November 26, 2007
Letter from Natalie Maines: WM3 Call to Action
I'm writing this letter today because I believe that three men have spent the past 13 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit.
On May 5th, 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas three 8 eight-year-old boys, Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were murdered.
Three teenage boys, Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the murders in 1994. Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley received life sentences without parole, and Damien Echols sits on death row.
I encourage everyone to see the HBO documentaries, Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2 for the whole history of the case.
I only discovered the films about 6 months ago, and when I finished Paradise Lost 2 I immediately got online to make sure that these three wrongly convicted boys had been set free since the films were released. My heart sank when I learned that the boys were now men and were still in prison. I couldn't believe it.
I searched for answers as to what had been done and what was being done to correct this injustice. I donated to the defense fund and received a letter from Damien Echols wife, Lorri. She is a lovely woman who has dedicated her time and heart to her husband. I was glad to hear that after so many years of fighting for justice it looked like things were finally happening. Below, I have written what the DNA and forensics evidence shows. I hope after reading it and looking at the WM3.org website, you will know that the wrong guys are sitting in jail right now, and feel compelled to help.
Inspired and determined to see the justice system work, many people have worked on this case pro bono for the past 13 years. However, there are still costs that go along with the struggle to freeing these three men.
There has been a wonderful resurgence of interest by the media for this case, but nobody mentions the need for funds. Donations to the defense fund are desperately needed. DNA and forensics tests are expensive. They are also what will finally set these men free. Due to so many people's passion and generosity, what would normally be a case that costs millions is costing a fraction of that. I know around the holidays we all get inundated with deserving causes and charities that are in need of donations, but this can't wait!
With all of the new evidence things are finally moving, and fast!
Any money that you can donate is desperately needed to pay for the experts and the federal court hearing that is just weeks away. There is also a letter campaign that has been started by a new and energized group of people in Arkansas. Click here to download the sample letter. Signing and sending this letter makes it very difficult for this case to be ignored. Please mail the letters to the following address:
Arkansas Take Action
Capi Peck, Coordinator
P.O. Box 17788
Little Rock, AR 72222-7788
After so many years it literally all comes down to this hearing.
The evidence is so strong that at the very least the judge will grant a new trial, but hopefully he will overturn the verdict and these guys will finally be sent home to their lives and families. I know that this is a hard thing to just take my word on, so please look at the case and the evidence for yourself. I am confident that you will see the DNA evidence is irrefutable and that these three men did not get the kind of trial that is promised to us - as Americans.
The system hasn't only failed Damien, Jesse, and Jason, but it has failed the three little boys that were murdered. Their killer(s) is still out there, and justice has yet to be served. Please know that your generosity will make a difference.
Please know that your generosity will make a difference.
Sincerely,
Natalie Maines Pasdar
The following is just some of the DNA and forensic evidence that will be presented in the federal court hearing.
In late October, legal papers were filed in federal court in Arkansas showing that Damien Echols was wrongfully convicted. The 200-page court filing includes DNA evidence that fail to link any of the three boys to the crime scene. This is very important because the prosecution claimed that Echols had sodomized the victims.
-DNA tests also show that a hair belonging to Terry Hobbs, the step-father of one of the victims, was found in the ligature of one of the victims.
-DNA tests also match a hair at the crime scene to a friend of Hobbs that was with him that day.
-DNA test results show foreign DNA-from someone other than Echols, Misskelly, or Baldwin-on the penises of two of the victims.
-Scientific analysis from some of the nation's leading forensics experts, stating that wounds on the victims' bodies were caused by animals at the crime scene-not by knives used by the perpetrators, as the prosecution claimed. These wounds were the centerpiece of the prosecution's case, and evidence was presented that a knife recovered from a lake near one defendant's home caused the wounds.
-Sworn affidavits outlining new evidence uncovered by Pam Hobbs (the ex-wife of Terry Hobbs) who found a knife in Terry Hobbs' drawer that her son (one of the victims) had carried with him at all times. After her son was killed, the knife was not among his personal effects that police gave to the Hobbs family, and Pam Hobbs always assumed that her son's murderer had taken it during the crime.
-New information implicating Terry Hobbs-including his own statements made to police in recent interviews where he acknowledged that several of his relatives suspect him in the crime. The filing also includes a chronology of Hobbs' activities on the night of the crimes, when he washed his clothes and sheets at odd hours for no reason other than to hide evidence from the crimes.
- A sworn affidavit that refutes hearsay evidence from Echols' trial. The mother of one of two girls who testified that they overheard Echols admit to the crime at a softball game now says that Echols' statement was not serious and that neither she nor her daughter believes he committed the crime.
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Fri May 23, 2008 3:50 pm
Michale Graves
Ex-Misfits Singer Rocks With West Memphis 3's Echols
October 09, 2006, 10:30 AM ET
Greg Prato, N.Y.
The West Memphis 3 (Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and James Baldwin) became a household name thanks to the "Paradise Lost" documentaries, which cast grave doubts about their conviction for murdering three young boys in 1993.
The trio's cause has also been taken up by the music industry; Henry Rollins recorded an album and launched a tour to help pay for the men's defense fund, and Pearl Jam included a song with lyrics penned by Echols, "Army Reserve," on its 2006 self-titled release. And now, ex-Misfits frontman Michale Graves is showing his support by touring to support the WM3 and collaborating on a full album with Echols.
Inspired by a viewing of the "Paradise Lost" documentaries and visit to the WM3 Web site, Graves reached out to Echols' wife via email, who then put the two men in contact. "Damien and I started writing back and forth," Graves tells Billboard.com. "I challenged him to continue writing lyrics. I said, 'You can articulate what you're hearing and what kind of mood is happening, and I would put it to music.' And that's what he did. I would kind of meditate on it, pick up my guitar, and we wrote six songs together."
According to Graves, the music promises to be a departure from the singer's usual "horror punk" style. "It's, dare I say, kind of Simon and Garfunkel-ish. It's very folkie," he says. "It's powerful stuff though, because of where it came from. Damien will definitely be on the album -- he'll say something. I don't think I can get him to sing [laughs]. But I can certainly get him to talk."
While the album is still untitled, it will include "Frost Bite," "Nothing," "Worm Wood," "A Thousand Cracks of Daylight," "Silent Partner" and "Ascension," among others. Although a label isn't in place yet, Graves plans to release the album in June of 2007, to mark the 14-year anniversary of the arrest of Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin.
In the meantime, Graves' next solo release, "Return to Earth," is due on Halloween, and he says it reaches beyond Misfits-style punk. "I wanted to show a creative evolution -- I wanted it to be a much more mature record, both emotionally and musically," he says. "I think it's much more of a David Bowie record than it is anything else. It totally runs the gamut."
Lastly, Graves offers this update on Echols. "Damien is waiting the results of the second round of DNA testing -- it's still at a state level as far as the courts are concerned," he says. "He's awaiting the DNA results to present to a judge, which is the last part of his appeal process at the state level, before he has to go to federal courts. All his efforts have to be exhausted on the state level before he can petition a federal court."
