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Archive for June, 2010

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M-Nus (click on the picture to access the label's site)

Richie Plastikman Hawtin offered a no questions asked EUR2,500 reward this week after thieves stole his laptop and ipads while he was staying in Paris.

“To all my French fans, friends and supporters. I need your help!” the Canadian minimal techno star pleaded in a posting on his label site M-nus.com.

“On Friday night someone broke into my hotel room at Hotel Costes in Paris and stole my iPod and 2 x Plastikman Live iPads (serial #GB01723UZ38 and #GB0129CAZ3A) and my Plastikman Live show Apple Macbook Pro 17″ laptop (serial #C02CK0GXDC7C),” he wrote.

“I am asking everyone to keep their ears and eyes open for any information about these very important and personal items. I’m offering a 2500 EUR reward for any information that leads to the return of the equipment. Please email me at x@m-nus.com. If found/returned I will NOT prosecute any one involved as I would just like to have my equipment returned,” he added.

Describing themselves as being ‘in one of the trendiest areas’ in Paris . . . very much appreciated by the trendy crowd’ in one press release, the 4 star Hotel Costes attracted a less euphoric review on travel portal Europeforvisitors.com who labelled it a ‘super fashionable designer hotel in eclectic French Empire brothel style”.

“This is a hotel for the thick-skinned fashion follower or the thin-skinned celebrity who doesn’t mind a guest pecking order and a staff with attitude,” the site suggested. “Very busy at all times of year, the balcony rooms are best, and the courtyard dining is attractive.”

Richie Hawtin’s latest robbery occurred several years after thieves stole a customized Allen & Heath DJ mixer from him, prompting a similar appeal for information. Fellow M—nus star Magda was also the victim of theft more recently when someone stole her laptop when she performed at the Centrum club in Erfurt. She also issued a plea for help via M-Nus’ mailing list, appealing to the criminal’s better nature.

“We as DJs and artists dedicate our entire energy and spirit to what we do. We work very hard to present music in our own special way. There is no better feeling than knowing that you and the people on the dance-floor are completely connected and knowing that we can share that feeling of excitement from hearing a new special track,” she wrote.

“I am deeply sad and disappointed to know that something like this could happen, especially in the DJ booth, the one place where things should be safe. I feel like I have been stripped of the one thing that is closest to my heart,” she continued.

“We are all in this together and we must respect each other, otherwise there is no point,” she said.

French electro-techno star Vitalic was similarly upset when thieves stole his laptop from London club Cargo in 2005, after he left it at the acclaimed  Hoxton venue in preparation for his gig after soundchecking.

“I am a nice guy and I don’t understand why this happened to me,”” Vitalic told DJ Magazine following the robbery, “I am shocked,” he added.

http://www.m-nus.com

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Baroness Thatcher in action (click on the picture for documentary footage)

20-something nightlife entrepreneurs Charlie Gilkes and Duncan Stirling have opened a new 80s style club in London called Maggie’s which is named after Britain’s notoriously unpopular former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

“People probably don’t think about politics when they go clubbing, but as for Thatcher, love her or hate her, she is undeniably an icon of the 1980s,” Gilkes explained in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor.

“It was an amazingly vibrant era and now, 30 years on, elements of it are creeping back into pop culture. The ’80s are definitely back,” he suggested.

Branding herself an ‘iron lady’ Thatcher combined a winner-takes-all free market philosophy with puritanical authoritarianism which saw her devoting vast police resources against the workers then later the acid house movement as it swept Britain in 1987.

One year earlier, killjoy party police stormed London’s first weekly all-nighter the Kit Kat in a surreal raid in which cops dressed up in drag to blend in with the off duty pop stars, punks, strippers and squatters who packed the club each Saturday with (up until then) minimal attention from the media or anyone else.

Simon Hobart (RIP) click for his Times obituary

“Some of the policemen wore make-up and carried warrant cards in handbags and some of the women wore black suspenders and plastic dresses,” Kit Kat regular Jock Wilson told yellow press tabloid The Sun days later.

“I was arrested with Sex Pistols guitarist Glenn Matlock by a bird (girl) wearing an extremely revealing get-up (outfit),” he added, “It was quite a shock to discover she was a cop.”

Kit Kat promoter/resident DJ Simon Hobart (who went on to launch Popstarz and Nag Nag Nag’s home the Ghetto) described his arrest to the Daily Mirror in equally vivid terms.

“I was a bit suspicious about some of the new faces in the club. They looked like vile tourists who had dressed up for a night out,” Simon explained.

