselves with VVIP facilities and all that crap. The instant they forget this, we show them the boot. Comprende?

Now let's knock the goddamn BN down to size on March 8th and get on with the funky bizniz of living.

DON'T FORGET: 2008 IS A LEAP YEAR. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!!!

____

UNDI = Vote
*DACING (pronounced "dah-ching") = weighing scale, symbol of the Barisan Nazional
DAPAT - get
CACING (pronounced "cha-ching") - worms

Exquisite: The Complete FLOWER OF LIFE Symbol

Incomplete

Incomplete


THE COMPLETE FLOWER OF LIFE SYMBOL


Sacred Geometry is an endlessly fascinating subject. When you see it shimmering all around you and become attuned to the ultimate and absolute perfection of form expressed in these constructs, you shift into the Superconscious Zone. Read more about it here. Additional info at Valerie Phillips's DNAalchemy.com.

The study of sacred geometry dispels once and for all any lingering belief that Life may have begun as a series of random events. The precision and perfection of the mathematics alone make it self-evident that an unfathomable cosmic intelligence resides within every atom.

HANG on to your hats!

The hang can be placed on the lap or on a stand

I first heard about this delightful new instrument (inspired by the Caribbean steelpan) when a friend sent me an excited SMS a few days ago after viewing video footage of an Irish busker playing a hang. "Looks just like a UFO,"she said. That got me curious so I did a bit of research and found this entry in Wikipedia:


The Hang was developed in 2000 in Berne, Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer (PANArt Hangbau AG) and introduced at the Frankfurt Music Fair in 2001. Its name comes from the Bernese German word for hand. The two hemispheres are hardened by a process known as gas-nitriding. The side considered the 'bottom' has an opening (Gu) in the center which is the bass note. When it is played in a dampened way it can change in pitch similar to a talking drum. On the 'top' are seven (in the bass version of the Hang) or eight (treble version) notes arranged in a 'Tone Circle' in zig-zag fashion from low to high. All are tuned harmonically around a low note (Ding) at the center of the Tone Circle.

[Images borrowed from OddMusic.com and Wikipedia]

WELL HANG!


Hang demo by Dante Bucci of Philadelphia who describes himself as an "obscure instrumentalist." He plays Hang, Theremin, Didjeridoo, musical saw, flute, acoustic guitar, Drums, Congas, and other misc. percussion.

Current Projects: Mutlu (www.mutlusounds.com), Various local Philly artists, and new solo project on Hang drum.

MIDI HANG EXPERIMENT BY JOHN PASCUZZI


John Pascuzzi lives in Orange County, California. These notes are from his YouTube channel:

If you like my music, feel free to hop over to my channel to check out the main instrument that I play, the "igil" at:

http://youtube.com/oddmusic

Thanks to all the commenters I haven't thanked, YouTube won't let me reply directly to comments that aren't on the most recent page of comments, something isn't working, and they go by so fast I can't keep up. And a special thank-you to the haters too, you're comments are quite entertaining! :)

The song is called Space Bunnies, and yes (to some folks out there who wondered or think I'm "hand-syncing" or that this is somehow "fake" lol, like lip-syncing to a pre-recorded song) it was recorded live in one take, with a contact mic (the thing that's taped onto the instrument) plugged into an AdrenaLinn guitar processor (for the echo delays and the regular drum beats) and then straight into the video camera... super lo-fi. They are kind of tough to mic properly, since the sound comes out all around the top, so I was trying out a "contact mic" which is stuck to the surface of the instrument and picks up the vibrations of the metal, and then I figured why not plug it into an echo delay effects unit for fun. Was just experimenting and playing around one morning for awhile and then turned on the camera, so some fellow Hang players out there could hear how it sounded through a Contact Mic. But then others out there in YouTube-land seemed to like it, so I left it online.

Some folks think it's some elaborate conspiracy hoax, lol. There are tons of videos on YouTube with others playing these instruments, I just decided to add a little echo to it, no big mystery, thanks much for stopping by and checking it out.

And YES, there are a couple parts, especially on the muted notes around :50 where you'll hear a note but not see me hit it, that's because what you are hearing is a delayed echo of a note that I hit a couple seconds before. Sorry for the long in depth explanation, but for some reason, some people think it's voodoo or something.

The little wooden rectangle on the Hang Drum is the Contact Mic, stuck to the surface with contact mic putty, the blue masking tape is to isolate and hold down the wire coming out of the contact mic so it doesn't rattle around while I'm playing, otherwise that noise would get picked up by the mic.

Whew!

More info about the Hang Drum at: http://oddmusic.com/hang

My website: http://www.asinglethread.com

myspace page: http://myspace.com/oddmusic

Hang Drum recorded using a Contact Microphone

Music by John Pascuzzi of "a single thread"