MetaFilter posts tagged with powell

Apocalypse Now

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:03:03 -0800

The Brick Testament (previously: 1, 2, 3), created in 2001 by the Reverend Brendan Powell Smith, has just reached The Book of Revelations.

Warning Light Flashes ...

wittgenstein — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:39:12 -0800

Rundgren/Utopia Filter: Two Obscure Gems. Emergency Splashdown. Umbrella Man. "Emergency Splashdown" appeared on Roger Powell's second solo album, but from this performance, it looks like it was performed live by Utopia. "Umbrella Man" is a Kasim song that apparently was the "other side" of the "Set Me Free" 45. Enjoy.

Oral History of the Bush White House

CunningLinguist — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:10:13 -0800

Farewell to All That An illuminating and depressing Oral History of the Bush White House from Vanity Fair

Ret. Gen. Colin Powell endorses Senator Obama

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:08:37 -0800

Former US Secretary of State and retired General Colin Powell, a controversial, if reluctant supporter of the war on Iraq, offers his endorsement (Flash video) of Senator Barack Obama for the office of President of the United States. Excerpts from the transcript: ``And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin. She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made... ``I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America... ``I have no truck for William Ayers. I think what he did was despicable, and to continue to talk about it in 2001 is also despicable. But to suggest that because Mr. Barack Obama had some contacts of a very casual nature — they sat on a educational board — over time is somehow connected to his thinking or his actions, I think, is a, a terrible stretch. It's demagoguery... ``It isn't easy for me to disappoint Senator McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that. But I strongly believe that at this point in America's history, we need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with some changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue, basically, the policies that we have been following in recent years. I think we need a transformational figure. I need — think we need a president who is a generational change. And that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama. Not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Senator John McCain.

Ice and Lights

KevinSkomsvold — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:47:21 -0800

Anthony Powell is a photographer based in Antarctica. In addition to his photography, he's shot some excellent time-lapse video of the Southern Lights and a Day in the Life of Antarctica.

Three Giants of Brazilian Guitar

ornate insect — Mon, 19 May 2008 10:54:14 -0800

Three of the giants of Brazilian guitar were Laurindo Almeida (1917-1995; wiki here), Luiz Bonfa (1922-2001; wiki here), and Baden Powell (1937-2000; wiki here). Here is Laurindo Almeida w/the MJQ playing One Note Samba; here is Luiz Bonfa playing the theme from Black Orpheus (which he composed); and here is Baden Powell playing Samba Triste. --You can learn more about Almeida here. For recordings, I would recommend the marvellous duets w/Bud Shank (which predate the famous Stan Getz bossa records as a modern jazz/Brazilian fusion; Getz also recorded w/Almeida and also w/Bonfa). Other recordings here. --Bonfa did so many great records, it's hard to know where to begin. The first three listed here are good. See also here (he did a legendary and amazing "latin jazz fusion" record called Jacaranda that is out-of-print). Here are some more Bonfa YT clips, well worth watching: here and here and briefly playing Desafinado (w/Getz) and see also here and here. --You can learn more about Baden Powell here. These YT clips are quite good: here and here. Baden Powell did some amazing records: the MPS recordings are oustanding, but here are some others (the recordings w/Vinicius de Moraes--Os Afro Sambas/Vontade--are legendary). A good all around site for Brazilian music is this one as well, but there are other sites too. It's a rich music, and there's a lot of it. I may do some other posts in the future on other Brazilian artists.

