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(East German refugee in 1989 - Giddy relief mixed with nightsticks)

In what would eventually be the collapse of the Soviet Union and the former Eastern Bloc in general, the exodus from East Germany started hot on the heels of news that Hungary had decided to open its borders to Austria, allowing some 60,000 the opportunity to migrate West.

The floodgates opened and soon highways and embassies were jammed with East Germans, heading West.

John Holland (CBS News): “ The latest report is around 250 people approached the back fence of the West German Embassy which has been cordoned off by barricades and guarded by police. But when police saw the numbers of people coming the simply let them pass and they climbed over the back fence into the embassy, adding to the estimated 5,000 East German refugees believed to be in the embassy compound. West German Red Cross officials at this hour are saying that they cannot any longer accommodate new arrivals, but West German embassy sources say they are still coming in and place is still being made. And in some cases the embassy employees are giving up their offices in order to shelter refugees.”

The beginning of October was just the tip of the iceberg.

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(Blossom Toes - They were ever so clean)

Back to 1967 tonight - the unsung heroes of the Psychedelic era, Blossom Toes. A great band whose members went off and joined other groups after their split up in 1970. Resurrecting somewhat slightly as B.B. Blunder in the early 70s for one album and then splintering off into other bands again and solo careers.

It's a wonder Blossom Toes weren't more popular or even issued in the States. But it's one of the many mysteries and perplexities of the music business that turns obscure clumps of vinyl into solid gold and mythical legends out of a bunch of guys who were good at what they did and had a lot of talent.

This track, You is off their first lp "We Are Ever So Clean", recorded for Giorgio Gomelski's Marmalade Records in 1967.

1967 continues to be an interesting year.

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(Mao-tse Tung - mistaken for harmless)

October marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China (October 1, 1949). The China of today bears little resemblance to the China of 1949, or even 1989.

In 1945, just days before the end of World War 2, Russia entered the war against the Japanese and declared a Treaty of Alliance with China. But the China of 1945 was under the control of Chiang-Kai Shek, regarded by some as a Military dictatorship more than a democracy, and the Communists, led by Mao-tse Tung had control of a very small section of Northwestern China. It was initially thought the treaty would bring about a peaceful coexistence between the Nationalist government of Shek and the Communist insurgents of Mao.

Or as the League Of Nations website explains it:

T.V. Soong, Premier of the Nationalist Chinese government, signed a Treaty of Friendship and Alliance with the Soviet government. In exchange for Soviet recognition of the Nationalist Chinese government, the Nationalist Chinese agreed to the independence of Outer Mongolia, gave the Soviets joint 30-year ownership of the Manchurian Railway and the port of Dalian (Darien), and agreed to the conversion of Lushun (Port Arthur) into a Chinese-Soviet naval base. This treaty formalized Nationalist Chinese consent to the Allied concessions granted to the Soviets at the Yalta Conference.

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(Pamela Hute - What Paris is sounding like these days)

I first discovered Pamela Hute during one of my browses on MySpace in 2006. Her first ep hadn't come out yet and her player had a demo track for Chocolate Soup, the first song of hers I ever heard.

I was hooked after the first ten seconds and I've been a fan ever since.

This track, Hysterical is off her new album Ghost (coming out in December), but she has a new ep called Turtle Tales From Overseas that has this track on it as well. It's available now and I would urge you to fall by her site and pick one up. Her previous ep's have sold out rather quickly, although they are available from iTunes.

Hute is French, but she splits her time between Paris and London and has been doing a lot of club and concert dates all over Europe the past year and several videos.

I have no idea if there are plans to bring her and her band to the States. It would be rather cool if they did (I think she just signed to Warners in France) - but as has happened so many times before, I'm not going to hold my breath.

But check this out in the meantime and visit her site.

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(In a word, Mao would shit)

With the G-20 Summit going full blast, I ran across this great documentary produced by ABC Radio National Australia as part of their Background Briefing series from February 2006. It's a reminder that, as much as we complain of being flooded by goods from overseas, we're doing our level best to heap gobs of shameless consumerism all over the world as well.

We joke about MacDonalds' on the Champs-Elysees in Paris - but all the Wal-Marts popping up all over China are something else.

Stan Curry - Radio Australia Reporter: “Lined up in all their red uniforms, Wal-Mart workers begin their day with an ode to Wal-Mart. Ludwig Beethoven is probably turning in his grave. And Chairman Mao too, must be a little astonished at how his legacy is being spun.”

Clay Chandler (Fortune Magazine reporter): “ When you actually go see how they run their employees at their stores, what I was struck with was the similarities between the Chinese Communist Party Organizational pattern. They get these people together in groups, they organize them in very small cells, everybody is very aware of what everybody else is doing within their cell, and encouraged to kind of talk about each other. They sing songs together. They do little drills to create workers solidarity. They run around in red shirts. And they do Wal-Mart Company cheers. They look like nothing so much as the old Red Guard of the Cultural Revolution.”

It's interesting to see how increasingly Gordian our entanglements are becoming with the rest of the world on economic terms. We can't just assume the isolationists stance because it no longer is realistic and hasn't been for many years. Therefore, solutions to our economic situations are more complex than they ever were. Snap answers and judgments no longer need apply.

And then there's that issue of Immigration . . .

(I would urge you to check out ABC Radio Nationals website as well as streaming audio - they are one of the best and as I have said before, they offer information about our own country not generally available here. So in addition to the CBC and the BBC, add this one to your daily dial hopping for useful information).

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(The Transpersonals - would you buy a used mind from these lads?)

