Hi There Everyone,

Great News I now have an official Facebook Fan Page!

Simply search for “Ashleigh Alexandra Louise Smith” on Facebook and Join my Fan Page today as that is where
photo’s and Video’s and News is being posted more regulary than at this blog.

So my advice is to join my facebook fan page and keep checking back here on a regular basis as the plan is to release
some exclusive photo’s and videos via this blog every now and again which will not appear on my facebook fan page and
then also put some stuff on Facebook which won’t appear here!

As you can see in the above video I sleep very well even when in noisy room’s, indeed
I reckon I could sleep through an earthquake I take after daddy like that : ) !

To finish for today here’s a quick video clip which daddy made by accident when he
was trying to take a picture of me on his mobile phone..

So Remeber to go to Facebook and search for “Ashleigh Alexandra Louise Smith” in the Manchester Network (England)
and join my Fanpage today!

Keep checking back as I have some important and amazing news coming very soon!

Hugs

Ashleigh

I was recently at a conference in Cambridge devoted to the lengthy Cold War that preceded the post-’89 East-West rapprochement. A number of the ‘big players’ were there, from Eisenhower’s grandaughter to White House men who had served under Reagan, and Gorbachev’s former spokesman.

It was an impressive array of Cold War warriors, and enormously educational. But somewhere in the dissection of the whys and wherefores of this almighty clash of ideologies, something was lost. That something was the individual.

Looking back at what I have learned about the GDR, what really stands out for me are the stories of the little people. For example, the old lady in Leipzig who had marvelled at the people at the next restaurant table speaking French.

Or the woman who had a copy of the proscribed Gulag Archipelago for one night only and stayed up till morning to read it, before this ‘contraband’ had to be quickly passed on. Or the reckless 18-year-old who got himself arrested by the Stasi, gambling (correctly, as it happens) that West Germany would buy his release.

And of course the man at Bornholmer Strasse whose father died only months before 9th November 1989. Like my own grandmother, who served as a fire warden in the famously blitzed Coventry in WW2, these people’s names will not be found in any textbooks.

Like threads in the swirl of a pattern, their individual tales are lost in the grand design of the fabric of history. But put your face up to the canvas, look closely, and they’re there. They’re everywhere; the big narratives are but the sum of all their short stories. I salute them all.

Japanese cyberpunk horror. Kind of art house, pretty interesting though. Lots of sex & violence. There’ll be a sequel next year.

Michael Jackson’s - Moonwalker (1988) Havent seen this film already?, it’s probably too late for you to enjoy the magic but you should still see it anyway. Rather than featuring one continuous storyline, the film is a collection of short films about Michael, several of which are long-form music videos from the Bad album. While showing clips from his previous works.

 This film is a massive staple in my childhood and probably one of the earliest memories I have of Mike, I remember this being the first video I had and still have, but I use the DVD now to preserve it lol.

It’s sad when I learned of Mikes passing so much of imagery flicked through my head within a matter of seconds that  was implanted by this film as a child. It felt like my whole childhood was ripped out, no more magic, no more fun, all gone. Shattered

However, loving Michael he has left us all his legacy, and this is definitely one thing everyone should see, lord knows my family must be sick of me pumping this film down there throats every school break.

Le vite degli altri scorrevano sulle decine di monitor in bianco e nero che rimandavano scene intime o passeggiate col cane, innocenti rientri a casa o riunioni sediziose. Le vite degli altri erano osservate da migliaia di spioni, ufficialmente incasellati nella struttura o reclutati come informatori nella società con il ricatto o con la promessa di piccoli privilegi. Tutti i servizi segreti dei paesi est-europei operavano una spietata repressione del dissenso, ma nessuno ha mai raggiunto la capillarità di penetrazione nella società della Stasi.

Una sigla che ancora oggi fa paura ma in fondo era l’acronimo di Staatssicherheit, banalmente sicurezza dello stato. I tedeschi usano spesso queste sintesi, per ovviare alla lunghezza delle parole o per il gusto dei nomignoli. Lo si fa con una qualche forma di affetto: Alex sta per l’Alexanderplatz, l’Uni è l’università, Buga è la mostra annuale di architettura del paesaggio, Ifa la fiera berlinese di tecnologia, Angie la prima cancelliera donna e Wowi il sindaco gay di Berlino. Ma la Stasi non ha mai avuto un’aura di simpatia. Un ministero apposito ne coordinava l’azione sotto la guida spietata di Erich Mielke. La Germania Est era il più perfezionato stato di sorveglianza di tutti i tempi, la “ditta” impiegava novantasettemila dipendenti per spiare diciassette milioni di abitanti. Gli informatori nascosti fra la popolazione erano centosettantamila. Anna Funder, la giornalista australiana autrice di “Stasiland” (in Italia pubblicato da Feltrinelli) ha fatto un paio di confronti con due altri famigerati servizi segreti. La Gestapo nazista contava un agente ogni duemila cittadini, il Kgb di Stalin uno ogni seimila. La Stasi aveva un agente ogni sessantatré persone ma con gli informatori si raggiungeva il rapporto di uno spione ogni sei cittadini e mezzo. Una paranoia.

