Meat is Murder

punk music is conservative

2010-08-27T17:01:00.003-05:00

if you watch some tv shows from the mid 80s, you'll find that people seemed to think that punk rockers were really terrifying--there were plenty of shows with punks as villains forecasting the moral bankruptcy of the new american generation. and if you listen to the sex pistols or black flag or even the misfits, you can certainly understand where that reaction might have been coming from. not that the "adults" were actually listening closely to this music and parsing the lyrics.

but of course the kind of ethics that a group like minor threat represented would have seemed hunky dory to the protestants that invented the famous work ethic if you had just taken away the chains and grown the hair out. minor threat sang about tearing down a wall, but they were all about building up something, and as ian mackaye's career progressed he became more and more invested in the idea of documentation, taking an almost anthropological zeal in creating a lasting record of the DC "scene" with seemingly no interest in marketability or even broader social relevance. each of his releases as a label head is a little snapshot of his community, which is about as far as one could get from the kind of sensibility that was behind the PIL creating albums that were actually objects like metal box, attempting to denaturalize the idea of commodified music and cast light on the nature of consumer society.

these days it seems like conservative punk has gotten the upper hand--maybe it takes a conservative impulse to keep plowing along after thirty plus years. the bands and artists that were for the radical critique of everything existing haven't had the staying power of the conservers and documenters, and that isn't particularly surprising.

ten was a violent explosion of teenage nihilism, but these days, when something is lost, eddie wants to try and get it back again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E1UxWOFSvw

this is something else. totally something else. at first it might seem pretty punk to make a statement against us bombardments, but if you think just who the us is bombing in pakistan, this song can cast the often naïve politics of punk rock in quite a different light.

2009-05-31T15:19:00.002-05:00

i heard some crazy bird noise, so i went out to investigate. i found two sparrows fighting in the tree between our house and the neighbors. one was a house sparrow and the other was a regular sparrow. the regular sparrow was making staccato clicking noises and the house sparrow was chirping hard. they were circling and puffing their feathers out. it was enjoyable to watch. a car's horn sounded, which immediately drew all their attention, and shortly after, the house sparrow flew away.

2009-05-16T11:29:00.002-05:00

a tiny rabbit just scared the hell out of a squirrel. the squirrel was anxiously eying us through our window. it never saw the tiny rabbit coming.

Racism key in maintaining segregation

2008-08-10T12:29:00.004-05:00

Here's an interesting article that shows how racism will make any attempts at ending urban segregation incredibly difficult, if not impossible.

YEAH!

2008-08-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

No commentary necessary on this one.

the week in racism

2008-05-03T11:08:00.003-05:00

there's nothing that white racists like more than getting black people to take each other down. well done, racists. the Wright-Obama throwdown will make a nice spectacle for bigoted mother fuckers the country over. let's be honest, delighting in the degradation of people of color is the real national pastime.

well, whiteys will have a lot more leverage, now that the supreme court has decided to enshrine the disenfranchisement of people of color and poor people in law. god damn america indeed.

Words you will never hear an American politician say:

2008-04-19T12:57:00.003-05:00

"The American lifestyle is indeed negotiable."

-Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, on This is Hell today, commenting on a necessary admission we must make if we are to confront the global food crisis.

mux

2008-04-19T02:48:00.003-05:00

saduface.muxtape.com

Ghostface Riot Redux

2008-04-02T21:13:00.004-05:00

Looks like the Wally Champ is still beset by chaos at his live gigs. The show, at a large bar in Miami, Ohio, was going fine (Ghost actually turned up on time, it seems) until a half-hour in, when a pale, thin man jumped up on stage and grabbed the mic. Though he hardly should have presented much of a challenge for Ghost's plentiful (and, it should be noted, imposing) posse, he was able to get several bars into a tune (though the backing music was playing only in his head apparently.) He was described by some eye-witnesses as "like a white Tay Zonday"... not really sure what that means. I think it's great that the inherent craziness of Ghost's show is getting ever more surreal. Peep the Youtube footage.

Yerevan Ajemenian

2008-04-01T23:15:00.004-05:00

Armenian orphan, Ethio-Jazz innovator, guerilla fighter

Ethiopia is one of the most fascinating and hard to comprehend countries in Africa. Like many poor countries it combines urban life and culture with extreme poverty, but what makes it distinctive is it's blending of different cultures, resulting in a vibrant art scene that has often been the victim of social and political instability.

Yerevan Ajemenian is an important, though little known part of Ethiopia's cultural history. His parents were victims of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey following World War I. As a young boy, he was brought to Jerusalem by others fleeing the violence, and ended up in an orphanage where he first received musical training, learning the trumpet.

The entire band of forty children, the Arba Lijoch, as it would come to be known, was adopted by Ethiopia's then-crown prince Ras Tafari (later the Emperor Hallie Selassie I) and traveled with him to Addis Abeba, where they received further special instruction, and became the national orchestra and a touchstone for the development of popular, western-influenced music in Ethiopia.

Apparently Ajemenian didn't desire to remain in a position that he came to regard as artistically stifling and politically questionable, and began to pursue his interest in progressive music and Pan-African politics. As early as the 50's, Ajemenian was playing with popular musicians, particularly those associated with the slowly growing ethio-jazz scene. This was quite remarkable, especially for a man who was substantially older than most of the musicians involved, who were considered a young avant-garde at the time. He collaborated with many vocalists, but more notably with pioneering instrumentalists such as the saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya. Unfortunately, Ajemenian was not actively participating in the music scene in the early 70's, when Ethiopian music was first widely recorded, so it's hard to properly gauge his contributions, though according to his contemporaries' testimonials and the few available recordings, it seems that he was possessed of a rare feel for improvisation and had a distinctive facility for conveying the unique tone of Ethiopian vocal music on his instrument.

However by the mid-50's it was clear that Ajemenian's interests were expanding beyond music. He became involved in Pan-Africanist politics and regularly traveled across the continent to meet with others. It is believed by some that he was moving guns and other supplies across borders, though there is no documentary evidence on this point. It has been widely speculated that he was involved with Che Guevara in the war in Congo. In fact, it is quite possible that he died in this conflict, though there are persistent reports that he in fact survived and was later to surface in Nigeria, playing with Fela Kuti's large ensemble Africa 70. This seems somewhat doubtful as he would have been quite an old man, though that is perhaps faulty reasoning when considering such a singular and remarkable person.

As mentioned above there is little surviving recorded material by Ajemenian. Click here to view a rare film of him playing in Addis Abeba in the early 60's with other ethio-jazz innovators.

Nixon meets Elvis Part Two

2008-03-31T23:00:00.001-05:00

It is widely known and a matter of the historical record that Elvis visited President Nixon in the White House in 1970 and received a badge making him an honorary agent at large for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. The story is a bit convoluted, but boiled down to Nixon's desire, as a hopelessly paranoiac who was also a perpetual square and outcast, to ingratiate himself with the nation's youth, and Elivs's guilt as an essentially good and God fearing Christian boy, at being seen as, not entirely in accordance with the facts, a representative for many of America's burgeoning drug culture.

Needless to say, the visit was not a complete success, except perhaps for Elvis, who received his honorary badge, as well as official White House souvenirs for his male buddies who, unaware of his whereabouts for approximately forty-eight hours, had finally tracked him down in Washington, D.C., and arriving to safely ferry him home just shortly before his hard-won audience with Nixon, naturally enough joined him, and even some improvised goodies for the boys' wives. On the other hand, Elvis was asked not to mention the matter of the honorary entrance into one of the nations top law enforcement agencies, as he was seen by millions, after all, as a godless, negro-loving, pedophile communist, and the White House didn't publicly reveal that the visit had ever happened until two years later.

What is less well known is that Elvis made a second visit to the White House in 1971. It is unknown how this meeting came about, but there can be no doubt that it did take place, as it was recorded, again for unclear reasons, on the so-called "Nixon," or "Watergate Tapes." On the tapes the conversers, who sound especially "loose," discuss Nixon's impending visit to China, which had yet to be publicly announced. Elvis is heard remarking that he believes "in his heart" that Chairman Mao is "truly a good little guy" and that "Jesus has enough room in his heart for the Communists and all the rest." There is a moment of tension when Nixon makes an unbecoming remark about "the Jews" and Elvis speaks positively of his Jewish friends and "that Kissinheim [fellow]" the latter likely a reference to Henry Kissinger. Elvis later offers Nixon one of the interlocking cross-and-Star-of-David medallions that he was known to distribute among friends. The tape ends with a discussion of bowling in the Presidential bowling alley, installed by Nixon in the White House's basement.

This tape has been released as part of the process of unearthing the remains of the Nixon Presidential tapes and documents. Excerpts from the tapes may be heard here.

A Week of Fun

2008-03-31T22:52:00.002-05:00

This week: one new Rickroll every night. You've been warned.

2008-01-28T20:07:00.003-06:00

it's but minutes into the state of the union address and already a man has kissed the president, and the president has rubbed a (different) man's bald head, presumably for good luck. no comment from brian williams on the later, but he pointed out the kiss, seeming a little taken aback, or perhaps just wistful.

update @ 8:08pm: brian williams just described bush as a president who "likes the trains on time." he said it, i didn't.

update @ 8:10pm: the president seems extra slurry tonight, and uncharacteristically pale. i will attempt to adjust my set.

update @ 8:22pm: slightly funny pronunciation of POE-ten-tial. also apparently there are some poor kids trapped in an old school. i think that the firefighters are going to get the out.

update @ 8:25pm: dick cheney and nancy pelosi look like the parents from hell. if you ever go to pick up your date and mom and dad look like this, just turn around and don't stop running till your lungs are ready to burst... OK, there's a hilarious close up on a sleeping fat man. nbc has amazing state of the union coverage.

8:28pm: there's POE-ten-tial again. consistency is the david letterman of small minds.

8:31pm: oh shit, "the armies of compassion" are marching towards the gulf coast. not the same army that operating near the persian gulf coast, i suppose.

8:37pm: 9/11 plug, followed by shot of hilariously shifty-eyed soldier. looked like he was getting ready to make a break for the bathroom.

8:41pm: do you ever wonder if there's a big international PR firm behind this "iraqi awakening" thing? it just sounds damn good rolling off the tounge.

8:53pm: message to iran: "but know this... [bullshit excised] ...we will defend our vital interests in the persian gulf."

9:02pm: you can always tell when one of these things is about to end, just like mass. too bad the state of the union address doesn't close with church organ.

obamarama

2008-01-24T09:46:00.001-06:00

i've been talking to people about the clinton years lately, so in case you're intersted here's presidential hopeful Obama's take on that time, though it might tell you a bit more about the candidate than the history in question.

there's a lot of good news on the beachwood reporter, including a nice column on transit by my friend kyle, and plenty more dirty, dirty info on Obama.

