Minor hit, but worthy a place in the rock annals imho, "Lowdown" by Electrafixion. GIVE IT 40 SECS. Electrafixion was a short-lived alternative rock band formed by former Echo and the Bunnymen (UK band from Liverpool) members Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant in 1994. They released one album, Burned (cover depicted), and four singles and EPs before they split up again two years later, due to the reformation of Echo and the Bunnymen. This number was co-written by Johnny Marr, the brilliant, elusive and underestimated former guitarist and songwriter of The Smiths. Marr seems to take little credit for the hits he somehow conjures up when active in his numerous sideprojects, like e.g. his stint with Electronic.
What must I say? Brilliant hit by Soundgarden, one of the Seattle Four (the four stereotypical grunge bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden)
The video is made by a hyperventilating lunatic on steroids, but you know WHO was president in 1994 hmmm? Sometimes I fear Mohammed Atta watched MTV too much when Black Hole Sun was charting.
And what we call in Belgianese a "uitsmijter": "Sweetest Child" by Maria McKee, hopelessly unknown hit from AD 1992.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh, atrooooooooocious video. I know. Close your goddam eyes and LISTEN.
MFBB.
PS: I am awfully sorry for the lite blogging, but business is about survival.
UTRECHT/THE HAGUE - The VVD [Dutch liberals, keep in mind in Europe "liberals" are still considered center right - MFBB] asks questions in the Lower House to Minister Van der Laan (Integration) about the installation of two separated counters for men and women in a mosque. The City Council of Utrecht says that it only subsidizes the counters in the Omar Al Farouk mosque in the Overvecht neighborhood.
The city emphasizes that the separated counters are an initiative of the Stiza and Ward organizations, heavily involved in the two Overvecht mosques. The two counters are partly financed with the so-called "Vogelaar funds" originally intended for neglected immigrant neighborhoods [former Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar, so insanely multiculti she had to resign, even in The Netherlands! - MFBB]. According to the City Council, these are only "wave through counters". City-issued folders are however available. The counters are meant to better inform mosque visitors (read: muslim immigrants) about city services. They are, so say those behind the project, meant for all inhabitants of the neighborhood. One of the counters is situated (temporarily) in the mosque. The other one (for the women) is next to it. The VVD protests the idea that the State is encouraging segregation between men and women. Moreover, the liberals think that church and state must remain separated.
GeenStijl concludes (in its trademark satirical style):
This is no isolated incident. At the request of a muslim "comedian", a Dutch theater in Rotterdam where he is to perform, Theater Zuidplein, has offered separate seats for men and women. Rotterdam, Europes biggest port, is, as you may or may not know, the first major European city with a muslim mayor. In rather shady circumstances, Ahmed Aboutaleb, who refuses to give up his dual Moroccan-Dutch nationality, landed in early January 2009 in Rotterdam's mayoral seat.
Both the mayor of Utrecht, Aleid Wolfsen, and the mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, are members of the Dutch socialist party PvdA.
But, I suspect this does not really surprise anybody.
