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May 29, 2004
Drinking Longest, When All Booze Is Gone
For the record, imbibing five shots of vodka within an hour while watching all five (yes, five) hours of Pride & Prejudice isn't nearly as fun as it sounds. Sure, you get to see Colin Firth soaking wet, but that happened in Love, Actually too and nothing could save that pile of crap. Not that the particulars matter—since between the two of us, my roommate and I own the entire collection—but as far as Jane Austen adaptations go, at present I'm all about Persuasion.
Viva la vodka! I'm going to bed.
Posted in General Nonsense | 29 May 2004 at 01:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (5526) | Link
May 28, 2004
Strictly Monochrome, Super 8
For those in the mood for a little bit of looove, A Million Love Songs is the place for you. Stephin Merritt be damned; the group of editors are set to post links to mp3s of—you guessed it—a million love songs. The selection is eclectic and thus far errs on the side of cheese, but with that many songs they're bound to come up with some brilliant choices.
Or, if you find you're in the mood for meditating on a one night stand with an underage girl, here is The Decemberists' live in Athens covering The Outfield's "Your Love." {Via largehearted boy}
If you have ever wondered how "The Dukes of Hazzard" could impart a broader social message through its application to the world of open source software, your ship has finally come in!
Posted in A/V Dorkout | 28 May 2004 at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (59) | Link
May 27, 2004
Someday's Child
Things that are already bumming me out about The Day After Tomorrow:
01. It contains neither zombies nor pirates.
02. My mom saw an ad for the movie and thinks it looks "cool."
03. Jake Gyllenhaal is in it. Whither hast thou gone, dramatic credibility?
04. People continually refer to the events in the movie as though it is a literal depiction of the results of global warming. Apparently everyone is illiterate, as even hardcore climate scientists see global warming progressing, at most, a single degree per year. While yes, this does mean the world is heating up, one degree is not going to melt the zillion tons of ice that make up the polar ice caps overnight. I'm all about having a front row seat when New York is washed out in a tsunami or when California falls into the ocean, but I sincerely doubt than any CGI orgy Hollywood releases is going to come close to what will happen when the world enters another ice age—which, might I add, is going to happen after we are all long dead. Barring, of course, a large asteroid colliding with the planet.
05. Roland Emmerich is the bastard love-child of Michael "Boom Boom" Bay and Jerry "Vrooooom!" Bruckheimer.
Posted in Quoi? | 27 May 2004 at 02:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (32) | Link
Dirty Old Town
ALERT! Tonight at 9PM, The Way the Music Died will air on PBS.
A large chunk of the art collection of Charles Saatchi—known for his patronage of the Young British Artist movement—has been destroyed by fire in London. I can't claim to be that upset (as most art after 1960 makes me physically ill) but I think it is sad when anyone's work is destroyed, no matter what my feelings about it are.
RCA has released a new DVD player which allows the users to purchase filters that edit out objectionable material during viewing. Not to sound old-fashioned or anything, but my parents always managed to edit out anything they found objectionable in what I was watching. You could save the $70 price tag by spending some time parenting your children, rather than letting the television do it for you.
For the other geeks out there, here is the most complete incomplete map of Springfield. Yes, that Springfield.
And suddenly, all those annoying creative writing blogs are starting to make sense.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 27 May 2004 at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (38) | Link
May 26, 2004
Take One for the Team
There seems to be a sore lack of contention going on around here of late. I know that there is no dearth of opinions floating in the ether (at least among the readers known to me personally), but there is a curious lack of reaction being displayed.
Perhaps I'm going to have to get more forceful and overblown in my writing to force it out of you. I can be hyperbolic and hysterical if I have to.
Posted in General Nonsense | 26 May 2004 at 06:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (45) | Link
Run, Rabbit, Run
Upcoming film of potential interest to any horror fans visiting today: Home Sick, starring Bill Moseley (Otis of House of 1000 Corpses fame). He's still creepy in a plaid sportcoat, so hopefully this will turn out to be as enjoyable as House was.
In news with no relation to horror films, there is some new information on the SCO Group's lawsuits over ownership of Linux. Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, has proposed a new documentation system that will counter any future efforts to dispute the legitimacy of the Linux kernel. This will primarily effect future code that is added, as Torvalds pointed out that he authored much of the code in dispute and what he hadn't authored had been documented for the most part by the other developers.