The cost of identity

2008-01-23T07:26:00.001-06:00

I think it should be unsurprising that this is the ugliest primary that i can remember. But if there's any positive outcome here, it may be that recent events have shown with stunning clarity the folly of identity politics. Gloria Steinem's op-ed was perhaps the first high-profile effort to use Obama's race against him, though less sickening than the barrage of racist slander from the Clinton campaign.

The Clintons have deployed tired (and yet, ever relevant) racial stereotypes against Obama, portraying him as a drug dealer and a snake oil salesman/huckster-preacher. The media has been more than complicit in this, and has often employed a hypocritical double-pronged attack of demanding that Obama both pay his "dues" to his people, while not becoming a rabble rouser or pandering to minority interests.

Obama has gone to pains to appeal as a "uniter" and allay fears of racial strife. In doing so he has largely promised to take race "off the agenda" and has been greatly praised by some conservative commentators (like George Will) for doing so.

It looks like Obama's honeymoon with the media is over. Although it was always obvious that race would be a factor in this election, early on it seemed that no one wanted to speak of it openly, in contrast to the gender issue. Now the issue has exploded, and it has tied Obama's hands to a large extent. On the one hand, he must not seem to be denying or ignoring his heritage and "his" people. On the other hand, he must distance himself from the image of the minority demagogue, which to some extent prevents him (or at least threatens him) from making proclaimations about racial inequality and promising action to address this.

This seems contrary to the treatment of Clinton; no one has implied (that i have seen) that she will be under the sway of a special interest, and she was celebrated for crying, showing some kind of feminine solidarity with all her sisters out there. On the other hand, i find it unlikely that she will actually do much for women. Whoever wins or loses the election, it seems unlikely that people of color will stand to benefit.

वह कोई दूसरा काम कर सकता है न?

2008-01-16T11:05:00.001-06:00

the new york times took the tata group to task today in an editorial that suggests रतन टाटा (Ratan Tata,) the group's chairman, direct his attention towards something other than providing cheap ($2500) and fuel efficient (50 mpg) cars to auto-hungry indians.

though the editorial board makes a gesture towards the inherent hipocrisy of denying the citizens of poor countries the luxuries americans freely enjoy, they make no reference to the political situation, that american politicians have refused to enter into a global agreement on pollution, and until recently, have largely denied or ignored the existence of global warming. not to mention the futility of beeseeching a capitalist to forego a hugely profitable product in exchange for a moral and social good.

it will be an environmental disaster when the chinese and indians produce and drive cars in massive quantities, but we'll have ourselves to blame for not taking the opportunity to engage in a global effort against climate destruction.

don diasco

2008-01-12T16:00:00.002-06:00

Election

2008-01-07T16:44:00.000-06:00

I'm officially baffled that otherwise rational people are starting to ruffle their neck fur on the Obama/Clinton thing. It's baffling for a few reasons. For one thing, neither of these two have many positions on issues that are particularly progressive. I'm gonna let that stand on it's own, the burden of proof is on you if you disagree. Second both have pretty nasty skeletons in the closet, though it's hard to say these skeletons are in the closet, given that anyone who wants to know about them found out long ago. Clinton was involved in tons of shady dealings, both personal and political, and is supposedly responsible for some of the worst blunders of the Clinton years, at least in a public relations sense. Obama has mercifully had less time to incriminate himself, but he's clearly hooked into dirty Chicago politics and who knows the extent of the Rezko-thing.

So this isn't to say that you shouldn't think about which of the two would be better, (or worse, more to the point) cause the media has already declared Edwards out of the race and none of the other candidates have a prayer. But i can't understand getting too committed to either one of the these candidates. The fact that we're left with a choice between them at a time when Americans are more liberal than they've been in, i don't know, decades, is depressing. If anything it's representative of the fact that we on the left have already failed to effectively formulate an agenda that would force politicians to reckon with things like single-payer universal health care. Why invest too much emotionally in a candidate that is bound to disappoint?

netocracy

2007-12-06T16:19:00.000-06:00

Facebook caused a controversy by taking information from third party "partners" (mostly web sites you buy crap from) and putting it into facebook feeds. For example, they were (and are, though they've increased your ability to opt out of this in response to protests) telling your facebook friends what kind of stuff you've been buying at overstock.com and blockbuster.com.

This led to a big backlash spearheaded by moveon.org, which i think is the group responsible for the democrats winning back the presidency in 2004. From the Chicago Tribune:

Sean Lane, who joined the online protest after a surprise fgift to his wife of a white gold and diamond ring from Overstock.com was broadcast to everyone in his Facebook network, posted on MoveOn.org's protest wall: "This is a pretty powerful feeling. Honestly, I didn't think that people could make changes like this through civil action. I am very proud to be a part of this."

Other users are still pretty unhappy about the way that facebook has handled the situation to date.

Well, we've come a long way since the civil rights movement. OK, obviously this one quote from Joe Q. Consultant doesn't really merit singling out for a snarky retort, but it's weird that this is what moveon.org is doing these days. Still it's not surprising if they do better mobilizing people worried about the privacy of their big credit card purchases than they do getting people to vote.

Best review ever!

2007-09-27T07:39:00.000-05:00

Here's a good one for the people who seem to think that Pitchfork harbors the most pretentious reviews out there. It's good to see the underdog come through.

this isn't the only thing i've got going on

2007-08-16T16:41:00.000-05:00

newly redesigned reviews page: http://realgoodbuddies.blogspot.com/

how do i love thee billy ocean...

2007-08-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

billy ocean is the real deal. he's undeniably a cool looking dude and his videos are immersed in the wtf aesthetic of the 80s to a frightening degree, but the point is that the man can sing his fucking ass off. for real. not to mention that he can write a damn nice tune.

take Loverboy for instance. there's a nice contrast in mood between the tense verse and joyful chorus. and the way the vocals trade off with the synchopated power chords can't help but make you feel happy. and my man isn't showing off his vocal chops, but he's not holding back either. say what you will about the dated palette, but he's got taste, and you'll always be able to recognize that.

it's got everything that you would want in a three minute pop song and it's catchy as hell. i can't explain the Star Wars biting video, but the effect of cutting between the rubbery, murderous aliens and billy's straight faced singing is pretty incredible.

bottled water

2007-06-02T09:03:00.000-05:00

check it baby. people need to stop with the bottled water, and this story is a good illustration of why. basically nestle moves into a small town in northern california and cuts a deal with the five member county board to get rights to the town's water for 50 years (with an option for another 50) with few terms and no environmental impact study.

2007-05-27T17:09:00.000-05:00

2007-05-27T14:46:00.000-05:00

2007-05-17T23:45:00.001-05:00

whoa

2007-05-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

he looks like a shorn darryl hall, sings like justin timberlake, he's sensitive, he's dirty, he prefers women with some coloration... how did i just find out this guy exists?

or maybe you wanna check out the one where he's a long haired bike messenger that samples beethoven and does the michael jackson "Naa!" thing... it's all down to preference.

blake freaks BJ. not ironic.

HOTness. i always thought wyclef was kind of a dork, but now i think he's pretty cool. i like his dance moves.

keepin it real baby. awesome lush 60s rock/bollywood ballad.

good videos (except one)

2007-04-27T16:35:00.000-05:00

Rihanna - S.O.S.
this one is pretty good. she's super hot.

Rihanna - Umbrella
but it's not as good as this one. so wierd. "ella ella ella a a" and that beat is smoking. where did she come from? (a triangle, i guess. OK, actually Barbados)

Beyonce ft. Shakira - Beautiful Liar
the message of this video is clear: men, don't play your lady or else she'll meet up with your other lady and they'll writhe around next to each other, looking so hot that you'll die from sexual frustration. also, the middle eastern keyboard part sounds like something i heard in the nile cafe on the middle eastern club night. oh yeah, shakira is half lebanese (and the other half is catalan/italian.)

Justin Timberlake - Director's Cut - What Goes Around...
i didn't see the superbowl fiasco live, but is it just me or between that and this video (not to mention cry me a river) doesn't it seem like dude's trying to show that he's just as paranoid and wierd as michael jackson is? well, he's still got a long way to go, he hasn't even realized that the jews are after him yet.

Justin - SexyBack
this one has the whole paranoia thing going too, but it seems more like a bond-rip than anything, especially given that they tried to make the woman look like eva green, who apparently turned down the part in the video twice. hot song, reached it's peak for me when i saw an entire gym full of highschool seniors getting seriously drrrty to it.

Justin - My Love
this is great cause it's pretty goofy, i like to imagine justin and timbaland hanging out on the weekends, wearin sweats, listening to R Kelley and making squeak toy noises. but i admit it's hard to imagine anyone with a falsetto like that wearing sweats. whoa, wtf with those violins? and he's really not shy about checking out that lady's butt.

Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous
speaking of hot. and nelly's not bad either. just kidding. i like how justin is in this video for no reason.

Nelly Furtado - Say it Right
what is this, 1993? did michael mann direct this? she's got a creepy ubermench-shampoo model (remember kelly lebrock?) thing goin on here, but timbaland is, as usual, goofy as hell ("hey!") the videos from the next nelly furtado album are goin to be the two of them eating pizza and watching videos at home on a friday night.

Nelly F. - Maneater
this is exactly what what would happen if nelly furtado found neo by accident late one night.

Hall and Oates - Maneater
if you didn't anticipate this you're not trying hard enough. words fail me here. but just in case you take my appreciation for hall and oates as ironic, let me say that halls ad libs on the outro are really great ("the woman is wild, whoo-o-o!") that woman later turned back into the panther, which turned into...

Michael Jackson - Black or White
...michael jackson. isn't it amazing that it was george wendt's career that this video ruined? racist. isn't that an eddie van halen signature guitar? lil mac has got? it's pretty incredible that i forgot this part with the african tribe... too bad they cut the part where mj and arnold schwarzenegger dance with a group of orthodox rabbis. the world wasn't ready for a man that loved his testicles this much.

The Pogues - Dirty Old Town (with wierd Joe Strummer interview)
holy shit.

Shane MacGowan and Nick Cave - What a Beautiful World
as buddies, these two are much "realer" (recall that nick cave is from australia) or at least scarier than jt & timbaland.

Shane MacGowan and Christy Moore - A Pair of Brown Eyes
did someone say "real?"

The Pogues - A Pair of Brown Eyes
this was directed by alex cox of "repo man" fame. sorry it's not the best quality. seems pretty political.

The Drones - Jezebel
wow. if you're sensitive about animal experimentation, be forwarned. all this imagery could be a little excessive, but in the context of an anti-war statement (as i take it to be) it makes sense.

The Drones (Gareth Liddiard) - Sharkfin Blues
whatd he say?

Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend (German Version)
what the fuck is a "Fwankenstein"? look, i took german, and that word doesn't exist. avril, you're new single sucks und "es ist kein Geheimniss." given her previous songs weren't exactly Cole Porter, but it's hard to take this after that semi-sincere stuff she was doing before. well, they can't all be good.

Lata Mangeshkar - Salaam-e-Ishq
many of you won't have the constitution for all three hours of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, which is too bad, but you don't have to miss out on this music sequence, which is very good for you.

Check it out

2007-04-17T00:09:00.000-05:00

Free mp3s!

2007-03-05T22:21:00.000-06:00

pat and i were tuning up for a show; jon took this one. those were the days when everyone had crazy hair and guitars.

notice that flash makes the mutiny look deceptively nice, which is counter-intuitive.

Tunes

2007-02-24T12:05:00.000-06:00

look, i didn't make a big deal about this CD when it first came out, because i was peripherally involved in it (though not musically,) but it has come to my attention that many of you suckas haven't heard it. so take my advice and buy it.

you can get it on mp3s, but label chief chien put a lot of work into making a sweet gradientalicious cover that you can see above, that is well worth having, and then there's the liner notes... they're really something, lemme tell ya.

best of '06. it's fresh!

The beach

2007-02-24T11:45:00.000-06:00

well, it sure was great to see all my old buddies and do old buddy things in new york, and let's not forget a little town called "loveladies" (i shit you not) on the jersey shore.

this was the best "action photo" in that it really gives you a sense of us eating from a trough in a kind of kinetic sense. but perhaps you noticed that ryan murdock is in this picture. i figured he deserved more of a "featured" appearance:

ryan looks great, too bad i look like a big dork.

oh yeah, and there was a beach there too:

photos by naureen, except for the one she's in. i have no idea who took that one.

"Diver survives after shark swallows head"

2007-01-24T12:13:00.000-06:00

the headline is quoted from the AP. this Australian dude is basically just a bad ass, after a shark swallowed half his body, he poked his finger into the shark's eye till it spat him out.

so in recognition of him, i'm posting a sweet tune also about sharks, Sharkfin Blues by The Drones, an Australian band. enjoy.

Shah Rukh Khan "hugs so well, smells so good!"

2007-01-23T20:43:00.000-06:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6288569.stm

this article is amazing, but only if you're already an SRK fan. otherwise, let me summarize: Shah Rukh Khan, possibly the most famous, and likely the most beloved Indian actor working, has taken over hosting the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Kaun Began Crorepati? (actual translation is closer to Who Will Become a Ten-Millionaire? but remember that the dollar is worth about 45 rupees...) from Amitabh Bachchan, the most famous Indian actor of a generation ago (who remains very popular.) he's taken his responsibilities pretty seriously; he even had a replica of the set, including the computer and special chairs installed in his home so that he could practice hosting. he invited friends over to be his practice contestants.

he debuted as host last night to huge ratings. he hugs a lot of people on the show. pretty much everyone, in fact. including all the members of the crew. he is both a good hugger and fragrant. he will likely be very successful.

I still like Will Smith

2007-01-15T13:27:00.000-06:00

2006-12-10T18:48:00.000-06:00

one time i was at this party at a club, and i was really destroying on the dance floor. that doesn't happen often, but it did that night. and at least two or three people independently commented that i looked like jack black. which i suppose was fine with me.

i wasn't really thinking about that when naureen wrote about how she thinks that jack black looks all predatory in this ad for some movie:

but it didn't seem quite right. jack black looks like a nice guy to me. and i assure you that i am not biased in saying this.

2006-12-10T02:13:00.000-06:00

Had Germany not been defeated in World War II, they would probably have a Nazi government to this day. At some point the government would likely have been forced to adopt a public relations campaign to sanitize its image as an anti-semitic state, to show, in short, that the portrayal of Nazis as prejudiced, blood thirsty murderers is a stereotyped and harmful caricature. Kinda like the Republicans showed everyone that they really think that black people are OK.

To do this the state media would have to produce a series of short documentaries to show the truth about Nazis, that they're really just good, simple guys trying to do a tough job.

Luckily, you don't have to visit an alternate-history universe to watch this, because there is a TV show called "Cops" that is nearly the same thing. But what's really great about Cops is that it can't conceal the real nature of what the police do--put poor people and people of color in prison.

Almost everything that happens on the show is folks getting busted for having small amounts of drugs in their possession, or getting beaten for disobeying a cop's orders. What never fails to amaze me is the total shock that the police seem to feel when someone disobeys them... they just can't believe that this guy tried to swallow his weed before they could search his car (with no reasonable cause.) And yet the show has the arrogance to presume that once you see it, you won't really hate the cops for locking people up for no fucking reason and grabbing them by the neck and barking orders at them. Just doing their jobs.

2006-12-04T17:45:00.000-06:00

maybe you're watching the nbc nightly news. if so, you just saw this plastic-haired cracker ass give an important update on home-town-boy-made-good Jose Padilla. about how they have to strap him into one of those mid nineties virtual reality things with the goggles and headphones just to take him to the dentist, or the insurance office or something. i guess cause he might see some slightly radioactive material and use some kind of dark jedi powers to snatch it and then instantly turn it into a dirty bomb.

but what's really important is that it turns out the correct pronunciation of his name rhymes with Godzilla. i guess everyone else in the entire world has been saying it wrong up til now. now that's some professional news reading.

end of broadcast update, about 5:55pm

luckily this was a special edition of the news with fewer commercials; for some reason the anchor kept mentioning that. that's nice, because they had time to squeeze in a segment where plastic hair sucks the ass of some generals who are decomissioning an old air craft carrier. god, that shit would look awesome in hi def!

channel eleven update 6:10pm

what the fuck?! jim lehrer can't even pronounce kofi annan's name right? jesus christ.

Real Good Buddies

2006-10-30T16:19:00.000-06:00

Bach is dead

2006-09-29T16:37:00.000-05:00

well said. check out "cutting edge web design."

2006-09-19T18:15:00.000-05:00

writing words on the internet seemed kinda stupid, but maybe it's OK. k + 1 was a strange event in new olreans, you can be sure. mainly, there were many reporters on burbon street. my dad recognized one guy and waved to him. a fellow out-of-towner recognized another journalist as "that lady from oprah!" later, i saw airforce one take off from the (eeirly deserted) louis armstrong airport.

2006-08-21T08:54:00.000-05:00

"Jammu is Jammu & Kashmir's second-largest city and its winter capital. Stuck on the plains, in summer it becomes a sweltering contrast to the cool heights of Kashmir but from October it acquires a kinder climate... [A]part from being a railhead and transport hub there's no compelling reason to visit."
Lonley Planet India, 2005

Taken in Katra, thirty minutes outside of Jammu.

no flash

2006-08-01T13:02:00.000-05:00

Saddam Hussein Denounces Jews, Malibu Sherriff's Deputy

2006-08-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

the hoof

2006-07-25T17:03:00.000-05:00

This may be of interest. Deerhoof opening for Radiohead in California, their first show (i think) without their bassist, Chris Cohen.

Doolde-o doodle-o doodle-o-do

2006-07-07T18:32:00.000-05:00

Scaling these octaves of love

2006-06-21T15:22:00.000-05:00

You don't have to have a constitution to have great art. This is merely one of the many great Kate Bush videos to be found, the other Wuthering Heights video with Kate doing the modern dance (one of pitchfork's "100 greatest") is also awesome, but this is one of the few with her singing live, and it's a little less eighties-kitchy.

Don't watch this if falling deeply and irrevocably in love with someone who writes songs about Emily Bronte novels will be a blow to your self-image. It's too late for me.

"gutter punk" problem in new orleans

2006-06-13T07:42:00.000-05:00

Here's the word from the man himself from today's new york times:

The blunt-talking new police superintendent, Warren J. Riley, insists he will not let the drug dealers and "gutter punks" take over again.

new orleans used to be run by gutter punks? sweet. although i've got to say, i never noticed any dudes with discharge t-shirts and filthy dogs in my several visits to new orleans.

***

two nights ago i dreamed that will oldham was feeding britney spears chocolates. she had her head thrown back and he was just dropping them right in her mouth.

What we're missing on Iran

2006-06-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

I'm watching Crimson Gold, an Iranian film by Jafar Panahi (director) and Abbas Kirostami (writer.) It was actually not shown in Iran because the state decided it was unsuitable for viewing; the director wouldn't allow himself to be finger printed for entry to the US, so he wasn't present at the American premiere. That's two marks in it's favor.

The movie pretty much demolishes the line between social commentary and great storytelling, which was only ever drawn by reactionary critics, anyway. I certainly am no expert on Iran, but this movie gives a picture of Iranian society that is completely different from anything i've seen elsewhere in American media. You won't get it in news articles on Iran, and you won't get it from biographies of upper-middle class Iranian exiles.

The film follows Hussein, a pizza delivery man slash small time thief, as he goes about his relatively mundane business in Tehran. He is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, and has somewhat ambiguous health/mental illnesses. All of his experiences reflect the class divisions within Iranian society, the paralyzing forces, simultaneously invisible and manifest, that extend beyond religion and politics, coloring every social interaction.

To judge from the press coverage, there are only two groups in Iran, the enlightened, pro-West upper-middle class and university students, and the oppressive clergy who have a monopoly on political power. A month ago i saw a post on Juan Cole's website from an Iranian who revealed, somewhat apologetically to us Western liberals, another group of Iranians: the ignorant poor who have been tricked by the mullahs into voting conservatives like now-president Ahmadinejad into power.

Meshugah pointed out that the foreign media in Iran are likely bound to the large urban centers and don't come into contact with the poor much. This makes sense and seems generally consistent with the media's M.O. in areas like the Middle East. But you'd hope that these journalists* could at least speak to some experts on the Iranian society like the woman who posted on Cole's blog.

I wouldn't say Crimson Gold is polemical. In fact it unfolds in an almost meandering way, and the scenes seem almost improvised, almost Cassavettes-like. But there is an undercurrent of building rage that provides consistency and coherence. This film takes an unflinching view towards the workings of social class that some will no doubt denounce as caricature. Personally, i find this movie to be very sincere and i think that it rings painfully true.

*Obviously there are good and great journalists working in the Middle East and elsewhere. Dahr Jamail and Robert Fisk would be just two examples, both of them working in Iraq currently (EDIT: as noted in the comments, Dahr Jamail isn't in Iraq anymore.) Also, Dilip Hiro's writing on Iraq is very good, i recently read The Iranian Labyrinth which gave an interesting analysis of Iranian society's many centers of power and touches on issues of class and the enduring social significance of the Iran-Iraq war that are central to this film.

Jake recommended this movie to me and made many of the points that i'm repeating above, so, you know, props.