“I heard an officer say: ‘don’t let the DJ get away’,” he continued, “I can’t understand why they should be interested in me- I was only wearing my bumless leather trousers, thigh high leather boots and a studded jock strap.”

(Kit Kat Facebook group: amazing photos)

http://tinyurl.com/y9d938z (Thatcher in action, documentary clip)

Simon Hobart obituary

The commercialisation of rave culture into British mainstream – by Rory Finnegan: ‘Moral panics of drug taking, sensationalized by the tabloid press, amongst this “chemical generation” of British youth were fuelling the government to take action against this new so-called menace to society. By now it was 1989 and Acid House promotion was big business.

Ironically under Margaret Thatcher’s new policies of entrepreneurial business, people such as Tony Colston-Hayter, the man behind Sunrise (one of the biggest promotions in the land at the time) were now making thousands of pounds by organising huge raves in fields around London’s M25 orbit . . .’)

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Tackling Gangs (click on the picture)

The Birmingham Mercury said that last week’s incident in which four people were shot and wounded at the Custard Factory was prompted by rival gangs trying to become rap stars on Britain’s thriving urban music scene.

“Rivalry between gangs used to be all about drugs, turf, dealing, etc, but this is a whole new thing,” a gangland source told the Midlands newspaper.

‘‘Both (local street gangs) B6 and B21 are trying to make it in the music industry and that’s what all this is stemming from. These are young guys and they don’t want territory, what they want is respect,” he added.

The Mercury’s assessment endorsed official advice for parents provided by West Midlands police on their gang website, on which they advise ‘rap music associated with gangs can be threatening and violent: Know what your children are listening to.”

“Young people are exposed to images of gangs on the TV, in movies and through rap music. These tend to glorify drugs, sex, and violence as an acceptable lifestyle and do not show the truth about gangs and the destruction they can cause for families, friends and the communities we live in,” the police information guide continues.

“Young people join gangs for lots of reasons, some are good and some are bad,” the cops’ advice continues. “They may ‘hang out’ on the streets with mates as a way of keeping safe and avoiding trouble.” (Tackling Gangs)

In related news leading Scottish drugs expert Professor Neil McKeganey sparked controversy this week when he noted that though drug dealers can provoke gang wars in communities they can also prove significantly ‘beneficial’ in a report on the phenomenom.

Pointing out that that poor people have access to better consumer goods via secondary markets in stolen goods, the Professor also noted that the presence of drug markets ‘could result in lower levels of other crimes as the drug sellers themselves sought to reduce the activities of other criminals that might attract unwanted police attention’.

“Such markets could be seen as having a positive impact on the surrounding community,” Professor McKeganey added.

“For example, the presence of a drug dealing market could mean the influx of substantial cash that would otherwise not occur as local drug dealers spend the money earned from their drug-selling activities.” (The Scotsman)

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Playboy Merchandise; online store

UK house label Defected announced they’re teaming up with Playboy to release a mix compilation celebrating the 50^th birthday of the soft porn empire’s Bunny logo this week, and promised the double CD will be suitably salacious.

“The inspiration for the double CD mix comes from Las Vegas, the original ‘Sin City’ and the ultimate hedonistic party destination . . . Think bunny girl croupiers and all night casino’s,” Defected promised.

“When Hugh Hefner opened the original Playboy Club in 1960, it redefined class and luxury,” they continued, “In a way that set the standard for clubs all over the world.”

The publicity blurb said ‘Playboy Sessions: Las Vegas” is particularly inspired by the Playboy Club at the Palms Casino Resort adding ‘it is here where you will find the beautiful Playboy Bunnies as croupiers and cocktail servers, wearing updated Bunny Costumes specially designed by Roberto Cavalli.’

Playboy's Youtube channel (definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!)

The CD is unlikely to find favour with Evening Standard journalist Rosamund Urwin who several months ago dismissed Hugh Hefner as appearing ‘little different from the pervy relative who asks you to sit on his lap and “give uncle a kiss’. (Standard: http://tinyurl.com/ybjacq4 )

Writing in the London newspaper she took particular exception to the 84 year old lothario’s explanation as to why he picked a bunny as his Playboy logo in the first place, which he revealed in a candid interview with journalist Oriana Fallaci in 1967.

Playboy bunny

‘The bunny has a sexual meaning, it’s a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping, sexy… You feel like caressing it, playing with it. A girl resembles a bunny, joyful, joking . . . The type of girl we made popular, she is never sophisticated. Or a girl you cannot really have. She is a young healthy single girl,” said Hugh.