Posted in General Nonsense | 26 May 2004 at 03:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (18) | Link
May 25, 2004
Lay Waste to Babylon
Everyone's good buddies over at Clear Channel have now cornered the market on live concert CDs. CC purchased the patent to the technology used to produce such discs, and now claims to own the rights to any such recording produced and sold at the event. This means that they are not only squeezing out competing firms, but they are preventing bands from selling recordings of their own performances at those shows. Inconceivable!
In other loathsome news, the RIAA has filed suits against an additional 493 file sharers in the on-going war against a phantom enemy.
I know that there are other sensible people out there who agree with me, but this kind of hubris is almost too much to believe. I may be cynical and world weary, but these two tidbits are taking ridiculous to new levels.
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 25 May 2004 at 04:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (28) | Link
May 24, 2004
Moderation, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?
Being neither a Republican nor a Democrat (for equal amounts of the ridiculous inherent in both parties), I enjoy my place as a fairly staunch middle-grounder. I have lots of opinions on any number of political topics and being without a party allows me to pick and choose candidates based on qualifications rather than any nagging feelings of allegiance to a group. That being said, I have long mourned the defeat of Senator John McCain as the Republican candidate for the Presidency in 2000.
I have no more bias against the GOP than I do for any other party—in general, political parties are made up of fanatics and zealots, two groups that make little-to-no sense on any issue. Partisanship is a curse that plagues all houses equally.
Because of my feelings about political parties, I have a hard time getting fully behind candidates (mostly because I feel they are puppets, obligingly nodding to the beat of the party drum). My opinions generally run further left than right according to the current party scheme, and McCain is one of the first conservatives that ever made sense to me; mostly, the word "conservative" inspires frightening visions of church+state, back-alley abortions, deteriorating care for the poor, tax breaks for the rich, unmitigated xenophobia (if not all-out warmongering), intolerance and a frightening thirst for wealth and power. (I could give a similar list for the Dems but I'm not bitching about them today.)
But in the midst of all that negative conservatism comes McCain, who could very well have given Bush a fight for the nomination by lying about his views. Instead, he was vocal about what he thinks and what he would do; not that I believe everything he said, but I appreciate a politican who can be honest despite the consequence of certain defeat. I was really quite sad when McCain lost the nomination, and I have been hoping ever since that the Republicans would come to their senses and send him in to save the day.
It won't happen—thus ending any chance that I would vote Republican in the near future—but a girl can dream, can't she? I mean, how can you not love a man who keeps a list of porkbarrel policies currently in play on his website? He's just enough of an outspoken asshole to be endearing.
Speaking of outspoken assholes, check out these memos, which are Evelyn Waugh's response to Hollywood's treatments of Brideshead Revisted and Scoop. An excellent example of the kind of biting condescention you don't find in the wild anymore; this is what they aren't teaching the children in school!
Kris Kristofferson to release a new album.
Jawbox's For Your Own Special Sweetheart and Jawbox to be re-released this year on DeSoto, possibly including a live DVD.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 24 May 2004 at 03:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (30) | Link
May 21, 2004
Friday and I'm Not Famous Yet
Sure, he's chubby and a purveyor of that horrible branch mass market fiction known as 'lad lit'—only slightly less odious than its cousin, the demeaning and awful 'chick lit'—but Nick Hornby does love rock 'n' roll, and God bless him for it. Mr Hornby has an op-ed piece in the NY Times today about the past, present and future of rock 'n' roll.
In his introduction to the Modern Library edition of "David Copperfield," the novelist David Gates talks about literature hitting "that high-low fork in the road, leading on the one hand toward `Ulysses' and on the other toward `Gone With The Wind,' " and maybe rock music has experienced its own version. You can either chase the Britney dollar, or choose the high-minded cult-rock route that leads to great reviews and commercial oblivion. I buy that arty stuff all the time, and a lot of it is great. But part of the point of it is that its creators don't want to engage with the mainstream, or no longer think that it's possible to do so, and as a consequence cult status is preordained rather than accidental. In this sense, the squeaks and bleeps scattered all over the lovely songs on the last Wilco album sound less like experimentation, and more like a despairing audio suicide note.
Courtesy of the BBC, here is more information on the upcoming Ian Curtis/Joy Divion film travesty with musical elements shaped by Moby.
