My Latest LOL's

I often take pictures of my cats that go wrong and they look less than cute, and what better to do with them than make LOLs? So here are my latest.

If anyone is a member at "I can has cheeseburger?" please add me as friend or rate my lols you can find my profile here

I've been very busy preparing to do a production of "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" and volunteering to review new blogs at blog explosion. Sorry if you are waiting for my next Hendrix related post I am working on it.

Plum Chutney

I used up the huge amount of plums I found myself in possession of by making plum chutney, I used this recipe:

ingredients

makes about 2.5 kg (5 1/2 lb)

450 g (1 lb) sugar
1 litre (1 3/4 pt) malt vinegar
450 g (1 lb) apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 .4 kg (3 lb) plums, stoned and quartered
450 g (1 lb) onions, skinned and chopped
225 g (1/2 lb) stoned raisins, chopped
225 g (1/2 lb) carrots, peeled and sliced
25 g (1 oz) salt
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground cloves
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground cinnamon
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground ginger
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground allspice

method

1. Put the sugar and most of the vinegar in a pan and bring slowly to the boil.

2. Add the fruit and vegetables.

3. Blend the salt and spices with the remaining vinegar and stir into the ingredients in the pan.

4. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until of a thick consistency, with no excess liquid.

5. Pot and cover.

If you don't like chopping vegetables I wouldn't recommend it, the preparation alone took nearly 2 hours, though I was using really small plums so it took forever to remove the stones.

It also took about 4 hours to cook down to the right consistency, but chutney lasts for up to a year so it will be worth it in the end. This recipe also doesn't mention you have to leave the chutney in the jar for a couple of months before you can use it as the taste of the vinegar has to mellow.

And Happy Birthday to Mick Jagger, he's 66 today.

Click Rainbow squid below to see my complete tutorial on making big batches of chutney and other pickles.

Blog Explosion Members, The Site Needs Volunteers To Help Approve New Blogs

I volunteered and became an editor yesterday and found they have huge backlog of blogs to be approved, there were over 1000 sites waiting when I started. More people are definitely needed to help get on top of the situation so if you have some free time and would like to see more new blogs while you are surfing Blog Explosion please consider volunteering. Even if a few of us only approved 20 blogs a day we could get it under control in no time.

The best part about it is once you are accepted they give 5 credits per blog you approve so you end up with tons of credits you can put back into the site by starting Battles over in the Battle Of Blogs Section and applying to your own sites and banners.

If you're interested in helping then see this thread in the Blog Explosion Forums and PM the relevant admin member.

Plums!

I digress from my series of posts about the death of Hendrix to write about Plums, yes that's right Plums. I discovered the fruits dropping on my boyfriends lawn and rotting were plums so I picked as many as I could, now I have tons and have to do something with them before they all go off, so this afternoon I'm going to try and make plum chutney. If it works well I'll post pictures and the recipe I used.


Update - I made the Plum Chutney, well it's still boiling and has been for an hour and a half, it took nearly two hours just to chop the vegetables and stone the plums. Now I'm just worried I won't have enough glass jars to put it all in, and you apparently can't eat chutney for at least a month as the vinegar tastes too strong so I can't even force my friends and family to eat what I can't get into jars.

The Prime Suspect- Michael Jeffery, The Manager.

Update: You can now read all my Hendrix Posts in one place click "check out my lens" to see the full article


As promised here is the first of my posts about the people Hendrix was involved with on and around the day he died. I'm starting with Michael Jeffery Hendrix's manager as he is known to have taken a lot of his money and suspected by many of actually killing him.