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Fri May 23, 2008 3:50 pm
EDDIE VEDDER TOUR AUCTIONS TO BENEFIT DEFENSE FUND
February 15, 2008
EDDIE VEDDER APRIL FOOLS TOUR
Eddie Vedder will embark on a small, west coast, solo tour beginning April 2nd in Vancouver, BC and ending April 15th in San Diego, CA (full list of tour dates below).
Tickets for the general public will go on sale on Friday, February 22nd at 10am* PST through Ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets. (*Note: Santa Barbara goes on sale Friday, February 29th at 10am PST).
The base ticket price for all shows is $65 per ticket, plus additional venue and handling fees.
Ten Club Pre-Sale Tickets will be distributed at will call on the evening of the performance. Only the Ten Club member who purchased the tickets will be allowed to collect the tickets. No exceptions. Tickets are non-refundable. No exchanges or transfers will be allowed. Reselling of Ten Club tickets will result in revocation of all future Ten Club ticket benefits.
All dates are subject to change.
New Zealand singer-songwriter Liam Finn will open these shows.
DATE
CITY
VENUE
PRE-SALE
April 02
Vancouver, BC
The Centre
Feb 18
April 05
Santa Cruz, CA
SC Civic Auditorium
Feb 18
April 07
Berkeley, CA
Zellerbach Theatre
Feb 18
April 10
Santa Barb, CA
Arlington Theatre
Feb 18
April 12
Los Angeles, CA
Wiltern Theatre
Feb 18
April 13
Los Angeles, CA
Wiltern Theatre
Feb 18
April 15
San Diego, CA
Spreckels Theater
Feb 18
Five special prime-seat ticket packages per show were auctioned off online along with an autographed limited-edition tour poster. An additional auction package for the Santa Barbara concert, consisting of two pair of premier seats and two hotel rooms was auctioned off. Proceeds from auction packages support legal defense efforts for the West Memphis Three via the Damien Echols Legal Defense Fund.
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley (the WM3) have been in prison for 14 years for a crime they didn't commit. After years of waiting for the chance to demonstrate their innocence, the West Memphis Three will finally have hearings this Spring to introduce new DNA evidence proving they could not have committed the crimes for which they were convicted. More info at: wm3.org
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Fri May 23, 2008 4:01 pm
SEEKING JUSTICE
Cruel and Unusual
Jello Biafra, Winona Ryder, Marilyn Manson and other artists come together Saturday to help the West Memphis Trio
By John Esther
The word here is Trio.
Winona Ryder, Jello Biafra and Marilyn Manson are scheduled to lend a hand to the “Cruel and Unusual” exhibit and benefit at the Sixspace Gallery in downtown Los Angeles from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday for the West Memphis Trio.
The West Memphis Trio is the name given to Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelly, three teenagers who were falsely convicted of killing three boys, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, in West Memphis, Ark., without a single piece of evidence linking them to the crimes.
Based on an idea by artist Chad Robertson, this free event was organized by three Angelinos: Kathy Bakken, Grove Pashley and Burk Sauls, founders of www.wm3.org, a Web site supporting the West Memphis Trio.
Participating “Cruel and Unusual” artists range from Exene Cervenka, the Clayton Brothers, Edward Colver, Robbie Conal, Glen E. Freidman, Camille Rose Garcia, Shepard Fairey, Jaime Hernandez, Emmeric James Konrad, Matt Mahurin, Liz McGrath, Pashley, Robertson, Floria Sigismondi and Raymond Pettibon.
” I’m glad to contribute,” said Pettinbon, who once did album covers for the punk band Black Flag. “But it’s not really this case itself that deserves attention so much as the systematic injustice of the court system.”
True enough, but it would be hard to find a more blatant disregard for law, reason and justice than the events that led to the sentencing of two kids to life in prison and put then-18-year-old Echols on death row.
It all started on Cinco de Mayo, 1993, when the parents of Byers, Moore and Branch called the police about their children missing.
After a shoddy law enforcement search, amongst other procedures that illustrated why the police there were already under investigation for widespread corruption, the three 8-year-olds were found the next day in the Robin Hood Hills outside of West Memphis.
The discovery was horrific. The boys had their clothes ripped off and their arms and legs were tied together with their shoelaces. There were several wounds to the bodies and heads. Christopher Byers was castrated.
Despite the carnage, the site where they found the bodies showed very little blood, an indication they had been killed somewhere else and then dumped. The situation also suggested they knew their assailant.
The ghastly murders sent shockwaves through the jerkwater county where the average income was in the bottom 10 percent. Many were hysterical. The investigation foundered. Rewards were offered.
Every hick in the area was bombarding the police with tips. Some tips led somewhere, but most did not. Some that were strong were dropped with no explanation.
Jerry Driver, once a commercial airline pilot, had moved to West Memphis with his wife and ended up becoming the county’s chief juvenile officer, without proper background for the job. For him, “an expert on occults,” the murders were not a surprise. He immediately suspected Echols.
Echols was a troubled kid who lived in a trailer park, suffered from depression to the point where he had been hospitalized on numerous occasions and endured the hassles created by the mother of his girlfriend who allegedly lied to police about Damien in order to keep him away from her daughter.
During his “relationship” with Echols, Driver got it into his head that Echols was a part of a cult. Drivers obsessed over Echols, keeping tabs on him from Oklahoma to Oregon.
Echols’ relationship with Baldwin, who also listened to heavy metal and wore black clothes, only confirmed Driver’s suspicions.
Misskelly, who had a violent past and an IQ of 70, was a good friend of Baldwin’s and by the time a waitress-turned-volunteer detective named Vicki Hutcheson thought she could get Damien to confess via Misskelly, local law enforcement had set their sights on the three so-called Satan worshippers.
Useful evidence about the case, including alternative leads, was lost as a matter of course while the wildest allegations came forth.
All of a sudden the townsfolk seemed to know of Echols’ animal sacrifices.
Aaron Hutcheson — who once had a good lead in the beginning of the case regarding an African American who he saw pick up the boys the night of the murders and who may have been the same man who showed up at a local restaurant with blood all over him on the night of the murders — now embellished stories about Echols’ satanism that seemed to be incredible, but still believable to town folks.
The local press failed then, and still fails now, to seek the truth, misquoting people and misstating facts so often that Bakken, Pashley and Sauls can only laugh, despite the dire circumstances.
“ We were right there and they would get the facts wrong,” said Bakken about the post-trial motions. “One paper would say something and they would all pick up on it,” said Pashley. “For example, people kept asking us how we could say they’re innocent when they found a human skull in [Echols’] bedroom,” said Sauls. “The fact is they did not” find a skull. “That would have been proof!”
However, the prosecutors did use Echols’ little plastic skull earrings as “proof” of his satanic endeavors.
