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The calendar as follows are some of our top picks for music and entertainment in Los Angeles right now and for the next few months. * indicates favorite top picks. Be there.



September 2014

1, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Queen Mary
*3, Stiff Little Fingers, El Rey
4, OK Go, Free at Santa Monica Pier
*11, Lee Scratch Perry, Free- Santa Monica Pier
12, Accept, Metal Church, Raven, The Saban Theatre
*13, GBH, Adolescents, the 5th Wave, Fonda




*12-14, The Simpson's Take the Bowl, with Nancy Cartwright, Jon Lovitz, Conan O'Brien and Gay Men's Chorus of L.A., Weird Al, the Orchestra, Yankovic, Matt Groening, and more, Hollywood Bowl
*13, Charles Aznavour, Greek Theatre
*8, The Breeders, Daniel Johnston, and more, Hollywood Bowl
19, Samhain, plus others, Wiltern
16, 17, Rise Against, Wiltern
17, The Buzzcocks, Fonda
*20, Sunset Strip Music Festival with Jane's Addiction, Failure, Cold War Kids, and more
*21, SSMF again with Empire of the Sun, and others
23, La Roux, Fonda
Tears for Fears, Wiltern
24, Ravonettes, El Rey
25, The Kooks, Wiltern
26, 27, Jackson Browne, Lucinda Williams and many more, Way over Yonder festival at Santa Monica Pier
27, Men without Hats, Whisky a Go Go
*27, 28, Bob Mould, Roxy
28, Against Me, Gaslight Anthem, Palladium

October
3,4, Crosby Stills and Nash, Greek Theatre
6, 7, Lorde, Greek Theatre
7, Robert Plant, Palladium
10, Lil Allen, Hollywood Palladium
18, Moon Block Party with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Band of Skulls, Black Lips, food, camping, and more, Pomona Fairplex
24, 25, Erasure, Palladium
31, The Adicts, House of Blues Sunset




November

8, Slowdive, The Theatre at Ace Hotel
*13, Misfits (minus Danzig), The Dickes, D.I., Total Chaos, House of Blues
20, Sky Ferreira, Belsasco Theater
21, Primus, Orpheum Theatre
29, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Fonda

LIVE MUSIC REVIEW

Night Train Music Club

Night Train Music Club played a very entertaining free concert in Pasadena on the 4th of July. The bands ever changing line up is as follows: Bass - Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report, Santana, Michael Jackson), Drums - Michael Jerome (Better Than Ezra, John Cale), Percussion - Ramon Yslas (Stevie Nicks, Christina Aguilera), Keyboards - Peter Adams (Tears For Fears), Saxaphone - Joe Sublett (Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Rolling Stones), Guitar/vocals - Steve Postell (John Oates), with guests for this special night we saw; Dan Navarro, Tom Freund, and Amilia Spicer; the latter two who soared vocally, with Tom Freund dominating vocally, and Amilia, only second because her vocals were not miked loud enough. The band put on a great show which was highly entertaining and appreciated by a wide and varying group of people, appealing to music lovers of all genres from rock, country, blues, and more.

"Sometimes the mark of a man is that he’s always remembered as the boy next door." - Amilia Spicer

Human Rights Report

FDA Must Pull the Plug on Rotenberg Center Electroshocking Kids—UN Calls Use of Electroshock as Punishment Akin to Torture

By Kelly Patricia O’Meara

With its use of electroshock used as punishment for misbehaving youth, the infamous Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), just outside of Boston, has been dubbed by Mother Jones as the “the school of shock” and its practices likened to torture by the United Nations. Now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must rule whether the device being used to inflict shock treatment on troubled kids should be banned. This should be a no brainer, but, apparently, the FDA needs time to consider.



Despite six children having died in its care, many patient reports of abuse, FOX news showing a child writhing and screaming in agony as he is repeatedly shocked, and numerous lawsuits and damning governmental investigative reports, the facility now is in its fourth decade. But the frequency of continued complaints—both national and international—about JRC’s reward / punishment methods finally has prompted federal regulators to act—or, at least “think” about acting.

In April of this year, a special advisory panel of the FDA recommended a ban on the use of electrical stimulation devices (electroshock) for child behavior control or “aversive conditioning” at JRC. Despite the recommendations from the panel, the FDA has failed to act and pull the plug on the “treatment” used at JRC that literally has been called torture.

Considering that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United Nations have already cited the use of “aversion therapy” at JRC as torture and possible violations of civil rights, one can only wonder what the holdup is with the FDA. In 2010, Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, said that when he finished reading a report issued by Mental Disability Rights Institute, he sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. government, urging an investigation into the school. “This is torture,” said Nowak.



In 2013, Juan E. Mendez, the new United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, wrote that the rights of the students at Judge Rotenberg Center who have been subjected to “electric shock and physical means of restraints have been violated under the U.N. Convention against Torture and other international standards.” And, according to the U.S. Government, “the use of aversive therapy by JRC has been challenged through a variety of state and federal legislative and judicial actions,” including the DOJ’s investigation into possible violations of civil rights laws.

While proponents of the electroshock devices explain that they are “harmless,” those who have been on the receiving end tell of a very different experience. One patient explained that it feels “like a thousand bees stinging you in the same place for a few seconds,” adding “it is torture, in the plainest sense of the word.”

Still, the JRC defends the use of electroshock, and proponents for it state that “it discourages aggressive or self-injurious behavior.” But former students disagreed, telling the FDA panel they had been shocked “for things like noncompliance with staff direction, talking too much and being disruptive in class.” During the April FDA public hearing on the JRC devices, nearly 20 advocacy and patient representative groups provided testimony, calling the products “unsafe,” “inhumane,” and a form of torture. Even the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C., testified that “the use of noxious electrical stimulants is inhumane.”

In deciding on whether a ban should be imposed, the FDA said “the absence of systematic data establishing the effectiveness of the devices makes the study of ESDs [electric shock devices] for aversive conditioning more difficult to justify.” Yes, torture always is difficult to justify. And, given what already is known by the federal agency about JRC’s electric devices, it is difficult to justify the FDA’s reluctance to right a terrible, inhumane, wrong.

Kelly Patricia O’Meara is an award-winning former investigative reporter for the Washington Times’ Insight Magazine, penning dozens of articles exposing the fraud of psychiatric diagnosis and the dangers of the psychiatric drugs—including her ground-breaking 1999 cover story, “Guns & Doses,” exposing the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed book, Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill. Prior to working as an investigative journalist, O’Meara spent sixteen years on Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer to four Members of Congress. She holds a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Maryland.



With the exception of content by Ms. Omeara which is copyright Ms. Omeara and CCHR, 2014, the remainder of this page is anti-copyright, subnormal magazine, 2014.