La sede centrale del ministero che ne coordinava l’azione si trovava nella Normannenstrasse, nel quartiere orientale di Lichtenberg. Ci arrivi oltrepassando il grande viale che da Alexanderplatz va verso est, in direzione di Francoforte sull’Oder, costruito negli anni Cinquanta sul modello dei monumentali boulevard sovietici. Un pezzo di Mosca staliniana trapiantata a Berlino: la strada misura novanta metri in larghezza, i marciapiedi sono ampi, i palazzi neoclassici hanno colonne che sorreggono i portoni e piastrelle di ceramica color crema che ricoprono le facciate. Oggi è sotto tutela architettonica. Ha seguito l’avvicendarsi della nomenklatura sovietica, registrando culti e purghe senza battere ciglio. Si chiamava Grosse Frankfurter Strasse e dopo la ricostruzione realsocialista venne intitolata a Stalin. Durò poco. Con l’abiura di Chrusciov, la Stalinallee dovette trovarsi un altro nome e al baffo del dittatore georgiano subentrò la barba bianca del filosofo tedesco Karl Marx. Lungo questo vialone marciavano soldati e militanti durante le sfilate per il primo maggio, davanti al Politburo schierato sul palco. Avvenne anche in occasione del quarantennale della Ddr, nell’ottobre del 1989, ma quella volta c’era Gorbaciov sul palco e l’atmosfera era già diversa.

L’enorme complesso che ospitava il ministero di Mielke, invece, non ha nulla di monumentale anche se è ugualmente sontuoso. Ricorda più una gigantesca caserma prussiana. Migliaia di metri cubi di cemento, squadrati e compatti, che si aprono all’improvviso nel dedalo di un quartiere dominato dai palazzi costruiti con la classica tecnica dei lastroni prefabbricati. Vi lavoravano quindicimila burocrati, addetti alla sorveglianza delle attività all’estero e al coordinamento di quindici distretti regionali. Tra questi, quello di Lipsia. Centoventi chilometri più a sud, nella città sassone passata alla storia come la città degli eroi, la Stasi aveva la sua sede in un curvo palazzotto ai margini del centro storico. Si chiamava la Runde Ecke, l’angolo rotondo, e qui si giocò la roulette russa del 9 ottobre, quando la Ditta, impressionata dal numero dei dimostranti, rinunciò alla repressione avviando di fatto la dissoluzione della Ddr. Qui troviamo la signora Imtraud Hollitzer, per molti anni direttrice del museo sulla Stasi che nel frattempo è stato aperto in queste stanze. Oggi, alla guida c’è il figlio quarantatreenne Tobias, che nelle convulse settimane del 1989 partecipò assieme a lei alle manifestazioni e poi all’occupazione della sede, il 4 dicembre, da parte di un comitato cittadino che ancor oggi è responsabile del museo. Né madre né figlio hanno potuto decidere la propria vita nella Ddr, per motivi politici. Lei, figlia di un parroco protestante, avrebbe voluto studiare musica ma le fu precluso perché rifiutò di entrare nell’organizzazione giovanile di partito. Ha fatto la casalinga, confinando la sua passione nei cori della chiesa. A Tobias negarono l’ammissione alla maturità, così dovette ripiegare su un lavoro da falegname. Negli anni Ottanta cominciò a frequentare i gruppi alternativi ecologisti e pacifisti nati sotto il tetto della chiesa evangelica, all’inizio tollerati dalla Ddr, che furono l’anticamera dei movimenti popolari dell’89. «Quando diciannove anni fa decidemmo di creare un museo in queste stanze del terrore non credevamo che avremmo resistito sino ad oggi. Di anno in anno questa mostra diventa però sempre più importante, perché si affaccia una generazione che non sa nulla di quel che è accaduto». Frau Hollitzer ci guida nelle stanze del museo, mostrando gli strumenti utilizzati dagli spioni, un vero e proprio campionario di archeologia tecnologica, bidoni della spazzatura o valige forate per inserire macchine fotografiche o telecamere, cravatte con il microfono nascosto, orologi registratori, i famigerati quaderni rossi numerati su cui gli informatori riportavano ogni movimento e ogni sospiro delle vite degli altri. Giacché la Stasi è tramontata venti anni fa e negli ultimi tempi non aveva dotazioni proprio all’avanguardia, sembra di osservare i trucchi cinematografici del James Bond degli anni Cinquanta. «Eppure è stato uno dei servizi segreti più spietati della storia», dice Frau Hollitzer.