The Real Tuesday Weld on NPR. {Via largehearted boy.}
In an article that only a few of you could possibly find interesting, Stanley Fish—famous literary theorist and professor—has contributed to the NY Times on the role that academia should have in the world. Here's a hint: it is not what is going on at the moment.
The Gmail craze has already started and nerds the world over are clamoring for beta accounts, which can only be acquired by invitation from a Google employee or Gmail user. To see the full extent of the frenzy visit gmailswap.com, where people who want accounts are offering any number of goods and services in exchange for an invitation to try Gmail.
Some of my personal favorite items up for trade: a formal dinner at Worcester College, Oxford University; an introduction to Tiddlywinks from the #1 ranked high school player in the world; 9,000 ladybugs; this bartender will name a drink after you; sophistry bolstered by Hume, Berkeley and/or Kant; a human kidney (shipping not included); and an Arachnid of Foresight, imbued with the Elixer of Knowledge.
In other weird news, Jesus loves porn stars. The XXXchurch is on a mission from God: to conquer masturbators, fornicators and pornographers. Big props for making a Jesus action figure that looks even remotely like the desert-dwelling, Middle Eastern Jew that he was, however.
Posted in A/V Dorkout | 21 May 2004 at 10:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7) | Link
May 20, 2004
The Mighty McDonald
Oh, the majesty that is Shooter McGavin.
Maybe Christopher McDonald likes his unusual fame niche. Maybe he doesn't want more recognition. Selfishly, though, I'd like to see more of him: As he gets older, maybe the brainless studio whores over there in Satan-land will realize he's a national treasure -- a fiendishly brilliant comic actor on a par with Peter Sellars, Alec Guinness, John Gielgud ... all he needs is MATERIAL, YOU SHORTSIGHTED, CRETINOUS GREEDBAGS. For the love of Christ, somebody, please, PLEASE give that beautiful bastard a DECENT SCRIPT!
Speaking of sleaziness, indie-band-of-the-moment Franz Ferdinand is scoring one of the sex scenes in Michael Winterbottom's upcoming sex-fest Nine Songs. In interesting trivia about the film, none of the sex in the film is simulated and, if released, it will be the most explicit film ever to hit British theatres. Among the other bands performing (music, you perv) in the film are the Super Furry Animals, Black Rebel Motorcyle Club and the Dandy Warhols. The Dandies are the only band that would seem, to the best of my knowledge, to fit with the content in a stylistic manner. But then again, what do I know about filming hardcore porn?
Posted in Quoi? | 20 May 2004 at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (89) | Link
May 19, 2004
Personally, I Find Acoustic Guitars Depressing
Three new songs from the Old 97s forthcoming album, Drag It Up, have been made available. The countdown to July 27th begins now.
"Satellite"
Real | Windows Media
"New Kid"
Real | Windows Media
"Won't Be Home"
Real | Windows Media
In other music-related news, Stephin Merritt, full of his characteristic curmudgeonly charm, has re-entered the world of music criticism with reviews in this week's NY Times. Below is an excerpt, featuring the only two albums he reviewed that I give a damn about; the first I purchased yesterday and enjoyed, while the second is on my list of upcoming purchases. And since this place is all about me, you'll just have to tolerate my abridgement.
MORRISSEY His new album, "You Are the Quarry" (Sanctuary), demonstrates more than ever that the best lyricist in rock, Morrissey, still surrounds himself with dull musicians incapable of properly filling out his introspective kitchen-sink dramas. Plodding generic rock 'n' roll accompanies "Where taxi drivers never stop talking, under slate-gray Victorian sky: Here you'll find despair and I." At this level of lyric artistry, these warmed-over arena rock backdrops are a waste. One longs to lock him up for a year with, say, the pop orchestra the High Llamas, so lyrics like "I've been dreaming of a time when to be English is not to be baneful, to be standing by the flag not feeling shameful, racist or martial" can be matched by equally thoughtful arrangements.
THE REAL TUESDAY WELD Pretentious enough to do a concept album based on the Glen Duncan novel "I, Lucifer," the Real Tuesday Weld (a k a Stephen Coates) is witty enough to carry it off and smart enough to hire Martyn Jacques of the Tiger Lillies to sing the sad parts. "I, Lucifer" (Six Degrees) genre-hops merrily between accordion ballads and dance floor fodder like the single "Bathtime in Clerkenwell," which will remind moviegoers of "The Triplets of Belleville" in its infectious evocation of 1920's cartoon music. No style or tempo lasts more than four minutes, making the record fun for actually listening to, without feeling one should really do the dishes now.
