John Wyndham - The Day Of The Triffids
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Thursday, 28 July 2011
Anti-gay heavy metal preacher files lawsuit against Rachel Maddow
Attorney Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, has filed a lawsuit against NBC, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and The Minnesota Independent on behalf of Bradlee Dean, head of the religious ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International.
"This case is filed as a matter of principle," Klayman said. "We need more Bradlee Deans in the world and hateful left wing television commentators must be made to respect not only his mission but the law."
The lawsuit seeks in excess of $50 million in damages for false accusations and defamation. It claims that Maddow falsely accused Dean on her MSNBC show of supporting the killing of homosexuals, which harmed the "fine reputation" of himself and his ministry. The lawsuit also seeks damages from The Minnesota Independent for reporting on Dean's statements.
Dean's ministry is based in Annandale, Minnesota and centered around the Christian heavy metal band Junkyard Prophet. He had hosted a show on AM 1280 The Patriot, but the station later fired him after he aired in a six-minute song mocking African Americans and then likened President Obama to Osama bin Laden.
MSNBC and Maddow attacked Dean, according to the lawsuit, because they were trying to "destroy" Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), "a Christian conservative presidential candidate who they despise and hate for her religious and political beliefs."
Bachmann has helped raise money for Dean’s youth ministry and Dean, in turn, has helped Bachmann's campaign fundraising efforts.
"Defendents NBC and MSNBC pride themselves on their marketing of anti-religious beliefs and their disparagement of people of faith, as they have sought to woo secular, atheist, leftist oriented viewer markets, given Fox News' domination of the politically conservative/libertarian/religious markets which they have had difficulty cultivating," the lawsuit states.
On her show in August 2010, Maddow played a clip of Dean saying Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians.
"Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America," he said on AM 1280 the Patriot. "This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination."
After playing the clip Maddow noted that Dean "later clarified that he didn't really mean to sanction murder of gay people, he said, quote, 'We have never and will never call for the execution of homosexuals."
The lawsuit against Maddow claims she "begrudgingly mentioned" the disclaimer in a way that suggested it was disingenuous and insincere.
She also played a clip of Dean saying on the radio that, "On average, they [homosexuals] molest 117 people before they’re found out."
Eric W. Dolan @'Raw Story'
Via
"This case is filed as a matter of principle," Klayman said. "We need more Bradlee Deans in the world and hateful left wing television commentators must be made to respect not only his mission but the law."
The lawsuit seeks in excess of $50 million in damages for false accusations and defamation. It claims that Maddow falsely accused Dean on her MSNBC show of supporting the killing of homosexuals, which harmed the "fine reputation" of himself and his ministry. The lawsuit also seeks damages from The Minnesota Independent for reporting on Dean's statements.
Dean's ministry is based in Annandale, Minnesota and centered around the Christian heavy metal band Junkyard Prophet. He had hosted a show on AM 1280 The Patriot, but the station later fired him after he aired in a six-minute song mocking African Americans and then likened President Obama to Osama bin Laden.
MSNBC and Maddow attacked Dean, according to the lawsuit, because they were trying to "destroy" Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), "a Christian conservative presidential candidate who they despise and hate for her religious and political beliefs."
Bachmann has helped raise money for Dean’s youth ministry and Dean, in turn, has helped Bachmann's campaign fundraising efforts.
"Defendents NBC and MSNBC pride themselves on their marketing of anti-religious beliefs and their disparagement of people of faith, as they have sought to woo secular, atheist, leftist oriented viewer markets, given Fox News' domination of the politically conservative/libertarian/religious markets which they have had difficulty cultivating," the lawsuit states.
On her show in August 2010, Maddow played a clip of Dean saying Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians.
"Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America," he said on AM 1280 the Patriot. "This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination."
After playing the clip Maddow noted that Dean "later clarified that he didn't really mean to sanction murder of gay people, he said, quote, 'We have never and will never call for the execution of homosexuals."
The lawsuit against Maddow claims she "begrudgingly mentioned" the disclaimer in a way that suggested it was disingenuous and insincere.
She also played a clip of Dean saying on the radio that, "On average, they [homosexuals] molest 117 people before they’re found out."