Il momento più difficile per lei è stato dopo la caduta del muro. «Nelle sedi regionali e in quella di Berlino i funzionari hanno lavorato a ritmo continuo per distruggere tutto il materiale possibile, cominciando dalle schedature degli uomini politici occidentali, le più compromettenti. A ovest dormivano, non si erano accorti di niente, se non fossimo intervenuti noi avrebbero cancellato tutto». I cittadini si mobilitarono, organizzandosi in comitati civici. Ormai la paura del regime era passata, lo stadio successivo sarebbe stato quello di spazzare via l’odiata Stasi con tutti i suoi spioni e conservare gli atti e i dossier: «A ognuno doveva essere permesso di guardare dentro i propri incartamenti, scoprire chi aveva spiato e che cosa. Un rito catartico, anche se questo ha significato per tanti perdere la fiducia in parenti o amici. Il traditore poteva nascondersi dietro un padre, una moglie, un figlio o l’amica del cuore».

Pubblicato sul Secolo d’Italia

Domino theory.

The 9^th November anniversary celebrations in Berlin were nothing if not a spectacle. Brown, Merkel and Clinton gave speeches at the highly symbolic Brandenburg Gate that had lain in no man’s land during the Wall era. Gorbachev chatted to Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Lech Walesa broadcast live from the Reichstag.

Then 1,000 brightly-coloured ‘dominoes’ – each deliberately reminiscent of a section of the Berlin Wall and each decorated by artists or children – were toppled in a line that ran all the way from Potsdamer Platz to the Brandenburg Gate and almost the Reichstag. Fireworks lit up the sky over the Tiergarten to finish off the official commemoration on this cold and wet night.

Mission accomplished on Ebertstrasse.

But it was around 11pm that night at Bornholmer Strasse where a low-key sense of history could really be felt. Here, at around this this time of night 20 years ago, the border had given way: countless East Germans had heard the botched announcement about the lifting of travel restrictions and – only half-believing it – came to see if it was true.

As S-bahn trains rumbled underneath us, small groups were scattered along the pavement of the Bosebrucke bridge where tens of thousands of eager ‘Ossis’ had streamed across for a taste of what they had been denied so long. There was a murmur of conversation as paper cups were filled with wine and memories mulled over. Every so often a passing car tooted while candles glowed around the base of a monument commemorating the event, serving tonight as a focal point for another cluster of pensive drinkers.

This is where the people massed on the eastern side of the bridge.

A man sniffed, eyes moistening, as he explained in German how he had sat in a traffic jam here for hours that night. Only a few months beforehand his father had died, not living long enough to see this marvellous moment in modern German history. At moment that, he said, had actually been more emotional than his father’s death. He shook his head again and again, and said that he came here ever year. It was as if he couldn’t quite believe that it had all really happened.

Elsewhere, four women and a man made a toast. I asked them why they had chosen to be here, and not at the city centre razzmatazz? Two of the women had been 21-year-old Berliners in 1989, making the crossing here that extraordinary evening, and their friends had brought them here to remember it.

They struggled to articulate their feelings: “Er… toll (wonderful),” said one. “Ja, toll…” “Surprising!” offered the other. Growing up with Russian as a second language their English was very limited, so one of their friends from the former-West Germany translated what had happened:

“They were studying in Cottbus, two hours from here. They heard about what was happening here in Berlin – their home town – and said ‘It’s incredible, we have to check out if that is reality?’ They came straight to Berlin, and Bornholmer Strasse was the only place they could think to go. So they came here and it was open! They went to Ku’dam [W. Berlin's Kurfurstendam] and it was really incredible.”

The five were all friends now; the three who had not lived in the GDR wanted to get a feel for how it must have been to be in the first wave across the bridge: “I said ‘I want to see the way you came to West Berlin 20 years ago. I want to translate that feeling for myself.’”

