When I first heard the shocking story of the trapped Chilean miners, the song that immediately popped into my head was that old Bee Gees song "New York Mining Disaster 1941," as it so perfectly fits this, and any similarly tragic scenario. The song was recorded and released in 1967 as a single and was the first hit by the Australian sibling group, then in their Beatles-inspired, harmony-driven, sixties rock band phase. This was a good decade before their phenomenally successful disco phase, spurred by the mega popular Saturday Night Fever soundtrack that they were featured heavily on.

The poignant song's lyrics impressively were written and recorded when the Bee Gees were only in their teens. The lyrics include, "I keep straining my ears to hear a sound. Maybe someone is digging underground, or have they given up and all gone home to bed." Until just two weeks ago, when they miraculously discovered the miners in Chile, authorities in San Jose had actually given up ever finding these trapped men. "Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones," sing the Bee Gees. Their song was actually not about a New York mining disaster but, according to the liner notes for their box-set Tales from the Brothers Gibb (1990), was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster in Wales.

Not long ago Amoeba brought in an original 1964 Japanese pressing of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night LP. Typically, we have found that we are able to fetch upwards of $250 for that record in Near Mint condition (which this copy was). However, the LP we purchased also had that strip of paper, printed primarily in Japanese, that it was originally purchased with back in 1964. "Big deal!," one might think, but, yes...it is.

The "obi," a term borrowed from the sash worn as a belt around the midsection of a kimono, is a piece of ephemera that many people throw away when they first crack open their Japanese vinyl. A word of advice: Don't do that! Because the Beatles album had that slim belt of paper, 45 years old and in almost all other cases, discarded, it was worth closer to $2,000!

Obi fans and collectors will nod their heads, "of course!" So much is the appeal of the fine attention to detail and the often beautiful "extra something" lent by the obi that, fairly early in the history of the CD, Japanese CD manufacturers began making LP replica CD's, complete with scale versions of their accompanying obis...and another voracious collectors' market was born.

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It’s been disheartening to see the lack of coverage the floods in Pakistan have been getting in L.A. The relief efforts have been slow, and contributions to relief organizations have been much less than one would expect for a disaster of that magnitude. Surely the media's bias against Muslim countries doesn’t help. Add a depressed economy and other variables and most relief groups will tell you that funds are not rolling in to help the millions affected by the floods.

But how about the people that seem to champion every worldly cause? You, know, the ones that seem to Tweet or send Facebook links about global warming or “Haiti: One Year Later?" When local deejay Kutmah was deported, people came from all over the city to donate and help out, especially those not privy to immigrant rights issues. He is only one person and look at the effort that went to help him! It's amazing what people can do when focused. In Pakistan, there are 20 million people affected by the flooding. You would think there would be an uproar about the lack of aid and humanity.

How bout those artists that seem to write a song about any social issue in the media? There are no “We Are The World” style songs for Pakistan. I guess if the media isn’t covering Pakistan, then there will be no coverage for a song about Pakistan. Like the expression goes, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" So why bother writing that song, right?

Once upon a time, one or two hundred thousand years ago or so, anatomically human beings appeared on the scene in Africa. About 60,000 years ago, there may have been as many as 5,000 people living on the planet. A number, possibly around 150, decided to cross the Red Sea... following the lead of their cousins, Homo erectus, who'd decided to look for new real estate some 2 million years earlier.


The humans traveled along the Arabian coast and, once arriving in South Asia, decided to settle down for a while. Over thousands of years, physical differences would develop in humans that spread from this population; lighter skin allowed for the absorption of Vitamin D3 as people moved into less sunny climes. Nowadays we usually call these descendants Asians and white people. But the people that moved on through Southeast Asia to Australia don't have a name nearly as recognized. To my ears, Australoid sounds so clunky... does the "oid" suffix ever sound good? Some of the more widely used terms in their respective cultures include the vague "black," "negrito" and "aborigine." I'm going to suggest Australo-Melanesian for now... If that catches on, maybe future generations will shorten it to AMs, Ausmels or something catchier. But for now, I'd merely like to focus on both the diversity and solidarity of these various peoples.