Eric W. Dolan @'Raw Story'
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Clear & Lucid & Natural & Simple
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'Cicada'
While documenting a production staged by a theatre company comprised of recently released offenders (Plan B), Amiel Courtin-Wilson was struck by the presence and natural story telling ability of Daniel P Jones whom he met on the day he was released from prison.
Over a 5 year period a unique artistic collaboration evolved which found initial expression in the short film 'Cicada' (selected to be screened in the prestigious directors fortnight program at Cannes Film Festival in 2009) which went on to win and be nominated for several major awards in Australia.
'Hail' is the exciting necessary next step in this extremely fruitful creative relationship.
For more information about the film
hailmovie.com
facebook.com/hailmovie?ref=ts
'Hail' has been selected for the
Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Daniel P. Jones Interview
Bonus: Interview with Amiel Courtin-Wilson after the jump...
LindaBarlow Linda Barlow
Aaron Swartz faces 35 yrs for hacking JSTOR is.gd/1FD1Pt while #Breivik faces just 30 yrs for killing 76. is.gd/QndfuJ
#FAIL
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The Real Sabu
@th3j35t3r At the end of the day not you or ANYONE besides Ryan who probably snitched on Topiary know he was in scotland.FBI ‘Islam 101′ Guide Depicted Muslims as 7th-Century Simpletons
- They engage in a “circumcision ritual”
- More than 9,000 of them are in the U.S. military
- Their religion “transforms [a] country’s culture into 7th-century Arabian ways.”
- A much-criticized tome, The Arab Mind, that one reviewer called “a collection of outrageously broad — and often suspect — generalizations“
- A book by one of Norwegian terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik’s favorite anti-Muslim authors.
The briefing presents much information that has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with constitutionally-protected religious practice and social behavior, such as estimating the number of mosques in America and listing the states with the largest Muslim populations.
Other slides paint Islam in a less malicious light, and one urges “respectful liaison” as a “proactive approach” to engaging Muslims. But even those exhibit what one American Muslim civil rights leader calls “the understanding of a third grader, and even then, a badly misinformed third grader.”
One slide asks, “Is Iran an Arab country?” (It’s not.) Another is just a picture of worry beads.
“Based on this presentation, it is easy to see why so many in law enforcement and the FBI view American Muslims with ignorance and suspicion,” says Farhana Khera, the executive director of Muslim Advocates, a legal aid group. “The presentation appears to treat all Muslims with one broad brush and makes no distinction between lawful religious practice and beliefs and unlawful activities...”
Continue reading
Spencer Ackerman @'Wired'
jamesrbuk James Ball
Hacking prosecutions troubling: smash a window in protest, v unlikely you'll get prison. Hack, or just DDoS, you could be there for >10y
Rupert Murdoch and the battle of Wapping: 25 years on
Protests outside Murdoch's News International in Wapping Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
The police were plainly on his side. Lawyers helped, too, with a letter he used to justify his strategy. And of course the government of the day bent over backwards to ensure nothing would stand in the way of the media baron's ambitions.All three of those statements might apply to the scandal that this month engulfed Rupert Murdoch's News International, as the scale of illegal phone hacking at News of the World – and of police inaction, and government complacency – became clear.
But they could equally describe an earlier, very different scandal. Twenty-five years ago, one of the most bitter and violent disputes in British industrial history was in full swing. For those with an eye for historical parallels, the battle of Wapping offers several.
"It was a war, and we lost it," says Ron Garner, who worked in the Sun warehouse, in packaging and distribution. "We were led into a trap, and we played into his hands. I always say in my life there was a before and an after Wapping. It was a huge milestone, whatever way you look at it."
The war broke out on 24 January 1986, when nearly 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike following the collapse of talks on News International's plans to move its editorial and printing operations to a new plant in east London. Immediately, all were served with notices of dismissal.
Overnight, Murdoch then moved the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World to the new site, dubbed "fortress Wapping", and hired members of the rogue Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to man it. He did this, he explained in a speech a few years later, because Britain's powerful print unions "had a noose round the neck of the industry, and they pulled it very tight".
In the mid-80s, most British newspapers were still produced using hot metal, despite the widespread use elsewhere of modern offset litho technology. Whereas Murdoch's papers in Australia and America could be produced with four or five men to a printing press, he said, in London it took 18. Most were paid "full-time wages for part-time jobs", and many held down second jobs on the side: cabbies, mechanics, even morticians.