Another MySpace discovery. The Transpersonals. This time a bit of psych from Bristol England, a place where a lot (aside from Skins) seems to be happening. I think this track, Look At The Sun is off an ep they issued last year, but I'm not 100% certain of that.

You know the drill - check out their MySpace page, check out their gig list, check out what's new. They can use your support as I don't see them getting any mainstream radio airplay any lifetime soon.

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(John Daly - insisted on calling Hunter S. Thompsons writing style "Bongo Journalism")

In lieu of the recent Senate Bill that questions validity of citizen bloggers, I went back to a National Town Meeting broadcast from 1974 to hear what the status of the media was then. It wasn't that much better, particularly if you were judged to be in the "alternative media" which meant the Underground press back then. However, in all fairness, in 1974 Broadcast news departments were ten times the size they are now. The hours spent on documentaries and special news programming was huge and newspapers offered a plethora of in-depth reports and daily investigative journalism. Unrecognizable from what they are today.

The panel on this broadcast consisted of Pat Buchanan, Richard Harwood of The Washington Post, Richard Goodwin of Rolling Stone and Thomas Asher of the Media Access Project. The program was moderated (and somewhat mangled) by , former newscaster for ABC and CBS, game show host and professional personality.

The subject was "Critiquing The Media" and of course Buchanan spends much time railing against the injustices of the "librul media" and complaining about imbalance. This coming from a man who was deeply entrenched in the Nixon White House.

The subject of Hunter S. Thompson comes up and that's when Daly lets his disconnect be known. Unable to say the words "gonzo Journalism" he insists on a variation of either Bongo and Bonzo Journalism and dismisses it, as does Buchanan who dismisses Rolling Stone in general as no representation of actual news reporting - the only news to be had was from The New York Times or The Washington Post and perhaps Time Magazine.

Richard Goodwin: “I’m not in favor of fictional journalism, and the headline I gave an example, is not intended as fiction, but as fact. I think one of the problems that you have is, even use of the word fact and what constitutes a fact. You’re talking about convictions, attitudes, opinions, judgments. These aren’t facts in the sense that a glass of water is a fact. They require that you impose your own judgment. Somebody says something; is he lying, does he mean it, is it true? And simply to say that he said it, in itself is an assertion, at least to the people who read it, that perhaps or probably what he said is true. It’s a fact that he said it, but he may not be speaking facts or the truth. And unfortunately, most things, most interesting or complicated things in the world are not very, it’s not often easy to decide what the facts are without bringing to it a set of values and personal convictions. And if you withdraw from that you allow those who make the presentation to you to determine what the truth is . . .”

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(Fabienne DelSol - when you thought music got boring, she comes along)

When I started this nightly feature, it was completely in my head to play things that were of a certain vintage that hadn't been heard in a long time, if ever. I more or less drew the line at the new decade, believing there are enough avenues and opportunities to make new discoveries and to hear new acts without my help. But then I thought, who was I to exclude artists who were incredible. If anything, new artists on the scene need more help getting their work across than ones who have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. These are the new ones going for the long haul and they need every bit of support we can give them, and they need to be discovered and heard by as many people as possible.

With that said, we're expanding our coverage to include everything, no matter how old or new - the one rule of thumb is that it's good and not mainstream.

So tonight I've started with an artist I first discovered on MySpace, Fabienne DelSol. As much as people like to rag on social networks as excuses for navel-gazing, they can serve a very useful purpose. And MySpace has been excellent in exposing the world to bands and artists in a matter of days where it used to take months, if not years to accomplish. Her track "And I have Learnt To Dream", the b-side of her single "I'm Gonna Get Me A Rat" is one of the most haunting and beautiful songs I have heard in years - with excellent production and part of a very rich cataloge of work, not only as a solo artist but with her backup band The Bristols.

Check this track out - and I urge you to visit one of her many sites. In addition to MySpace, she has a Facebook page and Damaged Goods, her record company site as well. It is completely worth it.

It's discoveries like this that let me know we're not doing nearly as bad musically as we think.

And that's a big relief.

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(Enrique Fernandez Arbos - helped put Albeniz on the map. Spain went along too)

Composer/Conductor/Violinist conducting his arrangement of a friends composition. Happens all the time, right? Enrique Fernandez Arbos was a talented composer in his own right, but he was also a very talented musician who also held the post of Music Director of the Madrid Symphony from 1904 until 1936.

He's probably best known as the orchestral arranger of a set of piano pieces composed by his friend Isaac Albeniz. An arrangement that has probably done more for Albeniz' career than anything else. And it helped establish Iberia as a staple in the concert hall (at least in the first half of the 20th century).

This 1928 recording, made for Spanish Columbia was part of a series of recordings Arbos made of Spanish composers that helped create an awareness of just how rich the vein of talent was in Spain, rather than always depend on French composers and musicians to take the honors for Spanish themed works. Arbos did a considerable amount to further the cause of Spanish culture to the rest of the world. One that was gaining considerable momentum before Civil War broke out in 1936. Arbos died in 1939. It wouldn't be until well after the end of World War 2 that it would resume. By that time a whole new generation of musicians and composers appeared.

And they probably owe a small debt of gratitude to Enrique Fernandez Arbos for getting the ball rolling.

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(John & Beverley Martyn - 1970 - further evidence music is timeless)

When my friend Mig Schillace mentioned he was working on a John Martyn tribute project, I instantly thought of some of the great albums he had done throughout his all-too-short career. One that came to mind was a collaboration he had done with his then-wife Beverley. Stormbringer was always one of my favorites. To me it was one of those perfect albums that has stood the test of time these, almost forty years.

For some reason, and I can't explain why, time seems to stop when I listen to The Ocean. Somehow seems apropos on a Saturday night.