Prince is on TV!

2006-05-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

too bad you can't see his heels.

i think these women are saying "oh, prince."

No reply at all

2006-05-18T15:53:00.000-05:00

Chris Ware

2006-05-10T19:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday i saw Daniel Raeburn's talk about Chris Ware at the MCA. He focused on the "language of comics" that Chris Ware is trying to advance, that will enable (is enabling) a previously primitive art form, one limited to broad comedy or dumb action, to conjure emotions with the subtlety of great music or film, etc.

So, yeah, i guess that sounds a little pretentious, and i guess a semi-academic lecture like this is bound to. But Ware's work to me is not at all pretentious. Although he's incredibly ambitious with the contortions and extensions that he subjects his medium to, his images and stories are always captivating enough to engage you and amply reward all the effort that you put into examining all the microscopic panels.

He had interesting things to say about the relation of architecture to comics, and a lot of great insight into the presentation of Ware's work. Raeburn also defined comics as neither a solely visual or written medium, but one that necessarily exists between the two. For this reason, the exhibition of Ware's work itself was a bit unusual, displaying for the most part only uncompleted sketches of pages from Jimmy Corrigan, Rusty Brown, and Building Stories. It was great to see these (in particular the images from Jimmy Corrigan showing the Chicago World's Fair,) especially as many of them are rather large and allow a real study of the details in the imagery. The best part, for me, was the commentary provided by Ware and the story notes and mock-ups from the production of Jimmy Corrigan that were on display.

If you're a fan of Ware, it's definitely worth while, and you can check out the Warhol display. Personally, i had a near-religious experience in front of one of the Elvis prints, and these early prints are among the best of his work that i've seen.

Meanwhile, i'm eargerly looking forward to the continuation of Ware's Rusty Brown story. I think that it may end up being the best of his work; i was particularly excited with the story line that follows Rusty's father and the story contained in his science fiction novel. Ware's skill with page layout has gotten almost frightening, and it's particularly overwhelming to look at them all layed out next to each other in one of his collections. Which i guess explains why i keep buying those pricy hardcovers.

Hillary IS the Great Satan

2006-05-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

To those who still have some fond memories of Hillary and the good old days of her universal health care plans, or her grand addresses at reproductive rights conferences, you may want to look at her recent rhetoric concerning Iran.

I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations. I don't believe you face threats like Iran or North Korea by outsourcing it to others and standing on the sidelines. But let's be clear about the threat we face now: A nuclear Iran is a danger to Israel, to its neighbors and beyond. The regime's pro-terrorist, anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric only underscores the urgency of the threat it poses. U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal. We cannot and should not--must not--permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons. In order to prevent that from occurring, we must have more support vigorously and publicly expressed by China and Russia, and we must move as quickly as feasible for sanctions in the United Nations. And we cannot take any option off the table in sending a clear message to the current leadership of Iran--that they will not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons.

Oh boy! Aren't you excited about that Clinton/Obama bill for 2008? We know that there won't be any embarrassing policy disagreements on dropping all those smart bombs on Iranians heads!

That kind of bus

2006-05-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

I rode in an accordion bus yesterday, the ones with the gray stretchy thing in the middle. It was exactly as cool as i always thought it would be. There are people sitting in that stretchy middle part.

***

They reissued the first three Wire albums, which are all awesome. But i remember one time the third one (154) was on at a party and me and Pete got freaked the fuck out. It's a pretty scary record.

Neil Young is Old

2006-05-04T13:25:00.000-05:00

Word. But Neil Young's still at it. He's streaming his new protest album, Living With War from his web page, to be followed by it's release as a download, to be followed by the CD. It's a three-tiered release strategy, the suits will tell you.

It's pretty rockin' from what i've heard, and what's more interesting is that almost every track features a 100 member amateur choir backing up old Shakey. The choir seems like a direct cotinuation with his interest in populist, participatory musical events that he showcased in his Greendale project, as does the entire conception and distribution of this album.

Even if these songs don't become classics, it seems like that isn't really the point, given that the album was supposedly recorded in a few months, and the songs are all referencing current events in pretty specific ways. He supposedly floats Obama as a presidential candidate in one song, which is lame, but you see what i mean. Rock music, the white CNN.

***

I had a dream about Neil Young last night. We was doin some kind of tour, by himself, and i was hanging out with him. He was pretty tight-lipped, and i remember saying, "hey after this next show, let's make some time to hang out." And he just kinda nodded and said, "OK."

So we're at a show, and Neil invites me and a young woman (i can't remember what she was doing there) on stage to take guitar solos while he sings. He'd ditched his guitar and was just singing to a backing track (wierd.) I had an arch top guitar with no markings on the fret board, so i was freaking out thinking that i wouldn't know what notes i was playing. I spent most of the first song plugging the guitar into an elaborate set up of effects pedals.

Then the second song started. Neil sang to another back up track. The woman started playing some licks, then she and Neil looked at me, encouraging me to play. I did my best, but i guess i had forgotten to engage the distortion pedal (which i had set to "disrupt") cause it sounded all twangy and pathetic. Apparently my playing was also at issue. The song just sorta stopped, as if everyone was shocked by my ineptitude. Neil just shrugged, he didn't seem too upset, although he and the woman did make fun of how i ended all my guitar lines with the same minor third interval.

***

One time i looked in a bathroom mirror at myself. I was unshowered and i was showing some chest hair. I realized that i look like the fat Baldwin brother.

The Prince and the Mozzer/Wizardzz

2006-03-19T12:17:00.000-06:00

Taken from a very good interview with Jamie Stewart by Brandon Stosuy:

BS: ... [Y]ou attract some intense youngsters at your shows. Like teenagers or people in their early ’20s who are thumping their chests and getting super emotional.

JS: People are incredibly generous with how much they'll give of themselves to us. They’re so fearless with their feelings. I’m blown away by them.

BS: Do you ever feel like Morrissey?

JS: I feel like a figurine of a figurine of Morrissey. Did you know that Morrissey calls Prince "Ponce?" I wonder if they know each other or if it's like dirty looks at Spago.

There's nothing i can add to that...

In other news, you will likely enjoy the Wizardzz's album The Hidden City of Tarmound (my review.) Like everything on Load records, it's got one of the guys from Lightning Bolt (the bassist) playing (drums) on it, and one other dude. It's less crazy and saturated than Lightning Bolt and a little more video game/fantasy, with great synth tones and dragon-conjuring melodies as well as some ambient-influenced ideas.

check an mp3 at Load

France/Menlo Park/John Fahey

2006-03-15T19:31:00.000-06:00

European protests always looked more fun than american ones. I can only assume that the police are less draconian over there, or else their prisons are more fun.

Why are people so pissed? The French government is passing laws to make it easier to hire and fire young people without much job experience, supposedly to ease unemployment, but it's a pretty transparent attempt to chip away at job security and the strength of unions. Although that can be hard to understand in America, where there is little job security even for the well off and the unions have long betrayed their original intention of fighting for workers' rights.

On the other hand, the New York Times News Service offered an interesting explanation in their story: "The protests are driven by domestic politics and the fear of change among France's middle and working class." That sounds pretty definitive.

Meanwhile, marvel in horror at this "Class Note" from the Spring 2006 Northwester Alumni Magazine:

Brian T. Osborn (WCAS91) of Menlo Park, Calif., and his band Negative Feedback won the 2005 Fortune Magazine Battle of the Corporate Bands at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. The band, made up of eBay employees, will have a one-year showcse at the museum.

That sounds great, doesn't it? The Battle of the Corporate Bands... i thought that was what they were calling the Grammys now (ouch.) Could anything be more antithetical to the supposed ideals of rock than a museum? Of course the only elements of rock & roll worth preserving, its iconoclasm, spontanaeity, its potential to transgress social boundaries... none of these things are able to be preserved or presented in a museum, so i suppose the real problem with the R & R Hall of Fame is the concept, not the execution.

But at least we can look forward to more interesting induction ceremonies as the Punk Years beocome antique. Apparently Debbie Harry got pretty snippy with her former bandmates from Blondie, who got kicked off the gravy train. But watch out for the (new and improved) Blondie on tour with (i'm not kidding) The New Cars, featuring a couple of original members of The Cars and Todd Rundgren (!!!) And they'll be playing at that most rocking of all Chicago-area venues, Ravinia. Where rock goes to get dialysis.

John Fahey got old, and probably needed dialysis, but he never got it. And that's why he's rock & roll. He played finger style acoustic (mostly) guitar, but took it to some crazy places. He made tons of great records (includings some semi-famous Christmas record,) was friends with Doctor Demento, got vaguely asociated with Wyndham Hill, kept it real nonetheless, wrote really long liner notes (he had a philosophy degree...) and then kinda disappeared. They eventually found him a little effed up in some crappy motel in the boonies, dusted him off, and flew Jim O'Rourke in to make some records with him. And then he died.

I picked a fairly early song from him called Sunflower River Blues, a pretty typical piece. There's no way to pick one song that could give an idea of his range and especially his more experimental leanings. So it's up to you to check him out for yourself.

Google Says

2006-01-25T14:20:00.000-06:00

Eastward ho!

Google decided that complying with censorship from the Chinese Communist Party would indeed be against it's mission. More importantly, they decided that what would be more against their mission would be missing out on a buck to be made.

The laughter doesn't stop

2005-12-18T17:14:00.000-06:00

You wouldn't expect it, but Clint Eastwood has impeccable phrasing. Believe me, you will agree. Listen to him sing: "Let's harmonize, we'll be Dy-no-mite" and tell me i'm wrong. I can't stop listening to this.

I just got the Nasville sessions where Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash jammed together and it's just, you know, two dudes sitting around and playing some songs they don't both know that well. Given, they are two of the best musicians of their time. I think a recording like that is bound to disappoint to some extent, even if it's fun (and it is, like when Cash prompts a blanking Dylan with the second verse on That's Alright Mama.)

On the other hand, this collaboration, which would hardly seem monumental (remember Eastwood in the musical Paint Your Wagon? Let's just say that even Eastwood seemed decent enough next to Lee Marvin; both do all their own singing, of course...) is far better than i could have dreamt.

There isn't much else to say, except, don't sue me Clint. The only other nice thing i can say about him is that maybe Million Dollar Baby was more Paul Haggis's fault than his. Crash. Jesus.

Coming soon: Christmas songs.

Link to Bar Room Buddies

Lost in Prayer

2005-11-07T20:59:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favorite things. I found it on the inside cover of a telephone book in a cheap motel just outside Memphis. The telephone book was lying in the night table, resting on top of the Bible like a hand covering a fluttering heart.

