On Blast

John Gray is your drunk cynical uncle who prances around in a cobbled together tooth fairy outfit in an attempt to prove the adolescent impotence of your whole system of thought.



The best way to recover from such a complete ass kicking doled out by Mr. Gray is to cast your Black Kids and Vampire Weekend records into the abyss, and drown your newfound nihilistic wearyness in the din of Titus Andronicus.

And if you're too worked up to sleep, why not finish yourself off to the classic beauty of Miss Claudia Cardinale.

Film - Taxi to the Dark Side

'Taxi to the Dark Side'
Alex Gibney

Without Ground, How Does One Stand?

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes remarked that only human beings were subject to the privilege of Absurdity. And yet the idea of an extra-legal American detention centre ensconced on Cuban sovereign territory is not quite as bizarre as it may have once seemed. Maybe it is because we have grown rather accustomed to a world unmade by George Bush’s apocalyptic rendering of a global struggle between forces of good and evil, where any means are justified in the righteous cause of global liberal capitalist democracy. In any case, Alex Gibney’s most recent study of the terror that is Guantanamo Bay, ‘Taxi to the Dark Side,’ seeks to reveal the absurdity that is latent within the axiom that terror is only transgressive in the hands of terrorists.

While the film itself suffers from its American insularity - where state terror is a novel concept invented by neo-conservatives - it demands Americans to note the numerous paradoxes within their national identity. It namely questions the American belief in what Benedict Anderson deemed, the Goodness of their Nation, wherein civic notions of democracy and justice are the bases of American identity. The film also acts as a modern day Eichmann in Jerusalem bringing the question of culpability to the forefront of the discussion. Most notably, using the conservative logic of individual responsibility, Gibney asks who is responsible for such atrocities in Bagram and Abu Ghraib, the dutiful soldier following orders or the Secretary of Defense devising such maniacal schemes.

Though much to the chagrin of Gibney there is little hope of such a serious national re-examination for which the film demands. After all, most of us suffer from conditions of mythic proportions.

And so the absurdity continues.

How to Be a Writer

Wow, I sure am full of shit.

Just remember, when you freelance, be sure to say as little as possible in as many words as you can. Also, be punchy, witty, and ironic. Use words like angular and cathartic for rock music and phrases like " cop this record" and "word on the streets" when describing rap music.

Just look how well I write for LeCool .

Thank You New Media!

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/town-talk/entries/2008/05/13/protests_planne.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Thank God New Media has produced the complete democratisation of political discourse. The spectrum of opinion is astounding!

Subsequent Discourse

or 'How to Discuss Race in America' by PT Barnum

Lesson 1: Blame racism on the offended. After all, racism is indeed a delusion suffered by homosexuals, yankees, and other paternalistic racists.

Lesson 2: Direct the discussion away from race. Deny any negative historical connotative links between objects and groups. Monkeys are cute and loveable, nooses are for state ordained executions of outlaws and other miscreants, and blackface is an innocuous ode to simpler times.

Lesson 3: Invoke free speech. It's right there in the US constitution; citizens are free to speak without fear of a discussion emerging.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/town-talk/entries/2008/05/13/protests_planne.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

The New Cosmopolitans

With the dawn of the 21st Century falling rapidly behind us we can find security in the knowledge of our interminable progress toward universal equality. Please excuse our forebears for they knew not what they did; things were different back then. Only in the United States of America can a man of color rise to great prominence and earn such respect as to have a t-shirt printed in his honor.

On Blast

Consumption (and yes I have officially recovered from my three-month bout of consumption) for the Week 28 February 2008

Video

Yeasayer - 'Wait for the Summer' Don't believe what you hear about Yeasayer. Watch this instead, http://www.mixtapeclub.com/.

Music

Portishead - 'Machine Gun' from ATP Nightmare Before Christmas
The entire show is a welcome return and no one can accuse Portishead of going pop. Of the four songs performed off the upcoming album Third - 'Wicca', 'Hunter', 'Machine Gun', and Peaches - 'Machine Gun' is by far the most stunning, built around a rudimentary snyth-drum loop and Beth Gibbons' rapturous voice.

Main Source - Breaking Atoms (1991)
You can't claim you know hip-hop unless you've heard this Large Professor produced masterpiece. The album would never see release today due to endless samples utilized here; think Paul's Boutique . It's not just the beats that remain relevant though as Extra-P plays the master surgeon, literally dissecting the major flaws of American society. The cat could have been a lecturer considering how deep he runs.

Culture - Two Sevens Clash (1979)
I have always held both ska and reggae in a very low regard - maybe it's the Germans and their strange fascination with dancehall that turned me off or that whole horribly ill-conceived third wave ska movement. Either way, I have recently found my way into dub and roots through Lee Perry, Junior Murvin, and most notably, Culture. How could you not love a band that revels so completely in the impending apocalypse?

The Clash - 'Magnificent 7' (Sandinista 1980)
The only reason the Clash should be defined as a punk band is because Joe Strummer, Mick Joes, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon would venture anywhere and try anything. 'Magnificent 7' throbs with urgency and curiosity and is a bit reminiscent of Kurtis Blow with an edge.