Jeffery was a very shady character indeed, he was born in South London in 1933 the sole child of two postal workers. He completed his education in 1949 and took a job as a clerk with Mobil oil and was drafted into National Service two years later. His grades in science put him in the Educational corps, he signed on as a real soldier and entered the intelligence corps and then his military career enters an obscure phase. So quite how he ended up a night club manager and finally managing bands is a bit of a mystery.
He is alleged to have had connections to the CIA and in his obituary his dad apparently said he could speak Russian. He also boasted connections to organised crime and used thugs to get people to do his bidding as I'll discuss later.
he ran the "Club-a-go-go" in Newcastle the venue where "The Animals" established themselves, he became their manager around the time they started their recording career. By the time he had finished with them they had only £500 in their bank account, where the rest went nobody knows. Members of the band have openly condemned him and blame him for the original bands break up saying he worked them into the ground and stole all their money.
He was also apparently involved with Don Arden "The Al-Capone of pop" and Sharon Osbourne's dad incidentally. He was also a shady character and helped Jeffery bring his acts to the South you can read more about him here.
It was only because Jeffery managed "The Animals" that he got his claws into Hendrix who was bought to England by Chas Chandler (the animals bassist at one point) who wanted to manage Hendrix himself but ended up co-managing him with Jeffery who informed him he was entitled to commission from all Chandlers work including management projects.
Jeffery also continued to manage other acts like "Eric Burdon and The New Animals" and "The Alan Price Set" (led by ex-Animals organist) and "The Soft Machine" a pioneering prog rock band from Coventry.
Chandler was in charge of the creative side of Hendrix's work, while he left the business and financial side of things to Jeffery (Which I bet he later regretted when he realised he'd nicked all the money). Though he did help The Experience gain their American recording contract with reprise so not everything he did was terrible, though he did syphon off most of the money gained from it so it's all swings and round abouts.
Then Jeffery started to suggest that Chandler and Hendrix put money in to other ventures like clubs and recording Studios, Chandler left capacity as both co-manager and producer to Hendrix in 1968 during the Electric lady land sessions having been bought out by Jeffery, this put him in complete control of Hendrix's professional life.
Jeffery's financial resources became stretched around this time and to generate more revenue he had Hendrix tour heavily, often when Hendrix didn't want to. He wasn't happy when Hendrix broke up The Experience and is said by Buddy Miles to have tried to undermine Hendrix's performance with his new band The Band Of Gypsies at Madison Square Gardens by giving Hendrix Acid. It's also been reported that he used Mafioso type tactics to get Hendrix to do his bidding too like sending thugs to Wood Stock to bring Hendrix to new York to do a show at a club owned by Gangsters.
Jeffery also produced the film "Rainbow Bridge" which featured a lot of footage of Hendrix (see the you tube video in a previous post that shows a clip from Rainbow Bridge) which was another project that distracted Hendrix from writing and recording new music.
After Hendrix's death Jeffery was involved in administering "Rainbow Bridge" and albums culled from unreleased live and studio material, but this was erratic and appeared more for his own financial gain than for his love of Jimmi.
Recently roadie James tappy Wright has written a book in which he claims Jeffery drunkenly confessed to killing Hendrix, he quotes him as saying:

"I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends . . . we went round to Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth . . . then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe. I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."

And Tappy is not the only one he confessed to as well Alan Douglas he claims he also told him the same story.

Jeffery is supposed to have died in a mid air plane crash in 1973 somewhere near France, personally I think he faked his death, it's possible he wasn't really on the plane at all, or if he was in the military he probably could use a parachute so could have jumped out after it took off. But that's just my speculation there's no evidence of that sadly, except his body was never recovered. Though that isn't proof in itself as when 2 planes crash into each other over the sea I'm sure remains seldom are recovered.

My sources for this post were Michael Jefferys Wikipedia page and this page from the website "Answer", as well as other sources I have already credited in other posts.

This is one of a series of posts I've written on Hendrix's death with more to come the other posts are here:

"Was Hendrix Murdered?" and "More On Hendrix"

DVD Review- "Stoned The Sory Of The Original Rolling Stone"

I digress from my posts about Hendrix's final days to review "Stoned" a film about Brian Jones the founding member of "The Rolling Stones" who also died in mysterious circumstances when he was 27 (weird how they all seemed to die at that age isn't it?)