In the center of this prosecution stood John Mark Byers, Christopher’s stepfather. Here was a man with history of crime, drug abuse, snitching for the cops, violence and a whole lot of other damage, yet was incarceration-proof. Byers had conflicting alibis all the time, including the day of the murders, but the local yokels ignored these inconsistencies along with all the others.
The trial came with no proof of any sort linking the Trio to the crime, except for the illegally acquired confession without a parent or lawyer for the then-minor Misskelly, who later recanted.
Overseeing these witch trials was Judge David Burnett, who made several judicial errors, including participation in meetings with prosecutors about the case without defense attorneys present. On another occasion, Burnett urged the conclusion of the trial because he had a turkey hunt to attend.
It was a good-old fashioned persecution, a la “The Crucible.” When it was over, not only did the scared simpletons of that West Memphis jury deliver guilty verdicts, Misskelly and Baldwin, still minors, were sentenced to prison for life, while Echols, who was barely 18, was sentenced to death.
“ The United States is only one of three countries that allows the executions of minors, the other two being Iran and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” said Sapna Mirchandani, Program Coordinator to End Juvenile Executions for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. “Of those three, the US is the only one still active in carrying out executions.”
Young, innocent and repeatedly raped and beaten, Echols, 28, still sits on death row.
“ The real issue that goes above and beyond this case is the need to get rid of the death penalty." said Biafra. “They clearly have the wrong person.”
As is often the case when outsiders must come in and expose an unconstitutional court
system, this sham of justice would have fallen through the cracks of international attention had it not been for Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinosky’s outstanding documentary, “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.”
Sauls had actually heard about the case but did not realize what exactly what was going on until Bakken introduced him to the documentary. The more he and the others looked into the facts, the more they noticed “this obvious case of abuse of the justice system,” said Sauls.
So he, Bakken and Pashley organized because they felt compelled to rectify this injustice.
“ It was a responsibility I didn’t even want to take,” said Pashley.
Thanks to the success of “Paradise,” Berlinger and Sinosky did a follow-up, “Paradise Lost 2: Revelations,” which, among other things, paints a very suspicious shadow on John Mark Byers.
“ After seeing the first one, I was a bit ambivalent about getting involved,” said Konrad of Lincoln Heights. “After watching the second film, I called Chad up and said I am in. … Byers is a motherfucker.”
It has been over 10 years since the Trio’s arrest and conviction for a crime they clearly did not commit. Evidence against their convictions mounts, and some witnesses have recanted their testimonies, but the “Good ol’ Boy” justice system and the superstitious saps of West Memphis are “too deep in it now,” said Pashley, to admit their shortcomings.
“ You have the brutal murder of children, which already pisses you off,” said Bakken.
“ Then you have three teenagers, and it’s all so young, so shocking. They’re not psychos. And people are like, ‘Oh, my gosh, how could they do it?’ And it becomes even more freaky because they just did not do it and the real killer is still out there. We have all these horror stories” involved in the case.
“ Yes, three innocent people are in prison is horrible,” said Konrad. “Though we tend to forget three boys were murdered and the killer is still out there.”
The “Cruel and Unusual” exhibit will run through Sept. 20, but if you want to go Saturday, get there early. There will be an estimated 3,000 people at the event. All proceeds will go directly to the WM3 legal fund for DNA testing and other legal procedures.
As to why Angelinos should care what happens in Arkansas, the trio suggests “this is going on in America.”
But surely there must be innocent people on the California’s death row?
“ I’m sure there are,” said Sauls. “Find them and figure out a way to help them.”
The Sixspace Gallery is at
549 W. 23rd St., Los Angeles.
For more information,
log onto www.wm3.org.
(http://www.sixspace.com/pressimx/pwweekly.html)
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
Rise Above is an album both musically exhilarating and deeply troubling. On the positive side of the ledger, Henry Rollins has pulled together twenty-four songs by his alma mater, Black Flag, mostly penned by Flag-founder and guitarist Greg Ginn, and given them a full makeover. In the hands of a cross-section of cross-generational hard rockers, from Iggy Pop to Slipknot's Corey Taylor, the music of Black Flag retains it's original anger, but has been updated for listeners who either weren't born or weren't listening when that band barked around the Los Angeles underground. A cleaner sound, unavailable to the band during its guerilla-style recordings during the 1980s, is paired with vocal diversity on Rise Above as Dean Ween, Ryan Adams, Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler Zavala, Ice T and Mike Patton update vintage Black Flag tracks like "Gimme Gimme Gimme," "Nervous Breakdown," "I've Had It," "Police Story," and "Six Pack," respectively.
The other side of the album is without hardcore revelry. In May 1993, three eight-year-old boys were mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. A dubious confession, a Satanic panic, a sloppy police investigation and a trial seemingly short on due process sent three teenagers -- Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin -- to prison, with Echols facing a death sentence. The deaths of the three children, and the plight of the West Memphis 3 (as the trio of convicted have become known) were the focus of a 1996 documentary by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. The film cast an eye on flaws throughout the boys' convictions, and follow-up documentary, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, focused on further evidence that the West Memphis 3 -- who next year will have spent a full decade in prison -- were not involved in the murders of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers.
Rise Above makes a strong case for revisiting the music of Black Flag, while also throwing additional light on a cause that has created a public outcry. Rollins sat down in the New York City office of his label, Sanctuary Records, to discuss both aspects of Rise Above.
So I take it, like most others, you were introduced to the West Memphis 3 through the documentaries.
Yeah, that's how I became aware of the case. I saw the first one and got very upset. You watch it and it freaks you out. You're hoping that at the end, everyone goes, "Ha-ha, we're just actors! This could happen!" But it's real. It's like a nightmare you don't wake up from. Then I saw the second one and that one made me furious. Due process was not served. I mean the worst pedophile gets a fair trial. That's just how we do it here. I'm really for a fair trial for the worst scumbag. I think these guys are flat out innocent and they got screwed.
And they were so young when they were convicted.
And it's too late, it's their teenage years and early twenties they spent in jail, they'll never get that back. And those are huge years. That really made me hurt inside. My involvement started with a benefit show: me and my band, Exene [Cervenka]'s band, Wayne Kramer's band, we raised a bunch of money. Got people like Eddie Vedder and Bad Religion and Tom Waits to donate signed goodies, we auctioned them and all the money went to the boys.
Then I had the idea for the record and realized it was going to be a huge undertaking so in order to get it going, I called my band and said, "Look fellas, here's what I want to do. Do I have a band?" And they said, "Yeah, you have a band." I called the studio and booked the time and had an accountant cut a check for the deposit. Fifteen grand, and I was in. Now I can't back out. I did that because I didn't want to change my mind and a day later just cut a check for five grand and send it. Mention it at the next talking show I do at a university. Instead, I said, "Fuck it. I'm doing this." I just dove into the mouth of it.
How'd you go about setting up the guests?