As part of the move to Wapping, Murdoch demanded the unions accept flexible working, agree to a no-strike clause, adopt new technology and abandon their closed shop. They refused. Mass demonstrations outside the new plant were met by large numbers of police, whose methods – aimed at ensuring strike-breaking workers could get into the plant, and newspapers could leave it – were widely criticised as excessively heavy-handed.
"That's my recollection," says Garner. "I'd been involved in quite a few disputes, strikes and pickets. I'd always got on quite well with the police. And I'd seen the miners the previous year, and I'd thought, they're over the top, overreacting. But then I saw the way the police treated us at Wapping, the women too, secretaries and the like, and I saw something had changed. The police were using violence to discourage people from demonstrating."
Just over a year later, the strikers were exhausted and demoralised, and the unions were facing bankruptcy and court action. Some 1,262 people had been arrested and 410 police injured. News International had not lost one day of production, and the balance in British industrial relations had shifted.
"Whatever you think of the print unions, whether they did have too much power – and lots of people thought they did – you look at the situation now, and you can only say: there's no worker protection at all. None," says Garner.
For some, Wapping planted a decisive nail in the coffin of what Andrew Neil, a former Murdoch editor, has described as "all that was wrong with British industry: pusillanimous management, pig-headed unions, crazy restrictive practices, endless strikes and industrial disruption, and archaic technology". This dispute, Neil says, "changed all that".
Many in the newspaper business – including some who criticised Murdoch at the time – now concede that the end of Fleet Street's Spanish practices probably helped prolong the life of the British press by a good few decades. (Others, including the many "refuseniks" who declined to move to Wapping, argue the dispute shattered journalistic self-respect for ever, subjugating journalists once and for all to the will of the bean-counters.)
Those who lost their jobs in 1986, who included support workers as well as printers, and the trade unionists who are recalling Wapping with an exhibition of photos, documents and personal accounts, still smart. They point out that Murdoch could not have acted as he did without the benefit of Margaret Thatcher's legislation to curb the power of the unions, nor the police's zeal to enforce it with batons and shields and horseback charges.
They note the letter – featured in the exhibition – from the company's lawyers, advising News International on how to provoke a dispute, and then how to fire more than 5,000 people without risk of legal repercussion. An early instance, says the TUC, of the kind of unholy alliance between lawyers, police, government and News International that exemplifies the "malign and corrosive" influence of Rupert Murdoch on the British establishment.
Wapping, says TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, "is a story of betrayal, connivence and the use of force used against working people . . . but also of solidarity, determination and ingenuity in the face of massive odds. Most importantly, it's a reminder of the lengths to which Murdoch and News International have gone to get their way to extend their empire and influence, brooking no opposition from either workers or politicians."
Wapping, the 25th anniversary exhibition, runs at TUC Congress House, London until 12 August
Jon Henley @'The Guardian'
But they could equally describe an earlier, very different scandal. Twenty-five years ago, one of the most bitter and violent disputes in British industrial history was in full swing. For those with an eye for historical parallels, the battle of Wapping offers several.
"It was a war, and we lost it," says Ron Garner, who worked in the Sun warehouse, in packaging and distribution. "We were led into a trap, and we played into his hands. I always say in my life there was a before and an after Wapping. It was a huge milestone, whatever way you look at it."
The war broke out on 24 January 1986, when nearly 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike following the collapse of talks on News International's plans to move its editorial and printing operations to a new plant in east London. Immediately, all were served with notices of dismissal.
Overnight, Murdoch then moved the Times, Sunday Times, Sun and News of the World to the new site, dubbed "fortress Wapping", and hired members of the rogue Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to man it. He did this, he explained in a speech a few years later, because Britain's powerful print unions "had a noose round the neck of the industry, and they pulled it very tight".
In the mid-80s, most British newspapers were still produced using hot metal, despite the widespread use elsewhere of modern offset litho technology. Whereas Murdoch's papers in Australia and America could be produced with four or five men to a printing press, he said, in London it took 18. Most were paid "full-time wages for part-time jobs", and many held down second jobs on the side: cabbies, mechanics, even morticians.
As part of the move to Wapping, Murdoch demanded the unions accept flexible working, agree to a no-strike clause, adopt new technology and abandon their closed shop. They refused. Mass demonstrations outside the new plant were met by large numbers of police, whose methods – aimed at ensuring strike-breaking workers could get into the plant, and newspapers could leave it – were widely criticised as excessively heavy-handed.