“We are not interested in the mysterious difficult women, the femme fatale who wears elegant underwear, with lace and she is sad . . . and somehow . . . mentally filthy. The playboy girl has no lace . . . No underwear, She is naked, well washed with soap and water. She is happy,” he explained.

“Playboy Sessions: Las Vegas” is out on Defected on July 12.

DeconstructingWoman.com: The Bunny Returns: ‘Somehow, we have forgotten that there was nothing glamorous about the Bunny.  We have forgotten that Bunnies often worked in intolerable conditions and rarely attained the “lifestyle” they were promised . . . We have forgotten that the Bunny was nothing but a pornographic image created for the sexual desires and delight of wealthy men . . .’)

Newly designed Bunny merchandise is available HERE

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Irish famines- click on the picture for more

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Leading ecologist and eminent scientist Professor Frank Fenner predicted this week that humanity could disappear within a hundred years through famines driven by global warming.

‘Climate change is just at the very beginning. But we’re seeing remarkable changes in the weather already,” the highly respected onetime winner of the Albert Einstein World Award for Science told an Australian newspaper, “The human species is likely to go the same way as many of the species that we’ve seen disappear,” he predicted.

Britain’s prestigious magazine New Scientist magazine broadly agreed with his assessment, apart from taking him to task over using the term ‘extinction’, noting that most other scientists instead expect ‘social and economic collapse with some human die-off’.

“More and more people who study the prospects for human well-being in coming decades agree that food will be the key limiting factor,” New Scientist continued.

“Demand will skyrocket, fuelled, as Fenner says, by both population growth and “unbridled consumption”. Meanwhile climate change will make it harder to produce more food,” the magazine suggested. (New Scientist: The End of the World is Nigh, Maybe)

Professor Fenner’s predictions appeared just as the Irish Times published the findings of a massive new EU survey on economic wellbeing which revealed that ‘three our of ten people (in Ireland) fear they cannot pay for food’.  The same study revealed that 83% of French people ‘perceive a rise in poverty’ compared to 75% of Italians.

“The crisis is taking its toll and a significant proportion of Europeans are finding it difficult to make ends meet,” said EU social affairs commissioner Laslo Andor. (Irish Times)

The survey also revealed that one in three Irish people are struggling to afford health care, mirroring the situation in the US where an uninsured woman was this week facing criminal charges after she shot herself in the shoulder to try and receive treatment for an unrelated shoulder injury.

Kathy Myers, 41, told reporters she decided to shoot herself after being unable to afford to see a specialist for her shoulder pain though her plan failed as doctors just treated the gunshot wound alone.

“They said it would have to be life-threatening or imminent danger for them to do anything, so I was making it be imminent danger that something had to be done,” she told WSBT TV, explaining her actions.

“I have no suicide wish,” she added. “My life sucks right now but I want to live. I’ve got lots to live for and there’s more good than bad in everything in my life, so that’s not what it was about at alI . . . I just want to take the pain away.”

Ms Myers, one of 1.2 million people uninsured in Michigan, promised not to shoot herself again, the New York Daily News said, though could still face charges of ‘shooting a weapon within city limits’. (Daily News)

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Andy McKay

“If you want to break your name on the island you’ve got to do something innovative and original. A lot of people come to this island who aren’t particularly innovative or original and think for some reason that being in the most competitive club environment in the world will somehow make it easier for them to succeed. It won’t, it will be much more difficult.”

With a background that includes launching Ibiza’s most infamous club brand Manumission in the early 90s, and more recently the even more successful Ibiza Rocks concept, Andy McKay clearly knows a thing or two about both Ibiza and branding and he’s happy to share some basic tips.

“I guess I’d probably say, consider building your name somewhere else and then coming to the island,” he continues. “Building your name on the island is still possible, but I think certain times are better than others and I’m not so sure this is a good time to try. Though if you do have an innovative idea here and it’s successful then you can export it around the world.”

In fact, he’s also responsible for a third successful Ibiza brand, Reclaim the Dancefloor, a Wednesday night affair at Eden headlined by Radio 1 ‘s new generation DJs Annie Mac, Kissy Sellout and Zane Lowe plus dubstep favourites Rusko, Caspa and Doorly. Heavyweight DJs including Tiga, Switch and Boy 8_Bit also feature on the line-ups for a party that’s amongst the most experimental of any on the island, reflecting the confidence that oozes throughout Ibiza Rocks and from Andy himself.

“We’ve got a broader business now, with the shop, the hotel, the club and everything else,” he points out.

