| New York City - Mohammad Rahman, 36, Brooklyn, racked up three accidents on his second day on a new job as a new cab driver. It all started at 9 a.m. when, cops say, he rammed into a parked car. Rahman said the car rammed into his cab, he even called police to report the accident. An hour later, Rahman said he paused for a light. He got nervous, though, when the light changed and that cars started to honk while he waited for pedestrians to clear the crosswalk. "I got confused, and my feet just slipped from the brake to the accelerator," Rhaman said. That`s when he struck a 22-year-old man from New Jersey. When police showed up and began converging on his cab, Rahman ran into another car. Cops said he was leaving the scene, but he said he was only trying to park his taxi so it wouldn`t block traffic. Rahman is looking for another line of work. |
| Francis Bacon: One of the most influential minds of the late 16th century. A statesman, a philosopher, a writer, and a scientist, he was even rumored to have written some of Shakespeare`s plays. How he died: Stuffing snow into a chicken. One afternoon in 1625, Bacon was watching a snowstorm and was struck by the wondrous notion that maybe snow could be used to preserve meat in the same way that salt was used. Determined to find out, he purchased a chicken from a nearby village, killed it, and then, standing outside in the snow, attempted to stuff the chicken full of snow to freeze it. The chicken never froze, but Bacon did. Jerome Irving Rodale: Founding father of the organic food movement, creator of "Organic Farming and Gardening" magazine, and founder of Rodale Press, a major publishing corporation. How he died: On the "Dick Cavett Show", while discussing the benefits of organic foods. Rodale, who bragged "I`m going to live to be 100 unless I`m run down by a sugar-crazed taxi driver," was only 72 when he appeared on the "Dick Cavett Show" in January 1971. Part way through the interview, he dropped dead in his chair. Cause of death: heart attack. The show was never aired. Aeschylus: Greek playwright in 500 BC. Many historians consider him the father of Greek tragedies. How he died: An eagle dropped a tortoise on his head According to legend, eagles picked up tortoises and attempt to crack them open by dropping them on rocks. An eagle mistook Aeschylus` head for a rock (he was bald) and dropped it on him instead. Jim Fixx: Author of the best selling "Complete Book of Running," which started the 70`s jogging craze. How he died: A heart attack....while jogging Fixx was visiting Greensboro, Vermont when he walked out of his house and began jogging. He`d only gone a short distance when he had a massive coronary. His autopsy revealed that one of his coronary arteries was 99% clogged, another was 80% obstructed, and a third was 70% Blocked....and that Fixx had had three other attacks in the weeks prior to his death. And finally there`s Lully, the 16th-century composer who wrote music for the king of France. While rehearsing the musicians, he got too serious beating time with his staff, and drove it right through his foot. He died of infection. |
| 16/07/2000.
It`s November 1997, and Scottish-born Esra Tasasiz is living in Brussels, holding down a full-time job and hanging around a studio, singing on house records in her spare time. One day, a mutual friend introduces her to Pierre Mussche, Ernst Meinrath and Renaud Charlier, collectively known as Musicom - three professional studio types, crafting tracks of cool electronic ambience and atmospheric, orchestral hip-hop, as soundtracks for adverts and films. Pierre, Ernst and Renaud all met when they used to do the music for fashion shows for the Antwerp Three, namely Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Walter van Bierendonck. The four strike up a professional relationship for the purpose of recording a short, commercial piece of music, but the chemistry is startling, and it quickly becomes obvious that the tracks laid down in the sessions work outside the confines of cinematography. The four form Airlock, and around the confines of day jobs and advert commisions, the chill beauty of `Drystar` begins to take shape. True, there`s a precedent in the itchy DJ Krush-isms of `DJ Risk Vs Airlock`, the edgy Underworld-on-downers atmospheric of `In The Mouth Of The Fish`, or the Massive Attack-esque avant-garde torchsong `Awakening`. But Airlock`s charm is the way they take their expertise of a modern studio, their commercial nous - and then slowly, surely twist such elegant compositions into alien shapes. During the making of `Drystar`, Airlock struck up a relationship with cult film director Olvier Van Hoofstadt, and wrote some tracks in conjunction with the making of three of his films - Keo, Snuff Movie, and James-Bond-as-a-psycho-bitch-from-hell action thriller Parabellum. `Face Down`, the composition that appeared on Parabellum, crossed over onto European radio stations, and then made its way across to British record companies as part of a demo tape. Innundated with contracts, Airlock were spoilt for choice, but eventually signed to One Little Indian. "We were impressed by their laid-back style, their flexibility," explains Esra. `Drystar` was painstakingly pieced together over two-and-a-half years, featuring further production from Pascal Gabriel and Pete Davis. Meanwhile, Airlock surfaced from their Brussels studio to hone their live set, playing multi-media events in Belgian clubs. Plans for a comprehensive European tour are still being thrashed out, but expect Airlock to hit the road shortly after the release of the album. |
| 08/03/2000. Manchild - Untied States Pt. 1 In a funny way, the most important debut album of the year 2000 has been over ten years in the making. Untied States is Manchild s opening salvo on the boundaries of genre-obsessed dance music. It s an album born out of the euphoric modernism of acid house, as experienced by Manchild s core duo, Max Odell and Brett Parker, but it draws on the culture of a over a dozen peers, friends and collaborators - an aural patchwork of musical history that encompasses old-skool breaking, rastafari call-and-response MCing, atmospheric electronic soundscaping, and the plain old thrills of dumb-ass rock n roll. The title was lifted from a typo in a book that Max s brother was reading on the films of Jean-Luc Godard. We thought that was a cool title , explains Max because it describes Manchild s ethnic, social, religious background and the eclecticism of the album. The seeds of Manchild were first sewn when Max met Brett at Longwick Nursery School in Buckinghamshire, at the age of five. By the ripe old age of thirteen, the pair were listening to jazz, rock, indie and hip-hop - Herbie Hancock, AC/DC, Talk Talk, and the Ultramagnetic MCs, and as acid house suddenly moved overground, Max and Brett bought a sampler, hung up the instruments, and began making electronic music in earnest, inspired by nascent dance-rock hybrid acts like Bomb The Bass. In 1997, Max graduated from university, put together a demo tape of his and Brett s music, and sent out forty demo tapes containing rough demos of some of the tracks on Untied States . Over thirty A&R men turned out to Manchild s debut gig in their adopted hometown of Cardiff, and the duo were inundated with contracts. Manchild s music caught the ear of Mike Champion who soon afterwards agreed terms with Max and Brett to manage them. |