I saw the film yesterday for the first time and thought it was very well made with some great actors, David Walliams from Little Britain makes a couple of appearances, and David Morrisey plays The Stones road manager and gets across the arrogant slightly unsavoury hippy judging cockney bastard very well.
The only thing that bothers me is they seemed to gloss over a few things quite a lot, for example they covered Jones's alleged violence towards women and interest in the occult in one scene, yes that’s right in one scene he’s seen practising black magic and beating the Mrs, then nothing.
I haven’t read much about how Jones is supposed to have died though I know he was found dead in his swimming pool in mysterious circumstances, but I couldn’t help feeling they kind of copped out when they showed it as he had a row with the builder/minder sent by the management “Frank” who subsequently drowned him.
As a minder old "Frank" apparently didn’t do a good job getting into drugs himself and letting Jones slip into psychosis, and he was also apparently a terrible builder, so quite what they were really paying him for I don't know.
It’s also made clear that The Stones management were pissed off with Jones’s constant over spending and masses of illegitimate children and this is partly why he was dropped from the Stones.
So they build up all that tension then make out that “Frank” just got pissed off because he hadn’t been paid, began to resent Jones and was perhaps jealous of his relationships with women, and this all led to Frank holding Jones under the water till he died.
Doesn’t it seem that if Frank did do it he was under orders from “The management”? Maybe it wasn’t just because he didn’t like Jones’s long hair and fancied his blonde Swedish bird?
Another thing that seemed strange too, after Jones’s death the road manger is shown burning all of his clothes (Jones’s that is) and when asked why he says it’s because he doesn’t want kids to break in and go through his stuff, and he doesn’t want the Police to find any drugs he may have stashed in his clothes. But by that logic shouldn’t he have torched the whole house? Surely Brian Jones had more possessions in that bloody great mansion than just clothes for the kids to go through, and maybe with drugs stashed in them?
Please don’t get me wrong I recommend this film it was really well made and it’s raised a lot of questions in my mind about Jones’s death, which was hopefully the film makers intent.
I also understand the people they were talking about are for the most part still alive (except poor Brian) so they couldn’t say what they really wanted to without being taken to court.

Dead Ends

Update: You can now read all my Hendrix Posts in one article, click "Check Out My Lens" to see the whole thing

I've been looking for a few days now for answers to a few questions regarding Hendrix's death and they are proving quite elusive.
The first big question I want answered is what proof is there other than Dannemans word that he took 9 barbiturates? I can find no other witness's to this and the only other evidence is there was apparently a pack of 40 of the same pills (that incidentally belonged to Danneman) in his pocket which could easily have been placed there by anyone.
Though in a few places they mention rice was in his stomach contents there's no mention of barbiturates. I have read that doctors were surprised by how little alcohol was actually in his blood considering how much was in his lungs and stomach, surely if there was massive OD of barbiturates in his blood too they would have mentioned that? And if there were all those barbiturates in his blood why was the verdict on his death apparently left open, and not actually that he died of inhalation of vomit or an OD like so many places say?
The one that bugs me the most is why the hell did Eric Burdon say there was suicide note? And why was he the first person Danneman called when she saw Hendrix "was ill" though we now in fact know he was well dead by the time the phone call was made.
This rumour about Hendrix Choking on his vomit was actually started by Danneman I think as she said she rode in the Ambulance with Hendrix and the paramedics sat him up causing him to choke. Though the paramedics tell a completely different story (and who are you more likely to believe after everything we've heard about Danneman?) They say that there was no one in the flat, Hendrix was dead when they arrived but they tried to revive him anyway as is procedure then wrapped up his body and took him to hospital where he was pronounced DOA.
Another big question is why the media court Danneman's version of events so completely for so many years? Did no one do any research at all and just accepted this woman's story that she was engaged to Hendrix and had been dating him for 18 months? There is almost no evidence of this, in fact there is tons of evidence to the contrary if you care to look (and not that hard, you only have to type their names into google or pick up any of the many books written by his friends over the years).
What a huge cock up is all I can say, it's doubtful now we'll ever know what happened to Hendrix but I'm going to continue this series of posts, I'm unearthing so much about certain characters who were involved with Hendrix on or around the night of his death I'm going to do a series of posts about each of them.
My post About Michael Jeffrey is here, and the first post of this series is here.