For some reason it says everything to me about Elvis. I don't think Elvis will ever go away because the contradictions of his character, his painfully obvious faults, his intense sincerity, and his dangerous faith in his own destiny can not be resolved to fit the bill of a conveniently tragic hero. The story of his life is resonant, and it's become part of what our culture is about. That's what the "Elvis is alive" part says to me.

It'd be cliched to go on about all that, though his story is fascinating. (I'm half way through Peter Guralnick's two volume biography of Elvis, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love. Recommended.)

So there's Elvis, head bowed, lost in prayer.

This piece is now part of a private collection in Menlo Park, California.

You could totally see her nipples

2005-11-07T07:44:00.000-06:00

Veruca Salt with Juliette Lewis and the Licks seemed like an odd bill. And it was. Juliette tries to look like Iggy Pop, but she actually copped her moves from Hedwig (who copped them from Iggy.) Strange that she constantly reminded me of a fictional character, but then again, Iggy Pop will soon be a fictional character. (Seriously, there's an Iggy Pop biopic with Elijah Wood set to star. What terrible casting.)

Her voice was pretty decent, and her contortions were professional, but the songs were noticably lacking. The best/worst moment came during the set closer, Search and Destroy, yes, an Iggy cover. On the one hand it was the only really good song that they played, on the other, possibly sensing that the rock gods had not been appeased with this performance, J decided to send us home with a memory so iconic that we couldn't help to look back on this show as a great moment in rock.

She dropped the mic with a big amplified thud and launched her ninety-eight pound frame onto the masses, for some fairly wild crowd surfing (explicity banned at the metro--read the sign.) Then she's dropped back on stage just in time to haul up the mic and finish out the song, lookin more than a little disheveled.

A pretty surreal experience, it played out exactly as it would have in a movie--it was the rock show scene in a high school comedy starring you, not only because of the stilted recreation of a cliched rock experience, but also because it was that one girl from Natural Born Killers.

A little later i got a little out of hand dancing to Jimmy Eat World's The Middle and i think i might have bumped into a waitress or something. I tried to be nice about it and apologize, but there were like four people giving me the stink eye. And i wasn't even dancing that hard. So much for having fun at the Metro.

Oh yeah, Veruca Salt played too. I hear that they used to be better.

Kill the DJ

2005-11-01T10:57:00.000-06:00

This article makes me glad that i didn't happen to wander into hipster Williamsburg this past weekend that i spent in New York. To be fair, i'm sure that there are also great places and people in that neighborhood as well.

I found that article through this weblog posting, which points out that one of the people (a-holes) quoted in the article happens to be half of the indie rock sister duo Cocorosie (who were recently lambasted by Jessica Hopper for dropping the n-bomb in a song.)

These articles are pretty good, though the hand wringing over postmodernity in the second is a little over wrought, so i shouldn't say too much. I definitely agree that the fear of embracing overt political ideology has really hamstrung the ability of some otherwise lefty people to see the problem of racism (and the ways in which it interacts with class, gender, and other oppressions) in clear terms.

Someone recently told a friend of mine that it irritates him when he sees white people in his predominantly black New York neighborhood. Both of the people involed in this conversation live in predominantly black neighborhoods, both are white. Obviously this comment was intended to be ironic (to some degree) and also to reflect on the racial awareness of the speaker. But this statement marks a retreat into irony in the face of a seemingly insoluble problem (in this case, marginalization of black people by gentrification,) rather than a real (a political) confrontation of that problem.

This is the reason that concerned, aware people shouldn't be allowed to turn from radical politics; they must be made to confront them as perhaps the only real way to change the fundamental terms on which society is (mis)organized.

Beat Box Y'all

2005-10-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

It's official, i'm kicking off my career as a hip hop producer. Check it out, the new track from a very fresh artist off the streets of chicago, Lil Tupac: Beat Box Y'all. (Scroll to bottom of page for link!)

Daag!

2005-10-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

Finally i feel like i'm providing a useful service to you, the reader. Check out this amazing song from a Bollywood soundtrack i recently got my hands on.

The movie itself, Daag, sounds decent, apparently it's a pretty by-the-numbers love story, although it was a bit edgy for it's time (or so i read) including attempted rape, (which leads to) murder, (necesitating) flight from the authorities, and sorta-polygamy (a consequence of all the fleeing.) But this makes it sound more interesting than it did when i read about it. Commentators agree that the music is the highlight of the film; you'll hear why.

This track, Ab Chahe Maa Roothe Ya Baba, isn't even the illest off the album, but as the leading number it sets the tone. There's also a great reverb-ed guitar, and the intro is devastating. Begin listening now!

Experimental music is defragging my head drive

2005-09-13T19:05:00.000-05:00

A botique-y record shop in San Francisco seemed like a good place to pick up Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, and i'm glad i did. The first sweet thing about it is the unbelievably hippy/utopian poem included with it (which shouldn't have been a surprise, check out this guy's beard.) The other great thing is the music, which is like having a broken synthesizer lodged in each ear while eating really good thai food. And you're talking to Lisa Bonet. But you can't hear what she's saying. Because of the synthesizers.

Then there's Tony Conrad. I've obtained his Early Minimalism, Vol.1 through somewhat less legitimate means. Or at least less interesting. So far i'm only half way through the first track, Four Violins, but given that it's simultaneously incredibly abrasive, strongly hypnotic, and full of oddly beautiful harmonies, i'd say it's a keeper.

Also cool is Tony Conrad's work with Faust a great Krautrock band. It's basically Tony playing some wicked violin drones (which is really his thing, apparently) while the band plays less-is-more pulsey rhythms underneath.

In a different vein, i was also able to grab Gamelan and Tibetan Buddhist (OK, it's actually Bhutanese) field recordings while in the Bay. The Gamelan recording is of a Gamelan semar pegulingan ensemble, which is apparently dedicated to the Balinese Hindu god of love. Take that with a grain of salt, because i read that on the back of a CD, and i'm sure that the info on some of these "world music" recordings is suspect (although the notes in this one seem pretty good.)

The music is incredibly delicate; most of the instruments are both percussive and tuned. The ensemble plays really tight, stopping on a dime and bursting into rapid fire melodic fragments. There's all sorts of cool rhythmic variations, too, shifting the "groove" (sorry) with sublime ease. Sweet, sweet music that sends you floating down some cool, cool waters to the serenity center of your brain.

"Serene" probably isn't something that you would call the recording of Buddhist music. Which isn't to say it's not a great set, presented in a very sincere and straightforward way, cutting out the exotic-to-Westerners angle.

Credit is due to John Levy, a quirky English Jew (as i recall) who had a passion for ethonomusicology, Buddhist religion, and high-speed motocycle driving, one of which led to his untimely demise. I won't ruin the surprise, so pick up this package and read the highly entertaining biographical note for yourself. Let's just say that the lately-parapelegic Levy spends his last days next to the also-newly-paraplegized Robert Wyatt of Soft Machines and general British prog fame, ordering gin cocktails from the nurses, and commenting on his dissatisfaction with the service.

The music is totally amazing, with a lot of deep drones and discordance that is unlike the discordance that you'll hear in our "edgy" music. It doesn't seem to signify emotional discord or damage; it's hard to imagine how people in Bhutan hear this. Nonetheless, it sounds amazing. There's also a great diversity of recordings, from stately monastic perfomances to dudes busking on the street corner. I read that Bhutan has a much stronger tradition of public musical perfomance than many other Buddhist cultures, and it's really showcased here.

The very worst

2005-09-12T08:34:00.000-05:00

Maybe i'm just trying to compete with jake for most depressing post:

Is this story getting mainstream press coverage? A google search reveals that it seems to have only been reported on blogs and socialist webpages. A group of about one thousand people, almost all black, try to escape from New Orleans through their only available route, the greater New Olreans bridge, which leads out of the city into a neighboring parish, and the town of Gretna (75% white.) As they try to cross the bridge, they are confronted by the sheriff of Gretna and many armed deputies, who fire "warning" shots at them and prevent them from leaving the devastated city. Later the makeshift shelter that they create is destroyed by police, who seize their meager stores of food and fresh water under the provisions of martial law.

You can hear a first hand account of this incident here at Time of Useful Consciousness radio (what an amazing name.) Go to the new programs page and scroll down to "Hurricane Katrina and the War on the Poor." I'm not sure how much of the interview is archived on the site, but it should be worth your time.

Nothing is beautiful, only man

2005-08-29T10:18:00.000-05:00

(quote - Nietzsche)

Lisa Bonet is so hot

2005-08-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

If you look closely you can see the face of Karl Marx as the sun, shining the light of scientific socialism on the Chinese Communists. (photo - Jake Werner)

The end of tipping?

2005-08-10T09:10:00.000-05:00

A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none, a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.
-Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian

We explain agreeable general feelings as produced by our trust in God, and by our consciousness of good deeds (the so-called "good conscience"--a physiological state which at times looks so much like good digestion that it is hard to tell them apart).
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Stephen Shaw wrote an op-ed for today's New York Times about a fancy restaurant in New York that is abandoning the tipping system that almost every eatery in america subscribes to. This system, while viewed favorably by all parties involved (servers, restaurant customers, and restaurant owners) is actually deeply flawed, Shaw argues.

He produces evidence that tipping is not related to service so much as how likeable a server is, and is skewed by gender. Furthermore, tipping can lead to servers aggressively pushing more expensive items. Beyond consumer concerns, this practice keeps servers in relatively high-paying jobs (compared to jobs with similar requirements, i imagine,) but with little security and often no benefits. Shaw suggests that treating servers as regular salaried employees will produce a more loyal and harder working staff, so restaurant owners will also benefit.

Shaw makes some good points, and even comes to the right conclusion, but his analysis is typical for a liberal, supposedly examining all involved parties' interests without allowing class to really enter the picture. In Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell's memoir of fighting in Spain during the civil war, he remembers that the first thing that occured in Barcelona after the socialists had taken control was that businesses began displaying large signs announcing that tipping would no longer be tolerated. Apparently this sufficienty alarmed the bourgeois (although the worker brigades marching thorugh the streets in arms must have helped) that they started dressing like the proletariats and generally making themselves scarce.

The point is that not only is tipping not necessarily a smart way of doing things, it's also fundamentally demeaning, and the workers of Barcelona recognized this. It's often said that waiting tables is one of the few careers that allows a woman without a college degree to support a family. Assuming this is true, should tippers really be able to threaten this merely because they don't think the service is good? And as the study Shaw cites may suggest, undertipping could be the result of customers not liking a server, even if they receive satisfactory service.

Presumably the logic behind tipping is "the customer's always right;" that is, you be the judge of the service and tip accordingly. But customers in a restaurant are not the best judge of the service there. If you wait a long time for food, isn't it more likely that the delay is related to understaffing than laziness on the part of the servers? So undertipping would doubly punish the worker: work harder with less support for less money. If a server is slacking off, this is best judged by co-workers who can appreciate the conditions under which she/he works.