We found two guys who were integral to all this. Sean E and a guy named Bill Fold. They're like freelance A&R guys, they're facilitators. So we brought them in and showed them the wishlist of musicians. And they just looked at it and went, "Gay, gay, gay gay gay." We're like, "Really?" And they're like, "Aw, c'mon, this thing is starting to look like one of those movie soundtracks. Forget that guy. We have guys for you, like Corey from Slipknot." At the time, I'd never heard Slipknot. I said, "Do you think he'd do it?" And these guys said, hold on a minute, and called him up on the cell phone. "What song do you want him to sing?"
The songs really jump out at you.
We made a record that is absolutely bomb-proof. You can't fuck with this record on any level: The playing, the production, the vocals, the songs. I defy any critic to find a chink in our armor. And I have nothing to do with it. I didn't write any of this stuff. It's the maddest cover record ever. You'd think there'd be some lame-o's on there.
The sound quality is a marked improvement over the Black Flag days.
Black Flag records were always lacking in production values in my opinion. You could never hear what Greg [Ginn, guitarist and songwriter] was doing and it was murky. And this thing rips your head off, with totally clear sound.
Iggy's vocal on "Fix Me" felt like a throwback to the Stooges days.
I called Jim's A&R guy. I go, "We gotta get Jim [Osterberg, Pop's real name] on this record, and it'll connect him with a different audience." Because young people should listen to Jim Osterberg a lot. When kids hit like fourteen, they should be given the first three Stooges albums and The Idiot and Lust for Life. Here ya go. You may now walk through the halls of youth.
So FedExed him the documentary and all the Black Flag stuff. And I wrote this looong letter to him: You have to know what your music meant to Black Flag. When I joined Black Flag, I was handed a couple of cassettes: MC5 live, [the Stooges'] Funhouse, the first Stooges album and Masters of Reality by Black Sabbath. And they said, "Get this under your belt, because if you don't like the Stooges, you can't be in this band." Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski, they hated everybody. They thought everyone was a poser. The Clash? Posers. The Sex Pistols? They hated punk rock, they thought it was lightweight. If you have to do that to your hair, you're thinking too much about your fashion statement. That's Greg's whole thing. He looks like some office supply guy. Because all of his clothes came from the Salvation Army.
There was always that purity to what he did.
Staggering. It made you check yourself. He was a weird guy with bad shoes and no moves on stage. Just this kook writing these songs in these weird rhythms, it was genius. Pure definition of. So I said, "Jim, consider this, because you mean a lot to me, Ginn and Black Flag, a group that hated everybody but you. I said if you're on this record, Greg Ginn will smile again." Two days later there's a message from him. [In Iggy voice] "Uh Henry, hey man, it's Jim Osterberg, I'm gonna sing 'Fix Me.' So long man."
For those that have seen Hank Williams III live, his cover makes sense, for those that haven't, that vocal might come as a surprise. He really tears up "No Values."
He was a no-brainer, because you see him wearing Black Flag shirts on-stage. And he hangs out with my bandmates when he comes to town. He was one of the first guys we went after because he knows the songs, and he knows the case. He had the West Memphis 3 web site hyperlinked to his a long time ago. You hear that vocal, holy shit man.
Did you enjoy getting to play fantasy camp with the different singers?
Absolutely. Having sung all those songs live and some in the studio, all of my favorite vocal versions of those songs are on this record. You can't replace Greg Ginn. But a few of these people, I heard the song in my head, and thought that guy's gotta sing it. Lemmy [Kilmister of Motorhead] and "Thirsty and Miserable," not because of the subject matter of the song -- because I know he likes alcohol. But [sings] Thirsty and miserable always wanting more . . . that's right in his vocal range. That's a Motorhead melody. You think, Lemmy could own this song.
I was there for those vocals. Lemmy doesn't want you to watch. So he sings behind a partition. The riff comes in. and I had it in my mind what that vocal was supposed to sound like. And all of the sudden, there we are in the studio with Lemmy, and out of nowhere, [sings] thirsty and miserable and it's like, "Oh my God, Lemmy's here." Everyone has this huge smile on their face. Because everyone likes Lemmy. That was the one song, where when people would ask how it was going, I'd play it for them. It's the voice you know. You might not own any Motorhead, but you know that voice. It's one of my favorite Lemmy vocals. He might not have the biggest range, but he knows how to work within his space. You can do a lot with a footlocker if you know what to do with it and use it efficiently. And he gets so much soul out of that song, you really get that this song is about a desperate and lonely fucked up guy who lives for booze. I mean, Lemmy likes booze, but he's not a fucked up guy. He's very intelligent and he knows what he's doing. But he got the idea of the character of the song. He got into it. It's just an incredible vocal.
There's a broad diversity among the singers too.
We tried to get some old and new, get some guys from the rap world. We wanted to get some more chick singers on it, but it was just hard in our time frame. If I'd more time, of course, I would've gone for Johnette Napolitano and Joan Jett. I would have gone even more interesting than that. Bikini Kill. I had a number of weeks to do this before I had to leave the country for a long time.
And time is tight. Isn't Damien still on Death Row?
Yes, he very much is. It's very intense and fucked up. But there's a hearing coming up and lots of new evidence is being introduced so we're very expectant. But the coverage there has been ridiculous. The West Memphis Commercial Appeal is like a tabloid. "Human heads found under Damien Echols bed," but they won't even retract it! And they said, "Henry Rollins would not respond to our request for an interview." I got that guy's number. I called him every morning for five days. "Hi it's Henry Rollins, you say you don't have my number, here it is!" I finally got his skinny ass on the phone. I gave him all my phone numbers, and I said, "If you lie in your newspaper again about me, I'm gonna send your email and phone number out to 10,000 kids who will call and ridicule you. Don't mess with me." But the new book does a good job of setting some facts straight.
Is it out yet?
This month, I believe. The book is about as fun as watching the documentaries. It's full of excruciating facts. But talk about no case, they had nothing. They had a coerced confession and a lie detector test that you can't even admit. Oh but they're Satanic! Those guys? They're just three soft, suburban kids from Arkansas. Their crime is bad hair. And that's not enough. Not in my America. The cavalry is coming.
Obviously the record will help out with the legal bills. Do you think it will have any further effect?
I'm not sure. Can a record get anybody out of jail? I doubt it. Will they still be in jail this time next year? Probably. But we're doing a good thing and I think it will make a difference. I didn't know what else to do. I can't do nothing, so I made this record. That's just me as a citizen.
More information on the West Memphis 3 is available at www.wm3.org.
ANDREW DANSBY
(October 10, 2002)
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Sat May 24, 2008 11:50 am
There's even more than I have mentioned and hope other things can be found. Hopefully, this summer I can find more on this and other parts, since kids may visit their other family and my work load may be a little lighter.
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
The Commercial Appeal
Country singer voices support in West Memphis Three case
By Marc Perrusquia
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Still smarting from the public beating she took for criticizing President Bush, country star Natalie Maines is sounding off again, this time on the West Memphis Three.
