Wednesday, 30th of October, 2002

Thanks to Chris for this. If Destiny’s Child were kittens from the north of England, this is what they would sound like: (a very cute flash animation)

Tuesday, 29th of October, 2002

I fully realise that I’m way behind in updating my sidebar. There’s lots of excellent new music sitting on my desk and getting lots of listening - so reports on the new Hrvatski & Keith Fullerton Whitman albums (Japanese versions with extra tracks!), various items on the Morr Music label and related, the wonderful new Fennesz CD on Touch, and plenty more are coming! Links galore as usual, but I’m at work now so I can’t supply.

While we’re at it, I’ll update the reading section too, but I’ve finished the first Ken MacLeod book, The Sky Fraction, which was interesting (relatively) near-future speculation with lots of socialist and libertarian politics thrown in. There was a worrying amount of anti-Green sentiments, but Charles Stross assures me in email that Ken MacLeod changes his views about as often as the rest of us change our underwear (I’ll check the quote in my email when I get home), and the 4th book is apparently partially set in a future green utopia. The second book, The Stone Canal, is absolutely fantastic so far!

Here’s a very interesting article from the Guardian by Jacqueline Rose, an English Jew strongly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause who writes about her two visits to Israel, first in 1980 and second recently.
The Guardian has an excellent Special Report on Israel and the Middle East, which I’ve been gradually reading through, with a good balance of opinion.

Washington and San Francisco yesterday saw the biggest anti-war demonstrations since Vietnam, as this first-person account reports - and almost the entire mainstream US media failed to mention it.
Makes you wonder. The ABC did report it though, proving that there’s still perhaps some difference between Australian and US media.

Monday, 28th of October, 2002

Here is a fascinating (and well-written) letter by the Beastie Boys responding to allegations that they illegally used a sample by the composer James Newton in their song Pass the Mic. Just read the first post, and ignore all the fankids posting afterwards ;)

Friday, 25th of October, 2002

Greenpeace shuts down Esso - 600 volunteers have shut down every Esso pump in the (admittedly rather small) country of Luxembourg - a country known as the “fuel pump of Europe” due to its cheap petrol prices. Quite an action! Here’s more info via Stop Esso, where you can also find out just why Exxon-Mobil-Esso suck quite so much.

“They Misunderestimated Me!” - “The Very Curious Language of George W. Bush”. Hilarious… But somewhat terrifying (I use that word advisedly) given that he’s the single most powerful man in the known universe (known to us, that is. Maybe some aliens in the Crab Nebula have an even more powerful and stupid usurper-despot).

Sunday, 20th of October, 2002

Pardon me for being forward says Anil. My thoughts exactly.

Wednesday, 16th of October, 2002

I haven’t commented here about the horrific events in Bali over the last few days - partially because, due to not watching TV or listening to the radio, and having missed the papers for some reason, I sortof missed out on it until it was garish front-page news on… Monday? Maybe.

In amongst the patriotic rhetoric (which makes it even harder for me to come to any kind of balanced opinion about it at the moment), the implications of terrorism and al-Quaeda connections (which really are only conjecture at the moment, although they may turn out to be true), and nestled in there with Gerard Henderson’s sadly misguided diatribe against the left (he believes that Bali is conclusive evidence against those who blamed the September 11 attacks on US foreign policy!), we have a few fascinating bits of commentary.
The SMH’s religious affairs columnist Chris McGillion writes a great article about the rise of Armageddonism in Christian and fundamentalist Jewish rhetoric in recent times, and sees it as a dangerous tendency that “might become a self-fulfilling prophecy”, in that it fans the flames of zealotry and hatred. Muslim fundamentalists are a dangerous breed, especially considering their power in the Arab world at the moment - but they’re not the only ones!
I am inevitably reminded of the great Matt Johnson of The The, who wrote “Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)” in 1989, not to mention “Sweet Bird of Truth” in 1986! Classic political commentary, right on the button and totally relevant right now. Infected and Mind Bomb are absolutely essential listening in my opinion (and yes, the other albums too) - go buy!

The Herald also prints yet another excellent article from The Guardian (a far more left-leaning newspaper than any of the ones we have left in Australia - and the UK have The Independent as well!), about “the dangers of terrorism and failing states”, which comments that linking Saddam with al-Quaeda is becoming more tenuous by the minute, which should make it harder for Bush to justify war in Iraq - a war which would only encourage more recruits to Islamic extremism…

Meanwhile in The Guardian’s publication The Observer, Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) writes in acid satire of The audacious courage of Mr Blair, who is increasingly viewed contemptously in the UK as Bush’s lapdog.