And in yet more music-related news, Brian Wilson still plans to release Smile, the infamous missing Beach Boys album. There's just one catch: he will not be, as previously promised, releasing the original material. He will, instead, be re-recording the album for release this fall.
A funny thing happened on the way to auction off a historical and literary treasure trove of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's things: the major opponent to the sale was recently found garroted to death.
Posted in A/V Dorkout | 19 May 2004 at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (58) | Link
Amusements
The lineup for the LA Film Festival has been announced. Last year they had some really great events—including the sneak preview of (the amazing) 28 Days Later. Unfortunately I didn't do my research and hadn't made arrangements to see some of the other films being shown, including a showing of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari with live orchestra accompaniment. Damn!
But this year...oh, this year there is so much to see I don't know where to begin. Here are some features that look promising (in order of my desire to see them, not my ability to afford the tickets):
GALAS
Garden State
Directed by: Zach Braff
Thursday, June 17, 7:30 p.m.
Zach Braff, star of the TV comedy “Scrubs,” writes, directs, and stars in Garden State, a coming-of-age story that is alternately funny, moving, and sweetly romantic. With Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard.
DOCUMENTARY
Tarnation
Directed by: Jonathan Caouette
Screening TBA
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Dig!
Directed by: Ondi Timoner
Friday, June 25, 9:45 p.m.
Seven years in the making, this portrait of two rock bands — the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre — offers up a heady brew of mad musical geniuses, triumphant world tours, disingenuous death threats, disastrous gigs, and elusive record contracts.
DARK WAVE
Ju-on: The Grudge
Directed by: Shimizu Takashi
Thursday, June 24, 9:45 p.m.
In a quiet Tokyo neighborhood, there lies a house that may be the most terrifying place on Earth and anyone who enters it is marked with a ghostly curse in this Japanese horror sensation.
Haute Tension AKA Switchblade Romance
Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Friday, June 18, 11:45 p.m.
An ominous gray van arrives at the summer home of Alex and Marie and soon the nighttime calm is pierced by screams of terror. This relentlessly violent, astoundingly bloody nerve shredder may test the resolve of even the most ardent horror fan.
Mojave
Directed by: David Kebo and Rudi Liden
Saturday, June 19, 11:45 p.m.
Monday, June 21, 7:15 p.m.
Four friends drive out into the California desert in search of a rave. Nothing could prepare them for what follows, as a night of abandon turns into a day of violence in this thrilling update of Deliverance for a new generation.
PLUS! For those of you who are interested in Beat Takeshi's remake of Zatoichi, it will be showing Monday, May 24 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Posted in General Nonsense | 19 May 2004 at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (48) | Link
May 18, 2004
The Dead Hate the Living
Everyone's favorite faux-DJ asshole (Moby) is producing an upcoming biopic about the life and death of Ian Curtis.
I think this is a monumentally bad idea, not least of all because Moby is a hack and he plans on "shaping the film's musical elements". Here's hoping the decomposed corpse of Ian Curtis rises from the grave to stalk and terrorize His Baldness in retribution for his musical—and soon to be visual—crimes.
Posted in Quoi? | 18 May 2004 at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (37) | Link
May 17, 2004
Casualties and Causality
Our lives are haunted by sound-bite visions of the infuriating morons who run our lives.
Thumbing through a back issue of Rolling Stone on my lunch break, I found an article by Matt Taibbi, writer for the New York Press, on being in the press corps on the Kerry campaign trail, generally dressed for work as a viking. Aside from the outright hatred he has inspired in many people—based primarily on charges that he is too flippant and too biased, unlike all other journalists—his writing is witty and interesting, and I wanted to post the conclusion of his piece because I think it summarizes the candy-coated happy train that is coverage of the presidential election:
If large numbers of Americans are turned off by politics, it's in no small part because they are sick of consuming that singular process the campaign represents: a bunch of rich people talking to one another in front of the help.