I'll Remember Mingus

peacecorn — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:39:43 -0800

Even if he was a world-class weirdo (or, if you take his words literally, three world-class weirdoes) who spent time in Bellevue, enlisted his psychotherapist to write his liner notes, and allegedly taught his cat to use the toilet (h/t to MeFi's urbanwhaleshark), I'll best remember Charles Mingus for giving me his 1960 take on "I'll Remember April", featuring the most exciting four minutes of music in my entire collection (starting at the 9:25 mark of the video). Recorded at 1960's Antibes Jazz Festival for Atlantic Records, this performance of "I'll Remember April" is notable both for the appearance of troubled expatriate jazz pianist Bud Powell (whose late-career stay in France inspired tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon's star turn in 1986's Round Midnight), as well as the frenetic trading of fours and twos by saxophonists Booker Ervin (tenor, the guy on the right in the video) and Eric Dolphy (alto, on the left). Ervin may have been lost in the shuffle of the great 50s and 60s tenor saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, but Eric Dolphy stands out among the reedmen of his day. Despite recording Free Jazz with Ornette Coleman, Dolphy's recordings illustrate how he was more intent on pushing the limits of form rather than disregarding it altogether. A tune like "245", clipped from a European variety show takes be-bop's energy and song structure, adding atonality and the illusion of chaotic freedom to the mix. This made Dolphy an ideal foil for Mingus, who took traditional gospel and blues forms and constructed a canon of memorable and influential jazz classics as unique as their composer. Here's The Mingus Dynasty Big Band burning through the classic gospel call-and-response testimony of "Better Git Hit In Yo Soul" from 1980. Besides the fire stoked between Ervin and Dolphy on this cut, the at Antibes album is widely regarded as one of the greatest live records in jazz history, and features the definitive version of Mingus' composition "What Love?," which the All Music Guide says is, "clearly advanced music, the kind of music only skilled musicians like Mingus, Dolphy, and Bud Powell could pull off, but this performance is so grateful, even casual jazz fans will be seduced by (it)." Bonus "I'll Remember Aprils": Max, Clifford and Sonny! ~~Carmine Ragusa~~ Tony Bennett and Buddy Rich! Sarah Vaughan! Errol Garner! Stan Getz!

Political Roundup.

delmoi — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 19:10:30 -0800

Turns out Colin Powell was actually fired. In other administration news, it looks like one of the pre-9/11 anti-terrorism meetings wasn't mentioned to the 9/11 commission. According to Bob Woodward's new book, where we also find out that Bush meet with Henry Kissinger at least once a month, and Kissinger's theories on Vietnam inform Bush's reasoning on Iraq.

Gulags, American-Style

digaman — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 07:00:08 -0800

The administration's latest innovation in its effort to export democracy: Soviet-style gulags, a network of secret C.I.A. prisons known as "black sites." [From the Washington Post]. Meanwhile, SecDef Rumsfeld says no thanks to the idea of U.N. inspectors talking to detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

It just keeps unravelling

Kickstart70 — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 21:24:38 -0800

It just keeps unravelling ...Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made". I suppose now we have extra proof of the bumbling and fumbling of GWB, but now it's almost overkill.

PTC won't let the FCC be?

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 07:54:02 -0800

The mice that roar. "According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group." We already know what a few people can do to your television viewing... is this man effectively in charge of the FCC's indecency monitoring?

Genocide in Darfur (Officially)

hank_14 — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 20:11:47 -0800

Powell declares a genocide in Darfour , marking a turnaround in America's appraisal of the situation in Sudan. Will something finally be done? And is Powell off the ranch on this, or this actually the policy of the Bush administration? Previously discussed in a number of threads.

Important to reach out to every single supporter

soyjoy — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 14:01:47 -0800

Y... M... C... A! Um... er... did I miss a memo or something? (Via, yes, Fark.)

Statesman or Skatesman

feelinglistless — Fri, 15 Aug 2003 13:38:21 -0800

Statesman or Skatesman "Last Christmas my Dad and me had a big argument. He'd found a picture of Enoch Powell on a pogo stick and claimed that politicians weren't as interesting as that any more ... " Jason Whiley disagreed and wrote to as many politicians as he could asking them if they'd ever used similar transport, such as skateboards, gokarts, BMX bikes and Space Hoppers. Over Eighty responded including "three Prime Ministers, five Chancellors, six Foreign Secretaries, four Home Secretaries, and three Speakers of the House of Commons. " [via B3ta]

grinning powell to ease fcc ownership caps

specialk420 — Sun, 11 May 2003 19:04:42 -0800

powell to ease fcc media ownership caps
is this move, one that is right for your community? and the country? many are saying no. yet the fcc has made public commentary at best difficult, major media outlets have virtually ignored the issue.

