Micronations

Ever wanted to just declare your independence and form your own banana republic?

Well, actually a LOT of people want to do that....

  
Much easier to do in the virtual world than in the real one. Not to say some haven't tried. History is filled with failed attempts at nation building:

Try this game out:

http://nationstates.net/

But that hasn't kept people from trying the real thing.

They're called "micronations". A micronation is basically a one-person government, dictatorship and subjects are usually members of one's own family (like in some areas of Utah or the South) or just themselves. A King/Queen in their own minds I guess. And the land mass is no bigger than one's own residence. 

It also pays to be absolutely insane (or have balls the size of watermelons.)

Sealand:

The most famous of these is Sealand. Sealand was created out of an abandoned man-made World War II Royal Navy base in the English Channel called Rough's Tower. 

When the Royal Navy abandoned it in 1956, a pirate radio operator named Paddy Roy Bates took it over. Since Rough's Tower was abandoned and in international waters, he declared Rough's Tower a sovereign nation and called it Sealand. Bates and his family moved there and the hobby grew, minting their own coins and stamps and issuing passports. All worthless of course, but one can dream, can't they?

http://www.sealandgov.org/

Molossia:

Located in Nevada, this guy is your basic Micronation hobbyist. This video explains everything. 

And he's STILL at war with East Germany.....

http://www.molossia.org/countryeng.html

More on micronations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronation

Van Morrison's Last Album For Bang Records

You know Van Morrison by some classic albums he made in the late '60s/early '70s, Tupelo Honey, Moondance, Into The Mystic, Astral Weeks. It was these four albums that had some of his biggest hits and no self respecting Adult Album Alternative format radio station would take to the airwaves without them.

But prior to these classic albums, he was under contract to a tiny US indie label called Bang Records, originally a kind of stepchild label of Atlantic Records that had no direct tie to Atlantic. He still owed Bang another album and Van, to say the least, was tired of Bang Records, whom he felt was stifling him creatively. Like Bang's other big artist back then, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison also left Bang because of the label's interference in his career direction, Bang wanted more cash-cow, pop radio friendly hits from Van Morrison like "Brown Eyed Girl", Van wanted something more.

In one of the best examples of How To Do A Contractual Obligation Album To A Crappy Record Label 101, Van got the last laugh by recording some 30 tracks with titles like "Blow In Your Nose", "Nose In Your Blow", "Ring Worm", "Freaky If You Got This Far" "You Say France And I'll Whistle" and "I Want A Danish". It was clearly intended to be a middle finger to Bang Records.

It worked. Bang let him out of his contract. Warner Brothers snapped him up and the rest is history.....

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2003/03/365-Days-Project-03-05-morrison-van-ring-worm-you-say-france-and-ill-whistle-1968.mp3

Things I Learned From Steely Dan Records

If you ever wanted to drink Kirschwasser from a shell ("Babylon Sisters") or wondered what a big black cow was ("Black Cow"). Or what was Donald Fagan doing "chasing the dragon" in "Time Out Of Mind"......

Here are the answers:

http://www.steelydandictionary.com

I love Steely Dan and have since I was a '70s kid. You gotta LOVE how SLICK these guys were with the various drug references. Unlike today's rap stars, they were ahead of their time by the sublimeness of their lyrics. They didn't put it in your face. They were so cool about it, even the most conservative adult contemporary stations let them slide.

Cheers!

The J&H Productions Tape

The entertainment industry is a rough business. But it's not what you know that matters, but who you know. That little fact is pretty intimidating to upstarts in all areas of the entertainment business.

That being said, let's say you're not trying to be a star, but taking the presumably easier route of concert promotions. Again, it's not what you know, but WHO you know.

This guy....well, I don't know what he was thinking. All I know is he doesn't seem to have ANY experience in concert promotion - certainly not on the stratospheric levels of the stars he's courting. Yet somehow, he's ready to do the job for people like Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and The Oak Ridge Boys.

OK then......