Being intrigued by his writing, I naturally hunted up some other articles. Outside of some Onion-style practical joking at the Buffalo Beast and an incident at his paper in Russia, called The eXile, Taibbi now sticks mostly to political and sports reporting at the NY Press and The Nation. (The incident at The eXile was one in which journalists were pitted against one another to determine the worst writer among them; the "winner" of the competition—a reporter from the NY Times—then got a pie in the face. The pie, unfortunately, was filled with horse semen.) Recently, and more seriously, he wrote a piece about the Iraq-Vietnam comparison made by Ted Kennedy. Though he obviously has no great love for politicians of any persuasion, I thought his assessment of our involvement in both wars is the most reasonable I've seen.
And, to continue on my glut of Matt Taibbi stories today, here's a fun quote on the Dean phenomenon from an article in The Nation:
It is probably already possible to speak of the existence of a "Howard Dean problem" in liberal America. The outlines of the problem are as follows: Vast numbers of people, horrified by George Bush and desperate for a positive change, have geared up this election season to throw their weight behind anything resembling a human being. Along comes Howard Dean, a well-spoken, obviously intelligent man who opposes the war in Iraq before it is politically expedient to do so, bluntly calls George Bush by all the names he deserves and quickly builds an impressive insurgent candidacy largely on his own, through the strength of a remarkable Internet version of a word-of-mouth campaign. To many, the choice seems obvious.
But thirsty people can have faulty vision, and when your eyes have burned you enough times, you begin to fear the mirage more than the thirst. And therein, for Howard Dean, lies the problem.
They may have been overzealous and a bit misguided, but at least the Deaniacs didn't fill anyone's face with stallion milk.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 17 May 2004 at 01:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1) | Link
May 14, 2004
We Will Walk You
Imagine a world where a glass of water is anthropomorphic. It takes on the shape of a boyish figure that vaguely resembles a blue Kokopelli, strutting purposefully through sponges and jails, sliding (frozen) down Christmas trees and putting out fires, having little water babies with a female water creature that looks disturbingly like the creature from Predator—all set to the melodious sounds of a child singing Queen's "We Will Rock You."
A bad acid trip, you're probably thinking. But you're wrong! Instead, it's a new ad for Evian.
Walking children made of water are definitely strange, but for this there are no words. Color me baffled.
Posted in Quoi? | 14 May 2004 at 02:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Link
May 12, 2004
Foxy. Very Foxy.
Y'all should take a look at the work of one Zach Hobbes, who makes some rather hot posters.
I know I've mentioned him before, but Mike Budai's posters are seriously fucking good. Vaguely reminiscent of the guys at The Bird Machine, but with really cute skulls.
Yes, I said cute skulls.
And here's a book for your wishlist: Panda Meat, edited, with cover illustration and introduction, by Frank Kozik. Some of my favorites aren't on the list to be included, but there are plenty of talented peeps that are.
Plus, soon-to-be-released director's cut of Donnie Darko. Could be really good.
Posted in General Nonsense | 12 May 2004 at 03:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (24) | Link
The Not-So-Little Death
Medical science has discovered that all that was known about fat and how it kills people is, pretty universally, incorrect. Rather than causing death by the long-term stress of carrying around extra weight, fat actually secretes hormones that affect the entire body and which, when released in large amounts (due to larger amounts of fat), actually poison the organs.
More on the iTunes mission to open up the vaults of the music industry by releasing rare and out-of-print materials in the iTunes Store. Speaking of which, I recently made my first purchase at the iTunes Store to find out what all the fuss was about. It was a remarkably easy experience, though I didn't browse the catalog very long so as to avoid temptation.
Now you, too, can carry up to a dozen iPods at once, thanks to Karl Lagerfeld and Fendi. The logical question here is who on Earth has a dozen iPods? Lagerfeld, that's who!
However, since Bowles' report, Lagerfeld has increased his collection significantly -- to 40 iPods. That's right, he now owns 40 iPods, according to the latest issue of French Elle. Modeling a silver jogging suit, Lagerfeld confesses to owning 40 of the devices. Although at first glance the reader may assume he means a single 40-GB iPod, he meant what he said: He has 40 iPods.
Lagerfeld has converted his collection of 60,000 compact discs to a unique iPod storage system, according to a recent report in Womens Wear Daily. Lagerfeld keeps most of the iPods scattered around his various homes, which, in turn, are scattered around the globe.
Maybe if I write him a nice letter Mr. Lagerfeld will take pity on me and buy me an iPod. At this point he could probably buy them at cost.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 12 May 2004 at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Link
May 11, 2004
Quo Vadis, Sopor?
