v a l l e j o n o c t u r n o

Wikileaks Year

Alexander Cockburn at CounterPunch writes about the old and new year:

When it comes to journalistic achievements in 2010, the elephant in the room is Wikileaks. The alleged leaker of the Wikileaks files, Army Private Bradley Manning, currently being held in solitary confinement in sadistic conditions, should  vigorously applauded and defended for doing his sworn duty by exposing such crimes as the murder of civilians in Baghdad by US Apache helicopters. Assange and his colleagues should similarly be honored and defended. They have acted in the best traditions of the journalistic vocation, best stated in 1851 by Robert Lowe, editorial writer for the London Times. 

“The first duty of the press,” Lowe wrote, “is to obtain the earliest and most correct intelligence of the events of the time, and instantly, by disclosing them, to make them the common property of the nation… The Press lives by disclosures… For us, with whom publicity and truth are the air and light of existence, there can be no greater disgrace than to recoil from the frank and accurate disclosure of facts as they are. We are bound to tell the truth as we find it, without fear of consequences – to lend no convenient shelter to acts of injustice and oppression, but to consign them at once to the judgment of the world.”

His review of 2010

Beach Scenes 2

 
 
 
 
 
 
Vallejo Nocturno 2010-Last glimpses of 2010 at Condado Beach

Siege Continues

From Selena Tramel at Common Dreams:

Today, the siege on Gaza continues with no end in sight. The United Nations has reported that at least 500 truckloads of wheat sit idle on the Israeli side of the Karni conveyor belt that has acted as a lifeline to a million and a half people. Even though these provisions are critical to survival, Palestinians living in the seaside enclave long for much more than access to food aid, but for freedom of movement, food sovereignty, and self-determination.

And now, military violence against Gaza has escalated again. One contact wrote that F16s had bombed several times over the past week, drones buzzing overhead as he sent out the message. Some Palestinians feel that another wide-reaching attack looms. It remains unclear exactly what awaits the people of Gaza two years after the war. What is certain is that we must keep their voices in the debate, and listen when they say enough is enough-especially when so many of us are intrinsically linked to their struggle.

Israel, Iran, Labour unions, arms dealings and spying through high-tech devices

From The Pennisula (Quatar):

Top officials in several Arab countries have close links with the CIA, and many officials keep visiting US embassies in their respective countries voluntarily to establish links with this key US intelligence agency, says Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks.

“These officials are spies for the US in their countries,” Assange told Al Jazeera Arabic channel in an interview yesterday.

The interviewer, Ahmed Mansour, said at the start of the interview which was a continuation of last week’s interface, that Assange had even shown him the files that contained the names of some top Arab officials with alleged links with the CIA.

Assange or Mansour, however, didn’t disclose the names of these officials. The WikiLeaks founder said he feared he could be killed but added that there were 2,000 websites that were ready to publish the remaining files that are in possession of WikiLeaks after “he has been done away with”.

“If I am killed or detained for a long time, there are 2,000 websites ready to publish the remaining files. We have protected these websites through very safe passwords,” said Assange.

Currently, his whistle-blowing website is exposing files in a ‘responsible’ manner, he claimed. “But if I am forced we could go to the extreme and expose each and every file that we have access to,” thundered the WikiLeaks founder. “We must protect our sources at whatever cost. This is our sincere concern.”

Some Arab countries even have torture houses where Washington regularly sends ‘suspects’ for ‘interrogation and torture’, he said.

WikiLeaks is receiving sensitive files from Afghanistan, Kenya, Russia and China, among other countries. For nine years the US and Nato forces have failed to silence people in Afghanistan because the people there are loyal and truthful. The US marines fighting in Afghanistan are not happy being there and don’t really know why they are there and fighting for what, said Assange.The US is trying to use latest technology to disrupt his website but in vain.

“Washington is also projecting me as a terrorist and wants to convince the world that I am another Osama bin Laden,” he said. According to Assange, he will be put on a trial for his various expose in a special court in London from January 11, 2011 and this court deals with terror-related cases.

“If the UK (where I am based right now) decides to hand me over to Sweden for alleged cases of sexual abuse, they (Stockholm) would hand me over to the US,” he said. Assange said he feared that the US might slap laws declaring him as a spy who had been acting against Washington. The Pentagon has set up a ‘war room’ manned by 120 officials and their job is just to disrupt and destroy WikiLeaks, he said.

“We have more files dealing with defense issues of Central Europe, but I or my staff didn’t have the time to go through all of them.” What is being published by the five media partners of WikiLeaks are publishing only those details which they think are interesting for their readers. There are some Arab officials who are ‘stealing’ oil of their countries.

“We need these media partners to focus more on this issue,” Assange said in this extensive, interesting and last version of his interface with Doha-based Aljazeera. US embassies around the world are very anxious about Israel, Iran, Labour unions, arms dealings (mainly selling of American arms), and spying through high-tech devices.

Ocean Park PR

 
 
 
 
 
Vallejo Nocturno 2010-Ocean park Scenes with Instagram filters

At Ocean Park Beach

 

Vallejo Nocturno 2010-Abandoned home

Dana Gioia

Elegy with Surrealist Proverbs as Refrain

by Dana Gioia

“Poetry must lead somewhere,” declared Breton.   

He carried a rose inside his coat each day

to give a beautiful stranger—“Better to die of love   

than love without regret.” And those who loved him   

soon learned regret. “The simplest surreal act   

is running through the street with a revolver

firing at random.” Old and famous, he seemed démodé.   

There is always a skeleton on the buffet.