More On Hendrix.

Update: You can now read all my Hendrix Posts in one article, click "Check Out My Lens" to see the whole thing

My research into the death of Hendrix yesterday led me to a very interesting site called “The Centre For An Informed America” written by David McGowan and Chapter 3 of the part called “Inside LC - The Strange And Mostly True Story Of Laurel Canyon And The Birth Of The Hippie Generation” is where I found much of the information I’ll be sharing today.
In 1961 Hendrix got into trouble for riding in stolen cars, he was given a choice between serving 2 years in prison or joining the army, not surprisingly he chose the Army and enlisted on 31st May that year. He was assigned to 101st Airborne division stationed at Fort Cambell in Kentucky, it’s been suggested this is an unusually elite division for a young car thief to be sent to on a court order, but it apparently happened.
All reports suggest he was a poor soldier and that’s putting it lightly, 3 days before he was booted out of the army a scathing report was written about him by his commanding officers Captain Gilbert Batchman and Sergeant Louis Hoekstra, Batchman claimed he slept on the job had little regard for regulations and was once caught masturbating in the latrine while he was supposed to be helping other soldiers wash a ceiling!
Hoekstra noted he was habitual offender when it came to missing midnight bed checks, said he was unable to carry out intelligent conversation and was suspected of taking dope. They also criticised him for playing a musical instrument while off duty saying he could not concentrate on his work when he was on duty as he thought of his guitar constantly. Read more about Jimi's time in the army at the smoking gun website it makes amusing reading I can tell you.
Whether Hendrix was deliberately messing up to get out of the army or really did just suck as soldier I’m not sure but he certainly was awful. One thing that is unusual is that he wasn’t given disciplinary measures, he only served a year and had signed up for three, though he was apparently just given a free pass to go which seems slightly odd. Though it does say they ordered a psychiatric assessment of him and it was decided his problems couldn’t be corrected with counselling or hospitalisation so maybe they just decided it was pointless trying to mould that one into a soldier.
I found out something else that might be of interest too, in 1968 Hendrix Briefly occupied a mansion in Laurel Canyon just north of the renowned Log Cabin Frank Zappa famously Occupied until that year when he moved out and Eric Burdon (lead singer of the Animals also managed by Michael Jeffery) moved in. Eric Burdon incidentally didn’t like Hendrix much as he is supposed to have had an affair with his wife, Burdon is also one of the main people who insists Hendrix committed suicide and stated in the days after his death that there had been a suicide note and everything, which was bull, or at least evidence of it no longer exists now. Strangely enough Burdon was also the first person Hendrix’s “girlfriend” Monika Danneman phoned upon discovering Hendrix’s body, though she always claimed Hendrix was not dead when she found him (see post below for more detail on this).
Another strange death shortly after Hendrix’s was that of “super groupie” Devon Wilson (who apparently was run away who became prostitute at 15) she “fell” 8 stories from the window of the Chelsea Hotel in New York. On the night of his death Hendrix is supposed to have visited her in London before going to Monica Danneman’s flat, but Danneman claimed in her book that she drove him to Devon Wilson's after he visited her place and he only stayed a few minutes before going back to Danneman's. He apparently later said to Danneman he thought Wilson had “slipped him and OD”, though many sources state you can't believe anything Danneman says as she was deluded (or just plain lying).
Devon Wilson is also reported to have dated Eric Clapton and Miles Davis amongst others, and she is also rumoured to have had a baby boy by Mick Jagger though what happened to him I haven't been able to ascertain yet. She was also apparently the subject of the song “Dolly Dagger” and was in the control room when it was recorded.