But i'm sure that most people, most of the time, do tip well, even generously. What's at issue here, moreso than the economic element is the debasement of the worker. Isn't tipping a fundamentally condescending act? A pat on the head to servant eager to please? This is not how we treat equals, and we must see all workers as our equals if there is any hope of attained a society not imprisoned in the chains of a class system.

Tipping isn't a good deed or an act of charity, it's merely paying for a service (the wages of servers are always below the national or local minimum, so they certainly aren't being compensated there.) So how is it that we hold the power to deny compensation to servers, merely because they serve us?

If society is to allow for both human equality and the complex relations that come of necessity with large populations, there must be the capacity to serve others without ones' self being lowered in the act. This will demand structural changes at the most basic level of daily experience, for example in the way that we relate to our co-workers and order our economic system. Can there be true equality between a doctor and the custodian of a hospital building, given the vast differences in economic remuneration, levels of education, and social prestige attached to each job ?

There will need to be new ways to relate to other humans, to serve and be served (in the broadest sense,) without shame. Martin Luther believed that all Christians were the equal not only to priests but to Christ himself, in their capacity to be justified before God. For Luther, this was the greatest freedom imaginable, but a purely spiritual one. The earthly body, on the other hand, was full of weakness, and needed discipline to prevent it from corrupting the faith of the "inward man," on which salvation depends.

This discipline was attainable only through service towards others, "when a man applies himself with joy and love to the works of that freest servitude in which he serves others voluntarily and for nought, himself abundantly satisfied in the fullness and riches of his own faith." (Luther, The Freedom of a Christian) So humans are radically free in spirit, subject to none and saved before God. All this comes merely from the simplest faith in God. But the demands of this faith are servitude towards all humanity without reservation or selfishness.

Isn't the echo of these words easily apparent in the philosophy of many socialisms from Marx to the anarcho-syndicalists? Humans are freed through their labors, which under ideal circumstances appear as unfettered and unmediated service towards fellow humans. We need an outlook which poses no contradiction between service and freedom, perhaps one which even sees service as the surest road to freedom.

I'm glad that Shaw raised this issue and i hope that many more restaurants join their European counterparts in banning tipping and incorporating the service charge into menu prices. But this issue shouldn't be reduced to a utilitarian calculation of greatest benefit to all parties, as Shaw suggests. The fundamental issue here is the right of wokers not to depend on the generosity of others.

However, Shaw is right that abandoning tipping won't just benefit workers. It will allow us all to relate to our fellows, even when they serve us, as equals, and do away with the guilt and opression created by this paternalistic social relation. So the next time that you feel a warm sensation of contentment after a meal you'll know that it's not from your supposed "good deeds," it's just good digestion.

Nepotistic Record Review #1

2005-07-30T13:58:00.000-05:00

XYZR_KX Falls off the Curb, Chump Style.
“Actually, Records.”

“Full” disclosure: XYZR_KX is better known to me as Jon Monteverde, friend and musical partner/collaborator extraordinaire. The only other musician who appears on this album is my friend Pete Micek.

“Objective” opinion: Falls off the Curb, Chump Style. is a hard record to pigeonhole, because it merges several different musical styles without resorting to genre hopping. I think that the best compliment i can pay XYZR_KX on this CD is that, like many of my favorite albums it sounds like the realization of a personal musical vision more than an exercise within a particular tradition or school of music.

Which isn’t to say that Falls off the Curb invents a new genre outright. It’s more that it sounds like XYZR_KX is doing his own thing here, confidently and successfully. So what is his thing? The main elements are electronic sounds and freedom, a songwriterly sense of composition, and an early 90s indie rock feel for hazy distorted guitars.

I really like the way that these elements come together. Check out “LUV,” which features an extended introduction with cool crunchy beats and pretty synth tones. This instrumental part goes through several interesting developments and then merges seamlessly into the sound of an acoustic guitar that introduces a ballady vocal section, only to head back to a satisfying electro resolution.

In addition to the synthesis of directions on Falls off the Curb, the other striking characteristic is the vulnerability of the vocals. The singing is sincere, but not melodramatic, admirably able to emote without stage setting and grand gestures. The lack of affect does much for the honesty of the music and singing.

I guess this is the part of the reivew where i have to offer some criticism to maintain my credibility. Well, i suppose that the mix could have been a little crazier in a few parts. "I've Said this Before" has a good rocking beat and a really cool sheets-of-fuzz guitar sound, but i wish that the guitars or the vocals were a little higher to fill up the mix. There's also room for a little more craziness in general on the disc, but maybe i only say that because i've gotten a preview of some wilder XYZR_KX material still in the pipeline, and there's nothing wrong with laid back music.

“LUV” is emblematic of the album’s tendencies towards gentle ballads, epic instrumentals, and hard rockin’. Given the diversity of mood, Falls off the Curb feels like it always has a surprise waiting, and evolves nicely over the course of its eight songs, coming to a reflective close on “Symphoniphics.” This song contains one of my favorite moments on the album, a lonely voice singing, “we’re lost out here in the stars.” An appropriate closing to an album that takes you at least as far.

(Related) Movie Throw-down #1: Signs v War of the Worlds (2005)

2005-07-26T13:15:00.000-05:00

talk about a wierd blog---how about yours....15th best of your critiques of race in film....cuz you've got at least as many....cuz your a closet racist---you're just like a homophobe lashing out violently at gays. stay away from my workplace.
-Aaron With

Our modern world sure is fraught with peril and strife. Economic instability, the breakdown of the family, political divisions at home and abroad, ecological meltdown, and the little matter of the impending energy crisis that no one has half an idea how to address, nor seemingly the will to do so.

Add to these worries the threat of invasion by hostile extra terrestrials and you’ve got a summer blockbuster on your hands. Hell, let’s toss in a film star who can’t seem to shovel shit onto a once gleaming career fast enough with bizarre (even for a movie star) behavior, special effects worth more than the governmental budgets of many small nations, an adorable child star, some truly ill-conceived alien baddies, and a voice-over courtesy of Morgan Freeman. It shall be known as War of the Worlds (2005).

Right about now you’re probably having flashbacks to Independence Day, which also combined amazing special effects with an offensively thin and emotionally manipulative story. And while that is certainly a connection i made when i saw War of the Worlds, i also thought of a very different invasion movie that nevertheless seemed somehow more relevant.

Signs was M. Night Shyamalan’s third feature film. It’s more sober and atmospheric than War of the Worlds or Independence Day, and is hardly a special effects fest. So what’s the common thread, other than being multi-million dollar Hollywood productions?

Both movies depict alien invasions of our world from the point of view of nuclear American families, and in each case it’s the “head” of the family, the father, who must rise to the challenge and more or less save the day. And in both cases the mother is out of the picture leaving it to father to shoulder the whole burden of an interstellar conflict. It’s hardly surprising that both movies extol the values of white patriarchy; doesn’t every movie these days (and all days?)

Of course, Tom Cruise’s Ray Ferrier (from War of the Worlds) is a very different dad from Mel Gibson’s Graham Hess (in Signs.) He’s a scruffy, immature working class guy, just a normal dude who has a tough time relating to his kids and accepting his responsibilities as a father. He’s a union man, but not some kind of socialist rabble-rouser; he’d rather be terrorizing the neighborhood with reckless driving in his pride and joy, an old muscle car, than attending a labor rally. Typical stuff for Spielberg, the secular liberal. Let’s see what Shyamalan has up his sleeve.

Gibson’s character is a widowed ex-minister (i’m sure it was a great acting challenge for him to portray a Protestant) who lives with his brother and two children on a farm. He’s your archetypal red state Bush voter. He’d definitely base his vote on “moral issues.” He’s a family values type guy, but he’s also having a crisis of faith in light of his wife’s death, and has left his ministry. I suppose he pays the bills with farming, but you never see him working. Must be some of those sweet government subsidies.

In both cases, the alien invasion unfolds as a means of illustrating, intensifying, and ultimately resolving the crisis in each man’s family. Can Tom Cruise gain the maturity he needs to be the head of his family? Can Mel Gibson be reborn in Christ and become a spiritual foundation for his children? Can these men become the rocks that their families need to weather the horrors of the alien incursions?

The aliens: manifestations of your average filmgoers most relevant anxieties. Spielberg’s aliens are interstellar terrorists. They are terrorists literally in the sense that they use terror against civilian populations. And Spielberg plays adorably on the famously (self-)censored line from E.T. when Ferrier’s young daughter asks “are they the terrorists?” after the invasion begins.

Of course this “terrorist” theory may not bear up under closer scrutiny as the aliens’ have no realistic goal for their invasion other than sucking human guts up into their war machines in order to… kill more humans. (As nearly as i can tell, the alien’s war machines are fueled by blood… blood for oil indeed.) Perhaps they are going to take over the world, although that doesn’t explain why they didn’t just do that in the first place, all those years ago before humans even existed (which is when we are told they buried their war machines in the earth.) More probably they resent our way of life. Actually, the alien invasion more closely evokes the horrors of the Holocaust in terms of its scope and reduction of human life to a morally inert substance.

But more chilling than Spielberg’s aliens are his humans. By far the most effective scenes in the film are the ones where Cruise and his family come into conflict with panicked humans, desperately trying to ensure their safety by any means necessary. Early in the story Cruise figures out a way to counteract the aliens’ electromagnetic pulse that has rendered all electronics useless, and gets a car working. He uses the car to flee the city, ostensibly to meet up with his ex-wife in Boston. On the way he encounter a group of refugees who, out of their minds with fear, try to get the car and end up pulling Cruise and his son right out of it. They begin to beat him and the teenage son. Cruise grabs his gun and puts an end to the beating, but another man draws a gun and takes the vehicle. Meanwhile, Cruise loses his gun, another man recovers it, and then uses it to kill the car thief, either for blind revenge or to take the car himself.

This scene is effectively foreshadowed when Cruise takes his gun from a box under his bed as he prepares to flee his home after the beginning of the invasion. We know, even if he doesn’t (and given that he’d already seen one of the war machines he should realize,) that it will be of no use against the aliens, and that it will surely end up being used against other people. When we eventually see the aliens themselves, outside of their war machines, they are hilariously adorable, with big, round eyes. They look like the bastard children of E.T. and H. R. Giger’s alien, if you can believe it.

The disparity between their actions as mass murderers and the behavior of the almost cute aliens as Cruise and a disturbed fat man (Tim Robins) spy on them in a ruined house is puzzling. Spielberg whips out some of his usual routine, showing the aliens exploring the unfamiliar world of earth: they spin the wheel of a bicycle hung on a wall, they’re startled when it falls off the wall, they babble in interstellar baby talk. It’s true that the Nazis were human beings, but i’m sure they weren’t this cuddly.

