Majikat (Earth Tour 1976)
DVD Stores just might be a nightmare, especially the music section. I really do like concert DVD's. Last week I happened to step in a store that has a big range of music dvd's (More than any other store in Istanbul I guess)(And also I think most expensive in Istanbul too) (Megavizyon, yes!)
Anyway, I bought two music DVD's: Jethro Tull - A New Day Yesterday: The 25th Anniversary Collection, 1969-1994 (2003) and Cat Stevens - Majikat (Earth Tour 1976). They are both great but I will just mention Majikat here.
Recorded just past his commercial zenith and about a year and a half before he quit the music business for good, this concert recording from Cat Stevens's mid-'70s Majikat tour (filmed in Williamsburg, Virginia) lay unused in the vaults for the better part of three decades, and its 2004 release is a reminder of just how successful and talented he was.
Apart from a great concert with high quality sound you can also watch 3 part interview with Yusuf Islam. With a great english he tells all about his childhood, stardom, escape from the fame and his present life.
Here you can find the relesase announcement in yusufislam.org.uk and here is the official advert.
So... CatStevens.com is a great source about the artist with up-to-date information and news and personal statements as well. Or you can go check yusufislam.org.uk
And also here is a very recent interview:
'Terrorist? They wanted my autograph'
Yusuf Islam – the former Cat Stevens – talks to Christa D'Souza about his bemusement at being refused entry to the United States. Click to read it all...
Park at your peril -- the tow trucks are lurking
Last week my car was towed away from the place I always park at the day time. (In fact I don't generally drive to work as I prefer te ferry but when I came to work really early in the morning -around 7.15 am- I always park in the same place)
As I was searching about the towing trucks -I was interested in them because the place I parked was really narrow and hard to tow anything away and the towed my car without any scratches- I found this article about towing guys & Starbucks in Seattle Post Intelligencer:
Park at your peril -- the tow trucks are lurking
Private lots earn them a bonanza, but is it legal?
The signs posted at private parking lots across Washington might read, "For customers only," but they could just as well say, "Park if you dare."
That's the conclusion Will Snipes reached the night his truck was towed from a Capitol Hill Starbucks that had just closed for the night.
After Starbucks closes, tow trucks have been moving in on this East Olive Way parking lot. Now Starbucks has asked them not to come unless called.
"I came out of the Starbucks and the lot was cleared," Snipes recalled of that Friday night last month. "I thought I remembered parking in the lot, but I walked up and down the street clicking my key chain, looking for my truck, thinking maybe I didn't."
Then a couple on the sidewalk told him his truck had been towed -- along with every other vehicle outside the Starbucks on East Olive Way -- in a massive sweep unlike anything they had ever seen.
It's happened on other nights as well. Unbeknownst to Starbucks executives, who contract with TBT Towing, trucks were lined up, their drivers waiting for the stroke of midnight when the cafe locked its doors, making all the vehicles parked there technically "unauthorized."
If the Starbucks is closed, the people who arrived in those vehicles are no longer customers. And the towing company stands to make thousands of dollars in towing and impound fees from that lot and others that TBT contracts with, two of the company's tow truck drivers told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Local government regulators consider this practice, called "patrol towing," illegal. But TBT says it operates within the law because the company had permission from Starbucks to take specific vehicles off the lot.
"We would've been shut down years ago if we hadn't been doing everything by the book," said Larry Porter, driver supervisor with TBT Towing, adding that businesses always give his drivers permission.
Starbucks representatives said they didn't call the tow company to clear the lot, but that employees signed permission forms that authorized the towing. Starbucks subsequently asked the company not to show up unless called.
But watch out. What happened to Snipes could start happening more often. State laws banning these kinds of patrol towing sweeps may be invalid under an act of Congress that was designed to deregulate the trucking industry 10 years ago. State and local governments have had their own rules against patrol towing since before the deregulation law, but they're not strictly enforced.
Patrol towing, also called "roam towing" in some areas, is how impound companies control private parking lots. The truck drivers, under blanket permission from the property owner, will drive by a lot to make sure no one is parked there who isn't supposed to be. Unauthorized vehicles are towed immediately.