Was Hendrix Murdered?

Update: You can now read all my Hendrix Posts in one article, click "Check Out My Lens" to see the whole thing

I originally started looking at the death of Jimmy Hendrix out of curiosity after hearing former roadie James “Tappy” Wright's claims that he did not die of an OD but was in fact murdered by his manager Michael Jeffrey by pouring wine down his throat and into his lungs drowning him. I thought it would be an obvious conspiracy theory, I had no idea the disturbing world of weirdness I would enter when I delved deeper.

It turns out Tappy is not the only one who heard Jeffrey confess, he also told sound engineer (or at least he was at the time now he is a record producer) Alan Douglas that he murdered Hendrix too, Douglas also stated in his opinion he thought Jeffrey hated Hendrix.

Jeffrey certainly had a lot of money to gain from Hendrix's death having a huge life insurance policy on him, but it gets weirder it seems Jeffrey may have worked for the FBI who opened a file on Hendrix after he appeared at a few benefits for “subversive” causes. Jeffrey was in the military and got moved to intelligence, after this his military career entered an “Obscure phase”. Quite how he moved from a career as a soldier to managing Rock Groups is unclear, he also managed "The Animals". He died a couple of years after Hendrix in an mid air collision on his way to a court case concerning Hendrix.

There's also a lot of weirdness surrounding who was or wasn't Hendrix's girlfriend at the time of his death too. A woman called Monika Dannemann claimed to be his fiancé at the time of his death, he did die in her flat and the sleeping pills he took were hers. Many people seem to claim however she was fantasist and merely stalked Hendrix there was actually no relationship between them. Some even claim she had a part in his murder as she realised he planned to leave her, and she definitely lied at his inquest. She claimed Hendrix was still alive at 10am when she went out for cigarettes and when she came back he started to vomit, but medical evidence suggests he was actually dead around 4am.

It is now commonly believed she wasn't in fact there that night at all as they had big row, she did not call an Ambulance until 11:15 and apparently rang a friend called Eric Burdon (from the band "The Animals" who were also managed by Michael Jeffery) beforehand saying Hendrix wasn't well and he told her to give him coffee and slap his face, but he was already well dead at this point so what was going on in her mind I don't know. I think she came home and found him dead, he was the love of her life and she idolised him so this probably caused her to go into shock or even have some kind of breakdown perhaps deluding herself he wasn't dead just ill but I can only guess. I certainly don't believe she could have killed him on her own as some people seem to think she did. Whatever happened Ambulance attendants claim there was NO ONE in the flat when they arrived, the door was wide open and Hendrix was dead inside on the bed.

MoniKa Danneman died of carbon monoxide poisoning in her own Mercedes outside her house in 1996 (the verdict was suicide) after losing a court case with another of Hendrix's girlfriends Kathy Etchingham over claims she made in her book that Etchingham was a liar and stole from Jimi, she was ordered to stop saying it basically, the most comprehensive article I can find on the subject is here.

I'm still doing research as this has disturbed me quite a lot and I have more to write as I get it all straight, I'm also trying to find out why the case by Police was re-opened then apparently dropped in the early 90's, if anyone knows of anything else I can look into surrounding this topic please let me know. My source for most of what is written here is this article.

I also found this intriguing clip on youtube that seems to claim the Mafia and Jeffrey did it for some reason though I can't find the rest of the show or any information about it. I've contacted the person who put it on Youtube but haven't had reply yet. The person who showed it to me said the rest of the show was on there at one point but has now gone. It shows the clip from the film "Rainbow Bridge" (produced by Michael Jeffrey) where Hendrix states he has a dream of "Choking on the grape" and can't "make the choke come up" (at about 1:49, it's not very clear on this clip but if you get the DVD it is what he is saying) which is also quite disturbing and could be seen as Hendrix foreseeing his own death.