The lead singer of the Dixie Chicks is the latest in a growing list of celebrities calling for the release of three men imprisoned for the gruesome 1993 West Memphis child murders.
"I'm writing this letter today because three men have spent the past 13 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit,'' Maines wrote recently on the Dixie Chicks' MySpace page.
Citing new DNA evidence, Maines is asking fans to donate to a defense fund set up for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, known by an international community of Internet supporters as the West Memphis Three.
"The evidence is so strong,'' Maines writes, "that at the very least the judge will grant a new trial, but hopefully he will overturn the verdict and these guys will finally be sent home to their lives and families. I know that this is a hard thing to just take my word on, so please look at the case and the evidence for yourself.''
The evidence she refers to is contained in a wide-ranging defense appeal filed this fall. Defense lawyers note that new DNA testing -- unavailable in 1993 -- found no evidence connecting Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley to the murders of three 8-year-old boys whose bodies were found nude and hog-tied with shoelaces in a drainage ditch.
The testing found two hairs that defense lawyers say links the stepfather of one of the victims to the crime scene.
In voicing support for the West Memphis Three, Maines joins other big-name celebrities, including movie stars Johnny Depp and Jack Black and rock musician Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
Maines and her publicist couldn't be reached Tuesday, yet it remains to be seen if her support may help or hurt. The singer and her band lost credibility with their conservative country fan base after she said in 2003 she was ashamed of President Bush for launching the war in Iraq.
"If I had to have a supporter it wouldn't be the Dixie Chicks,'' quipped West Memphis assistant Police Chief Mike Allen, who as a young detective investigated the West Memphis child murders. "I quit listening to them a long time ago. She's known to put her foot in her mouth and not know what she's talking about.''
Such sentiment was so strong in Greater Memphis that the group canceled a show last year at FedExForum because of lagging ticket sales.
Nonetheless, celebrity endorsements of causes and issues can be very effective, said professor T.V. Reed, director of American studies at Washington State University, where he teaches a course on pop culture.
"Celebrities can have a real impact,'' said Reed, who noted the effectiveness of rock singer Bono in drawing attention to the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Celebrities are most effective when they speak with knowledge on a focused topic, he said.
"What they say is more widely circulated. Like the rest of us, some are smart citizens and some are not so smart.''
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Mon May 26, 2008 5:37 pm
Ark. Times 9/12/03, Ryder to the Rescue
Ryder to the Rescue
Winona headlines celebs at art show for West Memphis Three
By Stephen Lemons
September 12, 2003
LOS ANGELES - Overlooking a crowd of thousands in downtown Los Angeles, Winona Ryder didn't mince her words.
"We believe a terrible injustice happened 10 years ago," explained the doe-eyed celeb, a cordon of lights illuminating her in the darkness. "An injustice that involved six young lives. Three are dead. Three are holed up in prison for crimes that we and millions across America believe they did not commit."
The audience roared its approval, and the star of "Edward Scissorhands," "Girl, Interrupted" and "The Crucible" went on to condemn what she referred to as, "in my opinion, a modern-day witch-hunt."
The witch-hunt in question? The prosecution of the West Memphis Three, convicted a decade ago of triple murder of three young boys. Ryder was in-house last Saturday at the hip L.A. gallery sixspace to host "Cruel and Unusual: An Exhibition to Benefit the West Memphis Three." Organized by the L.A.-based West Memphis Three support group at www.WM3.org, the show included mostly WM3-themed art (Ryder posed before portraits of three men convicted of the slayings) donated by about 20 nationally known artists for the purpose of raising money for the WM3's legal defense fund.
An estimated 4,500 Angelenos turned out to see the art, and, of course the likes of Ms. Ryder. Ryder spoke for about 15 minutes to a parking lot filled with people outside the gallery, calling for new trials for Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley, who were found guilty in 1993 of the homicides of three eight-year-old West Memphis boys: Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. Authorities characterized the killings as ritualistic and cult-inspired. Misskelley and Baldwin are currently serving life sentences. Damien Echols is on Death Row. All three men are appealing their convictions.
"All we ask is that a proper, real investigation be done to find out who killed these young children," Ryder said. She encouraged the crowd to donate money so that DNA testing could be done on physical evidence taken from the crime scene. She expressed hope that such testing - not available in 1993 - might exonerate Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley.
Attendees apparently heeded Ryders' call. According to gallery co-owner Caryn Coleman, more than $20,000 was raised through donations and sales of art and other merchandise, such as black T-shirts bearing the mug-shots of the prisoners and the rallying cry "Free the West Memphis Three," and P.O.W. (Prisoner of West Memphis) bracelets with the names of the convicts, their arrest date, and a blank space for what supporters hope will be their release date.
Coleman, along with her husband, Sean Bonner, donated their space for the exhibit, which will be up until Sept. 20, and can be viewed at www.sixspace.com.
Other celebrities present included "The Green Mile's" Doug Hutchison, and former Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra, who gave a spoken-word performance denouncing the death penalty. Ryder was accompanied by boyfriend and rocker Page Hamilton, of the band Helmet. And there were rumors - still unconfirmed - of an appearance by "Seabiscuit" star Tobey Maguire.
Two of the most admired individuals in attendance hailed not from Hollywood, but the Natural State: Lawyer Dan Stidham, who represented Jessie Misskelley before Judge David Burnett in 1993 and who still represents the 27-year-old; and Arkansas Times contributing editor Mara Leveritt, author of Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. Both spoke after being introduced by Ryder.
Stidham thanked Angelenos for coming, telling them that the tide of public opinion was shifting in Arkansas to a belief that the WM3 case deserved another look. Leveritt was even more emphatic, stating that both the Arkansas governor and attorney general are constantly barraged with mail about the WM3. "The ice is cracking," said Leveritt. Recently, the rights to Leveritt's book have been acquired by the USA Network, which is producing a two-hour drama based on it.
The event was covered by national and international media, including the BBC, USA Today, People magazine, Rolling Stone, Celebrity Justice, and the Associated Press. A length story in the LA Weekly, Los Angeles' alt-news weekly, previewed the art show and featured new reporting about the case, such as quotes from one witness in the Misskelley trial who alleges her testimony was coerced by the West Memphis PD, and a juror in the Echols-Baldwin trial who expressed regret for sending Echols to death row. The article, by this reporter, can be read here: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/42/features-lemons.php.
In the piece, the federal Marshals Service in Memphis confirmed that John Mark Byers, stepfather of one of the slain children, had been in their custody in 1992, one year prior to the murders, after being arrested in by sheriffs deputies in Memphis on drug and weapons charges. Byers remains a source of speculation in part because of his seemingly odd behavior in the HBO documentaries Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. Leveritt's book states Byers was a drug informant for the Crittenden County Drug Task Force at the time of the murders, and documents a pattern of preferential treatment provided Byers by Arkansas officialdom.
Many at the art show expressed the belief that the truth of what happened 10 years ago would one day be revealed. Until then, they would agitate for justice on behalf of the WM3.