Powell's address to the UN

kokogiak — Wed, 05 Feb 2003 10:44:03 -0800

Powell's address to the UN. In a direct, long and rich presentation, Colin Powell has laid the cards on the table, and presented what's likely to be our most explicit case for war. While it's difficult to separate the larger issue of War on Iraq from just this presentation, I'm interested in other takes on Powell's speech. Anything substantially new? Truly irrefutable? Strong enough to justify immediate action? Does this have more heft coming from Powell (considering he's more trusted than Bush on this issue), or is he acting as a mouthpiece? Or, to be succinct, did Colin change anyone's mind? At the very least, he satisfied my need to know more about why our administration is acting so urgently.

Re-thinking the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection

Steve_at_Linnwood — Mon, 03 Feb 2003 23:53:36 -0800

In what might be a preview of Secretary of State Powell's address to the United Nations tomorrow, Jeffrey Goldberg takes a look at how the Intelligence Community is re-thinking it's analysis of the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection.

Excerpt:
James Woolsey, who served as President Clinton's first C.I.A. director, said that it is now illogical to doubt the notion that Saddam collaborates with Islamist terrorism, and that he would provide chemical or biological weapons to Al Qaeda. "At Salman Pak"-a training camp near Baghdad-"we know there were Islamist terrorists training to hijack airplanes in groups of four or five with short knives," Woolsey told me. "I mean, hello? If we had seen after December 7, 1941, a fake American battleship in a lake in northern Italy, and a group of Asian pilots training there, would we have said, 'Well, you can't prove that they were Japanese'?"

jfc — Thu, 31 Oct 2002 07:30:21 -0800

FCC chairman Powell urges overhaul of radio airwave policy. Did the universe of available media just get smaller again? AP says "consumer advocates praised [powell's] position", but did the AP talk to the right consumer advocates ?

alms — Mon, 21 Oct 2002 07:44:18 -0800

There are those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those slaves who lived in the house... Colin Powell was permitted to come into the house. Harry Belafonte starts out with a flame but then shows himself to be a more eloquent and tenacious critic of Bush policies than any Democrat on the scene. What does it tell us about the state of our two-party system that we have to rely on Rat Pack era crooners to speak out like this in public?

Postroad — Sun, 01 Sep 2002 10:11:19 -0800

Colin Powell: Planning for an exit Plans to leave but claims he will wait out the Bush first term. Is this good or bad new for administration?

Postroad — Thu, 02 May 2002 16:21:39 -0800

Powell Announces Mideast Conference Could this, a world-wide conference, finally resolve the mess in ;the Middle East?

kliuless — Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:18:52 -0800

Colin Powell has a vision: "We have a vision of a region where Israelis and Arabs can live together in peace, security and dignity. We have a vision of a region where two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders. We have a vision of a region where all people have jobs that let them put bread on their tables, provide a roof over their heads and offer a decent education to their children. We have a vision of a region where all people worship God in a spirit of tolerance and understanding. And we have a vision of a region where respect for the sanctity of the individual, the rule of law and the politics of participation grow stronger day by day."

raaka — Fri, 14 Sep 2001 15:13:01 -0800

Bush, Powell pushing Peres into Peace Talks “Bush urged the prime minister to make progress with the Palestinians on ending the violence in the Mideast, White House spokesman Sean McCormack said.” war : diplomacy :: problem : solution

allaboutgeorge — Fri, 20 Jul 2001 09:50:17 -0800

Powell won't serenade his peers at Asian meeting The U.S. Secretary of State has finally found something that's above and beyond the call of duty. And it's a shame, really. I mean, what would his singing voice sound like? I must know! Would it put Vietnam Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien's folk song to shame? Would he have a dusky, husky Barry White purr or a silky Harry Belafonte rasp?

shagoth — Fri, 27 Apr 2001 08:29:07 -0800

Sensible policy toward Cuba developing, or the beginning of the end for Colin Powell? "He's done good things for his people," Powell told Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y., who called the embargo of Cuba senseless. For most of his 42 years in power Castro has fomented revolutions and insurgencies, "but he is no longer the threat he was," Powell said.

This certainly breaks with what appears to be a fairly hawkish international stance by the administration, but maybe it's punishment aimed at Florida for not delivering a decisive victory? Poor Jeb.