Wounded Apollinaire wore a small steel plate   

inserted in his skull. “I so loved art,” he smiled,

“I joined the artillery.” His friends were asked to wait   

while his widow laid a crucifix across his chest.   

Picasso hated death. The funeral left him so distressed   

he painted a self-portrait. “It's always other people,”   

remarked Duchamp, “who do the dying.”   

I came. I sat down. I went away.

Dali dreamed of Hitler as a white-skinned girl—

impossibly pale, luminous and lifeless as the moon.   

Wealthy Roussel taught his poodle to smoke a pipe.   

“When I write, I am surrounded by radiance.   

My glory is like a great bomb waiting to explode.”   

When his valet refused to slash his wrists,   

the bankrupt writer took an overdose of pills.   

There is always a skeleton on the buffet.

Breton considered suicide the truest art,

though life seemed hardly worth the trouble to discard.   

The German colonels strolled the Île de la Cité—

some to the Louvre, some to the Place Pigalle.

“The loneliness of poets has been erased,” cried Éluard,

in praise of Stalin. “Burn all the books,” said dying Hugo Ball.   

There is always a skeleton on the buffet.

I came. I sat down. I went away.

Afro-Pop Blog with Top 10

From Afro-Pop Blog:

Banning Eyre's "Top Releases From Africa in 2010"

and more

World Press freedom day ala State Department

From TomDispatch.com  :

I have a friend who sends a note every year in December, pleading with me to pen one upbeat, hopeful piece before the next year rolls around.  Mind you, I consider myself an upbeat guy in a downbeat world and, for me, when it comes to pure upbeatness, you couldn’t have beaten this week if you tried.  This was when my Oscar came in -- or the equivalent on the political Internet anyway.  On December 7th, the State Department announced its brave decision to host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day in 2011. (“[W]e are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information…”)  Less than two weeks later, I learned that if you try to go to TomDispatch.com from a State Department computer, you can’t get there.  The following message appears instead:

“Access Denied for Security Risk (policy_wikileaks)

“Your requested URL has been blocked to prevent classified information from being downloaded to OpenNet.”

OpenNet is what the State Department calls its unclassified Web system.  Maybe it should now consider changing that name as it prepares for World Press Freedom Day. (Small tip to State Department officials: remember that TomDispatch is just as good a read at home as at work!)  I’m sure this is all part of the Obama administration’s fabulous sunshine policy, that “new standard of openness” the president embraced on his first day in the Oval Office.  It’s certainly part of the U.S. government’s ridiculous attempt to bar its officials, contractors, and anyone else it can reach from the once-secret State Department documents that WikiLeaks is slowly releasing and that everyone else on Earth has access to.

As for me in this holiday season, I couldn’t be happier.  Among those sites banned by the State Department, I’m sure in good company and, of course, you’re not likely to be banned if no one’s reading you in the first place.  And here’s the holiday miracle: somehow TomDispatch made it onto The List without revealing a single secret document or even hosting one at the site, evidently on the basis of having commented in passing on the WikiLeaks affair.

So that’s the news here at TD when it comes to upbeat.  As for hope, hey, I’ve learned from the Bush years.  As they privatized war, I’ve privatized hope, farming it out to Rebecca Solnit, who from her first appearance at TomDispatch has filled the endowed Hope Chair brilliantly.  It’s now nothing short of a tradition at this site that she have the last word of the year.

So, as the eighth year of TomDispatch.com ends, it’s up the chimney with me.  Enjoy the Solnitsian present I’ve left under the tree -- and to all a goodnight (until January 4th when TomDispatch returns).

Best Music of the Year - 2010

    

The best music of 2010, a year of turbulance and regression (and some progression), continued in a path away from the "Homeland" -once the fabled craddle to most things modern like jazz and rock-slowly it is creeping backwards to a state where the most popular music resembles commercial productions to sell products-like jingles or eventually ends up on a car commercial a decade from now. But the reality is that global music is still greatly influence by the developments and innovations from non-European Americans-specifically African Americans who have laid out a rich foundation from which others can then innovate. So for me the best sounds flowed from all over the world and incorporated learnings from other parts of the globe and genres-boundries, thank god, no longer seem to matter as different types of music begin to utilize the innovations of others. But if you are like me and enjoy looking through others "Best of" lists, check out Largehearted Boy end of year music lists, you will see how genre-specific these list continue to be. On top of that, there are almost no lists from other countries and very few that look at the best of Brasil, Latin, or African music. Is this purely an North American fancy? Who knows but I'd love to look at some Best of Lists from Brasil!

Today, the acceptance of rhythm as the dominant feature of music over other aspects seems to me a logical victory to the "third world". The acceptance of noise as  a natural factor is a another matter but John Cage should be thanked for this obvious development. Here are the artists that caught my attention this year;

• Mary Halvorson-Saturn Sings
• Dave Holland and Pepe Habichuela- Hands
• Isaac Delgado-Love
• Caribou-Swim
• Julian Lynch-Mare
• New York Polyphony-Tudor City
• Luisa Maita-Lero-Lero
• Casiokids-Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar
• Pink Freud-Pink Freud
• Jimmy Edgar-XXX
• Beach House-Teen Dream
• Fight the Big Bull-All is Gladness in the Kingdom
• Kammerflimmer Kollektief-Wilding
• Mulatu Astatke-Mulatu Steps Ahead
• Baths-Cerulean
• Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green-Apex
• James Blake-CMYK
• Warpaint-The Fool
• Jason Moran-Ten
• Broken Social Scene-You Forgot It In People
• Efterklang-Magic Chairs

 Listen to their sounds and enjoy. Who knows what the new year will bring. . .