“We’re no longer reliant on whether we will or won’t make money from each particular event. Of course it’s not so great if an event loses money, but it’s the overall brand that matters to us now, we just want the concerts to be good.”

the Hotel

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'Normal' breast gallery (NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

Saudi women responded creatively to top cleric Sheik Abdel Mohsen Obeikan’s recommendation that they should share breast milk with colleagues to get round no mixing Islamic rules, by launching a campaign this week called ‘”We either be allowed to drive or breastfeed foreigners.”

The wannabe women drivers came up with their scheme after the Sheik advocated sharing breast milk with men they regularly came into contact with, to establish a religiously approved maternal bond, based on the assumption that it would remove the threat of sexual intimacy occurring between couples.

“The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast of the woman,” the Sheik ordered (according to a report in Gulf News), “He should drink it and then becomes a relative of the family, a fact that allows him to come in contact with the women without breaking Islam’s rules about mixing,” he added.

cute puppy gallery: click on the picture for loads of photos

In more Fatwah news, Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi issued a decree banning Muslims from keeping dogs as pets this week, claiming Islamic tradition regards them as ‘unclean’,

“Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West,” the Grand Ayatollah reportedly said, “There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children.”

His assessment matched that of an anonymous Indian journalist who several years earlier recommended tourists be extremely careful about interacting with animals when vacationing in the UK.

“Try never to make disparaging remarks about any pet; you will be viewed with extreme suspicion,” he advised in an article in the Hindu newspaper published on 2003.

“I have concluded that ill-treating a dog or any other pet in England is a crime far worse than uxorcide (wife-killing),” he added (Sunday Times).

(‘Normal’ Breast gallery: NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

(Puppy gallery)

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Publicists for Fabric announced that the Spitalfields superclub is no longer in administration this week and promised that the venue will continue to trade as usual.

“Fabric has been bought by a consortium who fully back founders Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie’s vision; nothing within the scope of the Fabric ethos or team shall change,” they announced in an official statement.

“The consortium has formed a new company called Fabric Life Limited. After 10 and a half brilliant years, we look forward to many more,” they continued.

The announcement came days after the Guardian published an article headlined ‘big nightclubs lose their sex appeal’ in which the newspaper cited Fabric’s apparent demise as evidence that it might be ‘the end of an era for the “super club“’, based on several “experts’” opinions.

The paper also appeared to misquote Cream boss James Barton as claiming Brits nowadays ‘save up and go to Berlin for Racoon’ (presumably referring to Sven Vath’s Cocoon- in Frankfurt) and suggested that ‘cheap supermarket booze’, computer games and pubs with late licenses are killing UK clubs generally.

“Pubs can quite nicely tick over on quieter nights, but clubs absolutely have to get to that critical volume,” Peter Marks, boss of the privately owned Brook Leisure told the newspaper, “A half-full nightclub doesn’t work.”

(Guardian: Big nightclubs lose their sex appeal . . . Unemployment and late pub opening blamed . . .’)

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Click for more Alisson Gothz

Alisson Gothz:

“Brazilian deputy Eduardo Cunha has proposed a new bill in the Supreme Court to “protect heterosexuals from discrimination“. According to him, heterosexuals have the right to choose to live a “normal” way of life – something that the “gay dictatorship” is presumably forcing them not to.

According to this law, any kind of discrimination against heterosexuals should have a penalty of three years in prison. And by discrimination, it means ‘to forbid the entrance or permanency of any heterosexual people in any kind of place, public or private, or to overcharge the fees from straight people in hotels, pensions or clubs. Public displays of love and affection between heterosexuals in public or private spaces must also be respected.’

The news of this absurd – and completely lunatic – proposed law was received with anger and disbelief by the general public (including non-gay media organisations) and it is been treated almost as a joke by most of them. I say “almost” because we’ve been seeing this kind of crazy law being approved by the Congress a couple of times before.

Eduardo also says that his idea in intended to principle introduce the concept of  ”heterophobia” into discussion rather than hoping for this bill to get approved by the Congress soon.

“The bill to turn ‘homophobia’ into punishable crime has been going on for ages in Brazil. I don’t hope for my project gets approved before that,” he claimed.

In a recent interview with a very conservative news portal, the deputy states that he doesn’t have anything against homosexuals and that his aforementioned choice of the expression “normal way of life” is not prejudice: “When I say ‘normal’ I don’t mean that gay people are ‘abnormalities’. In nature, there’s man and woman, but I don’t think gay people are ‘abnormal’. But they do represent a minority“.

As for the “not allowing straight people to be in certain places”, the deputy tries to explain himself with a even worst statement: “There’s certainly an embarrassment when straight people go to those places. I mean, when a straight guy goes to a gay place, he feels discriminated. Not that it has happened to me before.”

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