Shyamalan presents the inverse situation. He plays it coy when it comes to the aliens, leaving you in doubt for most of the film as to whether they even exist. It’s a long time before you catch a glimpse of them, and by that point your anxiety is reaching the boiling point. They were terrifying in the theater and sort of rubbery on a TV. These aliens are altogether more mundane, more pragmatic. They are using fear and limited ground combat against us humans to soften us up for a larger scale invasion with the ultimate goal of seizing our resources.

Although more humanoid in appearance than Spielberg’s creatures, these aliens are far more frightening. They’re intelligent (although they seem to have a lot of trouble with doors) and devious. They act like very effective soldiers. The most frightening scene in Signs takes place as Gibson’s family is barricaded in their basement as the first wave of the invasion has begun. Much of the scene takes place in near pitch darkness, which effectively highlights the sounds of the aliens’ forced entry. Shyamalan makes good on some of his debt to Spielberg by lending him the execution of this scene for use in Robbins's basement.

Meanwhile, Shyamalan’s humans are, in general, the salt of the earth. Everyone in his little farming town knows each other, and it’s all hand-holding, group prayer, divine revelation, and family bonding as they face the assault. The incursion is the occasion for Gibson’s reconnection with his faith, a test for humanity sent, the film would have us believe, directly from God.

Spielberg pulls out the God card as well, although in a much less provocative way than Shyamalan. I’ve called Spielberg essentially secular, and i’ll stick to that, as he evokes God in the most inoffensive, blandly P.C., “in-God-we-trust” sort of way possible, having Morgan Freeman inform us, in his characteristically friendly, paternal way, that God placed bacteria on earth to defend us humans from these sorts of alien invasion, and that there are no meaningless deaths (since all those who died from diseases were contributing to humans’ growing immunity to bacteria. Never mind all the people wiped out by the aliens, or those you’ve just seen killed in the panic following the invasion.)

Shyamalan really outdoes Spielberg (apparently his idol) here, crafting a very tense thriller (although its best scenes don’t translate well for home viewing and it has quite a clunker of an ending) with genuine suspense and some pretty good acting. Spielberg has cranked out a gruesome summer blockbuster, which i like to call “Holocaust: the Ride,” after my sister’s suggestion that War of the Worlds was more akin to a Universal Studios ride than a movie. Spielberg’s mind must be a real charnel house; even his fluff is full of mass murders.

Signs presents us with a worrisome thesis. That God will send us enemies to strengthen our faith. That only through this conflict can faith be strengthened and asserted. It’s easy to dilute this and claim that the aliens are here as a mere metaphor for spiritual struggles that we face (and not for, say, real flesh-and-blood enemies that we must combat,) but keep in mind that this is the analysis that many Christian fundamentalists actually applied to the terrorist attack of 2001. And its basis in doctrine concerning the coming apocalypse hardly needs to be mentioned (consider that the religious right supports aid to Israel on the basis that the wickedness of the Jews is an expedient to the judgment day.)

Furthermore, the September eleventh attack did nothing to change Shyamalan’s preoccupations (Signs came out in 2002, but i’ll play it safe and assume that it came together as a project before the terrorist strike.) Instead, he went on to make The Village, offering an even more disturbing thesis: that we must create our own enemies in order to preserve our values. Which, of course, the United States did in a sense, and more precisely, the global capitalist world system did by creating the conditions under which this kind of global terrorism can exist. Whatever Shyamalan was thinking when he made Signs (and that’s not really my interest) it is hard to look at it now except as a predictor of the Christian Fundamentalist response to the terrorist attack or an echo of apocalyptic prophesies.

It’s harder for me to make something coherent out of Spielberg’s movie. Perhaps this is because there is nothing coherent about Spielberg’s film. It’s a summer blockbuster with little substance. There’s Spielberg’s love for evoking average working class people and neighborhoods, which he does pretty well. There’s his disgustingly predictable penchant for casting adorable precocious girls. And of course, there’s the almost boundless brutality, atrocity, and death.

It’s easy to see what you might get out of a movie like Independence Day. It plays like one of those incredibly triumphant World War II movies, but by replacing the “Japs” or “Krauts” with aliens it remained uncontroversial while allowing the heroes to brutally beat their enemies sans irritating moral quibbles. It would’ve been not only disturbing, but likely a war crime if Will Smith had pulled a wounded Japanese pilot from a crashed airplane and repeatedly punched his head. Luckily there is no interstellar Geneva Convention, and if there were one, we could likely find a loophole large enough for an offshore alien detention center to fit through anyway.

So Independence Day glorified American spirit and prowess in battle at the expense of imaginary others to whom we have no apparent moral or ethical obligations. Of course we should suspect that jingoism will always have innocent victims. What does War of the Worlds offer? It’s hard to say when there is so little resolution to such a gruesome story, and few moments of anything approaching heroism. War of the Worlds hardly glorifies Americans or anyone else, for that matter, in relation to its aliens, presenting instead a chaotic world where life and death are meaningless except in the terms of bare survival, plunging twenty-first century America into Hobbes’s state of nature.

According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, War of the Worlds has, in its original and derivative forms, reflected social anxiety, over the fate of the British Empire, the United State’s fate on the eve of World War I, the Cold War, and of course, America’s current precarious position in global events. For a film as brutal and unrewarding as War of the Worlds, this indicates a pretty bleak outlook for America. Even if it's accurate, why is it that people want to see it on the screen? I’m not sure exactly what pleasure we Americans take in envisioning our own end, but it’s hard to argue that we aren’t fascinated by it. From disaster films to actual news coverage of the 2001 terrorist attacks, we replay images of our destruction over and over.

War of the Worlds seems emblematic of the lack of vision that liberals currently posses. Beyond tightening security (right up to the point where the constraints on liberties become intolerable,) there have been few ideas that address the problem of international terrorism. The line taken by neo-conservatives of strengthening foreign military presence will clearly lead to further acts of terrorism and international discord. Changing policy towards Middle-Eastern nations is the most sensible idea, but it seems doubtful that the idea will gain enough support. Even if it does, can enough be done to significantly erode the terrorist’s support and forestall further attacks? And to what extent do terrorists actually rely on broad support? My sense is that regardless of whether or not there is approval for acts of terrorism in a broad sense, funding comes from relatively few wealthy individuals or families, who would be difficult to sway.

The difficulty behind rooting out the threat of terrorism is that this threat is internal to our world-system, not an external one (as a clash of civilizations theory might suggest.) Terrorists play by the rules of international capital, moving information and funds across borders with the ease of high-speed communications and purchasing arms from black markets that are an inevitable side effect of “free” markets. They feed off the anger that is generated by the intrusion of markets as well as the support provided by rich countries to oppressive regimes and the establishment of foreign military bases that are necessary to maintain these markets. And it’s obviously impossible to stop the spread of markets without fundamentally altering the world economy. How is it possible to overcome this resistance that is part-and-parcel of the system itself?

But what’s more worrying, a lack of vision on the part of liberals, or the apparent strength and certitude of those who would dispense with liberal values? Shyamalan, as a presenter of the views of religious fundamentalists, welcomes the invasion and articulates the “proper” response: to reaffirm the values of his Christianity (including those of white male patriarchy.) He suggests that only such a threat can preserve these values.

But these films reveal another source of anxiety, the looming energy crisis. There is a near consensus that current consumption of oil is not sustainable. Meanwhile, China is poised to vastly increase its demand for oil and energy companies are taking only pathetic steps towards alternative energy sources. Once again, the demands of the economy, of continual growth, make it unlikely that a satisfactory solution can be found, especially in the time we probably have to produce one. The result could be armed conflict, possibly on a world scale.

A scarcity of resources is precisely the reason that the aliens in both War of the Worlds and Signs are attacking Earth. Like a clichéd Twilight Zone twist, is it possible that we are actually these aliens, driven to horrible acts by the depletion of our resources?

As a final thought, imagine an America in decline, struggling to retain its dominance overseas to obtain enough oil to prop up a failing economy. Who will be more likely to take up the leadership, the ones desperately pulling each other from cars in hope of a temporary salvation, or the ones who knew all along that there would be a reckoning, and welcomed it Bible in hand and eyes looking proudly up to the Lord?

While you’re pondering that, you should check out Wedding Crashers as a potential antidote to a floundering summer blockbuster season.

Special thanks to jon monteverde (thow-down concept, check jonnymo.blogspot.com) and aaron with (unrestrained id).

From the archives: Oscar night

2005-07-22T19:23:00.000-05:00

Jesus, i'm a busy guy. I couldn't even get around to finsihing this post on the Oscars till now. Whatever, you're the one surfing the internet at work:

Every year i watch the Oscars and find new things to fuel my spastic fits of fist shaking and inarticulate sputtering. Maybe i should just stop watching. Given that this is pretty unlikely, possibly because i love complaining, i'll procced to this year's inevitable gripes.

Lately the Academy Awards telecasts have contained some electric moments that really expose the clumsiness and discomfort with which we americans confront issues of race. These events have pointed out how even the supposedly enlightened and liberal Hollywood establishment cannot easily broach these issues, not that that should come as a surprise.

I'm thinking particularly of the 2002 awards in which Denzel Washington and Halle Berry were both awarded Oscars for acting. Berry made a now (in)famously emotional acceptance speech proclaiming that she was proud to open the way for other women of color to gain more respect as actors (she was the first black woman to be awarded the oscar for best actress.) Although at the time i found this speech to be a grating, i liked what she said overall. I particularly appreciated the fact that she explicitly brought the question of race into an arena where it is often glossed over (if not ignored completely), at least in the main stream press. (I admit there certainly has been much discussion of race and film in academic circles.)

The same night, Denzel Washington made a very different speech, one that seemed to have a suggestion of resentment towards the academy, especially by comparison to Berry's emotive triumph. His opening comment was, "two birds with one night, huh?" while examining the award. For just a moment, i thought i could detect a certain sense of weary irony. To me, this suggested that the academy's awarding black actors was a move calculated to allow their organization to be painted in a favorable light, as progressive and egalitarian, and perhaps as a move away from the racism to be found in american film's history.

Am i reading too much into that remark? I would welcome anyone to offer their interpretations of his comment. And admittedly, the rest of his comments were of a completely different tenor, honoring fellow Oscar recipient Sidney Poitier, and thanking the usual assortment of movie people. But the saying "kill two birds with one stones" suggests that it is possible to deal with two problems with one act. This sense of taking care of providing a problem to a solution hardly gels with the stated goal of the Academy Awards as honoring excellence.

It is also important to recognize that the parts for which black actors are nominated tend not to be ones from movies with upfront political or social messages. Washington was passed over for an Academy Award (although he was nominated) for The Hurricane. At the time, commentators noted that Washington was uncharacteristically vocal about his desire to win this award because of the personal importance that this film and it's anti-racist message, held for him.