Sunday, 13th of October, 2002

Current (very current) listening: “All Tomorrow’s Parties” by the Velvet Underground and Nico, on the seminal and astoundingly brilliant album The Velvet Underground and Nico. Fuck this album is great. Oh yesssssssss. Next up: “Heroin”, with the searing and brain-melting viola solo by Mr John Cale. Quoth Irvine Welsh in Trainspotting:

The bad-taste bastard breaks the junky’s golden rule by pitten oan ‘Heroin’, the version oan Lou Reed’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal, which if anything, is even mair painful tae listen tae whin yir sick than the original version oan The Velvet Underground and Nico. Mind you, at least this version doesnae huv John Cale’s screetching viola passage oan it. Ah couldnae huv handled that.

Not having experienced heroin withdrawal, I can’t comment on that, but it’s a great quote, and a great song, viola solo and all.

Tuesday, 8th of October, 2002

Also from Mark Rosenfelder’s site is the Zompist Phrasebook - described as “The last phrasebook you’ll ever need”, and rightly so. Amusingly chauvinistic American phrases, and some hugely entertainingly misleading translations too…

Some eye-bending creations here: Lego meets Escher. Follow the links to the previous two. The Belvedere one is cool and has an explanation of the perspective used. Ascending and Descending looks AMAZING - how did they do that? I’ll have to analyse that photograph!
Thanks to Graham for the link

Here’s an ABC interview with Michael Moore about his new movie, Bowling for Columbine, where he discusses mainly gun control, but plenty of other issues.

You Are Either With Us, Or You’re Fired!

Dear Friends,

I was going to write you a letter about what a pathetic liar George W, Bush is — but then I figured, hey, why waste your time telling you something you already know!

So begins Michael Moore’s message, which you can read via the top link. The state of democracy in the US is far more grotesque than ours in Australia even… His message to the Democrats, via a petition he has up at his website, is that he (and anyone who signs the petition) will never vote again for any of them who votes in favour of Bush’s war on Iraq. It’s a strong message, and the “message” brings home what the US is really faced with at the moment: 35% greater unemployment than when he stole office, increasing numbers of people with no health insurance, etc.

While we’re on the topic of the Republicans’ barefaced robbery of government, you can read here about the 2000 “coup d’etat”. It’s a pretty sorry story given that these people are running/ruining the world (in their own view no less) - and are counting themselves out of the International Criminal Court, refusing to ratify Kyoto, and on and on it goes…

Monday, 7th of October, 2002

While we’re at it, Mark Rosenfelder, who wrote the libertarianism article above, has a number more interesting rants and articles on his site, including Why the rich should pay the most taxes. This is the choice quote, which all right-wingers should bear in mind:

There’s few areas where right-wingers have succeeded in spreading more darkness than in the area of taxes. Republicans have pushed the idea that your income is “your money” that the government is “taking away from you”. This is completely dishonest. It’s precisely equivalent to complaining that “your money” is being “taken away” by the telephone company. Of course it is. It’s how you get telephone service. You pay the government, too, and you get government service in return. What’s happening with your money is no different.

*heh* From What’s wrong with libertarianism2000 (note: we’re talking about that all-American right-wing-free-marked-libertarianism):

Libertarianism reads like someone (let’s call her “Ayn Rand”) sat down to create the Un-Communism.

This article really is fantastic. I’ll be re-reading it, because it says a huge amount that I agree with, and is quite revelatory about what libertarianism, quite a difficult term for someone in Australia who doesn’t come across it much (the term rather than the philosophy mind you!), really is.

While I was up at the entirely fantabulous This Is Not Art fesitval in Newcastle (got back today) I heard a talk by Tom Frank, who is the founder of The Baffler, an ironically-titled publication whose intent, when founded, was exactly the opposite of the direction that po-mo cultural theory takes - in other words, to be clear, analytic and unambiguous. This is indeed a political and philosophical position close to my heart. Read this article about the Baffler. I shall try and get hold of some issues. These days they’ve been focusing on the free market (cf current issue, The God That Sucked). Woohoo!

Bloggers of the Left Unite! I’m in.

The three blogs I link to in my sidebar column are all left-leaning. I’ll see if I can find some more.

Hm, amazing story via Disinformation, that Republicans make the voting machines… The Republicans are in fact fucking the world over good and proper.