I have a terrible reaction to violence, even when I know it is fake. I freeze up and my eyes well up with tears—even though I'm not crying—and I can't breathe. This happens often at the movies. Lead pipes and fireplace pokers coupled with eyes or knees or other sensitive parts of the anatomy have me leaking like a faucet.
Not this time.
I was really trying. I worked on objectivity, on disassociation, on reason. I tried to watch the video of Nick Berg's death with as little emotional turmoil as possible because I know how I am. I made it as far as when his captors pulled out the knife, started screaming and grabbed his head, pushing him to the floor. At that point I had to close the window because my palms were clammy and my hands were shaking and I was having trouble breathing. But I didn't cry.
Perhaps it is because I knew what was coming. I had prepared myself for it and I was prepared for my reaction, but I don't think that was it. Some things are too much to even cry for. There's nothing left to do but freeze up. Instead, I'll try not to think about it, and hope it doesn't catch up with me tomorrow. Or the day after.
And that his mother never sees that tape.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 11 May 2004 at 10:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (8) | Link
Bodas de Sangre
An op-ed piece in the NY Times caught my eye today. Written by the highly interesting and insightful Luc Sante—whom, if you have not read his work, is a writer and photography historian who has written about early crime scene photography and other horrors on film—this piece attempts to explain why the photos from Abu Ghraib are so troubling:
Of course the violence at Abu Ghraib was primarily psychological — hey, only a few people were killed — and the trophies were pictorial, like the results of a photo safari. Some commentators have made a point of noting this very relative nonviolence, contrasting it with the lynching of the four American military contractors in Falluja last month. This line of argument is notable for what it leaves out: there is a difference between the rage of a people who feel themselves invaded and the contempt of a victorious nation for a civilian population whom it has ostensibly liberated.
In a note on a personal pet peeve, I keep hearing senators and military personnel on the radio who cannot correctly pronounce Abu Ghraib. Granted, languages in the Middle East are not easy to manage with our softer American accents, but doesn't it seem to anyone else that failure to learn the proper way to say the name of the prison in question trivializes the horrible importance of these events?
To bring things up even further, more information continues to come to light regarding the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Not only were these people cruel, they were swapping the photos like they were dirty playing cards or magazine pinups.
Army commanders had a different response when, on January 13th, a military policeman presented Army investigators with a computer disk containing graphic photographs. The images were being swapped from computer to computer throughout the 320th Battalion.
...
NBC News later quoted U.S. military officials as saying that the unreleased photographs showed American soldiers “severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and ‘acting inappropriately with a dead body.’ The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.” Not to mention terrorizing people with snarling German Shepards, sodomizing them with chemical lights, sexual humiliation and your plain, old-fashioned beatings.
The Complete Bushisms at Slate.com. Considering the above mess, it isn't funny so much as painful.
Monsanto backs off of genetically modified wheat in response to protests from farmers. Whoop!
CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research—and the birthplace of the world wide web—celebrates 50 years of operation this year.
In its first 50 years, Cern uncovered the quark layer of matter, discovered how nature's forces operate, and showed how matter was created in the first moments after the Big Bang.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 11 May 2004 at 09:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (8) | Link
May 10, 2004
Slow News Day
A bill is set to go before the California State legislature this summer that would, if passed, require increased accountability for record companies when paying artist royalties. As the system is at present, the companies themselves are wholly responsible for appropriately compensating artists for the number of records sold; a number of lawsuits have been brought against many labels claiming that they did not pay artists the correct amount. The new system (assuming it works as intended) would alter the nature of contracts signed by musicians, giving them the right to sue if they are not properly compensated.
Posted in Corporations and Creativity | 10 May 2004 at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Link
May 07, 2004
Now Safe for Kids!
JohnKerryIsADoucheBagButImVotingForHimAnyway.com
Generally speaking, a long domain name is not a good idea, but this one works.
The FDA has turned down the application to sell Plan B (the "morning after" pill) over the counter, citing concerns over the health of young women.
Wendy Wright, senior policy director at Concerned Women for America, a conservative women's organization, said that the agency had ignored political pressure and made its decision based on science.
"The F.D.A. is right to be cautious about having a potent drug that can be harmful to women sitting next to candy bars and toothpaste," Ms. Wright said. Broad availability of Plan B would allow people to slip the medicine to women without their knowledge, Ms. Wright said.