He did win an award for best supporting actor for Glory, which was essentially a white hero movie about a northern abolitionist who took a rag-tag group of ex-slaves and made them into honorable soldiers. Then they all march into some big guns and get slaughtered. In the end, the rich northern capitalists are allowed to keep their easy access to the agricultural products of the American south. There were courageous abolitionists and black people who fought for the union. I'm sure many of them fervently believed in their cause, and i believe that the Civil War was a step towards racial equality at a time when that goal was incomprehensibly far from realization. But Glory is still fee-good Hollywood, white-washed history, and that's always a detriment to real anti-racist efforts.

Training Day, for which Washington won the Oscar, was, to me, a racist and classist film, showing the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles to be an urban jungle, inhabited by savage "natives" who are portrayed as alien and inferior to the middle-class cops played by Washington and Ethan Hawke.

The representation of the cops vs. "natives" was drawn directly, so far as i could see from Apocalypse Now, a similiarly racist film by Francis Ford Coppola. The first element of the film that drew this to my attention was the parallel between the car that the cops ride in and the boat that the solider protagonists occupy in Apocalypse Now. In both cases their vehicle is a safe haven from the strange and violent happenings on the shores of the river, or the sidewalks and lawns. In fact, director Anthony Fuqua himself admits that he drew inspiration for these scenes from Apocalypse Now on the commentary track to Training Day.

In both Apocalypse Now and Training Day the portrayal of people as "natives" is stereotypical and offensive. In Apocalypse Now, the indigenous people among whom Kurtz has become a god are incapable of initiative, of determining their own fate. They are either at the mercy of the warlord Kurtz or the enlightened Willard (Marin Sheen's character) who overcomes his own nihilism to offer them a path to peace. The film offers no alternative to white savoirs.

Similarly Hawke plays the white hero, Jake, in Training Day. While the residents of South Central are not necessary portrayed as evil, they are shown to be disposed to violent behavior, and unable to deal with Washington's corrupt cop, Alonzo, who exploits them in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the way in which Kurtz "goes native" in Apocalypse Now. Finally Jake is able to intervene and allow the people of South Central to deal with this corrupt cop in a final violent catharsis. Things work out fine in the ghetto as long as you have enlightened whites like Jake to see things through.

To be clear, i'm taking it for granted that the quality of the performance is of little concern in deciding the winner of a best acting Oscar (and i think the same holds true for all the awards.) It's entirely possible that Washington gave the year's best performance (although i didn't see all of the other films for which actors were nominated, and there can not possibly be a best in a subjective, aesthetic judgement, but i digress.) But every year, the critics who make predictions discuss a host of other factors that play into the Academy's decision process, and i'm only suggesting that race may be one of them.

I've only provided a few examples above, but i think it is enough to suggest the kind of bias that the Academy shows towards actoresses and actors of color. I'd welcome any additional comments about this. One can also point to forms of sexism in the awarding of Oscars. It has been widely commented on that women are more likely to win awards for roles in which they appear naked, and of course Berry acted in a famously racy scene in Monster's Ball, for which she won her best actress award.

***

The 2005 Oscars did have a bit of an edge, as would be expected from the host, Chris Rock. There was a pre-taped bit where Rock first asked filmgoers in a predominantly black neighborhood what they thought about some of the films nominated for best movie, and then asked them about the comedy White Chicks staring the Wayans brothers. Almost none of the interviewees knew about the films nominated for Oscars, but all told him that they had seen White Chicks and liked it.

I suppose that this could be a subversive comment on the classist and racist nature of the Academy Awards and the film establishment in general as it reveals the gap between critically lauded and celebrated films with those that "average" people, or in this case ostensibly middle-class black people, go to see. But doesn't the context (this is a comedy bit being shown at the Academy Awards) and the deliberate choice of White Chicks, a critically reviled film, which has a premise that virtually precludes the audience from taking it seriously as a film, actually serve to poke fun at these filmgoers themselves, and their, by implication, low brow taste in movies?

There was a much better moment that occured when Jorge Drexler accepted his award for best song Al Otro Lado Del Rio from the motorcycle diaries. Every year, popular musicians, occasionally the composer(s) and/or performer(s) themselves, play each of the nominated songs at various points throughout the broadcast prior to the award being given out. This song was performed by Spanish singer/actor Antonio Banderas and Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana. At first i mostly enjoyed the perfomance. I was somewhat surprised to find that i liked Banderas's singing (i had no idea he was a "real" singer until i looked it up later on) although i felt that Santana's characteristic bluesy soloing was completely out of place in the song, which sounded more like a Latin American folk song to me. I admit i know next to nothing about Latin American music, so feel free to lacerate me on this point, but i'm sticking to my guns when i say that Santana's contribution was distracting and superfluous.

But you can't appreciate the full meaning of this event until you learn the backstory. Jorge Drexler is a big star in Latin America (he's from Uruguay), writing and singing on his own albums. He had requested that the Academy allow him to perform the song that he had written at the awards. Apparently he wasn't a big enough star for them, and apparently there were no stars from Latin America big enough to perform on the Academy's stage, because they recruited Banderas and Santana. I don't mean to denigrate either as a musician or a person, but i find the academy's decision shameful. It would obviously have been relevant to have a Latin American performer sing this song about a Latin American Revolutionary who fought on the side of poor countries against the hegemony of the United States. But it just wasn't in the stars.

Drexler responded in a very graceful way, giving no acceptance speech, instead singing one of the uplifiting lyrics from his song. I guess i'd have perferred a fiery denunciation of the academy, and American liberals in general, but his way worked too, if you were listening and watching, critically.

Louder than Bombs

2005-04-26T00:08:00.000-05:00

I'm in Reckless on a Saturday afternoon. The hipsters are browsing, or pretending to, but really they're just listening to their iPods, no longer needing any physical musical receptacles, downloading everything they listen to directly from the internet. The clerks are pretending to log new records but are really just updating their blogs where they deride the hipsters for abandoning the analogue soul of real music. There's no need to catalogue the records anyway, only the staff will buy them. The store's PA pumps out some mid-70s French prog, the notes reaching upward to infinity like a stairway to heaven. Although it seems the chord progressions will never end, they eventually do, leaving only the sound of the needle scraping the inner groove.

A particularly weak-looking clerk in a plaid shirt with snaps slips from his stool and weakly lifts the slab of musty wax from the table. He brings out another album and cues it up, the first track, side A. The other clerks slowly turn their heads on their thin, pale, tattooed necks, recognize the album label, and listlessly return to their terminals. The PA hisses and then an bright strummed acoustic guitar breaks through the tomb like atmosphere.

First one then another shopper's ears prick up. Their eyes clear; they raise atrophied limbs to their heads and remove the shiny white buds. I tense up, a little shocked by the uniformity of their response. Then the inevitable happens.

"When you were young you were the king of carrot flowers, and how you built a tower tumbling through the trees/and holy rattle snakes fell all round your feeeeeeet..." Everyone enters precisely on cue, and as if by some kind of group telepathic communion, we're singing as one, without restraint or shame. I'm taken aback to find that I too have joined in the choir, without even knowing it. The clerks share confused looks as late morning shafts of the sun weakly fall among the dust motes that swirl through the air, tumbling upwards and down, obeying seemingly inconsequential destinies.

***

Later, I return to the store. Most of the customers began to shuffle off after the clerks pulled the record, a little embarrased and confused. After the Jesus Christ song, it was almost too much, the clerks were getting distracted, emotional. They wouldn't admit it though.

I knew there was supposed to be an in-store that afternoon. I couldn't read the flyer, it was badly photocopied and featured crude renderings of jungle animals slaking their terrible hunger on the entrails of white businessmen.

Everything is set up, two mics and a boom box sitting on a tall stool. M.I.A. walks casually out from the back of the store and grabs a mic. "Wha's up beeeetches?" She cranks the boom box, instantly blowing the woofers. It spits sick, crunchy beats out of its torn cones.

She lifts the microphone to her mouth and the PA is spitting deadly syllables at us with all the force of a .30-06 rifle, shredding bodies and overturning displays. I scramble over a heap of bodies and broken records towards the exit. It's too late, locked in.

Well, I guess you eventually get to like something like that. I do. I can hear helicopters loaded down with relief supplies overhead, looking for somewhere to put down. Just then, a sharp dressed middle aged man appears, hair perfectly coiffed in a pompador, button down shirt opened to reveal a little greying chest hair. Stephen Morrissey, I presume.

"Hello, it's me," he says, bringing the other mic delicately up with a manicured hand. He tells us that he's changed his mind about immigrants, that it's the duty of every one to make them feel welcomed in their new homes. "After all, I'm sort of an immigrant myself, thanks for having me." Maya looks bored, waiting for him to finish.

"You know we all have our little secrets..." He's done. She hits the play button on the boom box, unleashing battered beats. She heads right into Bingo, flexing her legs in that universal way long legged girls do on hot days, gathered around a boom box on the street. When the chorus rolls around Morrissey locks right in on her note and nails it, their voices are high and sailing together. "Cuz bingo, now I'm hittin the six..." He brings his left arm up in a sweeping motion, knocking an entire row of heavy metal cassettes off the shelf, Slayer and Judas Priest falling together in a pile of cracked plastic.

From the backlog

2005-03-30T00:25:00.000-06:00

3/30

A strong south wind blew air from Texas all the way north to Chicago today. The jet stream held strong far beyond our city, keeping the arctic winds at bay. It felt anticipatory, clearly not the real beginning of warm weather, but a taste of things soon to come.

A warm breeze blew in, and it blew a lot of bad news and anxiety in with it.

-

Another earthquake in the Indian Ocean region yesterday (one of the strongest 10 earthquakes since 1900 according to the newspaper) did not result in a second tsunami, but did kill thousands in some of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami and sent many more fleeing to high ground in panic.

This is a moment that reminds me that the world is fundamentally incomprehensible to the mind. It's stupid to try and figure it out.

-

I'm driving down Irving, it's dark. There are a bunch of emergency vehicles in the middle of an intersection, Irving and Kedzie or something. The pavement is soaked in something, a fire engine cranks out its hose.

I look around as i inch past the fire fighters standing in my lane of traffic. Some bystanders look on, i can't tell what's going on, but i imagine that the fire fighters are preparing to hose the pavement down; i can't see a car wreck or any fire.

That's the way this street is, emergency vehicles are a fixture. A state of emergency is just another way of saying all conditions normal.

2005-02-21T18:03:00.000-06:00

I miss Jake.

This is a blog

2004-10-31T16:54:00.000-06:00

I think i'm going to post some music reviews here. It'll be pretty fun if people respond to my posts and disagree with me, i guess we'll see what happens.