"That's my recollection," says Garner. "I'd been involved in quite a few disputes, strikes and pickets. I'd always got on quite well with the police. And I'd seen the miners the previous year, and I'd thought, they're over the top, overreacting. But then I saw the way the police treated us at Wapping, the women too, secretaries and the like, and I saw something had changed. The police were using violence to discourage people from demonstrating."
Just over a year later, the strikers were exhausted and demoralised, and the unions were facing bankruptcy and court action. Some 1,262 people had been arrested and 410 police injured. News International had not lost one day of production, and the balance in British industrial relations had shifted.
"Whatever you think of the print unions, whether they did have too much power – and lots of people thought they did – you look at the situation now, and you can only say: there's no worker protection at all. None," says Garner.
For some, Wapping planted a decisive nail in the coffin of what Andrew Neil, a former Murdoch editor, has described as "all that was wrong with British industry: pusillanimous management, pig-headed unions, crazy restrictive practices, endless strikes and industrial disruption, and archaic technology". This dispute, Neil says, "changed all that".
Many in the newspaper business – including some who criticised Murdoch at the time – now concede that the end of Fleet Street's Spanish practices probably helped prolong the life of the British press by a good few decades. (Others, including the many "refuseniks" who declined to move to Wapping, argue the dispute shattered journalistic self-respect for ever, subjugating journalists once and for all to the will of the bean-counters.)
Those who lost their jobs in 1986, who included support workers as well as printers, and the trade unionists who are recalling Wapping with an exhibition of photos, documents and personal accounts, still smart. They point out that Murdoch could not have acted as he did without the benefit of Margaret Thatcher's legislation to curb the power of the unions, nor the police's zeal to enforce it with batons and shields and horseback charges.
They note the letter – featured in the exhibition – from the company's lawyers, advising News International on how to provoke a dispute, and then how to fire more than 5,000 people without risk of legal repercussion. An early instance, says the TUC, of the kind of unholy alliance between lawyers, police, government and News International that exemplifies the "malign and corrosive" influence of Rupert Murdoch on the British establishment.
Wapping, says TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, "is a story of betrayal, connivence and the use of force used against working people . . . but also of solidarity, determination and ingenuity in the face of massive odds. Most importantly, it's a reminder of the lengths to which Murdoch and News International have gone to get their way to extend their empire and influence, brooking no opposition from either workers or politicians."
Wapping, the 25th anniversary exhibition, runs at TUC Congress House, London until 12 August
Jon Henley @'The Guardian'
The Daily Show segment that caused the UK ban
It's against the law to show clips from Parliament in a comedy setting in the UK. The same rule applies here in Australia too...
'Topiary' arrested
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) arrested a 19-year-old man in an intelligence-led operation today.
The announcement was made on the Metropolitan Police Website, and the arrest has been made as part of an “ongoing international investigation into the criminal activity of the so-called “hacktivist” groups Anonymous and LulzSec”. The statement also confirms that they believe the man they have is “Topiary”.
The suspect was arrested at a residential address in the Shetland Islands, off the north east coast of Scotland, and he is being transported to a police station in central London. His address is currently being searched.
Police are also searching another address in Lincolnshire, and a 17-year-old male is being interviewed under caution in connection with the inquiry, though he has not been arrested.
It’s thought that ‘Topiary’ is second-in-command at LulzSec, and the ‘public’ face of the hacktivist group. Topiary was notable for his eloquent writing, and it may surprise some to learn that the man suspected of being Topiary is still a teenager.
Topiary is thought to manage the main LulzSec Twitter account, which was last updated 5 hours ago, though he likely had a hand in most of the group’s announcements. He’s also thought to be well-known among hackers with links to more senior Anonymous members.
Up until now, very little has been known about his identity, though he has been referred to as ‘Daniel’ in some leaked transcripts in the past. And it seems that Topiary had wiped his Twitter feed too, leaving a single, solitary message, perhaps in anticipation of the net closing in on him:
We’ve written extensively about both LulzSec and Anonymous in recent months. LulzSec announced in June that it was to cease activities after 50 days, but the group was soon back in the fold. And just last week, we reported on LulzSec and Anonymous’ joint statement, which was directed at the FBI.