Under Washington law, tow truck operators can't take a car unless authorized by a property owner or law enforcement officer to tow a specific vehicle. Washington began banning patrol towing with legislation in 1985, nine years before the congressional action.
Companies across the country have been challenging local towing laws since the federal deregulation of the motor-carrier industry in 1994. For the past 10 years, the nation's tow truck industry has been waging a war against local regulation, winning limited court battles in New York, Florida and Tennessee, among other districts.
The Independent Towers of Washington, an industry group, had lost a lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Western Washington challenging the state's towing laws.
But a year ago, a San Diego firm, West Coast Towing, won a federal case against that city, earning the right to patrol for unauthorized vehicles there. The city of San Diego has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit for a review of the case, the results of which would carry weight in Washington.
"We're talking about the rights of the property owners versus the rights of the customers," said John Tillison, who owns West Coast Towing. "If it's private property, you don't have a right to park there. The business might allow you to park there, but that's not your right."
Tillison filed a federal lawsuit in Tacoma last fall against Gov. Gary Locke and Attorney General Christine Gregoire for continuing to enforce Washington's towing laws, which he believes the San Diego case has proved invalid.
But even under Washington state's laws, there is not much a vehicle owner can do besides taking a tow company to District Court for a post-impound hearing. No single agency keeps track of contested tows, so it's uncertain how prevalent the practice is in Washington.
The city has little authority over private parking lots, said Mel McDonald, Seattle's director of revenue and consumer affairs. Drivers have more consumer protection parking at government-run meters and legal street spaces.
"If the businesses are letting their tow truck operators run roughshod over their customers, that's not good, but you don't want government to regulate everything," McDonald said. "It's up to the businesses to treat their customers fairly."
Towing companies contract with property owners or companies leasing property for exclusive towing from a lot. According to local posting laws, signs in the lot must display the contracted towing company's name, address and telephone number. Signs usually read that cars could be towed 24 hours a day.
Starbucks on East Olive Way has towing signs posted in the parking lot, as well as a sign that reads "no overnight parking." But what that means is unclear, and can depend on factors such as when a business opens and closes.
"Starbucks has had a lot of problems with that lot," Porter said. "People litter. People park there in the middle of the night, their cars get damaged, and then they go blame Starbucks. So we go in there and we tow whoever shouldn't be there."
But Starbucks doesn't want to be towing its customers, said company spokeswoman Lara Wyss. Cafe managers only care that they have enough parking for customers when the shop is open.
"We had no idea this was happening," Wyss said.
Snipes, who got to the impound lot 10 minutes after his truck did, was charged $280 to get his vehicle back. Because he didn't have that much money with him, he spent the next hour calling friends, going back and forth to his apartment and finding a credit card to get his truck out of hock.
"It's pretty much between the impound company and the lot owner," McDonald said. But "trucks still can't go trolling for cars."
Tillison, who opened up a shop in Kent last year, patrols residential parking lots in Kent and Renton. With a "general authorization" contract, he tows a lot of apartment visitors who are parked in the wrong spaces.
He said he's been summoned to a lot of impound hearings, too.
Kent police and the Washington State Patrol say that West Coast Towing is acting illegally. But Tillison says he will continue to defy Washington's law as long as the federal courts hold that states may not regulate his business.
"I run my business professionally. I take care of my clients," he said.
Independent Towers of Washington President Jerry Goddard, who owns a tow company in Olympia, said towers who don't treat their customers' customers well and don't follow local laws give the industry a bad reputation.
And while patrol towing remains illegal in Washington, "if they're caught, they should be fined and lose their licenses, in my opinion," he said. "There are just some people who don't want to play by the regulations."
READ THE SIGNS
Private parking lots that contract with a towing company must have signs that list the name of the towing company, its address and telephone number. Signs also must indicate what time of day vehicles can be towed.
Be aware that parking in front of or near a business may not be owned by that business. The same goes for parking near condos and apartments.
If your vehicle is towed, be sure to request an impound hearing with the municipal court in the jurisdiction where the vehicle was towed as soon as possible. People have 10 days to file a request before the court considers the right to an impound hearing waived.
In fact I am really fond of eating but I guess someone has to stop me somehow. I think I am getting heavier and heavier although I go to gym every morning. (Ok not every morning) I think I have to eat less... Wish me luck... :)