Not only do we have to worry about roofies, now we have to worry about crazed bands of abortion-givers running amok and dropping birth control into our drinks, preventing pregnancies for couples who want children. Does she realize how completely, insanely paranoid she sounds?
Aside from that, women who are concerned about the health of the nation should be more concerned about the over-the-counter drugs that are already available. Case in point: Children's Dimetapp® ND Non-Drowsy Allergy is an OTC allergy drug targeted specifically for use by children. The active ingredient in Children's Dimetapp® ND Non-Drowsy Allergy is 10mg Loratadine—5mg more Loratadine than the same dose of Claritin-D or Children's Claritin. I don't know about anyone else, but it would seem to me that a drug marketed for children would have a lesser dose than the "adult" drug. The pharmaceutical industry is cannabalistic and deceitful—just look at the recent revelations about anti-depressants—but we're still worried about the permissive message an OTC birth control pill would send to young girls.
Call me crazy, but when I go to a rock show that I know is going to have ear-splitting sound, I don't think "I don't need to wear earplugs because I have some Advil at home and that will take care of the headache I will get from the volume." When I overindulge in alcohol, I don't start out my drinking by thinking "I have some Alka-Seltzer and Tylenol at home, so my hangover won't be that bad; I can have as much booze as I want!" The existence of a pill that can prevent pregnancy does not erase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, nor does it lessen the fear and anxiety over becoming pregnant. Even the most careful adults—with fully functioning faculties of reason—encounter the occasional broken condom. A pill like this would accomplish more good than it would harm, methinks.
In the cock-of-the-day report, Ryan Adams has closed his website down in protest of the 'death' of Friends. Let's face it, Ryan: it was a trite, formulaic exercise in media saturation that went on too long to be relevant. Then again, that sounds a lot like your career.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 7 May 2004 at 10:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Link
May 06, 2004
Separate, Not Equal
I decided that more news about the war needed a stand-alone post, since photos of abuse and dead soldiers are a little bit more morbid than custard recipes and the Google IPO.
More pictures of the abuses at Abu Ghraib have come out. There isn't much left to say, really, except that I don't think there is any going back. I'm pretty sure America has crossed the line into unforgivable behaviour.
You can't see caskets, but you can see photos of all the dead American soldiers. I get the feeling that the gallery was intended to inspire some patriotic interest in supporting the war, but I think it brings home the reality of nearly a thousand dead soldiers.
Posted in Damn Nation! | 6 May 2004 at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3) | Link
Booze Up and Riot!
The brand new Old 97's record, Drag It Up, will hit the shelves July 27th. I am so first in line for this.
In the meantime, amuse yourself with some Rhett Miller anime. Yes, you read that correctly. Anime.
From a review of Loretta Lynn's new album, Van Lear Rose:
"Van Lear Rose" doesn't have a political point of view, and, as a work of art, it is within its rights not to have one. But it is, significantly, an album very much of its time. For one thing, Lynn, like Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton before her, is reaching out to a new audience -- a rock 'n' roll one -- that's potentially more appreciative of great country music than many of the people who call themselves country fans are. Like many of her contemporaries, Lynn hasn't had great success on country radio in the past 20 years. But "Van Lear Rose," which was produced and arranged by the White Stripes' Jack White (he also sings and plays on several of the songs, and wrote the music for one of them), is Lynn's way of reaching across the boundaries that have constricted her.
"Van Lear Rose" is a country record, pure and proper, if you believe that country music is more a state of mind than a rigid genre. But even though the arrangements use all the instruments we're accustomed to hearing on a country record (fiddle, pedal steel guitar, dobro and banjo), many of them show an angular inventiveness that's downright startling. This is music that fits squarely within the tradition of country as it's been laid out here on the ground -- the difference is that it stretches up into space, where it's free to blossom into something both familiar-sounding and bracingly new.
Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher beaten up by angry mob of computer geeks. If there was ever anyone who needed it, that was the guy.
The dark side of the Google IPO.
More news on the continuing battle against Wal-Mart's attempts to enter urban areas, this time in Chicago. Gee, I wonder if they chose Chicago because it has the most historically corrupt city government in America?
"This is certainly not a local issue for one ward or for Chicago," said William J. P. Banks, an alderman who voted against the plan. "It's a nationwide issue, and it's not going to go away anytime soon. People are looking for a quick fix in areas where economic development is very poor, but down the line they'll see that along with that quick fix come a lot of problems."