That feeling was still visible, as I walked across the bridge and back to the subway station, on the face of the man whose father had just missed the Wall’s demise. Even though he had been here at Bornholmer Strasse to enjoy it himself, be needed to stay a little longer to really believe it.

CLICK FOR TRAILER

What?

It’s the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and tensions are growing there, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal’s Pizzeria. Mookie, Sal’s delivery boy, manages to always be at the center of the action.

Where?

14,000 feet up on a Thomson Airlines plane.

With?

About 200 people around me, really annoying, seat-kicking people.

Why?

I’ve always been put off of investigating the back catalogue of Spike Lee due to him coming across as a complete arse in every interview I’ve read with him, but with every new year brings a new best of list, and each year ‘Do the Right Thing’  is listed at a reasonably high placing. So I figure, what the hell? If I’m going to start, why not start here.

After all, even complete asses deserve the benefit of the doubt every now and then.

Worth It?

I wont lie, I wasn’t expecting to like this movie, mainly for the reasons above. But I am more than willing to hold my hands up and admit to being completely wrong on this one. Do the Right Thing is a fantastic debut about the melting pot of a small Brooklyn community, which manages to capture both the spirit of the community as well as the boiling point of racial tensions that underline the films message.

Lee has managed to get together a number of fantastic, flawed characters to help further a story that, granted went a bit terrible in the last 20 minutes, but ultimately entertained and captivated my attention span, a particular shout out to the character of Da Mayor. A drunk? Yes. Loveable? Without a shadow of a doubt.

A testament to how good this film was the fact it distracted from a very bad fear of flying and never once did I have a mid-air panic, something which has happened on every other flight I’ve been on.

Touche Mr. Lee, maybe you are as good as you claim to be.

9/10

Joi voi tine Prelegerea Pierre du Bois la prestigiosul Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales din Geneva despre revolutiile din 1989: cauzele, semnificatiile si si mostenirile lor. Pierre du Bois a fost un distins istoric al Europei secolului XX, specialist reputat in relatii Est Vest, autorul, intre alte carti, al unui remarcabil studiu investigativ despre ascensiunea lui Ceausescu la putere (trad rom de Ioana llie la Humanitas). Joi voi vorbi la Natiunile Unite despre efectele anului 1989, cu aplecare speciala asupra cazului romanesc in perspectiva comparativa.
Voi reveni cu detalii despre conferinta de sub egida Fundatiei Piere du Bois, o insitutie menita sa cultive ariile ce cercetare in care a activat regretatul istoric si politolog.

Mein harter Zusammenprall mit der Sanften Revolution: Die Berliner Mauer war offen, aber in Bratislava zeigte das Fernsehen die Hohe Tatra und Kurorte. Der Autor Michal Hvorecky erinnert sich an den November 1989. Heute in der F.A.Z.

24.11.1989: Václav Havel feiert mit Alexander Dubcek den Rücktritt der tschechoslowakischen KP-Spitzen. Foto: AP

Had this on a couple of old ass jammin’ mixtapes, mostly just the Hard Instrumental but I gotta confess to liking the rhymes on this slice of classic UK Hiphop.

Taken from thewhitenoiserevisited.co.uk – the only info I could get on this track
Originally released on Mark Brydon’s Nottingham-based FON Records (FON stood for ‘Fuck Off Nazis’) in 1989, ‘Hey! Hey! Can You Relate?’ is credited to Mink featuring 2wic-e the Trouble. This track is a fully paid-up member of the proper banger club, with hard as hell breakbeats, an awesome array of funk samples, and 2wic-e the Trouble’s fluid raps. They’re not the greatest MC’s by any stretch of the imagination, but their rhymes work perfectly with the track, and Mink proves himself to be a decent scratch DJ, demonstrating his ample skills towards the end of the track.

One of life’s great mysteries is why ‘Hey! Hey! Can You Relate?’, a brilliant slice of British hip hop from Nottingham’s DJ Mink and 2wic-e the Trouble (aka The K.I.D. and Carruthers), remains the only thing they ever did.

From DJ Razorcuts
“I still have my FON copy of this record… given to me by The KID himself back in 88… I was 17 at the time and was part of the Nottm scene and had worked with other members of the Rock City Crew like Pepse and Trix. DJ Mink was actually from Sheffield and was the younger brother of DJ Mongoose. KID Carruthers, or Lloyd to those that knew him was one of the Rock City crew turned MC and this was the best British hip-hop record I’d ever heard and I think it still is – I still play it out all the time, it rocks, but Hip Hop, especially stuff this hardcore was at the time very minority and most DJs wouldn’t even give the record a listen because it was English, it was tragic. About a year later I heard Lloyd (KID) was into heroin and burglary, which is real sad. Mink got into being a house/rave DJ and did well in the North for some time. I don’t know if either of them know the importance of this record at all.”