"I don't consider this a cause," said Ryder, who's still on probation for her November 2002 grand theft conviction. "You don't have to be an activist to be concerned about basic human rights. This is a very sad and tragic reality."
Stephen Lemons is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, CA.
Hear No Evil
Musicians rock for closer look at West Memphis murder case
By Mara Leveritt
April 21, 2000
This is a story about evil. Murderous evil. Evil perceived. Evil portrayed in art. This murderous evil erupted one night seven years ago. The next day, on May 5, 1993, police searching along a creek bed in a wooded area of West Memphis found the lifeless, naked bodies of three eight-year-old boys. All were tied. Two had drowned. One had been sexually mutilated and died from that injury.
It was evil without a doubt.
A month later, police charged three local teenagers -- Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley -- with the crime. At the teens' trial, prosecutors argued that they had killed the younger boys as part of a satanic ritual, that the children had been sacrificed in a virtual worship of evil.
In his closing argument to the jury, Prosecutor John Fogelman mentioned that Echols, the accused ringleader, listened to heavy metal music. There was nothing wrong with that, " in and of itself," Fogelman said, but he referred to the fact as an indication of the state of Echols' soul.
The jury agreed that it was dark, indeed, and even though Fogelman would later acknowledge that, "there was a remarkable lack of evidence against anyone in the case," Echols was sentenced to death, and Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison.
Many, if not most of the people who heard of the verdicts, believed that the matter was settled; that a terrible evil had been, if not adequately, at least legally, addressed. But soon after the defendants were taken to prison, this story of evil took another turn. HBO released an award-winning documentary on the case, with video shot at the trials and a soundtrack contributed by Metallica. Suddenly, the perceptions of evil that had led to the convictions were being examined by a national audience.
Three Californians -- a screenwriter, a photographer, and a graphics artist -- were disturbed enough by the film that they formed a website to support the convicted teens, whom they dubbed the West Memphis Three. Interest in the case expanded, and last month, five years after HBO's original release of the film "Paradise Lost," the network aired a sequel. That show, "Paradise Lost: Revelations," expanded awareness of the case still further. And this summer, the attention on Arkansas will increase again when the documentary is released to theaters and a group of primarily West Coast, independent musicians release a benefit CD to help "free the West Memphis Three."
Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Jello Biafra, Kelley Deal, Zeke, Mark Lanegan, and the groups Rocket from the Crypt, Joe Strummer and the Long Beach Dub All-Stars, Murder City Devils, Nashville Pussy, The John Doe Thing, and Killing Joke have all contributed cuts to a CD that was the brainchild of rock musician Eddie Spaghetti of Seattle and his group, The Supersuckers. While many Arkansans may recognize only a few of the names on that list , all of the musicians tour widely and play to international audiences.
Joe Strummer, for instance, was formerly with the Clash. Jello Biafra, formerly of The Dead Kennedys, now devotes himself to what he calls "spoken word" performances, in which he sometimes refers to the West Memphis case. John Doe, widely regarded as the father of music's grunge movement, has added acting to his musical career. Like many of the artists brought together on the CD, Doe first learned of the West Memphis convictions through the first HBO documentary.
The more Doe learned about the case by visiting the website -- www.wm3.org -- the more appalled he became by the portrayal of the defendants as likely killers because of their tastes in music. "There wasn't anything in that court case that led me to believe they were guilty," Doe says. When he was invited to participate in the CD, he did not hesitate.
"The world is unfair, damn it," he says, "and we're here to try to keep it a little more fair in any small way we can. If there's anything you can do to stop that sort of injustice, you've got to be there. You've got to contribute." He describes his group's song on the CD, "Highway Number 5" as "a rock number, with some pretty melodies too."
All the musicians involved have come to regard the convictions of Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley as a tragedy that has compounded the evil of the crime itself. Eddie Spaghetti, who was Eddie Daly when he was growing up in Tucson, Arizona, and who is still Eddie Daly off-stage, describes himself at 32 as "an old heavy-metal casualty." In high school, Daly was smart but different. As long as he kept his grades up, his parents let him be in a band that played in bars at night. He did his homework between sets, came home late, and got up early to go to school.
That early nonconformity partly explains why he related to the first HBO documentary.
He recalls that after seeing it, he assumed that convictions so "outrageous" certainly had been re-examined and that "surely, something had been done." He put it out of his mind.
A year and a half later, however, Daly was talking to Eddie Vetter of Pearl Jam about an unrelated project, and the West Memphis case came up. "He and I spoke for hours about it," Daly remembers. Vetter was both informed and concerned about the case. Daly was surprised to learn that the murder convictions had been upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court, that Echols still faced execution and that Baldwin and Misskelley, now in their 20s, were still serving life in prison.
The conversation led Daly to act. "It got me to thinking that I could do something, even though my records are not selling in the millions."
He discussed the idea with Danny Bland, 36, the Supersuckers' manager, and with Scott Parker, 33, a record producer from Los Angeles. They all liked the idea of bringing like-minded artists together to raise money, partly to help pay for further investigation of the case.
"It's such a music-oriented thing," Bland says. "It seemed to us that the injustices stemmed from the music these kids were listening to, and the solution may come from that. We knew it would be a lot of work, that putting together a record like this would be very time-consuming, but we decided we needed to assume that responsibility."
Scott Parker, the producer, recalls that after seeing the first documentary, "I thought, 'What a colossal waste of taxpayer money, to spend all this on a witch hunt.' But then in the end, when the guilty verdicts came down, my girlfriend and I were just jaws-on-the-ground. We could not believe what we were seeing."
The three went to work on the album. As Bland explains it: "I personally have not committed an unselfish act in my life. Still this has been about our own protection and everybody else's too. Look at the life I take for granted. I haven't done anything wrong, but if the police came to my house and started confiscating my books and music to be used against me in a trial, they would have a field day."
"It wasn't as great a task as, say, saving the rain forest," Daly says, "but we hope it will be helpful. People see that we've put, 'Free the West Memphis Three' on our recent albums, and they ask us about it. In Europe, most people haven't heard about this case, but our fans have."
Bland adds that, "Also, on a business level, most of the Supersuckers' audience is in their 20s to mid-30s. You can't make a living selling music to kids and then turn their backs on them, and that's what I told these artists when I contacted them. I reminded them that these kids sitting in prison represent a lot of people. They support us. It's only right that we should give our support to them."
In January, Daly, Bland , Parker and Daly's wife, Jessika, flew to Arkansas to visit the inmates for whom they'd become advocates. They were not able to meet with Misskelley, but they did get to see Echols and Baldwin. Eddie Daly recalls, "The first thing Damien said to me was 'You don't look anything like I thought you would. You look like Andy Kauffman."
The comment (which Daly has heard more than once) led to a conversation about the comedian Andy Kauffman's put-on of wrestling when he mocked Jerry Lawler, the intensely popular Memphis wrestler.