I would also like to mention that Wal-Mart is now participating in an out-and-out lie regarding their anti-union activities, which have been well documented, along with the fact that Wal-Mart knowingly hires illegal immigrants to keep the pay scale lower: Mr. Bisio said that Wal-Mart was not anti-union, and that "the reason our associates haven't wanted third-party representation is because they have faith in the company, and it provides them with tremendous opportunity." Opportunities like unaffordable health care, poor pay and marginal working conditions.
Picasso's painting "Boy With a Pipe," the link between his blue and rose periods, sold at auction for a record $104.1 million, making it the most expensive painting ever sold.
A dessert close to my heart made easy. God bless the French and their love of eggs and cream!
Posted in A/V Dorkout | 6 May 2004 at 09:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (42) | Link
May 05, 2004
Bowling for Bush
Since I am well and stuffed from a monster fruit salad, here is some interesting food news: social accountability for food production is on the rise, as are "healthy" choices at fast food restaurants.
"They have said one mechanical royalty isn't enough." Even though an artist is lucky to get much in the way of royalties at all, record companies want to jack up the prices of digital downloads so that the growing trend in downloading will make the industry more on a per-song basis. As a business model, this should sink more spectacularly than the Titanic.
Thank God dissent is still alive and well: "Metallica display, you get it first, and with good reason." Go visit the surly, irritable and righteously indignant folks at Downhill Battle and bannedmusic.org. The kids at Downhill Battle are fighting the good fight for Voluntary Collective Licensing, a flat-fee solution that would allow legal downloading while compensating musicians for their work.
Disney is forbidding Miramax, its subsidiary, from releasing Micheal Moore's new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, because it is critical of President Bush and his relationship with the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney's chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.
"Michael Eisner asked me not to sell this movie to Harvey Weinstein; that doesn't mean I listened to him," Mr. Emanuel said. "He definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation and that's why he didn't want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn't want a Disney company involved."
I don't think I even need to comment on this one. It speaks for itself.
I'm going to follow up that particularly American piece of news with a link to the photos of abused Iraqi prisoners. I've been following the story with a mixture of trepidation and disgust—on one hand, I don't find it at all hard to believe that these things are going on; I had already assumed it was going on. On the other, I didn't want to see the pictures because I still want to think that no matter how bad things are, the blame is all lodged somewhere in the top levels of government. As the pictures show, I was being foolish and naive.
Perhaps that foolishness is what made the evidence so upsetting, or perhaps it is the entire situation. Regardless of the cause, photos of bruised, beaten men tied up and covered by hoods and thrown into heaps while laughing soldiers pose and joke is disgusting. The photo of a bruised, beaten corpse, wrapped in cellophane and left on ice like some demented, barbaric cryogenics experiement nearly made me want to scream and rage. Who are these people? Why would you do that to anyone? But most of all, where did my country go wrong, and why is it failing us all so terribly?
Posted in Damn Nation! | 5 May 2004 at 01:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (70) | Link
May 04, 2004
The Other Statue
In case you needed more proof, organized religion rules. Finally, the convergence of sexually liberated American culture and strict Christian procreative sexuality have culminated in the ultimate setback for women's liberation: hymenoplasty. That's right girls; you can have your hymen surgically reattached so that you never have to own up to your own sexuality—your body can exist solely for the pleasure and possession of men. It erases everything but the asshole you actually lost your virginity to!
Posted in Quoi? | 4 May 2004 at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2) | Link
May 03, 2004
The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure
Today's links of note: unmute.com, Subversive Cross Stitch (see below) and BearskinRug. Go ahead, poke the bear in the nose. You won't be sorry.
In today's interesting reads, here's an interesting story on Stephen Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields) in Salon.
There are some records that I forgot to include in my "to buy" list posted last week, so I though I should plump up the list here (new additions at the top):
Battles: Assorted releases on Cold Sweat, Dim Mak and Monitor Records. And yes, I will be buying every damn one I can get my hands on. (June-ish)
The Magnetic Fields: i (May 4th)
Mission of Burma: ONoffON (May 4th)
Communique: Poison Arrows (June 15th)
Merge Records 15th Anniversary Compilation: Old Enough to Know Better (July 13th)
Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
Posted in A/V Dorkout | 3 May 2004 at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (302) | Link