We Die Young
Killing Yourself (Demo)
It Ain’t Like That

Download

Suffragette City
Bleed The Freak
Social Parasite
We Die Young
Chemical Addiction
Sunshine
King of The Kats
The Real Thing
Killing Yourself
Sea of Sorrow
I Can’t Remember
Queen of The Rodeo

Download

Dieser Zeitungsartikel sorgt für helle Aufregung:

Es heisst, dass das englische Boulevardblatt “The Sun” im Jahre
1989 am 1. August diesen Artikel veröffentlichte. In ihm ist zu lesen von geheimen Plänen die Bevölkerung – jeden einzelnen – mit einem winzig kleinen Microchip (Tag) zu versehen. Dies geschehe  zur geplanten Kontrolle der Bevölkerung seitens mächtiger Kreise.

Hier können Sie den Artikel herunterladen.

Ein virtueller Besuch bei “The Sun” mit Eingabe der Begriffe förderte nur das hier zutage.

Den Text des Artikels kann man besser lesen hier.

Hier ist er [Hervorhebung von mir]:

BIG BROTHER’S COMING! Revealed: Secret plan to tag every man, woman and child

by Joe Frick

CODED MICROCHIPS implanted in every person in the country would tie all of us into a master computer that could track anyone down at any moment, and plans for such a system are already under way whether you like it or not!

The secret scheme is being touted as a service for the protection of the people by high government officials, but some insiders who object to the move say it’s just another way for Big Brother to control its subjects.

Transmitters

“Top-level national security agents are trying to convince sources in the Bush Administration to begin the project in which every man, woman and child will be implanted with a tiny transmitter,” claims Davis Milerand, a critic of government intervention who says he has received leaked information from inside sources.

“They’re trying to say this will be a good way for authorities to quickly track down missing persons and children, as well as criminals and spies.

Injections

“But with the astounding technology of today, everything about you could be contained in one tiny microchip, which would be connected to a government computer.”

“Any government agency will know what any person has done and is doing at any time.”

Other sources say the tiny transmitters can be injected painlessly from a tiny gun in humans without them even knowing it through a nationwide vaccination program.

“All the government would have to do is make up something like the swine flu vaccine,” Milerand says.

“Imagine if they said there was a vaccine for AIDS.  People would rush in droves to get shots.

“The doctors themselves may not even know what they’re injecting.  They could be told the microchips are genetic implants that reprogram the body into fighting disease.”

He adds:  ”The program would require all federal, state and local government workers to undergo the injections.”

“It would only be a matter of time before everyone is implanted with a microchip, a slave to the government.”

Eine Übersetzung ins Deutsche finden Sie hier.

Die Basler Zeitung schreibt:

Kaum jemand bestreitet mehr, dass die Schweinegrippe trotz anfänglichen Befürchtungen nicht gefährlicher ist als die gewöhnliche Grippe.

Baixe os quatro clipes de 1989 onde Kylie ja era muito sucesso na Europa, Japão e Austrália é claro.

Hand On Your Heart	Never Too Late
Tears On My Pillow	Wouldn’t Change a Thing

]]> http://tvduepuntozero.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/il-settimo-continente/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:50:12 +0000 tvduepuntozero http://tvduepuntozero.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/il-settimo-continente/ http://fantysq.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/the-first-episode-of-ranma-12/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:52:13 +0000 fanty http://fantysq.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/the-first-episode-of-ranma-12/

Quick info: Produced by Studio DEEN. Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki. Based on a manga by Rumiko Takahashi.

Expectations: From what I heard it should be a love dodecahedron played for comedy. It’s a kinda famous series so probably it will be good, one only has to wonder why it took me so long to start watching it.

Impressions: In the beginning I was a little confused. From what I heard, Ranma was supposed to be a guy, but then it all became clear. I’m definitely not a fan of the Gender Bander trope, all it ever gets used for is fanservice. I’m not a fan of the “I hate boys!” either, and even less of a fan of “you need to stop those un-girly things if you want a boy to like you”.

The episode was amusing though, even if just a little bit. It also had that feeling that a good show gives off, and while there wasn’t anything I particularly liked, I’ll watch at least a few more episodes.

Rating: 1/2 6.5/10