In fact. I don't even know what he is even talking about two minutes into this recording he made for some record labels somewhere in 1981 or early '82 (I'm guessing because that's when all the stars he mentions were at the peak of their careers.) He talks about his "company", J&H Productions...at length....a full 13:30. But offers no specifics of his company. Any credentials? Well, he got a brochure from the Cavalcade of Stars. And apparently, he doesn't understand receiving that brochure was likely the record company's sublime way of letting him know they already HAVE a concert promoter.

And a rejection letter from Quincy Jones. But you have to appreciate his tenacity.

This tape somehow got salvaged from the trash can of some label giant and had been dubbed and sent to other people in the entertainment industry over the years. I first heard it in the early 1990s and it was like the aural equivalent of an out of body experience...WHO was this guy? And WHAT was he thinking? Could he not make a simple cover letter, info packet and business card, instead of a meandering cassette tape of his proposals? This recording had been saved by WFMU and you can hear it at the link below

Well anyway, have a listen to this tape. TRY to keep up with him...and every tangent he goes off of.......

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DP/2003/09/365-Days-Project-09-15-j-and-h-productions-tape.mp3

And just COUNT how many times he says "Pertaining to...." (MAN! Get a Thesaurus!)

Here's an archived fansite, pertaining to...J&H Productions

http://web.archive.org/web/20051212063752/www.timharrod.com/jhhome.html

Yes, it's even on MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/jnhprod

Created by a fan....even a mini movie on the site!........

It's "The Greatest Show Ever Being Gave". In ALL.........the stadiums.............and............the coliseums. From city to city...... 

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock-N-Roll

Back in the '60s and early '70s, in a tiny kingdom in Southeast Asia very few Americans had ever known of and rarely even heard the name of up to then, a rock 'n roll revolution was happening.

Cambodia was a pretty Westernized nation at the time and it's capitol, Phnom Penh was surprisingly modern and trendsetting compared to most of Asia during those years. Many rock and roll bands were formed during the Vietnam war, taking rock and roll music that was brought to Cambodia by American soldiers stationed there and blending it with traditional Cambodian music to create probably one of the most unique sub-genres of '60s rock ever heard, one that could have easily held it's own along with the American and British rock that influenced it, even in if it was sung mostly in Cambodian.

But the kingdom became destabilized with the Vietnam war raging at it's border. The Khmer Rouge and it's leader Pol Pot had taken over Cambodia in 1975 and began the most bloody genocide and torture the world had ever seen since Hitler's Germany. Over two million Cambodians, one third of it's ENTIRE population were slaughtered in what became infamously known as The Killing Fields.

Virtually all musicians, artists and intellectuals were sent to work in forced labor camps, many were worked, starved or in the case of many women, also beaten and raped to death. Many people merely in possession of these Cambodian artist's records or tapes were killed or sent to camps to suffer the same fates and the records/tapes were destroyed. Very few original studio master tapes survived. However, a handful of songs have survived on 2nd or 3rd generation cassette tapes and vinyl discs that were smuggled out of Cambodia or hidden, from which came a few compilations released in the '90s, one which I found in 1998 and my own interest in this lost music began.

There is a forthcoming movie that chronicles this lost era just before the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia called Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock & Roll.

Here is the trailer for it:

 
Here's one of the biggest Cambodian rock hits.  "I'm 16" Ros Sereysothea

The movie has been in production for nearly seven years, but it is due in 2013. Check it out....It's an eye opener into rock n' roll's most tragic mystery....

Website: http://www.dtifcambodia.com

UPDATE: 1/11/14  - Don't Think I've Forgotten premiered in Phnom Penh. It's US release is still unknown. But here's a recent article about the film and some of the artists:

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/long-awaited-film-tells-tale-cambodia%E2%80%99s-musical-%E2%80%98golden-age%E2%80%99 

UPDATE: 3/8/15 - The movie is currently being screened at selected film festivals across America. It's unclear if there will ever be a Netflix showing or Blu-Ray or DVD release of the film.