And today’s arrest has happened on the same day LulzSec and Anonymous issued another joint statement calling on people to boycott PayPal. “PayPal’s willingness to fold to legislation should be proof enough that they don’t deserve the customers they get. They do not deserve your business, and they do not deserve your respect.”
Its statement continued:
“In recent weeks, we’ve found ourselves outraged at the FBI’s willingness to arrest and threaten those who are involved in ethical, modern cyber operations. Law enforcement continues to push its ridiculous rules upon us – Anonymous “suspects” may face a fine of up to 500,000 USD with the addition of 15 years’ jail time, all for taking part in a historical activist movement. Many of the already-apprehended Anons are being charged with taking part in DDoS attacks against corrupt and greedy organizations, such as PayPal.”The LulzSec and Anonymous hacktivist groups seem to be spread far and wide. Last week we reported that the FBI had raided three people’s homes in New York, thought to be members of Anonymous. Shortly after, it was revealed that a 16-year old leading member of LulzSec, known as TFlow, had been taken into custody in London.
And at the time of writing, the Lulzsecurity website has been taken offline too: http://lulzsecurity.com/.
We’re sure there will be further statements from both LulzSec and Anonymous in due course, but it seems that the net is certainly closing in, and it will be interesting to see where the hacktivists go from here.
Paul Sawers @'TNW'
LulzSec hacking suspect 'Topiary' arrested
'Nevermind' – Deluxe Edition Tracklist
CD One
Original Album
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'In Bloom'
'Come As You Are’
'Breed'
'Lithium'
'Polly'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Drain You'
'Lounge Act'
'Stay Away'
'On A Plain'
'Something In The Way'
The B-Sides
'Even In His Youth'
'Aneurysm'
'Curmudgeon'
'D-7' live At The BBC
'Been A Son' live
'School' live
'Drain You' live
'Sliver' live
'Polly' live
CD Two
The Smart Studio Sessions
'In Bloom' previously unreleased
'Immodium' (Breed) previously unreleased
'Lithium' previously unreleased
'Polly Previously' unreleased mix
'Pay To Play'
'Here She Comes Now'
'Dive' previously unreleased
'Sappy' previously unreleased
The Boombox Rehearsals
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'Verse Chorus Verse' previously unreleased
'Territorial Pissings' previously unreleased
'Lounge Act' previously unreleased
'Come As You Are'
'Old Age' previously unreleased
'Something In The Way' previously unreleased
'On A Plain' previously unreleased
BBC Sessions
'Drain You' previously unreleased
'Something In The Way' previously unreleased
CD Three
The Devonshire Mixes
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'In Bloom'
'Come As You Are'
'Breed'
'Lithium'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Drain You'
'Lounge Act'
'Stay Away'
'On A Plain'
'Something In The Way'
CD Four
Live At The Paramount Theatre
'Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam'
'Aneurysm'
'Drain You'
'School'
'Floyd The Barber'
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'About A Girl'
'Polly'
'Breed'
'Sliver'
'Love Buzz'
'Lithium'
'Been A Son'
'Negative Creep'
'On A Plain'
'Blew'
'Rape Me'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Endless, Nameless'
DVD
Live At The Paramount Theatre
'Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam'
'Aneurysm'
'Drain You'
'School'
'Floyd The Barber'
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'About A Girl'
'Polly'
'Breed'
'Sliver'
'Love Buzz'
'Lithium'
'Been A Son'
'Negative Creep'
'On A Plain'
'Blew'
'Rape Me'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Endless, Nameless'
Music Videos
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'Come As You Are Music'
'Lithium'
'In Bloom'
Original Album
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'In Bloom'
'Come As You Are’
'Breed'
'Lithium'
'Polly'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Drain You'
'Lounge Act'
'Stay Away'
'On A Plain'
'Something In The Way'
The B-Sides
'Even In His Youth'
'Aneurysm'
'Curmudgeon'
'D-7' live At The BBC
'Been A Son' live
'School' live
'Drain You' live
'Sliver' live
'Polly' live
CD Two
The Smart Studio Sessions
'In Bloom' previously unreleased
'Immodium' (Breed) previously unreleased
'Lithium' previously unreleased
'Polly Previously' unreleased mix
'Pay To Play'
'Here She Comes Now'
'Dive' previously unreleased
'Sappy' previously unreleased
The Boombox Rehearsals
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'Verse Chorus Verse' previously unreleased
'Territorial Pissings' previously unreleased
'Lounge Act' previously unreleased
'Come As You Are'
'Old Age' previously unreleased