Like much of wrestling, the verbal combat was staged, but many viewers, including members of Damien's family, were not aware of that.
"We talked," Bland says, "about how Andy Kauffman was hated by the people who lived around Memphis, and how he baited them. It was all just an act, but to Damien and he father at the time, it was all very real. Damien said that when his family heard that Lawler had put Kauffman in the hospital, his dad said, 'Good.'
"That was when Damien was seven. His whole family watched wrestling all the time. It was funny for us to hear that Andy Kauffman was so effective, coming into that area; that he had succeeded so broadly at getting these people angry at him. Andy Kauffman became a demon, the same way the media made Damien into a demon -- only Damien wasn't trying."
The musicians were surprised by how easy it was to laugh with both Echols and Baldwin. "I was struck by how smart and funny Jason is," Daly said. "In the first documentary, he was an awkward age --gawky and scared. And now he's educating himself. He's an algebra tutor at the prison. He looks like a college student. And he's got a lot of friends there who believe in his innocence."
After the trip Bland wrote a column about it for The Rocket, a newspaper for the Seattle music scene. Of the visit to Echols at Arkansas's Maximum Security Unit, Bland wrote:
"The clerks and the guards were as nice as could be. Even the personal search was pleasanter than, say, the one at the Canadian border. It wasn't until Damien entered the room that I realized how horrible this place was. He stood in the room behind the glass across from us with his back to the door as the guard removed his handcuffs. It was then I knew they had every intention of killing our new friend.
"We told him about the benefit CD we're putting together to raise awareness about their case and how bands like Rocket from the Crypt, as well as solo artist Tom Waits and Mark Lanegan were stepping up to the plate with their time and music. Damien admits he doesn't know much about these groups; after all, he's been in prison for seven years, and before that he lived in West Memphis.
"Kelley Deal (of the Breeders) said that along with the song she's contributing she wants to send a picture of herself wearing a Black Sabbath shirt, black lipstick and fingernail polish for the artwork. When I told Damien this he smiled and said, 'Oh good, now she can have the cell next to mine.' "
After the visits to the prisons, Bland and Parker returned to the west coast, but Eddie and Jessika drove north, to Lakeview, Arkansas, where Eddie's parents now live. His father Ed Daly, is a fishing guide on the White and Norfork rivers, and his mother, Sammie Daly, works as a hairdresser in Mountain Home.
It's likely that none of the musicians involved in the forthcoming CD ever would have heard of Echols, Baldwin, or Misskelley if not for the work of filmmakers Joe Sinofsky and Bruce Berlinger, the producers of "Paradise Lost." Many who saw the first film, which aired on HBO and then was released to theaters, were deeply unsettled by what they saw, and a few took immediate action.
Burk Sauls, Grove Pashley, and Kathy Bakken of Los Angeles looked for more information about the case and, as they found it, they posted it on the website they created. The three have remained dedicated to the site, and in the years since it began, both the amount of information and the number of links on the site have grown extensively.
Today, for instance, visitors can find a detailed chronology of events in the case, compiled from police and other official documents. There are links to the Arkansas Supreme Court, where anyone who wants to can read the court's opinions affirming the convictions.
There is also a link to a site established in memory of the three eight-year-olds who were murdered: Michael Moore, Christopher Byers, and Steven Branch, and a link from there to a site maintained by someone who believes that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley are indeed the children's killers.
This time, when HBO devoted several nights to airing the sequel to "Paradise Lost," along with a few re-showings of the original film, viewers who wanted to look further had a place to go. Since Sauls, Pashley, and Bakken were featured in the second film, talking about their site, the three expected a lot of response when it began to air. Even so, they were overwhelmed.
"On the night the show premiered, we each received thousands of e-mails," Sauls said. "I think the reason is that a lot of people are really moved by this story, and they want to connect with people who are involved -- because they already feel connected."
Bakken, who manages the site, says that before the sequel was shown, the site received between 100 and 200 hits per day. In the last two weeks of March,while the film was being shown, the site averaged more than 7,300 hits per day.
Pashley says the site's supply of Free the West Memphis Three T-shirts sold out immediately, and that close to 500 have now been shipped out. And a request for supporters of the inmates to mail in postcards from their states has elicited a huge response. The organizers hope to come to Arkansas later this year, bringing with them enough postcards to encircle the state's Supreme Court building.
While the show was airing, Gov. Mike Huckabee's electronic message board received and posted hundreds of messages urging him to intervene in the case.
On March 20, the WM3 site was named Yahoo's pick of the week. "Here's an intriguing site," the announcement said, "that details a controversial triple murder case in West Memphis, Arkansas. The site's creators contend that the men convicted of the gruesome crimes are the victims of an all-too-common hysteria known as 'Satanic Panic,' where the furor surrounding tragic events overcomes the judicial system's ability to keep things fair and square."
Now other sites are being organized calling for review of the West Memphis verdicts, and interest is expected to swell again this summer when the new "Paradise Lost" is released to theaters. The activity is gratifying both to the film's producers and to the creators of the original site. "It's like the tree is all branching out," Bakken says. But she warns that, amid the flurry, some of the information being posted may not be accurate. "There's a lot of misinformation," she says, "but we can't control that."
The Times was not able to contact Jessie Misskelley for his reaction to the recent developments, but Echols and Baldwin say that the activity means a lot to them. They see it as a kind, creative and encouraging antidote to events that have been marked by evil.
"It gives me hope that justice will be done," Baldwin said by telephone from the unit in Newport where he is imprisoned. "It gives me hope that the real killers will be found and the deaths of those three boys will be vindicated, and Damien and Jessie and I will have our names cleared, and this curse will be lifted from us."
He paused briefly, then added, "I do think of it as a curse. But it's slowly being turned into a miracle."
---------------
The Evil Powers of Rock 'n' Roll
Reflections on music, theater, and crime
The Supersuckers' most recent CD is titled "The Evil Powers of Rock 'n' Roll," and some of it's song titles, like "I Want the Drugs," "Dead Meat" and "My Kickass Life," aren't what you'd call gospel either.
The group's raucous, irreverent persona gave its members pause as they contemplated releasing an album aimed at helping men convicted of murder. "A concern I've had," Eddie Daly admits, "is insuring that when the record comes out, it does not do more harm than good."
The question illustrates the dilemma at the juncture where art -- be it music, movies, or books -- and violent crime now often collide. It is no longer uncommon, for instance, for defense lawyers to claim that a song or fictional character influenced a defendant accused of a crime. And many performers, especially of rap and heavy metal, are criticized for lyrics that seem to condone, or even promote, violence.
The Supersuckers take an opposite view. Daly, who is thoughtful, polite and rather quiet in person, sings loud, rough rock on stage. He thinks that there, just as in books by writers like Stephen King, giving vent to some notions that would be socially inappropriate in other settings is what rock has always been about. The group's manager, Danny Bland, agrees.