Update- The clip is no longer on youtube, but if you can get hold of the DVD it's said when Hendrix is sat drinking with them right near the end of the film, and the exact quote comes when Hendrix is talking about a dream he has about meeting Cleopatra in a Pyramid. He says "The grape chokes me but I can't let the choke come up" (he mimes choking and clutches his throat) and I said that's groovy grape wine cleo"... you will have to watch Rainbow Bridge if you want to see it, and if you would like to support this blog you can buy it from the DVD section of my astore (see the book shop widget in my sidebar).

This is one of a series of posts with more to come. The other posts are More On Hendrix Dead Ends and The prime Suspect- Michael Jeffery

16 year old Mexican beaten unconcious by Police because of his hir style

I received this email a couple of days ago from Amnesty bloggers:

Hello all,

I don’t know about you but I’ve definitely had some interesting hairstyles in my time. Those who knew me a few years ago wouldn’t have been surprised to see me with a different hairstyle every other week. I’ve always taken for granted that I could express myself through my hair and never once thought I could be attacked for it.

But it seems as though that’s exactly what’s happened to a 16 year old student and graffiti artist in Mexico. Amnesty International has received reports that José Emiliano Nandayapa Gomez was beaten unconscious by police officers in Chiapas state in southern Mexico and was apparently accused of having a “subversive” hairstyle.

Three police officers are alleged to have kicked and punched 16-year-old Jose, stepped on his back, head and legs. They’re then reported to have said to him “what a lovely subversive haircut you have, here’s your revolution, get the weapons and the drugs out.” They went on to tell him, “if you keep on the same path, you won’t live to tell the tale.”

They then kicked him in the face and he lost consciousness.

Amnesty’s expressed concern about the news of this case. Perhaps more so because we know that just a few months ago a 16-year-old graffiti artist was shot and killed in another part of the same state – San Cristobal de las Casas.

Amnesty is urging its supporters to urge Mexican authorities to guarantee the safety of José and his family. You can click here for more information and to take action.

Thanks Amnesty bloggers

We’ll speak to you again next week.

Eulette

I was shocked when read it though one thing they don't mention is was the kid doing graffiti when they attacked him? Not that it matters as a kick in the face is not an appropriate punishment in my opinion, but it would mean it wasn't just about his hair cut.
People are divided about Graffiti artists some people think that it's all just vandalism and others think it's amazing. Our own Banksy has been paid millions to go and do graffiti inside peoples houses, I notice they call him a "Street Artist" on his website too not "Graffiti". The bottom line is these guys aren't just scrawling "I was ere" then drawing a cock and 2 balls, they are creating something beautiful it's just whether they are doing it in the appropriate place or not.
If this was just over the kids hair cut then it's a terrible thing and the Police in Mexico need some training in human rights is all I can say, if you feel the same then click the link above and take action.

About The Renaissence Festival.

It happened weeks ago now but I'm just getting the links to photo's and a video to share with the, the video is available here at the Isle of wight TV website. And there's a massive slide show of photo's on the official web site, there is definitely going to be another ren fest hopefully I'll be tarot reading there too. And to make up the lack of pictures of me here's a cat pic to make everyone happy.

Web Directories

Web directories are coming up everywhere these days and are useful for building traffic and a higher Google page ranking. I've joined many directories that have come and gone over the years, in fact I recently had to join a new bunch again to improve my page ranking because the ones I had joined a couple of years ago turned belly up.

An easy to use SEO friendly web directory is easy to find over the place now I joined a load (most of them I've linked to in the sidebar) and my page ranking has gone from 0 Google to 2 which isn't so bad in such a short space of time.

Directories are not just for increasing your page rank though they also advertise your business if you have one “Best On The web” has been around over 10 years and is still going so they are worth listing with as they aren't going to go under (hopefully not anyway in this financial crisis). If you are strapped for cash then you could always try a free web directory, you probably won't get as prominent an ad unless you upgrade but it's a start and all back links improve your page ranking in the end so it's still worth it.