'Something In The Way' previously unreleased
'On A Plain' previously unreleased
BBC Sessions
'Drain You' previously unreleased
'Something In The Way' previously unreleased
CD Three
The Devonshire Mixes
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'In Bloom'
'Come As You Are'
'Breed'
'Lithium'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Drain You'
'Lounge Act'
'Stay Away'
'On A Plain'
'Something In The Way'
CD Four
Live At The Paramount Theatre
'Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam'
'Aneurysm'
'Drain You'
'School'
'Floyd The Barber'
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'About A Girl'
'Polly'
'Breed'
'Sliver'
'Love Buzz'
'Lithium'
'Been A Son'
'Negative Creep'
'On A Plain'
'Blew'
'Rape Me'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Endless, Nameless'
DVD
Live At The Paramount Theatre
'Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam'
'Aneurysm'
'Drain You'
'School'
'Floyd The Barber'
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'About A Girl'
'Polly'
'Breed'
'Sliver'
'Love Buzz'
'Lithium'
'Been A Son'
'Negative Creep'
'On A Plain'
'Blew'
'Rape Me'
'Territorial Pissings'
'Endless, Nameless'
Music Videos
'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
'Come As You Are Music'
'Lithium'
'In Bloom'
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
NY Mummy Smugglers Reveal Vast Antiquities Black Market
Amazingly, however, mummy smuggling not only still happens today, it was once so common that enough mummies were available to be ground up and sold as powder, archaeologists reveal.
"Mummy powder was something you could buy in pharmacies up to 1920, because people thought it was a type of medication," said Egyptologist Regine Schulz, curator of ancient art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
Today's black market for mummy and other antiquities is in the billions of dollars, though exact numbers aren't known. Besides not having a clear bead on the breadth of trafficking in Egyptian artifacts, scientists and officials say it's often difficult to protect the precious artifacts as the Egyptian desert is so vast...
Continue reading
Charles Q. Choi @'Live Science'
'The Beach Beneath the Streets': A Pleasant Meander Through the Situationist Labyrinth
The SI is said to have played a leading role in the general strikes in France in May 1968, inspired the fashion, music, and lifestyles of ‘70s punk subculture, and set the agenda for postmodern media interventions such as culture jamming, sampling, and other forms of hacktivism. McKenzie Wark‘s new book The Beach Beneath the Streets: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International, takes its title from one of most the famous SI phrases from May 1968: “Sous les paves, la plage!” (“Under the pavement, the beach!)
Given his profile as a prominent contemporary media theorist, it should come as no surprise that Wark has been heavily influenced by Situationism. Indeed, his celebrated book A Hacker Manifesto (Harvard, 2004) took obvious cues from SI frontman Guy Debord‘s magnum opus, The Society of Spectacle, both in terms of its sublimely aphoristic form and its cryptic theoretical content. His next book Gamer Theory (Harvard, 2007) was in essence a requiem for the unrestrained spirit of play animating the notion of derive, now corralled within the multilevel structures of computer video games, set by the boundaries of what Wark terms their ruling “allegorithms” (a mashup of the words allegory + algorithm, meant to convey the way in which imaginative possibility has been short-circuited by the digital code embedded in predetermined game narratives).
Most recently, Wark lectured on the Situationists at Columbia University, the documentation of which has been issued by Princeton Architectural Press under the title 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International. The Beach Beneath the Streets expands on that last text, including whole sections that have been incorporated nearly verbatim...
Continue reading
Vince Carducci @'PopMatters'
Pearl Jam Twenty Trailer
Pearl Jam Twenty chronicles the years leading up to the band's formation, the chaos that ensued soon-after their rise to megastardom, their step back from center stage, and the creation of a trusted circle that would surround them—giving way to a work culture that would sustain them. Told in big themes and bold colors with blistering sound, the film is carved from over 1,200 hours of rarely-seen and never-before seen footage spanning the band's career. Pearl Jam Twenty is the definitive portrait of Pearl Jam: part concert film, part intimate insider-hang, part testimonial to the power of music and uncompromising artists.
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