"It's just music, for God's sake," he says. "A lot of it is comedy based. You're using tongue-in-cheek sarcasm to show some of the idiocy going on around us. It's entertainment. Arnold Schwarzenegger can blow up things in a movie, and yet we're pretty sure he's not a bomber. People can see Madonna on stage, and know that doesn't mean she lives her life at home as a prostitute. People are capable of making distinctions."
Daly adds, "We need to give kids more credit. They know what's facetious and entertaining. They know that just because a person sings about killing and drugs or whatever, that doesn't mean that that's what their life is all about. And just because a person listens to music by Metallica, that doesn't make him a murderer."
"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Wed May 28, 2008 11:29 am
Look for Will Ferrell in a “Free the West Memphis 3” shirt
Semi-Pro: Let’s Get Sweaty Edition
By Amanda Rush
Who is Jackie Moon? Favorite son of Flint Michigan and recording star, Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) is owner\coach\player to the Flint Tropics, a basketball team in the ABA – that’s the American Basketball Association. Not quite the NBA, the Tropics have a wide losing streak and next to no fan base. That’s all going to change, though, when four ABA teams get drafted into the NBA. So despite the fact that they suck, the funkalicious Jackie Moon vows to bring his team into fourth place and win a spot in the NBA.
Like all frat-pack pics, the totality of Semi-Pro’s plot can be summarized easily. The real story behind Semi-Pro, as anyone can tell, is not the plot but the comedians in it. Will Farrell, comedy’s current golden boy, plays the basic Will Ferrell part beautifully. Part hopeless idiot, part unending enthusiasm and a whole lot of humiliation, Jackie Moon’s character can easily be switched out with the likes of Chazz Michael Michaels (from Blades of Glory) or Ricky Bobby (of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). And honestly, that’s what the people want, isn’t it? He’s a formula that works, and though he’s broken out of his mold from time to time with parts in films like Stranger Than Fiction, he shows us in Semi-Pro that he’s the same comedian he always has been, and still on top of his game, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Joining Will Ferrell is a colorful cast of extremely talented people. Andre Benjamin is the fantastically identity confused Clarence “Coffee” Black, and by God, the man has acting chops – something that makes me boundlessly happy as both a fan of film and music. Woody Harrelson plays Monix, an ex-NBA star with a chip on his shoulder. Harrelson’s comedic talent has been proven before, and in Semi-Pro, we are not let down. He plays his part loosely, understated, which works wonderfully with Farrell’s over the top performance. Andrew Daly is always a joy to see in action, and his wittier-than-thou performance is beautifully matched with that of The Upright Citizens Brigaide’s Will Arnett.
For fans of the UCB, Matt Walsh also appears, and check the improv section in the bonus features (a stroke of genius as far as bonus features are concerned) for Amy Sedaris’s unfortunately cut but utterly ingenious part – you’ll see another familiar face. The always angry seeming Maura Tierney is here, as well as Andy Richter, Patti LaBelle, Tim Meadows, and DeRay Davis.
From a film like this, one wouldn’t expect much of the plot. It is very much a formula film, mocking the likes of Hoosiers and other such sport films, but it knows when to play it straight and when to mock away. Though I spent most of the movie laughing, the end grabbed me (much like Blades of Glory, which used the same sports film formula) and the big finish managed to toss in bizarrely funny bits while maintaining the tension. The introduction of taint-cam, while somewhat disturbing considering how tiny Ferrell’s shorts were, is just one example.
Keeping in with the factual side of the ABA, the film is set in 1976, and the kitsch factor of the seventies is played to the nines. There are ‘fros all around, and disco everywhere (including the omnipresent “Love Me Sexy”, Jackie Moon’s one and only hit). The sets, the costumes - all over the top and brilliantly played out.
Semi-Pro comes in a two disc set, which is utterly fantastic. There are more bonuses on this DVD than some criterion sets I’ve seen. A plethora of deleted scenes is paired with deleted improv bits, which is far and away my favorite of the bonuses. There are fantastic and highly informational (not to mention very interesting) featurettes on the ABA (and it’s interesting to see just how factually accurate the story behind Semi-Pro is). Also included is a featurette with the writer, and one on filming in Flint Michigan.
But wait, sports fans, that’s not all! There are three, count ‘em three trailers (one of which is r-rated – my favorite kind), the full “Love Me Sexy” video, a featurette on the making of the song “Love Me Sexy” (Look for Will Ferrell in a “Free the West Memphis Three” shirt – props to him for it), more of the character Dick Pepperfield (Andrew Daly), and other advertising material. The film itself is presented in two formats, the theatrical edition and the Love Me Sexy edition (unrated and extended, as one would expect). The extras on this set are stellar, and all of them well worth visiting.
Though the film itself isn’t one for the ages it is very funny, and the endless extras make this DVD a fantastic addition to any collection. Judged on the film alone, I might have ranked it lower, but the bonuses are too good to pass up.
December 8th, 2007: San Francisco, Calif.— The Cure will be auctioning a customized Schecter RS-1000 acoustic guitar to raise money for the defense fund of three wrongfully-imprisoned Arkansas men. Damien Echols (who is on death row), Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.—also known as the West Memphis Three—were convicted for murdering three elementary school children in 1994.
This special guitar was not only designed to lead singer and guitarist Robert Smith's specifications—maple body with spruce top, maple and rosewood neck and specially designed white pearl moon and star inlays—but it was also used in the studio by the musician this year.
The guitar is signed by all four-band members—Smith, Simon Gallup (bass), Jason Cooper (drums), and Porl Thompson (guitar); and features a Cure logo drawn by Thompson, who is responsible for the majority of the band's artwork down the years. It also includes a "Free the West Memphis Three" message written by Smith.
The auction will last for 14 days—from December 11 (Echols's birthday) to December 25—one day for each year the West Memphis Three have spent behind bars.
The starting bid for the instrument has been set at $999.
"It is my hope that through Skeleton Key Auctions, both funds and awareness will be raised about the travesty perpetrated on these three innocent men," said Anje Vela, president of Music4Life. "Cases like the West Memphis Three's are a blemish to our justice system. No innocent man or woman should be left to rot in prison without recourse, just because they lack the financial resources for a fair fight. Skeleton Key Auctions is grateful for bands such as The Cure who have generously donated to this cause."
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
ObscuregawdessPosted:
Wed May 28, 2008 12:51 pm
Celebrity quotes
“These boys didn’t get a fair trial. They got picked for wearing black clothes and having long hair.” Tom Waits
“I believe they are innocent.” Marilyn Manson
“It could happen to me, it could happen to you.” Jello Biafra
“The films are remakable, and it is certainly an interesting - and troubling - case.” Bill Clinton
“That’s the stupidest f***ing confession I’ve ever seen.” Dr. Richard Ofshe (Pulitzer Prize winner & Professor for Social Psychology at Berkeley University)
Me too... a very smart and respectable man using choice words, eloquent! Hahaha, kidding. He's right!